10-02-2020, 12:21 AM
(This post was last modified: 10-02-2020, 12:21 AM by neon_jellyfish.)
Thank you very much, everyone!
The rose bush is actually pretty funny - she changes colors every time she blossoms, though the flowers in the second half of her blooming season always seem to be this orange-pink combo. In spring, she produced red blossoms that got 'bleached' by sun to almost white, then she made some pink ones, then almost neon orange ones, the last batch was like the one in the photo. I wonder what kind of show she's planning for the next year.
Day 275
...is actually a pretty important Oddliday, the biggest event of the Oddwickshire year, and it's Especially Espectacular this year!
![[Image: 535261aefe17dc10d2e1d108200fedd3.jpg]](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/53/52/61/535261aefe17dc10d2e1d108200fedd3.jpg)
Schwarzgrabs are busy this time of the year.
You see, it's the October's Full Moon, and this year's October has two full moons, so the celebrations are going on for the whole month this time around. This Oddliday is special because it's not just the humanoids, the land itself is celebrating.
Everything is more alive, the forests, the mountains, the rivers, lakes and brooks, and what was already plenty alive before becomes more sentient. You can hear the rocks breathe and the plants whisper, and various critters will talk to you as if it was always like that, though you'll probably won't understand them. Not even all Oddlings do. Just greet them politely and you should be safe. The flow of magic is at its peak around this time, and it shows. The magic crystals that can usually only be found in the Underground pop up on surface, the water in Odde and Quirk becomes the same as Unseen's water*, the fog starts taking on fantastical, picturesque and oftentimes terrifying - and if you happen to be in the wrong place, dangerous - shapes.
*Since you have no way of remembering this, let's do a little recap - there are two rivers and two lakes in Oddwickshire (and many brooks, but they're not that important). On the surface it's river Odde and lake Quirk. The water in Odde is normal water. Water in Quirk is slightly magical, because magic from the Underground seeps in it. You can swim there, but don't drink the water. Unless you're some water-related magical creature. In the Underground, we have river Unseen and lake Quaint. Water in those is so saturated with magic, it's concentrated magic potion more than water. It is very dangerous, even for Oddwickshire standards, and only certified magicians (or creatures that evolved for life in it) can use it.
All magic users, humanoid or otherwise, are at their most powerful, and many use the opportunity to prepare talismans and potions imbued with this power to store and use it until the next October.
This wave of increased magic can be pretty dangerous. Less ex²perienced magic users can have awul accidents, and some places become downright lethal. The swamps, the people-eating village, various other cursed and/or magic places, and also anywhere near water - all those places should be avoided, unless you want to die in a very spectacular and painful way (there probably would be some nice colorful lights accompanying you agony, though). Some of those places are killing people just for fun normally, so now they're even more murderous, the other ones aren't malevolent, but naturally magical, and the magic just raises to levels that living organisms cannot handle.
There are groups of fana/lunatics that will try to jump in Odde and see what happens to them. Some of them survive! Some of them.
If you happen to meet a group of human-sized and human-dressed indigo-colored cockatoos with glow-in-the-dark iridescent feathers on their heads and tails, goat legs and mostly human hands (although a bit feathery), those aren't Oddwickshire cryptids, that's just a group of divers from two years ago. They're funny when they hear music.
The witches are pretty good at fixing consequences of a lot of these accidents, but sometimes the only cure is to end yourself as painlessly as possible and let Orpheus and Salome do their job. Some people willingly choose to go this way about their death, when they feel like the time of their transition is near anyways and want to make it more memorable.
I wouldn't recommend going to Oddwickshire during this time - not just on the night of the full moon, the magic frenzy gradually grows from last new moon and recedes until the next new moon, except for when there are two full moons in October, then there isn't a 'peace period' between them and things will only settle down after November's new moon. But when you spend more time there and eat a lot of local food, you'll get accustomed to high amount of magic in everything and eventually will be able to withstand October's Full Moon and enjoy the celebrations.
Speaking of celebrations...
Various types of people (using that term vaguely here) celebrate differently according to their specific needs and specific effects this time period has on them - witches, werepeople, vampires, banshees, will-o'-wisps, and so on, and so forth - they all have their own rituals and parties and various other events. You might want to avoid banshee villages during the celebrations. Even humans have more private parties than publicly organized events.
However, there are also some events that aren't specific to any group of Oddlings. There are special pavilions built in large empty areas in towns, the prettiest ones are in Quirkmore, on Alight Point fields and Fair Grounds. These pavilions have glass roofs made of special polarizing glass (magic, of course, we've seen it on Quirkmore's Cursed Wheel and in surprise bags of mad!eleines on Madness Day), that allows to see through the fog, so people can view the full moon.
And Isidor (Isidor Glowman, the will-o'-wisp foreman of the Lighthouse crew) puts on another lightshow, like he does on Lighthouse Day. Lighthouse crew is busy during this time, because all the magic going crazy affects both airships and their pilots, so making sure they land safely is hard (Beatrix helps as well, mostly with recovering crews from crashed crafts or guiding confused captains and their ships to safety. She's also affected by the unruly magic, she's just really good at dealing with it), but they still love to celebrate and always make time for the lightshow in their busy schedule.
There are all sorts of treats to enjoy - everything that is round in shape is made with moonberry jam or powder to make it glow. Cookies, small cakes, pancakes, even bread and cheese. The most famous is LeMoonade, glowing lemonade with indeterminable taste (it's sweet, herbal and vaguely fruity, but impossible to describe). You can get LeMoonade all year round, but October batches come with special collectible caps (for example small crystals in glass baubles, or chess figures).
Moonberries are cute milky white berries with strong glow, they're also very dangerous when raw (only will-o'-wisps, and for some mysterious reasons also Her Insane Majesty, can eat them raw), because they turn all your body fluids into moonberry juice, and that will turn you into a lovely glowing corpse. But jam and powder from dried moonberries mixed with powder from some underground crystals are safe, and they actually help counteract the effect of the wave of increased magic, so go grab a bottle of LeMoonade and some glowing cookies.
There are also glow-in-the-dark parties and many concerts, but be careful around the venues, because October's Full Moon music can be hypnotizing, way too literally at times. The Pied Piper of Hamelin would get envious.
Oddlings love to exchange postcards with lunar and lunatic imagery and small and not-so-small gifts on October's Full Moon, a lot of them also wear white, light blue and glow-in-the-dark garments. GITD ones are very practical, because if you happen to get lost and have a magic accident, you're easier to find. That is, if you manage to stay in one piece.
It's hard to get a wink of sleep amidst all of this, because people are partying and the nature is going coo coo bananas 24/7. Just embrace it, you can catch up with your sleep schedule in winter.
Have fun, and don't fear people with glowing eyes! Oh, and try to stay alive.
The rose bush is actually pretty funny - she changes colors every time she blossoms, though the flowers in the second half of her blooming season always seem to be this orange-pink combo. In spring, she produced red blossoms that got 'bleached' by sun to almost white, then she made some pink ones, then almost neon orange ones, the last batch was like the one in the photo. I wonder what kind of show she's planning for the next year.
Day 275
...is actually a pretty important Oddliday, the biggest event of the Oddwickshire year, and it's Especially Espectacular this year!
Schwarzgrabs are busy this time of the year.
You see, it's the October's Full Moon, and this year's October has two full moons, so the celebrations are going on for the whole month this time around. This Oddliday is special because it's not just the humanoids, the land itself is celebrating.
Everything is more alive, the forests, the mountains, the rivers, lakes and brooks, and what was already plenty alive before becomes more sentient. You can hear the rocks breathe and the plants whisper, and various critters will talk to you as if it was always like that, though you'll probably won't understand them. Not even all Oddlings do. Just greet them politely and you should be safe. The flow of magic is at its peak around this time, and it shows. The magic crystals that can usually only be found in the Underground pop up on surface, the water in Odde and Quirk becomes the same as Unseen's water*, the fog starts taking on fantastical, picturesque and oftentimes terrifying - and if you happen to be in the wrong place, dangerous - shapes.
*Since you have no way of remembering this, let's do a little recap - there are two rivers and two lakes in Oddwickshire (and many brooks, but they're not that important). On the surface it's river Odde and lake Quirk. The water in Odde is normal water. Water in Quirk is slightly magical, because magic from the Underground seeps in it. You can swim there, but don't drink the water. Unless you're some water-related magical creature. In the Underground, we have river Unseen and lake Quaint. Water in those is so saturated with magic, it's concentrated magic potion more than water. It is very dangerous, even for Oddwickshire standards, and only certified magicians (or creatures that evolved for life in it) can use it.
All magic users, humanoid or otherwise, are at their most powerful, and many use the opportunity to prepare talismans and potions imbued with this power to store and use it until the next October.
This wave of increased magic can be pretty dangerous. Less ex²perienced magic users can have awul accidents, and some places become downright lethal. The swamps, the people-eating village, various other cursed and/or magic places, and also anywhere near water - all those places should be avoided, unless you want to die in a very spectacular and painful way (there probably would be some nice colorful lights accompanying you agony, though). Some of those places are killing people just for fun normally, so now they're even more murderous, the other ones aren't malevolent, but naturally magical, and the magic just raises to levels that living organisms cannot handle.
There are groups of fana/lunatics that will try to jump in Odde and see what happens to them. Some of them survive! Some of them.
If you happen to meet a group of human-sized and human-dressed indigo-colored cockatoos with glow-in-the-dark iridescent feathers on their heads and tails, goat legs and mostly human hands (although a bit feathery), those aren't Oddwickshire cryptids, that's just a group of divers from two years ago. They're funny when they hear music.
The witches are pretty good at fixing consequences of a lot of these accidents, but sometimes the only cure is to end yourself as painlessly as possible and let Orpheus and Salome do their job. Some people willingly choose to go this way about their death, when they feel like the time of their transition is near anyways and want to make it more memorable.
I wouldn't recommend going to Oddwickshire during this time - not just on the night of the full moon, the magic frenzy gradually grows from last new moon and recedes until the next new moon, except for when there are two full moons in October, then there isn't a 'peace period' between them and things will only settle down after November's new moon. But when you spend more time there and eat a lot of local food, you'll get accustomed to high amount of magic in everything and eventually will be able to withstand October's Full Moon and enjoy the celebrations.
Speaking of celebrations...
Various types of people (using that term vaguely here) celebrate differently according to their specific needs and specific effects this time period has on them - witches, werepeople, vampires, banshees, will-o'-wisps, and so on, and so forth - they all have their own rituals and parties and various other events. You might want to avoid banshee villages during the celebrations. Even humans have more private parties than publicly organized events.
However, there are also some events that aren't specific to any group of Oddlings. There are special pavilions built in large empty areas in towns, the prettiest ones are in Quirkmore, on Alight Point fields and Fair Grounds. These pavilions have glass roofs made of special polarizing glass (magic, of course, we've seen it on Quirkmore's Cursed Wheel and in surprise bags of mad!eleines on Madness Day), that allows to see through the fog, so people can view the full moon.
And Isidor (Isidor Glowman, the will-o'-wisp foreman of the Lighthouse crew) puts on another lightshow, like he does on Lighthouse Day. Lighthouse crew is busy during this time, because all the magic going crazy affects both airships and their pilots, so making sure they land safely is hard (Beatrix helps as well, mostly with recovering crews from crashed crafts or guiding confused captains and their ships to safety. She's also affected by the unruly magic, she's just really good at dealing with it), but they still love to celebrate and always make time for the lightshow in their busy schedule.
There are all sorts of treats to enjoy - everything that is round in shape is made with moonberry jam or powder to make it glow. Cookies, small cakes, pancakes, even bread and cheese. The most famous is LeMoonade, glowing lemonade with indeterminable taste (it's sweet, herbal and vaguely fruity, but impossible to describe). You can get LeMoonade all year round, but October batches come with special collectible caps (for example small crystals in glass baubles, or chess figures).
Moonberries are cute milky white berries with strong glow, they're also very dangerous when raw (only will-o'-wisps, and for some mysterious reasons also Her Insane Majesty, can eat them raw), because they turn all your body fluids into moonberry juice, and that will turn you into a lovely glowing corpse. But jam and powder from dried moonberries mixed with powder from some underground crystals are safe, and they actually help counteract the effect of the wave of increased magic, so go grab a bottle of LeMoonade and some glowing cookies.
There are also glow-in-the-dark parties and many concerts, but be careful around the venues, because October's Full Moon music can be hypnotizing, way too literally at times. The Pied Piper of Hamelin would get envious.
Oddlings love to exchange postcards with lunar and lunatic imagery and small and not-so-small gifts on October's Full Moon, a lot of them also wear white, light blue and glow-in-the-dark garments. GITD ones are very practical, because if you happen to get lost and have a magic accident, you're easier to find. That is, if you manage to stay in one piece.
It's hard to get a wink of sleep amidst all of this, because people are partying and the nature is going coo coo bananas 24/7. Just embrace it, you can catch up with your sleep schedule in winter.
Have fun, and don't fear people with glowing eyes! Oh, and try to stay alive.