[ Emerald notices the difference immediately. When he was back at the apartment, he had deadbolts and multiple locks. Even with Emerald on his couch, he was clearly unable to feel safe.
Maybe moving away from her was better for him. Another thing to try not to focus too hard on. She needs to just be glad he's feeling better, not upset that she wasn't enough to make him feel safe. She knows she had nothing to do with it.
Once he's settled in, she shows him a simple memory: it's just her in some bathroom looking in the mirror with a handful of cheap paper towels, trying to scrub at her face with dispenser hand soap to clean up. She's skinny- not just thin, skinny. There's no definition in her muscles, her shoulders are up like a cat with all it's fur raised, and her hair is long and pulled back. Her clothes are a different but similar outfit, simpler, a couple of tears but at least in tact. There's a sense of urgency attached to the memory, but more than that there's hunger. Aching, consuming, desperate hunger like a black hole in the pit of he stomach that makes her head foggy and weirdly nauseous at the same time. There's so much fear and desperation that just feels like background noise to that, and unbearable exhaustion, as if she hadn't slept for more than an hour at a time in over a week. The memory ends with some banging on the door and a voice shouting that the bathroom was for customers only. ]
[ She really did look different then. The facial features, not so much, but how she carried herself and her overall aura then and now are vastly different. Akashi likes the Emerald he knows better, he concludes, and perhaps he has to thank Cinder for helping her out then.
The feelings Emerald has when she shows Akashi her memory is contagious that even he begins to feel a little lightheaded and nauseated. He fights the feeling until the memory ends, and that's the only time he motions for his bed so he can sit down. ]
I'm sorry that you used to life that way. Things have changed, though. I need you to believe that.
[ Akashi isn't a mindreader, so he can't exactly tell what Emerald wanted to say when she brought up this memory. She cares about Cinder so much, though, and Cinder was the one who took her away from that life and onto something better. She may not be alive anymore, but that doesn't mean Emerald's life should end too. ]
I know in my head that I can do it. I know in my head that things are different, even here from Remnant.
[ Akashi helps with that. A lot. Despite that she lost a lot just learning Cinder was gone. ] I don't know how else to show you, but I need you to understand because if you don't then eventually when I can't just stop being scared of that, it's going to make you think it's not worth it. That's even scarier, and then I get stuck in a room because I can't see the floor or anything in it to get out. I can know in my head that won't happen, but..
[ She trails off for a moment, moving to sit next to him on the bed and looking honestly kind of antsy, worried. ]
It's not that you can't help or that I'm ignoring you or I don't believe when you say stuff like that. It's something inside me that I can't stop because of that. Because that's most of my life. Does that make sense?
[ No one ever wants to actually deal with her shit. So she wants him to just understand that she has a lot of it, that it's not just normal feelings of anxiety, it's something deep in her core that he can tell her she's being stupid about a thousand times, but believing it and feeling it are different. ]
[ He listens, because he realises that's what Emerald probably needs right now. ]
It makes sense.
[ And there's nothing else he can really say about it. He remembered a time when Emerald placed a hand on his head and pet him. It made him feel good when she did. So he does the same thing, but he doesn't ruffle her hair. His hand just kind of stays there longer than it should.
(He's trying.) ]
That means we'll just have you live the better and healthier life longer than what you've known.
[ His words carry so much weight to them that they might seem empty. Akashi never says anything he doesn't mean, though. He's determined to make Emerald happy. If not happy, he'll settle for her not waking up being afraid of so many things. Even just alleviating some of her fears would be a victory for him. He wants to be able to change her life in some way. Not for him—if it was for him, he'd have been more aggressive about it.
Other people may see Emerald as some sort of villain, and Akashi won't ignore what wrong Emerald has done before. He focuses on the good, though. She's done good, too, and her circumstances for doing what she's done in the past weren't because it was what she wanted to do for no reason. There were reasons, and they were beyond her control. Maybe Akashi is deluded too, though, but he doesn't see anything wrong with how he perceives things, especially in this case. ]
[ Emerald doesn't pull away from his hand on her head. It's weird, but she gets the intent. His hand is warm and he means to comfort her. She doesn't pull away for some time.
Emerald doesn't know whether she's a villain or not. She's done bad things. She'll joke about being a bad guy, but ultimately it isn't as if she's actively seeking to do these bad things. They're payment for being saved. Nothing comes without a cost, and this was the only price anyone was willing to offer her. Cinder is the one person who offered it, and she gave Emerald more than that. Food and clean water and shelter were what she agreed to, yes. Someone looking out for her, someone who cared whether she was there or not, someone who would teach her things and would protect her. Someone who cared about her, offered a family to her. That's what Cinder was to her.
Which is probably why Akashi confuses her so much, because he offers something similar but with no price. It doesn't make sense to her, because nothing comes without a price. She just seems to take and take from him and she doesn't know what it is she gives back, so she's decided she'll protect him and his friends at any cost. That's the best she can do, isn't it?
Emerald doesn't know if those words are empty or real. She's inclined to believe him- Akashi doesn't lie. She just doesn't know how he can promise something like that. She supposes it goes with their promises not to leave each other behind here. Promises they intend to keep but ultimately can't say how. ]
I want you to be right.
[ She leans back slowly at first then flops down on the bed all at once, pulling away from his hand atop her head only because of the intentional fall. ]
[ He always wins (except when Kuroko is involved), and therefore, he is always right (except when Kuroko is involved).
Akashi lets his hand fall on his bed, then he places it on his lap, unmoving from where he's seated. ]
We're friends, aren't we?
[ And he would do anything for his friends. He's a lot nicer to Emerald because he can see that she needs that kind of positivity in her life. That isn't to say that he plays favourites with his friends. This is just how their relationship turned out to be. He would have changed the way he treated her if she treated him differently. ]
[ She does start at least moving to properly get into the bed instead of half-assed laying from where she was sitting. She doesn't really need a story, but something to distract her so she can think about anything else will help her rest. ]
[ It really is his time to return the favour, isn't it? Akashi lets out a soft chuckle as he shifts to move towards where the headboard of his bed is. He rests his back there and places his hands on his lap. ]
[ She turns on her side, facing him for now with her head on the pillow staring at his side. She'll turn her back to him when she actually goes to sleep but for now, she's paying attention and comfortable. ]
[ The lights begin to dim until it's completely dark in Akashi's room. It's only for a second though, as small colourful firefly-like lights begin to dance around the room. They're red and green, both the shades of their hair, but there are some yellow and white lights that move around, as well. ]
One dark night, the Sultan's vizier, Jafar, meets with a thief who hands over half of a gold scarab beetle. Once Jafar has put the one that he has and the one that he's just received together, the beetle flies off and causes a giant tiger's head to rise from the sand. The mouth leads to the Cave of Wonders.
[ NO HE'S NOT TALKING ABOUT A PORNO ]
Jafar tries to enter the cave to retrieve a lamp, but the tiger's head speaks and says that only one may enter—one whose worth lies far within: the Diamond in the Rough. The thief tries to enter, but the tiger bites down on the thief, closing off the entrance way and instructing Jafar to seek out the Diamond in the Rough.
The following day, a street urchin named Aladdin steals a loaf of bread so he can his pet monkey can eat. [ A pause. ] I don't know why someone like him has a pet—he can barely fend for himself.
Aladdin was about to eat the bread he stole when he sees some hungry children. He decides to give it to them and leaves to what he calls his home. He tells his pet monkey that someday, things will be better and people will see him for what he really is instead of as a public menace.
The Sultan of Agrabah, on the other hand, is having problems finding a prince for Princess Jasmine to marry. He talks to Jasmine, who claims she is tired of living her life being "cooped up behind walls", which leads him to speak with Jafar.
Jafar mesmerises the Sultan with his snake staff and convinces him to give him the blue diamond ring to find Jasmine a husband. In reality, Jafar needed the ring to discover the identity of the "Diamond in the Rough".
Jasmine, who does not want to be married off, decides to run away disguised as a peasant. However, her act of giving an apple to a hungry little boy lands her in trouble with a merchant until the street rat Aladdin intervenes and leads Aladdin away just in time before she can lose a hand as payment for the fruit. At the same time, Jafar discovers the identity of the "Diamond in the Rough". It's Aladdin.
[ He stops to look at Emerald to see if she's going to interrupt him or say anything else. If she wants to ask questions, she can. ]
[ She at least seems invested in it so far. Though she does seem a little uncomfortable. She grimaces slightly, tense at a particular phrase used toward her. She waits until he makes it clear she's welcome to comment. ]
Don't use "street rat." I-- that's one I get a lot.
[ She knows he wasn't calling her that, but the reason he picked the story is already obvious. ]
[ If that was offensive, then. . . he won't use it anymore, even if he wasn't actually calling her that. ]
Aladdin takes Jasmine to where he stays when some royal guards find them. Jasmine reveals herself to be the princess and tells them to release Aladdin, but one of the guards claims that they are acting orders under Jafar. Aladdin is imprisoned, and Jasmine confronts Jafar, but he tells her that Aladdin had already been executed for kidnapping the princess. Jasmine runs and cries over the loss of Aladdin, and her pet tiger comforts her.
In actuality, Aladdin was just imprisoned in the dungeon. His pet monkey frees him, and another prisoner, who happens to be Jafar in disguise, leads Aladdin to a hidden passageway out of the dungeon to take him to the Cave of Wonders. At the entrance, Jafar tells Aladdin that if he can bring back the lamp, he will be rewarded. And so, Aladdin ventures in, and encounters a magic carpet that leads them to the lamp's location.
Upon successfully retrieving the lamp, the pet monkey seizes a large ruby and makes the giant tiger angry, causing the cave to collapse. Aladdin gets on the magic carpet and meets Jafar by the entrance. He hands over the lamp to Jafar, who then tries to kill him, but is bitten by the monkey. The cave disappears under the sand, taking Aladdin, the monkey, the carpet, and the lamp with it.
Within the case, Aladdin examines the lamp and finds a worn inscription on the side of it. He discovers the lamp is home to a Genie who will grant hi many three wishes, excluding wishes to force a person to fall in love, kill someone, bring someone back from the dead, or give his master extra wishes.
Aladdin tricks Genie into getting them out of the cave without making a wish. Once out, he tries to get to know the Genie and asks what he would wish for if given the chance. The Genie says he wants to be free, and Aladdin promises to set Genie free with his last wish.
Despite only having met for a day, Aladdin has fallen in love with Jasmine. He is disappointed that he cannot wish for Jasmine to fall in love with him. Since the law only allows the princess to marry a prince, he wishes to become one and introduces himself to the Sultan of Agrabah.
Meanwhile, Jafar, comes up with an idea to convince the Sultan to let him become her husband with the help of his talking parrot. He mesmerises the Sultan again into granting this request, but the plans are interrupted when Prince Ali Ababwa—Aladdin's fake name—enters the palace along with an entourage. The Sultan is impressed, but Jafar is suspicious. Jasmine, on the other hand, is unimpressed. When he takes off his turban, Jasmine is reminded of Aladdin.
He tries to impress Jasmine, but fails, and decides to leave on his magic carpet. Jasmine rides with him and the two of them travel around the world to see unbelievable sights. Ali admits that he is Aladdin, eventually, but he tells her that he really is a prince and he just pretended to be a commoner in order to escape the restrictions of palace life. Jasmine relates to it, and once she's brought back to the palace, the two of them kiss.
The palace guards capture Ali again and he is gagged and tied, then he is brought to the cliffs to be dropped into the sea. Once he hits the bottom of the sea, the lamp tumbles out and he begins to struggle towards it and manages to rub against the lamp before he passes out. The Genie appears and rescues Aladdin, using up his second wish.
Aladdin returns to the palace and confronts Jafar over having him almost killed, but Jafar uses his staff to convince the Sultan that Aladdin is lying. Aladdin figures out what Jafar was doing, however, and takes the staff and breaks it. Then, the Sultan orders Jafar to be arrested, but he manages to escape.
All seems well, but the future responsibilities of being the new sultan begin to distress Aladdin. He realises that his prince wish might wear off if the Genie is freed and begins to consider going back on his promise to free Genie so he can keep a wish in reserve. Feeling betrayed by his friend, a heartbroken Genie angrily goes back inside the lamp, pointing out how much Aladdin has lied to get where he is. Chastened, especially after taking his anger at Genie out on the monkey and the carpet, Aladdin decides to tell Jasmine the whole truth of the matter. Unfortunately, Aladdin leaves the lamp in his chamber and Jafar summons his parrot to steal it. With the lamp in hand, Jafar becomes Genie's next master, giving him three wishes. His first wish is to become sultan. When the former Sultan and Jasmine refuse to bow to him, he wishes to be the most powerful sorcerer in the world. Now Jafar forces them to bow to him.
Jafar uses his magic to expose Aladdin for who he truly is and then banishes him to the ends of the earth, but the magic carpet and his monkey are sent with him, so he flies back to Agrabah to reclaim the lamp.
Meanwhile, Jafar, who is angry that Jasmine does not wish to become his queen, makes a wish for Genie to cause her to fall in love with him so he can make her his queen. Genie tries to inform him that he could not grant that wish, but this only frustrates Jafar. Jasmine, who sees Aladdin sneaking into the palace, pretends that the wish has been granted, much to Genie's surprise, in order to distract Jafar. She even goes so far as to kiss him, causing Aladdin to nearly vomit in disgust. At first, it seems to be working; Jafar, however, sees Aladdin's reflection in Jasmine's crown and confronts him before he can reach the lamp.
Using magic, Jafar imprisons everyone but Aladdin so they could not steal the lamp back, and Jasmine is trapped in an hourglass. Jafar turns into a giant cobra and fights Aladdin, going so far as to tell him that he was a fool for thinking he could defeat the most powerful being on earth. Aladdin informs Jafar that the Genie is the most powerful being, since he gave Jafar his power in the first place.
And so, Jafar uses his final wish to become the most powerful genie in the world, but it happens to be a trick Aladdin used as genies aren't free. Jafar gets sucked into the lamp that was created by his wish and is trapped there for good.
Of course, since Aladdin is no longer a prince, he is not eligible to marry Jasmine. Genie however insists that Aladdin use his final wish to make himself a prince again, but nevertheless, he keeps his promise and wishes for Genie's freedom. When all seems lost for Aladdin and Jasmine, the Sultan decides that, between his loyalty to Genie and his courage in defeating Jafar, Aladdin has proven his worth; the Sultan therefore changes the law so that "the princess shall marry whomever she deems worthy" meaning Aladdin and Jasmine can be married. Genie flies away to see the world while the happy couple begin their new life together.
At night, while the fireworks begin popping, Aladdin and Jasmine share another kiss and fly off near the moon.
[ Even if it wasn't directed at her, it's something that's been used to insult her too many times for her to want to hear it in Akashi's voice. She doesn't want to have known what those words sound like coming from him. Oh well. At least she doesn't have to hear it again.
As she continues listening to his story, she becomes a little more incredulous. Say what you will about her story, but nobody turned into a giant snake in it or tried to make out with their enemy, nor was there a genie who just makes your wishes come true with no cost whatsoever. (Jafar was a bag of dicks before the genie was even involved in this story, so dealing with him isn't a cost.)
But she does get a few things out of it. Mostly about Jafar, rather than Aladdin. Aladdin started off being the character she'd thought was supposed to capture her attention-- street rat, secretly good-hearted but did bad things. But Aladdin was deluded. His wish was to become a prince to woo someone who wouldn't give him the time of day otherwise, not to get off of the streets and not have to worry about whether or not he'd survive. He had enough food that sharing it with a monkey and some kids was an option. He trusted someone he'd just met to have a way out, sure, but he'd been deceived. Emerald hadn't- Emerald had been given everything that she'd been promised, as far as she was concerned. (Or perhaps there were similarities Emerald didn't want to see.)
Jafar wasn't a character Emerald related to either, but there were observations she's made that rang true. Some that dug deep: the more power someone has, the less free they seem to be from the source of it. The more power someone has, the more they thirst for far more than they need, the less human they become. She's seen that first hand. Salem in the more advanced form, and Cinder before her eyes.
She has a lot of questions though. ]
Why would Jafar turn into a giant snake? The whole advantage of snakes is that they're small, poisonous, and you don't see them coming. Why would he wish to become a genie if there's no rule against wishing to become a god? [ A brief pause ] Why does becoming a genie automatically result in servitude if the first genie still retains his powers after he's freed? Obviously he's still a genie since he has powers after not being bound to the lamp anymore. If Jafar can hypnotize people, why doesn't he just hypnotize his first master to wish him free and go back and kill Jasmine and Aladdin with his new powers? Beyond that, how is there not a huge war over an artifact like that if something like that exists?
[ She doesn't know if her story or his story was weirder, but at least she got tired thinking about it. It's warm and dim and she's distracted enough not to at least immediately be thinking about her loss.
[ And he waits until Emerald's sound asleep before he rests. She'll probably have nightmares? He doesn't know, but he hopes that she won't be tired in the morning when she wakes up. ]
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Maybe moving away from her was better for him. Another thing to try not to focus too hard on. She needs to just be glad he's feeling better, not upset that she wasn't enough to make him feel safe. She knows she had nothing to do with it.
Once he's settled in, she shows him a simple memory: it's just her in some bathroom looking in the mirror with a handful of cheap paper towels, trying to scrub at her face with dispenser hand soap to clean up. She's skinny- not just thin, skinny. There's no definition in her muscles, her shoulders are up like a cat with all it's fur raised, and her hair is long and pulled back. Her clothes are a different but similar outfit, simpler, a couple of tears but at least in tact. There's a sense of urgency attached to the memory, but more than that there's hunger. Aching, consuming, desperate hunger like a black hole in the pit of he stomach that makes her head foggy and weirdly nauseous at the same time. There's so much fear and desperation that just feels like background noise to that, and unbearable exhaustion, as if she hadn't slept for more than an hour at a time in over a week. The memory ends with some banging on the door and a voice shouting that the bathroom was for customers only. ]
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The feelings Emerald has when she shows Akashi her memory is contagious that even he begins to feel a little lightheaded and nauseated. He fights the feeling until the memory ends, and that's the only time he motions for his bed so he can sit down. ]
I'm sorry that you used to life that way. Things have changed, though. I need you to believe that.
[ Akashi isn't a mindreader, so he can't exactly tell what Emerald wanted to say when she brought up this memory. She cares about Cinder so much, though, and Cinder was the one who took her away from that life and onto something better. She may not be alive anymore, but that doesn't mean Emerald's life should end too. ]
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[ Akashi helps with that. A lot. Despite that she lost a lot just learning Cinder was gone. ] I don't know how else to show you, but I need you to understand because if you don't then eventually when I can't just stop being scared of that, it's going to make you think it's not worth it. That's even scarier, and then I get stuck in a room because I can't see the floor or anything in it to get out. I can know in my head that won't happen, but..
[ She trails off for a moment, moving to sit next to him on the bed and looking honestly kind of antsy, worried. ]
It's not that you can't help or that I'm ignoring you or I don't believe when you say stuff like that. It's something inside me that I can't stop because of that. Because that's most of my life. Does that make sense?
[ No one ever wants to actually deal with her shit. So she wants him to just understand that she has a lot of it, that it's not just normal feelings of anxiety, it's something deep in her core that he can tell her she's being stupid about a thousand times, but believing it and feeling it are different. ]
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It makes sense.
[ And there's nothing else he can really say about it. He remembered a time when Emerald placed a hand on his head and pet him. It made him feel good when she did. So he does the same thing, but he doesn't ruffle her hair. His hand just kind of stays there longer than it should.
(He's trying.) ]
That means we'll just have you live the better and healthier life longer than what you've known.
[ His words carry so much weight to them that they might seem empty. Akashi never says anything he doesn't mean, though. He's determined to make Emerald happy. If not happy, he'll settle for her not waking up being afraid of so many things. Even just alleviating some of her fears would be a victory for him. He wants to be able to change her life in some way. Not for him—if it was for him, he'd have been more aggressive about it.
Other people may see Emerald as some sort of villain, and Akashi won't ignore what wrong Emerald has done before. He focuses on the good, though. She's done good, too, and her circumstances for doing what she's done in the past weren't because it was what she wanted to do for no reason. There were reasons, and they were beyond her control. Maybe Akashi is deluded too, though, but he doesn't see anything wrong with how he perceives things, especially in this case. ]
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Emerald doesn't know whether she's a villain or not. She's done bad things. She'll joke about being a bad guy, but ultimately it isn't as if she's actively seeking to do these bad things. They're payment for being saved. Nothing comes without a cost, and this was the only price anyone was willing to offer her. Cinder is the one person who offered it, and she gave Emerald more than that. Food and clean water and shelter were what she agreed to, yes. Someone looking out for her, someone who cared whether she was there or not, someone who would teach her things and would protect her. Someone who cared about her, offered a family to her. That's what Cinder was to her.
Which is probably why Akashi confuses her so much, because he offers something similar but with no price. It doesn't make sense to her, because nothing comes without a price. She just seems to take and take from him and she doesn't know what it is she gives back, so she's decided she'll protect him and his friends at any cost. That's the best she can do, isn't it?
Emerald doesn't know if those words are empty or real. She's inclined to believe him- Akashi doesn't lie. She just doesn't know how he can promise something like that. She supposes it goes with their promises not to leave each other behind here. Promises they intend to keep but ultimately can't say how. ]
I want you to be right.
[ She leans back slowly at first then flops down on the bed all at once, pulling away from his hand atop her head only because of the intentional fall. ]
Why are you so nice to me?
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Akashi lets his hand fall on his bed, then he places it on his lap, unmoving from where he's seated. ]
We're friends, aren't we?
[ And he would do anything for his friends. He's a lot nicer to Emerald because he can see that she needs that kind of positivity in her life. That isn't to say that he plays favourites with his friends. This is just how their relationship turned out to be. He would have changed the way he treated her if she treated him differently. ]
And this is how I am to people I care about.
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[ Mercury and her relationship is certainly different, and so is hers and Cinder's. This inconsistency is hard to keep up with.
Emerald turns her head to glance at him, considering quietly for a moment.
She doesn't dislike it. ]
I'm tired.
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[ He'll maybe stay up a while longer and read something. Plus, if it gets too dark, he can wake her up. ]
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[ She does start at least moving to properly get into the bed instead of half-assed laying from where she was sitting. She doesn't really need a story, but something to distract her so she can think about anything else will help her rest. ]
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Tell me when you're ready.
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Ready when you are.
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One dark night, the Sultan's vizier, Jafar, meets with a thief who hands over half of a gold scarab beetle. Once Jafar has put the one that he has and the one that he's just received together, the beetle flies off and causes a giant tiger's head to rise from the sand. The mouth leads to the Cave of Wonders.
[ NO HE'S NOT TALKING ABOUT A PORNO ]
Jafar tries to enter the cave to retrieve a lamp, but the tiger's head speaks and says that only one may enter—one whose worth lies far within: the Diamond in the Rough. The thief tries to enter, but the tiger bites down on the thief, closing off the entrance way and instructing Jafar to seek out the Diamond in the Rough.
The following day, a street urchin named Aladdin steals a loaf of bread so he can his pet monkey can eat. [ A pause. ] I don't know why someone like him has a pet—he can barely fend for himself.
Aladdin was about to eat the bread he stole when he sees some hungry children. He decides to give it to them and leaves to what he calls his home. He tells his pet monkey that someday, things will be better and people will see him for what he really is instead of as a public menace.
The Sultan of Agrabah, on the other hand, is having problems finding a prince for Princess Jasmine to marry. He talks to Jasmine, who claims she is tired of living her life being "cooped up behind walls", which leads him to speak with Jafar.
Jafar mesmerises the Sultan with his snake staff and convinces him to give him the blue diamond ring to find Jasmine a husband. In reality, Jafar needed the ring to discover the identity of the "Diamond in the Rough".
Jasmine, who does not want to be married off, decides to run away disguised as a peasant. However, her act of giving an apple to a hungry little boy lands her in trouble with a merchant until the street rat Aladdin intervenes and leads Aladdin away just in time before she can lose a hand as payment for the fruit. At the same time, Jafar discovers the identity of the "Diamond in the Rough". It's Aladdin.
[ He stops to look at Emerald to see if she's going to interrupt him or say anything else. If she wants to ask questions, she can. ]
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Don't use "street rat." I-- that's one I get a lot.
[ She knows he wasn't calling her that, but the reason he picked the story is already obvious. ]
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[ If that was offensive, then. . . he won't use it anymore, even if he wasn't actually calling her that. ]
Aladdin takes Jasmine to where he stays when some royal guards find them. Jasmine reveals herself to be the princess and tells them to release Aladdin, but one of the guards claims that they are acting orders under Jafar. Aladdin is imprisoned, and Jasmine confronts Jafar, but he tells her that Aladdin had already been executed for kidnapping the princess. Jasmine runs and cries over the loss of Aladdin, and her pet tiger comforts her.
In actuality, Aladdin was just imprisoned in the dungeon. His pet monkey frees him, and another prisoner, who happens to be Jafar in disguise, leads Aladdin to a hidden passageway out of the dungeon to take him to the Cave of Wonders. At the entrance, Jafar tells Aladdin that if he can bring back the lamp, he will be rewarded. And so, Aladdin ventures in, and encounters a magic carpet that leads them to the lamp's location.
Upon successfully retrieving the lamp, the pet monkey seizes a large ruby and makes the giant tiger angry, causing the cave to collapse. Aladdin gets on the magic carpet and meets Jafar by the entrance. He hands over the lamp to Jafar, who then tries to kill him, but is bitten by the monkey. The cave disappears under the sand, taking Aladdin, the monkey, the carpet, and the lamp with it.
Within the case, Aladdin examines the lamp and finds a worn inscription on the side of it. He discovers the lamp is home to a Genie who will grant hi many three wishes, excluding wishes to force a person to fall in love, kill someone, bring someone back from the dead, or give his master extra wishes.
Aladdin tricks Genie into getting them out of the cave without making a wish. Once out, he tries to get to know the Genie and asks what he would wish for if given the chance. The Genie says he wants to be free, and Aladdin promises to set Genie free with his last wish.
Despite only having met for a day, Aladdin has fallen in love with Jasmine. He is disappointed that he cannot wish for Jasmine to fall in love with him. Since the law only allows the princess to marry a prince, he wishes to become one and introduces himself to the Sultan of Agrabah.
Meanwhile, Jafar, comes up with an idea to convince the Sultan to let him become her husband with the help of his talking parrot. He mesmerises the Sultan again into granting this request, but the plans are interrupted when Prince Ali Ababwa—Aladdin's fake name—enters the palace along with an entourage. The Sultan is impressed, but Jafar is suspicious. Jasmine, on the other hand, is unimpressed. When he takes off his turban, Jasmine is reminded of Aladdin.
He tries to impress Jasmine, but fails, and decides to leave on his magic carpet. Jasmine rides with him and the two of them travel around the world to see unbelievable sights. Ali admits that he is Aladdin, eventually, but he tells her that he really is a prince and he just pretended to be a commoner in order to escape the restrictions of palace life. Jasmine relates to it, and once she's brought back to the palace, the two of them kiss.
The palace guards capture Ali again and he is gagged and tied, then he is brought to the cliffs to be dropped into the sea. Once he hits the bottom of the sea, the lamp tumbles out and he begins to struggle towards it and manages to rub against the lamp before he passes out. The Genie appears and rescues Aladdin, using up his second wish.
Aladdin returns to the palace and confronts Jafar over having him almost killed, but Jafar uses his staff to convince the Sultan that Aladdin is lying. Aladdin figures out what Jafar was doing, however, and takes the staff and breaks it. Then, the Sultan orders Jafar to be arrested, but he manages to escape.
All seems well, but the future responsibilities of being the new sultan begin to distress Aladdin. He realises that his prince wish might wear off if the Genie is freed and begins to consider going back on his promise to free Genie so he can keep a wish in reserve. Feeling betrayed by his friend, a heartbroken Genie angrily goes back inside the lamp, pointing out how much Aladdin has lied to get where he is. Chastened, especially after taking his anger at Genie out on the monkey and the carpet, Aladdin decides to tell Jasmine the whole truth of the matter. Unfortunately, Aladdin leaves the lamp in his chamber and Jafar summons his parrot to steal it. With the lamp in hand, Jafar becomes Genie's next master, giving him three wishes. His first wish is to become sultan. When the former Sultan and Jasmine refuse to bow to him, he wishes to be the most powerful sorcerer in the world. Now Jafar forces them to bow to him.
Jafar uses his magic to expose Aladdin for who he truly is and then banishes him to the ends of the earth, but the magic carpet and his monkey are sent with him, so he flies back to Agrabah to reclaim the lamp.
Meanwhile, Jafar, who is angry that Jasmine does not wish to become his queen, makes a wish for Genie to cause her to fall in love with him so he can make her his queen. Genie tries to inform him that he could not grant that wish, but this only frustrates Jafar. Jasmine, who sees Aladdin sneaking into the palace, pretends that the wish has been granted, much to Genie's surprise, in order to distract Jafar. She even goes so far as to kiss him, causing Aladdin to nearly vomit in disgust. At first, it seems to be working; Jafar, however, sees Aladdin's reflection in Jasmine's crown and confronts him before he can reach the lamp.
Using magic, Jafar imprisons everyone but Aladdin so they could not steal the lamp back, and Jasmine is trapped in an hourglass. Jafar turns into a giant cobra and fights Aladdin, going so far as to tell him that he was a fool for thinking he could defeat the most powerful being on earth. Aladdin informs Jafar that the Genie is the most powerful being, since he gave Jafar his power in the first place.
And so, Jafar uses his final wish to become the most powerful genie in the world, but it happens to be a trick Aladdin used as genies aren't free. Jafar gets sucked into the lamp that was created by his wish and is trapped there for good.
Of course, since Aladdin is no longer a prince, he is not eligible to marry Jasmine. Genie however insists that Aladdin use his final wish to make himself a prince again, but nevertheless, he keeps his promise and wishes for Genie's freedom. When all seems lost for Aladdin and Jasmine, the Sultan decides that, between his loyalty to Genie and his courage in defeating Jafar, Aladdin has proven his worth; the Sultan therefore changes the law so that "the princess shall marry whomever she deems worthy" meaning Aladdin and Jasmine can be married. Genie flies away to see the world while the happy couple begin their new life together.
At night, while the fireworks begin popping, Aladdin and Jasmine share another kiss and fly off near the moon.
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As she continues listening to his story, she becomes a little more incredulous. Say what you will about her story, but nobody turned into a giant snake in it or tried to make out with their enemy, nor was there a genie who just makes your wishes come true with no cost whatsoever. (Jafar was a bag of dicks before the genie was even involved in this story, so dealing with him isn't a cost.)
But she does get a few things out of it. Mostly about Jafar, rather than Aladdin. Aladdin started off being the character she'd thought was supposed to capture her attention-- street rat, secretly good-hearted but did bad things. But Aladdin was deluded. His wish was to become a prince to woo someone who wouldn't give him the time of day otherwise, not to get off of the streets and not have to worry about whether or not he'd survive. He had enough food that sharing it with a monkey and some kids was an option. He trusted someone he'd just met to have a way out, sure, but he'd been deceived. Emerald hadn't- Emerald had been given everything that she'd been promised, as far as she was concerned. (Or perhaps there were similarities Emerald didn't want to see.)
Jafar wasn't a character Emerald related to either, but there were observations she's made that rang true. Some that dug deep: the more power someone has, the less free they seem to be from the source of it. The more power someone has, the more they thirst for far more than they need, the less human they become. She's seen that first hand. Salem in the more advanced form, and Cinder before her eyes.
She has a lot of questions though. ]
Why would Jafar turn into a giant snake? The whole advantage of snakes is that they're small, poisonous, and you don't see them coming. Why would he wish to become a genie if there's no rule against wishing to become a god? [ A brief pause ] Why does becoming a genie automatically result in servitude if the first genie still retains his powers after he's freed? Obviously he's still a genie since he has powers after not being bound to the lamp anymore. If Jafar can hypnotize people, why doesn't he just hypnotize his first master to wish him free and go back and kill Jasmine and Aladdin with his new powers? Beyond that, how is there not a huge war over an artifact like that if something like that exists?
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[ The lights dim gradually until there's just one colour left. ]
You're thinking too much. Try to get some rest, Emerald.
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[ She lets out a little puff of laughter, but her eyelids are half-closed even as she does. ]
Are you going to stay here?
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[ It's not late, but he would like to rest now if Emerald is going to sleep. ]
I'll wait until you're asleep before I rest.
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[ Even as she says that teasingly, she's half-yawning as she does. ]
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[ He knows. He can see the future. ]
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[ She doesn't know if her story or his story was weirder, but at least she got tired thinking about it. It's warm and dim and she's distracted enough not to at least immediately be thinking about her loss.
She's at least going to close her eyes and try. ]
Good night.
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[ And he waits until Emerald's sound asleep before he rests. She'll probably have nightmares? He doesn't know, but he hopes that she won't be tired in the morning when she wakes up. ]