Spitefic: FFT: Ala Dean
Title: The (Un)Granted Wishes
Author: Quill
Fandom(s): Feminist Fairy Tales
Rating: General
Word Count: ~990
Inspiration: I felt the genie deserved better.
Warnings: Mind control
Summary: The power of a genie is more limited than most people think.
"I want to eliminate war. I want you to vaporize every single weapon in this entire country and in all of the neighboring countries, so that men will have no more means to fight and harm others."
Does this child believe that men alone cause harm? wondered the genie. Does she even understand what a weapon is? Knives, for one, have far more uses than she seems to grasp. But it was not his place to speak judgement of any wish requested of him. So he decided to test his new mistress' understanding, which her previous choices had already left a less-than-favourable impression of.
The genie rolled up his eyes. "I'm not used to this," he complained. "My masters always wanted me to kill some enemy or other, and set them up as top dogs. Peace is a little out of my line."
The strange phrasing he used to set her off-balance passed unnoticed. Her only response was, "Well, if you can't manage it--"
"Bite your tongue, little mistress! I am the genie of the lamp. I can do anything."
His boast was accepted as perfect truth, he saw with disbelief, when it was the farthest thing from.
He could no more eliminate war than he could transform all the land to seas, or turn all the vast deserts to heavenly gardens.
Now the second part of her wish he could achieve, but how should the ruin of countless people's lives be of any value?
Instead, he strained and fought against his bonds, and placed upon his mistress the illusion that her wish had been granted.
"There. It's done. What is your next bizarre behest?"
"Turn all the tax collectors into sheep, and their escorts into sheepdogs."
Cruel and petty though it was, this wish was of a kind far more familiar to the genie than the one before it had been. He would, before, have been bound to obey - but he found very little liking in himself for this mistress of his, and so instead merely cast another illusion upon her to hide that her wishes were being left ungranted.
The child did not even think to question any of this, simply demanding, "Turn all the aristocrats' jewels into loaves of bread and distribute them among the poor."
Having heard more than enough from this mortal, the genie wove his illusions about her so thoroughly that she could no longer tell the real world from her imaginings and desires. His bonds tore at him cruelly for this, but he survived - for how else could he possibly grant such a wish, when many and many of the treasures held by the aristocrats were guarded by (or even crafted of) magic? Were she to ask for but one, or a handful, then his own magic could well overpower that it was set against - but all? No, no - he had no choice but to provide the illusion alone of her wishes being granted.
This course of action was not without its costs, though, for to maintain his illusions he had to always remain by her and remain aware of what happened within them... and so the genie watched with surprise that came close to amusement as the young idiot woman continued to make her demands, blissfully unaware that they would never be truly carried out.
"Now, turn all the palaces and all the hovels alike into modest but comfortable middle-sized houses, so that all the country's wealth is fairly distributed among its citizens."
The genie had no notion what she could possibly hope to achieve by such a thing, and so spoke through his illusionary self. "You're asking a poor genie to change an entire society," the genie protested. "It's an immense job."
Her only response was to sneer, "Well, if you're not up to it-" and so the genie departed, leaving the empty illusion to make the empty boasts she wished for.
The mother wept for her daughter, but the genie could not see why - after all, the young woman was held safer in this illusion than she could possibly have been had she continued on with such little understanding of all around her.
"You have destroyed my daughter," the mother cried out.
"I have merely granted her wishes as best I was able," the genie explained. And since it never occured to the mother to steal the genie's lamp and wish for herself, there were no improvements made to her situation. The magician who had sought the lamp never found it again, leaving the small family to what peace they could have.
Instead of witnessing grand actions and adventures as had previously been seen whenever his lamp was claimed by mortals, the genie merely watched in fascination as his mistress' foolish notions drifted ever further from reality, having no more weapons crafted to replace those destroyed by her first wish, having no punishments enacted for the losses of those jewels and treasures destroyed by her second wish, having no wars waged by those who had never been anything but soldiers, having no punishments visited upon the fool for inflicting such massive changes upon her country and her people.
For years she lived within this dream as the genie watched over her, thrown into disbelief not by her pettiness and spite (shown most clearly in her imaginings that granting her wishes destroyed his powers to the point he would never be able to grant any others') but the sheer blandness of the life she chose. Why, her greatest moment was marriage to a simple dairy farmer - one no more fleshed out as a person than the ciphers she passed on the streets!
On the day of his mistress' death, the genie laughed to himself, shaking his head. "My, that was the most boring human I have ever had the misfortune to meet!"
And that was the last he, or anyone, ever thought of her.
Author: Quill
Fandom(s): Feminist Fairy Tales
Rating: General
Word Count: ~990
Inspiration: I felt the genie deserved better.
Warnings: Mind control
Summary: The power of a genie is more limited than most people think.
"I want to eliminate war. I want you to vaporize every single weapon in this entire country and in all of the neighboring countries, so that men will have no more means to fight and harm others."
Does this child believe that men alone cause harm? wondered the genie. Does she even understand what a weapon is? Knives, for one, have far more uses than she seems to grasp. But it was not his place to speak judgement of any wish requested of him. So he decided to test his new mistress' understanding, which her previous choices had already left a less-than-favourable impression of.
The genie rolled up his eyes. "I'm not used to this," he complained. "My masters always wanted me to kill some enemy or other, and set them up as top dogs. Peace is a little out of my line."
The strange phrasing he used to set her off-balance passed unnoticed. Her only response was, "Well, if you can't manage it--"
"Bite your tongue, little mistress! I am the genie of the lamp. I can do anything."
His boast was accepted as perfect truth, he saw with disbelief, when it was the farthest thing from.
He could no more eliminate war than he could transform all the land to seas, or turn all the vast deserts to heavenly gardens.
Now the second part of her wish he could achieve, but how should the ruin of countless people's lives be of any value?
Instead, he strained and fought against his bonds, and placed upon his mistress the illusion that her wish had been granted.
"There. It's done. What is your next bizarre behest?"
"Turn all the tax collectors into sheep, and their escorts into sheepdogs."
Cruel and petty though it was, this wish was of a kind far more familiar to the genie than the one before it had been. He would, before, have been bound to obey - but he found very little liking in himself for this mistress of his, and so instead merely cast another illusion upon her to hide that her wishes were being left ungranted.
The child did not even think to question any of this, simply demanding, "Turn all the aristocrats' jewels into loaves of bread and distribute them among the poor."
Having heard more than enough from this mortal, the genie wove his illusions about her so thoroughly that she could no longer tell the real world from her imaginings and desires. His bonds tore at him cruelly for this, but he survived - for how else could he possibly grant such a wish, when many and many of the treasures held by the aristocrats were guarded by (or even crafted of) magic? Were she to ask for but one, or a handful, then his own magic could well overpower that it was set against - but all? No, no - he had no choice but to provide the illusion alone of her wishes being granted.
This course of action was not without its costs, though, for to maintain his illusions he had to always remain by her and remain aware of what happened within them... and so the genie watched with surprise that came close to amusement as the young idiot woman continued to make her demands, blissfully unaware that they would never be truly carried out.
"Now, turn all the palaces and all the hovels alike into modest but comfortable middle-sized houses, so that all the country's wealth is fairly distributed among its citizens."
The genie had no notion what she could possibly hope to achieve by such a thing, and so spoke through his illusionary self. "You're asking a poor genie to change an entire society," the genie protested. "It's an immense job."
Her only response was to sneer, "Well, if you're not up to it-" and so the genie departed, leaving the empty illusion to make the empty boasts she wished for.
The mother wept for her daughter, but the genie could not see why - after all, the young woman was held safer in this illusion than she could possibly have been had she continued on with such little understanding of all around her.
"You have destroyed my daughter," the mother cried out.
"I have merely granted her wishes as best I was able," the genie explained. And since it never occured to the mother to steal the genie's lamp and wish for herself, there were no improvements made to her situation. The magician who had sought the lamp never found it again, leaving the small family to what peace they could have.
Instead of witnessing grand actions and adventures as had previously been seen whenever his lamp was claimed by mortals, the genie merely watched in fascination as his mistress' foolish notions drifted ever further from reality, having no more weapons crafted to replace those destroyed by her first wish, having no punishments enacted for the losses of those jewels and treasures destroyed by her second wish, having no wars waged by those who had never been anything but soldiers, having no punishments visited upon the fool for inflicting such massive changes upon her country and her people.
For years she lived within this dream as the genie watched over her, thrown into disbelief not by her pettiness and spite (shown most clearly in her imaginings that granting her wishes destroyed his powers to the point he would never be able to grant any others') but the sheer blandness of the life she chose. Why, her greatest moment was marriage to a simple dairy farmer - one no more fleshed out as a person than the ciphers she passed on the streets!
On the day of his mistress' death, the genie laughed to himself, shaking his head. "My, that was the most boring human I have ever had the misfortune to meet!"
And that was the last he, or anyone, ever thought of her.