(This is a one-off post for people to give presents to Angela!)

They had dragged her out of her workspace by force. Did her makeup and her hair. She looked even better than normal so she thought. “What’s this about?” She had lost track of time but Nerezza held her hand. Nerezza had white hair with gold eyes looking much like a mix between Angela and Nemesis.

“Nevermind Mama, just try to relax okay?” Nerezza put a blindfold around her face and led her. Angela was wracking her mind about what it could be. What honestly could they be doing for her? She was blanking on some spectacular thing though as she was lead into the structure that Shiloh had made.

Angela’s ears heard hundreds upon hundreds of heartbeats and breaths. Nerezza let the blindfold go and Angela’s eyes got wide. “HAPPY 1721ST BIRTHDAY LADY ANGELA!” The crowds roared at her as she slunk a bit out of shock as she went onto the ground.

"Lady Shiloh helped decorate… Ma are you okay?"

How on earth did they find out her secret? She hadn’t celebrated her birthday since she became a god. The night of her sixteenth birthday she had ascended and killed her first child. There was rage for a moment as it shook the ground and everything around them but she was taken back by a small hand that took hers. Green eyes moved to see Emry standing there. The toddler was getting pretty big and looked much like her mother Nerezza except with blue eyes. “Gramama?” The shaking stopped as soon as Angela heard her granddaughter's voice.

“What is Emry?” Angela was in shock but honestly she wasn’t prepared for what Emry had to tell her.

“Get over it,” Emry blinked and Nerezza’s mouth dropped over.

“What? Do you even know what you are asking me to do Emmy?” Angela was about ready to have an adult conversation with this tiny child right in front of everyone. “Do you know what I lost?”

“Have us,” Emmy nodded with dominance as she lifted her hands up and took Angela’s face to look at all of the children she had. “Don’t matter no mo.” She poked at her grandmother’s heart. “We here now! We matter NOW! Get over it!” She might not have understood why Angela was sad but she knew what made her happy.

Angela took a few minutes of shock before she started to laugh, “From the mouth of babes. Who made you so honest?”

“Someone have be,” Emmy said with a straight face as she motioned to everyone else. Angela laughed hard and picked up her grandchild. Nerezza motioned her to a chair with lots of tables nearby.

“What’s this?”

“A present table Ma. Like the ones you always get for us for our birthday parties… Come on we’re not lame,” Nerezza shook her head and chuckled. “Feeling better yet?”

“…I’ll get there… Emmy told me to get over it,” Angela laughed a bit and Emmy nodded as she hugged herself to her grandmother.

“Start a line and present your gifts if you have them!” Nerezza waved her arms and motioned to where she wanted the line to start.

“Thank you, everyone, for coming and I’m sorry for my shock and anger earlier!” Angela said happily as she positon Emry on her lap to receive the presents from her guests.

It was a party. While she had been to many large-scaled ones before, Luna had never heard of one on this scale before. Flour and sugar shortages had made it quite difficult for daily bread to be produced, and things got a bit dicey for the giants. But she didn't want to miss such a major occasion as to celebrating a goddess's birthday. She spent the next few days trying to figure out what to give the goddess of life and love.

Days crept by without any luck. Until one day, she saw a child prancing down the street with the most intriguing thing adorning her head. While the pixie was sure the goddess could create something this simple with a snap, she believed that she should have a crown to celebrate with. It took two days to get the vines to work right, to grow each flower to bloom just so. Blue flowers grew in on either side of the crown toward the front. Small purple wildflowers sprung out between the main florals. A splash of green leaves for additional color.

The whole thing would wrap gently around the goddess's head, coming together almost magically in the back where small blue and white flowers tipped the ends of the vines that hung down. Luna carefully put her creation in a pink box, sprinkled it with some pixie magic for a glittery effect before closing the box, tied it shut with a white ribbon, and got dressed. She sat with her present in a nearby tree, watching the goddess as she was greeted by too many giants to count. The child who stood up to a goddess pulled a smile from the pixie.

As Nerezza waved her arms and motioned, Luna began to work her magic. Thin vines sprouted at the base of the tree, snaking up to gently take the gift from where it rest. Her pink box was guided by the vines until it rested at the very front of the table closest to the goddess. Tucked under the ribbon was a note that read "A crown from one mother to another. May it bring you happiness today."

It had been a long time since Mira had first met the kindly red-haired lady in Endapano. When the world was in chaos and big insects attacked, she was the first person the young girl met who could speak in her language. She was the first person she had met whom she associated with the word 'mother'. While Mira didn't know the party being held today was for Angela, when she saw the goddess from her spot in the line, her purplish-blue eyes lit up. While other people had colorfully wrapped boxes with ribbon or objects that were made of precious materials, all the child had to offer was a pretty shell she found on the beaches of Onnen in her travels. Collecting shells was something Mira loved, but this one was special. It was more beautiful than any other one she had picked up, shaped like a nautilus' but with rounded spikes on the outside. Its striking lines and form made it stand out from the smooth spirals and ridged scallops. Not to mention, it was as big as a grapefruit! Finding such a large seashell without any damage was a miracle in itself.

When a lady motioned for her to come forward, Mira's dark curls swept behind her as she ran up towards the red-haired lady. Carefully putting her precious orb on the ground, she searched her pockets until she pulled out her special seashell. With a smile, the child held it up to the goddess. "¡Un regalo para ti!" It wasn't as fancy as other gifts, but it was filled to the brim with sincerity. With her gift properly presented, the young girl went over to the table where people left their presents behind and carefully set the large shell on top. Retrieving her crystal orb, she waved at the nice lady with the little girl on her lap and ran off. 

While Shiloh had been largely absent for the duration of the festivities, at last she arrived to give Angela the side project she had been obsessing over while the colossal cake was undergoing construction. She had managed to clean herself up after crawling out of the box she had fallen asleep in, and had a covered bell jar under her arm. The dark circles were still deeply visible around her eyes, and she still looked a bit haggard. Coming forward, she presented the gift wordlessly before placing it on the table. Pulling the heavy silk cloth off the glass, inside was an unusual plant specimen. Small bellflower-shaped blooms with petals the color of the cosmos were speckled with flecks of white. "It took me forever to make this." She said, finally speaking up. She wasn't nearly close to the red-headed woman's skill when it came to creating life. Just this one plant alone had taken hours upon hours of redoing for the sake of symmetry, color intensity, and the distribution of the flecks. Handing the elder goddess a crisp white card, inside was written a short summary of what this plant was supposed to be.

Shiloh then left, blending back into the crowds as the next gift-giver in line was allowed to step up. Still feeling exhausted from planning this grand event, she found herself a quiet isolated alcove and went back to sleep. When it was time to cut the cake and bring the ceremony to a close, she'd reappear to wrap things up.

Serafina did not know exactly how Angela felt about her, nor did she know entirely how she felt about Angela. There was no way to explain it – there were no words to explain just how complicated the relationship between the two could potentially be. There was always a part of Serafina that was going to love Nemesis, and that part was never going to go away. It was a different kind of love now, than it had been. But, Angela was something else for Nemesis, something that had been a long time coming. Serafina knew she could never be that something, and it was for this reason alone that she did not resent either of them.

When the announcement came that a birthday celebration was going to be held for Angela, Serafina was a bit worried. She didn’t know how she would handle it, unsure of what sort of gift to give her, and of how to present it – what she did know, however, is that she would most certainly have to present a gift. How would it look if she didn’t? Though she was not entirely concerned about appearances, she knew as well as anyone else how important it was to be cordial with her fellow gods – and, there was a part of her that wanted to be friends with Angela. She just wasn’t sure if Angela wanted that as well.

After much thought, Serafina had decided on a small trinket for the elder goddess. It was nothing more than a smallish sized wolf carved out of obsidian from the depths of Inferos itself, with two glimmering rubies for its eyes. Of course, it was directly correlated to the Volkovs and the vaewolf race, but it was intricately crafted and utterly beautiful to behold. It did not have any magical properties, but Serafina had a feeling that Angela would like it nevertheless.

And so, the goddess made her way to the celebration, waiting her turn to present Angela with the gift she had created for her. When it came her turn, nothing elaborate was said or done. Instead, Serafina simply presented her with the gift. As she offered her the obsidian wolf, her lips parted as though she wished to say something but immediately thought better of it. Instead, she gave her a rather awkward smile. ”Happy birthday, Lady Angela,” she said, her voice taking on an incredibly formal tone. ”I hope that your life brings you continued happiness,” she added quickly, bowing her head in a sign of respect. It was completely out of her character to be behaving in the manner she was, and she was well aware of it. As soon as the gift was in Angela’s hands, she hurried away, making a mental note that she would need to go visit Angela on her own some time, where perhaps the two could talk.