Jon couldn't tell how long he spent in the darkness, unmoving and unfeeling. It felt like decades yet at the same time too short of a time to form a single thought. Suddenly, the darkness disappeared, replace by an infinite whiteness, but Jon somehow wasn't blinded. He looked around a bit before realizing he was feeling his body again, and then realizing he was naked. Jon opened his eyes wide and quickly covered his genitals, looking around more fearfully this time, and seeing he was alone, letting go.
"Jon!?" A feminine voice suddenly called, sounding both shocked and relieved, prompting Jon to once more hide his dick from view. "Is that you? What happened?" Now that the surprise had subsided, Jon recognized the owner of the voice.
"Karyn? Where are you?" He shouted while scanning the vast nothingness surrounding him.
"I should be the one asking that. Do you know how worried everyone is?" Jon finally saw something; a small colorful spot in the white emptiness. But it was growing quickly, and soon Jon could make out Karyn's feature. But it continued to grow until it felt like a giant Karyn was observing him, or more accurately, just her head. It looked like he was watching her through a screen, like in a video call.
"What the fuck?" Jon cursed, not knowing how else to react. "What's happening?"
Karyn laughed bitterly. "I was hoping you could tell me, though I have a vague idea..." She said while fidgeting with what would appear to be nothing more than a neat little rock to the uninitiated.
"The stone!" Jon exclaimed. "Why do you have it?"
"Wait! You can see me?" Asked Karyn incredulously.
"Yeah, it looks like you're in a screen or something."
Karyn couldn't help but laugh a little at that. "Well, no. I'm not in a screen... You are. In my computer, to be precise."
"What? How did this happen?" Jon asked incredulously, though now that he paid a little more attention, he could recognize a bit of Karyn's room behind her giant head.
"Well, you made a dumb wish... probably." Karyn began hesitantly. "Last night, I couldn't sleep. I couldn't stop thinking about the stone, so I decided to pay you a night time visit, but you weren't there. I looked around and found the stone in the middle of the room and this weird game beside it." She lifted a video game box for Jon to see. On it, Jon could see his own face looking slightly dazed, and above it, in big white letter could be read "Jon's game!". "While snooping around, I found a list of wishes you had probably written, so I got a good idea of what happened..." She gazed at him, making him squirm a little before she continued. "Anyway, I tried to ask the stone what happened but it didn't work. And I really hope for you that you didn't break it somehow!"
Jon understood a little more now. To grant his wish of living like the protagonist of a video game, the stone made him into a sentient video game or something like that. But he wasn't panicking yet, he still had his safety measures, even though one of them had obviously failed. He looked sheepishly at Karyn. "Sorry... I was dumb, I know, but I can fix it!"
"I saw your list of wishes, but if the stone is broken, you won't be able to use it to go back in time or whatever you're planning."
"No! The stone isn't broken!" Jon assured her. "I made another wish after your accidental wish, so that the stone would only grant a wish if I verbally confirm it's a wish!"
Karyn didn't speak for a moment, she looked both surprised, relieved and a little angry. She quickly gathered her thought and said. "So the stone will only grant my wish if you agree? I don't know how to feel about that..."
Jon once again looked at her sheepishly. "Yeah... It's not like I don't trust you, but that would prevent accidental wishes to happen again, plus it stop other people who might learn about the stone from making wishes we don't want."
"Wishes you don't want!" muttered Karyn before sighing, resigned. "Well, I get it. It's your stone and all. You could have kept it for yourself, and I'm being ungrateful..."
"No no!" Jon exclaimed. He would have emphasized his word with some large movement if his hands weren't still covering his crotch. "I should have talked to you before, or have included you in the wish. It's just... I don't know why I didn't do it. I guess I had the stone for myself for so long I didn't think about you even now that you know about it."
Karyn smiled a little and Jon smiled back. "Well," She finally said, breaking the silence. "So if I make a wish and you validate it, it'll work, right?"
"It should." Jon shrugged slightly. "Can you wish I had the stone? That way I'll wish to go back in time like I said."
"Alright, but promise to make sure I'll keep my memory, ok? I don't want to forget this day... And I want to make sure you don't either!" She added with a grin.
Jon laughed. "Fine, I guess I deserved to be teased a little..." Karyn grin got bigger. "Alright! A lot! I deserve to be teased a lot!" He exclaimed in mock exasperation, though he still had a smile on his face.
Karyn took the stone from somewhere Jon couldn't see, probably just her desk. "Here goes nothing!" She said before wishing. "I wish Jon had this stone in his hand."
"And I confirm this is a wish." Said Jon, struggling to still cover himself with one hand while the other waited for the stone... but it never came. "I said this is a wish! Grant it!" Jon repeated louder this time. Still nothing.
"Wait, maybe it can't get to you because you're immaterial, in my computer." Karyn proposed. "Maybe we could simply get you out?"
"I'm not sure this is a good idea... I mean, we would have to find a way to reformulate my wish and with what it has done until now, I'm afraid what it would do instead..."
"Then what, we just leave you there?!"
"How about you just wish to know the way to cancel the wish without the stone? We'll see if it's easy enough." Jon offered, though he sounded less confident than before.
Karyn just nodded and looked quickly at the note. "I wish I knew the way to cancel Jon's wish of being the protagonist of a video game without the stone."
"I confirm this is a wish to be granted!" Jon said, making sure the stone understood this time.
Karyn kept looking at the stone for a few second as Jon stared intensely at her through the screen. Then she looked at Jon alarmingly. "Still nothing, the stone didn't even flash. What do we do now?"
Now, Jon started to panic.
