Lexi has once again (temporarily) exhausted her drive to be constantly around the available unicorn, so she has hugged Liselen a (temporary) goodbye and now is wandering around.

Someone else who is wandering around catches sight of her nametag and smiles.

Lexi pauses, looks at his nametag, rereads hers ("Hi! I'm from Rainbow and my name is Lexi!") and says, "What?"

"Oh, sorry," says (according to his nametag) a [template unnamed] from Thilanushinyel whom you can call Lycaelon. "I just recognized the name. You're Liselen's huggy human friend, right?"

"...I guess? Sure. I'm his huggy human friend. He's a unicorn, people who don't want to be his huggy human friends are either not humans or not thinking straight."

...He giggles.

"So you know him? Are you also his huggy human friend?"

"Well... I'm human, and his friend, and I suppose I am huggy with some people, but not especially with him," he says.

Lexi giggles. "Who're you huggy with, then?"

"My Bondmates and co-Bonded, mainly."

"Who're they? I don't subscribe to Jane's little newsletter, it makes me dizzy to have updates scrolling along."

"You would know them as Aianon, Ansharil, and Sarion."

"Oh, them. My sister's a Bell," she adds. "The only - or, no, not anymore. One of two with sisters, but the other sister isn't my alt, I'm my Bella's twin and she's a little sister."

"Aha," says Lycaelon. "I'm not related to any templates. My alts are from Peace and Gift respectively and they're a lot more like each other than I am like them."

"It's really a pity I don't have any alts because my name turns into nicknames so easily!"

"Does it?" he asks, looking in puzzlement at her nametag.

"Lexi is short for Alexandra," Lexi explains. "But I wouldn't mind going with a different shortening if I had an alt who liked 'Lexi' best too."

"What else does it shorten to?" he wonders. "Lycaelon shortens to various things, but I don't like any of them."

"Oh, Alex, Alli, Andi, Sandra, Sandy. And I have a middle name that I like okay, Phyllis."

"I think I've heard about a Sandy around here somewhere, but I don't think he's an alt of you."

"Oh, no, yeah, that's a different person," says Lexi, waving a hand, "so that wouldn't be the best nickname in this case, but it's still a nickname."

"True," he says. "Does your world have magic? I can never remember which ones don't."

"...Hello," says Lycaelon. "I haven't heard about Devices, no."

"They can turn into different shapes - Brilliance is one, even, but Persica doesn't have a humanoid shape, just the peach and the staff. She's a really keen staff though. And they do mana regulation - um, mana is the energy we use to do magic - and they have their own spells that they know."

"That is not at all how magic works in Thilanushinyel."

"What do you do instead?"

"...I'm not entirely sure how to explain," he admits. "I've never had to before."

"I don't have any place to be," laughs Lexi.

Lycaelon grins. "Okay. Well, first of all, there are three kinds of mage that I know of - High Mages and Wildmages, who are human, and Elven Mages, whose species I'm sure you can guess."

"Sarion's one of those," nods Lexi.

"She is!" he agrees. "Each of the three kinds works differently. A High Mage casts spells using energy drawn from themselves or the people around them, and their spells are very reliable and predictable: the same spell done the same way will have exactly the same effect every time. It's hard for them to improvise, though, for just that reason; a High Mage might take several years to invent a new spell, because they have to build it out of existing pieces using formulas and experiments. Wildmages, on the other hand - I'm a Wildmage - our magic is less like doing a spell and more like asking a friend for a favour. An incomprehensibly vast and powerful friend."

"Man, I don't have any incomprehensibly vast and powerful friends. I have an incomprehensibly vast and powerful sister, does that count?"

"...no," he says. "Your sister is less vast and more comprehensible than the Wild Magic."

Lexi laughs. "Okay, so you ask it for favors, and then it - usually does them, I guess?"

"You ask the Wild Magic to do something - heal someone, find a lost object, change the weather, many other sorts of things. The energy to do it usually comes from yourself, the people around you, or objects where you've stored energy that ultimately came from those places, but once in a very long while the Wild Magic will power a spell itself. And apart from that immediate cost, every spell of the Wild Magic also comes with a Mageprice, which is like your friend asking you for a favour in return."

"Huh, that sounds kind of cool. Do you stop getting spells if you don't do its favors? What kind of favors do incomprehensibly vast and powerful friends even want?"

"...It's... complicated. But, um, shirking your Mageprice is generally considered a very bad idea. And it can ask for all kinds of things, but mostly it wants things that will - help. The Wild Magic wants to make the world a better place, and it's incomprehensibly vast and powerful, but it's also, well, limited. Mageprice is one of the only ways it can make changes in the world. So it sends each of us to improve things in whatever ways we can. Sometimes we have no idea what a particular Mageprice is doing to help, but sometimes it's obvious. A lot of mine have just been 'go there and heal this'."

"What happens if someone else does it before you get there?"

"They don't."

"What, ever? What if they're just being a jerk and ask you what your price is and then run as fast as they can?"

"...The people I've been sent to heal usually weren't capable of running when I got there."

"No, like if somebody else asks you and goes ahead of you. Not if they just heal themselves."

"Why would anyone do that? Never mind," he says. "Yes, I suppose it's possible that sometimes your Mageprice turns out to be something that someone else has done before you get there, but it's never happened to me or to any other Wildmage I know. I told you, the Wild Magic is incomprehensibly vast and powerful. I think it thinks these things through."

"Huh. Cool. Does Sarion, like, talk to it?"

"Liselen does, actually. Most people can't, and even Wildmages can only really communicate through spells and Mageprice, but when the Wild Magic needs something said or done that Mageprice won't cover, it sends a unicorn."

"Oh, huh, I don't think that ever came up, mostly I just admire him and his unicorn-ness."

"He's very admirable that way."

"He is! How do you communicate through Mageprice, it doesn't sound much like - you know, talking."

"It's exactly as not like talking as it sounds, but it's still more communicative than not interacting directly at all," he says. "When I cast a spell, the Wild Magic learns something about what I want; when I get a Mageprice, I learn something about what it wants. Not exactly a conversation, but still kind of an exchange."

"That sounds really frustrating."

"I like it just fine," he says, shrugging. "I don't need any more from the Wild Magic than I get."

"Not very much," Lycaelon observes.

"She's not a chatty peachy, but she can talk in complete sentences and understand English," says Lexi, patting her Device.

Lycaelon laughs.

"And did I mention she can turn into a kickass staff, because she can, do you want to see?"

"All right."

"Very pretty," says Lycaelon.

"Thank you," says Persica and Lexi at the same time.

He grins.

Glass pops into existence beside them. "Hi. I'm dividing everybody's templates into clusters, of which there are two, we don't know anything else yet. You're green," she says to Lexi, "like the Bells are - and you're purple," she says to Lycaelon.

"What about my Peachy?"

"Huh? Oh. Not a template, but green."

"Who else is purple?"

"Sherlocks, Tonies, Jokers, Ikes - I don't know who all you've met so I'm not sure who to list."

"I have met Jokers," he laughs. "The others, no."

"Oh, and Darcy and Sidanar, Sidanar being one of the conjured dragons, are purple too, although if you haven't met any Sherlocks or Tonies then you haven't made an investigation of the conjured dragons."

"I don't meet very many people."

"I'm getting that sense. So, Bells and Lexi here are green, Jokers and you are purple."

"I wonder what it means. I suppose you've said you don't know."

"No idea. Something might come clear as I sort everybody."

"Good luck."

"Thanks!" And she is off.

"That was kinda weird."

"Yes," says Lycaelon.

"I'm all right with being in the same colour as my Bonded."

"It's funny that you call them that all the time."

"What should I call them? 'Aianon and Ansharil' takes longer to say."

"I think Sarion says 'my beloveds'. Which isn't any less weird, but I already got used to it and now you're saying a different thing."

"Well," he says. "I could call them that, yes. But I don't."

"Why not? Is it because it's sappy, because it is totally sappy."

Lexi laughs too. "Awwwww."

He smiles.

"Awwwwwww! Oh hey did you hear Sarion's going to marry them?"

Lycaelon laughs. "I did, yes."

"And Angela's gonna officiate, an angel is going to get a demon and an elf and a dragon all married, it's hilarious!"

"Is there something I'm missing about angels?"

"Oh, at home, demons - not like all the millions of kinds Sunshine has so much, red ones with horns and tails and wings just exactly like Aianon pretty much - and angels, basically like Samaria angels only with halos sometimes - are kind of, like, mythical opposites? The angels are the good guys and the demons are the bad guys."

"Aha," says Lycaelon.

"We don't actually have either thing and so far the worlds with demons don't have angels and vice-versa, but it's still funny!"

"I can see that."

"There's this thing - people don't actually believe it but like in cartoons and stuff if someone is trying to decide between a good and a bad choice, they get a tiny little demon and a tiny little angel, one on each shoulder, telling them what to do. Sometimes I call Bella my shoulder angel. My shoulder Bella, anyway."

"Well, since the shoulder angel and shoulder demon idea exists and everybody recognizes it, there are cartoons that, like, play with it, making it so there's only the one of them if the person is very good or very bad, or having them fight each other, or whatever."

"Ansharil sometimes turns into the Samaria kind of angel," he mentions.

Lexi thinks about this. She tilts her head. "Okay, that's kinda weird."

"He likes the wings. So do the rest of us. They're very soft."

"They look it! I haven't grabbed any though, Aurora says Angela says it's like grabbing their butts."

"Yes," says Lycaelon.

Lexi blinks, then bursts out laughing again.

Lycaelon laughs.

"That kinda thing cannot be usual with dragons and their dragon-havers," says Lexi, "I mean mostly they go around dragon-shaped, right?"

"Mostly they do," he agrees, "and mostly Bonded are not - like that. But my Bonded are very much like that."

"Jokers," snorts Lexi.

"Jokers," he agrees, grinning.

"How come you haven't named your template?"

He shrugs. "We were busy talking about other things. Or not talking."

"Not talking," giggles Lexi.

"My template likes to have a drink and sit quietly sometimes. I don't know what you're thinking." (Yes he does.)

Lexi laughs harder.

Lycaelon grins.

"I have," giggles Lexi, while she calms down, "no idea what I'd do if I met a one of me who was a boy. It'd have to be a boy one for me to even wonder. An Alexander I guess."

"I haven't done anything worth giggling about with mine. It's not out of the question, but none of us jumped at the chance."

"Okay. I wonder if the purples are all the bisexual ones or something."

...He laughs.

"Except no, one of the Bells is bi, right, so that can't be quite it."

"Which one?"

"Cam. The boy one. Apparently Glass says the being a boy and the being bi don't have a lot to do with each other but we haven't found any bi girl ones yet. Two lesbians, though."

"I don't think I knew that," says Lycaelon.

"Cam is also one of the ones who sleeps around. It's him and Amariah."

"I didn't know that either!" says Lycaelon.

Lexi laughs. "Now you do!"

"Yes," he says. "I feel so informed."

"I bet Sarion would've told you if she knew you'd be so interested."

"I don't think I knew I'd be so interested!"

Lexi giggles. "Why do so many people want to sleep with alts of my sister, it's kind of weird!"

"Would it be any less weird if I answered?"

"I don't know! Maybe. Maybe not."

He laughs. "Well, I can't speak for anyone else, anyway."

"It's a lot of people, though. It's not weird that alts of my sister would have, you know, boyfriends or girlfriends or husbands or wives, just that so many people want to pick them up at parties is strange."

"Well... I don't think I would be so interested if I hadn't already," he makes an extremely vague and abstract gesture, "with Sarion. I might be interested in the other Jokers too, if there weren't so many of them."

Lexi giggles helplessly. "There are so many of them, how would you even pick one."

"Maybe I will tell my Bonded I want one and they can choose which."

"Maybe! That'd be one way to do it. I don't want a Joker personally. I flirted with a Tony at one party, though, have you met any of those?"

"I don't think I have."

"They're fun! The one I flirted with danced with me and then we played video games. Glass is married to one, and Shell Bell has one and I think they have a thing but she's mostly with her Sherlock - Sherlocks go with Tonies, mostly - and Juliet has one but they're not together."

"Hmm. Doesn't ring any bells."

"There are a lot of them. Not as many as Bells or Jokers though. Like - sixish, I don't know exactly."

"More than there are of me!"

"Or me! I hope we eventually find another me. Maybe one who doesn't even have a Bella, since so many Bellas don't have Lexis and that's weird!"

"Maybe we will."

"Do you like having alts?"

"It's... yes," he says. "It's not what I expected. But I'm not sure I expected anything, really."

"Bella loves having alts to trade magic with and impress."

He laughs.

Someone walks up to them. "Hey do either of you know where I can find oh it's you hi."

"Oh! It's you! Hi!" repeats Lexi.

...Lycaelon giggles.

"So yeah, you're you, I'm me, do we actually, like, have things to talk about?"

"I didn't... make a list or anything."

"Yeah. I don't know, what is there to talk about. Bells without sisters are weird? Magic is neat? Tonies are cute?"

"I have a Tony!" squirms Soph happily.

Lycaelon awws.

"I don't just mean I have one in my world like I'd mean if Bella said that -"

"Oh my god, I can never remember to call mine 'Aurora', either."

"Heh. Juliet. I mean me and my Tony are dating and he's awesome."

"I thought it might be something like that," says Lycaelon.

"Anyway I've lost track of him."

"Well, he'll turn up. Or you could brainphone him."

"Yeah, I could, but I could also mill around the party looking the long way around in case I run into anyone interesting on the way!"

"That sounds... potentially exciting."

"Hey, I ran into Lexi, who everybody thinks I should meet, that's something."

"Aurora kinda wanted to meet you," remembers Lexi. "I guess Juliet's already met me though."

"Okay, I'll look for her at some point, then." Soph glances at Lycaelon. "I'm, uh, newer than I look, is why she hasn't already met me."

"Oh," says Lycaelon. "I don't hardly know how new anyone is; this is my first Bellparty."

"I think my newness might actually be the weirdest newness, if only because Sherlocks have happened several times? I look and feel seventeen but I was made with all my and everybody else's memories intact to account for me like a couple months ago, out of some mystical energy that someone wanted to put in a safe place. Except it didn't work on Bella, because, opacity, so she didn't know who I was."

"...Wow," says Lycaelon.

"But then she figured out what happened, so she made a fork of herself that remembered me and then merged and now she remembers things both ways and we're okay."

"Well, that's good."

"Yeah. Also the spell couldn't get ahold of stuff that wasn't in Sunshine, or duplicate torching or any really big coin effects, so I remembered being unable to leave the world or get any good hexed powers or be torchabled, and then once I actually existed I could."

"That must have been strange."

"Wow, yeah."

"Yeah, I remembered her worrying about me all the time because Sunshine is dangerous and I wasn't as safe as her or Tony or Sherlock."

"If I woke up one day and Bella couldn't remember me I would be so pissed off at her, wow."

"Well, at first I thought she was joking. And then I thought something was wrong with her. And then I found out something was wrong with me."

A Tony emerges from some nearby stairs, spots Soph, and waves. (It is her one.)

Her Tony is best Tony! "Hi! I was looking for you but I found Lexi instead!"

"I was downstairs!" he says, swooping in for a hug. Hug! Hug hug. "The rest of me wanna meet you. Where by meet I probably mean make out with. If you want."

(Lycaelon grins.)

"Oooh good question. Maaaybe? Let's see! Bye, Lexi, bye, Lycaelon!"

"Bye!"

"Bye," says Lycaelon.

"Bye!" says Tony. Off he goes with Soph, all asnuggle.