BULLET, CHAPTER FORTY TWO
Jun. 30th, 2013 11:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
a_sporking_ratHey guys, sorry for the delay! In addition to cleaning the rat cages this weekend along with throwing myself back in job-searching, I've also resumed my gym and pilates routines, which I previously was on a break from for a few weeks because of shin splints. Not mention volunteering at the animal shelter! On Friday, I saw seven dogs get taken to their new forever homes, three more get put on hold for a pending adoption, and one get reclaimed by the owner who lost him! We’ve also got a guinea pig there right now and she is sooooo cute! It’s going to be hard for me not to take her home, honestly.
As for the rodents I already do have...
Justin and Jenner are both so old now that they are balding and are having problems with their back legs. I took their food and water out of the penthouse part of the their cage and put it on the ground floor so they wouldn't HAVE to climb, though they still do. Justin has a lump that I'm a little worried about, but Dad thinks it's a subcutaneous cyst, not a tumor.
I got a rat ball (no idea what happened to the old one) and Sam loves it! While the others are happy enough to be lazy lap rats, Sam is super high energy and wants to go everywhere. This way, she can, and I don't have to worry about it!
Jenner and Ratsputin, being alpha males extraordinaire, both freak out if I hold one outside the cage bars of the other. They're fine if one of the girls is out there, though, just interested. Today I tried the reverse, holding Ratsputin outside the bars of the girls cage. To my surprise, Blatz was...not aggressive, but pretty defensive. Every time he tried to put his nose or paws through, she'd get in his way and even try to nip. She's fine with them all outside the cage, very friendly and tolerant, so I guess this could just be a territory issue, but I think she was defending Sam, because she only started that once Sam went over to check Ratsputin out, and she kept blocking Sam and pushing her back every time she tried to get near Ratsputin. She treats Sam like her baby, and I think she was worried that this big intruding male might be coming to hurt her.
Also, someone got an advance copy of Affliction and is flogging/summarizing it on the Amazon forums, if you're interested!
http://www.amazon.com/Affliction-Book-Flog/forum/FxIH9VYIM8DKMA/Tx3UR91JCP7PJUI/1/ref=cm_cd_pg_pg1?_encoding=UTF8&asin=0425255700
Or you can enjoy this post, in which there is a summary of fifteen pages yet they don't get to the sex. It's not sexy buildup either. It's just a really, really boring load of nothing.
BULLET, CHAPTER FORTY TWO
"We started out doing something similar to what Jean-Claude and Richard had done, but we used the bed" because "I was shorter than Asher by a lot." So you'd think sex is happening right off the bat, right? Wrong!
Anita talks about being "cradled against Asher's body" and how his leather pants feel and how he's still dressed and Anita wants him undressed and how Meph's body type is a lot like Richard's ("tall, athletic, and physically imposing") which is what Asher especially likes "but the new guy was very interested in me. He didn't seem to mind the other men, and liked Micah, but he wasn't looking at the other men the way that Asher would have" I'm sure this has nothing to do with how Micah warped Meph's mind and desires so he'd be exactly your type of guy---tolerates other dudes in bed but ultimately only has eyes for you (and, of course, likes Micah so Micah can bone him too and won't have to worry about him as competition like with Haven.) She talks about how Asher "liked his women [sexually] knowledgeable, and his men knowledgeable with women, and he got off on being a man's first man" so Meph might be good at that too...no, Anita, I doubt that. He was trained to satisfy the vampires of Belle Morte's line sexually, remember? She doesn't only have female members, as you should well know. So anyway, Anita figures based on all this that Asher is going to hide his scars until he knows what his chances are with Meph.
I should add now that I had completely fucking forgotten that Asher was even in this scene. Look at the last spork, he didn't even talk or get mentioned in that chapter!
She wonders if it bothered Asher to see JC with Envy "showing such a strong preference for body parts he didn't have". Again, I doubt it. Asher has clearly always known JC leaned towards women as he leaned towards men, has had centuries to get adjusted to that, has enjoyed women with him, and even sought out a woman for him that they shared.
She and Micah get naked from the waist up, hug, and kiss with "gentle teeth"...this is the second time I can remember teeth being involved in kissing in these books. Kissing with teeth sounds unpleasant enough, but what does doing it gently mean? Rubbing your teeth together but not really hard? Meph asks where she wants him, and Anita admits that maybe for a moment they'd forgotten he was there. She says she doesn't know his comfort level, he asks about what, Anita looks at Asher whose expression is "absolutely arrogantly handsome." She used 'arrogant handsome" to describe the expressions of the tiger guys too; she knows that 'handsome' isn't something you can emote, right? She figures Asher is hiding what he's feeling because "he didn't want to spook the new guy." She then looks at Nathaniel, who is in a chair near the bed so he can watch, and he smiles. Then she looks at Micah, who tells Meph he can join in any time he wants. Meph smiles, climbs on the bed, and crawls towards them with "a sinuous roll" that is "graceful and lascivious, and promised sex like the air could promise rain" and Anita knows from this that he'll be really good in bed. I really have no experience with whether or not someone being graceful and sexy-moving makes them actually good at sex or not, so I can't say if this is bull or not, but I think it is.
He sniff her and rubs her and kisses her tits and stuff and "then he looked down at me and there was that heat that all men seem to have in their eyes somewhere" Do asexual men have this heat? And then he kisses her "all lips and tongue and teeth." Okay I guess I could see wereanimals getting teeth involved but it just seems AWKWARD AND MESSY not rough-sexy. He starts kneading her skin like a cat. I wish he'd also piss all over the place like a cat when he settles in and considers it his home, but un-sexy animal behaviors are never allowed. Since he kneaded her back he can feel there's a scar there and asks to see. She shows it to him and says she got it from a broken wooden stake. HE ASKS IF SHE FELL ON IT. THAT IS HILARIOUS. She says no, that a mind-controlled human tried to stake her. I LIKE HIS IDEA BETTER, IT'S REALLY FUNNY AND NONE OF THE CHARACTERS SEEM TO REALIZE IT. He says that "I've got one, and mine's bigger." Is this going to be a dick thing? He shows her the scar on his back "and it was longer, though mine was wider. Men, they're always more impressed with length than width." Yup, it's a dick thing.
She asks how he got it, he says his cousin Thorn did it in a practice match. They used real silver blades even for practice, he says, because "if you don't use silver, then you don't know how you'll react to being hurt." What? Since when do wereanimals not feel pain if the weapon isn't silver? They may be able to heal from everything non-silver and non-fire, yes, but that doesn't mean the wound doesn't still hurt when it's made. And it's been made clear it does in the past. Anita tries to read something in his expression as he tells her this, and Micah says that Thorn is one of the weretigers that didn't make his cut for who to introduce her to. Anita asks why, Micah says "He has a temper, and he tried treating me like I was short" YOU ARE SHORT ANITA NEVER SHUTS UP ABOUT IT I BET SHE PATS YOUR HEAD AND BABYTALKS ABOUT HOW TEENY TINY YOU ARE TO YOU and Anita says "Oh, so not winning points with me" and Micah says he told Jake that Thorn only gets to say if he doesn't cause problems, otherwise he gets thrown out. Since that's the rule with everyone I would think, I can only assume Micah told Jake this about Thorn especially because of the height thing. TREAT ME SHORT (whatever that means) AND YOU GET KICKED OUT TO BE PREY FOR THE MOAD AND HER HARLEQUINS. Nice.
The rest of the page and some of the next is spent with Anita showing Meph each and every one of her scars and telling him how she got them, just like she did with the SWAT guys in Skin Trade and the lion men in Flirt. LKH really has a thing for this. She finishes her show by saying how everyone that hurt her is dead now. Meph then asks to see Asher's scars. Asher goes still for a moment, then moves his hair, and Meph touches the scars on his face. Meph says his cousin Martino is going to be jealous, Anita asks about what, Meph says that "Martino thinks he's the most beautiful man ever, but he isn't even close to Asher. Or to Jean-Claude, for that matter, but you are the most beautiful man I've ever seen." Asher says that's not true and pulls away, Meph says the scars "barely cover any of your face, just this little part." and touches under Asher's lips.
1) Martino? Pride, Envy, Mephistopheles...and Martino?
2) Anita has the most prettiest men-toys in the world, everyone be jealous! If you're a woman, want them! If you're a man like Martino, want to be them! If you're joining like Meph, marvel at them and talk about how jealous everyone must be!
3) So, is getting a guy who thinks Asher is hot supposed to be a resolution to the stuff at the beginning? Because I don't see it. Meph may think Asher is lovely, but so does JC, and like JC, he's into Anita, and more than that, he's been mindfucked by Micah to be the way Anita will like, which means he's probably only into men for Anita's pleasure and would have no interest in Asher for his own sake.
4) Only a little part of his face? I thought it was half-and-half? Did that change, or is Meph just being charitable/that's how Meph sees it?
Asher tells him he's not beautiful and unbuttons his shirt to show the chest scars. Meph tries to touch him, Asher starts to move away but Nathaniel tells Asher that Asher wants him to touch him. Yes, Nate, maybe, but that doesn't mean he's ready for it, so you stay out of this. Understandably "Asher shot him a not entirely friendly look" but still lets Meph touch his chest. He asks how far down the scars go, Asher asks if he's trying to get him out of his clothes, Meph reminds him that's the point of all this. Nathaniel says yes "and he was looking at Asher. The look said clearly, Don't blow this for yourself just because you are a pain in the ass." HOW DARE ASHER HAVE COMFORT LEVELS, ESPECIALLY WITH NEW PEOPLE! Meph asks if he can see, Asher looks at Anita and she says she doesn't know why so Micah answers him "Don't you want to?" and Asher looks at Anita again and "I understood the pleading now."
Micah is a coercive pressuring dick to everyone, great. Anita also totally misinterprets, in my opinion, just what Asher is pleading for because she crawls over and asks if he wants some help. Asher admittedly nods (I guess he knows he's not getting out of this, poor dude) and Anita has the astounding revelation that he's NERVOUS OMG because a man he likes seems attracted to him and he thinks it's too good to be true. WOW, ANITA, FUCKING BRILLIANT! HOW DO YOU DO IT? Anita tells him to lie back, he does so, his hair "spilled" of course, and Anita thinks about how hot he is. There have to be three sentences of dialogue exchanged between the characters about who is taking his boots off and it's another paragraph before it is actually done. Meph comments he likes the leather, Anita says he'll be seeing a lot of it here. THIS WAS NOT WORTH THE DEATH OF THE DOUBTLESS MILLIONS OF COWS IT TOOK. They get his boots off and his pants open and Meph puts his hand down there and says that the scars stop. Anita says "Not exactly, but we'll have to get him out of the pants to show you what I mean." They then spend a paragraph pulling his pants off.
Meph touches his chest and stomach and then his groin and notes that the scars on the former are a lot deeper than the ones on the latter, "It's like they couldn't bear to ruin your face or your junk." I find this line and idea tremendously funny and I don't know why. Asher then explains that his foreskin was actually all fucked up for over a century and there's three more short paragraphs about Meph touching him, with Anita emphasizing that "He was all about the texture and didn't seem to differentiate between what he was touching, focused only how it felt" which she's also been noting the whole time. Basically, he's not touching Asher sexually, more like a doctor's exam. Yeah, poor Asher can't catch a break; even when a dude fondles him and calls him pretty, he's treating him more like an interesting specimen than a lover.
We then get two fucking paragraphs about the scar on Asher's balls. My favorite like is that "the scar on Asher's balls was harder to touch, because the skin moved." Male mice can retract their balls up into themselves. Sometimes they have a full sac hanging down, other times they can pass for female at a glance. That's what this makes me think of. I guess any body part would retreat at the advance of Anita's touch! There is then a big long (no pun intended) paragraph on Meph touching the balls while Anita strokes his cock and how Meph isn't really playing with 'em like Asher likes, just touching the scar, and how she "still couldn't tell if Mephistopheles was okay with touching another man, or if he was just after the texture in an almost nonsexual." Almost. Normally I'd make fun of that and the idea a person could never be touching someone non-sexually in a sexual spot during what is supposed to be an orgy, but I guess admittedly at this point I am thinking he has a scar/texture kink. Also yes Anita he is clearly okay with touching another man as evident by the fact he's doing it of his own volition. I believe want you mean is 'touching with sexual intent' or something similar.
Asher gets a hard-on, Meph then starts exploring "the texture of the skin and the delicate bits inside". So like...is he smushing the balls so he can feel the actual gonadals inside the testicle sac, I guess? It sounds from the description like he's poking his fingers INSIDE the balls to poke at those, but given there's no gore and screaming I guess not. Anita thinks that "I wasn't sure how to move past this, or if I should" because Asher is getting so much attention and she doesn't want to spoil it for him (LOL YEAH RIGHT, ANITA BEING OKAY WITH SOMEONE ELSE GETTING ATTENTION) so "I looked at Micah for a clue, or an assist" but it's Nathaniel who pipes up that "There are enough of us to do oral on two of us at the same time." I had to read this twice to make sense of that. Meph asks who does who, and they spend a page and a third discussing that in the most non-sexy and bland way possible, of course. The only parts worth noting about this back and forth is that when Meph says that girls scream when he gives them head is that Anita scoffs "Screaming, so girl." MAN, HOW LAME AND GIRLY TO SCREAM WHEN YOU ORGASM, ANITA NEVER DOES THAT...except all those times she's "screaming her passion to the ceiling" and the like, and Asher warning Meph that when a vampire goes down to you, fangs get involved, so don't ask for it from him unless you like pain. So no vampire ever figured out a way around that? Especially Asher, who likes cock and has been around quite awhile? I guess depending how big they are and if they're angled in any way...you know what, not gonna think about it.
I don't know quite what to think about this chapter. The first time I went through it I just hated it because of how long it took without anything actually happening, but now that I've gone through a second time to spork it, I do appreciate that all this time and attention was given to Asher, which realistically he'd need. I guess my verdict is that it would be okay (though still with some trimming and a little more eroticism) if the rest of the book wasn't such a similar drag.
As for the rodents I already do have...
Justin and Jenner are both so old now that they are balding and are having problems with their back legs. I took their food and water out of the penthouse part of the their cage and put it on the ground floor so they wouldn't HAVE to climb, though they still do. Justin has a lump that I'm a little worried about, but Dad thinks it's a subcutaneous cyst, not a tumor.
I got a rat ball (no idea what happened to the old one) and Sam loves it! While the others are happy enough to be lazy lap rats, Sam is super high energy and wants to go everywhere. This way, she can, and I don't have to worry about it!
Jenner and Ratsputin, being alpha males extraordinaire, both freak out if I hold one outside the cage bars of the other. They're fine if one of the girls is out there, though, just interested. Today I tried the reverse, holding Ratsputin outside the bars of the girls cage. To my surprise, Blatz was...not aggressive, but pretty defensive. Every time he tried to put his nose or paws through, she'd get in his way and even try to nip. She's fine with them all outside the cage, very friendly and tolerant, so I guess this could just be a territory issue, but I think she was defending Sam, because she only started that once Sam went over to check Ratsputin out, and she kept blocking Sam and pushing her back every time she tried to get near Ratsputin. She treats Sam like her baby, and I think she was worried that this big intruding male might be coming to hurt her.
Also, someone got an advance copy of Affliction and is flogging/summarizing it on the Amazon forums, if you're interested!
http://www.amazon.com/Affliction-Book-Flog/forum/FxIH9VYIM8DKMA/Tx3UR91JCP7PJUI/1/ref=cm_cd_pg_pg1?_encoding=UTF8&asin=0425255700
Or you can enjoy this post, in which there is a summary of fifteen pages yet they don't get to the sex. It's not sexy buildup either. It's just a really, really boring load of nothing.
BULLET, CHAPTER FORTY TWO
"We started out doing something similar to what Jean-Claude and Richard had done, but we used the bed" because "I was shorter than Asher by a lot." So you'd think sex is happening right off the bat, right? Wrong!
Anita talks about being "cradled against Asher's body" and how his leather pants feel and how he's still dressed and Anita wants him undressed and how Meph's body type is a lot like Richard's ("tall, athletic, and physically imposing") which is what Asher especially likes "but the new guy was very interested in me. He didn't seem to mind the other men, and liked Micah, but he wasn't looking at the other men the way that Asher would have" I'm sure this has nothing to do with how Micah warped Meph's mind and desires so he'd be exactly your type of guy---tolerates other dudes in bed but ultimately only has eyes for you (and, of course, likes Micah so Micah can bone him too and won't have to worry about him as competition like with Haven.) She talks about how Asher "liked his women [sexually] knowledgeable, and his men knowledgeable with women, and he got off on being a man's first man" so Meph might be good at that too...no, Anita, I doubt that. He was trained to satisfy the vampires of Belle Morte's line sexually, remember? She doesn't only have female members, as you should well know. So anyway, Anita figures based on all this that Asher is going to hide his scars until he knows what his chances are with Meph.
I should add now that I had completely fucking forgotten that Asher was even in this scene. Look at the last spork, he didn't even talk or get mentioned in that chapter!
She wonders if it bothered Asher to see JC with Envy "showing such a strong preference for body parts he didn't have". Again, I doubt it. Asher has clearly always known JC leaned towards women as he leaned towards men, has had centuries to get adjusted to that, has enjoyed women with him, and even sought out a woman for him that they shared.
She and Micah get naked from the waist up, hug, and kiss with "gentle teeth"...this is the second time I can remember teeth being involved in kissing in these books. Kissing with teeth sounds unpleasant enough, but what does doing it gently mean? Rubbing your teeth together but not really hard? Meph asks where she wants him, and Anita admits that maybe for a moment they'd forgotten he was there. She says she doesn't know his comfort level, he asks about what, Anita looks at Asher whose expression is "absolutely arrogantly handsome." She used 'arrogant handsome" to describe the expressions of the tiger guys too; she knows that 'handsome' isn't something you can emote, right? She figures Asher is hiding what he's feeling because "he didn't want to spook the new guy." She then looks at Nathaniel, who is in a chair near the bed so he can watch, and he smiles. Then she looks at Micah, who tells Meph he can join in any time he wants. Meph smiles, climbs on the bed, and crawls towards them with "a sinuous roll" that is "graceful and lascivious, and promised sex like the air could promise rain" and Anita knows from this that he'll be really good in bed. I really have no experience with whether or not someone being graceful and sexy-moving makes them actually good at sex or not, so I can't say if this is bull or not, but I think it is.
He sniff her and rubs her and kisses her tits and stuff and "then he looked down at me and there was that heat that all men seem to have in their eyes somewhere" Do asexual men have this heat? And then he kisses her "all lips and tongue and teeth." Okay I guess I could see wereanimals getting teeth involved but it just seems AWKWARD AND MESSY not rough-sexy. He starts kneading her skin like a cat. I wish he'd also piss all over the place like a cat when he settles in and considers it his home, but un-sexy animal behaviors are never allowed. Since he kneaded her back he can feel there's a scar there and asks to see. She shows it to him and says she got it from a broken wooden stake. HE ASKS IF SHE FELL ON IT. THAT IS HILARIOUS. She says no, that a mind-controlled human tried to stake her. I LIKE HIS IDEA BETTER, IT'S REALLY FUNNY AND NONE OF THE CHARACTERS SEEM TO REALIZE IT. He says that "I've got one, and mine's bigger." Is this going to be a dick thing? He shows her the scar on his back "and it was longer, though mine was wider. Men, they're always more impressed with length than width." Yup, it's a dick thing.
She asks how he got it, he says his cousin Thorn did it in a practice match. They used real silver blades even for practice, he says, because "if you don't use silver, then you don't know how you'll react to being hurt." What? Since when do wereanimals not feel pain if the weapon isn't silver? They may be able to heal from everything non-silver and non-fire, yes, but that doesn't mean the wound doesn't still hurt when it's made. And it's been made clear it does in the past. Anita tries to read something in his expression as he tells her this, and Micah says that Thorn is one of the weretigers that didn't make his cut for who to introduce her to. Anita asks why, Micah says "He has a temper, and he tried treating me like I was short" YOU ARE SHORT ANITA NEVER SHUTS UP ABOUT IT I BET SHE PATS YOUR HEAD AND BABYTALKS ABOUT HOW TEENY TINY YOU ARE TO YOU and Anita says "Oh, so not winning points with me" and Micah says he told Jake that Thorn only gets to say if he doesn't cause problems, otherwise he gets thrown out. Since that's the rule with everyone I would think, I can only assume Micah told Jake this about Thorn especially because of the height thing. TREAT ME SHORT (whatever that means) AND YOU GET KICKED OUT TO BE PREY FOR THE MOAD AND HER HARLEQUINS. Nice.
The rest of the page and some of the next is spent with Anita showing Meph each and every one of her scars and telling him how she got them, just like she did with the SWAT guys in Skin Trade and the lion men in Flirt. LKH really has a thing for this. She finishes her show by saying how everyone that hurt her is dead now. Meph then asks to see Asher's scars. Asher goes still for a moment, then moves his hair, and Meph touches the scars on his face. Meph says his cousin Martino is going to be jealous, Anita asks about what, Meph says that "Martino thinks he's the most beautiful man ever, but he isn't even close to Asher. Or to Jean-Claude, for that matter, but you are the most beautiful man I've ever seen." Asher says that's not true and pulls away, Meph says the scars "barely cover any of your face, just this little part." and touches under Asher's lips.
1) Martino? Pride, Envy, Mephistopheles...and Martino?
2) Anita has the most prettiest men-toys in the world, everyone be jealous! If you're a woman, want them! If you're a man like Martino, want to be them! If you're joining like Meph, marvel at them and talk about how jealous everyone must be!
3) So, is getting a guy who thinks Asher is hot supposed to be a resolution to the stuff at the beginning? Because I don't see it. Meph may think Asher is lovely, but so does JC, and like JC, he's into Anita, and more than that, he's been mindfucked by Micah to be the way Anita will like, which means he's probably only into men for Anita's pleasure and would have no interest in Asher for his own sake.
4) Only a little part of his face? I thought it was half-and-half? Did that change, or is Meph just being charitable/that's how Meph sees it?
Asher tells him he's not beautiful and unbuttons his shirt to show the chest scars. Meph tries to touch him, Asher starts to move away but Nathaniel tells Asher that Asher wants him to touch him. Yes, Nate, maybe, but that doesn't mean he's ready for it, so you stay out of this. Understandably "Asher shot him a not entirely friendly look" but still lets Meph touch his chest. He asks how far down the scars go, Asher asks if he's trying to get him out of his clothes, Meph reminds him that's the point of all this. Nathaniel says yes "and he was looking at Asher. The look said clearly, Don't blow this for yourself just because you are a pain in the ass." HOW DARE ASHER HAVE COMFORT LEVELS, ESPECIALLY WITH NEW PEOPLE! Meph asks if he can see, Asher looks at Anita and she says she doesn't know why so Micah answers him "Don't you want to?" and Asher looks at Anita again and "I understood the pleading now."
Micah is a coercive pressuring dick to everyone, great. Anita also totally misinterprets, in my opinion, just what Asher is pleading for because she crawls over and asks if he wants some help. Asher admittedly nods (I guess he knows he's not getting out of this, poor dude) and Anita has the astounding revelation that he's NERVOUS OMG because a man he likes seems attracted to him and he thinks it's too good to be true. WOW, ANITA, FUCKING BRILLIANT! HOW DO YOU DO IT? Anita tells him to lie back, he does so, his hair "spilled" of course, and Anita thinks about how hot he is. There have to be three sentences of dialogue exchanged between the characters about who is taking his boots off and it's another paragraph before it is actually done. Meph comments he likes the leather, Anita says he'll be seeing a lot of it here. THIS WAS NOT WORTH THE DEATH OF THE DOUBTLESS MILLIONS OF COWS IT TOOK. They get his boots off and his pants open and Meph puts his hand down there and says that the scars stop. Anita says "Not exactly, but we'll have to get him out of the pants to show you what I mean." They then spend a paragraph pulling his pants off.
Meph touches his chest and stomach and then his groin and notes that the scars on the former are a lot deeper than the ones on the latter, "It's like they couldn't bear to ruin your face or your junk." I find this line and idea tremendously funny and I don't know why. Asher then explains that his foreskin was actually all fucked up for over a century and there's three more short paragraphs about Meph touching him, with Anita emphasizing that "He was all about the texture and didn't seem to differentiate between what he was touching, focused only how it felt" which she's also been noting the whole time. Basically, he's not touching Asher sexually, more like a doctor's exam. Yeah, poor Asher can't catch a break; even when a dude fondles him and calls him pretty, he's treating him more like an interesting specimen than a lover.
We then get two fucking paragraphs about the scar on Asher's balls. My favorite like is that "the scar on Asher's balls was harder to touch, because the skin moved." Male mice can retract their balls up into themselves. Sometimes they have a full sac hanging down, other times they can pass for female at a glance. That's what this makes me think of. I guess any body part would retreat at the advance of Anita's touch! There is then a big long (no pun intended) paragraph on Meph touching the balls while Anita strokes his cock and how Meph isn't really playing with 'em like Asher likes, just touching the scar, and how she "still couldn't tell if Mephistopheles was okay with touching another man, or if he was just after the texture in an almost nonsexual." Almost. Normally I'd make fun of that and the idea a person could never be touching someone non-sexually in a sexual spot during what is supposed to be an orgy, but I guess admittedly at this point I am thinking he has a scar/texture kink. Also yes Anita he is clearly okay with touching another man as evident by the fact he's doing it of his own volition. I believe want you mean is 'touching with sexual intent' or something similar.
Asher gets a hard-on, Meph then starts exploring "the texture of the skin and the delicate bits inside". So like...is he smushing the balls so he can feel the actual gonadals inside the testicle sac, I guess? It sounds from the description like he's poking his fingers INSIDE the balls to poke at those, but given there's no gore and screaming I guess not. Anita thinks that "I wasn't sure how to move past this, or if I should" because Asher is getting so much attention and she doesn't want to spoil it for him (LOL YEAH RIGHT, ANITA BEING OKAY WITH SOMEONE ELSE GETTING ATTENTION) so "I looked at Micah for a clue, or an assist" but it's Nathaniel who pipes up that "There are enough of us to do oral on two of us at the same time." I had to read this twice to make sense of that. Meph asks who does who, and they spend a page and a third discussing that in the most non-sexy and bland way possible, of course. The only parts worth noting about this back and forth is that when Meph says that girls scream when he gives them head is that Anita scoffs "Screaming, so girl." MAN, HOW LAME AND GIRLY TO SCREAM WHEN YOU ORGASM, ANITA NEVER DOES THAT...except all those times she's "screaming her passion to the ceiling" and the like, and Asher warning Meph that when a vampire goes down to you, fangs get involved, so don't ask for it from him unless you like pain. So no vampire ever figured out a way around that? Especially Asher, who likes cock and has been around quite awhile? I guess depending how big they are and if they're angled in any way...you know what, not gonna think about it.
I don't know quite what to think about this chapter. The first time I went through it I just hated it because of how long it took without anything actually happening, but now that I've gone through a second time to spork it, I do appreciate that all this time and attention was given to Asher, which realistically he'd need. I guess my verdict is that it would be okay (though still with some trimming and a little more eroticism) if the rest of the book wasn't such a similar drag.
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Date: 2013-07-01 11:21 am (UTC)I don't think that she does. Given the context, I think that she believes it to be a synonym for "confident".
Meph smiles, climbs on the bed, and crawls towards them with "a sinuous roll" that is "graceful and lascivious, and promised sex like the air could promise rain" and Anita knows from this that he'll be really good in bed.
These are the descriptions that used to be attached to teenaged!Nathaniel's "flirtations" and movements when he was trying to seduce Anita. Also, that is the exact same train of thought that early Anita used to suppose that Nathaniel was good in bed, even before she started banging him.
Example TWO of Ways In Which Micah Has Altered Meph. (I'm counting your note that Meph is okay with other guys but focused on Anita as Example ONE.)
Since he kneaded her back he can feel there's a scar there and asks to see.
Oh no! Not the I'm-more-scarred-than-you dick-wag-gery! It was boring in the early books and it's even more so now. Additionally, I have to think that even when she used to do her job, Anita was abysmally bad at it. Not just because she did stupid, cruel, and senseless things but because she's all scarred up. Edward isn't covered with scars. And even Bernardo, whom Edward originally said was abysmal at things like vampire hunting, doesn't have any scars. Only Anita does. Her scars could be taken as a Sue-thing or even part of her imaginary penis, but it seems more like a female vampire hunter = incompetent thing.
And the scattered remnants of Meph's mind (and LKH's subconscious) are clearly trolling Anita.
Also, Napoleon complexes are apparently highly communicable.
She finishes her show by saying how everyone that hurt her is dead now.
That sounds like wish fulfillment.
Meph says the scars "barely cover any of your face, just this little part."
Meph finding JC and Asher to be the HAWTEST THINGS EVER = Example Number THREE of Micah's improvements. It seems odd that Meph would echo Anita's thoughts on the subject of JC and Asher to a T.
And I agree with you that, while LKH may see this as a resolution to the stuff at the beginning, it's not. Even if Meph might, under other circumstances, genuinely think that Asher is lovely, he's Anita's toy. Anita is notoriously terrible at acknowledging other people's person-hood and independence and right to make personal decisions for themselves. Her brainwshed toys, I'd imagine, would have even less latitude. And he's now Anita-sexual, which (as you said) means sex-with-Anita's-pleasure-in-mind rather than with the other person. Asher will be terribly disappointed in Meph if he mistakes Meph's current attentions for genuine interest.
Also, those scars have been seriously retconned. When Asher first showed up, the scars covered half of his face. Anita spent a lot of Burnt Offerings discussing how his face, chest, and thigh were a mess of twisted and gross scar tissue with perfectly working muscle tissue underneath. (Which seems unlikely.) Anita considered herself quite brave and tolerant and generous for being capable of staring at him with slack-jawed horror and without blinking or looking away. When Asher called out on her behavior, Anita said that she's a hair and eye person which was a blatant and terrible lie even back then. Also, she continued to stare at Asher despite knowing that it made him incredibly uncomfortable. Given his self-esteem issues, Asher eventually reacted about like you would expect -- he threw a fit, got egged into opening his shirt up for Anita to gap at his other scars, clawed at the scarred side of his face and chest until they were bloody, and fled the car. He flew off so quickly that he forgot his coat. (Which, yeah, is pretty damn sensitive for a vampire. But, on the other hand, Anita behaved really badly.)
Anita mentally shrugs and (after fetishizing her weapons and randomly shooting someone) puts on his ugly duster. She uses it as an excuse to remark at length on Asher's height compared to her teeny, tiny self.
....Yeah, that was a meeting that will clearly end in semi-romance by the end of the book.
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Date: 2013-07-01 03:50 pm (UTC)I never thought of that! Out of universe, it probably is just that LKH never bothered to think about what scars they might have, but in-universe, it does suggest she fucks up a lot. And fucking up more than Edward, well, who doesn't, but Bernardo gets pissed on all the time (at least he did in Skin Trade) so...
Anita mentally shrugs and (after fetishizing her weapons and randomly shooting someone) puts on his ugly duster. She uses it as an excuse to remark at length on Asher's height compared to her teeny, tiny self.
whaaat the actual fuck
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Date: 2013-07-01 05:37 pm (UTC)Poor Bernardo, he got it all the time in Obsidian Butterfly too (which is where I remember him from.) There are only a handful of Native American characters in AB (Bernardo, Alejandro, Obsidian Butterfly, Red Husband, and the four silent priestesses who continually abuse those two Spanish Conquistadors are all the ones that I can think of - and all but Bernardo are Aztecs or, in Alejandro's case, from the people that the Aztecs eventually descended from although that begs the question of why he'd adopt a *Spanish* name) but they *always* get the short end of the stick. None of them gets to be competent and powerful and win.
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Date: 2013-07-01 06:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-01 07:42 pm (UTC)The Madonna/Whore thing was something that Bernardo said to Anita shortly after meeting her. He was wearing a white sheet around his shoulders like a cape but was otherwise naked (as so many men are when they meet Anita. But, seriously, how many people stroll around an acquaintance's house buck naked in the middle of the afternoon? Especially if they're kind of scared of that acquaintance? None, that's how many.) Anyway, he strode out of the house, bent Anita backwards, and kissed her. (There were tongues involved.)
Anita, being Anita, had "no choice" but to put up with being kissed and groped by an overly familiar and naked stranger. (Which is just ridiculous. As a kid, I punched boys in the throat for less.) Then, after he lets her go, she gets out her gun and threatens to shoot Bernardo.
Bernardo grins, knots his sheet around his waist, and puts his hands up while saying something to the effect that, "Women in our profession are either Madonnas or whores. There are one or two Madonnas but most of them are whores, who'll beg you do the sickest things to them... blah blah blah... low self-esteem in women is a good for my dick... blah blah blah. Edward's had me cooped up here for weeks and I haven't been allowed to have sex in all of that time. Woe Is Me! I was hoping that you were a whore so that I could share a room/bed with your hot self but, just my luck, you're one of the rare, ice queen Madonnas. YOU ARE SO DIFFERENT FROM OTHER, WHORISH WOMEN and I respect you for that."
But he still tries to bang her because he's horny and the idea of sullying up Anita's pure, virginal self appeals to him. (And yes, I think that the "virginal" description comes up AGAIN in regards to Anita. It's ridiculous, especially given her sexual escapades even that early in the series.) So yeah, Bernardo likes screwing virgins and whores but for different reasons.
(Although, as a side note, his dong is the first and founding member of the Ridiculously Huge Penis Parade. Sticking that thing into a virgin would just be cruel, something which Bernardo isn't supposed to be.)
Olaf has a thing for raping, murdering, butchering, and jointing women - and his activities aren't always done in that order. He prefers PERFECTLY DARK-HAIRED AND PETITE AND WOMANLY specimens like Anita but they're so RARE (*rolls eyes*) that brunettes with merely okay chests will do just fine. There's an implication that he may also eat parts of his victims. Olaf doesn't care about who the women are personally or their sexual habits (and I don't think that Olaf has sexual thoughts when blood and gore isn't involved) so much as what they look like - i.e. Anita. Also, he does this ALL OVER THE WORLD but people in authority are okay with this because Olaf is *such* a valuable operative. (Which I call bullshit on. He's unstable, difficult to work with, easily distracted from the job, and he leaves horrific murder sites everywhere. Someone should've arranged a fatal accident for him.)
Of course, knowing all of this and being on a first name basis with the local woman that Olaf has chosen as his next victim, Anita's cool with letting him wander around brutally murdering women and eating them because none of Olaf's victims are hot men or her special-ful self. Edward, although he finds Olaf personally distasteful and disapproves of Olaf's messiness, attitude, personal habits, and tendency to leave a trail of dismembered women, is focused on the job and determinedly not overtly bothered by Olaf's personal habits. He does, however, make in-town ritualistic serial murders verboten because he doesn't want Olaf to shit where Ted Forester lives... and he definitely doesn't want anyone taking too close of a look at Ted Forrester's personal history.
And then, Olaf decides that Anita is PERFECTLY, WONDERFULLY BRUTAL and thus NOT A WEAK VICTIM and he RESPECTS HER AMAZING STRENGTH and FALLS IN LOVE WITH ANITA while they're holding hands inside of a vampire's chest. At the end of the book, he foreswears killing his prey to hunt hers with her.
......Because deranged serial killers often willingly give up their rituals and pathology under the influence of a Good Woman. That's all any man needs to turn his life around.
*vomits*
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Date: 2013-07-01 08:01 pm (UTC)Dammit dude I *liked* you in Skin Trade!
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Date: 2013-07-01 08:57 pm (UTC)Anitaall of that concentrated evil has made him re-evaluate his personal beliefs and life choices.no subject
Date: 2013-07-01 09:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-01 09:59 pm (UTC)Nooooo, but I can see one SAYING he'll give up his evil ways for the right woman. Who just so happens to match his victim profile. And might be credulous enough to be lured into isolation without telling anyone where she's going.
*clings to Alternate Character Interpretation*
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Date: 2013-07-01 10:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-01 11:39 pm (UTC)