Einfach Mich's Rec of the Week: 10/31/11

Belonging by forthelongestday

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6873760/1/Belonging

Review by Einfach Mich

Rating: M
Genre: Angst/Horror
Characters: Charlotte/Peter

Summary: A routine walk down an alley in Laredo sets into motion the events that end Charlotte's life, and sends her tumbling into a dark world full of hate and war. 

One of the things I love about fan fiction is how it allows us to fill in the gaps. I don’t mean it like that you pervs! I mean, the gaps in canon. The untold stories of Twilight. There are so many untold stories that could be based before the events of the books. Entire lifetimes that passed before Bella Swan was ever born. In those lifetimes are love stories as equally powerful as the one told in Twilight.

Belonging tells the story of how Charlotte became a vampire and met her mate, Peter. It’s dark, haunting and utterly entrancing. We begin the story at the end of her life, on the shadowy floor of a barn in Laredo. Charlotte awakens to a world painted in shadows, pain and death. Peter is her guide through this terrifyingly violent life, much to his apparent displeasure. Charlotte obligingly hates him in return. However, it is the silent, shadowy figure of Jasper that terrifies her more.

There are so many amazing things I love about this story, I don’t know where to start with listing them. I love that we see this world through the eyes of newborn Charlotte. Her fear, anger and curiosity mirror the conflicted kaleidoscope of emotions I went through while reading. Even though I know the Twilight universe, this part of it was still strange and new, which kept me hooked and fascinated to see what was going to happen next. Sure, I knew how Peter and Charlotte’s story was going to end, but it didn’t stop me from fearing for them and wondering how these two people, who initially have every reason to hate each other, will fall in love.

forthelongestday breathes life into these characters and brought me around to loving them dearly. Peter is an intriguing and enigmatic man. His entrance into the story is memorable and to be honest, damn sexy.
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"You." The word came out as a growl, and my hand flew to my throat; I wasn't capable of such a sound.  

"Sir," the man corrected, raising his right eyebrow in a perfect arch. His skin had a strange pattern etched into it, every few inches semi-circles shone just a little lighter on his flesh, and had I not known better I would have sworn they were teeth marks. The patterns stirred a memory within me, and in that moment I could just barely see his face in a memory of an alley in Laredo; I could almost feel his hands on my shoulders and teeth against my throat, and I bolted backward from him; my back against the wall. 

  The man laughed darkly, "The danger I present to you has mostly passed." 

The most intriguing aspect of this story is the chance to see pre-canon Jasper from the point of view of a member of Maria’s newborn army. Here we get a very different, much darker version of the fandom’s favorite Texan.

Hate, pain, fear, desolation...  

It all wound around my neck in a tightening noose, and it was no wonder that Jasper's victim didn't fight back; I couldn't even move a finger with all these constricting emotions flowing over me. He was savage, brutal, and when he finished with the one he turned on the two standing closest to him and ripped each of their limbs off before kicking them off to the side, paying no mind to the screams of agony that tore from their mouths. 

 

He pivoted in place slowly, glared into each of our eyes as he blanketed us in acknowledgment, and we all nodded our understanding tentatively. This was not a man to defy, no matter the order. 

In the end this is a story about two people finding each other and finding love under the worst of circumstances. Their careful, compelling dance is fascinating to watch even if you know how it will all end. After all it’s not about the destination, but the journey, right?

If you love AU vampire fic, especially if you love pre-canon and wonder about the world that Jasper lived in before he found the Cullens, Belonging is the fic for you.

Einfach Mich's Rec of the Week: 6/27 - 7/3

Clear Sunny Skies (On The Morning of the Apocalypse) 

by meretricula

http://meretricula.livejournal.com/97769.html

Review by Einfach Mich

Rating: T
Characters: Jacob/Leah Jacob/Seth

Summary: so it turns out imprinting doesn't work exactly the way everyone thinks it does. (I am attempting to make the Twilight canon marginally less creepy. I think it says something about the Twilight canon that quasi-incest is less creepy than it.)

Clear Sunny Skies (on the morning of the apocalypse) aside from having one the most awesome titles ever, is one of the most intriguing imaginings of Jacob's life after the events in Breaking Dawn. Though, I'm sure most people will be intrigued the most by the fact that Jacob ends up in a sexual relationship with both of the Clearwater siblings. Yes, you did read that sentence correctly. Now, before you start to freak or get the wrong ideas THIS IS NOT AN INCEST FIC! At no time to Seth and Leah ever engage in what can remotely close to a sexual relationship. They are siblings, that is all. However, they do share Jacob.

“...when he came home from work, Seth had cooked burgers and left four for Jake, and Leah had bought his favorite brand of beer and put it in the fridge to chill, and from the looks of it at least one of them was going to put out. It was a pretty awesome evening.”

This story begins shortly after the end of Breaking Dawn, when Kim dumps Jared, and beings a domino effect of incidents that show that maybe imprinting doesn't work the way the Pack had assumed. This gets even more personal for Jacob, when he realizes that he has stopped wanting to be around Nessie all the time.

"You're supposed to be whatever she needs, right?" Seth tucked his head against his sister's shoulder, peering at Jake with curious eyes. "I mean, that's what everybody says about Claire and Quillen. Maybe Nessie needs you to not be around right now."

Suddenly, Jacob's life opens up to new possibilities. After all, if he doesn't need to take care of Nessie what should he do with his life? His answer is to take a road trip, and Leah being, well Leah, insists that the entire Black Pack (namely Jake, Leah and Seth) should all go. The events of the road trip are not as important as the way this new environment spurns a change in Jacob and Leah's, as well as Jacob and Seth's relationships. The sex isn't graphic, but it is sensual, and very realistic. It also has a thread of humor and delight that runs through out the interactions between these three. It balances the more serious moments when the story truly explores what love really is.

”Leah laughed a little, weakly, and swatted at him. "Like you could get rid of us, you jackass. We're your pack."


"Yeah," he agreed. It sounded nice, put that way. "Yeah, you are."

That is another thing I love about this story. Twilight gave us very specific definitions of love, setting it in stone. Real love doesn't work like that. It is tricky, complicated and very messy. Sometimes it comes in the shape of a white knight, sometimes it's your best friend. Sometimes it's both of them, and in the world of Clear Sunny Skies we learn that sometimes you don't have to choose between two loves. That really, truly “loving” is allowing the two people you love the most to love each other.

"I'm glad you have Leah," Seth said. Jake blinked at the non sequitur. "I'm not just - being a good sport, or not serious, or whatever. I love you, and I know you love Leah, and I'm glad."


"Um," Jake said, slightly terrified. Seth didn't talk generally about his feelings, thank God.


"I worry, you know? That I'm going to imprint on somebody and I'll just - leave you. And I know everyone says that you want it once it happens, you want it more than anyone or anything, but it sounds awful, and I don't want to leave. But if it does happen I'm glad you'll have Leah.”

One of the things I like the most about this story is that while it does an amazing job of show a respectful representation of polyamorous relationships, it does it while being very consistent to the canon characterizations of Jacob, Leah and Seth. This enriched the story, and allowed me to believe that this could have be a different, and perhaps a better Happily Ever After for all three of them.

Writer Submitted Fic: 1/10-1/16

Say Something Else by vampireisthenewblack

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5856702/1/Say_Something_Else

Review by Einfach Mich 

Rating: M
Genre: Angst/Romance
Characters: Edward/Alec

Summary: When he suffers the worst kind of heartbreak, Edward returns home, resigning himself to a lifetime of loneliness. But he had not counted on old friendships and old crushes. Edward is torn between old love and new... Slash, AH, OOC. Mature content.

Say Something Else is an intimate portrait of love, loss and the grieving process. Edward has just lost the single most important person in his life, his partner in love and life, Alec. He has returned home to Forks, to regroup and try to cope with the loss of his lover. It's here that he runs into an old friend, Seth Clearwater, and his grieving takes on a strange new dimension.

5:22am

Where was he?

The voice on the other end of the phone was frantic, disjointed. "Jane? Slow down. I just woke up for god's sake."

I finally understood what she was trying to tell me.

My whole world collapsed.

Vampireisthenewblack weaves a story that is both haunting, and seductive. She doesn't downplay Edward's grief or minimize his relationship for the sake of making Seth more desirable. If anything, I often felt Edward's own hesitation about whether he should even contemplate a friendship with Seth so soon after Alec's death. It's a legitimate question, that is given depth of Edward's grief.

I kissed him, swallowing his gasps and moans as I drove him closer and closer toward his release. He began to whimper, his legs tightening around my waist, his body tensing around me, and I pulled back to look into his eyes, wide and fevered, and whispered: "Come for me, baby," and he did, exploding onto our stomachs, clenching around my cock and crying my name. I thrust into him, once, twice more and then I followed, filling him with my passion. "I love you, Alec," I breathed into his ear.

I still reached out when I woke. It was too soon, too recent, and I could smell him, I could feel him lying next to me. But he wasn't there, and the realisation jolted me fully awake. I was hard, because I'd been dreaming about him. I rolled onto my back, ignoring my erection and let the tears come.

In the midst of this turmoil, Seth appears like a harbor for Edward to escape from the pity/sympathy and concern of his family. A friend that doesn't judge him and is genuinely curios about his relationship with Alec. The innate attraction that the two men is a complication, but it is also believable when you see how compatible they are to each other.

I pulled myself away from Seth, my lips burning from the kiss, the taste of him, beer and warmth and comfort, but I felt like my heart was breaking all over again. "Holy fuck," I gasped.

He looked shocked, surprised, and as I watched, he sucked his lower lip into his mouth and scraped his teeth across it. His posture was pure uncertainty, his fists clenching and unclenching at his sides.

"God, Seth, I'm so sorry." I stumbled up the dunes and sat heavily in the sand, pulling my knees up into my chest and hiding my face. Hot tears spilled from my eyes and soaked into my jeans. There was a knot in my chest that was making it hard to breathe. "Baby, I'm so sorry," I whispered.


So there is the quandary of the story. Now that he's lost the love of his life, how could Edward ever fall in love again?

Vampireisthenewblack explores this in a way that few authors (fan fic or published) are brave enough to even approach. She shows us that you can have more than one love in a lifetime, and that loving isn't about close yourself off, but opening yourself up to possibilities.

He wasn't a replacement or a substitute. He was so different to Alec in every way.

I love the slow, build of this story. How at first the weight of Edward's grief is so heavy, it's almost difficult to read, because it feels so real. At times, I felt myself tear up from his loving memories of Alec. The transition into Edward meeting Seth again, and getting to know him as a man, rather than the young boy he knew in the past is subtle. I liked Seth, but I was cautious, just like Edward. The pacing of the story was so sneaky, that by the time that Edward realizes the strength of his feelings for Seth, I realized it too. Leaving me to struggle in angish and hope at the possibility of them being together, just like Edward did.

It's very rare that I have identified so strongly with a story and a character, but Vampireisthenewblack puts blood and tears into this portrayal of Edward. Making you not only believe his pain, but so that by the end of the story you're praying for him to at least try to love again.

Say Something Else isn't just a story, it's a journey from loss to gain, death to rebirth and love. I challenge you to take that journey, and let it change you, like it changed me.

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