Fanfic / An Alchemist Abroad

art by cutetanuki-chan

^{Click here to see the full titlecard (minor spoilers)}

Marcy finally left the valley to see the whole of Amphibia! Though, things could be going better... her oldest friend and first love had discovered Marcy's betrayal. Her second oldest friend almost certainly hated Marcy after their confrontation. Finally her new family was wanted for treason. Still! Nothing she couldn't fix. Probably.

An Alchemist Abroad is the second part/season of the Amphibia fanfic series The Arcanist Marcy Wu by Discet, following the events of A Witch in Wartwood. It follows Marcy's adventures as she travels across the world, protecting her adopted family, helping her friends, and finding a way back to Earth, paralleling season two of the show (well, kind of).

The fic can be read on Archive of Our Own here, and the series can be found here.

Spoilers for the previous story and the original show will be unmarked. You've been warned!

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An Alchemist Abroad contains examples of:

• Abusive Precursors: Implied in regards to the original builders of the second temple. The trials within seem more focused on putting participants through intense emotional trauma and outright killing them than actually testing their strength of character. Valeriana even states her order had buried the temple out of disgust.
• Action Prologue: Chapter 3 starts with the Plantars being chased through a forest by a bounty hunter.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Word of God for canon states that her parents' divorce was a key factor for Sasha developing her Alpha Bitch tendencies. This fic takes that up to eleven, with Sasha stating her parents hated each other, to the point that Mr. Waybright manipulated his own daughter to give him an edge in the divorce proceedings.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In the original show, Yunan and Olivia's relationship doesn't start until the third season. While it was hinted at in A Witch in Wartwood, here it's confirmed they've been (unofficial) lovers for ten years.
• Adoptive Name Change: This technically happened back in the previous fic, but it's clear it wasn't considered official until Marcy invokes this in chapter 7, when she introduces herself to Andrias and the Newtopian court as Marcy Regina Plantar - which also makes this a downplayed example.
• A.I.-cronym: Chapter 13 implies the Core's name came from the project that developed its technology: the Con(sciousness), Organizer, Recorder, and Encoder Project.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The prototype Core that Marcy and Polly stumble across and activate in chapter 13 behaves erratically and violently, destroying a console it bumps into and attacking the two girls unprovoked. It probably doesn't help that it presumably has an amphibian mind uploaded to it that, given the translated beeps, is begging for death.
  • We get a creative example in the second trial of the (actual) second temple: the girls are faced with an giant, magically animated animal skull that's clearly meant to test their honesty, but isn't able to properly explain the requirements of the trial and interprets their honest questions and statements as lies, leading the three to almost get killed by an army of animated skeletons. This is justified, since the magic runes dictating the skull's behavior have broken apart due to the passage of time.
• Ancient Tomb: Chapters 15 and 16 feature Newtopia's Catacombs.
• Attack Hello: This is how Ivy and Maddie are reintroduced in chapter 15, with the two of them tackling Sprig and Marcy into a fountain.
• Badass Longcoat: Marcy gets one in chapter 17 for her birthday.
• Bad Liar: Averted by Marcy twice (so far). First in chapter 6 in her conversation with Captain Mond, and then masterfully in chapter 7 while convincing the king to pardon Hop Pop.
• Big Red Button: One appears in chapter 13.
• Birthday Episode: Chapter 17 takes place on Marcy's 14th birthday.
• Bodyguard Crush: This is how Yunan and Olivia's relationship began.
• Brick Joke: In chapter 16, we learn that Maddie is still in possession of the toad she turned into a figurine from chapter 12 of A Witch in Wartwood.
• Cassandra Truth: Anne tries to warn Sasha and Marcy about Andrias and the prophecy, but they don’t believe her due to lack of proof and the fact that they were almost sacrificed by a cult who believed in the prophecy, causing them to doubt her sources.
• Captain's Log: An Alchemist Abroad continues the trend of starting a chapter with a journal entry.
  • Subverted in the first three chapters: the chapter 1 entry consists of only the header with three days listed, two of them crossed out, and no body; chapter 2 begins with Marcy's letter to Anne; and chapter 3 begins with Marcy's attempt to write a letter to Sasha.
    • We get another subversion in chapter 22. While it is technically an entry, its actual content is a letter Marcy received from Hop Pop, Sprig, and Polly via a magical paper golem.
  • Averted with:
    • Chapters 4 through 7.
    • Chapters 9 through 12. Justified, as they're all parts of the same story that began in chapter 8.
    • Chapter 16. Justified, since it picks up where the previous chapter left off.
    • Chapter 17, which starts with a flashback.
    • Chapter 21. Justified since it picks up where chapter 20 left off.
    • Chapter 23, which begins with Marcy, Anne, and Sasha arriving at the Plantar homestead.
    • Chapter 25 begins where chapter 24 left off.
  • Parodied in chapter 18: Marcy's entry is suddenly interrupted mid-sentence, with the following line stating that she and Sasha had arrived at their destination and that the latter was dragging her away.
• Chase Scene:
  • Chapter 3 begins with one. See Action Prologue above.
  • Chapter 7 has a brief one in the beginning where Marcy and the Plantars are chased through Newtopia by Sasha and Yunan.
  • Another in chapter 17. This one has Sasha chasing after Anne.
• Clear Their Name: The Plantar's goal in the "Fugitive Arc" revolves around them traveling to Newtopia to prove Hop Pop innocent of the charges made against him for starting the frog rebellions in Frog Valley and destroying Toad Tower. They succeed in this endeavor in "Chapter 7: It Takes Two to Burn a Bridge".
• Closet Geek: In chapter 12, Sasha admits she binge-watches an old anime she and Marcy used to watch when they were younger, and then has Marcy swear to never tell a soul.
• Cool Big Sis: While this still applies to Marcy, it's Polly who becomes this when Frobo is reactivated. She immediately treats him like a little brother, being positive and encouraging as he learns to move in his new body.
• Cosmic Motifs: In addition to Marcy being dubbed The Red Moon Witch, we find out here that Anne is called The Star Weaver while Sasha earned the nickname The Unconquered Sun.
• Cult: Chapter 3 revolves around the Planters meeting and then escaping one.
  • Another one comes up in chapter 16. This one, though, has knowledge of the prophecy, and is trying to subvert it.
• A Day in the Limelight: Chapter 9 focuses on a de-aged Hop Pop and his efforts to take part in a cursed play.
  • Chapter 10 follows Sprig and Yunan while they try to find and catch de-aged Sasha and Marcy.
  • Chapter 14 is centered on Olivia and Yunan as they recount how they first met to Marcy and Sasha, respectively.
• Description Cut: In chapter 1, when Polly points out a couple of Newtopian guards ahead of them, Hop Pop describes the Newtopian military as the most disciplined and well-trained fighting force in the world. Cut to the two guards, who have their backs to the road, enjoying lunch and joking about how neither of them bother checking the wanted list.
• Dissonant Serenity: Horace and the other leaders of Gardenton are rather calm and cheerful as they talk about indoctrinating Hop Pop and Polly into their cult and killing Sprig and Marcy in chapter 3.
• Downer Beginning: The fic begins with the Plantars on the run as fugitives; Anne has left them; and Marcy depressed over her fight with Sasha and Anne leaving after finding out the truth.
• Evolving Title Screen: A non-video-game example. As the trope images show, the fic started with just Marcy in the title card, with Sasha and Anne being added after their first appearances in the story. Its evolution is still ongoing, the most recent version revealed after chapter 22, with Marcy's eyes changing from green to brown and her gem glowing green.
• Forgiveness: Averted in Chapter 7. Sasha refuses to forgive Marcy for teleporting them all to Amphibia on purpose, but also refuses to hate her for it.
  • Played with and defied in chapter 18: Hop Pop finally tells Marcy he tried to steal the music box back in A Witch in Wartwood, and Marcy immediately enforces this trope out of fear of losing her relationship with him if she didn't. Hop Pop picks up on this, and - in an diversion from canon - tells Marcy it's okay if she doesn't forgive him anytime soon, not wanting her to bury and ignore her emotions for the sake of "keeping the peace".
    Hop Pop: Forgiveness is a gift, Marcy. Not an obligation.
• Fountain of Youth: The central plot of chapters 8 through 12. In an effort to get Marcy and Hop Pop to relax, Sprig mixes a de-ageing potion into their buggacinos (which Sasha also drinks). Unfortunately, it regresses their minds and memories as well as their bodies.
• Freudian Excuse: In chapter 16, Sasha reveals her dad had gotten her to vent her frustrations with her mom while secretly recording her, in a bid to gain full custody. It's insinuated that this incident was what cemented her controlling behavior - she didn't want to be manipulated ever again.
• The Friends Who Never Hang: Before their Fountain of Youth escapade, Marcy admits that she feels like this is the case with her and Sasha in their friend group back on Earth, at least in recent years; if Marcy tried to hang out with just Sasha she'd loop Anne in first thing. Marcy even tried to try out for cheerleading at one point because cheer practice was at the same time as Anne's tennis practice so they'd have to spend time together sans Anne.
• God of the Dead: Marcy summons one in chapter 23, attempting to bring Ram back to life.
• Green Thumb: The frogs of Gardenton have the same power over plants as in canon, though the source comes from the magical moss that grows on their elderly founder. Marcy gains this ability in chapter 3 after Sprig gets some of the moss for her.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: A few examples.
  • The two Newtopian guards in chapter 1. They're supposed to be watching the road; instead they have their backs to it while enjoying lunch and joking about how they don't check the wanted lists.
  • Interestingly zigzagged in chapter 2 with the Teds. Teddy is more interested in get-rich-quick schemes and never checks incoming messages (like the wanted poster for Hop Pop), Ted is basically dumb muscle who easily falls asleep on watch, and while Tedd is clearly more diligent and responsible, he still goes along with Teddy's schemes and is too soft-spoken to really be assertive. However, they still successfully capture Marcy and Polly; confiscate Marcy's bag of curses, potions, and gadgets; actually post a guard (i.e. Ted) at night to watch the prisoners; Ted is vigilant enough to capture Hop Pop and Sprig when they try to break out Marcy and Polly; and when the manticore attacks, all three fight to defend the town despite clearly being out of their depth.
  • Marcy gains an audience with King Andrias in chapter 7, claiming she has a scheduled meeting with him and Sasha (a.k.a. Captain Waybright). None of the guards appear to take the time to confirm if this is true.
  • When Sasha and Marcy are subjected to a Fountain of Youth effect, none of the palace guards notice anything amiss or try to stop them, thinking that it's just a "human thing".
• Heel Realization: A few...
  • Sasha has one off-screen before being de-aged in chapter 10, admitting to Marcy in chapter 12 that she was actively trying to get her to stop talking about her nerdy interests before Amphibia.
    • Sasha gets another in chapter 16, realizing the advice she gave Sprig not only risked his friendship with Ivy and Maddie, it was also based on how she approached her relationship with Anne and Marcy.
    • She gets a third in chapter 17. A flashback revealed that the year before, Sasha hosted a party at her father's house (behind his back) while forgetting Marcy's birthday was the same day; she makes the party double as a b-day celebration, thinking it would kill two birds with one stone. Instead, Marcy became overwhelmed by the amount of strangers and hid in Sasha's room, while Sasha dismissed her social anxiety in favor of the party. A huge part of chapter 17 is Sasha's efforts to make up for this.
  • Anne realizes in chapter 23 that leaving Marcy and the Planters at the end of A Witch in Wartwood had caused the former to think she hated and broke up with her, breaking her heart.
• Heroic Suicide: Just like in canon, to recharge the stones the girls have to lose their powers - meaning that Ram has to die. When Marcy adamantly refuses to go through with it, Ram possesses her to charge the stone - effectively killing themselves to help Marcy and her friends.
• I Can't Dance: Marcy. Poor girl just can't get the hang of the Plantar hunting dance.
• Important Haircut: Sasha gets this in chapter 4. In her duel with Grime, she ends up getting a not-insignificant length of hair sliced off. Later, she has Yunan even out the rest, leaving her with a short curtain hairstyle.
• In Spite of a Nail: While the circumstances are vastly different, Sasha still agrees to recover Barrel's Warhammer - which also still involves fighting the narwhal worm.
  • Marcy still discovers the hidden wing of the royal archives and finds the book detailing how to charge the stones.
  • Just as in canon, Marcy is the only one of the three girls who's unaware of the prophecy^note Though not for the same reasons as the show.
  • The stones still have to be charged at the temples.
• Instant Expert: Essentially Sasha's second spell. By holding an unfamiliar weapon while her powers are activated, she effectively "downloads" the skill and muscle memory of the previous owner, allowing her to learn how to use that weapon near instantly. This is how she wins her duel with Grime while wielding Barrel's warhammer in chapter 4.
• Internal Reveal: In Chapter 7, Marcy confesses to Sasha about her problems with her parents, her intentionally standing the girls in Amphibia, and Anne leaving her and the Plantars over it.
  • In chapter 15, Sasha discovers Anne and Marcy were dating while looking through the latter's journal (with her permission).
  • Sasha learns Marcy plans to stay in Amphibia after getting her and Anne back to Earth: first from Anne in chapter 17, and then Marcy in chapter 18.
    • On that last note, Marcy tells Sasha that Andrias promised to let her use the music box to visit her and Anne on Earth. This takes Sasha completely off guard.
  • Sasha informs Anne in chapter 23 that Marcy had thought the latter hated and broke up with her. See Heel Realization above.
• Intimate Healing: A non-sexual example. In chapter 24, due to magical-temple shenanigans and falling into freezing water, Marcy gets hypothermia. To warm her up, Anne tells Sasha that - since they don't have an electric blanket - she'll need skin-to-skin contact. Three guesses as to what they end up doing.
• Jerkass Has a Point: During her discussion with Anne in chapter 17, Sasha points out her arguments and sources for Andrias' motivations are dubious at best, and concerning Marcy's desire to stay in Amphibia, she rightfully points out she couldn't get proper treatment if she became seriously sick or injured, since no one in Amphibia knows how treat humans.
• Karma Houdini: Zigzagged. Marcy convinces the king and the Newtopian court that she wasn't directly responsible for the destruction of the Southern Toad Tower and is eventually pardoned. However, the toads have put out a hefty bounty for her capture, which has caused her trouble more than once when she's recognized as the Red Moon Witch.
• Lampshade Hanging: In chapter 7, Ram points out the "astounding" odds of Sasha and Yunan arriving at Newtopia at the same time as Marcy and the Plantars.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Bud, the frog pirate who conspired with the Newtopian and Toad navies to ambush the Croaking Daughter, ends up being found out when he tries to escape. Dia Mond has him tied to the stern of the ship, not caring if he gets eaten by sea creatures.
  • The cultists who capture and try to sacrifice Marcy and Sasha get knocked out by roots controlled by Marcy, and then get buried alive when the roof of the underground chamber they were using collapses.
  • A count who knocked Marcy down and badmouthed her and Sasha finds his caravan sabotaged and gets cursed, courtesy of the latter two girls.
• Last Request: In chapter 22, just before they charge the stone and effectively kill themselves, Ram begs Anne and Sasha to protect Marcy from her own self-destructive, self-sacrificial habits.
  Ram, to Anne and Sasha: Please. She was my only friend...
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: Happens with Marcy and her frog family in chapter 18. Hop Pop has to go back to Frog Valley to continue his mayoral/gubernatorial duties, while Marcy goes with Sasha to the first temple.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Sasha, Sprig, Ivy, and Maddie don't tell Marcy that she inadvertently killed the cultists from chapter 16 while saving their lives. Justified, as Sasha and Sprig don't want to make Marcy's already crippling guilt even worse.
• Lost Technology: The Plantars stumble upon a ruined robotics factory (yes, that one) in chapter 1. Marcy, of course, is ecstatic and eagerly learns as much as she can.
  • In chapter 13, Marcy and Polly discover the ruins of a research lab that houses a prototype Core.
  • A downplayed example in chapter 17: Marcy and company go to the arcade and find a section full of arcade cabinets, most of which no longer work and, according to an employee, were around even when his grandmother was a kid.
• Love Epiphany: Played with and defied by Sasha in regards to Marcy in chapter 21.
• Mage Marksman: With her alchemic shots and newly-minted musket, Marcy becomes this as of chapter 18.
• The Magnificent: It's revealed that Sasha and Anne also got nicknames. See Cosmic Motifs above.
• Middle Name Basis: Thanks to Sasha, everyone in Newtopia Castle refers to Marcy as "Lady Regina", much to her annoyance.
• The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: When Sprig uses a potion to de-age Hop Pop and Marcy (and later Sasha thanks to Polly) in an attempt to get them to take a day off and enjoy their time in Newtopia, not only do their mentalities revert along with their bodies, but so do their memories. Even Ram (who goes by Double when Marcy unintentionally uses her powers) reverts due to only knowing what Marcy knows.
• Oh, Crap!: Olivia has a mild version of this when she learns Marcy is thirteen. This was after she unloaded her complicated love life on her.
• Parental Neglect: When talking to Marcy after they reunite in Newtopia, Sasha realizes that the former's parents are emotionally neglectful to her.
• Pirate Episode: Chapters 5 and 6.
• Pirate Girl: The female axolotl Dia Mond is the captain of the pirate ship the Croaking Daughter and seems to be the only woman onboard - until Marcy and Polly, along with Sprig, are forced to join her crew in chapter 5. She becomes the (seemingly) only woman onboard again when the Plantars escape in chapter 6.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child: Given what's confirmed in canon, we can safely assume the prototype Core Marcy and Polly discover in chapter 13 has the consciousness of an amphibian uploaded to it. Going by the translated beeps it makes when it "speaks," the poor soul is not having a good time.
  Help
  Pain Help
  Danger
  Help
  ?
  Hurts
  Too Bright
  Help
  Kill
  Kill Me
  Thank You
• Press-Ganged: Pretty much the plot of chapter 5. While sailing on the sea in a converted fwagon, Marcy, Sprig, and Polly are captured by pirates and incorporated into their crew.
• Prison Episode: Essentially the premise of chapter 2.
• The Production Curse: Chapter 9 features an in-universe example called The Frog Prince.
• The Reveal: The ending scene of chapter 3 shows Grime had captured Sasha and is taking her to the eastern toad tower. Also counts as a Wham Shot.
  • Chapter 3's penultimate scene reveals a mind-control mushroom growing in the crawlspace of the fwagon.
  • Chapter 12's final scene shows that Anne has been receiving Marcy's letters to her and keeping them in the Calamity Box.
  • The third-to-last scene in chapter 16 reveals Apothecary Gary is in Newtopia building his own cult.
  • After chasing them through the streets of Newtopia and cornering them on a rooftop, Sasha discovers the person who had been stalking her and Marcy in chapter 17 is Anne, who reveals she knows about the prophecy, that Andrias is the true enemy (though she's unable to prove it), and that she's working with the olms.
• Sea Serpents: One interrupts the battle between the Newtopian Navy, Western Toad fleet, and the pirates of the Croaking Daughter in chapter 6. Physically, it's described as an Asian-style dragon with one eye.
• Self-Destruct Mechanism: The central computer of the ruined factory in chapter 1 initiates this after Frobo destroys all the defense turrets.
• Semiaquatic Species Sailor: Chapters 5 and 6 are full of them. Justified, since they take place on a ship at sea, and, well, this is Amphibia.
• Serial Escalation: The central conflict of chapter 6. It starts with the pirate ship Marcy and the Plantars are on catching a merchant ship; then Marcy notices someone signaling to another ship, realizing the "merchants" are just bait; then the merchants - really Newtopian marines - attack and board the pirate ship; and then not one, but two warships of the Western Toad fleet appear on the scene, each on a collision course with the pirate ship; and then the goddamn sea serpent attacks.
• Shout-Out: In the first chapter, Marcy successfully ports the game Boom - which has a title screen depicting the silhouette of a man holding up a shotgun - onto the main computer of the ruined factory.
  • Chapter 2 features three Newtopian guards named Ted, Tedd, and Teddy.
  • Starting from chapter 11 onward, the in-universe game The Saga of Ganon makes repeated appearances.
  • Sasha mentions a movie called Star Conflict
  • One of the game cabinets Marcy repairs in chapter 17 is called Barrel Thrower, which has a toad that hurls barrels down scaffolding at the player.
    • In the same chapter, Marcy plays a game that "... looked a lot like Tetra."
  • In Chapter 21, Valeriana refers to Sasha as Boscha before being corrected by Marcy.
  • Marcy suggests playing a game called Tailored Mecha in chapter 23.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Chapter 14 reveals Yunan and Olivia have been in a romantic relationship for ten years, but due to Amphibia's feudal politics and Olivia's classist brother, they can't be open about it, let alone get married.
• Super-Strength: An Alchemist Abroad confirms this is one of Sasha's powers.
• Time Skip: The story picks up almost two weeks (12 days) following the end of A Witch in Wartwood.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Sasha - as per canon - though this comes full force in chapter 15, where she instills the fear of being left behind in Sprig when he reunites with Ivy and Maddie, advising him to "take charge". She also plans to drive a wedge in the latter two's friendship with Marcy if she fails to win their favor.
• Trial by Combat: Sasha has to fight Grime in a duel over the destruction of Toad Tower. This comes after...
• Trial by Ordeal: To prove who she is and her innocence in the destruction of Toad Tower, Sasha is charged by Beatrix of the Eastern Toad Tower to retrieve Barrel's warhammer. Of course, both Beatrix and Grime neglect to tell her it's stuck in the back of a giant serpent.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: In chapter 21, Marcy and Sasha take a potion that transforms them into a frog and newt, respectively.
• "Wanted!" Poster: The Plantars come across a couple of these on their journey to Newtopia.
• Wham Episode: In chapter 13, Marcy and Polly discover the ruins of a robotics lab under Newtopia University that was developing the technology for the Core and held a deactivated prototype - which they reactivate by accident.
  • Chapter 17. See The Reveal above.
  • Chapter 22. See Heroic Suicide above.
• Whole Episode Flashback: Chapter 14 shows how Yunan and Olivia first met.
• Wooden Ships and Iron Men: Zigzagged in chapters 5 and 6. The Croaking Daughter and the "merchant vessel" are based on ships from the 18th century, but the ships of the Western Toad Tower are based on Japanese warships from the Warring States and Imjin War periods. Also, instead of cannons, their main armaments are ballistas.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: A de-aged Sasha, not remembering how she got in Amphibia, assumes that she and a similarly de-aged Marcy are victims of Alien Abduction and sets out looking for a spaceship to get home.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: Downplayed. When Marcy asks Headmaster Herringbone if she and Polly could take the remains of the prototype Core in chapter 13, the Headmaster agrees, quoting an adage from the biology department:
  You kill it, you get dibs.

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