Okay, what if I… Marceline bit her lip as she strummed a discordant note. Inventing a “new sound” was harder than she had originally anticipated. She played a second and third note, groaning as each one came out wrong and jarring. Like me, she thought with a humourless chuckle.
Yeah, so she wasn’t doing too great recently. Her boss, instead of noticing her potential like she’d hoped, fired her for playing bass on company time. Ash had been gone for over a month and she still mourned him. Well, not him, but the person she fell in love with. And her new haircut was terrible.
But she was determined to not let fate stop her.
As she strolled, playing note after uncomfortable note, the trees began to thin. They lost their lush brown hue and became lighter and striped, spreading apart and letting more sunlight in. Marceline hissed, pulling her gloves higher and tightening her hood. And as she glared at the treetops, making it known how unhappy she was with their change, she noticed they were…pink?
She floated up in an attempt to investigate. They were light pink, fluffy and definitely no longer leaves. In fact…
She ripped a strip away and carefully tasted it. Woah. Simon had told her of a fluffy sweet that was often pink…what was the name…candy floss? Was this it?
Simon, you did not exaggerate, Marceline thought with glee, eating the candy floss with vigour. As always, a stab of pain followed the memory, but she tramped it down with sugar.
A scream echoed through the woods.
Marceline started and dropped her handful of candy. “I-I’m sorry, I’ll stop ea-”. The woods were empty.
The scream repeated, louder, angrier and closer, this time followed by a yell and a “That’s no way to treat your future husband!”
That did it. Marceline ditched the trees and slung her bass over her shoulders where she could grab it if necessary. She darted through the forest, following the sounds of the struggle, until she came across a clearing.
In the centre a squawking penguin, holding up a burlap sack. Beside him, a hunched, cloaked figure groaned to himself as he knotted the top. “Stop… squirming…” He mumbled as a pink hand disappeared from the opening.
“Hey!” Marceline said, readying her weapon, “Is that- Is there a person in there?! Who do you think you are?!”
In response, the sack continued to squirm, accompanied by a muffled yell. Marceline began to see red - what the heck?! People around these parts were usually tame, but this guy was a straight up kidnapper!
“Who are you?!” The cloaked man yelled in response, his grating, obnoxious voice one of…slight recognition to Marceline. She shook her head, ridding whatever feeling just swept through her bones like ice.
“I asked you first!” She said. The figure began to float.
“I am the King of Ice.” He declared, blue hands emerging from the folds of his fabric and glowing white, “The Ice King. And you are interrupting my date!”
“D-date?!” Marceline cried incredulously as she dodged a blast of white, “This is romantic to you?!”
“The ladies like it when I’m dominant!” The shout was followed by a second blast, this one closer to Marceline.
“I guarantee you, they do not!” Marceline yelled. She launched off a tree and charged through the air to the man, brandishing her axe. The Ice King yelled and sent her hurtling away with a shot of cold air. Marceline shivered. The voice, the powers…
She hissed and ripped a branch from a tree, lobbing it at the Ice King. His hood fell back slightly, displaying pointed teeth in an outraged snare.
“Alright, I’ve had enough of this, lady,” He pointed a crooked finger at her, “Gunter! Attack!”
His penguin began to run at Marceline, but she couldn’t care less. Her whole body froze at one word.
“Gunter…” She muttered in horrified disbelief, not wanting to believe it. The Ice King froze, too.
“Yeah.” He said, “What, d’you not like my penguin-naming-abilities?”
Marceline squared her shoulders, tears already pricking the back of her throat, and darted at the Ice King, ripping the cloak from him. She didn’t care when her glove slipped, exposing her skin to the sun.
“Hey, my disguise!” He screamed, swatting at Marceline, but she couldn’t breathe, her eyes wide. Her grip on the fabric was iron-clad as she fought back the tears now threatening to overflow.
“Simon…” She whispered.
“Who?” Simon asked.
His hair was longer than ever. His nose, too. His eyes had lost all colour. His mouth was lined with sharp teeth. His clothes were messy and dirtied, blue robes clutching to his skeleton-esque form.
“Hey, lady, why you crying?” He asked, then; “Oh, I get it. You’re jealous I’m kidnapping PB over here and not you. Well, maybe if you stop trying to kill me I’ll give you a shot!” He waved a finger at her, his smile crooked and jagged, and such a non-Simon sentence was what finally snapped Marceline out of her trance. She yelled, the noise full of anguish and holding centuries of solitude.
“Woah, what’s up?!” Simon said with panic, but he wasn’t fast enough to stop Marceline as she punched the crown off his head.
He immediately fell to the ground, his protests dying at his lips as his eyes dimmed slightly.
“Simon!” Marceline sped after him, catching him moments before he fell. She embraced him tight, wrapping her arms around him and vowing never to let go again. She’d shatter the crown, melt it, eat it, whatever she had to do to keep her Simon safe, but right now she just needed to hug him.
Surprisingly strong arms shoved her away. “Woah, lady, Ice King only!” Simon said, disgusted confusion clouding his face.
“S-Simon…?” Marceline said.
“Look, I don’t know why you keep calling me that,” Simon said, replacing the crown. “But you tried to steal my crown and now I must take you DOWN!”
The air around him began to swirl as he commanded it, snow and ice following his arms. It grew and grew, taking Marceline by surprise for a moment. With a sweeping movement, Simon sent all the debris flying straight for her face.
In that moment, she realised she’d lost her Simon forever.
She realised Ice King had killed him.
She realised just how gone he really was.
And she screamed.
In her blinding grief, she transformed from a humanoid to a humanoid with grotesque monster wings. They beat once behind her, the air resistance toppling both Simon and his penguin into the air, far away from her. Her wings flopped back into disappearance as she sobbed.
The tears finally flooded her sight, rolling down her cheeks in mass and splashing against the ground. She clutched her chest, heaving sobs wracking through her body. Her father, her guidance, her best friend had tried to kill her. The man that had kept her alive for three hundred plus years had wanted her dead. And he was…kidnapping.
Muffled sounds of a struggle to her left.
“Oh my glob, I'm so sorry!” Marceline said as she flew over to the sack. With quivering fingers, she undid the knot and reached a hand out to help the kidnappee out.
She was the most stunning person Marceline had ever seen.
Her skin was a pale pink, lighter than the trees, but her hair was darker. It fell in a neat fringe just above her magenta eyes. She wore a rose miniskirt with white tights and a white tee with pink fringes. She was a few inches taller than Marceline and her figure was pronounced. Marceline was smitten.
“Thank you, so much.” She said, brushing off her clothes and steadying herself with Marceline’s shoulder. “He’s been getting way more invasive recently, but I never thought he’d resort to kidnapping.”
“He…” Marceline couldn’t really understand what she was hearing, “You know him?”
The stranger huffed, “Not by choice. He’s been asking me to go out with him for months. He goes between me and a few other princesses but apparently I’m his favorite.” She didn’t look too happy at that.
“Wait, princess?” Marceline asked, “I didn’t know Ooo had a monarch.”
The princess laughed, “Well, Ooo doesn’t. But we’re developing our own kingdoms, have been for centuries. I’m Princess Bubblegum, of the Candy Kingdom.” She paused for a moment, “But my first name’s Bonnibel.” She whispered the last section, like a closely-guarded secret, as she extended a hand.
Marceline shook it incredulously. It felt like gum, unsurprisingly, like the stuff her and Simon used to encounter, but frozen.
“Well, Bonnie,” Bonnie frowned slightly at the nickname, but a small smile began to appear at her lips, “He’s…not a bad guy.” Bonnie raised an eyebrow, “Okay, so maybe he’s a bad guy, but he…he used to be…he’s not…”
“Do you know him? Is he…family?” Bonnie’s voice was slightly apologetic, “It’s just, I kinda…heard you crying.”
Marceline bit her lip, staring at the spot in the trees where Simon and Gunter had fled.
“Simon was the closest I ever had to family,” She eventually said bitterly, “And I loved him dearly. But the Ice King…unfortunately, I am acquainted with him too.”
“What happened?”
Marceline opened her mouth then closed it again, dropping her head in sudden exhaustion. “I can’t begin to explain, not now.” She admitted, to which Bonnie nodded.
“Why don’t you come back to the Candy Kingdom with me?” She asked suddenly, “I can patch you up.” She pointed to the growing welt on Marceline’s arm from where she touched the sun.
Marceline brushed a finger against it curiously, hissing when it hurt to high Golb. “Yeah, that sounds good.” She said. Bonnie gestured to a path between the trees.
“This way, miss…?” She said and Marceline followed her.
“Abadeer,” She said, “Marceline Abadeer. Uh, Vampire Queen.”
“Are you just saying that because I’m royalty? Trust me, I won’t hate you if you’re not royalty, I’ve had this situation before-”
“No, no, I’m…actually the Vampire Queen. I think.”
“Wow. Okay then. This way.”
TEN MONTHS LATER
“Yo, Marcy, I did it!” Bonnie cried from the lab adjacent to her bedroom. Marceline grinned and swooped down to the lab setup. Bonnie gestured to three jars, two empty and the third bright green.
“Ugh, gross!” Marceline giggled as she watched it pulse, “What’s it do?”
“Marceline, I’ve explained this three times.”
“And I’ve zoned out three times!”
Bonnie sighed, but it held amusement, “With this, my people will be able to reproduce and I won’t have to make a new citizen every week.”
“Oh, cool, you’ll have more time for me!” Marceline grabbed Bonnie around the waist and pulled her into the air.
“Marceline!” She shrieked, “Put me down!”
“Well, if you say so, Princess.” Marceline flew into the bedroom and dropped Bonnie, unceremoniously, onto her bed.
“Marceline!” Bonnie yelled again, her smile really showing now, as Marceline floated beside her. She leaned down and kissed her quick.
“Oh, oh, I’ve been working on a song!” Marceline said in a sing-song voice, darting for her axe bass. Bonnie sat up, legs crossed, her attention directed only to Marceline. She loved that about her. No matter how many failed gigs, Bonnie would always pay attention to and listen to Marceline’s music. It was incredible - incredibly ridiculous - that something so soul-destroying had brought her someone so…perfect.
Marceline cleared her throat and strummed a note. “I don’t know what to do without you-”