The Alien: Ax's Cover Identity At School

[Tim Bruening]

PP 46-47 of paperback: When Ax comes to school in his human morph, Jake introduces him as his cousin Phillip from out of state.  When Jake's brother Tom hears about "Phillip"'s visit, won't he know that Jake doesn't have a cousin named Phillip, and thus become suspicious that Phillip might be an "Andalite bandit" in morph?

[RYTX]

Tom didn't go to the same school: Tom was at the high school, Jake in the middle school. Odds are no one rushed to tell him about Jake toting around a cousin. Not like Chapman would find it inherently suspicious

[Chad32]

Jake could have a number of reasons for claiming he had a cousin named Phillip, other than it being an Andalite in morph.

[Tim Bruening]

Tom didn't go to the same school: Tom was at the high school, Jake in the middle school. Odds are no one rushed to tell him about Jake toting around a cousin. Not like Chapman would find it inherently suspicious

I expect that someone in the Sharing would eventually mention Jake's cousin to Tom, at which point, he would go WTF.

[RYTX]

Why? That's a human point of small talk, not Yeerk. It's not like Jake was introducing him to every student in the school that way, it's not like the Yeerks were seriously suspecting humans, much less kids, at that point. Of all the suspicious things Jake did over the years, lying about a kids identity doesn't seem like it would raise flags to anyone

[Tim Bruening]

Why? That's a human point of small talk, not Yeerk. It's not like Jake was introducing him to every student in the school that way, it's not like the Yeerks were seriously suspecting humans, much less kids, at that point. Of all the suspicious things Jake did over the years, lying about a kids identity doesn't seem like it would raise flags to anyone

Okay, then a NON-Controller may someday tell Tom about Jake's cousin Phillip from out of town, and which point Tom would go WTF.

[RYTX]

Again. Why? Why would a middle schooler go find his class mates elder brother, say your brother brought your cousin phil in last month.
I do not specialize in human interaction, but, again, since Ax was there less than a day, they hardly spoke to anyone, much less about his relation to Jake, why would any think this is a talking point.
Yes, it could happen, but still, since they aren't suspecting humans, Tom would go WTF, and Jake would make a b.s. story just for Tom, who would thing him an idiot, but stop giving F's

[Tim Bruening]

Again. Why? Why would a middle schooler go find his class mates elder brother, say your brother brought your cousin phil in last month.
I do not specialize in human interaction, but, again, since Ax was there less than a day, they hardly spoke to anyone, much less about his relation to Jake, why would any think this is a talking point.
Yes, it could happen, but still, since they aren't suspecting humans, Tom would go WTF, and Jake would make a b.s. story just for Tom, who would thing him an idiot, but stop giving F's

I'm thinking that a middle schooler who is member of the Sharing but has not yet become a Controller might tell Tom about cousin Phillip's visit.  Such a person would both know about Phillip and have occasion to hobknob with Tom.

[RYTX]

Okay. I don't know why I'm investing in this so much, but lets play this out:

Random middle-schooler who's not a control but is trying out the sharing and hasn't been offered full membership yet (RK): Hey Tom.
Tom: Hey RK what up?
RK: Did you hear about that teacher at my school that went nuts today, and Chapman took us out of class
Tom: Yeah, crazy huh. (thinks to self: idiot chapman, letting that get out of hand. But with the pool and the shuttle out of commission, we couldn't take the whole room anyway I suppose)
RK: Yeah, oh hey, I meet your cousin phil
Tom: What?
RK: Yeah, well I didn't really meet him. In that class with crazy teacher, Jake brought in a new kid, told the teach it was his cousin Phil from out of town
Tom: Oh, okay (misc small talk continues, Tom thinks to self: weird the host has no cousin Phil. And from out of town. Can't risk word getting out of suspicious activity hear.)


Later


Tom:(I have no idea who this Phil, and no one else seems to have noticed him, what with the "crazy" teacher. I'll have to talk to the human)
Hey Jake, RK says you brought in a cousin Phil to school the other day. Who's that
Jake: Oh, um, well, it's no my, our cousin, duh. Actually, he was uh, Marco's cousin
Tom: Marco's. Then why were you saying he's your cousin
Jake: Oh, well, the kids a little weird, Marco was kind of embarrassed to be related to him. And I owed him for letting me borrow some notes, so I agreed to pretend he was my relative.
Tom: Weirder than Marco?
Jake: Crazy right. But yeah.
Tom: Weird. You and friends are stupid (generic small talk continues. Thinking to self: Well, the boy and his friends are stupid, this isn't too weird. Besides I have more important things to deal with. The old yeerk of my host decided the kid is not threat, and he's probably right. Plus the Visser is hatching a new plan to.......)

Scene

Now I was a bit sardonic in that scenario, but do you not see how an arrogant master of the galaxy Yeerk would was over look that tidbit of information that almost certainly would not have been pointed out to him while dealing with plans to take over the world. The yeerk had a whole live apart from Jake. He would have been suspicious of everything, but he has not reason in to cue in on a little brother being weird above anything else in the world

[Tim Bruening]

Okay. I don't know why I'm investing in this so much, but lets play this out:

Random middle-schooler who's not a control but is trying out the sharing and hasn't been offered full membership yet (RK): Hey Tom.
Tom: Hey RK what up?
RK: Did you hear about that teacher at my school that went nuts today, and Chapman took us out of class
Tom: Yeah, crazy huh. (thinks to self: idiot chapman, letting that get out of hand. But with the pool and the shuttle out of commission, we couldn't take the whole room anyway I suppose)
RK: Yeah, oh hey, I meet your cousin phil
Tom: What?
RK: Yeah, well I didn't really meet him. In that class with crazy teacher, Jake brought in a new kid, told the teach it was his cousin Phil from out of town
Tom: Oh, okay (misc small talk continues, Tom thinks to self: weird the host has no cousin Phil. And from out of town. Can't risk word getting out of suspicious activity hear.)

Later


Tom:(I have no idea who this Phil, and no one else seems to have noticed him, what with the "crazy" teacher. I'll have to talk to the human)
Hey Jake, RK says you brought in a cousin Phil to school the other day. Who's that
Jake: Oh, um, well, it's no my, our cousin, duh. Actually, he was uh, Marco's cousin
Tom: Marco's. Then why were you saying he's your cousin
Jake: Oh, well, the kids a little weird, Marco was kind of embarrassed to be related to him. And I owed him for letting me borrow some notes, so I agreed to pretend he was my relative.
Tom: Weirder than Marco?
Jake: Crazy right. But yeah.
Tom: Weird. You and friends are stupid (generic small talk continues. Thinking to self: Well, the boy and his friends are stupid, this isn't too weird. Besides I have more important things to deal with. The old yeerk of my host decided the kid is not threat, and he's probably right. Plus the Visser is hatching a new plan to.......)

Scene

Tom (Jake was acting weird just a few weeks ago, eating everything in sight and playing with word sounds!).

[DinosaurNothlit]

Of all the things that could have given the Animorphs away, I think Jake making up a 'cousin' would have been the very absolute least of it.

1. Jake is never home on nights when the 'Andalite bandits' are making trouble for the Yeerks.  Hmm.
2. Jake was found with a Roach Motel stuck to the top of his head, broken as though he'd been inside it (#6).  Hmm.
3. Tom's leg was conveniently broken by a mysterious water creature right when his Yeerk was in danger of starvation, thus putting Jake's father in danger (#31).  Hmm.
4. Rachel's house collapses around her without explanation (#12).  Hmm.

I could go on.  These are all things that don't really have rational explanations.  Jake making up a cousin, though?  There's a dozen reasons a perfectly ordinary teenaged boy would do that.

P.S. How do you know that Jake/Tom/Rachel's family DOESN'T include an out-of-town cousin named "Phillip"?  Heck, perhaps that's why Jake picked that name for Ax ("Phillip" from "Ax" seems like a bit of an odd choice, otherwise).

[Tim Bruening]

Of all the things that could have given the Animorphs away, I think Jake making up a 'cousin' would have been the very absolute least of it.

1. Jake is never home on nights when the 'Andalite bandits' are making trouble for the Yeerks.  Hmm.
2. Jake was found with a Roach Motel stuck to the top of his head, broken as though he'd been inside it (#6).  Hmm.
3. Tom's leg was conveniently broken by a mysterious water creature right when his Yeerk was in danger of starvation, thus putting Jake's father in danger (#31).  Hmm.
4. Rachel's house collapses around her without explanation (#12).  Hmm.

I could go on.  These are all things that don't really have rational explanations.  Jake making up a cousin, though?  There's a dozen reasons a perfectly ordinary teenaged boy would do that.

Okay, why don't the above cited incidents give the Animorphs away?

Also in book 6: Jake goes nuts over food for a weekend, then suddenly returns to normal.

[DinosaurNothlit]

Okay, why don't the above cited incidents give the Animorphs away?

Probably because Visser Three decapitates anybody who disagrees with him.  I suspect a great many Yeerks probably suspected the Animorphs of being human (the possibility is mentioned clear back in #4), but never said anything, for fear of suggesting that their Supreme Leader was actually being stymied by a bunch of human teenagers. 

[Dylan]

Probably because Visser Three decapitates anybody who disagrees with him.  I suspect a great many Yeerks probably suspected the Animorphs of being human (the possibility is mentioned clear back in #4), but never said anything, for fear of suggesting that their Supreme Leader was actually being stymied by a bunch of human teenagers. 

This was mentioned in The Predator.

[Tim Bruening]

Probably because Visser Three decapitates anybody who disagrees with him.  I suspect a great many Yeerks probably suspected the Animorphs of being human (the possibility is mentioned clear back in #4), but never said anything, for fear of suggesting that their Supreme Leader was actually being stymied by a bunch of human teenagers. 

This was mentioned in The Predator.

IIRC, in that book, Visser 3 said that some of his advisers had suggested that the Andalite Bandits might be human!