intelligent nametags

[thaumobabble]

Jane alerts everyone to the existence of a new Bell, the nature of her wives and children, and the presence of her mother-in-law.

She stands ready to move in anyone who wishes to attend this new party.

Glass stands ready to receive them.

Comments

[pleasantsurprise]

Kanim will just be standing over here, trying to get his magic-senses used to what have to be a dozen different kinds of the stuff. No wonder Glass half-blinded herself trying to see it all through her specs.

[allthebrightest]

Tony wanders over, trailed by two of her boy alts. Neither one is especially magical.

"Hi!" she says brightly. "So I'm gonna go introduce myself to the rest of me. Wanna come?"

[pleasantsurprise]

"I. Uh." Kanim has known her for long enough to recognize that tone even if the exact euphemism is unfamiliar. "Uh." If he had kept that tail he had for longer than a month and a half it would be twitching. "Maaaaybe?"

[allthebrightest]

"Word is, everybody thinks you're cute," she adds.

[pleasantsurprise]

"How many of you are there?"

[allthebrightest]

"Fusion, Screwdriver, Sapphire, Red, and Iron Man," she says. "And me. Six. Is six too many?"

[pleasantsurprise]

"It's an amount!" says Kanim. "I can... accompany you on introductions. If you want."

[allthebrightest]

"Awesome," says Tony, and she pecks him on the cheek and leads the three of them in the direction of the orgy chambers. (There are orgy chambers. That is also awesome.)

[pleasantsurprise]

(There are orgy chambers. That is... something.)

Kanim wanders out of them awhile later, looking happily dazed.

[nonbird]

There's a magical person over there! He spots Kanim coming out of the orgy chambers and smiles knowingly.

[pleasantsurprise]

"...Hi! You're - something. But everybody here is something and my specialty is place magic, not people magic."

[nonbird]

"I am an ingot," he says. "My specialty is seeing magic. This place is incredible - there's more background magic here than I've seen in any other world, even Milliways."

[pleasantsurprise]

"It's the Enchanted Forest, by far the most naturally magical location in the world. Isn't it fantastic? That's why I live here. Although I do sometimes go on scholarly trips to magical caves and so on."

[nonbird]

"You're reasonably interesting yourself," he adds. "Although I almost lose you in the background noise. Tell me about magical caves!"

[pleasantsurprise]

"There are lots of them! I actually started hanging around with Tony and Bella and Sherlock when the latter two rescued me and Tony from some wizards who were keeping us prisoner in the Cave of Unpleasant Surprises, which I had of course walked right into. With entrances that are often within the forest, there's the Caves of Fire and Night, and the Caves of Chance, and the Caves of Sunless Gardens, and the caves that magically refuse to have any name attached to them. There are fewer farther away - this is the highest concentration of place magic - but I wrote a thesis on the Caves of Irregular Dimensions once, years ago, that's nowhere near here."

[nonbird]

"Those are some remarkably descriptive names," he observes. "What was your thesis?"

[pleasantsurprise]

"I came to no useful conclusions whatsoever! Except that the Caves of Irregular Dimensions are extremely uncooperative. You may read the thesis if you like, although I'd have to go get it from the castle."

[nonbird]

Lazarus laughs. "If you say you came to no useful conclusions, I think I'll believe you," he says.

[pleasantsurprise]

"So how do you know this - crowd?" Kanim asks, looking vaguely around.

[nonbird]

"Oh - I'm from Eos. Where wishcoins come from," he says. "I met Stella back before she was a magical space empress."

[pleasantsurprise]

"This is going to be hard to keep straight," says Kanim. "All these Bellas, all this magic, all these - political entities. Are there six of you, too? I'm told I'm a new face."

[nonbird]

"There are not six of me! There is one of me," says Lazarus. "And yes, it is a little daunting, isn't it? But you get used to it. More or less."

[pleasantsurprise]

"Do you really?" asks Kanim. "It took me a while just to get used to Bella - Glass, I guess, sensible nickname, she does some marvelous things with glass - and now there are twelve more of her! With outrageous magical powers! My skills are going to be redundant. I guess I'll still hang around on account of Tony. And the little ones are fond of me."

[nonbird]

"'Outrageous' is a good word for it," he says. "And I could stand to be a little more redundant, honestly. If the Bells consulted me as often as they probably should, there would have to be at least six of me just to keep up with all the new magic."

[pleasantsurprise]

"Do they not consult you as often as they should?"