Halloween

Umbriel reporting:

We don't celebrate Halloween in Finland and the All Saints Day isn't until next Saturday.

But we love playing dress up, so we have put on our scary costumes and we are pretending to collect candy and scare people. Mostly just scare people.


These are the Natterer boys Luc, Wolfi, Vinski and Aldo in their Ninja Turtle suits. They have big paper bags because they intend to collect lots of candy.


Here am I in my Black Batboy costume which you can't see well because it is so black. But it's good camouflage because it's so black outside. Except it's not really so black because we had a winter storm. We got mostly rain in this area, and only a little bit of wet snow. But we are supposed to get more snow tomorrow or next week. So the black batsuit is not the best camouflage.

The other scary guys in this picture are Mikko dressed as the King of the Ghosts and Nalle as his trusty bodyguard wearing his medal of valor. If weather forecasts are accurate, Mikko and Nalle have much better camouflage suits than I have.

Sir Isaac Newton (my newt) declared that scaring people is not dignified and not a suitable pastime for an eminent scientist, so he did not come with us to scare people. To have some pets with me I put a couple of cardboard bats into my bag. If people refuse to give us candy, I can sic the cardboard bats to attack them.

Do you think we look scary enough? Would you give us lots of sweeties?

The Zumikloxians: Introduction

The Zumiklozians: zzzp grzyp zyyhxbp fkdfhfh sfuehuhje cjashfjddk djfjfa zzzzoddmnkcdddsjfkdj

Outsider: Excuse me. I think I must do the introduction. I don't think you can understand what the Zumikloxians are saying.

Here they are all in a group picture.

From left to right: Zeon, Zyp, Zoid, Zibob and Zap

They came here because their home planet, Zumiklox, ran out of Honey Puffs. But they are here illegally and therefore they are included in Honey Monster's secret files:


They are hiding in my place either because the Honey Monster can't find them here or because Mikko is feeding them cereal and Nalle is giving them honey.

They came here in a small scout ship through a worm hole that connects Zumiklox with Earth. Unfortunately the worm hole is so small that only a small scout ship could come through. I'm not sure if the Zumikloxians are not going back home because they cannot fit enough honey cereal into their tiny scout ship or because they like it here.

As the worm hole is so small, the Zumikloxians cannot help Umbriel to get back to Zumiklox either. And besides I think Umbriel does not want to leave.

It seems that all kinds of odd characters gather here. And nobody wants to leave. I wonder if they all are hiding from the Honey Monster or if they just like to raid my refridgerator.

Niks & Naks: Introduction

Naks: We are the Lucky Trolls.
Niks: Or Unlucky Trolls.
Naks: Don't be silly. Trolls can't be unlucky
Niks: You're silly yourself. Luck is luck. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad.
Naks: You're bad yourself.
Niks: Whom do you call bad...
Outsider: Excuse me, you were supposed to introduce yourself, not start quarreling...


Niks: OK. Back to business. Here's our picture. I'm on the left, Naks is on the right.
Naks: We used to live in a big forest.
Niks: A huge forest.
Naks: An enormous forest.
Niks: But we got bored.
Naks: And hitchhiked a ride on a bird
Niks: But we were unlucky and fell off in the middle of a lake.
Naks: A frozen lake
Niks: An enormous frozen lake.

Naks: But we were lucky because Mikko found us.
Niks: And brought us home
Niks: And it's not frozen at all inside.
Naks: Not the least bit frozen
Niks: Except in the deep freeze.
Naks: But we don't go in there.
Niks: Not unless we are hungry...
Naks: You're always hungry.
Niks: But I don't live in the deep freeze all the time.
Naks: You're not making sense.
Niks: We were not supposed to make sense, we were supposed to introduce ourselves.
Naks: Well, I suppose we have done that.
Niks: Let's go and see if we find some food.
Naks: OK. Do you think there's something good in the deep freeze?

Mikko: Introduction

My name is Mikko. My teddy bear is called Nalle.



You might think that I'm just an ordinary boy and my teddy bear is just an ordinary teddy bear. But you are wrong! Both of us are actually superheroes. Our superpower is Imagination. With imagination we can travel anywhere and do anything. All our toys become alive and all our imaginary friends become real.



Here is a picture of me and Nalle in our super suits. When we are super heroes, we are called Mighty Mike and HyperNalle.

Umbriel: Introduction

My name is Umbriel. I come from the planet called Zumiklox. It orbits Barnard's star.

Here is a picture of me with sir Isaac Newton, the newt.

I have never known my parents. I was brought up in an orphanage. It was not really a bad place but the director had studied on Vulcan and thought that Vulcan methods of education were the most efficient. Therefore the discipline was rather strict and the children were required to study very hard and even play was supposed to be educational and instructive.

However, the system was based on trust , and the children were not always closely watched, and I used to sneak out to explore the surroundings when we were supposed to be meditating in solitude.

On one of those excursions I found a ring of keys that puzzled me greatly at first. They did not seem to fit any lock around the place. But then I found out that they can open portals to different times, places and even parallel universes.

First I was gone only for short periods of time but then I found a wonderful amusement park. I stayed there way too long, and when I intended to go back, the portal had disappeared. I found another portal nearby, but it turned to out not to be the original one. It took me to a totally different place.

Since then I have been in so many places and times that I'm now totally lost and can no longer find my way back home - if you call an orphanage a home.

The last portal took me to Korea to a big adoption center. And before I noticed I had been closed in a box and shipped to Finland. And I've stayed here since. But I still have my five keys which means I'm free to leave any time I want. I'm staying here voluntarily.

Here is a picture of my five keys:


From left to right their function is:
1) Imagination.This key takes the traveller to a fairy tale or other imaginary world.
2) Time. This key takes the traveller to any time, past or future.
3) Space. This key takes the traveller to any place.
4) Alternative Universes. This key takes the traveller to a parallel universe. Some may be quite similar to ours, some are totally different.
5) In-between. This key takes the traveller to a place between life and death or some netherworld (Tuonela, Hades, etc.)

Outsider's addition:
The name "Umbriel" means "dusky, melancholy sprit". It is the name of one of the moons of Uranus. Umbriel is originally a character in Alexander Pope's poem "The Rape of the Lock".

Outsider: Introduction

The Children of Atorox is a log of the exploits of my dolls.They seem to have developed a life of their own. Some are creatures from Science Fiction of fantasy worlds, some are just ordinary children with over-active imagination.

I am mostly just an onlooker, a bystander, an outsider, while my dolls do what they want. They will mostly speak for themselves but I may add some narrative when needed.

There are too many of them to introduce all at once. They will introduce themselves as they start writing.