Okay, since I got some very desperate DMs, you all win and we'll celebrate the end of 2023 with Variable Stars, and the beginning of 2024 with STL snippets.
This is a few pieces from Ch 7 of Variable Stars. It's close to done, and the bare bones of Ch 8 has been set up. I look forward to getting back into the swing of VS because friends to lovers is just so damn wholesome.
I hope you all have a brilliant NYE and I'll see you next year ;)
She’s not sure when everything changed.
When it stopped being the Cullen home and it stopped being Jasper’s home and it started being hers too. When she started seeing her own face in the photographs on the walls, when the other family members called for her, she wasn’t just an extension of Jasper.
She knows the house (which step is cracked because one of them stepped down too hard, but there’s been a lot of damage lately, so they’re all gingerly avoiding it in the hopes it can hold out a few weeks so that Esme doesn’t get too mad. Which bathroom never has hot water after midnight. That Carlisle moved all the travel books from the top-most shelves in the library down to her eye-level so she could take them without lingering. That the spinning chair in the living room is shoved in the corner near the window because it’s her favourite but she won’t sit in it if her back is exposed.)
She knows that Esme is fiercely protective of her garden, that the stepping-stones are there for a reason. There’s a greenhouse that’s about to be built; and that Bella sulks if anyone is in the hammock when she wants to use it. (She also knows that Emmett and Rose are banned from the hammock because of what they did to the last one.)
And the forest. She knows it better than anything. That’s where they hunt, where her and Jasper go running. Where he found her that day, washing off the blood. Where they play-fight and she plays on the ice at the end of winter and it’s all broken up in pieces.
Then there is Jasper. There are a million different ways to explain Jasper and who he is to her, how he soothes all the raw spots and open wounds just by being there. Everything is easier with him, and there's never a day when she doesn't thank whatever higher power exists that they crossed paths.
(Peace is a funny thing; it feels solid but she’s so intensely aware of how easily it could shatter. Eight vampires in one place is a recipe for disaster; she never forgets that. But for now, she just savours every single moment.)
It’s home. She’s finally home.
//
Some things are inevitable; Alice knows this well enough. Her death, for instance - setting foot in that hospital when she was a newborn, where the doctor knew who she was… that was a place people went to die, not to heal.
Realising that the only thing her gift would bestow upon her was death, destruction, and the legacy of a monster was another.
Oh, and Jasper being someone important. There had always been something about him, even when he was a nomadic grump.
But Alice has accepted that certain things are inevitable and avoiding them, or pretending they aren’t going to happen. The only thing she can really do is accept them, and face them head on, no matter how nervous or uncomfortable she might be.
That is to say, she’s heard about Peter and Charlotte before; Jasper’s got lots of stories about them and it’s nice to hear to his stories - she’d like to set Maria ablaze for some of the things she did to him, and she’s more than a little bit sorry that she never made it for enough into Mexican to make the woman burn for her sins, but Jasper seems to be mostly at peace with everything that happened to him.
(He worries more over her stories, which she finds funny. A couple of bites is nothing, and she makes it abundantly clear that she walked away the victor in those battles. When she says that, he always relaxes, like he’s worrying for her in that actual moment even when she’s sitting opposite him playing Go Fish in pom-pom socks.)
Sometimes she wonders what he would say if she told him the real story about how she woke up. About the one named James and the woman with him, about what she did to him, about finding the hospital and going inside and decimating it, killing every single person she found. If he’d be mad at her, or disgusted, or angry for her or what.
It’s purely academic of course; she’s never, ever going to tell him all of that. As much as the past doesn’t bother him, she still remembers how he used to look, how he used to carry himself all those decades ago. She doesn’t want to add more violence, more rage to the burdens he carries.
(She never wants to become one of his stories, like Maria.)
//
There’s more and more talk about their next move. That makes Alice nervous, he realizes. For a second, that’s confusing because there’s no way that moving will change anything - it’s still their family, just in a new place (there’s a vigorous debate between Montana, Minnesota, and Maine - he’s hoping for Minnesota because the home there is on a huge parcel of land where they can roam without being disturbed. Maine is the most claustrophobic option, a place where they will be under the most scrutiny, and Alice isn’t ready for that yet.)
But he takes a second and realises, for Alice, this is a huge change. The utter unknown - this house is the only home she’s ever known. She might have heard about high school and college, and posing as human, but she’s never had to play that part.
(He’s already cornered Carlisle and told him that Alice isn’t going to school yet. Her reading and writing are good, but not enough to deal with a high school class. Not to mention that he got almost a decade before he was forced to play his part in their charade; Alice deserves the same.)
Esme is making adjustments to the house model in the family meeting, her stylus darting over the screen as everyone throws out requirements (or demands) about their new residence - Edward wants a music room, Rosalie wants space for at least twelve cars, Carlisle and Bella had grand plans for the scale and design of the library.
His requests are the same as always - his study, and a bathroom he doesn’t have to share. Esme is doting and amused as she confirms his space, the exact requirements he gives for every single new house.
“Alice, what do you need?” she asks, and Alice has been very quiet; Bella and Carlisle are still debating the two-story library of their dreams.
She looks like a deer in the headlights as Esme looks at her expectantly, and looks at him for help.
“Another bedroom and ensuite, maybe with an extra-giant closet for all your clothes,” he says teasingly, and Esme is already nodding, already sketching.
“I don’t have that many.” She’s trying to sound flippant but she’s already looking relieved as Emmett begins negotiating a gaming room of his own. It’s true, she rarely asks Esme for anything more complicated than help navigating the washer and dryer. It’s him that she goes to for money, with questions, everything. And it’s Esme and Carlisle that come to him when they need her to know something, especially if it’s a delicate topic.
And he likes it that way, likes that he can be useful, be important for a purpose.
//
The thing that they all like to ignore is that Bella’s change wasn’t without its difficulties. The Volturi had hovered in the peripheral right up until she had reawakened; it was that tangible risk that had allowed them to form a formal, ongoing alliance with the Pack, and allowed Bella to keep Charlie in her life. It was messy and uneasy but Edward was convinced that Aro held no malice for the entire debacle - Bella was changed, her shield gift only interested Aro in how it had manifested when Bella was human, and everyone had parted friends.
(Well, Caius and Jane were still looking for reasons to destroy the lot of them, but the linchpin in the whole thing was Aro, and he was suitably amused and affectionate towards Carlisle that they were safe.)
Alice had been bewildered and scared when they’d told her the entire story, her unease syrupy as they spoke about Volterra and the agreements, Victoria and James, the Pack. She was slack-jawed when Carlisle explained that he had been close friends with the Volturi for decades before he had his family.
He has his arm tight around her as the story is told, and quietly reassures her that they have no reason to ever see Aro, the Volturi, or even set foot in Italy.
“They only punish those that break the laws,” he says and she nods, but the fear is still there.
Listen up folks/beings/assorted sentient entities: it has been brought to my attention that the Romanticism tag is currently full of dark academia moodboards and Kafka quotes. For some reason. Incidentally, this April 19, in the year of our doom 2024, will mark Lord Byron being dead for 200 slutty, slutty years. How do we celebrate?
Meme anarchy
Fanfic challenge
Fanfic exchange
Something with polls and brackets
Arcane ritual
[This content has been removed for violating Tumblr community guidelines]
Proceed as usual, but with all text written in verse
Start read-alongs of some lesser-known Romantic authors
Streaming art tonight! To celebrate hitting over fifty followers on Twitch and working closer to becoming affiliate, we're going to work on some emote concepts! Join in from 8PM-10PM at http://twitch.tv/tinydragononfire… for what is sure to be a very silly, very fun evening!
