A truly uncomfortable gulf of silence follows as both teenagers attempt to gather their wits and Astrid appears to patiently wait with quill in hand, ready to assist. Inside, she is mentally rolling her eyes. These mortals: Always so stupefied in the face of magic, even when they, themselves, summoned her! Still, such confusion often leads to entertaining wishes. These two could be quite a lot of fun, for Astrid.
As the silence stretches and birdsong fills the cool morning air, Astrid politely clears her throat, and Karyn realizes she's holding the stone. Here it is, the moment of truth! She can finally wish away these stupid breasts and stupid hair and get her old ones back. Only, in her excitement to wish up the Wish Editor, she forgot to actually spend any time crafting a wish to do that.
"Uh.. I, uh."
Karyn blushes slightly, as Astrid interjects, "It's okay, child. Take your time. I have nothing but time, for you."
Attempting to collect herself quickly, as Jon climbs out of his own stupor and tries to tell her maybe she should think about this, Karyn blurts a wish she hopes will fix part of her predicament. Better to start small and work your way up, after all! "I wish these breasts were only a C-cup, instead of these massive things!" Truth be told, she was okay with slightly larger breasts, but her ones from yesterday were simply unmanageable.
Suddenly she and Jon found themselves frozen and unable to speak, as glowing golden script appeared in the air before them:
I wish these breasts were only a C-cup, instead of these massive things!
"Ah, how wonderful! You're off to a great start, young Miss Karyn. You must be a budding writer, yes? A most exquisite first attempt." Astrid says with amused condescension masked as a compliment to the foolish teenagers. "Now, let's see: '...these breasts...' Simple, precise. But surely we can be more precise, yes?" She touches the word these with her quill and it glows an iridescent purple, as she changes it. "There, '...Jon's breasts...'. Much greater precision, you see?"
I wish Jon's breasts were only a C-cup, instead of these massive things!
Karyn and Jon blanched and tried to object, but remained frozen where they stood, able only to watch as Astrid continued with her changes. This was not good. This was very not good.
"Yes, I think that change will do nicely. That's one change! But that does cause some confusion with your final clause, of course: '...instead of these massive things...', you said here. As you can see, Jon has no such massive things, so this makes no sense." She touches the entire clause, turning it the same iridescent purple as before, "Truly, this is simply unnecessary clutter, young Miss Karyn. We had best be rid of it entirely. Though it is many words, I can remove the clause as a singular unit with only one change. That's two changes!" She touches the clause again, and it vanishes with a faint red after-image.
I wish Jon's breasts were only a C-cup.
"There," Astrid says with a satisfied smile and a parochial nod of her head. You see, young Miss Karyn? Excellent writing, that you only required two of the permitted three changes, and yet so much to learn, that such clear corrections were necessary."
With this, Astrid touches the floating words one last time, and the entire phrase pulses an impossibly intense white, before simply ceasing to be as Jon and Karyn unfreeze and Karyn suddenly feels the words yanked from her own mouth, "I wish Jon's breasts were only a C-cup." Immediately dropping the stone and clasping her hands over her mouth in shock, she looked over at Jon to see her own shock magnified tenfold as he looked down at his new equipment clearly tenting the front of his now much less baggy shirt. Not only was she still stuck with her too-large chest from yesterday, now Jon had a rack of his own! What would people think? Would they see it as normal, or is he going to be a freak? Does the Wish Editor still alter reality like the stone?
