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]

"You are and/or have a notebook bird?"

[lifes_sake]

"Yep." He reaches with the hand that is not still holding Ike's into his ever-present backpack, and pulls out Grace, currently in notebook form. "Don't touch her," he warns. "She's my daemon. Have you heard about daemons?" She turns into her hawk-self, standing on his forearm.

[newtimov]

"I have sort of vaguely heard about daemons!" He blinks at the hawk.

[lifes_sake]

The hawk blinks back, and spreads a wing to preen.

"She used to be just a notebook - well, not just, I magicked all my preexisting notebooks into a single one, she was the smartest and most magic notebook ever," Cam says. "Then I was helping Amariah with her afterlife and needed a daemon to be there, but managed to get Grace to be my daemon instead of getting a separate one, and now she can switch."

[newtimov]

"That... is a story," says Ike. "About a thing that happened. My goodness."

[lifes_sake]

"She's a Cooper's hawk. If there are future boy Bells who are also called Cam I'll probably go by Cooper for that reason."

[newtimov]

"Every so often I almost manage to forget how far outside my experience this party is," says Ike, "and then it occurs to me that I am floating in space above a planet in another world holding the hand of someone whose soul is a bird that is also an amalgamation of notebooks." He smiles a tiny smile. "And I don't hold people's hands very often," he adds.

[lifes_sake]

"The situation isn't too far out of the scope of things that my life tends to contain, and I still do a mental double-take when I notice things like, 'hey, I'm holding the hand of a part-demon introduced to me by my alternate universe self and floating near some dragons outside of a plant magically generated by a completely unrelated kind of demon, and also my soul turned out to live in my magic notebook and is a bird now'," Cam chuckles. "I don't know if that goes away, I'd have to ask one of the older ones of me."

[newtimov]

Ike giggles. "I'm glad it's not just me!" he says.

[grabsthebutt]

Val eyes them both.

"All right, you pass," she says to Cam. "Have fun."

The glowy white stuff wells up out of her skin to cover her clothes again, and she folds her wings and dives under the space plant.

[lifes_sake]

"Ooh, I pass. Do I get a prize?"

[newtimov]

"Maybe," says Ike.

[lifes_sake]

"Maybe?"

[newtimov]

"Well, I think the prize is that Val leaves you alone while you possibly flirt with me," he says.

[lifes_sake]

"Aha. And hold your hand, that also seems to be ongoing."

[newtimov]

"Yes! Those," says Ike. "Those are examples of things we can do without Val's interference."

[lifes_sake]

"Cool. Are those the kind of activity you prefer to do with a floor under you?" Cam inquires. Grace turns into a notebook again; he catches her and tucks her back in his backpack.

[newtimov]

"Generally speaking, yes," says Ike.

[lifes_sake]

"There are floors to be had."

The floor that Cam picks out is a floor up from the main party area, looking out into the crowd.

[newtimov]

Ike relaxes slightly. "This is a floor," he says, gazing down at it. "It is very a floor." He looks out past the railing. "And there's where we were standing earlier - teleportation does wipe out my orientation the same way interdimensional travel does. But I can get it back the same way, too, by placing myself relative to known landmarks again."

[lifes_sake]

"And then it's all - restored from backup? How good is your memory for this stuff?"

[newtimov]

"Very, very good," he says. "I couldn't retrace every step I've taken in my entire life, but I could probably draw you an accurate map of the parts of Toronto I've been to more than once."

[lifes_sake]

"Cool. Are you working with about the same quality senses that a full Sessiaki would have, or did you get a toned down version?"

[newtimov]

"About the same," he says. "Sessiaki-human mixes seem to be lucky that way. I can also see violet, which full Sessiaki can't; their visible spectrum is a little smaller."

[lifes_sake]

"And that glowy thing your sister was doing, is that also a thing you do or something else?"