Sunday Makeovers

When I discovered my poor Saint's ball joint on one of his hands was completely split, I decided to change out his hands for the ones I bought ages ago from Universedoll. It's a gorgeous pair of jointed hands. The only problem being the actual ball that is attached to the hand is slightly too big for his wrist socket. Another reason I never ended up  using it because not having the common sense at the time to order an extra pair of hands (given that the Rythmos body has been discontinued for ages now) - however, desperate times and all ... maybe I could get lucky and see if I can get hands on the second hand market for this body but I won't hold my breath. I will try to fix the split with superglue or something and hope it holds as PVA glue won't cut it.

While I had him out, I decided to style him up a bit and I love how he turned out. Nikolas is a member of ENVY - the punk/grunge/rock band. He's kind of their PR guy and lead guitarist. There's no story, I just really wanted to make a boy band (I've been listening to a lot of BTS lately.) So far, ENVY only has three total members. Can you have a boy band with just three members?

While I was already restyling some of the dolls, I decided to do more. Naoise (no longer Teo now because Teo has been killed off - that scene was so sad so he had to find another gig.) moving on ... Naoise is Deirdre's little brother and a fashion designer. I originally gave him earrings in both ears but they turned out crooked and I decided to redo them and have him only wearing one earring on one ear. I want to find some flat backed studs to put in a second earring in the same ear. I ordered some new clothes for him so hopefully that will come in a month or so. I can't wait as he'll look way more stylish once he has his new threads. His face is totally made for diva designer.

Fun fact. This doll was originally named Naoise when he first arrived back in 2012. And he was Deirdre's little brother. Full circle huh?

Gabriel also got a styling overhaul. I really wasn't happy with the wig he was wearing previously. It made his head look bigger and his head was already big enough! He's also a member of ENVY. He's their music composer. He was a professional violinist. I wanted to make him a professional pianist but it is way easier to get a violin as a prop and much more affordable than to try and find a piano for a 70cm size doll. And I can imagine that would not be cheap! Plus you know, space and all. I wasn't feeling this wig 100% until I added the hat. That was the "ah-ha" moment.

Asher has been so frustrating since his arrival. It was so hard to find a style for him that was what I saw in my head. I could never really find wigs for him that I liked enough. But since I decided to give him Teo's old outfit because it fits in well with the style and theme of what Gwydion wears and as he is Gwydion's right hand man, it works. I just need to figure out how to make a Scimitar for him. Make that two as he uses two in combat. This outfit is not coming off anytime soon. The top was a pain to get on over his shoulders. There was a lot of swearing involved. I also had to google how to wrap a turban because I had no idea and was sick of trying to figure it out myself. Thank you Pinterest!

 I really wanted to photograph this. In my story (which I write offline), this scene happens shortly after Gwydion makes a bargain with the sea monster that hunts the Southern Seas to let his ship and crew live. In exchange, the sea monster gives him a book to return to the Temple of the Goddess. He is warned not to open this book. Gwydion being Gwydion doesn't listen and takes a peek inside. And becomes the victim of a soul and body possession. He unwittingly frees a trapped God named Mazus who was trapped inside the pages of the book by the Goddess several hundred years ago.

Okay, can I just say, why do these people keep these dangerous artifacts around instead of destroying them? Seriously people. All this shenanigans could be avoided if you just destroy the darn thing in the first place.

Anyway ... so the battle for his body and soul begins unknown to his crew. In this scene, Mazus wakes up in Gwydion's body and is fascinated by the fact that he has a physical form again. And a pretty near perfect specimen at that. Needless to say, he really wants to keep it.

 Is this Mazus or Gwydion? It's hard to tell who is looking out from those eyes at this very moment.

Before Gwydion has this weird body snatching thing happen to him, he was and is The Pirate King. He owns the ship called The Sea Serpent and he's well known enough that bards have written songs about his adventures and conquests on the high seas. Men want to be him, women want to be with him. He's charming, witty, intelligent and incredibly handsome to boot.

I should mention here that Asher, Gwydion and Inara share the same world as my Daughter of Fate fantasy story but they reside across a very dangerous and hard to navigate (and survive being on account of the sea monster) Southern Sea so their paths never cross with any of the Daughter of Fate characters. They have their own story world that I write for my own amusement.

A photo of Gwydion and Inara. I love how tall he is next to her. 

Then we come to Inara. I gave her black hair back to Mahalia because I like it better on Mahalia and they both can't wear the same wig so I changed her wig to Gwydion's old wig. Yes I did some musical wig swaps. Gwydion is wearing Nikolas's previous wig.

She's a Bandorai Witch - part druid, part witch. They lived on Tallanon and spearheaded the main religion there. They served the Goddess. People came to them for all sorts of things and their Temples were open to anyone who needed shelter. The people who lived on Tallanon were a peaceful lot and content. Then the Empire of Ranan (inspired by the Roman Empire) decided to invade and expand their territory absorbing Tallanon into their Empire. They also decreed the Bandorai were heathens and Tallanon would now serve and worship the Ranan Gods. They decided to condemn the Bandorai to death by fire. Many Bandorai died but a small few survived and went into hiding.

Inara was set to die by being burned at the stake. She was literally tied to it and the fire had just been set beneath her feet when Gwydion and his men crashed the party, rescued Inara and killed a lot of Ranan soliders and a few of their priests in the process. Grateful for the rescue and having nowhere to go, Gwydion offered her a job on the ship as its healer. Their last one was killed during a raid on a Ranan watch tower (Gwydion really hates the Ranan but he won't kill women or children or the elderly or animals - the guy does have some sort of moral code). So that's where Inara has been since.

On a side note, the Bandorai Witches are always born with different coloured hair. But when their power awakens inside of them, it turns their hair variants of pale blonde and white. Hence her dark eyebrows indicating her natural hair colour before she came into her power. I really wanted to write in the hair colour change as part of her character. There are male Bandorai Witches but it's not as common as female Bandorai.

Phew. I think that about covers everything. Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. I can't believe my first week of my month long holiday has come to a close already. Can we slow down time?