Smut Sluts and Angst Whores

Good afternoon, everyone!

It is Saturday, October 1, 2016, as I sit here and write my weekly Tuesday Temptations. I wanted to get a head start writing my blog so I can put some thought into it, rather than just fly by the seat of my pants on the day of posting and just throw out any kind of word salad because I procrastinated much, MUCH too long. We all deserve better than that, don't we?



I wanted to take the opportunity, this week, to explore how music can make a fanfic. I have read literally thousands of fanfics since I started reading fan fiction in the summer of 2012, and I really think that an author's choice of songs used in a story or as suggested listening for a story can really enhance it.

I can't even begin to tell you how many artists I've discovered because of the Twilight saga and fan fiction. Groups like Blue October, or City & Colour, Metric, and The Boom Circuits. I even gave a second listen to groups I didn't like back when they were popular, like The Cure.

I'm reading a really good story called Whenever You Call, which was suggested to me by the lovely Naomi Pacheco. The story is an older fic, completed in 2011, and written by Blueking141. Let met just say, this fic lives up to the angst in the Angst Whores part of the name. The fics recommended here today, all do in some way.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find a banner for it, but the story can be found here:

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6443914/1/Whenever-You-Call
Bella was always curious of the green-eyed man and outcast in the corner table of the coffee shop. When they finally meet, she is amazed by him, but she doesn't know what she got herself into. Will the dark side of Edward cause Bella to give up on him?
Outtakes (Alice's POV of when she had to leave), to Whenever You Call can be found here:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6923841/1/Whenever-You-Call-The-Outtakes

I am about midway through this story at the present time, and I have to say that I am really loving it. Bella grew up living a charmed life. Her parents are together and love her to her insanity. She skated through high school because of the fact that her father is Chief of Police in Forks, and nobody ever wanted to get on the Chief's bad side. Things were handed to her all through her high school career. She drifted through life that way until a series of encounters with a baby boy made her see how little she had accomplished in her life and she decided to do something about it.

When she went to college, she lived with her two best friends from high school, and they would routinely go to a diner to have coffee in the mornings before class. Every time she was  there, so would be a man who intrigued her. She was slightly obsessed with him and his good looks. One day, her roommates bet her that she couldn't get his name and number from him, so she went over and sat with him and tried.

He heard them make the bet, he heard everything everyone ever said about him. How nobody knew his real name and everyone tried to get it. How everyone called him a freak, or worse. So when Bella tried talking to him, he told her that she wouldn't be getting his name but gave her the $20 that the bet was for and told her that he didn't want her to lose out on the $20 that obviously meant so much to her.

This got Bella's attention because it was a verbal slap to her face, so she decided that she was really going to get to know the man. She was determined and she broke down his walls and she found out something new about him every time they would meet up in that little diner. Things like his name is Edward and that he is raising his little sister Alice.

Eventually, they fell in love and he started to trust her with his real story and told her everything about himself and his life before he knew her.

Like I said before, I'm about halfway through the story, and while there are some problems with it (mistakes with grammar and such, the author seems to be a bit immature at the time she wrote the story) the really wonderful story being told outweighs those problems.

All that being said, included in every author's note is a song that goes with the chapter. The author's picks for this story range from sublime to devastating. My Never by Blue October is my new obsession, and I would have never known about that song without this fic.



UPDATE: It's Sunday afternoon, now, and I have about ten chapters left. The angst is strong with this fic.

FURTHER UPDATE: Now that I've finished it I can wholeheartedly say that I enjoyed it a lot and it's a great read.

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Another fanfiction story that uses music to its most wonderful ability to enhance the story is Beautifully Sacred by Ailisraevyn. And oh, what a story that is.

Unfortunately, there is no banner for this one, either, but the story can be found here:

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5664199/1/Beautifully-Sacred

Broken after Edward left, Bella turns to pen and knife for release until a nomad leads her to new possibilities. Edward deals with his self-inflicted torment through music. But the tides of sorrow are strong, and they must both accept fate, or drown.

This story is just what the summary implies. After Edward left her devastated, Bella turns to writing songs and cutting to dull the pain he left in his wake. He turns to songwriting to dull his own pain.

This fic doesn't just put the songs in the author notes, they are a huge part of the story. So many scenes when the characters' pain bleeds through the music used. The playlist reads like a list of the top 40 I'm-in-so-much-emotional-pain-I-want-to-die songs.

The Kill by 30 Seconds to Mars, Pictures of You by The Cure (which I listen to over and over and over because it's just so ethereal and beautiful and soul-crushingly appropriate for this story), and Dear Friend by Stacie Orrico all took a little piece of my soul from me because of the pain they represented in Beautifully Sacred.

Beautifully Sacred is definitely an angst-filled story, but it has a happily-ever-after for Edward and Bella, which is what we all want, right?



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I have one more offering for you this week. This is my favorite New Moon AU story (at least, so far). It's called EverClear and I love it and the sequel, EverClear Revamped with a sickness. There is a third story to the series, but it's not finished and hasn't updated since August 2012 so I don't hold out much hope for anything else to be done with it. But, I'll still keep my eye on it.



EverClear can be found here:

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5014469/1/EverClear

For years EverClear has toured the world and lead the charts without their missing members. But when circumstances bring everyone back together after more than twenty years, will everyone get their happily ever after?

EverClear Revamped can be found here:

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5096436/1/EverClear-Revamped

After an explosive reunion in Atlanta, Bella and Edward find themselves in uncharted territory. On the road with EverClear, they must learn to cope with new found fame and an ever growing shadow that seems determined to block out their happiness.

EverClear Reunited (not finished but Revamped ends in a good place) can be found here:

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7430388/1/EverClear-Reunited

For years EverClear has toured the world and lead the charts without their missing members. But when circumstances bring everyone back together after more than twenty years, will everyone get their happily ever after?

EverClear starts out with Alice trying to talk Edward into going to Atlanta with Jasper, Rosalie, Emmett and herself to see a concert by Edward's favorite band, EverClear. She finally convinces him and they take off on a road trip.

When he gets to the hotel he smells the last scent he ever expected, Bella.

After Edward left, after Charlie was killed in the line of duty ten days before her graduation, her new friend Chip arrives to move her to Seattle after his funeral. Chip owns his building with his partner, Marcus, so he gives her an apartment to herself. She had started teaching herself to play piano on Edward's piano and when she got to the city she started writing songs.

A neighbor started writing songs with Bella and that was the beginnings of the band EverClear. Bella used her songs to express her pain and anger at Edward leaving and her longing for him.

EverClear was his favorite band because the songs expressed the way his pain felt to him almost exactly. When Edward meets up with the lead singer of EverClear, it's explosive.

Some of the songs which are used to such great effect in EverClear include Broken by Seether feat. Amy Lee, My Immortal, Call Me When You're Sober, Going Under and others by Evanescence, Freak On A Leash by Korn among other great songs. The sequel also features the great songs just mentioned, in addition to Forsaken by Korn with David Draiman, and others of the same genre.

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So I hope the fics I've mentioned in this week's Tuesday Temptations entertain you as much as I was entertained by them. The first of them was a new discovery for me, but the way the music enhanced it, the story felt like an old friend to me. The other two stories are fantastic, and use something of the same premise, but in different ways.

I have a Facebook group (same name as the blog) to support my blog. It's a secret group so I can't post the link for it, but if you friend me on Facebook you can PM me to add you to the group and if you want to delete me as a Facebook friend after that you can.

So until next week, my friends. . .