it's a dead man's party

[self_composed]

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.

Comments

[cross_and_bow]

"Picky, picky," snorts Juliet. "Fusion's fine. As for you," she says to the one with the car-colored coin, "I'm out of other ideas."

[she_sells_seashells]

"...I think it's your screwdriver, from your Games," Shell Bell realizes aloud to her Tony, frowning at his illusion square.

[ferratus]

"...You know what," he says, "Screwdriver's better than Aluminum. I'll take it."

[toblameforit]

The car-coloured Tony shrugs. "Let's put the pressure on somebody else for a minute," he suggests. "Like, say, my Sherry." He points at the one with the sky-grey square.

[cross_and_bow]

"...Looks like a cloud to me," says Juliet. "How's Cloud? I'm starting to find it kind of miraculous that I kept the nickname my Sherlock gave me considering that there's so little overlap in taste, though, so I won't be stunned if you reject it."

[she_sells_seashells]

Shell Bell glances at Iron Man. "D'you want to name your world? Or should I talk to Darcy about that instead?"

[pythbox]

"Talk to Darcy," he says, "I have no idea."

[bitofafiction]

"...So little overlap?" he asks. "How do you mean?"

[she_sells_seashells]

[Darcy, wanna name your world?]

[cross_and_bow]

"My ideas are not meeting with much approval here. Of course no one should start going by a nickname they hate just to soothe my ego, but meanwhile I am... hmm... yeah, the only Bell known who didn't pick her own nickname, except Golden who was named by other Bells, and I like being Juliet just fine. Asymmetrical." She shrugs. "Not a big deal. Cloud or not Cloud?"

[bitofafiction]

"It is the Tonies who have been rejecting your naming suggestions thus far."

[sailorheavymetal]

[...Nine Realms?] says Darcy. [It's what the Asgardians call it.]

[cross_and_bow]

"And Pearl over there," Juliet says. "It's not a big deal."

[she_sells_seashells]

[Is there a less - plural - word for it? That's kind of a weird name for one of many worlds.]

[bitofafiction]

"Well, 'Cloud' makes me sound like a pony, but I don't have a better option, so Cloud it is."

[sailorheavymetal]

[Not really. Asgard, Midgard - that's Earth - Jotunheim, Muspellheim, Vanaheim, Niflheim, Alfheim, Svartalfheim, and Hel. Nine realms, one universe.]

[she_sells_seashells]

"The best Darcy can do for your world is 'Nine Realms'," Shell Bell tells Iron Man.

[mind_game]

[How about Yggdrasil?] suggests Jane, to Shell Bell, Iron Man, and Darcy.

[cross_and_bow]

"So, so tempted to call you Pony now," Juliet tells Cloud.

[sailorheavymetal]

[...It would be kind of like calling the solar system 'Gravity',] says Darcy. [I mean, to an Asgardian. But I guess if there's no Yggdrasil in the rest of the worlds, it's actually pretty good.]

[bitofafiction]

"Bite your tongue," he snorts.

[cross_and_bow]

She sticks out her tongue at him in the course of biting it. "Cloud it is," she says. "And now you're the last one," she adds to Car-Color Tony.

[she_sells_seashells]

[Let it be so,] giggles Shell Bell.

[mind_game]

[World number eighty is now marked down as Yggdrasil in my godly records of such things,] Jane intones.

[toblameforit]

"...This actual paint colour is called 'Sapphire Black'," says Car-Color Tony. "I'm not sure I can deal with people calling me Sapphire, but it's marginally better than my other options."