kippurcritiquesbadbooks | Rub a dub dub three freaks in a tub

Chapter Twenty Four

So, obviously all the goo that came when Anita um... made them change (and there's no way that doesn't sound dirty), they need to take a bath. This time she takes it with Jean-Claude and Micah while Nathaniel goes and gets Haven fed from the livestock room. There is some bitching about the fact that Octavius and Pierce aren't allowed to return to their rooms because they had knocked out the guards. They had knocked out the guards because Anita had called them and the guards weren't letting them out. Thus to get to Anita they had to beat up the guards. Which got them in trouble.

To sum this up Octavius and Pierce are in trouble for trying to help Anita. Especially when Pierce and Haven (Cookie) got mindfucked into coming to her like puppets, thus making it not their fault. Brilliant.

This is swept aside as Anita and Jean-Claude talk about Marmee Noir, the Mother of all Darkness. It's basically a rehash of what happened before, for Micah's benefit and we learn that if Jean-Claude had given Anita the fourth mark for a vampire servant, Mommy would have killed her because she wouldn't be able to control her. After all, controlling Anita is the most important thing a vampire as old as Noir needs to worry about.

They want to know how Anita broke free from her and she said that she called the wolf which bit her there in Noir's real room. This is surprising because "The ability to send a spirit animal through dream and harm another is rare among us." Who here is surprised that Anita can do it? Anyone? Anyone? You in the back?

Apparently a multi-were who gave himself the original name of Chimera could invade dreams also. It was he who infected Anita with the lion strain of were. As they discuss this, being heads in a bath, the think that maybe they could see how many weres Anita could collect before she shifts and theoretically can't take any more.

Jean-Claude answered,"If you are to be a panwere, and there is a chance that you will gain new animals until your first change of shape, then we have the opportunity to gain great power.

"What are you talking about?"

"If you are going to shift, then wouldn't it make sense to add more types of lycanthropy?" Micah said.

"Make sense, no," I said, "no it wouldn't make sense."

"Why not, ma petite You called the lions, and they came to your call. You call the leopards and they come. You call wolves, and I begin to wonder if it is my power that attracts them to you, or something more."

"You're saying I should deliberately infect myself with other types of lycanthropy?"

They exchanged glances. "Put it that way, no," Micah said.

"It is a thought, ma petite, merely a thought."

"Are; you always thinking about how I can help you be more powerful?"

He sighed. "We must be powerful, and stable. We must show the other masters that we do not pose a threat to the council and Europe or anyone else."

From what I can gather from this exchange is that they're not helping Anita get her powers under control so that they have a powerful weapon. Or at least they want to feed her more and more powers to make her more powerful. Thus to prove that they're not dangerous. I think this is like the whole nuke situation where they're saying we have a dangerous weapon so that way we're proving to you that we're not dangerous. Also this reminds of the Evil Overlord's list rule #22 # No matter how tempted I am with the prospect of unlimited power, I will not consume any energy field bigger than my head. As in I will not put too many special powers in one person least they go insane and try to kill everyone. But this is me being practical. In Anita land such things would never happen because Anita is Anita who is super awesome and stuff.

Then one of the guards come in. His name is Remus. And I keep on imagining Lupin here. In any case we get our obligatory paragraph of description.

His eyes were green-gray, nice eyes, if he'd ever look directly at you. He never did, or at least he never did at me, or Jean-Claude, or Micah, or Nathaniel. Why? Remus's face had been broken at some point, and been put back together. There was no one thing you could point to and say, "That's out of place," but the overall effect was lopsided, and looked almost uncomfortable, like a ceramic mask that had been glued back together wrong.

And here we have the continuing definition of self worth in Anita-Land, if you're not pretty, you're not worth being looked at. Only pretty people, not even handsome people are worth anything. If you're not, then you're sub-human, or at least have low self esteem. I mean Asher had all the paintings of him before he got his face ruined because he was afraid people would remember what he used to be like and not like him anymore. He acts like his entire worth is based on how he looks and not who he is. These vampires have known him for a long time and I think the fact that he still continues on and is as powerful as he is despite his injuries is a thing they'd be impressed with and respect him for. The fact that everyone is focused on people's looks instead of other things makes them as shallow as a high school cheerleader.

The reason why Remus is there is because Claudia wants every guard who takes over to check up on her eye to eye and make sure she's okay. Claudia also wants two guards on Anita at all times. It's actually an intelligent idea (for once) because if she shifts she'll be an "uber-preternatural power. You'll be a shifter with powers over the dead." The weres that are going to be watching over her are all going to be ex-military and mercs. Which seems to be one of the only jobs a were would be good for.

After all, if she goes bad they want someone capable of handling it. The chapter ends here with no real resolution. Anita doesn't say yea or neigh to the idea. Instead it ends with Remus talking about how fighters are more important and useful than someone who just is athlectic. Which is kinda obvious and really doesn't have anything to do with the story. A better ending of the chapter, which doesn't have much of a cliffhanger to make me want to keep on reading and find out what happens next, would be Anita admitting that yes, she needed the guards and hoping that she wouldn't have to see them in action.