Kerron applauds with everybody else. That was cute.

Kerron glances around and reads her nametag. "Yep! I think festive plants are kind of Aianon's thing. Are you my cousinoid? I believe you are."

She peers at him. "Probably! If you're the Joker's son then definitely!"

"That's me. And your dad would be Kas, presumably. I don't think I'd heard that he had kids."

"He has a kid," says Helen. "It's... a thing."

"A thing," says Kerron, scanning colorshapes. "What kinda thing?"

"Ow."

"Yeah."

"I don't really know Her Majesty that well, let alone any of her alts - was the not-liking-it a huge thing..."

"Moderately huge? We're on speaking terms, and she didn't dump Kas or anything. But it's still pretty awkward."

"That really sucks."

"Yep," says Helen. It's possible that she would kind of like a hug.

So Kerron hugs her.

"You're welcome. I can do hugs, I learned from the best."

Helen giggles.

"How are you liking your first Bellparty?"

"It's pretty good."

"I was much littler than you at my first one, yea big," says Kerron, holding a hand above the floor. "Capering around being adorable. This is my sister's second, though."

"There weren't as many of 'em back then, and they didn't all literally hug me, but they all crowded around watching me be a munchkin. They did all hug Aedyt when she first turned up to one, let's see if we can find her and introduce you." He starts looking around for his sister, or her colorshapes, whichever is easiest to spot.

There she is! Next to the buffet, with Lily.

"I bet you were cute."

"I was very cute, and to cap it all off I got Mum to turn me into a blue fox. My sister's over there," he adds, pointing and leading Helen thataway.

"Well spotted!"

As they approach, Aedyt is saying, "Pretty good, actually! I will definitely put a word in with Mummy if you run out and want to conjure more."

"What's good?" Kerron asks. "Aedyt, Lily, this is our cousinoid, Helen. Helen, my sister, and Lily of no relation - Emperor's little sister."

"Nymph blood," says Lily, holding up her slightly depleted glass jug. "Want a sip?"

"No thanks, I already turned it down from the source."

"This is conjured, and it's really good," says Lily, pouring him a taste anyway.

Kerron sniffs it, then drinks it. "Okay, I'll admit, that is tasty stuff."

"Well, now I'm tempted," snorts Helen.

"I don't think it'd do anything for you. The three of us are half-vampires."

"Aurum ones," adds Lily. "One of the other kind of vampires tried it and torched on the spot."

"But no not-at-all-vampires have tried it yet, right?"

"Not and reported back to me. Do you really want it?"

"Sure, why not."

Lily pours her some too. Just enough that she'll be able to see if she likes it.

"Well, we don't really, either, except maybe Lily. Mostly it's bubbly if we're in that region of comestible at all. Very modern."

"And even I've only tasted a handful of cooperative people, hardly the range old vampires have had."

"I've had conjured human blood," volunteers Aedyt. "I think I like nymph better."

Helen giggles.

"I'd like to be able to compare to singer blood, but I don't think hybrids have ever been confirmed to have those."

"Can magic affect singerness?" wonders Aedyt. "Maybe you could get a similar experience even if we don't."

"And a 'singer' is...?"

"I'm not sure if it can," Lily says to Aedyt, and to Helen she says, "A 'singer' is someone who smells and tastes ludicrously delicious to a specific vampire. I've heard that Bella - Golden - used to be Edward's before she turned."

"...I am pretty sure that magic can affect singerness, please do not ask me how I know."

"Okay," says Aedyt, who can guess.

Helen looks at Kerron, then at Aedyt. Wheels begin turning.

"What's on your mind?" Kerron asks Helen.

"Guesses."

He snorts.

"Anyway," says Aedyt, "if you wanted to experiment, Lily, I could try to conjure you pretend singer blood."

"I'd rather not make an idiot of myself in the middle of a Bellparty if it works. Maybe when we're back in Aurum. You can come to the tasting, stay after?"

"Sure!" she says agreeably.

"Cool, I'll send you an invitation when I have the details of the scheduling and all worked out."

"So anyway. Helen here is Kas's kid. Slightly awkward amount of emphasis on 'Kas's'."

"Awkward emphasis because—?"

"Because he had me by himself after he'd been wandering around missing Amariah for decades, and he didn't even mean for me to be hers but it happened anyway because of some weird thing about wishing and templates, and when she finally got back she was really mad at him for it."

"...I want to hug you, do you want me to hug you?"

Helen nods.

Hug.

Kerron hugs her again too.

"Guilty as charged."

Aedyt giggles.

"Have you met our other cousinoids? Your - sisteroids, I guess? Or for that matter your own alts."

"Some of them!" she says, cheering up somewhat. "My alts, and Pen the tiny angel, and the griffins. I still haven't seen sisteroid number three - I don't even know if any of them are here."

"They should be. I haven't met Hyacinthe or Ariel yet either, the one wasn't born and the other wasn't old enough last time - Aedyt?"

"Haven't seen them. Well, I don't know what they look like, so 'haven't noticed them' might be more accurate. I might have seen them and not paid attention."

"Well, did you see any angels who were younger than Keziah but not as young as Pen?"

"Not clearly enough to tell," she says after a moment. "There are a lot of angels I don't recognize at this party. Should we go looking for them?"

"Yeah. I'll go see if I can turn them up," says Kerron, and he heads out into the crowd.

If he's looking for an eleven-year-old angel, he might find one tucked into a roomlet on the main floor level. But she is quiet enough and still enough to be easy to miss, even with those bright white wings.

He's got pretty keen vision. "Hey there! Are you Ariel?" he inquires.

"Yes," says Ariel. "Who are you?"

"I'm Kerron! I'm your cousinoid - one of the Joker's kids."

"I haven't met any cousinoids yet," says Ariel. She smiles.

"Well, you've got a bunch. Alts of your sisters and me and my sister and since you're also a Bell kid the Chronicle little princesses count for you even though they don't for me."

"That's a lot," says Ariel. "I think I'm okay with seeing you one at a time. What's it like in your world?"

"I'm from Aurum. We're the world with the vampires and the werewolves and the witches."

"Does everybody know about magic there?"

"Most people. Not literally everyone, but it gets closer every day."

"That must be nice," she says. "Magic is a secret in Samaria."

"Yeah, I've heard. You'll get there. It used to be secret in Aurum too."

"We will," she agrees, nodding. "But not for a long time."

"How old are you, anyway?"

"I am eleven," says Ariel.

"I think that makes you older than your alt, have you met her yet?"

She shakes her head. "I haven't. Have you?"

"Nope, I was looking for the one or the other of you and found you first."

"I'm not very findable in here," she says. "Did you have to look hard?"

"I looked for a while, but you were still more findable than Hyacinthe."

"I bet she is somewhere you wouldn't expect anyone to be," says Ariel.

"Maybe. Why's that?"

"Because I go places like that, and if you found me before her she's probably even less findable."

"Suppose so. Do you want to be alone, when you do that, or is it something else?"

"Not alone, exactly," she says. "But out of the way. There can be other people there if I don't mind them."

"Do you want to go looking for Hyacinthe?"

"Okay."

And awander they go. Kerron lets her take the lead on the theory that the same sorts of places will look like appealing hideyholes.

"Can she fly, do you know?" she wonders.

"Probably. Not with wings, I imagine."

"Then I'll look at flying places." She heads for the outside of the plant.

Kerron follows her, and flies when she flies.

Kerron follows her, humming.

Kerron starts listening for small breathing noises such as those a six-year-old human might make.

There are some! They are faint. Hyacinthe is somewhere very deep in the roots.

"Hyacinthe?" he calls.

Kerron laughs. "Hyacinthe, meet Ariel. Ariel, Hyacinthe."

"Well, that'd probably depend on how it was made," he muses. "People with wings seem pretty happy, though." He pats Ariel illustratively on the head.

"Well, can she make it come out happy?"

"Yes," says Hyacinthe. "But I don't know if that counts."

"Huh."

Ariel is nodding. Despite the age gap, they really are very obviously similar.

"I guess I don't know either," allows Kerron. "I never asked for a magic pet. I did use to ask to get turned into things."

"I've never done that," they say simultaneously.

"Different tastes, I guess."

"My sister has a griffin," says Hyacinthe. "I don't want a griffin."

"I don't know what I'd do with one of those either, no."

"Maybe you'll find a world with winged mice."

"That would be good!" says Hyacinthe.

"And then you won't have to take one home, just catch it and pet it a little and then let it fly away."

"I would like that!" says Hyacinthe.

"The multiverse is big. If you're patient I bet winged mice aren't far away."

Hyacinthe smiles.