Chapter Text
Your hands were so, so clammy. It made your face scrunch up a bit at the thought of it. But not too much. You tightened your grip around the trolley poll as your bus made a sharp turn. You cringed again. The sweat from your palms paired with the strange moistness of the trolley pole was irking you. There were many strangers lined around you, some sitting and some standing. You had insisted on standing to allow others to take a seat. You weren't going very far, and you doubted those on the bus with you had a close stop as well. The nearest stop at the moment was just a couple more minutes away, but the next would be another half hour. It would benefit a lot of people if they didn't make the trip to this nearing stop, but there was just enough demand that they made the detour off the typical bus routes. The bus came to a halt, making you tighten your grip again. You released your grip and briefly wiped your hand on your pants to get some of the uncomfortable moisture off. You maneuver between others who are holding onto the trolley poles and give the driver a nod and brisk "thank you". The bus doors open and you lightly hold onto your bag which was slung across your shoulder. After exiting the bus, you take a moment to collect yourself. The building before you was dauntingly huge. The entrance alone was intimidating. A sign at the top of the entrance read "Welcome to Playtime Co".
It took a bit more help than you would have liked to navigate the building, but you reached the Huggy Wuggy statue with your ego intact. From here you knew where to go for your job interview...
"Y/N L/N?" A male voice called your name. You had been seated outside of Leith Pierre's office. A woman opened the door and silently beckoned you inside. Once inside, you pulled out a chair across from who you presumed to be Leith. You quickly straightened out your attire, keeping an unbothered demeanor. The woman from the door pulled out a seat beside Leith. "I'm Leith Pierre, Head of Innovation, as you could have assumed from the name plate outside." He lightly chuckled and reached over the desk to shake your hand. You smiled and obliged.
"Nice to meet you." You said. His grip was no different from his body language--firm but loose.
"And this here is Stella Greyber, our Head of Playcare." She shook your hand as well, her grip much more delicate than Leith's. It put you at ease a bit. "So, Y/N, let's cut to the chase shall we? We think you'd be a great addition to our team here at Playtime. It says here on your resume that you've got a Masters Degree in Biology, got a Bachelor Degree in Chemistry, completed Medical School and got some surgical experience under your belt! After looking over your profile some more, you have more than met the requirements for this job. What do you think?"
You were taken a bit off guard with Leith's approach, but you appreciated him being forward with you. "I'm very happy to hear that. I would love to offer my services at Playtime Co, but I was curious what the specifics of this job description are?" Stella cast a small, fleeting look at Leith. A crack. She swiftly sealed the crack, though, to your interest. Leith's smile grew.
"I'm afraid we can't reveal the specifics until we have a 'yes' from you and you've signed our employment contract. It just helps us keep things in check with the employees." Smooth. It sounded a bit dicey, though, despite him playing these details.
"What we will say," Stella chimed in. "Is that for now, you'd be working in the Playcare department. We'd love to put your skills to the best of your ability with our other head scientists, don't get me wrong. We just have a need for employees in Playcare at the moment. But there are always spots opening up with our higher surgeons, so a promotion is very possible in the near future." That caught your attention. If you could start out low and quickly make your way to the top...that'd be unrealistic for most jobs starting out at a company unless you have a well built reputation. This could be a great opportunity. You looked down at your bag for a moment, contemplating.
"I'd love to take the job." You smiled at Leith, who straightened up in his seat and gave you a knowing smile. Stella took the employment contract out from a manila folder and slid it towards you with a pen. You signed the contract, not bothering to read the smaller, beady letters. You didn't want to spend too long having to quint and make out what they said...
"I know, our printer made the text wayyy smaller than intended." Leither laughed it off. "Just standard privacy policy and rules of conduct, don't you worry. We go over those anyway during your initiation." That made you feel a little better. It was possible that he could just be lying, but you were sure that wouldn't be able to slide at such a big company. The lawsuits would be through the roof if they made all their employees unknowingly sign something they shouldn't have...
"Great!" Leith took the paper and slid it into a drawer. He stood from his chair with you and Stella following suit. He leaned over the desk again and lent out his hand. You shook his hand a bit more slowly this time. "Welcome to Playtime, Y/N."
"Thank you for the opportunity," you said, turning to Stella. Not only had she sealed her cracks, she had put a new coat of concrete over herself.
Stella had led you to another room to explain your job. She claimed it to be her office on the way there, but upon arrival you were half certain she wanted to kill you...until she opened the door. It was a normal office, just very empty. It made you wonder if this would be your new office. "This isn't your office, by the way." Okay, that answered your question. "So, I'm sure you were wondering why a toy company would have a team of surgeons, scientists, all of the above, correct?"
"Well...yes, I suppose. But I figured it may be to help with the orphanage, or the scientists work on new toy products? I know that the Poppy doll is made to smell like poppies, so maybe the company was wanting to work more with plants?" Stella chuckled shortly at your responses.
"I wish..." she said wistfully, sitting down across from you at the desk in the office. You sat down as well, fidgeting a bit with your bag. "This company was originally founded with the purpose of bringing smiles to children. We've lived by that standard for years to this very day. But we've also taken a new purpose, for science, for the future of humanity. Many have tried to crack the secret to immortality. We're all stuck inside of these bodies, destined to rot and eventually fail us. It's just life, part of being...human. To challenge mortality, a man asked, what if we replaced our bodies with something that couldn't rot away and fail us? We could overcome the inescapable aging of our bodies if our bodies weren't, well, human. That's the best way I could put it, I apologize."
You took a moment to process all that Stella said. "I'm sorry, I'm a bit confused. You're saying...in order for us to overcome old age, we need to have bodies that don't age."
"Yes, my goodness I should have just led with that. Apologies if I rambled, I'm not the best at...articulating my words at times."
"No, no, I caught on." You reassured Stella. You were genuinely terrified yet interested in where this was going.
"That's good. Years ago, someone conducted a sickly experiment. The first of many. He transferred his daughter's body to a smaller one, a doll. And the few people that saw this realized that this knowledge could lead us to great discoveries down the road. We started replicating the experiments, turning people into toys in simple terms. But it's still them in there, just a different body. One that won't age and wither away. At least, in the way we're used to. Could you imagine all of the possibilities down the road?? Cancer patients and victims of violence who are at the end of the road because their bodies are giving out. But if they have a new body, those problems are nothing anymore. Just a small bump in the road..."
Turning people...into...toys?? You were very, very confused. Stella let you sit and think for a while. The look she gave you would change periodically from sympathetic, to nervous, to something malicious. Something threatening. But it would only last for a moment under that layer of concrete she had. But you saw it. There was no way you could say no to this job now and leave the room alive, and that scared you. It scared you to think that maybe, just maybe, there were people like you that said no and had to die in this very room. It was terrifying...but you also WANTED to say yes...the work Stella described was truly revolutionary. Granting someone another option to dodge death would give so many people another chance at life....so many kids...
"I know it's a lot to take in. Really. I cried like a baby when I first heard about the experiments they have going on down there. But I do feel that this will help even more people later down the road. All good things come at a cost, and this necessary brutality will get us the greater good."
"What brutalities?" Your face paled ever so slightly. Stella stiffed a bit, just enough for you to notice. She told you about the orphanage. The orphans. The bigger bodies initiative.
Everything.
You stood from your seat, stumbled to the nearest trash can, and emptied your stomach. You were ashamed to have such a response, but would anyone blame you? The big toys you've seen around the factory. Were those kids?? Orphans picked from the crop to be turned into those monsters? You and Stella reminded yourself that these were necessary evils. Every discovery has them, some worse than others. You sat there and you cried. You didn't know for how long. Once you had finished, there was a deep feeling of guilt and shame over you. You told Stella you'd take the job, you just needed some time to come to terms with everything.
"Oh, don't worry, we typically expect this sort of reaction from new employees in this particular department. In the event that you accepted the job with Leith, we would have scheduled you to come in two weeks time for your first shift." You nodded silently as Stella slowly went over what to expect from your first week in. You thought two weeks was generous, considering the nature of this company. "No one in Playcare knows what's going on with the experiments...I mean, not many kids get chosen, and when they do we say they were suddenly adopted. It's really, really hard. It was so hard on me at first, but trust me, it gets better..."
It did get better. The first few days, you had to admit, you feared for your life. You knew that Playtime likely had the information on how to find you and if you ever leaked out information they would most definitely take you out of the equation. No doubt they've done it before. There was no getting out of this. But you did think...this whole discovery of transferring people to new bodies...you could only imagine the positives that could come from that. Your uncle suffered from brain cancer for years and had slowly given up on life. It was the most depressing thing you had to witness. But if he had been given a chance at life in a new body, you knew he'd probably take it. You didn't know how these discoveries would translate into the medical field. They would probably seem too extreme for anyone. But looking down the road helped you come to terms with things...and now you were looking forward to what you could learn from this new job.
You checked into your first day, two weeks after your interview liked promised. Less navigation was needed to get to the Huggy Wuggy statue, which you looked at with a completely new context. One of the employees from Playcare led you down to where you'd be working. It was a long way down from the ground level of the factory, but you didn't entirely mind. You were led to a small office little ways from the actual orphanage. You thought of it to be just in between Playcare and the labs. You let yourself get settled in for a bit; there wasn't much space in the room, but it was more generous than previous jobs. You left the door open to see if you could spot some of your coworkers passing by. You were standing up a photo of you and your parents when a soft knock sounded from the door. You looked up and saw Stella.
"I see you're moving in okay?" She asked a bit hesitantly. You nodded. "And I assume that you took some time to think and accept the position?"
"I did, and I really do see now that the work you're doing down here...it's going to help a lot of people." Stella smiled.
"I'm glad you see it that way." There was a hint of relief in her voice. Her eyes widened momentarily, as if she'd been startled, then turned to her left and a scowl briefly crossed her features. She looked a bit nervous, or thrown off at the very least. "Right. You have your first visitor today." When she looked at you, you could just tell she was silently wishing you luck. You couldn't tell why, not until she stepped back and a tall male stood at your door frame. He had slicked black hair and round glasses that fogged over his eyes. However, you could still see the pronounced darkened bags underneath them. His entire demeanor was sharp and analyzing as he briefly took in your space. You couldn't see his eyes, but you could just tell they were sharp and burning holes into your head. He stepped into your office and you could see him a bit clearer. You saw he wore a lab coat with a prominent name tag that read, "Dr. Harley Sawyer".