Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The screen flashes as your view on the screen jostles and tumbles before settling, a pair of grey colored arms nudging it side to side. One falls away as the other transitions into a small wave from the anthropomorphic great white shark grinning widely at you. Her left eye is a sapphire blue color while the right is.. Missing? There’s a softly glowing white ring where her pupil should be though no clear sclera can be seen, just darkness that reflects no light at all. Her hair is dark brown and tied back in a long ponytail. A simple white tank top adorns her torso. A scar reminiscent of a spider web or cracked glass partially peeks out from under the cloth on her chest below her collar bone. She leans in as her expression sours. “I thiiink I’ve got it working..? The red light means it’s recording, yeah?”

The view shakes a little before getting suddenly picked up, rolling over and blurring as it loses focus. The lens whirrs as the blurry image turns a mix of orange and yellow. A faintly crackly masculine voice can be heard, the sound like it’s coming from an aged electronic speaker. “Lemme see uh..” The image clears up to reveal the tilted head and raised brow of a bright orange and yellow anthropomorphic cocker spaniel, both of his eyes the same black as the previous person’s one though instead of white rings his are solid white circles. “Mhm! See how it’s blinking?” He smiles at the person out of view, canines on display for a moment before holding the camera out to the other person.

In the crooked angle as the camera is passed from the canine to the shark, a pair of white rings blink open at the top of a doorway in the background before the view is blurred again. The shark girl now holding the camera up to look at herself and the spaniel over her shoulder. “Wait so blinking means recording..? I thought that meant the battery was low..” She leans in closer, tongue sticking out of her mouth as she fiddles with the camera. The canine rolls his eyes and crosses his arms with a smile, the stylized sun charm on his collar clinking quietly when he moves.

A pair of purple ears poke out from behind him while an exceptionally long purple tail flicks out from behind the girl. A large pair of purple paws slowly inch out just above the shoulders of the other two creatures, large metallic claws glinting in the light of the room while a feline's face slowly emerges between the two of them. Similar to the canine save for their pointed ears and mouth which is spread in an unnaturally wide toothless grin. A voice, deep but raspy with a slight hiss causes the shark and canine to freeze. “Got you.” The two paws swing down and grab the other two, yanking them and the camera back as they both yell out sharply, the camera falling into the sharks lap and making the image go black.

A few seconds pass with only the sounds of rustling fabric before the camera shifts again, tumbling till lands angled up at the three of them. The canine and shark with their cheeks squished up against the felines who’s eagerly hugging the two of them against his exceptionally thin and gangly looking torso. Winter grunts at the tight squeeze but smiles as she rests a hand on his paw.

Grinning and leaning into the hug she laughs out. “Oohhh gosh, hey sweetheart!~” The canine laughs as he tries to push the feline away playfully.

Seemingly satisfied, the feline lets the two go only to get a fuzzy arm wrapped around his neck by the canine. As your view gets scooped up by the shark she holds it up so all three are visible before clearing her throat and waving again.
“Hi there! My name is Winter Eclipse! And uh.. This is my story! Or at least his most recent chapter in it!” She laughs. “I’d say I got pretty lucky though!!”

“Well.. If you consider a failed teleportation incident, getting locked in a factory full of murderous toys as lucky.” Rubbing the back of her head she smiles sheepishly before shaking her head rapidly and holding. “Okay jeez uh.. Gosh where do I even begin..? Well, how about I just start at the very beginning, hm?”

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“Status Report, Capacitor Charge at: 67%, and climbing.” A synthetic male voice echoes through the large chamber as I flit between control panels, adjusting and tuning the various knobs while I watch the displays.

“How are the containment shields holding up Aeries?” I call out without looking up from the displays. The masculine voice echoes across the chamber in reply.

“Structural Integrity Stable ma’am, coordinates locked.” Before I can answer, he interrupts. “And the reactors are primed And backup power cells ready to connect. We’ve checked these numbers at least a dozen times. You really must stop stressing so much.” He chuckles, a tinny synthetic sound to it when he does. I just roll my eyes and focus on the next panel.

“Last time I did that I almost blew out every fuse in this building Aeries. I remember you in particular throwing a hissy fit over it!”

A scoff “I did not throw a hissy fit! I was practically beheaded by that little stunt!” I just laugh and shake my head.

Taking a deep breath, I look at the machine in front of me. The room is a chaotic mess of mechanical parts and cabling surrounding a central platform with four curved metal plates surrounding it. Metal struts holding the shields in place while cables snake around the base and into it. Above the center of the platform a copper coil rotates slowly, humming with built up energy. As I go to the main activation panel, I catch my ten-foot tall, exhausted looking self in the reflective surface of one of the shields. My dark brown hair, usually up in a bun or ponytail is frazzled, unkempt even. A dark blue jumpsuit with stain marks left unzipped, the sleeves tied around my waist. Stains like oil and grease over the whole thing leading down to boots that fit well around digitigrade feet, making them look oddly shaped to others. Days of non-stop work filled with dirt, grease and oil gave my gray skin a patchy look. Even my tail was covered in them. Metallic ears like tail fins from an aircraft twitch as I look up and down at my appearance.

“Gosh okay.. Definitely taking a vacation after this is done..” I break my eyes away from the reflection before moving to a pedestal with a large lever on its top.

“I’ll say. You’re not exactly representing the finest your species had to offer, you know.” The comment elicits a growl from me as I glare at the nearest camera before shaking my head and returning my attention to the task at hand.

Putting my hand on it I take a deep breath. “Alright, this is matter-transportation test number.. Sixty four. Organic Material testing. Last test found that the small electromagnetic fields in all living things were enough to cause a fluctuation in the portals’ feedback routers, leading to drastic thermal runaway. Subsequent adjustments to the field modularity have been made, proceeding with test.” I pull the lever, the machines’ hums growing higher and higher as electricity arcs from the coil over the platform to the shield panels, growing in intensity before travelling down to the platform in exponentially faster pulses. A final bright flash makes me shield my eyes as a small sphere, about the size of an apple opens in midair. I blink as my eyes recover from the flash and clear my throat. “Perforation completed. Coordinates are twenty floors below this lab in storage room 246C. Subject: One Karem Plum.” I grab the orange fruit from a plate on the nearby control panel.

Tossing it between my hands as I climb up onto the platform, a sudden wave of nerves goes down my spine only to be shoved into the back of my head. “Performing Insertion.” I walk up to the small hole and with a well-aimed toss, throw the plum through. The portal widens for a moment as the whining noise fluctuates before returning to normal. “And..” I tap a button on the nearby panel, a camera feed to the room coming into focus. A flash of light blinds the camera before clearing, showing the plum sitting on a wood crate in the center of the room. “Good! Very good, the subject has emerged through the opposing portal and appears to be intact and unscathed. Excellent! Portal integrity remains stable. Commencing shut down.” I pull the lever back and the machines’ whine deepens as the power drains, for all of about four seconds. The portal flickers and jitters in place as the whine begins increasing rapidly. “Uhhh.. Aeries? It’s not.. It’s not shutting down, cut the power to this grid!” I stare as the orb begins to shake and twitch in place, the clear image through its center distorting and fading as sparks fly from the coil overhead.

“I can’t just cut the power Winter, you know that! It’s the only thing keeping that singularity from falling through the floor!” His voice is interrupted one of the shields creaks and buckles in the center, the structure bending and warping when the orb fluctuates towards it.

“Well that’s just a risk we’re going to have to take, do it now!!” I yell over the rattling and banging emanating from the machinery. The orb begins to grow, widening and humming like some great predator growling at the promise of food. The lights blink off and the coils humming suddenly and sharply drops off, but the bubble continues unfazed, sputtering and crackling with energy. I take a step back while keeping my eyes on it. “Aeries I don’t know if you can hear me but the portal is self-sustaining! If we are not exceptionally careful rig-” The orb suddenly sputters, an arc of electricity cracking like a whip into the floor in front of me, the whole surface of the orb rippling and contorting. I step back to make a run for it when the surface of the orb roils and spikes, like water in a blender, violently erupting towards me as my vision goes white.

Chapter Text

What happened next, I can’t really say. One minute I’m looking at the orb, the next, I’m lying on my back. It is dark, it is cold, and it is wet.

It took me a few minutes just lying there to figure out that I was, in fact, NOT dead, at least, if the pain was anything to go by. Everything hurt, my joints, my skin, even my eyes seemed to throb with my heartbeat. With my head still spinning I was able to piece together at least some information. I was in a concrete room, the lights were off, and a sprinkler was leaking water onto the floor. Not much but at least that answered my initial concerns. Finally mustering the energy to sit up I did so slowly, wincing as I got into a sitting position. Shelves, cardboard boxes, a mop and bucket.. Okay so I’m in some kind of storage closet. I groan and stand up, wobbling a little with dizziness, I blink as I look at the single door in the room, it was.. Bigger than me? That never happens.. So are the shelves.. I must have ended up in some storage room in the tower somewhere. I rub my face and clear my throat. “Aeries, uh status on the tower?” Silence. “Aeries? Hello?” I reach for a lightswitch on the wall and turn it on, the light above flickering on barely. “Okay so we’ve got power.. Aeries? You there?” I open the door and step through before freezing in place.

This.. Is not the tower.. At least nowhere I was familiar with.. The hall is dimly lit and clearly aging but at least it was dry. White concrete walls with a white, yellow, red and blue tiled vinyl flooring extended far to the right while to the left it ended abruptly at a thick steel door that was closed. I scratch my head as I look around and.. There’s that feeling again, I’d grown accustomed to my head being near the ceiling of most buildings thanks to my height but here? The scaling of things just seemed off. A mystery for another time perhaps. I need to find a way out of wherever this is, contact a ship to come pick me up, and get back home to see what the damage was like. Lost in thought as I walk I don't even notice what's on the floor until I’m startled by the clattering of hard plastic. Snapping my I eyes down to the noise I gasp softly and back up a couple steps. “The fuck is this..?” I’d stepped on some kind of hard plastic creature with insect-like wings and striped in yellow and black.. And it’s soaked in blood.. I pick up the metallic scent immediately after it’s disturbed, shuddering a little. I crouch down and look closer before tilting my head as I see the seams and plastic eyes. “A toy..? Eugh..” I stick my tongue out and wipe my boot on the floor a little before continuing to walk, now significantly more on edge.

As I walk down the halls the questions just keep adding up as I find another, this one some kind of robot painted in bright green. This one too is laid in a pool of blood. The immediate mental imagery of what could have caused such a thing far from encouraging. Spotting another door that isn’t locked, this one bright red and already ajar, I quickly walk to it and push it open. Finding myself in some kind of office I quickly get that odd feeling again.. I could actually fit in all this furniture. So either I managed to teleport to a room designed specifically for me, Or.. My ears fold back as I look down at myself, really look. I’ve shrunk.. No.. I’ve.. De-aged? Patting myself down, my breath quickening. My fins are shorter, less pointed, my chest flatter and my height? Reduced by a full four and a half feet give or take. My clothing is baggy and loose on my frame as I touch my face and start breathing heavier. This isn’t possible, this isn’t happening right!? You can’t just magically get younger from a messed up teleporter right!? Going back in my head over my memories, I was no older than maybe seventeen? Maybe sixteen?

“What a fucking mess..” I groan and rub my temple. Frowning I take a moment to adjust my clothes, rolling the jumpsuits legs. Looking at my tanktop I frown and shrug, untying the sleeves from around my hips before zipping it up over myself. That taken care of, I sweep the room again and step over to an odd device, a brown colored plastic box with a large slot in the center from which a similarly colored plastic rectangle pokes out. I curiously pull out the rectangle and examine it, two small windows showing the black tape inside. A white label reading “Elliot Ludwig Biography” is written in black ink.

“Oh! It’s a data tape of some kind! I haven’t seen one of these since.. Since I was like sixteen..? Tapes are sooo out of date.”
I huff and frown at the tape before inserting it into the slot, the machine whirring as it pulls the tape in, making a bunch of clicks and humming noises before I’m startled by a burst of static from the screen mounted on the wall.

The image blinks onto a set of buildings painted in garish colors as a piano begins playing a soft tune. "Playtime Co. is the product of a great man, by the name of Elliot Ludwig." I blink and tilt my head as I stare at the image, it’s clearly a bipedal person but, for some reason their head is covered by a large black square. Though from what I can see of his body, I have no idea what they even are. Some kind of mammal but only with hair on their head unlike many species I’d encountered.

"Divorced, but a family man at heart, his sights were always set on bringing amazing toys to amazing children around the globe." I watch as the image changes to a group photo of several men before showing a child's doll with a blue dress and vibrant red hair. Huh, well that’s a noble goal at least but that doll is seriously freaky.. I mean at least he seems like a decent guy if he went to all that trouble just to make kids happy.
"Ludwig spent countless hours in the factory, working overtime relentlessly in an attempt to continuously innovate and surprise." I smile “Man after my own heart heh..”
"In the 1960's, an unfortunate family death had pushed Ludwig down to his lowest." I frown as the image cycles to imagery of a burial site similar to many I’d seen as a child, though the imagery on the markers was completely foreign to me.
"But with so much ambition, he rose back up and continued to fulfill his vision for the Playtime Co. toy factory. Ludwig could never be content leaving a project unfinished, but just how did one man come to create such an astounding empire? How did he manage to stay determined, even after suffering such a tragic loss?"

"It all began in the fateful year of 19-"

A shriek of static makes me jump and squeak sharply as I grab my chest and double over. “Holy!” I gasp. “Gods below my heart.. Hmph..” I stick my tongue out at the screen before turning and looking at the rest of the room more thoroughly. A pretty standard office save for the vents that have been pulled open and tossed aside. I climb into the bigger of the two to see it leads to a sudden drop into some kind maintenance closet. With no way for me to get back up I instead return and find the other vent is just too small for me to fit through. Exiting the office and continuing my trek down the hall, looking for any kind of exit sign or really anything that could help me get out of this weird place..

Chapter Text

How long have I been just.. Walking? At least a few hours by now.. And through all kinds of just, convoluted, upside down and confusing pathways. Many of the halls had collapsed, forcing me through air vents and maintenance tunnels. Most of it was pretty samey and clearly hadn’t had anyone in them for a very very long time but there were some routes that stuck out. First there was that weird yellow hallway with a track going down the length of it. I thought I might have finally found a break from all the walking when I saw it but as I passed the opened gates I found the end of the track simply dropped into some seemingly bottomless pit.. Then there was that storage room for rejected toy ideas.. A spiral staircase that I was barely able to climb, with all the missing steps forcing me to make some pretty risky jumps to cross.

It was kinda weird actually, it was like walking behind a bulldozer in a forest, well.. Kinda. There was a trail I was following. Opened gates, repaired power junctions, open vents, that kind of thing. It made me hopeful I wasn’t the only one here at least. Assuming this was recent I might even be able to catch up to them!

With that extra bit of motivation I picked up my pace. Rounding a corner my attention is drawn to a mural of corporate logo, 'PlayTime Co.' with their mascot characters spread over top of it on the wall. They looked pretty cute! The big blue fluffy one looked like one I’d have loved to have as a kid. Smiling at the thought as I head into the next room, eyes widening as I look across the significantly larger room. It looked like some huge children's playground built in front of a raised platform. It would have been pretty fun looking if it weren’t for the spider webs full of bloodied toys.. And the darkness.. Eugh.. And the rust.. Stepping out cautiously into the open space I repeatedly glanced up at the ceiling, my nerves on edge.

Approaching the platform I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. “Wait, what in the world is a train station doing out here?” I stop for a moment and facepalm. “Game Station, Train Station, got it.” My voice echoes off the walls making me wince slightly at how much it bounces around the room, thankful no one was around to hear me babbling to myself as I had since waking up. A nervous tic I thought I'd grown out of from when I was a kid..

Seeing a bench on the walkway I take the chance to rest and take stock of my situation. “So, I’m in some kind of toy factory owned by this “PlayTime” company.. Judging by the colorful halls and the data tapes I guess they let kids and their parents come tour the place? It certainly fits that like, museum-ey, showing off kinda.. Thing..” I frown, maybe that was assuming too much but it's what I would do if I owned the place. “Well, it's clearly been shut down or abandoned for a while..” Glancing at the broken fake windows and rusted metal supports along the ceiling. “Starting to think I'm a little further off target than I thought.. Aeries recovery program had details on every facility on Solarius and none of them come close to matching this. The architecture doesn't match any thing from home either.. Add the tapes and the older tech?” I frown at the thought. It was a big universe, not crazy to think the experiment might have catapulted me way further than I intended. It was a wormhole after all.

Standing and electing to explore around more I hop down from the platform onto the tracks. Following them to the yawning opening of a darkened tunnel that, unnervingly, seems to descend deeper into wherever this place was. I can only see a few meters in before the darkness completely swallows up the track. Staring into the wide void as a chill draft blows from it, making me shift nervously. I never liked the dark, even as a kid. Memories of nights in the pitch black when the power grid would brown out. Or the full month I was assigned to work in a lab at the bottom of the Systerrus Trench.. I tug my tail against my front nervously, twiddling my fingers at the memories. A chill goes up my spine as I quickly let go of it, opening and closing my hands as I lower them to my sides. Another childhood nervous tic coming to the surface as I glare at the darkness. It was.. A weird feeling to say the least.

Walking back to the platform I look at the levers once more and shrug. “Best case I find a flashlight somewhere, worst case I feel silly playing some kids game.” I grab the left most one and give it a tug before frowning when it refuses to budge. The lights on a sign that reads “Musical Memories” flicker on momentarily before sputtering out.

A boisterous female voice crackles from speakers on the ceiling. “Sorry kids! Looks like Musical Memories is out of service right now! Try again next time!”

“Ah well.. Memory games were never my forte anyways..” Trying the next one it clicks down with a satisfying clunk.

“Whoa! You did fantastic! Who gave you permission to be this smart?” She laughs and I can’t help but smile a bit. “Mommy is super proud of you! But I'm sure she's already told you that herself. Our next game is Wack-a-Wuggy! Head downstairs and have fun!”

I blink as the large door on the floor rolls open, revealing a staircase going down to another hallway. “Wack-a-Wuggy huh? Cute name I guess.” Heading down the hall I notice a closet door hanging open with a sign labelled “Grab-Pack Storage” on the wall. Peeking inside and finding the closet mostly taken up by a large rack on the wall nearly full of some kind of backpack with hands on them behind a fence gate. “I mean.. Yeah that checks out. Very.. Grabby.” I narrow my eyes curiously when I spot the far corner of the fence had been bent open. I shrug and slip through the fence, for once thankful for my smaller size as I pick one off the wall sized for teens. Slipping it on, I grab the control triggers curiously and point it at the ceiling. The blue hand makes a pneumatic POP as it fires up into the ceiling, dust falling from the aged tiles as I cough and sputter. “Pblblbt! Aah! Bleh.. I got thum in my mouf.. Blech, bleh..” I haven't missed water quite as much as I do now as I scrape at my tongue in disgust. “Surprised these things still work! Though, a bit weird that they’d make a tool like this just for a kids game..”

Stepping back into the hall I continue along to the far end, greeted by a large hexagonal room with sand all over the floor and dark holes of varying sizes all around the walls. As I step through a large metal door slides shut behind me, making me jump when it thuds closed. “Woah, uh..” I squeak a little as the aged speakers crackle on.

"Welcome to Wack-a-Wuggy."
"This advanced test is designed to assess the extent of your reactionary abilities." I tilt my head. “Oh it’s a big game of Smash Stoads! I loved this game growing up!”
"A dual palm GrabPack will be provided to you for this test." I nod with a smile and hold the two hands up like I was dual wielding pistols..
"Around you are 18 sizable holes. An adorable Huggy Wuggy toy could appear out of any one of these holes." I smile. “Oh my goodness that’s their name? Yeah I’d definitely have had like four when I was a kid.” I giggle at the thought.
"If one comes out, hit it with your GrabPack." I nod. “Easy enough!”
"That's all. Good luck!”

“Huh, well alright, let’s do this!” I grin and aim the plastic hands, eyes darting from hole to hole, and.. Nothing. I slowly lower my weapons in confusion. “Aww, is this thing broken too? I was actually looking forward to the-” My eyes lock onto one of the holes, a single pair of white dots hovering in the center. I feel my heart jump into my throat as a dull, metallic thumping becomes audible, quiet at first but growing louder. The eyes in the hole moving closer as I squint to see it better, a floppy toy crawls towards the edge slowly, its fur a dark purple with red lips split in a wide grin lined with needle-like teeth. “W-What the hell is.. that.” The creature screeches, a sharp, grating whistling noise, before I reflexively fire the blue hand uselessly slapping into the wall as the toy hisses, barring it's teeth in time to get punted the small beast backwards into the hole as it screeches away. My breathing picks up faster and faster as I look between the holes, all precepts of excitement gone as I start seeing more eyes staring out at me from the dark openings. “Shit shit shit, SHIT!” I turn and fire at one, then another. The room echoing with the shrill cries and dull thumping of the small toys in the pipes.

Spinning around in a panic I almost miss it when one crawls forward, limbs splayed around the edge of the hole, winding itself up to jump. I desperately yank my packs arm over but it’s still reeling back in when the toy leaps. My heart jumps into my throat as I clench my eyes shut and scream out in fear. The moment the hand clicks back into place I fire without looking, hitting the toy square in the head with a disproportionately soft sounding thump. Barely registering in my panic as it careens into the ground. Mewling pitifully before going limp. Whirling around at the other holes in my panic it takes a few moments to notice the screeches quieting down. The eyes in the tubes darting from the fallen toy back to me again as I practically hyperventilate, pointing the pack at every hole with shaking arms. And just like that, it ends, a soft musical jingle playing as I jump at the sound. Upon hearing it I see the eyes in the holes start to dart away quickly. My eyes turn back to the one on the ground as I keep the arms trained on the holes around me. With all the shaking and flailing I barely register when a small opening on the side of the Grab-Packs right arm swings open, a flashlight mounted to it flickering on for the first time in years. My heart pounds in my ears as I slowly realize the threat is gone. Drop the arms to my sides and put my hands over my eyes. "Holy shit. Calm down. You need to calm down, and think. Just-"

A whimpering noise snaps my attention to the toy on the floor as I scramble to grab the arms at my sides, pointing both hands at it, the light from the flashlight glinting off its plastic eyes. The toy shields its face from the light and the perceived threat, eyes darting to each of the plastic hands then to my face. It scrambles to rear back into a defensive posture, hissing and baring its teeth at me again. “Woah hey!! Good little uh.. Wuggy..?” I look behind me but the door I came through remains shut. Looking back at the toy I notice the way it’s standing seems unsteady, their left leg was clearly bent at an odd angle and shaking a little. “Are.. Are you.. Damaged?” I ask, more out of panic than actually caring or even thinking the thing could speak.

They growl, keeping its eyes locked onto me. My breathing slows as I look at it, finally having a moment to think.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this.. Um..” I lower myself onto my knees. “L-Look uh.. I want to get out of here a-and you're hurt s-so, how about a trade? If you come here I can try to fix your leg, and then you just.. Leave me alone?” I tilt my head at it and let go of the Grab-Pack hands before holding out a hand to it. The toys’ eyes flick to my hand then back up to me before it hisses and limps backwards. “Oh come on, don’t be like that, you were the one that jumped at me after all!” Still the toy doesn’t move as I frown. “Alright..” Stumped as to what to do I put my hands in my baggy pockets with a sigh. "Mm?" My brows raise as I pull out a candy bar I’d forgotten about from nearly a week ago.

Watching the fuzzy green Wuggy for a moment my ear fins perk up. It’s eyes we’re now locked firmly onto the candy bar in my hand. “Wuh.. Do you want this? But you’re just a toy..” It sniffs at the air some and lowers its arms slowly. “Hmm.. Alright, how about this trade then? You come here and let me try and fix your leg, and I’ll give you a piece of this chocolate bar?” I blink, the ridiculousness of the situation crossing my mind for only a moment. “I swear if I’m just being an idiot and you can’t actually understand me..” I roll my eyes but tilt my head as I see the toy take a hesitant step towards me. “Oh so you can understand me now?” I snort a little and shake my head some before moving my legs to sit criss-cross. Opening the bar I break a square off and hold it out in my palm. Swallowing nervously as I watch the toy slowly approach. It's eyes locked on mine before reaching out and snatching the piece out of my hand, chomping down on the piece like a feral animal. I wince a little as I watch and rub my neck nervously. “Eheh.. Glad you’re uh.. Enjoying that..”

With the chocolate square gone in seconds the toy looks back at me and tilts its head a little. “You know, you’re actually kinda cute when you’re not trying to like, eat my eyes or whatever.” I chuckle as I hold my hand out. “Can I see your leg now please?” The toy glances at my hand then back up at me. Giving it a soft smile it makes a soft sound before taking another limping step to sit on my palm. “Thank you.” I half smile and lift it up, using my other hand I gently lift the hurt leg, making the toy squeak in discomfort through it’s smile.

“You know I just realized I have no idea what could even be hurting you here.. You’re just fabric and stuffing after all..” The toy chuffs and crosses its little arms. “Okay okay, that came out wrong, sorry.” I roll my eyes but smile. “Well.. Since I don’t see any obvious damage..” I reach down and tear a small strip of cloth from my jumpsuit, shifting my position so I can sit the toy down on my thigh before wrapping it’s knee in the fabric, tying it up firmly as the toy tilts its head. “There we go, that feel any better?” The toy looks up at me before slowly standing on the sandy floor, putting its leg down experimentally before looking back up at me and nodding. “Good! I.. This is just so weird.. I’m talking to a toy.. Reminds me of playing pretend doctor when I was really little.” I chuckle softly and give the Wuggy a gentle pet on the head. The toy purrs and squeaks as it leans into the pet, a soft warmth spreading in my chest.

“Okay okay, you’re actually adorable little guy. Well, uh.. I gotta get going okay? Gotta find a way out of this place, don’t suppose you know of one do ya?” The toy shakes its head and chitters sadly. “Figured, thanks anyways.” I half smiled and gently set the toy on the ground. It tilts its head up at me as I look around, the large door still closed behind me. “How am I gonna get out of here anyways?” They chirp and scurry towards one of the holes in the wall, their limp still present but not nearly as bad. I frown and huff a little. “Oh well uh, okay..? You're welcome?” A few moments pass as I stand, looking around for some clear way out when I spot movement up in the large window overlooking the room. I have to squint a little but I see the little Wuggy climb onto a control panel of some kind. A few more moments pass as I see the toy rub its head while looking at the panel before it stomps on one of the buttons. The door behind me squeaks and whirring loudly as it lifts back up into the ceiling. “Oh! Okay thank you little guy!!” I yell up at them and giggle when they wave to me. I wrap the chocolate bar back up and put it in my pocket as I walk back up the stairs to the Game Station.

For a moment I consider going back for the little Wuggy but ultimately decide, as tempting as it was and as lonely as I’d found the trip so far, that tunnel was likely going to be no place for something so delicate. Taking a deep breath I walk back to the tracks and the looming darkness of the tunnel. I flick the flashlight on and grip the pack a little tighter before starting down. “It’s gonna be a long night, I can tell already..”

Chapter Text

“Shi-it!” I hiss and growl, pointing the light down at the tracks. If I nearly twist my ankle one more damn time I'm gonna start thinking it's personal. Hmph. Looking ahead once more I feel a pit opening in my stomach. The track just keeps going deeper and deeper underground.. I’d been walking for nearly an hour if my clock was right, just down, down, down.. The only other feature I’d seen was a separate tunnel that had split off but at some point had collapsed.

Letting out a long sigh I adjust my jumpsuit as I walk. My ears perk up as the track starts to level out. My chest tightens as an acrid chemical scent greets my nose the further I go. “Eugh.. What the heck is tha-” Don't move. Don't move an inch. My instincts scream as a vague looming shape looms over me, a pair of white dots peering down from the inky blackness. I shakily raise my light up to it, greeted by the cold hard eyes of.. a train car? I blink before letting out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. Resting a hand on my chest as I looked at the thing again. It was definitely a train car, but it was far from intact. The whole thing was upside down, laying on its roof. The bulk of it was burned and blackened by fire while the steel bumpers on the end reflected my flashlight like a pair of eyes. “Fucken hell.. Get a hold of yourself girl, jumpin at shadows here..” My voice echoes as I approach the train, shining my light around before walking to the right of it and squeezing through the wreckage. Another car is sandwiched behind the first and nearly crushed completely. I thank my luck when I find a way to squeeze through one of the windows. Climbing out of the missing door on the opposite side before shimmying my way around the side of a very odd looking locomotive, taking a moment to get a good look at it. It looked to be made mostly of plastic on the outside, much of which had melted and pooled in half blackened piles around the wreck. Thankfully it had been a while since whatever accident had occurred and the fire was long extinguished. I can’t help but cough and cover my nose as I squeeze past the wreckage, the smell of burnt plastic still potent in the air.

Walking ahead cautiously my ears perk up as I approach a station. I scrabble and pull myself up onto the platform with a grunt, brushing myself off as I look around. I grimace as I’m greeted by the smiling face of a huge Huggy Wuggy standing proud with its hands on its hips, crimson splatters across its face and chest. Four turn-styles separating the station from a staircase leading up and out of sight. The walls are the same childlike colors with similarly bright tiles, and seemingly recently decorated in pools and sprays of blood. I begin to feel sick to my stomach as I take in the scene around me, my breathing picking up as I swing the light around, finding more and more splatters of red across the room. “W-What the fuck happened here..?” A sinking feeling grows in my core as I see the amount of pools that have toys in them, all of them shredded and dismembered. “I don’t.. I don’t understand..” I close my eyes and take a deep breath, trying to ignore the coppery smell of the stale air. Clenching my fists at my sides I hurriedly step past the turnstiles, avoiding the bloodied steps as I climb the flight up to a new floor, this one similarly “decorated” in red. It’s a smaller room, more of a rest stop than anything. A couple of benches, some vending machines, and a smaller platform in the center. The far wall opens into a tunnel with a track attached to the ceiling that descends into a dark tunnel beyond. “Gosh what is up with this place and needlessly long passages..?” I groan. “So how do I-” I’m cut off as I hear a creaking, squeaking of aged wheels. A small glass gondola rattling up into the station and thudding to a stop at the edge, the doors sliding open with a creak. "Okay.. I don't have a rationality for that one.." Turning as I look around the room I nearly jump out of my skin when a brash, loud, voice calls out. "Hey! I'm KickinChicken! Wanna go outside and hang out?" Scrambling to find the source I nearly trip when the wood cutout on face down on the floor skids out from under my boot.

"Can we stop please!? This is ridiculous!!" I hiss and stomp over, grabbing the offending thing to see my attackers face. Raising a brow at the toony looking avians wide grin and dark eyes staring back at me. "Oookay.. That's.. Mmm.." The offending Try me! button makes me glare before I press it again. "It's looking pretty rad outside! Looking back at the character I shake my head a little. "You're a weird lil dude, guy.." click I've.. Never been outside before.

"What..?" click "Will you come with me? I'm scared.." My shoulders droop at the genuine fear that comes across in their gruff voice. "Here, follow me! I'll step out first.." click Distorted, crackling screams echo around the small room as I throw the thing away from myself in surprise, staring at it even after the screams have stopped. "Okay what the actual fuck..?" Sigh. Just another why to add to the list I guess.. Folding my arms anxiously I slowly walk up to the carriage, looking at it then back the way I’d come from, debating the decision. “I’ve made it this far I guess..”

The doors creak shut and the gondola rattles as it begins rolling forward down through the darkened tunnel, the walls lined with steel reinforcement and snaking cables. “Why leave all this exposed like this?” The engineer in me shakes its head as I sit on one of the four seats while looking out the dirty glass. A crackle of static makes me blink as I look up at a small screen in the corner. “Damn, they really love their instructional videos around here eheh..” I laugh nervously as the once again censored face of Elliot Ludwig appears in the image.

“Hello! My name is Elliot Ludwig.”
"When you look around at the world today, what one thing do you think it needs more of? I asked around once: ‘Money, I never have enough.’, ‘Understanding, I can never get any.’ ‘Faith, the common man has lost it.’ Each answer was different.. and I could perhaps see some little truth in each. But I think each was also missing something. Something.. Simple."

I raise a brow at the screen. “You’re gonna say something so sappy I can feel it.” My eyes flick to the window and widen as I reach up and rub at the dirty glass with my hand. The gondola leaves the narrow tunnel into an absurdly massive cavern. Towering stalactites hang from the ceiling with the gondola track curving between them towards a large steel dome structure where the track disappears into an opening in the side. “Woah.. What..?” I stand, staring at the structure.

"You see, not one of them could muster a smile..”
I glance at the screen for a second and just shake my head. “Called it.” My expression souring as I go back to looking at the cavern.

“A smile is hope. A smile is love. A smile is understanding. And there is nothing more gratifying to my soul than being the reason for a child's smile. To be the spark that ignites all their hopes and dreams. For it is only through hopes and dreams that we may create a better world! One where our children need not be afraid! One where they are protected.. After all, this company and its toys are nothing without them. These children deserve to smile, they deserve to love, and they deserve a safe Home.."

Even as the gondola approaches the eerie red glow of the entrance, I can’t help but half smile at his words. “Alright, consider my heart strings plucked Mister Ludwig..”

"That is why it is with enormous pleasure that as the founder of Playtime Co., I announce..”

My eyes widen as the gondola passes through a swirling cloud of red fog before soft, warm light fills the cab.

“PlayCare!”

The scene that greets me is both comforting and oddly disquieting. The curving interior walls of the dome are painted to look like a blue sky with fake clouds hanging from the ceiling by thick cables. The very center of the high ceiling has a huge, slowly spinning ventilation fan with warm orange light shining through it from some hidden source above. The center of the large room is taken up by a circular pedestal, a set of statues in a circle around the edge save for one which has collapsed onto the ground. Each of the statues looked to be toys that I hadn’t seen. A pathway wrapping around the statue and snaking around to various small structures around the dome, bright green grass and multicolored flowers in between. Each of the buildings was unique in design but decidedly, cartoon-y? Is that even a word? Anyways, the biggest one looked like some kind of government building if the concrete making up the entire ornate structure was anything to go by. Another looked like a large two story house with a warm glow coming from the windows. I think the third was a school, it even looked a lot like some of the older schools back on Solaris. I’m not even going to hazard a guess how that came to be.. Another of the buildings looked to be a toy store judging by the sign, it was two stories and made of brick and concrete with large dark windows on the front. And finally a large yellow and red circus tent structure with a sign over the door labelled “Playhouse” with stars arching over it. All of the spaces in between are decorated with gazebos and bushes, one even had a swimming pool.

“Our very own onsite orphanage! But it's not only that. It's a school, a playhouse, a place to belong! Our very own ecosystem beneath the surface, dedicated in every inch and detail to ensuring a child's smile! It's teachers and counselors, mothers and fathers, until such a time they have all of that in you! May Playcare bring joy, inspiration, and smiles to all who enter these doors! For what gives life its meaning, if not a smile?"

A somber feeling settles in my chest as I take in the scene around me, imagining it without the decay and crimson splatters. This must have been a decent place to grow up before it ended up like.. This.. Minus the lack of sunlight I suppose. “Well.. At least it’s well lit..” I rub the back of my head as I step out onto the staircase that goes down the side of one of the artificial hills to the center. The path is lined with bushes and electric lights like the entrance to a cosy garden or park. Frowning a little when I see the way the light reflects off the leaves I run my hand over the leaves of the bushes, a layer of dust getting left on my hand. “Plastic.. Figures..”

As I follow the path I look up at the statues in the center curiously. Each one is a cartoon style animal character with an unnaturally wide open mouth smile. A canine of some kind, another with long slender ears, another with a weird sort of tentacle for a nose and wide ears, a hoofed animal with a prominent nose and pointed ears, some kind of horned equine, that avian with a small beak I recognized from earlier, and a soft looking one with round ears. The last was completely unrecognizable, smashed into rubble when it fell off the pedestal. My eyes are drawn to a series of plaques circling the podium under each statue, reading the first before looking up at the statue. “DogDay.. Aw I like him already, he’s cute!”

Noticing a button in the corner labelled ‘Push Me!’ I shrug and push it. A happy sounding masculine voice practically beaming out of the speaker. “DogDay says: Fetch!!” I half smile and circle around, reading each of the plaques and pushing their respective buttons. “I’m Hoppy Hoppscotch! Wanna jump to the Moon with me?”, “I’m Bubba Bubbaphant! Hey! I remember you!”, “I’m PickyPiggy! Let’s eat!”, “I-I’m CraftyCorn.. Can you help me with my painting? Pass me the blue please!”, “I’m KickenChicken! Wanna go outside and hang out?”, “I’m Bobby Bearhug! Wanna know how much I love you?”

The distraction was at least a nice reprieve from the dark dreary atmosphere everywhere else but I can’t help frowning a little when I come to the collapsed statue. Their plaque had been snapped off the wall when it crumbled. Digging it up, I lean it against the wall so I can read it. “‘CatNap is a calming presence for the Critters and ensures he and his friends always have the right amount of sleep to jump-start the morning's play! End of the day, there’s nothing CatNap enjoys more than watching his friends sleep soundly..’ Hmm.. Wording's a little questionable at the end there but.. Still! These guys are adorable! I think this one’s my favorite though. Gosh, how long has it been since I slept..?” I groan and rub a hand over my face, momentarily forgetting the eerie atmosphere.

"Granted the way that Kickin display back there did I-" My ears shoot up suddenly as a chill creeps down my spine, the feeling of being watched forming a pit in my stomach. Grabbing the handles of my grab-pack and bringing them up I scan around myself. “H-Hello..? Is anybody here!?” I call out, louder, my voice sounding lonely in the silence. “Okay, deep breaths. This place is clearly empty.. Just gotta.. Focus on a way forward.” I close my eyes and take a deep breath. Upon opening them again I freeze in place as there, standing across the path from me, another person does the same.

“AAAA-” I scream and jump back. It really was a person! Another of those mammals I’d seen in the tapes, wearing a yellow shirt and blue jeans. They looked decidedly male but that was all the detail I could get before they fired their own Grab-Pack at me. Hitting me square in the chest and knocking me onto my back as the wind is knocked out of my chest. “Hhhwhat-” As I struggle to recover my breath I hear his footsteps go around me, rolling onto my side I watch him sprint across the path to the school building. I reach out and gasp “W-Wait!” But if he heard me he didn't heed it, unlocking the door with a key and running inside. I roll onto my back and groan, struggling to catch a breath. “Ow ow ow..” Okay, so there is at least someone else here! That’s the good news! But they didn’t seem exactly friendly either. Scrambling to my feet and clutching my chest, I hobble quickly to the schools’ door and try to open it but it's locked shut. “Fuck.. Fuck, fuck!” I kick the door. “Well screw you too dude!!” I growl, hissing through my teeth. Getting my breath back slowly I sigh.

Following his steps back to where he came from. I round the side of the statues in the center and spot an opening at the base, a maintenance section. Heading inside I cautiously peer through the darkness, only a few dim lights helping me to see the tables of broken parts and tools. Extra materials and supplies for repairing the buildings, that kind of thing. One corner has a handful of extra furniture stored away, a couch, some pillows and stacked chairs. To the right I feel another chill as my eyes widen, a large colorful machine with some unknown purpose sits in ruin. Pieces of it smashed and falling off, which wouldn’t have worried me so much if not for the long claw marks cleaving through the metal. Approaching and running my hand over one of them I swallow nervously, my mouth suddenly feeling incredibly dry. “W-What the hell did this..?” Well that certainly explains the strangers’ reaction, I’d probably assume I was some kind of monster if there was something here that could do this.. Tearing my eyes away from the claw marks and feeling significantly more on edge, I circle around to the other side of the room.

There’s a wide terminal displaying the power status of another machine set into the wall, a tall thing with thick cables feeding from an array of plugs on the side. The center has a locked glass door with a large battery set into it, the display showing ‘50%’ in dimly glowing text. “The hell? So this is.. Collecting energy from..” I squint at the screen. “The backup generators in the other buildings? Why does each generator only provide some of the power? Wouldn’t it just charge over time? I guess it could require a large burst of energy to charge but.. That would make this a capacitor, not a battery. Which makes even less sense.” I put my hands on my hips, nibbling my lip as I think before getting interrupted by a weird grumbling noise to my left. Jumping a little as my eyes snap to a plastic tube that swoops down from the ceiling, a small item swings down a thin metal track inside the tube, making a soft tink as it lands on a hook sticking out of the end. “That’s.. New..” I hesitantly walk over and look closer, a key? Picking it up I look it over, just a normal utility key but with a tag reading ‘PLAYHOUSE’ in black marker on a strip of tape, scratched and faded with age, though the white tape has an odd reddish tinge to it. “Uh.. Okay. Right. Sure! Why not? Let’s just add Mysterious Benefactor to the list of mysteries!” I growl and kick a desk in frustration, the days building stress and fears bubbling up. What the fuck was my luck!? Teleported to this place of all things! Out of the entire Galaxy, I end up in this crumbling.. Kaleidoscope! I close my eyes and take a deep breath while flexing my hands. Looking down at the key in my hand, I furrow my brow at it as I think.

I need answers. Obviously, something is seriously seriously wrong here. The questions just keep stacking up. How does a factory this large just for making toys end up just abandoned and left to rot? Why the hell would you build an orphanage underground of all places? How does a toy walk around and show pain when it’s damaged? Why is there so, so much blood..? I furrow my brow and nod, I may have started out just trying to find a way out but.. I need to know now.. As my nerves build in my chest I march up the stairs. “I can do this.” I repeat to myself, trying to convince myself it’s true. Jogging up the steps back onto the street I hurry to the Playhouse, eyeing the words painted in crimson on the walls.. Slipping the key into the lock and pulling the door open slowly, I nearly nope out then and there at the dark multicolored hallway beyond. “I can do this.."

Chapter Text

As I enter I’m immediately hit by the smell, a mixture of decaying plastic, mildew and the faint metallic tang of blood and rot. I nearly gag as my stomach tightens, the taste of bile in the back of my throat. I take a step inside and stagger some when the floor squishes under my boot. Every surface past the door is layered in foam with colored plastic on top to make the whole place look like it was made of life size wooden blocks though it’s heavily faded and damaged in areas with large tears showing the decaying foam underneath.

Flicking the light on my Grab-Pack on I start walking down the short hallway deeper into the structure, eyes darting around at every moving shadow. “Aaalright, hate this hate this, hate hate hate!” I hissed under my breath, heart thumping so loud I worried it might jump from my chest.

Shining the light up to the ceiling I purse my lips at a particularly damaged and sagging section of foam when I suddenly find the world rising up to meet me when the floor drops beneath my foot, yelping in surprise as I tumble forward. The floor panels spring loaded hinges squeak sharply as I’m dumped down the ramp onto a wide plastic slide that sends me careening downwards into the dark. In my panicked attempts to stop or slow myself I end up going into a wild spin for a couple seconds before hitting the bottom sideways. Rolling several feet I yelp as I slam into a softened wall with a dull thud.

Untangling my limbs I wince and hiss as I slowly manage to sit up, eyes spinning in my skull as the dizziness starts to fade. Putting a hand on my head to stop the world spinning. Thankfully no worse for wear thanks to the foam padding. I stand and shine my light up the slide with a frown, I must have dropped at least a couple stories..

A faint shuffle yanks my attention to the floor, whirling around to face the sound as I try to turn my light back on, squeaking audibly when the light flicks on for a moment before sputtering and slowly fading out, leaving me in the dim glow of the few remaining lights down here. Following the source of the sound my eyes lock onto a broken hole in the far wall from me. My heartbeat rocketed once more as a living toy, the first I’d seen since the Wuggy earlier, crawled from the hole. The little creature is torn and damaged, a gash going from its shoulder to its chest revealing the stained white and brown stuffing inside. The wide grinning face looks at me, one of the plastic eyes dangling by a thread.

It was a uh.. Bubby? Bobby! Bobby Bearhug I think was the name right..? Its chipped heart pendant clinks as the toy hesitates upon seeing me. I swallow nervously as it stares at me. Every nightmare I’d had as a child of black eyed monsters flooding back at once. I take a shaky breath and give the toy a nervous wave. “H-H-Hey there.. L-Little guy uh..” It tilts its head and steps towards me. “Ehehe okay! Um..” I take a step back, the Grab-Pack rattling softly as I shiver. The toy lets out a warped, crackling child's giggle as it begins walking closer, taking cautious steps to close the distance as I find my legs frozen in place while my eyes follow it.

It stops at my feet, still looking up at me as it tilts its head and giggles once more. “Eheh..Uh, a-are you gonna be f-friendly?” The toy tilts its head the other way and puts its front legs on my boot, looking straight up at me. “O-Okay eheh..” I bend down slowly and cautiously extend a hand, giving the toy a soft pat on the head to which the toy giggles again and leans into the petting, the glowing eye that’s visible still looking up at my face. “H-Hey, okay. Maybe y’all aren’t so bad after all..” A clatter of wood on wood to my side makes me snap my head towards the sound. The toy at my foot suddenly lunges and bites down hard onto my hand making me yelp and yank it back, tearing bloody lines through my hand as I fall back, hissing and grabbing at the wound.

I grimace and whine, kicking my legs and leaning on my elbow as I scratch and push myself away from the toy, tiny jagged teeth now visibly poking through the fabric of its mouth as it crawls after me. Keeping my eyes locked onto it I roll to my side and scramble to my feet, running around a corner and further down the hallway I’d fallen into. I nearly fall on my face as I trip over another little toy, this one a tattered green bunny, I barely acknowledge it and keep running. Heart pounding, left, right, my hand stings as I hit a wall when taking the turn too hard, right, right, left, they’re everywhere!! Every corner, every crack a set of glowing eyes peers at me and giggles in that broken sounding voice.

I can’t breathe, my lungs burn with each pull of the fetid air. But I can’t stop, not here. Down. My boot goes right through a layer of rotted plywood covering a hole in the floor and I plummet through, my head bouncing off the foam flooring hard enough for me to see stars. This isn’t right. More giggling from the walls around me. It wasn’t supposed to go like this. To fall apart so soon? I thought.. My vision swims as I see an orange and yellow blur crawling towards me as I lay stunned on the floor. Move. You need to move. Come on!! Why won’t my legs work!?

My muscles burn in my limbs as I try what little I can to lift myself into a crawl. I turn to keep going before stopping dead in my tracks when a bright orange tube is aimed at me, my pupils shrinking as I stare at the barrel of some kind of weapon. A voice speaks, I barely hear it but something in me must have as my muscles act on their own.
“Drop now!!”

My arms cover my head as I fall to the floor. A poomf noise fills the hall as a ball of light flies strikes the toy in the back. It emits a sharp squeal and drops to the floor, rolling wildly to put out the flames. The person promptly runs forward and kicks the smouldering furball with a grunt, sending the toy over my head to crack into the padded wall with a meaty thump before falling to the floor, still and smouldering.

Uncovering my head I roll over to see the still smoking barrel levelled at my head. It was almost comical, an orange hand shaped like a finger gun attached to a Grab-Pack as my eyes followed the arm up to their face. He’s tall, at least six feet with short dirt brown hair that is matted with sweat and dust. Various scratches and scrapes marr his pale skin while dirt and blood spatter his torn yellow shirt. A large bandage covers most of what I can make out as three parallel scratches on his cheek. His jeans and boots are equally dirtied by grime and other stains as he stares at me with a mix of surprise and alarm.

“Fuck, you’re not human!?” He groans and curses before jumping to point the hand at me again. “So what the fuck are you? Some other monster locked in here to kill me?!”

I lift my hands up as I try unsuccessfully to back away with my legs. “W-What.. I.. N-No no! I don’t even know where exactly I am, I-I am not your enemy!!”

“Right, I’m supposed to believe that! Give me one reason I shouldn’t burn those plastic eyes out of your head and leave you to the critters in here!?”

“B-Because! Think about it!! If I was your enemy, w-why would they be attacking me!? I’m just as trapped in here as you are!! A-And!” I raise my hands higher. “And! W-We can help each other to get out of this place, watch each other’s backs!”
He narrows his eyes at me, my desperate tone making my plea’s sound hollow even to me.

He seems to debate, eyes hard as he stares me down before he grimaces and hisses through his teeth. “Tch.. Fine, but only till we’re out of this hole. And I swear if this is some kind of bait so you can offer me up to that smiling critter reject or that prototype whatever the fuck, I will kill you.”

I gulp, a look of confusion crossing my face for a moment before I look at the flare gun in his hand again and nod shakily. “I-I don’t even know w-what or uh.. Who? Those are so eheh..” I grin nervously and rub the back of my head before trying to extend a hand for a help up.

He pointedly ignores my hand and rolls his eyes as he lowers the flare gun. “Right, sure ya don’t. Doesn’t take a PHD to see you're just another one of these plastic rejects, Fish. Not like there are normally walking talking sharks out there.” He glares. “You one of those..? The hell were they called.. Nightmare Critters. They had a shark I think.”

I open my mouth to speak before thinking better of it and rolling onto my side and standing, holding my hand against my front gingerly. “R-Right, uh, you got me eheh..” I try to think quickly, stumbling over my words. “I-I just recently woke up. Something knocked my uh.. Crate over and I just kinda, fell out eheh..”

He raises a brow at me. “Uhuh.. Right. God if this really is a trick they must be fucken desperate to send you, you’re terrible at this.”

I frown and my ears fold back a little but don’t say anything as I tear another length of fabric from my jumpsuit, one leg of my jumpsuit only going down to my knee now as I wrap my hand with it. “D-Do you have any idea where to go from here? I’m completely turned around now..” I glance over my shoulder and around us. We’d stopped in a smaller padded chamber, a couple of circular tunnels on the wall opposite where we’d come from going deeper into the structure. The multicolored plastic and stuffy air was not helping the taste of bile in the back of my throat.

“What do I look like, a GPS?” He shakes his head. “No, I don’t. Look just, go left, I’ll go right. Yell if you see a way through or something.” Before I can even respond he turns and climbs into one of the tunnels.

“O-Okay uh.. Go team eheh..” I sigh and run a hand down my face before crawling into my own tunnel. I’d been freaked out by my loss of height when I arrived but I had to admit, the smaller size made squeezing through easier as I kept a weather eye ahead of me. The tunnel turning right after a few feet and opening into a large playroom similar in size to those indoor play areas at fast food restaurants I’d frequented back home.

I stand and brush myself off as I get a lay of the place. The large room is divided into two floors. I was standing on a balcony that ran along the whole wall on this side with ramps on each end leading down into a maze of colorful brick walls that made up the bottom floor. In the center of the room a central column runs floor to ceiling, the side facing me has an open wall through which I can see a light from some kind of electrical box.

On the far side I could see another door but it was blocked by piles of broken debris and foam padding. Connected to the center I notice a large metal beam connected to a circular foam pad, judging by the positioning I figure it must have rotated around the central pillar at some point right over the top of the foam maze, the walls of which I could tell only came up to my shoulders. Whoever designed this place must have really taken the whole “kids are made of rubber” mantra to heart.. I look up to see a light coming from a tunnel on the other end of the balcony symmetrical to mine. The, what was it he said? Human? Climbed out and surveyed the area for a moment before noticing me.

“See a way through?” He peers out into the darkened room.

“Yeah, past the rubble there.. I can see another door but,” I frown. “I don’t know how we’re supposed to get to it.”

He shakes his head and frowns. “There’s a way through, always is. These things are obsessed with making games outta this shit I swear. That or Playtime did it but I wasn’t around for that meeting..”

I tilt my head at him curiously.

He groans. “Forget I said anything.”

A distant giggle makes us both go to alert suddenly, then another, more and more crackling laughter echoing in the darkness as my heart jumps to my throat. “Shit, we better do something fast dude!”

He looks around rapidly, eyes darting across the room. “That spinning platform! If we turn it on we can use it! Get to that panel I’ll cover you!”

I nod and run towards the edge looking over the maze, leaping across to land on the circular platform. As I ready myself to jump to the panel I let out a yelp as searing pain radiates through my tail, a Kickin toy latching onto my fin..

“I have had just about enough of these things!” I growl and swing myself around, slamming my tail fin against the metal beam beneath me with a satisfying thud and screech as the toy bangs off it and falls to the floor below. Not wasting any time I step onto the beam, my heart rate jumping as I wobble for a moment when I almost lose my balance. Hearing the human firing flares occasionally behind me I move quickly as I can across the beam to the cubby the panel is in.

Going to my knees and yanking it open, my eyes lock onto the large red button in the center, faded text on a piece of tape reading “Spin Toggle” next to it. The slight feeling of elation is quickly replaced by dread as I press the button. Nothing, no spinning, no sparks, nothing at all! “Dammit the powers not on!!” I yell behind me.

“Well of fucken course there isn’t!” I hear him yell in exasperation followed by a hollow clicking sound. “Son of a bitch, my flares are out! Gonna need a minute to recharge!”

“I’ve got this! Just stay alive!” I look the box up and down, reaching under and pulling one of the cables free from the underside, doing my best to quickly jury rig a bypass around the switch.

“Hurry up in there!! These things are all over me!” He yells up at me from within the maze.

“Almost there.. Got it!!” The aged motor under the platform screeches as it powers up, the platform behind me starting to slowly swing around the room. I back up, holding myself against the edge. Seeing the human underneath me, a handful of critters scurrying their way towards him, I try to think fast. “Get ready!”

He looks up at me as the platform swings around with a look of confusion plastered on his face. I leap from the ledge onto the platform, landing on my front and reaching down towards him. “Grab on!”

Seeing the lifeline he doesn’t miss a beat, firing a flare at the critters in front of him before running forward and grabbing onto my arm before I grunt and heave, hoisting him onto the small platform with me. Standing quickly I look around for a new path when he suddenly tackles me, knocking us off as I yell out. We just barely fall past the broken rebar and concrete onto the ground in front of the exit, the impact of him landing on top of me knocking the wind from my lungs. “Hooolyyy fuck..” I cough and gasp.

The human doesn’t move for a moment, still laying on top of me and breathing hard as he stares off at the wall with unfocused eyes.

“H-Hey.. You good dude?” I give him a half hearted couple pats on the back and laugh nervously. “Please don’t make me carry you..”

Seemingly suddenly aware of his position he looks up before rolling off me and stumbling to his feet. “Y-Yeah I’m fine I think..” He looks me up and down with an odd look of confusion as he does so.

Looking at him I notice a couple new bite marks that were definitely not there before on his arm and leg, but thankfully they seemed superficial. We take another moment to catch our breath after I shakily get to my feet. “You know, for a second there I thought you were pushing me to my death eheh..”

He rolls his eyes. “Nah, just didn’t feel like dangling on that thing like a worm on a hook.” His eyes glance to the door. “Let’s keep moving, don’t want those things catching up to us.” He pulls the door open and steps through as I nod and follow after him.

We enter a spiral staircase leading down further into this place. The human continued down without even glancing at the text I noticed scratched into the walls. ‘Why have you wandered here?’, ‘There is no room for you here.’

Thoroughly creeped out I upped my pace to catch up to him as we enter- “A pool??” My voice echoes in the empty pool room. The walls were painted to look like a beach though the pool's water is long since drained. “They put a pool in a foam lined structure..? No wonder this whole place smells like mildew and mold..”

“Glad I’m not the only one who noticed.” He chuckles, a warm sound I hadn’t expected from him given his gruff exterior thus far. Walking past the pool through another pair of doors.

“What the fuck..?” My voice barely a whisper as we enter a wide room that narrows into a small hallway. A few guttering candles flickering in the slight breeze from our entrance. My eyes lock onto the hallway immediately, prison cells. There were prison cells.. Down here, metal bars and all, the ones I could see from the entrance were dark but I could make out the silhouettes of toys, stabbed onto sharpened spikes. Blood slicked the floor and walls as I gagged and wretched at the smell of rot. “The fuck is with this place!?” I choke out as I barely manage to keep what little remained in my stomach down.

“You’re telling me..” He growls, the usual angry demeanor returning to his voice.

I just sigh and try not to lose what little I have in my stomach as we walk further into the hall, glancing into one of the cells I gasp softly, putting my hand over my mouth.

“You.. You’re Poppy’s angel.” The tinny masculine voice of the suspended canine echoes dully in the hall.

I feel a lump in my throat as I take in the scene. The poor critter was suspended from the ceiling of his cell by six aged leather belts on his wrists, elbows and neck. His orange and yellow fur was dirty and matted in patches. But that all paled in comparison to his lower extremities.

Where his hips would have been, the dangling shredded fabric was stained crimson. Something had ripped the poor toy in half, blood pooling on the floor beneath him. Another belt was wrapped around his middle and cinched tightly down but even so, I could see flesh hanging from the open wound.

His large ears parted as he lifted his head with great effort to look at us with empty eyes. His mouth is pulled up into a huge open mouth smile, similarly dark as his eyes. He tilts his head some as I can feel more than see, his eyes turn to me. His expression wary and laden with distrust.

The human next to me sighs and stares into the darkened sockets of his eyes. “Wish you things would stop calling me Angel. I’m not your damn savior! I’m just trying to get out of here!”

Frustration blooms in my chest as I see the canine deflate just a bit more at his words. “I suppose that is for the best, there’s nothing left to save, not here.” He looks up sharply, a motion that puts a pained look on his face. “A-A million eyes are on both of you now. Watching. Waiting. Hungry. They want nothing more than to crawl beneath your skin and eat away at you bit by bit - fill what feels empty inside themselves..” I can feel tears pricking at the corners of my eyes as he speaks, the despair in his voice, the utter defeat. It was.. Familiar.

He focuses his empty sockets back on the human. “That.. Thing.. CatNap. The Prototype is his god, and this is what he does to heretics. These little toys follow CatNap, to avoid this very fate- and in return, they are fed.” The implication hangs heavy as I feel a lump form in my throat. “We tried to fight it, the Prototypes control.. I’m.. The last of the Smiling Critters..” He slumps back down, facing the floor as his ears droop to obscure his face again.

“U-Um, hey..” I frown when he doesn’t move so I clear my throat, mustering some confidence into a firmer tone. “Hey. Look at me.” The poor canine tilts his head enough to unobscure one of his eyes. “We’re here for you, um.. I-I’m sorry I.. You’re DogDay right..?”

A moment of slight confusion passes his face before he nods slowly.

I nod and step closer. “DogDay we’re uh.. We’re here for you now. I promise whatever did this to you? We’re not just gonna leave you here with it.” I smile softly at him. He stirs, lifting his head slightly towards me.

”I admit, I hadn’t expected you to be so.. Nice. Didn’t know they made a Maggie..”

I try to smile warmly. "Heh, y-yup! I'm the best kept secret around!"

Looking into those tired eyes, I swear, just for a second I could see the faintest flicker of a pair of white circles appear. All too quickly though, they flicker back out.

“Listen to me, you need to leave, both of you! Get out of this place! You need to live! Forget about me, the two of you and Poppy can fix this, end this madness! The torment!”

As I’m about to speak the human grunts and rolls his eyes. “I just told you, I’m not saving anyone! I'm. Getting. Out. That is my only goal here! I don't know how many times I need to repeat myself!”

I feel my blood boil as I glare at the man. “How could you be so, so.. Heartless?”

Looking down a boarded over hole we had crossed when we entered, using his Grab-Pack to pull the boards away. “I’m a realist. And the reality is that I’m barely surviving this place on my own, you’re welcome to continue following me for now but I’m not dragging around a cripple.”

I could feel my blood boil under my skin as I glared at him. “He is suffering. And you’re fine with that? You’re okay with just leaving him here?”

DogDay looks at me, confused. “I-It’s really for the best. I’ll just slow-” His ears raise in surprise when I cut him off with a held up finger while maintaining my glare at the human.

He gives me a flat stare. “It’s a thing. You!” He jabs a finger at me. “Are a thing! Not people. Not human! Just because something walks and talks and pretends it’s alive, doesn’t mean it is! It’s not my fault you were made and it certainly isn’t my fault that we’re all stuck down here!”

I clench my fists and growl, hissing through my teeth. “Even ‘things’ deserve respect and care.”

He just shakes his head and half laughs. “I am not about to have a debate in this hell hole.” Before I can say anything, he jumps into the hole and out of sight.

“Yeah? Well..!” I growl and stomp a foot. “Fuck you too!” My yell echoes in the small room as DogDay lets out a small whimper. Turning my attention back to him to see he’s gone back to slumping down, ears folded against his head after our outburst.

Softening my tone I take a deep breath of the copper tinged air and step into the small cell. Hesitating only for a moment before putting my hands on his cheeks and lifting his head. “What I said is still true, I am not leaving you here.” He lifts his head to speak but I cut him off. “No buts!” There it is again, that faintest flickering in his eyes, I can’t help but smile a little as I reach up and start pulling the belts apart. The leather is sticky with dried blood where they’d started cutting into DogDay’s skin, eliciting a small whimper from the poor toy that made my heart ache for him. As I work at the aged leather he suddenly stiffens, ears perking up. “T-They’re coming, please, you can’t stay here, go now!”

“I said I’m staying! So hold your words and get ready to hold onto me okay?” I reach into my mouth and wince a little as I grab onto one of my larger teeth, giving a few wiggling pulls before it pops free. The canine recoils a little, his eyes giving me an incredulous look as I shrug at him. Ignoring the pain in my jaw I stretch my arms up, reaching as high as I can to start sawing into the leather with the saw blade like edge of the tooth. Getting through the first strap is easy enough but I feel my blood run cold when I start hearing the faint rattling of tiny paws on air vent walls.

Thankfully the second strap was nearly completely rotten and cuts easily while the third snaps with the sudden weight increase. DogDay yelps in surprise and frantically tries to wrap his right arm around my shoulders and grab on, his large hand gripping me tightly as I start on the next.

A Picky plush’s head pokes from a small hole in the wall under DogDay making him whimper sharply in fear. It hisses and tries to lunge out only for my tail to swing around to smack the offending critter back into the vent and hold it there. The gymnastics of trying to hold DogDay, cut the belts and hold my tail against the vent earning a frustrated growl from me between puffs of air.

As I get the fifth the increasing weight proves to be too much for the last belt as it snaps. I quickly twist my shoulders, heaving the canine onto my back over the Grab-Pack with a grunt. Damn he’s heavy..” I wince as I pull my tail away from the vent just as more faces start pouring from another opening in the corner. Barely even processing the blood dripping off my tail as I stare wide eyed at the surge of colors and dim, flickering eyes. Only snapping out of it when DogDay squeezes his arms around my neck tighter. “Go!!”

I hiss through my teeth and start running away from the cell, a small part of me grimacing at the feeling of blood slicked fur and something fleshy squishing against my back and the base of my tail with each step I take.

I hazard and glance back as my eyes widen, a veritable flood of critters pouring from the vents as I do my best to carefully lower us down to the floor below, DogDays arms wrapped around my neck so tight I could feel him shaking from the effort. Landing in a hallway I start running the one way I can, narrowly dodging as a ruined CraftyCorn dives down the hole at us with a screech.

“Run! Left ahead!” I nod, adrenaline pumping as I ignore the exhaustion in my legs, ignore the way my arms ache and my lungs burn. Just run, left, run, left again, run, crawl, drop, run. My heart beat pounding in my ears drowns out every sound save for DogDays voice. “Right here. Duck! Left Left!” My vision begins to tunnel as my muscles burn. The building exhaustion makes me stumble over a piece of rubble and run into a wall, pushing off it to correct my course with a grunt.

I try not to focus on the screeching and childlike giggling behind me but they fill the hall. They just keep coming, hundreds of them from every crack and crevice in the crumbling structure. I.. I don’t think I can.. I’m slowing down.. I-I’m sorry I.. “I don’t want to die..” I can feel tears on my neck, the way his arms shake, the desperation in his words. I grit my teeth, putting a hand on his arm. Focus. Push. I can do this, I have to do this. I made a dammit!

My legs scream as I leap over a gap in the floor. I stumble and trip through the door on the far side, falling onto a plastic slide that spirals downwards. Seeing the drop I yelp and cover my face with my arms as I land on my front hard accompanied by a woosh as the air is knocked out of my lungs. DogDay yells out as we careen down the slide together.

Impacting the floor at the bottom I’m sent tumbling, clutching onto DogDays arms and trying with little success to keep him from impacting the floor. Crashing into a wall at the bottom of the slide I grunt and hiss through my teeth. Gasping for breath and gritting my teeth with the effort to get to my feet.

Shaking my head and focusing ahead I grimace as we pass more spikes with dead toys impaled on them. Entering a taller, longer hallway I spot a small lift at the far end of the room and jog towards it only to slow to a stop and groan when I see the massive hole in the floor. A large metal pad on the floor with a purple handprint on it is the only indicator that it was an intentional part of the building's design.

Taking a moment to catch my breath between words. “Shit.. What do we do now? I’ve never even seen a purple hand in this place!”

The canine on my back whines softly. “I-I’m sorry, this is my fault I.. I should have pointed you the right way a-and..” His ears perk up as I feel him shaking. “T-They’re coming..” It only takes a few seconds for me to hear the giggling and scratching noises in the tunnels around us, my heart pounding in my chest.

My eyes dart around, searching across the room and back. Looking for another route, another path. Something!! But instead all I see is a stream of dirty multicolored critters from every open door and tunnel.

Looking back at the gap then at the critters I make a split second decision. “Hold on as tight as you can bud, do not let go!” I turn, my leg screaming as I sprint the few feet of space I have, and make a leap of faith.
Thing is, I’ve never been a particularly religious person, faith never seemed to take me very far, and now is no different. I’m not gonna make it, my stomach goes into my throat as I start to fall. I can feel DogDay losing his grip, his weight leaving my back. I can’t move, my eyes locked onto the pitch blackness below. I start to scream when something grabs the collar of my jumpsuit, panic quickly smothered by stars when I slam into the wall of the pit.

It takes me a moment to realize I’ve stopped falling, and another before I finally look up. DogDay is holding me by my collar, his other hand desperately gripping the edge of the pit as he grunts with the strain. “I have you!! Just hold on!”

I grunt and try to get some kind of hold on the wall but to no avail. I look back up at him and shake my head. “No good!”

Growling in frustration he tightens his hold on me as much as he can. “I can’t lift you on my own, I need to swing you up so be ready to catch the ledge!” I gulp, looking down into the pit. “Hey! Look at me now!” I look back up into his eyes, those dim pupils once again returned, a determined expression on his face. “We made it all the way here, I’ve trusted in you this far, now trust me.”

I take a deep breath and nod. “Okay, okay let’s go!” He nods as I use my legs to push myself along the wall, building up speed as I swing once, twice! And with one final heave from DogDay I slam my arms over the edge, my boots scrabbling on the slick plastic wall for a moment before with a grunt I heave myself up and over, on my knees. I quickly turn and grab DogDays arm, heaving and gritting my teeth with no small amount of effort to pull him up.

With one last pull he slips over the top of the edge as I fall back, pulling him on top of me with a wheeze as the air is pushed out of me once more. As my hearing slowly returns in full I look over DogDays back and swallow nervously. Staring as my vision blurs and swims, the critters hissing and screeching like animals as they push and butt into each other, a couple getting knocked over the edge into the pit below.

Letting my head drop again I wince when it knocks on hard metal instead of the colorful padding everywhere else in this godforsaken place. Rolling my head to the side and seeing a glowing white button I use the grab-pack to press it, startling a little when the floor rises underneath us. The lift brings us up into another padded room, though this one is empty and dimly lit by aged fluorescent lights on the ceiling.

Staring up at those dim lights as my senses start to clear, only one thought manages to bubble to the surface. “What the fuck have I gotten myself into..?”

Chapter Text

Keep Going. You Can’t Stop. They Need You. Get Up.

Waking slowly, I open my eyes and wince as even the dim lights above create a spike of pain in my throbbing head. Did I pass out..? That’s not like me..

Looking at my HUD clock it’s only been a few minutes thankfully, but gods I feel like a punching bag right about now. Feeling a familiar weight on my front I blink a few times and look down at the furry head on my chest. Right, I take a deep breath and slowly release it.

Gently resting a hand on his shoulder, my voice feels like sandpaper when I speak. “Hey, DogDay? You okay?” No response, even as I give him a gentle shake. “DogDay??” With the continued silence I’m quick to roll him onto his back next to me while still trying to be gentle.

Attempting to quickly get on my hands and knees my left leg suddenly flares with searing pain, making me fall onto my side with a hiss. Pulling myself over I put my ear to his chest and breathe a sigh of relief when I hear breathing.
Gritting my teeth, I roll to my knees fully while trying to ignore the pain as I try to focus on examining the canine next to me.

Starting with the worst of it, a burst of anxiety spreads through my chest as I examine the gaping wound at his middle. Cautiously lifting a few torn flaps of bloodied fabric to get a better look, my heartbeat jumps into my throat in shock when I see the flesh inside, bile rising in the back of my throat when the putrid smell increases tenfold.

The belt around his middle really was the only thing keeping his guts inside, and only partly at that, several loops of his intestine were pinched and squeezed into the slight opening the belt around his middle left while one loop was just hanging out several by inches and barely concealed behind his ragged skin. I shake my head and despite my stomach’s objections, lean in closer to look at the surrounding flesh.

Despite my experience in biology I had to admit I was stumped. I’d never seen anything like this. His organs and what bones I could feel through the outer layer of fur were contained in a sort of sleeve that kept them separate from the surrounding artificial material, though his was torn wide open with the removal of his legs of course.

Making a cursory observation I assume it extends all the way up his neck and around his skull, assuming he has a skull, but I couldn’t be sure. I feel a familiar anger building in my chest the more I look at the mess of biological and artificial materials. I knew augmentation, built my own cybernetics and everything, but this was a far cry

This.. This shouldn’t exist, period! The only reasonable explanation I could think of would be.. I shake my head. “Lab grown life..” Disgust written across my features as my blood feels like it’s simmering in my chest. “There’s a reason this shit was banned back on Solaris.. The ethics of creating living things is just-” A seething growl rumbles up from my throat. I always hated finding younger species' first attempts at bio-engineering. They rarely went well and far more often than not, were down right immoral. I take a deep breath and close my eyes.

Now’s not the time for this. I can talk with him about it later, hopefully get some answers. We’re far from safe right now and that wound is going to need tending, frankly it was a miracle he was still alive at all with how badly hurt he was combined with how emaciated he seemed to be..

Deciding to take inventory on myself. A quick examination reveals the obvious. Cuts, scrapes and bruises abound but my main concern of course was my leg. Gently prodding and examining the area I hiss at the sharp stabs that accompany every touch.

Fuck.. I really hope I didn’t tear anything.. I have no real supplies to speak of unless I want to tear up even more of my jumpsuit which I was regretting more and more with every bite I had received today.

With DogDay unconscious I couldn’t reasonably carry him, he was at least shoulder height to me even without his legs after all and I need my hands free if any threats wanted to try their luck.

Examining him more closely just makes my heart ache. The poor thing’s clearly been here a very long time.. Matted and sewn together fur, stuffing poking through a few places where the stitches have failed. Unable to really do anything for myself I can at least untie the belts from his arms. My heart aches when I see where they’ve cut into his fur after gods know how long he spent hanging like that. Despite his dreadful condition, I could still see the appeal under all the blood and grime. Poor thing’s just been through hell and back it seemed..

Looking at the remains of the belts I get an idea, with a bit of crude knot tying and some swearing under my breath I manage to make a sort of harness which I fix around DogDays chest. It takes some work and I can’t help but wince a little as he gets tossed around a little while I get him on my back comfortably as I can, but once I do I gently take his hands and pull them around my middle while his head slumps onto my shoulder. Looking at him for a moment I find my eyes getting misty. I’d never been particularly maternal or anything, but everything about this poor pup was making my instincts yell “PROTECT”.

Finally able to move forward again I look around for the exit only to have my eyes stop on the cardboard cut out in the corner. Given the track record so far I almost decide to just leave it but curiosity gets the better of me as I use my tail to hit the large red button.

”DogDay says! Fetch!” The voice was surprisingly different, yet similar to theirs. Like the difference between a childs’ voice and an adults.

“Go! Go! As far as you can!” Heh. Must be big on exercise I guess. “Why are you.. Just standing there?” I feel my blood run cold. Oh no..

“You can’t be here.. You can’t stay..” I swallow nervously, hesitating before pressing it once more.

The noise makes me immediately recoil back, covering my ears as the most god awful screaming fills the room, even the unconscious pup on my shoulder whines with a distressed expression. Pure agony is the only way I can describe the noise the poor thing makes, the sound of ripping fabric and tearing flesh followed by a dull thump and more pained screaming before it cuts off suddenly. I shudder and tighten my grip on DogDays hands.

Time to get the hell out of here.. Thankfully with only one path out I didn’t have to guess which way to go. Looking into the darkened slide I sit down on the edge and carefully reorient DogDay so he’s against my front instead. Slipping down the swirling slide my heart jumps into my throat at the sudden darkness, expecting more plushies or some other trap at the bottom.

Breathing a sigh of relief when nothing else comes I have to take a second to let the world stop spinning. Looking up at the spiralling slide behind me my eyes are drawn to a flick of movement as I freeze in place. Long steel claws dig into the plastic roof of the Playhouse. Piercing, beady white eyes staring down at me from their perch, as I back away several steps. With Day still strapped to my front I can’t really bring up my Grab-Pack so I just wrap my arms around him protectively and narrow my eyes at the feline on the roof as I try to muster my best brave face. “S-Stay away from him. I m-mean it!”

Expecting him to attack I feel my nerves growing more on edge with each second they just.. Stare, as if sizing me up. Looking at him closer I find it hard to believe this was supposed to be the little purple feline on the statues. All elongated limbs and bony joints under surprisingly clean purple fur, large black stitches where his limbs meet his body. “Y-You must be CatNap right..?” The silence seems to stretch on forever before they stand and climb over the top of the roof and out of view. “Wh.. What the hell was that..?”

Shaking my head I turn and dart across the path towards the statues. Looking back over my shoulder I don’t see hide nor tail of the purple critter. “This was not how I planned to be spending my week..” I hiss through my teeth, limping as quickly as I can across the path and down the small staircase under the statues. I throw the door shut behind me and wince, my limp increasing as the burning sensation throbs in my thigh.

Rounding the corner towards the power console my heart skips a beat when I see the human standing there with the flare gun hand on his pack levelled at my head. Seeing it’s me though he sighs and drops it while shaking his head. “Christ alive, you actually made it huh? Even saved that thing? Gotta admit, that takes balls.”

My frown deepens as he speaks, a spark of anger flaring in my chest that quickly sputters out with my lack of remaining energy. “Yeah, no thanks to you asshole.” Huffing out my nose I look around for a moment before approaching a nearby table and pushing the random junk and tools onto the floor. Making sure it’s as clean as it can be I gently lift DogDay off my front and lay him onto the table, giving his hand a gentle squeeze before laying his arms to his sides. Spotting a torn pillow that crudely resembled CatNaps face I limp over to it so I can place it under the canine’s head.

The human hisses slightly as he lifts his shirt on one side, dabbing at a particularly nasty looking bite mark with a red tinged cotton swab before wrapping his torso in bandages from the open first aid kit next to him while occasionally glancing at me as I dig through the various boxes for anything useful.

“So I got a question for you. If you’re supposed to be that Maggie Mako character, why do you look nothing like it..? Wrong color, wrong shape, wrong attitude. I don’t get it.”

I sigh and narrow my eyes at him. “And why should I answer that? Why do you care?”

He coughs a little as he laughs. “Because something is off about you. Your design is all wrong, and judging by the way your skin felt when I landed on you in the Playhouse you definitely aren’t made of plastic or fur.” His tone is aggressive but under it I can still hear a tiny bit of fear.
A crack in his aggressive exterior. I roll my eyes internally. “Alright, alright. Look. I don’t trust you, not after that stunt you pulled in the PlayHouse. So if I’m showing my cards, you need to give me two things.” I barely manage to keep my tone firm as I speak.

He narrows his eyes at me for a moment before sighing and nodding, gesturing for me to continue. “One. That med kit. I need to patch myself up and I need to help him.” I gesture to the unconscious form on the table. “Two. Your word that you will not tell him or anyone else about this. It’s my story to tell, and I will, just not right now.”

He looks back at me, staring at my eyes as if searching them for any kind of deception. “Tch. Fine.” He closes the medkit and tosses it at me, making me stumble a bit as I catch it. “Now spill it.”

I growl, setting the kit down on the corner of the table and opening it, taking stock of the supplies. “I was born on another planet, I don’t know how far away from here, called Solaris.” My tone turns monotonous as I list off the attributes of my home. “Ocean world, oxygen nitrogen atmosphere, iron core powered magnetic field. Blablablah.” While carefully cleaning DogDay’s wound I can’t help grimacing at the stench of rotting meat.

“Solaris used to be home to five primary species including my own. Each of them had their own culture and technological prowess, etcetera. My people were primarily aquatic if that wasn’t obvious. I flick my tail for emphasis before continuing. “My people were also the most technologically advanced, from engineering to biology, we were masters of our craft.” I can’t help but smile at the memory before it slowly fades into a frown.

“One.. One of us, decided they wanted to leave their mark on the world. Create something truly special, so they went big.” I dig through the kit, pulling out a sewing needle and stitching. “Even for us, True Artificial Intelligence was a long sought after goal and it had been partially attained but never quite got to where it was really usable in day to day life beyond simple automatic machines.

That was until the day the Aeries-12 system was activated for the first time. Aeries was designed to be the ultimate industrial processing system. Give him a request for a good, a food, material, buildings, anything. And he could find, acquire, process, and manufacture it en masse within weeks.” Falling into a rhythm as I talk, I carefully pin and sow the hanging scraps of fur over the wound. Just thankful there was enough material to do so until I found a better solution.

Clearing my throat I continue. “Pretty soon we had more stuff than we knew what to do with. So I began working alongside the AI to create a better means of transport for it all. I was working in my lab when there was an accident of some kind. I don’t know what exactly went wrong, but I woke up here. Upstairs to be precise, and uh, quite a bit smaller than I’m used to.” I chuckle a bit at that. Not entirely a lie, sure I’d omitted certain pieces of information, but he didn’t need to know I was that inventor, and certainly not the other half of that story. I shake my head a little, clearing the memories and focusing on recent events.

“So! To sum it up. No. I’m not a toy. I am, from your perspective, an alien. From another world. Originally I just wanted to get home. But then I found them.” I gesture to DogDay. “A few others as well. They’re suffering in here and just..” I clench my fists for a moment before I sigh and drop my shoulders. “Getting myself home suddenly didn’t seem quite so important..” I rest a hand on Day’s chest, the slow rise and fall acting as a small comfort.
He puts a hand on his forehead as he stares at me. “An alien.. You? Are an alien.” I turn my head to look at him as he rubs his temple. “Right, so, we got. Murderous toys, the mysterious disappearing staff, and now fucking aliens.” He runs his hand over his face. “Sure! Why the fuck not!? Not like this place could get much crazier after all!”
I tilt my head at him. “Disappearing staff?”

He winces before taking a breath and sighing. “My big mouth, yeah. It’s the only reason I’m in this hellhole. I used to work here like, what? Seven? Eight years ago? Got fucken appendicitis, didn’t come to work for like a week. Next thing I hear the factory has been completely abandoned overnight. Police investigations, even the FBI got involved I heard. Uh, that’s a human law enforcement group in my country. Anyways, it quieted down pretty quick. Guessing PlayTime’s lawyers hushed it up, but police said they never found anything. Total mystery. Years later I get a tape and a note from nowhere telling me they’re still here somehow. And I, like a total moron, fell hook line and sinker for it.”

I frown some as he runs a hand over his face and shakes his head slowly. “Don’t know what I was thinking. Guess I just wanted some kinda adventure. Not like I was particularly close to anyone here, ya didn’t tend to last long if you got too buddy-buddy with your coworkers.” He clenches his jaw. “Now I just.. I just want out. I want to go home. Already been through enough shit to last a lifetime, and I was this close to getting out too when that fucken doll switched the tracks on my ride out. Forced me down here.”

I blink. “Wait, you mean that train crash was you?” I look at him incredulously. “How the hell are you even alive after that?!”

He snrks. “Your guess is as good as mine. Guess I’m just a lucky motherfucker!” He spreads his arms wide and jazz hands at me. I just roll my eyes, practically feeling the sarcasm dripping off his words, though I can’t help smiling a little at the antics.

With his story seemingly done I examine my stitching, deeming it good enough before gently scooping the large toy up and carrying him to a couch in the corner, wincing a bit when my leg protests the sudden extra weight. Laying him on the dust cushions gently as I can.

Looking at his face, he does seem less tense than before, his breathing a bit stronger. Smiling at that, I gently place his hands on his chest and give him a gentle pet between the ears.

Furrowing my brow I lean in to look closer at his wide gaping smile, something not quite looking right. Gently prodding along his jaw with a couple fingers I find it. There’s a seam, a thin, nearly invisible one running around the edge of his mouth. With the darkness in his maw I take the chance to find a flashlight, clicking it on and shining it in his mouth.

As was pretty obvious, in hindsight that his mouth wasn’t just an empty void but was in fact lined with a very dark black hard plastic material with a sort of vent at the back through which I can feel his breath.

Rubbing my thumb against the seam though I find it’s not attached to him directly though I can’t get any leverage on it. Not wanting to hurt the poor thing more I check along the edge of his mouth till at the midway point between his bottom and upper jaw, there’s a gap. Slipping a finger underneath I grimace and pull back quickly from the warm wetness that coats my skin. In honesty I’d expected blood so I sighed a breath of relief when instead it was simply saliva. “Hey, check this out..”

The human raises a brow, clearly hesitant to approach before sighing and stepping over. “Yeah that is definitely your finger in his mouth you weirdo..”

I give him a flat stare before sighing. “It’s not attached to him directly.. In fact..” Feeling around the back of the plastic for a moment I feel a small clip or switch, pushing at it for a moment there’s an audible click, one side of the lining splitting horizontally. Repeating on the opposite side I squeak a little when the entire piece of plastic splits into two clean halves.

Pulling them away and grimacing a little as a bunch of saliva that coats the backside of the objects I take look at it then Days mouth curiously. He has teeth, actual canine teeth and even a tongue, though they’re weirdly spaced and sized for the sheer size of his mouth.

Looking at the plastic halves interior it was molded to the inside of his mouth like a mouth guard. Holes for the teeth shaped to them and everything. A soft click draws my eyes back to his mouth.

I watch fascinated as his jaw shrinks down to a more normal proportion for his head, a faint set of clicking and hissing pneumatic noises accompany the movement followed by a solid, louder click when it sets into its final shape. Running my fingers along his jaw I hum curiously. “A collapsible jaw? Why?” Glancing up at his face properly he certainly looks more relaxed with the thing out of his mouth. Can’t imagine it’s too comfortable having your jaw spread open like that for who knows how long.

The human shrugs as he returns to his spot at the console. “Guess they wanted to put emphasis on the “smiling” part of Smiling Critters..?”

Tossing the plastic halves away in a nearby dented trash can I return my attention to the man. “So have you like.. Learned anything? About what’s going on I mean? I take it that these toys aren’t exactly normal..?”

The human scoffs behind me. “I’ve barely been surviving here, much less taking the time to do any light reading.. What I can see with my eyes, is that PlayCare was fucken around with stuff they shouldn’t have and that it bit them in the ass in the end. Don’t exactly need to do much research to figure that one out.”

I just look at him in confusion. “You’re telling me you aren’t the slightest bit interested in why this place has living toys in it? I’ve even found a few data tapes laying around that helped me understand some of it! Doesn’t that bother you to not know..?”

He stares at me flatly. “No. No, not really. No one at this company was innocent, you hear me? Everyone was stepping on each other to get a leg up on the ladder. Demotions and firings we’re an everyday occurrence.”

His tone turns colder, my ears folding back some in response. “Some of the people who were terminated? You’d never see them again, conveniently missing after a week away. So no. I say everyone here got exactly what was coming to them. Hell, maybe that’s the real reason I came back! Just so I could take one last look around and laugh! One final dance on the grave of the people who would rather make a buck off each other’s misery and celebrate it! Well ya know what? Fuck em. I’m doing what I need to, then I am fucking out of here.”

I just blink and stare at him. “Alright.. Let’s just.. Just take a breath. Regardless of your frustrating willful ignorance, it’s not right to just leave them like that.. So here’s the deal. We both want out of this situation right? So let’s work together, properly this time, not like the Playhouse. The simple fact is we have a better chance to accomplish both our goals with more hands and more eyes. And if we can get even more of these bigger ones to join us..” I gesture to DogDay. “Then all the better right?”

The constant eye rolling every time I tried to reach out was really starting to irritate me.. “Tch. Look, you do what you want. I won’t stop you from following me, but as far as they go?” He grabs his hair and laughs. “Do you even realize what I’ve been dealing with?? It has been non-stop aggression from the moment I set foot in this building, alright? I want nothing to do with them. Nothing. Zero. And the moment you start slowing me down? I will not hesitate to leave you behind.”

I let out a sigh and cross my arms. “Fine. Deal. So what exactly is your big plan anyways? What are we doing here?”

“Apparently. This is the place that “red smoke” stuff is made. According to Poppy and Ollie they need it to be piped a different way. I was in the middle of doing that when Smiles out there broke the generator.” He gestures to the colorful pile of scrap in the corner. “So the plan has been for me to connect the back up generators in each of the buildings here to that thing.” He gestures to the charger set into the wall.

I blink and furrow my brow. “Is all human tech this weirdly complex? For like.. No reason..?”

That at least gets a chuckle from him. “No, no I promise you it is not. That’s just PlayTime for you. Wanted everything to be fun for the employees and visitors alike.”

“Right.. And.. Who are Poppy and Ollie? I’m guessing they’re not humans.” I grab the first aid kit again and sit down on the other side of the couch. Pulling a roll of bandages from the kit. “Uh, mind if I get some privacy for a sec by the way?”

He blinks and rolls his eyes before turning around. “Poppy is this really creepy porcelain doll I ran into when I first got here. She’s the one who was guiding me through the place and offered an escape. Which of course turned out to be a lie. Ollie is.. Well I don’t know exactly. I’ve not met him in person yet but he sounds like a kid. Best guess is he’s some other kind of toy cause like, no way a kid would still be alive down here after this long. But he must be in some kind of control center or something cause he can see everything I’m doing and has been sending me the keys to this place through that.” He gestures to the pneumatic tube.

Pulling my jumpsuit, or what’s left of it anyways, down to the floor I can’t help but furrow my brow again at that. Remembering the key I’d gotten to the Playhouse. I figure that must have been him but.. Why do that for me and not him? Whatever this Ollie's motives were, the whole thing made me anxious. Wrapping the bandage around my thigh, the pressure helped to alleviate some of the discomfort and even let me walk easier on it. At least I felt like I could run in the short term if I needed to. Pulling my suit back on I zip it up before attending to the bite on my tail. “The hell is Red Smoke?” Sitting on the free cushion by DogDay I start bandaging my tail.

“Guess you haven’t ran into CatNap yet huh..?” He folds his arms and leans back against the console again.

“Uh.. No, I definitely ran into him once earlier. He was kinda waiting for me when I left the Playhouse. Didn’t do anything though, just stared at me then left..” I rub my shoulder, getting a chill up my spine at the memory.

“Really? Bastard took a good chunk out of me when I saw him in Home Sweet Home.” He rubs at the bandage on his cheek as he glares at the wall.

“Hm.. Say, I don’t think I ever got your name by the way. Mine’s Winter.” I smile some and give him a little two finger salute. Pinning the bandage wrapped around my tail I look myself over once more. Much better.

“Winter huh. Hm. Fits the colors. Uh.. Everyone around here has just been calling me Angel as you heard..” He rolls his eyes at that. “But my name’s Will.”

“Hm. Well good to meet you properly Will.” He just grunts and nods back to me, a tired look settling on his features like the weight of everything was suddenly settling on him.

Looking back to DogDay with a sigh. “Hope he wakes up soon.. Maybe he’ll have some answers.” I yawn and lay my head back, stretching my arm across the back of the couch. “You should probably try and get some rest too. You look exhausted dude.
His jaw clenches. “Yeah well. Been here nearly two days, haven’t really had the chance to take a nap. Unless being unconscious counts.” He half chuckles before sighing and looking around. Pulling a stack of cloth covers off a shelf and a box of pillows covered in dust, I watch silently as he makes a small bed for himself and lays down. “Guess now’s as good a time as any huh.”

I slowly close my eyes and nod at him as I feel my own energy finally petering out. Quickly beginning to drift off, the day's events swirling and melting together into darkness.

Chapter Text

System Start..
SynOS v.134.58
....
.....
......
BIOS Warm-Up Complete.
Audio Processing.. OK!
Emotional Emulation Servos.. OK!
Active Translator Link.. OK!
Sensor Suite.. UNKNOWN ERROR. DIMINISHED CAPACITIES.
Communications Suite.. ERROR. MATERIAL INTERFERENCE. PARTIALLY OPERATIONAL.
..
System Start Complete!
Have a pleasant day!

I inhale sharply, squeezing my eyes closed tighter as I start to awake. A mix of scents being the first thing to register in my mind. Dust, copper, and.. Vanilla? Shifting a little as my head is still clearing I note I must have fallen onto my side while I slept.

Odd.. I don’t remember having a pillow when I fell asleep.. Cracking my eyes open slowly I find my vision filled with blurry orange as they adjust, focusing as my brain starts kicking in fully. My vision clears up enough to see the face of DogDay as his white pupils glance down at me and he smiles, a real genuine smile rather than that exaggerated wide one. “Oh! Good morning!”

I blink and gasp softly, pulling myself upright quickly. My face flushes brightly as I stammer. “O-Oh my gosh, I am so sorry! I-”

He just chuckles again and holds his hands up in front of him. “It’s okay, really! I admit it was actually a pretty nice thing to wake up to for a change.” He rubs the back of his head bashfully, his pupils turning into an upside down U shape as he does. I slightly tilt my head at that curiously. “When I came to, I actually wasn’t certain I wasn’t just hallucinating again heh..”

His eyes focus on me again and his smile widens a bit more. “A-And you even fixed my mouth! That was one of the better surprises I’ve had in a while!” Warmth practically radiates off him as I can’t help but smile back in kind. “Uh.. I just wanted to thank you, for not giving up on me I mean. A-And for fixing me up of course!” He gestures to the sewn wound. “I’m sorry I caused you so much trouble in getting out of the PlayHouse though..”

I just smile at him softly. “Oh hush, I’d never be able to live with myself if I just left you to those things.. So really I was just being selfish and stubborn heh.”

“If that’s what you call selfish I’d hate to see what you call cruel.” He tilts his head. “Now that I think about it, I don’t think you ever told me your name.”

My ear twitches. “Oh! Uh it’s Winter actually!” I can’t help but grin at him as his eyes brighten.

“Winter! That’s such a pretty name! Crafty would have loved that! She always wanted to see what winter was like on the surface.” As his smile fades he stares at the far wall with a sudden forlorn look on his face. The sight making my heart break for the poor critter..

Resting a hand on top of his and giving him what I hope is a comforting squeeze, I soften my tone. “How.. How long were you in there..? If you don’t mind me asking of course..”

“It’s fine um.. I-I’m not sure exactly.. Time just kind of blended together in there.. CatNap never really visited to give me the daily news..” He hugs himself and takes a shaky breath. “I-I’d been trying not to think about it to be honest heh!” He laughs but it rings hollow.

“Oh honey..” I squeeze his hand again but frown when he shakes his head and pulls it away.

“Don’t, It’s fine! Really!” He smiles wider, blinking away the tears and clearing his throat. “No time for that right now! We’ve got some planning to do right?”

My expression softens as I nod. “Uh, yeah. Though, I do have some questions first..”

His ears droop a little but he nods. “Uh sure, I will try my best!” He sits up best he can with an attentive look.

“Alright uh.. Where to even start. Who is Poppy and who is the Prototype? You mentioned those names when we found you.” I interlace my fingers while looking at him.

His eyes widen. “Wow, where have you been holed up..?” He rubs his neck nervously. “Uh well.. Poppy was.. Is? Was? I’m not sure at this point.. She was our sort of leader for a while back after the Hour of Joy. Told us what to do, gave us some direction. Then she just disappeared for a long long time. If she’s really back I’ll have to ask what exactly she’s been up to for so long..” His ears fold back as his tone takes on an irritated touch.

“The Prototype..” He growls softly, focusing on the couch under him. “I don’t really know what it is. Just that it was an experiment like us when PlayTime was still up and running. Convinced most that if we wanted to be free of the torture the scientists we’re putting us through that we’d need to take them out in one decisive strike.” He sighs. “I only know what I know about it because of CatNap. Apparently they had some kind of history. It saved his life, which I find hard to believe these days, but, when it offered it’s plan to him, he came to me to try and convince me to join them, but..”

I frown at that and nod in understanding. “I wouldn’t have taken that deal either..”

He doesn’t respond for a moment before nodding a little. “I told him it was a bad idea. That it was too much of a risk but.. But that I and the other critters wouldn’t stop them if they tried either. At the time that seemed to be enough. They, the Prototype and CatNap I mean, had us guard the kids still here in PlayCare during the Hour. But after it was over, CatNap..”

He hugs himself tighter. “He had been missing for a while, I-I got worried something had happened to him so.. So I went to look for him by myself. I was in the PlayHouse and um.. W-Well at the time we’d thought we’d secured PlayCare pretty well but.. I found CatNap, he was with a group of other toys a-and they were..” He sniffles as he clenches his eyes shut.

“They were eating one of the workers.. There was.. Just so much blood a-and I.. When I tried to run I tripped, the other toys rushed me down and grabbed my legs. I-I thought CatNap would stop them b-but instead he just grabbed onto my collar. They started pulling and pulling and I-I just remember my torso feeling like it was on fire.. My back made this awful cracking sound a-and.. It h-hurt so badly I just.. I think I passed out, and when I came to I was in that cell..” His hands nearly tear into the couch cushion as he starts to hyperventilate.

Reaching out to put my hand on his I speak softly. “Hey, hey, DogDay, honey.” When he doesn’t immediately pull away I put my hand in his, not caring when he squeezes hard enough to hurt. Putting my other hand on his cheek as his eyes flick to me.

“That’s it, focus here. Focus on the feeling of my hand, the cushions beneath you.” His eyes dart around wildly as he whimpers, tears streaming down his cheeks. “Day, I promise you, you are safe here.”

“Take a deep breath with me. In..” I inhale sharply. “Slowly out..” Release. He closes his eyes, squeezing them shut tight but he manages to take a breath haltingly before slowly releasing.

“Again, in..” We do it together, In, slowly out. In, slowly out. His grip on my hand lessening slowly as I smile and rub the back of his hand with my thumb. “There we go, you’re okay.” He slowly opens his eyes and looks at me, tears still dripping down his cheeks as he whimpers softly.

“Oh honey..” I squeeze his hand with both of my own. “Can I give you a hug? Would tha-” I’ve not even finished asking when he pulls me forward and presses his head against my chest and neck, shuddering between whimpering sobs. I almost fall over with the impact chuckling softly as I wrap my arms around him tightly, running my fingers through the fur on the back of his head gently.

“Shhh, it’s alright, DogDay..” I press my forehead against his as I tighten my hold on him. “It’s alright..”

We remain like that for a long time, DogDay’s crying slowing till just the occasional sniffle or whimper remains. He allows me to relax back against the couch, pulling him against me as I start to hum a soft song to him that I only mostly remembered.

At least it seems to help, his firm grip on me remains but the shivering stops, his ears perking up a little as I hum the somber but light tune. Noticing, I smile some and move my hand from the back of his head to rub behind one of his ears. Joy fluttering in my chest when he leans into it slightly. “There we go.. How are you feeling hun?”

“Better.. I-I’m sorry, I don’t..” He sighs and presses his head into me, despite his size I can’t help feel just how small he seems in that moment.

I give him a gentle squeeze. “Never apologize for feeling your feelings hun. With what little I’ve heard about what you have been through? Even just that would have broken weaker folk. No one can blame you for being upset.. For as long as you’ve got me I’m here if you ever need to talk or cry, or whatever.” I pull away so I can look him in the eyes. “Okay?”

He looks up at me in silence for a few moments before nodding and squeezing me again. “Thank you Winter..“ He manages a small smile before resting against me again. I smile softly and rest my head against his. “Where did you learn that song? It was very pretty..” He mumbles into my chest.

I chuckle softly in response. “My mother used to sing it to me a long long time ago. I used to be extremely scared of the dark when I was little. I’d be starin out the windows into the night and I swear I’d see something move. I’d run into my room as fast as possible and hide under the bed. According to her it was the only thing that could calm me down enough to get me to come out.” I smile fondly at the memory.

He hums softly before speaking. “I wish I could remember anything about my life before… This. I don’t know if I even had parents or not..” He sighs and nuzzles into me warmly.

I tilt my head slightly. “Before you were made you mean..?”

He pauses for a moment. “Yeah.. Before I was.. Made..” His voice quivers.

I furrow my brow. But how could he remember anything before.. Oh no.. Winter you fucking idiot. Why didn’t I see it sooner!? My heart thumps in my chest. “H-How old were you when..?”

Please tell me I'm wrong..

There’s a long moment of silence. “I.. Don’t really remember honestly.. Somewhere around ten or fourteen..?”

No.. H-How could.. Who would.. Why!? Suddenly all that talk on the gondola rang with a much more sinister message. Our very own onsite orphanage..? This.. This was fucked beyond belief!

My heart thuds in my chest like a jackhammer as I find myself tightening my grip on the canine in my arms.

He shifts and looks up at me, letting out a faint whine. “Winter? A-Are you okay? You’re crying..”

I nod as I clear my throat and blink back the tears I hadn’t realized were forming. “Y-Yeah I’m fine hun, promise heh! Just, memories.” Petting his head again seems to placate him for now. I glance over at Will, still asleep on his makeshift bed and suppress a scowl. If he had anything to do with this, the toys in here would be the least of his worries.

A sudden sharp beep from the power console on the wall makes me jump, shocking me out of my thoughts. Looking at the screen from here I frown as the meter drops down a whole fifty percent while the ‘Home Sweet Home’ icon blinks red repeatedly. “Oh jeez, what now..?”

“Home Sweet Home? Oh no, no y-you can’t go there! It’s a death trap, CatNap uses it to torture his prey!” His eyes are wide and panicked as he grips onto me harder.

“Hey, hey! Easy there pup.. I’m not goin anywhere just yet!” I can’t help but chuckle softly and give him a gentle squeeze. “But.. Fact of the matter is, we need that power and if it’s a problem with the generator then I know how to fix it. Will has already been through there after all so the paths should already be open for me. It’s probably just a broken fuse or something. I’ll be back in a jiffy.” I smile and give his nose a gentle poke to emphasize the last word.

He wiggles his nose a little and rubs it making me nearly squeal with how cute he looks. “I-It could also be a trap, let me come with you! I can help!”

I half smile and pet his head. “Honey in the most loving way possible, you’re not exactly in the best condition to be travelling. You just started healing properly after all..” He whimpers in response, ears folding back.

My smile softens as I rest a hand on his cheek and plant a kiss on his forehead. “It’s gonna be okay hun, promise.” He jolts a little at the surprisingly intimate show of affection before sighing and nodding.

“Either way, if Poppy’s Angel here is so important. He’s gonna need a guard till he wakes up right? Can’t think of a better guard dog for the job!” That at least gets a small smile from him.

Giving him one last squeeze which he returns tightly before letting go I stand up and stretch for a moment, wincing when my leg protests the sudden motion. I tighten the bandage around it before grabbing my Grab-Pack from the floor.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can, if I’m not here in like, two or three hours? Wake him up. Oh, and don’t let him give you shit either. You can tell him I’ll bite him in the ass if he does.” I laugh and reach into my pocket, pulling the tooth I’d used to cut DogDay free out before tossing it to him. “Exhibit A why he won’t want that!” I grin wide.

He looks at it curiously and smiles before calling out to me as I start to walk away. “Please be careful okay..?”

“I promise I will!” I call back to him before rounding the corner and heading back up the stairs, securing the door behind me as I leave. Once again I feel eyes on me, turning as I walk. The lighting in the dome appeared to be in a sort of ‘early morning’ mode with the false stars above making me jump at shadows with every vaguely eye shaped pair.

Normally I’d be terrified. If there was one thing I hated it was the feeling of being chased. But now? The determination to fulfill my promise to the sunny spaniel overrode nearly all of it. Well.. Nearly..

Hurrying up the steps towards the creepy looking house on the hill, I swear the feeling of eyes on me grows stronger. Looking around slowly my eyes are drawn to movement on a platform mounted to one of the sky painted walls circling the chamber. Nothing.. Hm..

Chapter Text

Home Sweet Home wasn’t exactly what I had expected it to be to be honest. I’d seen orphanages before, most of them were concrete blocks designed to house as many as possible while they awaited assignment to a new community or were shipped off to other facilities on Solaris.

Of course there were the smaller operations run by concerned individuals but they would only house a dozen at most. So stepping inside to find a rather homey looking foyer area was surprising If not a bit creepy. The dark wood flooring creaked with each step I took as my eyes swept the room. Wood walls with carved panels that cast odd shadows in the weak lighting.

Taking in the photos on the walls, the grimy pillows, and of course, more dead toys.. Seeing a couple hanging from the doorway as I enter I frown and hesitate for a moment before reaching up, gently untying the knots holding them up before setting them out of the way gently. Life deserved more respect than this, no matter where it came from.. I desperately hope I was reading into things too much but.. The information I had painted a pretty grisly picture..

Crossing to the opposite side of the room and heading down a spiral staircase I enter a much taller atrium, extending up to two stories in height. Smaller versions of the false clouds outside hang down from the ceiling with a large glass sphere in the center housing a stylized crescent moon I recognized as CatNaps collar charm. I’m sure it would have been very pretty originally but this room was in significantly worse condition than the previous. Two large holes in the floor being the worst of it while the rest of the room was covered in marks and scratches from years of use.

Looking up at the second floor banister that wrapped around the edge of the room there was… A car? A huge toy car crashed through the thick wood railing and half blackened by fire that had thankfully somehow not spread to the rest of the wood room. I sigh in relief when I see I didn’t have to go any further into the darkened hallways as I spotted the generator in a nearby side room.

As I’d expected, the door was already open, a warm orange glow casting long shadows from within. A utility closet with concrete flooring and brick walls, some kind of maintenance space I assume. Circling the large rectangular generator in the center of the room I pop open a side panel and peer inside. A greasy block of metal covered in wires and tubing greeted me along with the stench of oil and diesel fuel. A scent I recognized but was not overly familiar with as my people had little use for machinery that required oxygen to function.

Thankfully these types of engines were also relatively simple so fixing it shouldn’t take too long. I find myself very thankful for that fact, glancing back out into the dark atrium. Finding a tool box with the necessary things I focus on the task at hand.

It didn’t take long for me to find myself with blackened fingers and surrounded by scattered parts. “The oil’s serviceable if clearly aged.. The fuel is fine.. Even the rubber seals are still intact..” Sliding the handle of the wrench I was holding down a list of maintenance tasks I’d found taped inside the housing I was quickly running out of options.

Worry starts to build in my chest that if the problem was deeper there would be little I could do to fix it with my limited resources. I set the wrench down and stick my torso back into the housing to check the next main part.

The stator was covered by a vent cover with bolts in the corners. “So many damn bolts..” I reach back for the wrench, feeling blindly for it while peering past the cover to the components inside. I was just about to climb back out when the tools handle drops into my hand. I pull my arm in and go to attach it to one of the bolts when my blood turns to ice and I freeze in place. Wait a minute..

My tail slowly curls before swinging around hard. I don’t hit anything but there’s a clatter of tools getting knocked over so I take the chance to pull myself out and whip around with the wrench in hand.

I freeze in place, my eyes darting around the empty room. Some of the generator parts get scattered about as if knocked over but I don’t spot any movement. “H-Hello..?” I swallow, stepping over the parts on the floor as I circle around the generator. A slight metallic clink makes my eyes dart to the large toolbox in the corner by the door.

Quietly stepping over, eyes locked onto the open top of the toolbox. I’m about to use my tail to knock the box over when I hesitate. Debating for a moment, I curse to myself before stepping closer and leaning over. The tools inside do little to cover the lump of cyan blue inside.

I blink and tilt my head. “U-Um.. hello..?” The tools shift a little as the elephant toy inside turns its head, a single black plastic eye looking up at me before jumping and burying itself again when it sees the wrench in my hand. After my last encounter with a mini-critter I was torn, granted this one did not even try and approach like that Bobby Bearhug had.. It had hidden even helped me.. Surely if it had wanted to attack it could have right then quite easily. The little toy was even in decent condition, not nearly as torn up as the others I’d seen. I flexed my fingers around the wrench as I looked around in indecision.

I take a deep breath and kneel down by the box, turning the wrench around. I give the toy a gentle poke with the handle. “Hey.. I can see you ya know..” The toy slowly turns its head around again, I pick up the faint sound of its rapid breathing as it turns. “Sorry for reacting like that lil guy.. You just scared me is all. Wanna come on out? Can’t imagine that’s very comfortable.” The tools clink and clatter as they slowly lift their head.

Despite the large grin on its face I can see their stumpy limbs shaking. Their head twitches this way and that as, I assume, they look for an escape route. I frown a little but back up to give them some space. They were significantly smaller than the other plushes I’d seen, they could probably stand on my palm if they wanted to, not quite pocket sized per-se but.. extra mini was the only thing that came to mind. I tilt my head when I see the little dangling plastic hoop hanging off the back of his head. I guess he was supposed to be like, a keychain or backpack decoration..? Add another tally to the 'fuck this company' board I guess..

“I’m not gonna hurt ya.. Promise. Uh.. Thanks for handing me the wrench by the way? It was nice of you!” I smile softly, trying to make myself as non-threatening as possible. They just stare at me for a few moments before slowly climbing out of the box, keeping their eyes on me as they do, though their leg catches on the edge of the box and they tumble out, dropping onto the floor with a cushioned thump.

I can’t help but snrk and smile at the scene before reaching out and offering a hand to them as they get their arms under themselves. Looking at me then my hand the toy puts its arm on mine so I can gently lift them to their feet. “There we go.. What were you doin in here anyways lil guy? I’ve heard this place is really dangerous..” The toy puts the little plush nubs that are its hand together and looks away, making me tilt my head. “Can you talk?” They shake their head a little as I hum in understanding. “Well, is it okay if I call you Bubba then?” They look up and nod, even puffing their chest out a bit, making me smile.

“Well it’s nice to meet you Bubba. I take it you live here?” He nods a little and points out the doorway up at the balcony. “On the second floor? Nice, very cushy I’m sure, got a penthouse suite and everything?” He tilts his head before putting a hand to his mouth as he laughs silently and nods.

“Well if you came all the way down here there must be a reason for it. Get curious?” He taps his arms together and nods, pointing at the generator. “That’s adorable.” I giggle. He crosses his arms and shakes his head, the trunk wiggling side to side as he does, getting a soft chuckle in response. “Well.. Wanna help me figure out this problem then? I could always use the extra hands.” he nods eagerly, bouncing a little with excitement.

I grin and grab the wrench again. “Alright then! I hereby dub you, Apprentice Bubba!” If the toy's eyes could widen I’m sure they’d be dinner plates the way they seem to light up and hop in place at the idea. I giggle and nod. “Ready to get to work?” He turns around and grabs another wrench from the toolbox, nearly as big as he is, holding it the way a soldier might hold a rifle when marching before giving me a little salute. I laugh and do a little march back to the open panel with him.

By the time an hour had passed us by I’d hardly even noticed. Bubba was clearly a quick learner and would lean in on my shoulder as I explained the basics of how the generator worked. “This engine spins a rod wrapped in copper wires and magnets called the rotor. Around that is a ring of more copper wire and magnets called the stator. When the magnets move past each other fast enough it generates electricity!” It was adorable watching him scramble around inside the machine, helping me put bolts in place or thread wires around tight gaps.

He’d also started eagerly bringing me tools and parts when I asked for them. With the engine back together, the stator compartment opened and the rotor removed, we finally got to take a look around inside the actual electricity generating part of the machine.

Examining the parts I don’t immediately see anything wrong till Bubba waves and points at two small blocks at the end closest to us. Taking a closer look I spotted it immediately, two screws were missing, one off each block that left them disconnected from the stator. The screws in question laid neatly together on the blocks like they’d been set aside and we’re just waiting to be re-installed.

Frowning at the implications, I glance back towards the dark room outside. Bubba tilts his head at me as I clench my jaw nervously. “It’s alright bud just,” I turn back to him, “let’s get this done quick okay?” It’s only a moment before we’ve re-attached the wires and lifted the rotor back into place, sliding it in and securing it with Bubba’s help.

Putting the panel back on I call out to Bubba, “Mind handing me the wrench again hun?” Nothing.. “Bubba?” I lift my head and look over at him. My ears fold back when I see him frozen in place, looking past me at the doorway. I close my eyes and take a breath before I slowly turn to look. CatNap’s wide grinning face filling the top of the doorframe stares back at me with those two bright glowing white rings.

Dropping the panel to the floor with a clatter I step back towards Bubba, gently ushering him behind me with my tail. CatNaps eyes dart down to the small toy as he grabs onto my leg from behind and buries his face in my pant leg. “What do you want, CatNap..?” The huge plush offers no response, just continuing to stare at me. “Look if you’re here for the Angel he’s-”

“Silence..” His voice made me wince slightly, a rasping, hissing noise like tin foil across glass, like he was unused to speaking, though the disdain in his tone was readily apparent. “Why are you here, thief?”

“Wha-? Thief? But I haven’t..” I furrow my brows before my eyes widen in realization. “You mean DogDay..” A heat builds in my chest as I stare him down. “Look I.. I’m not here for any particular reason, I just sort of.. Woke up here.”

Remembering what DogDay had said about CatNaps “visits” my eyes harden. “As for DogDay I saved him from your torture chamber. I intend to get him and anyone else who will help me, out of this place. And I am not afraid to fight for them.”

He stares me down, as if calculating some unseen equation. “You will fail. The Prototype will not allow anyone to leave his hallowed halls.” It comes across as a statement of fact more than a threat.

“I guess we’ll just have to see..” I glare at him, baring my teeth some. “So what now? You’ve got me cornered here after all. You gonna kill me? Slice me in half and hang me on the wa-” My bravado crumbles in an instant as CatNap suddenly ducks through the doorway, his steps thumping across the floor heavily.

His voice sounds like it might burst from his throat as he leers down at me and hisses. “You know Nothing of our struggles! Nothing!! I will not be insulted by a weakling such as you!”

My heart rate jumps at his sudden aggression as I try to step back again, tripping over the wrench I’d dropped as I fall to the floor, Bubba diving to the side to avoid getting crushed under me. The air rushes around me as I feel more than see CatNap rush at me, face inches from my own. I yelp and turn my head, shielding my face instinctively. “T-Then help me understand!! I-I don’t.. I don’t remember anything before waking up, I-I am confused a-and..”

For a moment, just a moment CatNaps intensity seems to falter. His eyes darting down to the ground. “Pitiable creature..” He pauses. “If.. What you say is true..” He hisses softly and looks me in the eyes again. “Find the office of Stella Greyber.”

I blink. “W-Wh- Who is-” I yelp again when he turns suddenly. The slight breeze he makes when he moves has a slight tinge of some kind of floral scent oddly enough that I hadn’t caught before. Unlike the red smoke which was harsh and chemical smelling, this one was far gentler, pleasant if it weren’t for the creature it was coming from.

“If you truly only awoken recently, you will find answers there. I will offer you one chance to see the sins committed here, and offer yourself to his will. Choose wisely, you're still intruding on my territory. If you continue to aid the so-called Angel,” He practically spits the name, “You will be made an example of, like all others before you.”

“O-Okay.. Um.. T-Thank you? I-I think..” Managing a small nod. He stares long and hard into my eyes before exhaling sharply and walking through the door, tail flicking behind him throwing another toolbox to the floor with a loud clatter. The noise making me cover my ears and close my eyes, when I open them again he’s gone, disappeared into the darkness.

I flop back, hand going to my chest as I wait for my heart to calm down. I don’t know what it is about him that always got it racing so hard, well, besides the whole murderous toy thing. He just exuded “You Are In Danger”, like being next to a live high voltage wire.

As I catch my breath Bubba climbs up onto my torso, looking down at me with a worried look. Giving him a small smile I sit up slowly, catching him in my hand as I do. “Well.. I think that’s enough excitement for a lifetime.. What do you think?” He nods and taps his ‘hands’ together nervously. I give the little critter a gentle hug which he returns, pressing his face into my chest.

“Ready to get out of here?” The toy looks up at me for a moment before seeming to remember something, wiggling from my hands he lands on my lap and shakes his head, pointing back into the foyer at a hall that goes deeper into the building. “Uuh.. Are you sure..? CatNap is still out there and I doubt he’ll be so friendly if he finds us poking around..”

The mini critter points again before making a sleeping motion and pointing at himself. “Your.. Bed? Is that way?” He face.. Hooves? Palms? Before tugging his ears out and mimicking a tent with them. “Oh where you’ve been living is that way!” He nods and mimes opening a box and pulling something out before putting it in his non-existent pocket. “Ooh you wanna grab some stuff from your home first.” He nods and crosses his arms, clearly proud of his charades skills. “I dunno dude.. Like I said-,” The toy huffs and jumps off her lap, running out the door towards the hall as Winter groans and stumbles to her feet, “Hey wait!”

Running after him through the winding corridors and half destroyed rooms, I stay on alert for any hide or hair of the feline. “This place is.. Huge.. How many kids were expected to live here..?” A chill runs down my spine as I take in the sheer number of beds across multiple floors.

Then there were the cribs.. Dozens of them. A pit forms in my stomach at the sight. Hurrying past them I try not to think about it. The amount of toy corpses was.. Distressing to say the least. They were eviscerated in the most awful ways, limbs and heads sliced clean off, hung, stabbed on spikes of broken wood. I tried to give as many of them some proper rest by untangling them from strings or removing them from spikes but, with the sheer amount I quickly gave up on all but the most egregious ones. My heart ached for each one. No living thing deserved this..

Following Bubba up a spiral staircase, I look warily at a cut-out on the balcony, this one of PickyPiggy. If this was like any of the others I’d found so far it wouldn’t be pleasant. “Hi! I’m PickyPiggy! Let’s eat!”

“Huh, the voice fits but I kinda expected something more southern..” Bubba glances up at me with a look. “What? Lot’s of planets have a South!” I purse my lips and huff as the little toy giggles silently.

“Roast beef? Delicious!” Jeez, gonna make me hungry at this rate. “Grilled chicken? Down the hatch!” That does sound.. Wait, wasn’t one of your friends a chicken? “Seared elephant? Yum!” Oh.. Oh gods.. “Flayed unicorn? Mmmm..” What the fuck is this..? “Still hungry.. Hey, what do you say you and I be friends..?” Oh gods, I think I’m gonna be sick.. Setting aside the weirdness surrounding these cutouts, there was a disturbing pattern following them. I don’t want to dredge up bad memories but.. I should probably ask DogDay about the other Critters when I get back..

I’m about to ask how much further we were going when the small toy points at a small hole in the wall excitedly. “Oh, is this it? I’ll uh, wait out here then okay?” She gives the toy a small smile before turning around and looking down the hallway, leaning against the wall as she folds her arms. Across the hall another room with the door half open stared back at me. Well, since we're here?

Stepping into the room I look around it curiously, like the others it was dirty and dusty but the bed was at least still intact. Shining my light at the dusty backpack and notebooks on the desk before swinging it around past the bed. Wait.. Was was..? I crouch down and tug at a piece of red plastic sticking from a cut in the matress I'd nearly missed. Giving a few pulls reveals the gas mask hidden away inside. "A gas mask..? Why the hell would..?" Turning it over in my hands I squint at the faded marker on the strap on the back. The handwriting is sloppy and childish so it takes a second to read. "Malachi..? Huh. Why the hell would a kid have hidden a gas mask away like this.." I get a chill. "Eugh, I hope that kid turned out alright.." Looking at the mask closer, it looked like it could be pretty easily modified for my snout, and if that kid thought it was important enough to hide? I attach it to my hip with a clip.

Returning out of the room to find Bubba sitting on a stack of books. Along with them I see a night light shaped like DogDay’s sun pendant, and a small blanket draped over his shoulders that despite its size, flows off his shoulders like a giant cape. Smiling softly I crouch down. “All set?” He looks at the little pile and nods, gesturing like he’s giving a thumbs up despite the lack of thumbs.

“Heh, nice work dude.” I take the blanket and carefully wraps the items in a little bundle before picking it and him up. “Alright, now let’s get outta here.”

Chapter Text

“I’m back!” I called out as I hurried down the steps only to freeze at the bottom. “Woah..”

The huge form of what I recognize as Kissy Missy looks over and tilts her head at me with that wide smile I’d grown accustomed to from the wall art. A smaller porcelain looking doll with bright red hair turns at the sudden intrusion before smiling at me.

DogDay grins and waves excitedly from the couch. ”Winter! I was starting to get worried!” I chuckle and give him a gentle hug before he gestures to the two newcomers. This is Kissy,” The large toy waves shyly, “And this is Poppy!”

The doll bobs a curtsy and giggles. “It’s a pleasure to meet you! DogDay tells me we have you to thank for his rescue?”

I wave back with a nervous smile. “I-I mean, he was the one that pulled us to safety in the end but uh, eheh!” I rub the back of my neck.

She giggles. “Well, thank you. We honestly didn’t think he was still alive after all this time..”

The canine snickers. “Can’t get rid of me that easily!” He sticks his tongue out at the smaller toy making me giggle at the sight.

“Glad to see you’re in good spirits Day.” I sit down on a pillow on the floor, moving the bundle of books into my lap. “I actually kinda brought a friend too!” Nudging the cloth open some, I smile softly. “Come on out lil guy, we’re safe here, promise!”

The extra-mini Bubba toy slowly peaks out at the trio as I offer a hand for them to climb onto. “Bubba, meet DogDay, Kissy, and Poppy!” I grin as the other toys give a friendly wave, a wistful look crossing DogDay’s face.

Bubba perks up and flaps his ears happily as I giggle and set him and his books down on the floor. “Make yourself at home hun.” He nods and turns away before seemingly remembering something, he turns back and jumps against my front, hugging as tight as his little arms can. I squeak softly and giggle, returning the hug with one hand before letting him go.

Poppy giggles. “I’d never have taken a Nightmare Critter to be so friendly.”

Looking at her, a tone in her voice gives me pause as my own smile strains a little. “And I’d never take a doll to be the train driving type.”
She opens her mouth to respond before thinking better of what she was going to say. “I guess Angel’s told you about what happened..?”

I nod, folding my hands in my lap. “That you tricked him into getting on that train only to crash it down here so he couldn’t leave?” She starts to object but stops when I hold up a finger. “Before you start, I assumed there’s more to the story. He hasn’t exactly been the most friendly person since we met so it’s not hard to think he might make something up.”

“Weeeell.. I mean.. He’s half correct?” She laughs nervously but it fades as I just raise an eyebrow at her. “I did, sorta, trick him onto the train, that part is true. But! I didn’t crash it! That was the Prototype, he did something to it..”

Hm. Believable enough I suppose. I shrug. “Fair enough. Still, pretty fucked up to trap someone in all of.. This..” I gesture around. “Where is he anyways..?”

”He went looking for some drinkable water at the school. Apparently he just went through there, said it was safe to scavenge in now. Speaking of which, how did it go in Home Sweet Home? Did you run into Him..?”

I think for a moment before shaking my head. “Nope! Like I said, was totally fine. Generator just popped a couple loose bolts I had to tighten down.” I smile at him. He seems to pick up on my hesitation to answer but doesn’t say anything.

“Anyways, so now it’s the..,” I look over the status screen on the wall. “Councelors office?”

Poppy nods. “Oh! I should introduce you to Ollie!” She looks at Kissy who nods and pulls a colorful phone I would have easily mistaken as a toy out of her makeshift bag. Handing it to the smaller toy she pushes the green call button on it, without putting any other numbers in first I note, the phone ringing with an annoyingly loud bell before clicking.

“Hiya!!” My eyes widen at the childish voice that emanates from the device. “I’m so excited to finally talk to you! My name is Ollie!! And your name is Winter! Now that we’re not strangers, we can be friends!”

Well someone is excited.. And weirdly scripted sounding.. “U-Um sorry, hi! I uh.. I gotta admit you caught me off guard!”

”I caught you off guard!? Last time I checked there were no other bigger bodies for us to find, and here you are! I’ve been watching you for a while but since you didn’t have a phoooone..” He trails off.

“Wait, watching? We’re you the one that sent me this key??” I tilt my head.

”Yup!! That was me! Angel got stuck on the other side of a door in the school so when I saw he was going towards the PlayHouse, I figured he could use some help!”

“Pfff. That’s funny, dude ended up saving my life, not the other way around.” I roll my eyes.

”Shoot, really!? I’m sorry.. I hope you didn’t get too messed up in there..” His voice gets a grainy straining sound behind it as he talks.

“I-It’s okay really! I didn’t get hurt too bad and I got a new friend out of it, so, I call it a win!” DogDay smiles shyly at the mention.

”I heard! It was so awesome getting to hear DogDay’s voice again!” A staticy giggle crackles from the speakers.

“I just wish I could fix him up more.. Say.. I hate to bring up bad memories but.. Do you or any of you know where his legs ended up..?”

Poppy and DogDay shake their heads.

”I wasn’t really focused on where they took them when it happened, plus it was years ago now.” He shrugs sadly as Poppy speaks up.

“Even if we did, it’s not like you could just sew them back on. We may be toys but we can’t just be fixed with some needle and thread.” She folds her arms.

“Never underestimate good old mad science my dear. I know a trick or two heh.” I smile when Poppy tilts her head at me with narrowed eyes before the phone clicks.

”I might be able to find em if I can find the old footage but it’ll probably take a while! I’ll keep an eye out in the meantime!”

“Heh, sounds good dude, thanks! I think I’m gonna go catch up with Angel so we can check out the Counselors Office, may as well try and get it done and over with right?”

Poppy nods with a hum. “Good! The sooner we get this done the sooner we can go after the Prototype directly!”

“Woah, woah, what? I never said that!”

“But it’s true! The sooner we finish here the sooner we can finally get rid of that monster for good! Don’t you want that?” She gives me a confused look as I rub my face.

“Of course I want to keep you guys safe but do you have any idea what he’s capable of..?”

“Well.. I mean uh.. Sorta..” She sputters as I raise a brow.

“What about where he even is..?”

“He’s in the labs!” She answers confidently.

“Okay, and how do we get there?” I fold my arms.

“Well.. I know it’s under the prison, which is below us here.”

I sigh and rub my temple. “And we’re just supposed to figure out how to get to it with what I assume are gonna be numerous threats between us and them. Just the five-” A tiny trumpet noise draws my eyes down to the little alcove Bubba has made under the work bench. “Five and a quarter, sorry, of us?” I snicker with an eyeroll. The tiny toy nods and folds his arms with a smug look.

Kissy giggles silently as Poppy huffs and folds her arms. “I’m not stupid Winter, I get that it’s a longshot, but we have the element of surprise on our hands! If we throw that away we might not get another chance!”

DogDay rubs the back of his neck as he speaks up. “I dunno Poppy.. The more we talk about it? Shouldn’t we be trying to be as careful as possible? I don’t want to lose any more friends to this thing..” He wraps his arms around himself with a worried look.

The doll groans in frustration. “None of that matters! We’re gonna keep losing our friends one by one unless we stop him for good!”

I jump a little in surprise when DogDay growls. “I know what he’s capable of Poppy, better than most..” He snaps at her with an angry glare. “But you don’t have any right to demand that of us out of the blue Poppy! It’s not fair!”

“Ooookay, let’s.. Let’s just take a deep breath and calm down..” I rest a hand on the canine's as he huffs and looks away from Poppy sharply. “We can talk about this again later..”

The door opens as Angel bounces down the stairs quickly, pausing at the base of the stairs and nodding at me. “Woah.. What’s going on in here..?”

“Just uh.. Trying to figure out what we’re doing going forward. But now that you’re here we can go take care of this last generator.”

”And I’m coming with this time.” DogDay’s expression and tone leaves no room for argument as my protest dies in my throat.

“I..” sigh "Alright, uh.. Mind watching my back again then?” I smile at him when he nods.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Heading down the steps into the Counselors Office alongside Angel proves thankfully uneventful, both of us keenly aware of how long it’s been since a certain purple feline has made an appearance, for him even more so. We’re about to head further into the building after locating a stashed battery to open the door forward when I notice a black tape on the nearby desk.

“Emergency Alert..?” I hold up the tape as Angel looks back at me over his shoulder. “Some standard thing or..?”

He shrugs. “I wouldn’t know, it never got played while I was here.” He must have seen the curious look on my face as he sighs. “You’re gonna make me wait so we can watch it aren’t you?”

“You know me so well already!” I snicker at him and stick the tape into the oddly convenient player only to jump a little at the staticky whining alarm noise that blares from the speakers of the TV in the corner, and every other TV I see mounted to the walls down the hall in front of us. “Ookay, creepier than I expected..”

“At 11:01 AM, Eastern Standard Time, an unknown hostile force was declared present within the Playtime Co. facility. Personnel are to begin enacting emergency evacuation protocols immediately."

I fold my arms nervously while Will listens intently.

"Leave all personal belongings. Do not engage with any hostile individuals."

“Hostile individuals..?” I ask but quickly shut up when Will holds up a finger and gives me a hard look.

"If no exit path is available, seek shelter in a hidden location. Use blankets or pillows to cover your body, and remain silent."

"Do not look through any windows. Do not open doors for any individuals. Do not make eye contact with-" A burst of static makes me nearly jump out of my skin before more text fills the screen, this time without a voice to accompany it.

”Open the doors now. The Hour of Joy has arrived."

“So that’s the Hour of Joy..” Will raises a brow at me. “I don’t know details, just that it was bad apparently..”

DogDay sighs. “I don’t know what happened exactly, but the Prototype was the orchestrator so, nothing good.. Never saw any humans again afterwards.”

Will’s eyes widen as a confused look crosses his features. “You’re not telling me that.. Wait, what about the investigations then? They should have found something..”

”I don’t know, okay!? I was already in my cell by then, honest.” Hearing the frustration and sadness in his tone I reach down and take his hand in mine, giving a gentle squeeze.

Will looks like he wants to keep arguing but I just shake my head at him. “Another time, let’s just get this done okay..?”

He sighs and rolls his eyes before heading into the hall as I trail behind. Long office corridors with glass windowed doors lining either side greet us coldly. Most of the rooms seem to have collapsed but I find myself keeping an eye on the names on each of the doors.

A few times I have to pull DogDay off my back to let him crawl through an air vent ahead of me just to re-attach on the other side. I didn’t mind carrying him but my spine was starting to voice its complaints at carrying someone nearly as large as I am. And the halls blending together doesn’t exactly help.

Coming up to a sort of break room my nose immediately picks up the oddest scent of what I could only describe as burnt flowers. It was floral, smokey, and altogether unpleasant as I felt a faint buzzing itch in my throat after just a couple inhales. “Ugh.. What is that?” Looking past the door I furrow my brow at the red wispy tendrils that float through the air on the other side. The heavy gas settling along the floor as my ears perk up at the sound of tiny coughs.

“Winter, wait.. Winter!” Will calls out but I don’t stop, through a hole in the wall I see a small toy, a bunny with cymbals, struggling to breath in the thick vapor. Without a second thought I fire my Grab-Pack and grab the poor thing only to jump when CatNap bursts from one of the doors, snatching up the poor toy with my packs hand still attached to it. Before I can react he dashes into the next door, the wire on my pack goes taut as I’m yanked against the opening in the wall with a yelp. Nearly getting pulled through the opening I get a face full of the potent floral smoke.

“Winter!” I hear DogDay yell my name but the smell of the gas is so thick here.. My thoughts are struggling to keep themselves together all of a sudden. Someone grabs my hand and pulls me back as hard as they can, though I barely register it as my vision blurs in and out.

There’s a sharp snap before I fall back suddenly, stumbling a few steps before landing on my butt hard. Oddly I don’t feel any pain, just a faint buzzing as my head swims.

I see Will in front of me, I think he’s talking but all I can hear is the blood in my veins.. Eugh, that is.. Un.. Pleasant.. “Whyyy are there two of you..? No, wait.. Three..”

Will drags a hand down his face and shakes his head. He gestures over my shoulder and talks to my backpack, which is pretty weird if you ask me.. Before using his Grab-Pack to grab a battery in the room through the same hole. Walking past he makes a ‘stay’ gesture that, as much as I wish I could disagree with, my legs do not want to listen to my commands to move. So stay I shall.

A fuzzy warm thing pulls itself in front of me as my eyes suddenly droop, feeling exceptionally heavy. The orange blob in front of me keeps patting my cheeks, it’s really annoying.. Why can’t I just sleep..? What’s so wrong with that..?
I hear muffled laughter as I swat away the hands that keep trying to wake me up.

Opening my eyes enough to look up they lock onto movement past the orange canine to the door behind him. A tall pill shaped metal cylinder tinks against the glass, all dark grey steel as the dozen segments going from its top to bottom rotate in random directions and speeds. Thin cable like tendrils slipping under the door as my veins run cold.

An eviscerator drone. The tendrils find the door handle before swinging it open slowly as the single red glowing camera lens on its ‘head’ looks at me. I try to scramble backwards further into the wall, try to warn DogDay, why isn’t he doing anything!?

The drones segments open all at once as thick cable unspools from each ring, each segment begins spinning rapidly, gyrating at random angles as gashes and sparks fly from the cables whipping around, colliding with each other and the floor underneath it as the high pitched whine fills my ears. I try to scream, to say anything but DogDay just looks at me with concern in his eyes as he grips my shoulders.

My heartbeat thunders in my chest as the floor tears and shatters under the slowly encroaching device while it slides towards us like a predatory animal getting ready to strike its prey.

Willing my limbs to move I grab the confused canine and roughly yank him to the side and away from the machine. In the same second I close my eyes while my ear fins click and unfold lengthways, rotating around to face forward. A sharp whine builds in them before two bright green beams an inch wide each fire and sweep from the ceiling down to the floor, flooding the hall with sickly green light for a couple seconds before it blinks out.

Panting softly I open my eyes and blink a few times to see.. Nothing..? But where did..? The only sounds are my heavy breathing and a crackling hissing as smoke curls up from the two charred black lines that now adorn the walls and floor, but there is no sign of the drone, nor any of the destruction it left behind. My ears hiss softly before there’s a click when they eject their twin power cores coinciding with a spike of pain behind my eyes. Wincing with the sudden headache. “Shit.. Ow, ow.. What the..?”

”W-Winter..?” I freeze at the fearful expression on DogDay’s face. A cold bite going through my chest at the sight.

Shit. Not now, not so soon! I sputter and stumble over my words, trying to find anything I can say only to come up empty handed.

”You’re not.. You’re not a toy are you..?” His voice is firm, demanding as I wince internally.

“I.. No. Dammit, no I’m not.. I’m not even..” I sigh as he stares at me hard, expectantly. “I’m not even from Earth, alright? From your perspective, I’m an alien from a very far off world called Solaris.”

His brow furrows before he rolls his eyes and laughs? I look at him in confusion. ”You lied to me! Of course you did! Who hasn’t in this god forsaken place!?” The laughter stops abruptly. ”I don’t even care about all.. That,” He gestures at me vaguely. ”If I hadn’t just watched you fire freaking lasers out of your ears I don’t think I’d believe it anyways! He sighs and slumps back against the wall. ”I was always taught that lying is bad, yet I find myself surrounded by liars my entire life! The scientists, The Prototype, Poppy, CatNap, and even you!!" He growls in frustration.

“I-I..” I take a deep breath and sigh, “You’re right, I shouldn’t have hidden that from you, I’m sorry. I just didn’t want to cause more confusion with everything going on a-and..” The excuse dies in my throat. “I really am sorry.. All I can do is promise It won’t happen again..”

The canine’s white irises focus on me as he purses his lips. ”Pinky promise..? No more lies, no more hiding things.” He extends a hand with his pinky out.

I tilt my head but smile. “Pinky promise?”

He looks down for a moment before speaking, dead serious. ”It’s a special kind of promise for only the most important things.”

Nodding slowly I reach out, extending my own pinky, smiling wider when the canine hooks his own around mine. “Pinky Promise Day. No more lies. No more secrets.”

He nods before letting me go. “So, on that topic. And this isn’t really a lie!” I put my hands up defensively. “But I didn’t think Angel would take this news well.. I uh.. I got cornered by CatNap back in Home Sweet Home.”

DogDays ears shoot up in alarm. ”You what!?”

“I know I know! But, look. He didn’t attack me or anything like that, we just talked a little. He believed my story about being a toy that had no memory so, he told me to come here and find Stella Greyber’s office? Does that name mean anything to you?”

He nods. ”She was one of the heads of the company, specifically she was the head of everything here in Playcare. I think she was the only one here that knew what we really were here, though it didn’t stop her from being cruel..”

“Mm.. Well, he said I should find her office to ‘learn the sins of this place’.” I rub my arm nervously. “I’ve been noticing things, about you, about this place, things that I really, really hope aren’t true..” Day opens his mouth to speak but I shake my head. “Don’t, I’m not gonna force you to have another panic attack when the answers are only a little ways off.” The canine nods with a frown but I can see his shoulders relax some.

“I know we just said no more lies but, you know how Angel is, I don’t think he should know about my little meeting until later. He’s a bit of a wildcard right now after all..”

”Normally I’d disagree but.. I gotta admit, the fact he was so willing to leave me behind has been eating at me a little.” He rubs the back of his neck bashfully, as if he were casually disagreeing over a preferred time of year rather than a man's decision to leave him for dead.

Setting the flick of anger aside I smile at him gently. “Good, it should bother you.” Looking at him I chuckle when I notice the way he keeps looking at me, that familiar expression of someone who has a question but is too scared to actually ask. “Alright, ask your questions dude.”

”W-Wha..? But I didn’t..?” He sputters as I snicker.

“You wanna ask the alien what else she can do, don’t you?” I ask with a roll of my eyes and a knowing smile.

He folds his hands and twiddles his thumbs shyly. ”I well uh.. Okay, maybe I do, kinda sorta care about the whole alien thing. Uh.. Can you like, spit acid or shoot needles?”

“Hah! I wish! That’d be useful as hell down here!” I snicker. “No, no. The closest thing to that I have is my teeth growing back super quick after they fall out. See?” I pull my lip down to show the tooth I’d pulled out when cutting him down was already partway to being replaced by a new one.

”That’s pretty cool! Okay uh.. So, how did you end up here if you’re from outer space..?”

I hum. “That would be my fault. I was working on a special project, a machine, something that could move an object or a person from one place to another instantly no matter how far away it is.”

”A teleporter! Bubba told me about that in one of his books once! He liked to nerd out about those stories to anyone who’d listen.” He giggles.

“Heh, sounds like we would have gotten along well.” I smile softly at him as he nods in agreement. “Anyways, somehow the coordinates were wrong or there was a problem with the power system, I’m not too sure but, I ended up in a storage closet just outside the Game Station. That’s where I got this!” I hold up my Grab-Pack arms before my eyes widen. “Oh shit!” I look at the broken end of the cable hanging from the right hand and pout. “Maaan.. Shit..” I look up when Day gasps softly.

”Language!” He frowns at me.

“Oh my goodness, are you really gonna get on me about that..?” I give him a flat stare.

He folds his arms and nods with a hmph. Only to snrk and break into a giggle that I can’t help joining in on.

”Um.. If you don’t mind me asking, what did you see that made you do.. That..?” He gestures to the now cooled scorch marks.

“Uh.. Well, it was actually a machine. Something we called an ‘eviscerator drone’ back on my world. They’re.. Well they’re nothing good. They’d be sent into tunnels to flush out enemies, people. If you were lucky you could get away with some broken bones, if not, you’d end up cut apart by their spinning cables. Thankfully they’re long gone but I had a close encounter with them once that landed me in the hospital for a couple months, like I said, lucky. But a close friend of mine was uh.. Taken.” I shrug with a sad smile when Day gives me a worried look. “It happened a very very long time ago, I’ve grieved and moved on but.. I still have nightmares sometimes. I guess that smoke stuff just made it manifest from that?”

”That’s what the red smoke does, puts you to sleep and gives you nightmares of the worst kind.” He looks at me with a contemplative look before grabbing my arm and pulling himself against my side. ”I’m really sorry you lost your friend..”

Returning the hug gently I press my cheek against the top of his head. “You know what I think the biggest mystery I’ve found since I’ve been here?” He hums questioning. “How the heck someone as soft and sweet as you ended up here.” I chuckle as I can feel his face heat up.

He huffs and sits up. ”Says you! I can be very mean when I mean to be!”

I look up in contemplation before looking back at him with a raised brow. “Have you ever meant to be?”

”I.. Well.. No.. C-Cause that’s.. Mean..” He pouts and looks away.

“I rest my case.” I snicker and ruffle the fur on top of his head.

A long few minutes pass as the last of the headache and fuzziness in my head dissipates.

“The heck is taking Will so long..? I hope he didn’t run into any troub-” I squeak sharply in surprise when a Grab-Pack hand flies through the hole over our heads, grabbing the battery from the far end of the hall before whipping it back over top of us and into the room. Looking up I watch the gas mask wearing Angel stick the battery into a slot on the wall. There’s a distant hum as ventilation fans switch on, the smoke in the room getting rapidly sucked into the vents.

I put my hands on my hips and huff as he takes off his mask and opens the door with a smug look on his face, stepping back and gesturing into the room. “Ladies first?”

“Yes yes, you’re very impressive Will, thank you.” I stick my tongue out at him while I lift DogDay onto my back, the canine snickering.

Will shakes his head with a small smirk. “Just be careful. I don’t know where CatNap is but I definitely saw him a couple times, we’re likely being watched.”

I nod as I start looking around curiously, digging through the small kitchen only to find wrappers and empty cans. “Jeez, not even a crumb of anything left..?” The surrounding offices, while interesting due to the titles of their original owners, prove to be equally empty of both food and information, unless I wanted to skim through the budget report on pillows for Home Sweet Home or attendance ratings for the schools book fair of course.

Exiting into the office again I notice a door barricaded on our side, taking a few minutes to clear it away. “Hey, there it is!” I jog over to the office, stepping inside the spacious room curiously. Gently setting Day onto the couch on the far wall I start looking through filing cabinets first. Most of it is useless clerical work on budgets, supplies, staff wages, reports from the other heads, that kind of thing.

A cabinet by her desk I find stuffed with folder after folder of names. Tugging a few out I skim through them.

‘Joshua Gibson, 15. Transferred from Nevada state foster system after being removed from an abusive household at five years old. Joshua while initially struggling to fit in with the other children has been doing much better of late. Several children have even mentioned finding his company calming during minor incidents. This, combined with high empathy scores, I will be putting Joshua on the list of potential future counselors. I would also like to recommend them as a potential candidate for experiment 1186. While I understand their gender does not match the experiment's profile, in private counseling sessions Joshua has admitted to being non-conforming with male gender roles and is even receiving Hormone Replacement Therapy as of last month.’

“Experiment one-one-eight-six huh..?” I frown as I continue looking at each file, each one similarly laid out. The child's name, age, where they came from and their background, plus suggestions for future roles either in the work force or for these experiments. The pit in my stomach deepens with each name I read. ‘Thomas Lee, Mary Payne, Sarah Bingham, Theodore Grambell, Jeremy Whiles, Kevin Barnes’

”You okay..? You’re uh.. Getting a little red in the face..” He asks, tone full of concern.

“Yeah.. Yeah I’m fine just.. My worries are slowly getting confirmed..” Looking across the desk at the computer I click my tongue before trying it. Surprisingly the dusty machine whirrs to life when I click it on. Even DogDay seems surprised as he walks on his hands with some difficulty to come look. I hold an office chair for him to plop into before turning back to the computer.

Greeted by a password screen I smirk. “Fun fact, computer engineering is one of my specialties~” Reaching up to my ear I pluck a small metal puck the size of a quarter with a red spot on one side from a small slot. “Watch this.” Pressing the item to the side of the tower it clicks as the red spot blinks at random. The screen flickers and buzzes, windows opening as code scrolls down at a rapid pace.

”Woah.. How are you..?”

I can’t help giggling at his face of wonder. “With this!” I tap a claw on the glass front of my right eye. Another giggle when he winces. “It’s an augment, lets me interface with technology without needing to type or interact with it. It’s using my brain as a processor to do all the work for me.”

”That sounds uncomfortable..” He rubs his head at the thought.

“It can be if I do it for too long, gives me a killer headache.” I stick out my tongue and smile when the computer beeps, a desktop with the PlayTime logo in the center loading up. “Alright, let's see what we can find here..” I scoot closer to the screen and tug his chair over with me.

As I search I once again find a lot of clerical documents, some incident reports about the children getting into fights or having accidents. In particular I notice a good number of them for Kevin Barnes. Poor thing seemed to be going through it judging by the little bits I skimmed through. Finding the access point to the factory's internal network my ears perk up. “Here we go, let’s see how much of this thing is even functional..”

The screen blinks with numerous errors about missing ports, lost connections and corrupted files as I skim down the list of servers that are even partially functional. Digging through what would equate to mountains of financial reports and production statistics I narrow my eyes towards the bottom of the list. ‘BB-IN-CEN’ The files that load immediately pique my interest. Accessing the database triggers an audio file that begins playing automatically.

The masculine voice that we hear puts me on edge almost immediately. Deep, angry, and entirely too sure of himself. Even DogDay growls at the screen, seemingly recognizing them.

“My name is Harley Sawyer. I'm called ‘The Doctor.’ When I look at this company we've built, I do not feel proud. Declining profits, failed experiments, people are constantly seeing things they shouldn't. How is that anything less than complete failure on our part? It's pathetic. Now we're understaffed, safety protocols are being abandoned, workplace incidents are common. We can't avoid a lawsuit forever. We need to deal with all of these issues at once. I'm here now with a solution. The Bigger Bodies Initiative. Giant toys. We can increase our workforce and simultaneously decrease the number of lawsuits and people on our payroll if… the people we have working... aren't…people. Put me in charge of it, and I will save this company.”

”Sawyer..” The canine growls, seeing my look of confusion, he continues. ”No one remembers meeting him but he was the doctor that created the process that made us..”

“Got it, so, most likely dead considering the number of ya’ll that would have liked to get your hands on him.” I frown when he shrugs.

”No idea.. I can’t say for sure since I wasn’t around..”

“Right, sorry..” I raise a brow as I scroll through the files curiously. With some trepidation I open one labelled ‘Experiment Overview Status’ blinking as a set of twenty entries open, then thirty, forty.. It just keeps loading more and more files.. I thought the experiment numbers had just been designations but no.. That’s how many experiments there were!? My blood begins to boil in my veins as it just keeps going and going and going.. A familiar pit of fire opening in my stomach as I clench my fists. So many children.. And for what!? Profit!? I jump a little when a hand touches my shoulder.

”Winter..?” DogDay looks at me worriedly.

“I-I’m sorry I just..” I blink in surprise as tears drip down my cheeks. “Shit, I’m sorry, I just.. I had no idea every single one of you were.. Nearly two thousand kids..? It just.. It isn’t right damnit!!” I stand suddenly and slam a fist onto the desk, not noticing when Day jumps. “You were supposed to be protected!! You were just children!” I growl and grit my teeth. “These fucks better hope they’re dead already cause if I find anyone who participated in that kind of just.. Torture.”

I nearly put my fist through the screen when a fuzzy pair of arms wrap around my torso followed by a wet sniffle. Startled out of my anger I look down and rest my hands on the canine's head. “Oh honey, I-I’m sorry I-”

He shakes his head and squeezes harder, looking up at me with moisture in his eyes. ”No no I.. We.. We’ve never had someone care about us..”

Letting out a breath I squeeze him gently against me. “Someone should have been there to protect you.. All of you..”

DogDay presses his face into my front. ”Gosh, I feel like I’ve been crying at the silliest things lately heh..” He sniffs and wipes his face as he sits back again.
I can’t help chuckling a little at that. “Been there bud, many times.” I give him a pet between the ears which he leans into with a smile. “Still.. I just.. Gosh, I can’t tell you how angry it makes me.. Th-”

”Uh, is it supposed to be doing that..?”

The screen flickers and glitches as messages and code rapidly scroll across it suddenly. ‘DATA PURGE’ blinking across the screen as I watch the files rapidly getting erased. “Wait wait nono no!” I scramble, trying to catch up, to cancel the command but to no avail, it’s just too fast. The moment the last file is erased the computer's speakers make a gods awful screeching sound that makes us both cover our ears. The screen flickers and turns to black with a white line going across the center. The line suddenly opens as what looks like an eye appears for all of a second before there’s a pop and the screen goes dark, acrid smoke floating up from the tower and monitor alike.

We both just stare at the machine, I’m about to ask the obvious question only for the canine to simply shake his head. ”I don’t know Winter, that was.. Completely new to me..”

I sigh and clench my jaw. Of course..