the animorphs

[instar]

Renée is gone in the morning, a pot of maple oatmeal for the girls and Trouble cooling on the stove and a note on the fridge, she's going to be gone all day on a day trip to Tucson with her friends.

Andi wakes up first. Bella's not far behind.

Comments

[instar]

"If we ever get the chance to acquire a Yeerk? Such as, possibly, the one currently inhabiting Charlie? Then we have a conversation about advance consent, I think."

[hold_infinity]

"...Meaning what?"

[instar]

"If it's sufficiently likely that I am being inhabited by a Yeerk, and Andi's not available to check so it's someone else does it or you kill me or you risk my Yeerk blowing the whole operation? Might have to do it anyway, whether I - or the Yeerk - want to let you or not."

[hold_infinity]

"But if you can't work with whoever does it, after... then what?"

[instar]

"We work separately?" Bella says. "I suck it up and do it anyway? One of us retires?"

[pandion]

"I'll acquire the icky Yeerk, Bella," says Andi. "Ugh, I don't want to, but if you can maybe stand it from me and not anybody else I guess I have to, right?"

[hold_infinity]

"And I'd better do it too," says Robin. "For Ethan."

[pandion]

"And I could let Bella check me if she had to - what about you, Robin?"

[hold_infinity]

"...Ethan. Maybe," she says. "Maybe Trouble. But I'd really rather not, either way."

[pandion]

"I don't think anybody would rather, I mean, ew."

[hold_infinity]

"How much do you want to bet on that?"

[pandion]

"...Huh? Why?"

[hold_infinity]

"Ethan. And Trouble." She thinks about it. "Mostly Trouble."

[pandion]

"...Okay, Trouble's pretty weird, no bet, but Ethan, really?"

[hold_infinity]

"I bet he'll want to try it," she says. "With me as the Yeerk, obviously, he'd never trust anyone else."

[pandion]

"Huh. So I guess we all should acquire it when we get it out of Charlie."

[instar]

"Yep. And when we're done we can squish it before it comes out of sedation, in case that helps, no point being unprofitably sadistic."

[hold_infinity]

"But profitably sadistic's all right?"

[instar]

"Well," says Bella. "I still plan to kill it, this without knowing how good a painkiller the acquisition trance happens to be."

[hold_infinity]

"Are you going to experiment with that?"

[instar]

"If someone's going to acquire Trouble and hasn't yet, it's worth checking."

[hold_infinity]

"I might," she says thoughtfully. "And me and Ethan haven't acquired each other yet, either."

[instar]

"Are you likewise up for investigating how good an anaesthetic we're carrying around?"

[hold_infinity]

"Sure."

[instar]

"Do inform us, then."