FLIRT, CHAPTER FOUR, PART ONE
Jan. 14th, 2013 07:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
a_sporking_ratIn addition to the usual snark, I also have to good things to say about this chapter. Firstly, it's 30 pages long, I had to split this spork into three parts. That made sporking take forever, yes, but it's commendable, because LKH has a bad habit of often making tiny chapters of a few pages for some reason, splitting one scene into several little chapters for no reason. This is one scene in one chapter, and it's a nice long one (hurr hurr) that doesn't snap the reader out of it with any breaks. The other good thing to say is that we get action (somewhat) and we get plot.
FLIRT, CHAPTER FOUR, in which it finally gets interesting
It's two weeks later and Anita has gone back to that same restaurant. We get a paragraph about how she's at a table instead of a booth this time, what she'd brought to read (The Animator magazine), how the lunch schedule is different for each animator at the company, and how she's alone this time instead of with anyone and "I'd eaten more lunches alone in my adult life than with anyone else." Is this unusual? Are we supposed to feel sorry for her? I don't know. Her waitress is "petite, blonde, and female" when she orders drinks, but then the person who brings her those drinks (why is she ordering more than one drink if she's alone?) is "tall, black-haired, and male." What do you know, it's that waiter from before, and he says that he asked the waitress if he could trade tables with her. Wow, firstly, it is kinda creepy to TELL someone you just did that to get close to them. Secondly, great, someone else going after Anita cuz she's so hot. I guess at least this way the blonde doesn't have to stick around to turn into an unpleasant strawman to be abused.
Anita smiles at him, he smiles back "even brighter" and a little later in the paragraph she realizes that "he thought I was flirting with intent" and she thinks it's because "I'd made some kind of tactical error." No, Anita, it's because some guys think that a woman not snarling at them equals an invite. I'm sorry, but it's true. I've met way too many guys that took me being polite and cordial as a reason to think I was interested in them and try to get something out of it. I also admittedly once knew one girl who thought literally every guy had the hots for her if he acted in any way approaching being friendly, so maybe it goes both ways--like with Anita, who does tend to think 'sex sex sex' about every interaction, especially with men. Like this. Also, he traded tables with a co-worker to interact with you, I'd think it's clear from that alone that he's pretty serious about this.
We then get a paragraph of all the things that she learns about him via conversation: His name is Ahsan, he's a college student, a theater major with a minor in literature, etc. Anita complains about how she doesn't know how to stop the conversation but it's her fault because she flirted first so she doesn't just want to be blunt like she usually is and this is pretty much too boring to even snark. She also thinks he thinks she came back solo just to flirt with him more freely and she frets about how she can only flirt with intent of dating or sex but not casually. I guess this is like the G-rated version of how our dear genuine not-a-slut Anita can only have sex with people she ~cares~ about and can't do a casual one-night-stand for the ardeur? I don't know and I don't care. This is just so hugely drawn out and likely irrelevant to the plot (whatever little of that there may turn out to be) that I just can't give a shit. Luckily it only lasts a little more on the next page, and stops just as she's considering telling him she's eight years older than he is but then remembering Nathaniel is his age and then fucking finally she feels some shapeshifter energy around this place.
It's powerful enough that she starts trying to "find my own beasts" and she thinks that he is either "a bad guy letting me know he was here, or he'd picked up on my own beasts and thought I was a real shapeshifter" because "some of their societies encouraged them to mark territory" and one of the ways they do that without a fight is to just let their power waft out as a way of saying not to mess with them. I suppose that gets less human attention than pissing all over the place, huh? Also, the way she calls the source of the energy specifically a "he" (she doesn't specify till later that she knows he's male because the energy "tastes" that way) confused me and made me think it was Ahsan, but it's not, in case you were thinking that too. Also, "bad guy"? Really? My gosh, I am so tired of this term. It's so...stupid. She could easily have said a hostile shifter, a challenger to her, loads of other terms that sound much less childish and more specific on what would be 'bad' about them.
Oh, and despite the fact she's just given a totally reasonable and more likely explanation on why a shifter would be sending out power-vibes like this here, she decides to consider it a "bad guy" because "better paranoid than dead". Given how trigger-happy Anita is, this is a really bad decision. You can be cautious without immediately deciding DEFINITELY AN ENEMY, REACT AS SUCH, you know. Of course, I'm sure she'll be right because she always is because LKH won't let her be wrong, ever, no matter how stupid she's being or what leaps she's making.
Anita smiles sweetly at Ahsan, tells him it's been great talking but she's gotta get back to work and asks for the check. He asks for her number, she asks for him to give her his instead. I guess she thinks she's being clever, but that's kind an obvious tactic in order to ensure he doesn't call her. He falls for it, however, and "wasted more smiles on me" as he scribbles it out. She will say that Ahsan "wastes" smiles on her repeatedly for the rest of this chapter, and it kinda pisses me off. Firstly, you can't waste a smile, they're not a limited resource. Secondly, a smile isn't a waste just because you give it to someone who isn't going to date or fuck you. Thirdly, servers smile at all their customers anyway, it's part of their damn job.
Anita wonders if this mystery "bad guy" shifter might be making some "preliminary flirting attempt" because apparently some of the really powerful ones are "always searching for a mate to match their power" because that "helped you control your animal group and keep other shapeshifters from trying to mess with that." Aw, fuck that! I fucking HATE how so much of power and politics gets tied up with who you're romantically involved with! It's STUPID. Why can't they just seek out someone who will be a good political partner for leadership purposes and not bother about whether or not they're a romantic/sexual partner as well? Doing it this way basically rules out anyone who isn't your type, and given how rare a good powerful leader-type who you can also work with as a partner in ruling probably is, it must be basically impossible to find someone like that who is ALSO someone you're into sexually/romantically. It's really all just excuses for Anita to get laid in the end, I swear, not to mention the system, no matter the species, always only set up for straight couples too.
But then she decides this is "too much for flirting" and that the only reason to be letting out this much serious power into the air was to "mark his metaphysical territory". Uh, isn't the restaurant physical territory? He's just marking it in a metaphysical way, but it's still a physical place...anyway she says that's "fine with me" but then takes out her gun under the table, even though she's just decided that he's only doing this to mark and that it's okay with her? What?
She does not, however, draw her "own version of shapeshifter power" because she says she's not as powerful as whoever is coming towards her (LOL YEAH RIGHT) and because sometimes when she draws her power it gets "out of hand" because her beasts "want out". Yeah, I remember that from Skin Trade and it still cracks me up. Then she says that if this was a flirting attempt, she'll tell him she's not a therian...I thought she just said this couldn't be a flirting attempt because there was too much power? So much power she can't tell which direction he's coming from and it's like "being in the middle of some kind of heat storm" so she decides "Fuck this; I had a power colder than this, and I'd used it before to keep my beasts from rising, because lycanthropy is a thing of life, so hot-blooded it's almost more alive than the rest of us" so therefore her necromancy is useful since it's "closer to vampire than wereanimal"? I don't really understand the logic at all. The fact that therianthrope power/energy IS so alive means that necromancy shouldn't affect it, not that 'oh its energy feels hot and death-related energy feels cold so it can beat it cuz it's cold!' like she seems to be trying to say here. That would make necromancy a power over the living as well as the dead and undead, and that's...not what it is at all, in general or in this series.
Anyway, she lets her necromancy sweep through the tables (how that works, I don't know, I guess that means she just turns the ability on and since there's no dead around to control it just sort of goes through the place looking for some?) and "a few sensitives shivered" which makes me wonder how common sensitives are and "I used my power like cold water on the heat of his power" which makes no sense and only adds now that "because sex I knew; he tasted male." Anyway, for some reason this works and his power goes out like a light except for the "core burn" meaning he himself, so she knows he is now because he is "walking through the tables toward me, and his body was edge with a wavering shine of power." Wait, so she an literally SEE shapeshifter energy, not just feel and 'taste' it? And "my necromancy pushed his power back" rrrrgh that does NOT make sense!
Their eyes meet and she knows from this that "this wasn't about romance". Yeah, just like how Vittorio looked at you like a head of cattle he was thinking about buying and totally wasn't into you sexually...then decided to make you star in his very own live-action personal porno because he wanted you that badly. Uh huh. Bet you anything this dude ends up wanting in Anita's panties soon enough too. And then we get the obligatory paragraph of description. For those wondering, he's around six feet, pale hair shaved close to his head, black suit jacket, black button-up shirt, and black jeans, because badasses wear all black (Olaf and Anita both did in Skin Trade, I recall) and that totally doesn't make you conspicuous as all fuck, especially since Anita states later in this very chapter that it's really hot right now. She also observes that the jacket ,b>"doesn't fit quite right on his left hip" which tells her that he has a gun and is left-handed.
He approaches her table with his hands position so that she can see he doesn't have anything in 'em, but Anita notes to us (and it's admittedly true) that this doesn't mean much since, as a shifter, he's deadly as fuck with those hands without any weapons. Which makes me wonder why, the shifter also knowing this, doesn't do something more meaningful to display I-am-not-a-threat vibes, such as turning off his power--oh, wait, Anita already did that (hey, would that count as her making the first offense?) so I guess there isn't anything else he can do. Anita tells him he's close enough when he's not quite at the table. He stops, but his power "slapped out at mine" though "he'd had to call more of his beast to chase back my colder power." She smells that he's a lion, and it makes her lion "raised her head and looked up at me" but then Anita says this is just how she visualizes it "and not lose what was left of my sanity." Funny, they were pretty literal in Skin Trade.
She then says "Good kitty" to the guy for stopping. So, first you make what could be considered a hostile move on him by shorting out his power when in all likelihood he was just harmlessly 'marking' the place (does metaphysical power stay around as well as the scent of animal urine does?) and then when he comes towards you peacefully, probably just to check you out and see wtf just did that, you're a condescending insulting ass to him, knowing full well that he is a seriously powerful werebeast in a placed crowded full of human civilians. Anita, are you TRYING to instigate a disaster here?!
Meanwhile, Anita's lioness is sniffing the air and purred because she likes what she smells. Ugh, nooo. Anita says that means the guy definitely is powerful (uh, yes, we've established this) because the lions "demanded a partner that's strong" and Anita thinks it's because of that thing real lions do when a new male lion comes in and kills off the cubs so "when your babies are at stake, you want a male that can defend them." Orrrr maybe some people, Anita, including some who happen to be werelions, have this weird thing where they want to be on equal footing with their partners and not have any metaphysical domination/owning going on and so try to find partners on their own power level. Maybe your inner beasts always getting hot for dominants like Victor and this dude has more to do with the fact that you like to take strong guys and rip out their spines, like with Domino, so as to add them to your harem of the naturally spineless such as Nathaniel.
The man smiles, "as if knowing he was a cat had won me a point". Or maybe he's amused by your really unoriginal comment. He then smells her lioness and seems surprised, which Anita is pleased by since "it meant he didn't know everything about me." What makes you think he even knows who you are? Oh wait, everyone knows who Anita is because she's so cool and famous *eyeroll* Ahsan starts coming towards them, and the lion dude looks over at him and Anita notes that in doing so he takes his eyes off her completely and wonders "was it an insult, or a show of trust?" Why should it be either? Again, he may know nothing about you, have no intentions towards you, is just checking out whoever used necromancy to shut his power-flaunting off.
Ahsan shivers a little, and that makes Anita think he can feel the psychic energy around them which gets him "a point" because "psychic nulls don't survive well around me." Really? Edward, Olaf, and Bernardo have all made it fine through the series thus far, so maybe you shouldn't look down your nose so much at the normies so much just because they didn't get BORN with powers like you. Anita then notes that this situation is no longer just dangerous but also "socially awkward" and Ahsan asks if this is "another...friend?" and the lion says that he's a co-worker who saw that Anita was about to leave and was hoping to be able to get her table, since the place is so packed that there isn't another one empty.
Anita takes this as the lion having just "subtly threaten everyone in the restaurant" So subtle I had to think for a minute to realize just how. For those who also missed it, she means he just pointed out how many people are in the place, meaning people he could hurt. I wonder how much similarly innocuous stuff Anita can twist into threats in her head? But of course, she'll turn out to be totally right on this, I'm sure (spoiler: I'm right). Anita tries to keep her breathing normal, and is still aiming her gun under the table at the lion-dude. She thinks about how he's right about how this place is packed and how her bullets might hit and kill somebody else. So maybe put the gun back? There still doesn't seem to be a reason to draw one (yes, he knows her name, but I imagine a lot of supernaturals do) and she has preternatural powers of her own, including preternatural super-strength, which, combined with the martial arts that Anita is trained in, I think she could use against him if she needed to. She also thinks about how, as powerful as he is, he could probably grow claws without shifting and slice people up and do it so fast he could kill them before she could kill him. Because, again, he's so totally indicating he has this on his mind at all. Not.
The lioness starts to move around and come closer to the surface. Anita worries about shifting in the restaurant (I do not believe Anita is ever going to shift in the series) and refers to lion-dude mentally as the "bad guy" again in all seriousness. Ahsan "wasted another smile" and gives her the check and we get a paragraph about how Anita manages to sign for it with one hand while keeping the gun aimed properly in her other, and thinks about how she would have flashed Ahsan the gun to make him quit flirting with her if only she didn't think he'd call the cops. But, uh, if Lion-Dude is as dangerous as Anita seems to think, shouldn't she want the cops to come? Oh, wait, no, cops are stupid and only Anita is ever allowed to be the hero. And then she asks Ahsan for his number. So you want to threaten him with a deadly weapon to make him go away but are also still asking for his number...? Okaaaay. You know, the old Anita would have had no trouble just telling him she wasn't actually interested, and as much of an asshole as Anita has always been and still is, I really don't see why she doesn't now. I think LKH just wants Ahsan to keep drooling over her, because everyone has to want Anita even if she doesn't want them back, and if Anita told him to back off he doubtlessly would because she is so fearsome and strong and such, so we can't have that.
Ahsan is also getting "that look that a man gets sometimes when he sees something he really likes" because Anita is being "intriguing" by looking kind of stressed when she smiles. Uh, what? And the lion-dude is smiling too and Anita thinks it's because he likes that she's uncomfortable. She does not consider that he may be further trying to show that he is not hostile, which would have been my guess for a possibility. He also has "a wariness in his eyes" and Anita isn't sure why but hopes it's something she did and wants to figure it out so she can do it again. Okay, firstly, therians have a better nose than bloodhounds in this series, he can probably smell your gun. Secondly, if you think he is dangerous, you don't want to make him nervous, that makes him more likely to do something bad/violent. Thirdly, if he isn't dangerous, making him nervous, especially in a way that makes him think his life is in danger (like, say, pulling a gun on him) could make him become dangerous. Anita, how are you so STUPID?
"Once I'd been able to use my petite, female packaging to fool the bad guys, but my reputation among the preternatural set had forced most bad guys to ignore the package and treat me like what I was: a predator that specialized in other predators."
Well, she is a predator, yes, but not the type she's talking about. And bad guys. Just...bad guys. I can't with this phrase anymore. And when did she ever use her ~petite packaging~ against anyone? In the early books, being seen as a pretty delicate little lady drove her nuts and she showed it openly, she never played it up to her advantage against anyone. And yet preternaturals at the same time still underestimate her nonetheless because of how she looks, which she stated in Skin Trade aka really recently, so they haven't started recognizing her for what she is. Both parts of this statement are false and in fact the case is the reverse.
She puts Ahsan's number into her pocket, takes out her credit card (we learn the very important detail that it is kept in a faux-leather holder) and says to the lion-dude, since he is posing as her co-worker, that she didn't think he worked today and "Ahsan took the hint and left us alone." That's a hint?
Lion-Dude then comes closer, hands still out, and Anita decides to let him get closer so that if she fires, she'll definitely hit him, because she's guessing that her own shifter speed will let her shoot before he kills her. She also guesses that even if he isn't here to kill her, he's still definitely here for bad reasons. She turns out to be right, of course. I admit the 'pretending to be her co-worker' thing is a little sketchy, but there are still loads of reasons that someone, especially a shifter, might want to talk to Anita, enough to use that line to make the waiter not shoo them away from bothering a customer. She's only in charge of like every monster group in the city, after all, and also I'm sure even therians might have people they'd like raised from the dead.
I'm right, Lion-Dude must have smelled the gun, because he asks her if he could sit down because "I'd rather not have you shoot me where you're pointing right now" and his smile "never touched his eyes" so we know he's baaad I guess. In fact, we know it for sure because "I knew that smile, those cold eyes. I'd worked with too many men who had it, and seen it in the mirror too often." Oooh, she's so badass and she hangs out with badasses! Badasses who are MEN by the way! She's the only woman she's seen it in!
She lets him sit, and makes him do it far away enough that she can see his gun is still in its holster, and he does so, and he sits in a "very guy stance" and even though Anita isn't interested (sure, honey) her lioness is. Ah, I get it--the ardeur is there so Anita can have sex and have it not be her fault, and the beasts are there so that she can feel attraction to lots of men and it's not her fault/not really her. In fact, because the lioness has no mate, she is "way more interested in other lions than was comfortable for me." But only males, I'm sure. I bet you her inner lioness never feels any desire for community with other lionesses despite the fact they live in groups in the wild and as therians, nor considers that it's the females who work together most because they do the hunting together, help raise each others cubs, actually share what they kill with each other unlike males who tend not to share it with them on the rare occasion they bother to help, and so on.
Anita "slowed the lioness" but she still wants to "drop to my knees and rub across him" and "wanted more of his scent on us, more of his skin on us" but Anita lets her lioness know "we were in danger,and that did seem to calm all my beasts. They understood danger, and through me, they knew what a gun could do." Knowing they're in danger calms them down? LKH, you can brag about your biology degree and researching all you want, but I don't think you know a thing about animals.
Anita aims the gun at his chest even though his hands are staying right on his knees, and she tells him that if he tries to move fast she will pull the trigger and Lion-Dude says, "You moved me in close so you wouldn't accidentally hit the nice humans. I smell you, Anita; I know I'm not the only kitty-cat at the table. It's a weakness to care too much about your pets." By pets I figured he meant the harem, but Anita asks if he means humans and he nods. What? Huh? How are humans in general her pets? That doesn't seem like the right word to use at all. Anita says that it's her job to care about them since she has a badge. Uh, I would hope that's not the only reason she cares about other human beings, but I think it is. In fact, knowing her, making sure she doesn't hit anyone else is probably less about caring about them and more about not getting in trouble herself.
He tells her that if anything happens to him, her people die. She asks if he means the people in the restaurant and he says no (so I guess he means the harem) but that "knowing you care does make it easier."
And here I had to quit because my hands were worn out. We're a third through though!
FLIRT, CHAPTER FOUR, in which it finally gets interesting
It's two weeks later and Anita has gone back to that same restaurant. We get a paragraph about how she's at a table instead of a booth this time, what she'd brought to read (The Animator magazine), how the lunch schedule is different for each animator at the company, and how she's alone this time instead of with anyone and "I'd eaten more lunches alone in my adult life than with anyone else." Is this unusual? Are we supposed to feel sorry for her? I don't know. Her waitress is "petite, blonde, and female" when she orders drinks, but then the person who brings her those drinks (why is she ordering more than one drink if she's alone?) is "tall, black-haired, and male." What do you know, it's that waiter from before, and he says that he asked the waitress if he could trade tables with her. Wow, firstly, it is kinda creepy to TELL someone you just did that to get close to them. Secondly, great, someone else going after Anita cuz she's so hot. I guess at least this way the blonde doesn't have to stick around to turn into an unpleasant strawman to be abused.
Anita smiles at him, he smiles back "even brighter" and a little later in the paragraph she realizes that "he thought I was flirting with intent" and she thinks it's because "I'd made some kind of tactical error." No, Anita, it's because some guys think that a woman not snarling at them equals an invite. I'm sorry, but it's true. I've met way too many guys that took me being polite and cordial as a reason to think I was interested in them and try to get something out of it. I also admittedly once knew one girl who thought literally every guy had the hots for her if he acted in any way approaching being friendly, so maybe it goes both ways--like with Anita, who does tend to think 'sex sex sex' about every interaction, especially with men. Like this. Also, he traded tables with a co-worker to interact with you, I'd think it's clear from that alone that he's pretty serious about this.
We then get a paragraph of all the things that she learns about him via conversation: His name is Ahsan, he's a college student, a theater major with a minor in literature, etc. Anita complains about how she doesn't know how to stop the conversation but it's her fault because she flirted first so she doesn't just want to be blunt like she usually is and this is pretty much too boring to even snark. She also thinks he thinks she came back solo just to flirt with him more freely and she frets about how she can only flirt with intent of dating or sex but not casually. I guess this is like the G-rated version of how our dear genuine not-a-slut Anita can only have sex with people she ~cares~ about and can't do a casual one-night-stand for the ardeur? I don't know and I don't care. This is just so hugely drawn out and likely irrelevant to the plot (whatever little of that there may turn out to be) that I just can't give a shit. Luckily it only lasts a little more on the next page, and stops just as she's considering telling him she's eight years older than he is but then remembering Nathaniel is his age and then fucking finally she feels some shapeshifter energy around this place.
It's powerful enough that she starts trying to "find my own beasts" and she thinks that he is either "a bad guy letting me know he was here, or he'd picked up on my own beasts and thought I was a real shapeshifter" because "some of their societies encouraged them to mark territory" and one of the ways they do that without a fight is to just let their power waft out as a way of saying not to mess with them. I suppose that gets less human attention than pissing all over the place, huh? Also, the way she calls the source of the energy specifically a "he" (she doesn't specify till later that she knows he's male because the energy "tastes" that way) confused me and made me think it was Ahsan, but it's not, in case you were thinking that too. Also, "bad guy"? Really? My gosh, I am so tired of this term. It's so...stupid. She could easily have said a hostile shifter, a challenger to her, loads of other terms that sound much less childish and more specific on what would be 'bad' about them.
Oh, and despite the fact she's just given a totally reasonable and more likely explanation on why a shifter would be sending out power-vibes like this here, she decides to consider it a "bad guy" because "better paranoid than dead". Given how trigger-happy Anita is, this is a really bad decision. You can be cautious without immediately deciding DEFINITELY AN ENEMY, REACT AS SUCH, you know. Of course, I'm sure she'll be right because she always is because LKH won't let her be wrong, ever, no matter how stupid she's being or what leaps she's making.
Anita smiles sweetly at Ahsan, tells him it's been great talking but she's gotta get back to work and asks for the check. He asks for her number, she asks for him to give her his instead. I guess she thinks she's being clever, but that's kind an obvious tactic in order to ensure he doesn't call her. He falls for it, however, and "wasted more smiles on me" as he scribbles it out. She will say that Ahsan "wastes" smiles on her repeatedly for the rest of this chapter, and it kinda pisses me off. Firstly, you can't waste a smile, they're not a limited resource. Secondly, a smile isn't a waste just because you give it to someone who isn't going to date or fuck you. Thirdly, servers smile at all their customers anyway, it's part of their damn job.
Anita wonders if this mystery "bad guy" shifter might be making some "preliminary flirting attempt" because apparently some of the really powerful ones are "always searching for a mate to match their power" because that "helped you control your animal group and keep other shapeshifters from trying to mess with that." Aw, fuck that! I fucking HATE how so much of power and politics gets tied up with who you're romantically involved with! It's STUPID. Why can't they just seek out someone who will be a good political partner for leadership purposes and not bother about whether or not they're a romantic/sexual partner as well? Doing it this way basically rules out anyone who isn't your type, and given how rare a good powerful leader-type who you can also work with as a partner in ruling probably is, it must be basically impossible to find someone like that who is ALSO someone you're into sexually/romantically. It's really all just excuses for Anita to get laid in the end, I swear, not to mention the system, no matter the species, always only set up for straight couples too.
But then she decides this is "too much for flirting" and that the only reason to be letting out this much serious power into the air was to "mark his metaphysical territory". Uh, isn't the restaurant physical territory? He's just marking it in a metaphysical way, but it's still a physical place...anyway she says that's "fine with me" but then takes out her gun under the table, even though she's just decided that he's only doing this to mark and that it's okay with her? What?
She does not, however, draw her "own version of shapeshifter power" because she says she's not as powerful as whoever is coming towards her (LOL YEAH RIGHT) and because sometimes when she draws her power it gets "out of hand" because her beasts "want out". Yeah, I remember that from Skin Trade and it still cracks me up. Then she says that if this was a flirting attempt, she'll tell him she's not a therian...I thought she just said this couldn't be a flirting attempt because there was too much power? So much power she can't tell which direction he's coming from and it's like "being in the middle of some kind of heat storm" so she decides "Fuck this; I had a power colder than this, and I'd used it before to keep my beasts from rising, because lycanthropy is a thing of life, so hot-blooded it's almost more alive than the rest of us" so therefore her necromancy is useful since it's "closer to vampire than wereanimal"? I don't really understand the logic at all. The fact that therianthrope power/energy IS so alive means that necromancy shouldn't affect it, not that 'oh its energy feels hot and death-related energy feels cold so it can beat it cuz it's cold!' like she seems to be trying to say here. That would make necromancy a power over the living as well as the dead and undead, and that's...not what it is at all, in general or in this series.
Anyway, she lets her necromancy sweep through the tables (how that works, I don't know, I guess that means she just turns the ability on and since there's no dead around to control it just sort of goes through the place looking for some?) and "a few sensitives shivered" which makes me wonder how common sensitives are and "I used my power like cold water on the heat of his power" which makes no sense and only adds now that "because sex I knew; he tasted male." Anyway, for some reason this works and his power goes out like a light except for the "core burn" meaning he himself, so she knows he is now because he is "walking through the tables toward me, and his body was edge with a wavering shine of power." Wait, so she an literally SEE shapeshifter energy, not just feel and 'taste' it? And "my necromancy pushed his power back" rrrrgh that does NOT make sense!
Their eyes meet and she knows from this that "this wasn't about romance". Yeah, just like how Vittorio looked at you like a head of cattle he was thinking about buying and totally wasn't into you sexually...then decided to make you star in his very own live-action personal porno because he wanted you that badly. Uh huh. Bet you anything this dude ends up wanting in Anita's panties soon enough too. And then we get the obligatory paragraph of description. For those wondering, he's around six feet, pale hair shaved close to his head, black suit jacket, black button-up shirt, and black jeans, because badasses wear all black (Olaf and Anita both did in Skin Trade, I recall) and that totally doesn't make you conspicuous as all fuck, especially since Anita states later in this very chapter that it's really hot right now. She also observes that the jacket ,b>"doesn't fit quite right on his left hip" which tells her that he has a gun and is left-handed.
He approaches her table with his hands position so that she can see he doesn't have anything in 'em, but Anita notes to us (and it's admittedly true) that this doesn't mean much since, as a shifter, he's deadly as fuck with those hands without any weapons. Which makes me wonder why, the shifter also knowing this, doesn't do something more meaningful to display I-am-not-a-threat vibes, such as turning off his power--oh, wait, Anita already did that (hey, would that count as her making the first offense?) so I guess there isn't anything else he can do. Anita tells him he's close enough when he's not quite at the table. He stops, but his power "slapped out at mine" though "he'd had to call more of his beast to chase back my colder power." She smells that he's a lion, and it makes her lion "raised her head and looked up at me" but then Anita says this is just how she visualizes it "and not lose what was left of my sanity." Funny, they were pretty literal in Skin Trade.
She then says "Good kitty" to the guy for stopping. So, first you make what could be considered a hostile move on him by shorting out his power when in all likelihood he was just harmlessly 'marking' the place (does metaphysical power stay around as well as the scent of animal urine does?) and then when he comes towards you peacefully, probably just to check you out and see wtf just did that, you're a condescending insulting ass to him, knowing full well that he is a seriously powerful werebeast in a placed crowded full of human civilians. Anita, are you TRYING to instigate a disaster here?!
Meanwhile, Anita's lioness is sniffing the air and purred because she likes what she smells. Ugh, nooo. Anita says that means the guy definitely is powerful (uh, yes, we've established this) because the lions "demanded a partner that's strong" and Anita thinks it's because of that thing real lions do when a new male lion comes in and kills off the cubs so "when your babies are at stake, you want a male that can defend them." Orrrr maybe some people, Anita, including some who happen to be werelions, have this weird thing where they want to be on equal footing with their partners and not have any metaphysical domination/owning going on and so try to find partners on their own power level. Maybe your inner beasts always getting hot for dominants like Victor and this dude has more to do with the fact that you like to take strong guys and rip out their spines, like with Domino, so as to add them to your harem of the naturally spineless such as Nathaniel.
The man smiles, "as if knowing he was a cat had won me a point". Or maybe he's amused by your really unoriginal comment. He then smells her lioness and seems surprised, which Anita is pleased by since "it meant he didn't know everything about me." What makes you think he even knows who you are? Oh wait, everyone knows who Anita is because she's so cool and famous *eyeroll* Ahsan starts coming towards them, and the lion dude looks over at him and Anita notes that in doing so he takes his eyes off her completely and wonders "was it an insult, or a show of trust?" Why should it be either? Again, he may know nothing about you, have no intentions towards you, is just checking out whoever used necromancy to shut his power-flaunting off.
Ahsan shivers a little, and that makes Anita think he can feel the psychic energy around them which gets him "a point" because "psychic nulls don't survive well around me." Really? Edward, Olaf, and Bernardo have all made it fine through the series thus far, so maybe you shouldn't look down your nose so much at the normies so much just because they didn't get BORN with powers like you. Anita then notes that this situation is no longer just dangerous but also "socially awkward" and Ahsan asks if this is "another...friend?" and the lion says that he's a co-worker who saw that Anita was about to leave and was hoping to be able to get her table, since the place is so packed that there isn't another one empty.
Anita takes this as the lion having just "subtly threaten everyone in the restaurant" So subtle I had to think for a minute to realize just how. For those who also missed it, she means he just pointed out how many people are in the place, meaning people he could hurt. I wonder how much similarly innocuous stuff Anita can twist into threats in her head? But of course, she'll turn out to be totally right on this, I'm sure (spoiler: I'm right). Anita tries to keep her breathing normal, and is still aiming her gun under the table at the lion-dude. She thinks about how he's right about how this place is packed and how her bullets might hit and kill somebody else. So maybe put the gun back? There still doesn't seem to be a reason to draw one (yes, he knows her name, but I imagine a lot of supernaturals do) and she has preternatural powers of her own, including preternatural super-strength, which, combined with the martial arts that Anita is trained in, I think she could use against him if she needed to. She also thinks about how, as powerful as he is, he could probably grow claws without shifting and slice people up and do it so fast he could kill them before she could kill him. Because, again, he's so totally indicating he has this on his mind at all. Not.
The lioness starts to move around and come closer to the surface. Anita worries about shifting in the restaurant (I do not believe Anita is ever going to shift in the series) and refers to lion-dude mentally as the "bad guy" again in all seriousness. Ahsan "wasted another smile" and gives her the check and we get a paragraph about how Anita manages to sign for it with one hand while keeping the gun aimed properly in her other, and thinks about how she would have flashed Ahsan the gun to make him quit flirting with her if only she didn't think he'd call the cops. But, uh, if Lion-Dude is as dangerous as Anita seems to think, shouldn't she want the cops to come? Oh, wait, no, cops are stupid and only Anita is ever allowed to be the hero. And then she asks Ahsan for his number. So you want to threaten him with a deadly weapon to make him go away but are also still asking for his number...? Okaaaay. You know, the old Anita would have had no trouble just telling him she wasn't actually interested, and as much of an asshole as Anita has always been and still is, I really don't see why she doesn't now. I think LKH just wants Ahsan to keep drooling over her, because everyone has to want Anita even if she doesn't want them back, and if Anita told him to back off he doubtlessly would because she is so fearsome and strong and such, so we can't have that.
Ahsan is also getting "that look that a man gets sometimes when he sees something he really likes" because Anita is being "intriguing" by looking kind of stressed when she smiles. Uh, what? And the lion-dude is smiling too and Anita thinks it's because he likes that she's uncomfortable. She does not consider that he may be further trying to show that he is not hostile, which would have been my guess for a possibility. He also has "a wariness in his eyes" and Anita isn't sure why but hopes it's something she did and wants to figure it out so she can do it again. Okay, firstly, therians have a better nose than bloodhounds in this series, he can probably smell your gun. Secondly, if you think he is dangerous, you don't want to make him nervous, that makes him more likely to do something bad/violent. Thirdly, if he isn't dangerous, making him nervous, especially in a way that makes him think his life is in danger (like, say, pulling a gun on him) could make him become dangerous. Anita, how are you so STUPID?
"Once I'd been able to use my petite, female packaging to fool the bad guys, but my reputation among the preternatural set had forced most bad guys to ignore the package and treat me like what I was: a predator that specialized in other predators."
Well, she is a predator, yes, but not the type she's talking about. And bad guys. Just...bad guys. I can't with this phrase anymore. And when did she ever use her ~petite packaging~ against anyone? In the early books, being seen as a pretty delicate little lady drove her nuts and she showed it openly, she never played it up to her advantage against anyone. And yet preternaturals at the same time still underestimate her nonetheless because of how she looks, which she stated in Skin Trade aka really recently, so they haven't started recognizing her for what she is. Both parts of this statement are false and in fact the case is the reverse.
She puts Ahsan's number into her pocket, takes out her credit card (we learn the very important detail that it is kept in a faux-leather holder) and says to the lion-dude, since he is posing as her co-worker, that she didn't think he worked today and "Ahsan took the hint and left us alone." That's a hint?
Lion-Dude then comes closer, hands still out, and Anita decides to let him get closer so that if she fires, she'll definitely hit him, because she's guessing that her own shifter speed will let her shoot before he kills her. She also guesses that even if he isn't here to kill her, he's still definitely here for bad reasons. She turns out to be right, of course. I admit the 'pretending to be her co-worker' thing is a little sketchy, but there are still loads of reasons that someone, especially a shifter, might want to talk to Anita, enough to use that line to make the waiter not shoo them away from bothering a customer. She's only in charge of like every monster group in the city, after all, and also I'm sure even therians might have people they'd like raised from the dead.
I'm right, Lion-Dude must have smelled the gun, because he asks her if he could sit down because "I'd rather not have you shoot me where you're pointing right now" and his smile "never touched his eyes" so we know he's baaad I guess. In fact, we know it for sure because "I knew that smile, those cold eyes. I'd worked with too many men who had it, and seen it in the mirror too often." Oooh, she's so badass and she hangs out with badasses! Badasses who are MEN by the way! She's the only woman she's seen it in!
She lets him sit, and makes him do it far away enough that she can see his gun is still in its holster, and he does so, and he sits in a "very guy stance" and even though Anita isn't interested (sure, honey) her lioness is. Ah, I get it--the ardeur is there so Anita can have sex and have it not be her fault, and the beasts are there so that she can feel attraction to lots of men and it's not her fault/not really her. In fact, because the lioness has no mate, she is "way more interested in other lions than was comfortable for me." But only males, I'm sure. I bet you her inner lioness never feels any desire for community with other lionesses despite the fact they live in groups in the wild and as therians, nor considers that it's the females who work together most because they do the hunting together, help raise each others cubs, actually share what they kill with each other unlike males who tend not to share it with them on the rare occasion they bother to help, and so on.
Anita "slowed the lioness" but she still wants to "drop to my knees and rub across him" and "wanted more of his scent on us, more of his skin on us" but Anita lets her lioness know "we were in danger,and that did seem to calm all my beasts. They understood danger, and through me, they knew what a gun could do." Knowing they're in danger calms them down? LKH, you can brag about your biology degree and researching all you want, but I don't think you know a thing about animals.
Anita aims the gun at his chest even though his hands are staying right on his knees, and she tells him that if he tries to move fast she will pull the trigger and Lion-Dude says, "You moved me in close so you wouldn't accidentally hit the nice humans. I smell you, Anita; I know I'm not the only kitty-cat at the table. It's a weakness to care too much about your pets." By pets I figured he meant the harem, but Anita asks if he means humans and he nods. What? Huh? How are humans in general her pets? That doesn't seem like the right word to use at all. Anita says that it's her job to care about them since she has a badge. Uh, I would hope that's not the only reason she cares about other human beings, but I think it is. In fact, knowing her, making sure she doesn't hit anyone else is probably less about caring about them and more about not getting in trouble herself.
He tells her that if anything happens to him, her people die. She asks if he means the people in the restaurant and he says no (so I guess he means the harem) but that "knowing you care does make it easier."
And here I had to quit because my hands were worn out. We're a third through though!
