Having been abandoned by the young witch she was recently talking to, Lexi is now vaguely in a search pattern, since people keep telling her she should meet the other Bell-sister and she'd like to be able to tell them they're late to the party. No immediate sign of her, though. Hmm.

A naked Joker equipped with a magical censor bar over the critical region appears next to the buffet table and starts investigating the tiny pies.

Lexi yelps. "What is with people and abrupt teleporting and what is with Jokers and not wearing pants?"

He glances up from the pies. "Hello to you too," he snorts. "Sorry about the teleporting, didn't know it'd bother anybody. Not sorry about the pants, it's a nymph thing."

"A what now? I can't keep track of you, all I know is that this is like the third time I have been around a Joker who was not wearing pants and that is too many times. Four if you count Brilliance being a deck of cards but I'm not gonna be unreasonable there."

"I'm Celo," he sighs. "I'm a nymph. Nymphs don't wear clothes."

"Why? I mean, I appreciate the censor bar, at least, but still."

"It's kind of a cultural/religious thing," he says. "And religious thing in Materia means actual literal existing god who occasionally appears on TV and will fuck your shit up if you piss her off. Nymphs are the divine children of Mother Khaele, and she says no clothes, so no clothes. I don't toe the line on every single thing, but I do on this one, 'cause it's important to me."

"I would not have pegged Jokers for containing religious types who allow gods named after lettuce to dictate wardrobe, however literal they are. Huh."

"I'm kind of not on speaking terms with her anyway, but for mostly unrelated reasons," he says. "And I'm technically my own god these days, but I still don't wear clothes, because it's not a religious thing for me, it's about being who I am. The religious thing is why nymphs in general walk around naked - without censor bars, that's actually violating the divine edict, just not in a way I personally care about - and why I don't get arrested when I do it at home."

"Why could you not be who you are now with added pants?" She does jazz hands at "now with added pants".

"Wearing clothes as kinky. Wow. That is one of the stranger things I've heard today and this is a Bellparty so it has competition."

He laughs. "Yeah, I'm getting the picture."

"Yeah, I think I've been some people's weirdest-thing, showing off my Peachy." (Persica, hanging round her neck, glitters.) Lexi inspects miniature sandwiches and takes one with prosciutto or some sort of custom organism that can pass for it.

"Your Peachy being...?"

"Hi," says Celo. "Yeah, we talk. We just haven't specifically talked about other Devices much."

"Well, there's mine and there's Agent Honey's and there's Bella's - Aurora's I mean - there's Brilliance. And that's probably all the ones you're going to find at a party, I haven't met any other ones unless you count the really really dumb one Be- Aurora has on her hair elastic to do her anti-clumsiness that's not smart enough to say hi."

"Okay," says Celo, smiling.

"So which world are you from, are you from the one that broke Jane or one of the other new ones, which has nymphs?"

"The one that broke Jane. Materia."

"The Bells went to all this trouble to set up the nametags and like half the people I meet aren't wearing theirs."

Celo shrugs. "Guess they didn't feel like it."

"Or don't have anything to stick it to. I bet you could get one that sort of floats illusionishly if you wanted."