As it turns out, "something interesting" wouldn't happen until Jon was just about certain that his wish hadn't done anything. That is, it wouldn't happen for like 3 days. By the time the weekend had rolled around Jon had already almost completely forgotten about it.
After a very normal school week filled with typical boring classwork, typical boring homework, typical boring highschool drama, and typical boring misadventures resultant from Jon and Karyn using the Most Powerful Magic Item they'd ever laid eyes on as if it were a mere toy for their amusement, Friday evening had finally arrived, and it was time for some fun. How could a Magic Wishing Stone possibly compare to a few hours of playing VIDEO GAMES!?
Jon took a seat at his computer, put on a headset, and pulled up a Discord server he shared with a few friends. Jay Duncan, naturally, had already finished his homework for the day and started a call well before Jon did. Kyla Leeson was there too. Karyn was taking a bit longer to get all her work finished, but she didn't mind joining late.
"Hey guys!" Jon said, once he got his headset on.
"Hi," Jay shot out quickly. He was in the middle of a match he was streaming to the call and seemed like he wasn't paying much attention to said call.
"H-hey," Kyla mumbled. Jon had seen this before, sadly; she seemed like she wanted to join up and play with Jay, but was too timid to say anything as usual, and of course Jay didn't notice. "I-Is, uh, Karyn going to be here soon?"
"I just texted her. She's taking her time with her calculus homework, so she might be a little while, but she should be here eventually," Jon informed his fellow geeks. "Are we wanting a full party of 4 before we start gaming?"
"Well, uh... I, don't, really know," Kyla got out. "I don't think we, uh, talked much about what we're playing this week?"
"I'm just playing for the sake of it right now," Jay replied while all his abilities were on cooldown. "I don't know what we're gonna play together, if anything."
"...Really? I wouldn't have guessed." Jon had been taking the time listening to open Steam and browse his games. "I'd have thought we were gonna try out the new game y'all sent me," he said, opening up the page for it.
"What new game?" Kyla asked.
"This new game," Jon said with a gesture at his monitor that of course neither of the other two on the call could see. "Immersion Arcade, I see its name is? I see it in my games library but I'm pretty sure I hadn't bought it before. I figured one of y'all had gifted it to me? I'm certainly down to try a new game this week, anyway!"
"... No... I, didn't?" Kyla stammered uncertainly. "I didn't gift you a new game, Jon."
"...Huh. Is it in your library too, Kyla?" Jon asked. "What about you, Jay, is this new game your-"
"OH, DANG IT!" On the stream, Jay had just taken a hit and died. "Of course!" he grumbled as a game over screen made itself visible.
"... You did? Jay?" Jon asked.
"Hm? Did what?" Jay asked as he came out of the Gamer Trance.
"Jay, what do you know about Immersion Arcade?" Jon asked, attempting to mirror his screen to the call. "This game here?" he said, waggling his mouse over the launcher icon.
"Never heard of it. You have a new game you wanna try?" Jay asked curiously.
"Well-..."
"Yeah, I don't have it," Kyla announced after what must have been a look through her own games library. "And, uh... I don't think I know it, of it, uh, know of it either. Jon."
"Really...?" Jon replied curiously. A worry was abruptly starting to form in him.
"What's it about?" Jay asked, unconcerned.
"I've never played it, dude," Jon replied.
"Oh? Well, start streaming and fire it up, let's see what it's about!" Jay chirped.
A moment of silence. "Jay, uh... I don't know how legit this thing is," Jon replied cautiously. "I don't remember buying it, but it looks like it's already downloaded on my computer? Maybe we should wait for Karyn," Jon suggested. Apart from Karyn, he hadn't told anyone else about the stone or the magic shenanigans they'd been up to.
"Well then, run a virus scan and try the game if it comes back clean," Jay replied automatically. "I'm curious now!"
"Hm. Good idea," Jon said, not really wanting to let on the possibility that there could be magic at play. A couple minutes later, the scan came back clean.
"Yeah, it's not malware or anything," Jon replied. "I still kinda wanna know how it got on my computer, though."
"You probably just got it in a Steam sale and forgot," Jay replied. "But seriously, we're not gonna figure anything out just sitting here. Start it up already!"
The mouse hovered over the icon. Jon took a long, deep breath, one filled with the cares and worries of a character who's just genre-savvy enough to suspect he's making what to the audience is obviously a big mistake, but not quite genre-savvy enough to actually do anything about it. Then he clicked on the launcher.
Allow the following Program to make changes to this computer, all its current and future users, and the very fabric of your Universe of Residence?
"ImmersionArcadeInstaller.exe"
[Allow] [Cancel]
Jon hit ALLOW on muscle memory, without so much as reading the popup, and prepared for the fascinating entertainment of a watching a little progress bar slowly creep to the right while the installer worked its magic. His computer grew loud and hot, and then, suddenly, it seemed to die. From Jay and Kyla's perspective, that was when he seemed to disconnect from the Discord Call, and maybe also that plane of existence. His headphones crackled for a second, and then there came a loud spark. Afterwards, said headphones fell to the seat of the chair Jon had been sitting in, now vacated. Jone was Gon.
