Your
Unhappy Elladan
Agent Mara
held her nose as she printed out the first few pages of their next
mission. Her head of department had
ordered them into an emergency mission in the Lord of the Rings fandom.
What was so urgent about it, Mara didn’t care to know or guess. Inevitably, though, she knew she had to look
at the fic. She stopped over at
Isaiah’s quarters for support, after choosing her Middle Earth weapon: an Uruk-Hai
scimitar.
“Here.”
A small
sheaf of papers was shoved into Isaiah’s hands. He put on his reading glasses and looked at the title.
In a Dream
“Remind
me,” Isaiah said tightly, “why we’re doing this fandom? We’ve loads of PotC stories to finish
PPCing.”
“There was
a ‘Guess the Age of the Suethor’ contest up on the message board. Starfish of Elves won and she sent in a
fic.”
Isaiah
pressed a hand to his forehead. “A
psychic connection is coming to me!” he proclaimed. “I foresee a grim fate before us! I predict that yet another Mary Sue will fall into Middle Earth!”
“Quite. Oh, and you’ll adore this explanation of how
she got there,” smirked Mara.
“Apparently...” her finger shook slightly as it hovered over the print,
“apparently lightning struck the antenna on her roof and sent an electrical
current running through her house. It
‘overloads’ the wires, whatever that’s
supposed to mean, and causes them to, and I quote, ‘send out the
electric.’ Then she gets thrown into the book by some random electrical
discharge.”
“Uh...” Isaiah wrinkled his nose. “Wouldn’t that just leave her with a bruise
on the head, instead of in Middle Earth?”
“Not for a
Sue. They’re special.” She shook her
head. “Let’s go.”
The portal
opened.
“Mara? I found out why the Department of Technical
Errors was handed this job.”
“Yes?”
Mara asked as the disguise generators took effect, rendering them as
elves.
“It wasn’t
lightning. It was ‘lightening.’”
Mara made
a sound of derision.
I landed at the feet of what looked like an Elf. The Elf raised
his bow and aimed an arrow t me.
The agents
had only been in the fic for a paragraph when the Sue suddenly turned into a
giant T.
“That’s interesting,” said Mara,
inspecting the self-insertion.
“Missing
Captain Jack already, ey?”
“Yes.” Mara pouted. “I don’t want to think about what’s happening to him at the
moment. There are probably a dozen
‘You’ fics pouring in as we speak—”
“Let’s
just concentrate on the problem at hand,” Isaiah suggested. “Say, the goofy introduction and the fact
that the Mary Sue can understand Westron?”
The two Elves
before them hadn’t been described in any detail, so they looked like identical
copies of a Generic Elf model. The
agents took some comfort in the fact that the second Elf pointed his bow at the
Mary Sue, but were dismayed as the Elves calmly accepted the explanation that
Evelyn had read a book unknown to them and that “lightening” had knocked out
the power and had obviously sent
Evelyn headlong into the book. The
Elves could have no way of knowing what “the power” was, but they shrugged this
off in favor of pronouncing it impossible for Evelyn to be sent back.
“Isn’t she
going to give them any description at all?” said Isaiah disapprovingly. “They still look like twins to me.”
Mara
glanced down at the Words. “That would
be because they are.”
"Since we know who you are, I'm Elladan and over there is my twin brother
Elrohir." Said Elladan.
Elrohir helped me up off of the ground and said, "We should take you t o
our father since you had a nasty fall."
They took me inside to their father.
Mara set her
teeth against the bad spacing and punctuation. “Inside where?” The Sue hadn’t even named the place Rivendell, let alone
mentioned the Last Homely House. Mara
would have thought that the place merited at least some description, but
no. Background was unimportant. The entire story was centered around Evelyn,
Elladan, Elrohir, and Elrond. The Sue
whined about her head hurting and consequently was offered a chance to snuggle up
to Elladan as she leaned on him when they went up the stairs to the bedrooms. As they reached the bedrooms, which also had
no description, the agents leaned forward to hear the legendary medical
expertise of the Lord of Imladris.
"Well the goods news is that it's not broken, but the bad news is that
it's not in the right place." Said Elrond.
Mara blew
a wisp of hair out of her face with a sigh.
“Her ankle’s not in the right place.
How very informative. Oh, and
the only option is surgery. I wonder if the Sue knows that there were no
general anesthetics back then.”
Isaiah,
new to this fandom and a bit unsure of himself, was concentrating on the
technical flaws in the story. “Is she
going to put a period in place of a comma after every single set of quotation
marks?”
“Yep—unless
someone asks a question, apparently.”
"Will you put her to sleep or keep her awake?" asked Elladan.
"Well since you seem to care so much, Elladan, which would you rather I
do?" asked Elrond.
"Put her to sleep." Replied Elladan.
Isaiah
sniggered. “Yes, Lord Elrond, put her
to sleep! Go on; in this anachronistic
story, there must be a dog pound around here somewhere.”
Mara was
preoccupied with the charge list.
“Causing Elladan to care excessively about the Sue. I have an unpleasant feeling about where
this is going. Ooh, I was right. Causing Elladan to hold your hand.” She turned down her Character Analysis
Device, whose steadily growing whining might be detected by the Elven
hearing—assuming, that is, that the Elves were in character enough to still
retain that trait.
“Hm.” Isaiah moved slightly beyond the tree’s
trunk. “Intriguing development. The Sue is an asthmatic. Maybe this will be a more realistic modern
day OC. After all, to know about the
El-twins, the Suethor must have read the books.”
Sadly, it
turned out that asthma wasn’t any problem in Middle Earth. Elrond immediately said that he could cure
her, even though his sons, and most likely, Elrond himself, hadn’t heard the
term before.
“Having
the cowardice to employ an
implausible medical cure just so that you can be rid of the inconvenience of
having a breathing disorder.” Mara spat
in the Sue’s direction. “How utterly
lame. Step right up, everyone! Run away from your disabilities with a quick
trip to Middle Earth!”
"You are going to put her to sleep, right?" said Elrohir.
Mara and
Isaiah covered their mouths to stifle laughter at the repetition of the phrase,
but their expressions soured immediately as the Mary Sue slept for a short
space and awoke to Elladan holding her hand.
Isaiah got
out his own CAD.
[Elladan. Canon.
Male. Out of Character 39.5%]
"Elladan. Elladan, wouldn't you be more comfortable in a bed." I said
softly.
"Are you offering?" asked Elladan.
[Out of
character 70% and rising. CHARACTER
RUPTURE! CHARACTER RUPTURE!]
"Offering what?" I asked.
"Are you offering to share your bed with me?"
"What if I was just suggesting that you should just go sleep in a
bed." I said.
"Fine, there's a bed right in front of me, I'll sleep there." He said
getting into bed with me.
[Out of
character 84%. PLOT HOLE FIRMLY
ENTRENCHED. MAYDAY!]
"Comfortable?" I asked.
"Not quite." He said pulling me close to him, close to the point
where my head ended up on his shoulder.
[Out of
Character 96%! COMPLETE CHARACTER
ERASURE IMMINENT!]
Mara and Isaiah
stood with their mouths open. They had
just seen a character go from more or less canonical to completely out of
character in the space of a couple of paragraphs.
“She works
fast, doesn’t she?” Isaiah managed.
Mara
turned away from the gruesome scene.
“Welcome to Lord of the Rings fanfiction, Isaiah. Now, get out your sleeping bag. We have a long night ahead of us while the
romantic couple sleeps soundly.”
“Then
what?” Isaiah glanced at the Words.
“Then they
are rudely awakened by Elrond, demanding to know what’s going on.”
“Yay for
in character Elrond,” Isaiah said firmly as he slipped into his sleeping
bag.
A few
hours later, the agents were awakened by Elrond angrily wondering why Elladan
was in bed with Evelyn. The CAD stopped
whining for a brief moment but abruptly started up again when Elladan explained
the situation.
"She made a comment that I would probably be more comfortable in a bed
instead of the chair then I climbed into bed with her." Said Elladan.
“Oh, that’s a good explanation,” Isaiah remarked
as he suppressed a yawn.
Elrond
seemed to think so, as he pronounced it “fine.” However, he asked for Evelyn’s age and found out that she was
sixteen.
“I’m going
to take this time to remind everyone that Elladan is how old?” Isaiah glanced significantly at Mara.
Mara got
out her copy of the books and flipped to the appendices. “Well, since we have
no idea when this is taking place, we don’t know for sure, but since the Sue
got thrown into the Fellowship of the
Ring, we can estimate.” Mara motioned
for silence and then counted rapidly to herself. “Elladan’s birth year being T.A. 139, and the Fellowship of the Ring opening with
Bilbo’s farewell party around T.A. 3001, he would be at least two thousand, eight hundred and sixty-two
years old!”
“A nearly
three thousand year old Elf with a sixteen year old human.” Isaiah rolled his eyes. “And Lord Elrond thought that Aragorn and Arwen were too far apart in
age!”
Elrond had
invited Legolas (who else?) to Imladris in order to separate Elladan and Evelyn,
according to the elder Peredhil twin.
"He's going to try to keep us apart, he may even send you to another Elven
city or worse, Gondor with the Humans." Said Elladan climbing into my bed.
Mara and
Isaiah ran for cover as the Character Analysis Device bulged and quivered.
“Causing
Elladan to be repulsed by the idea of Evelyn living with humans, despite the
fact that she is human and he has a
human for a future brother-in-law,” Isaiah charged. “Oh, pity the Sue, Elladan’s worried that she might be sent
away. And now the Sue chimes in, saying
that if Elrond catches Elladan in her bed he’ll send her to Mirkwood until she
turns eighteen.”
“Um, let’s
think...no. Just because being eighteen
signifies adulthood in the States doesn’t mean that the age of adulthood in
Middle Earth is eighteen. Going by
medieval times, it probably would have been less than that. I’m sure Elrond would be only too happy to
send you packing, Sue, but I think that your being a thoughtless hormonal girl
would have more to do with it than your being sixteen.”
“Yes!”
Isaiah had been following along with Mara.
“She’s leaving. Yippee! ARGH!”
Mara
raised an eyebrow.
"Lord Elrond would you like me to take Evelyn to Mirkwood?" asked
Legolas.
"Yes, please Legolas, so I don't have to kill or imprison my own son for
sleeping with a minor." Said Elrond.
“GYAHAH!” Mara rocked back on her heels. “Have I mentioned how much I hate this fic?”
“Surprisingly,
no.”
“Well,
I’ll start now. First, she uses
absolutely no commas after a statement made in quotation marks. Second, she separates letters from their
respective words—”
"Well
then if y our going to do that, in a few hours time you will be able to leave,
as soon as I get a bag together for her to take with her to Mirkwood." Said
Elrond.
“—So.
Third, she only has dialogue, so it’s like the characters exist in a
vacuum. As for the characters sticking
to their personalities...”
Elladan,
his OOC-ness hovering around 97%, pleaded with his father for Evelyn to stay,
as long as he promised not to sleep with her.
Elrond’ position remained unchanged.
Their dispute awakened Elrohir, who came in rubbing the sleep out of his
eyes, despite the fact that Elves don’t really need sleep. A boring conversation occurred while the
details were worked out as to how to take care of the Sue. Isaiah could recall when Tolkien’s world
involved things like hope, friendship and the end of an age rather than the
romantic woes of a selfish wish-fulfillment insertion.
All of a
sudden, a miniature version of Legolas scurried out of the fic and towards the
agents.
“What
the...”
“Missing
comma.” Mara picked it up. “Its name is ‘Minute Legolas’, if I’m not
mistaken, from Elrond’s pronouncement, ‘You can deal with that in a minute
Legolas’. The missing comma changed the
pronunciation, and therefore, the meaning.”
“Ohh,
minute in the sense of small, not in the measurement of time.”
“Exactly.” Mara fiddled with her watch. “I wish we were in real time instead of Sue
time.”
“Maybe we
should portal,” Isaiah suggested. “The
only thing going on now is the explanation of why Mary Sue’s being sent away,
and Elladan asking Evelyn to keep a secret.
I really don’t want to know what that is.” He eyed his CAD nervously.
It had begun rocking back and forth.
“Flaming Denethor, NOW what?”
Elladan pulled me close and said, "Can you keep a secret?"
"Of course." I said picking my head up to look at him.
Elladan put his lips close to mine and said, "Maybe it's a good thing that
he's sending you to Mirkwood or I might not be able to keep my hands off of
you."
KABOOM!
The agents
looked on, horrified, as the Isaiah’s Character Analysis Device exploded. The tiny shards flew in all directions. For a moment, the story halted as the Elves
examined the pile of twisted glass and metal.
There was
silence.
“Whoa,”
Isaiah breathed, his voice scarcely audible.
“It’s never done that before.”
The shards
trembled and quivered as Evelyn and Elladan left the scrap metal to engage in
some last-minute smooching.
Fortunately, they broke apart when Elrohir, who barely existed in the
story, scolded his brother for his OOC actions. Unfortunately, he did so in a way that made another figure leap
out of the story.
"I hope your happy Elladan, not only is Legolas her guardian, but we're
not allowed to visit Mirkwood for those two years and if Thranduil sees either
of us, we are to be charged as trespassers." Said Elrohir.
“Your
Happy Elladan” skipped gaily around the room, and then came to stand obediently
near the agents, who were the only readers in the fic. The sickeningly overjoyed Elf beamed at
Mara, who seized her own Character Analysis Device and thwapped him soundly on
the head. He reverted back to canonical
for a moment, stared at Mara with narrowed eyes, and turned to regard the Sue
with an expression of terror. All too
soon, he once again succumbed to Evelyn’s spell.
Evelyn
asked for more information about what would happen once she reached Mirkwood.
There the
chapter abruptly ended. Mara and Isaiah
lost their balance for a moment, as the ending had left neither closure nor
cliffhanger. The story simply screeched
to a halt, then lumbered forward again.
The Mary Sue was to ride to Mirkwood in a dress, over her feeble
protestations, and also after she had taken a shower. Legolas carried her to her horse, whereupon Mara’s CAD began a
quiet wail.
She glared
at it. “Don’t you start,” she ordered it, turning the volume down once more.
"Noro lim, Shadowfax, noro lim." Said Legolas.
“Huh?”
“Whatthe...”
Mara and
Isaiah recoiled from the image of Legolas mounting a horse that should have
been in Rohan, or at the very least with Gandalf. It wasn’t clear, since the fic didn’t specify the time in which
this Middle Earthian soap opera was unfolding.
All the agents knew was that it had to be near T.A. 3001.
“Whoa,”
said Isaiah at last. “Even I know that
the canon’s way out of whack. Now they’re traveling, and they won’t stop
until they—”
Bam!
“—hit the
Misty Mountains.”
Shadowfax
had run at full gallop towards the Misty Mountains and then smacked against the
stone headfirst. Legolas and Evelyn
were temporarily dislodged while the horse tried to find its footing.
Mara tried
to stop Isaiah from laughing by adding charges to the list. “Causing Shadowfax to hit the Misty
Mountains. Poor noble horse.”
“Ahahah—sorry,”
said Isaiah in contrition. “But you
have to admit, it was funny to see.”
Evelyn was magically cold, and therefore had to have Legolas hold her while
she warmed up. Legolas told her to go
to sleep. Mara and Isaiah thought they
might get a little bit of relief.
"Fine." I said moving closer to Legolas.
Legolas tightened his hold on me.
Mara
flinched as her CAD heated up. She
could turn down the sound on it, but when the canonicals were this out of character,
it was difficult to keep hold of the devices.
Luckily hers had been out of the way at the time when Isaiah’s exploded,
so there wasn’t so much stress on it.
There was
a rustling outside of the cave in which Legolas and Evelyn had found shelter. It turned out that Elladan had followed them
secretly. How he had kept pace with the
fastest horse in Middle Earth was not mentioned. Now it was Elladan’s turn to hold Evelyn close. Mara clenched her fists tightly and
prudently lowered the CAD to the ground as a sizzling sound came from it.
*******************************The next
morning****************************
"Evelyn, it's time to get us." Said Elladan.
“Er...” Mara glanced at Isaiah, wondering if he had
understood the meaning of Elladan’s words.
It turned out that her partner was more worried about the continuing and
irritating use of periods after quotation marks. These minor errors in the story, however, did not equal a
hundredth of the distress the agents experienced upon finding Legolas fitting
Shadowfax with a saddle.
“WHAT?!”
exclaimed the agents at this event, nearly alerting the Sue to their presence
before they recovered from their shock.
“A saddle?
On Shadowfax?” Mara tore the charge list as she bore down
with the tip of her pen. “She must
die.”
She did
not die, but instead survived for two more years, when the story picked up
again.
Legolas
and Evelyn were getting ready to go to a party. Everyone that Evelyn knew in Middle Earth would be there. Also, Evelyn referred to Legolas as her
lover.
"I should start getting ready for the party." I said.
"If you need help, let me know." Said Legolas seductively.
“Legolas,
too?! OUCH!” Mara yelped as the CAD
grew red hot. “But—but—she was kissing
Elladan. She led Elladan to believe
that she loved him! She didn’t want to
go to Mirkwood.”
“Mara,
what are you doing?” Isaiah asked as the female agent pointed her Analysis
Device at the Sue.
“Just
seeing something. I want to see what
her reading is.”
[Evelyn. Female.
Non-canon. Mary Sue. Out of Character 66%]
Mara
struggled to keep a straight face.
“Well, how’s that for character inconsistency?”
“Not so
inconsistent.” Isaiah pointed grimly as
the Sue, conveniently dressed in only a robe, threw open the door and was pulled
into Elladan’s embrace.
"Elladan, what are you doing here?" I asked kissing him.
“She’s a
cheater. Perfect. Wonderful.”
Mara bit down on the end of her pen.
“Do I have
to watch?”
Mara
nodded. “Courage, Agent. Look, she’s just leading him into the
room...and locking it...and kissing him and leading him to the bed...oh, no.”
Isaiah
looked from Evelyn to Elladan to Mara to her CAD, baffled.
“But—she—just—she
said Legolas was her lov—”
“I know.”
“She let
Legolas believe—”
“I know.”
“Legolas,
an immortal Elf centuries older than she, is interested in h—”
“I know.”
“And
Elladan too—and she deceives them BOTH?”
“That’s
correct.”
Isaiah
throttled the air in front of him. “How
can you manage to keep calm around this tripe?”
“Easily,”
replied Mara crisply. “I don’t want to
lose my sanity.”
"Before I left, I kept my hands to my self because I didn't ant you to get
into any more trouble your Father, but I don't have to worry about that any
more." I said pushing him onto the bed.
“Hey,
cool, an ant!”
The insect
crawled over the entwined forms while Elladan asked Evelyn if she was
“sure.” Of course, the Sue, being noble
enough to attract the attentions of two high-ranking Elves, said that she would
be betraying Legolas’ trust if they slept together, and it would constitute a
marriage according to the customs of the Eldar, and therefore it was best to
refrain.
Not.
“Ewww...” Isaiah clutched his stomach as he watched
something akin to a Harlequin Romance bedroom scene and a cliché movie fade-to-black
coupling. He doubled over at the image
of Elladan and Evelyn. A white bag was
thrust underneath his chin.
“Thought
you might need it,” said Mara stiffly, taking out a fresh bottle of Bleepka and
quaffing it.
Mara
stowed her Character Analysis Device away in her knapsack to avoid
detection. Still, every so often beeps
would emit from it. An hour later,
Evelyn got up from the bed...to take a shower.
“What is
up with this Sue and showers?” Mara examined the showerhead that had appeared
in Mirkwood. “Doesn’t she know anything about what medieval technology
was like?”
“Mara, she
can’t even figure out which hot Elf to fall in love with. Do you really think she’s going to worry
about major historical inaccuracies?”
As if to
prove this, when Evelyn got out of the shower, she was having trouble with the zipper on her dress. Oh-so-conveniently, Elladan helped her with
it. The male PPC agent muttered darkly
as Evelyn brushed her “long, curly blonde” locks, and, after another heartwarming
kiss, Elladan left.
The
agents, their anger tiring them out, pretended to ignore the fact that
Thranduil called her ‘my dear,’ insisted that she address him as ‘Grandfather,’
and wanted her to call Legolas ‘Father.’
“I was supposed to call Legolas 'Ada' but
that well, didn't work as we became lovers,” the Sue explained.
“Argh! What is this, pseudo-incest?” Isaiah dug his
fingers into his palm.
“Don’t
worry about it,” Mara said in an unnaturally high voice. “Write down the charges.”
“Fine. Grand ballroom in Mirkwood. And now, a week later and the Imladris group
is on its way to Rivendell.” Elrond
asked the Sue what she had done while she was in Mirkwood.
“You probably don’t want to know,” Mara
answered quietly, earning a small smile from Isaiah.
"Legolas taught me how to use a bow along with twin blades. Glorfindel was
my teacher for my studies. Thranduil taught me how to dance. And Legolas taught
me how to speak and understand Elvish." I said while mentally adding,
"I lost my virginity to Legolas."
“Can’t Elves,
well, kind of tell if she did or
not?” Isaiah glared daggers at Evelyn.
“Absolutely,”
affirmed Mara. “Elves take only one
mate for life, unless the first spouse dies and chooses to remain in the Halls
of Mandos. By sleeping with Legolas,
she was marrying him. Having a liaison
with Elladan constitutes adultery. And,
as you said, Elladan would never have slept with Evelyn after she had mated
with Legolas, because he would be able to see that she had taken a
husband. Here, you take a turn looking at
the Words, Isaiah. What’s up next?”
“Arwen
bashing,” Isaiah responded promptly, as the Elf lady suddenly appeared.
“Gah! Where’d she come from?”
Mara
pursed her lips.
"Did Thranduil give you a title?" asked Elrohir.
"Well, since as far as he was concerned I was Legolas's daughter, he gave
me the title of Princess." I replied.
“Princess?
Charge—”
“Got it.”
"How nice, Galadriel will have a good time with training her to become a
witch." Said Arwen.
“Ah, Lady
Arwen,” Isaiah murmured. “Even though you’re out of character, insulting your
grandmother, you are not blind to the perils of the Sue. Hey, finally! Mara, look, she’s not feeling
well! Elladan’s about to ask if she’s
okay.”
“Okay is
NOT. A. WORD. YET.”
The Sue
wanted to lie down, which the agents were sure wasn’t a good idea, as she
always seemed to get into trouble when in that position. Elrond came in and asked if she would like
him to take a look at her or a healer.
“I’d opt
for looking at the healer,” Isaiah suggested to him. Due to the misplaced modifier, Elrond began to gape at the healer
as soon as she entered the room.
“Stupid Sue.”
Nothing
was wrong with Evelyn, according to the healer. Then the Mary Sue asked whether she was pregnant or not. The healer checked and found that Evelyn
was, indeed, with child.
"I'll send word to Mirkwood immediately with the great news and we'll tell
my Grandmother in person when she arrives from Lothlorien tomorrow." Said
Elladan hugging me.
“Wait,
wait. The baby’s his? But—isn’t it a bit soon?” Isaiah glanced somewhat embarrassedly Mara’s
way. “Not that I’m an expert on these
things, mind you. But it seems a bit
short a time since she and Elladan...well, you know...”
“Department
of Geographical Aberrations?” Mara
wasn’t paying attention; instead, she was talking into her communicator. “DOGA?
Agent Daffyd? Good. Listen, I’m in a fic right now and I need a
bit of help regarding the time a journey would take. Mirkwood to Rivendell.
That’s right. On Elvish horses.” There was a lengthy pause while Mara
listened intently. Finally, she replied
in an emotionless voice, “I see. Thank
you kindly. No, she’ll not be sent to
your department, I promise you. You
have enough to deal with.”
She ended
the communication and turned to Isaiah.
“You’re
right, Isaiah,” she said. “They spent a
week in Mirkwood prior to leaving for Rivendell. That week, plus the journey, is the time span we’re working with. Agent Daffyd said that if she took any
longer than 20 days for the journey, she couldn’t be trying. That means that only four weeks, at the
most, have passed since she and Elladan had their little tryst. Evelyn couldn’t possibly have any inkling that she’s pregnant!”
“That,”
Isaiah tried lightening the mood, “or it’s a very rapidly gestating baby.”
“Ugh.” Mara shuddered. “Onward. Let’s finish it
as soon as we can. I feel murderous
already.”
Because
mangling the chief Rivendell and Mirkwood Elves’ personalities beyond
recognition was not enough for Evelyn, the Sue met up with Lady Galadriel the
next day and talked with her in the woods.
Galadriel called Elladan “that annoying Grandson of mine” and Evelyn
asked Galadriel if she could tell who the father of Evelyn’s baby was.
“Chick
flick fan fic...must flee...”
“Oh no you
don’t.” Mara grabbed Isaiah’s arm and
forced him back. “Watch. You’ll get hardened to it soon enough.”
I think you already know already know who the father is, let your heart guide
you." Said Galadriel after a long silence.
“Because
all women immediately know who the father of their child is. And if Evelyn’s heart is so powerful and
important, why didn’t it warn her that betraying Elladan, whom she should never
have had a relationship with in the first place, was wrong?”
Evelyn
went back to “the house”—where she had been with Galadriel wasn’t really
explained—and found Legolas and Elladan arguing over her.
“Ah, the
dream of every Sue: to have two hott
Elves fighting for her love.”
“I
wouldn’t call it love, Mara.”
The Sue
couldn’t believe that Elladan and Legolas would argue about the issue of her
love. The agents couldn’t, either, but
that was presumably for a different reason.
Most happily, Evelyn got confronted with her two-timing behavior.
"Evelyn is it true that you slept with Legolas?" asked Elladan.
"Yes." I said softly.
"Why didn't you tell me?" asked Elladan.
"I don't know." I said softly.
Isaiah
backed away from the scene, ran into a side chamber, and exploded. “That’s all the explanation he gets? She DOESN’T KNOW?! Oh, well THAT’S all right then, Evelyn. Don’t you worry. It
doesn’t matter if you betrayed the Elf you cared about. It’s of no consequence that you’re a cheater,
that your endocrine system has completely usurped your brain, and that you’re a
deceitful, lewd little girl with the moral compass of a COW PIE! Just display ignorance and it’ll be all
better!”
"I think it's best if you go back to Mirkwood with the father of your
child." Said Elladan angrily.
"Elladan your wrong, you are absolutely wrong about who the father is."
I said.
"You're telling me that the baby you're carrying is mine after you've gone
and slept with Legolas before you slept with me." "Elladan
please." I said starting to cry.
“Please
what, insect?” Isaiah demanded contemptuously.
‘“Please, Elladan, believe that you are the father of my child?’ How is
he supposed to know, you
unfaithful succubus? All he has to go
on is your word!”
“And we
all know how much that’s worth,” Mara
cut in sarcastically.
Elladan
shouted at her to leave and have Legolas raise the child. The Sue ran out of the room, crying.
“Good,”
responded Isaiah savagely.
The
downside was that this resulted in Evelyn saddling up Shadowfax.
“Let’s
hope he’ll bolt and return home,” sighed Isaiah.
Mara’s
eyes widened. Then she smiled sincerely
for the first time since the fic’s opening.
“I have a
wonderfully splendid idea.”
“Do tell.”
Meanwhile,
Shadowfax carried Evelyn to Mirkwood, the Sue crying all the way. She cried when explaining that Elladan threw
her out (“As he should have,” added Isaiah), said she was sorry for not calling
Thranduil Grandfather (“But she’s not sorry for fooling around with Thranduil’s
son and cheating on him with Elladan!”), and secured the king’s promise to help
her raise her child. The Sue thanked
him. Isaiah tightened his grip on his
chosen weapon, a mace.
"No problem my dear. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to write a letter to
Elrond to have him talk to his son about upsetting my Granddaughter." Said
Thranduil. "Thank you Grandfather, that should teach that pompous bastard
a lesson." I said heading up to my room.
[Agent
Quen: Here, we are forced to omit several paragraphs from the account,
consisting of the agents colorfully swearing and promising to do unspeakably
painful things to the Sue. Agents Mara
and Isaiah explained that this would not only increase the rating to R, at the
very least, but it would also take more time to do away with Evelyn.]
Later that night,
Evelyn stood on her balcony and muttered about how she couldn’t believe that
Elladan was so stupid.
[Further omissions necessary here,
particularly in the case of Isaiah’s interesting combination of scatological
swears and invocation of the Valar. The
same goes for, "I wish Elladan would
stop acting so stubborn and actually except the fact that I'm having his
baby" and Elladan saying,
"Yes, and I was wrong to yell at you like that. I'm sorry I let my temper
get the better of me, please come back to Rivendell with me. We can raise our
child together."]
When the
agents had finished letting off steam, Isaiah, who seemed to be taking the fic
personally, ended with, “Evelyn betrayed his trust and slept with Legolas for
two years, and Elladan is the one who
is apologizing for losing his temper?”
Mara put a
hand on his shoulder. “It’s all right,
Isaiah. We’re nearly there.”
Isaiah
swiveled his head in her direction.
“Where?”
“Near the
plot hole to end all plot holes. And
the Sue’s demise, of course.”
There was
more soppy Elladan/Evelyn cuddling, followed by “Grandfather” wishing them goodnight
and Legolas reprimanding Evelyn for staying up too late. Her response was that Legolas was forgetting
the critical lesson that he had taught her: never let anyone raise their voice
to you without raising your voice back.
Isaiah wondered if that was taught in Sue Ethics 101. The Sue and Legolas got into a fight, the
Sue calling him “Father” all of the time.
Legolas threatened to ground
the Sue and then stormed off in an out of character temper tantrum. After Isaiah had taken down that offense against
canon, Mara jabbed him with her pen.
“Pay close
attention now. We’re getting there, and
we have to move quickly, before she becomes immortal. And if you value your life, don’t go near my CAD!”
Mara
hastily caught hold of the device and hurled it out of one of the windows. It landed in the fork of a tree not far from
the balcony.
Legolas
stopped short the usual archery practice between him and the Sue and led her
into a room, closing the door behind him.
A sense of dread washed over Isaiah as he witnessed the scene. He wanted badly to ask Mara what was going
to happen, but self-preservation stopped him.
"Legolas, what are.."
Legolas pressed his lips to mine cutting me off.
"Shush, if you don't fight me this will be a lot easier." Said Legolas.
Isaiah
stood, mouth open. “No. Don’t tell me. No. Mara—Marmph!” His partner
had clapped a hand over his mouth.
“Shh.” The agents crept forward, weapons at the
ready.
“He’s not
going to—”
I looked around the room and saw a bed and chains on the wall.
I also saw chains on the head board of t he bed.
“He is,”
Mara said grimly. They both turned
around at the unholy shriek that was coming from the Character Analysis Device.
“Elbereth
preserve us.”
"Legolas open this door!" shouted Thranduil from outside the door.
Legolas ignored his father's request.
I looked around the room again and remembered that this is the room that
Legolas and I first slept together in.
The
attempted rape was to be thwarted by Thranduil and company bursting through the
door and stopping the Elf prince. The
PPC got there first.
The agents
leapt forward just as the second Character Analysis Device was blown to
smithereens by the advent of Rapist!Legolas.
If there was one thing that Tolkien was clear about, it was that Elves
did not rape. Least of all Legolas
Thranduilion, Prince of Mirkwood and member of the Fellowship.
“Protectors
of the Plot Continuum!” Isaiah shouted over the sound of the explosion,
clubbing the Mary Sue over the head as Mara turned the hilt of her scimitar on
Legolas. “You are under arrest
for...oh, never mind, I’ll save my breath,” he said as she swooned. Canon was jarred into place as soon as she
blacked out.
The
prince, who had been busy accosting his One True Love, turned around immediately,
an expression of consternation on his face.
The expression quickly changed to revulsion as he eyed the unconscious
Sue.
“What
spawn of Morgoth is this?” he whispered, eyes fixed on the prone Evelyn.
“May you
never know, good prince,” Mara answered, tentatively motioning for him to face
her. When he did, she pressed the
button on her neuraliser sunglasses and placed several Bleeprin pills in his
hand.
“Eat those
as soon as you can,” Mara consoled.
“You’ll feel much better and forget this ever happened.”
She turned
back to Isaiah and discovered that her partner had already activated a
portal. Mara was swiftly ushered
through.
“Where
to?” she questioned Isaiah.
“The
stables,” was his reply. “There we can
have a reunion of old friends.”
OOC!Shadowfax
was waiting for the pair and their victim as they led him out of his
stall. The grooms around them were
still blinking in shock at the damage that the Sue had done.
Suddenly,
Evelyn awakened with a gasp of pain.
“Ah! The baby!” she cried. “What’s happening?” She clutched her
stomach.
Isaiah
pressed the communicator button on his portal generator. “Dr. Fitzgerald? Medical Department? We
have an emergency case here. A Sue is
carrying the offspring of herself and Elladan and something went wrong when the
canon snapped back into place. I don’t
care about the Sue, but the baby—”
“I’ll
prepare for emergency in vitro transport,” came the terse reply. “Fitzgerald out.” A few seconds later, the Sue gave another gasp as her offspring
was transported back to Headquarters to await examination.
Mara,
meanwhile, had sidled over to Shadowfax, looking at him nervously as the canon
began to take effect. Before he could
lash out, she carefully cut away his saddle and lifted the bridle off of him.
The steed’s
demeanor changed immediately. He stood
taller and prouder, pawing the ground with his left hoof. Mara shied away from him, uncertain if he
would consider her a friend, but apparently he knew well enough who his enemy
was.
“Shadowfax!”
the Sue cried happily, running forward.
“Come here, Shadowfax, I’ll saddle you up and we can run away from these
nasty—”
The Sue
noticed the unfriendly gleam in his eye a split second before the horse charged
her.
“AIIIIIIIIII!”
she wailed, escaping the stallion for two seconds before he caught up with her
and dealt her three sound kicks with his forelegs.
“OOH!” the
agents exclaimed, ecstatic, as the Sue was pummeled. From the looks of things, she had broken a collarbone, an arm,
and at least two ribs. Shadowfax then
reared up and stamped down hard on her legs.
“Uh...portal?”
Mara asked Isaiah, eyeing Shadowfax.
“Wait. I don’t think he’s going to kill her. No, he’s moving away. How strange.”
The mighty
horse looked steadily at the two agents.
Mara and Isaiah stood in awe at his majesty and his curiously piercing
gaze. Then, as if he knew what they
were there for, he indicated the Sue with a toss of his head.
“A
thousand thanks, friend,” Mara called softly.
“Return home and run free. All
is as it should be,” she informed Isaiah as Shadowfax vanished and returned to
the plains of Rohan.
Mara and
Isaiah dragged Evelyn away and portalled to Headquarters, ushering her to
Medical.
“How’s
Elladan’s baby?” was the first thing out of Isaiah’s mouth as they entered sick
bay.
“Babies,”
corrected the doctor agitatedly. “She
had twins. Or, rather, she would have
had twins. I can’t for the life of me
figure out what she did to them.”
“Quickly
gestating babies.” Mara echoed Isaiah’s
words earlier and explained their significance. At that, the doctor shook his head.
“That’s
exactly what it looked like.” He grimaced.
“Her twins were nearly the size of three-month-old babies, but their
internal organs hadn’t developed for more than four weeks. There was no hope for them the minute logic
entered that story. They were
stillborn.”
Isaiah
winced.
“Now, what
do you want done with this young lady?” The doctor looked in the Sue’s
direction.
“Leave
her,” Isaiah said. “We haven’t charged
her yet. Also, we haven’t figured out a
bad enough demise.”
“I’ll ask
the other agents at Headquarters about it,” Mara offered.
“Evelyn
Eliza,” Isaiah bellowed. “You are
charged with being a Mary Sue, with falling into Middle Earth through a
plothole and speaking Westron without any prior knowledge of it, with bashing
both Arwen and Galadriel, causing Legolas and Elladan to be so out of character
that we lost two CADs to PPCing you, especially making them fall in love with
you, fight over you, have children with you, and attempt rape on you...” he
took a deep breath. “Sleeping with both Elladan and Legolas without either one
knowing, having bad grammar, separating letters from their words, putting a
saddle on Shadowfax, having unnaturally quickly gestating babies, and with
having upwards of 77 period-comma substitutions.” He looked up from his charge list. The Sue was bemoaning her fate.
“For this, you are sentenced to die pending a punishment that is fitting
for you.”
He shoved
the charge list into his backpack and stalked out of the room.
____________________________________________
“Need some
bootleg Pink Stuff? I can get some from
Ginger, if you’d like.”
Isaiah
looked up from his sitting position on the floor of his quarters.
Mara stood
in the doorway. The female agent
crouched down and slung an arm over his shoulder. “You all right, Recruit?”
Isaiah
moved away. “’M not a recruit,” he
mumbled.
“That’s
what you th—”
“Mara, I
want to go back to PotC.”
The
statement was so abrupt and final that it took Mara by surprise.
“I hate
this fandom.”
“I thought
you liked LotR!” Mara protested.
“Too
much,” the male agent emphasized. “It’s one thing when something I like is
corrupted. But when it’s something I love...it all gets too personal, I
suppose. I can’t point and laugh
through stuff like this. I just go to
pieces.
“What are
we going to do about the Sue?” he added, changing the topic without batting an
eye.
Mara threw
back her head and laughed. “The entire
PPC knows about it,” she said. “They’re
all going to turn out for the sacrifice.”
“The
sacrifice?”
“Aye. At the temple of GreyLadyBast. We’ll wear our dress uniforms.”
“Do we have dress uniforms?”
“Not yet,
but by the time the arrangements are made for the smiting, we should. We’ll follow the instructions for a new
agent’s initiation. Agent Miiro is to
be the guest of honor.”
“Oh? I never went through that ceremony.”
“It’s not
required. Besides, this particular
initiation is only for new female agents.
You will be there, won’t you?”
Isaiah
made a poor attempt at a smile. “I
suppose. For the present, I’d like some
sleep.”
___________________________________________________
You are
cordially invited to the smiting of the Sue.
With GreyLadyBast’s permission, of course.
______________________________________________________________
Araeph’s note: I
have only one thing to add on this fic.
Evelyn1987? I have asthma. I know how inconvenient, painful and
sometimes frightening it can be. I
understand the temptation of escaping that condition through a fantasy
world.
All the more
reason why I can’t excuse Elrond curing the Sue.
Have the courage
to deal with your problems, instead
of merely wishing them away. Impossible
medical cures might sound nice, might be nice to daydream about, but in all
honesty, they don’t make your situation any better. In fact, they’ll just make you more miserable in the end, knowing
that such an instant cure is unattainable.
It does not do
to dwell on dreams and forget to live.
No matter how hard living might be.
That is all.