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

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Piell: Sep 3, 2006; Grey Worm's Ken doll-like groin throbbed with the anticipatory pleasure that only a slightly warm and moist piece of lemoncake could offer; Young Orc

rollick posted:

Maybe this is obvious to everyone, but I've forgotten: how old are they supposed to be at this point, and how much time has passed since book one?

Animorphs are 13ish at the start of the series, and probably not even a year has passed - the animorphs still aren't in high school yet (there's an explicit statement to that effect in a future book).

# ? Feb 4, 2021 18:53

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# ? May 24, 2024 18:57

HisMajestyBOB: Oct 21, 2010; College Slice

Jake comes across as being more on-edge here. Probably because of his experience in the last book: nearly losing Ax and Rachel and almost getting killed himself.

# ? Feb 4, 2021 19:36

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

Epicurius posted:

Time's kind of indeterminate, but say they're around high 13, low 14 by this point.

Marco says Ax has been on Earth for "months" though by my calculations (mild spoilers I guess?) it should be roughly a year, since there's 54 books in the main series, we're up to 17, and they're 13 at the start of the series and 16 at the end. Though I think Applegate just sort of retconned that in towards the end, I don't remember age ever being explicitly stated until then, just that Marco says they're "teenagers" and they were marketed as middle school books.

# ? Feb 5, 2021 00:17

Shwoo: Jul 21, 2011

QuickbreathFinisher posted:

I've always pronounced it yeerk, like year with a k, because that's how it's spelled.

feetnotes posted:

I’ve also always pronounced it like “year + k.” Because that’s how it’s spelled!

"Eer" doesn't look like it should be pronounced like "ear" to me, but I think that's an accent thing? In non-rhotic dialects of English, where r sounds aren't pronounced at the end of syllables, the ear vowel is usually more like ee-uh, but one syllable (IPA: ɪə̯ is a common one). But I understand it's literally ee + r in most rhotic dialects.

# ? Feb 5, 2021 06:52

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Animorphs-Book 17:The Underground-Chapter 7

quote:

Jake was right. It was crowded. We went from being three birds, each smaller than a chicken, to being three kids. We were jammed together, and it wasn�t pretty. Marco�s hand and fingers were just emerging from his feathers when his arm bones sprouted and forced the fingers into my eyes.

I twisted my head aside as well as I could. But my head was the size of a grapefruit, with my eyes still stuck on the sides and a beak jammed tight into the space between two boxes, so it was hard to move.

There was a pain in my back and I had this jolt of fear. Was I feeling the morphing itself? The Andalite morphing technology keeps that from happening, but was it failing somehow? The pain was pretty severe, like the pressure of a � well, of a knee being driven into my back.

<Jake, do you have your knee in -> But just then, thought-speak stopped working as we crossed the line from mostly seagull to mostly human.

In another few seconds we were packed together like sardines in a can. I literally could not move. We were one big mess of knees and elbows and twisted heads.

�This is ridiculous,� I muttered.

�Morph to cockroach,� Jake managed to whisper.

I�ve never been crazy about morphing bugs. But this was one case where I was relieved. For once I wanted to get small.

I focused my thoughts on the cockroach. And somehow - I have no idea how - that triggered the cockroach DNA in my system to begin reformulating all the cells in my body.

Of course, a cockroach is minuscule compared to a human being. So I was about to become half as big as my own thumb. According to Ax, all the excess mass gets pushed into Zero-space, where it sort of hangs like a big wad of guts and hair and stuff.

As I morphed the cockroach, as I became smaller and smaller and smaller, more and more of me was being deposited in some blank, white nonspace. It�s not something I like to think about.

In any case, the morphing itself was so disgusting, it distracted me from any such worries. See, although we were shrinking, we were all still pretty large when the cockroach features began to appear. The extra legs, for example. Two extra legs sprouted from my chest. They just poked out, like they belonged there. They came out looking like sticks a few inches long. But they just grew and grew and became hairy and articulated. It happened to all of us at almost the same instant.

SPLOOOT!

SPLOOOT!

SPLOOOT!

Unfortunately, we hadn�t shrunk to roach size yet. Morphing is never totally logical. Things happen in weird, unpredictable ways. The three of us were each about the size of cocker spaniels when the legs appeared. Followed by insanely long antennae that shot from our foreheads and waved around madly like sensitive bullwhips.

My regular legs were changing. My arms were changing. My face was changing, and that�s never good. But it�s even worse when you�re watching this mirror image of yourself. Marco�s smirky face was just six inches from mine when big bug eyes popped out and his lower face split into the creepy, grasping mouthparts of a cockroach.

I�ve morphed a bunch of times. It is still a freak show nightmare.

Very much body horror here.

quote:

The box was getting big beneath me. Now there was so much room I could no longer see Jake at all. Marco was a vague, low-slung shape off across a smooth, light brown cardboard plain.

I tried out my thought-speak. <You guys still there?>

<Yeah,> Jake replied. <Let�s take cover inside this box.>

I hadn�t really looked at the box to notice what was inside. But I could see an open seam that looked as if it was six feet wide. In reality it was probably an inch. But an inch to a roach is way more space than necessary. A roach can squeeze through a space no wider than the thickness of a nickel.

The final changes were taking place. The hard, fingernail material that made up my outer body replaced the last vestiges of human flesh. The tiny remaining shreds of my liver and heart and lungs all disappeared to be replaced by the utterly primitive organs of the cockroach.

My dim, blurry, distorted roach vision wasn�t great, but I was used to it and could more or less make sense out of things as long as they were close. And in addition, I had my antennae. They were tingling with information that seemed like some weird mix of touch and smell. I felt the air currents
around me. I felt the vibrations as the cook lifted a heavy load and trudged away. I sensed Marco and Jake, two fellow roaches, although their presence didn�t matter much to the roach brain.

But mostly, I smelled food.

Lots and lots of food. Very close by. Sweet. An overpowering smell-touch. Right beneath me.

I powered my six legs and went jerking forward.

ZOOM!

It�s gross being a roach, but being a running roach is amazing. Your face is about a millimeter from the ground. And you feel like you�re going two hundred miles an hour. It�s as if someone strapped rockets on your back and shot you off across the ground, with your nose practically skinning
on the dirt.

I zoomed over to the big seam in the box. Now I could see Marco and Jake fairly clearly. We were all standing next to the edge. We couldn�t see down inside and it looked like a big, rectangular well or something.

<What do you think is down there?> Marco wondered.

 I said. <But it�s some kind of food, and it smells sweet.>

Suddenly, vibrations. The men were coming back, and I felt a massive, jarring thud as they stuck the edge of the dolly beneath our stack of boxes.

<Let�s do it!> I yelled. I powered straight out into the darkness and fell through the perfumed air.

 Marco groaned. <Anytime Rachel says �let�s do it� in that insane, suicidal, rock-and-roll way of hers, disaster can�t be far away.>

These are always the type of chapters I never find much to talk about, especially given that we've already talked about morphing and stuff. Applegate knows where she needs to get her characters, and she needs to find a way to get them there, But a lot of times, I don't find these sorts of chapters, the "We needed to get to x so we turned into an animal and went to x" very interesting as chapters. Maybe you disagree. Do you like them, or do you find them to be filler?

Chapter 8

quote:

I fell!

Down and down and down. Probably at least three inches.

I hit bottom, only bottom wasn�t flat. It was curved and pitched. I grabbed with the tiny claws at the ends of my legs, but I slipped farther before I could latch on.

Jake and Marco dropped not far away.

I looked around as well as I could in the gloom. I was standing on something almost cylindrical, except that it was also curved. And pressed in right beside this curved cylinder was another, each maybe ten times my own body length. And wait! Others, all around. In addition to being cylindrical
and curved, now I could see that they tapered down to a blunt tip. Some of these curved things were gathered together at one end, like a bunch of �

<Bananas,> Marco said. <We�re in a crate of bananas.>

<Oh. That must be what we were smelling. The sweet smell,> Jake said. <Good. This should be easy. They�re moving us now. In a few seconds we�ll be inside.>

<Gross. Roaches on bananas,> I said, making conversation while we waited. <Maybe that�s why Cassie always washes her bananas before she peels them.>

<No,> Jake said. <It�s because of pesticides. You know, poisons.>

<Poison?> Marco said nervously. 

<It would just be trace amounts,> Jake said. <But I suppose they spray poison on the bananas down in wherever. Ecuador or wherever.>

<Ecuador? That just popped into your head? Ecuador?> Marco demanded. <Besides, Cassie�s probably wrong. What�s going to eat through banana skin? This skin is like foot-thick leather.>

 I said. <Haven�t you ever heard how sometimes there are tarantulas crawling around bananas? Happens all the time. They come up in the holds of ships and ->

<Excuse me? Tarantulas?> Marco squeaked.

<Oh, come on. What are the odds that there�s a tarantula in this particular crate of bananas?>

Unfortunately, right at that moment I got the answer. The crate was out of the truck and a bright beam of sunlight shone down through the opening in the box. A brilliant shaft illuminated the bananas.

It was a bizarre landscape. Curves everywhere. Like someone with a protractor had drawn an endless jumble of arcs.

It was about eight inches away. Sitting comfortably atop a bunch of bananas. It was, no exaggeration, as big as an elephant to me.

<Um, guys? Don�t anyone make any sudden movements, okay?>

<Oh, puh-leeze,> Marco said. <How lame do you think we are, Rachel? Now you�re going to pretend there�s a tarantula in here? So I�m supposed to go screaming around like a nitwit while you laugh yourself sick?>

<Marco. Jake. Just look behind you.>

I guess they looked.

<Aaaaahhhh!>

<Aaaaahhhh!>

They ran. The spider moved.

Roaches are fast. Tarantulas are faster.

I would have never believed something that big could move that fast. But I guess it had been a long, hungry boat ride up from Ecuador for the tarantula.

<Rachel! Where are you?> Jake yelled.

Eight hairy legs were a blur. All I could focus on was a huge, ripping beak like a hawk�s, and eight eerie eyes all in a cluster in that huge hairy face. It was after me!

I motored. I leaped as well as my roach legs could leap. In some tiny corner of my tiny roach brain I heard the cockroach instincts screaming, Fly! Fly!

I fluttered open the hard shell that covered my gossamer roach wings and I flew. I flew nowhere!

Maybe two inches! Roaches can�t fly worth a -

It was on me! Looming over me! The sunlight streamed down and then a shadow. Not the shadow of the spider, something bigger, farther away.
I was looking up at nostril! A pair of huge, hairy, human nostrils. And beyond them, weirdly bright human eyes.

I tried to run, but the spider reared up, flailing its front legs like a frightened horse. It jammed one of those legs down so fast I didn�t see it move. A claw grabbed my left middle leg. I fought and twisted, but there was no escape.

Huge fangs were descending on me.

Then, �Oh! Oh! Aaaarrrggghh! A spider!�

Everything went nuts. The bananas went flying. We were falling, me and the tarantula, which still refused to let me go. Monstrous bananas, each as big as a piece of concrete sewer pipe, fell toward us. But the spider and I were falling, too.

WHAM!

Bananas all over me. Brilliant sunlight everywhere!

In panic, the cook had knocked the pile of boxes off his dolly. The banana crate had smashed down onto the floor just inside the loading dock.

�What are you doing with my bananas?� the truck driver yelled. Then, �Oh, jeez! Kill it!�

I�d been battered and beaten by falling bananas, but that spider still had me. And now, in addition to the sheer, screaming panic I felt, the roach brain was adding the terror of sudden, bright light.

Run! the roach brain yammered.

Run! my brain agreed.

�Stomp it!� someone yelled in a voice that vibrated down through my body.

A huge, slow-moving shadow came down and down and down.

SQUISH! A banana exploded under the impact of the giant shoe. It gushed banana goo, sweet and sticky, all over us.

And still that tarantula held me. Eight huge, expressionless black eyes glared down. The gnashing, hungry beak strained for the chance to rip me open.

<Is that one of you?> Tobias cried from far away.

Thanks be to a million years of evolution that has given the hawk its magnificent eyes. Oh, yes, oh, yes, love those eyes.

<It�s me!> I yelled.

I didn�t see Tobias come falling from the sky. All I saw was a blur of big, craggy talons snatch the spider up, up and away.

I kept my grip on a banana. My leg was ripped away by the spider, which flatly refused to let go.

It hurt in a sort of vague, distant kind of way. But roaches are pretty tough.

<Let�s move!> Jake said. <Head toward the shade. That should be the inside of the building.>

We moved out. I moved a little more slowly, and with a tendency to drift toward the side with the missing leg.

And from high above I heard Tobias say, <Hmmm. Not bad. Not bad at all.>

So, if you're a roach, tarantualas are dangerous and you're right to be terrified of them. If you're a human, though....

Tarantulas have worse reputations than they deserve. They're big and they're hairy. A lot of people think they're deadly, but they aren't to humans...tarantula poison is generally pretty weak, and weaker than most spiders. The biggest danger with them is actually their hair, which can cause a rash. They make popular pets.

# ? Feb 5, 2021 06:56

rollick: Mar 20, 2009

Piell posted:

Animorphs are 13ish at the start of the series, and probably not even a year has passed - the animorphs still aren't in high school yet (there's an explicit statement to that effect in a future book).

Epicurius posted:

Time's kind of indeterminate, but say they're around high 13, low 14 by this point.

Thanks people :cheers:

# ? Feb 5, 2021 14:23

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

Shwoo posted:

"Eer" doesn't look like it should be pronounced like "ear" to me, but I think that's an accent thing? In non-rhotic dialects of English, where r sounds aren't pronounced at the end of syllables, the ear vowel is usually more like ee-uh, but one syllable (IPA: ɪə̯ is a common one). But I understand it's literally ee + r in most rhotic dialects.

Yeah, I can see how a Brit or someone else with a non-rhotic dialect might arrive at a different pronunciation, for sure. That said I feel like I have anecdotally heard a lot of Americans that arrived at the "Yurk" pronunciation despite having the -ear sound manifest as ee+r. Plus the target demographic being preteens, it's likely a lot don't fully have the pronunciation of whatever syllables on lock yet, especially if there's no similar sounding word or rhyme. Makes sense that there would be a variation, it's just interesting to me that as an American I've pretty much only ever heard others saying "Yurk." Interesting linguistics things always happen when a book with nonsense alien words gets wide appeal.

This discussion of rhotocity makes me wonder - were these books as popular in the UK or other English speaking countries? I know they were translated into a ton of different languages as well, I wonder where they were the most popular outside the US.

I still like the morphing chapters because I'm such a sucker for the body horror. There is some great stuff in books 20-22 ( when David arrives) that is just :gonk:

# ? Feb 5, 2021 21:24

cptn_dr: Sep 7, 2011; Seven for beauty that blossoms and dies

QuickbreathFinisher posted:

This discussion of rhotocity makes me wonder - were these books as popular in the UK or other English speaking countries? I know they were translated into a ton of different languages as well, I wonder where they were the most popular outside the US.

They were definitely pretty popular in New Zealand, though we did have the Scholastic Book Fair Industrial Complex rolling them out at most primary and intermediate schools throughout the 90s. But both my school and local libraries had them, and they were pretty well-represented in bookshops too.

# ? Feb 5, 2021 21:30

Shwoo: Jul 21, 2011

Animorphs was pretty popular in Australia. I think the release schedule was only a few months behind the US, and we got the TV show on free-to-air. The books were everywhere from what I remember.

Epicurius posted:

These are always the type of chapters I never find much to talk about, especially given that we've already talked about morphing and stuff. Applegate knows where she needs to get her characters, and she needs to find a way to get them there, But a lot of times, I don't find these sorts of chapters, the "We needed to get to x so we turned into an animal and went to x" very interesting as chapters. Maybe you disagree. Do you like them, or do you find them to be filler?

I like them. I remember reading that the idea for people turning into animals came before the idea for the alien invasion, so it makes sense that there's so many of these scenes.

Ecuador is the world's biggest exporter of bananas, and I have to wonder if Jake knew that off the top of his head.

# ? Feb 6, 2021 01:51

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Animorphs-Book 17:The Underground-Chapter 9

quote:

<See, this is what happens whenever Rachel starts in with her �let�s do it� attitude,> Marco complained as we scurried across a filthy floor. <We end up being eaten by spiders or something.>

<Hey, I don�t see where you suffered, Marco,> I said. <I�m the one who can only count to five on her legs.>

<Stick close to the base of the wall,> Jake said. 

We were a little shaky, obviously.

<You think Tobias actually ate that spider?> Marco asked.

<With banana relish,> I said.

We laughed a nervous kind of laugh and continued zooming along the rubber baseboard in the facility�s kitchen. Then, an opening in the wall and we were in. I was grateful to be out of the harsh light. And away from so many shoes.

<I�ve spotted the guy.> It was Cassie�s thought-speak voice. I was puzzled. <What are you doing?>

<Ax and I morphed to harrier and osprey. We�ve been looking in the windows, trying to spot Mr. Edelman. I have him. Second floor. Above the kitchen, then maybe twenty feet along the building. He�s in a room with three other patients. They�re wearing hospital gowns and slippers. They�re watching TV.>

<It�s the show called Gilligan�s Island,> Ax added helpfully.

<Now, how does Ax know about Gilligan�s Island?> Marco wondered. No one answered him.

I mean, Ax is stranded on a desert island, or sort of.

quote:

<Okay, straight up,> Jake said.

The inside of the wall was a natural home to cockroaches. In fact, I noted several scattered areas of roach poop.

It�s the kind of thing a roach brain notices.

The inside of the wall was otherwise a pretty clean place. I was standing on a wide expanse of wood. The grain was like ripples under my roach feet. A nail head protruded in front of me and looked about as tall as a tall woman. To my left and right were the backsides of sheetrock - featureless, blank, gray.

We tried our feet out on the Sheetrock. They tended to slip. So we scuttled down to an upright beam and climbed the wood instead.

Eight feet straight up, and it was weirdly like flying. I felt the �ground� recede way, way below me. Dozens of times my own height. I knew I wouldn�t be hurt if I fell. But still, hanging sideways, crawling straight up against gravity, seemed dangerous.

We reached the top of the beam and I was grateful to haul myself up and over into a space between the upright and a cross beam. We were just beneath the floor. But now things were complicated. The space between the second floor and the ceiling beneath it was mostly blocked by a wall of wood. But eventually we found a way in, walking sideways and scraping between roughsawed wood-ends.

My antennae waved wildly, trying to comprehend the long, square tunnel before me. It was almost pitch-dark. Only a tiny hint of light filtered down from the floor above. And after the run-in with the spider, I was very jumpy. Who knew what might be in that vast, dark space?

<That light must be from some kind of crack,> Jake said. 

 Marco said. <We get out of here, go back to the mall, and see how many Cinnabons Ax can eat before he explodes.>

<Oh, come on, you babies,> I said, trying to sound braver than I felt. <Let�s go.> I scuttled forward. I was walking on Sheetrock that formed the ceiling below. The wooden walls on either side of me were insanely tall - ten, twenty times my height.

But we soon reached the light. I felt better. My roach brain felt worse. Across our path lay a huge tube. It seemed to be metal and looked as big as a felled redwood. From the large tube, two smaller tubes went straight up toward a brighter light.

<Plumbing,> Jake remarked.

Sudden movement in the darkness!

<Aaahhh!> I yelled, but even as I was yelling, I realized what it was.

<A brother roach,> Marco said. <Or sister.>

<Come on, let�s get this over with,> I said. I scampered straight up the nearest vertical pipe. And within seconds I was poking my bullwhip antennae out into the light beneath a sink.

<It�s a bathroom,> I reported. <Come on.>

We piled out through the hole, and down onto cold, white ceramic tile.

<Are we in the right place?> Marco wondered.

 I said. <We need to have Cassie or one of the guys confirm where we are. There�s a window up there.>

I took off, scurrying across the tile, up the wall and onto the wire mesh of the window. I could see light, of course, but could not see through the glass.

<Hey, Cassie, Ax, Tobias. Do you see a roach sitting on a window?>

Ax answered. <Yes. I see you. You are in a small room just alongside the room where the human named Edelman is.>

<Thanks.> I rejoined the others. <So. Now what?>

<Now we talk to Mr. Edelman,> Jake said. <We need to get him to come in here. We�ll have some privacy in here.>

<And then what, he talks to a cockroach?>

<No. One of us needs to demorph and talk to him,> Jake said.

<Wait a minute,> Marco objected. <Isn�t he going to think it�s a little weird, some kid appearing magically in his bathroom?>

<It�s a facility for people with mental illnesses, Marco,> Jake pointed out. <Who�s going to believe him?>

<I�ll do the talking,> I said. <Mr. Edelman is my responsibility. I rescued him. And I�m starting to think I�m sorry I did. You guys stay out of the way. I�d hate to accidentally step on you.>

I began to demorph.

The squares of ceramic tile grew rapidly smaller. I shot up and up, like Jack�s magic bean sprout or something.

I was about two feet tall, with skin like burnt sugar, monstrously long antennae sprouting from my forehead, human eyes, semihuman legs that bristled with dagger-sharp hairs, blond hair, and a wide, throbbing yellowish-brown abdomen, when the bathroom door opened.

A man shuffled in, wearing slippers. He headed for the toilet. He hesitated. Slowly, very slowly, he turned.

My human mouth was just appearing. My lips grew from melted roach mouthparts.

�Hi. Could you get George Edelman for me?�

The man nodded. �Sure.� He started to go. Then he turned back. �Are you real?�

�Nah. Just a figment of your imagination.�

�Ah. I�ll get George.�

He took it well.

Chapter 10

quote:

I was human by the time Mr. Edelman poked his head cautiously into the room.

�Hi,� I said cheerfully. I stuck out my hand. �I�m � I�m helping your lawyer with your court case.�

He was startled. Who wouldn�t be? He swept his eyes around the room as though maybe, just maybe, there was something weird about meeting me in a bathroom. He didn�t notice the two cockroaches huddled together under the sink.

�Who are you? What are you doing here?� Then he looked down. �You�re not wearing shoes.�

�Yes, I apologize for my slightly �� I was looking for a sophisticated word like �unconventional,� but I couldn�t think of it. � � my slightly weird appearance here.�

�Yes. Weird.� He glared at me for a while, uncertain what to make of my utterly bizarre appearance in his bathroom. Then he shook my outstretched hand. �I guess I�m not one to be talking about �weird.��

�Would you like to have a seat?� I said, indicating the toilet.

�No. Thanks.� Again the look that said, �Wait a minute, I may be nuts, but there�s something strange about this.� Then he said, �You�re awfully young.�

�Thank you,� I said. �Actually I�m twenty-five, but I work out, I eat the right foods, and I always wear sunscreen. Mr. Edelman,� I said bluntly, before he could ask me any more questions, �why did you try to kill yourself?�

He sat down on the edge of the tub. I leaned against the sink and tried to look like a very youthful twenty-five-year-old with no shoes. Mr. Edelman looked at me with confused, but kind, gray eyes. He made an effort to smooth his rumpled hair.

And he said, �I had no choice. It�s this thing in my head.�

I nodded. �Okay. Yes. What thing in your head?�

�The Yeerk.� He made a weak smile, like he was expecting me to laugh and denounce him as a lunatic.

My heart beat faster and I missed a breath. I sucked in a lungful and kept my expression fixed.

�What exactly is a Yeerk, sir?�

He hesitated again. He was tired of telling stories no one believed. Maybe he was on prescription drugs. They do that in psychiatric hospitals. He was probably loaded up on tranquilizers or something. All of a sudden, I felt sorry for him.

�Mr. Edelman, I promise you I won�t laugh. And I won�t make you take any pills. And I won�t say you�re crazy. Can you tell me what you mean when you say �Yeerk�?�

He nodded. �Yes. Yeerks are parasitic aliens. They enter the brain through the ear canal. They take over every function of your conscious mind. They ��
Suddenly he went into a spasm. It wracked his body. He jerked wildly, wrapped his arms tight together, and tried to control it. His mouth snapped open and shut like some mad ventriloquist�s dummy.

I grabbed him by the shoulders, trying to do something to help. But then he started raving. He was speaking in a strange, manic voice.

�I l l what? Farum yeft kalash sip! Sip! Sip! The pool! Gahala sulp AAAAHHH! Help! Coranch! Coranch!�

Suddenly, he fell silent and almost collapsed. I propped him back up.

�Are you okay?�

�No,� he whispered. �It happens sometimes. It�s the Yeerk. You see, he�s mad. Insane. He�s in my head and he won�t get out. But he is insane! Insane!�

�Okay, okay, try and chill, okay, Mr. Edelman?�

�Yes. Yes.�

�Look, I can�t stay much longer. But you have to tell me: How is the Yeerk staying alive without Kandrona rays? You�ve been in here for more than three days.�

I cannot possibly describe the way he looked at me then. Hope. Dread. Amazement. All three. I grabbed him again by the shoulders. �I know it�s weird, but you have to trust me. How does it happen? Why is the Yeerk insane? How does it survive without the Kandrona?�

�Andalite?� Mr. Edelman whispered wonderingly.

�Yes,� I lied. �Andalite.�

�It�s the food,� he said, gushing the information. �The food! During the famine after � after you Andalites destroyed the one Kandrona, we found out, they found out that a certain food could help them get by. For a while. But there were problems with it - AAHHH! Yeft, hiyiyarg felorka! Ghafrash fit Visser!�

Mr. Edelman jerked and slavered and yelled for a few minutes and I waited and worried that someone might come. Some attendant or doctor or something. But no one did.

I wished I could help the man. I had spent enough time close to Controllers of various types - human, Hork-Bajir, and Taxxon - to guess that some of what he was saying was in the basic Yeerk language. And other words were Hork-Bajir. Yeerks seem to adopt some of the language of their hosts. The Yeerk who was in Edelman�s head must have been a Hork-Bajir-Controller at one point.

Mr. Edelman calmed down and got control of himself again. �Sorry. The Yeerk breaks through sometimes. What you hear is the raving of a crazy Yeerk.�

�It�s okay,� I said. �What�s this food? The food that allows Yeerks to survive without the Kandrona?�

�They discovered it quite by accident. No one guessed what it could do. No one realized it would prove addictive. But it did. Terribly addictive. And over time, the continued ingestion of it began to eliminate the Yeerks� need for Kandrona rays. At the same time, it drove them crazy. You see, it seems to literally replace some of a Yeerk�s brain stem.�

I nodded. I could barely contain my excitement.

A food that could destroy Yeerks! �What is the food, Mr. Edelman?�

�Oatmeal,� he said. �But only the instant kind. And then, only the maple and ginger flavor.� He shook his head. �Yeerks cannot resist the addiction, once exposed. And they slowly, but surely, drive themselves mad. There are dozens of men and women like me. In places like this. On the streets. Or worse.�

�Thanks for telling me,� I said. �Um � Listen, is there anything I can do for you?�

He shook his head a little sadly. �The Yeerks will leave me alone. After all, who is going to believe a madman? I � I am sorry I tried to destroy myself. It all just got to be too much. This � this alien lunatic in my head. My family wanting to keep me locked up in here.�

�Isn�t there some way to get the Yeerk out of your head?�

�No. No. He will live as long as I do.�

I�ve never seen sadder eyes. I hope I never see eyes that sad again. I looked away.

�I just wish � the times when I am myself, when I am in control, I wish I didn�t have to spend them in here.�

He looked out through the dirty bathroom window with its heavy wire mesh.

So, on the one hand, this is kind of silly....instant oatmeal driving the Yeerks insane. But, on the other, George Edelman is, himself, perfectly sane and is trapped in a mental institution he doesn't want to be in and probably doesn't belong in. As silly as the premise is, Edelman is a tragic figure, and the story is a tragic one.

# ? Feb 6, 2021 04:22

Ravenfood: Nov 4, 2011

Wait, eating oatmeal permanently makes Yeerks not need Kandrona rays? It's not some kind of substitute? Weird.

# ? Feb 6, 2021 04:33

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Ravenfood posted:

Wait, eating oatmeal permanently makes Yeerks not need Kandrona rays? It's not some kind of substitute? Weird.

Instant Maple and Ginger Oatmeal. And yes, but its also addictive and makes them insane.

# ? Feb 6, 2021 04:40

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

Hey kids, interstellar biochemistry is weird! What may be rare and exotic on your planet may be dirt common on another!

That's the lesson I took from this, anyway.

# ? Feb 6, 2021 13:57

Bobulus: Jan 28, 2007

Perhaps we could compare it to radioactive iodine and the human thyroid gland. (Note: i am not a doctor and am basically talking out of my rear end) The thyroid is responsible for making three iodine-containing hormones, which are important for growth and development and a variety of body functions. Iodine deficiency is harmful enough that extra iodine is added to table salt to supplement the average consumer's intake.

So you've got iodine, a trace mineral that we can't live without. However, there's also radioactive iodine, an isotope than can be produced during nuclear fission. Because the thyroid concentrates iodine in one place in the neck, exposure to radioactive iodine leads to a concentrated area of radiation, leading to cancer or death. (You may have seen those Chernobl documentaries, where potassium iodine supplements are given to workers, the theory being that by pre-saturating the thyroid with regular iodine, it won't absorb as much radioactive iodine and the workers have a better chance of living.)

So much like radioactive iodine vs radioactive iodine, yeerk consumption of instant oatmeal in the short term prevents a nutritional deficiency, but has long-term health problems.

Bobulus fucked around with this message at 14:50 on Feb 6, 2021

# ? Feb 6, 2021 14:47

MrNemo: Aug 26, 2010; "I just love beeting off"

What I don't get on that is Yeerks require regular exposure to Kandrona but the oatmeal essentially gives them that 'nutrition'permanently at the expense of driving then insane and giving them an addiction to it? Like, they die without Kandrona but just suffer horrendously without the oatmeal?

That seems weird but I can kind of understand why Applegate would write it that way so they didn't just get an amazing chemical weapon with little practical downside (even if a terrible moral cost).

# ? Feb 6, 2021 16:01

disaster pastor: May 1, 2007

It's a drug addiction/dependency analogy, with enough of a tweak to both make the plot work and make Scholastic willing to print it.

Remember that guy in college who got big into cocaine, and he became a very different person who made a lot of bad choices, but he sure saved money on meals? That's these Yeerks.

# ? Feb 6, 2021 17:59

dungeon cousin: Nov 26, 2012; woop woop
loop loop

I had completely forgotten that the oatmeal lets the Yeerks survive without Kandrona. I only remembered that it made them go crazy.

It's extremely terrifying that the Yeerk never has to leave its host. Add to that that there's probably no way to coerce it to leave. It really makes the situation feel hopeless.

# ? Feb 6, 2021 21:27

wizzardstaff: Apr 6, 2018; Zorch! Splat! Pow!

I can think of one way to coerce a Yeerk to leave: threaten the host with imminent lethal danger. But in order for that to work, the host has to truly believe they're going to die. They can't be in on it at all, so the "rescuer" has to present a credible threat and the rescued host is certainly walking away with some PTSD.

Just one of those normal teenage things everyone does, like studying for a math test or trying out for the team.

# ? Feb 6, 2021 21:43

Terror Sweat: Mar 15, 2009

wizzardstaff posted:

I can think of one way to coerce a Yeerk to leave: threaten the host with imminent lethal danger. But in order for that to work, the host has to truly believe they're going to die. They can't be in on it at all, so the "rescuer" has to present a credible threat and the rescued host is certainly walking away with some PTSD.

Just one of those normal teenage things everyone does, like studying for a math test or trying out for the team.

The man jumped out of a window and the yeerk didn't leave, it's staying in there

# ? Feb 7, 2021 00:32

HisMajestyBOB: Oct 21, 2010; College Slice

Would a Yeerk show up on a brain scan? Could you remove a Yeerk using brain surgery?

# ? Feb 7, 2021 01:04

sleep with the vicious: Apr 2, 2010

Couldn't they tie the guy to a chair for 3 days like they did to Jake?

# ? Feb 7, 2021 01:11

Ravenfood: Nov 4, 2011

sleep with the vicious posted:

Couldn't they tie the guy to a chair for 3 days like they did to Jake?

Nah, that's why I was so surprised that the specific oatmeal thing makes the Yeerk permanently not need Kandrona. That Yeerk is now immune to Kandrona starvation apparently. Also is insane, fortunately for everyone else.

# ? Feb 7, 2021 01:29

Acebuckeye13: Nov 2, 2010; Ultra Carp

It's interesting how the trope "aliens get hosed up by laughable substance on earth" manifests in different series�like in Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series, where it turns out that the aliens invading during World War II (Yes, really) end up susceptible to ginger as a hardcore narcotic, or in War of the Worlds where the aliens all die from the common cold.

# ? Feb 7, 2021 02:50

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

The horror of having this thing permanently stuck inside your head - sometimes seizing control, and presumably ranting and raving unintelligibly at you all day long - didn't really strike me when I read this as a kid, but boy it sure sounds horrific now.

HisMajestyBOB posted:

Would a Yeerk show up on a brain scan? Could you remove a Yeerk using brain surgery?

Can't remember if it's really come up yet but (not really much of a spoiler)at some point we learn that when the Yeerk goes in it fully stretches out and envelops every wrinkle of the brain, like wrapping it in glad-wrap or something. So I imagine that would be way too delicate an operation for human-tech-level brain surgery.

# ? Feb 7, 2021 03:13

Acebuckeye13: Nov 2, 2010; Ultra Carp

Just in the last book, it was all-but outright stated that humans don't survive the process not-Bill Gates used to extract the Yeerks from their brains, and if anyone would know how to get a Yeerk out of someone's body, it'd be him. Granted, he clearly didn't value the hosts' lives so there may have been some other method he wasn't using, but to the best of my knowledge no other way of getting a Yeerk out of someone's head is discovered throughout the series.

# ? Feb 7, 2021 03:20

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Terror Sweat posted:

The man jumped out of a window and the yeerk didn't leave, it's staying in there

Right. The problem is, the Yeerk isn't rational anymore. It doesn't know if its host is in mortal danger. Its completely divorced from reality.

# ? Feb 7, 2021 03:52

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

Acebuckeye13 posted:

Just in the last book, it was all-but outright stated that humans don't survive the process not-Bill Gates used to extract the Yeerks from their brains, and if anyone would know how to get a Yeerk out of someone's body, it'd be him. Granted, he clearly didn't value the hosts' lives so there may have been some other method he wasn't using, but to the best of my knowledge no other way of getting a Yeerk out of someone's head is discovered throughout the series.

not human hosts, at least

# ? Feb 7, 2021 03:55

Piell: Sep 3, 2006; Grey Worm's Ken doll-like groin throbbed with the anticipatory pleasure that only a slightly warm and moist piece of lemoncake could offer; Young Orc

Acebuckeye13 posted:

Just in the last book, it was all-but outright stated that humans don't survive the process not-Bill Gates used to extract the Yeerks from their brains, and if anyone would know how to get a Yeerk out of someone's body, it'd be him. Granted, he clearly didn't value the hosts' lives so there may have been some other method he wasn't using, but to the best of my knowledge no other way of getting a Yeerk out of someone's head is discovered throughout the series.

There was the Varnax from Book 2, which isn't clear if it kills the host or not.

Epicurius posted:

Where the Andalite head had been, there was now a long, thick tube. There was an opening like some horrible mouth at the end of the tube. The thing was purple, but translucent. You could almost see through it, although I wasn't sure if that was because it was a hologram, or if the animal itself was that way.

The hologram Visser lowered the tube-mouth toward Chapman's head. The mouth opened, revealing hundreds, maybe thousands, of tiny suck ers, each dripping slime.

It seemed as if the tube mouth closed over Chapman's head.

Chapman shook and quivered in terror.

Visser Three's artificial voice said, "Don't forget, Iniss two two six, I gave you this Chapman body. I placed you in his head because I trusted you. I fed you his brain and made you my lieutenant. But I can suck you back out again if you fail me. Would you like to see what happened to the last fool who failed me?"

Suddenly an image appeared in the air, like a little movie. It was a second hologram. It showed a human woman, pain-wracked, screaming, with the purple creature sucking on her head.

The real Chapman began to moan. "Oh, oh, no, Visser. I beg you."

In the little movie the translucent purple thing suddenly went into a spasm. From the woman's ear there came the slug . It was sucked, dripping, gray, slimy, right out of her head.

The purple creature swallowed the Yeerk slug.

Then the little movie ended.
"Not a very pretty picture, is it, Iniss two two six?"

Chapman just shook his head. His eyes were still staring at the empty air where the image had appeared.

Visser Three began to resume the Andalite form.

"Don't fail me," Visser Three said.

Suddenly Visser Three vanished. The room was dark again. Chapman sat hunched over the desk, with his head in his hands. It was a while before he opened the door and we both went back up the stairs.

Ms. Chapman was there, waiting. "What are the Visser's orders?" she asked in a whisper.

Chapman looked at her like he'd just seen a ghost. "He wants the Andalite bandits. He ... he morphed into a Vanarx. A Yeerkbane."

He kept his voice low, too. He glanced toward the stairs. I guess he was checking to see if Melissa was around.

Ms. Chapman shuddered. "I'd heard that he acquired a Vanarx. I always thought it was just another story to frighten his underlings."

"He showed me ... he showed how he de stroyed Iniss one seven four."

Ms. Chapman looked shocked. "He used a Vanarx on an Iniss of the second century?"

"That Andalite-Controlling scum," Chapman said viciously. "I wish the Council of Thirteen would find out what kind of a mess he's making on this planet. Let them take that Andalite body from him and throw him back in some distant pool on the home world."

"Don't wish for that," Ms. Chapman said grimly. "Long before Visser Three loses power, he will surely have destroyed you for failing him."

# ? Feb 7, 2021 05:16

dungeon cousin: Nov 26, 2012; woop woop
loop loop

Acebuckeye13 posted:

Just in the last book, it was all-but outright stated that humans don't survive the process not-Bill Gates used to extract the Yeerks from their brains, and if anyone would know how to get a Yeerk out of someone's body, it'd be him. Granted, he clearly didn't value the hosts' lives so there may have been some other method he wasn't using, but to the best of my knowledge no other way of getting a Yeerk out of someone's head is discovered throughout the series.

Yeah with Fenestre it really depends on if he would even care about letting the host live and go free. The easiest method for him probably would have been to quickly kill the host and then take the defenseless Yeerk. No struggle and no chance for the other Yeerks to discover what he's doing.

dungeon cousin fucked around with this message at 05:43 on Feb 7, 2021

# ? Feb 7, 2021 05:37

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Apologies, I had too much instant maple ginger Oatmeal for dinner and went to bed early. Expect the next update tomorrow

# ? Feb 7, 2021 05:52

ANOTHER SCORCHER: Aug 12, 2018

I�m really having a tough time imagining the evolutionary pressures that would lead a predatory creature to evolve to specifically suck the parasite out of a host while not simultaneously consuming the helpless host.

# ? Feb 7, 2021 06:54

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

Epicurius posted:

Apologies, I had too much instant maple ginger Oatmeal for dinner and went to bed early. Expect the next update tomorrow

If you really want to commit to the bit, the next update should just be nothing but incoherent screamposting.

# ? Feb 7, 2021 08:55

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

ANOTHER SCORCHER posted:

I�m really having a tough time imagining the evolutionary pressures that would lead a predatory creature to evolve to specifically suck the parasite out of a host while not simultaneously consuming the helpless host.

Well, you know, you don't want to destroy the harvester

# ? Feb 7, 2021 11:26

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

nine-gear crow posted:

If you really want to commit to the bit, the next update should just be nothing but incoherent screamposting.

Honestly, I was going to do it. I really was. But I didn't want to go two days without posting content if I could help it.

Animorphs-Book 17:The Underground-Chapter 11

quote:

�We have our ultimate weapon,� Marco reported to the others when we were all safely assembled back in Cassie�s barn. �Maple and ginger oatmeal.�

�Instant maple and ginger oatmeal,� I corrected.

�Instant,� Marco agreed.

Cassie, Ax, and Tobias all just stared. Tobias was his hawk self, and he can really stare. Ax was in his own Andalite body, and he could stare with four eyes at once.

�Oatmeal,� Cassie said.

�Oatmeal,� Jake confirmed. �But only the instant maple and ginger. I guess they don�t know why.�

<Maybe it�s the maple,> Tobias suggested.

�Maybe it�s the ginger. Or maybe it�s the �instant.� Whatever that is,� I said. �Who cares? Suddenly we have a weapon to use on human-Controllers. A human-Controller who eats this stuff gets hooked and the Yeerk in his head goes nuts. What we have to do is find some way to get a lot of this stuff into a lot of Controllers.�

I took a sidelong glance at Cassie. Something told me she was not going to approve of this. But Cassie was bending over a cage, poking her fingers through the wire to check a bandage on an injured badger.

To my surprise, it was Tobias who said, <You know, something about this doesn�t feel totally okay. You know?>

Marco, who had been lounging on a bale of hay, jumped up. �What? What? We have green kryptonite here! We have something that can make Yeerks go nuts. Why is that not a good thing?�

<It sounds to me like they get addicted to it. Like a drug,> Tobias said. I winced.

�It�s oatmeal, okay? Not anything illegal.�

<A drug is in the eye of the beholder,> Tobias argued. <If you get addicted to the illegal stuff and it messes you up, that�s a drug to you. If you get addicted to oatmeal and it messes you up ->

�It�s still just oatmeal,� I said. �Oatmeal is oatmeal. Jeez! I can�t believe we�re having this conversation.�

�Look,� Marco said, �the bigger question here is WHO CARES?! They�re Yeerks. They�re the enemy. They attacked us, not the other way around.�

<What about the hosts? The humans?> Ax asked. <The Yeerks are made invulnerable to their normal hunger for Kandrona rays. They can live inside their human hosts forever, even if the oatmeal is later taken away. These hosts would lose all hope.>

�If we lose this war we�re all going to be without hope,� I said. �Ax, I can�t believe you, of all people, would even hesitate.�

Ax swiveled his stalk eyes toward me. <We Andalites have been at war longer than you. We understand the temptation to sink to the level of your enemy.>

�Sink to the level of -� I started to yell.

Ax cut me off. <We also know that you can�t win if you are not prepared to be a little ruthless. It�s a question of balance. How far into savagery do you go to defeat the savage?>

I mean, that's the fundamental question, isn't it? And something we've talked about in this thread before.

quote:

I looked around the barn. Marco and I had drawn closer, almost unconsciously. Tobias was up in the rafters, using his hawk senses to listen and look for anyone approaching the barn. Ax was shifting on his four legs and stretching his scorpionlike tail.

Jake and Cassie were the only ones not to say much. Jake looked troubled. He was staring, but not at anything real. I could guess his thoughts. His brother, Tom, is a Controller.

But it was Cassie who surprised me. Usually she�s the one getting all moral.

�Cassie?� I asked. �What do you think?�

She hesitated. Like she just wanted to keep tending to the badger. She sighed and stood up. When she turned around, I was shocked. She had a stricken look.

�I � I don�t know anymore, okay?� she said.

I was confused for a moment. Then it hit me. We�d had a bad run-in with a human-Controller whose Yeerk was Visser Three�s twin brother. This Yeerk had found another way around the Kandrona. He cannibalized fellow Yeerks. Sometimes human hosts got in the way.

In the heat of the moment, hearing that evil creature speak, Cassie had demanded his destruction. She�d asked Jake to do it. Jake had refused.

I don�t know why, but it frightened me to think of Cassie not knowing what was right and wrong. Or at least thinking she didn�t know. Cassie was my best friend. I counted on her to balance me. She was supposed to be sensible when I was reckless. She was supposed to be moral when I was ruthless.
But things had gotten more and more confused for all of us, I guess.

�Look,� I said, �okay, maybe this oatmeal is a drug to the Yeerks. But you know what? This is a war. Sooner or later, if we are successful, if the Andalites send help, if the human race rises up, we�re going to try and destroy every Yeerk on planet Earth. Right? That�s our goal. This isn�t like some normal war where you hope you can make peace and compromise. We can�t compromise. The Yeerks are parasites. How do we compromise? Let them have a few million humans as hosts?�

<They will never compromise, anyway,> Ax said. <They must be forced back to their own home world.>

<So we try and feed them addictive drugs,> Tobias said with obvious distaste.

�It�s OAT-freaking-MEAL!� Marco exploded.

Cassie suddenly laughed. It was a cynical laugh. I didn�t know she was capable of a cynical laugh. �And all the rights and wrongs, and all the lines between good and evil, just go wafting and waving and swirling around, don�t they?�

Jake shook off his funk and stepped to the center of our little group.

�I have to ask myself: If it were Tom, and it may be Tom in the end, would I do this to him? On the one hand, life as a slave of a Yeerk. No free will at all. On the other hand, as we saw with Mr. Edelman, some free will, some ability to communicate, but with this insane Yeerk in your brain.�

<So?> Tobias asked him. <What�s your answer?>

Jake shrugged. �In the Civil War, they were ending slavery. Most of the Southern soldiers who were killed weren�t slave owners. They were just guys trying to be brave. Maybe they could have worked out a compromise. Maybe they could have ended the war earlier if the North had agreed to leave some people as slaves. But would that have been right? No. So the war had to go on till everyone was free.�

<Or dead,> Tobias added grimly. <But okay, that�s a pretty good example. You�re right. I hate it, but you�re right. We have to win.>

I laughed without any humor at all. I�m pretty gung ho. Unlike Cassie, unlike Tobias perhaps, I�m ruthless at times. But even I have enough sense to know the words �we have to win� are the first four steps on the road to hell.

And I noticed that Jake never answered himself about his brother. Would Tom be getting the magic oatmeal slipped into his breakfast?

Not a chance. Jake still hoped to rescue Tom someday. And from what Edelman had said, there was no rescue from an oatmeal-altered Yeerk.

�Where do we find a bunch of human-Controllers sitting down to eat?� Marco wondered.

I sighed. �The Yeerk pool, Marco. The Yeerk pool.�

So this is a pretty lighthearted book about oatmeal, huh? I mean, oatmeal is wacky!

Chapter 12

quote:

The Yeerk pool. I dreamed about it that night.

I didn�t used to dream much. Or at least, I seldom recalled my dreams. I dream a lot now.

Terrible dreams where I�m trapped in some hideous shape, half-human, half-insect. I dream about that awful battle in the ant tunnels. I dream about the screaming, slashing massacre when we took the Kandrona at the top of the EGS Tower.

But I dream most about the Yeerk pool. I hear the screams and curses of human hosts held in cages while their Yeerks swim in the leaden water of the pool. I hate that sound. I hate the sound of despair. It makes me mad. In my dream I�m mad at those poor people and I want to yell, �Why don�t you fight? Why don�t you fight?�

But then it�s me. It�s me being led out onto that steel pier by a pair of Hork-Bajir warriors. It�s me kicking and screaming and begging, �Please, please, someone help me!� Knowing there is no help.

Knowing I am doomed, and feeling the despair, and hating that feeling inside of me.

I feel the Hork-Bajir kick my legs from under me. And I�m facedown on the steel pier. And they shove me forward till my face is just an inch above the gray sludge of the Yeerk pool.

It seethes and boils with the swift movements of the Yeerk slugs.

And then my head goes down. Down into the liquid. And the Yeerk that will own me is there. I see him, a gray slug, a vague, indistinct shape in the liquid.

I struggle, but what can I do against two Hork-Bajir? I struggle, but my head is held there as I scream bubbles.

The Yeerk touches my ear. Like a large snail. That�s how it feels. Then the pain � it forces its way into my ear! It�s inside my ear! The pain is incredible, but so much worse is simply knowing it has me.

It surges into my brain.

And I am yanked, gasping, up from the pool.

I try to grab my ear. But my arm no longer works. I try to yell. But my mouth is not mine anymore.

So I scream, in some dark, lonely corner of my own brain, I scream.

And the Yeerk chuckles as it opens my memories and reads my life. And I give way to the despair.

When I woke up I had soaked the pillow with my sweat. I stared at the clock. Three-twenty seven. A.M.

The Yeerk pool. We were going back to the Yeerk pool. And I, Rachel, mighty Xena, fearless, pulled the covers up over my head and shook.

At dawn I got up and put on a robe. It was cloudy out, so the dawn was just gray. But I went to my window and opened it, just as I do every morning.

Tobias arrived, almost silent. He swept inside and landed easily on my dresser.

<How you doing?> he asked.

�Fine,� I whispered. �How about you?�

I have to whisper when Tobias comes over. My sisters are right in the next room. I keep my door locked.

 Tobias said. <A lucky hunt.>

I went to my desk and opened my book. It was my homework. �Can you stand math?�

<I�ve gotten so I kind of like math,> Tobias said. <It�s something that�s the same for all humans or whatever.>
I opened my book.

I guess it was a weird scene. Me, with this big red-tailed hawk perched on the edge of my desk. Sitting there in the glow of a single lamp, while the rest of my family still slept. But we did it lots of mornings. Whenever Tobias managed to find an early breakfast and it wasn�t raining.

<You worried about going back to the Yeerk pool?>

I laughed nonchalantly. �If I�m ever not worried about going to the Yeerk pool, you can lock me up with Mr. Edelman.�

<Yeah. Look, I�m going with you guys this time. What morph do you think we�ll use?>

I sighed. �You don�t have to do this, you know.�

<Yes I do. What morph?>

�I don�t know. Probably fly or cockroach. Do you have an entrance for us?�

Part of what Tobias did with his long days, while the rest of us were in school, was monitor the movements of known Controllers. He kept track of the ever-shifting entrances to the Yeerk pool. It was fairly easy for him.

<Yeah, I have an entrance,> he said. If he�d had a mouth, he would have grinned. <You guys are going to love this one.>

I gave him a sidelong look. �If it leads to the Yeerk pool, I don�t think I�ll ever love it.�

These kids are too young for all this. I'm too young for all this.

# ? Feb 8, 2021 03:44

Piell: Sep 3, 2006; Grey Worm's Ken doll-like groin throbbed with the anticipatory pleasure that only a slightly warm and moist piece of lemoncake could offer; Young Orc

I know it's a lot right now but I'm sure everyone will be happy soon.

# ? Feb 8, 2021 04:32

wizzardstaff: Apr 6, 2018; Zorch! Splat! Pow!

Epicurius posted:

So this is a pretty lighthearted book about oatmeal, huh? I mean, oatmeal is wacky!

I didn't make it this far in the series when I was younger but I blitzed through the books a couple summers ago when I rediscovered them. Reading one or more a day on my phone, skimming through text while a toddler played nearby in the sunny back yard.

Apparently those conditions make for lousy reading comprehension, even as an adult. My first posts in this thread are pretty much what you quoted there, because I mostly remember this book as a wacky oatmeal adventure with Visser Three shaking his fist and shouting "I'll get you bandits!" like a Scooby Doo villain.

So I'm glad to be going through them again at a more reasonable pace. More sticks out, and the moral conflicts seem much less flat.

# ? Feb 8, 2021 04:51

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

Weird to me that the ethical dilemma, as they seem to see it, is whether it's OK to try to send a bunch of Yeerks insane rather than whether it's OK to make them permanently stuck inside innocent humans' heads. (At least, that seemed to be the objection Tobias was making.)

Also wouldn't the natural thing to do - and I'll spoiler this, actually, because I barely remember this book at all but maybe this is what they end up doing - be to find some way to get oatmeal directly into the pool, directly to Yeerks, rather than via their host bodies?

# ? Feb 8, 2021 04:55

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

That dream :stare:

# ? Feb 8, 2021 06:01

Ytlaya: Nov 13, 2005

freebooter posted:

Weird to me that the ethical dilemma, as they seem to see it, is whether it's OK to try to send a bunch of Yeerks insane rather than whether it's OK to make them permanently stuck inside innocent humans' heads. (At least, that seemed to be the objection Tobias was making.)

Also wouldn't the natural thing to do - and I'll spoiler this, actually, because I barely remember this book at all but maybe this is what they end up doing - be to find some way to get oatmeal directly into the pool, directly to Yeerks, rather than via their host bodies?

I think that this aspect is a bit less of an ethical dilemma because the alternative if they don't win the war (and this is only being proposed because they feel it's necessary to do so) is "Yeerks are still inside their head, but they have zero freedom, as opposed to the sort of mix of freedom and insane episodes that the oatmeal causes." It's not really making things any worse for the humans unless the alternate is a full victory (and they wouldn't be doing this in the first place if they knew how to achieve that alternative).

What they're doing to the Yeerks, on the other hand, is a sort of life-long torture. The situation is complicated a bit by the fact that the Yeerks themselves also mass torture their hosts, but it's definitely still a war crime they're proposing.

# ? Feb 8, 2021 08:26

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# ? May 24, 2024 18:57

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

Who war crimes the war crimers?

# ? Feb 8, 2021 08:42

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

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