![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
- angel,
- buffy,
- css,
- fanfiction,
- html,
- plotbunnies,
- twilight,
- xxxholic
More post-spam (Twilight plotbunny oh snap)
So I got to reading ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pamgutz's very intriguing essay on exactly why (complete with in-book citations) Edward Cullen is an abusive boyfriend, and so not worth all the fangirl-gasm he gets. And being that "Twilight" is, at best, amusing/entertaining/a strangely addicting read but I still STRONGLY dislike the characters, the writing style, and the disappointing plot, I've got a fic bunny.
Remember a while back how I said I'd never write "Twilight" fics because the fandom scares me? It's still true. But now I've got a bit more of a bunny that I had before, so I'm setting it free here on the 'Net, because if I ever become masochistic, I might revisit this post. If anyone else were to ever undertake this and make it Very Good, I'd want to read it (which is saying a lot for something involving the "Twilight" fandom).
I have a bad habit of using death as a reason for making my female characters stronger. Call it my own personal trope or something-- it happened to me IRL, so why not in my fics? It's only a skosh bit impossible for the fandoms I've used --or in this case, considered using-- it in.
So, the Volturi decide after all that Bella and the Cullens are still a major threat. Find a way to get Bella away from the others, and they lose their "shield." Lose that, and the battle becomes a lot easier. Even as a vampire, Bella's no fighter. Destroy her tiny support system and she'll probably be fairly malleable.
The Volturi find a way to do this (convenient how I don't bother to come up with this rather critical detail atm, hah!), and Bella discovers the Cullens, inc. Edward and Renesmee, super-duper-extra-dead (I mean, more than the usual), along with Jacob and almost the entire wolf pack. And the Volturi COULD come after her next, but they might not, because they're sadistic bastards like that and would love to see her suffer or try and get revenge on them.
Vampires with powers are cool and all, but Yuuko from xxxHolic is much cooler (I thought about coming up with a vampire whose power was something like Yuuko's-- the ability manipulate time/space, but I'm quite sick of the idea of vampires -already powerful enough in their own right-- having something extra just because they're Meyerpires. Instead, I figured if I did go the vampire-power route, it would come at a SUPER high cost to the vampire. Meyer's vampires don't usually have a "cost" associated with their special powers, and that bothered me when reading the books).
Anyway, Bella somehow hears about Yuuko and makes her way to Japan with a wish that's got an extremely high cost-- go back in time and prevent the entire Volturi disaster from happening at all. Save countless "lives." Yuuko points out that none of the Cullens had "lives," and a wish as large as Bella's has a price she'd likely never be able to pay back (without eternal servitude or something; perhaps Watanuki brings that up?). But she's desperate, which means she's even more willing to give up what she's got (what's left, what she can access). Yuuko doesn't want money or rare cars or any of that. She doesn't even want the various antiquities (some of which might have magical resonance to them, even if the Cullens don't know/don't believe/can't use it).
First, to go back in time, Bella has to give up... something. I would say her vampirism, but I'd rather Yuuko name something much more obscure that would eventually be useful to her or someone else. Sparkly!Vampirism, while interesting and rare compared to the rest of the (sane) world's vampire lore, isn't very useful. Yuuko's always got an ulterior motive beyond "I want it so I can be the only one who has it!"
Plus, I think it would make a much more interesting story if Bella started out in Forks as a vampire, especially one with more control over her shielding power-- to the point where she could block out Jasper and Alice's powers. She'd have to practice/learn how to do that, though. Yay for OCs!
Perhaps the middle-ground would be to have Yuuko SLOWLY leech out Bella's vampirism, so that instead of it being "bottled vampirism," it would be all the different elements of vampirism that, bit by bit, Bella would lose.
The first thing to go might be her speed. This doesn't mean she becomes a klutz again, but it means she won't be running away from Edward and the other Cullens after a very short while in Forks. If she knows this is the first thing to go, she also has to plan VERY CAREFULLY.
Then her "sparkle." She can go out in the sun without anyone suspecting. (Perhaps a trade-off of this is, the sparkles were actually a layer of protection from Bella's real "skin," and without it, she burns/bursts into flame, like a proper vampire in the sun?)
Then she loses her super-smell. Yuuko would want all the super-senses separate, so she could have one bottle of super-smell and one of super-hearing. But the order's probably real important here, so it alters between Bella losing something VITAL to her being a vampire, and then something that seems dumb or unimportant (but isn't).
Bit by bit, her other senses (super-hearing, super-sight) go. She loses her super-strength, her venom (which, in turn, means her heart starts beating again, but she needs to be hospitalized for a severe lack of blood; who takes her, or does she check herself in? Does she smuggle blood and an IV drip somehow? Did she make nice-nice with Carlisle, or did she manage to pull it off when he wasn't looking, because he couldn't detect her? I think Bella'd feel awfully guilty about that, but it might be good growth for her "character"), her bloodlust, and finally, her shielding ability. Now, Edward can "read" her, whether she likes it or not. Even though that was a facet of her as a human, it's still something Yuuko wants and can --and does-- take away, all for the price of destroying that timeline where everyone dies.
She's eventually back to being human, and therefore is breakable. This means that, for sure, her old timeline is closed off, but so are any timelines/dimensions where Bella:
a) becomes a vampire
b) has Renesmee (at least, the Renesmee that was in BD)
and probably a boatload of other things. I mean, if she doesn't become a vampire, why would she marry Edward, would they still ever get around to having sex, and would she risk her life just to bring Renesmee into it, knowing that without herself, Renesmee and Edward would probably -somehow- end up DOUBLE DEAD anyway, just not in the same manner as the timeline from where she came?
Oh, I love time paradoxes.
But to close off that home dimension of death --the one Bella came from-- and prevent the deaths of ALL of her friends and family (Edward, Renesmee, Jacob, Emmett, Rosalie, Carlisle, Esme, Jasper, Alice, and all the rest of the wolf pack, which is probably like... another 14 people), that's a much, much heavier price. Her bond with Edward? Something BIG. (Yeah, that's a bit too Tsubasa-ish, but to be honest, what else does Bella truly value that she could have the power to give up? And if Yuuko would want Sakura and Syaoran's relationship, why not Bella and Edward's, too? Maybe one would be all pure and wonderful-- like bottled "true love," but the other would be all murky with the occasional sparkle, like cornstarch poured into soda water!)
Whatever the biggest price would be, it inadvertently would knock some sense into Bella. She wouldn't allow Edward --with or without her own vampire strength-- to control her, and might start questioning why she was in love with him or he with her in the first place. Maybe they'd still end up together, but it'd be for damn good reasons, not because Bella smells good or because Edward cuts Bella off from all her other options. And in at least a few situations, Bella would save her own damn self, even if she'd be fucking with the timeline in doing so (I'm looking at you, JAMES).
Hell, I'd probably relish the chance to have Bella meet Angel and/or Spike, if not Buffy. This could have the potential to bring all sorts of yummy vampire mythologies together and find a way to make them work.
Plus, I can see Watanuki cleaning up Yuuko's storeroom and spotting the latest arrival-- a pretty bottle that Yuuko's just labeled "Essence of Vampire" or "Eau du Bella." *snicker*
Yeah, this post got longer than I planned.
Random aside: why are there no good Rainbow Text generators online? Why do generators always have to spit out bad/deprecated HTML code? Use CSS! Use hex codes with quotes and pound-signs, or use the damn color names! Yeesh.
pamgutz's very intriguing essay on exactly why (complete with in-book citations) Edward Cullen is an abusive boyfriend, and so not worth all the fangirl-gasm he gets. And being that "Twilight" is, at best, amusing/entertaining/a strangely addicting read but I still STRONGLY dislike the characters, the writing style, and the disappointing plot, I've got a fic bunny.Remember a while back how I said I'd never write "Twilight" fics because the fandom scares me? It's still true. But now I've got a bit more of a bunny that I had before, so I'm setting it free here on the 'Net, because if I ever become masochistic, I might revisit this post. If anyone else were to ever undertake this and make it Very Good, I'd want to read it (which is saying a lot for something involving the "Twilight" fandom).
I have a bad habit of using death as a reason for making my female characters stronger. Call it my own personal trope or something-- it happened to me IRL, so why not in my fics? It's only a skosh bit impossible for the fandoms I've used --or in this case, considered using-- it in.
So, the Volturi decide after all that Bella and the Cullens are still a major threat. Find a way to get Bella away from the others, and they lose their "shield." Lose that, and the battle becomes a lot easier. Even as a vampire, Bella's no fighter. Destroy her tiny support system and she'll probably be fairly malleable.
The Volturi find a way to do this (convenient how I don't bother to come up with this rather critical detail atm, hah!), and Bella discovers the Cullens, inc. Edward and Renesmee, super-duper-extra-dead (I mean, more than the usual), along with Jacob and almost the entire wolf pack. And the Volturi COULD come after her next, but they might not, because they're sadistic bastards like that and would love to see her suffer or try and get revenge on them.
Vampires with powers are cool and all, but Yuuko from xxxHolic is much cooler (I thought about coming up with a vampire whose power was something like Yuuko's-- the ability manipulate time/space, but I'm quite sick of the idea of vampires -already powerful enough in their own right-- having something extra just because they're Meyerpires. Instead, I figured if I did go the vampire-power route, it would come at a SUPER high cost to the vampire. Meyer's vampires don't usually have a "cost" associated with their special powers, and that bothered me when reading the books).
Anyway, Bella somehow hears about Yuuko and makes her way to Japan with a wish that's got an extremely high cost-- go back in time and prevent the entire Volturi disaster from happening at all. Save countless "lives." Yuuko points out that none of the Cullens had "lives," and a wish as large as Bella's has a price she'd likely never be able to pay back (without eternal servitude or something; perhaps Watanuki brings that up?). But she's desperate, which means she's even more willing to give up what she's got (what's left, what she can access). Yuuko doesn't want money or rare cars or any of that. She doesn't even want the various antiquities (some of which might have magical resonance to them, even if the Cullens don't know/don't believe/can't use it).
First, to go back in time, Bella has to give up... something. I would say her vampirism, but I'd rather Yuuko name something much more obscure that would eventually be useful to her or someone else. Sparkly!Vampirism, while interesting and rare compared to the rest of the (sane) world's vampire lore, isn't very useful. Yuuko's always got an ulterior motive beyond "I want it so I can be the only one who has it!"
Plus, I think it would make a much more interesting story if Bella started out in Forks as a vampire, especially one with more control over her shielding power-- to the point where she could block out Jasper and Alice's powers. She'd have to practice/learn how to do that, though. Yay for OCs!
Perhaps the middle-ground would be to have Yuuko SLOWLY leech out Bella's vampirism, so that instead of it being "bottled vampirism," it would be all the different elements of vampirism that, bit by bit, Bella would lose.
The first thing to go might be her speed. This doesn't mean she becomes a klutz again, but it means she won't be running away from Edward and the other Cullens after a very short while in Forks. If she knows this is the first thing to go, she also has to plan VERY CAREFULLY.
Then her "sparkle." She can go out in the sun without anyone suspecting. (Perhaps a trade-off of this is, the sparkles were actually a layer of protection from Bella's real "skin," and without it, she burns/bursts into flame, like a proper vampire in the sun?)
Then she loses her super-smell. Yuuko would want all the super-senses separate, so she could have one bottle of super-smell and one of super-hearing. But the order's probably real important here, so it alters between Bella losing something VITAL to her being a vampire, and then something that seems dumb or unimportant (but isn't).
Bit by bit, her other senses (super-hearing, super-sight) go. She loses her super-strength, her venom (which, in turn, means her heart starts beating again, but she needs to be hospitalized for a severe lack of blood; who takes her, or does she check herself in? Does she smuggle blood and an IV drip somehow? Did she make nice-nice with Carlisle, or did she manage to pull it off when he wasn't looking, because he couldn't detect her? I think Bella'd feel awfully guilty about that, but it might be good growth for her "character"), her bloodlust, and finally, her shielding ability. Now, Edward can "read" her, whether she likes it or not. Even though that was a facet of her as a human, it's still something Yuuko wants and can --and does-- take away, all for the price of destroying that timeline where everyone dies.
She's eventually back to being human, and therefore is breakable. This means that, for sure, her old timeline is closed off, but so are any timelines/dimensions where Bella:
a) becomes a vampire
b) has Renesmee (at least, the Renesmee that was in BD)
and probably a boatload of other things. I mean, if she doesn't become a vampire, why would she marry Edward, would they still ever get around to having sex, and would she risk her life just to bring Renesmee into it, knowing that without herself, Renesmee and Edward would probably -somehow- end up DOUBLE DEAD anyway, just not in the same manner as the timeline from where she came?
Oh, I love time paradoxes.
But to close off that home dimension of death --the one Bella came from-- and prevent the deaths of ALL of her friends and family (Edward, Renesmee, Jacob, Emmett, Rosalie, Carlisle, Esme, Jasper, Alice, and all the rest of the wolf pack, which is probably like... another 14 people), that's a much, much heavier price. Her bond with Edward? Something BIG. (Yeah, that's a bit too Tsubasa-ish, but to be honest, what else does Bella truly value that she could have the power to give up? And if Yuuko would want Sakura and Syaoran's relationship, why not Bella and Edward's, too? Maybe one would be all pure and wonderful-- like bottled "true love," but the other would be all murky with the occasional sparkle, like cornstarch poured into soda water!)
Whatever the biggest price would be, it inadvertently would knock some sense into Bella. She wouldn't allow Edward --with or without her own vampire strength-- to control her, and might start questioning why she was in love with him or he with her in the first place. Maybe they'd still end up together, but it'd be for damn good reasons, not because Bella smells good or because Edward cuts Bella off from all her other options. And in at least a few situations, Bella would save her own damn self, even if she'd be fucking with the timeline in doing so (I'm looking at you, JAMES).
Hell, I'd probably relish the chance to have Bella meet Angel and/or Spike, if not Buffy. This could have the potential to bring all sorts of yummy vampire mythologies together and find a way to make them work.
Plus, I can see Watanuki cleaning up Yuuko's storeroom and spotting the latest arrival-- a pretty bottle that Yuuko's just labeled "Essence of Vampire" or "Eau du Bella." *snicker*
Yeah, this post got longer than I planned.
Random aside: why are there no good Rainbow Text generators online? Why do generators always have to spit out bad/deprecated HTML code? Use CSS! Use hex codes with quotes and pound-signs, or use the damn color names! Yeesh.