A jackal padded into Polaris, panting heavily. Fleas, now ages older, her coat rife with with bald patches. She shut her mouth for a moment, head flicking back and forth, ears tuned to the smallest sounds. There--she spotted it. Finally, she could see the stone. And so could many other gembound. The jackal, seeing the object she'd been questing for all this time, and all those people in one place, took a single step forward, before she collapsed on her side, chest heaving.
When Fleas recovered from her lengthy walk, she pulled herself up, groaning as she stretched and her various joints popped into place. After all that walking it had her feeling like a bag of rocks on crumbly bones. Fleas shook her neck out. She padded up to the crystal, twitchy ears pinned and tail swaying nervously, expecting some retaliation. A boulder dropping from the sky. A nest of pitch rats swarming from underneath it. A poisonous gas to leak out. None of that happened. And though she passed close to other gembound, she felt not a claw nor tooth touch her.
Fleas tilted her head, eyeing the stone suspiciously, before accepting her fate. If it was gonna send her back to stone, she'd better get it done quick. The jackal laid a light paw on the stone.
She landed nearby and strode into the crowd- towering over many of those gathered, and letting that size and presence alone cut a path towards the stone. A single claw set on it's surface, Umbriel made a wish- To check if it even can grant the wishes, and also because free stuff is always cool.
And then she'd try to carefully probe into the stone, to see if there was a brain in there, and if so, what was it's actual goals? If it really was just some rock, and the wishes were still being granted, then that set up a whole new set of questions. But she needed data in order to even formulate questions in the first place, and data was exactly what she intended to collect.
Azrael reached down and picked the armor off the ground, at first glaring at it, as if he didn't approve, turning it over in his many claws, before he snorted loudly and giving a firm nod.
He looked down towards the stone and said, again,
When Azrael returned the next day, he was not wearing his armor, having stashed it away somewhere safe until its use was called for. He stood in front of the stone again, and boomed loudly,
Once claws lifted from the Wishing Stone's surface, Miriam had withdrawn from the scene, smugness tugging at her lips and threatening to draw her smile wider. Head tossed high and a haughty arch to her sinuous back, the Tatzelwurm left as a triumphant conqueror, domination rewarded by the piece of the singing crystal cradled within her mind and soul.
But the spoils of a day had not been enough to satiate her. Novelty only lasted so long, its shine dulling the longer it was dwelled upon. Already this new talent of hers was becoming just another part of a slowly growing collection, another tool upon the shelf that'd be used but never cherished to the same extent it once had been. Meanwhile that all-too-generous benefactor likely continued to sit in Polaris, a ready and eager resource to be exploited.
Though her impressive length and girth of her coils would've enabled her to attempt shoving aside the crowd as well as winding around every individual of it, steps were kept soft and her presence as unmeddling as possible. Eyelids batted whenever she caught someone else's glance, and her chin tilted downward to affect contriteness foreign to actual thoughts.
Reaching the center of the gathering, Miriam looked upon the array of flowers ringing the stone, an unreadable emotion glimmering in the depths of her gaze.
The touch of claws to crystal remained delicate; her intentions might not have been.
Such a little thing, you're lucky that others have found and love you for what you are. Others are not as bright or beautiful as you. Some are too insignificant for giants like me to notice. Isn't that unfortunate? A deliberate series of upset blinks. She took a few inches away from her height, slumping, and lowered her head. It'd do a kindness if I could find those with useful talent or skill that are ignored. So that I may give them attention such as you have received.
Polaris was only a hop and a skip away, but Catalyst was still... nervous. Ever since the assault on Mother's base, she been wary of prying eyes watching for signs of Her. Watching for clumps of white on hides. So it was natural that she was another gembound, one shy of contact, to visit when the stone was not so crowded.
It was easy enough for her to mix in to the crowd, the calming influence of Mother keeping her from worry. Her hide hidden beneath a coat of dried white furs, to disguise any peeks at clumps of white fungi. But others had come here-- she had felt the presence of Yellow earlier. It must've been safe enough for that at least. She slunk in with the throng of gembound surrounding the stone, their bodies illuminated by the stone. And it didn't take long to see the source of the light.
The stone stood in front of her, shifting a variety of colors. She lowered her head to sniff at the rock curiously, detecting no off scent. Satisfied by its safety, Catalyst laid a clawed green hand on the stone, its surface chiming pleasantly. Stone, she began. Can you grant me something to please Mother? Maybe something to make my form more useful for her purposes. Or... a thing that would useful to her, and to our family. Whatever you can think of.
She smiled at the thought, then tilted her head, suddenly puzzled. Could a rock think? If a rock could grant wishes, then she supposed it could think. In any case, she shook her neck out, and hunkered down after touching it, tucking her arms within her chest.
((I'm sorry for all the characters dark im tryin to get them in before the date is up :woe:))
It spoke aloud, and it’s voice wasn’t the ominous hiss you may expect from such a creature, but a quiet, almost sing-songy sound. “I wish for a new game. The old ones have gotten boring.” And it would show the stone its idea of a ‘game,’ of chasing cave mice and birds and nearly any other lesser it could think of. The lessers weren’t the most entertaining- they ran blindly and fear-ridden. No tricks, no strategy, just a single-minded escape. Hopefully this stone could change that up.
A quiet flutter. An angelic hum.
Simon lived in Polaris, too. It was a surprise he didn't notice the mysterious stone until now. But now he was here, his serpentine form hovering over the crowd with soft wingbeats from his large wings. He observed what was going on: people would come to the colorshifting crystal, appear deep in thought for a minute, and then something miraculous would happen. Maybe a book would appear out of nowhere, or a suit of armor. This was... fascinating.
The little angel drifted down to the ground and slithered his way to the end of the queue. When it was his turn, he crawled his way towards the iridescent Wishing Stone and laid a feather on it gently.
He waited patiently for a response.
They gave a cheerful wave to the stone.
...Only to come back the day after with the same wide smile and another request on the tip of their tongue.
Something had taken Rift and Sebastian from them. Something even Sebastian's magic hadn't beat. Khloros said he won the Olympics.
There was fear, too. What if it was still around? What if it hurt someone else they cared about?
Yellow hadn't quite put a finger on the exact emotions flying around in the head or the reasons behind them. It was all kind of messy and tangled together. But they knew one thing with an iron certainty: they wanted to know.
Ruby clutched in one hand, chrysoberyl in the other, they bent down to the Wishing Stone again.
"Will you tell me what happened?" they asked, voice cracking a bit into an uncharacteristically high pitch. The crying had got to it. "Will you tell me what did this to them?"