Day 6
"Okay, can you go back over the basics for me again?"
"Um…let me think."
"Finn…"
"Wait! I got this…four beats in a bar, sixteen bars in a verse, and three verses to a song."
"Hey! You remembered!" Marceline slapped him five. "Good job."
"…And, you put the stress on every second beat…and…and…bars should be connected by at least one rhyme."
"Woah, slow down man. Think you might hurt yourself." She teased. In Finn's experience, she had been in a pleasant mood all day.
"As helpful as structure is though, it's good to realize that the rules are only there so you can play with them. I mean, most of my songs are only a single verse. I don't even remember the last time I wrote one of those with exactly sixteen bars."
Jake threw a ball somewhere behind them, waiting for it to hit the wall and bounce back so he could repeat the process.
"So. Finn, why don't you see what you can do with everything you've learned? You could take your time and write something, or you could try to make something up on the spot…"
Finn nodded with nervous enthusiasm, breathing in so deeply his gut nearly imploded. It was one thing to make a fool of yourself when you knew nothing, but this time around Marceline would be expecting improvement. And sure she was his teacher, but she was his friend first and foremost.
"…Alright." He braced himself for failure. "…Swear to my lord I'll cut you with my sword, just because I was bored, ask yourself if that's something you can really afford…uh…"
"Not bad. Not bad, pupil," She folded her arms and nodded her head in approval. "Rhythm needs serious work and there were way too many syllables near the end there, unless you wanted to connect that to another new line…but, yeah. That was two whole bars."
"Um…so I guess that's a cause for celebration, eh?" Jake tried desperately. "I'll break out the champagne! Not for you though, Finn, you're too young."
"Wait, Jake," She said patiently. "That was pretty good, but we don't want to undo all our hard work, do we? Let's go for just a little bit longer." This was met with a predictable amount of groans and suppressed, childish tantrums.
"A song can have all the catchy hooks and clever rhymes you want it to, but at the end of the day, without something personal behind it, it's just another distraction. You need to be able to express yourself openly and honestly."
"…And, how do I do that?"
Marceline stared at him for a moment, then laughed.
"Well, that's about the only thing I can't teach you."
Finn's shoulders sagged slightly. "…Oh." Then his expression made a rebound. "Well…I could learn from example…can I hear something you wrote?"
Jake immediately picked up on this and jumped on the bandwagon. "Yeah, totally! I haven't heard one of your songs in a while, Marceline."
"I guess it's been decided then, huh?" She said, shrugging. "Well…alright. There is this one song I have committed to memory. I wrote it a pretty long time ago—at least to you guys—so I'm not sure how it holds up, but I remember being somewhat proud of it."
The two of them sat and stared at her with the same mildly embarrassing expression of childlike wonder.
"Alright…just let me see if I can remember how it starts…"
Sometimes it's important/ to let things go
Like a young girl mis/directed and told no
No knowledge of the inability/ to have grown old
No sense of belonging/ for a soul that has grown mold
I left you/ obsessed and persistent
I remained/ depressed and resistant
The pain in your brain/ festered subsistent
On an unchanged frame/ that attests to your sickness
Watching your friends die/ never becomes easy
Unless you succumb/ to the numbness that eats freely
You weren't the only one/ who didn't understand
When the words that came out/ often were not planned
For all my years/ there was much I could've learned from you
So much of my experience/ had been burned into
The ones who love us/ do such permanent damage
I imagine/ the same could be said/ for the mark that was made/ for the dead and the rest/ to be left on your canvas
But I guess in the end life is a test of what you can manage
And no matter how long it lasts it's either too fast or too slow or too average
You were always better you know the things that you could handle
Tackling all of the issues from each and every angle
And since nothing really ever ends for me the ending of this song is somewhat of a mystery
Suppose I'll employ an empty sentiment to all of the times that were always better spent
It really was nice just to know you at all
Jake sat quietly, attentively, and sipped at his tea.
Finn, on the other hand, was seething with silent astonishment, his senses assaulted and overwhelmed by pure, musical bliss. As usual.
"That was…is it even possible for you to write a bad song? It was kinda sad…but in a good way. It made me…feel things."
"That's what music is supposed to do, Finn," Marceline said, smiling. "We know we've made something worthwhile if we can connect to the listener."
A thought occurred to him.
"Wait, so, Marceline. Who was that song about?"
"Just an old friend."
"Oh, alright," He turned to his beverage savoring, contemplative magical dog. "What'd you think, Jake?"
Jake lowered the mug from his lips and closed his eyes contentedly.
"It was good, man. I liked it." He lifted what was left of his delicate, herbal blend in salutation. "Mar-mar, you write some beautifully poetic things."
"Thanks Jake. I appreciate that, really," She paused in consideration. "We could take a break now if you want, Finn."
"Hmmm…maybe just a short one. Get something to eat. I really just wanna get back to this as soon as possible, though."
"That's the spirit!" Marceline exclaimed, punching his shoulder with enthusiastic vigor. "Gonna turn you into a Hip-Hop hero." She was pleasantly surprised by his perseverance. His attitude had definitely improved over the last few days, the daydreaming suppressed in the name of academic progress.
Finn laughed good-naturedly, rubbing his now sore shoulder.
"Cool."