Challenge #00954-B223: Careful How You Wish...

(Discussing being granted superpowers, Person #2 doesn’t want them)

Person #1: I’m sorry, but whether you want to or not… this is something that is going to happen. The next time you fall asleep-

Person #2: Then I just. /Won’t/. Sleep.

Person #3 (Full of cheerful sarcasm): That sounds like a solid long-term plan!

Irde glared at Bianca. “No. No. This isn’t a solid wish.”

“You did use the words ‘I wish’, said the Djinn. What she had been doing an a Chianti bottle had to be anyone’s guess. “And your wish is my command.”

“Ah! I didn’t just say ‘I wish’, I said ‘sometimes I wish’. The qualifier itself means that it’s not a permanent state of wish.”

“Is there such a thing? I don’t think wishing is a state of being…”

“You’re not helping, Bianca.”

The Djinn blushed. In so far as a creature made of night and smoke could blush. “Er,” she said. “I… um… didn’t hear the ‘sometimes’ part.”

“Can I retroactively wish you had better hearing?” Irde tried. “Trust me. Nobody really wants to wake up with that kind of power. Okay? Can you un-grant things now?”

The Djinn frowned, brought out a thick tome and paged through it. “Uhm… er… actually,” flip, flip, flip. “Yes. I can do that for you. If you wish that I had better hearing in the past. That creates an alternate reality where the -ah- misheard wish is never granted. And I can make sure you remember this little side-reality. For free.”

“Sounds like a deal to me,” sighed Irde. “I really wish you had better hearing in the past.”

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