ORIGIN

The imps had been handling it, but this stranger approaching Nemean was met with a wary stare. (And a drink with a twirly straw, which a strange little golem attempted to press into Richter's hands.) He was super polite, though, so she greeted him warmly in turn. "Eyyyy! Yeah, buddy, sure thing! Give him something WICKED," she said, gesturing to a fox-imp running up with a black top-hat. "For being polite and all! Not enough of that, these days," she added to Richter, with a wink and a finger-gun.

The fox-imp proceeded to dip his hand into the hat, fishing around with his tongue sticking out between his teeth. When he withdrew it, he looked comically horrified at the strange creature he'd produced: like a rabbit, but with steely blue pelt, bioluminescent blue stripes and eyes on stalks like those of a snail.

"I said something WICKED," Nemean cried, waving her hands around. The fox-imp hastily set the rabbit down, and got halfway through pulling out what looked like a dying fish before Nemean sighed with exasperation. "GIVE me that," she said, sweeping over and yanking the hat away. (It was larger than her, but lighter, so it was okay.) What she pulled out was a tiny star-nosed mole, which she quickly dropped back in disgust. "UGH. What have you got in this thing?! Where's the DINOSAURS? Where's the SANDWORMS?!"

She proceeded to yank a number of Lesser Gembounds out, one at a time: an Ivory Deer, a pale foot-long spider known as the Spitting Bug, and finally, a black crow-like bird with a single red eye: the Hallowed Caller.

Nemean dropped the hat with a gesture that seemed to say 'not my problem,' then flitted back to her tall chair. "Just pick one, I guess," she muttered, giving the fox-imp the absolute stink-eye. "I wanted a BLOODBATH. Like some meadow deer stampeding! Or at least COMEDY. Can you imagine a fish trying to jump hurdles?! What do I PAY you for," she said to the fox-imp, and as he started to answer, she crowed "I PAY YOU IN THANKS. Don't make me arrange a pizza party."

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Richter is being given a choice between a Walleye Rabbit, an Ivory Deer, a Spitting Bug, or a Hallowed Caller, because he was nice to Nemean.

One by one, under Nemean's lounging gaze, the Fox-Imps went about pulling Lessers out of hats for the attending Gembounds.


Knightly

Knightly was granted a Pixie Bat with a tourmaline gemstone: a beautiful little critter shining with iridescent color.

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Tourmaline

Tourmaline had, ironically, a Red Mouse drawn for her. This one had a tiny necklace of pearls, but otherwise had no gemstone, and seemed very confused about how it had gotten here.

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Hysteria

Hysteria was given a huge, snaggletoothed black Pitch Rat, just under three feet long if one included the tail. It bore a clear green crystal of Antlerite as its gemstone. It fought as it was pulled from the hat, and the moment the Imp dropped it, it ran to sit beside Hysteria while hissing at everyone else.

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Sair

Sair's drawn Lesser was a harmless-looking Firetongue. Entirely harmless. Everyone gazing at it would understand that it was only perfectly friendly and not a threat at all. * It bore a Nephrite jade gemstone.

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Mocha

Mocha's turn came, and a Lesser Snake was drawn from the hat, legless and shining blue. It flicked a tongue in some confusion, but seemed amiable enough.

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Ahh, and then... Ryoto. The fox-imps looked at Yvan. They looked at Ryoto. One scurred off to Nemean, leaning in to whisper to her behind a cupped hand, and she idly lifted and lowered her drink as she listened as though it were some sort of royal scepter, eyes locked on them. She whispered something back, and the fox-imp nodded and scurried down.

The fox-imp then jumped into the hat. The other imps backed away warily as the hat began to thrash and flop, violently kicking up the dust of the arena floor. Then the fox-imp who'd vanished into the tophat spilled back out in a comic tangle of limbs and screeching and flapping leather wings. He threw, frantic, a whole Eyehook Vulture directly at Ryoto. It landed upside-down, pulled itself upright, folded its wings and screamed at the fox-imps, who kept their distance. A fluorapophyllite gem gleamed at its back. Ryoto has been assigned an Eyehook Vulture. Should Ryoto at any point critically fail a roll for the vulture during the event threads, the Eyehook will turn on her, briefly attacking her before flying away entirely, VERY upset with its own poor performance.


Ryoto

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Each Gembound would feel a mental link snap into place: an imitation of the Familiar Forge magic, flickering into a makeshift link.

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* Please see the Lesser Gembound Guide for more information on your character's assigned Lesser before posting more! This is very important! You may choose your assigned Lesser's personalities and actions going forward.

Nemean spoke up, at last, calling down. "You wanted one too?! I thought you wanted your friend to take part! You weren't trying to CHEAT, were you? You wouldn't CHEAT on my big day?" She laughed uproariously. "I mean, I respect the hustle. I can get you another one like that if you want, but nobody tries to one-up Nemean in her own stadium! ...You wanna risk it? C'mon. You wanna risk it."

Master Nemean leaned forward and grinned.

In the meantime, familiars were given out to Anala and to Oliver. From the tophat an Echoing Gray was pulled and dropped before Anala: it had no gemstone, and seemed frightened and confused, blinking. The link slid into place and Anala would understand this creature as a very social one, with lots of rat friends that it had just been taken from.



Oliver's Lesser was a tiny Dust Moth, withdrawn on the finger of the fox-imp. A tiny carletonite gemstone sat on one leg, but otherwise it was just a moth, with a moth's tiny brain and a moth's level of confusion at everything going on right now.