who will be coming?

[small_magics]

Aianon has made a plant in the open airless space above the surface of Thilanushinyel. It is a very, very large plant - some dragons will be attending the party, after all, even if Ansharil in particular is going to be assorted small things and stay on Sarion's person the bulk of the time.

The locals will be Sarion, her beloveds, their other beloved, the five conjured dragons (and their Bondmates, where applicable: Virgivere and Lissa), and Liselen - Magania has, as usual, declined, and so far no Bell party has featured Bell parents.

Amariah is bringing her boyfriend and spontaneous daughter and two of the spontaneous daughter's friends, as well as an Alethian instance of the Rupert template.

Shell Bell is bringing Pearl and Screwdriver.

Golden is bringing her usual large contingent, as usual not including her husband but including her daughter and daughter's grown fosterling (the other remaining at home) and his wolf, both mothers-in-law and one father-in-law, adopted siblings, staff members including the Joker and Nathan, and the children of the aforementioned.

Glass is bringing both wives, all three daughters, Kanim, and her cat. She invited Icarin and Valeria, but their parents are not willing to let them gallivant into other worlds unsupervised and had a scheduling conflict.

Stella's bringing a smattering of people including Alice, Anna, Sandy, Libby, Bridget, her college roommate Janine, and Lazarus.

Tab is bringing Aelise (but not Kers) and Luhan.

Etty is bringing only Nona.

Aether, likewise, brings no one but Celo.

Pattern comes with Ripper, Slipstick, Queenie, and Ghosty.

Aegis is accompanied by her four-bodied boyfriend, Merryweather, Whitlock, and Howlett.

Aurora comes with Brilliance, Lexi with her Device Persica, Agent Honey with her Device Adularia, and Beth.

Rose brings her husband and three children and her former apprentice, Luc.

Angela brings her husband, her four children, several of her friends, and some of those friends' children and grandchildren with and without wings. Keziah also brings a friend.

Juliet shows up with Soph, Minus, Red, Giles, James, Virginia, Minnie, Ike, and Val.

Cam brings Jellybean and Tilly and stops there.

And from unBelled worlds hail additional Sherlocks and Tonies, Darcy, Matilda, Pepper, and Eights.

Comments

[newtimov]

"So now she makes sure to intimidate anyone she catches maybe sort of slightly flirting with me, but I don't think she is going to try to intimidate you in particular because you are probably not very afraid of being punched even if it's by Val, but I think she will probably still glare at you a little just in case."

[lifes_sake]

"I am fully warded up, yeah. Is she unusually good at punching?"

[jellyinthemix]

"What precisely do you mean to fix?"

[inherpiety]

"...The thing on your arm. It's... all..."

[segreant]

"Gooky," suggests Céleste.

[newtimov]

"I'm not sure if 'good' is the word. Maybe 'enthusiastic'. Also Sessiaki have iron bones."

[inherpiety]

"Yeah, it's really gooky."

[lifes_sake]

"Sessiawhonow? Are you one of the innumerable forms of Sunshine demon?"

[jellyinthemix]

"And you want to get rid of the... gook," he says, "and you have some very good reason to think that will be an improvement?"

[segreant]

"...Well, we haven't tried it before. There isn't any gook around at home."

[inherpiety]

"But we can tell that we are anti-gook," says Keziah firmly.

[newtimov]

"Yes! Well, partially. Full Sessiaki also have scales and tails," he says. "I'm slightly more than half human. I have shiny fingernails, an iron skeleton, some human-toxic dietary requirements, and I never need a compass or a ruler."

[lifes_sake]

"That is an interesting array of features. Can I have a look at the fingernails?"

[newtimov]

"Okay," says Ike. He holds out his hand. His fingernails are, indeed, shiny - and a little smoother than human ones, and faintly opalescent.

[lifes_sake]

Cam takes his hand and peers at them. "Very cool. I'd think it was a deliberate aesthetic if you hadn't told me. How does the geometry thing work?"

[jellyinthemix]

"I'm not entirely sure I want to be the first test subject," says Giles. "The, ah, thing on my arm has seen quite enough ill-considered decisions already. Do we have anything more to go on here than... gooky feelings?"

[segreant]

"Well, we could ask Maman? Or her one of Maman. Or some other Maman, there are lots."

[newtimov]

"I have a perfect sense of distance and direction, by eye and by physical orientation," he says. "The Sessiaki writing system tends to boggle humans because they don't see angle and distance automatically. But for example I can tell you that you're slightly taller than five-ten, about a sixteenth of an inch to be exact - heights are really interesting around here actually, with all the templates, your alts are mostly about five-four but very few of them are exactly the same as each other, and some of the other templates I've seen really are exactly the same across the board." He takes a breath. "And if I close my eyes and spin around several times I still know which way is north. Or, well, any direction. And if I were to walk around blindfolded I could tell you exactly how far I'd gone and draw the route on a map. Moving between worlds is always weird that way because it doesn't feel like going anywhere, but I am still demonstrably somewhere else."

[lifes_sake]

"Huh. Is your sense of direction freaking out about being in space?"

[jellyinthemix]

"Yes, all right," sighs Giles. "Let us by all means ask a Bell."

[inherpiety]

"But which one?"

[segreant]

"I'll call mine," shrugs Céleste.

[beheld_beauty]

Presently Rose teleports in. "What is going on?"

[newtimov]

"Not particularly. Most things are in space if you step back far enough," he says. "I don't have trouble with the moon orbiting the Earth or the Earth orbiting the sun, either. Actually when I was little it took me a while to get used to moving around in vehicles - I used to get horribly carsick, and I have thrown up on at least five separate trains - but it did not stay a problem for very long."

[jellyinthemix]

"I'm not quite sure," says Giles. "According to these girls, I have... 'gook'... on me."