The shadow of a door opened, revealing a tiny ray of light that fell upon the face of the girl in the corner. A feminine figure walked into the door with a fire-lizard at her back.
Valerie slowly descended into the basement. It wasn't a fun place to be. All of the Sues wallowing in pits of despair and anger, demanding to be released and set free, some being horrifically driven over the edge. All of the negative emotions hanging around the air created a very bad environment.
But Valerie had an objective to accomplish.
She eventually arrived at her destination - the largest cell in the far end of the room. A black-haired girl was slumped on the floor. Her face was still bleeding slightly, but all in all nothing seemed to be broken physically.
"Cassie?" said Valerie tenderly.
Cassie did not respond through her tears.
Valerie approached Cassie slowly. She could sense a thickness - the layer of negativity continually increasing as she got slower - it was building up - she was surrounded by her own wave of horror -
And Valerie slowly and softly touched Cassie, and shivered - for she was now able to see exactly what Cassie was suffering from. She was wallowing so far into her memories it was so clear, even to Valerie -
-
A world in which adults didn't exist. Where everyone was immortal (unless they were harmed and injured beyond the capable area of surviving). Where magical beings and humans lived together in a semi-harmony.
A house where fourteen children resided, seven boys, seven girls. One girl, the leader.
A fifteen-year-old girl.
She'd saved her corrupted sister, and was formerly the last of the water fae (until she'd resurrected the rest of the race). And how interesting that process was. How vast her power, how great her justice.
A girl who was now sitting at a chair in the kitchen staring at the stove with a girl in a braid next to her.
"How on earth do you heat something up to make ice cream?" said the braided girl.
"Shush, Puyo," said Cassie. "The soda is weird like that."
"How you manage to put soda in ice cream beats me..."
"Well, that ice cream company did steal my recipe once."
"But you kicked the ice cream company's ass."
"I did," she said proudly. "This recipe is copyright."
Cassie was putting the finishing touches on the ice cream when there was an explosion outside. Cassie perked up.
"Code A everyone!"
People started to flood into the room. Cassie did a quick headcount.
"...thirteen, fourteen. Good."
All of the kids stared up at Cassie, awaiting orders.
"What's it this time?" said the one annoying butt-monkey with the semi-unpronounceable oddly capitalized name.
Cassie opened the shades three centimeters and stared.
"Giant teddy bear."
The other kids groaned.
"Again?" said Puyo. "We've killed it 74920392183674893009284654 times!"
"And you've killed him," said Cassie, pointing to the one annoying butt-monkey with the semi-unpronounceable oddly capitalized name, "9822739263829473630928361978 times, but he comes back to life every day. For the purposes of crack, the Author can't kill him - he's got to be here for the next story."
Puyo sighed.
"Well... fine."
"Let's kill it," said the boy on the right of Cassie. That boy was Cassie's boyfriend - based extremely heavily on the boy Cassie's author had rather a crush on (whether feelings were requited in Real Life or not is still rather ambiguous, as they were still good friends nevertheless and he was aware she liked him... and if he ever happens to be reading this, which the Author highly doubts anyway, she apologizes for any grievances this may cause him and the current writing referenced did not cause any grievance back then [because it might have] and does not mean this to negatively portray him at all, simply because she now knows he had a blatant out-of-character and romantic portrayal).
"Come on!" yelled Cassie and the kids ran out, Cassie shifting into a sort of fae form as she flew up, holding a staff with a circular blue orb on it, about to save the day...
-
"You can't mean that."
Cassie, leaning against a tree, talking to her Author. The Author was not the same girl who had appeared to cryptically guide them in the Ga-Rei fandom, leaving nothing but negativity. She seemed veering on the edge of non-fangirlism, about to be thrown into extremity with one push. And she seemed nervous about what she was about to do.
"I'm sorry. I do mean that... I have no choice..."
"You don't mean that!" Cassie was protesting. "You're just going to... throw us away? Kill us? Like you did with that butterfly fairy?"
"Of course I won't kill you..." The Author shook her head. "Ari died in her own story. She was slated to die from the start. I won't kill you. I just... I can't write for you anymore. And I can't let you roam around in other dimensions anymore..."
"So you're going to stop us. Leave us in suspension. Forever."
"Of course not..." The Author held up a very large, battered laptop. "I have a new computer now, and I've decided that since I'm not going to touch this old one anyway, I'm going to seal you in this computer. It's huge - nineteen gigabytes (A/N: at the time this was a huge amount of memory) - and your world will be the same as it is now. Same friends. Same everything. You just can't go between dimensions..."
"I will not live like a caged animal!" And suddenly Cassie started to run, run, and outside of the Author's protests opened a portal and vanished into it...
-
"I shouldn't have left my friends there..."
Cassie, shaking her head, walked upon what seemed to be a void bridge.
"It's too late. I need to gather power and get them out. But how am I going to do that...That was stupid of me..."
"Oh?" A girl's voice rang throughout the void. Cassie turned around and saw the girl.
She's not much older than my Author, Cassie thought, as she appraised her. But the Author looked very different. At least, Aster could tell this girl was an Author.
"A lone Sue."
"A Sue?" Cassie blinked. "A Sue... what's a..."
"Nothing to be ashamed of," said the mysterious Author. "Come with me. You seem to be lost."
As the new Author discussed things with Cassie, the new Author explained some things to Cassie. According to her, everyone had the freedom to write what they wanted. Anyone who dissented and accused other characters of being "Sues" were traitors and thus "flamers". Characters made under "flamers" to be "non-Sueish" were "minions" without individuality.
"So your Author abandoned you," said the new Author. She had a broad smile on her face.
"As a Sue, you have powers you don't know you have. Fandom manipulation. Universe twisting. And I'll make you a deal. I can get you power. I can get you what you need. You just need to help me in my goal."
She held out her hand.
Cassie stared at it nervously.
She shook it.
And the regime began. With the help of an Author's power, she was easily able to garner more and more power. And with all that help, she overturned the Sue system.
Every day, with the propaganda and trickery, she rose higher. Her power grew. Every day Cassie woke up reassured she had power - and not just that she had power, that she could do something with it.
And one day, she made it to the top.
Crowned the Lieutenant Mary Sue, she now had power stretching over universes. All she had to do was fulfill her part of the bargain.
Under her rule, no Sue was allowed to enter any fandom without her permission. This was because all characters had to work for the new Author's "greater good"...
...promoting the freedom to write and express oneself.
-
And as Cassie entered the sealed fandom, she opened the portal and found the fandom was destroyed, and her friends gone.
She traveled to visit her Author and her stupid dreams, and yelled at her in a rage, for destroying her home and hiding away her friends and –
-
Valerie came back to earth.
She couldn't help but to continue staring at the poor Sue writhing on the ground. In essence she was a nice girl. To see the difference was astounding. It had almost been as if she had gone insane.
"I know what you're thinking."
Valerie turned around to see the Author. The one who had changed. The one who had reluctantly left Cassie behind.
"You're thinking that it was cruel what I did to her earlier. Beating her up. Well, I'll tell you this. I did not beat up Cassie."
Valerie blinked.
"I did not beat up Cassie Anora, my character. I beat up Cassie Anora, the character of that Author. Yes, Cassie was physically connected to me. But she sold her soul to that other girl. I am lenient with my characters. I am not lenient with other authors sending in their characters in an attack against me."
She looked at Cassie.
"You believed that pruning Emily in the right environment would get rid of her genetic factor. You believed Sueish philosophies came with puberty. They do not. They come with Sue powers. They come with the belief… well, when a Sue's been abandoned by his or her author, and they know they have the power to do something about it…"
Valerie nodded. She'd had suspicions this was true.
"Emily was abandoned by Harriet, but she was readopted and readjusted. And you've seen stray Sues roaming around in fandoms. Their only purpose is to create better lives for themselves. When you pursue them, they run, and when you capture them, they come quietly. They are not affiliated with the Lieutenant in any way. But the ones under Cassie…they wanted revenge, they had power – they attacked you when you found them."
She stared at Cassie.
"You will see more of the Sue system. You will see more of the others. As to who that other Author was, I have my suspicions. But mark my words. Cassie won't bother you again."
Valerie nodded. Nervous, she and Ari slowly exited the basement.
Cassie's author turned back to Cassie.
"Cassie," she said calmly.
Cassie looked up. The Author was using her calmer voice.
"Cassie, I am going to let you do what you want. Of course you will only do what I tell you to do, because you are my character and you are bound to me. I have given you the closest thing to free will any Author could give. I could always have made you do something. In a sense I caused you to betray me. Are you still bitter?"
Cassie shook her head.
"Now," said the Author, "if you had your freedom, what would you do?"
She put a hand on the bars.
-
Emily came up to Tash, panting.
"That girl escaped."
"What?" Adrian jumped up. "A Sue escaped?"
Emily nodded. "The black-haired one with a bloody nose. I saw her running around…"
Tash and Adrian called for the other Agents and they bolted. "Where did you find her, Emily?"
"The West Wing…"
The Library did not have a west per se, but it was named like that for convenience. The Agents sprinted towards the west side to see, indeed, Cassie running.
"Get her!"
But Cassie still had her Prohibitor on and she made no attempts to escape them. The only thing on her mind was the location she had to go. She had to get there now.
"Where is she going?" yelled Lauren.
Suddenly Tash held up a hand and everyone stopped.
"She's going into the kitchen…"
Cassie ran into the kitchen and turned around to stare at them. She panted hard.
Then she turned around, opened a nearby drawer, ad picked out a knife.
"Step back," said Adrian. "She could throw that at anyone – "
But Cassie only looked at them coldly…
…and plunged the knife into her own chest.
There was no way to stop her. The knife was already in. It was beyond the hope of healing or help.
The Agents rushed forward to see her. She was shaking her head, and as she stabbed she let out a cry and fell to the ground. She was still shaking her head vigorously.
"Not… her…"
She was shaking. Tash was in shock.
"She… you have to save… she's going to… she's not you think she… you have… save her… Foxblade…"
"Me?" Emily said.
"The other one… oldest…"
"Willowe's been prohibited."
"You don't understand…" She was becoming more incoherent. She shivered.
"Aster…"
Aster came forward to see her rival. The one she had been taught to hate. The one Cassie had wanted to kill for years.
"Don't… me…"
Her eyes darkened.
Chaos erupted in the Society.
-
Cassie awoke in white.
A man clad in a cloak greeted her.
"Welcome to the Character Void."
"Afterlife?" said Cassie.
"No. The place where Characters die." He pointed around. "You can stay here. But only if you have a will to live. And I don't see much to live for. Most snap and die."
"And where do they die?"
"Nowhere," said the man. "Into space. To inspire new stories. They dissipate."
Cassie looked around. It didn't seem to be a very inviting...
"Cassie!"
Cassie turned around to see the people she needed most.
"Puyo! And..."
Her best friend, Puyo, had appeared. She was alongside Cassie's lover.
Cassie began to cry.
"Everyone else snapped," said Puyo, "but we waited here for you."
Cassie ran up to them and held them close.
"I waited for you."
And having achieved everything they wanted, together they fell. And none of the three were ever seen again.
-
"That damn bitch!"
The young Author little girl slammed her fist on the table.
"That Author had to interfere! And now the girl's martyred herself. If she had just escaped and run off I could have tracked her down and gotten her out. But no, she had to kill herself… and now I have nobody to spread my ideology…"
"You could just convince the new leader to help you…" said the young Author's companion.
"Runoa doesn't give a damn about Sues." The young Author sighed. "She lets Sues go run off and go to the fandoms they feel like."
She fretted.
"If I ever meet that Cassie's Author in Real Life, I'm gonna kill her."
The Author sighed.
"I only have you two now. You know your job. Nina, I know you still are bitter against your Author. Fight for our cause. And you…" She pointed to the other companion. "Well, didn't you always want to be the Leader of Sues?"
The second companion giggled.
"Of course."
"Good," said the young Author. "Let's get that pesky ex-Librarian out of the way."
Valerie slowly descended into the basement. It wasn't a fun place to be. All of the Sues wallowing in pits of despair and anger, demanding to be released and set free, some being horrifically driven over the edge. All of the negative emotions hanging around the air created a very bad environment.
But Valerie had an objective to accomplish.
She eventually arrived at her destination - the largest cell in the far end of the room. A black-haired girl was slumped on the floor. Her face was still bleeding slightly, but all in all nothing seemed to be broken physically.
"Cassie?" said Valerie tenderly.
Cassie did not respond through her tears.
Valerie approached Cassie slowly. She could sense a thickness - the layer of negativity continually increasing as she got slower - it was building up - she was surrounded by her own wave of horror -
And Valerie slowly and softly touched Cassie, and shivered - for she was now able to see exactly what Cassie was suffering from. She was wallowing so far into her memories it was so clear, even to Valerie -
-
A world in which adults didn't exist. Where everyone was immortal (unless they were harmed and injured beyond the capable area of surviving). Where magical beings and humans lived together in a semi-harmony.
A house where fourteen children resided, seven boys, seven girls. One girl, the leader.
A fifteen-year-old girl.
She'd saved her corrupted sister, and was formerly the last of the water fae (until she'd resurrected the rest of the race). And how interesting that process was. How vast her power, how great her justice.
A girl who was now sitting at a chair in the kitchen staring at the stove with a girl in a braid next to her.
"How on earth do you heat something up to make ice cream?" said the braided girl.
"Shush, Puyo," said Cassie. "The soda is weird like that."
"How you manage to put soda in ice cream beats me..."
"Well, that ice cream company did steal my recipe once."
"But you kicked the ice cream company's ass."
"I did," she said proudly. "This recipe is copyright."
Cassie was putting the finishing touches on the ice cream when there was an explosion outside. Cassie perked up.
"Code A everyone!"
People started to flood into the room. Cassie did a quick headcount.
"...thirteen, fourteen. Good."
All of the kids stared up at Cassie, awaiting orders.
"What's it this time?" said the one annoying butt-monkey with the semi-unpronounceable oddly capitalized name.
Cassie opened the shades three centimeters and stared.
"Giant teddy bear."
The other kids groaned.
"Again?" said Puyo. "We've killed it 74920392183674893009284654 times!"
"And you've killed him," said Cassie, pointing to the one annoying butt-monkey with the semi-unpronounceable oddly capitalized name, "9822739263829473630928361978 times, but he comes back to life every day. For the purposes of crack, the Author can't kill him - he's got to be here for the next story."
Puyo sighed.
"Well... fine."
"Let's kill it," said the boy on the right of Cassie. That boy was Cassie's boyfriend - based extremely heavily on the boy Cassie's author had rather a crush on (whether feelings were requited in Real Life or not is still rather ambiguous, as they were still good friends nevertheless and he was aware she liked him... and if he ever happens to be reading this, which the Author highly doubts anyway, she apologizes for any grievances this may cause him and the current writing referenced did not cause any grievance back then [because it might have] and does not mean this to negatively portray him at all, simply because she now knows he had a blatant out-of-character and romantic portrayal).
"Come on!" yelled Cassie and the kids ran out, Cassie shifting into a sort of fae form as she flew up, holding a staff with a circular blue orb on it, about to save the day...
-
"You can't mean that."
Cassie, leaning against a tree, talking to her Author. The Author was not the same girl who had appeared to cryptically guide them in the Ga-Rei fandom, leaving nothing but negativity. She seemed veering on the edge of non-fangirlism, about to be thrown into extremity with one push. And she seemed nervous about what she was about to do.
"I'm sorry. I do mean that... I have no choice..."
"You don't mean that!" Cassie was protesting. "You're just going to... throw us away? Kill us? Like you did with that butterfly fairy?"
"Of course I won't kill you..." The Author shook her head. "Ari died in her own story. She was slated to die from the start. I won't kill you. I just... I can't write for you anymore. And I can't let you roam around in other dimensions anymore..."
"So you're going to stop us. Leave us in suspension. Forever."
"Of course not..." The Author held up a very large, battered laptop. "I have a new computer now, and I've decided that since I'm not going to touch this old one anyway, I'm going to seal you in this computer. It's huge - nineteen gigabytes (A/N: at the time this was a huge amount of memory) - and your world will be the same as it is now. Same friends. Same everything. You just can't go between dimensions..."
"I will not live like a caged animal!" And suddenly Cassie started to run, run, and outside of the Author's protests opened a portal and vanished into it...
-
"I shouldn't have left my friends there..."
Cassie, shaking her head, walked upon what seemed to be a void bridge.
"It's too late. I need to gather power and get them out. But how am I going to do that...That was stupid of me..."
"Oh?" A girl's voice rang throughout the void. Cassie turned around and saw the girl.
She's not much older than my Author, Cassie thought, as she appraised her. But the Author looked very different. At least, Aster could tell this girl was an Author.
"A lone Sue."
"A Sue?" Cassie blinked. "A Sue... what's a..."
"Nothing to be ashamed of," said the mysterious Author. "Come with me. You seem to be lost."
As the new Author discussed things with Cassie, the new Author explained some things to Cassie. According to her, everyone had the freedom to write what they wanted. Anyone who dissented and accused other characters of being "Sues" were traitors and thus "flamers". Characters made under "flamers" to be "non-Sueish" were "minions" without individuality.
"So your Author abandoned you," said the new Author. She had a broad smile on her face.
"As a Sue, you have powers you don't know you have. Fandom manipulation. Universe twisting. And I'll make you a deal. I can get you power. I can get you what you need. You just need to help me in my goal."
She held out her hand.
Cassie stared at it nervously.
She shook it.
And the regime began. With the help of an Author's power, she was easily able to garner more and more power. And with all that help, she overturned the Sue system.
Every day, with the propaganda and trickery, she rose higher. Her power grew. Every day Cassie woke up reassured she had power - and not just that she had power, that she could do something with it.
And one day, she made it to the top.
Crowned the Lieutenant Mary Sue, she now had power stretching over universes. All she had to do was fulfill her part of the bargain.
Under her rule, no Sue was allowed to enter any fandom without her permission. This was because all characters had to work for the new Author's "greater good"...
...promoting the freedom to write and express oneself.
-
And as Cassie entered the sealed fandom, she opened the portal and found the fandom was destroyed, and her friends gone.
She traveled to visit her Author and her stupid dreams, and yelled at her in a rage, for destroying her home and hiding away her friends and –
-
Valerie came back to earth.
She couldn't help but to continue staring at the poor Sue writhing on the ground. In essence she was a nice girl. To see the difference was astounding. It had almost been as if she had gone insane.
"I know what you're thinking."
Valerie turned around to see the Author. The one who had changed. The one who had reluctantly left Cassie behind.
"You're thinking that it was cruel what I did to her earlier. Beating her up. Well, I'll tell you this. I did not beat up Cassie."
Valerie blinked.
"I did not beat up Cassie Anora, my character. I beat up Cassie Anora, the character of that Author. Yes, Cassie was physically connected to me. But she sold her soul to that other girl. I am lenient with my characters. I am not lenient with other authors sending in their characters in an attack against me."
She looked at Cassie.
"You believed that pruning Emily in the right environment would get rid of her genetic factor. You believed Sueish philosophies came with puberty. They do not. They come with Sue powers. They come with the belief… well, when a Sue's been abandoned by his or her author, and they know they have the power to do something about it…"
Valerie nodded. She'd had suspicions this was true.
"Emily was abandoned by Harriet, but she was readopted and readjusted. And you've seen stray Sues roaming around in fandoms. Their only purpose is to create better lives for themselves. When you pursue them, they run, and when you capture them, they come quietly. They are not affiliated with the Lieutenant in any way. But the ones under Cassie…they wanted revenge, they had power – they attacked you when you found them."
She stared at Cassie.
"You will see more of the Sue system. You will see more of the others. As to who that other Author was, I have my suspicions. But mark my words. Cassie won't bother you again."
Valerie nodded. Nervous, she and Ari slowly exited the basement.
Cassie's author turned back to Cassie.
"Cassie," she said calmly.
Cassie looked up. The Author was using her calmer voice.
"Cassie, I am going to let you do what you want. Of course you will only do what I tell you to do, because you are my character and you are bound to me. I have given you the closest thing to free will any Author could give. I could always have made you do something. In a sense I caused you to betray me. Are you still bitter?"
Cassie shook her head.
"Now," said the Author, "if you had your freedom, what would you do?"
She put a hand on the bars.
-
Emily came up to Tash, panting.
"That girl escaped."
"What?" Adrian jumped up. "A Sue escaped?"
Emily nodded. "The black-haired one with a bloody nose. I saw her running around…"
Tash and Adrian called for the other Agents and they bolted. "Where did you find her, Emily?"
"The West Wing…"
The Library did not have a west per se, but it was named like that for convenience. The Agents sprinted towards the west side to see, indeed, Cassie running.
"Get her!"
But Cassie still had her Prohibitor on and she made no attempts to escape them. The only thing on her mind was the location she had to go. She had to get there now.
"Where is she going?" yelled Lauren.
Suddenly Tash held up a hand and everyone stopped.
"She's going into the kitchen…"
Cassie ran into the kitchen and turned around to stare at them. She panted hard.
Then she turned around, opened a nearby drawer, ad picked out a knife.
"Step back," said Adrian. "She could throw that at anyone – "
But Cassie only looked at them coldly…
…and plunged the knife into her own chest.
There was no way to stop her. The knife was already in. It was beyond the hope of healing or help.
The Agents rushed forward to see her. She was shaking her head, and as she stabbed she let out a cry and fell to the ground. She was still shaking her head vigorously.
"Not… her…"
She was shaking. Tash was in shock.
"She… you have to save… she's going to… she's not you think she… you have… save her… Foxblade…"
"Me?" Emily said.
"The other one… oldest…"
"Willowe's been prohibited."
"You don't understand…" She was becoming more incoherent. She shivered.
"Aster…"
Aster came forward to see her rival. The one she had been taught to hate. The one Cassie had wanted to kill for years.
"Don't… me…"
Her eyes darkened.
Chaos erupted in the Society.
-
Cassie awoke in white.
A man clad in a cloak greeted her.
"Welcome to the Character Void."
"Afterlife?" said Cassie.
"No. The place where Characters die." He pointed around. "You can stay here. But only if you have a will to live. And I don't see much to live for. Most snap and die."
"And where do they die?"
"Nowhere," said the man. "Into space. To inspire new stories. They dissipate."
Cassie looked around. It didn't seem to be a very inviting...
"Cassie!"
Cassie turned around to see the people she needed most.
"Puyo! And..."
Her best friend, Puyo, had appeared. She was alongside Cassie's lover.
Cassie began to cry.
"Everyone else snapped," said Puyo, "but we waited here for you."
Cassie ran up to them and held them close.
"I waited for you."
And having achieved everything they wanted, together they fell. And none of the three were ever seen again.
-
"That damn bitch!"
The young Author little girl slammed her fist on the table.
"That Author had to interfere! And now the girl's martyred herself. If she had just escaped and run off I could have tracked her down and gotten her out. But no, she had to kill herself… and now I have nobody to spread my ideology…"
"You could just convince the new leader to help you…" said the young Author's companion.
"Runoa doesn't give a damn about Sues." The young Author sighed. "She lets Sues go run off and go to the fandoms they feel like."
She fretted.
"If I ever meet that Cassie's Author in Real Life, I'm gonna kill her."
The Author sighed.
"I only have you two now. You know your job. Nina, I know you still are bitter against your Author. Fight for our cause. And you…" She pointed to the other companion. "Well, didn't you always want to be the Leader of Sues?"
The second companion giggled.
"Of course."
"Good," said the young Author. "Let's get that pesky ex-Librarian out of the way."
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