Spitefic: Influence
Apr. 4th, 2012 03:12 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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twispiteficNotes: I had to retcon the canon a little so this could work. I missed writing Marcus' character more than I thought.
Marcus’ eyes swept over the vampires assembled before them. He was searching their bonds, that’s what he would let the Cullen boy see. The child clinging to the newborn Isabella’s breast was a threat. The sway she held over the group was obvious from the tendrils that reached from her to everyone. It seemed to be her power, this… magnetism. She drew the others in until none could fight her hold.
She was a danger. Aro must know this certainly. The silent Volturi shifted ever so slightly closer to his leader, brushing the back of his hand against the other’s. Aro didn’t so much as twitch as he read what his brother had seen. “Thank you, Marcus,” his voice was all pleasantries and paternalism despite the circumstances.
Aro… it was rare to see the man ever anything but smiling and affable. A natural cheer surrounded him, rather like an anglerfish’s lure. Marcus had seen the harsh, childlike cruelty beneath the smiles only once and that had been when Aro killed Didyme. Didyme had been unessential, dangerous, Aro had said when Marcus confronted him. “I couldn’t stand by and let her take what is mine,” and then he was smiling again, caressing Marcus’ face. “I know it hurts, but you can be my little doll, Marcus, mine. Always mine.” Yes, Marcus loathed Aro, he loathed the Volturi, and yet he couldn’t escape. Aro was all he had left of his beloved Didyme and somewhere along the way, he’d just stopped caring.
“She is a danger, Aro! We don’t know what she’ll do!” Caius hissed. Always the warlord and planner was Caius. He’d been that way even as a human, renowned for his skill and lust for blood on and off the battlefield. Aro had been the one man even the savage general could never defeat and Marcus knew that it bothered Caius still. His loyalty, though grudging, was unwavering and as long as Aro upheld the rules, Caius would follow him onto the funeral pyre. So what did that make them? Masochists?
“Calm yourself, Dear. Let’s not jump to conclusions,” Aro turned to soothe the general’s itch for battle. The pieces were moving in Aro’s mind, it was obvious enough. With the child, they could be unstoppable. If they had her, they could certainly gain the Cullen boy and the little seer. No, she was too dangerous. Her power, though useful, could and would backfire in the long run. Better to kill her now than risk her turning on them and becoming an even more savage and terrible ruler than the Volturi.
“May I speak with the child?” he could barely contain the excitement in his voice and eyes. It was a farce, he didn’t want to talk with her. He wanted to test her, to see if she was really as dangerous as Marcus had sensed. “You must understand,” his voice was at its most soothing and reassuring, “I must know. It could save you all.”
No, Aro wasn’t interested in saving them. They’d broken far too many laws and rules and the Volturi did have a reputation and the status quo to maintain. Irina’s death had been a mere spectacle, a way to allow Caius to work off his excess energy and keep him calm and quiet until he was needed for battle. Edward, Isabella, and an overgrown wolf broke from the small crowd. The child’s influence on them was the strongest, meshing with the threads of other relationships and feeding off them like a parasite. If this was what she was capable of? Marcus suppressed a shudder.
She would have to be killed, destroyed so completely that nothing, not a hair, could remain. Aro would realize that. After all, he loved powerful toys, but not so powerful that it could supplant him. No, that could never be tolerated.
Aro reached out to touch the creature before being intercepted by her father. Not yet, the horror would have to wait while the Volturi leader sifted through the inane, obsessive cesspool that was Edward Cullen’s mind. Finally, he’d had as much as his patience would allow and reached for the child whose Influence began to snake towards the ancient vampire in the hopes of finding a new victim.
“Marvelous…” the word was whispered like a prayer and for a moment, Marcus began to fear she’d snared Aro in her parasitical clutches. Renata whimpered, her power surging as it pushed back the foreign force trying to invade Aro’s body and mind. “That is simply brilliant…” he was playacting now. This was a good sign. They would reach the end soon. The child reached up and, with no fear, pressed her tiny hand to the ruler’s cheek.
“Please…” her Influence surged once more, but Renata barely forced it back.
“Fear not, Little One, no harm will come to your family,” a pretty lie, one of the Cullen’s allies hissed in response and the trio stepped back into line. “Brothers, we must now confer,” Aro commanded and they joined hands.
Destroy her, she must be killed. Marcus supplied. She is too powerful, too dangerous. Renata’s shield was the only thing keeping her at bay.
If they conferred out loud, Caius would be agreeing if only for the desire for battle and a need to exact justice and punishment. Irina had not been enough to sate him. Their witnesses and troops murmured, their voices reaching a fever pitch the longer the triumvirate conversed mind to mind. The decision was made.
Aro stepped forward, raising his right hand into the air as he asked for silence.
“Kill them.”
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no subject
Date: 2012-04-05 04:29 pm (UTC)Seriously, the Volturi are supposed to be the Big Bads, a major threat to Bella's (and now Renesmee's) welfare. But they never actually do anything in the books. I can't help but hope that Breaking Dawn, Pt. 2 will actually have a real Volturi vs. Cullens Battle Royale, especially as Mel Rosenberg said the following:
"The final battle sequence is a big challenge because it lasts 25 pages. It's almost an entire three-act story in and of itself. You have to track [keep it all in one setting] hundreds of characters. It's an enormous challenge to choreograph on the page and for Bill [Condon] to choreograph on the stage."
*crosses fingers* I hope that's as awesome as it sounds, because if there isn't a real fight, it's gonna suck (pun totally intended).
no subject
Date: 2012-04-05 10:30 pm (UTC)Considering the movies tend to be marginally better than the books... I hope so. I know the ending in the book was a huge basebreaker for the fans, and they can't make a film that's two hours of people posturing and talking at each other. The audience and critics will get bored...
So hopefully it'll be better.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-06 04:41 am (UTC)But, just in case you ever want to take a crack at a fight scene in the future: Action sequences don't always work in literary form to begin with, as it is depending upon the nature of the story itself, and it's difficult to convey in a non-visual medium.
But...
Part of making an action sequence work (in a story that genuinely calls for it) comes from understanding how the human body naturally moves, and the stresses the various muscles are placed under. For me, personally, I rely heavily on my former days as a dancer as well as a crash course in self-defense training I had, and I also have a friend who's a student of Aikido (she is also my co-writer on an original novel, involving some rather protracted and unusual fight sequences).
If you ever doubt your research and your ability to convey the action, just running it by someone who's familiar with self-defense and/or martial arts will be an enormous help for the realism of your story. Or, even better, you can immerse yourself in such for a brief time, if you're of good health.
Either way, the skill to do comes in the doing.
But, moving forward, it'll probably come as no surprise that, when it comes to movies, I'm an Action Girl through and through. And the lack of action in the Breaking Dawn book and the first film left me cold. I can take a cheesy movie, as long as there's jaws cracking, limbs breaking and (possibly) explosions.
(In fact, Sucker Punch is really and truly the only action movie I didn't like.)
SMeyer built up the possibly of a confrontation between the Cullens and Volturi in New Moon and Eclipse that, basically, turned into a badly-written therapy session at the end. She's far wealthier and possesses far more resources than I; if I can write a decent action scene, she should be able to as well, with just a little prep-work and research. The lack of a battle in Breaking Dawn is just sheer laziness on her part. And she broke her previously rabid fanbase for it.
Bill Condon is an Oscar-winning director, and Mel Rosenberg is a competent screenwriter; if anyone can make Breaking Dawn, Pt. 2 be diverting, they can. As long as SMeyer didn't quash the notion of an on-screen battle and (Le gasp! Quelle horreur!) a few people possibly getting a limb torn off or dying in the process.
*stares at all that text* Wow. I didn't mean to go on like that, but I do tend to gab quite a bit when something catches my interest. *sheepish grin* Hope you didn't mind.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-06 03:03 pm (UTC)I don't even know why you'd build something up and build something up only to have nothing happen. I know when I read Breaking Dawn, I had been up all night, reading and waiting for something to happen. It was a real disappointment and a waste of one of the last days of summer vacation for that year.
I hope she doesn't, but I know she's been fussy and demanding about things in the past... I'll just wait and see. Competent directors and writers know what you can and can't do in a movie to make it interesting, so I'll be interested in seeing their take on it. I want someone besides Irina to die, someone we're supposed to be emotionally attached to.