And above all, no wishing for more wishes

[consultmybooks]

Characters: Rupert Giles and YOU!
Open? Oh, yes.
Where: All around Schwanheim and the surrounding farmland
When: All day 2nd of Rebirth's Decline
What: Giles is stuck in a bottle. Giles would very much like to let out of the bottle. Giles will grant you a wish should you let him out of the bottle. And if you don't want a messed up poltergeist throwing furniture around, you should probably take him up on that.
Warnings: PG - Mayhem and chaos, but probably nothing much worse.
A bottle catches your eye, as you go about your business

It might be sitting on the dresser of your room, on a windowsill as you walk down the street, or just laying in the grass as though carelessly discarded. It seems, in all aspects, to be a perfectly ordinary bottle...except, well, you probably know by now that it's never a perfectly ordinary anything. For one thing, it seems to contain something, a swirling white mist that seems to move throughout the bottle like a living thing, trapped and testing the walls of its prisons. For another, well, for those who can sense it there's an undeniable spark of power about the bottle, a sense of magic, something that just makes it stand out. And for a third, it's just quite a nice bottle.

Maybe it was left here just for you to find. How else can you explain how it wound up here, just where you happened to look at this very instant, sitting just where it needed to catch your eye?

Go on, pick it up. It will fit nicely in your pocket (even if you don't currently have any pockets) and a bottle is a useful sort of thing to have around, isn't it?

Well, once it's empty. Maybe you should uncork it and shoo that strange mist out, first. Can't tell what it might do to whatever you put inside, otherwise.

Comments

[shiromadoushi]

Huh. Well this was strange. Bakura was pretty sure that bottle hadn't been there last he had looked...

He peered at it suspiciously. There were far too many stories and myths about this sort of thing for him to just go with the impulse to open it and let out whatever was in there...

[consultmybooks]

It certainly doesn't seem threatening. It barely seems aware of him, instead apparently being intently occupied swirling around and around and around the bottle in increasingly dizzying spirals. It's certainly agitated, though, and perhaps even rather distressed. If swirling mist could be distressed, which it seems that it can be.

But, twist and turn as it might, the bottle doesn't budge. It's pretty well trapped.

So it can't hurt to just pick it up for a better look, can it?

[shiromadoushi]

Some sort of spirit, maybe?

Bakura carefully picked it up, gently tapping on the side. "Ne, you... Can you hear me?" he called, watching closely for any sign of acknowledgment.

[consultmybooks]

A possible sign of acknowledgement comes in the fact that the strange substance inside seems to settle, somewhat, at the sound of Bakura's voice. It stops thrashing quite so visibly against the bottle and instead settles into something more like the mindless mist it seems to be.

But it isn't mindless. Something is definitely paying attention to Bakura now. It's the same sensation as feeling someone staring fixedly at you from behind your back.

[demonsintheoven]

There was something soothing about being blind. That calm darkness that seemed to make everything else so sharp and clear. Snow wasn't quite sure how the bottle got into her hand, but that was nothing out of the ordinary. It was light... far too light to have anything good in it.

She toyed with the cork idly, finger running around the edge of it. But there was something, wasn't there? Tap tap. Tap tap. How many taps to open? One for the front door, two for the back... there was a rhyme like that, wasn't there?

Worn fingertips traced the outside, searching for any design, raised lettering. She could just open it and have a sniff, but what would be the fun of that? Yet she probably would, if she couldn't tell what it was by feel.

[consultmybooks]

The glass of the bottle is completely smooth, its shape curved into something between an hourglass and something a glass blower made after one too many hiccups. There's a short length of rope tied around the lip of it, just beneath the rough, worn surface of what is probably unmistakably a cork.

[demonsintheoven]

Tap tap. Tap tap. Her fingernail clinks gently against the glass as she hums inaudibly to herself. Nothing inside, yet closed so tight... so strange. She toys with the rope, fingers curling around it before she starts to swing the bottle back and forth by it in an idle motion.

[folklorist]

Helios was not expecting such a thing on his dresser when he awoke this morning. It's a very odd little bottle, despite its ordinary appearance. If it's one thing he doesn't do it's trust things like this that appear out of nowhere. Helios will tilt his head a little as he sits up in bed.

He'll lean over to pick it up shaking it slightly to test if anything is in it first.

[consultmybooks]

Whatever is in there clearly doesn't take kindly to being shaken, even slightly. If mist could dislike something, which this clearly seems to. The substance inside twists itself even more tightly, until it seems to form a small little funnel cloud, almost as though it's trying to avoid getting knocked against the sides of the glass and failing.

[folklorist]

"Oh!" Well. That's quite interesting. Helios will tap on the glass then, frowning a little as he does so.

"Rather interesting. I don't know what's inside you or who even put you here but it doesn't look like there's anything too dangerous in you." His eyes will glow again and a small spark will emanate from Helios' finger tips and hit against the bottle. His brow will furrow in consternation at the fact that he can't get a decent read on the bottle or its contents. A hex detecting spell should have worked and yet all it's turned up is something vague. Still whatever was inside this bottle wasn't too dangerous that much he knew for certain. With a small sigh he'll lightly grip the cork and proceed to pull it out, stopping at the halfway point between the top and bottom part of the opening.

"Perhaps there's some sort of pixie or genie inside it." A light chuckle as he finishes uncorking the bottle finally. Helios will get up and place it in the middle of the room so that whatever entity residing within it could be seen from all corners of the room.

[greatsquirrelhunter]

Hey! A bottle in the grass! Faolan flopped down next to it, breathing a bit heavy from running after squirrel. He picked up the bottle, turning it over to look at it from all angles.

[consultmybooks]

A bottle in the grass! A bottle in the grass filled with mist, of all things. Who would do a silly thing like filling a bottle with mist? That's a waste of a bottle.

As Faolan turns over the bottle, examining it, he might slowly become aware of a sensation, a feeling as though he's being watched intently.

That's not all, though. As he keeps a hold of the bottle, Faolan might begin to get the sense that here is a valuable thing he has found, something that could make him very happy indeed if he'll only make use of it.

[greatsquirrelhunter]

Well, he's to used to being watched by a bottle. He puts it carefully in the grass and lays down to watch it in turn. It's obviously a special bottle, since he feels like it can give him things. But what to do with it?

[noblehealer]

Estelle didn't know who would lose such a bottle in the first place, but she knew one thing for sure, she needed to find it's owner as soon as possible.

With this new task in mind, adding to that the usual going to the thorns as soon as possible, she wondered in maybe she could try and do both, that way it's easier and she's helping everyone at the same time.

Her mind was set and she was ready to go, picking up the bottle and holding it within her grasp.

[consultmybooks]

Yes, this was good, all of this was good. Estelle had made a good choice. If she could just look after the bottle, good things would happen. The world should be looking quite bright, right now. She can help lots of people, now that she has this bottle.

Such are the impressions and thoughts that will be trying to worm their way into Estelle's mind.

But she could do more. Estelle was in good shape now to accomplish her goals, but it could be better. If she'd just open the bottle, better things would be to come.

The contents of the bottle twist and move idly, seemingly utterly ordinary and their true nature undisturbed, for the moment. Compared to being swung around, shaken, or thrown, it thought this was going rather well.

[noblehealer]

She started to walk, the bottle held firmly as could be within her grasp. She didn't know where to start, but did know she had to start somewhere and work her way around. While walking, she looked at the bottle, trying to figure out what exactly was inside, after all whatever it was sure was going to be something she had never seen before.

Though, as curious as she was, Estelle refused to open it, after all it didn't belong to her, so it wasn't her to open.

[brosif]

Truly, Sif should know better. But the trek back to the kingdom is long, and her water skin was ripped in the fight. So she sets down the head of the beast she slew last night and picks up the bottle.

With a frown, she uncorks it.

[consultmybooks]

There's a bright glow of light, that starts building up from within the bottle and spills out to blot out the world, or at least the immediate vicinity. Sif will probably find it impossible to see anything for several seconds.

The just-released ghost, of course, is hit just as hard by the light as she is, and spends a second or so after it fades just trying to blink his vision back into focus. Then, after the second or so it will take for his memory to hit him over the head, Giles simply looks at Sif with the tired frustration of one who's been through this all before.

Then the memory does hit him over the head, and Giles looks stricken.

"O-Oh."

[brosif]

Oh, indeed.

"Gilesson." Sif stands up, blinking the remaining flashes of light away from her vision.

"You were in a bottle. Did you intend to be in a bottle?"

[tatra]

"Oh my..."

Tatra picked the bottle up, not because it was such a nice bottle, but because it clearly had no business being on the ground like that. Picking it up was the only responsible course of action. But where did it belong? She glanced around helplessly looking for someone who might identify the owner of the bottle, or perhaps point her in the direction of someone who could use it.

[consultmybooks]

A few people look back at her. Some wear expressions of curiosity, wondering what she's doing in the center of the road holding a bottle. Others, well, others go pale at the sight of what she's holding in her arms, and they look away and hurry from her with increased haste. A few minuets of observation will probably be enough to verify that people do know what the bottle is, and that those that do aren't terribly eager to be around it for very long.

[tatra]

That causes some concern. Unhelpful though they may be, the village people were usually friendly enough. That they were being any more unhelpful than usual meant that there as likely something dangerous going on. It had to be the bottle.

"Very well then," she sighed, and took a better grip of the thing. "I'll just have to take care of it myself." She headed in the direction of the castle. Perhaps one of the sorcerers there would be able to help her.

oops late

[wanderwonder]

WELL she is back on the outskirts of the Two-Faced Forest because obviously almost being eaten by a huge bird was simply not enough for Miss Unicornpants.

Olinda approaches as a woman, of course, intending to shift forms once she's deeper in the confines of the wood. She's here to look for a warhammer -- Thor's Mjolnir -- her hopes of returning home rekindled by the man's amiable attitude and apparent might.

Something bright momentarily blinds her. She squints her eyes and notices the bottle, sunlight bouncing off of it. Curious, though just a teensy bit disappointed, Olinda crouches down and picks it up daintily between her thumb and forefinger.

And then proceeds to swish it back and forth.

[consultmybooks]

Another thing the being in the bottle would greatly like to know is just what it is about bottles on lengths of rope that make people want to swing them back and forth.

It's not a terribly comfortable state to be in, and the creature is going to be attempting to reach out to Olindra to communicate its distress. It's not terribly strong at it, though, so Olindra might just become aware of a feeling of...well, distress and irritation, stealing over her from somewhere else.

[wanderwonder]

She frowns, but her hand stills. Doesn't sound like anything's inside...

Time to uncork it, just to make sure.