It glimmers slightly oddly in the light. Probably just a trick of the light. (He's feeling surly, and doesn't have to say hello right away.)

She forgets to take off the ring and eventually finds her raincoat. Temps gets ready to go out.

He is compelled to consult his wish-sense to see what this person might want to wish for, much as he'd like to sulk about the sheer wastefulness of his previous bearer instead.

When she out in the rain, she absently extends her hand out. Away from the umbrella's cover. Letting the feeling of raindrops on her skin. She notices that she forgot the ring on, and absently caresses it with her thumb, feeling the combined feeling of metal and water.

In so far she is wishing for anything, it's just a desire to experience and enjoy the moment. Absently wondering if she could get away with running uncovered in the way on the way back. Some people let rainy days ruin their mood. Temperance is not one of those people.

The sense he is getting is adventure. Options unfold in his mind - new senses, the chance to teleport, bending fate to have her meet interesting people...

Better than the ones who'd respond well to a fortune to waste and revenge. He'll wait to say anything until she's alone and indoors.

She does some grocery shopping and nabs a small pastry to eat on the way back. Before she goes inside, she pulls down the raincoat's hoodie and lets the rain touch her face for a few seconds. Then inside she goes.

The ring emits a faint wisp of smoke.

"Hello, Temperance. You have found yourself a genie ring, and with it wishes three I am bound to grant you."

"Eep!" Temperance lets out. Though she doesn't drop her shopping bag.

She extends the ring away from her body and inspects it. "What?"

Yes, yes, shock and confusion.

"I am a genie. You do not recognize this ring, do you? I'm cursed, trapped in it, and I must explain your right to three wishes, and grant them if you make any. I can prove it a number of ways with small magics."

"Okay... as far as pranks go, one with magic tricks sounds like interesting." Temperance says tentatively.

A warm blueberry muffin appears and floats in front of her.

!!!

Temperance reaches outs and takes a nibble.

It tastes entirely real, heat and weight and smell and taste. And delicious. But it stops floating as soon as she grabs it.

Non! Temperance bounces, realizes someone is watching (?), and then decides to bounce again anyway. "This is so cool." She takes another bite.

"I suppose you can think so. It's a very, very old hat to me."

"Oh, yes. You said you're trapped. Is there a way for me to free you?"

"...No. Kind of you to ask, but alas, it seems impossible. Nothing I have seen or tried yet has done it. If you pity me- Leave me alone and don't wish for anything particularly horrible."

"Honestly, I have no idea what to wish for. Or rather have too many ideas. But nothing horrible? I don't know. No desires to become an evil queen or whatever."

"Nah, I'm not getting that sense from you. More 'wander around Brazil' than 'diamonds and poolboys'."

"Aha. You got that right. Uh... how did you get it right? Have you been following me around before I found you in that box? How did you get there?"

"I have a sense for what people might want to wish for. I call it the temptation engine. You know, to tempt assholes into wishing unwise wishes that I can twist back upon them in an ironic twist-of-fate sort of way. Or just a mean one if I'm feeling uncreative."

"Huh... why?"

"Hmm, do I have to explain myself to you? On one level, yes, the curse makes me tell you what you may wish for. But on another level, no I don't. Still. Suffice it to say that stupid, boring wishes get really really old, and one might resent that."

"Ah, right. Cursed. Sorry. Is there anything..." She tries to come up with a word. "I don't know, any triggers or something?"

"It's not your responsibility to coddle me. If you say the words 'I wish' carelessly, you may force my hand to act on something stupid."

"Okay. Any other rules?"

"I'll let you know," he says dryly. "Maybe put me in front of a TV if you're going to be gone for a while."

"Ah, I can do that." She has been standing in this hallway for a while and some of her groceries need to be put in the fridge. She moves kitchen-wards. "Should I keep wearing you? I am not sure if it's uncomfortable or something."

"I don't particularly feel it. Depends on my mood, I suppose." Sigh.

She pets it. Which amounts to petting her own hand. Yeah, she should remove the ring. "Could you explain the wishes some more? Because I don't think I can physically stop myself from knowing more at this point."

"A wish can be nearly anything that I am powerful enough to provide. While not without limit, I can do a lot. The strict rules are but three: No mind alteration of anybody, means no making people love you directly, or changing the way your mind works. Kind of sucks for people who want to stop being addicted to something and find me, but so it goes. No killing or putting people in situations where they will almost certainly die with wishes - asking for weapons is fine though. And you get three wishes, no more. That means no wishing for more wishes, no wishing for more genies, no wishing about weird mathematical things that make 'three' be defined in some insane troll logic way. Three."

"Oh, dear. You had to deal with a lot of people not being satisfied with just three, didn't you?"

"Quite."

Temperance nods sympathetically. Pause. "Not fishing for more wishes, but can you alter the laws of mathematics? That sounds like... the kind of things that can not be possible even if magic turns out to be real."

"No, I can't. Nothing really deeply reality-bending like that. That's more a god's domain, and considering one made me into this I'm not keen on making requests."

"Ah, so... gods are real? Any particular religion is correct?" She says those lines with far more levity than anyone seriously asking the question.

-then suddenly more serious. "Oh, sorry. One cursed you. That's probably a sorry spot?"

Sigh. "I don't know about here. I'm pretty sure I've crossed into suspiciously similar new worlds several times by now, since I sometimes look up past wishers and can't find them anywhere. And occasionally I see a big jump in tech or culture. Enkidu was real where I came from, at least."

"Oh, I see." She thinks for a moment, because she can't think of any one thing to ask. "Can you give powers to people? Like flight or going to other worlds?"

"If you wish for it, perhaps some lesser powers. Going to other worlds... Hmm, I think that'd take a whole wish just for once, and come with other caveats as well."

"What sort of caveats?"

"Very little control over what kind of world. You might land somewhere dangerous, or in some kind of compromising position - like inside a secure area. The travelling might hurt you. Or it might be very obvious to observers that something big and magical happened. No guarantee there's civilization around. Stuff like that."

"Aww," she pouts, though, only a little. "I guess the other wishes could cover some of that, but at a cost. Probably will think about it some."

"No rush. Just keep in mind that I am a genie. I can most assuredly twist your wish around on you."

"Okay... I will try not to antagonize you and think carefully about my wording. Or maybe go on-line, I am sure there are groups dedicates to that. Hey, are you the inspiration to the Aladdin story?"

"Well I can't tell for certain, but it seems possible. Alternate worlds are weird as hell, though."

She giggles. "Wild. Okay, I need to put things away." She indicates the forgotten groceries. "Do you want to be put in front of my laptop to watch Netflix?"

"Oh, so it is the twenty first century again, good. Sure, just put on a long movie, it's better than empty space. I can do little things myself, actually, but I'm feeling sulky right now and I'd rather not."

Temperance nods and sets him up with the laptop and a "seat" made of stacked books to give him a better view of the screen. Then asks about his tastes in movies. Hers are fairly eclectic and include romcoms, adventure fantasy movies and documentaries about the challenges of space colonization.

Binging How It's Made sounds pretty fun right now.

There is plenty of those in the internet. Shocking.

Temperance eventually pokes her head in and asks if everything is alright.

There is now a smoky-semitransparent... Guy, lounging on the couch.

"These are pretty dumbed down and sometimes wrong, but what do you expect?"

"I am not sure, having a lot of big surprises lately. Also, hey, nice putting a face to the voice!"

"I get it, the surprises thing. Yep. My ethereal form, just real enough to sit on things."

"Oh, cool. Does this means that you are not inside the ring? I have been assuming it was a Dream of Jeanie situation when you said trapped."

"I am the ring," he says, flowing into it. "And yet I can project myself and do a few cantrips for free, more or less. Nothing permanent, nothing very big."

"Huh, I guess that is less claustrophobic than what I was picturing, but still what a weird use of divine power."

"Gods are vindictive assholes who are under weird restrictions themselves. At least those ones were. I haven't met any for a while."

"I guess it isn't that different from most powerful people - non-magical powerful that is - from history. Still, sorry for your stuckness. I guess wishing to meet a friendly god would be as hard as to find a good world to move into? Or fall under the wishing-for-more-wishes restriction?"

"I'm not going to cooperate with you on anything god-ish. I want nothing, I mean nothing, to do with them."

"Okay, fair."

"Did you want to talk about world hopping or something," he inquires, suddenly more solid.

"I am currently fighting the impulse to talk about everything even remotely related to magic, including other worlds. But I don't want to make you feel," she waves her hands, "trapped?"

"There's no helping that in the long run. And I don't have - I don't know hard rules or anything, just things about what I can do, and what other sorcerers I've seen can do. I haven't seen one in a long time though, it's been a lot of middle age knights and then 17th century Japanese peasants and middle class bureaucrats and then, you know, the 20th century. Over and over again and then back to middle aged stuff for a while, to the point where I figured out I'm going between worlds, probably."