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manychocolatefactories · 3 years

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CatCF Dark Chocolate: Part 2, the tour

Willy Wonka and his factory:

For the Factory in this version, I wanted to give a feeling of the factories of the 19th century. Something between a place where a mad scientist would work and a steampunk fantasy. Willy Wonka himself is based on Jules Vernes.

Willy Wonka himself is a man with an "impressive beard", a solemn but kind air on his face, and an overall feeling of knowledge and wisdom. Wearing a thick and tight jacket, a black top hat and a dark green coat, his appearance actually gives mixed signals: his short hair is fluffy and shaggy, like a man of free spirit, of amusement and not much care, but his beard and mustache are neatly trimmed and cut, like any serious and respectable man. His hair is brown, chocolate-colored, but with touches of white and gray here and there. His eyes are kind and twinkling, but his mouth is a harsh thin line. He is the kind of man that will say the most extravagant things perfectly seriously, but treat serious and common business as a joke. Don't think however that is an extravagant or funny man. Again, he rather gives the feeling of a kind mad scientist.

As for the Factory itself, actually the locals, the people of the town over which the Factory looms, dislike it. Sure, the Factory is admired by people wordlwide - tourists come to see it, painters come to paint it, it is a landmark admired in foreign countries. But the locals do not like it at all. It is a tall, dark, cold and stern building, with no color of beauty, only locked doors, metallic fences, thick walls and high chimneys. The Factory does not employ anyone of the town, in fact no one ever saw the Factory workers arrive or leave. Wonka himself has never left his factory for decades now. Couple that with strange white silhouettes seen at the windows, and the ramblings of the local homeless man who apparently hates the Factory and keeps insulting it, and quickly a bad reputation was built for it. Adults believe Wonka is trying to hide a shameful secret, the kids tell tales of "the haunted chocolate factory"...

In fact, I wanted an air of creepiness for the Factory. I took back the original idea of Dahl that all the workers are regular humans dressed in white, and I pushed it a little further: they are basically so covered in white you can hardly see them anymore. They have white blouses and jackets, white gloves, white masks, white caps, white helmets... After each kid's demise, a mysterious poem is recitated (like in Dahl's original drafts), mysterious voices that could be eithe the worker's or something else... In fact, with each kid demise there is an element of sppokiness which may be the kid hallucinating out of fear, or not (Augustus in the river thinks something is tying to catch him or drag him down ; Wilbur and Rice in the dark hear and feel creepy things...). And Wonka himself keeps making ominous references to "selling your soul to the devil"...

But in truth the Factory isn't a death trap at all. Behind the scenes, the workers are just normal people with their own life and their usual office routines, and who happent to leave very discreetly the Factory. The Factory is also based a lot on the Menier chocolate factory, which is the "real-life" Wonka factory. I may speak more about it one day.

Anyway... now let's go on with the tour!

# The Labyrinth. Behind each entrance, before each exit of the Factory, is a labyrinth, a maze Wonka designed after the works of Penrose and Möbius. Only he and his workers know the way out of them. This is merely a security measure.

# The Edible Garden. For this garden, I wanted to insist on the idea of it being fake and artificial - Wonka didn't try to create a perfect replica of a landscape. This room doesn't even have any real sense in the Factory, it is merely a piece of art he created so that he could come in here to relax and mediate. There are no windows, all the lights come from spots on the far-away ceiling and the ground is grey stone (because Wonka is revolted at the idea of making grass out of candy, it would be too dirty). There are trees of hard caramel and mint candies, orchards where the fruits are made of gummy, lollipops shaped like flowers and numerous sculptures of sugar - none of this is to be eaten however. At the back of the garden, there is the Chocolate River. The River serves a double use: on one side, it is merely an aesthetic addition to the Edible Garden. On the other, it is a source of energy for the Factory - it used to be a water mill, and Wonka kept the ancient structures but replaced water with chocolate. As such, the production of chocolate actually helps create energy back - and the river ends with a series of different pipes, each one leading to a different room where the chocolate will be used.

This is where Augustus Pottle meets his demise. The competitive glutton tried to empty the river of its content, and fell into it. Sucked up by one of the glass pipes, he did a long travel through the tubes and pipes of the factory, which crushed and reshaped his fat into a cylindric body - before he fell into one of the boiling vats. There, the heat was enough to have all his fat melt, like in a super-intense sauna. Hopefully, he was rescued before being boiled alive - but Augustus left the factory as a mass of sagging, extra-skin, his wrinkled folds dragging on the ground, like a skeleton wearing a bride's dress made of human flesh.

# At the back of the Edible Garden, there is a long hallway that passes by a balcony. Said balcony allows one to see the "Mosaic room", a place where Wonka makes mosaics out of pralines - and since the room is really vast, he can make giant mosaics.

# The Vanilla Fudge Mountain. While it looks like a miniature mountain kept inside a giant room, this titanic hunk of vanilla fudge is actually a fragment taken out of the Honeylaya mountain range (located somewhere between the great Black Thunder chocolate mines, and the sugar marshes of the Sea of Marmelade). [References to the Himalaya, the Black Thunder coal mines, the Black Thunder chocolate bars, the Sea of Marmara and salt marshes ]. This room is basically a copy-cut of Dahl's deleted chapter of the same name, with workers breaking down the mountain, piling the fudge in wagons and then sending it to the Cutting and Pounding Room.

This is where Wilbur and Rice meet their demise. Unruly, and tired of having all their pranks and "fun" sabotaged by Wonka and Bertie Upside, they decide to ride the wagons. Of course, they are sent down the Cutting and Pounding Room - hopefully for them, Wonka has installed an intelligent wire strainer/net that can catch all impurities detected, to clean the fudge. So the kids are saved, right? Well the thing is that, while waiting on the wire strainer for someone to save them, the kids, bored and gluttonous, ended up eating all the fudge that fell down around them. They ate so much of it, that the machine ended up identifying them as "fudge" instead of "impurity" (since they were basically 80 percent fudge after their gorging Xp). So they where sent down in the Room, thrown on a conveyor belt... ready to be pound and cut into slices. The workers realized this of course and stopped the conveyor belt before the knifes - but the kids still got pounded. Wilbur, who was lying on his side when he got pounded, became tall and thin ; while Tommy, who was standing up, got pounded on the head and became small and large. In fact, when they got out of the Factory, their angry parents ended up mistaking one for another and going home with the wrong boy.

# After the Vanilla Fudge Mountain, the tour goes by another hallway, this one with numerous tall and colorful windows - stained glass made of sugar. Each window illustrates a famous chocolatier or candy-maker, but in the style of saints in churches. You have Philippe Suchard (the grandfather of Milka), Henry Isaac Rowntree (the maker of the Fruit Pastilles and Fruit Gums), the Menier family (the biggest chocolatiers of 19th century and first half of 20th century Europe, and distant relatives of Wonka) ; the Murrie family (creators of Hersheys) and the Mars famly (bheind the Mars bars, the M&Ms, the Snickers and the Milky Ways). "All families" Wonla notes with an air of sadness. Indeed, Wonka always wanted a family - or rather at this point in his life he regrets to not have a family and an heir, isolated that he is in his factory.

# Inventing Room number 3. There are numerous "Inventing Rooms" in the Factory, dedicated to developping, inventing, testing, studying products or just do crash tests. The number 3 is clustered with huge, squat and heavy dark machines, with vats, cauldrons and ovens, and all sorts of other structures dragon-like due to the steam and fire they spill out. It quite a grim and sinister place, but it is also where Wonka tests his most fantastic inventions, like the Rainbow Drops, the Luminous Lollies or the Three-Course Meal Gum.

As you guess, this is where Violet Beauregard will meet her demise. I set myself a rule to avoid all blueberry transformations when dealing with the demises of the Violets, so here I rather use the tomato soup: after chewing (not only did Violet took the gum due to her "talent" but also because she misheard Wonka and thought it was a "tasting" room), her face becomes red and chubby, her skin smooth and glossy, her cheeks puff out, her nose bulges, her forehead bloats, her throat becomes big, her lips thick and her ears thin, pointy, green. Result? Her face looks like a mass of tomatoes. Tomatoes for cheeks, a tomato for a forehead, tomatoes instead of eyelids, a tomato for a nose and two for the lips... Think of the Arcimboldo paintings, how he made faces out of flowers and vegetables. It is the same thing here. And while her parent is furious at first, they end up actually realizing it might be for the better - because now she is truly unique and attention-attracting, and that's what her parents always wanted...

# Follows a long hallway with a series of different rooms: two are taken from the original book, the Fizzy Lifting Drinks and the Squares that Look Round. One I changed slightly: the Chocolate Milk Room, where Wonka keeps special cows that have a chocolate-flavored milk.

# The Heating Room. A room taken from Dahl's deleted chapter "The Warming Candy Room".

This Heating Room looks like the negine room of a submarine or a freighter, filled with turbines, pistons, pipes, wheels and pressure gauges. This is where Wonka creates all of his heat-related products: hot ice-creams to fight chilling days, hot ice-cubes to give back warmth to a cold drink, and finally the warming candies (see the original deleted chapter). Marvin Prune, absolutely outraged by what he perceives as Wonka breaking all laws of science and physics, tries to prove that he is a quack by stuffing himself with handfuls of warming candies. Which results in him over-heating: he becomes red, sweaty, thirsty, removes all of his clothes (save for his underwears) and screams to death.

Wonka will have him put in the freezer, and also covered regularly in water, to avoid him drying up to death or combust. But even as he is leaving the factory, he is still red, sweaty, steamy and in underwears - the falling snow melting as it touches him.

# The Nut Room. Another classic piece of the original factory that I wanted to reinvent. Basically, here the kids do not visit the Nut Room proper, but the Under-Nut Room, or Sub-Nut Room. You've got the Nut Room where the white-clad workers separate good nuts from bad nuts Then the "bad" batch is then in this under-room, where trained squirrels will sniff out any potential "good nut" the workers may have missed. All the nuts are on a conveyor belt, that is getting then thrown down a chute.

Of course, Elvira Salt meets her demise here by trying to take one of the squirrels by force, resulting in a squirrel attack. However, the squirrels do not push her down the chute. Rather, she climbs on the conveyor belt to avoid them and has her fur stuck in the belt. She could have escaped if she had let go of it, but she refused to let it go, so she fell down the chute... and Wonka cannot remember if this particular chute leads to the compost vat he uses to grow his fruits, vegetales and berries - or to the furnace...

But don't worry, she actually falls down in the compost. Elvira will leave the factory extremely dirty, unbearably stinky, so much not even an entire week of baths and showers can remove it, and probably with one or two diseases, but alive.

# The Television Room. I did not had time to clearly prepare this one, but it will be where Michael (Mike) T-V meets his demise. Discovering he can go inside television, he is more happy to oblige, and is absolutely thrilled to be in his favorite shows. But as soon as he leaves the television, he realizes that he is now as small as a television character! No bigger than the screen! He will be sent back to his home, now only able to play with his toys and figurines, the only things at his doll-like size.

# The Molding Room

This room is also taken back from Dahl's original draft. Basically, it is where Wonka creates many of his chocolate sculptures - he has an entire zoo of chocolate animals, and very recently created a machine able to form men, women and children out of chocolate. And this is also where Bertie Upside will meet his demise.

You may be wondering: Bertie? What has he done wrong? He is kind, gentle, generous, perfect. He helped Charlie on numerous occasions, he stopped the mischief of the brats... Isn't he a good kid?

HE IS NOT. Grandpa Georges was right all along: if he appears better than the others, it means that he twice as worse.

Bertie Upside truly has a heart of gold. Which means a heart of cold and hard metal, not of flesh.

Bertie Upside is a psychopath, a sociopath, an evil little boy. Sure he knows how to put on a nice and gentle facade, but it is just manipulation. If he is orphaned, it is because he killed his own parents, and now that he is left alone with Charlie (Wonka being busy elsewhere), Bertie will try to kill him, just for fun, by putting him in the "Chocolate Boy" mould so that he would be smothered in a chocolate statue.

However (I have to admit this part is a bit blurry), Charlie will resist and Bertie will end up thrown inside another moulding machine... A piñata-creating machine. When Bertie will get out of the machine, he will still be a living boy... but now with a flesh as fragile as papier-mâché, and insides filled with candies. Now he is really a sweet kid inside as he is outside. And he will have to be really gentle... if he doesn't want to break.

And of course after that Charlie gets the factory, as it turns out that Wonka was looking for an heir with this tour. Happy end!

Now, as I mentionned a poem forms itself through the story, rhymes being added after each kid's demise (an idea originally taken from Dahl's first drafts of the story). It goes like this:

"Nine little children, in the garden they went,

But one fell, and then they were eight."

"Eight little children, an unruly mix,

Two rode to Chicago, and then they were six."

"Six little children went into a room as busy as a hive,

But one did not listen carefully, and then they were five."

"Five little children, less and less at every door,

One had a fever and then they were four."

"Four little children saw squirrels down the tree,

One fell down the squirrel hole, and then they were three."

"Three little children, and none are new,

One went to play and then they were two."

"Two little children, we are soon to be done,

One got his trickandtreat, and then there was one."

"One little children, everything he won,

He lived ever happily, and now we are done."

#charlie and the chocolate factory #catcf #willy wonka #wonka factory #tour #dark chocolate #demise #veruca salt #augustus gloop #violet beauregarde #mike teavee #charlie bucket #bertie upside #marvin prune #tommy troutbeck #wilbur rice

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myselfinserts · 5 years

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“Death is in the air tonight.”

Étienne had tuned out sometime about halfway through the dinner chit chat. As tradition of the Edinburgh conference, a small dinner party of the high level guests were always standard for the first night. After a pleasant lunch, He found himself invited to sit at Dr. Imelda Aether’s table with Alexus Nerio, Cassidy Noland, and Clovis Moray. And of course Reginald had been invited as well, though the young technonaut seemed far too out of his element among these veterans.

It was rather pleasant though. The atmosphere was serene, the music delightful, and once Renegade was asked about how he came up with the capture foam, he managed to relax a bit enough to talk.

Or at least, Étienne hoped that was talking. It felt more like a panic induced ramble.

“...and that’s when I decided to swap out certain compounds, leading to the consistency of the current foam upon impact. What I hope to do is eventually take this recipe and eventually make it edible, in case small children get too close and try to eat it. Its nontoxic but that doesn’t necessarily mean they should be eating it, you know? And I think an edible version could come in handy-”

Yep. Definitely a ramble.

Dr. Aether let out a quiet chortle, leaning in close to whisper. “He does tend to go on and on, doesn’t he? Not at all the confident man we see on stage, is he?”

“You have no idea.”Étienne let out a gentle sigh. “His confidence is just a public bravado meant to assure the civilians he knows what he’s doing. Deep down, he’s a rather timid man. Not surprising giving his upbringing and current home-life but...it does seem like he could use a boost to his sense of self-worth.”

“Well, he’s certainly more confident than he was two years ago,” she said. “I don’t remember him ever really interacting with any of the others outside of asking questions after other people’s presentations. Seemed almost flabbergasted when Nerio invited him to lunch.”

“Like I said. Needs a boost to his self-worth.”

“Well,” Moray chuckled. “You certainly seem to have an eye on all kinds of scenarios, don’t you Gladstone?”

“I try to,” Regi stuttered.

Nerio let out a hum, taking a sip of his wine. “Is that how you’ve managed to avoid the press with that horrid mark business? I must say, having a price on them is pretty grand to say the least.”

“God dammit, Alexus, can’t we go one dinner without your obsession with marks?” Moray poured himself another drink. “Just once I would like to have a conversation where that business doesn’t come up.”

“Oh Clovis, you’re not still mad that your sister and I-”

“Speak now and forever be dead to the world.”

“I’m with Mr. Moray on this one,” Regi squeaked. “Its bad enough the press is after my marks, I don’t think you all want to be bored to death about mine.”

“I second that,” Étienne and Aether said in unison.

“Perhaps another time,” Noland said. “Right now, we should be enjoying the evening.”

“She’s right.” Aether looked up and waved for a refill of her martini. “Let’s not bother the poor boy with this on his first weekend out of hospital.”

Nerio gave the group, particularly Aether, a firm pout. “Now weren’t you the one doing research soul marks and their existence? How’s that been going, Imelda dear? Last I heard you’d said you’d found a connection between-”

“Nerio, shut up.”

The entire mood at the table seemed to sour instantly. Étienne could tell everything was at a boiling point. Moray looked completely stunned, Noland visibly furious, and Aether held her head high with cold, unfriendly intent. Regi was starting to curl in on himself, twirling his ponytail around the tip of his finger. Nerio didn’t seem to notice the change. That was one of the things that irked Étienne the most about him. A brilliant designer specializing in metalics, but a rather obtuse dinner guest he wouldn’t want anywhere near him outside of conferences.

“I think I need some air,” Regi muttered. “Please excuse me.”

“Reginald, wait-” Étienne started. He wasn’t fast enough. Regi was already several steps away and moving fast to get out front. “Dammit.”

“I’ll go talk to him,” Dr. Aether offered.

“No, I’ll go. He’ll respond better to me.”

“Really?” Nerio asked. “Do you two-”

Étienne shot him a warning glare, rolling up his sleeves just enough to briefly show his blank wrists to them before hurrying out after the young hero. He rushed out, only to just barely catch a glimpse of him vanishing over the rooftop of the building across the street.

“Dammit all, Gladstone,” he grumbled.

“He ran off?”

Étienne looked over his shoulder, seeing Dr. Aether waiting there. “Yes. He’s gone.”

“I’m so sorry, Monsieur Allard,” she said. “Alexus means well but he can be quite-”

“The asshat?”

“Not the word I’d use but its very apt.” She looked around, hoping to see Reginald reappear. “Any idea where he could be?”

“Probably heading back to the hotel.”

“My bike is around the corner. Want to go after him?”

“That’s very kind of you, but I have a ride already.”

“Alright.” Aether held out a hand to him, a sorrowful smile on her face. “Good luck.”

He looked down, just barely noticing the broken crystal mark on her wrist before returning the handshake. “Thank you, ma’am.”

“Take care of him, Allard.” She glanced around once more, folding her arms close. “Death is in the air tonight. As it usually is when so many minds are under one roof. I’d like for Renegade not to suffocate on it.”

“...Of course. Good night, Dr. Aether.”

“Dammit!”

Regi kicked off his shoes, throwing his watch against the wall and wincing as it made a decent dent in the the paint. He tossed off his jacket, throwing the tie away and undoing every damn button he could find on his shirt. He let his hair down, took off his glasses, and went to grab the make-up removal wipes.

“First I go on a nervous ramble and now I fucking...ACK!” He looked down, glaring at the bracer that had ended up on the floor. “Dammit all!” He gave it a kick, letting out a hiss as pain shot through his toes. He could hear it sputter, the music application turning itself on at a low volume. He sat down and went to work removing the make up.

“Never thought I’d see you get this riled up, Reginald.”

Regi looked over to the closet, a wave of shame washing over him. “I’m so, so sorry, Étienne. I know that was unprofessional, I just-”

Étienne raised a hand, silencing him long enough for him to sit down and help remove the rest of the cover up. “Dr. Aether sends her condolences. She’ll take care of Nerio. You just focus on you and what you need right now.”

“What I need? Are you serious?”

“Yes. What you need.” He shot him a look, cool yet sympathetic. “What do you need, Reginald?”

Regi watched him quietly for a moment, watching the slow, methodical movements of his friend’s fingers over his wrists, clearing away the cover. The question repeated itself over and over again in his mind. What he needed.

He knew exactly what he needed right now.

Hesitantly, he reached out, his hands lightly catching Étienne’s right hand and slowly rolling up the sleeve. Regi looked down at the bare skin on his wrist. It didn’t seem likely. But he had to know. Right now, he needed to know.

He leaned down, seemingly ready to press a kiss before pausing, moving so that his forehead rested where the mark would have been.

“Reginald?” Étienne asked. “What the hell are you doing?”

“You don’t like mouths near your hands,” Regi said softly. “This is the only alternative I can think of.”

“What are you-”

“You have the matching mark, don’t you Étienne? It’s under some makeup, isn’t it?” He slowly looked up, eyes soft and yearning. “What I need now is answers. Please. Be honest. Is the mark there?”

Étienne said nothing, looking down at his arm with stern focus as he reached for a clean wipe. A few presses, and the golden lines appeared there in all their glory. Regi smiled, taking a deep breath to steady himself.

“How’d you figure it out?” Étienne asked.

“You kissed my mark,” Regi explained. “Normally just soul mates do that.” He reached up slightly, gently brushing his hand over the gear. “And...the way you kept looking at it...The way it felt having you touch it. It just felt...right.”

“Reginald-”

“Yes, Étienne?”

“It’s...” He let out a sigh, his lips pressed into a thin line. “It’s not my only mark. Even if this was more than...whatever it is...you’re not my one and only...”

He smiled, leaning in and kissing him on the cheek. “I don’t mind.” He wrapped his arms around him tightly, burying his head in his shoulder. “As long as I can still hold you and work together with you...that’s more than enough for me.”

“Dammit, Reginald,” Étienne sighed, returning the embrace. “You’re more trouble than I ever could have anticipated.”

“I’ll try not to be.”

“I know you will. But for now...” His hand reached up, lightly combing through his long, dark hair. “I think now is alright to indulge in a little selfish emotion.”

Regi chuckled, lightly nuzzling him and letting out a content sigh of relief. “After this, I need a proper vacation. Some r&r and all that...”

“...I have a spare room. If you need time away.”

Regi looked at him, a rush of excitement in his veins. “That’d be perfect.”

Étienne nodded. “I’ll make arrangements then.”

#myselfinserts #mybnhaocs #friends ocs #class of aus: soulmates au #i write little angst and now I off to sleeps #angst in exchange for naps? Maybe?#here's hoping I can nap #Anonymous

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