Ilium is a Dream of Doll Sha, and he arrived to us in April of 2006.

Ilium was the first doll who had a separate storyline from Diderot & Co. He was purchased as a compromise, actually. We both loved the DoTs when they were introduced in late 2005, and even went so far as to design characters and a storyline for a Shall and a Lahoo, a story we called Highwater and Holtsclaw. But after being in the hobby for not even a year and already having four dolls, we really couldn't lay out $1200 for a pair of DoTs. When DoD introduced Sha a few months later (having the Shall head on a boy body) we knew he was the perfect compromise. Instead of getting the characters of Nikolin Holtsclaw and Tzeitel Highwater, we got their son, Ilium Holtswater, and adjusted the story accordingly.

When Ilium arrived, his resin was amazingly pink, his lips dreadfully orange, and he clashed with his default wig something fierce. He also had hardly any clothes. We had ordered a pair of jeans for him from Wicked Stitchery, and because Brandon was delayed in sending them out, he very kindly included a skull-print batik shirt as a gift. It was a great shirt but we thought Ilium, a prissy little priest, would never wear it. But in spite of our plans, Ilium had his own ideas. He chose a brown wig rather than white, he watched Advent Children far too many times, and when we weren't looking he fell in love with Janus. Eventually he even got his lips repainted, and it turns out he's the sort of guy to wear a batik-print skully shirt after all. Along with semi-automatic weapons and his father's motorcycle goggles.

...I don't know what they're teaching them in seminary these days.

The suit he's currently wearing belongs to our un-bodied Edgeworth minimee, and will someday be dyed magenta. It's Guessdoll, by the way, fabulous quality for the price, and fits DoTs like a dream. Protip. ^_~

Ilium has suffered the only real doll damage we've ever had to face (*touch wood*), and as a result, he has replacement hands. The new DoT resin has a different tooth to it, but it's mellowed and matches his old resin perfectly.

Ilium was our sixth doll.

Tonight's photo is Vltava! She is a Resin Soul Ju in white, and her arrival story is much like Issachar's. While she is the spirit of a tiny forest stream, Vltava is in fact named after a large river. Finding clothes for her is difficult, because she has a distinct style and a very slim figure. Currently, she's wearing handmade things, but she's a wild spirit, and doesn't like to keep her sandals on.

Once upon a time, when the world was younger than it is now and yet older, far older than we believe it to be, there was a deep, green forest. It was a forest unlike any sort that exists now, a forest so deep and ancient that its boughs still sang with the first breeze of the world. This forest was so broad and vast that it was an ocean of trees, carpeting the tumbling, careworn mountains of a quiet land. Such a forest has more stories than one soul can tell, and this is merely one of them.

In a small part of this forest, there was a stream. Like most streams it had a changeable mood, at times a deep pool of thoughtfulness robed with a mantle of fallen leaves, at other times a dancing, giggling rush through jumbled stones. The stream's name was Vltava, and she ran from the lap of her mother-spring to the arms of her father-river, where all her brothers and sisters joined in together. Somewhere, far down her father's reach, lay the great-grandmother Ocean. Vltava had heard of this river, a forest made of water, from the birds that nested above her waters. They sang of it to their children, who would someday need to know the way there. How Vltava listened! She gathered her banks thick with moss to hush the sound of her running, she sang the birds' song to herself beneath the bubbles of her pebbled bed. Down, down, over and down, far beyond the forest crown, through dell and den and fen and free, to find the roaring reach of sea.

Time passed, and birds came and went, and more and more Vltava longed to see the sea for herself. She would never do so, not unless she became a great river someday, and she was impatient. Her pools became less thoughtful, her fleet rapids more wild. And one day, when she could stand it no longer, she left her banks. The water still ran, but it was only water, and Vltava put bare feet onto the moss and lifted her eyes to the boughs of her wood. For a time there was only delight, as she could roam where she willed and not where the stones curved her. Her river-weed tresses dripped on the upturned faces of wildflowers, and she scattered droplets all around the thick towers of the trees. For the whole day, she ran free.

Soon the forest grew dim with night, and Vltava thought it best to be on her way. She had always known which way to go to reach the river, but now, she could no longer hear the sound of water. through the night she wandered, trying to find her way, but it was hard now for her to hear the words in the birdsong, and the forest rustled with inarticulate whispers. When dawn came, Vltava did not know the trees above her, or the carpet of leaves under her feet, and the birds did not know her name, though they sang what comfort they could.

She was lost.

Vltava was our eleventh doll.

Issachar Fado is a Resin Soul Song, and he was purchased as a Christmas present last year. Because of their really affordable prices, eider and I were each able to get a doll "of our own" at the same time. (All our other dolls are pretty much shared ownership and we come up with their stories together.) He's also our first (and only so far!) tan doll. which is a shame, because I adore tan dolls!

Issachar is my homage to Link from Legend of Zelda, though you can't really tell! He does have dark Link's coloring, though. ^_^ His last name, Fado, is the name of one of the two sages in Wind-Waker, and his eyes are Link-green. I love the RS boy sculpt and though I know the curved hands are subject to much contention, I think they're perfect for his sword.

Issachar and Vltava have a story separate from any of the other dolls. It is a fairy-tale about a lost river spirit and the elf-boy who finds her, and of their journeys together.

...Now in this same forest, there was a boy. He was an elf-child, or so he had been told by the old widow who he had called his grandmother. But she was no flesh-kin of his. She had found him, a crying infant alone, tucked into the hollow of a lightning-sundered oak tree. In the tree's bows there hung a sword, and a tasseled flute, but no note or message from whatever poor souls had abandoned their wailing infant in a tree-cradle. The old woman took him home, and called him Issachar, after a boy in a song she had loved as a child, and Fado, for the sound the tree had made in the wind.

Issachar Fado grew up at the same speed as all children, and it was quick in his grandmother's eyes. He was a sturdy, serious boy, and very helpful around his grandmother's cottage. But sometimes, in the spring and the fall especially, Issachar would stop and listen to the wind for hours on end, staring at the blue sky as if there was a story in it he longed to read. As he grew older, it was harder and harder for him to turn his face from the sky, though he had no wish to trouble his grandmother and did not speak of it to her. But she knew, all the same, and on the fifteenth anniversary of the day she found him, she gave him the flute, and the sword, and told him to follow the wind to his fortune. In his belt she packed him good things to eat and the few coins she had, and after a tearful farewell, Issachar set off on his journey.

~

Issachar was our twelfth doll. In this shot he is wearing a DoD wig, and Dollmore acrylic eyes in 14mm. Someday, I'd like to get a blue mer-boy Jun to join their fairy-tale. ♥

Today's doll photo is Triska! Triska is a Resin Soul Yu, and we got her for free when we ordered Issachar and Vltava for Christmas. We didn't even know we would get her until after we'd placed the order, and really weren't expecting her to come to us with faceup, and a carry bag, and a pile of personality! We had thought perhaps that our unexpected doll would be Gink (short for Ginkgo) and a little tree spirit. But instead, our thirteenth doll became Triskadeikaphobia, or Triska, for short.

Resinsoul's pictures don't do justice to their dolls, and that's certainly true in Triksa's case. She's a little sweetie. Her posing was tricky until we put white pipe cleaners in her arms and legs, now she holds her poses like a dream. Triska never really attached herself to any of the other dolls until Valentine came along, and then she decided that he belonged to her. The mysterious, quiet magician and his tiny assistant are inseparable now, keeping their secrets. Sometimes I think Triska fell out of one of Valentine's cards, and sometimes I think Valentine came along because Triska wished for a friend. Someday, maybe they'll tell us just what their stories are, but for now they're happy to have each other.

Triska arrived in January of 2009. Our tiny queen of hearts, lucky number thirteen.

Tonight's doll photo is Arouet! Interrupting the studio shots for this one. It was a gorgeous evening so we went out for a walk, and Arouet came along.

Arouet is an Angel Region Present Jade Version one. (Link is to basic version)

Arouet belonged to two different people before he came to us. In his original incarnation, he was a little fire spirit that I adored to pieces. When his owner sold him I was heartbroken because I couldn't afford him at the time. As luck would have it, he was bought by a good dolly friend, so I got to stalk him a little more. When she in turn was ready to sell him, we were able to sell Amandine's original body for part of the cost and pay off the rest. (Leading to the saying that poor Amandine had to sell her body to get a boyfriend. :p) Arouet was the first doll I ever did a faceup on. The version he has now is his second one. The full story (minus photos) is here.

Arouet is Bellamy's human twin brother, who his mother carried back to the mortal world. He was raised in France in the mid-eighteenth century, until a random loop in time flung him out of danger and on to Diderot's doorstep. His relationship with Bellamy is still a little rocky, but he gets on very well with Diderot and someday hopes to ask Diderot for permission to marry Amandine. He wants to find out more about his past (and make sure he's staying put) before he does that, though. He's adapted well to living in the future, but he can't quite get used to the music.

Arouet was our seventh doll. He arrived in August of 2006.

Welcome to the Doll Photo of the Day! Hopefully I'll be posting a doll picture every day, though it may be dodgy on weekends. I realized, gathering pictures for the website (still not up :p) that the pictures I have are really uneven, both in quality and in which dolls have shots. And this way, I can lavish some attention on one doll at a time, and share information about each one. Considering our number of dolls, it'll be two weeks before we hit repeats! We're starting this off with our smallest doll, Moth.

Moth is a Dollmore Elf Elly White Banji Boy. He was purchased in January 2006, and he has his original default eyes and faceup. At just under six inches high, Moth is our smallest doll. Even though we have the replacement knee parts dollmore made for him, we've never put them in. He's simply too daunting to restring!

Moth's real name is Parvanah, which means "moth" in Persian. He is a Djinn, and he belongs to Nicodemus. Nicodemus is very fond of his little servant and never makes him stay in his bottle. When Nicodemus (at the time ensorseled into the form of a bespectacled cat) realized that Moth's powers could not return him to his true form, Nicodemus instead wished for Moth to stay with him as a helper. (There's a lot you can't do when you have paws instead of thumbs.) Moth is a very young Djinn, being only a few thousand years old. He is absolutely devoted to Nicodemus and does all he can to please him. However, his eagerness sometimes gets him into trouble. He also is a bit mischievous as well and likes to play tricks. He dislikes wearing clothes, but does so because of Nicodemus' sense of propriety. He's much happier running around in a thistle-down loincloth.

Moth was our fifth doll.

Thanks for checking out the doll of the day! ^_^