Pacing back and forth inside the living room as Cake and Beemo watched - Cake with disapprovingly crossed arms and Beemo just being Beemo - Fionna's fearsome fists of furry a little less tight but no less tense than when her back was to the wall, she was nervously wringing the free piece of her immeasurable golden locks. She couldn't believe that she was actually going to go out on an actual date with the infamous Marshall Lee! Oh no, that wasn't some lily-livered, knee-quaking, lovestruck little teenage girl statement - Fionna was confident in the person she was on her own, positive of her strengths and sure of her weaknesses, but to add in anyone else, a known romancer or not, that was problematic.

"Fi," Cake cut into her musings, tail twitching in irritation as she did her best to keep her opinion in for her friend's sake, "You're not seriously going to go out with him," It was so obvi that she wanted to say something else, "are you?"

She had already given him her word, so Fionna wasn't about to back out of their plans to meet up later, not without a good reason first, so she waved her feline friend down, "I know all about his reputation, but that's all just words... Marshall..." She blushed slightly, "Marshall isn't that kind of guy."

"'Not that kind of guy'?!" Cake stretched her rear out and pointed a claw at the faint marks still left over, "These didn't just make themselves show up!"

Looking at them closely, all purple-pink and circular yet splotchy, Fionna noticed that one in fact did appear by itself since the earlier scuffle, the irregular bean shape giving it away, "Umm... Cake, that one wasn't there before..."

Twisting her head around in an owlish curly-q, the older female saw not the markings of a vampire hand, but a hand with an extra finger! Either he was craftier than she had given the trouble-maker credit for (very likely), or one of the Spot People got lost and made its home on her... Reaching for the extra contour, Cake's paw froze in midair as the spot - just a shade or two grapier than the rest - sprang from her fur like a fire had lit underneath its little behind. Sprouting little arms from the top of its head and three legs, it skipped off, muttering something (probably about finding a nice home) in a voice too little and jumbled to understand.

"Cake, c'mon! I know that he didn't make the best impression," Cake scoffed at that understatement, "But he just doesn't know when 'too far' is too far, you know? I know he's not a bad guy..." Thinking a little more about it, Fionna realized that the switch in his actions came just after she had said as much to him, "He just must not want people to know that about him."

And with that, the adventurer let out a mighty big yawn, tired from her long night. Maybe just a little nap would suffice, until it was time to get ready...

Chapter Seven: Call It In

Why was it that no matter how much he mixed the ground up, that same little pebble came back up? Was it trying to tell him something? That perhaps no matter how jumbled and wobbly-donged things got, some things would always be constant? But if that was what the little rock was saying, then what would be the variable and what would be the constant? Something predetermined, or was anything replaceable in the equation? Skyler glanced over at Finn and the Flame Princess, laughing at something that had happened while they enjoyed each other's company, and for the briefest of seconds, he envisioned them to be different, to be not themselves but a potential gender-swapped version. He show his head - he was spending just a little too much time with Simon and Marcy...

Wait a moment, Simon and Marcy... That started to turn the gears in his head, if only a little bit. What was the one thing that Marceline seemed to want more than almost anything else in the world? For Simon to remember her, or even to remember himself, obviously, but since he wasn't able to give her that, what would be the next best thing that he actually could do for her? To make The Ice King happy, and what was the best way to do that (short of kidnapping a princess)? By bringing him Fionna and Cake!

Everyone insisted that they were just the mad ravings of an insane mind, but he wasn't so sure... For one thing, though Simon's stories could get a little strange and under-written, the world and characters were just too mapped out in his mind, and besides, Ice King knew more than he realized at times, so it was possible that the crown he wore had had some sort of an experience in that world. There was also the fact that he had so much devoted to the two heroines that went above and beyond his usual obsessions, so Skyler found it very likely that Simon wasn't as wrong about this as everyone told him he was.

But how could the former prince bring the reversed genders to Ooo...? He was no wizard, he had no extraordinary powers that could make the impossible possible (if he has those, his life would have been considerably different). The Enchiridon, maybe (it certainly had the power and knowledge to do all kinds of stuff), but that had been destroyed when the Lich had tried to use it take over all of the worlds...

All of the worlds...

Even the ones that feasibly existed solely in the mind of a crazy old man, even ones with their own copies of the sacred tome...

Maybe there was a way to make Marcy happy after all...

Tapping the bottom of the silver-blue hoop that hung closest to his right earlobe, it slowly unfurled itself around his finger until it grew just large enough to talk into (his phone was just one of the cool things that Marceline had given him over the years), "Hello, lovely ~"

On the other end of the line, on her red cellular telephone, was none other than the everyone's favorite hobo princess from Lumpy Space, her voice as flirtatious as always, "Skyler, you missing these lumps already?"

"You know it, girl!" It was common between these two to 'flirt', but it had never been romantic on either side, well, intentionally, "Hey, listen LSP, I was wondering if you were heading back home anytime soon -?"

He could practically hear her rolling her eyes, "You're just like everyone else! It's always about the lumps! Why can't it ever be about what's on the inside! I can be deep too!"

This was getting nowhere fast, so Skyler had to steer this back around if he was going to get what he wanted in this lifetime, "I know that! You know I love your inside lumps just as much as the outsides ones, so come on, return the love and tell me that there's something happening in Lumpy Space..."

She owed him for that one time, for that one thing, so he didn't feel bad about trying to do this one thing, and apparently she could tell that this was him, using up that one favor, "It just so happens that this week is the monthly centennial celebration, and tonight is the bonfire. The bonfire is always the best part. I guess I could take you. Whatever."

"Did I ever tell you that you were my favorite princess in all of Ooo?" He smiled, almost doing a victory dance on the spot, "Come pick me up when you're ready to go."

"Whatever!" Came her reply as she turned her phone off, no doubt to send out a mass message about her plans.

If this plan didn't work, there was a good chance that he could die, or even worse, get lost in the vacuumious void of space forever, never to see those that he loved again, but if he didn't risk it, he ran the hazard of being stuck in this place for the rest of his life, and as much as he secretly loved Marceline, Skyler was not prepared to stay in the same position. He knew who he was, but he lacked the courage to advance, afraid to lose the girl of his dreams, so he was more than ready to gamble all of his chips on a long-shot than to just come clean and lay all of his cards on the table. He was an idiot.


Disclaimer: I do not own Adventure Time, although the creation of Skyla and her male counter-part Skyler is all on me. The title is the legal property of Marilyn Manson/legal owners.

A/N: And viola! The story emerges from the shadows! But does it rear its ugly head, or does it lurk just behind the shadows, waiting, waiting... Nah, I'm just playing! Oh, me, writing insanely late at night again! I really ought to stop doing that... Oh well, that doesn't seem like its going to happen anytime soon. T-T