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

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gourdcaptain: Nov 16, 2012

Okay, I don't remember this now so going to vote for "how is this possibly a good morph" the giraffe.

# ? Apr 14, 2023 07:19

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# ? May 23, 2024 08:31

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

Clearly giraffe is best suited for such a delicate situation

# ? Apr 14, 2023 10:36

OctaviusBeaver: Apr 30, 2009; Say what now?

Giraffe for sure

# ? Apr 14, 2023 13:55

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

I don't want to see the yeen or the giraffe get killed so I'm gonna say police dog.

# ? Apr 14, 2023 14:49

WrightOfWay: Jul 24, 2010

Obviously our height will intimidate the dogs so let's go giraffe.

# ? Apr 14, 2023 15:32

liquidypoo: Aug 23, 2006; Chew on that... you overgrown son of a bitch.

Worst decision time! Giraffe time, baby!

# ? Apr 14, 2023 17:15

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

GSD

# ? Apr 14, 2023 18:31

Malpais Legate: Oct 1, 2014

What could possibly go wrong with a giraffe on the loose?

# ? Apr 14, 2023 18:54

Rahonavis: Jan 11, 2012; "Clevuh gurrrl..."

Alternamorphs posted:

�Sorry to disappoint you,� you say, glad to feel that you have a mouth

Mouths. A thing ferrets do not have. :psyduck:

I like how You is acquiring every animal within reach. I never understood why the Animorphs didn�t collect animals just in case. It�s always, �Well this is a spy mission, I guess we have to acquire and turn into flies�. And I�d be, �Are you kidding? I�ve already got a bunch of small and/or inconspicuous morphs! I got a ladybug, a conifer bug, a paper wasp (ouch), a squirrel, a chipmunk, three species of tiny songbird, five medium sized ones, a pigeon, a mallard, a�� (goes on for several minutes as the gang stares in increasing horror)

But anyway, while I do hope we get to use our Giraffe and �Yeen, right now it is Dog time. :snoop:

# ? Apr 14, 2023 22:40

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

Rahonavis posted:

Mouths. A thing ferrets do not have.

I like how You is acquiring every animal within reach. I never understood why the Animorphs didn�t collect animals just in case. It�s always, �Well this is a spy mission, I guess we have to acquire and turn into flies�. And I�d be, �Are you kidding? I�ve already got a bunch of small and/or inconspicuous morphs! I got a ladybug, a conifer bug, a paper wasp (ouch), a squirrel, a chipmunk, three species of tiny songbird, five medium sized ones, a pigeon, a mallard, a�� (goes on for several minutes as the gang stares in increasing horror)

But anyway, while I do hope we get to use our Giraffe and �Yeen, right now it is Dog time.

Maybe it's a hold over from another draft where Fly was the correct morph choice? I dunno. Or maybe it's the author clumsily trying to say "thank god I have a human mouth again instead of a snout?"

# ? Apr 14, 2023 23:55

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

The morph tech in its infinite wisdom decided to fuse the mouth shut and remake the left nostril into the new mouth

# ? Apr 15, 2023 01:26

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

The First Journey � Chapter 11

quote:

The giraffe morph is the strangest ever. Your legs suddenly shoot up, your bones extending so far you think they�ll crack. Your neck lengthens, and you think your head will fall right off. Then your skin becomes leathery and spotted. That�s kind of cool.

You like being a giraffe. You can see over everyone�s heads. And boy, do your senses get a jolt.

Suddenly, you can really smell for the first time. It�s as though you can smell a color. You smell green, and you picture the tender leaves of the tree nearby. A good snack, you think. But it�s easy to deflect the giraffe mind. You�ve got to get out of here.

And boy, can you see. Your vision is clearer and sharper, and you spot an employee�s exit over the trees. All you have to do is turn right at the corner of the path and keep going. You move forward delicately, like a dancer.

�Hey! It�s a giraffe!� People point at you. Oops. You kind of forgot about them down there. They seem puny, and they aren�t predators. But you know that animal handlers will be coming for you with tranquilizer guns.

You quicken your pace. A giraffe can really move if it has to. But you see them, running full tilt toward you. Two of them have tranquilizer guns.

You leap over a wall. It�s so easy, since your legs are so long! You find yourself in a savannah habitat. That�s good. You start across, hoping to make it to the other wall. If you can get over it, the exit it just steps away.

Then, you hear a roar. You�ve leaped into the lion�s den. Both your giraffe instincts and a book you vaguely remembered called Those Amazing Animals of Africa suddenly remind you that lions are the main predators of giraffes.

A full-grown male lion springs.

Bad morph! You just turned into a tasty lunch. Return and choose again.

You fools. You imbeciles. You absolute boneheads! Good job, You is now dead, ripped to bloody giraffe pieces by a lion. Normally in the wild it�s actually female lions who do the hunting and killing for the pride, but male lions have been known to hunt and kill prey every so often, especially prey that literally wanders right into their path like You just did.

So this is our first taste of death for the Let�s Read/Let�s Play, and as we can see the unidentified author(s) of the Alternamorphs books doesn�t gently caress around with their death routes. There�s no false sense of security and then a death a few chapters later, it�s just BAM, done, dead all in the same chapter.

Give it another go and see if you can guess the right one this time. Our remaining choices are:

The hyena
A K-9 German shepherd
~~The giraffe~~

# ? Apr 15, 2023 06:56

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

sticking with bastard dog with a job

# ? Apr 15, 2023 14:39

Soonmot: Dec 19, 2002; Entrapta fucking loves robots; Grimey Drawer

Staying dog

# ? Apr 15, 2023 16:27

Malpais Legate: Oct 1, 2014

Oh darn, let's go with the ~~pig~~ I mean dog

# ? Apr 15, 2023 17:18

mind the walrus: Sep 22, 2006

Yeah give that dog a whirl

# ? Apr 16, 2023 02:16

Capfalcon: Apr 6, 2012; No Boots on the Ground,
Puny Mortals!

K9 class traitors will probably work.

# ? Apr 16, 2023 02:32

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

All dogs go to heaven except for the class traitors working for the cops, so You better hope they make it out alive.

# ? Apr 16, 2023 09:30

Star Man: Jun 1, 2008; There's a star maaaaaan
Over the rainbow

You all need to watch All Dogs Go to Heaven again.

Morph the dog.

# ? Apr 16, 2023 16:00

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

K-9s might be class traitors, but the dog was the right choice. You gets to live� another couple of hours, let�s see here.

Choosing the hyena is the other failure route. You can�t control the morph�s instincts in time and winds up nearly mauling a small girl to death in front of her parents an a crowd of horrified on-lookers and gets shot with a tranquilizer and are Nothlit�d by the time they finally come to. Not an actual death sentence this time, but still a Game Over ending nonetheless.

The First Journey � Chapter 10

quote:

You reach out and touch the K-9 dog Princie�s coat. The dog closes his eyes. You concentrate.

The police have their backs to you. It�s now or never. There�s that strange sensation again, of bones crunching, things growing that shouldn�t be growing. You touch your ears and feel fur. You suddenly drop down on all fours and notice that you have paws instead of hands and feet.

And the smell! You smell everything! Food! People! Animals! It�s overwhelming at first. The other dogs cock their heads and look at you curiously. The one called Princie smells you and howls.

After all, she�s smelling herself.

The two policemen look over.

�Hey, Seidel,� the taller one says. �Thought you only brought two dogs.�

�Must have loaded a third - hey! The kid is missing!�

They rush over. You stand alert, tail twitching, like the other dogs. You�re not just a dog. You�re a cop. You have discipline.

This is the �correct� morph for the book, yet there�s something inherently vile about morphing a cop, out of all possible morphs :barf:

quote:

It�s a good morph, you tell yourself. In a minute, they�ll give up on a harmless kid who stuck a toe in the wrong habitat. Big deal. It�s not like you�re a big bad criminal. They�ll load you into the van, take you back to the station, and you can take off from there.

�This isn�t good, Finley,� Seidel says.

�We�re supposed to be on alert,� Finley answers, frowning. �Especially for kids.�

Especially for kids?

�Wait, here�s a shoe.� One of them has spied your sneaker! �The dogs can track the kid.�

He holds the sneaker under your nose. Scent roars in. Your scent. The other dogs smell, then strain at the leashes.

�We�ll keep the one off-line, see what happens,� Finley says.

The two dogs take off, and you follow, your nose to the ground, then in the air. Incredible. You can smell yourself. You can follow the air currents, know where you walked and stopped.

The dogs follow your trail to the admission booth. They circle, and you do, too. Of course you know which way you went. You go in the opposite direction, but the other two take off down the sidewalk.

Darn!

You bound up behind them while the two cops hold the leashes. Why didn�t you walk on the sidewalk? That would have confused the scent. Instead, you had stuck to the grassy part near the curb.

The dog can smell your trail easily.

�They�ve picked it up,� Seidel says. He sounds relieved. More relieved than he should sound, since he�s only tracking a kid.

�Chapman says at least one of the kids infiltrated The Sharing meeting,� Finley says.

The policemen are Controllers!

And they�ll follow your scent straight to your house. To your family.

�I reported that kid who was hanging around the dunes,� Seidel answers. �The others are going to pick her up. It won�t be long before she�s one of us.�

Cassie. She was the one who�d hung out on the dunes, watching over Jake in his dog morph.
Cassie was in danger! You have to warn her. Warn the others.

The other dogs lose your scent. You almost lose it yourself. You�re in a more trafficked area of town now, near the Civic Center. Earlier, you had stopped at the center garage to leave a note on your mom�s car. You said you�d be late for dinner.

Even later than you�d thought.

You hurry past the garage, but the other dogs suddenly pick up your scent. They race into the garage.

The cops follow, running after them.

�This isn�t good!� Seidel says in a low voice. You pick up his words easily with your dog hearing.

�Visser Three won�t like it,� Finley says in a worried tone.

�So we won�t tell him.�

The dogs lose the scent amid the oil stains and gasoline. They circle around, confused. But any minute they could find your mom�s car. The note you left still might be tucked under the windshield wiper. It wouldn�t take the cops long to figure out who you are. This is your only chance. You leap forward, barking, as if you�ve picked up the scent. You charge out of the garage. The other dogs follow. You know that you can�t lead them completely astray, so you follow the route back to your neighborhood.
You run flat out now, so that the others have trouble keeping up with you. But you make sure they keep you in sight.

You get to the Ferret Lady�s house and bark furiously outside. You circle the house and find the pet door. You nose it open and bound inside.

The cops catch up and pound on the door. The Ferret Lady answers it. But already, you�ve caused a commotion. The ferrets are running crazily over the furniture. The cat is hissing and spitting.

The other dogs add to the chaos.

�What is it?� the Ferret Lady shouts over the din.

�We�re chasing a kid!� The cops try to describe you. �Sounds like every kid in this neighborhood,� the Ferret Lady sniffs. �I don�t care if Visser Three himself asks me, I�ll say the same.�

So far, so good. You�ve confused them. Under cover of the chaos, you sneak out the pet door again. You bound next door. You remember leaving a sweatshirt outside after gardening chores this morning.

You grab it in your mouth and race off.

You take that sweatshirt all over the neighborhood, rubbing it against trees and sidewalks and grass. Soon, you see the cops and the K-9 dogs again. The dogs are barking, running from place to place while the cops strain to hold on to the leashes.

You keep hidden and watch the cops get thoroughly confused. They give up, and you trot back home.

Time is almost up.

You morph back into human form in your garage. You hurry inside to call Cassie. But everyone has left already. If you rush to the school now, you could blow their cover.

There�s got to another way.

So again, the plot of The Invasion is just rocketing ahead while You is off, at very least, making sure their identity remains a secret from the Yeerks. The actual Animorphs, meanwhile, have decided to launch their (ill-fated) first strike on the Yeerk Pool beneath the school basically without You.

Again it�s stuff like this that�s why your player character never feels like a complete member of the team. Can you possibly imagine Jake giving the go ahead for a mission, even in the sloppy early days of the team figuring out what they were like as a team, with one member completely unaccounted for? You keeps blipping in and out of sight of the main cast so often I�m a little surprised they haven�t started to get suspicious that they might be a Yeerk infiltrator given how often they go dark, meanwhile Jake�s clearly like �Eh, gently caress �em, let�s go blow up Chapman�s house with an animal-based IED� or whatever the hell they were doing around the mid-point of any given early-series book.

I�m not complaining here, just doing some of my usual LP over analysis. It�s a bit that I do. Some people find it endearing. A lot of people don�t.

I�m doing this for your benefit, remember? You asked for this.

The First Journey � Chapter 12

quote:

It�s getting late, and you�re freaked. Cassie is in danger. Should you head over to school to try to hook up with the others? You can�t stay here while the other Animorphs put their lives on the line.

There�s a suspicion that�s been nagging at you. During the chase, the policemen looked very nervous at the parking garage. They muttered about Visser Three. What if something strange is going on there?

It�s only a little bit out of your way, so you decide to investigate the garage before heading to school. The garage is used during the day for city government workers. Right now, it�s pretty deserted except for a security guard. You duck behind a car and wait until he heads down the ramp toward the entrance.

You�re about to explore when you see the guard wave in a large black van with tinted windows.

Curious, you watch as the van heads up the ramp.

Instead of parking, the van pulls up directly in front of the elevators. A group of people get out.

You recognize Jake�s brother, Tom. Controllers!

Someone pushes a button to summon the elevator. You know you have to follow the group, but you can�t stay in human form. Tom would recognize you. You have to try a morph. But what should you choose?

You have to make a decision fast.

Okay, Decision Point #3. We have four acquired morphs between the ferret, giraffe, hyena and German shepherd, but only two viable options for sneaking into the school:

Use your ferret morph
Use your K-9 German shepherd morph

Shall we?

# ? Apr 18, 2023 01:11

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

it's giving ferret again

# ? Apr 18, 2023 03:31

someone awful.: Sep 7, 2007

paw patrol morph is too noticeable, let's go ferret

# ? Apr 18, 2023 03:47

Kazzah: Jul 15, 2011; Formerly known as
Krazyface; Hair Elf

A dog in the school might finally get Superintendant Chalmers to fire Chapman, but I don't think our character is 100% on him being a controller, so let's stealth it up with the Ferret again

# ? Apr 18, 2023 04:22

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

If you can be a German shepherd you should be a German shepherd :luca:

# ? Apr 18, 2023 05:06

liquidypoo: Aug 23, 2006; Chew on that... you overgrown son of a bitch.

Can't believe they'd rob us of the stealthiest option, the giraffe. I guess a cat snake will do fine. Ferret it is, then.

# ? Apr 18, 2023 18:31

Soonmot: Dec 19, 2002; Entrapta fucking loves robots; Grimey Drawer

Ferret seems stealthy enough, let's do it!

# ? Apr 19, 2023 03:14

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Ferret seems to work.

in other news, Everworld is up.

Everworld

Come meet our protagonists and stay to see our narrator beat up while you're exposed to topical Rodney King jokes!

# ? Apr 20, 2023 03:26

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

Ferret won with a (near) unanimous vote, and just as well because the German shepherd is the death choice this time around. You actually manages to make it down into the Yeerk pool and just kind of� watches the climax of The Invasion play out and then just sits there dumbfounded as Jake, Cassie, Marco, Rachel and Tobias book it out of there, their mission the same tremendous near-failure as it is in the book, and then Visser Three smokes You with his morph�s fire breath.

Part of me wants to think that this is the canon way this adventure plays out, given You�s general lack of actual contributions to the plot and tangible interactions with any of the characters we care about from the series so far. Also it�s kind of darkly funny to picture Jake not just having to process the fact that Tom has been re-infested by the Yeerks after almost getting away free with him, and that Tobias is now a Nothlit, but also that other genderly and descriptively ambiguous kid that got the morphing power from Elfangor with his other friends last Saturday night has completely disappeared since they all split up at The Gardens that afternoon.

Imagine that version of the series playing out, where Jake, Cassie, Marco, Rachel and Tobias have to deal with the nagging thought that there�s a sixth unaccounted for Animorph out there that they have NO idea whether they�re alive or dead and never will.

Jeez, and you thought this series was the stuff of nightmares before, right?

The First Journey � Chapter 13

quote:

You are concealed in a dark corner of the garage. You feel the ground rush up at you as your bones compress. Hair grows on your hands, on your face. Your nose twitches. Your body becomessleek, and the ferret mind urges you to play. There are so many things to investigate in the garage!

Wonderful smells, things to eat.

You wrench your ferret brain under control. Keeping to the wall, you get close to the group. The elevator dings, and the first group crowds on. You slink closer.

Do you dare risk boarding the elevator? The lights on the elevator are bright, and you�ll probably be noticed. Normally, humans would scream if they saw a furry creature in a small space with them. But you have a feeling Controllers wouldn�t care.

And besides, you have no choice.

You slink in between the legs of the Controllers and head for the corner. The doors close. �We have company,� one of the Controllers says. They all look down.

�It�s not a cat,� someone says.

�It�s not a dog,� someone else observes.

The Controller who seems to be in charge turns and gives you a dismissive glance. �Catch it. I�ll throw it down the shaft.�

Busted! You can�t react, or they�ll suspect something.

�Wait,� Tom says. �I�ve seen that animal. It�s a ferret. Belongs to Humphries. Maybe we shouldn�t touch it. Chapman said to take no chances.�

�All right.� The other Controller turns back, already bored with the conversation.

You�re safe - for now.

The elevator indicator lights up the sublevel floor. It�s as far down as the parking garage goes.

But the Controller hits a series of buttons, and the elevator doesn�t stop. It keeps going down!

The door opens onto a room that seems carved out of dirt and rock. Sheetrock is nailed up against the walls. You slink out of the elevator and follow the group into a concealed door that leads to an iron staircase.

You go down, down, down. Your eyes adjust to the light, and your nose picks up the smell of dampness. You hear something, a comforting sound that reassures you for a moment. Like waves against a shore.

But then you hear the screams. Human cries of anguish. Suffering. And you pick up a horrifying familiar smell. Taxxons.

You don�t want to see what�s ahead. You don�t want to move. Dread fills you. It�s so much more enormous than being afraid of a test, or the dentist.

You�ve only hesitated a moment, but the Controllers have disappeared around a turning. You dart forward.

The first thing you get hit with is how huge the space is. It�s maybe three times the size of the mall. And it�s all completely open, and carved out of rock and earth. There are still enormous pieces of earthmoving equipment down there, as though the space is constantly being expanded. You notice other staircases winding up and disappearing. There must be secret entrances all over town! The Yeerks are much more numerous than any of you imagined.

Then you notice the cages. They are filled with humans and Hork-Bajir. Women, children, men. Some of them are screaming. Some of them just sit numbly. Taxxons and Hork-Bajir patrol outside the cages. Occasionally, one of the Hork-Bajir lashes out with a tail blade and rattles the cage. The humans shrink back, and the Yeerk- controlled Hork-Bajir let out these huffing sounds that must be laughter.

As you watch, one of the Hork-Bajir opens a cage and leads out a woman. She struggles, and the Hork-Bajir casually holds a bladed wrist to her throat. You have no doubt he would slash her in a second. The Hork-Bajir leads her onto a pier. It goes out over a pool that looks as though it�s filled with moving sludge. He forces her head under the surface. When he jerks her head back up, you see a gray, slimy thing finish slithering inside her ear. The woman doesn�t struggle anymore.

And then you see Tom again. His head is bent over the pool. The same slimy thing slides out of his ear.

Immediately, he begins to scream. You can�t hear the words, but you can imagine. The Hork-Bajir puts a blade to his throat. It takes three of them to get him to a cage and throw him inside.

You feel sick. Sick to your bones. You can�t fight this. You should turn around and go back up while you can. Wait to fight another day.

Because it�s hopeless. You didn�t think it was possible. But you want to give up.

Then you see Cassie. She�s being held with the other humans. Waiting for a Yeerk slime to invade her brain. Guarding her are two Hork-Bajir and a Taxxon.

It�s still hopeless. But a rage fills you and sends your blood pounding, and you�re ready to fight.

It is kind of mildly fascinating, this book�s focus on and pre-occupation with Cassie. So far her and Marco are the only two characters that You has actually interacted with in a meaningful way. So it does make sense that You is particularly concerned for her safety and shows that they�ve grown closer to her, especially given this perilous situation they find her in.

The First Journey � Chapter 14

quote:

You scamper down the steps. No one notices you as you dart across the floor. You look like a mole, or another creature of the underground. A breeze tickles your fur and whiskers.

A breeze? Down here?

You look up. A hawk has just flown over your head. It circles the air above Cassie.

<Tobias? Is that you?>

<Who is it?>

<It�s me! I�m a ferret again!>

Again, I�m pretty sure Tobias has literally no idea who we are, nor does he probably give a poo poo considering he�s in the process of committing suicide-by-morph clock right now.

quote:

<Cool,> Tobias answers. <We need all the help we can get. The others are about twenty feet behind you. We have to save Cassie!>

<Keep an eye on her. I�ll be back.>

You scurry across the floor toward the others.

<Hey, it�s me!> you call in thought-speak. <Look down.>

Marco almost jumps to the ceiling. �Why did you have to pick a rat?� he whispers.

<I�m not a rat, I�m a ferret. I�m closer to a cat or dog than a rodent. I like humans. I don�t bit.>

�Great,� Marco mutters. �A rodent who pretends to be a dog. Just what we need.�

<You know, I can always make an exception with the biting thing,> you add.

Jake bends down to speak to you. �If I were you, I�d morph back to human. You might need a better morph than ferret. This place is crawling with Taxxons and Hork-Bajir.�

<Al right,> you say. <But Jake, I saw Tom! He�s here! In a cage!>

�I saw him,� Jake says tersely. His face tells you everything. You can�t imagine how awful it must be to see your brother like that.

You scurry behind a storage shed. Quickly, you morph back to human.

Rachel pokes her head around the shed. �You�d better stay here. You need to gather your strength if you�re going to morph again. We�ll come back when it�s time.�

You lean against the storage shed and close your eyes. You concentrate on slow breathing, gathering your strength for the next morph.

It�s not long before the others return. But they�ve been spotted.

�What are you doing back there?�

It�s a human-Controller! Standing next to him is a Hork-Bajir, blade arms at the ready. A Taxxon stands on the other side, his spidery legs twitching, red Jell-O eyes glowing.

Suddenly, you notice someone behind the guards. Rachel. Only it�s Rachel with a long, long nose. A trunk. She�s morphing into an elephant! A braying noise fills the air as Rachel feels the elephant�s power.

She impales a Hork-Bajir on one tusk and steps on a Taxxon as though it were a spider. The human-Controller runs away.

�Let�s morph!� Jake cries.

You look over at Cassie. She�s almost at the end of the pier. That gives you an extra burst of strength. You concentrate hard. You feel something grow out of the back of you. A tail. Your ears get round and your head gets big. Your teeth sharpen into deadly instruments of terror.

You�re a fierce, hungry, and very angry hyena. And you have no fear.

After getting blueballed on it once before, it�s finally time to free the Yeen. At long last, You actually gets to feel like a proper member of the team after also getting jerked around a bit to finally get here.

quote:

You start toward Cassie, but a Taxxon gets in your way. No problem. You rip into him with your teeth. He tries to bite you back, but you are such an efficient killing machine that he is dead before he registers the pain.

Marco is now Big Jim, a huge gorilla. Rachel is trumpeting a fierce call as she mows down another Hork-Bajir. In tiger morph, Jake springs at a Taxxon.

You own this place.

Marco tosses another Hork-Bajir in the air like a doll. The rest scatter. So they are afraid of something.

Marco is the only one with dexterity, so he heads for the cages to unlock them. Jake is already bounding toward Cassie. You start forward to help, but a Hork-Bajir heads for you. He swipes at you with an elbow blade.

You spring. You tear at his flesh, then jump away. You strike again, this time for the vulnerable fleshy part near his head. Wounded, you expect him to fall back. But instead, he springs forward, his elbow and wrist blades flashing. Rachel raises a foot and stomps.

<Thanks,> you tell her.

<Another puny Hork-Bajir bites the dust,> Rachel says. She sounds positively bloodthirsty.

Tobias swoops down and claws at the eyes of the Hork-Bajir who is holding Cassie. She breaks away and runs.

<Morph!> you yell along with Jake. <Now!>

Even as you watch, Cassie�s hair grows into a beautiful mane. It streams out behind her as her legs extend, and she goes down on all fours. It is amazing to see.

<I say we follow Cassie and get out of here,> Rachel says.

<I�m right behind you,> you say.

The people Marco have released are panicking, running toward the stairs. Hork-Bajir and Taxxons try to round them up. You slip through them, running hard.

Cassie and Jake leap over surprised Taxxons. You remember that Hork-Bajir aren�t great on strategy, so you fake left and then go right, sailing over a long pair of wrist blades that try to slash you at the last minute.

You gain the stairs. Balls of flame explode over your head. You leap over a Taxxon who is aiming a Dracon beam at you. Straight into the path of Visser Three in his Andalite form.

The horrid, evil voice fills your head. <Well, if it isn�t a bunch of renegade Andalites.>

He begins to morph into a creature tall as a building. Eight legs. Eight arms. And eight heads. You can feel that even the hyena inside you feels doubt. You can�t take on this creature.

<You can�t escape!> Visser Three cries.

�You filthy creep!� It�s Tom. Jake�s brother launches himself at Visser Three.

<NO!> Jake cries. He springs at the huge creature that is Visser Three, straight toward the eyes. He claws at the face. Visser Three howls in pain.

Fireballs explode. One almost gets Jake. Tom falls off the stairs.

<Jake, run!> Cassie cries urgently.

With a howl of anguish, Jake turns and heads up the stairs. Rachel begins to demorph as she climbs so she can fit in the stairway.

<You can�t run!> Visser Three cries.

Oh yes, you can. The stairway narrows. Visser Three hadn�t counted on your making it that far. In his huge morph, he can�t make it upstairs.

You run and you run. You break through the janitor�s door and back into school. You keep on running until you�re outside, in the safety of the trees. And then you all morph back.

You�re safe. For now.

You look at your friends and see the same exhaustion on their faces. Even Marco can�t come up with a joke. Cassie puts her hand over Jake�s. Rachel stares back at the school building, her eyes blazing.

Tobias flies closer and perches on her shoulder. You know that more terror lies ahead. You know that safety is now an illusion. You will never feel truly safe again.

Another child successfully traumatized for life. Well done, Animorphs! :buddy:

There is no decision point at the end of this set of chapters because we are officially at the halfway point of the book. The COYAs slam several books together in the form of mini-adventures, so this one covers #1 The Invasion and then rockets forward to cover #11 The Forgotten. So we have that to look forward too, I guess.

So now that we�re halfway done the first book, just what exactly are everyone�s thoughts on it in particular?

Epicurius posted:

Ferret seems to work.

in other news, Everworld is up.

Everworld

Come meet our protagonists and stay to see our narrator beat up while you're exposed to topical Rodney King jokes!

Also go check out Everworld, ya dinguses!

nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 03:43 on Apr 20, 2023

# ? Apr 20, 2023 03:37

Capfalcon: Apr 6, 2012; No Boots on the Ground,
Puny Mortals!

Outside of the sudden, no mercy deaths, the biggest problem is the character is a blank slate, so no one is allowed to have any real relationship with you. So, narratively, the simplest answer is to just shunt you into the Cop Zone while the rest of the story happens.

Outside of that, the fun of weird AUs is seeing how crazy things go, so having our self insert stuck outside the plot until the end where they are supposed to lose is underwhelming. Honestly, once everyone gets the ability to morph, there are only three important beats in the first book:

1. Figure out someone close to the team is already a Controller
2. Load up on powerful morphs
3. Pick a fight in the Pool and lose

So, honestly? Why don't you go hog wild? Let people get wild with it. Get some scenes with each character. Give us a name, man! Let us get into some bad decisions with morphs and try to get out of it!

# ? Apr 21, 2023 00:23

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

nine-gear crow posted:

Tobias flies closer and perches on her shoulder. You know that more terror lies ahead. You know that safety is now an illusion. You will never feel truly safe again.

Hey wait, I know this is probably just an oversight, but does Tobias not get nothlited in You timeline?

Also drat, I really love the yeen battle morph, wish it had gotten use in the main series.

# ? Apr 21, 2023 01:19

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

QuickbreathFinisher posted:

Hey wait, I know this is probably just an oversight, but does Tobias not get nothlited in You timeline?

Also drat, I really love the yeen battle morph, wish it had gotten use in the main series.

Yeah, the book just glides right over that. When we pick up things in the next half Tobias is permanently a hawk and Ax is just there with no introduction. It's an incredibly lazy book, all told.

# ? Apr 21, 2023 01:34

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

Ferret and hyena are pretty cool animals so I'm at least happy to see this book use morphs that weren't in the main series.

# ? Apr 21, 2023 04:34

Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

Capfalcon posted:

So, honestly? Why don't you go hog wild? Let people get wild with it. Get some scenes with each character.

Because it's a CYOA book with just over 100 pages, not interactive fiction with a 6 or 7-figure word count and the ability to have a decision point on every page.

# ? Apr 21, 2023 04:53

Capfalcon: Apr 6, 2012; No Boots on the Ground,
Puny Mortals!

Fuschia tude posted:

Because it's a CYOA book with just over 100 pages, not interactive fiction with a 6 or 7-figure word count and the ability to have a decision point on every page.

Sure, but you could make the whole book the first story and give more branching options instead.

# ? Apr 21, 2023 16:31

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

Back on our bullshit. It�s time for Part II of Alternamorphs #1 The First Journey.

The First Journey � Chapter 16

quote:

�Pizza for dinner?� your mom says.

�Awesome,� you say.

It�s a Saturday afternoon. You just returned from the mall. Sometimes, you just need an ordinary day. You�ve been on plenty of missions with the Animorphs. Your close calls have given you nightmares. You are living in a world with new rules. Sometimes, you think you�ll go crazy. Sometimes you want to go crazy. Living with stark terror every day will do that to you.

So whenever you can, you try to do something normal. As much as morphing into an osprey might be fun, it isn�t normal. Not by a long shot.

So when you called Jake that morning to ask if anything was up, he just sighed. �I say we take a day off from saving the world,� he said.

The smell of green peppers fills the kitchen. You watch your mom chop. She makes her own pizza, and it�s the best in town.

�Can we have sausage on it?� you ask.

Mom grins. �Sure. It�s Saturday. Let�s live a little.� You reach into the refrigerator for a soda, and -

FLASH! The heat presses against your skin. You hear the call of birds and insects.

�Where did you guys go?� Rachel asks.

�And where are we?� Cassie wonders.

�And why don�t I have shoes?� Marco asks.

FLASH!

�- and a nice green salad,� Mom finishes. �I have to sneak something healthy in there.�

Your hand is cold. You look at the sweat beading up on the can. Whoa. What was that about? It was SO real. The heat had been just as intense as the cold in your fingers right now.

�Can you hand me that garlic?� Mom asks.

You nod and reach for a garlic bulb in a bowl on the counter. You hand it to Mom, and -

FLASH!

�Really, a monkey morph?� Marco says, lifting an eyebrow. �Listen, I�ve been a gorilla. That would be quite a demotion, don�t you think?�

�Marco, I�m just wondering,� Rachel says, her hands on her hips. �Do you always have to make things difficult? Is it like, your hobby?�

�It�s my life,� Marco says.

FLASH!

�- would you do me a favor and pick some basil off the plant?� Mom asks. �Sweetie? Are you okay?�

�I�m okay,� you say. But you�re not. Something is really, truly wrong. And you have to find out what.

�It sounds like a Sario Rip,� Jake says worriedly.

You�ve ridden as fast as you can on your bike to Jake�s house. You only have a half hour before dinner. Ax is there, too, and he looks just as worried as Jake. He�d been eating his very first licorice whip, and he�d been really enjoying it. But he stopped when you blurted out your story.

�Not again,� he says. �No, not again, Prince Jake. This is not good.�

�What�s a Sario Rip?� you ask.

�Are you sure it was a jungle?� Jake asks, instead of answering you. �Or was it a rain forest?�

�Like I can tell the difference?� you ask. You�re starting to feel impatient.

Jake turns to Ax. �But I reversed the rip. How can this happen?�

Ax shrugs and begins to chew on the end of the licorice. �I don�t know. When they taught about Sario Rips in class, I was -�

�Not paying attention,� Jake finishes impatiently. �I know.�

�Young Andalite females can do that,� Ax says. He slurps up another inch of licorice. �This tastes red. R-r-rred. Tastes red. Red-duh.�

�Cherry,� Jake says absently. �It�s cherry-flavored.�

�Will somebody please fill me in?� you demand.

�A Sario Rip is like a hole in space-time,� Jake explains. �We�ve all experienced it, except I�m the only one who remembers it. That�s because I died back there, but not in this time, so I was able to come back.�

�Oh, thanks,� you say. �That clears it up. Totally.�

�The thing is that Ax said, you need some sort of huge explosion to blow you back,� Jake says worriedly. �I guess maybe it hasn�t happened yet.�

�Terrific,� you say. �Something to look forward to besides pizza. Nuclear annihilation.�

�Unless we�re in a rip right now,� Ax puts in. �A rip within a rip.�

Jake frowns. �What does that mean?�

Ax shrugs. It could be his first shrug, because he looks surprised at the motion. He does it again
for practice. �I do not know. I am just guessing. Want some licorice?� He holds a piece out to you,
and -

FLASH!

Motherfucking time loops, am I right?

So yeah we�ve jumped ahead many many books and are now going through the plot of #11 The Forgotten, the �Jake gets stuck in a time loop in the Amazon Rainforest� somehow� book. As a matter of trivia, according to the now-defunct ANIBASE, the Animorphs database that used to be on Scholastic�s website, The Forgotten was the book that nearly caused Applegate to give up on writing the series because she thought she�d run out of ideas and was just starting to phone it in and she�d lost the plot on the books.

Anyway, at least in the second half of the book You is starting to feel more like a proper member of the team, having gone through presumably the plots of all the other books up till now, so they�re familiar with who and what Ax is, got to witness Tobias try to commit suicide-by-mall, met the Ellimist and all of the bullshit that came along with him, dealt with Jake�s little three day Yeerk hostage crisis and Temrash 114, was nearly part of a full party wipe involving the ants that live under Chapman's house, and met Erek King and the Chee and got to witness Erek go full KOS-MOS prototype rampage on a facility full of Hork-Bajir, Taxxons and human controllers after the kids flipped off his "don't be an insane murder robot" switch for a few minutes.

Try to picture how all those adventures went, only with you making GBS threads them up, not You, but you personally, the one who is reading this now.

experience BIJ!

The First Journey � Chapter 17

quote:

The trees soar above your heads. The leaves make a canopy so dense it blocks out the sky. The heat presses against your skin.

�Whoa!� Jake cries. �What�s going on?�

�Wait,� you say. �You mean you know you�re here? With me?�

�It�s the same place,� Jake says, spinning around. �Hang on.�

He darts through the trees, and you and Ax follow. You stop abruptly when Jake does, bumping into him. In a small clearing is a Bug fighter. It is scorched and trashed, as though it had crash-landed.

�This is totally freaked,� Jake whispers.

�I�ll say,� a voice says. It�s Rachel, who steps through the trees, Cassie and Marco at her side.

�Where did you guys go?�

�And where are we?� Cassie asks.

�And why don�t I have shoes?� Marco asks glumly, staring at his bare feet

<I�ve been circling above, but all I see is a green canopy of trees,> Tobias says in thought-speak. He swoops down and lands on a tree trunk. <I�d say we�re in a rain forest. I can try to see if there�s a city or a village nearby.>

�There�s no city,� Jake mutters.

�Pray tell, how do you know, O Fearless Leader?� Marco asks.

�I just do,� Jake says. He frowns. �The first thing we have to do is take the onboard navigating computer. Visser Three will be coming back for the Bug fighter.�

�How do you know this stuff?� Cassie asks. �The last thing I remember I was on the Bug ship. We were shooting Dracon beams at Visser Three.�

�It�s a Sario Rip,� Jake says. Quickly, he summarizes what has happened.

�So how do we get back?� Cassie asks. You can tell she�s trying not to look scared.

�I�m not sure,� Jake admits. �Last time, I had to die. I don�t especially want to do that again.�

�Are you all thinking what I am thinking?� Ax asks suddenly.

Marco rolls his eyes. �What are the odds of that?�

�Think about it, Prince Jake,� Ax continues. �You have been given a second chance. Last time, you made mistakes. What I mean to say is, you made good decisions, but things went wrong.�

�Thanks for trying to make me feel better, Ax, but you were right the first time,� Jake says wryly.

�We walked right into Visser Three�s trap.�

�But this time, we will not walk into the trap,� Ax points out. �We know what is wrong to do. Now we must do what is right to do.�

�You�re right, Ax!� Jake says excitedly. �We�ve been given a second chance! And the first thing we should do is not take the onboard computer. Can you just disable it instead? Make it look like it happened in the crash, but be sure that they can fix it. That will slow them down while we follow through on a plan.�

�I can do this, Prince Jake,� Ax says, nodding. He takes off for the Bug fighter.

�What plan?� Marco asks. �Call me crazy, but I have a feeling I�m not going to like this.�

�It�s simple,� Jake says. �We�re going to sneak onboard the Blade ship -�

�Already, I don�t like it,� Marco interrupts, groaning.

�- and destroy Visser Three,� Jake says grimly. �Then we�ll re-create the rip and get back to our own time.�

�Sounds like a good plan,� Rachel agrees. �Especially the �destroy Visser Three� part.�

�Of course you�d think so,� Marco says. �What do you need morphing ability for? You�re already an animal.�

�The question is, what should we morph?� Cassie asks. �We have to get through the rain forest, and we�re barefoot. How about monkeys?�

�Really, a monkey morph?� Marco says, lifting an eyebrow. �Listen, I�ve been a gorilla. That would be quite a demotion, don�t you think?�

�Marco, I�m just wondering,� Rachel says, her hands on her hips. �Do you always have to make things difficult? Is it like, your hobby?�

�It�s his life,� you say.

Marco gives you a strange look. �I was going to say that.�

�I know,� you say.

�Come on, guys,� Jake says. �We have decisions to make. We have to acquire morphs that will help us cope with the rain forest. But we also need morphs that will help us sneak aboard the Blade ship.�

�And we might need the help of that tribe you met last time,� Ax says as he reappears. �You said they were pretty helpful against the Hork-Bajir.�

�What about using an ant morph again?� you suggest. You point to a tree. �I read about those ants. They�re called parasol ants. They can climb hundreds of feet. And we�d be so small we�d sneak onto the Bug fighter with no problem.�

�That�s true,� Cassie says reluctantly.

�No way I�m being an ant again,� Marco says, shuddering. �That was the worst.�

You all begin to argue about what morphs to acquire. But you�re running out of time. You might only have time for one morph.

Motherfucking time loops, am I right?

Wait.

So, we have three potential all new morph options to choose from, they are:

A monkey.
A parrot.
A parasol ant.

I�d say choose wisely, but the good thing about time loops is we�ll be back here once again if you gently caress up and get us killed.

Motherfucking time loops, am I right?

nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 05:34 on Apr 22, 2023

# ? Apr 22, 2023 04:11

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

Why would they choose this, one of the most nonsensical books, to do as a cyoa?

Anyway let's go parasol ant because I want to see You suffer

# ? Apr 22, 2023 04:16

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

Parasol ant is absolutely the correct choice, considering that You has canonically been on two different missions involving colonial insect morphs at this point. I'm sure they will be prepared to easily subdue the hive mind by now!

# ? Apr 22, 2023 05:25

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

Monkey

# ? Apr 22, 2023 07:21

gourdcaptain: Nov 16, 2012

I'm sure that the protagonist can control the parasol ant morph and reassert his individual consciousness.

# ? Apr 22, 2023 08:24

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# ? May 23, 2024 08:31

someone awful.: Sep 7, 2007

I'm sure You won't have any problems with becoming an ant, considering You is already kind of a hive-mind of the thread consciousness :v:

# ? Apr 22, 2023 08:43

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

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