And above all, no wishing for more wishes

[consultmybooks]

Characters: Rupert Giles and YOU!
Open? Oh, yes.
Where: All around Schwanheim and the surrounding farmland
When: All day 2nd of Rebirth's Decline
What: Giles is stuck in a bottle. Giles would very much like to let out of the bottle. Giles will grant you a wish should you let him out of the bottle. And if you don't want a messed up poltergeist throwing furniture around, you should probably take him up on that.
Warnings: PG - Mayhem and chaos, but probably nothing much worse.
A bottle catches your eye, as you go about your business

It might be sitting on the dresser of your room, on a windowsill as you walk down the street, or just laying in the grass as though carelessly discarded. It seems, in all aspects, to be a perfectly ordinary bottle...except, well, you probably know by now that it's never a perfectly ordinary anything. For one thing, it seems to contain something, a swirling white mist that seems to move throughout the bottle like a living thing, trapped and testing the walls of its prisons. For another, well, for those who can sense it there's an undeniable spark of power about the bottle, a sense of magic, something that just makes it stand out. And for a third, it's just quite a nice bottle.

Maybe it was left here just for you to find. How else can you explain how it wound up here, just where you happened to look at this very instant, sitting just where it needed to catch your eye?

Go on, pick it up. It will fit nicely in your pocket (even if you don't currently have any pockets) and a bottle is a useful sort of thing to have around, isn't it?

Well, once it's empty. Maybe you should uncork it and shoo that strange mist out, first. Can't tell what it might do to whatever you put inside, otherwise.

Comments

[tatra]

That causes some concern. Unhelpful though they may be, the village people were usually friendly enough. That they were being any more unhelpful than usual meant that there as likely something dangerous going on. It had to be the bottle.

"Very well then," she sighed, and took a better grip of the thing. "I'll just have to take care of it myself." She headed in the direction of the castle. Perhaps one of the sorcerers there would be able to help her.

[consultmybooks]

Perhaps they could. You never know, with sorcerers.

Tatra might feel the temptation growing, as she walks, to investigate the bottle herself and forego any magical assistance. However, it's easy enough to realize that these feelings aren't her own, that something is reaching out to her and trying to put ideas in her head. And something is definitely considering her, regarding her, as she walks through the busy streets.

In other words, the princess is no longer alone.

[tatra]

That urge was worth investigating as much as the bottle itself. She frowned as she walked, which earned her at least one concerned glance from passerby that knew her. But rather than go to the castle's apothecary, she headed to her room. If she was going to try something potentially dangerous, she didn't want anyone else to get involved.

[consultmybooks]

The pressure of emotions and impressions that was attempting to get into her mind eased stayed more or less constant as she headed for her rooms. The thing in the bottle has no way of knowing where it's going, all it knows is that someone is nearby, someone that needs to be tempted into opening it. But it doesn't worsen. It can't worsen. It's taking all it has just to reach out to her as it is.

[tatra]

She walked quickly, waving off concerned servants as she went. Once in her private rooms, she set the bottle down and took a seat in front of it. Her magic was weak and didn't work well here, but she could at least protect herself.

With a small barrier in place, she reached forward and opened the bottle.

[consultmybooks]

A soft "whoosh" sounded and a bright flash of light shined forth the second the cork was removed, obscuring the bottle from sight but not passing beyond Tatra's barrier, instead spilling against it like a tide against a cliff.

The light fades after a second or so, leaving Giles to be seen sitting on the floor and looking a bit dazed by the light. Blinking furiously, he takes off his glasses to clean.

"I hate that part."

[tatra]

She blinked, and the barrier dissolved like sand in the tide.

"Oh. Are you alright?"

[consultmybooks]

"Being stuck in a bottle isn't, um, terribly pleasant. But...yes, I'm fine."

Giles looks back up at Tatra and musters up a weak smile. "Th-Thank you for, um, letting me out, by the way."

[tatra]

In a moment her usual smile was back in place.

"Of course! I'm only sorry I didn't think to do it sooner."

[consultmybooks]

"Y-Yes, um, well. Strange bottle. Unusual circumstances. I...certainly won't fault you for your caution. Still." And here he smiles a smile that doesn't look at all genuine. "For, um, overcoming your natural sense of caution, I suppose the, um, the least I can do is repay you."

[tatra]

"Oh, don't be ridiculous," she admonished him gently. "Being able to free you from such an odd condition is more than enough for me."

[consultmybooks]

"...th-that's the thing, Tatra."

giles takes off his glasses to clean them, looking shamefaced.

"I, um, haven't actually been freed from anything. Not, um...not quite yet."

[tatra]

She looked at him curiously, a little taken aback.

"Oh no?"

[consultmybooks]

"No. A-Actually, as it stands, I..."

Giles is cut off by a loud "crash" that makes him yelp. Investigation will reveal that Tatra's table has somehow flung itself across the room and crashed into an opposite wall.

[tatra]

She spins to find the source of the noise, and frowns again.

"Oh dear." Which is putting it lightly, but hopefully it's nothing she can't handle.