KISS THE DEAD, CHAPTER SEVEN
Dec. 20th, 2013 12:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
a_sporking_ratOatmeal is living in Jabez's old cage. She's about a month and a half old, still quite smaller than an adult hamster, and she's a beigey-cinnamon-brown sort of color that reminded me of oatmeal, hence her name. She's let me handle her twice now since taking her home, though she did nip me once. She didn't draw blood though, and I think she was just exploring what the heck my finger was. She loves her wheel already!
Found a HILARIOUS interview with LKH about the Anita Blake comics!
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/new-titles/adult-announcements/article/17724-anita-blake-stakes-out-comics.html
Here are my favorite quotes:
"You want your characters to be taken seriously. With women, that's always hard—hard for women in real life, as well as in comic books. A lot of female images in comics are a little too much like they've gone to the plastic surgeon too often, that whole, "breasts look like they should be flotation devices" thing. I mean, Anita has scars on her arm. But the artist, Brett Booth, was a huge fan of the series. He got Anita. "
ANITA HAS SCARS ON HER ARMS OK SO HER FLOTATION BREASTS ARE ALRIGHT!
"I wanted Anita to look like a real woman. Brett Booth got that." She thinks the way anita is drawn looks real?
http://www.vampirebibliographica.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Valentines.jpg
http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/9/93477/2599456-885618_7_anita_blake__the_laughing_large.jpg
"I never thought I'd be able to do a prequel to the Anita books, but comics have allowed me to. So now the prequels will exist only as comics. For a book, I'd have to do a lot of soul-searching: I can't write Anita as a rookie vampire hunter anymore. I can't unknow the things I know about her. She’s a veteran vampire hunter now. But I found I can write the dialogue for a prequel. And Brett's art has captured a younger, gentler Anita—before she gets that look in her eye."
Firstly you fail as an author. Secondly she's not a rookie in this 'prequel' she's already called the Executioner. And thirdly SHE'S GOT THAT LOOK IN HER EYE, IT'S AN ASSHOLE LOOK
KISS THE DEAD, CHAPTER SEVEN
Anita decides that if these vamps were willing to die to escape being in JC's power, then they're likely to be willing to kill for it too. She says that "I normally don't share information on investigations with my boyfriends" but that if something happens to JC or another one of her lovers because of this, she'd never forgive herself. "They could have my badge, if it was a choice between losing it and losing one of the people I loved." Most sensible thing she's said yet! But regarding the bit where she says she seldom shares case info with her lovers...yeah, what about Hit List where you called them in as deputies/bodyguards, or Bullet where you had them stand in the room while you watch a crime scene video? I'm sure there are many examples from before these too. "Was I trying to justify what I was about to do? Yes. Was I going to do it anyway? Yes." Um, yes, justifying something to yourself usually indicates you are going to do it or already have.
Anita goes between the big alley between two of the buildings, big enough to drive a beer wagon through since that's what the brewery was built for, and I realize that the scene never left the brewery. Somehow I'd gotten it in my head that the vampires were in custody at the station, not being held on-sight. Whoops. Don't know if that's my bad or LKH's. She did give some indication, come to think of it, like the bit about the vampires being moved, so probably my bad. She telepathically contacts Jean-Claude, and describes how she actually has to make an effort to NOT be in mental contact with him at all times because of their bond, how they "invaded each other's emotions; thoughts, even physical sensations could be shared" if she doesn't shut her internal mental door, and how "at the most extreme the boundaries where one of us ended and the other began blurred" which is not just "confusing" but also "scary as hell" for her, and I believe that. That sounds terrifying, actually, and I would really like more focus on the invasive, depersonalizing horror of this bond, if it's the normal for Human Servants, and on Anita having to consciously regularly fight to block it out, since this is the first I've heard of her having to do so since I started these books back up. If it's such a struggle and takes "real effort" like she says, there should be more mention of it! And I would like more mention because, as I said, this really is frightening, and better yet it's being presented as such rather than as romantic.
However, just because it's hard to keep the 'door' closed doesn't mean it's easy to get in there either because just as she's blocking him, he's blocking her too, so he has to let her in, which he does. Anita immediately knows he's in his office at GP and "I could feel the sweat on his skin as he wiped his naked upper body down with a towel." It is still so weird to me that ABvampires sweat. It's also somehow even weirder to me that they sweat regular sweat instead of blood sweat the way they cry blood tears...I guess blood tears are romantically emo-goth and blood sweat would just be icky? Anita says he danced tonight and that's rare since he's the owner and manager. That would have quite sufficed, but, no, there's more. She has to tell us about how her boyfriend is the hottest and everyone wants him ("One the nights when he danced, the club would be full to bursting with women and men who wanted to see the sexiest vampire in St. Louis") but that no one can get the fully monty because that all belongs to her ("He never stripped down as far as his other dancers"), what he's not wearing because he's too special and fancy and hers by the way ("Nothing as common as a G-string for my main squeeze") and what he actually is wearing ("pants with enough lacings and holes that they didn't hide much") and some bonus bullshit about dom/sub personalities that makes no sense whatsoever for multiple reasons ("most of the time the more dominant personalities liked to keep more clothes on, and the submissive were more comfy getting naked.")
Anita then devotes an entire paragraph to describing his pants in greater detail. Seriously.
After that paragraph, JC looks down at his own body and Anita sees it through his eyes and it "tightened things low in my body and made me have to let out a deep, shaking breath. I even put a hand out to steady myself against the cool bricks of the wall." Keep in mind, this woman just saw a man die while coughing up black blood, and prior to that walked through a puddle of blood from another dead man, and shot several to death. "Jean-Claude had affected me that way almost from the moment I'd seen him." Okay, it's true that I remember Anita being really bizarrely fixated on his nipples back in the early books, as well as finding his absurd clothing the height of arousing, but I don't remember her getting so literally weak in the knees she couldn't stand up on her own. JC says he loves that she reacts that way, she says everyone just did when he was on-stage, JC says that's just strangers with "the first flush of desire" and that "to have someone react as you do after seven years of being together, that means more." I don't really see why that's such a big honking deal myself. Anita's preferences didn't change over those seven years, and JC's looks didn't change, so why shouldn't she still think he's hot? If he starts balding or getting fat, then maybe it'll be surprising (though still gross that she should be complimented on it like it's some sort of special saintly feat when in fact that's how it is for most long-term couples). Plus, seven years can't be much to a vampire?
Anita says she can't imagine anyone ever not reacting like that. Yeah, people who like a different sort of man or don't like men at all don't exist! Normally I wouldn't nitpick at a statement like that, because I'd assume the person didn't mean it literally, but I think we've seen multiple examples of how Anita cannot fathom someone being different from her, having different thoughts and opinions, etc. JC laughs and it is "that touchable, caressing sound" that "spilled down my skin, underneath my clothes, and touched all the naughty places." OO-OOH, YOU SAID NAUGHTY PLACES, I'M TELLING MOM! That is what I hear when she says that. Anita tells him to stop because she's still working. He asks what's wrong, since she doesn't usually call him during work. Anita then takes a big fat long paragraph to tell us how Jean-Claude is super-special because he understands the division between her work life and personal life while "other men had had a problem" with that, which I utterly don't believe...until I remember that Anita only had three relationships before JC she ever mentioned: The college fiancee, John Burke, and Richard. She wasn't working when she was in college, she claims Burke was a sexist asshole, and Richard can do no right about anything ever, so, you know what, I actually believe it was completely her experience (from her POV, at least) that other men don't understand their girlfriend is not their girlfriend when she's working. Of course, that doesn't make JC to special unique rare gem she's talking as if he is.
She then tells us how "vampires that are successful at living for hundreds of years are the ultimate compartmentalizers" and we are now four pages into this chapter and nothing has happened, not even her telling him what she wanted to tell him...until she does, finally, and asks if he's heard any rumors about this stuff. He said not this specific one. She says "that means yes" and he says that "I heard rumors of dissatisfaction at the idea of the ruling council of all vampires being here in America. There are some that fear that the old council members that remain alive" Since when are any dead except Mr. Oliver and, supposedly, MOAD herself who was sleeping forever anyway and thus not really involved? "will simply set up shop here, and rule as they did of old." Didn't the Vampire Council rule over all vampires worldwide anyway? And still currently do, so what is this "of old" shit? They clearly have authority in America as well as anyone else, remember how Padma and the Traveller came to St. Louis? Am I remembering this wrong? "To keep that from happening was one of the main reasons that I have been encouraged, by most, to set up an American vampire council." THAT'S NOT HOW IT HAPPENED IN BULLET! But I'm okay with that because we know JC is a liar. "I and the vampires here are more trusted than the old European masters" and Anita says that "I've met enough of the old council to agree with that."
JC says that he hadn't heard that some vampires were aiming for no master at all, and says only the very young would dream of such a thing. Anita says that vampires indeed were young, most of them between fifty and twenty years dead, none over a hundred. He asks if they were all American, she thinks so, and JC talks about how Americans are such an odd lot with their ideals of freedom "beyond anything the rest of us would dream of." Yeah, Americans are so special and unique like that! Wait, JC, aren't you from France? You know, with the revolutions? Anyone named Marie Antoinette ring a bell? No, no, America is the only country whose people ever wanted liberty and rights and stuff. Ever. Anita chalks this up being "a young country" which sounds like she's saying if we were older we'd know better than such silly nonsense...and considering how she enslaves people left and right, I'm not surprised. JC says that in another era America would now be in the stage of building empires but that's not allowed these days. And then this conversation happens. I am transcribing it entirely because I don't think you'll believe me if I just summarize what is said.
Anita: "It would be nice to start keeping some of the land and resources that our soldiers are dying for."
JC: "Ma petite, are you a secret imperialist?"
Anita: "Just tired of watching our guys and girls die on the news, and have nothing to show for it except body bags."
JC: "You have the freedom and gratitude of the people you are helping."
Anita: "Yeah, they're so grateful they keep trying to blow us up."
...how did this conversation just happen. What went so terribly wrong. How did we get here.
And then, just like that, it jumps back to the actual issue at hand!
Anita says these vampires were willing to die rather than risk being blood-oathed to JC, but "I could sense them as if they were already blood of our bloodline." What? Does she mean sense them like they're already blood-oathed to JC, or sense them as if they were from his bloodline as a sourdre de sang? JC asks if she's certain they're not from "our" bloodline, and I wonder if he does mean his as a sourdre de sang or his as an incubus from Belle Morte's line. THERE ARE A LOT OF OPTIONS HERE AND THEY WOULD ALL IMPLY DIFFERENT SITUATIONS, PLZ SPECIFY! Anita takes a deep breath, thinks about it, then just relays the whole situation to JC via transferal of memory. JC says he'll think on this, Anita says she can tell he has an idea she won't like, he says he does have an idea and he's going to "ask opinions of some of the older ones that I trust most, before I share it with you." Oooh, anyone know who these older ones are or could be? Anita says once he'd have just lied to her, he says that once she wouldn't have realized he was keeping anything from her, she says she knows him, he says they know each other and asks if she'll trust him enough to let him keep this idea from her until it is ready to share. She says she'd rather know, he asks if she'll trust him, she says yes. Anita, if you really knew him, you'd not trust him further than you could, sans supernatural strength, throw him.
Anita thinks that she does want to know though, but then JC gently pushes her out of his head. Which is good, since as slimy and sneaky as he is (and I like him that way, for the record) it's still not right to dig something out of his mind against his will, which I think she might have been fixing to do. Her view then shifts from being through his eyes to being in front of him, as if she's astral-projecting or something. We are reminded of "his eyes that rich, cobalt blue, the darkest true blue I'd ever seen" and his "black curls spilling around that glistening, beautiful upper body" and I guess she has some kind of astral form going because she touches his cross-burn scar and it is "a slickness under my fingertips" and then JC pushes her back harder and says "You said you would trust me." She says she does, he says she's still pushing and testing the boundaries of their connection, she says she didn't mean to. I actually fully believe her in that I don't think she was after anything except groping his chest. I guess JC agrees with me, because he says "You did, and you didn't" and she says he can't blame a girl for trying, he says he can and "Je t'aime, ma petite" and she says she loves him too and the link closes down. Anita says she's learned that if JC says she doesn't want to know something, he's right, and that "ignorance isn't bliss, but neither is knowledge." Anita, your happiness is not really the issue here.
Anita turns and finds Zerbrowski in the alley behind her. He asks if “He see it on the news?” Whoa, he could tell she was contacting JC? Anita says what, Zerbrowski says the bodies, she tries to steady herself against the brick wall, he asks if she’s ok, she says sure, he says he called Katie too, she says Katie saw it on the news then, he says no but the kids did, she says she’s sorry. Zerbrowski says the news is showing the bodies with sheets over them and that they’ve said two officers were killed but aren’t releasing the names until the families are notified which makes it hell on everyone else’s families…wait, how does that make sense? I guess the hell is the waiting to find out if you’re gonna get notified? But wouldn’t it be hell on everyone who was waiting?
Anita thinks about that but doesn’t really get it because her boyfriends can feel it if she died and vice versa. Empathy, man, so hard! However, she does note that she’s shielding really hard and has made it clear to them all that they’re to stay out of her head while she’s working on a crime scene and that “I did my best to make sure that ongoing investigations weren’t shared with any of them. It took real work to stay separate enough to keep secrets from each others, but I had to do it” THIS IS YET ANOTHER REASON SHE SHOULD QUIT “not just to keep police work confidential, but because they didn’t need to see the horrors I saw on the job.” Okay, remember the shit that Micah saw while Chimera ruled? Remember that time Nathaniel was used as a human pincushion? Remember how Nicky was a professional hit man? Somehow I doubt they’re delicate flowers that can’t handle the darkity-dark of supernatural crime scenes. I doubt they particularly want to see it, of course, but this makes them sound like…I don’t know how else to say this…normal people. She then talks about how when she’s working on a really violent case some of the harem don’t sleep with her because they don’t like her bad dreams getting into their heads and “I didn’t really blame them, though I found that I did take brownie points away” Ok, so clearly you do blame them. Anyone else think she very carefully tallies these points for real?
Anita thinks she should probably call home. Zerbrowski asks what’s with the look on her face, she says she told JC but didn’t tell him to tell the others, Zerbrowski asks if he won’t do that anyway, Anita says maybe not because older vamps aren’t always big on sharing info, Zerbrowksi says if she has to call her guys make it quick because they need her to come talk to the remaining vamps fast. Anita thanks him, he says next time call the boyfriend most likely to pass it on, she says that’s Micah. I, uh, don’t think he actually wanted an answer, Anita, but he’s polite and says to say hi for him, she takes out her phone, Zerbrowski says she didn’t have her phone out before, Anita thinks of how to hide the fact she wasn’t using a phone to talk to JC, he just waves a hand and says “I don’t want to know, because if I actually knew for sure you could talk to Jean-Claude without using a phone, that would sort of compromise the integrity of our crime scene.”
OKAY, SOMEBODY TELL ME WHAT REASON ZERBROWSKI HAS TO COVER FOR HER ON SOMETHING LIKE THIS? I realize they’re supposedly friends offscreen, but this is really sticking his neck out if she gets found out later and someone knows he knew. That Zombrowski theory is making more and more sense!
Anita calls Micah, and is sure to tell us how “I hit Micah’s number on my favorite’s list, and the phone dialed him for me.” Because just saying she called him would be too short, non-specific, and actually get the point across economically without useless info. “He was a wereleopard, not a vampire; wereanimals tended to think more like modern people. You’d think it would be the other way around” What? No, uh, I wouldn’t, considering that wereanimals, unless they are Therian Servants, actually are modern people. “Vampire weren’t human or animals; they were vampires” yes, that’s why they’re called vampires “and no matter how much I loved Jean-Claude, I knew that was the truth.” Um, yes, vampires are vampires. What is the issue here? I thought she was comfortable dating the monsters, accepted them as monsters, etc.?
God, she’s so randomly confusing.
Found a HILARIOUS interview with LKH about the Anita Blake comics!
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/new-titles/adult-announcements/article/17724-anita-blake-stakes-out-comics.html
Here are my favorite quotes:
"You want your characters to be taken seriously. With women, that's always hard—hard for women in real life, as well as in comic books. A lot of female images in comics are a little too much like they've gone to the plastic surgeon too often, that whole, "breasts look like they should be flotation devices" thing. I mean, Anita has scars on her arm. But the artist, Brett Booth, was a huge fan of the series. He got Anita. "
ANITA HAS SCARS ON HER ARMS OK SO HER FLOTATION BREASTS ARE ALRIGHT!
"I wanted Anita to look like a real woman. Brett Booth got that." She thinks the way anita is drawn looks real?
http://www.vampirebibliographica.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Valentines.jpg
http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/9/93477/2599456-885618_7_anita_blake__the_laughing_large.jpg
"I never thought I'd be able to do a prequel to the Anita books, but comics have allowed me to. So now the prequels will exist only as comics. For a book, I'd have to do a lot of soul-searching: I can't write Anita as a rookie vampire hunter anymore. I can't unknow the things I know about her. She’s a veteran vampire hunter now. But I found I can write the dialogue for a prequel. And Brett's art has captured a younger, gentler Anita—before she gets that look in her eye."
Firstly you fail as an author. Secondly she's not a rookie in this 'prequel' she's already called the Executioner. And thirdly SHE'S GOT THAT LOOK IN HER EYE, IT'S AN ASSHOLE LOOK
KISS THE DEAD, CHAPTER SEVEN
Anita decides that if these vamps were willing to die to escape being in JC's power, then they're likely to be willing to kill for it too. She says that "I normally don't share information on investigations with my boyfriends" but that if something happens to JC or another one of her lovers because of this, she'd never forgive herself. "They could have my badge, if it was a choice between losing it and losing one of the people I loved." Most sensible thing she's said yet! But regarding the bit where she says she seldom shares case info with her lovers...yeah, what about Hit List where you called them in as deputies/bodyguards, or Bullet where you had them stand in the room while you watch a crime scene video? I'm sure there are many examples from before these too. "Was I trying to justify what I was about to do? Yes. Was I going to do it anyway? Yes." Um, yes, justifying something to yourself usually indicates you are going to do it or already have.
Anita goes between the big alley between two of the buildings, big enough to drive a beer wagon through since that's what the brewery was built for, and I realize that the scene never left the brewery. Somehow I'd gotten it in my head that the vampires were in custody at the station, not being held on-sight. Whoops. Don't know if that's my bad or LKH's. She did give some indication, come to think of it, like the bit about the vampires being moved, so probably my bad. She telepathically contacts Jean-Claude, and describes how she actually has to make an effort to NOT be in mental contact with him at all times because of their bond, how they "invaded each other's emotions; thoughts, even physical sensations could be shared" if she doesn't shut her internal mental door, and how "at the most extreme the boundaries where one of us ended and the other began blurred" which is not just "confusing" but also "scary as hell" for her, and I believe that. That sounds terrifying, actually, and I would really like more focus on the invasive, depersonalizing horror of this bond, if it's the normal for Human Servants, and on Anita having to consciously regularly fight to block it out, since this is the first I've heard of her having to do so since I started these books back up. If it's such a struggle and takes "real effort" like she says, there should be more mention of it! And I would like more mention because, as I said, this really is frightening, and better yet it's being presented as such rather than as romantic.
However, just because it's hard to keep the 'door' closed doesn't mean it's easy to get in there either because just as she's blocking him, he's blocking her too, so he has to let her in, which he does. Anita immediately knows he's in his office at GP and "I could feel the sweat on his skin as he wiped his naked upper body down with a towel." It is still so weird to me that ABvampires sweat. It's also somehow even weirder to me that they sweat regular sweat instead of blood sweat the way they cry blood tears...I guess blood tears are romantically emo-goth and blood sweat would just be icky? Anita says he danced tonight and that's rare since he's the owner and manager. That would have quite sufficed, but, no, there's more. She has to tell us about how her boyfriend is the hottest and everyone wants him ("One the nights when he danced, the club would be full to bursting with women and men who wanted to see the sexiest vampire in St. Louis") but that no one can get the fully monty because that all belongs to her ("He never stripped down as far as his other dancers"), what he's not wearing because he's too special and fancy and hers by the way ("Nothing as common as a G-string for my main squeeze") and what he actually is wearing ("pants with enough lacings and holes that they didn't hide much") and some bonus bullshit about dom/sub personalities that makes no sense whatsoever for multiple reasons ("most of the time the more dominant personalities liked to keep more clothes on, and the submissive were more comfy getting naked.")
Anita then devotes an entire paragraph to describing his pants in greater detail. Seriously.
After that paragraph, JC looks down at his own body and Anita sees it through his eyes and it "tightened things low in my body and made me have to let out a deep, shaking breath. I even put a hand out to steady myself against the cool bricks of the wall." Keep in mind, this woman just saw a man die while coughing up black blood, and prior to that walked through a puddle of blood from another dead man, and shot several to death. "Jean-Claude had affected me that way almost from the moment I'd seen him." Okay, it's true that I remember Anita being really bizarrely fixated on his nipples back in the early books, as well as finding his absurd clothing the height of arousing, but I don't remember her getting so literally weak in the knees she couldn't stand up on her own. JC says he loves that she reacts that way, she says everyone just did when he was on-stage, JC says that's just strangers with "the first flush of desire" and that "to have someone react as you do after seven years of being together, that means more." I don't really see why that's such a big honking deal myself. Anita's preferences didn't change over those seven years, and JC's looks didn't change, so why shouldn't she still think he's hot? If he starts balding or getting fat, then maybe it'll be surprising (though still gross that she should be complimented on it like it's some sort of special saintly feat when in fact that's how it is for most long-term couples). Plus, seven years can't be much to a vampire?
Anita says she can't imagine anyone ever not reacting like that. Yeah, people who like a different sort of man or don't like men at all don't exist! Normally I wouldn't nitpick at a statement like that, because I'd assume the person didn't mean it literally, but I think we've seen multiple examples of how Anita cannot fathom someone being different from her, having different thoughts and opinions, etc. JC laughs and it is "that touchable, caressing sound" that "spilled down my skin, underneath my clothes, and touched all the naughty places." OO-OOH, YOU SAID NAUGHTY PLACES, I'M TELLING MOM! That is what I hear when she says that. Anita tells him to stop because she's still working. He asks what's wrong, since she doesn't usually call him during work. Anita then takes a big fat long paragraph to tell us how Jean-Claude is super-special because he understands the division between her work life and personal life while "other men had had a problem" with that, which I utterly don't believe...until I remember that Anita only had three relationships before JC she ever mentioned: The college fiancee, John Burke, and Richard. She wasn't working when she was in college, she claims Burke was a sexist asshole, and Richard can do no right about anything ever, so, you know what, I actually believe it was completely her experience (from her POV, at least) that other men don't understand their girlfriend is not their girlfriend when she's working. Of course, that doesn't make JC to special unique rare gem she's talking as if he is.
She then tells us how "vampires that are successful at living for hundreds of years are the ultimate compartmentalizers" and we are now four pages into this chapter and nothing has happened, not even her telling him what she wanted to tell him...until she does, finally, and asks if he's heard any rumors about this stuff. He said not this specific one. She says "that means yes" and he says that "I heard rumors of dissatisfaction at the idea of the ruling council of all vampires being here in America. There are some that fear that the old council members that remain alive" Since when are any dead except Mr. Oliver and, supposedly, MOAD herself who was sleeping forever anyway and thus not really involved? "will simply set up shop here, and rule as they did of old." Didn't the Vampire Council rule over all vampires worldwide anyway? And still currently do, so what is this "of old" shit? They clearly have authority in America as well as anyone else, remember how Padma and the Traveller came to St. Louis? Am I remembering this wrong? "To keep that from happening was one of the main reasons that I have been encouraged, by most, to set up an American vampire council." THAT'S NOT HOW IT HAPPENED IN BULLET! But I'm okay with that because we know JC is a liar. "I and the vampires here are more trusted than the old European masters" and Anita says that "I've met enough of the old council to agree with that."
JC says that he hadn't heard that some vampires were aiming for no master at all, and says only the very young would dream of such a thing. Anita says that vampires indeed were young, most of them between fifty and twenty years dead, none over a hundred. He asks if they were all American, she thinks so, and JC talks about how Americans are such an odd lot with their ideals of freedom "beyond anything the rest of us would dream of." Yeah, Americans are so special and unique like that! Wait, JC, aren't you from France? You know, with the revolutions? Anyone named Marie Antoinette ring a bell? No, no, America is the only country whose people ever wanted liberty and rights and stuff. Ever. Anita chalks this up being "a young country" which sounds like she's saying if we were older we'd know better than such silly nonsense...and considering how she enslaves people left and right, I'm not surprised. JC says that in another era America would now be in the stage of building empires but that's not allowed these days. And then this conversation happens. I am transcribing it entirely because I don't think you'll believe me if I just summarize what is said.
Anita: "It would be nice to start keeping some of the land and resources that our soldiers are dying for."
JC: "Ma petite, are you a secret imperialist?"
Anita: "Just tired of watching our guys and girls die on the news, and have nothing to show for it except body bags."
JC: "You have the freedom and gratitude of the people you are helping."
Anita: "Yeah, they're so grateful they keep trying to blow us up."
...how did this conversation just happen. What went so terribly wrong. How did we get here.
And then, just like that, it jumps back to the actual issue at hand!
Anita says these vampires were willing to die rather than risk being blood-oathed to JC, but "I could sense them as if they were already blood of our bloodline." What? Does she mean sense them like they're already blood-oathed to JC, or sense them as if they were from his bloodline as a sourdre de sang? JC asks if she's certain they're not from "our" bloodline, and I wonder if he does mean his as a sourdre de sang or his as an incubus from Belle Morte's line. THERE ARE A LOT OF OPTIONS HERE AND THEY WOULD ALL IMPLY DIFFERENT SITUATIONS, PLZ SPECIFY! Anita takes a deep breath, thinks about it, then just relays the whole situation to JC via transferal of memory. JC says he'll think on this, Anita says she can tell he has an idea she won't like, he says he does have an idea and he's going to "ask opinions of some of the older ones that I trust most, before I share it with you." Oooh, anyone know who these older ones are or could be? Anita says once he'd have just lied to her, he says that once she wouldn't have realized he was keeping anything from her, she says she knows him, he says they know each other and asks if she'll trust him enough to let him keep this idea from her until it is ready to share. She says she'd rather know, he asks if she'll trust him, she says yes. Anita, if you really knew him, you'd not trust him further than you could, sans supernatural strength, throw him.
Anita thinks that she does want to know though, but then JC gently pushes her out of his head. Which is good, since as slimy and sneaky as he is (and I like him that way, for the record) it's still not right to dig something out of his mind against his will, which I think she might have been fixing to do. Her view then shifts from being through his eyes to being in front of him, as if she's astral-projecting or something. We are reminded of "his eyes that rich, cobalt blue, the darkest true blue I'd ever seen" and his "black curls spilling around that glistening, beautiful upper body" and I guess she has some kind of astral form going because she touches his cross-burn scar and it is "a slickness under my fingertips" and then JC pushes her back harder and says "You said you would trust me." She says she does, he says she's still pushing and testing the boundaries of their connection, she says she didn't mean to. I actually fully believe her in that I don't think she was after anything except groping his chest. I guess JC agrees with me, because he says "You did, and you didn't" and she says he can't blame a girl for trying, he says he can and "Je t'aime, ma petite" and she says she loves him too and the link closes down. Anita says she's learned that if JC says she doesn't want to know something, he's right, and that "ignorance isn't bliss, but neither is knowledge." Anita, your happiness is not really the issue here.
Anita turns and finds Zerbrowski in the alley behind her. He asks if “He see it on the news?” Whoa, he could tell she was contacting JC? Anita says what, Zerbrowski says the bodies, she tries to steady herself against the brick wall, he asks if she’s ok, she says sure, he says he called Katie too, she says Katie saw it on the news then, he says no but the kids did, she says she’s sorry. Zerbrowski says the news is showing the bodies with sheets over them and that they’ve said two officers were killed but aren’t releasing the names until the families are notified which makes it hell on everyone else’s families…wait, how does that make sense? I guess the hell is the waiting to find out if you’re gonna get notified? But wouldn’t it be hell on everyone who was waiting?
Anita thinks about that but doesn’t really get it because her boyfriends can feel it if she died and vice versa. Empathy, man, so hard! However, she does note that she’s shielding really hard and has made it clear to them all that they’re to stay out of her head while she’s working on a crime scene and that “I did my best to make sure that ongoing investigations weren’t shared with any of them. It took real work to stay separate enough to keep secrets from each others, but I had to do it” THIS IS YET ANOTHER REASON SHE SHOULD QUIT “not just to keep police work confidential, but because they didn’t need to see the horrors I saw on the job.” Okay, remember the shit that Micah saw while Chimera ruled? Remember that time Nathaniel was used as a human pincushion? Remember how Nicky was a professional hit man? Somehow I doubt they’re delicate flowers that can’t handle the darkity-dark of supernatural crime scenes. I doubt they particularly want to see it, of course, but this makes them sound like…I don’t know how else to say this…normal people. She then talks about how when she’s working on a really violent case some of the harem don’t sleep with her because they don’t like her bad dreams getting into their heads and “I didn’t really blame them, though I found that I did take brownie points away” Ok, so clearly you do blame them. Anyone else think she very carefully tallies these points for real?
Anita thinks she should probably call home. Zerbrowski asks what’s with the look on her face, she says she told JC but didn’t tell him to tell the others, Zerbrowski asks if he won’t do that anyway, Anita says maybe not because older vamps aren’t always big on sharing info, Zerbrowksi says if she has to call her guys make it quick because they need her to come talk to the remaining vamps fast. Anita thanks him, he says next time call the boyfriend most likely to pass it on, she says that’s Micah. I, uh, don’t think he actually wanted an answer, Anita, but he’s polite and says to say hi for him, she takes out her phone, Zerbrowski says she didn’t have her phone out before, Anita thinks of how to hide the fact she wasn’t using a phone to talk to JC, he just waves a hand and says “I don’t want to know, because if I actually knew for sure you could talk to Jean-Claude without using a phone, that would sort of compromise the integrity of our crime scene.”
OKAY, SOMEBODY TELL ME WHAT REASON ZERBROWSKI HAS TO COVER FOR HER ON SOMETHING LIKE THIS? I realize they’re supposedly friends offscreen, but this is really sticking his neck out if she gets found out later and someone knows he knew. That Zombrowski theory is making more and more sense!
Anita calls Micah, and is sure to tell us how “I hit Micah’s number on my favorite’s list, and the phone dialed him for me.” Because just saying she called him would be too short, non-specific, and actually get the point across economically without useless info. “He was a wereleopard, not a vampire; wereanimals tended to think more like modern people. You’d think it would be the other way around” What? No, uh, I wouldn’t, considering that wereanimals, unless they are Therian Servants, actually are modern people. “Vampire weren’t human or animals; they were vampires” yes, that’s why they’re called vampires “and no matter how much I loved Jean-Claude, I knew that was the truth.” Um, yes, vampires are vampires. What is the issue here? I thought she was comfortable dating the monsters, accepted them as monsters, etc.?
God, she’s so randomly confusing.
