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

[cross_and_bow]

"Oh, I'm sure one day you'll have company and it will no longer be such a tempting distinguishing feature. Besides, I left out a couple of us altogether."

[newtimov]

"You are also a wizard?" says Ike. "What kind?"

[lifes_sake]

"...Speech wizard?" suggests Cam. "Only one kind on my world. Learn magic language, convince stuff to do stuff with it."

[newtimov]

"Yes, that was a question about methods rather than nomenclature," says Ike. "I am not a wizard! I am an undergraduate student. Someday I will build robots. Well, I already build robots, but someday I will build much better ones."

[lifes_sake]

"Rumor has it that's a much wiser occupation on Sunshine than wizarding, robotics is. At least until Tilly and her alts camp out there long enough to scare the magic system straight."

[newtimov]

"I have not heard about Tilly, who is Tilly?"

[lifes_sake]

"She's a Matilda? There isn't one in Sunshine, maybe you haven't heard of them. There's three - mine, Rainbow's, and one from an unBelled world called Wellspring. Matildas are great."

[newtimov]

"I had not heard of Matildas," Ike confirms. "That is interesting! How do they scare magic?"

[lifes_sake]

"Oh, it turns out that Wellspring's magic system is actually lots like the Sunshine-family worlds, except Sunshine-family worlds have had it for a long time and demons or something have been using it in unpleasant ways. It's kind of impressionable magic, so it gets unpleasant when used that way. But Matildas are all really intensely good at this kind of magic, so if they went and were good examples for it, they might be able to shift things some."

[newtimov]

"Ooooooh," says Ike. "That's interesting. They should do that! Our magic kind of mostly sucks right now."

[lifes_sake]

"They plan to! I don't think they have a timetable though."

[newtimov]

"I am sure they will get around to it someday. Did you know you are extremely pretty?"

[lifes_sake]

"I've heard this from reliable sources before. But not from you. It's good to know."

[newtimov]

"Oh good," says Ike.

[lifes_sake]

"You're cute, do people inform you of that often enough?"

[newtimov]

"With reasonable frequency! But mostly they are members of my immediate family and that is not at all the same."

[lifes_sake]

"I wouldn't expect it to be, no. But here I am, not related to you, thinking you're cute."

[newtimov]

"I have noticed that," says Ike. "I am very pleased!"

[lifes_sake]

"Good, I hate it when my flattering opinions are unhappily received."

[newtimov]

Ike giggles.

Then he scans the surrounding airspace.

[lifes_sake]

Cam looks up.

[newtimov]

"Oh, I was looking for my sister," Ike explains. "She is likely to show up and interrogate you if she notices that we are talking. But she does not seem to have done that yet."

[lifes_sake]

"Why is she likely to do that?"

[newtimov]

"She is very protective."

[lifes_sake]

"What, exactly, is she likely to expect me to maybe do to harm you?"