Animorphs Re-Read: #4 The Message (Chapters 13-16)

Chapter 13

Cassie decides to visit Marco the next day. It's brought up yet again how much has changed for Marco since his mother died.

When Marco tells his Dad to put on his bathrobe I'm reminded of the Fringe character Walter Bishop. John Noble (the guy who played Walter) was the only one in the cast that didn't sign a nudity clause. Suffice it to say those in charge seemed to take advantage of that.

Cassie tells Marco that she's here to talk to him about the other day. The other day when he nearly drowned like his mother did.

Cassie apologizes to Marco about nearly getting him killed. Marco deduces that Cassie is only ashamed because this time it was her call and she can't handle the responsibility.

I think someone on tumblr had a post about how all the Animorphs have their roles and when they act outside of them there is chaos. I really wish I saved the link and could put it into this post.

Cassie thinks about it and realizes she doesn't want the responsibility of someone's death. Marco being both a joker and a serious minded person, aka a well rounded character, tells her that bad things happen. He wants all sunshine and daisies, but that's not realistic.

I notice myself liking Marco more as the series goes on. Even though he's reluctant at this point, he still cares for the group.

Cassie talks about how she sees animals put down, but that's always been her Dad's decision to make. Marco must be getting exhausted as he tells her, yet again, that he's still alive and not to worry about it.

Cassie doesn't let it go and asks if he was scared the other day. Marco replies that he's scared all the time about a lot of things. I think he'd only tell this stuff to either Cassie or Jake. Jake because he's his best friend and Cassie because she's the moral center of the group.

Marco ends his little speech by pointing how ludicrous it is that they don't only have to worry about the Yeerks, but by ordinary Earth animals too. Like ants. I mean...sharks!

After they stop laughing a laughter born out of relief and not joy, Marco says that there's a problem. Yeerks are pretending to be treasure hunters and marine biologists.

Cassie says she can't ask for anyone to go this time. I can tell it physically hurts Marco to say this next part as it's the opposite of what he likes to say most of the time. He says that he will go since the Andalite did sacrifice himself for the group.

Cassie repeats that she won't force a decision on the group and Marco points out that not making a decision is a decision in itself. She points out that he's smarter than he admits. Marco jokes to not tell the others or his image would be destroyed. Aw!

And if Marco did get an Animorphs movie out I know one of the parts that would be changed would be this one.

Marco points out that it'd be ironic if it was an Earth animal, like a shark, that killed them and not the Yeerks. And I'd like you to remember that as the series goes on and they have encounters with other Earth animals.


Chapter 14

A few hours after Cassie leaves Marco's, there is a meeting at Rachel's house. Tobias, being more hawk than boy, stays perched on the windowsill.

Jake starts to say what they already know. They get to Cassie getting information from a whale and they start cracking up. It's almost like Applegate is admitting how stupid that idea sounds. Maybe the Animorphs laughing at that fact is her going 'yeah, my bad'. Or it could just be the Animorphs having more relief laughter.

When Tobias points out that getting information from a whale is weird and Marco starts to joke around with that. Like always, he finds a joking way of saying yes. I like you, Marco!

Jake says that the Andalite is so far out at sea that it will take them more than two hours to reach them. Marco, of course, tries to say that now they can't do the mission.

Rachel says that they will first morph seagulls (cue a sarcastic remark from Marco) and Cassie continues saying that then they will demorph on a ship that is going the right way, wait until the ship brings them close to their destination, jump off the side, morph into dolphins, and swim the rest of the way to the Andalite ship.

I'm sort of confused as it seems Marco (and possibly Tobias) don't know of the plan. So why do three of the five know? Why didn't they all meet up to form the plan and then not have to have this meeting?

Marco says that the plan will fail and they should just turn themselves in to Visser Three already.

Jake agrees it's risky and that doing the mission will be something that's voted on.

Marco says "I'm in" first and confuses the whole group. From the previous chapter we can assume that he really believes in this mission. But he uses the excuse that he wanted to beat Rachel to the punch one time.

After some coaxing Tobias votes that they should go on the mission. He had to be coaxed since he felt guilty since he couldn't actually go on this mission.

Jake then says that the mission will start first thing the next morning. Then everyone leaves their own separate ways.

Cassie realizes Tobias might be feeling left out and tells Jake to talk to him later. The leader agrees.

There is then a cute Jake/Cassie moment where she tells him not to get hurt and he says he's indestructible. But when she looks up to the sky and sees Tobias she knows that's a lie.

Oh, come on, it's not like any of the main cast can die!

Chapter 15

I will start this by saying I was born and raised in Florida so I know about seagulls. In fact, I may have some very strong opinions about seagulls. I think only Tobias has stronger opinions about those birds than I do.

The chapter starts off with three Animorphs (their names aren't mentioned so I don't know which ones) being consumed by the seagull mind.

Cassie says that seagulls are scavengers so they notice different things than, say, an Osprey. The group didn't waste a lot of time starting on the mission, but once they started they did a constant commentary on the food. And not food like we would eat, but trash. Basically anything that was edible is what the seagull mind was interested in.

Cassie sees the beach and thinks that once they're over water that they can stop looking for food so much.

That doesn't turn out to be the case as there is still litter in the ocean.

Cassie remarks that seagulls can't ride the thermals like a hawk, but that Tobias isn't doing too great himself either.

Rachel points out the dolphins and how it's amazing they'll be dolphins in a little bit. I admit becoming the prey of one of your morphs is terrifying, but Rachel has a good note to the confusion. The good note is that sometimes how your different morphs interconnect can be an amazing thing.

Jake notices the ship and Tobias takes this time to show-off his awesome hawk eyesight. While Tobias is one of the more reserved members of the group, the fact is that he likes to show off from time to time. Plus his whole thing about red-tailed hawks being the best makes him a little more open in certain conversations.

The group then looks for somewhere to land, but it's hard as the ship is moving so fast that seagulls can't keep up that well.

When the gang is finally able to land Jake asks for the time. From what Tobias says, Jake decides it'd be best if the group demorphs now.

Marco points out that a horrible thing about morphing is that you can't morph much clothing (except later in the series when they sometimes can and can't, I don't remember the later books as clearly as the early ones and am basing this off what others have said). With that statement by Marco I'm left wondering, again, why Applegate didn't allow them to morph some type of footwear.

Rachel jokes with him that she likes him in spandex.

Marco then continues, again, about how he wants uniforms for the group and that they need to be warm. Since when Winter comes it gets cold.

Jake takes a guess how fast they're going and Tobias shows off again when he's able to determine how fast they're going. With the new information the group has a better idea of how the plan will proceed.

It's shown, again, that Cassie isn't good with the responsibility of keeping her friends alive since she gets nervous when Marco refers to their destination as 'where Cassie thinks we should go'.

Tobias heads off since he has to fly back to shore and he doesn't want to increase how long he has to fly over the ocean, since it's not easy for a hawk to do.

Cassie and gang then huddle together as they're glad to be bored before the shit hits the fan.


Chapter 16

After a little time has passed Jake asks Cassie what they should do. Cassie admits that the information the whale gave her were things that dolphins could understand a lot easier than humans. I like how the whale speaks is hard to describe as it adds to the mysticism.

Jake decides to just morph dolphins now because I think he's bored with waiting.

They look at some place where they can jump over and decide that they need to morph after they're in the water. All except Marco who will morph dolphin and they'll push him over the side. Yeah, Marco can't swim.

Rachel points out the obvious flaw in that plan: when Marco morphs dolphin he'll become too heavy for them to do that.

Jake probably thoug-Nope. He didn't realize dolphins weigh a lot. Hey, fearless leader, you okay?

When Cassie realizes how hopeless their situation is she just to forget it and uses the word 'insane'. Marco acts like he owns the copyright on that. Of course he's just trying to use jokes to calm Cassie down.

Cassie breaks down and says she doesn't know what to do and Marco has a sarcastic remark for that. When she reprimands him he sadly can't reply because of what stage he is in his morph. But his remark seemed to be serious so there's no big loss there.

Rachel is the first to jump over after they push Marco overboard. Ah, yes, the Warrior Princess!

Jake and Cassie look at each other and Cassie basically blames Jake for Rachel's actions since she is HIS cousin. After that exchange they jump off the ship.

Cassie fears being in the open ocean and concentrates on the morph. She, again, stays above water as long as she can. When completing the morph she feels at home in her current environment.

After everyone says they're okay they look to Cassie for directions. The only complaint I have is that she doesn't have a word for a measurement of distance. Since she's living in the US shouldn't she use miles or something?

The group decides to follow her after she assures them she knows where she's going.

Cassie figures that the information gave her is from his point of view and dolphins don't dive as deep as whales. However, she still manages to find where she's supposed to go.

As they get a big breath of air for a long dive, they spot the Controllers arriving.
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