Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

In many religions, there is a God. Among that God are Angels, albeit taking many different forms and titles. Angels, spirits, guardians. The names of these creatures are not what matters. What matters is that each is often delegated to one task. Something they are most known for. 

And each Angel is important: one Angel cannot exist without the other. Each is required to keep our world intact. And this world is mine.

My empire is breaking bit by bit. 

The golden road 

to salvation

to enlightenment

to happiness

It’s being muddled by the mistakes and foolishness of others. 

I will not allow such ignorant beings to disrupt my work. I will not allow my kingdom to fall. The rebellion must fall. The cycle must continue. I must achieve my breakthrough.

Therefore, as their God, I must acquire an Angel. If I am to bring forth results, there must be an accelerant. There must be punishment for those who defy my rule.

Like the Red Smoke jabbing at a burning inferno and killing everyone in sight.

Like the deep abyss of the sea suffocating a diver’s lungs and refusing to let them float.

Like the warmth of Heaven slipping from the sinners’ souls.

There must come forth an Angel of Death; here to show to all what happens when mortals disobey their God and refuse His light.

I have already chosen a worthy candidate. I will make sure they steer towards my path.

Perhaps I shall get Her to guide them. Out of everyone, She must fully understand my cause. She must fully accept what we are. 

Yes.
It has been decided.

I shall call this endeavor…

Project Angel.

Chapter Text

INNOVATION IS KEY. THANK YOU SCIENCE.

INNOVATION IS KEY. MAY WE FORGET DEATH.

HE IS LOOSE. THIS IS AN EMERGENCY LOCKDOWN.

IT'S TIME TO HARVEST. THE BODY IS STILL FRESH.

THIS RESEARCH MUST STAY BURIED. NOBODY MAY LEAVE.

THEY HAVE ESCAPED.

SURVIVE AT ALL COST.

GET UP.

“No, no, no, no, NO!”

The blurs and jumble of voices dissipated, the threat of dissociation leaving the employee as they remembered what was happening. 

Where they were.

What they were trying to achieve. 

Who was left behind. 

Who was getting attacked right now.

Kissy Missy…

Poppy screamed as she looked up at the upstairs floor hatch getting smaller and smaller, desperately clinging onto the control desk of the descending lift she and the employee were on to keep herself upright. Her ivory, plastic-doll face limited her physical expressions immensely, but from her almost-cracking voice, you could tell she was struggling not to cry from fear. The employee would be crying and yelling too, had the words and pleas for Kissy Missy to be okay not left their throat. Instead, a terrified expression rested on their face as they looked upwards. They eyed the control panel, their mind begging to dash over and get this thing moving upwards. Before their legs could obey their command, Poppy turned towards them, and it’s like their mind went numb and devoid of all cognitive function.

“Listen, go on ahead. Don’t wait for me. I won’t leave Kissy behind, and I won’t sacrifice our plan! Not because of…Because of me”, Poppy said, looking down in shame. 

Are you nuts?! You’re, like, two feet tall! There’s no way you can fend off whatever’s attacking Kissy! I have to come with you! I’m worried too…

“Just…be careful. Down here, it’s…”, Poppy trailed off, looking down as if what she was about to say was full of vice and sin. With how horrifying this place was, the employee wouldn’t be surprised if the doll wasn’t eager to announce it. “It’s not like anything you’ve seen above. It’s not trying to hide what it is”, she finished before her vocal tone shifted to one of somberness, terror, and anger, “It’s Hell, and Playtime wanted it to be…” The human’s face went pale, darkness seemingly swelling up around the two at the mention of such an ungodly place. An ungodly company. If the Earth above was dangerous and cruel, how bad would Hell itself be..? Poppy’s eyelids dropped to give off any semblance of a sad expression, at least one a face such as hers could conjure up. But her tone seemed to shift into one of more hope, and her face returned to normal. “But we have allies down here.”

Allies? Who? Why here of all places..?

“Get to them.” The lift stopped in its tracks, finally touching the stone-cold floor of the underworld. The creaking metal gate of the platform opened seemingly on its own. Poppy appeared to be waiting for the employee to get off, almost impatiently, which was fair, considering who was at stake. Why was she waiting at all?! The human should go with her! Kissy could be in danger or hurt! What could Poppy do against something like that?! They teared open their mouth to speak. But only a squeak of noise left their voice before they noticed their legs trudging their weak body off the platform and standing in front of it to watch Poppy ascend. “There’s still time to save the orphans”, the human heard Poppy exclaim as the lift moved upwards, “Follow the Red Smoke! And look out for-”

Steam whistled from the machinery surrounding them. Poppy was too far to hear before she finished her sentence. 

The employee blinked and grimaced slightly. She couldn’t have told them that before they got off? Whatever: They had to find those allies of Poppy as she instructed. The human sighed and turned around to see the room around them. They could see something written on the wall — Loading Bay 1E — It certainly looked like such: metal shelves lined up against the walls, ladders and colorful boxes of all sizes strewed about. The place was cluttered with various objects and items that the employee took no real time to pay attention to, but one thing did catch their eye. It was a large colorful pipe gripping onto the ceiling of the loading bay, and the human could faintly see Red Smoke flowing through it. Their eyes followed it towards a door connected to some stairs, so they hastily jolted up the staircase, noticing another set of bold white letters that read ‘Caves 1C’.

Why was almost everything underground anyway? Why go through all the time, money, and effort to make underground systems? They sighed, coming to the pretty obvious conclusion that it was for a sake of secrecy. No-one would hear the screams and cries and workings of experiments if they came from so deep underground…The employee shook their head, prying their mind away from the dreadful thought of how much everyone in this factory had suffered. They had to focus on following the Red Smoke and-! 

They noticed the lack of a door handle. 

They glanced over to their right to see a small input for a battery, groaning a little at the sight. Why couldn’t anything just be easy? They also looked to their left, that of which was also housing a scanner for their blue hand.

Their blue hand…

They looked at their hands. 

One blue. One purple.

They looked at their arms. 

Skinless. Silicone.

Parts of the Grabpack were added onto the forearms.

They had an accident.

They had lost their arms.

They were lucky to not have died.

But they lost their arms.

They looked at the brown satchel they were wearing, its strap over their shoulder and diagonally stretched across their chest. 

They peeked inside. 

An orange hand was inside.

The regular parts of their usual arms were inside.

A roll of bandages was inside.

A couple of mini bottles of water were inside.

A colorful brick-styled phone was inside.

Papers of all kinds were inside.

A small toolkit was inside.

A few granola bars and snacks were inside.

There was more inside before, but they must’ve gotten lost in the crossfire.

They’ve been through a lot…

They took deep breaths before they began to spiral. They cleared their mind. There was no use thinking of the past nor why they were here. They just needed to follow Poppy’s instructions.

They glanced around, trying to see if they could spot a battery from where they were…Eventually, they noticed a little bar that they could swing from, a box on the other side to land on. That seemed awfully convenient and planned…They walked across a few big boxes that worked together to make a bridge, faced towards the grapple point, and pointed their left hand at it. The blue hand suddenly shot at the pole, a long conductive black wire connected to the hand shooting from the yellow portion that they added onto their regular arms, and grabbed it. The employee shuddered from the slight shock; after all, it was weird to feel your ‘arms’ stretch and detach from the rest of your nerves, even if it was mostly a phantom feeling; and once they made sure their hold was tight, they let themselves fall, causing them to swing and safely land on the box.

The human let go of the pole, shuddering once again at the hand reclining back to their arm, before looking around. Their eyes landed on their right, where they found a battery in a weirdly wired area that was now cut open somehow. They stretched their purple hand and grabbed the battery, pulling it close to their body before using their blue hand to swing back to the door leading to the caves…Given all they’ve been through above, traversing the cave system was no real problem for the employee: just a lot of jumping, crouching and swinging. Eventually, the human reached something called ‘Checkpoint 1A’, only to find another sign that read something much more horrifying: 

The Prison.

The employee could very quickly guess what this prison was for. You had every reason to ask what a toy company needed with prison, but Playtime Co. could hardly be considered that anymore. It seemed more like a labyrinth of nightmares for poor children. The human shook their head, knowing that their thoughts of what the prison would be like would be nothing compared to the real thing. With a heavy heart, they trekked on, ignoring the horrid sight and smell of blood and toy corpses, until they got to a large door leading to the aforementioned checkpoint. They saw the door was held shut by a tangled piece of rope. For a brief moment, they considered untangling it, but decided to instead open their satchel. 

They took out the orange hand before using their teeth to hold it in their mouth. Once they did so, they grabbed their purple hand and began to turn it 360°, unscrewing it. As it soon popped off their arm, they placed the purple hand in their satchel before screwing the orange hand on their right arm. The hand suddenly lit up with life, the human being able to hear the whirring of flare charges in it — How Playtime Co. managed to accomplish any of this was beyond the ex-employee — They aimed their orange hand at the rope, playfully turning it into a finger gun, before a ball of fire suddenly shot from the fingertips and began burning the rope until it turned to ash. Somehow, immediately, the doors began to open; The employee would be questioning the weirdness of this had they not seen and experienced weirder.

When it opened up…the sight was horrifying.

There were piles and piles of dead toys, and they were large piles of them too. It was sickening, especially when you realized that every single toy in each pile was, most likely, a child. 

These may as well be piles of dead children.

The human swallowed their fear, trying to regulate their breathing and stop themselves from imagining every corpse here as a human one. They don’t know what they would do if they saw a real human corpse…

They squirmed their way through the piles of dead toys. As they walked, they swore they could see figures moving. They swore they could hear someone laughing . It creeped the human out, but so did everything else in this place. They weren’t anything special…They saw a piece of paper on the ground. For some reason, they felt drawn to pick it up…

Riley Journal: Entry #1

Two weeks since the fire

August 8th, 1994

Riley, Age 12

First week at Playcare. I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know what I wanted it to be. There are a lot of people here, and they've given a lot to me. A room, a roof, a big pink bed, girly toys (I'm a little too old for that), and a journal. The adults encourage me to talk to the other kids, but I'm not sure what to say to them. Most of them have been here almost their whole lives, or, at least, they were young enough that they can't remember what they lost. My parents loved, protected, and taught me, and I'm not sure the others even remember what that's like. They don't know what they don't have, but I do. I remember a lot. I try to be kind to them though, even if there's very little I can say. Right now, I think I prefer it like that.

The nice counselor who said I was quiet told me that I could say whatever I wanted in my journal, and it would only be for me. Make two lists, she said, one with what's important to me right now, in this moment, and the other being why. She said it might help me. I'm going to try it.

What's important to me:

❖ That the nice counselor cares enough about me to try to make me feel at home.

❖ Trying to get comfortable here. Even if it's not home, it's all I have now.

❖ That my life matters, since it can be lost so quickly.

❖ That my parents' lives mattered too.

Why:

Because I'm scared. Anything can happen in an instant and leave you with nothing, and because of that, I'm scared that nothing matters. But I want to feel happy again (Really, I do), and it's important to me right now, in this moment, that someone here cares that I fool at home, even if I'm not.

The human frowned, their eyes turning a little glossy as they read the words. They felt like there were more journal entries around…and they felt like they knew how this poor girl’s story was going to end. How dreadful…

They continued on their way, slipping around the Toy Graveyard and picking up any papers they could find — they would read them later. For some reason, they didn’t feel safe at the moment… — They could see the pipe of Red Smoke hanging over them and the dead bodies, and followed it until it led to a big door. They could faintly see it was open, and figured that was their way out of here…As they got closer though, something seemed off, and, all of a sudden, a bright light flashed, and an alarm began to go off. The flash-bang burned their eyes, and the human squeezed them shut, trying to squint to see any potential danger. The employee could see the big door slowly close, and soon enough, the bright light dimmed. Before the human could complain about it though…

Something screeched behind them. 

Then from the right,

Then the left.

Finally, all at once.

They whipped around. Hoards of living toys emerged from the piles of dead. They were probably feasting and that alarm triggered them. The employee was lucky to have their orange hand still equipped, and they prepared themself to fight. They seemed to be mini-Huggies, the toys; mini-Huggies that would quickly run up to the human and jump towards them. They may be small, but their bite was mighty, and the employee was surprised their teeth didn’t penetrate deeper into their skin. Nonetheless, as much as possible, they shot their flares at the toys, making sure to hit near them rather than directly at them. After all, they were just starving and scared. The employee had to survive, but it was hard not to have even the slightest bit of sympathy for them. 

The mini-fight went on for a small while before the Huggies seemed to give up and retreat back towards the piles of their dead brethren. The employee, after making sure no toy was planning a sneak attack, sighed in relief…

The employee found more papers and notes, most of them being Riley’s journal entries. They went as well as they expected them to go…To read a first-hand account of the experience from an older kid was terrifying in itself. How did they even work in such a horrible company? How could they do this to grieving and hopeful children..? They tried not to think about it: it wouldn’t get them anywhere. They had to climb up a pile of toys to find an entrance to another cave. More jumping and crawling…Soon though, they found a section that seemed much more man-made than the caves. They noticed a big train. Before they could really take in their surroundings, something rang from within their satchel: their phone. Quickly, they took it out and accepted the call, already taking a guess on who it was.

“Hey. It’s me again, Ollie-”

Ollie! Did you check in with Poppy and Kissy..?! Are they okay?

“-I wanted to…I wanted to talk to you. Before you go inside, I mean”, Ollie said. He seemed nervous. The employee almost wanted to comfort the voice, though they had no clue how old Ollie really was or even if they could muster it out of them. “Everything you’ve seen out here: the piles. The dead. They ALL came from inside. Believe me; everything Poppy said about this place is true. It’s hell…But she also hasn’t seen it like I have.”

How can you see anything at all? Where…even are you right now? WHAT even are you? Toy? Human..?

“It’s worse now. Worse than ever.” That sent a chill down the employee’s spine. This seemed bad…Really bad. It was gruesome, sure, but the human was certain that had barely scratched the surface of this place. They saw something in the distance. Their blood ran cold. “Just try to stay safe. Please. Don’t let your guard down for even a second…I’ll try to help you when I can.” The phone hung up, but the human felt themself unable to fully acknowledge it as they slowly walked towards what they saw.

A human skeleton.

Whoever this was seemed to be wearing an old train-conductor’s uniform. The blood that presumably came from them was brown and rotten, musky and metallic. They seemed to have been killed ages ago for the skin to be fully decomposed…or perhaps…The human began to take deep breaths as they tried not to think about what most definitely happened to their dead bodies. They couldn’t afford to vomit right now, having no food or water in their system or around them. They managed to tear their eyes away from the skeleton, spotting a note beside it. They picked it up…

Riley Journal: Entry #5

This place is a prison. I don't know what I thought it'd be, but it wasn't this. I mean, what did I do wrong? They made me into this, and put me in a cell. There must be hundreds, maybe even thousands of others here. How could this happen?

There's no food here, only the bodies, and I refuse to eat them.

The train, that's what takes everyone here. The conductor's dead, but he has a key, a key that makes the train move. I don't know if there are people elsewhere, or if they intend to come back here with more like me. I'll take the key, make sure no one else can come here. I'll put it where no one can find it.

I don't know how little or how much my life mattered, but I can do this. This one thing. Maybe it'll save someone. Anyone. Even just one person. That would be enough. Nobody else should hear what I've had to hear inside this place. Nobody else should know hell like this, or the demons that live there.

What's important:

❖ That I helped someone the way I wanted to someday when I thought I was adopted.

❖ That my life mattered to someone.

Why:

So that I'll know, wherever I go now (hopefully to my parents) that I fulfilled a little of what I said I would, and made life just a little better for someone else, even if this place took everything else.

Riley…

The employee hugged the note close to them, as if it were their loving child. As if Riley’s soul resonated in that final journal entry. They hoped with all their might that Riley was reunited with her family, finally sighing in melancholic hope and carefully placing the journal entry in their satchel. 

Riley’s note…It said something about a key and hiding it. Knowing their luck, they would have to find that key and board that train. Trains never gave them much luck in the past, but it seemed to be the only way forward. They looked around a bit before spotting a compartment that seemed to be floating in the air. That seemed suspicious enough for them to check out, so they found some boxes and moved them to create a staircase. Once they hopped onto the boxes and onto the train, they were met with a multicolored room…and in it was another toy corpse, only much bigger than the little ones. Not only that, but their pink fur seemed to be slowly peeling off of their body. There was a large visible skull and set of ribs, blackened blood covering the wall nearby.Their body seemed to be in a toilet…and stabbed into their body was a large key.

No…This was..!

“Rest in peace, Riley.”

They carefully took the key before hesitantly placing their hand on the skull of the corpse. A sort of gory thank you for the key. A little apology as well. They exited the compartment and fell back to the ground. They noticed a door leading to another room and unlocked it with the key they had got. The employee pushed the door open to reveal a TV and a black tape sitting on a shelf. They quickly grabbed the tape from the shelf and inserted it into the VHS player. It seemed to be a recording of a conversation between two security guards named Cole and Norm. They watched over prison blocks and…

Well, to summarize, the tape made the employee angry. Unbelievably angry. The two just kept going on and on about how THEY have it rough, how THEY couldn’t catch a break, and how THEY were suffering. As if the toys they were being paid to watch over weren’t ACTUAL ORPHANS that were cruelly experimented on! And for what?! To lower the costs of employees?! The ex-employee was ready to smash the TV, but restrained themselves upon realizing they would probably just hurt themselves. So they ended it off with something simple.

“I hope you died in the Hour of Joy. I hope your deaths were excruciating and painful. Your bodies have better been goddamn delicious for the toys to munch on to even somewhat make up for the bullshit you said in that goddamn tape.”

And then they continued on.

There was a power surge in the room, and they noticed two power poles outside. With the purple hand now equipped, they used the added-Grabpack arms’ conductive properties to steer the electricity onto the train, and in an instant, it was powered on. The employee found an open train car, though very small and stepped inside, the door closing behind them. Immediately, the train whirred to life, beginning to move forward. The employee sighed in slight relief, sitting on the floor with their back against the wall to try and get some rest…The ride seemed peaceful…Until a TV that they didn’t notice in the corner suddenly turned on. Great. First horrible child experiments, now paranormal stuff?!

The monitor seemed to glitch out for a moment before…an eyeball against a purplish-blue background came on. The employee’s breathing hitched out of surprise and fear, but the voice they heard struck even more fear in their heart. “Mmmm, now what’s this? Do I feel something squirming its way beneath my skin?”, a voice said. Where was it even coming from? They hastily looked around for any semblance of a microphone, but the voice continued to speak. “An invasive, foreign little germ? After all this time?”

The employee felt their body lose all control as they slowly stood up from where they were seated to carefully peek up at the TV monitor. A hint of amusement sneaked its way into the low voice. “Ah, but I see…You. Yes…He predicted your arrival. But so soon? How curious…”, the voice said. You’ve heard this voice before…but from where? Probably a tape, but…it felt deeper than that somehow…The train began to shake violently. The human yelped as they continually lost their footing, only barely managing to save themselves from falling. “Well, little germ: let’s make a game of you.”

Game..?! 

“You’ve blundered along the shadows above, and only managed to squirm all the way down here, but by the barest skin of your teeth.”

You know who I am…You’ve been watching me all this time, haven’t you..?

“There are no shadows here that would be of use to you. Not even the ground beneath your feet is yours.”

Wait…I recognize you. I do know you. You caused this. All of this. How are you here-?!

The employee fell down. The shaking was too much. The car’s floor wasn’t as plush as they thought it would be, and they hit their head. They felt themself slowly black out…

“There are no places you can hide.”

How are you even alive..?

“ Not from me. ”

An evil laugh penetrated the last vestiges of the human’s consciousness. They closed their eyes just before they passed out…

They didn’t know how long they were out for, but once they woke up, using the walls of the compartment to pick themselves up, they could only conclude one thing…The train crashed. Of course it did. They really did have a bad history with trains. 

Once they regained most of their senses, the employee gulped in slight nervousness, remembering who they just met…That voice. They recognized it, albeit faintly. They remembered him from the tapes and documents they collected…but they also remembered him from their time in the factory: He was always referred to as ‘the Doctor’ in Playtime Co. He never really got out much, and the two never personally met, but the employee would hear people talking about him, whether it be with them and the lower ranks or in a conversation that heavily failed at being a private one. He was the company-named ‘miracle worker’ for creating the giant toys. If only the human realized just how those toys were made sooner…

They suddenly shivered upon remembering the Doctor’s words.

It seems that they were going to be the Doctor’s little plaything for a while…Probably for the whole time they were here. Looking back, this was probably who Poppy told them to watch out for. Just great. But it didn’t matter: it was time to get moving. They only had to walk a bit away from the train crash to find another grapple point…and a worker’s body crucifixed on the wall. They suppressed the sickly feeling in their stomach and pulled themselves up before spotting a vent they would then crawl through. Vent shafts should definitely not hold their weight, but they weren’t about to question the sturdiest of it. They peeked through a little hole to find large blue doors in a corridor, white numbers above them. Jail cells, it seemed. The employee could only imagine what was in them way back when. In the distance, there was a blue hand scanner, and they were thankfully their new arms could stretch incredibly far. They threw their blue hand towards the scanner, missing a few times before finally landing it on the scanner. Something opened up, so the human crawled back through the vent towards the hallway and…

They jumped at a blast of steam and grimaced. Steam…Why was it always steam?! Why was there always a steam jumpscare?! 

Nevertheless, they continued on their way before looking around. Ok, so…what opened up? As if by pure luck, they decided on going all the way back to where the train crashed to find a door in front of it unlocked. Something screeched upon hearing their footsteps, and they could just barely see it whizz by before disappearing. It had to be a toy, which meant they were, of course, in danger. As if that weren’t obvious already. The employee carefully pushed open the door to find themselves in that corridor they saw earlier. Blood, dead toys, prison cells: standard for a horrific prison…They walked around the hallway before hearing something: the Doctor’s voice. He suddenly laughed, then his voice faded away. What? Did he do something? If he did, the employee didn’t notice, but whatever it was couldn’t be good for them…They circled back the way they came, walking over to the other side before noticing an open door. 

An Allister Gator and Maggie Mako toy were inside. They seemed to be eating something…A dead toy probably. The employee remembered the line of Nightmare Critters toys: a Halloween exclusive line to cash out on the great success of the Smiling Critters. It was a corporate scheme, and it definitely only appealed to a certain demographic of edgy children who didn’t want to be seen with cutesy smiling toys, but that was neither here nor there. Of course, the Nightmare Critters would become the bodies for several experiments, and the human could only conclude they wouldn’t be friendly.

They looked at the giant door and carefully stepped over to it. Without a second thought, they pushed it until it closed, and they could see the toys look back and screech upon realizing they were trapped. For a brief moment, the employee felt bad, but they had to keep moving.

Why…did they do that anyways?

Regardless, they noticed another door that was slightly open and peeked inside to find a hole in the floor. Seeing no other way out, they hopped down the crater into another prison cell and quickly shot a flare near some toys blocking their path.  Once they exited their cell, they noticed another blue hand scanner and quickly opened a door that was on the other side of large piles of trash and debris. The human would have definitely stepped around and over these trash heaps, but…something stopped them. Whatever: there was always another solution, so they decided to look around for another way across. They were a bunch of rooms, most of which were empty and a standard prison cell, until one room had a hole in the wall poorly boarded up. The human used their Grabpack hands to remove the boards before crawling through the wall and going through the door they opened.

They wandered into a cafeteria-bedroom-combo area, rewarding them with a new red Grabpack hand! Next to another human skeleton, but the employee tried not to think about it. They noticed something by the red hand…A tiny flashlight, and it still seemed functional! This would come in handy. They sat down and pulled off the Grabpack add-ons on their right arm, leaving them nothing but their silicone upper arm. They placed the additions on the ground before taking two other silicone parts from their satchel — their right forearm and hand — They reattached the parts with a click, moving their fingers and arm to make sure they were functional before starting to pull apart the Grabpack arm bit by bit. They pulled out their toolkit and began to tinker with it, grabbing the small flashlight and adding it into their right Grabpack arm. It took a few minutes, but soon enough, the flashlight was installed, and the employee took off their forearm and hand before reattaching the Grabpack forehand. 

They tested the motion command to find the flashlight usable and grinned at their prowess. Seems like their time in Playtime Co. paid off after all…They stepped outside, delighted by their new hand and function before something — someone — decided to sour their mood.

“The subject scrambles for an advantage, tinkering away mindlessly at their prosthetics for a meager chance at survival.”

Doctor Sawyer..! And hey! It wasn’t mindless at all!

“They appear lost and disoriented…Heavy breathing is indicative of fear, and rightly so”, the Doctors hums, pretending as if the human couldn’t listen to or understand his words. A teasing form of beration, it seemed, and it angered the employee a little. He seemed to almost laugh at the human before his voice raised an octave from…excitement? Uh oh.

“Let’s test the response to said fear when pushed into action.”

Uh oh.

In an instant, Nightmare Critters and Mini-Huggies began to appear from the suddenly open doors, jumping and attacking the employee. They shot as many toys as they could with flares, but their orange hand still had limits, and a lot of their time was spent running around and closing doors in the same room they were in to try and dodge the small, but deadly attacks. It lasted a long time; much longer than they would have liked; and they felt blood dripping from the bite marks they were given by the toys. If they weren’t bleeding, the bites stung and burned somehow. Severe pain shot their nerves, and the only thing keeping them alive and moving was pure adrenaline. The toys just wouldn’t stop coming and, for a brief moment, the human thought they were going to die…

But in a twist of strange mercy, the Doctor wanted his new test subject alive.

“I’ve seen enough. Thank you. You may proceed.”

The Nightmare Critters suddenly stopped attacking. In fact, they were walking by the employee without a drive for hunger or violence. They slipped through the cracks and open doors of the prison, seemingly obeying the Doctor’s command to keep the human alive. They let out a sigh of relief at the pity, just thankful they were alive. They looked at the bite marks and fanned the ones that burned out of pure instinct, wincing in pain as the sensation slowly caught up to them with no danger nearby to keep them distracted from it. They took out the roll of bandages in their satchel and began to crudely wrap it around some of their bloody wounds, making sure it was tight and secure enough to stop the blood from flowing out. Once they patched themselves, they continued on their way, heading to a room where they had to input a code. There was also a cutout for a toy, one that the employee recognized..!

“The name’s Yarnaby! Would you…Warn-a-be my friend?”, the cutout chimed. The human hated that they laughed a little at the childish pun. They listened to the rest of the lines, skipping the last one knowing it was going to be glitchy, horrific, or both, before continuing on their way.

Overall, it was about the same as before: 

More running, jumping, and squeezing through tight spaces. More human skeletons, more blood, more puzzle-solving to try and open doors, and another tape that gave them valuable information. The Doctor controlled everything with an Omni-Hand he took from the Warden. The Doctor promised to save the Warden’s life when the Hour of Joy began. The human could only conclude that was a big fat lie. More crawling, more running: Rinse and repeat, they supposed, until they eventually came to another corridor in the prison. The cell doors were red instead of blue. Perhaps for monsters of higher security? They walked towards the end of the room…then alarms began to blare in their ears.

“Don’t fight.”

You again..?!

”Fighting only makes it work quicker.”

Since when did you care if my death was slow or not?

The employee turned to see what the Doctor was talking about, and their eyes widened at the sight of Red Smoke filling the room. No; they were NOT about to start hallucinating again! They looked around, desperate for a means of escape, before noticing two loose bars in the floor. They quickly pulled them out and dropped from the corridor floor to an underground portion of it. The Red Smoke was closing in around them, and they were starting to feel the effects of the gas. They had to move quickly. They ran around until they found some boards in an entryway they could pry. With that, it was just more running and squeezing their way through crevices, until they found a valve pipe that was spewing out the deathly smoke, though it was missing its wheel. They quickly found the valve and frantically turned it to stop more Red Smoke from flowing into the room. But the remaining gas still lingered, and the effects were getting worse by the minute. Without a moment to lose, they shoved themselves through a metal door and found themselves in another control panel room, thankfully devoid of smoke.

They greedily took a few deep breaths of oxygen and sighed in relief. And here they thought they had escaped that dreadful smoke. 

More puzzles.

More jumping.

More running.

More vent shafts. 

More opening doors.

The human found a note along the way: a prisoner profile about a Bigger Body. Like with the Riley journal entries, this one drew them in, so they picked it up, hiding in a dark corner to read it as quick as they could:

Prisoner Profile, Experiment 1166

I.D: 1166

Assigned Position: Pending

Behavior:
Characteristic for these early ilk, 1166 demonstrates an acute lack of higher cognitive function. Complex reasoning, speech, problem-solving, and greater introspection all appear either severely limited or altogether nonfunctional. Physically, it's what it needs to be. Strong. Agile. Swift. And yet I'd hoped for a greater mind behind it.

However, 1166 displays an odd sense of loyalty to a select few security staff, who nauseatingly feel some kind of sympathy for it, indicative of domesticated dogs and cats. This means its will can be bent. It feels. It fears.

I believe this is our first sign of progression. That our processes, while admittedly still rudimentary, are showing us where more work need be done, and that improvements ARE possible. Still, 1166, "Yarnaby," is an odd, funny little creature. The way it sits in the corner and watches me, playing its funny little music (I'm glad this request was taken seriously, I got a good laugh out of it). It amuses me.

Conclusion:
I'm going to isolate it. It'll have contact with no one but me. Considering my importance to the project, it's doubly important that I'm properly protected at all times. And besides, I might get a good laugh or two at the pathetic little sounds it makes.

By the time I'm done with it, I'll be its entire world. It'll know nothing else.

Signature:
Dr. Harley Sawyer

That sadistic fuck.

They wondered…Did whoever became “Yarnaby” regress into an animal-like state to cope with their experimentation? They’ve heard of instances where people regressed into a younger state in order to feel security, but could one behave like an animal for the same reason? It’s also possible these experiments were just so royally screwed that they completely destroyed the subject’s mind. And the Doctor took advantage of that. It made the human’s blood boil. They remembered Yarnaby, more so the actual toy of him. They remember once owning him and him being one of their favorites. Perhaps that was part of the reason why this clear mistreatment of him angered them so much — though, could you really consider the mascot and the experiment that same thing? Definitely not; but it didn’t stop the Doctor’s actions from being cruel — Either way, a giant lion toy loyal to the Doctor? That couldn’t be good for them…But they had to press on.

More puzzles.

More jumping.

More running.

More vent shafts. 

More opening doors.

More jail cells that once held giant toys.

A jail cell held another prisoner profile that talked about a Pianosaurus Bigger Body, one that was deemed a failure by Harley Sawyer. The human sighed, and only hoped it wasn’t still alive…They didn’t need a giant dinosaur hunting them in here along with anything else that may give them trouble…They continued on their way, entering a room that was glowing red with light. This screamed bad news, yet they felt compelled to go in. And what a mistake it was, as the large door suddenly shut behind them, and a familiar voice returned. “You know”, the Doctor started, startling the employee ever so slightly, “I never thought I’d see another like you. A human.”

Suppose you can’t look at your reflection and see a human anymore, can you Doc?

“Certainly not an employee like you. But something makes you different, I can tell that much”, the Doctor let out an amused hum, “Though I can’t say what exactly that something is. Not yet. He saw potential in you, and I’m determined to figure out what that is; with or without His permission.”

He? Who’s ‘He’..?

There was a long pause. The Doctor huffed.

“The others you’ve faced: 1170-”

Huggy Wuggy.

“1188-”

Catnap.

“1222.”

Mommy Long Legs.

“Been there, done that. Let’s try our hand at something a little different”, the Doctor finished his thought, which hardly screamed good news for the employee. What could possibly be different than everything they’ve ever faced here? What monster could the Doctor possibly throw at them..?!

“Oh, Yarnaby~”

Oh no.

The prison cell in the room ditched in red lighting for a more natural, artificial kind, announcing the plush reds, whites, yellows, and blues in the room. A red door in the cell suddenly opened, and the human braced themself for whatever was about to come out of that portal to Hell…Except nothing happened for a good while. It was suspenseful…For a moment, the human thought nothing was going to come…until a familiar rainbow lion burst out from the door and began clawing the bullet-proof window, making the employee jump back and fall to the ground out of fear. The giant toy clawed and scratched and banged its head violently against the glass. The employee winced each time the beast bashed its head against the window — that had to hurt — then flinched as they watched in horror at the toy’s head splitting in two to reveal a hollow head and a wide arrange of gums and sharp teeth. There seemed to be a smaller set of teeth encased around its throat. 

That was…deeply disturbing. Yet they couldn’t help, but feel for the poor creature,

“Please, do keep making this enjoyable for me. I’ll be taking notes~”, the Doctor said in sadistic excitement as Yarnaby seemed to finally calm down and circle back the way he came. They stayed on the floor for a while, trying to process what they saw. So a giant colorful lion would be chasing them for a while…Great. 

They regained their senses and stood up, noticing a door to their left with another scanner. Once they refigured the battery power to the blue scanner, they opened the door and headed into another long hallway, eventually stopping at a chained door. Locked. They glanced around for any way to open it…before noticing something descending down from the ceiling. It reeked of clay…Clay? Upon closer inspection, it was a yellow and slightly blue arm. The employee breathing hitched. That arm seemed familiar somehow, like it belonged to someone they knew. Regardless of who it belonged to, what they were was a toy, so the employee was wary, rightfully so. But they felt their fear settle when they noticed the hand stretch down from their little hole in the ceiling and jiggle at the lock before ascending back into the roof. The door was unlocked now.

Who…was that?

The employee decided not to waste too much time thinking about it. Perhaps that was one of the ‘allies’ Poppy talked about earlier. They opened the door, then looked up at the ceiling.

“T…Thank you…”

The human entered a yellow door on their right, ignoring the trail of seemingly fresher blood leading to the garage-like door, into a hallway with another yellow door. They ended up in what seemed to be another storage area, and slowly and quietly walked around the area, careful not to accidentally bump into any of the metal shelves. They got to a stack of boxes they could crawl under, but as soon as they got on their knees, something suddenly jumped out from the right: Yarnaby. The human covered their mouth, careful not to let their breathing give them away. They considered moving back into the hallway, but their body froze — They were scared of getting caught while running away — Yarnaby sniffed around, sensing the human nearby, but not entirely sure where. After a bit of fruitless searching, Yarnaby roared raspily before continuing towards the left side. The employee could see that the room was small. If they left their spot now, they could be caught…

“Psst.”

They heard something. Faintly, but they heard it. The human turned towards the sound to see another arm sticking out of a vent in the wall. It seemed to be orange this time, but the familiar scent of clay lightly wafted in their nose. That had to belong to the same toy, but why couldn’t they remember which one it was? Nevertheless, the hand held a flame charge and dropped it down on the ground, which set fire to a pile of trash by the vent. Yarnaby seemed attracted to the movement and noise, and quickly walked over to the wall. Seeing this as an ample opportunity to escape, the employee quickly left their hiding spot and wandered behind Yarnaby, finding a grapple point by another vent and pulling themself up into it. They managed to slip in…then jerked their body back at the sight of Yarnaby suddenly clawing at the wall..! He groaned and growled and opened his head, and the human’s immediate instinct was to crawl away. Thank god they got to the vent shaft in time.

They crawled through the shaft, ending up in another room that looked ripped out of a horror game; dark rickety walls, chains, wires; all of it was musky and scary. They walked a bit before hearing a jingle, then saw Yarnaby out of the corner of their eye. They ducked back behind a wall, peering over it to see the lion slipping by. They noticed a tape in the corner, but it wouldn’t be best to watch it while the toy was in the room. The employee ran around and crawled under the junk in the area before they noticed Yarnaby had seemingly left the premises. They circled back to watch the tape: it held quite the cryptic piece of information, but it was easy to decipher what happened. The executives wanted to get rid of Harley for having too many accidents, for being uncooperative; but they still needed him. Judging by the eyes plastered on the televisions whenever the Doctor spoke and the Warden’s words, they succeeded. The Doctor was far from human now.

Not that he was one with his human body intact anyways.

The employee continued on, crawling through another vent shaft and ending up in another decrepit storage area. They found another piece of paper, not feeling as drawn to read it as the others, before squeezing through a small space…Something screeched behind them. They turned around, their face going pale as they saw Yarnaby climb up over the metal shelves, roar, and land by the human’s feet, ready to attack. 

It was time to run.

Without a second thought, they sped towards a door at the end of the hallway, Yarnaby chasing after them. As they ran towards the door, a familiar yellow hand pointed to it, whispering a “Hey” to them. The employee would have rolled their eyes at the unnecessary direction, if not for the life-or-death situation they were in. Quickly, they opened the door and shut it, making sure to lock it to at least buy them time. Their eyes widened at the sight of a small room, but they felt relief as they noticed another vent by the floor. They could hear Yarnaby banging and scratching at the door, so they acted fast and jammed their body in and began to crawl away. Faintly, they hear Yarnaby bust down the door and search for them, thankful that he couldn’t fit in the vent system. 

Once they got to the end of the vent, they stumbled onto an area that was much more clean than the areas they were previously, filled with white storage cabinets and desks. They walked around, finding a green keycard and a Pianosaurus cutout, which they decided to take a listen to. “Helloooo! I’m Pianosaurus~!”, the cutout chimed before stopping. They pressed the button again. “I used to be in a band, then the asteroid hit~!” The human stifled a snicker. That should not have been as funny as it was. 

“Haha! Who even wrote that line?! Oh, that’s terrible…”

After listening to the rest of the cutout, they pushed forward. They found a green VHS player, and, after finding a green tape along some boxes, placed it inside. It was a conversation between Leith Pierre and Stella Greyber…It was when Stella Greyber first learned about the experiments…and ultimately approved of them. The human’s heart sank a little, hearing that first-hand. Ms. Greyber…She seemed so loving towards the children. That love didn’t seem fake…but it was an excuse: an excuse the employee couldn’t tolerate. But it hit them hard because…why did it hit them so hard? Was it because..?

Nevermind that. They had to keep moving forward.

They went into the next room, finding another yellow door and inserting the green keycard into the holder next to it. The door unlocked, and the player opened it to find a room with a glass outlook in the center. A long desk and strewed-about boxes were on one side, a white door on the other. They figured they’d have to get to that, and they could see the glass had been cracked with a tiny section of the wall just protruding enough to walk across to the other side…but they heard something growling below. A toy? They looked past the glass and froze at why they saw.

Pianosaurus. The Bigger Body Pianosaurus.

He seemed to be eating something. By the looks of it, he was not much bigger than them; maybe about 7 feet. Still, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be a serious threat if he noticed them. The human would have to be stealthy, so they slowly placed their foot on the edge past the glass window and settled their hands on the wall before bringing their other foot on the edge as well. Carefully, they began to walk along the edge, glancing at Pianosaurus to make sure he didn’t notice them. Step by step…It was slow, but it would get them there hopefully without any trouble. 

They didn’t account for the lack of friction on the edge, and their foot just happened to take a wrong step.

Their shoe slipped, and they felt their skin stretch as they unceremoniously fell down. They winced and grimaced at the pain of falling on the edge and onto the hard floor below, but they soon regained their senses enough to realize that that was far from the worst of it. They stared at Pianosaurus, who looked behind him with curiosity on what fell behind him. His next meal.

No, no, no, no, no, no..!

Pianosaurus’s whole body turned to face the employee, his piano-key teeth glowing with curiosity. The employee tried to move, but their leg ached from the fall, and their muscles disobeyed any orders their brain gave them. Pianosaurus titled this head, their arms stretched out, before some of his teeth glowed red and he began charging at the employee. The human wanted to scream and cry, but nothing came out, only managing to use the little bit of strength they had to push themselves further against the wall.

P-Please..!

Suddenly, thin arms appeared in the darkness and raced towards Pianosaurus’s body. They grabbed the dinosaur toy and slammed him on the ground. The employee blinked and watched as the toy was then lifted off the ground…and smashed over and over again against the walls and floor of the room before finally being slammed once again on the floor. Pianosaurus was then dragged along the floor, leaving a trail of fresh blood in his dead wake…But it wasn’t over yet. Noises came from the darkness: sounds of ripping and tearing away. The employer could see parts of Pianosaurus flinging from the shadows until a broken Pianosaurus head skidded by their side. 

“What the..?”

“Now that hit the spot!”, a voice said in the dark. The human had just enough strength and adrenaline to sit up. “I haven’t eaten in weeks!”

Chapter Text

“Now that hit the spot!”, a voice said in the dark. The human had just enough strength and adrenaline to sit up. “I haven’t eaten in weeks!”

And there he was: the toy that had been silently helping the human throughout the prison. From the bit of him they could see within the shadows, they could make out a large blue figure, standing at about 8 feet tall. His arms were, as suspected, yellow on his right arm and orange on his left arm, and his eyes and mouth appeared to be hollow. His head sported a small blue bowler’s cap that was tilted at an angle that would not possibly allow his hat to stay on. The clay smell returned rapidly as the toy suddenly approached the human with a smile, as if he didn’t just completely murder and eat Pianosaurus. They could also see that the toy’s legs were mostly red, though the most noticeable thing about him was that each of the three warmer colors formed hand-like shapes on his torso.

“Hiya there, pal!”, he said with a grin, putting his hands on his hips before shaking his head and pointing at the human, “Don’t worry, I won’t eat YOU.” The toy laughed as if that wasn’t a disturbing thing to say, and the employee chuckled nervously along with him. He seems to sense their fear, and looks unsure, for a moment, whether to acknowledge it or ignore it. He chooses the latter and looks back at the employee, tipping his little hat. “I’m Doey”, he says politely before his face morphed into one of suspicion and perhaps slight anger — it was mostly suspicion — “I was told to expect you.” He stares at the employee for a brief moment, who looks back at him with slight fear, yet curiosity. Doey…Doey the Doughman. They remembered him; once again, more so referring to his toy.

That toy held a special place in their heart…

Suddenly, Doey smiled and grabbed their sides, picking them up and placing them on their feet before letting them go. “This way! Follow me…”, he says as his body begins walking away…But his head stayed in place as his neck stretched with his body, his face giving off a silly stare. The employee would probably have chuckled at the cartoony nature of the toy if not, once again, for the death they narrowly escaped from. The head and neck suddenly whipped towards the body, and the whole toy disappeared once the human looked in the direction Doey had walked in. Where did he go..? Whatever. No time to dilly-dally. Now that they could say Doey was probably one of Poppy’s ‘allies’, it was time to follow him to, hopefully, safety.

They took a deep breath and looked at Pianosaurus’s head, which was by their feet. The human sighed and kneeled down to touch the head with their hand. 

“Hey. I just wanted to say that you weren’t a failure: I’m sure you weren’t. Even with the way you went out, I hope you can find peace now that you’re not stuck here anymore.”

The employee stood back up and noticed a grapple point atop of a hallway embedded in the wall. Refusing to wonder the purpose of such a hallway no-one could get into without a Grabpack, they clinged onto the bar and pulled themself up, opening a door that led to a hallway blocked by storage shelves and boxes. “Psst”, said a familiar voice, and they could see Doey peering around a corner beyond the debris before slipping back behind it. The human hummed amusingly at the sight before entering a room to their left. It was mostly empty, save for a weird yellow flat-board on tracks, yellow pipes, and a glass window that showed another room — the only thing in it was a desk and two chairs. Maybe a camera or two — They suddenly heard Doey groan, but they couldn’t exactly tell from where. 

“Interrogation Rooms. They’d question us here after watching us. Those of us who could speak at all.”

How dreadful…

“I always answered…But I never gave ‘em an answer they liked!”

Doey giggled at his seemingly-past stubbornness with an echoey laugh. The human smiled sadly: at least they made light of the bad moments…and it was a little funny to imagine a frustrated interviewer sitting across from a giant doughman. They hummed as they looked at the large garage door, finding it inoperative and deciding to go inside the other room. They circled back and opened the right door, finding another interrogation room, this time with a shattered window pane. They slipped inside and opened a door that led to the other side of the debris before continuing on their way. After quickly listening to a yellow tape about Playtime Specialists extracting what seemed to dead visitor bodies — how morbid — they slipped into a room where they saw Doey waiting for them. 

The toy tipped his hat, which he kept in his hand, and winked at the human before squeezing his sludgy body through a barred doorway. The hand holding his hat got caught between the bars after most of his body successfully slipped through, so he violently tugged on his own arm until the bars snapped and created a wedge big enough for his limb. The employee ran up to the door and began to pry the loose bars to create a wedge big enough for them, and for a split second, they swore they saw Doey fall off a cliff?

“There’s some nasty falls in this place, but I can get you across. Oh yes, definitely!”

The employee watched in amazement as a clay bridge suddenly formed between two rocky cliffs beyond the door before finally pulling the bars off the frame and slipping by. They looked at the bridge and tilted their head, afraid for a moment that Doey couldn’t support their weight. The human soon took a deep breath though, and began to walk across his body-turned-bridge until their feet landed on the cliff. They glanced towards the wedge between cliffs, finding Doey to suddenly be gone. They could faintly see some clay residue sticking onto the cliff walls, so the human assumed he simply left. Extremely quickly. The employee glanced at the wall that read “Safe Haven Sector 4D”, though “Safe” was crossed out in red paint, — it read “But for how long?” — before turning towards more cliffs and carefully jumping across the cave system. Soon enough, they got to a jump that seemed impossible to make, but thankfully for them, Doey appeared once more, creating a disk-like bridge for the employee to walk on. He also began to speak again…but his tone was much lower than before.

“So…have you seen Poppy anywhere? Ollie said she was around…somewhere.”

No…I haven’t seen her…Did Ollie say if she was alright?! What about Kissy?!

“He also said we can trust you. I really hope that’s true.”

Trust…The employee wanted desperately to say that he could, but the words got lost in their throat and thoughts began to trickle in. Trust them with what? Poppy said she wanted revenge, that she wanted to set things right. The employee wanted to do that too. But how would they? How could they possibly make any of this right? The doll never really informed them of what they were going to do. Doey seemed to know, and as much as they wanted to ask, something prevented them from doing so. Soon enough, they began delving deeper into the cave system until they crawled under a hole in the wall, and found themself in…some sort of prison yard? They saw Doey ushering them over — they were astounded he got to this area so fast — before looking at a thin crack in the wall. In a cartoony fashion, he braced himself for ‘impact’ and bashed himself into the wall with the crack. They wanted to scream and question this motive until they saw his body morph and slip easily into the crack, leaving gooey sludge behind. 

Oh. Right.

“There’s a safe place up ahead, it’s not too far from here”, Doey said from the wall crack. He seemed to be expecting the employee to follow…but the door was locked with rust, and there seemed to be no other way around. “Riiiight…You can’t fit through here!”, he suddenly said with a sheepish giggle before humming in thought, “Hey pal, let’s see if we can’t get these doors open. You check out there, I’ll look back here!” The employee nodded to no-one in particular before looking around the yard and noticing some chains with hooks at their ends. Next to the rolls of chains on the walls were compartments for levers. Maybe they could pry those doors open with these?

Something told them that was the right thing to do, so they grabbed onto a chain rope and began pulling it towards the door, attaching it to little rings around the door’s rusty handles. They continued this until all the chains were attached to what seemed to be the right positions; now to find those levers…They looked over at a red watchtower with its door open and quickly went up it, climbing the stairs and crossing over to the yellow tower’s room. “Is that you in there? Find anything yet?”, the human heard Doey say, to which they shook their head in response just in case he somehow could see them in some way. They crossed over to the blue tower’s room and looked at a locker with a keypad on it. Next to it was the color order for the towers: blue, green, yellow, red.

If this wasn’t a puzzle, they didn’t know what was.

They slipped around the tower bridges to find numbers on all the towers, memorizing all of them and slipping back to the blue tower to put in the code. The locker opened and inside was a big lever. They hummed and snatched it from the locker, heading back down the way they came and carefully putting the lever into a slot next to one of the chains. As they headed down, they noticed another lever on the ground, concluding they missed it due to how dark the area was, and picked it up, putting it in another slot. They heard some rummaging before Doey spoke up again: “Can this help?”, he asked, and the employee noticed something being thrown out from a space in the wall. It was another lever! 

And a dead Dogday plush.

They stared at it for a while and frowned. For some reason, that made them wonder if that Bigger Body Dogday was alright. They…couldn’t imagine he was: the toy got possessed from inside his own body..! Toys slipping under your skin…That image was horrifying, and the employee got to witness such horrors firsthand..! Even so, there was the slimmest chance he was still alive in Playcare. But…a slim chance wasn’t enough to give them hope, and being realistic, those little toys probably ate his insides after they failed to catch the human…

Rest in peace, Dogday, if you really are gone. I hope you can join the rest of the Smiling Critters.

They pressed on, grabbing the lever Doey threw into the yard and attaching it to another slot. They noticed the final lever was already in its slot, so they walked over to the first one and pulled it down. They flinched as Doey suddenly began to speak in that similar low tone. “This was once a workyard, ya know. A dozen of us, maybe two would be here at any given time. During the day, they'd have us work. Whatever they wanted us to do, we'd do it. And for those of us who couldn't, or wouldn't…”, he said grimly. The human could only imagine the expression on his face. They walked over to the second lever and pulled it. “At night, when no one important was watching, they'd take them. Stick them in here. "We only got food for one of you this week," they'd say. "Which of you will it be?”.”

The employee felt their hands quiver as they made their way to the third lever and pulled it. “They'd watch from up there. It was usually over within minutes. And the guards, they'd be hysterical. Nobody died. No, because then, people would know”, Doey continued. The human went to the final lever and grabbed it. They didn’t pull it just yet though. “But the next day, and every day after, they would work. Oh yeah, as hard as they could. And they'd never cause trouble again.” The human blinked in shock. 

That was…psychotic. 

They knew the Doctor was cruel and unwavering, those prisoner guards they watched on the tape were ignorant and unempathetic, the executives were the same…but something about this left a bad taste in their mouth. Lying to living things; toys, children, whatever you saw them as; about not having food only to make them fight for it. And then laughing about it..?! It wasn’t just the fact that they did that that angered and horrified the human: the guards knew the toys could understand them. They acknowledged them as intelligent beings because why else would they announce the supposed ‘lack of food’ to make them fight? They knew they weren’t animals, but they treated them as such. That kind of cruelty shook them to their core. 

“I’m…sorry…”

But it barely came out as a whisper, and if Doey did somehow hear it, he didn’t respond or acknowledge it. The human couldn’t blame him: a simple ‘sorry’ couldn’t fix what happened or undo how much they suffered. The human took a deep breath and decided to hang on to hope: Poppy had a plan. They would set things right. As long as they got to that safe place and met up with Poppy, they could do what needed to be done. The human, finally, pulled the final lever and watched as the chains began to move and pull the rusty door open ever so slightly. They walked over and squeezed through. “Over there!”, said a familiar voice as Doey ran behind another corner. They slipped through doors and cracks in the wall until they eventually found a boarded up vent shaft and crawled through. Once they got to the end, they peeked to their right to see Doey waving at them. They felt compelled to wave back, but they only gave a small little one before walking towards him.

“Our generator’s in a pretty bad state, so we try to keep the power off in here.”

You have a generator? I guess that makes sense.

“I’ll turn it on for you, though. It’ll open a door downstairs.”

Then Doey kind of…stared off with a goofy smile. The employee blinked and tilted their head before waving a hand in front of Doey’s face. He didn’t acknowledge it, so they assumed he was spacing out. They noticed a hole in the floor to Doey’s left and walked towards it, hopping down it once they figured Doey had nothing more to say. Once they hopped down, they squeezed through some metal shelves and ran through some hallways until they found a battery slot in the wall. Before they could properly start looking around for it, a yellow arm descended from the ceiling, holding a battery. “Here! Use this”, Doey said, his voice getting low on his second sentence. The human decided not to acknowledge it and gingerly took the battery from his hand. The arm ascended back up, and the employee inserted the battery into the slot.

Lights flared on in another area, so the employee quickly went over to that room to find a maze of chain fences, and a large number of cogs on the wall. It seemed to be missing a few wheels, so the human wandered around the area finding more cogs, which were colored red. After finding an abundance of them and putting them in their proper places, Doey chimed in, his voice in a grin, “Should be a straight shot from here, bud!” The human nodded before heading back down the hallway. “I- uh…should probably go turn off our defenses for you, huh?”, Doey pondered aloud before getting a little giggly, “Guess I’ll see you inside?” The clay toy laughed a little before his voice disappeared, leaving the human alone in the hallway. They sighed and continued on. It was the same as always:

More opening doors.

More crawling.

More squeezing through areas

More traversing through uncomfortable spaces like a meat freezer that seemed to be filled with dead bodies. 

Ok, that only happened once, but it was not fun.

After finding a lever and opening up a passageway, they started walking down a long hallway…before they were suddenly grabbed. A fuzzy hand covered their mouth, preventing them from yelling out in fear. But they soon blinked  as they realized…the fuzz on the hand was pink. They were pulled into a small section of a wall and holding them was Kissy Missy and Poppy! They wanted to exclaim in joy, then in concern once they saw the state of Kissy, but Poppy shushed them. The human was confused as to why…but then, they could see a shadowy figure from beyond the crack in the wall. What came into view seemed to be metal legs of some kind, pointed at the tips and skittering around. It seemed to be looking for something…or someone. Who, or WHAT, was that thing? They glanced over at Poppy, who was clearly afraid despite the limitations of her face — speaking of her face, the human noticed a small crack on it. They didn’t really notice it before until now — Poppy was holding her hand to where her heart would be as Kissy watched the outside patiently. 

Soon enough, the strange metal creature scuttled away, which Poppy noticed. She seemed to take a deep breath before speaking. “Through the showers. We should be able to make it into the Safe Haven from there”, she whispered. Kissy tiptoed over to the little crack in the wall and leaned a bit, letting Poppy, who was on her shoulder, peer outside. The two looked left and right before Poppy looked at the employee. “When I say so, we go”, she said with a nod, and after a few more seconds, gave them the directive to leave. Kissy pushed the employee out first and set them down before squeezing her way through the crack and heading towards the shower. After quickly grabbing a tape they said in the corner, the employee dragged on behind the two, having a great amount of questions they knew they wouldn’t get the answers to; at least not until they were safe.

They headed in the showers, noticing how dirty and decrepit it was…and something else. There were toys..! Smiling Critter toys! But not aggressive ones. Rather than button eyes popping out of their sockets and their fabric torn, they seemed almost brand new. Or at the very least, well kept. Like that sort of state of a toy when a child played with them for hours on end, but made sure they were kept in good condition. The Critters that were in showers, which seemed to have been repurposed for beds and living quarters, trembled at the sight of the human. “W-Who are you?”, asked a nervous Hoppy Hopscotch toy. The employee kneeled down and tried to speak, but noticed Kissy and Poppy looking at them expectantly. They waved gently at the toy before standing back up and walking along with Kissy and Poppy, coming up to a rusty yellow door that they quickly went inside.

Poppy jumped off Kissy’s shoulder onto the ground and looked in the direction of a green Boogie Bot with a tablet-like control panel. “Hurry! Close it!”, she yelled, and the Boogie Bot seemed to do just that. The door closed, and for a moment, the employee wondered if they should quickly go back for the Hoppy Hopscotch toy that was in the showers. Before they could spend much time thinking about it, a familiar voice and a series of thumping footsteps emerged from deeper in the room they were in. “What’s going on? What’s-?”, Doey exclaimed as he ran where the others were, placing his hand on a table before looking fearfully at Kissy, “Kissy!” He ran up to the pink toy in a panic, and his attention to her drew the employee’s attention to her as well. She was injured severely. Half of her body from the waist up seemed singed off, like she had been burned. Her right eyelid drooped down, sometimes twitching from the pained nerves. Her right arm was also in a blue, makeshift sling with a small wooden plank in it to keep her arm straight. Kissy stumbled down a little, barely catching herself with her good arm before standing up.

“Goodness…What happened..?”

“We need to get her help. Now!”

Doey looked at Poppy in pure disbelief, as if he couldn’t believe she was really there. Looking back, he did ask about her earlier, and he didn’t seem too convinced that she was actually around. To see her standing there must be a shock, but for what reason? “Poppy? Is that really..?”, Doey reached out to touch her, seemingly to check if she was real, before looking over at Kissy and straightening himself up. “Right. Take her to one of the beds”, he ordered before walking over to the yellow door and prying it open slightly to peek outside, “I’ll check the defenses, see if something’s still outside.” Poppy shook her head worriedly. “Not just something…It’s him! He’s out there!”, she exclaimed, and the human took notice of how Doey visibly tensed up. His fingers curled into the beginning-of-a-fist as he shot an angry glare at Poppy. “You brought him down-…?!”, Doey hissed before he took a deep breath, lightly face-palming himself, “We’ll talk about this…later. For now, I’ll make sure “out there” is where he stays.”

With that final declaration, Doey ran off. “Locking down Safe Haven. Reactivating the defenses”, announced the green Boogie Bot. The employee walked backwards carefully, following Poppy’s path as she led Kissy to the fort-like bed by her side. “Over here”, she directed, and Kissy went inside, carefully sitting down, “Get some rest, okay?” The pink toy seemed to nod before her eyes glanced up at the human, who wore an expression of worry. She really didn’t look good…How did that even happen? Poppy suddenly skipped over to the employee, so they kneeled down to meet her at eye level. “I didn’t know it had gotten this bad…I…”, she paused, looking around Safe Haven momentarily, “I need to make this right…” She then properly looked at the employee. “What I said on the elevator, it’s true. The orphans weren’t killed during the Hour of Joy, they were taken.”

I’m sorry, what?

“They’re below, in the Labs, the Prototype’s home. They are alive, but sleeping.”

By sleeping, you mean dead, right? Because unless there is some immortal machine keeping them alive and happy, there’s no way they could possibly survive…

The human thought about it for a moment. Actually…they wouldn’t put it past Playtime Co. to develop something like that. “They’re with HIM, And HE knows we’re HERE”, Poppy continued. The doll took a moment to gather her thoughts, beginning to pace a little in place. “So, if we’re going to free them AND stop the Prototype, we need to plan for both at the same time. The Red Smoke you redirected from Playcare? It’s an accelerant. All it needs is high pressure and a little spark, and it ignites”, she explained, her voice getting more and more hopeful as she went on.

“The plan is this: we’ll fill the foundation with the smoke, and line it with old mining charges.”

Mining charges?!

“Then, once you, me, and Kissy have freed the orphans, our friends here will blow this place sky high! THAT’S our revenge.”

The human blinked. They were going to blow up the factory? A part of them was a little surprised at the plan: I mean, their whole deal up to this point was just killing any enemy that stood in their way, and the employee figured Poppy was going to ask them to do the same this time around as well. But…if they blow this place up…it will all be over. It will finally be over. No more factory, no more carnage, and no more corpses of all kinds. They could finally kiss goodbye to all the work those sadistic executives have done. All the suffering they caused. Even if Poppy’s perspective of the plan was fixated on the Prototype’s demise, the employee was happy that they could be free. That everyone could be free, and that wherever the executives were…could suck it . Torturing children only for it all to get blown to smithereens…

That excited the human, even if just a tad.

“For now, go to Doey. See what he needs. I’ll be here…” Poppy slipped into the tent, sitting next to Kissy, who looked at the employee for a bit before her eyes returned to Poppy. The human frowned at her injuries before sighing and standing up.

Get some rest, Kissy…I’m glad you’re okay.

The employee turned around, seeing if they could spot Doey from where they were…But their eyes stopped searching as soon as they got a closer look at everything. The place was set up like a wonderland for children: there were many pillow forts scattered around that seemed to be used as beds, they could see an assortment of toys, and they didn’t just mean the Smiling Critter toys standing around. They glanced up to see blue blankets with cloud designs on them, probably to give the faintest illusion to a sky, and along the wall were various drawings and writing. They hummed in slight surprise. This…was Safe Haven? 

They mindlessly walked towards the yellow door they came from, taking in all the sights before hearing a robotic beeping noise in front of their feet. “Angel! Step away from the yellow door please! Nobody is allowed near it except for a select few in an emergency situation like this!”, said the green Boogie Bot. The human blinked and stepped backwards, holding their hands up a little in mock surrender. 

S-Sorry! Wait…

Did the toy call the employee ‘Angel’? They briefly recalled their interaction with Dogday once more. He called them “Poppy’s Angel”. Did other toys know them by that title? It felt strange to not be called by their real name, yet it felt somewhat…heartwarming to be given a proper name rather than being called something like ‘playmate’ or ‘germ’. They sighed at the thought before turning around and walking by the tents. They could see a Bobby Bearhug toy trembling in worry as the human walked past, as well as a KickinChicken toy peeking out of its little tent to see the employee pass by. They gave a small wave at the two, only for them to slink back into their own little corners out of fear. The human sighed, though they couldn’t blame them for their suspicion. They were human among dozens of toys who were only such because of cruel adults.

They could see Doey out of the corner of their eye, talking to a toy next to them, but decided to continue looking around Safe Haven for a moment longer. They traveled to the center of the main room where they could see toys, dusty soccer ball with a net, and a Crafty Corn cutout on their right, and a shop of some sort on their left. They looked at the goal for a moment before feeling something tap on their ankle. “Is Kissy going to be okay?”, said a meek voice; a PickyPiggy toy specifically. The human nodded a little.

I hope so. She’s hurt badly, but I’m sure Poppy will take care of her.

The human began to kneel down, but the PickyPiggy toy shivered in slight fear. Seems like they used a lot of their courage to ask the human that question. They respected it and gave the toy their space, heading to look at the shop out of curiosity. There was an assortment of items, though not all of them were necessarily for children to use: there were generic stuff like toy rockets, blocks, and books, but among those were also paint cans and small oxygen tanks. Did the toys here invent a form of currency? Was their ‘business’ revolved around trading? Or was this more of a section where they keep their goods and could take anything they wanted or needed at any given time? Honestly, the employee would be lying if they said the society these toys have made was incredibly interesting…

“What’s POPPY doing here?”

“I don’t know. They just let her in.”

“Why?! That’s inviting a whole lot of trouble we don’t need.”

The employee glanced to their right, spotting a Hoppy Hopscotch and Bubba Bubbaphant toy conversing with each-other in whisper. Unfortunately for them, it was quite easy to hear, especially since the human was right there. “I mean, how do we even know we can trust her this time?”, asked the Bubba toy. That piqued the employee’s interest. Trust her this time? Did something happen the last time she was here..? Judging by Doey’s surprised reaction to her presence and how these toys are talking about her, there seems to be something that the human was missing. They were sort of anxious to know, so they kept quiet to see if the toys would reveal anything more. “We don’t know”, replied the Hoppy toy, “So let’s just be careful. Especially around her…new friend.” The human flinched at that. “The employee…Can’t forget that.”

“Shhh. I think they might be listening..!”

No, really? What makes you say that, as I stand 2 feet away from you?

Well, they got caught, and they learned nothing about what happened between them and Poppy. For a moment, they wondered why they were so interested. Poppy was nice, and she just wanted to make things right. Plus, this was all a stressful situation: a decade in his hell hole would leave anyone frazzled, especially children. Whatever happened didn’t matter now. They were on a quest to right a million wrongs, and they were going to do just that; even if it meant burning it all to the ground. They hung around for a minute or two longer, before noticing that Doey had finished talking to who seemed to be a CraftyCorn toy. He seemed to be waiting for the employee, so they hummed in confirmation and walked over to the dough doll, who put on a quick smile. 

“Hiya pal!”, he said, tipping his hat and putting it back on. He suddenly covered his mouth, seemingly stifling a giggle or chortle of some kind before straightening himself up. “Got something…I wanna talk to you about”, he said slowly before gesturing to a door behind him — one that read ‘Auxiliary Power’ — “In here.” With that, the door opened, and Doey went inside. Not wanting to keep him waiting any longer despite feeling a strange urge to explore Safe Haven more, they followed him inside to find that the room was a generator room of sorts. Panel boxes, wires, and a big clunky assortment of the two that the human could only assume was the generator Doey mentioned on the way to Safe Haven. “I heard what you did above— what you survived”, he said, turning to face the generator before looking back at the employee and placing his hand on his chest, “If it’s all true, then we need your help.” The employee blinked and nodded, which seemed to give the toy leeway to continue talking. 

“The voice out there— the one in the prison…They called him “The Doctor”; Doctor Harley Sawyer. He was the scientist in charge of creating…us.”

Doey’s fists suddenly clenched, his expression darkening as his non-existent eyebrows furrowed and his body seemingly got looser. “We don’t know what he is, how he’s still alive, but he works with the Prototype”, he grimaced, his voice getting more aggressive and his head getting closer to the employee’s face as he went on, “Hunting us. Starving us. MAKING US SICK AND-!” Doey suddenly pulled away, covering his face with his hand. He took a deep breath and shook his head, calming himself down. The human couldn’t blame him: all these years down here could ruin somebody. Break their resolve and mind. Everyone was angry, and the employee was happy they would finally get their revenge on this forsaken company.

“He controls it all with an Omni-Hand, we think. The executives used them.”

Yeah, he got one from the Warden during the Hour of Joy.

“It’s a battery, a key, the master control to anything in the entire factory, and with it, he commands everything down here…Everything, but this”, Doey said as he placed his hand on the generator, “Runs completely on its own grid. Away from the prison. For a time, it kept us safe. But now…” The dough doll paused. The employee could tell fear gripped around the toy’s heart; they could tell they were thinking about everything that could happen if this generator failed to protect them. “I need you to stop the Doctor— to take his Omni-Hand”, Doey added, his face once again getting closer to the human’s for emphasis, “We’ll need it for the generator…And if you want Red Smoke in The Foundation, you’ll need it too.” The human nodded. Doey seemed to contemplate something for a moment. He looked at the yellow door they went through and sighed. 

Alright. I’ll get that Omni-Hand for you. We’ll fix the generator, and then…you’ll-

“The toys out there, in Safe Haven, they’re my family…”

Huh?

“I understand what Poppy wants, what she believes is right. Destroy the factory. Destroy him.”

And destroy all that has hurt you.

“But I ask you to consider: if we throw everything away. Everyone. Just to kill the Prototype…”

Wait…Do you not…

“How much do we waste?”

Want to destroy the factory?

“I know the others might believe it’s right. That we should bury everything. But…”, Doey sighed, taking off his hat and looking down. His fingers clutched around it, as he was struggling not to get more out there, “Let’s just think about it.” 

Think…about it?

The human stared at him. He put his hat back on and gestured for the door. “Head for the Infirmary whenever you’re ready to leave. There’s sewer access inside. That’s your safest path to the No Man’s Land…And to him”, he said before putting his hands up, “But if you need to catch your breath…”

“Our Safe Haven is also yours.”

My…Safe Haven?

The human stared at the doughman. He seemed to ignore it and turned around to look at the generator. He seemed to be meddling with it. The human stared harder, dumbfounded. But soon enough, they left. They exited the room, then stood there. They stood there for a good couple of minutes. They took it all in: the pillow forts, the blankets, the inanimate toys, the living toys, the writing on the wall, the drawings on the wall. A sudden sense of…safety washed over them. Peace overcame them, even for a short amount of time. They felt their fight-or-flight system settle, and they felt their heart stop racing. The human hadn’t realized how much adrenaline they had built up in their time here. They haven’t even taken into account how long they’ve been here — a day? Maybe two or three? They couldn’t tell without any windows present — Unfortunately, as the adrenaline settled down, they felt their body struggling to regulate itself. 

The room seemed to spin for a moment, and they almost lost their balance simply from standing still, only managing to support themselves by falling into a nearby wall. The human took deep breaths to try and calm themselves, but their breathing felt a little short. Their legs wobbled from fatigue, and their muscles ached. Their wounds and scars seemed to burn more than ever, now that they had no danger to distract them from the shot nerves. They winced at the pain they suddenly felt…

“Hey, are you alright?”

The employee looked to the right, finding a CraftyCorn toy looking up at them. They blinked and tried to speak, but the words got caught in their throat. Were they alright? They didn’t know. “You look terrible! Absolutely terrible!”, the CraftyCorn toy said with a slight laugh. The employee squinted their eyes at the toy before sighing and nodding in agreement. They probably did look terrible; not like they could see their reflection in this place. “You should probably rest! Can’t do anything when we’re all loopy like that!”, the toy said with their permanent grin. The human blinked. Rest? There was no time for rest! How could they possibly rest with what’s at stake?! They shook their head and tried to walk, only to stumble and nearly fall down. The CraftyCorn toy laughed, and the employee blushed a little out of embarrassment. Other toys seemed to glance over to see the commotion, which only made them more embarrassed.

I can’t believe I’m getting laughed at by a unicorn toy…

Maybe they did need rest. But…

The human stood back up and walked over to Poppy carefully, who was still by Kissy’s side. The doll noticed their presence and looked at them curiously. “Hey there…Did you talk with Doey?”, she asked. The human nodded, which seemed to please her. “Good. You better get going then. We need to get that Omni-Hand as soon as possible.”

Actually…I wanted to ask you if I could rest a little…I’m not feeling well. 

“…Is something wrong? Why are you just standing there..?”, Poppy asked after the employee hadn’t moved for a while, then proceeded to look over at Kissy, “Are you worried about Kissy? Don’t worry, I’ll keep her company, and the Medic Bot will be here soon to treat her. She’ll be alright. Remember, defeating the Doctor is priority #1! Everything will be okay once we kill the Prototype” Poppy seemed so hopeful…So resolute and determined…It seemed impossible to break her, like a respected leader you just couldn’t disobey…

I need you alive

Nobody is here by choice

I still have plans for you

Don’t be selfish

We’re just getting started 

We need to make this right 

We need revenge 

BURN THIS PLACE TO THE GROUND

The human nodded and began to turn around to walk away, but something suddenly grabbed their arm. They found it to be Kissy’s good arm grabbing theirs, but it soon let go to instead wrap around their waist. Poppy and the employee seemed confused, but all of sudden, the human was gently pulled back until they collapsed on the bed on Kissy’s right. “Kissy?”, Poppy murmured quizzically, watching the pink toy unravel their arm from the human, looking at them knowingly. Kissy’s expression didn’t change, yet the employee could see a sense of kindness and empathy in her eyes. She leaned her head against the employee, resting her head on theirs. “Kissy, they can’t stay here! They need to—”, Poppy started, stopping once Kissy looked at her pleadingly. She sighed and looked at the employee. “She really wants you here…I guess you are an adult, and she was always a little afraid of the medic after…”, the doll trailed off before she suddenly shot up and looked away from the two, “Where is he anyways?”

Poppy hopped away from the two of them, heading towards a door with a sign that read ‘Infirmary’. Seems like she was going to look for that Medic Bot she mentioned. The human looked at Kissy and placed their hand on hers for comfort, and for a brief moment, it seemed like Kissy’s smile grew a little wider. They were glad they could provide a bit of comfort for her; they remembered being terrified of the nurses and doctors they had to go to as a child. They hummed a little as they waited for Poppy to come with news, feeling their system relax once more. Honestly, it was kind of convenient the timing of this: now they could rest their body and let the adrenaline die out fully. They had to admit the bed was comfy and cozy, and the cute little branded merchandise that made the fort-like structure was really relaxing and—

…Wait.

They looked at Kissy in slight shock, realization adorning their face. Kissy’s shoulders shook a little and her hand went to her mouth, as if she was silently laughing at the employee realizing her little ploy. The human blinked and sighed a little before leaning into the wall. How Kissy knew exactly what they needed was a mystery — it seemed like no-one ever paid attention or heard the employee when they spoke — but as much as thoughts cluttered their mind, they had to admit they were a little bit grateful for the chance to rest. They closed their eyes and took a few deep breaths.

You can take it

You're stronger than this

I never said it would be easy

We're going to miss our window

Get up

Get up

Get up

Get up

Get up

Get up 

Get up

Get up

Get up

Get up

Get up

Get up

Get up

Get up 

Get up

Get up

GET UP

GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP

GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP

GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP

GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP

GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP

GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP

GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP

GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP

GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP

Our Safe Haven is also yours

Another voice among the cluster takes over the rest, and the employee feels themself calm down and lets their muscles relax. It felt truly nice…

To be safe at last.