In strictest accuracy, I would have flagged BOTH…and you need chocolates to tweak this cat. 
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The forum erupted with “I want my money back!” threads.
The whales were inconsolable. The newbies were thrilled.
“Oh sh-- … shoot.” @akionna eyed the hovering frying pan. “Mitsuko just told me she’s retiring!”
“What?” @nevarmaor gasped. “Let me check my roster–”
“Seshat and Margaret are leaving me!” @sleepyhead waved his phone frantically. “They’re joining your Mitsuko–”
“Help!” @CaptainjaKCsparrow appeared suddenly, clutching at Isarnia’s hand. “Why is my one true love trying to escape me?”
“My darling dearest.” Isarnia sighed. “You’re getting clobbered. I keep increasing your enemies’ defense.”
“How do we fix this?” @sft1965 floated into the conversation.
“Did Noor’s sparrows just carry you–” @nevarmaor blinked at nearly a hundred birds.
“Noor lost her power to spawn minions.” @sft1965 smiled. “They’re quite friendly actually.”
“I have a plan!” A very chirpy voice scattered the birds. “Let’s…”
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“… just wait it out!” giggled Sonya. “Then everyone will be happy again!”
“What do you… oh!” Sleepyhead snapped his fingers. “Duh, the effects are temporary. They should wear off any minute now…”
“Wow, that wasn’t at all ditzy!” @akionna sounded impressed. “Did you get buffed?”
Sonya just laughed and clapped. “I’m childlike, not dumb!”
Everyone waited for the effects to wear off. Proteus and Miki, in particular, were on their tippy toes.
“Is it going to happen now?” @sft1965 asked.
“Let me try…” Isarnia flicked her finger at @CaptainjaKCsparrow . He felt cold… then he flexed his core. Isarnia grabbed a stick and tapped it lightly.
“Barely felt that,” @CaptainjaKCsparrow said sadly. “You increased my defense. I guess I should be HAPPY you did, but…”"
“Why isn’t it temporary?” @nevarmaor scratched. “I only wanted to torment the bullies!”
“Because…” Hu Tao peered up from his notebook. “Because using imperfect copies of the gems turns them perfect. So the fake gems became real.”
“How do you know that!?” Proteus demanded, waving his handkerchief around limply.
“Marvel’s What If volume 2 issue 47.A,” Hu Tao replied flatly.
Everyone sighed. “What do we do now?” @Saphirra asked.
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“Come on!” Sonya yanked at her armor. “It’s stuck! And it’s too hot to wear all this metal on the beach.”
“Oh.” Proteus sighed. “I thought you had a plan.”
“Of course silly.” Sonya frowned. “I just …”
“Let me help.” @CaptainjaKCsparrow squirted oil all over her armor. “Now try.”
Well, the armor gave up after that. It practically slithered off the happy Paladin. Sonya flashed a grateful smile to @CaptainjaKCsparrow, rendering him speechless.
“My love.” Isarnia hissed. “Are you gawking?”
“I forgot she wears that skimpy Uniqlo bikini …” @CaptainjaKCsparrow gulped.
Isarnia shot some angry icicles at her one true love. He, unfortunately, did not feel a thing.
“She is surprisingly spectacular …” @sft1965 murmured to himself.
“We still have the gems, right?” Sonya placed her armor under a coconut tree. “Unless Miki ate them again?”
“My pouch is empty!” @sleepyhead gasped.
“Me too!” @nevarmaor groaned.
“What the–” @CaptainjaKCsparrow froze when the frying pan started trembling.
“I still have gems.” @Saphirra sounded surprised. “But I was going to save them for …”
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“… a 10-pull in Tavern of Legends!”
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“Don’t waste gems on that portal! Use only the legend coins for the summons!!”, yelled everyone else in unison!
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“I wish for a thousand Legend coins!”
Then @Saphirra smiled. He did as everyone asked. He would only use coins for Tavern of Legends. Now he might get Gravemaker or Hel …
His pouch shuddered. The gems twinkled before they disappeared for good.
A thousand coins fell from the sky while …
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Everyone started running for cover, those damned gold coins have some heft considering their relative value… And what do they do?
“Well if you performed one million summons hoping for the desired outcome it would be just 1300” thinks Hu Tao while referring to his notes.
But “I need a brainfood smoothy or some bamboo; this is getting hectic. Since when did I start improving heroes eyesight?”
“I am truly bamboozled by all of this”… But then suddenly…
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A giant smoothie landed gently in front of Hu Tao.
“Oh my.” Hu Tao clapped his hands. “The ultimate brain food!”
Everyone (with their improved eyesight) sighed collectively. At least someone was happy.
“So heavy!” @Saphirra groaned, dropping a coin. “How do I pick up a thousand of them?”
“Here you go.” @sft1965 offered his red wheelbarrow.
“But what is that?” @sleepyhead covered his eyes.
“What do you mean?” @sft1965 peered into the wheelbarrow.
Everyone gasped when …
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… they saw a fancy cake:
The cake floated to a nearby table, candles dancing and lighting up.
“Why are you covering your eyes @sleepyhead?” Hu Tao sipped his banana smoothie. “It’s just a cake for @CaptainjaKCsparrow .”
“I wasn’t looking at that cake.” @sleepyhead pointed helplessly. “See?”
“Happy birthday my dearest darling!” Isarnia popped out of the world’s largest cake. That was surprising enough. But it was Isarnia herself. She was wearing …
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Tight shorts, running shoes, and a running shirt. (The kind that clings and is not over the belly button).
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@CaptainjaKCsparrow knew what to do!
He immediately grabbed her by the waist.
Hu gasped. @nevarmaor closed @Saphirra’s eyes. (He is still a kid, remember. He should not see those tight shorts, running shoes, running shirt - the kind that clings… 
)
Something told them that @Rook must be headed in this direction.
@CaptainjaKCsparrow pulled Isarnia nearer.
@sleepyhead closed his own eyes.
Now everyone could sense @Rook approaching the location at rapid speed with a mountain pile of flags.
But @CaptainjaKCsparrow came prepared. He took out some mysterious boxes and laid them around in the vicinity. He had his contingency plan all laid out and ready.
He turned towards Isarnia, who stood in front of him in all her glory. She asked. “Where to? 
”
@Rook is right around the corner approaching warp speed.
He winked and said, "To. The. Moon. "
Proteus gasped in shock and closed Hu’s ears while closing his fin ears by folding them onto themselves.
Since @nevarmaor’s hands were closing @Saphirra’s eyes, @akionna and @sft1965 had to close @Saphirra’s ears from either side.
In the meantime, @Rook appeared in front of them - visibly short of breath from running at such pace.
And …the contingency plan was set in motion.
The boxes popped open - and landed in front of @Rook.
They had chocolate - lots of chocolate, dark, milk, white; belgian, swiss; cakes, pastries, milkshakes… you name it…
While @Rook was distracted, the couple escaped from there as Isarnia made a long ice ‘travelator’ using her powers that traveled far ahead into the distance. @CaptainjaKCsparrow turned around and shouted at the top of his voice - "Thank you so much for the wishes and this wonderful present everyone - @akionna, @Saphirra, @sleepyhead, @nevarmaor, @sft1965!!! And thank you for this wonderful present. " His voice trailed off as the couple rode off on a skiing motor bike on that long ice pathway.
@Rook was still busy deciding between which chocolate assortment to eat.
Noticing how powerful a distraction chocolate is to avoid flags, @akionna quickly grabbed some of it and hid it in her bag. “This is going to be useful in my next post. 
:”
In all seriousness, thank you so much for your wishes my writing buddies - @akionna, @sleepyhead, @nevarmaor, @sft1965, @Saphirra!! 
Cheers!! 
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Proteus spoke, @CaptainjaKCsparrow said they were going To. The. Moon. Isn’t that where Mother North and Santa went for their 2nd honeymoon?! Seems like so long ago…but what if Isarnia and @CaptainjaKCsparrow interrupt them? They so want to be alone. There could be trouble…"
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“The moon? Maybe that’s what @CaptainjaKCsparrow promises Isarnia” Proteus thinks to himself, “Mother North and Santa? Preposterous… but wait, it does make sense!!! This is going to take some serious thought” as he mops his brow with the ever reliably hankey…
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“Where is Hu Tao when you need him” thinks Proteus?
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What was actually happening was beyond their wildest dreams. Up on the moon Santa and Mother North were indeed up there. And they let Isarnia and @CaptainjaKCsparrow bunk on the dark side of the moon so those tw0 could have some…privacy
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Isarnia and @CaptainjaKCsparrow snuggled on their moon rock sofa. It wasn’t the most comfortable, but at least they were alone.
“It’s so dark my love.” Isarnia sighed, shooting icicles in random directions.
“There’s only one thing to do …” @CaptainjaKCsparrow wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.
“Get me out of here?” Buddy peeked from behind the sofa. “This helmet is squeezing my head … and it reeks!”
Isarnia jumped in dismay. “Are you spying on us?”
“Never!” Buddy squeezed his eyes shut. “Please cover your belly button.”
Isarnia sniffed, sending ice shards at the poor elf. It cracked his helmet in half, falling away, the weird smell finally gone.
“I will give you all these gems I found.” Buddy opened his sack. “See? The pile keeps growing.”
“Huh.” @CaptainjaKCsparrow squinted thoughtfully. “Everyone’s been looking for those.”
“I will give you all of them!” Buddy looked over his shoulder in panic. “Just build one of those ice travelators please.”
“Fine.” Isarnia flicked her wrist, ice slabs forming and stacking, descending toward earth. “Just bring the gems back to @sleepyhead. He’ll know what to do.”
Buddy hopped on the travelator, ecstatic to make his escape. He had just enough time to delete the video from the server. No one would ever know …
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@sft1965 appears and points out that this no ordinary piece of moon sofa. It is actually a piece of the Moon’s primordial crust but the protest falls on deaf ears; (apparently in space no one can hear you wax eloquent).
Sadly for Buddy he is so out of luck; Isarnia didn’t give him the full package and his escape just plonks him at the other end of the glacial travelator minutes after the action is over. But wait? Do @CaptainjaKCsparrow and @akionna have something in play??
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Poor Buddy, hanging off the edge of the melting travelator. He should have asked Isarnia for a complete build. He wished he had.
Just like that, the travelator morphed into a finished product … and Buddy found himself sliding down the icy bridge.
“Whee!” Buddy was thrilled. He was going too fast, but he didn’t care.
He crashed into a coconut tree. The sack went flying, gems spilling everywhere. Buddy started cleaning up, wishing he wore something else. It was too hot!
“Buddy!” @sft1965 picked up a few gems. “What are you wearing?”
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