Narcissus in Chains Chapter Fifty Nine

Asher and Damian go down to the basement to die for the day. How in the hell does Anita afford this giant house? Especially considering she doesn't work? I mean technically she's part of Animator's Inc and RIPT (I think?) but she never seems to do anything for them. Does J.C. pay? TELL ME.

Micah calls and reports that all the wereleopards are going to be okay. Instead of feeling relief Anita obsesses over the fact that they don't say I love you at the end of the conversation, because good girls like her do not normally sleep with men they aren't in love with. That would be dirty and whoreish you see, and Snow White here is too pure and white for that sort of lower class behavior.

Anita's night shirt is another strapless silk affair. It would show her midriff if she wasn't "so damn short." Presumably this outfit is made for you, Anita, so it fits and is covering your belly on purpose. I don't need you to cram your Napoleon complex in to every other sentence, thank you very much.

She also has to constantly remind me that she doesn't like having bodyguards (the wererats are sleeping at her bedroom door) which is total bullshit. She not so secretly loves it because it makes her feel important. I hear LKH takes bodyguards with her to conventions, despite not in any way requiring them.

Anita and Nate sleep until the phone wakes them. Ulysses, Narcissus' bodyguard, has phoned. There's some irritating natter about how Ulysses can't possibly tell her anything important over the phone because this is the kind of bullshit we have to resort to in order for anything resembling plot to happen.

Ulysses finally reveals that the Rex's (werelion leader) life hangs in the balance. Anita says another grossly hypocritical thing:

"Would Narcissus really let the lion's Rex die, just because I won't come down to the club at the ass crack of dawn?"

It's almost like Narcissus threatened to kill a strange, terrified werefox should he put a single toe out of line. What a bastard that would make him, right? Oh.

Turns out Narcissus is actually trying to be helpful and has also been aiding other wereanimals on the down low, but because this entire world is such a crapsack he can't be seen doing so or it will be "bad for business."

It comes out in the course of this blabbering, ridiculous conversation that Narcissus knows about Amber's (the Regina, I assume) efforts to have a baby despite miscarrying a couple of times before. It's apparently weird for Narcissus to know about this even though it seems like basic political information to me. No, it's because Narcissus wants a baby himself. Anita says she never thought of Narcissus as paternal. Ulysses corrects her and says maternal. Look asshole, Narcissus isn't a mother just because he'd be the one giving birth. If he identifies as male and prefers that his titles be in accordance with that, then he's the father. Now if Narcissus wants to own the word maternal and the concept of mother, awesome. But there's no indication that such is true.

Hey just an aside, do you notice how none of the werecreatures have queer leaders? Nope. It's always a cis man and a cis woman, or in Donovan's case a single cis man. The only exception is Narcissus and he's been portrayed as aberrant from how hyenas normally do things. Despite queer behavior being found in a vast number of species, we're suspiciously heteronormative in the ABverse.

Ulysses hangs up but not before Anita detects that he is super sad and stuff. She doesn't like that because she assumes Narcissus has done something untoward to him. She acknowledges how stupid it is to complain about Richard being too soft and Narcissus being too hard, and goes on to say that she's never satisfied. But rest assured, nothing will change. Anita is the worst kind of person. She knows her manner is unfair, unpredictable and generally all around off putting, but she doesn't care enough about the feelings of others to bother changing any of it.

Anita rallies the troops to go off and see Narcissus. She has to tell the reader what everyone is wearing, as if I give a fuck whether or not Caleb has a shirt on.

Anita packs every knife she owns including that completely stupid knife she wears on her back. I can't think of a more impractical weapon. If you're going to carry a sword, you have to give me better justification than the author thinks it looks badass.

The ardeur seems dormant this morning and Anita counts that as a good thing.

Here's something about LKH books: the chapter cut offs are in completely weird places. I don't think a chapter should have a minimum or maximum length. Some of my chapters are two pages, others are fifty or whatever. Great. But the beat of a story is important. The cadence is off with an LKH book, because all the chapters just end in perfectly arbitrary places.