Sudden Shadowhunters thought
Oct. 13th, 2022 07:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kiriel123One of the girls in my book club just started watching Shadowhunters and I was Totally Normal when talking to her about it because it's been a few years since my Shadowhunters obsession but it did make me feel nostalgic for the show, which means during my afternoon walk I was thinking about it and...what if Clary and Jonathan were switched??
This is going to get long, I can feel it.
The eldest child - Valentine didn't give that child demon blood. He gave him the angelic blood. That's his son and heir, who will inherit the nephilim legacy.
The second born child, the girl, the spare, she was the one who got the demon blood. And Jocelyn doesn't leave when she's still pregnant this time because baby Jonathan doesn't get all creepy evil (even though he was a BABY and Jocelyn just left him to Valentine's tender mercies but whatever we are off canon here), so she stays just a little longer. But when Clarissa Morgenstern is 6 months old her eyes turn fully black and she kills all the living plants in her vicinity, that's when Jocelyn takes her son and the mortal instruments and runs.
Jonathan Christopher was almost two when they ran, so he remembers his sister, for a while anyway. But Jocelyn eventually convinces him his sister wasn't real - he's always been an only child. We'll come back to him later.
Meanwhile Clarissa, with the benefit of her demon blood, has an eidetic memory. She remembers her brother, who was the only one in her family who ever showed her affection, and her mother, who left her. Valentine keeps her around for a while, but he still adopts Jace on a kid, who of course thinks he's Jonathan Wayland. He tells Clarissa to keep out of the way, locks her up, experiments on her, is very Valentine about it all basically.
But Clarissa is a smart girl, and just as in another timeline she was adept at using the gifts her angelic blood gave her, in this one she figures out how to use her demonic powers. Rots wooden doors, rusts iron bars from the inside out until a little push of her chubby child's hand is all that's needed to walk free. She's careful to keep as much from Valentine's knowledge as possible - her powers are for her, not for him. But she does discover Valentine is raising another boy, in another home.
She hates the new boy her father has taken in, an interloper who is trying to take her brother's place. "He's not Jonathan," she tells her father. Valentine shrugs, "Jonathan's gone, your whore of a mother stole him away, and so I had to find a someone else to fulfill his role. That's Jonathan enough for me." Clarissa doesn't respond to that, she almost never responds to statements which include her mother, and anyway, there's nothing more to say. "Stay away from him," Valentine says, as if he doesn't know that's the one thing guaranteed to make sure Clarissa approaches him (if I were actually plotting this I would probably make him say it on purpose and observe their interactions)
On one of his trips out, when he's left his fake son alone in the house, Clarissa appears before not-Jonathan. He's playing piano with broken fingers when the shadows suddenly part and a little redheaded girl stands in front of him.
"You're not Jonathan," she says. "What makes you think you have the right to take his place?"
Jonathan stands up, the piano keys clattering discordantly. "Who are you? How did you get in here?". She's tiny, her clothes ragged, eyes huge in a thin face. He approaches her slowly, like the wild untamed creature that she is.
Something about her face softens, as she stares at him unblinking. "Oh," she says. "You're not Jonathan. But you could still be mine, if you wanted."
Jonathan doesn't now what she means, or where she came from. It's been so long since he's seen anyone other than his father. He's standing a few inches away from her when she speaks again. "You can't have his name though. Jonathan was here first, it's only fair he gets to keep it."
"What do you mean?"
She tilts her head, still with that unchanging stare. "Poor lost little boy. You can be JC, until you find your own name. And if you never do then you can always be my Jace."
Before they can say anything else, noise comes from the front door - Valentine is back. She stiffens, calling the shadows around her again. "Don't tell him I was here. He'll be mad, and when he's mad, it always hurts worse."
"He hurts you?" Jonathan whispers, reaching out a hand towards her.
She steps back. "He tries. You're the one who hurts most. Remember," she lifts a finger to her lips. "I was never here." And she vanishes as suddenly as she'd appeared.
Later that night Jonathan says to his father over dinner, "all the heroic boys in stories, they have nicknames. I think it's time I had one too."
"Do you," Valentine says, eyebrows slightly raised.
"Yes," Jonathan says. "I was thinking - what about shortening Jonathan Christopher. JC. Jace."
Valentine tilts his head, and Jace is suddenly reminded of the girl at his gesture. "As you like - Jace."
Clarissa still approaches Jace when Valentine is not around and they form a bond. At the same time, she's exploring other areas in the world when her father is distracted with his experiments and other child. Humans are so much more fragile than they appear.
Valentine finds he has less and less control over her, making her a liability, and at the same time his deal with Lilith comes due - she was promised a child and she will have her child.
The night before he plans to send her to hell, Clarissa sneaks into Jace's bedroom, waking him up. "He's selling me tomorrow," she says.
"He can't!" Jace grabs her hand. "I won't let him, I'll keep you safe."
Clarissa looks at him, a hint of pity in her eyes. "You can't stop him. You're not strong enough yet. But don't worry - I told you before didn't I? You're mine. I'll come back for you."
Jace opens his mouth to argue with her more, but her eyes are fully black, and he knows her enough now to know when his words won't have any effect. "Let me give you something then - something to remember me."
"I don't need anything to remember you."
"It's only fair." He tightens his grip on her hand, but it's already beginning to fade like smoke between his fingers. "You gave me my name didn't you? So that's what I'll give you. To Father, you're Clarissa. But for me, you can be Clary."
"Clary," she repeats. Then she smiles. It's the first full smile he's ever seen from her. "Yes. That's fitting." For a moment the smoke tightens around his hand, feeling almost like a manacle. "Don't forget. No matter what else happens, you're mine." He nods, and blinks, and then she's gone.
It will be years before he sees her again.
The next day, Valentine sends Clary to hell. Lilith finds her, as she was always meant to, and clutches her close, her hands burning, burning burning. But Clarissa knows her demon powers better than her brother did in his other timeline, not enough to stop the pain of burning alive, but enough to put her skin back together afterwards.
Lilith wanted a child and now she has one. Her daughter, and no one else's. Clarissa has dead eyes and a dead heart and Lilith's demonic blood, and she learns very quickly.
After a few years, she figures out how to make a dark mirror to see into the upper world - but she can only see those she's connected to. Jace, for all their emotional bond, has no ties to her. But Jonathan - he shares her blood. She watches him, living a human life, with human friends, knowing nothing about his heritage. He's very popular her brother - athletic, smart, talented. She sees Jocelyn there too, a pale imitation of the woman she was.
Inevitably, Lilith finds out she's watching him, and watching Jocelyn. She goes into a rage - how dare Clarissa disrespect her like this. Does she think she has any other family but Lilith?? Lilith is the only one who matters, Lilith is /her mother/. She burns everything in sight.
Clarissa grabs Lilith back, eyes bright with reflected fire. "Do you think I care about Jocelyn Fairchild? She left me. But when she left me, she stole your other child."
Lilith pauses, eyes narrowing to slits, focused on Clarissa. "Father threw me away. Jocelyn abandoned me. You are my mother, the only parent I need. And if you are my mother, and he is my brother, then he is your child too. She took him away from us. He's /ours/."
"Oh you foolish child," Lilith whispers, hands stroking gently the lacerated skin she'd burnt on Clarissa's arms. "You are the one who shares my blood. He was given the blood of angels. The blood of our enemy."
"No." Clary says, utterly certain in her words. "He's mine. He's always been mine since the day I was born. Someday I'll reclaim him." She'd called him "ours" only to try to convince Lilith that Jonathan belonged with her, having a vague thought to bring him down to hell. Clary has no intention of sharing him with her second mother any more than with her first one. Lilith being uninterested in seeing him as her child mattered not at all to Clary.
Lilith laughs, anger gone for the moment. It will return, it always returns, but Clarissa knows how to handle it now. "If that's what you want to think daughter. But know this - if he knew you, he would despise you. He wouldn't hesitate a moment before killing you."
Clarissa sees no point in continuing the conversation. She lowers her head, and Lilith takes it for acquiescence. But Clary knows, regardless of what anyone says - she has two boys who belong to her. She draws both of them - Jonathan and Jace - using the ashes of her burned skin as ink. She'll get both of them back no matter what it takes.
Then, canon starts, Jon Fairchild takes the place of Clary. Jace still feels a bond to him, tied together by their angelic blood. Simon, god love him, isn't in the picture because Jon really is the all american football star and Simon is a nerd. Luke is still around, a pseudo father figure to Jon, but not close the way he was to Clary. Jon isn't insane like he was in canon timeline but - he's not Clary either. The relationships he has are different. Although he does share her ruthlessness - he'll do anything to get his mother back no matter who he hurts.
It cracks me up to think that at at the reveal of Valentine being the one to raise Jace, and Jon being Valentine's son, Jon and Jace think they're twins. Jace is the one who tells Jon that they have a little sister. Clary.
And when Clary comes back from hell and into the picture - well it's a whole different story. But that requires more thought and this is already long enough.
God, I know I read mainly Malec fic when I was in fandom but Clary gen fic is where my heart is at.
This is going to get long, I can feel it.
The eldest child - Valentine didn't give that child demon blood. He gave him the angelic blood. That's his son and heir, who will inherit the nephilim legacy.
The second born child, the girl, the spare, she was the one who got the demon blood. And Jocelyn doesn't leave when she's still pregnant this time because baby Jonathan doesn't get all creepy evil (even though he was a BABY and Jocelyn just left him to Valentine's tender mercies but whatever we are off canon here), so she stays just a little longer. But when Clarissa Morgenstern is 6 months old her eyes turn fully black and she kills all the living plants in her vicinity, that's when Jocelyn takes her son and the mortal instruments and runs.
Jonathan Christopher was almost two when they ran, so he remembers his sister, for a while anyway. But Jocelyn eventually convinces him his sister wasn't real - he's always been an only child. We'll come back to him later.
Meanwhile Clarissa, with the benefit of her demon blood, has an eidetic memory. She remembers her brother, who was the only one in her family who ever showed her affection, and her mother, who left her. Valentine keeps her around for a while, but he still adopts Jace on a kid, who of course thinks he's Jonathan Wayland. He tells Clarissa to keep out of the way, locks her up, experiments on her, is very Valentine about it all basically.
But Clarissa is a smart girl, and just as in another timeline she was adept at using the gifts her angelic blood gave her, in this one she figures out how to use her demonic powers. Rots wooden doors, rusts iron bars from the inside out until a little push of her chubby child's hand is all that's needed to walk free. She's careful to keep as much from Valentine's knowledge as possible - her powers are for her, not for him. But she does discover Valentine is raising another boy, in another home.
She hates the new boy her father has taken in, an interloper who is trying to take her brother's place. "He's not Jonathan," she tells her father. Valentine shrugs, "Jonathan's gone, your whore of a mother stole him away, and so I had to find a someone else to fulfill his role. That's Jonathan enough for me." Clarissa doesn't respond to that, she almost never responds to statements which include her mother, and anyway, there's nothing more to say. "Stay away from him," Valentine says, as if he doesn't know that's the one thing guaranteed to make sure Clarissa approaches him (if I were actually plotting this I would probably make him say it on purpose and observe their interactions)
On one of his trips out, when he's left his fake son alone in the house, Clarissa appears before not-Jonathan. He's playing piano with broken fingers when the shadows suddenly part and a little redheaded girl stands in front of him.
"You're not Jonathan," she says. "What makes you think you have the right to take his place?"
Jonathan stands up, the piano keys clattering discordantly. "Who are you? How did you get in here?". She's tiny, her clothes ragged, eyes huge in a thin face. He approaches her slowly, like the wild untamed creature that she is.
Something about her face softens, as she stares at him unblinking. "Oh," she says. "You're not Jonathan. But you could still be mine, if you wanted."
Jonathan doesn't now what she means, or where she came from. It's been so long since he's seen anyone other than his father. He's standing a few inches away from her when she speaks again. "You can't have his name though. Jonathan was here first, it's only fair he gets to keep it."
"What do you mean?"
She tilts her head, still with that unchanging stare. "Poor lost little boy. You can be JC, until you find your own name. And if you never do then you can always be my Jace."
Before they can say anything else, noise comes from the front door - Valentine is back. She stiffens, calling the shadows around her again. "Don't tell him I was here. He'll be mad, and when he's mad, it always hurts worse."
"He hurts you?" Jonathan whispers, reaching out a hand towards her.
She steps back. "He tries. You're the one who hurts most. Remember," she lifts a finger to her lips. "I was never here." And she vanishes as suddenly as she'd appeared.
Later that night Jonathan says to his father over dinner, "all the heroic boys in stories, they have nicknames. I think it's time I had one too."
"Do you," Valentine says, eyebrows slightly raised.
"Yes," Jonathan says. "I was thinking - what about shortening Jonathan Christopher. JC. Jace."
Valentine tilts his head, and Jace is suddenly reminded of the girl at his gesture. "As you like - Jace."
Clarissa still approaches Jace when Valentine is not around and they form a bond. At the same time, she's exploring other areas in the world when her father is distracted with his experiments and other child. Humans are so much more fragile than they appear.
Valentine finds he has less and less control over her, making her a liability, and at the same time his deal with Lilith comes due - she was promised a child and she will have her child.
The night before he plans to send her to hell, Clarissa sneaks into Jace's bedroom, waking him up. "He's selling me tomorrow," she says.
"He can't!" Jace grabs her hand. "I won't let him, I'll keep you safe."
Clarissa looks at him, a hint of pity in her eyes. "You can't stop him. You're not strong enough yet. But don't worry - I told you before didn't I? You're mine. I'll come back for you."
Jace opens his mouth to argue with her more, but her eyes are fully black, and he knows her enough now to know when his words won't have any effect. "Let me give you something then - something to remember me."
"I don't need anything to remember you."
"It's only fair." He tightens his grip on her hand, but it's already beginning to fade like smoke between his fingers. "You gave me my name didn't you? So that's what I'll give you. To Father, you're Clarissa. But for me, you can be Clary."
"Clary," she repeats. Then she smiles. It's the first full smile he's ever seen from her. "Yes. That's fitting." For a moment the smoke tightens around his hand, feeling almost like a manacle. "Don't forget. No matter what else happens, you're mine." He nods, and blinks, and then she's gone.
It will be years before he sees her again.
The next day, Valentine sends Clary to hell. Lilith finds her, as she was always meant to, and clutches her close, her hands burning, burning burning. But Clarissa knows her demon powers better than her brother did in his other timeline, not enough to stop the pain of burning alive, but enough to put her skin back together afterwards.
Lilith wanted a child and now she has one. Her daughter, and no one else's. Clarissa has dead eyes and a dead heart and Lilith's demonic blood, and she learns very quickly.
After a few years, she figures out how to make a dark mirror to see into the upper world - but she can only see those she's connected to. Jace, for all their emotional bond, has no ties to her. But Jonathan - he shares her blood. She watches him, living a human life, with human friends, knowing nothing about his heritage. He's very popular her brother - athletic, smart, talented. She sees Jocelyn there too, a pale imitation of the woman she was.
Inevitably, Lilith finds out she's watching him, and watching Jocelyn. She goes into a rage - how dare Clarissa disrespect her like this. Does she think she has any other family but Lilith?? Lilith is the only one who matters, Lilith is /her mother/. She burns everything in sight.
Clarissa grabs Lilith back, eyes bright with reflected fire. "Do you think I care about Jocelyn Fairchild? She left me. But when she left me, she stole your other child."
Lilith pauses, eyes narrowing to slits, focused on Clarissa. "Father threw me away. Jocelyn abandoned me. You are my mother, the only parent I need. And if you are my mother, and he is my brother, then he is your child too. She took him away from us. He's /ours/."
"Oh you foolish child," Lilith whispers, hands stroking gently the lacerated skin she'd burnt on Clarissa's arms. "You are the one who shares my blood. He was given the blood of angels. The blood of our enemy."
"No." Clary says, utterly certain in her words. "He's mine. He's always been mine since the day I was born. Someday I'll reclaim him." She'd called him "ours" only to try to convince Lilith that Jonathan belonged with her, having a vague thought to bring him down to hell. Clary has no intention of sharing him with her second mother any more than with her first one. Lilith being uninterested in seeing him as her child mattered not at all to Clary.
Lilith laughs, anger gone for the moment. It will return, it always returns, but Clarissa knows how to handle it now. "If that's what you want to think daughter. But know this - if he knew you, he would despise you. He wouldn't hesitate a moment before killing you."
Clarissa sees no point in continuing the conversation. She lowers her head, and Lilith takes it for acquiescence. But Clary knows, regardless of what anyone says - she has two boys who belong to her. She draws both of them - Jonathan and Jace - using the ashes of her burned skin as ink. She'll get both of them back no matter what it takes.
Then, canon starts, Jon Fairchild takes the place of Clary. Jace still feels a bond to him, tied together by their angelic blood. Simon, god love him, isn't in the picture because Jon really is the all american football star and Simon is a nerd. Luke is still around, a pseudo father figure to Jon, but not close the way he was to Clary. Jon isn't insane like he was in canon timeline but - he's not Clary either. The relationships he has are different. Although he does share her ruthlessness - he'll do anything to get his mother back no matter who he hurts.
It cracks me up to think that at at the reveal of Valentine being the one to raise Jace, and Jon being Valentine's son, Jon and Jace think they're twins. Jace is the one who tells Jon that they have a little sister. Clary.
And when Clary comes back from hell and into the picture - well it's a whole different story. But that requires more thought and this is already long enough.
God, I know I read mainly Malec fic when I was in fandom but Clary gen fic is where my heart is at.
