Dolly Market Forum

This is fun! Where else other than Oddwickshire would your crew live? I am now curious about the lickable purple crystals.

(07-23-2019, 10:12 PM)Elfy Wrote: [ -> ]This is fun! Where else other than Oddwickshire would your crew live? I am now curious about the lickable purple crystals.

There is one other town, although I'll do the Oddwick characters first, so we won't get there for a few days, but some important characters live in that other town.

Purple crystals glow in the dark and they taste like raspberries, so they're popular in fancy cafés, they make really pretty cakes with them. They're very brittle, so if you want to keep one as a fairy light, you need to keep it in a glass.

This is a great introduction to the world.

Using favourite stories / tropes are a great jumping off point for your own imaginative stories. You just need to see how many retelling and variations of fairytale & legends are published every years.

Ahh, so Her Insane Majesty is actually the second sister - which also fits into “reality” where she was the second one to arrive at your house.

Oooh, that's fascinating.

Does Rosamunda ever feel... resentment over having to concede the throne to Her Insane Majesty?

What an endearing combination of adorable, fun, odd, quirky, and slightly spooky! I love this to bits and pieces so far!

I'm curious, do you think up the stories in Czech or in English... or in a combination of languages? Your description and the names you've come up with do not come across as being translations.

(07-23-2019, 11:41 PM)Lejays17 Wrote: [ -> ]This is a great introduction to the world.

Using favourite stories / tropes are a great jumping off point for your own imaginative stories.  You just need to see how many retelling and variations of fairytale & legends are published every years.

Ahh, so Her Insane Majesty is actually the second sister - which also fits into “reality” where she was the second one to arrive at your house.

Thank you! Her Insane Majesty being the younger sister wasn't intentional, they just seemed like that when I put them next to each other...

(07-24-2019, 03:40 AM)werepuppy Wrote: [ -> ]Oooh, that's fascinating.

Does Rosamunda ever feel... resentment over having to concede the throne to Her Insane Majesty?

No? She didn't have to, she wanted to... Does 'concede' mean it was forced? Google Translate told me I could use it for voluntary giving up throne, too... Maybe I should revise her bio, to make it more clear...

(07-24-2019, 03:49 AM)davidd Wrote: [ -> ]What an endearing combination of adorable, fun, odd, quirky, and slightly spooky! I love this to bits and pieces so far!

I'm curious, do you think up the stories in Czech or in English... or in a combination of languages? Your description and the names you've come up with do not come across as being translations.

Thank you!!!

It's a mix of everything. I started with non-Czech dolls' names, because I wanted to keep something from the doll's original name or theme (or at least color) in the new name (or character). So Wilhelmina got to keep 'Wilhemina' and I just added to it. Her Insane Majesty is keeping insanity and the title of the queen, Butterworth twins kept the circus theme... Then I ended up with a mix of English, German and French names, so when I was naming places, I just decided to stick with English, because I don't have anyone to share this with in Czech anyways. But when I'm thinking about other things than names, I do it in Czech, because it's my 'thinking' language (well, it is my mother tongue, so no surprise there).


Day 205

We'll use secret tunnel leading from Lebkuchenburg to Oddwick Castle (the two castles weren't originally connected, but the royal sisters thought it could come in handy) and request an audience with THE most important person in the whole kingdom:

The Queen


The official portrait of the Queen of Oddwickshire

Bow before Her Insane Majesty, Queen Isadora Malvolia The Very First!

She might not exactly be the very first queen of Oddwickshire, but with her reign, new era - a suspiciously bountiful one, I might add - arrived to the small kingdom (or, how she likes to call it, queendom), and so when she demanded that “The Very First” should be added to her title, nobody had any objections (that turned out to be a very healthy decision).

Her Insane Majesty has quite an eccentric personality, and sometimes, she’s downright insane. However, when it comes to important decisions and caring for her people, she’s so rational, calm and level-headed, it’s almost scary. Luckily, this peculiar condition only lasts for a few seconds necessary to make whatever decision needs to be made, and then the Queen reverts to her usual batty self. 

Right after her coronation, Oddwickshire started to prosper like never before in its long, albeit mostly forgotten history. Word on the street is that it has something to do with young queen’s passion for collecting magical artifacts (she doesn't have a talent for magic like her older sister does, but she would never let such a minute detail stop her). It’s probably true, but I’m sure that her sharp intellect also plays an important role.

Aside from magical artifacts, she loves rocking horses and other toy horses, also other rocking and swinging things. Several envoys from neighboring countries have made comments implying that audience with the Queen made them feel notably dizzy and that keeping eye contact with her is virtually impossible. They hope their kings won’t abandon their traditional thrones for rocking ones or throne-swings.

---

There are some characters who currently don't have a shell, but I decided to share them anyways. I'll post them when I write about places they belong to. The first one is a ghost who's been haunting the Oddwick Castle for past few centuries.


Princess Lianora

Princess Lianora... well, the ghost of princess Lianora... is possibly the sweetest and most cheerful resident of the royal castle. She was the crown princess centuries ago, and used to suffer from somnambulism. One night, the light of the full moon led her to the kitchen, then to the cookie jar... She choked on a cookie crumb, woke up, died and got really upset during the process, for she wasn't able to finish the cookie. The desire to eat that fateful cookie was so strong that her ghost rose from her dead body practically immediately, gave the cookie what it deserved and then proceeded to consume the rest of the jar's contents, to make sure nobody else suffers the same gruesome death...

Princess Lianora is always lively, ah, pardon me, I meant full of energy, and her glass is always full-full. She loves sweet treats of all kinds, cute and fluffy things, and wailing on the castle's battlements during stormy nights. People open up to her easily, and she can always cheer them up. Except for the times she scares them half to death. She can't help that, being a ghost and all... Her Insane Majesty and Countess Rosamunda seem to be the only ones who don't get scared by Lianora. Probably because they're way scarier than her...

(Concede can be used for voluntarily handing over as well. However, it can be used in a grudging form.)

Woo, Her Isane Majesty has the best official portrait. I love how demanding and forceful she is, and that she seems to use to use it for the betterment of her Queendom and her people. I'm sure visitors find themselves greatly entertained in her company, and consider themselves lucky to be honoured soo.

Lianora sound fascinating, I hope she finds a shell!

This is turning in to one of the most entertaining stories I have read in ages... and it's not even a "story" yet! Such a fun and imaginative setting!

And beautifully illustrated! The Queen's Official Portrait is... uhm... most regal!

(Lianora... "her glass is always full-full." I wish I could live my life like that.)

Wonderfully imaginative This is a fun read so far, and I LOL'd about the ghost and the cookie. I love that the official portrait is upside down -- quite suitable for your world. It does sound like this could be written up for a children's series.

(07-25-2019, 02:28 AM)davidd Wrote: [ -> ]... "her glass is always full-full." I wish I could live my life like that.)

Amen!

@neon_jellyfish What kind of magic artifacts does she collect exactly?

Loving this! Our dolls have their own personalities and relationship, but not as detailed as the Oddwickshireites.

(07-25-2019, 12:22 AM)werepuppy Wrote: [ -> ](Concede can be used for voluntarily handing over as well. However, it can be used in a grudging form.)

Woo, Her Isane Majesty has the best official portrait. I love how demanding and forceful she is, and that she seems to use to use it for the betterment of her Queendom and her people.  I'm sure visitors find themselves greatly entertained in her company, and consider themselves lucky to be honoured soo.

Lianora sound fascinating, I hope she finds a shell!

Thank you!!!

The visitors mostly consider themselves lucky to leave in one piece... But they all agree that Her Insane Majesty does leave the most imposing impression.

(07-25-2019, 02:28 AM)davidd Wrote: [ -> ]This is turning in to one of the most entertaining stories I have read in ages... and it's not even a "story" yet! Such a fun and imaginative setting!

And beautifully illustrated! The Queen's Official Portrait is... uhm... most regal!

(Lianora... "her glass is always full-full." I wish I could live my life like that.)

Thank you very much, but don't get your hopes up - this won't really turn into story, as I said earlier, it's really just a bunch of names with a few details about their characters attached. 

Haha, regal is definitely the word!

(07-25-2019, 03:51 AM)Alliecat Wrote: [ -> ]Wonderfully imaginative   This is a fun read so far, and I LOL'd about the ghost and the cookie.  I love that the official portrait is upside down -- quite suitable for your world.  It does sound like this could be written up for a children's series.

(07-25-2019, 02:28 AM)davidd Wrote: [ -> ]... "her glass is always full-full." I wish I could live my life like that.)

Amen!

Thank you!

(07-25-2019, 04:22 AM)Jubilee Wrote: [ -> ]@neon_jellyfish What kind of magic artifacts does she collect exactly?

Usual things like flying carpets, invisibility cloaks, magic mirrors with some kind of virtual assistant in them, she has a few poison rings providing endless suply of poison, trees bearing fuits that grant eternal youth, talking shrunken heads (one of them apparently belonged to a gorgon, because it petrified some servants)... She's quite fond of horseless coach which for some reason loves to take people to swamps, ravines and other places that are hard to get away from and then it just throws them out and abandons them there...

(07-25-2019, 03:46 PM)Elfy Wrote: [ -> ]Loving this! Our dolls have their own personalities and relationship, but not as detailed as the Oddwickshireites.

Thank you!


Day 206

Now that we’re done in the castle, let’s take a stroll through the Old Town. Not far from the castle is one of those old stone houses, but this one has a bunch of pipes swirling around it and various odd contraptions attached to its walls. A very interesting couple lives here...

Meet the Morgensterns, everybody's favorite steampower couple!


They've got each other's back.

Rebecca Morgenstern

Rebecca is a genius inventor. She loves making her and other people’s lives easier, and she constructed a lot of helpful devices of all kinds. For example, her semi-automated gardening tools are very popular with elderly people, because they don’t have to squat or kneel down anymore. And her laundrymajigs can wash, dry, iron and fold all the laundry all by themselves! You just take the nice tidy pile back to the closet.

Currently, she’s working on thingamadish, which will wash and dry dishes, and a hybrid airship / submarine, which is a long-term project, something she was dreaming about since childhood and the very reason she decided to become an inventor.

She often works together with Countess Rosamunda to create magic items, mostly magic wands with various aids and safety measures for beginning witchlings, because raw Oddwickshire wands tend to have minds of their own and pull pranks on their users, so handling them requires a certain level of skill. Magic hats with built-in storage dimensions are also in high demand.

She also built a very important airship (we’ll get to it soon).

Most of her inventions were created for her husband, Elazar.


Elazar Morgenstern

Elazar Morgenstern is a professional problem solver and a part-time secret agent of Her Insane Majesty (there aren’t enough affairs for it to be a full-time job). He’s a man of few words, and the word he uses most often is ‘hmm’. He’s famous for his martial arts and butcher skills (the old ‘that corpse won’t fit in there’ problem) and his flawless aim. He isn’t famous for his absolutely perfect stealth skills - nobody ever noticed. Most people don’t notice he’s in the room even when he doesn’t try to conceal his presence, but when he does, he’s downright invisible. Her Insane Majesty is very intrigued by that, because Rosy says he isn’t using any magic and Rebecca says she didn’t make any special camouflage device for him, because he doesn’t need one. Nobody knows how he’s doing it.

There’s never been a problem he couldn’t solve. Rowdy ghosts, vampires and werewolfs (werewolves?) who don’t respect the ‘only eat those who actually want to be eaten’ law, foreign spies or assassins who are after Her Insane Majesty, spy missions in neighboring countries… You name it, he’ll deal with it. Although, he does wonder what would happen if he let an assassin or two slip and get to the Queen. He thinks it could be fun.

Secret agents tend to be popular with ladies, but Elazar has never been into that sort of thing. A) it could blow his cover, B) ‘hmm’ and ‘huh’ aren’t exactly the strongest pick-up lines. He was kind of surprised that Rebecca could talk to him normally and understand what each ‘hmm’ and ‘huh’ meant. Their relationship was purely professional at first, because every secret agent needs a genius inventor, but then they became friends, and then lovers.

Rebecca can always tell where he is, and he likes that she sees him without him actually having to go out of his way to make his presence known. There are a few other people who always know he’s in the room*, but no one else can sense where he is when they’re in another room.

*That would, of course, be Her Insane Majesty, and also Rosamunda, Mr. Schwarzgrab, probably because he’s sort of invisible, too; and then a few supernatural beings whose very nature makes them able to sense any living creature in their proximity, especially if said creature is a human in size and shape (and in some cases blood).

Ahhh the Morgensterns. They're such an awesome pairing. I love the idea of thingamadish and would like to put in an order for one, thanks!

What a fascinating backstory for this steampunk couple! The descriptions are stories in themselves!

Seconding wanting a thingamadish, and also the laundry one.

They sound like a fascinating couple - I’m very amused by the thought of a part-time secret agent cos there isn’t enough work for it to be full time.