Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Anne couldn’t stop bouncing her leg, she tries to focus on the small TV Dr. Jan were wheeling in to keep her away from where her and Terri were working, her parents were in on the distraction as they squish her in between them and turn on some movie she had once loved. The Plantars are just as tense as she is, constantly looking at the portal that they were getting closer and closer to finishing it. 

Though she was looking at the screen, her mind wanders, she hadn’t seen Sasha or Marcy in months, the last thing she saw of either of them was Marcy being impaled and Sasha being thrown against a wall, Anne needs them them to be okay, she wants them to be alright, but a voice deep down constantly sneers: There’s no way they survived, you don’t believe that do you?

A familiar wave of uselessness washes over her. She opens her mouth to ask Terri for the fifth time in the last thirty minutes if she could help only to be blinded by a bright white light.

When her vision finally returns Anne is on the floor. Groaning, she looks around. It’s a huge theater, but there’s a big screen in place of the stage. The back of the room doesn’t have seats and has several doors. Any further thought on the room is halted by a hand being offered to her.

She looks up to see “Sasha! Marcy!”

She pulls the two girls into a tight hug, trying to fight back tears.

“I thought-” she cuts herself off as suddenly everything from the last two months really hits her, tightening the hug before stepping back, holding them at arm length, they’re acting different than before, Marcy is trying to make herself small and Sasha seems to have way more stress on her shoulders, both have tears in their eyes, but they smile nonetheless, after everything seeing each other is enough for now, later when that wears off they’ll talk about everything in the castle and Amphibia, and before. When they know what’s going on and Anne isn’t 85% sure she’s dreaming.

Marcy opens her mouth, trying to keep eye contact with her friends only to be cut off by Hop Pop letting out a scream.

Anne turns to see Mr. X and Jenny trying to get a hold of her frog family, freezing when they realize not only was everyone looking at them but there were many frogs and other alien creatures around them. 

Anne steps towards the agents, letting go of Marcy and Sasha to separate the two groups, landing a very satisfying punch giving the agent a rapidly blackening eye, Mr. X realizes on top of being outnumbered he doesn’t have his government issued sidearm. Anne looks at Sasha and Grime, neither of whom she has ever seen without a sword in recent months are disarmed as well.

“We were having a moment,” she offers lamely, with everything else that was happening she shouldn’t have expected it to last anyway.

Mr. X rolls his eyes. “Don’t care, you three are under arrest for harboring alien fugitives, and all of you-”

He’s stopped by a bright orb that appears between all of them, “ENOUGH!”

Anne wants to ask this… thing? Deity? What’s going on, where or when or why they are here.

“*sighs* I should’ve expected this,” the strange light says as everyone else in the room begins to be teleported across the room.

Now, Anne is forced to sit in one of the seats, Sasha and Marcy on either side of her. She strains to look around, everyone she’s interacted with in the past year at least are here, everyone from Amphibia and earth alike have been made to sit. She finds Sprig, while some part of her is happy to be between Sasha and Marcy like old times, her first real friend is too far away and too close to Mr. X and even more so away from her without her help for her liking.

She yells “Hey, light God dude thing, what in Frog’s name is going on?!”

The screen clicks on, there’s VHS lines on it, how can something so big be so out of date?

Marcy reads out loud beside her. “There’s an event that you all must prepare for. If this also helps you realize some of you are in desperate need of therapy, good.”

The youngest of their group spares a slight look at her and Sasha before looking down at her lap, curling into herself again. Anne’s a little insulted Marcy apparently includes her in needing help, she hasn’t been involved in any coup or lies thank you very much.

Some part of her knows her friend, are we actually still friends? Is spiraling in her head, dream or whatever this is, Anne has always known when her friends need a life line, she grabs Marcy’s hand squeezing tightly, almost missing the slight blush of her friend before looking up at the screen to read the words.

Anne or Beast?

Chapter Text

Anne shifts uncomfortably at the looks she got from the title, she lets out a small sigh when whatever this thing is showing them starts.

The screen shows Anne, Sasha, and Marcy in the playground opening  the music box as music starts to play.

“Is this an opening? What is this, an anime?”  Ally asks. She can’t believe she was pulled into such a weird situation, though her and her girlfriend knew that Polly wasn’t normal, this all is a lot.

“If it is, then I should be the main character! Not Boobchuy and her friends!” Maggie declared but cowered at Sasha’s glare. She raises her hands in surrender until the blonde looks away before glaring at the back of her head, “At least we’ll know where you three have been for the past 5 months of playing kidnapped or dead.” she shrugs

The girls in question share a look, Sasha staring through Anne to Marcy, Anne knows she’s thinking of the same moment.

“Do any of these humans make more sense to you?” Stumpy asks to his fellow amphibians, who all shook their heads.

It shows Anne being dirty and waking up in Amphibia. It spans out to show the map of Amphibia.

Anne never thought to see Amphibia shaped like a lily pad, after all these months and many weeks of staring at the map you’d think she’d notice that.

“It is an anime. It’s like an isekai.” Marcy smiles knowingly, at least she was in a good anime. She looks at Anne and Sasha, the guilt snakes back into her stomach

Anne notices Marcy curling into herself again, pulling her knees up to her chest. Anne does her best to comfort her, pulling her hand away from the vice grip around her knees, even if she’s not sure about their relationship after everything, this is going to be hard enough for all of them without withholding comfort. Olivia starts to reach towards Marcy only for the human to flinch away.

The opening shows Anne by the farm and showing all the Plantars. It then shows the various adventures of Anne and Sprig throughout Wartwood.

Anne’s parents felt like they’re about to have a heart attack with what they’re seeing. But she's grown and she has the Plantars by her side, so they know she's okay. Doesn’t stop Oum trying to look over her daughter only to be held in place by whatever force is holding her in place. Huffing slightly she leans towards her husband, letting him hold her.

The opening shows a picture of the girls stuck in a tree branch while raining just outside of toad tower.

“Oh, so that’s where it went.” Marcy says. She had lost the photo before landing in Newtopia, it had been hard losing their group’s photo. No one mentions her voice breaking slightly.

Amphibia

The episode starts at Wally coming out of Stumpy’s Diner. He takes a walk in the forest when a shadowed figure came up from behind him.

“Is that Anne?” Terri asks.

“Is she trying to be an eldritch horror or something?” Maggie guessed.

Anne flinched. Yeah, she’s starting to see why Wally screamed at her. She hadn’t tried to scare the frog but it had been over a week in the Amphibia wilderness by that point.

The scene changes to Wartwood, the citizens are living normally.

Anne’s parents are both surprised she lived in such a community for all those months

Anne can’t help smiling seeing the town she had grown to love; she misses it.

Hop Pop parks Bessie “Alright kids. I’m gonna do a little shoppin, you watch the cart.”

Sprig jumps up excitedly “You got it Hop Pop, I’ll defend this cart with my LIFEEEEE!!!”

“Sprig, I was talking to Polly,” Hop Pop sounds defeated

“What? Polly’s a baby!”

“You’re a baby!” Polly shoots back

Most teens snorted at that, Sasha smirks at the squeaky toy being put in his place.

“Polly’s got more responsibility in her little flipper than you have in your entire body.”

Sprig’s offended, “Ridiculous, what makes you think I’m irresponsible?”

Oh gee, let me think.

The scene shows various flashbacks of Sprig goofing around.

Anne chuckled, that’s Sprig alright. Though she knows after that he’d had to have done his best to fix wherever went wrong-

“Okay, yesterday was a bad day.” Sprig cedes his grandfather’s point

Hop Pop hops towards a store, “Polly, make sure Sprig stays in the cart.” before entering the shop “Well how do you do, Mrs. Jonkins?” his voice fades out.

Sprig sighs, disappointed, “wish there was a way to prove I’m not such a goof-up.”

“Sprig, you’re not a goof-up.” Hop Pop says.

“I know, Hop Pop.” Sprig says, but his smile doesn’t reach his eyes. Anne frowns slightly, knowing that  feeling far too well.

Wally’s screaming can be heard and he began warning everyone about the ‘beast’ that he saw.

“RUDE!” Anne shouts. Marcy leans towards her friend, laying her head on Anne’s shoulder, “I’m not that thin.” Marcy nods but frowns slightly, she may be more muscular than she was on earth but the younger girl can feel how thin her wrist is.

Most people in the room laugh but Dr Jan narrows her eyes, living in another world for so many months, could Anne have even feasibly gotten enough to eat. Anne’s parents are thinking the same thing

Toadstool rounded up the villagers in a mob while Sprig has the idea of capturing the beast himself.

“Oh, so that’s what’s happened. I was wondering what that was.” Anne tries to focus on the screen

“How you got along with the town’s people if this is how it all started.” Bee says frowning, Anne is okay and obviously found good people eventually, he tries to remember that to tap down his worry.

“Lmao, it took over a month for the toads to get me out of their prison cell when I arrived in that world.” Sasha admits with a shrug.

“Really? I just lived in a cave for like a month before I met Sprig.” Anne says.

Everyone else is just staring at them, horrified. Especially Marcy, she turns into Anne’s neck whispering sorry like a mantra but when Sasha touches their trio’s youngest member’s shoulder she pulls away like she’s been shocked not able to look her friends in the eye, every bad thing that she’s gonna see happened to them is her fault.

“Stop right there! Hop Pop said that you had to stay in the cart, you know you can’t take me!” she yells at her brother

“Like a baby could do anything.” Maggie mocked.

“Oh believe me, Polly is a nightmare to deal with.” Anne deadpanned. The amount of bruises she gets from the pollywog was more than the bruises she gets from monsters.

“Oh! Polly, look! Candy,” he bribes his sister. He drops a pocketful of candy in front of her.

“Bribe accepted!”

Hop Pop groaned as everyone else laughed, “I feel you, Hop Pop,” Bee had seen how many times Marcy had gone from the responsible one to letting Sasha do something over a well placed bribe.

Sprig hops off as Polly eats her candy. As he ran through the forest, he landed on one of Anne’s traps. Anne steps out, beyond messy and holding a spear, he screamed.

Anne shrugs, “It had been a long week.” Marcy whimpers slightly, trying to hold back another apology, “It’s the past Marmar,” she tries to sooth putting her arm over her friend’s shoulder pulling her close.

The human’s share a look at the teen’s reaction, how bad could things have gotten for such a reaction? 

“I have bad news for you, beast! I taste terrible!” Sprig tries

Anne’s thoroughly disgusted, “Ew, I’m not going to eat you.”

“You tried to eat Wally!”

“I tried to ask “Wally” for help, he ran off screaming the second me!”

“I just was looking for help,” Anne reidderates softly, early on Amphbia was beyond scary, especially without knowing her friends were safe.

Wally chuckled nervously at the stares he was getting.

They heard a screech and Anne made a run for it, but she turns to cut Sprig free and bring him to a hiding spot. Once they know the danger is clear, they let out a sigh of relief.

“You saved me, you’re not a beast at all! You’re a hero! An ugly, ugly, ugly, hero!” Sprig cheers

“It was my fault you were there in the first place,” Anne shrugs, turning back into danger wasn’t that big of deal.

“Call me ugly again and maybe I will eat you.”

“Ha! You’re not gonna eat me, you got a name stranger?”

Hop Pop had raised Sprig to be polite and maybe a bit naive 

Anne smiles, “My name’s Anne, Anne Boonchuy.”

Sprig: I’m Sprig Plantar! Put er there!

He offers his hand to her, she reluctantly shakes it. When her stomach grumbles, Sprig offers some bugs but Anne didn’t like that so the frog brought up hunting instead.

“Gee Sprig, i don’t know the trap and the spear, I had never thought about hunting.” Anne teases though a few granola bars from the bottom of her bag was enough to make her hunting more a waste of time and energy as the days went on.

“How do I know I could trust you?”

Sasha and Marcy flinched at that. Anne makes herself not look at either, she can’t break her resolve right now.

“Whaaat? Does this look like the face that could deceive you?” he makes puppy dog eyes

Anne laughs,“Yeah I guess not.”

Anne laughs nervously, no she does not have trust issues after the last months, nope

Meanwhile, Hop Pop finds out that Sprig tries to capture the beast and brings Polly along to look for him with the mob behind him.

“You’re bringing the baby along? Do you have any idea how much danger she could have been if there was actually a beast?”

“Oh please, Polly is tougher than she looks. She’ll be fine, heck, she might be able to take the beast down.” Hop Pop said.

The scene changes to Anne being interrogated by Sprig while she’s eating some branches.

“I’m a human being, and I come from another world! Either that or this is a dream.”

“Or a hallucination,” Sasha laughs

“Wow. Do you know how you got here?”

Anne lies, “Nope, one minute I was in my world and the next thing I know I was here. I don’t know how to get home, or even if I can go home.”

Everyone stares at the girl, not for the lie, Sprig doesn’t even care about that and Hop Pop thinks about his reaction to the box so her lie was justified to say the least. Everyone who wasn’t in the throne room months ago is trying to figure out how she got home, and why she didn’t bring Marcy and Sasha home too.

“So yep! That’s my story, what about you? What are you doing in the woods?”

“Proving that I’m responsible!” He beams

“Oh yeah? How?”

Anne laughed. Sure it wasn’t funny at the time but it was funny now.

Before they know it, Anne got ambushed by the villagers and got tied up.

“That couldn’t have been more perfectly timed.” Sasha laughs slapping Anne’s leg softly

Hop Pop is still leading the charge, “Haha, you caught the monster! Sprig, I’m impressed.”

“Dude, what the heck?! You set me up?! I thought we were connecting!” she strains against the ropes

Both Sasha and Marcy feel guiltier by the second. Marcy tries to not let her thoughts turn to the giant salamander in the room.

As Sprig tries to defend himself, a monster roars and they see a giant praying mantis.

“Hurry! Everyone, Mantis Formation!”

The humans are dumbfounded as the amphibians stacked themselves on top each other.

“The fuck?”

“Yeah, I still don’t know what that’s about.” Anne admitted.

As the mantis walks away, a bigger one appeared and everyone ran off. Sprig untied Anne and ran off to fight the Mantis. He was about to get slashed by its claws when Anne rescued him.

Anne gave a strange look at the screen, she could have sworn her eyes glowed. But that only happened after the temples, she shakes her head

They both managed to tie the monster up. Toadstool suggested to ran Anne out of town just to be safe.

“EXCUSE YOU?! SHE JUST SAVED YOUR LIVES!” Oum glared at Toadstool, while her husband does the same and their daughter tries to calm her down.

“Mom, Dad! It’s okay!”

Toadstool just cowered, if there's one thing he fears most, it's mothers, protective mothers are by far the most dangerous demographic.

 Sprig jumps in front of the mob“Stop right there! She’s not a monster, she’s just lost and needs our help. We should take care of her.

Anne smiles.

Oum smiled, she is so glad that Anne has a friend like Sprig, not that Sasha and Marcy were terrible mind you.

The townspeople didn’t want to so Hop Pop declared that he would take care of Anne. Anne asked for a map and plans to travel around but the Plantars warned her that the valley is filled with dangerous creatures and she has to stay with them for two months.

The scene changes to Anne moving in the Plantar’s basement. After Sprig bids her goodnight, Anne tried to open the music box, but nothing happened.

“Were you planning on leaving your friends behind?” Terri asked.

“NO! I didn’t even know they were in Amphibia until I reunited with Sasha! And given it was the millionth time I had tried it that week, I kinda knew it wouldn’t work.” Anne tried to defend herself.

“Makes sense that she thought that, she was the one who opened the music box. She probably didn’t think that Sasha and Marcy would get ropped in.” Loggle joined in.

“Should we take a break?” Hop Pop asks realizing they’d be in this place for the long haul.

“No. We need to find more information about these monsters as possible.” Mr. X said. All the amphibians and their human friends glared at him.

“How about three more episodes, and then a break?” Anne suggested, as much as she wants to get done to return to Amphibia and bring her friends back for real there was a lot that happened in the past seven or so months

Everyone agreed as the screen lights up again.

Chapter Text

Everyone looked at Anne and Sprig, they all have a feeling what this is about.

Anne shifts in her seat, realizing both Sasha and Marcy are touching her Sasha’s hand on her knee and Marcy has laid her head on Anne’s shoulder, still upset.

The episode starts with a flashback. It shows Anne in a thrift store with Sasha and Marcy outside, the two girls are silently encouraging Anne to steal the music box.

Anne paled. There are several things that she didn’t tell her parents about Amphibia, and how she got there is one of them.

The room got silent.

All three girls froze as everyone turned to look at them, some in shock while others in horror. Sasha tightens her grip on her leg and Marcy hides her face as they all try to avoid their stares; Anne is close to crying and trying to avoid the disappointed looks from her parents while trying to comfort her friends as the show continues, Sasha feels sick with guilt, remembering her manipulation to get Anne to take the box, her job is to protect her girls, she failed so completely, she avoids the Boonchuy’s gaze as failing them would hurt more than her own parents, and Marcy remembers her own promise of how everything would be fine, and how logically Anne has a bag so she should take it. She feels worry catch in her throat, not sure if she’s gonna cry or have a panic attack, Anne puts her arm over her shoulder and sasha squeezes the youngest’s shoulder, she tries to focus on that to stop herself from drowning in her thoughts and guilt.

“Anne…” Sasha tries softly.

Anne didn’t look up. She can feel Marcy holding her hand and Sasha just rubbing her back.

“We shouldn’t…I’m so sor-” Marcy takes her own shot at trying to comfort her, only for Anne to shake her head.

Most of the humans are shocked, they always assumed that no matter how much trouble the girls caused, they would never resort to crimes. Dr. Jan frowns, even when Anne was trying to steal from the museum, all it took was a little talking and the girl explained everything, she doesn’t strike her as a thief and yet.

The flashback ends with Anne waking up, thinking everything was a dream and she’s at a sleepover and proceeds to ramble. She realizes that everything is real and the Plantars are with her.

“Hey, Anne. Sleep good?” he’s the only one chill around the human

“Careful boy! It could be hungry…” Hop Pop is clearly on edge

“For your guts!” As is Polly

“It?” Dr. Jan frowns slightly, “You were okay with them calling you that?”

Anne shrugs before explaining quietly so only the doctor and her friends could hear. “Not like they were doing anything worse than kids in school, it isn’t that bad.”

Dr. Jan smiled and nodded and ruffled her hair, not noticing the jealousy coming from Oum.

“They’re not still, right?” Sasha knows she hasn’t been there to protect Anne she doesn’t need or want your protection anymore.

Anne shrugs noncommittally, the few classmates she’s seen haven’t been that bad, trying to figure where she disappeared to.

“Dude, relax. I’m not gonna eat something that clearly doesn’t bathe.” looking at the clearly filthy frog

“…Fair point…” Hop Pop agrees

“See? Told you it was harmless.”

“Hmph! For now…”

“She had literally saved my life not 24 hours before, and that was before we gave her a place to sleep.”

“Just give me an excuse to use old Doris here.” Polly says holding up a rolling pin

Grime tilts his head as if weighing the pollywog in his mind.

“That pollywog gets more chaotic each episode, I like it.” Sasha breathes into Anne’s ear.

Anne rolls her eyes,“Of course you would.”

As soon as Hop Pop and Polly left. Anne began to confess to Sprig about missing her home, family and friends. Sprig suggests that they could be friends in the meantime and suggested to go to the lake to take her mind off some things, Anne agreed and changed clothes.

“Why do you have a swimming suit, toothbrush, and towel in your school bag?”

“Sometimes I do tennis training in the school pool, helps my knees not get too torn up always running on concrete,” Anne shrugs, “And I still hadn’t fully unpacked it from staying at Marcy’s the weekend before.” Luckily she still had meds and just about anything she had needed, she wasn’t gonna look a gift horse in the mouth.

The two excitedly made their way through the front door when they were stopped by Hop Pop. “And where do you two think you’re going?”

“We’re going to the lake!” before snapping his waistband “Oh, ow.”

“Why? You want in? Wanna come?” Anne asks

“Absolutely not! Look, Anne. You're a new, unsettling, strange, bizarre, gangly, horrifying—” Hop Pop’s explanation turns into an accidentally mean tangent

Anne’s parents give Hop Pop a sad side eye, trying not to be too disappointed in the old frog.

“Thanks! I get it.

“Point is, the frogs in this town can be pretty small-minded.” he opens the window, ignoring the frog waving at him “And paranoid.”

“Have you seen a mirror?” Sasha sarcastically said as Marcy laughs despite herself and she glared at the frog. How Anne likes him is beyond her.

Meanwhile all the amphibians living in Wartwood glared at him.

“Slow to accept, even slower to respect,” Anne quotes with a shrug, “He wasn’t entirely wrong.”

“And the mob when I was there,” Marcy doesn’t want to agree with Hop Pop, he was hurting Anne, but it’s not exactly wrong.

“We just need to give 'em time to get used to ya. I think it's best you stay put.”

“But wouldn’t we get used to Anne if she was out a lot?” Ivy asked.

He hates how she has a point.

“Yeah, that’s how it ended up working out,” Sprig agrees.

“Mostly,” Anne whispers looking down at her hands.

Hop Pop locked the door and went on his way. Sprig suggests they eat some peppers but Anne suggests they steal the key from Hop Pop and they easily succeed.

Once again, the girls received stares, Sasha tries to take them off the other two, she’s used to others looking theat her as a troublemaker. Anne looks down at the ground, silently praying for it to swallow her up.

She hadn’t realized how often she acted like Sasha and Marcy, their words and actions echoed from her.

As the duo walk to the lake, Sprig mentioned he didn’t have friends before.

“…Wait, what about Ivy?” Anne asks quietly, was Sprig lying to her too or…?

The two frogs got silent, “…We…had a fight and didn’t talk for years, we recently made up after you showed up.” Ivy said.

Sprig laughs nervously, “Avoiding each other with the school out was beyond easy, so yeah, about a week after you showed up, Ivy asked about you and well we eventually hashed it out.

Maddie walked over to Anne and whispered in her ear. “The heron attack that killed Sprig and Polly’s parents. They saved Ivy from getting eaten and well, Hop Pop and the other adults were too late.”

Oh. OH. Frog, that was beyond moronic Anne. The firefly formal, how could she have listened to that stupid magazine.

Maddie squeezes next to Marcy and whispers quietly as the others continue watching. Anne looks over and see Marcy looks happy at the distraction.

They found the lake, along with a sign warning them not to swim. Anne didn’t take it seriously despite Sprig’s hesitance and he tries to stop her.

“I thought you were trying to be my friend.” Anne frowns

“I am!”

“Well, this is what friends do, remember? They help each other get things that they want.” Anne repeats what Sasha had told her many times.

Now it’s Sasha’s turn to take the brunt of the guilt and stares, she pulls her hand away from Anne. Anne who even while she’s crying tries to comfort Sasha, trying to pull her into a hug.

Marcy too tries to hug her, laying across Anne’s lap, but Sasha pulls away. Steeling her face in a far too familiar way to Anne and Marcy, “Hey,” Anne whispers quietly, grabbing Strength’s hand and squeezing tight, not letting her fully pull away.

“Huh?”

“Look, if a friend likes a pencil case, you get it for them. If your friend likes your new shoes, you give them to her. And if a friend wants you to steal a crazy music box from a thrift store, even if you don't really want to, you do it, okay? Because if you don't, they might not want to be your friend anymore.” Anne explains it easily, one plus one equals two, if you don’t do what your friends want they’ll leave you.

“Alright, that’s it. Stop the episode.” Dr. Jan orders seeing all three girls look near or past tears

The episode paused and a voice can be heard, “This break will end when deemed fit.”

Anne’s parents walk over to their daughter. “Anne,” they try. Bee is torn, these girls had always been a trio, Marcy and Sasha were as good as his own. But Anne is his own and she’s been hurting, because of them.

Anne refuses to look up, pulling her knees to her chest and doing her very best to breathe and stay calm, “I want to stop this, can we stop this?” She begs quietly looking up to Marcy and Sasha.

Sasha wants to agree, to stop all this, go back to her little room in Wartwood, save Marcy, go home. Have this all be a dream, hell she’d even accept all of Amphibia being a nightmare and never happening if she could just protect Anne. Do it right just this once. Instead she just pulls her into a tight hug.

Marcy feels the same guilt as Sasha weighing her stomach down, not all those descriptions were this Sasha had done. Not to mention the music box and everything that happened after. She hesitates for just a second before reaching out and rubbing Anne’s back, shushing her softly between her and Sasha’s sorrys and quiet platitudes.

Eventually Anne shifts, Sasha keeps her arm over Anne’s shoulder, holding tight. Marcy rests her head on Anne’s shoulder, when she brushes against Sasha’s hand she feels the blonde pull away slightly, only to stop. None of the girls are ready to label the butterflies in their stomach as anything beyond nerves.

“Anne, we need to talk about this.” Bee tries again.

“There’s nothing to talk about.” Anne mumbles, her voice dead.

“Yes, there is.” Oum says kneeling in front of the girls, trying to get her daughter to meet her eyes.

Anne finally does, trying to not start crying again. Sasha and Marcy can’t even do that, certain that this is where Anne’s parents ban them from their house and from their daughters life.

Mrs. Boonchuy’s gaze softens, “I'm not mad,” she puts her hand on Anne and Sasha’s knees and grabs Marcy’s free hand, “at any of you, I promise.”

Bee comes up behind them, putting a hand on Marcy and Sasha’s shoulders, “We’re just a little surprised, that’s all.”

“How long has this been going on?” Oum asked.

The air between them gets awkward. Especially since the girls don't know themselves. Eventually Sasha looks up at Mr. Boonchuy and shrugs.

“Maybe awhile,” Marcy admits, “I don’t know.”

“It’s just kinda happened and we all do it just…” Anne shrugs softly, pulling Marcy closer as she leans into Sasha.

“We'll talk about this later, okay?" Bee asked. All three of them nodded.

They move to either side of the trio, pulling them into a hug, Marcy and Sasha both lean into the hug until a voice in their head reminds them how little they deserve this, how Anne’s parents won’t be so forgiving after they find out everything else that’s happened in Amphibia.

A voice is heard through the screen, “Your break is over, please sit down and keep watching the episode.”

A clear bubble appeared protecting the girls.

“In case the lack of weapons hadn’t made it clear, attacking anyone do to anythingshown, no matter how deserved. The room will protect anyone in it if needed.”

“Just so you know, we won’t stop being friends with you if you said no to us.” Sasha reassured.

“Really?” Anne asked, her voice hollow, “Look where we are Sash,” referring to everything outside this room

Sasha moves to pull away, suddenly certain she’s overstepped, “No, please,” Anne leans closer, “I’m sorry that was mean just…”

“Maybe you’re right; Your mom is right. We have to talk about this.” Marcy said.

“Break?” She asked, anything to put off that for now, they both nodded, and cuddled closer; for a second it’s like nothings changed.

Sprig tries not to let his jealousy show. He knows Sasha and Marcy aren’t really stealing Anne but he wants to be able to help his best friend.

Hop Pop leans close to his grandson, “It’s okay boy, the people closest to us can hurt us most but sometimes they’re the only ones that can fix those hurts they caused. She’s not replacing you.”

Sprig decided to have fun instead. The episode shows a montage of Anne and Sprig being kids and just being innocent.

Everyone found this sweet, but it didn’t help disperse the tension.

They realized that there’s a water snake in the lake and they try to escape. Sprig had an idea to use the peppers he carried and put it inside its mouth.

The scene changes to Hop Pop waking up and tries to look for the kids. He founds them playing a board game, they lie about the key and he believes them.

Sprig fell asleep as soon as Anne apologized to him. She smiled and carried him to her mattress.

Anne: Sasha, Marcy. I hope you guys are okay. Guess I am.

They smiled. What did they do to deserve her?

The scene changes to Toad Tower, with Grime interrogating a prisoner.

Grime: Take a look at this please, Sasha. It was found far from here, in the South Forest. Now we know that you've been lying to us. Now we know that there are more of you.

The episode ends with Sasha in a prison cell with a chain strapped in her ankle.

“Wait, you were being serious?!” Anne asked as she and Marcy look horrified.

“Yes? Did you think I was joking?” Sasha laughs slightly, it’s almost funny now.

“Wh- why do you still work with him?!” Anne asked.

“After the whole tower incident, he started to remind me of dad and I got attached.” Sasha admitted.

Grime perked up at this. Did he really remind Sasha of her father? Ugh, what is this weird soft feelings in his chest? And what’s wrong with his eyes? They’re getting blurry and wet.

Sasha tries not to let her cheeks go red at the toad’s reaction

“Why didn’t you tell them about us? They may’ve not had kept you locked up?” Marcy asks softly, “Anne didn’t know cause she had the music box but you didn’t…why?”

Sasha shakes her head, “Wasn’t safe for you two.”

“She didn’t give us any names til well after she was my second,” Grime offers happy for the excuse to not think about his daugh- friend, lieutenant.

Marcy frowns realizing how naive she was to trust Andrias so completely, Sasha and Anne both were smart enough to protect the box and their friends even when they had no warning about this world. She opens her mouth to apologize again only to be silenced by screen lighting up and showing the title of the next episode;

Amphibia, Episode 3: Cane Crazy

Chapter Text

The Plantars lit up at this. Is this going to be about Hop Pop’s cane?

Meanwhile, everyone else is coming up with their own theories of what Anne did here.

“Is Anne going to fight a mage?”

“Maybe Anne goes to a magic school?”

“That would be so cool!”

Anne snorted at the comments while Marcy grumbled about ‘fake’ fans and saying that they’re thinking about staffs, not canes.

The episode starts with Anne showing Sprig her stuff. After playing around with it, Anne lets Sprig keep her pen.

“I can tell you what they are, if Anne didn’t explain it to you.” Dr. Jan offered excitedly. Sprig grimaced at the thought.

“No thanks, I’ll just use the internet.”

Hop Pop calls them for lunch. As the children wait, Hop Pop passes them their food. Anne frowns when she sees that not only is the meal too small for her, it’s filled with green water and full of bugs that are probably still alive.

Hop Pop doesn’t know why all the humans are looking at him in either shock, anger, or horror.

“Anne, please don’t tell me that’s what you’ve been eating every day for five months in Amphibia.” Marcy begged.

“What’s so wrong about my food?!” Hop Pop asked.

“What’s wrong? There’s plenty! Humans and Frogs have different diets! Eating bugs alone could have gotten Anne sick, or worse! Not only that, the amount of food you’ve just given to Anne is far too small for her to be full!” Oum ranted.

“Let’s not get hasty here, I should have tried harder to tell him…” Anne tries to defend Hop Pop but then he interrupted her when he made a careless remark that just made things worse.

“Oh, Anne told me about that. I didn’t think she was telling the truth, I just assumed that you Boonchuys are large and picky eaters.”

Anne paled and grabs her mom to try to stop her from killing Hop Pop. Most of them are just looking at him in disgust.

“Anne, honey, let me go. I need to teach this frog a lesson.” Oum said, she can’t believe she let this frog in her home.

“I don’t think that whoever kidnap us will let you. Besides, I don’t want Sprig and Polly to hate you for it.” Anne said.

Mrs. Boonchuy stopped struggling and got silent for a moment. They both went back to their respective seats, Anne could hear the whispers.

“Jeez, no wonder she’s so thin.”

“5 months of that? It’s a miracle that she’s still alive.”

As Anne got back to her seat, Dr. Jan grabbed her and has a serious face.

“As soon as break starts, we’re making you eat. A lot.”

“Forget that, let’s just make her eat during the episodes.” Sasha says as she snaps her fingers and a small table appeared in front of Anne with her favorite food on it.

“Wh- How did you do that?” Marcy asks.

“I figured that if the theater is willing to make a safe space for Anne, then it would give anything someone wanted for good reasons.” Sasha answered.

She turned to Anne, who gulped. The brunette feels so overwhelmed with the caring attitude of everyone.

“Eat. I will make you if you don’t.”

Anne eventually started eating as the episode resumed.

Anne: Uh, you know what? I think I’m gonna pass.

Hop Pop: Why? Is my food not good enough for the princess?

Anne: Well if I’m the princess, then you’re the king of bad cooking.

Muffled laughter can be heard, the teens are having a hard time to control themselves as soon as Sprig and Polly started encouraging Anne.

Hop Pop: Oh yeah? Well you…I…

Anne: What’s the matter, Hop Pop? Frog in your throat?

The teens started laughing as the adults chuckled. Anne is trying her best not to choke on her food. Hop Pop grumbled.

Sprig: Oooh! She got you again!

Hop Pop: Oh Dangit! You know what? I’m gonna take a nap. I don’t believe this; I feed you, I house you, and this is how you repay me?! If you don’t shape up soon Anne, I’m throwing you out! (closes his bedroom really loudly.)

All of the sudden, Anne doesn’t find it funny anymore.

Hop Pop wonders why she thought that she was really going to get kicked out. He thought it was obvious that he wasn’t being serious.

Anne started mocking Hop Pop as Sprig and Polly laughed at her impressions.

Hop Pop groaned as everyone started laughing loudly. Anne just sat there, eating her food silently. Even when it’s still hot and fresh, the food felt cold.

Anne grabbed a cane and made one final impression.

Anne: Sometimes I wonder why I bother putting up with you at all!

Dr. Jan froze. That last line…it felt too personal, was Anne talking about someone else now?

Judging from the look of her parents, Terri’s and the IT girls’ faces, she’s not the only one who noticed as well.

Wally looked at Anne. She looks sad and playing with her food, she would sometimes glance at her parents.

He thought back on when she helped him in Ribbitville. Was Anne really acting out of the kindness of her own heart, or was it something else?

Anne smashed the cane to the table, breaking it. Sprig and Polly look at it in horror.

Anne: Oopsies, guess I don’t know my own strength, right guys?

Sprig and Polly are still looking at her in horror.

Anne: You guys, okay? What’s the big deal? It’s just one cane.

Sprig: That wasn't just any cane. It was Hop Pop's special cane, passed down from his father, Hop Poppity Pop, all the way from his father, Hop-and-Lock-Drop Soppity Pop.

“Oof, it was nice knowing you Anne.”

“I’d be pissed too if someone broke my family’s heirloom.”

Anne can’t continue to eat her food now, Marcy noticed this and sent the food away. She scooted closer to Anne and cuddled with her, making her smile.

Sasha is a little conflicted about Marcy but cuddles with Anne as well.

Anne: Oh! You guys gotta help me! He’s gonna kick me out the second he finds out about this, I cannot go back living in a cave!

A short flashback appeared, showing Anne trying to sleep in a cave filled with giant bugs and the rain pouring hard outside, water splashing on her face.

Everyone watched in horror.

 Sasha grabbed Anne by the shoulders, Marcy held her tighter. Tears streaming down in both of their faces.

“I THOUGHT YOU WERE JOKING!”

Anne has never heard Sasha scream like that before. Before she could even try to reassure her, Marcy started apologizing.

“I’m sorryimsorryimsorryimsorryimsorry…” She kept apologizing to her over and over again.

Anne tries her best to comfort them, they only manage to calm down a little. They refused to let her go, taking as much personal space as possible and cuddling with her. They don’t even let her parents join in.

No one could blame them, while Sasha was a prisoner and they guessed that Marcy had a place to live in, Anne had to sleep in a cave. All alone on her birthday. Marcy had wished she never found that box.

Anne: Uhhh, the nights were the hardest.

Marcy felt even more guilt, so she hugged Anne tighter.

Sprig: Don’t worry Anne, we’ll do whatever it takes to help you.

Polly: Uh, Count me out.

Sprig: Polly!

Polly: What? I hardly know her.

“When a baby knows stranger danger than teenagers.” A man remarked. All the teenagers threw pillows at him.

Anne: Would you help me for… one of these? (holds out a candy bar)

The teens snorted.

Polly: Candy from another world?! Lady, you got yourself a deal.

They all tried to fix the can but to no avail.

Anne: Okay, maybe we can’t fix it but someone else can? Someone good with…wood?”

Loggle perked up at this. So that’s why those three were in his shop.

Sprig: Anne, you’re a genius! We’ll just take it to Leopold Loggle, the woodsman! He loves wood, almost a little too much.

When they went to Loggle, he examines it and starts to answer their questions annoyingly. He suggested looking for a tree called the “Doom Tree”.

Loggle: Few have made it to the Doom Tree alive, fewer yet returned.

Anne and her frog siblings snorted. That made so much more sense now.

“Is there anything that isn’t dangerous in Amphibia?”

Anne interrupted him and asked for a map, she took a picture of it and the siblings went on their way.

They found a tree and grabbed a branch, only to find out that the tree is a bug.

“Of course.” Bee deadpanned.

“That explains why no one came back.” Ivy pointed out.

The bug chased them all over to Loggle’s shop. They all began to thrash the place, Anne threw a good looking clock at it.

Loggle: That took 20 years to carve.

“And yet, it took her 5 hours to fix it.” Stumpy said.

Everyone turn their heads to him. Stumpy raised his eyebrow.

“What?” He asked.

“How did you know that? I know that Anne fixed it, since she gave it to me, but how did you know how long it took?” Loggle asked.

“She barged into the restaurant carrying it and asking me for help to fix it.”

They kept fighting until Anne noticed a jar filled with termites.

Everyone, including the Wartwood citizens, turn to Loggle and look at him like he’s an idiot.

Anne: Why would a woodsman have termites?

Loggle: I’m a complicated man!

“Mood.”

Anne threw the termites at the bug, the termites started eating until the bug looked squishy.

Anne: …This world is messed up…

“Agreed.”

“That’s gonna be in my nightmares for a month.”

Loggle took the branch and pen to punish the kids for destroying his shop. The siblings went home and Hop Pop woke up.

Anne admits about the broken cane and starts to head out, Sprig and Polly try to stop her.

“Wait, did you actually think he was being serious?!” Ally asked. Anne nodded.

Some people wondered what kind of life she had to lead her thinking that.

Hop Pop stops her and admits that he wasn’t being serious about kicking her out but still punishes her about the cane.

The episode ended with Hop Pop coming up with terrible comebacks.

“Way to ruin the moment, old man.”

Hop Pop sighed. Why won’t anyone give him a break?

And he paled once he remembered the box.

“One more episode before break, right?” Anne asked.

“Yes, and if I’m not mistaken; you should be eating, young lady.” Oum says as she mentally asks for Thai dishes to appear in front of her daughter.

“Mom, If I keep eating then I won’t be able to eat during break!” Anne tries to argue.

“Actually, you’ve been playing with your food during this and barely touched it, if there’s anything that upsets you in the next episode; your stomach will be half full by the time we get to break.” Terri says and Anne just glares at them.

The screen lights up and shows the title of the next episode;

Amphibia, Episode 4: Flood, Sweat & Tears

Chapter Text

Anne got confused. The only thing that’s coming to mind is Marcy’s stunt with the mayor but that felt too fast. What flood was it then? The box hadn’t been shown again so probably not after HP hid it.

Anne knows that no matter how much she doesn’t want to remember again. The Toad Tower will be shown. Whether she likes it or not. She gives Sasha a glance, staring at the scar she gave her, blue eyes meet her’s and her friend gives her a half smile, squeezing tightly. The reassurance helps at least a little.

The episode starts with Anne and Sprig at the Plantars’ front yard. Anne is holding her tennis racket.

Sprig: You ready?

Anne: You set them up and I’ll knock them down.

Sprig digs underground and sent out a large beetle, which Anne batted away with her racket. The two began to do a handshake.

Sasha and Marcy couldn’t help but feel jealous.

Wally: A frog child and a monster in the woods getting along? So unnatural.

“If I recall, you were also close to Anne as well, aren’t you Walliam?” Wilbert asks his son.

Wally got tense as Anne and the Plantars snickered. The rest of Wartwood looked confused.

“Walliam?”

As Wally walks off, a scream can be heard in the house. The friends followed the source and see the basement flooded.

“Oh fuck no, I know what this is.” Anne said with wide eyes. Sprig has the same expression while Hop Pop and Polly sighed.

“What happened?” Sasha asked.

“This is when I realized that Sprig can be annoying.” 

“Uh, you were annoying too.”

The blonde laughs slightly, sticking her tongue out at the pink frog.

Hop Pop comes out of the water, telling Anne that there was a leak. He suggested that Anne should sleep in the couch while Sprig suggested that they should be roomies.

Hop Pop: I don't know. Bein' friends is one thing, but roommates? Ya think ya know someone until they're in your space and you're in theirs, and ya can't stand how they whistle all the time, and they complain whenever ya clean your web crusties out. "Yes, I have to do it in our room! It has the best lighting!"

“Getting a little personal there, HP.” Anne laughs as the others have a disgusted look.

“Did you and Gran really argue about that?” Polly asks

“Your Gran, Frog rest her soul, was incredibly patient with everything, except my web crusties,” Hop Pop laughs, grabbing Sylvia’s hand and squeezing it, “That woman was an angel until you got her playing ribbitage, the trick is, you find people who’s habits that annoy you isn’t a deal breaker.”

The scene changes to Sprig showing Anne his room. It then shows late night, Anne and Sprig are complaining about the temperature and kept opening and closing the window.

“Oh this is going to be a wreck and I love it.” Maggie says.

“I really can’t do heat when I sleep,” Anne looks back at sprig, “Sorry bud.”

“She can’t,” Sasha laughs, “Remember when we found her,”

“In your backyard?” Marcy laughs a little too hard, “it was like 45 degrees and she was in a tank and shorts.”

All three of them laugh, “Not my fault you’re a furnace,” nudging Marcy “and you starfish to seek heat,” she blows a raspberry at Sasha.

The next morning, Hop Pop and Polly barged into the room to see Anne and Sprig still sleeping.

Hop Pop: Rise and shine, sleepy heads! You missed breakfast.

Anne: Ugh, go away.

Polly: First time, I’ve ever seen you sleep in so late, what gives?

Sprig: I froze solid in the night, I finally just thawed.

Anne: What?! It was like a swamp sauna in here, maybe Sprig just needs another blanket.

Sprig: Or maybe…Anne needs fewer blankets!

Anne: Or maybe…

Hop Pop: You know…couch is still free in case there’s trouble in paradise…

They both denied it and went out of the room.

Polly: They’re gonna eat each other alive.

Hop Pop: Oh absolutely.

“Thank you, for the vote of confidence you two.” Sprig sarcastically said.

Meanwhile, Olivia has noticed that this is the third time that this ‘show’ has joked about Anne eating someone. Now that she thought about it, Marcy said something about ‘foreshadowing’? She’ll have to ask her later.

It then shows a montage of Anne and Sprig being annoyed at each other.

“Remind me not to room with you if we go to the same college.” Maggie deadpans, “Sasha and Marcy are saints having to deal with Anne.”

Marcy shakes her head at the concept her or Sasha are in anyway better than Anne.

They both checked to see if the pipe is fixed but to no avail. That night, Anne looks at the pictures she and Sprig made. She wants to have fun with him again but she ended up breaking his action figure.

That was the last straw for both of them.

While the audience winced, Marcy thought back to Andrias dropping Sprig from the window. Was this foreshadowing?

Sprig felt guilty, Anne just wanted to go back to the good old days but he ended up getting mad at her. She even went out of her way to fix General Bogbreath and he never thanked her.

They both tried to fix the pipe separately but ended up finding each other.

Sprig: I knew it! You just couldn’t wait to move out!

Anne: And you just can’t wait to get rid of me!

A tail grabbed her foot.

“I know that a lot of stuff is needed to be known, but why are my everyday adventures being shown here?” Anne complained. Meanwhile, some people noticed how wrong that line sounded out of context. Exactly how dangerous is this going to get?

Anne: If you wanted me gone, you should have just said so!

“I’m starting to get the whole therapy thing.” Terri whispers to Dr. Jan, biting their lower lip in worry at the kid they’ve both grown fond of.

Anne sneezed. She feels like someone was talking about her.

Anne almost drowns but manages to swim back up. As the two fought with the river lampreys, they reconciled with each other. Hop Pop and Polly went to check on them and complain about the noise.

The episode ends with Anne finally deciding to sleep at the couch as she and Sprig play would you rather with a can.

“Welp, that’s number four,” Yunan stated.

“And with the break beginning, I can safely say there is plenty that needs to be addressed,” Olivia agreed, staring at Marcy, worryingly.

Everyone looked at the girls who paled significantly.

Chapter Text

Anne’s parents came straight to her as soon as the screen went black, Oum grabbing her shoulder.

“Can I please talk to my friends first? I know we have to talk just… please?” begged Anne. She knew her parents wanted to talk now, but she needed to work this out now.

Sasha and Marcy look a little shocked that Anne still called them friends, the comfort they’re trying to give each other is one thing but it’s still so messy between them.

“Fine.” Her dad nods, pulling his wife towards Hop Pop and Grime talking

Anne gives them both a small smile as she offers her hands, both taking one before going to one of the many small rooms off the theater.

“Are we really still friends, after everything?” Sasha asks as soon as the door shuts, not able to hold back.

“I… I think so? I want to be.” Anne says quietly, dropping to sit on the floor criss-cross.

Sasha and Marcy follow her lead, Sasha taking a knee and Marcy leaning against the wall before falling to the floor, running her hands through her hair, “I never should have done anything with that box,” she sighs, “I’m so sorry, for everything.”

Sasha is closest to her, and some part of her wants to comfort Marcy like she always has, another part isn’t sure she can forgive, trust, Marcy. She does know one thing, “I want us to still be friends too.”

Marcy nods, “I do too,” Marcy lets out a bitter laugh, “I’m… all of this is my fault.”

“Marcy, no-“

“Anne, you lived in a cave for who knows how long all alone. If I had known even just that, I would have just ignored the box. Sasha was a prisoner. I…” Marcy stops for a second rubbing over the mostly healed scar under her shirt, “I’m the one who lied about the box even if I didn’t know it would work, I’m the one who trusted…” she can’t continue, just shaking her head with a small cry, “I’m so sorry,” she turns to Sasha who’s decidedly not looking at her, “to both of you.”

“You were scared.” Anne offers softly, “And I mean… maybe none of us have been good friends, especially lately. I just, wish you hadn’t lied,” She shifts a little to grab the youngest’s hand.  

Sasha looks away, cause Anne is right, none of them had been good for each other, “So we’re just gonna forgive her? Just like that? Like it’s so easy?”

Marcy pulls her knees to her chest cause she deserves that, but fuck Marcy can’t deal with hearing it. She doesn’t know how to fix it. She’s never felt so dumb before today.

Anne sighs, leaning back on her arms, “I… don’t know if I forgive you yet, honestly either of you, at least not fully. It’s not… easy, it’s really not, but I’m trying, I want to try.” Anne sighs, “Forgiving is hard, but we can try I think? I want to, if you two do too?”

 "Sashy?" Marcy is looking her with big and sad eyes, but so full of hesitance and something else.

"I don't know how to feel, how I feel, about this and just… everything" Sasha admits, dropping to a slightly less tense feeling, “Everything is so confusing and you trapped us in another world, Marce,” she drops her head, “I tricked you both, betrayed you multiple times.” she looks at Anne, “We fought, and not just like… we weren’t friends and you said as much, but that was… you were going for a kill, justified but still.” Anne is certain she can see the weight add back to Sasha’s shoulders, “I’ve spent the last couple months trying to hold everything together til you get back but not like this so now that’s even confusing,” she shakes her head, “I’m sorry, I don’t… I don’t know. I think I want to try.”

Marcy looks at her hands, “I don’t know how you guys could forgive me, if I even deserve it. And it’s maybe not fair to be mad but I kind of am, you lied to us too Sash. And you both always kind of left me separate from you two, like… if I left well, I don’t think you two would still be my friends. I can’t justify being mad, it’s not fair, but…I want to try, I’m sorry, I want to try forgiveness, if we can.” Marcy looks away, guilt weighing down her stomach, she’s certain she’ll be sick. Anne smiles and gently takes both their hands.

"We all messed up, I… think it's okay to not forgive the other right away, these things take time. If you guys try it, it will all be worth it." Anne says.

Sasha and Marcy give a look at each other, Anne is not only willing to forgive them but also taking them blame when it’s substantially more their fault then her’s. They’re certain she’s too good for them

"I guess, I'm willing to give this a shot." Sasha says. Marcy just smiles and isn't really sure what to do now.

"Um, I know this is a serious moment, but can I just say that you look good in that armor?" Marcy blushed, “Like it better than before, little lighter.”

“Yeah, I like the long hair too,” Anne smiles.

"Oh uh thanks.” Sasha looks down, realizing Marcy is in a very tight black jumpsuit looking thing, “I… think I should go,” pushing herself to her feet.

When Anne stands up she offers Marcy her hand, pulling her to her feet. When they all leave the room Anne hugs them both and Sasha grabs Marcy’s hand and squeezes.

Anne's parents smiles. Looks like they don't have to worry after all. At least about that.

Sasha just wants to find a spot to people watch, see what’s up with the unknown frogs and new humans, but before she can Grime cut’s off her path “Do you really see me as father, Sasha?” Grime asked.

Sasha blushes, “No! If anything, you’re more of a bother and a boss.” She says but Grime doesn’t believe her. She doesn’t want to get into the can of worms that is her family life on earth and how Grime cares about her so much than her actual parents do.

Marcy giggled at the scene. It seems like that both of her girls have found families, she felt a tap on her arm and saw Olivia.

“Marcy. I just… how are you? After everything?” She trailed off but Marcy knew what she was talking about. Anne looks at them curiously.

Marcy tightens her grip on Anne’s hand, leaning close,  just trying to remember she’s safe, at least for now, “To be honest, I feel…numb. I can’t remember what actually happened, but I know it did. Everything after the tank is just blank, but I know it’s not good. So, I’m sort of fine, but I also feel empty. Like a part of me is missing and I don’t know what.” Marcy says.

“I’m just glad you’re okay.” Olivia smiled, the newt opens her mouth to say something else, and seems to be separating her hands to offer something but is unsure. Marcy smiles at the words, Olivia and Yunan always took care of her in Newtopia, almost like parents. She feels something warm and fuzzy at the idea she cares about Marcy as well.

"Did something happen?" Anne asked with a worried frown, squeezing Marcy’s hand.

"Nothing worth worrying," Marcy reassures quickly, whatever it is she doesn’t remember she doesn’t want Anne to worry about.

In the back of the theater the adults had pulled several chairs into a circle, mulling over what they had just seen

“So…?” Ally tries to start but everything is a lot, “That was… a lot.”

“We’re learning a lot about Amphibia, but there’s been plenty Anne has said that’s… really not okay, right?” Terri asked.

"I know, I'm worried about her." Bee says, he rubs his hands together, clearly thinking, “If it continues,”

"Don't worry, I'm sure it’ll all turn out okay in the end," Dr. Jan tries to reassure them all and herself.

"Of course, her second mom would say that."

She remembers during Christmas that one of the museum’s visitors told her to not give Anne everything she wants, thinking that she was her daughter. Did she really come off as a mother towards the brunette? “No, no, she’s just, she’s a good kid, and just… has a lot on her shoulders,” the doctor shakes her head, “I’m not meaning to step on any toes or overstep,” she looks at Anne’s parents meaning for her to understand.

She turns to look at Anne talking to one of her friends? Girlfriends? She just wants to see the kid grow into what she sees in her, she’s smart, and kind, just… still learning.

Eventually people settle, Marcy is hanging close to Anne and Sasha is people watching, Anne’s parents come up to her, “Marcy, can we talk to Anne alone?”

Marcy can’t stop herself from frowning for a split second before nodding, reluctantly letting go of her friend’s hand.

Oum and Bee sit down on either side of their daughter, “I don’t think we need to tell you that stealing the box wasn’t okay?” her mom starts.

Anne nods, “I…”

“You’ve grown so much, you’re so much more responsible than you were seven months ago,” Bee smiles at her, “But kiddo, you know you can talk to us about anything.”

“Can… can we not about the eating yet? I’m trying and it wasn’t entirely Hop Pop’s fault,” she admits quietly.

They pause at that, “We think…after all this, after Dr. Jan and Terri finish the portal and you’re home safe, we’re gonna get you into therapy, okay? We’ll find someone you can talk all this out about, try to give you some freedom with it but, you need to go, sweetheart,” Oum tells her daughter.

Anne nods, catching Sasha’s eye for a second, smiling slightly before looking away with a small blush, “So, everything okay between you three?”

Anne shakes her head, “Not yet, but eventually.” her parents nod before leaving, her dad letting out a comically loud groan as he stands up.

A table suddenly appears in the open space with many pizzas, “Amphibia’s food will be available in the future, but first everyone needs some really good pizza.” the voice of whoever’s trapped them here booms as the humans quickly approach the table, grabbing their pizza favorites, Hop Pop hand Sylvia a piece and shows her how to eat it and Sprig does the same for Ivy.

She hears Marcy laugh and looks over to see her attempt to show Olivia and Yunan had gone poorly as the general has a large pizza stain on her uniform, suddenly a plate with three pieces of pizza is in her face, “Eat, Boonchuy,” Sasha hands her the plate.

“Bossy much,” Anne rolls her eyes but takes a bite.

“Sorry, I-” Sasha freezes at the idea she could be being controlling, she just wants her friend to be okay and she knows Anne has had issues with eating even before Amphibia.

Anne shakes her head, “You’re fine, better you than the adults.

Everyone finished eating and went back to their seats. The screen lights up and says the next episode;

Amphibia, Episode 5: Hop Luck

Chapter Text

Anne groaned. Can she just watch one episode that doesn’t have her causing problems for herself and others.

As the episode started, no one was surprised at the yelling, par for the course for Amphibia.

Ignoring the screams, Anne shows her siblings a video of Domino.

“Of course, the cat shows up.” Sasha grumbles trying not to touch Anne, how much she wants to touch her, hold her, protect her, even more than before back on earth, is another thing to get confused about.

“Hey, what’s so wrong about Domino?!” Anne asked, bumping her shoulder with her own

“Nothing!” Sasha defended, she didn’t want to insult the little best friends stealer in front of Anne.

Marcy laughed at them. It was just like before, maybe it really could be like that again.

Sprig tries to break Anne’s phone, who stops him. She suddenly smells something awful.

Anne: Did something crawl under the house and die?

Maggie would joke that it was Anne, but stopped herself. Sasha’s stronger than before, and she doesn’t have a death wish. She looks over to the other teens, watching as Marcy lays her head on Anne’s chest again, Sasha not as near as the other two but she doesn’t trust the thing keeping them in here to protect her from the blonde.

Sprig: Worse, Anne. Much worse, Hop Pop is cooking!

“Why don’t you kids try cooking?!” Hop Pop shouted as everyone laughed.

“I tried! You wouldn’t let me,” Anne explains between laughs

“No respect,” Hop Pop mutters crossing his arms.

“That’s cool, Anne is better at cooking than you.” Polly said.

Everyone started laughing again.

When the siblings went to the kitchen, Hop Pop explains Anne about the annual pot luck in the village. Polly complains about the losers.

“Maybe the reason you keep losing is because one of the members is terrible at cooking?” Sasha said.

“You know, that actually makes sense.” Sprig said, over exaggerating his shock at the suggestion, causing the blonde human to laugh.

Everyone snickered while Hop Pop grumbled.

Anne wants to help and insults the recipe once checking.

Many of the adults sighed, this is what people would say when they try to sell things.

Anne suggested they make Pizza and almost killed Sprig when he suggested adding Pineapple.

“Somebody actually likes Pineapple Pizza?!”

“Anne, you have terrible taste in friends.” Marcy jokes

Sprig grumbled at the comments. Pineapple Pizza is good, he had seen that Terri and Grime had both had some during the break.

The Plantars went to the bakery for bread.

Anne groaned and leans back, almost falling to the floor, Sasha catches her and Anne hides her face in the blonde’s hair

“Anne, what happened here?” Marcy was hardly jostled by her movement so now she’s far too close to Sasha for her brain to opperate

Anne just groans, not wanting to explain any further.

Mr. Flour: If you want the dough, the boy has to marry my daughter.

“…You didn’t…”

Meanwhile, Ivy just hopped over to Sprig and glared at Maddie. They both chuckled nervously.

Maddie: Hiii, Spriiig…

Maddie is starting to see why Sprig finds her creepy.

“Oh come on, magic is cool!” Marcy exclaims.

Anne: Done.

“She did.” Marcy laughs

Anne just whined into Sasha’s shoulder, refusing to lift her head. Marcy pats her back not sure what exactly to do.

Hop Pop: You know, if we used the traditional recipe. We wouldn’t have to sell Sprig.

“Guess you’re not that bad of a grandfather.”

Anne and Polly disagree with him.

Sprig: Ah, it’s not so bad. Maybe we’ll learn to love each other…

“No, mine.” Ivy said, pulling the pink frog close.

“That’s actually cute, despite everything else.” Ally said.

Maddie: I’ve seen your death in my mind.

Sprig: I was hoping it would be a surprise.

Maddie: It will be…

“Morbid curiosity, but how did he die?” Jess asked.

“Can we not-?” Sprig begs but Maddie interrupts him.

“You were dropped out of a window, lots of blood.” Maddie explains simply

“...Forget I asked.”

Anne pales and removes herself from her hiding place. Marcy and Sasha had frozen. Anne looks at the Plantars who were all holding onto each other tight. Sprig is by far the one who’s most shaken, he hadn’t realized how close he had actually come to dying.

Sprig could have… Sprig could have died that day. Anne could have lost three best friends instead of two.

“Thank you…” Anne breathed in Marcy’s ear, who smiled and nodded.

Sprig has never felt so grateful to Marcy before.

After a series of trials getting the ingredients, Anne suggested a tomato as the final ingredient.

“I’m surprised you four survived.” Grime gauffs.

“What’s wrong with tomatoes? It’s not like they’re dangerous or the Toad soldiers wouldn’t come back since I asked them to get it for ketchup.” Sasha asks confused.

Anne and Marcy laugh while Grime shakes his head. Sasha wonders what’s so funny.

The tomatoes are revealed to be giant frog-eating plants.

Anne and Marcy’s laughs got louder as Sasha widened her eyes.

“Oh my frog, I owe the Toads an apology.”

The Plantars got eaten alive. The ingredients fell to its acidic stomach.

Sprig: At least it will be a quick painless death.

Polly: Why would this be painless?

Sprig: Just let me have this lie!

“You frogs are major moods, you know that right?” Maggie says.

Anne: My revolutionary ideas were supposed to save you guys, not get you killed. I shouldn't have been so stubborn. I just really wanted to share a pizza with you guys.

Hop Pop: Ah, I didn't care about that pizza stuff anyway. But you were really trying to help this family out, and that's worth something in my book.

Anne: Your book! Is there anything in the old ways that could help us right now?

Hop Pop: Well, I don't know. Nothing especially useful. Just that the throat of this giant tomato plant is absolutely delicious eaten raw.

They all grinned and ate the plant alive.

“I mean, seems like the best course of action,” Sasha shrugs.

“It’s what I would’ve done.

They ended up using the old recipes, it tasted good but they still lost.

Anne: This is weird, but any chance I could squeeze in there?

Anne’s parents smile. Anne didn’t have to do that, but still did just to spend time with them.

The episode ends with the townspeople throwing shame nuggets at them.

“Jeez, you frogs are brutal,” Terri said.

“Anne, how did you deal with them?” Bee asked.

“They grow on you,” Anne shrugs, before whispering into Marcy’s ear, “Honestly I have no idea.”

Marcy giggles softly as the screen lights up and shows the next episode;

Amphibia, Episode 6: Stakeout

Chapter Text

This seems familiar…

Anne and Hop Pop then froze when they looked at the screen. Polly and Sprig then asked “Didn’t Anne got high with Hop Pop in this episode?”

Anne paled. There is no way she won’t get grounded for this.

The episode starts with a montage of Anne and Hop Pop arguing.

Sprig: I can’t take this anymore!

Polly: They’re just getting used to each other. It’s no big deal.

“Did someone say no big deal?” Wally said.

One of the frogs started singing No Big Deal and the rest started to join in. Everyone else however looked confused.

Anne buried her face in emberassment while Sasha and Marcy just laugh.

Everyone’s just staring at them, even the toads and newts.

“I think there’s some context I’m missing here.” Oum said.

Sprig: Not a big deal? Do you remember the Henderson’s next door? They used to argue all the time, and look what happened to them.

He points to an abandoned house and Wally is stealing some plates.

Wally: Nothing like scavenging the remains of a broken frog family.

“Wally, what the fuck?” Anne is just staring at him in horror.

Wally looked away with a nervous grin on his face while most of Wartwood gave him a stare.

Sprig: If we don't do something now, it won't be long before their bickering tears this family apart.

“Sprig, you’re exaggerating.” Hop Pop said.

“What about The Calamity Box.” Sprig answered.

Anne and Hop Pop got quite real quickly.

The others feel like that this is going to be a very confusing episode.

Polly: I still think we should just give them time. Not like we have a lot of options. You can't force people to get along.

Sprig: Of course not, Polly. (backs away slowly) Of course not… Of course-

Polly: Just go already!

The next scene shows Anne, Polly, and Hop Pop minding their own business.

Sprig: We’ve been robbed!

Hop Pop: Say whaaaaat?

Anne laughs.

Everyone looked at her weirdly.

Anne: Sorry. Sorry. It's just that Hop Pop delivered the perfect sitcom catch phrase.

Now, Anne groaned as her families and human adult friends started laughing. What everyone found so weird is Mr. X joining in.

“Wow, Anne, you’re so right!” Terri wheezed.

“I hate this already.” Anne says.

“Wait, Hop Pop was that commercial guy?!” Maggie exclaimed

“Yeah, that was Hop Pop, I didn’t expect him to be a frog though.” Humphrey answered.

Sasha and Marcy immediately stared in shock. Hop Pop was popular?

I think I need to lie down… Sasha said. Marcy then gave a small chuckle at Sasha.

Sprig shows them that some of the corn had been stolen.

Hop Pop: My prize winning corn!

Anne: You’ve won prizes?

“Wow, that was brutal. You really know how to insult someone.”

Hop Pop is shocked. That was an insult?!

Sprig declared that Anne and Hop Pop should do a stakeout. When the two are out of earshot, Sprig reveals that he stole the corn.

“Honestly, I’m not surprised.”

Night falls, and as Sprig spies on them in his room, Hop Pop is scolding Anne to put out the candle.

Anne yawns.

Hop Pop: Had a feeling you wouldn’t last.

Anne: Worry about yourself, I’ll be fine. I just need a little boost is all.

She shows Blam Berry Blitz.

Anne and Hop Pop made a face. They hoped that they wouldn’t show…that scene…

“Oooh, that looks good, can I have some?” Yunan asks.

“I wouldn’t drink that if I were you.” Polly says.

“Why? We’re always fine when we drink it.” Marcy asks.

“Just watch what happens next.” Anne grimaced.

Hop Pop: "Blam Berry Blitz. The drink that punches you in the face and doesn't stop." Hah! That silly drink won't keep you up! Now, this will keep you up.

He opens a mug.

Anne: (sniffs.) Ugh! What is this poison?

Hop Pop: Mama's old gourd tea recipe. I'm not surprised you don't like the smell. It's way too strong for you.

Anne: Ha! No way it’s stronger than my Berry Blitz.

They both stare at each other’s drinks for a little and instantly grabbed it and drank all of it. They both grimaced at the taste.

“Can we skip this episode?” Anne asks.

“Actually yes, I don’t want to watch this one as well.” Hop Pop agreed.

Sprig and Polly just snickered.

A voice is heard.

“You’re not allowed to skip episodes, especially this one, the scene you’re trying to avoid has something really important. Now keep watching.”

Now everyone is curious much to Anne’s and Hop Pop’s dismay. What could be so important during when they were high?!

They both laughed at their reactions and bonded a little. Sprig is happy about this.

Anne: Of course, my situation is way worse than yours.

“Did you really have to ruin the moment? And it wasn’t that bad!” Hop Pop shouted.

“But you were with your family at the time!” Anne shouted back.

He got silent and Marcy felt guiltier by the second.

Anne just snuggled closer to her.

Hop Pop: Always gotta make it about you, don't you? "I'm Anne, and my life is worse than everyone else's."

Now that Hop Pop thinks about it, Anne did have it the worst and this was the only time she complained about it.

Anne: Oh, yeah? Well, at least my head isn't a teakettle. Wait. What?

“The fuck are you talking about? His head looks nothing like that!” Maggie says.

Anne just groaned. Hop Pop buried his face in a pillow as Sprig and Polly started laughing.

“Okay, now I’m curious.” Loggle says.

The scenes shows her perspective; Hop Pop’s head turned into a kettle.

“…No way…”

Everyone, mostly the humans, slowly started laughing.

“DID YOU TWO GET HIGH?!” Sasha wheezed.

Their faces just confirmed it and everyone laughed harder. Anne’s parents felt a bit disappointed, but they can’t lie that they didn’t find this funny.

Hop Pop: Oh, yeah? Well, at least my hair isn't rainbow stardust.

It changes to his perspective, Anne’s hair is glowing blue.

Anne, Sasha, Marcy, and their respective families started chocking.

No one noticed and the laughter got louder.

Everything just started to get colorful and it becomes really clear that they’re tripping balls. They started blaming each other and Sprig didn’t like that.

He tried to steal more corn in front of them and Polly stopped him. Anne and Hop Pop sees them as one monster and started to prove that they’re really high by shouting out attacks.

“I can’t breathe!” Maggie wheezed. She wish she could record this!

Meanwhile, Anne is still frozen at the fact that there’s a fucking foreshadowing of her calamity powers.

When she was high!

Polly: Well, they’re broken.

Hop Pop: It must be immune to magic!

Anne: Quick! Grab those power-ups!

Sprig: Power-ups?

They both grabbed some farm tools and charged towards them.

The laughter stopped and no one finds it funny now.

Anne and Hop Pop started to realized that they were chasing Sprig and they were high. They finally bonded and all three of them fainted. Polly decided to get high as well before dragging all three of them inside.

“Even Polly…”

“Hey, Anne? Just so you know, that I won’t let you live this down.” Maggie says. Sasha doesn’t even try to stop her cause 1) she finds it funny, and 2) she was still reeling over the foreshadowing.

“Speaking off, we really need to talk about the food you’ve been eating for the past 5 months in Amphibia.” Mrs. Boonchuy says. Anne groaned and buried her face on Marcy’s stomach.

The screen lights up and the next episode begins;

Amphibia, Episode 7: The Domino Effect

Chapter Text

Marcy sits up at the title, drumming her hands on her legs, “Are we going to have a flashback episode of our baby?” she grins looking at Anne.

“Your what?!” Olivia asks, eyes wide as Yunan has her hand over her chest as if the news had physically hit her. The other amphibians look at the two girls in varying degrees of shock and dismay

Sasha laughs before rolling her eyes, “She’s talking about their cat.” she pulls out her phone and hands it to the newt, a picture of her two friends and Domino sleeping are on her lock screen

“Wait, that thing is also Marcy’s?” Polly asks raising an eyebrow.

“ I have a cat, Domino has a favorite person that’s not her mother.” Anne laughs at the familiar argument, she sticks her tongue out at Marcy, who blows a raspberry back, “And she’s not a thing, she is a princess.”

“I still have nightmares about that princess’s claws,” Sprig interjects.

“Can we plllllleeeeeaaaase have Domino here? I miss her so much?” Marcy asks looking up, the room’s creator must be benevolent cause just like that the cat in question pops up on Marcy’s lap looking at the human before tilting her head and seeming to realize it’s her favorite person curls into a ball and falls asleep on Marcy’s lap

Anne reaches over to pet her cat, only to get her hand softly slapped when Domino’s eyes open. She gives Marcy a pouting look only for the ranger to laugh, “Cat rules, Annie,” but Marcy does return to her rapidly becoming familiar position of laying her head on Anne’s shoulder, Anne wraps an arm around her younger friend’s shoulder, not so subtly trying to pet her cat.

“Frog, you two are dorks.” Sasha said, letting out a small laugh and not trying to make her smile so obvious.

The episode starts with Anne and Sprig playing baseball.

“Ah.” Anne nods once before laughing slightly, hoping no one notices how much she pales. She now remembers what happened next.

And Sprig, the traitor, remembered as well and snickered at her.

“Anne, what’s wrong? What did you do this time?” Marcy asked giving her a side eye.

“Um,” she runs hands through her hair in worry, “I mean… at least I didn’t flood the town?” she tries to throw anything out to distract Marcy, this may be the one thing that could make Marcy hate her. She looks at Domino, reaching over to give her baby a pet.

Anne accidentally threw the scythe a bit too far. When they went to get it, a kill-a-pillar was getting attacked by giant wasps.

They managed to rescue the kill-a-pillar and it looked similar to Domino. Anne literally said that she found a replacement for Domino.

Marcy pulls away from her spot by Anne, giving her a glare, “Anne. Savisa. Boonchuy.” Anne gulps at the cold look Marcy is giving her Domino wakes up stretching to paw at Anne, only for Marcy to pull the cat back

Sasha can’t stop snickering, watching the drama unfold.

“Yes, my loving Marshmallow?” Anne gives her friend ? A crooked smile, hoping she’ll calm down, she has to understand that it was hard all those months without them or her family and she just wanted her cat back, right? She tries her best at puppy dog eyes, knowing Marcy can never resist.

Marcy resisted, "Don’t try puppy dog eyes on me! Did you really just replace our child like that?!” Marcy shouted, Domino just mewled sadly as she keeps trying to get to her owner.

“Of course not! I just missed our baby!” Anne crosses her arms tightly around herself, she knows she’s taking this mostly joke argument too serious, “I missed you guys and everything too, but I thought maybe I could have that little bit even if I couldn’t get home. I’m sorry.”

Marcy’s gaze softens, if only for a second before shaking her head “Nope, I don’t care if Dad’s allergies acted up, Domino is living with me when we get home. You’re not allowed to see her.” she blows a raspberry at her first friend

“Wait, No! Marcy give me a chance! I swear I won’t do it again! Domino, my sweet baby angel, I’m so sorry, I swear I still love you! I promise I’ll be better!”

A small meow can be heard, and Anne starts crying and flops across Marcy’s stomach while the youngest hugs the cat gently.

“My fucking god, you two are being dramatic over a fucking cat.” Sasha says to herself, before putting her arm over Anne’s shoulders, Marcy gives her a sad look she’s only seen on kicked puppies, why does she feel like she’s just stolen something from the other girl. She does find the theatrics funny, but she still rolls her eyes at her friends’ antics.

“Are all humans like this?” Grime asks her

“Not a human thing.” Sasha answers him, earning her a soft back hand from Anne, the Thai girl is clearly pouting.

The next scene shows Anne asking Hop Pop if they can have a pet, which leads to him ranting about a previous pet; a Tarantula named Charlie Bigbottom.

Sprig manages to distract Hop Pop while Anne sneaks Domino 2 inside. The screen shows a montage of Anne and Sprig trying to hide the pet.

“Pretty sure it was a red flag, when your caterpillar tried to eat Polly.” Terri points out, some part of them is wondering what kind of world they're making a portal to, how safe the kid they're sending back into will be. They share a look with Dr. Jan, they can’t tell if she’s thinking the same thing.

Sprig: Whew! Hope there isn’t a Domino 3.

Anne: It’s all worth it when you watch your adorable little boo take a nap.

A meow can be heard. Anne looks over and sees that her cat has stretched out to only be half on Marcy’s lap, resting her head in the space between Marcy and Anne, she gives her cat a pet

Sprig: I gotta admit, she’s pretty darn cute.

Anne: Welcome brother, to the church of cute!

Sprig: This a cult thing?

“Of course not.” Anne says as she tries to pet Domino again but Marcy just pulled her away, making her pout.

“Will you two stop acting like children? I swear, you're arguing is worse than my parents,” Sasha says.

“Also, there is a cult thing. I once caught the chess club making a shrine of Marcy and red paint on their faces. They were chanting a lot, this was when you three went missing by the way.” Maggie says.

“I’m sorry, what?”

Sprig’s stomach growls.

Anne: Woah, looks like Domino 2 isn’t the only one purring. Come on, let’s go grab some grubs.

Sprig: Oooh, I love grubs.

Anne: Sleep tight, my precious baby angel.

Marcy smacks Anne

As they ate, Hop Pop catches them and a loud crash came from the basement. 

Hop Pop: What was that?

Anne: Basement Ghosts?

Hop Pop: Don’t be ridiculous, basement ghosts don’t sound anything like that.

“How would you know what they sound like?” Terri asks, a bit disturbed.

“They sound like whales, and those jelly looking fishes can phase through any object except for mirrors.”

Anne, Marcy, Sprig, and Polly stare at the old frog.

They found Domino 2 in her moth form. Anne managed to get her away before she could eat the Plantars. Hop Pop admits that he misses Charlie Bigbottom.

The episode ends with Sprig giving Anne a plushie of Domino.

Domino let out a loud meow, paws reaching for Anne.

“Domino…you forgive me?” Anne asks. Ivy and Maddie start snickering.

The cat just meowed and tried to stretch to her owner. Marcy just pulled her away even farther.

“Domino, no. Mommy’s been bad.” She says.

Domino just gave her sad eyes. Marcy froze and tried to resist. She gave in.

“Alright, fine. You can still spend time with Domino, but she’s still living with me!” Marcy stated.

“Fair enough! I’m just happy to have my baby, mommy promises that she won’t replace you ever.” Anne says as she plays with Domino.

"Besides, it wouldn't be fair with everything else." Marcy looks down, “Sorry, glass houses, huh?”

“Absolute dorks, both of you,” Sasha rolls her eyes

“It’s a miracle that Sasha can deal with you two.” Oum teases, a fond smile on her face.

“That’s because her parents fight all the time. The only difference between her friends and her parents is that Boobchuy and Wudiot actually love their kid.” Maggie says, “Do any of them even care about you though, gaybright?

Everyone got silent.

Sasha slowly turned her attention to her. She stands up, “Sash,” Anne starts, standing between her and the bully, holding Sasha from doing something she’ll regret, “Sash, you know she’s wrong, Sasha, stop.”

Anne being there doesn’t stop Marcy from jumping at the other teen, punching her square in the jaw before starting to further wail on the girl.

Anne looks to Sasha, checking to make sure she won’t jump into double team Maggie, seeing the blonde had stepped back and was suddenly out of steam. Anne runs to the fight, pulling Marcy off and away before Maggie can get any sort of real hits in, even if she could, the flash of blue light from Anne’s eye’s keeps the other teen down. Every muscle in the youngest’s body is tight and she tries to pull away from Anne, wanting to make her fully regret saying anything about the three of them ever again.

Someone pulls Maggie from the spot she was laying on the floor. She looks over at Marcy, the Newtopian ranger had given her a bloody nose and lip. A protective bubble appears around Maggie, and unlike Anne, there’s no one there to comfort her.

“Maggie, that was uncalled for!”

“It was a joke! And is no one gonna comment on the fact that Wu just went fucking psycho on me?”

Some part of Anne wants to see if the bubbles can withstand her calamity powers, but looking at Marcy in her arms and Sasha who’s still standing there, a dead look in her eyes and she knows she can’t.

She carefully guides Marcy back to her seat, letting Lady Olivia and Yunan worry about her. She watches Sasha tighten and loosen her hand into a fist, Grime steps up beside them as Anne takes her hand feeling at least some tension release.

“Lieutenant?” Grime asks pausing, unsure how to ask if she’s okay.

“I…” Sasha says as she falls to her knees, crying. The old toad doesn’t know how exactly to react to her tears, he ends up just standing there, running his claws through her hair. Marcy reaches out with her non-bloody hand trying to comfort her friend, Anne just keeps her hand interlaced with the blonde’s, rubbing patterns on her hand with her thumb.

Eventually Sasha has regained her composure and Marcy’s hand is bandaged and they all return to their seats, “Marcy,” Sasha begins as they sit down, Domino curling onto the blonde’s lap. Marcy looks at her with her big brown eyes, smiling slightly, she brushes her bangs away as they had fallen out from her clips, “I… thank you.” everything else she could say falls flat.

Marcy’s smile widens a little, nodding once, “Always.”

Sasha gets a warm feeling in her chest as Anne lays her head back on her chest, and Sasha puts her arm back over the girl’s shoulder before tapping Marcy’s and moving her hand to show she wants to hold her’s. Marcy gets the message and Sasha squeezees it as the screen lights up

Amphibia, Episode 8: Taking Charge

Chapter Text

The voice that trapped them comes over the crowd.

“For future reference, you may only talk about things that have happened for all of you.”

Sasha snaps, “Wait, what?”

The voice continues talking,“The thing is…none of you are from the same moment, and a lot happened in the weeks from when I grabbed the first one of you to the last one.”

Some people started shouting and asking questions. Suddenly their voices give out, little more than air gasping out.

“Yes, you’re from different times. I pulled everyone from Earth at the same time, those from wartwood two weeks later, and those from the castle actually were pulled from almost a month before the rest of you.”

The Earthers were a little confused by Marcy’s and Sasha’s situation, were they not together? 

Before they can ask for more details the episode starts

The episode starts with the Plantars minding their own business when Anne screamed and showed them Suspicion Island.

Sasha groaned as Grime, Hop Pop, and Olivia perk up.

“That’s my favorite!”

“No way, me too!”

“I admit, Marcy has gotten me attached to that show.”

“I regret showing you that show. You and the lovebirds almost ran my battery out!” Sasha shouted. She looks down when she mentions Percy and Braddock.

The love birds in question share a sad look. Though Sasha looks happier without them.

Anne grinned as Hop Pop froze. Both realizing what this episode is about, “Ha! It’s not my fault this time!” she grins pumping her fists

Marcy laughs at her antics.

Hop Pop: What is this demonic nonsense?

Grime looks at Hop Pop, feigning insult.

Anne: Hop Pop, this show's got beautiful people doing dumb things while stuff explodes! It's literally perfect.

While Sprig and Polly are on board, Hop Pop tries to stop them by making a play, much to their boredom.

Hop Pop grumbles something about kids these days and true art

They ended up watching throughout the day.

“That cannot be healthy,” Ally comments, shifting to pop her back, as nice as it had been to cuddle with her girlfriend all day she was starting to get sore.

Anne turns off her phone, and leaves it in the living room. However, once everyone is gone, someone snuck in and started watching the whole thing.

Everyone got scared.

“You know in hindsight, I should have taken the phone with me. And put a password on it.” Anne deadpans.

“How are you not freaking out about this? Someone broke into your home!” Loggle shouts.

“It was one of the Plantars,” she shrugs, she’s getting tired and can tell that so is Marcy, her eyes are clearly only just staying open, As she lays falls lower onto Anne’s chest, Anne starts playing with her friend’s hair, Marcy humms happily.

That got everyone to shut up.

Morning comes and Anne finds out that someone used her phone and ran the battery out. The phone dies and she has a mental breakdown.

Anne tries very hard to ignore the stares she’s getting. She only paid attention to Domino purring in her lap as she rests her lays her head on Sasha’s shoulder.

Her parents got silent. Until today they had figured that Anne was mostly okay in Amphibia, that she was having fun. They feel horrified that they weren’t there when she needed them most. “Whoever did it better fess up now.” Oum said as she looks at the Plantars. How dare they make her little girl cry?

No one answered. The culprit is scared of the mother’s wrath and hiding from her gaze.

Sprig: Uh, there there?

Anne: Was it you?!

Sprig: What? No! I didn’t watch anything. It must have been Polly!

Polly: What?!

Sprig: I even heard her get up in the night, very suspicious…

Grime almost felt bad for grinning once he realized what was happening, almost.

Polly: I needed to pee! Plus, if you heard me…You were awake too, YOU’RE the suspicious one!

“Among Us.” Maggie whispers.

That got Anne, Sprig, Polly to let out a small laugh. Sasha and Marcy are very confused.

“I’ll show you guys when you’re back on earth,” Anne promises

Sprig: Don’t change the subject.

Polly: Wait, wait, wait, wait. What about... Hop Pop?

Polly grinned as the rest of her family tries hard not to groan.

Hop Pop: Heh! Me? In case you forgot, I despise that garbage.

Polly: Exactly! Maybe you ran down the phone so we'd have to listen to your boring play!

Sprig: Oh that’s good.

Some saw Polly grinning and immediately found out who the culprit was. They resist the urge to sigh in annoyance. It seems like many of these episodes were Hop Pop versus Anne.

Anne stopped their bickering.

Anne: If none of you are going to admit to it, the least you could do is help me fix my phone!

Hop Pop: Fair enough, Anne. How do we bring this thing back to life? Blood Magic? Sacrifice? I know a guy in town-“

“I… have concerns.” Terri says as they and other people looked very disturbed at Hop Pop.

Anne: We need power. Electricity.

The Plantars: Huh?

Anne: You know…Zap zap?

Hop Pop: Zap zap? Oh I think I know what you’re talking about, quickly! To my study!

Hop Pop opens a book and begins telling the kids about the Zappapede.

Hop Pop: It’s half a day’s travel, but that should be no trouble for this gang.

“Oh, but that’s what Chad Blender said right before he was stabbed in the back!” Grime says. Sasha groans in emberrasment while Anne and the Plantars give him a side glance.

Sprig ended up saying the same thing as Grime.

Everyone paused.

“Okay, that was freaky.”

They started arguing again. Anne stops them and proceeds to head out. The Plantars started giving each other stink eyes and watching each other carefully.

Anne groaned while the Plantars smiled sheepishly. These frogs are going to be the death of her.

Sasha is just amused and runs her hand through Anne's hair. Anne’s eyes get heavier as she relaxes into the touch.

The scene changed with everyone walking up the mountain. They found a Zapapede and proceed to cross a weak looking bridge.

Sprig starts to yawn. Hop Pop glares at him.

Anne: Sup, Hp?

Hop Pop: Sprig, looks tired doesn’t he? Awfully suspicious, and don’t call me hp.”

Polly: The old man is a lying snake but he does have a point.

Anne remembers the calamity box and frowned. A relatively nothing episode is getting hard to watch with what happens later

Sprig: You guys talking scum?

They all look away.

Sprig calls Anne over and proceeds to ask her to let him find the culprit. This leads to the Plantars arguing again as Anne tries to calm them down.

“So Anne’s the brain cell now,” Marcy giggled, “That’s not good,”  as Anne stuck her tounge out at her.

“Hey!” Anne shoves the girl almost laying on her gently.

Marcy laughs, “Sorry bad joke,” hugging Anne loosely.

The bridge breaks and they all fell down. But they ended up finding more Zapapedes below them.

But when Anne made a suggestion, Sprig and Polly started fighting and she ended up joining them. Hop Pop finally confessed his crime.

No one in the room is surprised at this point. The frog has proven to be unreliable.

Anne frowns at the looks Hop Pop was getting, sure the first month or so had been hard but he had been doing his best.

Hop Pop tooks the phone and almost commited suicide by jumping in through the zapapedes. The kids worked together to save him.

The episode ends with the kids stopping Hop Pop from spoiling them.

“And now we’re on a second break.” Anne says, yawning before tanding up but is immediately hugged by her parents.

“I know you don't want to talk more right now, but come to us if you need something or feeling down, okay?” Bee says.

Anne smiles, her hand is hel down my their bear hug so she just raises her upper arm to hold their arms and nods.

Hop Pop starts to yawn.

“I’m feeling a little tired, how about we all eat dinner and sleep?” Hop Pop says but Oum grabs him.

“Don’t think you’re getting out of this easily, Hopadiah. We have a lot to talk about,” She said.

“Wait, there are rooms here?” Ivy asks. A voice can be heard.

“Yeah, I think the rooms in the back are mostly bedrooms,” Anne motions towards the direction she and the girls had talked earlier.

When everyone opened the door labeled as bedroom, the door shows a large hallway with various doors, which they assume are the bedrooms.

“Since there’s so many of us, I think we’re gonna have to share rooms?” Dr. Jan counting the doors and people in her head.

Anne nods before looking at Marcy and Sasha, “Wanna have a sleepover?”

Marcy and Sasha share a look with each other before Marcy looks down, Sasha eventually goes to look at her lap too, stoping and staring at the bandage wrapped around Marcy’s hand.

She can at least try, "Sure."

“Need me to get anything from your stuff for you?" Grime asks and Sasha pushes him away.

“Aww, Captain Grime is being a dad.”

Sasha froze and turned her attention to the source of the voice. She sees Percy and Braddock.

“Percy, Braddock! You’re here!” She shouted as she ran towards them to hug them, the couple freezes when their commander starts apologizing, “I’m so sorry, I never should’ve pushed you, I should’ve listened.” The share a look before accepting her apology.

Anne is holding up a barely awake Marcy as they say good night to Olivia, Yunan, and her parents, “Night mom and dad.”

“Good night Mr. B, Mrs B, mo-,” Marcy is suddenly more awake, “Sleep well Lady Olivia, General Yunan.” She starts to quickly walk away as Anne’s parents warn them to get some actual sleep.

The room they’re in has a huge king sizes bed in the middle, with three pairs of sleep clothes, all three of them change, unknown to them the bathrooms were filled with the others but despite everything they had far too many sleepovers for something so simple. Neither Anne nor Sasha look at Marcy not knowing what they’ll do if and when they see whatever the flaming sword left behind.

Anne sits crosscross on the bed, yawning the other two are staring at the bed, everything is suddenly awkward again, Anne frowns for a second before exhaustion makes her realize that any further discussions tonight won’t help anyone. “Can we please just sleep tonight? I promise we’ll try to get a better grasp on everything that’s happened tomorrow?”

Marcy’s once again waiting for Sasha’s reply, she’s figured for now that following the other’s leads is for the best, apologizing alone will only do so much and Anne is right that forgiveness is hard. Marcy isn’t sure she deserves forgiveness anyway.

Sasha bites her lip, “How’s your hand.”

Marcy lets out a nervous laugh brushing her hair behind her ear, “Hurts like a bitch, but you should see the other guy.”

Sasha nods, sitting on the bed, motioning for the other girl’s hand over Anne’s lap. She gives Marcy a sympathetic grimace “At least you remembered how to throw a punch, could’ve been broken.”

Marcy nods, “I had a pretty good teacher.”

All three smile, remembering how Sasha had, in all her eleven years experience, shown Marcy how to fight.

Anne really wants to stay awake, maybe talk to the two normally, treat this like an actual sleepover, pretend like nothing in the past few months had happened. But her eyes are so heavy she’s out like a light as soon as her head hit the pillow, the lights still on in the room and everything.

Marcy and Sasha look at each other again, even on earth they almost always had Anne as a buffer; they never talked alone.

Marcy’s almost too tired to notice that, almost. She lays down on one side of Anne, trying to get comfortable. She looks over Anne’s mass of hair, trying to figure out what to say to Sasha. Only to see the blonde is laying with her back turned to both of them, Marcy swallows anything she’d like to say, instead turning off the room's light and letting sleep overtake her.

Her dreams are filled with green goo and fire. Eventually the fire turns to orange eyes and pain. She wants to scream but it doesn’t sound like her voice. 

Marcy snaps her eyes open. 

She turns to see Anne and Sasha are still sleeping, Sasha has her arm over Anne’s stomach. Marcy reaches out, wanting to be there, wanting to shake them awake but she grabs her own wrist, physically stopping herself.

Sighing she does her best to get out of bed without waking the other two; She mentally celebrates when she confirms she didn’t wake even the light sleeping Sasha.

She leaves the room, her body almost on autopilot, going to the corner of the theater, letting herself be guided to the floor by the wall, ignoring her hands shaking. The shaking isn’t ignored by the room though, as suddenly her favorite blanket is dropped on her lap and a warm cup is in her hands.

Marcy looks at the well loved blanket, it’s a weighted one that Sasha had gotten her for her last birthday, it was one of the best things to stop her panic attacks and breakdowns, though her parents had always found such aids stupid, most fidgets she’s had were always gifts from the girls hidden from her parents that were thankfully quieter than her pencil tapping or chewing. She puts the blanket on her shoulders and grabs the drink, trying to focus more on that than the faded images about ghost pain the dream had left her with.

Someone suddenly sits down beside her, forcing herself out of her thoughts. She takes a deep breath, trying to figure out who's sat beside her and how they’ll want her to act. Her most likely guess is Yunan, Anne probably would’ve talked already and Olivia doesn’t like sitting on the ground. 

She knows the newts are amongst the many other people she needs to apologize to, she’s honestly not sure she can look the general in the eye right now. Bracing herself she looks to see…Sasha, her icy blue eyes almost seeing through Marcy instead of looking at her.

“H-Hey,” she tries to catch up with what she should do.

“Hey.” The blonde has some distance decidedly between them and Marcy, as much as she wants to and it’d stop the remains of the nightmare on her brain, doesn’t dare cross that line, “What’s up? It’s late, or early, you know what I mean.”

Marcy doesn’t want Sasha to worry about whatever’s gone on in the castle any more than she wants Anne too, but lying more to Sasha isn’t a good idea, and honestly she’s not sure she wants to, “Nightmare.”

If it was Anne she’d have asked to go in more detail but Sasha just nods, maybe shifting just a bit closer.

Marcy taps her fingers on the cup before looking towards their room "You know, I can’t believe that she still wants to be friends with me. To even try after everything." Marcy confesses to the universe just as much as Sasha. 

"Me too." Sasha nods, her hand ghosting over the scar on her face.

Marcy looks up from her cup, she can’t tell if Sasha is agreeing with her about her lie or Sasha’s own. "I’m s- If you don't want to be friends with me again, I understand. Please don’t feel obligated to try," Marcy says, a heavy weight settling in her stomach as she waits for Sasha’s answer.

Sasha’s face softens for just a second, looking at Marcy, before turning back to a mask, “No, I do. I just…” Sasha sighs, running her hand through her hair, “I’m mad, pissed more like, at you, at the situation. I’m hurt, so hurt that sometimes all I want to do is scream at you. Sometimes I want to yell at Anne over things that are really not her fault if I’m honest. I’m tired because being mad at you or Anne is so hard. I…don’t want to stop being friends with you, I don’t want to just throw it all away. Everything is just so much right now.”

"Are you sure?” Marcy doesn’t think Sasha I’d lying to her but even having a possibility of fixing everything is beyond what she had dared to hope after Andrias had revealed her lie.

"I…yeah. It’s not gonna be an easy fix, but Anne is right, we can try, right?" Sasha remembers all the times she’s hurt Anne and Marcy ‘You are a horrible person, and I am done being friends with you!’ Echoing through her head. If she gets a second chance, Marcy does too, “Now, come on, let’s get some more sleep, it’s gonna be a long few days.”

“But-“ Marcy is cut off.

“Marmar, I’ll protect you from anymore nightmares, I promise.” Sasha voice is completely serious and she’s offering her her hand to pull her up.

Even if the nightmares are the least of her worries. And she knows she doesn’t deserve the offered comfort anymore than she deserves forgiveness. Marcy reaches for the outstretched hand, it’s not the first thing she’s taken tonight she doesn’t deserve.

Chapter Text

The next morning Anne is kind enough not to mention that Sasha is for once not the first up, after scooting free of her friend’s grips she goes to find a place to take a shower, expecting at best the bathrooms to be like in the school locker rooms she’s surprised to find the door labeled bathrooms leads to a hall with nine proper doors, she finds the first empty one and finds what looks like a bathroom in the nicest house she’s ever been in. There’s a huge bathtub and an even bigger shower. She’s honestly a little surprised the toilet isn’t gold. She smiles when she sees her favorite shampoo is in there, at least whatever deity who’s trapped them there is a kind kidnapper.

When she gets out, only a few more people up, including Sasha and Marcy who’s red eyes Anne decides to not mention, she points her friends to the bathrooms as they both look like they’d be thankful to get ready away from the adults and amphibians and probably each other . Looking at the breakfast spread she grabs some toast and a bowl of cereal. If the adults try to stuff her up again, she’ll be sick.

She finds a seat alone and tries to think about yesterday, that’s easier than thinking about the upcoming things everyone will see, her and Sasha’s fight, Marcy… she doesn’t need it on a big screen, she can still hear the gasp and see the sword. Her and Hop Pop’s fight after he hid the box. Everything she’s done wrong the last seven months. She suddenly wishes she could just not eat, though now it feels like everyone is watching her any time they eat. Before she can spiral too far and gets sick which… would really not be good for the whole, I’m fine thing, which she is, Hop Pop walks up to her.

“Hey, Anne, can I sit down?” he motions to the seat beside her, and she swallows a bite of cereal before nodding

“Sure thing, HP.” yesterday had been weird not just in the ‘watching her life’ bit but also not being around her adopted family. The Plantars had been nearby but a lot of it had been her with Sasha and Marcy.

“Anne, I reckon I owe you an apology kiddo.”

“What?” Anne snaps her attention to the old frog, “Why?”

Hop Pop groans some, “I starved you for months, and you were just a kid lost in another word and I didn’t really spare you an inch or an ounce of empathy. I was trying my best but I acted like a much younger frog than I should’ve.”

Anne puts down her spoon before pulling her adopted grandfather into a hug, “That’s all water under the bridge, we’re okay now HP.”

Meanwhile in the bathroom Marcy is staring in the mirror. She shouldn’t be, she knows she’s pushing herself a hair’s breadth away from a panic attack but she can’t stop staring at the scar that’s taking up a huge part of her chest. It’s bright pink and puckered, logically she knows it could be so much worse, she’s alive. In many ways that’s more than maybe she deserves. Forcing herself to take a deep breath and covers the mirror with a towel, she has to shower, she does the best to not look down. 

Her eyes are even more red when she leaves the bathroom, luckily no one notices. She doesn’t want to eat, she honestly would rather be anywhere else but here, she knows she’ll have to see more and more things that were her fault and as deserved it is she doesn’t want to see it.

Suddenly there’s a plate in front of her, it has eggs and toast and bacon, “Anne’s parents said you’d like this?” Yunan is standing in front of her, sitting down across from her.

“I… yes, thank you,” she tries to smile, grabbing the fork and trying to eat.

“Marcy,” The general starts and Marcy knows she should look at the newt but she can’t, seeing the general disappointed with her would be too much.

“I’m sorry Yunan, I know you hate liars and traitors, I should’ve told you what I had done and-”

Yunan shakes her head, “I think the king went above and beyond whatever should have been done over that. And I know I’m not the one to forgive you kiddo,” the newt looks across the room to Anne, “You’re still the person who saved me with your quick thinking in the dry swamp.” Marcy opens her mouth to argue that she’d not be wrong to change how she looks at her, but Olivia sits down beside Yunan and gives the human girl a look.

“Marcy, you must eat.”

A few bites couldn’t hurt she supposes, eating protein that isn’t bugs is honestly kinda appealing.

Sasha has missed coffee more than she’d like to admit, she looks over the people and frogs milling about taking another drink, “Sasha, you need to eat,” a familiar voice comes from behind her.

“I’m fine, Mrs. B, not hungry,” lifting her cup to show her friend’s mom that she’s fine.

The Thai woman rolls her eyes and hands the girl two apples, “Please give me one thing to worry less about.”

Sasha salutes dutifully taking a bite of the fruit, Anne’s parents were always like Anne, taking care of her and Marcy even with little things, like when they had done a school play neither of their parents had shown up but Anne’s parents had brought them all flowers and brought all three out to ice cream, despite Marcy’s swearing she just did a few things with the lights. And only god knew how many dinners the two of them had had at their place. Any smile Sasha has from the fond memories faded when she remembers how they now know how awful of a friend she is for their daughter.

She suddenly wishes she hadn’t ate the apple as it settles like a rock in her stomach, “I’m sorry Mrs. Boonchuy,” she looks down squeezing her fingers tight to have anything to focus on but how awful she is, “I’ve been an awful friend to Anne. I shouldn’t have pushed her into taking the box. And even before that I wasn’t good for her, I manipulated her and steamrolled her and ignored what she’d tell me, I was way too controlling.”

“Sasha, I’ve known you since you were four, you’ve always been so headstrong and driven, kinda wish some of that rubbed off on my daughter,” Oum lets out a small laugh, “I saw you grow into a bright, but angry girl,” Sasha looks down at that, “but so strong, I’ve seen how you’d protect the others from bullies at school, around town. How you’d push both of them out of their shells, convinced Anne to try out for the varsity tennis team. 

 And when you three disappeared, when we thought you were de-gone, there was so much speculation, so many people were swearing it was something you had drug Marcy and Anne into, I never did, I saw you fight for them, you wouldn’t ever let anyone else hurt them. Yeah maybe sometimes I wished for Anne to get more friends, sometimes I wondered what the hell you were thinking with some of your stunts but I never thought you were worse for Anne then you helped.” 

she sighs, “Until yesterday. I never thought you three would do anything illegal.” Sasha wishes the ground would swallow her whole, “But ultimately Anne says you changed, she wants to stay friends and forgive you.” She looks over at her daughter and the Plantars, “You’re not the only one who made mistakes, you’re still a kid Sasha, despite how old you think you are, and you not just admit your mistakes but are trying to be better. That’s a good step for me, just… please don’t hurt my daughter again.”

“I…I’ll do my best.” she grabs the coffee cup, running her finger along the edge, “Mrs. B, if they’re showing everything that has happened since we went to Amphibia, I like to think I’ve gotten better, we both have but… both me and Marcy really fucked up it’s… not gonna be good.”

The older woman smiles softly, “Then we’ll deal with that when it happens,” she grabs Sasha’s hand and gives it a small squeeze, “I’ll leave you to eat.”

Oum goes to sit beside her husband, “Have we messed up Bee? Have we failed her?” she looks at the three girls, stopping and staring at Anne.

“I…I honestly don’t know, she doesn’t talk to us so we must have done something.”

She sighs softly, “How do we fix it then.”

“I don’t know, maybe we’ll learn from this?” his frown is deep and he’s slowly getting lost in thought.

Eventually they had all finished breakfast and made their way back to their seats, despite herself Sasha can’t help but notice how Marcy is keeping herself very separate from Anne, unlike last night but before she can say anything, the screen lights up;

Amphibia, Episode 9: Anne Theft Auto

Chapter Text

“Don’t you mean, Grand Theft Auto?” Terri asked.

“Grand wha-?” Ivy asked.

“It’s a game where a dude steals a vehicle.” Sprig answers.

“It’s a bit more than that Sprig.” Marcy said.

Anne choked as everyone turned their attention to her. Why can’t she take a break from this?

A flash of light appeared and Bessie appeared, causing everyone to jump. After settling down, Bessie slid her way towards Anne, and laid behind her.

The episode starts with the Plantars out on the road with Bessie. Hop Pop is rejecting Sprig and Polly’s ideas.

Anne: Can I drive?

Hop Pop: Sure.

Anne: Aww come on, Hop Pop- wait, really?

Hop Pop: Absolutely! I’ve been trying to teach this guy for years. (points at Sprig.)

“Wait, what’s the legal driving age in Amphibia?” Bee asked.

The amphibians looked confused while the humans were curious.

“Why would age matter in driving? If you can drive, you can drive.” Grime stated.

The amphibians nodded. Most of the adults are horrified while the teens and children are excited.

“You can drive there as a kid?! Grandpa, can we live there?!” Molly asks Robert, who quickly declines.

“I am so living there.” Maggie says.

“That is dangerous and just plain reckless, what if something bad happens?” Mr. X asks.

“Amphibia is a dangerous place, the children need to know everything they can if they want to survive.” Olivia said.

Anne gets excited and tries to take the reins but Hop Pop says no and shows her Bessie’s history book.

Hop Pop: This is Bessie's History. Before touching a snail's reins, you gotta know them. Feel their heartbeat next to yours and become one.

“But apparently others have their own ways of teaching the children.” Olivia says as she and the others give him an odd look.

Anne: Hop Pop, it's just a vehicle. We had a family car back home. It's no biggie. [Hop Pop throws the book at her.] Oof!

“Wow. That’s uh, a little rude of you.”

Hop Pop: Don't care. You can't drive Bessie, unless you read this cover to cover. And that's final.

Anne: Are there pictures?

Hop Pop: There are diagrams!

Anne: No!

“Dramatic much?” Sasha teased.

Anne rolled her eyes and playfully punched her. Causing all three of them to giggle.

Hop Pop: Dramatic much?

Everyone jumped. Sasha made a face.

Hop Pop takes Polly to give her a bath, Anne and Sprig use this chance to take Bessie for a joy ride.

“I don’t even know why I’m surprised.” Hop Pop groaned as said grandkids smiled sheepishly.

“I’m surprised that snails can move fast in Amphibia.” Molly says.

After a while, Anne and Sprig got stranded in a forest surrounded by a pile of thorns.

Hop Pop got pale.

“Kids, I swear to frog if something happens to Bessie…” He muttered.

Bessie won’t move, even when the kids try to push her. Anne decides to stay with Bessie while Sprig gets Hop Pop.

Anne starts reading the book to pass the time while Sprig hitches a ride with Mrs. Croaker, who he rudely mocked and is driving so slow.

Hop Pop, narrating: "And it was at that moment I realized Bessie was no ordinary snail, but a kind, clear soul who would help others at a drop of a hat. I raised my bid to 400 copper pieces, winning the auction, and in the process, saving Bessie from the nefarious Jim Snapes."

Anne: Yes! In your face, Snapes!

“Getting invested now, Anna-Banana?” Marcy teased.

Anne smiles slightly, she wraps her arm around Marcy who immediately gives a small blush at her.

“As if, there are a lot more interesting things than Bessie, no offense girl.”

The snail just barked in reassurance.

Meanwhile, Marcy lost all confidence as she’s blushing up a storm while Sasha can’t decide who she should be jealous of right now. Domino is just confused at how her Taiwan owner is acting and just crawled over to her to try to calm her down.

Anne: Man, this is actually pretty good. And I need to stop eating leaves.

Most people frowned at that, especially Anne’s parents. They didn’t forget how Anne has been starving for 5 months.

Anne tries her best to ignore them and the memories of her hunger. She is trying not to remember the endless pain during her time in Amphibia, how she stayed up late eating scraps just to satisfy her hunger, how she would beg someone that’s not there to get rid of the pain and let it all end.

She hugged Marcy tighter. She’s starting to feel sleepy.

As Sprig continues to suffer from Mrs. Croaker’s slowness, Anne finds out that there are predators nearby through Hop Pop’s book.

Anne and Bessie managed to escape using the book, they caught up to Sprig and Mrs. Croaker, the boy quickly latched on to Anne.

Sprig: Thank Goodness! Okay, bye Mrs. Croaker, thank you.

Mrs. Croaker: Bye, darlin'. Next time, try to keep that road rage in check. [laughs] Yee-haw!

She quickly drives faster, maybe even faster than Bessie.

Most of the teens stare in awe.

“That woman is my favorite now.”

A lot of them mutter in agreement and the frog in question doesn’t know how to feel about the compliments she’s receiving.

Sprig: Pretty sure I just got played.

Anne: That woman is everything I wanna be.

The two managed to get home, Anne decided to read the book for the whole night. The next morning, she woke Hop Pop up by throwing the book at him.

Some people snorted at that.

Hop Pop: What the? Hey!

Anne: Morning, Hopadiah.

Hop Pop: Anne?

Anne: I did it. I read the whole thing, in one night.

Hop Pop: Impressive, kinda scary but impressive.

“Yeah, even Marcy wouldn’t go that far.” Yunan says.

“Wanna bet?” Marcy smiled mischievously. Anne hugged her tighter, burying her face in her hair, feeling sleepier than ever. She’s not even paying attention to the screen anymore.

“No. Sleep.”

Anne: I was wrong about Bessie, she’s not just a vehicle, she’s a noble beautiful creature.

Hop Pop: And now that you read this, all you need is experience.

Dr. Jan chuckled. “I think Anne skipped some steps there, Hop Pop.”

Anne starts laughing maniacally as she leaves the room.

Hop Pop: I don’t feel safe.

…

The entire theater gives a small chuckle at the remark.

“Kind of reminds us of when Anne would stay up all night trying to find a portal back to Amphibia.” Oum said.

“Yeah she was really worried about Sasha and Marcy” Bee added.

Sasha and Marcy then look at Anne with concern. “Did she really try to sleep deprive herself just to try and get back to them?”

Sasha and Marcy then turn to Anne and look at her with a guilty expression.

“Yeah… I was so nervous about the invasion, I was really scared for you two.” Anne said.

Sasha and Marcy then bring Anne in for a hug, Anne collapsing into their embrace.

“Please, don’t do that again.” Marcy begged.

“Yeah, we’re right here, we aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.”

Anne smiles at their reassurance, wiping away the tears beginning to form in her eyes. She then looks up to the screen, her chest gets a warm feeling as Marcy and Sasha both hold her hand.

The screen then lights up;

Amphibia, Episode 10:  Breakout Star

Chapter Text

“Is this where Wartwood finally likes you?” Sasha asks.

 “I don’t know...” Anne said.

The episode starts with the Plantars playing cards. They hear Anne stomping in the basement and come out with pimples on her face.

Anne then immediately realized what this was.

“Skip this.” Anne demanded.

All her human peers snickered while Toadstool groaned.

“What’s wrong with her face?” Olivia asks.

“Don’t worry, it’s just a puberty thing.” Marcy says.

“Please… skip this,” Anne begged.

“No,” the voice said. “I told you already, nothing is being skipped.”

The Plantars started to freak out but Anne reassured them that it’s just a human thing.

Anne: Everyone already treats me like a monster. This is just going to make it ten times worse.

Said frogs chuckled nervously at the stares.

“Seriously, how did you get them to like you?” Sasha asks.

“It’ll show you eventually.” Anne answered.

Sprig: Ah, come on. No one treats you like a monster, Anne.

No matter what happens, the Plantars are always there for Anne.

Sasha and Marcy were beginning to understand that.

Anne: Are you kidding me? I can’t go outside without making a scene.

A flashback shows Anne walking around and all the frogs started screaming at her.

Anne frowned at that part. Sasha and Marcy grab both of Anne’s hands, the cold feeling in her chest immediately replaced with a warm sensation. 

The audience could feel the murderous aura coming from Sasha and Anne’s mother.

“Wow, I’m surprised you never snapped at them once,” Marcy said to Anne.

“Looking back at this now. Me too,” Anne replied.

Sprig: Okay, fair point. But who cares what they think? We like you.

Anne: Uh huh, I’m gonna hide in the basement until this clears up.

Most people sighed. It’s good to have supportive loved ones, but sometimes a few isn’t enough.

Hop Pop: Sorry, Anne. But nobody’s hiding anywhere today, I need help at the vegetable stand. We got a bumper crop of scream beans that need selling.

Anne planted her face on the table.

“God, that’s being a mood.”

The scene changes to the market.

Hop Pop: All right, kids. Get out there and sell like your lives depend on it. Because they do. We-- We really need this.

No one in Wartwood wants to admit that they didn’t buy anything because of Anne.

They all tried to sell the beans but the frogs hurtful comments got Anne down.

“ARE YOU PEOPLE KIDDING ME?” Sasha yelled, the frogs then gave a bunch of nervous grins on their faces.

“Sash, calm down.” Anne told her as she held tightly onto her hand.

“You must really not like this, don’t you?” Marcy asked.

“Yeah, I wasn’t really nice.” Anne said as she rested into her, Marcy giving a small blush.

Some children bumped into Anne, causing her disguise to fall off. All the frogs gasped.

All the teens winced, even Maggie.

This was funny at first, but even they wouldn’t go for humiliating someone in public.

Anne expected another round of screaming but the frogs started praising her.

…

“What?”

What is this?

The humans turned to the frogs who were whistling innocently.

They then turn to Anne with a confused look, who starts to look away in embarrassment, she didn't like it when puberty hit, especially stubbles. 

The scene cuts to Toadstool’s office

Toadstool: This is bad, Toadie. People hate us!

Toadie: With a passion, sir!

Vince snorted at that.

Toadstool: It’s as if embezzling from the town makes you the bad guy!

“Uh, it is.” Gabby said.

“And thank you for the reminder, Toad Tower may have been dealing with the frog rebellion but don’t think we forgot about your stunt.” Grime said.

Heads turned to him.

There was a rebellion?! Anne exclaimed. (Another, for the amphibians case)

“Hold on, this is the first time i’m hearing about these rebellions,” Olivia frowns.

Marcy frowns as well, before narrowing her eyes, why wouldn’t she or Olivia know? A single name pops to her head and she feels sick, just more confirmation she’s been tricked from the beginning.

“What?! But you’re one of Andrias’s advisors, shouldn’t you have known about this?” Yunan asked.

“We only handled what’s going on in the city, since Andrias said that things are always peaceful in Amphibia.” Marcy says.

“If Olivia and Marcy didn’t know about this, then how come Yunan does?” Sasha asks.

“Come to think of it, we never really saw this rebellion.” Sprig says.

“That’s because I was given orders to go control the rebellion, but when it got worse, Andrias told me I should take a break and he’ll send a letter out to the toads and have them use “extreme force” on the frogs”. Yunan explained.

“It’s true, he did send us a letter and… oh frog.” Grime then trailed off, but it was very obvious to everyone who was at Toad Tower during the incident what he meant.

King Andrias had ordered Grime to execute Hop Pop.

Toadstool keeps complaining until he hears cheers and sees Anne. He smiled.

Normally, Anne’s parents would be mad but their minds are still reeling at the last conversation.

The next scene shows the Plantars admiring the gifts Anne received when Toadstool arrived.

Anne agrees to come with him, leaving the Plantars behind, much to their dismay.

Toadstool offers Anne to stay popular if she helps him improve his reputation, Anne agrees.

A montage shows Anne just having fun, but the Plantars are annoyed and disappointed.

“I thought she was… ya know...” Maggie whispered.

Cheyenne shared the sentiment. They really are surprised that Anne winked at some guy.

The next scene shows the Plantars visiting Anne at her new home, but she proceeds to disappoint them and gently pushes them out of her room, much to Sprig’s frustration.

Hop Pop: Hey. None of that. Kids, when one of your own makes it big, you support them. No matter what. Because deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep down, they're the same person.

Guess he’s not that bad of a guardian after all.

The next morning Anne wakes up to see that her pimples are gone.

Freaking out, she made Toadie deliver a message to the Plantars.

Sasha sighed, it wouldn't hurt to show him some respect.

They came and proceeded to help Anne with some crazy shenanigans.

The next scene shows Toadstool being angry at Anne for being late.

Toadstool: There you are my dear, I was so worried.

Anne: Sorry, I was caught up in this whole mob situation. Luckily the Plantars were there to help me and—

Toadstool: The Plantars? Anne, honey, I thought we talked about this. Hanging out with those bumpkins will only pull you down to their level. I think it's for the best that you not be seen with them anymore. Understand?

Toadstool ignored the glares he’s receiving. 

He won’t admit it but he has grown attached to the girl during the time she lived with him.

Anne looks at a picture of the Plantars on her phone.

Anne: …Understood.

The Plantars smiled, Anne is always risking everything she wants just for them.

When Anne got out, she made a speech and took the fake pimples off her face.

This causes Toadstool to come out and scold her while insulting the town in front of them. Making the town throw food at him.

The episode ends with Anne apologizing and all of them going to Anne’s apartment.

“Hey, how come you didn’t support me when I got famous?” Hop Pop complained.

“You said rich and famous, and you’re clearly not rich.” Polly says.

Everyone in the theater laughed at that.

“Also, we were supposed to be laying low, remember?” Anne added.

“She’s got a point there Hop Pop.” Sprig said.

Hop Pop gave out a small sigh. “You’ll be famous one day, Hopediah.”

The screen lights up and shows the title of the next episode;

Amphibia, Episode 11: Sprig vs Hop Pop

Chapter Text

“Why would you fight your grandson?” Terri asks, they look at the frog family, every time that they had met them they had seemed nice, and at least functional, was that all a show?

“Family challenge.” All of the amphibians answered.

“Ah.” the humans nod as if that makes it make anymore sense

The episode starts with all the kids doing farm work.

Marcy looks at her friend’s arms, she’d have been blind to not notice how strong Sasha had become but she also knew Anne was stronger, Anne holding her yesterday had confirmed it, farm work probably had no small part in it. 

Sprig gets an idea and tries to tell Hop Pop about it but he brushes him off and tells him to put it in the suggestion barrel.

“Who wants to bet that he doesn’t read those?” Sasha asks with a half laugh.

Almost everyone raised their hands. Hop Pop grumbled.

“Hey, how come you’re resting instead of working?” Maggie asks.

“Dude, he’s old. He should be resting,” Anne rolls her eyes, mostly quoting Hop Pop, “But he was also up before us with Bessie.”

Anne: Hey, think he actually reads this?

Polly: Doubt it. I suggested a swimming pool months ago and that never happened.

“While it sucks, a swimming pool will only attract pests if it’s built near the farm.” Marcy says.

“Finally, someone gets it!” Hop Pop says, he’d adopt Marcy but, as he looks at the newts beside her he realizes he’s already been beaten to it.

“And swimming pools are fun when others have them, having your own is a lot of extra work,” Sasha hates giving the old frog an inch but in this case he’s right

Sprig: Oh, come on, guys. Have a little more faith in Hop Pop.

His hand got stuck in the barrel. He tries to pull it off, and while he managed to it causes the barrel to tip over and reveal a fire pit.

“Isn’t that a bit harsh?”

“Dude, what the fuck?”

“I get that the kids aren’t the brightest when it comes to ideas, but is it really necessary to burn them?” Bee asks. He then looks at his wife, “Remember when Anne wanted to redesign the restaurant?”

“God, those pinks and greens were so bright,” she laughs.

The girls look at them, and Sasha raises an eyebrow, “But you did let up paint that wall in the back?” she had a picture of their paint smudged faces in her bedroom back home.

“Yes, after we changed the colors and Marcy drew the base,” Bee smiles, “We weren’t gonna just shoot it down right away.”

Polly: A fire pit? That’s the opposite of a swimming pool!

Sprig: Why, Hop Pop? WHY?

Hop Pop: Cause, your suggestions were ridiculous. You can’t just dig swimming pools anywhere, it’ll attract pests. Running a farm ain’t easy, kids.

Sprig: Maybe, but if I were in charge, I’d listen to other people’s suggestions, not BURN them!

Everyone knows that it’s hard to run a farm but it was a really jerk move to burn the suggestions.

Hop Pop thinks about his plans to bring avocados back to Amphibia, maybe being more open to change could help, meet the kids in the middle sometimes.

Hop Pop: You? Run the farm? Run it to the ground, maybe.

He croaked at him, causing Sprig to do it harder.

Polly: [Gasp] Is that an official challenge?!

Sprig climbed up a bell tower and rang it while making a war call.

“Uh…”

“What exactly is happening?” 

Polly: Sprig Plantar, you have rung the Plantar Challenge Bell, what is your challenge?

Sprig: I want to replace Hop Pop, and run things my way.

Polly: Hop Pop?

Hop Pop: I do formally accept this challenge.

Anne: I’m sure this will make sense in a moment.

The next scene shows the boys in sumo outfits and covering themselves in mud.

Anne: Never mind.

Most people snorted at that.

Marcy moves to explain it to her friend only for Anne to laugh, “I think I figured it out myself, Marmar,” she gives her friend a bright smile, certain that she’d learn more later from her brilliant friend.

Anne: What the heck is going on?!

They all explained things to her and went on with the challenge. Sprig won causing all the kids to celebrate while Hop Pop walks to a different direction, dramatically.

“Wait, so whoever loses gets kicked out in the family?” Dr. Jan asks.

“No, that was just Hopidiah being dramatic.” Mrs. Croaker answers.

“Those kinds of situations rarely happen, they can be added to the terms.” Hop Pop adds.

“From my research it looks like it’s just been the last two to three hundred years that that’s changed.” Marcy is buzzing, frog culture was almost more interesting than the newts, it’s just so much more varied.

The next scene shows a montage of the kids having way too much fun.

“Dang it, kids,” Hop Pop grumbled.

“This is what happens when you leave children unsupervised.” Dr. Jan says hiding a laugh behind her hand.

“I’m just impressed they managed to build a slide that fast.” Maggie says.

“It came apart fairly easily,” Anne shrugs.

“Plus Anne has always been Marcy’s right hand when she’s building, a slide should’ve been easy,” Sasha puts her arm around Anne and Marcy, squeezing tightly 

Sprig: Soak it in gang, this is what good leadership looks like.

Anne: Anyone worried about Hop Pop? Haven’t seen him since we got back.

Sprig: Heh, he’s probably just off licking his wounds.

The next scene shows a skeleton.

Everyone gasped. Some letting out nervous laughs.

“Jesus, that was not funny!” Jess interjects

“What is with you frogs and the piles of skeletons lying around?!”

“It’s good for the earth,” Wally shrugs.

“Oh frog, I almost had a heart attack.”

Hop Pop is walking down a graveyard, he helps a little beetle and it starts following him around.

Hop Pop smiles, he wonders how Jeremy is doing now.

Meanwhile, the kids were by the pool having fun when Anne’s stomach rumbled.

Anne: Is anyone like… starving?

Did they really forget to eat the entire day or was Anne…?

Sasha tightens her grip on Anne, she’s real and alive, at least for now. She frowns, looking at Marcy, it’s too much to think about that when this is done she’ll need to return to leading the rebellion, separating from them, leaving Marcy at the hands of a mad king and Anne in a different world.

The kids couldn’t find any food so Sprig used the raw produce, a pest came out and Anne trapped it in a bucket.

“Not finding any food for Anne to cook is almost impressive, she’s been able to make something from my mom’s kitchen and that’s 95% alcohol,” Sasha laughs, the adults share a look, are any of these girls okay?

Anne: I’m beginning to think there’s a few things we don’t know about running a farm.

Sprig: We got some kinks to work out, sure, but isn’t it better to be listened to?

Anne looks down solemnly and smiles.

Anne: Yeah, I guess so.

Sasha and Marcy look down at that, another reminder how little they listened to Anne and her wants and needs. Anne grabs both their hands and squeezes.

They shift to lay their head on Heart’s chest

The next morning, they see that the farm is ruined.

“Let’s…never do that again.” Polly said.

“Was that clown really all night?” Grime asks.

Sprig asks for some suggestions on how to fix the farm but when the girls suggested to have Hop Pop be in charge again, that’s when shit goes down.

Sprig: Hopidiah Plantar was a tyrant!

Anne: A tyrant who knew how to run a farm.

Polly: And more importantly, cook!

“I take that part back, Anne is clearly the better cook.” Polly says.

Everyone started laughing as the old frog grumbled.

Sprig: I will not go back to that life! Don’t you like being listened to?!

Anne: I don’t exactly feel listened to, right now.

“This is why we get to pick our leaders, otherwise the power will go over their head.” Ally says.

Toadstool sneezed at that.

When Sprig left, Anne and Polly went looking for Hop Pop and found him in the graveyard.

Hop Pop: Hello, girls. You here to help us scavenge? It's gonna be a long, cold winter. More bodies means more warmth for everyone.

“That’s creepy and disrespectful. Why would you plan to spend a winter in the graveyard? Doesn’t that bother you?” Olivia asks when she notices that the frogs and toads barely react to that.

“I mean, everyone dies all the time and most of those are caused by getting eaten. So graveyards aren’t really that big of a deal.” Grime shrugs”

“Plus that one was filled about 70 years ago so that’s at least 2 graveyards that’ve been filled since then,” Hop Pop calculates back quickly 

Olivia frowns at the answer. Then it only deepens when she realizes how little she must know about Amphibia. When was the last time she had left Newtopia?

They then managed to convince Hop Pop to ask for a rematch, Sprig accepts. After a heartfelt talk during the challenge, Sprig throws the game and things are normal again. With Hop Pop being fair to everyone now.

The episode ends with Hop Pop sitting by the burning chimney, reading the suggestions but still burns them when he doesn’t like it.

“Dang it, Hop Pop.”

“At least he actually read them that time.” Polly said.

The screen lights up and shows the title of the next episode.

Amphibia, Episode 12: Girl Time

Chapter Text

“Yes! Finally my time to shine!” Polly shouts, jumping up onto Anne’s head and bouncing there.

“What makes you think this is about you?” Toadie asks.

“Cause Anne is the main character of the show, she’s not close to all the girls in Wartwood and it wouldn’t make sense if this is about Sasha and Marcy, unless we suddenly got a flashback episode,” she sticks her tongue out at the frog.

The pollywog has a point.

The episode starts with Sprig and Hop Pop having a spitting contest.

The newts and some humans are disgusted by this. Mr. X is decidedly looking away from the screen, looking a little green.

Anne: Just when I thought you guys couldn’t get any nastier.

Hop Pop: Nasty? Why spitting is practically a sport in Wartwood.

Sprig: We even have a town record. Whoever breaks the record gets a trophy.

Anne grimaced once she realized what this is about, she hides her head in Marcy’s hair, “Please kill me.”

Anne: A trophy for spitting? I can’t believe you’re exposing to Polly at this sort-

Polly: THAT RECORD IS MINE!

She proceeds to make the biggest spit everyone has seen.

While some people are impressed, the others are either grossed out or find it a little weird.

While Polly gets congratulated, Anne realizes some things about the males.

The frogs and toads aren’t sure why everyone else is grossed out by this.

“You know, this explains the leaves in your hair,” Sasha jokes quietly to her and Marcy.

Anne subconsciously touched her hair to see if there are any leaves. She sighed in relief when she realized there aren’t any. Those had been a pain to get out.

Anne: Oh, no. Polly, you've been surrounded by boys your whole life. It's not too late. I can fix this. You need girl time! She needs girl time!

Polly made a face when she realized what this is, ”Not a bad first episode to have.”

“Anne, while you won’t like it, you can’t force people to be what you want them to be,” Wally says.

Anne nodded mouthing ‘I know’ at him while the Wartwood citizens were confused the town vagrant was actually making sense.

Anne: Hop Pop! Wallet!

“Anne Savisa Boonchuy…” Oum begins.

“Don’t worry, I paid back all the debt!” Anne says. All the frogs confirm that this is true.

Hop Pop gives Anne his wallet and she walks off with Polly

Hop Pop: Not sure what she wants with my wallet, not like I got any money.

“I thought it was obvious.” Anne says

Polly questioned Anne’s motives and she explained that hanging out with boys too much can change them into something gross so they should have some girl time to avoid that.

“That’s gender stereotyping if I ever see it.” Mr. X grumbled.

Anne flinched, yeah, this wasn’t her best moment.

Anne’s Parents and friends share a look. Remembering how much she had tried to reject any and everything that could be even possibly boyish. Marcy still misses her video game buddy sometimes, she wishes she knew how to get Anne to understand she wouldn’t stop seeing her as a girl, but it had taken quite a while to  get her to accept that she could do sports without others commenting or calling her names and slurs.

The girls head over to the spa, when Anne tries to pay for a spa treatment, she finds that Hop Pop doesn’t even have money and there’s just a bunch of papers that he’ll pay back the money.

…

“I have my suspicions, but how poor are you?” Oliva asks.

“We get by,” Hop Pop’s nonanswer and tone is plenty of answer

A montage shows Anne taking Polly to places but it’s very clear that the Pollywog is unhappy.

“Sorry, Polly…” Anne apologized but Polly didn’t seem to mind.

“Okay, I know this is serious but Anne…” Sasha started, “Why have you been wearing that stupid uniform and one shoe when you have that .” Sasha slaps her hand to her face, frustrated. The fact that her hand hid the small blush on her cheeks was certainly a benefit.

Anne tries to answer as people realize this information, only to be cut off by Marcy.

“I did try to get her new clothes, but she had a himbo moment when she got into that armor you saw when we reunited.” Marcy says as Anne glared at her.

“Excuse you, one of them had poison barbs, and after last time I wasn’t gonna let you near me with scissors again. and I am not a himbo- wait. MY SHOE!” Anne glared at Sasha and Grime. “I know now that you two have my missing shoe, why didn’t you give it back to me?!” She shouted pointing at the two.

“Don’t look at me, I don’t know what Grime did to it and don’t change the subject Boonchuy!” Sasha shouted back.

Suddenly they can’t speak and they hear the voice again.

“Please refrain from fighting or trying to kill each other again during the viewing, we have breaks for a reason you know.”

The two girls can speak again and sit down angrily, Anne Moving to Marcy’s otherside she had been put in the middle of their arguments before and it was never fun, she pulls Domino close, soothing herself with the logic of this was a nothing argument that only got to yelling cause they’re all stressed, they’ll go back to normal soon, or at least their new normal.

Polly finally has enough and leaves Anne. When the girl realizes this, she quickly pays Tuti with an IOU for the massage and leaves quickly. However, at this point, several frogs realized that they are being scammed, accidentally at least.

“How do you accidentally scam someone?”

“I trusted Hop Pop,” Anne shrugs, loosening her arms from being crossed.

Anne finds Polly with Wally.

Wally could feel the stares at Polly’s guardians.

“Before you start assuming things, that’s just milk that Stumpy has, nothing more” He raises his hands in surrender.

“I run a restaurant not a bar,” Stumpy says.

Anne: What the heck, dude? You ditched me, and now I find you rubbing with the local deadbeat?

“Sorry about that.” Anne says. Wally waved it off and seems fine with it.

 His dad however gives the girl a disappointed look.

Anne and Polly proceed to fight. Anne accidentally said something really hurtful.

“Polly, I’m-“ Anne started but got interrupted.

“You know, I’m starting to think you’re projecting on a baby, of all people, dude .” Maggie says from the back, arms crossed, giving Marcy a side eye.

Anne snaps her head around, suddenly no one is looking at the screen“What do you mean?” Polly asks, Anne looks at her bully with pleading eyes and many of the humans are glaring at her to shut up.

“Watch yourself, Davis,” Sasha warns with a fighting edge to her voice.

“Anne’s trans, she did the same thing to herself after she came out.” Maggie says with a shrug, though her smirk tells everyone she knows exactly what she’s done.

Suddenly several items are thrown at her. Sasha moves to get out of her seat, almost certain she’d kill her classmate and not regret it in this moment. Anne tries to reach for her over Marcy but the blonde marches over to the other teen, she puts a hand above Maggie’s head, Maggie is certain her eyes are glowing pink, “You went after me about my parents, now you outed my friend.” She punches at Maggie, punching her seat and missing her stomach by mere centimeters but the crack from her seat gave cause for Maggie to flinch, “I hear shit from you again no person or god of this room will be able to protect you from me, I don’t miss.”

The amphibians didn’t get why something like that would cause such a reaction, but the Plantars seem to understand what’s going on.

“Not okay, kid!”  Mr. X glares at the teen, still cowering even as Sasha walks away

Anne just wants to disappear, it feels like everyone is staring at her, she buries her face into her knees, her arms pulling them even tighter to her chest, she vaguely feels her own nails digging into her back through her shirt. She feels Marcy pull her into a hug, “I’m so sorry, Anne. I’m sorry, I got ya.” a bubble forms around them.

Marcy sends Maggie a death glare, before tightening her hug.

“Annie,” Sasha is kneeling in front of both of them only to realize she’s at a loss for words, “I’m sorry,” she shares a look with Marcy, realizing she has the same look behind her eyes. She sits down beside Anne, pulling her into a hug too.

“What’s trans?” Grime asks, watching his lieutenant's reaction, it must be something bad.

“It’s when you realize that you want your gender to be the opposite of what your birth gender is.” Sprig says.

“OH! You mean like us, I didn’t know there was a name for it.” Ivy said.

All the humans look at the frogs in surprise.

“Why do humans have a name for that?” Grime asks, “My sister did that when we were barely older than tadpoles.”

“And why is it such a big deal for you guys?” Wally asks.

“It’s not really as accepted as it should be, some assholes think it’s something to be ashamed of or it’s a sin.” Marcy says.

“Well, that’s stupid.” Yunan says.

“You’d be surprised by how humans hate each other so much.” Hop Pop says.

“But yeah, it is stupid,” Dr. Jan agrees.

However, Anne almost got arrested with Hop Pop and Sprig, the sheriff revealed that Hop Pop is broke. Anne realizes that the trophy is made out of gold and convinces everyone that Polly will have to break the record.

Even half watching Marcy suddenly gets it, “Ah.” Marcy tightens her hug on Anne, that makes sense. realizing how deep Anne’s nails are digging into her back she carefully pulls at her hands, “Anne, please, I don’t want you hurting yourself.” Anne lets her pull her nails away, though she still hasn’t looked up from where she’s hiding her face.

But Polly doesn’t feel confident about it anymore, Anne apologizes and encourages her to be herself.

Polly tries again and manages to win. All the debts are paid off and Polly is given extra gold. The episode ends with Sprig placing a trophy that looks like Polly and all of them walk off talking about spas.

“Well, that’s done.” Anne gets up and before anyone can say anything further she runs to the room her, Sasha, and Marcy had been sleeping in, hiding herself in there as the third break starts.

Chapter Text

Sasha and Marcy look at the Plantars and Anne’s parents, hesitating for just a second trying to figure out who should talk to her. The Plantars don’t want to push Anne over something they had just found out was a sore spot for the girl.

Sasha has never been one to hesitate though, and if she’s left anywhere near Maggie she knows she’s liable to fight the girl and that won’t help Anne; the blonde runs. Marcy isn’t far behind.

Sasha knocks, before resting her forehead on the door, “Anne, can you let us in, please?”

Marcy tries the doorknob, locked, “Please.”

There’s a click, “Girls,” Mr Boonchuy calls out.

Marcy gives Anne’s parents a look that’s far more sure than she feels “We got it,” she’s begging them to trust her and Sasha with Anne, when all they’ve seen is how much they hurt her the past few days.

The door still hasn’t opened but when Sasha tries to turn it this time it opens.

Sasha holds the door for Marcy and closes behind the pair. She notices Maggie in the crowd, looking small, Sasha closes the door.

Anne is standing in the center of the room, hugging herself around the middle, not looking at either of them. “Everyone is talking out there, huh?” Sasha can’t see Anne’s expression but Sasha knows her friend is near crying.

Sasha shakes her head, “Anne,” she reaches out for her friend.

“They aren’t Anne,” Marcy replies.

“They’re worried about you,” Sasha puts her hand on her shoulder, “We’re worried, are you okay?”

Anne shrugs the hand off and lets out a bitter tearful laugh, her nails breaking the skin on her arm and letting a few drops of blood flow, “You were right, Marce, you gave me Sprig, and you gave me a place where no one knew me as anything but Anne. Not someone playing pretend, lying to everyone. Forgot how much it hurts for people to tell people that.” She stays totally still staring at the ground, “I didn’t want anyone in Amphibia to know, fuck the people who are helping me get back there know now.” she laughs again, this time it sounds more like a sob, “Why does she get to do that, how is that fair, how is any of this fair? Everyone watching every mistake I’ve done in the last year, getting to make fun of it, hell the fucking being stuck in another world. You two lying. You two getting hurt. How is any of this fair?” she yells kicking the bed frame, finally turning to look at them, tears streaming down her face. “It’s not fair.”

Marcy does her best to not let her flinch at having her own words quoted back to her. Though that reaction is minuscule, as bad as she is at reading emotions she can only think of one thing that’ll help for now, and pulls her friend into a tight hug, her friend tenses, then starts sobbing and when Anne’s knees give out Marcy does her best to stop the fall to the ground from being painful. As Marcy tries her best to comfort her friend Sasha drops to her knees too, pulling them both tight.

Eventually Anne’s halting sobs turn to hiccups, and her body relaxes in her friend’s hug, only once her breath evens out do either Sasha or Marcy let go.

Sasha brushes at the hair that’s fallen in Anne’s eyes, “You’re not playing pretend Annie,” she sighs, “You’re right though, honestly none of this has been fair, I’m sorry I can’t fix it to be.”

Anne doesn’t look up, “I really don’t want to go back out there.”

“We can stay in here as long as you’d like Anne,” Marcy smiles, running her hand along Anne’s arm, “And the Plantars, no one out there has changed how they think of you, I promise.”

Sasha gives the Thai girl a soft look, “Remember when you came out to us? We were 11, and you yelled at Marce for swearing you had to be the dad.”

“And I told you not to call me Andrew, and I was crying, and you both said you’d call me whatever I wanted. That we were still friends, no matter what.”

“No matter what,” Marcy echoes the phrase that they had all promised then, and so many times since, when Sasha’s parents divorced, or Marcy had a panic attack over showing her parents a bad grade, when Sasha’s first ‘real’ boyfriend had broken up with her or after Marcy came to Anne’s house with a split lip from a bully getting physical or Anne had needed them to help her get to class for two months when she broke her arm. Could a promise so simple really hold after the past year. Could it have lasted if Marcy had moved?

“We’re with you, no matter what, Boonchuy.” Sasha nods in agreement with her own sentence

“And I mean, I’d be happy to give Maggie another few hits, if you’d like, you can’t talk if your mandible is broken,” Marcy offers.

Anne begins laughing, and she quickly realizes she can’t stop, “Marcy got into a fight.”

The absurdity of it caused the others to join in laughing, sweet little Marmar fought someone, “And we’re watching a show about us in a magical frog world,” Sasha adds, still laughing.

“You have powers that turn you blue. And we’re all somehow still alive.” Marcy is still laughing, and the others stop if only slightly.

Sasha’s eyes soften as she remembers the flame burning through Marcy’s chest, how scared she was for both of them after flying off on Jo Sparrow, she moves before she thinks and pulls the youngest into a tight hug, “I’m so glad you’re okay, I was so scared,” she admits softly, it’s not forgiveness, that’ll take more time, but she thanks every star on Amphibia and Earth that her friend is there to forgive. Marcy tightens the hug pulling her close with fists resting on her shoulder blades.

Eventually Sasha lets go, “We’ll deal with this stupid show,”

“I’m coming back for you two.”

“Then we’ll all get back home.”

And as complicated their plan is going to be, Anne has never been more sure of anything they’ve promised each other.

Marcy is the first to her feet, offering a hand to Sasha before they both pull Anne up, “Ready to go out there?”

“Not really,” Anne steels her gaze, “Let’s do it.”

Outside slowly people and amphibians have started milling about, the lunch was pretty basic just sandwiches, which works for everyone as after seeing how Anne reacted at the end of the episode there was a lot less talking amongst people.

Olivia has been thinking though, with all the worries of Anne eating had the palace been starving Marcy as well, surely she had been taken care of properly in the palace of Newtopia, she wasn’t completely incompetent. She looks over the humans, trying to determine who she should ask for care of a teenager.

“What are you thinking about Lady Olivia?” There’s a human sandwich in her face, she takes the off looking food then looks to see who’s sat down beside her.

“General Yunan,” Olivia smiles slightly at the other newt, though how she managed to ask the most loaded question possible. She looks at the door that the human teens had locked behind them. She sighs, dropping a head in her hands in such a way her mother would’ve smacked her for such posture, let alone in public, “How could I have been so foolish, Yunan.”

“Olivia, he tricked us all, you weren’t-“

Olivia shakes her head interrupting the general, “Not just that one thing, the rebellions, the death of frogs and toads, the corrupt local politicians. And that’s not even starting with Marcy, we took that girl into our care, let her get manipulated as bad as we were by Andrias, who knows if we were even properly making sure she was okay physically. A child got stabbed in front of us, Yunan.”

Yunan sighs and leans low, like she does when calculating a proposed strategy, “We tried our best with Marcy, to know where we messed up we’ll have to talk to her or a human. As for Andrias, you weren’t the only one betrayed by him. Everyone else believed the lies too, cut yourself some slack, Liv.” The red newt rests her hand on the smaller one’s own.

“I’m glad with all this you’re here too Yunan, it’s probably not proper but having you still at the castle helps me feel… braver,” a flash of a shadowy room and orange lights hits the blue newt, and she groans softly. She waves off Yunan’s worried glance, “Just a headache.”

When the door opens to the room, Anne is beyond thrilled that people aren’t all looking at them, she still tries to hide behind Sasha. They all find a spot that’s far enough off to hide away. At least mostly. Marcy hands Anne a sandwich and gives her friend a pleading look, nicer than Sasha would and Anne knows it. She takes a bite.

Sprig hops up to the group at some point, “Can I talk to Anne?” And Sasha looks like she’s gonna argue but Maggie is close enough to them that her and Marcy standing up is enough to have the bully running. Marcy wants to have words with Maggie so they leave Anne with her frog friend.

"So how are you feeling?" Sprig asks.

"I…I don’t know, I hate Maggie. But it’s nice being back with Marcy and Sash…knowing they’re okay." Anne said.

"Yeah, you guys seem to be getting along really good." Sprig says trying to keep his jealousy under wraps

"After how we left, I thought for sure Marcy was dead.” Anne admits quietly.

“Yeah, she is… so we know for sure that nothing else bad happened to her or the others while we were on Earth," Sprig grins.

"Yeah, I think Olivia and Yunan are responsible for that. I should thank them for saving Marcy."

"Not Sasha?" Sprig asks.

"Everything’s complicated and tense right now, I don’t think they’ve talked since everything happened," Anne says.

He looks to where his friend is staring, suddenly it hits him that she’s looking at them like he looks at Ivy, he’s not sure how to react to that or if Anne even knows, “They’re safe, that’s good. But Anne… do you trust them.”

“I…think so, probably not the smartest thing but…” Anne sighs.

“They make you happy, so for now I figure that’s enough to make me happy.”

Anne smiles, “Spranne against the world?”

“Spranne against the world,” they do their handshake.

Looking around almost everyone is done eating, Anne figures half a sandwich is enough so she goes back to her seat, all the others trickling back to their own seats

The screen lights up:

Amphibia, Episode 13: Dating Season

Chapter Text

“Interspecies dating is a thing now?” Gabby asks. 

Anne groaned, knowing full well what this is about. This whole thing makes her feel guilty with what Maddie said a few days ago.

“Pretty sure I would have remembered setting Anne up with a nice young boy.” Hop Pop said.

Everyone respectfully ignored Anne throwing a pillow at Hop Pop.

“At least she didn’t kick me this time.” Hop Pop said.

The episode starts with Anne and Sprig traveling in the woods.

Anne: Why do we always hang out in the woods? You have a perfectly good living room.

Sprig: Where’s the fun in that? This place is full of nature. Whoo-oo!

Anne watches a Spider eat a Ladybug alive.

Anne: Yeah, exactly.

Anne shuddered, the woods were always the last thing she wanted to go back then. Even now, there were definitely places she liked more.

After some time, Ivy ambushes Sprig as Anne watches in surprise.

Sprig: I’m hit! Sprig down! Sprig down…

Ivy: Ha ha!

Sprig: Hey, Ivy. Nice ambush. Gourd in a wig? Classic.

“Oh, wait. I get it now!” Gabby said.

Sprig and Ivy chuckled as they realized what this is about.

Ivy: Can’t take all the credit, you’re really easy to trick.

Sprig: Well, guilty as charged.

They both laugh and Anne interrupts them by coughing not so subtly.

Sprig: Oh, Ivy, meet Anne. Oddity from another world. Anne, meet Ivy. Childhood acquaintance and occasional sparring partner.

He tries to hit her but she dodges and hits him back.

Anne: Hey, Ivy.

Ivy: Hey, I've seen you around. Nice to officially meet. Do you like being randomly attacked?

Anne: Not at all.

Ivy: Well, too bad. See you later, Sprig. But you won’t see me.

Sprig watches Ivy hopping away with a starred look in his eyes.

“Aww.” 

Most of the audience found this cute.

Sprig blushes, maybe Anne had a point in thinking he had liked his friend then. 

Anne teases Sprig on their way back home. Hop Pop is a little annoyed and asks where they’ve been, Anne answers with Sprig flirting with Ivy.

Sprig: Anne, it’s not like that. Ivy Sundew and I are just friends.

“What about now?” Ivy teased.

“I think you already know the answer to that.” Sprig grinned, grabbing her hand.

“Will you two please not do that in front of me?” Polly gagged, her older brother was supposed to play with her and torment Hop Pop, not be in love or whatever that oogie eye stuff was.

Hop Pop: Ivy Sundew?! Nobody moved! I’m getting the courtship kit!

Anne: This is so exciting! I’m gonna go get my dating magazines, brb.

Oum gives Anne a look, her daughter immediately catching a nervous grin.

“Uhh… Did you all forget about Maddie?” Molly Jo asks.

“Money.” Hop Pop answered.

“Sprig has two hands.” Anne answers with a shrug.

Everyone gives a confused look to Anne.

Polly: I don’t actually care.

Hop Pop: Here we go. The Firefly Formal is tonight. It's the perfect opportunity to begin the ritual.

Maddie gets a unsettling feeling in her gut as she looks at the Plantar’s

She knew what happened that day; she can’t blame Anne since she didn’t know, but Hop Pop…

Shouldn’t he have known what happened between them?

Anne: Ritual?

Hop Pop: Uh-huh. Only frogs who have performed the ceremonial dance in the ceremonial garb are allowed to be wed.

“Literally no one does that anymore.” Wally says. 

“Well, excuse me if we want to keep tradition.” Hop Pop humphed, crossing his arms.

Anne: Huh. Kitschy. I like it.

Sprig: Guys! We're just friends. Besides, I'm already engaged to Maddie, right? She gave me this nifty ring.

“Ooo, where did you get that?” Marcy asks.

“I made it myself.” Maddie answered.

“Can I pay you to make similar ones?” Marcy asks. 

“Yeah, sure.” Maddie replied with a shrug.

Mr. X turns to Jenny, “No way that kid is gonna use a ring like that to propose, right?” that’d be a crime in and of itself.

Hop Pop: Forget her.

“Is polyamory not a thing in Amphibia?” Dr. Jan asks, ready to add another parallel to real world frogs into her understanding of these frog people

“It used to be, but it was made illegal about 1000 years ago.” Olivia answered.

“Isn’t that how long Andrias had been in charge?” Marcy asked.

“Yeah… That’s about right.” Grime replied.

“Huh,” Sasha isn’t fully sure what to do with that but adds it into her knowledge of the king.

Hop Pop: The Sundews have secret proprietary crops. Do you have any idea what that means?

Sprig: Uh…?

Hop Pop: If our families merge, WE’LL BE RICH!!!

“Oh, wow. My respect for you keeps getting lower.” Sasha says eyes narrowing at the older frog, she’s heard similar things when her father wanted her to make friends other than Anne and Marcy.

Polly: Wow. Sooo, romantic.

Anne: Uhh! I love these magazines. Look, Sprig. It says here two-thirds of all soul mates start out as "just friends."

“Friends to Lovers, I love that trope,” Marcy is buzzing in her seat just a little too hard for knowing it doesn’t work like that in real life.

Anne smiles slightly, while not working in this case, it can be a good idea, she looks at Sasha and Marcy, neither one noticing the pink tinge to her cheeks.

Sprig: Wait, what? Really? And you trust these things?

Anne: Definitely. Magazines never lie.

“We really need to have a talk.” Bee says. Anne looks at him, confused.

Sprig: Could Ivy be my eternal love? My soulmate? The cat to my bat?

Hop Pop has already asked Felicia, which she agreed. Sprig looks sad and solemnly agrees, much to Anne’s and Hop Pop’s delight.

Time skip to the Firefly Formal, Sprig and Ivy are very uncomfortable until they finally admit that they see each other as friends. The two of them ran off to the woods, much to their families, minus Polly, dismay.

“How is Polly the one with brain cells here?” Sprig asks.

While Ivy and Sprig are having fun, Felicia and the Plantars get captured by Love Doves looking for them. The two of them heard their screams and ran after them.

“Is there anything that isn’t dangerous in Amphibia?” Dr. Jan asks. 

“Sure, there’s…” Marcy trails off unable to give a good example.

Anne: Uh, so they’re not gonna eat us?

Hop Pop: Not right away. Love doves prefer to let their prey marinate in fear first.

Felicia: Can it, Plantar. This is all your fault. If you taught your grandson proper courtship technique—

Hop Pop: My fault? It’s obviously yours!

Anne: Guys, it says here that our relationships define us, and nothing else. Nothing else!

Polly finally got pissed and shut them up.

Polly: The only reason we're here marinating is because you all had to play matchmaker. (Points at Hop Pop and Sylvia) You two were greedy, plain and simple.

Anne: Nice! Totally innocent for once, you two should be ashamed.

Marcy hits Anne’s arm, and the brunette just smiles sheepishly.

Polly: Are you kidding? Sprig only went through with this because of you and this dumb magazine! (rips the magazine)

“Behold, the brain cells of the Plantars.” Sasha says dramatically as she points at Polly.

Anne smacks her while Marcy giggled. 

Anne: Wow. I feel lighter somehow, more... free.  

“Wait, did you not know that you’re a lesbian?” Maggie asks, flinching slightly when the girls look at her.

“You sure she’s a lesbian? I thought Anne had a boyfriend.” Hop Pop says.

Anne kicks him.

“Can you not do that?!” Hop Pop shouted.

Anne gives him an ‘I warned you look’  and then turns to her friends.

“Wait, you guys knew? How?” Anne exclaimed.

“You have a pride sticker inside your locker.” Sasha said.

“And I mean that whole thing with Jackie, even I noticed that.” Marcy adds

“Oh, it was that obvious?” 

Everyone looked unimpressed at Anne. Not even Domino is impressed. Just staring at her Thai owner with a deadpan look and looked at the two girls that were always at the house.

Sprig and Ivy arrive and manage to rescue them.

“Polly is such a mood.”

“I really thought you learned your lesson now, Hopidiah.”

Anne looks at where Sprig is staring, Ivy walking off.

Anne: … Oh you just fell in love with her didn’t you?

Sprig: Yeah, I just fell in love with her.

“Such a cute couple.” Yunan admits.

The theater agrees with that. 

“Kind of like Anne and Marcy.” Wally said. 

Anne and Marcy both look at Wally.

“We’re not dating…” Anne said.

Percy and Braddock then approach Grime. “Wait, weren’t Anne and Sasha dating?”

“I can hear ya, you know.” Sasha said.

“I thought Marcy and Sasha liked each other,” Yunan turns to the discussion to add her two cents.

“None of us are dating each other!” Marcy glares over Olivia to the general, and Olivia is the only one who notices the shift in her eyes when she adds, “Nothing has happened, nothing will happen, can you guys stop.”

The room goes awkwardly silent until the screen lights up and plays the next episode.

Amphibia, Episode 14: Anne vs Wild

Chapter Text

Anne grimaced. This better not be a flashback episode, she really doesn’t want anyone to see how much she struggled to survive, especially Marcy. That first week was hard, she pulled Marcy close and squeezed.

The youngest looks up at her and smiles slightly, Anne can still see the worry and guilt that’s seemed to be a permanent feature in her friend’s eyes lately.

The episode starts with Anne looking through her bag and finding a bath bomb.

“What kind of shit do you have in that bag?”

“Honestly that one I can’t justify,” Anne shrugs.

Anne runs out and tries to tell the Plantars, only to see them packing.

Anne: Uh, you guys going somewhere?

Sprig: Yep. The three of us are going to Camp Phlegmington. Gonna rough it outdoors and get filthy!

Anne: Wait, without me?

Anne groaned. Could she not have one episode where she doesn’t act like an idiot.

Hop Pop: Sure are. When we Plantars camp, we camp hard. No sense in you coming with us and being miserable.

“Yeah, Anne always hated camping.” Oum says.

“Dad doesn’t either! And it’s not my fault that one second I’m hiking and then I manage to land in the one patch of poison Ivy in the whole area! Camping hates me too.” Anne crosses her arms and pouts.

“Okay, so I won’t take you camping,” Sasha promises with a laugh.

The others can’t stop laughing at the teen’s misery.

Sprig: We know you hate dirt, bugs, rocks... and nature.

Polly: You’re soft, Anne. Like a baby.

Hop Pop: Really. You should be glad that you’re not one of us.

That felt like a slap to her face, even now, though she tries not to show it. She looks back to  her frog family; The Plantar’s had been so kind to her when everyone else wasn’t. She thought that being close to them as a family would mean that she isn’t a burden. An outcast.

‘Not one of us.”

Did she even matter to them?

‘You’re a Plantar’

Which was true?

“Even still, that was extremely rude.” Dr. Jan says.

Anne: That's ridiculous. Me, soft? Pfft! Just because I'm not a Plantar doesn't mean I can't have a good time with you guys. Take me with you. Please, please, please?

Marcy notices the pained look in Anne’s eyes, and hugs the brunette.

Hop Pop: Are you sure? I wasn't kiddin' when I said "rough."

Polly: And I wasn’t kidding when I said you were soft.

Anne: Super-sure.

Sprig: Aw, come on, guys. If Anne says she can handle it, she can handle it.

“While it’s nice to trust your friends, you also need to know that they have limits.” Oum says.

“It had only been like a month, how was I supposed to know her limits?” sprig shrugs.

Hop Pop hesitated before agreeing. Time skip to the Plantars arriving at camp.

Hop Pop: I personally love the peace and quiet. A frog can really hear themselves think out here.

Hop Pop: Did you leave the stove on? The front door unlocked? Will you die alone? 

Hop Pop: Well, that was a mistake.

“God, that’s a mood.”

A montage shows of Anne clearly not enjoying the camp.

Anne shuddered as her mind went to the many accidents of childhood camping til her parents stopped taking her. 

Anne: Ow! Careful! I'm pretty sure those ticks caused internal damage.

Sprig: So, awkward question, but are you sure you wouldn't be happier back home?

Hop Pop: Seriously, Anne, no need to torture yourself. Take Bessie and go home. And don't you worry about us, 'cause we'll be just fine without you.

The last line echoes in Anne’s mind and she gets more uncomfortable.

Oh.

No one was wondering why Anne decided to join now.

Anne shouts in defense and tries to lie to everyone. However, Soggy Joe listens and brings them to somewhere more dangerous.

From there, a tale about Mudmen is told as soon as the tale ends everyone gets attacked by them.

“Yes, Amphibia is dangerous but this is getting ridiculous.” Marcy murmurs in Anne’s ear

Anne: This is all my fault.

“Anne, no. That wasn’t your fault.” Sprig says.

Anne gives him a sad look, “I know.”

No one believed her.

Sprig hates how he can’t say anything else.

Anne manages to scare them off by using her bath bomb and reveal that the Mudmen are naked cannibals.

The Plantars cheer but Anne admits how she feels.

Anne: I guess I've been feeling kind of left out lately. I'm not a frog.

“You don’t have to be though,” Hop Pop replies

“Nah you wouldn’t be as cool of sister if you were,” Polly adds with a smile.

Anne smiles weakly, “Thanks guys,” She shifts to the rapidly becoming familiar again spot of resting her head on Sasha’s chest accepting the safe feeling that comes with it. Marcy moves closer to be by her friends too. Though tenses up when she sees one of the cannibal frogs watching and listening to Anne

Anne: I'm not a Plantar. Heck, I wasn't even invited on this trip. I really like you guys and wanted to be with you, miserable or not.

“You know you don’t have to do that, right?” Sprig asks.

Anne smiled, and nodded once. She can’t help it. She just wants to prove herself that she’s good enough for the Plantars, for everyone.

All of them hug Anne. They went home and Anne finally trusts them enough to show them the music box.

“Oh.” Anne frowns as Hop Pop sweats.

This is where Hop Pop started to break her trust. She hugs herself, trying not to worry too much

The episode ends with Hop Pop looking through his book and sees a warning about the Calamity box.

“Wait! You knew about this?! Why didn’t you tell us?!” Sasha asks.

“One, I don’t trust you. Two, it must have slipped our minds to tell Marcy. Three, I’m trying to protect the kids.” Hop Pop answered.

“Yeah, I didn’t find out about this before I reunited with Marcy again.” Anne says. Hop Pop flinched at that and thankfully, no one noticed.

Marcy frowns. She remembers the First Temple, is that what they were fighting about?

“Yeah, that makes sense. You have to keep the kids safe.” Bee says nodding.

“Sasha and Marcy are kids too, they’re only thirteen,” Oum frowns

Marcy is hit with the sudden realization her birthday must have passed, has it really been that long since they were separated again?

Anne stares at Hop Pop, “We wanted to go home, I wanted to go home,” she corrects herself, “I wish you had told me sooner.” maybe then everything wouldn’t have gotten so bad

The screen lights up and starts the next episode:

Amphibia, Episode 15: Contagi-Anne

Chapter Text

Anne squints trying to understand the title, a little warning how she’d be stupid this time could help her worry a little less, screw helping the world or each other, this whole thing is just the universe making sure everyone knows how bad the old her was. That was just the old her, right?

The episode starts with Anne, covered in her blanket, watching the rain from the window and proceeds to sleep.

Anne groans, could they skip at least this one?

Marcy looks up to her in worry, and cuddles closer to her.

Anne just rests her head on Marcy’s for comfort.

Hop Pop barges in and wakes Anne up.

“SomeBODY ONCE TOLD ME-“ Sprig started but Anne threw a pillow at him with a smirk on her face.

“No.”

All the teens giggled. Marcy and Sasha are glad that they can finally understand any of the pop culture jokes, Shrek never leaves memes.

The whole family were gathered in the living room and Hop Pop gave his grandkids some rain coats.

Sprig: Rain gear? Hop Pop, we’re frogs. We should be taking off our clothes.

He proceeds to take them off and cheers.

Hop Pop: Keep your pants on boy.

Sasha sucks in a breath too fast and chokes on air, as she’s coughing Marcy pats her back, “Smooth, Sash,” Marcy giggles

Hop Pop: This here ain’t no ordinary rainstorm.

He points outside and Wally gets crashed by a tree log.

Wigbert looked extremely worried.

“What were you doing outside?” Anne asked.

“Listen. The storm came out of nowhere while I was taking a stroll.” Wally shrugged, “I needed a little moisture on my skin.”

Hop Pop: We gotta cover up the crops before they're destroyed! It'll be hours of back-breaking work in the mud and the muck. Thankless, hard, character-building labor—

Every word causes Anne to look away and frown more.

“Anne…” Oum says tiredly.

Anne chuckles sheepishly. Sasha and Marcy give her knowing smiles.

“It’s a wonder that you managed to take care of Domino when you’re so lazy, Boonchuy.” Sasha teased, carefully gauging Anne’s reactions to her words, not wanting to step over any tripwires of their still healing friendship.

“I know right? Our fluffy baby must have felt so unloved.” Marcy teased as well.

Anne gasps, clearly overplaying her hurt, “One, double teaming isn’t fair, two, My cat get’s plenty of love, Marcy Wu.”

“I don’t know, Anna-Banana. You have a track-record of laziness, maybe I should ask Sasha for help with Domino instead of you.” The ravenette teased.

Sasha didn’t say anything, instead wrapped her arms around Marcy, catching the ravenette off guard and blushing, and smirked at Anne just to piss her off.

Which worked as all Anne started to play-fight with the two of them.

Half of the audience gave them amused grins but the fight is ended when Anne is on top of Sasha only for the blonde to flip her, “Can we please continue,” the room’s deity booms.

“How are they not dating yet?” Maggie asks at the same time, perhaps a bit too loudly.

Anne gives her bully a look, she can’t just read her that easily, can she? Instead of trying to say anything too the girl she looks to Sasha, “Next break I want a rematch, no swords, just for fun.”

Sasha laughs, “Fine by me, Boonchuy, I need something to even our score,” Sasha didn’t like losing and her friend was technically up two fights, though mentioning that while they’re this happy seems wrong.

Deep inside, Anne is just glad that the teasing got her mind out of this memory.

Anne started pretending to be sick, and managed to fool the Plantars.

“Anne.”

Oum looks tired but still smiling while Bee shook his head fondly.

Anne almost wishes they’d be mad, it’d be easier to deal with than her own guilt.

A montage shows Anne having fun while the Plantars are just suffering.

Anne is just faking her smile at this point as most everyone is amused at her laziness.

When the Plantars got back, Anne noticed that all of them are sick.

“Oh that is sweet karma.” Marcy laughs.

Anne tries to take care all of them, which has been going really well until they were all eating soup that Anne noticed that Hop Pop’s legs are red.

All the amphibians got pale, along with Marcy.

“How are you still alive?” Oliva asks.

The humans jumped on that.

“Wait, it’s that serious?!” Dr. Jan asks.

The Plantars explain the Red Leg to Anne.

By this point, the humans got pale as well.

“How did he…?”

“Is he a ghost?”

“Jeez, now I feel bad.” Sasha whispers

Sprig reads the book and they find out that there’s a pond that cures any sickness. Anne immediately took everyone there as fast as she could.

But to her dismay, Sprig and Polly have Red Leg as swell.

“How are any of you alive?!” Oum shouted. The others share the same sentiment as Anne looks down in shame and the Plantars have no idea how to answer that.

Marcy gave a narrow stare at the screen. She finds it suspicious that everyone in the family got red leg especially so rapidly. Come to think of it, wasn’t there a mushroom that can make you turn red?

Anne managed to get everyone on the pond, but the red isn’t going away.

Anne hugs herself tight just trying very hard not to break down in front of everyone.

Domino notices and walks over to her, gaining Marcy and Sasha’s attention. Suddenly their attention is on their friend and not the screen, Sasha rubbing her back and Marcy taking one of her hands and squeezing, “It turned out okay, right?” Marcy tries to reassure

Anne started crying and admitted that she was never sick.

The frogs prepared to pass away until they realized that none of them are dying.

Anne was so sure she was going to be alone again, that she was going to get kicked out of town or get executed if she didn’t come back with the Plantars.

“Hey, it’s okay. You’re okay. They’re still here.” Sasha whispered. The blonde could feel Anne shaking extremely bad.

Hop Pop: Hmm, it says here red leg isn't the only thing that can cause a frog to turn red.

“What?!”

Hop Pop: Yeah. It says there's a mushroom that gives you the exact same symptom.

“Oh. OH. The soup! Didn’t Anne put a mushroom in there?!” Terri pointed out.

“Oh frog, I almost had a heart attack-“ Felicia stopped when she noticed Sasha and Marcy hugging Anne tightly. Her heart shattered at the sight. They were so worried about the Plantars that they didn’t think how Anne felt.

The episode ends with Anne tearfully hugging the Plantars.

By now, everyone realized how messed up this was from Anne’s perspective.

They all notice how bad she’s shaking.

“Anne? It’s okay. We’re okay, we’re still alive.” Sprig said.

“But I didn’t know at the time. I really thought I killed you guys.” Anne whispered but everyone still heard it.

“Anne, no-“ Polly was interrupted as Anne continued.

“If I had just helped you guys with the crops, instead of being a lazy ass, I thought you would still be alive.” Anne finished. The girls pull her into a hug, Anne hides her face in Sasha’s hair.

“Anne, that would never have been your fault if that happened. No one will blame you if something like that happened.” Hop Pop says.

“Did you forget that Wartwood didn’t like me at the time? What would have been the first thing that comes to mind, if I came back and none of you are around?” Anne asks.

The frogs looked away guilty, because they knew they would have assumed that Anne killed them.

“You know you don’t have to blame yourself for everything, right?” Terri asks. They’d seen Anne do this behavior before right when they were taking Anne and the Plantars home on the day they met. Terri assumed that was a one-time thing, they didn’t think it was this bad.

Anne just hummed in response. The Plantars, her parents, and Dr. Jan all hug her. They sat there in silence, everyone else don’t know what to do.

After what seems like an eternity, the screen starts to play the next episode.

Amphibia, Episode 16:  Family Shrub

Chapter Text

“What’s a family shrub?” Molly Jo asks.

“Family tree for frogs,” Anne answered.

“Ah.”

The episode starts with Anne and The Plantars making a family shrub.

Hop Pop tells stories about their ancestors, much to their boredom.

While all the kids are bored, Marcy watches curiously with starred eyes.

“You’re so lucky, Anne. Your found family is so cool,” Marcy whispered.

Anne smiled, “Whatever you say, Marbles.” Running her hand through Marcy’s hair

Anne: Yep, you lost me.

Polly: Our ancestors were boring!

Sprig: Were they really all just farm frogs? Where are the artists? The poets? The dreamers?

“What’s wrong with farming?” Marcy asks.

Hop Pop has a hopeful look in his eyes, Bee and Olivia are just smiling while everyone else just looks away.

“Farming isn’t…everyone’s style, Marce.” Anne answers.

Hop Pop: Just farm frogs? Kids, the point of the shrub is to give you an appreciation for your past. The Plantar family has layers. You just have to know where to look.

Anne: Layers, huh? Okay, then. Well, what's so special about her? (Points at a green frog.)

Hop Pop: Polli Anna? Oh, brace yourselves. She wasn't just any farmer. She was a turnip farmer!

All the kids groan at the same with the children on the screen.

Marcy is just watching like a happy little kid that she’s supposed to be and is just confused at how everyone reacts.

Sasha just watches her and wonders when's the last time she's seen her like this.

Anne: Welp, as much as I'd love to help, not gonna find any of my ancestors on your shrub, so...

Anne starts playing a Tetris game.

Oum just shakes her head. Like father, like daughter.

Hop Pop: Don't have to be blood to be a Plantar, Anne.

Most the room is just smiling at how sweet that was.

Marcy smiles at her friend, finding a loving family, for all their flaws, is the bare minimum she deserved after getting pulled into Amphibia. After you trapped them there, a dark voice in her head reminds her, suddenly she hates how excited she was, pulling into herself, scooting just far enough to not be touching Anne anymore. She ignores the look Sasha gives her.

Anne: No, but you do have to be a master stacker to get to level 46. If I can just...

Anne loses and groans.

Anne: Curse you, sudden death round! Why you so hard?

Hop Pop: Anne, this is based on nothing at all, but I'm almost certain that game will rot your brain!

The bottle he’s using is empty.

Hop Pop: Uh-oh, looks like we're out of glue!

Sprig: Does that mean we have to stop?

Polly: Can we do something fun now?

Robert shook his head, Molly Jo was mostly like that all the time.

Hop Pop: No fun till the shrub's done. Just gonna run to the store real quick and get more glue. Be back in a jiffy. [hums] Don't go anywhere!

The adults snickered.

“Did you actually expect them to listen to you?” Olivia asks.

“Did you expect us to?” Polly lets slip before she realizes what she said.

Marcy snaps her head to the Pollywog while Anne looks at Olivia.

Olivia opens her mouth to ask before putting her fingers to her temples, deciding it wasn’t worth asking she puts her hands together with a clap, “I suppose not, but no damages were noticed so.” she tries to breathe calmly.

Polly: Ah! You're lucky you're an outsider, Anne. Our family history is weak!

Sprig: They didn't do anything weird. Or different. Or fun. I mean, look at this. Even this painting's making me feel depressed.

He pressed something and a pathway opened up.

Everyone is shocked. They turn to see Sprig and Polly grinning mischievously.

“I don’t know how you guys found that on accident,” Sasha says, “It took me three weeks and Anne’s notebook to find those tunnels.”

“Why were you in our house?” Polly asks glaring.

“After everything in the castle, we had to lay low, after that something else came up.” Sasha replies, testing each word before the next, who knows if the rebellion is allowed to be talked about, and, she looks at Olivia and Yunan. And Marcy, as nice as everyone is, some are still near their enemy.

Marcy yawns and lays down across Anne and Sasha’s lap; it had been a long day, she hums happily being close to her two favorite people despite everything that’s happened that hasn’t changed,

Sasha puts her hand on top of Marcy’s head, if asked she’d say it was cause she didn’t want the other girl to hit Grime’s armor, but she tangles her fingers in her hair like she knows the youngest likes, “Hey Marmar,”

“Hey Sashy,” she smiles

“Tired?”

Marcy nods, turning to the screen again, Anne puts her hands over Marcy’s stomach to make sure she doesn’t fall.

Anne: Oh wow, that looks unsafe… We have to go in there!

Most of the adults chuckled.

The three of them all went in. The entrance shut itself, causing Sprig and Anne to freak out. Polly calmed them down and they found themselves in a lab.

Polly: Hey, why do you think the entrance was hidden like that?

“Huh, that never hit me before.” Anne murmured.

“It’s damn near untracceable if you don’t know it’s there, even the ventilation is hidden, someone had to be hiding,” Sasha had gone through great lengths to check out the underground before moving the resistance there. Anne gives her an odd look.

Sprig: To keep it a secret, obviously. Who wouldn't want to steal this stuff?

Anne taps on a glass and it reveals a turnip with a hideous face. She grimaced.

Anne: Uh, me, me. I don't wanna steal this stuff.

Everyone can share the same sentiment.

Sprig: It says here this place belonged to Great Uncle Skip Plantar. He was a farmer and a brilliant scientist! He experimented with all kinds of stuff. This is wild. I wanna know more! Like, what does this do?

He pulls a lever and a pumpkin monster came out.

“Oh, god. That’s messed up.”

Meanwhile Hop Pop is at the Grub and Go, trying to choose which glue he’ll buy when Loggle surprised him.

“Wait, you work there?” 

“How much money do you really think you get from wood working? It’s just part time but it keeps the shop open.” He answers.

Anne chuckled. It really surprised her to see him there, even more when she found out that he’s the manager.

Hop Pop: Oh, hey, Loggle. Just trying to find some glue to put my family shrub together.

Loggle: Oh, Hop Pop. All you need for that is this. (Puts hand over heart)

Hop Pop: Dang it, you're right. In the end, it's all about love.

“Aww.”

“This feels like foreshadowing.” Terri says with a laugh, “Like kinda bad foreshadowing”

“Don’t ruin the moment.” 

Loggle: What? No, I meant you need this. (Pulls glue out of chest pocket.) Nothing stronger. This stuff will fix your shrub. Heck, it'll fix your house!

“Oh.”

They really thought Loggle was being sweet.

Back to the siblings, they’re hiding behind a table as the pumpkin monster crashes itself at the walls.

Marcy is concerned and curious. Is the Pumpkin blind?

Sprig slowly got closer and proceeds to hug and comfort it.

Anne: … What is happening?

Everyone are asking themselves the same thing.

Sprig: Oh, you horrible, horrible, sweet boy. Forgive me.

He pushes the pumpkin monster back to its cage and locked it.

“Damn, that’s cold.”

Polly: Dude... that was ice cold.

Sprig: Love is the cruelest weapon.

Anne shakes her head, not just weapon, she looks over at Sasha and Marcy’s half awake form.

Anne: Agreed. Now let's get out of here before something else happens.

The floor beneath them collapse.

“You have to admit, you kinda had that coming.”

They found themselves in a war room.

“Hold up. The lab, I can understand. But why is there a war room underneath your house?!” Dr. Jan asked

Sasha smiles, it had been helpful to have a start to training in the under ground, and weapons to at least give them a chance against the king’s robots.

Polly finds a picture of one of their ancestors.

Polly: This is the same Polliana from Hop Pop's shrub. She wasn't just a turnip farmer. She was a turnt up warrior!

“Are you serious?”

“Why would they keep themselves hidden? Shouldn’t they be celebrities?!”

Olivia and Grime shook their head. Olivia has never heard of a scientist from the Plantar family and Grime has never heard of a Frog solider, especially if they came from the Plantars. Beyond just the typical thing with frogs.

Sprig: Hey, check it out. I found her diary!

Anne: The Bogwater Wars of '48. The Western Toad invasion of '53. Man, she was in a lot of battles.

“Question, how many wars have you guys had?” Mr. X asks.

“About… 5 from what I can remember.” Oliva answered.

Yunan corrects her, “Offically, yeah, unofficially, there’s always some battle going on, don’t declare war it doesn’t go to the council.”

Sprig: Wow, we sure are learning a lot. I'd like to learn more. Like, hey, what does this do? (Pulls a lever.)

Arrows started shooting.

Anne: Will you stop pulling levers?!

Sprig: Levers are for pulling, Anne!

Some people laughed. A few agreed with Anne.

Sprig: Why is there a death trap here anyway?

Anne: Says here this is Polliana's training simulator.

Sprig: Look out! Okay, how do we turn it off?

Anne: The shut off switch is by the exit on the other side.

Sprig: Okay, we can do this. We just gotta go very slowly--

Polly immediately rushes in and destroys all the armor.

All the humans paled.

If they weren’t scared of Polly before, they are now.

Grime just looks at her curiously.

As they went to the next room, Hop Pop was drowned in glue.

Some people winced.

“OH! That has got to burn.”

“I was wondering how that happened.” Anne asked.

Back to the siblings, they came across a room filled with board games.

“It’s beautiful!”

“We should play some,” Marcy smiles at the idea.

“You three get far too competitive with board games,” Bee laughs, “Remember why Uno and Monopoly have time limits now?”

Anne rolls her eyes, “One battleship gets embedded into the ceiling.”

Anne: Oh, cool! This place is filled with games and puzzles. Let's see if we can find which Plantar this stuff belonged to. No way. Emma the Newt? Honorary Plantar? Hey, check this out. She traveled all over the place, collected all this cool stuff, and settled with the Plantars. She wasn't even a frog!

Sprig: Wow, so cool!

Anne: I guess even an outsider like me can be a Plantar.

“Oh god, I wasn’t expecting this to be deep.”

Sprig: Oh, Anne. Looks like you've solved the puzzle...of your own heart.

Anne: Wow, thanks buddy.

Sprig: No, thank you, buddy.

Polly: Hey! How about we solve the puzzle of getting the heck out of here!

“Dang it, Polly. Way to ruin a moment,” Hop Pop laughs at his youngest

Anne: Oh, we think the exit is that way.

They came across a door that can only be unlocked if you solve the puzzle.

“Is it just me, or do these rooms seem like the temples?” Marcy asks quietly.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Sasha admits softly.

“Huh, now that I think about it. It does seem kind of like the temples.” Anne nodded.

Anne triggers a death trap and quickly solved it under pressure.

Anne’s heart stopped for a second when she saw Sprig’s hat about to get crushed.

“I have never been more glad of you playing games.” Oum says in relief.

“She got those skills from her old man!” Bee says in pride.

“Right, keep telling yourself that.”

“That’s because it is!”

Anne chuckles at her parents' bantering.

The episode ends with all of them telling Hop Pop, and Loggle who somehow got himself glued to Hop Pop, about the secret rooms. Hop Pop rushes in those rooms much to Loggle’s dismay as the kids chase them.

Some of them choked when they see Loggle.

“Anne. We need to talk about what happened during… what did they call it again? Contagi-Anne?” Hop Pop says.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Anne says immediately.

“You do realize you’re gonna have to talk about this, think of it as therapy!” Sprig says.

“It costs a hundred dollars to pay for therapy and zero to say that it’s my fault.” Anne says in confidence.

“NO.” 

They all hug her, and suddenly the voice started talking. “Yeah, this is one of the reasons why I brought you here. Good luck talking about feelings you’re platonically and romantically avoiding!”

Anne just deadpanned in the direction where the voice was coming from. Sasha raises an eyebrow at the voice's comment and Marcy sits up right. 

They look at each other for a second before Marcy breaks her gaze, shouldn’t get her hopes up, after what she did even if the voice was right Anne wouldn’t feel anything more for her than friendship, plus she could never compare to the burning sun that is Sasha, always charming, always beautiful, always strong. She suddenly wishes they had just gone to bed before the voice could speak.

Sasaha on the other hand keeps her icy blue gaze on Marcy, of course Anne would have feelings for their younger friend, who wouldn’t fall for the nerd, so confident being herself, genuine, nice, and softer around the edges than Sasha by a mile

Anne sighs, she’s over everyone knowing all her business, She just wants to eat and go to bed.

The universe just once takes mercy on her and tables full of various pasta appears with meatballs and bugballs alike on the tables for the entire group to choose from.

When everyone’s settled down and talking quietly in their groups, the girls make a small triangle in the corner Marcy is going between eating a bite and resting her head on Anne’s shoulder, “I’m sorry Annie, I haven’t been able to keep any energy, we haven’t been doing much but I’m exhausted.”

“Are you fully healed from…” Sasha trailed off, they all know what she meant, “If your body is still healing it makes sense how tired you are.”

“I… think so, it’s scared at least.” She almost face plants into her plate of food. Sasha looks at her friends, after today she’s not shocked at how Anne looks like she has the whole world on her shoulders. She tries to ignore the twinge in her chest seeing how softly Anne looks at Marcy.

“I think we should get some sleep, tomorrow has to be better, right?” The blonde gives a small smile to her friends.

Anne nods once, “Marmar can ya get up?”

Marcy groans before shaking her head against Anne’s shoulder, “‘M sleep.”

Anne laughs and Sasha smiles before standing up, bending down, and with little difficulty picks Marcy up, she’s lighter than she should be, feels lighter than the pseudo weights Sasha’s been using to exercise, “Sasha!” Marcy’s shocked as she’s carried to the room they stayed in last night.

“Not my fault you’re light Marbles,” Sasha laughs.

Marcy laughs herself, giving in as she doesn’t have much choice, or really the energy to fight it if she honestly minded. 

When they’re in the room Sasha gently tosses her on the bed. Anne isn’t far behind him, she laughs “You know, the entire room is gonna think you two are dating after that, right?”

Marcy blushes slightly at the thought. Sasha scoffs, pulling her shirt off as she’s getting dressed for bed, “Let them, can you believe they think there’s some, what, love triangle between us?”

Marcy was most certainly looking at Sasha’s toned stomach as she was changing, and Anne throwing her clothes at her wasn’t a shock. She blinks twice looking at Anne, who’s giving her a bemused look, something else hiding underneath, but whatever it is is hidden by Heart’s champion too quick for Marcy to determine what. Not thinking on it any further, turning her back to the other two to change.

She freezes when her shirt is off and she hears Anne’s sharp intake of breath and Sasha’s low “Fuck Marce.” 

I’m fine, it’s fine.

She closes her eyes tightly, ignoring the tears leaking out of the corner of her eyes, she takes a deep breath and pulls on her sleep shirt. She can’t make herself look at them, she wants to, fuck she wants to do badly but she can’t. She was stupid, why did she let them see that scar, how could she forget. She can feel her body shake slightly, wanting to hit her head for being so stupid.

The bed creaks behind her and she feels a hand touch her shoulder, “Marce,” Anne’s voice is too soft, too understanding, she doesn’t deserve that. The scar was a great reminder how awful and selfish she had been, still was. She can’t look at Anne or Sasha, or she’ll break. “Marcy, please look at me?” The bed shifts, if she turns now she’ll be looking at both of them. As much as she hates saying no to Anne she shakes her head.

The air is knocked out of her when one of them hits her from behind, their arms wrapping tightly around her, “I’m sorry,” she finally can speak, and with that the flood gates open, she cries. No, sobs. She feels her whole body shake and heave, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” every word feels like it’s being ripped out of her throat. 

There’s another set of arms around her, hugging her just as tightly, she’s vaguely aware they’re both saying something, trying to help, but she can’t understand them, she should be dead, she deserves to be dead, not given whatever second chance this is, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m sorry,” she needs them to know, to understand. She can’t look at them though. Cause even Sasha will be more kind than she should be.

But both her friends are stronger than her, so eventually she’s turned to face them. Pulled into a tight hug  which she doesn’t return but grabs at whoever is hugging her’s shirt, forming fists of fabric that are almost painful how much she strains into them and when she falls they guide her to lay in the bed. She moves her legs up only to realize they’re tangled around one of the other’s own legs. Being held as tight to them as she could. The other is right behind her, one of their arms holding her tight too, the other running her hand through Marcy’s hair. She still can’t tell what they’re saying. It’s still too gentle. “Sorry, sorry, I’m so sorry.”

Slowly Marcy feels her sobs turn to tears. They don’t let go. She’s soaked Sasha’s shirt in tears. “Sorry, I’m so sorry, sorry sorry, sorry,” she repeats the mantra even as they shush her, the words now promises they forgive her and are there for her. A promise the world isn’t falling apart and everything is okay. She knows they’re wrong, but the soft whispers and her exhaustion win out as  at some point she blinks and doesn’t open her eyes back up.

They sleep like that all night.

Chapter Text

Marcy wakes up alone. 

Her eyes still feel heavy from crying. She untangles herself from the sheets thankful to have been able to sleep through the night. In some way she feels a little less guilty than she has been, even if it all was her fault her friends are still there for her. She tries to not let the darker part of her thoughts drown out the warm feeling of being protected last night, being loved.

She doesn’t get dressed into proper clothing, still wearing her sleep shirt and yesterday’s pants, it has to still be early enough she’s not the last up she takes a deep breath and goes out into the theater, the few people who are up are all watching something in the center of the room. As she gets closer she sees Anne and Sasha circling each other. Frowning deeply she goes closer, they couldn’t have had another fight, Sasha is the first to see her, stopping moving for just a second to give her a half wave, “Hey Marmar.” never taking her eyes off Anne.

That causes Anne to look behind her, she gives Marcy a wide smile, “Morning Mar-” Sasha had used Anne’s distraction to try to get a hit in, Anne grunts at the first hit but blocked the second, she laughs, “Cheap shot Sash,” Sasha retreats back before Anne can try to get any contact on her, Marcy no longer has any of their attention.

That works for her cause if they’re not watching her, she can watch them without fear of it being too long. They’re both wearing tank tops; she can see how their muscles twitch underneath the skin, Anne blocks another hit from Sasha and spins to catch an opening in the blonde’s defense, landing a hit on her side, both smiling widely and obviously not taking this very seriously. Sasha’s answer is to take the fight to the ground, grabbing Anne’s arm and pulling to put the Thai girl on her back, looking up at the oldest before grinning, grabbing at Sasha’s legs, pulling her down easily, taking Sasha’s momentarily shock to get on top of her, pinning her, “Marcy,” Olivia comes up behind her and she’s snapped out of watching her friends spa.

“Huh?” wit’s champion asks unintelligently still watching Sasha’s arms and how Anne’s panting on top of her, both still catching their breaths from the sudden fall to the ground.

She knows she should be listening to the newt, and normally she’d never dream of ignoring her, but as Sasha half struggles but when Anne leans down and whispers something in her ear she drops her head back and laughs, causing Anne to laugh too, loosening her grip and rolling off Sasha still laughing. Whatever Anne said, suddenly Marcy’s heart drops, she doesn’t want to watch her two friends become something more without her. Watch in real time as she becomes the spare, as deserved as that would be. She walks away from the match ring, muttering something about needing to get ready to Lady Olivia. She rubs at her bruised knuckles from Maggie, the dull pain helping her focus a little more. 

“Hey, Marcy,” a familiar voice comes behind her and Sasha and Anne are beside her before she can run. She doesn’t want to run. Anne’s pulling off the hand wraps she had put on as sasha looks her over, “Feeling better?” Sasha puts her hand on Marcy’s shoulder and Marcy, despite herself, melts into the touch, “After last night?”

Marcy tries her best not to stare at her friends and certainly not their lips, or arms, when she looks at Sasha’s eyes they’re softer than they’ve been since they’ve been trapped in this room at least, more likely in years, Marcy looks away, feeling her face heat up. Just her luck she catches Anne’s eyes and she’s tongue tied, She brushes her bangs back, offering a nod, before looking down, “I’m sorry about that, I…”

Sasha shakes her head, “This has been a lot, everything has been,” Everything is Sasha’s nice way of saying your trapping us in another world and Marcy knows it, “Nothing to be sorry about.”

“Yeah, Marbles, we’re all having a hard time, and that’s without knowing what’s going to happen, we’re in this together.” Anne smiles, “But also I have to go shower, people are getting up,”

“You should, you’re all sweaty and gross now, Boonchuy,” Sasha shoves her gently.

“Winning doesn’t look good on you Sash,” Anne sticks her tongue out but walks away to get a change of clothes.

Marcy gives her a look, “Wasn’t Anne winning?”

“I won the first round, we were just having fun so we continued,” Sasha shrugs, starting on her own  hand wraps.

“You looked like you were having fun,” Macry agrees.

“Yeah,” Sasha smiles gently, pulling Marcy into a tight hug, when she pulls back Marcy gives her a confused look, “I don’t think you heard me last night, and it was bad timing, but I’m… I think I forgive you, for everything, like I’m still kinda mad but not at you, I thought you should hear it when neither of us are upset.”

You don’t deserve that, a voice in her head reminds her as she smiles widely, some part of her is certain her heart may explode, she looks down, she can’t keep eye contact with Sasha, “I… are you sure? Thank you,” She pulls Sasha into a hug, “I don’t deserve that, but thank you,” she murmurs into the blondes ear 

“I don’t think I was gonna be able to stay mad, especially with how I fucked up. I love you too much Marcy,” she’s holding her tightly against her, holding her head as Marcy buries her face in her shoulder.

Love, they use the word plenty between them, when Anne had to leave for a month to visit her family in Thailand, at the end of hours long video calls, when Marcy had returned to school after a week of being gone when she and her parents had gotten into a car accident, thrown with a smile when teasing goes a bit too close to the line of too far. Love, why does that one word echo through her head, she pulls away suddenly, she feels kinda sick. “You’re all sweaty,” she laughs trying to put any unwelcome thoughts out of her head, “You need to shower too.”

“What, Marmar, you don’t think it adds something to my mean soldier look, that hurts,” she feigns hurt, accepting Marcy’s cue it’s getting just a bit awkward. After a look that lasts too long she walks to the room too. Marcy waits til she sees both of them leaving before she returns to the room, needing to think.

She doesn’t look at the one mirror in the room as she quickly changes, she knows the symptoms of a crush, dopamine makes you basically addicted to the person, signs include butterflies in the stomach, blushing sweating, being happy to be around them. She had one before, on Jeremy Fleighman from the chess club. Sasha had had him take her on a date without a second thought when Marcy confessed to them one sleepover, they had gone to see a movie and Marcy thought it was a good time, he had stopped coming to the chess club and talking to her all together right after. 

The point is she knows the signs of a crush, she knows when she has more than platonic feelings for someone, though she never seems to do emotions right. Right now she knows her emotions are wrong, there’s no way she has a crush on Anne and Sasha.

She groans and flops back into the bed, wouldn’t that just be the perfect irony; her barely deserving to be friends with them and still wanting more. Perfectly in character for selfish Marcy Wu. She covers her face with her hands, letting out a half scream. She can’t have a crush on her two best friends.

She doesn’t love Sasha's new less suffocating protection. She doesn’t love Anne’s new confidence. She doesn’t love how protected they make her feel. How happy. They’re just her friends, her best friends, her favorite people. She doesn’t love them. Not like that.

Eventually she gets enough control of her thoughts to behave she leaves the room, Anne and Sasha are thankfully still not back in the theater, instead she gets an orange and goes to the corner of the room that Olivia had made her space for right now. She really tries to hide her worry and stress over the conclusion her brain is trying to convince her is the truth. “I’m sorry I didn’t hear you earlier, Olivia, I was-”

“It’s okay, you were quite distracted, Master Marcy.”

“I’ve been tired since we got here, like my body has just been constantly drained,” Marcy hopes that’ll count as an explanation.

“And you’ve been watching your friends very closely.”

Marcy chokes on the orange slice she was eating, “It’s just, it’s nothing, it’s just nice to have them back.”

Olivia hums in agreement, “Master Marcy outside this dimension or whatever frog knows where we are, I’m sure you remember things have gotten pretty messy to say the least.”

Marcy nods, rubbing at her chest, “I know.”

“Then why neglect yourself every happiness you can get? Even if fleeting.”

Marcy sighs looking at her hands, “it’s just so complicated.” She bites at her lip looking at the newt before asking, “How do you know you love someone?”

Olivia gives a small smile, “You want to be better for them, and they’ll grow for you too. They make you happier than anyone. You complement each other, you feel good being with them for what they add, sure but also just as themselves. You want them to be with you in the future and will do whatever you can to get to that future. You feel safe with them.” Marcy turns and follows Olivia’s gaze to General Yunan, before she can ask the Newt stands, “At least that’s what my mother always told me, but you’re a smart girl Marcy Wu, I think you’ll know if you love someone.” Before walking away to her seat in the theater.

Marcy stays frozen for a second, fuck, she’s in love with her two best friends. She’s in love with Anne. She’s in love with Sasha. She’s in love with Anne and Sasha. She’s gonna be sick. 

“Marce?” Anne taps her shoulder and Marcy jumps squeezing the last bit of her orange. 

Marcy quickly wipes the juice on her pants looking up at her friends. “Everyone’s ready to continue,” Sasha smiles giving her a searching look, “You good?”

Marcy swallows, “Yeah,” she jumps to her feet, almost falling on her face, Anne catches her, “Yeah, let’s do it.” She smiles, she can’t tell them this, she can’t let them know.”

The get in her seats and she feels too close and too far from both of them as the screen lights up:

Lily Pad Thai

Chapter Text

“What’s Pad Thai?” Yunan asks

“It’s a Thai dish.” Anne answered. That didn’t help the general but she resolved to ask Marcy later. 

The episode starts with The Plantars making Pizza.

“Oh, wait! I know what this is about!” Anne said excitedly.

Stumpy and Wartwood smiled as the rest of the humans have a feeling what this is about.

Anne feels so relieved. For once, there’s a memory that I'm proud to remember all over again.

Hop Pop is impressed by Anne’s cutting skills, asking where she learned that.

Anne: You know, my parents actually owned a Thai restaurant back home. (pulls out her phone, which shows a picture of   Domino ) Ah, whoops. Hold on. I used to work there all the time and help out. I hope they're doing okay without me.

“Aww.”

Anne blushed at the attention she’s getting as she gets hugged by her parents.

Marcy feels the familiar feeling of guilt land in her stomach. 

Hop Pop: Well, how about that, a restaurant.

Polly: Pretty impressive, Anne.

Sprig blew up the pizza, forcing the Plantars to eat at Stumpy’s.

“I think cooking lessons are in order.” Oum said.

“Can we try Pineapple Pizza?” Sprig asks.

Anne is disgusted as Sasha throws a pillow at him, “How did a pineapple pizza weirdo steal my best friend?” she shoots a joking glare at Anne for replacing her.

Anne rolls her eyes, putting her arm around Sasha, “Calm down Sash, you’re still one of a kind.”

When they went inside, the entire restaurant is filthy.

Wartwood gets a whiplash, especially Marcy, Sasha and Grime. They were so used to the new version of the restaurant that they forgot what it was like before.

Stumpy felt a steam of pride. Looking back at how far he came. All thanks to Anne.

Anne: Oh, wow. This place is not to code.

“Tell me about it, it wasn’t like that when we arrived in Wartwood.” Sasha says.

“I think I already know what happened.” Marcy says as she looks at Anne, who’s grinning to herself.

As they sat down, it showed how dirty and unhealthy the restaurant was.

“I have several concerns.” Oum said.

Many people agree with her.

Duckweed: Excuse me, hello. Over here. Yoo hoo!

Stumpy: There be a problem, sir?

Duckweed: Um, yes, there's only one fly in my soup. There should be dozens.

Marcy laughs despite herself, and when she looks at her friend’s they start laughing as well

“Oh, frog. I didn’t realize how funny that sounded out of context.” Anne says between her laughs.

“Wait, what’s so funny?” Yunan asks.

“Flies on food is beyond unhealthy on earth, like shut down your restaurant bad” Bee says.

Duckweed: I mean, how hard is it to run a restaurant, anyway? You just put food on tables. A tadpole can do it.

Anne: Ugh, who’s that jerk? And why won’t he shut up?

Said newt grumbles quietly.

Sprig: That is Albus Duckweed. He writes reviews for the paper. They have comic strips sometimes.

Polly: Blah! He thinks he's better than everyone else just 'cause he talk good.

Hop Pop: It’s true.

Anne: Ugh, A foodie. Say no more. We dealt with snobs like him all the time back home. Just listening to him is driving me crazy.

Anne: [groans] I can't take this anymore.

She stands up and walks over to Duckweed.

“Please don’t tell me you punched another customer.” Oum says.

“Another?” Sasha grins.

“I didn’t punch him. Their face just so happened to be close to my fist.” Anne says, looking at her mother with a look of an angel on her face. Oum doesn’t agree, Marcy thinks Anne could tell her the sky is orange right now and she wouldn’t hesitate to believe her.

Duckweed immediately felt glad that hadn’t happened.

“Wasn’t that guy also Sasha’s ex?” Maggie asks, “and he tried to flirt with Marcy in front of her.”   

“Can we please not talk about that?” Marcy begs, hiding her face in her hands and Sasha nods trying not to remember how much that boy had hurt her at the time, or what she had said to Marcy in that hurt. She puts her hand on the Wit champion’s shoulder, and when she looks at her Sasha pulls the girl into a hug.

The guy deserved it, far as Anne cares.

Hop Pop: Anne, just ignore it and enjoy your slug gruel. Anne?

Duckweed: I mean seriously, just look at this place!

Anne: Hey, Lay off, buddy. Running a restaurant is hard.

Stumpy: Kid, what are you doing?

Grime pales, “Question, how old are you?” He asks.

“Thirteen?” Anne asks, raising an eyebrow, “Why?”

“…I thought you three were 16,” He looks away with a flinch. Everything turned to chaos from there.

Many of the frogs were laughing, while others, like Sasha, gave Grime a ‘are you serious?’ look.

 “Oh, so you weren’t going for a child soldier to lead your army,” Anne snarks, keeping just enough sarcasm to her sentence that none of them think too hard about it.

“We knew Anne was a kid right from the start.” Stumpy says.

“And you guys still treated her like that?” Dr. Jan asks.

“We weren’t sure about Marcy, but we knew she wasn’t older than 14 or 15,” Olivia says, frowning deeply, a child that we failed , Andrias must have known the same when he manipulated the girl to trust him.

“I’m 13,” Marcy says before quickly adding, “Now.”

“Yeah, Marmar is the youngest,” Sasha looks at her, frowning, “And your birthday was a month ago.” all three girls share a look, that would have been just after Anne went back to earth.

“You know that explains the armor,” Mr. X says quietly in the back, he hasn’t seen any world ending threats yet that means he has to watch a teenager’s life.

Duckweed and Anne go back and forth taunting each other. It ends with Duckweed insulting Anne’s parents, causing her to make a bet with Duckweed that she and Stumpy will make the restaurant successful.

“Ah, that explains it.”

Anne’s parents smile softly at their daughter’s actions.

The next day, Anne shows up at the restaurant. Stumpy doesn’t have any hopes but Anne tries to prove him wrong.

The next scene shows a montage of Anne trying to clean everything with Stumpy slowly starting to like her.

People start smiling, is this where Anne finally has the town no longer being mean to her?

In two days, the restaurant has changed, gaining customers.

Things were going, until it got chaotic as they accidentally gave Duckweed a living Kraken.

“How did you not notice that it was still alive?” Grime asked.

Polly: Assassinating your critics, I love it!

Surprisingly, enough. The Kraken is what got Duckweed to love the restaurant.

“I’ve had it up to here with critics and foodies and I haven’t even dealt with them,” Marcy rolls her eyes, she’d take the work she did in Amphibia over Anne’s in Wartwood. And that’s your fault, and yet you have a crush on her the dark voice in her head growls, she pulls her knees up to her chest, accidentally letting out a small whimper. Her friends snap their gazes to her, unsure what’s wrong.

Anne: Well, guess we better clean this place up. Again. Stumpy, I'm sorry about all this. I took things way too far.

Stumpy: No way, Anne. This whole thing was a big success. You even convinced this old grump to actually care. If your parents could see this, I'm sure they'd be proud.

Anne’s parents hugged her tight. She managed to pull Stumpy and had him join.

Anne: Thanks, Stumpy. Put her there. Oh, this feels nice. What is this? Oak? Mahogany?

Stumpy: It's carved from the bones of me missing hand.

Anne: Oh, come on!

Before they could talk more, the screen begins playing the next episode;

The Plantar’s Last Stand

Chapter Text

“Well that’s ominous.” Sasha lets out a nervous laugh

The episode starts at the Wartwood’s Farmer Market.

Sprig: Ah, the Wartwood Farmer's Market, where salt of the earth frogs come to sell stuff and fill up on free samples.

He swallows a jar of expensive jellies.

Gentle Jon: That wasn’t a sample.

Sprig spits it back to the jar.

Sprig: Now it’s like nothing happened!

A lot of people snickered.

Gentle Joe pulls out a mace and Sprig starts searching in his pocket.

Sprig: I- I can pay for that.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Croaker is buying a pumpkin from Hop Pop.

Hop Pop finds a maggot in one of the pumpkins and gives another one to Mrs. Croaker.

Hop Pop: Here, take this one, instead. It's maggot-free.

“Impressive.” Marcy says.

“Why thank you, young lady.” Hop Pop says.

Mrs. Croaker: Classic Plantar honesty. I've been buying from this stand since your father was running it. And y'all have never steered me wrong.

Anne: Very impressive, Hop Pop.

Hop Pop: That is the Plantar difference, Anne. You can't taste honesty. But if you could—

Sprig and Polly: ...it'd taste like a Plantar stand vegetable.

“How often does he say that?” Oum asked.

“Far too many to count.” Sprig answered.

Hop Pop: This stand is the heart and soul of our family. I don't know what I'd do if we ever lost it.

“Oh.” Anne realized what this is about now.

Toadie: Bad news, everyone! Bad news! Gonna run away before you read it!

Maggie snorted. “That’s one way to tell the news.”

Hop Pop: Say what? Mayor Toadstool is quadrupling the rent! And he wants it in three days!

“Excuse me?!”

“That’s too expensive!”

“Did you approve this?” Olivia asks Grime.

“No, I did not. A letter from Wartwood was never sent about this.” Grime answered.

“Uh, explain?” Sasha asks.

“There are four Toad Towers. Each Towers control the nearest villages, the mayors of those villages have to ask permission from the Heads of those Towers if they want to raise their taxes or something else.” Grime says.

Every Wartwood citizen is now glaring at Toadstool.

As other villagers complain, Hop Pop panics.

Anne: Hmm...Got it! Snugaroos, blankets you wear over your clothes.

“Anne, I doubt they’re good at knitting.” Sasha says.

Hop Pop: What the--Anne, we're a vegetable stand.

Anne: No, I mean we need our own Snugaroo, a flashy new product.

She takes a vegetable and pours all the juice in a jar.

Anne: Introducing Plantar's Potion. A hearty mix of vitamins and minerals that'll extend your life and keeps you regular.

Marcy rolls her eyes, “Real believable there, Anne.”

“Hey, I’m the one with ideas, usually you iron them out and Sasha does that smile to get everyone to believe it.”

Hop Pop: Wowza, all that in one jar?

Anne: Heck if I know, I just made all that up. But health drinks are all the rage back home. The best part, we can charge through the nose for them.

“Anne…” Oum groaned, but she’s grinning.

Hop Pop: Heh. I don't know what a nose is, but it's worth a shot. New product! New product, everyone. This here is a freshly made bottle of...What was it again? Plantar's Potion!

Wally raises his hand.

Hop Pop: Yes, you in the front. Wally.

Wally: Does it taste good?

Hop Pop: Wouldn’t know. Haven’t tried it yet.

“At least you’re honest,” Sasha doesn’t know if that’s a compliment entirely as the ‘to a fault’ luckily stays in her head

Anne told Sprig to distract the crowd while she talks to Hop Pop.

Anne: Dude, if you wanna sell this stuff, you gotta sell this stuff! Make promises you can't keep and junk.

“Careful Anne, you might become a conman in the future.” Marcy teased.

“Not gonna happen, Marbles.” Anne says as she pulls Marcy closer for a hug. Sasha just leans her head on Anne’s shoulder.

Maggie glares at the three, how could they not be dating? Her lip is thankfully sore enough to stop her from asking them. The fight going easy on each other told her that at least Sasha and Boonchuy had learned how to fight really well, and she was well acquainted with Marcy’s right hook.

Hop Pop: Did you forget that this stand is built on honesty?

Anne: Hop Pop, in 3 days; there won’t be a stand.

Hop Pop sighs and goes back to the crowd.

Hop Pop: Folks, I'd really appreciate it if you bought this drink. Uh...Because it'll make you, I don't know... stronger?

No one knows why Anne and Marcy started to snicker.

It took a while for the Plantars to start to snicker as well.

Hop Pop: …And uh, smarter too!

Anne and Marcy are trying hard not to lose it, Anne breathe into Marcy’s ear, “All wrapped up in a potion good for your heart and love life.”

Sasha really doesn’t understand what’s so funny.

The crowd gets interested, making Hop Pop want to trick them more. It shows a montage of Wartwood buying the potions.

“This is going better than Anne’s candy gram service,” Sasha has to give her friend that

“Oh, come on. I’m not that bad.” Anne says.

Things are going well until they find out that their produce is all gone.

“Oof. That’s bound to make things harder.”

Hop Pop spots a pile of garbage.

Hop Pop: Jackpot!

Anne deadpanned as several people whisper their concerns.

“That’s literally garbage.”

“I have so many concerns.”

Anne: You sure about this, Hop Pop?

Hop Pop: Oh, I'm sure. Everyone's hooked. They'll buy anything I sell them.

Anne looked away. To be fair, she’s the one who started this mess. But would she ever be okay again if she keeps blaming herself?

Sasha leans close, “You’re not responsible for other’s actions.”

The next day, Hop Pop is selling out the garbage potion.

Hop Pop: Friends and frog folk, step right up. New limited edition Plantar's Potion. Only 20 coppers a bottle!

Anne: 20 coppers? No one’s gonna buy that-

She gets run over by the customers.

“You sure know a lot how business works.”
 

Anne never thought about that before, she just likes money and what makes people interested.

Hop Pop still has one more bottle to sell but starts to back out when Mrs. Croaker bought it.

Mrs. Croaker: To Hop Pop and the Plantars, the most honest folks in the business.

Several people flinched.

“Oof! I felt that.”

Hop Pop admits everything when a swarm of flies started attacking and stealing the garbage potion.

Anne: Hey! Let go of my frog family!

Hop Pop manages to save his grandchildren and scare of the flies. The next scene shows him giving back everyone’s money. Causing him to lose his stand.

Polly: You want me to...[clicks tongue] off Toadie? I'll do it. You know I will.

Toadie got scared and Sasha grabs him before Polly could think about it.

“It’s not his fault,” she glares at Toadstool

A few people snickered, loving Polly’s chaotic energy.

Hop Pop: Oh frog, I’m unemployed!

“A valid concern.” Oum says.

“Well, from what I’ve seen so far. Hop Pop is a hard worker, I don’t think Anne has to worry about working as well.” Terri says.

Anne and a majority of Wartwood go silent. Hop Pop got a depressed for a few days, and considering what they saw with the red leg episode, it finally makes sense for the Wartwood citizens to see why Anne keeps working on multiple jobs. Anne starts playing with Sasha’s hair looking for any sort of distraction.

Before Wally could correct the human, the screen starts playing the next episode;

Toad Tax

Chapter Text

Everyone in Wartwood inhaled deeply.

Toadstool is just trying to make himself invisible.

They all know that this is about the tax incident.

Marcy on the other hand looks at Sasha, “What, Marbles?”

“You’re the toad girl,” Marcy shrugs

The episode starts with Hop Pop and Anne at the Grub and Go.

Hop Pop: Oh! Pill Bugs are on sale.

Anne: Ooh! That reminds me. I'm gonna go grab some of that beetle jerky I like. Can't believe I just said that.

Anne shuddered. Sure she’s grown to like the food in Amphibia, but that’s the one thing she doesn’t miss while she was on Earth.

Marcy smiles, the human food this room has been giving them has definentally been an improvement.

Anne walks off as Hop Pop takes all the Pill Bugs.

A majority of people snorted at that.

Anne manages to find the last one but Wally takes it and they fight over it, but Wally still manages to keep it.

The people who were at the time flinched. They have completely forgotten about how bad it had been.

Anne got silent. She doesn’t know how to feel about this. She’s friends with everyone in Wartwood but there are so many bad memories with them as well. Anne rests her head on Marcy’s shoulder. Marcy is praying to whoever she can think of to not let her blush.

As Wally hops off, Anne starts getting humiliated by everyone at the store.

Sasha puts her arm around Anne, squeezing tight as Marcy backs away trying not to let the others see how shiny her eyes had gotten

“I’m so sorry,” Marcy whispers, forcing her voice not to break.

Anne pulls her into a tight hug, “Marcy, that’s not your fault.”

“Mmmm.” Marcy just buries her face on Anne’s chest, listening to her breath and trying to copy it to stop any further breakdowns, it’s one thing for Sasha or Anne to see but she doesn’t want to in front of everyone. Sasha draws patterns across both their backs, knowing even though Marcy would be the more obvious breakdown, they're both close.

Meanwhile, everyone else just started talking.

“I had completely forgotten about this.” 

“Times like these where I wonder why Anne is even friends with any of you.” 

“Look, we’re sorry about everything Anne has to go through during her time in Wartwood, but-“ Wally started but Oum interrupted him.

“I can understand that you didn’t trust Anne at first because she’s a creature that you never saw before, but that does not excuse for harassing her.” She said.

“Not to mention the fact that you knew she’s a child and still continued to harass her.” Dr. Jan pointed out. Ivy looks at Anne, she doesn’t know what to do but to look away from the frogs. Toadie knows that he shouldn’t be with the girls right now and hops away.

Anne has enough and walks outside, towards the Plantars.

Sprig: Hey, what’s wrong?

Anne: Well, it's just...I've been here over a month now, and the townspeople still treat me crummy. I just wish they were a little nicer.

Anne refuses to look at everyone and just tries to comfort Marcy.

Sasha is trying her best to comfort both of her friends. She wishes she could take the attention off Anne, even if only for a bit.

Hop Pop: Oh, that's just the way these frogs are. Slow to accept, and even slower to respect. It's actually our town motto.

“What the fuck?”

This town just keeps getting weirder.

Hop Pop: You'll find a way to get their respect, in your own weird Anne way. Now, who wants pill bug pancakes?

Anne: Ooh! My favorite. I've been here too long.

“Nah, pillbug pancakes are pretty good,” Sasha agrees.  

Anne looks up from her spot comforting Marcy, smiling slightly at Sasha

They drive past to a statue of Toadstool.

Hop Pop: Well, that statue’s new.

Sprig: And tasteless. Woof.

“Rude.” Toadstool grumbled. Sure it doesn’t help what he did in this episode but still!

“To be fair, it’s ugly.” Maggie says.

Bessie starts to freak out, Anne calms her down and she sees a trio of Toads heading their way towards Wartwood.

Bog: Ah! Nothing like cracking your neck after a long drive. Ain't that right?

“What’s Bog doing there?” Sasha asks.

“You know them?” Anne asks.

“Yeah, we drink sometimes.” Sasha says.

“You’re 13, why would you- never mind I just remembered that Grime thought you’re an adult.” Bee says.

“Wait, if that’s the case; shouldn’t you have known that they didn’t know that you’re a kid?”

“Nah, I didn’t know. I just asked Grime ‘hey can I drink that?’ and he said ‘go nuts.’” Sasha says.

Several people start to snicker as Grime tries to bury himself from embarrassment.

Toadstool: Oh, good you’re here. Toadie, give him the list.

“Hmm, I think Captain Grime sent Bog and his friends for the taxes.” Percy says.

“Come to think of it, he never did fill in that report. Only said that Anne’s there.” Grime says.

Anne looked at Sasha. So that’s how she knew. She tilts her head, but it was weeks after that they had seen each other, was she still in prison? Or didn’t want to see her? Both options hurt a little.

Anne: Who are those guys?

Hop Pop: Toads from Toad Tower; they rule over the entire valley.

Anne: Toad what?

“Your attention span is amazing.”

Sprig: It's a big, scary tower deep in the swamp and the toads that live there are the valley's fiercest warriors.

Anne: Woah, Cool!

“Aside from Stumpy, and probably Sasha’s friends but I don’t really know them, I don’t think that anymore.” Anne says, she wants to add Toadstool but there is no way that’s happening in this episode.

Stumpy huffs out in pride while Toadstool grumbled.

Hop Pop: Cool, yes. But they can be a rough sort. It's probably for the best that we all stay clear of-

Anne and Sprig walked towards them.

Hop Pop: -Oh, dang it. There they go.

Few parents chuckled. Kids…

The siblings started to introduce themselves, Bog does the same and got surprised to see Anne.

They started fighting but the Toads are impressed by Anne, getting her interested at them.

“How is it that a bunch of toads that don’t live in Wartwood warm up to Anne quickly than the people living there?” Sasha asks.

“Amphibians have different views about others. I don’t know about frogs, but toads tend to like creatures that are tough or act like them.” Grime says.

“Are you saying that I’m a toad?” Anne asks, snorting, “Cause Marcy’s right, I’m the frog girl, heart and all that.”

“It probably helped you that around this time was when Grime made me his second, you know how they are about all humans being the same,” Sasha offers with a shrug.

Hop Pop: Okay, kids. That's enough flirting with death. Let's head home.

“Come on Hop Pop, flirting is fun,” Anne grins, winking at Sasha, “Even if it is with Death.”

Sprig: Bleh! Finally. Come on, Anne.

Anne: I was thinking we could hang out with these guys a little longer. They seem pretty cool.

Sprig: Cool? More like smelly. Not to mention creepy.

Mire starts to breath raggidly.

Anne: Wait a second. Are you jealous I think they're cool?

Sasha stares at Sprig. That better not be why he kept harassing her during that dinner.

Anne leans in to whisper, stopping inches from her ear, “you’re no better with your jealousy, Waybright.”

Just because Anne’s right doesn’t mean she has to agree, grinning she pulls her curly haired friend into her lap, resting her chin on Anne’s shoulder with a smirk

“Sasha!” Anne whispers, though not that she really minds, laughing as she settles into her new seat. Marcy frowns for just a second, before the blonde motions her closer, the offer is rapidly taken as she cuddles close to Sasha’s side.

There’s no one to claim, and Sasha knows that, she’s definitely not doing that, nope, just like she doesn’t smile into Anne’s shoulder when she sees how the pink frog frowns at her little display.

Sprig: No. Ha! If you wanna hang out with some grody toads, Anne, be my guest. No skin off my skin.

Sprig hops away. The Plantars drive off and Anne reintroduced herself to the toads, them doing the same.

Bog offered Anne their job, she’s a bit hesitant but accepted it once he told her that she’ll get respected.

“Oh no, that’s a bad idea.” Oum tells her daughter

Sasha agrees but she could see why Anne would do it, considering how Wartwood has been treating her. She may be able to thrive in the world of toads, but Anne is softer than her, kinder than her, even if Bog had been one of the kinder toads, which he wasn’t. She’s almost certain what he’s done isn’t up to law.

The Plantars are not happy with the news, Sprig got suspicious and follows her.

“Dude, seriously? I can take care of myself.” Anne grumbles She’s been doing so since her birthday.

Anne thought it would be innocent but finds out that they’re taking the stuff of the frogs that didn’t pay.

“Those three. I don’t care if I’m a fugitive, if those three are still on any sort of force I will remove them myself!”  Grime gives Lady Olivia a look. Though they both know that’s an after problem. And none of them when after will be and what it will look like

“What?” Anne asks.

“If an amphibian doesn’t pay their taxes, the punishment will either be community service or labor at Toad Tower depending on how much they didn’t pay,” Olivia says.

“Those three were always the ones who go out to get taxes, if they’ve been doing this for a while…” Percy says.

“Suddenly, the frog rebellion makes so much sense.” Braddock continued.

Jeez, Amphibia politics are a mess. Marcy lays her head against Sasha and Anne, how could she have been so stupid to believe in a king that hide so much, let so many awful things happen to his subjects.

Meanwhile, Sprig stumbles upon Toadstool and Toadie being suspicious, Toadie drops a coin and Sprig decides to follow him.

Grime let out a deep sigh, “Why is he mayor again?”

“Because when anyone else runs, they almost get fed to a plant.”

“We’ve only done that once!” he looks to the Plantar children, unsure which said it

A montage shows of the toads doing their job and Anne tries to give the frogs back their items.

Everyone at Wartwood smiled, with how they treated Anne, they really don’t deserve her.

Anne: I don't know, guys. This whole thing feels [grunts] wrong.

Bog: The law's the law, Anne. It can be tough, but this kind of work needs to get done.

Fens: Yeah. Needs to get done. Stuff, gotta get it done.

Anne: I...guess that makes sense. Who's next on the list?

Bog: Eh, some nut named Hopadiah Plantar.

“I mean that’s kinda fair, he is poor.” Olivia said.

Anne: Oh, crud. Bog, that list has to be wrong. I know that frog. He's totally honest.

Bog: Anne, the tower didn't get any taxes, okay? And if we didn't get the money, then where is it?

The scene changes to Toadstool and Toadie hiding the taxes in the ugly statue.

“Oh that explains the statue.”

“Jeez, I hate corrupt leaders.” Dr. Jan deadpans

“You say it like there are leaders that aren’t corrupted,” Marcy replies

Sprig founds out and reveals himself, causing him to get chased.

Hop Pop: Like I said, I already paid my dang taxes. You can't come in here, and that's final.

Bog: I don't like your tone, frog. Or did you forget who you're talking to?

Anne: Bog, I am telling you, he paid his taxes. He... He made me watch.

Flashback to Hop Pop teaching Anne about taxes, much to her boredom.

Anne shudders at the memory.

“You poor soul.” Sasha teases.

Marcy lifts her head and gives  a small teasing smile.

Anne finally has enough and stands up to Bog and his friends, impressing and inspiring everyone in Wartwood.

Anne: All I wanted was this town's respect. But just because these people treated me crummy doesn't mean I'm going to do the same to them. I'm done with this. I don't care if they've broken the law. You can't treat people like this!

She took off the badge and slams it to the ground.

If it was respect Anne is looking for, she has pretty much everyone’s in the rooms.

Bog gets disappointed and tries to kill her, but Anne escapes and he slams the hammer at Fens’ foot.

“Okay, the traitor thing is true.” Grime says.

“Yeah, we figured as much.” Anne says.

“One time!” Sasha and Grime shouted.

Many people really don’t want to know the context.

Anne tries to fight them off, but Bog got her weapons away from her and Fens hits her arm.

“Anne!” Sasha tightens her grip on the girl in her lap and Marcy pulls her into a hug too.

Her parents are almost immediately in front of them. Suddenly she feels her face burn as it hits her that she’s on Sasha’s lap, she motions to the blonde she needs off, and Sasha thankfully gets the message as she shows her parents her arm, “I’m fine, see,” she moves her hand showing she can tap all her fingers and move her wrist and elbow. The pain from doing so is easy to hide even now, it mostly set right.

“It’s okay. It’s all healed.” Anne says.

Marcy frowns, she noticed it here and there, Anne favoring her right hand, she knows Anne is left handed. Anne’s lying again, isn’t she?

Anne gets cornered but gets saved by Wartwood. Completely outnumbered, the toads surrendered.

Everyone nodded in approval, they were getting tired of Anne getting treated like shit and it’s about time they came around.

Sprig reveals the truth and everyone found the taxes, causing them to glare at Toadstool.

Mrs. Croaker: You no good son of a slug!

Toadstool gets chased out of town. The town got their stuff back and Bog drives away, disappointed at Anne.

Wally: Three cheers for Anne, defender of Wartwood!

Sasha freezes and tenses at that, Defender of Wartwood, that's what she’s trying to live up to, until Anne comes back. Even if she’s trying to be better is she really good enough to take Anne’s place even temporarily? Is the entire rebellion her trying to take control again? She sighs softly, some part of her wanting to ask Anne but after betraying her, even if she could tell her everything, did she deserve comfort, would Anne actually comfort her? Or confirm her worst fear.

She lays her head on Anne’s shoulder, reaching over and grabbing Marcy’s hand, the youngest looks at her and squeezes tightly, giving her a smile.

The episode ends with everyone trying to sign Anne’s cast.

Sasha frowns, “That’s what it takes for you guys to give anyone new a chance, throwing themselves into danger?” She glares at the Wartwood residents.

None of them look their commander in the eye as the next episode starts:

Prison Break

Chapter Text

By now, the titles are just a guessing game to everyone.

“All your crimes finally caught up to you, huh?” Marcy teased. Anne rolled her eyes.

“Oh yeah, so many they threw me in jail, I had this really cool fight scene

“No offense, but your government sucks. If Boonchuy gets arrested, we’re probably the ones who’ll do so,” Mr. X scoffs.

Olivia nodded, with what she’s seen and heard so far, that’s fair.

“I appreciate you saying if, because I’m going back and you will not stop me,” Anne looks over her shoulder at the FBI agent.

“You little,” He moves to get closer to the girl

“I wouldn’t,” Yunan warns, a smile showing off her sharp teeth, “I’ve seen them all fight, she’s the one that scares me.”

The agent sits back down 

“Wait, isn’t Sasha in prison?” Maggie asks.

“This is what a month, month and a half after we got there? That’d be around when I got out.”

Anne’s torn if she’s happy that this episode won’t be about her or worried, she looks over to Marcy.

The voice starts talking.

“If you guys would stop talking I could start the episode. You will be watching a theme song takeover before the episode starts.”

Oh, so this is Sasha’s debut.

The opening starts out the same, but this time; it shows Sasha waking up near Toad Tower.

Sasha: I showed up here in this swamp with all these nasty weird toad dudes.

Sasha: Their boss Grime threw me in jail with only bugs for food!

“Don’t be dramatic, some of those were fruits and vegetables.” Grime says.

“You still add bugs in them.” Sasha grumbled.

Sasha: But then I helped fight these monster herons and taught Grime to be a charmer.

Hop Pop and a majority of Wartwood froze.

Sasha: I gave up despairing.

Sasha: Coz Grime made me lieutenant, with this dope armor.

“I stand by, I like this armor more than the previous ones.” Marcy says, barely hiding her blush.

“Yeah, I’m with Marcy. You’re hot- cutter in this armor.” Anne says, not looking at the other two, her face feeling warm.

Sasha blushed at the compliments. Suddenly very aware they’re leaning on her.

“Can you three not? I would rather not vomit right now.” Sprig jokes, mostly.

Anne throws a pillow at him.

Sasha: I trained the toad army , I overworked them till they cried!

“Wait, is that us?” Anne asks, as she narrows her eyes at the screen.

“Come to think, weren’t we being chased by a chickalist in our opening?” Sprig asks.

“You mean to tell me, that all this time; we could have just run into each other?” Sasha asks. This is so ridiculous, just what is their life?

Sasha: Every morning I would teach them tai-chi and do frog jumps till it hurt!

Sasha: All the toads adored me!

“That’s a bit of a stretch.” Toadstool says.

Sasha: We even made these custom T-shirts!

“How big is your ego?” Maggie snarks.

Sasha glares at her, completely embarrassed at how she used to be back then. Maybe her wish to take the attention off Anne was one she didn’t want to take the weight of.

Percy and Braddock shake their heads, some things never change.

Sasha: I got my own palace!

“This is getting ridiculous, just how much of this is true?”

Sasha just sat there quitely, face red while Anne and Marcy giggled.

Sasha: With this much-improved cuisine!

Sasha: Now the toads all treat me like their queen!

Anne doesn’t know if she should be pissed that Sasha got lucky or laugh at how cute and embarrassed she is right now. She looks up at the blonde, 

The episode starts with the soldiers having a party.

Grime sighs while Percy and Braddock both blush.

“Toad parties were always wild.” Sasha laughs.

“I… should have been able to figure out you’re a child.” Grime says.

Sasha just looks at him in confusion.

They kept partying until Grime walked in and the room went silent.

Out of fear, the toads tried to be proper for him.

“How did he go from evil to cute?” 

Sasha starts laughing as Grime stutters.

“I’m not cute!”

“But you are soft,” Sasha smirks

Grime: So, these are the valley's strongest warriors. Pathetic! Wait, hold on. Is this guy seriously wearing his breastplate as pants?

Soldier: Uh, it won't happen again, sir.

Grime: No, it won't. Take him to the pain room.

The soldier begs to let him go but they ignored his screams.

“Most of the toads in the pain room are softies.” Sasha pointed out.

“Not like we could do anything else.” Percy says.

“What do you mean?” Molly Jo asks.

“Toads can only really be soldiers or politicians, nothing in between.” Stumpy answers.

“Let me guess, Andrias?” Anne asks.

“Not legally ,” Olivia says slowly.

“Socially on the other hand, Newts refused toads and frogs from studying anything else in a more formal setting.” Grime says.

Grime: I'm sure you've all heard frogs in the valley are getting unruly. They're questioning our authority. Some towns have even stopped paying their taxes. And do you know why?

“The racism is so strong.”

Soldier: Maybe they, I don’t know, forgot?

Grime: No, you imbeciles! You’ve all gotten soft!

“So is the stereotyping.”

Grime: To get this valley under control, I need warriors who are fierce, cunning, and above all, ruthless!

The next scene shows Sasha squashing a bug.

“Of course.” Anne deadpans. Marcy giggles.

“Like father, like daughter. Am I right?” Marcy teases.

“Not my dad,” Sasha grumbles covering Marcy’s mouth to stop her laughing, “Did you just lick me?” she yells, wiping her hand on her pants as Marcy laughs some more.

Marcy sticks her tongue out at her friend

Grime frowns slightly at Sasha’s words.

Sasha: Get your own food, you dumb bug.

Percy comes in with her food. Sasha encourages her to play his act, which he did.

Sasha: Whoo! Wow! Get it, toad! That was legit, Percy. Honestly, you're wasting your time here as a guard.

Sasha smiles sadly, she misses the good old days. Before Percy and Braddock left the rebellion. Before she made them leave.

Percy: You know what? You're right. Thanks, Sasha. I can't wait to see the look on Grime's face when I tell him that I'm—

He bumps into Grime.

Grime: Tell me what?

Percy: Uh… That I quit and always hated this job, bye!

He ran away before Grime could even think about chasing him.

Sasha: Hey there, Grimesy! What's that, like, the fifth toad I've talked into leaving this week?

“That explains so much,” Braddock says.

“Of course you were good at that Sash,” Anne whispers.

Grime: There’s plenty more where that came and far more loyal than Percy!

Sasha: Are you sure about that? You’re not exactly Mr. Popular around here.

Percy shuddered, he did not miss the old Grime at all.

Grime: Enough! Now who-

Sasha: Sent me? No one. How'd I get here? Don't know. What do I want? To find my friends and go home. Haven't we been through this enough?

Marcy frowned. Was she really the only one who didn’t get mistreated by the amphibians, she pulls Sasha into a hug, hiding her face against her neck, “I’m so sorry, I never meant anything like this. I’m so so so sorry.” half the words Sasha doesn’t so much hear as feel against her skin.

Sasha shakes her head, holding Marcy close as Anne watches them both. Sasha smiles softly and offers a free hand, when Anne grabs her hand she squeezes tight.

Grime tries to interrogate her more but Braddock came in trying to warn him about something.

Braddock: Oh hey, Sash~

Sasha: Braddock! Hey girlfriend, how’s the gardening coming along?

Grime’s face is identical to his previous one, Sprig laughs at him. Perhaps a bit too loudly as the Toad glares at him.

Grime interrupts them and they find out that there are two herons near the tower.

Every adult in Wartwood got pale. Something several people noticed.

“What’s wrong?” Marcy asks

“There aren’t Heron fights all the time in the valley but when they do, it’s pretty devastating Mar,” Anne whispers softly only Sasha and Marcy hearing, “Lots of death.” 

Unfortunately, Percy was too loud and got the herons’ attention towards the tower.

The humans laugh at the timing while the frogs get paler at every second.

Felicia grabs Ivy and pulls her into a hug. Ivy tries to wiggle away.

Sasha: Oh wow, this is serious.

A heron breaks into her cell.

A few humans laugh at the timing. But they stopped when the frogs started panicking.

Anne rushes over to Hop Pop, hugging Sprig and Polly like they’ll disappear out of his grasp, the younger frogs wiggle in his tight grasp. The humans, toads and newts looked around to see several other frogs just crying and hugging their children.

“What’s the big deal? They’re just herons, and you guys aren’t even there.” Maggie asked and Anne just made a motion to tell her to shut up, glaring and ready to hit her herself if she didn't listen.

“They’re not just herons, they’re the herons!” Hop Pop cried. Anne froze and every Wartwood child got pale.

The others want to ask but freeze at Sprig’s words, “You mean the one that killed our parents?”

“And destroyed Wartwood?

And the kids asked this in the most heartbreaking voice they’ve ever heard.