A blocky, slit-windowed structure, the Charmory looks as if it was designed to fend off siege by an army of action figures and then scaled up. The walls, sky-blue textured plastic, have been molded into the suggestion of stone blocks, and a pair of cylindrical turrets frame the front door.
The interior of this building consists of a single enormous room, reminiscent of an industrial warehouse. The lobby is walled off by two screens of mesh assembled from construction toys, through which you can see the <factory floor>. Off to either side are fluidly sculpted blue plastic desks with built-in <consoles> for those who prefer to have their masquerades automated. Everything in view is shiny, technicolored, and squeaky clean. A door leads <out>.
The majority of the Charmory is dominated by the snaking path of a conveyor belt of glittery, iridescent metallic mesh. The belt hovers about a meter off the ground and is moved by no obvious mechanism, making it look more like a river than a device. The beltloop runs past a number of assembly stations on the way, each labeled with a large friendly sign: <Masker>, <Bejeweler>, <Bodyprinter>, <Winder>, <Laminator>, <Gender Vendor>, <Featherizer>, <Illuminator>, <Jesterizer>, and so forth. A precisely 1.5 meter tall Bubble Doll operates each station, each doll identical but for a costume suited to its duty.
Over the dolls' heads is an octopus-like fixture made of lustrous red and yellow rubber, attached to a carousel pole that disappears into the mirrored ceiling. Its long arms occasionally stretch out and take a storage pod from the next room. The octocrane cracks the pod open, and refills a machine or services a worn-out laborer with the contents. When this happens, all the dolls freeze in plcace and the cheerful yellow safety klaxons on their heads flash in unison.
Cherry-red plastic airlocks lead to the <Lobby> and <Storage>, and a cylindrical Lucite gravity tube leads up to the <studio>.
Note: tube exit to studio is "tube", not "studio"
Suspended high above the factory floor is the dress-up studio, sitting on a pane of sturdy one-way mirrorglass. The room is strewn with odds and ends from downstairs. The octocrane rises up now and then on the pole in the center of the room and arranges the stray costume gear in neat piles, giving an obliging salute before it lowers back down. The walls are bare, except for a <dial> on the wall which controls the holography console, and a <tube> leads down to the Factory Floor.
This is an enormous pile of translucent blue bubbles stacked on top of each other in a grid-like formation. Inside of each bubble is a piece of costume gear -- wigs, deelyboppers, press-on mermaid tails, and industrial size cans of imilexan sealant, just to name a few. Now and then, the octocrane from the next room snatches up one of the bubbles. Another bubble immediately falls from the ceiling or pushes up from the floor to replace it, making a cheerful digitized burbling sound. You could probably <pry> one of the bubbles from the stack if you're very careful.
See also: CharmWarp | Attractions