Hope people enjoyed Any Sport in a Storm! I had a ton of fun boarding on this episode. Our team joked around about casual clothes for Hunter, landing on Aloha shirts for some reason lol… and I remember having a lot of fun imagining a scenario with @cat-harman92 about this sad boi being swept into the arms of buff Willow. So I combined the two. The Aloha shirt is NOT condoned by Dana XD I remember a resounding “no” haha anyway, take my Winter art. (I don’t care that that ship name makes it hard in tags, it’s pretty and that’s the name our team liked for our delusion and wishful thinking XD)
okay okay i know it's late but i couldn't stop thinking about this idea i had and i'm afraid i'd just retcon so much of the dialogue if i tried rewriting it tomorrow so. take my unfiltered "it's 3am" thoughts in fanfic form <3
amphibia s3ep11 spoilers beware
It’s late when Anne slips into the room that Sasha’s claimed for herself, shivering all the while. The underground tunnels are surprisingly chilly at night; it’s no wonder that all the frogs have already dozed off, snoozing away while Anne had tossed and turned for too long.
Today has been long. Too long. Everything had happened so fast. Anne can scarcely wrap her head about any one of the series of events the day has brought her, let alone all of them. The last time she slept was safe and sound in her house on Earth, snug as a bug, secure in the knowledge that finding and rescuing her friends would be easy.
At least one of them doesn’t need rescuing, she thinks to herself.
It’s that thought that has her sneaking into the cave that Sasha’s claimed, arms folded over her chest as she shivers. She’s ditched the chestplate, but her uniform stays on; she likes the comfort it gives her, the familiarity.
To her surprise - or maybe not, today must have been just as impactful for her - Sasha is still awake, sitting in the middle of a cot, legs crossed at the ankles. She perks up when Anne closes the door behind her, features melting into a soft smile before sharpening right back up again, and this is the Sasha that Anne remembers from her childhood, the one that had sworn to protect herself and Marcy from anything that might harm them, that had genuinely loved them.
“Couldn’t sleep either?” Sasha asks softly, and she’s patting the spot next to her, scooting over to make room so that Anne can slide onto the cot at her side.
“No,” Anne admits, still shivering, “so much has happened, you know? Today has gone so fast, I just… keep thinking about it. I should’ve gotten here sooner.”
“Hey, you did the best you could, given the circumstances,” Sasha soothes, “I, for one, am just happy you came back in the first place… I wouldn’t blame you for wanting to stay away.”
“Are you kidding?” Anne snorts, and she shakes her head even as she tucks her knees into her chest, glancing around Sasha’s cave. It’s barren, surprisingly, with only a couple boxes that must act as some sort of wardrobe, some more battle maps, and a very silly little sketch of what might be Anne and Marcy and Sasha all holding hands, though it’s so badly drawn Anne could be completely wrong. It’s endearing, and she snorts again, leaning on top of her knees. “No matter how badly you and Marmar screwed up, I had to come back and make sure you were both safe. Last time I saw you…”
She trails off. There’s no need to recap what is surely an image burned into both of their minds. Sasha, on the floor after being smacked into the wall. Marcy with a glowing sword through her chest, illuminating the tears in her eyes, casting everything into a sickly golden that lingers outside of Anne’s sight in every waking moment. She doesn’t know what all Sasha saw - surely more than her, considering she got to stay behind - but she can only imagine it was just as horrifying.
“Yeah, I get it,” Sasha mimics her, hands folded across her knees, guilt-ridden and despondent. “But… thanks. For coming back. For never giving up on us. I don’t know if I would’ve done the same if I were in your… shoe.”
Anne laughs this time, rolling her eyes playfully. “You would’ve. You’ve never given up on us either, I don’t think you’d start now.”
And maybe Sasha was going to say more, with the way she’s staring at Anne, but Anne shivers again as the air nips at her arms, burrowing down. “Man, it sure does get chilly here. Don’t you have any blankets?”
“Most of our fabrics were supplied for armor,” Sasha informs her, but she’s standing, grabbing at her arm nervously, “I… do have one thing you could use, though. Better you have it than me, I think.”
She walks over to one of the boxes, kneeling to dig through it and talking all the while. “Before Wartwood was attacked, I had time to… uh, go through your stuff? Sorry about that, I just wanted to save as much of it as I could, and I do have most of your stuff from the basement in one of these boxes. But… uh, well, your stuff wasn’t the only things I managed to save. Aha!”
And then she’s pulling out a long, blue-grey, very familiar cloak.
“No way,” Anne breathes.
“She left one of her spares in that wagon outside the house,” Sasha explains, and when she turns back around her eyes are misty, the smallest, wry little smile on her face, “amongst… a lot of other stuff. I didn’t get all of it because it felt too sacred going in there at first, but I realized she might want a cape that’s…”
Sasha trails off here, but Anne can clearly finish the sentence in her own head. A cape that’s whole. Not torn, or burnt straight through. One she can wear without feeling guilty about her involvement in Andrias’s plans.
“How do you know she’s alive?” she asks, quietly, as Sasha brings the cape back over to where Anne is sitting, holding it out for Anne to take. The fabric is as soft as Anne remembers, worn and vaguely lavender-scented like everything Marcy owns, and the familiarity of it all has tears brimming in her eyes as well. “I mean… I had hoped, but… you sounded so certain.”
“I have to be certain,” Sasha sighs, and she plops back into her spot next to Anne as Anne carefully clips the cape to her shoulders. The pink shell sits snugly against her collar, and the fur is pleasantly warm against her neck, she can’t believe she’s never asked to wear Marcy’s cape before but now it just feels wrong. “Being leader of the resistance means I can’t… afford to be wrong, but also, before Grime and I escaped… I heard Andrias talking. He needs Marcy alive, for some reason. I don’t know what that is, but I’m sure we can rescue her before that.”
“I miss her,” Anne admits, and it doesn’t feel so bad of an admission when she’s here, pulling Marcy’s cape over her shoulders and snuggling into it with a deep sigh, in the presence of her other best friend. “At least I had her journal to keep me company on Earth.”
“You have Marcy’s journal?” Sasha gapes.
The weight of the journal is so familiar by this point, Anne hardly thinks about the implications as she pulls it from her sewn-in pockets. Half of Marcy’s notes had gone straight over her head, but if she had read them in Marcy’s voice, she could imagine her friend sitting next to her rambling, peaceful smile on her face and delighted look in her eyes, waving her hands around as she explains whatever it is she’s found interesting this time around.
She misses it. She misses it so badly. She hadn’t known, then, how precious of a resource her friend’s time was, and how she should’ve treasured it like a priceless gem. It had been easier to stomach, easier to ignore back on Earth where she could pretend that everything is fine, but she’s only been in Amphibia for a day and she’s already hit with the reminders of how much she just… wants her best friend back. Is that really so much to ask for?
“I can barely decipher any of this,” she says, thumbing through the colored tabs. Sasha leans against her shoulder to get a better look, and Anne rests her head on Sasha’s own, sniffling. “The Amphibian rune translations might really come in handy though, they helped me… more than I thought, on Earth. And it helped; with missing her, that is.”
“I miss her too,” Sasha admits, like a secret, “but the plan has always been to get her back, and with you here, I just know we will. We’ll rescue her, and… and we’ll go home, together.”
Together. Anne likes the sound of that more than she’d care to admit.
~~
Pictures flash up on the robotic screens, each displaying the same, sickening image. It can feel her emotions, the way her body reacts to seeing the two other humans looking at each other, smiling, blushing, laughing.
“It appears as though Heart is back in Amphibia,” it says, grinning at the way she shivers in nervous trepidation. “And would you look at that! She doesn’t need you anymore. Neither one of them do.”
You’re wrong, her voice says, timid amongst the many voices that make up its mainframe, trembling despite her supposed confidence.
“Oh, little one, why would I lie to you?” It scrolls through the images, “our cameras picked up each one of these, you know. It seems like they finally outgrew their precious little Marmar.”
Her voice is quiet, now. Speechless, perhaps, at the confirmation of her greatest fears. It knows that, of course. It had analyzed her even before she had joined their collective consciousness, had known her fears and what she hated most in the world before it stole the thoughts from her mind to use against her. It knows how much she is hurting right now, and if she weren’t just so rebellious, it would leave her be to mourn her broken relationships in peace, but it needs her to comply.
“Good thing you have us now, hm? We will never abandon you so carelessly as your so-called friends have,” it tells her, seriously, feeling her resolve weaken bit by bit. “Come now, Marcy. Don’t you think it’s time to say goodbye to those childhood friends of yours?”
She doesn’t say no, and The Core smiles in her body, triumphant at last.
i love how sasha is still her mean bossy self to literally everyone else, but with anne she's just so soft and patient and understanding and shES JUST SO FUCJUDBNGAYDGKFKFLK
So Commander Anne is really, really rushed, with a constant breakneck speed. As such, subtlety isn't one of it's major attributes.
However, there is one part of the episode that's actually subtle, which is Sasha's reluctance to fully embrace Anne before the very end.
Through this episode, Sasha is reluctant to get physical with Anne, when Anne hugs her as they first meet, she doesn't return the hug, and when she puts her hand on her shoulder trying to convince her of something, she does it in a very disconnected way, intentionally making sure her arm is extended as far as it'll go, and she is even bending over slightly, just to further the distance.
In fact, the only time before the end, where she is downright clingy with Anne, is when she grabs her so they can traverse across the moat full of sharp rocks.
In other words, the only time she tosses caution to the wind is when it's a literal matter of life and death.
And then, at the end, when she finally makes up with Anne, she still tries to keep this physical distance, only giving her a handshake.
Right up until Anne just embraces her out of pure joy, and Sasha just melts into her arms. This is what Sasha wanted all along. For Anne to love her again, and yet in this episode where Anne is practically handing her that on a golden platter, Sasha is unwilling to get physical, to go back to the intimate closeness that so defined their relationship.
Whereas Anne is not.
Anne is desperate to go back to the way things used to be, almost unnaturally so, but it makes sense when you consider what each of them consider to be the most important in their relationship during the events of true colors.
For Anne, the most important thing that happened between her and Sasha was this, their fateful second duel where Anne threw everything she was supposed to learn at the second temple to the wind, and refused to hear Sasha out, all so that she could make Sasha hurt as much as Sasha made her hurt.
It was the single worst decision of Anne's life, and i have little doubt that a large part of her is very, very happy that Sasha is not bringing it up.
Meanwhile the moment Sasha remembers the most from that day is this. When Anne told her what a horrible person Sasha was, and that their friendship, the single most important thing Sasha's life was OVER.
And what happened right before that?
Anne, probably for the first time ever, rejected Sasha's physical affection, angrily slapping it away.
The reason Sasha is so reluctant to get physical with Anne again, despite desperately wanting to do so, despite Anne giving her every chance to do it, is because she remembers this moment, and is terrified that it will happen again.
That she will overstep herself, and make Anne slap her hand away in rage.
It's only at the end, where Anne gives her a long, protracted and loving embrace, that Sasha is able to truly feel like Anne isn't going to reject her again.
And so she returns the embrace, certain Anne is genuine with it, and that this is real. Anne wants her by her side again. In the end, Sasha did not destroy her and Anne's relationship beyond repair in "True Colors".
And that means the world to Sasha Waybright.
It's a nice bit of subtlety for an episode that by it's nature is not able to be so, and it goes to show there was a plan here from the start... It just was undercut by having to be a shorter episode.
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