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

[lifes_sake]

"Cool. Are you working with about the same quality senses that a full Sessiaki would have, or did you get a toned down version?"

[segreant]

"Okay. Maybe Papa knows where they are." [Papa?]

[newtimov]

"About the same," he says. "Sessiaki-human mixes seem to be lucky that way. I can also see violet, which full Sessiaki can't; their visible spectrum is a little smaller."

[deslandes]

[Yes?]

[segreant]

[Me and Keziah have this ingot power and we can get gooky magic off people and there's this lady who won't let us take it off her, but she says Harley and Corona are other Jokers who might, do you know where they are and if they want us to ungook them?]

[lifes_sake]

"And that glowy thing your sister was doing, is that also a thing you do or something else?"

[deslandes]

[What kind of gook do you suppose Harley and Corona—? Never mind, I think I know,] he says. [I will find them and ask them.]

[newtimov]

"That is iethat. She is an ithue," he says. "About a third of Sessiaki are. I'm not."

[segreant]

[Okay, thanks!]

[lifes_sake]

"...Stop me if all the questions are intrusive or you get them all the time or they are insufficiently flirtatious. Alternatively, ask me questions about wizardry or notebook birds or what I have learned from talking to inanimate objects."

[deslandes]

A very short while later, he says, [They are sitting outside together and would be happy to see what you can do about their gook.]

[segreant]

[Thanks, Papa!]

"Can you teleport?" Céleste asks her alt, and when Keziah shakes her head, she does it herself, and there they are.

"We are here to ungook you. There isn't nearly as much of it on you, though."

[newtimov]

"I don't actually get them very often, because the set of people who know my mom is Sessiaki but don't already know all about them is extremely small," he says. "You talk to inanimate objects? I suppose you implied that earlier. What do they say?"

[lifes_sake]

"Depends! Plants range from extremely stupid, like grass, to fully sapient - most trees. This is only on my world, Syntropy - not even the stars outside of Syntropy are worth holding a conversation with, and stars back home are really smart. My wizard manual will talk to me about what's inside it, answer questions, direct me to page numbers. Grace is a person and always knows what I've written in her. Other stuff will answer basic questions about its properties if I ask it."

[pythbox]

Harley and Corona are sitting side by side on the platform that rings the space plant, tucked up against the outer wall of the main room. Corona has his arm around Harley's shoulders and Harley is leaning into him comfortably.

"Yeah," says Harley, "probably 'cause Elsie got most of it."

[inherpiety]

"Well, she didn't get it all. It's - it's like -"

[segreant]

"It's like if someone burned down a forest and salted the earth and then put a bunch of fake trees, and then someone took away the fake trees," says Céleste. "I think we can get the salt, too."

[pythbox]

"...yeah," says Harley, "that would be awesome, do that."

[segreant]

"Okay," says Céleste, and she and Keziah put their hands on Harley's head, and unsalt him.

[pythbox]

He shivers;

he beams;

he vanishes.



Corona laughs. "I bet he's off to hug his wolf," he says. "Chelsa doused him from everybody. He's got most of it back - it's easy to get Jokers to like people, hard to get them to stop - but I guess not all."

[segreant]

"We can do you too."

[newtimov]

"Does this space plant say things?"

[lifes_sake]

"Good question." Cam looks at the nearest part of contiguous space plant, which is the railing. "Hello, space plant!"

[pythbox]

"...Yeah," says Corona, folding his hands in his lap and looking down at them, "that'd probably be... good."

[pythbox]

"I'm a space plant," says the space plant.