Chapter Text
You've heard about Percy's Playhouse going out of business, and the events that followed. It pained you a little, as that building held a lot of great childhood memories. You still remember all that time you spent playing in the arcade, and watching the animatronics perform at their stage. It was definitely mesmerising for a small child at the time, such as yourself.
The animatronics were fairly impressive for their time, and every character felt.. alive, in a way. Maybe it just felt more real as a kid. A part of you is still attached to them, so you hope they're still okay. You don't know what happened to them, but you'd only assume they got taken elsewhere before the establishment got wrecked. You did hear about them going on auctions, but not much was confirmed.
You decide to visit the Playhouse, or whatever remained of it one last time, to pay a sort of tribute to it. It hurt you a little, you wish you knew when exactly they were planning to destroy it a little earlier. You haven't seen the building in well over a year, you wish you could've visited it one last time before it was in ruins.
You're not sure when it got scheduled for demolition actually, you haven't heard that much information. You've gotten to know about it only recently, so you hope you're not too late.
You pull on your shoes and leave your house, locking your door and shoving your keys in your pocket. Luckily the Playhouse isn't too far away from your home, which also was a great excuse for your younger self to visit it more often. Even if you don't like walking much nowadays, you'd rather not take any other form of transportation to just look at a demolished building for a few minutes.
It's raining, and you forgot to bring anything with you. You don't really mind, you like the rain, it's just uncomfortable being in sopping wet clothes afterwards. You brush it off and start walking faster, hoping the place isn't gone yet.
The streets are unnervingly empty. There has been some weird pandemic going on, involving the newer Pal Percy toys that were sold by Paltronics, which you could honestly care less about. You don't get what the big deal is, they're just tamagotchis made for children. But there was a safety announcement about them, pretty recently actually. It was broadcasted on tv not too long ago, saying the toys have 'dangerous side effects' if played with for extended periods of time, and should immediately be returned to the stores that sold it. At least everyone got a refund out of it. You just hope the place didn't go out of business for this reason specifically.
You soon arrive, and there it is. Behind a big fence and a line or construction tape is a once colorful building completely torn to shreds, it's remnants laying scattered around on the ground.
Your heart sinks as you see the Percy's Playhouse logo laying atop the rubble, still intact, with only a big C missing from the text. The same sign that made your heart race every time you saw it as a kid is still just as recognizable, the only difference being the building it belongs to is now in ruins.
...
You've been staring for a bit too long, and as soon as the nostalgia rush is over, you turn around to make your way back home, until you spot something laying inside the building. You hear a rapid beeping coming from it, and the more you listen the more you feel like you've heard this sound before.
You inspect it closer, and it's appearance becomes more clear. A small tamagotchi with a now rapidly flashing red screen, with 3 buttons below it. You remember these toys, although the one you had was an early version one which broke almost instantly after getting it. It didn't upset you too much, as you personally found the 3 minigames repetitive and boring.
You still don't understand how a small little toy like this could cause any harm, besides being annoying.
It makes you wonder why there's one just randomly laying outside. If the product got discontinued why was one still inside the Playhouse? Did someone leave it here, or did they just not bother taking it? You think they'd empty out the building before demolishing it too, so it was probably just left there by accident. Although it still seems to work, and whatever reason it's beeping for, it's pretty damn noticeable for it to be forgotten here.
Now that you look around more, there's loose wires and giant cables everywhere, and it's not pretty. There's a few things covered by rubble that you can't seem to identify, and the fence makes it harder to see anything.
You turn your attention back to the toy, which is beeping even louder and faster than before. It's honestly giving you a headache, and even if you want to leave this place and go home, your curiosity gets the best of you. Maybe you could find out the actual reason they got discontinued for, you're not too worried about any possible bad outcomes. It's still a toy at the end of the day, whatever happened with the other ones couldn't have been that bad.
You walk past the fence, ignoring the traffic cones and tape scattered around.
You cautiously make your way towards the playhouse, being extra careful not to step in anything. Maybe sneaking around a construction site isn't the brightest idea, but it's not like anyone's around.
There it is, sitting atop a pile of debris.
You bend down, picking up the small toy, and it instantly stops making any noise. You feel slightly unnerved by this, but you ignore it for now. It feels firm in your hand, and it's pretty cold.
It's a small oval shaped device, with a screen in the center of it. There's two black and white circles on the top of it's head, which you can only think of as ears. Or eyes?? You could never really tell what they were supposed to represent.
The toy stops flashing red, and the screen is now filled with a light green color. You can barely make out what the small screen is displaying, the image on it looks completely broken and glitched out. Since the one you had wasn't like this, you can't even identify what it's supposed to be showing, but you could only assume it's a pixelated drawing of Percy himself. Below the screen is 'Pal Percy' written out in small letters, the latter word being rainbow colored, accompanied by 3 buttons below it, one for food, one for water, and the last one for playing catch, you presume.
The toy itself doesn't look too good, it's plastic casing covered in scratch marks and cracks. Normal wear and tear couldn't have caused this, so it must've been impacted by the building's demolition. It's also slightly dirty and drenched from the rain.
You lift up the bottom of your shirt where the rain couldn't reach, and dry off the Pal Percy with it. It looks a tad bit better and it even has a slight shine to it now.
You look at the Playhouse one last time before walking off the premises, the small tamagotchi sitting silently in your hand. Whatever was displayed on it's screen is now completely gone, which makes you worry a little. You hope the toy isn't damaged internally, that would be a shame.
On your way home, you feel the Pal Percy gradually getting warmer in your hand. You only hope it's a sign that it still works, and you clutch it a little tighter.
It may not be a good idea to take home something that was on private property, let alone something that can potentially cause harm to you. You have no idea how, and you still have a hard time believing it, but if something really does happen, you can just chuck the toy out your window and forget all of this ever happened.
You soon arrive back to your house, and as you unlock the door you feel the toy get even warmer. You go inside and lock the door, placing your keys on a nearby table. You wipe your shoes before taking them off, and before anything, you walk to your room and gently set the device down on your bed, for no reason whatsoever. You also grab a pair of fresh clothes from your closet, but don't actually bother putting them on.
You turn on your phone to see if anyone has texted you while you were gone, only seeing a few messages from a friend you didn't bother opening right now. You check the time before putting your phone down. 8 PM. You might as well grab something to eat.
Barely any cars pass by, and you have not seen any people outside today at all, the streets really are empty. You can't believe some toys really caused the public to freak out this much, if they got returned like the announcement said, then it should be the end of it.
The toy didn't make any noise at all after you took it home with you, and you can't decide if that's a good or a bad thing. Yeah, that sound could easily get on your nerves, so you're thankful it kept quiet, but you don't know why it did. It kept beeping until the second you picked it up, almost as if it was purposefully trying to get your attention. This thought freaked you out a little, but you doubt it's true. You'll just have to brush off the feeling and try to see if the tamagotchi still works.
You soon finish your food and put the plate in the sink. You swear you heard something coming from your room, but you might as well just be paranoid.
Your wet clothes are really starting to irritate you, and you haven't even noticed that you've been shivering. Your mind instantly sets on taking a shower, it's late enough to do it anyways. You walk to the bathroom and slip out of your wet clothes, not caring about throwing them to the ground as you step in the warm shower.
The hot water runs down your freezing body, and it makes you feel much better, and hopefully you've avoided catching a cold. You stay in the shower longer than usual, starting to relax.
All up until you hear that damn beeping again.