Thanks so much for the review! Marcus is so much fun. And Edward's hair is growing at the rate of human hair, so I could have shaved it to the skull and he would be fine. They gave him a close cropped but not buzzcut hair cut in my mind due to that whole pitch being stuck in his matted mane business.

If you go to the thread you'll see her original reaction that I edited out. Fantasy Mother said so. :)

Totally agree with you on the nut issue. :) Right now she values Douglas' more than Edward's.

Snarkily yours,

Books

Jugurtha is blowing kisses at you and volunteering to pencil you into his schedule.

You may have a point. The section I would refer you to re-read is the last conversation that Emmett and Edward had with Genevieve in the end of part 18 and the beginning of part 19. Her using Bella's body was clearly harming her. Then there was that whole Violet Gorgon hijacked her dealio - so Edward felt he had to cut everyone off or she could die and God only knows what could happen if the Gorgon came back. She might not leave. Which would really be bad for Edward. Inconvenient, too. So Edward is in what I joking call a suck-suck situation. No matter what he does, his options suck. And Liam is a mad genius. He says for me to tell you "thank you."

Jugurtha is giving you his best leer.

Best,

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I have vivid memories of being in high school and having my sister offer me advice on a problem. Then I'd come home from school and say, "Hey guess what my friend so and so said to do....and I'd be enchanted with the exact same suggestion my sister had offered." How she refrained from beating me senseless I have no idea. That's kind of what I was going for with Edward. He blows off his family initially thinking, "They don't know her like I do." So his family decides he's going to have to figure this one out on his own, not so much to punish him as to help him do some growing up and stop treating him like a 17 year old.

I thought having him see who came knocking at the door was risky. And you're right on target, I used it to show just how desperate he was.

I'm glad you like what I did with Tanya. Initially when I wrote the scene I had Tanya come to the cafeteria, and not look over at Edward's table, keeping her back to them the entire time. And to me, that didn't seem very much in line with Tanya's nature. She'd be dying to look at Bella. So to me, the Cullens have a very real problem. They need the Denali clan's help to protect Bella. But if they show them her scars (Edward can hide his if necessary from them), they put them in a horrible position with the Volturi. Carlisle had kept his family in the dark about his contact with the lost covens for the very same reason. And I also wanted to show Carlisle taking a more assertive leadership role in the family, rather than be there to dispense advice from time to time.

I had so much fun with the squirrel scene. I wanted to continue to show the odd symptoms that accompany the wolf powers - Edward can commune with some animals. Edward at the beginning of the HOD arc would never have thought twice about leaving almonds for a hungry squirrel. He'd have considered eating the squirrel perhaps.

I wanted to pick up where Charlie had left off and show another version of someone chanting about his/her sexual identity in the face of Cullenary power. Jasper's gift is that he makes you feel HIS lust. Not your own. And since he's heterosexual, anyone who is not would be highly disturbed.

I have lots of fun making Jugurtha alternate between being this pleasure seeking/hunter with no moral qualms (perhaps practical ones) about his behavior - and having him be the one to give Edward a sense of discipline with his scheduling. :)

As ever, thanks so much for the review and your support of the story.

Jugurtha is giving you his best leer. :) Books

Thanks so much for the review! And the stars! You made my night! You are also dead on accurate about Edward and his siblings. I wanted to show him not having much of a reaction because frankly, he lost his temper and he's having trouble multi-tasking because of the toll the powers have been taking on him. Emotionally he simply lost it with the serial killers. And Mr. Always have to have a Plan and rehearse his conversations around his family - simply went off script. It will most definitely occur to him that he has a problem in that area. Later. :)

I had him "show" his family what he picked up from the minds of the serial killers so that they could understand why he behaved the way that he did. That buys him some time. But he most definitely is in for a talking to not only by Carlisle but by the other members of his family who think he's never killed anyone before. Awkward.

I am glad that you felt sympathetic for Sam, as I had hoped to show that he was every bit as much of a victim as the others. I had someone I knew years ago who fell asleep behind the wheel of his truck late one night driving back from a camping trip. He crashed. He and his girlfriend went through the front windshield. The truck flipped and killed his 17 year old sister and her fiance. And I could not begin to imagine what that felt like. I tried to capture that with Sam. Different circumstance, mind you, but that is what I was aiming for. And totally agree with you on the imprinting is creepy part.

It always irked me that Emily agreed to marry him in the books. She said she didn't love him. She said she didn't want him, he mauled half her face off for crying out loud, and she's like a sister to Leah who does love Sam. I couldn't get over the "betrayal" factor.

Bella has indeed articulated why she was upset. And that took a lot for her to go there. Blind panic, for example. :)

Glad you enjoyed the interaction between those two, I had fun writing it.

Jugurtha is leering at you,

Books

Thanks so much for the feedback! You are right that Bella could be related to Alice, Jane and Alec without being related to Edward. Alice can kind of sort of smell Bella because they are distantly related. Jane and Alec are so busy trying to preserve their immortal bad images that they are grabbing onto any explanation that works.

The Cullens did indeed have a really good reason for being away from Bella. Also, Mary Alice never told them that Edward dumped Bella because she didn't know if in fact, he did. And the Cullens have been under the impression that Edward has been in Forks all along. They have no idea he broke up with Bella. Or what happened to him. They only know he's in really bad shape. And they were trying to question him on the sly in the last chapter without him being aware of it.

Glad you like Marcus. I plan on having loads of fun with him in future chapters. :)

Best,

Books

Marcus is waving at you.

I live for your reviews and your biting wit. *sniffs away a venom tear* I love it when snark is appreciated. :) You sincerely made my day. I am most definitely not attempting to portray Bella as a Christ figure, but I can see how that interpretation could be made and it's a valid point. I was having Edward basically read minds and once again decide he is surrounded by morons.

I had to throw in the reasonable vampire line because he uses it so often to justify his own behavior when he is a stalker. And he's made these little digs at Vivinna all along like "what mother misplaces her children? for centuries?" So I was trying to continue on in that vein.

Marcus is supposed to make Jasper look like a ninny in terms of awesomeness. He willingly kept himself away from his mate, knowing how much they both would suffer, in order to reach a goal they both wanted. Now THAT is endurance.

I had to throw in the doorknob line to show that in the characterizations of SSE and Jugurtha being a little off that Edward is still not quite normal. And I compared Tanya to fast food in a previous chapter.

I am having fun with my characterization of Aro. I see him a quirky, creepy, avaricious, and sincere all at the same time.

Bella would indeed have a selection. I forgot to mention the bi-sexual and transgendered vampires, which was a mistake on my part.

Atilia is a name from that time period that was given to women and I loved the idea of someone naming their child something that clashes with the surrounding culture. I had a friend who when his wife was pregnant insisted if they had a son, they were naming him Montezuma. We had to explain the concept of Montezuma's revenge to him. He was displeased.

I'm having way too much fun with answering the why is Bella Swan so special part of this story.

Thanks so much for reviewing and bringing a smile to my face. :)

Best,

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I'm happy for any feedback, m'dear! Thanks so much for leaving a review. The improved speed and strength were only off shoots of that bracelet. So she won't keep those. In my mind I thought that SM cheated in BD by making Bella oh so graceful since she went out of her way to point out how clumsy by nature Bella was. She never blamed it on an accident. So I felt like Bella should have been the clumsiest vampire ever. And in CC, her clumsiness is the result of an old brain injury and I don't see the turning process as one that would "fix" that and make it perfect. 

Arria is a failure if you use a 2010 yardstick to judge her yeah. You don't know her full story though. If you look at things from her perspective and the historical notions of parenting - I don't think she can be blamed for following her own culture. Arria has limited interaction with the outside world and doesn't really deign to notice much about humans. She was raised by soldiers and punished if she was "soft". She genuinely does love her daughter and feels protective of her. If Arria had her say, the immortal world would never know about Bella - her Mom overruled that in order to dangle Bella before them like a bauble. And Arria is absolutely livid at finding out that Edward and Bella are kind of sort of mated although not for the reasons you might suspect. She knows that Edward broke her daughter's heart. She also knows that  Bella will suffer being away from Edward, but likewise will suffer by being around the guy too. So Arria is all kinds of deeply unhappy. 

I don't think you'll find enough in there to point you to the existence of a family in the first arc (this one that is). I left them out deliberately. 

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