As Annabeth said the words, Percy's knuckles turned white as he clenched his fists. "Did she say what it was?" he asks.
"No," Annabeth replied. "Inara?" she asked questioningly, with not less worry in her voice.
"Oh, don't worry so much, Annabeth!" Inara exclaimed. She lazily floats over to Annabeth. "We're pals, aren't we? I can't believe you'd ignore all I've done for you." She wiped away a mock tear, while Annabeth kept her gaze firmly on Inara's purple eyes, no matter how tempted she was to look down at what was barely hidden by the silks.
"Now she's teasing me," Annabeth narrated instead, "She's talking about how she's my friend and how she's only helped," she elaborated. Then, she turned her attention to Inara. "Which maybe I'd believe, if not for the whole, y'know, trying to get me to cheat on my boyfriend thing?" Her voice raised towards the end of her statement, though not enough to draw attention.
Inara backed up then, just a bit. "Geez, chill a bit. Sure, I suggested it as a potential penalty, but that was mostly just to get your ass in gear, make sure you didn't just refuse to wish for anything."
Annabeth was clearly annoyed, but she continued her narration to Percy. "Now she's claiming it was just a bluff–"
"Not a bluff, persay," Inara cut Annabeth off. "I'd have done it if you refused to make a wish and were being boring,"
"Oh, so not even a bluff," Annabeth corrects herself. "Just something she would have done. Why should we trust you, again?"
"I mean, you haven't even heard me out yet. And clearly you took my words from last time to heart, going by your wish." Inara smirked.
"Now she's talking about how, uh, her talking about you and Rachel informed what we wished for, and so that's why we should listen to her." Annabeth explained, turning a bit red for the middle part.
At this point, Percy seemed more confused than anything else. "So, what's she actually offering?" he asked.
"See!?" Inara exclaimed, pointing both hands towards Percy. "He gets it. So are you ready to hear me out?"
Annabeth sighed. "She agrees with you," she said, "And she wants to actually make the offer." She turned to Inara again. "Go ahead."
"Right, so. Now that I can't screw you over particularly with a punishment, since your mind and preferences are essentially protected from me because of your first wish, I'd like to give you some... well, technically they count as punishments, but I'll agree to run them by you with enough time that you have a chance to make a different wish, or get me to think of a different 'punishment'." For the last word, she actually made air quotes.
Annabeth's frown deepened as the ifrit went on. Once she finished, Annabeth asked the obvious question. "So... what do you get from this, again?" Then, she turned to Percy and quickly summarized what Inara had offered.
"Maybe she's just lying to us?" Percy suggested. "She has us agree to one thing, then she actually punishes us with something else?"
"But then–" Before Annabeth can verbalize the problem with that, Inara interrupts.
"If I was going to lie to you guys, I could have from the beginning, you know? Just not told you about the time limit, gotten some free punishments in then. Or, hell, I could have offered you this from the beginning, instead of threatening you. But lying's no fun, it's boring. Where's the agency, the pizzazz, the show!?"
"Sure, let's say I believe you, that lying would be no fun and if you were going to lie you'd have done it earlier," Annabeth offered, recapping what the violet-haired being had said for Percy's benefit. "Then why are you offering this?"
Inara shrugged. "It's pretty simple, really. Few reasons, to be honest. First off, it's getting annoying to have you be the go-between all the time. For my first punishment, maybe it'll be that I can make other people see me if I want them to."
This time, it's Annabeth who interrupts. "Wait, sorry, how is that a punishment for me, anyways? Not that I'm complaining necessarily, but it doesn't seem to have anything to do with me?" Then, noticing Percy's confused look, she elaborates. "She was talking about making herself visible to you too, and whomever else she wants to."
Inara waved her hand. "Oh, I get to decide the rules, and as long it's something that could inconvenience you in some way, it's valid. Really, the rules are more for constraining you guys than constraining me."
Annabeth explained what Inara just said to Percy.
In response, Percy narrowed his eyes. "Is she even limited to one punishment a day?" he asked.
"Oooh, I see what you like in him. Any chance of me being able to take him for a ride at some point?"
"No." Annabeth responds flatly. "Anyways, answer the question."
"Oh, he's right, I could if I wanted to. But that wouldn't feel quite fair to me, honestly, so I won't. Anyways, what if it was a threesome? I'm quite the cunnilinguist, if I do say so myself," Inara offered, in a teasing tone, yet one that suggested she'd pounce if the offer were accepted.
"We're good, thanks." Percy gave her a side-eye, at that response. "Not important, I'll tell you later." Then, she turned back to Inara. "So, that's your first reason. What's the other one? Why offer more than one wish?"
"Right, right. See, how can we not be friends, chit-chatting like this?" she asked rhetorically. "Anyways, so, second thing. Your guys' wishes are probably all going to be large-scale, getting maximum impact for the limited number of wishes. And I don't have a problem with that, honestly. In fact, I even covered some of the bases I could have screwed you over on. Like, I could have had you guys be stampeded by mortals you ever had an even slightly positive interaction with. Or, do you know how many people your age had Percy as one of their early crushes back when he supposedly dueled his kidnapper? A lot. I could have saddled you with all of them!" Inara pointed out.
"You seem to spend a decent amount of time thinking about how you could screw us over," Annabeth responded.
"But I didn't. And hey, it's kind of fun, thinking of how I could do it." Inara shrugged, and as she did so, she drew attention to her breasts. Annabeth wasn't sure how, but somehow she made even shrugging sexy.
"Fine, sure, you haven't deliberately monkey's pawed us as far as we know. What's the but?"
"Right. The but is that you're probably not going to do any of the fun, small scale stuff. You're not going to get rid of his refractory period, or give yourself the ability to grow and shrink breasts at will, or anything minor like that, right?"
"Sure, yeah, that'd be a waste of a wish," Annabeth agreed.
"Exactly! You're so focused on being clever– and don't get me wrong, cleverness can be pretty hot– that you're not willing to sit back and enjoy the power at your fingertips, so I'm giving you guys some freebies."
"How... benevolent," Annabeth said, clearly suspicious of the claim. "Any other motivations?"
"Sure, yeah. The last big one is a bit related, it's about how big your wishes are. If they're so big and impactful, you don't see them play out immediately, since I'm betting you guys are going to be boring and mostly avoid retroactive stuff, right?"
"We'd like to avoid messing with our memories, or changing the people we care about, yes," She nods. Then, suddenly, she raises her hand in the universal gesture for stop. "Sorry, let me just catch Percy up to speed," she said. Then, she proceeded to do so.
As she did, what she didn't catch was Inara's smile at the two of them– almost fond, but with a certain edge to it.
"Okay, so. What's the third bit?" Percy asked, after a bit of quick explanation.
"Well," the ifrit started, "Since most of your wishes are things that'd play out over time, having you guys make wishes every day means I don't get to see it all play out in real time, and that'd be a shame. So, if I give a bit of time for the consequences to play out, I get to enjoy some more fun. It's really a win-win, for all three of us."
"That's... a bit more convincing," Annabeth acknowledged. "So your first punishment will be making yourself visible to whomever you want to be?"
"Unless you veto it, yes. In that case, I'm sure I can think of something else fun to offer," she smiled, in a way that made her look rather smug. Still in a sexy way though, Annabeth noted.
"We'll... think about it." Annabeth finally responded. "We have until midnight tomorrow?"
"Yeah, though if you're planning on turning me down at the last minute, you'd better have a wish. Anyways, that's all. Ciao!"
And with that, Inara vanished.
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