scrape_r_rational/data/cache2/6h4xzv.md

[RT][WIP] r!Animorphs: The Reckoning, chapter 28 (Garrett)

• Author: u/ketura Organizer*

• URL: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11090259/37/r-Animorphs-The-Reckoning

• Score: 50

• Created: 2017-06-14T03:21:37

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u/DaystarEld [+14] Pokémon Professor (4 hours later)

Woo, another Garrett chapter! The idea of him getting an inside look at how others think/feel by morphing them, and then having that insight help him even in his own normal state, is really cool, and made me wonder all over again about how the Z-Space-Brain works compared to a Meat-Brain. It must essentially copy everything the Meat-Brain is, not just in terms of "pure thoughts" or "logic" or whatever, but down to its basic structure and unique reactions to bodily chemistry/hormones/etc. Which makes sense if your original body is being teleported/recreated to Z-Space too, though that brings up questions of how it survives there in order to keep feeding your brain enough to keep Garrett actually "Garrett," with all his idiosyncrasies, despite the body/brain he's "inhabiting" in meat space.

Also neat to see a human taking independent action, after having some early clue that weird things were going on. Not only is the data he provides them invaluable, it seems like the Animorphs may finally get the technological trump card they need to be able to maneuver against V3 when they finally decide to take action, since animals generally don't fare very well against space ships. Particularly if they're in space.

u/DaystarEld [+7] Pokémon Professor (15 hours later)

Though now that I think about it further, I realize I'm still kind of assuming that this is all going to be resolved by some morphing battle + maybe lasers/guns/grenades between the main cast and V3 + some goons, or something along those lines, when in fact it's probably more likely for them to just coordinate some military action with stolen/adapted alien tech and essentially watch from the sidelines as others finish fighting the war, if it ever advances beyond a certain point. There's no particular reason V3 has to be defeated in person, face to face, rather than just have his ship blown up by some random Captain Steven Hiller type characters.

u/4t0m [+10] Chaos Legion (15 hours later)

So, R!Animorphs has always been unusual among rational!fic in terms of the number of competent, intelligent characters, simply as a consequence of the shifting viewpoint. As this difference becomes more prevalent (see Tyagi, and now the officer group and Thàn) we're learning something about the author. I'm currently unsure whether he thinks this sort of competence and agency is more prevalent than do other rational!fic authors, or if just thinks it's an important part of the world we're trying to build, in a way that e.g. Eliezer doesn't seem to, in a "revealed-priorities" sort of way, looking at HPMOR. This is exciting to me for reasons.

(Less interestingly, it may be that /u/TK17Studios is just better at modeling these sorts of multi-agent scenarios, and writing a story that takes advantage of that.)

u/LieGroupE8 [+14] ** (15 hours later)

The Animorphs themselves are not random members of the population, but were carefully chosen by the Gods. President Tyagi and other high-ranking individuals are also not random members of the population, but are much more likely to be competent due to what it takes to get to that level of influence. In the case of Thàn, his competence and agency are what caused him to make contact with the Animorphs in the first place. So a variety of selection effects are going on here.

u/DaystarEld [+4] Pokémon Professor (15 hours later)

I'm also curious to what degree an inherently higher level of respect and confidence in the professionalism and competence of military/police/professionals-in-general might be reflected in stories. I feel like I have a slightly higher-than-average one for them compared to others in the intellectual/rational spheres, and it's somewhat reflected by my Rangers and Leaders and whatnot all being hyper competent. Not just because a world as dangerous as Pokemon's would require them to be but also because I tend to dislike the Adults are Useless trope, but there definitely seems to be a higher level of that going on in this story, and I model the author as someone who has an even-higher-than-average respect and confidence in the above institutions than I do.

Not that I'm complaining at all, since as I said, Adults are Useless is a trope I think is actually fairly annoying in most incarnations, unless the adults are in some respects purposefully being useless like in Ender's Game. Whether it's more realistic or not is a different case than what's narratively satisfying, of course, but I'm pretty happy with it here in all respects.

u/ketura [+9] Organizer (37 minutes later)

AO3 link here.

u/PrinceofMagnets [+8] (23 hours later)

I think you really nailed nailed GARRETT's internal narration. The way specific details and concepts feel louder in his head really speaks to me, and I'm going to use it to explain to people why I sometimes miss things they think are really obvious and why I'm so aware of the things they seem to barely notice at all.

u/TK17Studios [+5] Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning (a day later)

Thanks. <3 Garrett has received a lot more love from readers than I dared hope when I first conceived of him.

u/Altoid_Addict [+5] (a day later)

I really like the view from inside his head, and I particularly liked Rachel's observations when she morphed him. I've never been diagnosed with anything myself, but I recognize similarities with the way I think, and it reminds me of conversations with various people about how I'm not exactly neurotypical (whatever that actually means).

Anyway, I'm really glad to see Garrett learning to cope with everything, and his friendship with Tobias is particularly touching and inspiring. Thank you.

u/ggrey7 [+1] (10 days later)

Same here. I really love Garrett's perspective. His blend of innocence and insight reminds me of one of my favorite characters, the quirky narrator in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and how some ASD manifestations may be ideal for a rational character.

u/TK17Studios [+1] Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning (10 days later)

I definitely took a significant amount of inspiration from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

u/philh [+6] (12 hours later)

TOBIAS and I exchanged a GLANCE that probably meant SOMETHING but I had no idea what.

<3

I'm guessing the thing around the orbit of Uranus is the Z-space anomaly? I wonder how close to spherical it is and where it's centered.

Whatever it is I'm a little surprised Thàn can work out where it is - did he use a known location of a Z-space event to calibrate the location of the reflector, and then use that to get locations of historical events? (edit: I guess this would actually need to start with several known locations of Z-space events?)

Also, given that it reflects these signals, should we be surprised that it reflects them such that we can pinpoint their origin? I think not (and I can argue why not if we reduce to 2d), but I'm no physicist. Thàn doesn't seem surprised, at least.

Also also, this chapter didn't confuse me with things left unsaid like previous chapters did, so good work on that front. And I appreciate the pronunciation guide.

u/TK17Studios [+7] Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning (13 hours later)

He used the flashes of Dracon fire, which corresponded unambiguously with Z-space radiation hitting Serenity at the same time, and whose echoes also allowed him to trace the shape of the sphere.

u/4t0m [+6] Chaos Legion (7 hours later)

My favorite chapter in a while, except for the part where the character with my name DIDN'T ANSWER THE CALL!

Super cool to see Tobias and Garrett's procedural competence/rationality. Also interesting to see Tobias struggle with the identity thing. I'm sort of unimpressed with his thinking, but I notice now that we haven't seen him do this sort of abstract reasoning very often (so, like, it isn't out of character for him to be less "rational" here than Garrett).

u/TK17Studios [+3] Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning (9 hours later)

oh right fixed duh lots of mistakes with names because tired and so many names in this chapter

u/throwawayIWGWPC [+3] (14 hours later)

Yes, there really were a lot of NAMES . . .

u/4t0m [+3] Chaos Legion (15 hours later)

:P

u/LeifCarrotson [+6] (11 hours later)

"Serenity's responding with almost arbitrary sensitivity, down to the width of a helium atom. The limit is our ability to measure it. Right now, we can get readings that are accurate to within about a hundred meters or so as far out as Europa—there's at least one ship out there—and timestamps down to as long as it takes to light to cover that distance."

"Which is—"

"About three ten-millionths of a second," I said. TOBIAS looked over at me as if he wasn't even seeing me, but looking right through me at something else.

Light takes at least 40 minutes to get from Earth to Europa. In 300 nanoseconds, light travels some 90 meters. I take it that delay is only due to distance from the sensor to Serenity's​ helium tank? Shouldn't the time delay to Europa factor in there somewhere?

u/TK17Studios [+8] Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning (11 hours later)

"that distance" references "about a hundred meters or so."

u/None [+4] (a day later)

The time delay is present, the 300 ns is just referring to the temporal error bar on events, independent of the delay, which is a known quantity.

u/LieGroupE8 [+6] ** (15 hours later)

Alright, great chapter! All the chapters where the Animorphs are on a mission are nerve-wracking, because I expect everything to go horribly wrong at any moment. I scroll down sentence-by-sentence on my iPad, and it's like solo Russian Roulette as to whether everything will explode in the next sentence.

More speculation on technology for this chapter. The first question is: why doesn't Visser 3 have the same capability as Serenity? (If he did, everyone would be dead already). Given the trend of previous responses to questions about tech in this universe, I think I can answer. It seems like the Yeerks just don't have sufficient resources to create and use their best technology, due to their isolation. Even if they did, creating a Z-space radiation detector as accurate as Serenity might just be infeasible unless the detector is extremely stable and buried deep underground, which takes a lot of time and effort. Also, the Yeerks certainly weren't expecting a perfect Z-space sphere around the solar system, and so they didn't have anything prepared on this front.

Visser 3 does have limited Z-space radiation detection ability, though, as we saw in the school. But it probably requires a lot of preparation, and is only sensitive enough to work in a small area. Although he does have the ability to map the Z-space structure of the solar system, using what I assume is a combination of passive radiation detection for large-scale structures and scanning bursts of radiation for smaller-scale structures (I also assume that those devices use the same kind of radiation as what's described in this chapter). Why these detectors are not capable of doing what Serenity does is a bit of a mystery, but ultimately they are probably just not sensitive or isolated enough by comparison.

It looks like the Gods are setting up the Animorphs for one of their classic space missions. Will they team up with Telor and assault Visser 3 [and his secret cloning operation?] on Mars? Anything could happen! Will they make the mistake of bringing David, who, if canon is any indication, will probably try to defect and join Visser 3 in order to survive? And what is this strange caveat to morphing that is facilitating strange events and interventions from the Gods? Find out in [unspecified amount of time later] on r!Animorphs!

u/TK17Studios [+8] Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning (17 hours later)

One thing that may or may not show up in the text is that Serenity's Z-space detection is "impossible" to the extent that it depends on the spherical barrier, which just ... isn't there in other places. Ax may find out about it and be all "???!??!? that shouldn't work though"

u/TK17Studios [+4] Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning (a day later)

Note to self: when you post on a Tuesday night instead of a weekend, you get half as many substantive comments (although the substantive comments you do get are just as good as they always are hashtaggrateful).

u/ketura [+5] Organizer (a day later)

There's something to be said about the frequent updates as well. It's been nearly one a week; no one's complaining, but it does mean there's less of a pressure valve.

u/CouteauBleu [+3] We are the Empire. (2 days later)

Also I currently have my hands really full. (week-ends included)

u/TK17Studios [+2] Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning (3 days later)

I think at this point you could skip commenting on four whole updates before I started feeling jilted. =P

u/mg115ca [+5] (3 days later)

So, as far as I know, V3 doesn't have "sleeper agent"/"manchurian candidate" capabilities (or even memory modification capabilities) but the whole "hey, here is some suspiciously useful technology that will provide a massive tactical advantage when the time comes" makes me think Thàn is a plant. But then he passes the morph check and I start to wonder how I would do the sleeper agent thing if I were Visser 3.

I don't know if this works but I think it's consistent with how Yeerks function. A controller with a stasis thermos containing a Yeerk breaks into Thàn's house while he sleeps and infests him (possibly with a injected sedative beforehand). The Yeerk in his head just sits there passively though, like someone in the driver's seat of a car who doesn't touch the controls, so Thàn never notices that he's infected. He then goes to work and whenever an opportunity to nudge him in the right direction with z-space tech arises, the Yeerk whispers in his head. It could probably even distract him when he starts to get suspicious. With another B&E every few nights to swap Yeerks so they don't starve (or possibly "hey that brand of oatmeal looks pretty delicious") this could continue indefinitely.

“And you—you just—you just went out and made this?” TOBIAS spluttered.

If you have full control of a brain like the Yeerks do, the scariest scenario isn't a hard override where you become a passenger in your own body, it's starting to wonder if your thoughts are actually your own and if you're as alone in your own head as you thought you were.

Please tell me I missed something obvious in previous chapters and I'm wrong about how this works. Would this pass the morph test? Even after the Yeerk leaves the head?

u/TK17Studios [+2] Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning (3 days later)

That would work, as described, provided you actually surmounted the logistical challenge of never-waking-up-the-host-during-your-B&Es.

Neither confirming nor denying, but since I gave some weight to your theory above, here's some counterweight: Thàn (at least as presented) is not just a random individual—note that someone in his position is already more likely than base rates to be smart and agenty, and that if anyone were to catch on to the invasion, you'd expect it to be someone with access to Serenity or similar, and that while you didn't see Tobias and Garrett doing ten or fifteen different morph batches a day for ten days straight, filtering through ten thousand people to get 1000+ recruits, remember that it was only then that they connected with him, and even then it was indirect and required an introduction (because Thàn was telling his trusted allies that he was on the lookout for the resistance).

u/mg115ca [+4] (3 days later)

Thàn (at least as presented) is not just a random individual—note that someone in his position is already more likely than base rates to be smart and agenty, and that if anyone were to catch on to the invasion, you'd expect it to be someone with access to Serenity or similar,

Oh agreed and acknowledged absolutely. The problem is that most of the factors that make him capable of deducing this on his own just mean he's a good target that would be easier to nudge onto this particular line of research without him noticing since it requires less nudging. This hypothesis is less "Thàn is a witch spy! BURN HIM!" and more "Hmmmm, we don't have enough data do come to any solid conclusions, but it's something to keep in mind as the story progresses." The bit about him just happening to be in Tobias' and Garret's path is admittedly a big weakness of this theory. Nothing stops V3 from attempting this on multiple fronts, limited only by how common the quantum physics experiment in question is. I'd say a bigger weakness is that this presumes that V3 is deliberately counterplaying around the morph test, which requires him to currently be aware of it's use (I don't think he is. Most of these chapters I only read once, with long breaks in between so I might be forgetting something). Also, this requires V3 (or someone who works for him) to have come up with the idea for a device which A] only works due to the weird and mysterious Z-space barrier which B] only exists around Sol (so the device only works here) and the device C] has to be buildable using rare but not too rare earth tech so that D] they can "nudge" someone into discovering it themselves without overt influence, and finally E] they decide the best use of this isn't "Track and locate the Animorphs" or "Determine who they have given morphing ability to, then infest them" but is instead "Tempt the Animorphs with it to get someone inside their group." That is just too many things going exactly that particular way for it to be a likely scenario.

Of course, all of this in no way precludes infiltration of non-Thàn individuals as passive watchers with no nudging at all, so even if Thàn is clean, the morph test has a security hole.

Oh and the logistics behind the B&E are probably the easiest part. For the initial break in photographs of his keys mean you don't need to actually break anything, and some remote activated canisters of knockout gas in the vent along with a pinhole camera to watch to see if he's in bed or even to look for the eye movement indicative of REM sleep (because why not check for REM sleep). The biggest problem is how to "signal" the yeerk to exit the brain without waking the subject. Have them "listen" for the smell of the knockout gas then count to 300? I suppose it depends on how "awake" the yeerk is compared to the host, a morse code tap on the forehead could work if the host is drugged.

u/LazarusRises [+4] (6 days later)

Minor point: Serenity is the only experiment of its kind in the world. I'd say "that Thán knows about," but considering it's Hadron-scale huge & expensive, I don't think anyone could build another on the sly.

u/nathanwe [+5] (5 hours later)

Why are the tetrahedron ships in geosynchronous orbit? geosynchronous orbit only works above the equator. Then again he's detecting them by their active drive emissions so if they were in passive orbit he wouldn't be able to detect them.

u/throwawayIWGWPC [+3] (6 hours later)

Typo Thread

u/throwawayIWGWPC [+3] (6 hours later)

I'm pretty sure all these Officer Delgados are supposed to be Officer Fowlers. There are more in the story than what I've mentioned here.

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TOBIAS and OFFICER DELGADO had arrived

TOBIAS and OFFICER FOWLER had arrived

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THÀN leaned back in his chair, swiveling past OFFICER DELGADO

THÀN leaned back in his chair, swiveling past OFFICER FOWLER

---

as long as it takes to light to cover that distance

as long as it takes for light to cover that distance

---

or through Z-space?” asked OFFICER DELGADO.

or through Z-space?” asked OFFICER FOWLER.

---

Beside him, OFFICER DELGADO was silent

Beside him, OFFICER FOWLER was silent

u/TK17Studios [+9] Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning (9 hours later)

ACK ERK EEK YES CRAP

CRAP

CRAP

u/TK17Studios [+5] Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning (9 hours later)

breathes heavily

Okay, all fixed. That's what I get for trying to update before proofreading.

u/throwawayIWGWPC [+2] (14 hours later)

hahaha

u/4t0m [+2] Chaos Legion (7 hours later)

I need everybody's eyes on for the next few minutes.

because it didn't make sense to keep recruit people if the whole world was about to BLOW UP

u/kleind305 [+3] (3 days later)

Do you have titles for the seven books? And/or places where you'd divide them up?

Considering the changing viewpoints, perhaps one or two pastiche "Megamorph" covers would make more sense?

u/TK17Studios [+2] Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning (3 days later)

Not set yet. I tried to break them up after Esplin chapters, but that made the first book like 40 pages, and the second like 60, and the third like 120, and the fourth like 160. =P

u/kleind305 [+3] (4 days later)

yeah. I can think of a few story events that serve as natural climax points, but you've kind of got that rolling "worm" thing going on most of the time.

Not as many of the big self-contained plot points (blowing up a supply ship via hawk with gun, pushing kandrona generator out a window, successfully extruding a crocodile, etc), and the ones you do have are structured to drive the plot forward, rather than creating a denouement.

u/LazarusRises [+3] (6 days later)

If memory serves the 5th Harry Potter book was around 4x the length of the first. So that's not necessarily a dealbreaker.

u/rationalidurr [+2] If fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight! (14 hours later)

oh no! Another Garret chapter! I get why the author is writing his inner thoughts like he does, but Cheezus is it annoying. I can barely make out what he is thinking, wall of text doesn't help when you cant select it (thanks oba-err Fanfiction.net).

Plotwise speaking I can understand why he chose to hide the truth from team on the basis the Chee might be bribed, but if that was a problem why not go up to Madame President, tell her whats happening and then watch as tax money of US dwarfs any puny sum that Esplin can scrounge up.

I am not sure what to think of the new scientist guy, this seems too convenient to be true, either story wise, or "Author warned they might not win at all" wise, or science wise. I get why he can pick up particle emissions of Z-space activity, but recreating similar events on local scale with out a particle accelerator or some sort of exotic matter is dubious to me. Actual physicist please tell if I am reading this whole thing wrong.

The plot point of having a reflector in Jupiters vicinity to detect echoes of particle emissions, is both convenient and troublesome. Who is hiding there? And how long before Yeerks stumble on to a particle scientist and figure out he can help with tech reproduction?

u/TK17Studios [+4] Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning (14 hours later)

Try reading on Ao3?

The intended interpretation is that the Z-space barrier is what's reflecting things back. Also, I expect that V3 can offer the Chee way more than Tyagi can (such as a whole planet that's a dog paradise).

I think it'd be far more unrealistic if there was literally nobody else who'd picked up on things early on. It's lucky for them that they got somebody agenty and well-placed, but note that the really big contribution is the locator stuff, not the crappy disintegrator rays that are nowhere near as good as even a handheld shredder.

u/rationalidurr [+4] If fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight! (a day later)

Oh yeah, forgot someone always posts an AO3 link right after posting fanfiction link.

V3 is already streched as it is, no way he can outdo a nation/political agrement of all global nations (Tyagi: Pls dont kill or harm dogs, we need it for alien allies to work with us) ok maybe not so easy but still easier than V3 could ever do.

Forgot about the Z anomaly thing. And yeah the locator is miles ahead of any weapon they can, in which case I am not bugged by its existence since exotic particles would be appropriate on exotic tech use. i am bugged at how easy and out of the left field it arrived, and I am bugged at how late it arrived in story once you accept the fact that particle detectors could see whats happening. I guess I am sort of undecided between a "Hard difficulty, no significant help from outside factors" story type and "Global ammount of resources in brainpower being united by a common foe" rational type.

u/LazarusRises [+1] (6 days later)

Finally up to date, which means I can get involved in the comment threads!

First: Many, many thanks for such an incredible story. I've read similar comments previously, but this has snagged me in a way nothing has since HPMOR and then Worm.

A couple of questions:

1. Why do Andalites have verbal names? Yeerks I understand, since their only way to communicate outside the pool is via hosts' mouths, but Andalites would never have a reason (or, outside morph, the ability) to speak an Andalite name aloud. Was this in consideration for non-telepathic species? Or are their long, complex names an attempt to verbalize the thought-ideograms that likely compose native thoughtspeak names?

2. Did the Animorphs really only take two weeks of oatmeal before destroying the factory? I sure hope they stockpiled a bunch more offscreen for Essak and Temrash's sake...

3. What the damn hell is the fake-Andalite body Visser Three used?? At first I assumed he was holding himself halfway between Alloran and a human morph, but that obviously wouldn't work for a bunch of reasons, not least because there's no way he'd give over his real body. Was part of his deal with the Arn that they engineer him a custom body or five?

And finally, the thread I've been waiting to start since I started reading: Munchkinry! How would you hack the near-infinitely hackable morphing power to live forever, attain godhood, etc.?

-Sleep way less frequently. I'm glad we saw this onscreen in this chapter, it's something I've been hoping would be mentioned for a while. Canon says one full night's rest every 4-5 days, but if you're only ever out of morph long enough to get back into it, that's ~180 seconds every ~1.5 hours (to account for extra mass morphed), that's 48 minutes of real-body-time per day. If not sleeping were your goal, you could feasibly go a month without.

-Similarly, this extends your lifespan by a factor of about 30. If you're not constantly morphing this is maybe more like 10. Still damn good.

-Is there a size limit on what you can take into morph? If not, the Animorphs have a pretty damn good kamikaze option--focus on taking i.e. the atmosphere into morph with them, then stay past the (at that mass level negligible) time limit. Obviously at this point all they have to do to destroy the world is nothing... but what if one of them managed to touch V3's ship?

-We've already explored the potential of using human/Andalite morphs for increased processing power. If they ever figure out how to morph a Yeerk (hypothesis: acquiring a full pool?) this is vastly augmented.

I'm pretty sure this story ends with one or more characters reaching godhead, smart money being on Ax or V3 at the moment. All the parts are there, they (and we, if /u/TK17Studios decides to pull a Big Yud riddle) just have to figure out how to put them together.

Thanks once again for making me think. Great stuff.

u/TK17Studios [+3] Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning (6 days later)

Thanks for the comment!

1. An attempt to verbalize the thought-ideograms, plus a simple nod to canon because you can't change too much or people give up/riot. Aximili's name is described in r!Animorphs to be the sound of a particular small creature on the Andalite homeworld.

2. They stockpiled enough for two years. Wasn't mentioned on-screen. The assumption was that at that point, the war would be over, or they'd have bigger problems anyway.

3. It was engineered by the Arn, yeah.

4. There's a size limit—eventually, you overwhelm the pocket dimension's power requirements and just die on the spot.

u/LazarusRises [+3] (7 days later)

Thanks for the answers!

As to point 4: that makes sense. Follow-up question, what happens if someone morph-capable grabs Visser Three and starts morphing him away with the intent of going nothlit, and then he starts morphing too? Does the first one to initiate morph win? Some kind of unknown interference?

u/TK17Studios [+2] Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning (7 days later)

What actually realistically happens is Visser Three kills the fuck out of them before it becomes a question.

u/LazarusRises [+2] (7 days later)

Ha, I thought that might be your answer. Still hoping we see a tug-of-morph at some point.

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