MTTCC: Escape from Marshmallow Marsh 1 (Patreon)

Author's Note: I'm delighted to finally be able to share a massive foot forward for our Chocolate Factory story! As many know, Hisao and the Chocolate Factory was placed on hold a looooong time ago as I straightened things out and tried to rework some ideas into an overall better story! Progress on this goal has been really paying off with the comic and now I can share the first of two major literature storylines that will follow the adventures of the girls who have fallen off of the tour, a collection titled More Than They Can Chew!

The first series in this collection Escape from Marshmallow Marsh is set to be a harrowing story full of untempered appetites and deepest dark indulgences. Following directly after the end of Chapter 4, the bubbly glutton, Misha Mikado, has come through the other end of the chocolate pipeline and into the wetlands of Marshmallow Marsh, a savage and untamed wetland full of creatures and beasts that are each deadly sweet~

These chapters will be titled much like those in Hisao and the Chocolate Factory, and I'll be releasing the second only a few hours after this one, so please check out both and let me know what you think!!

As always, thanks for reading!! <3

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The Violent Ides of Marshmallow Marsh

The alien landscape of the Marshmallow Marsh stood silent, frozen in time.

Nothing moved. Not the strawberry toads, not the cherriest birds. The white ferns lay still, the dark choco-trees had no wind to blow through their sweet cocoa-treats. It was as if the landscape had become a painting, watercolors of brown and pink splashed upon an empty canvas of endless white.

But it was not a flawless picture. Stains of chocomarsh water colored the white grass of Milk’s Isle, cold and dark syrup which mixed with the warm milky brown still drizzling from above. Different liquids, both of them chocolate but in distant severities, created a technicolor invasion of sugary darkness blend round and round to create a new concoction.

It was a fusion, an alloy of brown batter which slowly filled a pair of imprints near a fat girl’s sneakers… and the abyssal marks left by marshmallowgator claws.

Slowly, loudly, a violent vibration trembled from inside the chocomarsh waters. As thick and as cold as refrigerated syrup, the pond did not carry the ripples well, but its displacement was forced further and further as a long trail of air bubbles burst in vociferous demand.

A small group of sugarshellfish were the first true hint of life. Dark syrup drizzled from their crystalized shells as they wadded up and away from the furious bubbles. They toddled quietly, making for the white ferns to get out of sight.

Their movement was smart. A disturbance had come, and they’d gotten out of the way. But too often is one creature’s wisdom capitalized upon by an ill-witted other.

A marshmallard, from the relative comfort in its high-rise nest, had frozen along with the rest of the marsh, though it knew not nor cared much why. There had been a piercing shriek, the roar of a predator, and the world had gone still, so it had gone still… But now, the world was moving once more, and its favorite prey had made an easy target of themselves.

It swooped down, knocking one of the sugarbumps back into the water with its breast, then glided in after it. A scoop of its bill, the simple cracking of pressure, and the sugarshellfish became cocoa-stained crystals in the marshmallard’s mouth. It hardly had a moment to know what had happened, and then it was gone.

This small interaction and hearty new meal left the marshmallard feeling cocksure and proud. It waggled its head and furrowed its feathers in a comfortable bluster, its momentum coasting near the trail of still mixing bubbles.

The marshwater swayed, the movement shifted. It had only a moment to realize what was about to happen… and then it was gone.

The quiet chill returned to the glade.

It didn’t last.

The fowl’s taking had interrupted the complex repetition of a violent dance. Bubbles churned, growing more intense, and from the syrupy darkness rose a rounded slope of a transparent pink. It came higher, exposing several cracks on the surface, carrying inward a constant dribble of Darkest Chocolate and carrying out the terrified squeaks of a chubby girl in much distress.

A hand appeared, rising up into view to strike at the barrier, as if hitting it upwards would cause it to rise. And it worked, for a moment… but the albino devils would not so easily release their plump prize.

Spines of graham surfaced from the waters atop long and powerful scales of a desolate and empty white. Their eyes came next, as red and dark as smoldering hellfire, black pupils of scorched wood and ash. An impact from the bottom sent the barrier higher, and the chubby girl’s pink hair rose up along with it.

The girl had fallen onto her back, unable to find any footing on the slopes of the belabored barrier. Her breath came quickly, her tummy and chest leaping from her unintelligible yelps and gasps. Through the darkness, she saw as one of the monsters again disappeared.

She kicked, bracing her naked feet against the wall. The beast’s snout slammed into it not a moment later, bucking against her block and sending a jiggle up the length of her pudge-covered legs.

The marshmallowgator snarled.

She snarled in return, adrenaline and panic and several dozen mouthfuls of sugar putting every inch of her softness to strain.

More of the spray got into her mouth, syrupy darkness of delectable and bottomless chocolate that flexed into the barrier through every crack. If she were not so occupied with the screams of her muscles and the worries of her eyes, she might have noticed her tastebuds doing a nice and pleasant dance, as the chocolate was quite tasty.

But then, she was quite distracted.

Another strike came, bouncing her higher with a startled yelp. Only then did she notice how close to the surface she had come. She reached up, again striking the barrier to lift herself higher… then, she realized what had been missing.

The big one. His vast, empty scales, his immense claws and teeth. He had been pressing down on the bubble, holding the girl beneath the surface… but he wasn’t there now.

The girl spun, seeing the flairs of rage in their darkened red eyes. She couldn’t see beneath her, the bubble was filled with enough chocolate that it nearly came up to her breasts, but a sudden ferocious fear told her that the biggest of the reptiles was now down below.

Two of the beasts turned away from her then, and the girl threw herself forwards towards where they had retreated. She braced the bottom of the bubble, thrusting both arms into the chocolate chill. She could feel the syrup around her churn, an uncomfortable rumble as her belly tightened, and the furious thrash as the marshmallowgator threw itself towards her…

And it missed.

She blinked, seeing the white skin of its snout, then its belly and tail, shooting straight past her not inches away. A bright, giddy laugh came, something born of anxiety and mockery and boundless glee. It had missed!!

How had it missed?!?

She looked up, her eyes finally reaching up to the surface of the waters. She was going to get out of here! They couldn’t get her! They couldn’t break through the…

Her thoughts froze. Her stomach turned. Her eyes watched as the marshmallowgator slowly, hauntingly, spun in the air, and began its dive towards the top of her barrier, teeth first.

The girl barely even had enough time to scream. Impact, a horrendous sound like the splintering crack of a windshield’s glass. Together, the barrier, the gator, and the girl, all disappeared beneath the waters of the Marshmallow Marsh.

From far, far above the white mist of the glade, a harsh sound like sparks from a storm snapped and cracked. Ruptures of blue bolts split against the empty white fog. They grew nearer, bringing with them a louder tinny of metallic claps as a pair of girls sprinted along the hanging catwalk.

“Misha!! Misha!” called the smaller of the two.

“Where is she? Did you see her??” asked the larger.

The smaller one huffed, brushing messy red hair out of her eyes. Rai Kato was barely taller than the guardrail. She hit against it, then ducked beneath. “She was on the island!” she said, breathing heavily and pointing. “Look! That’s Milk’s Isle! The tube comes out there!”

“Did you see her?” the younger sister, Mikasa, asked.

“No, I didn’t see her. I heard her.”

“Are you sure it came from over there? Maybe she ran off.”

“Ran where, you dolt?! It’s an island!”

“Swam then? I don’t know! Sound gets all messed up in this stupid place! It’s even cloudy up here!”

“Misha!” Rai shouted, her eyes scanning the island for any sign of the tubby pink-haired girl. “She sounded scared…”

“Do you think the marshmallowgators got her?”

Rai grimaced.

“Misha!”

Mikasa’s fingers drummed nervously against the rail. She stepped away from her sister, moving along to try and circle the small island. The catwalks above the Marshmallow Marsh were a maze all to themselves, though not nearly as bad as the marshland below.

At least up here you could see more than ten feet.

“What do we do if we find her?” she asked. “We can’t exactly lower a rope.”

As if to prove her point, another blue bolt of lightning flashed from beneath the taller sister. Whether it was a bug from the marsh or some dust from the catwalk, the canopy barrier snapped against whatever it touched. Very few things were allowed to pass through.

Only what the Warden’s will would allow.

“We should go back to the Warden’s office,” Mikasa frowned. “Maybe she was getting a snack or something. We should at least try to raise her again on the radio.”

“I told you, she doesn’t carry a radio! Our stuff can’t be exposed to her for too long, none of it would work! We can’t even have decent cameras because there’s so many residuals!”

“Well what do you want to do? Just sit in her empty office and wait?” Mikasa asked. “We have to do something, but we’re no help out here!”

The two girls frowned at each other before turning back down to peer through the fog. Rai thought she might be able to make out something on the island, but there was no way it was a person. It was too small, an odd combination of red-and-white.

Misha Mikado was… well, fat! And pink! And not just her hair, fluffy and bright and worn in two cutesy drills, but her entire personality! She was bubbly, cheerful, and loved eating chocolates. There wasn’t a girl alive who couldn’t relate!!

Sure, she may have gone a little overboard… before going… overboard… but she was the kind of girl that put a big plus on plus-sized! Heavy, but soft, with a smile as big as her chubby sweater!

Rai dismissed the objects, her worries turning towards the nearest shoreline, then the trees up above.

Factories like this should be made for plump girls! Rai was a twig, and even she could put on a pound just from the sweet scents of marshmallow sugar and rich Darkest Chocolate that drifted up from the marsh. Just looking at it for too long could make you pack on the…

“The calorie trackers!!” Rai shouted. She saw Mikasa’s head tilt from the corner of her eye as she fumbled with her pocket before withdrawing a small PDA.

“Aren’t we too close?” Mikasa asked. “It might not work.”

“It shouldn’t reach all the way up here,” Rai replied. “If I can get this working right, we should be able to get her exact spot on the map!”

She rose to her feet, then her tiptoes, trying to put as much space between herself and the marsh before clicking the on button and hurriedly tapping through the opening window. The golden symbol of the Nakai Chocolate Factory twinkled cheerfully before finally allowing her to select ‘Guests.’

A small list appeared, each of the girls as they entered for the factory tour. The displays showed each girl’s name, their heights, weights, a small portrait, and most significantly, a large bold number set atop a drop-down list.

Rai tapped upon Misha’s chubby and blushing portrait, extending the drop-down list to show all of the things that the girl had eaten since she had come in nearly an hour ago. Her current location, Marshmallow Marsh, blinked from the top in a bright cherry pink.

The amount of items shocked the petite Rai (Who could possibly eat more than 1,500 calories of candy in less than an hour??), but her wide eyes went wider when she saw the counter increase. The next came then, and the next quickly after. Droplet by droplet, Misha was consuming more and more of the most recent item.

Marshmallow Dark: 128mL (Ongoing Consumption).

“She’s in the water…” Rai reported. “But it doesn’t look like she’s drowning.”

“How can you tell?”

“The counter’s going too slow. It’s gotta be-“

Just then, the counter gave an electronic ring. Most of the other portraits, Emi, Hanako, Rin, and Lilly, updated with color-coded labels reading: ‘Flavored Aerosol Tea.’

She ignored them, focusing on the little map icon next to ‘Marshmallow Marsh,’ but when she tapped it the handheld gave another cheerful chirp before the entire thing quaked, the screen devolved into a technicolor of static, and it died.

“Nooo, no no no, gah!!” Her fingers thumped uselessly against the blank screen. “Dammit! I hate this stupid room!!” she cursed, hurling the now useless device down towards the barrier.

It stuck, hard, and was instantly evaporated. Not even ash remained to pass through.

“Are you sure she’s under?”

“Has to be… she’s drinking bits of Marshmallow Dark. It’s too small to be intentional though. Maybe she found somewhere to hide…”

“Ugh… I wish the Warden was here. She could probably just… I dunno. Flick her hands. Do… something!”

Mikasa was right. Even if they did find Misha, they wouldn’t be able to do much but shout, and the barrier might even mess with that too. It really was like a whole different world, and the Warden was the only one with a set of keys.

If it was just some form of tech, there’d be a switch or a button they could use to turn the whole barrier off. Normal electricity left marks, and could only burn things so far. It couldn’t differentiate between organic and not.

But the barriers power had come from far before man had flipped the first switch.

If Rai were to hop through the railing, she’d strike the barrier ten feet below. It would incinerate her shoes, dissolve her clothes, but her body would catch as if it were a warm solid glass.

Despite the public bluster of candy confection, despite all the talk of mechanical machinations, screens and complex inventions, much of the factory was just simple machines. Inclined planes, levers, wheels and axles and cogs and everything else that forced physics to do most of the work.

Some rooms required more complexities, such as the Chocolate Assemble and the Invent-tea-ing Room. They had to be kept isolated, else the secret power would break every machine.

The Chocolate Mines had some, the Ranch House had plenty, but the Marshmallow Marsh was so imbibed that these catwalks were built to keep technology distant. Even so, you’d have to turn off every electronic before entering the room, lest their delicate structures be rent asunder by the strongest force on the entire planet.

The primordial energy of purest Magic.

“Warden? This is Mikasa. Warden, do you co- Gah!” Mikasa shouted, and Rai looked up. The younger Kato held her now smoldering radio. The miniature screen glowed so bright that she had to squint against its brilliant orange display, but it still popped and clicked as Mikasa kept trying. “Warden? Warden, we need you in the Marsh, stat. Can you read?”

Rai frowned. Her PDA was the latest tech, brand new materials. She’d known powering it on could be some risk… but the handhelds they used were nearly twenty years old.

Magic doesn’t like technology. Maybe it’s because technology is shouldering in on its business, or maybe because it was so much easier to use. You didn’t need to spend ten years waving around a stick to shock someone these days; a taser costs just forty bucks.

But it normally played nice with older materials. The factory was probably the only businesses in Japan that still actively utilized a HAM Radio and did its business calculations using slide rules and Pascal devices. Their walkie systems never had issues… unless they were close to an active spell.

That was when Rai felt the empty air. There was no wind, nothing which blew the mists down to capture contents. She felt her chest tighten and lifted herself to her full height, rapidly twisting to look around the marsh. She saw nothing and so turned next to the catwalks, bright eyes trying to see through the shade.

The current of magic was no more visible than a high voltage wire, but its invisible force would impact upon visible things, like Rai’s PDA.

Or the fog.

She spotted it on the other side of Milk’s Isle and directly above the widest part of the glade. There, on the catwalks, the fog was moving, swirling as if it were the breath of an exhale. Through the mix of dark shadow and gray, Rai thought she might be able to make out the sharp tip of a very large hat.

“Warden!” she shouted, and began to hurry down the catwalk. She passed Mikasa, who was quick to follow, and had longer legs.

They circled the isle at a sprint, and as they grew closer to that point in the fog, the shadows grew. More came forward, swelling until they were the size of each girl like mirrored reflections. Mikasa hesitated but Rai ran straight in, splashing through the fog and into a swirling darkness.