Chapter Text
King fluttered his wings a little, sitting on his bed with his arms crossed and a couple of Bubblegum’s babies sitting on his shoulders. He watched with a raised eyebrow as Bim paced the floor, muttering under his breath furiously with his wings twitching near constantly and his hands fisted tight in his hair. “Bim, you’ll be fine. You’ve done this before! And we’ll still be right there for you.”
Bim shot him a glare. “Performing in front of live audience is still fucking terrifying King! I hate it!”
King rolled his eyes, extending one wing to brush along Bim’s. “You do fine the second you get on stage! You know that!”
“That doesn’t make the lead-up easier, King,” Bim wailed, flapping his wings and sending a few glittery purple feathers drifting to the ground. “I don’t like it!”
King made an exasperated noise, drawing his wings back in and standing, but before he could do much Bim’s phone rang, ‘Magic’ by B.o.B. blasting in his room. Bim jumped, yelping, then scrambled for his phone, nearly dropping it in his scramble. “Hi yes Marvin? Yeah I’m on my way, promise I won’t be late like last time. Hey fuck you, I’ll see you in a couple minutes!”
Bim hung up the phone with a pointed jab at the screen and a deep-set pout, crossing his arms. King chuckled, running his fingers through Bim’s feathers and making his wings shudder and Bim close his eyes, expression softening. “Do you want me to fly with you to the theatre?”
Bim nodded hesitantly, voice cracking a bit. “Please.”
King chuckled, tucking his wings in and shedding the squirrels as he headed for the door. “Come on then, you overly dramatic piece of shit.”
Bim’s pout deepened as he raced to King’s side. “Hey! Rude!”
King raised an eyebrow. “Am I wrong?”
“…No…”
King’s wings fluttered with excitement as he took his seat, accidentally smacking Dark lightly in the face with one. “Sorry!”
Dark chuckled, his own mangled wings twitching a bit. “It’s alright, King. Let’s –”
One of Wilford’s wings shot out to smack them both on the back of the head. “Shhh shut up! It’s starting!”
A unanimous hush fell over the crowded theatre as the lights began to dim, and all eyes turned toward the stage. The silence was deafening as thousands of people waited with baited breath for the show to begin.
Unlike before, Marvin didn’t give a beginning speech. Whispers began to run through the crowd, but then a subtle ‘whoosh’ of spreading wings and ruffling feathers echoed across the building. There was a flash of blue above the House, and then Marvin was suddenly soaring over the audience, dousing them in silver glitter raining from his wings (much to Google’s disgust, if his expression was anything to go by). It didn’t take long for the audience to begin cheering madly, and Marvin’s chuckle was obvious as he soared toward the stage (after high-fiving the twins).
The second his feet touched the stage, the area behind him lit up with fireworks and rolling green smoke. A bright grin was on his face, putting the stage lights to shame, with both his arms and deep blue wings spread. Silver glittered coated his feathers, making them sparkle in the stage lights, and he laughed as the crowd cheered.
“How’s everybody doing tonight?” The response he got was a near deafening roar, and he laughed again, dropping his arms but keeping his wings raised and shimmering. His grin brightened. “Fantastic! Now, if you all remember, last time I was on this stage I had a very special guest.” Somehow, the crowd’s cheer grew louder, and King’s face lit up, bouncing a little in his seat, his wings ruffling and gripping onto Dark’s arm. Marvin’s gaze flicked to him for a brief moment before chuckling. “Right, well apparently he isn’t tired of me yet, so, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Bim Trimmer to the stage!”
King gasped loudly, grinning and bouncing and shaking Dark’s arm (much to his amusement) as the crowd went wild. Marvin gestured to the space beside him, and there was a spark and a brief flash of light, and then Bim was standing on the stage with his fists resting on his hips, wings spread wide and shimmering more spectacularly than Marvin’s.
Bim took an exaggerated side-step to the left, blocking Marvin’s body from view with his glittery purple wings, and laughing through his introduction as Marvin batted at his offending wing with his hands and his own wings. “Hello everybody! Since Marvin so conveniently neglected to tell you guys, we have a fun show planned! So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.”
He finished his statement with a bow, crossing his ankles and bowing low with both his arm and one wing, finally revealing Marvin, who was pouting upstage with his arms crossed. The audience laughed, and Bim chuckled, straightening himself. And then he was taking to the air, hovering above the audience. King twisted in his seat to see him, and Bim caught his eye, winking and making King blush before he flicked his wrist, suddenly holding a spool of shimmering, rainbow-colored string. He held onto one end, then tossed the spool to Marvin so the string spanned between them.
At first, nothing happened, Bim’s wings flapping and ruffling the closer audience members’ hairs and Marvin’s tongue poking out from between his teeth. King raised an eyebrow. Did something go wrong?
And then they swapped places.
King jumped, as well as half the crowd. One blink later, and Bim was back in the air and Marvin on stage. But then it happened again, Bim popping up on stage and Marvin above them. And again. And again, and again, the flicker growing faster and faster till they appeared to be merging into each other on each end of the string. Their wings began to shed a few feathers with each flap, and the feathers that fell were a swirl of deep blue and royal purple.
Suddenly the string vanished, and both Bim and Marvin appeared on stage side-by-side in a swirl of feathers. They bowed in synchrony, and the crowd cheered. King couldn’t help but blush when Bim shot him a beaming smile, practically glowing with his wings spread wide.
That blush quickly gave way to a snort of laughter, however, snickers rippling across the crowd, as Marvin smacked Bim on the back of the head with his own wing, making Bim jump, before taking flight himself and flying out to the crowd. Just like before, the show was incredibly interactive, Marvin and Bim spending just as much if not more time in the audience as they did on stage. Marvin kept shedding feathers like mad, passing them out to kids as souvenirs (and to the twins). And just like before, the show itself was diverse and amazing, Bim and Marvin’s constant banter and playful flirting adding a whole new level of enjoyment. They had the crowd in stitches the majority of the time with their snarky comebacks.
But alas, the show began to come to a close, and both Bim and Marvin found themselves back on stage, wings spread wide and glittering. They exchanged obvious glances, twin smirks appearing one their faces. And then a clap of thunder shook the building, Marvin’s aura cracking into existence with its hypnotic swirl, his wings flared brilliantly. The whole audience gasped, and King managed to tear his eyes away from the sluggish swirl of blue and green to glance at Bim. He was staring at Marvin, just in as much awe as the rest of the audience, but something was different; the air was shimmering around him, distorted and wavy like heat, and there was significantly more silver glitter on the stage around him.
King jumped, blinking a few times to make sure he was absolutely seeing it, and his wings fluttered as he shook Dark’s arm wildly. “Dark Dark Dark! Look at Bim!”
Dark leaned forward a bit, squinting, before he gasped. He shot a rapid-fire glance as King – who was positively beaming – before turning to whisper to Wilford, grinning and pointing subtlely. Wilford’s jaw promptly dropped, his wings fluttering spastically, before he grinned, reaching to hold Dark’s hand and bouncing in place.
They were pulled away from the excitement of Bim sorta summoning his aura (there was no way that was it, even the Host had more to his than that) by Marvin beginning to speak. “Ladies and Gentlemen, for our final act, we will need two volunteers! Any takers?”
The majority of the room’s hands shot into the air, King pointedly keeping his down. When Marvin caught his eye to see his hard glare, he chuckled, wings flapping a little. Bim’s eyes lit up, and he whispered into Marvin’s ear, his own wings fluttering, before he backed away and beamed.
“You two!” He pointed to the twins, both waving their arms wildly with Silver and (a very drugged) Dr. Iplier desperately trying to calm them down. All four of them froze, however, when Bim spoke. The twins gasped, exchanging glances, before matching grins spread across their faces. They bounced to their feet, wings spreading and launching themselves at the stage. They skidded to a halt on the stage, nearly falling over themselves as they beamed, giggling and bouncing in place. Bim and Marvin exchanged amused looks before Bim approached, slinging his arm over the shoulders of RJ (differentiable by his dusty brow, owl-like wings as opposed to CJ’s light blue ones). “And your names?”
The twins giggled, exchanging another glance. “Jim!”
The audience laughed at their chorused reply, and King heard Wilford snort. Marvin laughed, too, mimicking Bim’s pose with CJ. “Well, ‘Jims’, if you’ll follow us to center stage, please!”
The two positioned the Jims back-to-back center stage, their wings fluttering and fluffing non-stop as they bounced with and radiated excitement. Marvin pulled a magic wand from his back pocket. He tapped both of them on the forehead, and a shimmering black sheet suddenly appeared draped over them, shifting from their constantly twitching wings. Marvin backed away, gesturing broadly to Bim, his aura curling around his wrists. “Mercury, if you’d please.”
“Certainly.” Bim flapped his wings, hovering in the air above the covered twins. Purple and silver glittery began to rain from his feathers, his face screwed up with concentration, and the twins went suspiciously quiet and still.
King drew his mouth in a tight line, glancing at Dark, who wore a similar expression. “…When was the last time the twins were quiet?”
Dark raised an eyebrow. “In the nearly a century I’ve known them, I can’t recall a single moment.” His wings spasmed behind him, and King opened his mouth to say something else, but then Wilford’s wing was snapping out and smacking them both again.
King rubbed the back of his head. “Ow, fuck.” He could hear Dark grumbling under his breath, too, as they both turned back to the stage.
And just in time, too. Bim whipped the sheet off the twins the second King was glancing back to the stage, and the entire room gasped. The twins were still standing there, but the reason why their wings had stilled was clear; their wings were gone. Vanished. The only proof of their existence at all were the few brown and blue feathers resting on the stage.
The Jims visibly stiffened before glancing over their shoulders. Their eyes widened, exchanging glances, and CJ rolled his shoulders. The audience held their breath.
They grinned. “That’s so cool!”
The audience roared, clapping wildly as Bim and Marvin bowed in sync, the twins giggling and exaggeratedly followed their lead. Bim shot up rapidly, narrowing his eyes and hurriedly shoving the twins toward the stairs leading off stage and into the House, and the audience laughed. King heard Google huff. “Well, at least the twins will be marginally less destructive now.” Bing smacked his shoulder, and Google simply scoffed in response.
Bim gave a short huff into the mic, the twins sufficiently off stage and having disappeared to wherever, and he flapped his wings, gliding quickly back over to Marvin’s side. Marvin snorted before raising his hands, grinning brilliantly as his wings snapped open to their full length and his aura flared, both glittering magnificently in the stage lights. “Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for coming!”
Bim copied his pose, his left wing overlapping Marvin’s right. He locked eyes with King, winking cheesily and grinning broadly. “We hope you thoroughly enjoyed the show!”
“GOODNIGHT!”
They both bowed hugely – wings included – before a massive cloud of purple and green smoke exploded across the stage, hiding them from view. The lights came up, and King scrambled to his feet. His wings snapped open, and he soared off to where the Jims disappeared.
“Hey – King! Where are you going?!”
King ignored Reynolds’ question, just barreled backstage with a broad grin.