BULLET, CHAPTER FORTY FOUR
Jul. 4th, 2013 12:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
a_sporking_ratThere've been a couple of updates to the Liebster list!
http://a-sporking-rat.livejournal.com/18288.html
HEADCANON: There are other Sin-named tigers besides the ones we meet. Pride and Envy just try to make the best of their names, but the others use nicknames, and not dumb ones like Devil either. They derive theirs ether from names that can be found in the English name of the sin they're named for, or, if that doesn't work, in the Latin. Lust goes by Luz or Lux, Gluttony by Tony, Greed by Reed, Wrath by Ira (Latin for anger, but also a unisex name in Hebrew), and Sloth is Cordie (from the word socordia, which is Latin for Sloth).
Jake's Marlowe-maniac master has been naming golden tigers after the seven deadly sins and Mephistopheles and Good Angel and so on for generations. Their poor family tree is just a repeat of these names. So nicknames are also necessary when someone has the same name as their aunt and grandma and they're all living together in whatever place the Harlequin had them all cloistered up. Of course, he's also named them after other characters from other works of Marlowe too, such as Dido, Tamburlaine, etc., so there are a lot of those in the line too. Hey, they've been hiding and breeding the goldens for twenty-two hundred years, he's had time to go through a lot of names...though Marlowe plays weren't completed till the 1590s so that's only about 400 years for generations of Marlowe-themed names...god almighty WHY AM I THINKING SO MUCH ABOUT THIS?
And now, someone help me, I'm considering if the other vampire masters involved with keeping, raising, and naming the goldens (like the ones that named Martino and Thorne, Meph's cousins) ever did 'theme' names too, if only to make coming up with new ones easier. I TOLD YOU I AM THINKING TOO MUCH.
This all makes me very glad that Ruthven (my Anitaverse vampire char, controls all swanmanes in England) never took any interest in getting to name the kids of the swanmanes. If he were ever asked to, I'm sure he'd just call them after dogs and horses he's had. Of course, while "Jip" is not much more dignified than Mephistopheles, it's at least shorter and easier to spell.
SPEAKING OF COLORED TIGERS...
http://cocojigglypuff.tumblr.com/post/53711103927/sapphrikah-inseptica-iou-a-colt
Rat news: Ratsputin, Sid, and Blatz were chilling on the couch, but shortly after I took Blatz away the boys started to fight. Not sure if Blatz has any connection to it or not. I also introduced Sid to Sam. They get along alright, but he's very into the fact she's female and Sam really does NOT appreciate having her undercarriage sniffed so every time he tries she jumps away and climbs up something. She's very agile, he hasn't a prayer.
Nor does anyone in...
BULLET, CHAPTER FORTY FOUR
"News of what happened in Atlanta had spread through the vampire community faster than the human one. Those who had been reluctant to give their power to Jean-Claude earlier were suddenly on-board with the plan" and Anita says that this would have taken days or weeks to achieve if Morte D'Amour and the MOAD hadn't pulled this shit. Oh, so that means that the readers have to miss out on all the power struggles and politicking, the other vampires just rolled over offscreen once they got scared enough. Meanwhile we get chapters devoted to sex where sex doesn't even happen, and this entire chapter turns out to be about clothing. LKH, you may want to rethink your priorities on just what gets on-screen attention at length in these novels.
"When people are scared enough, they'll give up their freedom, their rights, everything, in a bid to be safe." Which you're having no qualms about taking advantage of, I notice, just coldly observing. "Being undead didn't change that. Scratch them deep enough and vampires were just people, and people will follow a calm leader with a plan." Okay, so for pretty much all of the previous books, a big point was how the older vampires were totally NOT HUMAN in their psychology, wasn't it? To the point that the oldest, Marmee Noir, is just a pure intellect whose only real goal anymore is just the basic animal aim of survival even though she used to use the Council as her political puppets once upon a time before her big sleep, suggesting she once had goals and aims and opinions? I have no doubt this statement is true of some vampires, perhaps many, but it being universal (which she phrases it as) flies in the face of pretty much everything we've previously seen.
"The first part of the plan was to introduce me and Jean-Claude to the tiger clans now that I had a gold tiger bound to us." Yeah, and these other clans got here HOW long ago? You've taken forever not just in terms of the book chapters, but I'm pretty sure it's taken quite awhile in real-time too. Oh yeah, and emphasizes that Meph (I'm not calling him Devil) is bound to "us"--her, Micah, JC, Richard, Asher, Damian, all through each other. "None of it was solitary. It was as if the power and loneliness of the vampires' world had combined with the group-oriented puppy-pile world of the shapeshifters and made something new." Oh yeah, the therians are so totally all about group hugs and buddy systems and communes and shit, that's been made so clear with the horrible dominance/subordination systems we've seen so far, how the male werelions seem to kill each other as a matter of culture, the pimping out of weaker members, forcing members to rape others and take part in snuff films, weird rape rituals, and eating somebody when you've defeated them. Happy fluffy shapeshifters! And vampires are so solitary, what with them not only having groups but also usually sharing living space together, having a leader and chain of command in their groups, having lovers, having a mortal partner bound to them for life, and, of course, the occasional orgy. So solitary, yup!
"But as usual with Jean-Claude and the vampire world, the next step involved a party." WHAT. WHAT. ARE YOU SERIOUS. EVERYONE IS PISS SCARED BUT OH WE'RE GONNA HAVE A PARTY? "All right, a big gathering" Okay that makes sense then "but if I have to get dressed up it's a party and not in good happy way." I SPOKE TOO SOON. Cardinal and Meng Die come in "to help me dress to impress." Because that totally matters right now! I'm sure fancy ball gowns are exactly what all those terrified vampire masters are looking for right now! We then get a paragraph of what Cardinal is wearing and a paragraph of what Meng Die is wearing, complete with details on how they did their makeup and how long their hair is. Anita is "bothered" to notice that Cardinal has a clothing bag and her makeup case and that Meng Die is carrying a shopping bag. I'm bothered too; I am really not in the mood for an entire chapter of Anita complaining about getting dressed up not because THIS IS NOT THE TIME WTF IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE but because EW IT'S GIRLY AND SHE HATES IT SHE'S NOT GIRLY LIKE OTHER GIRLS EW.
Anita says they don't have time for this (first sensible thing she's said in this book) but Cardi says that they don't have time not to, as Anita notes that "she towered over me" because Anita is so teeny tiny and all. Meng Die tells Anita not to be a baby and starts taking shoe boxes out of her bag, while Cardi says that Anita has "great skin" and thus won't need much makeup. Yeah, whatever, Anita forgets to clean herself and she sure as hell isn't ~girly~ enough for any type of skin routine, I don't buy this. It reminds me of this Law & Order episode where they got to this Botox party full of old ladies and one compliments the lady detectives' skin and asks her what she uses and she tells her "Soap and water" and I just roll my eyes because the message is so clear and so obnoxious---Good Women are naturally pretty and don't need to use any cosmetics like those awful Vain Women who are vain because they use cosmetics and surgery because they're not pretty like Good Woman, and you're supposed to be pretty but not actually try at it, that's bad. Fuck that impossible judgmental sexist shit, and fuck you for playing in to it with your impossible judgmental sexist heroine, LKH.
The dress that Cardinal pulls out of the bag is "as short as I'd feared". I love how she's totally okay with enslaving people and giving them personality transplants, but short dresses scandalize her. It's made of utterly sheer black material with some black sequins here and there. Meng Die tells her not to be so shocked and then pulls out a black slip to wear beneath it. Anita asks where she's going to put her weapons, Meng Die makes the sensible observation that "If you need a gun today, then we've lost". Anita tells her she's lost now, and Meng Die explains that "you need to go in there on Jean-Claude's arm and sell this dress, this attitude, all of it." Why would the vampires want this dress and the attitude it 'sells' right now of all fucking times? "I'd do it if I could, but I'm not his lady, you are." Anita notes that Meng Die says this with "real bitterness" and "the implication that if she were, then this would all go so much smoother." Well, there's no denying that it would. Anita is devoted to making everything difficult. But since when did Meng Die want to be JC's lady? The one she was jealous over was Requiem, remember, because he left her for Anita? I guess since Req is gone but LKH still wants Meng Die to be a jealous hater so she just gave her new crush on someone else in the harem. Meng Die should sabotage the fuck out of this and then swoop in to save everything.
Cardi tells her to take off her clothes, Anita asks how much she's going to hate all the stuff, Cardinal tells her that "you have no idea what we went through to get these". They can't shop in daylight so they sent the guards out to do it, and apparently they mostly brought back "crap" and "this is the best of the lot, Anita. Most of the dresses won't fit your curves." Given that Anita's body is literally impossible, I'm not surprised most clothing isn't made for it. "It would work for either of us" because they're gross ugly anorexic skinny bitches who look like boys with breasts unlike curvy petite goddess Anita "but once breasts pass a C cup they're just a real challenge for cocktail dresses." I have no idea how true this is or isn't, but I like how we're being assured that Anita's tits are past C-cup size. Also that dress sounds less cocktails, more sex-club.
Anita protests that she has dresses of her own, Cardinal says that "You have last seasons's dresses, or, heaven help us, three seasons ago. You never get rid of anything as long as it fits you." and Anita asks why she should. Oh Anita, so sensible! Not like these SHALLOW girls! Meng Die says that "Wait until you see what the other women are wearing. You'll understand then." Hahah, good idea Meng Die, appeal to her jealousy! Jean-Claude helps by telling her that these other women "came to impress, ma petite. They came to be pretty." Because vampire and weretiger women can't be good for anything else! And surely that's all they'd be concerned with when the MOAD is after their hides! And it's not like the MEN came to impress at all, they're not shallow and vapid, nosiree, it's just the women who came to be decorations apparently!
...god I'm gonna puke.
Anita asks how they got new dresses this fast. Um, presumably they knew that vampires are apparently total idiots who think that IMPENDING DOOM is a good time for a cocktail ball without the cocktails. Yup, I'm right, Cardinal says they already had them. Cardinal starts to tug at her clothes, Anita says she'll do it herself. Meng Die starts going through the shoes and talking about how much normal women shop if they have they money and how much they change out their clothes because they are normal girly women unlike cool macho Anita. Anita says that "I like my clothes, and sometimes what's in for the season is ugly." SHE IS SO PRACTICAL AND WISE AND NOT A SHEEP LIKE OTHER GIRLS, ISN'T SHE? I'M IN AWE! She notes that she gives her shoulder rig to Nicky, whom I had no idea was even here and will not be getting another mention nor making a peep this chapter. I guess he's furniture when not in use.
Cardinal comments on how nice Anita's lingerie is, saying that "you may dress like one of the boys, but you always have really nice underthings. We counted on that." How the fuck does Cardinal know that Anita is always wearing nice underwear? Is she seeing her in it around the Circus that often? And Anita doesn't dress like one of the boys, in my opinion. Her outfits aren't uber-girl, but having on jeans, a T-shirt, and boots does not a crossdresser make. Women have been wearing pants for a long time now. Honestly, I know girls who really do wear only mens stuff 24/7, and I cannot remember a single time, even in the early books, when Anita was wearing anything that was really all that masculine. Not even in the trendy "menswear for women" way except that one time I think she wore a tuxedo to a wedding...which would look terrible with her proportions, fyi. Also, of course she has nice underwear, Nathaniel picks it out with the fact in mind that she may be having an orgy any given day...though of course also there's the fact that while Anita has to be a Not-Girly Super-Cool One of the Boys girl, she still also has to be super sexy too, which means no dingy sports bras or mens boxers.
Cardinal tells her to hurry. Anita tells is that "I didn't want to hurry. I didn't like the dress." I think it has been established that there are much greater things here at stake then whether you like the outfit, Anita. I swear, she's like a six year old. Micah kisses her cheek, and we are informed that his tailored black suit is made entirely of soft leather. Have fun sweating like a pig in that one, bucko. The collar of his shirt is open to show bite marks on his neck, because "the idea was that we would all show the vampire bites" which happened when? "to demonstrate that Jean-Claude kept all the best stuff for himself." Stuff being people, of course. "It was a way of emphasizing he was still master, even thought a lot of the metaphysical stuff with the tigers would seem to come mostly from me." Okay, I do actually like this for the subtlety. However, I see a big way it could backfire. Jean-Claude being emphasized as the Grand Poobah of everyone, including the Nimir-Raj, would be a good idea for making him look powerful and capable to any vampire masters who are looking to him for answers and aid, which is what I originally thought it was (hence my repeated rantings about it). But it turns out that this meeting is with the tiger clans. I don't think a bunch of therians are going to like the look of the MotC being in-control of two of the biggest therian leaders (Nimir-Raj and Anita) in the city. It shows that this is a place where therians are subordinate to vampires to the point where even their leaders are just food. So, good idea, wrong audience.
Anita asks if Micah is okay with this. He says "after last night and what happened in Atlanta, I'd wear the dress myself if it would help us be safe." I wish we got details on what actually happened in Atlanta. At least a body count. JC looks at her and for some reason there is "sorrow" in his expression and so she takes his hand. Anita says that she wouldn't mind if she really thought the dress would do that. Tell you what, Anita, how about you quit complaining anyway? If she were complaining that this was no time for dress-up in general, I'd be on her side, but no, her fucking issue is she just doesn't like the dress (which you know she'll be stunning in) and that's just WASTING MORE TIME and not only is that irritating and terrible pacing for the reader, it's really impractical and dangerous, as Anita herself will state at the end of the chapter. So maybe the dress itself won't help you stay safe, Anita, but SHUTTING UP AND GETTING A MOVE ON WITH THIS probably will!
Micah kisses her and asks if he's ever asked her to "just do something?" She thinks about it and shakes her head. Micah, asking anything of her! The very idea! Well, besides that she have sex with him and/or other men when she doesn't want to, but that wasn't so much asking as, respectively, raping and pressuring. He looks sad and says he's asking now. WHY DO JC AND MICAH BOTH LOOK SAD, WHAT IS GOING ON. Anita says "Did I miss something? Has something else happened?" YOU NEED MORE REASON THAT WHAT ALREADY HAS? IS THE DRESS THAT BIG A D--oh wait of course it is this is Anita. He tells her that it's afternoon so they have about six hours until full dark, and "whatever we going to do with the tigers, we need it done before dark." Anita says Europe isn't on the same daylight schedule and JC points out that the Council "await our darkness, not their own." Duh.
Micah says that "Richard is in the other room wearing a hell of a lot less than I am. He's sucked it up and is playing host while the rest of us are in here holding your hand. You're about to throw a fit because the dress is too sheer. Anita, honey, Richard is doing what we need him to do; are you going to do less?" GODDAMN! Micah, I do not like you, but I like what you are saying! I also like how he makes it into a competition with her and Richard because, as with the comment about what the other women will be wearing, you know Anita is going to go like FUCK NO I HAVE TO BEAT HIM. Shockingly the heavens do not open up for the hand of LKH to swoop down and smite him, and Anita says that he's right, though adds that she's just "not the exhibitionist" and "not comfortable mostly nude in front of a roomful of strangers." This would sound super-reasonable if not for the face that A SLIP COMES WITH THE DRESS. A NICE SOLID BLACK SLIP. SO IT'S NOT LIKE THE DRESS WILL EVEN BE SHEER AT ALL. YOU WON'T BE SHOWING ANYTHING. CHILL. Like, I respect people's various comfort levels with clothing. You're good with nothing, fine. You feel nude without a burqa, fine. It's just how Anita is twisting things here by leaving out the existence of the slip to make herself sound more reasonable that's pissing me off. Especially since I seriously don't believe she's as uncomfy with this as she says.
Micah says he's sorry for that but "we need to play to our strengths. Those are sex, psychic ability so strong they won't know what hit them, and bluntness." I like how he listed sex first. Also, bluntness has fuck-all to do with JC, and when it comes to Anita, it's not a strength with her. It's really not. She has it, yes, but she just uses it to be an antagonistic asshole. And when she doesn't she actually dances around a subject forever. "The dress is sexy, and blunt. Honey, it's you." Has the latter sentence ever come out of straight man's mouth in history? He says he'll go help the other men with the guests, she agrees, he kisses her cheek again, "gave Jean-Claude a look I couldn't quite understand", and then goes. I'm betting that look is one of a long-suffering parent with a bratty child. "And just like that, I stopped protesting." Not for long, I'm sure. "Micah's attitude brought home more than anything else could have that modesty was no longer a virtue." You were never modest. And I'm not talking about clothe/sex here. "It was the proverbial midnight, and the clock was striking." OH MY GOD SHE ACTUALLY USED THE WORD 'PROVERBIAL' RIGHT. "Whatever we were going to do before that last strike, we had about six hours to do it."
So yeah, seven pages were just spent about Anita putting on a dress.
http://a-sporking-rat.livejournal.com/18288.html
HEADCANON: There are other Sin-named tigers besides the ones we meet. Pride and Envy just try to make the best of their names, but the others use nicknames, and not dumb ones like Devil either. They derive theirs ether from names that can be found in the English name of the sin they're named for, or, if that doesn't work, in the Latin. Lust goes by Luz or Lux, Gluttony by Tony, Greed by Reed, Wrath by Ira (Latin for anger, but also a unisex name in Hebrew), and Sloth is Cordie (from the word socordia, which is Latin for Sloth).
Jake's Marlowe-maniac master has been naming golden tigers after the seven deadly sins and Mephistopheles and Good Angel and so on for generations. Their poor family tree is just a repeat of these names. So nicknames are also necessary when someone has the same name as their aunt and grandma and they're all living together in whatever place the Harlequin had them all cloistered up. Of course, he's also named them after other characters from other works of Marlowe too, such as Dido, Tamburlaine, etc., so there are a lot of those in the line too. Hey, they've been hiding and breeding the goldens for twenty-two hundred years, he's had time to go through a lot of names...though Marlowe plays weren't completed till the 1590s so that's only about 400 years for generations of Marlowe-themed names...god almighty WHY AM I THINKING SO MUCH ABOUT THIS?
And now, someone help me, I'm considering if the other vampire masters involved with keeping, raising, and naming the goldens (like the ones that named Martino and Thorne, Meph's cousins) ever did 'theme' names too, if only to make coming up with new ones easier. I TOLD YOU I AM THINKING TOO MUCH.
This all makes me very glad that Ruthven (my Anitaverse vampire char, controls all swanmanes in England) never took any interest in getting to name the kids of the swanmanes. If he were ever asked to, I'm sure he'd just call them after dogs and horses he's had. Of course, while "Jip" is not much more dignified than Mephistopheles, it's at least shorter and easier to spell.
SPEAKING OF COLORED TIGERS...
http://cocojigglypuff.tumblr.com/post/53711103927/sapphrikah-inseptica-iou-a-colt
Rat news: Ratsputin, Sid, and Blatz were chilling on the couch, but shortly after I took Blatz away the boys started to fight. Not sure if Blatz has any connection to it or not. I also introduced Sid to Sam. They get along alright, but he's very into the fact she's female and Sam really does NOT appreciate having her undercarriage sniffed so every time he tries she jumps away and climbs up something. She's very agile, he hasn't a prayer.
Nor does anyone in...
BULLET, CHAPTER FORTY FOUR
"News of what happened in Atlanta had spread through the vampire community faster than the human one. Those who had been reluctant to give their power to Jean-Claude earlier were suddenly on-board with the plan" and Anita says that this would have taken days or weeks to achieve if Morte D'Amour and the MOAD hadn't pulled this shit. Oh, so that means that the readers have to miss out on all the power struggles and politicking, the other vampires just rolled over offscreen once they got scared enough. Meanwhile we get chapters devoted to sex where sex doesn't even happen, and this entire chapter turns out to be about clothing. LKH, you may want to rethink your priorities on just what gets on-screen attention at length in these novels.
"When people are scared enough, they'll give up their freedom, their rights, everything, in a bid to be safe." Which you're having no qualms about taking advantage of, I notice, just coldly observing. "Being undead didn't change that. Scratch them deep enough and vampires were just people, and people will follow a calm leader with a plan." Okay, so for pretty much all of the previous books, a big point was how the older vampires were totally NOT HUMAN in their psychology, wasn't it? To the point that the oldest, Marmee Noir, is just a pure intellect whose only real goal anymore is just the basic animal aim of survival even though she used to use the Council as her political puppets once upon a time before her big sleep, suggesting she once had goals and aims and opinions? I have no doubt this statement is true of some vampires, perhaps many, but it being universal (which she phrases it as) flies in the face of pretty much everything we've previously seen.
"The first part of the plan was to introduce me and Jean-Claude to the tiger clans now that I had a gold tiger bound to us." Yeah, and these other clans got here HOW long ago? You've taken forever not just in terms of the book chapters, but I'm pretty sure it's taken quite awhile in real-time too. Oh yeah, and emphasizes that Meph (I'm not calling him Devil) is bound to "us"--her, Micah, JC, Richard, Asher, Damian, all through each other. "None of it was solitary. It was as if the power and loneliness of the vampires' world had combined with the group-oriented puppy-pile world of the shapeshifters and made something new." Oh yeah, the therians are so totally all about group hugs and buddy systems and communes and shit, that's been made so clear with the horrible dominance/subordination systems we've seen so far, how the male werelions seem to kill each other as a matter of culture, the pimping out of weaker members, forcing members to rape others and take part in snuff films, weird rape rituals, and eating somebody when you've defeated them. Happy fluffy shapeshifters! And vampires are so solitary, what with them not only having groups but also usually sharing living space together, having a leader and chain of command in their groups, having lovers, having a mortal partner bound to them for life, and, of course, the occasional orgy. So solitary, yup!
"But as usual with Jean-Claude and the vampire world, the next step involved a party." WHAT. WHAT. ARE YOU SERIOUS. EVERYONE IS PISS SCARED BUT OH WE'RE GONNA HAVE A PARTY? "All right, a big gathering" Okay that makes sense then "but if I have to get dressed up it's a party and not in good happy way." I SPOKE TOO SOON. Cardinal and Meng Die come in "to help me dress to impress." Because that totally matters right now! I'm sure fancy ball gowns are exactly what all those terrified vampire masters are looking for right now! We then get a paragraph of what Cardinal is wearing and a paragraph of what Meng Die is wearing, complete with details on how they did their makeup and how long their hair is. Anita is "bothered" to notice that Cardinal has a clothing bag and her makeup case and that Meng Die is carrying a shopping bag. I'm bothered too; I am really not in the mood for an entire chapter of Anita complaining about getting dressed up not because THIS IS NOT THE TIME WTF IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE but because EW IT'S GIRLY AND SHE HATES IT SHE'S NOT GIRLY LIKE OTHER GIRLS EW.
Anita says they don't have time for this (first sensible thing she's said in this book) but Cardi says that they don't have time not to, as Anita notes that "she towered over me" because Anita is so teeny tiny and all. Meng Die tells Anita not to be a baby and starts taking shoe boxes out of her bag, while Cardi says that Anita has "great skin" and thus won't need much makeup. Yeah, whatever, Anita forgets to clean herself and she sure as hell isn't ~girly~ enough for any type of skin routine, I don't buy this. It reminds me of this Law & Order episode where they got to this Botox party full of old ladies and one compliments the lady detectives' skin and asks her what she uses and she tells her "Soap and water" and I just roll my eyes because the message is so clear and so obnoxious---Good Women are naturally pretty and don't need to use any cosmetics like those awful Vain Women who are vain because they use cosmetics and surgery because they're not pretty like Good Woman, and you're supposed to be pretty but not actually try at it, that's bad. Fuck that impossible judgmental sexist shit, and fuck you for playing in to it with your impossible judgmental sexist heroine, LKH.
The dress that Cardinal pulls out of the bag is "as short as I'd feared". I love how she's totally okay with enslaving people and giving them personality transplants, but short dresses scandalize her. It's made of utterly sheer black material with some black sequins here and there. Meng Die tells her not to be so shocked and then pulls out a black slip to wear beneath it. Anita asks where she's going to put her weapons, Meng Die makes the sensible observation that "If you need a gun today, then we've lost". Anita tells her she's lost now, and Meng Die explains that "you need to go in there on Jean-Claude's arm and sell this dress, this attitude, all of it." Why would the vampires want this dress and the attitude it 'sells' right now of all fucking times? "I'd do it if I could, but I'm not his lady, you are." Anita notes that Meng Die says this with "real bitterness" and "the implication that if she were, then this would all go so much smoother." Well, there's no denying that it would. Anita is devoted to making everything difficult. But since when did Meng Die want to be JC's lady? The one she was jealous over was Requiem, remember, because he left her for Anita? I guess since Req is gone but LKH still wants Meng Die to be a jealous hater so she just gave her new crush on someone else in the harem. Meng Die should sabotage the fuck out of this and then swoop in to save everything.
Cardi tells her to take off her clothes, Anita asks how much she's going to hate all the stuff, Cardinal tells her that "you have no idea what we went through to get these". They can't shop in daylight so they sent the guards out to do it, and apparently they mostly brought back "crap" and "this is the best of the lot, Anita. Most of the dresses won't fit your curves." Given that Anita's body is literally impossible, I'm not surprised most clothing isn't made for it. "It would work for either of us" because they're gross ugly anorexic skinny bitches who look like boys with breasts unlike curvy petite goddess Anita "but once breasts pass a C cup they're just a real challenge for cocktail dresses." I have no idea how true this is or isn't, but I like how we're being assured that Anita's tits are past C-cup size. Also that dress sounds less cocktails, more sex-club.
Anita protests that she has dresses of her own, Cardinal says that "You have last seasons's dresses, or, heaven help us, three seasons ago. You never get rid of anything as long as it fits you." and Anita asks why she should. Oh Anita, so sensible! Not like these SHALLOW girls! Meng Die says that "Wait until you see what the other women are wearing. You'll understand then." Hahah, good idea Meng Die, appeal to her jealousy! Jean-Claude helps by telling her that these other women "came to impress, ma petite. They came to be pretty." Because vampire and weretiger women can't be good for anything else! And surely that's all they'd be concerned with when the MOAD is after their hides! And it's not like the MEN came to impress at all, they're not shallow and vapid, nosiree, it's just the women who came to be decorations apparently!
...god I'm gonna puke.
Anita asks how they got new dresses this fast. Um, presumably they knew that vampires are apparently total idiots who think that IMPENDING DOOM is a good time for a cocktail ball without the cocktails. Yup, I'm right, Cardinal says they already had them. Cardinal starts to tug at her clothes, Anita says she'll do it herself. Meng Die starts going through the shoes and talking about how much normal women shop if they have they money and how much they change out their clothes because they are normal girly women unlike cool macho Anita. Anita says that "I like my clothes, and sometimes what's in for the season is ugly." SHE IS SO PRACTICAL AND WISE AND NOT A SHEEP LIKE OTHER GIRLS, ISN'T SHE? I'M IN AWE! She notes that she gives her shoulder rig to Nicky, whom I had no idea was even here and will not be getting another mention nor making a peep this chapter. I guess he's furniture when not in use.
Cardinal comments on how nice Anita's lingerie is, saying that "you may dress like one of the boys, but you always have really nice underthings. We counted on that." How the fuck does Cardinal know that Anita is always wearing nice underwear? Is she seeing her in it around the Circus that often? And Anita doesn't dress like one of the boys, in my opinion. Her outfits aren't uber-girl, but having on jeans, a T-shirt, and boots does not a crossdresser make. Women have been wearing pants for a long time now. Honestly, I know girls who really do wear only mens stuff 24/7, and I cannot remember a single time, even in the early books, when Anita was wearing anything that was really all that masculine. Not even in the trendy "menswear for women" way except that one time I think she wore a tuxedo to a wedding...which would look terrible with her proportions, fyi. Also, of course she has nice underwear, Nathaniel picks it out with the fact in mind that she may be having an orgy any given day...though of course also there's the fact that while Anita has to be a Not-Girly Super-Cool One of the Boys girl, she still also has to be super sexy too, which means no dingy sports bras or mens boxers.
Cardinal tells her to hurry. Anita tells is that "I didn't want to hurry. I didn't like the dress." I think it has been established that there are much greater things here at stake then whether you like the outfit, Anita. I swear, she's like a six year old. Micah kisses her cheek, and we are informed that his tailored black suit is made entirely of soft leather. Have fun sweating like a pig in that one, bucko. The collar of his shirt is open to show bite marks on his neck, because "the idea was that we would all show the vampire bites" which happened when? "to demonstrate that Jean-Claude kept all the best stuff for himself." Stuff being people, of course. "It was a way of emphasizing he was still master, even thought a lot of the metaphysical stuff with the tigers would seem to come mostly from me." Okay, I do actually like this for the subtlety. However, I see a big way it could backfire. Jean-Claude being emphasized as the Grand Poobah of everyone, including the Nimir-Raj, would be a good idea for making him look powerful and capable to any vampire masters who are looking to him for answers and aid, which is what I originally thought it was (hence my repeated rantings about it). But it turns out that this meeting is with the tiger clans. I don't think a bunch of therians are going to like the look of the MotC being in-control of two of the biggest therian leaders (Nimir-Raj and Anita) in the city. It shows that this is a place where therians are subordinate to vampires to the point where even their leaders are just food. So, good idea, wrong audience.
Anita asks if Micah is okay with this. He says "after last night and what happened in Atlanta, I'd wear the dress myself if it would help us be safe." I wish we got details on what actually happened in Atlanta. At least a body count. JC looks at her and for some reason there is "sorrow" in his expression and so she takes his hand. Anita says that she wouldn't mind if she really thought the dress would do that. Tell you what, Anita, how about you quit complaining anyway? If she were complaining that this was no time for dress-up in general, I'd be on her side, but no, her fucking issue is she just doesn't like the dress (which you know she'll be stunning in) and that's just WASTING MORE TIME and not only is that irritating and terrible pacing for the reader, it's really impractical and dangerous, as Anita herself will state at the end of the chapter. So maybe the dress itself won't help you stay safe, Anita, but SHUTTING UP AND GETTING A MOVE ON WITH THIS probably will!
Micah kisses her and asks if he's ever asked her to "just do something?" She thinks about it and shakes her head. Micah, asking anything of her! The very idea! Well, besides that she have sex with him and/or other men when she doesn't want to, but that wasn't so much asking as, respectively, raping and pressuring. He looks sad and says he's asking now. WHY DO JC AND MICAH BOTH LOOK SAD, WHAT IS GOING ON. Anita says "Did I miss something? Has something else happened?" YOU NEED MORE REASON THAT WHAT ALREADY HAS? IS THE DRESS THAT BIG A D--oh wait of course it is this is Anita. He tells her that it's afternoon so they have about six hours until full dark, and "whatever we going to do with the tigers, we need it done before dark." Anita says Europe isn't on the same daylight schedule and JC points out that the Council "await our darkness, not their own." Duh.
Micah says that "Richard is in the other room wearing a hell of a lot less than I am. He's sucked it up and is playing host while the rest of us are in here holding your hand. You're about to throw a fit because the dress is too sheer. Anita, honey, Richard is doing what we need him to do; are you going to do less?" GODDAMN! Micah, I do not like you, but I like what you are saying! I also like how he makes it into a competition with her and Richard because, as with the comment about what the other women will be wearing, you know Anita is going to go like FUCK NO I HAVE TO BEAT HIM. Shockingly the heavens do not open up for the hand of LKH to swoop down and smite him, and Anita says that he's right, though adds that she's just "not the exhibitionist" and "not comfortable mostly nude in front of a roomful of strangers." This would sound super-reasonable if not for the face that A SLIP COMES WITH THE DRESS. A NICE SOLID BLACK SLIP. SO IT'S NOT LIKE THE DRESS WILL EVEN BE SHEER AT ALL. YOU WON'T BE SHOWING ANYTHING. CHILL. Like, I respect people's various comfort levels with clothing. You're good with nothing, fine. You feel nude without a burqa, fine. It's just how Anita is twisting things here by leaving out the existence of the slip to make herself sound more reasonable that's pissing me off. Especially since I seriously don't believe she's as uncomfy with this as she says.
Micah says he's sorry for that but "we need to play to our strengths. Those are sex, psychic ability so strong they won't know what hit them, and bluntness." I like how he listed sex first. Also, bluntness has fuck-all to do with JC, and when it comes to Anita, it's not a strength with her. It's really not. She has it, yes, but she just uses it to be an antagonistic asshole. And when she doesn't she actually dances around a subject forever. "The dress is sexy, and blunt. Honey, it's you." Has the latter sentence ever come out of straight man's mouth in history? He says he'll go help the other men with the guests, she agrees, he kisses her cheek again, "gave Jean-Claude a look I couldn't quite understand", and then goes. I'm betting that look is one of a long-suffering parent with a bratty child. "And just like that, I stopped protesting." Not for long, I'm sure. "Micah's attitude brought home more than anything else could have that modesty was no longer a virtue." You were never modest. And I'm not talking about clothe/sex here. "It was the proverbial midnight, and the clock was striking." OH MY GOD SHE ACTUALLY USED THE WORD 'PROVERBIAL' RIGHT. "Whatever we were going to do before that last strike, we had about six hours to do it."
So yeah, seven pages were just spent about Anita putting on a dress.
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Date: 2013-07-04 10:30 pm (UTC)Aww, well thank you! I DO try, I'm just forgetful and yanno, kind of a jackass. Like most people I guess. XD
There really is a problem with 'crazy' in this world, especially on TV and in movies. It's always "Oh the horrible murderface just did it because CRAZY! No specific, diagnosed mental condition mind you. Just CRAZY!" LKH does that a lot as has been discussed in the past. It's just been part of my vocab for so long. That and "bitch" I called myself a bitch quite proudly for a lot of years until a close friend told me how much the word bothers her and I actually sat down and thought about the word. Now I dislike it too and try to avoid gendered insults. Though I DO still use douche to mean bad thing, my reasoning being that douching is actually bad for you, so it works. (Yeah ok I'm going to shut up now because I can talk FOREVER.)
Also someday I may come and pester you with rat questions. My husband and I are debating getting ratties again, we had a couple boys years ago but I kept getting red welts on my arms whenever I held them. I THINK it was because of the pee trail, so girls might be okay? But I'm not sure. I need to track down some friendly rats to play with to find out.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-05 03:03 am (UTC)That is my EXACT same line of reasoning! I personally thing douche/douchebag is an especially appropriate insult FOR misogynists because it's an irritant that is bad for your vagina and exists to make women feel bad about their vaginas, it's PERFECT for fuckers who are the same way!
And please do pester me! Some girls will leave the pee trail too, but it is more a dominant male thing. The welts were more likely from scratches from ratty nails though; like cats, they have some bacteria under there despite being very clean animals.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-07 05:42 am (UTC)Yeah the welts were probably scratches, but it never bothered my husband so I was never sure. Maybe I'm just extra sensitive to whatever they managed to get on their feet. :/ The only reasons we don't have rats now is the welt problem and their LIFESPAN augh. It's so heartbreaking.
Of course... we were very naughty when we got those two. The only total, flat out, no doubt about it, total whim pet I've ever allowed myself to get. See, we visited this rather terrible pet store sometimes because it was in the mall, so when we were there for other reasons we usually drifted in. We never ever purchased anything from them because they sold puppies, kittens, and were all around shitstains. Until the rats.
We asked to pet the ratties, fully expecting them all to run. Well, 99% of them did. Bred to be feeders, didn't know humans from any other big scary monster. Except two. Colored almost exactly alike, and so friendly we barely had the lid off before they were leaping from the floor of the aquarium onto our arms. We looked at each other and just knew we could not let them be snake food.
Spent $6 at the miserable pet store, took them to Petsmart in the little cardboard boxes, hoping they wouldn't try to escape while we got emergency supplies and took them home. Ordered a Martin's cage that night, and never regretted them. Sweetest ratties ever.
ETA: I also wondered if it was pee-trail related because I'd never had that problem with previous ratties I had as a kid, and they were all female. It could just be that I became more sensitive to whatever during the ratless years in between.