Dolly Market Forum

Quote: If you want to read something but don’t know what, she’ll always pick just the right book for you. 

Wow, I need Iselle in my life. I think I'd take up residence at the Oddwickshire Library. And I'm a very quiet person, so I won't run afoul with the library fairies

Oh, wow, I want to visit this library. At all sorts of random hours.

Wow. Interesting-er and interesting-er It sounds like a bunch of us are up for a group tour of the library. I wonder if the library fairies would help in mine? Make the kids put the books back in the right places so less shelf-reading is required?
Really enjoying these.

Sign me up for the rapidly filling up library group tour, too, please!

I’m up for the library tour, too. I am rather interested in just how the fairies make sure disobedient patrons behave, though.

Thanks, everyone!

You could probably tell from the lenght of the text that the Library is my favorite place in Oddwickshire... It was the first place I worken on in detail once I had arough draft of the whole kingdom.

Elfy, usually, they shower misbehaving visitors with sparkles, I'm being told they sting a little, although I don't know what exactly 'a little' means... Other times, they make them need to use the bathroom every few minutes... But that's rare. Most people here know how to conduct themselves.


Day 210

Intermission

I'm not feeling well today, plus the the star of the next part had a wardrobe malfunction that I need to glue back together and let it dry, and I didn't want to change the order in which I introduce the characters, so I'm taking a break and posting something that doesn't require loads of typing.

Aw, dear, I hope you feel better soon. Try to rest up as much as you can!

Twyla and Clawdeen look gorgeous! I'm still convinced FdC was the best line in terms of creative output for MH.

My favourite MH line - I have all of the outfits & most of the dolls from it.

Love the Library - like everyone else, sign me up for a tour.

I hope you are feeling back to normal... no, wait, that would mean ill with migraines, wouldn't it... so I hope you are feeling much better soon!

In the meantime, today's photo of this intriguing duo is quite a satisfactory interlude!

Thanks guys!

Now back to Oddwickshire!


Day 211

We'll take one last look at the Library and head back to the Castle, specifically to the Lighthouse Tower. There's an airship waiting for us, ready to take us to Quirkmore, the only other place in Oddwickshire big enough to be called 'town'. Quirkmore may be younger and smaller than Oddwick, but it's just as crazy! But before we get there, let's meet our airship's captain and talk about Oddwickshire's many lighthouses for a bit.

Beatrix Brasschester



Beatrix Brasschester is an aeronaut. Actually, she’s the aeronaut. Her airship*, designed by none other than Rebecca Morgenstern, is the one to take the Queen wherever she needs to, in those rare cases when some stubborn foolish mountain refuses to come to the Queen.

Beatrix loves her job. She loves being in the air, feeling the wind in her long, silver mane and having all the freedom in the world. She loves travelling to new places and learning new stories and she loves helping other people to get to those places and learn those stories, too.

She has one more passion - hats. At first, combining her two favorite things - flying and hats - was really tough, because the aforementioned wind in her long, silver mane usually took her hat away. Losing way too many hats in this manner led her to master two other skills aside from piloting an airship and navigating through the endless skies: hat making and fastening her creations in her hair so that even the worst hurricane couldn’t blow them away.

*I’m not sure about the name. At first, I wanted She Who Runs with the Wind, as a nod to Alexander Grin’s novel She Who Runs on the Waves (it's about a regular water ship), but ever since I’ve come up with The Rowdy Scuffler, I’m kinda leaning towards that name… What do you guys think?


Oddwickshire Lighthouse Network

Oddwickshire has quite a lot of lighthouses, considering how far from sea it is. That’s because of the busy airship traffic.

Shortly after acceding to the throne, Her Insane Majesty decided to establish an aerial infrastructure to deal with the crippling inefficiency of the current methods of transportation. Which was mostly travelling on foot, because Odde is not navigable for the vast majority of vessels, and the whole land is covered by dense forests and even denser fog, so railways would take ages to build. It was really slowing down everything, but mainly both home and international trade.

Her Insane Majesty decided that the easiest way to deal with impenetrable forests and fog was to simply travel above them, and she summoned Beatrix (who was already a seasoned aeronaut) and Rebecca to help her with the technical part of solution. Together, they came up with a plan to build the Oddwickshire Lighthouse Network and Rebecca designed several models of airships for mass transit and freight transport, and also some cheap ones for private use. Now both towns and all communities scattered all over Oddwickshire have their own lighthouses and you can get everywhere you need in a few hours, instead of days.

The lighthouses utilize special combination of crystals, same ones you’ve seen in the Library, but bigger. Rebecca found out that combinig two specific types enhances their luminosity, so fewer crystals are needed. There’s only one lighthouse that doesn’t employ this technology - The First Lighthouse in Quirkmore, where we’re headed now.


The First Lighthouse Crew

The First Lighthouse crew consists of four unshelled characters, I'll only post one today, because this is already a monstrous wall of text, and I'll leave the others for tomorrow.

The First Lighthouse is the most important lighthouse in Oddwickshire. It’s the oldest and tallest one, all the international flights depart from and land here. Its light is stronger than all the other lighthouses’, and it also differs in color - it’s mint green, while normal lighthouses have cold white or blue-ish light. The reason behind that is its light source - Mr. Isidor Glowman, the crew foreman.


Isidor Glowman

Isidor was born some 800 years ago as a will-o’-wisp. He’s a flashy guy, he loves wearing extravagant clothing and dying his hair, and he tends to start dancing whenever he hears music, even if he’s in the middle of the street… People call him lolicon all the time, but his love for young girls is pure and innocent, he just wants to have them all as little sisters, pick cute outfits for them, prepare yummy foods for them and read them fairy tales before bed. Just like humans love kitties without being zoophiles.

He always liked his light-manipulating powers, but aside from that, he thinks that being a will-o’-wisp stinks. You have to live in a dirty smelly swamp, you can’t exceed the official limits for the ghost lantern luminosity (which isn’t nearly enough flashy!), you have to basically kill people and everybody sees you as some kind of bad omen… Screw that! Isidor likes when people flock around him, but he wants to show off, not kill them all the second they get near. Shining brighter than the stars has always been his biggest dream, but how is he supposed to shine in this place?

When Her Insane Majesty announced her plans to build the lighthouse network, Isidor sensed his chance to start a new and better life, and proposed himself as a light source for the main lighthouse. After a short but very spectacular demonstration, it was decided that he will become the metaphorical foundation stone of the first of Network’s lighthouses, located in Quirkmore, in the geographical center of Oddwickshire.

Isidor had to break up with his family, because they were appalled by the idea of will-o’-wisp light leading people to safety and they disowned him. He was a bit sad they weren’t able to appreciate the brightness of his light, but he recovered fast. Now it’s his moment to shine, and that moment will last for a very long time.

A note on will-o’-wisps
In Czech folklore, will-o’-wisps aren’t just ghost lights, they’re somewhere between dark fae and ghosts (in some tales, they’re ghosts, in others they’re corporeal beings), and they use lanterns for the ‘ghostly light’ tricks. In most folk tales, they used to be people, but they either drowned in marsh or they died / killed themselves because of unrequited love or betrayal and they carried their grudge into the afterlife, became will-o’-wisps and started luring the living to the marsh. Sometimes they want to because they’re evil, sometimes they’re cursed to do so, eventhough they themselves don’t want to. I’m using Czech folklore as a base, but my will-o’-wisps also form communities, start families and reproduce on their own.

The Rowdy Scuffler, for sure!

Beatrix looks amazing, and her job sounds amazing as well! The Rowdy Scuffler seems exactly like the type of ship this stylish lass would fly, and it does seem like a name Her Insane Majesty would give her chosen airship as well. Isidor sounds really interesting as well, and I like that he wanted to use his powers to help people. It's nice to see that other cultures have will-o'-wisps.

This is my favorite installment of the Oddwickschire Chronicles yet, I think I am developing a mad crush on Beatrix Brasschester, and The Rowdy Scuffler is definitely the right name for the airship!

Where did you find those marvelous goggles? They are not standard stock with this figure, are they?

Concurring with the others on the name of the ship - the other is mice, but not as good for the type of ships it’s going to be.

Interesting variation on the will o whisp folklore.

Beatrix is beautiful - seeing your photos of her encouraged me to get her for myself .

I live in a place with lighthouses... and love the idea of using them for airships!
Do I even need to add another vote for the airship name? It sounds a better fit for your world. And I also love the imaginative take on will-o-the-wisps. I LOL'd at how flying and hats don't mix
Seriously, this needs to be a book series.