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

[most_capable]

"My name's Virginia, but I have alts, so you can call me Pepper. It's lovely to meet you, Carinna."

[exactlyright]

"I have a nametag but it wound up under my scarf." Carinna moves her scarf. It falls back over her nametag. She growls at it and takes it off and goes to put it in her uncandled pocket, then takes Mossy out of the pocket so it has room.

[most_capable]

"Oh, what a cute little... puff!" says Pepper. "What is it?"

[exactlyright]

"It's a poof!" beams Carinna. "This one is mine and it's named Mossy. Poofs come from the Gentle Cave."

[most_capable]

"The Gentle Cave sounds... very positive," says Pepper. "What is it?"

[exactlyright]

"It's a cave! A nice cave with cute little animals, like poofs, and piano bears, and fluffbats, and pawlings, and cheepingbirds. Kanim found it and said there wasn't going to be anything that would scare me in it so we all went and named all the kinds of animals and figured out why they weren't leaving the cave. It's because they need spring water from in it, so now we have little fountains with the same kind of water and we took pets home. Me and my sisters. Bella's cat promised not to terrorize them."

[most_capable]

"It sounds very relaxing," says Pepper. "Do you think I could visit?"

[exactlyright]

"Yeah. It is and I bet you can. Jane can put you in Chronicle but you have to get to the cave some other way."

[most_capable]

"I happen to be able to teleport."

[exactlyright]

"That's a way," laughs Carinna. "I can, too, but most people in most worlds can't."

[most_capable]

"True. It's very convenient, though, isn't it?"

[exactlyright]

"Yeah. Sometimes I can get the forest to cooperate with me too, but I'm not really good at it. Sherlock does it really well, and Grandma Marianne."

[most_capable]

"You live in a cooperative forest?"

[exactlyright]

"I'm one of the princesses," says Carinna. "The Enchanted Forest gives its royalty some special magic. Bella gets a little bit too - usually she would just get courtesy stuff like being able to pick up the sword, because she married in, but she married two princesses so she can get some of the other things to work, too."

[most_capable]

"That sounds friendly!"

[exactlyright]

"It is! Oh, and our forest is where Bells go to get auras, it can just suck up the enchantment magic. It's getting bigger."

[most_capable]

"Interesting," says Pepper. "If it keeps getting bigger is it going to run into something, or is there magic at work?"

[exactlyright]

"It's only got more room in it, it isn't any bigger around," explains Carinna.

[most_capable]

"In nonmagical worlds those things tend to go together unavoidably," says Pepper.

[exactlyright]

"That sounds really inconvenient," says Carinna thoughtfully. "Can you at least stack places, even if you can't grow them on the inside only?"

[most_capable]

"...Yes, I suppose we can," says Pepper. "In fact, most of our cities turn out that way. We run out of sideways and start making things taller instead."

[exactlyright]

"No, not taller," says Carinna. "Stacked. In the same - box as each other." She starts gesturing; this is less effective than it might otherwise be since she has Mossy in one hand. "Like Bella's rooms, they all have the same door and you go to the one you want."

[most_capable]

"No," says Pepper, "I'm afraid not. But we seem to get by anyway."

[exactlyright]

"So you have to find different places to put everything. Gosh."

[most_capable]

"You could think of an elevator as a kind of multiply opening door," Pepper muses. "But with more waiting. Not much more waiting, though, if it's a good elevator."