Christmas in July | Santa Update

Corpse Desperation - Soul Keeper
With her ability to export Souls in order to create her garden, Santa is also capable of general manipulation of these individual components. Whether this takes the form of separating souls to create a new being, or taking in portions of the souls of others such that she can keep track of the original no matter where they are. The creation of one of these framgents takes a Week, Six days for the collection of souls inside her to form a consciousness and individuality, and then another 24 hours to fully sever them from her soul. (Story Ability).


Corpse Desperation - Sanctuary

his ability allows Santa to create large structures from Bone grown in her garden. These structures can be used to generate large structures of Bone and by infusing a portion of her soul in them, she can not only provide Shelter, but obscure any spiritual energy within by blanketing it in her own spiritual signature. Something like a small shed can be made immediately, however with enough time and energy, she can create structures as grand as Cathedrals in the human world over the course of a week. Santa can only produce one structure at a time. These structures can last indefinitely at the expense of the souls and energy not returning, requiring that she consume hollows to replenish them.



Soul Keeper - Learned from her interactions with Mazda, in accepting a piece of his soul, giving him a fragment of her own, and then hiding the piece he'd given her in the Valley of Screams.
Sanctuary - Learned from Ajora who used the ability to store and hide Algos's remains and the energy left behind from the demon comiting suicide and separating her powers from the remnant. This was used later by Santa to hide away the fragment of Mazda's soul that remained after Mazda sacrificed the rest of himself.

Old Ability:

Corpse Desperation - The manifestation of her Aspect of Death: Desperation. Her power manifests in the sheer will and ferocity with which she seeks out what she wants. This power causes her to shed the souls that she consists of and radiate them into the air around her. Any surface that is exposed to this radiation causes a rapid and horrific growth and flesh, bone, muscle and all manner of bodily material grows rapidly in the form of limbs, torsos, heads, but generally whatever is most suited for the action that is warranted as copies of her body grow like weeds out of her environment and swarm the object of her attention. Of course, this is not a careful and slow process, this is a rushed, feverish flood and as such these replicas of her are often missing things like skin, eyes, vital organs, and other bits that are not necessary for the mass of flesh, limbs, and teeth to perform whatever task Santa has in mind. While this process CAN be directed it is incredibly hard for Santa to stop or slow it down, and it can even happen automatically outside of her control. Even her normal ceros and bala are corrupted by this radiation and it is not uncommon for these obscene growths to form in the wake of these attacks. While she is not subject to pain, she IS still connected to this growth allowing her to sense through what sensory organs grow in the mess and she can even be poisoned or otherwise negatively effected by violations of her spirit through these growths.

New Ability:

Desperation: Corpse Garden

A Manifestation of Santa's Aspect of Death: Desperation. The Souls that make up Santa's soul aren't just inside her, but exist as circulating radiation around her, saturating the area around her, such that by focusing, she can cause that energy to latch onto her surroundings and cause flesh to grow infused with the souls, resulting in a garden of flesh, bone, and any other bodily tissues as Santa's body infects the world around her. This can form anything from hands, heads, eyes, mouths, or just "copies" of her physical body, though in actuality these are not separate entities but extensions of her, and thus like Puppets, don't operate without her focus and will, which can give the illussion that she is copying herself.

Whenever a portion of the garden leaves the radiation field around her by default the garden breaks down and the souls and energy used returns to Santa. However, if Santa wishes, they can linger as static structures though she maintains awareness of them at the cost of not regaining the energy that was expended to form them, and thus Santa would need to recover the energy that was expended, because of this, Santa will frequently consume hollows to replenish the number of souls in her body, though this does result in an overall increase of the souls that are a part of hers.

ON the negative side of this. This means that Santa is beholden to whatever is done to these souls. Since she is connected to them, Santa can technically be poisoned or afflicted with negative abilities by those interacting with portions of her garden. Additionally, her Garden cannot grow unless she is physically present, the exception to which is that attacks such as Cero or Bala can also infect nearby material with that energy.

Changes due to her increased control and utilizations.

At the very beginning, Santa has always struggled with the control of her powers. Often accidentally summoning her Garden (Her personal term to refer to her Corpse Desperation ability) whenever she was excited or was carried away. But even in these early days, she still always was adaptive. Summoning her Garden not just to adapt to a perceived threat, but also using it to adapt , such as using a combination of her garden and her unique regeneration to give herself wings and a tail.(2) Not only this but she had new friends that helped her to try and control her garden so that she didn't release it so recklessly (4).

Early in her experience, she very quickly gained reasons to begin growing. One of the first that implanted itself into her mind was Mazda (5). With one of her newfound friends Algos she'd come to grow close to (3), she found out that her new associate was someone of greater importance and infamy than she expected. When going to earth to enjoy a time at the grand canyon, the Vandenreich arrived, and at their head, Mazda the god of the Vandenreich so enforced that Algos was not welcome. Thus did he paint himself as a target to santa. Able to sense that this man had what may as well be a continent of energy above her own, she still found a purpose brewing inside of her: to punch this man in the face and for him to feel it. A desire so strong that the unholy strength she garnered bled into the resulting individuals that split off from her (Ajora and Verdada). Though some other instances existed, in which she encountered individuals she felt disdain for and thus determined to overcome (8), Mazda was the focalpoint as he stood as a barrier to what she wanted. And a number of her friends sought to help her grow(9), even if all of them didn't start out as friends (10).

Thankfully she had help. Early on, and even later in her development, she met and began to bond with an Ex Espada- Tier Harribel, whom she promptly grew incredibly fond of and began to train with. And to this she owes a tremendous amount of her growth. Not just in pushing her, but serving as something to compare and aspire to. The Shark that seemed to hold similar desires for the world around them, but whom insisted that one needed the power to enact and protect the world they would one day create(6). But perhaps just as important as the training, Santa and Tier grew personally closer, and Santa developed more romantic feelings (11), but it would not last.

However, this would not be the only jarring experience from the encounter on earth. Following the expulsion from America, Algos came to recognize Santa's desire for power and began with her own...unique ideology of how to strengthen someone. Not only briefly testing the woman's capabilities, but ultimately using her power to force to the surface the very Root of Santa's power and existence. Unintentionally stirring a sleeping core: Ajora, Santa's Original self, while similarly forcing to the surface the core of Desperation she had originally been born as an arrancar with. (8)

Santa, naturally, did not fully understand Ajora's existence and ultimately treated her like a sister (12) (14). But that would come back to bite her. Ajora was an old, intelligent creature, a far cry from the gentle simple soul that was Santa. The first obstruction she identified was Algos, and so, she dealt with this obstruction. Through her clever words and heartfelt appeals, she convinced the terror of the demon realm to willingly rip herself from her power and ultimately extinguish herself.(13)

I addition to this, she helped to further foster feelings of inadequacy in Santa herself. Speaking with Tier in regards to the state of the world, as well as the situation against Mazda which served as a constant perceived barrier to her dreams. This too was an instrument of isolation, as confronting Tier with their ideals resulted in the espada losing her composure and drawing her sword on the pair of them. While the exchange ended without any violence it still severely damaged the way Santa saw Tier. Further instilling a sense of isolation. Which would only come to grow worse. (14)

In addition to convincing Algos to kill herself, by severing Santa's connection to Tier, and by sheer coincidence, with Calypso committing suicide, Santa found herself entirely alone. She could not sense the new Algos, and Calypso vanished without a trace. Unaware of what it was that had caused her friends to expire, Santa went to the only being who she knew could sense her friends. Her very own hated Mazda. However, there was nothing for him to find. And in her Anguish, she reached out for a shoulder to try on in the very man she had intended to destroy for her friends. And perhaps to the surprise of many, Mazda accepted her. Not only this, but offered purpose to her. But she refused it, and instead showed the light of her determination in reaching her goals without someone guiding her. As a result, Mazda found himself enamored, and Santa found the feeling was mutual. Lots of banging later, the Almighty Mazda bequeathed Santa with a portion of his soul, such that they would forever be connected. (15)

Following this, she began to mend her emotions and try to push forward. She wound up confronting Tier and while her feelings did not return to what they once were, she came to better terms with why Tier had acted as she had. (16)

But once again, she would suffer. Despite all of her precautions, she would once again lose someone dear to her. Using the piece of his soul that he had given her, she managed to communicate with the remaining vestiges of Mazda's personality and came to realize that Mazda had chosen to sacrifice himself to mend the worlds. Once again robbed of those dear to her, she found herself drowning in the throes of despair. Tempted to cling to what was left of her beloved in the dark and let the world fade around her. But in the end, this served as further motivation to push forward. Leaving Mazda's soul in a cathedral made from her soul in the Valley of Screams, she decided to focus on achieving her dream even without him. (17)

Following this, she finally managed to fully and completely control her Garden, and as a result, gained access to portions of her soul that Ajora had been hiding from her, namely Verdada, and the knowledge that Ajora had had a hand in Algos's suicide. She then wound up severing Ajora and Verdada from her soul and left them weakened as their own individual beings while questioning Mana. (18)

Folowing this, she pushed herself towards not just improving herself, but also improving her understanding of the human world. She mended her connection with tier (19) and managed to make new friends (20)(22). As well as some quasi-enemies (21).

Amidst this she has begun to solidify what it is that she wants. Whether in conversations with others, or more directly as she came to think about what it means to change the world in the manner that she desired. Not only did she have to change the way other races saw her kind if there was any chance of coexistence, she also needed to be vigilant for those who might worsen the existing friction between races.

Thus, she rekindled her training with Tier (24), and has focused on developing herself. Not only in strength, but in her ability to be personable and make connections with others.