scrape_r_rational/data/cache2/3rnjhi.md

## The Reckoning Chapter 10: Cassie, an animorphs fanfic

* Author: u/callmebrotherg  *now posting as /u/callmesalticidae**
* URL: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11090259/10/r-Animorphs-The-Reckoning
* Score: 24

* Created: 2015-11-05T17:42:28

### Post:

[Link to content](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11090259/10/r-Animorphs-The-Reckoning)

### Comments:

> **u/booljayj** [+11]  (an hour later)
> 
> [Spoilers] Boy, this really opens up a can of worms. The physical body of a morph is itself a fully viable creature, completely controlled by the morpher's consciousness. That creates many intriguing parallels between the Yeerks and the Andalites.
> 
> Is a morph held in stasis in z-space the same way a morpher's body is? That would seem to make sense, and explain how the morphing process actually functions.
> 
> Can the morph learn new information, or does it get reset every time it's used? The fact that wounds completely disappear indicates the latter.
> 
> Cassie's newfound ability to go on autopilot seems a bit like releasing control of the morph body. Since Jake is essentially in a coma right now, does that mean that his body is still being controlled by "morpher-Jake", who is now dead? If "morpher-Jake" had put himself on autopilot before dying, would "morph-Jake" be awake and active right now? The Elfangor morph's reaction indicates he was fully aware while being controlled by Cassie, so "morph-Jake" is fully conscious, but completely unable to move his body. He may have a permanent case of locked-in syndrome.

>> **u/Kishoto** [+4]  (5 hours later)
>> 
>> I like your train of thought but I think it's too soon to assume that the Elfangor morph is a copy of Elfangor brain and consciousness. I think it's more likely that the reaction we see is some sort of automatic Andalite anti-yeerk body modification, as opposed to being a full copy of Elfangor himself.

>>> **u/ZainRiz** [+3]  *Dragon Army* (6 hours later)
>>> 
>>> Yeah, I agree that this is more likely to be some self-modification done by andalites, especially andalite soldiers, to instinctively kill themselves the moment a yerk looses control over them. 
>>> 
>>> If this was really a display of Elfangor's memories he would remember the last moments before Cassie acquired him and know that he's really Cassie in morph. 
>>> 
>>> There is no way that the Andalites didn't know what happens when you morph into another andalite and then you go into autopilot mode.  Elfangor would have been prepared for this happening if it was actually the case and not immediately tried to kill himself/Cassie

>>>> **u/callmebrotherg** [+10]  *now posting as /u/callmesalticidae* (7 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> I'm still putting my money on this being "Alloran's backdoor." Remember that bit from Esplin's chapter? 
>>>> 
>>>> > One—the Andalites had successfully replaced a human girl, with mimicry on par with that of a Yeerk. Conclusion: someone else in the Andalite chain of command had discovered Alloran's little back door.
>>>> 
>>>> Alloran's back door allows "mimicry on par with that of a Yeerk." 
>>>> 
>>>> This is probably what the autopilot is.

>>>>> **u/castleborg** [+4]  (9 hours later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> oh cool, that means they're not screwed, and jake is not dead...
>>>>> 
>>>>> ...unless the mind is reset and they have to go through this process *every time* they morph into Elfangor

>>>>>> **u/ZainRiz** [+2]  *Dragon Army* (9 hours later)
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Based on how the bodies self heal, my money is on reset

>> **u/None** [+1]  (3 days later)
>> 
>> > he physical body of a morph is itself a fully viable creature, completely controlled by the morpher's consciousness. That creates many intriguing parallels between the Yeerks and the Andalites.
>> 
>> The difference (as I reas it?) is that the morph's mind is runnning unless you specifically activate it, so unlike with a morph there is no suffering creaature supporting your life

> **u/nicholaslaux** [+10]  (3 hours later)
> 
> Several interesting possibilities from this.
> 
>  1. Given sentience and language persist, this seems to indicate that memories should be accessible from the morph, at least if you can get cooperation.
> 
>  2. What memories/personality/etc would a human-hybrid morph have? Some/all from both sources, none, or just whatever Cassie thinks they should?
> 
>  3. Given her ability to simply alter markings without needing to find an alternative morph, could Cassie create child/genderbent/different race morphs of people?
> 
>  4. Since morphs are capable of sentience and can be acquired... can you give morphing powers to a morph? Doing so, Cassie could literally embody her entire team and Elfangor to get everyone's input/memories/skills accessible at once. Is Cassie going to become Echo from Dollhouse?
> 
>  5. How different are attributes such as outer markings and internal attributes? Can Cassie acquire herself and then morph herself but incrementally smarter? If this can also be combined with giving morphs the ability to morph, then Cassie can become her own one-woman singularity.
> 
> -----
> 
> Personality corrections:
> 
>  - Cassie picking fights with animals in no way seems right, even with PTSD.
> 
>  - Cassie eating meat, even in-morph, seems out of character for her. I also likely would have expected her to be vegan, rather than not-even-quite vegetarian. A section showing her handling a morph that she eats in while on autopilot in a similar manner to how Tobias handled his transformation into more hawk than human (initially fear/disgust, then shame, and finally acceptance) might help with this characterization?
> 
>  - Cassie retreating from everyone *does* seem in character as a manner of coping with all of her loss.
> 
>  - Including more descriptions of what the morphs feel like from the inside might make it feel more Cassie-like, as I generally identify her with being more observant and aware of non-critical facts than the others, like the feathers itching as they turn to 3d or even just the mental pressure that the fly feels towards really wanting to play in that pile of poop. (The latter may not be valid with the new form of morphing, since it seems like the whole "overwhelming instincts" from the original books is no longer present.)

>> **u/TK17Studios** [+7]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (14 hours later)
>> 
>> Thanks, Nicholas.  This comment is awesome, and you should feel awesome.  I appreciate the time you took to write all that up.  <3

>>> **u/nicholaslaux** [+2]  (2 days later)
>>> 
>>> Sure thing, thanks for writing it. If you make changes, I assume they'll be posted with the next chapter?

>>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+1]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (2 days later)
>>>> 
>>>> Yep.

> **u/natron88** [+5]  *Ankh-Morpork City Watch* (18 minutes later)
> 
> That was unexpected.
> This has implications for all the human morphs they've been doing.

>> **u/gabbalis** [+7]  (29 minutes later)
>> 
>> Hah! Andelites must look like huge hypocrites to the yerks that know about this.

>>> **u/callmebrotherg** [+9]  *now posting as /u/callmesalticidae* (2 hours later)
>>> 
>>> I'd love to see the debates between Visser Three and Alloran.

>>> **u/castleborg** [+3]  (16 hours later)
>>> 
>>> only if they morph sentient beings. Also, most andelites do not know - it's alloran's (and now Visser three's) secret.

> **u/KnickersInAKnit** [+3]  (2 hours later)
> 
> Pretty sure the knees don't reverse...horse limbs are homologous to ours and everything bends the same way, it's just the length of the sections that are different. 
> 
> http://itc.gsw.edu/faculty/bcarter/histgeol/paleo2/limbs.jpg
> 
> EDIT: Oh wait, you're not the author. How should I get this to the author?

>> **u/TK17Studios** [+11]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (3 hours later)
>> 
>> I'm the author, and I'm aware of this.  However, Andalites in this fic look VERY different, as a result of a process that started with the questions "WHY do they have a JAWBONE if they don't have MOUTHS," and "HOW HOW HOW would centaurism ACTUALLY work," asked in a very loud voice.

>>> **u/CopperZirconium** [+8]  (5 hours later)
>>> 
>>> Can we see a sketch of what your Andalites look like? If you don't feel artistic enough, send me a list of your changes and I can try to sketch something up.

>>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+7]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (13 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> More centipede/scorpion-esque, though not actually armored/segmented.  The four legs are shorter, and the arms are longer, along the lines of insects that alternate between using their forelimbs as legs and as pincers.  This makes them less delicate/more muscular than in canon, allowing for a six-legged sprint/skitter.
>>>> 
>>>> Because of this, the torso is often downward-facing, meaning that the front eyes point down toward the ground and slightly forward (like you looking where your feet are going when you're on rugged terrain).  The nostrils are similarly on the front, where they can easily access the ground.  There's no neck, and not MUCH of a "head," but there is a cranium and the brain is there, in the front, close to the nostrils and the eyes.
>>>> 
>>>> Speaking of eyes, that's how we got the stalk eyes—the creature had four, and two of them migrated up and out, becoming capable of 360 vision.  So your main eyes point down, and your stalk eyes point everywhere else.
>>>> 
>>>> There's a highly flexible joint in the spine that allows for centauring, not as a default, but as an easy switch a la apes switching from knuckle walking to upright walking.  The whole chest/arm/head thing can come up to 90 degrees from the rest of the spine and balance without needing to exert constant muscular effort.
>>>> 
>>>> To balance this, the tail is much longer and thicker—it's an actual counterweight for when the arms are no longer supporting the torso.  It's long enough to strike forward over the shoulder even when the head is down (i.e. it's longer than the whole rest of the body put together).
>>>> 
>>>> I think those are the main things.  Still eats through the feet, still furred, still blue.  Still has ears (pointy).

>>>>> **u/CopperZirconium** [+6]  (2 days later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> Does [this](http://i.imgur.com/B4bjYFX.png) look similar to what you are thinking? Or are your Andalites  more insectoid?

>>>>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+2]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (2 days later)
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> !!Cool!!
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> It's pretty close.  Things I would change:
>>>>>>  - No neck, so the transition from body to head is unrelated to the shoulders.  The head should just be a taper or a dome, I think, and it' either a little farther on from the shoulders, or the eyes are in a more "chest" position.
>>>>>>  - Main eyes are good.  I think nostril should be higher, either centered between them or even "above" such that it's foremost when in the lowered mode (like a dog's snout).  Rear eyes should be further behind, on the "back" of the skull, such that they're up and free when the torso is down.
>>>>>>  - Whole thing should be SLIGHTLY beefier.  Like, one weight class up, in wrestling?  This looks like Ax rather than like Elfangor, if that makes sense.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> You are good at drawing!  And at concepting!  Thanks for this, and if you feel like doing another version, thanks for that, too—it'll make me really happy!

>>>>>>> **u/CopperZirconium** [+8]  (2 days later)
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> [Updated!](http://i.imgur.com/gfI0PiH.png) I fixed the head, but I  forgot to add and define more muscle. :/
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Oh, and I added the title in Animorphs font. Feel free to use it as the story's title picture.

>>>>>>>> **u/nicholaslaux** [+2]  (2 days later)
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> Thanks for doing this, it is amazing

>>>>> **u/None** [+2]  (3 days later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> Interesting! I like the change, makes them definitively more alien. 
>>>>> 
>>>>> Have you any thoughts on the other alien species? Asuming you are still sticking to broad strokes of canon:
>>>>> 
>>>>> *  Hork Bajir seem to still be roughly humanoid, which makes sense anyway if they are an arboreal species. But theres no reason for them to stick so closely to human psychology, gender and social norms. 
>>>>> 
>>>>> * Taxxons were already pretty alien, but you could do some interesting stuff with teh living hive that was briefly mentioned in the andelite chronicles. Though you might want to avoid the hive mind insect species cliche
>>>>> 
>>>>> * No real reason for the Leeran's to be roughly humanoid as they were in canon. Maybe something more octopus/jellyfish like? Could maybe tie the mind reading into electrical signal detection via their tentacles
>>>>> 
>>>>> * Those are the only ones I know canonically exist in this version, have you decided anything about the more obscure species?

>>>>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+2]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (5 days later)
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I've put the most thought into the Andalites and the Yeerks.  Yeerks are as-significantly-different as Andalites, though we haven't seen much of that on-screen yet.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Hork Bajir will remain basically unchanged in terms of external morphology.  I haven't given any particular thought yet to their psychological or sociological stuff, but I agree that it makes more sense to change those than to leave them the same.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Taxxons were, iirc, literally exactly a particular species of caterpillar/centipede, just blown up to ridiculous size.  I sort of loved that—the alienness of something completely Terran, and will probably leave them unchanged.  They won't have any sort of hive mind, though, because I'm saving those points for elsewhere in the series.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Leerans were froggy, not humanoid, I think.  They'll continue being weird, and may or may not be relevant in a larger sense, though V3 definitely has and uses a Leeran morph.  Trivia: where in the story has a Leeran morph already appeared?
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> You'll note that the Chee are significantly different (not doglike, not humanlike, six-limbed with no heads), and there are major changes to the Pemalites that will be quite important to the story in time.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> HOWLERS.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> ARN.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> CRAYAK.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I'll likely throw in at least one or two alien species of my own invention, just on general principle.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A HELMACRON.

>>> **u/KnickersInAKnit** [+4]  (4 hours later)
>>> 
>>> Okay, fair enough. It sat a bit wrong with me when I initially saw it as the original series had knees reversing for morphs like the wolf, which really made no sense at all.

>>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+3]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (14 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> Yeah, that bugged me, too.

>>>> **u/Nighzmarquls** [+1]  (14 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> A common statement is morphing does not FOLLOW sensible anatomical relationships. Things erupt all over and in very silly/absurd ways.
>>>> 
>>>> Honestly the animorphs are lucky that skin doesn't just vanish more often then not.

>>> **u/TBestIG** [+2]  *Every second of quibbling is another dead baby* (7 hours later)
>>> 
>>> How different are they?

>>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+3]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (13 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> Check under CopperZirconium.

>>>> **u/callmebrotherg** [+1]  *now posting as /u/callmesalticidae* (21 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/3rnjhi/the_reckoning_chapter_10_cassie_an_animorphs/cwqfwmy

> **u/Salivanth** [+4]  (8 hours later)
> 
> Can't wait to find out what happened to Tobias. Clearly, the loss of the distress beacon means there's been a decisive development with Ax, one way or the other.
> 
> Also...wow. This "autopilot" thing may change everything. Looks like the "become Elfangor" idea may still be viable after all, unless the autopilot is just a generic Andalite, perhaps the creator of the morphing technology. But that seems unlikely.

> **u/Salivanth** [+4]  (a day later)
> 
> Oh, wow, I just realised, this explains how the Animorphs were able to wake up every two hours without feeling horrible the next day! Marco even used "Can't sleep lol" as his check-in message.
> 
> Of course he couldn't sleep; his morph copy was well rested and wide awake! I'd been wondering why they didn't mention how exhausting it was.

>> **u/TK17Studios** [+1]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (a day later)
>> 
>> Remember, though, you're robbing Peter to pay Paul ... EVENTUALLY you're going to hit a point where you're in your regular body and exhausted, or repeatedly morphing back through an exhausted body that never rests.  Jake was tired.

>>> **u/iamthelowercase** [+2]  (11 days later)
>>> 
>>> I feel like I've spoted a plot (technology?) hole, but my very casual check isn't backing it up very well.
>>> 
>>> When he's giving them morphing powers, Elfangor says
>>> 
>>> > The technology draws its power from the background radiation of the universe, which is not present outside of normal space.
>>> 
>>> _How long_ does it take to recharge?  And, plot-hole-wise, could it recharge in the proportionally tiny amount of time Cassie was spending out of morph?

>>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+2]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (11 days later)
>>>> 
>>>> It's hand-wavey.  You're right that in a FULLY rationalist rewrite, I would need to delve deeper into this.  In my brain, the way this is working is that the bulk of the energy expenditure comes in the transition—the building of the construct, setting up the hyperspace link, etc.  That's why morphing exhaustion kicks in after multiple changes in rapid succession, but why sustained BEING IN morph doesn't cause similar problems.
>>>> 
>>>> Somewhat BS.  My focus was elsewhere; this is an actual weakness of my chosen explanations.  But I think (and hope others agree) that I got sufficient value out of putting thought elsewhere to make it the right move.
>>>> 
>>>> +1 for paying attention, though.  =)

>>>>> **u/iamthelowercase** [+1]  (14 days later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> Ah, hand-wavey.  That settles it.  With it being acknowledged as hand-wavey, I'm cool.  After all, the "why" of the rules is hardly ever the point of these things, is it?

>>> **u/Salivanth** [+1]  (a day later)
>>> 
>>> True. I forgot that Cassie was going through a whole bunch of DIFFERENT morphs during her six days of not sleeping, hence why she was able to stay awake and alert for so long.

>>>> **u/Zephyr1011** [+2]  *Potentially Unfriendly Aspiring Divinity* (a day later)
>>>> 
>>>> I wouldn't think that changing the morphs mattered. Morphs can't be permanently wounded, so I'd imagine they also get rejuvenated. I think the issue is more that you have to spend some time in your normal body between morphs, which builds up and adds to exhaustion

>>>>> **u/Salivanth** [+2]  (2 days later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> Not for long; it takes about three minutes or so to morph and demorph IIRC, so if you did that once per hour, and the entire three minutes of morphing and demorphing counted as your regular body (unlikely), you still wouldn't reach your bedtime level of tiredness for about two weeks. If you were willing to pull a virtual all-nighter, that's about five weeks.

>>> **u/None** [+1]  (3 days later)
>>> 
>>> True, but the ability to sleep when and where you want to is quite valuable, you can save up your energy and sleep for the best time

> **u/chaosmosis** [+3]  *and with strange aeons, even death may die* (9 hours later)
> 
> wowowow
> 
> I don't agree with those who say Cassie is too OOC. She's not acting as a human who beats up animals for cruelty, she's acting as a human who's buried within an animal who chooses to attack other animals for somewhat pragmatic and somewhat emotional reasons. She took care to avoid seriously injuring the animals she fought with, and that seems like a realistic amount of concern for someone training for war. For her to do this certainly requires a reinterpretation of her canon character, but I don't think it's an unreasonable one.

>> **u/nicholaslaux** [+3]  (2 days later)
>> 
>> To be fair, I can accept changes as being departures from the original, but the author explicitly asked for feedback on making her feel more Cassie-like, which is where my comments stemmed from. 
>> 
>> If anything, black box psychic Jake seemed like much more of a departure from canon, I just assumed it was intentional.

> **u/None** [+3]  (3 days later)
> 
> Cassie managed to discover the backdoor/autopilot switch after about a week of continuous experimentation. But we are told that the andalite military doesn't know about it in Esplin/Alloran's internal monologue. This leads to a few possibilities: 
> 
> * The andalites never experimented to that degree with morphing, which seems unlikely in the extreme given this version of the andalite military seems far more competent/ruthless
> * Alternatively the 'autopilot' option for nonsentient animals is known about and used by andalite military, but not the option to activate memories of sentient creatures
> 
> * -Possible explanation, morphing other sentients is uncommon or tabboo (i can definitely see there being a law/tabboo against mophing another andalite, but seems less likely with aliens given their known disdain for other species)
> * Alternatively this option is not possible for most andalites that use the morphing power for whatever reason. Maybe Cassie has a unique talent in morphing, like in canon that has allowed her to unlock it. 
> 
> * Or Elfangors morphing device was in some way different from the standard one, it would be in character for him to have jailbroken it in some way (maybe that would be necessary to give the power to non-andalites, ) but it didn't seem like he knew this would happen, or he would have said something.

> **u/Zephyr1011** [+2]  *Potentially Unfriendly Aspiring Divinity* (56 minutes later)
> 
> Really interesting implications from this chapter. A somewhat irritating follow on from the previous cliff hanger though

>> **u/TK17Studios** [+4]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (an hour later)
>> 
>> Setting up dominoes, sorry.  Also, I've decided to stick to a consistent order, which means that we see Tobias next.  Occupational hazard of splitting the party.

> **u/castleborg** [+2]  (16 hours later)
> 
> So, another problem with this is that now it might still be immoral to give the yeerks morphing power. So the canonical solution to the war won't work with sentients, the yeerks will have to settle for non-sentient bodies.

>> **u/Salivanth** [+4]  (19 hours later)
>> 
>> The canonical solution to the war would never have worked anyway. In canon, the Yeerks agreed to become nothlits. In The Reckoning, you don't become an animal permanently, you (as defined by your brain) cease to exist. Somehow, I don't think the Yeerks would go for that.

>>> **u/castleborg** [+3]  (21 hours later)
>>> 
>>> Oh yeah :/ well we don't necessarily have to make them nothlits, it's just a question of if we can trust them enough to play cooperate

>>>> **u/None** [+1]  (3 days later)
>>>> 
>>>> There's no reason not to cooperate once you have morphing power, the tradeoff of not having to continuously fight against your host and the  multiple bodies it allows you makes it a better lifestyle even if you are totally non altuistic.

>>>>> **u/castleborg** [+1]  (3 days later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> Yeah, but assuming roughly humanlike yeerks, in real life you don't just hand North nuclear technology, even if everyone's aware that it's more rational to not get into nuclear fights right? Once the yeerks have morphing it could tip the balance of power such that they can overpower the andelites.

>> **u/None** [+1]  (3 days later)
>> 
>> > the yeerks will have to settle for non-sentient bodies
>> 
>> My impression was that the morph's brain wasn't 'running' until Cassie turned it on, so theres no mind continuously suffering durng the morph

> **u/castleborg** [+2]  (a day later)
> 
> Implication - if you acquire a controller, a yeerk might still be inside when you morph into it

>> **u/callmebrotherg** [+3]  *now posting as /u/callmesalticidae* (a day later)
>> 
>> Hmmm...
>> 
>> Very interesting. If so, then you could probably remove the Yeerk before demorphing. I wonder if the Yeerk would remain. If yes, then you have a Yeerk to interrogate. If not, then I'm sure that one could find a use for a magically-disappearing Yeerk.

>>> **u/None** [+2]  (3 days later)
>>> 
>>> > I wonder if the Yeerk would remain.
>>> 
>>> IF severed limbs remain, then probably?

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