Animorphs - The Entire Series

Jazerus

Apr 22, 2021 09:15

freebooter posted:

Anyway, this chapter does a real good job of making David say stuff which isn't wrong or incorrect, per se, but is just... off.

i'm sorry but i still don't see it

i understand that the characters are reacting to him like he's weird and edgy - that as a kid, i perceived him the same way because of how the other kids were reacting to him - but to my eyes now he just seems...like a 13 year old boy? the other kids are saints where david is just...normal. who wouldn't think of the criminal possibilities for morphing, even if you never follow through? who wouldn't think that tobias being bird-speciesist was kind of funny (we do, here in this thread!)?

the original animorphs are the weird ones, here, for reacting to david the way they do. they're taking absolutely everything he says at face value even when, if one of them said something similar, they would perceive it as a joke or banter about it a bit instead. is david's speculation about ripping off a jewelry store really very different from marco's fantasies about using morphing in movies or getting on letterman or whatever? i feel like if david said "hey, we could be on letterman with this!" all of the kids would glare at him and say "that would expose us all to the yeerks you moron", when that was not how they responded to marco.

this is just basically an extension of their failure to understand what integrating a new member means. they are trying to get him to act like they do now, after a few dozen battles, instead of remembering what things were like at the beginning of their involvement in the war and understanding why he's behaving the way he is. they've lost touch with the perspective of "normal" kids and are holding him to an unreasonable standard.

Grammarchist

Apr 22, 2021 10:25

I choose to believe that Socks the Cat inadvertently saved mankind by convincing Visser 3 that the White House was protected by an Andalite Bandit.

feetnotes

Apr 22, 2021 11:47

Jazerus posted:

i'm sorry but i still don't see it

I agree, and I think there's a bit of a pattern of this clumsy/rushed characterization. We're told first, rather than shown, that Rachel is a born warrior that loves action and that Marco is a ruthless strategist, before they really have a chance to demonstrate it meaningfully.

I think it just comes from the realities of writing a serialized children's series. The books are only so long, and early on, with everything else going on in terms of exposition and explanation of alien species and morphing metaphysics, they save a bit of time by filling in the characterization in broad strokes.

The difference is, with the OG Animorphs they can continue to fill in their character traits and personalities throughout the series. With David, they only have a little time to set him up so they have to try to find ways to gradually ramp up his characterization while balancing the high-stakes "world leaders infestation" plot. It ends up feeling a bit rushed and like the core team is jumping to harsh conclusions unfairly.

Like I said - it didn't stand out to me as a kid, so mission accomplished in selling the story to their intended audience! But it does feel different reading it now.

Remalle

Apr 22, 2021 13:30

Epicurius posted:

So I just want to talk for a second about how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. You might think, like I did, that you know, the caterpillar sits in there, and then, I dunno, wings grow on it and other things. That's not what happens at all.

So caterpillars have this hormone that stops maturity, so as it grows, it molts its outer skin and grows bigger. Eventually, though, the hormone stops being produced, The caterpillar molts it skin, and attaches itself to a plant, and then the new skin gets hard. Meanwhile, inside there, the caterpillar starts dissolving. It just breaks down. The caterpillar has these cells colonies in it, for wings and all the stuff that a butterfly has, that normally the hormone stops from growing. Now that it's gone, these cells grow, feeing off the slurry that was the caterpillar, and a butterfly forms out of it. It breaks itself out of the chrysalis (which, remember, is the hardened skin of the caterpillar, and then goes off to do its butterfly things, which is basically eating and having sex. It's a total transformation though. It's almost like the caterpillar and the butterfly are completely different animals.

So I'm really late to this one but I really have to ask. How the fuck does this process evolve?

Epicurius

Apr 22, 2021 13:48

Remalle posted:

So I'm really late to this one but I really have to ask. How the fuck does this process evolve?

Here's a Scientific American article about a theory of how it evolved:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/insect-metamorphosis-evolution/

Basically. there are three different types of insect growth. Some species have no metamorphosis. Newly hatched insects are just smaller versions of adults. Some have, like dragonflies or mosquitoes, incomplete metamorphosis. They start out as nymphs, looking like their adult form, but with no wings or genitals, which form as they grow. Butterflies though, for instance, have complete metamorphosis. They think complete metamorphosis evolved from incomplete metamorphosis, when, because of some mutation, an insect became viable to hatch from the egg early. Things like caterpillars and maggots and things like that are just viable versions of what would in other insects, be not yet born.

OctaviusBeaver

Apr 22, 2021 15:12

Visser 3 successfully morphs Bill Clinton but then has to spend so much time dealing with sex scandals that he doesn't have time to work on the invasion.

ANOTHER SCORCHER

Apr 22, 2021 15:37

OctaviusBeaver posted:

Visser 3 successfully morphs Bill Clinton but then has to spend so much time dealing with sex scandals that he doesn't have time to work on the invasion.

When he said "I did not have sex with that woman," he thought he was telling the truth.

Epicurius

Apr 22, 2021 16:27

ANOTHER SCORCHER posted:

When he said "I did not have sex with that woman," he thought he was telling the truth.

"As you can tell, she, I, and the First Lady all still exist and have not experienced terminal cellular fission. I will not be taking questions at this time."

Comrade Blyatlov

Apr 22, 2021 16:45

Jazerus posted:

the original animorphs are the weird ones, here, for reacting to david the way they do. they're taking absolutely everything he says at face value even when, if one of them said something similar, they would perceive it as a joke or banter about it a bit instead. is david's speculation about ripping off a jewelry store really very different from marco's fantasies about using morphing in movies or getting on letterman or whatever? i feel like if david said "hey, we could be on letterman with this!" all of the kids would glare at him and say "that would expose us all to the yeerks you moron", when that was not how they responded to marco.

I find it a really interesting example, that the other kids' minds went to being in film, or Letterman, etc, while David's went to stealing for personal gain. Yes, there's personal gain in both scenarios, but it's just an interesting note that one scenario actively harms someone else.
Thats not to say that there isn't a fair bit of distrust going on, but as was mentioned... something about him just seems off somehow.

Epicurius

Apr 22, 2021 21:12

Animorphs Book 21-The Threat, Chapter 3

quote:

<"Off we go, into the wild blue yonder, flying high into the sun!"> Marco sang.
<Marco, why are you singing?> Rachel asked.

<It's some old movie on the Movie Channel about Air Force pilots. That was their song. "Off we go, into the wild blue yonder, flying high into the sun.">

<Marco? Why are you still singing when clearly I want you to shut up?>

If you're curious, this is the US Air Force Anthem, and you can listen to the whole thing

quote:

<"Off we go, into the ..." Hey! Whoa! Pizza Hut! The guy down there on the blue beach towel. He's got an entire large pizza!>

<Is he going to eat all that himself?> David asked eagerly. <No way one guy eats a large pizza.>

Many morphs have powerful instincts you have to learn to deal with. Like the soulless, automaton obedience of ants or the raging, insane hunger of a shrew. You deal with it. In the case of seagull morphs, the instincts were not exactly dangerous to us, but they were very hard to shake off.

Basically, seagulls are scavengers. Which means they have an amazing talent for spotting anything that looks even slightly like available food. We were above the sand, skimming and dodging out along the surf line like typical gulls. Ahead of us, up the beach, was the line of trees and the tan stucco wall that marked the edge of the resort.

We were not the only gulls around. Not by a long shot. In fact, about seventeen gulls had also spotted the pizza. They were wheeling and hovering and going "Squeeet! Squeeet! Squeeet!" and "Aw! Aw! Aw!"
The guy with the pizza was looking nervous.

<Keep flying,> I said, although I, too, had to fight the weird desire to dive on some pepperoni. I mean, seriously, a large pan pizza for one guy? No reason why he couldn't toss a couple slices off to one side so we ...
But pizza was not the point.

<Fries!> Rachel cried.

<Okay, now look,> I said, <we are about to try and ->

<Oh! Oh! Fried chicken!> Marco said. <Hey, Tobias. If a seagull eats chicken, is that like cannibalism or something?>

<That depends. Extra crispy or regular?>

At last we were nearing the stucco wall. Seagull eyes aren't as penetrating as bird-of-prey eyes, but they are still very good. I spotted a dark-suited man standing in the shadow of the row of tall trees. He wore dark sunglasses. He was talking into a handheld radio. He was staring in our direction, gazing out over the beach with a very serious amount of concentration.

<Gee, could that guy look any more like Secret Service?> Rachel said with a laugh. <And there's another one just ten feet away, along the wall.>

<Of course they're Secret Service,> David said. <But so are some of the people lying out here on the beach. With something like this, probably half the people on the beach are security.>

<And of course you're the big expert because your dad is a spy,> Marco said with a definite sneer.

<He's with the National Security Agency, that's right,> David said.

<Yeah? Well now he's with the Yeerk Security Agency,> Marco muttered.

<Shut up, Marco!> I snapped. <That was over the line.>

Marco pouted for a moment or two as we oh-so-casually closed the distance between us and the wall. <You're right. I was out of line. Sorry.>

David didn't say anything. I couldn't blame him. Usually Marco knows how far to take things.

Maybe I was wrong to think Marco's attitude toward David was totally normal. Maybe we had a problem there.

We didn't fly over the wall all together in some kind of formation. We did it one at a time, crossing in various locations. The security guys seemed indifferent. No big surprise. There were gulls all over the place. In fact, looking around, it was impossible to know which of the white birds was one of us and which was just a plain old seagull.

<This is easy,> David said. <What's the big deal?>

<As long as we just want to fly around, no big deal,> I agreed. <But we need to get inside some of these buildings. Maybe all these buildings.>

<The question is, where do we begin? And how?> Ax said.

The resort had a dozen or more buildings. The main building was a large, multistory, modern hotel shaped like an "L." There was a lower, two-story portion stuck off to one side. Probably a ballroom or whatever.

Nestled in the crook of the "L" shape was a pool with a bar and a changing area. And down by the water were cabins, like individual homes separated from the others by hedges and trees.

The grounds were lush with trimmed grass and precise shrubbery and trees. A nine-hole golf course began at the back side of the main hotel. From the air we could easily see the two presidential helicopters resting on a grass landing area. Uniformed Marine guards stood at attention by the doors
of the helicopters.

<Okay, there is definitely some security on this place,> Marco said. <Guys on the roof, guys in the bushes, guys sitting in cars, guys out on the golf course pretending to play golf. It looks like Men in Black 2 around here. These guys all have the same suit.>

Then I spotted something that raised my spirits a little. <Look! Canine teams!>

Below me a German shepherd walked with yet another "Man in Black." The dog was sniffing in bushes. Either looking for a place to pee or searching for bombs.

<Maybe we could morph German shepherds and get in as part of the canine team,> I said, realizing as I said it that it probably wouldn't work.

A truck was delivering food to the loading dock at the back of the hotel. No less than four guys in dark suits were checking the crates as they came off the truck.

The Men in Black had earpieces, like people being interviewed on TV. And they seemed to talk to their wrists a lot. There were microphones barely visible just up in their sleeves.

<Here's an idea. Let's give up,> Marco said. <This would be totally depressing even if we didn't have to worry about some of these guys being Controllers.>

I was starting to agree. <Every square inch of this entire place is being watched,> I said. <We can't morph or demorph anywhere around it. We need to get inside to learn what we want to learn, but that would mean going insect basically. And the problem with any insect morph is that we'd have to morph the bug way outside the compound, which leaves us traveling a long, long way as spiders or cockroaches or flies. None of which can see well enough to travel those distances without getting lost.>

<Or eaten,> Rachel added darkly.

<You guys could morph fleas and get onto someone who we knew was going inside the compound,> Tobias suggested.

<But fleas are useless for seeing, and they aren't much good at hearing,> Cassie said. <We'd get in, but once inside we'd get nothing. And how would we ever get back out again?>

<Are we beat?> Marco asked, incredulous.

I sighed. <Maybe. Only we can't be. No matter what the risk, we have to get inside and - AAAAHHHH!>

The pain came out of nowhere. Suddenly, for no reason, I'd felt a wave of agony that seemed to sizzle and fry every cell in my body.

<Jake, what's happening?> Cassie cried.

<AAAAAHHHH!> Ax screamed.

<What's going on?> David asked nervously.

The pain was gone, but my brain was still burning from the memory. I looked down, around, everywhere. What? What had caused ... ?

There below me and ahead, not fifty feet away, stood a security man, like all the others. He had a bald patch on his head, something you notice when you're a bird. He wore dark glasses, like all the others. But unlike all the others, he was watching the birds.

So much for Andalites not screaming. But it makes sense if you're Visser Three and worried about Andalite Bandits to have some sort of sonic anti-bird feature at the hotel.

Chapter 4

quote:

<AAAAHHHHH!> It was Tobias's turn.

I stared at the bald man. I saw where he was looking. He was looking at a gull that had suddenly jerked in mid-flight.

Tobias?

<It's that guy!> I said, suddenly certain. <That bald guy! He's doing it!>

I watched the bald man casually shift his gaze to another seagull. This seagull, too, spasmed in midair. It recovered and began to haul wing out of there.

Not one of us. A regular gull.

<Ax! What is that guy doing? I don't see any weapon.>

Ax sounded as shaken as I was. <He may ... he may be using a very low-power Dracon beam. Possibly hidden on his body, with the sunglasses used as emitters.>

<Are you telling me he can shoot whatever he's looking at?> I said.

<Yes. It will cause intense pain. As you may have noticed.>

That was as close as Ax ever got to making a joke. And having been on the receiving end of the bald guy's "look," I really didn't find it all that humorous.

<So he's a Controller chasing away the birds,> Tobias said. <He doesn't kill us because that would be too obvious - dead birds dropping everywhere.>

<Chasing away possible Andalites in morph,> Marco agreed.

The Yeerks still think we're a small band of Andalites. They have no clue we're humans with Andalite morphing powers.

<Oh, man!> Cassie moaned. <He's looking at - AAAAAHHHH!>

<Cassie!>

<Oh. Oh, that hurt. Oh man, I'm not kidding here. That was like a full-body dental visit without Novocain.>

<Cassie. Bail. Fly away. That's what a gull would do. But not everyone at once!> I added quickly. <We can't move like we know what's happening.>

<We have to stay here and let that guy zap us?> David demanded. <We should either run or go kick his butt for him!>

I had felt the pain. I knew how awful it was. But I couldn't let everyone turn tail and run. Not all at once. We had to be normal gulls. Still, I knew how the others felt. I felt it, too, floating helpless and exposed in midair, waiting for the bald man to hit me again.

<He's looking at me!> David yelled. <What am I supposed to do?>

<Nothing,> I grated. <Take it. Then you can get out of here.>

<AAAAAHHHHH!>

I felt like the creep of the universe making David take the hit. But we couldn't give ourselves away. That would confirm to the Yeerks that we were attempting to enter the facility.

I saw David spasm. I knew the pain he had just endured. The part of my brain that wasn't busy feeling guilty wondered how he'd react.

<Okay, that was a major ouchie!> David said. <Now can I get out of here?>

<Yeah, fly,> I said. <And by the way, David? Good job.>

<Thanks,> he said, sounding sincere. Then in a sarcastic tone he added, <Thanks a lot.>

I watched him fly away. Ax and Tobias and Rachel had all managed to casually, naturally circle away out of the bald man's line of sight. But I was still there.

The bald man looked at me.

I would have gritted my teeth if I'd had teeth. The pain hit me as bad as the first time, and I cried out just the same.

Then I flew away, following the others and feeling that maybe the free world really was doomed this time around. Because as far as I could see, we were beat before we even got started.

I mean, never say die, right? But this is quite a setup they've got here.

Homora Gaykemi

Apr 22, 2021 22:36

note that nobody's being a smartass to Marco about how seagulls and chicken are different species so it wouldn't be cannibalism

Epicurius

Apr 23, 2021 05:11

Homora Gaykemi posted:

note that nobody's being a smartass to Marco about how seagulls and chicken are different species so it wouldn't be cannibalism

True. Although, Marco also didn't make a joke to a black teenager about how her friend was a racist.

dungeon cousin

Apr 23, 2021 18:18

Homora Gaykemi posted:

note that nobody's being a smartass to Marco about how seagulls and chicken are different species so it wouldn't be cannibalism

I see this in so many things where people think feeding chicken to birds (and tuna to fish) is cannibalism.

Shwoo

Apr 23, 2021 18:33

Just like it's cannibalism for humans to eat cows, pigs, or sheep.

Epicurius

Apr 23, 2021 20:43

Animorphs Book 21-The Threat, Chapter 5

quote:

We left. We went home. At least, Marco, Rachel, Cassie, and I went home. Ax's home is a few billion miles away. Tobias's home is his favorite tree overlooking the meadow that is his territory.

As for David, he didn't have a home. No home, no family. None that he could contact, anyway. He couldn't even be seen in his own body. The Yeerks knew him and they were looking for him.

So he went home with Cassie, back to the barn that is the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic. She had made a place for him in the hayloft.

Obviously, that wasn't going to last. Another problem for me to try to figure out. Along with saving the leaders of the free world. David would just have to tough it out.

How quickly would the Yeerks move? The President was already at the resort. The other world leaders were arriving over the next few hours. Would the Yeerks wait till they were all assembled? Or would they try to pick them off one by one?

I felt this huge hurry poking at me. Every minute lost was a possible disaster. But our first attempt had been a total loss. And we weren't ready for another run.

I got home to find my parents both sitting in the living room, kind of staring into space. My first thought was, Uh-oh, I did something wrong.

But as soon as they saw me they both got up and hugged me. So right away I knew this was something truly bad.

"Thank goodness you're home," my mother said.

"We were worried," my dad said.

"Why? I was just out with Marco."

"Something has happened," my dad said solemnly. "Maybe you should sit down."

"Is it Tom?" I demanded.

"Is what Tom?" Tom asked. He came in right behind me, giving me the creepy feeling that he'dbeen following me.

"Tom, you need to hear this, too," my mother said. "Both of you sit down."

"Who died?" Tom said, joking. Or to be more accurate, the Yeerk in his head made the dumb joke because it was just the kind of dumb joke Tom would make.

My mom and dad gave Tom this hollow-eyed look.

My mother said, "It's your cousin, Saddler. He was riding his bike and was hit by a car. He's alive, but the injuries are very severe. He's in intensive care."

I'm ashamed to admit that my first reaction was not "poor Saddler." Instead, I wondered what impact this would have on my plans. Partly that's because Saddler was not a cousin I was close to.

He's two years older, and to be honest, kind of a jerk. When we were little and our parents made us play together, he was the kind of kid who'd break something and then blame me.

It was pretty awful to think he was so badly hurt. But at the same time, I was trying to figure out how this affected me. Saddler and his family lived in a small town about a hundred miles away.

"Your mom and I are going to drive down right away to help Ellen and George with the other kids. They think they'll probably move Saddler to Children's Hospital here in town in a day or two, if... I mean ..."

My mom cut in. "This means you two will be on your own today and tomorrow."

Tom and I exchanged a look. Both of us were calculating what this meant. We each had a hidden agenda. Tom didn't know mine. If Tom ever found out what I did when I wasn't at home or at school, that would be the end of my freedom. Probably the end of my life.

"Then, after Saddler is moved here, his parents and the kids will probably stay with us for at least a few days."

That pretty well froze the blood in my veins. Saddler has three siblings: Justin, Brooke, and Forrest. Forrest is two years old and is, basically, the devil. I'm exaggerating, but only slightly.

"Why can't they stay with Rachel's family?" Tom asked. "They're cousins, too."

"Well, since Rachel's mom and dad got divorced, Ellen and George haven't felt like they were all that close to Rachel's mom."

"Lucky Rachel," Tom muttered.

This all left me feeling even more disturbed than before. I felt guilty for not feeling sorry for Saddler right away. I felt guilty for caring that his family would be staying with us. I even felt guilty for thinking it was a relief that my mom and dad would be gone for the next day or so. All that, piled on top of the fact that I felt guilty because while I was sitting around feeling guilty the leaders of the free world were possibly being infested with Yeerks.

I felt like my head was going to burst. I felt like I needed to sleep for about fourteen hours.

But I wasn't going to sleep. Not that night. Or the next. In fact, it was going to be a long time before I slept again.

So a lot of feeling guilty here. But we also find out that Rachel and Jake are cousins through Rachel's dad, not her mom. Also, Saddler would be about Tom's age, I guess.

Chapter 6

quote:

My parents drove off, but I didn't exactly declare a national holiday and throw a party. No time.

Instead I spent the evening doing the research I should have done earlier. I sat at my computer, plugged in to the Web, and read everything I could find about the conference, the leaders who would be there, the Marriott resort itself, the security services of each nation, everything.

Then I saw it: an article about the new prime minister of France. The one whose wife always, always, always traveled with her two Chihuahuas. Now, that could be useful.

"Ah-hah!"

"Ah-hah, what?"

I spun in my chair. It was Tom, sticking his head into my room. On my computer monitor was the article about the French chief.

Don't act guilty! I silently ordered myself. But I clicked the window closed anyway.

"Are you gonna tie up that line all night?" Tom demanded. "Someone might want to make a phone call. It's ten o'clock, anyway. Your bed-tiiiiime," he said, drawing out the last word.

"Shut up," I said. "Just because Mom and Dad aren't here, that doesn't make you -"

"Oh, yes it does. I am the All-Powerful Tom," he said.

Once again, I had this weird urge to say, "You know what, Tom? I know all about you. I know what you are. So how about if we just cut to the chase?"

What I really said was, "I'm done, anyway." I moved the mouse to "Sign off" and clicked once.

"Don't forget to brush your teeth," Tom said mockingly.

He closed the door. Had he seen what was on my screen? Probably not. Even if he had, so what?

So I was interested in the French government.

Yeah. That made sense. What with my lifelong interest in European heads of state.

I just find the whole Tom and Jake thing interesting, because, of course, with this conversation, it's just Tom being a bossy older brother taking advantage of his parents not being home to pick on his little brother. But it's threatening because we know, and Jake knows that Tom isn't Tom, and if the Yeerk who's talking for Tom knew who Jake really was, Jake would get a Yeerk shoved in him so fast his head would spin.

quote:

I sighed. Then ...

Deedly-deeedly-deedly.

The phone rang. I hesitated. It was late for anyone to call. Probably Mom or Dad checking in.

I picked it up.

"Did you get that?" Tom yelled from down the hall.

"Yeah!" I yelled back. Then, in a normal voice, "Hello?"

"Hi, Jake, it's Cassie."

I felt a little tingle on the back of my neck. Cassie sounded cheerful. But that was because we never trusted the phones to be safe.

"Hi, Cassie, what's up?"

"Hey, you know what? I heard Letterman got canceled. Is that true? No more Dave?"

Now it was more than a tingle. Of course Letterman wasn't canceled. Cassie had just been looking for a way to say "Dave." As in David. David was missing.

"Did you check TV Guide?"

"No. I looked everywhere else, though. Everywhere."

"Well, don't worry about it. He'll be there at the usual place, the usual time."
We hung up. We both knew. David was missing and I was on my way, as soon as I could get away safely. I'd be "at the usual place."

Twenty minutes later Tom came to check on me. I was in my bed. Asleep. Or at least I looked asleep. I lay there in the dark, listening. Then I heard the faint sound of the front door opening and closing.

Tom was leaving. Yeerk business, no doubt.

"Yeerks make lousy baby-sitters," I muttered under my breath.

I morphed to brown bat and flew out of my open window. Bats aren't the fastest flyers in the world, but it was a moonless night, and I didn't want to risk running into power lines or anything that would be invisible.

I found Cassie and Rachel at the barn. It was a bit creepy at night. The lights were kept very low. Just enough to make out the rows of wire cages and to see vague shapes pacing or standing or snoring within.

Cassie looked worried. Rachel, as always, looked great. I demorphed and stood there, barefoot and shivering in bike shorts and T-shirt.

"Hey, Rachel. You must have morphed to get here so fast," I said. "So how come you have regular clothes on?"

Cassie rolled her eyes. "Didn't you know? Rachel keeps a couple of outfits here at the barn."

"Is it a crime to want to look good?" Rachel asked self-mockingly.

"Good grief," I said. "So what's the deal?"

"The deal is, David went to sleep up in the loft around nine. Early. Said he was tired. I checked on him. At ten I remembered that I forgot to give that deer with the bullet wound her meds, so I came back out. No David."

So this isn't good.

Comrade Blyatlov

Apr 23, 2021 20:57

I completely forgot this subplot :stare:

nine-gear crow

Apr 24, 2021 03:41

OctaviusBeaver posted:

Visser 3 successfully morphs Bill Clinton but then has to spend so much time dealing with sex scandals that he doesn't have time to work on the invasion.

Newt Gingrich, Savior of Humanity.

Strategic Tea

Apr 24, 2021 06:31

Some proper actual professionals posted:

“Hi, Cassie, what’s up?”

“Hey, you know what? I heard Letterman got canceled. Is that true? No more Dave?”

Now it was more than a tingle. Of course Letterman wasn’t canceled. Cassie had just been looking for a way to say “Dave.” As in David. David was missing.

“Did you check TV Guide?”

“No. I looked everywhere else, though. Everywhere.”

“Well, don’t worry about it. He’ll be there at the usual place, the usual time.”

Can just say that I'm also following the Let's Read James Bond thread and it is mind blowing how much better the animorphs are at this than the man himself :nsa:

Epicurius

Apr 24, 2021 20:27

Animorphs Book 21-The Threat, Chapter 7

quote:

"Did you try and reach Marco?"

Cassie nodded. "He can't come. His dad's out on a date, and when he comes back he's sure to check on Marco."

"I guess the question is: How did David leave here? On foot or on the wing?"

"The other question is why?" Rachel pointed out. "And where did he go? And while we're at it, doesn't he realize he's destroying my sleep with this stupid game?"

"Okay, look, you two have your owl morphs. One of you go and look for Ax and Tobias. They can help. I'll go to wolf morph, see if he left a scent trail. No, wait. What if someone sees me? Better do Homer."

Homer is my dog.

"I'll go for Tobias," Rachel said. "And Ax."

I was already morphing. Already feeling the long, shaggy fur sprouting from my hands and arms and chest.

"Urn, Jake? You can't morph to dog in here. You know how dogs get around animals," Cassie warned.

"Oh. Yeah." I smiled with what was left of my human mouth. I had morphed Homer several times before. And it wasn't that his dog instincts were so overpowering or anything. It's just that he had a secret weapon for undermining my self-control: He was happy. As in HAPPY! And a dog surrounded by scared rodents and skunks and raccoons was just about as HAPPY as a living creature could be.

It's hard to resist happiness. It tends to kind of carry you away.

I opened the big, creaking barn door and went back outside. Hobbled, because my legs were bending and shrinking and my feet were already more like paws. Cassie followed.

Still no moon out. Clouds obscured the stars. It was as black as night gets. The only light came from the faint, distant porch lights from the nearest subdivision. And a light someone had left on in Cassie's house.

I finished morphing Homer. I felt my face bulge out and out. I felt the teeth multiply and grow in my mouth. I felt my ears crawling up the side of my head.

My legs bent and shrank till I fell forward onto pads that had replaced my palms. My tail wagged. And I felt that amazing rush of giddy, idiot, dog happiness.

What had I been so worried about? It was nighttime, I was free, I could clearly hear some small animal scurrying over behind the bushes, I wasn't especially hungry. Life was great!

I looked expectantly at Cassie. Did she want to play? I crouched low in front, making the signal of an invitation to dog play.

Fortunately, Cassie had enough sense to decline.

"No, thank you," she said. "I don't think we're here to play."

We weren't?

Oh, right. We weren't.

But, hey! What was that smell? Was that ... yes! It was dog poop! Not my poop. But definitely dog poop!

Where? I sniffed. Okay, over there. I trotted toward the source of the smell. Hmmm. Not fresh.

This was old dog poop. At least a couple of days old.

That didn't mean it was totally useless. But fresh dog poop was really far more interesting. Stale dog poop was only slightly more interesting than cat poop. And let's face it: No one cares about cat poop.

"I think we kind of have to focus, Jake," Cassie said as firmly as she could.

<What? Oh, yeah. I was just ... you know, investigating.>

"Uh-huh."

"We need your nose, but not for that."

<Yeah, okay. Back to business.> I focused on the job at hand. Or I tried, at least. I mean, I sounded serious for Cassie's sake, but come on, what was there to be all grim about?

Life was a party!

"By the way, I meant to tell you I have an idea for how we can break into the resort. It's a morph that -"

<Wait a minute. Is this idea going to make me feel better or just creep me out?> I interrupted.

Cassie laughed. "Maybe we should talk about it later. Here." She handed me a T-shirt. "It's the shirt David wore yesterday."

I sniffed it once. No more was needed. Because I knew right away that David had in fact walked away from the barn. His trail might as well have been marked with orange traffic cones.

This wasn't as fun as chasing a stick. But it was some kind of game, at least. And I liked Cassie. If only she had a stick.

I like Jake as a dog.

Chapter 8

quote:

I followed David's scent as Cassie floated in absolute silence overhead. Her owl's wings made no sound. Not even to my ears.

<He stopped here,> I said. We were a thousand yards from the barn in the middle of a field. <He morphed. I'm getting a new scent.>

I sniffed carefully at the ground, going around in a circle. <The idiot!> I yelled, suddenly too angry to be dog HAPPY. <He went into that lion morph you hooked him up with.>

<Maybe he just wanted to try it out,> Cassie said. <We all used to do things like that.>

<Yeah,> I agreed. <But a lion? This close to people's homes?>



<Oh. Yeah.>

I followed the lion scent. We headed across the fields of Cassie's farm and plunged into woods.

Cassie kept pace effortlessly. And after a while a second silent owl and a much noisier hawk caught up to us.

 Rachel said. <But Tobias is here.>

<Yeah, lucky me,> Tobias grumbled.

We emerged again from the woods, and now we were close to a major road. On the far side it was a built-up strip: Taco Bell, Mickey D's, a tire place, a couple of gas stations, and a Holiday Inn.

I sniffed the ground again. <He demorphed here.> I trotted forward closer to the road, closer to the cars blazing past at sixty miles an hour. <Here he morphed again. The golden eagle.>

I took a deep breath. I had a bad feeling about this. I began to demorph. I wanted to be able to look around as a human to see what David had seen.
Human once more, and not at all HAPPY, I looked up and down the street. "So. Maybe he just came to snag some food. Maybe he was hungry."

 Cassie said.

"Maybe he had a craving for a Big Mac. Cassie, did he say anything to you tonight?"

<He was complaining about missing his old room. His pet snake. His stuff. TV.>

I nodded. "Yep. TV." I pointed at the Holiday Inn. "Cassie, Tobias, Rachel? Go take a look. I'll be right there."
Ten minutes later, I was in the carpeted hall of the Holiday Inn. I knocked at the door number "2135" I could hear the television inside. Then the TV went silent.

"David, it's me, Jake. I know you're in there."

The door opened. David was wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt. It was stuff I'd loaned him.

Obviously, he'd taught himself to morph clothing like the rest of us.

I didn't wait to be invited. I stepped inside. The TV was still on, but muted.

"What, exactly, are you doing here?" I demanded, not very calmly.

David shrugged. "Hanging out. Watching some tube. Sleeping in a normal bed. What's that, a crime?"

"Yeah, it is a crime," I said. "You didn't pay for this room."

"It was empty. So what?"

I pointed at the broken window we'd spotted from outside. "You broke a window to get in."

David smirked. "Hey, a bird broke a window, okay? A bird used a rock to dive-bomb the glass. Is that a crime? I don't think so. Officer, arrest that eagle? That's not happening."

Just to note, this is the same basic thing Tobias said, jokingly. when he took clothes from the store for David when he needed them after he demorphed.

quote:

"You're not talking to someone who doesn't know what's what, okay? The eagle morph is just a body and basic instincts. The mind is yours. Eagles don't bust into Holiday Inns. That was you."

David flopped back onto the bed and picked up the remote control. He started flipping channels, ignoring me.

"Listen, David, we don't break laws. Not unless absolutely necessary. We don't hurt innocent people. We have to control how we behave. We're not a bunch of criminals. Like on the beach when we needed clothing? I already mailed the money to the shop. Are you going to do that here?"

David stopped channel surfing. "How's it end for me, Jake?" he asked. "I have no home, all right? My family wants to turn me over to the Yeerks. What am I supposed to do? Keep living in that barn? It's easy for you, Jake. You have a family. You have a home. You all have homes. You all sleep
in beds at night and watch TV and eat at a table."

"Not all of us," I said. "Not Tobias. Not Ax."

"Ax isn't even human. Neither is Tobias. I am. I'm human, like you and Marco and Cassie and Rachel, and all of you have homes. All of you can walk around the mall without having every Controller around come down on you."

"It's a bad situation," I said. "It stinks."

"Yeah. And what are you going to do about it, Jake?"

"I ... look, we can only handle so many things at once, okay? Right now the leaders of the most powerful nations on Earth are being targeted by the Yeerks. I feel the clock ticking. I know your life sucks, okay? But I can't figure that out right now. Later. After this mission is over."

David gave me a look that was pure cynicism. "Yeah. Right. Well, how about this, Jake? I'll handle my life. You be the big boss of the Animorphs, and I'll take care of me."

An answer to David's challenge had formed in my mind. The words were right there. But they were harsh. And if I spoke them, I'd cross a line with David. A line I might not be able to uncross.

"It's like school and home, okay?" David continued. "It's like being an Animorph is school, and you're the teacher or the principal or whatever. But then, after I go home, you don't tell me what to do anymore."

I shook my head. "No, that's not what it's like, David. I don't want to come down on you, but the way it is is like this: You want to go around using your powers in selfish ways, then we can't have you around. You're just a danger to us. And you're against what we stand for."

His eyes widened. He rolled off the bed and stood up. "Are you threatening me?"

"No. Just telling you the way it is. We're the only family you have now, David. The only people you can trust. The only people who can help you. We're all you have. Deal with it."

He shot me a sullen, resentful look. I couldn't blame him. I sounded like someone's father saying, "As long as you live in my house, you'll follow my rules." I sounded like I was threatening him.

I was.

"Let's go," I said.

We went.

We can certainly talk about David's comments here, which I sort of agree with him that there's really no good ending for somebody in his situation, But instead, I sort of want to talk about institutional vs personal leadership. We've discussed before how Visser Three is a bad leader, but he can sort of get away with, and has so far, because he's part of an institution...he's the commander of the Yeerk forces on Earth, and he's obeyed for that reason. He has the whole institution of the Yeerk government, and the Yeerk army backing him up. That's true in a lot of hierarchies...work, school, government. We do what the person in charge says, even if we don't like that person, because he or she is part of an institution we obey.. If you've ever read Max Weber's work, he calls it "rational-legal authority".

Jake, on the other hand, is the leader of a resistance group with six other people in it, He doesn't have that sort of authority. If the rest of the Animorphs decide they don't want to do what he tells them to do, there's not much he can do about it, other than let them disobey him or use force to stop them. This hasn't come up with the rest of the Animorphs so far, because they all know Jake and trust him. They're letting him give them orders because they've decided that they can trust him to give them good orders (and so far, for the most part, he has). He doesn't have this with David, though, as of right now. David doesn't like him and doesn't trust him. That's why Jake is going straight to threats in response to defiance. He doesn't have any other choice.

Comrade Blyatlov

Apr 24, 2021 21:04

What was the answer in Jake's mind? "I'll take care of you." ?

e X

Apr 25, 2021 05:00

Comrade Blyatlov posted:

What was the answer in Jake's mind? "I'll take care of you." ?

Yeah. Basically, all of the Animorphs have already decided, consciously or subconsciously, that their war is more important than David.

Epicurius

Apr 25, 2021 19:44

Animorphs Book 21-The Threat, Chapter 9

quote:

Cassie had said she had an idea for getting past the security at the resort. She'd also admitted it would creep me out.

And, as always, she was honest.

It was the next day. We actually had to skip school. Marco, Rachel, Cassie, and me. It was something we'd never done all together before. It was risky. We couldn't have people noticing the fact that we were out of school together.

But the situation was desperate.

We were not in the barn. Cassie's father would be working there during the day. We were in the woods near Tobias's meadow.

"See, the problem is, anything bigger than a bug is going to be noticed by the Controllers who are in the security teams," Cassie explained. "But all the insect morphs we have are wrong for this job. Too much distance to cover for a cockroach. Same thing with a fly or an ant. Too much distance with senses that are not much good at dealing with faraway objects."

"Uh-huh," Marco said, nodding grimly. "And so what have you come up with, I hesitate to ask?"

She removed a glass jar from her backpack and held it out for us to see. Inside it was a large, brilliant green insect with two sets of wings.

"What is that, a dragonfly?" David asked.

"Yeah. Dragonfly," Cassie confirmed. "Look closely and you'll notice the eyes. They are huge, relative to the size of the body. They completely cover the dragonfly's head."

"No way," David said.

Cassie ignored him. "The housefly morphs we have feed on garbage, carrion, so on. So their sense of sight doesn't have to be great. But dragonflies eat other flying insects. They snag mosquitoes right out of the air. And since we know they don't have echolocation like bats have, they must be using the sense of sight to hunt."

"Wait a minute," David said. "When we became cockroaches we almost got stomped!"

"Seven dragonflies all flying in there together?" Marco said skeptically. "What happens if the Controllers realize there's this sudden plague of dragonflies?"

Cassie winced. "Well, I thought of that. So, see, only one person would morph the dragonfly. That person would get inside, find a place for the rest of us to demorph, and then morph something else to go spying around."

<I'm not understanding this,> Ax said. <How will the rest of us get inside with this single dragonfly?>

"Well ..." Cassie said. "That's the part that is either beautiful or gross, depending on your point of view."

"Oh, I so don't want to hear this," Marco moaned.

"See, the dragonfly is so big, and such a powerful flyer, he can carry passengers."

We all considered that for a moment. All of us staring at Cassie.

<What kind of passengers, Cassie?> Tobias asked.

"Well ... I think you could get six fleas lined up on -"

"Okay, okay, that's not happening," David said.

"One of us morphs a dragonfly, the rest of us morph fleas and climb on board like we're flying Delta?" Rachel demanded. "How would we even hold on? It'll be like being on a jet. On the outside of a jet!"

Cassie grinned. "Oh, the holding on part is easy. Fleas are excellent grippers. Besides, for extra safety, you just have to bite the dragonfly and not let go."

Once again we all stared at Cassie.

"You're a very disturbing person sometimes, Cassie," Marco said.

Rachel sighed. "Who's the lucky dragonfly who gets to have six fleas attached to him or her?"

"We can draw straws," I said.

"Wait a minute, we're doing this?" David cried. "Are you nuts?"

Marco pointed at David and said, "For once, I'm with him."

I bent over and plucked a handful of pine needles from the ground. I counted seven and broke one short. "Short needle morphs the dragonfly."

Cassie is a disturbing person sometimes. Dragonflies are cool, though. They're fast, agile, and have great eyesight. Honestly, if you want an insect morph that will let you get in, spy on people, and get out, dragonflies are the ones to have.

Chapter 10

quote:

I drew the short straw. So I was the one to stick my fingers into the jar and touch the dragonfly.

He seemed to be built of three elements: helicopter wings, gigantic eyes, and a ridiculously long blue-green tail. Actually the abdomen, but it looked like a stiff tail.

Cassie had also brought a flea for those who'd never morphed a flea. The plan was for me to morph the dragonfly, the others except for Tobias to morph the flea, and then Tobias would fly us all close to the resort and release us.

Easier said than done.

"This can't even be possible," David said. "I mean, a flea? Look how big we are! The flea is like ... like a grain of sand."

<It is possible,> Ax said. <The extra mass is extruded into Zero-space. Our own minds and brains are pushed into Zero-space and maintain contact with the morph by means of a ->

"What is he talking about?" David asked.

Rachel shrugged. "We don't have any idea. But he's right: It works. So just relax with it."

"I'm going to become a flea and I should just relax. A flea!"

He looked from one of us to the next, I guess waiting to see if it was all some big joke.

"I'm ready," I said. I took a deep breath and began the morph.

Every morph is different. And no morph ever makes logical sense. It's not like everything changes at once. It's not like if you're morphing a tiny insect you're going to start off with tiny insect legs. That would be gross enough. The reality is so much grosser.

See, in reality you might morph an ant and suddenly have these gigantic ant legs that then begin to shrink. Or you might be morphing an elephant and start off with this three-inch-long trunk.

So not only is morphing weird and illogical. It can be weird in different ways for different people. And it can be weirder one time than the next.

I have morphed many, many times. If I morph another ten thousand times, I will still never, never get used to it.

I focused on the dragonfly with a fair amount of fear. I closed my eyes and began to change.

Then, quite suddenly, my eyes were open again.

Only I hadn't opened them. I just didn't happen to have eyelids anymore. And my eyes ...

"Oh. Oh, no," Cassie said in disgust. "Oh. Oh, guh."

"Man, I didn't need to see that," Rachel agreed.

"Okay, now that is gross," Marco said. "That is seriously gross."

The first things that had morphed were my eyes. I was standing there, big as my normal self, normal everywhere. Except for the fact that my entire head - everything but my mouth - was covered with two monstrous, bulging, iridescent insect eyeballs.

"Aaaahhh!" I commented calmly.

"That does it, I'm outta here!" David yelped. But he didn't move.

The world I saw was a blaze of eerie colors. Normal colors seemed to bleed with strange purples and intense reds. I couldn't see objects at all clearly, no forms, no edges.

"I can't see except a blur!" I yelled.

"You still have a human brain," Cassie said. "You need the dragonfly's visual cortex to interpret the dragonfly's eyes."

I could sense that I was shrinking, but for some time I couldn't see anything but the hallucination of colors, swirling around me.

I guess the dragonfly's "visual cortex" (whatever that was) grew in then, because suddenly what I was seeing made sense. At least as much sense as "bug vision" ever makes.

Lots of insects have compound eyes, which means that instead of forming one big, neat picture the way human eyes do, they break the world up into thousands of separate images. It's like looking at a wall of a thousand TV sets, each one tuned to a very slightly different angle. It's a mosaic. You can see it as one big picture, but it takes work to "humanize" the image.

But this wasn't just bug vision. This was Super Bug Vision. This was Mega Bug Vision. It wasn't like facing a wall of TV sets, it was like being inside a dome with tiny TV sets in front, to the sides, above, behind ... And I didn't have to turn to see in all those directions. I could see them all simultaneously.

Up, down, left, right, forward, back, all at once.

So I had a really good view as my legs grew sharp spikes. And I could see quite clearly as the extra set of legs erupted from my chest like hyperactive worms crawling out of an apple.

And I didn't miss any part of the show as my shoulders turned green and bulked up like I was wearing football pads. And I definitely saw the way my butt - yes, sorry, my butt - suddenly began to grow. And grow. And grow. Out and out and out.

I saw backward over my green shoulders as two sets of wings, each translucent and veined like a leaf, grew straight out to each side.

I was shrinking all this time, but I noticed something interesting. When you shrink to housefly, pretty soon you can't make out anything further than a few feet away. But with dragonfly eyes I could still see Cassie quite clearly, towering above me like the World Trade Center. From down on the ground I could see her face! Of course it was mostly purple, and her eyes seemed to glow in an almost radioactive way, but it was still Cassie.

I felt myself stop shrinking. I looked around. Something I could do without looking around at all, if you understand what I'm saying. I seemed to have completed the morph.

I waited patiently for the dragonfly's instincts to kick in. Waited ... noticed a tiny beetle crawling beneath me. Waited ... saw the way the fallen leaves looked like starched blankets piled up... . Waited ...

Movement in the air above me!

MOSQUITO!

I don't even remember leaving the ground. It happened too quickly for me to notice. One second my dragonfly vision had spotted something buzzing and fluttering across my millions of tiny TV sets, and the next split second I was in the air.

I was two inches long, going from zero to thirty-five miles an hour in the blink of an eye.

The mosquito never saw me coming. He was helpless. He was a Piper Cub and I was an F-16. He had no moves. He had no speed. He lumbered around in a kind of wandering, meandering nonpattern, and I came in on him like a hungry shark on a kid in an inner tube.

I opened my powerful jaws and hit him going full speed. My bony head smacked the mosquito's body.

My jaws closed on a crumple of legs. The mosquito struggled briefly, legs kicking, wings still trying to fly.

It had all happened in a flash. Less than five seconds passed from liftoff to swallowing half the mosquito.

That's how long it took me to regain control. At which point I realized that there were parts of a mosquito sticking out of my mouth.

And unfortunately, I had a really, really good view of the parts.

While this is gross. it's true that dragonflies can fly at up to 35 miles an hour for short periods.

disaster pastor

Apr 25, 2021 20:03

Epicurius posted:

quote:
"Aaaahhh!" I commented calmly.

Jake('s narration) doesn't get to be sarcastically funny very often, so I appreciate it when he is.

Pwnstar

Apr 25, 2021 23:49

I know you need to have drama and plot etc but I always get annoyed in anything when there's a big important mission coming up but instead of putting our personal bullshit on hold lets all have a big fight over dumb shit. David needs to chill until they can figure out a longer term plan for him and the Animorphs need to let David feel like he's got some control in his life.

Jake's weird obsession with military technology owns, though he should be obsessed about Andalite military technology too. Let's hear more about Zero Space!

TheGreatEvilKing

Apr 25, 2021 23:57

Pwnstar posted:

I know you need to have drama and plot etc but I always get annoyed in anything when there's a big important mission coming up but instead of putting our personal bullshit on hold lets all have a big fight over dumb shit. David needs to chill until they can figure out a longer term plan for him and the Animorphs need to let David feel like he's got some control in his life.

Jake's weird obsession with military technology owns, though he should be obsessed about Andalite military technology too. Let's hear more about Zero Space!

David is a teenager. That age is entirely about personal bullshit.

Pwnstar

Apr 26, 2021 00:09

TheGreatEvilKing posted:

David is a teenager. That age is entirely about personal bullshit.

Oh yeah for sure but it still drives me crazy. Like in romantic stuff when the main characters break up over a misunderstanding that could be easily resolved with a 30 second conversation, people aren't purely logical robotic beings like myself but I get system errors when I see it.

freebooter

Apr 26, 2021 01:19

quote:

David gave me a look that was pure cynicism. "Yeah. Right. Well, how about this, Jake? I'll handle my life. You be the big boss of the Animorphs, and I'll take care of me."

An answer to David's challenge had formed in my mind. The words were right there. But they were harsh. And if I spoke them, I'd cross a line with David. A line I might not be able to uncross.

This is a line (a few lines I guess) that really stuck in my memory. Not sure why. I guess I'd again contrast it with Marco recently - Jake has the urge to puff his chest out but is smart enough, and leader enough, to reign it in. But what he's leaving unsaid is a true and genuine threat, and way darker than whatever dickish joke Marco made.

Fuschia tude

Apr 26, 2021 10:08

freebooter posted:

This is a line (a few lines I guess) that really stuck in my memory. Not sure why. I guess I'd again contrast it with Marco recently - Jake has the urge to puff his chest out but is smart enough, and leader enough, to reign it in. But what he's leaving unsaid is a true and genuine threat, and way darker than whatever dickish joke Marco made.

And of course, considering the next book, it's ultimately what they do.

Epicurius

Apr 26, 2021 21:18

Animorphs Book 21-The Threat, Chapter 11

quote:

<Aaaaaahhhhh! Would you slow down?> Marco yelled.

<I'm not going that fast. Besides, how can you tell how fast I'm going? You're a flea. You can't see squat,> I pointed out.



I was still in dragonfly morph. The view back along my body showed my long, blue-green abdomen. And crouching on my abdomen, sitting like creepy passengers in disorderly rows, were five fleas.

<Hey, I want to get there, all right?> I said. <You think I like having five fleas with their bloodsucking mouthparts stuck into me?>

<You're complaining?> Marco shrilled. <We're the ones sitting here while you go zipping around playing Top Gun.>

<Aww, shut up, Marco,> Rachel said good-naturedly. <It's kind of fun. The wind whistling through the chinks in my body armor, rustling the spikes on my legs ...>

<You people are all crazy,> David said.

<At one level, it's kind of fascinating, you know?> Cassie said. 

<You people are all crazy,> David repeated.

<Dragonfly Airlines,> Rachel said with a laugh.

<We cannot go any slower,> Ax pointed out. <It took a long time for all of us to get aboard this insect. Added to the time it took for Tobias to fly us here, we have no more than twenty minutes left in morph.>

He was right. It had sounded easy, getting five fleas onto a dragonfly. It had ended up being a Three Stooges movie. Fleas don't jump all that accurately. It had taken an hour of fleas catapulting like lunatic trapeze artists through the air to get all five of them aboard.

<How are we doing, Tobias?>

Tobias was a few hundred feet overhead, doing everything in his power to look like a hawk minding his own business. Unfortunately, red-tails don't hang out by the water, usually. I needed Tobias to guide us into the resort compound. The dragonfly eyes were very good for a bug, but still not good enough to see the thousand yards that separated us from the Marriott's outer wall. Whereas Tobias could easily keep track of a two-inch-long dragonfly.

<You're wandering a little to your left,> Tobias said. <Straighten up. Yeah. That's good. You're on target and closing in fast.>

<It's like watching tapes from Desert Storm,> Rachel said. <You know, like Tobias is the jet pilot, and we're the "smart" weapon going for the target.>

<You put your wars on television for people to watch?> Ax asked. He sounded shocked. <Humans!>

I hear you, Ax.

quote:

<Wall coming up,> Tobias reported.

 I said.

 Marco said. <But I'm bloated on dragonfly juice.>

The trees loomed up, more red than green in my dragonfly world. Huge branches reached out for me. I zipped on through.

<Okay, I'm going higher,> Tobias said. I saw the main hotel building ahead of me. It was suddenly psychedelic red and orange, but it was definitely the building we were aiming for.

Just one problem.

<Tobias. Can you see any open windows?>

<That's what I've been looking for and no, I can't.>

<We can drop down and go in through the front door,> Rachel suggested.

<The lobby will be full of people,> I said. <We're small, but we're not invisible.>

 Tobias said. <The bellmen and all? They have these kind of tall hats as part of their uniforms. And they keep tipping their hats to the guests before they pick up their bags.>

<That's very polite of them. Who cares?> Marco asked.

<Well, they raise their hats off their heads ...>

<Don't even!> Marco protested.

<You want us to zip in under some guy's hat?> David asked. <It would take split-second timing. And then he'd have to not notice this two-inch-long bug on his head.>

<Dragonflies can hover,> Cassie pointed out.

<Let's do it!> Rachel said.

<What is a hat?> Ax asked.

I didn't have any better idea. Neither did anyone else. Believe me, I was very open to hearing another suggestion.

<Okay, let's give this a try,> I said.

I swooped down at top dragonfly speed toward the main door of the hotel. Limousines were stacked up waiting. Security guys were everywhere. Uniformed Marriott employees were trying to squeeze through the security guys to do their jobs.

<Again, I have to ask: What is a hat?>

<A hat is something people wear on their heads,> Rachel explained to Ax. <A type of clothing.>

<Ah, yes, clothing,> Ax said disapprovingly. <Head clothing. Of course. Is there any part of a human that cannot be clothed?>

<Yeah, the face, which is too bad when you consider Marco's face,> Rachel said.

<Hey, you know I'm the cutest flea you've ever seen,> Marco replied. <No one has prettier bloodsucking mouthparts than me.>

I ignored all this and focused on the crowd of people ahead and below me. It was easy enough to make out the scurrying bellmen. And their hats were easy enough to spot. The trick was finding a bellman who was just about to ...

<Whoa!> Cassie cried.

I had just kicked it into overdrive. I saw the hat. I saw the hand reaching up for the hat. Back of the hat coming up ... higher ... higher ... an opening!

Zoooooom!

Under the brim! Sudden shadow. My eyes couldn't adjust. I couldn't see -

Bumpf!

I ran into a curved wall of felt. It was the inside of the hat. I fought to keep my altitude. If I landed on the guy's head, he would definitely notice.

And then the lights went out. The brim was back down. I hovered, wings buzzing like mad.

The rear wall of felt raced at me. He was moving. I held onto my hover, trying to stay in the exact same place without moving. Which, by the way, is almost impossible when all you can see is a very dim, blank circle of felt all around you.

<I'm fighting this overpowering urge to jump,> Cassie said. <The flea is smelling the guy's head!>

<Me, too, but we have to maintain,> Rachel said. <No jumping, no biting!>

The trip from the front door up to the guest room only took five minutes. But people who say time is relative are right. That five minutes lasted for hours.

Also would be a bad time for them to demorph....

Chapter 12

quote:

I hovered and I hovered and I hovered some more.

The bellman and the guest were talking.

"So, you work for CBS News, huh?"

"Yep."

"You know Cokie Roberts?"

"She's at ABC."

"Oh, yeah. So, do you know her?"

"Nope. But I know Dan Rather."

"Uh-huh. That Cokie, though, she's hot. I mean, for a news person and all? She's hot."

And at long last, I saw what I was waiting for. A crescent of light! The bellman was tipping his hat again!

I blew out of there at top speed. Out beneath the brim! I headed for altitude.

"Hey, something just flew out of your hat!"

"Whatever you say, sir. You know who else is hot? Bobbie Battista. You know her?"

"She's CNN."

This bellman has some very strong opinions on the attractiveness of newswomen.

quote:

I shot toward the ceiling, cranked a hard right and went skimming at rocket speed. The textured white plane of the ceiling just an inch above me. I spotted curtains and did a neat loop down behind them. I grabbed some curtain rod and hung on, waiting for my stomach to catch up.

<We're in,> I announced.

<Now what do we do, Prince Jake?> Ax asked.

<Wish I knew. We need to get a look around this hotel.>

<Our time is running out,> Ax reminded me.

<We can't demorph with this guy in the room,> Cassie said.

<We have to find an empty room fast,> I said. 

I zoomed off, skimming just below the ceiling. My goal was a rectangular grate at the top of a wall. The air-conditioning vent. Was there room enough for me to squeeze through?

I aimed for the vertical opening, turned sideways, folded my wings back and shot through.

<Yee-hah!>

<What yee-hah? What are you yee-hahing about?> Marco asked.

<We're in the air-conditioning vent,> I explained.

<It is chilly,> Cassie remarked.

<We must demorph very soon,> Ax pressed.

I zoomed down an endless square tunnel. There was plenty of light from the various room vents.

I zipped along, pausing only to glance into each room we passed. They were all occupied. A lot seemed to be reporters just unpacking. In one I saw what looked like Japanese security guys setting up equipment of some kind. But nowhere we could demorph. It was getting desperate. As Ax kept
reminding me.

<Prince Jake, there are only five of your minutes left.>

Then ...

<What the ... ?> I stopped flying. I was looking out through the vent at a huge ballroom. But it wasn't the ballroom itself that made me stare.

<What is it?> David demanded. <Can we demorph?>

<No. We definitely cannot demorph here,> I said, staring at the incredible scene through my compound eyes. <We have to get out of here.>

I took off again, searching, searching, room after room.

 Rachel said.

<We have three minutes,> Ax said as calmly as anyone could possibly say those words.

We reached an intersection of ducts. Straight? Left? Right? The vent to the right looked darker. Dark was good. Dark should mean rooms that were still closed up. I turned right.

Instantly I felt something wrong, something off. There was too much dust. Too little air circulation. Too -

<Aaahhh!> Something grabbed me. I was yanked out of midair!

I flapped madly, but I felt myself being wrapped up in tiny, sticky ropes. I could jerk this way and that, but I could not escape. My wings were pinned down. My legs ...

<What's happening?!> Rachel yelled.

Okay, get a grip, Jake, I ordered myself. I stopped struggling. And that's when I saw.

Radiating out from me in all directions were glistening ropes. The ropes were sticky. Thin but strong. And they formed a pattern. A definite pattern.

<It's a spiderweb,> I said. <We're caught in a web.>

And then, with my all-directional dragonfly eyes, I saw the black, menacing shape hanging in the air above me. Eight legs. Eight cold, evil eyes.

The deadly jaws worked, open, closed, open, closed.

I was trapped in the spiderweb. And the spider was home.

And they have less than 3 minutes left.

freebooter

Apr 27, 2021 01:00

Should've had them morph to fleas, jump on Jake, then he morphs.

Fuschia tude

Apr 27, 2021 01:06

freebooter posted:

Should've had them morph to fleas, jump on Jake, then he morphs.

Nonzero chance they would have been subducted inside his skin and crushed when his skull inverts or whatever new body horror Applegate wants to write this month.

Comrade Blyatlov

Apr 27, 2021 01:16

Earth defeated by spider, news at 11

WrightOfWay

Apr 27, 2021 01:23

They should have just had Tobias morph human and use a pair of tweezers or something to place all the fleas on Jake.

Shwoo

Apr 27, 2021 02:51

They should have done a practice run when they realised how difficult it was going to be, and then use what they learned to not waste half their morphing time on the setup.

freebooter

Apr 27, 2021 03:46

I just remembered how they eventually deal with the G8 plot and lol it fucking rules

Shwoo

Apr 27, 2021 05:42

It really does.

dungeon cousin

Apr 27, 2021 13:16

Fuschia tude posted:

Nonzero chance they would have been subducted inside his skin and crushed when his skull inverts or whatever new body horror Applegate wants to write this month.

Get to personally witness what happens to parasites and other organisms living in the body when they morph.

Actually, I wonder if it's related to how they can morph with tight clothing.

gourdcaptain

Apr 27, 2021 14:27

dungeon cousin posted:

Get to personally witness what happens to parasites and other organisms living in the body when they morph.

Actually, I wonder if it's related to how they can morph with tight clothing.

There is a canon answer to this in one of the ghostwritten books, where the Animorphs have been shrunken down and are inside Marco's bloodstream to save him from the tiny aliens that have taken him hostage, and he morphs into a cockroach despite orders not to because he's got rabies. They survive this, but it cures his rabies I think? It's a weird and shakey book, and I realized how weird something I just read as a child was even for this series when typing it out.

Epicurius

Apr 27, 2021 19:52

Animorphs Book 21-The Threat, Chapter 13

quote:

Trapped by a spider!

We were in the most secure building in the world. We were surrounded by the security forces of five nations, plus the Yeerks, and I'd been caught by a spider!

The spider advanced, cautious but not slow. It picked its way carefully across the strands of web. I could clearly see its bulging eyes: a pair much bigger, then two pairs of smaller eyes below. And I could see the cruel mouthparts, specifically designed for tearing apart insect flesh.

<Two minutes, Prince Jake!> Ax said.

<I'm demorphing!> David cried.

<No!> I roared. <You'll be crushed inside this duct.> I couldn't break loose of the web. At least not without some extra weight.

I began to demorph, maximum speed. I was a two-inch-long insect. A few moments later, I was a four-inch-long insect with some very weird features. The web sagged. I hit the metal floor of the duct.

<What are you doing?> Rachel yelled.

<Aaaahhhh!> Cassie cried suddenly.

<Cassie's hurt!> David yelled.

The spider kept advancing. I kept growing. I was five inches long.

Already my dragonfly features were being altered as human DNA began to reassert itself.

My backward vision showed the fleas, separated by more distance now, as the flesh beneath them swelled. But one flea was no longer well.
One flea was oozing blood. Blood was squishing out through the armored plates.

My blood! My morphing body must have created a semihuman artery! The sudden surge of blood pressure had burst Cassie's insides.
My mind was screaming. Cassie was hurt! The spider still coming on! My own body this weirdmess.

But I was free of the web! I buzzed my wings. Nothing! I was too large. I had to remorph, get back down to dragonfly size.

Shrinking ... too slow! And now the spider was bold again, advancing at an eight-legged trot. Its mouthparts were gnashing frantically.

I was morphing as fast as I could. Mostly dragonfly again, and free of the web. But Cassie had fallen off!

<One minute, Prince Jake,> Ax said, with a definite tone of desperation in his thought-speak voice.

<No! I'm not getting trapped like this!> David screamed. <No! NO! NOOO!>

He began to demorph. I buzzed my wings, lifted off, and spun quickly around in midair. I saw Cassie lying helpless on the floor. I swooped down, snatched her up in my jaws, and hauled like I have never hauled before. Back the way we'd come.

But now David was growing, weighing me down!

Too little time!

I saw the grate. I saw the vertical slats. I folded my wings, shot through, and screamed,

<DEMORPH! Now! Now! Now!>

Five fleas catapulted off my back and spun through the air, growing larger even as they fell.

<Cassie! Demorph!>

I released her. I watched her tumble away, out of sight as she fell and fell the millions of miles to the floor of the banquet room.

I was shedding the morph by the time I lit on a narrow, curved tabletop.

 Marco yelled.

My heart stopped beating. <No, no, no! Marco, keep trying! Keep trying!>

I was emerging myself, growing on the table-top. Wings disappearing, abdomen shrinking, legs thickening.

My own eyes were emerging, and through them I could see someone morphing not a foot away on the table. But it was like no morph I've ever seen. The person wasn't changing, but simply growing.

Growing as a flea. A one-foot-long flea. Larger. Two feet long!

Let me tell you something: There's a reason that insects gross people out. Someday go find ablowup photograph of a flea. And imagine it becoming human-sized.

It stood on six bristling legs. The body was the color of rust. It was narrow, as if it had been run over by a train. It was built of interlocking plates of armor. Its head was a hideous helmet, with a ring of spikes raked back all around the top and sides. At the bottom of the helmet were more spikes, like
some horrible parody of a mustache. Two stubby antennae protruded. Saber-toothed tiger "teeth" stuck straight down.

It had two black, button eyes. Dead, soulless eyes. It was now a flea as large as a dog.

<Marco?!> I cried.

<Oh, please, help me! Help me!>

If you're curious, here's what a flea's head looks like close up:

So, Marco is going to have other problems if he's trapped as a giant flea other than the fact that he's going to look ugly. There's a scientific law (discovered by Gallileo), called the square-cube law. Basically, it means, if something doubles in length, its surface area will increase by the square of that (so four times), and total volume by the cube of that (so 8 times). What this means in effect is that a flea that becomes human sized is going to be growing in size and weight faster than its own anatomy is going to grow. It's going to lack the muscular strength to move or even breathe. and its going to crush itself under its own weight.

Chapter 14

quote:

I could not stand to look at the thing.

<Marco?> I cried again. <MARCO!>

Marco trapped in some hideous, oversized flea body? And Cassie ... what had happened to Cassie?

Suddenly, over the edge of the table, she appeared. She was fully demorphed. Her own self, even though I was still only halfway through the process.

She looked right at Marco. She placed her hands on his sides, ignoring the sting of his bristles as they poked into her skin.

The flea ... Marco ... tried to jump. But the legs that could fire a flea through the air were too weak to move the huge thing he had become.

Square cube law.

quote:

"Come on, Marco," Cassie said calmly. "Clear your mind of all the fear. You can do this. You will morph. Focus on the picture of yourself. Form the picture in your mind. Let go of the fear and focus on the picture of your own body."

We were all demorphing. Rachel's head rose up above the table edge, then David, Ax. One by one they assumed their own forms. One by one they registered horror on their faces.

We all stared. Stared at the monstrous flea. And at Cassie.

And then, slowly, slowly, the armor plate began to soften into flesh. Slowly the mouthparts retreated. The spiked helmet melted into hair.

Slowly, slowly, Marco emerged.

At last he was sitting, his own self again, on the edge of the table. He looked at Cassie with his own, human eyes, and he did something I didn't think Marco was capable of. He put his arms around Cassie's shoulders and cried.

"Thank you," he whispered. "Thank you, Cassie. You saved my life." The rest of us were left staring at Cassie with expressions you could only describe as awe.

Rachel moved close to me and whispered in my ear. "Well, that sent a few chills up my spine."

I nodded. "Oh, yeah."

"That was like some kind of miracle," David said.

Marco slid off the table and wiped away his tears with the heel of his hand. Ax sent me one of those hard-to-define Andalite smiles, something they do with their eyes alone. 

"Okay," Marco said, snapping us all out of our trance. "Anyone bothered to notice where we are?"

I shook myself back to reality. "Yeah. I noticed before when we flew past earlier. That's why I didn't come here. Until we had no other choice. Ax! Stay alert, keep your tail ready. Rachel? We may need some firepower."

"What the - what is all this stuff?" David wondered, looking around the room. "And look at this room! It's like, huge!"

<This, unless I am mistaken,> Ax said calmly, <is a small-scale, portable Yeerk pool.>

We were standing in one corner of the ballroom. It was three times the size of our school cafeteria. There were rows of long tables, covered in white tablecloths. Overhead were massive crystal chandeliers. A red carpet with a floral pattern was all around us. All around, except in a circle where we were standing. At each corner of the room stood a massive, ornamental marble pillar, maybe ten feet in diameter.

And yet here, in one corner of the room, was a stainless steel tub about half as big as a backyard hot tub. Right where a pillar should have been.

"No way!" Rachel said, even as she began to morph into a grizzly bear. "Someone would have noticed, duh. There are security guys everywhere."
At that point her mouth became a muzzle.

"Rachel's right, there's no way to hide all this here," I agreed. "Unless ..."

Ax nodded. <Yes, Prince Jake. I believe we are standing inside a hologram.>

This is a very hologram heavy adventure. Also, even for the Animorphs, this has been a pretty traumatic adventure so far, have you noticed?

GodFish

Apr 27, 2021 23:02

No kidding