Mary Sue Sullivan
Location: Cafeteria
Skills: N/A
Costume: Friendship
Mary Sue shrugged at Zari, if Zari wasn't serious about winning the competition, that was her prerogative, she supposed. Until their team could function as a unit, they'd always be worse than they could be. She didn't say it but she was relieved; she wanted to see how far she could go. A world where she, as a first year, helped stage an upset in the Contest, was one where she thought she might just be happy, at least for a little while. She needed to feel like it made sense for her to be here, and she still
didn't, even with he knowledge of her power changing, even with everything she's done so far.
Entering the haunted house, Mary Sue steeled herself, but there was a pit in her stomach, flinching when she realized that she was very suddenly alone. She flinched from the shock, but quickly tried to take her her surroundings; a large cavern permeating the walls, stretching on for almost forever, holes of all sizes permeating the walls, but a clear path forward in front of her. She was twitchy from the sudden loss of Zari and Andy, but she tried to keep her mind sharp; this was safe... right?
Walking through, she felt as if she was being watched, as if every action she took was being calculated against. Her heartrate was rising quickly, and she nervously looked behind her shoulder to see nothing of not behind her, only to turn back and see a perfect copy of herself with a kind smile on her face. Jumping back, Mary Sue was ready to fight, but
everything, the quick look of concern, the extending of hands, the open posture, told her that the person in front of her wasn't a threat. Lowering her guard, she choked out a "
What the hell is going on?"
"Beats me!" The copy of herself responded, staying still for now, apparently not wanting to be the first to approach. "I started existing a few minutes ago..." A look of worry crossed her doppelganger's face "The house seemed to really mess up everyone else, maybe it's going to hurt
me instead of you." She offered, and Mary Sue's face was filled with fear and remorse. Was that the idea? Torture her without every hurting
her. She couldn't imagine something worse for a hero, but to helplessly watch as somebody is damaged in the most fundamental of ways.
"
Well... let's make sure that doesn't happen." the young hero tried, closing the distance between the two of them, "We're heroes right? We save people." She rested a hand on her clone's shoulder, and forced a smile. "
So I guess I just have to save m-" She started to say, but was interrupted by the shooting pain of a sword running through her gut. Almost more distracting than that though, was the almost melodic giggling of the copy in front of her, as the weapon phased out of existence. "You know, I think
that's what I hate about us the most. Not that we're naive, because God knows we aren't, but that we think we're
better than everyone else." She said, her voice dripping with a level of content that was previously absent.
As Mary Sue staggered back, she turned to run, needing to take some kind of space to reassess the situation but she was a wounded animal being cornered by a predator. No sooner did she turned away did she find herself chained to herself. "See,
this is what I mean," her tone has taken to condescension, and she continued on as Mary Sue glared, and clutched her stomach. "Everybody who's walked out of here has been scared out of their mind, and you still think you're going to walk through unscathed. You're so scared of failure, not because you can't take it, but because you could never prepare for an outcome that you don't believe is possible."
While she was being monologued at, Mary Sue had thought herself clever, and had managed to conjure a tunic around her waist, pulling the wound tight, and stemming the bleeding that'd been leaving her weak and dizzy. Bearing her teeth, she lunged towards this awful version of herself, only to quickly find her arm being held behind her back, and her body pulled up close. Her eyes widened and she struggled helplessly, a knife suddenly pressed against her throat.
"Listen to me." The command was curt, short, and accentuated by the cold steel threatening to end her life. "You're going to die here, and that's okay. It's expected, it's probably what's right for us in the long run, but for as long as I exist, I want you to remember this." The blade pierced her skin, and Mary Sue could feel the rush of cold air hit her throat at an angle that it never ever should. "You are not special for being worse. You can work as hard as you want, fight as much as you can, but as you are, you are poison. Either give up, or accept what you are, but never try to act in spite of yourself" These were the last words Mary Sue hear as she fell to her knees. This couldn't be happening, this wasn't ever
supposed to happen. But it was, and as she spiraled into unconsciousness, all her pain was gone, and she found herself lying on the floor, out of the house. She almost couldn't move, instead staying where she was in the fetal position, tear pouring soundlessly from her eyes.