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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.
self_composed
luminous_regnant
Addy wants to talk about magic! There, that Bell has magic that isn't just minting - that random girl over there does too - there's Lazarus! Addy herds them all into one place with vague fluttering about magic and then grins broadly.
dark_light
"So, hi! I remember you," to Matilda, "but not you," to Lazarus.
"I am!" she agrees.
luminous_regnant
"Lemme try?" Addy asks winningly, holding out her hands in Matilda's direction.
luminous_regnant
"Power and instincts, not finesse or techy stuff."
Matilda gives Addy an assessing look.
Then she shrugs and holds out her hand.
Then she shrugs and holds out her hand.
luminous_regnant
Handclasp!
"Huh, that's odd," says Addy after a moment. "I can taste it but I can't take it."
"Huh, that's odd," says Addy after a moment. "I can taste it but I can't take it."
dark_light
"...Should you have a warning label?" Amariah asks. "I'm going to ask Golden if you should have a warning label."
A moment later, Addy's nametag is revised with a warning label: Do Not Feed Excessively Powerful Magic To This Amoral Vampire Who Is Kept In Check Mostly Via Magic Related Bribery, Please.
A moment later, Addy's nametag is revised with a warning label: Do Not Feed Excessively Powerful Magic To This Amoral Vampire Who Is Kept In Check Mostly Via Magic Related Bribery, Please.
luminous_regnant
"It's okay, I can't take it anyway," laughs Addy. She has not let go of Matilda's hand. "It's just tasty, not useful."
Matilda laughs, and takes her hand away.
luminous_regnant
Addy lets her. "Tastes like everything," she says. "You're an entire grocery store!"
"That's me," says Matilda. "Full of magic groceries."
dark_light
"If you get no technical finesse it's probably safe for you to try mine," Amariah says. "You'd have to know a spell to cast one, and it's not that powerful anyway without stuff you don't have."
luminous_regnant
Addy requires no further invitation.
"Can't even taste you," she sighs. "Probably 'cause yours is species-based."
She pats Lazarus on the arm and then stares intently at Amariah and Matilda both with his power instead.
"Can't even taste you," she sighs. "Probably 'cause yours is species-based."
She pats Lazarus on the arm and then stares intently at Amariah and Matilda both with his power instead.
Matilda thinks of something, and brainphones Stella.
[Do you mind if I do a lot of my contagious magic here? It won't spread to individuals I don't do magic to, but it might spread to the universe and start popping up in natives.]
[Do you mind if I do a lot of my contagious magic here? It won't spread to individuals I don't do magic to, but it might spread to the universe and start popping up in natives.]
[What kind?]
self_composed
[What would pop up, in whom, how does it interact with my stuff if someone unfortunate should obtain the magic?]
[There's no clear set of rules about who can do magic and how and why. I could give you a good guess about whether or not someone might pick it up easily, but I couldn't tell you exactly why, and I'm not always right. But it works according to patterns. The practice in my world has been overwhelmingly benevolent for years, so spells that accomplish positive effects are easier to learn and create, and spells that accomplish negative effects are harder. Unless you get a lot of people very determined to wreck things, it should be the same way here, and even if you do it'll take a while for the balance to shift.]
nonbird
"Well, you're all... together," he says. "You coordinate. Except the minting, but even your coin colour ties back in."