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The date is January 12th of 2016, and the place is the city of San Francisco, with a population of over 800,000 people. However, despite the city's color and sunshine, it is not a happy place, or at least not for all. The so-feared alien invasion Americans have been obsessed with for the last century has finally begun, only it isn't little green men in circular UFOs saying 'take me to your leader', instead it's a race of mind controlling worms known as the Yeerks, and the first of their targets is the city of San Francisco. Only the aliens' hosts have any idea of the invasion, and they can't warn anyone. The subtle Yeerk takeover has so far been slow and cautious, but it has paid off in it's flawlessness. Anyone could be controlled, even your best friend or your parent, and no one would know, so good is there act.

All is not without hope however, one of the Yeerks' enemies, an Andalite working alone to bring the parasites down, has come to Earth with a mission. Only the mission failed, and the alien's space ship was shot down. Now the alien has one last hope; Humanity itself. Armed with a cube of advanced technology known as the Escafil device that can grant the ability to morph into animals, the Andalite has come to the conclusion that giving a select group of humans this device, alongside opening their eyes to the secret invasion, may be the only way to protect the planet, and thus prevent the Yeerks from gaining an army of over seven billion humans with which to take over the galaxy.

Few witnessed the crash of the spaceship, the cloaking technology used to hide the ship still managing to function for a time, but those who did were close enough to feel the earth shake beneath their feet. Humans are curious creatures, it is only natural to want to investigate...

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Hello! I realize many are not totally familiar with the Animorphs series, I myself have not read any of the books in a long time, and when I did read them I never managed to get my hands on all of them. So this series is going to be a bit AU, we're going to go with an original cast of animorph characters, but many of the major characters will be as they should; the Yeerks, Visser Three, the Hork-Bajir and the Taxxons of course, but others wont be as we remember them. Our allies, or soon to be allies at least, will be entirely original. Ax isn't here, but Elfangor will still be the one to give up the Escafil device, expect new faces from the Chee and Andalites however. The whole 'game' thing between Ellimist and Crayak is a bit sketchy, so we'll drop them as well. The other species in the galaxy, and the Yeerk-aligned defectors, are not well known to me and new things may occur, so expect them to be AU as well, though I'll be using the wiki liberally when needed.

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For those that are not familiar with Animorphs at all and are still interested here is the wiki: animorphs.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

and here is the rules of the morphing power taken from the wiki's page on it: http://animorphs.wikia.com/wiki/Morphing

• Rule 1: There is a time limit equal to two Earth hours. If one stays in morph for more than two hours, they are stuck, becoming a Nothlit. A Nothlit can never return to their original form, or morph, ever again.
• Rule 2: You cannot 'acquire' a morph directly from another person's morph or acquire a morph while you are in a morph.
• Rule 3: You cannot morph directly from one morph to another, you must return to your natural form first.
• Rule 4: It is possible to combine the DNA of several samples from the same species, to create a new being for a morph. This is known as the Frolis Maneuver.
• Rule 5: 'Morphing-sickness' is a rarely documented case when a morpher is allergic to DNA they have acquired. They become nauseous, and are prone to involuntary bouts of morphing when under stress. After a certain amount of time, between a few days and a week, one 'burps' the DNA so to speak, forcing out the creature in its entirety. Through the cascading cellular regeneration, an entirely new animal is created, and expelled from the morpher's system. They are then faced with the problem of having the animal there in the first place, should this animal prove to be dangerous. This process of expelling the DNA is called hereth Illint, translating from the Andalite tongue as "burping DNA".
• Rule 6: When one morphs a being smaller than themselves, the extra mass is extruded into Z-space. In the rare event that a ship would pass by, they would be drawn into it and likely evaporated by the ship's force field (Also, if one was to morph a form larger than one's self, the extra mass would likely be drawn from Z-space).
• Rule 7: One can morph any living multicelluar animal whose DNA they have acquired. However, one cannot morph a plant, a dead animal, inanimate objects (like chairs), or bacterium.
• Rule 8: Only the body is morphed, though with focus the morphing power can be fooled into morphing some types of skin tight clothing with the morpher.

*Another thing to note is that it takes time to morph, typically two minutes to transition from one's base form to the morph. The time spent morphing counts toward the max amount of time one can spend morphed before the morph becomes permanent.

There are a lot of question marks and inconsistencies in the morphing power, such as can someone who has become stuck in their morph gain the ability to morph again from the Escafil device? And in one part of the story the Escafil device requires a morpher to touch one side of the cube to activate it in order to give the ability to non-morphers, but in another part of the story this isn't required. There's also occasions where the two hour limit is passed and yet characters manage to demorph anyway, and occasions where characters do actually become stuck in their morph. I'm willing to go with majority votes on these issues.

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@TheUnknowable
@FantasyChic
@Letter Bee
@Nallore

Name: Kaden “Kade” Ritter

Appearance: Kaden has light skin and faint freckles, with dark brown eyes and even darker, nearly black, hair. He’s a bit on the thin side, though he often wears hoodies or other baggy clothes that make that fact unnoticeable. He also wears hats, almost never seen without one, everything from beanies and pompom tops to bucket hats to baseball caps and flat brims.

Age: 18

Personality: Quiet and thoughtful, Kade is a courteous and kind person, on the outside anyway. He cares about how people think of him, and finds it difficult to be genuine without breaking his kind and stoic mask. He wants to rage and scream and cry, not to be dramatic or draw attention to himself, but to actually feel real for once. He’s vindictive and self indulgent, only barely managing to stuff petty revenge behind his mask, and hiding his weaknesses the same way.

History: In the beginning Kade’s parents were together, but they were never happy. His father was blatantly an alcoholic and abusive, but it took a few years before his mother kicked him out for good. His mother wasn’t much better, not into drugs or booze, but just generally irresponsible, cruel, and ill-suited for anything related to parenthood. She rested on her parents’ money like it was a cure for all her problems and continued living like the spoiled princess her father treated her like as a child.

With less than stellar examples to follow, it wasn’t any wonder their only kid grew up thoroughly messed up. Luckily his friends, while oblivious, cushioned the worst of it. In the beginning at least, by their teenage years not even Kade’s perfect mask protected him from the booze and mary jane craze that swept across his school. Thankfully a penchant for drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana were the only bad habits he maintained, and only sparingly so people wouldn’t think badly of him.

The strange obsession with hats, and the perfect mask he always wore contributing to his outfits, combined nicely to give him a good sense of fashion. He has a part time job at a local clothing store called Outclass, with an opportunity to advance much higher in the company once he graduates. His place on the school swim team came with required volunteer hours at one of several locations, including the San Francisco Marine Wildlife Rescue Center, a veterinary clinic specialized in rescuing dolphins, turtles, and other marine wildlife in and around the San Francisco Bay.

Skills: Observation, deception, swimming, and a fashion sense.

@Ceta de Cloyes I shall have a character either later tonight or tomorrow.

@Nallore I eagerly await to see your brain-child!

Name: Audrey Springer

Appearance: A skinny girl with nut brown skin, and shiny, straight black hair cut in a pixie cut. Her almond eyes are vivid green, and her face is often without makeup, though her head is rarely seen without a hat. Her face tends toward the deadpan, and she dresses for comfort, usually in favorite ripped jeans and loose tops in the summer. Fall and winter will see more intact jeans and flannels.

It is not at all uncommon for her to be adorned with scrapes or gashes, and occasionally even stitches. They're usually found on her arms, from breaking her fall while skating.

Age: 18

Personality: Generally friendly and conversational in disposition, but her refusal to be stepped on often makes her come off as "bitchy." She's quick to remark that the same behavior in men would be considered normal. She does have to admit that she has a temper, and is easy to get in a fight with. This, along with her general vulgarity tend to get her in trouble, but she's quick to forgive her friends(not so quick to forgive an authority figure).

History: Audrey has somewhat hands off parents. Her father(a materials engineer who works in green energy) is usually working. Her mother is a Japanese national and is often across the Pacific working for a partner of the lab her father works for. Audrey is proud of the work her parents do, and is known to wear T-shirts from her father's lab. The absence of her parents has made her an independent child from a young age. She got into hobbies and habits that they wouldn't agree with, but weren't present enough to forbid.

Skills: Skate boarding, high pain tolerance, scrappy.

Hey, I remember something else you might want to put in the morphing rules. Tight fitting clothes, like leotards, leggings or one piece bathing suits, will morph with you, but anything else is left behind or ripped, depending on what you morph to.

@Gisk Added! I want to have something like a list of the rules that will be easily seen by the PCs. In the series they had to learn everything on their own and it took time and unlikely circumstances. Best to have the rules right from the beginning, no?

Anyway, character is being brought up. Her personality is based on a girl I met in the shop last time I got a tattoo.

I think the general essence of the character is there for you to peruse if you want to decide where she fits in your group and plans.

I gave her father a connection that might come up if things get sciencey.

EDIT so I don't make too many posts:

Sorry, just read your response on the other thread, decided to just take it over here.

Does morphing take age into account? I thought it just made you a fully mature version of whatever the DNA sample you took was.

@Gisk Oh, I thought that morphing other people made you a copy of them. Also I thought I read somewhere that someone acquired an old dog, and then morphed into old dog???? That could be my faulty memory or my forays into fanfiction though...

I was considering giving some level of control to the morphing power, more than in the series anyway. Like, it's based on DNA right? Everything else that isn't written in the DNA should be fiddle-able right? Age for one, but also height and weight and muscle mass, that stuffs just as much nutrition as it is genetics right? Also hair length? Style even? But like not colors, even if you acquire from someone with pink hair it isn't natural. But if it remembers things like scars it should be able to remember piercing holes and stuff right? But then what about tattoos?

Like I said, the morphing process leaves a lot of questions.

Hm, it does. I would say not tattoos, because it's foreign matter in your body. But maybe piercing holes, even if not the piercing itself.

Hm, it does. I would say not tattoos, because it's foreign matter in your body. But maybe piercing holes, even if not the piercing itself.

Sounds solid. Something to keep in mind when attempting impersonations. Colored hair, tattoos, piercings, implants and the like... What about eyesight though? Might need glasses for certain impersonations too.

I think that was a thing. I think I recall them needing to steal someone's glasses to impersonate him, both for the look and because they needed them.

@Ceta de Cloyes Applying.

Name: Victoria "I can't tell you my last name" Howell.

Appearance:


5'6 with green eyes. Victoria has freckles across her nose and cheeks as well as covering her shoulders.

Age: 17

Personality: Quiet, reserved, shy, polite, friendly and considerate.

History: Victoria has grown up on the outskirts of San Fran, with her parents owning a small homesteading property that raises much of their own food and grown their own vegetables, so Victoria has grown up living around numerous pet dogs and cats as well as cows, rabbits, goats and chickens that her family raise agriculturally.
Victoria is a fairly quiet girl from a relatively happy home. Most of her time is spent playing video games, reading or listening to music when she isn't feeding and caring for animals as part of her daily chores. She usually prefers to be by herself and mostly listened to heavier genres of music, but she isn't very elitist when it comes to her tastes.

Skills: Some animal husbandry, firearms safety.

Does morphing take age into account? I thought it just made you a fully mature version of whatever the DNA sample you took was.

It takes age into account. In one instance Ax morphed Jake and went over to Cassie's house for dinner with her folks while they were all still in school. He morphed teen-Jake, not fully mature Jake. Cassie also morphed Rachel during the "burping DNA" incident and morphed Rachel at her current age.

<Snipped quote by Gisk>

It takes age into account. In one instance Ax morphed Jake and went over to Cassie's house for dinner with her folks while they were all still in school. He morphed teen-Jake, not fully mature Jake. Cassie also morphed Rachel during the "burping DNA" incident and morphed Rachel at her current age.

Well there we are.

@Ceta de Cloyes My CS feels a little small, but I think I'm done after all.

So are we all supposed to be friends?

@Gisk@Hjalti Accepted! :P

We don't have to be friends if you don't want to be, but knowing each other could provide an excuse to all be in the same place when the ship crashes. I know @Letter Bee has gone for an older character, so not someone we'd be attending school with. So we don't have to know each other, could all just be in the same place by coincidence.

I'm planning on being a dropout, possibly a drug dealer that was walking home by there when the alien ship came down. I'll have a pet Python.

@TheUnknowable Lol, you can be Kade's drug dealer. :P I have half a mind to make him rich and attending a private school, which would make it a bit more difficult for going with the knowing each other route if he isn't going to the same school.

Probably Audrey's too...

Hah, a bunch of messed up kids and an upstanding businessperson are all that stands between Earth and Yeerk enslavement. This'll be fun :P

Hah, a bunch of messed up kids and an upstanding businessperson are all that stands between Earth and Yeerk enslavement. This'll be fun :P

We also have a Farmgirl.