[He] came clipping lightly
up the path, the face-guard of his helm thrust back, a fair and cheerful face
revealed beneath.
Plenilune
I've decided to do something different for this next indulgent Beautiful People post. I have flagrantly disregarded all rules for a reasonable number of posts and am doing as many as I like and need. Last time I did two people, Ely Jacland and Periot Survance together. I am doing two again now, but instead of taking apart two characters, I am taking apart one with the mind of another. In this post I will be looking at Centurion of Darkling, and it will be Rupert de la Mare whose opinion on the fellow we will be asking. As Lewis prefaced his book The Screwtape Letters, please remember that not everything Rupert says may be true. This may give you a glimpse into both of them and will, hopefully, be refreshingly different from the normal mix of things.
Centurion of Darkling
1. When did you first meet Centurion?
I first met him when I was thirteen years
old—he was then ten—at an open-air party my father held at Talus Perey. I was formally introduced to Centurion and
expected—as adults are wont to expect of the younger generation—to ‘get on’
with Centurion from the outset. I did
not. I remember a lanky, bony,
open-faced whelp who, for all his coltish joints stuck out sharply at all
points, had little backbone and too much smile: a gullible sort of boy who
seemed hell-bent on annoying me without ever realizing he was doing so. It would have been better for us both if he
had known what he was about: I might have put a fist between his eyes and that
would have been the end of it, and the whelp would have been put in his
place. But he tagged along more with my
brother’s crowd than myself, which fact I have never determined if it annoyed
me more or less than tagging after me
might have done.
2. What was your initial impression of him?
A manless mother’s-boy with not an original
thought in his brain.
3. Did your first opinion of him remain the
same? Did it grow worse or did it
improve upon closer acquaintance?
My annoyance has only grown as he and I
have. At ten years old Centurion was a
thoughtless, harmless boy; at twenty-two years he is old enough to pose a
serious nuisance.
4. When was the last lengthy conversation that
you had with Centurion, and what was it about?
Last Hare Moon, when the men of the Honours
met to wrestle with the question of who would next be Overlord, he was one
among many who tried to persuade me from the running. I make an effort to have private conversations
with none of them, as I trust none of them—I believe the sentiment is
reciprocated—but he did manage to pin me down awkwardly in the hall one
afternoon and he asked me to tell him why I was so intent upon being nominated
for Overlord. I asked him to put forward
a more competent candidate and, as he fell silent with no answer—they none of
them had an answer—I told him that was why and moved on. That is the lengthiest conversation I have
had to endure with Centurion’s face in front of my own.
5. Is Centurion fairly gregarious or is he
naturally withdrawn?
This is perhaps what I most despise about
Centurion. He is all effusiveness to the
point of being cloying. He is not
abnormally talkative—if he were I might have quietly strangled him and put him
out of all our misery—but the man fair oozes an ingratiating atmosphere like a
little chanticleer who thinks the world is his run and all the hens in it. I have, until now, had only to dismiss him
from my mind to save myself further annoyance; but now with Margaret, who does
not know him, joining social circles I must keep my eye on him. He had better know that I am not above ordering
chanticleer for supper.
6. Does your opinion of Centurion colour your
impression of his appearance?
Would it not have been better had Centurion
been thrown from a horse in his youth, which accident left him maimed! The lanky, smiling boy has grown into a tall
but admittedly well-proportioned and handsome young man, marred only by the
smile which should not be there as often as it is. Alas, we grow our boys to be handsome brutes
and Centurion is no exception. A piece
of wit, an ingratiating attitude, and a striking figure make for what turns the
heads of women possessing rather less conviction. Unfortunately, Plenilune is lacking in women
of conviction.
7. What might change your opinion of him, for
good or bad?
I cannot conceive of my opinion being moved
for good. Just about anyone can do a
good turn once in a while without changing his spots. My opinion would be darkened to discover Centurion
even less a man than I presupposed.
8. Opinions aside, do you think Centurion has
any outstanding skills or qualities that you can’t help but admire?
His liver has colour, I will give him that:
he is no coward. If he has aught else
beneath his belt I do not know, but you can always count on finding him in the
thick of conflict and, if I should find him dead, I can be sure there will be
no holes in his back. He has a
star-kissed luck with getting his own way—which some of us have to fight for
otherwise, not having that smile—and he has, as I have never had, a natural
deftness for sums. But he is wretched at
chess.
9. Would you want him to cover your back in a
tight place?
I think I should rather go to Hell, which
is always at my back and a far more pleasant friend. I cannot imagine Centurion being close enough
to me to be in a position to cover my back—had he more conviction I would
imagine him being one to put a knife in it first. I have no illusions about where I lie in his
heart; nor he, I think, about where he lies in mine.
10. If it came down to the wire and Centurion was
in mortal danger, would you or would you not save him, perhaps to the loss of
your own life?
No.
People die, and there is nothing that can be done for that. That is the way of things. It would be more expedient for Plenilune that
I live and even Centurion knows that to put oneself in mortal danger is to take
one’s life in one’s hands. He, and he
alone, is responsible for his life. I am
not his keeper.
“A good morrow to
you, my lady!” he said in a warm, husky voice which made her think of autumn
nut-gathering. He looked to her feet and
back to her face, eyebrows rampant under the embossed rim of his helm. “And sure I know all the pretty faces of
Plenilune, but here is a fair one I have not seen—passing fair, I think. Is there a price on your face, stranger, that
you hide it from the other girls and have not come out till now?”
Plenilune
I love this idea! Far better to bend the rules for creativity's sake than to settle for less, say I. And oddly enough, though I loved the whole thing, my favorite part of this was the Plenilune snippet at the bottom!
'Course it is. I suspect you of secretly snitching all the snippets I put up and patching them together in your own Word document to get a view of what I am doing, like some creeper literary stalker. :P
We shall have creativity in our time. ^.^
Well....
I actually DO print off blog articles I like and keep them in a folder... and there are *quite* a few of your articles there... BUT I DON'T STALK!!! XD
I am always mostly right. -.-!
I found this very interesting, Jenny, besides me liking the idea of interviewing a character about another character. Centurion sure sounds irritating... but is he really as bad as Rupert makes him out?
I agree with Mirriam, you sure wound me and cut at me with your words... that snippet was so good. Need I say more?
See? Joy is a stalker, too!! =D
*sings Tim Hawkin's 'stalker' song*
If I had read Surprised By Joy I might be able to make a joke right now, but I haven't so I can't.
So I figured, Joy, that in most cases what I think doesn't really matter: the interaction of the characters matters. And as I wanted to do Centurion and get to know him a little more, and as Rupert had already expressed his dislike of Centurion to Margaret, I decided a serious fudging of the rules was in order.
I couldn't resist more than one BP post either. And I plan on doing more, when I need to. O_o.
Your snippet is so intriguing! Finish up Plenilune soon, for my sanity, k? pleaseandthankyou. =)