Stakes (Adventure Time x Winnie the Pooh Reader)

Everything Stays

As Marceline is tied up and about to be doused in the light of the rising sun, she tells Y/N that should she die he should burn all her diaries and never let anyone read them . As the sunlight hits her, she suddenly goes through several flashbacks to past memories in her life.

She first flashes back to a memory of her as a young girl living with her mother in their trailer, lying on her mother's lap as she finishes recounting the story of how she met her father. Marceline wants to play outside, but her mother tells her it is nap time. Marceline refuses, explaining that her dreams are weird, but her mom tells her that "something weird might just be something familiar viewed from a different angle." She comforts her and they sing a song together ("Everything Stays").

In the second flashback, set in wintertime in the post-Mushroom War ruins of a city, Marceline, now an adolescent, is helping pack Simon Petrikov's luggage, which is tied to a dogsled. She overhears Simon in a nearby building recording a VHS message addressed to her, documenting his further descent into insanity as a result of the crown's influence and slipping between plainspoken messages and desperate pleas for Betty to love him again. Marceline asks Simon for the tape, but he ends up stowing it away in his luggage. She begs him not to leave, but Simon says that he must leave in order to protect her. Marceline asks him how he can protect her in his absence, and Simon says that he will arrange for someone to come take care of her. Simon tries to wipe Marceline's tears, but he accidentally freezes one and leaves a scrape under her eye. He hurriedly says his goodbyes and leaves on his dogsled as Marceline cries out to him in the snow.

In the third flashback, a teenage Marceline, now sporting her ax bass, runs through the ruins of another city in pursuit of a laughing vampire. She tracks him down in a broken-down blood donation truck, revealing the vampire to be The Fool. After she stakes him, she sucks his soul and absorbs his ability to float; she then scratches one more tally-mark to the vampire kill count etched on her bass.

In the fourth flashback, Marceline is seen hunting for prey; seeing the silhouette of a bunny's ears, she sets up a trap with a carrot and waits for the rabbit to take the carrot to wring its neck and eat it afterward. When it refuses to move, she instead lassos the rope around the ears, only to find out that they actually belong to a human girl wearing a rabbit hat. Embarrassed, Marceline apologizes and carefully takes off the rope from the frightened girl's head, reassuring her that everything is fine. However, when Marceline smiles at her, the girl becomes even more frightened at the sight of Marceline's crooked demon teeth. The girl runs back to her tribe, which consists of other humans wearing animal hats, and reports Marceline, confusing her for a vampire. Marceline follows her back to the tribe and tries to correct their assumptions, pointing out that she cannot be a vampire because she is standing in bare sunlight unprotected. The humans are too startled to listen to her and run away.

In a later memory, the tribe is seen gathered around a bonfire. The tribe's leader, Two Bread Tom, remarks that it is their duty to preserve human music, and he sings a rendition of "According to Our New Arrival." Secretly watching from behind the bush with her pet dog Schwabl, Marceline strums her ax bass and sings her own version. The Bunny Girl overhears her and offers her a turkey leg, asking her to continue playing. The whole tribe gathers around her, with Two Bread Tom agreeing that her rendition was better.

In another later memory, Marceline is seen walking with Schwabl in a forest. The Bunny Girl playfully pounces onto her, wearing fake fangs and pretending to be a vampire. The girl then tells Marceline that she too should wear an animal hat for her own protection, to avoid getting bitten in the neck. They come across the human tribe, who are busy renovating a boat for future use. Having grown close to them, she greets and asks them about their progress. Two Bread Tom estimates that the ship will be finished by the next day or so, and speaks of their urgency to leave the continent right away because of an impending threat. Marceline assumes he is referring to the vampires and says there is no need to worry, as she has staked them all. However, Tom says he is actually referring to a far greater threat: the atmosphere is displaying abnormal measurements, signaling an incoming weather event big enough to drastically alter the entire landscape. He extends an invitation for Marceline to leave with them, but their conversation is cut off by the sudden appearance of a group of vampires. Marceline stakes the vampires one by one, culminating in a battle with The Hierophant, who had disguised himself as Schwabl. During their fight, she is sliced in half but recovers thanks to healing powers obtained from The Moon. After staking The Hierophant, Marceline senses The Vampire King approaching from the distance and tells Tom and the tribe to leave right away.

Meanwhile back in the present. The sun hits Marceline and does...nothing?