Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“I’m sorry”

Staring into a vast black space, with only his sun medal to keep him company, a yellow and orange dog can be seen running quickly up a set of stairs. He doesn’t know why he was there nor the reason he was in such a hurry, but something told him he had to see what was at the top of this stairway.

“I’m so sorry”

The steps felt endless, with nothing but the sound of his paws stamping each one out the higher he ascended. What was so important at the top of these weird stairs, what was driving him this far through this hardship when there was no clear goal.

“I’m not asking you to forgive me, I don’t deserve that right.”

After what felt like an eternity, he could see a strange, yet familiar door at the top. It was odd how warm he felt looking at it, but as the more he could make it out, the less comforting the warmth became. In fact, a quiet fear wormed its way into his steps as got a better look.

“Just know, I won’t regret this decision.”

The pale moon carved on the door felt so closely connected to him, yet the scratches and dried red slashes across it stabbed into him, twisting the knife of fear into a caging terror gripping his heart. Every part of his body was screaming at him to turn away…yet why did his heart tell him to not make this mistake again.

“I promised myself that no matter what happens this time, I won’t take away your happiness.”

With trembling hesitation, he turned the knob to a blinding light that all but pulled him in. Opening his eyes, what greeted him was far from his expectations. It felt so much worse…

“So no matter what happens to me, please promise me-”

It was like a page from a horror comic; Desolated playground, ruined cul-de-sac of houses, grass that was deader than dead, even the once vibrant color that shone even in the dark void was replaced by a dull gray. A constricting oppression coiled around the canine’s neck, but he pressed on with a lingering sense of bravery. Each step added another brick of lead to his already slow pace, from a strange statue with an odd pipe slammed into the head, to a cobweb filled with varying dolls and stuffed animals, and even a shredded dress and apron stained by splotches of red. Not one thing looked familiar to him, yet every glance called to him with a horrific sense of deja vu.

“Please…”

For some reason, the dog found himself stopping in front of an isolated and dingy house. It was obviously surrounded by other dilapidated ones, yet this one in particular, something about it felt so cold, so lonely, so starved for something that the dog couldn’t help but enter. All that could be seen was an old and outdated television, flickering between static and a thin handprint, with a dim crescent moon medal in front of it, a crack nearly splitting it in half.

“Won’t you kill me, Dogday?~”

-----------------

With a gasp, Dogday shot up from his bed in a nervous sweat. Taking deep breaths to calm himself, he clutched his chest as his heart drummed in his ears. As his breathing calmed and heart slowed to a normal rhythm. Perking his ears up, he could hear the subtle snoring of a familiar blue elephant conked out at a desk and not so subtle snores of a yellow chicken sprawled out in a hammock. Realization was never really his strong suit, but the familiar scene of his friends alive and well in their shared room was always a welcome sight.

Choosing that going immediately back to whatever that was as a nightmare was a terrible waste of a wake-up call, Dogday quietly escapes the shared room of the shared apartment and snuck his way past the Girl’s room to the kitchen for a nice glass of water, though the small lamp that sat on on the small counter top made him groan in exasperation instead.

“Seriously Crafty?” the canine quietly questioned, starting the poor mare half to death, and if not for her hooves covering her mouth, startling their apartment mates awake.

“D-Dogday? You scared me,” she immediately responded, calming her beating heart as she resumed her little sketch. “What are you doing awake this late, we both know Hoppy and Picky are the ones patrolling tonight.”

“Nightmare as usual, what else…well, kinda?” he answered back, fixing the glass of water he came out for. His response drew Crafty’s attention, but he waved her off with a kind gesture of assurance.

“I swear it’s fine, we all came here having them Crafty. We can just say mine are coming back early, just different.”

“And is that what you tell the others when they ask or do you just say you slept ‘a bit off’ like you tried telling me?” Crafty pressed, the tired side-eye at the horrendous liar of a dog, who proceeded to casually sip on his water with a new urgency.

“Would you look at the time, I think I’m just gonna go back to bed,” he deflected, hastily setting the cup in the sink and moving back to his shared room. ”Night Crafty, don’t stay up too late.”

Crafty sighed but waved him off politely as she realized it’d just be another thing she’d have to tell the others in case another intervention was needed. Dogday knew that it was a pathetic attempt, but thankful it’s only Crafty who catches him. He knows she’s just worried, all his friends did, but he was still the leader more or less, so appearing distressed made him a bit uncomfortable. Old habits he supposed, yet it feels like a luxury being able to experience them together again. Maybe it wasn’t much and perhaps they could’ve been better off not remembering anything, but he’s thankful everyone decided to anyway. They cherished their friendships as much as he did, as much as the cartoons they were made based on and that was enough. Sneaking back onto the rough looking couch, the dog slipped under the blanket and rested his now tired eyes.

“It ain’t much…but this is our happiness,” Dogday whispered to himself. “The Smiling Critters…are back again.”

Chapter Text

“Thank you for your patronage, please come again!” Dogday said with his 20-kilowatt bright smile.

“Oh you, I swear that smile is what keeps bringing me back,” an elderly customer giggled as she waved to the canine. A very constant regular to the small cafe the dog found himself working at upon his arrival and she was one of the few small blessings to his terribly long shifts.

“Dogday, got an order for table 6!”

“Got it!” Dogday replied happily, quickly moving from the register. He was the only server after all, so it’s completely on him to keep customer retention in the green. Not much but it’s honest work and he would need every bit of pay he could get if he and his friends didn’t want to try roughing it in the streets again. Though, given what they went through at Playcare, the streets would still be a welcome improvement. He could still feel the wriggling beneath his skin of the minis as they devoured him to a husk, hell bent on chasing Poppy’s angel. Shaking the memories from his head, he focused back on the task at hand since happy customers mean more tips. He had just set down the food on the table before a set of shatter window panes threw his happy thoughts out of them.

---EMERGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT: A PLAYGROUND HAS FORMED! ALL CIVILIANS ARE EXPECTED TO CALMLY EVACUATE THE AREA! I REPEAT---

“You’ve got to be kidding…” the dog whined, his smile staying even through the noticeable vein popping in his forehead. “There goes the performance bonus for this month.” The dog was unsurprised at the speed at which everyone rushed from the cafe, leaving him to his lonesome, but it did not change how it hurt a little at how every person for themself gets executed in this situation. With a sigh, the dog pocketed his hands as he walked against the wave of chaotic evacuation towards the center of amassing power. Normally when a playground has formed, the area is isolated for an indeterminate amount of time until someone specialized can dismantle it safely, but getting unpaid vacation this close from payday is not exactly on Dogday’s list of to-do’s.

“Dogday!”

Said dog looked behind to see a kind red bear quickly running to him, her red heart medal bouncing with each step. Though given the yellow chicken and green bunny in tow, she obviously wasn’t in this part of the city alone.

“Hey Bobby, you were in the area too? Thought you and Hoppy were going shopping to replace the TV after Kickin’s and Hoppy’s little…competition?” Dogday quipped, causing both the bunny and chicken to freeze momentarily from the obvious call out.

“Hey now! I thought we agreed Kickin was the cause this time!” Hoppy swiftly defended.

“Don’t even try pinning it on me hare, we both know if you just took the arrow like the champ you claim to be, we would not have lost the TV!” Kickin quickly countered.

“What kind of idiot just lets herself get shot?!”

“You should be!” Before another inevitable bout between friends could begin, Bobby quickly shoved them apart as the gate to the playground was formed in front of them.

“If you 2 could spare that energy until we actually get to clearing the playground, it’d be greatly appreciated,” the bear scolded in exasperation. She was all too used to the antics of the energetic bunny and coolness infatuated bird, but the sooner they take care of this problem, the better. Although reluctantly, both broke up the squabble with weak glares, before seeing the childlike nature of the gate.

“Aw man, this looks like one of the lower level ones. There won’t be much gained from this one this time,” Kickin complained, putting his hands behind his head in boredom.

“4 of us seem a little overkill, do we really have to go?” Hoppy joined in, looking equally as bored, although stretching as if she were ready to go.

“Better safe than sorry guys, one death under our belts is more than enough,” Bobby chided, looking a bit nervous.

“Bobby’s right you 2, if we go in and it seems safe enough, only 2 of us can be active while the other 2 sit back ready to support. Let’s take care of this quickly, because weekends are always busy and thanks to this, my performance bonus for this month is going to be sunk in repairs,” Dogday stated, cracking his neck. As if on cue, the gate fully formed and opened to them. Wasting no time, all 4 hopped in, blinded by the light of the entrance, all under the watchful gaze of a hooded individual in the alley.

“Confirmed: 4 possible marks entered the playground.”

----------------

As if taking a casual stroll. The 4 friends walked through the strangely formed halls of what appeared to be a children’s museum. The animated drawings of fish and sea life swimming along the walls gave them a partial idea of the kind of playground they entered. Truth be told, there are specialists that are supposed to take care of these, but after the first few times of waiting around for them, only to take the better part of a week extorting people, before taking even longer to proceed, Dogday decided that taking their chances doing this themselves far outweighed the wait. Something every critter living with him agreed with and every person in the city, while not knowing them doing it specifically, were more than thankful for. Their resume for clearing is at a 49-break streak, at a total of 99 playgrounds.

“Is it just me or are these playgrounds appearing more frequently as of late?”

“It’s not just you Bobs, this used to be bi-weekly at its worst, but now, seeing only one daily at its best is beautiful,” Hoppy responded, giving the stink eye to a weirdly drawn shark, at least she believed it was.

“I’ll say, I’ve been using so many feathers as of late that I’m starting to dream about getting Field dressed by Picky.”

“Dream or memory, chicken wing?”

“Yes” the chicken deadpanned, causing his 3 friends to laugh. Moments like those almost made the things in their past worth it, almost. Apparently their host found their laughter enjoyable enough to expedite their arrival. With little warning, they suddenly found themselves being forced through several strange doors, before arriving at what appeared to be a sunken ship exhibit, with a large sunken pirate ship at the center and an even larger sphere above it. Cracking within seconds, the sphere shattered to reveal cthulhu based creature, although it’s hands had shark heads and below it’s torso was the lower end of a lobster, all while looking around with chilling dead fish eyes.

“So that’s the Plaything that constructed this place,” Dogday observed, noticing how every piece of it had something to do with sea creatures.

“Crafty would love to draw this I bet,” Hoppy added, not really bothered by the appearance of it.

“Get a picture to take to her, she has been feeling down as of late and this might be a good change of pace for her drawing,” Bobby suggested, looking a bit nervous of the creature.

After collecting its bearings, the creature finally noticed the position of the 4 critters and slammed both its hands into the ground.With a violent rumble being their only warning, the 4 critters immediately jumped away, with Kickin and Hoppy landing in the arena while Dogday and Bobby land along the upper edges.

“Guess teams are decided, who would've guessed?” Hoppy exclaimed, grinning like a gremlin. It’s not like her big ears heard the burrowing shark hands and immediately planned to go in at all, no such thing. She was curious how she ended up partnered with Kickin though,

“Holy crap I got here first, easiest grab of my life!”

And there’s the answer to her question without saying a word about it. Ignoring the creator of the playground probably wasn’t the smartest move though, considering how in their short moment of unawareness, the amalgam of sea life was now towering both the rabbit and chicken, before slamming one of its hands on them.

“Oh boy, there’s the bad habit of those two, do you think they’ll be okay?” Bobby asked with an uncertain expression.

“Oh they’re fine,” the spaniel responds, looking rather bored despite his smile. Taking a glance above the arena to see the glowing bright star being held above the plaything, before it blasts into the back of the creature. “Wish they would be a little more straightforward about it though,”

With a loud crash, the plaything slammed onto the ground with a roar, with Hoppy and Kickin landing transformed and unscathed. Plucking a feather from his arm, Kickin nocks his bow with it and shoots out a star right into the back of the plaything’s slimy head.

“Loser treats final hit to dessert bar?” Kickin asks, nocking another arrow, while Hoopy stretches her hands in front of her, before crouching for a jump.

“You’re on!”

With a strong jump that left a noticeable impression on the creature’s back, Hoppy came back down with an axe kick that took off one of the creature’s arms and created a small crater next to it. The plaything howls in anger and agony, throwing Kickin off its back, but not without the avian firing in retaliation, leaving a volley of arrows shooting into its back like shooting stars. With a snap of his fingers, they started exploding in a chain leaving an egregious burn. Viewing the chicken as the more dangerous target, the plaything swung its massive body, intending to slam the lobster tail into the bird, only to be stopped to a halt by the kick of the rabbit, shattering the shell like porcelain. Continuing the assault, Hoppy ran up the fleshy tail, before landing a straight right between the eyes of the plaything, sending it flying back towards the edge of the arena.

“Not giving much of a fight is it?” Kickin commented, letting off another volley at the plaything.

“You saw the gate, honestly, 2 of us seems a little overkill,” Hoppy replied, kicking up a pebble a couple of times, before kicking it at the plaything with enough force to tear off a couple tentacles off its face. “But the easier it is, the faster we get this over with, so let’s wrap this up.”

“Roger, Rabbit”

Plucking a few feathers and nocking them all at once, Kickin fired a much stronger volley, laying into the dazed plaything like a mini meteor shower. Running along the wind shear of the volley, Hoppy closed the distance before unleashing a torrent of punches right to its face. Right before she could prep one last hit, the creeping sense of danger had her instinctively jump back, looking to Kickin and seeing a smug grin on his face, a brilliantly dazzling arrow aimed and ready.

“Starfall!” He called out, letting the arrow fly with a trail of starlight and burning intensity before it lodged directly into the plaything’s chest with it howling in anguish, before it swelled and exploded in a flurry of falling sparkles. “And that’s the final hit bonus to ya bird~”

“Yeah yeah, brag more from the backline while the REAL magical critter fights up front.”

“Not my fault my coolness shines brightest being a ranged fighter. If you want, you can take ove- oh wait! I’m the only long range support!”

“Oh I’ll give you some long range support you yellow little-”

Taking both of them by surprise, the shark hands that they dismembered and ignored earlier, lunged at each of them respectively. They were both in the jaws of each shark, before two blasts of energy blew holes through each head, saving them both and leaving each shark flopping in agony.

“Huh!?” “Wha-”

“This is why I always say backup is best,”A transformed Dogday states, walking down to the arena with sun-shaped platforms that form and disappear with each step. “And also why I insist we save the banter until after the playground fully dismantles.”

Falling flat on their butts from the shock, neither could respond as they trembled from processing the short but prolonged feeling of fear that came at the realization they were almost dinner. Not giving them longer to process things, Dogday walked by them, blocking a torrent of rushing water with a barrier of pure energy that boiled it away, snapping them back to reality.

“Since I saved you both, guess that makes the final hit mine this time. Can’t wait for my favorite peanut butter cookies,” Dogday claimed, releasing his barrier and sending a solar flare at both shark heads, slashing both of them in 2 and burning them away, leaving only a small jar of marble sized candies. The canine sanguinely walked to the jar as the playground started to crack and fade away as if it never existed. The surroundings returned to an abandoned museum that was a bit worse for wear, but still stable enough to stay standing.

“I can’t believe I lost final hit because the main plaything was the shark hands!!!!” Kicking whined, gripping his head in frustration.

“I’d say getting out of that without seeing the inside of it is more than unbelievable since you both wanted to go in with just yourselves.”

“Come on Bobs, it wasn’t that bad for us, we could’ve managed…possibly,” Hoppy retorted getting a bit high pitched as even she wasn’t buying what she was selling, but admitting that they nearly got packed up by a recruit level plaything because they got cocky was something she had no intention of getting lectured over for the 4th time.

“Then you can tell Bubba EXACTly why Dogday got the candies this time when you 2 went first.”

It was endearing to see Hoppy and Kickin start bargaining with Bobby, because the nostalgia of them getting into trouble from their fun was something he never got tired of, no matter how much he wishes they’d stay on the safer and lower end of trouble. Taking the jar of candies, he could see a small 7 candies, showing just how low level this plaything happened to be. What struck him as odd was how despite how weak it was, the fact that its main form was not the main body was concerning. Playgrounds forming more frequently was concerning on its own, but the fact that even the lower end of the playthings in them were getting trickier to deal with was raising red flags. Maybe he could have Bubba come up with an explanation on his next off day, but now he had to find a quick job until the cafe owners fixed up the place.

“Tell ya what, double the reward of my peanut butter cookies and treat Bobby too and I may just hand over this jar to save you guys the lecture.”

““DEAL!!!””

“Are Bubba’s lectures that bad?” Bobby asked, clearly surprised by how readily they were willing to bribe their way out of this.

“They’re. So. BORING!!!”

“The man could put a computer to sleep just from his talking alone, but his lectures? I swear me and Hoppy will be reliving the playcare training exercises.”

With their deal sealed and de-transformed, the 4 critters leave the museum, none the wiser to the individual watching them. The single glint of a firearm aimed directly at the back of Dogday’s head was all that appeared in the shadows of the hall. Just as the finger touched the trigger, the would-be assassin felt themself pulled into the rafters, struggling both for air and what captured them, but only the cold and efficient crack of bone was the only sign they were truly ever there. A loud thump followed a small shattering as the body fell to the floor, with a different silhouette landing quietly next to the gun with a vacancy in ownership.

“Cute but dangerous toy you had here. Since you kinda died here, hope you don’t mind if I take it.”

The hooded individual wrapped an impressively long tail around the bolt action with little care as it began to dye itself in the same black and purple colors of the outfit of its new owner. Once its ownership was determined, it vanished in a red smoke as if it never existed and a new band shining on the extended tail.

“So they’re behind the recent drop in playgrounds during the day. Guess heretics stay heretical, even in death.”

Looking to where they left, Catnap de-transformed into his normal outfit with an unreadable expression. He reached out for a moment, before pulling his hand back and putting up his hood. With his tail swaying with a slow sadness and his hands in his pockets, the feline walked into the shadows of the museum with only the glint of his crescent moon pendant to keep him company.

Chapter Text

Kneeling respectfully, a white-hooded figure kept their eyes to the floor in the presence of an individual obscured by a blinding light from behind a throne that could be called the epitome of worship.

“We’ve lost contact with him sir, his magical signature was shattered, so it’s safe to assume he was discovered and promptly dealt with,” a monotone voice reported. “His last check-in confirmed there were at least 4 targets that entered and cleared a playground, but once clearance for apprehension or elimination was given, his signature disappeared.”

“He was one of our more dedicated followers as well, such an unfortunate outcome.”

“Sir, if I may be so bold, I believe the targets were not the one who eliminated him.”

“To what drove you to believe such?”

“As you are more than aware, I’m one of the few members with more than accurate and acute senses for magic wavelengths in the area and while not as useful for anything but meager recon, I detected a 5th magical signature. Unlike the 4 signatures that appeared to be leaving, this one was much more potent and…”

“Continue”

Trembling with anxiety, the hooded individual quickly fell to the floor, their face plastered to it as an act of mercy.

“The magical signature, it was closely tied to the moon, sir. M-maybe because it was so strong that I was able to tell...but the magical synchronization rate…it’s 1-1, s-sir.”

For a few moments, nothing could disturb the silence of the room they were in, a chilling silence that one could mistake as vacuum sucking all that drew breath from their presence. With a sickeningly wide smile and an oppressive force that felt like the very jaws of the beast were teasingly closing around the hooded individual's neck, threatening them to move even the slightest mm from their position.

“Are you sure about this claim?”

“I-I…I-”

“Are. you. Sure.”

“W-w-with my very being as compensation…I-I swear…I have r-r-repo. Reported, no lies, s-sir.”

The survival instincts of the hooded figure were all but howling in agony to run, to do whatever it took to survive, in any hopes of appeasing the beast of this den they dared tread. The feeling of death was oh so close to their neck, before it all vanished with a gentle caress at the top of their head. A rare kindness, a pure charity that any of his position would call a blessing from god themself that had their body shivering as all that anxiety drained from them.

“You’ve done very well to bring this to my attention.”

“Y-your words are wasted on me for someone of my station sir…”

“It’s never a waste to acknowledge such loyalty. Take pride in your worth as I have.”

His words resounded in the hooded figure’s head like an angel’s melody, tears threatening to spill from how enamoring they were to hear. Composing themself to not dare stain such floors in their presence, the figure took their leave, all the while missing the return of a familiar sinister smile.

“At least, the first priest has finally arrived. Once we get him to our cause, our lord’s glorious arrival will lead us to the promised salvation!”

Looking past the blinding light of the false throne, the individual took his position of worship to the silhouette of a thin, mechanical hand, whose grasp engulfed the very throne they sat upon.

“The prototype will leads us to salvation~”

-------------

“This is troubling to say the least.”

Bubba was reading his observation notes on his walk back to the apartment. After Dogday talked to him about increase in playground frequency, the elephant immediately used his next day off to check up on the emergency signals and reported playground levels as of late versus ever since the system was first implemented, cross-examining the data with the gates he and his friends cleared. Viewing the data at first didn’t ring any alarms, but what became consistent was how the reported value of the playground was actually averaging on the lower end. This should be a good thing all things considered, but the problem comes from exactly how the trend changed from being random, to being a pattern in nature.

“Dogday was right to be worried if my notes are anything to go off of. The frequency of the playgrounds is becoming much too predictable to be coincidental. It’s almost like it’s a controlled experiment on playground formation, but that wouldn’t make sense. Even assuming the worst situation of the culprits wouldn’t help justify the randomness of locations vs the lack in overall response time.”

Bubba almost hated being the brainy one sometimes in his group of friends, because while he enjoyed how helpful his knowledge could be, it became burdensome, yet useless at the most inconvenient of times. His notes and observations are definitely useful to the situation, but without more pressing information to add on to it, the usability is only preparatory at best. Just before he fully immersed himself in his thoughts and let his trunk make out with a pole he was mere inches from, Bubba put his notebook in his back pocket.

“And my habit of getting too into books has seeped into my notebook as well,” Bubba commented as he entered the rather sketchy looking apartment building. The inside looked as rough and dangerous as the outside, but a roof was a roof and beggars can’t be choosers. Honestly speaking, just having a stable roof over their heads was a welcome improvement since their arrival  to this new life. Coming there with nothing but memories of their former life wasn’t easy, but they still managed to find each other and come together to build a life free from the chains of their previous one. Reaching the apartment door with a dingy “8” on it felt both painful and appropriate, because every time he’d see it, he’d be reminded how “The Smiling Critters,” are supposed to be 8, but hell would be a more welcome development than ever welcoming that monster into their home.

“I’m back every-”

“GET BACK HERE BIRD BRAIN!” Hoppy screamed as she chased the star represented chicken with a pillow.

“Who’d listen to the person coming for their life?!” Kickin responded while avoiding her.

“-one” Bubba finished, not looking amused at what welcomed him, but closed the door behind him anyway. “I see you 2 are as energetic as usual, So I supposed that means Dogday and Picky are at their jobs?”

“Yeah, Bobby and Crafty are out getting more cleaning supplies/light patrolling, so me and the chicken are holding down the fort!” Hoppy happily answered as she was holding the bird in a chokehold as he tapped out.

“I see, well when Dogday gets here, let him know I have some answers to his worry.”

“Roger!”

Bubba walked his way to the boys room and took a seat at the desk with a sigh, closing his eyes as he leaned back. His mind began to drift to his former life at the playcare, the memories still fresh in his head like it happened yesterday. He could vividly remember the sickening stench of death, the suffocating smell of blood, and that iconic gas. That horrific gas that drowned his vision as he took his last breath. It flooded his senses like water, choking out any chance of struggle, slowly chaining him and dragging him to the depths of eternal slumber.

“It’s strange really. We’ve been here for long enough to repress these memories, but we just aren’t allowed to forget.” Bubba stretched as he opened his eyes to stare at the stain littered ceiling, seeing glimpses of the playcare’s walls in it. “We all were told we have to suffer the weight of those memories as the payment for keeping them and the nightmares happened to us daily. So why is it that they abruptly stop one day as if they never occurred, but the past still comes so vividly…”

Bubba was lost in his thoughts for what seemed like hours, but the rumbling of his stomach clock alerted him that it was more accurately a few minutes and he still forgot to get something to munch on until Picky came back with dinner. Their first lives had them as prisoners of their own homes, connecting to and raising kids like livestock for wardens that viewed them as nothing more than tools and objects. Now they lived like people they always promised the kids to grow up to be.

“Why do I feel so fixated on the past all of a sudden, this isn’t like me.”

Realizing just how lost in thought he was putting himself in, Bubba got up and made his way back to the kitchen in hopes there may be a leftover dinner roll or something to put on his stomach for at least a little bit. What he didn’t expect when he came back out was a chicken hogtied with his own jacket, hanging from the ceiling fan, a worried looking bear and unicorn, all the while a rabbit was casually watching a dingy tv ignoring their existence.

“Do I even want to know?” Bubba asked, his face on his hand.

“Probably not,” Crafty said as she quickly moved to get the chicken down.

Bobby facepalmed, before moving the cleaning supplies inside to respective storage in the kitchen. Bubba merely took Crafty’s word before looking into the fridge and seeing a package of apple slices he could munch on and doing just that. Luckily Crafty was able to safely get the bird down with ease, removing the make-shift gag from his beak and immediately regretting it as the chain of expletives left it.

There was a small knock on the door, confusing a couple of the critters, but Bobby hurriedly opened the door, looking at a pair of well dressed individuals with big smiles on their faces staring at her.

“Hello there! We’re members of the Protocol from the M.V.I Syndicate, going door-to-door inviting individuals to one of our weekly expos and QnA sessions,” the male of the pair explained smile that turned into a condescending smirk after noticing more closely what Bobby was. “I’m sure it would be more than enlightening for people of your kind to experience.”

“Exactly, Protocol is a welcoming branch of M.V.I and we more than accept the participation of individuals of all types, shapes, and sizes,” the female further explained, albeit a bit timidly, especially since she was a critter like Bobby.

“I see, well I appreciate the invitation, but I’m afraid myself nor my companions can make any promises as you can see our situation isn’t exactly the most free for those kinds of activities,” Bobby politely responds, much to the ire of the male, but considering he didn’t make an issue of it, she let it go.

“Oh no worries, the expo and QnA are both free participation and those who sign up can get monthly stipends based on the amount of members they help invite,” the female tried encouraging, doing a much more polite and accommodating approach compared to the guy, but Bobby was firm in her stance and politely tried sending them away. Keyword was tried, because as she attempted to close the door, the man jammed his foot in the doorway and essentially strong-armed his way into the apartment.

“Come now, there’s no need to be on the fence about such opportunities. I mean look at the kind of position you find yourselves in. Critters of your natures ought to be jumping for joy at the chance we’re offering.”

The female critter with him was honestly embarrassed and looked as though she wanted to stop him from what he was doing, but didn’t entirely know how. To her credit, she didn’t need to do much as the aura of unhappy coming from Hoppy and Kickin couldn’t be any louder with how little they could care about what they were selling.

“Yeah yeah, salvation is at hand and all that, now can you do everyone a favor and get the hell out of our apartment?” Hoppy deadpanned, not even giving the guy a glance, much to his chagrin, but before he could retort, Kickin joined in.

“Dude, I don’t know who thought YOU were a good person to send if you were trying to get more people, because all you’ve done is ensure there is no chance we’d show up even if we had the free time.”

“No, like seriously, you started off judging us just because we’re critters and barged your way into our space like you own it.”

“Honestly you’re the biggest red flag there is for like, anyone, to even give the chance to buy whatever it is you’re selling. It’s honestly more impressive than me.”

It was rapid-fire from the duo, coming at the man for everything he’s worth in Protocol and while Bobby did think they were being harsh, she could not find it in herself to stop them to even be polite. Even Crafty and Bubba were casually sketching and watching respectively at the show, because while they weren’t vocal about it, they were of the same mind as the 2. By the time the 2 were finished, the man was red in the face and nearly had steam coming from his head. 

“I believe we have been firm in our stance, so we would appreciate it if you could vacate our abode,” Bubba commented, looking unamused at the man with a loud crunch of an apple slice.

“We do appreciate the time you took out of your day for this, but it might be better to use the rest of it elsewhere,” Crafty added a little quietly.

“Are you serious!? Here we are, practically handing out golden tickets to critters like yourself to join such a glorious group and you insult us by choosing ignorance?!”

“We insulted you a lot more than declining the invite, but you do you,” Kickin said without a hint of apology.

“I don’t know about you, but personally, I would not take that level of disrespect and still stay in the premises,” Hoppy added, just to rub salt in the wound.

You could swear Rudolph lived in this man’s head rent-free with how red it was, but instead of blowing it, he calmed himself, adjusted his suit and shoved his way past his female companion out the door. She bowed apologetically, leaving a flier for all of them anyway and hurriedly chasing after the man.

“Well that was an interesting character,” Crafty mentioned off-handedly as she started doing more detailed work on her sketch. “Was it just me or did he seem a bit…”

“Rude?”(Bobby)

“Stuck up?”(Hoppy)

“Full of bull?”(Kickin)

“I believe the term she’s looking for is disingenuous,” Bubba stated, polishing off the last apple slice. “Though considering his attitude, I believe all of the above qualifies.”

“Do we just trash the fliers? We have no plan on using them,” Bobby suggested, only slightly reluctant since the female who gave them to her wasn’t nearly as rude an individual.

“I’ll just use them for paper mache or another project so it should be fine. Even fliers can be a good material and much better than what I’ve been using,” Crafty insisted, taking the fliers and putting them in her bag.

“Better used for something useful than simply trashed I guess,” Kickin commented, taking a seat next to Hoppy and watching the TV. “What was the group they said anyway? Protocol?”

“Yeah, it’s a more religious part of the M.V.I Syndicate that takes care of playgrounds before we got involved in handling them,” Bubba informs him. “Though they aren’t very friendly if I remember correctly.”

“They aren’t, they’re more like thugs in my opinion, always asking for protection money and donations for Protocol and how much devotion they have to the current head of it and his supposed god,” Hoppy harps out, annoyed thinking about it. “I was on one of my delivery routes when they were harassing kids about it, Kids! The less I have to do with them is a damn compliment.”

“Even my last job had a problem with them, plastering all their stuff about Protocol and follow the protocol . It made me glad I got fired to be honest,” Kickin added, looking a bit sheepish after a minute, but he’ll stand 10 toes down on that statement.

Before anything more could be added, the door swung open with a Picky with her arms filled with takeout bags and an equally as arm filled Dogday.

“Fret not peasants, your royal chef has arrived!” Picky announced with an obviously forced royal tone.

“Ah, praise be to the royal chef~” Kickin teased, playing along with her game. “If I may, please grace this poor fool with your generosity and grant him the privilege to eat from thy palate~”

“Alright, alright, you don’t have to ham it up,” Picky relented, setting the bags down with a grin.

“If he wasn’t gonna, you bet your tail I was. Can’t even blame him when you still talk like that at home when you barely need it for your job.” Hoppy teased as well, popping up from her seat.

“Hey, it boosts sales and keeps entitlement low, so I get both tips and peace of mind.”

Dogday giggled at Picky’s reasoning, but god knows he’d have been down for a lower pay just to get hired at the restaurant she did. Him, Picky, and Bubba are the main breadwinners, but if it got made to a single person, Picky could probably start running laps. That wasn’t to say anything bad about everyone’s contributions, but Picky was bringing home the bread and the cheddar.

“So what’s on tonight’s menu. IT must have been pretty hectic for you to get this many leftovers,” Crafty said as she brought down the plates and cutlery.

“You won’t like it, but a playground formed inside the restaurant,” Picky stated with a shrug. “Cleared the place out in seconds, but it was close to closing so if anything it was a blessing. I lucked out that Dogday was coming to pick me up and we cleared it in minutes.”

“There was something strange about the playground though; unlike normal playgrounds that form, this one gave off a feeling of…elation?” Dogday tried explaining more in depth, but nothing else could better describe that feeling. “Picky noticed it too, like we were almost being blessed in the playground.”

“Probably had a little to do with how much it represented a place of worship, but even the plathing was bowing to some strange mural when we arrived.”

To everyone else, they let it roll off their backs as just a strange playground, but Bubba couldn’t help viewing it differently. Thinking about it rationally, he forgot his manners to pull out one of the fliers in Crafty’s bag and held it up.

“That mural, did it have anything like this on it?”

Both Dogday and Picky looked at the flier and disproved his theory fairly quickly, but not without mentioning that the symbol of the poster was indeed noticed as a recurring theme on the plaything itself. Even when attacked, it’d protect the mural with its entire being, making sure the mural stood untouched to its final breath. They didn’t think much about it at the time, but Bubba’s questioning started to make everyone get a little anxious.

“Bubba, what’s with all the 3rd degree questions?” Kickin asked, taking a bite of some of his food. “Everything good?”

“I’m not sure, but I’m fairly certain I’ve established a solid hypothesis as to the playground situation…and every part of me hopes it is complete fabrication.”

“What is it?” Bobby asked, a bit worried at the possible implication.

“As you know, Dogday asked me to look into the recent increase of playground activity we’ve been experiencing and developed a rather sound theory that’s easy to back up given what we were just told. But the recent jump in playgrounds is artificial, someone is purposely inducing playground activity as a sort of experiment and I have reason to believe it’s Protocol.”

The revelation was unsettling at worst, but dire at best if true. Protocol ticks all the motives, resources, and requirements for inducing playground activity, but the question of how is still up in the air as not much knowledge is known/shared about playgrounds and playthings to the general populace. But Bubba was sure that Protocol has some primary connection to the activity if the latest plaything all but worshiped them. If he had more information, he could come up with something more sound, but the loud rumbling of his stomach tore him out of his thoughts.

“Well getting that much is more than we had before, but right now you should probably fuel up Bubba,” Dogday said, handing Bubba a loaded plate. “Thanks for looking into it. At least now, we can be a bit on guard with our so-called protectors.”

Admittedly, Bubba never liked leaving too many questions unanswered, but if the smile on Picky’s face was anything to go off of, he’ll lick his plate clean before doing more brainstorming, otherwise he might wind up more stuffed than a thanksgiving turkey. Though he was now eating with everyone, he couldn’t help the sense of familiarity in this situation. It was almost as if the past he’s been thinking about is making more than a comeback to haunt him, much more terrifying than before.

Chapter Text

With one last arrow, the plaything fell with a burst of starlight, the playground dissolving  and fading as if it didn’t exist. Walking over to the jar of 3 candies, Hoppy kicked it up and into her hands with a snatch, looking at the count with a disgusted prejudice. Wasn’t her catch, but didn’t make seeing such low rewards less irritating.

“Only 3? We’re practically doing overtime for playground clearing and we haven’t gotten one double-digit catch yet!” Kickin whined as his foot stamped the ground.

“I’ll say, at this point I’d be grateful if we broke 5 candies with this much work,” Hoppy yawned, stretching before tossing the pitiful bounty to the childish bird, him barely reacting in time to catch it. “I know you’re worried Dog, but this is getting more insulting than anything, having to go out in groups to clear playgrounds.”

The canine in question couldn’t help but silently agree to her concerns, because even he had to admit that while the quantity increased, the quality didn’t even justify a pair hunting together. After Bubba’s theory about ‘artificial playgrounds’’ was shared amongst them, Dogday has been pushing the ‘no solo hunting’ rule a bit harder than usual. They were already used to people or individuals they trusted being monsters in disguise and he’d rather avoid a refresher in that lesson as much as possible, but the justification for it is losing meaning. It’s been close to a week and while the playground activity is significantly increased, their difficulty makes clearing them a magic deficit as far as the jars of magic drops is concerned.

“I still want to play it safe for a couple days, just to test things, but…What do you think Crafty?”

The Unicorn being questioned was currently focused on a landscape piece of the playground, sketching the last bit she remembered of the arena, So much so that when their leader tapped her shoulder, she nearly jumped out of her magic form in fright, before calming down at realizing it was just Dogday.

“I’m sorry, what were you talking about?”

“ We were talking about whether or not we should still take on the playgrounds as teams or solo,” Dogday responded with a little sass.

“Was the playground that good to you to get you that focused…again?” Hoppy teased, causing Crafty to get flustered in embarrassment.

Whether in their past lives or present ones, the equine still was avid about her art and if not for her friends, she was liable to forget eating to finish something, probably breathing too if left too much to herself. Once her friends came to look at her piece, the consensus on it remains the same as ever.

“Another life like sketch by our artistic friend.”

“To the point you’d think it was a black and white photo.”

“That is, if you don’t count the excessive amount of missing color.”

Crafty’s art skill was questionable to no one, to the point she could make small amounts of money doing caricatures, portraits, and photo-realistic images whenever she felt confident enough to. Whenever she colored, they were adored so much more, but there was a glaring flaw that had her come up short.

“There’s so much missing as far as red is concerned that I’m amazing she got any color on the canvas,” Kickin deadpanned, considering the most prominent color of the playground had strong tones of red.

“I…I’m just not ready yet…”

Crafty’s past had her develop a mild phobia of touching red with her front hooves, to the point of absurdity.  Red foods, red items, even holding Bobby’s hands sent her into panic, and the worst part was that was a great improvement to her reactions initially.

“I swear I’m trying you guys a-and I’m sorry I’m a burden-”

“Nope! None of that Crafty,” Dogday cut her off with a bop on her head. “We have not now, nor ever have, viewed you as a burden because of your fear.”

“But-”

“Nope,” Hoppy cuts her off, bopping her as well.

“B-but-”

“Nope!” Kickin joined in with another bop.

Crafty still wanted to deny, but the grins and raised hands all but ensured any further would just end up with more encouraging bops to her head. She counted her losses with a smile and held her hands up in defeat, much to Dogday’s delight and playfully mild annoyance of Hoppy and Kickin. She really didn’t know what she did to deserve such supportive friends and she could never thank them enough. She knows better than anyone how much more useful to them she could be if she got over it, but she was just as weak as back then and couldn’t overcome it.

“I…don’t think it’d hurt to be together for a little longer, j-just until we’re sure it’s safe I mean,” She finally answered, finally standing up. Joining her in magic conservation, the others quickly de-transformed, just as she grabbed the jar and joined them to leave the area. All the while unaware of the watchful glowing eye staring down at their exit.

The next few days were within expectation with the playgrounds being a bit more abundant, yet so pitiful that people didn’t even bother closing stores or fleeing in terror. Because of how quickly they would clear as they appeared, caution was thrown to the wind in the face of them as their original danger was deemed a moot point, but realizing that was becoming the norm, while considered a good thing, Bubba viewed it as anything but.

“I don’t like how people are viewing playgrounds as of late,” he confessed, looking a bit stressed as he looked through his notes. “I can agree that the sense of danger has been a bit on the tamer side lately, but the possibility of danger they pose shouldn’t be overlooked.”

“What’s the problem with that? The way I see it, the less worried they are, the more work we can get to afford rent,” Picky chimed in, not too bothered since her food service workers thrived on people coming to the restaurant.

“And that’s the biggest problem Picky, the less worried the public is, the more harsh the consequences become in an emergency. Think about it, thanks to the latest trend, it’s more than established that the recent playgrounds are artificially induced in nature. While we don’t know how it’s being done, we know it’s possible, but this is long past the point of testing induction for such weak playgrounds. Taking into account location data, strength of the playgrounds and the frequency of them, it’s obvious there’s a goal behind this.”

The problem for Bubba by that point was determining that goal. At first glance, simply lowering public wariness had been accomplished, but if that was the only objective, the person or group behind the artificial playgrounds would’ve caused some sort of disaster or panic by now or even caught the public by surprise by releasing a truly dangerous playground. Now the reason they haven’t can only be 2 likely scenarios; either they can’t create playgrounds that strong yet, or they have a secondary objective in making them so frequent. Looking objectively at things was difficult as not enough information was available to Bubba to make any proper deductions. 

“Bubba, you shouldn’t stress yourself out about it too hard for now. I’m not saying we should accept things at face value, but making the most of what we have is how we’ve gotten by so far,” Bobby suggested, setting a mug of tea in front of him. “Plus Dogday has been uneasy about things as well and against popular opinion, kept doing 4 person teams. As long as we stick together, we should be able to handle any curve balls that appear.”

“I’d much rather plan for as many contingencies necessary rather than leave it up to the wind. Losing you guys once was more than enough.”

“Well it wasn’t exactly hard for Catnap to get us. Separating us made things easy, so we weren’t really much of a threat, especially after wearing us out,” Picky reminded them, only to get startled as the mug Bubba was using shattered on the ground.

“Wearing us out…”

“Bubba?” Bobby called cautiously.

“Making things easy…that’s the goal!” Bubba all but yelled, flipping through his notes as he got up, making Bobby more worried and Picky confused. “Why didn’t I think of that possibility? It was staring me right in the face this whole time!”

Bubba only stood to look at things objectively from a scientific perspective, but what he didn’t think about was what if the motives were subjective in nature. What he didn’t consider was what they’d have to gain from the numerous playgrounds, not with them. If they are as artificial as speculated, then the rate they were released was done with a purpose that can only be found from having so many sacrificial attempts. There was something to gain or glean from so many playgrounds and the only common factor is the fact that someone clears them. Once they have that information, they’d either make contact with them to integrate them or convince them to stop, but if that option fails, the next option is to get rid of the outlier.

“I figured it out! Bobby, Picky, we need to find the others! Now!” Bubba yelled, hurrying to grab his bag.

“What?” “Bubba, what are you talking about, what’s wrong?”

“The goal wasn’t simply to lower public caution! They were lures for us!” Bubba rushed out of the door, with Bobby and Picky frantically chasing after him. “I kept thinking it was just experimental data, but that was under the assumption that they didn’t get the results they wanted with nothing to back it up. But after taking a closer look, the areas where the playgrounds have formed made a trail, one that has inadvertently been leading us this whole time! I don’t have any proof, but I think whoever has been making the playgrounds is trying to-”

Before Bubba could finish his statement, Picky tackled him to the side in her magical form, holding up a large shield that narrowly blocked a large blade projectile that would’ve taken the elephant’s head. The sound of it clashing with Picky’s shield was astounding, enough so that it was a miracle that no one came out to check out the origin. Realizing the situation, both Bobby and Bubba transformed as well and grouped up, only to notice the slight ripples in air in front of them.

“Bubba, is this-”

“It’s what I was afraid of. What the group making the playgrounds was trying to wear us down and catch us off guard. They realized who had been clearing them and decided to try and take us out.” Bubba cut Bobby off.

“Quite the smart deduction from so little information. Such a shame you’re a bit too late in the discovery.” A voice sang out from around them, the ripples in the air getting stronger, before 3 hooded figures appeared on the roof of a building across from them. “Shall we show you your mistakes?”

Across the city, blissfully ignorant of what troubles were finding their friends, Dogday and the rest had just finished up clearing another bust of a playground, appearing in an alley as it cleared. Honestly, all that effort for a one candy jar felt more abusive than rewarding despite the effort it took to clear it, but better cleared up than risking anyone’s safety with it being around.

“Well that was a giant waste of time,” Kickin stated to no one, just eating the single candy, feeling mildly refreshed and the gem on his forehead shining a bit brighter. “Even the candy quality is pitiful.”

“I’m honestly ready to let the playthings start eating, because this is getting ridiculous,” Hoppy whined, pinching her brow.

“Hoppy!” Crafty looked horrified at Hoppy’s statement, only to realize she was joking when the rabbit started laughing at her response. While she was glad that it was a jest, joking about that did not do the unicorn’s nerves any favors. “That wasn’t funny”

“Sorry Crafty, but for that reaction, it definitely was,” the rabbit responded without remorse, albeit slightly sheepish. “Not like these playthings are a threat even if I was serious. I can’t really imagine anyone getting caught in one of these things, nevermind them getting eaten.”

“Pfft! Taking one from Picky’s book, the bites were so small, they’d make appetizers feel like dinner,” Kickin jokes, imitating Picky’s voice.

The lighthearted joke had them all laughing, but the laughter didn’t stop Dogday’s ears from reacting to a strange noise. With a few cautious sniffs to the wind, loud enough to catch everyone’s attention, Dogday’s face turned serious. 

“Hoppy, 9-o’clock at the roof, now”

Wasting no time, Hoppy kicked up a trash can lid and shot it with little hesitation at the spot, noticing the distorted figure barely dodging and landing at the exit of the alley. Kickin, catching on to things, shot a volley at the figure, watching in shock as the shots collided with an odd barrier that burned away the arrows. When it vanishes, 3 more figures come from the alley's exit, one of which holding a scythe.

“I see you’re losing your touch for observation,” the shortest figure said with little emotion.

“My stealth was fine, unfortunately his synchronization rate appears to be higher than mine, so his already enhanced detection from being a canine overrules my attempts at hiding,” the original figure replied, their eyes glowing a vibrant orange from under their hood.

“Synchronization? What are you talking about? Who are you people?” Dogday demanded, already in a stance for combat.

“Whoever they are, they obviously didn’t come friendly,” Hoppy states, staying low to the ground and ready to break through. Before anything else was said, the figure with the scythe appeared in front of Hoppy, ready to take her head off. Without hesitation, Dogday kicked the figure into the wall, launching a fireball right at them, only to watch as they effortlessly split it in 2. They wasted no time rushing at the dog, before narrowly avoiding an arrow that easily pierced the wall and another followed shortly after. Although the scythe-user caught her off guard, Hoppy wasn’t wasting any time stalling 2 of the remaining 3 figures. The shorter one was trying hard to knife her while the larger of the 2 was covering with energy shots, but Hoppy was all but dancing around both of them. Each knife slash was cutting the air around her, while each shot may as well have been hitting their demons.

Before long, the scythe user was knocked right at her back, but without looking or receiving a callout, Hoppy jumped with a flip as they crashed into their associates they were fighting, the blade impaling the shoulder of the taller one as they howled in pain. Just before they could fully recover, odd chains appeared from nowhere to bind down the two individuals Hoppy was holding off, the scythe user swiftly taking to the air, before landing behind the captured.

“Not bad for a couple of stragglers,” the scythe user muttered. “I’d heard you were a decent lot and expected a fight considering your playground record, but this exceeds expectations. In better circumstances, I’d love to have fought you all fairly.”

“Not sure how a 4v4 isn’t fair, but you can explain that after you’re incapacitated,” Dogday stated, setting up a burning volley.

“Data collected, sync rates are confirmed. The canine is sun blessed with a sync rate of 100%, the rabbit is sun touched with a sync of 61%, the bird is sun touched with a sync of 59%, and the horse is irrelevant as her magic is too weak for mention. Change of plans, the dog gets shattered for incapacitation while the last 3 get converted,” The hooded individual with the orange eyes orders.

With a grin, the scythe user removes their hood, revealing what appeared to be a male doll-faced individual, whose face was partially cracked and the entire left side replaced with a strange growth over it. The sight was disgusting to make Kicking and Hoppy recoil, but that hesitation was enough for the individual to toss a stone into the air. It stayed there momentarily, before spinning violently as the area around them became incredibly saturated by moonlight.

“What the?” “A lightshow?”

“Sorry, but the fun’s over,” The scythe user says, rushing at them. Dogday was ready to release the volley, but the moment he tried moving any magic, he felt his body shut down with a painful skip of his heartbeat. Just as he regained composure, the scythe had closed the distance and cut through the sun gem on his collar with a loud shatter. The force of the slash sent him flying backwards as he fell to the ground, de-transformed with trembling eyes.

“Dogday!” Crafty cried out as she crouched to him.

“You son of a-” Hoppy started, before being interrupted by an energy blast that sent her slamming into the wall. It was much different from earlier in both speed and power, leaving her to realize they were just holding back, much to her chagrin. She tried to get up, but the crack in her lightning shaped gem left much to be desired in sustaining her magical form, forcing her to de-transform as well.

“Hops! What the hell is going on!?” Kickin shouted, shooting a volley at the energy user. He was so wrapped up in protecting from the next shot, that he never noticed the short individual near him, a fatal mistake for a ranged support. He had no time to react as the knife pierced his side, but he was able to swing his bow and make them back off. “You little, I’m gonna-”

Kicking didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence as the knife embedded in his side exploded, sending him into the wall opposite of Hoppy, damaging the star-shaped gem on his forehead and leaving him passed out as he de-transformed. In a matter of seconds, the tables completely turned around and took out 3 of them without a single incapacitation from the enemy.

“No way…” Crafty said in shock, standing up in the wake of the aftermath.

“And that leaves just you little lady. Normally I’d love to be a bit playful with my scraps, but you see, orders are orders,” the scythe user stated, casually walking up to her. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll be useful in your next re-write.”

Confusing and cryptic as it was, Crafty had no time to prepare as the scythe user already appeared in front of her, slashing her as she tried to take a step back. Upon the follow-through, the scythe user tensed up and reflexively jumped back within the same moment, narrowly dodging the black goop shaped like a giant hand that splashed from Crafty’s body and slammed the ground in front of it. The wounded body melted into a puddle of black paint as Crafty stood unharmed with a paintbrush in her hoof next to Dogday.

“I don’t know who you are and I’m not sure what you’re talking about when you say re-write,” Crafty starts, the flower shaped gem on her ponytail glowing brighter in the saturated light. “But I won’t let you hurt my friends any longer!”

Not taking her seriously, the short knife wielder and the energy user began their assault at the unicorn, but as soon as the energy shot was close to her, a mirror revealed itself in front of Crafty, absorbing the volley of energy and reflecting it right back at them. Taken off guard, the knife user jumped to avoid the reflected shots, only to get caught in an iron cage in the air. The energy user tried to shoot at it to release her, only to get gut checked by a rock stalagmite, taking them out. The original figure’s eyes looked hesitant and in shock at the situation, but the scythe user looked impressed.

“Had enough?” Crafty asked, holding the paintbrush threateningly, a drop of paint falling from it.

“This doesn’t make any sense! Your magic level isn’t even enough to make a full drop, nevermind do all this!” The orange-eyed figure yelled, being silenced by the blade held up to their neck.

“Looks like you need more training in doing your damn job, seeing as how you let the most dangerous one go unnoticed.” Holding his hand to one of his eyes, a subtle glow could be seen through it, piercing into Crafty’s very soul as they gazed at her. “Oh wow, You’re a lot more of a variable than you were given credit for. To be not just void origin, but moon-touched as a magic root is rare. It also explains exactly what you’re doing.”

“Moon touched and a void origin? That’s not even physically possible!!!”

“And yet she’s standing there, fighting back and getting empowered by the solstice field. A magic painter is quite a dangerous opponent for groups if they get set up, but judging from her actions now, she doesn’t need much time for even medium sized traps and effects.”

Crafty recoiled slightly at this information, because while she didn’t entirely follow, she could understand the core of what they were talking about. She always felt behind when it came to her magic, but that’s being compared to her friends who could handle situations where there was hardly a need for his do much more than small traps and environment changes. Now a dangerous individual was revealing much more about her abilities than even she was aware and that was NEVER something good.

“Although given the nature and speed of her magic skill, she could’ve incapacitated us after the first swing by making us experience hemorrhaging. In fact, there’s a noticeable absence of a specific color in all her attacks.” With a smile, the scythe user looked at her and pointed his weapon like a challenge. “Tell me, you can’t use the color red, can you?”

Although she wasn’t verbal, her body language more than gave the answer. It hasn’t been long since she’s started using her magic seriously, but not only the nature of it, but even her personal weakness in it was discovered with ease. Even if she tried to act tough and aloof, she could tell she was in a pinch, because no opponent would give sound advice if they weren’t confident. He stood looking at her, waiting, watching for her to simply paint them bleeding profusely and when it never came, his grin only went ear-to-ear.

“It would seem our little artist has a small slight against red for some reason, quite a fatal flaw in fighting others given your abilities.”

“Don’t underestimate an artist’s imagination! I can make many things capable of fighting you without using red!”

As if defending her statement, she finished a drawing that called forth a volley of icicle spears directed at them. Spinning his scythe to stop them, the user was unaware of the wall carved out next to them, before it shot out to slam into them. With a final stroke, vines sprouted from the other wall and wrapped around the piece that pinned the scythe user and the orange-eyed figure, effectively trapping them in a press that was rapidly growing tighter. Crafty was pretty confident in having both pinned and incapacitated, until the sound of slashing put her attempt to trap them to shame. While the figure was a bit tattered, the scythe user was barely scratched with only a light sprinkle of dirt on his cloak.

“Not bad, against weaker opponents, you might’ve gotten some actual value,” he stated in a somewhat impressed, yet mocking tone. “But if you aren’t willing to face fear, you’ll never slay a nightmare.”

Just as she tried to make another drawing, a clean sound of the air being cut in front of her stopped her in her tracks, the sound of wood hitting the concrete, only to feel the immense pain of her back slamming into metal as he kicked her into the fence cutting off the rest of the alley. She had no time to even complete a stroke before he slashed through her paintbrush, a speed that all but told her where she stood. He was playing this whole time, he could’ve taken them out before they could react, possibly even faster than Hoppy could. She wasn’t a target, she was free time for him.

“Come now little artist, that can’t be all you have?”

“Stop playing around already, we have to-”

“And what exactly do you plan to do to make me?” the scythe user asked, making his way to the hooded figure. “How does someone as pathetic and weak as you, plan to make me follow those orders?”

“You…y-you know what his orders were, you can’t just-”

Interrupting his statement, was a howl of pain as the blade of the scythe cut through both their eyes with abandon. The excruciating pain forced the figure to their knees as they held their hand over their wounded eyes, writhing in agony as if they were forever getting cut.

“I can’t defy his orders, yes. Your orders however, are not something I need to care about. It doesn’t matter what I do as long as I complete his orders and you are in no position to be giving me any.” Grabbing the trembling figure by the collar, they held their weapon teasingly close to their neck, the blade all but tickling their skin. “And you know why? It’s because you’re weak. The weak bend to the strong, they worship the very ground they walk, and they know exactly where they stand compared to them. You think just because you’ve found his favor that you can stand at his feet, but you’re nothing but a rat good for feeding information. For him, you’re barely the dust that flies by him in the air.”

A whine was all the figure could struggle to give, the pain in their eyes along with the fear from the blade threatening them had them trembling, choked up in anything they’d want to say. They weakly grabbed at the wrist holding them up, struggling to get free of the grip with the blood falling like tears from their sockets.

“That’s right, bugs like you are only fit to struggle your way into the grace of the strong. There’s no place for you without being like me, so don’t you dare forget it.” The scythe user threw them to the ground, but not before holding the scythe over them. “Now, what should the bug say?”

“Th…thank you for…sparing a w-w-weakling…like m-me…” the figure said, clumsily kneeling at them as best they could.

“Much better, but that’s the way it works, little artist. This world, only those with strong magic get to make the rules, only those that can control are allowed to make the rules. So quit wasting my time and show me something worth my time.”

Crafty could barely pick herself up, holding her right arm as she struggled to stay standing, her reformed paintbrush weakly being held in her hoof. What on earth was this maniac asking for? Give him something worth his time? She struggled enough as it is to fully incapacitate the 2 earlier and her best she could muster now was treated like a light breeze. It was obvious by her hesitation that the scythe user was getting annoyed at her lack of obedience, so he did the next best thing.

“Fine then, how about this?” he asked, slamming his scythe right on the invisible barrier covering Kickin, shattering it like glass, leaving the blade a mere inch from the unconscious bird’s neck. “Let’s give you some motivation. I’m gonna count to 3 and I expect you to give me your best and if I’m less than entertained, then I’ll take it out on your friend here, what do you think?”

The immediate reaction of weakly fired nails made him crack a smile at Crafty, relishing in her desperation. Holding up a finger was her first warning that she had little time to think about it. Crafty was given no time, what could she make that would satisfy a bloodthirsty junkie like him. The second finger had her tremble in fear at the thought of making a mistake, because she only had one chance, one opportunity to save her friends. Her brain was going a million miles a minute, thinking of what is the best thing she could do. Once the third finger reached the air, Crafty lost her reason and simply pointed her paintbrush at him, rapidly gathering and condensing all her remaining magic into it as paint began to visibly form in mass.

The sight was enough to catch his attention, his expectations being lit ablaze by her obvious last ditch effort. However, Crafty was simply buying more time and she knew that better than anyone. Any second more was a chance, a chance she needed to take, but nothing she thought about came clear as a set way to win. Her usual wouldn’t be close to enough, so she needed to go beyond that. Something strong, something overwhelming, a creation she could make that could truly dominate all matters of opposition.

“I…I know I’m weak,” Crafty muttered, the paint blob glowing brightly. “I know, better than anyone I’m weak. I’m always hiding behind my friends, trying my best to support them and not being a bother. I’m shy, too shy, almost too afraid to even look them in the eye.”

Crafty lowered her arm, trembling as tears formed in her eyes, much to the scythe user’s chagrin. Even the paint blob at her brush lost its light and fell to the ground pitifully, a blob of purple resting at her feet. Falling to her knees and the restraints of the knife user vanishing along with the invisible barriers protecting Dogday and Hoppy, it was clear she exhausted all her magic for just that and it was pathetic to anyone who laid eyes on it. Just as the scythe was raised high to claim the chicken’s life, an overwhelming feeling of oppression fell over the alley.

“But what I’m good at, what my friends have always supported me in, was my art. I’ve always been praised for being able to give life into even the most unskilled drawing,” she cried weakly, looking up at him with eyes filled with retaliation. “I admit, I have no chance of beating you, but with my pride on the line, I’ll show you exactly what the weak can do!” 

Thrusting her paintbrush into the blob, she violently stroked the air, splashes of purple forming everywhere in the air her brush touched. As she painted, the remainder of the blob began to melt, the stain on the ground expanding to dye the alley in a noxious shade of purple that felt as suffocating as it looked. With one final stroke, Crafty signed the air next to the depiction of a large purple cat, that cracked like glass, before breaking with a violent abandon. It was only a moment, but that single passing moment felt like an eternity as those cruel white eyes stared directly at the attackers. Eyes that viewed them as nothing but insects crawling at the ground, that dared them to raise their heads in their sight. The towering purple cat, whose smiling black mouth could swallow even the sun, was standing behind her like a beast on the prowl.

“Down with the heretics…” Crafty weakly muttered, the cat monster roaring to life as it rushed at the attackers. The scythe user was smiling wide, truly enjoying the sight of the monster in front of him, a challenge ready to prove his worth. He rushed at the cat, looking shocked at the clear slash at the air, only noticing as the beast crushed the body of the blinded hooded figure on the ground at the exit, clearly blocking the only escape. The knife user swiftly went for a stab, only to be swatted away like a speck as it looked towards the scythe user. It was a challenge of power, 2 predators claiming territory, bringing an ear-to-ear grin to the assailants face.

“Amazing! This is what I was wanting!” he called, rushing at the beast with a wide swing, a clash of its claws versus the blade in retaliation. Each swing was calculated to precision for disabling the creature as quickly as possible, but each attempt was as futile as breathing underwater. The purple beast was smart, defending its weak points with ease and using agility far higher than appropriate for it to jump along the walls like a ball. It could use the environment to its advantage, it knew exactly where to strike and when to power or retreat. This was truly a challenge that the scythe user waited for. The grin on his face matched only by the forced smile of the creature pinning him down, its eyes piercing into his very soul as it stared down at him.

“Truly a magnificent work little artist! You didn’t disappoint me,” he called as if he wasn’t currently on the ground like a rat caught by a cat.”To show you my appreciation, let me show you exactly why I’m strong.”

It was an instant, truly less than a second of time, when a burst of wind flew from the scythe user’s chest and blew out with reckless abandon, the stillness of the alley being their only friend. That moment felt like an eternity to Crafty, who immediately felt her entire world crash down on top of her, watching as her Playcare Catnap, slowly, but surely, began falling to pieces like a tower of blocks. That just wasn’t fair, her strongest creation, her best work she could muster, shredded to pieces by wind sharp enough to leave silent gashes in the alley above his position.

“I’m known as ‘The Wind,’ wind scythe of the inquisitorial squad for the Protocol.” The scythe user got up with a cracking of his neck as he relished in her despair ridden expression. “My magic bends any and all wind to my will and under my rule, even the air you breathe could shred your lungs to ribbons.”

Slowly making his way towards her, he explained more about himself and his magic. How he was a serial killer who died in a toy factory and ended up becoming a doll, how he was purchased to a nice family home with a daughter and son with 2 loving parents, how the girl’s brother stole him from her room and broke him and fused him with other toys like he was Frankenstien. When he got the chance, he made sure to kill the father in front of the children, making the sister watch as he made the boy chop their mom to pieces. He relished every moment of it, remembering each and every kill he had in his new life, before losing his life burning poetically in a house fire like an express ticket to hell. His kills all involved cutting and slashing, some swift, some more efficient, but his magic suited him perfectly as a killer toy. 

“Truly nothing is better than proving your ability to kill even the strongest.” Standing in front of her, he grabbed her by the chin as he tilted her face to look at him, the will to fight completely lost in her eyes. Holding the scythe behind her head, like a guillotine ready to take her head from shoulders, he relished as she still found the energy to tremble in fear at her impending death. “You were so much fun, my little artist~”

With a quick pull, her head should’ve come off with a clean cut, but instead it stays embedded in her neck, unable to move past her spine. Thinking he must’ve been lighter than intended, he simply pulled harder, only to keep running into the same problem, something that made no sense. He’d already seen her magic and watched as she used all of it in her last ditch attempt to fight back, so there was no way she could be protecting herself. With no warning, the blade of his scythe began to crack at the point of entry into her neck, traveling the length of it until it broke with a crunch, the sounds going in tandem with the subtle ripples in Crafty’s neck.

“Huh-” he started, before being cut off by the inhumane hellish scream that clawed its way out of Crafty’s throat. Taken aback, he was left far too stunned to react as the former blade of his scythe jutted from Crafty’s chest, through his. With a gasp, he woke up surrounded by a strange red fog that dye the alley crimson. Clutching his chest, he realized he had a bad daydream, but what struck him as odd was how he never had anything close to a nightmare since he could remember, so how was he experiencing them now?

“You woke up quicker than expected,” a chilling voice resounded in his head, looking around the alley, he could see everyone was also out cold, except Crafty, who appeared to be struggling to stay awake. His allies on the other hand, or more accurately, what remained of them, were nothing but viscera with shattered crystals decorating the ground near them. He was about to get up, before the click of a hammer and the cold feel of a muzzle at the back of his skull kept him in place. “I wouldn’t if I were in your position, you can’t exactly fight back well in your current state.”

“Is that what you-”

“You’re already dyed in my colors, with what magic do you hope to use?” the voice cut him off, a disparaging tone heavy in their voice.

Finding the audacity of such a question amusing, the confidence had him try sending out a drill of wind to slash him up from the inside out, but what released was simply a gentle breeze that would barely move a blade of grass. That revelation blew his eyes wide open in sheer disbelief, the very idea he could release something so weak and pathetic, an insignificant wind, struck him to his very core. He was strong, he was someone who dominated and oppressed the weak, only one had the authority to say they were stronger than him.

“I’m sorry, did a breeze come by?” the voice asked, shooting the man’s shoulder clean off and removing his entire arm in the process, apathetic to his howls of agony as he held onto it with his remaining hand. The pain was unbearable, something he had only experienced maybe once in his entire being, yet the moment felt as though it had come back all at once. Normally his magic was strong enough to protect his body from anything resembling pain, but because of whoever this was, his magic wasn’t working properly. He was kicked over onto his back to see the voice belonging to what looked like a cat with an extra long tail, before the gun blew off his legs, one-by-one, the left one below the knees and the right one right at his pelvis. “Tell me something, does it feel fun being weak?”

“W-what…” he muttered, barely able to think properly through the pain.

“Does it feel fun being weak?” the cat asked again, crouching in front of him, his eyes devoid of sympathy or even joy. “You said it yourself didn’t you, the weak worship the very ground of the strong and from where I’m standing, you’re not exactly the definition of strong. The weak are nothing but bugs, fit for crawling on the ground in your eyes, yet that girl over there seems to have proven she’s a lot stronger than you give credit.”

“That bu-!” he started, before the barrel stuffed in his mouth cut him off, the cat’s finger ever so slightly tugging the trigger.

“I don’t believe I gave you permission to speak to me, nor do I remember giving you the right to interrupt me. So why does the insect beneath my feet think it can?” The cat could see the fear in his eyes, the trembling of his body, the quivering of his lips, before removing the gun and standing up. “You see? Not so fun is it, being treated like this. You treat any and everyone that can’t truly hurt you, even if the odds are built against them, like they deserve to suffer, to be made to feel like they’re at fault, just because you’re weak. So tell me, is it fun?”

That question had an answer, one he didn’t want to admit. It made no sense to him, that there was anyone so cruel, so sadistic to make him keel over and writhe in such agony. Had they no humanity to give them, no sympathy to even give them a chance to fight back. They were simply playing with him, making him go through such an experience and what’s worse was he didn’t even seem to care. In his eyes, he wasn’t even worthy of acknowledgement compared to the artist, in his eyes he was barely even a bug crawling on the ground. He wasn’t just prey, he was a toy, he was a victim, just ‘a bug only fit to struggle his way into the grace of the strong.’

“No...it’s not…”

“At least you acknowledge it,” the cat said, pointing the gun at the crystal on the cloak just below his neck.

“Not even gonna offer me any last words?” he joked, a weak smile on his already haggard face.

“Were you planning to?”

“Heh, how fitting. Then could you at least offer me some parting words of advice, some enlightenment from someone strong to the bug?”

“...Nothing noteworthy, just be better in your next life,” the cat said, the gunshot piercing through the crystal and his neck in one shot, leaving him dead to the world as the red smoke vanished. The cat tossed the gun away as it faded into red smoke, a ring regaining its light on his tail as he pocketed his hands and walked to the barely conscious unicorn. “You must be touched by the moon if you’re still awake and exposed to the gas. Though given your state, you probably won’t be conscious much longer Crafty.”

The unicorn was struggling to keep her eyes open, the long exposure of the gas flowing through her system like water. She couldn’t pass out, not here and not now that her friends needed her more than ever. Her struggle to move her body didn’t go unnoticed, but the sigh that escaped the cat’s lips left her deflated. Kneeling in front of her, he blew a puff of purple and sparkling gas with a lavender scent that all but forced her body to relax all at once.

“C…Catnap…”

“I’m not asking you to trust me, but don’t worry Crafty. Just rest for now and when you wake up, it’ll be okay.” Catnap said, gently rubbing her head. The gesture was foreign, but sweet voice and already stacked exhaustion didn’t give her much choice. 

“...I’m sorry…”

With those final words quietly reaching her ears, she passed out.

Chapter Text

Opening her eyes, Crafty found herself staring at a familiar canvas, the simple drawing of a non-distinct flower fully sketched out and ready for paint. Looking around, she could see there was only one light in the room, only focused on her and her painting, the rest of the room hard to determine outside the small light circle. She could make out the daycare mat separating her stoll from the floor, but nothing else could be determined to help identify things. Unsure about her location, she merely began painting her flower with utmost care. The background is a lush field, the sky a deep blue, even the bright pollen in contrast to the vibrant green stem. It felt calming for her, painting something so simple and adding such detail to it without worry. Once she was ready to paint the petals, she noticed she had absolutely no red.

“Oh dear, I’m out of red again,” she commented solemnly. Just as she turned to get up, she was startled by a jar of red being held up to her from beyond the light she felt safe in. “Oh! Um, thank you?”

Although she wanted to express her appreciation, she couldn’t make out really anything of the person holding the jar out to her, but she accepted it nonetheless. Upon closer inspection, she could tell the red was a lot deeper than she was used to, yet the paint sloshed so thinly around. It struck her as odd, because even water color paint wasn’t so fluid, but she thought it wouldn’t make much difference. Setting the jar down and opening it, she was immediately struck with chill as the familiar stench of iron suffocated her nostrils. She screamed as she jumped up, knocking over her stool as well as both the canvas and jar, the red creeping onto it to fill the flower petals alone, but what terrified her was how the rest of the drawing was actively changing to more the blood covered the canvas.

“Wha…w-what’s going on?” she whined, falling to the floor as it continued. The lush background drying up with a dying field of grass accompanying it, the skies bleak and chilling gray as if smoke simply blotted out the sun. All that remained was a bright red flower, dripping a bright, vibrant, red. Crafty’s eyes shrunk as she started to hyperventilate, the sight driving her mad, but what made her heart skip a beat was the realization that a small, insignificant part to anyone else but her, was still not painted red and she knew better than anyone that there was no more, she was out of red.

“Out? But we can’t be out..”

Her heart sank at those words, the familiarity cutting into her like a knife. Even distorted and mangled sounding, she could make no mistake and who was talking, who said those words.

“You’re hiding more red from me…”

Ignoring the feeling of fear from leaving the lone light, Crafty ran into the darkness with reckless abandon. She didn’t get far before tripping on something and landing with a thump that mildly cushioned the impact on her head. Sitting up, she held back a scream as she realized she landed on a dismembered torso, drained dry of all blood and showing signs of mummification. Getting up, she realized the entire room was covered in similar states of beheaded, dismembered, or even torn apart. 

“I know you are.”

The sight was sickening to Crafty, to the point she felt like throwing up, making it hard for her to stand. Seeing no alternative, she began crawling towards the door, the fast pace of her heart being her only companion. The more she moved, the heavier she felt, the louder her heartbeat rang in her ears. She had just reached the door, reaching to the knobs, before the weight of her body caused her to collapse without warning. She couldn’t understand what was wrong, she knew she was scared but she was right there, her body couldn’t quit on her now. Reaching towards the knob from the ground, she noticed her arm was suspiciously bare and her hoof was no longer there, just a white stump. She realized far too late why her body felt so heavy after noticing the trail of blood coming from behind her, a shadowy silhouette of her with an iconic pitch black smile.

“GIVE IT HERE!”

With a scream, Crafty woke up and fell to the floor, trying to crawl away without purpose. She crawled against a wall, terror shrieking from her lungs as tears ran down her face like rain, before the sound of a door slamming open nearby tore her from her stupor. The room was far too dark, so the person’s silhouette was discernible through tear-ridden eyes. Before long, a familiar lavender scent entered her nostrils as the strong, grounding presence of Catnap held her close.

“Crafty, can you hear me?” Catnap asked the distressed unicorn and through panicked sobs, she was able to nod her head at least. “Good, I want you to follow the sound of my heartbeat and try to match your breathing with it, okay?”

It was difficult for her to follow for a plethora of reasons, but thankfully the cat’s natural lavender scent, which strangely felt a lot stronger than she remembers, helped her tremendously in calming down. It took several minutes, but once she finally felt calm enough, she was able to clear her face and get a good look at the feline, their former killer, now the one who helped her survive against an assassination attempt.

“Th-thank you Catnap,” she weakly muttered,her body still trembling, but at least she was calm enough to assess things properly.

“Don’t worry about it,” Catnap replied with indifference, helping her to her feet, making sure she could handle standing, before pocketing his hands. “I’m guessing something like a twisted memory, because I know you don’t have nightmares.”

“Y…yes? It was, how-”

“Let’s just say my original job gives experience and leave it at that,” Catnap immediately cut her off with that statement, his tone a bit harsher than intended. Crafty’s body reacted reflexively, flinching at the cat, something his ears noticeably dropped at, but while more reserved, his tone didn’t change. “Come on already, I’m sure you’re worried about them.”

Holding the door open with his tail, Crafty slowly followed his gesture, taking careful steps out into the hallway. It was a tad creepy looking and a bit worse for wear, but even she could tell wherever they were was a sturdy place. Tilting his head to follow, Catnap started walking her down deeper down the halls. Although fearful, it felt somewhat comforting having Catnap lead her to her friends, but her curiosity was beginning to gnaw at her.

“Catnap? Why…why did you…” she started, losing her voice in her question. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to ask the question or even that she was afraid to ask. She was just anxious about asking it in a way. In their time at the playcare, her and Catnap shared a small understanding being rather reserved in the collection of 8 critters, to the point where even if they weren’t considered close by any means, they could have mutual wordless conversation if their paths happen to cross. It wasn’t something amazing Crafty could do, but she did have pride in that compared to her other friends. Unlike then though, there was no unspoken bond they had because Catnap had been the one to lock her out, lock everyone out from who he really was. That simple wordless bond was her anchor to talking to Catnap, so without it, he felt too much like a stranger to ask something so heavy.

“You don’t have to force yourself Crafty, I’m more than aware that our…relationship? If we could call it that, isn’t exactly close enough that you’d feel comfortable asking outright,” he relinquished to her. “If you’re curious though, I don’t have a problem answering at least that.”

“S-sorry…and Thank you”

“I see your timid nature hasn’t changed as much as I witnessed. The answer to your question-”

He could barely get a word out, before Crafty grabbed his arm to cut him off. Confused, the cat looked at her with slight irritation, only to see her looking him right in his eyes, a lonely expression on her face. At first, the feline was lost as to what she was doing, but then it clicked to him, the type of person Crafty was. Even if she was shy, she worried about people as much as Dogday worries about his friends, but unlike the canine, she had more trouble explaining it. Although troublesome, Catnap understood what she wanted and with a sigh, gave her an ‘OK’ with his hand to show he’ll do it her way.

“Saves me the trouble of explaining stuff twice, so doing it your way works,” Catnap relented, stopping before a door. “Just in time too, we’re here.”

Opening the door, Crafty couldn’t help but shed a couple tears at the sight. Whether in sadness at their state or in gratitude they were alive, all her friends were together on respective beds, minus Bobby, who was replacing the towels on Picky and Dogday. With a begrudging expression each, both Hoppy and Kickin had one leg chained to their beds, which Crafty would’ve found terrifying if she wasn’t aware exactly how those 2 react after getting hurt normally.

“Catnap, I swear to fucking god if you don’t unchain me right goddamn now!” Hoppy threatened, only for the cat to practically ignore her presence as he walked into the room. “Hey, you mother-”

“Hoppy!” Crafty cried, running up and hugging the green bunny like she had died. “You’re alive, you’re all alive! I’m sorry!” I’m sorry! I should’ve been stronger! I should’ve done more to protect you guys!”

Despite the tears, Crafty couldn’t feel anything but elation as she heard the beat of the rabbit’s heart. She didn’t know what to expect, but seeing them made everything worth it. Hoppy wanted to flick her forehead for her continued apologies, but felt rubbing comforting circles in her back was more appropriate given the situation of things. Something that didn’t go unnoticed by Kickin and even if he was chained to his bed, he was not letting that out of character kindness slide.

“You’re being comforting? It’s official, we’ve actually died again because the Hoppy I know is never that sweet,” the bird called out, making sure to put extra emphasis on the ‘never.’

“I swear when I get off the bed, I’m field dressing you for Picky,” the rabbit responded, trying her damnedest not to let go of the unicorn.

“Oh nevermind, it’s the real Hoppy.”

Crafty laughed at their banter, not realizing how afraid she was of losing it again. It was such a welcome comfort that she almost forgot where she was or even the situation she and her friends were in. She got up to run over to Bubba, seeing the pachyderm holding an ice pack to his head like he wanted it to sink into it, while Picky looked as though she was going through a fever straight from hell.

“What happened to them, Catnap.”

“To make a long story short; Protocol’s inquisitorial squad, i.e their assassination squad was sent to handle you guys with the intent to kill you or force you on their leash. The most dangerous was sent to deal with Dogday, while the most efficient was sent to where you guys live to handle Picky, Bubba, and Bobby,” the feline revealed, opening up a medicine cabinet. “Bobby got off light without much damage thanks to her magic being healing, but Bubba strained his reserves a little too thin and Picky got hit with the brunt of punishment from them. I don’t know how they did it, but they’ve more or less infected her with magic she’s incompatible with and her body is having a rather strong reaction to rejecting it.” 

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Crafty offered, looking worried at the pig’s condition.

“No, Bobby’s more than enough to help her out after I get done finding- jackpot.” the feline stated, pulling out a familiar, but empty candy jar, with a tube setup on the top, connected to a syringe. Walking to the pig, he set whatever the apparatus was on the small table next to her bed, to the confusion of all of them present.

“Um, what the hell is that thing?” Kickin asked, a little rudely considering, but Catnap didn’t seem to bat an eyelash.

“Something to more or less drain the incompatible magic out of Picky and save her the struggle of trying and suffering through trial and error to expel it herself.”

“Then why aren’t you using it on her? You're just standing there as she’s suffering right now!” Hoppy yelled.

“You trust me to stick a syringe into any of you?” The feline asked sarcastically. “Didn’t realize I became so trustworthy knowing our history, how touching.”

“You’re out of your Protoype infested fucking mind if you think I’d trust you within a mile of any of us with a syringe you damn cat.”

“Exactly Hoppy, so instead of risking a bunch of extra work I can not be fucked to care about, I’m leaving it here for either Bobby or Bubba, when he can get up without that migraine, to handle it in my stead.”

It was obvious by her grumbling that Hoppy did not like how much Catnap was making sense, but rather than make a fuss for the option she knew she’d attempt maiming him over, she kept to her bed with a glare towards him. Having been saved by the cat, her direct killer, was bad enough to her, but the fact that he was helping them recover and keeping them safe in an obvious manner just made her more upset. God knows that if she wasn’t chained to the bed, she’d be dragging his face across the floors until she saw bone.

“Catnap, do I need to do anything special with it?” Bobby asked, the obvious bags of worry under her eyes as she walked from Dogday to the unconscious Picky with a smile that just wouldn’t reach her eyes.

“No, just treat it like an IV drip, only you don’t hang it up and instead of transfusing into her, the incompatible magic is flowing out. If it gets too much for that jar, there’s more in the cabinet you saw me get it from, so just replace it. And when you’re done with that, you can get some more f-ing sleep like I’ve told you for the past few hours,” Catnap nearly growled, the bear unbothered by him and simply preparing to properly insert the needle.

“I’ll rest when I’m sure everyone’s okay Catnap, I can’t lose them again,” she responded, forcing her smile as hard as she could, but not one person was fooled. The poor bear was beyond exhausted and it showed, whether it was from her tears of worry, how much she moved to care for everyone, or even the magic she’d spent to heal everyone’s wounds. Bobby was struggling to keep it together and having to rely on the person who killed all of them was not any easier on her nerves, but her friends came first. She could spend as much time afraid, after they’re all okay.

“Whatever, but if I see you start staggering, I swear I’m putting you in that bed and using enough gas to make you sleep for a week, so pace yourself until they get to the level you want.” Catnap relinquished, much to the bear’s relief, evident by her expression towards him. “To more pressing matters, how is he?”

At those words, her expression fell, gripping her skirt as tears formed in her eyes. Hoppy curled up slightly at the question, while Kickin slammed his hand on the wall behind him. There obviously wasn’t much that needed to be asked, because the answer was staring them in the face.

“He won’t respond, no matter how much magic I used, no matter what I do for him, he isn’t moving Catnap!” Bobby cried, falling to her knees as she held her face. “I tried, I swear I did, but the most he can do is move his eyes and I’m not even sure that he’s doing it because he wants to.  If not for his breathing, I’d think he was dead…”

Catnap walked over to said dog, observing him on the approach. The shrinking of the dog’s eyes as he came closer all but said that Dogday was conscious and aware of at least the things in his sight, which is a welcome state given the circumstance. Truthfully, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Dogday was a living corpse since his soul gem was shattered, but if his reaction was out of the anger Catnap could see and not actual confusion, it was safe to say he’s salvageable.

“Luckily, this is still your Dogday, otherwise the anger in his eyes right now would probably be confusion.”

“But he can’t do anything Catnap! He can’t move his body at all aside from his eyes! It was lucky to see him twitch his body parts, but it’s like he’s forgotten how to use it and…I just don’t know what to do…”

“He can’t use his body because he did forget how to use it,” Catnap stated, sitting on the bed next to the dog, noticing how on guard he was against the feline, even if he was much too vulnerable to retaliate to anything the cat did. “You see, scythe guy shattered his soul gem in his magical form, the anchor that binds your soul to your body. Once it gets damaged or at worse, shattered, you won’t be able to do things the same prior. If it’s damaged, the worse you’d have to deal with it is probably inability to use your magic, but in Dogday’s case, his body doesn’t recognize the soul it belonged to.So while Dogday is in his body, his body doesn’t recognize ownership.”

“So what? Our leader is trapped in his own body?” Kickin asked, worry evident despite both his lack of understanding and distrust of the cat.

“Kinda, though it’s kind of worse than that. Right now his soul is still the same, but as time goes on, even he’ll start forgetting himself,” Catnap stated without remorse or hesitation. “It’ll be slow at first, starting with minor stuff, but eventually his soul and body incompatibility will wear him down to a husk, to the point his soul is as blank as his body. At that point, he’ll be as fine as he was when he first came here, just he wouldn’t be the leader you knew anymore. In fact, he wouldn’t technically be Dogday anymore.”

“WHAT!?” Hoppy yelled, jumping off her bed, only to fall to the floor after getting about 2 feet from it. “What the hell are you talking about!? What do you mean he won’t be Dogday!?”

“To put it bluntly, think of your body as a character template while your soul gem is you, yourself, and everything that makes you, you. If your soul gem shatters, your body effectively doesn’t know you anymore and your soul doesn’t know itself, so to fight the incompatibility, your soul will start resetting itself to a compatible state which is a full reset of who you are. Your magic, your memories, even your personality and individuality gets reset to 0. It makes an entire new soul gem of course, but it won’t be yours.”

“So…does that mean Dogday is gonna die?” Crafty asked fearfully. “We just have to sit here and watch as our friend returns to nothing Catnap?!”

“Bullshit!” Kicking yelled, standing by his bed. “I’ll be damned before I let my friend disappear in front of my goddamn eyes! There has to be something we can do!”

“Calm down you guys,” Bubba said, the voice of reason speaking strong, despite the pain in his head. “Catnap seems highly informed of this condition, so it’s safe to say he has a solution.” Looking at the feline in question, mutual expressions lacked amusement as both of them stared at each other. “You do have one, don’t you?”

With a sigh, the cat looked up to the ceiling with exasperation at the entire situation. Perfectly honest, he knew he didn’t have to stick his nose in their business, he had no reason to. They were in this position because they chose to stay content with where they currently stood with things. They chose ignorant bliss instead of facing the cruel reality of this place and he had the right to get involved. Was he seeking redemption, something to make up for his past transgressions? Maybe it was forgiveness, a shred of hope, clinging to the very idea they had any chance of rekindling something that never truly existed. Maybe it was a twisted sense of pleasure found in how pitiful they were, because as it stood, they had to rely on him, listen to him, their fate in his hands. Yet not one of the reasons felt correct to him.

“I wouldn’t have bothered bringing him if I didn’t. I’m not exactly the cruel and cold-blooded critter you all believe I am, despite our history suggesting otherwise,” Catnap relented, sitting upon the bed. “You all came here with your memories and stayed together, because you wanted to experience this new life together, right? How cruel would it be, to make you watch helplessly as someone you cared about disappeared in front of you.”

Standing up, the Cat leaned over the dog, grabbing him by the chin and looking him in the face. The trembling of the canine’s eyes spoke volumes at what was going through the dog’s head. The familiar feeling of weakness at being at the mercy of this cat. Overwhelming terror at the thought of being hurt for saying just the wrong thing. The internal defiance at not being swayed by the whims of some murderer. Catnap could see them all and if anything, seeing how much the dog hated him in every way hurt the most.

“I’m telling you right now, there is no further meaning in this than trying to save you, so don’t get all weird from this,” Catnap said, much to Dogday’s and everyone else's confusion. If not for his lack of bodily function, the dog would probably be asking what he was talking about, but the next action the cat took promptly answered. With a gentle pull and uptilt of the canine’s chin, Catnap slowly and passionately gave Dogday a deep kiss, to the shock of everyone present and conscious. Hoppy practically flew to the ceiling despite being chained, Kicking had to take of his sunglasses to make sure he was seeing correctly, Bubba’s jaw actually looked like it dislocated with how low it fell, Bobby woke right the hell up as the bags stretched off her face, and Crafty, somehow, started drawing with a seriousness that’d make even the most dedicated of fujoshi’s blush. Dogday, however, felt his mind blank out at the action that lasted for who knows how long. 5 seconds? 10 seconds? Could’ve been more or even less than that, but what didn’t change was how quickly the dog kicked the cat away with an angry flustered expression on his face.

“You! Y-You, you goddamn- How! Fucking! DARE! You force a kiss on me, you godforsaken gas trap!” Dogday yelled at the cat, disinterest evident on his purple face. Standing up from the bed, the defiled dog grabs the cat by the collar, pulling him face-to-face again with a growl that would hush wolves. “I don’t know who the hell you think you are, but there is no way on any goddamn planet, in any fucking circle of hell that-”

“Dogday?” Bobby quietly called out, covering her mouth as tears formed in her eyes.

“Not now Bobby, I’m busy trying to get answers from-”

“No Dogday, I mean, you can walk…you can talk…”

Taking a moment for those words to sink in, the canine looked down at himself to realize her words were true. A moment ago, he felt trapped in his own body, only able to perceive things around him, lying dead to the world while still awake. Even using his eyes was demanding enough to make him tremble as he struggled to get his body to listen. Now, all of that felt like it was just a bad dream, all thanks to one cat whom he despised to hell and back again.

“What did you do…” Dogday asked, an unrecognized calm from his prior outburst. Although he was elated he could feel his body, trust was negative involving Catnap and believing this just happened with no explanation wasn’t something Dogday planned to take lightly. “And you better not spare any details.”

“And how exactly do you plan on getting answers the way you are, mutt.” Catnap merely flicked the Dog’s forehead, yet despite it being something so weak, Dogday felt as though the force of a truck slammed into him, releasing his grip on the feline and knocking him right onto the bed. Standing up and dusting himself off, the cat ignored the glares of the 2 more energetic of their group before sitting on the bed next to the weakened canine and grabbing him by the jaw this time, forcing his mouth open for everyone to see. While not immediately noticeable, the resident artist was more than capable of noticing even the smallest details of change, so seeing a new tattoo almost burned onto the dog’s tongue was very obvious.

“You tattooed his tongue!” she exclaimed, in shock about it for many reasons, some of which made no godly sense and judging by the grimace on Catnap’s face as he looked at her, she could tell those thoughts were better left unsaid.

Bubba, ever the curious, forced himself up to walked over and get a closer look at the new edition. Upon closer inspection, the pachyderm noticed that the so-called tattoo was more like a brand in the form of a magic circle. Seeing it, Bubba felt himself getting light-headed, because whoever could brand a magic circle onto anything or anyone was more than strong, they were skilled as enchanters where even the smallest enchantment they could do could cover their rent for 3 months with utilities.

“YOU CAN MAKE MAGIC CIRCLES CATNAP!?!?!?” Bubba all but screamed, grabbing the feline by his shoulders, a newfound fiery passion burning in his eyes. “What kind of enchantment is it!? How long will it last!? Did the branding process take a lot out of you!? How much effort does it take to make one!? Does-”

If not for Bobby’s swift, but gentle head chop, the elephant might have asked the cat an entire test worth of questions. Although she was not quick enough to stop the elephant from already shaking the sense of the now dizzy cat and if it was a miracle by the bear that Bubba would live to see the next day, no one mentioned it. Granted, it’s not like the cat didn’t expect some kind of questions given how hopelessly uninformed they are about just about everything, but it’s not like he’s the one who owes them answers.

“I don’t think we’re remotely close enough for me to reveal my cards like that,” he replied, trying to ground his spinning head. “But I will answer what that one in particular does.”

“Should I be thankful you’ve managed to grow a conscience  whenever you force something on people now?” Dogday muttered with a leer, the implication very obvious and the feline’s new interest in the ground said he was just as aware, even if his expression didn’t take too kindly to it.

“Who can say? Back to the enchantment, you’d first need to understand something fundamentally new about me.” Saying that, Catnap took a deep breath, before a familiar smile crept onto his face and in mere seconds, enough gas to hide the floor filled the room. The immediate reaction from everyone present was to panic and cover their mouths, but because he was point blank, Dogday inhaled a good bit of it, something he knew all too well. He decided to try and attack the cat before he passed out, only to see the usual drowsiness from the poppy gas wasn’t in effect. In fact, despite it being the familiar red gas, it didn’t smell of poppy like before.

“Is this…rose-scent? Bobby?” Dogday asked, looking confused, before said bear shook her head to decline.

“Rose?” Hoppy cautiously asked, removing her hands and taking a sniff. “Oh yeah, this is definitely rose!”

“Not just that, but look,” Bubba stated, noticing small particles or sparkles in the gas. Upon contact, he felt like he was refreshed magically, like his body was being healed by Bobby’s magic itself, although the effect was much milder.

“But how, I’m not-” Bobby started, before noticing an odd feeling around her ankle, seeing Catnap’s tail wrapped securely around it. Looking at the Cat, she could see his medal was a familiar deep red. “Catnap?”

“My gas isn’t that same poppy gas that was used to put people unconscious. I don’t know how, but my gas tank became a fully functioning organ in my body, kinda like a gland that allows me to more or less produce as much gas as I possibly want, but what’s truly new about it, is how magically synchronous it is.”

“Magically Synchro- what now?” Kickin asked, looking more lost than a blind man reading a map.

“If I’m understanding correctly, Catnap poppy gas now has a magic property, an adaptable one that takes on other properties,” Bubba summarized for the chicken, only to see he was still just as lost. “Catnap’s gas is magic and can copycat other magic.”

“Oh…wait, WHAT!”

“Not as convenient as that, but it’s a good analogy.” Catnap secured his tail to bubba, this time releasing a blue gas with sparkles scented like lemongrass, but unlike before, small constructs and geometries of hardened light formed around them. From there, he made a show of his gas taking on everyone’s magic. Kickin’s magic made mini stars float around them, Hoppy’s made everyone feel energized, Dogday’s nearly set the place on fire making a mini sun, even unconscious, Picky’s just made everyone incredibly hungry. When he got to Crafty, however, he hesitated, before retracting his tail and while Dogday looked a bit nipped for Crafty, the relief on her face suggested that the cat was somehow doing her a favor, so he held his tongue.

“As you can see, it’s incredibly adaptable to magic, making it the perfect medicine/catalyst for treating Dogday’s problem. His body and soul need a soul gem for him to function, a compressed magically compacted version of his soul and the only way for that to happen is for him to gather the magic and make it. Unfortunately, he has no practice what-so-ever in moving magic like that, nor do I expect him to be able to, given the nature of his ailment. The next best solution then, would be to automate the process somehow and my enchantment on his tongue does just that. He takes in magic, the magic circle breaks it down to read his soul, and automatically begins crystallizing a new soul gem for him.”

“Ingenious!” Bubba exclaimed, now by Dogday’s bed, fully in the canine’s face examining the magic circle as closely as he can. “The Magic circle acts like a guide for incoming magic, channeling it safely for him as well as breaking down the components for safe use!  This way, even the least magically adept could safely move and use magic. What an interesting concept!”

“Okay, back it up Bubs, you’re making my brain hurt,” Hoppy stated, looking as though she was aging while he talked.

“Okay, so you’ve given me training wheels and put me in a cast,” Dogday summarized. “For that, I’ll thank you, but that doesn’t explain why you kissed me, like at all. I may not know much about enchanting, but I do know enough that there’s no need for such an enchantment to go on my tongue, nor did you need to kiss me to make it, so spill.”

“If nothing else, you’ve grown more of a backbone since we’ve met. I don’t remember you being so demanding,” Catnap quipped, the dog growling with impatience. “Fine, the answer is less than ideal though. Bubba, what properties of the poppy gas do you remember?”

“Your poppy gas? Let’s see; the gas uses several opioid components as well as sleep agents to ensure people under its effects have very little chance of waking up. Because of the density, it sinks upon release when in contact with common air components. Its rate of vaporization when in contact with sunlight increases significant- ah.”

“Bingo, the vaporization property makes it less effective when in contact with sunlight. Unfortunately, Dogday has a naturally sun synchronous magic if those assassins are anything to go by and it’s noticeable by how thin the gas is in contact with his body. Not to mention the fact the adaptable characteristic makes its effectiveness when it leaves my mouth reduced regardless.”

“So the kiss is a bypass; by forcing the gas into his mouth through a kiss, the effectiveness is at its highest, while actively avoiding the exposure to a lot of the sun properties Dogday emits and because you’re so close to him, the adaptability property only has Dogday to adapt to. ”

“Satisfied now?” Catnap asked with indifference to the victim of circumstance. While he didn’t like it, Dogday did admit to himself that Catnap’s approach ticked every box for making sense as yielding the best possible results with minimum risk.If he wanted to get better, he had to make sacrifices, so if his dignity is lost from kissing his jailer, then he’d suck it up and get back at him later.

“Fine, I’ll apologize for my immediate reaction to you treating me. I…hope you’ll continue taking care of me, until I’m back to normal.”At this, Catnap tilted his head in confusion, though his expression couldn’t be more neutral about it. “What’s with that look?”

“Who said anything about me taking care of you?” Catnap asked, the shock plastered on everyone’s face, but disbelief on Dogday. “Is there some misunderstanding here? I saved you guys, yes, but not for some noble reason or even because I wanted forgiveness or some other crap like that. While I am sorry to you guys for my actions in our past lives, I don’t regret my decision.”

Getting up, Catnap stretched as he tossed a key to Bobby and walked towards the door. Though he couldn’t exactly leave as Crafty stood blocking the doorway transformed, ger magic paint all but erasing the door’s existence. Of course Catnap could easily handle the situation in a multitude of ways, he’d rather avoid confrontation.

“Are you being serious Crafty, you’re aware the conditions aren’t exactly favorable to you, right?”

“I’m not trying to win anything, but I can’t let you leave yet Catnap,” Crafty returned, standing on business with the indifferent cat. “You can help us, help Dogday, but instead you’re choosing to walk away and turn your back to us.”

“Can, yes, but why would I? Looking at things objectively, there’s no particular benefit to sticking my neck out for you guys. Who’s to say at the end of everything, you don’t use my stuck out neck to take my head off? You’d have more than enough reason to, given our past, so I only stand to lose out in taking that road.”

“We can promise not to!”

“If words were that trustworthy, would any of us even be here right now?”

“Catnap, please!” Bobby asked weakly, looking worse than earlier. “Be reasonable here, you can help us and you’re aware we don’t exactly have many options. We can make a deal or something, but you have to at least help Dogday-”

“NO!” the canine in question yelled, staring resolutely at the cat, looking back as if he couldn’t be bothered anymore than he already is. “I don’t care what happens to me, but if he doesn’t want to help, that’s that. I’m not putting any of you, any of what we have left at risk to him .”

“See? This is where things stand. Treatment to someone you can’t trust? Leaving your fate in the hands of your killer? Make it make sense to me, because if I was in your position, I think I’d be better off dying, don’t you agree?” Catnap turned back to the unicorn, his eyes void of compassion, a look she recognized all too well. The strong looking at a bug in their way, sending a tremor through her body, because even if he wasn’t transformed, she knew instinctively, she couldn’t win in a fight against him. “So stop wasting your magic Crafty and let me leave.”

It wasn’t a threat, wasn’t a command, not even an ultimatum. What Catnap had given her was a simple request, one he didn’t even have to ask at that. They were battered, bruised, and it was a miracle she had magic to transform, yet despite everything stacked against her, she was standing against the person who helped them, who saved them, who could kill them, but he was being peaceful.

“No, you still owe me answers…us answers, Catnap,” Crafty stated, her voice trembling. ”Why did you save us? If you were as heartless as you’re acting now, you could’ve left us to die in that alley. You wouldn’t have even intervened and I know that! The Catnap from Playcare would’ve treated those against his god with contempt and prejudice, so if nothing else, you’d have helped them kill us! You said we’d get reset to zero if our soul gem shattered, so if you truly didn’t care, why didn’t you reset us and make us the way you wanted!”

At those words, the cat frowned, his eyes twitching slightly in reaction to her words. She wasn’t wrong, not in the slightest, because if he was that Catnap, he’d have done all she said without hesitation, without a second thought. That was probably what made him react, because he hates the fact he can’t deny it.

“You said everything would be okay after I woke up Catnap, but this isn’t okay! I’m not letting you run away like this, because I know that’s what you’re doing!”

“Shut up…”

“You’re closing yourself off, just like back then! You want to run away and ignore what’s in front of you, but not this time. This time, I’m going to make you talk to us, to me!”

“Shut up!”

“So tell me right now Catnap, tell me why you saved us!”

“I SAID SHUT UP!!!” Catnap screamed, punching the space right behind her, shattering the painted wall of magic she put up to trap him in. He was fully transformed, fully emotional and she had no real means of defending herself, yet she wasn’t deterred. She stood looking up at the cat with a determination all too familiar to him. One he missed so much, one he could never forget. “You don’t know anything about me Crafty, so stop pretending you do…”

“You’re right, I don’t Catnap,” she said, de-transforming. “So why don’t you tell me? Tell me so I can understand why you said you were sorry.”

“Aren’t you scared of me?”

“Of course I am, but because you’re trying to run away again and this time I know I can do something to help you.”

Even Bobby transformed on reflex in case she needed to help her, because she was the only one left who even could, but instead of anxiety, she felt oddly calm about the situation. Their killer, jailor, would-be torturer was transformed and in close proximity to one of her friends, yet even if her body was going nuts, her heart was completely still about it. She just knew Crafty wasn’t in any danger and knowing that was enough for her to de-transform.

“Bobby, what are you doing!?” Dogday asked in a panic. “Crafty needs your help!”

“No Dogday, she’s not in any danger.”

“What are you talking about!? Catnap’s gonna-”

“Look” Bobby said, pointing to the pair.

Of course Dogday was looking, how could he not when he was gonna be helpless while watching his friend die again, but unlike the reality he was expecting, he calmed down significantly at the one he witnessed. Although Catnap was towering over her, in the prime position to cut her down or throw her away, he held his place, the trembling of his body giving away his hesitation. The Catnap he remembered was never like that, was never that emotional, yet this one was wearing his heart on his sleeve.

“Why? Why can’t you just let me leave?” Catnap asked, his voice quivering as tears formed in his eyes. “I’m a monster, I killed you guys, I watched you die…I took everything you ever knew from you! So why…” 

De-transforming, the cat’s arm fell back to his side as he looked to the floor trying to will back his tears, biting his lip.

“Why do you even care if it’s me? Can’t you find someone else to do it?”

“We probably could, but we shouldn’t need to. After all, you know us well enough, even if we’re not friends.”

Catnap felt annoyed at the unicorn, because she’s absolutely correct about things. He chose to save them, he chose to help them out instead of pretending he had nothing to do with them, he chose to get so involved to this point. It’s not their fault he feels some type of way about helping them, because they didn’t make him, he did and now he was trying to run away with his tail between his legs partway. It was frustrating to him because he knew getting involved did him absolutely no favors nor did it have any benefits, yet the more he thinks about abandoning them, the more he thinks of leaving them to their own devices in a place he had a hand in them arriving at, made him feel so much worse.

“...Goddammit Crafty,” Catnap muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose with a low growl. “You’re really making me do this…”

“I’ll make you a portrait as thanks. I know you were pretty interested in them a little back at playcare,” Crafty states elated, her hooves together in triumph.

“...Then it better be good enough to satisfy me,” Catnap muttered, walking by her and kicking open the door. “Listen up, because I’m only gonna say this crap ONCE! You better sing her praises, because Crafty just convinced me to finish whatever the hell I started, but I’ll be damned if I let you heretics drag me down with you….or at least, Kickin and Hoppy”

““Hey!””

“Stuff it, here’s what’s going to happen. Bobby, Dogday can move, but he’s the equivalent to a newborn who just took their first steps, so please help him in your magic form if you can afford it. Kickin and Hoppy, you’re carrying Picky if she doesn’t wake up within the hour and if you have a problem with it, don’t, because I don’t care. Bubba, I’m giving you a map to a place where I actively stay that I know is just as safe, if not more, than this abandoned bunker.”

““““““We’re in a bunker?”””””” all of them asked, but Catnap casually ignored them.

“Crafty, you’re taking me to wherever you guys have been holed up at til now so we can grab as much as your personal and important stuff as we can carry, because I’ll be damned before I play field trip monitor. Any questions?”

There were plenty of questions, but the issue was who was going to ask them. Dogday wanted to know exactly why they should trust him or what Crafty was talking about that changed his mind so easily. Bobby wanted to know what reason she needed to use magic to help Dogday walk. Bubba had the entire library’s worth of questions, but knew asking them now would do more harm than good. Hoppy wanted to know who in the entire family tree made him leader and started barking out orders at them. And Kickin wanted to know where the hell Catnap lives that’s more safe than an abandoned bunker. Surprisingly though, the only verbal question came from someone who hasn’t even been a part of the conversation for the entire debacle.

“Mornin’ guys, what’s for breakfast?” Picky asked with a yawn, stretching her arms as she sat up, only to notice all her friends and Catnap give her varying levels of disbelieving stares. “What?”

Chapter Text

“Are we there yet?” 

“Kickin, if you ask me one more time, I swear I’ll stop just to make you memorize this map until you’re a living GPS,” bubba groaned, the crease in his brow sharp enough to cut diamond.

“But Bubba, we’ve been walking for ages! We’re like…on the other side of the city, yet we’ve been weaving and cutting through locations like we’re on the run!”

In fact, the chicken wasn’t incorrect in that statement as the path detailed on the map really did overlap and wasn't the most straightforward route to their destination. Bubba honestly thought Catnap was sending them on a scavenger hunt with how much walking the map was having them do, but the cat was very clear about following the path to the line. While the elephant couldn’t understand his reasoning, so far he was extending an olive branch to them from an otherwise inescapable situation, so while trusting him was off the table, following his instructions were a minimum digression. To be honest though, he’s worried whether or not the cat simply did this just to be a nuisance in some way, because while Bubba didn’t know the cat well in the past, he was clearly a lot more mischievous now.

“Kickin, I say this as your friend in the nicest way possible, but you’re an idiot because WE ARE ON THE RUN!!” Hoppy screamed freely, because they were in an abandoned part of the city that sees as little attention and population as possible. It honestly could equate to being slums given the amount of forsaken and abandoned infrastructure, but maybe due to the fact of it being the afterlife or architectural material differences, they stood just as strong despite lack of visual appeal. “And in case you forgot, we’re all beyond fucked for defending ourselves, because they want us dead and treat us like mindless dolls!”

“More accurately, they want to force induce a reset that will make us blank slates so-”

“Not the point Bubba!”

“Guys, I understand being tired and believe me, there’s at least 100 other things I’d rather do than to be in this situation. But right now, we can’t be unreasonable with the help we get. As much as I don’t want to believe it, Catnap is helping us so the best we can do is be ready for when he changes his mind.” Dogday was a lot more rational about the situation after coming to terms with things. There was no chance he was comfortable, because even the thought of that cat made him growl at times,but the safety of his friends was more important to him and with all of them effectively out of commission, laying low and getting treatment was the best option. “But don’t worry, I know he’ll slip up eventually and as long as we’re ready then, he won’t get the drop on us this time. I’ll make sure of it.”

“While I don’t necessarily disagree with you Dogday, don’t you think you’re being a little paranoid right now?” Bobby questioned the canine, readjusting her hold on him as they walked. “I’m not saying forgive and forget or that we should treat this as a second chance or anything, but I genuinely feel like Catnap is helping us like he said.”

“It’s not that I don’t think he is, I just know him well enough to know that cat isn’t someone to show kindness. 10 years being stuck with only them as a conversation partner comes with that benefit of understanding them a lot better than most after all. And stop wasting your magic on me Bobby, I know Catnap said you should use it sparingly to help me and all-”

“Then don’t bother stopping me, because the answer’s no. He said your body still isn’t stable enough to handle using stamina like as much this walk is taking, so until we get there, I’m going to keep going.”

“But Bobby-”

“Like I said, I can’t lose any of you guys again,” Bobby said with a somber look in her eyes, her medal pulsing with small wisps of light as she expelled magic for Dogday. “So I’ll do whatever I can this time around.”

Dogday truly hated that he really couldn’t argue with her on this front, because it was embarrassing that he, of all the smiling critters, the leader, needed to be aided like an old man on his last years. It’s true that he had been feeling more winded than his normal, but they could just chalk that up to the shock is all in his opinion, emphasis on his. Though, there was solace in the experience as a fond memory came to mind from it.

“You know, this kind of reminds me of when you guys first found me here,” Dogday said, pulling their attention.

“You mean when you were trembling like a puppy trying to walk?” Picky said shamelessly, munching on fruit she managed to pick up at a store along their route.

“Oh yeah, that was funny!” Hoppy laughed, thinking back to that time. “Kickin and Bubba had to help you up and practically teach you from the beginning on learning how to walk.”

“Cut me some slack, being without legs for a decade does that to someone.”

“You made remarkable progress though when it was the case. I speculated it’d take you 6 months of therapy and practice, yet you shortened it to one by sheer willpower alone.” Bubba remembered, nearly popping a blood vessel as lecturing the dog for trying to force himself to work harder than he should. “Still haven’t forgiven you for that by the way.”

“I said I was sorry didn’t I? I just…didn’t want to be a burden, letting you guys down again…” Dogday admitted dismissively. He knew it was a worthless pride, one that benefited no one but himself, but it was his first step, his first true step to reclaiming the life he had lost. Sure he worried his friends too much for his liking, but what they made from it made it worth it in a lot of ways.

“I’m all for memory lane and all guys, but for the love of all coolness, Bubba, are we there yet?” Kickin whined, fanning himself from the lack of cover and his disregard to the fat he’s wearing a leather jacket in the middle of the day.

“Kickin, I swear to god that you can feel free to- Oh, we’re actually here,” the elephant started, before realizing they arrived at their intended destination. Upon looking at the place, every expression changed from relief to a pitfall of despair as each pupil shrank and they broke out into cold sweats. It shouldn’t have been possible, but here they were staring the location in the face.

“B-Bubba, are you sure you read the map right?” Kickin asked quietly, much more timidly and far too out of character for him, to the point he was trembling in place.

“I’m…I’m positive…I’ve checked it over enough times to memorize it blindfolded…”Bubba admitted, dropping the map.

“No. No no no no! This can’t be the right place!” Hoppy yelled, falling to the ground in fear.

“I don’t think…I’ll be able to enjoy my meals in peace here,” Picky joked, trying to make light of what she saw despite the churning and turning of her stomach, even dropping the food she bought.

“Not again, please not again…” Bobby all but cried, falling to her knees, now clinging to Dogday who couldn’t even speak in his shock and rage. He knew he shouldn’t have trusted that damn cat, knew there was no way he was helping them. After all they went through, after all that happened for them trying to escape, just why the hell was Catnap sending back here? How was it even in the afterlife and none of them had seen or heard of it?

“Some safe place, who in their right mind would view Playtime Co as a safe place!” Dogday screamed as he and his friends remembered the terrors of the factory coming at them all at once. 

As if on cue, Catnap and Crafty come from around a separate corner, the cat looking annoyed and exhausted while the unicorn looked incredibly apologetic.

“I hate…everything…about your damn apartment manager,” Catnap muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose hard enough to draw blood.

“I’m so sorry Catnap, but there's a procedure for these things and we couldn’t risk still having our names on the contract, otherwise when we came back, we’d owe too much in back rent,” crafty weakly explained, still feeling sorry for the feline in question. “It’s usually his wife who we deal with so it hardly ever gets that bad.”

“I can see fucking why…”

Before he could fully calm down from his encounter on the critter’s behalf, he was tackled to the ground by an enraged Hoppy, trying to choke him out. If not for his reaction speed, he might have been gasping for air, but he was still off guard enough to not give much of a fight before the rabbit had him using all his immediate strength to try prying her hands off his neck. Crafty swiftly pulled Hoppy the cat, him coughing as he tried collecting air as the unicorn struggled to hold the rabbit back.

“YOU FUCKER!! YOU LIED!” Hoppy screamed, struggling to get out of the unicorn’s grip.

“You better have a good fucking reason for assaulting me rabbit,” Catnap growled, the look in his eyes screaming death at the rabbit, before noticing the same shared look fo fear and and anger from the other critters. “What’s got you all so pissy?”

“You brought us to Playtime Co, what the hell do you mean what’s got us so pissy!?”

“Huh?” Crafty asked, confused by their reactions. “Playtime Co? What are you guys talking about?”

“Crafty, it’s right here!” Kickin yelled, motioning to the Playtime Co factory in front of them.

“What? Where!?” Crafty got startled after hearing that Playtime Co had a factory even there, but she looked around and couldn’t see what they were referring to.

“Don’t bother Crafty, I know what they’re talking about now,” Catnap said as he dusted himself off, slightly wiping blood off his lip. “This is why I told you to follow the map, to the step.”

“You can’t tell us you didn’t intend to lead us here with Bubba leading us here you purple furred fuck!” Dogday growled, trying to force his body over to the cat. “I knew from the start you didn’t change, but this is a whole new damn low!”

“Of course I won’t tell you I didn’t mean for you to come here, because that was the intention,” Catnap admitted without a shred  of embarrassment, something that pissed the dog off more. “What I did NOT intend was for you guys to break off the path and fuck up the enchantment.”

“What bullshit are you trying to feed us now Catnap!? You can’t sit here and tell us there’s something about Playtime Co that is safer than the bunker you had us in!? I don’t know what sick joke this is, but I’d rather take my chances dying with those religious freaks than step foot in anything resembling that factory ever again!!!!!”

“Tell me something, did you all follow the path on this map EXACTLY as I’ve drawn?” Catnap asked, ignoring Hoppy’s hysteria with little interest in her and more at the pachyderm he trusted with the map.

“Of course we did! Bubba led us and there’s no way he could’ve made a mistake,” Bobby harped, terrified of the cat for his actions. She couldn’t believe how heartless to expect them to feel safe at what essentially became their tomb. “Catnap, please stop with the jokes and answer the question of why are we here!?”

“You guys keep saying ‘Playtime Co’  but I’m still confused,” Crafty stated with worry evident in her voice. “Why are you guys talking about the factory here?”

“Because it’s right there Crafty, we all see it!!” Kickin yelled at the girl, losing his patience for why she was playing dumb. “You’re an artist, you’re supposed to notice even small details, how can you sit here and not freak out that we were just led to the factory where we all died!?”

“You mean the abandoned hotel?” Crafty said, pointing to what they all referred to as Playtime Co. Hearing her words sent all of them into shock, because obviously Catnap did something to Crafty while she was alone for her to be this blind otherwise the unicorn was in so much shock from that night’s events that she lost brain cells.

“Yes Crafty, they mean the abandoned hotel,” Catnap clarified, picking up the map Bubba dropped with an annoyed expression on his face. “The hotel with a wide scale enchantment on it of my design. One that shows anyone without the qualifications, following the path on this map, a vision of their worst horrors. A place that they’d sooner die than ever willfully enter. Because if you would rather die than enter, what’s a safer place to hide, right?”

“Wait what?(K)” “Huh?(H)” “Say what?(P)” “I’m sorry?(Bobby)” “What…(D)” “Genius!(Bubba)”

At the realization of Bubba saying something completely different to the rest of them, all the critters, except Catnap gave the elephant a confused/disgusted look at how he could find anything positive about the situation.

“Sorry, sorry, I just kind of realized what’s going on now…”

“Feel free to explain it Bubba, because as of right now, your explanation is the only thing that can convince me not to change my goddamn mind after nearly being choked out for trying to help you ungrateful assholes out,” Catnap spat, looking incredulously at Hoppy, who felt slightly fearful and sheepish in response.

“You said we had to follow the path on the map, right?” Bubba clarified, getting a curt nod from the cat in response. “Then that must mean this map was actually us drawing an enchantment for activation. If I had to guess, the map path means ‘key’ or ‘dispel’ and any stop we made during it broke the flow?”

“Surprise, surprise, that’s exactly correct, “Catnap sarcastically praised with a bitter smile. Even slow-clapping to add to his clear displeasure at his treatment. “This map is the key if you’re not within a certain range of me and to activate it, you have to trace the ‘dispel’ path on it. Doing it once gives you a permanent hidden enchantment on your body that makes it so the enchantment on the hotel doesn’t affect you. But the fact that you can see Playtime Co, not the hotel, and assaulted me , tells me that not one of you 6 managed to follow my instructions. If I had to guess plainly, I’d say the stops included; Picky stopping by a grocery, Bubba examining something off the path, Bobby possibly taking a rest with Dogday, and finally Kickin and Hoppy being the impatient children they are and making you take longer to get here by goofing off at any place they found fun along the route. Please, feel free to tell me where I’m wrong.” 

The fact that even the crickets were quiet spoke volumes at how accurate his statement was to the facts of the event, if even the chaos duo weren’t trying to pipe up. He did say ‘follow the map to the turn to get there safely and no stops,’ yet whether inadvertently or blatantly, disregarded his words for varying reasons. Now they’ve arrived scared out of their wits, assaulting the person helping them, and trying to make a problem from something they caused, which didn’t feel good for any of them, but it was obvious that it hit a lot harder for Bobby, Bubba, and even Dogday in particular.

“Wow, didn’t know we were visiting a library,” Catnap joked with a visible being on his forehead. “Where’s the energy from before guys? You were so gassed thinking I was trying to do some weird psychological torture just a minute ago.What happened? Could it be, you actually realized that maybe, just maybe, if you could follow goddamn directions, you would have saved yourself the stress? Couldn’t possibly be that, because the big, mean ole Catnap here is just SO thrilled in getting involved with us and attempting to ruin what WE have .”

“Catnap, please,” Crafty asked politely, holding his shoulder, much to the cat’s annoyance. Begrudgingly, he complied, shrugging off her hoof, traced the line on the map with magic to grant all of them the enchantment, before skulking towards the hotel, looking more annoyed than he did when he arrived. She didn’t like it, but Crafty couldn’t blame him for feeling that way, nor could she blame her friends for how they reacted. Playtime Co held a special type of place in all their hearts, so if she had walked all that way and saw it after all that, she might’ve been the exact same.

“Well that’s one way to start off…” Kickin muttered, feeling pretty bad about things.

“Probably better than me. I just tried to choke him out for him actually giving us a safe house.”

“There’s one bright-side then, he’ll probably be more willing to go for you first.”

“You little-”

“Guys, maybe not now…”Bobby wasn’t all too thrilled about her behavior in admonishing Catnap either, but more energy spent bickering now could be better used in apologies later. “How did everything go Crafty?”

“Oh, it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been. We successfully canceled the apartment so we shouldn’t owe any rent or anything and Catnap escorted me to where all you guys worked so they understand you’ll need a couple days to rest due to…’events out of your control’ so to speak. The elderly looking couple also wanted me to wish you good health Dogday, they really appreciate…the work..you do…”

Although Crafty understood he’s probably elated at the news from them, the timing was definitely the worst possible given how he just acted. Internally, Dogday was gratuitous to the news, but hearing any kind of compliment after what just transpired felt more like a stab at his character. He wasn’t visibly shaken, but the glossing of his eyes didn’t go unnoticed by Crafty, who just chose to preserve what was left of the canine’s pride.

“Well…the good news is we have a little time to recuperate, right? Maybe we can make it up to Catnap in that time with a little something?” Picky suggested.

“I don’t think Catnap would accept anything from us in any form at this or any other time,” Bubba surmised, not feeling entirely himself at not noticing such an important thing practically thrown into his hands. “I think our best course of action would be to just take his kindness for what it’s worth and get out of his way as soon as possible. Catnap never had a good amount of patience.”

While not down for the idea, they did agree with his analysis of the situation. They quickly made their way to the door where the cat happened to be leaning by, looking a bit less irritated than earlier. A small grace they guessed, but it didn’t exactly wipe the shame away from 6 of them.

“You guys done with the pep talk before finally putting your trust in me, or do I need to let you guys slit my damn wrists so I can sign something in blood so we can get this over with?” The cat sassed with a hint of scorn at a couple of them.

“No no, we’re fine now. Is there…anything else we should worry about though..inside, I mean?” Hoppy meekly asked, not able to look him in the eyes.

“Not as far as magic goes I guess, but there’s a couple of ground rules I’m going to establish and if you don’t like em, you can feel free to go back to the bunker to hide out and fuck right off in trying to ask me for any further help than what I give from then on. First and foremost, you are not the only critters living here with me as I have some under my care and protection and I’m telling you right now, if any of you intentionally harm them, I’ll make sure I help you as painfully as possible, before I straight up kick you out. Secondly, the basement and storage floor are off-limits, so you better find a damn religion if I catch you sneaking into either. Third, when we get in there, we’re going to sit down and do a little questioning for each other and participation is non-negotiable, but that also goes for me. There is 1 question you each get to ask me, while I get to ask one that qualifies to all of you that if you don’t answer, I can freely choose not to help you with no complaint. These are the terms, any questions or concerns before you agree?” 

Although his tone brooked no real disjunction, they could tell he was being as accommodating to them as possible with phrasing and even freedoms. The rules probably favored them more than himself and while there was some unease at the facts that areas were ‘off-limits,’ it wasn’t really their place to question. Timidly, Kickin did raise his hand like a child in a classroom, something Catnap raised a brow at, but ceded to acknowledge him in whatever mood he put himself in.

“Ah, um…just wanted to know where we’d stay inside is all.”

“Surprisingly tame question from you of all people, but a good one. Luckily this is a hotel and the people here aren’t exactly that big, nor plentiful enough to fill up all 6 floors, floor 6 being storage by the way. The elevator is beyond out for obvious reasons, but we do have a pulley lift in a couple areas, so if you really don’t want to carry things up and down the stairs, you can use that. Anything else?”

No one else tried to speak after that, although it seemed Crafty was the only one not fearful or ashamed. She could only hope this atmosphere between them wouldn’t be a permanent thing and, while her expectations were low, hoping they could develop at least a cordial relationship.

“Alright then, then welcome to the hotel formerly known as ‘Casa de los Muertos.”

“Why does that not sound inviting?”

“Not any less than what this hotel was known for, but seeing as how we’re already dead, not like it’s anything to worry about,” Catnap answers as he walks in.

The foyer of the hotel was pretty rough as expected, but even despite the condition, you could feel how regal it used to hold itself. The chandelier looked a little rough with many ornaments missing and could’ve used some polish. Although slightly tattered and stained, the rug and carpets that were like paths throughout the hotel were clearly of quality material. Even the tile still held the same level of shine as if it was brand new, with the only indication of age coming from the obvious fade and discoloration. If not for the obvious wear and tear, you definitely wouldn’t think it had been abandoned for an extended period.

“This place looks pretty well taken care of,” Crafty commented, taking in the foyer.

“Well it better be, I don't exactly want to live in a, forgive my wording, pigsty.”

“No offense taken, can’t cook in a messy kitchen after all.”

“To save myself the risk of more problems before we get to the questioning, I’m letting you pick whatever room you each want, whether it be single rooms or shared rooms so you can always have someone else to help or run out and claim I’m sneaking in to do something.”

“We wouldn’t think that low of you…” Hoppy tried to say, although one glance from the cat was enough to call out that pitiful attempts of flattery were a waste.

“Uh-huh, well it’s just in case for your safety, so offer is on the table. Crafty has magic cubes with each and, I think, all your personal stuff in them.  I’m going to make some tea and get snacks for us because I’m aware this questioning might take a while.”

“I’ll help you out,” Picky offered, to which the cat raised a brow, something she understood without much thought. “It’s because I’m still the cook for the Smiling Critters, so anything involving food is my area of expertise…And no, it’s not because I don’t trust you or expect you to put something in the drinks. If I have any kind of ulterior motive, it’s ready access to the kitchen.”

With her reasoning being laid out, Catnap acknowledged that reason, being surprisingly less rude than he was expecting, being truthful. He’d rather not put himself through the stress of the others worrying about whether or not he’s planning on serving Picky up, because he’d bet money at least 2 of them already had that idea, but his lack of hospitality practice and tea prep does make him slightly self-conscious about doing it alone.

“...I’ll concede on that, I guess…but you’re crazy if you think I’m giving you the fridge key. It’s troublesome enough getting food here without risk, so I don’t need you snacking away the inventory,” Picky clicked her tongue on the side, something none of them missed, but she followed the cat after waving her friends off to trust her. Although it wasn’t said aloud, Catnap was correct about there being at least 2 critters worried about him putting something into the tea, but between Hoppy and Dogday, only he thought it was a risk to everyone, while Hoppy expected it to be karma for the earlier attempt at choking him out. Realizing they were wasting time, they took themselves up the stairs to the 2nd floor, finding it a bit worse for wear, but surprisingly kept well considering. A little dusting and polish here and there and it’d look pretty presentable, so they could at least be thankful the cat wasn’t just sticking them in trash cans.

Dogday chose the room right at the staircase, because he didn’t feel like competing for another room with anyone else and if by any chance he wasn’t being an overthinking asshole and Catnap decided to take them out, he’d know for sure, although the second part remained unsaid. Bobby chose the room next to him to be nearby in case she needed to help him with magic or otherwise. Bubba and Crafty chose corner rooms, with Crafty’s being right across from one of the aforementioned lifts. Kickin and Hoppy were ready to scrap for the biggest room on the floor, but decided to settle it with Rock, Paper, Scissors. Needless to say, Kickin could not have been blessed any harder by luck than beating Hoppy 10 straight rounds with no do-overs.

“I’ll hold onto Picky’s stuff until she picks her room, so we can probably meet them downstairs now,” Crafty suggested, pocketing the pink cube. It took a bit of coaxing to keep Bubba from trying to examine them, especially since he didn’t realize his magic could functionally work with space-time alteration. Even if it was a weaker version of his, thanks to Catnap’s gas, he really wanted to study it to see how he could reproduce the result when he could safely use magic again. He would have asked if Catnap could answer every question he wrote in a notebook, but apparently he told Crafty, at the apartment, to tell Bubba he’d read the book and any question in there would be ‘i don’t know’ regardless if he has an answer and he make sure the elephant goes first, just so any question he asked would get burned.

“He was adamant about that when he had to put your stuff in a cube, although I don’t know if he really thought about it until he saw your open notebook on the desk.”

You could hear the pachyderm’s intellectual heart being broken so many times, not knowing what to believe. So now he had to come up with a way to ask so much with one question by the time it got to his turn. While they were walking down the stairs, Dogday heard a small thumping from the 3rd floor moving away from them quickly. He assumed that was one of the others in his care, but by how light the thumping was, they weren’t exactly that big. While it was tempting to go and check, he felt that burning anymore of the feline’s kindness given today’s infraction, was the wrong move. While it wasn’t said where they’d meet for the questioning, the smell of sweets coming from around the corner, more than led them to a small dining room, seeing said cat nervously pouring tea in various mugs.

“Why exactly do I need to do all this for good tea?”

“Be-cause~” Picky sang, bringing in a platter of assorted packaged sweets. “You seemed interested in learning how to prep tea correctly, I’m teaching you the proper technique. Think of it as my apology from earlier.” 

“If I knew it’d take this much effort, I’d have just rather you didn’t feel guilty and doubled down.”

Picky giggled at Catnap’s reaction, but pleasantly surprised by how quickly he picked up on it. She had spent hours teaching people at her job and what they poured barely qualified as scented water, so the fact that the cat could do it from a short explanation and showcase was refreshing. Depending on how things go, maybe she can get him to work at her job and show all the other staff how easy it is, at least until a dose of reality hit her that chances of their relationship getting to that point was probably further from slim and closer to none. 

“Well, you can do it now, so it's too late for regrets.”

“Whatever,” Catnap muttered, roughly taking a seat and taking a very, VERY small sip, trembling as it was still too hot on his tongue. “If you guys keep standing there trying to get entertainment out of me being a cat, I can cut this shit short and skip it all together.”

You could’ve sworn it was Hoppy who sat down instantaneously with how immediate that reaction time was, but the fact it was Bubba, sitting with the most neutral expression as he took a sip from his mug, had jaws dropped, even from Catnap. One look from the elephant, one that said ‘Sit the fuck down,’ quickly had his friends follow suit because this elephant was ready to kill for answers apparently, enough to unnerve Catnap, but only for a moment.

“Um, thanks for the hospitality Catnap,” Bobby awkwardly said, trying to make sense of Bubba’s newfound greed for knowledge. She really appreciated the cat picking black tea, even with sugar and honey out for sweeteners. If anyone saw half her mug being honey with the tea, no they didn’t.

“Tea is always good for calming nerves and given what we’re about to put ourselves through, or rather, what the hell I about to put myself through, I figure choosing something to ease us into the situation was better than just ripping the band-aid off.” Catnap didn’t notice, but seeing how understanding he was to them helped ease the tensions more than the tea, especially seeing his reaction to hot tea, making him feel a little more approachable. “Anyway, like I said before, you all get 1 question each to ask me and I’ll try to answer to the best of my ability and I’ll ask a question that all of you, whether individually or collective, have to answer me. What we’re doing now, is sharing information, not getting to know each other, so don’t get all emotional or attached to any answers I give. Since I’m sure Crafty informed him, Bubba is going LAST to give him time to craft out the inevitable vaguely detailed and annoyingly wordy question he wants to interrogate me with.”

“Wha- I’m not that bad!” Bubba shouted to his defense.

“True or false; he wanted to make a notebook to hand me with every possible question he thought he could?”

“That’s fal-”

“True” Kickin deadpanned, selling the elephant out instantly.

“Oh yeah,” Hoppy joined in, knocking back cookies.

“Sorry Bubba,” Bobby said, also confirming Catnap’s observation.

Even Dogday kept quiet when it came to defending the elephant, because he was a terrible liar and trying to defend Bubba on that was harder than trusting the cat helping them. He really wanted to be there for his friend, but when even the forest has a restraining order on him for how much notebook he burns through, ain’t a lawyer in existence gonna be on his defense.

“In his defense, he didn’t try it before I told him, just thought about it,” Crafty mentioned with a giggle.

“The betrayal is palpable,” Bubba said, slowly sinking below the table with a red face.

“I said you were questioning me, not giving me a damn test. So with that said, questions are first come, first serve.”

“I’ll start then, if you guys don’t mind,” Crafty offered, taking in the scent of the tea. Once it was clear no one would interject, she took the chance. “Catnap, why are you helping us? I want to know the real reason, not the one you’re telling us or yourself.”

“...You’re way too damn observant,” he muttered in response.

“I do try, an artist’s eyes are just as important as her hands. I also won’t let you try to get out of it by changing the subject, so if you’d please.”

“Fine, I won’t go back on my word now,” Catnap started with a sigh, leaning back as he looked to the ceiling to think about his answer. “I guess the answer is an apology, if I really had to put a reason to action. If you remember what I said at the bunker, I told you that I do feel apologetic to you guys, because even if it was for the Prototype, killing all of you, making you slaughter others to survive, I had no right to do that. I won’t explain why, but I keep thinking back on how you guys looked back at the factory when I killed you all. Anger, Despair, Regret, Desperation, you all weren’t a part of the problem, yet I treated you just as badly as them. Seeing you guys getting prosecuted by a group far larger and more powerful than I was, it somewhat struck a chord I guess. I robbed you guys of your fragile and artificial happiness, but it was yours. Now that you found real happiness, it wouldn’t be fair to have someone else ruin it. Satisfied?”

Hearing the words come directly from him didn’t feel real to them. Sure he said it at the bunker to them, but of course that could’ve just been lip service, just to catch them off guard. Now he was saying it, just to say it with no motive or even sugarcoat to it. His answer didn’t change, his attitude towards them hasn’t changed, he was showing he truly didn’t care about them outside of apology and his actions aren’t fueled by anything but just that. It felt both comforting and, for a few of them, guilt-inducing.

“While I wouldn’t say satisfied since there’s still part of it you’re not telling, I will say that you answered my question at least,” Crafty answered, her gentle smile somewhat flustering the cat, although he couldn’t tell if it was comforting to receive that smile after that or worrisome. “Don’t suppose you could afford some more kindness and give a little hint towards that bit of information you’re hiding about it?”

“Let’s not get greedy here.”

“Worth a shot. Who’s going next?”

The rest of them were still processing his response at varying speeds and degrees of success, the results showing for themself. Bubba and Picky, although awkward, accepted the response rather easily and took it at the value presented. Bobby couldn’t decide between elation and guilt, because while she was thankful his response basically said her friends were safe, it also means she felt so anxious of someone’s kindness that she acted rudely towards it, something against her principles. A little slower on the uptake were Kickin in Hoppy, who were more in shock than anything. Dogday’s processing of it however, it was almost complete denial internally. He spent an entire decade with Catnap, a prisoner in his own home, suffering day-in and day-out, never knowing when he’d be next on the menu. Catnap all but killed him with his own hands, but here he was saying he was apologetic. Dogday practically didn’t know how to process what he heard, practically stuck hearing those words over a loop in his head.

“I guess I’ll take the next spot,” Picky offered somewhat timidly. “My question is…how long have you been here? You know, like dead here.”

“Going for the kill I see, rather abrupt, but whatever. If I had to estimate, I’d say probably a month-ish, maybe 2 after Dogday.”

“Whoa back up,” Hoppy interrupted swiftly. “How would you know that?”

“It doesn’t take much to pick up info if you know where to look and who to ask. I was alone, scared, and confused when I arrived here, so the obvious first step would be getting whatever information I could ot survive and the whereabouts of former victims are usually near the top of the list for anyone with blood on their hands. Admittedly, I was confused by how much time had passed, especially since it didn’t take me long to follow suit after the leader’s…unfortunate demise.”

“The minis eyed me daily and you know that Nap, don’t act like it wasn’t inevitable.” Dogday may have interrupted reflexively, but his words were still backed with emotion.

“Perhaps, but I can tell you without a doubt that if I had my way, you’d never have experienced it. But back to the question, I moved around and got some decent info on all of you when I first arrived, although admittedly, Kickin’s was the most annoying. How the hell can’t you keep a job after being here this long by the way?” Catnap questioned the yellow bird, the embarrassment on his face despite the sunglasses. “Like, you’re too impatient for delivery,  too dumb for information services, too accident prone and bull-headed for customer service. Pick a damn struggle, because I’m still lost.”

“I thought this was a questioning, not a roast session!?” Kickin whined, his face starting to take on Bobby’s shade of red, but Hoppy’s howling laughter along with some kind giggles and snickers from a few of his other friends did not help. “Please move on!”

“Fine, anyways, I used that info to avoid any possible chance of seeing any of you and keep myself safe. While you probably wouldn’t exactly…violently, get revenge, experiencing open hostility from you guys who were here longer would make my time here infinitely easier and less confrontational. It was difficult, but here I am for it.”

“Well aside from the impromptu roasting session, I’d say that one was very informative,” Picky commented, a smirk on her face as she looked at the bird who was actively slamming his head onto the table. 

“UGH! Can I go next just to change the subject!?”

“I won’t stop you, if you have a question anyway.”

“Of course I do! It’s…uh…um…how’re you so slim?”

Bubba had spit taken for Catnap, because there was no way this bird was asking such a waste of a question on that. Catnap himself slammed his face into the table, while Hoppy actually fell out of her chair laughing. Bobby and Crafty kindly pretended that didn’t hear the question, while Dogday kindly ignored the question, because even they could not understand where that question came from, nor why.

“So we’re ALL in agreement that question did not happen and he gets a retry?” Catnap offered, not getting up from the table, but the collective feelings of gratitude was so strong that he could feel it without looking. “Glad we’re on the same page”

“Hehe, sorry…um, maybe what you know about magic here?”

“Now we’re making progress. Let’s see, I don’t know too much about how the magic system works, but I understand the basics I believe.”

“Hold! I need to take notes,” Bubba harped, whipping out a notebook and pencil, looking at the cat with seriousness. “Please continue”

“Right~ The magic system here runs on a pretty simple basis. Usually, everyone that comes here is given the right to have magic, but the privilege to use it is almost lottery based. Magic is also sourced from 1 of 3 places usually; The sun, the moon, or atmospheric/void origin. Depending on your source, you can almost guess what exactly someone’s magic type will consist of and there’s also varying levels of synchronization with that source, which acts as a gauge of how potent your magic will be, especially if it’s sun or moon sourced. Sun sourced are stronger in the day, get magic better in sunlight, and the opposite occurs for them at night. Vice-versa for moon sourced magic users, although the potency seems to be stronger for moon based users due to less time for the moon being out. Void origin magic users are more common, but are kinda ambiguous and most can’t really do much outside basic usage and making the currency-”

“Stop! Wait a minute!” Hoppy interjected, her ears standing on end. “What do you mean, ‘making the currency?”

“The money you spend? You know, the mana coins you get paid with and that you hand every day?”

“FUCKING WHAT!?”

“One question at a time, I’ll answer that one shortly, Hoppy.” Catnap could already feel the headache beginning to form. “But magic here works something akin to that baseline. Although your sync rate to your source is important, you can almost make up for it with your potential and magic capacity. For the record, your magic capacity is the amount of magic you can safely use before you experience problems, while your potential is the highest amount of magic capacity you can physically have. They say the higher your sync rate, the higher your capacity or potential, but from what I’ve seen, they’re independent of each other. There are higher stats among those who chose to remember like us though in both…usually.”

“What do you mean by usually?!” Bubba yelled, rapidly filling up the notebook as they continued.

“Is that your question?” the cat teased, one eye open at the elephant, shutting him up instantly. “Guess not, but that answers your question, right Kickin?”

“I think so, at least, what that shiny-eyed bastard said makes more sense, though I’d still like to know what touched versus blessed meant.”

“Now that’s something that won’t qualify as a second question. Roughly speaking, it’s the difference between a buff and being empowered, as well as a means of recovering magic. Someone ‘touched’ gets a basic buff by the sun or moon, depending on which one they’re touched by. Someone blessed means getting empowered by your source and even the ability to actively refresh your magic while being exposed to it as well as increasing strength and efficiency of it. In layman's terms; touched means you have skill, blessed means you define skill.”

“Oh! I see, I see! So being sun-touched means that in the day, I’m one of the coolest birds around, why didn’t you just say so?”

“Because any bigger of a head and you wouldn’t fit in the hotel,” Catnap retorted, getting a poorly concealed cough from Hoppy and Bubba. “And that’s 3 down, 3 to go. Since I already know Hoppy’s question, I’ll just clear that out now. All transactions done in this world are paid by magic, usually in solidified form known as ‘mana coins,’ or in the candies you guys collect, ‘soul drops.’ The denser the coin, the higher the value, so those who have an abundance of magic are considered rich here. If you have the privilege to use magic, you simply make coins as you replenish it. Depending on the engraving on the coin, you’ll know what magic made it; Sol coins for sun sourced, luna coins for moon sourced, and any other engraving are considered void origin based. The first 2 are considered to be worth more since they can be absorbed quite easily and the density for the majority of them are the highest sources. Done”

The way Hoppy was listening to Catnap was at a level she may have been listening to state secrets of some kind, because the glint in her eyes said this information was something she’d commit to memory better than anything she’d ever listened to before. Well, it’s not like Catnap is a stranger to the process, so who was he to judge someone else’s greed.

“I have a feeling you opened a box better left closed Catnap,” Bobby observed from the fire in Hoppy’s eyes. “I think I’ll ask my question to bring everyone back from space. Catnap, this may come off as a little mean, but I really want to know: why don’t you expect forgiveness, rather, what did you mean when you said you felt apologetic to us, but not remorseful?”

As she finished, you could swear the temperature of the room dropped into the negatives. Although his face was neutral, Catnap was practically oozing with unhappiness at the question. He did raise his eyebrow at her, signaling he didn’t quite understand the question she was asking, but her lack of clarification told him enough. She wanted the full explanation about it, why exactly the cat could feel sorry, yet couldn’t feel  a glimmer of regret.

“A rather greedy question, don’t you think?”

“I understand if you’re uncomfortable with answering, but even if you tell us you don’t want to put up with us longer than you need to, I just have this feeling that you’re not being entirely truthful.”

“And you hope by getting that info, you’ll get something of value?”

“I’m hoping to at least understand where you’re coming from Catnap,” Bobby told him with a hopeful expression. “I want to know what makes you act this way.”

“I fail to see what you get out of knowing that now.”

“Quit beating around the damn bush and answer the question!” Dogday yelled, much to the surprise of everyone, including himself. He didn’t realize it, but ever since the first question, Catnap’s every action from even their past was flashing through his head with the cat’s words playing over them. Every image of him killing a factory worker, every poor toy trampled over by his tyranny and made an example of. The cat kept him prisoner for a decade, like a trophy, strung up and praying for death, never being allowed to leave. He killed all of his friends, breaking down their wills, and feeding them to his following, all for a suspicious toy of unknown origin that goaded him into believing murder was justified.

“Sorry, but I’m not entertaining this crap any longer Catnap! You said you’d answer our questions and Bobby just asked hers, so quit the pussyfooting and tell her, tell us!”

“I don’t see why it benefits you knowing it, I’m simply trying to give her a chance to ask one that’ll be more useful.”

“You don’t get to decide that!” Dogday shouted, standing up from his seat with a slam on the table.

“You seem far more invested in this than she is Dogday, I thought you were more than satisfied with our arrangement so far. All I had to do was treat you guys and leave you on your merry way, now you’re trying to pry out personal info from me. A bit too nosey don’t you think?”

“And you’re a bit too much of an asshole right now for me to care!”

At the dog’s words, Catnap furled his brow with a frown, obviously getting irritated. Bobby was trying to calm Dogday down, really regretting this question now, because this apparently hit a landmine, one she didn’t want to see the aftermath of. In fact, things were getting heated enough that Kickin and Hoppy got ready to jump up in case things got violent, but inwardly, they were afraid to see things go that route.

“I’d pick my words carefully mutt. I don't think I’ve done anything as of late that wasn’t pretty accommodating.”

“OH praise be! Being nice to others comes so easy now, but it was apparently an impossibility before!”

“I was nice enough to not rip your legs off while you were awake wasn’t I?”

“So you’re expecting a thank you for that? Geez, thank you so much Catnap, from sparing me the pain of you ripping my legs off and hanging me on a wall like a trophy! Why don’t I also thank you for keeping me alive against my will while I at it, you want me to show my gratitude for that? In fact, why don’t I just sing praises about how much I pleaded not to hurt other toys and any of the ones that tried to help me, you FED to me!”

“That’s-...I didn’t-...”

“You didn’t what?! Didn’t realize there was no way I’d ever accept an apology from you after the decade of suffering you put me through!?”

“That’s why I’m not expecting forgiveness, what is so hard for you to understand about that!?” At this point, both critters were incredibly emotional and if not for how they settled for glares, the others were afraid of the violence that’d have ensued. Dogday was hyped up on confusion, disbelief, and conflicting feelings of understanding. Catnap was responding in anger, regret, and guilt, yet didn’t want to give up ground. Unresolved emotions and uncertain feelings towards the other, all being dragged out by one question of unspoken words.

“Then how the hell can you tell us you’re apologetic! You said it yourself, you don’t feel a damn lick of remorse for what you did, but expect me to believe you want to apologize?”

“Why should I feel remorse for what I was put through!? You don’t know a damn thing about what I had to deal with!”

“YOU WOULDN’T TELL ME CATNAP!!! You’re the one who ignored me when I tried to bring you into the group! YOU were the one who believed the words of a deranged fucker over the people who were taking care of us!”

“DON’T YOU FUCKING DARE ACT LIKE THOSE SCIENTISTS GAVE A DAMN ABOUT US! ESPECIALLY ABOUT ME!” 

Catnap was exuding violence, the way he appeared in front of the dog, grabbing him by the collar standing face-to-face with the dog. Dogday didn’t even seem phased as he grabbed the cat’s collar back, not even close to backing down. Despite the clear one-sided case of the possible fight, it was obvious the cat was still holding back and the dog was trying not to cross a clear boundary to make the cat do that. They were both highly aware of the position of the other, both trying not to put the other in a predicament of their own making, so why couldn’t either concede and throw away such useless pride?

“Guys, maybe we should do a rain check,” Bubba suggested, worried about where this was heading.

“Yeah, we can just skip my question, I can ask another,’ Bobby added, trying not to get emotional.

“I TRIED TO BE YOUR FRIEND! I TRIED TO MAKE YOU FEEL WELCOME AND YOU REPAID ME WITH THAT!?”

“DON’T ACT LIKE YOU GAVE A SHIT! YOU WERE JUST KISSING THE ASS OF THOSE SCIENTISTS TO BE THE GOODY TWO-SHOES DOGDAY! JUST LIKE THE CARTOON CHARACTER!”

“FUCK YOU! YOU DON’T KNOW A DAMN THING ABOUT WHAT I HAD TO DEAL WITH!”

“AT LEAST YOU HAD PEOPLE TO SHARE THAT PAIN WITH! I DIDN’T GET JACK SHIT! YOU CHOSE TO SHOULDER THE BURDEN OF BEING THE LEADER ALONE! I DIDN’T EVEN GET A SHOULDER TO CRY ON!”

“YOU COULD’VE! YOU COULD’VE BEEN OUR FRIEND! MY FRIEND! THE 8TH SMILING CRITTER OF THE PLAYCARE! INSTEAD, YOU CHOSE TO BE A MONSTER!”

At those words, Catnap’s expression dropped completely, only a pair of wide eyes and slightly open mouth in disbelief. He had to make sure he heard the dog correctly, playing his words over in his head just to be safe. This dog, this stubborn mutt, said he chose to be this way, he chose to be the monster he was. If not for the dog doubling down in grabbing his collar, he’d be stuck in his head thinking about it.

“SO GO AHEAD AND THROW YOURSELF A PITY PARTY THAT ONLY EXISTS FOR YOU, BECAUSE NO ONE ELSE HAD IT NEARLY AS GOOD AS YOU DID!”

It was an instant, something no one had a chance to react to, not even the assailant. By the time the sound of Dogday’s impact against the floor, no one realized how quickly Catnap threw the punch that struck him in the jaw. In fact, the cat was giving off such a tremendous killing intent, it was wishful to believe anyone could’ve moved in the first place.

“I had it good? ” Catnap asked, looking at the dog like he was nothing but a cockroach. “ I had it good in that factory?”

Dogday was holding his jaw with tears in his eyes, but the clear fear on his face showed he was in no position to respond.

“I was a kid, one just like all of you, that got put into that body for their benefit. I was a kid, who got forced into the body of a monster, who had to suffer through hours of agonizing surgery with no anesthetic as they attached my ego to a body that wasn’t even properly set up for the procedure. I was a kid made to go nightly around a fucking daycare drugging others to go and suffer through the same bullshit i went through by the same people they thought they could trust.”

Each sentence dripped with venom on the cat’s tongue, each one a step closer to the fearful dog who was backing away at the cat’s expression. It was the same, no matter how much the forced smile was gone, that same look the cat gave him whenever he disrespected his god in another failed sermon. The same eyes that looked down on his victims as if they weren’t even worth the effort. Once those same cold eyes were crouched in his face, the dog felt like he was right back to where he was in that factory.

“The question was why I felt sorry and not remorseful, right? ” he asked no one. “ I felt sorry to you guys, I felt sorry to the kids, I felt sorry for every innocent worker than had nothing to do with what I went through in that godforsaken place, but I don’t regret my actions in the fucking slightest Dogday.”

The smile that slowly crept onto the cat’s face was unnerving, that familiar black void that swallowed much flesh and many a human whole, one that was face-to-face with a mouthy spaniel.

“Because why the fuck would I feel sorry to the people who let me suffer on my fucking own?”

Chapter Text

“ Because why the fuck would I feel sorry to the people who let me suffer on my fucking own? ”

That sentence rang like a gong at point-blank range, resounding through the very core of the critters that heard it. A simple question; not a question that re-assigned blame, not a question that escapes responsibility, just a question of concern by the victim. Suddenly Catnap’s attitude made much more sense to them, why the cat wasn’t trying to be involved more than needed, why the cat could be so aloof yet conscientious; it wasn’t because he felt the weight of his actions, but because he was giving them closure to forget about him. He accepts his actions and is willing to live this new life one day at a time, but they were dragging him back into the past.

“Well? I’m waiting, Dogday ,” Catnap calmly said, the venom still potent in each word. “ I’m a monster, right? Why should I, as a monster, give a fuck about those who let me suffer day-in and day-out? Those adults that told me to trust them, made me into a freak that could barely function on its own. The kids I was supposed to care for, would run away screaming and crying at the sight of me, all before I proved they had every reason to by drugging them and leaving them like lambs for the slaughter. Even my god, my savior, the one friend I had in that hell called home, he killed me.”

“W-what?” Dogday whispered, too scared to understand the cat fully, but this didn’t come without consequences, being forced to stare into the void that was the cat’s eyes even closer.

“MY GOD KILLED ME!!!! ” Catnap yelled, inadvertently harming the dog whose face he was in. He could see the fear and pain etched on Dogday’s face, even the tears the canine was trying to hold back, but right now, he could care less. When they were about to be killed or made into pawns of a cult, he saved them without asking for a deal or owing him a favor. They were injured, but instead of milking them for what they were worth, he’s been treating them and making sure they recover safely and properly. Every step, every bone he’s been throwing to show them he’s just trying to help for the sake of it and not inconvenience them, he’s been spit in the face like he expected and while he was pissed, he was okay with it, because it was his fault to begin with. He knew far better than them what his actions did to them and every toy in that factory, so he was willing to shoulder all the animosity. What he will not accept, is this kiss ass of a dog, this too naive for his own good, the faux sun of playcare, his false sun , was telling him that being a monster was his choice.

“Catnap, wha-...what do you…mean?” Crafty quietly asked, struggling to get a word out under the influence of his killing intent.

“Oh Crafty, I mean the ONE thing in that place I thought I could trust, killed me.”

“B-but….didn’t you tell us…the p-prototype does that…to those, th-th-that fail?”

“My dear, I don’t mean when I failed to kill Poppy’s Angel. I gave myself over to the Prototype, because at that point, I was more than happy to die, if nothing else but giving up the fight to live such a horrible life, ” Catnap confessed as his head snapped to look at her, unnerving the rest of the critters who now could see exactly what Dogday’s was looking at. “ The death I’m referring to, was when I was still a human, a naive child with no one to love him and no one to call friend. The Prototype killed the child I used to be and made me the monster you all know… so well …”

Without him realizing it, the killing intent that flooded the room vanished like a puff of smoke. The cat’s expression was frozen with the same intensity, but instead of pure and unrestrained anger, the tears that threatened his cheek with their presence, made his face look far more weak, fragile, and to the emotionally understanding Bobby, the cat looked so, so lonely. 

“You are all well aware we used to be human too, there’s no way you aren’t. Unlike you guys, I wasn’t so blessed to be unconscious during the procedure, I wasn’t blessed enough to be in a situation where I lost my memories to be as malleable and blank as a slate. Ever since I became Catnap, I wasn’t the healthy, lonely child that dreamed of freedom, but a decrepit , barely living monstrous casket that was in so bad of shape, it was a miracle if I could get out of that cell they kept me in.”

Hearing those words from the cat was like a knife cutting into them. From his introduction, they kept him at arm’s length somewhat afraid of his looks because he didn’t ‘look’ normal to them. He was creepy, quiet, and hardly moved at times, to the point he seemed like the undead, a corpse reanimated just to be called the 8th Smiling Critter and little did they know that was incredibly accurate. He didn’t ‘want’ to be Catnap, he was ‘made’ to be Catnap, not even properly at that. Realizing the weight of his words now, Dogday could feel his heart shattering, because even if he tried at first, he too treated the cat with prejudice and tended to keep a safe distance. Now he was here calling that same cat a monster, when at the end of the day, ‘Catnap’ didn’t have any option left. This wasn’t the Catnap earlier that was trying to keep himself closed from them anymore, but a sad child they treated like a monster until the point he became one.

“Living was pain, moving was agony, every breath I took was a prayer for it to be the last. At one point, I got tired of waiting,” Catnap laughed, the memory playing in his head as if it happened moments ago. “My tail was so long that it was easy, it hurt all over the tighter it got, but I finally felt like my nightmare could end.”

At his words, Bobby gasped loudly, standing from her chair, the tears coming down her face in streams. She knew exactly what he was talking about, she knew better than anyone in the room, because she was the one who reported it. At the time, she was afraid because she thought the cat was playing with his tail and had an accident, but to hear it was an attempt, made the memory so much worse.

“I-...I didn’t-...I was trying to help, I-...!” Bobby cried, trying to calm her excited heart.

“I don’t blame you for that Bobby, because you just did what you thought was right. It’s not like you could’ve known what I was doing. Besides, you weren’t the only one who reported me for something involving my ‘safety,’ after all.”

A few critters noticeably tensed up at his words, because while they didn’t interact with Catnap much, they still recalled a few key instances involving him, ones they felt worried for everyone’s peace of mind and wellbeing. If they were what he was referring to, that means they had just as much a hand in the direction Catnap went as the Prototype.

“Picky made sure I couldn’t go into the kitchen anymore.”

“You had a knife to your chest, how was I supposed to react!?” Picky yelled, realizing that the cat wasn’t playing in the kitchen as she thought back then.

“Bubba got me monitored.”

“I just…I didn’t mean for them to go that far…” Bubba said, looking down as he held his arm in shame.

“Even the chaos duo managed to stop me from jumping off the rafters, surprising to be honest!”

Neither Hoppy nor Kickin could look at the cat after that call out. It wasn’t even from worry they stopped and reported him, but because they didn’t find it fair he could access the high parts of playcare and they couldn’t. Hearing the reason now made them feel worse, especially with how many restrictions he had on him after that.

“Through every attempt I was stopped, through every day I was made to drag more kids into hell, yet despite every moment of pain I lived, the only one there for me, the only one I had to comfort me, was the fucker that was the entire reason I had to! The Prototype, MY KILLER, was the ONLY shred of light in the pitch black void that was that hell! When I was scared, he would comfort me! When I was lonely, he’d keep me company! He made me feel like even though I was a monster, there was still a chance for me if I could trust in him and suffer through it all!”

By this point, Catnap fell to his knees with a weak and broken smile, too emotional to realize how much he was actually saying, but even if he was aware, he doesn’t know if he cared. He’d lived a life bottling these feelings in and died a failure, now he was spending this life suffering the weight without a single person to care about him anyway, so why should he keep it locked in anymore.

 I knew it felt wrong…I knew it was a mistake…I knew I’d hurt people who didn’t deserve it! But…but…BUT I COULDN’T LOSE THE PROTOTYPE TOO!!!!” the cat yelled, tears freely falling down his face as he glared at Dogday again. “I HAD NO ONE TO CARE ABOUT ME, NO ONE TO HOLD MY HAND AND TELL ME IT WAS OKAY! I DIDN’T HAVE FRIENDS TO KEEP ME COMPANY THROUGH MY PAIN! I DIDN’T HAVE ‘ADULTS’ TO TELL ME GOOD JOB AND TREAT ME LIKE I WAS SUCH A GREAT PERSON!!! I WAS A MONSTER, MADE TO DRAG KIDS TO HELL! I WAS AN ABOMINATION RIDICULED AND CUT APART TO BE BETTER SUITED FOR THE ROLE! And worst of fucking all, I WAS THE MOST LOYAL FUCKING HUNTER, AN UNWAVERING DEVOTEE TO THE ONE PERSON WHO I KNEW I SHOULDN’T HAVE TRUSTED!!!!”

“Catnap…” Dogday whispered, finally feeling like he could understand the feline, but he couldn’t move to show it, not that Catnap would let him. The cat’s glare all but threatened him to try moving towards him. Catnap wasn’t looking for sympathy, he wasn’t looking for understanding from anyone. All that was happening now was a lonely, broken toy, bleeding his heart dry for the first time in their life and he wasn’t letting anyone get in the way of it.

“You want to know why I kept you alive Dogday!? Want to know the reason I couldn’t bring myself to kill you no matter how much you hated me, no matter how much you pissed me off!?” The cat asked hysterically, a smile painted on his tear drenched face. “Because even if it wasn’t sincere, even if you kept me at arm’s length, you tried to show me the light inside the factory! You were my sun, a glimpse at freedom I was so desperate to taste. I knew it wasn’t fair to you, I knew you’d hate me with every fiber of your being, but I didn’t care! You were the only thing left that kept me grounded, that reminded me that I wasn’t a mindless monster chasing after lives for the fuck of it…Whenever I saw you, whether you were rebellious or listless, I was reminded that I was chasing after freedom…I was chasing after that taste of real sunlight at the end of everything…As long as you were there, I could bear the weight of the world, I could bear any sin, suffer through anything, just as long as I had the sun by my side to keep me sane…”

The lucid smile on Catnap’s face showed exactly how much he was telling the truth. How he still held that childlike mentality in chasing after a forgotten dream, one he knew he could never attain, but hoped for each and every day, working towards it like a goal. But once the dream was over, his face returned to that familiar empty face, suffocating the room with killing intent once again. 

“Only for that fake to tell me I’m a monster of my own design. ” he spat, locking eyes with the dog. “ I can handle you hating me, I’d rather you did to be honest because I know I deserve to be hated. I don’t care if you can’t trust me farther than you can throw me, because I know you have no reason to. But the ONE thing I won’t take, the ONE! FUCKING! DISGRACE! I will NEVER let you get away with, is calling ME a monster by my own choice. I know I’m a monster, that truth will never be changed or erased, but don’t try avoiding responsibility for this Dogday, because you’re just as much to blame for the monster I became in my eyes. You and every scientist, every adult that knew what I was suffering through and I will NEVER forgive that.” 

With those words, Catnap’s killing intent, his expression, even his body language, simply gave out. Like a switch, the cat simply turned everything he was experiencing off, whether that be to save himself or everyone else, he was cutting himself off from going any further. Standing to his feet and pocketing his hands, the cat slowly made his way to the door behind Dogday, either feigning ignorance off or flat out ignoring that canine’s existence.

“I’m taking a walk for now to cool off. Bobby, you should probably check on him and heal him up, because I was rather irritated…Sorry about that by the way.” Catnap wouldn’t turn to face them, but the noticeably trembling of his shoulders at least gave an indication he was calming down. Even if he was right next to him, the feline felt so far from Dogday. He wanted to reach out to him, tell Catnap something, anything to make up for the guilt filling his heart, but the cat was apologizing to him first, even though it wasn’t his fault.

“Wait, wha-?”

“Sure, I’ll do that,” Bobby responded, cutting off Dogday while wiping her tears.

“H-hold on, Catna-” Picky started, trying to stop Catnap from leaving

“We’ll continue the questioning later, if I’m not back in 30 minutes, just send Crafty to get me. I can at least behave well enough to do today’s treatment.”

“We wouldn’t worry about-” Hoppy tried to say, emphasis on tried.

“Spare me the worthless pity and sympathy, please,” Catnap said, looking back with a single tear remaining on his otherwise neutral and tired face. “This is just the weight of my actions, nothing more. I told you at the start not to get attached to any of my answers, because at the end of the day, you’re nothing but strangers I know the names of. So act like it, take your treatment, and get the hell out. The sooner we’re out of each other’s lives, the better it is….for everyone.”

With those words, the cat left the room, gently closing the door behind him, leaving the weight of his words to sink in for them. Although their expectations were high, for a lot of reasons, things were far heavier than initially anticipated. New revelations, fresh facts and memories re-visited and finally the answer to their biggest question about the feline; why’d he do it? Now that they got what they wanted, they weren’t even sure the truth of the matter is for better or worse. The cat was just as much a victim as they were, even more if they look at what hand the cat was dealt. He may not have said it, but if Dogday was to blame, that meant that all of them, every member of the Smiling Critters, were to blame for how things turned out. The question for them now, was where do they proceed from there, or rather, how do they proceed from there.

“Well, as enlightening as it was… that was less than ideal,” Bubba stated, still a bit hung up on ‘aiding’ in Catnap’s restrictions. Whether inadvertent or otherwise, he was a main interference in the cat’s attempt to ‘save himself,’ and even if Catnap didn’t blame any of them, that couldn’t have been an easy pill to swallow. Even harder for someone like Bobby, who prided on being the most emotional empathetic, couldn’t seem to stop her silent tears.

“I should’ve done more for him…I should’ve tried to understand him better…” Bobby cried, weakly trying to stop her tears as she wiped them away as quickly as they flowed..

“Bobs, I don’t think it would’ve made much difference. Catnap said it himself, we weren’t exactly…open to him ourselves, even Dogday kept him at a distance. If our leader couldn’t even get him to open up, probably couldn’t have gotten anyone to.”

“But Hoppy-!”

“Think about it this way Bobby, if Catnap hadn’t just unpacked all that, can you really say you’d feel as guilty as you do to have tried harder?”

Of course Bobby would’ve, but that hinged on one simple fact; if she realized what she reported wasn’t an accident, but an attempt. She knows how scary the cat seemed from the first day and she was unnerved to talk to him, yet she knows that she’d give everything she could to help someone she knew was hurting. That’s probably why it hurt so much to her, because she had the biggest ticket to find her courage and she wasted it. Hoppy knew that the biting of her lip was her accepting the reality, but not wanting to accept the truth. She pulled the bear into a comforting hug, letting her cry all her regrets of the past. While she wasn’t crying herself, she felt the weight of those tears carry her guilt too. It wasn’t fair at all, but even if she knows it’s wrong, she couldn’t cry now, not when she denied Catnap that right for so long and even tried hurting him for it.

“Now I feel like a bigger bird brain for being jealous of him for being in the upper area. You couldn’t drag me up there for that reason, but he was willing to do it readily.” Kickin muttered, staring at his reflection in the tea, not recognizing the super cool chicken he felt he was.

“It’s not like we meant any harm, we did care in our own way…” Picky tried reasoning, looking for any silver lining in this, despite not having much practice in it.

“Did we really?”

Dogday stole everyone’s attention with those words, propping himself up against the wall with his eyes trained to the ground. Bobby could see the dog was still shook up and even his cheek looking bright from Catnap’s punch, yet he wasn’t even trying to hold off the pain or swelling anymore. She immediately rushed to his side, holding one hand over her medal while the other gently held the injury with a soft,warm glow. If not for the dog stopping himself, she was sure the hand he raised was going to try and stop her efforts, not that he’d succeed anyway. The pain was the dog’s punishment in his eyes, for mouthing off when he didn’t know anything. Even if the perpetrator was justified, he still wanted the dog healed, despite having every right to let Dogday wallow in the pain. Catnap truly wasn’t the monster he remembered, not the beast of Playcare he made him out to be, yet here he was berating him.

“Maybe you guys did try for him in your own ways and if he opened his eyes to look, maybe he would’ve seen that, but me?” The canine sighed as a weak smile crept onto his face, the sadness in his eyes drowning the floor he looked at. “I don’t think I have any right to be mad anymore…”

“Dogday, don’t say that,” Crafty retorted, only to be waved off by the dog’s expression.

“Crafty, he was right…I didn’t even try that hard to make him feel welcome and was scared enough to keep him at a distance. I’m the leader, so my example made it all too easy for him to feel like there was no place for him. He was isolated by us, by me, and the prototype capitalized on it…”

“You also heard him say that the scientists and adults didn’t help in that regard either, you can’t shoulder the blame yourself Dogday.”

“Don’t worry, I know I’m not the only one to blame,” he said, covering the left side of his face with the corresponding hand. “I’m just the biggest one. I had so… so many chances, I had the biggest opportunity to be the friend he needed and I was too afraid to. All I could do…was try enough to appease them, to make sure none of us got in trouble…I left him to suffer all alone and then had the nerve to tell him I could’ve been his friend…some leader I am, maybe I’m the real monster…”

“No!’ Crafty shouted, taking everyone by surprise. She was never really outspoken unless it was something involving art, so hearing her raising her voice like this was a shock.

“Crafty?”

“No Kickin, listen to me right now. I may not be the best when it comes to using my words or expressing how I feel properly in any meaningful way besides art, but I’m going to make sure you guys understand what I have to say here.”

Taking a deep breath as she closed her eyes, she transformed into her magical form with brush in hand and began doing what she did best, paint. She didn’t care how much magic she wasted, it didn’t matter in the slightest to her. She’d gladly forego her health to make sure her friends were ok, doing whatever she could to lift their spirits. Each stroke of the brush was like a gentle caress across the air as her magic poured out into the colors. Before long, she signed off the air as a large crack formed in front of her, breaking into an incredibly detailed but lightly saturated scene. It was their apartment, the one they worked so hard together to make sure they could all share. 

“Look,” she asked, pointing out the incredibly drawn current versions of Catnap and herself. They were moving like a storyboard animation, each scene showing a major pose, while ignoring needless details in-between. What wasn’t ignored were the voices of both Catnap and Crafty as they conversed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“ The only thing I’m getting out of this trip is confirmation that I will NEVER deal with landlords and their bullshit,” Catnap muttered on entry.

“Sorry Catnap, I didn’t expect him to be here today since he supposedly frequents the casino a few blocks away,” Crafty replied, looking a little embarrassed at the behavior she hadn’t seen in ages.

“Whatever,” he replied, tossing her 4 cubes of colors matching all the female critters. “I doubt I need to tell you which is for who, but those are magic storage cubes, just geometries enchanted with circles and runes to act as temporary storage. They aren’t that big, so grab ESSENTIALS first before trying to fill them up.”

“Catnap….do you know what you’ve just given me?”

“Yes, I can see the coins going through your head as you tremble holding them. Don’t worry about it because they’re temporary anyway, no real use outside of moving. Quit burning time and get to stepping.”

“But, wait, why do I have more?”

Catnap gave her a deadpan look as he gestured to her, then to the room she shared with the girls. If it was not incredibly obvious enough, he even motioned himself and directed it to the boy’s room with a sarcastic smile. Upon realizing she got caught lacking, the blushing unicorn quickly escorted herself inside the girl’s room and began packing up things. By the time she had finished, she guessed about 20 minutes had passed since they started. Once she safely pocketed the cubes, she crept across to the boy’s room, but stopped at the door after hearing the light sound of snoring. Cracking open the door slightly, she peeked in to see Catnap curled on the couch, cradling the remaining 3 cubes dearly with light tear streaks shining on his fur.

“I’m sorry…I’m sorry…I’m sorry….” he quietly murmured.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Crafty, what…what is this?” Hoppy asked, looking around, trying to touch stuff, only to realize while it ‘looked’ 3D, it was still 2D pictures.

“This is what happened when we went to the apartment, the memory of it,” she responded, painting a new scene, this time of Picky’s workplace.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“While I understand what you’re trying to say, I’m not sure I can believe you,” the head chef on duty told Crafty, not really trying to be rude, but still coming off harsh.

“Please sir, I promise you she just needs a  few days.”

“Looks, you seem nice and earnest, but I can’t just believe some random schmuck on the street claiming to be a friend of one of our star chefs. For all I know, this is just a ruse and you’ve pilfered her or worse, so the bottom line is, if I don’t see her tomorrow, I’m informing the authorities and holding you 2 liable.”

“But-”

“Sure, do just that,” Catnap interrupted, shocking Crafty and looking annoyed at the chef. “When we tell her that a fellow chef, doing a pitiful job at keeping a clean kitchen, told us he could not be fucked to care about her wellbeing or follow sanitation properly, I’m sure she’ll be more than thrilled.”

“You- How fucking dare you!”

Ignoring the chef, Catnap brushed past him and merely swiped one finger over a supposedly ‘washed’ pot and the fact that vegetable smelling oil could be seen shining the cat’s fur was more than obvious. The chef looked baffled and even checked himself, in complete disbelief at just how much oil was coming off. In fact, the chef checked EVERY dish and found not one of them was cleaned, enraging him.

“Someone used magic in my fucking kitchen to skip out on work!?” he screamed, looking at other workers with eyes that could kill, the victims suddenly too occupied to respond.

“Wow, even Picky wouldn’t allow such loose principles to fly in her kitchen, I mean she’d practically do every job in here herself if it came down to it, even checking behind her so called co-worker. I suppose I could sell out the lazy wimp for you, if you’ll hear us out,” Catnap offered with a sly grin

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Picky was both touched and seeking death with the scene, because when she got back to her job, she was doing a kitchen bootcamp until every worker there could run every station with their eyes sewn shut. The touching part, however, was how Catnap defended her principles of proper kitchen usage, safety, and maintenance, something she always tried teaching the kids who were interested in using it or going to it for snacks. The fact that Catnap or all people understood those better than the people she worked with, really resonated with her to the point she was tearing up with pride.

“And here too” Crafty said, painting the library Bubba worked at.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I understand, I’ll be sure to hold down the fort until he gets better, but I wish it could’ve come at a better time,” the librarian stated, looking a little worried. “You see, Bubba was also in charge of organizing the archives this week and he promised to get it done in time for an important sponsor to come by.”

“Just lead me to the archives,” Catnap groaned with an annoyed look, much to the surprise of Crafty and shock of the librarian. “Hurry up, if I know that elephant, he’ll worry himself to a migraine if he realizes it isn’t done properly while he’s off.”

“I..I’m truly thankful for the offer, but it’s a careful and meticulous process and since we’re not funded quite well-”

Catnap merely clutched Bubba’s cube in his pocket to release the lemongrass scented light-blue gas that crept past the librarian. Realizing what he was attempting, Crafty grabbed onto his tail, changing the smoke to realize a white gas that freely mixed with the former gas, to make a bunch of mini-bubbas that were all 1/10 the original size, but efficiently started organizing the archives. Safe to say, the librarian was shocked, gratuitous, and even tried offering them a job before they politely declined, or at least Crafty was polite.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“While I’m thankful Catnap took care of that for me, I would not worry myself into a migraine!” Bubba shouted in embarrassment, before a violently coughing Hoppy and exaggerated sneezing Kickin followed up.

“Sorry, sorry, allergies,” Kickin stated, rubbing under the nostrils of his beak.

“Neither of you have allergies?”

“Yeah we do, we’re allergic to, hear me out, BULLSHIT!” Hoppy shouted, catching the cookie the flustered elephant threw at her, in her mouth.

While Bubba was busy trying to catch them and regain what was left of his lost pride, Crafty went through the workplaces of Bobby, Hoppy, and Kickin. Bobby couldn’t stop the happy tears that came when Catnap defended how much she loved helping people and unless it was for good reason, she wouldn’t flake out on doing what she could in volunteering. Hoppy was more annoyed at her boss for implying anyone else on the team could do delivery faster than she could, something the cat not only pointed out, but of all her co-workers, she’s the only one who has yet to complete a delivery that had any problem what-so-ever and was probably the sole reason the service was still up. Even Crafty didn’t know how Catnap not only convinced the shop owner to excuse Kickin’s immediate medical emergency, but even count it as PTO and she was standing right next to him. When she got to Dogday’s job, she was hesitant, but knew this was something he had to see.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Please tell Dogday to take all the time he needs,” a rather old woman said, looking far more exhausted than she should at her age.

“Is everything okay with you though? You look extremely unrested,” Crafty asked worried about the woman. Dogday said she was a tough old bird, but even the dead can be exhausted.

“Oh don’t worry about me, I’m still spry after all and someone has to hold the fort down when our only waiter is on medical.”

The way she staggered out of her chair to grab a broom, but still managed to recover enough to start sweeping, spoke volumes at how much the dog was doing to hold this place down for her. Even though the shop wasn’t that busy today, she kept working hard nonetheless like she didn’t have a choice in the matter. It was pretty disheartening to watch, something Catnap clearly shared the sentiments as Crafty, as he snatched the broom from the woman with a frown.

“With all due respect, you need to rest ma’am,” the cat stated with no room for argument as he started sweeping the place for her, grumbling about having to bathe the dust off himself for hours after he finished. The cat was obviously well practiced, because the rate he was cleaning was almost as fast as Dogday’s.

“W-wait, I can’t ask you to do this.”

“Good, because I didn’t expect you to, now take a seat and rest before I get more annoyed.”

“Please don’t mind him, he’s nicer than he acts, I promise,” Crafty immediately told the woman before helping her sit down.

“Oh, but I can’t pay him properly if he does the cleaning, I’m not too well off magically speaking and with the low flow of customers, I’ll run a deficit if I have to compensate. Please just ask your friend to sto-”

Interrupting the old woman was said cat, slamming a medium sack on the table in front of her, before continuing to sweep with a familiar frown on his face. Confused, the lady opened the sack to reveal nothing but high-density luna coins, the sight of it actually blowing her eyes open, along with her wig right off. She wasn’t sure if she was seeing things properly and re-wiped her glasses until they actually looked see through, but what she saw didn’t change, the comically large bag of coins was real.

“The reason you’re working so hard and only hiring Dogday, maybe one other person at times,  is because you and your husband are lostling, right?” he asked without looking back.

“Lostling?”

“It means inept here sweetie,” the woman solemnly answered, her hands gripping her dress tightly in her lap. “People who have no level of magic that can be called livable really. We struggle day-to-day to make ends meet because we couldn’t afford to be without magic for too long, even here. Funny, how even in death, the elderly have to work hard to make the most of every day.”

“That’s why you can’t close the shop right now, because you need Dogday to keep you guys in the black.”

“You're a very astute young man, but I’m afraid I can’t accept this. I’ve got nothing worth this much mana and-”

“It’s not a gift, but an apology from the dog,” Catnap instantly fibs without blinking. “He knows how much he’s needed and couldn’t bear the thought of either of you running yourself ragged while he’s recovering, so he sends that as a kickback until he gets back. He also said that if you can’t accept it as is, then consider it compensation for all the days he may miss recovering. He wants to come back and see you 2 as healthy and smiling as always.”

Hearing his words made the woman shed silent tears, hearing how Dogday cared about them so much. It was too much for her to hold it in, so she simply let them flow, showing gratitude as she took the offered handkerchief from Crafty to clean her face. The cat had his back to them, but a small smile did reach his face before the drawing ended.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dogday was in shock as the scene ended, a warm feeling of relief and comfort washing over the guilt and grief. He didn’t even tell his friends about the circumstances of his job, nevermind about the owners. He willingly took the lower pay compared to other places, partly because it was still more than what he was making at the time, but because they were elderly lostlings and once he found out their position, he was unwilling to leave them be. Giving his best everyday, doing everything he could to make sure their little cafe could run without a worry. Catnap even knew he’d be worried about while he was recovering and made sure they wouldn’t have to work themselves ragged while he was away.

“Catnap may not think of us as anything close to his heart, but he knows a lot more about us than we think. If he truly hated us like that, he wouldn’t go through all this for us.” she stated before de-transforming, a gentle smile on her face. “He might actually kill me though for showing these, but I don’t remember promising him I wouldn’t tell you all, so…”

“Wait, wait wait wait, that Catnap didn’t make you promise not to tell us?” Bubba asked, looking more lost than Kickin, because that is a massive oversight he would not believe came from Catnap, especially as of late.

“I believe he implied to not say anything, but I don’t think he was worried any of you would believe me anyway. Guess he doesn’t know what all I can do with my magic, so oh well.”

“Well we ALL know for sure that Catnap is at least a good person,” Picky stated. “So it’s safe to say we can trust him to take care of us while we’re recuperating, right~?”

She was looking directly at Dogday with that statement, a sly grin on the pig’s face, much to the dog’s discomfort. Seeing what she was doing, suddenly the rest of the critters decided to join in, with Hoppy being the next addition.

“That’s a good point. Even though he did kill us, he isn’t exactly doing anything to distrust him so far. Maybe we should be good little critters and listen to him for a while.” Hoppy was snacking on more cookies, being sure to say these things in Dogday’s direction. The dog knew what they were after and it’s not that he was opposed to it per say, but he really wants to retain at least a crumb of his pride as the leader.

“I’m down for that, especially since he somehow got me a way to keep my job,” Kickin joined in, kicking his feet up on the table.

“Yeah, that makes him a miracle worker, not trustworthy,” Hoppy said, dodging a flying cookie.

“I’d really love to stay as long as possible to learn all I can from him. He obviously gathered plenty of information about this place and his information network may come in handy once we’re out of his fur,” Bubba ‘thought’ aloud. His friends really knew him well, because this level of targeting was just mean. Bobby took the canine’s hands in her own with a bright smile, a gesture the dog knew meant she was about to put the nail in the coffin.

“Think about it this way Dogday, even if you didn’t feel guilty, Catnap has done a lot more for us than we have for him. So why not show our appreciation while we can, so we can at least leave him with a happy memory with us instead.”

“...You guys don’t need me to say anything you know,” Dogday murmured, not looking any of them in the eyes.

“Oh we know, but it’s not official until the leader says it, right~?(H)”

“Come on leader (K)”

“We gotta follow our leader , you know?(P)

“It’ll be easier for you if you just say it leader (Bub)”

“No running away leader (Cra)”

“I know you can do it as our leader , Dogday!(Bob)”

“...Fine” Dogday relented with a sigh. “As weird as it is to hear myself say this, I think we owe Catnap a BIG apology…mainly from me, for our behavior and we should do our best to not be a bother to him. If possible, maybe we could…you know…try to be friends, this time around…”

“Probably not likely though,” Bubba added, adjusting his glasses. “From my calculations, we have a better chance of Kickin holding a job than Catnap willingly being friends with us.”

“LITERALLY just existing as the cool bird I am and you coming at me like this?”

“Realistically, I’d say Crafty is the only one of us that even has the slightest chance and even she says he keeps a modest distance from her.”

“Oh, well, I could at least try. After all, he did promise to help me get over my complex with using red and did say he’d show me how to better beat a playground, even solo one.”

“Pressing the PAUSE button and hitting rewind, he’s doing what now?” Hoppy asked, looking absolutely floored with jealousy. Sure, it wasn’t like she was in any position to join, nor has she shown the cat would have ANY reason to even feel safe offering that. But the fact that he offered Crafty such a golden ticket just felt like a jab for some reason, despite better reasoning suggesting otherwise. Even Kickin felt the sting of it and she was pretty sure Bubba’s eyes blacked out as he stared at the unicorn like she just robbed him.

“Catnap told me since I’m in a weird place with my magic, he’d be my ‘psuedo-guide’ for using magic.” Crafty realized immediately that she was sharing far too much comfortably, because the glints in the eyes of Kickin, Hoppy, and especially Bubba, were all vicious. “Um…you-you know, I think I’m gonna go get him…it’s been plenty of ti-”

If not for her noticing the twitch of Bubba’s ears, she could’ve sworn she would’ve been caught, but if nothing else, she learned something about reacting to danger from Catnap and immediately made the door right as they lunged at her. She barely got a chance to open it, before she found herself hit in the face with a ball of water. Seeing the newly soaked unicorn caused the remaining critters to look and see the commotion, only to find a child-sized Dogday frowning at them with his medal being held by a larger silver band rather than a simple collar.

“You guys need to get out of our home sweet home, now!” the mini-day yelled. It was then that Dogday remembered the light thumping from the 3rd floor and Catnap’s words in the ground rules. Then it struck him, what could possibly be the ‘not that big’ critters that’d possibly be in Catnap’s care and seeing was believing after all. His fur bristled, but more of unease rather than fear, after all, he’d know who, or rather, what that mini dogday was, better than anyone.

“You wouldn’t happen to be one of the mini smiling critters, would you?” Dogday deadpanned, opening eyes from everyone else.

“Nuh-uh! I’m not ‘one’ of the minis…well, I am, but I’m not just one of the minis!” the small dog said, striking a pose. “I’m Puppyday, leader of the mini critters and-”

With one blink, his right eye went from a single white pupil to a plethora of them, while his open mouth smile laughed and hissed in many octaves and intervals at the regular crew, like an army of kids coming from inside the black void all at once.

“I, alone, am every mini Dogday from Playtime Co”

Chapter Text

“ I’m every mini Dogday from Playtime Co ”

You could hear a pin drop at that statement, because they went from having one question to hundreds at that introduction. It was one thing to have been simply ‘one’ of the minis, but this one was all of them, at once. A personality built by many minds, many souls, all acting in one body, sounded like something straight from a sci-fi movie, but not everyone was in the same shock as the collective. If Bubba was seen holding and hugging Puppyday with tears in his eyes, the child themself looking like they needed a fresh reboot, no you didn’t.

“Um…what’s going on?” Puppyday asked, his confusion so apparent, you’d swear his pupils were actual question marks, which they actually were for like 2 seconds.

“May I study you?” Bubba asked with such tearful sincerity, you could swear they were part of a romcom. If not for Picky dragging the elephant away by his large ears, him wincing terribly, there was fear of it ending with an irritrated cat’s intervention.

“Please don’t mind him…Puppyday?”

“It’s no problem Bobby,” the pup responded, giving Dogday’s signature smile. Seeing it on a smaller version of him with such an innocent tone was such a surprise attack that Bobby managed to die standing with hearts in her eyes. “And I don’t mind Bubba, but only if you leave our home sweet home! If you promise that, then I’ll even show you how I split apart!”

“Say le-!”

Picky’s bonk of justice immediately had the elephant from excitement to external pain management, holding his head with extreme urgency. Puppyday pouted slightly, but shrugged it off as if he didn’t expect much from it, something Dogday hated to a fault. This was definitely the ‘mini’ Dogday because even with that sweet face, he was just as mischievous as the minis were in the past and that obviously hasn’t changed.

“Um, Puppyday, why exactly do we need to leave?” Crafty asked, leaning down to the pup with evident surprise.

“Oh, before that!” Puppyday immediately took an apologetic bow facing them. “I wanted to say I’m so so sorry for how my previous ‘selves’ and my friends behaved back at the factory. I know an apology isn’t enough to make it up to any of you, so if there’s anything I can do to help you, feel free to call on me as the leader of the ‘Giggling Critters!”

“““Giggling Critters?””” Dogday, Crafty and Picky all asked at the same time.

“It’s because we decided that as minis, we don’t really have the right to call ourselves the ‘Mini Smiling Critters,’ given our past, so we decided to consider ourselves something like supporting characters to the Smiling Critters. It was my idea! But that’s besides the point, you guys need to leave our home! You’re gonna bully Catnap!”

The accusation hit most of them like a bullet, but with how guilty Dogday felt, it was like a barrel of buckshot to the gut, by the mini him no less. Regardless if his actions were built upon by Catnap’s transgressions towards him in their previous lives and a large amount of misunderstanding, being called out by what was virtually the younger you, was rubbing acid into the wound. Since Bobby was still out of commission, Kickin took it upon himself to give the dog a consoling pat on the back.

“Look at it this way dude, he isn’t saying anything you haven’t been telling yourself,” Kickin said with a thumbs up, not realizing he was just putting the nail in the coffin for the poor canine.

“That’s right! So you all need to leave right now!”

“But Puppyday, Catnap told us to come here because he’s trying to help us,” Crafty informed the canine, crouching down to his level with a kind smile.

“Nu-uh! Catnap told us we should avoid you guys so you can be happy here, so he’d never invite you guys,” Puppyday stated with a smug smile, which they would’ve found news worthy if not for the recent incident. “You can’t trick me!”

“But it’s true, because Catnap helped us from people who tried to take away our happiness.” At that bit of information, Puppyday’s eyes widened while the smile on his face only slightly faltered. “You know Catnap wants us to find our own happiness, so if we were in trouble of losing it, he’d likely help us, right?”

“M…m-maybe…”

“Not to mention, a lot of us are hurt and recovering.” Crafty then motioned to Dogday, pointing at the larger canine’s medal. “Even our leader was hurt badly enough that his soul gem broke.”

“What!?” At this, Puppyday zipped right in front of Dogday, fretting with slight tears in his eyes with worry. He was unsure whether Dogday was hurting, or if he needed some magic, or even had hidden injuries. Luckily, like minds think alike, so Dogday’s big reassuring head pats brought the puppy back to earth, but only for him to retreat back, conflicted at the action. “Ok…what does that have to do with Catnap?”

At that, Dogday opened his mouth wide with a silent ‘Ahh’, the enchantment very obvious on his floppy tongue for Puppyday to see, the puppy practically turning white in shock. He’s been with the cat more than long enough to recognize his enchantment work at a glance. Seeing one this obvious, was no better confirmation of their story and showing the large feline’s involvement.

“As you can see, Catnap is treating Dogday so he can feel better, he’s also helping the rest of us by healing their injured gems, so we can’t exactly leave yet. I hope you can understand.”

“...Alright, I understand,” Puppyday weakly muttered, looking to the floor with sad eyes. “Sorry I was rude to you guys, I didn’t know you were patients…”

Bobby had recently revived and the sight of a sad Puppyday was enough for her to spring into action. It was literally 3 seconds of sad Puppyday, before the warm and embracing hug of Bobby had him trapped in her arms, nuzzling his cheek. It was weird and sudden to the pup, who was unused to this behavior from someone her size, but promptly returned the hug and nuzzle with equal power with the signature Dogday smile, creating such a beautiful sight.

“He can return Bobby’s hug!?” Kickin asked, removing his shades to make sure he was seeing correctly. “There’s no doubt anymore, only a Dogday could survive returning hugs at her strength.”

“What’s that supposed to mean!?” Dogday questioned incredulously.

“Boss, Bobby’s hugs could break concrete when she’s giving it her all. She is single-handedly the reason Bubba has never needed a chiropractor since we’ve been here. You are the ONLY one of us who has survived returning her hugs.”

“It’s true,” Bubba confessed with a neutral expression. “Last time she fixed my back pain, someone 2 floors down heard the crack and was afraid of the building’s structural integrity.”

“It’s because her mini’s hugs are like this all the time. She’s really affectionate like that and it’s my job to make sure she doesn’t break someone’s spine!”

At their words, Bobby started getting self-conscious about how dangerous her hugging actually was. She knew her grip strength was a bit on the strong side, but she didn’t think it was that strong. Did her friends truly get hurt by her hugs all the time? Was she really that excited when she hugs? Her thoughts were practically written on her face, because Puppyday immediately saw she was freaking out.

“Don’t worry, me and the other mini’s love Bobbi’s hugs, so I’m sure your friends love yours!”

“...So cute…’It was thanks to Hoppy’s quick reaction time, that Bobby managed to collapse in her arms, rather than fall to the floor. Puppyday landed on the floor with a childish grin at her reaction, very obvious that he was aware of what he was doing. Dogday can’t say he approved of his methods, but the puppy was being him in a way and it’s not like he had any say as to how the mini chooses to act.

“Anyway, if you guys are staying here, then you have to pass initiation!”

“ I can’t tell if he’s playing or actually a child, ” Picky whispered, unsure of how to react to Puppyday’s extensive changes in personality.

“ I think it’s safe to assume the main personality is child-like in nature with influence of the other mini’s perspectives. I’m really hoping to see how he’s like that, ” Bubba confided in the pig discreetly. In the one day with Catnap, Bubba managed to get a slew of questions answered, while simultaneously being invigorated by finding more. Catnap might have a hard time getting rid of the elephant as time goes on, so the slim hope they can be friends before all the treatment was complete was starting to be the pachyderm’s drive.

“HEY!” the puppy yelled, trying to get both Picky’s and Bubba’s attention with a pout. “You guys need to listen, otherwise you won’t be initiated!”

“Listen munchkin, I don’t think any of us are gonna entertain anything like an ‘initiation,’ when we’re already here. Plus Catnap is annoyed at us as it is, so getting involved in whatever you have planned might make it worse.” Kickin found it cute at first, but was bored of the puppy’s demands and honestly, was ready to go back to his room rather than finish the questions, especially since his got answered already.

“You won’t…?”

“Nope”

“OK!” Puppyday said with a bright smile, before his dead eyes stared directly at the chicken as that familiar unnerving smile painted his face. “ Then you can play with ‘ us’ instead. ”

Without much warning, an orange liquid started pouring out of the child’s mouth like a waterfall, forming a puddle in front of them. As soon as it hit the floor, the strange liquid began bubbling and churning with various shapes trying to form in the puddle. Before long, liquid twitching masses of mini Dogday’s could be seen trying to crawl out and towards the chicken.

“ Let’s play tag . We’re it~ ”

Needless to say, Kicken was so mentally checked out from fright that the bird shut down. Picky managed to lose her appetite at the sight for various reasons she would never want to think about again. Hoppy was stuck between laughing or shivering at Kicken’s predicament, because while she knew it was not the time, she wanted to know why he’d put himself in that position. Crafty immediately jumped onto the table, completely unnerved, terrified, and avoiding the reality of something that cute being so demonic. Dogday was internally facepalming, because of course the mini him that was an amalgam of those things could spit them out like a summoning ritual. Bubba was the only one that could be seen so enamored by the sight that his eyes were sparkling with intrigue and interest, not too bothered that his poultry friend was about to experience the second coming of Playcare trauma.

“Hey Puppyday, why don’t we do that initiation thing you talked about, “Dogday nervously suggested, patting the head of current eldritch horror. “Wouldn’t it be more fun to do a game with all us critters instead of just Kickin?”

“ You promise? ” he asked, his face snapping around like an owl’s, despite the 90-degree broken neck that sent shivers down Dogday’s spine.

“Of course, little buddy. I’m the big version of you, so you know I keep my promises.”

With Dogday’s seal of approval, the liquid army of minis and the pool that was spawning them started to burn away like ashes against the wind. The former horror show of a mini Dogday, looked back to normal as his cute and safe normal with a spark of excitement in his eyes, his tail wagging rapidly. Seeing was definitely believing, because if they didn’t just witness the scene, not one of the Smiling Critters would’ve safely believed that some’one’, something , that looks so put together was the collective spawns of satan incarnate.

“But does Catnap know what you’re up to?” Dogday pressed, casually trying to ignore the neon warning signs going off internally.

“He…has an idea… i think .”

“Wha-”

“ANYWAY, come on!” Puppyday insisted, pulling on Dogday’s arm, the larger dog somewhat uneasy about the nostalgia he felt from this. Just like the kids from playcare, only now he was a glass cannon. “The first part of initiation is to meet the others!”

“Um…will they also…you know, um, do that trick?” Crafty asked, slowly coming down from the table, still unsure if this is anywhere within the same area code of a good idea.

“They can do it, but unless you upset them, they shouldn’t. We’re not allowed to do it by Catnap because it apparently isn’t safe!”

“...And you just casually did it to the beak over here?” Hoppy asked, pointing to a bird getting fanned by a confused Bobby. At her words, the realization struck Puppyday like lightning and small beads of sweat popped up around his otherwise excited face. It didn’t take long before the excitement was replaced with anxiety, the formerly energetic dog adopting a more passive and nervous smile.

“Um…can you not tell Catnap? He worries about us enough, I don’t want to be a bother too…”

“You ask that after giving me nightmare fuel!?”

“I’m sorry…” Puppyday whines, giving Kickin the sad puppy eyes with a few forming tears. Hoppy decided to save herself the struggle and cover Bobby’s eyes before she could even see it, although the same could not be said for Crafty, who went down less than a second later with bliss written on her face. Even Kickin had to remove the arrow that went through his heart at the sight, feeling somewhat guilty for making the pup sad. “Please don’t tell him…”

“ Ugh …fine, I won’t tell him.”

“Yay! Thank you so much Big bro Kickin!” Upon hearing his title, the chicken in question had a hard time keeping a straight face, taking the title with plenty of pride. Quickly, the puppy was pulling on Dogday’s wrist, leading the large dog out of the dining room, somewhat ignorant of the pace of his friends, whom he was trying to ‘initiate,’ but his larger version had a small curiosity he wanted answered anyway.

“You did that on purpose didn’t you?”

“...just a little~”

Shamelessly sticking his tongue out with a grin, the puppy continued to guide the larger dog, who was facepalming for Kickin, past the foyer and down a hall. He debated whether or not he should remind the bird exactly the type of characters the minis were, but considering this pup was obviously good at using his cuteness as a weapon, he figured it probably wouldn’t help all that much. If nothing else, he was surprised at how sly the childlike horror show was, but seeing as how Catnap was probably their biggest teacher since coming here, it would not surprise him if the cat had some hand in the pup’s proficiency with it. They arrived at a pair of double doors before Puppyday had him wait outside while he went inside and judging by the unintelligible whispers, he guessed who was in there. The dog decided to just lean against the wall next to the door while he waited, trying to see if he could feel his soul gem forming any better, but all he got was silence.

“Guess I can’t power through this like I could re-learning to walk again…”

“Thank goodness for that.” Dogday looked over to see an annoyed Bubba with his arms crossed as he squinted at the dog. “I thought Catnap told you to lay off trying to force anything because you could make the treatment longer.”

“Don’t worry Bubba, I promise I wasn’t doing anything to ruin my treatment. I just wanted to see if I could feel my new gem, nothing more.”

“I don’t believe you, but I’ll at least let it slide since it doesn’t feel like you tried anything.”

“Am I really so hard to trust?”

“Dogday, we LIVED through you doing something similar when you got here. Like, all of us have a copy of the receipt,” Hoppy called out, poking the spaniel's chest, who suspiciously couldn’t look any of them in the eye.

“I’m guessing Puppyday is behind the door?” Crafty asked nervously, still not quite comfortable with Puppyday’s unique ability.

“Him and I’m assuming the others.”

“Oh, should we be worried?”

“Don’t think so, but I wouldn’t worry too much Bobby. From what I can hear, it seems like mini me is trying to coax the bunch into being okay with us here…or trying to find the quickest way to drive us out.”

“Yeah, I really ~ think I’d be better off getting Catnap. It’s not that I don’t trust them to not be dangerous, but something tells me whatever it is we’re doing would be better under his supervision.”

“Oh come on Crafty, they’re just kids right now, we can handle some kid’s game better than most. We have plenty of experience in that area after all.” Hoppy gave off an air of confidence, fitting giving the face value of the situation, but there’s a blaring and obvious hole in her logic that she’s overlooking. That flaw was made apparent when the doors slowly creaked open to a pitch black room with a small amount of red smoke seeping out. The creepy factor was already a 10, because Dogday just said Puppyday went in the room and this was their welcome and anyone with a single brain cell would never enter a room like that.

“ Enter ,” Puppy ordered, the familiar sound of many different voices going off at once. 

“...This is the single scariest thing I will ever remember, second only to Playtime co,” Kickin confessed, mentally checked out.

“Can we like…not? Just an idea,” Hoppy offered, shivering slightly through a forced confidence.

“I’m glad I brought comfort food,” Picky stated, already inhaling a platter of cookies. “Let’s do this!”

She fearlessly marched through the door with nonchalant Dogday and Bobby close behind. Bubba finished determining the gas must be the work of mini Catnap given the effectiveness and adaptability trait was not nearly as prevalent and swiftly walked in, not noticing how much Crafty was clinging to the elephant, clenching her medal to transform in case of emergency. Seeing their friends enter without or with very little fear felt like a subtle callout to the chaotic duo, usually the most fearless and crazy for action of the group and neither of them were taking it lying down. Psyching each other up, they rushed in, just to cling to each other with silent screams as the doors slammed shut behind them.

“ Welcome Smiling Critters, to your final resting place, ” a chorus of voices said, the overarching young girl’s voice being a clear indicator it wasn’t Puppyday talking to them. With that as a cue, candles started lighting up around them one by one, illuminating the large critters in an obvious circle. Before long, small wisp of fire began to burn in the air, trailing up and down like spirits in a dance all around them. The small lights in a dark contrast were beautiful, yet terrifying, especially when the flame started to burn a pale blue-ish green one at a time. Once every flame shared the same eerie color, they abruptly stopped.

“Ring around the rosie, a pocketful of posies~”

“Ashes~ Ashes~, we all fall down~”

“Ring around the rosie, a pocketful of posies~”

“Ashes~ Ashes~, we all fall down~”

Each iteration was sung by a different voice hidden in the black of the room. What made this discomforting was how the ring of floating flames were swaying to the song as they slowly encircled the Smiling Critters, as if trying to close in, but being just out of reach. With each new voice, a new set of flames burned, swaying to the song and trying to come closer, only being able to reach the first ring of candle flames. To say they were fearful was mild for the crew, but a complete understatement for 3 of them, because they were ready to run so fast, they’d break the sound barrier to get out. Soon, even the iconic red gas took on the eerie color, filling the area around the circle of candles until the formerly black void was an unnerving green sea of ghostly flames.

“Oh no, this is an absolute no,” Crafty murmured, trying her best to stop the tremors in her body because there was NOTHING good about this. If she wasn’t clinging to Bubba as her pillar to hide behind, there was 100% chance of her breaking down.

“Ring around the rosie, a pocketful of posies~”

“Ashes~ Ashes~, we all fall down~”

“Ring around the rosie, a pocketful of posies~”

“Ashes~ Ashes~, we all fall down~”

Soon enough, the voices became many, the sounds of many children were singing in joy and playfulness. Hearing the joy, the happiness, the enjoyment at the song, but for the Smiling Critters, it was anything but positivity. It was hypnotic in a way, pulling them in, lulling them into a crude sense of understanding. This song was not being sung happily, not at all. What really solidified it was the hand slamming on the outer ring from one of the pale flames, like a child touching a glass pane, before it grew into the melted face of a child, a stitched smile on their charred face. 

““OH MY FUCKING GOD!”” screamed the chaotic duo as they were closest when it slammed the ‘wall.’

“This is…concerning,” Bubba said, trying to keep sane from all of this, although internally he wasn’t much better off.

“Concerning? CONCERNING! THIS IS TERRIFYING!” Picky retorted, stress eating whatever was left in her hands.

Without fail, more hands and similar faces of different children were slamming into the wall, trying their hardest to get in. The circle was a safety, a place to escape the pain and sorrow, because in the flames, all they could do was smile and sing.

“Ring around the poppy, the pain will never stop me~”

“Ashes~ Ashes~, we all fell down~”

“Ring around the poppy, the pain will never stop me~”

“Ashes~ Ashes~, we all fell down~”

All it took was one oddly colored hand to slowly reach into the circle, before Kickin and Hoppy screamed and promptly ran into the sea of ghostly flames, with a loud crash being heard a second later.

“And we win!” Puppyday’s excited voice rang out. Without much more warning, the lights turned on in the room, revealing it was a rather empty ballroom with some tables and furniture covered by some rather dusty cloth. The Smiling Critter were in a circle of candles, but nothing else in the room could be anywhere close to the things they saw. Kickin and Hoppy were both seeing stars on the ground in front of double doors with 2 very noticeable dents in it.

“So were you scared? Were you really scared? Tell me it was scary!” Puppyday excitedly asked in front of them, hopping from one foot to the next. 

“Y-yeah bud, it was really scar-”

“Don’t undercut him Dogday, that was demonic!” Crafty all but screamed, cutting off the large canine. “I felt like we were in some sort of ritual where the spirit of those poor kids were coming from wherever they were to blame us! I was so scared that I wanted to transform, but felt that it wouldn’t be right to fight kids who were suffering! Who came up with that!?!?

“Um…me?” an unknown voice timidly answered. From under one of the tables, a familiar blue mane could be seen crawling out of it, before stood the mini Crafty, holding her hooves together. “S-sorry, Puppyday said ‘ something intimidating, ’ b-b-but I didn’t think it was that bad…”

“It was creative, that’s for sure,” Bubba clarified, adjusting his glasses. “But caused more trauma by fear rather than a show of intimidation than anything.”

“But fear is intimidation?” Puppyday questioned, looking confused by Bubba’s explanation. “Catnap says that to intimidate someone, you show them an overwhelming sense of fear that they don’t dare cross you!”

This came as a surprise to no one who knew the cat, so the critters were more than aware that the cat was confirmed as the teacher and caregiver for the Giggling Critters. It would explain a lot of the mindset of Puppyday and even his attitude towards them, although judging by the young dog’s original demand, it was safe to say the importance of Catnap to them was something a little more intimate. Whether it was the feline’s intention or not, more than likely the latter, the little ones viewed him more than favorably in their situation.

“While that isn’t wrong, there’s a pretty thin line between intimidation and oppression, the latter of which fits more to what you were trying to do,” Bubba informed them, crouched in front of both minis.

“Oppression?” Puppyday questioned, tilting his head at the elephant.

“He means, using fear and/or force to have someone’s obedience,” a higher pitched version of Bubba’s voice said from a chair, their big ears flopping out from the sides of it. “Kind of the way we followed Catnap back at Playtime.”

“Oh, thanks Bubbi!”

“It’s nice you finally remember you’re not the only one a part of this prank.” The small pachyderm seemed a little tilted by the canine, much more sassy than Bubba by initial impressions. “Did you have any plans of introducing us at some point today, or were we just playing hide n’ seek until whenever?”

“Hehe, sorry. I should probably do that, yeah.” Puppyday rubbed the back of his embarrassed, before standing before the Smiling Critters with a salute. “I’m Puppyday, leader of the mini Smiling Critters, now called the Giggling Critters, and I’m the collective form of all the mini Dogday toys. You can just view ‘me’ as mini Dogday!”

“This here, is Craftlecorn,” Puppy said, presenting the mini Crafty to them, the mini in question appearing slightly nervous, toying with her glasses. “The mini Craftycorn of the Giggling Critters and the collection of all the mini Crafty toys. She’s the most creative of our group, but unlike Crafty, she finds more enjoyment in creativity using words more than crafts and visuals. We usually call her Craft, short for Craftle, because it sounds better.”

“H-hello…Sorry about the scare again. I had just read a story about ‘Will O’ Wisps’ and thought it’d be a good way to intimidate…” Craft nervously confessed, trying to appear smaller than she was.

“Will O’ Wisps?”

“I believe she’s referring to the stories of floating bright blue flames of spiritual nature.I believe the lore is Scottish in origin and the wisps would be said to have been seen in forests and marshes. They’re supposed to represent past lives and usually guide those that discover them,” Bubba informed a lost Bobby, but Craft’s immediate interest in Bubba’s explanation took everyone’s attention.

“Yeah! When I read about them, I couldn’t help but want to see them, but I’ve never been good at drawing so I could never see them in anything but my imagination until now. I don’t think we did them the same way, but it was really pretty!”

Crafty could see the excitement on the mini her and immediately got an idea. Pulling out a sketchbook, she spent literal seconds sketching something based on both Bubba’s description and the scare she went through, before showing it to Craft. Once the little horse saw the sketch, you could swear her pupils lit up with excitement when she looked back to Crafty.

“This looks so pretty! This is just like it was described in the book!”

“If you’d like, I could color it for you?” Crafty offered shyly.

“ Really!? ” In her excitement, Craft unintentionally proved she was still a horror show of mini Crafty’s, her excited pupils splitting like scrambling ants as every voice apart of her rang out.

“S-sure…Just uh, please don’t do that.”

Craft instantly hugged the larger unicorn tightly, feeling so elated that she can finally get a picture of the story. Crafty felt a little uneasy about the little unicorn hugging her, but the sight of an innocent child being so interested in art felt nostalgic, reminding her of the good times at playcare, before everything. It was a good feeling, one she never thought she’d feel again.

“Good for you Craft! I’m glad for you. Next, we have the smartest of our group,” Puppyday started, running over and motioning to the child-sized elephant sitting with an aloof expression at the canine in question. “Bubbi Bullaphant, the mini Bubba Bubbaphant of the Giggling Critters and collective of all the mini Bubba toys. Like I said before, he’s the smartest of us, so whenever we have a question and don’t want to bother Catnap, we ask him! He’s a lot like Bubba, but he seems a lot more annoyed when we ask him questions…But it’s alright, because although he seems mean about it, he really enjoys when we need his help, though he’ll probably try to kill you if you call him ‘Bubbi’ instead of Bubs, don’t know why.”

“Because, you excitable dog, Bubbi makes me sound like a girl,” the elephant stated, getting down from his chair and walking over with a rather large book in his hand. “As introduced, I am indeed ‘ Bubs ’ Bullaphant and I’d appreciate it if you'd just call me like that over my normal name.”

“Oh wow, aside from the obvious threat, he’s actually a lot like you Bubba,” Bobby commented, looking at how both Bubs and Bubba were practically matching in both how they speak and more noticeably, their outfits. It was like watching an older and younger brother wearing matching fits for an outing, aside from the similar metal bands holding the bull’s medal, and in Bobby’s eyes, the cutest sight ever, and she wishes she could afford a camera to have been prepared for such an occasion.

“Speaks a lot like you did at first too, until you mellowed out,” Picky added, polishing off the last of her snacks.

““What’s wrong with how I speak/used to speak?”” Both pachyderm asked, equally as disrespected as the other, if not self-conscious about it. Upon the realization, both looked at each other briefly, tilted their heads in the same direction, before Bubba noticed the book in Bubs’ hands.

“Isn’t this a book on high school physics?”

“Y-yeah, so what!?” Bubs retorted brusquely, clutching it protectively. “Just because I’m young, doesn’t mean I can’t learn it!”

“No, I didn’t mean it like that. I was rather impressed you’re so proactive in learning. Especially if I take your physical appearance as your actual age.”

“R-really, you mean it?” Bubs asked, looking somewhat surprised, but remaining cautious with Bubba. “Well…someone has to know these things. Catnap can’t teach us everything a-and I’m the next best thing…but, it isn’t progressing as smoothly as I’d like…”

“Physics was a more confusing subject to master, so if you’d like, I could help you?”

“No way! I’m supposed to be the smart one, I can’t just receive help like that!”

“Then let’s make it an exchange of information; I'll tell you about physics and any other subjects your progress has stalled on while you give me information about your case,” Bubba offered with a smile. “I’m incredibly interested in your circumstance as one personality being built on by so many minds at once. If I can answer that curiosity, I, as a fellow smart one, don’t mind getting ‘help’ in getting that information.”

Bubs eyes shined with excitement for a moment, before the bull narrowed his eyes at the elephant. Bubba was trying to coax him into a deal rather than a one-sided exchange, one where he stands to benefit greatly over the information he could provide. Not only that, he was even dropping a subtle hint to the young pachyderm that just because he was smart, he could still receive help, ticking every box in the psychology book for trying to convince a kid of something. It felt slightly maddening that the larger him would use such tactics, underestimating his mini version’s understanding, but when he looked at Bubba, he saw something different. The look in Bubba’s eyes all but confirmed the exchange was simply a front to protect a child’s pride, just a show so Bubs didn’t have to admit to needing help and the elephant was fine regardless of the outcome. It was a gentle kindness, something Bubs only felt from one other person since he came to be, but he was also practical and a one-sided deal would never do.

“Very well, I suppose while you stay here, I wouldn’t mind answering a question or 2 if your information proves valuable.” He didn’t show it outright, but despite the attitude he was giving, it was incredibly obvious how happy Bubs was with the offer. 

“Bubs has a study buddy? Great, now we get to hear even MORE of his lessons,” a girl’s voice came from above everyone complained.

“Don’t be like, just think of all the sleep we can get now,” a male voice responded from the same location.

“ If you 2 fall asleep one more time, I’m making sure you sleep thinking about lessons! ” Bubs shouted, his voice overtaken by the familiar many voices at once of every soul in his conscription, although unlike everyone else, the eye that split his pupils were not as plentiful. Upon realizing his slip up, Bubs immediately shook his head back to normal, adjusting his glasses back as he looked to the ceiling. “Also! Catnap told you both countless times to stop playing up there! Get down already and introduce yourselves!”

Although it wasn’t entirely necessary given the attitudes provided, because only 2 of the Smiling Critters were that chaotic, the immediate response of the 2 showed they were at least aware it was for the best to comply to some degree. Landing right in front of the passed out older critters, were the mini versions of each one respectively, both giving cheeky smiles and expressions that just said ‘disrespect.’

“You 2 came down, I’m glad!”

“You could’ve told us to come down if you really wanted, don’t pretend like you weren’t going to gloss over us leader.”

“What?~ I would never~” Puppyday responded, looking away with a sly grin at the rabbit’s accusation. “But since you’re here, I’ll go ahead with them! Say hello to-”

“Save it Puppy, we can introduce ourselves. No disrespect, but your intro doesn’t do either of us enough justice,” the bird child declared, sticking his tongue out at the puppy, who bit back whatever he was going to say with a visible vein on his forehead despite the friendly smile. “I’ll let you take center stage bunny, save the star for the finale.”

“You say that knowing we got called out when there’s 3 more critters left, but thanks anyway!” the rabbit pointed out with a grin, shutting the chick out and to the side. “What’s up silvers, it's the gold place girl herself, Hop Hoppityscotch, the 10x better version of and collection of every mini Hoppy Hopscotch of the Giggling Critters. Aside from my awesomeness, I’ve got the athletic skill to back up my confidence. Don’t worry about being scared, because with me around, nothing is getting my friends. Wish I could say the same about the dusty bigger body, but I guess old age finally got to her.”

“Who are you calling dusty?!” Hoppy yelled, popping up and awake out of nowhere.

“Oh, grandma woke up. Didn’t mean any disrespect, but the elderly really need their rest. Don’t worry, I’ll handle the skill.”

“You talking a lot for someone I could run laps against in my sleep.”

“Is that a bet?”

“A bet would mean you have something to offer, but since your pride ain’t worth much, don’t know if there’s anything you could put on the table.”

“ Then put your magic where your mouth is! ”

“Bet! We’ll do 50 laps around the building first thing tomorrow!”

“ While juggling and blindfolded, otherwise it’s way too easy! ”

“I like the way you think, mini munch!”

Well she’s definitely more cocky than her Smiling counterpart, to an extreme at that. It was surprising Catnap puts up with that kind of personality, because he didn’t take insubordination and disrespect. Dogday could tell his mini alone was ready to catch a case at her antics, but if there was absolutely anything the canine could give the pup credit for as being the mini him, it was the patience and self-control of a saint. Bubs on the other hand, was actively being held back by Bubba as the young bull’s face may have looked cold, but the death it was threatening was like a burning volcano.

“Anyway, not that the less than stellar performance is out of the way, now you get to meet little ol’ me,~” the chick cut in, with a cutesy voice as he hugged a large star-shaped plush. “Nice to meet you all, it’s the cutest star to ever shine, Kickie Chickie, collaboration of every mini Kickin Chicken, and the far cuter, much softer, and way more lovable Kickin of the Giggling Critters~”

“...who the hell is that?” Picky asked, making sure she wasn’t seeing things.

“No, like actually who is that? That can’t be the smaller Kickin. I mean, he gives off that air of representing his visuals and he does have that air of pride, but…” Bobby added, trying not to be rude, but even her facial expression was lost in transit in the introduction.

“He is definitely cute, yet he doesn’t give Kickin…”

“Maybe the personalities that make him up are rather strong?”

“Eh?” Kickie asked, taken back by the lukewarm reception. While he noticed the compliments about being cute, they did not overshadow the fact that he wasn’t even considered the mini version of Kickin. This should’ve been a good thing considering they were trying to be their own group, but for some reason, the chick felt slightly hurt by that information. Puppyday could see his unease and wasted no time comforting the bird with some encouraging pats on the back, something appreciated, but still hurt the pride.

Don’t worry Kickie, we still think you’re the mini Kickin,” Puppyday offered in consolation.

“ But I am! ” the bird cried, actually ‘falling to pieces,’ behind this.

“““Ah, there it is,””” Picky, Bobby, and Crafty immediately said, finally seeing the Kickin Chicken he was. What threw them off was how much more confident Kickie was than Kickin, because the bird they knew, while he showed off his confidence, had more insecurity and lack of self-awareness than a middle schooler. Seeing Kickie like this over disbelief was more than eye-opening.

“You know, it is pretty bad that we needed to see a kid be insecure about himself to see the resemblance,” Dogday stated, comforting the tearful chick.

“Name any personality trait that represents Kickin better and I’ll have Bubba name any number divided by 0.”

“Picky, the disrespect aside, Kickin has some traits aside from insecurity. I mean, if we think about the many ways he can get himself hurt in the name of fun makes him like a daredevil. He can also be a bit of an attention seeker with how much he likes showing off.”

“LITERALLY EXISTING HERE!” Kickin yelled upon waking up, cutting the elephant off from whatever else he planned on adding. “Like come on! I have a lot of awesome traits about my personality! Like how my coolness shines the brightest in every room for one.”

“...That’s who I’m supposed to be?” Kickie asked, not seeing the similarity.

However, everyone else in the room could see them like two sides of the same coin. Both canines were actually biting back laughter, both bunnies were on the floor laughing, both pachyderms were actively trying not to slam their faces into the nearest table, and both ponies were stifling giggles. Bobby could not defend the bird, with anything that’d make sense, while Picky was debating on making snacks just to get through this headache, but neither of them had much time to react to what happened next. A sweet scent reached Picky’s snout faster than Dogday’s, prompting the pig to turn on a dime to see her mini holding up a platter of various sweet buns, snacking on one herself. Bobby felt a surprise hug at her waste, making her look down to see her mini snuggling her as tightly as possible.

“You 2 took long enough! Was worried you got hurt in the kitchen!” Puppyday exclaimed, wagging his tail as he ran up to the platter.

“Well Catnap hid the honey again, so I spent some time looking for it.” the piglet explained. “Pinky by the way, Pinky Piglet.”

“Best way to make steak,” Picky asked without missing a beat.

“Lightly season with salt and pepper, medium rare to medium well, pan grilled, served with potatoes and a dab of steak sauce if preferred.”

“So this is my sister-” Picky immediately added, pulling her close as she ate a honey bun. “And my su chef, so when WE enter the kitchen, it is on sight if you try entering. She’s the mini me through and through, there will be no contest.”

The moment of silence that followed was as good an agreement to her as any, not that anyone was planning to argue about it. In fact, Puppyday was going to try and introduce Bobby’s mini, but seeing the incredibly fierce snuggle session between both bears steered him clear from trying. Even if it was another Bobby, the impression of that mutual hug could bend steel girders with the sounds it was giving off. In fact, Puppy decided to hide behind Dogday for protection from the scene, as the thought of being caught in that hug was terrifying enough to make him break out in cold sweat. Dogday wasn’t exactly any braver in this circumstance, but someone had to get either bear’s attention.

“Um, Bobby?”

“Oh, yes Dogday!” Bobby responds, remembering where they are and turning to him while both her and her mini squeeze the life out of each other.

“She needs to…you know?”

“OH! So sorry, she’s just so good at hugs that I got lost for a moment.”

“It’s okay, you give great hugs too!”

Somehow the vigor was renewed and the hug only intensified as both bears giggled from the display of affection, the sight being so endearing while the sounds from it sounded like a construction site. He knew the risks were high, but if he didn’t directly intervene, they’d hug  each other for the rest of the day. Dogday waltzed on over and tried to pull them apart, only to feel as though they were literally welded together. Even Puppy tried to help by pulling on the mini, but those 2 were so densely glued together, there was a slight chance of a black hole forming.

“Do we even need an introduction for her, it’s a safe bet that she’s, without a shadow of doubt, Bobby’s mini,” Crafty asked, impressed by the sight.

“Well I at least tell you her name, it’s-”

“I’m Bobbi Cubhug, or accurately, Bobbi Bearcub. I love giving out hugs!”

“And you give them so affectionately! I’m so happy you’re my mini!”

“Really?”

“Truly!”

Once again, the laws of science were being redefined as the hug somehow got stronger and the force was enough that actual solids were falling from between them. The amount of force in their hug was enough to condense the air between them, something that was short-circuiting both pachyderms with disbelief. Yes, they understood they were dead, and yes, they understood not every rule of physical science will be adhered to, but the fact that individuals not even actively using magic, could exert enough physical force in opposition to solidify gas, was far too much.

“It’s official, when it comes to hugs, Bobby has no rival. I won’t even try to compete against her,” Hoppy stated, taking a step away from them.

“I actually thought about doing that once with Bobbi and got talked out of it by Puppyday, I now owe you a thank you and the biggest sorry possible for doubting you,” Hop said, trembling at the sounds from behind Hoppy. She remembered her attitude at the pup for even suggesting she couldn’t compete, but this wake up call revealed EXACTLY why she couldn’t compare.

“Apology accepted! With that, you’ve been introduced to the Giggling Critters, so consider yourself initiated!”

“What?” Dogday asked in response, confused by Puppyday’s statement. “Wait, that’s only 7 of you, what about-”

“If you mean mini Catnap, he…doesn’t really consider himself…a Giggling Critter,” the pup revealed, his tail drooping as he talked about the supposed 8th member. “He still plays with us and everything, but he doesn’t feel it’s fair to Catnap.”

“I may not know him as well as I should, but I don’t think Catnap strikes me as someone who’d care about that kind of thing. Don’t tell me he’s keeping him from you guys?”

“No no! Catnap would rather his mini be close to us if anything, something we kept trying to tell him…he’s just, personally, self-conscious about how Catnap would feel. Catnap doesn’t show it, but he’s lonely a lot, so his mini stays close to him more than us…more than me…”

“Ooh~ Leader’s getting jealous again!” Hop teased, taking delight in how quickly the sad look on the pup’s face switched to annoyance. “Am I wrong? Your ‘bestie’ is avoiding you, even though you 2 aren’t exactly closer than the rest of us.”

“But I’m the Dogday to his Catnap! I’m supposed to be his bestie, but how can I do that if he won’t let me!?” The puppy whined, his face looking longingly to his tightly gripped hands. “I just want to be friends…”

Hearing the puppy talk about it, Dogday could remember a time back in the playcare where he was told about Catnap for the first time and how he was so bright-eyed at the prospect. He could finally follow the cartoon Dogday and have a best friend, one who could be what he lacked, someone who he could hopefully relax and be himself in front of. When he got just that, he was too scared to go through with it and instead of making a best friend, he helped make a monster. The irony wasn’t lost on him, seeing this situation here, because maybe if he had been a little braver back then, maybe things would’ve turned out a little differently. Looking at the puppy, he felt a sense of sympathy for the little guy, barely noticing an odd coloring just under his left ear.

“Um, I think we should get back to the dining room now,” Crafty suggested. “It’s been a little longer than 30 minutes and I’m sure Catnap wants to finish his little questioning-”

“I FORGOT!” Bubba screamed, bolting out of the room.

“Hey, you promised to help- I MEAN, exchange information!” Bubs called out, chasing after the large elephant.

“-thing? How desperate is Bubba for answers?”

“Too desperate,” Picky answered, walking out with Bobby and their minis in tow.

“If Catnap is gonna be there, you might meet his mini,” Hop added, jumping on Hoppy’s back.

“I’m not a giant fan of him, He’s cuter than me,” Kickie says with a pout. Clenching his star plush.

“You’re not exactly that cute anyway, so it's fine.”

“You are dead hare! ”

“If you can catch us, Hiyah!”

Normally, Hoppy wouldn’t be so accommodating to such a request, but given the nature of whom she was egging on, she found it worth overlooking and zipping out of the room too fast for the chick to even try. Kickie looked ready to blow his top, before the familiar feathers of his large counterpart put him on his shoulders.

“You’re not about to let a rabbit outshine you, are you?”

“Hmph! No way!”

“That’s the chicken way! Let’s show them the real stars!” Kickin exclaimed, running out to chase the rabbit pair. Whatever the initiation was intended for, it at least made the minis somewhat closer to the larger body counterparts. Leaving only the canine and unicorn pairs in the room, a comfortable silence was all that accompanied them. Crafty was ready to leave, but seeing a forlorn Dogday changed her direction.

“Dogday? Aren’t you ready to go?”

“Oh, yeah. Sorry Crafty, just…thinking about how I messed up I guess.”

“Dogday, we’ve been over this-”

“I know Crafty! I just-”

Crafty immediately walked over to the dog and chopped his head with her sketchbook, although lightly, the unintentional harm was there as he held his head. He looked up to see the unicorn’s gentle smile as she held out her hoof to him. She never was one with words, but she could show what she wanted to say better than anyone. With a sigh, Dogday accepted her hoof as she pulled him to his feet, ready to follow her out, before Craft’s scream of terror stole their attention.

“PUPPYDAY!”

When they turned around, they could see the canine mini struggling as an oddly familiar mechanical black set of limbs, from a fragile and barely formed gate, were dragging the crying child inside. Dogday didn’t hesitate to bolt to the pup and pull him against the strange plaything that appeared from nowhere. Once he got closer, he could get a better glance at the puppy’s neck and see exactly why it was discolored. The puppy had a plaything’s invitation hidden under the strange metal band, perfectly hidden away from anyone to interfere. It used the pup at one point, hiding and waiting until the perfect opportunity to claim it’s mark and it decided now was the best possible moment.This plaything wasn’t letting go without a fight, it wanted Puppyday with a vengeance and Dogday could do nothing to stop it, but that didn’t mean it was getting its way for free.

“CRAFTY! GET CATNAP NOW!” Dogday commanded with leadership, fighting tooth and nail to wrestle puppy from the limbs as the playground’s gate slowly started forming fully. “I DON’T CARE WHAT HE HAS TO SAY, JUST TELL HIM WE NEED HELP! TELL HIM PUPPYDAY GOT MARKED WITH AN INVITATION!”

The gate formed fully before either side could accomplish their goal, but while that freed Puppyday from the limbs, it didn’t free either dog from the pull of the fully formed gate. Dogday knew this plaything had an agenda, but even if he couldn’t use magic, he would never leave a child on their own, he’d never abandon anyone ever again. Holding Puppyday close, they were dragged into the gate with a flash of blinding light.

“Dogday!” Crafty called, staring right at the gate, an unfamiliar hive shaped drawing depicting the entrance, but the most unnerving part of it, the part that shrank Crafty’s pupil and had Craft clinging to the girl shivering, was the eerie silhouette that covered it like a scar. A single mechanical hand reaching out at them, wanting to drag all to be a part of it.

Chapter Text

“ I just want to be friends…”

Would you like some help?

“Help? How can you help?”

I can show you an easy way to be friends with someone, with anyone you want.

“Really? How? How can I get Kitty to be my friend?”

Will you accept a deal if I tell you?

“Sure! Anything to be his friend!”

I’m glad, little puppy. Come here, I’ll show you exactly how.

“Come here? What do you mean? Where do I need to go?”

To a place where no one will disturb the lesson of course. A place safe and isolated from prying eyes, mean adults, and even cruel people that might hurt us.

“Hurt us?”

That’s right, US!!!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With a jolt, Dogday sat up way too quickly for his health, feeling slightly dizzy from how fast he got upright. Once the dizzy spell passed, he took in his surroundings to see he was in a some sort of factory that was composite with something akin to a beehive. The honeycomb overtaking parts of the walls and the surroundings that were encased in honey weren’t all too shocking, but the images, both children drawings and what appeared to be exaggerated memories, were enough to take the canine’s breath away to say the least. Depictions of a large figure terrifying a small collective of yellow and black blobs, the shivering first-person view of something large prowling by, a sad frowny face crying behind a giant mechanical hand. It didn’t take much for Dogday to piece together what kind of plaything this was.

“So I guess Bubba was right about that theory after all. Only a Catbee from playtime co could have these kinds of things lingering in their head.” Bubba had always said it wasn’t far-fetched to say ‘playthings’ weren’t just some random spawns in this afterlife, for several reasons, but this proof was a little too on the nose about confirming it. “Puppyday? Where are you?”

Remembering how he ended up in this playground, the large dog looked around for the little horror show with his face. Luckily he was mostly undisturbed wherever he landed, but he doesn’t know how the pup wasn’t with him with how tightly he held onto him. Looking around, he could see the glint of something nearby and upon closer inspection, he saw the remains of the now shattered metal band all the Giggling Critters wore to hold their medals. Looking at the pieces, he could see the pup’s very medal, free of both color and shine, looking closer to a mosaic piece than a solid medal, the lines only appearing more like cracks on glass.

“Puppy?” Dogday asked, before seeing a familiar orange liquid leading in drops and spills out and away from his little isolated space. He was fearful of getting spotted, or worse, caught by anything in the playground without a means of defending himself, but leaving Puppyday on his own terrified him more. Taking a deep breath, the large canine began quietly, but swiftly following the trail. It was obvious by how much more the surroundings seemed to be covered in beeswax and honeycombs that he was more likely heading towards the center of the playground, but luckily it doesn’t look like there’s been enough time for familiars and accessories to spawn and roam.

Dogday couldn’t help but see the resemblance of Playtime Co everywhere in the playground. Most of the playgrounds he cleared he didn’t give much thought to, but when he did pay a bit of attention, he always remembered how much it related to the plaything that governed it. This playground showed just how much Catbee suffered at Playtime Co, how scared they were, what it did to them. It was heartbreaking to the dog, being shown just how blind he was to what was really happening around him and how helpless he was as a so-called ‘leader.’

Thankfully, it didn’t take long until a small whimpering raised the dog’s ears, but what make him unnerved was hearing a lot more than just Puppyday’s voice. Rushing to the source, he could see the spills getting larger and more frequent, to the point it was almost like a physical trail and what scared him the most was how it looked as though it was crawling after the whines, while simultaneously trying to run away from them. Once the larger dog arrived, he had to keep himself from throwing up, seeing the state of the poor Giggling Critter.

“It hurts…It hurts…Make it stop, please! ” The melted and almost liquid version of Puppyday cried, the forced smile of being a mini overshadowing the amount of tears he was spilling. “ We’re scared…we- I don’t-...we can’t take it anymore…someone kill me…please…”

Being nothing but upper body, the poor puppy was forcing himself to crawl with all his might towards somewhere, something, as more of his melted body was in between forming their own mini, or holding him back. Each paw crawl formed another puddle that seemed to drag more out of the already exhausted critter the more he pulled forward. Even to Dogday, he could hear so many voices, crying out different things at once. Was this what Puppyday heard? Was this what the giggling critters had to suffer through just to live? That level of madness was far too much to put on a child, on children, and now it was tearing him apart.

“I’Ll Be GoOD!”

”i’M sORrY!”

”IT’s ScAry hERe!”

“I wAnT tO gO hOmE!”

(“Catnap?”)

Beneath the plethora of cries and voices of pain, Dogday could hear that newly learned voice, the sound of the Puppyday that was made up of every voice crying out. 

(“It’s scary here Catnap, can we go home?”)

(“It’s…it’s really dark here. I want to see…everyone? I can’t remember…I can’t remember them!”)

(“Take us home Cat…Cat…Who was I-we calling to?”)

(“W-why can’t we remember? Who…who am I?”)

“Puppyday” Dogday called out gently, the terrifying mass formerly known as Puppyday, stopped immediately at that name, turning its broken neck head to face the large canine. It was beyond terrifying to see, a face so melted, so in pieces, forced to stare at a smile that looked like it’d eat him whole, yet Dogday didn’t falter as he walked closer. He was truly terrified, beyond himself with fear, but he could hear the broken cries of Puppyday underneath all that grief and tragedy. He made the mistake of letting someone’s looks push them to suffer once. He would never make that mistake ever again. “Your name…is Puppyday.”

“PuPpYdAy?”

(“Puppyday?”)

“That’s right little guy, you’re Puppyday. All of you.”

“YoU LIE!”

“DON’T LIE TO US!”

“THAT’S NOT OUR NAME!”

(“That name…I think…I remember it…”)

“It’s not a lie little guy, you told me yourself,” Dogday informed them, taking a knee right in front of the mass, holding up their mosaic sun medal to their empty, yet scattered eyes. “This is yours, right?”

“That’s mine!”

“Why do you have it?!”

“That belongs to me!”

(“It looks…different…it’s broken…am I broken?”)

“Yeah, it’s a little different from normal. But it’s not broken, You’re not broken.” Dogday held the medal up to it, showing that despite every line that looked to be cracking it, the shape was holding together just fine. Like it didn’t matter how many parts Puppyday had, because all of them made him Puppyday. “See, not broken.”

“But…”

“That’s…”

“I mean…”

(“I’m not?”)

“Nope, you’ve never been,” Dogday said, gently petting Puppyday’s head, feeling uncomfortable about the wet and squishy feeling, but seeing how calm the mass was getting from it, he powered through. “You’re fine, just the way you are Puppy.”

“I am?”

“I am?”

“I am?”

(“...Am I really okay? Am I really fine? Are we really fine this way?”)

The mass of Puppyday was much quieter now, the voices less panicked, the broken off minis calm and looking to Dogday, unsure what to make of him. Although this seemed good progress, the canine could feel the insecurity from every voice despite their unity. 

“We were the kids that were seen as worthless, the ones who never could get adopted.”

“We’d follow the rules, we’d study and do our best, but it was never enough.”

“We were told there’s always someone who’ll take care of us, but…”

(“No one…ever wants me, because no one wants something broken…”)

Dogday could understand why the child used that word, for a lot of reasons. They were toys first, so being broken meant you had no value, but Puppyday was more than that. He was many toys, so many different minds, so many bodies and pieces, forced into one. It wasn’t that he was broken, he just felt broken, like a puzzle of hundreds little pieces jammed together in hopes they fit. The canine couldn’t blame them, because it was a burden to shoulder no matter how held together you were. So many thoughts, so many feelings, so many regrets left to shoulder and no one to help you, but yourself. Dogday knew how he truly felt, so who was he as a leader, to ignore someone’s pain when he could solve it.

“Then can I have you? I’ll be the parent you never got and shower you with all the love you  were promised, that you want,” Dogday offered with a smile, Puppyday’s mass freezing in shock. “Well, I don’t know if I can be your parent, I don’t think I’m that responsible. But I can be your big brother.”

“Big…brother?”

(“Big…brother?”)

“Yeah. I’ll be there for you, be willing to guide you, even protect you from bullies and do whatever I can to show you I care about you.” Dogday gently grabbed under the mass’ arms and pulled it close, embracing Puppyday in a warm hug. Puppyday as a whole, felt the large canine’s embrace through every part of him like a storm. His presence, his hold, his heartbeat, they all were so comforting to the broken up pup that he couldn’t help but shed actual tears.

“But…we’re broken”

(“But…I’m broken”)

“Then let me fix you, I’ll put every piece of you together, one step at a time.”

“But, Catnap will be mad”

(“But, Catnap will be mad”)

“Yeah, he probably will, but I’ll accept it if it means keeping my promise.”

“But…you’ll…you’ll…”

(“You’ll leave us…leave me too”)

Dogday did a short chuckle, pulling back to look the tearful pup in the eyes. Even as the mess he was, Puppyday was still the same as any other kid, dreaming and wishing for love and attention. He didn’t want to be promised such a gift, only to have it taken away. But to Dogday, it wasn’t any kind of promise he would hand out lightly, nor was it something he’d let anyone take away.

“Leave you? Did you forget who I am? I’m Dogday, the leader of the Smiling Critters, just like how you’re the leader of the Giggling Critters. A true leader makes true his promises, so let me make one to you: as long as you want me to be it, as your big brother, I’ll never leave you alone. SO, can I be your big brother?”

Hearing that question, made Puppyday feel a strange warmth finally overtake him. It was different from the feeling he had with Catnap, something other than just feeling ‘safe’ somewhere. The way Dogday held him close, the comforting words he was telling him to calm down, it was like finding something that was lost for years on end, only to see it at the last moment you think about it. Before, he felt so cold, so split apart, like his mind was scattered and lost in different directions, like his heart was barely held together by tape and cheap glue. Now, everything felt so clear, so right, like this was somewhere he could truly belong.

“Are…you sure? ” Puppyday asked, the hesitation evident in his trembling demonic, but unified voice as he struggled to decide on returning the larger dog’s hug, tears threatening to spill. “ Will you really? Can we really be a family…?”

Dogday didn’t have any words to prove himself to Puppyday, because his actions always spoke louder. Affectionate nuzzles along with no sign of him giving up on the pup was all the confirmation the dog would give and by the calming of Puppyday’s breathing, of how much he gripped the larger dog’s shirt. Before he noticed, the pup’s medal, which formerly looked as though it was a touch away from falling apart, now shined with a new radiance. Under its light, Puppyday’s formerly deformed and melted upper body held a warm glow, before reforming and solidifying back to normal, his happiness evident by his wagging tail. Once the light faded, the medal was back around the puppy’s neck with a similar collar to Dogday, only unlike his, the puppy’s medal was engraved.

“Puppy, you’re back to normal!” Dogday exclaimed, holding the smaller him up with delight.

The pup was confused, before looking down and examining himself with a truly shocked expression. Jumping from Dogday’s arms to feel his body with disbelieving tears, the puppy looked to Dogday with true elation, before jumping at him with a large hug.

“I feel whole, Dogday! I feel like I’m just me now!” Puppyday announced as he nuzzled the large dog. “I finally…finally…feel like I’m truly Puppyday…Thank you, Dogday…”

“Nope, that’s not right!” Dogday said, stopping the young canine’s hug. “It’s not ‘Dogday’ anymore, It’s ‘Big Bro’ now, no?”

Hearing his words brought a sparkle to the pup’s eyes, the elation ever evident on his face. He wasted no time hugging the big dog as tightly as possible, that warm feeling coming strong as the hug was reciprocated. If he had to describe it, the feeling was finally not being afraid anymore, because he didn’t feel alone in this world anymore.

FoOOuUuUunnnd YoOouUUu~

An eerie voice called out, ringing in both dog’s heads, foreign to Dogday, but familiar to Puppyday, causing the younger of the 2 to tremble. With warning, the area around them started shifting quickly, as if they were being pulled rapidly towards the heart of the playground. Under a blinding flash, the canines found themselves in front of a rather large and grotesque queen bee sitting upon a childish throne. The cat's head appeared half eaten as honey dripped from the exposed cavity, its legs double, triple, or even quadruple jointed and twisted in disturbing ways, and its abdomen horribly large and disproportionate to the overall size, weak and visibly leaking with a sight of decay. But what stood out most of all, was the various metal and mechanical hands, claws, and armature that decorated it. Whether they focused on the hand gripping the head from inside the wounded cavity with 2 fingers acting as pseudo antennae, the many arms sprouting from the joints in the bee legs and thorax, the distinction of what this plaything was couldn’t be more clear to Dogday.

“It really is you, Catbee…” Dogday said, slowly standing to his feet with Puppyday in his arms. Even without being able to channel magic, the dog could feel the amount the plaything exuded just fine. What he felt could only be described as cold, desolate, the void of joy; it felt as though it was nothing but pure and unbridled pain. “What even…How did this even happen!?”

“It called me…”

“Huh?”

“The voice…” Puppyday whined, clinging to Dogday in desperation as he hid his face in the larger canine’s chest. “They called me here…they promised to help me…”

Dogday wasn’t too surprised given the fact the pup had the invitation on him, hidden meticulously at that, but the question was why. If what he knew about playthings was true, going after any of the Giggling Critters this meticulously made no sense. It would’ve made much more sense to lure them away from safety or even just go after them right out the gate. This was far too smart a plan, far too aware of the danger around that protects them. A plaything shouldn’t be able to act on that level of understanding, not without some kind of outside help or interference. 

“It called me like…like I…was a part of it.”

With Puppyday’s words, it suddenly made sense, a missing piece Dogday’s body couldn’t help but tremble at the realization of. He looked at the plaything, taking in every detail of its form, coming to the conclusion that should’ve been obvious at first glance, but one he wished he was better off not knowing. What terrified him the most, was how the plaything seemed to be staring back, watching and waiting, as if contemplating the dog’s actions and the slow drag of its half a face, into a cruel and sadistic smile.

“N-no…no way…” Dogday said, staring at the creature with despair filled eyes. “You…you can’t…when did you…How could this…”

You were many…many to eat at once…

“E-eat?...” Puppyday weakly questioned, trembling terrified in Dogday’s arms, trying to calm down with Dogday’s protective embrace, but that only made it worse.

You are now one…now whole…

Dogday could only try forcing his body back as slowly as possible, by no means in the state or shape to stop the shivers of fear that were consuming him. That voice, it wasn’t like Catbee’s, not in any natural sense. It was synthetic, artificial, a generated voice, simulated from Catbee, something only one toy in Playtime could ever do.

You’ll do…N i C e L y, P u P p Y…

Dropping all reason and acting purely on instinct, Dogday just turned tail and ran with Puppyday held tightly in his arms. He didn’t understand why, nor did he care, but this plaything wanted Puppyday badly enough to wait and bide time to circumvent Catnap. While he couldn’t fight back, it didn’t mean he had to sit still and let the plaything have its way, especially not to a kid.

You cannot leave!

With the command of the distorted voice, the playground’s beeswax moved on it’s orders to create walls to block Dogday’s escape. Despite the canine’s condition, he wasn’t the leader of the Smiling Critters just for show, as it’d take a lot more than sudden changes to stop him in his tracks. Keeping up with Hoppy required at least rookie levels of olympic athleticism and adding customer service as the only floor worker made quick thinking almost instant, so even if he wasn’t at 100%,  just creating short obstacles to stop him was a warm up. Using the door height walls to get off the ground, he hoped to at least ascend a bit out of the arena, but if nothing else, keeping Puppyday from it was a welcome result as well. At least, if the plaything was willing to allow that outcome.

Just as he looked close to reaching an exit, the wall and obstacles were created with honey and shapes that would obviously trap the dog if he landed in them. Cutting his losses, the dog tucked and rolled down the incline, protecting Puppyday’s head in the tumble, before continuing with a sprint. He could feel the lack of soul gem affecting his stamina now as he was winded far too soon compared to usual, but he never was one to listen when his body was shutting down.

“Dogday?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine! Just don’t let go, okay?!” Dogday replied frantically, trying to keep a smile on his face despite the obvious signs of going over his limit. “We’ll make it out of this, I’ll make sure of it!”

He wasn’t sure of it, Puppyday knew he wasn’t sure they’d get out of this, but he was trying his best to keep him from worrying. All the child could do was cling on the older dog like he was asked, doing whatever he can to not cause the larger dog any more trouble.

“LOOK OUT!” Puppday screamed, his call out narrowly being a beat too late for Dogday to jump out of the way of a sinister and metallic looking stinger.

The puppy…we must be one…he belongs…to us…

Similar stingers were fired about, near the first one, the original just beginning to twitch and wiggle in the waxy ground it was embedded in. Before long, the sac attached to it rippled and burst, with a honey coated cat torso with bee wings and stitched smile growing from the inside. The twitching head, honey pouring from the hollow eye sockets was unnerving, but the elongated double jointed arms, replaced with metallic prosthetics that looked eerily similar to the prototype, made their already spent mentality go into debt. It didn’t take much for the remaining stingers to follow suit, each familiar forcing themselves free from the waxy ground and flying after the canine duo. 

“Catnap! Now would be a perfectly good time to show up!” Dogday yelled to no one in particular, the toll of running turning into fatigue far more quickly than he anticipated. He narrowly avoided one of the stinger attempts at him, before getting enough of a second wind to make distance. Focused mostly on avoiding the new enemies, he failed to notice the new trap laid just for him, but by the time he did, it was far too late. A stinger came from the ground, stabbing through his ankle as soon as his paw hit the floor, taking him to the ground and releasing his grip on the poor pup that flew a bit away.

“Dogday!” Puppydayt cried out, getting up to run to him.

“DON’T MOVE!” he yelled in response, stopping the pup in his tracks. “You need to run Puppy, right now!”

“But-”

“Please puppy, I’ll be fine! But it can’t get you, that’s what it wants the most!” Dogday could hear the familiars close to him, but given there were no sounds with  intention of slowing down, it was obvious they didn’t want him. One barely got past, before he grabbed the stinger, ignoring the excruciating pull tugging his impaled ankle and used it to knock over the few that flew with it. “Go!”

Puppyday was scared, he really didn’t want to leave Dogday, but nodded along anyway and started running as fast as his little legs could carry him with the time he was bought. Seeing the little guy listen warmed Dogday’s heart, though it didn’t stop imminent sounds of the previously tunnel visioned familiars. Their buzzing around him already gave away they weren’t intending to let something like that happen again and with his ankle out of commission, there wasn’t much he could do to stop it. The flashing of memories, both current and his previous life, through his eyes more than gave away he was probably gonna die here, though he was pretty calm about this one. Maybe it was the fact this would be his second death that made him numb to the fear, maybe it was because he was losing his life saving someone else’s this time, he wasn’t sure, not like it would change anything. He couldn’t say he was very regretful, though if he had to pick just one:

“I wish…I could tell him sorry in the end…”

With that, Dogday closed his eyes with a smile, accepting the impending impalement, but what came was the deafening howls of gunfire and the smell of spent gunpowder and burning lavender. Opening his eyes, he could see the unamused face of a transformed Catnap looking down at him and the freshly used black revolver in his hands. Looking forward, he could see the viscera of the former familiars scattered about, their stingers in pieces with black impact splotches in the ground below them.

“C-Catnap…”

“You can save your apologies for the birds, damn mutt,” Catnap stated, the annoyance heavy in his tone as he set the dog down in an area at the edge of the arena. “Who gave you permission to die under my care a second time? You’ll get healed first, then when you’re out of my hair, you’ll be allowed to get yourself killed.”

“ Pfft , if you didn’t take so long, I wouldn’t have thought about it, pussycat.” Although he was aware he should be more gratuitous,Dogday couldn’t help but retort with the same energy the cat gave him. Looking at the cat’s aloof expression, it looks as though he picked the better option, especially given his prior sleight against him. 

“Dogday!” “DOGDAY!”

Looking over, Dogday could see Bobby rushing over to him with Puppyday in her arms, the remnants of her magic wearing off the tearful pup. Once they were close, the mini him wasted no time jumping at the dog, hugging him for dear life, muttering apologies by the dozen as the tears flowed. Bobby, after seeing the hole in Dogday’s ankle, was also expending a great bit of magic to heal the dog, looking more distressed than the child who nearly saw him die.

“Sorry Bobby, guess I can’t stop getting hurt, huh?” Although he was trying to joke, the tearful glare on the bear’s face more than stopped the canine short that he probably shouldn’t make it a habit or at least leave the comic relief to Kickin and Hoppy. “S-sorry…”

“You get a pass this time because of the circumstances, but if this keeps happening, I’m going with Bubba’s suggestion of actually keeping you on a leash!” 

Dogday only gave a nod of understanding as he rubbed the head of the distressed kid in his arms. Even Catnap looked like he was contemplating the suggestion, but if Dogday was thankful the cat looked to shrug it off, he would never say. Said cat crouched near the dog, getting the puppy’s attention before gently blowing some of his iconic gas in his face, before releasing a stream of a lavender version of it.

“Cat..na…”

“You did good holding on Puppy, but now let your guardian handle things. When you wake up, everything will be just fine.” Unable to resist the gas, the mini Dogday fell asleep in his larger version’s arms, a more relaxed expression on his face than anyone would expect given the situation. Seeing the kid looking out peacefully forced a small smile on the cat’s face, before he quickly adopted a listless expression as he stood up and walked towards the plaything. He forgot for a moment they were still inside a playground, the arena of the plaything at that, but when Dogday looked at the monster that was formerly Catbee, he saw something he can’t quite believe even seeing for himself.

Y-you…the devoted one…

The plaything was shivering, no, was shivering in pure untamed terror at Catnap’s mere presence. Neither Dogday nor Bobby could remember a plaything ever reacting like that, even after being put at an overwhelming disadvantage in battle, but they could see it firsthand right now. Bobby couldn’t understand the sight at all, but Dogday could somewhat piece together from what he experienced. This plaything was far more aware than any they’ve fought and was already wary of Catnap in one way or another in order to get to  Puppyday in the first place. All this sight proved was that it wasn’t wary because it knew Catnap was protecting the Giggling Critter, but because it wanted to avoid Catnap at any and all costs.

“Sorry Catbee, I know you’re probably hurting right now, but…” Catnap started, aiming the revolver giving off an ominous air of danger. “I’m a little pissed at you right, so at least afford me this.”

Wasting no time, a volley of shots blasted into the metal covering and appendages of the giant bee, howls of pain being wrenched from its pincers. It was obviously trying to wiggle around and avoid the shots, but at its size and form, it was merely like witnessing a poor fawn trying to struggle in the grasp of a starving lion. Eventually, Catnap did run out of shots to use, tossing it away to fade with a red gas, something the plaything took full advantage of. 

Protect me!

With its command came a flurry of familiars much like before, all moving to protect their queen as they advanced on the purple cat. Catnap couldn’t look less worried as he casually advanced towards them, slowly picking up speed. A stinger with mere inches from his face, before the familiar using it fell in pieces, slashed perfectly by the fantastical yet sinister dagger in his recently freed hand. It was like a dance with how graceful the feline moved, so beautiful and precise that it was almost enchanting. Another way it could be seen, was how truly deadly Catnap was when he was the Prototype's hunting dog, his speed and efficiency truly worthy of an apex predator, leaving nothing but a trail of death in his wake.

“I almost forgot who he was given his recent actions,” Dogday commented, watching the pitiful fall of familiars.

“Even if it’s against those things, it’s still an awful sight to see…” Bobby added, trying to hold down her trembling heart.

Even the obstacles were a means to an end for Catnap, using the changes in terrain to lead the familiars to more gruesome deaths, if not accidental friendly fire, all the while more and more black splotches staining the area. One-sided slaughter was putting it lightly, because every familiar made was simply another body the cat walked over to the ruler of the playground. Catnap stood before the plaything stained in honey and viscera, completely unbothered and apathetic to the pitiful sight before him.

Devoted one…his blade…not again…

“What do you say we wrap this up Catbee?” Catnap offered without waiting for an answer, throwing his already stained dagger to the ground. Holding his hand up, already aimed and ready like a large gun was in his arms, a blinding flash of one of his rings on his tail went dim as a sinister sniper rifle appeared facing the plaything. Looking down the scope, Catnap pulled the trigger, blasting away the thorax with one shot, leaving only the abdomen behind and leaning on its former throne.

“You got it!” Bobby called out, excited to see their troubles were over. Despite the obvious victory, Catnap didn’t seem too keen on moving as he rid himself of his sniper, something Dogday couldn’t help but notice. Once he did a simple look over, he finally started making his way to them rather slowly.

“Here I thought it’d be much more mature and vicious,” Catnap nonchalantly states, looking to the ceiling of the hive playground. “Maybe I could’ve let Puppyday stay awake after all.”

“Huh?” Bobby questioned, wondering what the cat’s thought process is for what is child friendly and what isn’t. “Beg your pardon?”

“Absolutely not! Puppyday doesn’t need to see all this!”

“You act like he hasn’t experienced worse once already. It’s not even terrible viscera, just some honey and-”

Without warning, the abandoned abdomen twitched for a mere moment, before its large stinger impaled the unguarded cat through his chest. Coughing a spray of blood with a shocked expression was the last thing either Bobby or Dogday could see, before a familiar Cat head with antennae grew out for the destroyed thorax. Catnap barely had time to turn his head, before the justification that this plaything was indeed Catbee, snapped its bear trap like jaws around the purple cat’s neck with a loud snap. The crunch of bone along with the splatter of black and red stained the pale yellow wax, before the revived plaything continued its new meal. Bobby fell to her knees in shock, tears threatening to spill as she witnessed the former critter being eaten so brutally. Dogday was in complete disbelief, looking at the scene with a hollow feeling in his chest, a sense of denial that he only experienced in his past life.

“Bobby, we need to go…”

“But. B-but Catnap-”

“We can’t stay here Bobby!” Dgoday muttered, forcing himself to stand, clinging to the sleeping puppy, just before he saw the revived plaything look up at them with a creeping sinister smile.

The puppy…belongs…to us…

Roaring, the plaything grew more from the abdomen, with a smaller and more catlike torso, crawling towards the critters. Bobby realized their predicament and stood in front of both dogs as a means to protect them, but just as the plaything was ready to devour them, a chilling sensation stopped everyone in their tracks. It was as if the grim reaper was teasing his scythe at the necks of any who dared to move, something the plaything understood seemed to understand better than the other two. Before long, it twitched, its head snapping around, as if its body was struggling to function, like every muscle in its body was tensing and tightening up. To the surprise of both Bobby and Dogday, it slowly, but surely, started to turn and crawl away from them, albeit by an unwilling hand.

“There’s…there’s just no way this is real, right?”

Although Bobby posed the question, she already knew the answer. As much as she couldn’t fathom how, she was witnessing what was presumably his handiwork, despite the fact she saw him die, saw him eaten by the very plaything he’s somehow affecting. Even noticing strange black splotches staining the plaything’s body, like a creeping infection that was slowly taking over. Each crawl was another encroachment, traveling from the stinger on up, absorbing any of the splotches appearing, corroding its body and eroding the very presence of the prototype along it. Paying more attention, it appeared the plaything had an objective in its crawling; the discarded dagger Catnap left behind, now surrounded by a pooling of black stain that radiated a suspicious essence. There was a subtle glint Dogday could see near the hilt and upon focusing, he could see the shining moon-shaped gem hanging from behind the grip.

No…I can’t…not like this…

Once the plaything came in contact with the black essence, the soul gem shined brightly, changing the pool into a bubbling black bog that was slowly dragging the plaything down as it crawled closer. Obvious fear of the worst, it tried resisting, growing metallic appendages from the parts left uncorrupted to try and grip something to pull itself back, but as soon as it made contact, the bog turned the corresponding limb to rust and practically consumed each one with hunger. The plaything could feel itself being broken down the more it sank, breaking it apart and tearing its very being into pieces. Howls of pain echoed in the arena as it sank,struggling within an inch of its life before it became fully submerged in the bog, the dagger sinking right after it with the soul gem resting atop, leaving nothing but a small puddle as evidence it ever existed.

It wasn’t long before Catnap’s soul gem began to blink and shortly after a black sludge covered hand clawed its way up from the puddle. The arm clenched the gem with haste, before gripping the ground outside the puddle and pulling, struggling to get a solid hold. Although wary, Bobby took an educated guess as to who the hand belonged to and cautiously approached, one hand in her pack if needed. Using her free hand, she grabbed its wrist and began to slowly pull, noticing quickly as to why it struggled by itself because it felt like she was trying to deadlift a truck. Against her better judgment, she used her other hand and began to pull, finally making progress as more of a mass was being dragged out of the black. With a big tug, she managed to finally pull out a fully formed Catnap, who was desperately taking in as much air he could, clinging to something close to his chest.

“I…fucking hate…doing that…” Catnap coughed, rolling over on his back as he took deep breaths. “Thanks Bobby…didn’t realize…it’d be so…much harder…”

“Catnap, unless you want me to crush your skeleton in a hug, I’m going to need an explanation of what you did…now.” She sounded calm, but the silent storm of worry in her eyes was obvious. Catnap knew he didn’t have to tell her anything and suffering through one of her hugs wouldn’t be the end of the world, but seeing just how distraught she was behind it, behind what he just did, he decided to be a little kind.

“I won’t…tell you everything about it. You just need to know that I promise it’s not something I do every playground and that it’s a means of fixing past mistakes. If you’re not satisfied with that, you’re free to snap my spine, but I won’t say more on it.”

Of course she wasn’t satisfied, nor did she think it was possible for anyone to be satisfied with that extra short explanation. Honestly, she just wanted to snap his entire skeletal system in a hug, but looking at the cat’s serious face, she could clearly see how pleading his eyes were to leave it at that. It hurt honestly, being so in the dark about the feline, not knowing the cat at all and whether or not he needed help. It did take Catnap by surprise when she immediately pulled him into a tight hug, but unlike the painful grip he was expecting, he was left confused when she settled for a warm embracing one.

“Um, Bobby?”

“I’ll settle for this for now…but please, don’t do something like that to yourself again…” Bobby asked, the trembling of her grip showing how distraught the sight actually was. Catnap did reciprocate the hug at least, to give her comfort or closure if nothing else, but he wouldn’t make an empty promise to her. He was sure she would notice his lack of words, but seeing as how she didn’t pursue it, he left it as it was, especially seeing an equally worried Dogday approaching.

“How…you holding up, Catnap”

“I’ll live, if that’s what you’re asking about. How about you?”

“I…” Dogday didn’t know what he was feeling right now if he had to be honest. Worry, confusion, anger, regret, the dog was feeling so many different emotions that his thoughts were almost just as scattered. Catnap was just consumed by a plaything, he witnessed that feline be torn apart, yet here he was like nothing happened. There was no way for the dog to be okay mentally, but did he even have the right to ask? Would the cat even let him have that privilege so freely? “I’m not sure. If I’m honest, I have enough questions for you right now that’d probably give Bubba a run for his money..but I also know I don’t exactly have a right to pry about it. I’ll hold back for now at least, I’d rather use my question for something else…”

“Glad you know where you stand at least, only took watching me die with you drowning in guilt, but I’ll take it.”

“I can’t win with you, can I?”

Although he stuck his tongue out, the grin the feline inadvertently had at least let the dog know it wasn’t as malicious as usual. A small victory he supposed, but it was a step in the right direction in his book. With that, the playground began to fade into erasure, leaving the critters on the roof of the abandoned hotel and once the regular air was felt, Puppyday began to stir.

“Hmm…are we home yet?” Puppyday whined, rubbing his eyes half-asleep.

“Yeah buddy, you’re back home. Catnap took care of everything.”

“Catnap!”

The unknown voice immediately had Catnap on edge, slowly turning his head to the rooftop entrance to see an annoyed looking purple kitten leaning in the door. Stomping his way to the large Cat, he immediately started giving him a fairly thorough inspection, nagging quietly and fretting immensely at him. Bobby was in complete awe that there was someone looking out for Catnap, while Dogday was holding back snickers as he witnessed Catnap deal with all of it. He looked more than annoyed behind it, but the feline was letting the mini him do what he wanted for better or worse, even when the kitten clung to him trembling.

“I’m sorry, okay? I know you get worried, but it was after Puppy and your friends Kitty.”

“I’m not mad that you went, I’m mad you had to do that again!”

“Kittynap-”

“No! No more excuses this time!” Kittynap yelled with the iconic sign of being a giggling critter, although unlike everyone else, the eye that’d normally show a plethora of pupils was showing a deep obscured smoking abyss. Of course it came with many voices, but there was something obviously different about the mini Catnap, versus the rest of the Giggling Critters.

“Kitty!” Puppyday called, hopping out of Dogday’s arms and running to hug the purple kitten.

“Puppy! Are you alright?! Did Catnap make it in time!?”

Despite Puppyday’s words prior, it was fairly obvious the Giggling Critter Dogday and Catnap were as close as their cartoon versions with how much the kitten fretted over the pup. It was then, Kittynap finally noticed an awkwardly smiling Dogday and an obsessed looking Bobby, causing the cat to hide behind his sunshine friend. 

“I’m happy to finally introduce you to Kittynap, our Catnap of the Giggling Critters, the combination of every mini Catnap, and my bestest friend!” Puppyday announced, his tail wagging incredibly fast.

“H-hello…” Kittynap definitely shared Catnap’s introversion, but unlike the large version who gives off a snarky attitude and seemed eager to push others away, the younger one seemed more reserved and shy. “S-sorry for ignoring you, I was j-just-”

“Worried about Catnap dying in the playground?” Dogday asked, taking small delight in Catnap’s panicked expression once he finished that sentence. Despite the cat’s attempt to signal the dog he needed to keep his mouth shut, he was far too late to stop the chilling glare that came from his mini almost instantly. The kitten was obviously aware to some extent that the cat was hurting himself, but it seemed that Catnap left out some very important details, especially to those he didn’t want to see anything.

“Wait, what?” Puppyday asked, his expression faltering as that information. “C-Catnap died?”

“Ah, No no no no! I misspoke Puppy! He didn’t die per say!”

“That’s right puppy, I just got a little knocked around is all! “Catnap added, immediately rushing to Dogday’s side, crouching in front of the distressing pup. “Look at me, I’m the picture of perfect health buddy, see?”

“Alright! Let’s calm it down everyone,” Bobby said, clapping loud enough to gather everyone’s attention, walking over to them. “Puppyday, don’t you think you should show your friends you’re alright now? I’m sure they’re very worried about their leader.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot! But…Catnap-”

“Don’t you worry now, if there’s anything wrong, I’m right here to heal him up. You saw me treat your big brother, right? I promise I can do the same for him.” Bobby had much greater experience with calming down distressed children than Dogday, so this was the best option available. Neither boy was good for this department, so of course leaving it up to the emotional support of the Smiling Critters was the only viable option. “Run along for now and if anything is wrong, I promise I'll call you to come help out.”

“I won’t forgive you if you don’t!”

“Wait a minute, what did she mean by ‘Big Brother,’ when she said that? She was referring to Dogday, what happened in there?”

“Gotta go let everyone know I’m okay, sorry!” Puppyday immediately responded, carefreely running down the rooftop door with a smile.

“Oh no you don’t, get back here Puppy and tell me!” 

Kittynap wasted no time chasing after the excited pooch with just as much energy, a sight Bobby relished with delight. It was always heartwarming to see children with such a good friendship be playful and free, despite the awkward realization that it projected something she wouldn’t come to see anytime soon. She’d just enjoy the friendship and care in the mini versions of them for now, not that she didn’t have some business with the large stooges.

“Um, thanks for that Bobby,” Catnap offered, sighing with relief.

“Yeah, I may have said a little too much back there.”

“You think? ”

“Now now Catnap, Dogday meant well and you know that. He was just a little unrefined with his approach, just like how you choose methods a bit…vague, when it comes to us at least.”

“Intention or not, who thinks it’s a good idea to tell a kid, ‘ Hey, the guy who takes care of you and came to save you just died protecting you ,’ and tries to play it off?!”

“I said my bad…”

“Well, since there’s obviously some discussion that needs to happen between the 2 of you, I’ll excuse myself to explain things to everyone. And before you ask what or why, there’s something you both need to tell each other, without any of us present to interrupt.” Bobby headed towards the rooftop door with that statement, giving an apologetic smile to Catnap, before closing the door.

“...Well she’s as nosy as ever,” Catnap muttered brusquely as he finally de-transformed and pocketed his hands as he stood up. Dogday noticed him pocketing something quickly, something he definitely saw shining dimly, but didn’t get time to think about it as the Cat turned to him.”But…I do need to thank you. I don’t know all the details, but I know enough that if you weren’t there, Puppyday might’ve been really hurt…or worse. I…I can’t thank you enough for protecting Puppyday.”

“N-no, it’s nothing, really! I just couldn’t abandon him after all, even if he’s made up of something I’d rather not remember too much.” Dogday was not prepared for a show of gratitude from the feline to this degree. Maybe a passing thanks or a simple snarky remark for earning his keep, but Catnap was being genuinely gratuitous to the canine, something the dog didn’t feel he earned or deserved. “If anything, I think I owe you something; an apology, to be specific. I…what I did…My actions earlier…”

“You don’t have to-”

“No, let me finish, please,” he asked, taking a deep breath, before looking the cat in the eyes. ”Catnap, I’m sorry for how I acted earlier today. You didn’t deserve that, any of that. I treated you like a monster while ignoring exactly what you are doing for not just me, but all of us. You told us multiple times that you weren’t looking for forgiveness, that you were just helping us and not trying to avoid responsibility, but I kept trying to shove that narrative and…I don’t deserve your forgiveness, not back then, not now, but I just want you to know I’m truly sorry from the bottom of my heart.”

Catnap blinked at the dog before bursting out laughing, not even trying to be polite and hold back, flustering Dogday. Sure, his apology was a little cheesy, but it was from the heart and he gave it his best since he didn’t know how he would apologize at first. The least the cat could’ve done was somewhat pretend he didn’t find it funny. Catnap on the other hand was absolutely losing it inside, either by the irony or by the probability he’d actually hear it. Dogday, the guy he put through 10 years treating like an object, was apologizing to him because of their little emotional spat. He was fine just saying his sorry and forgetting the day to save time, but this guy was honestly hung up on it, to the point he felt obligated to say sorry to his killer.

“I can’t remember the last time I ever laughed like that, if I ever laughed like that.”

“Glad to hear my heartfelt apology is comedic for you,” the dog retorted a bit miffed, something the cat openly took delight in.

“Well, take it with pride, because I’m choosing not to ignore it at least.Perfectly honest, I couldn’t give any less of a damn about what happened earlier, because neither of us were very kind about it. Make no mistake though, I’m only accepting the apology for what it’s worth, so all it really does is set us back to 0 about my taking care of you guys, nothing more, nothing less.” Catnap walked up to the dog and leaned in close to his face. “I meant every word back there I said, I blame you and your friends just as much as the scientists that made my life a hell there and I’ll never forgive any of you for that.”

“Funny, because despite the guilt pricking my conscience, I don’t think I could ever forgive you for that decade of hell you put me through,” Dogday responded in kind, a smirk on his face as he pushed back without backing down. “As long as you keep your word, I’ll behave respectfully at least.”

Catnap looked at the eyes that stood up to him in retaliation with a slight nostalgia. It’s like things were back as they were back at the playcare, but unlike back then, the dog was defiant in a way that didn’t annoy him. Sighing, the cat walked away to the rooftop door looking bored despite the sway in his tail showing a mild interest in things.

“I guess mutually understood disdain is better than our usual one-sided pity parties. Be a good boy ‘Mutt’day and you’ll be out of my fur before you know it.”

“Sure, whatever you say, ‘Moggy’nap.”

“That the best you can come up with?”

“Shut up, I have way worse things I wanted to call you for years. I’m just giving what’s being taken, nothing more,” he retorted, walking past the cat as they left the rooftop.

----Bonus----

“What the hell did you do Bobby?” Catnap asked, the irritation on his face practically oozing as he pinched the bridge of his nose while keeping both Hoppy and Kickin restrained with his tail.

“Nothing too bad, just telling the guys what happened inside the playground. I at least got the Giggling Critters to go out and play before I filled in the finer details.”

“ Nothing too bad ’ YOU SAY?! THE PACHYDERM LOOKS LIKE HE’S TRYING TO SOLVE A MURDER MYSTERY FOR HOW HE WANTS TO USE HIS QUESTION RIGHT FUCKING NOW!!!”

“I’m maximizing the amount of information I can get with it, don’t rush me!!” Bubba was piecing together notes and notebook sheets all over the wall. After hearing from Bobby about what Catnap did and what he went through, the elephant was beyond settling now, because he could NOT wait for them to grow closer to glean such much juicy information. He wanted his money’s worth now and he was planning on getting it.

“That’s normal for him though, I’d have thought you’d be more upset by Hoppy and Kicking trying to get you to fight them,” Crafty added, looking at the poultry and hare struggling with a vengeance to get free and practically strong arm the cat into fighting them. Of course they couldn’t use magic since their soul gems haven’t even begun to heal, so it was a moot point, but they didn’t seem to get the memo.

“If I want to shut them up, I’ll gas them each and every time they ask. I can’t exactly flake out on the ever tactical and information starved walking tank! Why the actual FUCK did you think it was a good idea to tell them anything!?”

“If we wanna make things up to you, we have to know things about you Catnap,” she responded in kind, stepping up to the cat with a smile. “And the fact that you do something like that at all, isn’t exactly information you’d share with us otherwise, right?”

Catnap caught his own tongue with her response, because she wasn’t wrong. If anything, he was hopeful in some capacity she and Dogday would forget that little tidbit of info as time went on, because even he doesn’t like doing it. It was bad enough that the 2 more invasive critters in the group knew about it now, but since the entire party is aware, he’d have a harder time getting away with its use in the future, especially when it became necessary. Kitty was enough nagging for him, but this was now a flock of mother hens.

“Think of it this way Pussycat, the more we know, the less trouble we’ll give you if a situation arises,” Dogday decided to stack on, grinning at the cat’s troubles.

“I know Mongrel is not getting enjoyment from this, I know you are fucking not.”

“The current predicament, no, watching you writhe and squirm at not being able to hide secrets from us for a bit, absolutely.”

“Since when did you have this bad personality!?”

“I dunno what you’re talking about.” Dogday couldn’t help but keep up the egging. Call it petty, but getting back at the cat felt genuinely nice after the attitude he gave them at first. He wouldn’t say he was enjoying Catnap’s pain per se, more so enjoying the fact he could get the same reactions out of him the cat would get from them. Maybe the mischievous nature of Puppyday comes from him a lot more than he gave credit.

“HURRY UP AND GET BETTER ALREADY AND GET OUT OF MY LIFE!!!” Catnap groaned, seriously regretting his promise to help them.

Chapter Text

Another night, another dreamless sleep for Crafty as she woke up with a hint of lethargy. Sitting up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she finally let her eyes adjust to the unfamiliar room and loneliness she hadn’t been accustomed to. It took her a minute to remember exactly why she was in this room by herself as opposed to sharing a small room with the other girls.

“That’s right, we’re living in a hotel right now, not an apartment.” she commented, sitting up in a slight daze. The memories from their first day here were still a lot to process, so much that everyone agreed to postpone the rest of the questions for now. Although, she is certain Bubba only agreed because he didn’t formulate the perfect question to milk Catnap for as much info as he could. Knowing the pachyderm, he probably stayed up a good chunk of the night and was probably completely out of it for now. “Oh well, guess I should at least get ready for the day.”

It was a bit of an odd feeling, waking up without worry about tripping over something Hoppy accidentally left on the floor to get ready, nor having to double check which toothbrush was hers, but she didn’t have all that much trouble acclimating. She was incredibly surprised and thankful that not just the room, but especially the bathrooms had attention to their maintenance. Despite him clearly having no plans for them showing up, the feline had expectations for these rooms to be used by someone. The minis typically stayed in or near his room on floor 5, so the question remained; who did he anticipate staying here and why go through all the effort?

“Crafty? You up girl?” Picky called after a brief knock on her door. The unicorn had just finished getting herself ready for the day, so the timing could not have been more perfect, but their normal routine wouldn’t even have her awake this time, nevermind Picky being around to wake her up, so she was slightly curious what she wanted at this time. Once she had her hair in order, the unicorn opened the door to a bright and ready pig with her piglet mini counterpart.

“Picky? What brings you here this early?”

“Me and Pinky were thinking of doing a big critter wellness breakfast for everyone’s road to recovery. There’s just one small problem…well, more like 3 problems…”

“You see, Catnap has the walk-in under lock and key for safety and such, but he won’t let any of us giggling critters get access without his direct supervision in case we lock ourselves in,” Pinky confessed, not able to look either of them in the eyes.

“...I can see that from him,” Crafty commented, thinking of his expression when he heard a plaything trapped Puppy. She was actually afraid he’d turn her into glue with how quickly his expression went from calm to ‘death’ in .05 seconds.

“And I know what you’re thinking; ‘why not just ask him for the key so you can get the stuff for breakfast?’ Well, as you may remember, Catnap is a cat…he’s currently asleep…and he doesn’t exactly like us.”

“And Pinky is off the table because~” Crafty carried, gesturing to continue the explanation.

“I…may have accidentally, you know…fed Puppy…chocolate pancakes, one time…”

“And because he trusts virtually no one else at all, nevermind any of you enough to give you the key, you’re hoping ‘I’ can ask him for better results?” Crafty openly guessed, looking somewhat inquisitively at the pork pair. Their idea wasn’t without merit as even she was aware the cat was definitely most lenient with her, though that may just be due to circumstances rather than his outright personal opinion of her. Honestly, if not for the continuous attacks on his character despite him outright helping them, she’s fairly certain this type of gimmick wouldn’t be required, but here they were. “I won’t say it’s a bad idea, but I doubt the result would be much better. If anything, he’ll see right through the attempt.”

“We get that, but if it’s you asking, he’ll at least consider it. Please Crafty, we really want to make it a special breakfast.”

Crafty wasn’t opposed, because Catnap’s opinion of them was near rock bottom anyway, with her probably somewhere between a crumbling edge and the bottom. Asking virtually would do nothing negative towards her, nor should it be problematic to anything. If nothing else, she’s probably the only Smiling Critter he wouldn’t skin alive if they tried waking the cat up right now, which is probably more of the main reason she was being asked. Not to mention the pleading look of both her friend and the child version of her made the already doormat of an equine. feel even more obligated to assist.

“I’ll at least ask him,” she relented, feeling incredibly guilty at how easy she was.

“Thanks a bunch Crafty, I promise I’ll make it worth your while.”

“We can make you this really yummy apple pie recipe Craftle found a while back. Had her distracted from her books for all of dinner the last time I made it.”

Now that bribe piqued her interest very much, because she was definitely a fan of apples, ignoring the stereotype of being a horse, and thanks to her phobia for red, it’s been pretty difficult to even eat her favorite type of them, even sliced. With both of the chefs thankful, they left her to her devices as they headed downstairs. Considering the time, she expected either Dogday, Bobby, or Hoppy to be up in minutes with only the first 2 likely to try waking up everyone if needed, so she simply headed to the stairs on the way to Catnap’s room. It was surprising he wasn’t on the top floor in the best suite the hotel had and instead left the entire floor for storage, but her curiosity wasn’t worth getting on the feline’s nerves. It didn’t take long to reach his door, despite being at the end of the hall, but then came the biggest dilemma for the unicorn.

“I know he’s not like the cartoon, but even if it’s bad manners not to, would knocking on the door even help?” While she was sure the cat was out like a light and not lightly to stir from knocking, she was still under the impression that his senses were still high enough to be disturbed by her speaking to herself. She timidly knocked a couple times just to see, keeping a respectable time in between both attempts as not to seem urgent and once she was sure the cat wasn’t moving, she quietly opened the door. “Pardon the intrusion…”

Entering the room, she could definitely see the feline made this suite his own, because while it was still a bit bare, Crafty still noticed the touches of Catnap in it. There wasn’t much, but the cute fairy lights and purple furnishings and cat-themed decor fit his image quite well as the character, making her wonder if he was trying to fit the role now or was he just personally interested in the motif. Remembering what she came for, she hurriedly, but quietly, hastened her steps towards what she assumed was the master bedroom. Seeing his name etched into the door was pretty damning confirmation to say the least, so taking a deep breath, she gently opened the door.

Crafty’s immediate observation was the cat really liked purple if nothing else, because the color was the first noticeable thing about his personal room. Wallpaper, area rug, furniture, even the painted ceiling, everything about his room was some shade of purple if not black. What was cute about the ceiling when she got a better look was the scattered shades of blues that were littered with plenty of white dots, like a starry night sky to cover the entire place. It was so inspirational to her, she wondered if the feline would even temporarily allow her and her friends to personalize their rooms to this degree. After she finished admiring the room, once she realized that it was not only rude considering she didn’t have permission, but she had an objective, she finally turned to the bed where the cat lay, but the sight that awaited her was too much for the equine to handle.

“ Oh my goodness…that’s so cute~” the unicorn whispered, almost pulling a Bobby as she internally screamed at seeing Catnap and Kittynap sleeping together. Both cats curled on top of a galaxy themed bed set, Catnap gently embracing the kitten clinging to him in calm respite. Both cats in matching moon-themed sleepwear, Catnap preferring long pants while the kitten had shorts, both their shirts oversized and fluffy. She nearly screamed when she saw how tightly Kittynap’s tail curled around the top arm Catnap had embraced him, but nearly saw stars when said kitten nuzzled the cat for more warmth as he tightened his grip on Catnap’s shirt. She was so enamored by the sight, that she nearly screamed bloody murder when Catnap’s tail instantly coiled around her mouth, obviously because her reaction was anticipated.

“So Crafty, the reason you decided to sneak into my room and risk death by invading my privacy is because…?” Catnap lazily asked, the tone of sleep heavy in his voice as he loosened the grip of his tail, his eyes not even budging.

“S-sorry, sorry,” Crafty swiftly responded, calming down the rapid pace of her heartbeat once she realized the cat wasn’t about to snap her neck. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude…”

“Crafty, I’m too sleepy to play this game right now, so feel free to spit out whatever you came to me for…”

“Sorry…again. I came to ask if I could get the walk-in key for breakfast?”

The large cat lazily opened his eye not squished against the bed to look at her, the obvious annoyance on his face. It couldn’t have been anymore obvious who put her up to this and why, with nothing less but a shining neon warning sign saying resident chef and her apprentice equivalent wanted the key, but both knowing neither were in a position to even dream of asking for it. Though Pinky knew she could’ve simply come and woke him up if she wanted to make breakfast, he could only assume either there was a particular reason she was letting him sleep in or she wanted to try cooking without the helicopter parent cat around, if not have someone experienced handling the cooking for a change. Either option was annoying in it’s own way, but can’t say he cared too much considering he got more sleep regardless, prompting him to close his eye and get comfy again.

“Whatever, but you’re the only one allowed to have or use it while you guys are here…”

“R-really?”

“As long as you don’t let them get snack happy, I don’t care if you have the key so you never have to try this again, both for your nerves and my comfort,” Catnap responded, lazily circling his tail, before flicking it upwards with said key being snuggly held out to the unicorn. “Just be sure to lock it and keep an inventory of what they take out so I can make appropriate groceries…”

“Thank you Catnap and sorry for waking you up again,” Crafty offered, gently taking the key as the cat’s tail fell to the ground and slithered back to the bed.

“Whatever, just let me go back to sleep…”

“Don’t bother waking us for breakfast either, Big bro Catnap never eats anyway…”Kittynap quietly muttered, groaning slightly as curled up more under Catnap’s embrace, the larger cat tightening his hold as he circled his tail around them, much to Kitty’s relief and comfort.

Crafty did nearly jump out of her hooves at the kitten’s unprompted statement, realizing the mini was just as, if not more unostentatious as the bigger body. Maybe there was more to these kids than she originally gave credit.  

“Tell Puppy to send up something small for him anyway…”

“Make it 2, because I won’t eat if you don’t…”

The groan of defeat also showed how weak Catnap was to the minis as well, because she can’t remember any time at Playtime co Catnap would willingly eat something he didn’t care about. Realizing she was just wasting time now, she gave her thanks once again before rushing out of the suite as quietly as she entered and headed down to the kitchen. Upon entry, she could see both swine prepping various pots, pans, and the works as they chatted about something related to food. It didn’t take Picky long to notice the unicorn enter, something Crafty would find terrifying if she hadn’t been so used to the swine being incredibly sensitive to anyone entering the kitchen in her presence.

“Crafty, good news I hope?”

“He wasn’t enthusiastic, but he did relegate me as his surrogate for what he did before,” the equine stated, holding up the key, much to Pinky’s delight.

“No way! That’s awesome news! It means we won’t have to bother him every time we want to make meals!”

“You’re the best Crafty! He didn’t get mad at you or anything, right?” Picky asked, a little worried about getting the unicorn put on the spot. The relief on her face could not have been more prevalent when Crafty told her no problems arose from it at all. After that short conversation, Pinky led them to the walk-in, where Crafty promptly unlocked the door and swore she was seeing things when both swine fell to their knees and presented themselves to the sky in the direction of it. When she double checked, she was not imagining a thing at all and was so confused, you could swear a blue screen sound effect was going off in her head.

“Sorry Crafty, it’s just…Catnap has this walk-in in such a perfect and orderly state, it’s like a god of kitchen safety was present,” Picky revealed, promptly fake coughing as she re-washed her hooves from dropping to the floor. “It was so immaculate, I did it on impulse, because even at the restaurants I work at, the walk-ins were never this perfect.”

“Thought you only worked at one?”

“I work at one, I’m needed at a few of them. I swear I could never bring Pinky to any of them, it’d be traumatic.”

“Is it that bad?” Pinky asked, already carrying out a few fresh fruits.

“Terrible! Pitiful! A tragedy as a chef to see! Honestly it’s pathetic they even call themselves that and if I had my way, those aprons would be floor mops,” Picky replied, coming out with a few vegetables and eggs. “ A fucking disgrace. ”

Crafty could not keep up with their conversation as Picky shared stories from her job with the mini, but she had to keep track of the stuff they took out at least, so she kept a written note of things at least. Once they were satisfied, she promptly locked the walk-in and waved them off as they got to work, because she knew better than to occupy Picky’s kitchen. Thinking it wouldn’t hurt to get everyone up to get ready, the unicorn took it upon herself to swing by everyone’s room to wake them up. Starting from the end of the hall, she decided to bypass Dogday since that dog wakes up so early sometimes, it’d be redundant, and started with Bobby.

What awaited her was a fresh and ready bear, who looked as though she'd been awake for a bit of time. Turns out she woke up about 30 minutes ago and just didn’t know what to do, so she decided to just spend some quiet time in her room, at least until Crafty informed her about the breakfast. Once the bear was out, Crafty worked her way down, getting to Kickin next, something she had low expectations for. She did politely knock and when she got no response, quietly entered.

“I somewhat expected this, but really Kickin?” Crafty was referring to how messy a sleeper Kickin happened to be, to the point the room looks like a tornado ran through, with said perpetrator sprawled out so messily on the bed in his sleepwear, that even the stars on his sleep pants looked like they were strung about. “Doesn’t matter where we are, Kickin will be Kickin…”

The unicorn gently started shaking the bird until he started to stir, groggily looking up to see her gently smiling at him. For privacy’s sake, Crafty promptly ignored the sleep ridden words coming from the bird’s mouth as he gazed at her. Not because it was anything bad or embarrassing to hear, but because the bird said something to Bubba one time at their apartment that when the bird realized he said it, locked himself in the bathroom for 3 days straight. Of course she could have listened and pretended not to hear, but taking a page from Catnap’s book, she was not in the mood for getting into pointless troubles. It took about 5 seconds of realization, before Kickin’s eyes blew wide open to see the unicorn gently smiling down at him.

“...DId I say anything embarrassing? Please say no…Actually, please don’t say anything…”

Luckily for him, Crafty pulled out a set of ear plugs, so she had no chance to hear him when she entered, getting a huge sigh of relief from the bird, to the point he was on his knees on the bed in gratitude. After informing him of the breakfast by the resident chef and su chef, the bird promptly rushed to get ready for the day. She repeated the same process with Hoppy, only the rabbit was a lot more dynamic to say the least.

“I’m late!” Hoppy screamed, realizing the time. “Goddammit! I needed to do my 3-mile morning run and pre-breakfast workout! Damn bed being so comfy had me gone! Thanks Crafty, I’ll be down in no time!”

The rabbit wasted no time pushing her out and slamming the door with a rush. Next stop was Bubba, someone the unicorn didn’t bother knocking for as she opened the door, seeing said elephant so engrossed in his information board with bloodshot eyes that the unicorn was tempted to knock him out, before trying to get him to go downstairs.

“Bubba~”

“Not now Crafty! I’m so close to coming up with the perfect question!”

“You know, I can guarantee that Catnap would deny you the question if you aren’t taking care of yourself~” At those words, Bubba snapped his head around so hard that they both heard the bone. It was obvious Bubba was OBSESSED with getting this info, but this was an entirely new level of loopy. Honestly, she didn’t know whether she should tell Catnap first or let the elephant take the heat from Bobby and Dogday about his lack of self-care. Thinking about it, just bringing him to breakfast will handle half of that, so… “Catnap is waiting down at the dining room for breakfast right now, saying if he doesn’t get the question soon, he’ll just give up on it.”

The way the elephant sprinted through his daily prep and out the door was cartoonish, but considering the bags under his eyes had bags, she wasn’t too worried about him avoiding the lecture. The worry was gone instantly when she heard a muffled yell of ‘Bubba Bubbapant! ’ as she exited his room. What threw Crafty off was how sure she was that Dogday’s room was more quiet than a library, something she didn’t expect this late in the day. It was a little worrying, so she decided to check on the usually early canine. Unsurprisingly, the dog’s room was pretty organized and clean, although that was probably because he didn’t buy too much for himself even when he did have the opportunity, but the sight awaiting her was definitely something she did not expect.

“ Cuteness part 2! ” she whispered, seeing Dogday sprawled out over the bed with Puppyday matching the same pose on top of him, looking incredibly relaxed. She knew they had become incredibly close in the aftermath of the playground situation, but this was an unexpected development, a welcome one nonetheless. Although Dogday had plain sleepwear that didn’t mesh with Puppyday’s Sun-themed sleepwear, the fact they were so relaxed in each other’s presence with the exact same sleeping pose was too cute to overlook. In fact, the relaxation of Dogday was almost too relaxed, something she doesn’t remember Dogday ever being since he arrived.

“I don’t think Dogday has ever been this relaxed before.” Crafty had quietly moved closer, seeing just how relaxed he was, seeing a new level of comfort the dog never came close to displaying at their apartment. It was like he was melted to the bed. Even poking his cheek did nothing to stir the canine, so she knew he was beyond salvation in terms of comfort, almost like he was comatose. “Dogday? Are you really that comfortable?”

She nudged him slightly, tapped him, even shook him and neither canine reacted. If it wasn’t for the steady rise and fall of their chests, she’d think they were actually dead. It wasn’t long before the smell of Picky’s cooking finally reached the 2nd floor, so Crafty knew breakfast was about ready, meaning it was in her best interest to wake him up, but the problem was she didn’t know how. Already doing the least disruptive and most polite options didn’t even stir the canine duo, so she was at a bit of an impasse. She didn’t want to try this method, but the dog would definitely be beside himself if he missed out on their first amazing breakfast with friends, especially given what it’s for. Transforming into her magical form, she pulled out her brush, dyed in purple paint, before painting a familiar, yet terrifying playcare Catnap, but at a much smaller scale.

“Wake him.”

Following her orders, the lanky cat climbed onto the dog and simply stared at his sleeping face, as if staring directly into his soul. The overwhelming sense of fear from the look visibly disturbed Dogday’s sleep, forcing him to stir, slowly creaking his eyes to see the face of the painted creature in his entire vision. Internally, the dog could’ve ran a marathon with how fast his heart was beating, mentally, he felt back at the playcare and he was living his nightmare again, but physically, the dog could do nothing but sigh and glance over to the transformed unicorn, whom was wearing a an apologetic expression.

“Can we please think of a new option for waking me up, I will LITERALLY give permission to let Hoppy or Kickin do it just not to see this face again.”

“Sorry Dogday, but this is consistently the most effective…” Crafty weakly apologized, bowing her head in shame as she blotted out the cat with her brush before de-transforming. “Picky was doing a special breakfast for everyone and I knew you’d feel down if you missed it…”

“Miss it, what?” The dog asked confusedly as he sat up, stretching his arms. He made sure Puppyday lay comfortably on the bed before sitting on the edge of the bed and seeing the time. His head dropped into his hands so face, the sound actually startled Crafty and stirred the puppy. “I’m so late…”

“Hmm? Who’s late?...” Puppy asked, rubbing his eyes, waking up, before seeing the time and bolting to his feet. “I’M LATE!?” 

The puppy immediately wasted no time in jumping from the bed, dragging the dog to his feet.

“Come on Big Bro, you promised to wake me up on time!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I have no excuse. I didn’t realize the bed would be so comfy!”

Now it made sense to Crafty why the dog was still asleep. Even though he felt at ease with that at the apartment, they were barely a step above the life they lived at the playcare, plus there was the underlying worry about Catnap and the Prototype. Now, Catnap proved he wanted nothing to do with them or had any plans with interfering in their lives, he obviously didn’t worship the air the Prototype breathed, and most importantly, he had room to relax and sleep on a bed instead of a dingy old couch. The dog wasn’t just at ease, he was probably feeling so relaxed and unguarded that even the mental tension of his body was gone.

It was funny thinking about it, seeing as how the person who caused the dog so much stress was partially the biggest reason he could finally let himself feel safe and could let himself rest. Although the realization left a bittersweet taste in her mouth, because Dogday overcoming that hurdle came relatively easy, but her’s? She was still too afraid to face it, because even if she wanted to blame the feline for it, at the end of the day, she’s the one who was too weak to keep her mentality and went mad.

“I have to hurry and wake everyone! See you at breakfast bro!” Puppy said, rushing out the room.

“I see your sibling relationship is already healthy.”

“Hehe, it’s weird having a little brother, but….it feels kinda nice, being relied on like an older sibling.”

“As opposed to being relied on as the leader of the Smiling Critters?” Crafty teased, a small grin behind her hoof as she leaned towards the dog. 

“Don’t get me wrong Crafty, the feeling of joy and fulfillment being needed by you guys is irreplaceable and I’d never trade that for a thing. It’s just…spending time with Puppy, him coming to me about his problems in trying to fill my role for his group and getting advice, it’s heartwarming in a weird way. Kinda how he ended up sleeping in my room for the night.”

“You know, Catnap should be your polar opposite, but you 2 are so alike in ways it’s hard to describe.”

“I could’ve died, been reborn, and killed again never hearing anything remotely close to being compared to Catnap and been fine, thank you.”

The vein bulging on his forehead said as much, but given how reserved his reaction was, it was clear that, despite how he feels about the feline, he doesn’t seem as hostile towards him. Dogday finally thanked her for the wake up call before walking out with her to the dining room, the smell blasting them as soon as they walked in, yet no food was out. You could see the waterfall falling from Kickin’s beak while he sat at the table and stared impatiently at the kitchen. Bobby was keeping herself occupied with setting the table, while Bubba seemed to be face down on said table, snoring lightly with a visible bruising on his neck.

“Um…”

“Should I even ask what happened or…?”

One look from Bobby said everything necessary, so neither the unicorn nor canine pressed further. From there, Hoppy arrived, a towel draped around her neck as she immediately grabbed a glass of water and downed it like oxygen. The fresh and strong smell of mint wafting off her suggesting she just got through taking an after workout shower.

“Man, nothing beats a good morning jog to get the blood flowing,” the rabbit commented, plopping down at the table. “This smell is killer! Whatever Picky is cooking, I don’t think we ever got to eat as good back at the apartment.”

“Well I’ve seen the walk-in and pantry, so I can at least say Catnap doesn’t skimp on food. I just hope he isn’t too mad about the amounts on this list.” Crafty didn’t know whether or not the amount Picky and Pinky took was a lot, but even for 16, it seemed a little on the heavier side in her opinion. “Maybe I should’ve spoken up a bit.”

“Crafty, I can promise you that not a crumb of whatever Picky makes will be left with a smell this good. Me and the rabbit alone will clear a third of the table, with Picky, 4/5ths if she didn’t snitch too much,” Kickin stated in confidence, the serious look on his face as he took off his shades being heavily undermined by the amount of water he was currently wasting from his mouth. Honestly, there was a small curiosity at if Hoppy would start swimming laps in the pool of drool forming on the table.

“Doubling down on that promise, because Picky always complains about not being able to treat us to REAL breakfast and the smells then weren’t lax, but THIS?!” Hoppy statement, emphasizing heavily on the heavenly aroma practically glued to the oxygen in the room. “Puts what we had before to shame. We getting treated right this breakfast, I can feel it in my ears.”

With that being said, the dining room swung open with a panting Puppy hauling a still sleeping Kickie, while Hop was deadlifting a reading Craft and slightly confused Bobbi with a grin, as Bubs casually walked in after, engrossed in his book. The leader of the Giggling Critters fell to the floor panting, the obvious sign of rushing and pushing himself much like his larger counterpart. Although Dogday wanted to give advice, the various looks from his friends that all were practically screaming at him for similar behavior, made the dog keep his damn mouth shut before he got hypocritical. At least he was kind enough to pick Kickie off him and sit him at the table.

“Why….do you guys….always have to be….so difficult…” the leader of the giggling critters asked, desperately starving for air.

“Why did we have to rush to the dining room? It’s not like the food is even done yet,” Bubs retorted nonchalantly, unsympathetic to the puppy’s plights.

“Because We’re growing kids, we need to get 3 proper meals!”

“We’re already dead, we could probably have the most unhealthy diets possible and it wouldn’t make a difference.”

“Yeah, you’re gonna want to not say that to Picky,” Kickin said, glancing at the bull. “She’ll have you eating so much, you’ll be begging to fast and she’ll stuff you more.”

“That can’t be true-”

“No, it’s the cold hard truth.” Bubba finally woke up, responding with a yawn, looking much more rested than Crafty saw earlier. “Now that she has ready access to food and ingredients, I’m going to have to be a lot more aware of my food intake.”

“And?” A sweetly smiling Bobby asked, the pressure she was emitting actually becoming suffocating enough to force Kickin and Hoppy to scoot just a bit away.

“A-a-and my sleep schedule…” the elephant quietly added, unable to look the bear in the eyes.

The satisfaction on Bobby’s face after his statement was incredibly obvious, the switch up causing Dogday to give Crafty a questioning look. All the unicorn did was make a moon shape and a question mark in the air and Dogday’s expression immediately gave up on kindness. Although it still retained a friendly and gentle air, Dogday’s smile was so chilling that Bubba could actively feel the air around him chill. He really could not afford to neglect care for himself now that Dogday had him on radar, because just either Bobby or Dogday is terrifying enough, but together on top of a well-equipped Picky was a scary thought.

“Why is the smiling critter I’m based after so spineless?”

“Because dear Bubs, we care so much about our friend Bubba that when he gets himself sick by ignoring his health-” Dogday started.

“That we can’t help but intervene and ensure that the elephant keeps his health his top priority,” Bobby finished.

““Otherwise we make him keep his health his top priority,”” they both ended, the cold smiles nearly crucifying Bubba where he sat, making him raise his hooves in defense.

Crafty simply took Bubs to the side and whispered in his giant ear exactly what that entailed, making the small bull pale and shiver in fear. The other awake giggling critters didn’t hear, but Puppyday have never been more grateful to have canine hearing, Now he has a baseline for whenever Bubs gets smart with him and tries to lawyer his way out of keeping his health up, flashing Bubs a very innocent, yet knowing smile that had Bubs hide behind Crafty for protection.

“Alright gang, breakfast is finally served!” Picky announced, wheeling in a large cart with Pinky close behind, pushing a similar cart. They pulled out all the stops, going for a continental breakfast with a few added additions like pancakes, waffles, and some fruit pastries. Pinky even pulled out a few small tarts and pies, along with an assortment of freshly made donuts. How they made all that was beyond the critters present, but not one of them seemed to care as the smell and plating were too gorgeous to bother questioning.

““DIBS!”” the chaotic duo yelled, practically diving for the pastries.

“Took all of 8 seconds for them to zone in on the pastries, maybe I should’ve let those stay hidden for a bit longer.”

“It’s fine, you said you guys never really had the means to cook and eat like this at your apartment or whatever, but now you’re free to go wild with us here.”

“Either way, thanks a lot for the breakfast Picky. You too Pinky” Dogday offered, patting Picky on the shoulder. “Can’t wait to be able to eat some of my friend’s home cooked meals again…assuming those 2 don’t inhale it that is.”

And the dog was not even close to exaggerating, because they were all but shoveling the food into their mouths with tears. Taking their pace as an invitation, the rest of the critters took their seats and began eating to their heart’s content. Crafty finally found the promised apple pies hidden near her side of the table and upon taking the first bite, she immediately understood why Craft fell for them, because she fell just as hard. The crispness of the pastry, the bite and mellow sweetness of the apples, the subtle taste of cinnamon and she believes honey, were dancing delicately across her mouth. She tried going for another bite, only to realize she had savored her first pie so well that the first bite was all she could remember.

“It’s good, right?” Craft asked, partaking in one herself, smiling at the embarrassed face of Crafty.

“I-I…didn’t expect it to, you know…be so yummy,” she muttered quietly, wishing the ground would swallow up her and her shame, but not too soon as she went for seconds, this time intending to truly savor each bite. “Oh, I almost forgot. Puppyday, Kittynap said just bring up something light for him and Catnap if you really want them to eat something, because they didn’t want to come down.”

““What?”” Puppyday asked, looking at her incredulously, but even Dogday responded to her statement with confusion for some reason.

“I’ve told Kitty multiple times that he and Catnap can’t keep doing that!”

“Don’t tell me Catnap doesn’t even try to take care of himself while taking care of kids,” Dogday muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. Sure, he didn’t have any ground to stand on for calling anyone out for being too selfless, but something told him that Catnap wasn’t doing this to be anything other than selfish in a particular sense.

“He does in the literal sense, just in other aspects about himself he’s neglectful,” Bubs responded thoughtfully. “Like his eating is survival instinct based, so mainly the bare minimum for himself, but gets plenty to make sure we’re well taken care of. He sleeps the majority of the day most of the time and typically avoids us outside checking up on us, making sure we have something to entertain us here and not really uncomfortable here.”

“So no, no he doesn’t.”

Dogday wasn’t even sure why it bothered him, because truthfully how the cat lives his new life was none of his business, so feeling upset behind him having bad habits was a pointless endeavor. He knew that fact, yet knowing this information left a bad feeling in his chest and he was sure it wasn’t his current condition. Though he didn’t have to think about it much longer when he felt a tug on his shirt and looked to see an equally pressed puppy.

“We’re bringing them down.”

“While I agree they should, I don’t think Catnap would let me live nearly as much as you little buddy.”

“But bro~!’

“If it bothers you that much, I can go with you,” Crafty offered, timidly nibbling on what appeared to be her fourth pie and to the surprise of a few of the critters, while to the worry of the rest. “I mean, between all of the Smiling Critters, Catnap seems to tolerate me the best. I’m probably the least likely to get kicked out if he gets annoyed by the attempt.”

“...It’s depressing how NONE of us can argue that, especially after our first day here,” Kickin stated, downing a glass of water, “Worse case, we’ll send Hoppy as a peace offeri-”

“I’ll send him a feather duster made out of your feathers after plucking you bare if you try,” Hoppy retorted, smacking a platter in his face, before eating another piece of fruit.

“I’ll hug both of you into a blackout if you keep fighting at the dining table!” Bobby yelled, looking upset and worried at them getting into another fight and wasting any of the food, especially at someone else’s home. 

It didn’t take long for the chicken to retaliate and an impromptu wrestling match ensued regardless. Did not help that their minis started encouraging the behavior as a sort of breakfast theater, leading Crafty to quietly sneak out with Puppy, just as the sound of Bobby practically choking them out was being signaled by the popping of bones. If she could hear the sounds of a child saying, ‘fight back, fight back!’ it was certainly her imagination.

“Thank you for your help Crafty, I hope we can get Kitty and Catnap to come down.”

“It’s my pleasure, although I wouldn’t get my hopes up too high. I’m not that convincing or charismatic, b-but I’ll give it my best,” Crafty offered optimistically, though she could see the pup followed Dogday’s footsteps with his encouraging smile, despite his face giving away he wasn’t to convinced by her.

“I take it you lack self-confidence like Craft? Or would that be the other way around since you were first?” Puppyday jokingly asked as they proceeded up the stairs.

“The answer is yes to the first one at least, but I think that’s just who Craft is if that’s the case for the second. I don’t think you guys really get your personalities from us, just using us as templates.”

“Why do you say that? As your minis, shouldn’t we get a lot of how we act from you guys?”

“Well that’s because you didn’t have anyone else to take after really. Besides, if you got what made you guys yourselves from us, you would just simply be the mini smiling critters, but instead, you wanted to be something for yourselves. I think you guys were just inspired by us, trying to be a unique version of us, but one that represents you guys.”

“...How does Catnap hate you and big bro, yet all 3 of you say the same things?” Puppy pouted, looking somewhat annoyed by her answer.

“Let me take a guess; you’re looking for someone to agree with your thinking that you’re simply the mini us so you have ground to stand on, even though you don’t want to be?” Crafty could see by the canine’s lack of reply and sudden interest in avoiding her eyes that she was at least close, causing her to giggle. “So since you heard it from 3 of us, does that mean you’ll accept it as fact?”

“...Hmph!”

He may be the leader of his little group and he may be living his second life, but a child immaturity is very strong with him. At least for now, it was something very cute on him, but the equine couldn’t help but wonder when it’ll stop. Once they arrived at Catnap’s suite, Puppy opened the door without even bothering to knock, something Crafty wanted to scold him for, but the sight instead had both of them stumped. A strange black void with a familiar red gas up to knee height was what took over the suite.

“What…”

“This…isn’t normal, right?” Puppy asked scared, being reminded of somewhere he’d rather not remember.

“I…I don’t know, but if you know nothing about this, I’m gonna go with no.”

Details of the suite were still noticeable in the void, but obscure and less prominent, almost as if their overall focus was sent to a background. It was so red, so much red staining an otherwise simple room. But how could there be red, there wasn’t anymore red, right? She knew there wasn’t anymore, no one was hiding any, right? 

“CRAFTY!” Puppyday yelled, snapping her out of her stupor. “Are you okay? You looked really weird a minute ago, like you were terrified of something.”

“I’m…fine, I’m fine now. Thank you Puppyday,” Crafty responded, holding her hoof over her chest to calm her raging heart rate. After a couple of deep breaths, Crafty finally felt stable enough to push forward. “I’m ready to go inside, I’ll be right back.”

  Because of the height, Craft wanted Puppy to stay outside, if not go downstairs altogether, but the young pup insisted on going with her. His caretaker and his self-proclaimed best friend could be in danger, so he didn’t want to sit idly by. Against her better judgment, she did allow it, but she insisted on carrying him to ensure he didn’t inhale much of the gas. With their minds made up, they entered the suite with only the cold comfort of the gas being their only ally outside of each other. 

It was quiet, eerily so, something Crafty knew not to expect given the amount of gas being produced. In fact, the density and thickness of this gas was somewhat different to her, almost reminiscent of liquid. The bright crimson hue reminds her far too much for her comfort of the reason for her phobia. Like she was treading an ocean of blood staining her sins on the world around her, but she trudged forward to where she last saw the pair of cats. It was easy enough to arrive at the room, far too easy considering the situation, something that struck Crafty as concerning.

“Catnap, what is going on with you…” Crafty quietly muttered as she looked at the door. Seeing the density be much stronger than the rest of the suite, along with gas leaking from the sides, suggested Catnap was releasing much more gas than originally thought. She looked worried about continuing further with Puppyday, but he was noticeably stubborn in his grip, showing he was well aware of what she was thinking and wasn’t leaving. Cutting her losses, she took a safe breath before opening the door, but what awaited them wasn’t anything either was expecting.

Despite what the suite looked like, the room itself looked completely normal, almost the exact same as when Crafty came earlier. Catnap and Kittynap were sleeping peacefully on the large bed, a room filled with purple kitty themes and decor, even the galaxy ceiling that shined with a radiant contrast with the rest of the room. It was a picture perfect scene that Puppyday was elated to see, but one that Crafty immediately transformed for and held her brush towards.

“Don’t underestimate an artist,” she stated, a ball of glowing green paint forming at the tip of her brush. “I’d know better than anyone, when there’s not enough red.”

A strong gust of wind blew forth, scattering the image they saw with a strong wall of red gas collapsing to the ground as the room lost its illusion. Unlike what they originally saw, Kittynap was on his knees with silent tears, heavily focused on a large translucent cube surrounding a heavily wounded Catnap. The large feline was practically pinned up to the headboard as he sat in a slump, cuts and holes littering his upper body in his transformed state. A strange black liquid was flowing into a pool from every wound as the forced iconic smile of the Smiling Critters was stitched on his face as gas poured from it like a faucet. He was sitting there in what looked to be so much pain, suffering in solitude, yet he was smiling all the same, with such cold dead eyes.

“K-Kitty?...” Puppy asked fearfully, snapping the kitten’s attention.

“P-P-Puppy? C-Crafty? Wha-” Kittynap quickly responded, turning back to the cube, obviously trying to clear his face of still flowing tears. “What are you 2 doing here so early? I-I thought breakfast was still going…”

“It is,” Crafty answered, walking to him carefully. “But a few of us were worried, hearing Catnap doesn’t eat properly and Puppy really wanted to spend time at breakfast with you both…Kitty, what on earth is this?”

Kittynap didn’t respond, he didn’t even turn around to try answering, but the way his hand touched the cube suggested it wasn’t pleasant, for him or for Catnap. Letting Puppy go, the canine rushed to the feline’s side, resting his hand on top of it, at least letting the kitten acknowledge he wasn’t alone.

“Kitty, you need to tell us what’s going on. What’s happening to Catnap?”

“You don’t need to know…”

“Kitty-”

“No!” the kitten cried, clenching the carpet with his free hand. “Catnap said this was his fight! His punishment! If he can handle something like this alone, then I should too! I’m the Catnap for the Giggling Critters, so if regular Catnap can suffer through something like this, then I-”

A slap swiftly cut the feline off, one loud enough to actually echo in the bedroom. With a look of pure shock on his face as he held the place of impact, Kittynap looked to the one who slapped him with disbelief, seeing how angry Puppyday was right now and how desperate he was to hold back his tears. He couldn’t get a word in, before that same Puppyday wrapped him in a tight hug, holding him as close as he could with his trembling arms.

“Is this why you avoid us Kitty…this whole time?” he asked, the silence being his only confirmation. “You’ve been hurting alone, watching this kind of thing, for so long…I never knew.”

“You weren’t supposed to…I wasn’t supposed to…Catnap wanted to keep this from all of us, but I’m his mini; I know better than anyone else when he wants to hide something. I just…wanted to be there, so he’d have someone there when it was over…”

“When what was over Kitty!?”

“Our memories, right? Or…maybe our nightmares?” Crafty asked, looking sympathetically to the crying children with a gentle, but somber smile. Upon closer inspection, she recognized each of the injuries on Catnap’s body, all of them precise and targeted at specific points of his body. They were all meant to drain blood, injuries and incisions meant to force hemorrhaging as quickly and plentifully as possible. “And while he experiences them, he suffers the pain real time as well. If I had to guess, ‘this ’ is the punishment he keeps talking about.”

Crafty touched the cube, the slight ripple showing just how delicate of a thing it was, despite being solid enough to reject any who tried doing anything to it.Although brief and choppy, she could see images and instances of what Catnap was currently going through, a scene she was more than happy not remembering. How many must’ve suffered because of her actions, the amount of blood she spilled in the name of art. All the pictures she painted with the lives of her victims, just to create pieces no self-respecting artist would display. It hurt, both intellectually and emotionally, because her weakness was still causing suffering to those around her.

“He’s been doing this for a while, right?”

“Even before he found us apparently,” Kitty cried, trying to sound strong. “But no matter how much I try to tell him, no matter what I do to stop him…he just keeps going through it…and I don’t know what to do…”

“You’re a kind kitty, aren’t you, but even I’d be partial to avoiding your interference in something like this if I was in Catnap’s position.”

“That’s right Kitty! I’d never let you out of my sight again if I thought you were doing this! IF you were interfering with it!” Puppyday was beyond consoling, the thought of any of his friends hurting was scary as it is, but hearing his supposed best friend was willing to go through worse, he couldn’t bear the thought of it. He claimed it was because he was supposed to be able to suffer like Catnap, but he wasn’t, so why did he want to go through the pain like him. “You…can’t do this to yourself Kitty, Catnap would never forgive himself if he caused you to go through something like that!”

“But what am I supposed to do then!? Catnap hates himself so, so much as it is! He goes through enough trying to make up for it awake! It’s not fair he can’t even sleep without going through pain too! I’m the mini Catnap, I’m him too-”

“YOU’RE NOT!” Puppyday screamed at him. “You! Are! Kittynap! Kittynap of the Giggling Critters! You’re the best friend of Puppyday and the critter who helps us get plenty of rest! You…you aren’t Catnap, like I’m not Dogday. We may be like them, but we’re not them…”

“But…but Catnap is-”

“If it’s a problem with a Smiling Critter, simply send a Smiling Critter,” Crafty announced, her brush painting a hole onto the cube, making a makeshift gate that flickered in between a lone pale crescent moon and a glitching distorted red one at times. “I think I should thank you Kitty, you and the rest of the Giggling Critters.”

At her words, Kittynap and even Puppyday were confused at the unicorn, their expressions showing just how lost they were. Crouching in front of them and patting each of their heads, she smiled so tenderly that it just told them ‘not to worry,’ without ever saying the words. After standing up, she immediately jumped into the makeshift gate, the path closing soon after her entry and vanishing as if it never existed, but the translucent cube became opaque with only the bright multifaceted colors being seen by the 2 giggling critters.

Crafty landed with a soft thump, a black void as far as the eye could see, with red smoke decorating the ground beneath her ankles. It was a shot in the dark as to whether this spell would work, but she could not be more thankful that it had. It was an intuitive feeling that she could pull it off, something she wasn’t confident in herself about, but she didn’t want to abandon the chance to do something for Catnap this time.

“You’ve been hurting for a long time Catnap, bleeding for everyone else,” Crafty muttered as she followed the flow of the red gas, arriving at a decrepit door with a wither flower stained in blood was stamped on it. “This time, let me bleed for you instead.”

Strengthening her resolve, Crafty entered through the door, the sight inside bringing her close to collapse. A room rich with the stench of death and iron, the sounds of splashing and sloshing swipes against a canvas. Numerous piles of dried out and ruined bodies and discard limbs, yet what struck her as odd, was how they all were furry and purple. The very thought of it bringing a tear to her eyes, praying that what she’s thinking is completely wrong.

“I’m out of red!” A harsh voice boomed, the familiarity of it stabbing her heart like a knife. “I need more!”

Proceeding further, Crafty could see past a mound of bodies, a lone stool and easel, illuminated by a single light with blood stains all around it and a large creature moving about just away from it. Although she couldn’t make out much detail, it was obvious to her who that creature was, the gruesome sounds or crunching and slashing of flesh ringing loudly in such a small space, before the creature returned to her stool with a slowly dying heart, the faint beat quickly snuffed out as the monstrous Crafty squeezed the organ for a fresh supply of paint into a recently emptied jar.

“It’s not enough, it’ll never be enough red! I need even more, more red that you’re hiding from me!” the nightarish Crafty screamed, turning to look at a pitifully restrained purple footed individual. “You have more you’re hiding from me, don’t you!?”

A playcare Catnap, barely clinging to consciousness with that same dead smile weakly nodded, his head barely able to lift his gaze from his ripped open torso, displaying his grotesquely vivid and barely functioning organs to all who dared to look. The nightmare Crafty huffed with anger as she stomped over the pitiful monster, before taking a palette knife, one stained in plenty of dried blood, and began to carve out a line over his carotid artery. The blood flowed like a faucet into a magically appearing jar, the cat finally slumping over death as the final bit of spray fell from his neck. Crafty didn’t even get time to mourn, before a terrifying crunch, followed by the sounds of snapping and stitching filled her ears as she witnessed the corpse of playcare Catnap fully reform clean and free from wounds.

“Good, good, I need more red later, so it’s good you don’t hide any red from me~” the nightmare sang, lovingly and possessively caressing the cat’s cheek, before returning to her stool to paint, but stopped in her tracks as a pure and unadulterated malice weaved it’s way into her expression. “How DARE YOU!?”

. Crafty stood undeterred, the canvas and stool buried in a mess of rubble and spilled jars, the blood staining the mats and ruining the canvas beyond salvage. She knew an artist's work was their life, so to see it messed with so thoroughly was a violation she, herself, could never ignore.

“I’m sorry, I only meant to clean up a bit and seemed to have overstepped,” she taunted lightly, taking a slight curtsy, further trampling on the canvas. “But you seem to have something dear to me in your possession and I must ask you to return him at once.”

“To ruin an artist’s work and destroy her supplies is of far greater value than anything in this room!”

“That would be my friend over there you’ve been using for paint. I’d be ever so appreciative.”

The nightmarish Crafty looked at her confused, like she was speaking a different language, before stalking up to the unicorn with a feral look in her eyes. Crafty stood strong in the face of what represented her fears, before the smile on the nightmare’s face grew razor-like teeth as its eyes focused on her with a dawning realization and delight.

“You have red in you too…GIVE IT TO ME!”the creature screeched, letting out a deafening roar. Just as Crafty was ready to retaliate, everything around her froze, like time itself stopped.

“Why are you here, Crafty…” Playcare Catnap asked, not bothering to move or look up from his position.

“Care to guess?”

“I don’t exactly feel like playing games with you right now,” the feline said, glitching slightly, before appearing as his normal self since they’ve encountered him. “I told you not to bother me and send up Puppy, so why the fuck are you here?”

It was obvious he had moderate control over his dream, so if nothing else, she wasn’t worried whether or not this nightmare version of her would move. With that in mind, the unicorn walked by the frozen creature and took a seat against the wall, next to the bound feline. Catnap at least gave her the respect to look in her direction, despite the obvious disinterest in her reasons whatever they may be, something Crafty was thankful for.

“Because Kitty wanted to help you,” she responded, noticing the immediate widening of his eyes at her statement. “It started off with Puppy wanting you and him at breakfast with everyone for a change, kinda devolved into everyone learning you don’t take care of yourself as well as you should, led me to coming with Puppyday instead of Dogday since I’m less likely to die…at least I was until now I’m guessing.”

“You’d be accurate.”

“Hehe, understood…But when we came in, we kinda saw everything going on in the suite and when we came into your room…it was a lot, Catnap, for him.” Crafty explained Kitty breaking down, his tears as he spoke just trying to be his mini, THE Catnap for the Giggling Critters, how much it was hurting to see his caretaker suffering so much alone, unable to escape it even in sleep. Each statement noticeably drove a knife into the feline’s heart the more she continued. Kittynap had been suffering because of him all this time, and he was none the wiser, the one who spends the most time with him, who he felt the closest to of all the critters in his care, it hurt.

“I see…” Catnap muttered quietly, the regret in his tone more than his expression, but the slight tightening of his face showed enough. “Ironic, I got annoyed by the mutt’s actions with Puppy, yet here I am regretting I couldn’t do the same for mine. How many regrets am I gonna stack before I’m fucking satisfied…?”

“I don’t think I can answer that.”

“Hah! I’d be impressed if you could Crafty, I’d be impressed if you could.” Catnap finally moved his head, looking up at the ceiling with a resignation unfitting the feline’s normal attitude, just a tad short of when he was breaking down in front of them. “I’m not getting out of this one, am I?”

“We don’t have to yet,” Crafty offered, leaning forward as she saw his surprised face. “I can somewhat guess what this is given the situation, but I won’t force you to tell me until you’re ready. What I will say you can’t get out of, is from now on, 2 things are going to happen.”

Catnap looked at her uneasy, because while he wasn’t scared of Crafty, as an artist, she was far more creative than the other members of the Smiling Critters. If she had any lingering malignant thoughts, he wasn’t in the best position to negotiate with her if he wanted her silence about things.

“Don’t worry, they won’t be too hard; The first is simply to be more active with the giggling critters like Puppyday wants, and I mean all of them, not just Kitty. That means at least getting up early enough to at least sleep at the table for breakfast. The second and most important, I’m allowed to get more involved with whatever your problems are Catnap, whether you tell me what they are or otherwise.”

“....That’s it?”

“Easy, right?”

“Y-yeah, I mean, why?” Catnap asked, looking at the unicorn incredulously like a fish out of water, while she giggled lightly at his expression. “I was expecting something more of, ‘You’re gonna be friends with everyone and stop being so aloof!’ or ‘Time to spill your secrets,’ maybe even some bullshit of, ‘if you want me to keep your secret, you’ll have to be my artistic assistant.’ Something like that.”

“Just what kind of person do you take me for?” Crafty giggled, poking the cat’s nose, flustering him more, before leaning up next to him, the cat flinching immensely at the contact. “I told you before, I won’t let you run away when there’s something I can do to help you, not this time.”

“This is a bit different from me simply running the hell away from my problems Crafty!”

“I mean, you ARE free to decline, but~”

“I- You- “ the cat stammered, not even realizing how the nightmare wasn’t even really a nightmare anymore, all that was left around them was the edge of the room he was bound to the wall to, the area around them replace by a calming cloud space, with childish doodles and drawings decorating the space. Catnap realized he was more screwed than a lightbulb, and resigned himself with a sigh as his gem shined brightly. “Why do I get the feeling I won’t win against you at any fucking time in the near future?”

“Who knows, but if that is the case, maybe I really will be your first friend of the Smiling Critters,” she teased, her gem shining with the same intensity.

“Suddenly I’m glad with the demands you originally asked for.”

“Good boy. Now, shall we wake up? I’d imagine the little ones would be a bit worried sick at this point.” With her words, the space around them cracked and began to crumble, before everything went black. It was a gentle shaking sensation that stirred her, making her slowly open her eyes with a small yawn. What greeted her was a worried Puppyday, who immediately began to smile as she responded, before she could see what was going on. She woke up back in Catnap’s room, the red gas clear as earlier when she first saw it.

“Crafty! Welcome back!” Puppyday yelled, his tail wagging with a new invigoration.

Although she yawned, she did accept his greetings with a stretch and a rub of her eyes. She took a moment to realize she was still leaning on something warm, before it registered with a quickness exactly where she was and she cautiously turned to see a bored and disheveled Catnap looking at her as he comforted Kittynap. Blinking once, then twice, then rubbing her eyes one more time before blinking again, just to make sure what she was seeing was reality, Crafty immediately tucked and rolled out of the bed and prayed the floor would swallow her whole. 

“Too little, too late for that one Crafty,” Catnap stated, his tail cutting off her descent and pulling her right back to the edge of the bed. “I swear, you keep involving yourself with me when you don’t need to.”

“In my defense, if I want to be friends with you, I have to put in the effort,” she retorts, pouting at the feline. “You already stated you’re letting us go the first chance you get and after the first day here, you treat them like they’re invisible or nuisances. So it’s up to me to bridge the gap towards us being friends this time around.”

“...Is that what you want or what the Smiling Critters want?”

“Why can’t it be both?~” Reluctantly, Catnap accepted her reasoning, strictly because the headache he was getting about the entire citation was getting to him. On one hand, he had absolutely no intentions of getting friendly, interacting, or remotely showing interest in the other critters. The other, Crafty essentially had him gripped by his tail and was willing to drag him by it just to keep the others out of his business if he didn’t provide them the bare minimum for that. “So, have you decided?”

“Fine, I’ll play nice and be a good kitty, but be warned~” Catnap hummed, yanking her with his tail so she was right in his face, the equine flustering at the sudden change. “A cat’s affection is fickle and selfish, so once you have it, there’s no turning back, you know?”

“Wha-! Wha-wha-wha-”

“Be careful Crafty, I’ve already proven just how possessive my affection can be~”

Crafty immediately shoved the feline away in a flush, holding her cheeks as she lit up like a christmas tree. Where on earth did this kind of Catnap come from and why the hell is he here now? This was possibly the only time she regretted being a creative hobbyist, because the implications of his words was having her thoughts go light years per second, all while the shameless feline grins like a cheshire at her.

“Wow, I’ve never seen Catnap so relaxed,” Puppyday commented, reminding Crafty that there was indeed an audience to the scene, currently forcing her to immediately curl up on the floor and wait for death to strike twice.

“A bit mean-spirited, don’t you think?” Kitty asked, looking incredulously as his bigger body example, who couldn’t look more entertained at her reaction.

“Maybe~” The cat sang, getting up and crouching next to the embarrassed equine as he poked her with his tail. “But she wanted this, so who am I to not oblige if she’s twisting my tail so much? Congratulations Craftty, instead of giving an inch, I’ll be generous and give a mile.”

Crafty promptly regretted her mistakes in making it this far into being Catnap’s friend.

Chapter Text

“Alright Bubba, are you ready to get this over with?” Catnap asked the pachyderm.

“Not entirely. I can understand the theory of controlling he magic, but-”

“But nothing, no time for the quitter talk. Simply drowning you in my normal gas wouldn’t be productive for you as treatment because you already have a gem formed. This is the most effective way to treat a damaged gem without much risk to yourself and you know that too.”

Bubba couldn’t refute that statement, especially since the results were already proven well through the other critters. Honestly, he was steadily surprised by how much Catnap’s innovation with his new life has come. Taking the unique property of adaptability in his new gas to aid someone’s treatment effort in a damaged gem is a genius thought. A damaged soul gem is basically saying someone’s life is in a fragile state and can only really be helped by self care using someone’s own magic and unless someone else can match the ‘exact’ magic wavelength of the patient, even healing would be detrimental as the different magics have a higher chance of clashing within the gem itself. But by exposing someone to his gas, when he tethers his tail to them, the innate property of the gas takes on their magic properties so it’s simply a weaker form of their magic in gaseous form. 

As long as they can take it in and properly control it internally, they can drastically reduce the time needed to recover. When he heard about it, he was ecstatic, but skeptical at the safety in doing such a method, but when Hoppy tried out one session and practically slinging electricity during treatment, there was no way he could contest further. While the method was proven safe as long as you can follow his methods, Bubba could not exactly say he was the most confident in being able to do so. Theoretically, he understood what Catnap explained better than the cat himself, yet in practice he was probably in a worse position than Dogday when it came to magic control and the dog can’t even consciously do it..

“I know, but you can’t expect me not to be scared when I’m not confident.”

“I don’t,” Catnap deadpanned, looking unaffected in the slightest by that information. “I’m just lazy and impatient, so the longer I spend with you is more time wasted that I could be using to help another of you guys out, or do literally ANYTHING else I’d rather do. Of course, if you don’t want to go through it, we can cut this short for the day and I can happily move on with my schedule.”

“...I understand, but can you at least promise it won’t hurt or anything?”

“I can’t say you won’t feel anything~ during, but I can say it shouldn’t be painful.”

“I’ll take what I can get…”

Taking a deep breath, Bubba nodded uneasily to the feline sitting across from him as he felt that long purple tail gently wrap around his waist. Soon enough, that iconic smile of the Smiling Critters snapped onto the cat’s face as the lemongrass scented light-blue gas began to fill the room around them. Seeing the geometries bounce around in the gas was slightly relaxing for Bubba, so at least he was a bit calmer during the process. He closed his eyes and slowly started to focus on feeling the magical energy around him, taking note that despite not seeing anything, the image of all the gas was prevalent in his mind.

First step was perception, which he passed easily, but now was the part he was uneasy about. Slowly and steady, he exerted his will on the similar magic energy and began drawing it towards his medal. From Catnap’s perspective, Bubba was handling the control much better than the pachyderm gave himself credit for. Although he was a bit on the slow side in trying to be too safe, his progress was having a strong visual effect, to the point that the elephant’s soul gem was formed on the medal and actively mending itself back to normality. 

“This is…a lot weirder than I was expecting,” Bubba said, not sure how to describe the feeling going through his body. It was like he was almost feeling his blood flow, the magic pumping through his body in every vein. There was thankfully no pain, but he can’t say he could stay calm under such influence and it was beginning to show with the increase of his heart rate.

“Bubba, stay calm, you’re doing fine right now!” Catnap yelled, immediately releasing his tail and stopping the gas production.

“I…I-I don’t-” Bubba stammered, feeling the magic be absorbed as quick as his heart rate, the rapid increase adding to his distress.

“You need to stop now, you’re going too fast Bubba!”

“I can’t!”

Catnap shook the elephant harshly, trying to force interrupt him, but he wouldn’t stop absorbing gas. He severely underestimated the effect his body would be in when the elephant learned to take in ambient magic, especially his own, in such a large volume around him. Whatever Bubba was doing wouldn’t stop, not until it took in every bit of matching magic and the rate was increasingly more rapacious the more his soul gem shined. Once the last bit of gas disappeared into his body, the force of the finishing process actually knocked Catnap to the floor.

“Catnap!” Bubba shouted, finally feeling in control enough to get up and rush to him. “I’m so sorry! Are you okay?”

“I’ll live…”the feline moaned, rubbing his head, barely noticing the door being opened by a worried pair of critters.

“What’s going on in here?!”

“Is everything alright?”

Dogday wasted no time rushing to Bubba to make sure the elephant was in one piece while Bobby moved to help Catnap up. Luckily, outside of a mild annoying pain in the back of his head, nothing seemed out of the ordinary for the cat. Physically, Bubba ticked every box for a clean bill of health, but the magic he was exuding was definitely of note.

“Bubba?…” Dogday started.

“I don’t feel any different if that’s what you’re worried about, but…” Bubba responded, looking at his body, but he couldn’t not notice the unusual level his magic was at now. Once he got his bearings, Catnap took the elephant medal gently, gliding his fingers over it slowly with a discerning eye.

“You’re magically charged right now.”

“He’s what now?”

“Magically charged Muttley. It means his magic is currently at 1.5x its normal effectiveness.”

“Hey-!”

“Will he be alright? It doesn’t sound bad but…” Bobby interrupted, cutting off Dogday before even entertaining the idea that this was the time. The dog didn’t exactly like it, but understood it could wait until their friend was confirmed okay.

“If his soul gem was still damaged, it’d be incredibly dangerous for him. Luckily, it seems he didn’t start going magic starved until his gem finished it’s self repair, so it basically means he’s temporarily at a better state than his normal. It’s nothing bad since his gem is repaired, but you should hold off until it’s mostly gone since I haven’t heard too many good things about it.”

“Could you please elaborate exactly what you mean by that Catnap?” Bubba asked with a dash of unease in his voice. All Catnap could explain about it was that it was a form of overindulgence and he’s in a state similar to the euphoria people would experience under drugs. While he wasn’t transformed, it was relatively harmless, but if he transformed, it’d be like a newbie drug user getting a serial drug addict’s dosage after the first hit. The most likely scenarios would be that he'd be in a type of catatonic state while transformed and suffer withdrawals until he de-transformed, or he’d experience a massive depressive state once he burned through the magic and de-transforms.

“Either option has drawbacks to you, but if you take it easy, the state should go away naturally and your body will just regulate itself by a few magical hiccups for a couple days,” Catnap finished, giving the elephant a final look over just to be safe. “Whatever the case, you are functionally a clean bill of health, so congrats I guess.”

“Does that mean I’m free to go back to work?” The elephant asked, being met with a disgustedly confused look by the cat. “What?”

“Bubba, are you serious right now?” Dogday asked, looking just as confused.

“Yes? Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because of the entire reason we’re hiding here for one!”

“Dogday is right Bubba,” Bobby added hurriedly. “I understand you may feel a little stuffy here, but going back now can’t be safe, especially not where you work!”

“But I’m fine now, at least physically. Now that I’m aware of the danger, they won’t get the jump on me nearly as easily, so I should be more than sufficient in handling myself if the need arises without much conflict.” Bubba’s reasoning wasn’t far-fetched considering, but just the idea of it set alarms off in Dogday’s and Bobby’s heads. 

“Riddle me this Bubba; Let’s say for instance, we have a shared companion who was just attacked by a well known organization to the point they wanted them dead.” Catnap started, stealing everyone’s attention. “By a miracle of some kind, not only did that friend live, but managed to find a safe location to stay at and get treatment for the long haul. Now, let’s say that friend, upon immediately being healed, decides that the FIRST order of business is for them to get back to work in an environment where the group that tried to kill them, not only have an overwhelming advantage, but is actively aware of their presence and will undoubtedly try to finish what they started. How should we, as their ‘friends,’ react to such a suggestion?”

Although the cat was smiling at the blue pachyderm, the air of irritation and sarcasm were dripping like venom as he leaned into his, waiting for Bubba’s response. Only Kickin would be dense enough to not see the metaphoric scenario Catnap presented as anything but an obvious jab, something he obviously showed by his downcast expression. He knew it was risky, he understood exactly what he was getting into and that going to work at this point in time was nothing short of an invitation to come at him. In spite of all these cold hard facts, Bubba couldn’t help but be adamant about his wish, he didn’t just want to go back out and work, he needed to go back.

The questions he wants to ask, the answers the feline may or may not give, the many theories and hypotheses that require some sort of data to refine and solve. Bubba, at the end of the day, was guided by solving his curiosities, no matter the risk to himself, so if he had to stare into the jaw of the beast, he was going to. Seeing the scared resolve on the elephant’s face could do nothing but make Catnap sigh exasperatedly into his hand, before getting up and walking over to a neat table and accessing the drawer, ruffling around for something.

“Here, wear this,” the cat said, tossing a small earring box to the pachyderm who caught it with ease.

“What?”

“Are those big ears for show? I said wear it. Don’t make me say it again Bubba.”

Opening the box, Bubba, Dogday, and Bobby could clearly see a lone moon earring glistening with the remnant of an enchantment. Bubba had to look at Catnap and the moon earring a couple times before being sure he wasn’t seeing things, before mumbling at least a paragraph a minute about what he was observing. If not for Catnap slamming his tail against a nearby table, the elephant was sure to write an entire report by the end of the day, before finally putting the thing on.

“Catnap, what’s with the earring? I saw it was enchanted, but…”

“It’s nothing major, just think of it like a life alert button,” Catnap started, leaning against the wall with his arms folded. “I enchanted it to send a signal to the sun earring I wear by giving the location of whoever is wearing it, as well as a slight perception of when this earring is close by. If you transform or get hit with an attack of enough damage, I’ll at least know where you are and what kind of situation you’re in.”

After he finished speaking, the cat was left confused as she watched the faces of all 3 critters effectively go slack jaw as they stared at him. At first, it was unnerving seeing them look at the earring and back at him in stunned silence, but just before it got annoying, he was taken back as Dogday aggressively grabbed him by his arms, right in his face.

“ARE YOU SECRETLY FUCKING RICH!?!”

“Wha- Huh?”

“Catnap, are you seriously giving Bubba something this precious?” Bobby questioned, covering her mouth with such elation in her voice that the feline was thinking she was witnessing a marriage proposal.

“You said you hated us, why the hell are you gifting him something like that and saying, ‘nothing major,’ like what?!”

“What are you guys talking about?” Catnap asked, annoyed by them overreacting.

“Catnap, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say your information gathering didn’t entirely include prices on certain commodities and similar,” Bubba hypothesized aloud, getting a slight reluctant nod of agreement. “I was afraid of that. You see Catnap, you are aware that enchantments are a rarity here, but clearly you’re not aware of ‘how’ much of a rarity. What you’ve just given me is around enough to buy our entire apartment building and still have change to buy another.”

“...Eh?”

“If we were to relate this to our monthly income, at best, we’d be working and saving every single coin for 5 months to afford the cheapest option, by a third rate enchanter. This earring would get me targeted for another reason if people figure out what it is.”

The way Catnap’s eyes opened up was possibly the most off guard they’ve seen him since they met. Even when he quickly looked away and tried to seem unbothered, the cold sweat he broke out in was more than enough evidence that he was so unaware of what he handed Bubba that it borderlined dense. Dogday was definitely not letting the cat off with giving something like that ignorantly to any more of his friends and began nagging him worse than a mom on their child for spending their allowance 5 minutes into getting it. The feline wasn’t a fan of it, but after hearing Bubba’s explanation, decided that maybe the dog had a few bits of useful information that he should listen to. He didn’t like it, that’s for certain considering how much he talked.

“This…is troubling, to say the least.”

“It does solve the main issue that’d keep you from going to work…”

“ Solve, is a strong word to use Bobby. If anything, I’d be painting a different target on my back if people realize what it is. The only saving grace is Catnap is no slouch and you can’t even tell it’s been enchanted, but the weight of this earring just went up to the point I’m scared to take it out of the box.”

“UGH! JUST SHUT UP ALREADY!” Catnap yelled, tired of listening to Dogday’s nag train.

“HOW CAN I WHEN YOU’RE HANDING OUT SACKS OF MANA COINS LIKE BAGS OF CANDY!?”

“Look! At the end of the day, it’s Bubba’s choice to wear it to go back to work! All I did was give him a safety button that would calm his nerves and I KNOW would leave you less worried about him!” Dogday wanted to retort, but hesitated right after opening his mouth, biting back his lip. The feline wasn’t wrong that having that, while the biggest neon target to the discerning eye, was relatively the only option they could even afford that wouldn’t inconvenience anyone involved. Catnap was giving it to Bubba for free, something they’d have to starve themselves to bones to afford a cheap knock-off version of. 

“That’s…true, but that doesn’t mean you’re any less stupid for it! I mean, how can you not know the value of enchanted stuff!? You’ve been showing off stuff you’ve personally enchanted, so yes, it’s of no real cost to you, but think about it from our point of view! It’s like inviting peasants into a castle, then handing them a $100 bill as a tissue or something!”

“Alright, I see your goddamn point,” Catnap relented, shoving the dog off him. “But that can be saved for another day. Right now, Bubba needs to decide; are you going to work wearing it, are you going to work with the risk without, or saving the peanut gallery the added stress?”

The very next morning, Bubba was standing at the door, bright and early, with that same moon earring decorating his right ear. It took him an extra hour of deliberation, but at the end of it, safety was priority number one for him, especially since they were even in Catnap’s care because it was the safest option for treatment. When the others learned about it, the reactions were pretty mixed, but ultimately it was agreed that they’d be far less worried for the elephant if he wore it to work.

“You made sure to pack the lunch Picky made for you right? A-and you’re bringing your spare pair of glasses? Maybe we should ask Crafty to wake Catnap up and double check the enchantment and make sure it works properly.” Bobby was fussier than a mother with how much she wanted to make sure he was prepared, to the point that none of the other critters present could get a word in.

“Bobby, I promise I’m more than ready. Besides, thanks to Crafty’s skills, you can’t even notice the enchantments without really getting up close and personal.” 

“Oh I know, but I just feel like we should give it a bit longer…”

“Come on Bobs, you worry too much,” Hoppy offered, jogging in place as she wanted to stop her morning exercise long enough to see Bubba off. “Thanks to Naps, Bubba’s magic is overkill or whatever, right? If anything, anyone who comes after him should be worried about coming at him.”

“I know I’m not much of a fighter Bobby, but I’m no pushover when I’m prepared,” Bubba promised, hitting his chest with a little strength to at least prove he’s got a solid build as an elephant. Bobby was still incredibly worried, but a gentle hand on her shoulders by both a partially asleep Kickin and a knowingly smiling Dogday at least calmed her nerves.

“Make sure you use the earring if you need to, Bubba. Catnap promised he’d rush to your aid as soon as he received the signal, so don’t try to be a hero and call for that backup.”

“Don’t worry Dogday, I promise Catnap has hammered home how much I need to be aware about using it…really,” he responded, remembering EXACTLY how thoroughly the cat hammered into him about how to use the earring after everyone else went to sleep. He’d feel uneasy about how the feline waited until late like he knew they’d both be up the latest, but Bubba knew it was a losing battle since his options were either let the explanation put him to sleep or let the cat gas him for it. If anything, he was more afraid of it failing before forgetting how the earring worked.

“Then nothing to worry about. I know you’ll do the smart thing no matter what happens Bubba.”

“The way you guys are talking, it’s almost like I’m going to war.”

“““Because people are trying to kill us!”””

Bubba was taken aback by how hard Dogday, Bobby, and Hoppy came at him with their retort, but couldn’t help but smile at their worry. After one last bit of warnings and well wishes, the elephant ran off before using magic to enhance his abilities just enough to begin clearing the distance in leaps. The first couple of jumps made strides much larger than anticipated, but still within acceptable error of safety. He wasn’t sure about the idea when they first talked about it even after all this time, mostly because there wasn’t a need, but for his first time, it could see the enjoyment in it as it felt freeing.

“By my calculations, I should get there about 2 minutes before opening. I can’t wait to get back to being surrounded by all those books, I wonder how things have been since I’ve been there.”

There is a universe somewhere where those words were not a red flag that would come back to bite him, but this afterlife was not one of them. To his pleasure, he arrived 5 minutes earlier than opening and what he was met with was a violation of the highest order for anyone who likes structure and order when he walked in. He figured he was a strong pillar for the library he worked at, but to see how scattered and disorganized everything became in the short time he was recovering nearly put him in a coma. The books were scattered and strewn about, the records were in piles up to someone’s waist, and the most obnoxious patrons possible were given the head librarian problems AGAIN while his supposed ‘co-workers’ were either not bothering or egging it on.

“ I see you’ve grown lax since I’ve been away~ ” Bubba deadpanned, his voice carrying with a heavy disdain that everyone turned to him in shock.

“B-B-Bubba?! M-my guy, how…have you been?” one of the patrons asked fearfully, the dread in his eyes evident.

“ You have until the count of 3 to vacate the premises .”

The way they vanished before he could even start the count was like they never existed levels of fast. Bubba smiled happily as he strode over to his co-workers, especially the ones who egged things on, notioning for their explanations and when he got none, the eyes he gave them would cause nightmares. Dragging the lazy co-workers over, he immediately put them on book organization duty and his face already told them if they had any complaints, they didn’t anymore. And finally, he checked up on the librarian after helping her to her feet, giving her the cookies Picky left him for dessert for her nerves and had her relax at the front desk for now.

“ Now then ,” Bubba started, his neck snapping to look behind him at the ones who left out their explanations, “ It seems some ‘on the job training,’ is in order .” 

It took an hour after their normal opening time, but the library was back in working, clean, proper order. The books were sorted and aligned perfectly on the shelves, documents and files organized and put away, and some workers looking like death was ready to choke them out in their sleep while others looked as though they were zombies brought back to life and enslaved just to work. Of course his boss was a little worried about how they were, but Bubba more than assured her that there was no problem with how things were and if she had any problems, she was more than free to fire the problematic workers and he could handle the brunt of things for a while.

“Words can’t even describe how thankful I am to have you back working Bubba, things just never run that smoothly without you,” she commented, finally calming down as she adjusted her desk.

“I’m sorry for the short break, but as my friend informed you before, it was pretty inescapable circumstances for needing a break.”

“Oh it’s no trouble at all, really.”

“I’ll make up for lost time and make sure the library stays well on its feet, all of us will. Right? ” Bubba stated, before turning with that same dead smile stare, that probably would remind his friends of Catnap back at playtime co, that shook the core of everyone of his co-workers, all of them tearfully nodding with forced smiles. Luckily the remainder of the afternoon was mostly uneventful with a few regulars stopping by after seeing Bubba behind the desk and enjoying the normal atmosphere he brought to the somewhat lawless building, there was a new face or 2 he didn’t recognize, but didn’t give much thought to them since they seemed to know exactly what they wanted to read and where they wanted to sit and read. When he saw there was really nothing to do and no one needed help, he decided to step onto the floor and accomplish what he really wanted to do at the library.

“This one, I believe this one and…perfect, this should be good,” he commented, stacking the last book in his arms before taking a seat at the table closest to him. Thanks to Catnap, he had plenty of questions about this afterlife and the rules of it, left unanswered, but refused to give up on them. What the cat won’t give freely, he’d have to find for himself, maximizing his curiosity and the value of his one question the cat will answer. He was never so curious before because it didn’t seem that valuable, nor was it interesting enough to spark Bubba’s interest when there wasn’t any pressing need. Now that their very beings were at stake, he couldn’t help but get fired up at the prospect of studying for not just his joy, but for the sake of his friends.

Unsurprisingly, the books he initially found only answered surface level stuff he probably could’ve found out by word of mouth, but the more answers he found, the more questions arose in his trail. Information of similar nature tied to books completely unrelated to the previous topic. Witness testimonials and biographies that spoke of a supposed past with choppy and loose information that seemed out of place. In fact, the books he was reading talk about this world historically over a very extended period, but the information between them would describe things in different ways based on the person and context, even though their time frames were within months of each other. It was like the world itself was changeable, malleable to a childlike degree of attentiveness. Just before Bubba could arrive at a hypothesis, he felt a tap on his shoulder, snapping his attention to the young woman before him.

“Pardon me sir, I didn’t mean to disturb you,” she politely said, slightly nudging her hair out of her face with a gentle expression. Although her hood was up, he couldn’t help but notice the dull red of her rather yarn-like hair and pale skin against a blue, floral print dress. “I was told you could help me find what I was looking for in the library and was hoping you could guide me to the music section?”

“I’m terribly sorry to make you go out of your way, I’ll be happy to assist,” bubba said, closing his book and adjusting his earring as he stood up. Asking her a few questions, he took notice how knowledgeable she was with music and its history, immediately understanding she probably came from the same century he did, as some of her knowledge seemed a little out of date. The guiding was taking longer than he expected, especially with how small the building is, but Bubba wasn’t too bothered by the walk as their chat was very enlightening, despite the darker ambience of where they seemed to be heading. By the time they arrived at the appropriate section, he had already gleaned she was mainly into old music that focused heavily into orchestral and rather modest tastes.

“My brother would always tell me the Original Memphis Five were his favorite before Louis Armstrong came around, but I could never get into jazz that much. I was always into the theater and compositions that told stories all on their own, true works of art in orchestra. I think Beethoven will always stand as my favorite.”

“You have exquisite tastes then,” he replied, before scouring the shelves looking for the supposed book. “I prefer Mozart or Bach personally when it comes to compositions as they make lovely ambiance for long days and study sessions.”

“Oh my, next you’ll tell me your favorite piece was Symphony No. 40.”

“If you include ‘The Marriage of Figaro,” and Bach’s “Inventions and Sinfonias,” then I’m guilty as charged.”

She laughed at his choices, finding them to be in great taste. It was nice to talk to someone so informed in a topic otherwise forgotten or that most found boring, seeing the woman in a more comfortable light by the time he found the book she was looking for. Once he handed it over to her, she quickly showed her joy at the cover, “Beethoven’s Piano Pieces,” before turning to a page titled ‘Fur Elise’ with a gentle smile.

“Ah this is it…” she quietly hummed, tearing up at the sight, a small light shining over her chest before the very composition she was looking at started to play seemingly out of nowhere.

Realizing it was likely her magic as he felt the light from her chest swirl, Bubba quickly tried to insist she shouldn't do that in the library, before freezing as soon as the tempo changed. He could feel the melody resounding through his very body with a terrifying grip that was threatening to choke him out, clutching his throat. Looking at her in shock, he could make out the faintest darkness in her gentle smile as his eyes saw red and a faint wetness was slowly trailing down his face. Before the composition finished, he fell to the floor in a puddle of his own blood as she closed the book.

“I do hope you enjoyed the show, but if you have to blame anyone, blame it on your mistake of rejecting his word,” she stated solemnly. “I do hope you’ve learned from your mistakes this time around.”

As she began walking away, she stopped just as she was about 10 feet away, a sigh almost forcing itself from her lips. Turning with an expression of exasperation, she looked to see the relatively okay elephant standing and wiping the blood off his face and cleaning his glasses.

“You’re a lot more difficult to kill than I remember.”

“Well, when you’ve seen the same trick before, you tend to not let yourself fall for it again when you’re as cautious as I am,” the elephant stated, coughing one last bit of blood, before the color returned to his body, as if he was never affected.

“To think you were acting when listening to ‘Fur Elise,’ have you no shame?”

“Shameful is luring your target into an obvious death trap outside of his place of work and expecting an easy mark.”

She clicked her tongue at his words, showing a clear dislike for his arrogance. With a blinding flash, the outfit appeared much more pronounced and style similar to a conductor’s suit while retaining the same colors and white hood and apron. Taking the hood down, Bubba could see the familiar face of her button eyes and frown of her stitched mouth.

“When did you realize?”

“The instant you called to me specifically obviously,” Bubba answered plainly, shrugging as if it was incredibly obvious. “I mean, although unreliable most of the time, my other co-workers would obviously get asked before me as far as assistance goes by new patrons. Only a regular or something who looked into me would know that the first person they should ask is me or the head librarian for finding obscure books.”

“So you knew I was gonna kill you and still went along with the ruse? Not very smart as you claim…”

“If you’re trying to make me emotional, I’m afraid you’re wasting the oxygen,” Bubba stated, his soul gem appearing over his medallion, showing he’s in perfect condition to retaliate, something she twitched at seeing. “Not only did you have backup at every main exit, but I’m also assuming the 2 that were steadily talking to the head librarian were also there to make her a hostage if the need arose. I simply chose the least destructive option. Besides, I already signaled for backup to come here, so it’s not as though you have much time to take care of me.”

“Is that so?~” she sang, relishing in his uneasy expression. “If that’s the case, then I can only assume it would happen to be the same person who helped you before, no? The one who’s been interfering with a lot of our business as of late? And the most important detail, the one with a perfect connection to the moon?”

Bubba had a pretty mediocre poker face, but every twitch was taken into account by the woman, who smiled more wickedly with each question. Apparently Bubba and co weren’t the only ones under the radar, but Catnap wouldn’t be in the dark about them knowing about them, he just wouldn’t care. So why is it that she seems delighted that the feline is on the way, because just knowing that would be reason enough to regroup, unless they planned for his arrival. Thinking more deeply, a creeping realization came into Bubba’s head, one that made his expression more angered to her delight.

“I see you figured it out. Thank you ever so much for baiting our lost, lovely ‘First Priest,’ to us.” Her words were laced with sarcasm and belittlement at the elephant, wasting no time making a barrier as a spear of hardened light was blocked from impaling her in the face. “Temper, temper. Shouldn’t you be thankful you’re not the main priority?”

“What kind of bastard would willingly sell out the one helping them!” he yelled in retort, his soul gem shining brightly on his chest.

“There’s no need to fight, especially a losing battle you know,” she hummed, snapping her fingers and on cue, a few robbed individuals came from either end of the long aisle, blocking them in. “But I’m nothing if not generous, especially to someone so musically informed as yourself. Simply sit there like a good boy and let us collect our priest in peace and I’ll be happy to report that you and your friends were eliminated without fail. Isn’t that quite a bargain for your l-?”

Before she could even finish her sentence, large blocks of light jutted from various directions to knock out all of her backup with an assortment of thumps and cracks. To say she was surprised was an understatement, especially when she looked to see the elephant fully transformed and looking at her as if she was less than an insect. The elephant just adjusted his hat, the tassel holding his gem dangling slightly out of his face, before he stood tall with his arms behind his back.

“You’re correct, there is no need to fight a losing battle. Fortunately for me, I don’t seem to be on the losing side, nor do I plan on selling out a…friend, to low-life filth such as your organization.”

“Is this really the hill you plan to die on?”

“Is it yours?” he retorted plainly.

The cold look in his eyes, the cold and serious tone in his voice, she couldn’t help but start laughing. Holding her stomach as she doubled over laughing maniacally and devoid of sanity that it tickled her pink against such pale white skin. Wiping a tear from her eye, she stood upright as she donned the hat of a marching band director, a conductor’s baton twirling to existence in her hand with a short melody.

“Then let me be the composer of your requiem.”

With a wave of her baton, the ‘library’ distorted and shifted until the space was reminiscent of a circular orchestra hall. Bubba was standing center stage surrounded by a cylinder of audience booths, the space in between filled with an assortment of blank silhouettes, each holding their own instrument. Gathering his bearings, the elephant looked around, spotting his assailant standing atop a boldly decorated stand, adorned in flowers and rag dolls, her offering a short curtsy before standing tall.

“Before you die, allow me the honor of introducing myself; My name is Ann, the musical note of Protocol’s inquisitorial squad. By my lord’s word, I’ll show you your mistakes.”

With a sharp point of her baton, a loud blast of various brass rang strongly into Bubba’s back, sending the elephant into a tumble. Not giving him time to recover, she waved her hands to have an accompanying set of strings play, notes raining down on the elephant like a storm of arrows. Wasting no time, Bubba stopped his roll to hold his hand out, instantly generating a honeycomb composite dome shield, catching all the physical notes that would’ve skewered him. Shifting his hand around, the dome broke down and gathered into a hard light fist, that shot out like a cannon toward Ann. With a swipe of her baton, a loud percussion resounded like a wall the moment the fist would’ve collided with her, shattering it like glass. Standing to his feet, Bubba swung his arms out like a cross, a scattered assortment of pyramids forming and scaling into more sharper forms, before shooting out at her like bullets as he swung forward.

As light as a feather, Ann jumped to the side with a twirl, along the melody of woodwinds, being carried in the sound they created from her now destroyed podium. Tapping the baton at Bubba as she jumped from the melody, the percussion section began playing a beat that violently shook the stage, making Bubba have a hard time standing the louder it resounded. Once she landed on a new podium, a wave of her hands had both brass and string sections join in, creating a symphony of notes to shoot out like spears from the stage to impale the pachyderm. Realizing the situation, a quick punch to the ground delivered a wave of light that solidified the ground, stopping the execution short and isolating the percussion’s disruption.

“Oh dear, you’re much more troublesome than I remember,” she hummed, looking somewhat surprised by his improvement. “Before you could barely make one of those flimsy walls, but your magic is much more refined.”

“Since you asked, I’ll tell you that my magic allows me to create any inorganic object out of hardened light, so long as I clearly understand the fundamental structure. If I had more time to focus, I could also form things alchemically as long as the base materials are within reach and I understand the creation process.”

“A production and support type, how envious I am. My, if you were on our side, I could’ve convinced the head to increase support for the musical side of recruitment. Such a shame.”

“Apologies, but I’m not one for your type of ‘persuasive,’ approaches!” Slashing his arm at her, a thin semi-circular blade flew at her at blinding speeds, only to be stopped in front of her as strings began their approach. “An artificial playground is quite an obnoxious playing field to find myself in.”

“Well we had to ensure things were cleaned and handled no matter how aggressive we had to get after all, but with my subordinates out of commission, I now have to waste this early to ensure you don’t escape before he arrives.”

“And I’m to assume Protocol’s recent increase in playground activity at the time was for this ability?”

“I’m under no obligation to answer little boy , because on the 1 in a million chance you do survive, I would be troubled if you were to spread knowledge you had no business learning.”

“So it’s at least a by-product, noted,” he surmised, dodging a blast of sound with only the minimal shift of his head. 

“Women like an intelligent man, but one that’s too smart for his own good is arrogant. You’d be wise to keep your focus on my actions, not my words.” Directing her baton at him, her expression calmed as she closed her eyes. “Now then, allow me to wrap things up.”

The playground itself stilled before a violent rumble took Bubba to his knees. The stage lit up with various lights as an audience’s applause was resounding from the surrounding booths. A spotlight shined on Ann before the applause stilled, her looking down on Bubba with a gentle smile.

“Please enjoy Beethoven’s famous Symphony No. 5 - Fate.”

With a wave of her baton, the string section began to ring throughout the theater with a strong abandon. The sounds vibrated his very skeleton as Bubba tried plugging his ears to drown out the opening, a pointless endeavor. As the tempo began to increase in pace as the woodwinds joined, their melody cutting at his body with blades of wind. Abandoning the futile venture of shielding himself from the sound, Bubba began running from the attacks as the melody continued, stumbling as the drumming of percussion practically slammed into him the more he touched the stage. Soon the brass joined in, trampling his already rattled insides as he coughed blood with the slow and gentle approach of the woodwinds and strings took over. To her credit, Ann was an excellent conductor with her magic, deadly, but excellent. He had little time to think about it as the strings continued strong as the very bow of a violin jutted from the stage to cut his forearm, narrowly missing his neck.

Soon enough, the opening started anew, stronger than before as the weight of their sound began to actually weigh down on the elephant, almost increasing his gravity. Their continued melody created figures of music staffs, wielding notes like blades rushing at the elephant with reckless abandon. Although weaker, Bubba had no plans of letting himself fall to her orchestra, erecting pillars of hard light on each one, drumming them into the stage to absorb the percussion vibrations, only having a partial effect. He didn’t realize when, but as a clarinet began its solo, he felt his vision distort and a sickness form in his body, bringing him to his knees once again, before the orchestra continued.

“It’s useless you know, to try and combat the effects of my Chaotic Concerto Orchestra, as all who hear the symphony while it’s active experience a variety of effects. In this playground where the music will reach your very core, the strength is practically double its normal effectiveness.” The sickening feeling in his stomach came out as blood from the elephant mouth, the sight astonishing him greatly. It was like the music ruptured his insides with how he was feeling, a dizzy spell washing over him as only the strings remained. “I do hope you enjoyed the show.”

With one strong motion of the finale, the strings loudly played their ending as Bubba found it strangely hard to breathe, even to stay awake. The last thing he saw in his vision before shutting his eyes was Ann’s seemingly magnanimous smile, before the symphony reached its end. Taking in the sight of his defeat, Ann relished in the applause coming from the 2D cut outs now seated in the booths. This was the world she was meant to live in, a world blessed by music and art that touched the core of all who heard. She felt drunk by the sounds of it all, not realizing that soon the audience began cheering for an encore. The circumstance was new to her as she never heard of an encore before whenever she used this technique, but the greed of their cheering was almost rapacious, like she had no choice in the matter, to a frightening degree. Ann couldn’t understand the reason behind the playground’s demand, before she noticed a key factor as to why they were demanding such a  thing; Bubba’s pillars were standing strong.

“Such a beautiful symphony you played for me, yet why do you not answer your audience’s request?” Bubba asked, his voice ringing loudly in Ann’s head, despite seeing his corpse in a puddle of his own blood.

“How…What in the world! How are you talking right now!? You should be dead!!!”

“How rude of you to say when I politely listened to your symphony so attentively,” his voice resounded, drowning out the audience. “Surely the conductor doesn’t only have a single piece ready for a concert. I mean, you didn’t even play the full piece.”

“Don’t screw with me!” Ann demanded frantically, looking completely beside herself at this conversation. How was he speaking to her, better yet, how was he sounding completely unscathed after suffering the effects of her Chaotic Concerto. No one who heard it lived to tell the tale, never mind able to talk down to her so condescendingly. “Answer me! Where are you!?!”

“You still haven’t figured it out? I guess that’s to be expected given the circumstances.” Bubba’s indifferent tone, coupled with how his voice transmitted directly into her head. “I suppose I should explain. You see, the playground isn’t currently in your control anymore, hasn’t been since the concert started actually. Due to the very nature of my magic, I can actually replace the fundamental components of something and make it my own given enough time and magic power. I recently learned that it can even have space altering effects if done properly. Given my current condition of being magically charged and the time constraint of stopping your plans before Catnap arrived, I decided to take a risk and test out a theory of mine given what I learned from you; could my magic overwrite control of a playground?”

Looking at her fractured expression, Bubba stared boredly into the snow globe in his hands, his head leaning into his free hand upon a geometrically basic chair in a dark void. The only sources of light present coming directly from his tassel connected soul gem and the pale glow of the snow globe. Truthfully, Bubba had no basis to believe he could pull it off, no ground to say his magic would be able to override someone’s control privilege and override the core that made up the playground at all. But the fact that he not only could, but his condition made it easier than doing four function mathematics was quite a let down, despite finding the information fruitful. The only hint that made him think it was even possible was hearing what Catnap did at the Catbee playground, so taking inspiration from that, he thought why not test his emulation of it.

“Invasion, maybe infiltration, perhaps calling this technique Hacking would be appropriate as well, though given how much magic this takes, I doubt I could do it often without raising my normal magic level.”

“Impossible,”Ann quietly whined, the gravity of the situation dawning on her as she fell to her knees. “That’s completely impossible! To accomplish something we spent years testing…all because of magical overcharge…”

“I won’t say it’s only due to overcharge, as the essence of my magic helps in this front, but it’s also primarily because your control is wrestled and like a fake access anyway. If this were under the control of a plaything, I probably would struggle to even seep my magic into the playground. Oh well, consider this a learning experience for next time. I feel Catnap closing in and leaving him to clean up my mess feels a bit rude given all he’s done for me as of late.”

Letting the globe float in the air in front of him, Bubba waved the hand the formerly held it to the side, making a hard light keyboard appear. With a few quick key presses, a blue screen flashed ‘Input Received: Code Playtime Activated’ over the globe. With that, the soft glow of the globe blinked out as a dark blue ether began to surround and corrupt the inside.

“Since you were so kind to use your strongest technique against me, it’d only be fair for me to offer the same,” Bubba stated, the bored look on his face falling much more relaxed in nature, as if he were checking a meter. “I’ll call it…’ Memento Memoir ; Hour of Joy .”

As if on cue, the snow globe showed a perfect recreation of a withered and abandoned playtime factory under a monochrome glass. Ann was standing in the middle of the factory as hard light images of people were running and screaming in fear around her. She looked lost and confused at where she was and the panic around her. Although she didn’t get to hear bubba, she could understand this situation was his doing and obviously some sort of attack on her. Even if the playground wasn’t in her control, she could still use her magic just fine.

“If this is the best you can offer, you’ll never take me down little bo-” she started, a sudden tinge of pain overtaking her neck. Grabbing her neck, she began taking deep breaths, feeling as if her head had been bitten off, but not seeing any signs it had happened. The sense of pain was gone as quickly as it happened, but she couldn’t understand where it came from. Before long, an intense impact to her side sent her tumbling to the ground, before the pain registered another impact on the other side as if she was slammed into a wall. “What…what’s happening…”

Soon, images flashed through her mind, memories of various silhouettes killing her in first person. bludgeoning , eaten, ripped apart, even death by free fall, her mind was falling to pieces as she could see everything she was experiencing first hand. The worst part wasn’t even seeing them, it was that she was vividly experiencing them each time, at the exact moments they happened, whether or not they were overlapping. Her body would experience the pain, the fear, the will to live being etched into her body like the doll she was. It was a terrifying experience, one she wanted to end with each new scream and plead for death or safety. Using her magic wasn’t even on the table, as she couldn’t even move her hand to properly guide the magic. The screams in her head distract her from any song she may play, any melody she may find solace to calm her rampaging mind, all of it useless in this maddening world. 

“Stop it! Make it stop already!” Ann cried, forcing herself to her feet and running aimlessly trying to get away from it all, not realizing she was running deeper into the factory. Although the madness finally began to wane, the atmosphere around her was getting much more sinister. By the time she finally calmed down and managed to catch her breath, she noticed how out of place she looked. “Where did…I end up?”

Taking a good look around, the dreary and decrepit darkness around her was swallowing her already fragile psyche, only emergency lights being her beacon of sanity. The walls awash with marks and blood, the dirty and trampled floor littered with shoe marks and trash, it was really suffocating. With cautious steps, the clicking of his shoes were her only company as she quietly started humming ‘Fur Elise,’ for comfort, at least until a red gas began to fill her ground of her vision. She never even noticed when it began, the sound of a gas valve inching closer despite her fixed position. Turning around, the sight of 2 small pupils obscured in darkness, her heart sank with an unexplained feeling of existential dread. She didn’t know what it was, but she knew she shouldn’t stay to find out and turned on her heel  to run as fast as possible from it.

Frantic breath, the clacking of her heels against the tile, the loud thumping of the entity pursuing her. She’s only seen such things from the perspective of the one chasing, but being chased was an entirely horrid experience, one Ann could’ve lived without. In a way, she could say it was lucky the chase didn’t last much longer, but truthfully, she would’ve ran for the rest of her days to avoid what replaced it. If she had reacted any slower, Ann would’ve missed the chance to grab the ledge of a hidden pitfall obscure by the red gas. For a moment, being hidden under the gas as the thumping came closer was somewhat relieving as she was sure her predicament was obscured by the dark halls, only for her heart to stop as she felt that same piercing gaze stare at her once again.

“No way, how did you even…” Ann questioned, staring up at the cat-like creature smiling at her with such dead eyes. “Just leave me alone! What did I even do!”

Staring quietly at her, the creature tilted its head confused, before raising one paw and extending a single claw. Confusing as it was, Ann quickly realized the creature’s game as shortly after, it stabbed that claw in one of her hands, causing her to scream and release her grip with it. The pain was short, but explosive, a small hole in her palm that made it harder to use, especially as she felt the claw inch closer to the one holding her up.

“Stop! Please, just go away!” she cried, looking at the creature for sympathy at her plight. Not like this, not now, she couldn’t die without achieving her dream. “I can’t…I can’t die like this!”

Her pleas fell on deaf ears, because her only consideration was the creature choosing to simply shove her hand away, opposed to stabbing it. The freefall felt so slow, an agonizing drag as the wind howled in her ears. Was this how she was meant to die, in an abandoned factory from who knows where. This isn’t what she was promised, not what she threw away her morality for, so why? Why did she have to suffer like this up to the end. She had just felt the pain of multiple things skewering into her back, before the loud shattering of glass rang loudly for her and she felt the cold roughness of concrete.

“Dammit,” Bubba murmured on one knee against an alley wall. “That magic consumption is no joke, but it was still valuable. With them out of commission, Catnap should be fi-”

Bubba was abruptly cut off as a shrill flute blasted into his ears, taking him to the ground as she curled up to hold his ringing head. The trembling in his eyes barely gave him time to notice the demented face of Ann, staring at him with a bloodlust that could hush even predators. The shaking and heavy panting of the doll-like woman was palpable in understanding her position, but she only had objective anymore, one she wasn’t afraid to show again as a percussive blast slammed Bubba into the wall.

“You…Are much too dangerous…” she muttered, slowly advancing at the elephant.”

“How can you-”

“Quiet!” she screamed, her baton guiding another percussive blast to drum him further into the wall, blood sputtering from his mouth as he doubled over. “I don’t know who you really are, nor do I understand what that was, but all my instincts are telling me that writing your requiem is the most important.”

Bubba barely had any magic left after his test, keeping only the bare minimum to avoid the effects of de-transforming while magically charged. But the amount of damage she was doing was siphoning the little he retained just to keep him alive, something he didn’t plan for. He didn’t have the strength to get up, never mind fight back against her, something she made sure to punish him for as the shrill note once again blew his eardrums out.

“Thanks to you, I can only do simple notes right now, but that should be enough, I’ll make it so.” With her declaration, the rest of her magic gathered at her baton, before the same light held Bubba up like he was crucified with 2 notes right next to his ears with a burning intensity. “I’ll rattle your very soul with this note, call it a parting gift. Chaos Concerto: Death Percussio- ”

Bubba had his eyes closed, awaiting the inevitable, but when her spell cast was interrupted so abruptly by an unknown splattering sound, he couldn’t help but look to her. The sight that welcomed him was bittersweet to him, but one he couldn’t complain about no matter how he felt.

“I’m sorry I’m late,” Catnap said, his hand firmly impaled through Ann’s chest, clearly through her heart, and clutching her soul gem.

“Why?...Why did you-” Ann started, dropping her baton as she tried reaching toward her gem, only to cough up more blood as he retracted his hand without hesitation from her. She dropped to her knees, reaching to the hole in chest as she fell face up to stare at him. “You are…his priest…Why? Tell me why…”

“You’re welcome to hate me, I’ll bear the weight of it as long as I live, but that’s not who I am.”

As her magic weakened, Bubba was released from his bindings, only to walk up to the two with an unreadable expression. Looking at her face, Bubba could clearly see so many emotions in her weak eyes: Betrayal, Regret, Desperation, even Fear. Remembering her tears and honest pleas from his technique, it hurt his conscience to be the survivor knowing that information. This was survivor’s guilt he supposed, the pain of living through a tragedy with no other option besides what occurred, yet he can’t say he regrets this outcome. This was a life or death scenario he put himself in, it was her life or his, so even if she had dreams of her own, he couldn’t throw his life away for them.

“This can’t be…” Ann cried, looking at Catnap like a child who felt the weight of the world drop on them. “I was promised…he promised…my dreams…my one true prayer…”

“I’m sorry to you,” Catnap stated solemnly, taking a knee next to her. “But it has to be this way, you know that.”

“It’s not fair…It’s not fair!” she whined, the tears falling as she weakly clenched her hand. “I did everything I was asked! I followed the doctrine to the letter! I threw away everything! Everything!...But this is my reward in the end?...This is what I get….for being devoted?...”

“No, it isn’t,” Bubba stated objectively. “Not a reward, but a chance.”

Snatching her soul gem from Catnap’s hand, Bubba held it close before de-transforming and placing it in her hand. Her gem was far too badly damaged, too cracked to retain itself even to her, yet for Ann, it felt so warm and comforting. Using the rest of her bodily strength, she held it close with a weak smile, the feeling of clarity from her soul gem being something so long forgotten.

“Remember this feeling, even when you lose yourself. I promise you’ll find your dreams and you’ll achieve them.”

“...You…You’re too kind you know. Doing something like this for someone who tried to kill you twice.”

“You’ve been shown your mistakes, so I’ll choose whether I want to make more of my own.”

“I see…” Ann muttered, closing her eyes peacefully. “...Thank you…”

With those as her last words, Bubba’s last memory of her was merely the deafening roar of a gun and shattering of a crystal. In some form of luck, a playground announcement was given in the area prior to Bubba’s excursion so he effectively was given the rest of the day off, something he felt thankful for given his current condition now that he was out of magic. Left with no other option, Catnap lent him a shoulder as they slowly trekked their way through alleys and such on their way back to the hotel.

“Why’d you do that, Bubba?”

“I don’t know what you’re referring to specifically, so you’ll have to describe what you’re talking about.”

“Oh really? Then let me clarify: when did you figure out that side-effect of being magically charged?” Silence was all Bubba offered the cat, apparently taking a page from his book in withholding information, but Catnap’s clicked tongue practically gave away he already had an idea when. “Wasting that on someone who tried to kill you, such a waste…”

“I’m merely satisfying my curiosity Catnap; Will someone who reforms from scratch truly start from zero? Nothing more.”

Catnap didn’t entirely buy that, but didn’t show it from Bubba’s position, something he intuitively felt and what thankful he left it at that. It didn’t take too long for them to reach the hotel and the reception was about as hectic as expected. Naturally, when Catnap got the signal, he let everyone know, so even more obviously, they’d be prepared in case things took a turn. Bobby, bless her, saved her nagging until Bubba was properly cared for in physical health and checked out for her magical help. Picky already had a light meal, to aid his recovery, hot and ready while he had the nagging as accompaniment. Hoppy and Kickin weren’t invasive, but they definitely didn’t let the elephant get a break from questions of what happened.

“Not gonna grill him with the rest of the peanut gallery?” Catnap asked, leaning on the wall outside the door, barely giving a glance to the dog casually leaning on the wall on the other end of it.

“As a leader, I gotta know when to get on my friends and when to comfort them. Right now, I don’t think I’m needed just yet. By those injuries and his face, I’d say the others got it this time.”

“How mature of you, but if you’re out here entertaining me rather than your friend, then you obviously have something you’re after?”

“Just wanted to check on you too, nothing too bad,” Dogay said, the feline raising an eyebrow at the canine, only for him to look up with a weak smile. “I know I don’t have the right to say this, but…if you need to talk to someone, you should. It’s not good for you to bottle up your feelings until they…get too much.”

“Pot calling the kettle black?”

“I’m just saying Catnap, I know better than anyone what bottling feelings up does to someone. Even if you have experience with it, killing can’t be that easy for someone, even you.” Leaving him with those words, Dogday entered the room to join the rest of the Smiling Critters in grilling Bubba in some way. The cat merely flicked his tail as he put his hood up before walking down the hallway.

“These feelings of guilt are because of my sin, but it’s okay,” Catnap muttered with closed eyes. “I’ll bear these feelings by myself, until I make everything right.”

----Bonus----

“Catnap!” Bubba called, pulling the cat’s attention from the kitten in his lap. “I wanted to talk to you in private, if you don’t mind?”

“Oh? The first to come for my life is Bubba, who would’ve thought?”

Despite the obvious joke, the mini in his arms did NOT find it funny and was pretty hard pressed leaving Catnap alone with the pachyderm. It took some coaxing, but with the stipulation their ‘talk’ happened on the roof with Kittynap behind the door just in case, Bubba was afforded his privacy.

“Am I really so untrustworthy?....”

“If it makes you feel any better, pretty sure he’d do that for any of you guys,” Catnap offered with an uneasy smile, before adopting his bored expression. “So what is it you want?”

“I…I finally decided on the question for you Catnap.”

Now this raised the felines’ eyebrows, because he’d been waiting for ages for Bubba to decide on his question, because Dogday wanted to be the last one and wouldn’t come close to using it until Bubba did. What was odd was how Bubba called him to isolation before asking, something that made it hard to discern what the elephant would ask. What question could the pachyderm have that he wanted this to be done 1-on-1?

“Catnap, you know there’s an entire library’s worth of books total of questions I want to ask you. Some simple and expansions of the ones asked and other obscure and original to the point that I don’t think you could answer easily,” Bubba started, taking a deep breath before he continued. “Thanks to my little return to work, a lot of my questions have found an answer or a start to being answered, to the point of deciding this was…difficult.”

“Your point?”

“It was clear by my excursion of a few key things worthy of note. The first; this world is far too inconsistent to simply be an ‘afterlife,’ a fact you clearly understand given what you asked me about being magically charged. The second; you know the group after us far better than you give yourself credit. My proof of that was Ann’s reaction to you and your response, because whether or not you personally knew her, she knew of or about you to a degree far better than simply knowing about you. The third and probably the most important; is that whether I want to believe it or not, whether I want to accept the reality or not, experiment 1006, the Prototype from playtime co, is indirectly involved heavily in the roots of Protocol.”

At the last point, Catnap’s expression creased with a slight irritation, more or less confirming Bubba’s claims. The evidence spoke for itself in a lot of ways, from the recent gates, to the state of Catbee, and especially to the words Ann would say. He didn’t know if the others figured this out, but quite frankly, Bubba wasn’t willing to tell them, at least not yet. Not only did he need to confirm his speculation first, but they weren’t in a position to worry about that as a situation when things were just getting stable.

“You’ve done plenty of homework to say the least, but considering you haven’t asked me directly for a confirmation, it’s obvious you’re hard set on them being facts before this. So what is the point in telling me this now?”

“It’s simple, because they’re my proof for the question I’m going to ask you, Catnap,” Bubba started, a tense and pained look on his face as he stared at the cat down. “Catnap, please tell me honestly here…Do you plan to die?”

At those words, Catnap had a hard time stifling his laughter, although Bubba wasn’t deterred. Catnap did try deflecting the question like he did with Bobby, but the elephant was prepared, cutting off his attempt short. He pointed out a few factors that led him to this conclusion, many of which Catnap simply smiled quietly to. How the cat prepared the entire hotel with so much space and resources for plenty of individuals, far more than himself and the children in his care, especially given how poorly he cares for himself. How the feline’s magic was used strictly in fighting Protocol and playthings that seem to be obviously affected or ‘corrupted’ by the prototype’s influence. Yet the most important bit of information that led him to this conclusion was Bubba’s ability to override the control of the playground and magical overcharge ‘side effect.’

“Taking all those factors together, along with how much you keep saying you’ll make up for your mistakes, I can only assume you have a terribly self-destructive plan and you’re doing everything in your power to allow victims to live after you finish,” Bubba theorized aloud, a sad tone in his words. “If, say if, your magical ability allowed you to take on that corruption of the prototype, allow you to bear the weight of your sin literally, then it’s plausible with that side effect or other, you’ll destroy all traces of the prototype ... even if that means destroying yourself.”

“...I’m surprised, really I am Bubba,” Catnap started with a gentle smile, all but directly confirming his worries. “I never thought anyone would figure it out, nevermind be worried enough to confront me about it.”

“Catnap!”

“If it makes you feel any better…it’s not the first plan. It’s a last ditch effort I’m planning for in case things take…a terrible turn. Even though I wouldn’t mind destroying myself to right my wrongs, I can’t afford to do that easily anymore.” Catnap gazed slightly to the door, hinting at his reasoning quite obviously, something Bubba picked up on with relief, but still uneasy. “If I have to answer properly, I do indeed have a plan to die, but I don’t intend to.”

Bubba was afraid of that answer, despite all signs pointing to that being correct. It was the one time he felt himself regret being correct about things, about the one person he never thought he’d ever care to be worried for. He could still vividly remember the days where even thought of the feline were a cause for crippling anxiety, a lingering dread that haunted him for days on end. Now here he was, confronting the feline for his own lack of self-safety and being willing to ruin his everything just to make up for a mistake he couldn’t help but make.

“I see…” Bubba said somberly, before slapping his face and standing tall at the cat. “Then I’ll just have to make sure you keep that mindset.”

“Beg your fucking pardon?”

“Then beg,” he deadpanned, stepping up to the cat with crossed arms, a bored expression that matches the feline’s own. “You see, there’s a lot I don’t know about you Catnap, some I’m fearful of and some I can’t help but desire knowing. Now that I’m aware of your kamikaze stunt plans, I can’t in good conscience let you off on your own devices.”

“Please do not fucking tell me, you’re pulling a Dogday,” Catnap groaned, pinching the bridge between his eyes as he held his hand out against the elephant. “What the hell happened to leaving the first chance you got!? Are we just magically forgetting that bullshit!?”

“No, I’m simply ignoring that agreement.”

“You don’t seriously expect me to let you breathe down my neck do you? I hate you, I hate all of you and can’t wait to get you out of my fur as soon as freaking possible.”

“Correct, but-” Bubba started, leaning into the cat’s face with slight irritation. “You also care for the Giggling Critters, to a fault at that given how you reacted when you heard what happened to Puppyday. It’s also obvious for one reason or another, having us around heavily benefits them greatly, something even I’ve noticed from my short observations. So if an outsider can see something like that, you must be critically aware of that information as well.”

At his words, Catnap nearly bit his tongue back in anger of Bubba’ confidence. Even if he did notice that, he was simply hoping to just allow visitation and bring the critters to them at times and without involving himself. It was sheer luck that Kittynap spending time with him saved the kitten, but the fact that Dogday managed to save the puppy made it an untested theory. Unfortunately, the improvement in all the Giggling Critters psyche and stability more or less proved that having the bigger versions around assisted them as fact. And if Bubba was aware, then his whole plan goes out the window as they could simply use that tidbit to justify staying until the kids didn’t require the silver bands anymore, much to his chagrin.

“Nosey ass Dogday, Invasive ass Crafty, now Blackmailing ass Bubbaphant. Fucking kill me…”

“I appreciate your cooperation,” Bubba stated, adjusting his glasses in victory.

“No f-ing consent though, you info greedy bastard.”

“Bad mouth me all you want Catnap, it won’t deter me.”

“ Tch , god I hate my life.”

“Then learn to enjoy it,” Bubba offered, resting a hand on the cat’s shoulder. “Because it’s the one you’re going to live, I’ll make sure of it. Or course, if you have a problem with me, I could always inform Kitty-”

“ Pleasure to have you aboard ,” Catnap growled with gritted teeth as he held out a hand to the elephant, who accepted it with a victorious grin.

“Please take care of me, Catnap.”

Chapter Text

“Nah, to the ah, to the hell fucking no,” Catnap deadpanned with an apathetic expression and not even a spared glance at the bunny and bird duo currently interrupting his nap. To their credit, it was brave of them to come to his room by itself, but to shamelessly disrupt his sleep tells him they forgot the fear he first instilled back at the playcare. The sheer audacity actually baffled him enough to not threaten them off, but the consequence was a cat looking so tired leaning in the door to his suite with an expression that could’ve killed. “You have enough balls to wake me the hell up, but to ask me for stupid shit like that is almost laughable.”

“Look, we know that our relationship isn’t exactly warm- ” 

“The freezer is warmer than my relationship with any of you,” Catnap retorted, interrupting the bird with a cold tone and an even colder glare.

“But hear us out a bit, at least just hear our reasoning,” Kickin tried asking, nervously smiling a t the feline, whose face was devoid of joy at either of their antics. “I promise it isn’t just for us dude…well, not entirely anyway.”

“Think about it Catnap, you never take the squirts out of this hotel because you primarily only get active late, right? Now, you have us totally responsible and awesome chaperones that can totally show them around this afterlife they now call home!” Hoppy explains, sweating bullets at her explanation, something Catnap chose to ignore for now simply to see where this was going.

“And since we’re still recovering, you even know we won’t get into anything chaotic or hijinks that’d put them in danger, not that any would happen with us around!”

“So what do you say, Catnap? Why not let us Smiling Critters take the Giggling Critters out to explore and see the sights this area has to offer?” Hoppy asked, bringing it home.

After they finished, the feline gave them both a good look before sighing. He couldn’t even pretend to buy what they were selling because their approach was so laughably bad, he wondered if they learned how to lie from Dogday. With a second thought, probably not, considering that dog couldn’t even come up with a white lie without looking like he committed murder, nevermind whatever scheme these 2 airheads were planning.

“So when do you plan on telling the real reason you approached me with this bull, or did you really come here to waste my time and piss me off before your treatments for the day?” Catnap asked, the grin on his face striking fear in both the bird and hare. “And I want the real reason this time, otherwise your daily treatment will be a bit more… eventful .”

“Okay, okay! We hear you,” Hoppy immediately answered, her hands raised in the air. “The real reason is…well…we’re kinda bored~?”

“We really dig everything you’re doing for us Catnap, really we do. But there’s nothing to do here!” Kickin whined, shaking his fist about. “I mean seriously dude, the only thing you have remotely close to entertainment in this place is the library and who finds books THAT entertaining!?”

“Do you really want me to answer that?”

“...Okay, point taken, but give us credit here. Bubba is the only one who’d truly be satisfied with just as many books as he could, Crafty is fine as long as she has paper and a pencil, and you know Dogday won’t complain about anything as long as we’re all okay, but he’d take any excuse to get away from you…no offense.”

“None taken,” he responded to Hoppy, not really surprised or bothered by that information as the feeling is somewhat mutual. “But the answer is still hell to the goddamn no. Perfectly honest, I could care less if any of you go out and about around here, because it’d be a good new life lesson about getting too curious for your own good, especially when you have no means of self-defense that matters. But since you’re ‘patients’ in my care, that ship has long since sailed, especially when any of the giggle creatures or whatever the minis want to call themselves are involved.”

“You show a surprising amount of care about them for someone who can’t even feel bothered to call them by their group name,” Hoppy deadpanned, looking at the cat incredulously, feeling slightly irked at how he simply shrugged her off.

“Bottom line, go bother someone else because my answer is no. Also, it’s not that I care about the minis, it’s just me protecting a bunch of brats that can’t survive on their own. I was a piece of shit to them before, so I’m simply paying back what I owe.” With those words, Catnap nearly slammed his door on the 2 to get back to his nap, but the fierce grip of red blocked him from moving the door a millimeter closer to closing. Recognizing her iconic scent from anywhere, the already exasperated feline was feeling a headache coming on as he let go, leaving his door to be swung wide open by the,  now present, emotional pillar and support of the Smiling Critters. “To what do I owe the displeasure, Bobby…”

“There’s a lot actually, but I mainly showed up because I heard something I couldn’t quite ignore,” she answered, holding back her loquacious response for a more direct answer, something he appreciated despite the annoyance. “And that’s how you’re trying to say you don’t care about the Giggling Critters!”

“I don’t.”

“And THAT’S where the problem lies, one you seem to have a heavy reliance on; lying about your feelings.”

“I’m not lying about a damn thing, I just objectively don’t have a reason to love them, only to protect them until they can care for themselves. They all know it, so the psycho-analysis is gonna be a waste.”

“But therein lies the problem, Catnap .” Stepping chest-to-chest with the apathetic cat, Bobby stood her ground as she leaned into his face. “Love and care doesn’t always come with objective and calculation. If you were as cold and calculating about it as you claim, then there would be no issue sending them off with chaperones, BUT you won’t let them leave unless you yourself take them out. If that isn’t love then-”

“I don’t feel like dealing with your bullshit today Bobby,” he interrupted, using one hand to stop her from talking while the other pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’ll let the tykes of terror go out to the boonies with chaperones, so long as Hoppy or Kickin aren’t that.”

““Hey, what’s wrong with us taking the lead!?”

“Agreed!” Bobby responded with a cheery smile, clearly ignoring their plights along with Catnap, who nodded slightly as he shoved Bobby a map with his tail and promptly slammed his door shut. “Alrighty then, shall we head out?”

“Hold it, neither of you answered the question Bobs!”

“Yeah, Hoppy and I could totally handle being responsible chaperones!”

Not even a second later, there was a chain of denials coming individually from every person in the hotel, the voices ringing loudly enough to be heard well from where that person was in the hotel. What made it comedic was how even the mini dup couldn’t trust their bigger versions with the job, but offered to lead instead with their denials, something that resulted in every Giggling Critter collectively shouting ‘NO!’ before they even finished. If that wasn’t a sign that their pleas were on deaf ears, then the fact that even Picky left the kitchen and Dogday came along with his strained smile was.

“...This is hater behavior at its finest,” Hoppy declared with her arms folded.

“No, it’s playing it safe than sorry,” Dogday offered, patting both her and Kickin on the back. “Though I’m surprised Catnap agreed considering how much of a helicopter parent he seems to be.”

“Ain’t no way you are talking Dogday, I KNOW you are not,” Kickin retorted, lowering his shades to look at the canine leader, who suspiciously and casually looked interested in the sky.

“It probably had more to do with him shutting himself off from acknowledging he cares about the Giggling Critters. Nothing too surprising, but I wish he’d be more honest with himself at least.” 

“Why don’t we just take the small victories we can get with the guy for now Bobby. As much as I’d like to teach the pussycat more about being friendly and caring, I also realize that meddling with him right now more than he’d allow would probably end badly.” Although Dogday claimed he hated the feline, Bobby knew all too well that after he and Catnap shared their feelings on day one, the dog was more than willing to make friends with the purple menace. She was honestly willing to bet if the cat offered or initiated anything towards that, Dogday would come wagging, at least, that’s what she expects to happen. With both of them being so prideful, chances are it’d be the most awkward show of Catnap expressing a benefit in being friends with Dogday and said dog ‘being polite,’ in accepting the offer despite not being too eager of the idea. “Why do I feel like you’re thinking something rather mean about me?”

“Because it’s not exactly something I’d say out loud about you,” she confessed with a smile. “But enough about that. Catnap gave us a map and taking a glance, it seems that he’s colored areas we should avoid while circling places that look like they’d be nice to visit. Any questions?”

“Mind if I hold onto the map?” Hoppy asked

“Can I take lead?” Kickin jumped in immediately after.

“Can I just make a copy of the map now and give it to them to save us all the trouble?” Crafty offered, the strained smile on her face the only indicator of how she felt by the questions of the other 2.

“No, no, and if it becomes a problem, we can just have Kitty gas them,” Bobby stated with a smile, said kitten sleepily giving a thumbs up to acknowledge he was all for it, from sPuppyday’s back.

“Kittynap is actually coming along?” Bubba inquired, looking puzzled by the napping kitten.

“MM-HMM! Catnap told him to spend more time with us for today at least and wouldn’t take no, so I’m in charge of him until bedtime!”

“...How many of you did he fight off for that?”

“Hop tried, Bobbi offered, and Kickie suggested just leaving him here,” Bubs answered while his focus was still on a textbook in his hands. “Needless to say, Puppy was ready to rip out a throat when someone tried.”

“Because I’m the leader, so it’s my job to take care of him,” Puppyday immediately countered, casually pretending like it was anywhere near normal for him to take care of Kittynap. While a critter or 2 wanted to say something, a subtle plea from Dogday ended the scenario and brought them back to their prior engagement.

“Well with that little sideshow out of the way, what do you say we all take Catnap’s kindness while we can and explore the area.”

“Kindness isn’t the word I’d use, but if it means we can see SOMETHING aside from dreary walls and dark halls, I’ll call it whatever I need to,” Hoppy responded to Bobby, her body language giving her true feelings about both the cat and their current excursion plans. “So lemme see the map, I wanna see what’s on the menu!”

“Like hell rabbit, I got dibs on first pick!”

The delay from their little scrap delayed the group by a few minutes, but ultimately they did manage to venture into what effectively was the slums of the city they resided in. Although they knew about it, they never had a reason to come to this area because despite the hard work needed, they were able to make a decent living in the business district pretty well. Also didn’t help that the horror stories of various crimes in the rundown infrastructure made any intention of coming, virtually zero. However, due to their situation of being more unsafe in the supposedly ‘safer’ district, versus the slums where you can risk being kidnapped or mugged just for seemingly no reason, they chose risk and reward over boredom. Of course, Dogday and Bobby took charge of things, mainly drilling in safety rules and what-nots, but ironically they were mainly for the bird and hare over the kids that were in their care.

“Literally what is with all the targeting!? Are we that untrustworthy!?” Kickin yelled, looking absolutely floored by the amount of leash he was getting shaved off with each rule.

The collective ‘yes’ felt louder than it actually was, especially when Hoppy muttered one of her own, much to Kickin’s over dramatic fall at the betrayal. Bobbi couldn’t help but pat the large bird’s back, before falling back in line as they finished a last round of checks. Once everyone was clear, especially the chaotic quads, they effectively split up almost instantly, much to Bobby’s displeasure. If not for Bubba being the kind pachyderm he was and leaving a magical marker on them, she was sure she would hug the life out of Kickin and Hoppy for the immediate future. Thankfully Picky already had Hop and Kickie under her arms before they even finished, so there wasn’t any further worry.

“I’ll watch over them, I have the map memorized already so I should be able to overpower them into civility if things get questionable.”

“I’m coming with you, walking around this place versus watching what NOT to do in it, sounds dull,” Bubs confessed as he stood next to Bubba before the larger elephant transformed.

“Very well,” he responded, picking up the young bull before waving at everyone else. “We’ll be off then.”

With both elephants leaving to make sure Kickin and Hoppy could come back alive, the rest of the group decided to follow the map around to see a bit of the ‘safe’ area of the area. Where they stopped by first was the apparent merchant street, complete with makeshift stalls complete with fairly decent looking goods. Moderate to low rating in all honesty, especially in the hand crafted side of things. Crafty absolutely adored the sight, especially some of the practical pieces of plates and bowls, even having discussions about them with a few vendors. Her ideas and tips, along with a few demonstrations made a small group class on the subject that it was pointless to get to her or for her to get out anytime soon.

Picky and Pinky looked absolutely disrespected, smelling some of the food being sold, but withheld vocal disapproval. They each got a taste of the soup and while the taste wasn’t amazing, it was still palatable to those without access to a lot, a sign very much prevalent in the simple seasoning for taste. Luckily for the person selling, Picky always carried emergency seasoning and spice mixes for just such occasions. Not even 3 minutes later, the smell alone drew a crowd and because they were the cause of it, both pigs stayed to help with sales and keeping up supply. Leaving only Dogday, Bobby, and what was left of the Giggling Critters to explore.

“Bobby, we don’t have to keep going you know,” Dogday offered, keeping a firm grasp on Kickie and Hop. “I know you’re sticking close because of me and the tykes. You should enjoy yourself too, we can stay close to the open area near Picky.”

“It’s fine Dogday, there’s not a whole lot I’m interested in on the map anyway. I wish we could’ve all stayed together as one group and explore, but I’m still enjoying myself spending time with you guys,” she told him as she nuzzled Bobbi while rubbing Puppyday’s head.

“Are you sure? I don’t have a problem with staying here or bringing them back to the hotel…”

“What! No way!” Hop yelled, taking both of their attention . “We barely got to see anything yet!”

“Mm-hm! We should at least see all the spots Catnap marked!”

“Kickie, Hop, be reasonable.”

Bobby couldn’t help but giggle at the 2, as it was cute to see them wanting to be a little selfish about what she assumed was their first real taste of freedom and fun. It wasn’t like she didn’t understand the reason behind Catnap’s, possessive and almost suppressive, protection in hiding them, especially after understanding the reason behind the silver bands that held up their medals. A means to hold them together, something she wouldn’t have given much thought without Dogday’s report of what happened to Puppy. Honestly, she wished she could do something to help them out more, but according to Bubba, just spending time with them is guiding towards positive results so she’s at least content with things. Her thoughts were interrupted abruptly as she felt someone run into her by accident and what greeted her was a child that didn’t look much older than any of the Giggling Critters.

“Sorry! I’m in a rush to find a doctor!” the unidentified child said in an excited tone, making an attempt to rush past Bobby, but barely taking another step before he fell to one knee holding his stomach.

“Oh my goodness, are you okay!”

“I’ll…be fine, but I need to find a doctor!” the boy stated again, trying to force himself up but practically falling to the ground, if not for Bobby holding him up. “I..I need to-”

“Would someone who can use healing magic suffice?” Dogday offered, looking a bit worried for the boy. “My friend here happens to be really specialized for it.”

With wide eyes, the child looked at him before looking pleadingly at Bobby for confirmation of his statement. Although she didn’t go around advertising it, she nodded to acknowledge she was a healer, magically at least. Of course she never had to do much aside from healing minor scrapes and bruises where she volunteered, even Catnap confirmed the girl was probably on the high end of being magically adept as a medic.

“Then-” the boy whined, pulling himself up to look at her.” It’s my mom, can you please heal my mom! I know it’s a lot to ask, but she needs help! I-I’ll pay any price and-”

“We can worry about that later, but right now we need to get to her. I’ll do whatever I can to help,” she promised, cutting him off from his pleas. She apologized to Dogday and the critters about the abrupt change of plans, but luckily, maybe even thankfully, even the mini chaos twins were understanding and waved her off with a smile. Bobby had to give the child a hand, but he was still able to lead her quite well despite the obvious bad state he was in. It was a little close to the ‘bad’ area Catnap had marked on the map, but it was just far enough that she felt safe continuing. Where he led her was a somewhat dingy and barely held together shack in a rather unkempt park. If there was a stereotype to be found, it was not lost on Bobby, but she continued on.

“I’ll go in first,” he said after letting go of her, only to barely stay standing from how weak his state was. Once Bobby helped him stabilize, she stood patiently outside the door before getting called inside. If she thought the outside looked rough, the inside screamed struggling in a few more languages, but maybe that was just the best they could get. The place was obviously a single room space, but the cardboard area rug and old uncomfortable cushions and pillows scraped from whatever trash couches and what-not spoke volumes about how much this place really was akin to the slums. Getting a good look at the inside gave Bobby a good idea of their magical situation in more ways than one, especially seeing the family together.

A single, sickly, and frail looking mother who looked like a breeze could brush her away. The boy who brought her here, now showing obvious signs of malnourishment by his thin looking build and making Bobby regret not stopping by Picky before they came here. And the cherry on top, a young girl, far too young to have been in the afterlife in Bobby’s opinion, the thought of it breaking her heart. What made it worse for Bobby was the fact this small family or 3, this group left alone in this bleak situation, they weren’t like many of the other toys and patrons of the afterlife; these 3 were obviously people who died human. Humans who died, more than likely unnaturally, and came to an afterlife for toys . If that thought alone wasn’t sickening enough, she had to stop herself from thinking about what brought them here in the first place.

“Oh, you must be the doctor Cale brought…sorry for not being a bit more presentable.”

“It’s no trouble at all,” Bobby offered, calmly and respectfully stepping towards her and kneeling beside the woman. “I was told you’re really sick and needed some medical assistance?”

“That’s- *cough cough*...correct. The usual back alley doctor wasn’t around you see, so I’ve been having a little hard time getting medicine…”

“Mom! That guy isn’t a doctor!” Cale screamed, tears threatening to spill. “I keep telling you he’s weird! He didn’t show up until after the nice old guy disappeared, but he’s not nice like him at all!”

“Now Cale-”

“No! He’s always picky and choosy with who he’d treat! And he keeps pestering you and other parents with kids with the same thing!”

From their arguing, Bobby could get a rough picture of things from their perspective. Apparently the original back alley doctor that used to be known in this part of the slums disappeared one day without a trace and given the area, assumed he was taken out by one of the bad gangs or such. It didn’t make much sense to many since he mainly kept to himself and treated everyone regardless of origin or occupation and kept a pretty nice reputation with everyone because of it. All of a sudden, this new ‘doctor’ instantly comes in and tries taking over where that man left off, but unlike him, this new one was a lot more greedy in his help and intentions. Bobby wasn’t sure of why, but it was clear the man in question had an agenda, a selfish one that didn’t befit the role of a healer in any context. Taking her from her thoughts was another coarse coughing fit from the mother, enough that she was sure a bit of blood could be seen from the corner of her mouth.

“MOM!” Cale cried out, holding onto the little girl who looked confused and lost about the entire situation. Wasting no time, Bobby’s medal revealed her soul gem as she took the woman’s hand as gently as possible. With a tender shine from it, a faint pulse began emitting from it with a warmth that caused the sickly mother to smile and take on a subtle glow of shimmering red. It was like a tender blanket had wrapped itself around her as she felt the pain from earlier vanish as if it was a bad dream. She couldn’t remember the last time she felt so calm, a healing that cures so much more than physical pain. The mother started drifting in and out of consciousness before succumbing to the relaxing nature of her treatment and falling into a peaceful sleep.

“I think…she’ll be fine,” Bobby announced, holding herself up from collapse as she looked over the mother. Even from that short treatment, the color returning to her face was clear that Bobby’s magic had some sort of positive effect, but she knew that what she did wasn’t near enough. All she did was stop the advance, but it’d take a lot more to treat her in her entirety. “I don’t think she can handle more treatment for today so-”

Cutting her off was Cale immediately tackling the bear into a hug, giving nothing but praises and gratitude to her. The tears he shed for his mom felt heavier and more emotional than those of children she remembered from playcare, tears of a devoted son wanting the very best for his withering family. Bobby felt happy, being useful and helping someone like this while she rubbed the boy's head as he cried out so many repressed emotions of fear and weakness. It took nearly an hour for him to calm down enough for her to safely leave, promising to come back to provide further treatment and on her way back, an unnoticed gaze glared at her retreat.

The next day started off like any other, except for one key detail and that was the apathetic looking Catnap leaning in the door of the walk-in, a scowling Picky with her arms crossed, and a guilty looking Bobby unable to look either of them in the face with a sack of food sat next to her. It was needless to say that she was caught red-handed in more ways than one, because they were looking at her for about 3 minutes waiting for an explanation, but neither side said a word.

“Alright, since I apparently need to give you the right of way; do you mind explaining why exactly you’re trying to compete with Picky in being a glutton?” Catnap asked with a sneer.

“I was just… really hungry?”

“I’m not even gonna let the crickets chirp Bobby, because even I’M upset at seeing this girl,” Picky stated, putting a lot of emphasis on this affecting her too. “If you needed food or a snack, I could’ve whipped up something filling and I doubt Catnap would care all too much as long as we let him know. THIS.is giving him a reason to take back the fridge key!”

“She’s not wrong.”

“I’m sorry…it’s just, I’m going out today and-”

“Back up, you’re going out???” Picky’s question was reflected in the stiff confusion on Catnap’s face. Bobby knew she needed to explain, but the words just didn’t want to come out. With a fierce look of discernment, the cat sighed before yanking the girl to her feet and shoving the sack in her hands, much to Picky’s shock and Bobby’s surprise.

“HUH!?”

“Wha- Catnap what-?”

“If you try this again, you can explain to Picky exactly why the kitchen is locked up, so you better give that key back to Crafty,” Catnap stated walking out, but stopping in the doorway and giving her a tired look. “There will be no next time, Bearhug, so if you want to try this shit again, convince Bobbi to help you and ‘ maybe ’ I’ll overlook it if an inventory is kept and she can convince me she knows the reason.”

Leaving them with that, the cat left the girls to their lonesome, Picky’s slack jaw nearly reaching the floor, because the level of unfairness was diabolical. She’s the chef and day one she’s under enough surveillance and restriction that she may as well have been a convict, but Bobby snatches one time, but gets off with a light warning and a means of getting away with it again. The failed thief herself trembled, whether it was from fear or gratitude, she wasn’t entirely sure, but her shout of thanks before booking it, said she didn’t care all that much. It took a bit of time since she wanted to conserve as much magic as possible, along with avoiding the open route there considering what she’s seen, until she arrived at that familiar shack.

“Hello, it’s Bobby. Is anyone home?” Bobby’s inquiry was met almost immediately when the door swung open showing a shocked Cale, before he broke out into nothing but smiles. Hugging the bear, he immediately welcomed her inside, greeting her with the sight of a much healthier looking woman nestling a sleeping girl quite tenderly. 

“Mom, the nice doctor is back,” Cale announced, just loud enough to gain her attention without disturbing the girl in her arms.

“Oh my, my apologies,” she quickly said, shifting her position a bit to face them before bowing lightly. “Thank you so, so much, for your treatment yesterday. I haven’t felt this good in ages, that the pain from then feels like a bad memory. I’m sorry for any trouble it might have caused you.”

“ It was no trouble at all, really. I just couldn’t simply leave a child who asked so politely for help, alone,” she stated with a gentle smile. “Where are my manners? I bought something with me for today.”

Opening the sack, she revealed a few fresh vegetables, grains, and canned goods. Cale looked ecstatic at the prospect while his mother looked a bit distraught at Bobby’s kindness. Even with her assurance that it was no problem, she couldn’t help but feel slightly burdened by the generosity. It took a little convincing, but when Bobby ultimately said it would help in the treatment, there weren’t many more words that could be said to dissuade things and she gratefully accepted it as Cale took it to the side.

“With that out of the way, let’s get to the treatment, shall we?”

Bobby repeated the same process from yesterday with slightly better results, the mother felt a lot more energized than usual, which was a drastic improvement according to Cale. The healer in question was less than matching in that energy, because she can actively tell that despite how well she was healing her and the obvious visual results, Bobby could tell there was something wrong, something her magic fundamentally couldn’t affect.

“I’m sorry I didn’t ask before, but what is your name by the way?” Bobby asked, keeping the treatment going.

“Oh my, quite the forgetful one aren’t you?” The mother said jokingly with a wave of her hand. “You’ve been treating me for so long, doctor, and you still don’t remember?”

At this, the bear flinched internally, wondering what she was talking about. She knew the woman’s physical health was in decline until recently, but could her mental health have deteriorated in that time before her arrival by such a margin?

“Mom! This is a different doctor!”

“Now Cale, I may be a bit gone compared to how I used to be, but I know my doctors.”

Despite her giggling, her son was adamant in trying to get his mom to realize Bobby was new to her, but Bearhug coaxed him to play along for the time being. She didn’t detect any physical abnormalities in her brain, so whatever was affecting her was more than likely a natural mental illness. While she hasn’t seen a physical condition she couldn’t treat, even at the bare minimum at a time, using magic on the mind at all isn’t recommended because of how much it could scramble the inside. Cale really wanted to press the issue for Bobby’s sake, but seeing her content while treating his mom made him back down just for the sake of peace.

“Oh, I wanted to thank you again for the food you brought yesterday. It’s hard without his father around and making ends meet has been a bit troubling, but we’re getting by.”

“It’s no trouble at all and sorry to hear he still hasn’t come back, but…” Bobby had started, casually skating past how she said ‘ yesterday ’ instead of today. “Why’d you say Cale’s father, not ‘their’ father?”

“Their?”

Bobby stopped momentarily to point at her daughter who was casually clinging to the woman while sucking on her thumb, looking up curiously. She had a very strong resemblance to her mother to the point they could be twins if they were closer in age. In fact, it was like her daughter was a complete carbon copy, with almost no real difference in how they look aside from age and hair length.

“Oh, silly me, Cale’s father is also her father…I-I think?”

“Pardon?”

“Sorry doctor, but like I’ve said before, her birth was a bit…complicated? Or was it? My memory of her birth has always been foggy, but I’m sure she’s my daughter.” she told Bobby, holding her head a bit, a lost and somewhat concerned expression on her face, before it was replaced with a tender smile. “I mean look at her, she’s practically my darling twin with how much we look alike.~”

Fortunately she looked just as doting on both her kids, so Bobby was less worried that her condition would affect her parenting, but she was still slightly uneasy. Sure, childbirth can be considered traumatic for some and depending on the situation, have unrecoverable effects on someone’s mental and emotional health. This on the other hand, was completely unprecedented because unless she hated the girl, there should be little to no reason her thoughts on her would be so jumbled and lost, but here she was completely smitten. It felt concerning, but Bobby didn’t feel like she had the right to involve herself in someone else’s affairs in the afterlife as whatever they do would’ve been towards their personal happiness. She involved herself enough with the treatment and provisions from today, so she felt obligated to leave it at that and not overstep her boundaries. On her way out, Cale handed her a note with a pleading smile, before closing the door. While returning, Bobby opened the note with a fleeting curiosity, but what she read opened up a new sense of worry that she couldn’t quite explain.

[The weird doctor came by after you left. I don't know what he did to mom, but every time he comes by, she just isn’t mom anymore. I don’t know what I can do, but please don’t give up on helping my mom. P.S: Watch out for my ‘ sister’ ]

Folding the note back, Bobby had a contemplative look as she walked, trying to think of the meaning behind Cale’s words. She didn’t know much about this supposed doctor, but what she has heard isn’t exactly flattering and there was his warning; “Watch out for my sister. ” The boy cared far too much about his family for a warning like that, so why did something so straightforward feel so cryptic to her. Putting it off was out of the question, but right now, she had a patient to worry about first and needed to put her focus on helping her and her family.

The next few days for Bobby were more of the same, minus the whole pantry theft at least. They consisted of her stopping by a food stall or ‘farmer’s’ stall, trek to Cale’s family home, treat his mother with a side of some odd small talk, before making her way back to her temporary hotel home, just as the sun started to dip. If there was anything that felt off about her monotonous schedule, it would have to be the chilling sensation that always followed her when she was near Cale’s mom. It was strange how until she stepped through that door, everything was fine, but up until she was no longer in the area, there was always this piercing gaze that followed her. It was getting to the point that Dogday felt the need to intervene.

“Bobby, I’m starting to think this treatment thing is getting to you.”

“Where is this coming from? I’m perfectly-”

“Bobby, ever since that first day, you always come home looking unnerved and uneasy. If any of us so much as enter the room quietly, you jump out of your fur. And the worst of it is how you’ve put distance between yourself and Bobbi.”

“I- What?”

As if further showing his point of view, the dog reveals how the bear cub herself was behind him instead of Bobby, something that was uncommon for either ursa. Normally they spend at least an hour daily defying science with their hugs, but in a couple days alone, Bobby unconsciously avoided Bobbi. Even if Bobbi reached out toward her bigger body version, the slight flinch always had her stop short of continuing. The proof was so undeniable that Bobby wasn’t even given a chance to retort that her behavior was strange, especially to the point she treated it as normal.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!” Bobby said immediately, gently moving closer and crouching to open her arms for a big hug, feeling relieved when it was reciprocated. “I’m so, so sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong, because I don’t ‘feel’ like I’ve been acting differently.”

“And that’s why I came to intervene, because you avoiding contact and displays of affection don’t mix. It was even having Catnap, of all critters, uneasy.”

“Catnap was worried about me?” she asked curiously, standing with the cub still held close to her. Dogday’s shrug was his only response on the matter, but it was enough to be eye-opening at least. Catnap, at least on the surface, is the most apathetic one there, so if he felt uneasy about her behavior, it was clear something was entirely off about it. “Maybe…Maybe taking a day off won’t be too bad…”

“Are you sure~?” Bobbi questioned, looking up at the red bear. “Won’t you be worried about the patient?”

“I mean, I’ll always be worried about people I know, but if Dogday has shown us anything, it’s that if you don’t take care of yourself, you’ll be a load of trouble for others.”

“...I want to deny that statement, I really want to deny that statement.” the canine admitted, the stab of damage almost audible in how strained his face was.

“You can deny it if you want, but what kind of example would that be to the little ones?”

The loud groan that followed in response was a breath of fresh air that she didn’t know she needed. It was strange to think she’s been less affectionate due to her work she didn’t even have to do, something she didn’t display even at her normal volunteer work.

“Well, I’m glad you decided to take a break at least today given what’s been going on recently.”

“Something other than our usual being hunted down by a strange religious organization?”

“Yes…well, maybe,” Dogday said thoughtfully, his expression showing how much he had to think about it. “From what Bubba’s told me, apparently there’s been a bunch of disappearances happening back at the city. It’s gotten so bad that people have been recommended to travel in groups of 3 or more, especially young women with children.”

Hearing that statement made Bobby flinch slightly, something that didn’t go unnoticed by her leader, but he didn’t get a chance to ask her about it, courtesy of a convenient blur of yellow and green speeding by. A couple of blinks happened, before the same blurs ran past a second time, until a loud crash was heard. With an air of death and red gas seeping from his mouth, Catnap could be seen dragging both Hoppy and Kickin with enough malice that a serial killer would think twice.

“I…should probably help them,” Dogday stated wearily, hurrying after the feline in hopes of sparing his friends from a funeral he can ‘actually’ attend. However, Bobby was still stuck on what Dogday told her, the description of prior victims being eerily similar to the situation of her current patient, if she could really call her that. Bubba said these kidnappings happened in the city, so they should be relatively safe, yet there was this slight feeling, something intuitive that told Bobby that just wasn’t something she should safely assume.

Thankfully spending the day with Bobbi and being surrounded by her friends was doing wonders for her emotionally, although her mind was still occupied with Cale’s family. The first thing she did the next day was rush out to their home, even skipping out on breakfast and wishing everyone a good morning to do it. Unfortunately for her, the sight that welcomed her wasn’t anything close to her wishes.

“No way…”

Bobby was introduced, not to the shack she grew familiar with seeing, but the tattered remnants of what it used to be. Familiar stains of black dripping from the splintered planks and sheet metal, somewhat dried, yet still wet enough to show how recent it was. What hurt Bobby the most was where she recognized those black stains, signs of corruption that infects all it touches. But when could he have done it? How’d he even know they were here? What reason did he even have to do this to them? All these questions and more stabbed at the bear, shattering her already fractured heart, a dullness flashing over her medal briefly.

“How could you…How could you!?” she cried, falling to her knees as she clutched her chest. “What did they ever do to deserve this?! Tell me, Catnap!”

“Excuse me,” a meek male voice called out, interrupting Bobby’s tears, before she swiftly stood and turned to the new presence. What greeted her was a weak looking man, skin paler than a ghost with yarn-like red hair and button-like eyes that strangely fit his stitched looking mouth. Even his doctor’s coat was ragged and put together, yet it strangely fit his overall physique just fine.

“Who…are you?” Bobby asked with trepidation, her magic already swirling to transform if the need arises, to which the man held his hands up in surrender.

“S-sorry, I mean no harm, I swear! It’s just…” he started, his hands slowly lowering as the look on his face began to adopt a more serious demeanor. “The name you just said…do you know someone named: Catnap?”

Chapter Text

Curiosity Killed the Cat you know.

“You’re going out?” Dogday asked incredulously, sitting dumbfounded on his bed. It was time for his daily treatment with Catnap and they were currently in the dog’s assigned room as the feline dropped said bombshell on him. “That’s…surprising?”

“Yeah, well, unlike what you think, I do actually have to leave this hotel at times to make sure I get supplies and stuff to upkeep it,” Catnap responded coldly, taking a mint, before tossing the tin to the dog for him to do the same. “I’m gonna be gone for a few hours and probably won’t be back until late, plus Bobby and Crafty said they were coming along to help with transportation, so it’ll be the 5 of you guys with the minis until we get back.”

“Are…are you being…considerate?”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“I mean, you haven’t exactly been the textbook example of kindness, you know…”Dogday muttered, looking away a little sheepish. “Don’t get me wrong, you’ve been a lot more…accommodating to us, to say the least. It’s just not something I’d expect if you show this level of understanding.”

“...You’re right, in fact, I’d say you’re good for treatment for the day,” the cat deadpanned as he got right up, pocketing his hands.

“W-wait! I’m sorry, okay!”

Although still looking miffed, the cat did stop when the dog grabbed his wrist and gave the feline an apologetic look. It was obvious Catnap still looked willing to walk right out, but possibly exhausting the last milliliter of kindness in his body, he sat back down with a huff, hunched over. Dogday was more than aware that Catnap was more than awkward when it came to being nice because of circumstances, so he truly didn’t mean any offense, but given his original attitude to the cat, he could see where his statement could’ve been slinging mud.

“I didn’t mean anything by it, I’m just…not used to this.”

“How do you think I feel?” Catnap asked the canine, his voice sounding devoid of caring for the day, although Dogdaycould  tell it was rhetorical. “I’m not used to this whole…helping thing, being kind to you guys is already messing with my head more than enough, but hearing your constant comments about it just makes it a lot-”

Dogday was waiting for him to finish the thought, but the feline merely left it up to the imagination. With a sigh, the cat turned to him, grabbing him by the chin as ‘gently’ as possible. It was normal for Catnap to take the lead in this, practically forcing this situation to go as fast as possible, but it didn’t make Dogday feel any less inclined for at least a little nicer treatment. Without a second more to spare, both critters locked lips as Dogday felt the gas forcing its way down his throat. The first couple times were rough, especially since the dog had no practice in even a regular kiss, nevermind one reserved between 2 people in intense moments of passion, but after the cat finally explained how he needed to breathe through his nose, the treatments went by much faster. Just before the drowsy effect of the gas could fully kick in, they pulled away at the first sign of his body going limp.

“Bleh! Can we please do something about the smell? Poppy and Lavender don’t go well together.”

“If I knew how, I wouldn’t be smelling ice cream every time either,” the feline responded, wiping his mouth in one swipe of his sleeve. “Remember, don’t even try swirling magic or forcing your gem to manifest. You can try to feel any magic you can, but the minute you try forcing a thing, you're gonna screw a lot of progress up.”

“I know, I know,” Dogday moaned, falling backward on this bed. “Bubba’s hammered that home, Bobby promised me hell if I tried, and something tells me your hospitality doesn’t take too kindly to uncooperative patients.”

“Glad you know.” Catnap casually blurted out bored, walking to the door. “You already know the house rules, so just stick to those until we get back.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll behave and house sit like a good boy ,” Dogday teased with more sarcasm than usual, but given how the cat actually cracked a grin at the joke before leaving, it was obvious he wasn’t bothered by it.

 All things considered, Dogday didn’t exactly hate their relationship at the current time, especially since it was an entire world of difference from before, despite their previous one being a heavy influence. They weren’t exactly ‘close’ and couldn’t be bothered dealing with the other, but their communications felt a lot warmer and could go somewhere without ending in some sort of argument. It was a weird arrangement given how much Dogday remembered how cut off they used to be, but living together like this in a calm and safe space; Dogday could honestly say this feels better than the life they built back at the apartment for a lot of reasons. Honestly, he didn’t know if he’d want to change it, to LET anything change the life they were living now. Unfortunately, it seems fate wanted to tell the dog to go fuck himself, because his sensitive ears could faintly pick up a pair of footsteps quietly sneaking their way past his room.

“You have got to be kidding me…” Dogday muttered, facepalming at already having an idea of who that pair of steps belonged to and where they were headed. Taking a deep breath, the canine quietly crept out of his room and made the slow trek down the stairs. Low and behold, the perpetrators of the sneaking were Kickin and Hoppy, the bunny actively trying to pick the lock to the basement, while the chicken actively encouraged her progress.

“I will never understand where you learned to do this,” Kickin commented, looking with great interest at the bunny’s skills.

“Playtime Co. had plenty of locked rooms and at the risk of making enough noise to wake the dead, had to get in somehow,” she retorted, listening closely for the clicks of the pins.

“What are you 2 doing?”

The sudden question had the bird jump out of his feathers, barely having enough time to cover his beak before clucking loud enough to be considered a rooster. Turning around, he could see the disappointed dog leaning against the railing with his arms crossed, looking incredibly upset at the sight. Hoppy only got a peek, before quickly going back to her task at hand, because she’d rather get chewed out after the fact by their leader than hear the obvious statement that they were making a mistake.

“Well?” Dogday questioned again, a bit louder to make sure they had to acknowledge him.

“Uh…Um, I mean-”

“No point Kickin, just tell it to him straight.”

“Why don’t you do it then if it’s so easy!”

“Busy~” Hoppy sang as she casually ignored the pass he tried. Kickin did growl under a low volume, because it was just a sentence and she could spit it out just the same.

“I’m waiting”

“It’s…just what it looks like Dogday?”

“Kickin!”

“Okay fine! We got bored and seeing as how Catnap left, we decided to sneak into the basement to see what he’s so secretive about,” the bird confessed, holding his hands up in surrender. “I mean, we’ve been here for a while but we don’t even get the tiniest hint of what’s down here. You can’t tell me you aren’t the slightest bit curious?”

“Of course I am, but I refrain from asking about it because, news flash, IT WAS 1 OF THE 3 GROUND RULES WE SHOULDN’T BREAK!” 

Honestly, Dogday was fearful as all hell that there was apparently something Catnap wanted to keep secretive enough to seal off 2 entire floors. Regardless if the feline was nicer and not looking to slit their throats, having such big secrets with their history was a neon warning sign in every sense, but for the sake of everyone, the canine refrained from being nosy or even thinking about them. Now here he was, witnessing the most stunt hungry of his friends courting death by trying to get into one. At this point Dogday was thinking the universe has it out for him specifically with how much it was slapping him with this kind of thing,

“Come on Dogday, it’s just a peek. A quick glance, in and out, with the cat none the wiser as to what transpired,” Kickin broke down as he wrapped an arm around the canine’s shoulder. “Think about it dude; Catnap has WAY too many secrets to be helping us so freely, so it wouldn’t hurt knowing a harmless one like the skeleton in his closet.”

“Kickin, I swear to god you and Hoppy are begging for dea-”

“I’M IN!” Hoppy announced loudly, jumping to her feet.

A loud click sounded off as she twisted the knob, just before Dogday stopped her before she had a chance to pull it open. He gave both of them a stern look, one that said in a language all its own that they should stop what they were doing right now before they make a mistake. There was no doubt in any of their minds the danger at risk for doing this, because getting caught wouldn’t just end with a simple warning from the building owner, but to Hoppy and Kickin, that was a risk they were willing to take.

“Come on you 2, let’s stop while you’re ahead…” Dogday offered cautiously, his grip firm and strong despite the bunny’s athleticism history.

“Stop being so worried Dogday, we’re already in so let’s get a look already,” Hoppy came back with, still trying to pull with restraint to be sneaky and not alert anyone else.

“Yeah, it’s 1 peek Dogday. 1 glance that we might NEVER get again.” 

Dogday knew that might be the case, truly he was probably more curious than them. The issue was that Catnap finding out was a de facto death sentence and they were already on life support given their situation. In his thoughts, his focus in stopping Hoppy broke for just a moment, giving the bunny enough time to swiftly open the door wide enough that none of them could avoid seeing the inside and the reactions varied.

“What the…” (D)

“Oh…my… god!” (K)

“JACKPOT!!!” (H)

The basement was a bit larger and deeper than anticipated for the hotel, a scale far greater than they would’ve thought. They expected a big secret given the severity, but to think Catnap had silo-sized tubes of his gas raining mana coins inside to fill them up was beyond their imagination. It was easy to see the single high density luna coin over each silo affecting the gas, as mid to low density coins rained freely with soft clinks that only the dog and rabbit could hear from the door. No wonder he was aware of the means of making them, because he essentially had a zero-cost factory of them being made right under their noses.

“Catnap is loaded, like holy shit!” Kickin announced, running inside and leaning over a railing. “This is like…MASS mass production!”

“That’s…an understatement, Kickin. Why does he have this down here, why does he need so many coins?”

“WHO TF CARES DOGDAY, THIS IS A LITERALLY GOLD MINE!” Hoppy exclaimed, trying her hardest not to jump over and start swimming in one of the silos. “This is fucking amazing! Why the hell would he hide this from us?”

“Probably because you guys have no business knowing about it,” a young voice harped.

Immediately all 3 critters screamed bloody murder in shock, turning on a dime to see Puppy, Hop, Kickie, and Kitty looking at the 3 sneaks in a location they shouldn’t be in. The realization was blinding as both Hoppy and Kickin forgot that, of course, the mini critters were still here and even if they didn’t know what was in either floor, they obviously would know and likely snitch if anyone who wasn’t supposed to enter them was around. That glaring hole was made obvious when they saw the look on Kittynap’s face,  a familiar hollow pupil smile as the familiar face that haunted the halls of playcare was staring at the 3 with a silent fury.

“P-puppy, it’s not what it looks like!” Dogday quickly said, trying to reason with the pup and do damage control.

“Really big bro? Because it looks like Kickin and Hoppy broke Catnap’s rules and you got caught up in it trying to stop them, but ultimately succumbed to your curiosity anyway,” the pup inferred from the situation at hand and from understanding who Dogday was.

“...well I didn’t exactly succumb to it…”

“Don’t think that’ll matter to Catnap!” Hop grinned, breaking out in laughter at the thought of telling the feline when he got back. “You guys had like 3 rules and you broke it this fast? Priceless!”

“W-wha, Why would Catnap-?”

“Because we’re gonna tell him, duh~” Kickie sang, giving them a wink as he hugged his plush star.

Suddenly the gravity of the situation fell on all 3 of them, because this went from risky to ramification in seconds. The simple plan that overlooked a glaringly obvious flaw had now blown up spectacularly and Dogday managed to get dragged into it trying to stop them. To say they were deader than dead was more than a factual statement, it was a premonition.

“C-c-come on you guys, there’s no need to sell us out to Catnap~” Kickin tried, immediately crouching down to their level. “I mean, we can just keep this between us, like siblings do all the time.”

“For the record, even if that logic would work, it’s only work on me, at best,” Puppyday told him, pointing to himself with a smile. “And if it somehow worked for Kickie and Hop, how exactly would you stop Kitty, who’s closer to Catnap than the rest of us?”

“Simple. They give up now and pray Big brother Catnap is in a forgiving mood so they can at least leave the hotel in one piece rather than trash bags,” Kitty stated without a tinge of hesitation in his voice.

““So they’re dead””

“Yep, nice knowing you, I guess,” Kitty offered before turning to walk away, before getting hastily grabbed by his ankles with a loud thud. Looking back, he could see a worried Dogday with 2 unequivocally terrified Hoppy and Kickin, clinging to the canine for dear life. “Clinging to a child for your life isn’t praiseworthy you know? Especially when I like you guys even less than Big brother, so…”

“Kitty, please. I know we messed up, but be reasonable here!” Kickin pleaded, on his knees with his hands clasped together.

“It’s unreasonable to expect guests to follow rules? Please, tell me more .”

“W-well, we…just wanted a little peek…” Hoppy muttered out, sheepishly looking at the ground.

“And what right do you have to just ‘having a little peek ’ into anything that doesn’t concern you?” Kitty asked, leaning into her face with a condescending glare.

When neither could give an answer, Kittynap knew his point was made. Looking to Dogday, expecting the canine to let go, to his surprise, the dog did, but replaced it by giving the kitten a dogeza with a loud thud, stunning all the critters present. 

“Kitty, I know my friends have broken a trust that barely existed, but for their sake, I’d like to ask for any kindness you have to let it slide just this once!” Dogday begged, unmoving from his position.

“...What do I get out of doing that though? I mean, Let’s say for instance, Hop got something from Hoppy, Kickie got something from Kickin, and Puppy could even ask something from you, but what do I get out of it?” With one glance, Hop and Kickie immediately caught on while Puppyday looked worried and confused by Kittynap’s action and immediately jumped on the bandwagon.

“You know, Kitty has a point here. I mean, Catnap has so much more trust in us to tell him these things when he’s gone, plus Kitty is probably the only one of us here who wouldn’t lie to Catnap if his life depended on it,” Hop teased, really laying it on thick in a way Dogday visibly twitched from his position.

“How mean would it be to simply ask us to break that trust without offering anything at all, especially the one who has the most to lose by not telling. Is this the kind of example we should follow as the Giggling Critters? So not cute, but if that’s what you guys want us to follow…”Kickie tearfully whined, looking sorrowfully at his star plush despite the slight smile he was fighting god to hold back.

 Puppyday was far too confused by their actions to understand exactly what they were getting at, but Dogday knew far too well what they were implying, because he had experienced it all too well back at Playcare from the same kids. Slowly rising up to look at them with his hands planted firmly against his knees, the dog finally saw the knowing look in their eyes at the game they were playing. They were purposefully playing on the dog’s sense of honesty and loyalty, pointing out how bad an example he was setting by asking for leniency for breaking a rule, yet not offering an alternative to ‘make things right,’ so he would have no room for getting out of anything he consented to in recompense to the situation.. Although smiling, the veins on Hoppy's forehead told exactly how much she hated being put in this position because she was a key player in the plan and there was no way she could talk her way out of that, while Kickin was still lost and dazed at the idea of Catnap gutting them, just trying to see what are the chances of him only ending up on the streets with at least half his feathers in tact..

“Um…Kitty? I’m lost here,” Puppy admitted, tugging the kitten’s shoulder for any kind of explanation. “Are we telling Catnap on Big bro and them or not?”

“That’s up to them. A crime deserves a punishment, no?” Kittynap asked as he rocked back and forth. “They don’t want the punishment from Catnap, so…what punishment do you guys think you deserve?~”

“Please…be gentle at least,” Dogday muttered, resigned to his fact with an uneasy smile.

---------

Coming back to the hotel, Catnap expected a few things to have occurred or actively occurring on his arrival. There was the idea that Picky would have gotten greedy and cooked a feast with all the remaining food she had access to, something he was partially right about given the smells, but came to find out she was rather reserved considering Pinky was also there keeping her in check. He expected Bubba and Bubs to have gone overboard with their ‘study session,’ to the point that when Bobby got back, there’d be hell to pay and he was on the nose as the bear wasted no time in dragging the large pachyderm away while he was kicking and screaming, while Bobbi guided the defeated bull after them. His final expectation was for Kickin and Hoppy to have done something so heinous or egregious with Kickie and Hop that when he got back, their corpses would be on the menu for the scavs that wander around the area, but somehow he wasn’t even close to being correct, because what he was witnessing said they did something that terrified them FAR past that.

“What…am I looking at?” Catnap asked, his resting bitch face feeling more appropriate than it should at the sight of Kickin dressed entirely in a gothic European-style porcelain doll surrounded by various other style dolls and plushies with Kickie having a tea party.

“I’m not too sure myself, but” Crafty started, stuck between wanting to capture this moment in a picture or swiftly walking away from it entirely. “...something tells me this involves a bet of some kind.”

“So we’re on the same page, meaning I’m not seeing things.” Catnap sighed instantly with a facepalm, loud enough that Kickie looked up from his cup of tea to wave at them. “Kickie, do you mind informing me why Kickin is actually caught dead wearing something so… not Kickin?”

“Mm, Kickin promised to play with me for a while and today, I wanted to have a tea party surrounded by nothing but cute things and people. Since big br- Sis Kickin is more cool than cute, I got one of those old costume things you left in storage, cleaned it up, and had him wear it for the day!” Kickie looked elated at the prospect of his wishes come to life, while the painted smile on Kickin’s face was pretty like a doll, his actually expression, especially his eyes, was wishing the earth would swallow him whole, spit him out, and then roll him in a rug before beating him to death again.

“Oh wow…”

Crafty looked inspired by the idea, before taking a seat with them, much to Kickin’s despair, but Catnap on the other hand was wondering what to make of what he was seeing. While the Smiling heretics weren’t against spending time with the giggling tykes of terror, he knew there was no way Kickin would willingly agree to any situation where there was even a chance of this unless it was against Hoppy. As if the universe was answering his question, said bunny was speeding by with equally speedy darts chasing her. Her athleticism was proven once again as she used some of the furniture to narrowly dodge them at just the right time to stop their course correction and leaving them stabbed into various things around them, before she finally took a knee with deep breaths filled with exhaustion.

“This…is…light work…” Hoppy spat, her gasps giving away how strong her pride was, though to who she was telling this to, he did not know.

“Awesome! That means we can up the ante!” Hop shouted as she ran in, holding what looked as if double the floating darts., the sight blowing Hoppy’s eyes wide open. “Come on, Coach. Gotta show a good example of guts, right?~”

The silent tears were barely seen in Hoppy’s now blue face, before the bunny sprinted down the hall as an entire squadron of those darts shot after her. Taking a closer look at one of them in the wall, Catnap realized these were parlour trick darts with strong magnetic tips that were made for street magic tricks like trick shot dart shooting or guarantee hits on metal based targets. It didn’t take him long to piece together what’s going on with them with that knowledge in tow and stopped Hop before she could give chase.

“Oh, welcome back Catnap!” she beamed with a cheeky grin.

“Hop…”

“Don’t worry, she consented to it.”

“That is not what I was going to ask,” Catnap quickly clarified, pointing to the dart in his other hand.

“Oh, these. Well, you did say I could only use these whenever someone who could actually handle my games with them and you never want to play. Plus, Hoppy said there was no game she couldn’t handle nor could she lose to ‘a squirt, even if that squirt was a mini me,’ in her own words. Don’t worry though, Picky said she’d only keep time until dinner was ready, so it should only be for another 2 hours! Anyways, bye-bye!”

Leaving the cat with that crumb of explanation, the little speedster ran off after her larger version with a vengeance, Catnap even more confused than when he started. Unless there was a third party, the bet theory was now in ashes. Hoppy definitely wouldn’t turn down a challenge, so if Hop challenged her then it’d have been plausible, but that leaves Kickin’s situation up in smoke, because there was no way she’d agree to do a challenge while Kickin was actively suffering the punishment of their usual spouts of bull. The only option left would be to ask those who remained, but since Bubba is praying to the god of sleep and Picky was currently giving the gods a reason to descend, so that only left one option; take a nap and not give a fuck more. 

Yes, he could go through the effort of going to the dog’s room and yes, he could go through the effort to interrogate him for whatever he happened to know, but quite frankly he couldn’t be bothered to deal with the sun nor could he be fucked to care. Didn’t matter if his excuse was lazy and was just an out to avoid Dogday, but who was bold enough to call him out on it and why should he care, are the better questions personally. He had just entered his suite with the call of another restless sleep, but that familiar comfort of his bed, until a distinct smell of vanilla, much stronger than Puppy emits woke him right up as he swung his bedroom door open.

“H-hello…Master~” Dogday whined, a blush heavy on his face as he was seated on the edge of the large cat’s bed in a full french maid outfit, with both Kitty and Puppy sleeping blissfully under the blanket.

You could swear the Windows shut down sound effect was playing on blast as Catnap’s eye twitched, whether it was from confusion or rage, the dog couldn’t tell and quite frankly, prayed that whatever it was would get this humiliation over with sooner. The feline just stood in the door stupefied as he processed things as they stood and every scenario he immediately came up with made him want to rewind to before he assisted them and thunder slap his past self into oblivion, but as he pieced together a lot of thing, he was getting a MUCH clearer picture. Kickin at the tea party dressed like an antique, Hoppy agreeing to challenging games and the like during such humiliation, and now Dogday embarrassing himself while taking care of both Puppy and Kitty. Taking an immense breath, the cat casually strolled over to his bed and sat on the opposite side with his back to the dog.

“Let me take an educated guess here; Tweedle dumb and Tweedle dumber planned something incredibly stupid while I was out, you tried to stop them and got caught up in it, so to spare yourselves from my obvious wrath, you all agreed to whatever the eldritch minis wanted?”

Although he couldn’t see him, Dogday’s face only got redder as his inference was pretty on the nose, to the point that this embarrassment felt worse because all it did was sell them out anyway. Even without him saying a thing, the dog’s silence was deafening to Catnap, to the point he has to take a deep breath, enough that chills crawled up Dogday’s spine from how quickly he felt like death was slowly coiling around his neck.

“ What did you do, Mutt… ”

“We…saw, the basement…th-that’s it,” he weakly responded, gulping as the moment he finished, he had to hold his breath as he got pinned against the wall with the cat’s pitch black eyes staring him in the face and that familiar Smiling Critter forced smile dripping gas like blood.

“ That’s it? There’s no that’s it Dogday, ” Catnap growled lowly, his hallowed white pupils slowly coming into focus as they stared dangerously at the canine. “ You had 3 ground rules to follow, yet you couldn’t corral your heretical nuisances into adhering to them. No one would blame me if I used this as an excuse to get you out of here now. You know that, don’t you? ”

“Y-yes…”

“ Then tell me, give me a good reason right here, right now, not to leave you 3 hanging off the gates of hell? ”

Honestly, Dogday didn’t have any good excuse to give for their actions, because Catnap was completely right. He gave them 3 easy rules, rules that he gave them before this entire setup began that he told them would be the reason he leaves them high and dry if they were broken. The painful tightened grip on his wrists were what told Dogday that he’s running dangerously close to being out of time. Catnap even used his tail to force the canine to look him in the face, telling the dog that he wanted his answer.

“I don’t have an answer like that, because there’s no excuse. If I lead them better or tried harder, maybe we wouldn’t be in this situation,” Dogday admitted, resigned to his fate as he willfully ignored the grip on his wrists. “I know I can’t convince you with words, but…what if I took the punishment instead?”

“ ... ”

“Please Catnap, I’ll do whatever you want, I’ll take any punishment just-”

“ You’re playing a dangerous game, mutt ,” Catnap interrupted, tightening his tail’s grip around the dog’s neck. “ Do you know what you’re promising? To whom you’re promising that too? Surely you didn’t forget exactly how I had you locked away and strung up the last time you pissed me off? ”

“I…haven’t…”Dogday choked out, trying his hardest to breathe through the tail closing off his means of breathing.

“ And you’re really willing to risk something like that again? ” Seeing the stubborn look in Dogday’s eyes despite the pain from having a hard time breathing was the only thing in lieu of a response Catnap received. While it was obvious by that look he was serious, he could tell by the dog’s trembling, whether it was through fear of him or the struggle of having a hard time breathing, Dogday didn’t want to resort to this. Just before the dog could start blacking out, he felt himself thrown roughly on the bed, coughing harshly as he took much needed air, before realizing the gravity of the situation. Just as he tried to get up, he was forced down on his side by a familiar purple tail, made to look at a rather annoyed feline who was leaning into his fist. “Calm down princess, get your mind out of the gutter.”

“Wha- But you-”

“I don’t know what kind of cat you think I am, but not only are their kids right here on the bed, but the obvious one of I don’t like you , even if you’re wearing probably the best thing for any sexually frustrated pervert to tear off of you.”

“Y-y-you-” The flustered maid doggo muttered, hugging his body in mass discomfort, much to the feline’s entertainment.

“Shut up and sleep already, you’re gonna have a busy day tomorrow after all.”

“Wait, what? You aren’t…kicking us out?”

“Well as much as I want to, I don’t feel like I should …at least, not for the basement. If it was the 6th floor, not only would I have kicked you out, I’d have ripped that outfit clean off you and marked you up in all kinds of brutal ways before doing it to make it much, much worse.” Despite the sweet smile on his face, all Dogday could do was tremble in immense terror at his description of it, especially given his prior statements. “But I’ll settle for the punishments the minis have dished out for now, except you’ll be acting your role.”

“So I’m an actual maid for a while…?”

“Look on the bright side, you’re already dressed for the job. I’ll give you the key to the supply closets and I’ll be expecting spotless floors and if there’s even a speck of dust, consider that grounds for ‘punishment’ so to speak.”

“...Do I want to know?”

“Do you?”

Shaking his head ‘no’ was almost reactionary for Dogday because if there was anything he learned about Catnap, it’s that his idea of punishing someone could be studied by professionals. Getting his answer, the cat finally relaxed against his pillow as he used his tail to pull the dog closer, embracing the minis in-between them. It wasn’t lost on either of them how intimate this would probably look from a third party, almost to a disturbing degree, but quite frankly neither could care right now. Catnap mainly kept the dog there to keep both minis warm without having to expend any extra effort, while Dogday understood his role quite easily as he rested an arm over the kitten and pup. Before long, both critters felt the call of sleep drag them off while the minis in-between them opened an eye each to look at each other.

“ I can’t believe this worked, ” Puppyday whispered, his tail wagging as he enjoyed the warm embrace of both his big brother and his big caretaker.

“ Told you this would happen. ”

“ But Kitty, how’d you know it’d end up like this? ”

“ Simple, because we’re a lot like our bigger body versions and I always sleep better when I smell vanilla. It always reminds me of you and I never feel calmer than with my best friend.”

“ Kitty~” The pup whined quietly, pulling the kitten into a hug. “ Why can’t you be this open about being besties normally?”

“ Come on Puppy, you know exactly why, now shut up already and let’s sleep. This’ll probably be the only time for a very long time we get to enjoy this.”

With a nod of agreement, Puppyday held onto Kittynap’s hand before drifting back to sleep, both pairs of felines and canines sleeping in bliss in the presence of each other. If, when they woke up, they was an obvious scent of lavender on both dogs and heavy smells of vanilla practically dripping of the cats, no one felt brave enough to point it out.

--------------------------------

Best Wishes 

“I’m a woman!”

“And I’m a cat, we’re both examples of lazy, rundown, and ruined pussy out here, what’s you fucking point?”

“Excuse me!?!?”

“You’re excused”

“You hit me, you ungrateful and undisciplined ruffian!?”

“After you, in order: got up in my face, slapped my drink out of my hands, shoved me, and then slapped me. I gave you 3 freebies before I retaliated bitch, now you can either walk away with what’s left of that dignity or you can test me with whatever magic you have left and give me a REASON to give you amnesia in the next 10 seconds,” Catnap returned, his apathetic expression matched with the unbothered stance he took as he lazily started clearing out his ear.

To say Bobby was regretting decisions was an understatement, because of all the situations she thought she’d find them in, a confrontation with a Karen, was not in the realm of possibilities in the afterlife. After the possible once in a lifetime chance of convincing Catnap to come to the city, all because she wanted to try a limited time item at a coffee shop, and someone finds a problem. What makes it more annoying is she couldn’t even feel sympathy for the Karen, because she had a problem with the cat for just being purple, his freaking fur color. Honestly she wanted to curl up before dragging the cat out of here, but now that things have gotten physical, that ship has sailed.

“I had a feeling something like this would happen,” Bubba confessed after taking a sip of his americano, before getting back into his book.

“But how is this even possible for someone to be this unreasonable after death? It’s like people have gotten more and more unreasonable since we were around.”

“Well we were dead for a long time, it wouldn’t be far fetched for things to have changed drastically as far as social norms.”

“But-”

Interrupting the bear was the sound of 3 guys getting slammed through the storefront glass, the culprit dusting his hands as he set a large sack on the counter in front of the cashier and the Karen who started this entire plight cowering on the floor in front of it. With a mutual nod of approval from both the cat and the young looking cashier, who was trying to hold back grinning in their nervousness, Catnap took the confirmation with a crack of his knuckles.

“Should’ve minded your own business~” the feline sang with a chilling smile.

“Come on now, I think they’ve had enough,” Picky offered, grabbing the cat’s shoulder, before taking a bite from her muffin. “Besides, they weren’t the ones to start anything, all you’re doing is making more work for yourself.”

Under normal circumstances, Catnap would most definitely ignore Picky, continue on, and completely maim the people without a second thought, but unfortunately today wasn’t a ‘normal’ circumstance. Honestly, he didn’t know how exactly he got convinced to come into the city of all places, especially when an entire cult is practically gnawing at the bit to get their mitts on all of them for one reason or another. How he let Crafty talk him into Bobby’s and Dogday’s insane idea was giving him a headache recalling it.

-Yesterday morning-

“Catnap, we should go into the city with the Giggling Critters tomorrow,” Bobby stated out of nowhere, much to the surprise of the feline.

“That’s…an unexpected demand. Since you’re not nearly as impulsive to desire as KFC and the perpetual patient from Albuquerque, where is this coming from?”

“I’m what?” “The who?”

Ignoring the poorly concealed giggles from Crafty and Picky, while Bubba and Dogday at least tried to not laugh, Bobby explained how, after careful calculation, consideration, and confidence, that tomorrow would effectively be the birthday of all the Giggling Critters as individuals. Thinking about it bluntly, they all technically had new birthdays since coming to the afterlife and that passing thought drove Bobby to find out everyone’s new birthday, or re-birthdays. It took days of piecing together memories they had prior to Catnap finding them, info she could get from the cat, and a bit of guesswork with help from both elephants, but she was finally sure that she knew the exact day. 

“So, what do you think?” the bear asked hopefully, looking at the feline with a slight expectation.

“I mean, if you want to take them out as a gift, I won’t stop you. At least 4 of you can safely use magic, so it’s not as though you’ll be as easily taken off guard-”

“You’re coming too though, so wouldn’t the count be 5?”

And that was the point the cat’s expression went from passive to irritation in possibly a frame, something that immediately dropped Bobby’s expectations back to normal. While she knew the chances were already between impossible and divine intervention, the hope that appealing to Catnap’s sense of Big Brother vibes towards them would at least make him think about it.

“I know what you’re going to say-”

“Then the discussion is done, what more is there to say?” he calmly asked, the annoyance on his face amazingly different from how nice his voice sounded.

“But please consider it just this once, just for their sake?” Bobby offered, trying to reason with him. “Think about it; Kittynap obviously wouldn’t want to leave you alone while experiencing the city, Puppyday wouldn’t have fun without both of you there, and it’d defeat the purpose of being a gift if they all couldn’t come…”

“I know I have been lenient with putting up with the amount of bs requests you have been asking me recently, but you guys are getting incredibly greedy with them as of late.”

“But this isn’t even for one of us this time,” Bobby whined, almost tearfully at his stubbornness. Catnap wasn’t swayed by her sad face in the slightest, something he had no issue with showing, but a sudden chill ran down his spine that made him visibly tremble, before glancing uneasily towards the equine source of that feeling.

“Come on Bobby, we can’t force Catnap to go along with our idea every time we have ideas,” she started, looking and sounding completely normal to every else, but the feline’s tightening face spoke volumes about how she was up to something, though only the 2 of them were aware of that. “Catnap does so much for us as is, on top of taking care of the Giggling Critters, so we shouldn’t be too selfish.”

“I…didn’t think it was that selfish…” Bobby muttered, looking slightly crestfallen. “It’s just, the little guys seem so much like children that I thought giving them a birthday celebration at least once, especially their first real one, would be a good way to show we care about them. I know it might be wishful, but Catnap, you have been the one caring for them, protecting them, raising them. I’d bet my mana coins that you mean more to all of them  individually than any one of us to them as a whole.”

While Bobby was talking about her reasons, Catnap could feel the metaphorical knife perpetually stabbing his tender heart with each sentence, because despite the airs he puts on, he more than displays a protective nature of the kids with a reckless abandon. He’d never openly admit it, but not only has both Bubba and Crafty easily picked up on it, the equine herself happens to be openly using it with an innocent face in broad daylight and he can’t say a damn thing to call her out, because then he’d be admitting to a truth he doesn’t exactly want to face. The feline’s ears were practically limp with how low they’d fallen and the weak glare he gave to Crafty displayed just how much he didn’t appreciate it.

“-So I was just really hoping he could just come with us to celebrate their first birthday together. Just for them, before we have to part ways,” Bobby admitted, her chin resting in her hands with a sigh of reluctance. “But I get it, Crafty’s right. I guess it is asking a little too much-” 

“Bobby,” Dogday started, interrupting the bear. “He already changed his mind, you can stop now.”

“Wait, what!?”

“You heard the mutt, I’ll go along with your stupid plan for the runts,” Catnap groaned, his head buried in his hands, before the longest drag of his face followed. Bobby was completely elated by the news, jumping for joy, before hugging the feline with gratitude and despite his obvious dislike of the contact affection, he at least didn’t threaten her when prying her off. “How many times do I have to tell you to lay off the PDA bearhug!”

“HAHAHA! Looks like cats getting cranky when held still holds true with toys too!” 

“D-don’t laugh dude,” Hoppy tried telling Kickin with possibly the worst concealment of laughter. In fact, she couldn’t get any more words out before falling over laughing with the bird. Catnap was not one to take things lying down, but the death grip around his waist was probably the best restraint. Bobby’s eyes signaling ‘I can buy you 15 seconds, get to moving!’ had the duo running, but she severely overestimated her hug strength against a seriously aggravated feline. All of 5 seconds passed before she was dragged along in the chase of bird and bunny, with the rest of the critters either laughing or enjoying the show.

-end of flashback-

“I swear when this is over, I’m not leaving my room for a week…”

“Oh come on Pussycat ~” Dogday teased, walking up to him with a couple of bags in his hands. “Aren’t you at least excited that you can give the little guys such a nice experience, especially their first one?”

“I’d much rather have taken Crafty’s place and decorated for when we got back, Muttley.”

“But think about how sad they’d be without their big bwother enjoying it with them, I mean, it IS their first time experiencing a mall, even from the pieces of their memories~”

“Call me that again and you get to sleep in a doghouse for the next month,” Catnap threatened, grabbing the cheeky canine by the collar, of whom was relishing in his reaction as he held his hands up in surrender. “I swear, I liked you better when you were busy hating my guts.”

“Well it’s not like I’m jumping off the rooftops professing an undying and boundless friendship wish with you, so I’d say this suits us for now.”

At the thought of his words, both critters shuddered at the very picture of it. A close knit and completely emotional friendship like that with them, absolutely not. A mutual sense of distance of dragging the other at the next opportunity, any day of the week. Their thoughts didn’t last long however as an overly energetic pup flew straight into the larger version of himself, taking him clear out of Catnap’s grip.

“Dogday Dogday Dogday! This place is so much fun!” Puppyday exclaimed with his tail wagging so fast it looked like an actual orange fan. “There’s so many stores here! Like the place that sells toys, a bunch of jewelry stores, a magic tool and tech shop, and the food court had so many yummy smells!”

“I hear ya buddy, I hear ya,” the larger canine grinned, sitting up as he rubbed the excited pup’s head.

“There’s also this really awesome looking place in like the middle areas, one that sold really huge stuffed animals and lights, also one that had this really tasty tea thing with cool chewy black pearls! It was so good!”

“Oh really? Now I’m getting a little jealous I didn’t walk you guys around, because that actually sounds like it’d taste really good.”

While Puppyday was giving a rundown of everywhere they explored in the mall, Hoppy and Kickin arrived with the rest of the horror show kids, all bright-eyed and hands filled with miscellaneous stuff pertaining to the tastes of the critter holding it. Craft was carrying various journals and notebooks with an assortment of writing tools. Hop was actively juggling sports equipment with a smug look, despite the obvious excitement on her face. Bubs had an entire antique shelf worth of books and other learning materials. Kickie was doing his best to carry a few pastel and soft colored clothes. Even Kitty wrapped himself in a fluffy purple blanket, looking content as it dragged slightly against the floor. Although he didn’t believe in wasteful spending, Catnap did wish Kitty picked out a little bit more than just a blanket, but by that logic, he should probably chew Puppy out more considering the pup literally ran up with absolutely nothing to show for it, but stories. Tearing him from his thoughts was Kitty running into him with a hug, looking up for attention as he stared up at the now flustered larger cat.

“Yeah yeah, I know Kitty,” Catnap groaned, picking up the smaller feline and holding him as he wrapped the blanket around them both. “Couldn’t you have just gotten a piggyback from Puppyday for this?”

“With how excited he is, I wouldn’t get any good sleep…”

“How pragmatic of you.”

“Learned it from you,” Kittynap muttered, falling asleep in the larger cat’s arms. Although it was faint, a small smile was on Catnap’s face as he patted the kitten’s head, before adopting his former annoyed face as he faced the rest of the critters. At least, he tried to, because that annoyance swiftly changed to irritation at the knowing looks of a nosey bear and grinning dog. He didn’t even let them get a word in, before walking past both of them.

“Aw!~ Catnap, that was so cu-!”

“Finish that sentence and I’ll find you a cave, bear,” Catnap threatened, his finger pressed against her nose, only to get a shrug and elated smile in response. “Daffy and Bugs, how’d it go?”

“When do you plan on using our names when addressing us?” Hoppy asked, a blanket look on her face.

“When I don’t feel like you 2 won’t give me a reason to skin you alive and turn you into a meal.”

“Come on Cat, you act like we do nothing, but piss you off. I don’t know about Hoppy, but surely you can’t feel mad at the coolest bird around. Like what have I done to piss you off?”

All Catnap did was unfurl an actual scroll that dropped from his shoulders to the floor and rolled a bit, giving the bird a raised eyebrow. Kickin didn’t even read it, before slouching over in defeat because he knew it had to be bad enough for the cat to write a physical list of grievances JUST to show him.

“Yeah, not setting myself up for that one,” Hoppy commented, skating by the bird to look at the cat face-to-face and dropping a decent sized sack for his tail to swipe out of the air. “Anyways, here’s the change and receipts. It took a lot to get them to buy anything, but you can see the way some of them made out like bandits from our convincing.”

“I’ll be double counting this with Bubba too, so if you kept anything more than what I said you could, you’re dead.”

“Catnap, have a LITTLE faith in us dude. We’re troublemakers and thrillseekers, not suicidal maniacs, there’s a solid field of difference.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it. In the very least, I can swallow my ego long enough to actually thank you for responsibly taking them around the mall to buy things…despite my heavy reservations of the idea.”

“Enough to trust us as chaperones?” Kickin tried offering, putting some thumbs up for good measure, only for the cat’s signature dead face being the only response. “Worth a shot.”

Honestly, Catnap would be lying if he said they haven’t drastically improved his opinion on them taking care of the giggling critters by this little outing, but he’s still not entirely comfortable  with the idea. Though he supposed as long as at least one other critter was with them, he could at least entertain them babysitting at the hotel. Once he was sure all the critters and their new things were accounted for, they all wrapped up the little trip and made their way back to the hotel, which upon arrival, Catnap was already regretting his decisions by the look of the door.

“Oh, you guys came back a bit earlier than expected,” Crafty jumped, finishing the last bit of color on the moon, before stepping to the side. “Luckily I finished the inside first and decided to decorate the door, for today at least, with the time I had to spare.”

And decorate it she did, because the normal plain and faded door that normally greeted them was replaced by a vibrant and vividly colored mural of the Smiling Critters cartoon, with a cartoon Dogday under a shining sun welcoming them on the left door and a cartoon Catnap under a bright moon welcoming them on the right. Kickin, Hoppy, and Bobby were all with Dogday on the left side, either playing party games or hugging each other. Bubba, Picky and Crafty with on the right side, decorating, baking, or obviously telling a story. While Catnap was regretting the sight, the giggling Critters were more than ecstatic from it, immediately rushing to it, even Kittynap was waiting with anticipation.

“It’s cartoon bigger us!” “It looks so pretty!” “What’s this for?!”

“This,” Catnap groaned, before adopting a gentle smile as he crouched by them. “Is part of the reason we went to the mall today. Do you happen to know what today is?”

“Not particularly,” Bubs confessed, trying to think if there was something mentioned or special.

“If Bubb- Bubs doesn’t know, then we’re cooked, so what’s so special about today?” Hop asked, correcting herself instantly as the young bull was ready to maim her when she used his actual name.

“Today’s special, because it’s the day you guys became you,” Bobby revealed with a gentle smile, patting the bunny’s head. Although there was visible confusion by what she meant, it took about 3 more seconds before Kickie realized what she was trying to say and his eyes actually lit up like stars.

“It’s our birthday!!!” he exclaimed, looking for confirmation from the bear.

“That’s right… at least, I’m pretty sure it is.”

“Is this why you asked us all those questions and things about what we remember since coming here?”

“Partially, but this was a happy consequence of it Bubs. I even worked with Bubba and Catnap to make sure…mostly Bubba, but Catnap did clear up some details.”

At this, all the giggling critters looked at the large cat with shock and a touch of disbelief, something the cat instantly turned his face away from. He always told them he didn’t care about them much more than what was necessary, but they long since realized he cared more than he let on. What they couldn’t believe was how much he really paid attention to them, to the point he helped and had a better idea of their birthday better than them.

“You…you helped find out when our birthday was?” Puppyday asked cautiously.

““You let Bobby plan this for us?”” Both Kickie and Hop questioned, actually looking excited by the prospect.

“So the trip to the mall?” “The fact we could buy so much stuff?” “We could have so much fun outside like normal kids?” 

“It was because it’s our birthday?” Kitty rounded off, all 8 minis staring at Catnap with faces that reminded Catnap far too much of the excited kids from the playcare when they thought they were getting adopted. About a minute of staring finally broke the feline’s facade with a sigh and he turned to them with the softest smile any of the critters present had ever seen. All he did was nod at them, a small confirmation that everything they had asked was true. 

“The idea and planning was mostly Bobby’s choices, from the idea to take you to the mall to who’d be the ones watching, staying behind, and on standby. So be sure to thank her well for thi-”

Catnap didn’t even get to finish his sentence before Bobby got tackle-hugged by Bobbi, Kickie, and Hop, but unlike everyone else, she stood strong as she hugged them back. The amount of gratitude and giggles were a symphony for the bear, telling her all she needed to hear that her plans weren’t a waste. Unfortunately, Kickie and Hop severely underestimated the grip strength of both bears together, as their happiness was quickly replaced with struggling consciousness, something Hoppy and Kickin immediately interfered with to try saving their mini counterparts.

“Bobby! Let them get some air!!”

“You’re turning this treat into tragedy!”

Unlike the possible death coming from Bobby’s hug, the one who all but tackled Catnap into a cuddle puddle were much more tame in comparison, although the force did knock the feline on his ass. Kitty, Puppy, Pinky, and Craft, all gripping the cat for dear life with their hug, the slight tremble and shivers of excitement were ticklish against his stomach. Bubs didn’t join them to protect his image of being the mature one, but it was obvious he wanted the same level of attention, so when Catnap’s tail ‘inadvertently’ pulled the bull into the pile, the elephant had ‘no choice’ but to join in.

“Don’t get used to this, you little horror shows, I’m only allowing this for today,” Catnap stated, adopting another unbothered face, that was quickly wiped away to hold back a grin as his mini’s nuzzles were getting a little too ticklish for him.

“We know!” Puppyday admitted, the smile on his face as bright as the speedy wags of his tail. “But just knowing you care enough to let us have this is plenty!”

“ Yeah, only caring enough for this ,” Kickin muttered under his breath. “Come on runts, don’t you want to see how Crafty decorated the place for your party?”

“““PARTY!?””” all 8 mini critters screamed with renewed vigor.

“Of course, what’s a birthday without a party! A Smiling Critter’s job is to bring smiles, so who better to throw your first party!” Hoppy laughed as she pulled Dogday to the door, while Crafty tugged Catnap up along with her. It was obvious what their intentions were with them standing on the side of the door they were painted on and while Catnap was reluctant, they both played along. Giving their biggest and brightest smiles, both the cat and dog grabbed the knobs of their door.

““Happy Birthday from your pals, the Smiling Critters!”” all members shouted as the sun and moon opened the doors.

--------------------------------

Hell’s Kitchen: Picky Edition 

“Where’s! the lamb! SAUCE!? ” Picky shouted, stamping her foot on the tile, shaking the nerves of every chef in the kitchen. The 2 chefs at the sauce area, were bone quiet, moving quickly, but in a kitchen, communication is paramount. “WHERE’S THE LAMB SAUCE~!?”

“On the way chef!” A female chef called from a nearby station, taking over for the slow sauce chefs. She wasn’t a normal or recently hired chef either, in fact, it was probably safe to say she wasn’t even a cook. From how quickly she moved and how quiet her movements were, she could guess that the girl was sent from Protocol to take care of Picky at her workplace, along with a few other guest ‘chefs’ that appeared. Picky’s thoughts were interrupted as she witnessed a brilliant flame rise from the meat station.

“Oh my god!” she yelled, watching one of the normal chefs fumble a perfectly good steak. “The stuff’s BURNT! YOU’RE COOKING IN A BURNT PAN YOU FUCKING DICK!!!”

When the flame grew enough to make even the chefs near him recoil and step back, she knew the dish was beyond salvation. Unfortunately this chef thought he was Jesus and could perform a miracle. He kept agitating the pan over the stove, the burnt smell coming in crystal clear, ignoring the fellows next to him to turn it off.

“Oh my god! Leave it, Leave it, Leave it! Just fucking leave it!” Picky screamed, snatching the pan away from him and the stove, setting it in a safe area to the side. “You’re gonna blow fire in your face you fucking donkey!”

Wasting no time, Picky called over one leopard looking guest chef she figured from protocol. At first, he seemed incredibly scary and dangerous, but one mishandling of kitchen equipment had Picky taking names and showing exactly why she runs this kitchen despite not being head chef. Even the head chef was scared of the man before she arrived, but just 3 minutes alone with her and he was ready to pay the head chef just to learn from him instead.

“Keith!”

“YES CHEF!” the leopard, now called Keith, responded.

“Get on the MEAT section and stay next to HIM and don’t let him COOK a FUCKING THING!” She yelled, before looking at the chef responsible for the ‘burnt special,’ apparently hoping it would be a new menu item. “And you! Open those big eyes! And watch what the fuck this guy is doing!”

“Yes chef!”

“Shut it! And watch.”

“Yes chef…”

“Shut it!”

The head chef was watching from his side of the kitchen with the other half of the staff, them openly shedding tears of joy and working their best with him to ensure they DON’T go to Picky’s side. While he didn’t view himself inferior, he had to give credit where it was due, because the girl really knew how to run a kitchen, albeit a bit tyrannical. His side were providing the same quality of meals, but on Picky’s side, the rate they came out to answer orders was almost double. He wanted to use her methods as well, but seeing how pleading the chefs and staff on his side were, shaking their heads no and their work diligence, he remained steady with his ways. Picky had to sigh for a moment as she looked at her side, wondering where exactly things went wrong for this, thinking back to her first thoughts for the day.

-Earlier that day-

“Catnap, would it be possible for you to escort me to work for just a day?” Picky pleaded, looking with a wishful smile and pleading hands at the cat who looked downright dreadful at just the idea. “I know what you’re thinking, but I promise it’s only for a day or 2 at MOST! Just long enough to get my kitchen back in shape~”

“Last I checked, both Bubba and Crafty are in prime condition to take on that task and, bear in mind, I fucking hate ALL of you,” he retorted, his eyes fighting for their lives to stay open in his comfy beanbag chair. It took forever to finally find this perfect one and find the perfect time to get it to the hotel without any of the scavs looking to get into a fight behind it. Now, after SO long of getting it here safely and breaking it in, he’s being asked to do something so mundane to him, he actually thought he’d kill someone behind it. “Why in the afterlife fuck would I burden myself with going out of my goddamn way to be your impromptu bodyguard?”

“Please Catnap! I know it’s asking for a lot, but I’m terribly worried after seeing what happened when you got us time off.”

“I don’t care, I’m not- WAIT!” Catnap started, before stopping himself with his eyes blown wide open. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“You know, how you and Crafty went by all our places of work? You showed the head chef about the magic used and-”

With a new sense of urgency, Catnap grabbed the pig by her shoulders and pulled her face-to-face. Initially, Picky was frightened by his sudden actions, but one look at the feline’s expression said he was a lot more worried than she was. He was sweating bullets, his face stuck between anxiety and anger, himself struggling to keep calm as he looked at her.

“How much…do you know?...”

“I don’t know~”

“Don’t mess with me, Picky. I can take back that key ANY goddamn time if you want.”

“Well, I just know what Crafty showed us the day off, nothing more than everyone else if I had to guess…maybe a bit more, but-”

“ I swear to fucking god! ” Catnap growled, a blush starting to grow prominent on his face. “ She wasn’t supposed to tell you bastards a thing… ”

“Don’t be so mad Catnap, Crafty only did it to help ease things after…that day,” she responded, patting him on the shoulder as he buried his face in the beanbag. “In fact, why not tell the minis too while we’re at it? They didn’t get to see how nice you really act after all.”

“Don’t you fucking dare porky! It’s bad enough they think positive of me as is, but if they hear me doing crap like that…”

“Oh don’t worry, I have no intention of telling them since you’re so adamant, but with all this on my mind lately, I might slip up~...”

Despite the beanbag muffling enough of it, the passing dog and bunny duos still jumped at the scream of absolute anger that escaped the lounge. When they arrived, the only thing left was a note, an open window,  and a beanbag with quite possibly the angriest Catnap impression they’ve seen to date. Dogday and Hoppy looked somewhat worried while confused, while Hop and Puppy started giggling at the sight, because they knew exactly what that meant thanks to Kittynap telling them prior. Meanwhile, a visibly annoyed and transformed Catnap, complete with a bulging vein, could be seen leaping building-to-building with a delighted Picky clinging tightly to his back.

“Thanks for everything in advance Catnap! I really appreciate it.”

“ When this is over, you’re baking enough treats for me and the Giggling Critters til you qualify solely as a goddamn baker, ” he growled, the underlying threat loudly represented in his tone. “ And I mean heavy fucking baking sessions. ”

“Bodyguarding and I compensate with more kitchen access? You really are kind!” she joked, the fierce glare only causing her to laugh. “I know, I know, but I really do appreciate it only having to compensate with that. When we get back, I promise my baking will have you mewing for seconds!”

It didn’t take long for them to arrive, with Catnap landing de-transformed with Picky held in his arms. The fact he landed safely, easily, and quietly, reminded Picky exactly how talented Catnap was as a hunter. No shade to herself, but she wasn’t exactly the fairest maiden in the land for her size, so the fact that Catnap, who looked built like a broomstick, was carrying her so well without magic made her wonder how strong the cat actually was. Of course he wasn’t exactly gentle in dropping his arm holding up her legs, but that was probably more than generous given the means he even agreed to bring her.

“There better be a good place to sleep in this place, otherwise you’re hailing a taxi.” Catnap muttered, cracking his neck.

“Well we’re not 5-star quality, but we still have some comfy lounge chairs and loveseats you could probably conk out on.”

“...Better than nothing I guess.”

With affirmation he won’t have to force himself awake for more than 5 minutes, they made their way in through the back and the first thing they witnessed was the Head chef screaming bloody murder at some chefs who made a seafood pasta. Overcooked seafood, rubbery pasta, and sauce so watery, the ingredients were practically swimming laps for the olympics on the plate. In fact, Catnap could see the shrimp floating along the sauce. It took all of 3 seconds before Picky’s aura alone suffocated the kitchen, but anyone who saw her glare broke out in cold sweats, even the ‘guest chefs’ who only started within a day or two.

“Picky!” the head chef called, walking amicably to the pig before slamming her shoulder. “It’s good to see you! Feels like it’s been ages since we last spoke!”

“It really has been too long Chef,” she responded, already adopting her normal when speaking to him like she wasn’t just ready to catch a charge. 

“The kitchen hasn’t been the same without you. I hope you’re ready to get back to work.”

“Sorry Chef, but I’m only here for a day or 2 at best, because I was feeling a bit restless thinking about how things were going here. If you remember my fri- acquaintance here from before, he’s kinda my escort and nurse in case my health falls again,” She said, notioning to Catnap with an immediate correction of their relationship with one look at his face when she tried.

“Yo,” Catnap deadpanned, his expression so bored and devoid of energy that the lethargy could be felt around the kitchen.

With a quick escort to a comfy looking loveseat, Picky left the purple feline to his nap before talking about things going on in the kitchen with the head chef. As she expected, he was doing as much as he could to keep things up and a few of the chefs were at standard, but it was a struggle with some of the more, ‘ambitious,’ newbies. It was safe to say that by the time he finished talking to her, Picky was more than motivated to get the kitchen into shape.

“Alright everyone! It seems things have been a little out of touch since I’ve been away,” Picky started after gathering their attention, a few of the veterans already praying. “But no worries. I’ll be sure to whip you guys back up to standard. The head chef was more than generous in identifying who could use some ‘help’ so  since I’m back for a short time, we’re gonna go through Picky’s Cooking Bootcamp!”

At this, a veteran chef screamed like he was the damsel in the scream movie and promptly ran to the walk-in like it was a sanctuary. Another chef got on their knees, making so many signs of the cross, you could swear the ground was being blessed. And one last chef actually pretended to be dead with the knife stabbed next to them as if they were just waiting to be prepared and served.

“...Is this normal?” A leopard asked, looking confused at their actions.

“Only when the Head Chef lets Picky have her way. I’m sorry by the way, because even if you’re a temp one, no one who calls themself a chef in this kitchen escapes…”

“Escape what?”

Without warning, a loud slam of a cutting board took everyone’s attention as Picky stood resolute and unmoved. Immediately, she started prepping ingredients as they appeared in her line of sight, freshly chopped, cut, and julienned vegetables and meat were flying in perfect arches into freshly cleaned trays and bins. Once she finished, the new chefs and even a few older ones were left with a jaw-dropping expression of disbelief at the pig’s proficient handling of knives, but that changed quickly to fear as she turned to them with a glare that should paralyze medusa.

“Now then, let’s begin Picky’s Chef Inferno, starting with all of you copying what I just did for the first dish we’re cooking today!”

“Now wait just a minute, chef,” the leopard chef responded, stepping up to her. “With due respect, how can a new chef like you just come in and start calling shots? I haven’t even been here that long, but simply showing off culinary skills like that isn’t enough to justify your attitude in this kitchen.”

Picky gave him an unamused look, but after getting a good look at him, she had a look of recognition. Catnap was barely giving them the time of day with his lazy gaze, but more so on the leopard and a handful of the other ‘new chefs’ in the kitchen. He recognizes them almost instantly, despite their pitiful attempts to hide their magic and minimally disguise themselves from being a part of Protocol, but considering the circumstances, he decided to let things play out for now. At least that’s the practical excuse he gives, but in reality the loveseat he’s lounging on is practically gripping him by the tail with how comfortable it was, so he was in zero rush to get up. He kept attention enough to see Picky step up to the leopard and in literal seconds, he watched him go from arrogant to pussycat with one grab of his collar.

“Listen up Keith or whatever your name is, when I start cooking, this is MY kitchen,” Picky stated in a cold and brutal tone that had other chefs flinch. “You’re forgiven because you’re new to the restaurant and I can tell by your knife handling that you’re no slouch, but you only get 2 chances to f around here.”

“Y-you-! If you think you can just barge in and take control like that, you’re sorely mistaken! Sure you can prep ingredients, but that alone doesn’t make you a chef, pig!”

“Is that so?” Picky questioned with a blank expression, before releasing her grip on the leopard and shoving all the other chefs out of the way or outside the kitchen. “Did you clear the floor Catnap?”

“Figured it’d come down to this, so cleared them about 3 seconds after his collar got grabbed,” the cat confessed, hugging a pillow as he struggled to stay awake.

“Appreciate you everyday! Now then Keith, we’re going to have a cooking competition and if you win, I’ll back down, but if I win, you’ll suffer through my training at DOUBLE the capacity, good? Good!”

‘Keith’ didn’t even get a chance to accept the challenge, but it wasn’t like he was gonna back down from the target anyway. He may be acting as a chef, but he has been put in charge of cooking at Protocol with stellar reviews, so his confidence in winning was quite high. Only to have that confidence bent over, made a bitch, and passed around an entire city like a cheap whore, because he lost bad enough that even the plate that fell on him seemed to be like a gentle pat on the shoulder to comfort him.

“How…how on earth…” the leopard who was forever branded Keith muttered, actually falling to his knees, but managing to keep his hands on his thighs rather than the floor. “This…this wasn’t fair from the start! How is she not the head chef with cooking like that!?!?!”

“There is a good reason why whenever she is here, this is ‘her’ kitchen. And the reason she isn’t head chef is because all the other chefs admitted to quitting on the spot if she took over out of both fear and loyalty,” the head chef confessed, finishing his sample of Picky’s dish. “It’s not like you were bad, but you focused a lot more on using stronger flavor in your seasoning, somewhat masking the true taste of the cut.”

“Plus the presentation was gaudy as hell, while the taste of the sides didn’t match the flavor profile well so it felt like it was meant to choke it down,” Catnap unapologetically spit with a sly grin.

“And the worst part of your dish,” Picky started, picking up the plate and showing him how she slightly tipped it over and enough grease fell off into a conveniently placed cup, that it got half-full. “Is that you didn’t DRAIN THE F-ING GREASE! Of course you were meant to lose, but don’t worry Keith. By the time I’m done with you, every one of the patrons will be licking your dishes clean.~” 

Although her voice and tone suggested innocence, there was an underlying sense of death that was emanating from the pig’s mouth. Of course there were objections raised about the need for it, but the head chef merely told the new chefs to suck it up and think of it as a learning experience from a willing master. For the rest of the afternoon, even the street goers walking by the windows of the restaurant could see the maniacal silhouette of a pig laughing like a madman as the loud, unsuppressed screams were heard from inside. Once evening rolled around and some of the reservations, evening wait staff, and normal evening patrons arrived, they were met with a completely reformed dining hall. Complete with an open view kitchen, the usual elegant theme they were used to was somehow upgraded to feeling regal, and the chefs could be seen split and dressed in separate colors, a set behind the head chef and a set that looked incredibly drained beyond recognition, behind Picky.

“Hello and welcome everyone this evening,” The head chef started his welcome, taking a step forward. “As you have noticed, the venue has been modified this evening for a special event. If you’ve noticed, our chefs are split into 2 teams, both making the same dishes. When your order is delivered, you’ll be given 2 plates for the price of one, one with trim in the color of the chefs behind me and over with the color of the chefs behind Picky. We humble ask that you judge which plate between the 2 is better and submit it to your waiter when you pay for your meal.”

“We apologize for any inconvenience this little change may cause for your evening plans, but as compensation, all meals are promised to be 3 courses,” Picky adds, her professional smile never faltering. Once everyone was aware of the evening’s event and understood their role, the cooking display proceeded with a bang. Catnap was practically serenaded with the sounds of glasses and silverware clinking against the china, but the most enjoyable music was the spartan commands of Picky taking charge of her team of chefs. She took no disjunction, supervising with a firm hand, and if a couple on Picky’s side broke down in the walk-in, no they didn’t.

“I’m gonna go ballistic!” the pig screeched as she held up a lobster tail so overcooked, even the glass of water turned to dust from how dry it was. “It’s overcooked! And the pasta, by miracle, is the complete opposite!! It’s so raw, it’s standing up on the fucking plate!!”

A couple of chefs on the head chef’s team actually had to hold back grins to make sure they weren’t caught in any crossfire, especially when they weren’t doing a lot better in the same department, but watching the new chefs deal with Picky was far more entertaining than it should’ve been. Although they were laughing at the misfortune they escaped, they were actually behind in score due to taste and the amount of food served in comparison, but they weren’t aware of such details yet. Catnap was well aware and watching it gave him a twisted sense of enjoyment, because he was eagerly anticipating the finale of the evening when the scores came out, before taking a sample of the seafood pasta from Picky’s team. Honestly, it was far more palatable than he was expecting, especially when it’s thanks to Picky he actually has a standard for almost any cuisine as of late.

“Fucking get over here! All of you!’ Picky yells, bringing her team over to see what was recently brought up. “Who brings this, pissing over the tray?! And the big surprise is, the fucking bass IS FUCKING RAW! Would you serve that to your fucking family Johnathon!?”

“No chef!”

“Then why in god’s name are you trying to serve it here!?”

“I don’t know, chef!”

“Get the FUCK back over there and get it the FUCK together!”

“Yes chef!”

“Sabrina! “

“Yes chef!!!” a meek chef responded, almost looking ready to cry at her name being called.

“Good work with the desserts, you’re proving you paid attention when I talked about the presentation!”

“Thank you, chef!”

By the time closing came around, every chef on Picky’s side looked like they had just returned from a warzone, yet they were still clean and presentable with how they stood exasperated. The team on the head chef's side looked worn out as well, but didn’t hold a candle to how much Picky had made her side work, but the results spoke volumes at her effectiveness. With Catnap showing the counts and a condescending snicker, Picky’s team had reviews that put the veterans to shame, despite only selling a few more plates. Although he held his tongue, the absolute fury on the head chef’s face spoke volumes of how much trouble they were in for this disgrace. Before they could fully understand the hell they were in for, Picky called everyone over as she stood next to the head chef, who calmed down relatively fast out of respect.

“First things first, I want to thank everyone, regardless of their screw ups and my many… many comments I’ve made, because we could not have gotten through this evening without your hard work. Now, I would also like to congratulate the chefs under my care who came out on top in our competition. Very well done.”

That statement actually had every chef on her side tear up, even Keith looked completely touched as he tried his hardest not to sniffle. They worked hard, getting through painful lessons, and suffering under her forceful hands and comments about them. Hearing her praise them so kindly and sincerely, was more than a compliment, it was like receiving a blessing that they respected and depressed gratitude for wholeheartedly.

“Although it was short, I’m proud to have been your teacher for this evening and to reward your efforts~” Pinky sang, standing to the side and revealing packed lunches stacked 5 layers high per chef on her team, each with a small sack on top of each. “I’m providing you all fully made meals by yours truly based on the dishes you served tonight, as well as extra compensation for the trouble.”

“Wha- How is that fair!?!” one of the veteran chefs yelled, feeling slighted. “We put in good work too!”

“GOOD WORK!?” the head chef screamed, his rage now boiling over with how red his face was. “You LOST to your juniors with an embarrassing display, yet you want to cry about fairness!? I seem to have been much too lenient with my instruction in this kitchen without Picky’s help, so consider her extremes for the night, the new standards in my kitchen!”

“““WHAT!?”””

“I was hoping you would say that head chef, so I took the liberty of bringing my notes,” the pig confessed, holding up a briefcase and handing it to him. “I’ll be expecting them to be at least half as talented as you when I come back working full time.~”

“Don’t insult me, they’ll be up to your standards of TONIGHT by the time you get back, otherwise they can hand in their aprons.”

Hearing the ultimatum, many of the veteran chefs fell into despair, some falling to their knees begging mercy, some going through every stage of grief on loop, and some dead on arrival as if they couldn’t fight anymore. Whichever route they took, was more than satisfactory for the spectating feline who was leisurely stretching, before getting off the loveseat. Realizing this was his way of urging her, Picky made peace with the chefs on her team, letting them get their boxed meals, but seeing them all leave the money.

“Thank you chef, for your kindness,” one of the newer chefs started, holding his boxed lunch timidly. “But the lessons you’ve given us tonight were more than enough.”

“It was difficult, but I’ve never felt more confident in my role here thanks to you, chef. I’ll be able to hold my head high tomorrow when making desserts more than ever in the kitchen,” Sabrina admitted, looking motivated.

“I’m a temp chef, but I never dreamed I’d learn so much in one evening and that’s worth WAY more than what you’re paying. Taking it feels like I’d be stealing!”

One-by-one, each chef told her their reasons as they returned the money to her, but the most surprising reaction came from the leopard, Keith, whom both Catnap and Picky suspected were here to kill her. Not only him, but every temp chef who came with him, handed her the money, but even extra, before collectively taking a large bow. This was so surprising, even Catnap was taken off guard, actually falling back on the loveseat in shock, while Picky stood flustered.

“Chef Picky, I’d first like to apologize for the first impression I gave you when you came here, but all of us here, collectively want to thank you immensely for your guidance in this kitchen. None of us were quite confident in our skills as a team in this kitchen until you came along, but thanks to you, we can hold our heads more than high, we can truly call ourselves chefs! Although it was short and we may not work under you in this kitchen, please treat us just as kindly under your care again in the future!”

Hearing his words actually caused Picky to shed tears, looking proud at the chefs that grew in such a short amount of time. With a gentle nod and a big hug, the atmosphere was far too sappy for Catnap’s liking to continue this show and gently grabbed the pig by her ear as he pulled her out of the establishment and made the annoying trip home. About 3 days later, a newspaper article came out about a new and upcoming restaurant run by Protocol that was making waves in the city, crediting Picky and her former workplace for taking excellent care of their chefs.

“Wow, the food was good enough that they didn’t die and made a business venture out of it,” Catnap commented, relaxing comfortably in his beanbag chair, reading the article. “...Wait, what the fuck?”

Catnap, after calmly assessing the situation and realizing Picky, not only single-handedly handled an assassination squad by herself without magic, but managed to turn their life goals around into being chefs. Now they were using her lessons to run a business for the group that were actively trying to kill them, successfully at that, so they inadvertently provided more resources for Protocol, for FREE at that.

“...I’m sending them a goddamn bill.” the cat groaned, trying to ignore the thought as he kept reading.

Chapter Text

“ ...do you know someone named Catnap? ”

Hearing the question took the bear off guard, because despite saying his name in her emotional state, Catnap wasn’t someone social enough to warrant someone knowing his name. Viewing the situation as dangerous, she didn’t hesitate to grab her medal, but at the slightest hint of transformation, the man fell to his knees with abstract fear, an almost pleading look on his face, stopping her from continuing.

“H-hear me out, please!” he cried, tears actually welling up in his eyes at the thought of her  getting ready to fight him. “I swear I can explain, I promise I can, please…”

“...How do you know Catnap?” Bobby quietly asked the man, her hand still steady on her medal as she got closer to him with short and light steps.

“If…if it’s the Catnap I know, then it’s because we used to work together. He used to be a part of Protocol as one of our key leaders.”

At the man’s words, Bobby’s heartbeat was resounding in her ears like it was the only thing she was allowed to hear. Catnap used to be a part of Protocol, the organization chasing them down? How long ago was that? What kind of power did he hold? But the most important question she found herself asking was what drove him to even leave, if he even left. She could vaguely make out the story of how Catnap was a high ranking priest that was so devoted in spreading word of Protocol’s teachings that it was downright lunacy at times. The cat trusted Protocol’s god, believed in it, a devotion as drenched as the Prototype.

“I’m the local doctor in these parts, you see. I was in charge of keeping members and believers at their best in Protocol and Catnap was my biggest regular when we were there. I witnessed it first hand, how his devotion was what led him astray, you see?” the man stated, pointing to the signs of corruption as if it were a disease, an infection that needed to be quarantined. “That's an early sign of a ‘tainted’ an individual whose magic has lost its identity and a soul that’s practically lost its sense of self.”

“What on earth are you talking about!? What do you mean led astray! What's a tainted !?!”

“It means someone at the early stages of…of becoming a plaything.” he revealed, the revelation stunning Bobby into shock. “Most of the victims don’t even know it, but once their magic takes on a corruption to this magnitude, they’re at a state at their most unstable, where they’re not long for creating a playground to feast and consume those around them. I-I understand your confusion, but-”

“Don’t start with me!” Bobby screamed, her magic rising high enough that she was showing signs of transforming. “I’m tired of watching people I care about hurt, about not knowing what’s here nor there because of ignorance!”

The man looked absolutely terrified at her, the level of her magic dwarfing the amount he gave off by leagues, but that was understandable. Bobby’s magic level could compete toe-to-toe with Dogday on a good day, because the more she wanted to help, the more she wished to protect, the stronger her magic became. All she tried to do was help a poor family, yet all she did was lead to their demise? A random sense of violence from someone helping them? No matter how much Bobby tried to rationalize, tried to come up with a valid excuse, none made sense for this senseless act. While she was struggling to come to terms, the man grabbed her by her shoulders frantically, snapping her to attention.

“Wait a moment! You said ‘ watching people I care about ’ as if this isn’t the first time, correct?” he asked her, to which she timidly nodded and the look of dread on his face spoke volumes. “Miss…please tell me no one you know is with him…”

“I..I- W-why does it matter?...”

“Listen, carefully! You need to get your loved ones away from him as soon as possible. Someone tainted to this degree…they’re a ticking bomb for becoming a plaything! If any of your loved ones are too close, I fear he might-”

Bobby didn’t give him any time to finish, already having an idea of what he was trying to say giving what was left of the family home. She wrestled free of his grip before running as fast as she could to the hotel with a new sense of urgency. Unbeknownst to her, the expression on the man’s face fell as he watched her back shrink in the distance, before a small grin etched its way on his face.

It took only a few minutes for Bobby to reach her destination, the panic heavy on her face as she came bursting through the door, panting. The sound was enough to arouse the attention of Hop and Craft who were passing through the foyer, who welcomed her cheerfully, before Craft stopped and noticed her state.

“Where’s Catnap!” Bobby screamed, trying to calm herself down enough to speak well.

“Catnap, why?”

“Where is he!?”

“H-he’s giving Dogday his treatm-”

Ignoring the rest of the mare’s answer, Bobby rushed to Dogday’s room, only to find it vacant. If they weren’t here, then there was only likely one other place for them to be, leading her to rush to the designated ‘infirmary’ where she could see the dog and cat about to initiate it for the day. Just before their lips connected, Bobby transformed and threw a set of syringes at the cat, which passed through his after image before lodging into the wall across the room. The sudden change had Dogday stagger back against the metal head frame, looking at the syringes, before slowly turning to see Bobby panting in the doorway, transformed and wastefully using magic.

“Bobby, what?” the dog questioned, before seeing the cat stand at the end of the bed,slowly standing up.

“That’s what I’d like to know, Bearhug,” Catnap added, his transformation already active as his tail flicked precariously as he gave her a cold stare. “What’s the meaning of thi-?

She didn’t give Catnap time to finish before another volley of syringes had the cat reflexively somersaulted backwards, landing on his knees to parry the second volley with a familiar dagger. However, as soon as the syringes broke, a smokescreen flooded the room as both he and Dogday coughed at the sudden smoke bath. The canine himself didn’t even get a chance to get his bearings before a forceful grip pulled him to his feet and swiftly pulled him out of the room, the culprit's signature rose scent overloading his sense of smell.

“Bobby * cough * What's going on? What are you-”

“No time! We have to get out of here!” The bear cut him off, swiftly bringing him to the foyer, seeing the rest of her friends and the minis brought out by the noise. Looks of confusion were painted splendidly over everyone’s faces, but before she had a chance to explain anything, that cold familiar feeling of death choked out any words she had as she turned to see an apathetic Catnap already caught up to them.

“Of all the critters I expected to pick a fight with me, I never expected it to be you Bobby. Aren’t you more of a pacifist?”

“When I have to protect my friends, I have to be able to do something!” She replied, reaching in her fanny pack to send more syringes at the cat, who deflected them like nothing. “I won’t let you hurt them, any of them! If you’re tainted, then I’ll stop you here and now before you can become a plaything!”

At those words, all critters' reactions were immediate in response. Hoppy and Kickin tensed up with trickles of sweat as they grabbed nearby objects for self defense. Picky, Bubba, and Crafty looked on in various degrees of confusion and worry, wondering what drove Bobby to make such an accusation. Dogday looked shocked beyond words, looking at Bobby in disbelief before glancing at the feline and freezing up at his face. The reaction Catnap had wasn’t shock, wasn’t confusion, it wasn’t even anger at Bobby’s words. What Dogday could see, what all the critters saw, even Bobby, was a pure and calm disbelief on the cat’s face, like he couldn’t believe or understand what she had said.

“How…how do you-?” Catnap started, before shifting his head to the side and avoiding a swift stab by Bobby, only to eat her swift kick into his side that sent him skidding across the floor from his poorly timed block. The feline was obviously still in a state of disbelief, visibly trying to process her words as if what she was saying didn’t make sense. Despite this, Bobby came at him relentlessly, taking advantage of his stupor.

The bear refused to let up, the fear and concentration heavy in her expression, overwhelming the Catnap with a flurry of attacks to keep him from recovering and only giving him enough time to react. Whether it was a wasteful volley of syringes or quick kicks and punches to keep him on edge when she closed the distance. She had him pinned against the wall and just as she was ready to stab a syringe into his soul gem, an overwhelming force sent her flying back, straight through the door of the hotel. It was enough shock to cause her to de-transform as soon as she hit the ground, but not lose consciousness as the pain from the impact still remained. What awaited her as she opened her eyes wasn’t Catnap, at least, not the one she had grown used to. The Catnap she saw, the one slowly approaching her with a face obscured by his hood, was a monster exuding a black presence that sent shivers up her spine, a grim reaper that was ready to kill her before going after her friends next.

“ Where did you learn that phrase Bobby? ” The feline demanded with an unbridled fury the closer he stepped to her. The anger radiated off him like a wave, threatening anyone who dared to get close. “ You better tell me. ”

“What…does that matter, “Bobby retorted through grunts, using what magic she could to heal the pain she was experiencing, Catnap obviously aware, but felt it was negligible in front of him. “It doesn’t change a thing about you, Catnap.”

“ Dammit Bobby, I’m serious right now! Where did you learn that term, who told you that!?”

“As someone who left Protocol as well, do  you even have to ask?”

“ You…you made contact with someone….from Protocol?... ”

Sitting up, Bobby wasted no time transforming once again, but unlike before, her body wouldn’t respond as she held her shoulder, taking quick notice of the black ‘corruption’ that stained her legs and held arm. Had Catnap counterattacked her during every hit of CQC inside the hotel? How come she never felt it, how did he do it with so much pressure? Bobby was robbed from her thoughts as the cat looked down at her, his revolver pointed right at her face with a finger on the trigger. Despite his prior need to get answers from her, the feline’s expression said that ship has long since sailed given her last response. The look he was giving her screamed so much, so many conflicting emotions she could see in his eyes that she was unsure what to make of it. It wasn’t as if Catnap was lost or confused at all, not like how the man described. What she saw was feelings of conflict, hesitation at what he was doing, but at the front of it all was something much colder, animalistic fear.

“ It doesn’t matter actually, because if you know that phrase, it means you’re one of them. ” Catnap started, slowly pulling the trigger as his feral eyes locked onto her. “ I won’t go back to them, I won’t let you drag the minis back either. So I’ll take care of you, right here, right now. ”

The roar of the gun was the last thing Bobby heard before her eyes shut in response to the fear she felt, but unlike the expected pain or shattered sound of her gem, all she heard was a deafening reverb of the impact. Slowly opening her eyes, she could see a transformed Bubba standing strong with his hands out and an incredibly compressed light screen shield in front of both of them. Getting a better look, she could also see an extremely worried and uneasy Crafty holding her paintbrush up at Catnap as icicle spears were pointed at the cat, his eyes of rage never leaving Bobby.

“Catnap, you need to calm down,” Bubba stated calmly, seeing the level of excitement and adrenaline the feline was currently under.

“ Don’t tell me what to do, elephant! If this bitch wants a fight, I’ll give her one, but I’ll be damned if I let her walk away after saying shit like that. ”

“This isn’t like you Catnap, what did she say that was-?”

“ Stuff it Crafty! ” Catnap all but demanded, those eyes glancing back to the unicorn, unnerving her momentarily. “ I won’t let you talk me out of this one. No one but Protocol refers to me as ‘ tainted. ’ I’m NOT letting a scrap of them get by me EVER AGAIN!”

Realizing this was going nowhere, Crafty took the chance to swiftly paint a straight jacket onto the cat, before letting Kickin and Hoppy take him to the ground. It took all her magic, but thankfully it was layered enough to survive the cat’s corruption effect to a shocking degree, something he noticed immediately. Catnap didn’t struggle, didn’t move, didn’t blink, he just lay there staring at the bear as if he was going to kill her with his eyes. Bobby looked at him with disdain of her own, feeling a mutual sense of hate for the cat, at least until she saw something that made her halt. Despite the look of death promised in the feline’s eyes, she saw a small tinge of something else, something she could recognize all too well; betrayal.

“ Why Bobby… ” Catnap questioned as small tears began to form despite his unchanged face. “ TELL ME FUCKING WHY YOU BITCH!? I SAVED YOU, ALL OF YOU! AND THIS IS HOW YOU FUCKING REPAY ME!? ”

In fact, she looked around and she could see that same twinge in the faces of everyone, but that couldn’t be right. She was the one who helped with emotional distress, not cause it. All she was trying to do was protect her friends, so why were they all looking at her like that, like they couldn’t even recognize who they were looking at anymore. Kickin, despite struggling to hold the cat down, couldn’t even look the bear in the eyes for her actions. Crafty was struggling to hold it together as she looked at Bobby in disbelief. Bubba wouldn’t even grace her with a look to her face, keeping his back firmly to the bear. Dogday was struggling in trying to look whether worried for her or disappointed in her actions, the clenching of his fists feeling like a clutch on her heart. But what stung the most, the one look that broke her heart into pieces, was Hoppy. The tearful biting of the rabbit’s lip as she held down the cat she just assaulted, that look that couldn’t even recognize the bear for who she was anymore. Even the minis looked scared of her, huddled together a bit behind Dogday as they looked on at the bear with that same look they gave Catnap back at the playcare.

“ WHAT ABOUT THE MINIS, HUH!? WHAT’D THEY DO FOR THIS! THESE ARE YOUR FUCKING FRIENDS RIGHT!? WHY’D YOU BETRAY THEM? FUCKING TELL ME!!! ’

“But I…I didn’t-”

“ Get out! GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HERE AND NEVER COME BACK YOU FUCKING TRAITOR! ” Catnap shouted, the tears running like a river as he thrashed and struggled against the bird and rabbit on top of him. “ If I EVER see you the fuck again, I’LL REMIND YOU EXACTLY OF WHO I WAS AT THE PLAYCARE! ” 

Those words cut the bear like a knife, harder than anything she expected to, coming from him. She knew that all she was trying to do was protect her friend, in her mind that’s all she could think of. So why? Why, when she felt the tightening of her chest, did her heart ask her why she did that to Catnap? De-transforming, the bear slowly got up, tears streaming down her face as her ears dropped slightly as she looked at the cat. She couldn’t even say words properly as the weight of her actions finally came flooding at her. She weakly started walking away, unable to look back at the face and looks of disappointment and pain she caused, the betrayal she caused. Once she was finally out of sight, did Catnap finally calm down enough to de-transform with that same look of anger-filled betrayal on his face. Normally he was apathetic, calm, and cold, but from what the rest of the SMiling Critters could see, Catnap was anything but that. No, the feline was that same hurt child from their first day here, the kid who bled his heart dry, yet they could clearly see that what was once dry began bleeding anew.

A few days had passed since that confrontation and to say things were tense, were putting it lightly. Even with the time away from Bobby, Catnap was always looking so on edge, on constant alert of his surroundings to the point no one could really approach him, not even Kittynap, who took to sleeping with Dogday and Puppy. Bobbi didn’t feel too happy with things either, actually being much more tame to displaying affections and giving hugs than usual because of the atmosphere. She definitely tried to hide it, even hoping to raise the mood just like Bobby would, but she just didn’t have the heart for it right now. Hoppy seemed to take it the hardest in a way, getting a bit rough at times, but everyone could tell it was just worry for the bear. Although she spent much of her time with Kickin  as the chaotic duo who brought smiles to everyone, it was more than obvious how much better her relationship was with Bobby. While Kickin was her best friend, Bobby was like her rock, her burrow, she was what kept the rabbit grounded when she got too excited. The lack of the bear’s presence was affecting everyone, but Hoppy was practically deteriorating without her.

“This can’t go on much longer,” Picky declared after taking a seat at the table. “I don’t know what has to happen, but we need to address the elephant in the room.”

“Bubba’s right here Picky,” Kickin deadpanned, before a loud slap to the back of his head told him that it wasn’t the time.

“Thank you Hoppy,” the very ‘elephant in the room,’ said before sitting up straight. “Now, as Picky stated, we do need to address that things around her haven’t exactly been…warm, since the event from a few days ago. Due to Bobby’s… impulsive actions, she has effectively gotten herself kicked out, which is expected given what all she did, but what is troubling is how much it affected Catnap.”

“And what exactly is so strange about his actions? Seems like the same old grumpy and isolated priss as usual to me.”

“I’m serious, Hoppy.I understand that you aren’t a fan of Catnap right now, but even you can’t blame him for his decision, especially since he let it go enough to not continue his pursuit of it.”

Hoppy flinched at the statement, but conceded unwillingly to the pachyderm’s words. She clearly remembered how blinded Catnap was in anger, how much the cat looked at the bear as a clear enemy and target, The same familiar eyes that haunted her nightmares back at playcare, yet instead of continuing after he was let go, he merely told them Bobby was ‘never stepping back inside the hotel again,’ before practical imprisoning himself in his suite. Bobby was effectively dead to the cat, so letting her live after that was possibly the biggest kindness he would ever offer, so she had to admit Bubba was telling the truth, even if it hurt to admit it.

“Be thankful he isn’t opposed to the curated visits you’ve been doing.”

“You know about them!?” She screamed incredulously at the words like accusation. Despite her best efforts, she knew the cat would ‘eventually’ find out, but to say everyone knew was unjust in her eyes. “H-how?! I’d made sure to be sneaky enough with Bobbi and everything!”

“Yeah Hops, the problem was you brought any of the giggling terrors, more than the sneaking,” Kickin deadpanned, lowering his shades just a smidge as he propped his feet up. “Helicopter parent, remember?”

“That…and Dogday.”

“He snitched!?”

“Really Hoppy?” the canine asked dryly, leaning into his hand with a dead look. “That cat couldn’t BEAT any of my friend’s secrets out of me, so I’d be the worst option to ask. I may not be able to lie, but my lips are tighter than anyone else’s if it involves them.”

“All Catnap did was ask Dogday if you were in contact with her and since he can’t lie, all he demanded in response was that Bobbi was never left alone with Bobby or anyone she might be with. Otherwise, he’s ignored it for everyone’s sake.” Picky’s words weren’t comforting, but they at least calmed the rabbit down in a weird way.

“That’s besides the point, the issue at hand is Bobby’s actions were enough to feel like a betrayal to Catnap, yet he’s not acting as so.”

At those words, the critters looked at the elephant with various faces of confusion and disbelief, all except Dogday, who looked unsurprised despite his frown. Even when Hoppy tried to look offended, one shake from Dogday stopped her before she had a chance, his face saying it all. The dog knew better than all of them the true  price of betrayal to Catnap, even if the severity isn’t matched to what he did before. He thought he’d have to beg the cat to be lenient and give Bobby a second chance, but that worry was proven unfounded because the feline simply never left to collect. Dogday has spent days thinking about it, but no matter what he came up with, he couldn’t understand why. Why was Catnap so hurt by her actions? Why did he let her walk away?

“This means that likely one of 2 scenarios from my hypothesizing; A) Catnap is using Bobby as bait for something or someone and is simply waiting for her to come back,” Bubba started, getting a glare from Hoppy before holding up a foot to signal wait. “Or B) There’s something Catnap feels uneasy about Bobby and is choosing to cut her off now before it can bear fruit.” 

“But why!? That’s not fair to Bobby! Not fair to us! She’s our friend, we can’t just … Abandon her to suit his needs!”

“But we’re not Hoppy, YOU’re not,’ Dogday cut in, sitting up in his chair. “You aren’t the only one visiting her, we all have at least once. Hell, I even brought her a bunch of blankets and pillows just so she could sleep at least somewhat comfortably, but THAT’S the problem here. We’re being ALLOWED to with no word or threats to stop, nothing. Perfectly honest, I want nothing more than to get on my knees and beg Catnap to let her come back and apologize, because her being out here has me worried to no end, but the reason I can’t is because of that day. Catnap wasn’t just scared, he was terrified at what she said.”

“He’s the one who decided to hide that fact from us! It’s not her fault she got scared because of it for us! If he just told us before-”

“Nothing! Would be different, Hoppy, and you know that!” Dogday cut her off with a no-nonsense tone that befit him as the leader. He wasn’t here to argue semantics or hypotheticals with her, nor try to justify either Bobby and especially not to justify Catnap. But at the end of the day, he saw genuine fear in the cat’s eyes at Bobby, something he’d only ever seen Catnap show in reverence to the Prototype, so whatever Bobby had done was something dangerous. “We were practically on death row and instead of serving us up, he gave us shelter and thanks to Crafty, took us in. I won’t ignore what Bobby said, but we have no right to pry about it!”

Before Hoppy could retort, the door to the dining room flung open with a loud slam, drawing the attention of the remaining Smiling Critters. What stood there was a disheveled and irritated Catnap, one who displayed heavy signs of lacking sleep. Seeing him there took them off guard, but Hoppy recovered enough to march over to the feline.

“Catnap, you owe us some answers!”

“I am not. In the fucking mood. March fucking hare.” Catnap looked as if he was actively biting himself back from going ballistic in his response. All he came down to do was get something to eat since he finally remembered in his brooding, his body still needed to eat to sustain itself regardless of if he’s not technically alive to warrant it. Being cut off for an interrogation was NOT on his list of to-do’s for the day and he wanted to keep it that way, but the way Hoppy stood in front of him said that was out of the question. “Unless you want to put me in a worse mood than I already am, I suggest you get the hell on.”

“Not without some sort of explanation dammit. Look, I won’t even try to defend Bobby for what she did to you, because I understand better than probably anyone here in acting on impulse, so I know there are consequences. But hear me out, this is BOBBY we’re talking about, a critter who’d sooner drive herself insane instead of acting on impulse if it meant hurting someone. If she did what she did for that, then there was something that happened, something she saw that drove her to it!”

Hoppy’s pleas seemed to fall on deaf ears though given Catnap’s unchanged expression. In fact, he didn’t even look surprised by her argument, nor was he showing any signs of denying it. The resigned look, his unbothered temperament to the very idea, it was maddening to see. It was obvious that no matter what she had to say, he wouldn’t be moved, he wouldn’t change his decision about her. Catnap didn’t care whether or not Bobby was thinking straight or not, because she already became a heretic to him due to it.

“This…this isn’t fair. This isn’t fair and you know it!”

“Am I supposed to care about what’s fair when it comes to surviving?” Catnap asked her, swatting her hand away like a bug casually buzzing by. “I know better than anyone here when magic, drugs, or the like are involved and I saw from the first swing that she was in sound mind. Whatever she ‘heard’ was enough to shake whatever faith she had in me and think I was a monster. If a couple of words are enough to turn on me, then I’m better off cutting things off like this now.”

“But-!”

“ ENOUGH HOPPY! I’ve made my decision on the matter and that’s fucking final! She’s not my problem anymore and I refuse to hear your pity party bullshit on trying to convince me otherwise! There’s no appealing to my sense of loyalty, there’s no appealing to our friendship! We! Are! NOTHING! ” he yelled in her face, a tearful glare being his reception. “ She’s YOUR friend, so if you really want to help her, that’s your responsibility, not mine. ”

“And how are we meant to do that!? This is the safest place we know of and you won’t even give her a chance to be near anymore!”

“We give him a reason to.”

The sentence from the canine had heads turning, a fierce frown by Catnap being sent his way. Dogday wasn’t bothered and merely rolled his eyes at the cat’s response, because this was his decision. That day was a flurry of emotions for him, all of them there, and it wasn’t exactly light in repercussions. Perfectly honest, he didn’t know what to think that day, what was going through Bobby’s head and why she acted out like that. Even when everyone visited her and relayed any details as to her reasons, he couldn’t truly understand, because he knew Catnap couldn’t have done anything to anyone since he never left the hotel that night.

Replaying the memory in his head, he couldn’t see any fault being found on Catnap’s part and that’s what made coming to a decision the hardest. Dogday knew Catnap was justified and had to respect the cat’s decision on this, but Hoppy was also right that Bobby was their friend, a Smiling Critter. He couldn’t abandon her, they couldn’t simply let her mistake be what risked what happiness they found, so this decision was the only feasible solution that he could come up with.

“Look, I don’t condone Bobby’s actions, nor do I blame you at all for how you handled it, Catnap. As much as it hurts to admit, you weren’t at fault in any way so trying to press you like this just makes us more unreasonable than things already are.”

“...At least you’re aware.”

“It’s because I’m aware that I said what I said,” Dogday stated resolutely. “We’ll give you a reason to; we’ll find something , a shred of evidence or a morsel of reason for you to forgive Bobby and give her another chance to come back. If we do that, there’s nothing to complain about, right?”

At this, Catnap had to raise a brow, because that was a bold statement from the dog despite asking for confirmation of his opinion on the matter. Dogday was actually accurately aware of where himself and everyone else stood in the situation and made a conclusion and plan based on that versus getting emotional and taking Bobby’s side outright. While the feline was less than disinterested in what he had to say, he had to give credit of being a leader where it was due. 

“Fine then, I’ll bite, pup . If you can find any validation in her actions that can dredge up the microscopic, miniscule, non-existent sense of duty or kindness I have left in my cold dead heart for you assholes, then I’ll forgive her. But make no mistake-” Catnap quickly continued, cutting the distance between them to zero, staring Dogday with eyes flooded with silent rage. “If she even breathes near this hotel before that, her life is forfeit. Are we clear?”

With a deep breath, trying to calm his anxious heart at Catnap’s action, Dogday gave a firm nod with a confident backbone about it. Seeing the dog take his threat seriously, Catnap skulked off to the kitchen as originally intended, Dogday releasing a breath he didn’t realize he was holding.

“Damn…I’m still not able to handle him like that.”

“Handled it better than any of us would’ve, D-dog,” Kickin offered, resting a hand on his shoulder in comfort. “Pretty sure the only one of us who could deal with Catnap is Crafty and that’s because Catnap is a big softie with her.”

“He’s not-”

“Don’t even try finishing that sentence girl. If ANY of us want to even try asking Catnap for a favor, we are required to go through you for him to remotely hear us out. Otherwise, we need you to follow up.”

“Picky, that’s not true!”

“Crafty, can you even accurately name one favor Catnap has given us that you didn’t get involved with talking to him about?” Bubba asked her and when the unicorn seemed incredibly interested in the faded tablecloth, it was obvious she got caught, but by Hoppy’s actions, that was not here nor there. It took little time for her to round up the rest of the critters and out the door. She wasn’t sure where they needed to go, but helping Bobby required them to be anywhere but the hotel right now.

The bear in question, was currently curled up in a familiar blanket on the middle floor of an abandoned parking building at the edge of abandoned cityscape. It was a lucky find to be honest, because while this part of the city was neglected and treated as slums, there was obviously some form of established territory to certain buildings versus others. Because of the lack of attention to the area, small gangs and other groups have easily formed and compete regularly for control as a sort of ‘unofficial underground’ and the graffiti and magical marks were signs of control. If not for most of the competition being closer towards the actual city, Bobby wasn’t sure she’d be able to get decent shelter. Now she could understand what Catnap meant by the marked areas on the map he provided, more so now that she got kicked out after her, emotional, mistake.

“I can’t forgive him, I just can’t…” she quietly murmured to herself, remembering what was left of the shack. There was no mistaking it, she knew what she saw and it matched Catnap’s corruption perfectly. All signs pointed to him being the culprit and hearing that he was a part of Protocol, even formerly, was enough to make her act. “Why Catnap…why did you target them…”

Bobby knows the way she did it was hasty and probably a bit extreme given the little information she had, but she didn’t regret her decision in the slightest. In her head, she knows what she did was the correct choice of action if Catnap was willing to do that to a sickly and innocent family, so there was no point in being upset about it. Although, her heart can’t help but remember the look on his face, that look of betrayal and loneliness as if she shattered everything he had known.  It was a face she understood all too easily, because as the critter most in tuned with emotions and their psychological effects, it wasn’t hard to know that it wasn’t what she did that hurt Catnap at all, but what it represented.

“What did he mean by ‘betrayed them?’ Bobby asked no one aloud, her mind replaying his words like a broken record. How she was the one who was betraying them, how he and the minis couldn’t go back to Protocol. There was something missing, a key piece of important information that Bobby required to understand everything. “Wasn’t he just keeping us prime to devour when he turns?”

“Does that really seem like the Catnap we know to you Bobs?” Starling the bear from her thoughts was Hoppy’s familiar nickname for her, the green rabbit herself taking a seat beside her. “Because Catnap never really liked playing long games with us.”

Bobby didn’t get time to process her words before she was tackle-hugged by a small ball of red. Looking down, she could see Bobbi comfortably snuggled into his stomach as she held onto tightly as if they hadn’t seen each other in ages. Almost immediately after, she could see Dogday approaching with Picky carrying a covered dish and Kickin acting cool on the lookout at their entry way. Seeing them all there for her, them coming together to see her, it was overwhelming, yet the tears she shed silently were accompanied by nothing but a warm smile. After calming down from her emotional turmoil, it was obvious that were weren’t just here for a casual visit, especially given how they almost proudly showed up said that Catnap was more than aware now and for some reason allowed it.

“I just…I don’t get it,” Bobby muttered with a strained voice. “He helped us, he’s done so, so much for us despite how we feel about each other. Even after what I did, he’s letting me have such a small comfort…Why’d he do it?...”

“Couldn’t answer that one for ya Bobs, because the closest critter to the priss is currently with Bubba going somewhere Dogday told em to,” Hoppy casually mentioned, pulling the bear close in a side hug. “Wouldn’t say where, just said it was a place you frequented or something.”

With a knowing look on Bobby’s face, she looked to Dogday for confirmation of her guess and his nod said it all. There was no way she could hide it from her friends, not when their safety was in jeopardy, but telling them outright would be an even bigger risk. So when Dogday last saw her, all she told him was to find the home of who she was helping for the answers they so desperately wanted. She didn’t know why she felt it dangerous for her to say it, but something inside told her that hearing the words out loud wasn't good for anyone.

“I see..then you guys will finally see what I was talking about.”

“We know you aren’t like this girl, but is what you saw really that bad? I mean, whatever it is, has you messed up all types of ways,” Picky commented from the side.

“It’s terrible Picky, just undeniably cruel and unusual…”

“Dang, I almost wish I went with them instead to see it.”

“Not the time, Hoppy.”

And there it was, the usual banter that became a comfort for the bear over time, which became a sign that everything was okay and they’d found a normal. Honestly, in a twisted way, she wished she never helped that family to spare this situation, to spare the hurt and the pain that kept stabbing her the more she thought about it. She never regretted helping, not even once, but the pain resulting from it weighed down on her constantly.

“Bobby?” the tiny bear in her lap questioned, looking up at the larger one with worried eyes. “Are you…okay?”

“Of course I am. I may not be in the best of spirits, but-”

“No, I mean, are you okay…” Bobbi clarified again, but to Bobby’s utter confusion. Was there something she was missing in the question that she didn’t hear? She was about to repeat her answer, before Bobbi held a hand up to Bobby’s medal, rubbing it as if she was trying to clean something away.

“Bobbi, what are you doing? My medal hasn’t gotten that dirty in the few days I’ve been gone,” the bear joked, pulling it away.

“It is, it’s got the icky murky color shining and I don’t like it!”

“What?” Bobby asked, taking a good long look at her medal but not seeing the difference. Her medal was the same lonely red it’s always been. Is she seeing things or is this a game she wasn’t aware of? Bobbi has always been a bit so lonely playful so she guessed it wasn’t too much of a shock but the time didn’t feel appropriate. “Not sure what you’re referring to, Bobsi, but I’m sure my medal is just fine.”

“Since when did you give her that nickname Bobs?”

“What nickname?”

“ Bobsi’ you know, what you called her just now?” Hoppy laughed, thinking she took the rabbit’s nickname and ran with it, but the confusion on Bobby’s face spoke volumes.

“What are you…?” Bobby started, before a buzzing sound flickered through her train of thought, like the static of a television when a channel didn’t exist. Holding the side of her face, Bobby felt an unknowing tension and anxiety that came out of nowhere at losing her train of thought. The emotion on her face was as clear as day, worrying the rabbit and bear cub close to her. Before they could pry, a transformed Bubba rushed at them with Kickin in tow.

“Bobby, I need you to tell me exactly what you say there, now!” Bubba said with a sense of urgency she vividly remembered from somewhere, but couldn’t quite place it.

“What, saw where?” she asked in response, the confusion matched only by the foggy feeling that was washing over her in small doses. 

“Back at that shack, Bobby! Where you took care of the family?!”

“Family? Bubba, I never took care of…wait, no…” Bobby said, trying to remember what she was talking about, but the more she tried to recall, the more the tv static sound would buzz, along with the faint thump of her heart. It was then she had a terrible realization as she held her head; she was forgetting things and while at a slow pace, it was completely noticeable.

“Bobs? Bobby, what’s wrong?!” Hoppy called, immediately trying to gain her attention. “Bubba, what the hell is going on?!” Unfortunately for the rabbit, the elephant was already being interrogated by Dogday, whose expression went from shocked, to frustrated, to confused.

“But that…that can’t be true,” Dogday muttered, thinking hard about things. “I know Catnap was at the hotel that night. If Catnap disappears at all, Kitty alone would’ve been in my room with Puppy. But I know Puppy didn’t have even a whiff of lavender on him.”

“I know what I saw Dogday, there’s no mistaking that Bobby ‘saw’ was Catnap’s corruption magic in effect, but what can’t be explained is why. That’s Catnap’s magic, so what else could have done that?”

“I know what you're saying Bubba, but that doesn’t make sense! As much as I hate him, I won’t lie on what I know just to blame him. He couldn’t have done that.”

Things were coming ahead the more confused everyone was at things, but after registering Bubba’s and Dogday’s conversation, something finally clicked for Bobby. She wasn’t entirely sure what, it was a miracle that she even felt it given what little she properly remembered, but something stuck out amidst the static that buzzed the more she tried to remember.

“It was her…” Bobby muttered, her eyes wide with realization as the grip on her head faltered, taking everyone’s attention. “It was…I blamed Catnap and it was…oh my god…”

“Whoa, Bobby, slow down!” Hoppy called, trying to ground the bear. “It was what? Who are you talking about?”

“I…I don’t…”Bobby started, before quickly setting Bobbi off and transforming. “Tell Catnap I’m sorry, I’m so sorry! But I’ll make things right, I promise!” Before she could jump away, Dogday grabbed her wrist, cutting her momentum short as she turned to look at him.

“Bobby, Calm down! What’s going on? You need to tell us so we can help!”

“You don’t understand, you can’t- It’s all my fault that she’s like this, I-”

“Calm! Down!” He stated forcefully, before gently holding her head and leaning his forehead against hers. “Listen Bobby, please. We don’t know what’s going on, but we want to help you. I know you’re scared right now, but we’re your friends, remember?”

Before she could retort, Hoppy even joined in gripping the bear’s hand, trying to show she was there with her. Even Bobbi joined in, hugging the bear’s leg as she looked up with worry at how she was acting, but that was what she couldn’t understand. Why were they here right now? Why were they telling she wasn’t alone? She’s been alone for a long time not willing to risk them getting hurt.

“I..I…I’m so sorry.” That was the last thing Bobby said, before using syringes on Dogday, Hoppy, both critters feeling immediate effects of her magic relaxing them to the point of paralysis. With them off her, she dashed off, swiftly handing Bobbi into Kickin’s vacant hands before disappearing over the edge. Bubba immediately tried to give chase, but the minute she left line of sight over the railing, she was nowhere in sight.

“What the hell was that about!?” Picky yelled frantically, trying to make sense of that entire situation. “I know I’m missing some important info, but this seems a little much!”

“It’s not just you Picky, because Bobby is never that impulsive, never that…anxious,” Kickin said as he calmed down a tearful Bobbi. “What the hell is happening?”

“We need Catnap to tell us,” Bubba stated calmly, his magic already at work in trying to neutralize Bobby’s magic on Hoppy and Dogday. “I don’t know what’s going on, but what Bobby saw had something to do with Catnap’s magic.”

“That…wasn’t Catnap,” Dogday started, cracking his neck as he was already used to forcing his body to work despite being in a less than ideal state. “I’m not entirely sure what you saw Bubba, nor am I sure what Catnap has to do with it, but I can promise on being the leader of the Smiling Critters, Catnap didn’t do whatever it was.”

Once Hoppy could move, the group wasted no time rushing back to the hotel, apparently on just arriving after Crafty, though by the look of it, she was on her second return given the cube in her hoof. She wasted no time rushing inside before dragging back a grumpy-faced feline who was actively holding back a hiss at her urgency. He didn’t get a word in before she threw the cube to the ground and revealed a captured piece of corrupted wood from the shack.

“Catnap, we need answers about this. I know you don’t like talking to us about yourself, but this isn’t something we can simply gloss over,” Crafty pleaded looking weakly at the cat, but changing instantly to worry as she noticed his expression.

“Crafty, is this…is this what Bobby saw?”

“I’m not 100% sure if this was all, but…I’m confident this is what she told us had to do with it.”

At her words, the cat’s face actually paled as his eyes returned to that same feral look as the day he kicked Bobby out. The trembling of his pupils, the hastening of his breath, with tremors on display with each clench of his fist as he tried to ground himself. No one knew exactly what this was, but for it to send Catnap into this state, it was clear Bobby got involved in something a lot more dangerous than she realized.

“No…no not again…Where is Bobby!?” 

“What?”

“Hurry up and tell me where Bobby is, now!” Catnap demanded frantically, grabbing Hoppy by her shoulders, but unlike the fierceness in his tone, the pleading look on his face was far from a match. “Please, please tell me you know!”

“W-we don’t,” hoppy admitted, unsure of how to respond aside from the truth. “I mean, we did know, but when Bubba came to her and asked about this…whatever, he went crazy and ran off.”

“What!? Why the-”

“She transformed and incapacitated Hoppy and Dogday, Catnap. It was obvious she didn’t want to be followed.”

“No…No no no, tell me that was it! Please tell me she didn’t act any stranger than that!”

“Catnap, what’s wrong? You’re acting more crazy than Bobby about this.” 

“Kickin, this isn’t the time-!”

“He’s right Catnap. Whatever this is, it’s bad enough to drive you mad with worry, almost like she was one of the giggling critters level of worried. If you don’t explain what’s going on, I can’t say explaining will be any easier.”

“Goddammit Bubba, I know you don’t understand and I’ll explain whatever the hell you want about it after, but I need to know how she was, now!”

“She…she was really forgetful,” Bobbi said quietly, but it was loud enough to turn their heads to look at the cub. “When she was asked things, she looked like she didn’t understand the question or didn’t know how to answer and…”

Bobbi was hesitating to continue, like a kid unsure of whether or not she should say what she saw. Bobby said she was okay, that her medal didn’t look any different so maybe she was making things up or didn’t see it right, but the feeling she got from it felt too icky, too gross, too familiar to have been nothing. Catnap, seeing her dilemma, crouched in front of her and rested a reassuring hand on her shoulder, despite the look or worry prevalent on his face.

“I know you’re scared about telling me Bobbi, but please…I need to know to help Bobby. We need to know, to help her.”

“...I don’t  know, but when I saw her medal, it was the weird and murky color in it,” she said, trying her best to describe it. “No matter how much I rubbed it, it wouldn’t go away and it looked like it was getting darker…bigger.”

Hearing her description was more than enough for the feline, because as soon as the last word came from her mouth, Catnap was transformed with an almost suffocating density of corruption radiating from him. He gave a calm pat of gratitude to the bear cub, before signalling Kickin to grab her and take her inside. Although he was confused and worried, he could clearly understand that whatever Catnap wanted to say or do, Bobbi didn’t need to be present for it, so he obliged quickly as he rushed inside.

“We do not have time for the long version, so I’m gonna make this short and to the point. Bubba, Crafty, and myself are going to go crazy and try to find Bobby before things take a turn for the worst. You 3 need to stay here with tykes and wait for us to get back. I don’t know what the chances are, but if ANYONE comes knocking, do NOT answer it. I donw’t care if Bobby herself says she’s back and here to hide or something, do not open the door.” Catnap order with a cold tone and brooked no argument. “I know you have a million questions, but right now, we need to hurry and help Bobby before it’s too late.”

The bear in question was back at the shack where things started, examining the area as she stepped through the corruption to look for clues. She was so blind before, not thinking things through carefully and far less considerate than she normally acted. Taking a knee, she made sure to closely inspect the corruption done to the essence, trying to trace even the faintest magic property that might be left and her findings hurt her more than she would’ve ever admitted.

“Well, at least he wasn’t lying about corruption…” she muttered, a weak smile decorated with held tears as she felt the tiniest traces of her healing magic at work within the corruption. If Dogday’s testament wasn’t enough, this was the nail in the coffin to Catnap’s defense. “That’s why…that’s the reason I couldn’t help her…”

Bobby didn’t get long to wallow in self-pity for long, because a familiar magic signature had her turning on a dime to see Cale’s little sister standing afar with a curious look as she stared at the bear. Just as she called out to the girl, the child of unsure origins gave her a playful smile, before running off around a corner.

“Wait a minute,” Bobby called out, closing the distance to the corner in hope of catching the child. 

Once she arrived, she could merely see her waving at the bear from an alley, before ducking into it. Despite her reservations, Bobby continued to chase after her, traversing alleys, a ditch, and even crossing an abandoned drawbridge, all to chase her to the remnants of a factory. She wasn’t sure what it was for or what it produced, but it was clear that it served primarily for mass production and distribution given location. It was so far disconnected from the rest of the abandoned part of the city, such a lonely and isolated place that many wouldn’t have ventured to without some sense of exploration. After taking a small look of the building, Bobby could see the little girl playfully motioning for her to come inside, although the sense of fear and urgency she could make out said it would be anything but fun. Proceeding with caution, the bear entered with as suppressed and alert as possible, despite the rather empty surroundings.

There really wasn’t much to see or notice considering how clean the place was cleaned out. The area floor was dusty, had obvious marks from the heavy machinery that used to operate there, shattered windows and glass shards were scattered about unevenly. All-in-all, there was nothing special about the place and that was what struck the oddest to Bobby. Not only did Cale’s sister bring her here, but a place as perfect as this not having some kind of claim made no sense pragmatically. It provided shelter, a large amount of space, and with a little work, would make a great home or base for anyone who couldn’t cut it in the city or the slums. Despite it being out of the way, there was no decisive reason for it to be so desolate.

“Why did she call me here?” Bobby quietly asked, taking care to avoid the glass shards as she walked deeper. “Actually… how did she even find this place? How is she still-”

Interrupting her was the rumbling of what sounded like an elevator or lift moving, which would’ve been normal under usual circumstances, but considering where she found herself, this was anything but that. Bobby knew she didn’t exactly have the luxury to be picky about her hiding spot and assuming they were using magic to operate, they’d find her immediately if she moved too quickly with it. Settling for a nearby support pillar, Bobby de-transformed and quickly hid behind it, outside any direct view from the exit of the elevator.

“Log 42: Specimen B.3.L.14 is coming along nicely. Although outside interference put the projections behind schedule, the experiment is within passable limits,” the familiar voice of the doctor muttered, possibly into something but Bobby couldn’t get a decent view from her hiding spot. “It seems rationality is still lost, but desired effect is still progressing smoothly. Ran out of collected fodder and going out for last set of marked targets. It’s a shame the specimen only shows a positive stimulus to single mothers or equivalent, but as long as progress is made, it doesn’t matter.”

After finishing his supposed log, Bobby could hear his footsteps taper out as he left the area none the wiser. Once she was sure he wasn’t around, the bear slowly crept out from around the pillar, pondering what he had said, before a tug on her hand took her attention. Cale’s sister, looking up to the bear sad and trembling, gently pulled Bobby towards the elevator, to which she obliged to follow. Entering it, Bobby could see the inconsistency of the factory’s lack of use even better given the scratch trails and dried blood that seemed to stain the bottom.

She didn’t have much to say about the sight, just a cold ache at how familiar it seemed to her. Cale’s sister tugged the bear to the floor select, but every floor Bobby tried to press, she’d tug at her harder to stop her as if she was wrong. There were only 4 buttons for floors, so Bobby stood lost and confused as every floor seemed to be wrong, but after staring closely enough, she could see prints on the ‘1’, ‘3’, and ‘4’ buttons, with more wear on the first. It felt cliche, but following her instincts, she decided to press them quickly, 4-3-1-1, for the sake of and just like that, the elevator came to life accepting the input.

“That actually worked, I’m actually better at this than I thought, righ-” Bobby started, feeling proud of her accomplishment, but when she looked for Cale’s sister for confirmation or agreement, the girl was nowhere to be found. “But…but I just felt you tugging my hand… Where did you go?”

As the elevator descended, the lights inside flickered weakly, before switching to a strong red, practically blending Bobby in with her surroundings. She didn’t notice it at first, but the elevator ride was a lot longer than a factory lift typically should be in this type of factory. It didn’t take much longer for the shaft to change into something far more open and much worse than she was expecting. It didn’t take an expert to know, but given her extensive experience with them, it was more than clear where this elevator led to.

“He was dragging people to a playground…” she quietly muttered, noticing the abstract space appearing like a dark and twisted garden of flower and flesh, with seemingly forced croppings and cut outs of a medical lab practically taped on. Normally, the playground had a theme or representation of the plaything in it, but this one was something Bobby couldn’t even fathom the meaning behind. Once her ride reached its end, the bear proceeded with caution down the strangely direct pathing, denoted only by the trails and scratches of blood as a guide. It was sickening to think about all the poor victims he’d drag down here; the innocent children, their poor and lonely mothers, it was heartbreaking really. What felt like a hourly trek, which was admitted only a few minutes, came to a head when the trail ran dry towards a grand pair of double doors which obviously represented the operation theater given the light sign above the door, but just as she was ready to open it, a familiar voice weakly reached her ears.

“This voice…it can’t be…” she quietly murmured, turning to the small door a bit away, rushing to it with reckless abandon. She struggled to get it open, but once it was, all the metaphorical color left her at once as the sight broke what was left of her fragile heart. “No…Cale…”

What stood before her was the top half of a bound and obviously abused Cale. His arms littered with haphazard stitches and cuts, his skin stained in dried blood. His face mutilated and grafted with parts that obviously didn’t come from his own body. But the worst, was the way his intestines, dripping in fresh blood and pooling below him, were pulled out and planted into the floor with plants growing along and through them, all reaching inside him and sprouting 2 large and red-stained belladonnas right through his eye sockets. Bobby nearly collapsed to the floor in horror, but forced herself to stand, even if it meant holding herself up in the door frame.

“Mommy…i-is that you?...” he weakly croaked, his hand trying to reach towards Bobby’s direction.

“Cale!” Bobby screamed, running up the boy while transformed, not caring of any repercussions as she funneled as much of her magic into the boy. She knew healing him was out of the question, but could numb any pain, that was far better than nothing at all. “Oh my god, Cale! I’m so sorry I couldn’t help you!”

“Doctor?...you…you came?...”

“I should’ve been better at healing! I should’ve done something more dammit!”

“No, you….you can’t be here doctor…” Cale whined, trying to put any strength he could in pushing her away, but the way she held him closer, firm in her will to do what she could for him, made his already weakened state falter under the comfort. “You need to run…”

“I’m not leaving you here! If I’m going, I’m taking you with me!”

“No…you don’t understand…”

Bobby wasn’t paying much attention to what the boy was saying, too busy looking to see how she could safely disconnect him from what was a horror story in progress, but nothing she could think of would be without a lot of risk to him. She was practically dumping a river into an endless void as far as using magic on him, but she didn’t care, if it meant he didn’t feel even a miniscule hint of pain. Her use of magic obviously didn’t go unnoticed and obviously who did had no intention of letting it go unpunished. Just before whatever it was could pounce her, a syringe impaled the impious-looking flower child right in the forehead, leaving it to let out an unholy, but childish scream as it withered pitifully. Bobby, recoiling from her reaction to the presence, looked horrified at the sight as she stood up with more syringes at the ready in one hand, but faltering at the small gem fragment that stayed in the dead plants.

“You can’t be serious…this can’t be real!”

Soon, the room flickered between its lab-like normal and what appeared to be a withered and lost garden, with Cale atop a faded and cracked fountain with Bobby standing the blood that filled it fresh from the young boy’s body. The change of scenery also brought about the change in company, as from the garden hedge walls, emerged more unique flower children, all in faces of pain and sadness as they inched forward to her, various degrees of amputation and injury on clear display. What struck the hardest, were the bloodied fragments that decorated each child, to a grim realization for the bear.

“These are the missing kids,” she said to no one. “All the kidnapped kids, they got turned into these things!”

Despite knowing they were far beyond salvation, Bobby couldn’t help hesitating in wanting to throw syringes at them. They were just kids, they didn’t ask or deserve any of this, so even if she wanted to save Cale, she couldn’t just kill them. The children were slow-paced, but were closing in faster than expected, so Bobby didn’t have much time to make a decision.

“Leave me, doctor…”

“Absolutely not Cale!”

“You need to g-”

“I AM NOT! LEAVING! YOU!” she screamed, tears threatening to fall as she bit her lip. “I failed you once, I’m not gonna let you suffer again!”

“Please doctor…I want…to be with mommy…” Cale whimpered, knowing all too well how he ended up like this. Bobby’s heart was already broken for the boy, but his earnest request was just too much for her to bear. “They can…take me to mommy…”

“I’m…I’m sorry…”

Although reluctant, Bobby merely kissed his forehead before heeding his wish and getting out of the room. Even though she brushed past one of the flower children, they didn’t give her much attention as they were focused more on the fountain, or more specifically, Cale who decorated the head of the fountain. The last thing Bobby could see was the splashing of blood as the flowers treaded their way to the boy, before the weak groans and screams of pain adorned the bear’s ears. Slumping against the door, the bear fell to the floor as she covered her mouth to stop her own screams as she wept at failing Cale for the second, and final time.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she cried pitifully, the grip on her wrist practically cutting them, but not caring in the slightest. It was too much for Bobby to handle, she couldn’t take this anymore. She couldn’t recognize someone at the early stages of being a plaything, she couldn’t stop herself from hurting her friends and acting on nothing, and she couldn’t save a kid who was suffering right in front of her, even leaving them to die. “I can’t handle this…I can’t take it…”

“Then let me take that pain away.”

Looking up, the very doctor who she was told to be wary of, the man who put that seed of doubt in her, was standing before her with a delighted stitched grin on his face. Honestly, she didn’t even get time to realize her actions, before she slammed him into the wall behind him, her grip on his collar the epitome of anger.

“You! You did this!” she cried out riding the high of her emotions. “Why!? What gives you the right to do this!? Who said you could play with people like nothing and treat them this way!?”

“What did I do, little girl, aside from informing you of what I knew?” he retorted, unbothered by her actions, but showing an even greater pleasure in her faltering behind his words. “You can’t blame me for your actions from the information I give you? That relies on self-control.”

“N-no, I-”

“Surely you don’t mean to say it’s my fault you couldn’t heal someone so close to becoming a plaything? I didn’t tell you how to act or behave towards Catnap, just that you should get your friends away from him.” he scrutinized, his words cutting Bobby deeper than any weapon he could produce, much less the pain in his grip on her wrist and pinning it to the wall. “And I certainly wasn’t the one who abandoned a poor, helpless child to die.”

“I…I…” Bobby weakly cried, the weight of his words crushing her already shattered emotions into dust.

“How selfish are you to blame others for your actions? Are your friends also to blame for how you behave? Do you blame them for everything that’s happened as well? How pathetic and lonely you must be.”