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]

"Planetary plants," snorts Cam. "Very well. But perhaps he became bored with ecosysteming Saturn, and Pat's world has space forests now with space plants ten times the size of this one. I cannot ask it, for it is not the sort of thing it would know."

[newtimov]

Ike giggles.

[lifes_sake]

"Aianon made me a fruit once. It was heart-shaped - I mean, anatomically correct heart-shaped - and it was tasty so I kept the seeds. The trees have not turned out very clever - they are brighter than this plant, probably since I grew them in Syntropy, but they wouldn't win any contests within the world. But they are uncommonly emotional. They're always happy to see me and know who I am because they were made for me."

[newtimov]

"...That's adorable," says Ike.

[lifes_sake]

"Isn't it just? I mean, I have befriended a tree, but this is on another kind of level."

[newtimov]

"Heart fruits!" he says, giggling. "Heart fruits. Heart fruits that love you."

[lifes_sake]

"Well, the trees love me. The fruits, once picked, are not so full of mental activity that I feel any qualms about taking bites out of them. I did have a very anxious few days when I first learned to talk to things. Quizzed muffins, etcetera. I'm still slightly vegetarian on those occasions when I don't eat conjured food."

[newtimov]

"...Yes," he says, "I suppose eating food that was aware enough to love you would be slightly horrifying. Did the muffin pass the quiz?"

[lifes_sake]

"Failed it miserably! All it could say was, 'I'm a muffin'! It did not react when I warned it I was going to bite it. It did not complain when I did so."

[newtimov]

"That's good," says Ike. "I would hate to think about all food being smart enough to complain when you try to eat it."

[lifes_sake]

"Most food is not. I mean, nothing in actual food form is smart, but I talked to a goat and she was capable of telling me that she didn't want to be eaten, so I don't eat anything that used to be potentially brighter than a chicken. Chickens are really stupid, though."

[newtimov]

"I am glad my visions of screaming cupcakes are not supported by reality."

[lifes_sake]

"At one time I thought I had met a very clever rock but it turned out to be a disguised evil deity."

[newtimov]

"...I think I just had another 'floating in space holding hands' moment," giggles Ike.

[lifes_sake]

"Yeah. The disguised evil deity introduced itself to me as Iggy," Cam adds, winking.

[newtimov]

"Pfffffffffff," says Ike.

[lifes_sake]

"And then it tried to convince me not to do so much Belling because I was cramping its style and I didn't bite and then it tried to kill me and Jellybean and Tilly saved my life, so that was exciting."

[newtimov]

"It sounds it!" says Ike. "I am glad the evil rock did not kill you."

[lifes_sake]

"Yeah, me too. It does continue to exist, I'm not sure yet what to do about it, although the list of possibilities recently expanded to 'hire the assassin from Materia who terrifies both her local Bell and Glass'."

[newtimov]

"...I don't think I would like to hire an assassin that terrified multiple Bells!" says Ike. "But I guess an evil deity would be a good reason to do it."

[lifes_sake]

"Yeah, ordinarily I wouldn't wanna interact with her, I have had enough unfortunate experiences with Materia, but Iggy's kind of a problem. Syntropy's not hooked up to Downside, there's something in the way, and I bet Iggy's involved."

[newtimov]

"I cannot even imagine trying to solve this problem," Ike says after a moment. "At home you don't solve evil gods, you avoid them as much as possible. Or at least I don't. I guess somebody probably does, or we'd have evil gods popping up like mushrooms."

[lifes_sake]

"Juliet solved an evil god," says Cam. "I think it was in her job description even apart from being a Bell."

[newtimov]

Ike nods.

[lifes_sake]

"So what do the robots you build do?" inquires Cam.

He is still holding Ike's hand.