QUEL BEAU BISQUE!
Sometimes bunnies take the most unconventional routes - like, for instance, an Enjoltaire gender-flipped version of Vampire Miyu Episode 19, "Love of the Dolls" (Ningyóshi no Koi, 人形師の恋), but obviously sans Miyu (her role is filled in by a certain drunken savateur under pressure); and with Salmacis, Pygmalion, and Ragnell elements instead. Equally obviously for this coming-out story, Enjolras is cast as the defrosting dollmaker who loathes the opposite sex, Grantaire as his at first unwanted servant and foremost admirer, and Catherine (who here is not owned by Cosette, but made and owned by Enjolras, and a lifesize bisque doll) as the sinister masterpiece in love with their maker.
In minor roles we have Combeferre and Courfeyrac in the roles of Hisae and Yukari (Those Two Girls from secondary school) during the interludes, as well as Madame Thénardier as the perverted patron.
R's addiction to strong drink allowed me to play a lot with his perception of the bisque dolls and especially Cath -if they are dead or alive, if they seem to harbour something towards him.
It also allowed me to play with a three-act structure (with a prologue, an epilogue, and a pair of interludes using the Courferre Greek chorus to give an outward perspective!) and with alternating POV. Scenes 1,4, and 7 are Enj's third-person POV (think A Song of Ice and Fire), scenes 2, 5, and 8 from R's third-person POV (ditto à la ASOIAF), scenes 3, 6, and 9 from Catherine's first-person, and also more structured like poems or lyrics to contrast the prose in the other fragments. All three sides to this one story!
There is also a climactic confrontation in the final act which plays a lot along the lines of Dame Ragnell/The Wife of Bath's Tale; this is absent in the source material.As the estate burns to the ground, the spirit or essence of Catherine -an idealised image created by Enjolras himself, whom he gave a form in reality- takes advantage of the conflagration to escape her shattered doll body and get inside Enjolras by breathing herself into him (in-spires her victim, literally) right before R puts a damp cloth to his face. This is to play her final ace in the hole, as she says herself. Yaaaay for Salmacis elements, you may think, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. Once absorbed into the bloodstream, she decides to warp Enj's organic structure into something disfigured, with a more repulsive aspect than charming. This is to present Grantaire with a test of character that presents itself as a Catch 22, both outcomes leaving our fair leader to a fate worse than death:
(So, our villainess-scorned thought that the breathed-in carbon and kerosene, and the strong drink in his bloodstream, had clouded his reasoning - it was so, yet through the haze lingered the feelings, the passions, stronger and even whetted by an altered state!)
This even carries on into the epilogue, where R gives Enj (now become himself once more) a right hook to ensure that this is his real face! Which is hilarious as much as provocative.
Sometimes bunnies take the most unconventional routes - like, for instance, an Enjoltaire gender-flipped version of Vampire Miyu Episode 19, "Love of the Dolls" (Ningyóshi no Koi, 人形師の恋), but obviously sans Miyu (her role is filled in by a certain drunken savateur under pressure); and with Salmacis, Pygmalion, and Ragnell elements instead. Equally obviously for this coming-out story, Enjolras is cast as the defrosting dollmaker who loathes the opposite sex, Grantaire as his at first unwanted servant and foremost admirer, and Catherine (who here is not owned by Cosette, but made and owned by Enjolras, and a lifesize bisque doll) as the sinister masterpiece in love with their maker.
In minor roles we have Combeferre and Courfeyrac in the roles of Hisae and Yukari (Those Two Girls from secondary school) during the interludes, as well as Madame Thénardier as the perverted patron.
R's addiction to strong drink allowed me to play a lot with his perception of the bisque dolls and especially Cath -if they are dead or alive, if they seem to harbour something towards him.
It also allowed me to play with a three-act structure (with a prologue, an epilogue, and a pair of interludes using the Courferre Greek chorus to give an outward perspective!) and with alternating POV. Scenes 1,4, and 7 are Enj's third-person POV (think A Song of Ice and Fire), scenes 2, 5, and 8 from R's third-person POV (ditto à la ASOIAF), scenes 3, 6, and 9 from Catherine's first-person, and also more structured like poems or lyrics to contrast the prose in the other fragments. All three sides to this one story!
There is also a climactic confrontation in the final act which plays a lot along the lines of Dame Ragnell/The Wife of Bath's Tale; this is absent in the source material.As the estate burns to the ground, the spirit or essence of Catherine -an idealised image created by Enjolras himself, whom he gave a form in reality- takes advantage of the conflagration to escape her shattered doll body and get inside Enjolras by breathing herself into him (in-spires her victim, literally) right before R puts a damp cloth to his face. This is to play her final ace in the hole, as she says herself. Yaaaay for Salmacis elements, you may think, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. Once absorbed into the bloodstream, she decides to warp Enj's organic structure into something disfigured, with a more repulsive aspect than charming. This is to present Grantaire with a test of character that presents itself as a Catch 22, both outcomes leaving our fair leader to a fate worse than death:
- either restore Enjolras to his usually attractive form, leaving him physically healthy but in a deep coma or trance, unable to think or feel anything, emotionally and mentally dead and only caring about his survival needs - with the implication that R is shallow and only loved Enj for his good looks, but leaving him a beautiful empty shell in a vegetative state
- or, to prove that Grantaire still loves him warts and all, leave Enj with that more repulsive aspect than charming (toothless, empty, dark gaping nutcracker mouth; eyes entirely blank white with irises deep in their sockets, and glowing icy blue in the dark; all joints like those of an articulated doll; a bald head with popping arteries at the temples - not a pleasant sight - resembling the shinma of that episode even more than the unmasked Cath post-stabbing), as well as able to think and feel, and physically healthy - but that would lead to Enj being ultimately shunned and socially dead, no matter how much R would try to conceal his disfigurement
(So, our villainess-scorned thought that the breathed-in carbon and kerosene, and the strong drink in his bloodstream, had clouded his reasoning - it was so, yet through the haze lingered the feelings, the passions, stronger and even whetted by an altered state!)
This even carries on into the epilogue, where R gives Enj (now become himself once more) a right hook to ensure that this is his real face! Which is hilarious as much as provocative.