No Matter What is an Amphibia story which serves as a spinoff to One Small Change. As such, it's part of 77Xfire's Fourth Light Series.
In a timeline where Marcy never found the Calamity Box on Anne's 13th birthday, she's forced to reveal to Anne and Sasha that her family's moving. Anne and Sasha vow to make sure their friendship with her (and her newfound relationship with Anne) doesn't break, no matter what.
The story began on May 18, 2022 and ended on June 1. It can be found here
and here. A three-act sequel titled A True Family is confirmed to continue the story.
No Matter What contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Marcy's mother and father are shown as negligent and uncaring of her due to their work. Under the influence, they beat her for dating Anne and almost kill her, which leads to their arrest and imprisonment.
- Alternate Timeline: Becomes one to One Small Change as by not getting the Calamity Box and going to Amphibia, Marcy has to face her family moving and gets together with Anne before that happens.
- Arc Words: The phrase "no matter what", which keeps popping up throughout the series, is repeated here as Anne and Sasha's way of assuring Marcy they'll always have her back, getting consistently name-dropped.
- Berserk Button: Anne slowly gets angrier when she hears how Marcy's parents nearly killed her, and the moment she learns about the knife, she attempts to bolt out the door and has to be restrained by her father.
- The Big Damn Kiss: Unable to tell Marcy how she feels, Anne instead opts to kiss her on the cheek. Marcy returns the favor by kissing Anne on the lips in front of her former parents.
- Blatant Lies: At the trial, the Wu's try to convince the jury that anything Marcy says are lies Anne told her to say. However, all the evidence and testimonies prove them wrong instantly.
- Brick Joke: In Chapter 1, Anne takes the twenty dollars her father just won from her parents' bet for herself. In the epilogue, she uses it to buy the Calamity Box and tells Marcy and Sasha that her dad paid for it, not her.
- Cooldown Hug: Anne embraces Marcy after seeing her injuries and Sasha joins in when she's informed of her friend's condition.
- Crush Blush: As per the norm for the series, Anne and Marcy display these.
- Curse Cut Short: Sasha nearly says "holy shit" upon seeing Marcy's wounds, only to be cut off by Mrs. Boonchuy.
- Dramatic Pause: Performed by a juror before passing the final verdict. Anne question why they're doing it.
- Everyone Can See It: Along with Sasha knowing Anne and Marcy have mutual feelings for each other, Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy admit they suspected Anne liked one of her friends. After Marcy kisses Anne at the trial, someone shouts "About time!", causing Sasha to remark how obvious it was.
- For Want Of A Nail: The entirety of Amphibia is negated since Marcy doesn't stop at the thrift store, thus never finding the Calamity Box on Anne's birthday. Later gets subverted when the girls find the box around a month later.
- Happily Adopted: By the end of Chapter 3, Oum and Bee gain custody of Marcy which was approved immediately after the trial against her parents.
- In Spite of a Nail: Despite not going to Amphibia, Anne and Marcy still become a couple. Plus, Anne and Sasha quickly go through some of the same Character Development they did in canon. And in the epilogue, the girls still manage to find the Calamity Box and open it.
- It's All My Fault: Sasha takes the blame for Marcy's parents beating her because she got Anne to ask her out. She fears that Marcy could've died because of her, but Oum tells her Marcy's parents were the ones who chose to do what they did and tells her everyone's responsible for their own choices including her.
- Laser-Guided Karma: For attempting to beat Marcy and kill her just for dating Anne, Mr. and Mrs. Wu are imprisoned on the charges of child neglect, child abuse, and attempted murder adding up to 10 years jailtime. Marcy then disowns them and as a giant middle finger, embraces her relationship with Anne by kissing her in front of them, leaving them in shock before they're taken away.
- The Matchmaker: Sasha displays this at Anne's birthday party as she tries to figure out how to get Anne and Marcy together. After learning Marcy's moving, she decides to just tell Anne how Marcy feels about her and to make the first move.
- Never My Fault: Mr. and Mrs. Wu deny all the accusations made against them at the trial about beating Marcy, saying she was making it up because Anne manipulated her to do so. The evidence blows this rebuttal out of the sky.
- Not Blood Siblings: Discussed and justified. Anne's parents adopting Marcy makes her and Anne technically sisters but since they aren't related by blood, it's okay for them to be girlfriends and they can legally get married one day so long as they prove it.
- Oblivious to Love: Anne shows herself to have been this since she never noticed how often Marcy always blushes around her.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Anne is normally pretty chill with everything. Thus, it comes as a shock to everyone to see how murderously angry she is once she learns about the abuse Marcy suffered from her parents.
- Open-Minded Parent: As per the main storyline, Oum and Bee show themselves to be accepting of their daughter being a lesbian and dating Marcy. Heavily subverted with the Wu's, as they nearly beat Marcy within an inch of her life just for dating Anne.
- Pet the Dog: Before Marcy moved away, none of the students at St. James cared since they only knew her from hanging out with Anne and Sasha. When word gets out that Marcy was almost murdered by her parents, they give her their unconditional support by sending her letters and show up outside the courthouse to cheer her on.
- Police Are Useless: Subverted. The two police officers who find Marcy after she ran away from home bring her to a hospital to treat her injuries, then to Anne's house so she can comfort Marcy and get Sasha to come too. They listen to her side of the story and encourage her to speak against her parents in court.
- Scars Are Forever: By the time Marcy's injuries have healed, the wound on her head from the beer bottle that broke and cut her leaves a scar that is kept concealed by her hair.
- Secret-Keeper: After Anne confesses her feelings to Marcy who reveals how her parents reacted to her coming out, she asks Anne, her parents and Sasha to keep their relationship secret from her parents and they agree.
- Shown Their Work: As Marcy points out at the end of Chapter 3, although she's Anne's sister by adoption now, they can still date and even marry. This is legal in the USA since all they have to do is provide proof they're not related by blood.
- Side Bet: Oum and Bee both ended up betting on which girl Anne developed a crush on, with Oum banking on Sasha and Bee on Marcy. Bee wins and gets 20 dollars as payment, which Anne takes.
- Title Drop: Both Anne and Sasha name-drop the story's name several times as reassurance that they'll always have Marcy's back.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: Same-sex version. Once Anne realizes that Marcy was almost murdered by her own parents just because they were dating, she is only stopped from running out the door to go attack them by the presence of the cops.
- What If?: Marcy doesn't find the music box and gets Anne to steal it so she can't move away? She has no choice but to move.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Anne is not pleased to learn that her parents were betting on who she had feelings for.
- You're Not My Father: or Mother, as Marcy stops calling Mr. and Mrs. Wu her parents once they're sentenced, thus freeing her from them.
