a-sporking-rat (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
a_sporking_rat) wrote2014-04-11 07:42 pm
a_sporking_rat) wrote2014-04-11 07:42 pm
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KISS THE DEAD, CHAPTER 46
I was cleaning Oatmeal's cage and Boz, hearing the noise, came out of his nest and started patrolling around in his own tank, as if he was gonna find out what the source of the noise was and kick its ass, but when I stuck my hand in there to pick him up, he started squeaking and trying to hide.
Other rats during bathroom playtime: *run around bathroom*
Miss Blatz during bathroom playtime: *sits in pile of my pajamas*
KISS THE DEAD, CHAPTER 46
We are 95% through the book according to my Kindle.
This chapter starts with Anita telling us exactly where in St. Louis that Guilty Pleasures is located. This takes a paragraph. She admittedly does it to mention the narrow streets and bad parking which makes it "suck as a staging area for SWAT" which is relevant, but the stuff about it being "very historic" with many streets still paved in brick but with "very modern clubs" that draw tourists and is a hot spot on the weekend really wasn't needed here. I say 'here' because this would have been good in another scenario, one where an urgent scenario is not happening. A good description can be bad if it's placed in the wrong context/scene, and this is one of those cases.
Lisandro is "by the main truck" and we are told the length of his hair and how he is wearing it, as well as that he is "tall, dark, handsome, and happily married." Yeah, we are 95% through with the book and at what should be the climax, this is REALLY not the time to waste words on this, LKH. But of course, she does, and the rest of the page is talking about how he helped her out against MOAD and the Harlequin in Hit List. It includes such stupid phrases as "he was too big a dog, or wererat" to die, and how since then "I'd rejected him from my bodyguard detail. I didn't want the responsibility of making a widow of his wife, or half-orphans of his kids." So, out of the dozens of guards that there are, only Lisandro has any family? Well, she says she rejected him specifically from being her bodyguard, not from guard duty altogether, so either she thinks that a guard could only lose their life in the process of being her bodyguard...or she doesn't so much care about him dying and the consequences to his family so much as she cares about it not being connected to her if he does. She also gives no reason as to why he's along with her for this very dangerous job if she's so worried about that, he just is.
Then "I remembered that by my side wasn't the only dangerous detail" and tells us that "we were surrounded by SWAT, with Dolph and Zerbrowski in the mix." So...she'd forgotten that until this second? "All of them were paying me and my people the ultimate compliment by letting them be here." Hey, that's right, is it even legal for "her people" to be here in the capacity of helping with the situation? I don't think it possibly could be. I guess that's what the compliment is---we think you're all just so cool that you're allowed to break the law, even in a serious situation when lives are at stake! Anita asks Lisandro "How the hell did you let someone wearing a bomb get into the club, and then let them take Nathaniel hostage?" Lisandro explains that someone named Clay (a werewolf guard, I think) was on door duty and "he's never been real military, or seen real violence" which somehow explains how he let the dude in, who Lisandro says was "here with two others to apply as wait staff." Does anyone else get the feeling that LKH is probably like a badge bunny but for military men instead of police officers? Anita asks if the other two were in on it, Lisandro says they "ran like hell, so I don't think so." Anita asks how he got ahold of Nathaniel with Nicky and Lisandro there, and Dolph says these aren't the questions that Anita should be asking. Anita "started to argue, then swallowed it", takes a deep breath, and nods. Someone named Hill (was he one of the cops/SWAT from an earlier chapter?) says "Let me find out what we need to know, Blake" and Anita wants to say she can do it but "we didn't have time for me to lie to myself." WELL, YOU'VE BEEN DOING THAT FOR MOST OF THE BOOK, SO YEAH, WITH ONLY 5% LEFT WE REALLY INDEED DON'T!
Hill says they have the blueprints of the club and that Anita gave them a rundown of the interior as well, then asks who is inside and were the hostage is. Someone (Lisandro?) says that Nicky, Nathaniel, Mephistopheles, and Cynric are inside, and I am betting the cops assume that these are ALL stage names. Anita asks why Sin is, since he's neither a guard nor a dancer. Lisandro "looked uncomfortable" and tells her that "Nathaniel's brought him a couple of times before. He watches the practice, works out some." YEAH, THAT'S KINDA UNCOMFY INDEED. Anita asks "Why is Sin inside, but you're safe out here?" That's really mean and accusatory but given the situation I give it a pass as a human reaction. Lisandro says that neither Sin nor Nicky would leave Nathaniel. As for Dev, the bomber "knew Mephistopheles was your golden tiger. He wanted him to stay. I think he plans to take you and two of your cats." Every time human beings, therian or not, are referred to like this it makes my hackles raised. Anita does not help by saying "Sin is one of my cats, too." UGH. Lisandro says the guy seemed bothered by how young Cynric is. Yeah, I can actually see that; if this dude's goal is to liberate people from Anita's control, and he recognizes that these are all Anita's Therian Servants, then it probably sure as hell makes him feel extra terrible that this one dude isn't even old enough to drink and has still been enslaved by her.
Hill says they don't have time for this and asks if Sin is someone important to her as well, and Anita says that everyone Lisandro mentioned is one of her lovers and that "most of them live with me, most of the time." I can't wait until they rescue Sin and the cops realize he's a high schooler, I really can't. For now though Hill has "a look of sympathy" in his eyes as he tells Anita he's sorry. Anita tells him she's lived with Nathaniel for three years, four in June, and Hill promises they'll get him out. I guess getting the other dudes out is just gravy, then? Anita says she knows he will but “that was a lie. I didn’t know, I hoped, but in this instance, hope didn’t seem enough.” After that, “Hill and the others began to ask Lisandro questions about the bomb, and he knew way more about it than I would have.” Oh man, I really hope Lisandro was in on this to get back at Anita for raping him individually in Bullet and all of the wererats through Rafael in The Harlequin, that would just be terrific. Hill and the others are nodding and Anita thinks that means they approve and she approves too but she can’t stop thinking about how Nathaniel, Sin, Dev, and Nicky are in there with a bomb. She calls it “a little song playing in my head” and then two sentences later says “it was like an evil song stuck in my head”. She really, really needs that editor, wow. She also says the cops asking their questions and getting their answers is like the refrain. Then she thinks about how fire is the one thing that can do permanent damage to therians, though she also mentions that “silver could kill them” implying that dying isn’t permanent damage? “In fact, some preternaturals burned faster and more completely than a human.” I thought that was just the vampires though, not the therians? And then she remembers the werewolf in Hit List that got burned by a rocket launcher, and how it had “tried to shift to animal in an attempt to heal, but it had ended up burned to death, frozen between both forms, just a blackened nightmare shape.” I wish she had described it in more detail when that happened, that kind of grotesque body horror shit is RIGHT UP MY ALLEY! She tries not to imagine any of her boys like that…oh Anita, come on, like LKH would ever allow it. Seriously, as a reader I have no ability to be tense here at all because I know that no matter how high the stakes are, it’s a fixed game and nothing will ever actually be lost.
Anita hears someone say that she can do it, and she realizes the voice belongs to Pride. She looks at his “handsome face” and thinks about how he looks like Dev because they are cousins. She asks what she can do, he says she can open her link to one of the guys inside and see the room through them so they don’t have to guess. Holy shit, they’re actually putting something magical to practical use! Awesome! Hill asks if she can really do that, Anita says yes if she drops her shields and concentrates…hopefully this raises questions among the police later about if her men can do the same thing and might be spying on police stuff through her. He asks if this works with all her lovers, she says not with Nicky, Hill says that he wants to learn more about this later but to do it right now. She says she’ll try, Zerbrowski says “Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try.” and Anita smiles because he’s quoting Star Wars and “in that moment I loved him, just for that.”
I’m sure a better author could pull off goofy comments like this in an urgent situation, and make it seem all touching like I think is intended here, but LKH really, really can not.
Other rats during bathroom playtime: *run around bathroom*
Miss Blatz during bathroom playtime: *sits in pile of my pajamas*
KISS THE DEAD, CHAPTER 46
We are 95% through the book according to my Kindle.
This chapter starts with Anita telling us exactly where in St. Louis that Guilty Pleasures is located. This takes a paragraph. She admittedly does it to mention the narrow streets and bad parking which makes it "suck as a staging area for SWAT" which is relevant, but the stuff about it being "very historic" with many streets still paved in brick but with "very modern clubs" that draw tourists and is a hot spot on the weekend really wasn't needed here. I say 'here' because this would have been good in another scenario, one where an urgent scenario is not happening. A good description can be bad if it's placed in the wrong context/scene, and this is one of those cases.
Lisandro is "by the main truck" and we are told the length of his hair and how he is wearing it, as well as that he is "tall, dark, handsome, and happily married." Yeah, we are 95% through with the book and at what should be the climax, this is REALLY not the time to waste words on this, LKH. But of course, she does, and the rest of the page is talking about how he helped her out against MOAD and the Harlequin in Hit List. It includes such stupid phrases as "he was too big a dog, or wererat" to die, and how since then "I'd rejected him from my bodyguard detail. I didn't want the responsibility of making a widow of his wife, or half-orphans of his kids." So, out of the dozens of guards that there are, only Lisandro has any family? Well, she says she rejected him specifically from being her bodyguard, not from guard duty altogether, so either she thinks that a guard could only lose their life in the process of being her bodyguard...or she doesn't so much care about him dying and the consequences to his family so much as she cares about it not being connected to her if he does. She also gives no reason as to why he's along with her for this very dangerous job if she's so worried about that, he just is.
Then "I remembered that by my side wasn't the only dangerous detail" and tells us that "we were surrounded by SWAT, with Dolph and Zerbrowski in the mix." So...she'd forgotten that until this second? "All of them were paying me and my people the ultimate compliment by letting them be here." Hey, that's right, is it even legal for "her people" to be here in the capacity of helping with the situation? I don't think it possibly could be. I guess that's what the compliment is---we think you're all just so cool that you're allowed to break the law, even in a serious situation when lives are at stake! Anita asks Lisandro "How the hell did you let someone wearing a bomb get into the club, and then let them take Nathaniel hostage?" Lisandro explains that someone named Clay (a werewolf guard, I think) was on door duty and "he's never been real military, or seen real violence" which somehow explains how he let the dude in, who Lisandro says was "here with two others to apply as wait staff." Does anyone else get the feeling that LKH is probably like a badge bunny but for military men instead of police officers? Anita asks if the other two were in on it, Lisandro says they "ran like hell, so I don't think so." Anita asks how he got ahold of Nathaniel with Nicky and Lisandro there, and Dolph says these aren't the questions that Anita should be asking. Anita "started to argue, then swallowed it", takes a deep breath, and nods. Someone named Hill (was he one of the cops/SWAT from an earlier chapter?) says "Let me find out what we need to know, Blake" and Anita wants to say she can do it but "we didn't have time for me to lie to myself." WELL, YOU'VE BEEN DOING THAT FOR MOST OF THE BOOK, SO YEAH, WITH ONLY 5% LEFT WE REALLY INDEED DON'T!
Hill says they have the blueprints of the club and that Anita gave them a rundown of the interior as well, then asks who is inside and were the hostage is. Someone (Lisandro?) says that Nicky, Nathaniel, Mephistopheles, and Cynric are inside, and I am betting the cops assume that these are ALL stage names. Anita asks why Sin is, since he's neither a guard nor a dancer. Lisandro "looked uncomfortable" and tells her that "Nathaniel's brought him a couple of times before. He watches the practice, works out some." YEAH, THAT'S KINDA UNCOMFY INDEED. Anita asks "Why is Sin inside, but you're safe out here?" That's really mean and accusatory but given the situation I give it a pass as a human reaction. Lisandro says that neither Sin nor Nicky would leave Nathaniel. As for Dev, the bomber "knew Mephistopheles was your golden tiger. He wanted him to stay. I think he plans to take you and two of your cats." Every time human beings, therian or not, are referred to like this it makes my hackles raised. Anita does not help by saying "Sin is one of my cats, too." UGH. Lisandro says the guy seemed bothered by how young Cynric is. Yeah, I can actually see that; if this dude's goal is to liberate people from Anita's control, and he recognizes that these are all Anita's Therian Servants, then it probably sure as hell makes him feel extra terrible that this one dude isn't even old enough to drink and has still been enslaved by her.
Hill says they don't have time for this and asks if Sin is someone important to her as well, and Anita says that everyone Lisandro mentioned is one of her lovers and that "most of them live with me, most of the time." I can't wait until they rescue Sin and the cops realize he's a high schooler, I really can't. For now though Hill has "a look of sympathy" in his eyes as he tells Anita he's sorry. Anita tells him she's lived with Nathaniel for three years, four in June, and Hill promises they'll get him out. I guess getting the other dudes out is just gravy, then? Anita says she knows he will but “that was a lie. I didn’t know, I hoped, but in this instance, hope didn’t seem enough.” After that, “Hill and the others began to ask Lisandro questions about the bomb, and he knew way more about it than I would have.” Oh man, I really hope Lisandro was in on this to get back at Anita for raping him individually in Bullet and all of the wererats through Rafael in The Harlequin, that would just be terrific. Hill and the others are nodding and Anita thinks that means they approve and she approves too but she can’t stop thinking about how Nathaniel, Sin, Dev, and Nicky are in there with a bomb. She calls it “a little song playing in my head” and then two sentences later says “it was like an evil song stuck in my head”. She really, really needs that editor, wow. She also says the cops asking their questions and getting their answers is like the refrain. Then she thinks about how fire is the one thing that can do permanent damage to therians, though she also mentions that “silver could kill them” implying that dying isn’t permanent damage? “In fact, some preternaturals burned faster and more completely than a human.” I thought that was just the vampires though, not the therians? And then she remembers the werewolf in Hit List that got burned by a rocket launcher, and how it had “tried to shift to animal in an attempt to heal, but it had ended up burned to death, frozen between both forms, just a blackened nightmare shape.” I wish she had described it in more detail when that happened, that kind of grotesque body horror shit is RIGHT UP MY ALLEY! She tries not to imagine any of her boys like that…oh Anita, come on, like LKH would ever allow it. Seriously, as a reader I have no ability to be tense here at all because I know that no matter how high the stakes are, it’s a fixed game and nothing will ever actually be lost.
Anita hears someone say that she can do it, and she realizes the voice belongs to Pride. She looks at his “handsome face” and thinks about how he looks like Dev because they are cousins. She asks what she can do, he says she can open her link to one of the guys inside and see the room through them so they don’t have to guess. Holy shit, they’re actually putting something magical to practical use! Awesome! Hill asks if she can really do that, Anita says yes if she drops her shields and concentrates…hopefully this raises questions among the police later about if her men can do the same thing and might be spying on police stuff through her. He asks if this works with all her lovers, she says not with Nicky, Hill says that he wants to learn more about this later but to do it right now. She says she’ll try, Zerbrowski says “Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try.” and Anita smiles because he’s quoting Star Wars and “in that moment I loved him, just for that.”
I’m sure a better author could pull off goofy comments like this in an urgent situation, and make it seem all touching like I think is intended here, but LKH really, really can not.
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The empress's tush must be comfortable at all times!
I love how Anita's boytoy whom she claims to adore and kills people to supposedly protect is in terrible danger, but she can go on a segue about Lisandro's hair.
Lisandro explains that someone named Clay (a werewolf guard, I think) was on door duty and "he's never been real military, or seen real violence" which somehow explains how he let the dude in
In Danse Macabre, Clay is in love with Meng Die (sp?) and very much NOT in love with Anita. So of course he must be incompetent. As for never having seen real violence: Anita either physically raped or almost raped him (it's unclear), and definitely metaphysically raped him, and he has seen Anita and JC rape people. He also saw Joseph throw Haven into a wall so hard that Haven couldn't move for some unspecified amount of time. And I'm sure I'm missing some stuff just from that book alone, especially since I haven't even finished the thing yet.
Anita smiles because he’s quoting Star Wars and “in that moment I loved him, just for that.”
Talk about low standards.
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Haha, exactly! She really is the queen around here, it's true <3
In Danse Macabre, Clay is in love with Meng Die (sp?) and very much NOT in love with Anita. So of course he must be incompetent
Ahhh, yes, but of course.
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2. ..."half-orphans"? This is a published author? THERE CAN'T BE A HALF-ORPHAN, YOU DUMBFUCK. THAT'S AN OXYMORON.
3. They MIGHT allow the ex-military personnel be around just for tips on the best entry points because they would--presumably--know the lay of the building the best. Fuck, all the wererats would. They're wererats. But they definitely aren't going to let civilians go in with SWAT, even if they are non-humans and Anita's people.
4. Let's just bash poor Clay for not being a "proper" bodyguard. When I'm pretty sure all you need for that is to look intimidating, be able to lift someone your weight or more, and be able to break up a fight. I'd say a werewolf could do that easy. But yeah, no, LKH wants to diddle herself while thinking about military things again.
5. I remember Hill being part of the SWAT team that Anita went into that vampire house with when they obliterated all the day-dead vamps. Y'know, the "bomb makers".
6. *picks dirt out of nails because there's no tension because no one can die because LKH promised because OH MAH GAWD PAIN*
7. You mean those editors that are currently drinking themselves into new livers with the Merry book? I do hope her publishing company has good health insurance. Their editors need it if they're assigned to LKH.
8. How... how does something burn more COMPLETELY than another thing that's made up of the same biological materials? HOW? Does something in the were-DNA like amplify the flame temperature so it's like INSTA-CREMATORIUM? At least the vampires being undead makes a bit of sense. They'd have less fluids and go up like kindling. But really. Do preternaturals not even leave ASH? Is that how COMPLETELY she means?
9. I love you, Pride. And I'm going to let this bit of helping her pass because Mephisto is your cousin and even if he's brainwashed he doesn't deserve to die.
And Wander might be coercing me into this because of strategically placed boom-sticks.no subject
8) I have no idea. It's never come up before that therians burn like paper the way vamps do. There's also been no explanation for why vamps are so super-flammable either, and personally I've always suspected they were because Anne Rice's were. Except Rice actually gave some explanation.
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...Kind of like a cop-out version of having everything working against your character. Except in LKH's case, nothing ever happens and nobody ever learns from it.
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Or are they Anita's security measures?
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