Lilia and Opal

I’m gonna break this blog’s integrity right away with my second post, and introduce the two only dolls that I currently own that aren’t a part of the Carol Cole universe a.k.a. have no relation to The Ginger Gunslinger. I got Lilia and Opal back from Pauli’s faceup workshop a week ago and am now pleased to announce that there’s a head on almost every body in the house! And so, it’s a proper time to get started with the character bios.

 

Aren't they cute? Since Jane divorced Carol, I've missed seeing a nice couple around. 

Opal Amadeas is an Iplehouse EID Douglas, the Phantom of the Opera release with his fullset. His scar was mimicked with makeup. There’s a real scar head that was also an option with the fullset, but the Douglas I found last year happened to only come with this human head. He had some heavy wig staining and uneven yellowing when he came to me, but the price was good, so I bought him taking the risk that it may not come off. I was lucky since it was all on the sealant and came off easily! I’ve once had a doll get clothing stains that looked very minor and faint on the surface but ran so deep, I needed multiple hours of sanding to carefully remove it, so I was painfully aware of the other possible outcome, lol.

Lilia Volkova is a 2017 Fantasia Doll Sleepy Vivian. I tried to sell Lilia’s head last year after struggling to find a character for a long time. She also looked sort of stoned with her then-faceup. Then, I unexpectedly got to trade one of my Fantasia muscle bodies to my long-time grail, the Fantasia Doll’s Good Old lesser-beefy body. I was aware of only two of the bodies ever made, so I hadn't held my hopes high about finding it. My surprise grail of course needed a head, and when it's about a grail, the suitable character will eventually happen. I modded the body's wrists lightly so that she can use Iplehouse EID hands, since the original hands are stiff as shovels. She's also using Iple nSID feet, but that's mostly because her ginormous default feet don't fit shoes. 

Here's how the body looks nekkid versus clothed, decorated with some extra Lilia in the middle because this lovely square collage would not arrange the photos properly otherwise:

 

For my two new dolls, I had a perfect pair of characters from a book that I wrote a few years ago. Opal and Lilia are merely supporting characters, but I’m somehow more fond of them than the main bunch (that I don’t plan to shell as dolls or we're really on a slippery slope towards a hoarding issue). In my book it’s a post-apocalyptic world where humans and man-made gods live side by side. Originally, only 20 gods were created, each with their specific mission, but they broke out of control and have reproduced with each other and humans since. The 20 originals don’t age, and they have an ability to heal from lethal wounds at an incredible speed, so most of them still live hundreds of years later.

Some of the man-made gods and their descendants serve humans by choice, leading human armies and providing their powers to warfare or science. Other gods, again, are concerned about the purity of their godly race and shun gods reproducing with humans, producing half-bloods. They call themselves the Half Moon’s Agenda and are led by the seventh of the original 20, a man who goes by “Septimus” or “Full Moon”. These gods wear golden masks to hide their identities. They are obsessed with dominating over humans who have, undoubtedly, oppressed the gods unreasonably much due to fearing them. In their fit of superiority, the Half Moon’s Agenda have forgotten that the original 20 once were humans, too, genetically manipulated using a long-lost technology.

Opal Amadeas, who goes by the code name Neptune, is a member of the Agenda and a servant of Full Moon. He’s the son of two of Full Moon’s most trusted first rank generals, Voron Undecima (the eleventh of 20, goes by the code name Venus) and August (one of the 20 originals as well, but his number is unclear, goes by the code name Mercury). Opal is in his late 30s. He ages normally, but like his parents, he has supernatural powers. His power is that if any other human or god comes to skin contact with him, it will cause both him and the other party unbearable pain and leaves burns and blisters on their skin. This is why Opal is mostly seen wearing a fully covering suit and white gloves. If Opal uses his powers too much, his skin gets scarred permanently. Full Moon orders him around to do the Agenda’s killing and torturing, so Opal also prefers to cover his skin when he's alone or with other gods, to hide the permanent scars he has developed. 

(I am still debating whether I wish to give him body blushing with the scars, seeing as he'll probbaly never take off that gorgeous suit anyway, but if this were an accurate pic, you'd see the old scars from where his wrist is revealed.)

Opal doesn't wish to change how he lives his life, because to him it's the only way of life he knows. In civil, when Full Moon doesn’t bother him for a while, Opal owns a small bookstore in the “better folk” area of the town. He paints and sculpts for fun and is good at it, but he hasn’t got any friends because his harsh looks and coldness tend to drive people away. He lives in a large baroque style mansion in the city, but never has any guests over, since he's considered inferior both within the Agenda and outside it: to the other gods he's a freak since he ages like a human, and there's even been mean rumors that August is really not his father. To humans he's a freak, a murderer and a monster alike. 

 

Lilia Volkova, 19, is a poor girl who lives outside the town in a modest wooden shack. She works as a seamstress for the rich people to support her mother, who is a farmer, and her older sister who stepped in an abandoned mine and lost her ability to do any physical work. Lilia has a great passion towards art, and she was wishing to go to art academy when she was younger. That was when her father still lived and supported the family with his salary. Lilia’s father was a high-ranking officer in the navy, but he died at the sea, leaving the family all alone and without any income. It forced Lilia to give up her passion and begin sewing for money.

One day, Lilia forgets to buy ink for her mom to fill the tax report of their family. Lilia is in a hurry, so she stops at Opal’s bookstore where no one is to be found. Lilia hears scraping sounds from the backroom, so she wanders in and finds Opal there carving artwork onto a wooden block. There are his oil paintings all over the tiny workspace, and in the corner a large object covered by a white sheet. Lilia challenges Opal, asking if this is how Opal treats paying customers. Opal responds by giving her a quick glance and noting how Lilia obviously isn’t a paying customer, indicating that he can see from Lilia’s clothes that Lilia is poor. Lilia strikes back by telling Opal he paints boring things and criticizing his techniques, which gets Opal’s attention. The girl obviously knows something about painting. Opal ends up getting up and gifting Lilia the ink she needs, and the two chat a little. Opal feels comfortable enough to show Lilia what’s under the white sheet in his workspace. It’s a life-size marble sculpture of a naked woman.

Little does Opal know that Lilia grows curious about him. Lilia keeps coming back to the book shop to talk and show the dresses she sews for her rich clients, and read books from Opal’s shelf. Opal notices he’s growing fond of Lilia. He even agrees to paint Lilia at his mansion after Lilia suggests this to him. There, the two have a talk and he reveals his true nature and powers to Lilia and takes away his gloves to show his scarred hands. Unlike Opal expects her to, Lilia doesn’t spook and run away. When the painting is done, Lilia even steals a kiss from Opal despite it being very painful to her. Opal realizes that Lilia is seriously in love and also that she already knows too much about Full Moon and the Agenda. He gets a sudden sense of regret. Without much explanation, he throws Lilia out of his home and asks that Lilia never comes to him again, for her own good. He also stops going to the bookstore so that Lilia cannot seek him there. Opal well knows that if Full Moon learns about Lilia, Full Moon can use her as a means to manipulate Opal.

The two lovers eventually get each other, because Lilia refuses to be afraid of Full Moon and doesn’t want to leave Opal with the Agenda, either, even if Opal refuses to abandon them. It is revealed later in the books that Lilia is actually a god with hidden powers, and not just any god either. Her father is not the man she always thought he was, but instead, one of the first 20, one controlling a very special power that Lilia inherited. When a war between gods and humans breaks out and Opal is too much of a coward to step up against Full Moon, Lilia does so instead.

(Here, his phantom mask happened to serve as his Agenda mask after I painted it gold! Funnily enough, while the doll was not mellowed much despite being some 10 years old, the mask was very yellowed, so I had to choose if I'd paint it white or gold.)

Lilia doesn’t know that Opal’s code name Neptune once belonged to Opal’s older brother Vitali. Long ago, Vitali betrayed Full Moon and escaped to side with the royal army and to provide them intel about the Agenda. As he was Vitali’s brother, Opal was forced to take his traitor brother’s code name and suffer the punishment. Towards the end of the book, when the city is under a battle, Opal gets wounded badly. Full Moon happens upon the scene, but turns his back to Opal and walks away, intending to leave him to die. Vitali ends up finding Opal and saving Opal’s life. Only that makes Opal realize that Full Moon does not truly care about him. However, he still returns to Full Moon, like many times after. 

Later in the story, Opal gains courage and seeks to confront Full Moon even if it's a suicide mission. He meets in private with Full Moon and requests that Full Moon releases him from the service so that he can be with Lilia. Opal does it because unlike Lilia, he knows that Full Moon is a psychic, which means that as long as Full Moon remains in Opal's head, Opal can never be truly free. Full Moon is about to kill Opal after this request, but instead of trying to run or beg, Opal fully submits to it. It catches Full Moon off guard and reminds Full Moon of the person that Full Moon used to love when he was an ordinary human, before his life was ruined by greedy people who experimented on him. Full Moon does not state the reason for his sudden change of heart, but lets Opal go and stresses that Opal should never cross paths with him again.

And that's the end of that story. As a curiosity, I usually draw my characters on paper only after I settle for a doll for them. It's very hard to first draw something and then try to find a doll that looks like the drawing. Since this book is from 2017-something, I had a few sketches I attached below, and I got to say that the dolls look nothing like them! It's not necessarily a bad thing, but I just find it funny that in the books Opal was this scrawny coward who did not appear like he'd do well in any physical combat. Not to mention the glasses! I have some gachipon glasses that fit BJD, but I tried them on Douglas once, and I never want to see that sight again, lol.

Here you can see Opal's original outfit design (the purple cape) and the Full Moon's Agenda logo representing Full Moon, Half  Moon, and Crescent Moon. In the lowest pic Opal even has Lilia in his arms! She's... a bit more recognizable still.