#animorphs 5

[exigencelost]

Animorphs 5 gave us so much. They fit so much into that tiny little book. Two kids getting almost boiled alive for dinner in a regular human kitchen in a scene that had sort of nothing to do with the plot. Ax going completely insane at radio shack and almost dooming the Earth by virtue of total inability to behave normally in public for ten seconds. A disillusioned teenager making a desperate attempt to abnegate his duty for what would turn out to be the last time in his fucking life, then realizing twenty minutes later that he's incapable of that. A gaggle of teens experiencing ego death and getting ripped to pieces by completely normal ants before blindly bursting out of the suffocating earth and running home in leotards, only for one of them to find an ant pincer in his hip in the shower later and have a brief but thorough nervous breakdown in his bathroom. The same gaggle of teens catching a glimpse of their home planet from the window of a spaceship sent to consume that planet, struck by its beauty and by the weight of the duty of care for it that's been placed on their shoulders, moments before they are brought to believe they have failed that duty irrevocably and will die before they reach their home again. And all of that was before Eva came back from the dead.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

idk if you're still doing these but how do you think the animorphs would do against the original X-Men?

[Obligatory joke about the X-Men having an advantage because they cloned Jake to make Bobby.]

Animorphs Advantages

Trust in leadership. Full offense to Scott, but he can be bossy and overbearing to the point where it causes infighting. Jake's team will not hesitate to go up against impossible odds at his command, and basically never questions his orders in the heat of battle.

Flight hours. Warren might outweigh Tobias by a good 200 pounds, but he doesn't spend literally 15+ hours a day 7 days a week flying around hunting. And Tobias gets very good at taking out bigger opponents like David's golden eagle or the helmacron ship.

Adaptability. The Animorphs can survive in most environments most of the time, and are nigh unkillable. Jean can be taken out by a rock to the head. Scott can be taken out by a rock to Jean's head.

X-Men Advantages

Coordinated attacks. They can and do hit their enemies from multiple fonts at once: Warren goes high while Hank goes low, Jean goes mental as Bobby goes physical, so on. The Animorphs' weapons are all variations on hitting or stabbing their enemies up close.

Sheer raw power. Scott can punch a hole in a mountain. Jean may or may not be able to destroy entire planets. Bobby can make an entire city in the time it takes Scott to level one.

The fact that they actually go to school. Hank's obviously the one with the big advantage over the C- average high school dropouts, but Scott, Bobby, and Jean are also smart enough to be teachers in some continuities.

Animorphs Disadvantages

Distance. This is always their drawback, but they only have melee attacks. Scott, Jean, and Bobby can all attack from half a mile away.

Leaky communication. A ton of their strategy depends on being able to talk to each other without their enemies hearing. Even if they figure out that Jean can hear every word they're saying, they're going to be massively hampered by their inability to talk privately during battles.

X-Men Disadvantages

Compassion. Assuming that this is winner-take-all no-holds-barred fight, the X-Men will not only hesitate to kill, but are likely to stop fighting if one of their own is killed. The Animorphs have no such pangs of conscience, or at least don't let those stop them.

Lack of control. All of them are, to some extent, afraid of their own powers or hesitant to use them. You don't see Rachel beating herself up about what'd happen if she let the beast win or got too much phoenix power.

Conclusion: I'm giving this one to the mutants. Sorry, morphers.

[theidiotabides]

Finally got around to reading the graphic novel adaptations & just read The Message & uhhhhhhhhhhh

Was nobody going to tell me that they got Ax's NAME WRONG????

That's a typo, right? That's gotta be a typo, but like -- not to be a copyeditor on main, but I actually am a copyeditor, and I just -- how THE FUCK do you miss THAT? It's TWO LETTERS off, too! What the fuck?

It's the only time his full name is said in the book, so there's no other instance to compare it to, but surely they didn't just CHANGE HIS NAME, right? Why would they? Do I have a misprint copy or something? WHAT IS HAPPENING. I DEMAND SATISFACTION. SCHOLASTIC, EXPLAIN YOURSELF

OG text for context/completionism:

[ghostofbriggiesmalls]

The most jarring 90’s thing in Animorphs is that a double latte at Starbucks is $2.95.

[president-homewrecker-arts]

Shuharu Week 2023 Day 7: Free day

Their wedding scene in Tactica made me INSANE, okay?

[ot3]

They would have done numbers on Tumblr

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

idk if this is still the case but when i was really In It in animorphs feelings a couple years ago because i was unemployed for the first time in my adult life / temporarily living alone in the last house my family lived in / freaking out about climate change / generally Going Through It, and like poking around the animorphs scene on tumblr, there was this notion commonly expressed that rachel and tobias were "toxic," the major piece of evidence for which was the scene in 33 where she "tries to trap him in human morph." which like first of all i'm SOOOOOO SORRRY that the fucking fifteen-year-olds secretly fighting a guerrilla war in which their greatest threat is the mind-controlling slugs they're trying to save humanity from but their second greatest threat is the diminishing hourglass of their collective sanity as they all have to work steadily harder and more desperately to not just completely lose their shit entirely from all the violence and literal 24/7 constant threat and murder that is happening, like i'm sorry two literal children who have managed in this ongoing horror show to forge a bond of loyalty and affection and care and attraction and understanding that can act as a kind of solace neither of them have any other way to access, sorry those actual murder babies sometimes have some communication problems. lmao. but also it's insane to me that people read that scene (in which they're dancing to, i'm not making this up, iris by the goo goo dolls - i mean they don't tell us the song but it's a slow goo goo dolls number that even tobias knows, so - they're dancing to iris by the goo goo dolls at a school dance that is not going well because they are both awkward about the newfound public Officialness of their relationship and rachel who is the only one of them who has ever been capable of socializing like a normal person is in a particularly bad mood because of the emotional hangover of her starfish adventure [great concept executed terribly in the previous book], and then like after two entire minutes of letting himself feel some nice emotions tobias spots the clock and starts leaving to go demorph and then rachel runs after to him to awkwardly attempt to share that she is very fucked up about how insane she has become and she wants to hold on to things like school dances and also this is all happening in a hallway by a student poster on red tailed hawks that states their lifespan of a handful of years in the wild, it's so good) as rachel trying to trap tobias in morph, when like, first of all, "good thing happening -> time to punish myself for feeling nice for 5 whole seconds " is like THEE tobias thought pattern because he's the number one kidlit trauma baby of all time, like truly the first time i dove back into the series i was struck by how well his narrative voice captures Child Of Insane Family Dysfunctionality, he is NOT a reliable narrator on this, but also second, and more saliently, like, believing this scene is rachel attempting to trap tobias in morph requires that you believe rachel, all by herself, made a plan in advance and then attempted to execute it, which is a skill we literally never see her demonstrate even one fucking time outside of the comfortingly familiar hunting ground of the mall

[hardkookiecookie]

I made it a gif . for all your needs

[ragnarockz]

I've been thrifting a lot of children's novels lately because a) I didn't have a lot of them as a kid and, b) I missed out on a lot of issues because it was harder to keep updated on when the next issues were released (only really through Schoolastic) and so, I was at the thrift today and literally bought a stack of The Babysitters Club novels (yes, I have a list with me of the ones I'm missing) along with some Goosebumps, Animal Ark and The Bailey School Kids. So I get to the cash to check out and the attendant was like, "Oh my god! Are you a teacher?! Are all these books for your class?" And I just turned around and looked at her and just, "No. These are all for me."

And she just stared at me like I had two heads.

Anyway babes, if you wanna catch up on old book series you missed or you just wanna finish your collection; kids books or not; do what makes your little book loving heart happy.

[thebest-medicine]

Day 7: Flustered

Tickletober 2023 - RELIC - Smash & Grab - lee!Simon

[see my other tickletober 2023 fics]

[read on AO3]

A/N: I am going to inflict my recently read cute sweet weird little dinosaur shapeshifting punk x paleontologist romance novels upon you. (Youuuuu should read Smash & Grab by Maz Maddox. It’s narrated excellently by Kirt Graves and reads like a fanfiction in a novel. Also there’s some dinosaur animorphers lmao. The book is 1st person POV that switches between the main characters so I decided to try my hand at it.) Me over here changing up how one of the scenes played out - adding some tickles, classic. Enjoy.

Words: 1.1k

—

SIMON

What the hell? Within a few days my world had shifted and flipped upside down, and now, if the being-on-the-run damsel-in-distress role wasn’t enough, my forced traveling companion slash savior slash crush had just climbed into bed with me. Arms wrapped around my middle and I jumped, hissing out, “Dalton.”

“I’m cold, won’t you cuddle with me?” Dalton mused, pulling his body closer to mine under the covers. Damn this one bed safehouse.

“No- what? I- I’m going to sleep!” I argued - it sounded better in my head. “Get off!” 

“Come onnnnn.” Dalton sing-songed. His hands pulled me closer to him and wrapped around my middle. He squeezed a little where his hands rested along my sides.

I knew I was in trouble when my mind caught up a few seconds later and realized the loud, squeaking sound that suddenly lit up the room had come from me. 

“Oh… Simon.” His voice sounded honey-sweet. Why did it also sound so scary? 

Fingers curled against my left side, scribbling curiously. Shit. What the fuck was this guy doing?! I snarled - well, I tried to, but it came out a little breathless. “W-What the fuck do you think you’re doing!?”

There was a snort in reply. “What do you think I’m doing?” 

And then the hands wrapped around me from behind wiggled against the same spot again, this time on both sides. Shit. It really fucking tickled. Already. Shit. I swallowed a nervous lump in my throat along with the laughter starting to bubble up in my gut. I knew he could feel me tense and squirm with how fucking close he was lying to me. 

“D-Dalton..” I tried to wiggle forward, out of his embrace that I wasn’t entirely sure yet if I wanted out of, and nearly got to the edge of the mattress. 

“Heh. Ticklish? That’s pretty damn cute, Sugarbear.” Dalton’s smirk came through clearly in his tone. He chased after me with a few wriggles of his own and then nuzzled into my neck. Tingles shot down my spine as I gasped in a breath - I could feel the burn of a laugh trying to escape. 

“No-” It came out as a wheeze, and I couldn’t hold back the laughter any longer as Dalton kept squeezing at my damn sides. “Ahaha n-nohohoho don’t! Wait- heheh wait!” I tried to shake my head just as little bubbles of laughter started to climb their way out. 

“Don’t wait?” He teased. “Okay.” And then his hands started squeezing at my hips and I buckled forward, almost lurching off the bed.

“Nohoho- hehehee Dahahhalton! C-Cut it out!” I reached wildly toward his hands on instinct, trying to grab his wrists and pry them away. All I really managed was to hold on to them as he began tickling up and down the length of my sides. God, it- it didn’t do anything to deter him. He was… much stronger than me - which I did not have the mental energy to think about right now. In fact, I was quickly losing the mental energy to think about anything.

DALTON

Be still my beating fucking heart. This sexy, handsome, adorable, nerdy paleontologist- he was going to be the death of me. I nuzzled in against the side of his neck to get a little closer to those adorable little giggles - and to try and catch a glimpse of that smile of his. 

“You have the cutest fucking laugh.” I teased as Simon grabbed onto my wrists. I pushed my nose gently into the skin behind his ear. I kissed there too, and felt his back shiver. “Fucking adorable.”

“Dalton! C-Cut it out!” Simon cried out, joy evident on his face and in his voice. His legs started to kick, sometimes knocking against my own legs. I wrangled my leg around to secure over his thighs, keeping still enough to wiggle but not kick. 

“Cut what out? The tickling?” I wiggled my fingers up toward his lower ribs, earning a cackle. “Or the teasing?” I grinned. I placed all ten finger tips against his sides through the shirt he wore - his little sliver of protection. Then I spider-walked them in front to his stomach. 

Simon shrieked and started squirming harder. His hands gave up on grabbing mine and instead moved to try and block as much of his belly as possible. It was cute. Everything he did was cute. 

Simon’s cheeks nearly matched my hair as he giggled and squirmed. I whispered more teases and musings and compliments, and Simon’s pretty pink started turning red. 

“Hey.” I patted his shoulder as he sighed and caught his breath.  “Now I know a great way to pass the time while we’re waiting things out in this safehouse.”

Simon let out a tired little giggle at that. 

“You… Pink menace.” He accused with no venom, smiling as he closed his eyes.

“You’re pretty damn pink yourself right now.” I smirked. Simon grumbled in response before I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him in close to be my little spoon. My cute, ticklish, dorky little spoon. Simon came willingly, tuckered out from laughing so hard. 

Maybe another night, he might even seek out a little revenge? I remembered the feeling from several romantic encounters- the electricity of it, the bubbly lightness afterward. It was an interesting sensation to say the least, mammals were interesting - especially these strange hairless apes. 

I stopped thinking about it too hard and refocused on Simon’s slowing breath in front of me. I nuzzled into his neck again, feeling him tense up a bit. 

“Heh- no- no more tickling- I’m exhausted.” Another tired laugh. 

“Yes, yes, but we can cuddle?” I asked, wondering genuinely, but also enjoying teasing him a little.

Simon let out a quiet little sound of distress. He sounded a bit tormented when he said, “Yeah, well, I guess we- we already are so..”

I hummed and answered, “Goodnight, Sugarbear,” as I felt him slowly relax into my arms. Butterflies danced in my stomach as though I had just been the one to be made kicking and giggling.

[bengiyo]

10 Characters and 10 Fandoms

Rules: name 10 of your favourite characters from 10 different fandoms, then tag 10 people to do the same.

I was tagged by @wen-kexing-apologist​

I lost the original version of this with cool explanations. I’m not typing them again. You can ask me about them in the notes if you’re curious.

Nog - Star Trek: Deep Space 9

Susan Ivanova - Babylon 5

Calvin Owens - Greek

Omar - The Wire

Kakei Shiro - What Did You Eat Yesterday?

Marco - Animorphs

Max - Black Sails

Kiram Kir-zaki - Lord of the White Hell (Hellions Series)

Jim - Moonlight Chicken

Kurama - Yu Yu Hakusho

[all-seeing-ifer]

Is your profile picture Crayak

naurrrrr it's hal 9000 from 2001 a space odyssey. my funny little robot baby boy blorbo. and also my girlfriend.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Hi, love your blog! I'd love your thoughts on this list of explanations of the book titles from the Animorphs Yeerkposting Facebook group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/891899307817393/permalink/2105837729756872/?mibextid=Nif5oz

Thank goodness someone explained The Predator ("is Visser One the predator? Sure.") and The Hidden ("they’re trying to hide the morphing cube…") to me. Because those two have always been my top two contenders for "What was Scholastic thinking?"

But you know what, Visser One is a creepy fucking predator, even if that's not established until a later book. And the kids do spend a lot of time in #39 trying to hide the morphing cube, even if they don't often succeed. Explanations accepted.

[arctic-hands]

IDR is it ever explained in Animorphs why the morphing process didn't default morphing into baby animals? I mean yeah meta-wise a Baby War for the planet, while hilarious, wouldn't make for good plot arcs, but was there any explanation like there was for z-space?

I've been wondering about this since I was 4 for the record

[thegayestandalite]

Humans didn’t have much in natural weapons, the best they could do was throw blunt punches and while it wasn’t exactly pleasant it was ignorable as the human female went wild, trying to disengage him with a ferocity he wouldn’t have guessed was in her.

“Let me go!” She hissed, bringing his wrist to her mouth so she could bite down savagely. He always forgot about the teeth.

He looked at her calmly, and began to morph. His image slowly melting away to melt back into her features. He became furless, eyeless, tailless, just all around helpless. He was second guessing this plan, fighting as this pathetic little thing? Well. Earth was a fierce place, you couldn’t just come to dominate it by accident.

He let go and let the morph take over, devouring the instincts and the fear and the wants and the needs. It was surprisingly peaceful, but so sharp. It was all edges ready to take what was needed and then some.

He stared back at her with her own eyes.

He grinned. A huge toothy grin that might have meant to be a little bit threatening.

“There are controllers here to infest your household,” he informed her with his disarming smile.

She stepped back, clutching her wrist and looking at him in disbelief.

Her face grew hard. “You’re lying.”

He turned to face the window again, watching the controllers begin to advance.

“I’m not,” he spoke. He stopped to run his tongue around his mouth. An interesting array of sounds although not much different than other mouthed morphs.

“In a few minutes they will brief their commander and enter the domicile, that’s all the time you have to secure the household of anyone unable to fight and weapons for those that can - so what I guess I’m saying is to move, NOW.”

She didn’t Move, knitting her brows with confusion she asked, “Why did you morph me? Why not use your andalite form, or some animal morph?”

His eyes searched the room, looking for a suitable weapon while replying, “They’re looking for an andalite, it’s best they don’t find one or they really will stop at nothing to destroy this place. And anyway-,” he paused to glance at her, “I have something to prove. Now, weapons, please?”

She raised a finger, opened her mouth like she was about to say something then closed it again. “We’re going to talk about this later,” she promised.

He strode to an assortment of clothing articles hanging in a closet, something some species used rather than fur.

Well, they seemed complicated. He settled on a few long scarves and did a warrior’s weave to secure his upper torso, and skirt and leg wrap with his lower torso. He hesitated, all considering he was working with A new morph, unpracticed. Anything at all that would be a disadvantage to him could be catastrophic.

But. He did take this dna without permission, and lead an alien invasion to their door step. It would be best if he were respectful of the culture and wear the clothing. And anyway, he was awesome enough to compensate.

He took another cloth article to hold onto, until the right moment.

He quickly got to work his movement. A few million years of evolution wouldn’t leave a two legged critter without balance.

He stretched out, practicing emptying his mind to let the human instincts operate its body properly.

She came back with an assortment of rusted, inferior metaled blades. But they were long. And sharp enough.

She took in his attire, she was largely relieved he had decided to clothe her dna.

He grabbed the blade and settled it between his teeth before hoisting himself onward and out the window.

“Who the hell are you?” She yelled exasperated.

He looked back up as the gravity rushed him back to the earth, courtesy of a rain gutter, a smile curved around the blade.

[I’m Bor’ij and I’m here to win this stupid war.]

——————————————————-

He could feel his markara rising rapidly, wildly. They called it fight or flight. It whipped at him, filled him, made his heart burn from the inside out. It made him angry and rageful and happy and giddy.

He hit the ground, feet first and rolled as if he were an expert in two legged mobility. It was 90 percent attitude. It was all 90 percent attitude, fake that and you’re good. Well. 90 percent good.

He kept his center of gravity low to the ground, keeping himself steadier with his brand new morph.

He felt the rough taped grip. Hand to hand combat wasn’t really his style, or at least his first choice, but it’d do. Quickly whipping the scarf around his face, masking identifying features, he charged - slamming the sharp edge in an upward angle to the closest controller, who barely had time to raise his dracon beam. He assumed the neck was a good place to start.

The only thing the human controller had time to do was let out a startled scream, slashed short. A spray of the deepest red he ever saw splurged from his wound as he crumpled to the ground.

His human morph screamed in his mind. A scream of triumph or horror?

He turned to size up his next opponent. This one DID have the time to pull up his dracon beam.

He barely let the thought touch his mind before he reacted, cutting towards the weapon holding hand. The blade was not sharp enough nor was his one handed attack strong enough to sever, but it was well enough. The weapon dropped and he came back with his other hand to deliver a downward blow to the neck.

PZZR!

Intense pain slammed brutally into his shoulder, he gnawed his teeth but kept his grip.

A dracon beam let loose.

Bor’ij turned Angrily to the source and stared, facing two dracon beams pointed straight at him.

He rolled with Ease, off the black vehicle to it’s other side, with beams chasing after and over him.

That left his second target still at large and ready for vengeance.

The human controller reached over to grip his throat and drag him out, slamming him down onto the vehicle’s metal casing.

He loomed over the andalite, staggering his air flow, crushing his..human…throat..organs.

Bor’ij grabbed the controller’s workin’ arm and rolled his legs upward, forward, and wrapped them correspondingly around his neck. Using the tremendous thigh muscles of his morphs to crush the air out of the enemy with far more efficiency, he found that he could also bring the larger male human controller topping over him head first, landing directly upside, thighs still crushing but now with his full weight.

He glanced at the watching controllers, gave them a sly smile and a wink, picking up the abandoned dracon beam and casually shot the nearest controller with an effortless kill shot to the head in one smooth motion. Guns were his thing.

The controller underneath him had stopped moving. So that left the one remaining controller and he was-

Gone.

Bor’ij looked around with his limited human eyes. He was just there!

Sneaky little slugs.

He carefully untangled his legs from the controller’s neck, readying his dracon beam.

VROOM.

The machine underneath him came to life, rumbling and hot. He whipped around to see the controller’s stolen face contorted in, what his human morph understood to be, rage.

The vehicle screeched forward sliding him against the windshield.

“Offuck,” he cried, his voice muffled by the scarf. The machine suddenly slammed to a stop, throwing him with inertia fueled vengeance.

He thudded to the ground, his shoulder taking the brunt, the shoulder that was already hit and hurt. Luckily the manic energy dulled the pain.

Hardy thinking, he scrambled away to his left as the vehicle revved and charged past him.

He quickly scrambled to his feet, dracon beam in one hand as he placed the blade in a loop of cloth behind him and instantly started calculating. Or to be more precise, absorbing.

The machine wheeled around, and this time it was Bor’ij that charged. He ran forward, utilizing his long legs and leaped easily onto The hood, his foot sinking slightly into the flimsy metal, giving him balance and traction to leap onto the roof. Slamming himself onto the roof, belly first, and gripping onto the open window to keep him from flying off again. He pulled himself against that awful inertia crap and crawled straight into the window.

Seeing the controller he attempted to seize his collar and pull himself all the way into the moving vehicle.

Th controller panicked, letting go of the wheel that controlled the machine’s direction, now it turned wildly wherever the terrain directed it, slamming Bor’ij against the edge of the window opening, crushing his belly and giving him a sick feeling, and no doubt bursting open blood vessels left and right.

He growled through gritted teeth and refocused himself. He heaved himself into the window opening, instant reprieve from the dragging force of gravity or whatever. Of course, now there was a very scared and murderous controller he was sitting in the lap of.

He reached behind him to grab his blade.

He hesitated.

He unsheathed his weapon.

“Surrender now, and you’ll live.”

The controller looked at him incredulously.

It was absurd. He knew it, but he still had to try, He still had to at least *ask*.

The yeerk made it’s move.

Swiping his arm so that his elbow made direct contact against Bor’ij’s face.

Ignoring the sharp powerful stinging pain, his arm was already moving before he could think about it. It was just an old blade, probably never meant to see combat, but with one swipe it cut through skin, tendons, arteries, blood, life.

The controller could only grasp his gaping neck as bright red blood flooded from it.

Bor’ij could only take a breath before-

“WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?” A familiar voice bellowed.

Bor’ij looked over his shoulder. The mobile he was in was barreling straight towards him and their domicile.

Er. Er.

He turned to grip the wheel with both hands and pull it to the right, causing the whole thing to veer.

Ok, temporary solution, so how did you stop it?

The human male, Cassie’s father, stared at him in astonishment.

“Cassie?” He asked

Oops. Seems he still had enough identifying features to be associated with his daughter.

Well.

Who Knew.

At that moment Cassie came running out the door.

“DAD,” she cried.

“Cassie? Get back inside!”

“YOU get back inside Dad!” She grabbed his hand and hauled him backwards into the house.

Bor’ij wheeled the vehicle around again, kicking the dead controller off the seat into the passenger side.

The car started to gradually slow.

Ok, so somehow a dead controller was controlling the machine…. On the bottom were pedals of some sort. He gave an experimental nudge with his foot and it surged forward. He hit the other pedal, it stopped front wheels first, jerking him and the dead controller forward.

Ah yes. It was all coming together.

He directed the car in the opposite direction and slammed the go pedal, the machine screeched in response, wheels churning up sod before ripping forward and far.

Soon, he left the three grizzly kills behind him as the engine rumbled softly.

No andalite mobile made made quite an exhilarating noise or satisfying rumbling vibrations.

The trees and shrubbery zoomed past.

He slowed down on the accelerator as a precautionary measure.

He was suddenly aware of…fluttering.

[HEY!]

Bor’ij jerked his head in . He looked around suspiciously.

[Cassie?]

[Stop the car!]

He considered.

[STOP THE GOD DAMN CAR.]

He shifted his foot to slowly hit the brake.

A small feathery bird flopped onto the seat when the car stopped.

“Soo..” he started,” ..how ya doin’?”

She opened her beak and half squawked, then seemed to reconsider and started skillfully morphing back to her human form.

“Where do you think you’re going?” She asked evenly, with a definite edge to her voice.

“I’mm, going away…from the murder scene?” He said helpfully.

“Murder scene! MURDER SCENE,” she laughed in a very mirthless way, “Murder scene is right! Three dead bodies, who obviously didn’t just kill themselves. At my house, right in front of my house! How do I explain that? How do I explain ANY of that?!”

“….Don’t?” He suggested

She took a deep breath.

“Bor’ij.”

“Yes, Cassie?”

“What is wrong with you?”

He stared back balefully. “That’s just hurtful Cassie.”

She took another breath.

“Alright. Ok. I’m Sorry. Just. Let me help you.”

He noticed the omitting of the word “we”.

“Sure Cassie, what do you want to help with,” he asked innocently.

“Ok, well, first…what are you doing here?”

He gave her a non-committal look.

“Oook…what is your deal with Ax?”

“Who?”

“Aximili.”

“I’m sorry, who?”

“You know who, your whole demeanor changed as soon as you saw him.”

“I don’t want to talk about that Cassie, my emotional state is vulnerable. I must protect my peace.”

“So..Ax has something to do with your emotions?”

Bor’ij frowned. She as far more emotionally perceptive than what he was used to.

The cloth was still covering his features so she couldn’t see his displeasure , but he was pretty sure she could just sense it.

“Ok.” She answered to the silence of disapproval.

She studied him, in his (or rather, her) blood splattered clothing. The andalite who jumped out of a window and took on four controllers, singly handedly, on an alien world in an alien morph on a dare.

“How did you learn to tie these weaves,” she asked, pointing to the wraps of clothing.

Now he was really irritated, he had a fuckin’ noticer on his hands.

“You tryin’ to start a fight, Cassie?”

She looked at him startled, “Uum, no?”

“Ok then.” He gripped the wheel and stared ahead.

“Look, we really are trying to help.” She placed a hand on his shoulder. “How about I take you into town? You haven’t been to earth before, right?”

“I don-“

“It’s just me,” she promised.

He looked ahead. It wasn’t as if he had much to do before the rest of his cell got here.

Anyway, doing recon was a respectable use of time and could be hardly argued against by any critical or grumpy princesses.

“Alright,” he relented.

She nodded her head. “Alright, let’s…get rid of this..uh, body first.”

[featherquillpen]

Babylon 5 inspirations in Animorphs

I am very sure, at this point, that the cosmic beings from Animorphs are inspired by the cosmic beings in the show Babylon 5. The similarities are striking, and Applegrant make multiple Babylon 5 references in the series: there's a picture of a Narn on Fenestre's conspiracy theory website in book 16, and in book 24, a Goodwill employee asks Jake if the spaceship he's looking for is like a Minbari or Shadow spaceship from Babylon 5. At least one of the authors watched Babylon 5, and here's what they took from it.

The Ellimist is inspired by Ambassador Kosh. Like Kosh, he's very powerful, very mysterious, uses special equipment to appear to humans in a form they can understand, kind of a dick, and claims not to meddle in the affairs of other species but does so covertly anyway. He's also locked in a vast galactic conflict with an equally cosmic enemy. In both media, Kosh / The Ellimist is a better ally to our main characters than their enemy, but they're still not an ally you really want to trust or rely on.

Crayak is inspired by the Shadows. Much like Crayak with the Ellimist, they're locked in a cosmic conflict with the Vorlons, they incite war and chaos, and they use a humanoid agent to do so: Mr. Morden, who is a lot like the Drode, tempting lesser beings into terrible deals that seem like a good idea on the surface.