A Very Trog's Thanksmas

[Gullara]

[SWORDGIRL ULTIMATE THANKSMAS SHOWDOWN]

Obviously Zee couldn't make Lapis a grownup because she's a child.

That seems pretty clear.

Lapis continues rolling up her snowball, feeling pretty confident of it once its about three feet across. She briefly considers whether or not she should to making it more like a snowman but it's already pretty big. "I can't really think of any other things I want. I REALLY want to be able to practice with people with a real sword instead of the wood ones."

Wood swords aren't nearly as cool as real metal swords.

"What were the other things you were wanting?" Lapis asks, curious about what could potentially compete with a desire to a sword. "How do you know whether you're ready for a sword or not?"

Oh hey there's Bastion!

Maybe he can help judge the contest, too?

"Hi Baston! We're making big snowballs for a snowball melting contest. You should watch you'll love it!"

[SWORDGIRL ULTIMATE THANKSMAS SHOWDOWN]

Garn frowns as 'snowball melting' is mentioned by Lapis, she was even encouraging others in such dangerous activities. He makes note to observe the girls activities closely to determine if they were doing something forbidden.

[SWORDGIRL ULTIMATE THANKSMAS SHOWDOWN]

Cora pushes her snowball until it's a good size too. But when Lapis mentioned snowball melting, she holds her finger up to her lips. Her back's facing toward Garn, though. Very stealthy.

"A new book in my favourite series just came out. I want it soooo bad." The girl explains. "Right Bastion?" She turns to her brother and the boy comes over.

"Yeah, but mommy says we have to be patient." His dismay is clear.

[Deathkeeper]

FLOOFbegone

Gara fidgets.
”Well, yeah. Pretty much. I didn’t know if you would show, though.”
Really it’s just blind luck that both of them came to the party.
Or maybe it’s a Thanksmas miracle!

Elfmas

”Oh, that sounds good. I would expect nothing less of you.” Koshal says with absolute sincerity.
He couldn’t expect anyone to be so close to Master Wenomir without learning anything about the importance of proper swordplay. Except maybe Commander Mithar but they’re more coworkers anyway. And he’s never met her so he doesn’t know much about her anyway. But he’s heard she’s more magically inclined.

[Purple Eagle]

[Zaabi - Secluded Corner]

"Well now, so the kitten has claws!" D-37 responds as she regards Abi, looking somewhat impressed. She also looks like she's about to grab the half-elf for daring to talk to her like that, but she doesn't end up doing it. "Don't worry, Abigail, I'm well aware of my limitations."

She considers the words of Abi. "Even now, Zara swells with pride at your desire. I won't scoff at it, the world needs doctors. There's nothing like a good doctor to keep you going after a mission, too." Perhaps Abi will be useful to her as more than a squeeze, after all. "I think pain makes one strong, but not every child is strong enough to bear it. But then, not every child was privileged to have my upbringing."

"I might not seem like it, but Zara got her love of children from me. I know what a highly-trained one is capable of, and can spot one with some ease, but the others... your goal is noble, Abigail." Which leads her to the next question. "Zara inherited most of my tastes, but I prefer natural foods to processed sweet stuff. I do enjoy smoothies, however. Perhaps we can share one."

[Rebonack]

[GIFT EXCHANGE TIME!]

"Hey everyone, your attention for a moment!" Zee calls out to the party goers. "It's that time for the gift exchange to start! Feel free to pick a gift from under the tree, just make sure not to take your own. That's cheating."

No cheating, folks.

"Thank you all so much for coming to the party this year. I'm sure the new year has plenty of bright days in store for everyone."

[SWORDGIRL ULTIMATE THANKSMAS SHOWDOWN]

Lapis catches the gesture and makes a 'zipping her lips' motion in reply.

She isn't sure who the stone guy is but he's giving them a look that says he doesn't want them to have any fun!

How terrible.

"Oh really? What's the book?" Lapis asks completely innocently and in a fashion that is not at all a dangerous activity. She pulls a few branches off the tree growing over the back deck and sticks them into the snowball like arms.

Gotta keep up appearances, right? Make it seem like they're engaging in non-forbidden fun.


[FLOOFbegon]

"I wasn't sure if you would be here, either," Lucas admits, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "But you were at the last Thanksmas party so I thought maybe you would be at this one and... yeah."

A Thanksmas Miracle?

Nah, more like Nexus Serendipity.

[5a Violista]

[Gift Exchange Time!]

Unfortunately, Venus didn't bring a white elephant gift so it would be extremely rude of her to just grab one. She backs away to a corner of the room so that nobody wonders why she's not grabbing one.


However,
June did bring one and put it under the tree - so he leaves the food table to go grab one from there.

[Earl of Purple]

Zaabi

Abi really doesn't think D-37 was 'privileged' to have her upbringing. 'Unfortunate', maybe, and certainly 'abused'. Physically and emotionally, at least; possibly mentally as well. Her eyes shift colour, the yellow mixing with a bit of blue at the compliment and some brown from the disagreement she feels about D-37's upbringing- but they don't overwrite the yellow enough for Abi to be so foolish as to mention such.

"I'm thinking more nurse than doctor. They were friendlier, as I recall. The doctors were too busy to take the time and actually reassure me. I'll remember the natural flavours. What's your thought on banana? That's an artificial flavour based around the taste of a now-extinct variety of banana." It's why artificial bananas don't taste like banana- they did, but then the flavour of bananas changed.

Gift Exchange Time!

Mishnehel is the first of the Earl characters to go and claim a present, not her own. Abi also dropped one off, but so did someone else and Earl doesn't have time to look up who that was.

[Morty]

[Thanksmas Throne]

"I wonder why the bag gave her two pairs of skates," Brinika wonders aloud. "It seems to know those things. Two of Mr and Mrs. Frescot's daughters have hooves for feet. They've come to the daycare a few times. And maybe we should let someone else get their turn at being Santa now."

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Electra & Olvisin]

"Especially here, where you can meet people that are just a legend or a story at home," Electra observes with a strange smile. Nostalgic and awkward at the same time. "Even fall in love with them, if you aren't careful."

[Felandria]

While she waits for Santa, Felandria hears the announcement for the Gift Exchange, at which point she remembers she was supposed to place a gift under the tree, luckily she brought it with her.

She uses Mage Hand to send the gift over to the tree and places the blue and green wrapped square box under the tree.

Meanwhile, Reginald scurries over, a small box being held by the ribbon in his mouth as he heads over and drops the smol box into the pile, grabbing the smallest available different box and pulling it back over to where Felandria is.

Fel spots a neat looking box and Mage Hands it back over to herself, she will open it after Santa.

[bc56]

Thanksmas Throne

Jade laughs. "She must need them. Funny though, that reminds me of something... Hmm." She hops off the throne. "Yeah, I've done enough. Someone else can step up now."

Gift Exchange

From the Santa Throne, Jade arrives and picks up a gift with her mouth. She doesn't feel like going human-shaped right now. She carries it off to tear the wrapping off away from the tree.

Sekhmet also nervously approaches the tree, uncomfortable with her new look still. She gently sets the small box she brought down and picks up another at random, then retreats to the safety of husband and friends.

[Reinholdt]

[Darker Corner]

Zara looks momentarily sad when she's denied, though the smile never leaves her lips. It doesn't last for more than a couple seconds, and she shrugs. "Okay then! Can Zara at least teach you sign language... though Zara's not sure if you could, as they say, 'pull it off' with your shadows."

Oh my, it seems Sasha's become very interested in the drawing, indeed! She rips off the paper and offers it to her so she can stare at it more. "You like? It's you, it's Sasha!" She beams, proud of herself. "Do you not know what you look like? Zara can draw a more detailed one, if you want."

[Darker Corner]

Do signs have their own language? Sasha's read a few and they seem to have the same language as everything else. Books, menus, and posters. They share a language with signs, don't they? Sasha doesn't know what it's called, other than reading.

Sasha tilts her head staring at the picture. She supposes she can see the resemblance. It's not as detailed as the wanted posters used to be, but it's better in a different way. After awhile, the tendril will sink down into the ground, causing the sketch to disappear into the inky darkness.

[Morty]

[Electra & Olvisin]

Olvisin grins and her ears perk up. Love, huh? Electra's got it bad, she can tell. But she decides not to tease.

"Yep. Like an artificially-created person, for instance. Which reminds me. I've met someone in MERC who can hook me up with a good cyberneticist. So once I put money aside for that, I'm going to get my arms replaced with cybernetics. Should be a good start."

The way she talks about cybernetic replacements falls somewhere between casual interest, a child looking forward to a new toy and religious reverence. It's clear she's eager to do it.

[Shadowcaller]

[GIFT EXCHANGE TIME!]

"Hey everyone, your attention for a moment!" Zee calls out to the party goers. "It's that time for the gift exchange to start! Feel free to pick a gift from under the tree, just make sure not to take your own. That's cheating."

No cheating, folks.

"Thank you all so much for coming to the party this year. I'm sure the new year has plenty of bright days in store for everyone."

[SWORDGIRL ULTIMATE THANKSMAS SHOWDOWN]

Lapis catches the gesture and makes a 'zipping her lips' motion in reply.

She isn't sure who the stone guy is but he's giving them a look that says he doesn't want them to have any fun!

How terrible.

"Oh really? What's the book?" Lapis asks completely innocently and in a fashion that is not at all a dangerous activity. She pulls a few branches off the tree growing over the back deck and sticks them into the snowball like arms.

Gotta keep up appearances, right? Make it seem like they're engaging in non-forbidden fun.

"I wasn't sure if you would be here, either," Lucas admits, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "But you were at the last Thanksmas party so I thought maybe you would be at this one and... yeah."

A Thanksmas Miracle?

Nah, more like Nexus Serendipity.

Mags and Blanche and Anika

Anika claps her hands excitedly, now actually curious. "Yeah, go ahead. Open it!"

Once Blanche gets to Anika's present she will find that the druid have picked a particularly sturdy cardboard box for the gift. It's not something she could could tear open. She will simply have to open it once she torn off the wrapping paper. However, once she opens it she will find it's filled with a lot of toilet paper, though its pretty clear that's not the actual gift as Anika still seems to be holding her breath while watching Blanche opening it. It will require Blanche to actually get into the box but once she's dug through a lot of toilet paper she will finally, at the bottom of the box, find a green knitted sweater that Anika clearly have made herself.

It's rather simple and a bit oversized but there is what appears to be a crude orange lion on the front with the text "KITTY WITH ATTITUDE" knitted in red underneath it. At this point, Anika peers down into the box. "You like it? Since the box is for you too! The cats back home always go crazy for this sort of stuff!"

[SWORDGIRL ULTIMATE THANKSMAS SHOWDOWN]

Garn eyes the two girls suspiciously but doesn't see any reason to intervene just yet. He gives a respectful nod to Bastion as to simply show that he's acknowledging the boy's presence. Bastion was a good boy after all despite Cora's influence.

[Gullara]

[SWORDGIRL ULTIMATE THANKSMAS SHOWDOWN]

Lapis catches the gesture and makes a 'zipping her lips' motion in reply.

She isn't sure who the stone guy is but he's giving them a look that says he doesn't want them to have any fun!

How terrible.

"Oh really? What's the book?" Lapis asks completely innocently and in a fashion that is not at all a dangerous activity. She pulls a few branches off the tree growing over the back deck and sticks them into the snowball like arms.

Gotta keep up appearances, right? Make it seem like they're engaging in non-forbidden fun.

[SWORDGIRL ULTIMATE THANKSMAS SHOWDOWN]

Garn eyes the two girls suspiciously but doesn't see any reason to intervene just yet. He gives a respectful nod to Bastion as to simply show that he's acknowledging the boy's presence. Bastion was a good boy after all despite Cora's influence.

[SWORDGIRL ULTIMATE THANKSMAS SHOWDOWN]

"It's this awesome series about three adventurers. A sword girl, a wizard, and a princess!" Cora's eyes light up. The reason for her fascination might be obvious.

"The next one's called The Sea of Dread." Bastion provides helpfully.

"Yeah! They go around and fight big monsters to collect the magic rings so they can save the kingdom." Cora starts to roll up a second ball of snow, as big as the first.

[Zefir]

PRESENTS ((For note and easier recall I sum all the presents my chars brought))
Mr. C brought a very big version of himself as a plush toy, bigger then a kid.

Mia brought alittle Toy Robot, which seems to work on speech. So if you tell him something he tries to do it, expect hurting someone directly.

[Gift Exchange Time! - Corner]

Zefir has missed to place his present under the table and as the exhange is announced it feels kinda bad to put it there, but don't worry he got a way to get the present to someone. As he sees Venus heading for a corner he follows her.

"I hope Santa got you what you wanted." he says, waiting for her reply.

After that he offers her the present he brought with himself. "Here, Happy Thanksmas." he says.

While she waits for Santa, Fel looks around and spots Mr. C, she waves merrily.

Hi, Mr. C!

[In line]

Mr. C waves over to her, obviously they are close to her. Ah well Mr. C is small so he's not good at ranges.

"Hi Fel. Aren't you little big for Santa?" He asks with a smirk.

[5a Violista]

[Corner]

Venus smiles and raises the regular-feet ice skates to show them off (while keeping the other skates lowered). "Yup! A pair of figure skates. They look like they're in my size, too."

She accepts his present with a "thanks," but adds, "Are you sure? I don't have anything to give to you."

[Purple Eagle]

Zaabi

Abi really doesn't think D-37 was 'privileged' to have her upbringing. 'Unfortunate', maybe, and certainly 'abused'. Physically and emotionally, at least; possibly mentally as well. Her eyes shift colour, the yellow mixing with a bit of blue at the compliment and some brown from the disagreement she feels about D-37's upbringing- but they don't overwrite the yellow enough for Abi to be so foolish as to mention such.

"I'm thinking more nurse than doctor. They were friendlier, as I recall. The doctors were too busy to take the time and actually reassure me. I'll remember the natural flavours. What's your thought on banana? That's an artificial flavour based around the taste of a now-extinct variety of banana." It's why artificial bananas don't taste like banana- they did, but then the flavour of bananas changed

[Zaabi]

D-37 pauses as she scans Abi's eyes, but decides to answer the question, first. "I didn't mean ice cream, I meant foods in general. Ice-cream is sweet - too sweet - but I would very much prefer a banana to a facsimile of one in the form of ice-cream."

Back to the eyes! She peers deep into them, her eyes like a green-coloured abyss gazing into Abi's. "So, Abigail. I've figured out your eye colours, with help from Zara. What's brown, though?" She begins to think out loud. "Black was depression/sadness, when we told you about our past. What's brown, however? Disgust?" She's starting to look displeased.

She slowly reaches to stroke Abi's face, like one would a child, or a toy. "Oh, Abigail. You can't seriously feel disgust at my childhood... can you?" She grasps Abi's chin and cheeks tightly, all of a sudden.

Then she's saved by the announcement that it's gift-giving time!

D-37 slowly lets go of Abi's cheeks. "Will you look at that, it's time for the gift exchange. I should probably let you and Zara kiss under the mistletoe, so I'll tell you my thoughts on you, so far." She tilts her head and stares at the girl for a bit. "I could like you. Could you... like me? I could stay, and we'd have our first kiss." She says, tracing lines on Abi's hands.

[Darker Corner]

Do signs have their own language? Sasha's read a few and they seem to have the same language as everything else. Books, menus, and posters. They share a language with signs, don't they? Sasha doesn't know what it's called, other than reading.

Sasha tilts her head staring at the picture. She supposes she can see the resemblance. It's not as detailed as the wanted posters used to be, but it's better in a different way. After awhile, the tendril will sink down into the ground, causing the sketch to disappear into the inky darkness.

[Darker Corner]

"Zara's glad that Sasha likes it! You can keep it, too." She pipes happily. "Can Zara pet your head? She likes you." And she will, if Sasha allows it.

They eat some of Sasha's boxed ice-cream together, then Zara spots Abi in the distance, waiting for her. She gasps happily, and gets up on her feet. "Sasha, Zara needs to go and greet her girlfriend, but she will come back, I promise. If not now, then later, when Zara gives you your new cage."

Even though she'll most likely leave once she says goodbye, she'll be back for the gift exchange, though in what form depends on Abi.

[Earl of Purple]

Zaabi

"I wasn't specifically talking about ice cream. Banana yoghurt, foam bananas, anything that's banana flavour without actually having much banana in it replicates the taste of an extict variety of banana." Then the accusation of disgust! "No! No I am not disgusted at you, or anything to do with you. I am... Feeling quite complicated, right now. I disagree with how you were raised, but... Not disgusted." A little disgusted, maybe, but not enough to show in her eyes. Mostly that's the stronger emotions she's feeling, and right now that's still fear, with secondary attraction and pleasure.

[Ashen Lilies]

[Elfsmas]

Cass takes the drinks over to her family as promised, stopping on the way to chat with Geneviève and also get distracted in the petting of many fluffy wolves. Lucien clearly needed the help, he only has two hands! Eventually she manages to pull herself away from the floofy wolf pile and heads back to Wenomir and Koshal, though she does wave at Electra, now that she appears to be alert.

[SWORDGIRL ULTIMATE THANKSMAS SHOWDOWN==> Rain at Thankmas?]

"Yeah, you should probably be outside for all that snow melting." Anika agrees as it seemed a lot more practical. Besides, mages were always thrown out when they summoned fire in the taverns were she was form so she assumed it was the same here.

"Buuuut, I gotta hand out some more gifts so I'll just have to check in on the contest later, 'kay? I'm sure your siblings would love to act audience though." She gestures as the zeeblings and then at Bastion and Jillian.

"So catch you later, kids!" The druid exclaims before she snatches up one of the gifts from her pile and makes her way towards Rain, smiling widely.

Her present pile is left unattended though so if either of the kids wants to sneak a peek they could do so. But they're probably more interested in the contest.

[A Rainy Thanksmas]

Rain, as mentioned earlier, is hanging out with Kal and Kalya at the moment, though upon sighting Anika's approach she pulls away from them, giving her a big hug.
"Hey Anika!" She says, squeezing tightly about Anika's waist.

"Glad you're here. You look like you've been having fun."

[Morty]

[Elfsmas]

"Welcome back, Cassandra," Wenomir says when the sorceress rejoins them. "I see your young brother is a big fan of the wolves. Then again, it's a rare child who wouldn't be."

[Deathkeeper]

Elfmas

Faye thumps her tail on the floor. Those wolves are her friends! But she's just as floofy as any of them! Clearly Cass should pet her instead.
"Hi again, Miss Cass! Did you family like their delivery?" he asks, as innocent as ever.

FLOOFbegone

Gara smiles and pulls Lucas (and anyone else in the vicinity) over to the tree.
"Well, I guess we should keep the miracles going then and see what we get, right?" she suggests.

[Lord Magtok]

Blanche and Anika - Blanika

It seems that Anika wasn't alone in not expecting Magtok to return, as Blanche seems a bit unprepared for it. She blinks as he pushes a present into her arms, barely managing to utter a surprised "Oh, er, thanks," before the cyborg disappears. She looks at it a little curiously, not expecting foul play but a tad unsure what to make of it.

"Well, er, I guess I should probably see what this is," she comments, moving to unwrap it and then Anika's. "Sorry I didn't bring anything with me to give you, I didn't really expect to bump into you here."

Within the guitar case is not a guitar, which I'm sure isn't too surprising. What is in the case might be a little more unexpected, however. On top is a Beretta with a small tag attached, reading 'Enjoy your new Gamer Girl™ handgun!' I suppose that's one way to describe the hideously ugly design of that Beretta U22 Neos. Seriously, dear gods, this is the most awful and deliberately cringey firearm I've ever seen. Magtok has a real knack for absolutely atrocious Thanksmas presents, doesn't he? I mean damn, that's not-

Oh right, and there's also a perfectly normal and serviceable Remington 700 bolt action sniper rifle beneath it, taking up most of the space in the guitar case. 'Here's your real present. Don't lose this one,' the note chides her. Apparently someone heard about what happened to her old gun, somehow, and belatedly tried to do something to make up for that loss. It's probably a little late for that, given how long it's been since Blanche lost her gun, but it's the thought that counts, right?

[Purple Eagle]

[Zaabi]

"Complicated?" Banana flavour discussion has been usurped by D-37's interest in whatever complicated feelings Abi might be experiencing. It could answer the question Abi's yet to answer: could she like D-37? "Tell me more. What exactly are you feeling?" She can guess by looking into Abi's eyes, but she wants to hear her say it.

[Earl of Purple]

Zaabi

"Well, um, you're a little scary, so there's that. And, uh, I'm happy at the compliment. And, um, you share my girlfriend's body, so there's that too. And I guess I'm now a little worried about the reaction you'll have to what I've said so far." That's a slight orangey colour, which is hard to spot with the yellow and brown already mixed in. She misses out the disagreement about D-37's upbringing, because that's no longer a major emotional concern and the relevant colour is disappearing from her eyes.

[Felandria]

PRESENTS ((For note and easier recall I sum all the presents my chars brought))
Mr. C brought a very big version of himself as a plush toy, bigger then a kid.

Mia brought alittle Toy Robot, which seems to work on speech. So if you tell him something he tries to do it, expect hurting someone directly.

[Gift Exchange Time! - Corner]

Zefir has missed to place his present under the table and as the exhange is announced it feels kinda bad to put it there, but don't worry he got a way to get the present to someone. As he sees Venus heading for a corner he follows her.

"I hope Santa got you what you wanted." he says, waiting for her reply.

After that he offers her the present he brought with himself. "Here, Happy Thanksmas." he says.



[In line]

Mr. C waves over to her, obviously they are close to her. Ah well Mr. C is small so he's not good at ranges.

"Hi Fel. Aren't you little big for Santa?" He asks with a smirk.

To be fair, I’m a little big for a lot of things, but it’s never stopped me before.

Although, it appears there isn’t a Santa at the moment, so......

Fel waves a hand over herself and changes into her Santa outfit, and puts a little elf hat onto Reginald, because he always wants to help.

Well, since I’ll be taking the chair, you can have my spot in line, Mr. C.

What can Santa Fel get you?

[Purple Eagle]

[Zaabi]

"Hmm...." So, Abi finds her scary, yet still attractive by virtue of the fact that it's Zara's body? The yellow is fear, a colour she's coming to like seeing in Abi's eyes; and the brown isn't disgust, so what is it? A mix, perhaps? Then there's the orange, which could be the worry she's speaking of. It'd be hard to spot for most people, maybe even Zara... but D-37 isn't Zara. "I see..."

"So, the fear hasn't killed your attraction for this body? Maybe it even heightens it? The adrenaline coursing through your veins, or not knowing what I could do to you at any moment? Does it make you want me? I'm more experienced than Zara, you know." She says half-teasingly, her arm around Abi.

[Reinholdt]

[Darker Corner]

"Zara's glad that Sasha likes it! You can keep it, too." She pipes happily. "Can Zara pet your head? She likes you." And she will, if Sasha allows it.

They eat some of Sasha's boxed ice-cream together, then Zara spots Abi in the distance, waiting for her. She gasps happily, and gets up on her feet. "Sasha, Zara needs to go and greet her girlfriend, but she will come back, I promise. If not now, then later, when Zara gives you your new cage."

Even though she'll most likely leave once she says goodbye, she'll be back for the gift exchange, though in what form depends on Abi.

[Darker Corner]

Sasha doesn't agree to pets but she doesn't stop them either! Mostly just confused because no one's petted her head before. She doesn't see many people get their head pet. But that doesn't have to stop Zara! Zara will find that Sasha's head is rather cold. Or at least the hooded cloak atop her head is cold, but presumably the head underneath is cold as well. Almost as cold as ice cream!

... Bad example. Seeing as how that ice cream's melted. Almost as cold as unmelted ice cream. Or just ice. Sasha's head would make lizards sleepy. Though her presence generally makes animals uncomfortable to begin with, so any lizard sleeping on Sasha's head almost certainly did so after losing a bet with its other lizard brethren.

A shadow tendril does rise up and wave when Zara leaves to speak with her girlfriend though. It was nice meeting you. Goodbye.

[Arkhosia]

Spoiler

Show

Mags and Blanche and Anika

Anika claps her hands excitedly, now actually curious. "Yeah, go ahead. Open it!"

Once Blanche gets to Anika's present she will find that the druid have picked a particularly sturdy cardboard box for the gift. It's not something she could could tear open. She will simply have to open it once she torn off the wrapping paper. However, once she opens it she will find it's filled with a lot of toilet paper, though its pretty clear that's not the actual gift as Anika still seems to be holding her breath while watching Blanche opening it. It will require Blanche to actually get into the box but once she's dug through a lot of toilet paper she will finally, at the bottom of the box, find a green knitted sweater that Anika clearly have made herself.

It's rather simple and a bit oversized but there is what appears to be a crude orange lion on the front with the text "KITTY WITH ATTITUDE" knitted in red underneath it. At this point, Anika peers down into the box. "You like it? Since the box is for you too! The cats back home always go crazy for this sort of stuff!"

Blanche and Anika - Blanika



Within the guitar case is not a guitar, which I'm sure isn't too surprising. What is in the case might be a little more unexpected, however. On top is a Beretta with a small tag attached, reading 'Enjoy your new Gamer Girl™ handgun!' I suppose that's one way to describe the hideously ugly design of that Beretta U22 Neos. Seriously, dear gods, this is the most awful and deliberately cringey firearm I've ever seen. Magtok has a real knack for absolutely atrocious Thanksmas presents, doesn't he? I mean damn, that's not-

Oh right, and there's also a perfectly normal and serviceable Remington 700 bolt action sniper rifle beneath it, taking up most of the space in the guitar case. 'Here's your real present. Don't lose this one,' the note chides her. Apparently someone heard about what happened to her old gun, somehow, and belatedly tried to do something to make up for that loss. It's probably a little late for that, given how long it's been since Blanche lost her gun, but it's the thought that counts, right?

Blanche and Anika - Meowdorei

There's a moment of confusion as Blanche eagerly opens the box to find a mess of toilet paper, but her expression swiftly blossoms into absolute delight as she digs up the homemade sweater, holding it close as she turns back to Anika. "H-holy [shist], I love it! Thanks a ton!" she almost squeaks out in surprise, pulling the taller woman into a very tight hug.

The catgirl pulls away with a chuckle at the last remark, glancing over at the box. "I wouldn't say I'm that catlike, but hey, maybe I'll surprise myself," she comments with a glance over to the box, briefly judging that she can't really slip on the new sweater over her current one and resigning to packing it away so she can carry both presents back home with more ease.

Moving over to the other gift she's received, Blanche raises an eyebrow initially, before her eyes light up when she spots the true gift and the message alongside. "And I'll have to treasure this one too," she comments fondly.

[Earl of Purple]

Zaabi

"No...? Why would my fear change how pretty you are?" Abi smiles slightly, a little reassured by the arm. The pink in her eyes goes stronger as Zara speaks, though it doesn't dispel the yellow- the pink is mostly replacing the brown and orange.

"Do I want you? Um... You're nearly my girlfriend. Share her body, at least. I... Zara can hear everything you hear, right?" Abi won't actually answer the question, not properly. Not if D-37 tries asking it again.

[Ashen Lilies]

[Elfsmas]

Cass grins, looking back over at Lucien and the wolves.
"Maybe that's so. He hasn't made a lot of friends yet, though, so maybe he just likes the attention."

"I don't know if he's ever had hot chocolate either, but I'm sure he'll love it. And Geneviève finds the wine here 'adequate', last I checked."
Infected by Thanksmas cheer as she is, she doesn't seem to notice or care that she apparently has included Geneviève in that 'family' comment.