a-sporking-rat (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
a_sporking_rat) wrote2013-06-19 10:38 am
a_sporking_rat) wrote2013-06-19 10:38 am
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BULLET, CHAPTER 40
The animal safari was awesome! I got to pet and feed lots and lots of exotic animals! Giraffes, zebras, and many, many species of bovines and cervids! When we went to the zoo section, one of the tigers never stopped watching my seven year old nephew. Neither did the hyena. This cracked dad and I up IMMENSELY. We're horrible like that. Also, one of the tigers was named Reba. We will meet a weretiger lady by that name in this very book and she is, so you know, AWESOME.
BULLET, CHAPTER 40
Both the men touch her, and it causes her golden tiger to look up and growl at first. Then all of her tigers, whom she’s never seen together at once, come out and sniff, with the gold standing in the middle while the others flank her in a half circle. The men bend over her and sniff along her skin, and Anita has to blink in order to see them rather than the tigers inside her. Again, this seems to be less Anita deliberately visualizing them and more something that happens automatically. Meph says she smells like all the tiger types, Pride says it’s not possible and steps away to rub the goosebumps that he’s gotten from this revelation. Seriously. Anita looks into Meph’s eyes and somehow knows that he won’t move away. I guess that’s why Meph is the one that becomes her new boyfriend instead even though he was more hostile to her than Pride…come to think of it, that was the case with Nicky and Domino too. Guess she has a thing for taking spines especially when the man has one to begin with and is resisting her. Lovely.
She feels hands on her shoulders and realizes Envy is behind her. Envy kisses her “tasted of tiger and sweet lipstick.” Okay, I’ve encountered flavored lipstick, but how the hell does one physically taste (as opposed to when Anita ‘tastes’ power, which this clearly isn’t) like a tiger? And how would Anita know what that tastes like unless she’s been sampling some seriously illegal meat? Anita doesn’t pull away and that “encouraged her more than I knew what to do with” so she telepathically calls for Jean-Claude, who comes up and pulls Envy around by the waist. Isn’t this EXACTLY what happened with Gretchen and Richard? Wonder if Envy will be portrayed like her. “Auggie had asked how I’d feel to see Jean-Claude with another woman; in that moment I felt relieved.”
Meph pulls Anita to him and says that “We’re supposed to be proof against vampire powers, but I want to touch you, and I want you to touch me. Why?” I’ve got a lot of ‘why’ questions myself. For instance, why are they immune to vampire powers? Their entire history has been all about being threatened and enslaved by vampires--MOAD, Vittorio, the Harlequin--so how is it that vampires have no psychic powers against them? I’d think that’s the only edge they’d have over TIGERS. I guess the Harlequin could have trained them in some super-secret anti-vampire arts so as to better combat the MOAD, but…they’re supposed to become bonded to a new vampire Master at some point, that’s their purpose, and if they’re immune to vampire abilities, how would they be able to do that? And why does Meph think the only way he could want his hands all over a hot woman (and vice versa) is because vampire powers are making him feel that way? Has he never been aroused before? By a woman? Or does it feel different somehow? Or is he like Anita and he can’t be naturally aroused because that’s bad, it has to be ~metaphysical~ hooha that makes him? According to Anita, it’s because “The other tigers are looking for someone who smells like home.” Meph says that he have a home, he just wants “to put as much of my body against as much of your body as you’ll let me.” Anita says that she’s trying to be reasonable and think (um, this is reasonable? This was the plan!) but that “in that moment it sounded like such a good plan” again, this was the whole point of meeting the tigers, of course it does and so she just says “Yes, please.”
Envy makes a “bedroom sound” and Anita sees that she’s kissing Jean-Claude. JC asks Anita if she wants to take this to the bedroom. Anita answers “I don’t know” but “I did, or knew what I wanted to do.” SO SAY YES IF THAT’S WHAT YOU WANT AND IT’S WHAT YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE DOING. Micah says that the bed is more comfortable and “I turned and saw one of the loves of my life calming urging me to take the bed.” Nathaniel adds that he wants to watch. Yeah, this is why they’re the favorites…given how transparent it is that they’re Jon, this gives me more hints about LKH’s own relationship with her own love of her life than I ever wanted. Anita just says “Yes” finally and Meph is like okay and kisses her and “he tasted so good, so right” and Anita starts making noises like Envy and “it was the way I’d been with Micah from the beginning, and Haven” and thinking about Haven helps her “swim up through all that skin hunger” and she looks to Micah again, who has “calm eyes”. JC says “Ma petite” and she watches Envy kissing JC’s neck while Meph smooches the side of her face. JC says that the tigers seem eager. Anita asks if he wants to “touch her, like roll around naked on top of her?” and despite this being a really boner-killing way of phrasing of it in my opinion JC tells her that eagerness can be contagious.
Meph takes Anita’s shirt off, starts nuzzling her boobs (so…like motorboating lite?) and Anita thinks that “whatever we were going to do, we needed to do it soon.” Then wolf-Richard gets up and growls at them. Anita tells him not to make this harder and “he gave me a look out of his wolf eyes that was all too human” and “he was back to pouting. I so didn’t need this.” Gee, so Richard does this on the page right after Micah and Nathaniel are all about Anita boning new guys. Subtle.
She turns back to Micah and Meph BITES HER BREAST. Ow, fucking geez! She then spends a paragraph talking about how his eyes are blue and gold-brown and how his eyelashes are long and dark and make his eyes stand out “as if whoever shopped for him had paid extra for the pretty parts.” Shopped for. Paid for. Parts. HE IS NOT A DOLL, ANITA. Meph starts rubbing his face against her hand like a cat and Anita thinks about how “he was gorgeous and I wanted him, but I didn’t know him. I was tired of trusting my life and everything I loved to strangers, no matter how pretty they were.” It’s a nice sensible thought, but unfortunately I already know in advance that Meph is indeed going to be added to the harem, as will a tiger named Ethan in Hit List, and that Cynric is going to come live with her too. So again, this is just lip service, which is pointless unless you have the character at least attempt to act on it.
She offers her hand to Micah and he rubs his head against it too and we are reminded of his "deep brown curls" and how unlike Richard "he came to me without any questions" and he takes her hand and somehow that sets off ALL her beasts and "I realized why I hadn't been able to bond with Haven, or any other animal king; because I was truly Nimir-Ra to Micah's Nimir-Raj. I had my king." GAAAG.
Meph asks her how it is that she smells "like everything at once." Anita for some reasons seems to think that "Micah is my Nimir-Raj. We are a true mated pair" is somehow an answer that makes any sense at all to this question. Saying "I'm a panwere and all my beasts are excited right now" has the exact same number of syllables and would actually make sense as a reason, why not say that? Conversations make so little sense in this world. Meph says sadly then that there is "no room for me" and Micah tells him there is always room (I'm starting to think he has a cuckhold fetish) and Anita quickly adds "But not for another king. You can be mine, but I already have a king." I would say that this translates to "You can be my object, my sex toy, my pet, but I only have one person I treat like an equal partner and that's Micah" except that...Micah really isn't equal either. Occasionally the roles seem to get swapped a little, like him shooing Anita away to work out while he picks the new harem slaves, but even that's still usually to Anita's convenience. Micah's more like...the Sultan's first wife, and the rest are just concubines in the harem. Except the Sultan ran things he ruled, which Anita doesn't, making her more like the decorative wife with no real job despite some token title. Hmm. She's like...if a mob boss had a girlfriend, and he gave her a job that's normally really important, but she never actually does it and bosses everyone around all the same and since she's his girlfriend it's okay and she doesn't get in trouble while he takes care of everything.
Pride says that Micah is "only leopard. You need a golden tiger." He's still standing off to the side "where he was hugging his arms tight" and Anita doesn't know if it's still goosebumps or if maybe he is "fighting not to touch one of us" instead. Good for him if he is! She's got her slave in Meph, now the world will be saved by the MOAD, no need for him to sacrifice himself too, right?
Envy moans and Anita sees that "she had climbed Jean-Claude" HAHAHA OH MY GOSH SHE REALLY IS A WERECAT "wrapping her long legs around his waist. His hands were on her ass" Oh, you meant climbed like that. My version was funnier and involved her starting to turn around in circles on top of his head before curling up on top of it. Anita reckons that JC will soon be doing Envy right here if they don't all get to the bedroom soon. Anita asks Meph what he thinks (about what...? oh I guess the king thing) and he says he doesn't know and that "As long as you touch me, I don't think I care what else happens." So she's like Rogue from the X-Men except that instead of taking memories and powers (well, she gets those from vamps too), Anita takes free will when she touches people. Too bad that can't ever be useful rather than just unintentionally creepy.
She squeezes Micah's hand and he touches Meph and their leopards rise and somehow go into Meph even though "it shouldn't have worked. He was tiger, and Micah and I as Nimir-Raj were so not" but it does and the energy is like a ribbon that goes from them to him and ties a knot around the golden tiger inside him. Yeah. Pro tip, if something shouldn't work, you either don't do it or give a damn good explanation as to why it did that shows it did NOT in fact break the canon rules. Making it 'just work' is bullshit...aka what these entire books have become.
Claudia says that they're not going to make it to the bedroom, that she can't do this again, and starts to leave. Anita assures her that this isn't the ardeur, Claudia says "Not yet" and keeps walking out of there. FUCK YES CLAUDIA! The rest of the guards spread around the room, and then there is a "prickling rush of energy" and "the scent of pine and forest" and Richard changes to human form. He's kneeling and Anita dreads what his face (which is currently hidden by his hair) will look like given his expression when he was in wolf form, and while he does at first look angry and resentful, he then begins to "struggle to control himself. He succeeded." Then he says that "I know that I was supposed to be your king, Anita."
That's right, Richard, you were! But then Gary broke up with Anita's real-life counterpart, and, well...
Anita doesn't know what to say to that (probably because she too has this meta-knowledge) but Richard just goes over to Jean-Claude and Envy. Anita "waited to be jealous" over this but then she isn't because "Part of it was that he'd used up that part of me that wasted that kind of emotion on him." Unlike LKH who still clearly has it to spare! "The other part was that look in his eyes made me remember why we weren't together" You cheated on him while you were engaged because he did what you asked him to and then you raped him in NiC? "and why Micah was the one holding my hand." He obeys your every whim except for that one time you asked him not to rape you?.....God this series is fucked up.
"Our beasts wove in and out of the three of us like some sinuous sea creature." Okay, that's actually a cool description, and it feels like "as if someone had a fur glove and was caressing us all over and over except it was warm and alive" which does less for me. Anita can feel that she's going to orgasm ("I felt the weight building low in my body") and realizes that she's going to come just from this if they keep it up ("it was going to work for me"). So she tells them that if they're going to do more than this they need to do it soon. I think that's the third time now something along those lines has been suggested, possibly in as many pages. Someone asks if she'll need sex to make Meph her animal to call (yup, he's getting the axe!) and she says she didn't with Domino or Haven but then Meph begs her for sex. Anita stares into "those lovely eyes, that handsome face" and remembers how Haven used to say "something similar to me over and over." JUST IN CASE WE MISSED IT, HAVEN WAS CRAZY FOR ANITA AND HER HOTNESS. JUST SO YOU KNOW.
Jean-Claude tells her "Sex, ma petite, no more holding back. They are ours, or they are not." Richard repeats "Ours" in a growl. I never, ever get used to the blatant ownership of other people in this series. I guess that's good; getting desensitized to it means I'd stop calling it out. JC is still holding Envy while Richard takes her thong off. Anita notes that Richard likes to give oral sex and that "the thought of it tightened things low in my body so sudden and sharp that Micah had to steady me." Their energy spikes and makes Meph cry out and he grabs the front of Anita's belt with one hand and Micah's arm with the other and "it was sexual because sex had caused him to reach out" IT WAS SEXUAL BECAUSE SEX! ahaha that is one of the best LKHisms yet. Micah steadies Meph, asks what made Anita react like that, then looks past her at JC/Richard/Envy and realizes it was them. Anita looks at them again too; Richard is kissing up Envy's thigh while JC takes off her dress so that she is "naked except for the silver spike heels" and JC kisses her neck. Anita knows that "he'd wait for Richard to bring her, and then at that critical moment he'd bite her and because she wasn't tied to him as I was, it would be like a double orgasm." Okay, I'm not QUITE sure how it makes sense, but apparently JC biting Envy when she comes will make Anita come too. So even when JC and Richard get it on with another girl, it's still ultimately for Anita. Not surprised.
Anita thinks how "the only vampire in St. Louis who could roll me like that was Asher" and that makes her look around the room for him. He's standing far away from the sex, back in the far corner, leaning against the wall, "his hands behind him as if he didn't trust what he might do with them" Smart man. "Nathaniel liked to watch, but Asher only enjoyed it if he knew he could play later." Oh, you'll get to, Asher...with Anita, I expect. Micah says that "He looks lost against" and Meph almost pulls Anita over him so "it just seemed natural to bend over and kiss" and "he tasted of honey" and Anita wonders if he tastes better now than he did a few minutes ago. Ask me if I give a shit, Anita. Meph starts undoing Anita's buckle, and he's looking at her "his face uncertain, his eyes looking up at me, waiting for me to say no." So despite his horrendous upbringing he apparently does have a concept of consent. That's okay, Meph, Anita will cure you of that soon enough!
Anita can hear Richard is "making progress" with Envy and she wants to get on with sex before he makes her come. She thinks that Meph is "new, and I wasn't good with new unless I raised the ardeur" we know, we know, you're not a slut, we know "but I was good with familiar" so she tells Meph that he'll get sex but that she doesn't know what he likes yet...so instead of asking him, she tells him what she wants, and what she wants is to do what JC/Richard/Envy are up to. Meph says they'll need a vampire, so Anita calls over to Asher. She thinks that "There were more ways to gain power and solidiarity than metaphysics and magic. Love mattered, in the end. A house without love would always fall, maybe not today or tomorrow, but in the end without love nothing could endure." WHAT THE FUCK DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH LITERALLY ANYTHING AT ALL GOING ON RIGHT NOW? Also your hypocrisy is almost adorable, Anita. You're trying so hard to sell this shit as sincere, aren't you?
Asher comes to them smiling, and JC thanks her telepathically, and in the moment he does Anita can feel his hands on Envy as "her body began to buck in small precursors to the orgasm" and she wonders "Was I jealous? Maybe a little" but she pushes it away (well, she says she does) as Asher comes over and Meph "didn't protest it." Oh well, it's fine if he's not thrilled about it, he's not saying no outright, right? It's about what Anita wants, after all! More about her pushing that jealousy away: "It wasn't who we were." No, just who *you* are. "There was enough love" these people are total strangers who have been trafficked to you as sex slaves "enough sex, enough for everyone. When there's enough, you don't have to be jealous of anyone." So all those times you were a raging jealous hatebeast before was because...you didn't have enough men and sex?
I got nothing at this point, except I'd like to remind you that the guards are all still standing around watching this silently. Judging, I expect. I sure am.
BULLET, CHAPTER 40
Both the men touch her, and it causes her golden tiger to look up and growl at first. Then all of her tigers, whom she’s never seen together at once, come out and sniff, with the gold standing in the middle while the others flank her in a half circle. The men bend over her and sniff along her skin, and Anita has to blink in order to see them rather than the tigers inside her. Again, this seems to be less Anita deliberately visualizing them and more something that happens automatically. Meph says she smells like all the tiger types, Pride says it’s not possible and steps away to rub the goosebumps that he’s gotten from this revelation. Seriously. Anita looks into Meph’s eyes and somehow knows that he won’t move away. I guess that’s why Meph is the one that becomes her new boyfriend instead even though he was more hostile to her than Pride…come to think of it, that was the case with Nicky and Domino too. Guess she has a thing for taking spines especially when the man has one to begin with and is resisting her. Lovely.
She feels hands on her shoulders and realizes Envy is behind her. Envy kisses her “tasted of tiger and sweet lipstick.” Okay, I’ve encountered flavored lipstick, but how the hell does one physically taste (as opposed to when Anita ‘tastes’ power, which this clearly isn’t) like a tiger? And how would Anita know what that tastes like unless she’s been sampling some seriously illegal meat? Anita doesn’t pull away and that “encouraged her more than I knew what to do with” so she telepathically calls for Jean-Claude, who comes up and pulls Envy around by the waist. Isn’t this EXACTLY what happened with Gretchen and Richard? Wonder if Envy will be portrayed like her. “Auggie had asked how I’d feel to see Jean-Claude with another woman; in that moment I felt relieved.”
Meph pulls Anita to him and says that “We’re supposed to be proof against vampire powers, but I want to touch you, and I want you to touch me. Why?” I’ve got a lot of ‘why’ questions myself. For instance, why are they immune to vampire powers? Their entire history has been all about being threatened and enslaved by vampires--MOAD, Vittorio, the Harlequin--so how is it that vampires have no psychic powers against them? I’d think that’s the only edge they’d have over TIGERS. I guess the Harlequin could have trained them in some super-secret anti-vampire arts so as to better combat the MOAD, but…they’re supposed to become bonded to a new vampire Master at some point, that’s their purpose, and if they’re immune to vampire abilities, how would they be able to do that? And why does Meph think the only way he could want his hands all over a hot woman (and vice versa) is because vampire powers are making him feel that way? Has he never been aroused before? By a woman? Or does it feel different somehow? Or is he like Anita and he can’t be naturally aroused because that’s bad, it has to be ~metaphysical~ hooha that makes him? According to Anita, it’s because “The other tigers are looking for someone who smells like home.” Meph says that he have a home, he just wants “to put as much of my body against as much of your body as you’ll let me.” Anita says that she’s trying to be reasonable and think (um, this is reasonable? This was the plan!) but that “in that moment it sounded like such a good plan” again, this was the whole point of meeting the tigers, of course it does and so she just says “Yes, please.”
Envy makes a “bedroom sound” and Anita sees that she’s kissing Jean-Claude. JC asks Anita if she wants to take this to the bedroom. Anita answers “I don’t know” but “I did, or knew what I wanted to do.” SO SAY YES IF THAT’S WHAT YOU WANT AND IT’S WHAT YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE DOING. Micah says that the bed is more comfortable and “I turned and saw one of the loves of my life calming urging me to take the bed.” Nathaniel adds that he wants to watch. Yeah, this is why they’re the favorites…given how transparent it is that they’re Jon, this gives me more hints about LKH’s own relationship with her own love of her life than I ever wanted. Anita just says “Yes” finally and Meph is like okay and kisses her and “he tasted so good, so right” and Anita starts making noises like Envy and “it was the way I’d been with Micah from the beginning, and Haven” and thinking about Haven helps her “swim up through all that skin hunger” and she looks to Micah again, who has “calm eyes”. JC says “Ma petite” and she watches Envy kissing JC’s neck while Meph smooches the side of her face. JC says that the tigers seem eager. Anita asks if he wants to “touch her, like roll around naked on top of her?” and despite this being a really boner-killing way of phrasing of it in my opinion JC tells her that eagerness can be contagious.
Meph takes Anita’s shirt off, starts nuzzling her boobs (so…like motorboating lite?) and Anita thinks that “whatever we were going to do, we needed to do it soon.” Then wolf-Richard gets up and growls at them. Anita tells him not to make this harder and “he gave me a look out of his wolf eyes that was all too human” and “he was back to pouting. I so didn’t need this.” Gee, so Richard does this on the page right after Micah and Nathaniel are all about Anita boning new guys. Subtle.
She turns back to Micah and Meph BITES HER BREAST. Ow, fucking geez! She then spends a paragraph talking about how his eyes are blue and gold-brown and how his eyelashes are long and dark and make his eyes stand out “as if whoever shopped for him had paid extra for the pretty parts.” Shopped for. Paid for. Parts. HE IS NOT A DOLL, ANITA. Meph starts rubbing his face against her hand like a cat and Anita thinks about how “he was gorgeous and I wanted him, but I didn’t know him. I was tired of trusting my life and everything I loved to strangers, no matter how pretty they were.” It’s a nice sensible thought, but unfortunately I already know in advance that Meph is indeed going to be added to the harem, as will a tiger named Ethan in Hit List, and that Cynric is going to come live with her too. So again, this is just lip service, which is pointless unless you have the character at least attempt to act on it.
She offers her hand to Micah and he rubs his head against it too and we are reminded of his "deep brown curls" and how unlike Richard "he came to me without any questions" and he takes her hand and somehow that sets off ALL her beasts and "I realized why I hadn't been able to bond with Haven, or any other animal king; because I was truly Nimir-Ra to Micah's Nimir-Raj. I had my king." GAAAG.
Meph asks her how it is that she smells "like everything at once." Anita for some reasons seems to think that "Micah is my Nimir-Raj. We are a true mated pair" is somehow an answer that makes any sense at all to this question. Saying "I'm a panwere and all my beasts are excited right now" has the exact same number of syllables and would actually make sense as a reason, why not say that? Conversations make so little sense in this world. Meph says sadly then that there is "no room for me" and Micah tells him there is always room (I'm starting to think he has a cuckhold fetish) and Anita quickly adds "But not for another king. You can be mine, but I already have a king." I would say that this translates to "You can be my object, my sex toy, my pet, but I only have one person I treat like an equal partner and that's Micah" except that...Micah really isn't equal either. Occasionally the roles seem to get swapped a little, like him shooing Anita away to work out while he picks the new harem slaves, but even that's still usually to Anita's convenience. Micah's more like...the Sultan's first wife, and the rest are just concubines in the harem. Except the Sultan ran things he ruled, which Anita doesn't, making her more like the decorative wife with no real job despite some token title. Hmm. She's like...if a mob boss had a girlfriend, and he gave her a job that's normally really important, but she never actually does it and bosses everyone around all the same and since she's his girlfriend it's okay and she doesn't get in trouble while he takes care of everything.
Pride says that Micah is "only leopard. You need a golden tiger." He's still standing off to the side "where he was hugging his arms tight" and Anita doesn't know if it's still goosebumps or if maybe he is "fighting not to touch one of us" instead. Good for him if he is! She's got her slave in Meph, now the world will be saved by the MOAD, no need for him to sacrifice himself too, right?
Envy moans and Anita sees that "she had climbed Jean-Claude" HAHAHA OH MY GOSH SHE REALLY IS A WERECAT "wrapping her long legs around his waist. His hands were on her ass" Oh, you meant climbed like that. My version was funnier and involved her starting to turn around in circles on top of his head before curling up on top of it. Anita reckons that JC will soon be doing Envy right here if they don't all get to the bedroom soon. Anita asks Meph what he thinks (about what...? oh I guess the king thing) and he says he doesn't know and that "As long as you touch me, I don't think I care what else happens." So she's like Rogue from the X-Men except that instead of taking memories and powers (well, she gets those from vamps too), Anita takes free will when she touches people. Too bad that can't ever be useful rather than just unintentionally creepy.
She squeezes Micah's hand and he touches Meph and their leopards rise and somehow go into Meph even though "it shouldn't have worked. He was tiger, and Micah and I as Nimir-Raj were so not" but it does and the energy is like a ribbon that goes from them to him and ties a knot around the golden tiger inside him. Yeah. Pro tip, if something shouldn't work, you either don't do it or give a damn good explanation as to why it did that shows it did NOT in fact break the canon rules. Making it 'just work' is bullshit...aka what these entire books have become.
Claudia says that they're not going to make it to the bedroom, that she can't do this again, and starts to leave. Anita assures her that this isn't the ardeur, Claudia says "Not yet" and keeps walking out of there. FUCK YES CLAUDIA! The rest of the guards spread around the room, and then there is a "prickling rush of energy" and "the scent of pine and forest" and Richard changes to human form. He's kneeling and Anita dreads what his face (which is currently hidden by his hair) will look like given his expression when he was in wolf form, and while he does at first look angry and resentful, he then begins to "struggle to control himself. He succeeded." Then he says that "I know that I was supposed to be your king, Anita."
That's right, Richard, you were! But then Gary broke up with Anita's real-life counterpart, and, well...
Anita doesn't know what to say to that (probably because she too has this meta-knowledge) but Richard just goes over to Jean-Claude and Envy. Anita "waited to be jealous" over this but then she isn't because "Part of it was that he'd used up that part of me that wasted that kind of emotion on him." Unlike LKH who still clearly has it to spare! "The other part was that look in his eyes made me remember why we weren't together" You cheated on him while you were engaged because he did what you asked him to and then you raped him in NiC? "and why Micah was the one holding my hand." He obeys your every whim except for that one time you asked him not to rape you?.....God this series is fucked up.
"Our beasts wove in and out of the three of us like some sinuous sea creature." Okay, that's actually a cool description, and it feels like "as if someone had a fur glove and was caressing us all over and over except it was warm and alive" which does less for me. Anita can feel that she's going to orgasm ("I felt the weight building low in my body") and realizes that she's going to come just from this if they keep it up ("it was going to work for me"). So she tells them that if they're going to do more than this they need to do it soon. I think that's the third time now something along those lines has been suggested, possibly in as many pages. Someone asks if she'll need sex to make Meph her animal to call (yup, he's getting the axe!) and she says she didn't with Domino or Haven but then Meph begs her for sex. Anita stares into "those lovely eyes, that handsome face" and remembers how Haven used to say "something similar to me over and over." JUST IN CASE WE MISSED IT, HAVEN WAS CRAZY FOR ANITA AND HER HOTNESS. JUST SO YOU KNOW.
Jean-Claude tells her "Sex, ma petite, no more holding back. They are ours, or they are not." Richard repeats "Ours" in a growl. I never, ever get used to the blatant ownership of other people in this series. I guess that's good; getting desensitized to it means I'd stop calling it out. JC is still holding Envy while Richard takes her thong off. Anita notes that Richard likes to give oral sex and that "the thought of it tightened things low in my body so sudden and sharp that Micah had to steady me." Their energy spikes and makes Meph cry out and he grabs the front of Anita's belt with one hand and Micah's arm with the other and "it was sexual because sex had caused him to reach out" IT WAS SEXUAL BECAUSE SEX! ahaha that is one of the best LKHisms yet. Micah steadies Meph, asks what made Anita react like that, then looks past her at JC/Richard/Envy and realizes it was them. Anita looks at them again too; Richard is kissing up Envy's thigh while JC takes off her dress so that she is "naked except for the silver spike heels" and JC kisses her neck. Anita knows that "he'd wait for Richard to bring her, and then at that critical moment he'd bite her and because she wasn't tied to him as I was, it would be like a double orgasm." Okay, I'm not QUITE sure how it makes sense, but apparently JC biting Envy when she comes will make Anita come too. So even when JC and Richard get it on with another girl, it's still ultimately for Anita. Not surprised.
Anita thinks how "the only vampire in St. Louis who could roll me like that was Asher" and that makes her look around the room for him. He's standing far away from the sex, back in the far corner, leaning against the wall, "his hands behind him as if he didn't trust what he might do with them" Smart man. "Nathaniel liked to watch, but Asher only enjoyed it if he knew he could play later." Oh, you'll get to, Asher...with Anita, I expect. Micah says that "He looks lost against" and Meph almost pulls Anita over him so "it just seemed natural to bend over and kiss" and "he tasted of honey" and Anita wonders if he tastes better now than he did a few minutes ago. Ask me if I give a shit, Anita. Meph starts undoing Anita's buckle, and he's looking at her "his face uncertain, his eyes looking up at me, waiting for me to say no." So despite his horrendous upbringing he apparently does have a concept of consent. That's okay, Meph, Anita will cure you of that soon enough!
Anita can hear Richard is "making progress" with Envy and she wants to get on with sex before he makes her come. She thinks that Meph is "new, and I wasn't good with new unless I raised the ardeur" we know, we know, you're not a slut, we know "but I was good with familiar" so she tells Meph that he'll get sex but that she doesn't know what he likes yet...so instead of asking him, she tells him what she wants, and what she wants is to do what JC/Richard/Envy are up to. Meph says they'll need a vampire, so Anita calls over to Asher. She thinks that "There were more ways to gain power and solidiarity than metaphysics and magic. Love mattered, in the end. A house without love would always fall, maybe not today or tomorrow, but in the end without love nothing could endure." WHAT THE FUCK DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH LITERALLY ANYTHING AT ALL GOING ON RIGHT NOW? Also your hypocrisy is almost adorable, Anita. You're trying so hard to sell this shit as sincere, aren't you?
Asher comes to them smiling, and JC thanks her telepathically, and in the moment he does Anita can feel his hands on Envy as "her body began to buck in small precursors to the orgasm" and she wonders "Was I jealous? Maybe a little" but she pushes it away (well, she says she does) as Asher comes over and Meph "didn't protest it." Oh well, it's fine if he's not thrilled about it, he's not saying no outright, right? It's about what Anita wants, after all! More about her pushing that jealousy away: "It wasn't who we were." No, just who *you* are. "There was enough love" these people are total strangers who have been trafficked to you as sex slaves "enough sex, enough for everyone. When there's enough, you don't have to be jealous of anyone." So all those times you were a raging jealous hatebeast before was because...you didn't have enough men and sex?
I got nothing at this point, except I'd like to remind you that the guards are all still standing around watching this silently. Judging, I expect. I sure am.
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I'm sure LKH thinks her therians are imitating real animal behaviour with their poor impulse control and obsession with mating but she's so far off-base, it's just silly.
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And yeah, they are nothing like actual animals. Which I could be fine with, if not for the fact she claims otherwise.
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I don't understand why LKH places such an emphasis on tigers needing others of their kind (a home). We see it with Domino and Blue Boy, and now the gold tigers. The last of their kind and they all go wild when they meet Anita because they are oh so alone. The thing of it is, tigers are solitary creatures. They really only socialize with other tigers when it comes to mating. Tigers don't live in prides or packs. They don't like other tigers, they have huge territories and they don't share well, at least not the way Anita shares. Little fun fact, the way tiger territories are set up; the male tends to have a larger territory then the female, and his territory will often overlap several smaller female territories. He's not welcome in their territories until mating season, and the females do not share their territory with each other, though they are essentially sharing a mate.
So yeah, tigers don't give a shit about being alone, in fact they prefer it.
as if whoever shopped for him had paid extra for the pretty parts.
I love how Anita purposely uses terms like 'shopped' and 'pretty parts' and all these other words that indicate that these men are nothing but possessions to her. Pretty ones, but objects none-the-less, all beautiful and part of some sort of bizarre collection she has going on (collect all the tigers in every color!). And then she claims how she loves them. Yup, keep saying that, we totally believe it.
Part of it was that he'd used up that part of me that wasted that kind of emotion on him.
Remember guys, emotions are a waste to Anita and are wasted on the people she 'loves.'
Anita notes that Richard likes to give oral sex
I keep waiting for LKH to write in that 'evil woman hater' who doesn't like giving oral sex to women. Cause some guys don't, it's just not their thing the same way some women don't like giving head. But lucky for Anita, all her lovers are perfectly okay with giving her oral sex (considering her hygienic habits...eww).
So all those times you were a raging jealous hatebeast before was because...you didn't have enough men and sex?
Surely she has enough men now and won't need anymore....try saying that with a straight face. Yeah, every book she seems to think that now she has enough men, then come the next book she's out 'shopping' for more. Anita always wants, she will never be content with what she has, she always has to have more. I really wonder how brain-washed Nate and Micah have to be. Supposedly they are her one tru luvs, but they stand there and watch her go out for more and more men, and they must know it is because that they are simply not good enough for her. No matter how much she claims to love them and see them as being so special among all her men, it just sounds so hollow and false. Basically an empty title, there is nothing to make them anymore special then any other men she brings home. Nothing is ever good enough, nothing will ever be enough, she always has to have more and better. No wonder Richard is so bitter, he figured out the truth and tried to get out, but couldn't.
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Yup, and we'll see it in the next book with Ethan too. It's very, very weird, and thus far (as in, to the point that I've read...I'm halfway through Hit List) never explained.
And then she claims how she loves them. Yup, keep saying that, we totally believe it.
Mhmmm. Seriously how does LKH not get that her word choice is not only contradictory to this claim of love, but also creepy as fuck to boot?
Yeah, every book she seems to think that now she has enough men, then come the next book she's out 'shopping' for more
As I said, I'm reading Hit List right now, and she's making the same big claims regarding Ethan as she is now about Meph...that she doesn't need any more men, yadda yadda, whatever.
No wonder Richard is so bitter, he figured out the truth and tried to get out, but couldn't.
Yeeeup. Even if she doesn't like her old toys, no one else is allowed to play with them either, so no escape for him!
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I'd like to imagine there's a betting pool for how long it takes Anita to scream and a stopwatch running. I'd think it would get boring to watch after the first dozen times or so. Unless you are Micah apparently.
"There were more ways to gain power and solidiarity than metaphysics and magic. Love mattered, in the end. A house without love would always fall, maybe not today or tomorrow, but in the end without love nothing could endure." WHAT THE FUCK DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH LITERALLY ANYTHING AT ALL GOING ON RIGHT NOW? Also your hypocrisy is almost adorable, Anita. You're trying so hard to sell this shit as sincere, aren't you?
*snort* The person in the room most prone to the arduer is trying to convince herself that love equals lust. Actually, I think that a big problem is that Anita has convinced herself of that very thing and that's just the way she likes it. I would wait for someone who does truly love someone else to be totally immune to the arduer and set everything on fire during one of these rape scenes, but we all know that will never happen.
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Because she's Anita Blake and her reputation precedes her?
I wrote a story once that had vampires choosing servants from a group of people who often had a genetic immunity to vampire mind control, but there was an actual reason for this as well as a reason the humans didn't just overthrow the vampires. Here, it just looks like that detail was thrown in for no reason.
Oh and I love that Anita smells of everything at once. Icecream, scented candles, corpses, dogs, rain, sex, flowers, cheese, dirt, onions, pickles, cake, incense...
I bet that would be horrible.
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Oh God.
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My question is, why are they still working for Anita? I really hope the pay is worth it, because the work itself seems to be shit. There seems to be a lot of risk with no benefit.
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Has LKH forgotten the customers entirely? Forgotten that the Circus is actually a business?
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IIRC from the earlier books, there's a large crowd there for the show every night. So while she's having all her orgies - which must be at night since all the vampires are awake - there's a crowd of people upstairs. All of whom could be affected when the ardeur spreads, as it has, to all the people underground.
Carp. What about the kiddies on the carnival rides? What about the spinning teacups?? If the people operating the rides are sucked into the orgy, are kids left on the ride for hours? And if the kids are affected too... Eeeeeeesh.
If I had time to do some legal research, I'd be tempted to write a fic about the lawsuits people would be filing against JC for the trauma...
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Then you're like "What the fuck is going on?" and so lost and confused, but someone is grabbing you and is yanking you along the hallways babbling about shutting up and getting out fast if you want to keep you free will. Something about consent, rape, and mindfucking with the bosses' names mentioned angrily. You don't really know, just that your arm is about to be yanked out of it's socket and you really don't want to deal with any of those things.
Next thing you know, you're standing outside in one of St. Louis's really lovely spring/summer Severe Thunderstorms with torrential rain pouring on your head feeling like the drowned rat you know you'd look like in your wererat form.
(No wonder there aren't any new wererats mentioned. Rafael probably sends them off to another city's Rom to deal with. Like Kansas City or Chicago.)
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Sounds reasonable to me! As for range, I think that's basically so far been as the plot demands.
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Pretty much whatever the plot demands. Not only does it have a range, but the ardeur can seek out specific victims, so if LKH/Anita decides that they want you, then the ardeur will grab you up no matter the distance.
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Oh god, now I imagined it like the vector hands from Clannad! But more sinister and twisted, and more likely to grope you than tear your arm off.
DO NOT WANT!
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2. And where did Envy come from? I thought she was being intelligent and hanging back? Suddenly she's there making kissy face, and Anita is like stiff-as-a-board? Granted, I've never kissed someone who didn't want to be kissed (generally don't kiss unless I know it's okay, because shy and insecure) but I'm pretty sure it's unpleasant as possible. Yet Envy's okay with it, and then Anita has to call for JC? Why not just turn her head aside? It's not hard to break away from kisses. Like... fuck, Anita.
3. Why do you want her to touch you? BECAUSE ARDEUR.
4. OH GOD I'M GETTING INSIGHT INTO LKH/JON SEX LIFE AND I DON'T WANT IT YOU GUYS. I DON'T WANT IT AT ALL.
5. Nope, sorry, Mephisto. The only two she really cares about are Micah and Nathaniel, and sometimes JC. And very very rarely Richard. Such as when he's like, dying. But even then it could be construed as her worrying about her own ass, so even then... Mostly just Micah and Nathaniel. So you basically have no way in.
6. WAIT SO IF ANITA HAS BASICALLY CHOSEN MICAH AS HER MAIN THING THEN THIS MEANS SHE'S LEOPARD-CENTRIC THEN WHY CAN'T SHE JUST PICK LEOPARD AND BE DONE WITH IT!? JESUS FUCKING CHRIST.
7. Pride, I'm sorry I don't love you as much as Mephisto... But resisting the urge to be all touchy is awesome so if you want you can join Wander's harem, too.
8. AHAHAHAHA YOUR VERSION OF ENVY CLIMBING HIM IS MUCH FUNNIER
9. GO CLAUDIA!
10. Um, isn't "pine and forest" kind of redundant? Since pine trees grow in the forest? Because they're trees? And trees make up a forest? And... oh nevermind.
11. THIS TIME IT'S SEXUAL GUYS. IT'S SEXUAL BECAUSE SEX.
12. NO DON'T SAY THAT OKAY. MEPHISTO DOESN'T GET CURED OF CONSENT.
The date with Wander will go horrible bad if he does.I'm pretending that blush and his manners are staying. It's headcanon that they've been ingrained. The only reason they're kinda gone is ardeur and magical doomcrotch right now. Pride at least had the heebie-jeebies to stop him from being taken over.13. Wait, so where did Micah go? Did just back the fuck up off there when she said she wanted to do a vampire-her-therian threesome? Oh, of course he did. Because he's Micah. And if I was Asher, I'd just be sulking that I can't fuck Pride and have to--once again--fuck Anita.
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6. BUT THEN SHE CAN'T BE SUPER SPECIAL QUEEN OF ALL THE WERES! And tigers have been getting the main spotlight from LKH for awhile...makes me wonder if she isn't wishing she made Micah one, lol.
10. Yeah, that's what I thought too
12. Yeah, pretty sure the ardeur is what made it go bye-bye, that sounds about right
13. Yeah, she can't handle more than three characters a scene so they periodically fade into the woodwork and come back.
....I start sentences with 'yeah' a lot.
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6. OH RIGHT HOW COULD I FORGET THAT!? Which is kind of lame. Leopards can fucking drag an gazelle into a goddamn tree! They're the pretty, slender spotted cousins of the jaguars. Who are heavier set and not white enough to ever really be important to LKH/Anita, despite her Mexican roots which are no longer ever mentioned.
10. Maybe she meant like... a decidedly not-pine-forest yet with a heavy scent of pine? But then it'd be a pine forest scent. Hell, I don't know. i quit.
12. Bam, it is
lawheadcanon.13. I don't really blame her, it can be really difficult to keep track of them all when writing a group scene (i had to keep track of a kpop band with 12 members before and it was rather difficult, albeit amusing). Although it does help when not everyone is involved with the main character... and thus the main character isn't the most important thing in the known universe.
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(Mostly he just doesn't like her leaving mid-date and humiliating him in front of his people.)
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I CAN'T. I just clicked away at that, but then remembered that reading your sporks is worth the agony of these sentences. If you can read through the whole book, I can suffer through the lowlights.
“He was back to pouting. I so didn’t need this.”
Maybe he doesn't want to watch you rape yet another guy? Why is he here, he doesn't need to watch this. Unlike the perfect duo who like to watch, and J.C. who gets a shiny new toy, he has no reason to have to sit here.
"I realized why I hadn't been able to bond with Haven, or any other animal king; because I was truly Nimir-Ra to Micah's Nimir-Raj. I had my king."
Nyah. Richiard isn't a natural leader, nyah
" So she tells them that if they're going to do more than this they need to do it soon."
Uh... ladies can come more than once during sex. It's not 'ding!" it's over! Unlike it can be with males. YOU KNOW THIS, ANITA
Richard repeats "Ours" in a growl
Headcanon says that he's angry at the wording choice. "These are people Anita. We don't fucking OWN them"
"that is one of the best LKHisms yet."
I think "Words is my business" will never be topped. But god, I hope so.
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Headcanon accepted!
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Sexual because of sex.
...
I can't.
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This is sounding creepily akin to a male rapist relishing his victim’s moments of defiance because his ego is looking forward to breaking her will… 0_0
/“he was back to pouting. I so didn’t need this.”/
First of all, he’s a WOLF. How is he “pouting?” Second of all, if you “so didn’t need this” (yeah, how mature of you), then WHY ON EARTH DID YOU BRING RICHARD IN THE FIRST PLACE? Why does he even need to be there if all you’re going to do is ignore him and belittle him?
/Shopped for. Paid for. Parts. HE IS NOT A DOLL, ANITA./
I swear, if the narrator of this book was an Antonio instead of an Anita, red flags would be sprouting up in readers’ faces all over the place. John Norman would applaud this book for upholding the idea that other people can be considered objects to be exploited, bought, and vandalized at will.
/how unlike Richard "he came to me without any questions"/
Yes, because how DARE someone question the Great Goddess Anita!
/Love mattered, in the end./
One: you’ve just met these people. Two: the only reason that you did meet them was because they were ferried over to you like cattle. Three: you’ve clearly shown throughout this series that you see no problem with treating your supposed loved ones like objects. Four: The only reason that you’re having sex with these people (at least, the alleged reason why) is to stop the villain from winning the day.
WHAT DOES ANYTHING IN THIS SITUATION HAVE TO DO WITH LOVE? You don’t love these people, you don’t love the people that you’re supposedly going to save, and you don’t love anybody but yourself. You are one of the most selfish, self-centered, and narcissistic characters that I have ever seen and you have the sheer stupidity and self-delusion to declare that all of this is because of love?
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I think it's EXACTLY that. Anita is a rapist too, after all, I don't see why it should be different for her just because she's female...especially with how much of a "guy" she emphasizes she is.
Why does he even need to be there if all you’re going to do is ignore him and belittle him?
For the exact purpose of doing just that! I'm pretty sure that's why Richard hasn't been killed off or otherwise written out, she LIKES doing this.
I swear, if the narrator of this book was an Antonio instead of an Anita, red flags would be sprouting up in readers’ faces all over the place
I actually was going through some of my old stuff and found a short thing I did of Anthony Blake, I'm planning to put it up soon.
I can't even with the 'love' thing, ugh.
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That sounds amazing! If I'm ever in your neck of the woods, I'll have to remember to PM you for the safari-of-win.
one of the tigers never stopped watching my seven year old nephew. Neither did the hyena.
There is a hysterically funny video on YouTube in which a lioness (in the London Zoo, I think) is desperately trying to claw her way through the glass to eat a toddler. The baby, who is dressed in a zebra-striped jumper, is oblivious to the lioness' intentions and happily patting the glass between them while burbling "kitty kitty kitty" at the lioness. His parents, who are presumably filming the interaction, are laughing in the background. (I'd include the link but my laptop is in the shop so no slightly weird searches for me at the moment.)
I have the weirdest feeling that I've missed about a page and a half to two pages of sporking, tops. All of the posts on your journal, however, inform me differently. (And how sad is that? You've certainly got my condolences!)
Anita has to blink in order to see them rather than the tigers inside her.
It could be a possession thing. I'd probably write it that way but then, I've got theories for what the MOAD should be.
Envy kisses her “tasted of tiger and sweet lipstick.”
I assumed that meant that Envy tasted like flavored lipstick, old/new blood, and possibly fresh/rotting raw meat since people rarely "taste" of anything except what they've recently put in their mouth. And, well, she is a tigress.
While I'm on the subject of Envy, Anita, the "Strong Woman", needs to be rescued from another woman's overly aggressive, lesbian-ish attentions by a heterosexual man rather than dealing with it herself by saying, "I'm not comfortable with this. Stop/Slow down." It has the implication that, as a Straight Woman, Anita needs to be protected from Evil Lesbian Advances by a strong, straight, traditional man. The lack of character development (unless I missed it?) and the fact that Anita is "relieved" to be rid of Envy's attentions via JC's intervention in no way helps these implications.
(I admit that JC doesn't check all of the boxes for "Traditional Masculinity" even when I add in my head cannons for him, including my staunch beliefs in his bi-ness (with a leaning towards women) and his awesomeness with a sword because of the era, household, and socioeconomic class in which he was raised. Despite that, JC is still very traditionally a guy with a guy identity who is being pitted against an overly amorous "lesbian" who's trying to seduce a straight woman off of the path of straightness. The specter of Straight Man Banging The Gay Out Of A Lesbian-Presenting Woman hangs over this interaction, despite all the earlier hoopla about Envy being "for JC." Just because she was sent by Augustine as a dick-holster for JC (& presumably the other male harem members, excluding Richard) doesn't mean that she likes/prefers penis. In fact, it might be better for Anita's sense of security and general domestic harmony if Envy doesn't feel much or any sexual attraction to Anita's Toys.)
Isn’t this EXACTLY what happened with Gretchen and Richard?
In this rendition of the move, JC = Gretchen & Envy = Richard, presumably, since everyone's been banging on about Envy's (unsubstantiated) straightness. That said, Envy'll probably get the brunt of Anita's jealousy and insecurity despite the fact that Envy was rolled and JC had his self-control intact. And yeah, looking further down, she kisses JC and really gets into it from the crappy audio descriptions. Oh look, she bangs JC and Richard. Envy is obviously going to have to be flattened by a semi at some point.
(Also, assuming for a moment that Envy liked men and had consented to banging JC, how irritating would it be for her and JC to have to drop what they're doing at a moment's notice to make sure that Anita is comfortable with the orgy setting? It's a comfort to Anita that, even in the midst of getting non-Anita girl-sex, JC is still suitably focused on Anita's wants/comforts & openly prioritizes them over his sexual partner's wants/needs but it's got to suck for his partners to be so disrespected and it's got to suck for JC to not be able to relax into the moment.)
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I've got theories for what the MOAD should be.
Oh yeees, me too. I love love love her concept and it irks me SO MUCH she's executed so shittily and ineffectively. You've probably told me your ideas before but if you've got the time and inclination, mind sharing them again? They're always awesome and make loads of sense!
I have the weirdest feeling that I've missed about a page and a half to two pages of sporking, tops. All of the posts on your journal, however, inform me differently. (And how sad is that? You've certainly got my condolences!)
I first read this less than ten minutes after waking up and thought you were trying to say that my journal was missing pages for you. I now realize you are commenting on Bullet XD
While I'm on the subject of Envy, Anita, the "Strong Woman", needs to be rescued from another woman's overly aggressive, lesbian-ish attentions by a heterosexual man... Anita needs to be protected from Evil Lesbian Advances by a strong, straight, traditional man
Eeeeew, you're totally right!
The lack of character development (unless I missed it?)
No, you didn't miss it, Envy gets absolutely zip-fuck personality. And she never gets developed beyond this scene either, at least not in this book, and, I have a hunch, not in Hit List or Kiss the Dead, if she even appears in those.
admit that JC doesn't check all of the boxes for "Traditional Masculinity"...still very traditionally a guy with a guy identity
Not to mention I think he's one of the dudes who Anita emphasizes over and over is sooo pretty and wearing pretty lacy froofroo things but MAKES IT LOOK SO MANLY MANLY MASCULINE CUZ HE'S A MAN
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This is probably to prove that he is/they are worthy toys for Anita and, maybe, provide some flimsy form of consent from the tigers. I don't, however, believe this is consent since they're already roofied and thus are unable to give meaningful consent.
And why does Meph think the only way he could want his hands all over a hot woman (and vice versa) is because vampire powers are making him feel that way?
Meph says that the other tigers are "looking for a place that smells like home" while he (already) "has a home." In this series, "home" almost invariably means a perfect lover/soul mate.like, gag me, Micah/Nathaniel to Anita. If Meph already has a perfect bond with someone else, he'd presumably want to be loyal to that person which, in turn, might not include banging Anita. (This is especially true if it's a monogamous relationship and, given that soul mates in this universe are invariably One to Two, it probably is.) Meph never says that Anita is his home, merely that he has one and that he is bewildered by wanting to touch her/rub his skin against hers/bang her. Whether he's gay or straight and even if Anita is exactly his physical type, Meph (probably) already has someone that he does sex & love with and can, presumably, feel the difference between that relationship and the artificial lust that Anita is inducing in him.
My question here is, if JC's lust isn't able to over come true love and, presumably, the love between soul mates is true, is Anita using her Master of Tigers rights/powers to make Meph want/need to bang her? Like, is she using the roofie-magic to make him horny and the tiger-magic to direct his attentions towards her? Or is it something else?
Either way, even under the effects of a pernicious magical roofie, Meph has a better understanding of consent than Anita does since he asks to touch her. Whoever he's actually with is probably quite lucky in the normal course of their relationship.
Anita answers “I don’t know” but “I did, or knew what I wanted to do."
This reeks of a woman in a (supposedly) polyamorous relationship asking permission from the main men in her life to express herself sexually. She is literally getting their blessing to bang Meph. A woman who needs her sexual desires anticipated by a man (JC) rather than simply stating what she wants or going after it and getting the blessing to be sexual with a man (Meph) from the other men in her life (Micah/Nathaniel instead of her father/brothers) is sooooo progressive and edgy and feminist. Really. I especially like the part where Anita doesn't admit to what she wants until after her
masculine overlordsmen-folk indicate that it's okay to want what she wants, which in this case is a bed of all things. Heaven help her if she ever needs a kidney.and “he tasted so good, so right”
Meph, apparently, brushed his teeth after eating his share of the deer carcass.
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Not to mention "have been trained from birth to basically be concubines for Next Master of Tigers"
Meph says that the other tigers are "looking for a place that smells like home" while he (already) "has a home." In this series, "home" almost invariably means a perfect lover/soul mate.
...and so it follows that he has a significant other! Oh my gosh, how did I not see that?!
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I'm sure they're as poorly described as Envy's were too, which is both a blessing to readers and a sign of shoddy workmanship. Unrelated to that sentence fragment but related to the scene that it comes from, I sincerely hate how out-of-control the were-animal scenes "have to be" in the AB-verse. Also, Micah apparently "has calm eyes" which makes me think that he's gone and plucked someone's eyes out while Anita wasn't looking and is just casually cupping them in the palm of one hand. Either that or he's deeply and sincerely gay since this sexual activity that he reputedly enjoys, voyeurism of heterosexual sex, doesn't get him hot or turned on.
Anita asks if he wants to “touch her, like roll around naked on top of her?”
That sounds awful! JC must be desperate to have sex with someone who wants to have sex with him if that doesn't at least flag his enthusiasm. It's too bad that I'm pretty sure that Envy and Meph (but possibly not Pride? Where the hell is he and what's he doing?) are out of control and should not be banged by anyone, especially since Meph practically tells Anita that what's going on is not his standard operating procedure.
Then wolf-Richard gets up and growls at them.
Richard does not approve. Good. Neither do I. Grrrrrrrr.
She turns back to Micah and Meph BITES HER BREAST.
I hope it wasn't hard! Presumably, that was to punish her for thinking about/looking at other guys when he's trying to seduce/bang her since he still seems to have enough personality to think he is owed some respect. I can't blame Meph for wanting her full attention, particularly if that's what he is used to and expects from his other partner (and yes, I've adopted that as head canon), but that's still really, really unpleasant of him. (So maybe he's punishing her for rolling him?)
She then spends a paragraph talking about... his eyes
Yeah, she's really into the sexy timez if she's navel gazing about his eye colors at a time like that.
“as if whoever shopped for him had paid extra for the pretty parts.”
a.) Dehumanizing as... actually, I'm having trouble thinking of an expletive that isn't rooted in human-ness.\
b.) Someone should just buy/commission a pretty sex doll for her. Seriously.
c.) That would be Augustine or possibly that old werewolf guy and yes, I imagine he paid someone handsomely for the pretty boys and girls he sent along to Anita.
She offers her hand to Micah... he rubs his head against it... "he came to me without any questions"...
The pet references, THEY BURN!
Also, her inability to bond with people who present as Actual People may have more to do with her self-centered-ness and Micah's willingness to cater to it.
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Yes.
Someone should just buy/commission a pretty sex doll for her. Seriously.
I doubt she'd notice the difference, haha!
The pet references, THEY BURN!
Ugh, right? it's even worse when you remember how Micah = Jon
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I have finally, FINALLY figured out how to interpret answers to questions in the AB-verse. They are entirely predicated on the idea that everyone, from the newest, greenest character to the old chestnut ones that have been around from the beginning or near it, knows everything that Anita does and, what's more, knows exactly what's going on in her head. Just like there are no individual verbal ticks or verbal cadences within the cast of characters, there's also no individual perspective or unique thought processes or memory formation, at least not around Anita, which is why JC & Asher are the sum total of the seven things that she knows about them and why Meph, despite having absolutely no reason to know about Anita's specialful sue powers, understands what the hell Anita is on about and knows that there's no room for him inside of her. (Which is laughable when you consider the totality of the circumstances.)
Anita literally eats the individuality out of her fuck toys and leaves them as empty husks which is how Meph goes from whatever his initial emotional state was (but whatever it was, it was probably not that into Anita since she had to "break" him) to sad to begging for her magic sexual lovin' (like Haven who was SO OBVIOUSLY HOT FOR HER, YO. It leaves me with the firm understanding that Haven's avatar probably turned her down flat.)
Claudia is so, so smart to leave the room (and then town, hopefully.)
And I maintain that the fact that Richard knows he was bumped from King-status because of LKH's personal life is an indication of the One Perspective-ness of Anita.
Micah tells him there is always room
Either a cuckhold fetish or my gay theory is starting to hold water and the more other men who bang her, the less he does. (And the more often that he can bang Nathaniel. Since I know that they're both the same person, that creates some really interesting masturbatory and gay verses ace issues. Why can we not explore that in the narrative?)
"But not for another king. You can be mine, but I already have a king."
That's fine. Even if you've literally eaten the knowledge out of his brain, Meph already has a queen.
Micah's more like...the Sultan's first wife, and the rest are just concubines in the harem.
Um... not quite. There are definite and tangible benefits to being the first wife in a string of wives and concubines. I think your second example, where Anita's the token boss, is more apt.
Pride...[is] still standing off to the side "where he was hugging his arms tight" and Anita doesn't know if it's still goosebumps or if maybe he is "fighting not to touch one of us" instead.
Pride! I am so ridiculously proud of you! Have a cookie!
Pro tip, if something shouldn't work, you either don't do it or give a damn good explanation
Yeah, I don't mind if the character is befuddled or clueless or doesn't even question it so long as I can believe that at some point, it will all be made clear and sensible within the canon's rules.
Richard just goes over to Jean-Claude and Envy.
I find it interesting that, when the consent is about to be stripped right out of him, Richard goes to stand next to JC who, apparently, doesn't let Richard overstep his (Richard's) limits, even which Richard would cheerfully do so under the effects of Anita's magical roofies. Either that, or they've bonded as sex buddies.
Additionally, Anita isn't jealous of Richard having sex with JC & Envy because, at some level, it's probably like letting her toys vibrate against each other. They're all hers and all on and she could play with any of them if she wanted to, so it's okay to ignore them in favor of her newest toys. But, if Richard should find a new, blonde girlfriend who would have nothing to do with Anita and refused to take part in this bullshit, essentially leaving Anita for another woman, Anita would turn into a poo-flinging chimp.
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And the more often that he can bang Nathaniel. Since I know that they're both the same person, that creates some really interesting masturbatory and gay verses ace issues
OMG
Um... not quite. There are definite and tangible benefits to being the first wife in a string of wives and concubines. I think your second example, where Anita's the token boss, is more apt.
Yeah, I re-thought that and, from what I recall, being the wife or mother of the Sultan was in many ways a position of rulership and influence in its own right, Anita is definitely more the mob boss mistress.
as I can believe that at some point, it will all be made clear and sensible within the canon's rules.
Yes, me too! Unfortunately, that's now how it is in the Anitaverse, I've learned.
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And it's really, really clever in SvS (even though I'm behind on that too! But I remember a hint/reference of it during one of Lucy's meetings with her harem-minions.) I think my shocked/appalled response is two pronged:
1 - It's in the actual text! I've only seen Sue-ness show up in an actual, canon character to this same degree once and it was actually a plot point. (It turned out that the reason the world was so disjointed around the anime's main character was because the MC was literally that world's capricious, immature, and often cruel god. And, by the end of the series, you feel just as badly for the MC as you do for everyone else in the show.)
2 - LKH once said that she "can't unknow" what she "knows/learns" about the AB world which is why her canon screw-ups in her comic prequel are "understandable and reasonable." (Which, by the way, they're not to me.) She's also said that she "can't keep secrets from Anita." (Which is ridiculous!) But it's not just Anita! In order for that conversation with Meph to work - in order for any conversation to work in the AB-verse - the characters that Anita is talking to or interacting with have to know everything that she knows. In other words, LKH can't keep secrets from any of her characters! They are all filled with LKH's perspective (that Anita is awesome) which is why they all agree that Anita is awesome. The only exceptions -- police personnel, women, and the occasional werewolf -- are inserted into the text to make Anita look good (because she can't do it herself!) which is why they all end up having to simper, admit that Anita is better/smarter/right-er than them, and agree that they brought deserve whatever misfortune/horror Anita's visits on them. It's like an evil funhouse mirror-verse.
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Wow, she's such a catch. Clearly, Richard's disapproval and resentment of her are illogical and wrong and fucking up his one chance at True Love.
He obeys your every whim except for that one time you asked him not to rape you?
*sniffs* You just don't understand Trw Wuv, you soulless hater of romance!
.....God this series is fucked up.
Yes, yes it is. We could make a fortune writing a book about why it is. The anti/former fans would buy it and wave it and the Troos would buy it and burn it. Either way: profits!
"as if someone had a fur glove and was caressing us all over and over except it was warm and alive"
She used to describe JC's voice like this. It was supposed to be sexy then too but mostly it just struck me as gross. I was never so grateful as when she seemingly forgot this analogy and let it go. It's a damn shame that she's remembered it.
"Sex, ma petite, no more holding back. They are ours, or they are not."
Jean-Claude is old enough to know that sex can just be sex with no meaning or relationship attached. I mean, he's old enough to know about one night stands, right? Of course, he's also probably old enough to remember serfdom so owning people (one way or another) probably doesn't phase him much. It might even be a goal of his. But Richard, at least, should know better than that and I'm going to pretend that he does or I'll have to make a sincere effort at hating him to death.
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She used to describe JC's voice like this. It was supposed to be sexy then too but mostly it just struck me as gross. I was never so grateful as when she seemingly forgot this analogy and let it go. It's a damn shame that she's remembered it.
I can understand finding the fur glove potentially arousing, since it ties into sensation play. Especially if it was something like rabbit fur.
However, um... describing someone's VOICE like that is really, really weird and downright disturbing. I don't want someone's voice to be a part of foreplay unless it involves whispering huskily in my ear or moaning softly. I definitely don't want it to be doing things voices are physically incapable of doing, such as being tangible and caressing me.
LKH, why do you fail so hard at sexy analogies?
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RUN ENVY! No, seriously, I'm worried for her, especially since she seems to be occupying the role of Blow Up Doll Number 3 in this little performance for Anita's pleasure. (Forget what Envy, JC, or Richard might have preferred.) And I've bonded with Envy as a character while ruminating on who she might've been pre-Anita. (Also, even with two men of her own, Anita has time to be jealous of Envy getting unwanted/unconsented to oral from Richard. I'm sure THAT makes Asher and Meph feel wanted.)
Micah steadies Meph, asks what made Anita react like that,
I might be having to trade in my Micah = Homosexual for Micah = ACE.
Also, Micah and Nathaniel might have a thing for voyeurism but Anita definitely has a thing for exhibitionism. Otherwise, why make all the guards and Pride and whoever else is in the room stay?
"Nathaniel liked to watch, but Asher only enjoyed it if he knew he could play later."
a.) I literally had no idea that Asher was in the room until that bit about him leaning against the wall. Shoddy workmanship strikes again.
b.) If Asher's enjoyment of voyeurism is predicated on his knowledge that he'll get to participate in the encounter, then he must not have been enjoying Anita's stupid little show at all.
c.) Despite what Anita thinks, getting to have sex with her and Meph so that she can compete with JC/Envy/Ricard is not a compliment. Nor would it make Asher feel included, desired, or loved since he is literally being used and endured for the use of his fangs... and his super orgasmic bite. That way, Anita can win both the Race to Orgasm and the Best And Most Screaming-est Orgasm Ever Competition.
d.) It's sad that he expects to be left out and JC has to take time out of sex (and divert attention away from Envy in a universe in which Envy had consented to this steaming mess) to acknowledge What a Big and Generous Heart Anita has by thanking her for banging a supposed lover that she supposedly loves deeply... more deeply that JC loves him or Julianna loved him, naturally.
e.) Sex in the AB-verse is the un-sexiest thing EVER. LKH REALLY needs to read some fanfic porn to see where she's going wrong.
Meph starts undoing Anita's buckle, and he's looking at her "his face uncertain, his eyes looking up at me, waiting for me to say no."
I was right earlier. He really IS a thoroughly better, more consent-aware person than Anita.
That's okay, Meph, Anita will cure you of that soon enough!
Nnooooooo. Meph's real significant other won't like that!
Anita can hear Richard is "making progress" with Envy
Well, yes, I'd imagine it's something of an uphill battle to get someone to orgasm, much less to do it quickly, when they don't want you and might not be attracted to you, no matter how much random bullshit and navel-gazing the other "contestants" get up to during the "competition". Also, I can't help but feel that Anita's going to orgasm faster than Envy in the next chapter and that this will be used as a slight against Envy's femininity, "prudishness", and sexual prowess. And, as we all know, people's worth in this series is entirely measured by their sexual prowess. Envy is destined to live, suffer, and die in the non-human caste of AB characters.
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That's actually exactly how it goes for her. Anita's guys fuck her for Anita's pleasure, then she just disappears offscreen forevermore. No personality, no screen-time, nothing, nada. She doesn't appear or even get mentioned in this book after Anita gets off on her being boned, and I don't think she's going to appear in Hit List or Kiss the Dead either. She's seriously just an empty shell introduced for Anita's pleasure, then tossed aside and forgotten.
I might be having to trade in my Micah = Homosexual for Micah = ACE.
Maybe all his previous girlfriends weren't into it not because of his monster dong but because *he* was the one who wasn't into it. As for raping and becoming the 'lover' of Anita, well, that's just all about power!
Also, Micah and Nathaniel might have a thing for voyeurism but Anita definitely has a thing for exhibitionism. Otherwise, why make all the guards and Pride and whoever else is in the room stay?
Kind of hilarious you'd mention that, since she states several times, including in this book, that her boyfriends are exhibitionists but she's so totally not. Which, when you think about it, doesn't make much sense if nudity is so ~not sexual~ for them whereas she's the one who, as is shown again and again, definitely sees it as scandalous and therefore would be the one to get a thrill out of it.
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This is a super feminist text. Really. I'm going to pretend that Envy escaped, either in actuality or by hiding among the masses. (But either way, LKH's subconscious was trolling her with that name because Envy seems okay whereas Anita is horrifically jealous of Envy, even though she keeps telling herself that there's no reason to be. And I can't decide if it's the Another Woman-ness or the Blond-ness working against Envy in this scene.)
Maybe all his previous girlfriends weren't into it not because of his monster dong but because *he* was the one who wasn't into it. As for raping and becoming the 'lover' of Anita, well, that's just all about power!
It certainly makes Micah a much more interesting character, doesn't it? The 'They couldn't handle, and thus hated, my monster part' always sounded like the immature justifications of someone who was trying to avoid explaining the true reason that his previous girlfriends complained about the sex and then dumped him. (I mean, I always assumed that he was just really, really bad at it but this explanation is better.) And it would certainly explain not only the fact that he literally initiates one encounter with Anita (as far as I can tell), participates in the sex as rarely as possible, and has to ask or take notes on what turns Anita on but also what he's getting out of catering to Anita's dysfunction and narcissism.
she states several times... that her boyfriends are exhibitionists but she's so totally not
Methinks she doth protest too much.
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...I had more to say about the chapter, but my niece is being snuggly and I can't think about ungood things like this chapter when there's a 6 year old giving me hugs. Will write it up later. :)
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Though if I could safely drive that far, I'd be there with her right now. It's about a 2-hour drive, so it'll have to wait. We're on the opposite side of Atlanta from there.
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They do, don't they? The impression I get is mostly that all the characters have some sort of terminal attention deficiency - they get asked a question, they think about the answer, their thoughts promptly derail and they start thinking about whatever they find more interesting at the moment, they forget what the question was and instead assumes that they were asked a question about the more interesting topic which they then promptly answer. Meanwhile, the other character has also forgotten what his question was and just assumes that the answer he got applied to it.
Pro tip, if something shouldn't work, you either don't do it or give a damn good explanation as to why it did that shows it did NOT in fact break the canon rules. Making it 'just work' is bullshit...aka what these entire books have become.
Yeah. The books were always the most interesting to me when they followed the strict rules they had set up, and that seems to be what most people here liked best about them too. Sadly, LKH seems to have very little interest in exploring her rules when breaking them feels so much more exciting to her.
So she tells them that if they're going to do more than this they need to do it soon.
Er, I am not particularly knowledgeable about the female anatomy, but... I do not think it works like that, yes? Women don't normally become incapable of sex immediately after having an orgasm the way that men usually do? I guess this is just another way that Anita is just SO MANLY that even the laws of biology no longer applies for her.
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Agreed, and Anita in particular has some serious verbal comprehension problems.
The books were always the most interesting to me when they followed the strict rules they had set up, and that seems to be what most people here liked best about them too. Sadly, LKH seems to have very little interest in exploring her rules when breaking them feels so much more exciting to her.
I feel that way about the rules of story-verses in general. I really, really hate it when natural laws of a world are set up only to be forgotten or, worse, are there just so the protagonist can break them (usually saving the day at the last second by doing so).
I do not think it works like that, yes? Women don't normally become incapable of sex immediately after having an orgasm the way that men usually do?
Generally not. I'm sure some women might, since we all work differently in that regard--some take longer than others, some can have multiples in one go, etc.-- but generally speaking, yeah, she should be able to come here just fine and then be able to come shortly later while actually getting fucked, as she's never been a one-orgasm girl in the past before.