Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Most days, Sharon loved her job as a helicopter reporter. It was a lot of fun to just sit in one of the choppers as it hovered over everything. But today was no normal day. When there was a bright flash and some flying castle surrounded by robots appeared out of nowhere, it stunned even her!

It didn’t take long for her to shake herself out of her stupor, though. As Kathy got her camera ready, Sharon grabbed her mic in order to report on it right away! But before she could say anything to the camera, a projection of some sort appeared at the front of the castle and began speaking. So all she really had to do was point the mic directly at the source.

As the projection clearly depicted some sort of blue alien confidently declaring war on humanity, the woman’s blood ran cold. He kept her arm steady as she continued to record the audio, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t looking elsewhere. And what she saw made her realize that by the end of this, she may very well be dying in this helicopter! The robots surrounding the castle looked far more advanced than anything on Earth and it was only a matter of time before they’d be deployed.

Before that happened though, two large egg-shaped things were shot out from the castle itself before smacking into the ground below. Kathy pointed the camera down at them on pure instinct while Sharon kept the mic pointed towards the castle. After only a couple of seconds, she was glad that she hadn’t pointed it at the eggs because they burst open to reveal two absolutely gigantic birds that screeched loud enough to make the woman’ ears ring even from there!

Before she truly had a chance to process what was going on, something else caught the corner of her eye. Just barely visible behind the castle, there appeared to be something else hovering around and interacting with a couple of the robots? It wasn’t long before said robots turned their aggression on whatever had caught her eye, so it had to be on their side, right?

Sharon prompted Kathy to turn the camera in the direction of what she was looking at and from there, her coworker got the helicopter pilot to actually go towards what she was looking at. And as they got closer, it became less and less believable. It almost looked like a swarm of bugs attacking the robots, but if she was seeing that level of detail from that far away, then they’d have to be way too big to be real… right?

But as they got closer and closer, that thought just kept on getting reinforced. And eventually, the swarm appeared to break off with a number of robots chasing them down as they went. Except for one, that was. And that one was headed straight for them!

“Brad, MOVE IT!!” Sharon called out to the pilot, but the thing that had been rushing at them got there too quickly and next thing the women knew, there was a massive orange fluffy thing in the chopper with them! They nearly panicked, but knew they’d need to have their deaths recorded and so kept everything up and ready. At least, until they heard an unfamiliar voice.

“Are you two humans okay?” The voice was masculine, but his use of the word ‘human’ indicated that he was also an alien. So the two stayed on their guard until they saw the source. A bright green… salamander? Poking his head out from the orange fluff around him. The clothing indicated his origin being some sort of medieval fantasy, which was so out of place from the robots that it genuinely stunned both of the women.

Normally, the two of them were professional enough to get out of their stupor right away, but then the orange thing started moving on its own and… meowing? As it readjusted and got itself to its feet, they stared in confusion as what looked like a giant moth with a cat head righted itself and stared at them like they were its next meal. The green one seemed to know what they were looking at, because he immediately tried to put their minds at ease.

“Don’t worry about old Sunny here, she’s harmless. And don’t worry, I have no ill will! In fact, I’m on your side!” He announced, startling both of them out of their stupor. And while Kathy got to work making sure this alien’s crash into their helicopter didn’t damage the camera, Sharon got to work questioning him.

“O-okay, who are you then?”

“My name is Tritonio and I am the leader of one of the three factions of The Resistance. You see, despite being from the same world as the rest of us, Andrias has practically destroyed our own world in order to invade yours. Many innocent lives have been taken, so the few of us who remained outside of his slave camps have rebelled. So far, we’ve been able to delay his invasion by a couple of months, but now it seems as though he has pushed through it all regardless!”

“I see. H-hang on just a moment. Kathy, everything good?” She made sure to cut Tritonio off so that he could save his explanation for the camera. And upon receiving a thumbs up from her coworker and seeing the camera being pointed at the green alien in front of them, she readied her mic and also pointed it in his direction.

“Okay, looks like we’re alright on our end. Sorry about being so freaked out, we’re going to get you on air right away here, just a second.” She stalled for the little light on the camera to come on. After a bit of a tense moment, it finally did and she switched into her work mode.

“Coming at you from one of our new helicopters, we’ve encountered someone very unique in all of this.” She turned to Tritonio “So, would you mind repeating what you just said so that everyone can understand?” And from there, the newt just started talking and spilling all of the details. And finally, the woman was able to actually take in what exactly she was looking at.

The moment that she noticed the facial hair on this amphibian though, it was all over for her focus. How in the- amphibians weren’t even supposed to be able to have any hair, right? She could be wrong, as she was no expert on the topic. But she was pretty sure they weren’t supposed to be like that. Remembering back to that one blue one that had made the declaration of war, she realized that either he had a beard or her memory was getting faulty in all of this mess.

But as this salamander alien thing kept on talking and her brain kept on trying to rationalize the situation, she just couldn’t stop wondering how in the heck an amphibian could have a dang moustache of all things…

Chapter Text

Despite the fact that Marcy had gone over Dr. Jan’s textbook so many times, she kept on going back in order to make more and more comparisons between the cultures. This time, she was interested in comparing the textiles that either world created for their people. This was especially after hearing Anne’s account of some human clothing being warped when wet.

Obviously, this had a lot to do with the needs of the different societies at the time. Not to mention that there were multiple human cultures with different needs based on their locations. Some lived in hot and arid environments, so they needed something lightweight that would protect them from getting sunburnt. Some lived in climates where snow was a daily occurrence and so they had to prioritize taking advantage of their warm blooded bodies, like Marcy herself had to do when she and Anne travelled to The Second Temple way back when.

Regardless, there was one thing in common between the two worlds. Most of their clothing was made from either plant or animal sources. At first, she thought about incorporating some of the human level clothing into her own wardrobe, but she always came up short on how waterproof said clothing would be. After a thorough talk with Bernardo about the logistics, they actually came up with a solution!

All they really had to do was weave the different textile types together to make hybridized clothing! It was certainly more difficult than it sounded, but if anyone could do it, it’d be Bernardo. And so, Marcy offered him a grant if he could not only create this sort of stuff, but also find a practical application for it. She wasn’t surprised at all when he had returned the very next day with his first set.

When it came to making completely new sets, the newt liked to hire frogs to model for him simply because they were smaller and so there would be less waste if it turned out to not work as well. And so when Marcy saw this little green frog fully covered from head to toe in a thick off-white outfit that only showed their eyes, she got a little confused. Thankfully, Bernardo was quick to explain.

“I based this outfit off of what the book stated humans would wear in the most arid of environments. Originally, it was to protect their skin from UV rays, but this particular blend is actually designed to trap the moisture of an amphibian’s slime coat and prevent one from drying out in a similar environment. And in order to prevent one from boiling alive inside, it's baggy enough that it can catch cooler winds. I’m considering adding pockets in between layers that can hold some cold water or something of that nature.”

“Hmm… I can see how that would work. And if you were to put something like this underneath a metal armour set, it could help soldiers who need to patrol the hotter environments, like The Dry Swamp.”

“Exactly, your majesty! I do think there is room for improvement, but this is after only one day’s worth of work.”

“Of course. Few great things were built in a day, so I’m excited to see what else you’ll come up with.”

“Yes, I’m quite excited to work more with the new fabric formulas. Especially those unique leather binding techniques I read about, as those could make an amphibian smell enough like a predator that said predator might just leave them alone. That’s something I’ve been working on for a while, but I think that combining the two methods will make outfits like that simply last longer…”

Bernardo continued discussing various new methods with Marcy while Dan decided to see how well he could move around in this new outfit. Much like most of Bernardo’s early works, it was annoyingly difficult to move properly and even see with so much of their body covered. Hopefully he’d be able to redesign this one, as the texture of the fabric was surprisingly nice.

Maybe, if nothing else, fabrics like this could be used for children’s toys as a smooth and sleek stuffed toy fabric. That was if this venture failed, which Dan was pretty sure wouldn’t happen, given Bernardo’s persistence. So while they continued talking, he looked a little closer at the fabric itself and saw exactly what gave it that shiny off-white appearance from a distance. There was the usual undyed yellow fabric that came from the plantlife of Amphibia, specializing in water resistance, but it was literally being crossed with something he’d never seen before.

It didn’t take a genius to know that this was the exact human style fabric that her majesty had suggested incorporating in the first place. He remembered Bernardo saying something about it being made from some sort of plant that was usually kept for grain. Odd, but he wasn't against finding use for what was once considered useless!

Ultimately, Dan couldn’t wait to see what kind of impact this would have on the fashion (or even just textiles) industry!

Chapter Text

“This was an absolute disaster! While you were able to handle it in the short term, what of the long term implications of this?! If her loyalty wavers for even a moment due to the species difference, then what were the last eleven years for?”

“I know it may seem bad, but I know for a fact that Marcy is a rational girl and will listen to reason.”

“And how do you expect to explain everything to her without her loyalty faltering.”

“Simple. I won’t explain everything. Half truths are powerful tools when dealing with children. She knows very well that it’s normal for parents to keep some secrets from their children, what with reproductive knowledge being kept until they’re older. She even knows that many adopted children aren’t told about that fact until they’re older. All I have to do is play off of that normalized withholding of information.

“She’s been traumatized enough that she won’t hold anything against us for not telling her. All I have to do is say that I intended to tell her when she was older and she’ll buy it.”

“‘Us’?”

“You don’t honestly think she’d live her entire life without knowing that you exist, right? She had to learn eventually and I think we might be able to take advantage of her current mental state by introducing you as a way out of the pit she’s found herself in.”

“You’re suggesting that we have her mental state relying on us?”

“Just the promise that she may one day join you, whether we intend to keep it or not.”

“...”

“The promise alone will make her completely disregard her birth species because she’ll believe that she’ll become something far greater over time. And it will cement her loyalty by making her believe that we see her no differently for that.”

“Fool, she’s tied to the gem of wit. She will see right through you!”

“Actually, I’ve already set up our advantage when it comes to that.”

“Explain.”

“Throughout her entire life, I’ve had her prioritize her intelligence and thirst for knowledge. Whether that’s a default personality trait of hers or it’s granted by the gem of wit is unclear, but irrelevant. Regardless, upon being offered a level of knowledge on par with you, she will jump at the opportunity and disregard everything else. Especially seeing how much she trusts me. After all, I’ve spent more time actually interacting with her.”

“You think we haven’t been watching her this whole time? Even when you can not see her, we are still watching. Right now, she is crying to herself in her bed.”

“Exactly. Despite her intelligence, she’s still a young girl. Her emotions can supersede any suspicion she might have. You consistently scold me for understanding emotions better than you, but allow me to show you first hand the advantage my position holds.”

“You do not ‘understand emotions better than us’, you are simply more prone to allowing your emotions get the better of you.”

“If I was truly prone to that, then don’t you think I’d have devolved to a similar state as Marcy’s current one more often? With how often you feel anger towards me, you’re hardly one to talk.”

“You dare question us?!”

“All I’m saying is that I know how to manipulate this situation to our advantage, despite you not seeing a way through this. All you need to do is trust me and my plan. I know Marcy. I know what to say to her. And I know exactly what needs to be done from here on. I simply ask that you trust my plan.”

“Are you absolutely certain?”

“Of course. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be so adamant in my arguments.”

“You’re standing on thin ice, Andrias.”

“I am well aware. But I know how to navigate a minefield. You may see me as an idiot, but that’s only by comparison to yourself.”

“She beat you at Flipwart.”

“Yes, but I assure you that the ability to beat someone at a game does not equate to having more emotional stability. I still have the advantage here.”

“Very well. We will see how you handle this and where it goes. But there is one thing you must understand.”

“And that is?”

“Should you be wrong and Marcy’s convictions turn against us, she may never see the light of day again.”

“Yes, I expect that to be the response in that event. But I know what I’m doing, so those measures will be unnecessary.”

“For the sake of your own pathetic little emotions, you’d better be right.”

“Trust me, Core. Everything will go according to plan…”

Chapter Text

Figuring out how to slither around without being able to see was only the first of Anne’s problems. After Lysil and Angwin led her through the caves down to Proteus, she met with Parisia and got situated. Both of them had rehearsed this conversation in their own ways, leading to it going relatively smoothly. But talking was always the easiest part.

Stripped of her sight, Anne was left to rely mostly on scent and touch. If she were still human, then it’d be hearing first. But this was obviously one of the many ways that olms were different and she just had to get used to it. She also knew that their writing system used heat, so she’d been mentally preparing herself for that part.

In the meantime though, she slithered into Lysil’s and Angwin’s home that they’d apparently only been granted so that they could host her. It was spacious enough that she’d have her own room, which she was grateful for. And after a good meal of… some sort of meat, (she was guaranteed that despite the twins’ history, this meat was definitely not amphibian) she was led to her temporary room.

Upon entering, she could feel that the centre was empty. To her left was a collection of smooth stones with a trickle of water flowing over them. According to the twins, that was not only for adding humidity to the room, but it was also drinkable. And though they didn’t need to clarify that it wasn’t a private washroom area, Anne appreciated the attention to detail regardless.

On the right side of the room, there was a large flat area of some sort of squishy gel. Upon finding out that that was indeed the bed, she began to remember when her human parents took her shopping to get a mattress and she was introduced to the concept of a water bed. She’d decided against one at the time, but if something similar was the standard in Proteus, then she wasn’t about to argue. Given her new size, it was far more comfortable than she’d originally expected.

Finally, the middle of the back of the room sported not only a relatively small storage cabinet, (she guessed that her human form would be able to fit her whole body inside) but also a permanently open window meant for her to slither out of whenever she wanted. Apparently, they didn’t get any pests down there that would warrant closing said window and instead, it would make sure that any odd scents would actually reach her in the event of an emergency. It wasn’t much, but it would do for the three months she would be spending here. After all, she couldn’t reasonably expect them to give her more, could she?

Just as she finished figuring it all out, a yawn escaped her. She was used to sleeping around this time of day, so it made sense. But she didn’t exactly want to fall asleep the second she arrived in a new place like this! That was until Lysil and Angwin revealed that the lack of sun in Proteus meant she could sleep whenever she wanted and it was even expected of her to at least take a nap at this point. So after slithering up to the squishy bed, she laid herself down and dozed off.

After a dreamless sleep, she awoke and stretched. It took her a moment to remember she was an olm now, but at least she didn’t freak out over the lack of vision like she thought she might. Instead, she lifted her head and tried to catch a scent of something. Big mistake! The amount of different complicated smells that hit the girl all at once made her physically recoil and stumble out of her bed with a thump! Before long, she heard the door opening and Angwin’s voice.

“Anne, are you okay?”

“Ah. Yeah, I’ll be alright. Just got a little startled by all the unfamiliar scents, is all.”

“And you’re not used to this kind of body yet, are you?” Lysil interjected. Turning to face their direction, Anne knew she had to be truthful.

“Exactly. But I’ll get used to it in time, don’t you worry. After all, I was raised as a frog and still handled my human form without issue. Sure there are even more things to get used to and it’s all pretty murky, but I’ll learn!”

“Good to hear. Now, as Parisia discussed with you yesterday, you will be doing some lightweight volunteer work around the city. And I think we found the perfect position for someone like you.” Angwin started, letting Lysil finish for him.

“You have experience dealing with younger folks, given that you have two younger siblings. And there’s still so much for you to learn, like how to read our language for example. So we’ve managed to get you a position at a daycare. We already talked to the people you’ll be reporting to and all you’ll need to do is make sure the kids don’t get into too much trouble.”

“Oh. Well, either this’ll be really easy or really hard. No in between. And it’ll all depend on how well behaved these kids are…” She wasn’t about to make any sweeping statements before she even met the kids in question, but she knew how kids could get. Lysil reminded her of something important, though.

“Hmm… you know, you’re technically younger than all of them because of how slowly we olms age.” Hearing that made Anne pause for a moment before responding in a deadpan tone.

“So basically, I’m also one of the kids to be watched.” The silence that followed told her everything she needed to know. At the very least, Angwin was able to say something that helped.

“Kind of? But also not really because your physical maturity adds brainpower that those kids don’t have yet. And again, you’ve got the experience to deal with the younger kids. So you’ll still be trusted with caretaker duties a lot. Now come on, we need to get you to your ‘station’.”

“Okay, alright. Lead the way, then.” She resigned herself to the position she’d been set up with. It wasn’t like she could really argue and there were certainly worse positions she could be assigned to. And hey, maybe these kids would actually be pretty calm. After all, it seemed that most olms lived pretty relaxed lives. She still prepared herself to be proven wrong just in case, though.

But by some miracle, that preparation was completely unneeded! When she was first introduced to the kids, all they did was ask questions about the outside world. She even spent the first week just retelling her whole big adventure and the story of the war to these kids. And it didn’t take long for her to start recognizing the scents of the adults in charge as they leaned in to listen every so often.

It seemed as though she was so interesting to the kids that none of them got rowdy when she was around. And that ultimately led to her other duties (that she hadn’t been informed of) being dropped in favour of her just doing what she was evidently good at. The revelation of that actually made Anne feel far more relieved, thus leading to her leaning more and more into her new job. She even began to learn the olm’s reading language by engaging with the smaller kids who were still learning it for themselves!

Parisia wasn’t very happy with her telling the kids about the outside world, but she bit her tongue for the most part. After all, she was under direct orders from Mother Olm to start allowing the connection between the cultures to flow, and this whole event would be a good place to start with that. Anne noticed that she appeared to be comforting herself with the fact that this would only be lasting for three months, so she decided to just let the criticisms go. Unless said criticisms came from Mother Olm, she figured she was fine.

And when those three months of a weird combination of babysitting and being babysat were nearly up, she got to go and see the old lady. The conversation wasn’t much to write home about, as Mother Olm was just as friendly and welcoming as she’d always been. She only had praise for Anne on her final day in Proteus! And Parisia seemed to be more pleasant towards her on that day as well, even though Anne knew it was just because she was glad that the girl was finally leaving.

Then she was finally led back up to the surface to find her family waiting for her with a cursebane berry. She snatched it up almost immediately, bracing herself for the transformation back into her human form. The physical pain of it was more than worth it when she was able to open her eyes and see her family again! She eventually looked up at the sky, noticing that it was nighttime, and realized that she’d have to go through another adjustment period.

Maybe she’d come back one day, if the olms truly wanted to integrate with the rest of Amphibia more…

Chapter Text

Her shoulder was being shaken. From the outer edges of sleep, she could hear someone hurriedly whispering her name. She shifted, feeling the wet slimy coating of a frog in her arms. But the woman’s voice calling above her and trying to rouse her wasn’t one of them.

“Anne. Anne, wake up! You have to see this!” Groggily, she did her best to pry her eyes open and look while groaning. Once she registered her mother’s face smiling down at her, she asked the most important question she could think of at that moment.

“M-mom, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong, but you’re not going to want to miss this! And you have to hurry!” The excitement in the woman’s voice was palpable “And the frogs too! They’re going to want to see this too!”

She started shaking all of them, just gently enough to wake them up. Of course Polly was the most grumpy out of all of them, but if the woman was this insistent about it being worth it, then she’d hold her tongue for the moment. Once everyone was awake enough to get on their feet, Oum rushed them downstairs and towards the living room window.

Both Bee and Domino were at the window, watching something. But upon seeing the kids (and old man), he made room for them while gesturing at something outside. And when they all looked out there, they were greeted with the sight of something that none of them had ever seen before. Heck, nothing like this even existed at all in Amphibia, as far as any of them knew.

Outside, there were three creatures. All of them were clearly the same species, but with slight differences. Each of them were quadrupeds with hooves at the tips of their feet, meaning they were meant for quick movements. The eyes on the sides of their heads indicated that they were prey animals, alongside their large ears and marked black noses. And finally they all had what looked like a thin layer of brown fur, the two larger ones being a solid light brown and the one smaller one having a more vibrant coat with white spots. Of the two larger ones, one of them had a huge set of antlers sprouting from the top of its head.

“Seeing deer in the middle of a big city like this is practically a once-in-a-lifetime thing. They’re usually only found in forests in the countryside. And even then, they’re so skittish that they run from even the stray scent of a human.” Bee whispered as he explained, not taking his eyes off of them for a moment.

“Wooooaaah…” Sprig awed at them, watching their movements as one of them bent its long neck down to graze on the front lawn. Upon seeing the boy’s interest, the father of the household smiled and started pointing.

“So the one that’s eating right now is an adult female. The word for an adult female deer is ‘doe’. And the one with antlers is an adult male, which is called a ‘buck’. Then the little one is a baby and you can’t tell whether a baby deer is male or female, so it’s just called a ‘fawn’. They lose the white spots as they grow up.”

“Oh, just like how we lose our tails as we get older.”

“Exactly! Now, when a doe sees a human, they usually run away. When a fawn senses danger, they drop to the ground in order to camouflage. But a buck will either run away or attack, depending on if it thinks its family is in danger.”

“That’s so cool!” The boy mused. And despite how tired Anne was, even she had to admit that they were really pretty animals. Polly was wholly unimpressed, though.

“Okay well, this was interesting, but I’m going back to bed now.” The little girl announced before leaving. Meanwhile, Hop Pop decided to speculate.

“Hmm, they’re clearly prey animals. And if they’re so afraid of humans, does that mean…”

“Yes, humans are one of the many things that hunts them.” Oum cut him off with the obvious conclusion “But we’ve never personally gone after them and we’re not personally fans of venison (which is what we call deer meat). In fact, most of the people around here have never done so. And usually, deer know that the humans they see here aren’t actually going after them. They still run just in case, though.”

Just as she was finishing up, the buck turned his head and seemed to make eye contact with some of the family. Everyone stood stock still, waiting for the animal to make the first move. But someone else interrupted first. Anne was the first one to notice that Domino had somehow gotten outside and was actually approaching them.

The doe and fawn looked at the cat and didn’t seem too perturbed. Did they recognize that the cat wasn’t in a hunting stance? Or did they just register the size difference and not see her as a threat? Either way, the fawn was the one to close the distance between itself and the cat, both of them sniffing at each other’s noses before backing up.

“Wow. One of their many predators is a type of big cat, so I’m impressed they seem to be okay with Domino.” Bee mused, watching as the family cat started calmly walking away in order to watch from a distance. Eventually, the deer walked over to the neighbour’s lawn and out of view. And once they were gone Domino left, presumably to come back inside. As the family pulled away from the window, Anne turned to her mom.

“Well… thanks for waking us up in order to show us that.”

“It was really interestin’ ta see one a the things humans will hunt.” Hop Pop followed up “And that the ones who don’t like its meat ’ll just respect it instead…” He said the last part under his breath. Anne then turned to Sprig, curious about her brother’s reaction. He was surprisingly quiet as he muttered.

“I think I just found my favourite Earth animal…”

Chapter Text

Sasha took a look at her face in the mirror. Anne was getting better at makeup, but her little brother was always better at it. Oh well, it wasn’t like she’d get any better if she never practiced! And hey, most people would still say she did an excellent job anyways. She then looked over to where Anne was putting some makeup on Marcy and smiled.

It was so good that they were able to have moments of just the three of them in their human forms. Not only did it make Marcy feel so much better about herself and more generally accepted, but it also allowed Sasha to just relax in her human form without issue. Not to mention Anne’s moment of respite from all of her ambassador work. She’d been doing more and more of that lately, despite the fact that she was only fifteen.

While those two were finishing up, Sasha decided to take a peek at that human history book once again. She’d at least skimmed the whole thing in between all of her own duties, but she still needed to actually sit down with it in order to refresh what she knew. Case in point, she flipped open to a set of pages about ancient human rituals and saw some info that she didn’t remember. And after reading through the passage, she had a great idea!

“Hey guys, I just read something pretty interesting in this book!” Marcy pulled away to listen, revealing the dusty green highlights on her eyelids and half done eyeliner. Meanwhile, Anne paused with her makeup tools still in hand.

“It basically says here that ancient humans used to get small pieces of metal stuck through parts of their bodies as symbols of a bunch of different things. It was called ‘piercing’. Isn’t that awesome?!” Sasha excitedly shouted, but Marcy paled a little bit upon hearing that.

“Actually, that sounds really painful. Why would they do that to themselves?” Before Sasha could try a quote from the book, Anne spoke up.

“Actually, my mom had her earlobes pierced and wore these little yellow fake gem things on them. When I asked her about it one day, she said that that part of the human body has so few nerve endings, that she didn’t even feel it. And when I asked her why she did it, she just shrugged and said that she wanted to look pretty.” Sasha smiled at Anne’s recollection and added onto it.

“And it says here that it used to be used as a symbol of either status or being a part of a group. I’m totally going to get it done! How about you guys? Wanna get it as a symbol of being the only humans in Amphibia?” The other two didn’t seem quite as excited, but upon seeing how widely Sasha was grinning in excitement, Anne spoke up.

“W-well, I’m not sure. But if it doesn’t hurt, then it could be an interesting reminder of my mom as well. What do you think, Marcy?”

“I… I don’t think I want that. You guys are fine to get them done, but I think I’ll sit that one out.”

“Aw, okay. Not gonna try to force you. But it says here that sometimes, only someone particularly trusted would actually do the piercing. If you’re not going to get it done, then would you be willing to actually do mine?” Sasha lied about what the book said there, but that was only because she still wanted to involve Marcy without forcing her to do something she didn’t want to.

“O-oh. I… don’t know about that.”

“Aw, come on. You’ve got such steady hands and I completely trust you! Please?”

“Well… okay, so long as you won’t regret it.”

“Don’t worry, there’s a part here that says it’ll grow back in as if it never even happened if the jewelry is removed for long enough. If I decide I don’t like it in the end, then I can just do that. Sound good?”

“Alright, then. What kind of decoration do you want?” Marcy asked before the three of them devolved into chattering about it for the rest of the night. And two weeks later, Sasha was sat down in front of Marcy and awaiting her new little decoration! After a couple of deep breaths, Sasha felt a little poke on her left ear.

“Oh my gosh, there’s blood. Sasha, are you okay?”

“Honestly, I barely felt that. Keep going, I’m good!” She’d experienced far worse on the battlefield, after all. So next thing she knew, there was another little poke on her right ear and Marcy was pulling away. Sasha gave her an excited smile despite the princess’ nervous look.

“Feels awesome! How do I look?”

“Well… I don’t think it’s perfectly symmetrical, but the colour does look good on you.” Hearing that made her smile and reach for a mirror. And sure enough, the little pink pearls that looked to be attached to her ears gave her whole face a beautiful sheen. She wasn’t the kind of person to admire her reflection, but she had to admit that these looked pretty nice.

“I love them! Thank you, Marcy!” The princess sighed in relief at hearing her friend be so happy with the results. Meanwhile, Sasha began to wonder about what kinds of earrings she could add to her collection. Maybe a pair of gold or gold-looking hoops like she saw in that book? Either way, having a piece of metal sticking out of a part of her body and straight-up decorating it was such a power move! She couldn’t wait to show it off at the next military meeting.

Unfortunately, they fell out the next time she took a potion and when she transformed back, the holes Marcy had made were gone…

Chapter Text

After sharks became Polly’s favourite Earth animal, she’d started looking up more sea life. It wasn’t like she could ever directly interact with these animals because of the salt water, but that just made her think even higher of them. Even when she discovered that a saltwater fish couldn’t live in freshwater otherwise they’d explode, she was still interested.

Every so often, she’d blurt out some random fact about some new saltwater fish she found out about and it’d always be more disturbing than the last. Of course it started with how the goblin shark can dislodge its jaw in order to catch prey, which admittedly wasn’t all that bad. But after a while, it just got more and more unhinged. One of these times, she was talking to Anne about it while her big sister was doing the dishes.

“Wow. I think I just discovered my new favourite.”

“Polly, hasn’t every ocean fish been your favourite when you first discover them?”

“No, my favourite was still great white sharks until now. I was just mentioning other fish because I found out about them and thought one or two things were interesting. But this really takes the cake!”

“I’m not sure if I should be scared or not.”

“Well, it says they’re harmless to humans ‘cause they’re so small and not very smart. But the way they eat is so gnarly! You know how we have to pull our stomachs out in order to get whatever’s in there out of there?” Anne cringed at the thought, remembering a few unsavoury moments here and there.

“Yeah?”

“Well, this fish does that every single time it eats! It pulls its stomach out in order to start digesting its food outside of its body. And then, when it’s dissolved into mush, it swallows its stomach and slurps up the mush.” Hearing that, Anne paled a little bit. But knowing Polly, it made sense why she’d be so interested in that.

“That’s… disturbing…” She saw no reason to lie to her little sister. In fact, she was pretty sure that that was the exact reaction Polly wanted out of that.

“Yeah, that’s what makes it so awesome! They look kinda cute when you don’t know enough about them. Kinda like me! That’s why they’re my new favourite.” The little frog explained. Seeing how her face was lit up in excitement, Anne couldn’t help smiling. She’d have to process all of that info later. But then she realized that there was one bit of information that Polly left out.

“Hey, what’s that fish called anyways?”

“It’s a ‘starfish’. They don’t even look like regular fish ‘cause they’ve got no fins or face or anything like that.” This made Anne stop for a moment in confusion. And after a moment of trying to imagine what the heck Polly might be talking about, the human just sighed and put down the dish she was washing in order to take a look at the laptop screen Polly was staring at.

The laptop had an internet tab open to that famous encyclopedia site with the current page being about these ‘starfish’. And when Anne saw what they actually looked like, she couldn’t help but laugh.

“Th-they-hey-hey l-lo-ho-ho-k like a-ha chil-il-dre-ren’s draw-haw-haw-ing!” She was barely able to choke out a sentence in the middle of her laughter while Polly gave her a mild glare.

“You know, if you look closer, some of them have spikes and protruding teeth.”

“I-I saw-haw. B-but the… the o-others look so-ho… so si-hi-lly!” Anne tried to get control of herself this time, only partially succeeding. Meanwhile Polly just rolled her eyes and went back to looking up more animals. A few minutes of quiet laughter passed for Anne before she got back to her chore.

She knew that the animals of Earth were nowhere near as horrifying as the animals back in Amphibia, but she never expected to see something so ridiculous. And the fact that Polly apparently liked them so much was proof that she was still a little kid underneath all of that lust for violence. That part made Anne smile to herself. After all, it didn’t take long for the frogs in her family to relax into this kind of a life.

With Polly acting like this, Sprig calming down and safely exploring when and where he could, and Hop Pop taking it easier than usual, it really seemed like they were all getting softer. Then again, Earth as a whole seemed to be far softer than Amphibia. It was no wonder that humans in general had a gentler culture… at least, from what Anne had seen thus far. And that extra softness had clearly allowed all of the members of her family to start exploring who they really are.

Ending up on Earth like this was probably the best thing to ever happen to them…

Chapter Text

Another day, another struggle to scrounge up enough clean water to drink in this world. Mylo sighed, wondering if anyone back in Amphibia actually cared enough to remember him or if he’d actually be written off as yet another war casualty like he’d intended. After the rest of his family died in the war, he didn’t want to be around anymore. And yet, he still fought.

He didn’t know what had been driving him, but he just kept on going. Once he was made aware that the rebellion was planning on intercepting Andrias before he went to the other world though, Mylo had an insane idea. It was stupid and reckless, but if he could disappear by just going to this other world (via hitching a ride on one of their moths) and letting whatever fate came for him to happen, then… what? Then what? What was he expecting?!

Somehow, Andrias and his invading forces were actually fought off by the military of this world, the rebellion from Amphibia, and some human with special powers. He couldn’t say he actually understood any of it, but he knew that with Andrias defeated, Amphibia would recover. So then, when they were rounding up all of the amphibians in order to get them back home, why did he run? He scoffed at himself, as if he didn’t have the answer.

There was nothing and no one waiting for him back home, so why bother? He’d just be made to rejoin a society that held nothing for him. No. He didn’t want to have to go back to that. So he ran away and into a local forest in the middle of the city that had been attacked. And over the course of the next month, he slowly made his way out without being noticed. It took travelling at night and getting exceedingly lucky with how he disguised himself during the day for him to get out of there.

By this point, he knew that the scary looking creatures who inhabited this world were relatively harmless. But he didn’t want to be found, damn it! And so, once he saw an opportunity to hitch a ride in one of those robot carriages with a sizeable trunk, he took it and only ditched when they were close enough to a forest that he figured he could disappear into. After all, everyone knew that going into a forest was a death sentence, right?

The problem became evident when he saw what was clearly a heron of this world… and he was bigger than it. He even made eye contact with the thing and it fled from him! That was when he knew that nothing in this forest could or would try to hurt him. Had he truly landed in a softer world than Amphibia? He sighed. At least the forest he ended up in was so big that he’d been there for a couple of years without fully mapping it all out in his mind! It… kept him busy.

That was until one day when he heard a rumble in the distance. His long unused instincts activated, telling him that there was a predator nearby. This was… odd. Normally, when he encountered a creature that’d want to kill him (like that horrid smelling furred monster he saw eating fish that one time), this didn’t happen. He always figured it was because none of the predators here were native to Amphibia. So then… why?

He forced himself to freeze, waiting for whatever this was to arrive. It didn’t take long, as when it got closer, he could hear it moving clumsily through the brush. Until, right in front of him, was the first familiar creature he’d seen since the day he was left behind. A coastal kill-a-moth, just like the one he’d hitched a ride on on the way here. A predator from Amphibia, which had probably been left behind just like him.

Despite the solidarity, Mylo knew that this was a predator. But… after all this time, he’d been wondering what could possibly be in it for him to keep going. And now, right in front of him, was a familiar way out. One final taste of his home world to send him beyond. So he dropped to his knees, closed his eyes, and waited for the inevitable…

…

…

…

Fur. Mylo felt fur being pressed up against his face and a slight pressure on his chest, but no sharp pain anywhere. When he opened his eyes, he realized that the kill-a-moth was actually… nuzzling him? Why?! As far as he knew, they only did that with members of their eclipse. So then why was this one suddenly doing it to him?

Maybe it was homesick and lonely, so it was attaching itself to the first thing it saw that was from its own world? Could that be it? Mylo reached out a hand and rested it in the fur, eliciting a purr from the moth. How could this thing be so lonely that when it met its natural prey, it cuddled up to it? It didn’t make sense to Mylo.

Suddenly, a little dark and wet spot appeared on the moth’s fur right beside his hand. Was it starting to rain all of a sudden? One quick look up confirmed that it wasn’t, so then… oh. He had begun to cry. Why? It wasn’t like he was the homesick one. He didn’t miss his world, he had nothing to go back to! And it wasn’t like he could even go back if he wanted to.

He didn’t cry when his family died to the lasers of robots. He didn’t cry when he was locked away in a labour camp. He didn’t cry when, after he was broken out, some pompous newt dragged him away to the main newt camp where he was arguably even more miserable. He didn’t cry when he ran away from that camp due to how poorly they treated him there. He didn’t even cry when he made the decision to let this world take him. So why now?

He felt weak, leaning into the moth’s face and fur as the tears overtook him and a sob escaped him. Meanwhile the moth reached out with one of its paws and pulled him closer, nuzzling him even more. He barely even registered when it repositioned him onto its back and started walking. But by the time he was able to collect himself, he realized that he’d been riding on this thing’s back for a while now.

Mylo didn’t even know where in the forest he was at this point, but he hardly cared. So instead, he just laid back down on the moth’s back and let it take him wherever it was going. That was until he heard a masculine voice.

“There you are, Moffie. Hm? What’ve you got there, baby?” Mylo’s head shot up, his eyes locking with one of the intelligent species of this world: a human. This human was wearing a sleek black suit and matching shoes, with not many other noteworthy features. Up until this point, the frog had managed to escape any human gazes and remain in hiding. But the universe just refused to give him a break.

“Oh. Hey there, I thought all you frogs were sent back to Amphibia when the invasion was repelled three years ago. Did they miss you? And how did you get all the way out here?” The voice was gentle and curious, but more prodding than Mylo was comfortable with. And it had been so long since the frog had spoken to anyone, that it took him a moment to respond.

“I… I didn’t… want to… be found. I… I wanted… to… disappear.” He managed to croak out, shaking as he verbally admitted it. At one point, his voice even cracked as a result of his crying earlier.

“Oh. I see. Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you. And there’s no way to get you back to Amphibia anyways, so nobody’s going to try to send you back.”

“Who… are… you?”

“I’m a government agent known as Agent C and my job is to handle ‘cryptid cases’ and keep everyone calm. Moffie, the overly affectionate moth who found you is directly under my charge. But this whole area is their territory, so I often just let them roam about as they like. As for you, I can see you’re not doing very well. Would you be willing to come with me so that we can give you a health checkup?”

“M’fine, I don’t… wanna be… found.”

“I understand, but we should really make sure you don’t have some sort of infection or parasite. Those kinds of things nearly led humans to extinction a couple hundred years ago. The wildlife in this world might not be that bad by your standards, but it’s the diseases that’ll get you if you’re not careful.”

“I…” Mylo couldn’t figure out what to say. His words were catching in his throat and his limbs felt heavy from all of the emotions that had spilled out earlier. He didn’t even realize that Agent C was approaching until the human had already wrapped his arms around the frog and lifted him off of the moth.

“It’s okay, I can tell you’ve been through a lot. Don’t worry, we’ll get you a checkup and then you can decide where to go, okay?”

“... Okay.” Mylo decided, figuring it was better to just let it happen instead of trying to fight back. And before long, the frog found himself seated and strapped into one of those robot carriages (apparently the straps were legally required, even by the humans in there too, so he didn’t argue) as it softly drove away with him. The inside was warm enough to comfort Mylo and remind him of his family’s old carriage from when he was a kid. He nodded off with even more tears in his eyes.

When he awoke, he found himself inside of a dimly lit room with a different human sitting in the corner. Said human looked straight at him once he began to stir and he began to approach.

“Hey, you awake? You were so tired and dehydrated, that you slept through Agent C bringing you in.” Mylo looked at this new human, noticing the purple suit and bald head as the most standout features. Seeing as this human hadn’t tried to hurt him yet, the frog sat up and made it clear that he was awake and aware.

“There you are. Agent C told me you’re having some trouble speaking, presumably because of how dehydrated you were. We gave you some IV fluids, which should help with that. But he’s only allowed to work on cryptids. I’m the one assigned to aliens, so I took over the case for him. I’m Mr. X.”

The human held out a hand, clearly wanting a handshake. Given exactly what he said, Mylo came to the realization that these guys had to be with the government of this world. The one organization that he didn’t want to find him! But, if he was already here, then he might as well avoid causing an issue. So he reached out and returned the gesture.

“Mylo. My name’s Mylo.”

“Pleased to meet you, Mylo. Now, Agent C told me what little you told him. There are a lot of gaps in the story, but you weren’t in very good shape at the time, so it’s completely understandable that you wouldn’t be able to give your full story. Mind telling me now that you’re here and clearly feeling better?” The human was cutting to the chase, which the frog could respect. So he tried.

“When… when the invasion happened, I came here with the others. I’m no fighter, I wasn’t here to fight. I… I was here to… to…” He started to tear up again, despite his best efforts “... disappear. I… thought I’d get caught under a crumbling building or something. Then I’d h-have an… excuse.”

As he explained, his breath hitched and Mr. X’s expression softened. The human was patient with him, even as he had to gloss over a couple of details here or there. But eventually, he was able to give a general explanation of how he ended up where he did.

“... Thank you for trusting me with your story, Mylo. I’m sorry that you had to go through all of that. Tell you what, we’ll get you all better and then we’ll give you a few options on where you want to go. Then you’ll get to pick.”

“That’s what Agent C promised me too.”

“Makes sense, we’re pretty good friends for a reason. So what do you say?” It didn’t take long for the frog to make his decision. If these ‘IV fluids’ Mr. X mentioned earlier were already making him feel this much better, then it was at least worth a try. He nodded

“Okay. I’ll figure out what I want in the meantime.” Mr. X smiled and nodded at that, making Mylo feel like the human had his back. How long had it been since he was actually able to talk to and trust another living being? If he searched his mind, he’d find that the last time, it was when he was with his family.

The weight of that fact hung over him for the next six months that he was in Mr. X’s care. Apparently, the government agent wasn’t just talking about his physical health when he said they’d get him ‘all better’. He’d been in private therapy sessions with a professional this whole time and after a while, his mindset began to change. He hadn’t thought it would be possible after all this time, but whatever the humans were doing, it was working.

The fact of the matter was that he did disappear from Amphibia. But his life wasn’t over, as he could start again here. Granted, he was limited by the fact that he was the only Amphibia frog on Earth and therefore he couldn’t exactly rejoin the regular society, but he was fine with that. In the end, he was given two options. Either go back out to the woods and live with the moth that found him or stay in the government building under Mr. X’s custody.

Mylo was promised that if he chose the latter, then no experiments would be done on him. They had so much respect for the amphibians that fought against the invasion, that the most they’d ever do was an X-ray, MRI, or ultrasound. And those things were done to regular humans as a part of general health checkups anyways, so that didn’t bother the frog. And with not wanting to rough it in a place that reminded him so much of his breaking point, he elected to stay in the place that he’d begun to heal instead.

Sure, this meant he was basically going to be an office assistant for the rest of his life, but at least it was a life that he wasn’t going to waste…