One day, a mage and an internet flamer were exchanging email. Both of them loved the pastime of upsetting people on the other end of the modem and then laughing about it to each other in their emails.
But one of them had a longing to see an ex-friend who he had betrayed, and now suddenly he was wanting to patch things up with her.
But instead of opening his email, the girl forwarded it to one of her guardians.
From: NT
To: Capri
Subject: Oh Will You Look At This Crap?
Seriously, what kind of idiot does that loser Nick think I am? He actually thinks this phoney drivel is going to make me go crawling back to be his friend.
No way!
NT --
Attached with the following message from Nick, which read:
From: Nick Connors
To: NT
Subject: Hi
NT, I'm sorry for hurting you. I've been wondering how you're doing. Please write me back.
Nick
--
Capri wrote NT back with strong advice not to open the email, as it had some magic about it which was sure to activate.
NT deleted it, but Capri kept her copy. Upon examining the magic about it, she discovered it was designed to transport NT somewhere else, probably where Nick could then get her alone and try to get NT to change her mind and be friends, or more.
An email from Indy came in next. She was on her lunch break at work, and wrote to Capri and two others about her fury at Mira Belle's decision to take down her site because of her online bully, Senna Marie Maxwell.
There was a flurry of emails and texts among the friends until a plan was in place for the trouble-makers.
In the meantime, Senna and Nick were exchanging messages like crazy, trying to finalize their plans.
--
From: Senna Marie Maxwell
To: Nick Connors
Subject: hazzah! she's done it!!
VICTORY!
look at this email from her! her site is as good as down! good riddance to her creepy stories and her trashy character I guess I really won didn't I?
--
She forwarded the email to Nick, but forgot to include all headers. It read:
From: Mira Belle
To: Senna Maxwell
Subject: Satisfied Now?
Well Senna, you can stop flaming now, because my site is going down and I'm going offline. So I guess the question remains, what or who are you going to obsess about and hate next?
Or are you and your beloved Lady Une going to live happily ever after?
Bye for good. All the best of luck trying to get a life.
Mira Belle
--
From: Nick Connors
To: Senna Marie Maxwell
Subject: Re: hazzah! she's done it!
Heh. What a basket case. All because you don't like her site? Wow, you must have a lot of power over her. Congratulations!
Oh, speaking of that, the guy I told you about who thought I showed him a site for getting rid of spyware, well, he's now got a virus and is asking me to help get rid of it. I'm going to send him some malware. *wicked evil grin* I can't seem to get that program working to crack the password of that site you wanted but since she's taking it down anyway, I guess you got what you wanted.
Nick
----
From: Senna Marie Maxwell
To: Nick Connors
Subject: Re: hazzah!
i'd just love to rub it in her face. i'd love to see what she'd do if i were right there in person to tell her how horrible her writing and character were.
that awful character should be killed with firy things and she should be tortured for writing those stories and making fun of Lady Une!
oh, did you know that she's lost her friend LJ or was that Indy? I looked at her stories for the last time and she doesn't mention them or her anywhere. maybe they or she finally realized the truth about that character. anyway it's so sweet taking down a nauseating site!
--
From: Nick Connors
To: Senna Marie Maxwell
Subject: Re: hazzah!
I know, it's because she thinks Indy and LJ are you now. Like I said, basket case. And there might be a way for you to rub it in in person, if you're not afraid of trying something new. The next time you send her an email and she opens it, heh, heh.
As for me, I want to see someone I've been missing lately, so I'm trying the same spell with her, I just can't have her finding out I've been writing to you or she'll for sure never speak to me again... I'm still waiting for her to open the email and then...? Hopefully...
So all you have to do is send Mira Belle one more letter, and when she opens it, zam! You and she will meet in a magic world - can you handle that? Just include this smilie from me :) cut&paste it, don't make a new one.
Nick
--
From: Senna Maxwell
To: Nick
Subject: Re: hazzah!
sure, sounds good.otay, i'll write her another letter. i just hope it won't startle me when the transition happens so that I look like a scared idiot in front of her.
Senna
--
From: Senna Marie Maxwell
To: Mira Belle
Subject: best news yet!
is it true? is it really true you're going off line and taking that creepy skanky oh so perfect character with you?
Lady Une and Treize live unmolested once again! hurray hurray the wicked character is gone! i won i won i won! so if you want you can always write me at sennasavestheday@internetmail and try not to have a personal crisis over this, it was all just a fun joke and you gave me what I wanted, I got so much attention and made some friends and laughs at your expense not nice i know but Lady Une would be proud! So would the Hamgod!
ya ya ya ra ra ra I win you lose hahahahahahahahaha!
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Senna Marie Maxwell
----
But what they didn't realize was how badly magic could misfire and land them in trouble.
Senna's idiotic drither email didn't go to her intended target, and when Nick's magic kicked in, transporting Senna to a different land, it didn't transport the target of her internet hate campaign. Instead, Senna was shocked out of her mind to see that the person standing before her looked nothing like the character she hated, or what she thought the writer would look like. But from the look of this person, Senna figured she might be headed for some sort of confrontation.
Click to hear a small part of the conversation.
"Well, Senna," said the tall red-headed woman smoothly. "You were expecting - Mira Belle?"
"No, I wasn't." Senna said a little too hurriedly.
"Yes, you were." the woman answered, continuing to look her full in the face. "You can't lie your way out of this."
"All right, I was, but you're not her, so that's okay."
"And if I was her, you were going to - what, exactly?"
"It's not important."
"Oh, really?"
Desperately, Senna tried to shift the conversation and the heat off herself and on to the unflinching, unnerving stranger before her. "Who are you anyway? I don't think you're Indy."
"Lucky for you I'm not, or your life wouldn't be worth dust...She prefers to be called 'Indianna" by people who are not her friends. That - would be you."
"So you're not In - her. And you have it too much together to be Mira Belle."
The woman gave Senna a stern look.
Senna looked away. If this wasn't Indy, it was someone who was proving to be as formidable. "I know you're not LJ. So how do you know Indy - Indianna?" She corrected herself when the eerily calm but stern faced woman took a step toward her and forced eye contact."
"How I know anyone is of no concern to you, Senna, and my name is Pippi."
"Pippi?" Senna echoed with a smirk, hoping to insult the woman with her contempt.
"That's right." the stranger confirmed.
"As in Pippi Longstocking?" Senna laughed.
"One and the same." Pippi replied.
Senna threw back her head and howled laughing like an idiot.
Pippi only stood there, staring scornfully at Senna.
Senna continued laughing until she realized she was not getting the hurt, intimidated reaction from Pippi she wanted. Finally she quieted, feeling rather foolish.
"Are you quite through practicing that, Senna,or should I and anyone else for about ten miles around expect any more random arias of cackles and brays from you to assault our ears in the near future?" Pippi asked in a businesslike tone with just a hint of sarcasm.
Senna turned red with embarrassment and anger.
"Is that a blush of anger, or is it possible you could actually get embarrassed?" Pippi asked.
This made Senna even more embarrassed and infuriated. This wasn't supposed to happen!
"You should be." Pippi continued. "But you're not capable of anything beyond the basest of animalistic drives."
"Oh, shut up!"
"What?" Pippi demanded, taking a step closer, and looking Senna full in the face.
Senna floundered. "You don't know what it's like knowing that - that - that skank Mira Belle thought she was soooooo incredibly PERFECT!"
Pippi cut her off. "I heard all about you and Mira from Indy. She's the one who told me Mira Belle was thinking about shutting down her site, not that she actually did... Those last few emails telling you such were from me - not Mira."
Senna flushed, and then turned pale. "Demnit, she uses so many different addresses I just thought...Oh, frack." She was beginning to realize the sink-hole she and Nick had gotten themselves into. She was now trapped at last.
"You're a laugh a minute, complaining about someone else using different addresses when you corner the market on it. Anyway, that's what I was counting on." the woman said to her. "I'm amazed you didn't check the email out to be sure it was from Mira before jumping the gun. But, when you're so anxious to keel-haul and beat her into submission, I guess--"
"I didn't say that!" Senna retorted.
"Oh, for goodness sake, Senna, stop lying." Pippi began in disgust.
"Stop calling me a liar! I didn't lie!" Senna ranted, insulted.
"Please, Senna...You said it in so many words. 'Mira Belle should die' 'Mira Belle and her skanky character (as if you aren't one yourself) - "
"Hey!"
"'Should be keel-hauled and beaten down into submission by a bunch of bloodthirsty squirrels' 'I'll use her hair for toilet paper' and I could go on. You said all those things, Indy and I have the internet logs to prove it, so denying it makes you - a - liar..."
"So I was mad at Mira Belle, but she was so terribly perfect!" Senna ranted.
Pippi was not about to give Senna the chance to launch into a pity-party and a mess of lame excuses for her stupid and childish behavior. "You have a very warped idea of 'perfect' so you thought bashing and bullying her would make her less 'perfect' and you look better?"
Senna gaped. "That's not what I meant, you're twisting everything I say!"
"No, Senna, I'm calling it as I see it. You, are the one who's twisted."
"Look, Mira Belle kept things going!"
"She merely defended herself, a little bit, from things you started in the first place, and *you* kept going."
"So I was bored - anyway,"
Pippi heaved a frustrated sigh and scowled at Senna. "It's Always the same old excuses with you trolls and brats - 'I was bored.' or 'It was a joke.' Grow up or shut up."
"That Mira Belle was asking for it - ""
"Indy's shown me all the internet ramblings between you and herself, and Mira. You are the one asking for it."
"How could you and Indy take Mira Belle's side? You should know better!"
Pippi rolled her eyes in exasperation. "That angle won't work with me, Senna, I'm not interested in your half-witted excuses for losing control and yielding to a prolonged fit of bratty, jealous bullying."
"Hey, I'm not the one who made up a holiday for a character I have the hots for! I'm not the one who ripped Lady Une's picture out of manga books out of jealousy over Treize!"
"We're not talking about Mira, we're talking about YOU, Senna..." Pippi cut in firmly.
"But you must admit she's nuts!" Senna protested.
"Whatever she put on her own personal web sites, and what I might think of them is irrelevant. She didn't cyber-dump all over your site. She was minding her own business, putting up a site she had every right to, whether you like it or not. You're the one interfering with someone else's site. So you are the one who is nuts, Senna." said Pippi.
"Oh please, give me some slack!" She's so - "
"'She's so perfect, she's so this, she's so that!'" Pippi mocked Senna. "Do you ever stop and listen to yourself? Do you really not understand how utterly childish and stupid you sound?" and it took a lot of odious in a person before Pippi got this blunt with them.
Senna glared. "Why can't you understand!?" She squealed, stomping her foot.
"Oh, that's beautiful, Senna, you are really falling apart, having a meltdown. You keep reaffirming everything Indy says about you. You keep making me more and more certain of my own opinion of you being a childish brat as well.
Stop it!" Senna screamed. "Just stop it!"
"The mature thing to do would've been to forget about Mira's site and move on. You chose to throw unbelievable tantrums and make yourself feel taller by putting her down as far as you possibly could to puff up your own ego in a pathetic bid for attention, and you did it for months, not days... Months."
"Look, I was just - "
Bored, joking around," Pippi said mockingly, "I know. Same old excuse. Even when Mira remained silent, trying to ignore you, you went after her."
"I was just trying to - "
"You stalked her."
"I didn't!"
"From site to site, forum to forum. Spamming her guestbooks was not enough to sate your sick lust to bring her down."
Senna gaped. She simply couldn't think of anything else to say in response to what felt like a mental dissection. She realized that there was absolutely nothing she could say to make Pippi change her mind and begin being sympathetic toward her.
"And you got yourself in a heap of trouble which you deserve in spades."
Senna stared, incensed. "Is that how you really see me?" No, don't bother to answer that..."
"Yes. I've known some really nice people, and some not so nice, and You, Senna, are definitely one of the most loathsome and disgusting."
"I was just defending Une's honor!"
It was Pippi's turn to laugh. "You've spent so much time and effort trying to champion a cause and character that couldn't possibly get any more worthless. AS far as I'm concerned, Une has no honor to defend."
"How dare you!" Senna stamped her foot. "Lady Une's not worthless! She's the best! How could you say that!?" She actually looked as if she was about to burst into tears.
"That's enough hysterics, calm down!" Pippi said in disgust, and stepped toward Senna, taking a firm hold of her arm. "Une aside, I know from your emails you were just itching to exact some kind of punishment on Mira." She continued to stare Senna down, and refused to let her look away. "But you're dealing with me, now, and we're both in unfamiliar surroundings. So, what are you going to do about that?"
At a loss for anything else to say, Senna turned away to think.
Pippi used the opportunity to take out the magic transport device Capri had given her. It only took her a moment to code the location in.
"What a screw-up." Senna mumbled."
Pippi nodded at her. "You don't have a way of going back, do you?"
Senna shook her head. "Nick was supposed to bring Mira Belle here, and he was going to meet up with someone he wanted to see."
"Did he say who?"
"No, and I didn't ask."
"Just as well. I already have a pretty good idea." said Pippi, scowling in disgust. "You two really do need to get some kind of a life."
With that, she pressed a button on her magic transporter and returned home, leaving Senna on her own and fretting.
Nick got an unpleasant surprise when his magic didn't bring NT and him together in another unfamiliar world.
"If you're waiting for NT, you'll wait a very long time." a gruff female voice said from somewhere behind him.
Nick turned around, startled, groaning inwardly at the sight of the person he'd mistakenly brought into this different world instead.
"She doesn't wanna talk t'you, Nick...Not after all the hooey you pulled." Capri said, scowling at him.
"I know, and I'm sorry, I wasn't setting out to hurt her."
"But you did. You can't change that or the way she feels about you now. And you can't go crying to her when something else goes wrong in your life."
"I know that, Capri," Nick snapped, her derisiveness was making him defensive, "it's just that...Oh, never-mind." he said dejectedly.
"She also knows the truth about you - or part of it. It's too bad you didn't have the guts to tell 'er the real reason you abandoned 'er as a friend - apart from the fact you'd do anything for Tonya."
"What truth?" Nick asked, holding out for some hope that Capri was only bluffing and really knew nothing of his other lives.
"The video of you, your brother and Mira Belle, Indy and NT found it when helping Indy move outa that townhouse. NT knows about you an' Mira. She doesn't know about your connection to Senna yet and that you are among the tops for internet hacking, flaming and trolling."
Nick's jaw dropped. "I couldn't have her find out, I can't have her find out, you're not going to tell her, Capri, please."
"Whether it's me or someone else who tells her, Nick, she's got a right to know. You stand for everything she is against."
"She'll disown me for good!"
"She already has, Nick, she's done mourning the loss of the person she once believed you were. She's even thrown out anything she's ever received from you, including that stupid junky little music box you got her for her first Christmas. So how does Tonya feel about you and Mira?"
"I'm sorry about NT!" Nick pleaded.
"Too little, too late, pal. Grovelling won't do you any good. She's going to find out about this little email scheme of yours, and everything else we haven't told her about you."
"Maybe she won't believe you."
"After seeing that indecent and revolting video of you, she'll believe it. And there's this pesky little trip you took to another world and became a sadistic maniac. There's no reason for Ameh to keep that from NT."
"No!" Nick exclaimed. "I wasn't in my right mind when that happened!"
"Oh sure - that's what they all say."
"It's true!" Nick protested.
Capri rolled her eyes at him. "For somebody who's supposed to be so terribly powerful as a young mage, that excuse is incredibly week. I don't buy it and neither would NT, let alone Ameh after what you did to her."
"You can't tell NT!"
"Maybe finding out you're not only a backstabbing jerk, but an evil-addict and sadist as well will reaffirm what she's only started realizing.""
"Capri - I was messed up and stupid! Please, have a heart!"
"Funny, I'm sure your victims, Ameh included, begged you to have a heart when you terrified and tormented them. You'll never see NT again. The sooner you accept that, the better."
"My brother's got into some...problems," he didn't want to tell the fairy what those problems were, "Senna's fun online but she's not really my type, and Tonya is so controlling and bossy."
"But you have Mira, didn't you tell her on that tape she had the best of the others rolled into one? Oh, right, your attention span is terribly short; so, tired of her now as well?"
"I only meant she's attractive, but she's so rigid. She is so fixated on everything being done at an exact time, and everything under her control, because she's so afraid of Senna. You know she even made Indy time-stamp just about everything that went on in that townhouse. It's nuts. The truth is, she and Tonya made me realize how good NT had been to me."
"Well, you made your choices, no one forced you when all's said and done. You can't expect to come rambling back and be welcomed with open arms. The girl is so over you."
"I don't think you ever liked me to begin with, Capri." said Nick, knowing that made him sound like a pitiful, simpering sap, but without a clue what else to say at this time.
"Because I had you figured out from the get-go. A hot-blooded young man who got far too interested in her than what is decent, and when she wouldn't consider getting that close, you moved on to some girl who made it her mission to destroy her, for no reason other than jealousy. It wasn't the fact NT couldn't be your girlfriend that hurt her so much. It was that you tossed her friendship away like trash just to please Tonya and that wangsty brother of yours. NT needed a friend, not a boyfriend, and certainly not someone who had the hots for her."
"He wasn't a wangst!"
"Sure he was." the fairy said bluntly. "He was an arrogant, offish brat, so are you; and the way you're running, you'll end up in the same place."
Nick was so infuriated that he raised a fist to punch Capri.
When it connected with her shoulder, Capri threw a punch in return.
Capri cussed at nick when he landed a blow to her nose, then punched him in the stomach, causing him to buckle.
When he recovered, he glared at Capri, then anger turned to a sadistic glint. The sight of blood only excited him further. Without thinking, he raised his other fist to hit her again.
She dodged it.
"I'll really make you sorry!" he roared as he launched a magic attack at her.
"Oh, really?" she guffawed at him.
A moment later, and to Capri's horror, Nick fell to the ground, bleeding and groaning.
"What the heck - Nick?" She went to crouch by him.
"I don't know what went wrong!" he screamed.
"Was it you or your brother who could heal themself?" Capri asked.
"We both could!"
"Then hurry up before it's too late!"
"Can't you!?"
She shook her head.
It was a few more moments as the young mage worked hard to heal himself.
Capri got to her feet, waited and watched, to make sure he had.
He stood up. "I guess I shouldn't have done that."
"I'll say." said Capri, moving away from him in disgust.
He glared at her, his pride returning. "That was meant for you."
"And you got it instead."
"Duh!" Nick retorted angrily.
"I'll be sure to let NT know what you just tried to do to me."
"Oh, you hypocrite! Throwing it right back at me, that wasn't torture?" Nick ranted at her.
"I didn't throw anything back at you, I just prevented it from reaching me - though that probably wasn't even necessary here."
"Liar!" Nick roared.
Capri rolled her eyes at him. "If you'd stop raging long enough to think a little, it might occur to you that this could be a very dangerous place to attempt hexing anyone."
"He just stared at her.
"Reciprocal magic." Capri explained. "This is probably one of those places or areas that has it and anything you try on someone effects you instead.
Nick grinned. "I can think of several people who could really get messed up in this place."
"Well, you won't get a chance to tell any of them." Capri said firmly. "Ameh doesn't remember which world you tortured her in, but if we ever find out, you'll be wanted there for crimes against humanity--"
"It isn't there any more. Tonya set it up, and she decreated it. And back then, I wasn't in my right - "
"'In your right mind' I know..." she finished scornfully. "And you're wanted back in North America for all the hacking, cracking, and engineering of internet viruses you've done. With that and Ameh practically wanting a piece of you, NT should be the very least of your worries right now."
Nick almost threw another spell at Capri, but thought better of it. If this place threw back every spell on the person casting them, then there was really nothing more he could do, other than vamoose. He didn't know if Ameh might be waiting for him here as well, and didn't care to find out.
One last look at Capri, and Nick muttered some magic words, then vanished out of there, leaving Capri alone. With Nick's leaving, more magic was set off to automatically whoosh everyone else he had brought, back to their own homes too.
So Nick and Senna were right back where they had started, and somewhat worse for the wear.
But that didn't mean they were just going to give up. Sooner or later, there might be more opportunities, they just had to be on the look out for them and be very careful how to take advantage. Steering clear of NT's friends and of Indy was always going to be half the battle.
--
Senna Marie Jenny Ko Nahid Leila Maxwell etc the biggest Lady Une buttkissing otaku whose online bullying/harassment/stalking and otherwise profoundly desperate attention-seeking, trolling, stupid behaviour and all out bad-seed and Mary Sue personality inspired the story.