The Genie Prince

Squinting your eyes and rubbing your aching temples against the searing brightness of the room you continue to leaf through the folio of different Prince characters in front of you trying to find something you could reasonably picture yourself portraying for an entire summer of gainful employment. There's the "Tourney Prince" but despite your gratuitous list of false qualifications you've never even held a sword, then there was all the implied jousting and competition that just sounds exhausting. How about the "Faerie Prince"? That's a hard pass, you don't even like A Midsummer's Night Dream and there was no way you would be caught dead in any costume that included mens tights and glittery fairy wings. Oh, and what did the "Trilby Prince" even mean? Was he supposed to be a prince of hats?! ...or just once very specific style of hat? What was that about?

Quickly running dry on patience with this whole bizarre setup you find yourself skipping the descriptions and just looking at the small cartoon illustrations that accompanies each noble entry in the orientation brief before you until one catches your eye, jumping out at the page at you.

It's a playful rendering of a theater stage laid out to resemble a throne room complete with obligatory nobles, courtiers and a royal family sitting up on a raised dais. Center-stage and the focus of the courts attention is a tall, princely figure in colorful attire captured mid-prance holding something aloft with a smug, self-satisfied expression on his face. The raised object is too small to make out in the illustration and your eyes are beginning to water anyway from the headache which is beginning to knock insistently against the front door of your poor aching skull.

Not to bury the lead but what really grabs your attention is the massive imposing figure looming over the little scene. A bare chested and lavender skinned giant with black hair and golden eyes cackling gleefully in the background and spreading his huge hands above the stage like some mad puppet master choreographing his marionettes, it gives you a thrill and you've always enjoyed the creepy-kooky stuff. So what does this one say?

Those court toadies all called you a fool chasing dreams and fairy-tales as you set out for distant lands on your noble journey. They were content to nurse at the Crowns fat teat while you quested for REAL power... well let the flunkies jostle and scheme for favor and prestige, you will show them, you will SHOW THEM ALL- ...ahem. Why compete for a noble title when you can simply WISH yourself Royal? Returning home triumphant with your magical treasure in hand you are ready to win the hearts of royal Princesses, show up the naysayers and take your rightful place on the throne! ARE YOU THE GENIE PRINCE?

You gasp in a breath of air as you quickly grab hold of either side of the table, catching yourself as the lightness in your head surges into a full on dizzy spell. You clench your eyes shut and shake your head, what is going on? You barely manage to crack one eye open and check the box labelled "Yes" before you tumble out of your chair, the blinding glare of the room flaring up to white out your conscious mind.