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

[pythbox]

"Huh," Celo says contemplatively. "I never thought about it, but I could change how old I look now, if I wanted. Nymphs don't really age; I've looked this way since the first time I came out of the ground."

[lexicality]

"You just sprouted whole?"

[pythbox]

"Pretty much! I mean, I don't literally grow these bodies like plants," he says with a gesture at himself. "They just kind of... happen. Not exactly appear, it's not like a teleport, more of a process than that, but not anything observable and definite like sprouting."

[lexicality]

"These? Are there like four of you walking around?"

[pythbox]

He giggles. "No, but when one of me dies, I grow another one. Nymphs are like that. To actually kill us you have to burn our fields and probably salt 'em too."

[lexicality]

"Oh. Well, that probably won't happen in the Enchanted Forest, that place is made of friendly fairy tales and really big trees."

[pythbox]

"I've heard!" he says. "It wasn't that likely at home either, but it's way less likely now."

[lexicality]

"Does that work funny with torching?"

[pythbox]

"Probably. We keep meaning to go talk to the torching expert about it, but we haven't done it yet. It's not hugely urgent."

[lexicality]

"I guess, if your field is safe in Happy Fluffy Land and you already do a thing just about as good."

[pythbox]

"Yep!"

[lexicality]

"Nymphs are like unicorns and vampires and stuff, there's stories about them at home, but all the stories are about girl nymphs," Lexi muses.

[pythbox]

"Yeah," says Celo, "I am the one and only nymph with a dick in all of Materia, as far as I know."

[lexicality]

"Huh, why?"

[pythbox]

"Well, nymphs tend to match the desires of the people who seed us," he says. "I guess at least one of those people really, really wanted a boy." (He's got a little of that distant look again.)

[lexicality]

"Seed you? Do I wanna know?"

[pythbox]

"You probably don't," he snorts.

[lexicality]

"Okay, not touching it."

[pythbox]

Celo laughs.

"I mean, I bet you could guess."

[lexicality]

"No, actually? Like, right now my mental image is someone goes to the store and buys a packet of nymph seeds and then blows out the candle on their birthday cake and makes a wish, and I'm sure that's totally wrong but it sounds like I would rather keep thinking it anyhow."

[pythbox]

"...yep," says Celo, "I bet you would."

[lexicality]

"Why do people go do whatever it really is instead of buying nymph seeds? Is it just like they decide to have kids and the long way around is too much work or what?"

[pythbox]

"...noooooooo," says Celo, "as much of the exact opposite of that as it is possible to get, pretty much, except I guess in some really fucked up circumstances - okay, one of the practical reasons to want a nymph is because you don't just seed a nymph in bare dirt, you do it in the middle of a field of some kind of crop, and then you don't have to do anything else except keep the nymph happy and you'll get a nice crop of whatever it is every year."

[lexicality]

"Oh, I guess that kind of makes sense? Farmer nymphs, okay."

[pythbox]

"Nnnnot exactly," says Celo. "I don't do things to my field, I just am it. It's healthy when I'm healthy."