re: history mission, and history mystery! (spoilers)

New spinoff: "Apples & Oranges" [DMS-Animorphs], May 1999 by Huinesoron on 2022-04-07 11:01:22 UTC Reply

Spinning out of the sheer enjoyment I got from writing DMS: Last Sun, Apples & Oranges is an entire spinoff beginning in the immediate aftermath of that mission. Which places it in a very stable time in the PPC's history when nothing ominous was happening at all, no siree!

The fandom is technically Animorphs, but one of the agents doesn't even know what that is, so no canon knowledge is required. There are a lot of little links to certain PPC History events in there, but if you don't know what's going on... well, you're in no worse a position than Alex and Sam.

Apples & Oranges 1: The Newcomer

Also featuring a little bonus... part 1 of a cowrite between Lily Winterwood and myself entitled A Very Mkellin Mystery, starring possibly the least-worst Guard in the DIS.

re: history mission, and history mystery! (spoilers) by doctorlit on 2022-04-07 14:24:56 UTC Reply

Ooooooh, you're doing the thing! Sweet! I want!

I'll talk briefly about the mission first, just so the ancient HQ stuff doesn't show up in previews. The scene where Alex distracts the Animorphs while Sam is reading the charges is solid writing gold, especially Alex's attempt at faking an interest in red-tailed hawks. (What would be the "fake gamer girl" analogue in bird-watching? A faux-feathered friend? A nayvian?) Also, while I understand treating the (an?) Ellimist in this fic as a replacement, I can easily see the real thing playing along with badfics that don't do anything too egregious to the cast, but deciding to mess with the OCs a little:

"SCOTT!"

"I . . . My name is Chr—"

"PRETTY SURE IT'S SCOTT NOW."

Okay, okay, now for the good part! Anyone who's trying the guess the references for themselves, probably don't read any further!

So, is that Ontic outside the SO's office? And, that's definitely Imbolc running past them, so is this taking place immediately after the Evermind was killed/Blue arrested? And I assume the cordoned off RC is the same one Durran is investigating? I'm so excited to continue reading both story threads! I love this!

—doctorlit loves a history mystery, he just can't resistory

Thank you! by Huinesoron on 2022-04-08 22:41:34 UTC Reply

I'm kind of playing with the structure for this series, because it has been a long time since I've read the Animorphs books. That means I'm writing around any moments that would require me to show them in-character, such as after the story goes off the rails.

Also, any possible "Animorphs attack agents" scene is ruled out by a) it taking two minutes to morph, and b) Ax being terrifyingly lethal with that tail. Also C) I don't feel like they attacked humans, but see previous paragraph.

And on to the history! Yup, that was Immy and Ontic, on a crash course for the last two scenes of Reorg chapter 3. A&O literally picks up right before things go sideways for the PPC; it's gonna be fun.

One thing I've realised in planning this is that Vemi and I totally bait-and-switched the cast for The Reorganisation. You get four chapters of Tango, Blue, and Imbolc, and then, surprise! Immy's dead, Blue's in prison, and Tango has fled the PPC and only reappears in the epilogue. From there on, it's the Nyx and Dassie show.

I... have no idea whether we did that on purpose! I know Vemi wrote big chunks of chapter 5 (quite possibly every scene with Nyx, right down to "lovebirds"), but I don't see anything in 6 which is clearly hers, so that might be where we stalled out and she left. I've always felt that the latter, uh, three quarters of Reorg were just me winding up the plots Vemi started, so it's entirely possible we would have seen all new stars, and written off even more older ones, if she'd stuck around. (Though I know I was also working from our notes, because some details of the fighting were in them before she left.)

hS