Chapter Text
Pix held their breath and leaned on the the eerily short railings. The wires holding up the metal platform they were standing on seemed strangely thin, but if they had held up for ten years, they would hold up for a few more minutes.
What had they gotten themselves into?
They held onto the railing tightly to stop their hands from shaking (to no avail) and tried to remember how they had gotten in the position they were in.
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Pix was bored with life. They were working a regular nine-to-five job, earning an average wage, and lived a normal life in their apartment. For many years, they’d been single, socially nonexistent, and had long since moved away from the little family they had.
One day, they stumbled upon a small, tiny piece of paper, alongside an old advertisement for Vintage Poppy dolls, informing them that whoever was within Playtime Co. hadn't disappeared, and telling them to 'FIND THE FLOWER'. Of course, they were curious, and, stuck in the boring life they had, some thrill seemed long overdue. After some thinking, they decided to go- what better place to explore than the old, creepy, and abandoned toy factory they’d briefly worked at?
They vaguely remembered the layout of the place, but that was better than no recollection whatsoever, so armed with literally nothing, they entered the building (only after telling their boss they were ‘sick and in the hospital’).
The first red flags were the extreme lack of graffiti, the long untouched, dusty VHS tape they saw on the reception desk, and the strange sense that they had woken something up, literally just a few moments after entering the building. Whatever the hell was still inside seemed to sense Pix's presence. Not knowing where to start, they picked up the lime green tape and put it into a nearby matching VHS-connected television.
The television flickered to life, and on it appeared to be.. Huggy's hand? They didn't know Huggy very well, but they'd often pass by him because he was almost always on display in the centre of the first floor.
Suddenly, a man's voice boomed out from the speakers.
"Hi, my name is Leith Pierre, and I'm the head of innovation here at the Playtime Co. toy factory." That was... a familiar name, but Pix couldn't pinpoint who Pierre was.
The voice continued- "If you're seeing this, then you're trespassing. Yeah, we play this little tape on loop whenever we close the factory for the day. So trespasser, just to make you aware. While we pride ourselves primarily on our high-quality toys and excellent childcare, we also pride ourselves on our security."
"For example, this facility is full of hidden motion triggers which, once set off, will turn on the factory's emergency alarms and directly contact the authorities! And that's one of the more tame aspects of our security system. No spoilers..." That line sent a chill down Pix's spine. An awful one, at that.
"So, you've got my warning. It's not too late to turn around. I just... hope you're certain whatever you're doing is worth it."
Just like that, the first tape ended. They used all their self-restraint to stop themselves from turning around and leaving on the spot. Unfortunately, their willpower (and overwhelming curiosity) won.
The entrance to the building was blocked by a large door that could be opened with a GrabPack. That was their previous job, actually- using GrabPacks and being stationed at different places to help other employees without access to them get into staff-only places.
There was a room holding a spare GrabPack to be used in emergencies to the left. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the color code to unlock the door to said room. According to their memory, one of the colors was pink, but apart from that, they remembered nothing.
Feeling stumped, Pix decided to explore the gift shop. It was full of Boogie Bots and Candy Cats for people to buy on impulse before they left. Above was a train, with rails hanging from the ceiling.
To Pix’s great dismay, the train was somehow… running. Somehow, by some unholy force, the green, pink, yellow, and red train was running after ten years of abandonment. All they could do was look up to the sky and pray that somebody had come in as a prank and put it on- deep down, though, they felt like they were gaslighting themselves.
Oh, wait. Green, pink, yellow, and red. Could that be the code for the door?
Unsure, they went to the keypack and pressed the four glowing buttons (how were they even still on?) in sequence. To their surprise, it... opened? Why would they keep the code to a door on a... coloured train? Now, it felt like they were in an escape room of sorts, planned ahead of time. Choosing not to question it, they took the Grabpack from the room, skipping the tape entirely (they'd watched it so many times in the past that they were sick of it.)
Once the door was open, Pix took a big, deep breath of... not-so-clean, disgusting air. It almost smelt like dead bodies- another red flag they would ignore. They almost immediately noticed Huggy, who was waving towards them. Pix waved back.