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

[lookingforwardtoit]

"Seriously? She's Eights," says Anna.

Eights shrugs.

[thaumobabble]

"And you can mint her, as long as she's not going to mint Chainsaw or give him coins," says Glass, "but that's her, in particular. Don't just mint all your friends."

[lookingforwardtoit]

"What are you on," says Anna. Eights becomes minted.

[thaumobabble]

"Did Stella actually hire you without warning you about not minting people?"

[lookingforwardtoit]

"No," says Anna. "Which is why I find it weird and kind of insulting that you're telling me it's okay to mint Eights but I shouldn't do it to just anybody, like wanting to mint my alt who has spent more time being a Downside contractor than the Bells have collectively been alive somehow means I'm going to start flinging hexes at people I pass in the street?"

[thaumobabble]

"Some templates vary more than others and Bells are holding some information that doesn't necessarily percolate to everybody for assorted reasons. And I don't know you and Stella's not here, and I can't tell by looking if your algorithm is 'she asked nicely' or 'if one member of a template is minted they all should be' or 'I felt like it' or what you said."

[lookingforwardtoit]

"Okay," says Anna. "Well, next time, try leading with the part about Bells having secret information nobody knows about, because that actually makes sense. Let's go meet our dragon alt, Eights."

She heads for the nearest dragon-sized doorway. Eights doesn't follow immediately.

[thaumobabble]

Glass shakes her head, shoots an apologetic look at Eights, and moves on.

[temporal_affairs]

Nathan takes a couple steps following Anna, waiting for Eights.

[lookingforwardtoit]

She starts walking as soon as he does.

[temporal_affairs]

"You guys okay?" he asks, once they're all moving as a group.

[lookingforwardtoit]

"Annoyed but fine," says Anna. Eights just shrugs; she seems unaffected.

[temporal_affairs]

"Minting has got a lot more casual over time. When Golden imported the Joker it was this complicated negotiation with a precog and Stella."

[lookingforwardtoit]

"Well, and the Joker was under some kind of suspicion at the time, wasn't he?" says Eights.

[temporal_affairs]

"Stella had stranded him on an asteroid for terrorism."

[lookingforwardtoit]

"That's a kind of suspicion!" says Anna.

[temporal_affairs]

"Sort of, yeah."

[lookingforwardtoit]

"He's seemed like a total sweetheart the times I've met him," says Anna.

"People are complicated," says Eights.

[temporal_affairs]

"Jokers more than some. Now new Jokers are minted as a matter of course, but I'm not actually sure how much of that is because the Bells couldn't stop the minted Jokers from doing it if they wanted to."

[lookingforwardtoit]

Anna snorts. Eights pats her on the shoulder.

"So," says Anna, stopping midway between the enormous archway and the edge of the enormous platform. "How do we tell which one's an us?"

[temporal_affairs]

"I don't know. Do you think she does?" He scans the visible dragons. "Have you guys got a template color scheme?"

[lookingforwardtoit]

Eights produces a square: white, with liquidy red streaks like smears of stylized blood.

"So, red and white," says Anna.

[temporal_affairs]

"Then - maybe that's her?" he says, pointing.

[lookingforwardtoit]

"Ooh," says Anna.

Eights waves.

[pythbox]

The indicated dragon circles closer.