#/* they are both one of Ed's most prized possessions and something he would die of embarrassment if anyone discovered */

[not-that-dillinger]

Ed curled his fingers lightly around Jet's, the sensation of warm hands in his grounding. He turned to Jet, focusing intently on his eyes.

"I--" even at a whisper, his heart raced and his breath caught in his throat, his voice too loud in his own ears.

He wasn't sure how to answer, even if he could.

He'd never really been one for movies, even before he started at Encom, and now that he spent most of his day staring at a computer screen, staring at another screen during his free time was more likely to cause a migraine than help him relax. Today Ed needed the distraction.

He glanced at the stack of DVD cases on the TV stand. Most of them were an eclectic collection of telenovellas, Bollywood, French, Danish, Norwegian, and Icelandic films that had once belonged to Hjordis, though Ed did enjoy them when she convinced him to watch them with her. Of the ones that were his were the complete series of Columbo, Deep Space Nine, and the original Scooby-Doo series, The Dead Poets Society, The Goonies, The Princess Bride, Twister, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Jumanji, three different productions of Les Miserables, and several Miss Marple and Sherlock Holmes adaptations.

...Ed wasn't sure he had a favorite.

He had to answer Jet's question. Saying he didn't have one was just... weird.

...There was a Bollywood film he'd seen recently on a whim that reminded him of one of the ones Hjordis had liked.

Three Idiots is good, he gently tapped in Morse Code on Jet's hand.

Ed... didn't quite hear Jet, too lost to his panicked thoughts to really process anything, though warmth of Jet's forehead on his seemed to pull him out of it slightly.

He glanced around for the puzzle book, though even that didn't seem to successfully divert his attention this time.

[gunterfan1992]

What Became of Marcy and PB?

I thoroughly enjoyed the finale, but I was left with one nagging question that is still bothering me: what became of Marcy and PB? I’m not talking about their relationship status. (The epilogue of the episode makes it pretty clear that they ended up as a happy couple.) I’m talking about 1000 years in the future.

In an interview with TVLine, executive producer Adam Muto noted, "I don’t want to lay out their entire future ... but there are enough pieces there that you can kind of construct what their life will be like going forward.” If that’s the case, then let us follow the hints and try to figure out what became of our two favorite (quasi-)immortals.

Reader be warned: this post is full of half-baked conspiracy theories and cherry-picked data points, all assembled in a way that vindicates my theory that Marceline and Bubblegum are still alive in Ooo 1000+. I make no claim that this is 100% full-proof. I just don’t want to believe that they are dead!

Let’s start with the King of Ooo: BMO. After Beth and Shermy question the robot about what happened to Marceline, Bubblegum, Finn, and Jake, BMO responds that they “kept living their lives.” This, combined with the fact that Marceline no longer lives in her house and the Candy Kingdom is in ruins, suggests that the two are dead. But while this answer might seems obvious, it leaves a lot to be desired.

First off, Marceline’s cave-house being abandoned is not indicative of anything too major. Remember, she used to live in the Tree Fort before eventually abandoning it, too. By the time that Ooo 1000+ rolled around, she could have easily moved to another locale. In fact, I would argue evidence within the episode suggests that sometime (probably awhile) after the Tree Fort was destroyed, Marceline gave her cave-house to Finn, Jake, and BMO, and then likely moved in with PB (given that at the end of Stakes, Bubblegum offers to let her move into her castle, an offer which Marceline initially declines, but implies she might one day take up). Not only would this be thematically fitting, as it was she who “gave” Finn and Jake the Tree Fort in the first place, but it would also explain how some of Finn and Jake’s belongings found a home at the house (1) and how BMO came to be in possession of a few of Marceline’s items, like her DARE shirt, sunscreen, or Simon’s broken glasses. These were items that Marceline probably didn’t care that much about (2) and consequently left behind when she moved.

Perhaps a bigger issue is that Marceline, for all intents and purposes, can’t easily die—if at all. She is immortal, and while she has her weaknesses, it’s unclear if they truly are lethal weaknesses: we’ve seen her survive being exposed to sunlight (“Henchman”, “What Was Missing”), cut in half (Stakes, “Everything Stays”), bombarded with garlic (”Henchman”), and poisoned (Stakes, “May I Come In?”). You might be asking, ‘The previous Vampire King was killed? Could not someone have staked Marceline, too?’ Unlikely. We know from Stakes that the Moon—the vampire from whom Marceline derived her healing powers—could survive being staked in the heart (remember, she was only defeated when Marceline absorbed her vampiric essence, not when she was staked). Marceline absorbed the Moon’s power, therefore it follows that Marceline can’t die from being staked. Perhaps Marceline had her vampiric essence removed by Bubblegum, and she grew old and died, just like her fever dreams in Stakes? While this is certainly a possibility (we know that Bubblegum can remove the Vampiric Essence from Marceline, given that we have seen her do it), it negates the main themes in Stakes, which focused on Marceline coming to terms with her immortality and learning to love her lot in life. If Marceline can die even in her undead state, then all the suffering unleashed upon Ooo during Stakes was for naught, and that just doesn’t seem like something Adventure Time would do.

And what of Bubblegum? We know that Bubblegum’s biological age is correlated with her candy biomass (“Mortal Recoil”, “Too Young”). This means that her “rate of mortality [is] decouple[ed] … from chronological age,” heavily suggesting that she is ‘biologically immortal’. This concept—which is a real thing, fyi—does not mean that she can’t die, just that she won’t die from old age (3). Thus, she likely lived hundreds of years into the future after the age of Finn and Jake, probably into the Graybles 1000+ world. This is implied by the state of the Prizeball Guardian: it looks rather pristine, in comparison to pretty much the entirety of Ooo, suggesting it is a somewhat new creation. Given that the guardian was almost certainly created by Bubblegum (I mean, just look at it), and the guardian is new-looking, it suggests that Bubblegum herself was alive at least recently (4). (This is also suggested by admittedly non-canon drawings that Steve Wolfhard made clearly showing his belief that Bubblegum is alive in the Ooo 1000+ world.)

Given that Bubblegum cannot die readily from old age, the only other thing that could have killed her, I argue, would be some sort of calamity. Ooo 1000+ looks pretty wrecked, and was not the Candy Kingdom destroyed? Yes, and in both “Lemonhope” and the intro to “Come Along with Me”, we catch glimpses of the ruins! But, if one peruses the storyboard of “Lemonhope II”, one will notice Tom Herpich’s purposeful note that the kingdom is “abandoned (not bombed out)” [emphasis added]. Indeed, the kingdom looks overgrown and desolate, but not like the site of a war zone (e.g. the main citadel is mostly intact, and a number of skyskrapers are unscathed, unlike others we’ve seen that we know were caught in the crossfire of war). This, coupled with the fact that the Prizeball Guardian exists suggests that, rather than having her kingdom extinguished in a war, Bubblegum loaded up her citizens into the Guardian, put them in what is effectively cryogenic sleep, and then abandoned her old realm (5). Why? We’ll come to that in a second.

But before we jump into that, let me entertain the idea that Marceline and Bubblegum are dead and living together somewhere in the afterlife, say, the 50th Dead World. While a sweet idea, it is complicated by the fact that Bubblegum is the embodiment of the candy elemental, and will almost certainly be reincarnated in the future. [I now enter into headcanon territory] Also, Marceline is the daughter of the Lord of the Nightosphere, a deathless entity. Given how much he wanted Marceline to “take over the family business” (“Daddy’s Little Monster”), do you think he’d really let her succumb to a mortal’s demise? Almost certainly, he would have had a few words with Death. While this is extrapolation beyond the text, I think it’s worth thinking about.

Now, let us jump back into the main discussion by considering BMO’s collection of Ooo memorabilia. Eagle-eyed viewers will note that BMO’s trove of junk is made up almost entirely of bits and pieces from the show’s past: including Finn and Jake’s clock, a King of Ooo figurine, Simon’s glasses, Carol’s elf drawings, Ice King’s drums, and a collection of princess crowns. While a handful of the items almost assuredly belonged to Marceline (e.g. Simon’s glasses, sunscreen the DARE shirt) and Bubblegum (e.g. one of the crowns), there is one item of immense sentimental value missing: Marceline’s ax bass. Surely, if BMO were to keep sentimental reminders of previous friends (notice, BMO has both the shattered remnants of the Finn and Jake clock, as well as Jake’s favorite cup, which has been glued back together) the robot would have kept the vampire queen’s most prized possession? Its absence suggests one of four things: a) Marceline is still alive and in possession of the bass, or Marceline was killed and the bass was b) buried somewhere (a la Finn’s robot arm or as a grave marker), c) carted off by scavengers, or d) returned to the Nightosphere. All are viable possibilities, but the fact that BMO tracked down some rather valuable items (GGGG’s groovy Martian headgear, the crowns of power, etc.), it seems strange that the robot could not have also tracked down the bass, given that BMO liked Marceline (“Ketchup”) and probably knew how much the instrument meant to her (based on their interactions in “What Was Missing” and “Ketchup”).

Given all the issues above, there is one answer that I believe solves the mystery: Marceline and Bubblegum are both alive, but have chosen to abandon the portions of Ooo that we know. Perhaps they are off exploring on their own, or perhaps they have left Earth far behind. Why would Bubblegum abandon her realm? Simple. She was ‘tired’. She expressed these exact same sentiments in “Varmints”, only after her citizens had ‘voted her out of office’. Perhaps by the time Ooo 1000+ rolls around, Bubblegum was once again exhausted by the duties of office (having ruled for 1800 years), but decided to leave on her own terms. Simply abandoning her kingdom would have caused it to quickly collapse (cf. “The Pajama War”), and every time she created and/or appointed a successor, they turned into a tyrant (”Too Young”, “Goliad”, “Bonnibel Bubblegum”). Thus, the only option left was to load up her citizens in a device that would keep them safe until she eventually returned at some point in the future to resume control of her realm.

But could not the Prizeball Guardian simply be a defense mechanism in case the kingdom is attacked and/or Bubblegum is killed? Possibly, but cryogenically preserving candy citizens would do them no good if their creator—the one who could wake them up and then take care of them after some calamity—was gone (consider, for instance, that during times of war or natural disaster, governments don’t load up refugees onto buses, anesthetize them, and then drive them around in circles for decades). Indeed, the Prizeball Guardian seems less like a disaster-evasion project and more like a stasis chamber to keep the candy people safe until some future time. The storyboard for “Graybles 1000+” seems to back this up: when Crunchy is removed from stasis, he mumbles, “What time is it? Did it work?” In other words, it is as if Crunchy was expecting to be displaced in time and to be revived at some future date, rather than simply ‘saved’ (7).

The theory that Marceline and Bubblegum are still out there sidesteps many of the problems we have considered. It explains why some of Marceline’ stuff was picked up by BMO, whereas other items of greater sentimental value (e.g. the ax bass) are missing. Likewise, it nicely explains what happened to the Candy Kingdom. But where did Marceline or Bubblegum go? That is the real question. Perhaps they hopped down to the Nightosphere (unlikely), or perhaps they set off to find parts unknown. Maybe the went to Mars. (There’s even substantial evidence that they might be in the finale’s intro sequence!) The Oooniverse is pretty much unlimited, meaning that so too are the possibilities. Given that the Prizeball Guardian was designed to one day ‘wake up’ all the candy citizens, it is likely that Bubblegum (and Marceline) will one day return to Ooo, but for now, they are outies.

Still not convinced? Think I’m grasping at straws? Then let me present one final piece of evidence. Into 2016, Cartoon Network released a bonus video on their YouTube channel that features Marceline singing a song about “someone kind of special” to her. This song is a cover/reworking of the shows ending theme, "Come Along with Me”, in which Marceline lovingly intones:

Run away with me And the poltergeists and ghouls. We can wander through the darkness And play by our own rules.

Run away with me To a cavern shaped like home Where we'll build our own forever And never dance alone.

[emphasis added]

While rife with similes and rich language, the lyrics of the songs are pretty easy to decipher: Marceline cares deeply about someone and yearns to literally run off with them, living forever in a state of happiness. And what’s the name of this song? Why, the “Happy Ending Song”! While one could argue that the song isn’t canon and thus shouldn’t be considered as evidence (6), I think it nicely foretells what Marceline and Bubblegum‘s future holds. For one thing, the song is a play on "Come Along with Me", which in many ways is canonically 'prescient', as it is the song that plays during the montage depicting the future of Ooo's citizens. By alluding to and building off this tune, I would argue that "Happy Ending Song" arguably absorbs some of the original’s 'prescient' nature post facto (8). For another, the very last shot shows two feminine figures silhouetted against the setting sun, holding hands. Notice that this shot follows the lyrics and Marceline’s dialogue, subtly implying that it is depicting some future event. Ultimately, both the imagery in the video and the lyrics themselves hint heavily that Marceline and her paramour (which the series finale finally confirms to be Bubblegum) end up living together happily, free from the cares of modern society, as they “build [their] own forever” [emphasis added]. This nicely echoes what Marceline told Bubblegum at the end of Stakes: “Now, I guess we get to hang out together forever.”

Long story short: I believe that Marceline and Bubblegum are still alive and kicking, but have left Ooo far behind.

Footnotes

1. For instance, the the weird diving bell that used to hang from the Tree Fort is on the porch. While Marceline certainly lived in the Tree Fort at some point in the past, it's not entirely clear why she would've hauled this item all the way to her house and then abandoned it. It's more likely that it was scavenged by Finn and Jake, who arguably had a much more sentimental attachment to the old fort.

2. But Marceline loved Simon like a father! Why would she leave behind his glasses? Likely because these glasses were the ones that Simon wore while he and Marceline wandered the wasteland (you can tell because the left lens is broken). When he was returned to his normal state, he likely got new glasses, and these older ones were forgotten about.

3. While Bubblegum fully admits in “Goliad” that she will likely one day die, it is heavily implied that she believes her death will come from some horrible accident (like the Lich possession), rather than just old age. Furthermore, Bubblegum and Marceline’s discussions about mortality in Stakes suggests that Bubblegum would outlive Marceline were the latter to turn into a mortal. Remember, that in Farmworld, Marceline lived 1000 years as a mortal before she was killed by the Mutagenic Bomb. This means that Marceline as a mortal in Ooo Prime would likely live 1000 after turning mortal again (with the 1000 years she lived as a vampire not counting, since she was essentially ‘stuck’ at age ~20). Putting these puzzle pieces together suggests that Bubblegum believes she can easily live another 1000 years.

4. Notice also that in “Graybles 1000+”, the interior of the Guardian is dark but not dusty or abandoned. In fact, it looks quite well-lived in (and the storyboard for that episode, described as “cozy”); this suggests that someone was living here not too long ago. Given Bubblegum’s love of knowledge (note that books are strewn about as if they were recently read), and the portrait of the candy kingdom on the wall, it is heavily suggested that Bubblegum herself was the one who was occupying the space.

5. You might asking: what about Neddy and his love of the Candy Kingdom tree? Is not the tree dead in “Lemonhope”? Yes, but you will also notice that on the Prizeball Guardian, there are trees very similar to that which grew out of the Kingdom’s main tower.

6. The song was neither featured in nor written for a specific episodes, per Adam Muto. However, because Muto is very good about confirming/denying what is and is not canon (e.g. “The Adventure Time comics are as canonical as a Funko Pop”), the fact that his answer does not immediately decanonize the song is notable. Furthermore, the song is sung by Olivia Olson (that is, the official voice actress of Marceline), and the video even features new footage (albeit, mostly composed of flash-edited scenes from “Marceline’s Closet”).

7. Also, consider how hopelessly bleak and cruel it would be for the Prizeball Guardian to have been destroyed in “Graybles 1000+” if Bubblegum isn’t around anymore. The candy citizens would either sleep for eternity, or die a la 2001: A Space Odyssey. Neither fits with the arguably bittersweet (but certainly not mean-spirited) world of Adventure Time.

8. Perhaps this is why Marceline ends her song by noting it is an example of how "totally deep" she can be.

* As an aside, I also like the idea that Bubblegum, before she left, gave her crown to BMO (after all, were PB to have effectively abandoned her post, she would have no longer needed the crown), jokingly anointing the robot the “One True King of Ooo”, or something like that. It’s fitting that a joke like this would be taken up by BMO and turned into a veritable legend. It would also serve as one last dig against the charlatan King of Ooo, whom we know Bubblegum hated.

[thank-you-for-the-vampire-money]

DESPERATE PRAYERS

This is for @caplansteverogers writing disney challenge! <3 I am SO EXCITED!

A/N: I got inspired!  My prompt was the song “GOD help the outcasts” From Hunchback of Notre Dame

Preserum!Steve x plussize!reader

Word count: 1316

Summary: With the recent death of his mother, Steve feels so alone.  He desperately prays for someone to understand and love him like his mother did.

Warnings: this whole thing deals with Christianity and Catholicism, if you have a problem with that this is no the fic for you.  Death, sadness, description of chronic and mental illness, suicidal thoughts and depression, fucked up society.  Again, it’s dark, guys.

(GIFs not mine)

The sound of the alarm clock went off, nearly giving Steve a heart attack.  Almost in a literal sense.  Steve groaned, trying to get up, but fuck his back hurt so badly!  Steve loved sleeping.  It was the closest to death he could get.  But once he woke up, he hated it.  His back would ache, making it hard to breathe, sometimes it would get so bad, the first thing he would do in the morning, was try and stop his asthma attack.  For once, he was lucky and didn’t have to struggle to stay alive that morning.

“c’mon , punk, we both gotta get up,” Bucky yawned, chucking a pillow at Steve’s face

“If you care to remember, Buck, I don’t have a job,” he huffed, trying his best to stretch

“Yeah, but it’s Sunday, I’ve got errands to run and you’ve got 8am Mass,” Buck reminded, grabbing his towel to go shower, “and I found your Rosary!  You left it on the porch,”

A wave of relief washed over Steve as he heard that.  He had a panic attack the other day when he couldn’t find it, nearly landed him in the hospital… again.  His mother had given that to him for his 18th birthday a couple months ago.  She had it specially made for him.  It was the most precious and prized possession he had… the only he had left of his mother other than a few pictures.

Sarah also gave Steve her wedding ring, in hopes that he could give it to the love of his life.  He scoffed at the idea of someone loving him enough to marry him.

Steve walked down the street, pulling his hat down father over his ears and his scarf over his nose.  Why did New York have to be so fucking cold?!

He did his best to ignore all the hateful posters hung around the streets.  For the most part, he was able to ignore the stupid sterilization and euthanasia posters, but there was one, hung in the window of the building right across his church.

Some people were born to be a burden to others

That one always hurt him.  Maybe it wasn’t something he could fix, or work himself out of… maybe he truly was just a burden.

He was always causing his mother stress; she worked all day then had to take care of him all night.  And there was Buck… Bucky was always getting him out of trouble, making him work all day, taking up his time, resources… Buck can’t even go out a full night with him there.

Steve knelt at the altar, clutching his Rosary in his fists, his knuckles turning white.  He recited the prayers he had so diligently emerized, tears running down his face.  Very rarely had he ever prayed so hard.  He had only ever done this when he first found out about why his father was no longer with him, when he met Bucky, and when his mother had died...

“Lead all s-souls.. I-into… into hea-heaven… especial-ly tho-ose who nee-ed thy m-mercy..” Steve quivered, one word away from breaking down.  Holding back his heaving tears was irritating his lungs and the bad feeling in his heart made his chest hurt.  Keeling made his back hurt and his nerves were getting to him as his hands shook.

With a loud cry of hurt, he fell to his face in reverence.  “Please, I know you’re up there and I hope you’ll listen to someone like me…” Steve cried, his face turning red as he started hiccuping and wheezing.  “I’ve been told my whole life I was worthless, that I should kill myself… Ever since I was barely in kindergarten I was told that.  My mother was told to get rid of me, to abandon me and live her life… But she never did.

“She was the only one who loved me and she told me you loved me too… so I’m begging you, please… please please please… I just need someone like her in my life again… someone who will love and understand me…”.

Steve was sobbing and crying to hard he had given himself an asthma attack.  He was gasping and gagging, but nothing was entering his lungs.  He panicked, dropping his Rosary to frantically search through his pockets for one of his special cigarettes.  He found one, but- “SHIT!” he gasped, finding that he had left his lighter back at the apartment.

After a minute, he began to feel faint, lying down on the floor as he accepted his doom.  His already horrible vision went dark as he felt himself slipping.  He reached over, he was going to die, he was going to die holding the memory of his mother.  He couldn’t even feel his fingers (not that he could in any other circumstance), let alone the beads.

“C’mon, c’mon…” a soft, muffled voice called, sitting him up and placing the cigarette by his lips.  Was this an angel?  Was he gonna wake up dead?

The soft glow of a lighter caught his attention as the cigarette was being lit for him.  He exhaled whatever little air was in his lungs, took the deepest breath he could.  He held it for a few seconds until his vision cleared… sort of.  Then he exhaled through his nose.  

Well… he wasn’t dead… he wasn’t sure if he was thankful or upset about that.

“Are you okay?” the lady who helped him asked.

Well he may not have died, but he was definitely saved by an angel.  She was tall, her figure full, bigger than other girls.  But her smile accentuated by rosy, round cheeks, was much kinder than those other girls’ too.  Her hands were careful and gentle as they touched him, holding his hand gently as he tried to get his breathing right.

He nodded softly, taking another breath from the cigarette.  “You saved my life…” he gasped, his face flushing.  He wasn’t sure if he was turning red because of the pretty girl who was willing to save his life… or the fact that he just went two minutes without oxygen.

“Yeah?” she hummed, “why wouldn’t I?”

“Well, I mean… I would figure no one would want to save save a crazy asthmatic,” he sniffed, wiping the tear stains off his cheeks, “it would be one less flaw in the gene pool,”

“Maybe someone would want to save a crazy asthmatic… if they were one too,” she smiled, helping sit up against the wall to support his back.

“Y-you’re… you’re asthmatic too?” he asked, looking up at her

She nodded with a kind smile on her face.  “And even if I wasn’t, I would still save you; you’re a human being with worth,” she said, standing up to get the Rosary he had dropped.

“I’m not worth anything…” he sighed, pulling his knees to his chest, starting to cry again.

“DON’T SAY THAT!” she shouted at him, “you are a living, breathing human being, with a heart and soul… you are priceless,”.

“How can you say that, you don’t even know me,” he countered, looking up at her.  He almost felt angry.  Was thing some cruel joke?  Was she going to make a sick punchline about this?

“I don’t have to know you.  I can love a human for who they are…” she said, sitting back down with him.  “I’m (Y/N), by the way,” she smiled, holding out her hand.

“Steven,” Steve smiled back, wiping away his last tear as he shook her outstretched hands.

“Oof!  You’re hands are cold!” (Y/N) giggled

“Sorry… there always like that,” Steve blushed in embarrassment.

“If you’re hands are this cold, you must be miserable out in the November air,” she hummed, seeing the snow build up on the stained glass windows, “do you want me to walk you home?”

Steve smiled brightly.  “Yeah… yeah, I’d love that,”

TAGLIST:

@paranoid-borderline-insane @buckyshattergirl @bitchy-tacos @httpmcrvel