Author: small_magics | Aianon has made a plant in the open airless space above the surface of Thilanushinyel. It is a very, very large plant - some dragons will be attending the party, after all, even if Ansharil in particular is going to be assorted small things and stay on Sarion's person the bulk of the time.
The locals will be Sarion, her beloveds, their other beloved, the five conjured dragons (and their Bondmates, where applicable: Virgivere and Lissa), and Liselen - Magania has, as usual, declined, and so far no Bell party has featured Bell parents.
Amariah is bringing her boyfriend and spontaneous daughter and two of the spontaneous daughter's friends, as well as an Alethian instance of the Rupert template.
Shell Bell is bringing Pearl and Screwdriver.
Golden is bringing her usual large contingent, as usual not including her husband but including her daughter and daughter's grown fosterling (the other remaining at home) and his wolf, both mothers-in-law and one father-in-law, adopted siblings, staff members including the Joker and Nathan, and the children of the aforementioned.
Glass is bringing both wives, all three daughters, Kanim, and her cat. She invited Icarin and Valeria, but their parents are not willing to let them gallivant into other worlds unsupervised and had a scheduling conflict.
Stella's bringing a smattering of people including Alice, Anna, Sandy, Libby, Bridget, her college roommate Janine, and Lazarus.
Tab is bringing Aelise (but not Kers) and Luhan.
Etty is bringing only Nona.
Aether, likewise, brings no one but Celo.
Pattern comes with Ripper, Slipstick, Queenie, and Ghosty.
Aegis is accompanied by her four-bodied boyfriend, Merryweather, Whitlock, and Howlett.
Aurora comes with Brilliance, Lexi with her Device Persica, Agent Honey with her Device Adularia, and Beth.
Rose brings her husband and three children and her former apprentice, Luc.
Angela brings her husband, her four children, several of her friends, and some of those friends' children and grandchildren with and without wings. Keziah also brings a friend.
Juliet shows up with Soph, Minus, Red, Giles, James, Virginia, Minnie, Ike, and Val.
Cam brings Jellybean and Tilly and stops there.
And from unBelled worlds hail additional Sherlocks and Tonies, Darcy, Matilda, Pepper, and Eights. |
Author: small_magics | Sarion knows perfectly well that Lycaelon is not generally a party person, so she (Ansharil on her shoulder in purple furry winged creature form, tail around her neck) goes and checks on him after she has welcomed incoming contingents to her world. |
Author: wildlymagical | Lycaelon has found himself a mostly-enclosed roomlet halfway up a wall, partway up an enclosed flight of stairs and with only a narrow balcony overlooking the main room. He suspects it was made with him in mind.
"Hello, Isibel," he says. |
Author: small_magics | "I See you. I hope the quantity of people is not too overwhelming even with this little retreat. I will leave you more thoroughly alone, if you prefer." |
Author: wildlymagical | He smiles. "I'm all right. No one's bothered me yet. Thank you, though." |
Author: small_magics | "You are welcome. I believe," she adds, "that both of your alts have appeared today. I was not sure if they would." |
Author: wildlymagical | "I wonder where they are," he says. "I haven't seen them." |
Author: small_magics | "I caught glimpses when Jane first brought them here, but there are dozens of guests and I soon lost track. I could go and find them easily enough if you would like them invited up here to meet you." |
Author: wildlymagical | "Well, I would like to meet them..." he says consideringly. |
Author: small_magics | "I will go and see if this interest is reciprocal." She pecks him on the cheek, and teleports first to the Peace instance.
"I See you." |
Author: areyouabeer | "Hi," says Howlett, raising an eyebrow. |
Author: small_magics | "I am Isibel Sarion. The local instance of your template, my co-Bonded Lycaelon, has expressed interest in meeting you." |
Author: areyouabeer | He shrugs. "All right." |
Author: small_magics | She takes that as consent to teleport him to where Lycaelon is. Pop! |
Author: areyouabeer | Howlett looks at Lycaelon. |
Author: wildlymagical | Lycaelon looks at Howlett. |
Author: areyouabeer | "You're so young," he says finally, shaking his head. |
Author: wildlymagical | "You're not that old... is this a magic thing?" he wonders. |
Author: areyouabeer | He snorts, and explains, "Mutant. The local not-magic thing. I'm older than I look, and I'm not gonna look any older." |
Author: wildlymagical | "...How much older than you look...?" |
Author: areyouabeer | "Three hundred years," he says. "Give or take. I'm sure about the last hundred and seventy of them, but before that it gets patchy." |
Author: small_magics | "This may or may not make you the oldest human in the party. I will go and look for the third one of you."
And she goes and looks for the third one of them. |
Author: areyouabeer | "Hi," says Luhan, raising an eyebrow. He is remarkably similar to Howlett: same apparent age, same mannerisms, roughly the same style of dress and personal grooming. |
Author: small_magics | "I See you. Your alts have met, and you could join them, were you so inclined." |
Author: areyouabeer | "Might as well," says Luhan. |
Author: small_magics | Pop! |
Author: areyouabeer |
Luhan and Howlett... just kind of stare at each other. |
Author: small_magics | Sarion giggles a little. |
Author: wildlymagical | So does Lycaelon. |
Author: small_magics | "Perhaps you are also older than you look," Sarion ventures to say to Luhan. |
Author: areyouabeer | "Mm? Yeah," he says, "I'm about four hundred and thirty." |
Author: small_magics | "Presumably this is due to a Gift," she speculates. "I wonder if there are any older humans here. Living ones, at any rate. Older nonhumans certainly. I am not sure how old Nona is, I suppose, and Beast could be counted as a human and is roughly that old." |
Author: areyouabeer | "Yeah," says Luhan. "My Gift is immortality. Well, and a few extras."
"Heh," says Howlett. "How's your skeleton?"
"...Nothing special, why?"
"Mine's been... improved," says Howlett. "Back in the twentieth century. And I've got these." He makes a fist with his right hand, and three long metal claws erupt from between his knuckles, clicking audibly into place. He displays them to Luhan and Lycaelon, demonstrates that his wrist still bends, and then retracts them to a presumable housing in his forearm.
"I don't have those," says Luhan. |
Author: wildlymagical | "You wish you had those," says Lycaelon. |
Author: areyouabeer | Luhan throws him a startled glance, and then bursts out laughing. Howlett joins in. |
Author: small_magics | Sarion laughs, too. "Improved, and you have claws. I suppose the claws are original." |
Author: areyouabeer | "The claws are original, but they used to be bone. They got improved with the rest," Howlett explains.
Luhan is still laughing. |
Author: small_magics | "A curious form of improvement." |
Author: areyouabeer | "Well, my bones don't break anymore, that's nice," he says. "And I can cut through steel, although there's not much call for that these days." |
Author: small_magics | "I do not know what call there may have been in the past to cut steel," remarks Sarion. |
Author: areyouabeer | Howlett shrugs. "I've led an active life," he says dryly. "Made a few friends and a lot of enemies. I was pretty glad to outlive all the ones who had a habit of locking me up."
"I know the feeling," says Luhan. |
Author: small_magics | "It would seem that Lycaelon is the odd one out of the three of you." |
Author: wildlymagical | "Yeah," he says, "I know. Apparently there are a lot of template things that I missed out on because the magic of this world doesn't work that way." |
Author: small_magics | "Apart from the Knight-Magery, which I suppose was as close as you could get." |
Author: areyouabeer | "And Knight-Magery is...?" says Howlett. |
Author: wildlymagical | "Knight-Mages are a kind of Wildmage. Wildmages are... I don't know how to explain," he says. "But Knight-Mages in particular have... an unshakeable will, which I haven't yet had cause to demonstrate, and an affinity with the arts of war. And they're supposed to be bad at doing most magic, but I'm not." |
Author: small_magics | "Thilanushinyel has three kinds of mage. Wildmages receive a set of three Books which contain spells, which they can perform at the cost of some personal energy and services done for the Wild Magic - the cost may be split among several parties, however. By contrast, High Mages pay only an energy cost and require more complicated materials and setup. Elfmages like myself have no such inconveniences, but cannot operate at all without dragons; elves who do not have dragons are only capable of 'small magics'." |
Author: wildlymagical | Lycaelon nods along with this explanation. |
Author: areyouabeer | "I think I like Gifts better," says Luhan. |
Author: small_magics | "I do not imagine I could convince Tab to trade circumstances with me, there is that." |
Author: endragoned | (The fluffy purple creature apparently sleeping on Isibel's shoulder curls his long fluffy tail around her neck and nuzzles her jaw with his small fluffy head.) |
Author: small_magics | (She pets him.) |
Author: endragoned | (He loves her ever so.) |
Author: areyouabeer | |
Author: small_magics | "I can explain, if you would like, but it is not a particularly cheering story." |
Author: areyouabeer | Lycaelon's alts exchange a glance.
"We're fine," says Howlett. "Unless you want to tell us." |
Author: small_magics | She shrugs. "In your position I would prefer to be told, but if you are indifferent I would as soon refrain." |
Author: areyouabeer | Howlett and Luhan also shrug, in near-unison. |
Author: small_magics | "You seem even more similar than most alts, even though I would not have categorized your worlds as being unusually alike." |
Author: areyouabeer | "Yeah," says Luhan.
"Guess we are," says Howlett. |
Author: small_magics | "I wonder why." |
Author: areyouabeer | "Couldn't tell you," says Luhan. |
Author: small_magics | "I believe I shall leave you all to get acquainted."
She pecks Lycaelon on the cheek again, and departs. |