The special little machine Bubblegum had made produced a soft and rather soothing noise as it generated a series of randomly produced numbers in specified parameters, all through purely mechanical means.
Marceline gave it a brief look, in the ways of someone who didn't really go for machines and mechanisms and the glories of SCIENCE, but she appreciated something well-done. She smiled at the read-out and crowed, softly. "Natural critical! Yeah, man!"
Bubblegum smiled, a hint of smugness at the corner of her mouth. "Don't boast, vampy," she said, pink lips shining wetly over teeth that may literally have been made of ivory. "We haven't even gotten a proper level-up and this is a whole gang of kobolds!"
Marceline snorted, scooted a bit closer to the table. Her legs had worn faint grooves into the wooden floor years ago, back when it was her home; she must have done this all the time, then. "They're freaking kobolds, mang. Experience packages."
"Mind the traps," Bubblegum said.
"What traps- oh my flipping Glob, who even puts a spring-loaded rattlesnake-spider in a ceiling panel."
Bubblegum tried not to smirk. "Told ya."
"Yeah, yeah," Marceline grumped, and somehow managed to make that an action. She hit the dice rolling calculator; she quietly cursed as she failed the roll, close to a critical failure but mercifully not quite. "Well, dang, there goes my HP… and I barely had as it was…"
"I told you playing wizard first time wasn't best until we iron out the kinks in the mechanics," Bubblegum said. "They're, y'know, not that resilient for characters."
"But I get to blow stuff up! WITH MAGIC!"
"You do that in real life."
"Meh, semantic. Awesome is awesome, Bonnie!"
"You speak great wisdom!"
Both girls gigged as Finn rolled over, sound asleep on the couch, a small smile on his face. Bubblegum and Marceline adjusted themselves around the table in the middle of Finn's tree house living room, and paid keen attention to the small device upon the table, between their character sheets and hanndrawn maps and lovingly painted miniatures; like a tiny computer, with a read-out screen and an interface that Bubblegum had uploaded a lovingly tailored plot with adjusted variables to account for intriguing changes the device's on-board AI could devise for their entertainment.
The Graybeard Game-Master Module (as she referred to it) displayed that it was Bubblegum's turn. She rolled the die machine, and Marceline said, "Still can't believe you're playing a bard!"
"They are masters of narrative ingenuity! They should be ruling the world!"
"You're quoting old-school comics again."
"AWESOME comics. And remind me who was silly enough to play a wizard that specializes in Evoking and barred access to Transmutation and Conjuration?"
Marceline snorted. "Powergaming isn't a crime, you know."
"Ah, don't worry about it." Bubblegum narrated her bard's actions (and she was proud of making her bard a knight-in-training who was in service to a nice boy-king with a nice bear hat, inspired by thoughts of what life would be like if some things had been reversed), and felt curiously at home.
It was nice, sitting here with Marceline. In this tree house that Marceline had owned not so long ago, and where she was so welcome that it was like a home away from home. A better home than the Candy Kingdom, in some respects, where she had no responsibilities thrust upon her and accepted with due humility.
It was like having a family. She hadn't had that in a long time, not since she had made one of her own in imitation of what she had seen; not since she and Marceline had broken apart, and then come back together with Finn's help (and she gave him a fond look, her loyal and trustworthy knight, her dear friend).
She grinned and reached across the table, clasping Marceline on the strong swell of her bicep. Marceline looked startled for a moment, and then grinned when Bubblegum squeezed, like a hug in miniature.
Her skin felt good. Cool but not cold, with a rush like an electric beat under her fingers.
"Feels nice, doing stuff like this," Marceline said, voice low so as not to wake up Finn. "Like…" She stumbled over the words, and managed, "Like being home."
Bubblegum smiled. "Yeah," she said, daring to give this small assent to her words. "It does." She grinned, hand drifting slightly towards Marceline's sliim anterior region, and grinned wider still as it found t-shirt-covered softness.
Marceline grinned nervously, moving into her touch. "Grabby gooey girl."
Bubblegum's grin became something almost predatory. "Best way to find out how your cutie feels."