KISS THE DEAD, CHAPTER THIRTY NINE
Mar. 17th, 2014 01:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
a_sporking_ratDad named the hamster Boz! I really liked the idea of a Russian name, but couldn't find any that seemed to fit (I also want to save Ivan the Teddybear for a teddybear hamster) Not sure if Boz totally fits, but it works---it's short and with a bit of an edge, which is what I was looking for since he's tiny and cute but also looks constantly pissed off at the world.
Nikolai's previous owner warned me that he was cage-dominant and that fingers were not to be stuck between the bars. Naturally, my dad decided to experiment with this and put a foam bullet from a nerf gun in between the bars. I wasn't there, but he says Nikolai lunged and attacked it. He showed it to me after, and it was pretty torn up. Outside of the cage though, I'm trying to get him adjusted to being on his back for belly rubs, and my dad says I should stop and Nikolai should bite me because I'm "emasculating" him and it's not right for a male rat to be on his back (but it's fine for the girls) Oh dad, stop being such an Anita.
KISS THE DEAD, CHAPTER THIRTY NINE
Anita's phone rings. She gets it out of the pile of weapons that it's lying in and answers. It's Brice, whom, we are reminded, is the new marshal. He says that "They found bomb-making materials at the house we raided with SWAT." Raided? YOU ILLEGALLY KILLED A BUNCH OF PEOPLE FOR NO FUCKING REASON. Note to LKH, you can't justify this shit after the fact by having it just turn out by luck that oh they totally were up to something, so even though we didn't know that wwhat we did was still okay. Anita can't understand "what the hell do vampires need with bombs?" Um, the same as anyone else would? If you want to bomb something for whatever reason, there's no vampire power for it besides how some (Ivy, Warrick) seem to randomly-but-rarely develop pyrokinesis. And that's still not the same as a bomb blast. Anita then thinks for a paragraph about how Asher and JC get very still and how she shouldn't have said the word 'bomb' out loud. Brice says that "one of the vampires that died at the warehouse was a retired demolitions expert." I like how he says they died instead of that they were killed. Anita asks if they were military, as that alone makes someone a threat and/or competent in her book, and Brice says "no, civilian, construction, but that just means he knows how to bring down a whole building" which Anita says is "not comforting" despite the fact that, whew, they're not a big bad scary military person!
"Zebrowski said that the vamps at the warehouse were talking trash about you and Jean-Claude" no, they were SPEAKING TRUTHS "so I figured you'd want to know about the bomb stuff." Anita asks if it's "Just stuff, not actual devices?" and he says it's not actual devices but that the bomb techs are treating it as serious and think that some devices were made and are possibly still out there in the city somewhere. Anita says that "These guys wanted to be seen as sympathetic in the media. Blowing shit up doesn't gain sympathy from anyone" and Brice says "True, but it doesn't stop anyone from doing it" which I guess is supposed to seem deep and profound but actually it's just DUMB because actually that DOES stop groups who from doing just that if they're seeking good PR. The ones blowing things up are generally the ones who do not want good PR but to inspire terror or get revenge or make a statement or that sort of thing. Also, what is Anita talking about? We know NOTHING about what the vamps they murdered in that house wanted. We know nothing about them at all. Anita and Brice are assuming based on, may I remind you, NEXT TO NOTHING, that they are connected to the vampire group from the warehouse that was "talking trash" but they weren't interested in media coverage at all either. The one way I can see getting that is that Anita was all worried about how awful it must look in front of the cameras when they all got slaughtered, so I guess now she's spinning that in her head as a deliberate martyr ploy planned on their part rather than A MASSACRE THAT *SHE* SET OFF.
God that still makes me so mad. Almost as mad as that "raid" does.
Anita asks some questions about what to look for in regards to the "device" and Brice says that isn't his area and he doesn't know but to talk to a Mark Alvarez, who he says is "the lead guy." Anita says to let her get a pen and paper to take his number, and JC gives a small notebook and pen which Anita tells us "there was one by every bed in every room that was "mine" and somehow it just kills me that LKH felt the need to write all that out when she's giving such piss-poor attention to the actual plot. I know this bomb threat is her way of coming back to it, but it doesn't feel like something she planned, it feels like she just suddenly remembered "oh yeah, those guys...um...ok how do I go back to that...uh, okay, they have a bomb, yeah, that's exciting!" Brice says that Anita can't call Alvarez until she has been informed officially. Yeah, I thought his "just thought you should know" comment earlier sounded like something that shouldn't be allowed, and I was right, he says "don't get us both fired, and you can't tell your boyfriend and his people about what we found." Anita asks if that's because she's not supposed to know and Brice says that "They're worried that Jean-Claude could have some of these nuts inside his organization, so if we tell him then we'd be tipping our hand." Anita asks what happens then if someone gets blown up before that and instead of answering Brice just says they wouldn't even let Zerbrowski leave the meeting for fear he'd tell Anita and she'd tell the Kiss.
RULES AND REGULATIONS ARE ALL STUPID, ARE YOU GETTING THE MESSAGE YET? POLICE SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO ANYTHING THEY LIKE AND NOT HAVE TO ANSWER TO ANY HIGHER-UPS CUZ THEY'RE DUMB
Anita asks why Brice is telling her then, he says that "they don't think I owe you anything so they don't think I'll tell you" and she says he could get in trouble for this (he very obviously knows that, Anita) and he gives her Alvarez's number and says he just wanted her to have a heads-up, which she says she really appreciates, and THEN we learn why Brice is sticking his neck out for someone he literally just met today: "Hey as someone who's still looking for true love outside the normal box, I want to support anyone who's found it. I'm not sure if it's prejudice, but I'm listening to some upper brass make up shitty reasons to justify their actions. Makes me think I'm not coming out anytime soon."
OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE
ARE YOU SERIOUS
HE'S SERIOUS
LKH IS SERIOUS
Yeah, being gay gives him soooooo much solidarity with poor Anita's plight, because she is EQUALLY OPPRESSED, you see, and now she has her very own Real Oppressed Minority to say so for her, so it's not just her whining, look, she has an actual gay guy to agree with her! And the only reason the 'upper brass' has for this is totally prejudice, and their supposed prejudice for VAMPIRE MOB BOSSES is absolutely equivalent to prejudice against gay people and totally just as unjustified! Why, it's practically the same thing! It's not like there's good reason to be biased against JC and no good reason at all to be biased against gay people, IT IS ALL THE SAME TERRIBLE BIGOTRY, POOR ANITA, POOR JEAN-CLAUDE, THE GAY COMMUNITY SHOULD ALL ~SUPPORT YOU~ LIKE BRICE CUZ YOUR ~TRUE LOVE~ IS OUTSIDE THE ~NORM~ ugh I am so disgusted I cant even. I really, really loathe LKH as a person for this.
Anita says that "The new vampire laws make them treat them better, more like people, but new laws don't change how people feel." OKAY, THIS IS THE WOMAN WHO WAS HAPPY TO MENTALLY TORTURE SHELBY, WHO SCARED THAT GRANNY-VAMP INTO FLIGHT CAUSING ALL THE VAMPS TO BE SHOT FOR NO REASON, AND WHO KILLED A BUNCH OF DEFENSELESS VAMPIRES FOR NO CAUSE WHATSOEVER. AND WHO FEELS A-OKAY ABOUT ALL OF THIS. SHE HAS NO LEG TO BE STANDING ON HERE! She thanks Brice, he says just not to call Alavarez for a couple of hours, and adds that "I looked up some of your bodyguards; they've got backgrounds in demolition, military." Anita asks "do my fellow cops have files on my people?" Fellow cops. Ugh. Also I get tired of her saying 'my people' because, for whatever reason, LKH likes to use it so much. Also, Brice continues to be suspicious as hell and he really better turn out to be a bad guy because otherwise this is just ridiculous. He says they have some files but he's been federal awhile so he called in some favors "told them I just wanted to know what I was up against if things went bad. They totally bought it, Blake. I get the idea that certain people are betting when you and your people go off the reservation, not if." GEE, I WONDER WHY. Anita huffs that "Sleep with a few vampires and shapeshifters, and people get all weird about it" and he agrees and the call ends. Ugh, Anita, you thick denying asshole, it's not about them being vamps and shifters, it's about the fact that they are almost all the heads of vamp/shifter organizations that operate outside the human law and practice ritual murder, rape, human trafficking, mercenary activity, etc. While they obviously must clean up after themselves enough that no arrests can yet be made, I have no doubt there's enough evidence and unanswered questions for suspicion to be on the lot of them. And Anita is not just involved with them as a girlfriend but as a cohort, hence why she even has "people" in the first place. THEY HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO EXPECT THE WORST.
"I hit the button, if button is the right word for brushing across the screen." Why oh why is this inanity allowed to be left in. It drives me as nuts as the stupidity. Anita thinks about how if she doesn't know better she'd think JC and Asher aren't interested but because she has "years of practice with vampires" she knows that they are, and she asks "You heard?" and JC says yes and she tells him that she doesn't normally share information about ongoing investigations. Firstly, he didn't ask, Anita. Secondly, bullshit, you filled him and others in on the investigations in Skin Trade, Bullet, and Hit List. The only reason you didn't in Flirt is because there was no case going on in that book! JC only replies that "you are very careful about that" while presumably trying not to laugh, and she says "I have to be if I'm going to be a cop." JC says "I understand that, ma petite" and I get the feeling it's like talking to a child, like she's this little kid who just really wants to talk about how I'M TOTALLY A COP OKAY and I HAVE THIS SECRET I CAN'T TELL YOU PLZ ASK WHAT IT IS and he's just like mhmm, okay, that's nice. She says that "I can make both of you promise, word of honor, and all that shit, to tell no one, and I know you'll do it." OH MY GOD ANITA NEITHER OF THEM EVEN ASKED. Also I'm betting they actually are not even interested, she just wishes they were. I also gotta love how now she's bragging about how she can make them promise and they'll do it.
JC repeats back to her "Word of honor, and all that shit" and Anita notices that "there was a faint edge of his French accent" which she says means he is "very emotional." Um, last I checked he is oozing that cheesy accent all the damn time, Anita, and I think his emotion right now is 'bored and irritated with you'. Anita looks at Asher and said "You too, blondie" ANITA THEY DIDN'T EVEN ASK. Even if they are interested, they're clearly trying to respect that whole 'don't talk about investigations' thing while you are basically trying to force them to hear it instead. And what's crazy is LKH could have written them as begging to, or as JC forcibly pulling it from her mind, or any number of things, but no, she writes it like this. IS SHE TROLLING US? IS THIS ON PURPOSE? Asher says he's caused enough problems and will do whatever she and JC wish, which I think is his way of saying 'ugh, fine, if you really must, let's get it over with'. Anita says she wishes he meant that, reminds us he has pale blue eyes and a "lace of golden hair over his face" and Asher says he does, she says you do don't you, and he's like yes, and she says "You are sorry, but you also meant everything you yelled at us earlier, and you meant to hurt me so that no one else could have certain skills from me for awhile." Firstly, could you be any more wooden? Secondly it is kind of hilarious to me that making Anita unable to give blowjobs was seriously the worst thing LKH could think of for Asher to do. Makes me wonder if maybe Asher figures that's really all she's good for to anyone...and really, is he wrong?
He asks if she can forgive him, she "waved it away" and tells him to "Ask me later; right now I'm about to break a rule, one that could cost me my badge." NO ONE IS ASKING YOU TO "There are people on the force who want to get rid of me for sleeping with you guys" AND THEY SHOULD "and this could be excuse enough, but if one of these missing bombs blows up and hurts someone I care about, the job won't mean much to me." Ugh, finally she states a reason for telling them that MAKES SENSE...although given how much she emphasized 'omg I'm not supposed to, I'm a cop, you know I'm a cop you know, PLS ASK ME' rather than 'hey guys this was about us so even though I'm not supposed to tell you I'm going to' makes me think this is more just an excuse.
So, you'd think she'd tell JC and Asher now, right? Nope, instead she spends the rest of the chapter (which is a page and then a little more) internally monologuing. She starts with thinking about what she said about her job not meaning much to her if someone got blown up and decides that "in the end I weighed love higher than my badge" wait, so if someone she DOESN'T love gets blown up, she's fine? "and that meant that Larry and everyone else who thought sleeping with the monsters divided my loyalties" it's not about sleeping with the monsters, it's about WHICH monsters "were partially right." I believe you mean totally right. "They were right, because I called Claudia and told her to tell our security at all of our businesses to look for the damn things." That's...not what proves them right, Anita. Not at all. And she thinks about how maybe the guards will keep it secret, how they sweep for listening devices every day so maybe they would have found a bomb anyway doing that but maybe not and then somehow this jumps to "Yes, I was dating too many people, and taking care of too many people." She actually does not take care of anyone, either as a lover or as a ruler. Well, except Nathaniel I guess, since she gives him a home and protection, but that's it. But that's only "taking care of" in the sense of a rich guy taking care of his mistress, which isn't what I think she's referring to. And he takes care of her more, with the cooking and cleaning and clothing of her. "Yes, I was a little overwhelmed by it sometimes, but I was also happier than I'd ever been in my life, and I didn't want to lose that." There's been a LOT of talk from people about how GEE UR SO HAPPY NOW ANITA and it feels like either LKH is trying to convince Anita of this...or trying to convince herself of it. "I didn't want to lose anyone that I loved." Don't worry, LKH promised you never would! "If that eventually cost me my badge, so be it." Yeah, that has about as much chance of actually happening as someone Anita "loves" dying does.
"Was I a U.S. Marsha, or Jean-Claude's human servant? Was I a Marshal, or Micah's Nimir-Ra? Was I a police officer, or Nathaniel's sweetie? Was I an officer, or Nicky's master? Was I a cop, or the new Mistress of Tigers of Sin, and Dev, and Jade, and Ethan, and Crispin, and...Could I keep being a cop and be everything else?" Even if you can, you shouldn't. "I sat there on the edge of the bed and, for the first time, really thought the answer might be no." FOR THE *FIRST* TIME? WELL IT'S ABOUT TIME THEN! Also, as I just said, this holds absolutely no tension for me as a reader because LKH's obvious love of Anita getting the status symbols of authority and 'license to kill' means Anita will never ever have to give it up any more than she'll ever have to give up any of her sweeties in any significant way. And no amount of bombs or murder can make up for how boring that is.
Nikolai's previous owner warned me that he was cage-dominant and that fingers were not to be stuck between the bars. Naturally, my dad decided to experiment with this and put a foam bullet from a nerf gun in between the bars. I wasn't there, but he says Nikolai lunged and attacked it. He showed it to me after, and it was pretty torn up. Outside of the cage though, I'm trying to get him adjusted to being on his back for belly rubs, and my dad says I should stop and Nikolai should bite me because I'm "emasculating" him and it's not right for a male rat to be on his back (but it's fine for the girls) Oh dad, stop being such an Anita.
KISS THE DEAD, CHAPTER THIRTY NINE
Anita's phone rings. She gets it out of the pile of weapons that it's lying in and answers. It's Brice, whom, we are reminded, is the new marshal. He says that "They found bomb-making materials at the house we raided with SWAT." Raided? YOU ILLEGALLY KILLED A BUNCH OF PEOPLE FOR NO FUCKING REASON. Note to LKH, you can't justify this shit after the fact by having it just turn out by luck that oh they totally were up to something, so even though we didn't know that wwhat we did was still okay. Anita can't understand "what the hell do vampires need with bombs?" Um, the same as anyone else would? If you want to bomb something for whatever reason, there's no vampire power for it besides how some (Ivy, Warrick) seem to randomly-but-rarely develop pyrokinesis. And that's still not the same as a bomb blast. Anita then thinks for a paragraph about how Asher and JC get very still and how she shouldn't have said the word 'bomb' out loud. Brice says that "one of the vampires that died at the warehouse was a retired demolitions expert." I like how he says they died instead of that they were killed. Anita asks if they were military, as that alone makes someone a threat and/or competent in her book, and Brice says "no, civilian, construction, but that just means he knows how to bring down a whole building" which Anita says is "not comforting" despite the fact that, whew, they're not a big bad scary military person!
"Zebrowski said that the vamps at the warehouse were talking trash about you and Jean-Claude" no, they were SPEAKING TRUTHS "so I figured you'd want to know about the bomb stuff." Anita asks if it's "Just stuff, not actual devices?" and he says it's not actual devices but that the bomb techs are treating it as serious and think that some devices were made and are possibly still out there in the city somewhere. Anita says that "These guys wanted to be seen as sympathetic in the media. Blowing shit up doesn't gain sympathy from anyone" and Brice says "True, but it doesn't stop anyone from doing it" which I guess is supposed to seem deep and profound but actually it's just DUMB because actually that DOES stop groups who from doing just that if they're seeking good PR. The ones blowing things up are generally the ones who do not want good PR but to inspire terror or get revenge or make a statement or that sort of thing. Also, what is Anita talking about? We know NOTHING about what the vamps they murdered in that house wanted. We know nothing about them at all. Anita and Brice are assuming based on, may I remind you, NEXT TO NOTHING, that they are connected to the vampire group from the warehouse that was "talking trash" but they weren't interested in media coverage at all either. The one way I can see getting that is that Anita was all worried about how awful it must look in front of the cameras when they all got slaughtered, so I guess now she's spinning that in her head as a deliberate martyr ploy planned on their part rather than A MASSACRE THAT *SHE* SET OFF.
God that still makes me so mad. Almost as mad as that "raid" does.
Anita asks some questions about what to look for in regards to the "device" and Brice says that isn't his area and he doesn't know but to talk to a Mark Alvarez, who he says is "the lead guy." Anita says to let her get a pen and paper to take his number, and JC gives a small notebook and pen which Anita tells us "there was one by every bed in every room that was "mine" and somehow it just kills me that LKH felt the need to write all that out when she's giving such piss-poor attention to the actual plot. I know this bomb threat is her way of coming back to it, but it doesn't feel like something she planned, it feels like she just suddenly remembered "oh yeah, those guys...um...ok how do I go back to that...uh, okay, they have a bomb, yeah, that's exciting!" Brice says that Anita can't call Alvarez until she has been informed officially. Yeah, I thought his "just thought you should know" comment earlier sounded like something that shouldn't be allowed, and I was right, he says "don't get us both fired, and you can't tell your boyfriend and his people about what we found." Anita asks if that's because she's not supposed to know and Brice says that "They're worried that Jean-Claude could have some of these nuts inside his organization, so if we tell him then we'd be tipping our hand." Anita asks what happens then if someone gets blown up before that and instead of answering Brice just says they wouldn't even let Zerbrowski leave the meeting for fear he'd tell Anita and she'd tell the Kiss.
RULES AND REGULATIONS ARE ALL STUPID, ARE YOU GETTING THE MESSAGE YET? POLICE SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO ANYTHING THEY LIKE AND NOT HAVE TO ANSWER TO ANY HIGHER-UPS CUZ THEY'RE DUMB
Anita asks why Brice is telling her then, he says that "they don't think I owe you anything so they don't think I'll tell you" and she says he could get in trouble for this (he very obviously knows that, Anita) and he gives her Alvarez's number and says he just wanted her to have a heads-up, which she says she really appreciates, and THEN we learn why Brice is sticking his neck out for someone he literally just met today: "Hey as someone who's still looking for true love outside the normal box, I want to support anyone who's found it. I'm not sure if it's prejudice, but I'm listening to some upper brass make up shitty reasons to justify their actions. Makes me think I'm not coming out anytime soon."
OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE
ARE YOU SERIOUS
HE'S SERIOUS
LKH IS SERIOUS
Yeah, being gay gives him soooooo much solidarity with poor Anita's plight, because she is EQUALLY OPPRESSED, you see, and now she has her very own Real Oppressed Minority to say so for her, so it's not just her whining, look, she has an actual gay guy to agree with her! And the only reason the 'upper brass' has for this is totally prejudice, and their supposed prejudice for VAMPIRE MOB BOSSES is absolutely equivalent to prejudice against gay people and totally just as unjustified! Why, it's practically the same thing! It's not like there's good reason to be biased against JC and no good reason at all to be biased against gay people, IT IS ALL THE SAME TERRIBLE BIGOTRY, POOR ANITA, POOR JEAN-CLAUDE, THE GAY COMMUNITY SHOULD ALL ~SUPPORT YOU~ LIKE BRICE CUZ YOUR ~TRUE LOVE~ IS OUTSIDE THE ~NORM~ ugh I am so disgusted I cant even. I really, really loathe LKH as a person for this.
Anita says that "The new vampire laws make them treat them better, more like people, but new laws don't change how people feel." OKAY, THIS IS THE WOMAN WHO WAS HAPPY TO MENTALLY TORTURE SHELBY, WHO SCARED THAT GRANNY-VAMP INTO FLIGHT CAUSING ALL THE VAMPS TO BE SHOT FOR NO REASON, AND WHO KILLED A BUNCH OF DEFENSELESS VAMPIRES FOR NO CAUSE WHATSOEVER. AND WHO FEELS A-OKAY ABOUT ALL OF THIS. SHE HAS NO LEG TO BE STANDING ON HERE! She thanks Brice, he says just not to call Alavarez for a couple of hours, and adds that "I looked up some of your bodyguards; they've got backgrounds in demolition, military." Anita asks "do my fellow cops have files on my people?" Fellow cops. Ugh. Also I get tired of her saying 'my people' because, for whatever reason, LKH likes to use it so much. Also, Brice continues to be suspicious as hell and he really better turn out to be a bad guy because otherwise this is just ridiculous. He says they have some files but he's been federal awhile so he called in some favors "told them I just wanted to know what I was up against if things went bad. They totally bought it, Blake. I get the idea that certain people are betting when you and your people go off the reservation, not if." GEE, I WONDER WHY. Anita huffs that "Sleep with a few vampires and shapeshifters, and people get all weird about it" and he agrees and the call ends. Ugh, Anita, you thick denying asshole, it's not about them being vamps and shifters, it's about the fact that they are almost all the heads of vamp/shifter organizations that operate outside the human law and practice ritual murder, rape, human trafficking, mercenary activity, etc. While they obviously must clean up after themselves enough that no arrests can yet be made, I have no doubt there's enough evidence and unanswered questions for suspicion to be on the lot of them. And Anita is not just involved with them as a girlfriend but as a cohort, hence why she even has "people" in the first place. THEY HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO EXPECT THE WORST.
"I hit the button, if button is the right word for brushing across the screen." Why oh why is this inanity allowed to be left in. It drives me as nuts as the stupidity. Anita thinks about how if she doesn't know better she'd think JC and Asher aren't interested but because she has "years of practice with vampires" she knows that they are, and she asks "You heard?" and JC says yes and she tells him that she doesn't normally share information about ongoing investigations. Firstly, he didn't ask, Anita. Secondly, bullshit, you filled him and others in on the investigations in Skin Trade, Bullet, and Hit List. The only reason you didn't in Flirt is because there was no case going on in that book! JC only replies that "you are very careful about that" while presumably trying not to laugh, and she says "I have to be if I'm going to be a cop." JC says "I understand that, ma petite" and I get the feeling it's like talking to a child, like she's this little kid who just really wants to talk about how I'M TOTALLY A COP OKAY and I HAVE THIS SECRET I CAN'T TELL YOU PLZ ASK WHAT IT IS and he's just like mhmm, okay, that's nice. She says that "I can make both of you promise, word of honor, and all that shit, to tell no one, and I know you'll do it." OH MY GOD ANITA NEITHER OF THEM EVEN ASKED. Also I'm betting they actually are not even interested, she just wishes they were. I also gotta love how now she's bragging about how she can make them promise and they'll do it.
JC repeats back to her "Word of honor, and all that shit" and Anita notices that "there was a faint edge of his French accent" which she says means he is "very emotional." Um, last I checked he is oozing that cheesy accent all the damn time, Anita, and I think his emotion right now is 'bored and irritated with you'. Anita looks at Asher and said "You too, blondie" ANITA THEY DIDN'T EVEN ASK. Even if they are interested, they're clearly trying to respect that whole 'don't talk about investigations' thing while you are basically trying to force them to hear it instead. And what's crazy is LKH could have written them as begging to, or as JC forcibly pulling it from her mind, or any number of things, but no, she writes it like this. IS SHE TROLLING US? IS THIS ON PURPOSE? Asher says he's caused enough problems and will do whatever she and JC wish, which I think is his way of saying 'ugh, fine, if you really must, let's get it over with'. Anita says she wishes he meant that, reminds us he has pale blue eyes and a "lace of golden hair over his face" and Asher says he does, she says you do don't you, and he's like yes, and she says "You are sorry, but you also meant everything you yelled at us earlier, and you meant to hurt me so that no one else could have certain skills from me for awhile." Firstly, could you be any more wooden? Secondly it is kind of hilarious to me that making Anita unable to give blowjobs was seriously the worst thing LKH could think of for Asher to do. Makes me wonder if maybe Asher figures that's really all she's good for to anyone...and really, is he wrong?
He asks if she can forgive him, she "waved it away" and tells him to "Ask me later; right now I'm about to break a rule, one that could cost me my badge." NO ONE IS ASKING YOU TO "There are people on the force who want to get rid of me for sleeping with you guys" AND THEY SHOULD "and this could be excuse enough, but if one of these missing bombs blows up and hurts someone I care about, the job won't mean much to me." Ugh, finally she states a reason for telling them that MAKES SENSE...although given how much she emphasized 'omg I'm not supposed to, I'm a cop, you know I'm a cop you know, PLS ASK ME' rather than 'hey guys this was about us so even though I'm not supposed to tell you I'm going to' makes me think this is more just an excuse.
So, you'd think she'd tell JC and Asher now, right? Nope, instead she spends the rest of the chapter (which is a page and then a little more) internally monologuing. She starts with thinking about what she said about her job not meaning much to her if someone got blown up and decides that "in the end I weighed love higher than my badge" wait, so if someone she DOESN'T love gets blown up, she's fine? "and that meant that Larry and everyone else who thought sleeping with the monsters divided my loyalties" it's not about sleeping with the monsters, it's about WHICH monsters "were partially right." I believe you mean totally right. "They were right, because I called Claudia and told her to tell our security at all of our businesses to look for the damn things." That's...not what proves them right, Anita. Not at all. And she thinks about how maybe the guards will keep it secret, how they sweep for listening devices every day so maybe they would have found a bomb anyway doing that but maybe not and then somehow this jumps to "Yes, I was dating too many people, and taking care of too many people." She actually does not take care of anyone, either as a lover or as a ruler. Well, except Nathaniel I guess, since she gives him a home and protection, but that's it. But that's only "taking care of" in the sense of a rich guy taking care of his mistress, which isn't what I think she's referring to. And he takes care of her more, with the cooking and cleaning and clothing of her. "Yes, I was a little overwhelmed by it sometimes, but I was also happier than I'd ever been in my life, and I didn't want to lose that." There's been a LOT of talk from people about how GEE UR SO HAPPY NOW ANITA and it feels like either LKH is trying to convince Anita of this...or trying to convince herself of it. "I didn't want to lose anyone that I loved." Don't worry, LKH promised you never would! "If that eventually cost me my badge, so be it." Yeah, that has about as much chance of actually happening as someone Anita "loves" dying does.
"Was I a U.S. Marsha, or Jean-Claude's human servant? Was I a Marshal, or Micah's Nimir-Ra? Was I a police officer, or Nathaniel's sweetie? Was I an officer, or Nicky's master? Was I a cop, or the new Mistress of Tigers of Sin, and Dev, and Jade, and Ethan, and Crispin, and...Could I keep being a cop and be everything else?" Even if you can, you shouldn't. "I sat there on the edge of the bed and, for the first time, really thought the answer might be no." FOR THE *FIRST* TIME? WELL IT'S ABOUT TIME THEN! Also, as I just said, this holds absolutely no tension for me as a reader because LKH's obvious love of Anita getting the status symbols of authority and 'license to kill' means Anita will never ever have to give it up any more than she'll ever have to give up any of her sweeties in any significant way. And no amount of bombs or murder can make up for how boring that is.
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Date: 2014-03-17 08:05 pm (UTC)"I hit the button, if button is the right word for brushing across the screen.""I hung up."
There, sorted.
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Date: 2014-03-17 08:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-17 08:42 pm (UTC)He scrawled all over my piece - "they don't. Try harder."
I really wish someone would tell LKH that. It's the single best piece of writing advice I ever had.
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Date: 2014-03-17 09:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-18 09:17 am (UTC)*Not really.**
**Maybe really, just a little bit.
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Date: 2014-03-17 10:03 pm (UTC)AND YUP, PRETTY MUCH. That's almost this whole book, really.
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Date: 2014-03-17 11:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-18 01:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-18 01:24 pm (UTC)I totally agree with you about how all this talk about how happy/so in love Anita is with people is trying to convince the character, and maybe the audience, that it's true. It's LKH's MO to just pronounce things to be true/good/right and everyone's supposed to just accept that at face value, so why should it be any different in this case? I just wish it weren't all so goddamned repetitive.
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Date: 2014-03-18 02:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-18 03:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-18 03:23 pm (UTC)"LKH doesn't want to write! She wants to wank!"
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Date: 2014-03-18 03:33 pm (UTC)TURN OFF THE LIGHT! TURN OFF THE LIGHT! *LKH stomps toward car*
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Date: 2014-03-18 03:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-18 03:39 pm (UTC)And then Anita snaps out of her internal monologue, figures out how to open a door by herself and without a billion bodyguards to usher her anywhere. CLEVER GIRL.
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Date: 2014-03-18 03:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-18 03:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-18 03:44 pm (UTC)Narcissus joins in. >_>
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Date: 2014-03-18 03:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-18 03:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-19 12:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-19 12:39 am (UTC)1. Wait. That's it? That's... all that happens about the whole Killing Him with Sex fiasco? "Belle Morte used to do it for kicks, didn't know if we had to warn you, oops~"? THE FUCK!?
2. What kind of bomb-making materials, LKH? Are there distinctive chemicals that could make it a dirty bomb? Or are we just talking a big BOOM and structural damage? This tells me NOTHING. Are these vampires planning to stage a mass protest with violence? Or is it more of a suicide bombing kind of thing and they want someone to PAY. (Which, considering they're very anti-Master of the City-JC, I wouldn't be surprised if it was the latter. Under another author.)
3. *just gaping at the "coming out" comment* Maybe he means coming-out as a gay preternatural lover? *hysterical laughter* Right, guys?
4. No, I'll give her that. I feel like people would still look at someone weird if they had a thing for non-human lovers (preternaturally non-human, I mean) or whatever. And not just mob bosses, morally grey/black kind Anita is always after. Mainly because of their propensity for violence and unpredictability. Yes it's stereotyping, yes it's wrong, but would it happen? Probably. There would be more than a few "Stick with your own kind!" of bigots in that world, even if vampires and therianthropes had always been around. Although it still hurts my brain to see them as always being out in the open.
5. Oh my God, Anita. Just make them swear not to tell and GET ON WITH IT ALREADY JESUS CHRIST.
6. I'm so bored. Although imagining the expressions as Asher glances at JC apprehensively when Anita does her glazed-over spacing out to internally monologue like this in real-time is really entertaining. Because JC just gives him a sharp look, before rolling his eyes slightly with a soft sigh.
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Date: 2014-03-20 01:34 am (UTC)And LKH wrote them doing that. For no apparent reason. What was the point of writing that scene if you’re not even going to acknowledge it for what it was?
/POLICE SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO ANYTHING THEY LIKE/
Because corrupt cops don’t exist. For all that Anita claims to be so “edgy” and “hardcore,” she sure is a deluded and naïve moron.
/someone who's still looking for true love outside the normal box/
No, Brice, she’s not looking for love. She has dozens of men in her harem and she doesn’t love any of them. She’s looking for hot men to endlessly worship her and be her slaves.
/I'm listening to some upper brass make up shitty reasons to justify their actions./
Oh, you mean like how ANITA makes up lousy reasons to justify HER actions? Which, unlike those of the higher-ups, are murderous and pointless?
/it's not about them being vamps and shifters, it's about the fact that they are almost all the heads of vamp/shifter organizations/
And that’s why she likes them. If they were like Richard and were just ordinary, law-abiding therians who wanted to live normal lives and have mundane jobs like being mailmen or professors or whatnot, the authorities probably wouldn’t care, but they would be “too whitebread” for Anita to look twice at them.
/"You too, blondie"/
Ha! I like how she calls him “blondie” now that she doesn’t like him anymore.