It's the season of GIFTS GIFTS GIFTS

[indigo_league]

With Christmas scooting ever closer, it's time to start thinking about the real reason for the season and that is gifts. Yes, yes, joy to all, peace on earth etc etc, but deep down what we all want to do is tear some wrapping paper off boxes and be dazzled by the contents.

In order to keep things a bit organised, we'll be putting this up as a central gift-giving post, and it will feature three things.

★★ Arceus' gift As many of you long term players might already know, Arceus tends to drop a few gifts on the people he has brought here on Christmas day. And this year is no different! These gifts will be revealed on December the 25th, so please check back then to see what your character will be receiving. And yes, these gifts will go out to all. Arceus doesn't judge. Maybe he should, but he doesn't. ★★ Secret Santa Though these gifts won't officially be delivered until the 25th, this post will also feature a thread where you can post up the gifts your character has gotten their Secret Santa recipient. Feel free to start posting these up as soon as this post goes up (we are not going to make you wait) ★★ Your gifts And finally, your gifts! If your character is the kind to get their friends a bunch of things, feel free to use this post to distribute the offerings. Much easier than hitting up a bunch of inboxes! If you would rather distribute your characters' gifts individually in various inboxes, feel free to do so! This post is merely an option for people who'd like to keep things in one central location.

Now with that all out of the way, let us take a moment to wish you all a very Merry Christmas (or, at the very least, a nicely adequate Thursday if you don't celebrate). 2020 has been Quite the year, and I don't think any of us could've predicted it turning out this way. (Turns out none of us had 20-20 vision). But we've made it through and while the times are still somewhat uncertain and unforeseen, we nevertheless hope it will all be looking up from here on out for all of us.

We want to thank you all for being such lovely players and for having contributed to the game as you did! Thank you for ruining baseball, for coming to Sinnoh with us, for Prom being Prom yet again, for submitting so many badge requests and for slipping in every app that you did.

And onwards to 2021, another year for pokemon shenanigans and nonsense!

Comments

Secret Santa

[indigo_league]

For...Romelle!

[cyan_maid]

Jane is Romelle's Secret Santa!

While Jane doesn't know her, that doesn't mean the gift she sends is lacking. A large box delivered by Pidgey Post contains the following:

- Cookies marked as safe for people and Pokemon to eat
- A hat and scarf set from the Goldenrod Christmas Market with a card to the maker's PokeEtsy shop
- A set of 10 Ultra Balls

[vrdantwind]

Claude is Dirk Strider's Secret Santa, to my UNENDING DELIGHT.

Thanks to advice from a certain someone, the small box Dirk gets by Pidgey Post contains...this. Of course, it's modeled after a Mudsdale. En...joy...?

Claude may have laughed for five straight minutes after finding this.

For............ Cassandra???

[uncutetomboy]

So. For whatever reason, the Delibirds decided that it was the absolute best idea to give Akane her current traveling companion as her recipient. This... made things a little more difficult, because now she had to hide the making of her Secret Santa project from Cassanda, which she did not quite manage to do. On the other hand, she managed not to tell Cassandra who it was for when she got caught out at it and ended up getting some ideas for an extra thing to include in the present... so that's good, right?

Anyway, Cassandra is getting:

-- A lumpy, ugly handknitted scarf with the letter 'C' embroidered in the corner, made of silver yarn threaded with gold

BUT ALSO

-- Knitting needles of her own, along with a crochet hook, some pretty colored yarn, and a pamphlet explaining how to knit

and

-- A very basic wood-carving kit!

Akane wants to support her friend's new interest in making stuff!

For Jaskier!

[cometkin]

Greg got pretty lucky in that he'd already met his Secret Santa, at least in passing. So while he doesn't know a lot about Jaskier, he knows enough to get him:

-- some cool ukulele sheet music
-- blank sheet music for him to record his own music onto
-- and most importantly ale

[schachmeister]

Armin is Chip's Secret Santa!

They will be receiving a box which contains

★ 1 Magnet with a note explaining what it does and that they should definitely try equipping it to their Espcheep Pikachu
★ The first three volumes of a comic that is popular with The Young Folk. It's about a trainer called Vermillion who is starting off on their pokemon journey and along the way battles Team Rocket, Gym Leaders, gods, all the regular poke-journey stuff. The art is very colourful and dynamic, which cleverly hides the fact that deep down, the comic actually contains a lot of good strategy advice for starting trainers.
★ A small tin full of various gummy candies. Please snack responsibly and brush your teeth!

For Greg Universe!

[failgoyle]

Jules ended up with Greg Universe for his giftee, and the main gift here is of a handmade, kludged-together handheld gaming system containing two games. The first, Parapurr the Espurr, is a rhythm game Jules definitely did not pirate from who-knows-where, and the second is...of course that seminal classic...HounDoom. It also includes more super definitely legal instructions on how to obtain more games that are definitely not also pirated.

There is also a plastic Stantler figurine that poops out jellybeans when you press its head because Jules is very classy and funny this way.

For Ryner Lute!

[carbonatedscientist]

Sento's Secret Santa giftee is Ryner Lute, who will be receiving one (1) robotic Galvantula because why shop when you're perfectly capable of building small handheld robots all on your own? The Galvantula can follow basic commands in perhaps an overly literal sense and is more of a toy than anything of actual use.

Please handle the switch marked "Taser Mode" with care.

For Shadowmaru!

[uber_marionettist]

Dirk is Shadowmaru's Secret Santa!

Dirk has no real clue what his recipient is like, but the name made him think of a JRPG or anime dog, like one of those sidekick-slash-player characters.

With that in mind, he snagged a Snarl TM while at the Christmas Market (nevermind that he was, in fact, robbing it at the time.)

There's also a chalkboard with an adjustable pink ribbon so it can be hung around the necks of Shadowmaru's friends and Pokemon, a selection of coloured chalk, and a note explaining the old Earth social media phenomenon of 'petshaming.'

For > Runaan

[hellablue]

Greetings, mortal!

Thou hast pleased the Dragon Goddess of Christmas and she hath seen fit to bestow upon you a most remarkable gift, to you and only you. Within this holy package you will find treats! Treats that hath been made with only the most dank, divine godly kush.

THE DRAGON GODDESS HAS SPOKEN. MERRY DANKMAS. RAWR.

[Runaan will be receiving a gift basket wrapped in firey red wrapping paper, filled with baked goods infused with persim zest, a few little baggies of various persim samplers and, finally, a small corked phial of Gloom Juice simply labeled ominously "the good stuff".]

Rose Quartz-Universe!

[hurricane_clown]

Karako Pierot's Secret Santa recipient is Rose Quartz/Universe!

Karako got some help from Robert E. Speedwagon and filled a gift basket with a wide selection of novelty snacks for people and exotic berries for Pokemon. Some of the people-intended snacks are a bit odd, like there are lollipops with shed bug Pokemon exoskeletons inside. They're all safely edible, though.

He's also tied a dozen or so holiday-coloured balloons to basket with ribbons (seriously confounding the bird Pokemon tasked with delivery, let me tell you), but... uh, due to some cultural misunderstandings, the balloons are actually filled with toxic Koffing gas. So... try not to pop them.

[spacebaloney]

Lance is Chloe Price's Secret Santa!

As he had no idea who this was, he needed to do a little investigating through the network, in hopes his nosy nature could find out what Chloe liked. While it's probably not what she likes, Lance definitely saw a need in one of her posts and decided to address that. Her gift contains a nice bath set so she can scrub down and wash the newbie grodiness away while staying blessed and highly moisturized. Also included is a giftcard to Goldenrod Department store because as he watched the video, Lance thinks Chloe's hat needs to be set aflame.

For Claudia!

[almosthandsome]

Jack was Claudia Kishi's Secret Santa! And he did his best.

- A gift basket of Pokemon themed bath bombs shaped like Pokeballs. Each one has a little Pokemon trinket inside.
- A hot cocoa and mug combo pack

For Akane

[machismost]

After his oh-so subtle ( not ) attempt at getting his mysterious Secret Santa's attention on the network failed, Kirishima had to come up with a gift idea that anyone would probably like. Something for sure to do with her name because hers only happens to be related to the best color ( in his opinion )... After some time spent thumbing through baking books at the library, turns out? Red velvet cookies are actually just chocolate with food dye. He doesn't have to plead with his manager too hard to make use of the dive bar kitchen when things are slow.

So Akane Tendo receives a shockingly heavy-duty, bright red bento box, inside of which is nestled:

- TM Protect
- Red and green cookies, the red being red velvet and the green being matcha-flavored.

Judging by the lack of uniformity in size, quantity (there are maybe like 3 matcha cookies and 5 red velvet ), and some light singe marks, it's obvious someone made these themselves. Kirishima likes to think of them as the best-looking survivors. Perhaps the TM was less to protect and more to cover his shame as a novice baker.

[lordofthefries]

Sasha is Jane Crocker's Secret Santa!

This was a very hard one to shop for Sasha as she doesn't know Jane at all and none of the people Sasha knows seem to know Jane either. So Sasha did what she does best: food.

Jane gets a basket of meat because who doesn't like meat? (Vegetarians? What are those? Sasha doesn't know them.) Also included in the gift is a dozen Pokepuffs baked by Sasha herself because Pokemon gotta eat too!

[epitaffio]

Doppio is Lance's Secret Santa!

Since he didn't know him at all, he had to do some digging - which is to say, he asked Steven who then asked Thace and ultimately directed Doppio to Shiro. In the end, and in the spirit of appeasing the Delibirds while also offering something Lance will hopefully like, he settled on...

A bottle of ocean-scented body lotion? Like, you rub it on your body and it makes you smell like the sea? Huh. Well, the sea does smell nice, so hopefully it works for people too! Merry Christmas, Lance.

For handsome-but-not-in-that-way Jack

[nastyboy]

That's right, Dimitri is Jack's secret santa! Which works out really well for him, because he already knows what Jack likes, or at least what he needed in recent days: booze.

But not just any booze! It's a six pack, with each individual bottle done up in its own little bottle cozy... done up like an ugly Christmas sweater.

(Dimitri doesn't really get it, but he told this sort of thing was very festive, so... Sure??)

But not satisfied with just that, this booze also comes with its own drinking game: a box of jenga. Instead of plain blocks, however, each block has something written on it - Drink twice, Girls drink, Flying Type drink. There are even handy instructions included on what to do for certain blocks. A lot of them including drinking according to what Pokemon types the group has on their person, for example.

Dimitri included a small card with a winter themed Rattata, and simply wrote: Jack, you do not have to pay me back for this one. Dimitr.

For Kiri!

[ohmylord]

Claudia got Kiri and luckily, she'd already met the cute little girl so she had an idea of what to get her. Or rather, what to make her.

After the Secret Santa assignments went out, Claudia went to everyone she knows with bird pokemon and asked for shed feathers! And also to the day care! And then she filled in what she couldn't get directly from pokemon from the arts and crafts store and basically, Kiri will be receiving homemade costume wings! We're assuming a handwaved in-person meeting happened at some point so she can have an idea of how long Kiri's arms are.



... also, a Level 59 Ditto named Copycat that she caught near the Daycare a few months ago and hasn't yet used for breeding project. Because every Breeder needs a Ditto and she suspects Kiri would take forever finding one of her own otherwise.

For Kirishima!

[philoxenia]

So Mira doesn't really know Kirishima well, but goshdarn it, she's tried her best. He gets, delivered by Pidgey Post....

- A voucher for a free egg whenever she really gets into the breeding biz! (It's just a piece of paper explaining that she's new and doesn't have a lot right now, but when she does, she's got him.)
- A dozen cookies, of all different flavors (two of each, which have been baked by her)--strawberry lemonade, chocolate chip, sugar (decorated like a Pokeball!), pumpkin, lime shortbread, and snickerdoodle.
- A dozen Pokepuffs, also baked by her, for his Pokemon to enjoy.
- A very warm and very soft black and red scarf.
- And a card wishing him happy holidays!

For Scorpia!

[lifebloomsanew]

Rose was Scorpia's Secret Santa! After doing what research she could, Rose came to the conclusion that Scorpia really likes cute Pokemon and rolled with that!

Scorpia will recieve:

A Bewear-themed winter hat and mittens set and an Eevee teapot with a selection of sweet teas! And a little box of holiday themed Pokemon treats for her Pokemon.

For Claude!

[captainash]

Ash is Claude von Riegan's Secret Santa!

He sends over this lovely set of collapsible storage cubes, containing...

- 20 Hyper Potions, each with its own little yellow bow...
- 3 nuggets, with a note saying "Emergency funds, easy to pawn"...
- ...and a very special puzzle!

For Geralt!

[fingersandteeth]

Steven, no slouch in the detective department, fairly quickly sleuthed out who to ask about his Secret Santa and luckily Jaskier was happy to make a number of present suggestions on behalf of his best friend in the world, Geralt. The two that really caught Steven's attention were 'knives' and 'dice' but since the Pokeworld isn't such a great place for weapon shopping, Steven decided to go with the later suggestion. After all, he does know quality dice, even better than he knows weapons.

So Geralt will be recieving:

-- a set of four steel six-sided dice for gambling
-- and a small bag of nickel four-sided dice (aka caltrops) for gambling/strewing on the floor to hurt people's feet

For Shinobu Tsukuyomi

[tearsofademon]

Ryner is Shinobu Tsukuyomi's Secret Santa!

It's a relatively large box, but the majority of it is taken up by a quilt with an Eeveelution design. It is the softest, comfiest, and warmest quilt Ryner could find - and he knows a thing about blankets and quilts.

There are also two small tins of home-baked cookies, fit to be eaten by both people and Pokemon. They are labeled neatly as to which batch has nuts and which one does not.

And finally, in their own little box at the top, there are also a pair of TMs: one copy of Hidden Power, and one copy of Thunderbolt.

For Captain Ash!

[bent_the_world]

Korra was Captain Ash's Secret Santa!

And the gift that will be delivered:

A large gift box of Pokemon healing items and treats, a leather bound journal with the words 'Training Journal' in gold on the front - the pages have listings for recording battle stats and progress - and a package of holiday themed cake pops.

For Takashi Shirogane

[un_oiseau_rebelle]

Shinobu doesn't actually know Shiro, so he had to do some discreet asking around. The result of this is that Shiro is the recipient of a trio of space-pattered Hawaiian shirts (Shinobu has Questions about this, but if that's what Shiro really likes...) and a book of space photographs. There is also a small painting of the night sky over Sinnoh, done completely from memory and accurate to the smallest detail, because eidetic memory is occasionally useful.