Each of those drawn further into the lure of the strange objects would feel compelled to take them, to share them. Lamia in particular would be immediately and deeply entranced, with no chance of breaking free from the unnatural (yet somehow pleasant) compulsion.

Take them. Spread them. Share them.

Any further Gembound arriving would feel the same draw toward the strange odor, and likewise be affected should they sniff, touch, or otherwise closely interact with the clusters.

Further gembound who interact with the objects, whether in Fornax or Pisces or shared by one of the Affected, should notify Game Master Dark so that their names can be added to the following list (likewise if anyone has been missed). For now, there will be no other discernable effects on affected characters, bar the desire to hoard and share the clusters. They are free to exit the thread, and attempt, if they wish, to share the gift.

Any attempt to investigate the objects or the affected should include a tag to Game Master Dark.

List of Affected: Opal Three-Seven-Six, Sergei, Archimedes, Zelk, Pallas, Adelaide, Lamia, Huckleberry

@Opal Three-Seven-Six @Quentin @Lamia @Adelaide @Siren

Adèlaide

I'm rotten to the bone, but my heart's still beating

She was perched precariously between the rocks, her paws and toes spread wide for maximum balance as she continuously bent her neck down to scoop up some more of the weird things into her mouth so that she could carry them easily. She wasn't exactly the most prudent, she had no idea where to store them, and she definitely didn't want them to leave her sight; what if someone else stole them? Yet, she didn't seem to mind, the more she could gather by carelessly running along the edge of the island the better. The scent wasn't even so bad now. It was almost as if it was hugging her, her body used to its embrace that she no longer wanted to retch, although it was as if there was a little niggling at the back of her mind, telling her something is wrong, the scent is bad, don't pick up anymore. Not that she would listen.

The little imp carefully grinned as she gathered up as much as possible without overflowing from her mouth, then, with a glance around, the girl ran back out of the room; much quicker this time so not to be swept away by the water. She was off, not having spoken to anyone, barely even there for a long time, and whether she was going off to show others what she had found or hoard them to herself who was to tell.

falling victim to your fantasy

Exit

Yew had finally decided to take Mercurius' advice, and leave the forest.

Of course, it was when there was something big and important going on. The caves were raining, every last one of them, and her hopes were that the other Gembound would be too distracted with that to recognized her as a previous Bloodberry.

But it was the scent that had drawn her to Fornax. She had forced herself to be curious, following the sickly sweet scent to the water, balking when she saw other Gembound across the way but finally slinking through the shallows until she was on the main island.

The scent was... well, it was everywhere. And it took her a moment to find the source of it, circling and circling until she came upon a small chunk of stone. Her beak pressed against it, and she flinched back, suddenly enthralled.

This was like a new sort of hunt. And, for the first time in his life, Sergei forgot all about food. Instead he was searching the shallows for these strange and waxy flowers, shoving as many as he could into his jaws.

By the time he lumbered slowly for Fornax's exit, the tides were coming back in--roaring waves licking ever-closer. His face was stuffed full of flowers, his cheeks bulging with them, like a dog with far too many tennis balls; his small, dark eyes were lit with a new fervency that he didn't quite understand.

Sergei had never had purpose, before. Never had something to interest him, aside from his constant, slow-burn drive to find food, and to eat it. Now he felt as though he had that purpose: he had something he had to do, and something he could do well. He couldn't understand it and he wouldn't have been able to explain it.

Not that Sergei had ever been good with words.

Out he went, sea-drenched and gaze intent, mouth stuffed full of questionable roses. And he trundled out of Fornax, into the tunnel beyond, intent on somehow both hoarding these to himself, and showing everyone he could find.

exit Sergei

The taste...there wasn't really anything to taste. It wasn't unusual, but Lamia flinched back, her long tongue quickly retracting as a sudden, intense feeling fell over her. These are special, she sang into the water, a beautiful echo ringing through the waves. She reached forward, pulling it down with her and then grabbed another. And another. And another, until her arms were full with them. Her whole body was shivering, intensely enthralled by these strange objects. She wanted them. All of them. Hoard them, share them, show them, but they were hers.

She couldn't help herself, though - the curiosity was too great. The next one she grabbed she shoved right into her mouth, trying to bite down, to chew, and then to swallow. Perhaps it was food after all, or at least edible. She did not know what it was, but she was hungry enough to try it.

The clusters were hard, yet crumbly, almost like a sugar rock or the like. It at first resisted, then gave beneath the pressure of Lamia's bite, and the taste was like pure, unadulterated rot. Like infection, like rotten flesh and putrescent fish, like biting into a piece of food--or excrement, or anything organic and unknown--left to melt down into unidentifiable, rancid brown muck.

It wasn't brown muck, though: it was gray, full of twisted filaments, almost like discolored, shredded coconut or perhaps a tangle of small worms. But it wasn't moving, inside; it was indescribably foul in odor once broken, but it would be damp, rather than wet, at least until submerged. It would almost certainly make Lamia violently, if briefly, sick.

Lamia would get the strong impression--almost horrified--that these were not to be eaten, but to be protected and shared. At the same time, the draw to do so would become stronger in her than in any other Gembound here thus far.

@Lamia

As soon as the flower-thing gave way beneath her bite, her eyes widened with horror. The taste...it was indescribable. Never before in her life had she experienced a flavor this wretched. Immediately, she spat it out, heaving and spitting before her stomach contracted and her last meal came rushing out of her jaws. Half-digested fish floated in the water before her and she immediately released the half-bitten flower thing she'd been holding while her stomach rumbled uncomfortably again. Her tongue swiped through the water, trying to get some of that salty taste of the ocean to mask the flavor.

How could she do that?! She wasn't supposed to eat them! She was supposed to protect them and keep them and share them! But who to share them with? She had no friends besides Tenzin and Orarian, both of which she had not seen for quite some time. She gathered those she already had close to her body, her eyes wide and her whole form trembling violently. She would never, ever harm one of these again.

She needed to take them back to Pisces. She needed to gather them all together and keep them, protect them, share them with the world. With as many of the flowers as she could carry, she turned and began swimming towards the tunnel that would lead her back to Pisces - back home.

*exit

Q U E N T I N
we'll become silhouettes
when our bodies finally go

The sheer amount of Gembounds, even if it was a relatively low number, nearly frightened the poor kit. His large ears folded back as he hunched low, straining to see what everyone was looking at. Some small... rocks? The fox huffed in confusion and danced from foot to foot, trying to resist the pull of curiosity to look.

When a giant brown thing came his way, though, he panicked. Fur up straight, he didn't wait to see if it was coming for him when he hopped up to action and sputtered in place on the slick rock below. It took his some effort, but once he was able to get a nail under a crack he was able to propel himself forward and away from the strange people and their strange things.

Hopefully they hadn't noticed him.

Exit Quentin