HELLO PEEPS, IT’S BEEN A WHILE, BUT HERES SOME RANDOM AMPHIBIA SWAP AU THOUGHTS, particularly with Anne->Newts, Marcy->Toads and Sasha->Frogs. This switch makes me the most emotional I think.
First thought, the Plantar’s kindness getting through to Sasha through a slower and more climatic way than it did with Anne. I imagine Sasha can get away for a bit with her manipulations, wearing a mask that stuff isn’t bothering her. She slips and gets annoyed, scared, and anxious at times, especially at the beginning when she finds Sprig and is told she can’t search for her girls until the winter passes, but once she’s settled into the Plantar’s basement, she begins the facade of ‘being nice and gaining control of the frog family so that whatever she wants whenever she wants goes.’ It works. Hop Pop favorites her because of her sweet talks, she gets Sprig’s friendship and loyalty easily and Polly is all over having an enabler badass. Then consequences pile up. Responsibilities get put on her shoulders. She’s now an older sibling to two impressionable kids who are copying her beliefs and her actions. She has chores Hop Pop is trusting to her because of how responsible she’s talked herself into being. The townsfolk eventually also come around her flattery and always ask for her time. Sasha thinks she’s detached from everyone. Despite the goofy adventures she goes on and some moments where she snaps from annoyance at the craziness (particularly with the kids and maybe even also coming around to talking to One-Eyed Wally) where she shares bits about her anxieties and her anger, and she’s always comforted and taken seriously and shown that she’s being accepted. Loved. She doesn’t allow herself to accept it. She’s using them, just biding her time, making things more comfortable for herself until she can leave and find her girls. But then, she’s made frog of the year. The townspeople genuinely love her and cheer for her. She feels. Nice. And in the middle of the night she sees her.
Marcy.
Switching to how it’s been for her,
It’s interesting for me to think about her dynamic with Grime. She’s softer, more innocent with her wonder. She absolutely believes she can befriend the toads and is always asking then questions about the world. It annoys some of his guards, but she forms some friendships with others that find her fun to talk to. And eventually, maybe even before the Heron attack, Grime sees her value as a strategist. He strikes a deal easily with her. She helps him with responsibilities, research, paperwork, and he DOESN’T keep her in a cage. Even eventually offers to help her travel to look for her friends. Maybe. Marcy is having a blast being leaned on by someone. This is her time to show how useful she is, even if it’s by creating new weapons and traps for political adversaries. Grime is very impressed by her mind… but also becomes a dad much faster with how often he has to save her from herself. He’s soft on her after like a week of accidents. Hell, maybe these accidents even started in her cell and the real reason he got her out was because he hadn’t realized how many ways someone could accidentally almost kill themselves while being chained and behind bars. He’s seen things. The toads generally leave Marcy alone with some exceptions that were interested in teaching her stuff and playing games with her. She’s accepted.
I don’t want to have to rewrite the entirety of the episode (note from future me, I GUESS I DID) on the Toad Tower but the differences are their motivations. Marcy constructed the plan to invite the town and talk to them diplomatically into giving up Hop Pop for the better good. They would execute Hop Pop in front of everyone as an example. When she found Sasha and saw her family, she was surprised. She started worrying that what she was doing would be wrong. But in her time spent alone with Sasha, the blonde girl talks big and makes it clear she was just waiting to find either of her friends to ditch the frogs. She could stay in the tower with Marcy from now on! Marcy is relieved. This means she can still put her plan in motion. So, laughing, she explains what she’s doing that night to Sasha, who slowly drops a fry in shock. The ditzy nerd she knew is talking about taking a life like its just another statistic. Something needed to keep balance. And more than that. The frog she’s going to kill is someone who has taken care of her. Someone who saw her as family now. Someone who took her in and never backed away from helping her. Even with all her bullshitting, after all her masks and lies, Sasha starts to sweat. Her hands shake. She smoothly tells Marcy she needs to use the bathroom. She’s none the wiser. Sasha runs to the frogs. She tries to get them to run away. Something in their ineptitude frustrates her enough to take charge and be the lead of their group through the sewers. She’s angry. She shouldn’t be doing this. She’s trying to come up with excuses as to why she cares enough to wade through shit for them. And through her heavy thoughts, they get caught.
Now they’re in the top of the tower. Marcy has been told what happened. She’s confused. She asks Sasha about it in front of everyone. What happened to the plan? To not caring about the frogs? Was she going to run away… and leave her behind? Sasha falters as she sees Marcy’s eyes. She’s hurt. Sasha feels terrible, this wasn’t what she wanted! She tries reaching out, to comfort her like she always did. But a hand wraps around hers and stops her. Sprig’s. He’s looking at her. Scared of what he feared she’d do. What she would have done, if she hadn’t had a change of heart. She resolves herself. Squeezes his hand back. And she hardens, putting on her leader persona. Marcy can feel the shift immediately and flinched at Sasha’s tone as she tries coaxing her into letting them go. Isn’t an execution too extreme? Come on, Marmar, this isn’t like her. She’s not a killer. She’s good.
Marcy shakes. Is she right? Should she stop? But Grime steps up. Reminds her of the King expecting results. It’s their necks on the line. He’s right… both sides are right. Morally right. But what about her? What does she value? She holds her heart as she asks a question. The deciding factor. Her voice quivers. “What about you? If we let them go, who are you going with?” Sasha’s pause is a lifetime. The answer was… unexpected for both of them. “I, I can visit! Now that we know were we are! It’ll be like… sleepovers!” Marcy dropped her hand. Her demeanor changed. She blinked a few times, fighting the sting in her eyes. “I see. Hah. Yeah. We always loved those, right?”
“Yeah! It’ll be just as fun, I promise!” Sasha saw a tear drop. Concern grew. She took a step forward. “Marcy… are… are you… ok?”
“Yeah,” Marcy looked back up. Smile in her face. “I’m ok. But. I’m sorry for what comes next.”
She threw a ball. It rolled under Sasha. And it binded her, making her fall hard into the floor. Grime smiled and followed the plan. Gave the orders to subdue the rowdy townsfolk. Separated Hop Pop and Sasha from everyone. Sasha screamed, begging for them to stop. Not believing what was happening. Marcy talked over her. Assuring her she’d come to see this was necessary. They need to stay together!
And as Hop Pop almost falls into the plant, the shrooms explode. Chaos erupts. The Plantars are on Sasha immediately, helping her out of her bindings just in time for her to see the stunned Marcy staring at her. And the ground crumble beneath her. Sasha flings herself to catch her. Barely gets a hold of her hand. Marcy is crying. Sasha tries desperately to keep hold of her. Shes slipping and the frogs come to help. Sasha is surprised by them. She chokes a laugh as they tell her they’ve got her. Marcy’s gut twists. Misinterpreting her face, Sasha tells her that its going to be ok. She’s got her. She’ll always have her.
Marcy’s eyes furrow. Sasha… is a good friend. And she… again. She failed her. Because of her neediness. Because she can’t let go. She keeps dragging her down. She closes her eyes. She accepts her fate.
“Sasha…”
“Mar…cy?”
She opens them again at her name. She smiles, painfully.
“You deserve better friends than me.”
And she lets go.
Grime catches her. Sasha is pulled up and hugged as she sobs. She failed her. She feels that she’s failed her. But. Surrounded by these frogs, what pains her the most is. She’s glad they’re ok.
They have become her family.
~
I’ll try to wrap up my thoughts faster, this was seriously supposed to be a quick ramble of points but I went storymode again, good gravy.
Sasha is embarrassed by how much she cares about the dumb frogs and the dumb town, but she accepts it. Opens up much more after that.
Marcy is… lost. Like Grime, she gets lost in trying to escape from what happened by drowning in hyperfixations instead. Crying whenever Grime brings it up, so they both avoid it because he does NOT want to be responsible for kicking a puppy. It’s not healthy, and Olivia brings them both back into action by making them work together in outthinking her.
When Grime proposes taking over the kingdom, Marcy gets swept back into action. So she had a breakdown with a friend. That doesn’t mean she can’t enjoy living the rpg life now that she’s here. And it’s not like taking over the palace would affect the frogs and Sasha much. In fact, it could help them! Yes. This was for the good of everyone. She would help Grime become king.
~
While all this happened with these two, Anne’s life in newt society has been… relatively ok. Anne’s easy for Andrias to manipulate. She’s never questioned anything and she’s always ready to be of service. It’s the least she could do for the person that’s housing her. So he lets her do whatever she wants. She spends time with the newts, helping Olivia losen up a bit, learning combat from Yunan, doing odd jobs all around the city and befriending everyone in sight. It’s great PR for the king. Really. It’s been far too easy. The only annoying thing to deal with has been…
…. eugh. Emotions. Days where Anne gets homesick. Days when she asks too many personal questions. He has to keep up the nice act, but her perception is scary to him sometimes. She comes to know when something is bothering him. She’s always ready to hear him out. Hed… never tell her the whole truth but… he has sometimes… shared bits of it. He’d always get mad afterwards. It’s like the kid is a walking therapy session. He involuntarily softens just the slightest bit around her.
Out of spite, he agrees to his master’s demands. She may be useless in the ways that truly matter but. As a conduit of the stones, she can still do something good for him.
One last thought, Anne’s betrayal comes in the form of the opposite of Marcy’s. She wants everyone to go home, regardless of the attachments they made in this world. Andrias convinced her of the urgency to return when Sasha left her. It was like she didn’t need her anymore. Like she was discarded. And after needing Sasha for so long… she got scared. She misses home. She misses her family. She misses school. She misses her friends. They need to go back. They need to be back to normal. As soon as possible. And her friends…
“Jumanji is a magical game that able to send players into its jungle-like alternate reality or to send the dangers of said reality into the real world"
barely fighting off the mantis that appeared after Sprig’s turn, Anne makes her second roll but must retreat with Plantars to other room, until strange figure appears and attacks the mantis
after reunion with Anne, not so happy reunion with Marcy but they need her to finish the game, so they drag her from all the way back from other town’s library
