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

[newtimov]

Ike giggles.

"Okay. There are worlds that are separate, like Samaria and Sunshine and Thilanushinyel. But sometimes there are groups of them that are not separate from each other - that have their own internal ways to get from one to another that don't work for traveling outside of that sheaf, and the worlds in the sheaf share the same laws of physics and kinds of magic and so on, at least mostly. Sunshine is a worldsheaf like that, and I think Alethia is too, and I forget if I've heard about any others."

[snowandsparks]

"This is complicated."

[newtimov]

"It is! It is very that," says Ike.

[snowandsparks]

"How did you get used to it?"

[newtimov]

"...Science fiction, mainly," he says.

[snowandsparks]

"How did that help?"

[newtimov]

"Well... what science fiction is is more or less stories about other worlds. Just ones the writer happens to have made up. Things like 'what would it be like if people lived on the moon', or 'what would it be like if people lived on flying trees in a huge cloud of air with no gravity', or even 'what would it be like if there were a whole bunch of different universes where things turned out differently than they have in this one'. The science part means mainly trying to answer those questions using things we actually know about how the world works instead of things we make up about how it might."

[snowandsparks]

"Those sound really interesting, actually. Without being as intimidating as the actual flying tree."

[newtimov]

"Yes! I really like them," says Ike. "And having read plenty of that stuff made me a lot more prepared for the, um, actual flying tree." He gestures vaguely at the actual flying tree in which they find themselves. "So to speak."

[snowandsparks]

"So you didn't feel all dizzy when you got dropped into it, huh."

[newtimov]

"I did not."

[snowandsparks]

"My grandmother had to catch me, it was embarrassing. I don't get vertigo when I'm just flying."

[newtimov]

"Awwww," says Ike.

[snowandsparks]

Lucas blushes and looks away.

[newtimov]

"Aww, no, it's okay, I have had embarrassing vertigo too!" says Ike. "When I was a small child I could not ride any kind of moving vehicle without it!"

[snowandsparks]

"...Did you often have cause to - are those things common in other worlds? I hate them, they're not as bad as a skittish horse but they're miserable to travel in."

[newtimov]

"Various kinds of moving vehicle are extremely common in my world, and they are mostly not miserable as long as you're not a small child with spatial orientation issues," he says.

[snowandsparks]

"Well, they're probably designed to fit you. There's fewer than two hundred angels and we can fly, so no one bothers making sure the vehicles have room for a big set of wings." He checks his surroundings, then unfurls one wing to its full six-feet-and-change span. "What kind of spatial orientation issues?"

[newtimov]

Ike looks at the wing. Ike smiles.

"—Oh," he says. "Um, me and Val are not entirely human, and the kind of not human that we partly are comes with some talents. Like always knowing exactly how big or far away things are by looking at them, and always knowing how far we're going when we walk or move. Which makes it impossible to get lost without teleporting, but also means that traveling at high speeds not under our own power can be, um, kind of rough until we get used to it. Val mostly didn't have a problem, but I threw up on a lot of trains."

[snowandsparks]

"What's a train?" Lucas asks. He looks at his wing, like he expects to find a bit of spinach between a pair of feathers, then looks at Ike looking at the wing, then holds it in place for a long moment before letting it re-fold.

[newtimov]

"A train is a kind of vehicle that runs on rails and usually goes much faster than the kinds that use roads."

[snowandsparks]

"Huh, I don't think we have those at all."

[newtimov]

"Then if I had grown up in Samaria I would probably have had a much less nauseous childhood!"

[snowandsparks]

"Probably! Vehicles are mostly for cargo, anyway. People get around on horses for everyday still. Unless they can fly, or know people who will pick them up and can fly."

[newtimov]

"I know very few people who can pick me up," says Ike. "Well, more now that I know a bunch of people who are magic. But I mean, unassisted humans generally can't."