He Wants // How to Mourn the Passing // Line
Title: He Wants
Fandom: Animorphs
Characters: Aximili, references to other Anis and Andalites
Spoilers: Vague for #54 in the last paragraph
Words: 323
Rating: PG
Prompt: Heritage: Animorphs, Aximili, balancing between the ideal Andalites he was raised to believe in and the examples of his people he keeps being faced with
He's sitting in the classroom and listening to the teacher describe Andalite ideals. They sound perfect to his young ears and he wants to make them real.
He's meeting his older brother for the first time. Elfangor is brave and honest and good and Aximili wants to be like him.
He's training at the academy on the home world, learning how to fight, how to kill, and how to die. How to block an attack with his tail blade, how to fire a shredder, and how to prepare for the end. He wants to become a warrior, but is it worth it?
He's trapped on an alien planet in a plastic bubble in the sea. He watches the alien life forms swim by overhead and wonders what they're thinking. He's alone and he wants to leave. He wants to go home.
He's fighting alongside his human friends. He doesn't understand their customs or why they insist upon calling him "Ax-man" but he likes them. They're brave and they're good and they carry Elfangor's final moments and he wonders why he was taught to believe Andalites were superior. He wants to learn more but he can't break the law.
He's just come back from Leera and he struggles with accepting that one of his own could have crossed over to join the Yeerks. He wants to explain how he feels to Tobias but how can he describe the beliefs he was raised on? He wants to have another Andalite to talk to. He wants to have a friend who isn't human.
He's aboard the Pool Ship, watching as his own race prepares to destroy the planet and the six billion humans that live there. And him. He wonders how the Andalites he used to dwell among and consider his people could even contemplate such a crime. He struggles to cling to his beliefs but he knows they're just lies. He wants to go home.
*
Title: How to Mourn the Passing
Fandom: Animorphs
Characters/Pairings: Anis plus Ax; implied Tobias/Rachel and one-sided Marco/Rachel if you squint
Spoilers: #54 (why yes, I do love post-war angst, why do you ask?)
Words: 347
Rating: PG
Summary: They each have their own ways of showing it but they all miss her and they all mourn.
Tobias’ pain was perhaps the most obvious. Anyone he had ever cared for, or had ever cared for him, had up and left him, even his own human form. She had promised never, never, she would never do that, she would never leave him alone. But she had.
Jake probably hated himself for it more than he really missed her. He had cared for her, as a cousin and a friend, but they were never close, had never quite seen eye-to-eye. It pained him more to know that he had killed her (not by his own hand, maybe, but it was his plan and his words that had sent her to meet death) than to know that she was gone.
Cassie cried because even though they were polar opposites they had been best friends for as long as she could remember and they had saved each other more times and in more ways than they could count. The warrior and the carer, together until the end except when they weren’t and she died.
Ax mourned privately in the fashion of an Andalite warrior, and secretly in some dark, hidden corner of his hearts he was just a little glad because she had been dangerous and bloodthirsty and uncontrollable and quite frankly, she scared him. But she had been his friend and his comrade-in-arms and it hurt his shorm more than he could know to lose her and he mourned her as he would any Andalite.
And Marco put on a show, bantering with reporters and drawing the cameras away from the others, if only a little. He laughed and cracked bad jokes and wore godawful suits night after night as he traded one-liners with Letterman and Stewart and every other late night show host that would have him, which was all of them. But every second of it made him ache because it was never the same and her jokes had been better. And every second of it he saw her laughing at him from behind the camera and as soon as he looked, she was gone.
*
Title: Line
Fandom: Animorphs
Characters: Rachel
Spoilers: #54 in the last paragraph
Words: 249
Rating: PG
Prompt: Moral Relativism: Animorphs, Rachel&any or Rachel/any, she *has to* keep doing this- it's for (any's) own good
She can't remember what it's like to have boundaries anymore. A long time ago she was able to see things as right or wrong, black or white. She used to have a line drawn, maybe a little fuzzy, a little out of focus as she grew and learned more about the world, but still clear and still there. Lying is wrong (sometimes). Stealing is wrong (usually). Killing is wrong (always).
And then suddenly the world was tipped on its side and she had to toe the line, step over it and then jump back. The line crept away and she hardly noticed. Lying is fine. Stealing is okay. Killing is still wrong but she doesn't have a choice.
And it went on and by the time she realized that the line had blurred and disappeared it was too late. There was no turning back and she had to keep going. She was saving the world; she would have plenty of time later to make amends. Lying is always. Stealing is often. Killing is fun?
But it's okay. It's okay because it's almost over and then she'll be able to redraw the line. She'll be a hero and the world will be safe and she'll have time to find herself again.
It sounds like a bad joke. "A polar bear, a grizzly bear, and a cobra walk into a Blade Ship . . ." But it isn't a joke and then it's over and she still can’t find the line.
Fandom: Animorphs
Characters: Aximili, references to other Anis and Andalites
Spoilers: Vague for #54 in the last paragraph
Words: 323
Rating: PG
Prompt: Heritage: Animorphs, Aximili, balancing between the ideal Andalites he was raised to believe in and the examples of his people he keeps being faced with
He's sitting in the classroom and listening to the teacher describe Andalite ideals. They sound perfect to his young ears and he wants to make them real.
He's meeting his older brother for the first time. Elfangor is brave and honest and good and Aximili wants to be like him.
He's training at the academy on the home world, learning how to fight, how to kill, and how to die. How to block an attack with his tail blade, how to fire a shredder, and how to prepare for the end. He wants to become a warrior, but is it worth it?
He's trapped on an alien planet in a plastic bubble in the sea. He watches the alien life forms swim by overhead and wonders what they're thinking. He's alone and he wants to leave. He wants to go home.
He's fighting alongside his human friends. He doesn't understand their customs or why they insist upon calling him "Ax-man" but he likes them. They're brave and they're good and they carry Elfangor's final moments and he wonders why he was taught to believe Andalites were superior. He wants to learn more but he can't break the law.
He's just come back from Leera and he struggles with accepting that one of his own could have crossed over to join the Yeerks. He wants to explain how he feels to Tobias but how can he describe the beliefs he was raised on? He wants to have another Andalite to talk to. He wants to have a friend who isn't human.
He's aboard the Pool Ship, watching as his own race prepares to destroy the planet and the six billion humans that live there. And him. He wonders how the Andalites he used to dwell among and consider his people could even contemplate such a crime. He struggles to cling to his beliefs but he knows they're just lies. He wants to go home.
*
Title: How to Mourn the Passing
Fandom: Animorphs
Characters/Pairings: Anis plus Ax; implied Tobias/Rachel and one-sided Marco/Rachel if you squint
Spoilers: #54 (why yes, I do love post-war angst, why do you ask?)
Words: 347
Rating: PG
Summary: They each have their own ways of showing it but they all miss her and they all mourn.
Tobias’ pain was perhaps the most obvious. Anyone he had ever cared for, or had ever cared for him, had up and left him, even his own human form. She had promised never, never, she would never do that, she would never leave him alone. But she had.
Jake probably hated himself for it more than he really missed her. He had cared for her, as a cousin and a friend, but they were never close, had never quite seen eye-to-eye. It pained him more to know that he had killed her (not by his own hand, maybe, but it was his plan and his words that had sent her to meet death) than to know that she was gone.
Cassie cried because even though they were polar opposites they had been best friends for as long as she could remember and they had saved each other more times and in more ways than they could count. The warrior and the carer, together until the end except when they weren’t and she died.
Ax mourned privately in the fashion of an Andalite warrior, and secretly in some dark, hidden corner of his hearts he was just a little glad because she had been dangerous and bloodthirsty and uncontrollable and quite frankly, she scared him. But she had been his friend and his comrade-in-arms and it hurt his shorm more than he could know to lose her and he mourned her as he would any Andalite.
And Marco put on a show, bantering with reporters and drawing the cameras away from the others, if only a little. He laughed and cracked bad jokes and wore godawful suits night after night as he traded one-liners with Letterman and Stewart and every other late night show host that would have him, which was all of them. But every second of it made him ache because it was never the same and her jokes had been better. And every second of it he saw her laughing at him from behind the camera and as soon as he looked, she was gone.
*
Title: Line
Fandom: Animorphs
Characters: Rachel
Spoilers: #54 in the last paragraph
Words: 249
Rating: PG
Prompt: Moral Relativism: Animorphs, Rachel&any or Rachel/any, she *has to* keep doing this- it's for (any's) own good
She can't remember what it's like to have boundaries anymore. A long time ago she was able to see things as right or wrong, black or white. She used to have a line drawn, maybe a little fuzzy, a little out of focus as she grew and learned more about the world, but still clear and still there. Lying is wrong (sometimes). Stealing is wrong (usually). Killing is wrong (always).
And then suddenly the world was tipped on its side and she had to toe the line, step over it and then jump back. The line crept away and she hardly noticed. Lying is fine. Stealing is okay. Killing is still wrong but she doesn't have a choice.
And it went on and by the time she realized that the line had blurred and disappeared it was too late. There was no turning back and she had to keep going. She was saving the world; she would have plenty of time later to make amends. Lying is always. Stealing is often. Killing is fun?
But it's okay. It's okay because it's almost over and then she'll be able to redraw the line. She'll be a hero and the world will be safe and she'll have time to find herself again.
It sounds like a bad joke. "A polar bear, a grizzly bear, and a cobra walk into a Blade Ship . . ." But it isn't a joke and then it's over and she still can’t find the line.