Princess Jasmine

Jasmine

After the big reveal that she was a princess, Jasmine expected at least a gasp of surprise; if not, he would suddenly change his attitude and act subservient like most people - everyone - would do.

But she was the one ending up surprised, because Hector simply widened his eyes a little and said.

“Oh…”

“Oh? That’s it?” In truth, she is glad that nothing appears to have changed, but she can’t help but be curious. Maybe he is just too shocked to react like everyone else.

“Yes, ‘Oh’. I guess I aimed too low… A princess, huh? Makes sense, you are the only noble around here.” He puts his hand on his jaw to think, “But I thought you would be more guarded… How did you escape? And the princess really almost lost her hand in such a dumb way? Geez~ I would at least expect someone tailing you secretly while allowing you to play the fugitive, but step up if you are in danger.”

He looks around, like searching for this hidden bodyguard. “No one? Damn. Or you are too good at escaping… Or maybe they let you escape on purpose so that you could die in the outside world. Does anyone in the palace hate you? I read a book with a story like that.”

“...” In the end, nothing changed. He continued to talk with her like she was a normal person, not intimidated by her status. Talking about things that she understands only half, but still incredibly interesting to her ears. Jasmine shakes her head before she is dragged into another topic and interrupts “Are you really sure that there’s an evil sorcerer in the palace?”

“Oh… Ah yeah, I said that. Hmm~” He looks at her intensely for a moment “Well, it’s not you, that’s for sure.” He seems to confirm “But yes, there’s evil magic there.” He says, his tone calm and confident “I guess you wanted my help to at least find him, or her, right?”

“Of course! As much as I don’t like the situation where my status as princess put me in, I can’t simply ignore the chance of someone making my people’s lives worse deliberately.” Jasmine declares with a hand over her chest, her voice strong.

Hector gives her an impressed look “Heh~ And you are not saying those words lightly…” He smiles, like he can tell if she is lying. “Okay then, valiant princess. I will help you at least find the culprit and…”

“And?’ She asks with a raised eyebrow after noticing he has stopped talking

“Wait a minute, I’m thinking about my reward… I do not work for free, but you also don’t have anything that I want…” He is not even looking at her while spotting a pensive expression

“...” Now that is new. That he would be entitled to a reward was expected, as much as her opinion of him would improve if he desired nothing but help, she couldn’t say that he was wrong for not wanting to work for free.

But not even having anything in mind… That is new. His lack of greed surprises her.

“What about money? My father will reward you handsomely…” She offers to see his reaction.

But he scoffs like it was a dumb idea “I’m not lacking in money, thank you very much. And I can acquire it easily…” He continues to think before sighing and shrugging carelessly “Whatever, the belongings of the sorcerer will be good enough. I like to collect interesting things.”

“Only that?” She asks, surprised.

“What more? It will at least be fair… if there’s no sorcerer, or if I don’t find him, you will not need to give me anything, right?” He smiles widely

Jasmine can’t find fault with his logic, it’s more than a fair deal. This only cements in her mind her trust in him. He only discovered that she was a princess, so their encounter was totally coincidental, and he has magical powers that he would already have used if he wanted to hurt her… The lack of interest in a reward only puts an approval stamp on everything else.

“Yeah, that’s fair.” She nods

“Then it is a deal.” He stands up, satisfied. “Let’s go, I can easily feel the aura of the evil sorcerer, but I guess my word will not be enough, right? We will need to investigate deeply… It will take time.”

“How so?” She asks while standing up too

“Well, following the sorcerer around till some clues appear or he out himself, this kind of thing.” He moves his shoulders up and down. “That’s what we have to work on now, it may take some days. Sorcerers tend to be careful people.”

“I see…” She doesn’t have many days. She needs to marry a prince in less than two days… But at least, she will have Hector committed to the task even if she is married and becomes unable to help. “I will introduce you to my father. Then you will see for yourself that he is not the evil sorcerer.”

“Fair enough.”

“And if we go back and say that you brought me safely, you will be able to stay in the palace as a guest, and it will not raise suspicion.” She adds.

Hector once again gives her an impressed look. “A little white lie? Smart. Let’s go with that.” He compliments while pointing at her. “Now, let’s fly.” Hector suddenly smiles mischievously and advances toward her.

“Wha-KYAH!”

………………………………………

After the initial fright, Jasmine enjoyed the ride a lot.

“You could have warned me…” She says, almost pouting, while being carried in the way a princess should be carried, while Hector flies to the palace.

“And what's the fun of that?” He laughs, “Almost there. Where should I land?” 

“That balcony right there is from the throne room.” She points.

It was so fast that she was almost reluctant to see it end. Feeling the wind, looking at everyone and everything so small… The feeling of flying is intoxicating. That’s what humans have yearned for a long time, that is why humans have envied the birds since ancient times. That is true freedom.

Instead of talking, she decided to enjoy the last seconds of free fall, looking at the horizon instead of the approaching window of the palace.

“Sneak 100.” She hears Hector whisper when his feet touch the balcony and he puts her down “Oh, it seems we arrived at the perfect moment! Your plot armor is strong. That is what I expected from a princess.” He suddenly says while appearing to be paying attention elsewhere

“I don’t have any armor… And what is this plot?” She asks confused

“Eh, it’s like… divine protection…” Hector answers after thinking for a little “But forget about that, come quickly… We got the culprit with his hands on the cookie jar.” Hector pulls her to the door to the throne room, and Jasmine holds her tongue to not ask what a cookie is.

Mimicking him, she sneakily stretches her neck to see what is happening inside that is so important.

“It seems that even though I mistakenly accused you and your father, my shot was not that far from the truth…” Hector whispers above her “I guess that is the Vizir, right? Hipnotizing your father.”

Jasmine's eyes widen with many emotions… Shock, realization, fury, fear for her father…

It’s unmistakable! Jafar is using his Snake Staff to hypnotize her father. Everything Jafar is saying, her father is repeating in confirmation with a soft voice, his eyes glassy and vacant…

His father even removed his favorite ring to give to Jafar!

That filled Jasmine with righteous anger. How many times did Jafar do that with her father? How many orders and ideas of her father are, in truth, from Jafar??

Now many things make sense! Hector showed her evil and corrupt guards from the palace, using their strength and authority to intimidate the people, and now she understands where their confidence and lawlessness come from! It’s from Jafar!

Seeing the satisfied smirk of the snake man after he takes the ring from her father, Jasmine can’t hold back any longer. Ignoring the “Hey, wait…”  coming from Hector, she enters the throne room, stomping furiously and huffing.

“JAFAR! What do you think you are doing??”

“Prin-Prin-Princess!? What are you doing here?” The man stutters and jumps in surprise when he is caught red-handed.

“What are you doing with my father’s ring?” She asks, her eyes hard, while waiting to see which more lies he will spew.

“O-oh, this? Ahem It’s nothing. Just a small reward that your generous father decided to bestow upon me because of my contributions.” Jafar recovers fast and shamelessly lies on her face.

That surprisingly calm face is very familiar to her, and Jasmine remembers all the times she saw it, thinking about how many times he has lied to them. Probably all the time!

“That’s his favorite ring. He would not give it to you!” She presses

“I’m as surprised as you, princess. But I guess my years of service are not in vain. I have always been a loyal friend and trusted advisor, after all.” He is not even trying to hide it anymore. He blatantly swayed his staff in front of her father’s face, and her father repeated his words.

“Jafar has always been a loyal friend and trusted advisor…”

“Grrr, stop lying, you viper!” She shouts, pointing at his face “I saw what you did with my father! You are hypnotizing him!” She gets in front of her father protectively. “But now this ends here! You are not getting away with it!”

Despite the obvious threat and imminent downfall of his life, Jafar remains calm. He even smiles widely.

“Well, princess… I never wanted you to discover like this… But now that we have reached this point… I can forget all pretense.” He says maliciously “I never wanted to serve your buffon of a father anyway. You know what? That is perfect! I will imprison you and continue to control him freely!” He starts approaching her.

Jafar noticed that they are alone. It’s unknown the limits of his magic, but maybe he can only hypnotize one person at a time, but he is a man, taller and stronger than Jasmine. He is armed with his staff too…

He just needs to do it the old-fashioned way… Even if it leaves some bruises

“You can’t do that!” Jasmine steps back while pulling her father with her, a little fear in her voice.

“No one here to stop me~” Jafar laughs, his parrot doing the same.

Then another voice finally intervenes “I think that is my cue…”

Suddenly, Hector was between them. He did not even stop to do some banter or say anything funny, he just appeared in front of Jafar, a little crouched and sideways, with his elbow already buried in the vizir's solar plexus.

The thin man fell on his knees, wheezing after receiving the blow that took all the air from his lungs.

Hector uses the tip of his foot to bring the Sanke Staff to his hand, inspecting it a little before swinging it down to the ground to break it. Then he throws the lower half at the fleeing parrot, Iago, dropping the parrot down before pulling him with his magic powers.

He gives a glance at the still hypnotized Sultan, and comments “I guess that is not it.” He then snaps his fingers in front of the small man’s face.

The sound coming from his fingers is more like a heavy wooden board falling on the floor instead of someone snapping his fingers, it’s incredibly loud, but that does the trick.

The Sultan recoils, his eyes and whole body shaking, before he recovers.

“Wha- What? Where am I?”

“Father!” Jasmine hugs her father with a relieved cry.

“Glad that worked, I would not like to try staring at his eyes to try to reverse the hypnosis. I’m not that good, and that would be kinda gay.” Hector comments on the side, but doesn’t interrupt the father-daughter moment.

He just goes to remove Jafar's clothes, most of them, to deprive the man of any tricks he can pull. 

“Loose clothes always hide something…” Hector comments after ripping off Jafar’s long sleeves, finding some pellets that he can smell and identify as some type of bomb.

He also found other concoctions, poison, powders, other jewels, clothes, and face masks…

“Nice work…” he compliments while seemingly interested in the face mask. 

Meanwhile, Jasmine explained everything to her father. The sultan immediately believed his daughter, and now with the knowledge of the hypnotism, he regained snippets of his memories and became aware of that.

“That’s unbelievable! That’s despicable! Jafar, you disappointed me greatly!” The sultan waves his finger at the fallen sorcerer. “Guards! Guards!”

While the guards come to arrest Jafar, the Sultan thanks Hector profusely, shaking his hand energetically with his two smaller hands.

“...” Jasmine saw Hector looking at her father in silence, an indescribable expression on his face. She heard him say under his breath “Only in Disney to a sultan to act like this…”

She doesn’t know what they are talking about. They are in Agrabah, not in whatever Disney is.

“I would recommend interrogating the man for any information. I know that type, he probably has escape routes everywhere. Hidden rooms and passages, I would not be surprised if he escaped.” Hector instructs

“He will not escape. He has much to answer for.” Jasmine's father says irate.

She saw Hector giving a nonchalant shrug, but didn’t say anything anymore.

“But sorry, who are you again?” The sultan finally inquires “You are far from here, right?” He looks at the white man up and down with a suspicious gaze.

For some reason, Jasmine panics a little, she doesn’t want her father to have bad impression of Hector.

“Father, this is Hector. He saved us, and we met at…” She trails off, hesitating to say that she escaped.

“Jafar there made a plan to kidnap and get rid of the princess.” Hector intervenes, “Apparently, he was afraid that whatever prince she married would not be easily manipulated, so he wanted you childless as his puppet sultan. I saved her by chance, didn’t even know she was a princess.”

Jasmine praises Hector’s quick wit in his answer. Now she will not get in trouble, and her father will not be wary of her escaping again.

“That Jafar!” The sultan fumes “He will pay heavily!”

“Be careful with your blood pressure. Meanwhile, I should check for the said hidden passages… If I find some, you can reveal them to him so that he thinks you found all. It’s a method of interrogation. Put the parrot separated from him, too, and say that he already opened his beak.” Hector advises and then gives the parrot to Jasmine.

“... are you used to that? Wait, the parrot talked before! I just noticed now!” Jasmine grabs Iago and looks amazed at him. She saw him laughing and speaking while Jafar hypnotized her father.

“I talk and think better than you all.” Nhac Then she bites her fingers, making her release him “Hahaha! You guys are never taking me alive! Hm?”

While he was flying at top speed to the window, he suddenly stopped in the air.

“Hnnng! This again??” His wings flap wildly, but he can’t move forward. In truth, he is moving backward .“How? Why??”

He stops his struggles when Hector grabs him again and turns him to look at his face. Iago froze in fear, seeing Hector’s gaze. 

“Different from your master, I have real power.” He says coldly “Try escape again, and I will pluck all your feathers… One by one.” With each word of his last phrase, he pulls a feather, three in total.

Jasmine didn’t know that birds could gulp, but Iago just did.

Hector then puts the parrot on his shoulder.

“Can you trust him?” Jasmine asks while gazing at the bird suspiciously.

“It’s okay. I like giving people a chance to betray me… Then I can deal with them without mercy.” He answers casually, making Iago gulp again. “And he is a talking animal. It would be a waste to kill him… now.”

What succeeds next is the strange event of Hector really finding secret passages and rooms.

Jasmine can only attribute that ability as magic, even when he said that “He was listening to the wind”, she only answered with “So it’s some kind of wind magic”, and he gave up on explaining.

“Tell me, parrot. There’s something behind this wall?” Hector asks Iago

“......” Jasmine didn’t know that parrots can bite their beaks 

“If you don’t tell me and I find it, I’m gonna cook you with horney garlic sauce.” Hector says

“That sounds delicious.” Jasmine chimes in, making the parrot tremble

“That rock!” He points with his wing “Press that rock!”

Hector does as he told, and the wall moves. Many surprising things happened today, but Jasmine is still being surprised more and more.

“Good boy.” Hector praises the parrot before leading the way to her, her father, and a lot of guards. “Any traps? Don’t make me put you in front of me…”

“No! There are no traps!”

Iago didn’t lie. There’s just a staircase that ends in a dark room full of things Jasmine can’t name.

“Well, that is some advanced science for the time. Electricity, really?” Hector smiles and walks to some papers on a table nearby. “He is wrong and many things, but I guess he didn’t waste his years. Oh, human experiments… I guess that is where he took the faces.” He says casually things that horrify Jasmine. 

“This is horrible…” She mutters aghast.

“That is the outside world, princess.” Hector gives her a mysterious smile. “That is reality.”

“...” He is really slapping in her face the fact that 9/10 chances would end up with her having a horrible future in the outside world.

The problem is that there’s a 10/10 chance of a horrible future if she marries someone that she doesn’t love.

She bites her lip while watching Hector distribute some incriminating things to her father and the guards, and keeping some of Jafar's research to himself. 

“His parlor tricks are interesting.” He said.

She remembers that keeping Jafar's possessions was on the deal he made with her, but Hector ignored the jewels lying around and just took the papers.

Even her father thinks that is too little of a reward for him.

“Then, lend me a room for some time… I travelled a lot, and the world around this place is not… Well, sorry but, it’s not very welcoming. I hate sand.” He says

Her father agrees easily, and she caught herself getting happy that he will be staying…

Hmm… Jasmine pauses. She looks at Hector and then at her father, and then at Hector again. He got on her father's good graces pretty easily…

An idea starts forming in her mind… Maybe her marriage is not completely off her hands yet.

……………………………………………

Hector P.O.V.

Reality is rated R.

For sure, Disney would not show a villain doing human experiments… Or they would? Well, at least they would mask it pretty well. Old Disney would show it… Cruella wanted to skin puppies.

Talking about masks… Jafar was really a master of disguises. I was interested till I discovered what they are made for. But I need to admit he is ingenious. The mix of soft magic, science, and con artistry took him this far.

Let’s use the masks, for example… If he only used that, anyone would see through his disguises, but he combines it with many factors… a hood to cast some shadow on his face, using some of the powder as makeup, a good act, and a change of mannerisms. He even has fake teeth… Well, they are real teeth, from someone else… 

Jafar is really more of a con artist than a magic user, but the fact that he has some magic is undeniable. And that is what interests me… a little, just a little.

It will be more like a fun read than something that I will really study. His thoughts on cosmical and meteorological phenomena to strengthen his magic are pretty interesting and make a lot of sense. I can see it being like that in other universes, too.

“Look what they need to mimic a fraction of my power!” I hear the Genie saying in a strong voice that makes me turn to him just in time to see him disappearing the moustache he just made on himself.

“How do you know those references?” I ask with genuine curiosity. The amount of pop culture references that he drops would even humble Oda.

“I had a lot of free time in the lamp. I got in day with the modern series and movies.” he answers cheekily. “The lamp is a itty bity living space… BUT IT HAS ALL STRAMING SERVICES!!!” He first shows a small space between two fingers, then he grows in size to show off.

“...” I don’t even know if I want to ask more. And I noticed that he said “streaming services” and not cable or anything.

Streaming services didn’t exist at the time the movie Aladdin was conceived. Did he adapt to my existence here? Like… nigh-omniscience means that he downloaded knowledge of my universe when I arrived? Useless knowledge though…

I ask a little more, but I don’t receive a clear answer. I

I can only let the matter rest with a scoff… Those nigh-omnipotent being and their powers that they didn’t earn, the power is in control… It’s like the power uses him more than he uses the power. I will never be like that.

I go back to furnish my new quarters. I took Jafar’s tower, a pretty neat place. High, useful to someone who can fly. hard to reach, so that people can’t assassinate me.

I got rid of his disgusting things and asked for a new bed, couch, table, and some chairs… The rest I can get myself.

For example, I’m installing solar panels. Since I was in the post-apocalyptic world, I knew that I would come here, so I arrived prepared. Now I will have electricity for an air conditioner and other comforts.

Not that heat bothers me - Hercules Method and all that - but what is pleasant is pleasant. I also want to continue watching the series and cartoons of the worlds I will visit next.

In the past, to save time, I was reading. Books, comics, mangas… Much faster to read those things than watch whatever I need to watch. Maybe people would disagree, but it's the truth.

But thanks to that, my knowledge of the movies, cartoons, series and all the rest is a little lacking. My next world is a cartoon, too, by the way. I didn’t watch the sequel to Aladdin or the TV show, because it doesn’t matter to me. I only came here for the lamp, but the next one I need to watch at least the entire Season 1.

“Just a little more…” I say to myself while connecting the cables. I do not care about the aesthetics, so I will not drill a hole in the wall. “Post Apocalyptic technology is so good… Those ACs are so silent.” 

That’s what I’m talking about. I will be able to enjoy the charm of this antique arab country while keeping the comforts of modernity.

“Oh, he escaped…” I suddenly stop what I’m doing after hearing a ping on my wrist device.

It’s to the surprise of no one that Jafar would have the means to escape prison. He must know some escape routes; he must be able to escape the cuffs and chains like Houdini.

That’s why I put a bug on him that would alert me the moment he moved 100 meters away. I don’t want to overstep, but now I can kill him.

…………………………………

Done. 

Simple as that.

“You are lucky that you are not with him…” I say to Iago after I killed Jafar and delivered his body to the guards “I was half-expecting you to be there.” 

He gulps while I grab his neck. I’m still a little hesitant to kill him because if I’m not wrong, he had a redemption… But mostly because he is a talking animal.

“I-I would ne-never do that! Ja-Jafar? Someone from the past!” He says shamelessly. I can almost see him sweating despite being a bird.

“Good choice.” I smile dangerously while stepping into my new room. I will check if the bath from this palace is to my standards or if I need to install mine-

“Hector…” The princess Jasmine didn’t even knock or anything before walking through my huge door.

“Princess.” I greet back. I guess she doesn’t know the basics of courtesy; she owns the place, after all. 

And I need to do the necessary glaze… Ahem She is gorgeous. She was gorgeous in those brown unflattered clothes, but now? Wearing her princess garb? Oh la la~ Those things leave little to the imagination. Even her silk pants, which despite being loose, easily cling to her thighs with each step she takes. She is sexy without being vulgar, sexy without even trying… 

“I want to talk with you…” She says seriously and then looks at the parrot that I’m strangling “...alone.”

“Fine.” I say, while releasing Iago, he doesn’t need an order, flying away quickly.

I also put a bug on him, I don’t want my talking animal to run away that easily.

“What do you want to talk about?” I need to say that because she was lost in thought, looking at my things. She is a curious gal.

“Oh! Ah… Well… This will look very sudden, but…” She is hesitating. Will she really ask me to help her run away? After everything I showed her? Ah man, I just want to relax in a palace for a year- “... can you marry me?” Beg your fucking pardon?

“...............” Okay, that happened much faster than I expected. We are skipping some steps here, princess. I’m not a speedrunner. I’m an enjoyer.

……………

A.N.: Those old Disney princesses are too easy, seriously. I thought about making it take longer than I remembered she kinda fell for Aladdin after the two share one or two similarities, and he shows her around. Really, girl? I guess she doesn’t have a good list from which she can choose…