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

[thaumobabble]

Glass stares at him, and at Jnis.

"This would be easier to see if Icarin were here too but I've looked at him before, so I can pretty much... your template and their template are closer together than most independent templates. You aren't the same thing, but like - if Jnis are metaphorical sisters, Ikes are metaphorical cousins to them."

[newtimov]

"I am not sure what to think of this!" says Ike.

[cheerfulish]

"You do seem to sort of talk like us," says Janine.

[thaumobabble]

"I'm just reporting what I see, I can't tell you what to do with the information."

[self_composed]

"So all the other templates are equally 'far apart'? And these ones are just - nearby each other?"

[thaumobabble]

"Y- no. No, we're not all equally far apart. Bells are closer to -" She looks around, sees her cat approaching, scoops him up. "Bells are closer to Cricket's template than to Jnis or Ikes. There's almost..." She puts Cricket down over his yowled protest, flies up, spins in the air to look at everybody. She lands again. "Now that I'm looking for it there are clusters. Two of them. Two slightly different - colors."

[newtimov]

"...Who belongs to which ones?" wonders Ike.

[thaumobabble]

"There's you and Jnis in the one color, Bells and Crickets in the other color, I think Sherlocks and Tonies are yours - These are not literal colors but maybe I should start referring to them as though they were anyway."

[cheerfulish]

"The two groups should definitely be named in some way," says Janine. "Otherwise it will get confusing."

[thaumobabble]

"Yes. Kanim is in the same cluster as Bells... yes, and you, Cricket." She picks her cat back up and rubs his fuzzy belly. "I think two of my daughters are in the Bell-and-Cricket cluster and Tanalin is in the other one..."

[self_composed]

"If only we had a convenient cluster in our coin colors to tell us what to call these - halves."

[thaumobabble]

"Moieties?" suggests Glass. "But we don't."

[manofmyword]

The Joker has been told that now would be a good time to get a snack. He appears at a charming little table covered in plates of cookies, grabs one, and then turns toward the nearest conversation.

"What don't we?"

[thaumobabble]

"We don't have a good name for the two clusters templates appear to fall into. You're in the other one."

[manofmyword]

"The other one from - you?" he guesses, drifting over from the cookie table with a few more acquisitions. "Mm, that's nnnot a huge surprise. Who else is where?"

[thaumobabble]

"Cricket here and my first and thirdborn and Kanim are with us, Jnis and Ikes and Sherlocks and Tonies and their parents and Tanalin are with you, and I'm not positive I can reliably make this distinction from memory with anyone I don't see all the time."

[manofmyword]

One of his hands is full of cookies, but he gestures with the other one, illustrating each named person separated into the appropriate groups.

"Who else," he says thoughtfully. "My kids? Golden's crowd? Bet you dollars to donuts Aedyt's on my side." He taps the air and his aura obligingly adds a little illusory Aedyt to the group on his left. "Kerron's with my sweetie, I bet—" and Kerron and Nathan join the crowd on the right. "Now, if you wanna name the teams something fancy, I'm not your guy. But if you just wanna tell 'em apart..."

He wiggles the fingers of his free hand. The illusions on his right acquire an afterimagey green halo shimmering around their edges; the ones on his left become similarly purplish.

The Joker giggles.

"I love auras," he says, and eats a cookie.

[thaumobabble]

"Auras have their uses! Green and purple? Okay. You're purple, Bells're green, I'll have to check everybody else to make sure, it's distinct when I'm looking for it but I never was before I saw these close together." She waves at the Jnis and Ike.

[newtimov]

"I feel so useful," says Ike.

[manofmyword]

The Joker giggles again.

[thaumobabble]

"Jane, you want to tell everybody about this exciting new discovery so I don't get deluged in confused brainphoning more than my boosts can handle?"

[mind_game]

[Sure. Hey, what am I, or do you have to go look at my actual body in the Belltower?]

[Hey, everybody! Glass has discovered that templates come in two moieties. We're calling them purple and green for now. She can look at you and find out which you are if you want, but don't crowd her.]

[thaumobabble]

"I think I would have to go there, yeah. I'll stop in on my way home from here, how about?"

[manofmyword]

The Joker snaps his fingers; his aura's helpful illusions disappear. A moment later, so does he.

[newtimov]

"Now there is someone who knows how to make an exit," observes Ike to no one in particular.