25 KiB
r Animorphs: The Reckoning Chapter 12
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Author: u/xamueljones My arch-enemy is entropy*
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URL: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11090259/12/r-Animorphs-The-Reckoning
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Score: 42
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Created: 2015-12-17T12:45:10
Post:
Comments:
u/Kishoto [+12] (26 minutes later)
I like how Aximili was conveyed. It was an impressive combination of keeping somewhat faithful to canon, while still having the rationalist flair that the rest of the story has.
u/ZeroNihilist [+9] (4 hours later)
Spoilers ahead, mobile users. It's just text from the chapter with my interpretations, but you should read the update before this comment.
Lots of really cool detail in this one.
u/TK17Studios [+11] Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning (6 hours later)
[Author responses; seek clarification at your own risk.] (#s "Eib, dain, and hirac are all layers of the same mental architecture, which evolved coincidentally with telepathy. In this AU, taking Alloran was the VERY FIRST move of the war, meaning that the Andalites were not aware of the Yeerks as a threat at the time. Hooray base seven; this was layered in earlier but is way more obvious when you're inside Ax's head. Hooray taboos. The Path is more than just military doctrine (it's a term I made up and isn't part of canon). It's more an expression of the incredible social pressure that emerges from a telepathic society, in which the prevailing belief simply IS the quote, truth, unquote. This was previously 'translated' as must-should-please-truth-unity in the interlude, to show that there are all kinds of shades of meaning, but in the absolute, it's simply the image of a well-trodden path—'this is where/how everyone walks.' Bright: near-certain, glow: likely, shade: iffy, dark: wishful thinking.")
u/DCarrier [+6] (7 hours later)
Earlier, Elfangor used base two. I suppose it's possible that they just use both of them. Sort of like how programmers prefer powers of two when dealing with computers.
u/TK17Studios [+7] Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning (9 hours later)
I'd imagine EVERY high-technology species eventually stumbles on the advantages of base two, i.e. I'd predict most species would have whatever-they-tumbled-to-based-on-environment, and also base two. Humans: 10 and 2; Andalites: 7 and 2; Yeerks: ? and 2; Godlike beings: ? and ?
u/CouteauBleu [+4] We are the Empire. (9 hours later)
Come on, that's obvious.
Yeerks : Base 13 (cuz theyr evul !!1) and 2.
Godlike beings : Base 42 and 1.
u/MugaSofer [+2] (a day later)
Well, there is the Council of Thirteen, so I guess that's supported by canon.
u/TK17Studios [+3] Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning (a day later)
They also have (in mine, not in canon) squadrons of thirteen ships.
u/The_Bobs_of_Mars [+2] (9 hours later)
Well, the Babylonians had base 60. Figure that one out.
u/ZeroNihilist [+3] (21 hours later)
Base 60 is derived from the same reasoning we use base 60 for time. It's very easy to divide.
Divisors of 7 are 1 and 7.
Divisors of 10 are 1, 2, 5, and 10.
Divisors of 60 are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, and 60.
If the Babylonians didn't know about fractions and decimals (technically sexagidecimals), being able to divide easily is more convenient than having a reduced symbol set.
u/booljayj [+1] (2 days later)
They counted on their fingers. They had a different way of doing so using the joints instead of the whole digits, which let them count to 60 on both hands.
u/The_Bobs_of_Mars [+1] (2 days later)
Could you show me the technique? I'm coming up short no matter what I do.
Edit: Nevermind, I found an explanation of it. Thanks!
u/ttk2 [+8] (7 hours later)
Is this good all the way through? I just read the first chapter or two a few nights ago and had to put it down, Animorphs was depressing enough without the rational twist, with it its heartbreaking.
One Punch Man was much less rational but much more upbeat.
u/TK17Studios [+8] Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning (8 hours later)
If you had to put it down at chapter two, you definitely don't want to read (e.g.) chapters 3, 4, 8, or 10. You'll probably be happier dropping it.
I really, really, really want the protagonists to get their feet under them, and win (I have a goal of writing a happy ending), but I've committed to realism/rationalism first, and if I can't find a way to solve a problem, I just let the problem win. Some of the tragedies thus far were "accidental" in this way—I didn't intend for them to happen, as an author, but couldn't think of a believable way to avoid them.
u/CouteauBleu [+11] We are the Empire. (10 hours later)
You gave yourself a pretty big challenge, then. Because starting with the yeerks being competently lead AND opening the war like you said they did AND having foolproof hologram technology AND a orbital-bombing-proof forcefield AND biofilters AND space jets good enough to blockade a planet with a fleet of four AND Earth being Class 5 AND the Andalite military being close to their canon portrayal... are you sure you want the protagonists to win ? Because the only thing that could make the situation worse (outside of the yeerks having even more technology) would be Visser being savvy enough to start his invasion in India.
I mean, I guess you're trying to steelman the yeerks, and I'm making a lot of assumptions here, but they look kind of invincible here. Worst case scenario for them : the Andalites discover them and glass the planet while they're on it. Second worst case scenario : the locals discover them early, fight back successfully, start reverse-engineering yeerk tech, the yeerk leave and glass the planet just to be safe. At this point I would say the only thing that can save Earth is either a really good plan involving the Chey (a good step 1 would be "go to the military, and ask them to provide a plan") or my own organisation, provided the YPM has or will have an equivalent in this continuity.
u/TK17Studios [+9] Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning (11 hours later)
Lightsaber; Death Star.
The Animorphs are also leveled up pretty hard. Invincible bodies, explicit subsuperpowers (Jake's intuitive cognitive modeling, for instance), having the cube from the beginning, several additional hacks whose foundation is public but which people haven't tumbled to, yet. What we're primed for is not an easy Yeerk victory; it's a general bloodbath. The kind of chess match where nobody takes pieces at all until the board is so thoroughly mixed that when it finally tips, things don't stop happening until all that's left is three pawns, a bishop, a queen, and two kings.
Plus, don't forget that Andalites are starting out near their canon portrayal, but are quick learners—a SINGLE STRATEGIST revolutionized the whole military, which isn't that crazy from the perspective of one-guy-saw-a-better-way, but IS pretty remarkable from the perspective of everybody-sat-up-and-listened.
Plus don't forget [REDACTED]. That's going to matter a lot, eventually.
u/Salivanth [+5] (2 days later)
So what you're saying is, what's happened so far counts as the board mixing without pieces being taken?
Jesus Christ.
u/TK17Studios [+3] Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning (2 days later)
I'm so sorry for your (future) loss.
u/Salivanth [+3] (3 days later)
Oh, believe me, I'm extremely excited to see it. If this is the opening gambit, I think The Reckoning is going to make Game of Thrones look tame. I just can't wait to see the level of mess and carnage that happens when a hyper-lethal battle occurs and even the author genuinely does not know who will win.
...Oh. "The Reckoning". I think I see why that's the title now. This is going to be the best story ever.
u/Evan_Th [+2] Sunshine Regiment (2 days later)
which isn't that crazy from the perspective of one-guy-saw-a-better-way, but IS pretty remarkable from the perspective of everybody-sat-up-and-listened.
After thinking about that overnight, that sounds a lot more plausible in a telepathic species with a dain functioning something like a group mind. Everyone else can hear Alloran's case in much greater detail than he could spell it out in English, and they can almost see his thought processes. Meanwhile, his detractors would need to come up with much more polished excuses to survive the dain, or else reveal they're just fishing for excuses.
u/CouteauBleu [+1] We are the Empire. (a day later)
Oh you are so going speculation
u/lucyfur919 [+3] Chaos Legion (a day later)
u/CouteauBleu [+3] We are the Empire. (2 days later)
If it were possible, that would actually be a lot more likely to work. But no, because earplugs. Damn.
u/TK17Studios [+2] Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning (2 days later)
Nothlit Jake has no earplugs.
u/CouteauBleu [+2] We are the Empire. (2 days later)
Wait, really ? Weren't they supposed to stay through morphs ? For that matter, can Yeerks control a non-nothlit construct, or does the subspace body have precedence ? (please don't actually answer these questions, I'm just thinking out loud :p)
u/ttk2 [+5] (9 hours later)
well I'll probably end up reading it anyways, its very well written good job, its just the idea is so horrifying its like reading anitmemetic SCP's but with more character development to make you feel bad for them.
u/abcd_z [+4] (13 hours later)
if I can't find a way to solve a problem, I just let the problem win.
Interesting. In comparison, another rationalist author (Velorien) has stated: "My approach to writing [Lighting Up the Dark (a rationalist Naruto fanfiction)] battle scenes is 'here is the challenge; how would Naruto respond to it?' If I can't find an answer that doesn't result in a Total Party Kill, I don't lower the challenge. I just think harder until I come up with something."
I suppose that's mostly a difference in tone between the two underlying stories; Naruto is a typical shonen anime and Velorien's work reflects that, while Animorphs has a recurring theme of "war is hell", which you seem to be keeping. (I guess? I haven't read your story because I prefer lighter stories.)
u/CouteauBleu [+8] We are the Empire. (a day later)
The thing is, "think harder" is not exactly a solution to realistic combat problems. Worm and Pact from Wildbow do it a lot, and sometimes the result is a very powerful scene (Echidna versus Skitter, Defiant and Dragon arresting Skitter), but on the whole I feel it cheapens the tension (the whole S9000 arc feels a lot less desperate when you know that, no matter how bad things get, Skitter is just going to pull a last minute trick that solves everything). I'm glad Twigs relies on it less. On the one hand, you still have enemies like Sub Rose defeated with a secret don't tell the audience plan, on the other hand you have situations like the ghost thing where their solution is to shoot the mastermind in the face (sort of).
u/None [+8] (8 hours later)
Very good. Interesting to see the expansion of the andalites mental capabilities, and the fact that they dont innately work with humans is nice.
Seeing Ax's thought process was a good intro to the character without being too infodumpy.
I didn't realise at first this was happening concurrently with the yeerk pool chapter, but that may just be because its a while since I read them.
The fact that the ear implants can also remove yeerks from an already infested person is interesting, I dont think there was any way to do so in canon. Seems like a totally sensible invention for the andalites to have, and removes any tiresome waiting periods.
u/PeridexisErrant [+4] put aside fear for courage, and death for life (10 hours later)
At the cost of permanent mental damage, though.
u/TimTravel [+1] (a day later)
It's unclear how much damage it is.
I don't know if it's possible but theoretically a yeerk could spitefully destroy the brain of a host that it's being starved out of. Destruction is much easier than control.
u/Evan_Th [+2] Sunshine Regiment (a day later)
I dont think there was any way to do so in canon.
It's been years since I read canon, but one other fanfic said that a creature called the vanarx could do it? And implied that it was the same in canon?
u/TK17Studios [+4] Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning (a day later)
Correct—Vanarx in canon. Readers of SlateStarCodex will recognize later when the term "vanarx" ≈ "Moloch."
u/Evan_Th [+5] Sunshine Regiment (a day later)
I don't really understand what you just said... but I'm looking forward to SSC!Moloch getting involved. (More than it already is, I mean!)
u/CouteauBleu [+5] We are the Empire. (9 hours later)
Yaaay awesome !!
It seems that Ax is now regretting not paying attention in his "Alien first contact" classes. Truly, the Animorphs multiverse would be a different place if he weren't such a blue-alien-female-centaurizer during his high school years.
Hoorray for base seven. Wait, why not base 14 ?
I like how the first Visser chapter has Alloran going "Who could be stupid enough to completely abandon the advantage of surprise for no benefit at all ?" And then Ax goes and takes out three controllers for not reason. Okay, he knew the surprise was lost anyway, but still. Dangerous.
So, Andalite translation magitech is a thing ? Even in Andalite Chronicles, I thought it was odd, especially if we assume it works with languages harder than English, like French, Deutch or Latin. Like, look at French. You have a straightforward Subjet-Verb-Complement structure at the core, then you add stuff on top. Except you'd need a lot of time to figure that out, because each verb has six forms (for the indicative present tense alone, we're not talking about past or future or conditional here), which are pretty close for some verb families (je mange, tu manges, il mange, nous mangeons, vous mangez, ils mangent) and completely different for others (je suis, tu es, il est, nous sommes, vous êtes, il sont), so you'd need to hear a lot of people using the same verb in different contexts to figure out it's different variations of the same word dependent on its context. Latin is even worse, with no sentence structure and a billion different forms for nouns, let alone verbs. and that's not accounting for complicated sentence structures and colloquialisms. So I guess the moral is we're lucky Ax didn't land in France, or less it would have taken him weeks to make his translator work. (okay, probably just a few hours, if he can get the humans to read a dictionary)
u/booljayj [+4] (9 hours later)
Ax remembers that Elfangor called the native inhabitants "humans", which indicates that they must have studied humans at some point. I think the translator must be working from a database that the Andalites already created when gathering information on Earth. It's not a real-time thing like in Star Trek, it's more like Google Translate.
u/CouteauBleu [+6] We are the Empire. (10 hours later)
If it works like in canon, and what Ax says suggests it does, then it actually builds the database from listening to their conversations. Like, self-improving Google Translate that can integrate new languages. The thing is, the time-frame suggested is "listen to a few sentences, then you understand the structure so you get what they say", when it should take hours at least for the translator to even have an idea what is an English noun and what is a verb (even though English is a pretty simple language). I mean, look at this comment section. How many different words do you see ? For each of them, Ax would need the humans to say those words several time in different contexts before he could have an idea what their meaning is, which is pretty unlikely since they don't know anything about him and he can't communicate to them.
Hence, magitech.
u/None [+7] (14 hours later)
Less magical when your computers apparently have psychic interfaces. Translating meaning of words is easier with impressions /images attached as a starting point
u/TK17Studios [+2] Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning (13 hours later)
Hmmm. This may be worth a retweak—you've explicitly stated some things that were bothering me beneath the surface.
I should note that work's been crazy, and I had to pull a work-related all-nighter Tuesday when I should have been writing this, so things are somewhat rushed and not as polished as I'd like (I've said this three updates in a row, I think). So I wouldn't mind a general rework anyway, and this could be folded into it.
u/Zephyr1011 [+4] Potentially Unfriendly Aspiring Divinity (2 days later)
Could the translator work by translating meaning directly from the minds of people Ax talks to, rather than the words themselves? Given that thoughtspeak seems at least vaguely functional, albeit with side effects, it seems vaguely plausible that Andalite technology could allow that. So it would allow him to speak, but not to say read in the language.
u/nicholaslaux [+2] (a day later)
While I agree with the general thrust of what you're saying (language is magitech) I disagree with your analysis that English would be easier than french/latin/German.
The structure you identify in the other languages at least exists; in English you have the much less useful scenario where one word may in fact turn out to be 6 different words, depending entirely upon context and the words around it.
So, if you scan a basic book of grammar rules and then scan active conversations, you're likely to learn a lot more than you would with a less structured language like English.
If you don't take the first step, it might be slightly harder to learn the base words, but will still be easier to learn the grammatical rules than in a language like English where they're only loosely followed and always have exceptions.
u/Schpwuette [+1] (2 days later)
Translation magitech that works in seconds isn't going to get even slightly confused by conjugations!
Conjugations are in every language:To be, I am, you are, he is, they/we/you(plural) are.
Freeze, froze, frozen.
Swear, swore, sworn.
I'm sure a few more sets of conjugations wouldn't change much.And, the only reason (the existence of) English sentence structure seems easy to understand to you is that you already know English!
u/CouteauBleu [+2] We are the Empire. (2 days later)
Nope, I'm French. And having had to learn French (as a kid), English and a bit of Latin (as a teenager), I can tell you English is much, much easier. French has an entire category of verbs that is defined by "The rules don't apply to them, they all have their own rules". Most English verbs have only four different forms (present, third person present, -ing, past), while French verbs have six different forms, one per person, for the present tense alone. French tenses include, but are not limited to :
Simple Present, Simple Future, Anterior Future, Conditional Present, Compound Past, Simple Past (or Perfect), Imperfect, Overperfect, each with their different six forms for each person.
"Je suis, tu es, il est, nous sommes, vous êtes, ils sont, je serai, tu seras, il sera, nous serons, vous serez, ils seront, j'étais, tu étais, il était, nous étions, vous étiez, ils étaient, je fus, tu fus, il fut, nous fumes, vous futes, ils furent, que je sois, que tu sois, qu'il soit, que nous soyons, que vous soyez, qu'ils soient, etc..."
u/Schpwuette [+1] (2 days later)
Nope, I'm French.
Oh :o
I am too (half)! Let me adjust my argument: it only seems easy to you because you're European! And, well, maybe English is a little easier since it's a more of a mix of languages than French, and when languages mix they get simpler.BUT! Not to the point that it makes a difference to a magitech translator that decoded English in seconds.
u/TimTravel [+5] (a day later)
Yesssss, new chapter!
In canon it was Visser One (not Three) that discovered humanity's potential for infection (class five species), leading to her promotion. Is that an intentional divergence? I guess Ax might not know that.
What are Narahans again? Were they the first species yeerks infected on their homeworld?
How come Elfangor could thought-speak to humans but Ax couldn't?
Interesting that Tobias is the first Animorph Ax meets since they're the closest in canon.
edit: PS: when Animorphs came out there were only about 5 billion humans, not 7.
edit2: Weaponized yeerk-siezures by directly thought-speaking to them?
u/booljayj [+5] (2 days later)
You're thinking of the Gedd. Narahans are something new.
u/CouteauBleu [+4] We are the Empire. (2 days later)
We don't know yet.
We don't know yet.
Practice.
Animorphs took place in the 90s. This fic's Jake got a PS4 for his birthday (and that makes me feel old, when did the PS2 become retro ?) so we're 7 billions now.
Probably a standard Andalite tactic. Telepathy means you can move the molecules in people's brains means you can randomize their brains, thereby acquire their whatever.
u/chaosmosis [+4] and with strange aeons, even death may die (a day later)
7/7
u/CouteauBleu [+2] We are the Empire. (9 hours later)
---TYPO - THREAD ---
The line that starts with "The crade could be deceived" needs one more closing parenthesis.
u/TK17Studios [+1] Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning (11 hours later)
Appreciated. =)
u/noggin-scratcher [+2] I am a happy tree (3 days later)
I have no particular insight but it sounds like regular little notes of "I'm reading this and I like it" are good for author morale.
Because I am, and I am. I can't really see an outcome where a truly competent Visser 3 loses, but I'll gladly read the story of how they tried their best, and maybe I'll be surprised.