Neon’s A Doll A Day… Again (2020)

[Alliecat]

Oh, what a gorgeous flower. That must be a spectacular bush ...the colour shadings are wonderful. The last rose of summer… how sad. The season has turned here too, with a very gloomy wet week and leaves falling; I want to fly away somewhere warm.
I really like werepuppy's impression of the scene.

[Elfy]

That is a perfect blossom. I hope our Tatiana rose can do as well this year.

[Lejays17]

The movie poster is great. Apple looks like she’s really looking forward to the movie.

The slight melancholy of the filtered version with the final rose of summer is beautiful. It’s a lovely ceremony to mark the change in seasons.

We are very excited that our rose bushes are starting to bud, and the ones in the garden (as opposed to the ones in the pots) look like they will produce lots this year as we pruned them right back .

[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!


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.

[Alliecat]

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

[davidd]

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.

[Elfy]

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

[Lejays17]

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.

[werepuppy]

Ooh, this sounds amazing.

Seriously, the world you've created is fantastic.

[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.

[werepuppy]

Omg your Lil' Fairies steal the picture with how cute they are. I'd say the first one - with the slight blue tone to it - can have a hint of menace if that's what you're looking for.

[Alliecat]

Yeah, they do look a bit dangerous all filtered down, but I like the glow-y more ethereal colours in the original.
If it's any consolation, the singing thing has been floated here too. With reference to school music programs. Which seems to me kind of idiotic when some of the same schools are probably allowing sports, with contact and heavy breathing from exertion... I wonder who came up with that. Anyway, no, you aren't necessarily alone in the dumb rules.
And speaking of elections & dumb rules, we just had a provincial election & now that he has a majority, apparently the premier is considering implementing mandatory mask rules. The angry people in this community at least are freaking out... "I wont do it you can't make me..." etc. MY question is why the bleep they didn't do it in the spring, when everyone was really freaking out. There are like 6 cases in the entire province, 200 since it started, & 2 deaths. Maybe we still have to be vigilant but it seems like dumb timing for that. Anyway.... >shrug<

And cats, but those talk with humans all the time.

Awwwww... Now that WOULD be lovely

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.

OK. It's a magic bush then.
That sounds seriously cool!
Since roses are deer food, I don't have any. I'd still love to speculate about soil pH or something, but, I don't know enough about growing roses.
It's a magic bush

[dargosmydaddy]

The second one looks more apocalyptic... because all the colors been sucked out like a happiness vampire got to them.

I love all the pretty colors of the original.

[Elfy]

The middle pic has a haunting, ethereal quality to it.

[davidd]

Sorry, but Czechia is behind the curve. The sadistic psychopaths in the US state of California banned singing three months ago:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/03/us/califo...index.html

But only in church!

If anyone has any doubts that a certain political party in the US is anti-Christian and anti-religion and is using tactics patterned after a couple of influential dictators in 1930s Europe for mass social control, well, those people are in some kind of denial.

My tremendous fear is that the idiots here are going to vote like the idiots in Alliecat's province... and then cry "but we didn't know they'd do something like that!" Especially since they've already made it perfectly clear that they will, in fact, "do something like that."

Yes, they'll do something like that... and a whole lot more. I'm very troubled by what's happening here, and what's happening around the world.

I concur with the other assessments: second pic looks more deadly-innocent.

As for the suicide thing, no, I do not think I misinterpreted it. Suicide, or intentional ending of life, is a thing in Oddwickshire because they can "fix it." It reminds me a bit of the Riverworld SF series of books by Philip Jose Farmer. I think it'd be kind of cool to be able to "start over" or hit the reset button.