This post's authors have general content warnings that might apply to the current post.
Next Post »
« Previous Post
Permalink
The guest list winds up being pretty huge.

To start with, there are now eight Bells. Pattern isn't bringing anyone besides herself, and Aegis no one besides herself and her Whistle, but everyone else -

Between Alice, the Joker, the rescued Queenie, Kas, Micaiah, and Sue, plus Ghosty who Amariah picked up on her way home, that's seven Whistles. (Stella thinks ahead: there is a soundproofed orgy chamber away from the main party awning. With a few nodes off of it in case more than one orgy forms; she can think of at least two other likely ones.)

There's an equally absurd number of Sherlocks and Tonies if you count them together. They have Juliet's matched set, Shell Bell's matched set, two other matched sets from Bell-less worlds (one with souled vampire, one both human), a stray Tony, and a stray Sherlock from Downside.

Amariah grabbed a random Libby on top of the random extra Whistle, but at least she's not incorporating anyone from home.

Golden's bringing much of her family and many of her friends - although Edward is staying home, that still leaves Elspeth and Jacob, Alice and Jasper with little Brandon, Rosalie and Emmett and little Henry, Nathan accompanying his mate and their child Kerron, Esme and Carlisle and their Lily, Addy, and Elena who'll get to see her brother. Golden claims that this is a conservative list and she could easily have produced another twenty enthusiastic guests. Stella doesn't doubt it. She puts up a few signs reading Please Conduct Adult Conversation Only Via Brainphone. Little Half-Vampires Have Good Ears And Perfect Memories. As a last-minute surprise, Golden has taken Elspeth's suggestion to bring Edward's deceased mother Elizabeth, too.

Juliet has, on top of her boyfriend and his - progenitor? - her tiny Libby, James, a tagalong thereto called Virginia, and a ghost called Minnie, plus Giles.

Angela's list is more modest: her, her husband, and their friends Alleluia and Caleb.

Shell Bell is responsible for half the Sherlocks-and-Tonies all by herself, a tagalong called Pepper, and also someone called Darcy and also Matilda. (Shell Bell is also the reason Angela is not inviting her brother-in-law.)

Stella herself is responsible for inviting Libby, Orfeo, Chris, Mary, Anna, Sandy, Eights, Chainsaw, Lazarus, Kolya (who is informed that it would be awfully inconvenient for a majority of Bells to all have to coordinate on pretending he doesn't exist when only one of them has even met him to be able to identify him in the first place, so he can simply stay home if he's planning to be hidey), and Bridget.

Stella sets up a name tag system. Everyone will have a tag stuck to them. Solo persons - a minority - will just have their names. People with template names and nicknames will have both stamped on automatically. ("Hi! I'm a Bell, and you can call me Stella!"; "Hi! I'm a Whistle, and you can call me Alice!" "Hi! I'm a Sherlock, and I don't have a distinguishing nickname yet but as soon as I pick one it will appear here!")

She conjures up a nice buffet of food and beverages which will stay its correct temperature until consumed, and assorted synthetics for the vampires (labeled not for human consumption), and dishes and flatware (all glass; even some of the food-eating guests might dissolve anything else) and fusses with the awning opacity until it lets in just the right amount of sun, and, what the hell, she throws in a stage in case Angela wants to sing or she decides to play the flute or someone decides to pentagon some other performative skill to entertain the crowd. She makes sure there are enough bathrooms for all the people who still need bathrooms.

She puts out a few tables here and there with little bowls of squares and triangles - a mix of her glowing red and Alice's shifty black - in them for everyone's convenience. She accumulates coins in those sizes faster than she generally uses them and has a great many, so there are plenty for anyone to dip and wish if something comes up. She double-checks to make sure the Martian ground rules prohibit any misuses available for those size coins.

Jane gets one of those high-tech holographic projectors, on wheels, which she promptly manifests in, drives around the floor, and makes faces through.
Total: 34
Posts Per Page:
Permalink
There are two stray Whistles and stray alts of each of Stella's staff mints. Pattern means to have some sort of arrangement with at least one by the end of this party, because how else is she going to take over the world? Okay, with Jane serving as transport she could probably siphon off largesse from the other seven and get along, but that would be ignominious. All else being equal she'd rather go with the alts of Stella's staff, she thinks, because the overwhelming regularity with Whistles appears to involve dating them and she's not so sure about that.

There's Stella's employees - and there are their alts - and Pattern's going to walk right up to them.
Permalink

"...show you sometime," Chainsaw is saying, his arm slung around Sandy's shoulders.

Permalink
"Sounds like fun," says Eights. "But you know, there are probably better places to be having that conversation."

Anna casts a speculative glance in the direction of the orgy chamber.
Permalink

"You are kind of terrifying," Sandy says to Chainsaw, with more affection than usually accompanies those words.

Permalink

"Am I interrupting?" Pattern asks, scanning each of the four nametags to keep them straight in her head.

Permalink
"Yes," says Sandy, "and you're welcome to, hi! Which one are you?"

(It's hard to see her nametag from where he is snuggled up to Chainsaw's side.)
Permalink

"I'm Pattern. I'm new, they got me out of Downside. I haven't even been back to my original world yet."

Permalink

"Do you know which one it is?" asks Anna. "Is there anyone else around here from there?"

Permalink

"I saw one of the Whistles who was, but they're all off now and I think that one is the one Golden imported," sighs Pattern. "Nobody else."

Permalink
"Yeah," says Eights. "'Off'. We were thinking of heading off to join 'em in a bit."

"Is it bad that Golden imported him?" asks Anna.
Permalink

"Well, it means that unless one of you or a Sherlock or somebody hitherto untapped as a potential mint is in my world, I too will have to import someone. I don't think he's likely to be up for de-importing, he's got a mated Golden-type vampire and a kid."

Permalink

Eights looks at Chainsaw.

Permalink

Chainsaw looks at Pattern. And smirks.

Permalink

"Mmm?" says Pattern.

Permalink

"Oh, Eights is looking for somewhere comfy to retire," he says. "But she wants to take me with her, and I bet that's a dealbreaker."

Permalink

"...Is there a reason for you to bet that?" asks Pattern tentatively.

Permalink

"He was Downside's top torturer," says Eights. "Twice. For several thousand years each."

Permalink

"I haven't given this extensive personal thought, but the template in general and by extension me-if-I-think-on-it-long-enough are okay with - colorful histories among the staff."

Permalink

"Is there an upper limit on colourfulness here?"

Permalink

"I suppose I don't know, but it's not obvious why there would be as long as everything's metaphorically grayscale going forward."

Permalink

"That is the question, ain't it?"

Permalink

"Are you not keen on retiring?" Pattern asks uncomfortably.

Permalink

He shrugs.

Permalink

"I'm not sure if you'll have much luck with that. None of us are going to be on board with - marauding torturers."

Permalink

"But I'm such charming company," he says brightly.

Total: 34
Posts Per Page: