Kerron's currently between conversations, having just lost Lily to a sudden idea of some kind that she didn't stick around long enough to describe or display in colorshape form. That's okay, somebody else interesting will come along soon enough. He looks around at colors and shapes to see if anybody wants somebody to talk to, especially if somebody could readily be him.

Kerron makes a noise too high for human ears to catch and scrunches his eyes shut. (Fortunately, his colorshapes don't actually rely on his eyes; he can still see the grain-shapes.) "That is way more than I prefer to see of people shaped like my mum!" he yelps.

"Yeah, and you're still broadcasting the intention to go around stark naked for all eternity, and the censor bar covers up about forty percent of typically covered whatnot."

Celo sighs. "It's a nymph thing, okay?"

"That does not make you less naked or less Mum-shaped."

"Would you rather I was just invisible to you or something?"

"Possibly! At least your colorshapes don't look like his." (Kerron's eyes are still firmly closed.)

"And those are...?"

"The little -" Kerron waves at them where they swirl. "It's my witch-ingot thing, I see intentions, goals, that sort of thing, signified by colorshapes, which are not literally colored or shaped or seen. Yours look like some kind of grain thing, assorted colors. Mum usually walks around in a cloud of knives or something like that. 'Possibly' means 'yes until we think of something better', by the by."

Celo laughs. "Yeah, that sounds like him." He pulls a coin out of nowhere and wishes on it. "All right, you can open your eyes."

Kerron's eyes are already open when he sees the intention dissolve. "Thanks," he sighs in the direction of the swirling grain.

"You're welcome," Celo says cheerfully. He produces his hot chocolate, which is not invisible to Kerron, and resumes drinking it.

"So. Which Mum are y- oh, I can still see your nametag. Thaaaat's interesting."

He giggles. "You can call me Celo," he says. "Short for Celosia. Since some people find my name a little hard to pronounce."

"Yeah, I don't think I can say that. It's a cool name, though."

"It is!" says Celo. "I'm the only Joker who likes the one I came with."

"I guess Harley doesn't count? I wouldn't expect him to remember the name he came with when the Princess took him home."

"He knows what it was. He doesn't hate it the same way as the rest of them, but he's not fond either."

"Is it just objectively terrible, I don't actually know it."

He laughs. "It's not great."

"I like my name, but Mum called me 'munchkin' till I got to be taller than him."

"Of course he did," snorts Celo. "That's adorable."

"Yeah. Aedyt got 'pumpkin'. If they ever have another one I dunno what that one will get."

"Kas's kid got 'button'," he says. "That one's pretty cute too."

"Aww. I haven't met her yet."

"Maybe you will sometime," he says. "I have no idea where she got to after everybody hugged her."

"First time I was at a Joker party the deck all congregated around me and watched me be adorable and Mum turned me into a blue fox."

"Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww," says Celo.

"Ayep. Made it a little awkward when another party rolled around and I was old enough to hit on girls who'd been adults at the previous one, but, you know, I managed."

Celo laughs. "Good for you!"

"Thanks. Hey, have you seen any golden bubbly at this buffet? Kinda thirsty."

"Nope," he says. But a square like red-gold honey flashes briefly in his invisible fingers, and then he hands Kerron a glass. "What is that, anyway?"

"Synthetic blood - well, not exactly, doesn't taste like blood," he takes a swig, "and it's fizzy, but it fills the same nutritional requirements."

"Right, Aurum bloodsuckers," he says, grinning and shaking his head although Kerron can see neither thing. "What kinds of blood work for you guys, besides human?"

"Uh, I think Dad bit Aianon once, full vampires can't stand wolf blood but it's just sort of weird-tasting to half-vampires - I haven't bit a wolf, Lily did, she's interested in culinary applications of sanguinary flavor-space or something - animal blood works fine and tastes lousy to vampires but okay to us, I'm not aware of any other experiments."

"Huh," says Celo. "Maybe some adventurous nibbler should give me a try. Not you," he adds with a hint of a giggle.

"Yeah, I'm not your guy," snorts Kerron. "Dad or Lily. Or both for that matter."

"I'll keep 'em in mind," he laughs.

"Lily's yea high, blue eyes, hair somewhere between blonde and chestnut depending on the lighting, she'll let it get to her knees before she hacks it off but today it's about two feet long," says Kerron. "If you don't want to go around reading large numbers of nametags to locate her. She was wearing pink last time I saw her but that might change."

"I don't really go by the visuals most of the time, but I guess they're better than nothing," he says. "Thanks."

"Why, how else would I describe her? I could tell you how she smells but English is kind of crap at that."

Celo giggles. "I'm a nymph," he says. "I have senses you don't. Makes it harder to work from descriptions of people unless the person doing the describing is another nymph, but what can you do."

"Huh. What kinda senses?" Kerron's squinting at the grain now, but nothing comes clear.

"If you must know," he says, laughing, "I see sexuality."

"...And you're at a Bellparty which has Bells at it. That sounds, eh, what's the word I'm looking for..."

"Yeah, I've been through that with Aether," he snorts. "Took me a while, but I figured out how to stop interpreting."

"So now you see, what, the Monet equivalent of - er - Monet painted blurry things," clarifies Kerron.

"Not really? Like, you get all hung up on the information aspect because that's the only part you know about, but that's not the important part," he says. "I get the same amount of detail, I just don't go the extra step of thinking about what it means in practice."

"Yeah, I don't get it."

"Yeah, I know," snorts Celo. "Most people don't."

"Well, anyway, if it helps, Lily's straight but in that way where she's weirdly affectionate with her female friends even though they don't actually have anything going on."

Celo giggles. "Thanks! Of course, I'd have to go around interpreting to use it, and then Aether would give me that look."

"I guess you'll just have to read a lot of nametags, then."

"Yep," says Celo. "Oh well."

"Oh, there's Lily," says Kerron, pointing. "Still wearing pink, didn't change her sweater."

Celo looks. "Yeah, I see her," he says. "Might as well go say hi. See ya!"

"Bye!"

Lily is apparently lost in thought, leaning on a wall with her ankles crossed, looking at the ceiling.

Celo makes his way over, still drinking his hot chocolate.

Lily glances at him. "Okay," she says, looking him up and down, "this I've got to hear, why are you naked?"

"Didn't stop Glass's kid from putting her miniature panda bear in a vest, I bet those don't occur in the wild. Why don't nymphs wear clothes?"

"Sacred duty," he says. "Which isn't my reason, but it's the general one. My reason is because I don't wanna."

"And the magical black bar is for those around you who don't wanna likewise, I see."

"Yep," he says. "Or I could just never leave my world, but where's the fun in that?"

"Yeah, I really like these parties. They're good for people-watching." She glances at his nametag, blinks, and then stops looking at it.

"No kidding," he snorts. "Call me Celo; my name's kinda hard to pronounce."

"And I'm Lily, which is easy to pronounce and also easy to spell."

"Yeah, I heard," he says. "I asked Kerron who might wanna take a bite out of me and here's where he pointed."

Lily sniffs the air thoughtfully. "Hmm. Yeah, possibly, I have an interest in - well, food - and I'm looking to branch out from human cuisine a little, which means seeing what's out there, everyone's so content to drink their bubbly seven days a week - I'm not knocking the stuff. It's great. But variety is worth investigating too. I'm not going to go all slasher-film on you, I'm just a half-vampire, you want me to take some from your wrist right now or what?"

"Go for it," Celo says cheerfully, offering her his hand. "I'm curious."

Lily takes his hand, sniffs again, and then bites his wrist neatly open and tastes. She hums to herself, thoughtful and apparently pleased, while she drinks, then eventually laps up the last of the blood and lets his hand go. "That's really interesting. I think your blood, straight-up no fiddling, would be decently competitive with bubbly if you could bottle the stuff in sufficient quantity and get it to a decent shelf life without affecting the flavor. You're the blood equivalent of one of those ecologically responsible smoothies with wheat grass that poked its head out of the dirt not five minutes ago in it. Very thirst-quenching - unusually so, actually, I'd want to see how a full vampire without a thirstlessness wish on reacted. Kind of herbaceous. I bet vampires who used to be vegetarians before they turned would love you."

"I'll find some taste-testers when I get home," she grins. "Hold a little tasting with, oh, sesame crackers and Brie."

He giggles. "I love it," he says. "—Ooh, there's a thought. How adventurous are you with trying new things?"

"Try me," says Lily, raising an eyebrow.

"Male nymphs ejaculate honey," he says, grinning. "It's got some nifty healing properties and it's reeeeally tasty."

"That would be much harder to market," she snorts. "And I doubt it'll do much for the vampire crowd. If you want to conjure some up I'd taste it, though."

He pulls another pentagon out of nowhere in particular and conjures a bottle - glass, like the jug, with a metal screw-on cap. The honey inside shades from dark purple at the bottom through dark blues to lighter ones and finally a vivid, slightly smoky green.

Lily sets down the jug of blood to unscrew it and pour a drop onto her finger to taste. "Not bad. The blood's going to be more popular in Aurum for palatability reasons as well as provenance reasons, though."

Celo laughs. "Now that's not usual," he says. "Most of the people who've had both like the honey better."

"Half-vampire," she reminds him. "Honey tastes like, well, human food, I can take it or leave it unless it's my very favorite thing - I'm interested in food, but it doesn't grab me by the survival instinct and say 'more please'. Blood, on the other hand - blood's life. It and its imitations."

He shrugs. "Food doesn't nourish me at all, but I still like it."

"Sure, and I like science fiction turn-based strategy games and they don't nourish me. I'm just saying, the blood's going to be a hit, the honey's a weird novelty."

"Mm, not what I meant, but whatever."

Lily shrugs. "Anyhow. Do you suppose all nymphs taste the same? Will they want to export? Her Majesty arranges mass conjurations of bubbly, but if I saw the coin you spent right this stuff'd be more expensive."

"Yeah, I'm a nymph, my blood is a magical substance, kicks it up a notch," he says. "I bet you other nymphs don't taste exactly the same. I could try talking to some, but not until Aether comes out with the whole other-universes thing."

"Of course not identical. I just meant all with the herbaceous health food theme. Our Bella told individuals before she went completely public, so maybe yours will too."

"I don't really want to be the one to explain other worlds to them, and Aether's not gonna jump at the chance to hang out with a bunch of nymphs," he says. "Herbaceous health food theme, yeah, probably. But I still might be different because I'm the only male nymph."

"Oh, hm, with humans I know gender doesn't make a huge difference, it's easier to taste if two people are related than if they're the same sex," muses Lily, "no idea about nymphs."

"If it was half and half I wouldn't expect it to make a big difference," he says, "but I'm such a one-off, there's no telling what else might be different, you know?"

"Yeah, that's a reasonable point. I'm almost tempted to visit, but Materia's flagged as no tourism."

Lily laughs, bites his wrist again, and has a taste. "Yeah, it's a little different, not very."

Another little flare of warm light heals the second bite. "And now you know," he says cheerfully.

"Yep. Thanks for letting me nibble," Lily says cheerfully.

Celo laughs. "No problem. Lemme know if you come up with any interesting uses for that stuff," with a general wave at the jug of blood and bottle of honey.

"Will do. I'll get people to fill out comment cards," she suggests.

[Right here,] he says brightly, snuggling into Nathan's arms. Being carried by his sweetie is one of his very favourite things.

"Have fun," laughs Lily, picking up her bottles and wandering off.

"Celo's gonna come visit," the Joker says to Nathan.

"Okay," says Nathan agreeably, kissing the Joker on the forehead.

Celo appears, nudity and nametag and all. He has forgotten to change back to his usual shape.

Nathan's perfectly accustomed to shapeshifting Jokers and not fazed by casual nudity. "Hullo there, good to meet you."

"Hi! So I hear you might bite me?"

"Stranger things have happened."

"I think that would be fun!" he says. "And apparently I'm tasty - Lily had a nibble."

"Oh, and she's a picky eater," laughs Nathan. "All right. But I'm a regular vampire, not a hybrid, and shouldn't be drinking from the vein in public."

"We could stop being in public," Celo suggests. "Or I could conjure you some. Which would you rather?"

"Oh, privacy's already tremendous fun, and then if you're in a mood after you can pounce on babe here."

Celo beams. "Sounds good to me!" he says, and teleports all three of them to an empty room downstairs.

Nathan puts his mate down, and takes a bite out of Celo. He does not go for the delicate wrist-nibbling so much.

And filling, too! Nathan breaks off after one normal-sized meal. "You're tasty but not compulsively tasty," he remarks. "...Actually, I'm not thirsty at all, right now."

Celo heals himself, looks into Nathan's eyes, blinks, and grins. "Aww, you're all pretty!" he says.

"Is he? Ooh, I wanna see!"

Nathan makes obliging eye contact. "Why, what color are they now?"

"Lots!" the Joker says gleefully. "Yellow and orange and red and pink and purple and silver." He gives Nathan a hug and a kiss in celebration of this delightful fact.

"Well, isn't that interesting," laughs Nathan. "I can turn myself all kinds of miscellaneous pastels apparently."

"You are nnnot remotely pastel right now," giggles the Joker.

"You're every colour my garden grows in, actually," says Celo. "And that shit is bright."

"Babe," (kiss) "can I get a mirror?"

"Sure thing, hon." He snaps his fingers. A mirror appears.

Nathan checks out his eye color. "Wow, that's really striking, isn't it."

"It's gorgeous," says the Joker. "I love it." He kisses Nathan's cheek.

Snugglehug!

"You guys are so cute," says Celo, hugging them.

Hugs for all.

It's just one of life's little mysteries.