Apollo couldn’t believe his luck, as he stared down at the golden ticket in his hands. The jay never won anything, and yet here he was, about to enter one of the most well-known places in the country. Paragon Industries made all sorts of different things, and when they had announced that they were going to invite a group of people into their main factory, it seemed like the whole country; maybe even the world had gotten excited about it. All you had to do was send in a postcard with a brief survey, and you’d be entered into this contest. Apollo wasn’t sure how many people were going to win, and even though he didn’t think he would, he went ahead and entered anyway. After all, you can’t win if you don’t even enter.

He had almost forgotten that he had even sent that postcard in. One random day, he had opened his mailbox, and there was a large manila envelope inside. The bird looked confused as he pulled it out, but when he saw where it was from, he quickly opened it. The jay had to stop himself from cheering out loudly in the middle of the street when he saw that he had won.

“Dear Apollo,
I am pleased to inform you that you have been selected as one of the winners of our drawing. You, and a select group of winners, will be given the opportunity to tour my facilities. There are other surprises in store for all of you, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you what it was. I can assure you that none of you can even imagine the wonders that you will see at my factory…”

There had been a packet of information inside the envelope, with addresses, dates and times, but the short handwritten note was what intrigued Apollo the most. It seemed to be written on some sort of gold leaf paper, or at the very least, paper that looked a lot like gold. If the owner of the factory himself had taken the time to write out these notes, then it must be a pretty big deal. At least, Apollo assumed that the owner had written the note. Despite all the information that was given, the note hadn’t actually been signed. But from the tone of the letter, it was written by whoever owned the place. He had quickly called in his confirmation to the number that was given to him. There seemed to be a lot of legal mumbo-jumbo in the packet, some forms that he was supposed to sign and bring in to the tour. Apollo really did try to read through it… But he ended up just signing it. It seemed like it was mostly just saying that he couldn’t sue the factory if something happened. He assumed he’d just have to be careful not to hurt himself during the tour, but what’s the worst that could happen? He trip and sprain his ankle?

So here he was, sitting in his car outside of the factory, holding the ticket and the paperwork in his hand. It seemed like they were doing their best to keep the crowd away from the gates, as Apollo had only seen a few people entering the gates of the factory. He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t gone in yet himself. When he had parked, he finally saw the factory in person. It looked a bit… Different from what he had imagined. With all of the things that came out of it, he had assumed that the factory would look a bit more… happy. But it looked dark… Almost a bit spooky actually. Then again, though he was certainly not an expert of factories, this is probably what they all looked like. So despite what he was feeling in his gut, Apollo stepped out of his car, locking the door. As he walked toward the factory, he got another surprise. He thought that there would be crowds of people waiting, hoping to get a glimpse of the elusive owner, but there wasn’t a soul in sight. Whoever had set this up must be quite good at keeping secrets. The jay wasn’t sure if he’d have preferred the loud crowd or this silence. The cold air nipped at his beak, and Apollo pulled his jacket tighter to guard himself from the cold.

The jay walked up to the large gates, pushing them open with a creaky swing. For a company that excelled in things like robotics and even advanced technology, it seemed odd that they wouldn’t have some sort of electronic gate. But those thoughts left his mind when he saw the group of people in front of them. It was a small group, though there were quite a variety of people. Apollo saw a large muscular whale, a tough looking female shark, a male chameleon in a hoodie, and… “Oh my god! You’re Omari, aren’t you?” The jay ran up to the tall anteater, who was dressed in a long black coat, a smug grin on his face. “Yeah… I already had to go through all of this with the others. It’s not just you normies who like competing in contests.” Apollo blinked, confused. The whale shook his head, disapprovingly. “Omari seems to think that he’s better than the rest of us since he’s a big rock star. He keeps referring to all of us as “normies” sine we’re just normal people. I’m Kaiea by the way.” He smiles at the jay. “I’m Apollo.” The bird gives a small wave. The chameleon jumps in with a warm smile. “Hey there! I’m Rafe, and I work at a couple of the clubs around here as a DJ.” They all look at the shark who rolls her eyes. “I’m Lyra…”

The group stood there for a few minutes, not really talking to each other. Kaiea walked up the steps to the door, and tried to open it, but his attempts were unsuccessful. “Why the hell are they leaving us waiting here in the cold?” Lyra who was the quietest finally spoke up. “I’m pretty sure that it’s because not all of us are here.” Omari looks up at her. “What would make you say that?” Lyra points up and back towards the gates, and the group turns to look. Another blue jay was walking through the gates, a female one this time. “Artemis? Is that you?” She grinned. “Hey there Polly, I didn’t expect to see you here.” Rafe looked at them. “Wait… The two of you are related? Now that I look, you two look a lot alike.” Apollo smiles, “Yeah, she’s my sister…” Artemis puts her arm around his shoulder. “I’m his big sister.” She smiles.

“That’s all well and good, but do you think that’s all of us?” Omari rolled his eyes. As if in response to the anteater’s question, they heard a noise from the large doors. Apollo looked up at the large double doors, slowly opening. It seemed as if the whole group was holding their breath, waiting to see what would happen. A single figure emerged from behind the doors. “So… What are all of you waiting for? It must be cold out there.” Apollo heard a female voice chuckling, and as he squeezed past Kaiea, he finally saw her. She was a wolf-rabbit hybrid, with unusual pinkish-purple colored fur, and he saw that her nose and skin looked green. She was wearing what looked like a torn purple overcoat, a small top hat on her head, rainbow fabric around the center of it. “Welcome to my company… You’re all about to have quite an adventure…”

Apollo tilted his head as he watched the woman walk back inside the building. They all looked at each other confused. After a minute, she stuck her head out from the doors. “Hey… We don’t really have all day. If you don’t want to come in then fine… But if you do, then you better follow me… and quickly.” This kind of woke up the group, and they all quickly went up the stairs, walking into the building. Apollo was the last one in, and he looked back, seeing the snow starting to fall. This was a chance of a lifetime, and he was part of a small group that was getting to do this. But he was still getting sort of a bad feeling about this whole thing. The look on that woman’s face hadn’t helped that. She had looked happy to see them, but Apollo felt like there was something hidden behind that smile. If he wasn’t already interested in finding out what went on in this place, now he wanted to find out more about her… Apollo walked into the building, and the door shut with a loud slam behind him.


((This is the first part of what is quickly becoming a very fun story, full of TF, and all sorts of different things XD I hope you enjoy it! ))

Nikki to  ParanoidNikki
Inspired by "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" which belongs to Roald Dahl, who I'm pretty sure doesn't have an FA account to link to lol :P