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

[telesonorous]

"...I'm not sure there are any of those," says Helen. "I guess it's always possible." She looks at Carinna, and decides not to continue on to mentioning the possible negative social repercussions of such a change.

[forgefires]

Tanalin has finished investigating the wee pies!

"There are cherry ones and apple ones and peach ones and ones that are a kind of fruit I don't know," she says. "The mystery fruit is mysterious and really tasty. They all have different shapes of holes in the top for what kind they are."

[exactlyright]

"Which ones are peach?"

[forgefires]

"The ones with the little spirals!"

[exactlyright]

Carinna takes a spiral pie and bites it.

[guessguess]

"Why wouldn't boys want to be witches?" asks Kiawen.

[telesonorous]

"I don't know, I just can't think of any I've ever met who did. Which means there's probably not lots, even if there's some."

[guessguess]

"Huh. I guess most not-fire witches at home are girls. Not anywhere near all, though."

[telesonorous]

"It's something about the way the magic works, in Alethia."

[guessguess]

"But most magicians are boys. Not by as much, I think. Bella's best friend is another magician and he's a boy. So I wonder what you'd get if you counted all the magicians like they were witches? I mean, they mostly sort of are."

[telesonorous]

"I have no idea," says Helen.

[guessguess]

"Apparently there are entire worlds without magic."

[exactlyright]

"I talked to somebody from one! I think so, anyway, if they have magic it isn't very practical. She said they can't even stack rooms, there."

[telesonorous]

"Stack rooms?"

[exactlyright]

"Make them be all in the same place."

[telesonorous]

"Alethia magic can't do that either," says Helen.

[exactlyright]

"What can it do?"

[telesonorous]

"Things," she shrugs. "Mostly subtle things. Making sick trees healthy, lighting fires, stuff like that. Sometimes bigger stuff, though, like flying," and she gestures to the branch on which she sits.

[exactlyright]

"Chronicle witches ride broomsticks too. Except Bella doesn't like them. She has flying armor and a flying carpet and she can just plain fly."

[telesonorous]

"Alethia witches ride cloud-pine," says Helen. "It's a special kind of pine. Amariah made her palace be a giant one. And because my daemon's so big, I can ride her, but I don't know of anybody else who can do that with theirs."

[guessguess]

"Broomsticks on Chronicle can be made out of anything. They don't even really have to be broomsticks. You can make flying laundry baskets, if you want!"

[telesonorous]

"...Flying laundry baskets actually sound a lot more stable," she muses. "I mean, if it was a big enough basket. You could sit in it. Falling off of cloud-pine branches isn't a huge widespread problem or anything, but something basket-shaped has more of a sense of... snugness to it."

[guessguess]

"Yeah, it's only they're not very aerodynamic, and hard to steer."

[telesonorous]

"I can imagine!" she says. "Maybe if it was more... boat-shaped? Like, I don't know, a flying kayak."

[forgefires]

"Oooh, flying boats," says Tanalin. "I want a flying boat! I'm gonna ask Tony to make a flying boat."