I'll Paint My Face In Your Colors (Amphibia x The Owl House)

Marcy excitedly pulled out her phone to make sure she was seeing straight. Sure enough, the box on the shelf just behind the window she was looking into was the very same one she'd read about at the library. She glanced back down at her phone and started texting one of her best friends, eight years running.

"I think I just found the perfect birthday present for Anne…"

The three BFFs huddled around a wooden table, ready to keep living up Anne's 13th birthday. Sasha had clearly taken Anne around town, goofing off and probably getting snacks too. Marcy felt a bit hurt that she wasn't invited, but had sort of come to expect it. When it was up to Sasha, Marcy rarely got invited to things. But she still understood, that's just how friends are. None of that mattered now; it was Anne's special day and it would be selfish to make it about her.

Soon enough came Marcy's turn to give her gift. She was crossing her fingers, hoping neither of them asked her where she got the item, as it'd be a pretty crummy look. It was a box with strange carvings adorned on its sides that Marcy assumed were from a made-up language system, similar to the one found in her favorite multimedia franchise, Lord Of The Loot™. Bizarrely, there was also a little red bird engraved in the box among the unfamiliar shapes.

"What is it, Mar Mar?"

"Ohhh just a lil trinket I picked up earlier…"

"This is a really weird gift, even for you Mars. I took Anne out on this whole crazy adventure today and you just got her some shady nerd box? Leaves a little to be desired, don't cha think?"

"Hey, lay off, Sash. She's doing her best."

With an eye roll from Sasha and an eager look on Marcy's face, Anne finally opened it. An overwhelming flash of white light burst outwards through the girls and into the city skyline. Just as quickly as it appeared, the light vanished back into darkness, taking the girls with it.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Marcy awoke, finding herself surrounded by the damp granite walls of a prison cell. Glancing around, she was met with unusual creatures with bizarre, inhuman properties. Just like her, they were also confined to their own cells. Her captivity took the shape of a massive panopticon, with cells looming above and below her, seemingly as far as the eye could see. To her left was a hulking peppermint-blue monster, with five humongous eyes scattered across its head. Looking over to her right, she observed what looked to be a walking golf ball with orange hair and a big nose. She was shouting through her bars about 'the owpwessa' and 'wising up against the system'. All these new faces and entities had captured her imagination, so she'd just reach into her bag and get out her trusty notebook to-

That's weird, she never goes anywhere without her notebook. Its absence was felt like a phantom limb. In fact, she was stripped of all her belongings besides the clothes on her back. Her heart rate shot up as she scrambled to try to recover any of the things she had with her just moments ago. Well, it was probably a little longer than a moment, but who knows how long she had been out for? Maybe if she measured the positioning of the sun through her cell bars, she could-

"Hey cat person, how'd you get out of your cell?"

"Oh, no, no, no. I'm not a cat" …. "Also, I'm not a criminal"

"not yet, you're not!"

People on the outside? Marcy had only been conscious in the prison for a few minutes but she had already figured it wasn't her scene. This could be an opportunity to get the heck out of here, but she'd also settle for having someone to talk to.

"Hello??? Hey, hi! Is someone there?? Over here!"

Into her field of view stepped what seemed to be the first human Marcy laid her eyes on since she woke up. A plucky Hispanic teen, likely about the same age as her, carrying a long wooden rod with an engraving of an owl on the top. Under their shoulder, in a brown satchel, Marcy recognized the book they were carrying: book one in the mainline Azura series. Accompanying them was a significantly shorter bipedal furry creature, wearing a skull upon its cranium. Whether it was armor, some sort of fashion accessory, or a secret third thing, Marcy had no idea. Wearing didn't seem like exactly the right word, but Marcy wasn't knowledgeable enough on the creature's anatomy to pick a more appropriate word. The immediate cuteness of the specimen also jumped out to Marcy as serotonin shot through her brain.

"Is that Azura? Ohmigosh I did not think I'd find another Azura fan here of all places. I mean, I just got isekai'd to this place like five minutes ago and I already found a kindred spirit. That is so cool you are probably so cool Hey my name's Marcy hello hope you like me :3"

"Oh Titan, there's two of them." the little fluffy one mumbled.

"Woa woa woa! hold your horses there, partner. Marcy, you said? Delighted to meet you, I'm Luz Noceda! And down there is the cutie-est patootie this side of the Mississippi, my buddy King!"

"What did any of that mean?" King asked

"Oh the Mississippi river is a place on earth and the expression Luz is saying is an idiom that really means you're the cutest patootie in a very very very large area." Marcy explained to King.

"Ok."

…

…

"So uh, you like Azura too?" Marcy asked, hoping Luz would take this as an opportunity to nerd out.

"Oh I could totally go on for hours about Azura, believe me, but I'm a little pressed for time. We're trying to find King's crown so he can go back to being The King of Demons but we probably got enough time to break you out as well."

"..King of Demons?"

"Yup" Luz affirmed.

"And don't you forget it sister" King sassed.

"Prommy you'll come back for me?"

"Prommy. I'm not leaving another Azura fan behind :3"

As the two walked off, Marcy could hear the funny little racoon? talking to her new friend. Actually, it just now occurred to her that she never asked what kind of animal this "King" character actually was, if he was one at all.

"She seems alright but if she calls me cute again, I'll push her into the boiling sea."

"Oh King you don't mean that! Now come on, let's get you that crown!"

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thump

Thump

Anne yawned and slowly sat up, looking around at the grandiose throne room she found herself in. A shadow cast over her from a humongous throne, made of velvet fabric and dense metals. The room was illuminated by a series of torches attached to support beams but an eerie darkness was nonetheless present. The thought of taking a selfie on the chair crossed her mind. How many other kids at Saint James would be able to say they sat in a throne fit for a real king? Speaking of, she wondered if there was a real king who would maybe be coming back soon? Should she find a place to hide? What would happen if they found her? She felt her heart pounding, much much louder than usual.

A puny, ruby demonesque creature barged into the throne room. Surely they couldn't be the king? They're definitely compensating for something with that throne. Behind them followed two people in matching white cloaks and masks resembling those of plague doctors.

"Who are you and what are you doing here? Guards, seize her!" The creature's voice was fittingly grating. Obnoxious, even.

"I don't know, dude. Why'd you bring me here?"

The creature scoffs at this remark. "You, child, are being rude and disrespectful and ought to learn your place. I'm sure a residence at the conformitorium will fix that right up. Take her away."

Kikimora tried clicking her fingers to command the guards but couldn't figure out how to. Anne watched on in mild amusement. The guards shrugged at each other, trotted past their superior officer and towards Anne, knocking her out with one concussive blow to the head.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anne awoke once more in an unfamiliar locale. Her luxurious throne room had been replaced with a drab and airy prison cell. Around her, other cells were filled up with countless peculiar liveforms completely disparate from Earth's fauna.

'Only been here for five minutes and already got myself in trouble. Yeah that sounds about right.' Anne ruminated.

Although Anne figured a place like this was bound to be rowdy, the noise level seemed exceptionally loud, even for creepy monster jail. Anne peaked over to see what the ruckus was. Three figures ran across the prison floor: an older, pale woman with extremely long hair, a teenager and some sort of tiny dog-monster were running past the cells, eventually stopping at a cell directly below her. When they returned to Anne's field of vision, a fourth figure was with them: Marcy Wu.

"MARRRRCCCYYYY!!!" Anne shouted.

No reaction; Marcy was seemingly immersed in her conversation with the mystery teen.

"MMMAARRRRCCCCYYYYY!!!!!"

…

"MMMAARRRCYYYY-cough-YYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!"

"MAARRR..."

Her own voice was drowned out by the sound of footsteps below. Marcy and Luz quickly glanced over to the source of the sound, and then scrambled onto the broom handle. Quickly shuffling into view came about 30 guards.

As Anne peered down below, intently watching as the guards came around the corner in an almost rhythmic pattern, she was painfully unaware of Marcy and her new friends/rescuers climbing onto their broomstick, grasping onto it, bracing themselves, then flying off. Without her.

Anne began frantically shaking the bars, shouting Marcy's name at the top of her lungs until she ran out of air. Coughing from blowing out her voice and on her knees, Anne watched her only connection to the world she knew slip through her fingers and into the clouds.

Shortly after her last cry out to Marcy and the dust settled, the gravity of her situation began to set in. Negative thoughts darted through her head at what seemed to be light speed for what seemed to be hours. Eventually, a particularly annoying voice rang out from beyond her view.

"So…. you know the other human?"

A shadow cast from round the corner. Whoever it was looked slightly taller than her, and they were getting closer. Two people emerged from the corner: a cloaked fighter wearing an intimidating golden mask and a thin pale woman, who resembled the woman who had just ran past, peering over them.

"Just keep walking, Golden Guard." the older person commanded in a stern tone.

"B-But I can handle this! It'll be easy!"

"The Emperor has given the duty to someone else. You clearly are not best qualified."

"Ughh. Fine."

The Golden Guard turned to Anne to observe her one last time before they moved on. 'She looks distressed but not scared? Weird… I'll be back for you…Maybe Lilith is right.' They sighed and walked on, followed by the older figure, presumably Lilith.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Owlbert soared in the air with Eda, King, Luz & Marcy on his back, Marcy felt compelled to thank her rescuers.

"Thank you so much for grabbing my journal!!! This is so cool I can't believe I actually traveled to another world!"

"I still can't believe two humans stumbled their way into the boiling isles and onto my palisman on the same day! I mean what are the odds of that happening!" Eda proclaimed, followed by a loud chortle.

"What I wanna know is your whole deal gurl! How'd you get here? How was your life back home? Did you have a lot of friends? Did you have a partner? Did anyone else come with you?? GAH! Tell me everything!! I need to know!!!"

Luz grabbed Marcy's shoulders and gave her an enthusiastic shake. This was a new feeling to Marcy, as neither of her friends back home ever cared this much about her personal life and interests. It was a nice change of pace.

"Well back home I really only had two friends. They were there with me when I opened up the box that brought us here. Their names are Sasha and Anne, and I'm gonna search the Isles far and wide to make sure they're all safe!"

Marcy tried to show off with a heroic glare into the sunset, but only ended up losing her balance and falling partially off the palisman handle. Thankfully, Luz caught her and dragged her back up.

"¡Dios mío! You gotta be more careful, Marcy!"

"Yea I get that a lot…"

"Well all that stuff about your friends is admirable kid, but where ya gonna stay?" asked Eda.

"Could she stay at the owl house with us? She could make all the chores go twice as fast and she could bunk with me!! Well, if she wants to, I mean."

After taking a moment to think, Eda responded. "Well I mean, two unpaid interns are better than one, so whaddya say kiddo?"

Marcy weighs her options. Without a stable place to stay and make plans, she'd never find her missing friends. This 'Eda' character seemed a little sketchy but she had a gut feeling that Eda was overall trustworthy. As for Luz, they seemed nice enough and Marcy was impatiently waiting for the first opportunity to bring Azura back up in conversation. Hopefully, bunking with Luz would be the start of a beautiful friendship.

"I'll do it!"

Lumarcy the world needs this.