Hello, All.

This is a very old story that I am rewriting and editing. I cannot say just yet if I am inspired enough to finish it. I hope you enjoy the journey this little diddy brings you.

CC

Reflection was never one of Marshall Lee's favorite past times. No thought juice was worth wasting on things that he could not change, and people that he could not hold on to. After a thousand years, a guy gets used to keeping people at an arm's length. What use was it to get all attached and twisted up when those folks eventually dried up and died up, leaving poor old Marshall by his lonesome solemn self once again? So, no one got very close to Marshall Lee, at least not too close. Folks would pop in and out of his radar, and honestly, sometimes Marshall would forget who was whom when they showed up at his door. Prince Gumball was his sole companion in eternity, but it was safe to say his company had grown far too generous for an introverted vampire. For the last hundred years, Marshall had thrived on solitude, and was even bothered by the possible disturbance of a presence. For hours and days he would spend floating aimlessly in his house, plucking strings just to hear them play. Sometimes, songs would form, and he would ride the small wave of emotion it would grant him, but the beauty of songs is that they weren't really there. It was all noise, and the only safe way for him to feel much of anything at all since his heart crusted over those many years ago.

Lost in his own world once again, Marshall had barely noticed the slowly strengthening tippy tapping of raindrops. Storms were one of his favorite things, and he was missing it. In the midst of his daze, a soft knocking set him offbeat. His growing fondness of solitude made him reluctant to answer, but he did anyways. Lazily, he set down his guitar to greet his visitor.

"Oh, hey Fionna!" He said when he opened the door to the excitable girl, all reluctance for company melted away. She was one of the only people who didn't drain him of energy with her presence. She was energized and pumped up for adventure, just like he liked her to be.

"Hey, Marsh! I was thinking this was a heck of a pooey night to do nothing. Want to rip off the heads of the lightning bugs stirring up this barfin' storm?" She said, bouncing up and down, throwing punches in the air.

He thought it over just for the effect, this was, after all, one of his favorite things to do.

"Heck yeah!" He said, feeling the electricity of the lightning crunching from the sky beyond.

He grabbed Fionna by the armpits and floated up with her into the sky, where the stinkfarts of lightning bugs lived. Fionna wiggled in his grasp, thrilled by feeling of flying, or maybe she was just ticklish in the armpits. The sky groaned and burped out a crackle of thunder.

"Wooooo! Algebraic!" She kicked and twisted in the gray skies, energized by the storms ferocity. "Let's kill those noisy butts!" Marshall felt thrilled as well, but suppressed his excitement in an unconscious practiced sort of way. Only the gnashing of his teeth gave him away. Lightning flashed, and thunder cracked. Marshall could feel his lump of a heart leap into a murmur of thrill. BOOM, CRASH. All around them, bolts of lightning threatened to fry them up like flying fishsticks.

"Look up there!" Fionna shouted into the wind. A lightning bug was munching on the silver lining of a cloud, pooping out lighting aimlessly as it grew into a grotesque caterpillar with rolls the size of a sumo wrestler.

"Kill it!" Marshall screamed as he tossed her high into the air. She whipped her sword out and ferociously swung for the head and she tumbled down into the storm clouds.

"Die you piece of Blimp!" She screeched. The bug squealed in terror and tried to wriggle away, but her sword was too fast and it sliced through rainy, electrified flesh. Sticky with blood, Fionna leaped from the cloud with a triumphant yodel and Marshall grabbed her out of the air to her next victim.