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

[lifes_sake]

"Maybe?"

[newtimov]

"Well, I think the prize is that Val leaves you alone while you possibly flirt with me," he says.

[lifes_sake]

"Aha. And hold your hand, that also seems to be ongoing."

[newtimov]

"Yes! Those," says Ike. "Those are examples of things we can do without Val's interference."

[lifes_sake]

"Cool. Are those the kind of activity you prefer to do with a floor under you?" Cam inquires. Grace turns into a notebook again; he catches her and tucks her back in his backpack.

[newtimov]

"Generally speaking, yes," says Ike.

[lifes_sake]

"There are floors to be had."

The floor that Cam picks out is a floor up from the main party area, looking out into the crowd.

[newtimov]

Ike relaxes slightly. "This is a floor," he says, gazing down at it. "It is very a floor." He looks out past the railing. "And there's where we were standing earlier - teleportation does wipe out my orientation the same way interdimensional travel does. But I can get it back the same way, too, by placing myself relative to known landmarks again."

[lifes_sake]

"And then it's all - restored from backup? How good is your memory for this stuff?"

[newtimov]

"Very, very good," he says. "I couldn't retrace every step I've taken in my entire life, but I could probably draw you an accurate map of the parts of Toronto I've been to more than once."

[lifes_sake]

"Cool. Are you working with about the same quality senses that a full Sessiaki would have, or did you get a toned down version?"

[newtimov]

"About the same," he says. "Sessiaki-human mixes seem to be lucky that way. I can also see violet, which full Sessiaki can't; their visible spectrum is a little smaller."

[lifes_sake]

"And that glowy thing your sister was doing, is that also a thing you do or something else?"

[newtimov]

"That is iethat. She is an ithue," he says. "About a third of Sessiaki are. I'm not."

[lifes_sake]

"...Stop me if all the questions are intrusive or you get them all the time or they are insufficiently flirtatious. Alternatively, ask me questions about wizardry or notebook birds or what I have learned from talking to inanimate objects."

[newtimov]

"I don't actually get them very often, because the set of people who know my mom is Sessiaki but don't already know all about them is extremely small," he says. "You talk to inanimate objects? I suppose you implied that earlier. What do they say?"

[lifes_sake]

"Depends! Plants range from extremely stupid, like grass, to fully sapient - most trees. This is only on my world, Syntropy - not even the stars outside of Syntropy are worth holding a conversation with, and stars back home are really smart. My wizard manual will talk to me about what's inside it, answer questions, direct me to page numbers. Grace is a person and always knows what I've written in her. Other stuff will answer basic questions about its properties if I ask it."

[newtimov]

"Does this space plant say things?"

[lifes_sake]

"Good question." Cam looks at the nearest part of contiguous space plant, which is the railing. "Hello, space plant!"

[pythbox]

"I'm a space plant," says the space plant.

[lifes_sake]

"Yes you are. Anything else to say?"

[pythbox]

Pause.



"I'm a big space plant!"

[newtimov]

"Is it saying things?" says Ike. "I can't tell."

[lifes_sake]

"It says it's a space plant. It's a big space plant. This isn't Syntropy, so that's probably all I'm gonna get out of it."

[newtimov]

Ike giggles. "It's true! It is a big space plant. It might even be the biggest space plant ever. It's definitely the biggest one I've seen. But then, I have only seen one space plant."