So yesterday, not long after my epic morning hair, I received a box in the mail. Inside was something I’ve been missing for about a month. In May I sent him off to my friend Lindsey to have his face painted, as I am not good with art and she is (Casey, my local doll friend, wasn’t sure if she could capture the look I wanted). It took a while because Lindsey lives in Tennessee and it is quite humid there, and doll face painting is best done in low humidity, so she had to wait a while just to get him all finished. But she put him in the mail on Monday, and yesterday he arrived. And I was ecstatic. ❤
This is Lae.
Lae is a Soom Laon (company and sculpt). I bought him second-hand about a month before quitting my job, after the company had discontinued the sculpt but still had some of the heads left (so people couldn’t jack up the prices yet). After getting him, I figured out that his story is connected to one of my pre-existing characters.
You see, many people who get BJDs have particular characters from stories that they want to have a physical form for. This is in part to make it easier to visualize the character, and in part because most characters tend to live inside their creator’s heads anyway, so at least if we’re talking to a doll instead of the voice inside our head it makes us slightly less crazy. ;D
Anyway, Lae is the many times great-grandson of a character of mine named Thorn. Thorn is actually a fae, that is he is a magical being who originated as an angel, but was thrown out of Heaven for refusing to take sides in the Great War. Thus he’s been on Earth for a good long time, and over time he’s managed to have a few wives and father a few kids. However, Lae’s family is the only one that didn’t die out, they can trace their lineage almost as far back as the 1500s (actually Thorn married that particular wife in 1256). Because of their fae lineage, many of Lae’s family have had certain gifts or abilities (in this universe, humans don’t have magic unless they have fae blood in them). Lae doesn’t really have any magic, but he has a way with plants and animals that is somewhat out of the ordinary, but not unheard of (think Dickon from The Secret Garden). Thorn generally shows up in the family every few years or so to check up on them, most of them view him as a deadbeat (since he doesn’t have a house or anything, he lives in the woods unless he’s married, which he hasn’t been in a few hundred years), and no one is quite clear on who he’s directly related to, but they like him okay despite that. Lae is quite fond of him, and in fact Thorn was the one who started calling him Lae (it’s short for Laevigata, which is part of the scientific name of the Cherokee Rose). His real name is Jacob, and most of his family and other people (teachers and such) call him Jake, only two people are allowed to call him Lae (or are even aware of the nickname).
I have plans to get a doll version of Lae’s best friend, Nathan (the other one who calls him Lae), who is secretly a fae himself (much younger than Thorn, though), as well as a pixie who Lae spots one day out in the woods and they become friends, although she’s kind of quick-tempered (she threatens to curse him on sight unless he swears not to tell anyone about her, then forgets about it before he even has a chance to do so). Crobidoll Nao and a Pukipuki, respectively (not sure which puki sculpt yet), for those who know dolls. I might also get a Thorn doll at some point, but I am not sure.
Lae has a very sweet and easy-going personality. He’s non-typical for most boys his age (he’s about 15) in that he’s slightly developmentally behind. This isn’t a disorder, it’s simply a side effect of having fae blood, almost all people with it tend to develop slower than other humans, because fae live so much longer than humans (and his family does tend to be relatively long-lived). He’s just as intelligent as most 15 year old boys, he just isn’t a raging ball of hormones (yet). In regard to things such as sex and attraction, he has about as much interest as a ten year old boy, but on other subjects he’s more mature. He does like kids, and loves the outdoors (especially climbing trees). He would be happy lounging in a tree and reading a botany book all afternoon, if he was allowed. He also enjoys lounging in a tree while Nathan sits below and reads aloud to him (Nathan chooses things like Shakespeare and Emerson, he thinks Lae needs more culture, Lae just likes being read to).
Of course, the doll is just a hunk of resin who represents a physical version of this character, but the character was partly developed because I really like the doll, so it’s sort of a “chicken and the egg” scenario in trying to decide which came first.
So the short version is, I am smitten with this doll. Yesterday I spent all day hugging him and smiling like an idiot. I took him with me to visit friends today because I didn’t want to leave him at home after not having him for so long (that was slightly awkward in that I ended up carrying him around stores and restaurants, which I am not really comfortable doing, but ah well). Is it weird? Yes. Do I realize this doll is not a person but a piece of plastic? Yes, thank you. Do I enjoy having him around anyway? Yes, very much.
Crazy happy Chelsea face!
Lae says, "hello, world!"
See what I mean?
MirrorMe 