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

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nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

freebooter posted:

Remind me why Rachel eventually views Ax as a traitor to the team?

I just realised that I never finished the series originally as a kid, and read the final 10-odd books as part of my 20-year-old-ish re-read, so my memory of some of the aspects of the ending is spotty. And I distinctively remember which book I stopped at: The one where Cassie goes to Australia which even my 12-year-old brain thought was shameless filler with no point to it other than getting a kangaroo on the front cover, and I was like, gently caress this, I'm done. And then in literally the very next book the Marco gets outed to the Yeerks as an Animorph and the end-game kicks off. That's pretty funny.

*MASSIVE ENDGAME SPOILERS* In the final arc of the books Ax makes contact with Andalite high command and learns that the Andalite fleet is indeed finally on its way to Earth, only it's not coming to liberate Earth, it's coming to glass it--Yeerks and humans alike--and then call it day. Ax initially keeps this from everyone, leading to questions over his loyalty and whether he'd side humanity or his own people. Rachel in particular takes the revelation spectacularly poorly.

# ? Aug 2, 2020 04:51

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# ? May 25, 2024 17:01

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

disaster pastor posted:

I agree that the stereotype exists, but it annoys the hell out of me, because the text says the opposite: Rachel is Marco's competition for "smartest Animorph." A lot of their dynamic (that isn't Marco attempting to flirt) is informed by this; Rachel doesn't understand why Marco is so hesitant when they're both smart enough to know that their plans are probably pretty good, while Marco doesn't understand why Rachel is so gung-ho when they're both smart enough to know that there's no plan so good that they can't at least improve it by giving it more thought, if not replace it with an even better one.

There's a point in the second half of the series where (vague-ish background spoilers, I guess?) it's either implied or stated outright � I don't recall for sure � that the only reason the Animorphs are still passing their classes, let alone keeping their grades high enough to avoid suspicion, is that they're all cheating off Rachel.

If Rachel ever responded positively to Marco's flirting with her, I feel like he'd choke up and die, because he really doesn't want to actually date Rachel.

That's why it's so funny.

# ? Aug 2, 2020 04:53

ANOTHER SCORCHER: Aug 12, 2018

The Stranger Chapter 4 posted:

<It would be a very serious blow. They would survive, but they would be weakened.>

"We'd have to find this Kandrona thing first," Cassie reminded everyone. "And wherever it is, it will be guarded."

Right then I guess we all realized we were going to do it. We were going back to the Yeerk pool.

Jake shook his head slowly. "Down to the Yeerk pool again. I still have nightmares about the first time."

"Yeah," Marco agreed. "Done that."

"The Yeerk pool," Cassie said grimly, and looked away.

I dug this moment of Cassie trying to subtly talk everyone out of it followed by her resignation that it�s going to happen. Whether that�s cowardice or a concern about the deaths of Controllers if the Animorphs do win is ambiguous.

# ? Aug 2, 2020 05:31

Avalerion: Oct 19, 2012

It would be monumentally stupid and shortsighted for the yeerks to not have a backup kandora (or several!) installed down there... so that's absolutely gonna be the case, isn't it. :allears:

# ? Aug 2, 2020 13:12

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

If they only have the one it would make sense that the invasion seems so localized. Must be a logistical nightmare trying to get anything past an Andalite barricade.

# ? Aug 2, 2020 13:32

Cythereal: Nov 8, 2009; I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

Or maybe kandronas give off immense heat or some other emission, forcing the Yeerks to only have the one for fear of detection by humans.

# ? Aug 2, 2020 16:29

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

Police raid expecting a grow-op. DARE saves the day?

# ? Aug 2, 2020 16:39

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Mazerunner posted:

Police raid expecting a grow-op. DARE saves the day?

They're very '90s books.....

# ? Aug 2, 2020 16:42

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

Ooh, my artificial sun, my robot sun
Three more days of TIME, KANDRONA
Ooh, you make my Yeerk pool run, my Yeerk pool run
Get it all filled up with SLIME, KANDRONA

Never gonna stop, give it up, taking over minds
I always swim right up, for the Hork of the Bajir kind
Aagh, aaghh, aghhh, NOOOO
M-m-m-my Kandrona

# ? Aug 2, 2020 23:23

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

Tree Bucket posted:

Ooh, my artificial sun, my robot sun
Three more days of TIME, KANDRONA
Ooh, you make my Yeerk pool run, my Yeerk pool run
Get it all filled up with SLIME, KANDRONA

Never gonna stop, give it up, taking over minds
I always swim right up, for the Hork of the Bajir kind
Aagh, aaghh, aghhh, NOOOO
M-m-m-my Kandrona

# ? Aug 2, 2020 23:37

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Lets just...go on to the next two chapters.

The Stranger-Chapter 5

quote:

"What's for dinner?" I asked my mom as soon as I got home. The walk in the woods had made me hungry. Being outdoors always does that to me.

So does fear. I just kept picturing the Yeerk pool. The cages full of involuntary hosts, humans and Hork-Bajir, temporarily free of their Yeerk parasites. I kept hearing them. Crying - that's what most of them did while they waited to be reinfested. Others screamed. Some begged for mercy.

Or worse.

My mom was standing by the kitchen counter. She was more dressed up than she usually was in the evening. She was munching nervously on some Doritos and kind of staring off into space.

"Mom? Hello?"

She looked like she hadn't noticed me. "Oh, hi, honey."

"What's for dinner? I'm starving."

"Your father is coming over tonight. For dinner. He said he would pick something up."

I felt my stomach clench. Something was wrong.

Since the divorce, my dad never came over for dinner. My two sisters and I spent one weekend a month overnight at his apartment in the city. Plus the every-other-weekend outing.

But he did not come over for dinner.

I wasn't hungry anymore. "What's going on?" I demanded.

My mother got this worried look on her face, which she tried to hide. "Your father has something he wants to tell you girls. He was supposed to tell you the other night at the circus. I guess he forgot."

The way she said "I guess he forgot" made it clear she didn't think that was the truth.

I took my mother's arm. "Mom? I don't like suspense, all right? So just - "

The doorbell rang.

I heard Sara running down the stairs. I heard Jordan yell, "Stop running on the stairs, you'll break your neck." She sounded just like my mother. It almost made my mom and me smile.

"That will be your father."

I went to the front room. Sara was leaping into my dad's arms and Jordan was hovering a couple feet away. Jordan shot a quick, questioning glance at me. Unlike Sara, Jordan was old enough to realize something was up.

I shrugged and shook my head.

"Rachel!" my dad said. "How's my girl? Come take this bag from me. Thai food. We have curry. We have pad Thai. We have chicken satay. We have those imperial heavenly whatever-they-call-em shrimp."

He handed me the paper bag. He was being too cheerful.

My father's a reporter for one of the local TV channels. He does a lot of investigative journalism. Plus he anchors the news on Saturday and Sunday. So he's always wearing nice clothes, and always has great hair, and he looks tan even in the total depths of winter.

I took the bag to the dining-room table and started to unpack the little white boxes of Thai food.

"Hello, Dan," my mother said, coming into the room with plates and silverware.

"Naomi," he answered. "How have you been?" By now even Sara had figured out that this was not going to be a happy evening.

We ate a little and struggled along with some small talk about nothing. Until finally my mom said, "Dan, just get it over with."

My dad looked embarrassed. He sent me a sheepish smile, like some little boy caught doing something wrong.

"Okay," he said. He cleared his throat. He sat up straight in his chair. Just as if he were waiting for the cameras to come on so he could do the evening news.

"Kids, I have something I have to tell you about. I've been offered a job. A better job. I wouldn't just be the weekend anchor. I would have the top spot. I'd be anchoring the six o'clock broadcast and the eleven o'clock. And I'd get to do specials. Maybe do some really important work."

Jordan looked at me, confused. It sounded like good news.

"There's just one problem," my father said. "It's not here in town. In fact, it would mean I would have to move."

"Where to?" Sara asked. "To another apartment?"

He forced a smile. "To another city, sweetie. In another state."

"A thousand miles away," my mother said.

You know, it's funny how the mind works. See, I've been through more bad things, more terror, more worry, more pain since I became an Animorph than most people deal with in a lifetime. I would have thought I could handle some thing like my dad moving away. A thousand miles away.

"Congratulations," I said, trying not to show any emotion. "It's what you've always wanted."

My dad wasn't fooled. He knew I was upset.

"It's the job, Rachel. It's the way it is. It's not like I won't see you kids. I know it sounds like a long way and all, but that's why we have jets, right?"

"Yeah," I said. "That's why we have jets. I think I'll just go upstairs and do some homework now."

"Wait, I need to ..." my dad protested.

I didn't slam any doors. I didn't throw anything.

I just left.

Let him feel what it's like, I told myself. Let him feel what it's like to have someone just walk away.

I went up to my room and locked the door behind me. I couldn't breathe. I kept clenching my fists and wanting to pound something. I think I would have cried, but I was just too angry.

"Rachel?" It was him. He knocked lightly on my door. "Can I come in?" I couldn't say no. It would have sounded like I was upset. "Sure. Why not?"

He came in. "I'm guessing you're a little upset," he said.

I shrugged and turned my back to him.

"I see. Rachel, you didn't let me finish what I had to tell you downstairs. Rachel . . .Jordan and Sara are still too young to consider this. But you're older. You can look after yourself when I have to work late. They can't. And . . . anyway, look, the thing is, I've talked to your mother about this, and she's not happy about it, but she says it's up to you."

I turned to look at him.

"What's up to me?"

He smiled uncertainly. "Well, it's like this. Carla Belnikoff teaches in the city I'm moving to. You know, she takes in three or four promising gymnastics students every year. If you wanted . . . well, it would be the best thing in the world, as far as I'm concerned, if you came
to live with me."

I almost asked him to repeat it. I couldn't believe I had heard right the first time. Students of Coach Belnikoff have won two gold medals and a bunch of silver ones.

"Dad, Carla Belnikoff isn't going to take me on as a student. She handles professional-level gymnasts. I'm too tall, and not good enough to ... besides, you're saying I should move out? Leave Mom and Sara and Jordan?"

"You're the only one who can decide that," my dad said. "But as for Coach Belnikoff, you're wrong. You have the talent. I know. If that's something you want to do, if you want to make that your life, you could go places in gymnastics."

I shook my head. Not to say no, just to try and clear out the confusion. "Dad, are you asking me to go with you when you move?"

"Yes. I know it would be hard on you and your mom and your sisters, but we could make it work. I mean, this job pays a lot of money. You could fly back here any time you wanted. Every week if you wanted."

Was he serious? It sounded ridiculous. Was he actually serious? I sat down on the edge of my bed. My thoughts were everywhere all at once. Leave? Leave my mom and my sisters?

This was just because my dad felt guilty. He felt bad about leaving. This was about pity. He felt sorry for me or something.

"And I know it would mean changing schools," he said, "but, gee, Rachel, I think it could be okay, you know? I mean, for one thing, they have serious mountains there. We could do some rock climbing together on weekends. Go hiking. And it's a huge sports town. I need someone to go with me to games. It would be like in the old days." Then he winked. "And hey, it's a much bigger city, so think of all the shopping."

No, it wasn't pity or guilt, I realized. At least not completely. I think my dad was feeling lonely. He was picturing himself lonely in the new town.

"Oh, man," I said. "I don't know what to say."

My dad nodded his head. "Don't decide now. I wouldn't want you to. Talk to your mom. And Jordan and Sara, too. You think about it. I just think . . . you know, I've just missed you, sweet heart. We have fun trash-talking the umpires at games, don't we? And hiking? Remember the time we got lost?"

"Of course, I remember," I said. "I just ... I just have to think it over. You know."

I wanted to say, Dad, you don't understand. It isn't just about Mom and Sara and Jordan. I have a date, Dad. To go back to the Yeerk pool. My friends are counting on me. See, I'm supposed to be Xena, Warrior Princess. I'm supposed to go back down there . . . down into the last place on Earth I want to go.

"I have to think it over," I repeated.

"Yeah. Anyway, I'm gonna go now."

"Okay, Dad," I said.

"I love you, Rachel."

I wish he hadn't said that. I was doing fine till he said that, and then the tears started.

After my dad left, I talked to my mom. She said what I expected: She wanted me to stay. But it was up to me. She trusted me to think it through.

Up to me. Great. I could hurt my mom and my sisters, or I could hurt my dad. Perfect. Isn't divorce fun?

After I went to bed, I just lay there, staring up at the ceiling. My brain kept churning like a computer you can't turn off. Too many things to think about. My dad. My mom.

And the big, huge, massive thing I didn't even want to start thinking about : my friends. The Animorphs. The war against the Yeerks. Finally, I knew I had to get out of there. I needed air and open spaces. The walls were just way too close around me.

I climbed out of bed and opened my window all the way. I changed from the T-shirt I sleep in to the black leotard I usually wore under my clothes.

My morphing outfit.

I couldn't think about it anymore. I just needed some space to not think about my father. Not think about choices.

I focused my mind. I concentrated. Just some time to think, I told myself, as my fingers be came feathers and my toes curled into talons.

I guess every kid has times he wants to just get away. But I had the power to do it. I could even get away from myself.

I launched myself into the night.

The Stranger-Chapter 6

quote:

I flew in absolute silence. The wind rushing over the top of my wings never ruffled a feather. The moon was low on the horizon, just a sliver. High clouds blocked the starlight. The grassy field just a few feet below me would have been black and featureless to human eyes. But I was not looking through human eyes.

My eyes were so large, they nearly filled my head. They looked through the darkness like it was noon on a sunny day. I could see individual blades of grass. I could see the ants crawling beneath the grass.

My hearing was so acute that I could hear a mouse step on a twig from seventy-five feet away.

I could hear the beating wings of a sparrow that was flitting from tree to tree. I had morphed into a great horned owl. The night killer. The predator of darkness. I flew lower still, closer to the ground, letting the owl's mind search out prey. Here a mouse. There a shrew. There a vole. And all the many little birds.

They were all meat to the owl. I could descend, silent and deadly, on a rat or rabbit, spread my talons wide, and strike.

I could squeeze my talons until they burst the skulls of my prey and... no. No, I told myself. I was not Tobias. He had no choice but to be a predator. I had a choice.

Like my father had a choice. He could just not move. And then I wouldn't have to make this awful decision. If he knew... if he understood everything...he wouldn't do this. He would understand that I was part of the battle to help save Earth.

But I couldn't tell him. Not even my dad. He could be one of them.

That's what knowing about the Yeerks does to you. You look at everyone and wonder what's living inside their brains. Even though I felt like somehow I would just know if my dad were a Controller.

I guess I've always had a close relationship with my dad. Right from the start, going back as far as I can remember, we were always doing stuff together. I mean, I have this photograph of me when I was three years old, standing on a balance beam, with my dad holding me up and grinning at the camera. I love that picture, even though I look lame in the outfit I had on. I keep it on my desk in my room.

When my mom was pregnant with my littlest sister, Sara, .I overheard my parents talking.

My mom was saying maybe this time she would have a boy. "I know you've always wanted a boy," she told my dad.

"Oh, come on," he answered. "That was years ago. I thought I had to have a boy to do all the fun 'dad" stuff with. But I have Rachel. She's as good as any boy. She's already tougher than most boys her age. Have you seen the vaults she can do?
"
My mom groaned. "Don't ever let her hear you say that. Little girls do not want to be told they are as good as a boy."

But she was wrong. I know it was sexist and all, but I still just thought it was great. My dad thought I was as tough as any boy. Cool.

If only he knew what I was doing now, I thought.

How could he expect me to make this decision? I couldn't leave my friends. I couldn't. They were counting on me. We were going back to the Yeerk pool, and they were counting on me to be brave and strong. That's what they thought I was.

But if I was so brave and so strong, why was I suddenly imagining a very different life, a long, long way from the war with the Yeerks?

Why was I imagining a life of gymnastics classes and ball games with my dad - a place where I was just a person? Where no one expected me to go back down into that hell of screams and despair called the Yeerk pool?

If I was so brave and so tough, why was I imagining a normal life?

I don't really have much time to delve into these chapters now, but I wanted to get them up. My parents were never divorced, so this wasn't really had to deal with. How about the rest of you? Did you have parents who lived in different cities? Did any of you have to choose who to live with most of the time, and how'd it feel? How'd you feel about your non-custodial parent?

# ? Aug 3, 2020 00:11

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

Hmmmm.... is the other city Seattle, maybe? I don't know America that well, whats a thousand miles from Cali thats a much bigger city, and does this help identify where they are? San Luis Obispo maybe?

# ? Aug 3, 2020 00:47

QuickbreathFinisher: Sep 28, 2008; by reading this post you have agreed to form a gay socialist micronation.
`

Comrade Blyatlov posted:

Hmmmm.... is the other city Seattle, maybe? I don't know America that well, whats a thousand miles from Cali thats a much bigger city, and does this help identify where they are? San Luis Obispo maybe?

I was thinking Denver because of the mountain climbing/sports city mention, but it could just as easily be Seattle or Portland. For some reason when I read this as a kid I remembered thinking it was Texas, but that doesn't really match up with the way he described it.

Is it common for a news anchor to be offered another job this far away?

I thought this family drama stuff was nicely written, and as someone from a tense household made up of two second marriages, I thought the barely concealed tones of resentment in Rachel's parents really worked. This book explores some really good stuff, I'm excited to get to the parallel second choice from the Ellimist. excited to discuss that when we get to it later in the book.

# ? Aug 3, 2020 01:10

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

Weirdly, with how local the invasion seems to be for now, Rachel's dad moving a thousand miles away could be a really good thing as far as getting him out of the immediate danger radius.

Then again, we don't know how local local is...

# ? Aug 3, 2020 02:01

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

So their town/city is near the coast and probably one of the major ports, backs onto a national forest with mountain lakes... does that narrow it down at all or is that pretty much California.txt?

# ? Aug 3, 2020 02:03

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

The books never really specify where The Animorphs take place. But somebody did some extrapolating, and came up with a location, which is somewhere in Ventura County, or Glendale, California.

# ? Aug 3, 2020 02:09

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 jeez. I started reading that thinking something's not right, is she infested? But then it got shockingly personal. My parents divorced when I was a kid; mom wound up making a career move to the other end of the continent. I feel it.

# ? Aug 3, 2020 02:18

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

Epicurius posted:

The books never really specify where The Animorphs take place. But somebody did some extrapolating, and came up with a location, which is somewhere in Ventura County, or Glendale, California.

Yeah, it's somewhere along the Highway 101 corridor about an hour or two outside of Los Angeles, a setting Michael Grant would return to in the GONE series. Perdido Beach is explicitly set in that area, as opposed to implicitly like Animorphs is. It is, unsurprisingly, relatively close to where Applegate and Grant themselves live in real life.

# ? Aug 3, 2020 03:32

Wahad: May 19, 2011; There is no escape.

Epicurius posted:

I don't really have much time to delve into these chapters now, but I wanted to get them up. My parents were never divorced, so this wasn't really had to deal with. How about the rest of you? Did you have parents who lived in different cities? Did any of you have to choose who to live with most of the time, and how'd it feel? How'd you feel about your non-custodial parent?

My parents have been divorced since I was two (both eventually remarried), so I've never seen it as a big deal. When I was 10, though, my dad was pretty much in this situation. First it was a temp gig (6 months) in Australia to oversee a project. Then after all that was done, maybe half a year after, he was offered a permanent position there, and he took it. He's been living on the other side of the world since (Singapore now, he's changed jobs since).

Again, though, I was too young to really be mad at him for it? My mom never really saw eye to eye with him after the divorce but they both agreed to put me and my sister first over any arguments so it was always civil.

Ever since, he visits once or twice a year, calls regularly when he isn't in the country, and I've visited him twice, with a third time (and my first time in Singapore) hopefully coming up when the world isn't ending.

So I've always been more chill about it than Rachel is now, even when he was moving away, but I guess I've also not really been as close to my dad ever as she seems to be - not that it's a bad relationship but seeing him only once every two weeks and then once/twice a year after he moved away puts some distance in any relationship.

I also never had a choice to live with him - too young, again, so they decided it was best to let me and my sister stay with mom. Which I agree with, I think. Uprooting to Australia would've been weird. I like to think I turned out alright, anyway.

# ? Aug 3, 2020 07:29

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

Wahad posted:

I like to think I turned out alright, anyway.

i dunno, you're posting on something awful afterall

# ? Aug 3, 2020 20:30

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

The Stranger-Chapter 7

quote:

I flew into Tobias's territory. It was also the territory of at least one real horned owl, who would not be happy to have me around. It belonged to Tobias by day and to the owl by night.

I knew a tree where Tobias often slept. Sure enough, he was there. I stopped beating my wings and glided up.

I was already flaring my wings to come in for a landing when Tobias noticed me.

<It's okay, it's okay, it's me, Rachel.>

<Oh, man! You almost gave me a heart attack!>

<Sorry.>

<Sorry?> he demanded angrily. <It's night, we're in the woods, I'm a hawk and you're an owl who comes zooming up in attack mode. Don't do that kind of stuff, Rachel. >

<I'm just an owl, not an eagle.> I protested. I knew that some eagles and some falcons will attack hawks.

<Okay, okay. It's just that hungry owls have been known to go after hawks. It doesn't happen a lot, but owls scare me. I know everybody sees cute cartoon owls and thinks all they do is say "hoot, hoot" and act wise. But let me tell you, I've watched owls work. They aren't cute. They're tough. I don't ever want to have to fight one. >

I settled on the branch beside him, sinking my talons into the soft bark. I could see why Tobias liked this perch. It gave a perfect view of the meadow, with all its tasty prey.

<I'm really sorry, Tobias. I guess I forget that your life can be so dangerous. >

<Yeah, well, it has advantages, too.> he said. <No more first period gym class. So what are you doing out here playing owl?>



<Ah. Why? Unless it's not any of my business.>



Tobias didn't say anything. Obviously, he knew I was lying. He just waited for me to tell him, watching me with gold-brown eyes that seemed to drill holes through me.

But I didn't really want to tell him. I mean, I guess I had wanted to, or why else would I have flown out to see him? But now it just seemed ridiculous to lay my problems on him.

 I said.

<You're worried?> he teased. <You?>

 I said defensively. <I was thinking about flying out to The Gardens, to the zoo. Maybe acquiring some new morph. Something really strong and mean in case we get into a fight down there. A lion. Or a grizzly bear or something. Thought maybe
you'd want to fly over there with me. >

<Rachel, you know I don't fly much at night. I can't see that well in the dark. Plus, there aren't any thermals at night, so I can't soar. I just have to flap the whole time, and that's miles away. I mean, a little trip around here, sure, if you want to go flying. But that's a haul. >

<Yeah, okay. Forget it. >



<It's nothing.> I said. <Sorry I scared you. I'm going to head on home.>

<Rachel, you know you can always talk to me, right?>

<Yeah. Look... I have a question for you. Do you ever think about years from now? Like when it's time for college and stuff?> As soon as the words were out of my head I wished I could call them back.

Ouch

quote:

But Tobias was cool. He just laughed silently.

<Yeah, I'm thinking I could get easy A's in - ornithology - the study of birds. >

<You could definitely be the professor.> I said. 

Tobias began preening his feathers. It's some thing he has to do, but it's also a habit he has when he's bothered by something. <I haven't really looked that far ahead. But I guess I figured this whole thing would sort itself out, one way or the other, long before then. The Yeerks win, and you don't have to worry about college. Or they lose, and we each go back to our normal lives. Some of us more normal than others.> he added dryly.

For a while I didn't say anything. I couldn't.

I was too busy hating myself for bringing this up with Tobias. Tobias, of all people! He was already a casualty in this war. He was trapped in a hawk morph. And here I was thinking of bailing out? What was the matter with me? I couldn't leave. Leave Tobias living in the forest? Leave my best friend Cassie to fight, maybe to die, so I could cut and run? Leave Jake and Marco and Ax?

Why? Because my dad was lonely and I could take gymnastics classes?

<Rachel? You okay?>

No. I wasn't okay. I felt sick. What was the matter with me? I couldn't leave. I couldn't give up. <Me? Of course I'm okay.> I lied. <Just the same, I think I will go get myself some firepower. It's time for Yeerk Pool Two: Animorphs' Revenge, right?>

 Tobias said.

<Don't worry.> I said. <I'll get a Hork-Bajir for you. >

<You're okay? Really? It seemed like you were upset. >

<Tobias, I am more than okay. Gotta go. >

<Rachel, go home.> Tobias advised.

First, Tobias is more sarcastic than people give him credit for. Second, Rachel should definitely confide in Tobias.

quote:

I opened my wings and beat them powerfully, sliding through the dead air of night. But I did not go home. I flew around a while, trying to get a grip on the confusion in my head. But I couldn't. And I couldn't go home yet. I knew I would just lay there in bed, eyes wide open.

I turned and headed south.

From the air, The Gardens looks very different than it does from the ground. The roller coaster doesn't look nearly as tall or scary. And flying above the zoo area, you mostly just see the roofs of the various interior exhibits. The rest of it seems, at first, to be sparse woods, with cement pathways winding in and around and through, like curled ribbons.

Looking closer, I could see the separate habitats. The trees and the running stream of the tiger area. The open field for the bison, separated by a tall fence from the impalas. I glided over the lions. Most were sleeping by a tree. One female was ranging around restlessly, like she
was looking for something. It took a while to find the bears. I wasn't interested in the little black bears. Or the polar bears. I was looking for the grizzlies.

I wanted power. There they were in a habitat of trees and rocks and a deep water-filled moat fed by a tumbling, rushing stream.

There were two, a male and female pair. Both were asleep, sprawled across the rocks. The male was bigger: That's what I wanted. Big. Powerful. Fearless. If I was going back to the Yeerk pool, I wanted something desperately dangerous.

Leave? Move out of town? Give up? No way. No way.

And my dad? I would still see him when he came to town. That's what jets were for. I landed and began to morph back. To revert to my true human form. My feathers melted and ran together and became pink. My beak broke into teeth. My talons became smooth toes. My insides gurgled and squished and sloshed as some organs grew and others changed and others reappeared from nothing.

The bear heard the sounds of my bones stretching, and the faint rustle of feathers melting together to become flesh. He opened one eye and looked at me without understanding or fear.

He was well fed. He had been in the zoo for many years, and had all but forgotten the wariness of living in the wild. I was just something that smelled a little like a bird and a little like a human.

I reached a trembling human hand down to touch the rough coat of the grizzly bear. His nearsighted eyes watched me. I was nothing to him. I could not hurt him. He could destroy me without bothering even to wake up fully.

He was beyond fear. Beyond doubt. Beyond pain.

"It must be nice," I whispered to him.

I touched him and felt his power flow into me. And yet, as I absorbed his DNA and imagined myself becoming this fearless creature, I still could not forget the look in my father's eyes, or the quaver in his voice saying, "But, gee, Rachel, I think it could be okay, you know?"

I could already feel the emptiness his moving would leave in my life. He could say he'd come back every other week. He could say we'd still see each other just as much. But I knew it wouldn't be that way.

I could imagine him packing up to go.

I could remember the screams in the Yeerk pool.

I could remember Tobias trying to joke about college.

Too much. Things that were small and personal, and things that were huge, all swirled together in my head. Nothing made sense. It was too much stuff. Too much fear and guilt and loneliness. Too many decisions. Too much.

You know, there are days when I just don't feel brave and fearless. There are days when I just want to go to a ball game with my dad and eat popcorn and tune out everything else that's going on. Be a normal kid.

But that wasn't the life I had. Not anymore

So Rachel obviously has a dilemma here, and is facing choices she doesn't want to make. And I think both the desire to morph and the search for action are her ways to escape from those hard choices. By focusing on the now, she can pretend the future doesn't exist. And, of course, what makes this harder for her than most people is she's got that responsibility to fight the Yeerks, and she's one of the few people who can do it. So if she doesn't, if she leaves, the Animorphs are down someone, and what if that leaves them vulnerable? But at the same time, staying means she won't really see her dad, and she values the time she spends with him.

quote:

The next evening, as planned, we all arrived at the mall separately. I hooked up with Cassie at the food court.

"Hi. What a huge surprise to see you here," I said.

"Uh-huh."

We did a little act for any curious Controller who might be watching, pretending to be surprised to see each other.

This counts as a very little act.

quote:

I looked at my watch. "Perfect. We have fifteen minutes to wander slowly toward The Gap."

"I saw Jake and Ax down playing video games," Cassie said. "Poor Jake. Ax is a little unpredictable when he's in human morph. While I was watching, he tried to eat a cigarette butt out of an ashtray."

Andalites have no mouths and no sense of taste. So whenever Ax played human, he found the sense of taste extremely exciting. He would try to eat everything around him.

I laughed at the image of Ax chewing on a cigarette butt. I was surprised I could laugh. This was not a mission I was looking forward to.

We arrived at the store.

"Marco says it's in the last dressing room," I reminded Cassie. "And we have to assume the people who work here in the store are all Controllers. Speaking of Marco, I wonder if he made it on time?"

"I'm sure he did," Cassie said. "He seems to be kind of into all this lately."

"Yeah, what's that about?" I muttered.

Cassie shrugged. "People change, I guess. I feel sorry for Tobias, not being able to come along. It'll tear him up. On the other hand, I'm jealous."

I nodded in agreement. I was feeling hyper again. Jazzed. The way I usually did before we set out to do something dangerous. Only more so this time. I'll admit it - the Yeerk pool scared me. The idea of that awful place made me sick at heart. And now we were going back down there.
"Time to go to the dressing room," I said. "Pick something out you want to try on."

Cassie looked at me blankly. "Like what?"

I rolled my eyes. Cassie cannot shop. She is shopping-impaired. "Just pretend you're me. Grab a sweater or something."

I spotted Jake and Ax across the room. Ax's human morph is always a little surprising to see because it's a combination of DNA from Jake, Marco, Cassie, and me. He's a guy, but sort of pretty, and with a definite hint of weirdness about him.

I grabbed a sweater for Cassie and held it out for her.

"Like I would ever wear that," she said. "It says 'dry clean only'."

We went to the next-to-last dressing room and closed the door behind us.

"Let's do this," I said tersely. We had all decided the best way to go was in cockroach morph. The last time we'd morphed into roaches, things had not gone well. But roaches were fast, and their senses were good enough to use for our purposes. Also, they might go unnoticed.

I was not looking forward to doing the roach body again. I don't like becoming anything that can be stepped on. Besides, if you think looking at a cockroach is gross, try being one. I looked at Cassie and let out a yelp. Two hugely long antennae were sprouting from her
forehead. "Jeez, you could have warned me you were starting."

Morphing is not some neat, sensible process where you just gradually become something else. It is much weirder than that. Different changes happen at different times. Body parts appear suddenly, other parts disappear. And the sizes don't always match up till the end.

The first change on Cassie was the sudden appearance of the antennae, which shot straight out of her forehead like two fishing poles. Then her skin started to get crispy-looking. At the same time, we were both shrinking, which feels just like falling. I mean, you see the walls
shooting up, higher and higher. You see the ground rushing up at you like you're a parachutist whose chute didn't open.

Unfortunately, since it was a dressing room, there were mirrors on two sides.

"AAHHH!" I cried, startled by the nauseating sight of the skin of my back melting into two huge, hard, brown wings.

Cassie was too far gone to say "shh," but she held one of her hands up to what was left of her lips. Just then her extra legs came popping out of her stomach, and I think I would have yelped again except that I no longer had a mouth. I heard a slurping sound as the last of my bones dissolved, and I sagged into my exoskeleton.

My clothing was piled around me like a huge collapsed tent.

Human sight was gone now. What I could see was vague and muddy and shattered into a thousand pieces. But I'd had practice being a roach. I could make some sense of the roach's confusing way of seeing.

And there were compensations. The antennae that had sprouted from my head were amazingly good at reading vibrations and smells.

<You okay?> I asked Cassie.

<I'm trapped under my own jeans.> she said. <No, wait. There. I'm out.>

 I said.

<Yikes! Look out! There are pins all over the carpet. >

The straight pins were steel shafts that looked as big around as the crossbar of a swing set. The sharp ends didn't seem very sharp at this size. And the blunt ends were like big steel beach balls.

<Okay, let's get out of the way.> I said. We scurried on our six legs over to a corner underneath the small triangular seat.

<Man, this roach brain really wants to run.> Cassie said.

<Tell me about it.> I agreed. When you first morph an animal, it is almost always a struggle to adjust to its particular instincts. We had morphed roaches before, so we were prepared, but the first time I had become a roach it was all I could do to control the panic. Even now, the roach's jumpy instincts were barely under control. "Run!" it said. "Run!" I heard loud, crashing vibrations. Something huge moved over our heads. I couldn't see well enough to recognize him, but a few seconds later he began to morph down into our world.

<Who is it?> I asked.

<Me, Marco. What, you don't recognize me?>

After that came Ax, who had to morph back into his Andalite body and then into a roach.

Jake grabbed all the clothing we had shed, stuffed it into a bag, and took it away to store in one of the coin lockers out in the mall. Then he came back and morphed into his own cockroach form. His own outer clothing would be sacrificed, left in the dressing room. That would look strange, but not as strange as five separate sets of clothing.

<Okay, boys, girls, and bugs.> Marco said, <this has taken about fifteen minutes, which means we are already down to an hour and forty-five minutes in morph. And this is NOT a morph I want to be stuck in. >

<Amen. Let's move out.> Jake said.

We scampered like a very tiny, very gross army beneath the divider that separated us from the next dressing room. This was the dressing room Marco believed led to the Yeerk pool.

<We can hide up under the seat.> I said.

One of the cooler parts of being a roach is the ability to walk right up most walls. We shot up the wall and cowered beneath the roof formed by the little triangular seat. I rested, facing straight up on the wall. Tiny spines at the end of my legs gripped the small bumps of the painted wall. I could see two of the others just above me, parked like low-slung tobacco brown cars. Their antennae waved around, just as mine did, picking up scents, feeling
vibrations.

And then, quite suddenly, it happened. The door of the dressing room opened. A shape so tall, it might as well have been a skyscraper, came into the room.

<We have company.> Marco announced. As if we hadn't noticed. As if our little roach brains weren't screaming at us, "Run! Run! Run!"

Then, I heard a soft snap.

The mirror on the back wall of the dressing room swung open. I felt an assault of damp air rich with a mineral scent. I had smelled that aroma before. Memories came rushing into my head. Memories I wished I could forget.

<Let's go!> Jake yelled.

We tore down the wall, hit the carpet, and blazed for the doorway. The feet of the Controller were just ahead of us, monstrous building-sized shoes that lifted and swung ahead, disappearing from sight.

In we went after the Controller. The door closed behind us.

<We're in.> Jake said.

<Oh, goody.> Marco replied.

Down into the Yeerk pool.

The very last place I ever wanted to go again.

And they got in without being stepped on. So good on them.

# ? Aug 4, 2020 00:50

disaster pastor: May 1, 2007

Epicurius posted:

quote:
The bear heard the sounds of my bones stretching, and the faint rustle of feathers melting together to become flesh. He opened one eye and looked at me without understanding or fear.

He was well fed. He had been in the zoo for many years, and had all but forgotten the wariness of living in the wild. I was just something that smelled a little like a bird and a little like a human.

I reached a trembling human hand down to touch the rough coat of the grizzly bear. His nearsighted eyes watched me. I was nothing to him. I could not hurt him. He could destroy me without bothering even to wake up fully.

He was beyond fear. Beyond doubt. Beyond pain.

"It must be nice," I whispered to him.

I touched him and felt his power flow into me. And yet, as I absorbed his DNA and imagined myself becoming this fearless creature, I still could not forget the look in my father's eyes, or the quaver in his voice saying, "But, gee, Rachel, I think it could be okay, you know?"

I could already feel the emptiness his moving would leave in my life. He could say he'd come back every other week. He could say we'd still see each other just as much. But I knew it wouldn't be that way.

I could imagine him packing up to go.

I could remember the screams in the Yeerk pool.

I could remember Tobias trying to joke about college.

Too much. Things that were small and personal, and things that were huge, all swirled together in my head. Nothing made sense. It was too much stuff. Too much fear and guilt and loneliness. Too many decisions. Too much.

You know, there are days when I just don't feel brave and fearless. There are days when I just want to go to a ball game with my dad and eat popcorn and tune out everything else that's going on. Be a normal kid.

But that wasn't the life I had. Not anymore

The downside of Rachel being the POV character and doing this solo is that it's easy to skip past just how incredibly, ridiculously bonkers this is, especially for only seven books in. Try to imagine this scene if this were a Cassie- or Marco-narrated book and they'd gone along with Rachel.

Book 1, Jake acquires the tiger by accident, stumbling upon it with Marco, terrified out of their minds, acquiring it only because Jake knows it'll be chill for a few seconds after that and they can flee for their goddamned lives. Book 7, Rachel goes by herself at night, heads directly and intentionally to the grizzly enclosure, unintentionally wakes up the grizzly, and instead of reversing the morph and fleeing, reaches out to touch the grizzly knowing full well that if the grizzly doesn't like it, there will be very little left of her body when the staff shows up the next morning. And the whole time, her attention is way, way more on her (entirely valid!) complaints and discomfort with her own life. Not with her potentially being at the mercy of a grizzly bear, but with her sadness about her father and Tobias and all the involuntary Controllers locked up in the Yeerk pool.

It's a more amazing scene than Rachel's narration paints it as, and it tells us a lot about her.

# ? Aug 4, 2020 01:13

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

Id like to draw attention to something else, which jumps out to me as a recovering addict.
Rachel can't deal with her problems, so she seeks solace in what she loves but hasn't even admitted to herself - killing. That's why she seeks the bear - she wants the deadliest thing she can find.

There's a point in every addict's life where they make a conscious choice to lose themselves in it, and i think we just saw hers.

# ? Aug 4, 2020 02:28

Fritzler: Sep 5, 2007

disaster pastor posted:

The downside of Rachel being the POV character and doing this solo is that it's easy to skip past just how incredibly, ridiculously bonkers this is, especially for only seven books in. Try to imagine this scene if this were a Cassie- or Marco-narrated book and they'd gone along with Rachel.

Book 1, Jake acquires the tiger by accident, stumbling upon it with Marco, terrified out of their minds, acquiring it only because Jake knows it'll be chill for a few seconds after that and they can flee for their goddamned lives. Book 7, Rachel goes by herself at night, heads directly and intentionally to the grizzly enclosure, unintentionally wakes up the grizzly, and instead of reversing the morph and fleeing, reaches out to touch the grizzly knowing full well that if the grizzly doesn't like it, there will be very little left of her body when the staff shows up the next morning. And the whole time, her attention is way, way more on her (entirely valid!) complaints and discomfort with her own life. Not with her potentially being at the mercy of a grizzly bear, but with her sadness about her father and Tobias and all the involuntary Controllers locked up in the Yeerk pool.

It's a more amazing scene than Rachel's narration paints it as, and it tells us a lot about her.

Yeah it is a very classic reckless Rachel moment. I assume soon Cassie or someone else will call her out on it when she reveals that she has a grizzly morph. Also already had at least one problem with Rachel's elephant morph being too big so makes sense to give her another battle morph.

# ? Aug 4, 2020 14:59

ninjahedgehog: Feb 17, 2011; It's time to kick the tires and light the fires, Big Bird.

So I think at this point, pretty much everyone's acquired their go-to battle morphs for the rest of the series? I remember as a kid thinking a lot about if I were an Animorph what my go-to battle morph and bird of prey morph would be, and arguing about it at-length with my friends. My choice was a mountain lion, but I had a friend who was dead-set on crocodile and another who wanted to be a rhinoceros.

# ? Aug 4, 2020 19:41

disaster pastor: May 1, 2007

ninjahedgehog posted:

So I think at this point, pretty much everyone's acquired their go-to battle morphs for the rest of the series?

Spoilers for book 13: Tobias obviously doesn't have his Hork-Bajir yet, but otherwise, I think so.

# ? Aug 4, 2020 19:46

Cythereal: Nov 8, 2009; I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

ninjahedgehog posted:

My choice was a mountain lion, but I had a friend who was dead-set on crocodile and another who wanted to be a rhinoceros.

A Saltwater Crocodile would be my immediate first choice. 20 feet of muscle, teeth, and armor.

# ? Aug 4, 2020 22:31

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

Badger. Vicious little fuckers

# ? Aug 4, 2020 22:40

Khizan: Jul 30, 2013

Tiger here. Big cats are clearly the coolest.

# ? Aug 4, 2020 23:30

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

Khizan posted:

Tiger here. Big cats are clearly the coolest.

Plus it looks like Visser 3 would be hesitant to have you shot

# ? Aug 4, 2020 23:41

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

Cythereal posted:

A Saltwater Crocodile would be my immediate first choice. 20 feet of muscle, teeth, and armor.

Not very good at sustained bursts of energy on land, though

# ? Aug 4, 2020 23:41

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..."

grizzly bear, for sure. five hundred pounds of apex predator, as close as nature's got to bulletproof.

# ? Aug 4, 2020 23:47

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

Too bad you can't acquire DNA from fossils, that could get interesting.

# ? Aug 5, 2020 00:09

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

I would combine the dna of the world's deadliest animals to create the deadliest of them all

# ? Aug 5, 2020 00:15

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

The Stranger-Chapter 9

quote:

The first time we went to the Yeerk pool complex, we had taken an incredibly long stairway. This time it was more of a ramp. It wound downward at an easy angle, no worse than walking down a driveway. And to our roach bodies, which barely experienced gravity, it was like walking on level ground.

Under our scampering feet there was bare dirt, covered by footprints. We climbed in and out of depressions that seemed to be several feet deep, by our cockroach standards.

We let the Controller pull away from us, even though we could have moved as fast as he was. No point in taking the risk of getting stepped on.

It was dark all around, with only an occasional bare electric bulb, high, high overhead like some dim sun. Still, we wanted to be careful not to be seen. My antennae were tuned in for any vibration that might be another Controller on the path.

Down, down we went, curving and twisting between rock walls.

<Ax, how are we doing on time?> Jake asked. Ax has the ability to keep perfect track of time, even without a watch. It's a very useful talent.

<Twenty-eight of your minutes have passed since Cassie and Rachel entered morph.>

<You know, Ax, they're your minutes now, too.> Marco said, just to make conversation.

Good point there.

quote:

We had two hours total in any morph. At two hours and one minute, we would be stuck. Like Tobias. And this was one time I actually agreed with Marco. I was not interested in being a roach forever.

<Stairs up ahead.> Cassie reported.

Over, down. Over, down. Over, down. Seventy-five steps.

At last we sensed that the walls were no longer hemming us in. The path had emerged into the cavern itself.

Our roach "eyes" could not see it, but I remembered the first time I had looked down on the Yeerk pool.

It was a vast underground cavern. Larger than one of those big sports domes. The stairways and paths emerged from all sides, right about where the upper tier of seats would have been in a sports dome.

In the center of the area was the pool itself, a sludgy, muddy-looking lake that seemed to see the with the mass of Yeerk slugs in it. But that was not the worst of it. Two piers were built out over the lake. One was where the Controllers - human, Hork-Bajir, Taxxon, and other species - disgorged the Yeerks from their heads. Hork-Bajir guards would watch carefully as each Controller knelt at the far end of the pier and held his head down close to the surface of the lake. The Yeerk slug would then slither out of the host's ear and drop with a flat splash into the lake.

That's when you would discover whether the Controller was a "voluntary" host, or someone who had been taken against his will. See, the voluntary hosts - the ones who had chosen to turn themselves over to the Yeerks - would stand up and calmly walk away. The involuntary hosts would realize that they were temporarily free of the evil alien in their heads. That they once more had control over their own minds and bodies. Some would scream. Some would cry. Many would beg to be released.

A few would try to escape. But the Hork-Bajir were there to grab them and haul them to cages. That's where they would await the moment when they would be taken to the second pier. The second pier was the place where Yeerks, now strong from their swim in the pool and full of the nutrition of Kandrona rays, would slither back inside their hosts.

When I had nightmares about the Yeerk pool . . . and I had those nightmares a lot ... it would always be about that second pier. The voluntary hosts would kneel and receive the Yeerks back into their brains.

The involuntaries would struggle. They would fight. Curse. Some would dare the Hork-Bajir to kill them. We were on a ramp again. No one had said anything for a while as we still raced lower and lower, deeper and deeper, closer and closer. That memory was in all of our minds.

All except Ax, who had not been there.

 Ax said. 

<No. You don't.> I told him.

Here we see again Ax's relative inexperience. It's his first Yeerk pool, and he's a roach, so he's missing out on the horror that they all experienced.

quote:

We were at the end of the ramp. We reached the flat floor of the cavern.

<Okay, now what?> Cassie wondered. <We've used up at least three-quarters of an hour. >

<Forty-one of your minutes.> Ax said.

<Okay.> Jake said.

<You guys remember there were buildings all around the edge of the cavern, set back from the Yeerk pool? Most are probably storage. Some may be generators and air purifiers. But some may be offices, control rooms, or even hold the Kandrona itself. We need to check out some of those buildings. >

<Well, that's what bugs do best.> Marco joked.

 I said. <How are we going to even find these buildings? I can't see more than a couple of feet in front of me. >

<Don't need to.> Cassie said. <We can smell. They have humans down here. I don't know about Hork-Bajir and Taxxons, but if there are humans down here, they must eat somewhere. And I swear I smell french fries. >

She was right. I don't know if they were fries, but my roach brain definitely detected food.

<Go for the fries!> Jake said with a laugh. We barreled away across the dusty ground. Just ahead, a wall loomed. It was easy enough to find a crack. A roach can slide through a crack no thicker than a quarter.

We emerged into brilliant light and an assault of sounds and smells.

<So. Where do you think we are?> Marco asked.

<This looks like linoleum under us.> I said. <Dirty linoleum. I feel a lot of vibrations - lots of feet, I'm guessing. And voices. Too many for me to make sense of them. >

 Ax confirmed.

<Humans don't smell.> I said, only half-joking.

<Oh, humans smell.> Ax argued. <It's not a bad smell. Sort of like an animal we have back on my planet called a flaar.>

There you go. So, "You smell like a flaar" isn't an insult.

quote:

<So we have french fries and humans.> Marco said. <Are you telling me we have reached the Yeerk pool McDonald's?>

<If it's some kind of lunchroom or something, it would be a good place to listen in on conversations,> Cassie said. <Maybe we can get closer. Crawl up under a table. We should be able to - >

Suddenly a shadow fell over us. Something huge was overhead, blocking out the harsh fluorescent light.

<Now, that. . . that is not a human smell.> Ax said.

 I said. <It's familiar. I don't like it. Something . . . I've smelled it before . ., it's ... I can't get my
human memory and my roach senses together. It smells like . . .>

<Taxxon!> Cassie said suddenly. <Look. That tree-looking thing up there. I think it's a Taxxon leg!>

<Oh, gross. I hate those things.> I said.

<LOOK OUT!>

Hurtling down from the fluorescent sky at incredible speed came something like a bright red whip.

I powered my six legs in instant response.

It was too fast!

The red whip slapped the ground all around me. It fell over me like an awful, wet quilt. Some thing like glue oozed around me, seeping under my shell, gumming up my legs.

<Nooo!> I screamed.

<I'm trapped!> Marco cried.

I was lifted up off the ground. My back was glued to the red whip, and I was hurtling through space. I caught a wild glimpse of the others, stuck to the red whip just like me.

<What's happening?!> Cassie cried.

<It's the Taxxon.> Ax said. 

We were stuck to the frog-like tongue of the Taxxon, as the evil creature slurped his tongue back down his throat.

Well, that's the series, everyone. I mean, I didn't expect it to end this way with our heroes eaten by a Taxxon, but, you know, the series is full of surprises. So, if you have any other nostalgic kids' series you want me to read, post your suggestions. Maybe there's something you....oh, wait, sorry, there's more to the book.

The Stranger-Chapter 10

quote:

Jake yelled. In an instant, without warning, death had come for us. I was glued down, helpless, as the Taxxon's red tongue sucked back into its mouth.

And then . . .

And then . . . everything, everywhere, stopped.

The sticky red whip of the Taxxon's tongue stopped moving.
But it was more than that. Nothing was vibrating against my antennae. There were no sounds. There were no smells, because the air itself had stopped moving. Then, without meaning to, I began to demorph.

<What's going on?> I asked.

<I'm demorphing.> Cassie said. <But it wasn't me doing it. >

<Are we dead? Is this some kind of hallucination?> I asked.

<If it is, I'm having it, too.> Jake said.

I swiftly grew larger and larger. My center pair of cockroach legs dwindled and disappeared. My lower legs swelled and grew skin.

I fell from the Taxxon's tongue to the ground, too large and heavy to be stuck any longer.

Toes appeared. Fingers appeared. My true human eyes opened.

I looked around, dazed and disoriented. The others were all there. We were all human again, barefoot and dressed in our skin-tight morphing outfits, like we always were when we came out of a morph.

Ax was back in his Andalite body, just adding to the general weirdness of the scene.

We were inside a building. As we had guessed, it was a lunchroom. There was a kitchen to one side.
There were a dozen long tables down the middle of the room.

People sat at the tables, eating. Only . . . they weren't eating. They were holding forks. They were looking down at plates of food. They were getting ready to speak. They were holding mugs of coffee.

But no one was moving.

No one was breathing.

The steam rising from the mugs of coffee was frozen and still as a photograph.

"Okay. I'm ready to wake up now," Marco said. "This dream is getting weird."

"Look," I said. "Hork-Bajir."

Two Hork-Bajir were standing by the door. I had never seen one standing still before. Even frozen in place they were frightening - seven feet of knife-edged arms, legs, head, and tail.

Salad Shooters on legs, as Marco said. Walking razor blades.

And then there was the Taxxon. The one who had been about to eat us. It was a monstrously big centipede, as big around as a concrete sewer pipe. It had a round, red mouth at the very top of its worm body. The long, red whip of a tongue stuck out and hung in the air.

"I have an idea," Marco said. "Even if this is a dream . . . let's get OUT of here!"

"Definitely," I agreed.

"MOVE!" Jake said loudly.

We ran for the door of the lunchroom. Out into the vast, intimidating openness of the cavern. Outside, the same freeze had occurred. The surface of the Yeerk pool was still. The humans and Hork-Bajir who were involuntary hosts were frozen in their cages, screaming and cryingand shouting without a sound or a movement.

On the infestation pier, a woman was bent low over the water, held down by a Hork-Bajir. A Yeerk was halfway into her ear. She was crying. Her tears were motionless on her cheeks.

Then I saw something moving. One single thing in all that eerie stillness.

A boy. He was tall, a little gangly. He had hair that looked as if it had never been combed.

"Oh ..."

I whispered. "Oh . . . look! It's Tobias!"

The others all turned to see.

Tobias shrugged his human shoulders. He held up his hands to stare at his own fingers. "It is me." he said, sounding like he doubted it. "My old body. Here."

I ran to him. I don't really know why, I just did. I wanted to touch him. To know he was real.

"Ah! Ah! Ah!" he yelled. He jumped back and suddenly threw his arms up and down.

He was flapping, trying to get away. Trying to fly. I had scared him by rushing at him.

"Sorry," he whispered, terribly embarrassed. "Sorry."

I put my arms around him and hugged him tightly.

"Tobias, what's going on?" I asked him.

"I don't know," he said. "I was flying . . . then suddenly, I was here. Like this."

So, this is odd.

quote:

<Time has stopped.> Ax said. <For everyone but us. I can feel it. >

"Something is very, very wrong," Cassie said darkly.

"Is this some trick of Visser Three's?"

<This is not Yeerk technology, I can tell you that.> Ax said. <This is far beyond them; Far beyond us Andalites, as well.>

WHAT? HUMILITY? FROM AN ANDALITE?

"Yaaahhh!" Marco screamed.

The voice came from everywhere at once. And from nowhere. It wasn't a voice, not really. It wasn't even thought-speak. It was like an idea that simply popped into your head. The words exploded like bursting balloons inside your own thoughts. I spun around, looking for the source, ready to fight if necessary.

NO, RACHEL. THERE IS NO THREAT.

"It knows your name!" Tobias hissed.

I glanced at Ax. He had gone rigid. He wasn't frozen like all the world around us, he was afraid. He was shaking.

AXIMILI.-ESGARROUTH-ISTHILL HAS BEGUN TO GUESS WHAT I AM.

<Ellimist!> Ax said.

DO NOT BE AFRAID. I WILL APPEAR IN A PHYSICAL FORM YOU CAN UNDERSTAND.

The air directly in front of me ... no, not in front, behind. Beside. Around. I can't explain it. The air just opened up. As if there were a door in nothingness. As if air were solid and ... it is just impossible to explain. The air opened. He appeared.

He was humanoid. Two arms, two legs, a head where a human head would be. His skin was glowing blue, as if he were a lightbulb that had been painted over so that light still shone from him.

He seemed like an old man, but with a force of energy that was definitely not frail. His hair was long and white. His ears were swept up into points. His eyes were black holes that seemed to be full of stars.

"I am an Ellimist," he said, speaking with an actual voice, "as your Andalite friend guessed."

Ax was shaking so badly he looked like he might fall down.

"Be at peace, Andalite," the Ellimist said. "Look at your human friends. They do not fear me."

<They don't know what you are.> Ax managed to say.

The Ellimist smiled. "Neither do you. All you know are the fairy stories your people tell to children."

"Well, how about if someone tells us who and what you are?" I said. I was not in the best mood ever. It was extremely bizarre and unnerving to be surrounded by human-Controllers, Hork-Bajir, and Taxxons, in the very heart of the enemy's stronghold. They were all frozen,but that could change.

To be honest, I was scared. And when I'm scared, I get mad.

Very Rachel.

quote:

]The Ellimist looked at me. "You cannot begin to understand what I am."

<They are all-powerful.> Ax said simply. <They can cross a million light-years in a single instant. They can make entire worlds
disappear. They can stop time itself. >

"This one doesn't look all that powerful," Marco said skeptically.

<Don't be a fool.> Ax snapped. <That's not his body. He has no body. He is ... everywhere at once. Inside your head. Inside this planet. Inside the fabric of space and time. >

"So why are you here?" Jake asked the Ellimist. "Why all of this? Why did you bring Tobias here?"

"Obviously, you saw right through our morphs," Marco said. "You knew who we were. You even know our names. You brought us all here together. Why?"

"Because you must decide," the Ellimist said.

"Decide what?" I demanded.

"The fate of your race," the Ellimist said. "The fate of the human race."

That's all?" Marco asked. "Just the fate of the human race? Don't you have something more challenging for us?"

But the Ellimist wasn't paying attention to Marco. "We do not interfere in the private affairs of other beings," he said. "But when they are in danger of becoming extinct, we step in to save a few members. We love life. All life, but especially sentient life forms, like Homo sapiens. Your species. This is a very beautiful planet. A priceless work of art."

"You've obviously never seen our school," Marco said, still giddily trying to joke.

Suddenly, without warning, the Ellimist did it again. He opened space.

We were no longer standing in the Yeerk pool. We were no longer underground at all. We were underwater. Deep underwater. But the water did not seem to touch my skin. And when I breathed, there was air. Still, I felt fear tingle the back of my neck.

We stood - me, Cassie, Jake, Marco, Ax, and Tobias . . . Tobias, in his own human body - in the middle of an ocean. Suspended in the water, but dry. The Ellimist could no longer be seen. We were floating above a coral reef. And everything was moving again.

All around us, fish swam by in swift-darting schools. Fish in every color and shape, reflecting the dappled sunlight from above. Sharks prowled. Stingrays seemed to fly. Squid pulsated. Crabs scuttled across fabulous extrusions of coral. Tuna as big as sheep drifted past. Swift,
grinning dolphins raced by in pursuit of their next meal.

LOVELY.

The Ellimist's voice once more seemed to grow from deep within my own heart.

LOVELY.

And then, as quickly as we had been plunged into the ocean, we were drifting above the waving golden grass of the African savannah. A pride of lions lazed in the sun below us, looking sleepily content. Wildebeest and gazelles and impalas grazed, then broke into wild, springing, bouncing races that forced you to smile at the sheer energy of it all.

There were hyenas, rhinos, elephants, giraffes, cheetahs, baboons, zebras. Hawks and eagles and buzzards wheeled overhead.

LOOK AT IT.

Then, in an instant, deep jungle. A lithe jaguar prowled while monkeys chattered in the tree canopy above. Snakes as long as a person slithered across tree branches. The air reeked of the heavy perfume of a million flowers. We heard the sounds of frogs, insects, monkeys, and
wild, screaming birds.

IN ALL THE UNIVERSE, NO GREATER BEAUTY. IN A THOUSAND, THOUSAND WORLDS, NO GREATER ART THAN THIS.

Then the Ellimist showed us the human race. We flew, invisible, through the steel-and-glass canyons of New York City.

We drifted above villages at the edges of jungle rivers. We watched a rock concert in Rio de Janeiro, and a political meeting in Seoul, and a soccer game in Durban, and an open-air market in the Philippines.

HUMANS. CRUDE. PRIMITIVE. BUT CAPABLE OF UNDERSTANDING.

Suddenly, all the movement stopped. We were staring at a picture. A painting. I'd seen the painting somewhere before.

It was a wild swirl of color. A painting of purple flowers. Irises, I think, although I'm no big expert on flowers. The artist had seen the beauty of those flowers and captured some small bit of it on canvas.

CAPABLE OF UNDERSTANDING.

Then, without warning, we were back in the Yeerk pool. The images were all gone. We were in the land of despair once again. Surrounded by frozen images of horror. The Ellimist - or at least the body he had made for us to look at - reappeared.

"That was a nice tour," I said. I was trying to sound tough. But I felt as if I had been turned inside out. As if my mind had exploded into a thousand sparkling pieces. I was overwhelmed. "But what's it all about?"

"Humans are an endangered species. Soon you will disappear."

I thought of a couple things to say. But I said nothing.

No one said anything.

"The Yeerk race is also sentient," the Ellimist said. "And they are technologically more advanced than you. They will continue to infest the human race. The Andalites will try to stop them, but they will fail. The Yeerks will win. And soon, the only humans left will be what you call human-Controllers."

I had stopped breathing. The way he said it... it was like you couldn't argue. Like you couldn't say anything. He spoke every word with utter and complete certainty. He wasn't guessing. He knew.

He knew that we would lose.

So, in short, in today's chapters they're about to be eaten, they meet one of Ax's gods, and it turns out he's a nature-lover with a very skeptical view of our heroes' chances..

# ? Aug 5, 2020 00:20

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..."

space. wizard.

# ? Aug 5, 2020 01:21

feetnotes: Jan 29, 2008

Here they call him an Ellimist, as though there were many. Obviously there are in-story reasons why this might be - the likeliest being that Andalites just don't really know his true nature, or he once appeared in multiple bodies to them for reasons of his own. But, out-of-story, I wonder if the initial intention was for Ellimists to be a species with more than one member. Perhaps to contrast with Crayak, who we saw as a singular being last book? But the authors decided that it worked better thematically to have one Crayak vs. one Ellimist?

Pure idle speculation, but interesting to see, I had forgotten this!

# ? Aug 5, 2020 02:17

Gun Jam: Apr 11, 2015

...And here, we see our story engage in a regular, if uncommon behavior - the deus ex machina.

(I need to work on me nature doc impression, ain't I?)

# ? Aug 5, 2020 02:32

OctaviusBeaver: Apr 30, 2009; Say what now?

I think it could work even with the Ellimist chronicles stuff. He's a hive mind by the end of that, I could see him referring to himself as "we" since his original personality is just a small part of the total by that point. He's kind of a species with just one organism.

# ? Aug 5, 2020 02:34

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# ? May 25, 2024 17:01

disaster pastor: May 1, 2007

Given the events of the finale, it's somewhat ironic that Rachel is the one the Ellimist tells "you cannot begin to understand what I am." Wonder if that was planned.

# ? Aug 5, 2020 02:42

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

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