A butterfly Echoss opens his gift from Chloe.


A butterfly Echoss flutters down to Marron and Ette, settling on Ette's shoulder, before turning into the hologram form. "Hello Miss Needleworker. And Miss Needleworker. Hm, I guess given you two are sisters I should have opened with your first names? Oh well, too late now I suppose."
Echoss looks between the two, a brief look of confusion crosses his face as he examines Marron, but he shrugs and continues.
"Anyways, I just thought I should introduce myself, as I'm attempting to acquaint myself with the various party members. It is good to know who you are working and interacting with after all."


For crafting, I start with making another spidersap snare.
The next thing I make as an item is the Crystal Bomb shell, by taking a bit of wire, some iron, and an incendiary scrap. All of these are mxied together in a different, but mostly similar way to the shell made for the searing bombs, but the hole inside is left unwelded, so that crystals can be put inside to give access to specialty bombs. (basically, you add some tier 1 crystals, and maybe a little more item stuff, and it makes a completed bomb, I'm hoping to have these bombs do minor debuffs in addition to their damage, so that they're not just boring flat damage items.)
Next, I take the Gigistem, the two boilblubbers, a little bit of locustgrowth, and a Yggcrawler blade (or maybe a couple, if Ire thinks that fits). I'd put more crafting stuff here but I'm very pressed for time and also it's late and those don't mix well with good crafts, but basically I take the boilblubbers, locustgrowth and the Gigistem juice, and mix them all together into the most toxic, vile, unpleasant poison brew you can think of. Then I carefully apply it to the Yggcrawler Blade(s), resulting in a horrifically deadly ultra-poisonous one use dagger. Do not cut yourself on these if you enjoy living, not being in pain, and anything in general except horrifying excrutiating death.


A butterfly Echoss flutters down to the farm bunker, and sets aside a large quantity of stone bricks, and a fair amount of refined wood as well. This will be used for constructing a size upgrade for the farm.


In the Scale Yggdrasil Battle, I remind Ire to give me a foretold spell, then try to figure out what items I want to take with my inventory. How about... a yggcrawler shield, a spidersap snare and a paratoxin shuriken?
Echoss moves down to P16 and then shopping sprees a distress beacon for infinite cheese.

The Man answers Salix's question, in a sort of roundabout way.

"Military secrets? Not exactly, more like tax returns and what not. It's the case itself I'm after, not what's in it. Merely a personal trinket of mine, I suppose."

He proceeds to go and see what's to the other north of the Preserve.

Terry landswims to M10, then applies a Zaliska directly to the Onlooker's face.

Presentsssss

Venia presumably exploits time travel to somehow return to the house and inspect the gifts, presumably looking for more for Maria, when she notices the two labeled to herself. She blinks in abject confusion at the two presents, one from Nia and one from Chloe.

She stares, blinks, and observes the two gifts, leaning in very close before even attempting to grab them, whereupon she opens the tiny red package from Chloe first, followed by the once-exploded package from Nia, a childlike glee plain on her face.

After doing that, she also opens the breathing box to the party.

---

RP: Maria's Wonderful Garden Trip

Maria is not at all comforted by the assurance that Venia was the one doing the screaming. "I never heard Venny scream before," Maria says. "Venny tells me not to scream loud when I'm indoors," She adds.

"Venny was my adopted big sister, 'cuz I was an orphan baby, until my real daddy and mommy found me, and now I'm a princess and she's a, uh, a duchess, and, I dunno what a duchess is but I think its a good thing. And now she's really really really rich and famous! But I haven't seen her in a forever... I wanted to play with her today but she's busy today too!" Maria says, in response to Chloe asking about her relationship.

Mr. Krabs rounds out the quartet of princess-mandated bodyguards: normal human girl, pig, robed glitch guy, and crossdressing cosplaying robot crab cartoon thing.

---

Battle: Scale Yggdrasil Corner

"Come on! COME ON, PUNKS! I've got three of you to my name today alone, lets see about the rest!" Venia yells. She moves to M14 and activates Purge. Her hat shakes its hoof angrily in the general direction of the Rose Cultists.

---

Other

Venia votes Focus Energy for the support special.

Brutishace finds an opportunity for him at the Yggdrasil's corner battle! Before he joins in, he switches out Twin Photons for Twin Serpents, to corrupt his foes more easily. Some enemies might resist his previous brand of death magic.

Regardless, Brutishace slinks around Yggdrasil, spawns in at O11, moves to L12, and prepares his Skull for Vitality Leech.

"Edictum praetoris... memento mori... toga picta... interregnum!"

A blast of noxious magic fires out of the Skull, straight towards the Exhibition! The structure and all of the cultists surrounding it are bathed in Brutishace's dark magic as their life force leaves them. All of the necromancer's foes begin to physically break down as their bodies begin to fail.

Simeon goes to check out what's north of CK40 in Zone 3.

Boshi moves to (C7) and casts Alchamical Barrier on himself. He "retreats" to (C8).

Three people have three matters of importance to sort out...

Person one, Calibri. He chuckles, noticing he got a present from someone, then he closes his eyes and teleports over to wherever Chloe is, the world flashing black around him as he does so.

"Sup, Chloe. So... presents. Let me know when you're going to unwrap the ones you got. Kind of noticed you sent one to me and I sent one to you... thought it'd be nice to open them both at about the same time. Heh."

He waits for a reply, and if nothing important is happening, teleports back to the house and takes a nap in the corner. Of course, if opening is something Chloe wants to do right away, he'll partake by unwrapping the one addressed to him from her...

Meanwhile, EN wanders her way on over to Taeda. She seems to have a grin going right now, and she's holding something in a loosely-curled fist, the kind of hold that would let something small rest easily...

"Sup, Tae. Apparently people are doin' christmas now. Feels a tad early, but, eh. Ah can work wit' it. Anywho, made ya somethin'."

She turns her hand and opens it, revealing... well, it appears to be a Helix Shell necklace of sorts, in the sense that it is a necklace that exists solely to hold a neat little helix shell shape carved from wood. It looks like EN's ability to carve isn't the stuff of wonders, but it's fairly good for making a simple neat trinket. She chuckles a little, glancing to one side awkwardly...

"Ah know people're usually wrappin' their gifts wit' fancy paper an' all tha', but it felt... excessive t' do tha' this time 'round. So, uh... Heh..."

Meanwhile, Verdana dedicates his time to making something that somehow involves an unholy amount of manabloom seeds as well as other foodstuffs, then gives it to the birb.

"Apparently, there is an event called christmas happening right now? I don't understand, we haven't even reached halloween yet at this point in time! But regardless, since other people are doing something neat for others, I decided to do something neat too! Have a..."

Beat.

"...I don't know what to call this!"

Destiny decides to venture in the mine with people.

Eh, a lady with a mustache, eh? Well nice to meet you, no big fights going on as of current so I'll join you on this expedition.

Irongutta hobbles over to the Scale Yggdrasil Base and heads to the northern end, meeting up with Maria, Chloe and Chaos. "Oi, Maria! How's Piggo been?" Irongutta didn't seem one bit mindful of the fact that he's still covered in a mixture of blood and Yaga gunk. It probably smells kinda bad. He crouched down to give Piggo a good petting.

He notes how the group he approached is visibly displaying two-fourths fear, one-fourth boredom, and one-fourth pig. "Wot's got you lot quakin' in yer boots? It's just a wee bit o' severe injury. Or is it that ruckus goin' on just over there?" Using his left hand, that is the one that isn't currently clutching the wound on his stomach, he pointed behind him towards the brewing battle between the cultists and Venia, Echoss, and others quickly hopping into the fray. "Nuffin' to be 'fraid of, I'm sure they gots it all under control. Ya even got a good spot roight 'ere to watch the action!"

---

Some indeterminate amount of time later, Irongutta swings by the house. While passing through, he notices that a gift has been left for him by Nia. Taken a bit aback, he blinked a few times before hastily opening the gift.

---

A bit later, Irongutta returned to the mine entrance, deciding to give it some proper exploration! He braced himself for whatever horrors lie within.

<ROUND ONE-HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN>
Happy New Year, everyone! Or is it happy? Bold prediction; this year is somehow gonna be even worse than the last one. It's a trend! Anyway, should the trend continue, humanity will be extinct by 2025, killed off by some weird combination of January memes and nuclear missiles.

That's a nice note to start an update on. Let's go!

---

Daskter opts to steal a Sap Tree from (V65) in Zone 0. The tree is promptly uprooted. This probably doesn't bode well for the tree, but x1 Red Sap Tree obtained!

---

Packo invokes a time paradox, and goes to visit the Fortified Farm with Ette. The two of them travel to the farm, with Packo thanking the puppet.

ETTE: (It's no problem!)
ETTE: (I just want everyone to be happy~)
ETTE: (...Even if it's hard at times.)

Ette opts to start Packo off by tossing 9 Wheat Seeds into the ground, which she buries in the ground with a few gentle pats. Perhaps Packo would like to grow his own crop? Maybe he has something special in mind... but maybe normal wheat is all he wants.

---

Toast +1's her INT, and then rotates the elements of her weapons and spells. She then opts to head to Scale Yggdrasil, not to fight some cultists, but to take a moment to chill. Marron takes Toast's hand, and walks along with her.

MARRON: Yeah! Finally a bit of peace and quie-

Rose cultists. Oops.

MARRON: Wait, really? These gorillas?
MARRON: I remember that when I first met the Rose... and I met, I mean "briefly looked at", they tried to shiv me to death!
MARRON: They said I upset their god somehow!? Idiots, just picking a fight with everyone they see...
MARRON: Let's level these freaks so we can... friggin, dunno, have a nice picnic?
MARRON: ...I could prepare sandwiches.
MARRON: Mmm...
MARRON: A-Anyway, let's thrash these gorillas!
MARRON: And their... gigantic... b-butterfly... j-jukebox?
MARRON: W-When did t-they..?

...Marron is sufficiently intimidated. Despite this, she moves in to the fight with Toast!

MARRON: K-Keep me safe, alright?
MARRON: T-They'll probably try and beat me up, b-because they're... puppet-ist, or something!

---

Due to a PM on Discord and Auth not being able to post, the game opts to let Auth open his present anyway. Thanks to time paradoxes christmas spirit, both Marron and Omo are there to watch Auth open the box. Inside, he finds... what appears to be a rather slender vial of Apocyan Ink. Much like what he has currently, except it's not Violant.

MARRON: So, uh... it probably doesn't look like much.
MARRON: Probably looks like a gorillay version of what you have.
MARRON: Buuuuut, this is a joint gift for a reason!
MARRON: I couldn't really get it to do what I want, so I got Omo to help me!
OMORIKA: ...It was more of "she made me help her", but close enough.
OMORIKA: Anyway, try giving it a swing. Don't worry about it splattering.

Auth gives the vial a swing. A blade of sea-like apocyan extends from the vial, emptying it! The glass bottle appears to serve as the handle to a sword. After a few seconds, the blade retracts back into the bottle.

MARRON: Awesome, right?
MARRON: I couldn't make it refined enough to not shoot out as a shotgun blast, so that's why I got Omo to help!
OMORIKA: Hopefully, both of our skills shine through.
OMORIKA: Merry Christmas, Author...?
OMORIKA: This tradition is... foreign.
MARRON: What, you don't have a Christmas?
OMORIKA: I can't say we do.
MARRON: Whaaaat? For an alien race, you're boring as hell.
OMORIKA: ...Perhaps.

Apocyan Inkblade obtained!

---

Hex +1's his AGI, and rotates Overpowering Strike for Fluxblade. He also heads off to slay some cultists. The Fluxblade counter pick! If only the Rose was able to counter-counter pick to The Great Cave Offensive...

---

Echoss opens his gift! Inside, he finds what appears to be an eyeglass of sorts, made from titanium with a crystal lens. Item Iris obtained! Chloe opts to explain exactly what it is.

CHLOE: So, I couldn't really do anything truly magical for you, so I decided... to do what I'm good at!
CHLOE: So, using a few tricks I picked up from Xavier, I managed to cobble together this thing!
CHLOE: It's like... a AR interface! Helps calculate throwing trajectories!
CHLOE: It's pretty impressive, I'd like to think! I wish I could've done more for you, but I don't have Xavier's set-up to piggyback off of...
CHLOE: Anyway, enjoy!

CHLOE: Oh, also!

Chloe hands Echoss a small wrapped package. Inside is 3 Christmas Cookiestars.

CHLOE: I tried my hand at baking, and... I-I got distracted by working on the lens, so...
CHLOE: ...Yeah.
CHLOE: They're not really edible, but I managed to cut my finger on one of them!
CHLOE: I then threw one at a tree, and it went in surprisingly deep! And shattered, but seriously- I've never seen a pastry deal so much damage...
CHLOE: And Xavier and I have done some weird gorilla, so that's saying something...
CHLOE: No idea how I made them, but enjoy those too! Just don't eat them. You'll probably cut up your stomach, or something.

Chloe wishes Echoss a merry Christmas, also giving him a warm smile, combined with the slightest head-tilt for 100% increased cuteness. Real talk; why are head-tilts cute? I have no idea, but they're great. Anyway, Echoss talks with the Puppet Sisters, through method of butterfly.

MARRON: Um... hi?
MARRON: ...Just saying, butterflies are probably a bad communication method. You'll probably trigger Venia, who's holding a crusade against the Chaos Butterfly, and... yeah.
MARRON: Basically, butterflies suck.

MARRON: Anyway, I'm Marron, that lil' tall ball of fluff is Ette, and... it's nice to meet you, I guess.

Ette waves goodbye to the butterfly on her shoulder, before promptly realizing that it's on her shoulder and she can't really walk away from it like she might. Marron gives it a quick puff of air to send it on its way. Echoss then crafts a Spidersnap Snare, taking 3 Green Sap Blobs from Zone 1's tree in the process. He also tosses together 15 Wire Scraps, 9 Iron, and 3 Incendiary Scraps to create 3 Crystal Bomb Shells! They apply Elblight, looks like. He then combines a Gigistem, two Boilblubbers, a Locustgrowth, and a Yggcrawler Blade to create the Biohazard Blade! Echoss has questionable ethics!

---

The Man answers Salix's query. Something about... tax returns?

SALIX: ...Tax returns?
SALIX: Well, I suppose if it's your personal suitcase, and you value it that much, it doesn't matter what's inside.
SALIX: Good luck with your quest. You'll probably need it.

He then goes to the North of the Preserve. The other north. There, he finds an altar, wrapped in a grove of flowers and a small lake. It's calm and tranquil, save for the random block that it seems like the Rose Cult has placed there.

---

Venia opts to open her presents! She starts with Nia's present, unwrapping it to find the Radiant Glove! It looks a little charred, but it appears to be a neat upgrade to her Stunning Glove!

NIA: Merry Christmas!
NIA: I decided to get you... something practical!
NIA: Mainly because Chloe was-
NIA: ...Wait wait wait, not supposed to say anything, uh, f-forget that I said anything, y-y'know!

NIA: ...Anyway, it's a glove!
NIA: ...Putting it that way, it sounds really, really boring!
NIA: It was meant to let you grab people and then explode them with palms of fire n' stuff, but that exploded, so I went for a backup plan!
NIA: Your old glove, while awesome, was kinda awkward... so I decided to instead make it a big ol' flashbang! Stun people with your shining radiance!
NIA: ...Oh, yeah! It also has fancy red blue green lighting!
NIA: It doesn't have any practical purpose, but it was cool so I had to add it.
NIA: Enjoy!

Nia gives Venia a quick hug, their height difference making it a rather weird hug. She then skips off, humming to herself. Venia opts to open the other present from Chloe, finding a small jewelry box. She opens it up to find a small heart-shaped locket. It doesn't appear to have a stat-block...

CHLOE: So, uh...
CHLOE: M-Merry Christmas!
CHLOE: I know how you don't really care about how you look... I-I mean, you look good, but y'know...
CHLOE: You were also pretty stacked in terms of equipment, and I figured I couldn't really do you much good... so I decided to practice my metalworking a bit!
CHLOE: I made you a little locket. It's... pretty cute, I think!
CHLOE: There's a button on the side.

Venia presses a button on the side of the platinum-laced heart, causing it to pop open. The front of the locket appeared to be split into eight equally-sized "petals", with eight hinges along the edge. Inside the flower-like locket is a small slot for a photo.

CHLOE: ...Put someone who's important to you inside!
CHLOE: I-I know you have a d-dark and t-troubled past, b-but... well, you have a friend in me, at least! And Nia!
CHLOE: I don't want you to d-dwell on it too much... a-and I thought that maybe keeping someone important close to you would help make things better, in it's own way.
CHLOE: I-I hope you enjoy it!

CHLOE: O-Oh, also! You need to push all of the petals back in to close it.
CHLOE: Not too great with the tiny bits of metalworking, so there's no fancy closing mechanism. Sorry!

Chloe also opts to give Venia a hug, pulling her in tight.

CHLOE: H-Hopefully, everything works out for you!
CHLOE: M-Merry Christmas, Venia!

...Away from the house, Chloe is also with Maria. How? Christmas spirit Time paradoxes. Maria notes her relationship to Venia.

CHLOE: Oh, um, a duchess is like... a rank of nobility. It's... somewhere below a prince or princess, but above being a count or baron.
CHLOE: She's kinda like a princess. Just not as princess-y as you.

CHLOE: A-Anyway... I think we're clear to get out of here!
CHLOE: Once we're safe... I-I could play with you! Venia's busy beating up the bad men who were after you, so... I don't think she'll be available for a bit.
CHLOE: Let's go, team!

Chloe and the assortment of guards with her move down a zone, reaching relative safety in Yggdrasil's Approach. Only a few more areas until they're in actual safety!

---

Calibri and Chloe discuss presents. Chloe takes a moment to consider when she's opening hers... before realizing that she did in fact, get a present from him. She blushes lightly.

CHLOE: Y-You got me one?
CHLOE: A-Ah, um... I-I guess we can open ours together...
CHLOE: I'll do it... next update? Whatever that means.

EN meanwhile, takes a moment to gift something to Taeda. She expresses a bit of confusion at the package, flipping it over and giving it quick shakes much like a child would.

TAEDA: H-Hm? For me?
TAEDA: What's the occasion...?
TAEDA: Whatever the reason, though... thank you!

She pops open the box, and finds a cute little Helix Shell necklace. She slips it on, gaining a cosmetic passive.

TAEDA: A-Ah! It's cute!
TAEDA: Thanks, EN! A-Although, I-I don't really know why everyone's giving out gifts...
TAEDA: S-Should I get you one? I-I could try and get you something!

Taeda appears to be racking her mind, trying to think about what she might get. Maybe she'll go with a small gift of credits? After all, nobody's done the obligatory money gift yet, from what we've seen. Anyway, Verdana also opts to gift something to the birb- a collection of Manabloom seeds, along with some other treats. It scarfs them all up, providing a 20% boost in Tameness, shooting it up to 100%! It then gives a rather large, echoing yawn... then collapses on its nest, sleeping. Its feathers begin to shimmer with a large amount of energy- something might happen! Eventually!

---

Irongutta meets up with everyone near Scale Yggdrasil's base, meeting up with Maria, Chloe, Chaos... and Piggo! Chloe takes a moment to say hello.

CHLOE: O-Oh, heya!
CHLOE: We're just... on our way out of here!
CHLOE: Some cultists tried to ambush us, and I-I'm really worried for Maria, so I-I'm getting her out of here, fast as possible!
CHLOE: There's no guarantee that they'll stop coming after the battle up there, so... I-I think it'd be best to get Maria out of here!

Elsewhere, Irongutta notices a present for himself. He takes it and opens it, finding the Icecream Necklace! It... doesn't look much like ice cream, but Nia opts to take a moment to describe how it works.

NIA: That necklace is quite literally the best thing that mankind will ever invent.
NIA: Ice cream. Portable ice cream.
NIA: Or, like, ice cream that's tiny, doesn't melt, and still tastes... mostly normal! It's not gorillay ice cream like that astronaut stuff.
NIA: Xavier developed it for me a long time ago! I heard that Chloe's brother was like, the smartest, so I asked her to ask him to develop me ice cream that I could take into school without having it melt... and he did it, the madman!
NIA: It doesn't get close to beating the really high-end ice cream that I like, but... it's pretty good!

NIA: ...You've had ice cream before, right?
NIA: Eh, doesn't matter. Everyone likes ice cream! Universal law!

Irongutta then opts to take a look into the mineshaft in the Old Gaiadiamond Mine. What horrors await within? However, he thinks he has a decent read on where the Gaiadiamond Dust might be...

- = S T R I F E ! = -

---

The gears of the universe turn and twist...

>Poison and Water crystal options added to the Temmie Shop!
>Focus Energy obtained as an update gift!
>Some of Marron's crafts have been relocated to the Player Crafted Inventory. As in, the Starcore Scarf.

---

<SCALE YGGDRASIL CORNER, ROUND TWO>
Incredible start, thanks to Brutishace's Vitality Leech! While cleaning up the rest of the non-Exhibition Rose shouldn't be too much of an ordeal, just make sure to not trigger the Exhibition's Special Attack! Otherwise, you might be in for a moderately un-okay time. Anyway, just watch out for the reinforcements that have just arrived, and will be arriving as the battle rages on. Kill the Exhibition to make it stop raining cultists, maybe?

The Cultists who are stacking maps in the entryway suddenly notice something odd. There seems to be an unusually large concentration of golden butterflies fluttering around the entry area, and every so often a new one joins the flock (is it called a flock? Swarm sounds wrong... Maybe we'll just call it a murder because that's what I'm planning.).
The cultists like butterflies though, they worship one, so that's like, divine blessing or something, right? They are totally incorrect, because as they watch some of the butterflies, a group of them flutter down besides the guard, who sorta freaks out as they assemble into a recreation of Echoss that looks kinda see-through but is properly colored unlike most of his hologram forms.
He turns to the guard, "My apologies, but the cultists over there are intending a few individuals harm who are attempting to leave the gardens, I will be but a moment, here's this as an apology for the mess I'm likely about to make." He pulls a small bottle of champagne out of his pockets and hands it over to the guard. "Don't drink too much of this until you're off duty though, you already seem to be rather inebriated."
The illusory Echoss steps around into the middle of road and clears his throat, causing the cultists to finally realize that he's there.
"Gentlemen, I'm going to have to ask you to vacate the premises, on pain of evisceration."
The cultists of course, are no very on board with the whole "letting the targets get away" thing, so Echoss sighs, then shrugs. "Very well. I'd say not to complain about me not warning you..." He looks up at them, head slightly tilted, and his eyes flash for a moment... almost like fire. Fortunately the sworddancer can't see, but it probably spooks the cultists. "But you won't be complaining about anything when I am finished."
Echoss points, and the cultists, who were very neatly and cleverly surrounded by butterflies while they were watching them flutter around, are assaulted by said butterflies, going down in a mass of angry golden wings. The illusory Echoss himself somewhat calmly walks around the booth, and leans down, picking up one of the cultists by the neck, causing the butterfliess that were on him to switch cultists.
"You know, I understand that we are in a warzone, but I have a rather... negative disposition towards those who would intentionally do children harm." The cultist struggles in his grib, but discovers that his own arms pass right through that of the illusory Echoss glaring down at him. "But to do it out of petty spite? Secondhand petty spite no less. That is not something I will put up with should it be in my power to punish." Illusory Echoss plants a foot on the chest of the cultist and using it as leverage, rips out the cultist's throat, causing sap to spray outwards, though none of it actually properly contacts the illusory Echoss at all.
He walks over to the other cultist, who is still pinned on the ground by the butterflies, and leans over him. "I did not start out with a high opinion of your 'cult', but after having made the mistake of giving one of your members the benefit of the doubt, and being rewarded with THIS, I believe I shall join the position of the other Spherebreakers on the side of enacting pest control. Enjoy whatever hell you find yourself in." He stands up straight, and sets his foot down on top of the cultist's head, and then applies pressure, cracking, then shattering the cultist's head.
Illusory Echoss looks down at the dead corpses lying on the ground and sighs, turning around back to the probably traumatized Bladedancer. "My apologies, I promise I'm not normally like this. I just had a... particularly vested interest in making sure these two could not do any harm."

He steps back out into the path, and shoos the butterflies away back to whatever corner of the garden they were in before, just in time for Chloe and the group to come down the path, hopefully not noticing the cultist corpses stashed in the corner of the booth. Actually, definitely not noticing as Echoss has also hidden them with more illusory magics. And draped a tarp over them for good measure.
He waves to Chloe, "Hello Miss Elem, I was just removing a few cultists from your path back home. Thank you very much for the gift, it is a fascinating piece of equipment, and will be extremely useful."

While everyone is busy talking with Echoss some butterflies sneak underneath the tarp and steal the dead cultists' wallets because Tazz needs to feed his family NPCs.

/todo

Crafts

Work on farm

Echoss uses the distress beacon, calling in Auth, then moves to L15 and chucks a hidden rock at the Exhibition.

RP: Time Paradox-Laden Gift Opening Thing

Venia looks positively ecstatic-perhaps just a bit unduly so-upon receiving the Radiant Glove. She immediately tries it on, exchanging it for her Stunning Glove and flexing her fingers. (She'd actually equip it rightaway, but battles are ongoing and such.)

"...Wow, it's really nice!" Venia exclaims, looking at it with considerably more reverence than is due. "Thank you!" She says, returning Nia's hug (and scooping her up a bit off the floor to compensate for the height difference). "Really, really, really, just, thank you!" Venia exclaims.

Before Nia could run off, though...

"Hey, Nia, uh, I gave you something too!" Venia shouts, pointing at the tree. "Quite a few people did... We've only really just met you today, discounting that business by the river, but a lot of people like you! Uh, me included... I don't think you deserve to have to associate with someone as horrible as me, but, I still made you a gift! You can just say someone else made it," She says, holding Nia the package.

Her reaction to the heart locket is just as enthusiastic, and she 'equips' it aesthetically. Like how Marron has her trinket from Toast. "Oh, this is so beautiful! You're a natural, Chloe!" She says, marvelling at it. "...I don't really have many images that would fit in there that I have on me, but maybe-"

Venia is taken into Chloe's hug as well. "...Maybe... M-m-maybe... I can find s-something to put in there, later... Thank you!" She exclaims, also returning the hug in roughly the same manner. "...Oh, right! Uhh... I've commissioned the Temmie Shop to give you something, too, though its still a work-in-progress right now... Uh, Marron's trying to slip in an insult on it but I'll fix it when its done, I promise!"

...Venia seems overly-excited about all of this.

---

Later, Venia calls up Omorika. "Merry Christmas! Uhh, I don't have a gift ready for you rightaways, but I arranged for Marron to make you some brand new shoes! They're made of Silverwood... Or they have a Silverwood exterior, I actually don't know, but they help channel magical power near wood. I think they'll be a thing, oh... Two rounds from now? Yeah, two rounds, uh, yeah! Merry christmas!"

Venia also places three preasents down under the tree. What's in them? Ire knows.

---

RP: Maria's Wonderful Garden Trip

Maria swings around the tree, clutching Piggo tightly, until roughly when she could see the actual Rose Cultists and the Jukebox. "Ohmigosh, more people in super pajamas! Are they bad? But why was that other nice person who felt funny before wearing super pajamas? And why are they wearing super pajamas? Is that the Monster behind them? But that doesn't look like what the butterfly showed me! It looks weird! It looks cool! I wanna poke it. Where'd the sword giraffe go? Oh, oh, oh, bye, super-big blue tree!" She says, waving at Scale Yggdrasil.

"...Why is Venny mad? I've never seen Venny get that mad before! She's like, the nicest ever and I've never seen her super mad like that! It's... It's scary, I don't like it!" Maria says, considerably less curious, as they leave for the approach.

---

Garden Altar

Mr. Krabs begins to exist at the Garden Altar, Flux Detector in claw, and presses the side-faces in order of 1-4-1-4-3-1 (A-C-A-C-I-A). If this does nothing, Mr. Krabs will repeat from the beginning, pressing each face twice, rather than once-like typing in a nickname for a player in smash bros.

After observing any changes this may have wrought, Mr. Krabs then nabs the almost-certainly-there effect the Iti 'cat' has from near to the Altar, giving it a closer inspection in the process, before returning to the Nexus to slot it into an effect. Three down, one to go!

---

Shopping

Mr. Krabs simultaniously exists at the Triangle Emporium, depositing 450 Credits for all T2 essences. If credits were found prior to this post (or after it), he will then move to the Temmie Shop and spend likely the very last of them as well as 16 samples on the Void Essence, which he then moves into the Inventory to shuffle to Venia.

Venia exploits some mild time-travel to arrive at Nana. "Hi! Uh, I'm Venia, Venia Praefortis. It's nice to meet you, Nana. I was the really angry eldritch spider thing. Uh. Yeah. I'm not usually like that, thank goodness... Uh, in any case, uh. I'm just gonna say it, that arm of yours is, uh, is really cool. Uh. Yeah. It really sucks what happened to you with Maxim, but it's really good luck that it all sorted out without any problems, and you, uh, came out of it with a superpower! Even if it's creepy, it's pretty neat."

"Uh, in any case... I got this stuff for you. This should... Err. This should help strenghten you up and maybe help with controlling the arm-tentacles. The red one is, uh. It's a Vitality booster. It'll improve reflexes and general condition. The orange one, uh, improves upper body strength and hand eye coordination. The blue one boosts magical potency... Or something like that. Might help with the darts. There should be a black vial here that, well... It's hard to explain, but it channels excess used energy into a 'pool' of sorts. Like magic, but very unlike magic. You can tap into it to use something strong, but only when its, like, uh, full."

Venia fiddles around for the black vial, and if she finds it (IE Mr. Krabs could purchase it), she hands it over to Nana alongside the rest of the three.

"By the way... Uh, there's an iti-infested mine, uh, a bit of a ways from here. I can show you the way. It's obviously dangerous... But not, like, extremely so? A few of our buddies are going out there to get some Gaiadiamond dust, for a friend of ours. Might be a good way to test stuff out, get used to things with the arm... It'll be uh, intimidating, because dark mines are like that, but I'm confident you can handle it. But, like, uh-don't feel obligated to go, or anything! We're plenty capable of clearing it out, and you probably do deserve a break... Like, it's your call. You'll be going to the house first, though, so, uh, Auth her can get you cleaned up, and such."

If Nana accepts, Venia takes her to the mine. Venia will also take Ette to the mine as well. But not before she opens up her gifts.

---

Battle: Scale Yggdrasil Corner

"You will NEVER threaten her again! You will all be dead, your stupid parasite 'god' included! YOU CAN'T DROWN OUT THE TRUTH WITH YOUR gorillaY MUSIC! COME ON! I can stop you for good!"

Venia hustles to I11. Her hat pings the Exhibition. Venia herself raises her key up to the sky, and fires Purge directly onto the Exhibition. "Everyone, attack it! The reinfo-!" Venia suffers a bad case of blurring right afterwards, and she doesn't bother to finish her sentence, other than to back off to J10 afterwards and just point at the Exhibition.

I'm back, with a new character because why the gorilla not.

Tsukiko Akagi takes Koharu's place.

Rename Aquamarine Hair Accessory -> Smol Top Hat
Rename Summon Drone -> Incantation
Rename Semi-Tangible Armor -> Zirconium-Reinforced Gothic Lolita Dress
Replace Form Copy -> Guiding Hand
2 Skillpoints into SKI

Nidra puts a point in SKI

---

Nidra...continues to be asleep. However, her stuffed koala grabs some simple fabric and silkweed bundles. At the same time, a few coffee beans float toward the stuffed koala. They quickly liquify, turning into a floating ball of brown dye. The koala dips most of the cloth in the dye.

After the dye has dried, a semi-solid sewing needle appears in the stuffed koala's hand, and it begins working on...something. A splinter spider. One splinter spider in particular, that is. After the form is complete, it spends some time putting the finishing touches on it. The completed product is much better than something made with limited materials and by something with little fine motor control really has any right to be.

The stuffed koala then gives the stuffed Neru a hug, and a dim purple aura spreads from the former to the latter. The stuffed spider begins twitching and moving on its own. The koala slaps a bow and a tag with Omo's name on it on top of the spider and gestures it toward the tree, which the spider heads toward.

I couldn't find a good place to put this, but the stuffed Neru helps ward away bad dreams and makes falling asleep a bit easier. It also listens to simple commands and has a limited sorta-sentience, to the extent it'll avoid danger and wander around a bit if left alone.

---

Nidra also opens her own gift.

Auth is brought out of his stasis-like state of doing precisely nothing, to actually respond to Nana now.

Alarm bells go off in Toast's head as she sees Marron focus-fired.
"Don't worry Marron- someone's on their way! 'Till then, we can get started on dismantling this junk! Eranx Naris Teth-Kara!"
As she speaks, Toast places her wrists together and thrusts them towards the Exhibition, palms splayed. Energy crackles down her arms, before being channeled into a blast of lightning, coiling around its jukebox-y self.
In other words, Toast moves to L15 and uses Static Overcharge on the Exhibition.

Boshi waits for Hex to move out of the Exhibition's Zone of Control.

Boshi looks at the enemy Rose Cultists, and smirks. "(Think long and hard about who you've just pissed off.)"

Hat Kid points her umbrella up at a nearby sturdy branch. A hookshot shoots out, grips onto the branch, and she lifts herself and Boshi up. They swing back and forth for a bit before catapulting to (H13) thanks to Swift1 and Flight.

Once there, Boshi points his pickaxe at the Exhibition in such a way that the explosive part is pressed up against it. Hat Kid covers herself to avoid what's going to happen. Cue explosion. Boshi should end up at (F13). He retreats to (G14).

TL;DR: Used Hookshot Badge, move to (H13) due to Swift1 and Flight, Shockwave Chamber on the Exhibition. Boshi knocked to (F13), retreat to (G14).

---

Meanwhile, a Time Piece somehow hits the Christmas Tree. A Time Paradox Rift appears! ...And then immediately disappears as Hat Kid completes it in a matter of instantly. Not before she pops out, though, along with Boshi. Somehow.

Anyway, presents!

Hat Kid sees one for her, and excitedly rips the box to shreds trying to get at the stuff inside. Unless she can just open the box in which case she just opens it normally.

Boshi also notes a present for him. He takes the box and... carefully removes the wrapping paper. He then does whatever's necessary to get to the goods inside.

---

Meanwhile meanwhile, Mustache Girl. She's been hanging out for a bit. Quite literally. Perhaps the uneasy nature of the area's getting to her a bit.

While hanging from the rope by her feet, Mustache Girl ties together another 6 Sturdy Vines to the original vine rope, hopefully bringing it down to solid ground.

She then looks around for a bit. Some fire and ice clusters, some Durasteel in the ground, a dead guy, a gate of sorts, and a Plaque. Whatever this place was, it clearly wasn't used for good, if used at all.

She also notices Destiny coming down to help. "It's about time somebody came down to help! Mind grabbing those crystals over there?" She points to the Glacier Clusters.

In the meantime, she focuses on the Searing Clusters. She makes a chain out of 6 Iron Ingots, forms part of the chain into a lasso, and flings that end onto the Searing Clusters, hoping to get the chain to hook onto it. She climbs up, and loosens the nearby dirt with her copy of the Razorwind Reaver. Normally. No fancy explosions or nothing.

She then climbs back down, and swings down to about (N93) with the chain. If it didn't come completely loose before, she yanks the chain down, hoping to break the clusters off from the dirt it's attached to.

Once it does come loose, she catches the entire thing in her arms, and puts it in the inventory.

Destiny spawns at G16, dashes to G11, and guards.

The Man mashes the Z button on the weird cat thing behind the altar.