In Which I Tolerate Eclipse: Chapter 8 -- Temper · 2:56pm May 8th, 2018
Bella and Jacob go for a walk on the beach. As they talk, it comes out that Quil just imprinted. Specifically, on Emily’s niece, Claire. Who’s two. Naturally, Bella’s horrified and a bit squicked out, but Jacob doesn’t think there’s anything creepy about it.
“But she’s a baby,” I protested.
He looked at me with dark amusement. “Quil’s not getting any older,” he reminded me, a bit of acid in his tone. “He’ll just have to be patient for a few decades.”
Settling in for a long-term jailbait wait, I see. Ew. Jacob tries to explain that while imprinting can be romantic, it doesn’t have to be (which is odd, considering the only other imprints we’ve seen are romantic). His description of it is… kinda creepy. No, wait, it’s really creepy.
“It’s not like love at first sight, not really. It’s more like… gravity moves. When you see her, suddenly it’s not the earth holding you here anymore. She does. And nothing matters more than her. And you would do anything for her, be anything for her… You become whatever she needs you to be, whether that’s a protector, or a lover, or a friend, or a brother.”
Werewolves have non-consensual automatic brainwashing built in to their genes. The creepy factor just went through the roof. And then it goes even further:
“Doesn’t Claire get a choice here?”
“Of course. But why wouldn’t she choose him, in the end? He’ll be her perfect match. Like he was designed for her alone.”
So she has a choice, and yet she’ll always choose Quil. Not much of a choice, I say. And Jacob also claims he won’t imprint because he didn’t imprint on Bella. (eyeroll)
They ride motorcycles for a little while. At Jacob’s house, the conversation turns to Bella being turned. Jacob reveals that the “Cullens don’t harm humans” part of the treaty has no geographical limit; if the Cullens kill or turn someone anywhere, the treaty is null. Bella and Jacob start bickering about her becoming a vampire. Jacob’s shocked when he learns that she’s planning on turning shortly after graduation. Bella rebuffs him with age whining:
“He’s seventeen, Jacob. And I get closer to nineteen every day. Besides, what’s the point in waiting. He’s all I want. What else can I do?”
CM + 1
Jacob flat-out tells Bella she’d be better off dead than a vampire, which is a pretty shitty thing to say to your friend regardless of your feelings on the subject. Bella’s finally had enough and leaves, driving her motorcycle to the Cullens’. That night, Edward visits her while she’s sleeping.
I could almost taste the sweetness of reunion in the air, a separate fragrance from the perfume of his breath; the emptiness when we were apart left its own bitter aftertaste, something I didn’t consciously notice until it was removed.
CM + 1
They exchange bad lovey-dovey dialogue for three whole pages before getting to the matter of apologizing to each other for stepping out of line. Edward promises he won’t have Alice hold Bella hostage again (WHAT THE FUCK KIND OF RELATIONSHIP IS THIS THAT THAT NEEDS TO BE A PROMISE?!) and says he’ll do his best to get over his prejudice against werewolves; if Bella says it’s safe, he’ll trust her and believe that it’s safe. He doesn’t want to drive a wedge between them.
We could’ve ended there, on a nice relationship moment, but Bella drags it out. When Rosalie told her story yesterday, she offhanded mentioned Edward visiting a coven in Denali with several female vampires. Bella asks if Edward showed any interest towards them, or vice versa, but Edward says that only one of them was interested in him, he politely turned her down, and that was that. So we end on Bella’s insecurities. Super.
Clinginess Meter: 15
What happened to Victoria? I remember praising the first few chapters for setting that up, but she’s barely been mentioned since then. It’s all been weak love-triangle stuff. Get back to the murderous, vengeful vampire!
The Meyer kind. Actually, I’m reminded of this weird Iron Man storyline from the comics in which one of his suits attains sentience and gets a creepy crush on him. It outright kills at least one person, possibly more, then kidnaps Tony to some remote tropical island after it sees him using a different armor suit. At least Stark had enough awareness to realize how messed up the whole thing was.
The more I learn about this universe, the more I'm convinced that Meyer has no idea how relationships work and is projecting that lack of ideas into the local magical rules. Seriously, maybe, just maybe the girl won't go for the weirdly unaging guy who's been hovering around her since she was a toddler.
So much for Twilight werewolves being good. :B