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.

"So, hi! I remember you," to Matilda, "but not you," to Lazarus.

"I am!" she agrees.

"Lemme try?" Addy asks winningly, holding out her hands in Matilda's direction.

"Do you copy skill or just power?" Amariah asks.

"Power and instincts, not finesse or techy stuff."

"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.

Addy lets her. "Tastes like everything," she says. "You're an entire grocery store!"

"That's me," says Matilda. "Full of magic groceries."

"...That is a really strange mental image," says Lazarus.

"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."

[Ah, hm. Need details.]

[What kind?]

[What would pop up, in whom, how does it interact with my stuff if someone unfortunate should obtain the magic?]

"Do tell!" Amariah laughs. Path preens.

[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.]

"Well, you're all... together," he says. "You coordinate. Except the minting, but even your coin colour ties back in."

"Huh. I'm not sure I understand," says Amariah. "You mean just because the coin color is like cloudpine?"

[Okay. What do you do, or would it be more productive for me to ask Lazarus?]

[I do magic,] she says dryly. [I have no idea how much Lazarus can tell you, but Shell Bell read up on it once. It's a little much for me to summarize all at once.]

"Coin colours are different to my power than to actual vision," he says. "To my power, your coin colour looks like your... witchiness."

"Huh," says Amariah. "What does Path look like to you?"

[I'll talk to Shell Bell and get back to you.]

"Like... you," he says. "But not the same as you."

"I am her but not the same as her," Path points out.

"That is probably why."

"What can you tell about me just by looking?" Path asks. "What do you know about daemons to begin with?"

"I don't really know very much about daemons. You look like... like you're inside-out," he says, struggling with words the way he frequently does when trying to describe new magic things. "Like you're a part of her that belongs on the inside, belonging on the outside instead."

"I can go inside, now," Path volunteers, "but we had to wish it."

"Yes," he says, "that's interesting too but I'm looking past it, it's not really about you. I don't think it's an ability you could've developed naturally."

"Sue and Ivy have it unwished," Amariah volunteers. "If you come into Alethia without explicitly wishing against it you get a daemon, and he did this while he was dreaming, and this led to her going in and out."

"I think I've caught a glimpse of Sue," he says. "He's one of Alice's alts, right?"

"He's a Whistle," says Amariah. "There's two people named Alice here who are not alts of each other - the other's Golden's precog. I bet Kas and Petaal would make a good control for looking at Sue and Ivy to see what's just them and what's the results of the dream, too."

"I am from this world. When I say Alice, I generally mean the one who keeps hugging me."

"Whistles are like that," laughs Amariah. "I'm fond of Whistles. I might go join them if they don't emerge on their own in a bit."

"I'm fond of the one I know!" says Lazarus. "But I don't think I'm quite ready to dive into a pile of them."

"But it'd be such a snuggly pile!"

"It would," he agrees. "It would be a very snuggly pile. And probably also very naked."

"Witches don't care about nudity," shrugs Amariah. "I don't really get caring about it, although I know how to act around people who do."

"...Witches don't care about nudity including in the context of cuddlepiles?" he clarifies.

"Nudity is not a meaningful thing by itself except where there is actual practical reason for it to be," Amariah says. "If I'll cuddle with somebody I don't care if any combination of us also happen to be naked."

"I tend to squeak," Lazarus admits ruefully.

"That sounds adorable, can you do it on command or would I have to take my clothes off in front of the non-witch adorable little children which I probably shouldn't do?"

"I cannot do it on command, but it's not that infrequent. Please do not take off your clothes."

"Not out here, anyway, I don't think they'll last long if I go hang out with a heap of Whistles. You don't sound likely to join me at such a pursuit."

"Or are you?"

Lazarus blushes!

"That's cute, you're cute, does Stella ever tell you that?"

Stella reports to Matilda: [I don't want to introduce your magic at this time, but I'd like to revisit the issue in a few more years when my empire's more entrenched and has more than a few million people in it and Earth is a nicer place to live. Jane's got a node in your world so I can contact you anytime, right?]

[Yep!] says Matilda. [Sure thing! By the way, Amariah is flirting with Lazarus and it's adorable.]

"Many people frequently tell me that," says Lazarus, "Stella included."

[That is kind of adorable.]

"Good. Cute people should be told that they're cute," Amariah asserts. "I bet a lot of Whistles would be happy to reiterate the sentiment if we visited them. And then I'd get to see this eeping I have heard so much about."

"You know what," says Lazarus, "sure."

Amariah smiles at him and meanders thataway.

Lazarus follows, blushing preemptively.

"So cute. Does Stella not even hit on you? I'm all the way on the one end of the spectrum, but it's not like she's Golden, and it's not like we're constitutionally incapable except for me as the lone exception, Shell Bell's got her set of twins..."

"I don't... think Stella hits on me," he says. "If she does, she does it very subtly."

"Would you find it unwelcome in some way that she knows about?" inquires Amariah, pushing open the first door of the privacy airlock. "And that I clearly don't so you should tell me if you want me to stop."

"I don't know, really," he says, following her into the airlock. "I do tend to eep, but as you can see, that's not always something I try to avoid..."

Amariah giggles. The first door closes, the second opens. She peers through, looking first of all for Kas.

"How'd you get him in here?" giggles Alice, climbing out of the pile and coming over to give Lazarus a hug and ruffle his hair.

Kas is busy making out with Micaiah, but Petaal is being an angel and she waves from where Ghosty and Queenie are snuggled up in her wings.

"Insinuated nicely," says Amariah, waving back at Petaal. Path tucks away; it's safer in a room with this many bodies, and he, unlike Petaal, can't touch a majority of the attendees. Also, it is clearly unwarranted for her to wear clothes here. She stops!

Lazarus... sort of hangs around nervously.

"Mostly?" he says, leaning against a wall.

"It's very cozy," Amariah volunteers.

"What's the hangup, then?" Amariah asks.

"I'm not sure, really."

"Nah," Amariah says easily to Queenie.

"That does look awfully cozy," Lazarus murmurs, absently leaning his cheek against Ghosty's hair.

"So cozy!" Amariah says. "And as I have just demonstrated you don't have to make out with anybody you don't feel like making out with."

"I could ask you the same question," says Kas, although he is probably not volunteering from all the way over there and mostly underneath Micaiah.

Lazarus's answer, apparently, is a blush and a quiet, amused "Eep."

"I continue to be straight," Ama says. "I think within this pile that's my only constraint."

"...Well," says Lazarus, blushing some more.

"Awwwwwwwwwww," says Ghosty.

"Thank you."

Well, there's always—

—Ghosty, who comes in variable shapes.

Kisses! Cuddly kisses.

Amariah doesn't interrupt kissing Ghosty to indicate this, but she listens curiously.

"Um," says Lazarus. "Well. Yes."

"Ooh," says Amariah between kisses. "See, I couldn't tell."

"I wasn't really advertising it!" he says, grinning a little.

"I figured it out," Queenie says smugly.

"You're very perceptive," Amariah tells Queenie. She kisses the end of Ghosty's nose and adjusts her position to peer invitingly at Lazarus, one hand extended in his direction.

Ghosty giggles.

He gets a kiss for his trouble!

He kisses back. Shyly, but with definite enjoyment.

Awww, shy kisses, that's cute. Amariah's kisses are not shy but they are also enjoying!

Amariah is so pleased to have had the opportunity to enlighten him!

"Uh, she didn't ask me to, and if you don't want me to recommend you to her later I won't," Amariah blinks.

"Well... I don't really know," he says. "It just occurred to me that you asked me if she hits on me and calls me cute and things."

"I did ask that. I wanted to know, is why," Amariah says. (Kiss.) "Because you are cute and worth hitting on and she's the one of us who has non-party-related reasons to encounter you."

"Well," he says, "I guess you can ask her why she doesn't. And then at least one and possibly both of us will find out."

"I dunno, have you got a significant other who is not known to approve of you kissing Bells?" Pause. "Or who actually doesn't approve of you kissing Bells, in which case we should stop."

"I have a, um... no one matching that description is going to disapprove of me kissing Bells," he says.

"But does Stella know that? Or does she just know that you have an um whose lack of disapproval is an unknown quantity?"

"...I suppose she does know," he says. "About the um."

"Goddesses all you're cute." He gets a kiss. "Do you want her, because I totally can go recommend you to her, it wouldn't even be my first, what'd you call it, test drive."

"I shall have a chat with her when I'm all through," kiss, "collecting data!"

[Yes. Kisses and cuteness, both on the list.]

[So...?]

[So, do you feel like qualifying me to recommend you for any other properties you might have? Among the Whistles or not, there's other rooms in here.]

[...I'll think about it,] he says.

[Okay.] Amariah's not in a hurry to move on from kissing. Delicious Lazarus om nom nom.

Alice is totally watching them and beaming.

Amariah giggles at him doing this between kisses!

"I am having a very adventurous day today," says Lazarus. "Alice, would you like to kiss me?"

"Yeah!" he says, and pounces gently.

"Awwwwww."

Mmmm kisses.

Well, now Amariah's unoccupied. Anybody looking speculatively at her now?

"Where's Ivy?" Amariah wonders.

A small white fennec fox pokes her head out from between the pair of them and waves a paw.

Amariah waves. "Thanks for teaching me that hiding trick. I would not be nearly as comfortable walking into a room this crowded if Path had to be out. He'd wind up waiting outside being disgruntled."

"And that wouldn't be near as much fun," says Sue. Ivy climbs over him and into his arms, and he cuddles her and kisses the top of her head.

"It wouldn't. Anything much in this vein with an unoccupied, disgruntled daemon is just kinda bleah." Amariah waves at the general contingent. "Hey - Aegis identified you as her 'best friend'. Just because she's fifteen or what, d'you know?"

"...I dunno," says Sue, shaking his head. "I used to flirt with everybody and she didn't want me to flirt with her 'cause she wasn't there yet, but that was a year or something ago."

"I wonder if you're all... Westermarck effect, that's it. Well, her, anyway."

"I'm not," he says, grinning.

"Yeah, that doesn't seem like the sorta thing that'd apply to you," laughs Amariah. "You want me to ask her?" Pause. "You want to get 'test-driven'?"

Brightly: "Sure!"

"To which question?"

"Both of 'em?" he laughs.

"In which order?"

"I dunno, does it matter? I mean, if you ask her if she's interested and she says no does that mean you won't fuck me either?"

"Not hardly." Amariah wriggles her way out of her current pile. "Minor logistical issue - if Path's gonna be out to occupy Ivy I don't want to be in a room this crowded."

"I think one of the other rooms is still free!" he says, grinning.

Amariah gets to her feet and holds out her hand towards Sue.

He takes it, and Ivy follows them as a hummingbird.

Path emerges as they cross the threshold. [Hey Aegis,] Amariah asks, setting up her, Sue, their daemons, and Aegis all in a conference call, [you don't mind if I borrow your Whistle for salacious purposes?]

[...You want to - wait - Sue, are you not gay?]

[...The fuck?] he says, actually stopping in his tracks. [No, I'm not gay, why would I be gay?]

[I hope you weren't expecting me to draw conclusions about your sexuality from the fact that you were willing to flirt with a thirteen-year-old girl, and besides that it sure looked like it to me!]

[Oh, you poor things,] laughs Amariah. [If alts ever vary in who they're attracted to we haven't seen the phenomenon yet. Shell Bell's special circumstances. Whistles are - Whistles.]

[There weren't any girls around who wanted to fuck me!] he says. [Until now, anyway. But I've had the hots for you since ages, did you not know that?]

[I did not know that! Because you didn't tell me! And even guys who're just space-gay talk about girls.]

[I guess I just got used to not flirting,] he says. [And I'm not 'guys', I'm me.]

[I know you're you. I just didn't know you weren't gay.]

[Well, that's weird,] he says. [But now you do.]

[Yeah. Um.]

[I'll bow out if you want, Aegis,] invites Amariah. [Or I can test-drive him for you.]

[I'm looking forward to the test drive,] says Sue.

[...You have fun, I need to think.]

[I'll have a nice informed review along in a bit,] Amariah says.

[Thanks, I think.]

Sue giggles, and drops the call, and hugs Amariah.

Ivy becomes an angel, and goes to Path, and hugs him and pets him and kisses his fluffy feathers.

[Huh,] Aegis says, now speaking only to Ivy and Sue.

[So, you do your thinking yet?]

[Some of it. I know I told you not to flirt with me back when I was thirteen, but you could've just told me straight out, you know. I didn't like it because I was thirteen and I thought it was part of Unhealthy Sue Behavior.]

[I guess it was a little. But I liked you, too. I like you now. I love you.]

[You're my best friend and I love you and I've thought you were not-potentially-dateable for a long time now,] Aegis sighs.

[I still don't get that,] he says. [But maybe it's just that I don't even know what me being gay would be like.]

[Link me up, it's higher bandwidth. I'm not gay but I can push you what it's like to only like boys.]

He links her up.

Yes, she just said.

If you'd pushed that at me while you were, like, next to me, I probably would've kissed you, Aegis observes. But you're in the orgy chamber and I don't think I wanna be in an orgy chamber.

I'm not in the main part! he says, laughing. Ama went back out, there's nobody in here but me.

I still have mixed feelings about entering an orgy chamber, though!

It's just a room with a big comfy bed and a buncha pillows, he shrugs.

Nobody's likely to come in and start orgy-ing?

If the door isn't currently closed, do please close it before I teleport in, I don't really want to witness an orgy any more than I want to be in one. I wonder why Amariah's so different.

I dunno, he says, and shuts the door with a square, and indicates that he has done so.

Port!

Meh. Hug!

Okay, awesome. He loves heeeeeer.

I don't actually know what I'm doing past hereabouts, Aegis remarks presently.

Is there something you want to be doing? he asks cheerfully. 'Cause we could just snuggle if that's what you're after.

I don't know. We can start with that.

Ivy-the-snake gets petted. Aegis closes her eyes and cuddles up. I do love you, you know, even if I've only been thinking about you as a friend for forever.

I love you too, he says, snuggling her. You're the best.

So let's kiss, he says cheerfully.

Tentative little incompetent kiss? Yes, that.

How about snuggly kiss?

Snuggly too! Snuggly is good.

In that case, more snuggly kiss!

The tentativeness is going away slowly! The incompetence is going away more slowly!

Sue is pretty content with this turn of events!

Oh, good! Snuggles and kisses and Ivy-petting and some Sue-petting. These things.

That's encouraging!

They are encouraging sounds.

Aegis has decided that she definitely likes kissing Sue. She pushes him this information, since he has a door through her wall now and it's easy and she can.

Ooh. Sue likes kissing Aegis right back! He informs her of this in the clearest possible terms.

Do you usually link people in... bed?

Not all the time, but sometimes!

How's that work?

He laughs. Why, you want I should show you?

Not all multimedia. I don't wanna feel like I've slept with everybody you have. Just curious.

It's nice, he says. My alts like it especially. And it's easier than talking for explaining some stuff.

That sounds nice.

"Mmhmm," he says, snuggling closer and pushing another dose of I-love-you-you're-the-best.

Aegis likes that and this time she is close enough to kiss him for it and he's close enough to hear her small pleased noise.

He kisses back, shining delight into her mind.

Kisses kisses kisses. She's less incompetent now!

That is nice. This is nice. Everything is nice. Sue is getting all kinds of good feelings, and he sends her those too, all happy and shivery and lovey.

Aegis doesn't default to pushing at him, but she does when she thinks to; she's all comfortable excitement and enthralled affection.

Awwwwwwwwww that makes him happy. That makes him really happy. See how happy?

She is happy that he is happy! He gets squeezed. And kissed some more.

Then there is more of that. Aegis is quite obliging about squeezing.

Best! Best best best. Sue is very squishable. Alice has taught him as much. He had lots of fun finding out.

Aegis is not vampire-strong, so she isn't squishing him quite that much, but she's doing her best.

"Mmm," sighs Aegis, tucking her head in against his neck and going on with the squeezing.

He hugs her back lightly and closes his eyes and loves her.

She loves him back! She pushes it. So there.

She is the beeeeeeeeeeeeeeest.

Yes. Yes she is. She laughs smugly.

"You are the best," says Sue. "You're my favourite Bell. And I love you and I kinda want to make out with you forever."

"I love you too. And I want to do some other things in the course of forever but there can be making out in there."

She also loves that she will take over the world!

Yeah, but she loves it differently. Because presumably she does not want to make out with herself. If she did, there would be many available opportunities.

?

Sue likes pain. All the squishing and the kissing and the being-turned-on are, in combination, reminding him of this. He would like to like some right now, if she's feeling it.

Right now, his preference is for fingernails!

Pressing becomes clenching. She hasn't cut her nails in a while. They can go in quite a ways, and she might not have super-strength but she does have good muscle tone.

Sue gets all happy and squirmy, and sends happy squirmy love.

He gets kissed and scratched and kissed some more.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmkisses. Happy squirmy lovey kisses.

He loves her.

Of course he does! It's 'cause she's awesome. She loves him too. Nibble nibble kiss kiss.