#the exposed

[ferronickel]

Squid Ink

My piece for the @animorphs-30 zine! Kid-me would have rioted if they heard I was drawing animorphs fanart and didn't use that opportunity to draw a giant squid, so I had to find a good scene from the end of book 27-

[twenty-of-your-minutes]

The Exposed (Animorphs #27)

Dialogue reformatted but otherwise unedited because this bit gave me such ‘dumb shit teenagers say on discord’ vibes

[emeraldmew]

Oh? They use it/its for the Drode, at least in its first appearance in book 27.

Somehow I never noticed that as a kid.

[imperfectskeleton]

Animorphs #27 - The Exposed

This is a really lovely character piece for Rachel. It kind of has to be, because in the end the Drode is practically a footnote. Why was everything weirdly going their way? Crayak is messing with them and is contractually obliged to leave them loopholes. Bet Toomin is so proud of these kids who play the game better than he ever has cos the only situation they know how to be in is a desperate one these days. You suck Toomin.

I'm getting nervous as the series progresses for reaching the moment at which Rachel isn't just defined by her ability to do violence but consumed by it. So having the gymnastics, shopping, and pretty, popular girl with a real social life was nice to see. And the gymnastics and shopping moments were really good, too.

With gymnastics, she's single minded — she mentions that it's a survival skill in this situation, but it's always interesting to see because the Rachel I love in these books is an intelligent, fairly sensible girl who doesn't like distractions and complications when she's focusing on something. She's also angry and protective and capable of acting on that. So she begins the books focused on a physical feat that's kind of impractical and dangerous — very Rachel — and then someone distracts her, she fumbles and falls, and her immediate response is to be mad at the guy who distracted her, which is, all in all, fairly valid.

Then T.T. (why?) distracts her even further by shamelessly asking her on a date. And she's thrown because the rest of the world doesn't know about the insane Romeo and Juliet situation she's in. And she's 14. And this guy's actually pretty cute, which probably isn't really a thing she's used to noticing about people after a year of fighting a war. (For sure he knows he's cute and also must be so talk for a young teenager.) I gotta say, even as a firm Rachel/Tobias shipper from my very first animorphs book, I never hated T.T. It always seemed pretty rational that Rachel would be a little conflicted over a cute, normal guy asking her out. Seriously, girl, it's not like you said yes (that said, Tobias can demorph and remorph on a date. Sure it's mildly inconvenient but it's not like you're seeing a movie in a tux). T.T. also gives Rachel and opportunity to explicitly state to the reader that she's very loyal, and, even though he gives her some pause, she turns him down on instinct both times.

Loyalty is the main element of who Rachel is. She's not going to do something with someone else because Tobias can't. Throughout the book she very emphatically has Tobias and Cassie's backs, and checks in on Jake and Marco as well. Wow, Rachel and Ax really don't have a relationship the way everyone else in the team does.

(it's really funny that Rachel gets annoyed when Tobias shows the same reckless loyalty as her. Like yeah, the two most claustrophobic people are going to be the ones diving for squid. This happened because Rachel has a compulsive need to volunteer and Tobias would die for Rachel (and Ax) and doesn't care what the others think of that)

Rachel also possesses shopping superpowers previously unknown to mankind and an ability to bluff and act her way out of a situation that Cassie does not have at all. Cassie points out Erek is malfunctioning and while they're arguing with him about his sarcasm still working when the rest of him shuts down she decides exactly where the nearest practical place to camouflage him is and gets them there while tossing out the quip about majoring in mall knowledge at college. When Tom picks up instead of Jake, she manages to not sound too panicked and give the boys a cover story that's entirely believable and communicates that a gorilla would be a handy thing to have right now. Then just goes "finally, my moment has come" and dresses Erek in clothes that both fit him and would presumably belong on a magazine cover. What an absolute queen. No one is doing it like her. The way Cassie describes her as hunting in MM4? That is for sure how Rachel shops, just pure killer instinct.

Also, seriously, for how much weight the introduction of the Drode has, this is an unreasonably funny book. Rachel shopping her way out of disaster while Cassie has to lie in front of a crowd. Ax solving a life or death situation with a skunk morph. <Cassie, your mommy is shooting at us!> Escargot, Calamari, Voyage To The Bottom of the Sea (presumably partially due to Journey to the Centre of the Earth, that's actually a kind of valid mistake). Tobias vs Cetaceans 2: Electric Boogaloo. 6. Rachel's little sisters behaving like siblings. Tobias watching Rachel turn down a guy and saying you know what, he was cute. Oh and Rachel's whale morph with "an acre of hair" is my favourite weird morph moment.

All in all, great book. It's 1 am and I'm out of coherent thoughts.

[andalitean]

pov some random guy tries to ask you out then calls you a bitch when you reject him but youve heard worse and plus you kind of are in a middle school relationship with a guy who spends 90% of his life as a bird

[audiomorphscast]

BONUS 27: The Exposed | Audiomorphs: An Animorphs Podcast(?)

The Animorphs and Ax have one true ally in their battle against the Yeerks: the Chee. So, when they discover that the Chee – including their

Book 27 - The Exposed

[janinereadsanimorphs]

Valid