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magicman111 · 3 years

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A Moth to a Flame - Chapter One

Marcy watched the sun slowly set on Newtopia as she’d done many an evening before. The sharp squawks of the gulls rang through the orange sky. She looked quite the forlorn figure standing by the hotel entrance, the gentle evening breeze that ruffled her cloak underscoring her solitude.

Her eyes remained fixated in the same direction her friend had taken off, maybe in some fleeting fool’s hope she’d change her mind and come sprinting back right into her arms.

Not a chance, Marbles.

Anne was long gone by now. Hopefully, she’d caught up with the Plantars’ fwagon before they reached the city gate. Judging by how quickly she booked it, the odds were in her favor. That girl didn’t make varsity back home for nothing.

Marcy only hoped those sweet, simple frogs knew just how lucky they were to have someone like Anne in their lives.

Sighing, her head lowered, she licked her wounds slowly.

Really? That easy, huh?

Could Anne have made it any more obvious that she wanted to get out of there faster than she did? After they’d been apart for so long, and for a family of farmer frogs whom she’d known for what? Months?

No, don’t do that, she pulled herself up. It wasn’t right for her to be mad at the Plantars. This wasn’t their fault. Sprig and Polly were a barrel of fun at the slumber party, providing you disregarded their life-threatening encounter with the jelly-fish ghosts. Hop Pop, meanwhile, reminded her so much of her own grandpa it was uncanny. They were sweet, decent folk who’d taken Anne in and kept her safe all this time. It was just...

Her lips twisted into a bitter frown. How else was she supposed to feel but a little rejected?

However, was she really allowed to complain when holding her tongue was so normalised for her by this point? Marcy was a people pleaser, she understood that much about herself. Anytime Anne and Sasha got into an argument, she was there to keep the peace and everyone happy. So if Anna-Banana wanted to spend more time with her bumpkin frog family than her literal best friend since preschool, who was she to say no?

The story with her folks wasn’t all that different either. When they pressured her to keep up her studies, up to and including PSAT prep despite it being years away, she did as she was told like a good girl to make them proud, and they were. She hoped they were.

Goodness knows what they must be thinking right now—

Nope nope nope! Don’t go there, don’t go there.

She’d already lost too much sleep at night ruminating over the unspeakable pain she’d most surely put them through, it was the last thing she needed right now. She tried to do the logical thing and focus on the positives instead. That usually worked.

Anne wouldn’t be away for too long. They’d be together again as soon as Hop Pop’s contacts returned the Box to Wartwood and then it was off to the first of the three temples to get those gems recharged. Once that side quest was done and dusted, it was a simple matter of finding Sasha and making their way home.

Looking down, she caught herself wringing her hands.

Home.

That sure was the plan.

I mean... what else are we supposed to do?

“Always sad to see someone go, isn’t it?”

Marcy quickly wiped her eyes and glanced over her shoulder to greet the towering form of King Andrias.

Almost instantly, her mood perked up a notch. He was the one person whom she trusted, more than anyone else in all of Amphibia. Ever since she first landed outside the city walls, he took her under his wings and ensured her smooth transition into this brave new world.

Andrias was without doubt one of the kindest and wisest people Marcy could have ever hoped to meet. He was a true listener, and there were very few you could say that about, her parents included. How often had he been there to lend both an understanding ear and sage advice over games of flipwart?

Games she won more often than not, she wasn’t humble enough not to brag.

It was also he who sent Marcy on the daring missions that would eventually make her the hero of Newtopian society she was today. All because he recognised the value of her talents beyond passing an exam or helping her friends with their homework. No other 13-year-old had their own solid gold statue adorning a city bridge.

She owed this king a debt she couldn’t possibly repay, but one he was far too altruistic in nature to demand.

Then, why did he look so... solemn?

“Come along, Marcy. We need to talk.”

Maybe it was his serious tone of voice or those specific choice of words, but they made the hair on the back of Marcy’s neck stand on end. In an almost pavlovian manner, she corrected her posture and she held her chin erect.

Shoving whatever remaining conflicted thoughts aside, she silently followed Andrias back to the castle like a pilot fish tailing its great white. She was so puny next to this tremendous salamander, he could crush her with a single blow of his fist if he so chose. Not that a gentle, goofy giant like Andrias would even dream of doing such a thing.

So when he was dead serious, Marcy knew better to zip it, listen, and do as instructed.

Their quiet journey took them all the way back to the castle and into the royal throne room, a place she was all too familiar with by now. To enter this hallowed hall was a privilege bestowed only to a select few. For Marcy, it was where she had her morning debriefs over bugachinos.

Instead of going straight up to the throne for their pow wow as she anticipated, Andrias guided her down a small passageway to their left.

When they made their way up to the statue of what Marcy recognised as one of his ancestors, one of the great rulers of Amphibia, they came to a stop. Andrias then gazed down at her with the most serious look she’d seen him give anyone.

“Marcy, before we go any further,” he spoke sternly, “I need to be absolutely crystal clear about something. Okay?”

“Y-Yes, Andrias?” Marcy asked, shivering a little. She did not like being pulled out of her comfort zone, not like this.

“You’re about to enter the most secret place in all of Newtopia,” he continued, now down on one knee and his hand hovering over her shoulder, as close as they could be to eye level. “What I’m going to show you... I need you to swear you won’t share with another living soul. Not to Anne, not to Lady Olivia, no one. Do you understand? I can’t emphasise this enough, Marcy.”

“Of course,” she answered earnestly, trying to sound more confident. “You know you can always trust me, Andrias.”

A ghost of that warm, fatherly smile returned to his big blue countenance.

“Trust is a hard thing to come by, kid, and you’ve gone above and beyond to earn mine. It’s just that I’m not exaggerating here when I say this is a big one.”

Marcy simply placed one hand over his huge index, the other over her heart.

She smiled back at him sweetly, genuinely, “I promise.”

“Very well.”

Nodding in approval, Adrias rose. He reached out, pushing a luminous coral torch upwards.

It didn’t take an encyclopedic knowledge of ‘Creatures & Caverns’ for Marcy to predict that the statue was going to shift to the left next, revealing the spiralling staircase leading to Frog knows where. She probably should’ve been more surprised, but come on, it wasn’t exactly the first secret passage she’d come across in this castle lately.

“Follow me,” was all Andrias said, before he pulled off the same coral torch, then proceeded down the stairs without another word. Marcy followed obediently, unable to ignore the unnerving chill that was now travelling up her spine.

Was it... always this cold around here?

Something about all this just felt so unsettling compared to last time. She couldn’t really explain why; she knew she was safe with Andrias and that he wouldn’t do anything to intentionally put her in harm’s way. It was a gut feeling and that sort of thing bugged a rational person like her to no end.

She tried to take her mind off it by hazarding her best guess as to precisely what he was going to show her. Either she did that or started getting all worked up dwelling on Anne again, which she’d rather not at the moment.

Another secret library, perhaps? Probably not, though she wouldn’t be at all disappointed if it was. Maybe there were forbidden texts about the dark arts hidden away down there. Magic users were incredibly rare in Amphibia these days—Marcy had already searched far and wide—so might this be her chance?

Oh, how the very idea of being able to cast actual magic excited her. Being Chief Ranger of the Knight Guard was a great honor and nothing to sneeze at, but to be a powerful sorceress, one who could communicate with spirits, raise the dead, shuffle the orifices on her enemy’s faces—

Okay, rein those snails in, Mar-Mar.

Her musings were interrupted by a strange noise emanating from below. At first she figured it was just her imagination, but the further they continued their descent, the clearer it became.

It sounded an awful lot like beeping. Yes, that was it. A progressively growing cacophony of bleeps, bloops and chirps, the kind she’d expect to hear from a high-tech supercomputer. Something absolutely alien in a world like Amphibia, she and her friends excluded.

Before Marcy could ask Andrias if he heard it too, she was distracted by the emergence of an orange glow chasing away the darkness below. It was a warm, almost heavenly light that conjured the mental image of a crackling fireplace on Christmas morning, protecting you from the snowstorm outside.

The chill in her spine had by now spread to the crown of her head and the tips of her toes. Her throat tightened up. Beads of cold sweat dripped down her forehead.

What the... Marcy could not say a word, only think.

There was something down there. Something greater than any library, however inconceivable that sounded. Whether it was good or bad was irrelevant to her at that moment.

It called her.

The duo finally reached the foot of the staircase and entered the sacred sanctum.

Marcy’s jaw dropped.

“Woah.”

There were no shelves of books. No ancient Amphibian artifacts. There weren’t even any walls that she could make out from where she stood. Just an apparently endless sea of darkness encompassing a large round platform from which both the enticing glow and the lowkey din of beeps originated.

Marcy resumed taking Andrias’ lead as they stepped out onto the platform, the clink-clank of their boots confirming her assumption it was made of metal. The whole thing appeared more at home on an alien spaceship than in the dungeons of a castle.

Upon arriving at its centre, Andrias knelt down on both knees and, much to Marcy’s curiosity, removed his crown and set it down on the floor. She took the hint by following suit.

Any lingering fears melted away the more she basked herself in the radiance. It was as if the beams were steadily pouring into her body, clearing up her headspace, reducing any tension in her body. She recalled a favored memory from when she was five-years-old, when she and Anne spent a whole summer afternoon by the beach. How the tides would come in and out without fail, washing away the ruins of their sandcastles, the seaweed, one of Anne’s sandles and the teeny tiny baby seahorse they rescued.

Like a nice blank canvas.

Was this a private place of worship? Not according to her expansive studies of Amphibian anthropology. Or maybe it was a place for Andrias to meditate away from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the castle. Seemed a skosh excessive if that was the case.

“Truly captivating, I know.”

Andrais’ baritone brought Marcy back down to earth. She straightened up and tried to refocus herself. They were down here for an important reason, at least she believed they were.

“One can spend hours down here,” Andrias boomed ominously. “Adrift in their own thoughts and... dreams.” The light cast his face in a rather unnerving shadow as he stared ahead into the void. “But I’m sure you know I haven’t brought you here to show off my retreat from the world.” He took a long, deep breath, like he was mentally steeling himself for what he said next, “As much as it pains me to say it, I’m afraid I haven’t been entirely truthful with you, Marcy.”

He produced from his sleeve what appeared at first glance to be two giant pieces of parchment and unfolded them neatly on the metal surface. A closer inspection told Marcy they were in fact pages torn from an exceptionally large book. Judging not only by the size, but the font and format as well, she easily pieced together its origin.

“Are these...?”

“From the book we “found” in the wing?” Andrias chuckled mirthlessly. “Yes. Still kinda surprised you didn’t pick up there were pages missing, but that's not important right now. Please, read.”

The platform provided ideal reading light. Marcy’s ability to read at a 12th Grade level meant she cruised through the text and finished within minutes.

She read it once, then twice. A third and fourth time just to make sure her eyes weren’t deceiving her.

Her bottom began to tremble.

No... Nononono, this... this can’t be right. I-It’s impossible! How in the world can it...?!

No amount of curative rays could unfreeze the blood in her veins. The metaphorical pistons in her brain were firing on full cylinders in a vain attempt to digest this earth-shattering information. For a split second, she thought she was going to pass out.

Desperate, she turned to the stone-faced Andrias to plead for some kind of answer, but she found no words with which to speak. All the personal growth and development that made her Newtopia’s champion had been stripped of her and she was reduced to nothing more than a helpless lost toddler.

A comforting set of giant digits placed themselves under her chin, the same way a father would do for his daughter.

“All this time, I’ve been testing you,” Andrias told her, his voice full of pride. “The games of flipwart, the missions, the “secret library”, even the barbari-ant colony I had lured to the city. I was watching you, studying your every action. With each challenge I issued, you excelled my expectations. You’re an exceptionally talented human being, Marcy, truly worthy of the name ‘Wu’.”

Even if these words were meant to serve as comfort or encouragement, they had only the opposite effect for Marcy. Tears were leaking out the corners of her eyes.

She mustered only a pitiful whimper, “I-I don’t understand.”

“Don’t worry, kiddo,” he promised, “you will soon enough. He’s so excited to meet you.”

“... He?”

Lifting his mighty hand in the air, he thrusted it into the nothingness facing them. Marcy instinctively followed its direction.

“Marcy Wu,” Andrias’ thundering voice resonated throughout the sanctuary, “allow me to introduce you... to my master.”

No sooner had he finished, the whole world started to tremble at Marcy’s knees, throwing her off her balance. A rumbling, mechanical ROAR struck her ears so loud she had to cover them to protect the drums from rupture. Yet despite this sensory assault, she somehow forced her eyes to stay wide open. She needed to face whatever was coming.

Marcy gazed into the abyss.

And the abyss gazed back with all thirteen of its eyes.

Terror. Pure mounting terror overwhelmed every cell of her being. Her pupils shrunk to the size of pinpricks. If her mouth stretched any wider, her jaw risked snapping clean off its hinges.

Everything around her faded into black. Andrias, the platform and its glow, the beeping, all vanished into the ether. All now that existed were herself and those colossal demonic eyes plucked from the deepest recesses of her nightmares, their leer burrowing into her very soul.

Marcy wanted to scream until she coughed up her lungs. Moreso, she just wanted to wake up. This was all a dream, it had to be. A lucid dream that had gone on for far too long. She and her friends weren’t in another dimension inhabited by talking frogs, such a notion was a scientific absurdity. She sure as heck wasn’t a ranger in some anthropomorphic newt army.

Any moment now, her wizard kitty alarm would ring and she’d wake up in her soft, cozy bed. Dad would have left for work by now, planting a goodbye kiss on her sleeping forehead as he did every morning since she was little. Mom would be already making her her favorite congee rice and youtiao for breakfast. Then she would begin the process of packing up her room for the big move to Oregon like a good girl.

Yes, she would even happily do that. Anything to bring an end to this ordeal!

Shhhh

Her train of thought screeched to a sudden halt.

Marcy

It’s gonna be okay

And just like that, as if those were the five magic words required, everything was fine again. No more panic, no more existential terror. Her heart rate lowered to a steady, non-life threatening level.

The tide had risen up and washed Marcy’s mind clean.

Like a nice blank canvas.

What quickly followed was an epiphany of sorts.

There was nothing for her to fear. Once she accepted that fact, the warm sensation from before returned greater than ever, engulfing her in what could only be described as a spiritual hug. She could feel the pair of hands, tender as her own mother’s, caressing her face and flicking away her tears. They even ruffled her raven hair in the same playful manner.

Come to me, daughter of Wu

Let me get a good look at you

Marcy obeyed. Getting down on all fours, she crawled across the nonexistent ground—the laws of physics evidently had no place here—until her face and the eyes’ chief pupil were within inches of each other.

Fresh tears, now ones of ecstasy, trickled down her cheeks and evaporated in the pulsating heat.

“You’re beautiful.”

I know

We’ve gotta lot to talk about, Marcy

And I have a feeling...

You and I are gonna become the best of friends

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citadelspires · 3 years

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P1-Looking at how great your posts on how Anne,Sasha,&Marcy would interact with both the Duck nephews and Team Magic, I thought I may as well do one on them interacting with Owl House kids and add Sprig & Polly in there too to even it out. Who do you think the Calamity trio, Sprig, and Polly would get along with the best individually between Luz, Amity, King, Willow, and Gus? I'd assume Luz with Marcy (both fantasy nerds), Amity with Sasha (both not so good friends and maybe not so good parents)

First off, thank you I'm glad you enjoyed my posts about the duck crew! Secondly, I am so sorry it took so long to get to this ask, given how much I loved doing the stuff with the duck kids and amphibia girls the first two times around, these types of asks are my absolute favorites to get, so I decided to wait till I had the time to really put some thought into it and give it the response it deserves! That being said, lets get to it! (rest of the post under the cut cause wow this is long)

Ok so I do agree that Luz and Marcy would get along splendidly but I am saving Marcy for later because I have plans for her, along with a few factors that lead me to believe there's some interesting fun to be had with another combination. While Marcy and Luz both share the "enamored with another world" aspect, Marcy's approach is to enjoy diving into studies and making herself useful on commanded missions and such. Luz can't study for longer than a few minutes at a time, and while she's always down to help her friends, she's also perfectly content causing chaos in the home of a known criminal. However, there is a character from Amphibia who loves to engage in the daring adventure side of the world of amphibia, diving headfirst into whatever trouble they can find, regardless of how much they do or do not know what they're getting into.

Luz is a perfect match to go on chaotic adventures and have massive amounts of fun with Sprig. Sprig, especially at the start of Amphibia, is always the one dragging Anne along on all kinds of adventures in the wilds of amphibia, and Luz is the driving force behind exploring the boiling isles and finding new adventures and places to see, exciting things to do. Whether Sprig ended up on the boiling isles or Luz ended up in Amphibia, I'm certain one of the pair would immediately ask if there were any cool and potentially dangerous places to explore, and the other would be the first one to take them up on it. Sprig would get the chance to see more of what the people from Anne's world are like, and Luz would get the chance to see a little glimpse of that "PG fantasy adventure" she was looking for in the first place. Overall the two of them would have so much fun together, on that I am certain.

Next up, I will admit there are probably better characters for each of these two to get matched up with, so this is admittedly a bit of the two being leftover, but I do think I can buildup a pretty solid argument for the pairing. Willow and Polly is a strange duo on the surface. Polly is bold, loud, and aggressive. Willow is calm, quiet, and gentle. However I think there's some potential there. I think Willow is a really great person to keep Polly out of trouble, in the hypothetical scenario Polly is let loose on the boiling isles that would be a complete disaster(for the isles, Polly would come out of a fistfight with the entire emperors coven unscathed) unless someone was there to reign her in. At first Polly might be a little reluctant to be looked after by someone who is just another kid in her eyes, but we've seen bits and pieces of Polly where we're reminded that, as aggressive as she can be sometimes, she's still just a kid. She's not immune to love and affection, and I think Willow is just the kindhearted, loving person to help Polly feel a little more okay with not always being the strong brave kid she tries so hard to be. As a little bonus I think it would be pretty great for Polly to think she's got Willow and her softhearted nature all figured out after some time only to be taken completely by surprise by the sudden realization the moment Willow uses her magic that "oh hold up this girl is insanely powerful." To be honest that might be a pretty great experience too for her to see that power comes in many shapes and forms. (A lot of the people who are able to fight in amphibia are more agressive about it than willow is so it would be new for polly). This goes double if Willow meets Polly in Amphibia because I mean have you seen how much foliage is in that world? Dear Lord Willow would be a god.

(it is at this point that I realize how long this post is gonna be, maybe I should go put a cut up there somewhere)

For the third pairing I will now reveal where I decided to send Marcy. I would absolutely love to see interactions between Gus and Marcy. Just imagine it. I would argue that Gus is the most curious and inquisitive owl house kid, as well as the most inclined to actually be constantly studying new things instead of jumping right into them. Gus is a dedicated investigator (perhaps too dedicated) and Marcy can absolutely get behind that. Beyond that I think Gus would lose his mind to find another human in the first place, let alone one who can probably recite all of human history off the top of her head. Meanwhile with Marcy, she would be absolutely fascinated by everything and everyone in the boiling isles, and I can just imagine right now that every time she had a new question she'd pose it to Gus and Gus would be like "I... I don't know. *excitedly* I don't know! Let's go find out!" cue the two of them rushing off to investigate:tm:. Also! More than anything else i want Marcy to help provide suggestions to Gus on how to improve/expand his tunnels under hexside because I NEVER FORGOT THE TUNNELS.

With only two pairs leftover y'all can probably guess who's going with who. Unless you can't that would also be fair. I am kinda throwing a curveball with Sasha's I suppose, but I think it actually works out pretty well. Sasha and King have incredibly similar ideas about just about everything. While I think initially King would try to order Sasha around and it would get on Sasha's nerves severely, once that toned down, the two of them would get along really well. Sasha wouldn't see King as a threat due to his size and overall lack of power, and King would just continue seeing Sasha as a very strong pawn, though not out loud so she doesn't yell at him. I mean, we've seen what King would act like provided he became a teenager and it's honestly pretty in line with how Sasha would take over and be in power. I can absolutely see the two of them conspiring to run the whole isle, whether or not those plans ever actually come to fruition, I think she'd develop a soft spot for him.

And finally, I think there's a lot of untapped potential with Anne and Amity. While Anne is more coming from the past of the person who got pushed around and Amity is more the one who did the pushing, the two of them have more to bond over than it would seem. The core concept at the depths of each of their characters, is a chance for them to finally figure out who they are and what they want to be. With Anne it's been Sasha's presence and her need to be socially connected at all times that drove her to have a messed up view of friendship (friends are there to do stuff for other friends, like an exchange for their love), and the feeling she should just be quiet and let everything happen to/around her. With Amity it's the constant pressure from her parents to let them define her along everything she does and all of her relationships. Both Anne and Amity are in a place where, after spending so much time missing out on the chance to form their own identities and become their own people, they're finally starting to realize they can decide who they are. They're finally going to find themselves, and it's gonna be beautiful.

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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Jake’s Reviews: Amphibia: Quaraller’s Pass and Toadcatcher

On this week’s episodes, Sprig and Polly won’t stop sibling arguing forcing Anne and Hop Pop to leave them on the side of the road to figure it out.. or else. Either way the fighting stops so good times. Meanwhile Sasha and Grime are both reeling from the end of last season with Sasha burying her feelings wide and deep and Grime sinking into a pile of trash, junk food and depression.. so he’s basically become me then and both must rise out of it when the Newts send someone to collect him. We’re on the road to Keith David, come on inside after the cut. Also in more serious stuff suicide trigger warning since.. well the finale of season 1 and all.

And we’re back.. and this time on the actual day! What a concept.. I kid of course I had good reason last time but it’s still nice to get this out when people will actually care.

Quaraller’s Pass

We open with Anne and Hop Pop driving the Fwagon, and yes i’ve given up and called it that i’m not made of stone, and remarking about the fact their halfway to newtopia and it’ll only be another two weeks.. a nice meta joke that actually gets to land this time due to the show getting to air week to week for a change. In fact things have gone smoother than Hop Pop thought though both would change one thing: Sprig and Polly have been fighting non-stop.. entirely off screen. Ugh. This annoys me for two reasons: 1 we don’t get an actual on screen scene of them fighting to properly set it up and 2. they’ve been just fine up to this point. Now I will grant shit happens while we’re not looking in shows, that’s fine, life happens and we can’t see every second of characters lives.

Steven Universe for instance, while falling into forgetting to show us important stuff too sometimes, did this really well in season 5: While the Steven and Connie sepearation arc is a mixed bag, to be sure, they did use the fact Steven couldn’t use lion to check on lars fo ra few weeks well, and by the time we saw him again, he’d gone from hiding with the rest of his newfound friends in the catacombs of homeworld to having not only stolen one of homeworld’s best ships, but having a rivalry with the ships previous owner and having fought her several times, as well as he and the off colors both taking several levels in badass. It was a nice way to speed up things with Lars, as with this probably being the last season as far as the crew knew they didn’t have time for a full episode of lars getting off homeworld, and was a really nice twist when it was revealed and good character development for Lars, showing that seperated from his old baggage and with his self loathing having gone down, just what Lars was capable of. Here though? It’s just a lazy excuse to have a fued episode. Like the above it is plausable and it’s not a stretch that two siblings would argue nonstop on a road trip. Having an older brother and having been on several your going to fight eventually. Close proximity mixed with lingering tension will do that. The problem here is.. it’s just not in service of anything new or intresting. WIth the above example, the offscreen movments put lars in a new an dintresting place.. and then contrasted it when he started freaking out upon finding out Sadie had gotten a new intresting life herself while he was gone. Here it’s just “Oh wow they’ve been fighting and it’s not funny aside from one brilliant gag we’ll get to” and leads to the obvious conclusion. I don’t expect a huge character thing but I expect more comedically and character wise from this show. So yeah the two are fighting and bring it outside as they apparently tend to do which, credit where it’s due, is the second funniest gag of the episode, as the two do impressions of each other.. by which I mean Polly and Sprig’s voice actors do the voices for the impressionss, so Sprig’s voice is coming out of polly’s body when she does an impression of him and vice versa. It WOULD have been nice to see the voice actors do the impressions themselves, but it still works on sure surrelaness and on both sides acting obnoxious as polly yells in hop pop’s ear and sprig keeps punching anne. Naturally both , like the audience, want this to end already and faking his death won’t work again.

Thankfully Hop Pop soon finds a solution: Quarallers Pass, an upcoming pass that works to end fueds and force qualring travel companions to work together.. and it dovetails into the wagon trail so Anne and HOp Pop aren’t just leaving the other half of their family to die. So yeah Hop Pop dumps the two out of the wagon, explains it and the dovetaling thing I just mentioned and when the two start obnoxiously fighting again, he and Anne just leave em. We do get another good bit though as Anne leaves her phone with Sprig to call her, only to realize they only have one phone and sprig has no idea what she wants him to do. We only see anne and hop pop again once before the finale, with Hop Pop unable to take the silence as Anne enjoys the peace.. until Hop Pop makes the mistake of asking her if she has a boyfriend back home and she responds apporiatley.. but literally kicking him out of the fwagon, and wordlessly suggesting he let that one marinate. I mean.. ther’es no unvierse where that went well, including the one where she said “Nope, Girlfriends” before doing it and let the obvious implications of that given how this series started and who she’s hoping to see soon sink in.

But yeah the episode goes about how you’d expect, the two fight, then find an obstacle, as the pass is set up to force them to work together, which they do, and the two bond again and enjoy being a team. Because i’ts an effed up world but it’s a two player game. They have a thankfully breif song nad end up finding the exit blocked by a painting, and go into a cave, then fight again and yeah.. this episode is very slight and the laughs mentioned above are the only ones for miles. We do however get another small saving grace for the episode as the two each find a monster wnatin got eat them only to discover it’s ONE beast, split down the middle, a blind eel worm thing that can’t see but it can hear them. The two then manage to escape it and hide and the two eel heads bigger, with Sprig and Polly realizing that’s annoying before using their super vintrloquist skills to escape. If this summary is breif that’s because it’s just.. I really can’t think of many jokes because this episode annoys me though the monster design IS cool and a neat concept, it’s just wrapped in an otherwise weak episodes. The two escaape, deciding to call truce and hug. Awww. Soon after Anne and Hop Pop arrive with Anne not carring if they passed as she’s been in the middle of a lecture on romantic relationshisp with hop pop.. a fate worse than death to be sure, and end sthe episode shoving him off a cliff when he brings up the boyfriend thing again as he dosen’t learn. The end. Final Thoughts: As you can tell by how I tried to get through it as fast as possible this time around, I REALLY didn’t like this one. Ther’es a few good gags and an intresting monster as the show is still really good even on it’s off days.. but otherwise it’s just really weak. I HOPED like last week a seemingly benging episdoe would be good but it’s just yoru standard “two characters sudeenly have beef” and getting into sibling rivalry would’ve been fine.. if they hadn’t DONE THIS ALREADY with the movie night episode last season, which was far more intresting and had a solid reason for htem fighting: Polly always gets what she wants and SPrig’s tired of caving to be a good big brother. its a MUCH stronger conflict than “siblings fight sometimes’ hwich they do and would on a road trip, but sometimes realisim dosen’t mean a stories GOOD or should be told, it just means we get two cahracters annoyingly bickering when not teaming up for 5 minute,s and one or two good gags stretched over a very thin 11 minutes, not helepd by it being RIGHT before a far more important and presumibly intresting episode. It’s just.. forgetable, slight and not very good. I coudln’t even find many jokes to make out of it out of a combination of lack of any good material and me just not wanting to dwell on this nothing of an episode for long outside of the great bits of Anne and Hop Pop.

A really weak episode with some great gags and a waste of a great monster idea. It COULD have been used to have them quarrel, but even siblings who fight over the littest thing still fight over something other than the minor annoyances and a little more substance from a show that’s usually better about providing it would’ve been ncie. Just.. a frustratingly bleh episode.

Toadcatcher: Onto our Main Event and the reason the previous episode was even more insufferable. We catch up with Sasha mid-training montage, and naturally given what we saw in the finale she’s swift as a coursing river, with all the force of a great typhoon, the strength of a raging fire and the mystery of the dark side of the moon.. which is to say not a lot. We all know it’s where Cyclops put his house.

Of course what starts out sorta inspriing ends up.. kinda disturbing as she’s set up training dummies of the plantars and destroys all but one easily and angrily... the last one of course being Hop Pop.. maybe she sees him as a grandpa figure or feels bad about i’m just fucking with you of course it’s Anne. She does get her at sword point. but not before flashing back both to Anne taking her on, and to her own attempted suicide. And already this episode is really engaging just on this one scene: We see WHY Sasha hasn’t reformed overnight and it makes sense: The last time she felt like that, realized the weight of her actions and felt guilt for how she treated Anne and the Others.. she nearly took her own life.. to save them sure, but she still just couldn’t take the sheer weight of it because again 13, and because while Amphibia MIGHT have therapists, she has no acess to one. She probably feels if she lets herself feel like that, THINK about her actions and THINK about what she’s done she might not make it. IT’s a REALLY sobering thought and a really dark place for me to go.. but it’s the place she’s in, lost.

As a rap musical version of George Washinton put it “I know you have dreams of fighting and dying like a martyer. Dying is EASY young man, living is HARDER. “ It’s one thing to go out in one big gesture, clear away all the things you’ve done, and be done with it.. it’s another to wake up the next morning and realize your still here. She Ra also dealt with this recently with Catra doing largely the same.. sure she didn’t DIE or nearly die, but she was brainwashed, nearly lost herself and then was nearly killed out of spite. It’s the same principal: neither expected to come back, and both have to deal with it. And as I said Sasha is fucking 13. Grown adults can barely deal with tis sort of thing and sometimes they really can’t. How the hell is a child supposed to cope? SO she copes unhealthily, burying her guilt, seeing her attempted saviors as enemies and blaming them. If Hop Pop hadn’t stood up, if they hadn’t taken Anne for her they’d be gone, she and Anne would be happy and Grime would still be in top shape and Sasha.. she woudlnt’ be FEELING guilt or derpession or rage or all this complex feelings. It’s their fault, not hers not grimes not anyone elses. When it’s NOT that easy, it’s not that simple and it’s in now way their fault. And it’s shown by the fact that unlike with the Plantars , who she barely knows and can demonize easy.. she can’t with Anne. Anne’s her best friend, she loves her.. she can’t just.. make her a bad guy because she’s on a diffrent side or demonize her defying Sasha when even if she wont’ admit it Sasha know she was wrong. It’s why I ended up liking this directoin: Change is hard and you have to WANT it for it to stick, and Sasha’s in no mental place to want it right now. She just , much like Anne, wants to get back to some form of normalcy and try and bury it down.

But with Toad Tower gone things arne’t normal as seen when Sasha calls for Grime to see how she did.. and he’s not there. Grime is instead in a nearbye shack having basically turned into me: a depressed blob of a person binging tv and eating copius amounts of junk food while wondering where time and his life has gone. Okay maybe not the last part but yeah. Also in a nice continuity odd he’s binging on Suspcion Island, the delciously over the top , though given Riverdale which as I mentioned in a previous amphibia recap, yes really, was the show where Archie got mauled by a bear and lived with little to no scars after fleeing to Canda to avoid a cult based around a d and d knockoff and a drug called jingle jangle. I mean when that’s the reality of teen drama these days they only have to crank the knob up by so much. But yeah Grime’s in a really bad place, can relate obviously, and it’s not what I expected: I expected in grand villian manner for him to have some evil plan and still be corrupting sasha and what not.... but this is actually better. Instead he’s just done, and just lazing about despite Newtopia putting a bounty on his head.. also revealing that he was given the Captain job by them which is all kinds of worrysome for obvious reasons, but it’s a neat twist, revealing the toad’s were simply used by the Newts as a tool to hold down the frogs. Sasha TRIES breaking him out of it by having percy and braddock stage an attack.. but gives up when it’s clear Grime is just out of fucks to give and not moving from this chair. Nope. Not getting out of this chair. He actually takes it well though, as he’s not only apparently on better terms with the two, but even invites them to watch tv, though Sasha quickly puts the kibosh on that and sends the two into town for suplies.. which really isn’t that bad and they clearly are still happy about it.. I Mean their a brand new couple and the last time they got alone time was when Sasha passed out trianing in the woods and that was ruined when Grime walked in on them during and asked to watch and no one’s talked about it since. Sasha tries to convince grime to attack the frogs and get his old self back on track.. but he points out that most of their army abandoned him during his downward spiral, and they are in now shape to go on an authritarian rampage and Grime is sure he can handle whoever newtopia sends after him.

In town we meet our newst antagonist: General Yunaan. Scourge of the sand wars, defeater of Ragnar the Wretched, and the youngest newt to ever achieve the rank of General in the great Newtopian Army, who does that every time she meets someone new and is annoyed no one around her knows about any of that and just wolverine claws a plate in half to intimdate the dishwasher, but gets nothing.. but WE get reactions from the various townies who reveal that Grime si famous for being a toad who rose from poverty and squalor as a gladiator to glory as a captain. It’s an intresting wrinkle and adds to his backstory: he puts on airs of sophisticaion so much because he came from nothing, and brutally fought his way and explains his lack of people or leadership skills: He was given a simple post intemdating the local helpelss townsfolk for beign good at punching people for the delight of the 1%. They don’t give you managment classes in gladiator arena’s.. at least not since that lion ate his whole class. Lucky for her Braddock and Percy are taking some time for themselves to have a meal and their first date in weeks probably and loudly talk about Grime because they aren’t exactly compitent on a good day. Yunnan tries getting it out of them, feigns giving up when they transparentntly lies, then hides in the ceiling nad finds out Grime’s position when the two naturally blab the minute they think she’s gone because while their sweethearts and I hope they have a long and happy life together, their loyal not compitent. Sometimes you gotta pick one or the other. It’s why Megatron keeps starscream around: He’s not LOYAL, but he can be compitent in the right continuity.

Back at the camp, which we now know is an abandoned mill, Sasha tries to light a fire under Grime.. when Yunann approaches.. and interputs her title schtick to wonder if that’s really grime, which he confirms and she confirms she’s there to kill em. Sasha isn’t impressed wondering why a general dosen’t have an army behind her.. but she gives a slasher smile, cuts down the trees and what not around her with no effort, and says “they slowed me down’> Bad.. ass.. she really is this universes wolverine.. and as such Sasha decides to super run away because Grimes in no shape to fight and she dosen’t want to get snkited in the kidneys. The two go on the run, with Sasha once again understandably complaning about Grime’s lack of skills, even if she does keep up with her decently. Grime however, decides to push back this time and tells Sasha to at least admit the real reason she’s buried herself in training. Sasha TRIES to wave it off as just being about loosing the biggest fight of her life.. but Grime sees right through that bullshit.. she’s not mad about loosing the fight, any good warrior especailly grime himself knows one lost battle dosen’t mean the war.. she’s mad she lost Anne. That Anne defied her and that their friendship will never be the same again, if there’s one left to save. The two are stopped by a waterfall, and Sasha’s prepared to stand and fight.. while Grime refuses.. not out of cowardace or due to being out of shape but to protect HER. It really shows his saving her at the end of last season wasn’t just saving his best weapon.. he’s grown to genuinely care about her like the daughter he never had because he took one too many shots tot he sugarlumps in the arena. Here’s an honest reinactment of that.

youtube

I still don’t know why he dove in crotch first. Sasha refuses though revealing she’s not just training to swallow her feelings.. she’s doing so she’s strong enough to protect the one friend she has left: Grime. I’m as shocked as Grime is honestly, as I genuinely thought she was just using him for her own benifit.. but she cares about the guy. It also adds a nice wrinkle to things as it’s one thing for her to leave an an asshole who needed a good pawn.. it’s another for the two to be every bit the family Anne and the Plantars are. She can’t just.. walk away from him and he can’t do the same. It’s not easy and it makes Sasha reforming that much harder as now BOTH must want to change , or Grime must do something really bad to her which is doubtful, to make changing a good prospect for Sasha. Yunan naturally shows up to fight, rattling off her titles, the repettition helps, and preparing to gut them, but when she knocks Sasha down grime is actually ready to fight now he has something worth fighting for and the two unite. While Grime gets knocked down pretty quick Sasha’s training/emotoinal avoidance pays off and she takes yunan one on one even breaking one of her claws with her neat pink sword. It’s a quick, furious and goregiously animated fight and an utter delight to see. Sasha ends up loosing at the alst minute thanks to Yunan’s tail.. but Grime has recovered by then and sneaks up on her while Sasha stalls her by getting her to mention her titles again so Grime can push her off a cliff. Both recite their own titles, and Grime is back in the saddle again, the two now friends for life and Grime deciding fuck simply taking the Valley back. That’s thinking small.. he’s tired of working for someone else. He’s raising an army and TAKING Newtopia and thus the world.. after finishing his binge watch.. because while this is the old determined grime he’s also now the very dad new grime too. And because i’d do the same if I was an evil wannabe dictator bent on taking back what should’ve been mine. Sasha swears to anne that while she has a new path it’s not over. whelp this can’t end well. Final Thoughts;

Easily the best of the season so far. The episode deepens both sasha and grimes characters and while setting them up to once again meance where our heroes will be hanging their hat it does so intrestingly: instead of dominating the frogs because that’s how it’s done, it’s setting up a three way dance between our heroes, the newts who clearly have some caste system issues, and Grime who wants to take it all for himself, as well as putting our three lost humans up against each other eventually before they even reunite. I mean as synopsis show Anne and Marcy will be on good terms and what not.. but it’s also clear that this c an’t last with the way the newts are acting. War is a coming, and it’s going to be intense. But yeah the episode has stunning action and even better character work and Grime is the standout here: Taking what was a one dimensonal villian and not only giving him a humorous side with his downward spiral, but showing he genuinely cares for sasha and changing that dynamic for the better, while also giving him an intresting backstory that will likely get even more fleshed out as the season rolls on. This episode was well worth the wait and is just behind “Reunited” as the series best so far. Outstanding. And since the end of my previous review and final thoughts got swept away as it turned out, and I didn’t notice till this week the episodes, there was no ranking soooo... Toadcatcher Truck Stop Polly Anne Hunter Handy Anne Fort in the Road The Ballad of Hopidiah Plantar A Caravan Named Desire Quaraller’s Pass Next week Kermit the Frog is here fresh off Muppet’s Now!, which was pretty good by the by to do a voice, while we get the long awaited Gravity Falls Homage! Excitment! Until then like, subscribe, check here for my previous amphibia reviews and here for my most recent reviews looking at x-men evolution and until next time, courage.

#Amphibia #anne boonchuy #hopidiah plantar #sprig plantar #polly plantar #captain grime #sasha waybright #percy #braddock #general yunan #toadcatcher #quarralers pass #reviews #weekly recaps #recaps

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safyresky · 4 years

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Rules: Pick 5 shows, then answer the following questions. Don’t cheat. Tag some people. I was tagged by @mellomadness and I’m gonna use “shows” to mean “cartoons too” so this is gonna be a TRAINWRECK but FUN, ENJOY! And ty for the tag Mello! :D

1. Doctor Who

2. Tangled: the Series/Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure

3. Steven Universe

4. Amphibia

5. Ducktales 2017

Who is your favourite character in 2? Eugene! You know when people are like I STAN? Okay well there is only 1 character I will ever say that about and it is Eugene “Flynn Rider” Fitzherbet, I LOVE him

Who is your least favourite character in 1? Rose tbh, I know, hot take but she was always my least favourite. Clara’s a close second but she got a LOT better with 12 and I LOVED her send off so much TT_TT

What is your favourite episode of 4? I’m only like. 6 episodes in but if definitely has to be “Anne Theft Auto”, it made me laugh the most and I quite liked how they transferred car logic to the giant bugs the frogs use as vehicles!

What is your favourite season of 5? Season 1, I think! It has my favourite episodes in it and that’s literally the only reason why

Who is your favourite couple in 3? This is a HARD ONE because Garnet is GR8 but I love Steven and Connie and Rose/Greg is super sweet, especially after learning Greg’s backstory in SU Future and also, Pearl/Bismuth came outta NOWHERE and I LOVE IT! The Bismuth Casual episode? OH LORD!

Who is your favourite couple in 2? Eugene and Rapunzel, I freaking LOVE them. Their ship name is New Dream and if that doesn’t make you sob idk what will tbh

What is your favourite episode of 1? “The Unicorn and the Wasp”. Ten and Donna? CHECK! Comedic? CHECK! Fun time period? CHECK. The Doctor really acting alien when he stops himself from being poisoned? HELL YEAH! The more alien the Doctor is in an episode the more I love it--probably why I love Ten’s run so much!

What is your favourite episode of 5? The Golden Lagoon of White Agony Plains! I love Goldie and Scrooge soo much and seeing how Goldie played them all? EXCELLENT! Their love story? SUPERB!

What is your favourite season of 2? Ouuu that’s an excellent question! I think season 2! I loved the travelling caravan and how much world we got to see and the shenanigans :D

How long have you watched 1? Since 2014 or 2015! I started watching just after Twelve’s first series! So 2014, and I spent 2013/2014 marathoning it because I saw some gifs of Twelve and went “that’s my Doctor” and HAD to get to him (and I did and he is very much My Doctor. Do they still do that? The who was ur first doctor and who was ur doctor as in Your Doctor? Because if so, Ten was my first but Twelve was MY Doctor)

How did you become interested in 3? Saw a few clips and gifs on my dash when it first came out, as well as a trailer just before that! Marathoned the first 20ish episodes (bc that’s all that were out at the time!) during my summer at home and the rest is history!

Who is your favourite actor in 4? Shit fam idk, it’s a cartoon (tho I love hearing Brenda Song again!)

Which do you prefer, 1, 2, or 5? Doctor Who, 100% and no I will not elaborate

Which show have you seen more episodes of - 1 or 3? I’m gonna take a wild guess and say Doctor Who because I THINK New Who has more episodes than Steven Universe/SU Future 🤔. And also because I have rewatched my favourite DW episodes SOO MUCH

If you could be anyone from 4, who would you be? Happy background froggo! Not involved in shenanigans, living my froggy life, etc :)

Would a crossover between 3 and 4 work? I want to say NO but I think maybe it could work 🤔🤔🤔 idk how though!

Pair two characters in 1 who would make an unlikely but strangely okay couple? Why Would You Ask Me This About Doctor Who, FUCK uhhhhh. I wanna say Missy and Twelve but I don;t think they’re unlikely but strangely okay, I think they’re EXCELLENT and were CLOSE before Missy’s past literally stabbed her in the back! Mickey and Martha! There’s an unlikely but okay match! When I watched that scene in Ten’s v last episode I was like “Oh! Wow! Unlikely but strangely, okay! I dig it!” They both deserved better! Seriously don’t get me STARTED on the way they were treated, ESPECIALLY Martha, I’m super mad about it bc I recently rewatched Series 3 and OH LAWD, RTD MAY CATCH THESE F I S T S

Overall, which show has the better storyline, 3 or 5? OH MY GOD WHY WOULD YOU ASK ME THIS! Ducktales has had lovely season to season storylines, all very well done, but Steven Universe had an overarching storyline that was wrapped nicely and then given a VERY CATHARTIC END IN SU FUTURE! So I’m going to have to go with Steven Universe, sorry Ducktales Lads

Which has better theme music, 2 or 4?

Amphibia for sure. I love the intro, it’s a lovely instrumental! I love the way RTA/TTS did the score and such, but Amphibia’s intro is NICE

This was a lot of fun! May redo it with actual TV Shows, with Humans, in Live Action, but I haven’t caught up on the ones I usually watch and there’s a couple I’d like to start and YEAH.

double tagging @shittyelfwriter! @dona-in-character, maybe you’d enjoy this? :D And anyone else who wants to do this!

And also @someheroescarryfloss cause you said go for it so I’m going for it >:D

#shush Dani #text #long post #tag games #about me #seriously followers LET ME KNOW IF YOU GUYS LIKE TAG GAMES #AND I WILL HAPILY TAG YOU #HAPPILY* I AM TYPING TOO FAST

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maydaygirl-save-our-ships · 5 years

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Differences Between Us (Amphibia fanfic)

Summary: Anne is learning to adjust to this strange new world, just as the Plantar family is learning to adjust to her. Strangely enough, it is their differences, not their similarities, that bring them closer together. She fills the empty spaces in their lives like a missing puzzle piece finally clicking into place.

AO3 Link

I wasn’t going to write the chapter about puberty right away, but I kept getting requests for it, so here you go! It might not be exactly what people requested (it was super interesting to hear different people’s ideas for this chapter) but I hope you like what I’ve come up with!

Chapter 3: Puberty

“This isn’t as good as suspicious island,” Sprig commented. He was sitting on the couch, leaning against Anne’s side so he could see the tiny phone screen resting on the table. “But I do like the part when she says yes to the dress.”

“Ugh,” Polly groaned from her place on Anne’s other side. “Can we pleeaase watch something else now? I only like it when they start fighting, but even that doesn’t have any weapons or blood!”

“Fine, fine, we can watch something else,” Anne said as she reached over and stopped the next episode from playing. “You guys want to watch one of my movies?”

The front door opened, but the three kids were too immersed in Anne’s phone to look up as Hop Pop entered the room.

“Oh good, Sprig, you’re here,” Hop Pop said as he closed the door. “I’ve been meanin’ to talk with yew.”

Sprig looked up curiously when instead of speaking, Hop Pop went into the other room, grabbed a chair, and brought it out to sit down on the other side of the living room table.

“What’s going on Hop Pop? Did I forget to lock Bessie’s gate again?”

“No, nothin’ like that.” Hop Pop cleared his throat. “I just wanted to have a chat with you.”

Anne looked on with renewed interest. It wasn’t often that Hop Pop’s stern lecturing voice was focused on someone other than her for a change. She spared a glance at Polly who looked just as confused as she was.

“You see Sprig,” Hop Pop began, “Yer gettin’ older and yer going to start noticin’ your body going through certain changes.”

“Uh…” Sprig looked around uncertainty. “What is happening right now?”

“These changes are completely natural for a young frog,” Hop Pop continued. “You’ll legs will get longer, yer voice will get deeper and you’ll notice yourself molting more… a lot more.”

Sprig groaned; a blush beginning to creep up his cheeks. “Hop Pop, do we have to talk about this right now?”

“This… is… amazing.” Anne was grinning widely. She rarely got to see Sprig embarrassed unless it had to do with his feelings for Ivy.

“Yeah, bro,” Polly snickered. “This is important information. Go on, Hop Pop.”

“Well, those are just the beginnin’ of the changes you’ll experience. You’ll notice yer emotions gettin’ all out of whack and you’ll get angry or sad over the tiniest things. You’ll have emotional outbursts out of nowhere! Not to mention, you’ll start thinkin’ nonstop about a special frog in you life. You’ll want to be around them all the time, holding their hand, kissing them-.”

“Like Ivy,” Anne said in a sing song voice as she leaned against Sprig, clutching her hands together under her chin and fluttering her eyelashes.

“Cut it out, Anne!” Sprig said as he attempted to swat her away. His face growing redder by the second. “Hop Pop, why are you just talking to me about this stuff?” Sprig asked as he tugged his hat down to hide his embarrassment. “Polly is going through a lot of changes too.”

“And I can’t wait to get my legs!” Polly announced. “I will be unstoppable!”

“Polly is still a baby, Sprig. It’s good she’s hearin’ this early, but right now it’s important for yew to know what changes are goin’ to start happenin’ in yer future.”

“Well, what about Anne?” Sprig asked desperately. “She’s older than me! She should get this talk too!”

“Aaand, I’m going to stop you right there,” Anne said. “I already had ‘the talk’ with my mom and I already know about the birds and the bees. I don’t need to go through that again from someone that doesn’t even know anything about my species.”

“The birds and the bees?” Hop Pop asked. “Anne, we’re talking about puberty, growing up, and courtship. Why in Amphibia are yew bringin’ other animals into this?”

“No, see it’s an expression. They call it the birds and the bees in my world because… because… huh, why do they call it that?”

“Okay, that’s enough puberty talk,” Polly interrupted. “It was funny at first, but I really don’t want to hear about courtship stuff. I would rather hear about what it was it like when Anne got her legs. I can’t imagine someone as big as you being small like me.”

Anne blinked down at the little polliwog. “What? No, you guys don’t get it. Humans are born with their legs.”

“Wait? Really?” Sprig said at the same time Polly said, “That’s not fair!”

“Yep, no weird growing limbs or losing tails for us.”

“I knew it! You’ve always been that big, haven’t you?” Polly said with a pout.

Anne shook her head. “Of course not. I was a baby like you once.”

Polly looked up with renewed interest.

“Let’s see…” Anne picked up her phone began scrolling. “I think I have a picture of myself as a baby. I had to do a school project about my family and I saved some of the photos.” Anne bit her lip in concentration as she searched through her phone. “Here it is! This is a picture of my grandma holding me when I was a baby.”

Anne held out her phone for the frogs to see the image.

“Whoa,” Sprig said as he leaned closer. “You looked so weird and squishy!”

Anne shot him an annoyed look.

“Cute and weird!” he amended quickly. “You looked very cute!”

“Wow, you were almost as small as me and you grew so big!” Polly said in awe.

“And yew weren’t foolin’ about the limbs,” Hop Pop said. “That must have made things easier for yew and yer family.”

“Yeah, having arms and legs must have made it much easier to get out of your egg,” Polly agreed.

“Actually, I didn’t hatch out of an egg.”

The Plantars blinked up at her in confusion.

“Wait, seriously?” Anne asked. “You guys don’t know anything about how mammals have babies?”

Sprig shrugged. “Not really. Most mammals are predators, so we don’t get too close.”

“I know a bit from readin’, but it could be different in yer world, Anne,” Hop Pop said.

“Well, uhh…” Anne began, unsure of what to say, or if she even wanted to talk about this. “Humans grow in their mom’s stomach for nine months,” she explained. “Then they are born… with all their limbs.”

Polly and Sprig looked horrified. “In their stomachs?” Sprig asked. “How? Why?”

Anne shrugged uncomfortably. “That’s just how it is.”

“So there is no egg?” Polly asked. “At all?”

Anne started to fidget. “Well, there technically is an egg, but that’s… a little more complicated.”

“Wait, do you come from an egg or not? I’m so confused!” Polly demanded. “And how do they even get the baby out of the stomach?!”

“You know what,” Anne said, her voice suddenly cheery. “Let’s just go back to embarrassing Spig. That was fun.”

“Wow Anne,” Sprig commented with a grin. “I didn’t know you could turn so red.”

“Embarrassing Sprig is fun,” Polly agreed. “But now I just want to know more about humans and their weird biology.”

“Oh yeah, what’s puberty like for you Anne?” Sprig asked. “I bet it’s really different from frogs.”

“Or it might be more similar than you think,” Hop Pop interjected. “Anne, if you talk about your experiences with puberty, then it might help Sprig out.”

“Umm, okay, no.” Anne said flatly. “No way I’m talking about that with you guys.”

“Why not?” Sprig asked. “We talked about frog puberty with you.”

“Yeah, but… that was… that was different.”

Sprig cocked his head to the side. “How?”

“It just was, okay!” Anne shot back. “You guys wouldn’t get it!”

“Maybe we would get it if you told us more about it,” Polly prompted.

“Why would I do that?” Anne snapped. “It’s not any of your business anyway! Just know that human puberty is the worst, okay? Especially for girls!”

“Especially for girls?” Polly asked. “What does that mean?”

“I-It’s just is!” Anne’s face was burning.

Polly scoffed. “It can’t be that bad. It’s not like you have to grow any limbs.”

Anne stood up from the couch. Her thoughts racing as her heart thudded in her chest. “What do you know?” Anne demanded, her voice going up an octave. “You don’t even know what I’m going through. Human puberty is painful and messy and… and it’s not like I can talk to anyone here about it because no one would understand!”

Before anyone could speak, Anne ran out of the house, slamming the door behind her.

“Uhh… what just happened?” Polly asked.

“Remember when I mentioned that puberty causes emotional outbursts… well, that was one of them.” Hop Pop sighed. “I should go after her and make sure the girl is okay.”

Before Hop Pop could stand up, Sprig was already opening the front door. “It’s okay Hop Pop, I’ll go talk to her. She’s my best friend after all.”

It didn’t take long for Sprig to find Anne. The ground was moist, and there was no one in town that left footprints as big as hers. He found Anne sitting by a pond only a few minutes down the road from home.

“Hey,” Sprig greeted as he sat on the mossy ground next to her.

“Hey,” she greeted without looking at him. She tossed a rock into the pond.

“I’m sorry about what happened. We shouldn’t have pushed you.”

Anne shook her head, but still didn’t look at him. “No, I’m the one that should be sorry. I thought it was funny that you were so uncomfortable talking about puberty stuff, but then I couldn’t take the heat when it was turned back on me. I shouldn’t have teased you… or ran out like that.”

“Anne,” Sprig said slowly. He wasn’t sure what to say, but whatever he said next he wanted it to come out right. “I know we’re really different and I don’t know what you’re going through… or why it would be painful for you and make you so upset.” Worriedly he tried to search her face to make sure she was okay, but she still wouldn’t look at him. He wanted to ask her if she was okay or if she was in pain now, but he held back. “And honestly, I don’t know much about this puberty stuff for myself. It’s all just kind of…”

“Embarrassing? Dumb?”

Sprig chuckled. “Yeah. I wish we didn’t have to grow up and everything could stay the same.”

Anne hummed in agreement.

“But umm, Anne,” Sprig said, and there must have been something in his voice, because Anne finally turned to look at him. “Even though I’m not good at this stuff, Hop Pop is. He can be a little embarrassing, and I know you probably don’t want to talk about it, but he’s really understanding about… about that kind of stuff. So, if you need to… if you don’t want to talk to me…” Sprig trailed off awkwardly.

Anne gave him a small smile. “Thanks Sprig. I don’t know if I will, but I’ll think about it.”

——————————–

It had been three days since the awkward conversation with the Plantars. Anne hadn’t planned on bring up the topic ever again, but with Sprig’s assurance that Hop Pop was understanding about this kind of thing, and with her internal clock working against her, Anne was starting to run out of options.

Anne knocked on the open study door. “Hop Pop, can I ask you something?”

Hop Pop lowered the book he was reading and beckoned her to come in. “Sure, Anne. What is it?”

Anne bit her lip. She could hear her heart pounding in her ears, and a feeling of dread sat heavily on her chest, making it difficult to breathe. “If I… If I give you a list of stuff to get from the store, could you get it for me without asking why?”

Hop Pop rolled his eyes. “For the last time Anne, I’m not gettin’ the fruit marketed as organic. That’s just a scam! It’s all organic! It was all grown in the same town for Frog’s sake!”

Anne felt heat rise to her face and she suddenly felt like a total idiot. This was a stupid plan. Why did she think this was going to work? “Oh, umm… yeah… totally. Never mind then.”

Hop Pop gave her a skeptical look.

“Hold up there, Kiddo. What’s this about?”

Anne shrugged; her body half turned away to leave.

“Let me see that list of yours, alright?” he asked gently.

Anne shook her head. “You know what? Never mind, it’s just dumb stuff anyway.”

“Anne, let me see the list,” he requested firmly.

Hesitantly, Anne handed him the piece of paper. Once he put on his reading glasses, his eyes quickly scanned the list. It wasn’t anything too fancy, just extra padding for medical bandages and extra tissues- All the stuff that Anne had found in the Plantar household and used without their knowledge.

“I-It’s just some stuff that… that girls from my world need.” Anne rubbed her arm self-consciously. “But I can’t really tell you why.”

Hop Pop glanced at Anne’s face and then back at the list. He folded it up and placed the list in his pocket.

“Okay.”

“Okay?” Anne parroted back in confusion.

“I’m headin’ to the store tomorrow. This stuff should be easy enough to get.”

“Really?” Anne felt the feeling of dread weighing on her chest ease up just a little bit. “You’re not going to ask why I need that stuff? I know the farm doesn’t make a lot of money-”

“Anne.” Hop Pop held up his hand to stop her. “Believe it or not, I was a teenager once, and I do remember how easily I got embarrassed and how difficult it was to talk about things, especially to adults. I’m guessing this has something to do with the puberty conversation we had the other day?”

Anne felt her eyes drop to the ground.

“Every teenager feels like they’re a freak living in another world where no one gets them,” Hop Pop said. “In yer case, you’re actually from another world, so I’m sure it’s even harder for yew”

It was strange, but the more Hop Pop spoke, the more the tight feeling of dread began to unravel, and Anne finally felt like she could breathe properly again.

“Y-Yeah…”

“If yew want to talk about it, I’m here to listen, but if yew just wanna hand me a list, that’s okay too.” Hop Pop patted her arm comfortingly. “Don’t yew know by now that yer old Hop Pop’s got your back?”

Tears sprang to her eyes and Anne bent down to wrap her arms tightly around him.

Anne took a shaky breath. “Thanks, Hop Pop. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

Hop Pop rubbed her back soothingly. “Anne, yer not alone here. We might not always understand but we are here for yew, okay?”

Anne nodded into his shoulder. “Okay.”

Let me know what you think!

#amphibia

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