AN: Sorry about that long break there, this was supposed to come out a couple of months ago, but a combination of personal stuff and work just either kept me too busy or too exhausted to write.
Thankfully, the next chapter should be a fair bit shorter and come up a fair bit quicker, though I can't make any promises.
Anyways, I'll see you all down below.
Sasha let out a frustrated groan as she slammed her head against the table in her and Grime's room.
"How can we still not think of anything?!" The blonde asked in frustration.
"I know it's frustrating, lieutenant," Grime began, sounding much less frustrated than Sasha was. "but we don't need to have this plan figured out today. We're still here for three more days after all."
"Two more days." Sasha said. "The third day, we have to leave early in the morning to get to Newtopia on Marcy's bird. We have two days to not only come up with a plan, but actually carry it out as well"
Grime sighed.
"Alright, I'll admit we don't have that much time…but getting frustrated over this isn't going to help anything. Besides, we have made some progress."
Sasha levelled a disapproving look at the old toad.
"Progress does not include coming up with a plan that completely relies on blackmailing your sister with her old secret high school crush."
"…I still hold that embarrassing her is at least good for a fallback plan if things don't work out." Grime countered. Or perhaps more accurately, attempted to counter.
Sasha just let out another frustrated groan in response.
At seeing Sasha's frustration, Grime walked over to the blonde and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Look, maybe we need to take a break. We've spent the better part of the afternoon trying to figure this out, maybe recharging our mental batteries is what we need to really try and tackle this."
"Already tried that this morning." Sasha mumbled out. "It still didn't work."
"Well…it did lead to you deciding to actually talk to me about this instead of trying to handle it on your own, right?" Grime asked.
Sasha raised her head up.
"I guess,…maybe taking a walk wouldn't be such a bad idea." Sasha said as she got up and began walking to the door, before turning her head back to Grime. "You want to come?"
"No, I think it'd be better if we're separate for this; together, we might just turn our minds back to trying to figure this out. Besides, I'd like to make sure Barrel's Hammer is in good condition; depending on what plan we do come up with, I maaaaaay have a few angry toads coming after me." Grime said in reply.
"Don't worry," Sasha said as she rolled her eyes, "I'll make sure whatever plan we come up with doesn't turn either of us into an enemy of toads everywhere."
"…What about a plan that turns my sister into an enemy of toads everywhere."
Sasha laughed at Grime's response and walked out of their room before heading to the main floor, exiting the house and stepping out into the town that was lit by a sun that was just beginning to set.
Alright, now what do I do
Sasha began to wander the town aimlessly, with no real idea what to do but wander aimlessly. Normally she'd try to hang out with Anne or Marcy if she didn't have anything to do, but given how awkward things were with Anne that morning and how easily she snapped at Marcy, it was probably for the best to avoid them right now. Unfortunately, that meant that there was no one left for her to hang with, the Wartwoodians not being all that friendly given how she had acted the last time she was here. Of course, there should be two more people there to hang out with her. Two more friends she made in Amphibia. But Percy and Bradock had left her behind a while ago. All because of her own stupid, selfish decision.
I wonder if I'll ever see them again. Have a chance to make things up to them…
And that is when a thought came into Sasha's head.
Percy and Bradock may not be her for her to try and make things up to them, but there were people here that she could try and make things up to. Three very specific people.
Sasha had treated the Plantars extremely poorly, though she knew that description was probably an understatement given she tried to kill two of them. Out of all of the people native to Amphibia, they were probably some of the people she needed to make things up to the most, especially considering that they were essentially a second family to Anne, that they had taken in her closest friend and treated her like family. After everything that she had done to them and everything they had done for Anne, she had to at least try to make things up to the Plantars, for Anne's sake at least.
Well then…that's what I'll do. I'll do what little I can to try and make things up to the three of them. Hop Pop, Polly and….the best friend stealer.
Sasha frowned.
…A good first step would probably be to start calling him Sprig instead of the best friend stealer.
A good second step, however, would probably be to try and do something to help the three frogs. As such, Sasha made her way over to the Plantars home, hoping that Anne wouldn't be there to make this more awkward than it was already going to be.
As the blonde approached the Plantars home, she could see Hop Pop outside working on something in their fields. Helping him out with the farming was definitely something Sasha help with. It would be easy honestly, easy enough that it practically felt like the opportunity was gift-wrapped with a nice bow for her to take.
Maybe this is some sort of Karmic reward for trying to turn things around.
As Sasha got closer to the field, she could see that Hop Pop was lugging around some sort of bag of seeds, probably trying to plant some things. She opened her mouth, prepared to call out to the orange frog and ask if he needed help, but she quickly closed her mouth as a thought occurred to her.
…How in the world am I supposed to just go up to someone I tried to have executed and start a conversation like it's a normal thing?
Despite having genuinely no idea how to answer that question, Sasha kept walking towards Hop Pop. She had already decided to try to make things up to the Plantars, and she wasn't going to just stop before even making the attempt. No matter how weird and awkward it would be.
Unfortunately for Sasha, by the time she had reached the Plantars garden, she still had no idea what to say. As such, she ended up standing there for what must have been minutes, trying to find something to say, some way to greet a frog that she tried to have killed only a couple of months ago. Somehow, being in closer proximity to him wasn't helping her come up with an answer.
And then Hop Pop put the bag of seeds down and turned around. At first, he didn't seem to notice Sasha despite her being very clearly in his line of vision, his focus distracted by something else. Then, after a couple of seconds, a shocked, confused, and nervous look came upon his face as his head slowly to turned to focus on the blonde.
For a few seconds, the two just stared at each other, before Sasha finally said something.
"H-Hi there Hop Pop."
I spent minutes trying to find the best way to start talking to him, and the best I could come up with was, "Hi there"? Ugh, at least no one else is here to see this.
"…..Hi?" Hop Pop responded after a few further seconds of awkward silence, the nervousness on his face being replaced by more confusion.
Oh good, he has no idea what to say in this situation either, I'm not alone.
"So, uh, you're uh, doing some farming?" Sasha asked, trying to find some way to lead this topic to her offering to help him.
"Yes." Hop Pop answered, "You um…not leading armies to try and capture towns and execute people?
"I'm, uh, trying to stay away from that kind of stuff," Sasha answered, wondering if trying to make up for how she acted was really worth any more of this awkwardness. "Do you…need any help with your farming?"
Hop Pop stared at Sasha, the confusion on his face now more accurately described as sheer, utter bewilderment.
"…you…want to help me with my farm?" Hop Pop, his words surrounded by the incredulous tone of his voice.
"Yes." Sasha answered back.
"…Really?"
"Yes, really."
"…You?"
"Yes, me." Once again answered, starting to get annoyed.
"…Is this some sort of trick? Are you still trying to have me executed?"
Sasha faced palmed for a brief moment.
"No, I am not, I'm just…I just want to help, OK." She said, trying to hold back some of her frustrations. She couldn't exactly blame Hop Pop, or anyone in town for being suspicious of her, but that didn't mean she couldn't be frustrated by those suspicions.
"…Do you have any experience with farming?" Hop Pop asked, that suspicious look still on his face.
"Well, no." Sasha said, hoping that wouldn't prevent her from being allowed to help.
"Well…." Hop Pop began after another few seconds of silence, "I could use some help, and everyone else ran off before I could ask them. And you're the first person in a while to actually offer to help instead of being asked…all right, I guess I can give you a chance."
"You won't regret it, promise." Sasha said, smiling. "What do you need me to do?"
"Alright then," Hop Pop said as he grabbed a watering can and walked over to Sasha. "I need to go check on Bessy real quicky and grab the rain cover from the shed; while I'm doing that, you can fill up the watering can and water the Radishes I just planted."
"Sure thing." Sasah said, giving a playful little salute.
"And be careful not to water them too much." Hop Pop continued. "All you need is about half of that watering can, with the water spread evenly among the seeds. And definitely not more than that. At all. Not even a little bit"
"I got this HP." Sasha said flippantly.
"…We are definitely not close enough for you to call me that."
"Yeah, it felt weird as soon as I said it." Sasha admitted as Hop Pop began to walk off towards the Snail pen.
Sasha filled the watering can like she was told and began watering the row of radish seeds as she was told. It wasn't exactly exciting work, but it was something that might help smooth things over with her and the Plantars so that a little boredom could be worth it. Plus, with not much else to do, maybe she could finally come up with a plan on how to stop the rebellion. Or come to grips with how she feels about what Marcy did with the box. Or mentally practice what she was going to say to Anne when she finally told her everything.
Sasha let out a sigh as she went through the row of seeds and watered them. There were simply too many things for her to deal with right now, and it felt like any progress on them was done at a snail's place. Well, an Earth snail's pace.
What am I doing, I'm supposed to be distracting myself and giving myself a break from these stupid problems. I have to try and take some sort of break, or I'm just going to wear my mind out, and we'll make no progress on figuring out a plan.
As Sasha lamented her difficulties in escaping the problems plaguing her, she realized that the last of the water was emptying out of the can, and she still hadn't watered the last seed.
Must have gotten too distracted to realize how much I was pouring on this one. Hope overwatering it doesn't cause any major problems.
Sasha went to the pond next to the farm and knelt down to put more water in the can. As she did so, she heard the door to the snail pen open.
"Alright Sasha, just give me a minute to grab the rain covers and-" Hop Pop stopped in the middle of his sentence as soon as he saw Sasha. "Why are you putting more water in the can?"
"Uh, I got distracted and used too much water on one of the seeds and didn't have enough for-"
"You overwatered a radish seed?!" Hop Pop yelled as he ran over to her.
"What's the big deal?" Sasha asked, confused and a little put off by how frantic he seemed over a small mistake. It made her wonder just how things had been when Anne had started if he was freaking out over this.
At least, that's what Sasha thought before the ground underneath her started to shake.
"The big deal is that giving radish seeds too much water causes them to expand to giant size and explode! Why do you think I told you not to water them too much and that I was going to get rain covers?!"
As soon as Hop Pop stopped yelling his explanation, a radish sprouted up from the spot that Sasha had overwatered, that radish quickly growing in size, expanding until it was almost as big as the Plantars house. And then it stopped growing. For a single brief second, it had stopped. Sasha realized what that meant and brought her cape to cover her face and hair before the giant radish finally exploded, chunks and bits of exploded and mushed radish flying everywhere.
Sasha lowered her cape and surveyed the damage. Radish chunks and mush were all scattered over the farm, and even some of the house, with a particularly large pile of mush next to her. Thankfully, barely any had gotten on the blonde, to the point that she hadn't really needed to use her cape to try and protect herself at all. However, what she did not see as she surveyed the scene was Hop Pop. The orange frog seemed not to be anywhere, which left Sasha rather worried that instead of doing anything to make up to Hop Pop for trying to kill him, all she did was get him killed.
However, that worry was put to rest when an orange arm emerged from the pile of radish mush next to her, and wiped a part of the mush off the pile to reveal Hop Pop's face, the old frog stuck underneath the pile.
A sheepish and apologetic smile appeared on Sasha's face as she looked at the very annoyed and mush-covered frog.
"um….I'm sure there's a way I can try to fix this, right?."
Hop Pop let out a sigh before he started to dig himself free of the radish mush pile.
"I appreciate your help Sasha….well, that you tried to help, but I think I can handle things on my own from here." The orange frog said, quite a bit of annoyance in his voice.
"But I…no, never mind. I understand." Sasha said as she turned around to walk away, dejected. "Sorry about this."
Sasha walked back towards town, knowing that she had screwed up. Sure, she hadn't known what would happen if you overwater radish seeds in Amphibia, but she did know that plant life in this place could be really weird and dangerous. For Frog's sake, the Tower lost 5 good soldiers just getting her tomatoes to make ketchup and pizza sauce! Obviously, she should have been paying way more attention to what she was doing, especially when someone who knows these plants way more than her had emphasized one specific point so much.
Ugh, this is exactly the type of thing that Marcy would do.
Still, Sasha wasn't going to give up. There were still two more Plantars that she could try to talk to and make amends with. She figured that between those two, it would probably be Polly she'd have her best shot with considering she's the only Plantar Sasha hadn't tried to kill and that Sasha really wasn't fond of Sprig. Sasha began to wander the town, trying to find the polliwog as the sun continued to set, the sky turning more and more orange as it did. After several minutes of looking for her, Sasha finally found her at the town Bugball field…alongside a Frobot.
Sasha froze for a moment at seeing the android, her eye's widening in shock.
How did one of them get here?! I need to take it down before it hurts anyone or gets reinforcements, but my sword is back at the house…wait….
Sasha shook her head as she remembered where and when she was. She was in the Wartwood of her time, not the future. The Frobot out on the field with Polly was the Frobot that Anne and the Plantars had somehow found before she even met back up with them at the Third Temple. There was nothing to worry about. There was no danger.
I know this. I know the Plantars have their own Frobot, so why did I…It doesn't matter.
Sasha walked out into the courtyard, dismissing whatever caused her initial reaction, determined to get things right this time. She was actually a bit grateful for the robot to be there as it had given her an idea of how to get on Polly's good side.
"Hi there Polly." The blonde called out.
As the polliwog turned around, a frown came across her face at seeing who had come to join her on the field.
"Oh, hi Sasha." Polly said, sounding not exactly disdainful of the lieutenant, but certainly disinterested in being around her. By contrast, the Frobot was far more friendly, waving at Sasha and giving what appeared to be an actual smile to her.
…it is so weird having one of those things be friendly.
"So, what are you doing?" Sasha asked, ignoring the chilliness of Polly's welcome.
"Me and Frobo are just testing out some of his tricks." Polly said, her tone making it again clear that she'd prefer Sasha not to be around.
"What kind of tricks?"
Polly looked at Sasha for a moment, seemingly deciding if she actually wanted to show off one of these "tricks" to her, before turning her attention back to Frobo.
"Frobo, dunk yourself." Polly said to the Frobot.
Frobo gave her a thumbs up in response before retracting its arms and legs into its body and curling up into a ball. The robot then began to spin in place for a moment before rocketing itself to one end of the field. As it approached one of the bugball nets, one of the robot's arms extended out from the side of its "ball form", and pushed onto the ground, launching the ball-shaped robot up into the air and towards the net, the arm retracting once again just in time for Frobo to fit through the hoop. Frobo came down from the hoop, another arm extending out just before it hit the ground, with the arm now holding the ball-shaped robot up on one finger, while it still spun. Finally, Frobo uncurled itself and let the rest of its limbs come back out of its body.
"Wow, neat." Sasha said, actually a little impressed with the display.
"Yeah, we've been practicing that one all morning," Polly commented, sounding a bit proud.
"What else can he do?" The blonde asked as the robot walked back towards them.
"We're still working on that." Polly said, sounding a bit disappointed. "The only other things that I know he can do is some farming stuff and shooting lasers from his eyes, and Hop Pop said I can't have him use his laser eye's just because he almost accidently destroyed the town with them."
Wait they have laser eyes? Why didn't they use those in the future?
"Well…if you can't have him shoot lasers out of his eyes, are there other places he could shoot lasers out of?" Sasha asked.
"I, uh, don't know." Polly responded before turning to the robot. "Frobo?"
The Robot simply shrugged, clearly not fully sure of what its own capabilities were.
"Well, why don't we try and see?" Sasha asked before turning her attention to the frobot. "Hey Frobo, laser cannon."
The Robot stood still for a moment before its right hand turned into one of the laser cannon's that she had seen used by so many frobots in the future. Both Polly and Frobo looked surprised, and Sasha tried to match their expressions. She then bent down and picked up a rock off the ground before standing back up.
"Hey Frobo?" The blonde called out. The robot turned to look at her and the stone in her hand, which she then tossed high into the air. "Fire."
Understanding what she meant, the robot took aim with it's laser cannon and fired a blast at the rock, destroying it and leaving behind nothing but a floating cloud of smoke that quickly dissipated. Polly stared at the spot where the rock had been destroyed for several seconds, mouth agape, before a giant grin formed on her face.
"That was awesome!" Polly yelled out.
Sasha grinned. She didn't know much about Polly, but from Anne's stories and her own very limited interactions with the polliwog, she knew that the youngest Plantar was also the one most into violence and weapons. As such, she had figured that helping her discover some of Frobo's weaponry, weaponry Sasha knew was there thanks to her battles with the mass-produced frobots of the future, would get her excited and would provide a good opportunity for the two of them to bond.
"Want to see if there are other things we can activate?" Sasha asked, a wry grin on her face as she once again asked a question she already knew the answer to.
"Obviously!" Polly shouted excitedly.
"Alright then," Sasha replied, "let's try this: Frobo, net-gun."
After another second of waiting, Frobo's right hand turned from a laser cannon into the net-guns that the frobots had used to try and capture Marcy. Sasha felt that her luck was turning around, not only in how easy it turned out to be to get on Polly's good side, but that frobot's weapons could be voice-activated. She'd have otherwise had to find some way to manually make these weapons work and she had little idea where to start on that besides banging on the thing.
"Cool!" Polly said, before hopping over to where the bug balls were kept and grabbing one of them.
"Frobo, try to get this in!" Polly called out as she threw the ball into the air, between Frobo and one of the baskets. The Robot took aim at the ball and, after a few seconds, fired a net towards the ball. The net caught the ball mid-air and sent it flying to one of the baskets, the neted-up ball bouncing off of the backboard and through the bugball hoop.
Sasha walked over to the mechanical frog and patted it on the shoulder.
"You seriously have a talent for that." Sasha commented, causing Frobo to smile at the compliment.
"This is so awesome!" Polly shouted, before turning to Sasha with an expecting smile. "What other stuff do you think Frobo might have? Maybe a boomshroom launcher? Or maces? Or boomshroom maces?"
"Cool your jets Poly," Sasha said as she patted Frobo again, not noticing the sounds of parts of him moving. "We've got plenty of time to figure out-"
Before she could finish her sentence, Sasha lost her balance and nearly fell as Frobo shot up into the air. As Sasha looked up at the now flying robot to try and figure out what had happened, she saw that the jets that were one the frobots in the future had been activated.
"Why did his jets activate?" Sasha asked aloud.
"Didn't you just say something about jets?" Polly asked, looking a lot less impressed with Sasha than she was a few moments ago.
"Oh. Right." Sasha said, feeling just a tad humiliated. Though that humiliation was replaced with a sense of worry and urgency as she looked up to see Frobo flying around at what must have been its top speed, constantly changing directions with seemingly no way of stopping. With how Frobo acted so different from the Frobots she saw in the future, she could only assume that there was something wrong with its systems that caused it not to have full knowledge of its own equipment.
As this thought was going through Sasha's head, however, the direction of Frobo's flight changed to straight down. Polly yelled out the robot's name in concern as it rocketed towards the ground and was unable to pull itself up in time, hitting the ground hard and kicking up a cloud of dirt, causing both Polly and Sasha to have small and short coughing fits.
As the dust cleared, they could see that Frobo was thankfully not destroyed from the impact. He was, however, embedded into the ground, headfirst. It was so far down that only a little of its torso was sticking out. It bent its arms awkwardly so that it could try to push off the ground and pull itself out of the hole, but it was clearly having no luck in doing so.
"Frobo!" Polly called out as she hopped over to the buried robot. "Don't worry, I'll help get you out."
Polly reached out her tiny little tadpole arms to try and grab the part of Frobo's torso that was sticking out and pulled on him with all of her might. It didn't seem to do much to actually help, however, given that pollywogs don't have all that much might.
"Do-do you need help?" A sheepish Sasha asked.
"No, we're good!" a clearly frustrated Polly shouted back to the blond as she continued to try to pull Frobo out.
"But maybe I could…" Sasha let out a deep sigh. "No, you're right. I'll just get in your way."
Sasha walked away from the bugball court and the new mess she'd made and not been allowed to even try and help fix. She was now 2 for 3 on failing to make things up to the Plantar's, and had probably just ended up making things between her and them worse. It would be infuriating if it didn't make Sasha so depressed.
If I can't do this stuff right then no wonder I can't figure out how to fix the future.
Sasha walked back into the small town, the moon that was now beginning to climb into the sky telling her that it was probably time to go back to the Sundew's and meet up with Grime again to try and talk over the plan.
Maybe he's had better luck than me.
And then Sasha heard something. A melody. Of all things it sounded like some sort of fiddle. It seemed to be coming from down a path in between some of the shops in town. Sasha was a little curious about the sound and decided to go investigate.
As she walked down the path, the music grew louder and louder, until she came across a stump to the side of the path with a frog on top of it, practicing his fiddle playing.
And of all frogs, for it to be, it was the third member of the Plantars. sprig.
Sasha stood there on the small path, frozen for a few moments. She certainly was not expecting to find on this path the member of the Plantar family with whom she had the most volatile relationship, and she certainly wasn't expecting him to be so talented at the Fiddle.
Or talented at anything really…Ok, that might have been a little mean.
Still, this did provide what might be the last opportunity for her to try and make things right with one of the Plantars, or at least help smooth things over. Maybe something as simple as listening to the little pink frog practice his fiddle playing would be enough to keep them from being at each other's throats.
Sasha let out a sigh, raised up her foot to take a step towards Sprig…and then immediately pivoted away and began walking in the opposite direction.
Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, I am not dealing with him after the day I've had!
Sasha walked through the small town back towards the Sundews, far more dejected than she had been when she'd left there earlier.
You know what? Maybe I'll forget trying to make peace with the Plantars today and go be away from anyone, so I don't ruin anything because as today has proven, that is all I'm capable of.
As Sasha walked back towards the Sundews, she was broken out of her wallowing by a familiar voice calling out to her.
"Sashy!" Marcy yelled as she ran up to the blond.
Oh great, just what I need to deal with right now. Sasha thought to herself sarcastically.
The lieutenant turned to face the raven-haired girl, plastering on her face the best fake smile that she could manage. Just because she really didn't want to see Marcy right now didn't mean she had to be obvious about it.
"Hey there Mar-Mar." Sasha said, trying to force enthusiasm into her voice.
"Well, you sound a lot better than you did this morning." Marcy commented, seemingly buying Sasha's feigned enthusiasm.
"Sort of, but I am still a bit tired, so I'm probably just going to head back to the Sundew's and turn in early." Sasha said as she turned away to try and walk towards the home she and Grime were staying up. However, she was stopped in her tracks by Marcy placing a hand on her shoulder.
"Oh, come on, Sash, it's super early; there's tons of stuff to still do today." The ranger said.
"I don't know, I really should get some rest…" Sasha replied, hoping that Marcy might finally drop this.
"Well, you've got to be at least willing to go grab a bite to eat, right?" Marcy asked.
Sasha wanted to lie that she had already eaten dinner, but a fairly large growl came from her stomach and made it clear that she hadn't.
"…I guess a quick bite couldn't hurt." Sasha said, hoping that she could deal with her frustrated feelings around Marcy for however long it would take to have a meal.
"Great, Anne's going to meet us at this awesome restaurant in town." Marcy said excitedly as she grabbed Sasha's hand and began to lead her away.
"Anne's coming?" Sasha asked.
"Yup, I asked her earlier if the three of us could eat out together."
"Oh, great." Sasha said, doing everything possible to hide her irritation that she was now, for the second time that day, going to have to deal with both the awkward situation between her and Marcy and the awkward situation between her and Anne at the same time.
I'd ask what I did to deserve this, but I'm pretty sure the only reasonable response would be to ask if I want that list alphabetically or chronologically.
Marcy led the blond all the way to a building that Sasha had seen both times she'd been to Wartwood, though she hadn't paid enough attention to really notice it's Thai-inspired front or it's name, Stumpy's, when she'd passed it before. She did certainly notice it now, along with the girl standing out front waiting for them.
"Hey Mar-mar, hey Sash!" Anne called out as two girls approached the spot she was waiting at.
"Hey Anna-Banana." Marcy answered cheerfully.
"Hey Anne." Sasha answered as well, trying to hide the nervousness she felt being around her secret crush.
"Are you feeling better?" Anne asked, turning to Sasha.
"Oh, yeah I'm fine, not nearly as tired anymore." The blond answered, continuing with her lie from this morning.
Anne smiled at Sasha's words.
"I'm really glad to hear that."
A light blush came upon Sasha's cheeks at that.
"Thanks." The former cheerlead replied.
"Welp, we better go get that table." Marcy said as she walked into the diner, Anne and Sasha following after her.
The three girls walked in and were greeted by a young frog wearing what appeared to be some sort of waiter uniform with a white top and green skirt with a leafy pattern. The frog herself had blue skin and pink hair, that was notably darker in certain places.
"Hi Anne, hi Marcy." The frog said, her words carrying a sense of familiarity with the two girls.
"Maddie?" Anne said in surprise. "Since when are you working here?"
"There's this new toy that my sisters have been wanting, figured I'd get a part-time job to help buy it for them."
"But don't you normally work at your family's bakery?" Anne asked.
"Yeah, for free." Maddie answered.
"Oh, yeah that makes sense," Anne said before looking around the restaurant. "Wow the place looks pretty packed tonight. Is there anywhere left for us?"
"Yup. Two tables for two right next to each other." Maddie replied.
"Wait, two different tables?" Sasha asked. "There's nothing left for the three of us to sit together?"
"Well, yeah." Maddie said, seeming rather confused, before turning to Marcy. "Isn't that what you ask-" Before Maddie could finish, Marcy's hand covered her mouth.
"Well, I mean, so long as the tables are next to each other, it shouldn't be a big deal." Marcy said hurriedly. "You and Anne can sit at one table, and I'll sit at another. It's all totally fine, and just something you sometimes have to deal with when there's a busy restaurant." Marcy then turned and winked at the young frog.
"…uh, yeah, what Marcy said. Anyways, can I show you to your tables?" Maddie said, sounding much less confused than before.
"Uh, sure." Sasha said before the blue-skinned frog led the three to their two tables.
OK, that was super weird.
As the trio walked to their tables, Sasha reflected on how little sense Marcy's behaviour made. It was pretty clear that she'd set things up so that she'd be seated away from Anne and Sasha for some reason and was trying to hide it, but why would she ever do that? She wondered if she was maybe worried about one of them having figured out her secret about the box and so she was trying to avoid them? Except Sasha knew that wouldn't make any sense, she's the one who invited her two friends out here. It wouldn't make sense to do that and then specifically avoid them. As Sasha and Anne arrived at the table they'd be sharing; the blond tried to wrack her brain for what Marcy could possibly be trying to do by sitting herself away at a table while she and Anne sat alone at a table for two like they were some couple on a date…
…Oh I am going to kill her for this.
Marcy knew how she felt about Anne. Marcy had been rooting for them in her own way for years now. Ways that Sasha was not totally comfortable with even if some of these friend-fics were actually really sweet. But now…now she was trying to trick them into some sort of weird date. Maybe a week ago, Sasha could have appreciated this little trick of Marcy's, but right now, with so much on her mind and her own desire to avoid Anne until it was time to tell her the truth about everything, all this trick did was make Sasha furious with the raven-haired girl.
"So, I uh…, guess we should probably sit down. Right?" Said an oddly red-faced and unsure-sounding Anne.
Sasha nodded silently in response.
OK Waybright, don't panic. Sasha thought to herself as she and Anne sat down in the booth. Sure, I'm on a date with the girl I've been secretly in love with for years, but she probably doesn't even realize that this is a date. And sure, I've got a tone of other reasons to feel awkward and guilty and horrible about myself around her, but if I can just keep myself from doing or saying something stupid or embarrassing for an hour or so, then I can probably find a decent excuse to get out of here.
With those thoughts in mind, Sasha took a deep breath to try and calm her nerves. She knew that she could get through this.
And then she looked across the table at Anne, perusing the menu with a slight blush on her cheeks. Which is exactly how Sasha had envisioned her looking like when she had imagined what their first date might be like. Of course, at seeing that the blonde felt her own blush become a much deeper red, and she quickly pulled her menu up in front of her face.
This is going to be so much harder than I thought.
Sasha looked at the menu, hoping that maybe trying to figure out what to order would help her focus on something other than Anne and allow her to calm her nerves. As she looked through the menu, she noticed that several of the dishes seemed to be some sort of Amphibia version of Thai dishes, with even the names including Thai words in them.
I wonder…
Sasha ever so slightly glanced up at Anne, who also seemed to have her face hidden in a menu. Sasha knew that if she was going to get through this evening, she couldn't just keep hiding behind a menu and would actually need to talk to Anne.
Come on Waybright, you can do this.
"So Anne." Sasha began as she lowered her menu. "Did you have anything to do with this place before?"
Across the table, Anne lowered her own menu, a look of surprise appearing on her face for a brief moment before being replaced with a smile, that blush still present on her face.
"Yeah actually, how'd you guess?"
"Kind of seemed like too much of a coincidence that the only one of us who worked in a Thai restaurant and comes from a Thai family would end up in the only town in Amphibia with its own Thai restaurant." Sasha replied.
"Yeah, I guess it's kind of obvious." Anne admitted. "The place wasn't doing so hot when I first got here, and then this super rude food critic said some stuff that really set me off, and I decided to help Stumpy, the owner, reinvent the place."
"Well, it seems like you did a great job."
"Thanks dude." Anne replied.
Huh, this is actually going pretty OK.
It was honestly a bit surprising to Sasha that this "date" was starting off on the right foot, especially after how bad that game went this morning….
…Oh my god, that stupid game was some sort of attempt from Marcy to get me and Anne to spend time together in the hopes something would happen, wasn't it? What is up with her right now?!
"You all right?" Anne asked.
"Huh, yeah why?" Sasha asked in confusion.
"Well, you started scowling."
"Oh, no, that was nothing, just a dumb thought came into my head." Sasha said, brushing off Anne's worries. Besides, it was true that it was just some dumb thought that made her scowl without realizing it, a thought she wasn't exactly up for discussing with Anne.
"So, uh, why didn't you mention this place before?" Sasha asked, trying to keep their conversation going.
"Oh, uh…I had meant to talk about it when we were at the Tower but…well…" Anne's awkward explanation trailed off as a subject neither of them wanted to discuss right now came up.
"Oh, I see…" That was about the only thing Sasha could think to say in response. What else could she really say? Honestly, the idea that she had lost out on a chance to hear more about the things that Anne had accomplished, of all the things that she could be proud she did, all because Sasha was more concerned with how killing someone that had taken Anne in and cared for her would help the Toads resecure their authority over the valley….it just reminded her why she was unlikely ever to see Anne again after they got home and she told her everything.
The next few minutes were filled once again with an awkward silence as the two girls both just looked downwards, neither sure what exactly to say anymore.
"Hey," said Marcy said from the table next to them.
Oh, right, she's here too.
"I've got an idea" Marcy continued, "Sasha, why don't you tell us about how you met Grime and got involved with the toads? You seem really close to him, and I'm sure with that armour you guys are wearing, it's some super action-packed story that totally makes you look like a super cool and impressive action hero."
"…I'd rather not." Sasha said, trying and failing to keep the annoyance out of her voice. She wasn't exactly big on retelling that story again. Sure, explaining about fighting off the herons might make her look like a super cool and impressive action hero to Anne, which was very obviously the reason Marcy was suggesting she talk about it, but when she told the story to future Marcy it had just led to a bunch more awkward questions and topics that she really didn't want to talk about right now.
"Oh, OK." Marcy said, sounding slightly nervous from how obvious it was that Sasha was getting annoyed.
Across the table, Anne shot Sasha a curious look. Whether it was because she also didn't know exactly how Sasha came to be with the toads or because the blonde had been noticeably more frustrated with Marcy all day, Sasha couldn't say. All she could do was pick up her menu, hide her face behind it and hope that their server would show up and they could at least move on to ordering food before she said something to ruin this all.
"Um, maybe you guys want to talk about some of the crazy characters Anne's met here in Wartwood?" Marcy suggested. "Ooh, Anne, you can tell her all about Mrs. Croaker, or that stuff that happened with the Mayor a couple of weeks ago, or that adventure you had with Wally to find the Moss-"
"No, Marcy!" Sasha said, a very harsh tone in her voice. She recognized the name Wally as belonging to the one-eyed frog that had caused the Tower to fall with his boom shrooms…and also as one the victims of her future self. Frankly, she had no idea how many other Wartwoodians she might have killed in the future. Maybe this Mrs. Croacker or Mayor Marcy mentioned both died in the war against Queen Sasha as well. Sasha didn't know, and right now, she'd rather keep the conversation away from anything that could remind her of how much suffering she caused in the future.
"Sash, you're being pretty rude to Marcy." Anne said from across the table, her tone and face both showing that she was unimpressed with Sasha's attitude.
"I-you're right, I'm sorry." Sasha said, quickly apologizing before hiding her face behind her menu again, hoping that Anne would not try to delve deeper into this.
"Sash, I've never seen you speak like that to Marcy. Is something up?" Anne asked, her voice serious with a smidge of worry hidden in there.
"N-no," Sasha said, feeling like Anne's eyes were barrelling down on her even as she kept herself hidden behind the menu. "I just…I guess I'm still more tired than I thought, I did a lot today and with so little sleep last night, I guess I'm just a bit more snappy than usual."
"Anne, it's fine." Marcy said, "I know Sashy didn't mean it."
Where is that stupid server? Sasha thought as she turned her head backwards to see if she could see that young frog anywhere. Thankfully, Sasha saw Maddie walking towards their table. Oh thank frog, we'll have something else to focus on soon.
"Ooh, I've got a good idea of what we can talk about," Marcy declared, "the cool adventures that Sasha had before meeting us at the temple."
Sasha's eyes widened behind her menu in surprise before they narrowed, Sasha's annoyance beginning to turn into anger. She didn't have any "cool adventures" before meeting them at the temple. All she did was plot to overthrow a kingdom for the most stupid and petty reasons possible. Out of everything Marcy had suggested to talk about so far, her time between the Tower and now was the absolute last thing she wanted to talk about.
"I'm sure there was some really awesome stuff that you guys got up to, right? I mean, look at that hammer Grime got, It's got that jet engine attached to it and those runes, that's got to have some sort of cool-"
"WILL YOU SHUT UP MARCY!"
There was nothing "cool" about how Grime got Barrel's hammer. He only got it because of the stupid and selfish decision that Sasha made, the stupid and selfish decision that threw away the friendship of two good toads whose trust she abused and whose feelings she ignored. Why in the world was Marcy trying to get her to talk about so much during this stupid little "date" she forced on them? She didn't want to talk about any of it. She didn't even want to be here. All she wanted to do was get back to that stupid house so she and Grime could try to figure out how to fix-
"What is wrong with you?!"
Anne's voice snapped Sasha out of her own thoughts. As her mind finally came back to reality, she began to notice that a lot of people were staring at her after that outburst. The other patrons and their just now arriving server all looked at her in shock and confusion over the sudden outburst. Marcy looked at her like she was scared that she'd done something wrong. And Anne…Anne glared at her like the lieutenant had crossed a major line.
"I-I'm sorry-" Marcy began before being cut-off.
"No, Marcy, don't apologize. Sasha is the one who should be apologizing." Anne said, still glaring at Sasha.
"I-I-" Sasha tried to say something, but it was like no words could leave her mouth. Then again, her mind couldn't really think of what to say, so maybe that was for the best.
"Seriously Sasha, what is wrong with you today?" Anne asked. "You've been rude and snappy all day, especially with Marcy and it is not because you're "tired" or whatever dumb excuse you made up."
"I-look it's just that I…I…" Still, no words would come to Sasha's mind, a mind that was struggling to focus on what was happening, not just with Anne's words, but with how it felt harder to breathe and how she felt an inexplicable yet familiar pain in her left eye.
"You can't just yell at her because you're upset over something." Anne continued laying into Sasha for her behaviour throughout the day. "You should be apologizing to her over how you tried executing my Grandpa and Brother?! Do you think that didn't hurt?! Do you hey Anne you were making things better for me by doing that?!"
Sasha's back finally hit the rooms wall. She had nothing left to even maybe your protest against what Anne said. Anne, by contrast, had not yet finished with what she had to say.
"You spent so much time controlling us that you never stopped to think about how you just kept on hurting us, how you kept using us. The only time you ever did think about it was so you could justify it to yourself. And all of that was before Amphibia. Ever since you came here, you've gotten some ridiculous thirst for blood and violence and honestly, I've seriously been starting to think that better off without me and I just something I kept refusing to see it, just like all of the other terrible things about-Sasha?"
The blonde blinked as her breathing continued to get heavier and heavier. She only just barely registered that she wasn't in the command room in the resistance's base.
"Sasha are you OK?" Anne asked, the anger in her voice completely gone. But that did nothing to help calm Sasha.
"I-I have to go!" Sasha almost shouted as she stood up and ran to the restaurant's entrance.
She heard someone call out to her to wait. Who it was she couldn't say. All she knew was that she was not going to listen. The blonde ran to the Sundew's house and burst through the door. Ivy and her mother both tried asking Sasha what happened, but she ignored them. She ran into the room she shared with Grime, and shut the door hard, her entrance startling the old toad. She could hear him asking what was wrong, but she refused to answer. All she could do was lay down on her bed, and sob.
"I'm sorry Anne, but she's refusing to come out." Felicia Sundew said to the Thai girl.
"Can I at least go in and try to talk to her? Even through the door?" Anne asked. She still wasn't sure exactly what happened this night. She had no idea why Sasha would react so strongly to being confronted over yelling at Marcy like that. The only thing that Anne could think of was their conversation last night, and how maybe Sasha was believed that this showed she was right to be afraid that she couldn't change. Except then why did she just suddenly freeze up for a few seconds like she did this morning? Anne didn't know what caused Sasha to run off tonight, but what she did know is that she wanted at least one chance to try and fix whatever had gone wrong.
Unfortunately, Felicia's answer to her request was to shake her head no.
"Sorry Anne, but it might be best to let her stay up there and get some rest for now. Maybe you can try tomorrow."
"But we can't just leave her alone. She was crying when she ran off." Marcy pleaded.
"Well, she's got that toad up there, so she's not exactly alone." Felicia responded.
"…Can you at least tell her that if she wants to talk to us she can?" Anne asked, feeling rather defeated.
"Of course." Felicia said.
"Thanks." Anne said before she and Marcy turned around and began making their way back to the Plantars.
"Something's up with her." Anne said as she and Marcy walked through the town. "I just wish she'd be honest with us about what was wrong instead of making stuff up."
"Well, you know Sash. She's never really been the type to be upfront about when somethings wrong." Marcy replied.
"But I thought she was getting better about that, especially after last night." Anne said in a dejected tone, before letting out an equally dejected sigh.
"…Well then, maybe she'll be willing to tell us tomorrow." Marcy said, a slightly hopeful tone to her voice. "Honestly, I'm starting to worry that I did something to make her mad at me."
"…Well, she might have figured out that you set us up on a date." Anne said flatly.
Marcy froze in her tracks at Anne's words, her expression looking like a deer caught in a headlight.
"Whhaaaattt?" Marcy said in a very exaggerated tone. "I have-totally no idea what you could-I just wanted the three of us to have a nice dinner together and…"
Marcy trailed off as she looked at Anne, who was clearly far from impressed with her clumsy attempt to cover for herself.
"…How did you figure it out?" Marcy asked sheepishly.
"Marcy, immediately after you confronted me about being in love with Sasha, you set us up to play some sort of game that only me and Sasha would actually be interested in, tried to keep forcing conversation between us specifically, and then set up a dinner where me and Sasha had our own table, and once again kept trying to force conversation between us whenever we went silent. I know I'm not the smartest girl around, but come on, dude, of course, I'm going to notice that."
"…OK, in hindsight, I guess I was being pretty obvious about operation: matchmaker." Marcy admitted. And then a confused expression came across Marcy's face. "Wait, why would you think that made her mad at me?"
"Well…" Anne said, trying to find the right words for what she wanted to say.
"…Are you mad at me about this?" Marcy asked.
Anne let out a sigh.
"Look Marcy, I told you that I need time to figure out some of the stuff going on with me and Sasha right now. And then instead of respecting that, you just went and tried to set us up like some sort of wacky sitcom plot. So, yeah, I'm kind of mad that one of my oldest friends didn't respect my wishes."
"I'm sorry, Anne, I didn't mean to, I just…" Marcy let out her own sigh, regret clear on her face. "I don't know. I thought I was just helping my two friends get together. I thought if you needed more time before you could say anything to Sasha, then maybe spending that time with her would speed things up, give you the push you need."
"I get that you didn't mean anything bad by it, but it still wasn't cool." Anne said, before moving towards the raven-haired girl and giving her a hug. "And I totally accept your apology by the way."
"Thanks." Marcy said with a smile on her face before they both pulled away from the hug.
"Look, I can get why you think I might need some sort of "push" to try and move things forward with Sasha, I totally was not going to tell you about the dance this morning till you grabbed me after all." Anne admitted, "But I really don't need one."
Marcy didn't say anything to that. She didn't need to. The expression on her face very much conveyed how much she disbelieved Anne on that point.
"What?" Anne asked, bewildered by why Marcy wouldn't believe that she didn't need some sort of push.
"Anne, what was the second reason you gave for why you weren't ready to confess to Sash?" Marcy asked with a flat tone.
"Well, that I needed to talk with the Plantars and deal with the bad blood between her and them."
"Right. And have you even gone near any of the Plantars since this morning?" Marcy asked.
"…I mean, it's not like I have to have that discussion with them right now." Anne said nervously.
"Well, we have two more days here Anne, so when are you planning to talk to them?"
Anne remained silent for what felt like minutes before finally speaking again.
"I mean, we'll still have the box after we get home, so I could always tell them when we come back."
"Yeah, but we have no idea how long it might take for us to come back." Marcy pointed out, a very unimpressed look on her face.
"I'm sure it won't take that long." Anne said, a notable lack of confidence in her voice.
Marcy continued to shoot Anne a very unimpressed look.
"…Look Marcy, I'm not trying to avoid having a very awkward conversation with them." Anne said defensively.
Marcy just kept looking at her.
"…I just-I just need a bit more time to figure out what I'm going to say to them."
Marcy continued to look at her.
"…fine, I'll go talk to them." Anne said, throwing her hands up in defeat.
"That's all I ask." Marcy said as she and Anne began walking back towards the Plantars farm. "Don't worry Anne, once we explain things to them, they'll totally be on board for all of this."
"Yeah, I think I'm going to handle this myself." Anne said.
"What?!" Marcy asked, almost sounding offended that she'd get left out. "But why? I've totally been wanting to help you and Sasha out for years, why wouldn't you want me there to help you talk to the Plantars?"
"Well one, it's kind of something personal between me and them." Anne began, before a playful smirk came across her face. "And two, you can consider being forced to sit this out your punishment for tricking us onto a date."
"Curses!" Marcy shouted as the two girls continued their walk back.
So, this chapter ended differnetly than originally planned. The original plan was to have Anne's talk with the Plantars be the last scene of the chapter...but I knew it was going to be fairly lengthy, and with how long it took me to get this out I wanted to, I kind of just wanted to finally, you know, actually get it out. Plus, with this being the longest chapter I've written so far, and knowing that the next chapter was going to be pretty short, I figured it made sense to just shift the talk with the Plantars to the next chapters opening rather than this chapters ending. So, hey, now you guys have a slight preview of something that's going to happen next chapter (not that you couldn't already guess from how this one ended...)
Anyways, I'm happy to have had a bit more of chance to focus on the Plantars here. One of the things that I like about writing this story is that now that we are back in the present and there isn't a Queen Sasha running around, we can hit a bit closer to the tone of the show, which can allow for a bit more comedy while also serving as a contrast to how things are like in the future (as well as how Sasha's been affected by it).
I also hope that Hop Pop and Polly didn't come across as too harsh here, honestly one of the things that almost kept the conversation with the Plantars as the ending was wanting to make sure that they didn't come across as too rude or unreasonable in the earlier parts of this chapter.
...Also, for those wondering "hey, why didn't he write the frobots using laser vision in last fic?" ...I completely forgot that they (or Frobo at least) could do that.
And as always, I appreciate any feedback you guys have, and I'll see you next time.