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

[lexicality]

"It's really a pity I don't have any alts because my name turns into nicknames so easily!"

[wildlymagical]

"Does it?" he asks, looking in puzzlement at her nametag.

[lexicality]

"Lexi is short for Alexandra," Lexi explains. "But I wouldn't mind going with a different shortening if I had an alt who liked 'Lexi' best too."

[wildlymagical]

"What else does it shorten to?" he wonders. "Lycaelon shortens to various things, but I don't like any of them."

[lexicality]

"Oh, Alex, Alli, Andi, Sandra, Sandy. And I have a middle name that I like okay, Phyllis."

[wildlymagical]

"I think I've heard about a Sandy around here somewhere, but I don't think he's an alt of you."

[lexicality]

"Oh, no, yeah, that's a different person," says Lexi, waving a hand, "so that wouldn't be the best nickname in this case, but it's still a nickname."

[wildlymagical]

"True," he says. "Does your world have magic? I can never remember which ones don't."

[lexicality]

"Yeah!" says Lexi. "I'm a mage actually! We're the world with Devices, if you heard about those. This one's mine." She holds up Persica on her necklace-chain. "Her name's Persica."

"Hello," says Persica's mechanical-ish voice.

[wildlymagical]

"...Hello," says Lycaelon. "I haven't heard about Devices, no."

[lexicality]

"They can turn into different shapes - Brilliance is one, even, but Persica doesn't have a humanoid shape, just the peach and the staff. She's a really keen staff though. And they do mana regulation - um, mana is the energy we use to do magic - and they have their own spells that they know."

[wildlymagical]

"That is not at all how magic works in Thilanushinyel."

[lexicality]

"What do you do instead?"

[wildlymagical]

"...I'm not entirely sure how to explain," he admits. "I've never had to before."

[lexicality]

"I don't have any place to be," laughs Lexi.

[wildlymagical]

Lycaelon grins. "Okay. Well, first of all, there are three kinds of mage that I know of - High Mages and Wildmages, who are human, and Elven Mages, whose species I'm sure you can guess."

[lexicality]

"Sarion's one of those," nods Lexi.

[wildlymagical]

"She is!" he agrees. "Each of the three kinds works differently. A High Mage casts spells using energy drawn from themselves or the people around them, and their spells are very reliable and predictable: the same spell done the same way will have exactly the same effect every time. It's hard for them to improvise, though, for just that reason; a High Mage might take several years to invent a new spell, because they have to build it out of existing pieces using formulas and experiments. Wildmages, on the other hand - I'm a Wildmage - our magic is less like doing a spell and more like asking a friend for a favour. An incomprehensibly vast and powerful friend."

[lexicality]

"Man, I don't have any incomprehensibly vast and powerful friends. I have an incomprehensibly vast and powerful sister, does that count?"

[wildlymagical]

"...no," he says. "Your sister is less vast and more comprehensible than the Wild Magic."

[lexicality]

Lexi laughs. "Okay, so you ask it for favors, and then it - usually does them, I guess?"

[wildlymagical]

"You ask the Wild Magic to do something - heal someone, find a lost object, change the weather, many other sorts of things. The energy to do it usually comes from yourself, the people around you, or objects where you've stored energy that ultimately came from those places, but once in a very long while the Wild Magic will power a spell itself. And apart from that immediate cost, every spell of the Wild Magic also comes with a Mageprice, which is like your friend asking you for a favour in return."

[lexicality]

"Huh, that sounds kind of cool. Do you stop getting spells if you don't do its favors? What kind of favors do incomprehensibly vast and powerful friends even want?"

[wildlymagical]

"...It's... complicated. But, um, shirking your Mageprice is generally considered a very bad idea. And it can ask for all kinds of things, but mostly it wants things that will - help. The Wild Magic wants to make the world a better place, and it's incomprehensibly vast and powerful, but it's also, well, limited. Mageprice is one of the only ways it can make changes in the world. So it sends each of us to improve things in whatever ways we can. Sometimes we have no idea what a particular Mageprice is doing to help, but sometimes it's obvious. A lot of mine have just been 'go there and heal this'."

[lexicality]

"What happens if someone else does it before you get there?"