Aegis is the first one to swing by to investigate. And she laughs and laughs.

"You have theme music, it's fantastic," she snickers, hugging him.

Aegis snuggle-hugs right back. "Yours're chattier than ours. None of the Bells've seen more than the four basic emotional effects Rose reported, even though they show up differently."

"Yeah, we're all up'n'down," he agrees, kissing her cheek. "You should check out Queenie, she got an aura of cuddle."

Aegis peers Queenieward.

Queenie is indeed right in the middle of the pile, looking like the snuggliest creature you ever did see, comfortably intertwined with every other Joker who will fit.

"How does she look like a - a viscacha without actually being fluffy and rabbity?" asks Aegis quizzically. "Dang. Auras are weird."

"Auras are awesome," beams Queenie. "I love my aura."

"I like mine too." She tugs Sue's hand. "Let's go outside where there's room and dance!"

"Okay," he says happily (his aura glows with it), and he lets her lead him out.

"Love you too," she says lightly, spinning, her hair in a zero-g cloud around her.

Sue twirls closer and kisses her.

And here's Rose, looking for her husband.

Her husband is curled up in the pile, human-shaped but purring like a kitten while Queenie pets his hair.

"Should I come back later?" inquires Rose gently, smiling.

"No, you should come pet me," he declares.

Rose floats into the air to hover, horizontal, over the pile, and drop an arm down to pet him as requested. "Your auras are much more uniform than the Bells' are," she comments. "Although not quite so."

Beast purrrrrrrs some more. That's definitely new.

Rose laughs.

Here's Angela for her husband!

Awww! Angela is pleased with this. Hugs hugs hugs.

Snuggly lovey hugs! He, too, gets the fine-tuned emotional resonance. In addition to the music.

"It turns out I get music, too. Accompaniment when I sing unless I deliberately want to be a capella," says Angela.

"We should go sing together," Micaiah asserts. His aura of innocence sparkles wickedly.

"All right. Home, or somewhere here?"

"Somewhere here," he says, "I don't think we're done enchanting yet."

"If we sing here we'll disrupt this - whatever song this is," says Angela, "I imagine, so -" She teleports them to a spot in the garden, under arching trellises that drip cone-shaped flower clusters.

"And I don't think you want to sing with me in front of the whole deck," says Micaiah. "Not with what happens when you sing with me."

"There is that. Maybe we should be indoors somewhere with a door that closes," Angela muses. "We do sometimes sing harmonics, in public, though."

"But do we stay in public for long afterward?"

"Admittedly, no." She laughs and kisses him and teleports them again to a spare bedroom in the palace.

"Sing for me, my angel," he murmurs.

Angela tilts her head back and launches into a hymn. She still loves sacred music, in spite of everything, and her aura does too, it accompanies her with swelling strings and woodwinds.

It's a good thing she picked a short hymn, because this new aura feature is distracting. As soon as she amens, Micaiah's engulfed in a feathery embrace.

He flings himself into her arms and kisses her like he's drowning and her breath the only available air.

Meanwhile, downstairs, here's Stella!

Alice is in Queenie's lap. It is the cuddliest lap. He waves to his Bella.

"Hey you. How goes?" Stella asks.

"Queenie's aura is the best aura," he says cheerfully. "Mine doesn't do anything special yet, except the music."

"Yeah, you don't seem all extra-vampirey like Golden or anything," says Stella. "That's okay, I'm still in the dark about mine, too."

"I probably just haven't done enough enchanting yet. I think we're all gonna go for one more round once we're done cuddling."

"Ah, I appeared prematurely if I expected to take you home, then."

"Mmhmm. But we can go have sex again if you want," he says brightly.

"I would complain about announcing that casually in front of such an audience but I suppose they could all guess, couldn't they," she laughs. "All right." Port!

Amariah shows up a moment later. "Hi, sweeties!"

"Somebody wants attention," laughs Amariah, and she flops down to obey the auras. "I hope it doesn't look the same to everyone, you'd be in trouble then."

"I love you too," says Amariah, snuggling.

[Hey everybody!] says Jane. [There's a new Bell! This one is a boy who goes by Cam. He has a Joker and a Matilda.]

[Ooh, when's the party?]

[Immediately, if Pattern agrees to host!]

[Sure! A boy, wow, weird.]

"Hi!" says Queenie. "Oh, you scrumptious little thing, can I hug you?"

"Which one of us are you talking to there?" laughs Jellybean.

"Do I have to pick just one?"

"Nope, we can be simultaneously hugged," says Cam.

Meanwhile, assorted Bells appear to have a look at their counterpart, and the party invitation goes out to the usual suspects.

Queenie climbs out from under the remaining pile of her alts and scoops Cam up into the snuggliest hug of his life. Jellybean can have some too.

Until the Joker steals him, that is.

"Wow you are snuggly. Enchanter's aura?" laughs Cam.

Amariah, from her spot in the heap, says, "I gotta say I did not expect a boy Bell. Path doesn't count and he's the closest we've historically come."

"Yeah, well, if you told me about alts without describing mine, I would not have expected to be girls," Cam snorts. "I have been told that I should 'try' you."

Amariah looks him up and down. "Sure, sometime," she says. "Not sure when will be good. Everyone's gonna want you meet you today."

"I have an aura of cuddly," Queenie says gleefully. "Sometimes it's also an aura of fuckable, but not when there's Bells all over the place, pretty sure they wouldn't approve."

"...Sweetie," says the Joker. "Cam, did you know your Joker is candy-flavoured?"

"Yeah, he does that, he's a Jellybean," says Cam affectionately.

"It's adorable," says the Joker, wrapping his arms around Jellybean and snuggling him. "Sweetness, you wanna get a room?"

"You bet I do!"

"Enjoy," Cam laughs. He squirms around in Queenie's embrace - not trying to escape, he'd teleport to do that, but trying to get a better view of the accumulating Bells. "So. Hi, girls."

Aegis has come in from dancing outside. "Hi," she says, peering at him in fascination.

"Minus found him," says Juliet. "Recognized him right off without the bar even handing over a key first."

The Joker blows Cam a kiss and disappears with Jellybean.

Queenie readjusts her snuggle for increased visibility, but doesn't let go. The rest of the pile can go acquaint themselves with Jellybean - and indeed they are.

Cam inspects auras as the other Bells trickle in, Shell Bell and Golden having been long gone with no reason to stick around through the Jokers' round of enchanting. "Quite an assortment," Cam remarks. Stella shows up a bit later, Angela a bit after that. Cam likes Angela's. "Pity the auras don't take requests, I'd like to go around looking like a benevolent deity," he remarks to her.

"I'm sure you'll get something suitable," Angela says. "When your own Joker is ready to channel for you, which could take - a while."

"Yes."

"I mean, as long as their respective Bells are occupied... Gosh, you really do look like us apart from the being a boy thing. Welcome."

"You all look like me apart from the being girls thing," retorts Cam. "And in one case, wings, and in another, a seriously chalky complexion and the eye color."

"I bet you'd look cute with wings," muses Queenie.

"I'd be adorable, but I can fly without 'em now," laughs Cam.

"I don't really want to get used to a new set of limbs right now," Cam says. "This is already enough of a trip."

"Okay," she says fondly.

"None of us have opted to grow wings for about the same reason Angela hasn't opted to trade hers in for wingless flight," agrees Shell Bell.

"Sort of like why I didn't get standard-issue recall, mine hooks into my notebook," says Cam. "My notebook is sort of like a - slightly less metaphysically entwined daemon to me, I guess."

"Really," says Amariah, leaning forward and letting Path shimmer into existence now that there are slightly fewer cuddle-hazards around her. "You think so?"

"I'm not claiming Grace is my equivalent of Pathalan, but nearest counterpart, sure," says Cam. "She doesn't like anyone else to handle her, even, though she knows how to show them old algebra notes and grocery lists if somebody does. She's my only exception to that definitely-against-having-my-mind-read thing."

"Huh. Yeah, sounds like a step down from Path but just a step."

"Interesting," muses Queenie. Her cuddle aura continues to operate.

"I wonder," says Golden, "whether Edward would be just as uncomfortable with you as he is with the other eight of us. I suspect he might not be. Of course he wouldn't like to come here, but perhaps sometime you'll visit Aurum. Sufficient wishcoined defenses can screen him out," she adds. "Witches aren't as automatic an override of coins as ingots are."

"Aurum sounds worth a look at some point," says Cam agreeably.

"Aurum's fun," says Queenie. "Jokes loves it there. Careful a vampire doesn't get stuck on ya, though."

"Because that worked out so poorly for him?" Cam chuckles. "But yeah, probably worth checking with the Imperial Seer there first."

"Of course. Safer all around."

"Jokes and Nate turned out all right, but they could've been pretty well fucked up," says Queenie.

"Of course Alice can check first," Golden says. "Even the Joker wouldn't have gotten far without getting checked over if it weren't for Nathan's timer telling him to visit Elspeth right then."

"Shit happens. And they did turn out fucking adorable."

"I have yet to see this for myself but I'll believe it on hearsay," laughs Cam.

"If Nathan shows up, I'm sure Jokes will tear himself away from your sweetheart long enough to come be gooey at him and you can see for yourself."

"This is kind of a shrimpy party," comments Aegis. "I know I don't usually bring that many people, but some of us have generally got entourages."

"They are coming at a bit of a rapid clip now, and Jane seems to time-sync all the worlds she's in, so it's the same rapid clip for everyone," Stella points out. "I was surprised we got as many attendees as we did for Rose's party, and I'm not surprised that some people have Bell-party fatigue."

"I would've expected the first found Matilda, at least," says Shell Bell.

[She's asleep.]

"Maybe more notice would've helped. I'm sure I'll meet everybody of import eventually, though. Matilda, how d'you suppose you and the other you are going to wind up in the nicknames department?"

"If she doesn't have a Jellybean, I bet nobody dares to call her Tilly," she says. "I'll take that for non-redundancy purposes."

"You got it, Tilly."

"I met the other Matilda when we were both six," Shell Bell tells Tilly. "But then I lost track of her for years. She's got magic too, but it's not like what Jane's telling me about the kind on your world."

"I want to meet her!" says Matilda. "But I can wait until she's not asleep, that seems polite."

"Jane's got a node in her world, so you don't have to wait for the next party," Shell Bell says.

"So," says Pattern. "What's it like being a boy?"

"You realize that's an almost completely impossible question," Cam says.

"Oh, honey," Queenie says fondly.

"I mean, I can tell you about what it's like to be me, but I think insofar as I'm distinct from you eight it's going to be in about the same ways any of you are distinct from each other," Cam says. "I'm fine with being the boy one - till we find more, anyway, which we might do, you know - but I'm just as much the wizard one."

"Fair enough," says Pattern. "I don't even have an identifying feature yet, let alone two. My aura didn't even help."

"You're the one who lets us enchant her Saturn," says Aegis brightly.

"I hope we find more," says Queenie. "You're all huggable. Wanna do some enchanting and then fuck me later?"

"Yeah, sure, I was envisioning starting with Jellybean but it's not like he gives a shit," says Cam. He peers at the whiteboard with its mapped plans and its stepwise spell recipes (with edits by Rose to reflect what errors she's had to patch). "Ready?"

She giggles. "Sure! Sorry I'm stealing your boy alt, guys," she adds to the Bell crowd.

"No problem. We have all the time in the world and I'm sure he wants to get up to speed," laughs Juliet.

"I surely do. I'll let you all know when I've got some aura to show off," says Cam. "It was lovely of you all to come by to gawk at me and permit the reverse." And he teleports himself and Queenie to an incomplete portion of Saturn and commences enchanting.

Enchanting is fun.

How about they save the double trip and just take the break where Jellybean is? It's a big asteroid. There's room.

Sure, Cam's easy.

Is he.

As of his sixteenth birthday, yep!

That's convenient! Because there is a whole deck of Jokers just waiting to make his acquaintance. And while Queenie is the only one who can deploy an aura of fuckable, they're all pretty interested.

And Jellybean can attest that they are really really fun.

Sign Cam right up.

Awesome!

"I dooooo," he hums. "I love you."

Cam pecks him on the temple and teleports them to the in-progress section of Saturn.

Jellybean liiiiikes channeling. He likes it a lot.

And so it goes until Cam's enchannel wishes to take a break.

He wishes to take the fun kind of break!

Okay! Unless he wants to take it with Cam in particular, Cam's going to ask around to see who else wants a turn enchanneling.

"I'll do it," Ghosty says cheerfully.

Cam makes an exaggerated bow and extends his hand to her. "Shall we?"

She takes his hand and kisses his palm. "Let's!"

Off they go! Whee!

Ghosty has a habit of unraveling her body in between spells. Hopefully Cam won't find it too disturbing.

She only does it to have a quick stretch, ride a few of those gorgeous Saturn winds. Then she comes right back and forms herself up again.

And Cam casts again. His aura is starting to develop noticeability, though not yet any distinctive features or the pure power behind the other Bells'.

Still, Ghosty comments on it. "You're getting a little something around the edges."

"Cool," says Cam. "Halfway there, I guess."

"I wonder what you'll get!"

"No idea! Let's find out!" And he casts up a lovely beach-bubble for future residents of Saturn.

"Mmm, I love doing that," says Ghosty, pulling herself back together. "Have I mentioned I love doing that?"

"Several times. If you didn't I'd be shit out of luck. Collective you."

She kisses him fondly on the cheek and says, "Hit me again, this is getting fun."

He hits her again. So to speak.

Who's next?

"Our turn!" says Petaal.

"Right, do I need to do anything special what with you being a pair?" Cam inquires.

"Nope," says Kas. "We've got the same mindscape and everything."

Kas and Petaal are in the habit of cuddling while they enchannel.

Petaal has been taking angel form lately. Her wings look, as Queenie claimed, soft and fluffy.

Between spells, Cam reaches in the direction of a wing, and pauses an inch short; he's not sure if he should trust aura-welcome alone. "Mm?"

"Ooh. Quite."

She wraps him in her wings.

"Feels like - I dunno. Feels like something, anyway, on top of the feathers I mean." Snuggles.

"Guess you haven't gotten around to reading your sweetie's mind, huh?" says Petaal.

"No? I mean, we haven't even discussed it. I gather it's a thing, but the book said you and Amariah don't."

"What's it like on that end? I don't exactly like people to scoop up my Grace, but it doesn't feel like anything if somebody does." Luke has made this mistake. (Once.)

"It's the best thing in the world when it's somebody we love," says Petaal, "and when it's somebody we just kinda like it's still pretty fucking good."

"Path has a definite back off aura," Cam says.

"Fair enough," Cam says. "Except I don't think that's what the word favorite usually means."

"Yeah," says Petaal, ruffling his hair, "but we're Jokers. We don't do usual."

"Guess not," snorts Cam. "'Nother spell?"

"Mm, go for it," says Petaal, snuggling him.

Another spell is cast.

"I'll do it!" says Alice cheerfully. "Show me whatcha got."

"I don't know if it's going to feel meaningfully different from me as opposed to your own, but sure," laughs Cam, and to Saturn they go and through Alice he casts.

"How d'you like being a vampire?" Cam asks conversationally betwixt spells. "Why'd Stella stab you with a syringe and nobody else has followed suit, is it not cool?"

"Well it hurt a lot," he says brightly. "And that was fun. And I love my Bella and all, but I think most of us don't wanna do the vampire thing 'cause of how it fucks with your head. Jokes for sure, he would've killed himself if it'd happened when he met Nate, I dunno about now."

"How's the head-fuckery work? Or should I just wait and ask Golden?"

"Were mates not in the book?" he wonders. "Mates should be in the book. I'm not the best vampire to ask, anyway, I'm still a slut, most of us aren't still sluts."

"They're in the book, but in a kinda summary way, it says if you want more detail you want to ask Golden's kid for pamphlets."

"Do that, then," he advises.

"Sure, but that doesn't tell me what it's like for you, and you're the one I asked," Cam says.

"It's not that different from how I loved her before," he says, "there's just more of it."

'Nother spell! Mmm.

"A super mega wizard," deadpans Cam. "That's informative."

"You're extra wizardy!" he insists.

"What does that mean, is my enchanter's aura pretending it's a wizard's aura somehow?"

"Kiiiiind of?" he says. "It's all... talky. Like you're trying to be me. Except not, because my aura wouldn't be that nice."

"Can you explain or should I call in one of my alts and get her to do it?"

"Make one of you do it."

"Am I up to full strength yet or will I be putting whichever one out of her way making an extra trip just to be impatient about it?" muses Cam.

"Do some more enchanting first," Jellybean advises cheerfully. "Just in case."

Cam grins. "You offering?"

"Yep!" says Jellybean.

"I like your definition of nothing," giggles Jellybean.

"I dunno what the right amount is, but you look pretty enchantery," says Jellybean, snuggling him. "Go find one of you and ask."

Snuggles, kiss on the forehead, paging the most available Bell through Jane -

"I haven't met Elspeth yet, but cool," says Cam. "So that's what super-wizardy means."

"Yep!" says Jellybean. "It's adorable. You're adorable."

Cam winks, flares aura, and says, "You're adorable."

"...So," says Jellybean, "how 'bout we take that tour of the solar system?"

"Pattern, any objections if we hang out in Origin and go make out at least once on each planet and moon?" Cam asks brightly. "We could also head back to Syntropy if you'd rather."

"Don't care," says Pattern. "Later!" And she teleports away.

Mmmmmmmmakeouts. Jellybean loves him so much.

[Sure!] says Jellybean.

"I'm a yellow star!" says Sol.

"...Are you now."

"Yeah. Maybe Syntropy's the only world with smart stuff. That's a relief, actually, way less work for all my alts at making their worlds adequate. Is there a star you know is particularly clever back home that we should check out here?"

"Nah, Tilly talks to most of the ones we visit but I don't so much, she hasn't said how smart any of them are particularly."

"I'm a yellow star!" says Alpha Centauri.

"I'm a red star!"

"Of course. Jellybean, I'm going to head home, you coming or staying?"

"Will do." Another kiss for the road, and, [...Jane?] and he's gone.

Jellybean returns to the Jokerpile and solicits an enchanting buddy.