Let's Read Animorphs! The Whole Series! Ch-ch-ch-chaaanges

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PetraCore: Jul 20, 2017; 👁️🔥👁️👁️👁️BE NOT👄AFRAID👁️👁️👁️🔥👁️

To clarify, Tom's identity is a pretty good one for a yeerk to assume - he's strong, well-liked, and clever. Furthermore I've been assuming he's probably like, 17, so not so young as to be very inconvenient. I'm mostly joking about how boring and/or banal high school classes and drama would be for a yeerk.

I mean, unless they're into that I guess?

# ? Jul 18, 2020 23:29

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# ? May 3, 2024 16:29

Tree Bucket: Apr 1, 2016; R.I.P.idura leucophrys

If anything, the brutal, hyper-competitive nature of Yeerk society is probably excellent training for the high school social scene.

# ? Jul 19, 2020 00:49

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

The Capture-Chapter 6

quote:

How long do you think this will take?" Rachel asked. She checked her watch. "I set the VCR for two of my favorite shows, but I forgot to tape the movie of the week."

"I'm taping it in case you miss it," Cassie said.

It was dark out, but not very late. The moon was up, but hidden by the clouds. We were walking along the street, doing our best to look like a normal bunch of kids just hanging out.

Normal.

<This sucks,> Tobias said from high above. < I'm half-blind at night. Especially without moonlight. I should have gotten myself stuck in an owl body. Owls are so cool. Aside from thefact that some of them try to kill and eat falcons.>

"How can you ever run in these bodies?" Ax wondered. "Two legs? It is absurd. Surd. Ubsurd. Ubzerd. Not even a tail to help you stay up."

Ax was in his human morph. It's a combination of DNA from me, Marco, Rachel, and Cassie.

The result is kind of like looking at all of us at once, but in one body. It's really weird.

Ax had almost gotten used to having a mouth when he was in his human morph. Almost. He still had a tendency to want to play with sounds, repeating them. Plus, the boy was dangerous when he got around food. The sense of taste was just overwhelming for him.

"You know, Ax, now that you mention it ..." Marco started gyrating wildly, like a guy out of control. "I only have two legs! I'm falling . . . falling!"

"See? I knew it must happen sometimes," Ax said, adding, "Happen. Hap. Hap. Pun."

I wasn't sure if Ax knew Marco was being funny or not. Ax might have a very dry sense of humor. Or he might have no sense of humor at all. I hadn't figured it out yet.

A dry wit can often be confused for no wit at all.

quote:

"There's the place," I said. It was up ahead, at the end of the block.

It was a residential neighborhood, with older houses and a few kind of low-budget shops mixed in. You know, thrift shops and car parts places and small restaurants.

Our target was a single-story, whitewashed building. There was only one door, and the windows were high up, narrow and long. They were blocked off so that no one could see inside. There was a small parking lot with a dozen cars in it.

Over the door was a sign: "The Sharing. Building a Better Life."

"Yeah, right," Marco sneered. "A better life for slugs from outer space. You notice the guy standing by the door? He looks like he's ready for trouble."

A very large man stood by the door, muscular arms folded over his chest. But we'd expected that. Marco and Rachel and I had scoped the place out ahead of time.

"Okay, we cut down this alley," I said. "That building down there is abandoned. The basement is empty and unlocked. That's where we morph."

The basement was dark and depressing and smelled of mildew. I guess it used to be part of a restaurant. There were still some old tables strewn around. There were also a lot of old beer bottles and bits of garbage.

"Wonderful," Rachel said in a whisper. "This whole Animorph lifestyle is so glamorous."

Tobias fluttered in through the open door. Then we heard a thump.

<Ow! Man, who put a pillar there? Banged my right wing.>

"Great. This is the guy who's supposed to be looking out for us," Marco grumbled.

Ax had instantly begun to morph back to his Andalite body. It is not possible to go straight from one morph to another. Just like we have to return to human form between morphs, he had to resume Andalite form.

"Come on, let's do this and get it over with," Rachel said. "I'm going to be a roach in a filthy basement. My mother would be so proud if she knew."

"Wait," Cassie said. "We agree on how this works, right? We're not looking for a fight. This is a spy mission. No one do anything dramatic, like morph into an elephant and go on a stomping spree."

Cassie was looking at Rachel. Rachel has an elephant morph. She's very fond of it.

Rachel laughed. "Absolutely. Spy time. Stealth is my middle name."

"Okay." I was a little embarrassed that Cassie had brought it up. She was trying to remind everyone that Tom was one of the Controllers in that meeting. Trying to remind everyone that we were just there for information.

That feeling when your girlfriend has to remind your cousin not to murder your brother. I mean, we've all been there, haven't we?

quote:

"Let's morph already," Rachel said. "Come on. I'll miss the movie."

"Five little roaches. We'll be right at home in this dump," Marco said as he began the transformation. "You will keep the rats from eating us, won't you, Tobias?"

<Hey, I may not see that well in the dark, but I can still catch a rat, light or no light. I am the ratkiller of the universe.>

"Ax? You ready?"

<Yes, Prince Jake. I am fully Andalite and ready to become your roach.>

That's loyalty right there.

quote:

A few moments later, we were five cockroaches amid the scattered garbage on the bare concrete floor.

<Wow. That is one big beer can,> Marco said.

A blue and white can towered over us, curving away into the sky.

<Let's, urn, scurry,> I said. <Ax? You keep track of the time.>

We took off, a little knot of fast-moving roaches, all running in the same direction.

<You know, if this wasn't so gross, it would be kind of cool,> Rachel said. <Stairs! All right. A little vertical rock climbing.>

Tiny pincers on the end of my six legs grabbed the small protrusions of concrete and wedged into invisible cracks. It all happened so fast and so automatically that I could run straight up the cement step, almost as fast as I could move horizontally.

Up the riser. Over the edge. Zoom, to the next riser. Up. Over. Across. To the top of the four stairs.

<You know, you guys still give me the willies,> Tobias said. <You should see your selves. The urge to step on you is pretty strong - if I had shoes. I never did like roaches.>

<This from a guy who disembowels live mice for lunch,> Marco said.

<Don't knock it if you haven't tried it,> Tobias shot back.

In some corner of my mind I noted the fact that Tobias seemed more and more at peace with his weird life - half-bird, half-human.

But mostly my mind was on the job at hand. We had reached the threshold. We scampered across it and out into the alley.

The alley was a mix of gravel and cracked, torn-up blacktop. The blacktop was like running across hard oatmeal, all bumpy and uneven. The gravel was more difficult. The pieces of rock were as big as we were, and even with our six clever legs, there was a lot of stumbling and slipping.

<I'm going airborne,> Tobias said. <You're out on the sidewalk. Turn left. There's better light out here so I'll be able to watch you from the top of the telephone pole.>

<Okay, we'd better spread out. Don't forget, these are Controllers. Yeerks. They believe there is a group of Andalite warriors running around loose. In other words, they'll be on the lookout for morphs. So act like normal roaches.>

<You mean I should crawl inside an open box of cereal?> Marco asked. 

We fanned out, staying several inches apart as we moved toward the building. I stopped when I reached the whitewashed cinder block of the exterior wall.

<Crack!> Cassie called. <l found a big crack here. I'm going in.>

The rest of us waited. I felt obvious, just sit ting there. Obvious and helpless. The big guy at the door could decide to step on me. I couldn't see him, but I knew he was there.

<This is good,> Cassie said from deep in the wall. 

One by one, we scurried to her location. I felt better when I was inside the crack. Until I thought about what would happen if I tried to demorph in such a tight spot.

I didn't even want to start thinking about that.

<We're going in, Tobias,> I called to him. <Get somewhere safe.>

<I'm cool,> he said. <Good luck.>

We were traveling single file, sideways, along the crack. It was like exploring a cave. There was no light, but my antennae felt the way, picking up the scent of the others, reading the tiny air currents, sniffing for familiar aromas.

Then I saw a faint light that grew brighter as I advanced. Cassie was in the lead. <It worked. It goes all the way through. I'm inside.>

I sidled up beside her. I could see through the crack opening now. I could see brilliant light. And I could feel vibration.

The vibration of sound. Of speech.

I concentrated. It was impossible to tell much about the voice. Who it was. It seemed too high to be someone old.

Was it Tom?

I listened to the words.

". . . the day is here at last. It is time to strike the decisive blow in the invasion of Earth."

< What is this, a Yeerk pep rally?> Marco wondered.

Cassie started giggling - well thought-speak giggling - , and pretty soon all of us, except Ax, were laughing silently. It was very nervous laughter.

<We need to get out of this crack,> I said. <Spread out a little. We look too obvious just sitting here, and we should try to see if we can identify some of these people. Move out. But wait! Not all at once!>

Too late. We were all scampering down the wall from the crack to the floor. To anyone watching it would have looked like "Invasion of the Roaches." Five roaches, moving all together, is an easy thing to notice.

But I had forgotten one thing. Humans hate roaches. A human will spot a roach very quickly.

But Yeerks couldn't care less. Even though these were all human-Controllers, they were with their fellow Yeerks now. They didn't have to keep up the "human" act.

No one stomped us. Although I waited for a big shoe to drop from the sky.

We separated a little, then headed along the edge of the wall, where bare concrete floor met painted cinder block walls.

<Hey, guys? Can you hear me? It's Tobias.>

<Just barely, but I can still understand you,> I called back. Thought-speak gets weaker over distances. Same as regular speech. Although walls and so on aren't a problem.

<There's a car pulling up outside here. A limo. And there are two other cars with it, full of very tough-looking dudes.>

<What are they doing?>

<Getting out, now. Like six guys. They have guns! I can see them under their coats. Now there's a guy getting out of the back of the limo.>

<Who is it? Or should I say, what is it?>

<He's a human. He staggered a little, walking toward the door. He looks like a normal guy, but all the others are acting very nervous. And ... I know this sounds dumb, but I get a bad feeling from this guy .>

Now I could hear the vibrations of many feet walking fast. <They're coming our way now, Tobias. Thanks for the warning.>

I tried to use my eyes, but they were hopeless at any kind of distance. All I could tell was that several men had arrived and were marching through the room.

"My brothers-in-arms," some loud, booming voice said, "I present to you, our leader. Visser Three."

There was a gasp from the group. There was a silent gasp from us, too.

Visser Three?

Visser Three had an Andalite body. He was the only Yeerk ever to obtain an Andalite body, with all its morphing power. But surely, Tobias would have mentioned seeing an Andalite getting out of a car.

"I see that some of you are surprised," a new voice said. "Surely you must know that I can morph a human, as well as any other body."

<Oh, man,> Marco said. <Visser Three can morph a human?>

<Certainly,> Ax said. <Just as I do. Humans are animals, after all. You have DNA.>

The voice we now knew as Visser Three spoke in a hard, curt tone. It was odd, hearing his words. We had only heard him thought-speak before. Now he had a voice. And, if we could only see it, a human body. But he was too far away for our weak and distorted roach vision.

"This mission has two parts. One. We will use the front hospital to take involuntary hosts. I expect to be able to make two hundred new Controllers per Earth month. We will concentrate on police, broadcasters, writers, teachers, people in finance, and especially anyone in a position of
political power."

There was a murmur of excitement from the assembled crowd.

<Just what we were afraid of,> I said.

<Unfortunately,> Marco agreed. <Man, two hundred new Controllers a month?>

"You have done well recruiting human doctors and nurses, so that we now control the hospital facility. But this brings me to the second part of the mission," Visser Three said. "Until now this secret was known only to me and a very small group."

The room was almost totally silent, listening, anticipating.

"The second part of my plan is even more important than the first. In a few days, the governor of this state will have some minor surgery performed. His secretary is one of us, and she has steered him to our facility. He will check in for the minor surgery. When he checks out ... he will belong to us."

<No,> Rachel gasped.

<What does it mean? What is a governor? Is this some sort of prince?> Ax asked.

<Yeah. A prince. The governor controls the state police,> I said. <And the National Guard. And the schools.>

<It's worse than that,> Rachel said grimly. <Don't you guys ever pay attention to politics?>

<What are you talking about?>

<Don't you know? Our governor is getting ready to run for president next year. A year from now there could be a Controller in the White House.>

<A White House? What does all this mean?> Ax asked.

<It means that one of them could be the most powerful man in the most powerful nation on Earth,> I said.

<And that would be the ball game,> Marco said.

<Then ... all would be lost?>

<Yeah, Ax. All would be lost.>

Remember before when I said the idea of the Yeerks taking over a hospital was a good idea for them? Well, this is a better idea for them.

Also, Visser Three has a human morph now.

# ? Jul 19, 2020 01:13

Soup du Jour: Sep 8, 2011; I always knew I'd die with a headache.

-glad that Tobias is more and more comfortable with his new life
-Rachel already getting a little too gung-ho about things
-looks like the Governor gets replaced one way or another in the next three years, as in #51 it�s a different person

# ? Jul 19, 2020 01:25

disaster pastor: May 1, 2007

Spoilers for the finale.

Soup du Jour posted:

-looks like the Governor gets replaced one way or another in the next three years, as in #51 it�s a different person

Also, since we learn at the end that they're in California, the governor when KAA wrote this was Pete Wilson, who did indeed run for president in 1996 for about a month.

# ? Jul 19, 2020 01:32

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

Soup du Jour posted:

-looks like the Governor gets replaced one way or another in the next three years, as in #51 it�s a different person

This is one of the things that I'm curious about in the re-release and the audiobook versions that have come out since the end of the series, did they change the Governor's gender in The Capture to improve continuity with The Absolute or did they just leave it be?

# ? Jul 19, 2020 01:33

disaster pastor: May 1, 2007

nine-gear crow posted:

This is one of the things that I'm curious about in the re-release and the audiobook versions that have come out since the end of the series, did they change the Governor's gender in The Capture to improve continuity with The Absolute or did they just leave it be?

Eh, was there really a need to change the gender? There's three years between them, elections happen. I always assumed it was just a newly elected governor, because Rachel knows who the governor is here but didn't know the governor in #51 was a woman.

# ? Jul 19, 2020 01:41

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

nine-gear crow posted:

This is one of the things that I'm curious about in the re-release and the audiobook versions that have come out since the end of the series, did they change the Governor's gender in The Capture to improve continuity with The Absolute or did they just leave it be?

The governor is a man in the 2012 reprint

# ? Jul 19, 2020 02:07

Radio Free Kobold: Aug 11, 2012; "Federal regulations mandate that at least 30% of our content must promote Reptilian or Draconic culture. This is DJ Scratch N' Sniff with the latest mermaid screeching on KBLD..."

Oh, hell.

# ? Jul 19, 2020 03:12

PetraCore: Jul 20, 2017; 👁️🔥👁️👁️👁️BE NOT👄AFRAID👁️👁️👁️🔥👁️

Wow, Jake, that's pretty Americentric of you!

# ? Jul 19, 2020 03:29

Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

PetraCore posted:

Wow, Jake, that's pretty Americentric of you!

In the 90s it pretty much was true.

# ? Jul 19, 2020 07:29

Tree Bucket: Apr 1, 2016; R.I.P.idura leucophrys

disaster pastor posted:

Spoilers for the finale.

Also, since we learn at the end that they're in California, the governor when KAA wrote this was Pete Wilson, who did indeed run for president in 1996 for about a month.

Quick, someone needs to edit his wikipedia page to include a number of inexplicable attacks from various wild animals

# ? Jul 19, 2020 08:12

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

Tree Bucket posted:

Quick, someone needs to edit his wikipedia page to include a number of inexplicable attacks from various wild animals

Also Arnold Schwarzenegger is name dropped in one of the books coming up, and then two years after the series ended he ran for and became the governor of California.

# ? Jul 19, 2020 08:48

Daikloktos: Jan 1, 2020; by Cyrano4747

nine-gear crow posted:

Also Arnold Schwarzenegger is name dropped in one of the books coming up, and then two years after the series ended he ran for and became the governor of California.

Glad you spoiled that, I'm working my way through the Conan archives and I've been wondering how the recall ended up turning out

# ? Jul 19, 2020 08:50

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

Daikloktos posted:

Glad you spoiled that, I'm working my way through the Conan archives and I've been wondering how the recall ended up turning out

At this point I'm convinced that Robert Smigel single-handed got Schwarzenegger elected, and you'll never convince me otherwise :colbert:

# ? Jul 19, 2020 08:56

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

The Capture-Chapter 7

quote:

Let's bail. We've learned all we need to know,> I said.

<Back to the crack?> Cassie asked.

<Yeah. We know the way.>

I turned and headed back to the crack. It was only a foot or so away. In a few seconds we would all be safe.

I could not believe what I had heard. It was insane! If the Yeerks succeeded, we were toast, pure and simple. As long as it was a secretive war between us and Yeerks who did not want to be discovered, we could maybe stay alive. But if all the power of the state police were turned against us, too? The situation would be out of -

Suddenly, a strange vibration in the air above me.

DANGER!

RUN!

WHHHAAAMMMPP!

It was like someone had dropped an entire three-bedroom house an inch in front of me.

The impact was awesome. The wind it caused was like a small but intense hurricane. It whipped my antennae back.

<Someone almost stepped on me!> I yelled to the others. <Look out!>

"Visser! Forgive my interruption. But there are several small insects here!"

A general murmur from the crowd, then one voice saying, "Don't worry, they are only cockroaches. They are everywhere on this planet."

"Fool!" Visser Three exploded. "Do you think Andalites cannot morph creatures so small? Someone kill this fool for me."

BLAM! BLAM!

Visser Three and his wonderful management skills.

quote:

I felt the world spinning around me. Someone had been shot! Was it ... Tom? Could it have been?

A new rush of air overhead. I could see some thing monstrously huge falling toward me, speeding down, ready to crush me.

I bolted.

WWHHHAAAMMMPP!

Millimeters from my tail.

Do roaches really have "tails"? I'm thinking this is an error

quote:

"Kill those insects!" Visser Three screamed.

<Everyone for himself!> I yelled. <Spread out. Run! Get into cracks! Let the roach brains guide you!>

I took my own advice and relinquished control to the raw instincts and cunning of the tiny cockroach brain.

Say what you will about roaches. They're gross. They're disgusting. But man, when it comes to staying alive, that primitive roach brain knew its business.

WWHHAAAMPPP!

WWHHAAMMMPP!

<Aaaahhh!> Ax yelled.

<Ax! Are you okay?>

<Yes. Yes. Barely.>

Huge feet, each the size of a Greyhound bus, stomped the ground. But each time, the roach brain moved me in just the right way at just the right speed. They missed me by so little that I could feel the leather and rubber scrape my sides and tail as they impacted around me.

I made it to the corner of the wall and hugged in there as close as I could get.

<They're on me!> Cassie screamed. 

<Get to the wall! Get off the floor!>

I was blazing along at top speed as shoes tried to kick into the corner. But all I needed was a tenth of an inch and I could scrape past, uninjured.

SQQQUUUUEEEEEGGGEE.

A running shoe was being dragged along the corner, straight toward me. The soft rubber melded perfectly into the space. It would crush me!

I saw it coming, a black wall. A black locomotive rushing at me.

I jumped!

I landed on the shoe as it came near.

Whooosshhh! I was flying through the air on a magic carpet made of canvas. The man kicked. I lost my grip and went flying through the air.

<I'm clear! I'm clear!> Cassie called. <l found another crack!>

I felt like I was going supersonic. Like a jet, tumbling out of control through the air.

Wait! I had wings!

Too late.

Fwappp! I hit the wall. It should have killed me. It would have killed me if I had been a human. But I weighed less than an ounce. The impact was hard, but not enough to hurt me.

I fell to the floor.

A tent of some sort - gray, black ... a newspaper! It was a crumpled piece of newspaper on the floor. I dove beneath it and froze.

I looked up and saw that it was a photograph. I couldn't make sense of the photo, of course, it was just big black dots of ink. I could make out letters, each as big as my head.

<I'm clear,> Ax called. 

Good. That was two of them safe. <Rachel? Marco?>

<I'm on a guy's sock,> Rachel reported. <He doesn't know I'm here. Wait. We're outside! I'm going to drop off! Clear! Clear! I'm outside!>

<Marco?>

<Yeah, Jake.>

<Where are you?>



<You're in a toilet?>

<They have a bathroom. It seemed like a natural place for a roach. I'm chilling for a minute, then I'm going to try for the hole in the wall where the pipe goes. How about you?>

<I'm not so good. I'm under a newspaper, but they're still stomping all around. Sooner or later they'll stomp here. I have to make a run for it. I'm going to try for the door. Once I get outside they'll never get me in the dark.>

<Good luck, man,> Marco said.

<Yeah. You, too, my friend.>

Then, my antennae picked up a strange new scent. Sweet. Oily.

Dangerous. Somehow, I sensed that . . .

It hit me in a flash!

<Marco! They have bug spray!>

I blew out from under the paper.

"There! There's one!"

Vibrations of a dozen feet running after me. And in the air behind me, a vast fountain that seemed to be explode from thin air.

An upside-down fountain. Like a rainfall that came from a single point and spread out to fill the air.

A droplet landed on me.

Then another.

I felt my legs stumble.

The door. I could sense it, just ahead.

WWHHAAMMPP!

A foot! A near miss. I was slowing down! I could feel my roach instincts becoming scrambled.

I was poisoned. The nerve gas was beginning to work. My legs were tangling up. My antennae were waving frantically, unable to smell anything but the deadly rain of poison.

"That got him!" a voice said.

"Don't crush him," Visser Three yelled. "He may demorph to save himself and we'll have ourselves an Andalite!"

I was starting to twitch. I couldn't breathe.

And then, faster by far than the feet that had chased me, some new shape swooped down.

I tried to run, but I no longer could.

Three monstrous cables closed around me, and I was up, up, off the floor.

<Hang in there, Jake,> Tobias said. <It's me. Red-tailed Airline welcomes you aboard, and I am hauling my feathered butt outta here!>

Tobias with the save. So it's clear that even practicing their morphs doesn't do a lot to help.

# ? Jul 20, 2020 00:09

Comrade Blyatlov: Aug 4, 2007; should have picked four fingers

Almost defeated by bug spray. Its so perfect.

# ? Jul 20, 2020 00:15

Mazerunner: Apr 22, 2010; Good Hunter, what... what is this post?

This has got to look hysterical from a human sized perspective

# ? Jul 20, 2020 02:36

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Mazerunner posted:

This has got to look hysterical from a human sized perspective

Just a bunch of Controllers running around trying to catch cockroaches.

# ? Jul 20, 2020 02:50

Comrade Blyatlov: Aug 4, 2007; should have picked four fingers

With Visser Three yelling at the top of his lungs, and blasting fools.

He really is the worst boss. I'm put in mind of the boss from the first season of The IT Crowd

# ? Jul 20, 2020 02:56

chitoryu12: Apr 24, 2014

From the human perspective, that was no different from a regular roach infestation.

# ? Jul 20, 2020 03:55

Ytlaya: Nov 13, 2005

lol why would you choose a roach if you wanted to choose an insect morph for stealth purposes

Maybe that's why the book cover has him morphing into a house fly; they realize that roaches are a really dumb stealth morph, while a housefly would basically be perfect under human control.

# ? Jul 20, 2020 05:19

Turpitude II: Nov 10, 2014

nine-gear crow posted:

It's incredibly telling that there is a metric fuckton of Tom POV fan fiction out there and it usually comes in one of three flavors, 1) what a hypotheical post-Yeerk Tom would be like, 2) Tom's struggle against his Yeerk Controller parallel to the Animorphs journey through the series, or 3) speculative pieces where either Tom is an out-and-out Yeerk collaborator or is paired up with a Good Yeerk that explores a similar but less hostile dynamic to #2.

Applegate and Grant delve into the Yeerk side of things sparingly, and with good reason. But my god would it have been a ballsy as gently caress move right at the start if, as you go through the books in order and you rotate through each kid's POV, it gets to the final one in the rotation and at the start of their first book you get "Surprise, motherfucker! I'm a Yeerk. Don't tell Jake and Marco "

if anyone is looking for fic recommendations, i would say eleutherophobia is by far the best of the first kind, and i'm interested in hearing about examples of the other two.

# ? Jul 20, 2020 05:30

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Turpitude II posted:

if anyone is looking for fic recommendations, i would say eleutherophobia is by far the best of the first kind, and i'm interested in hearing about examples of the other two.

Just a general warning, beyond, you know, a lot of fanfic isn't always good.....fan fic might contain spoilers for the actual book series.

# ? Jul 20, 2020 06:05

Daikloktos: Jan 1, 2020; by Cyrano4747

drat, this thread got to fanfic recommendations before I could establish why "Animorphs: The Reckoning is Harry Potter And The Methods Of Rationality done right" is not a ridiculous sentence to type. The pithy emblematic thing I'll say is that it casts the transhumanist hyper-rationalist optimizer that was the protagonist of that work in Visser 3, and the kids are written as thoughtful human beings struggling with their own limitations. This is a series where the themes and subjects "rational fiction" (as descends from HPMOR) wants to explore are actually congruent to the original canon and for vast stretches it feels more like just thoughtful fanfic than anything written to a literary movement and its philosophies.

You'll find virtually every aside we've explored in this thread fleshed out to fantastic depth - I imagine some of you have secretly read it, so please back me up

# ? Jul 20, 2020 12:47

Soup du Jour: Sep 8, 2011; I always knew I'd die with a headache.

I think Eleutherophobia rules but yeah absolutely do not read it if you haven�t read the whole series yet

# ? Jul 20, 2020 14:00

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Daikloktos posted:

drat, this thread got to fanfic recommendations before I could establish why "Animorphs: The Reckoning is Harry Potter And The Methods Of Rationality done right" is not a ridiculous sentence to type. The pithy emblematic thing I'll say is that it casts the transhumanist hyper-rationalist optimizer that was the protagonist of that work in Visser 3, and the kids are written as thoughtful human beings struggling with their own limitations.

I've never read it, but anything that makes Visser 3 a hyper-rationalist optimizer or the Animorphs thoughtful human beings is such a departure from source material....

In all seriously, if you want some sort of hyper-rationalist, Machiavellian chess-master, make it Visser One, who still isn't, but at least doesn't start killing subordinates when she sees a roach.

Epicurius fucked around with this message at 15:37 on Jul 20, 2020

# ? Jul 20, 2020 14:45

Radio Free Kobold: Aug 11, 2012; "Federal regulations mandate that at least 30% of our content must promote Reptilian or Draconic culture. This is DJ Scratch N' Sniff with the latest mermaid screeching on KBLD..."

Daikloktos posted:

drat, this thread got to fanfic recommendations before I could establish why "Animorphs: The Reckoning is Harry Potter And The Methods Of Rationality done right" is not a ridiculous sentence to type. The pithy emblematic thing I'll say is that it casts the transhumanist hyper-rationalist optimizer that was the protagonist of that work in Visser 3, and the kids are written as thoughtful human beings struggling with their own limitations. This is a series where the themes and subjects "rational fiction" (as descends from HPMOR) wants to explore are actually congruent to the original canon and for vast stretches it feels more like just thoughtful fanfic than anything written to a literary movement and its philosophies.

You'll find virtually every aside we've explored in this thread fleshed out to fantastic depth - I imagine some of you have secretly read it, so please back me up

gave this a go but i don't really like it. it feels so, so completely different from the series proper, like i'm not even reading the same characters. on the other hand i noticed Sacred Host; i'm only about 7 chapters in but so far it seems to be a story about a young woman teaching yeerks about god. very very strange but also kinda cool.

# ? Jul 20, 2020 19:07

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

As for the vein of "Tom with a Good Yeerk" fics, there's The Swap and its recently started follow up The Funeral. General spoiler content warning: it kicks off with right away with one of the big reveals for The Capture, and then very quickly starts running parallel of the events of the series that we haven't gotten to yet. So this isn't one to read if you're going through this let's read blind.

# ? Jul 20, 2020 20:30

disaster pastor: May 1, 2007

Radio Free Kobold posted:

gave this a go but i don't really like it. it feels so, so completely different from the series proper, like i'm not even reading the same characters.

Yeah, I tried to read it and can't. Everyone is more of a dick and there's this insufferable smug tone hanging over the narration.

# ? Jul 20, 2020 20:39

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

disaster pastor posted:

Yeah, I tried to read it and can't. Everyone is more of a dick and there's this insufferable smug tone hanging over the narration.

I've tried reading it on and off too and yeah there's something... off about it. Also I've been poisoned to the term "rational" by folks like hbomberguy, because folks who use the appellation "rational" online to describe themselves or things these days tend to be Jupiter-sized wank-sticks. Not trashing the fic or anything, but yeah...

# ? Jul 20, 2020 20:52

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

disaster pastor posted:

Yeah, I tried to read it and can't. Everyone is more of a dick and there's this insufferable smug tone hanging over the narration.

It also seems that nobody actually talks...they lecture.

So like, to take a spoiler free example, in the book, the dying Elfangor explains morphing to the kids like this:

quote:

<To change your bodies,> the Andalite said. <To become any other species. Any animal.>

. . .

<You will only need to touch a creature, to acquire its DNA pattern, and you will be able to become that creature. It requires concentration and determination, but, if you are strong, you can do it. There are . . . limitations. Problems. Dangers, even. But there is no time to explain it all . . . no time. You will have to learn for yourselves. But first, do you wish to receive this power?>

And this is how he explains it in the fanfic

quote:

"The closest word would be morphing, I think. Shapeshifting would seem to be too broad, since you can't take the form of anything that is itself incapable of moving or sensing its environment, nor anything that lacks some kind of a genetic map.

"It is done with nanotechnology, in response to focused thought, in a process too complicated to explain. Imagine your body being disassembled and stored in an alternate dimension, while a new body is built from scratch in its place, controlled via a mental link. This is a lie, but a useful one�the new body will respond as if it is your own, will feel as if it is your own."

You will witness arms becoming wings, eyes becoming antennae, skin becoming scales. For a time, you will be the other organism. Your true body remains unchanged�sent elsewhere, its processes suspended. You expand the library of available morphs through manual acquisition. Simply touch the organism you wish to become, focusing your thoughts in a particular way, and the system will begin its analysis. The first analysis will take hours, but given the shared ancestry of life on this planet, subsequent acquisitions will be usable within minutes or seconds."

I mean, Elfangor, man, you're dying and you know the Yeerks are coming. You don't have to give these kids a lecture on nanotech. You don't have to use terms like "manual acquisition". Focus here. Give them morphing power and get them out of there before Visser Three comes.

# ? Jul 20, 2020 21:03

OctaviusBeaver: Apr 30, 2009; Say what now?

Radio Free Kobold posted:

gave this a go but i don't really like it. it feels so, so completely different from the series proper, like i'm not even reading the same characters. on the other hand i noticed Sacred Host; i'm only about 7 chapters in but so far it seems to be a story about a young woman teaching yeerks about god. very very strange but also kinda cool.

I'm liking this. Kind of like Animorphs meets the Screwtape Letters.

# ? Jul 20, 2020 21:17

Daikloktos: Jan 1, 2020; by Cyrano4747

Indeed, the disadvantage of fanfiction is authors of uneven skill only able to render part of what they're trying to achieve. The flaws you guys are picking out, legitimate ones, are probably especially due to the author coming from a more engineering background and only having written essays about Magic: The Gathering metastrategy before. Still, the flipside of fanfic is seeing these stories rearranged to bring different elements to the fore, even in structually flawed ways; I think it's worth it if you can put up with the writing style and literary aims. I mean this guy read the transhumanist rationality cult didactic Harry Potter fanfiction and felt inspired, don't let me oversell you on how little one can do to shade themselves away from that origin.

Radio Free Kobold posted:

on the other hand i noticed Sacred Host; i'm only about 7 chapters in but so far it seems to be a story about a young woman teaching yeerks about god. very very strange but also kinda cool.

That's the only other Animorphs fanfic I read, and I read it to laugh at the strange but ended up thinking it was cool, too. Wish Gnostic fanfiction had caught on as the movement of the day but, well... robot gods it is

# ? Jul 20, 2020 21:26

disaster pastor: May 1, 2007

Daikloktos posted:

Indeed, the disadvantage of fanfiction is authors of uneven skill only able to render part of what they're trying to achieve.

The thing is, I'm not sure he's not completely successful at what he's trying to achieve; nobody has conversations, they just narrate the audiobook of "Why I'm Being Completely Logical and Therefore Right," and I feel like that's wholly intentional. It's just not for me. If you like it, I'm glad for you!

# ? Jul 20, 2020 22:13

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

The Capture-Chapter 7

quote:

<Morph , Jake! Morph now!>

Tobias had set me down on the roof of a Boston Market restaurant. It was the closest safe place
he could find.

I was lying helpless on tar paper and gravel. My legs were twitching. My antennae waved in
sanely. I was twitching and jerking and losing all control over my roach body.

But the human me understood what was going on.

I was dying.

I had watched roaches die from poisoning. I had stood over them and thought, "Ha, serves you
right."

Now it was me. Now it was my body that was failing. I was the one suffocating and jerking.

<Jake! You have to morph out of this. Do it! Concentrated

I knew he was right. It was the only way to stay alive. But it was so hard to focus when I was
trapped inside a dying body.

I tried to picture myself human. I tried to form a mental image of myself. But that picture was all
mixed up with dolphins and birds and tigers.

And the dream . . .

I was in it now, as the delirium swept over me. In the dream . . .

I was the tiger. Moving with perfect silence. Each muscle like liquid steel. Every movement
controlled, calculated.

I could smell my prey. I could hear his clumsy human movements in the dark forest. He was
slow. He was weak. He could not escape me. I would destroy him. I would bring down my prey.

My prey . . . Tom.

I saw him turn to look at me. I saw fear in his eyes. Fear of me.

I settled back on my haunches, preparing for the final lunge. The killing lunge that would end
with my teeth sinking into his neck. My jaws crushing his spine.

He looked at me and held up his hands. "No!"

I leapt, uncoiling unbelievable power. I leapt, a huge, unstoppable hunter. I roared, a thunderous
cry of triumph that could be heard for miles.

And then I saw the tiger. Saw myself. Saw orange striped fur and ruthless yellow eyes and saber
teeth and claws that could rip open a buffalo, hurtling toward me.

Tom had become the tiger. And I was his prey.

So that's Jake's dream. Any thoughts?

quote:

I closed my eyes. And when I opened them again, I saw, right above me, fierce eyes staring
down from just a few inches away. The eyes of a hawk.

<Are you okay?> Tobias asked.

I raised my hand to look at it. Fingers. Five of them.

"I don't know? Am I okay?"

<You seem to have all your major limbs and so on,> Tobias said. <But it was a weird morph.
You got poisoned pretty badly, I think. You seemed to be unconscious while you morphed.>

"I'm alive," I said, feeling a little surprised. But of course the amount of poison that had almost
killed me when I was a roach was nothing to me as a human. "Where are we?"

<On the roof of a fast-food restaurant.>

"You saved my butt, Tobias."

<No problem. I am your own personal Air Force, dude. Just call in the air support anytime you
need it.>

I sat up. "How are the others?"

<Worried about you. I checked up on them while you were coming out of morph. They're
scattered around, but okay. Everyone morphed back. Ax is already in human morph again.
Cassie has him with her.>

"I guess I should get down from here," I said.

<Yeah,> Tobias agreed. <So. Marco told me what you found out. This is major.>

"Definitely major," I agreed. I stood up and began to look around for a way to escape from the
roof. I was too tired and rattled to morph again.

<Marco says Visser Three was there. In a human morph. The guy who showed up in the limo,
right?>

"Yeah, I guess so. I mean, roach eyes are pretty lame. I can only go by what I heard."

 Tobias said.

I stopped looking for a ladder to the ground. Tobias was being too talkative. Too persistent.

"Tobias? What is it? What are you trying to get around to telling me?"

<When Visser Three left, Tom was with him.>

My first reaction was relief. Visser Three had ordered someone executed in that meeting. It had
not been Tom.

"How, um . . . how did they look together? Visser Three and Tom?"

<Tom was the only one from the meeting who went with Visser Three, aside from his guards.
Tom was acting sort of careful around Visser Three. But he looked like he was pretty cocky
around the guards. It's hard to say, Jake. But if I had to guess, I'd say Tom and Visser Three are
tight.>

"Yeah," I said. "I have a feeling maybe Tom is kind of responsible for a big part of this hospital
plan." I shut up and thought for a second.

"What will Visser Three do to Tom if this great plan is destroyed?"

Tobias said nothing. He knew the answer.

Those who fail Visser Three die.

Yep, that's certainly true, as do people who interrupt him when he's gloating, diminsh the importance of roaches or are sometimes just in his way.

# ? Jul 20, 2020 23:11

Comrade Blyatlov: Aug 4, 2007; should have picked four fingers

Epicurius posted:

The Capture-Chapter 7

So that's Jake's dream. Any thoughts?

Yep, that's certainly true, as do people who interrupt him when he's gloating, diminsh the importance of roaches or are sometimes just in his way.

HEY VISSER THREE WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE ROACHES

GET HIM

# ? Jul 20, 2020 23:18

disaster pastor: May 1, 2007

Epicurius posted:

Yep, that's certainly true, as do people who interrupt him when he's gloating, diminsh the importance of roaches or are sometimes just in his way.

"So, why'd the Visser kill Glorp?"
"Glorp diminished the importance of roaches."
"Huh. Never took the Visser for a roach-lovin' kinda Yeerk..."

# ? Jul 20, 2020 23:21

Radio Free Kobold: Aug 11, 2012; "Federal regulations mandate that at least 30% of our content must promote Reptilian or Draconic culture. This is DJ Scratch N' Sniff with the latest mermaid screeching on KBLD..."

Yeerks wish they could be as robust as roaches.

# ? Jul 21, 2020 00:49

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# ? May 3, 2024 16:29

Kchama: Jul 25, 2007

Epicurius posted:

The Capture-Chapter 7
Do roaches really have "tails"? I'm thinking this is an error

Actually, they do! They just barely peek out so being very close to one's tail also means being very close to just plain squishing.

# ? Jul 21, 2020 01:13

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > Comedy Goldmine > Let's Read Animorphs! The Whole Series! Ch-ch-ch-chaaanges

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