Neon’s A Doll A Day… Again (2020)

[davidd]

You know that over here we worship the very ground that Beatrix Brasschester walks on... or the air that she flies in... right?

Oh, the way her hair seems to fly in the wind, even when she is grounded and not sporting her goggles! I suspect Beatrix has her own zephyr spirits or some such thing that follow her around to ensure she always appears to be airborne.

[Elfy]

Beatrix is owning that picture.

[Lejays17]

Beatrix looks amazing - I’m with Davidd that she’s got her own flotilla of air spirits following her around to make her look just right.

[neon_jellyfish]

There's a very good spooky feel here!

Glad to hear that, she's an Oddling, so spooky is the way to go!

You know that over here we worship the very ground that Beatrix Brasschester walks on... or the air that she flies in... right?

Oh, the way her hair seems to fly in the wind, even when she is grounded and not sporting her goggles! I suspect Beatrix has her own zephyr spirits or some such thing that follow her around to ensure she always appears to be airborne.

I know. Beatrix knows too, and she's very flattered.

You're not that far from truth, Oddlings, on account of living in a land soaked with magic, are all magic themselves, although to different degrees. Some of them don't really care all that much, but they tend to lean towards occupations and hobbies aligned with their magic affinity, and be better than others at them. Beatrix can navigate the impenetrable sea of fog shrouding Oddwickshire without the special lenses, and wind always makes her hair beautiful and dramatic, instead of messing it up, so that makes me think that she has some type of air/wind magic. She just likes piloting an airship better.

Considering how ubiquitous magic is in Oddwickshire, a lot of my characters don't seem to care - they have other things going on, and they only use a bit of magic to support those things. Out of 16 shelled ones, only four (and two of them aren't human) are powerful magic users, one uses considerable amounts of magic, but not as strong, and the rest only practises very little magic, or none at all.

Her Insane Majesty would be a very rare case of a non-magical Oddling, as she cannot learn any magic -  t seems like Rosamunda was born with all the magic, and when her lil' sis the Queen was born, there wasn't any left for her. Though lately, I've been thinking that her Royal Presence that prevents anyone from disobeying goes beyond the usual aura of authority and confidence, so maybe her little bit of magic simply manifested in an unusual way.

Beatrix is owning that picture.

Thank you!!!

Beatrix looks amazing - I’m with Davidd that she’s got her own flotilla of air spirits following her around to make her look just right.

Thanks!!! Not exactly spirits, but yes, the wind is her friend (and obviously in love with her hair. I totally get why).



Day 291

Winter ravens are here! Arrival of winter ravens is one of the most important 'events' in my year, so I'm super happy. I couldn't take a photo, they looked like tiny black pixels, eventhough they were pretty close. I guess I would need a better camera for that. So for now, here are some non-winter Ravens.

---

I'd like to request your counsel regarding an Oddwickshire-related dilemma I can't seem to figure out. There's this place and its inhabitant(s), and the place and the character would fit into both Oddwickshire and the backstory I'm preparing for my BJDs (who still don't have faces, as I need to import some of the supplies from abroad, which is kinda difficult right now). I originally came up with this place as a part of Oddwickshire, but it would fit in both 'worlds', and its main character seems to really want to be shelled as a BJD. Plus I have an existing place that offered to take the role of this place in exchange for a proper name.

So, I've been pondering multiple options:

• decide to make it either a fully Oddwickshire or fully BJD place (but I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to stop thinking that I should have chosen the other option later on)
  
• make Oddwickshire interspecific and let other types of dolls in (but I'm not really good at combining multiple types and scales of dolls like werepuppy, I tend to strongly prefer separate 'verses for separate types)
  
• make that one place a crosspoint of sorts, existing in both worlds at once, where characters can pass from one world to the other one, and shell its character twice (that would be costly, but I could take my time with it, and since the place is kinda sorta dangerous, making it the only portal between the worlds could lead to some funny situations)
  

I'm mostly leaning towards the third option (but still not sure), then I would consider the first one, and I'm not really feeling the second one. What would you do? Thanks!

[werepuppy]

I very much like your storytelling of Ravens here!

Also, while I would lean towards the interspecific idea myself - because I tend to go with whatever I find, my only rule is they need to be the same scale - I think you might be 100% right in the leaning towards the third option. It feels like it would give you more ability to do stuff with it, so you would have fun there?

[Elfy]

I like the 3rd option the best of the ones you have in mind. It all was for crossover and interaction between the two peoples.

[Lejays17]

I think the third option will suit what you have in mind / your usual comfort area the best. And it sounds like an interesting idea with being a portal & having both types of dolls in the same character.

The second option will make you the most uncomfortable with your world/s as the different lines don’t all work together generally. And I don’t think you would have fun playing with if if you did that.

And the first option would be fine, but there’s always the nagging feeling you “chose wrong” with whichever side you did pick.

[Lejays17]

The gathering of Ravens! Very dramatic - they’re all lovely in their different ways.

[Alliecat]

Nice series of portraits. I like the purples-&-blacks.
I'm sure whatever you decide to do with the characters will be interesting. A portal between worlds (or something more mundane like a sea between their two countries that Beatrix could fly her airship over) sounds kind of like your third option.
Or, I guess, if there's no sea nearby, maybe a desert or a mountain range...

[davidd]

Oh my goodness, your Ravens are lovely in all their glorious purpleness!

Coincidentally... I'm sure it is a coincidence and not telepathy... I was watching an old movie called The Raven last night.

I shall have to ponder over your dilemma. Indeed, I have been pondering it, as you mentioned it briefly the other day, but I have not yet had an opportunity to respond. But now that you have shared more detail, I may need to ponder further.

Besides, pondering is a Raven sort of thing.

[neon_jellyfish]

Thank you very much for your input, everyone!!! I really appreciate it!!!

The BJD that the new character wants as their shell (yes, they picked a specific doll, which is why I have troubles imagining them as some other doll) is 1/4 scale, so it most likely wouldn't work with Pullips. I guess that rules out the second option (thanks for mentioning your same-scale rule, werepuppy!). I'm still not sure what I want to go with, as the first one would be cheaper and the third one would be the most fun, so I'll think about it a bit more (and wait for what davidd comes up with).

I wasn't originally planning to have portals between various dolly worlds, but doing it that way would allow me to both have this place where it was intedned to be and get the character their preferred shell. Plus, as I tend to like the same aesthetic in all types of dolls I collect (steampunky-gothy-fairytale-esque), the worlds will be similar to each other, too, so being connected isn't that much of a nonsense.

Thanks again! I would ideally want to figure this out before the end of October, as I'd like to post it (minus the dolls) while Oddwickshire still rides the wave of full moon craziness. But it won't be the end of the world if I don't make it in time, either.



Day 292

I'm often surprised by how well do some dolls look in B&W, eventhough it would seem that their bright colors are what makes taking their photos so much fun.

[werepuppy]

Oh. I know that feeling when a character picks a specific shell and you spend far too long trying to find it. (See me and Alvastaria Milo who is my perfect Artful Dodger.) The same scale rule was something I came up with when I realised that if I was shelling characters, I may not always have the character shell in dolls from the same line, and if they were at least the same scale, it did make things a little easier for posing and sharing spaces, and so forth.

(Actually I'm also having that 'character picked their shell' for another character who was just a vague idea in my head...)

I hope whatever plan you come up with, it suits your purposes well. I think the fact you yourself are saying you think the third option would be the most fun does suggest that it's the one you would prefer to go with. I wish you luck on getting this done well! (Also I'd love to see what doll the character has picked out!)

Also also? Rochelle looks so stunning in the black and white. It looks like it's some advertising campaign that's had so much money spent on it.

[davidd]

Well... how "drop-dead gore-geous" is Freak du Chic Rochelle in monochrome? Sufficiently and irresistibly gore-geous that I felt compelled to navigate myself to eBay and impulsively click a Buy-It-Now button, that's how gore-gous!

I would not have ex-pected the pink hair to render so nicely in black & white.

[Alliecat]

A nice B&W portrait. Her striped dress is well suited for B&W too.

[Elfy]

So dramatic, it’s like a still image from an old film. I keep thinking Phantom of the Opera with Claude Rains.