Work Text:
Once upon a time, in a faraway neighborhood, lived a young man who lived in a large and lavish mansion. On the outside, he seemed like the perfect little fellow; charming, handsome, a natural-born leader, and extremely kind and charitable to boot.
What other people didn’t know though was this was all an act.
In truth, he was a very narcissistic, selfish, manipulative, and unkind dictator of a man. He ruled and controlled his neighbors with an iron fist. Any slight imperfection in his eyes was met with harsh and cruel punishment, leaving the neighbors to obey and do whatever that cold heart of his wished out of fear. Of course, he’d never let anyone outside their cozy little neighborhood know, he had an image to keep after all.
One thing to note was that this young man loved to throw lavish, royal ball-esque parties. I mean, with all the money and space he had, that was quite understandable. For those living outside the neighborhood, it was a privilege and an honor to be able to attend one of these said parties.
But then, one winter's night, an old beggar-woman came to the mansion, and offered him a single rose in return for shelter from the bitter cold.
Repulsed by her haggard appearance, the young man sneered at the gift and turned the old woman away. But she warned him not to be deceived by appearances, for beauty is found within. And when he dismissed her again, the old woman's ugliness melted away to reveal a beautiful Enchantress. The people who didn’t live there but saw this quickly fled the scene, out of fear of what could happen next.
The young man tried to apologize, begged even, but it was too late, for she had seen that there was no love in his heart. And as punishment, she transformed him into a pathetic little puppet, doing the same to the rest of the people who lived in that neighborhood.
She shrunk his house and enchanted it so that it always knew what he was doing, and where he was, and it could even lock him in for as long as it felt was necessary. She then went outside and with a wave of her hand, a vast and dense forest grew around the outskirts of the neighborhood, essentially isolating it from the rest of the world. When done, the Enchantress disappeared, leaving behind a single rose and a magic mirror.
Ashamed of his pathetic new form, he concealed himself inside his now small abode, with a magic mirror as his only window to the outside world. The rose she had offered was truly an enchanted rose, which would bloom until his 21st year. If he could learn to love another, and earn her love in return, by the time the last petal fell, then the spell would be broken. If not, he would be doomed to remain a puppet for all time.
As the years passed, he fell into despair, and lost all hope. For who could ever learn to love a puppet?