Lawrence Lavigeo kissed his ring, it had made him, and his father, and grandfather very rich. On it was the engraving of a hand.
And with the advent of plastic surgery, he could use the ring's full potential far more openly. Brand new face, breast size, new figure, nothing
was impossible for the 'plastic surgeon' who never revealed his secrets, even to his customers. They'd go under with some mild relaxant, and
wake up with the figure and face they wanted.
Of course movie stars and movie studios were lined up wit him.
The only one who knew was his wife. She had been a mousey, slightly deformed, secretary who knew her education could give her more if
given the chance. Lawrence gave her that chance, and now Fortina was his willing test subject for new uses of the ring and his loyal wife who
made sure his family secret stayed secret. He had only a vague idea that other such rings existed. But he had no taste in seeking them out. Let
others fight over the other rings, he was happy with what he had. And for three generation and for the foreseeable future, they had no interest
in seeking him out.
+++++++
For those who sought more of the rings out for their personal pleasure, the easy street to self expression, power, or even to fulfill their made
purpose to fight atrophy and decay, the body swap ring was generally looked over and ignored being allowed to wander from user to user.
Which certain destructive if misused, the body swap ring had a odd habit of falling into the hands of the ultimately harmless.
"Okay Roy now ya do me!" Said an hillbilly with a mole on one side of his face, the only marking him as different from his near identical twins
sitting next to him in a smilier pair of overalls. He took off the piece of magic costume jewelry with a ying/yang symbol engraved at the top.
"Okay Clem!" Said the other twin as he put on the ring. The one marking feature of the two different identical twins shifted to the other brother.
"Okay Clem now you do me!"
And that was how they spent their saturday nights in rural south united states still not knowing that the civil war over yet due to lack of contact
with civilization. And the body swap ring stayed safely out of the hands of many.
+++++++
The eighth ring was unique among the seven, often called the zero ring as a joke since at first glance it appeared to hold no power was the
most plain look of the rings (though it had it's own engraving, an eye).
By itself the eighth ring held no power save for a mild obliviousness aura that could at the holder's will could render the wearer someone who
was just a face in the crowd, even a crowd of one: not someone worth looking at, talking to, or giving a first thought to. This didn't effect
machines, or those actively and intentionally looking for that person in particular.
The 'zero' ring's real power could only come into effect with one or more of the seven rings. It could, at the wearer's will, make changes
retroactive, making it so those changes were part of the reality and existed into the past not just the present. So that woman had always been a
statue, and that lady was always a tiger-man.
This was to be expected, after all, the rings had been created to introduce change into reality, to fight the forces of decay and atrophy wherever
they might appear.
Those wearing a ring and those who had worn a ring twenty four hours ago at most, by default were aware of the changes to reality. A wearer
could chose to have their memories altered if they were conscious of the changes to reality. Like all rings, the user could not effect other ring
wearers.
A base safety measure of ALL the rings was that no matter what someone was turned into, it could not result in their immediate death. (So one
could not turn someone into a fish in the desert without water nearby).
Only three times had all eight rings been worn by one person. First was whom the rings had been given to int he first place. The second was
one who had used them to create a small island community utopia. But finding the ring could not bring back the dead, allowed himself to die
of old age to be with their loved ones. The last time had been in the nineteen century by a megalomanic who nearly brought reality to it's
knees before being put down.
++++++
Mind. Age. Reality. Animal. Object. Gender. While none of the rings were truly sentient, fate seemed to steer them towards masters who would
be willing to use them, and lost to masters who would not. The Retroactive ring, by it's very nature, always sought out and/or the Mind, Age,
Animal, Object, or Gender rings weather it or they were currently held by a user or not.