FLIRT, CH.4, PART 2
Jan. 17th, 2013 01:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
a_sporking_ratIn which I am less than impressed with our bad guys, even less with Anita, and least of all with LKH's understanding of lions
FLIRT, CH.4, PART 2
Anita tells Lion-Dude that if she feels him move too much, she'll pull the trigger. Her lioness snarls, and it comes out of Anita's lips too. He says he believes her and will sit still and he calls her "kitten". Ahsan comes back, and there is "a second bad guy behind him" who has a "blond skater's cut, complete with a wedge of bangs that covered his right eye" and is wearing "an oversized tank top and baggy shorts" which Anita says "could hide a lot of weapons" and that she knows he is a bad guy because he is hiding a gun in his hand under the oversized shirt. The shirt, by the way, also shows off that "his upper body hit the gym a lot." So...he must be a 'bad guy' because he's carrying a gun? But Anita is carrying a gun too! How nice, I think that's the first case of 'it's bad when other people do it but okay, even heroic, when Anita does it' that we've had in this book yet! Well, besides fur-fucking I mean.
She thinks about how if she had the concentration for it (since right now she's focused on keeping a bead on Lion-Dude) she would try to "taste" if he was human or not. This may be a YMMV thing, but I frankly hate how she uses the word 'taste' for that, mainly because it tends to lead to really stupid, laughable metaphors like when dominant tiger power in Skin Trade tasted like a candy bar with nuts or something like that. Also it reminds me of other irritating ways she uses the word, like saying someone "taste like a lie." We then get randomly told (why not have this in his just-previous paragraph of description?) that New Guy is wearing leather exercise gloves "like for biking or weight-lifting" and figures that must be because he "seriously had his prints in the crime-stopping databases." Or, Anita, maybe he just came from weight-lifting at the gym, since he's dressed in what sound to me like work-out clothes and you yourself observed he must hit the gym a lot? Seriously, if LKH doesn't want Anita to look stupid and paranoid, why does she set things up so that there are so many reasons that what she's thinking probably isn't the case? Does she think it makes Anita seem super clever that she's able to jump to the right conclusion amidst so many other possible ones without thinking about it? That's my only explanation.
Anita also thinks that "the threat was no longer subtle" because New Guy follows the waiter to her table. Lion-Dude calls him Nick, and Nick grins and it reminds her of Jason and "even filled his blue eyes with laughter" though he is "damn near six feet and not built like Jason at all" but seems to have "a meaner edge of that urge Jason always had" to "keep pushing a situation". Kinda like you seem to want to here, Anita? Nick sits down with them, Anita realizes she can't keep the gun on both of them, Anita gives Ahsan a nice tip, his fingers brush her and since she has bigger things to be worried about she "even let him take my hand and give it a little squeeze" and then he "wasted" another smile. Nick says that "He's cute" in a "voice that matched the hair and clothes" (how does that work?) while pointing a gun at Anita under the table. Anita says that Ahsan is "okay" and Nick says that "Don't play coy, he's hot" and Lion-Dude says for Nick to cut it out because this is business and Nick says it can be fun too, and Lion-Dude says to Anita that Nick would "enjoy killing your waiter" and Nick agrees and his smile when he says it goes "all the way up to his baby blues". Anita says "Sociopath much?" and Nic responds "All the damn time." Anita, you are not a Valley Girl. You probably hate Valley Girls, in fact. Don't talk like one. It does not make you sound young or hip, nor like LKH is young and hip for writing that lingo. It sounds the exact opposite, in fact. And I am getting so tired of how much the term 'sociopath' gets slung around in these books.
Anita asks what they want, while thinking about how she could take on one but not both and how her pulse trying to speed up is making her lioness "begin to walk up that metaphysical past" to get "as near the surface of me as she could get" if Anita loses control, and that "the beasts inside me found my inability to shapeshift very frustrating" which causes them to try to "claw their way out" like in Skin Trade. Wait, inability? If she can't shapeshift, why does she have to fight shifting and worry about shifting one day in a crowded place or in front of other cops? Can she shift in theory and just has to fight to make sure it never happens which causes her beasts to hurt her from inside, or can she not shift at all and this causes her beasts to hurt her from inside? Which is it?
Nick is sniffing the air. Lion-Dude tells him not to move toward her, and that they are all going to be calm and walk out of the place and none of the nice people in it will get hurt. Nick says that "She smells like lion, but different, somehow" and Lion-Dude just tells him to shut the fuck up. For some reason he becomes angry, which makes "his power flare again, which made my lion trot faster" so Anita tries to call her necromancy again to calm this down but then Nick decides to show off his own power and it "smashed into me like a blow" and makes her lioness snarl and Lion-Dude/First-Dude tells Nicky that they're working, not dating. Oh great, was that a come-on then? Of fucking course. Anita asks what that was for, and Nicky says that the other Lion-Dude put his power "all over her" and sounds all pouty about it and Anita thinks that he has enough power to be "top lion" but that "there were other things to consider besides brute force. Sullen is not my favorite thing." Uh, you're not deciding who gets to be top lion, Anita. Unless you mean with the Pride here in St. Louis...in which case, why are you thinking about whether he would be suitable or not, since you think he is a ~bad guy~?
First-Dude tells Nicky he knows why he did that. Meanwhile, Anita's lioness is still coming up the path inside her, but more slowly now, because "something about the second lion's energy had made her think more deeply than normal. I would have loved to ask why, or what, but she was truly animal and they didn't think like that. Something had made her hesitant, almost afraid. But what?"
...if she can't think like that, how is she thinking deeply? Animals certainly think, but I don't think they ever do it ~deeply~? Even the really intelligent ones? Maybe it's just my own definition of the word. And also, so they're truly animal, okay...then all that stuff that I was wondering last book about whether or not the inner beasts of wereanimals are indeed supposed to be just like regular animals or not, because of how many of them behave in ways attributed to their animal sides that in fact aren't like those animals at all, such as wereleopards touching? Yeah, I guess this settles it---the inner beasts are supposed to be just like the real version of the animals they correspond to, but LKH screws it up because she doesn't bother to look into how these animals actually behave, as was my theory all along.
Nick (who is now referred to as Nicky in the text) gives us some clumsy exposition with "Yeah, it was part of the plan, supposed to show her how powerful you are so she'd cooperate" (YES, JUST TELL HER THE PLAN) and then shivers as adds on a bit about how awesome Anita is, "Did you feel what she could do with her powers over the dead?" Yeah, powers OVER THE DEAD. NOT THE LIVING. NOT EVEN THERIANS. "It was like water over fire, but it was power." Well, yes, that's why we have similes, so you don't need to add the obvious 'but' part. "So much power, Jacob, so much power." Great, give the other guy a name that looks and sounds a lot like Jason, that's not gonna get confusing at all. So much Sue, Jacob, so much Sue! But it makes Anita "think better of Nicky's wisdom score."
Jacob's power then lashes out at Nicky, and Nicky smashes his power back and Anita says that the difference between their power is "a matter of flavor, not strength." So one was strawberry and the other was orange? Jacob tells him to stop this and Nicky asks him "Do you know how long it's been?" Oh god. We got the been-a-long-time line with both Domino and Vittorio in the last book, and look how THAT turned out. Nicky must want to fuck Anita. Great. Just great.
Jacob, thankfully, tells Nicky to just shut up again, then turns to Anita and says that "we" (I wonder, does he mean he and Nicky, or are there more?) already knew about how Anita owns the wolves and leopards and has one of each to call as well as being Leopard Queen, and got some weretigers from Vegas and that she got a werelion (Haven) from the Chicago Master (Augustine, who could call lions) and now he's the Rex, specifically "your Rex, your lion king" as in "all mated up" to her.
Anita thinks about how she doesn't like him listing her boyfriends (again, I'm just thankful she called them boyfriends and not sweeties) but that "he was wrong on one thing. Haven, the local Rex, was not my mate. I had slept with him, but he didn't share well enough." Anita then recounts an incident "when he slept over one night and start a fight with Micah, Nathaniel, and me the next morning" and then Haven was surprised when Anita sided with the other two against him and told her that "The women don't interfere." So...with lions, the females don't 'interfere' in a fight that a male starts with them? What? How are you interfering in a fight that you're a participant in? I don't understand. Anyway, then she tossed him out, and he'd apologized but "was still not on my favorites list."
SPOILER: I guess that's how she's able to kill Haven in the book after this; LKH promised Anita (yes, srsly) that she would never kill anyone she loves after how broken up she was when Philip the stripper died, and Anita isn't mated to Haven so she probably doesn't love him so it's fine that she ices him when he goes after Nathaniel in a jealous rage over her.
Anita doesn't say any of this to Jacob and Nicky though, and just asks what the point is, and Jacob says that "Your Rex is lying about you and him. Your lioness doesn't belong to him." Anita says she doesn't belong to anyone (LKH may think this makes her sound feminist, but actually it just makes her sound obtuse, since that's clearly not what he means here, he means mated, metaphysically bonded, etc.) and he says she belongs to a lot of people but not Haven, and tells her that Haven has put out word that "no more werelions need apply for your bed, because you're his." Yes, people really do APPLY to sleep with Anita. No, really. There are actually auditions in some books, I can't make this up.
Anita says it's fine by her if he keeps other males away because her "dance card is full". Jacob responds that it isn't fine with her lioness though, and that "we didn't know you were an unmated werelion. We wouldn't have taken the job if we had." Anita asks why not and what job, and Jacob just apologizes for being unprofessional and says she caught he and Nicky off-guard. Anita asks again why they're here. Jacob says he's going to reach into his jacket to get a cell phone and show her the pictures on it. He says that she isn't going to like them and will probably get angry with them "but remember we were hired to do this, it's nothing personal." Wow, because I'm so sure that hired guns, or whatever these guys are, totally worry about that. Ahsan is coming back, and Nicky asks if it would really bother Anita if he killed him. Uh, Nicky, speaking of unprofessional, that would kind of leave a trail, get the cops interested, that kind of thing. Anita just gives him an "unfriendly gaze" in response, he says he's quaking in his boots, she says he hasn't seen anything yet, he calls her a tease.
Ahsan arrives and asks to take the drink orders of the two men, but Jacob says nevermind, that they just got called back to work so they have no time for lunch after all, and they just a few minutes to "fill Anita in on the problem" and they'll all be off. Ahsan smiles at Anita and goes away. Anita asks to see those pictures. Jacob takes the phone out and says that if Anita does anything violent, they'll hurt the people here, and Nicky of course makes reference to hurting the "hot waiter". Anita thinks about how her lioness is afraid of these two lions, and how her lioness is "attracted to male werelions, never afraid" and wonders "what was wrong with these two that she could sense?" Uh, if she's an animal, she can probably sense their hostility? Or, as Anita herself said, her beasts understand danger? And every male werelion, really? I can't imagine most female werelions are like that, or that would make functioning in a werelion Pride (which is probably more gender-equal in numbers than the animal version, unless they run it specifically like the animal version does for some reason) really difficult. Ditto for werelion males apparently getting too bothered to function around unmated females.
What's on the phone is a bunch of pictures of Anita's harem just going about their daily lives, which takes an entire page when we could have just been told that. They tell her that if they don't check-in with their sniper, he'll shoot Micah, so Anita can't shoot them right now. Anita has a "great roaring silence" in her head that sounds like "like wind, or storm." Uh, then, it's not silence?
Jacob tells her to come with them quietly and no one gets hurt, Anita asks what they want, Jacob says they want her to raise the dead, she says they could have just made an appointment for that, and he says she already turned the job down. Ah, so either Tony or Zell or both sent them, then. Or we're only supposed to THINK that and it's actually someone else and the previous chapters were to set Tony and Zell up as red herrings. Anita, however, says she doesn't know what they're talking about, and she means it. Really, Anita, really? Those two rich people you turned down recently, one of whom was desperate and the other one kinda sadistic and scary? That ring a bell at all?
Jacob tells her to come outside with them, let them pat her down for weapons, and then they'll take er to their employer and everything will be explained. Nicky reminds us that the sniper is gonna get Micah if she doesn't. Anita feels like fainting. Nicky asks if she is going to faint, she says "No, I don't faint." Uh, you do. Anita has passed out a lot through the books, actually. Anita then starts to walk and we learn she's in high heels. Thrilling. She catches her heel on a chair leg, Nicky grabs her arm, her lioness snarls inside and makes her power lash out like claws, causing Nicky to stagger back (though not let go of her) and say "That hurt!" and she's says it was supposed to. Yeah, remember what they said about going quietly and no one gets hurt? I have a hard time believing Anita actually cares for real about the people in this restaurant when she says something like that to the guys with guns who have just threatened to kill them if she doesn't behave. Jacob, however, just tells Nicky to let go of her, but Nicky growls at him and keeps hold on Anita's arm.
FLIRT, CH.4, PART 2
Anita tells Lion-Dude that if she feels him move too much, she'll pull the trigger. Her lioness snarls, and it comes out of Anita's lips too. He says he believes her and will sit still and he calls her "kitten". Ahsan comes back, and there is "a second bad guy behind him" who has a "blond skater's cut, complete with a wedge of bangs that covered his right eye" and is wearing "an oversized tank top and baggy shorts" which Anita says "could hide a lot of weapons" and that she knows he is a bad guy because he is hiding a gun in his hand under the oversized shirt. The shirt, by the way, also shows off that "his upper body hit the gym a lot." So...he must be a 'bad guy' because he's carrying a gun? But Anita is carrying a gun too! How nice, I think that's the first case of 'it's bad when other people do it but okay, even heroic, when Anita does it' that we've had in this book yet! Well, besides fur-fucking I mean.
She thinks about how if she had the concentration for it (since right now she's focused on keeping a bead on Lion-Dude) she would try to "taste" if he was human or not. This may be a YMMV thing, but I frankly hate how she uses the word 'taste' for that, mainly because it tends to lead to really stupid, laughable metaphors like when dominant tiger power in Skin Trade tasted like a candy bar with nuts or something like that. Also it reminds me of other irritating ways she uses the word, like saying someone "taste like a lie." We then get randomly told (why not have this in his just-previous paragraph of description?) that New Guy is wearing leather exercise gloves "like for biking or weight-lifting" and figures that must be because he "seriously had his prints in the crime-stopping databases." Or, Anita, maybe he just came from weight-lifting at the gym, since he's dressed in what sound to me like work-out clothes and you yourself observed he must hit the gym a lot? Seriously, if LKH doesn't want Anita to look stupid and paranoid, why does she set things up so that there are so many reasons that what she's thinking probably isn't the case? Does she think it makes Anita seem super clever that she's able to jump to the right conclusion amidst so many other possible ones without thinking about it? That's my only explanation.
Anita also thinks that "the threat was no longer subtle" because New Guy follows the waiter to her table. Lion-Dude calls him Nick, and Nick grins and it reminds her of Jason and "even filled his blue eyes with laughter" though he is "damn near six feet and not built like Jason at all" but seems to have "a meaner edge of that urge Jason always had" to "keep pushing a situation". Kinda like you seem to want to here, Anita? Nick sits down with them, Anita realizes she can't keep the gun on both of them, Anita gives Ahsan a nice tip, his fingers brush her and since she has bigger things to be worried about she "even let him take my hand and give it a little squeeze" and then he "wasted" another smile. Nick says that "He's cute" in a "voice that matched the hair and clothes" (how does that work?) while pointing a gun at Anita under the table. Anita says that Ahsan is "okay" and Nick says that "Don't play coy, he's hot" and Lion-Dude says for Nick to cut it out because this is business and Nick says it can be fun too, and Lion-Dude says to Anita that Nick would "enjoy killing your waiter" and Nick agrees and his smile when he says it goes "all the way up to his baby blues". Anita says "Sociopath much?" and Nic responds "All the damn time." Anita, you are not a Valley Girl. You probably hate Valley Girls, in fact. Don't talk like one. It does not make you sound young or hip, nor like LKH is young and hip for writing that lingo. It sounds the exact opposite, in fact. And I am getting so tired of how much the term 'sociopath' gets slung around in these books.
Anita asks what they want, while thinking about how she could take on one but not both and how her pulse trying to speed up is making her lioness "begin to walk up that metaphysical past" to get "as near the surface of me as she could get" if Anita loses control, and that "the beasts inside me found my inability to shapeshift very frustrating" which causes them to try to "claw their way out" like in Skin Trade. Wait, inability? If she can't shapeshift, why does she have to fight shifting and worry about shifting one day in a crowded place or in front of other cops? Can she shift in theory and just has to fight to make sure it never happens which causes her beasts to hurt her from inside, or can she not shift at all and this causes her beasts to hurt her from inside? Which is it?
Nick is sniffing the air. Lion-Dude tells him not to move toward her, and that they are all going to be calm and walk out of the place and none of the nice people in it will get hurt. Nick says that "She smells like lion, but different, somehow" and Lion-Dude just tells him to shut the fuck up. For some reason he becomes angry, which makes "his power flare again, which made my lion trot faster" so Anita tries to call her necromancy again to calm this down but then Nick decides to show off his own power and it "smashed into me like a blow" and makes her lioness snarl and Lion-Dude/First-Dude tells Nicky that they're working, not dating. Oh great, was that a come-on then? Of fucking course. Anita asks what that was for, and Nicky says that the other Lion-Dude put his power "all over her" and sounds all pouty about it and Anita thinks that he has enough power to be "top lion" but that "there were other things to consider besides brute force. Sullen is not my favorite thing." Uh, you're not deciding who gets to be top lion, Anita. Unless you mean with the Pride here in St. Louis...in which case, why are you thinking about whether he would be suitable or not, since you think he is a ~bad guy~?
First-Dude tells Nicky he knows why he did that. Meanwhile, Anita's lioness is still coming up the path inside her, but more slowly now, because "something about the second lion's energy had made her think more deeply than normal. I would have loved to ask why, or what, but she was truly animal and they didn't think like that. Something had made her hesitant, almost afraid. But what?"
...if she can't think like that, how is she thinking deeply? Animals certainly think, but I don't think they ever do it ~deeply~? Even the really intelligent ones? Maybe it's just my own definition of the word. And also, so they're truly animal, okay...then all that stuff that I was wondering last book about whether or not the inner beasts of wereanimals are indeed supposed to be just like regular animals or not, because of how many of them behave in ways attributed to their animal sides that in fact aren't like those animals at all, such as wereleopards touching? Yeah, I guess this settles it---the inner beasts are supposed to be just like the real version of the animals they correspond to, but LKH screws it up because she doesn't bother to look into how these animals actually behave, as was my theory all along.
Nick (who is now referred to as Nicky in the text) gives us some clumsy exposition with "Yeah, it was part of the plan, supposed to show her how powerful you are so she'd cooperate" (YES, JUST TELL HER THE PLAN) and then shivers as adds on a bit about how awesome Anita is, "Did you feel what she could do with her powers over the dead?" Yeah, powers OVER THE DEAD. NOT THE LIVING. NOT EVEN THERIANS. "It was like water over fire, but it was power." Well, yes, that's why we have similes, so you don't need to add the obvious 'but' part. "So much power, Jacob, so much power." Great, give the other guy a name that looks and sounds a lot like Jason, that's not gonna get confusing at all. So much Sue, Jacob, so much Sue! But it makes Anita "think better of Nicky's wisdom score."
Jacob's power then lashes out at Nicky, and Nicky smashes his power back and Anita says that the difference between their power is "a matter of flavor, not strength." So one was strawberry and the other was orange? Jacob tells him to stop this and Nicky asks him "Do you know how long it's been?" Oh god. We got the been-a-long-time line with both Domino and Vittorio in the last book, and look how THAT turned out. Nicky must want to fuck Anita. Great. Just great.
Jacob, thankfully, tells Nicky to just shut up again, then turns to Anita and says that "we" (I wonder, does he mean he and Nicky, or are there more?) already knew about how Anita owns the wolves and leopards and has one of each to call as well as being Leopard Queen, and got some weretigers from Vegas and that she got a werelion (Haven) from the Chicago Master (Augustine, who could call lions) and now he's the Rex, specifically "your Rex, your lion king" as in "all mated up" to her.
Anita thinks about how she doesn't like him listing her boyfriends (again, I'm just thankful she called them boyfriends and not sweeties) but that "he was wrong on one thing. Haven, the local Rex, was not my mate. I had slept with him, but he didn't share well enough." Anita then recounts an incident "when he slept over one night and start a fight with Micah, Nathaniel, and me the next morning" and then Haven was surprised when Anita sided with the other two against him and told her that "The women don't interfere." So...with lions, the females don't 'interfere' in a fight that a male starts with them? What? How are you interfering in a fight that you're a participant in? I don't understand. Anyway, then she tossed him out, and he'd apologized but "was still not on my favorites list."
SPOILER: I guess that's how she's able to kill Haven in the book after this; LKH promised Anita (yes, srsly) that she would never kill anyone she loves after how broken up she was when Philip the stripper died, and Anita isn't mated to Haven so she probably doesn't love him so it's fine that she ices him when he goes after Nathaniel in a jealous rage over her.
Anita doesn't say any of this to Jacob and Nicky though, and just asks what the point is, and Jacob says that "Your Rex is lying about you and him. Your lioness doesn't belong to him." Anita says she doesn't belong to anyone (LKH may think this makes her sound feminist, but actually it just makes her sound obtuse, since that's clearly not what he means here, he means mated, metaphysically bonded, etc.) and he says she belongs to a lot of people but not Haven, and tells her that Haven has put out word that "no more werelions need apply for your bed, because you're his." Yes, people really do APPLY to sleep with Anita. No, really. There are actually auditions in some books, I can't make this up.
Anita says it's fine by her if he keeps other males away because her "dance card is full". Jacob responds that it isn't fine with her lioness though, and that "we didn't know you were an unmated werelion. We wouldn't have taken the job if we had." Anita asks why not and what job, and Jacob just apologizes for being unprofessional and says she caught he and Nicky off-guard. Anita asks again why they're here. Jacob says he's going to reach into his jacket to get a cell phone and show her the pictures on it. He says that she isn't going to like them and will probably get angry with them "but remember we were hired to do this, it's nothing personal." Wow, because I'm so sure that hired guns, or whatever these guys are, totally worry about that. Ahsan is coming back, and Nicky asks if it would really bother Anita if he killed him. Uh, Nicky, speaking of unprofessional, that would kind of leave a trail, get the cops interested, that kind of thing. Anita just gives him an "unfriendly gaze" in response, he says he's quaking in his boots, she says he hasn't seen anything yet, he calls her a tease.
Ahsan arrives and asks to take the drink orders of the two men, but Jacob says nevermind, that they just got called back to work so they have no time for lunch after all, and they just a few minutes to "fill Anita in on the problem" and they'll all be off. Ahsan smiles at Anita and goes away. Anita asks to see those pictures. Jacob takes the phone out and says that if Anita does anything violent, they'll hurt the people here, and Nicky of course makes reference to hurting the "hot waiter". Anita thinks about how her lioness is afraid of these two lions, and how her lioness is "attracted to male werelions, never afraid" and wonders "what was wrong with these two that she could sense?" Uh, if she's an animal, she can probably sense their hostility? Or, as Anita herself said, her beasts understand danger? And every male werelion, really? I can't imagine most female werelions are like that, or that would make functioning in a werelion Pride (which is probably more gender-equal in numbers than the animal version, unless they run it specifically like the animal version does for some reason) really difficult. Ditto for werelion males apparently getting too bothered to function around unmated females.
What's on the phone is a bunch of pictures of Anita's harem just going about their daily lives, which takes an entire page when we could have just been told that. They tell her that if they don't check-in with their sniper, he'll shoot Micah, so Anita can't shoot them right now. Anita has a "great roaring silence" in her head that sounds like "like wind, or storm." Uh, then, it's not silence?
Jacob tells her to come with them quietly and no one gets hurt, Anita asks what they want, Jacob says they want her to raise the dead, she says they could have just made an appointment for that, and he says she already turned the job down. Ah, so either Tony or Zell or both sent them, then. Or we're only supposed to THINK that and it's actually someone else and the previous chapters were to set Tony and Zell up as red herrings. Anita, however, says she doesn't know what they're talking about, and she means it. Really, Anita, really? Those two rich people you turned down recently, one of whom was desperate and the other one kinda sadistic and scary? That ring a bell at all?
Jacob tells her to come outside with them, let them pat her down for weapons, and then they'll take er to their employer and everything will be explained. Nicky reminds us that the sniper is gonna get Micah if she doesn't. Anita feels like fainting. Nicky asks if she is going to faint, she says "No, I don't faint." Uh, you do. Anita has passed out a lot through the books, actually. Anita then starts to walk and we learn she's in high heels. Thrilling. She catches her heel on a chair leg, Nicky grabs her arm, her lioness snarls inside and makes her power lash out like claws, causing Nicky to stagger back (though not let go of her) and say "That hurt!" and she's says it was supposed to. Yeah, remember what they said about going quietly and no one gets hurt? I have a hard time believing Anita actually cares for real about the people in this restaurant when she says something like that to the guys with guns who have just threatened to kill them if she doesn't behave. Jacob, however, just tells Nicky to let go of her, but Nicky growls at him and keeps hold on Anita's arm.
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no subject
Date: 2013-01-17 08:45 pm (UTC)Thanks, LKH, all I can picture is a guy with the lower half of his body removed walking into a gym on his hands.
SPOILER: I guess that's how she's able to kill Haven in the book after this
And because he was so chauvinistic as to say that Anita belongs to him, he deserved it <--thinks LKH.
Yes, people really do APPLY to sleep with Anita. No, really. There are actually auditions in some books, I can't make this up.
Anita as a volcano-goddess who they need to keep throwing sacrifices at to prevent a civilisation-destroying eruption, anyone?
So much for Jacob/Ahsan.
How long is a 'skater's cut'? Because despite his actions, I'm worried for Nicky; there seem to be lots of hints... Oh. Nicky is a blond, blue-eyed sociopath with a gun.
Nicky is a stand-in for Edward.
no subject
Date: 2013-01-17 08:52 pm (UTC)Pfffhahahah!
Anita as a volcano-goddess who they need to keep throwing sacrifices at to prevent a civilisation-destroying eruption, anyone?
Sounds about right!
...you know what, you're right. Nicky is an Edward that Anita can bone and rip the spine out of (I don't feel this is even a spoiler) and not have her remaining fans flip their shit. Because I'm pretty sure even most troos wouldn't like that.
no subject
Date: 2013-01-18 12:53 pm (UTC)It might be interesting to see the reaction if she did put that in; how many troos would decide 'No, that's too far' and how many would bend over backward trying to make it work?
no subject
Date: 2013-01-19 06:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-17 10:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-17 10:36 pm (UTC)It seems to flip flop from book to book or even, as here, within the same book--sometimes that's just how she mentally pictures her werepowers, sometimes she has literal beasts in her that want her to shift.
And, yup. It just goes to show, it doesn't just matter what you write, but how you write it. This same scene could be so much better in the hands of a different author, or even just LKH with different priorities.
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Date: 2013-01-18 12:52 am (UTC)Jacob responds that it isn't fine with her lioness though, and that "we didn't know you were an unmated werelion. We wouldn't have taken the job if we had."
Why the hell does "her lioness" get a vote in all this? Oh right, because, LKH has consent issues and this is her convoluted enabling mechanism when it would be far easier to just have a character who enjoys sex as a pastime.
Anita then starts to walk and we learn she's in high heels. Thrilling.
Of course. Something sensible and office appropriate like flats or even better, comfy walking boots are not for Anita. Or alternatively having a nice basic set of sneakers for walking and saving the heels for the office. It beats killing one's legs and back.
I wish these books weren't a designated common-sense-free zone.
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Date: 2013-01-18 01:37 am (UTC)This actually does come up later; it's noted Micah would be shot first for this reason, so she would be motivated but still alive to do the job.
Oh right, because, LKH has consent issues and this is her convoluted enabling mechanism when it would be far easier to just have a character who enjoys sex as a pastime.
Yuuuup. Any port in a storm, any excuse in these books.
She actually did used to wear really sensible shoes to raise zombies, visit crime scenes, etc. I'm sure the old Anita would totally have a pair of sneaks to change into on lunch break. I think LKH just figured out that she could use high heels as an excuse for stuff like this (falling and having to be caught by big strong man, getting a heel stuck in a vampire's chest in Kiss the Dead so that the entire police station gets a panty shot, etc.) and has decided that, girly or not, Anita now has to be in 'em 24/7 regardless of her past characterization.
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Date: 2013-01-18 05:01 am (UTC)Because that would make too much damn sense, I guess.
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Date: 2013-01-18 04:26 pm (UTC)Uhhh....so this has never ever come up before in their "professional" career? Ever? And despite all this power she keeps going on about they can't keep their mind on the job because there's one unmated female running around nearby? How would a werelion in a normal job working with another werelion deal with this? Do they have to be spread out one per office building? If your accountant is a werelion and you are too, do you have to correspond strictly by mail? What if your cashier is an unmated female- do your lions take over and you just do it right there on the conveyor belt? Honestly, I don't understand how LKH reconciles the image of a working world with one where everyone is constantly dragged around by their balls/ovaries.
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Date: 2013-01-18 06:04 pm (UTC)Seriously, the mind boggles because, well, all the scenarios you just pointed out. I like having a lot of consequences, inconveniences, and weaknesses for supernatural creatures to balance out their powers and advantages, especially embarrassing and non-romantic ones, but in this case it's just dumb because it's only used for Anita get sexed up rather than explored in any meaningful way (for instance, job loss and rape), and while it is presented as identical to how real lions are, I'm pretty sure it's NOT how they function in the slightest.
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Date: 2013-01-18 06:25 pm (UTC)The Anitaverse = a research psychologist's goldmine. I could have written several papers in college on this series.
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Date: 2013-01-18 06:42 pm (UTC)We get mention of people not being able to control themselves from attacking others and such when they're new to their beasts, so I could understand it if this sex stuff was limited to the weak and newly turned, but we keep seeing it instead with highly powerful and well-seasoned shifters who should totally be able to control themselves better; this includes Anita, who has had a good deal of time and teachers galore available to help her, and who is supposed to be absurdly powerful and Queen of All Therians. How the fuck do you have a leader/queen/etc who is a loose cannon that can't control her own inner zoo?
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Date: 2013-01-18 09:03 pm (UTC)As for the pony sized wolves, I don't mind the animals being larger than what is normal, but pony is a bit excessive. I more than understand upping the size so that there is a mass to mass ratio when one shifts, but yeah, people are not the size of ponies...
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Date: 2013-01-18 09:34 pm (UTC)I'm pretty neutral on the size/mass thing myself, but I know it bugs other people, and admittedly if I were writing it I would address it in-universe at some point, even if just to handwave it as 'eh, magic!' or something similar. (I also unapologeticly adore the idea of rats the size of German Shepherds and werefelines big enough to ride around on like Lucy on Aslan!)
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Date: 2013-01-31 07:19 am (UTC)I'm late to the spork party, but I swear to all things holy that I'm going to somehow murder LKH and her editors for not making her stop using the word sociopath. She throws that damn term around like it's edgy and meaningless. Um, no, it's a psychological term, and has a meaning. It denotes a personality disorder. Sociopaths are actually very similar to psychopaths. People switch the terms all the time. The only difference is that sociopathy is learned, and can be reversed. People who are sociopaths can be taught how to feel and understand empathy. Psychopaths are genetically incapable at feeling empathy, but they understand it perfectly, since they're so good at manipulating.
But all LKH/Anita means when she slings that word around is "soooo, you like to murder people for fun". STOP ASSUMING EVERYONE WHO FEELS LIKE THAT IS A SOCIOPATH. Most sociopaths and psychopaths don't even commit murder. The CEOs of major companies? Most likely a sociopath or psychopath. They're the people who are more than willing to step on others to get where they want without any regard for the "little people" they leave behind.
LKH, do your damn research. Talk to psychological professionals if you're going to make Anita throw out "deep" and "introspective" shit like this.
I was trying to keep myself from commenting until I got through all the sporks but I lost it here. Just. UGH. How do you spork this without just stabbing at the pages with a pen/letter opener/butter knife/steak knife?