What's this..?




A furtive figure--hunched, draped in clothes--scurried through Polaris. She was smiling, though nobody would see her--she made sure to come when this part of the cave was empty. She wanted this to be a surprise, after all! She'd worked all year on it, and so hard, too!

Momma Bolormaa opened the box. She then began to settle chocolates along the ridges and flatter stones of Polaris. The chocolates would draw Gembounds in--and sparkled with magic. And she ensured, too, that they'd each only find one.

Magic-! And there was other magic, too, but... she'd let them find that out for themselves. That was the fun of these things, after all.

When all was done, she tucked her box under one furry arm and hurried out, leaving her gifts to be found.

---

Gembounds are welcome to enter this thread and select a single chocolate! The chocolate flavors and a mystery gift will be revealed in the next GM post! Gembounds will also feel amazingly warm and fuzzy, like all is well with the world, with an inclination to be kind and supportive and friendly to other Gembound in the thread until such time as they exit. This won't change their personalities or force any specific behavior.

There are multiple chocolates of each variety! Please specify which your character chooses...

(From right to left, then top to bottom!)

Row 1
1. Plain Dark Chocolate Rectangular
2. Shredded Coconut Milk Chocolate Rectangle
3. Pink-Icing White Chocolate Rectangle
4. Dark Chocolate Rectangle with Hearts!
5. Robed Milk Chocolate Rectangle
6. Pistachio White Chocolate Rectangle

Row 2
7. Dark Chocolate Square with Nuts
8. Robed Milk Chocolate Square
9. Plain White Chocolate Square
10. Red-Iced Dark Chocolate Square
11. Milk Chocolate Square With Hearts
12. White Chocolate Square With Sprinkles

Row 3

13. Round Dark Chocolate With Heart
14. Plain Round Milk Chocolate
15. Pink Iced Round White Chocolate
16. Round Dark Chocolate With Red Crunch
17. Light Pink Iced Round Milk Chocolate
18. Pink Iced Round White Chocolate

Mossie was back in her favorite cave, following a strange sweet scent.

It tickled her nose, made her jaws water. And it was strongest in this corner of the vast room, for some reason.

What could it be? A new kind of prey, perhaps...?

Reliable nose to the ground once more, she follows one particularly tantalizing scent, on the trail like a bloodhound. She ducks between crystals, paddles through the river, and nearly trips several times. Then abruptly, that nose bumps into a...thing? A sweet-smelling brown thing with flecks of white. Hesitantly, she takes a bite of the Shredded Coconut Milk Chocolate Rectangle.

Sweet flavor and contentment spreads through her.

Pleasant harp-like notes floating on top of the sound of grinding wheels heralded The Piano's arrival. It was feeling unusually content today, for some reason. Almost like it had just played multiple warm-and-fuzzy-feeling-inducing musical pieces, which it hadn't. Or like it had just eaten a warm, meaty rabbit. Which it also hadn't. Hm.

It must be all the positive interactions it had been having lately, The Piano decided. It had been having a very good couple days! And now, a sweet, rich scent entered the pores of its olfactory-nerve-containing wood. Intrigued, it followed the smell until it found a small, dark square on a rocky ridge that seemed to sparkle with magic. It hadn't seen anything that sparkled with physical magic before, apart from maybe the Spire. But while the Spire was decidedly not edible, something told it that it SHOULD DEFINITELY EAT THIS SQUARE.

Well, who was The Piano to refuse a perfectly good sweet treat? It opened its lid, and a string snapped out to wrap around the chocolate. As it returned the chocolate into its mouth and began to chew it with its strings, it discovered that there were multiple crunchy nuts inside! What a wonderful textural addition to the rich, smooth chocolate! It tried to grow teeth on its strings to extract the maximal amount of crunch from the nuts, but its magic would not obey. Maybe it was so happy over finding this treat that it couldn't focus on magic anymore.

Oh, well. It was a delicious treat nevertheless!

The Piano has selected Row 2, Chocolate 7!

Though he may not have been noticeable to most, being only an inch long, a very small creature had also found a chocolate. Not that he knew what a chocolate was. Thoughts had been grasped, but true words instead of sounds had not yet occurred to him.

Even the name Samael had not yet occurred to him. He was Mrrr, a bit higher pitched contently inquisitive feline noise. So Mrrr was the one who found the chocolate, the scent of which had called to him. He did not want to be away long from his companion, but he found the chocolate irresistible.

He nibbled a little of the crunchy chocolate, and a surprisingly loud rumbling purr came from the caterpillar as he ate, and then soon he was full. It did not take much to satisfy an inch long grub. His joy at life was even greater than usual after consuming what he could.

Mrrr decided he would do his best to bring this food back to his companion. It was definitely worth sharing, even if it would take effort to move.

Chosen: 16. Round Dark Chocolate With Red Crunch

The puffball-- which was what they still were, a bundle of downy feathers-- strode into Polaris, drawn by the strange scent. Already, many other gembound had gathered here, and curiosity glittered in their crimson-gold irises. They walked among the strangers, head held high as he peered about.

There was one chocolate that spoke to him more than the others: a dark morsel, near black in color, with a bright red flash of a heart on top. Canines carefully picked the the chocolate up, and forked tongue swathed over the treat. Surprisingly sweet and bitter, the young gembound found himself shocked by the flavors as they melted upon his tongue.

"Where did these come from?" He would ask, aloud, to no one in particular. "What are they?" He considered eating another, but was held back by a reluctant respect for the gifts that had been left. "... hello," he added, belatedly, as though remembering proper procedure for meeting other strangers. He did not, however, offer any answers to the questions he proposed, nor did he offer any other sort of answers unprompted. Like, say, a name.


raoshar has eaten row 3, number 13, round dark chocolate with heart <3

Though the inch-long odd-looking caterpillar dragging part of a chocolate may not have been noticed by the puffball that had strode into Polaris, the puffball was noticed by Mrrr.

Because the puffball creature spoke. The meanings of most of the words were hard to grasp to a mind that had never contemplated worded speech before this moment.

Yet, Mrrr understood the last word.

"...Greet?" The strange caterpillar had paused before the puffball, and he also spoke, his voice light but audible. It was a short word, not complete the way one that truly knew words might speak. But it was also the first word this creature had ever spoken.

He gazed expectantly at the puffball, perhaps hoping to hear more words.

@Raoshar

Butterflies to nectar is what this gathering was, and Adenium was no different. There was nothing like it - and if there was, she either hadn't encountered it or couldn't remember. Of course, she wasn't the only one, separate shapes had bent over to select a treat for themselves, with some silhouettes seeming stranger than others.

Soon enough they found a chocolate to call their own, a dark glossy rectangle nestled against the cave floor; Almost indistinguishable from the scattering of pebbles around it, aside from the dressing of cheery pink hearts and the sweet's natural gloss. They found the contrast appealing, perhaps familiar.

Gembound generally aren't taught to not accept candy from strangers, so it was quick to take a tentative bite, settling for half rather than the full rectangle, just in case the taste didn't match the exterior. The chocolate was dark, slower to melt than the rest of the array, but softened still by the surrounding climate. The hearts were crunchy and twice as sweet, the earthy bitterness of the base contrasting nicely. Adenium had something of a sweet tooth, one that they didn't get many opportunities to indulge, so they were grateful someone hadn't say, left delicious smelling soap bars for unfortunate creatures to discover.

Glancing back at her closer company (a downy hatchling and a caterpillar that... purrs?) "Hello," They looked down at Sameal as he paused his task to acknowledge Roashar. "Need help with that?" She gestured to the chocolate the fairy had attempted to drag along with him.

[Adenium has chosen the dark chocolate rectangle with hearts(!)]

Raoshar's eyes gleamed as he took notice of the furry caterpillar, his whiskers pulsing with a faint, golden hue as he tilted his head purposefully in the small creature's direction. The question was suggested by "Mrrr", and there was humor in the puffball's mischevious stare.

"Yes," he replied simply, an almost smugness in his tone. The word 'yes' conveyed a very simple answer, but underneath, it held several other meanings that the puffball did not disclose. They would let the little mammal-bug puzzle over this answer, if he wanted.

A towering denizen interrupted the conversation, though the puffball didn't mind that as much as the sheer height of the dryad. Raoshar himself was only about a foot, maybe a foot and a half, tall at his young age. His little, downy white wings spread wide and the specialized gills on either side of his head rippled. His chest puffed up, the thin strip of a bleeding mark on the forefront blossoming into a huge red stain on his front. The lights at the end of his whiskers grew more intensely bright.

All in all, it was the equivalent of some kind of display, threat, warning, or otherwise. The attempt to look bigger was a big goofy coming from the fledgling dragon, but he stood tall and ignorant of how petite he was. Like a chihuahua squaring up against a boxer.

It wasn't truly a threat, however, not given the comforting yet mysterious circumstances that overwhelmed Polaris at the moment. He wasn't capable of holding ill will toward anyone, even if they towered over him. Instead, their eyes shone with curiosity at the humanoid creature, paws flexing idly under their puffed up chest.

@Samael @Adenium

A confirming statement was his answer. The inch long caterpillar-esque being pondered this thoughtfully, and he probably would have kept at it for a while if not for the introduction of more words. Simple words.

"Greet!" The little critter cheerfully responded to the hello. He had not quite realized he had not grasped the full word there, this being his first occasion to speak words.

But at the offer of help, the fur fluffed up on their body slightly. He curled around the remaining piece of his chocolate as much as possible. "No."

He searched for the right word. "Gift," He stated, pleased. If it did not come from his efforts, it would not mean as much. And he wanted it to mean something.

A content feline purr rose from him yet again, unable to stay upset long.

@Adenium

Wilder had felt the spark of the magic from a different part of Polaris. At first, she'd been nervous, investigating only so that she could make sure that it wasn't a sort of dangerous magic. But she already saw many gembound gathered around, most of which seemed to be in good spirits. It seemed...alright here. She couldn't smell fungus or oil, and the magic that she sensed hadn't seemed...bad.

She noticed the little chocolates, then, and she stared for a moment. She approached one and tentatively sniffed it, eyes widening at the wonderful aroma. Vaati behind her was investigating another and she felt the question in her mind Will you eat one? They smell yummy. Wilder stood up and shook herself out, still a little nervous to just grab one and start chowing down. Why don't you pick one and we can share? Vaati had a better nose then her. If one of them was bad, he would be able to tell.

The large rat immediately began sniffing around at the chocolates, until he finally picked one, and Wilder joined him. It was round, a nice warm brown with pink and white icing on the top. She reached forward and took a tiny bite, chewing carefully for a moment before the purring rose in her chest as the warm feeling spread across her body. Not sickly warm and controlling, like Mother had been, but a pleasant, delightful, fuzzy feeling. Good. "Oh, this is really good," she purred, reaching forward to finish her half.

Vaati as well nibbled on the chocolate and curled up next to Wilder, bruxing with content, the little sparks of shyness he sent through the link absent in the wake of such a nice, lovely feeling.

Wilder chose 17. Light Pink Iced Round Milk Chocolate