Tuesday's Best 8-24-2010

Good morning, you fine folk out there in Twidom. Hope you're having a great start to your day. Aradi and I have found another couple of gems to share with you, so I hope you're well prepared with the usual amenities required for recs from TU: towels, fresh panties, and plenty of Kleenex. Oh yes, you will need those. Here we go!

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I’m a firm believer that everything is improved with a little bit of slash.

True Blood seasons one and two?  Definitely good.  Slashtastic season three?  The best yet.

Black Dagger Brotherhood?  Sure the early books were good, but things got way more interesting after the Vishous/Butch tease.

Supernatural?  Enough said.

Why shouldn’t fanfic be the same way?

Twinned (by Conversed) is labeled “slash” in the summary, but it isn’t (yet, at least) what I’d call a true slash story.  There isn’t (yet... at least...) a main slash pairing, and who knows if there will be.  But you know, that’s okay, because what’s there is a little bit slashy allllll over the place.

I confess I first tried this fic with skepticism.  The premise, that Edward has a twin brother Masen, seemed a quirky way to give us two Edwards, but I was immediately sucked in by the glory that is Jasper.

I had to mash a few heads, truth be told, but a man's got to do what a man's got to do and most likely, as my Daddy said, wearing a kilt weren't always going to be a crowd pleaser. I don't care what anyone says, once you've worked a skirt, propped your shitkickers up on the highest rung on one of Mr. Banner's biology lab stools, and just let your junk hang in full view of the first soul who bends to pick up a pencil, it's all worth it.

That shit never gets old.

I've gotten more sex, of all varieties, wearing a skirt in this motherfucking, sorry assed school than the rest of the jocks combined. Y'all know it.

 

While this story is supposedly about the twins, it’s the pansexual Jasper who carries the show.  He sees all and knows all (and ogles all and kisses all).  His voice is hilarious, wise, and irreverent, and when he isn’t too busy eye-fucking someone, he does whatever he can to help out his messed-up collection of friends and family.

 

My main worry with Edward and Masen was that they would literally be two Edwards, but the characters are distinct and developed.  They’re damaged (swoon) and end up bonded beyond what twins normally are.

Their adoptive parents encouraged them to try out for different teams or to excel in different instruments, reminding the boys that they would need to forge individual identities eventually. Perhaps because of their early profound loss they resented and resisted any efforts, no matter how kindly composed, to part them.

In all things, Edward chose Masen and Masen chose Edward.

 

Until they don’t, and that’s where this story picks up.  When something (guess who!) finally comes between this particular set of twins, it’s a devastating Pandora’s box of fallout.  Luckily Jasper is there to recognize everyone’s defect and try to sort it out.  Jasper’s way of “sorting” just happens to be very handsy (and lips-y and cuddle-y...).

"Stop."

His voice is a hot, damp command in my ear. I'm pinned and realize that my face is wet, my chest is heaving but I can't get any air in. None at all. He lifts himself off my chest and the rush of air is such a fucking relief. I choke and roll onto my front, feeling the damp grass under my face, cooling it.

Jasper is still on me though; he's stretched out alongside me with one long leg across the backs of my thighs, one arm heavy across my back, hand on my far shoulder. When he talks I realize that his mouth is right against my ear. His hot breath coasts over me as he speaks and for a while I don't hear what he says.

I just feel.

I feel the weight of him anchoring me down while my brain spins out of control, I feel his hand against my shoulder; patting, then rubbing, then running down to the small of my back as he talks. I can barely hear him as his hand slips under my shirt and travels slowly up my spine, fingers tracing each vertebrae so lightly that I'm not sure whether I'm imagining it.

 

This seems to be Jasper’s approach to just about everyone, boy or girl, and honestly it’s fantastic.

If you need your slash with a clear, slash main pairing and NC17 action, this may not be the fic for you.  I can’t say if any of these boys end up together, or if we get any action beyond kissing and the rampant UST and lust.  I don’t want to ask Conversed either and spoiler it for myself!  But if you read non-slash stories, and agree that everything would be better if the world were a little slashier (and Jasper wore a kilt and guyliner) then you should try Twinned.

 

One thing to add...  I’m part of a “generation” of twi-fic readers who hated slash, for whatever reason, until All I Ever Knew.  Twinned might also be a good fic to ease the slash-virgins over to the dark side.

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Our sweet, loveable TwiBoy has done it again! He’s managed to sweep me completely up in his latest story, and it’s chaptered, to boot! Which means, there’s more coming. Woohoo!

What story is it, you ask? Why, it’s Dear Agony, of course! It’s going to be a slash story, though it doesn’t start out as one.

Emmett and Rosalie are happily married, and parents to an adorable two-year old Bella. They end up in a very bad car accident. Rosalie and Bella don’t survive it, leaving a crushed Emmett - in more ways than one - to pick up the pieces of his life. Jasper, Rosalie’s brother, is constantly by his side, even though he’s been anything but friendly to Emmett throughout the years of Emmett’s marriage to Rosalie. They’re all they have left, and that’s why they end up leaning heavily on each other.

Or is it?

I give fair warning now. You will need Kleenex, and lots of it. Twiboy manages to wrench your heart in so many ways, you’ll be left gasping and begging for more. At least I was. The emotions portrayed run deep, and though there are several times where I want to smack the shit out of both Emmett and Jasper, you can’t help but want to hug them, too.

"Shhh, I'm here," he says, tightening his arms around me. "Everything's gonna be okay, Emmett."

I break down then, pulling him completely against me as I sob into his t-shirt. "That's what I told my Bella...right before...and it wasn't. I lied...I couldn't help her, Jasper!"

"Em, the accident wasn't your fault-"

"I shouldn't have called for a ride. I shouldn't have ridden with Jake to work, I should have driven myself. If I drove, Rose and Bella would never have been in the car, wouldn't have had to come get me-"

Jasper grips my shoulders and shakes me, hard. "Emmett, stop! You can't keep doing this! Do you hear yourself? If it was you, my sister would be widow, my niece wouldn't have a father. Do you honestly think that would be a good thing?"

"They'd still be here," I growl, shoving him away before rolling over to the edge of the bed to sit up.

Not thinking, I stand up off the mattress before crippling pain in my hips causes me to drop like lead to my bedroom floor. Jasper is immediately at my side assessing the damage.

"Christ, Emmett, what were you thinking? You can't just hop up like you're Superman."

"Don't you think I fucking know that?" I snap. "I'm in a broken pile on the floor, I think that establishes the fact that I'm anything but Superman."

 

The grief both these boys feel runs deep, and yet Jasper is there for Emmett, time and again. Though Emmett is a stubborn shit, refusing to heal because he feels it’s his penance for their death. Jasper tries to help as best he can, but you can only tell a brick wall to move so many times, before you have to get a wrecking ball to do some of the work for you ;-). This wrecking ball goes by the name of Edward Cullen, who’s Emmett’s new physiotherapist.

 And that’s all you’re going to get out of me. The rest you’ll have to read for yourself. Remember to grab that box of Kleenex!

 

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That's it for this week, folks! Hope you enjoy these reads as much as we do! Be sure to leave both authors some love.

Voting is on for the Slash/Backslash 2.0. Be sure to get yours in! Every single one counts :-)