Neon’s A Doll A Day… Again (2020)

[neon_jellyfish]

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, ...

Oooh, this sounds lovely.  I was going to write, what a special time to be in Oddwickshire; I'd enjoy that... but then the rest of it makes me think that really, it sounds like the only way to live successfully in Oddwickshire through all these strange times is to be a really knowledgeable and accomplished magic user.  Alas, I might stay at home...
This is all so imaginative.  I really, reaaalllllly want a TV series set here.  Or at least some books.

Your rose bush has me curious.  Now I'm wondering if all the different-coloured flowers are on the same branches or different parts of the bush.  If it was the latter, I'd guess maybe you have something with a lot of grafts in it.  Otherwise... it must be a magic bush.  Which would be even cooler

Well, as I mentioned, you can get used to Oddwickshire magic by spending some time there when it's safe first, and then you can enjoy this Oddliday without fear. You might need an advanced magic user's help if you happen to have a magical accident, but those aren't that hard to avoid. If you stay in safe zones, you'll be fine. What's dangerous is the wilderness, if you stay in towns and their closest surroundings, and manage to avoid big bodies of water, there's (almost) nothing to fear. If you want to enjoy the talking fauna and flora, you can do that in towns, too, especially bats and birds in Oddwick are great, because people can understand them. And cats, but those talk with humans all the time.
Plus, next 18 years will be much safer, as there will be only one full moon in October, so the peak madness will last for a few days, not a full month. Next ultra-mad October will be in 2039, plenty of time to get your body accustomed to mad magic! And there are also the moonberry nom noms, which help to reduce the effect!

And thank you!

As for my rose, she produces three batches of flowers, all flowers in a batch have the same color, but the batches are different from each other. That means the entire bush produces red-turned-white flowers first. When I cut them and new ones bloom, they're all pink (last year) or all orange (this year). Then comes the third pink-orange gradient batch.

Sounds like October in Oddwickshire, starting at the full moon, is a month-long rave.
This year it will be a two month long rave, until late in November!

Also, October is a month in which suicide is... well, it sounds like suicide is almost encouraged, or at least not frowned upon. Another Oddwickshire custom that might be worth investigating further here in this world.

Encouraged suicide?! Custom?!?! Now, that's a wild misinterpretation, did I really word it that badly?

That's as if someone said that some injuries are so serious they require amputation of the wounded limb to avoid further harm to the rest of the body, and somebody else would interpret that as encouraged customary treatment of papercuts.

I used 'end' because I didn't want to use 'kill' (for no particular reson, it just sounded better to me), but it's still the usual Oddwickshire death, so, not and end. I guess that was a bit confusing?

Suicide, at least as we understand it, isn't really a thing in Oddwickshire, because of how death works in there. This was only discussed very briefly last year, but the dead never stayed dead in Oddwickshire, Schwarzgrabs' services aren't a novelty, they're a way to make the process safe, organized and tailored to the wishes of the dearly departed-and-about-to-return ones, as in the past, some of the revenants returned in disfigured state. You don't have to fear the death getting in your way, but you also can't count on it to end things, because it won't.

When somebody kills themselves, it's not because of they want to cease to exist, it's because they want to transition to the next stage of their existence in a controlled manner, knowing full well said existence will continue. It's adjustment of time and way in which they go, not an attempt to end things forever.

People who jump in magic rivers aren't suicidal, they're cocky idiots who think they're special and can pull it off, and are forced to learn that they can't the hard way. It's a 'hold my beer and watch this' thing. (Yes, not even Oddwickshire was spared, it has its own population of idiots. They seem to be everywhere - more on that later in our post!)

Oddlings are dark, but not in an emo everything is vain so let's just wait for the sweet release of death (while singing pathetic songs) way, but in a what kind of eyes do you like in your soup? way.

Octobers really are a rave. It's not a dark or a bad time, it's a time of insane, universally applied power boost, and since it's a natural process, it boosts everything regardless of what people think about it or what amount of it they can withstand, it just happens in both good and dangerous ways, but Oddlings wouldn't skedaddle away from it just because it might be dangerous, they embrace the madness. They always embrace the madness. When there isn't any madness to embrace, they'll make their own.

The second death does exist, but it's extremely rare. You get scratched off of Grim Reapers' lists the first time around, so you're not on their radar anymore, and they can't be bothered to swing their scythes at the same sucker twice. The very few people who managed to die twice did so in an attempt to prove that if you believe hard enough, you can survive the second death, too, so they also didn't want to actually die.

So yeah, if you feel like life is too painful to be worth living, you can get help, but not death.

I love this world you’ve created, and I now want to taste LeMoonade. Finn wants to start a bottle cap collection of them.

Thank you!!! Haha, I can totally picture that - Finn and his LeMoonade cap collection.

What a great - if dangerous to outsiders - time of year.  Especially this year it seems.

The glow in the dark food & drink is especially interesting.

And love the description of the transformed divers, I can just picture them perfectly in my head.

It's Oddlings' favorite time of the year, they always have a blast.

The glowing food is fun (and thankfully, it only glows when it goes in) and yummy. Yummy stuff seems to be the staple in celebrating anything in Oddwickshire.

They're a fun bunch, and seem to have accepted their new froms without major issues.

Ooh, this sounds amazing.

Seriously, the world you've created is fantastic.

Thank you very much!



Day 276

Breaking news from the world's most absurd country! And I don't mean Oddwickshire this time...

I can come up with magic anomalies turning people into giant glow-in-the-dark goat-legged cockatoos, but I couldn't make this up to save my life...

Erm... So... Uh... Singing is prohibited in Czech Republic. Because it spreads coronavirus. I kid you not. I wish I was kidding.

***

Currently, it doesn't mean individual people can't sing, but concerts or any form of singing where other people are present are prohibited. I have a personal theory as to why this... thing... that doubtless exists... eventhough it shouldn't... happened. You see, we're having communal elections today and tomorrow, and the govt didn't want to force any harsh preventive measures to avoid upsetting people so that the parties in control don't lose votes, but they needed to take some sort of action, because we're at our worst burst of new cases and not doing anything would upset people as well. So they did... this...

I'm still having a hard time accepting it's actually real, eventhough it's already been a full day...

So I assembled a group of innocent-looking covid carolers to usher forth the apocalypse. Which photo makes them look more deadly?

This one,



or this one?



And here's the original:



Getting Florianne on the team wasn't a wise decision. She bursts into manic laughter too often, so she keeps interrupting the singing.
And new Lil' Fairies have names, yay! Vel (mint hair) is Céleste and Erunoe (lilac hair) is Giselle.