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

[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."

[pythbox]

Celo laughs as a brief golden glow engulfs the bite mark and smooths it away.

"Wonder if I can just conjure some," he says, and pulls a square out of the air and tries it - nope - puts it away, tries a pentagon - and gets a gallon jug of blood, which he hands to Lily for lack of anything better to do with it.

[alicornucopia]

"I'll find some taste-testers when I get home," she grins. "Hold a little tasting with, oh, sesame crackers and Brie."

[pythbox]

He giggles. "I love it," he says. "—Ooh, there's a thought. How adventurous are you with trying new things?"

[alicornucopia]

"Try me," says Lily, raising an eyebrow.

[pythbox]

"Male nymphs ejaculate honey," he says, grinning. "It's got some nifty healing properties and it's reeeeally tasty."

[alicornucopia]

"That would be much harder to market," she snorts. "And I doubt it'll do much for the vampire crowd. If you want to conjure some up I'd taste it, though."

[pythbox]

He pulls another pentagon out of nowhere in particular and conjures a bottle - glass, like the jug, with a metal screw-on cap. The honey inside shades from dark purple at the bottom through dark blues to lighter ones and finally a vivid, slightly smoky green.

[alicornucopia]

Lily sets down the jug of blood to unscrew it and pour a drop onto her finger to taste. "Not bad. The blood's going to be more popular in Aurum for palatability reasons as well as provenance reasons, though."

[pythbox]

Celo laughs. "Now that's not usual," he says. "Most of the people who've had both like the honey better."

[alicornucopia]

"Half-vampire," she reminds him. "Honey tastes like, well, human food, I can take it or leave it unless it's my very favorite thing - I'm interested in food, but it doesn't grab me by the survival instinct and say 'more please'. Blood, on the other hand - blood's life. It and its imitations."