scrape_r_rational/data/cache2/5f2vld.md

## [RT][FF] r!Animorphs: The Reckoning, Chapter 24: Rachel

* Author: u/ketura  *Organizer**
* URL: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11090259/31/r-Animorphs-The-Reckoning
* Score: 48

* Created: 2016-11-27T01:35:15

### Post:

[Link to content](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11090259/31/r-Animorphs-The-Reckoning)

### Comments:

> **u/LieGroupE8** [+26]  ** (3 hours later)
> 
> This may be my favorite chapter so far. The entire scene with everyone getting into everyone else's head was brilliant, beautiful, disturbing, and poignant. Somehow, it gave me the same emotions I felt reading the original series when I was a kid, when I was invested enough into the characters that they felt like friends.
> 
> The part where Rachel is talking to the morph of Marco - it was very indirect, and I'm still not *quite* sure what it was about, but does Marco have a crush on Jake? I couldn't see another way to read that.

>> **u/philh** [+5]  (5 hours later)
>> 
>> Yes, and Rachel has one on Cassie.

>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+23]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (5 hours later)
>>> 
>>> No, Rachel *thought* she had one on Cassie, while she was mixed up in Jake's head, but she got squared away in the end.  It's just Marco.
>>> 
>>> Poor, poor Marco.  It's rather more than just a crush.
>>> 
>>> Edit: depending on how you view such things, I've either been *dropping hints* or *laying the groundwork* for a long time, now.  There's Marco's distress when Jake goes comatose; Marco's reaction when Jake wakes up; his snide dig at Cassie when both of them waited to be the last one to talk to him, privately, by the fire; his previous intention (seen by Rachel) to morph Jake's body (that's why she already knows); etc. etc.
>>> 
>>> My hope is that this will feel sort of natural and obvious in retrospect, but also not have been big in everybody's faces up until this point (and not really after, either, as Jake doesn't return the favor and Marco's determined that it NOT MATTER).

>>>> **u/Aretii** [+15]  *Cultist of Cthugha* (5 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> > (and not really after, either, as Jake doesn't return the favor and Marco's determined that it NOT MATTER).
>>>> 
>>>> foolish author, do you not know the nature of fandom? you have UNLEASHED THE SHIPPERS

>>>> **u/LieGroupE8** [+12]  ** (15 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> > Poor, poor Marco. It's rather more than just a crush.
>>>> 
>>>> Yes, "crush" was a bit of an understatement. I thought the passage in the chapter was a spot-on description of what it's like to be *desperately in love* with your straight friend. I've been there before.
>>>> 
>>>> >  There's Marco's distress when Jake goes comatose
>>>> 
>>>> Well, I didn't quite take it that way. That seems like a normal reaction when your best friend goes comatose.
>>>> 
>>>> Aretii is right, I totally ship Jake and Marco. But that doesn't seem likely to happen. At the very least, I just want Jake to sit down with Marco in the next chapter and tell him that everything is OK, and that he loves Marco, even if it's not the same way.
>>>> 
>>>> I'm also getting that vibe from Garrett and Tobias. Especially in this chapter, when Tobias is hugging Garrett and "the fingers of his remaining hand [are] dancing in a complex pattern across Garrett's back."

>>>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+5]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (19 hours later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> Less so with Garrett and Tobias—remember we've seen hints that Tobias researched stimming and taught Garrett about it (e.g. with the shoe tying).  I'm very much thinking of Tobias and Garrett as extremely close brothers rather than anything that would stretch into romance, and the specialized hug-ritual was a thing that emerged from that.
>>>>> 
>>>>> That being said, as Aretii points out, I can't control what people will and won't do with their own interpretations.  =P

>>>> **u/Dwood15** [+7]  (14 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> So marco has a thing for Jake?

>>>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+8]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (14 hours later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> Yeah.  But it's unlikely to be a plot point, except insofar as it causes Marco to sort of harden himself emotionally.

>>>>>> **u/360Saturn** [+19]  (14 hours later)
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> > it's unlikely to be a plot point, except insofar as it causes Marco to sort of harden himself
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Possibly an unfortunate word choice.

>>>>>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+16]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (14 hours later)
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> DAMMIT GUYS
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> ^(THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS)

>>>> **u/philh** [+5]  (9 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> Oh, I read that bit as something like, Rachel thought those were her feelings because she's used to feeling them. And I took that as an explanation for "If cassie had been there".

>>>>> **u/Aretii** [+2]  *Cultist of Cthugha* (23 hours later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> That was my first read as well.

>>>>>> **u/CoolGuy54** [+4]  (2 days later)
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I read it the way the author intended.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> (I figure I should say this out loud otherwise we're getting a very skewed sample of reader reactions)

>>>>>>> **u/None** [+3]  (2 days later)
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Agreed -  Jake-on-Cassie struck me as more or less explicitly spelled out whereas Marco-on-Jake seemed more like flirting-with-remaining-as-subtextual-implication.

>>>>>>>> **u/CoolGuy54** [+3]  (2 days later)
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> I should clarify: I didn't pick up on Marco's feelings for Jake until this chapter (although on rereading a few things they do make more sense now). I don't recall if Jake/Cassie had been spelled out in this or I just remember it from canon.
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> I meant that "Rachel doesn't have romantic feelings for Cassie, only Jake does" was clear to me from this chapter.

>>>> **u/chaosmosis** [+5]  *and with strange aeons, even death may die* (2 days later)
>>>> 
>>>> It was too subtle for me. I actually didn't even notice it this chapter at first, since it is not mentioned directly and I was tearing through the words. I just assumed I'd missed a paragraph somewhere at first.
>>>> 
>>>> Most of the things you're mentioning are hard to see as hints because "Marco is in love with Jake" offered little to no explanatory power over "Marco cares about Jake as a friend".

>>>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+2]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (2 days later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> I think that's okay—it may be less than the best *writing,* but to me it reads very very true because that's what Marco-as-a-real-person would have been *shooting* for, on purpose.
>>>>> 
>>>>> This chapter was where it just couldn't hide anymore, that's all.

> **u/TK17Studios** [+21]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (51 minutes later)
> 
> Author is as always unseemly desperate and inordinately grateful for long-form feedback.

>> **u/TooShortToBeStarbuck** [+5]  (8 hours later)
>> 
>> It's stated in previous chapters that to have several Animorphs morph the same organism simultaneously will result in 'feedback' between their morphs. How did they avoid this while doing their mind-sharing session in this chapter?

>>> **u/FeluriansCloak** [+9]  (12 hours later)
>>> 
>>> As mentioned in this chapter (with the snipes not having feedback), that only happened if a morph was acquired from someone else in morph, and then both the original and the re-morph were happening at the same time.

>>>> **u/TooShortToBeStarbuck** [+2]  (a day later)
>>>> 
>>>> Ah, got it; thank you.

> **u/DCarrier** [+17]  (2 hours later)
> 
> I'm not great at keeping track of details. My guess is that the morphing messed with the Chee. They knew what was actually going on, but it was enough to trick the overrides. Rachel was morphed when she killed Visser Three, so technically Erek didn't see *her*. Was Tobias morphed? Or maybe they had contact with Tobias the whole time, and knew it was really him, but for all they knew that could have been someone else morphed as Rachel they were talking to.

>> **u/FireNexus** [+2]  (3 days later)
>> 
>> I'm going with the V3 attack was on a dummy clone, human in persistent vegetative state, or android. V3 was controlling the body in question remotely, so why did it have to be alive?

>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+2]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (3 days later)
>>> 
>>> It's still easier on the margins for Yeerks to just kidnap somebody than to clone a specialized body or build an android.  It was a regular kid, being remote-controlled by a specially cloned Yeerk (of which he has a bunch).

> **u/nicholaslaux** [+16]  (2 hours later)
> 
> An alternative idea than morphing bypass could be that Erek saw the memory sharing session and now considers Rachel a different person than before who may not be planning to use violence with these gifts.

> **u/KnickersInAKnit** [+15]  (3 hours later)
> 
> > Note to self—don’t tell Erek you like Chinese food.
> 
> Holy shit. A bit too strong, imo.
> 
> > That would be my prize, in the end—knowing that it had mattered, that I had mattered, that the world was different because of the choices I’d made.
> 
> Chills :(
> 
> Some amazing character development for Rachel. It's been discussed previously that the Chee never refer to Rachel by name, so what's really going on here? This is like she's got a TARDIS perception filter or something? Does it work only on the Chee? 
> 
> When they morphed Ax, did they end up morphing Temrash too?

>> **u/royishere** [+6]  (4 hours later)
>> 
>> Yeah, I can only assume that that line was meant to reference the end of the original series. A+ work there.

>> **u/None** [+5]  (12 hours later)
>> 
>> I think they would need to have Temrash come out of Aximili's head in order to acquire and morph him - the segment about morphing Ax mentions that they can only see his point of view, not Temrash's.

>>> **u/ReversedGif** [+3]  (a day later)
>>> 
>>> But they already established that morphing Yeerks doesn't work, so even that is impossible. I guess they're not only black slugs, but also black boxes...

>>>> **u/None** [+2]  (a day later)
>>>> 
>>>> That too. I only remembered the inability to morph yeeks after posting, and thought of editing it in, but decided not to.

>> **u/CoolGuy54** [+3]  (2 days later)
>> 
>> Nah, same as all the other controllers they've morphed. They only get Ax, his memories of being infested, and anything Temrash has *chosen* to share with him.

>>> **u/KnickersInAKnit** [+3]  (2 days later)
>>> 
>>> Oh good point, they've morphed other controllers before. That had completely slipped my mind. Thanks for jogging my memory on that :D

>>>> **u/CoolGuy54** [+2]  (2 days later)
>>>> 
>>>> There's so goddamn much going on in this series it's impossible to keep all the Important Facts in your head!

>>>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+4]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (2 days later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> Tell me about it.

>> **u/FireNexus** [+3]  (3 days later)
>> 
>> Also, should be Korean food. Korean cuisine actually has breeds of dog specifically for eating, and no taboo about it. It's less prevealent since they've been westernized, and zoning actually restricts dog as a good item in touristy restaurants, but Koreans eating dog is not a racist stereotype.

> **u/360Saturn** [+15]  (10 hours later)
> 
> Really good chapter. Additionally, it is *so refreshing* to see an author willing to a) sympathize with, even to an extent and b) give competence to Rachel. Even canon started to twist her character unrealistically away from her original guiding principles. This, of course, with everyone having an intelligence (or rationality) upgrade is slightly different, but the character holds true to what drives and steers her, only changing as she comes across more - or different - information, which she does not dismiss offhand. I always thought Rachel, canonical or otherwise, was a character with a lot of potential beyond being used as a tool or a weapon and it's nice to see someone sharing that view.
> 
> That's quite the cliffhanger to leave it on, also!

>> **u/earnestadmission** [+10]  *Singular "they" user* (11 hours later)
>> 
>> I wonder how much of the "took to be used" characterization comes from the end of the series when the kids are all battle hardened by PTSD and have nothing left to lose. The starfish book reveals a Rachel who is desperately afraid of her ability to sink into battle; her character arc in canon is one of the most tragic IMO. Not that I don't love this characterization, but r!Rachel is on a very different path.

>>> **u/360Saturn** [+8]  (11 hours later)
>>> 
>>> Yes, and this Rachel's ability to view the battle and beyond it, the war, and in so doing recognize the flaw in carrying out missions for missions' sake (that would have strongly contributed to the gradual PTSD buildup *in* canon) felt like a deliberate dig at canon. This Rachel is able to anticipate the path her canon predecessor may have gone down.
>>> 
>>> I think the author does a good job of showing that's due to a large amount of strong trauma hitting her earlier than her canon counterpart, though, and her core principle being her ability to bear and work through difficulties and trials, exactly the skills needed to get through that, rather than this Rachel being a Mary Sue like figure.

>>>> **u/earnestadmission** [+7]  *Singular "they" user* (14 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> Maybe the point of divergence is the absence of the helmacrons. Without the comic relief she got serious much more quickly.

>>>>> **u/360Saturn** [+11]  (20 hours later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> True! To be honest, even canon Rachel was a really refreshing character. For the blonde, gymnastic all-american girl to also be the heavy firepower, the warrior, *and* the ruthless one was I think for the time a huge subversion of what that character would normally be and do. I liked that Applegate throughout kept all of those aspects of her character and let her be all those things at once, while keeping it logically consistent with her desire to succeed and do what needed to be done in order to achieve that success, rather than seeing those characteristics as naturally disparate and Rachel as having to transition from one set to the other.
>>>>> 
>>>>> I feel a lot of fanfiction authors, at least for Animorphs, lose that nuance when writing her.

>>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+2]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (2 days later)
>>>> 
>>>> Yeah ^this.  I was in the process of upgrading everybody, and the only way I could think of to upgrade Rachel that remained true to the character was to bring the consequences home IMMEDIATELY, before they were lethal, so that she'd update hard and fast.

>>>>> **u/360Saturn** [+2]  (2 days later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> It's a good solution! Kudos. Also an interesting kind of upgrade for a character to have - almost like a passive power that can end up becoming unexpectedly useful when taken to its logical conclusions.

> **u/paperclip_minimizer** [+14]  (19 hours later)
> 
> There may be something very significant going on regarding Rachel and how the gods and Chee behave with her. I list all my observations that may be relevant, and basic assumptions and questions about those observations. Others can theorize from these.
> 
> Observation 1:
> 
> Rachel was specifically mentioned as a surprise to Ellimist's/Crayak's/The Arbiter's (ECA's) model.
> 
> Observation 2:
> 
> The prophecy failed to mention Rachel being present for Elfangor's landing, but she was present. Assumption 2.1: The prophecy occurred after her birth.
> 
> Observation 3:
> 
> The Ellimist/Crayak was able to teleport Rachel, but did not mention her being one of the Four.
> 
> Observation 4:
> 
> The Ellimist/Crayak said that Visser Three would send the asteroid because of yeerk starvation. Observation 4.1: He teleported two yeerks who knew otherwise. Assumption 4.2: The oatmeal experiments would not be hard for him to see. Observation 4.3: Visser Three knew explicitly that starvation was not the true reason for the asteroid.
> 
> Observation 5:
> 
> The Chee never mention Rachel by name. Assumption 5.1: The Chee are not sexist with humans.
> 
> Observation 6: 
> 
> The Chee gave Rachel a cube and a shredder, when they have told Tobias that humans observed to be violent cannot be given weapons. Observation 6.1: The Chee have lied before. Observation 6.2: The Chee are acting as if they want the Animorphs to trust them now. Assumption 6.2.1: This would be an easy lie to catch quickly, and the Chee know it.
> 
> Observation 7: 
> 
> In an interlude, Visser Three was given knowledge of a z-space hole, and Alloran was simultaneously silenced. Assumption 7.1: Esplin will act differently if Alloran is conspicuously silent, so this would make for an inaccurate simulation. Unknown 7.1.1: Was this a simulation by ECA? Unknown 7.1.2: If so, have these last few chapters also been part of that simulation? Observation 7.2: During this possible simulation, Esplin specifically noted that the oatmeal was not the real reason for the asteroid. Assumption 7.2.1: This fact must have been apparent to the simulator.
> 
> tl;dr We have a blip in ECA's model about Rachel, a possible blip in the Chee's thoughts about Rachel, an inconsistency in Ellimist's/Crayak's story about the asteroid, and an unexplained silencing of Alloran in what may or may not be a simulation.
> 
> edit: Numbering scheme.

>> **u/TK17Studios** [+1]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (5 years later)
>> 
>> yo megabump but you were right all along

> **u/philh** [+12]  (5 hours later)
> 
> Typo: "We had left the green-brown hills of southern California the following morning and headed west", pretty sure that should be east.
> 
> I tore up a few times during the mind meld, notably when Jake hugs Marco.
> 
> We have a Chee doing violence to the Howlers, and we have the Chee returning weapons to Rachel. Two proposed explanations for the latter are morphs counting as different identities, and "something to do with why they never use Rachel's name". I like these, but I think the Howlers are important, and I would guess that the two events have related explanations.
> 
> I'm also not sure of the morph explanation, because that also needs to suppose that they want the Animorphs to have the weapons (or they wouldn't have returned them) but can't tell them how to bypass the protocols, not even by describing them in sufficient detail that the flaw becomes clear. It's possible, but epicycles.

>> **u/paperclip_minimizer** [+9]  (18 hours later)
>> 
>> |We have a Chee doing violence to the Howlers
>> 
>> My reading of the last interlude was that there is some sort of refresh cycle among the Chee every ~0.7 seconds, whose function includes deleting Chee-minds as a last resort against protocol violations, including "thought-crime". This happened to Erek and the other Chee. But if the actions take less than 0.7 seconds, you just might be able to do the job.
>> 
>> |"something to do with why they never use Rachel's name"
>> 
>> Also, I remember something in the first interlude about how the Ellimist and Crayak had incomplete models of reality where surprises still happened, and Rachel was one such surprise. So far we have zero evidence that the Ellimist communicates his plans to the Chee, but it is still possible that these are related.

> **u/None** [+11]  (an hour later)
> 
> [deleted]

>> **u/ZeroNihilist** [+19]  (10 hours later)
>> 
>> I think this is a reference to a few other points in the story where Rachel has been shown as something of a blind spot.
>> 
>> I seem to recall that the prophecy the Andalites received didn't mention Rachel at all. Can't remember which chapter it was in, maybe one of Ax's.
>> 
>> Look at [Interlude 2](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11090259/15/r-Animorphs-The-Reckoning):
>> 
>> > On Earth, a girl is born. Her name is Rachel, and she is not supposed to be there.
>> 
>> And in [Interlude 7](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11090259/29/r-Animorphs-The-Reckoning), a direct Chee perspective:
>> 
>> > Besides, Garrett Steinberg and Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill and the female returned from their foraging excursion
>> 
>> The Chee seem to be incapable of storing information about Rachel, referring to her as "the female", even though she's been part of the group for longer than Ax and has a much shorter name.
>> 
>> Being really good at following through is one thing, but she noted in this chapter that Garrett and Tom had the same grit. Rachel's true preternatural ability is that she is an anomaly, and plans seem to unexpectedly fail to account for her.
>> 
>> **EDIT:** And [Interlude 4](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11090259/22/r-Animorphs-The-Reckoning), an earlier Chee PoV:
>> 
>> > Based on the interlink signals, these others with me are Jake Berenson, Marco Levy, Garrett Steinberg, and the female.
>> 
>> I also forgot to mention that the Chee know the name of every dog in their care. This is not unsurprising, given their dog fixation, but it does make it more obvious that Rachel is different. Knowing the name of every human and dog *except* Rachel makes it apparent.

>>> **u/CouteauBleu** [+10]  *We are the Empire.* (11 hours later)
>>> 
>>> Yeah, not sure what is going on there. Is Rachel not human somehow?

>>>> **u/nicholaslaux** [+8]  (16 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> In the original series, she was the only member of the group to have not been hand picked by the Ellimist and was considered a "happy accident". It's possible in this version that has been buffed to her somehow being unknowable to external/superior/ etc intelligences?

>>>>> **u/MagicWeasel** [+2]  *Cheela Astronaut* (a day later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> Kind of like a parallel to Cassie's being "temporally grounded" mixed with a bit of Somebody Else's Problem Field? Love it!

>>> **u/paperclip_minimizer** [+3]  (18 hours later)
>>> 
>>> And two chapters ago I was thinking that the Chee were just sexist regarding humans.

>> **u/_casaubon_** [+11]  *Rationalist Zombocom* (3 hours later)
>> 
>> It is possible that they were lying to Tobias. The rest of the group had come to a decision that was more in line with what the Chee wanted and Tobias hadn't yet learned all the details of this. It's possible also that they wanted him to take part in the sharing of minds\*--especially because a yeerk participated.
>> 
>> As to why they would lie...I have no idea. Maybe it was necessary for him to back off. Or maybe it wasn't this at all, but instead the consequence of a move made in the game between Crayak and the Ellimist. Or perhaps instead, it might be related to Rachel's...unplannedness in that game.
>> 
>> \* This was very well-written and moving in a way that you find so rarely. And then, I don't know what to think after reading
>> > [that this apparently is a thing for people other than me too.](#s "—and it made perfect sense that Garrett fixated on certain NAMES and OBJECTS, because without some kind of anchor, I would have been surprised if he ever managed to finish a single thought.")
>> 
>> If not as intense as it is portrayed with Garrett.
>> 
>> I only wish the sharing of minds went on longer.

>>> **u/CoolGuy54** [+2]  (2 days later)
>>> 
>>> I've read a similar exploration of mind-sharing in another sci-fi, and it always leaves me feeling a bit wistful and alone.

>>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+2]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (2 days later)
>>>> 
>>>> Try Circling/Authentic Relating, if you ever get the chance.  No, really, it was literally the inspiration for this chapter.  The Integral Center in Boulder, Colorado has *the most absolutely cringeworthy* website, but that's what they do, and they do it pretty well.

>> **u/Xjalnoir** [+11]  *The Culture* (2 hours later)
>> 
>> Hmm. I forget, can the Chee detect that a person is morphed? Maybe the plausible deniability of Rachel possibly being someone else (whom they have not seen commit violence, since they don't know who they are) is enough ambiguity to satisfy their nonviolence protocols.
>> 
>> Thus, they couldn't give it to Tobias, because they were certain that he was really Tobias.
>> 
>> It certainly seems like said protocols are *not* the same thing as their core values, since they frequently and knowingly work around them.

>>> **u/ZeroNihilist** [+13]  (11 hours later)
>>> 
>>> They can detect that a person is morphed, and who the original is, based on their telepathic communication. Look at [Interlude 4](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11090259/22/r-Animorphs-The-Reckoning), which includes a Chee perspective right after the Ellimist/Crayak teleport from Ventura:
>>> 
>>> > [We have the situation under control. Peter Levy and Tom Berenson will not injure Ax. Based on the interlink signals, these others with me are Jake Berenson, Marco Levy, Garrett Steinberg, and the female.]
>>> 
>>> > We do not understand. Where are their construct bodies?
>>> 
>>> > [They do not have any.]
>>> 
>>> > This is not a meaning.
>>> 
>>> > [They are emerging directly from the gate, with no construct to disassemble.]
>>> 
>>> > This is not a meaning.
>>> 
>>> > [There is no evidence of footsteps or other disturbances to the area around us. Whatever process brought us here likely also brought Peter Levy and Tom Berenson and Ax and the gates of Jake Berenson, Marco Levy, Garrett Steinberg, and the female.]
>>> 
>>> The "gate" is probably the link to Z-space for the morphers, and this is referring to the fact that they were teleported from Ventura in-morph but arrived out of morph.
>>> 
>>> Incidentally, this is why the teleport was so efficient for the Ellimist/Crayak: the gates themselves are many orders of magnitude lighter than the people.

>>>> **u/CoolGuy54** [+5]  (2 days later)
>>>> 
>>>> Heh, the end of C/E Munchkinining sequence at the beginning of that interlude has Jake interrupt Cassie as she's deciding to stay behind, contrary to what actually happened, and similar to Jake's musing about how he could have saved her in the previous chapter.
>>>> 
>>>> Edit: And at the end the Chee save some random human kid! It can't be the one Cassie tried to save... Who is it?

>>>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+3]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (2 days later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> We'll never hear from that kid again.  He's deep in a cave somewhere, playing with dogs and being fed delicious food and not allowed to leave.

>>>>>> **u/CoolGuy54** [+2]  (2 days later)
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> He's gonna have a weird adolescence and adulthood.

>>>>>>> **u/None** [+2]  (4 days later)
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> That assumes everyone survives the end of the story.

>>>>>>>> **u/CoolGuy54** [+2]  (4 days later)
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> Ignoring the desire to do things for narrative or thematic reasons, I'd give the Chee and those in their care a higher chance of surviving the next century than almost any other character we've seen in this universe.

>>> **u/Dwood15** [+7]  (2 hours later)
>>> 
>>> It might be that Rachel is no longer the exact same person she used to be, because they shared their morphs and stuff. That, or they wanted to ensure Tobias wouldn't get hurt/could keep him from doing anything rash?

> **u/KnickersInAKnit** [+11]  (17 hours later)
> 
> Whoa whoa whoa I just had a really amazing thought. We have Arn, allied with Yeerks. Master bioengineers. Could they feasibly 'resurrect' the Pemalites, and what would that do to the Chee?

>> **u/TK17Studios** [+8]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (18 hours later)
>> 
>> Especially given that V3 is known to offer things to potential allies, to seal the deal.

>>> **u/KnickersInAKnit** [+5]  (20 hours later)
>>> 
>>> And V3 knows about the existence of the Chee. And really would love to get his hands on that awesome technology.

>>>> **u/CoolGuy54** [+4]  (2 days later)
>>>> 
>>>> Oh shiiiiiiiitttt...
>>>> 
>>>> Did he get enough information about their motivations though?
>>>> 
>>>> He'd be able to make the Chee an offer they literally couldn't refuse if he had as much knowledge about their utility function as I currently do.

> **u/technoninja1** [+9]  (4 hours later)
> 
> Was Rachel given a fake shredder and blue box?

>> **u/Zephyr1011** [+3]  *Potentially Unfriendly Aspiring Divinity* (a day later)
>> 
>> That doesn't really make any sense for the aims of the Chee. That is inevitably going to be obvious to Rachel when she tries to use them, and they want her to trust them

>> **u/CoolGuy54** [+3]  (2 days later)
>> 
>> That would be discovered very quickly when they try to power-up Tom, and it'd be a huge blow to trust. I think the Chee would e stupid to try that rather than just refusing if they didn't want to give up the box.

> **u/None** [+8]  (3 hours later)
> 
> I feel like the stay comment about the few remaining Pemalites, one of whom being still conscious, did more to 'humanize' them for me than the books ever did - I think the closest look we got at the Pemalites directly in canon was via their sunken spaceship in the book where the Chee all freeze and Rachel and Tobias catch a squid to fix things, and that was pretty much played for laughs until Drode showed up. And the Chee still feel like they're holding back as they describe that, even disregarding the stinger at the end of the chapter. Good going, dudes.
> 
> Dang it's tough knowing other people. I'm not sure I'm comfortable talking very much about the morphing each other/Cassie being dead thing but it feels real to me.

> **u/xamueljones** [+9]  *My arch-enemy is entropy* (6 hours later)
> 
> I identified with Rachel so strongly that it gave me chills. Especially the part where she thinks
> 
> > That would be my prize, in the end—knowing that it had mattered, that I had mattered, that the world was different because of the choices I’d made.
> 
> Sometimes I want to be able to find a cause that I can devote *everything* to.
> 
> Then I wake up and realize that I only think I want to be filled with purpose and I'd be making different choices if zealotry itself was a terminal goal for me.

> **u/CouteauBleu** [+8]  *We are the Empire.* (10 hours later)
> 
> Great, a Rachel chapter! That means were definitely going to see some acti... Dammit! Stop being three dimensional and smart and go blow things up already!
> 
> Also, did Tobias grow his arm back in the end or not? I'm not sure it's told. EDIT: On second re-read, nope, still one-handed.
> 
> And Rachel's line about Chinese food made me grin :D

>> **u/TK17Studios** [+7]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (14 hours later)
>> 
>> ^(I LIKE YOUR FLAIR.)

>> **u/TK17Studios** [+3]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (a day later)
>> 
>> All right, all right, the next chapter will have action.
>> 
>> ^(BUT I'M ASSUMING I'LL GET A CLASSIC COUTEAUBLEU REVIEW IN EXCHANGE)

>>> **u/CouteauBleu** [+3]  *We are the Empire.* (a day later)
>>> 
>>> * I have noticed that Marco is gay.
>>> 
>>> * I have noticed that Rachel is interesting and developed.
>>> 
>>> * I have noticed that the Chee love dogs, just as they did in canon.
>>> 
>>> * Also, something about Rachel being some weird cosmic blind spot?
>>> 
>>> Edit - There, I COMMENTED ON THINGS! WHICH IS GREAT! AND I AM DOING SO OF MY OWN FREE WILL. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO MOUNT A RESCUE MISSION AT THE FOLLOWING COORDINATES...
>>> 
>>> Seriously though, the mind-merge thing and its implications were nice. I think the problem the story is running into is that as the Animorphs get more breathing room and people involved, their most rational decisions also become the most boring ones. It's like how Superman stories never feature him constantly moving satellites into space and donating the money to charities: Superman's psychology aside, no one is interested about Superman having a boring but efficient job.
>>> 
>>> So as the military gets involved, the story moves from "we must blow up the yeerk pool as soon as possible or the aliens will win!" to "maybe we should give all our resources to the military and let them handle the invasion; it's not like they've never been involved in guerilla warfare before". So I'd expect the protagonists to either ignore or delay that option like they have so far (because they don't trust the military, because they don't want all hope for survival to be concentrated in one institution, etc), or to be cut off from help (because the government is compromised, or has incompatible goals, etc).
>>> 
>>> Otherwise, the story could move from them towards alien warlords, gods and presidents; or become about the Animorphs creating and maintaining a broader resistance, and struggling with the problems that come when you give superpowers to a large number of individual with their own goals and agendas.

>>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+4]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (a day later)
>>>> 
>>>> Yeah.  From the authorial perspective, this is probably a significant chunk of why I've struggled with the last few chapters.  There are things in the offing that will shake up the plot, but in the meantime we're definitely in a dip.  Partly it's been fun to explore *that*—to show the characters lost and confused and uncertain—but after a chapter or two that gets old.
>>>> 
>>>> My hope is that this will be the low point of the action, and that things will ramp up and accelerate as dominoes start to fall.  In part, I expect the story to become more zombie-apocalypse-like, in the sense that we follow a small group through a large, complex world, and start to lose track of everything that's happening in that larger world as the small group struggles to survive and have an impact.
>>>> 
>>>> Also, I didn't mean to come across as ungrateful.  I just apparently have a CouteauBleu addiction that's almost as bad as some people's r!Animorphs addiction.  =)  Hearts, stars, and horseshoes.

>>> **u/CouteauBleu** [+2]  *We are the Empire.* (4 days later)
>>> 
>>> Also, I hope we get details from one of the protagonists, about what Tom's life was like.
>>> 
>>> In this chapter, we have an easily-missed paragraph, about how it was very bad and they're all sad and angry at Temrash. But what was it *like*? What was the day-to-day life? How did they interact? What was Tom's perspective on the whole thing? Temrash's? And since Ax morphed Tom too, while Temrash was in their head... what did they even think of it?

> **u/etarletons** [+11]  (4 hours later)
> 
> > I felt a wash of thick, complex emotion—
> > 
> > —impatience—
> > 
> > —frustration—
> > 
> > —bitterness—
> > 
> > —a lack of sympathy for his exhaustion, his disappointment, his pessimism. As if something had been stolen from him, when I refused to go along with his stupid, self-gratifying plan.
> > 
> > Not my fault you were hoping for a rubber stamp, I thought, even as a more honest part of me noted that I wasn’t being fair, that I was jumping to conclusions—that once again, I was looking for reasons to be angry—
> > 
> > Whatever.
> > 
> > I just wanted him to skip ahead. To skip to the end, get whatever emotional processing he needed to do out of the way, so we could get back to work.
> > 
> > You need to grieve too, you know, said a wrong voice in the back of my head.
> > 
> > I ignored it.
> 
> I love this. It's exactly how it feels to be genre-savvy enough to know you have an unmet emotional need, while still not being emotionally/logistically prepared to deal with it. Most of the *words* in my head are usually kind, equinamitous, reasonable, and present healthy emotional policies - insofar as I fall short of enacting them, it's because of my feelings leaning out and casting judgement on those words.
> 
> Basically I have (over?)identified with Rachel since I was nine and this is not stopping wrt r!Animorphs!Rachel. <3

> **u/CCC_037** [+4]  (a day later)
> 
> So. The cube and the shredder. Given to Rachel.
> 
> The Chee said they could give them to a human but not one that they'd seen commit violence with them, not one they thought would commit violence with them.
> 
> This seems a reasonable statement, in light of their anti-violence safeguards.
> 
> Yet they gave both to Rachel.
> 
> Options:
> 
> - It is no longer possible to commit violence with that cube, that shredder. Important components have been removed or altered in a way that is not possible for Earth-level technology to fix or diagnose without months or years of research and re-tooling.
> 
> - The Chee are not associating Rachel with the same person as killed Visser Three back at the school. This implies some level of deliberate - and extremely careful - violation of their own safeguards. (Alternatively, perhaps they are deliberately not recognising Rachel as a sapient lifeform *so that* they can ignore their safeguards when it comes to her - in the same way that they are not required to stop a wolf from killing a bunny, or a dog from hunting a squirrel). Or perhaps, between morphs and all, they are (deliberately) recognising that there is a non-zero chance that Rachel (in morph) is really Jake (in morph) or someone else that they haven't seen commit violence - and using that uncertainty over her identity to work around their own safeguards.
> 
> - Invisible Chee are following that cube and shredder *everywhere*, with the intent of making very sure that neither are *ever* going to be used for violence in any way, shape or form.
> 
> - The Chee were lying about their safeguards. (Why would they do that?)

>> **u/None** [+4]  (a day later)
>> 
>> Or the Chee have intimate knowledge of the Visser's actions and are not forwarding it on, and know that Rachel did not do anything to the Visser that was anything more than an annoyance.  That Leeran thing did happen, and is supposed to be reciprocal.  Esplin saw 'a planet burning as a black god laughed' - the Pemalite world?  If so, did the Chee get a look into the Visser?

>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+3]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (2 days later)
>>> 
>>> Yes, that was Esplin seeing Erek's memories, and Erek got a glimpse at the Visser in return.  He did not see anything that dissuaded him from his sense that the Visser needed to be opposed.

>>>> **u/MugaSofer** [+2]  (2 days later)
>>>> 
>>>> Had it been confirmed before that the Chee knew there was a "black god" backing the Howlers? I'm pretty sure they didn't know in canon.

>>>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+3]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (2 days later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> It had not been confirmed.  Also, here it's a bit ambiguous whether that's the Chee's interpretation or V3's summary, and whether that's awareness of a god-figure as we know them, or whether it's just the visible leader of the Howlers, etc.
>>>>> 
>>>>> (frantically backpedals because he let his poeticism get away with him twelve chapters ago)

>>> **u/CCC_037** [+3]  (2 days later)
>>> 
>>> > and know that Rachel did not do anything to the Visser that was anything more than an annoyance
>>> 
>>> She didn't do more than annoy the Visser. But she did kill the cloned body he was wearing. She was violent, and there is no reason to think she wouldn't be again.
>>> 
>>> ...I don't see how Erek's perspective on the Visser's actions at that moment could allow the Chee to give Rachel the shredder and the cube.

>>>> **u/None** [+4]  (2 days later)
>>>> 
>>>> But what counts as violence? My point is that gaming the definition of violence in this way could be a way for them to get around the involuntary regulation of their actions. 
>>>> 
>>>> By the way... I didn't enjoy the book that much, but Greg Egan's "Quarantine" contains an extremely amusing and interesting case of one getting around an involuntary thought regulation that might be relevant here... exploitation of internal contradictions...

>>>>> **u/CCC_037** [+3]  (2 days later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> Hmmmmmm. Gaming the definition of violence is certainly a possibility. But I think it would be more likely that the definition of violence has been gamed by classing Rachel as a nonsapient animal, like a lion or a wolf (the Chee don't have to prevent the wolf from eating the rabbit).
>>>>> 
>>>>> Don't think I've ever read Quarantine.

>>>> **u/MugaSofer** [+2]  (2 days later)
>>>> 
>>>> That wasn't a cloned body, was it? It was a human body, infested by a cloned Yeerk.

>>>>> **u/CCC_037** [+2]  (3 days later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> That makes it even harder for the Chee to pretend that wasn't a violent act.

>> **u/MagicWeasel** [+2]  *Cheela Astronaut* (a day later)
>> 
>> I don't think it can be the first one, because Tobias was saying how he begged them and they wouldn't give it to him, and surely they'd know that the humans would think it was weird they wouldn't give it to Tobias because it could cause harm but they *would* give it to Rachel, and there was no reason not to give it to Tobias if it wasn't actually able to cause harm.
>> 
>> I'm completely perplexed about the whole thing, to be honest. What the hell are the Chee playing at?? It *makes no sense*, and my best guess at the moment is "Rachel is weird to the Chee, so they don't have to play by the rules when it comes to her", which still isn't very satisfying.

>>> **u/CCC_037** [+3]  (2 days later)
>>> 
>>> It's possible that *at the time that Tobias asked*, the modifications to make the weapons harmless had not yet been completed.

>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+2]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (2 days later)
>>> 
>>> I'll say this much: there is maybe enough information already present in the story for an *actual superintelligence* to piece it together *only* from textual clues, but unless you're one of those, pretty much you're not expected to be able to figure this out yet.

>>>> **u/CCC_037** [+2]  (2 days later)
>>>> 
>>>> Okay, here's a crackpot off-the-wall theory. The Rachel that we're seeing, that's been accompanying the others since Crayak or Ellimist teleported them away from the impact crater, isn't Rachel. It's a Chee wearing a hologram. It can take the shredder and cube because it is *not human*, and is in fact entirely incapable of violence.
>>>> 
>>>> The real Rachel is trapped in a virtual environment that exactly matches what the Chee wearing her shape is seeing, and that Chee is exactly matching her movements. So, she thinks she's there, but she's acting at a remove, through a proxy. The others managed to obtain her shape (and memories) (and her theirs) by means of Chee technology being able to hack the morph technology (or perhaps Crayak/Ellimist magic). (Or possibly Ellimist/Crayak morphed Rachel into a Yeerk who's inside the Chee's head, being carefully fed information by Chee technology).
>>>> 
>>>> The illusion will hold until such time as Rachel tries to do something violent and the Chee repeating her actions is not able to miss without her noticing, or as soon as Rachel tries to give the shredder or cube to one of the actual humans.

>>>> **u/None** [+2]  (2 days later)
>>>> 
>>>> Something about all this reminds me of a different fic, where Buffy was immune to precognition, because according to Fate, she was "Dead in the Master's cave." It's not quite the same, clearly, but Rachel having been the one who died in the canon timeline is sort of ... twinging it.
>>>> 
>>>> So it's my suspicion that the canon timeline, specifically her death within it, has something to do with Rachel's Stranger ability. I can't fully make a diagram going from point A to point Z, or even the outline of one, but I just have the feeling that something's there.

>>>> **u/FireNexus** [+1]  (3 days later)
>>>> 
>>>> The human taken out by Rachel in her effort to fuck up V3 was some kind of dummy clone or android, and the chee know it. Rachel never committed violence against a sentient being.
>>>> 
>>>> Visser Three more or less implied earlier that he wasn't personally present. If it was a live human, he was remotely controlling it. So it being not a live human would fit.

>>>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+2]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (3 days later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> Nope.  The human was a regular kid.  Visser Three had a dummy clone *Yeerk* in its head, allowing him to control it remotely, but it was a live human.

>> **u/None** [+2]  (4 days later)
>> 
>> > The Chee are not associating Rachel with the same person as killed Visser Three back at the school.
>> 
>> Alternatively, killing one of his several host bodies didn't count as violence for their purposes. The visser wasn't hurt permanently, just had his consciousness removed from that location. If they had lintereacted with multiple species in the past it's likely they have some method of recognising what is and isn't harmful to a creature beyond the physical.

>>> **u/CCC_037** [+2]  (4 days later)
>>> 
>>> It might not have hurt the Visser, but it certainly hurt the poor kid whose body the Visser was wearing.

> **u/NukeNoodles** [+4]  (2 days later)
> 
> So first and foremost, holy crap this chapter was amazing. 
> 
> Marco's crush was subtle but made a lot of sense when revealed. I didn't catch that being his reason for morphing Jake initially, to see if he felt the same. 
> 
> I also really like Rachel's kinship to Tom in this. Tom feels like a great character to explore who didn't get much exploration in canon. Tom was someone that Jake looked up to. And he's Rachel's cousin. And considering how Rachel and Tom's relationship in canon played out, I'm really excited to see them work and fight together as opposed to against one another.
> 
> Also, this hasn't been brought up yet, but I'm fairly certain David is David from canon. David's father in canon was NSA, which fits with his father being DHS this time around. Especially with the Animorphs moving towards recruitment at the same time as recovering the Blue Box, it seems all too likely. Granted, this David is a bit younger, but the prospect of a rational David rogue stress testing the Animorphs recruitment methods with all of the changes from canon is terrifying. I think one of David's biggest strengths as a character from canon was having a truly unrestrained/ possibly sociopathic approach to the morphing power. And gives yet another, "The world isn't split into Good people and Death Eaters" slant to this.  
> 
> And since I know feedback is welcome, I got a little lost when Rachel went from remembering Marco's memories to opening Jake's memories. All of the other morphs had enough distinction that I knew there was a transition going on in my opinion. I don't know if this was just my reading comprehension, since I was able to see the distinction more clearly when I re read that part, but figured I'd put it out there.
> 
> I am, as always, blown away. Not only do you write multiple voices well, you also write a single voice experiences multiple voices well!

> **u/Zephyr1011** [+3]  *Potentially Unfriendly Aspiring Divinity* (a day later)
> 
> I found the mind-melding scene incredibly moving.
> 
> This chapter really helped flesh out my perception of the character of Rachel. I love how you're taking each of the Animorphs and have found an interesting reinterpretation of their character which is loyal to their canon traits, but is giving an example of competence and intelligence in different, flawed but complementary, ways.

---