Before the kingdom (Bubbline)

Stillness in Woe

Marcy's vision was a bit blurry when she first woke up. She saw some green things, some grey-ish things, and something...pink? Once her vision focused, she saw the green was grass and tree leaves, the grey was cement, and the pink was-

She almost screamed before the girl covered her mouth. Well, she still screamed it was just muffled.

The girl used sibilant sounds to calm down Marcy's yelps. Simon started to wake up.

"Marceline...calm down. It's okay, I will not hurt you..." The girl's voice was like young, fresh silk.

"Huh?" Simon lifted his head. "Aah! Who the heck are you?"

The girl rolled her eyes. "Oh geeze, now he's awake. Ya see what you did, Marcy ?"

Simon sat up and held Marcy. "You know this girl?"

"Nuh-uh."

"Uggh, I was kinda hoping I could talk to her before he woke up. Gosh, things can't even go my way for sh-"

"Who are you?" Simon interrupted.

"Well, I still haven't decided on a name yet. Stupid, stupid, stupid." She facepalmed her forehead with each 'stupid'. She seemed way too calm for a girl recently alone in the middle of all this wreckage.

"Huh? W-What well th-then what?"

They were freaking out. Well, not the gummy week-old. "Oh gosh. Guys. Just calm down. Okay?"

They were both breathing heavy. They stopped talking and struggled to control their breathes. They thought they were alone, and suddenly wake up with some girl sitting mere inches away from them? And she seemed so calm and collective. What little lonely girl was like this in such a rubbled place? What???

"Okay, I'm alone. Or, I was until I found y'all. You don't know me, obviously. But I know you guys very very well. "

"Where did you come from?" Simon asked.

"Oh gosh. That's a really long story."

The girl told them everything. About how she was just gum on a brick wall, and under a table, and even on the very book they carried with them now! She said how she ran and ran, and that's the only reason she caught up to them in a few days while they'd taken a week to walk to this location. She said how she was literally a week old even though she looked the same age as Marcy. She said how she was going to choose her own name, but, since she still hasn't decided, was going to let them choose. She said how much she had tried to help them. She told them to think of the 'strange gum' that was around any time they found something they needed. The soup, the sword, the book. As a matter of fact, she suggested they try and open the book now.

"Okay yeah..." Simon started, "just let me and Marceline talk in private for a second."

"Kay. As you wish."

"Thanks." They got out of the tent and Si guided Marcy to about six or seven feet away from the gummy girl. "Did you hear what she said?!" Simon hissed.

"Oh trust me, I heard everything she had to say."

"No no, I mean about being created from the green jazz. Rember what I said about it?"

Marcy turned to look in the gum's direction. How bad could she really be? "But Si-"

"No, Marceline !"

"But Simon I-"

"Quiet down Marcy. It's a conversation between just us, okay?"

She nodded. They failed to see how good her hearing might be.

"Now, Remember what I said?"

She looked at the girl again.

"We don't know if she's evil, but the big chances are that she is. We both gotta be on the lookout for this little one. Okay?"

She sighed. "Alright, Simon."

They walked back over to the gum. "Okay look little-miss-bubblegum-"

"Umm, that wasn't one of the name choices I provided. "

"I don't care, we'll pick one for you later. Now look, we're tryin' to get Marceline back home. If you'll excuse me, I think I can scrape the gum off that book of ours. "

"I know what you guys are doing with that book. I heard all that you talked about on the way here."

"Uhh... okay. Just stay there and I guess Marceline can-"

Marcy ran up to the girl, "Oh finally a girl I can talk to! I haven't talked to one in ages."

He mumbled: "Yeah, an evil girl isn't the kind you want."

The gum girl heard what Simon said and whispered something in Marcy's ear. Marcy gasped, looked at Simon and said : "oh, Simon, don't we all have a little evil in us?"

And that was the smartest thing he would ever hear an eight-year-old say in his entire adult life.

He knew she was talking about the crown. He mumbled 'holy shit' in utter shock. "I mean uhhm, I'll just be over here," he walked to the book in its' frozen glory and say next to the tent.

Marcy suddenly spoke as if she were shy, "Umm, hi, again." She chuckled nervously, "so you sorta saw my dad the day he left...well at least his men or-"

"Wanna pick my name now?"

Marcy lit up. "Ooooo, ok so I like really really like Anastasia and Bonnibel. Like, those are my favorites!"

Simon listened to them as he had trouble getting the gum off. "Ack, darned thing won't...won't budge."

The girls had gotten quiet for a few seconds.

The gum was suddenly looking over Simon's shoulder. "Need help?"

He yelped in surprise, "wow, you sure like scaring the living daylights outta people huh?"

She laughed. "Do ya want my help or..."

"Well I kinda got it." He was pulling some off that was still a bit sticky. "But thanks." He accidentally ripped some of the pages when he yanked the remaining gum out. He spoke too soon. "Aw, crap!"

He dropped the book and it landed on a random page.

"Look, I'll still help."

"No no, I got it." He picked up the book, "thank you very much."

Marcy walked behind the gum girl now.

He turned to the index and found spells for places starting with 'N'.

Niagra falls...nahh
Nigeria...nope
Nightosphere...there we go

He turned to the page...but it was ripped. The girls watched his facial expressions change throughout. He could only see the first step, which their were apparently three.

'Step 1. Draw a happy fac'

Yup. That was all.

The gum saw he was struggling, so she grabbed the gum Simon scraped of the book. Information surged through her as the gum seeped into her body.

After twenty-five seconds, she had everything. A whole new life was inside her. "Okay, I know what she has to do."

"What?"

"I did the info thing again. I know the other two steps. Problem is, I don't know what the happy face is supposed to look like. There's no picture in that book so I have no clue. "

"Oh. Marceline... did you ever see your mama or daddy draw that face?" Simon asked.

She shook her head.

"There's another library in this town. It has Internet so you can just look up what the face looks like. A bunch of people did that after looking for that type of information."

"Wait wait, we have to go to the one all the way uptown? But it's like going to outskirts! We can't do that, it would take too long!"

"Well, ya wanna get her home or not?"