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

[pythbox]

"Not really? Like, you get all hung up on the information aspect because that's the only part you know about, but that's not the important part," he says. "I get the same amount of detail, I just don't go the extra step of thinking about what it means in practice."

[pina_colada]

"Yeah, I don't get it."

[pythbox]

"Yeah, I know," snorts Celo. "Most people don't."

[pina_colada]

"Well, anyway, if it helps, Lily's straight but in that way where she's weirdly affectionate with her female friends even though they don't actually have anything going on."

[pythbox]

Celo giggles. "Thanks! Of course, I'd have to go around interpreting to use it, and then Aether would give me that look."

[pina_colada]

"I guess you'll just have to read a lot of nametags, then."

[pythbox]

"Yep," says Celo. "Oh well."

[pina_colada]

"Oh, there's Lily," says Kerron, pointing. "Still wearing pink, didn't change her sweater."

[pythbox]

Celo looks. "Yeah, I see her," he says. "Might as well go say hi. See ya!"

[pina_colada]

"Bye!"

[alicornucopia]

Lily is apparently lost in thought, leaning on a wall with her ankles crossed, looking at the ceiling.

[pythbox]

Celo makes his way over, still drinking his hot chocolate.

[alicornucopia]

Lily glances at him. "Okay," she says, looking him up and down, "this I've got to hear, why are you naked?"

[pythbox]

Celo sighs.

"Because I'm a nymph," he says. "And nymphs don't wear clothes."

[alicornucopia]

"Didn't stop Glass's kid from putting her miniature panda bear in a vest, I bet those don't occur in the wild. Why don't nymphs wear clothes?"

[pythbox]

"Sacred duty," he says. "Which isn't my reason, but it's the general one. My reason is because I don't wanna."

[alicornucopia]

"And the magical black bar is for those around you who don't wanna likewise, I see."

[pythbox]

"Yep," he says. "Or I could just never leave my world, but where's the fun in that?"

[alicornucopia]

"Yeah, I really like these parties. They're good for people-watching." She glances at his nametag, blinks, and then stops looking at it.

[pythbox]

"No kidding," he snorts. "Call me Celo; my name's kinda hard to pronounce."

[alicornucopia]

"And I'm Lily, which is easy to pronounce and also easy to spell."

[pythbox]

"Yeah, I heard," he says. "I asked Kerron who might wanna take a bite out of me and here's where he pointed."

[alicornucopia]

Lily sniffs the air thoughtfully. "Hmm. Yeah, possibly, I have an interest in - well, food - and I'm looking to branch out from human cuisine a little, which means seeing what's out there, everyone's so content to drink their bubbly seven days a week - I'm not knocking the stuff. It's great. But variety is worth investigating too. I'm not going to go all slasher-film on you, I'm just a half-vampire, you want me to take some from your wrist right now or what?"

[pythbox]

"Go for it," Celo says cheerfully, offering her his hand. "I'm curious."

[alicornucopia]

Lily takes his hand, sniffs again, and then bites his wrist neatly open and tastes. She hums to herself, thoughtful and apparently pleased, while she drinks, then eventually laps up the last of the blood and lets his hand go. "That's really interesting. I think your blood, straight-up no fiddling, would be decently competitive with bubbly if you could bottle the stuff in sufficient quantity and get it to a decent shelf life without affecting the flavor. You're the blood equivalent of one of those ecologically responsible smoothies with wheat grass that poked its head out of the dirt not five minutes ago in it. Very thirst-quenching - unusually so, actually, I'd want to see how a full vampire without a thirstlessness wish on reacted. Kind of herbaceous. I bet vampires who used to be vegetarians before they turned would love you."