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

[guessguess]

"Petaal's one of the soul animals, right? One who can change?"

[telesonorous]

"Yeah, she's Kas's daemon. All Joker daemons can change," says Helen. "There's something like four of them now."

[guessguess]

"How come they can?"

[telesonorous]

"Because they're peculiar!" says Helen. "I don't know. Usually daemons change when you're little, and then settle into something when you grow up, something that suits who you are. Jokers just... don't ever settle. It makes sense to me but I don't know if that's just because I grew up with Kas and Petaal around being themselves all the time."

[guessguess]

"Huh. Bella, our one, checked what she'd have if she had a daemon. She got a kind of flying squirrel."

[telesonorous]

"Huh," says Helen. "Amariah has an eastern screech owl."

[exactlyright]

"I wonder why alts wouldn't all be the same."

[telesonorous]

"Well... because alts aren't all the same," says Helen. "I have alts and they're like me but they're not... me. And not me enough to have teratorn daemons, apparently."

[exactlyright]

"I wouldn't know, I don't know anybody with a soul animal besides you and I don't have any alts and I'm not going to. They all look the same, more or less, why wouldn't their souls all look the same too if you can see them?"

[telesonorous]

"Well... because what your soul looks like is different from what you look like," says Helen. "Maybe there's some people whose alts would have the same daemons. I don't know that many people with alts who've checked."

[guessguess]

Kiawen hugs Carinna's arm. "What makes people have different animals at all?" she asks.

[telesonorous]

"Being different people, I guess," she says. "Your daemon's shape means something about you, but it's not always clear what."

[guessguess]

"Do you know what yours means?"

[telesonorous]

"I'm the only person I've ever heard of with a teratorn. I think it means I'm peculiar."

[guessguess]

"I wonder if ours've settled yet. We're thirteen now."

[telesonorous]

"Maybe. You can check."

[guessguess]

"Yeah!" Kiawen pulls out three squares, enough for all three sisters.

She gets...

A piano bear.

She laughs.

[exactlyright]

Carinna doesn't get a poof. She gets a nervous-looking rodent with big feet.

[forgefires]

Tanalin gets a little spotted kitty!

[telesonorous]

"I don't know what any of those mean," giggles Helen.

[exactlyright]

"What would you know what it meant if we had it?"

[telesonorous]

"I'm not really sure," she says. "Mostly I don't, but every so often something just makes sense. And there are all these things people say about what different daemons mean, but I've seen them be wrong as often as they aren't."

[exactlyright]

"...Like what?"

[telesonorous]

Helen looks around. And then giggles.

"I was going to look at someone's daemon for inspiration, but of course there aren't any—oh, hey, I think that's an alt of my friend Shura!" She sits up straighter on her cloud-pine and peers.

[subastra]

It does rather look like an alt of her friend Shura! She is standing around, holding a glass of wine, looking distinctly unwitchy both in visible age and in clothing choices and lack of bird. She seems to find the party a bit overwhelming.