I Believe In You.

i believe in you.

This is a transparent artwork!! if you're on desktop or using day mode on mobile, try clicking on the picture to see the full piece :)

If you can't see the artwork correctly, i'm including both versions below the cut:

happy wip wed from my sashannarcy day five (back to amphibia/reunion) fic featuring; my own unique twist on the prompt

The sound of water dripping tickled her ears, and she shook her head. There was no water here. She hadn’t passed a stream or puddle or body of water in stars knew how long. Miles upon miles. Hours upon days upon minutes. With the amount of time she’d spent in the dark, walking, she was certain she’d have to have crossed that threshold of travel by now.

She gripped rock hard under her palm. The path split: a right branch and a left branch. She inhaled deeply. There wasn’t anything to it; her path wasn't a choice so much as it was the fate of choosing to lead along the wall with her left hand. If her trek forward was pointless, at least she’d find her way back to this spot.

-

Underneath the city of Newtopia, Sasha has a terrible time.

.

I'll put it here too: more on the underpath au @banyanas and I have been talking about <3

LMFAO PLEASE

can i bite you

only if it’s gay and you promise to be weird about it

woah marcanne

~~

"I like you," Anne blurts.

It comes out of nowhere- except not really, because it's been on Anne's mind for ages now, the way she can't even sit in Marcy's presence anymore without her chest fluttering, how she wants to hold her, to draw her in and never let her go. But Anne's always been pretty well versed in burying her feelings, so the words that slip out of her mouth right at the end of one of Marcy's rambles surprise her.

They clearly surprise Marcy as well. In fact, she gapes at her, cheeks flushing a pretty red, eyes wide and wondrous. Anne has gotten lost in those eyes before, and it takes every impulse not to do the same now with how deep they go, how starry they become at such a simple confession.

She's pretty, always has been. Anne adores her.

"I... what?" Marcy says, and she smiles all prettily, the expression clearly forced. "I mean, I like you too, Anna Banana, you're my best friend-"

"-no, Marbles, I really like you." Anne leans in, and she takes both of Marcy's hands in her own; if she's gonna confess feelings now, might as well confess them all the way. "Like, like like you. Like, butterflies in my stomach like you."

"Oh," Marcy whispers, understanding dawning in her eyes. "You... me?"

"Of course I like you, who wouldn't?" Anne grins, squeezing Marcy's hands. "I mean, you're smart, you're funny without trying to be, you get excited over the smallest of things and your eyes just light up when you do, you're sweet and kind and fun and you always give everything your full effort even if you don't like it, and you try so hard all the time and that's enough for me, you know? I like you."

Anne pauses, takes a deep breath. The fluttery feeling in her chest is slowly melting away; it was probably just the anxiety. "You don't have to feel the same, don't worry, I just... I couldn't keep looking at you and keeping the feelings to myself, it's a little silly-"

"-don't say that!" Marcy says fervently, and when Anne looks up at her face, her eyes are watery but full of adoration bright as the sun, her bottom lip trembling. "This... you'll never know how much this means to me, okay?"

"What do you mean?" Anne questions.

"You mean so much to me," Marcy continues, and she's crying now, a silent cry that doesn't particularly seem sad, just... emotional. "This is exactly what I've always wanted, and it's so perfect and so you, I can't believe it's actually happening."

"It's just me, Marmar," Anne snorts, but Marcy's shaking her head desperately.

"I love you," Marcy says, and each word is just as emotionally charged as Anne's, her desperation fueling the way she clings to Anne's hands. "I always have. I love you because you're silly, and fun, and you always find a way to uplift the people around you, and you're inspiring and brave and I've wanted to be you my entire life, because you're Anne, you've always been my favorite person, and... gosh, I'm really rambling, aren't I?"

"You're cute when you ramble," Anne says, even as her heart pounds and pounds at the words, at how much Marcy adores her in return. "Sometimes I try so hard to listen to you but you're so pretty I just end up staring."

"I do the same thing," Marcy admits, and she giggles, tugging one hand free so she can wipe at her eyes. "So... if you like me and I like you too..."

"...guess that means we're girlfriends now, right?" Anne offers, and she takes another deep breath, steeling herself. "Hey Marmar, can I kiss you?"

"You'd be my first," Marcy says shyly, but she flutters her lashes up at Anne with a smile, and she nods. "Please kiss me."

So Anne gives into her impulses, just like she had before. She's never kissed anyone, but she's watched plenty of romance animes, and it's easy to lean in, press one hand against Marcy's cheek and the other on her chest, tilt her head, and kiss her.

It isn't what she's expecting. Marcy's warm, and she kisses back passionately, her own hands snaking into Anne's hair and wrapping around her neck. She tastes like the cherries they'd been snacking on beforehand, and Anne savors it as she clumsily kisses her, savors every moment.

The kiss ends when she feels a stinging pain, and she leans back a little with a grimace. "I think you bit my lip," she grumbles, but it's hard to keep a straight face here, and she's snorting as the absurdity of it all hits her.

"Sorry, sorry, I got... I got carried away," Marcy giggles, and she's laughing and laughing as Anne pouts at her. Laughing and laughing and she doesn't stop, so Anne leans in and kisses her again to shut her up, and Marcy gasps into it, and she doesn't bite her that time, and it's just as magical as Anne had hoped her first set of kisses would be.

Maybe this sharing her feelings shit isn't bad, she thinks, as she finally, finally, gets what she wants most in the world. At long last, she's happy.

YAY now that my comic is finished and posted, I can finally talk about these two weirdos. I got a crap ton of asks about the Core’s role in this AU, so thank you for your patience HAHA

Okay, so what’s going on with these two? Ultimately we have a situation where the Core was not removed from Marcy’s mind, so now they’re headmates. I don’t want to say it’s a split personality situation, because it’s more like Marcy was possessed and the Core is kind of a prisoner in her mind now that Marcy’s regained control of herself.

The Core is incredibly…noisy (“Noisy” might be an understatement seeing as the commotion in her head looks like literal hell). The Core is, to my understanding, an ancient eldritch being compiled of the minds of numerous amphibians. With that in mind, i wanted to make it so there are many voices in Marcy’s head conversing, with The Core’s voice being the dominating one. It isn’t always super deafening. Sometimes the voices sound like a crowd’s soft murmuring, the volume really depends on how much the Core is demanding Marcy’s attention in that moment. It’ll also try to disorient her as much as possible, but Marcy’s grown a tolerance for the noise. Ultimately the Core’s goal is to regain control.

One thing I really didn’t want is for Marcy to be at the complete mercy of the Core. I didn’t want it to be where it’s bossing her around all day and making her miserable. I mean..okay she’s a little miserable, sure, but she’s not being controlled by fear. The Core is frightening, but she’s been stuck with this thing for so long that fright’s been watered down to pure irritation. She’s pretty jaded.

She’s just.

She’s over it.

At this point she’s just throwing snark at this thing and wanting it gone. This doesn’t mean she doesn’t see it as a threat though. See here’s the thing- Just because Marcy is pretty good about staying in control, doesn’t mean there haven’t been slip ups. If Marcy’s at an emotional low, the Core can more easily try to fight for control. There’s this constant battle going on where The Core is trying to break Marcy’s will so she’ll let it drive. There are moments where the Core is able to gain control for a few seconds, but Marcy immediately shuts that down. The only time where she’s super vulnerable is during the night.

She’s a sleepwalker— Or at least that’s how it looks to anyone who finds her waking up someplace outside her bedroom in the morning. The Core is able to roam around at night since Marcy’s not awake to stop its antics. She has to be in a super deep sleep though. Marcy’s aware that The Core does this, and has to try taking precautions before going to sleep (they rarely ever work though). For this reason, Marcy is pretty wary about the idea of sleepovers with Anne and Sasha. She’ll only attend if she knows there won’t be any actual sleeping. If they stay awake all night, then she’ll be fine most likely.

One last thing I wanna talk about is the Core’s design. The Core has no definite form. It can manifest itself in Marcy’s eyes however it pleases, but it chooses these two forms usually. One is more terrifying, while the other is emotionally damaging. The Core’s first form is basically an amalgamation of Marcy’s past self from her time in Amphibia, so it’s a mix of her warrior type fit and her Core armor. The form isn’t scary at all, but it serves as a reminder of Marcy’s mistakes. Her betrayal, the lying, the way she got her friends sent to another dimension against their will and caused them so much trauma- It’s arguably worse than any horrifying image the Core can create. Marcy’s grown numb to the scary crap, but this form feeds into her self loathing and guilt issue (which she has to actively combat everyday). I wanted to make a point to not have the Core age with her for the sake of drilling in the idea saying “This will never change. This is still you”.

The second form is just for the sake of being able to tower over Marcy and be more intimidating, plus I wanted to incorporate the Core’s robo arms in some fashion.

And YEAH that’s pretty much all I got…I love these two sm. It’s the “I’m sick of this and I’m sick of your crap specifically” dynamic. Also while drawing this comic, some friends and I were making fun of the Core for looking like an edgelord homestuck OC, so here’s this silly doodle