BULLET, CHAPTER SEVEN
Mar. 19th, 2013 03:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
a_sporking_ratThese first two tips here? LKH needs them desperately for this chapter. Number six wouldn't hurt either
http://limyaael.livejournal.com/193450.html
BULLET, CHAPTER SEVEN
Anita talks about how that color scheme that the bed and bedroom is decorated tonight and the various color schemes that it has been in the past and how she's never seen it being changed so it's "like magic" that it's always "impeccably made" in a new color scheme every time she comes in. I wonder if she thinks hotel rooms are magic too? I know I've never seen the sheets being changed and bed being made when I stay at Holiday Inn, but from seeing ladies in aprons with bins of linens around the hallways, I put two and two together. Although that does beg the question--does JC deign to hire human maids, or are the therians they've relegated to bodyguards and grunts (hyenas and rats, because they're Not Pretty) demeaned to the point that some of them even have to change jean-Claude's sheets? Ugh, given that he's a sex vampire and that he's with Anita the Rainmaker, I really, really hope not. Not for the therians, not for human maids. In fact, I hope it is just magic. I hope he really has a witch on his payroll whose entire job is to just snap her fingers and set the old sheets aflame so they are scorched from the face of the earth completely as they should be. Then she snaps her fingers again and summons up a new set of tacky decor from the vast supply that Jean-Claude doubtlessly has stowed away somewhere in a room no vampire with actual taste ever goes near. Maybe she used to work at a porn studio where her job was basically the same thing and that's where he found her. Wow, I better stop here or I'll be writing fanfic.
Anyway, we are reminded that Asher has ice-blue eyes and golden hair. He is halfway between the door and the bed, and he looks eager but also cruel. He says "I want to see you nude" and I don't know who he's talking to specifically. I guess all of them. Richard says that Asher is angry so that even though he wants this, he's going to sabotage it, and Anita says she can feel sadness from Richard. Jean-Claude is holding her hand, and he starts shielding and she thinks he's afraid because "we were standing in the bedroom with the two men in our life most likely to fuck up a good thing." Yeah, because you didn't do that when you ran off from Richard JUST FOR HIM DOING WHAT YOU URGED HIM TO to go suck Jean-Claude's undead cock. Sorry, but that still pisses me off.
Asher asks him how he knows that, Richard says it's because it's what he would have done a few months ago, Asher says he's not Richard (whom he only refers to as "Ulfric" or "wolf", not by name). Richard says that since he came here to make things better, he's going to tell a story. OH FUCK NO.
MORE
FUCKING
POINTLESS
FILLER
Asher asks what I'm wondering--"Is it a long story?" Richard says a little, so they all sit down. When Asher does lay down on the bed, we get a totally gratuitous (but what ISN'T in this novel?) paragraph about his "foaming gold" (is his hair gold? you only mentioned it ONE PAGE AGO) hair that "spilled" around him and how his perfect face "helped Belle Morte nearly rule Europe centuries ago" (hahaha WHAT?) and his blue shirt and fancy pin and he says "Come, Ulfric, sit beside me. I won't bite...yet." WOW SO CLEVER AND WITTY AND ORIGINAL. "He smiled at Richard and made it everything a heterosexual man never wants to see on another man's face."
This may shock you, LKH, since you probably jump out of your skin every time it looks like a lady is checking you out, but not all straight people, even the men, are all that adverse to someone of the same sex flirting with them or looking interested. Many are neutral on it. Some take it as a compliment. There are even an obnoxious few who hold it up as a badge of "I'm So Hot Even Girls/Guys Want Me!" pride that they brag about to prove how attractive they are. Hell, my brother, who I assure you is NO looker, lies about both gay men AND lesbians thinking that he's hot stuff. Oddly, this technique has not worked in making him seem more attractive to potential girlfriends, but there it is.
Richard just laughs, and for some reason this makes Anita jump and Jean-Claude go totally still. So still that Anita compares it to holding the hand of a mannequin and goes into an entire paragraph about it and how most vampires can't be that still but that "old ones could be so still that you were forced to remember this was not a truly living being, but something else. Live human beings didn't feel like this with their hands in mine." How about with their penises in your hand instead? Speaking of that, she claims stuff like this is how she was able to "resist his charms for so long." It's been awhile since I read the old books, as you know, but I'm pretty sure that stuff like this was never mentioned and her reasons were more along the lines of common sense and not trusting him worth shit for pretty good reasons.
She pulls her hand and he lets go because she says he understands how he feels about that. So...he understands that you're apparently uncomfortable with him being a vampire when you are reminded in any way of what that means besides being sexy sexy sexual sexiness? Keep this moment in mind, folks, it's going to be a beautiful beacon of hypocrisy that shall shine over the rest of this chapter.
"The two men he was probably more attracted to than any others were about to tear us all apart again. Fuck."
How do you know this? Neither Asher nor Richard has said or done anything to suggest this yet. Even if she's going on experience with these two, it seems a hell of a jump. Show, don't tell. Also, I like how it's not the "the two men he loves most" but "the two men he's ATTRACTED to most". Because love doesn't really matter in the Anitaverse, as I've noted before. What matters is attraction, lust, who wants to bone who. There's really no personal connection among these characters beyond that, no matter how much LKH tries to simulate an insta-relationship via metaphysical bonds. It's not the same, and all you really end up with is a bunch of people who are stuck together when they don't seem to want to be, and while that's an interesting concept if approached as what it really is, it's not believable as anything approaching an actual romance. Because I don't think LKH even wants to write romance or relationships, she just wants the smut. Hence little slips like this one in how she words things. I'm no fan of Freud, but she seems to have proved him right on both this AND penis envy. Way to go.
Asher asks what Richard thinks is funny and is starting to get angry. Richard goes towards the bed and takes off his jacket on the way, which we are reminded is denim and that his shirt is red. We get told AGAIN about how he has clearly been "keeping up with his gym time" and how he, Anita, Micah, Jason, and Nathaniel all use the same gym, which is a special one that is designed especially for therians and other beings with super-strength, since "when you can bench-press a small car, as he could, you couldn't really get a challenging workout at a normal gym." Despite the fact this is one of those pointless tangents that are so rampant in the series, I actually like this information. One of my favorite things is hearing about how the world at large has adjusted, in ways both big and small, to the presence of the supernatural in general and as citizens specifically. Makes you wonder why the cops are still so behind, though.
Richard tosses the jacket aside and he and Asher have a little staring contest. According to Anita "no one who was moved by a handsome man could gaze up at Richard and not want him." Because everyone has the same standards for what counts as a handsome man? What about in Indonesia, where broad faces with receding foreheads were so sought after that some people even compressed their babies foreheads to achieve that look? Or among the Inuit, who on the whole prefer a tall lean look for men? Richard would be lacking in the 'handsome' department by those standards, and by those of many other times, cultures, and places. Come to think of it, Asher himself is most likely from a time when fat men were considered attractive. This is not to say that his tastes therefore have to be the same as his cultural standards, or that they couldn't have changed over time, but that absolutes regarding what is attractive are false as it is in our world, and in a world where people from many times past are still around to make their opinions known, more people are likely aware of that.
I realize this is just coming from Anita's head and therefore should only be taken as her opinion and she probably just didn't think of all this but absolutes like that are a pet peeve of mine.
Anita says she has no clue what to do and that JC is no help. Um, I thought that what you were going to do was each other? Seriously, just have the freaking orgy so we can move on, okay? This..tension, if you can even call it that...is neither exciting nor dramatic. It's just boring, pointless, and stupid.
Anita goes towards the bed and compares it to running into a burning building to salvage something. DESPITE THE FACT NOTHING BAD HAS HAPPENED YET. AT ALL. OR HAS ANY INDICATION OF HAPPENING. Seriously, Asher just looks a little pissed but that's all. And maybe he's pissed because the sex you promised him isn't happening yet and it's been three pages since you got to the bedroom!
Richard and Anita crawl on to the bed together and Richard takes her hand to help her on to it because it's soooo tall and she takes a deep breath because OMG TENSION AND SOMETHING BAD IS SURE TO HAPPEN YUP saying this over and over again does not convince me, LKH. It really doesn't.
JC looks at them and Anita talks about how unreadable his feelings are some more, which she's been done once already on this same page. He looks down at them all on the bed and says "Too good to be true." Jean-Claude, dammit, we just got through that discussion with Asher!
Richard tells him "I've been a bastard and I'm sorry."
You know, if I didn’t know better, I would think that this really was the beginning of Richard going back to his good ol’ self, or at least becoming a pretty cool guy again. Unfortunately, I’ve been informed from Lashouts that his character assassination since NiC has grown to include a truly vicious cycle of making Richard repent and apologize to everyone for the asshole LKH has made him become, and everyone forgives him while also waxing on about said assholery and what saints they are for taking him back, and then by the next book it’s as if that never happened and all of Richard’s issues (none of which existed, funnily enough, until after LKH and her first husband divorced) are back and full-blown and then he apologizes and the whole thing starts again. So that’s what I’m expecting here, sad to say, until proven wrong.
JC says the apology is nice but asks him specifically what he's sorry for, and Anita agrees. I'd kind of like to know that myself, if only because I don't know if he's just generally had a horrible attitude about everything in the recent books or if he's actually DONE something in particular that was bad.
Richard says that when he'd first met Anita, he'd just gotten away from Raina and Gabriel. As if we could ever forget, Asher gives us some nice exposition about how Raina was the old Lupa, Gabriel was the old Nimir-Raj, and how they were both sexual sadists who could "make some of Belle Morte's court sound kind, and they are not kind."
...LKH. Please. Give us some credit here. If you say they are sadists who can make Belle Morte's court sound kind, the reader can infer from this that Belle's court is not kind at all and are in fact sexual sadists themselves, hence why Asher would choose them for this comparison. The fact that she thinks readers are this dumb that we need even this spoon-fed to us actually explains a lot about her writing and how she expects to get away with the bullshit in it.
Anita helpfully adds that they were sexual sadists "in the real serial-killer sort of way." Because she's an expert on those, you know, given how she worked hand-in-hand with one when she really had no reason to and didn't turn him in to the cops afterwards, knowing he was going to go on hurting and raping and killing more people. Yeah, I haven't forgotten that, Anita. I'd ask how your conscience lives with that, but, oh, you don't have one!
Asher then provides more exposition by telling Anita he'd heard that she killed them both when they'd tried to make a rape-and-snuff film starring her and Gabriel. Anita confirms this. Asher takes her hand and says he's glad she killed them, which Richard agrees with, as does JC who says "they are not a loss" (which is kind of an...interesting statement since it suggests he has no moral issue with them but just didn't see any practical use for them, which is an attitude from a vampire politician I actually enjoy and find believable). You know, Gabriel and Raina were, as Anita puts it, "the couple from hell" but I will say this for them--they knew what they were and so did everyone else. That's a lot more than I can say about Anita and her little kingdom.
According to Richard, they had "tried to make me into a more dominant version of Nathaniel, just another pet" and Jean-Claude says that "they never understood that you would never be that."
Wow, there's a load of victim-blaming in that statement right there. I'm having a hard time putting it into words, but it just seems to be another instance of the recurrent sentiment in the AB series that if you have trauma happen to you, it's your fault for not being strong enough to prevent it, and that if you break under it, as Nathaniel did and Richard did not, it's again all about you and you not being strong enough, nevermind what your abusers did. You know what, LKH, strong people can break too. Being strong does not mean inhumanely invulnerable to absolutely everything. When someone rapes and abuses you in the ways that Raina and Gabriel doubtlessly did, the trauma you feel and internalize like Nathaniel did is not a matter of whether you "would" become what they want the way JC is using the word here. I'm not saying everyone would, because everyone reacts to trauma differently, just that there seems to be a very implicit judgement on those who did "become that" unlike Richard.
Richard explains that "I fought high enough in the pack structure to have more choices, and I beat the shit out of Gabriel one night" but that Raina continued to hurt him in other ways. She made Marcus (whom he calls "our Ulfric, Marcus" even though everyone there knows who Marcus was *eyerolls*) give him to Jean-Claude. "I had fought my way into dominance enough to stay out of the bed of people I didn't want to sleep with, and then they give me to a vampire whose power is all about sex. Raina told me that you'd seduce me eventually and she'd get to watch us together." Oh, you mean like Anita is now. Because what's sick and wrong and depraved for Raina is totally okay and sexy when it's Anita.
"I was Master of the City by then, Richard; I would not have let her do that to me, or to you."
Really? Why not? He clearly accepted Richard as a gift, otherwise what was Richard doing just hanging out naked at the Circus of the Damned when Anita first met him. And at that point, there was no reason that JC should care about Richard. They weren't a triumvirate yet. I'm not saying that JC would have raped him just because he didn't care about him, but he makes it sound like he had a personal connection to him already, and he didn't. Also, what would he have done to stop Raina anyway? There's never any mention of him doing anything to stop Raina, Marcus, and Gabriel from their reign of terror that I can recall, so either he didn't have the power or he didn't consider it his business, worth the political risk, etc.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think LKH is trying to retcon things to make it seems like Jean-Claude was always this totally righteous morally-upright dude who was nice to Richard...instead of a Machiavellian chessmaster concerned mainly with advancing himself politically, building his power structure, and possibly getting into Anita's pants (thought that may in fact have been part of achieving the first two) and who also, oh yeah, THREATENED TO KILL RICHARD IF ANITA DID NOT DATE HIM. He never gave two shits about Richard before he became useful to him in terms of preternatural power and politics. So yeah, I don't think he'd have raped him, but I don't think he "would not have let her do that you" either regarding anything with Raina.
Richard hugs his arms to his chest and says that "I know that now, but she'd been my Lupa for six years. I believed her. So I looked at Jean-Claude as just one more person who was trying to corrupt me. I realize that he was as trapped as I was, but I couldn't see that then."
...trapped how? JC just said he was Master of the City at that point, so he wasn't trapped by Nikolaos. Who else would he have been trapped by? Raina? How so? She was a silent partner of Jean-Claude's dance club, Danse Macabre, but did she ever have any power over him at all, especially to that degree? I really don't think he ever had fuck-all to do with her or Gabriel or Marcus at any point. Perhaps he had some kind of an alliance to the werewolves and that's why Raina gifted Richard to him, as well as allowing the wolves (such as Stephen and Rashida) to be a part of his Circus, and part of the bargain involved her getting to watch and so breaking it could have consequences, but none of this is laid out at all, I'm only guessing. Richard just says JC was trapped and that's it. I think LKH just figures that sounds like a good sympathetic excuse but it's not UNLESS YOU EXPLAIN IT.
Anita is holding Asher's hand and touches Richard too. Richard says that after Marcus and Raina were dead, he still thought of them every time he looked at JC, and that then "I blamed you for stealing Anita away" but that "I know now that I drove her to you. I made her watch me eat Marcus." He *made* her? As in, he forced her? I don't recall this at all. The pack as a whole just came in and ate Marcus because that's the natural order of things with them and also, practically speaking, it gets rid of the evidence that would get their shiny new Ulfric locked up for murder. Sorry Miss Dark And Edgy couldn't handle that AFTER SHE WAS THE ONE WHO PRESSED HIM TO KILL THE GUY FOR CRYING OUT LOUD.
"I did everything I could to make sure the first time you saw me shift to animal form that it was frightening and terrible."
I'm reading a summary of The Killing Dance and it seems more like it was just the first opportunity he got after deciding to do it (he wanted her to see him in wolf form before they became engaged to marry) because of everything that was going on.
"You hate being a werewolf. You wanted me to hate it to."
And why shouldn't he hate it? Richard disliking being a werewolf is treated like some huge personal failing and flaw, and I don't see why. Firstly, being a werewolf means a whole lot of nasty social stigma. That alone is enough reason not to enjoy it. Secondly, that stigma includes not being allowed to do certain jobs, including Richard's job as a teacher, something he really values and enjoys. Thirdly, he got the freaking lyncanthropy virus from a vaccine, aka a way he thought would prevent him from ever being infected and losing his job. That level of irony alone would make me hate it. Fourthly, even if all that didn't apply, being a werewolf itself is not a nice experience. You get this beast inside you that can go out of control at any time when you're new, you have to worry about KILLING people when you get angry or are having sex, you have to worry about then getting the death penalty for killing said people, you get all kinds of sexual urges it seems, your sensory input is overddrive beyond human comprehension, and most shifters are in a comatose state for several hours after returning to human form because of the energy that shifting takes, which is a pretty good way to lose your job due to poor attendance. Crappy, right?
Oh, but it goes on!
So you have to join a pack because they're the only ones who can help you get all this under control, right? But then once you do, bam, you are now plunged into preternatural politics and you are at the bottom rung of the ladder as the weak little newbie of the bunch. You are a grunt, a pawn, a bargaining chip, a chew toy. Not to mention there are vampires out there who can call your beast and make you do what they want! And lucky Richard, the pack he joins up with his run by the monster equivalent of the Manson family! For six years he endured some of the most fucked-up shit possible (or impossible, for that matter, considering what he can heal from and what they could do) and IT'S ALL BECAUSE HE'S A WEREWOLF. None of this would have happened to him if he hadn't been infected.
So tell me, why the fuck should he not hate it? Why is it constantly treated as a personal failing of his not to be gung-ho about it, versus a totally natural response? Because this is the first time I can remember it ever being presented in a way that even addresses the very good reasons he has to NOT be okay with his condition instead of it just being "well he's such a white picket fence type of course he doesn't want to be a monster hmmph hmmph hmmph so not edgy". He has WAY more to angst about "being a monster" than Anita does, dammit. I'm not saying it wouldn't be a good idea for him to learn to accept it in order to make life easier for himself, because you have to face reality if you're going to make the best of it, but that I don't see it as a defect on his part for resenting it in the first place like the books usually seem to want me to. Again, this is the first time I can recall any acknowledgement being given to how much his condition really sucked for him when his hating it is brought up.
And you know what? He's stronger than Anita too by far. Remember how even back in the day she had that annoying MY GRIEF IS GREATER THAN YOURS complex about her mother dying and her fiancee leaving her? Remember how she was such a damn pill even in the best of times to everyone around her for no reason and that's supposed to be applauded as strength? Think about the old Richard now. That super nice, super sweet Boy Scout. Now remember that at the point Anita met him, he had been through six years of pure hell. And he did not become an asshole over it. He was not cruel to others the way Anita was and is. He did not act as though his pain and damage made the pain and damage of others insignificant the way Anita did and does. He never became a rapist after being raped the way she did after being raped by Micah (and even before that she was pretty dubcon with Asher). In short, he dealt with his "issues" better than she ever has any of hers, and is way more admirable a character for it.
Jean-Claude then says "Your doctor must be very open-minded."
What. Buh. How does Richard's therapist relate to what they're talking about? I mean, I guess they could have helped Richard get to this point, but he never brought them up, so it seems kind of insulting to just assume they're to thank. But yes, according to Richard, his therapist is indeed open-minded but "we didn't really make a lot of progress until Anita was able to take back her anger this past summer."
So Richard being able to make progress is due to Anita. Of course. No one can ever heal on their damn own or even have their own issues without it being about HER in some way.
Anita recounts for us just what he means about taking back her anger. She starts out by explaining that "being a triumvirate of power is that you share parts of yourself and not just power. I'd gotten the ardeur and a craving for blood from Jean-Claude. From Richard I'd gotten his beast and a taste for flesh. Jean-Claude had gotten a certain ruthlessness from...but what Richard got from me was my rage."
1) Actually, Anita got the ardeur in NiC from Jean-Claude feeding his own on her. Somehow she got her own ardeur from that, like an STD. I don't recall if them being a triumvirate was ever involved in that, especially since she's the only human, including Human Servants, to possess it.
2) When did Anita ever crave blood? I don't remember any incidence of this from the old books or the recent ones I sporked. Does anyone know?
3) Her cravings for flesh in Skin Trade gave me the impression that they were a recent thing, way after the triumvirate was formed, possibly happening for the very first time, and that they came from her inner zoo, not her connection to Richard. Hell, I don't think Richard's name was ever even mentioned in that book, and with as much as she was craving flesh and the way she likes to explain everything to the readers, you know we'd have heard all about it if it was due to her connection to him.
So yeah, tentatively going to call this another instance of LKH pulling stuff out of her ass. But I like the idea that part of Richard's newfound dickery was because he absorbed Anita's own dickery, which as we all know is vast and terrible.
She goes on to say that she gained the ability to feed on anger (I WOULD STILL LIKE A GOOD EXPLANATION HOW) and how though she can feed on sex itself, she finds it harder to feed on the 'emotion' of lust itself.
I actually like this bit. It always bothered me how Belle Morte vampires are supposed to be able to feed on lust, but we only ever see Anita feeding on sex instead, and there is a difference between having sex and just feeling lust. Lust is like fear or anger, it's a feeling, albeit a very base and physical one, whereas sex is a physical act and can actually be done without any lust involved at all. I like that a differential between the two is finally being made, since lots of times Anita feeding on sex is talked about as feeding on lust. This also means that at least *some* Belle Morte vampires are able to feed on lust *without* having sex to do it, and that's relevant to my fanfiction/roleplay/character interests.
"Anger, though, I understood that." Wait, you can't feed on lust because you don't understand it? Yeah, I really don't buy that for a second, especially not after your whole rant on how you can trust lust in Flirt. "That had been my emotion of choice for years." And how. That chip on your shoulder got obnoxious fast. "Last summer I figured out how to call my rage back home from Richard." So you took your assholery out of him and back into yourself. I would worry that means you'll be more of an asshole than ever now, except I don't believe that's even POSSIBLE now.
"You can feed a hunger, but you can't feed on a hunger." wut.
Richard says that "I hadn't understood how much the rage kept me from forgiving anyone, or working my issues, until Anita fed off it and took it back. The anger was almost like another beast inside, but full moon didn't bring any relief. It's a horrible way to live, Anita."
Anita just shrugs and says "You get used to it."
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? This guy is pouring his heart out to you about his struggles, which YOU directly contributed to by YOUR personality flaws (which she has no reason for--seriously, what the hell makes her so pised 24/7?) invading him, and your response is to just be like OH WHAT IT'S NO BIG DEAL YOU WUSS.
Richard says that he didn't get used to it (probably because being an angry asshole is NOT his default state, unlike SOME people) and that it made all his problems with self-loathing worse and "was killing me." Anita says she sorry about that, and then says that the self-loathing part was all him. Yes, he just said that, Anita. His specific words were "I had my own problems with self-loathing" so it is neither helpful nor news to him for you to say "the self-loathing was all you." It is also patently untrue to say "You broke up with me because I was more at home with the monsters than you were."
NO ACTUALLY I THINK IT'S BECAUSE YOU CHEATED ON HIM WITH JEAN-CLAUDE
I guess you do have to be pretty "at home with the monsters" to give one head, though, if that's what she means by it.
"My turn to apologize again" No, Richard, it's not! Call her out on that load of crap! Tell her you broke up with her because she's a cheating hypocrite who talks about being at home with monsters but then runs off the second she sees you actually acting like a real monster for once to suck off a guy who, sure, drinks blood, but she doesn't have to watch him doing it! At home with the monsters my ass. Anita is only ever at home with monsters when they act like cute fuzzy pets in 'puppy piles' all nuzzling each other, not when they ever actually EAT PEOPLE. And may I point you back to where she pulled away from Jean-Claude's hand because he went so still that she was reminded that his being a vampire means he is THE LIVING DEAD?
"I can't stop being a werewolf. It's like trying to stop being human." Oh, you can stop being human, all it takes is a few bites in this universe! "I could give up being Ulfric, but I'd still have to belong to the pack, and being king is better than being a follower." Eh, depends I'd say, but at least Richard occupying the position keeps it from belonging to anyone worse. He then talks about how he is a part of the triumvirate that gives Jean-Claude the power to "run the city" and "keep everyone safe." Run the city? Is he mayor now too? And keep everyone safe, huh? How about the wererats and swanmanes that Anita raped, are they safe?
Richard says that JC is a good MotC, and that a "crazy bitch" MotC like Nikolaos recruits "more crazy people, and she keeps everybody else crazy." Versus Jean-Claude, whose team includes....Gretchen, Meng Die, and Anita. Yeah, who hires crazy people again? Because I don't think Nikki had anyone nuts in her squad like those three. But according to Richard, after Anita killed Nikolaos "to save all of us" (no that's NOT why she killed her, she didn't even KNOW about all of you then) JC took control "and made everything work better than it ever worked. You had managed all the vampire businesses in town for years. You'd been the financial leader all along."
...I'm not sure how JC being good with money means that he made everything work in the preternatural community better than ever once he was Master? I also really don't like the implication here that JC being in charge somehow changed things for any group BUT vampires (because he ruled them), wererats (because Nikki called them and he can't, so they're not her slaves anymore), and werewolves (since he can call them, hence his getting some for the Circus). What about the leopards, lions, and swans? And clearly he didn't change THAT much for the better since his becoming Master didn't stop Raina and Gabriel from continuing to commit their sick atrocities in the Pack and Pard. This asskissing is not only making me hurl, it makes no sense either and reeks of retcon! And hey, didn't Chimera come to town during JC's perfect little rule too?
That said, I sadly do believe it's the truth when Richard swears that "all of the wereanimal leaders think things are a thousand times better with you in charge" because JC's ties to Anita is what made her able to get into the preternatural community at the level she is now, which led to her and her boyfriends running everything, and as fucking horrible as she is and as ineffective as they are, they are still technically better leaders than Raina and Marcus and Gabriel were, if only because they're not torturing and raping ALL of their group members, just one or two attractive males from each group that Anita mindwipes.
Well, technically better leaders EXCEPT for the lions, I should add. Anita did them no favors when she got rid of Joseph the family man Rex so that they could be taken over by vicious lions from the Chicago mob. But that's what happens when Anita doesn't get sex, dammit!
Richard goes on some more about how jean-Claude and Anita have just been the most wonderful leaders ever and how he himself has been a terrible Ulfric (we learn Sylvie is now second-in-command, woohoo!) and Anita thinks about how he is "saying things I'd given up on hearing" and how "it was all too good to be true" (TIRED OF THAT PHRASE NOW) and Asher is holding her and stroking her hand and JC basically says what Anita is thinking. Richard says that "some the other wereanimal leaders had an intervention" with him and "told me I was endangering them all." Richard says he "reminded Rafael that his biggest taboo for all his wererats had been that they didn't feed Nikoalos, so how could he let his rats be food for you."
BECAUSE SHE RAPED THEM THROUGH RAFAEL AND RAFAEL DIDN'T REALIZE SHE WAS GOING TO DO THAT
"Rafael said 'Nikolaos demanded I give her my people. Jean-Claude never asked, I offered, because every animal group that gets close to Jean-Claude and Anita gains in power."
Okay, this is true and I can understand it. But only if he's talking about his rats as in regular blood donors, not the rape thing. Because that'd be retconning it so Rafael consented to letting her feed on his people through him. Which was NOT the case. And wait, even if it is about being blood donors, shouldn't that still be THEIR choice, not Rafael offering them like snacks on a platter? I get the the way things are typically run in the Anitaverse are not happy and nice. They're typically sick and terrible and dark. And I'm okay with that. I love that, in fact. But the people in power now are supposed to be good. Not simply better than the previous sick fucks who ran the show, but Good with a capital G. And yet what they actually do (and allow to be done--nobody comments on the idea of Rafael 'offering' his people as wrong in any way) is, while not as bad on the whole perhaps as what said sick fucks did, not at all good either, let alone Good.
According to Richard, Rafael says that Anita and JC "do not steal power away,; they help everyone grow more powerful" and that Richard thought about it and it was true and that everyone becomes better when they're around Jean-Claude and Anita. I think I'd rather read terrible sex than this asskissing.
Richard: "I tried to think if I'd helped anyone be better, or strong,er in the last few years, and you know what?"
Anita: "What?"
Richard: "I helped the kids I taught, but other than my job I hadn't helped anyone, not even me."
Because a teacher that helps children is totally no big thing to be proud of or anything, right? FUCK YOU LKH.
JC says this is great and all BUT WHY IS RICHARD HERE? Oh my god, how many times has this question been ask aaaah
"Rafael told me he'd offered up his own body and blood in my place if he could help make St. Louis a safer place for his people." I like how Rafael apparently worded this so it sounds like he sees sleeping with these people as some terrible sacrifice versus a privilege or even anything he wants to do, but something he has to do to help his wererats. It makes me like him firstly because he sees this sick game for what it is, knows how to play it, and will indeed play it for the sake of his people so they don't get thrown under the bus like the lions did. He's a leader I'd like to be reading about, not these twits. Yes, even if he offered his people as blood donors without their consent, because that could at least be written in a way that SHOWED it as wrong but also showed it as him feeling it was better to force them to do this than what Anita & Co. might force on them if they didn't. I love me some good Black and Gray morality, and the Anitaverse is perfect for it...too bad it doesn't use that, it just kinda pretends to (see: Nicky).
"I know the swan king, Donovan Reece, is already feeding Anita on a regular basis, and his swans are now doing blood donations to the vampires."
Ugh, those poor swans. You know she raped them through their leader too, just like the rats? And since swans are born shifters, that means she raped CHILDREN too. Just reminding you all of that. Also, JC said his name like that--"the swan king, Donovan Reece"--in Skin Trade too. Because that sounds totally natural and not like very awkward exposition at all. Call him Reece or Donovan or the Swan King, but calling him all of that makes it sound as if the others don't know who he is and Richard is explaining it to them, which is not the case. And since it's not the case, it sounds very unnatural and annoying.
"Everyone is trying to build us into a unit with you as its head, except me."
Ah. Now it makes sense. Despite his personal issues, Richard has decided to stop fighting the tide and do what the other therian leaders have done---give in to the new tyrants of their land and hope that by pleasing them, you can share in their spoils rather than be crushed under their heels. And as a third of their triumvirate and one of Anita's pet monsters, Richard has a whole lot of spoils for himself and his wolves that he can gain by getting into bed with these people politically. I just wish he was accomplishing this in a way that wasn't getting into bed with them LITERALLY. Honestly, sex as politics and vice versa is just...really really boring. It takes away all the epic preternatural politics that we could be seeing instead. I see no reason why we can't have those; it's not like their presence means sex could never ever happen. It still could! Hey, it might even be because the characters WANT to just have sex for its own sake! Wouldn't that be something?
Asher tells him that talk is cheap. Richard tells him "I'm working my issues, Asher; you need to do the same."
Asher was promised an orgy, Richard. You could have waited to ~work your issues~ you know. Seriously, if I was him I would just be so impatient and disappointed and pissed off right now. And probably suspect Richard is stalling too. And considering what's supposedly (because come on, you know it won't happen) at stake if this sex doesn't happen, the others should really be looking to get it started ASAP, because I doubt that a quickie in that last five minutes before dawn comes is going to make Asher stay.
Asher asks what Richard means, Richard says that Asher is pissed because he wants JC to love him alone and he didn't, and likens it to how he wanted Anita to love him alone, and says that since neither of them got what they wanted, they need to just work with what they have. This is good advice, considering that no one but Anita herself is every allowed to get what they want, especially if it conflicts with anything that she wants.
Asher tells Richard that he sounds too good to be true (AGAIN WITH THAT PHRASE RRGH JUST CALL THE BOOK THAT FOR CRYING OUT LOUD) and also sounds "too boring". Ahahahah, you are correct Asher, this is!
At this, Anita snatches her hand away from Asher's and chews him out for wanting both Richard to touch but also JC all to himself or JC and Anita all to himself (because he can't be attracted to Richard but also not want to share his boyfriend with him?) and "you're so angry and so conflicted that you're going to pick at us all until something breaks. You do that when you're angry; you always did." Maybe he just wants to have the sex he was promised, Anita. And Richard was being boring! I can't imagine how boring that must have been for Asher especially! Asher has a splendid comeback though: "So, because I have not spent the last four months in therapy I am to be cast out of the bed. Well, while you were doing therapy I was here doing my part as his temoin, his second-in-command."
Exposition again with the temoin thing but RIGHT ON ASHER! Especially since 'therapy' in these novels means 'goes away and comes back brainwashed into finally seeing the light that everything Anita says and does is perfection'. Richard tells Asher he's sorry he wasn't there, Asher starts moving for the other side of the bed, Richard grabs him, Asher tells him to let go, Richard says he thought Asher wanted him to touch him, Asher says he does, so Richard asks where's going.
AND THEN ASHER ASKS IF RICHARD'S THERAPIST PUT HIM ON DRUGS
NO I'M SERIOUS
HE REALLY ASKS THAT
AHAHAHAHA ASHER YOU ARE HILARIOUS YOU RULE
Richard says drugs don't work for werewolves because their bodies processes them too fast and this makes me feel hugely sorry for mentally ill werewolves everywhere.
Asher says there's no way Richard can "tolerate my touch" if he ran away from both Anita and JC. Richard says there are some limits to what he'll do with Asher, but that having JC's memories means that "I remember loving you, Asher, and I still have a body that could do it."
Asher looks understandably shocked at this, laughs, and then asks if "Are you offering what Jean-Claude has denied me?" meaning buttsex I think and Richard says that he thinks it would be pushing it but he's willing to try if it means Asher stays here because that makes "Jean-Claude stronger, which makes us all safer."Asher asks what he's willing to do then. Richard pulls him to himself, and kind of spoons him I think, and tells him "I'm a shapeshifter; we like to sleep in big puppy piles."
DID RICHARD ACTUALLY FUCKING SAY PUPPY PILES ARE YOU SERIOUS
OUT OF ALL OF ANITA'S STUPID PHRASES, THIS IS THE ONE THAT IS MOST ANNOYING TO READ COMING OUT OF SOMEONE ELSE'S MOUTH
Also, I'm pretty sure that Asher knows you're a shapeshifter, Richard, and he probably knows how shapeshifters sleep seeing as how they've been shown to do it at the Circus.
They cuddle a little, Richard tells him no biting yet, Anita asks Jean-Claude to "Pinch me,because this has to be a dream" and JC says he feels the same and Asher tells JC to "Come into the pool, Jean-Claude, it is warm and smells so good."
....the pool?
Richard seconds the invite to "come cuddle" and Anita says she doesn't trust his change of heart, he says "you mean you don't trust me" (YES THAT IS WHAT SHE SAID) and Asher asks her isn't it an American saying not to look a gift horse in the mouth and she says it is and he says SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR DON'T WANT US and she thinks "Did I want both of them? Yes, yes I did."
You know, if sex really is all about politics and determines all these really important things, stupid as that is, then looking gift horses in the mouth should be the FIRST thing you do, but I JUST WANT HER TO GET THIS OVER WITH. Congrats, LKH, you have managed to make a jealous hater actually BEG for a sex scene to happen. If that was your plan, you succeeded magnificently.
Anita tells JC that she'll trust this if he does. JC says he does. Richard says that he thought about sending flowers as an apology but "didn't think there was enough roses in the world" and he takes off his shirt and says "I thought you'd like this better than flowers." Asher touches his side, Richard holds out hands to the other two and makes a joke about how he can call a florist instead if they want but that he was hoping this would say he's sorry better than anything else.
...so Richard isn't having sex because he wants to either, he's giving it up as an apology to get back into their political circle of power. JC and Anita are doing it to keep Asher. The only one getting any action that he actually just plain wants here is Asher, and he seems to be getting set up as the bad guy. LKH, you really just have the worst attitude towards sex for someone who writes so much of it.
JC says that it will if he means it. Anita says that if he doesn't mean it and bail, then that's it. Asher says "Oh, for the love of God, stop talking and join us. He won't get out of his pants just for me."
ASHER, YOU MAY BE THINKING WITH YOUR JUNK, BUT YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE TOLERABLE HERE.
Anita laughs, and Richard...uh, Richard jerks Asher's head back by the hair, and by Asher's expression, which Anita likens to Nathaniel, Anita says that she can tell Asher has suddenly switched over from dominant to submissive.
...does it work like that? I don't know much about BDSM, but I don't think you suddenly turn on and off from dom to sub like a light switch just by someone suddenly doing something to you like that.
Richard "used Asher's hair like a handle" (SEE THIS IS WHY IT'S A HAZARD) and says that "I'm a dominant; I don't bottom to anyone, so if anyone is losing their pants, it's not me." Okay, now I am totally sure that "dominants never take off their pants" is NOT a rule. I mean, I can definitely see it being a kink in some scenes, as a symbol of who has power and who doesn't (I know naked man with clothed woman is a popular femdom fantasy) but he makes it sound like DOM NEVER EVER LOSES PANTS THIS IS RULE and since it's LKH, who likes to make a really big deal of how much she knows about BDSM while clearly knowing nothing (yes, I said I don't know much myself, but I've seen the reactions from people who do, so I think I can safely say that about her) and therefore is probably itching for 'facts' to come out of her characters mouths to show how she's sooo accurate, I think it can safely be assumed that this is supposed to be facts and not just Richard's ignorance or mistaken beliefs he picked up from Raina or something like that.
"I am not food. I am not prey." What does that have to do with what you do in the bedroom? "I am the Ulfric of the Thronnos Rokke Clan" Again, what does that have to do with what you can and can't do in the---oh wait, this is completely a political thing, not just sex people are having because they'd like to, so I guess his title actually is relevant and will dictate what he does in bed. Sounds like no fun to me. "And the next time you forget that, I will hurt you." My headcanon is now that Narcissus 'forgets' this all the time every time he sees Richard. As Asher probably will too now.
Then he lets Asher go and Asher falls into his lap and he "lay there passive." Then Richard confesses that "I haven't just been running from being werewolf or Jean-Claude's animal to call. If pain and pleasure didn't move me, Raina could never have seduced me." Raina seduced him? I thought she tortured and raped him. "I blamed her for me being a pervert, but she didn't invent this part of me, she unleashed it." and then he strokes Asher's hand and Asher shivers. "I don't want to have sex with Asher, but causing him pain appeals to me. Making him want me, and denying him what he wants, that appeals to me too. It appeals to me a lot." WHAT. NO. ASHER NOT GETTING WHAT HE WANTS IS WHAT GOT THIS MESS STARTED. NO. Also, his eyes turn dark amber as he says this. Because he's getting daaark, see? *eyeroll*
I like how becoming a 'better' person for Richard involves being Anita's exactly brand of heteroflexible--doing everything with pretty guys except sex, and in front of her of course--and open to the very loose version of BDSM that everyone else in her harem is into. And he was just like this all along, really!
JC asks Anita "Shall we join them?" and Anita "just nodded, because saying 'wow' out loud just didn't sound cool enough for what was lying in the bed look at us with wolf amber eyes."
1) Cool enough?
2) Shouldn't it be 'amber wolf eyes' and not 'wolf amber eyes'?
3) So Richard is a 'what' now. How is that better than Nathaniel being an 'it'?
At least they'll just do it now and then we can get on with...whatever plot is even in this book. Tigers, right? At least we can get on with the damn tigers then.
...who she'll also probably have sex with as a way of working everything out.
http://limyaael.livejournal.com/193450.html
BULLET, CHAPTER SEVEN
Anita talks about how that color scheme that the bed and bedroom is decorated tonight and the various color schemes that it has been in the past and how she's never seen it being changed so it's "like magic" that it's always "impeccably made" in a new color scheme every time she comes in. I wonder if she thinks hotel rooms are magic too? I know I've never seen the sheets being changed and bed being made when I stay at Holiday Inn, but from seeing ladies in aprons with bins of linens around the hallways, I put two and two together. Although that does beg the question--does JC deign to hire human maids, or are the therians they've relegated to bodyguards and grunts (hyenas and rats, because they're Not Pretty) demeaned to the point that some of them even have to change jean-Claude's sheets? Ugh, given that he's a sex vampire and that he's with Anita the Rainmaker, I really, really hope not. Not for the therians, not for human maids. In fact, I hope it is just magic. I hope he really has a witch on his payroll whose entire job is to just snap her fingers and set the old sheets aflame so they are scorched from the face of the earth completely as they should be. Then she snaps her fingers again and summons up a new set of tacky decor from the vast supply that Jean-Claude doubtlessly has stowed away somewhere in a room no vampire with actual taste ever goes near. Maybe she used to work at a porn studio where her job was basically the same thing and that's where he found her. Wow, I better stop here or I'll be writing fanfic.
Anyway, we are reminded that Asher has ice-blue eyes and golden hair. He is halfway between the door and the bed, and he looks eager but also cruel. He says "I want to see you nude" and I don't know who he's talking to specifically. I guess all of them. Richard says that Asher is angry so that even though he wants this, he's going to sabotage it, and Anita says she can feel sadness from Richard. Jean-Claude is holding her hand, and he starts shielding and she thinks he's afraid because "we were standing in the bedroom with the two men in our life most likely to fuck up a good thing." Yeah, because you didn't do that when you ran off from Richard JUST FOR HIM DOING WHAT YOU URGED HIM TO to go suck Jean-Claude's undead cock. Sorry, but that still pisses me off.
Asher asks him how he knows that, Richard says it's because it's what he would have done a few months ago, Asher says he's not Richard (whom he only refers to as "Ulfric" or "wolf", not by name). Richard says that since he came here to make things better, he's going to tell a story. OH FUCK NO.
MORE
FUCKING
POINTLESS
FILLER
Asher asks what I'm wondering--"Is it a long story?" Richard says a little, so they all sit down. When Asher does lay down on the bed, we get a totally gratuitous (but what ISN'T in this novel?) paragraph about his "foaming gold" (is his hair gold? you only mentioned it ONE PAGE AGO) hair that "spilled" around him and how his perfect face "helped Belle Morte nearly rule Europe centuries ago" (hahaha WHAT?) and his blue shirt and fancy pin and he says "Come, Ulfric, sit beside me. I won't bite...yet." WOW SO CLEVER AND WITTY AND ORIGINAL. "He smiled at Richard and made it everything a heterosexual man never wants to see on another man's face."
This may shock you, LKH, since you probably jump out of your skin every time it looks like a lady is checking you out, but not all straight people, even the men, are all that adverse to someone of the same sex flirting with them or looking interested. Many are neutral on it. Some take it as a compliment. There are even an obnoxious few who hold it up as a badge of "I'm So Hot Even Girls/Guys Want Me!" pride that they brag about to prove how attractive they are. Hell, my brother, who I assure you is NO looker, lies about both gay men AND lesbians thinking that he's hot stuff. Oddly, this technique has not worked in making him seem more attractive to potential girlfriends, but there it is.
Richard just laughs, and for some reason this makes Anita jump and Jean-Claude go totally still. So still that Anita compares it to holding the hand of a mannequin and goes into an entire paragraph about it and how most vampires can't be that still but that "old ones could be so still that you were forced to remember this was not a truly living being, but something else. Live human beings didn't feel like this with their hands in mine." How about with their penises in your hand instead? Speaking of that, she claims stuff like this is how she was able to "resist his charms for so long." It's been awhile since I read the old books, as you know, but I'm pretty sure that stuff like this was never mentioned and her reasons were more along the lines of common sense and not trusting him worth shit for pretty good reasons.
She pulls her hand and he lets go because she says he understands how he feels about that. So...he understands that you're apparently uncomfortable with him being a vampire when you are reminded in any way of what that means besides being sexy sexy sexual sexiness? Keep this moment in mind, folks, it's going to be a beautiful beacon of hypocrisy that shall shine over the rest of this chapter.
"The two men he was probably more attracted to than any others were about to tear us all apart again. Fuck."
How do you know this? Neither Asher nor Richard has said or done anything to suggest this yet. Even if she's going on experience with these two, it seems a hell of a jump. Show, don't tell. Also, I like how it's not the "the two men he loves most" but "the two men he's ATTRACTED to most". Because love doesn't really matter in the Anitaverse, as I've noted before. What matters is attraction, lust, who wants to bone who. There's really no personal connection among these characters beyond that, no matter how much LKH tries to simulate an insta-relationship via metaphysical bonds. It's not the same, and all you really end up with is a bunch of people who are stuck together when they don't seem to want to be, and while that's an interesting concept if approached as what it really is, it's not believable as anything approaching an actual romance. Because I don't think LKH even wants to write romance or relationships, she just wants the smut. Hence little slips like this one in how she words things. I'm no fan of Freud, but she seems to have proved him right on both this AND penis envy. Way to go.
Asher asks what Richard thinks is funny and is starting to get angry. Richard goes towards the bed and takes off his jacket on the way, which we are reminded is denim and that his shirt is red. We get told AGAIN about how he has clearly been "keeping up with his gym time" and how he, Anita, Micah, Jason, and Nathaniel all use the same gym, which is a special one that is designed especially for therians and other beings with super-strength, since "when you can bench-press a small car, as he could, you couldn't really get a challenging workout at a normal gym." Despite the fact this is one of those pointless tangents that are so rampant in the series, I actually like this information. One of my favorite things is hearing about how the world at large has adjusted, in ways both big and small, to the presence of the supernatural in general and as citizens specifically. Makes you wonder why the cops are still so behind, though.
Richard tosses the jacket aside and he and Asher have a little staring contest. According to Anita "no one who was moved by a handsome man could gaze up at Richard and not want him." Because everyone has the same standards for what counts as a handsome man? What about in Indonesia, where broad faces with receding foreheads were so sought after that some people even compressed their babies foreheads to achieve that look? Or among the Inuit, who on the whole prefer a tall lean look for men? Richard would be lacking in the 'handsome' department by those standards, and by those of many other times, cultures, and places. Come to think of it, Asher himself is most likely from a time when fat men were considered attractive. This is not to say that his tastes therefore have to be the same as his cultural standards, or that they couldn't have changed over time, but that absolutes regarding what is attractive are false as it is in our world, and in a world where people from many times past are still around to make their opinions known, more people are likely aware of that.
I realize this is just coming from Anita's head and therefore should only be taken as her opinion and she probably just didn't think of all this but absolutes like that are a pet peeve of mine.
Anita says she has no clue what to do and that JC is no help. Um, I thought that what you were going to do was each other? Seriously, just have the freaking orgy so we can move on, okay? This..tension, if you can even call it that...is neither exciting nor dramatic. It's just boring, pointless, and stupid.
Anita goes towards the bed and compares it to running into a burning building to salvage something. DESPITE THE FACT NOTHING BAD HAS HAPPENED YET. AT ALL. OR HAS ANY INDICATION OF HAPPENING. Seriously, Asher just looks a little pissed but that's all. And maybe he's pissed because the sex you promised him isn't happening yet and it's been three pages since you got to the bedroom!
Richard and Anita crawl on to the bed together and Richard takes her hand to help her on to it because it's soooo tall and she takes a deep breath because OMG TENSION AND SOMETHING BAD IS SURE TO HAPPEN YUP saying this over and over again does not convince me, LKH. It really doesn't.
JC looks at them and Anita talks about how unreadable his feelings are some more, which she's been done once already on this same page. He looks down at them all on the bed and says "Too good to be true." Jean-Claude, dammit, we just got through that discussion with Asher!
Richard tells him "I've been a bastard and I'm sorry."
You know, if I didn’t know better, I would think that this really was the beginning of Richard going back to his good ol’ self, or at least becoming a pretty cool guy again. Unfortunately, I’ve been informed from Lashouts that his character assassination since NiC has grown to include a truly vicious cycle of making Richard repent and apologize to everyone for the asshole LKH has made him become, and everyone forgives him while also waxing on about said assholery and what saints they are for taking him back, and then by the next book it’s as if that never happened and all of Richard’s issues (none of which existed, funnily enough, until after LKH and her first husband divorced) are back and full-blown and then he apologizes and the whole thing starts again. So that’s what I’m expecting here, sad to say, until proven wrong.
JC says the apology is nice but asks him specifically what he's sorry for, and Anita agrees. I'd kind of like to know that myself, if only because I don't know if he's just generally had a horrible attitude about everything in the recent books or if he's actually DONE something in particular that was bad.
Richard says that when he'd first met Anita, he'd just gotten away from Raina and Gabriel. As if we could ever forget, Asher gives us some nice exposition about how Raina was the old Lupa, Gabriel was the old Nimir-Raj, and how they were both sexual sadists who could "make some of Belle Morte's court sound kind, and they are not kind."
...LKH. Please. Give us some credit here. If you say they are sadists who can make Belle Morte's court sound kind, the reader can infer from this that Belle's court is not kind at all and are in fact sexual sadists themselves, hence why Asher would choose them for this comparison. The fact that she thinks readers are this dumb that we need even this spoon-fed to us actually explains a lot about her writing and how she expects to get away with the bullshit in it.
Anita helpfully adds that they were sexual sadists "in the real serial-killer sort of way." Because she's an expert on those, you know, given how she worked hand-in-hand with one when she really had no reason to and didn't turn him in to the cops afterwards, knowing he was going to go on hurting and raping and killing more people. Yeah, I haven't forgotten that, Anita. I'd ask how your conscience lives with that, but, oh, you don't have one!
Asher then provides more exposition by telling Anita he'd heard that she killed them both when they'd tried to make a rape-and-snuff film starring her and Gabriel. Anita confirms this. Asher takes her hand and says he's glad she killed them, which Richard agrees with, as does JC who says "they are not a loss" (which is kind of an...interesting statement since it suggests he has no moral issue with them but just didn't see any practical use for them, which is an attitude from a vampire politician I actually enjoy and find believable). You know, Gabriel and Raina were, as Anita puts it, "the couple from hell" but I will say this for them--they knew what they were and so did everyone else. That's a lot more than I can say about Anita and her little kingdom.
According to Richard, they had "tried to make me into a more dominant version of Nathaniel, just another pet" and Jean-Claude says that "they never understood that you would never be that."
Wow, there's a load of victim-blaming in that statement right there. I'm having a hard time putting it into words, but it just seems to be another instance of the recurrent sentiment in the AB series that if you have trauma happen to you, it's your fault for not being strong enough to prevent it, and that if you break under it, as Nathaniel did and Richard did not, it's again all about you and you not being strong enough, nevermind what your abusers did. You know what, LKH, strong people can break too. Being strong does not mean inhumanely invulnerable to absolutely everything. When someone rapes and abuses you in the ways that Raina and Gabriel doubtlessly did, the trauma you feel and internalize like Nathaniel did is not a matter of whether you "would" become what they want the way JC is using the word here. I'm not saying everyone would, because everyone reacts to trauma differently, just that there seems to be a very implicit judgement on those who did "become that" unlike Richard.
Richard explains that "I fought high enough in the pack structure to have more choices, and I beat the shit out of Gabriel one night" but that Raina continued to hurt him in other ways. She made Marcus (whom he calls "our Ulfric, Marcus" even though everyone there knows who Marcus was *eyerolls*) give him to Jean-Claude. "I had fought my way into dominance enough to stay out of the bed of people I didn't want to sleep with, and then they give me to a vampire whose power is all about sex. Raina told me that you'd seduce me eventually and she'd get to watch us together." Oh, you mean like Anita is now. Because what's sick and wrong and depraved for Raina is totally okay and sexy when it's Anita.
"I was Master of the City by then, Richard; I would not have let her do that to me, or to you."
Really? Why not? He clearly accepted Richard as a gift, otherwise what was Richard doing just hanging out naked at the Circus of the Damned when Anita first met him. And at that point, there was no reason that JC should care about Richard. They weren't a triumvirate yet. I'm not saying that JC would have raped him just because he didn't care about him, but he makes it sound like he had a personal connection to him already, and he didn't. Also, what would he have done to stop Raina anyway? There's never any mention of him doing anything to stop Raina, Marcus, and Gabriel from their reign of terror that I can recall, so either he didn't have the power or he didn't consider it his business, worth the political risk, etc.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think LKH is trying to retcon things to make it seems like Jean-Claude was always this totally righteous morally-upright dude who was nice to Richard...instead of a Machiavellian chessmaster concerned mainly with advancing himself politically, building his power structure, and possibly getting into Anita's pants (thought that may in fact have been part of achieving the first two) and who also, oh yeah, THREATENED TO KILL RICHARD IF ANITA DID NOT DATE HIM. He never gave two shits about Richard before he became useful to him in terms of preternatural power and politics. So yeah, I don't think he'd have raped him, but I don't think he "would not have let her do that you" either regarding anything with Raina.
Richard hugs his arms to his chest and says that "I know that now, but she'd been my Lupa for six years. I believed her. So I looked at Jean-Claude as just one more person who was trying to corrupt me. I realize that he was as trapped as I was, but I couldn't see that then."
...trapped how? JC just said he was Master of the City at that point, so he wasn't trapped by Nikolaos. Who else would he have been trapped by? Raina? How so? She was a silent partner of Jean-Claude's dance club, Danse Macabre, but did she ever have any power over him at all, especially to that degree? I really don't think he ever had fuck-all to do with her or Gabriel or Marcus at any point. Perhaps he had some kind of an alliance to the werewolves and that's why Raina gifted Richard to him, as well as allowing the wolves (such as Stephen and Rashida) to be a part of his Circus, and part of the bargain involved her getting to watch and so breaking it could have consequences, but none of this is laid out at all, I'm only guessing. Richard just says JC was trapped and that's it. I think LKH just figures that sounds like a good sympathetic excuse but it's not UNLESS YOU EXPLAIN IT.
Anita is holding Asher's hand and touches Richard too. Richard says that after Marcus and Raina were dead, he still thought of them every time he looked at JC, and that then "I blamed you for stealing Anita away" but that "I know now that I drove her to you. I made her watch me eat Marcus." He *made* her? As in, he forced her? I don't recall this at all. The pack as a whole just came in and ate Marcus because that's the natural order of things with them and also, practically speaking, it gets rid of the evidence that would get their shiny new Ulfric locked up for murder. Sorry Miss Dark And Edgy couldn't handle that AFTER SHE WAS THE ONE WHO PRESSED HIM TO KILL THE GUY FOR CRYING OUT LOUD.
"I did everything I could to make sure the first time you saw me shift to animal form that it was frightening and terrible."
I'm reading a summary of The Killing Dance and it seems more like it was just the first opportunity he got after deciding to do it (he wanted her to see him in wolf form before they became engaged to marry) because of everything that was going on.
"You hate being a werewolf. You wanted me to hate it to."
And why shouldn't he hate it? Richard disliking being a werewolf is treated like some huge personal failing and flaw, and I don't see why. Firstly, being a werewolf means a whole lot of nasty social stigma. That alone is enough reason not to enjoy it. Secondly, that stigma includes not being allowed to do certain jobs, including Richard's job as a teacher, something he really values and enjoys. Thirdly, he got the freaking lyncanthropy virus from a vaccine, aka a way he thought would prevent him from ever being infected and losing his job. That level of irony alone would make me hate it. Fourthly, even if all that didn't apply, being a werewolf itself is not a nice experience. You get this beast inside you that can go out of control at any time when you're new, you have to worry about KILLING people when you get angry or are having sex, you have to worry about then getting the death penalty for killing said people, you get all kinds of sexual urges it seems, your sensory input is overddrive beyond human comprehension, and most shifters are in a comatose state for several hours after returning to human form because of the energy that shifting takes, which is a pretty good way to lose your job due to poor attendance. Crappy, right?
Oh, but it goes on!
So you have to join a pack because they're the only ones who can help you get all this under control, right? But then once you do, bam, you are now plunged into preternatural politics and you are at the bottom rung of the ladder as the weak little newbie of the bunch. You are a grunt, a pawn, a bargaining chip, a chew toy. Not to mention there are vampires out there who can call your beast and make you do what they want! And lucky Richard, the pack he joins up with his run by the monster equivalent of the Manson family! For six years he endured some of the most fucked-up shit possible (or impossible, for that matter, considering what he can heal from and what they could do) and IT'S ALL BECAUSE HE'S A WEREWOLF. None of this would have happened to him if he hadn't been infected.
So tell me, why the fuck should he not hate it? Why is it constantly treated as a personal failing of his not to be gung-ho about it, versus a totally natural response? Because this is the first time I can remember it ever being presented in a way that even addresses the very good reasons he has to NOT be okay with his condition instead of it just being "well he's such a white picket fence type of course he doesn't want to be a monster hmmph hmmph hmmph so not edgy". He has WAY more to angst about "being a monster" than Anita does, dammit. I'm not saying it wouldn't be a good idea for him to learn to accept it in order to make life easier for himself, because you have to face reality if you're going to make the best of it, but that I don't see it as a defect on his part for resenting it in the first place like the books usually seem to want me to. Again, this is the first time I can recall any acknowledgement being given to how much his condition really sucked for him when his hating it is brought up.
And you know what? He's stronger than Anita too by far. Remember how even back in the day she had that annoying MY GRIEF IS GREATER THAN YOURS complex about her mother dying and her fiancee leaving her? Remember how she was such a damn pill even in the best of times to everyone around her for no reason and that's supposed to be applauded as strength? Think about the old Richard now. That super nice, super sweet Boy Scout. Now remember that at the point Anita met him, he had been through six years of pure hell. And he did not become an asshole over it. He was not cruel to others the way Anita was and is. He did not act as though his pain and damage made the pain and damage of others insignificant the way Anita did and does. He never became a rapist after being raped the way she did after being raped by Micah (and even before that she was pretty dubcon with Asher). In short, he dealt with his "issues" better than she ever has any of hers, and is way more admirable a character for it.
Jean-Claude then says "Your doctor must be very open-minded."
What. Buh. How does Richard's therapist relate to what they're talking about? I mean, I guess they could have helped Richard get to this point, but he never brought them up, so it seems kind of insulting to just assume they're to thank. But yes, according to Richard, his therapist is indeed open-minded but "we didn't really make a lot of progress until Anita was able to take back her anger this past summer."
So Richard being able to make progress is due to Anita. Of course. No one can ever heal on their damn own or even have their own issues without it being about HER in some way.
Anita recounts for us just what he means about taking back her anger. She starts out by explaining that "being a triumvirate of power is that you share parts of yourself and not just power. I'd gotten the ardeur and a craving for blood from Jean-Claude. From Richard I'd gotten his beast and a taste for flesh. Jean-Claude had gotten a certain ruthlessness from...but what Richard got from me was my rage."
1) Actually, Anita got the ardeur in NiC from Jean-Claude feeding his own on her. Somehow she got her own ardeur from that, like an STD. I don't recall if them being a triumvirate was ever involved in that, especially since she's the only human, including Human Servants, to possess it.
2) When did Anita ever crave blood? I don't remember any incidence of this from the old books or the recent ones I sporked. Does anyone know?
3) Her cravings for flesh in Skin Trade gave me the impression that they were a recent thing, way after the triumvirate was formed, possibly happening for the very first time, and that they came from her inner zoo, not her connection to Richard. Hell, I don't think Richard's name was ever even mentioned in that book, and with as much as she was craving flesh and the way she likes to explain everything to the readers, you know we'd have heard all about it if it was due to her connection to him.
So yeah, tentatively going to call this another instance of LKH pulling stuff out of her ass. But I like the idea that part of Richard's newfound dickery was because he absorbed Anita's own dickery, which as we all know is vast and terrible.
She goes on to say that she gained the ability to feed on anger (I WOULD STILL LIKE A GOOD EXPLANATION HOW) and how though she can feed on sex itself, she finds it harder to feed on the 'emotion' of lust itself.
I actually like this bit. It always bothered me how Belle Morte vampires are supposed to be able to feed on lust, but we only ever see Anita feeding on sex instead, and there is a difference between having sex and just feeling lust. Lust is like fear or anger, it's a feeling, albeit a very base and physical one, whereas sex is a physical act and can actually be done without any lust involved at all. I like that a differential between the two is finally being made, since lots of times Anita feeding on sex is talked about as feeding on lust. This also means that at least *some* Belle Morte vampires are able to feed on lust *without* having sex to do it, and that's relevant to my fanfiction/roleplay/character interests.
"Anger, though, I understood that." Wait, you can't feed on lust because you don't understand it? Yeah, I really don't buy that for a second, especially not after your whole rant on how you can trust lust in Flirt. "That had been my emotion of choice for years." And how. That chip on your shoulder got obnoxious fast. "Last summer I figured out how to call my rage back home from Richard." So you took your assholery out of him and back into yourself. I would worry that means you'll be more of an asshole than ever now, except I don't believe that's even POSSIBLE now.
"You can feed a hunger, but you can't feed on a hunger." wut.
Richard says that "I hadn't understood how much the rage kept me from forgiving anyone, or working my issues, until Anita fed off it and took it back. The anger was almost like another beast inside, but full moon didn't bring any relief. It's a horrible way to live, Anita."
Anita just shrugs and says "You get used to it."
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? This guy is pouring his heart out to you about his struggles, which YOU directly contributed to by YOUR personality flaws (which she has no reason for--seriously, what the hell makes her so pised 24/7?) invading him, and your response is to just be like OH WHAT IT'S NO BIG DEAL YOU WUSS.
Richard says that he didn't get used to it (probably because being an angry asshole is NOT his default state, unlike SOME people) and that it made all his problems with self-loathing worse and "was killing me." Anita says she sorry about that, and then says that the self-loathing part was all him. Yes, he just said that, Anita. His specific words were "I had my own problems with self-loathing" so it is neither helpful nor news to him for you to say "the self-loathing was all you." It is also patently untrue to say "You broke up with me because I was more at home with the monsters than you were."
NO ACTUALLY I THINK IT'S BECAUSE YOU CHEATED ON HIM WITH JEAN-CLAUDE
I guess you do have to be pretty "at home with the monsters" to give one head, though, if that's what she means by it.
"My turn to apologize again" No, Richard, it's not! Call her out on that load of crap! Tell her you broke up with her because she's a cheating hypocrite who talks about being at home with monsters but then runs off the second she sees you actually acting like a real monster for once to suck off a guy who, sure, drinks blood, but she doesn't have to watch him doing it! At home with the monsters my ass. Anita is only ever at home with monsters when they act like cute fuzzy pets in 'puppy piles' all nuzzling each other, not when they ever actually EAT PEOPLE. And may I point you back to where she pulled away from Jean-Claude's hand because he went so still that she was reminded that his being a vampire means he is THE LIVING DEAD?
"I can't stop being a werewolf. It's like trying to stop being human." Oh, you can stop being human, all it takes is a few bites in this universe! "I could give up being Ulfric, but I'd still have to belong to the pack, and being king is better than being a follower." Eh, depends I'd say, but at least Richard occupying the position keeps it from belonging to anyone worse. He then talks about how he is a part of the triumvirate that gives Jean-Claude the power to "run the city" and "keep everyone safe." Run the city? Is he mayor now too? And keep everyone safe, huh? How about the wererats and swanmanes that Anita raped, are they safe?
Richard says that JC is a good MotC, and that a "crazy bitch" MotC like Nikolaos recruits "more crazy people, and she keeps everybody else crazy." Versus Jean-Claude, whose team includes....Gretchen, Meng Die, and Anita. Yeah, who hires crazy people again? Because I don't think Nikki had anyone nuts in her squad like those three. But according to Richard, after Anita killed Nikolaos "to save all of us" (no that's NOT why she killed her, she didn't even KNOW about all of you then) JC took control "and made everything work better than it ever worked. You had managed all the vampire businesses in town for years. You'd been the financial leader all along."
...I'm not sure how JC being good with money means that he made everything work in the preternatural community better than ever once he was Master? I also really don't like the implication here that JC being in charge somehow changed things for any group BUT vampires (because he ruled them), wererats (because Nikki called them and he can't, so they're not her slaves anymore), and werewolves (since he can call them, hence his getting some for the Circus). What about the leopards, lions, and swans? And clearly he didn't change THAT much for the better since his becoming Master didn't stop Raina and Gabriel from continuing to commit their sick atrocities in the Pack and Pard. This asskissing is not only making me hurl, it makes no sense either and reeks of retcon! And hey, didn't Chimera come to town during JC's perfect little rule too?
That said, I sadly do believe it's the truth when Richard swears that "all of the wereanimal leaders think things are a thousand times better with you in charge" because JC's ties to Anita is what made her able to get into the preternatural community at the level she is now, which led to her and her boyfriends running everything, and as fucking horrible as she is and as ineffective as they are, they are still technically better leaders than Raina and Marcus and Gabriel were, if only because they're not torturing and raping ALL of their group members, just one or two attractive males from each group that Anita mindwipes.
Well, technically better leaders EXCEPT for the lions, I should add. Anita did them no favors when she got rid of Joseph the family man Rex so that they could be taken over by vicious lions from the Chicago mob. But that's what happens when Anita doesn't get sex, dammit!
Richard goes on some more about how jean-Claude and Anita have just been the most wonderful leaders ever and how he himself has been a terrible Ulfric (we learn Sylvie is now second-in-command, woohoo!) and Anita thinks about how he is "saying things I'd given up on hearing" and how "it was all too good to be true" (TIRED OF THAT PHRASE NOW) and Asher is holding her and stroking her hand and JC basically says what Anita is thinking. Richard says that "some the other wereanimal leaders had an intervention" with him and "told me I was endangering them all." Richard says he "reminded Rafael that his biggest taboo for all his wererats had been that they didn't feed Nikoalos, so how could he let his rats be food for you."
BECAUSE SHE RAPED THEM THROUGH RAFAEL AND RAFAEL DIDN'T REALIZE SHE WAS GOING TO DO THAT
"Rafael said 'Nikolaos demanded I give her my people. Jean-Claude never asked, I offered, because every animal group that gets close to Jean-Claude and Anita gains in power."
Okay, this is true and I can understand it. But only if he's talking about his rats as in regular blood donors, not the rape thing. Because that'd be retconning it so Rafael consented to letting her feed on his people through him. Which was NOT the case. And wait, even if it is about being blood donors, shouldn't that still be THEIR choice, not Rafael offering them like snacks on a platter? I get the the way things are typically run in the Anitaverse are not happy and nice. They're typically sick and terrible and dark. And I'm okay with that. I love that, in fact. But the people in power now are supposed to be good. Not simply better than the previous sick fucks who ran the show, but Good with a capital G. And yet what they actually do (and allow to be done--nobody comments on the idea of Rafael 'offering' his people as wrong in any way) is, while not as bad on the whole perhaps as what said sick fucks did, not at all good either, let alone Good.
According to Richard, Rafael says that Anita and JC "do not steal power away,; they help everyone grow more powerful" and that Richard thought about it and it was true and that everyone becomes better when they're around Jean-Claude and Anita. I think I'd rather read terrible sex than this asskissing.
Richard: "I tried to think if I'd helped anyone be better, or strong,er in the last few years, and you know what?"
Anita: "What?"
Richard: "I helped the kids I taught, but other than my job I hadn't helped anyone, not even me."
Because a teacher that helps children is totally no big thing to be proud of or anything, right? FUCK YOU LKH.
JC says this is great and all BUT WHY IS RICHARD HERE? Oh my god, how many times has this question been ask aaaah
"Rafael told me he'd offered up his own body and blood in my place if he could help make St. Louis a safer place for his people." I like how Rafael apparently worded this so it sounds like he sees sleeping with these people as some terrible sacrifice versus a privilege or even anything he wants to do, but something he has to do to help his wererats. It makes me like him firstly because he sees this sick game for what it is, knows how to play it, and will indeed play it for the sake of his people so they don't get thrown under the bus like the lions did. He's a leader I'd like to be reading about, not these twits. Yes, even if he offered his people as blood donors without their consent, because that could at least be written in a way that SHOWED it as wrong but also showed it as him feeling it was better to force them to do this than what Anita & Co. might force on them if they didn't. I love me some good Black and Gray morality, and the Anitaverse is perfect for it...too bad it doesn't use that, it just kinda pretends to (see: Nicky).
"I know the swan king, Donovan Reece, is already feeding Anita on a regular basis, and his swans are now doing blood donations to the vampires."
Ugh, those poor swans. You know she raped them through their leader too, just like the rats? And since swans are born shifters, that means she raped CHILDREN too. Just reminding you all of that. Also, JC said his name like that--"the swan king, Donovan Reece"--in Skin Trade too. Because that sounds totally natural and not like very awkward exposition at all. Call him Reece or Donovan or the Swan King, but calling him all of that makes it sound as if the others don't know who he is and Richard is explaining it to them, which is not the case. And since it's not the case, it sounds very unnatural and annoying.
"Everyone is trying to build us into a unit with you as its head, except me."
Ah. Now it makes sense. Despite his personal issues, Richard has decided to stop fighting the tide and do what the other therian leaders have done---give in to the new tyrants of their land and hope that by pleasing them, you can share in their spoils rather than be crushed under their heels. And as a third of their triumvirate and one of Anita's pet monsters, Richard has a whole lot of spoils for himself and his wolves that he can gain by getting into bed with these people politically. I just wish he was accomplishing this in a way that wasn't getting into bed with them LITERALLY. Honestly, sex as politics and vice versa is just...really really boring. It takes away all the epic preternatural politics that we could be seeing instead. I see no reason why we can't have those; it's not like their presence means sex could never ever happen. It still could! Hey, it might even be because the characters WANT to just have sex for its own sake! Wouldn't that be something?
Asher tells him that talk is cheap. Richard tells him "I'm working my issues, Asher; you need to do the same."
Asher was promised an orgy, Richard. You could have waited to ~work your issues~ you know. Seriously, if I was him I would just be so impatient and disappointed and pissed off right now. And probably suspect Richard is stalling too. And considering what's supposedly (because come on, you know it won't happen) at stake if this sex doesn't happen, the others should really be looking to get it started ASAP, because I doubt that a quickie in that last five minutes before dawn comes is going to make Asher stay.
Asher asks what Richard means, Richard says that Asher is pissed because he wants JC to love him alone and he didn't, and likens it to how he wanted Anita to love him alone, and says that since neither of them got what they wanted, they need to just work with what they have. This is good advice, considering that no one but Anita herself is every allowed to get what they want, especially if it conflicts with anything that she wants.
Asher tells Richard that he sounds too good to be true (AGAIN WITH THAT PHRASE RRGH JUST CALL THE BOOK THAT FOR CRYING OUT LOUD) and also sounds "too boring". Ahahahah, you are correct Asher, this is!
At this, Anita snatches her hand away from Asher's and chews him out for wanting both Richard to touch but also JC all to himself or JC and Anita all to himself (because he can't be attracted to Richard but also not want to share his boyfriend with him?) and "you're so angry and so conflicted that you're going to pick at us all until something breaks. You do that when you're angry; you always did." Maybe he just wants to have the sex he was promised, Anita. And Richard was being boring! I can't imagine how boring that must have been for Asher especially! Asher has a splendid comeback though: "So, because I have not spent the last four months in therapy I am to be cast out of the bed. Well, while you were doing therapy I was here doing my part as his temoin, his second-in-command."
Exposition again with the temoin thing but RIGHT ON ASHER! Especially since 'therapy' in these novels means 'goes away and comes back brainwashed into finally seeing the light that everything Anita says and does is perfection'. Richard tells Asher he's sorry he wasn't there, Asher starts moving for the other side of the bed, Richard grabs him, Asher tells him to let go, Richard says he thought Asher wanted him to touch him, Asher says he does, so Richard asks where's going.
AND THEN ASHER ASKS IF RICHARD'S THERAPIST PUT HIM ON DRUGS
NO I'M SERIOUS
HE REALLY ASKS THAT
AHAHAHAHA ASHER YOU ARE HILARIOUS YOU RULE
Richard says drugs don't work for werewolves because their bodies processes them too fast and this makes me feel hugely sorry for mentally ill werewolves everywhere.
Asher says there's no way Richard can "tolerate my touch" if he ran away from both Anita and JC. Richard says there are some limits to what he'll do with Asher, but that having JC's memories means that "I remember loving you, Asher, and I still have a body that could do it."
Asher looks understandably shocked at this, laughs, and then asks if "Are you offering what Jean-Claude has denied me?" meaning buttsex I think and Richard says that he thinks it would be pushing it but he's willing to try if it means Asher stays here because that makes "Jean-Claude stronger, which makes us all safer."Asher asks what he's willing to do then. Richard pulls him to himself, and kind of spoons him I think, and tells him "I'm a shapeshifter; we like to sleep in big puppy piles."
DID RICHARD ACTUALLY FUCKING SAY PUPPY PILES ARE YOU SERIOUS
OUT OF ALL OF ANITA'S STUPID PHRASES, THIS IS THE ONE THAT IS MOST ANNOYING TO READ COMING OUT OF SOMEONE ELSE'S MOUTH
Also, I'm pretty sure that Asher knows you're a shapeshifter, Richard, and he probably knows how shapeshifters sleep seeing as how they've been shown to do it at the Circus.
They cuddle a little, Richard tells him no biting yet, Anita asks Jean-Claude to "Pinch me,because this has to be a dream" and JC says he feels the same and Asher tells JC to "Come into the pool, Jean-Claude, it is warm and smells so good."
....the pool?
Richard seconds the invite to "come cuddle" and Anita says she doesn't trust his change of heart, he says "you mean you don't trust me" (YES THAT IS WHAT SHE SAID) and Asher asks her isn't it an American saying not to look a gift horse in the mouth and she says it is and he says SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR DON'T WANT US and she thinks "Did I want both of them? Yes, yes I did."
You know, if sex really is all about politics and determines all these really important things, stupid as that is, then looking gift horses in the mouth should be the FIRST thing you do, but I JUST WANT HER TO GET THIS OVER WITH. Congrats, LKH, you have managed to make a jealous hater actually BEG for a sex scene to happen. If that was your plan, you succeeded magnificently.
Anita tells JC that she'll trust this if he does. JC says he does. Richard says that he thought about sending flowers as an apology but "didn't think there was enough roses in the world" and he takes off his shirt and says "I thought you'd like this better than flowers." Asher touches his side, Richard holds out hands to the other two and makes a joke about how he can call a florist instead if they want but that he was hoping this would say he's sorry better than anything else.
...so Richard isn't having sex because he wants to either, he's giving it up as an apology to get back into their political circle of power. JC and Anita are doing it to keep Asher. The only one getting any action that he actually just plain wants here is Asher, and he seems to be getting set up as the bad guy. LKH, you really just have the worst attitude towards sex for someone who writes so much of it.
JC says that it will if he means it. Anita says that if he doesn't mean it and bail, then that's it. Asher says "Oh, for the love of God, stop talking and join us. He won't get out of his pants just for me."
ASHER, YOU MAY BE THINKING WITH YOUR JUNK, BUT YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE TOLERABLE HERE.
Anita laughs, and Richard...uh, Richard jerks Asher's head back by the hair, and by Asher's expression, which Anita likens to Nathaniel, Anita says that she can tell Asher has suddenly switched over from dominant to submissive.
...does it work like that? I don't know much about BDSM, but I don't think you suddenly turn on and off from dom to sub like a light switch just by someone suddenly doing something to you like that.
Richard "used Asher's hair like a handle" (SEE THIS IS WHY IT'S A HAZARD) and says that "I'm a dominant; I don't bottom to anyone, so if anyone is losing their pants, it's not me." Okay, now I am totally sure that "dominants never take off their pants" is NOT a rule. I mean, I can definitely see it being a kink in some scenes, as a symbol of who has power and who doesn't (I know naked man with clothed woman is a popular femdom fantasy) but he makes it sound like DOM NEVER EVER LOSES PANTS THIS IS RULE and since it's LKH, who likes to make a really big deal of how much she knows about BDSM while clearly knowing nothing (yes, I said I don't know much myself, but I've seen the reactions from people who do, so I think I can safely say that about her) and therefore is probably itching for 'facts' to come out of her characters mouths to show how she's sooo accurate, I think it can safely be assumed that this is supposed to be facts and not just Richard's ignorance or mistaken beliefs he picked up from Raina or something like that.
"I am not food. I am not prey." What does that have to do with what you do in the bedroom? "I am the Ulfric of the Thronnos Rokke Clan" Again, what does that have to do with what you can and can't do in the---oh wait, this is completely a political thing, not just sex people are having because they'd like to, so I guess his title actually is relevant and will dictate what he does in bed. Sounds like no fun to me. "And the next time you forget that, I will hurt you." My headcanon is now that Narcissus 'forgets' this all the time every time he sees Richard. As Asher probably will too now.
Then he lets Asher go and Asher falls into his lap and he "lay there passive." Then Richard confesses that "I haven't just been running from being werewolf or Jean-Claude's animal to call. If pain and pleasure didn't move me, Raina could never have seduced me." Raina seduced him? I thought she tortured and raped him. "I blamed her for me being a pervert, but she didn't invent this part of me, she unleashed it." and then he strokes Asher's hand and Asher shivers. "I don't want to have sex with Asher, but causing him pain appeals to me. Making him want me, and denying him what he wants, that appeals to me too. It appeals to me a lot." WHAT. NO. ASHER NOT GETTING WHAT HE WANTS IS WHAT GOT THIS MESS STARTED. NO. Also, his eyes turn dark amber as he says this. Because he's getting daaark, see? *eyeroll*
I like how becoming a 'better' person for Richard involves being Anita's exactly brand of heteroflexible--doing everything with pretty guys except sex, and in front of her of course--and open to the very loose version of BDSM that everyone else in her harem is into. And he was just like this all along, really!
JC asks Anita "Shall we join them?" and Anita "just nodded, because saying 'wow' out loud just didn't sound cool enough for what was lying in the bed look at us with wolf amber eyes."
1) Cool enough?
2) Shouldn't it be 'amber wolf eyes' and not 'wolf amber eyes'?
3) So Richard is a 'what' now. How is that better than Nathaniel being an 'it'?
At least they'll just do it now and then we can get on with...whatever plot is even in this book. Tigers, right? At least we can get on with the damn tigers then.
...who she'll also probably have sex with as a way of working everything out.
