We carried out this RP live in MUSH format. And we had a ton of fun, blowing over the top with our roleplay of Mary Sues.
Owlery
At the very top of the tallest of the north-northwest towers is a room. It is a large room whose walls are lined with sticks, bars, shelves, and various scraps of grasses, bark, cloth, paper, and other objects arranged in vaguely nest-like ways. There are owls here. Many, many owls. Some are sleeping. Some are cranky. Some are silent. Some are not. The floors and walls are awash in owl excrement. A vast quantity of pellets litter the floor.
This place has clearly not been cleaned in a long, long time.
Professor McGonagall turns to the three girls, the lines of her face so stern they look as though they've been cut in oak. She makes a brief, efficient gesture with one hand, encompassing the Owlery, ankle-deep in feathers, birdlime, and pellets, the cleaning implements stacked neatly against one wall, and the four ceramic jars lined up on a windowsill.
She clears her throat. "Welcome to your detention. First, you are to clean this room-- and /spotlessly,/ mind-- without the use of magic. The cleaning implements are, moreover, bespelled-- each person will only be able to use each implement for a certain amount of time. This was done in order to ensure /cooperation/ in the cleaning process."
She gestures with her wand towards the black pots on the windowsill. "Secondly, you are to dissect the owl pellets and to sort the mouse bones in them. Skulls in one pot, pelvises in another, long bones in the third, and miscellaneous small bones in the last. As you can see, the pots are labeled accordingly. Last and most importantly, I expect there to be no quarreling, inter-House or otherwise. The owls do not like it."
She sweeps the room with her gaze, nods fiercely at each girl, and states, "Wands, please." After collecting the wands, she exits, her cloak billowing demurely behind her.
One girl, clearly Asian in origin, surveys the room with a curled lip, her long silken black tresses swinging gracefully along her back, the single white-gold streak gleaming in the light streaming through the many windows. "It figures," she sneers, "that a Gryffindor would have us *cleaning* like common *house elves*." She tweaks the lapels of her robes so that the Slytherin shield shows clearly.
Marri Suyesyn watches Professor McGonagall go with wide, crystalline green eyes and then looks around for someplace to sit down that isn't covered in owl poop (she doesn't find one). "I'm sure it was Professor Snape's idea to have us dissect things," she points out, shuddering delicately. "He's always so mean! Just because it happened in his classroom!"
The third girl, who has a pale, creamy complexion lightly spattered with freckles, wide, sparkling emerald-green eyes, and a magnificent lush mane of bright copper tresses spilling to her knees, gaily scolds the Slytherin, "Och noo, dinna be disparagin' the wee elves. They're people too you know!" She gives the other girl a Look, possibly because they have the same color eyes.
The Slytherin rolls her shimmering violet eyes and snorts delicately. "*Peop*le," she says to the redhead, tossing her head, some strands flashing gold and others jet black, and snapping her fingers disdainfully. Then she rounds on the Snape-defamer. "Just because... *what*... happened in his classroom?" she inquires menacingly.
The second girl reaches up to twine her fingers in an enticingly-curling lock of hair that has escaped from the sable crown of braids encircling her head. "It wasn't my fault," she confesses breathlessly, "but I wasn't going to tell /him/ that after he said such terribly /rude/ things about Gryffindors!" She attempts to tuck the lock of hair back into the braid without success; her hair seems determined to escape its bonds and twine distractingly and messily about her face.
The redhead tosses her gleaming locks like a high-spirited filly. "Professor Snape is a foine man!" she declares, a delicate flush blooming just on her cheekbones. She fans herself a moment, then becomes brisk. "Even though he doesn't like Hermione, who's me best friend, even though I'm smarter than she is." A Ravenclaw shield might be noticed on her robes.
The Slytherin looks from one to the other, as if trying to decide which one to eat first. "Professor Snape is indeed an excellent professor," she agrees with grudging slowness, though she eyes the Ravenclaw suspiciously. She paces the floor like a caged panther, neatly avoiding stepping on any pellets. "*What* did you *do* to Professor Snape's classroom?" she finally snaps. "Since, obviously, you're *dying* to *tell* us."
"But I'm trying to explain, it wasn't /me!/" Marri Suyesyn says, a curl falling between her jade-green eyes. "I was just, um, passing a message to Harry, and I don't know how but the paper fell into his cauldron, I think he must have dropped it, so his and Ron's potion sort of started to explode and I froze it using a time spell, although you know we're not supposed to know those yet, but one of the Slytherins and I bet it was Malfoy did a finite incantatem just as I went to clean up so it exploded all over me and Professor Snape just assumed it was all my fault, I really don't know why, so /of/ /course/ I took the blame." She heaves a sigh, then smiles a bright and sparkling smile. "I don't mind!"
The plainly tenderhearted Ravenclaw pats Marri's shoulder comfortingly. "Och lassie, that's the spirit. Me, I'm here because I aced a test and Hermione got one wrong on it, so she got me in trouble in a jealous fit. Put one of those Skivin' Taffies in me food and I tossed me cookies all over Filch." She shrugs, with a cheerful smile. "But she's me best friend and I'd do anything for her, I don't mind. 'Tis no worse than mucking out the stall o'me Windrunner, aye? Let's be friends. I'm Mary Siobhan, fifth year!"
Still prowling the room, glowering at owls, the Slytherin curls her lip at the Gryffindor. "Of *course* it was the Slytherins and not *you* botching your spell. If you speak that way of Draco Malfoy again, I shall challenge you to a duel." The jet-black shroud of hair tosses again, caught by a wind from a nearby window. "And I will, of course, win it. Fortunately for you, I am not permitted to slay you here. Were we in Japan, however, I would hang your head from the highest pinnacle of my ninja clan's castle!" She stares at Mary Siobhan, appalled, then back at the Gryffindor. Then back at the Ravenclaw. "You two make me SICK!" She holds her nose and says nasally, "Oh! My dearest dull Gryffindors have done something wrong! I will take the blame! But that's all right! Because they're my *friends*!" Releasing her nose and striking a noble pose in the window, she says, "I am Malufoyu Marisu! I transferred to this detestable English hovel in order to meet my half-brother and this... Potter, as well as to gather my warriors for a great battle! And *no one* is my friend! The life of a ninja is in death! Betrayal is the only way! Go Slytherin!" She ends with her fist in the air and yet another convenient breeze snapping her hair behind her, the sun-gold in her hair shining with power. An owl flaps away from her fist, irritated.
"I'm Marri Suyesyn, and I'd /love/ to be friends!" she replies with a sweet smile. Then she turns slowly and watches Marisu speechify and pose in the window. After a long pause she says, "That sounds really, um, interesting. Although also lonely and kind of sad. I'm glad you found your brother, though! I came here to look for /my/ brother, too, and to send a message for help to a great warrior." She sighs and looks around the big room full of sleepy and irritated owls. "Look, can I trust you two?"
"Well, it takes all kinds," Mary says tolerantly. "Ninjas are all well and good, but I'm from a great clan of Celtic warriors. See me brooch? 'Tis tellin' that I'm a daughter of the Ravenwing Stagheart Stormwind Peatboggs, mighty Irishmen of olde!...ye both have brothers here?" she asks a little weakly. Marri's response perks her right up and she hugs the other girl enthusiastically. "Oh aye, of course ye can trust us! We'll be like sisters!"
The Slytherin is stunned for a moment, and she carefully lowers her fist. "No," Marisu answers shortly to Marri, then says, "Oh, well, *pardon me* for impinging on the same universe with your great clan of Celtic warriors." Her voice turning sweeter, she adds, "Do the mighty Irishmen of oldey, perhaps, have magic you can perform without your wand so that we needn't muck up our robes with owl shit? Ninjas do, of course, but I shouldn't want to step on your bonny Celtic toes." After a moment's pause, she looks back at Marri, amethyst eyes flashing. "*You* came here looking for *your* brother too?"
Marri nods, and seats herself on a windowsill, her dainty form limned against the rosy afternoon light. She tucks her knees up and wraps her arms around them. "Yes, you see, I was raised by a wealthy wizarding family, but I've always known I was adopted. They would never tell me who my real parents were, though! Just before my eleventh birthday, our home was attacked by minons of the Dark Lord. I barely managed to escape and make it to safety of Hogwarts, bearing only the message my father gave me for a great wizard warrior and the knowledge they finally told me that I had a brother living somewhere." She reaches up and tugs on a wayward strand of her messy dark hair again. "I figure that if I /do/ have a brother, he must be here. Magic runs so strong in my family that he'd just /have/ to come to Hogwarts." Her green eyes catch the light, lambently familiar.
"I do," Mary admits to Marisu, "though 'tis not what you mean by--" She gasps, her coppery lashes flying wide as she whirls to Marri. "Why, ye're adopted too?! I--well, I'm not, strictly speakin', a witch," she confesses, her petal-pink lips forming a moue. "Ye ken, me parents found me, a changelin' child, and, well, the truth of it is, I'm a faerie." Her emerald-green eyes seem to change color a little as she says that, becoming a fey smoky gray.
Marisu rolls her eyes, and they flash heliotrope in the beams of the westering sun. "Oh, you *think* you have a brother here. That's different. No doubt you're some illegitimate spawn of a werewolf." She casually does a somersault in midair. "I *know* I have a brother! *And* I know his name. We have been destined for each other from birth! He will help me gather my warriors so I can go home and summon Seiryuu, who will restore the wizarding world to prominence, as it should be!" She then pauses and peers at Mary. "A... faerie. With little wings--" she wiggles her fingers in the air "--and Tinkerbell dust?"
"You summon /demons?/" squeaks Marri, hugging her knees tighter. "But that's /evil!/ You're on the side of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named! My family's been fighting him since before I was even born-- a destiny runs in our blood!" She turns to Mary. "You're on our side, right? Even though you're not a witch? I think it's neat that you're a faerie."
"/Big/ wings," Mary loftily informs Marisu. "I can fly with them, ye ken. And sometimes they be angel wings, and sometimes they be butterfly wings, dependin' on me moods." Her smoky verdant eyes, now holding the barest touch of silver, go bright, welling up with crystal tears at Marri's kind words. "Och of course I am, lassie. It's so kind of you to say that! I--I must keep me heritage secret, for some dinna care to understand, and only want to hurt me for me uniqueness." She struggles to hold back sobs. A tear as pure and salty as the sea rolls down her freckled nose.
"How *dare* you call Seiryuu a *demon*?" Marisu demands, a katana appearing in her hand in a flash of light. "He is a *god*, and I am his *priestess*! I have no truck with *Voldemort*!" After a moment, her blazing violaceous eyes dim. "*My* destiny is deep and old as the mountains." She tucks the katana away... somewhere. "I cannot stain my hands with blood. I must come before Seiryuu pure as driven snow." Her ebon hair shadows her face for a moment. Then she says, "Wait, speaking of blood, how do you know a destiny runs in your blood if you don't know who your family is? And you, these wings, why don't you just make them dragon wings and intimidate the hell out of those who would harm you?" A trio of owls flap across the room, adding to the deposit on the floor as they go.
Marri watches the other two girls from her perch in the window, and an uncertain expression-- a generous interpretation might be 'why am I locked in here with the madpeople, and why aren't there handles on the insides of these doors?-- passes over her face. "A what?" she respondes intelligently, and then adds, "You really shouldn't get into the habit of saying his name, you know. It upsets some people. Not me, of course. And I know that the destiny runs in my blood because my adopted father told me all about it before he... beofore the attack." She looks away, her viridian eyes dimming with unshed tears. "And I know my brother is here, I can just feel it. We magic users can feel things, you know." She pats Mary awkwardly on the shoulder. "Don't worry, I'll keep your secret. You and your friend Hermione can help me look for my brother, too!"
Mary, horrified, cries, "Nay, I could never let me wings become dragon wings! That would mean I would--would have tae--tae get angry! Verra angry! And it would be far tae dangerous for everyone in Hogwarts if that should happen! Nay, nay." She trembles, then seizes Marri's hand and clasps it gratefully. "Thank ye. We'll help ye search for thy brother! Thee's got a grand destiny, me fae blood can sense it. As do thou," she adds looking back at Marisu. Her eyes are back to emerald, deep translucent jewels like the most beautiful of ancient Irish forests. "I ken ye are truly a good person inside, Marisu, much as ye try to hide it!"
The Slytherin shrugs negligently, causing her inky locks to shimmer along her shoulders. "I will not dignify Voldemort by omitting to use his name. He is just another fool, who wishes to be a king of fools. My family shall rule this land, and all lands, when my darling Draco and I are wed!" Marisu dreamily twines the flaxen lock around her fingers. "With my mother's ninja powers, and our family's descent from a tenshi, of *course* I have a destiny!" At Mary's words, she squares her shoulders and says, "I am *not* a good person! I am a Malfoy!"
Marri stares at Marisu, horrified. "Didn't you just say that he was your /brother?/ That's, that's just wrong!" She looks at Mary for support, her eyes wide with shock and green as glass. "I could never do something like that!" She blinks in astonishment and then turns to Mary. "Do you have someone you're interested in?" she asks confidentially, leaning forward.
"Do ninjas usually marry their brothers?" Mary asks curiously. She blushes a most becoming rose shade and waves a hand at Marri. "Och, go on wi' ye. I could never tell!" Her rivers of bright coppery-red hair seethes and snaps in an aureola around her like a halo of silken fire.
"*Half*-brother," Marisu corrects. "And we do things *differently* in Japan. Like realizing that it is only right that the power should stay in the family. After all, my mother gave Lucius Malfoy our ancestor's robe as a love gift." She sighs tragically, gazing upward at the vaulted ceiling. "So I am bound, body and soul, to Draco until the end of time." She sighs again. After a moment, she repeats the sigh. Finally, she looks over at the other two, scowling. Then she smiles evilly, focusing her pomegranate gaze upon Mary Siobhan. "Oh, come on," she says, delicately cajoling. "You know you can *trust* us."
Marri unfolds her legs and taps her heels against the stone wall beneath the windowsill. "Please tell! I won't spread it around, I promise! Maybe we can, you know, help!" She grins a conspriatorial, mischievous grin and runs a hand through the multiple small wisps of curls that have sprung out around her face. "I'll tell you a secret if you do, although it won't be so nice, I'm afraid."
Mary, blushing, squirms, toying with a curling tendril of fiery hair. "Weel, I shouldn't... Severus Snape," she blurts, then hides her face in her hands. "He's so kind and sweet and gruff, and I just know we'll be happy together!"
Marisu's face freezes. She blinks. And blinks again. She mouths, "Sweet." Then, "Snape." She looks at Marri in utter bewilderment, mouthing, "Snape??"
Marri looks blank, as though someone has just pushed the reboot button on the Commodore 64 that is substituting for her brain. "Professor Snape? But... but he's /old!/"
Mary nods earnestly, swiping an unruly curl of hair out of her face. "Och aye, just like I can see into your soul, Marisu, I can see into his wi' me fae eyes, and know that he's a good man, kind and true, and he'll no be cruel to a wee faerie like me!" Pink roses continue to bloom just beneath the surface of her creamy skin.
"Ah," Marisu says, apparently for lack of anything else coherent to say. Myriad emotions shoot across her stoic but expressive and uncannily beautiful face. "Wee," she says, apropos of nothing. Then, suddenly, "So, Marri, is there anyone *you* like? Maybe that Potter bloke? *He's* got a destiny for sure."
Marri blushes wanly, faint color just touching the tops of her exquisite cheekbones. "N... Not really. I like him... He even kissed me once, but it just didn't have the right... oomph, you know? It was like kissing a brother. So we're just friends."
"That's a pity," Mary says sympathetically. "Well who then? A Weasley? Och, I know, Oliver Wood!" She claps her hands in delight at figuring it out. "He's a bonny lad for sure!"
"*I* bet she actually has the hots for a Slytherin," Marisu says, slender eyebrows cocked with interest. "She'll deny it, of course, but if Mr. I'm-Going-To-Kill-Voldemort-Someday can't get her interest, I bet someone more *dangerous*, shall we say, will stir her destined blood."
Marri points her shapely chin towards the owl-infested roof. "Just because both of you have the hots for Slytherins doesn't mean /I/ have to!" she points out, with more logic than she has managed to previously display. "You haven't even told us what you're doing detention for!" Whoops, there goes the logic.
"Severus isn't a /true/ Slytherin!" Mary declares passionately. "I can see it in his soul. And anyway I did so tell you, and--Begorrah!" she exclaims, her hands flying to her mouth. "I forgot all about having to clean this place. Well, shall I do it all wi' me faerie magic, or maybe Marisu wants to use her ninja magic."
Marisu examines her perfect fingernails. "I have been... testing people. To become my warriors. Some of the tests are... painful. To see if they can survive the terrible hardships on the way to the temple, of course." She sighs. "McGonagall caught me setting fire to Ginny Weasley's hair. I thought it was a perfectly fine test. If she'd been worth her weight as a witch, she could have extinguished it and turned it back on me in an instant!" Another flick of the hair, which stirs up a half dozen owls. "Ninjas do not clean," she informs Mary with great dignity. Then, somewhat more thoughtfully, "I could, however, kill all of these birds, therefore making sure that the place would *stay* clean."
Alas, it is too late. Footsteps ascend the stairs, and the figure of McGonagall appears in the door. She surveys the room in silence for a moment, then says, "It appears that you three do not seem to wish to retain your use of school privileges for the rest of this year. Detention for the rest of this semester. You may report to Filch for your assignments tomorrow." She looks from Mary to Marisu to Marri and adds, "Separately."