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The Wishing Tree (1): A Destiny City Star Festival Tradition to be held every year; In Town Square, there is a beautiful tree with spreading branches. It is tall, but the lowest branches are easily reached. The city has decorated the tree with small, starlike ornaments and glistening lights. Thick leaves and beautiful purple flowers dangle from the branches, along with a myriad of different colored papers with handwritten wishes. Next to the tree is a stack of blank paper with twine attached, and a handwritten sign that explains:

Write your wish on a sheet of paper and tie it to the tree. Take one wish off the tree and do your best to grant it. When you have granted the wish, bury the paper in the park.

The papers are biodegradable and filled with seeds. There are no rules for wishing, but you are encouraged to wish for something vague enough that it can be interpreted in many ways so that it can be granted; you do not write your name on it, but it is encouraged to write something that doesn’t wish for self gain, but rather something that can make the world a better place. Some wishes dangling from the tree already include things like “I wish there wasn’t so much litter in the park,” “I wish someone would clean the graffiti off the old historic buildings,” and “I wish there were more volunteers at the shelter.”

If you choose to use the Wishing Tree, what do you wish for? If your wish is private, you may write it on the paper and choose a spot in the park and bury it yourself instead of hanging it on the tree.


Something felt strangely resonant about this thing the city called the Wishing Tree. Her life had vanished enough times, she no longer knew what that really implied. Had she just read about it? Had Delilah used it? Had this been what led to the family of her fake dreams? Or was it all just an eerie, obvious coincidence; the concept of humans trying to wish for things and posting those hopes and dreams in visible places was hardly new. Blogs proved that by itself.

But none of that pondering really mattered, did it? She was there either way, resonance or not, wondering the point while also deeply desiring to be part of it. It felt like something humans were supposed to do: leave wishes, make wishes, and desire for how their unknown future would turn out. And surely she had the same, there was no guarantee that the Negaverse would not one day find her and steal these dreams from her that she had in theory, leave her dead and suffering and fluttering in the wind until her starseed was finally consumed and absorbed as a brief, fleeting source of life force-- but she had to want something, surely, despite the fact that it oft felt like every moment was just on borrowed time until that finally ticked out.

You can't just hide forever, Nembus. It'll catch up to you, Dahlia. There is nothing with any lifelong meaning between those eyes, and there never will be, you aren't a human, how could you be with no memories? Stop faking, stop trying, melt away and accept your fate the moment you're seen--

Dahlia's nails bit into her palms as she breathed ragged and tried to get the inevitable spiral out of control. This wasn't why she was here. This wasn't true. She had a support system. She was at least piloting a vaguely human body. And she wasn't dead or Negaverse food or back in the Negaverse or lost again.

Five things she could see.

A tree. A wishing paper. Grass. A kid. A flower.

Four things she could feel.

The paper she held. Her shirt. The piece of her flip flop between her toes. The breeze.

Three things she could hear.

A busker. Kids debating a wish they had plucked up. The sound of leave fluttering in the breeze.

Two things she could smell.

The flowers nearby. The grass.

One thing she could taste.

Her own spit.

Alright. Now that she had pulled that under control. She lifted the paper she had crumbled and headed toward the tree, plucking up a pen as she walked. Perhaps this was easier than it seemed. A wish didn't have to be complicated, It was something easy to fulfill, and something that she wished everyone could do easily in theory,

"I wish for you to relax. Release the stress. be present at the moment, the world will feel like a better place, trust me."

It would do.

The easiest way to human was to not obsess over it.