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

[snowandsparks]

"I have three sisters and two brothers. They're all mortals, though, and none of them would be of particular use against violent Jansai teenagers."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Not very talkative. He likes the computer games. He fixes food for himself, he'll eat what Jake conjures, he wanders around the island. He didn't register any opinions on colors or anything when I offered him a set of pajamas, so I made something up, but I did get him to pick out which bedroom he wanted. He seems to find it entertaining when I fail dismally at lying."

[newtimov]

"I only have the one, but she is good at dealing with violent people. Mainly by hitting them until they go away."

[yourheartstrings]

"Huh," says Ghosty. "Mm, one sec."

She dissipates; a short time passes, but longer than a literal second; she reappears—

[snowandsparks]

"Yeah, I suppose that would be the way to do it. I've never actually been in a fight, partly because everyone knows better than to pick one with an angel, which is just as well because I'm not as confident as conventional wisdom that I'd be able to make any use of angel strength."

[pythbox]

—accompanied by Corona, who declines to dance.

"What's it like when you fail dismally at lying?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"My name is Kelly," asserts Elspeth. (Nope. It is not. It is very much not Kelly. At all.)

[newtimov]

"I think I know what you mean," says Ike. "Val is not any more physically equipped to hit people than I am, at least when she's not using iethat, but mentally it's no contest."

[pythbox]

...Corona cracks up.

"That's beautiful," he says.

[snowandsparks]

Lucas nods. "I mean, I suppose I know the thunderbolt prayer too, but nobody uses that, which is probably why no one has noticed that allegedly all of those requests have to go through Isabella now."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"What's so great about it?"

[pythbox]

"You mean apart from being hilarious?" He grins and shakes his head; the grin fades. "It means you can't lie. Sounding all trustworthy all the time is one thing, but there are people who can sound all trustworthy and still be lying. It happens. You can't."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"I can actually lie to people who haven't ever heard me say anything true before, but obviously most people don't fall into that category."

[newtimov]

"...What, um, is the thunderbolt prayer?"

[pythbox]

"Right, yeah. And he doesn't. That's the important part. He's not going to give a fuck if you can lie to anybody else."

[snowandsparks]

"It's a song. If you sing it - at home, anyway, on the right planet - then you get a thunderbolt, aimed where you called it to. I don't think anyone's called one since the accident at Cedar Hills, and the last time one was called on purpose it was almost two hundred years ago when the Archangel Gabriel destroyed Windy Point."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"What would he be imagining I'd lie about?"

[pythbox]

"Anything. Everything. How safe he is. Whether or not somebody's going to hurt him if he fucks up."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Oh. Well, I can't, and he burned the house down anyway."

[newtimov]

"...Someone called one by accident?"

[pythbox]

"...I'm not following," says Corona.

[snowandsparks]

"Yeah, when you're learning the song you're supposed to stop in the middle, sing something else, then pick up with the rest. Somebody forgot."

[newtimov]

"Oh dear," says Ike.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"He was going to be testing boundaries and so on, right? He burned down the house, and when I asked him he said he didn't have fun, so he wasn't just doing it for kicks. So I guess my not being able to lie convincingly isn't completely closing the gap in his confidence."

[snowandsparks]

"That was before Isabella inserted herself between the singing and the actual thunderbolts, of course."