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]

"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."

[exactlyright]

"What's an elevator do?"

[most_capable]

"It's a... box big enough to stand in that moves up and down between floors of a tall building much more quickly than you could climb the same distance using stairs."

[exactlyright]

"I... guess that's better than just having a lot of stairs? I mean, we have stairs too, the castle is pretty big. Also you have to go all the way up one of the towers to get to the dungeons."

[most_capable]

"That sounds inconvenient," says Pepper.

[exactlyright]

"Yeah, but it's not like we use the dungeons much."

[most_capable]

"I'd hope not! Frequently used dungeons are so rarely a good sign," says Pepper.

[exactlyright]

"...None of my moms will actually tell me what we would use them for, if we used them. The tablecloth drying rack used to be down there, though," she adds.

[most_capable]

"I see."

[exactlyright]

"But they're inconvenient to get to anyway and there's not too little room in other parts of the castle, so that's okay." Carinna puts Mossy on her shoulder. Mossy snuggles up to her neck and whmmmmmms.

[most_capable]

Pepper smiles.

[exactlyright]

"Do you want to hold Mossy?"

[most_capable]

"I think I would like that very much."

[exactlyright]

Carinna hands over Mossy. "The glowing and the whmmming are happy," she says, sounding like she fancies herself a multiverse-class expert on poofs.

[most_capable]

Pepper accepts the poof.

It whmmmmmmms.

"What a little darling," she says, petting it tentatively.

[exactlyright]

"They're so nice! You don't have to be careful, either, it just looks like it - you can't hurt them, when they glow it makes an anti-injury field and it works for people near them too."

[most_capable]

"That's convenient," says Pepper, petting Mossy's fluff. "Do they, um... make more poofs somehow or other?"