Spreading the Good Cheer (or something) [open]

[Marceline Abadeer]

Marceline was sick, gloriously, wonderfully sick. Oh, it wasn't as if she were dying or anything like that, exciting though that may be. No, Marceline had managed to catch that most dreaded of all wintery illnesses: the common cold. Her nose had become red and stuffy; her eyes watered, and she kept fighting the urge to crawl into a warm bed (preferably with a warm body pressed against her, but hey, girls couldn't be picky). She kept sniffling, not so much because she needed to, but because doing so was just so enjoyable. It had been centuries since she'd suffered a common cold, and it was just one more indication that she was, at least for now, fully human.

Though she'd heard rumors that people were snapping back. Memories returning, traits manifesting. They'd heard about the magic unicorn girl for a while now, but it seemed like more and more people were getting there. Marceline was pretty sure that her skin was looking grayer and grayer and that her desire for something red was getting stronger and stronger. But she had a cold, and she fully intended to relish it.

In fact, since this was the season of giving, she intended to share it. Hence why she was sitting in her favorite bar, nursing a drink (actually juice, surprisingly), and staring at the various patrons. The bartender, a friend of Marcy's by now, had set a box of tissues down next to the girl, which she took advantage of. Still, Marceline figured she might as well try to spread the joy.

So she slapped her hand down on the counter and began running it down the length. Every once in a while she had to stop to sniffle, and occasionally wipe it with the sleeve of her long-sleeve tee, but the path was set: Marceline fully intended to spread her joy as far as she could.

"Happy holidays," she whispered under her breath, grinning her fangy grin.

[Alfred Jones]

[Hope you don't mind that I toss Al into this. I'm trying to get him some activity and hey, open thread! Plus I saw that the old Al and Marcy got along, and though this is a new Al, I figure they'd still probably get along pretty well once we get them set up. XD]

Alfred was going to try to make the best of his situation. Overall, he wasn't too upset with the way things were at the moment, though there were a few things that he would change if possible. For one, he'd fix all the nasty little holes in his memory. Fortunately he had some of the more important ones (who he was, most of the people he cared about, etc.), but he didn't much like the fact that he didn't have everything that he usually had readily at his disposal.

Another thing? He wasn't as strong as usual. The shift hadn't sapped all of his strength - He was still stronger than one would assume someone his size would be, and even verging on superhuman strength. The key word, of course, was verging. He might be a tad stronger than the average human, but he wouldn't be swinging around any buffalo or dragging a Rolls Royce behind him any time soon, and that frustrated him. He was the United States of America, he was supposed to be a lot stronger than the average human - and stronger than even other nations (with the exception of Russia, the only one who could match him).

Still, why take on a pessimistic outlook when there was no proof that they weren't going to get home? Alfred chose to view this as a vacation with some minor setbacks. Things would be back to the way they were supposed to be soon enough (he hoped).

In the meantime, Alfred decided to check out the night life around this area. In his search he stumbled upon a club known as 'The Basement' and ventured inside. He grinned as he heard the familiar sound of live rock music playing. Alfred was a fan of music, and though his tastes were eclectic, he'd enjoyed rock since the...well, crap. He knew it had been a while, but he couldn't remember which decade now? He should know that! Really, he shouldn't have been surprised given his spotty memory, but the realization that he couldn't tell when rock music first became big soured his mood just a tad.

Alfred ventured up to the bar, wondering if he could get away with ordering a drink. Technically he was way older than 21, though he looked to be around 19 or 20. In the end, he decided on ordering a Coke. Jack and Coke was pretty tempting, but...ah, maybe later he'd test that one out.

While he waited for his drink, he watched as a familiar person sniffled and blew her nose, and proceeded to...touch just about every surface that she could. He arched an eyebrow, wondering what on Earth Marcy was doing. Was she trying to get everyone sick? Rather than be turned off by this, however, Alfred was intrigued. Why was she doing it? As Alfred rarely fell ill himself (and as a nation, it only occurred during times of economic downswing or war), he didn't realize that after the shift, there was a chance that he could catch what she had himself. "Feeling a bit under the weather?" He asked conversationally.

[Marceline Abadeer]

"Nah, I'm flying above the weather," replied Marceline without looking up. In truth, she hadn't quite gotten back her ability to hover yet, which was a bit of a bummer. Only a bit though: when Marceline started getting abilities back, she was likely to start worrying; that meant that the whole vampire thing might very well re-manifest itself all too soon. That prospect did not cheer her in the slightest. For now though, the vampire chick coughed and managed to direct a sneeze in the general direction of the bar, just for good measure. She sniffled as she turned toward the voice.

"Alfy! Buddy!" she said. She spread her arms wide, inviting him for a germy hug filled with coldy goodness. Her mouth parted in a smile that allowed a few fangs to peek into existence. Her eyes flashed too, flashed with the mischievous promise. "It's been a while!" she said, still keeping her hands out. "Since what, your birthday party?"

Strange, but Marceline couldn't remember running into Alfy since then. That was a while ago though. Maybe he'd just been hanging out in different places? Or was something else up? There did seem to be something slightly different in the way he held himself, but Marceline couldn't quite place it. Not that she was doing a lot of thinking and studying at the moment: she was still waiting for her plague-ridden hug.

[Alfred Jones]

Alfred hugged Marceline in return, still completely unaware that he was exposing himself to something that would likely get him sick. He didn't usually get sick.

"My birthday party? It's been that long already? Jeez, we've got a lot of catching up to do!" He squeezed Marceline tightly. Though his strength was not at it's full level it, like many other abilities, was starting to come back. Marceline would likely notice a difference in the intensity of Alfred's hug.

When he finally pulled away, he looked her over. Though she didn't look too good, showing all the hallmark signs of having a cold, she seemed chipper and excited. All things considered, she didn't seem to be doing too badly. "What have you been up to since then? Still rockin' it like usual?" Alfred stated with a grin. He, too, was feeling pretty excited. He had good news of his own to share with Marceline, after all. "Got a lot of memories back." He stated, practically beaming. "There are still some holes though...it's kinda like Swiss cheese up there." His smile faded a little at this admittance. It did explain the difference in the way Al carried himself though. "There's a lot to sift through...you're still older than me but only about twice as old." Alfred revealed with a smile.

[Marceline Abadeer]

Ah, Marceline had poor Alfy trapped in a germ ridden hug. She debated whether or not to sneeze all over him for good measure, but decided that it was probably best to just give him a hug. It generally wasn't considered good etiquette to get your friends sick; they had a tendency to not want to hang out with you anymore. So just a quick pat and another quick smile.

"Eh, we've both been around," said Marceline, waving a hand, dismissing the distress. "I wouldn't worry 'bout it. I've been playing here, playing there, you know how it hangs," Marceline finished with a shrug. Now that she wasn't purposefully attempting to infect the bar, she sounded decidedly less sick. She still couldn't quite hide the illness; she'd been hit by a cold after all, but she'd obviously been hamming it up a little. Of course, the only one who would really notice was the poor bartender, who was already wearing a mask and pulling out the disinfectant.

"Memories huh?" asked Marceline, adding a sniff. "That's pretty big. And whataya mean only four times as old? You secretly some kind of immortal god or something?" Somehow, that wouldn't surprise Marceline. Alfred would have to be the god of French Fries or Pie-eating or something, but he definitely had the potential. She sniffled again, reaching over to grab some napkins this time. She blew her nose and then considered. Where to hide these...

[Alfred Jones]

Alfred nodded. "I do. Least we have some time to catch up now, unless you have to run off somewhere." That would suck if she did have to run off right when they were having a nice little reunion. But then, if she had to run off, why would she be hanging around a bar in the first place?

The blond chuckled at Marceline's question. "Not quite immortal, but pretty close." He certainly lived past the usual human life cycle. He was already over four hundred years old, technically, though only had the body of a nineteen year old. That was pretty impressive. "Where I come from, nations exist as people." It still weird talking about 'where he came from', as if it were a different place. His world and Tenebrae, after all, weren't as different as some of the worlds others came from.

"But yeah, long story short, I'm a nation. The good old US of A, to be exact." He stated with a grin, realizing that there was a chance that Marceline hadn't even heard of him. He didn't know all that much about where she came from, after all. But hopefully she'd get the jist even if not.

[...just realized she might actually know of the U.S. from before the Mushroom War pfft.]

[Marceline Abadeer]

Technically, Marceline should be running off to bed. She kept sniffling and reaching for a quickly diminishing stack of napkins, which she would then either toss to the side or hide in various places, depending on her mood at the time. However, she'd already decided that wasn't an option, and she saw no reason not to stick around and catch up with Alfred. Besides, she might be able to get him ill too, and then they could be sick buddies*.

As soon as Alfred explained what he discovered, Marceline let out an "oh" of recognition, nodding a few times. "Yeah, yeah, I heard about those people. There were, like, a whole bunch of you all running around. I think you were, like, living with your brother or something," Marceline shrugged. She hadn't really been paying that close of attention to the various other people at the party. She seemed to dimly recall someone else at the party who had looked similar to Alfred and lived with them.

As for the USA part, the name sounded vaguely familiar to Marceline, in a sort of far-off, maybe in another life sort of thing. She was busy trying to remember something else, something about the various nations. While she did, she blew her nose on a napkin and tried to toss it behind the bar. The bartender gave her a severe look but Marcy, as always, ignored him. She frowned with concentration, tapping her fingers on the bar for a few moments. Wait, tapping, music, yeah, she started beating out a little rhythm. Wait, music... bar...

Marceline snapped her fingers. "Now I remember! There's totally this kid, he keeps kidnapping you country people! I think he's storing them in a bar or something. I played there once and somebody mentioned it," Marceline shrugged. It wasn't like she was some kind of hero or something; saving them had never been on the docket. That and, you know, cold.

*It is important to note that Marceline's not really bad; her moral code has just eroded over the course of centuries.

[Alfred Jones]

"A whole bunch of us?" Alfred responded with a grin. "That'd be cool. I just know about my brother and Finland being around here. I haven't seen Finland though since I showed up, even though he's supposed to live with my brother and I. I don't remember much about him either, unfortunately. That's one of the holes."

Alfred's eyebrow arched upward when Marceline mentioned that there was a kid kidnapping countries running around Tenebrae. "...really? And he's actually succeeding? How is that even possible?" Then again, he wasn't considering that said 'kid' probably wasn't actually a regular kid.

"So, what does this kid look like so I can be on the look out for him?" And possibly rescue some fellow countries - Unlike Marcy, he was particularly fond of playing the hero, whether his presence as one was actually wanted or not. In this case? It was probably wanted, however.

[Marceline Abadeer]

Marceline just nodded at the first part. There had been a whole bunch of them, but they'd been steadily disappearing or something. Who knows, maybe their countries were being taken over or something. Marceline really hadn't known any of them, so she didn't have any reason to stress the details. Really, the only disappearance that worried her was Finn's, and she still wasn't completely certain that he'd actually been here.

It looked like Alfred wasn't going to let this thing go though. Marceline chuckled, which turned into a cough, which turned somehow into a sneeze, which turned into a sleeve wipe, and by the time it was all done, Marceline had nearly forgotten the question. she stared at Alfred for several seconds, blinking as her fuzyz brain tried to put things together. Kid, kidnapping, oh, right that kid.

"Dude, do you think I've actually seen him? I haven't hung out with kidnappers in, like, months," Marceline waved a hand. That was obviously behind her; totally reformed, this vampire queen was. She wasn't even really playing up the vampire thing. Except when it got her dates. Or attention. Or scared people. So she might have been playing it up a little. "Anyway, he hangs out at The Crossbones. He's also, like, the only evil kid that we've got stomping around here, at least, I think he is," Marceline frowned. "we've probably got more, somewhere, or kids that are going to become evil."

this required chin stroking, which unfortunately reminded Marceline of the whole sneeze thing. She winced and wiped her hand on the bar again, smiling up at the bartender all the while.

[Alfred Jones]

Alfred let out a chuckle at Marceline's comment. "Really? Who was the last kidnapper you hung out with?" He then blinked, realizing the implications of 'months'. "Oh wait, I might not know who it is. Was it someone you knew back home?" If that was the case, that would explain why Alfred didn't know him or her.

At least she knew where to find the creepy kid in question. He'd have to check that place out some time soon. He wondered if Finland was there - It would explain why he hadn't seen the other nation around much, even though he was supposed to be living with Alfred and Mattie.

"Crossbones. Got it. Thanks a bunch, Marcy!" He proceeded to throw his arms around her once more. "You wanna come with me when I check it out?" He could certainly do it on his own, but why not make a day out of it while he had someone cool to invite?