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]

"...I think I just had another 'floating in space holding hands' moment," giggles Ike.

[lifes_sake]

"Yeah. The disguised evil deity introduced itself to me as Iggy," Cam adds, winking.

[newtimov]

"Pfffffffffff," says Ike.

[lifes_sake]

"And then it tried to convince me not to do so much Belling because I was cramping its style and I didn't bite and then it tried to kill me and Jellybean and Tilly saved my life, so that was exciting."

[newtimov]

"It sounds it!" says Ike. "I am glad the evil rock did not kill you."

[lifes_sake]

"Yeah, me too. It does continue to exist, I'm not sure yet what to do about it, although the list of possibilities recently expanded to 'hire the assassin from Materia who terrifies both her local Bell and Glass'."

[newtimov]

"...I don't think I would like to hire an assassin that terrified multiple Bells!" says Ike. "But I guess an evil deity would be a good reason to do it."

[lifes_sake]

"Yeah, ordinarily I wouldn't wanna interact with her, I have had enough unfortunate experiences with Materia, but Iggy's kind of a problem. Syntropy's not hooked up to Downside, there's something in the way, and I bet Iggy's involved."

[newtimov]

"I cannot even imagine trying to solve this problem," Ike says after a moment. "At home you don't solve evil gods, you avoid them as much as possible. Or at least I don't. I guess somebody probably does, or we'd have evil gods popping up like mushrooms."

[lifes_sake]

"Juliet solved an evil god," says Cam. "I think it was in her job description even apart from being a Bell."

[newtimov]

Ike nods.

[lifes_sake]

"So what do the robots you build do?" inquires Cam.

He is still holding Ike's hand.

[newtimov]

"Things," he says, with great authority, and then grins. "Actually not very many things. I tried to build a robot puppy once but I did not succeed. That's what trying again is for, though! The latest thing I'm working on is stairs. Because we have a Roomba, and they're really only good for relatively unobstructed flat surfaces, and stairs get dirty too, so I'm trying to build a robot that can climb up and down stairs, and then I'll figure out how to make it also vacuum them."

[lifes_sake]

"A stair-climbing Roomba. That's adorable. It's probably cheating on the robot puppy thing if you just make something that bends in all the right places and someone gets it to come when called by magic, isn't it."

[newtimov]

"That would be very cheating!" he says. "Magic usually is. Which is all right for some things, but I want to build a robot puppy, not just get one from somewhere else."

[lifes_sake]

"Yeah, that's fair, it'd be like wishing a crossword puzzle filled in. There is already something which does the job of being a puppy without having to be built and it is called a puppy."

[newtimov]

"Yes. They are very cute," he says. "That is why I want to build a robot one. I would be much better at taking care of it than I would be with an actual dog, and it would still be cute and fluffy and reasonably huggable."

[lifes_sake]

"I've never had a pet. Most of us don't. Glass has a cat, but on her world cats are people and also magically useful."

[newtimov]

"I have not had any pets either. But someday I will have a cute fluffy robot friend."

[lifes_sake]

"I wish you the best of luck. The fur exterior won't present insoluble problems with cooling the processors or anything?"

[newtimov]

He shrugs. "Not very many things are really insoluble if you are clever and have flexible parameters!"

[lifes_sake]

"I like that attitude."

[newtimov]

Ike beams!

[lifes_sake]

"You are very cute and I would rather like to kiss you."

[newtimov]

...Ike beams more!

"I would like to kiss you too!" he says.