endgames | 024 -- [Action]

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024 -- [Action]

[It is on the fourth day of the experiment that Shikamaru leaves his apartment. Free of those stupid thought bubbles, this should've been a good thing. But as he walked, it felt like he was being drawn to something. A weird breeze picked up. The sky literally became overcast. Ominous shit, man. 8|

It's only when he walked past a tree that he saw it. His old foe thought long gone when he defenestrated it months ago.]

Oh, not this again-

-

May 27 - June 1

[For these four days of the experiment, around the village there is a ~~toaster~~ ~magic lamp~ waiting to be found. In that tree! On that bench! On top of that fountain! How did it get in all these weird places? NO IDEA. But pick it up, and BAM. SMOKE ~~PELLETS~~, and you suddenly have your very own genie (barefoot, with an outfit something like this). Careful what you wish for.]

Can we make this quick?

[[ ooc: So Shikamaru's fairy-taled into a genie again! You get three (3) wishes, and he will be 'granting' them as literally as possible.

As per the guidelines of the old fairy-tale event: nothing wished for is actually real. It will look like it is! But your character is either interacting with something imaginary or a mundane object: like thinking they picked up a magic lamp when it's really a toaster. Wish to be a sorcerer? While effected it's like COOL YOU HAVE MAGIC POWERS. Only not really, you were just pointing at things.

TL;DR: it's one giant game of pretend. Have fun. 8|b ]]

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[She wasn't just talking about her.]

And I get three wishes?

[Neither was he.]

No more, no less.

[As throughout the rest of the conversation, Molly resists the urge to look him in the eye. It would be so much easier, but... she wasn't completely defenseless. She had his Name, after all.]

And what happens if I just... put down the magic lamp and walk away?

[He scratches his chin.]

If someone else comes along, your wishes are void. Unless you get the lamp back from them.

[Don't ask him how he knows this, it's just coming to him.]

And you go back in the lamp?

[I wait around the corner until someone finds the lamp.]

Yeah.

[Abrupt change of tact.]

Do genies eat?

When offered.

[And staring.]

Come on then, genie. Let's go to the supermarket.

[She figures he's not getting much food if he's stuck in a lamp all day, and as far as she can tell there have been no changes to his physical form.]

[Blinking, a little dumbfounded. To fit in with genies in certain fairy tales, he's embittered to his role.

Since he has to stay within x amount of feet from his lamp, he really doesn't have much choice. Not that this isn't unwelcome. So he just follows along.]

[Walk, walk, walk...]

So since you don't know Disney, I'm guessing you're not from Earth.

[Or she might have picked it up in her backwards journal stalkage. What, doesn't everyone do that?]

Do you even know what story you're acting out?

[Yes, everyone does that. If he is everyone.]

I know what a genie is. If it's a 'story' I'm supposed to be living, there isn't much of one to go off of this time.

[That is sort of an answer to her first question. Thanks to his journal stalkage, he would be disappointed if she needed more than that.]

That is where you'd be mistaken. Though originally the genie wasn't limited to three wishes.

[She glances over at him, giving him a brief once-over and a light smirk.]

You've stepped right out of A Thousand and One Arabian Nights.

[Because establishing that intimate knowledge of how tricky and evil and all-powerful spiritual beings can be is commonplace couldn't possibly have to do with downplaying her own knowledge of such things, should it come to that. And of course it's common place. >>]

[He folds his hands behind his head, pondering this. And also notes to look for this book later.]

Should've been one of the knights instead.

[Let her think he's mistaken, he's saying it for the pun. /rolls]

[She chuckles softly.]

Not those kind of nights.

[And puts on a lightly accented voice.]

Would you care to hear the tale?

[So she's quoting Aladdin. Sue her.]

May as well, if you wish it. You are my master - in a completely unperverted way.

Edited 2012-06-05 06:06 (UTC)

[Molly laughed.]

Clever, but no. I don't wish it.

[That's a HELL NO.]

I'm just giving you a chance to express what choice you can.

[Keep on abusing it, and she might just wish you 'back in the lamp' and put you in her closet. 8| Seriously, her mind is racing a mile a minute here, but so far the only way she can figure out how to find out the extent of his power and how dangerous he is is by testing him and mrrrr. Not good.]

Edited 2012-06-05 06:08 (UTC)

[He smiles. This master is a clever one. Between the genie role he's stuck in (which is also annoyed some by it) and his core personality, he feels suitably entertained.]

Lemma have the abridged version.

Oh, it'll be abridge - it's called A Thousand and One Nights for a reason, you know.

[Actually, he doesn't know.]

They were a string of stories spun to keep a woman alive.

[This look. Figures it would be a woman. Also how does that even work.]

Long ago, in a made up land, the sultan ruled supreme over all the land. By all accounts he was rich, successful, and a decent enough ruler. But one day he caught his beautiful, loving wife in the arms of the captain of his guard. He was justifiably pissed, and had them both killed.

[She paused to open up the door to the supermarket for him. In you go, genie.]

That's about when he stopped being justified.

What's a story without an asshole, right?

[He pauses before going through the door, his chivalry arguing that as a man, he should be holding the door.

The genie wins out this time, both in that Molly is his master without argument, and in him not hating this treatment. He nods and walks in.]

Mmm. [Non-committal comment. SHE DOESN'T TRUST YOUR QUESTIONS, but she shuts the door and starts heading to the section where they have the pre-wrapped sandwiches.]

So this guy gets it in his head that all women are evil and not to be trusted - they should all be punished. You'd think he'd just be single and bitter and start pruning bonsai or something, but no, he's still a man, and he's got needs, and since he's the king of course his needs come before anyone else's. Now, you'd think that he'd just start a harem or something, but no, that's not good enough for him. He's the king. He doesn't want to have to trust anyone ever again, and why should he have to act dishonorably when it's women who are the lowlifes? So he makes a decree that he will wed a virgin in the morning, spend the night with her, chop off her head the next morning, then marry another virgin.

[This would be a kingdom in which Molly would find it prudent to get rid of that pesky virginity ASAP.]

Edited (going with my original thought instead >>) 2012-06-05 17:10 (UTC)

[Misogynistic as he can be sometimes, let it never be said Shikamaru has it in him to hate women. Even as a kid, he had a firm idea of how they should be treated: with respect and compassion. They are to be protected.

So yes, he is frowning as he looks over the different types of sandwiches here.]

So this goes on for a long time - some stories say one thousand days, but that's probably hyperbole. And finally, the guy carrying out the sultan's orders, the Grand Vizer is getting nervous. Because it doesn't look like the sultan is snapping out of it, he just gets more angry and bitter each time, and the kingdom is running out of beautiful virgins. In fact, he's getting down to the wire, and soon all he'll have left are his own two beautiful daughters, Scheherazade and the younger sister whose name started with a "D."

And he's weeping into his hands at dinner, pouring out his heart to his daughters, because how can he sacrifice them to the sultan's appetite for revenge, when Scheherazade volunteers to go to the king.

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