Sometimes bunnies take the most unconventional routes - like, for instance, an Enjoltaire gender-flipped version-fusion of Vampire Miyu Episode 19, "Love of the Dolls" or "For the Love of a Doll" (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 (also, some Othello elements for a reason). Equally obviously for this coming-out story, Enjolras is cast as the defrosting kuudere dollmaker who loathes the opposite sex but finds affection reflected in the glass eyes of his so-called "Enjolrettes" (identified by a signature, anywhere on their bodies, with an E shaped like a mirrored 3), 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 - the passion project Enjolrette who looks just like her maker, and is the same size, but female) as the sinister masterpiece in love with their maker, who, upon finding herself scorned in favour of this intruder, decides to seduce and cajole said upstart to lure both servant and dollmaker into a death-trap ("if I can't have you, then nobody will").
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.
The source episode Love of the Dolls tells the story of a misandristic kuudere doll artist, who, divorced from the real world, falls in love with the Victorian-style dolls she creates -all of them male and just adorable-... especially her lifesize masterpiece. But her world is torn apart when a maid comes to work for her.
This episode is all about a famous dollmaker (Kimihara) who lives in an enormous mansion with only her boy dolls to keep her company. Very quickly we see her talking to a lifesize doll as if it were her lover... ah, all part of the freakiness we expect from VPM. She sits down to dinner with her dollfriend, and spouts undying love and romanticism for it. Her happy little fantasy world is about to be torn apart, however, as the very next day she meets Yuki, a young lady who has been sent by Kimihara's agency to be her assistant. (It's clear that the company would like to see an increase in the production of her dolls, as demand has well outstripped supply, and Kimihara herself seems to have lost her focus recently. Quelle surprise, eh?)
Things go from there pretty much as you'd expect. Kimihara reluctantly permits Yuki to work with her, but forbids her from entering a particular room (ha ha, like that ever works). Naturally Yuki discovers the beautiful male doll... and even after being punished by Kimihara cannot help but continue to sneak in to touch and even kiss the doll herself. Meanwhile, Kimihara is finding it hard to concentrate, feeling jealous of Yuki. In a final confrontation between the two, Kimihara whips out a wood-carving knife and attacks the doll, which reverts to Shinma form and taunts both her and Yuki for being stupid enough to fall in love with it.
Yuki offers herself to Kimihara as someone to love instead of the artificial substitute of her dolls. Cutting to the future, we witness Yuki's first collection of dolls (this one all-female!) being displayed, with the not-so-subtle suggestion that Kimihara's need for affection is merely being exploited by the girl.
PS. Here is the source material, the original episode - and the shinma form of Kai-rai (the porcelain doll) is so scary that just the single image of him in my mind's eye makes my heart pound - NOT for the faint-hearted! - (If you are sensitive and wish to see it - please skip over the battle, from when Kasumi stabs Kai-rai to the exhibition in the finale)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luNDZZG7WQI (Spanish sub)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxPk7ooNDe0 (English dub - but sped-up audio and rather hazy visuals)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5uIvu7zfd0 (Portuguese sub)
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. Aside from his aesthetic sensitivities, and Enj's emotional detachment and misogyny as he gradually defrosts and goes through an identity crisis, questioning whether he was straight in the first place... Enjoltaire was and is the perfect pairing to retell this cathartic story of requited and unrequited love. Genderflip all the characters, cast our Mizzie friends in their roles, et voilà a coming-out thriller that, though fluffy at first, unfurls towards a blood-curdling climax!
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 in a counterpoint narration style. 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, sweeping through his airways (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; leaving him a beautiful, dashing 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 the savateur's 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 (before the exhibit where the all-male EnjolRins, branded with their makers' ER monogram signature, première), when R gives Enj (now become himself once more) a right hook to ensure that this is his real face, with bright azure eyes framed in golden crispy locks! Which is hilarious as much as provocative. Cue the blond wincing and swallowing his own blood for he bit his bottom lip... and asking why. "Anyway, you were too deeply unconscious, and glad you had no mirrors around as well!"
PS. Here's some Courferre that might as well fit into this tale!
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