A/N: Thanks for the reviews, everyone!
Deiseach: I don't come up with all the Sue concepts. I've simply hung around Sue-mocking communities long enough (especially the ones on LJ) to have seen some of the same variations repeat over and over.
Like
this one.
The Game of the Gods, 18
Tulkas eyed Morgoth.
"Your move, Astaldo," Morgoth prompted him at last.
"I don't see any opponent worth moving against," Tulkas complained,
stretching his arms above his head- to admire his own biceps, Morgoth was
certain. "You were chained in Mandos for three Ages. And this Sue- well,
she's too delicate and wimpy to require my hand against her."
Morgoth sat back with a grin. This was going to work exactly as he had thought
it would, then. He would move the Sue, and Tulkas would admire his muscles, and
he would win because the big git was too stupid to do anything about it.
"Here we go," he whispered, and pushed the Sue across the board.
-----
"You are my daughter and you will do as I say!"
Lily cringed as her father slammed the door. She had tried to stand up to him,
tried to tell him that she had no intention of a forced marriage to Prince
Legolas, but her father saw only his position at court. He had no eyes for the
beauty of his daughter, or for the fact that she was true to her name- a lily,
a delicate and fragile flower in the heart of the wood.
-----
Morgoth eyed Tulkas. He was currently smiling foolishly into the air, probably
thinking thoughts that featured Nessa quite prominently.
Reassured, Morgoth went back to his game.
-----
Lily loved her father, ogre though he could be, and so she would obey him and
marry this Prince. But tears would pour down her cheeks while she did it, and
she knew that she would never be as happy as she would be if she had married freely
and for love.
"Oh, ada," she whispered, beginning to pack the trunk her father had
told her she would have to bring, "you will never know the sacrifices of
will and heart I make for you."
*******
"We're almost there, my lady."
Lily closed her eyes to keep from looking at the servant who spoke, and nodded.
She could see the hopeless devotion in his eyes. Just like herself, he would
not oppose Lord Foxbright. The man had tortured Lily's mother to death because
she had tried to flee when Lily was just a baby. Lily was just going to have to
live with being forcibly married to the Prince, and the servant would just have
to live with being in love with her.
------
"What's his name?"
Morgoth looked up. "Whose?"
"This Elf, this Lord Foxbright," said Tulkas, tapping on the table.
"I want to go find him in Mandos and challenge him to a wrestling
contest."
Morgoth sighed. "He wouldn't be in Mandos."
"Where, then?"
Morgoth rolled his eyes. "It's a game, Astaldo. I just made up the Sue and
her family and dropped her into Middle-earth."
"And I-" Tulkas frowned at him. "I have to use reality to
destroy her?"
"Yes," said Morgoth sharply. "May I say that you aren't making a
very good job of it so far?"
Tulkas stared upward. "Don't you think that Eärendil is bright
tonight?"
Morgoth snorted in despair and returned to his game, but secretly he was
exultant, thinking that this time he might actually win.
-----
They still hadn't reached the palace that night, and Lily was tired and hungry-
but determined. She would find some way out of this. She would disguise herself
as a servant, at least, and sneak into the palace, she told herself. That way
she could see Prince Legolas before she married him, and decide if he was
worthy of her affections.
She chopped off as much of her golden hair as she could bear to part with, and
put on a servant's cap that partially overshadowed her sky-blue eyes. Then she
crept in the direction of Mirkwood Palace.
-----
Morgoth heard a sound, and looked up. Tulkas was leaning forward, staring over
his shoulder into the darkness.
"Did you see that?" he asked.
"See what?" Morgoth turned and looked over his shoulder- somewhat
nervously, if truth be told, but he didn't see anything.
"Something moved."
Morgoth shrugged.
-----
Dawn saw Lily still wandering about the forest. She couldn't find the palace,
and she was sick and dying of a broken heart. She stopped to rest beside a
small stream, and sing to the woodland creatures of her sorrow.
Before she could start, however, the ground beneath her gave way. Lily found
herself tumbling into a dank cave, and she was so surprised that she fainted
when she saw two Elves standing before her.
-----
Morgoth snapped his head up and stared at Tulkas suspiciously. The oaf was
still peering into the darkness, though, and didn't seem to be staring at him.
Morgoth looked back down at his Sue. He was sure he hadn't planned for her to
fall into the cave, but she was not hurt, and he didn't see any particular way
this piece of reality would kill her. He shrugged and continued on.
------
"Wake up."
Lily opened her eyes, and found herself staring into a pair of sky-blue ones,
so exactly like her own that she drew in her breath. These were the eyes of her
soulmate, she was certain, and she immediately warmed to him and reached out a
languid hand so that he could help her up.
He seized her hand and pulled her sharply to her feet, then said, "How did
you find the entrance? Who are you?"
Lily cowered before him. "I don't understand- Prince Legolas?" she asked
weakly, since she was sure he must be a Prince from his beauty, and yet he
wasn't acting like one.
"Why are you calling me that?" Legolas countered.
"What?"
"Prince."
"But you are Legolas?" Lily asked. She looked around, and
shivered. They stood in a dank cave, lit by flickering torches, and by the
sound of it there was rushing water not too far away. Why would Prince
Legolas be in such an unpleasant place? she wondered.
"Yes, of course I am," said the Prince, without relaxing a bit.
"And now I want to know how you found the entrance to my father's
domain."
"Your father- King Thranduil!" Lily's hands flew anxiously to her
servant's cap. "I'm sorry, Your Highness, but my things are all with the
servants."
Legolas stepped back further. "What servants?" he asked. "And
why do you address me by that ridiculous title?"
Lily looked down at the floor nervously. There was no help for it now. "I
am your destined bride, my lord, and your soulmate," she squeaked.
"Lily Foxbright. I didn't want to marry you, so I tried to sneak into the
palace disguised as a servant." She looked up at him through lowered
lashes. "I was wrong, and I know that now I see you. I fell into this cave
instead. Can you help me?"
Legolas was silent for a long moment. Then he said, "Wait here," and
ran away.
Lily opened her mouth to protest this ungallant treatment, then closed it, her
face burning with humiliation. How could you think that he would ever want
someone like you? He probably likes delicate, lady-like creatures who would never
even dream of putting on servants' clothes!
------
Morgoth shook his head slightly. Yes, the story was proceeding according to
plan. Of course it was. But something seemed just slightly off. Legolas should
have swooned at Lily's feet.
Well, that would just make it better when he did, of course.
Tulkas leaned forward again, and Morgoth glared at him. "Will you
stop-"
This time, he heard the sound too. Morgoth jumped and looked over his shoulder.
The sound was a scrape, he thought, like iron dragging on stone, as though
someone out there were pulling chains along.
Morgoth tried to shrug off his uneasiness. Probably a Balrog. Sometimes they
got confused about what exactly they were supposed to be, and tried to act like
ghosts instead of demons. They weren't, Morgoth had to concede, the brightest
of the Maiar, which might have been when Aulë so far had made no move to get
them back.
------
"There she is, Father."
Lily, who had sat down to rest on the stone, scrambled up at once, and blinked.
Legolas walked towards her beside an Elf who could have been his brother, save
for the greater wisdom in his eyes. Lily had pictured a much older man,
withered with evil, like her father.
"King Thranduil," she said with a bow.
"Yes." Thranduil glanced at his son, then at her. "Please, tell
me who you are."
"The Lady Lily Foxbright, come to marry your son." Lily lowered her
eyes. "I had no wish to do so, but Father forced me."
"And you traveled with-?"
"Servants."
"And you sought-"
"The palace. But I fell into the caves instead."
Thranduil exchanged another glance with his son, then coughed. "No one
will marry my son until he is ready to take a wife," he said. "I have
never planned on arranging a marriage for him, nor will I."
Lily blinked at him.
"And Elves do not have servants," Legolas added, his voice indignant.
"I do not know where you live, but surely they must have something of the
corruption of Sauron within them. Do you dwell near Dol Guldur, perhaps?"
Lily gaped.
"And this is the 'palace,'" Thranduil concluded, sweeping a
hand around the cave. "What else would it be, when we must live
underground to guard against the attacks of our enemies?"
Lily thought about living underground for the rest of her life, without
servants, and without the assurance of gaining Legolas's affection because he
was her destined soulmate.
She promptly fell into an apoplectic fit, and died a few moments later.
-----
Morgoth stared aghast at his dead Sue, then looked up at Tulkas. Tulkas glanced
at him, then rolled his eyes.
"Oh, come off it, Morgoth," he said. "Why did you want me to
play more openly? I would only have embarrassed you. I only had to wait until
your Sue ran into natural reality. When you violate that reality in so many
ways, you should envision it coming back to bite you."
Morgoth leveled a shaking finger, but no words would come out of his mouth.
Tulkas eyed him shrewdly. "You know something, Morgoth?" he asked
conversationally. "I think your problem is that you have no wife. If you
had some- well, some exercise occasionally, things might not be so bad."
Morgoth opened and closed his mouth. At this point, though, really no sound
would come out, and so someone answered for him.
"He would still go limp in one way."
Morgoth turned swiftly. He heard that voice in his dreams, sometimes,
taunting him.
Out of the darkness came Fingolfin, smiling calmly, and holding Ringil in one
hand. As Morgoth watched, he rasped it down the whetstone he held in the other
hand, producing the loud scrape Morgoth had heard before.
"I do believe we have unfinished business," said the High King of the
Noldor calmly. "I cut one foot, as I remember, but not the other-"
Morgoth tried to hide his foot under the table.
"-and gave you seven wounds, but did not kill you." Fingolfin smiled
even more widely. "While you killed me. That is not quite even."
"What are you doing here, Fingolfin?" Tulkas asked, sounding no more
than mildly interested. "Does it have something to do with Fëanor?"
Fingolfin flashed Tulkas an angry look. "I take no orders from my
half-brother."
Tulkas snorted. "Of course. You just happened to escape Mandos at the
exact same time."
Fingolfin tossed his hair and glared at Morgoth. "Oh, all right," he
muttered. "Yes, he said he'd let me out of Mandos if I delayed attacking
Morgoth until just the right time."
"And what was 'just the right time?'" asked Tulkas.
"I don't know," said Fingolfin. "Something to do with
Eärendil. I didn't pay that much attention to the family jewels, as you
know." His eyes went back to Morgoth. "I had other things on my
mind."
Tulkas looked up at Eärendil. "I wonder-"
Abruptly, a loud alarm began to blare. Tulkas sprang to his feet, his face
ashen.
"He's attacking Eärendil," he breathed. "He wants the Silmaril
back. Oh, Eru!" And off he rushed, with Ulmo right behind him.
That left Morgoth alone with Fingolfin.
"Um," he said, as he backed away, limping. "Somebody? Anybody?
Help? Sauron?" he added, seeing a flicker of movement under the table.
The flicker of movement retreated.
"Oh," said Fingolfin, "I don't think he will help you. He is
nothing but a poor imitation of you. A Ring to your jewels, a defeat by my
nephew to a defeat by me."
"You did not defeat me," said Morgoth haughtily, and immediately
regretted it.
"Not yet," Fingolfin corrected, and leaped forward to battle.
Heh heh heh. Not sorry enough for Morgoth to let him win yet.