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

[truthwright]

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.

[dark_light]

"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!

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice lets go of Lazarus and hugs Amariah next. He has been being squishy, so it is not a vampire hug.

"Come snuggle everybody," he invites.

[nonbird]

Lazarus... sort of hangs around nervously.

[dark_light]

Amariah goes and snuggles everybody!

"You okay, Lazarus?" Amariah asks.

[nonbird]

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

[yourheartstrings]

Ghosty unravels herself out of the middle of the now Amariah-centric cuddlepile, re-coaelsces next to Lazarus, and gives him a big warm snuggly hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"You're cute," she says fondly. "Wanna cuddle with everybody? We don't bite. Unless you're into that."

[dark_light]

"It's very cozy," Amariah volunteers.

[nonbird]

"I can tell about the coziness," says Lazarus. "The coziness is apparent to me."

He hugs Ghosty back. (She's pretty cozy, too.)

[dark_light]

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

[nonbird]

"I'm not sure, really."

[yourheartstrings]

Ghosty hugs Lazarus some more, but doesn't try to pull him cuddleward.

Queenie, nearest to Amariah in the pile, snuggles up and inquires, "Wanna make out?"

[dark_light]

"Nah," Amariah says easily to Queenie.

[yourheartstrings]

"Mmkay."

Instead, hugs!

[nonbird]

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

[dark_light]

"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."

[nonbird]

"Yes, I can see that," he says.

And he shrugs, and proceeds into the pile. He is the only one there wearing clothes, but no one else seems to mind.

[dark_light]

Amariah sure doesn't!

"Anybody in this pile you do wanna make out with?" she asks brightly.

[truthwright]

"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.

[nonbird]

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

[dark_light]

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

[nonbird]

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

[yourheartstrings]

"Awwwwwwwwwww," says Ghosty.

[dark_light]

Amariah raises an eyebrow at him. Bells all do the same eyebrow thing, so it may be familiar.

"You're really very cute," she tells him.

[nonbird]

"Thank you."