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]

[I'm nearly as new to the party as Aegis and there was nothing to tell - I mean, I could've mentioned it but it would've been practically useless since access to coins would've come with access to another Bell who knew - till recently. But I was going to tell my Sherlock too.]

[self_composed]

[I have two staff who know and Alice never seemed to care,] Stella says.

[manofmyword]

[Heh,] says the Joker.

[autokinetic]

[I reiterate that they secrete deadly weapons for you. If they aren't interested in how to work the weapons safely that might mean they don't want to make large wishes. It might mean that Whistles aren't that concerned with being safe and it's in your best interest to make being safe as convenient as possible.]

[manofmyword]

[The little one's got her head screwed on straight,] he says with a chuckle.

[autokinetic]

[I think it's just that I've known mine since we were six, but yeah, guys, come on, can't most of you read yours's minds?]

[jovahs_heiress]

...Several of the

[dark_light]

Whistles in the cuddle pile

[self_composed]

receive slightly embarrassed pings from their Bells.

[edgeofyourseat]

[What's up?]

[truthwright]

[Hi, sweetie!]

[yovahs_kisses]

[I love you.]

[jovahs_heiress]

[I love you too. Erm, do you want to know how stars and evils and arrows work?]

[dark_light]

[Hi, sweetie! I have just been metaphorically smacked upside the head by Aegis and I wanna tell you how stars and whatnot operate instead of doing the stupid thing I did instead.]

[self_composed]

[Policy change. You get the star secret, assuming you'd like it.]

[edgeofyourseat]

[Sure,] says Alice. [What's the secret?]

[truthwright]

[Okay,] laughs Kas.

[yovahs_kisses]

[If you wanna tell me,] says Micaiah.

[jovahs_heiress]

[Aegis has pointed out that it could be dangerous for you not to know. Even though you know you can ask me to make any large wishes, if you were impulsive about it one day...]

[dark_light]

[It's pretty stupidly simple, actually, you wish on a hex to defang a star and then that star is safe, you wish on a defanged star to get a safe evil, and so on. You probably could've guessed if you cared much.]

[self_composed]

[Coins spit out extra magic to do nasty things, the size of the next coin down, whenever you wish on them. The littler ones are not smart enough for wishing on an unadulterated hex to actually hurt anybody, but stars and up, you want to counter that amount of energy in advance, with however big a stack is called for to get up that high. Then they're "declawed". Don't go spreading this around, please.]

[edgeofyourseat]

[Okay,] Alice says agreeably. [Love you.]

[truthwright]

[Maybe so,] says Kas. [Thanks anyway.]

[yovahs_kisses]

[...Yeah,] says Micaiah, [tell me, then.]

[jovahs_heiress]

[If you wish on a hex for a star to be safe, then it's safe. If you wish on a safe star for an evil to be safe, that works too, and presumably so on.]