Chapter Text
An empire overthrown, now left to be overgrown.
The sound of laughter and movement across the equipment. It was those sounds that she missed yet were glad that they disappeared. A constant reminder on how much had changed in the following years. The continued laughing used to drive her insane but strangely, she found herself not caring for it anymore. Perhaps years of doing the same things over again grinded away at her emotions. Or, she was just tired.
“Royo. Stop throwing the mini Huggies in the air, you’re gonna drop them again,” she said sternly.
The purple yo-yo bigger body froze just as she was about to send a yellow Huggy airborne. She slowly lowered it to the ground before putting her hands behind her back
“Uhhh-yes, Mommy Long Legs!” she responded a bit away from her.
Mommy continued looking at the wall of green roots that was tightly intertwined and blocking off one of the hallways. She continued this oneway stare off while impatiently tapping her foot. The plants had their leaves grown longer than last time. Truly a sign that shows why her current job absolutely sucked.
“Move.”
The plants continued firmly in place, ignoring the command.
She let out a frustrated sigh. Having her orders ignored is something she had to put up with the kids of the Game Station. All it took was a little patience and a gentle nudge to get them to do the right thing. Patience was something she ran out of long ago that eventually became replaced with apathy.
She took a deep breath, which sparked pain in her chest. Relaxing her body, she attempted to try again
“Would you please unblock the hallway for me?” she said in a softer tone with a smile.
…
The plant roots proceeded to retract, unveiling the path to the hallway again. Leaves fell to the ground as the plants slithered back into the wall. She watched until they finally disappeared before bringing her attention to the little messenger that was waiting at the end of the hall. Lifting her hand, she gestured for the mini critter to come closer.
The mini Hoppy scurried across the floor along with a letter in its hold. Once it reached her, she gently took it and read it.
“He wants me to deal with some plants on the lower levels?” she asked flatly.
The mini critter gave an affirmative nod. Her head slightly dropped at the confirmation before she looked back up.
“Yes, thank you. I’ll be down there in the following hour or such.”
The Hoppy let off a few energetic hops before returning back down the hallway. This was probably gonna be another long shift away from the Game Station. With that, she needed to leave quite the troubling child alone and in charge.
“Royo, come here please.”
“Ack!” A thump was heard as Royo slipped off one of the pipelines and fell to the floor. Mommy looked at the entire thing before closing her eyes in predicted disappointment.
The girl folded into yo-yo form before rolling over to Mommy Long Legs. A few of the mini Huggies went chasing after her. She unfurled back onto her feet before awaiting the request.
“Mommy needs to leave the Game Station for a bit. While I’m gone, I need you to look after things for me, okay?”
“Of course,” she said as she raised her hand to her chest. “I’ll make sure everything’s okay!” she reassured her.
This elected a few quiet chirps from the Huggies in which Royo shot them a harsh scowl.
“Yes, yes. I shall be departing now. I’ll be back soon.” She turned her body and started heading down the hall. Royo and the mini Huggies waved her off as she soon disappeared into the factory depths.
“Well now, let’s get back to our game!” she said enthusiastically.
As the living toys ran along the Game Station, the overgrowing plants loomed overhead. The area was cleared enough for now. There was no current need for growth either. Right now just allowed for a mutual coexistence between the two.
That dream that kept reappearing every night. The place that they called a job all those years back. 10 years ago is when everyone disappeared without a trace. A day they just so happened to not be there. With no employees left, that Playtime Co. factory became abandoned. Yet for some reason, they always kept having dreams of that bygone era.
Coming in from the central hallway into the lobby. There was that massive Playtime CO. sign hanging overhead with those lights shining down. Primary colors wrapped around the room to sell the theme of a kid’s paradise. A place where toys were meant to be much more than what they seemed.
Every step they took closer towards the center, the towering shadow of a tall figure slowly engulfed them. Multiple times they would struggle to remember what the figure looked like, only being able to recall a blurred blue outline. The lights shining through the glass always seemed to obscure the figure.
This time though, things seemed clearer than before. The walls were wrapped in growing plant roots, covering the dulled colors on the wall. Around the central platform was grass-like plant life peaking through the cracked tiles. The plant growth extended to the statue that was on this platform. The roots wrapped up the legs and grew out into small leaves and bushes.
Finally, they made eye contact with it, but things weren’t right. The blue furred giant before them, something was majorly wrong.
Huggy Wuggy was his name.
They remembered always seeing that guy standing over the lobby as its guard. Back then, his form was nicely kept with well done fluffy fur. His mouth was shining brightly everyday. Those eyes displayed a story of untold horrors. What had happened to him?
It had been 10 years since they last saw him. The state of the factory could have gotten bad in that time, but the roots sharply rooted in the wall didn’t look natural. What they should have long realized was that the plants weren’t wrapping around Huggy’s form, they were sprouting from it.
This dream was vastly different from the last ones they had. They slowly felt their body start to lose its composure as they broke out into heavy panting. An immense pain shot to their right eye as they cupped their hand on it. As their vision became extremely blurry, the tall figure before them became animated. The arm that once hung in the air now dropped as the furry giant stared down at them with his dark colored eyes.
They collapsed to the ground as Huggy began moving off the platform. The plant roots around his feet tore away as he moved. The two made eye contact at that moment. As Huggy moved closer, they saw as multicolored flowers began sprouting out of his face. His eyes were punctured through and consumed within moments as he barred his teeth to show even more plant growth inside his body.
They tried to move back, scream, or anything. Nothing worked as the world fell into a blur as blood began to eclipse their vision. A ringing sound filled their ears as they tried to comprehend what was transpiring through the darkness. In this madness, they could faintly hear a voice.
“…w….”
“….up…!”
“…wa-…ke…up!”
It became a bit clearer.
“Come on, ex-employee!”
They could feel a small force moving their body. As light slowly came back to their senses, they saw a hand reach out. Well…a form of a hand anyway. They tried to reach out to the yellowish formed hand that was connected to pink fur.
“You can do it, Gardener!” The voice cheered them on.
“…gardener?” They finally responded.
Finally regaining some of their vision, they looked to the side where they saw the red haired doll standing next to their downed body. They looked to their right to see the tall pink fluffy sour patch kid creature standing over them, expressing concern.
“Kissy…? I can barely see anything.” They mumbled.
“I guess Poppy flowers out of your eye will do that. You were knocked out cold!” The doll commented.
Poppy flowers? Yes, they remembered after freeing the doll from her case. That was after the near death experience from Huggy Wuggy.
“Poppy!” They exclaimed as they shot up from resting on the floor.
Poppy and Kissy moved back slightly to allow the employee some space. They touched their right cheek and pulled their hand back to see blood. The reason for a lack of vision in one eye was made clear now.
“What happened?” They asked.
“After we were about to escape the Game Station, we were attacked by a vine from a plant! It hit you in your right eye as we were running from Royo Yo-yo.” She explained.
Yes, they remembered that big yo-yo toy that kept running and rolling at them. Nearly strangling them with her tail. It was terrible trying to get through the Game Station with her rolling around the place. Her light purplish form constantly appearing in their peripheral nearly drove them over the edge. The insane plant growth overtaking everything made it hard as well. For a place called the Game Station, they never got to actually play any of the games.
It was when they and Poppy tried leaving through the train that they remembered Royo calling out a warning.
“ONCE I TELL MOMMY ABOUT THIS, SHE WILL GET YOU! THEN WE’LL ALL PLAY TOGETHER!!!”
They weren’t looking forward to that.
Things literally took a turn for the worst when the train changed tracks and they crashed further down into the factory. They remembered slowly walking with Poppy but the weight of their grab-pack felt too much as pain began rising in their body. It soon concentrated on the eye as it became overwhelming and they collapsed to the floor.
“It seems you’ve been infected with it.” Poppy added.
They turned to her, “Been infected with what?”
“Seeing how we’re having this conversation, it means you have the milder version of the Plant Growth.” She continued.
Kissy gave a concerned glance to the employee then Poppy. The situation seemed to be very bad.
“We’ve been dealing with these plants for a while now. No matter what we do, they keep coming back! It became even worse when they started growing in us as well…”
They remembered their earlier encounter with Huggy Wuggy and how plant life was sprouting out of his living form. All the plants they had to weave through made them question what had happened here. It was obvious these weren’t normal plants along with these living toys.
“Those Poppy flowers growing from your eye socket? We’ve been dealing with worse cases down here for years.” Poppy explained.
The ex-employee looked around the surrounding walls in the room they were in. Green vines were clinging from metal pipes on the ceiling. Roots slithered in and out of the cracks in the wall. Strangely enough, they felt as if the plants were somehow watching them. A slight ringing in their head began to form as they clutched their head.
Poppy noticed this as she knew her next words would seem insane.
“It’s gotten so bad,” she said in a somber tone, “I saw how you were able to handle those plants way back there though!”
“That’s why I want to ask you to help me, us, put an end to the overgrowth of these plants.”
Their head was pounding. Never in a million years would they have expected this to be going on in the factory for 10 years. The existence of these toys in this factory that was now being overtaken by some plants that can cause these infections. It was nearly impossible to understand it all. Though they did know a bit about plants, if that would help. Perhaps if they helped, then they could fully understand what had happened to all their coworkers.
“I mean, I am a gardener…so maybe I can help with some of these plants?”
Poppy’s eyes lit up with joy as Kissy gave an appreciative nod. Things didn’t make sense right now, but they’d be bound to find answers eventually.
“Well then, we better prepare our next move, Gardener!”
A title they’ll settle for now with. The Poppy flowers in their face hurt like hell, but they felt as if something was also shifting in their brain as well. Maybe even their ears as they began hearing faint whispers within the room.
One of these voices was beckoning them deeper into the depths of the factory.
Vines snapped in two as the door was violently slammed open. Through it came a pair of claws that began tugging at the mass of roots that engulfed the hallway. One mass of roots flew up, then another was pulled out of the floor. The claws continued de-rooting the main area around the door. Finally, she was able to fully enter the overgrown hallway.
“I swear it just keeps getting worse!” she groaned.
One long look down the hall showed where the plants came back this time. Thick wooden roots were pushing through the floor tiles and tangling into each other. There were green vines that wrapped along the walls and started protruding from the ceiling. Even some plant growth could be seen growing around and into an electrical energy pole. The lights flickered on and off through this invasion of overgrowth.
She smacked her tail into one of the roots, causing it to snap and crumble to the floor. Maggie really wanted to be doing something else over playing this garden restoration game she’s been assigned to as her job. It was the same problem every couple of months where she had to go in and clear out the plants in the following halls near the labs. It didn’t usually take that long for her and she could whisk through it in a breeze, but the plants have been coming back. Each time they pop up, they become tougher to remove. It also felt like some of these plants were growing back faster than they did before.
She let out a heavy sigh before getting to work.
Raising her claws, she began tearing the plants in her path. One root was pulled from the window it had been slowly growing through. She looked at the blue flowers growing from vines on the wall. Pulling at the top of the vines, they broke off and fell to the floor. Maggie swung her tail to break through another thick set of dark colored roots before coming to a pause.
Barely even ¼ of the way through the first hallway.
She began fidgeting with her tooth pendant. It wasn’t just her doing this, but a lot more of the Prototype’s hunters had been tasked with keeping the overgrowth in check. There was Daisy and Catbee who were also working somewhere on this level as well. She never heard much from Daisy, but Catbee would always complain about the plant activity within her section.
“They keep scratching up the smaller toys or straight up trapping them!”
At least she didn’t have to babysit on top of this. Actively protecting the smaller toys was not something she wanted to do. That’d be too much of a hassle.
Maggie stretched her arms up before leaping and grabbing more vines from the ceiling. She couldn’t help but wonder whether they’d finally see an end to this growing mess. It was only a matter of waiting until something finally changed and there was a breakthrough. At the rate these plants kept coming back, more options of getting rid of them needed to be found. Not just her, but many of the hunters were forced into these multitask roles.
Her continued trek down the hallway was stopped when she came across a massive knot of roots and thorns. Looking down at it, she noticed leaking blood dripping to the floor from it. Ah, it seemed another mini critter fell victim to the plants. She used her claws to pull the knot apart to reveal a brutally cut up and pierced mini CatNap. Pulling the corpse out, she retraced her steps back towards where she started. She pulled up a shaft that led to the dumpster shoot.
“Enjoy your eternal nap, buddy,” she said as she dropped the mini critter down into the darkness.
‘Speaking of naps…” she thought as she closed the shaft.
After this, she was instructed to head up to Playcare and help CatNap clear out the overgrowth. Of course it was that territorial prick that she was stuck having to deal with on top of the sections she already had to do. She never questioned him for unyielding faith for the Prototype but he just acted incredibly difficult when it came to doing anything in Playcare. Recently though, he had become even worse, constantly stalking her and plotting ambushes that he doesn’t even carry out with.
It was generally just a big mess in Playcare anyway. Unfortunately she was the one left to pick up on extra workloads. She often wondered if putting the bare minimum amount of effort into this could have helped her avoid this problem. Knowing her luck though, she’d probably just be burdened with something far worse. He was always good at doing things like that.
“Im really not trying to deal with the mess up in Playcare. Or with that creepy cat…” she mumbled to herself.
She continued back down the hallway to continue working. Though, she did spy another critter sneaking away into a crack. A sign she needed to hurry up and get a move on with clearing the overgrowth. For someone who’s barely present in addressing the current issues, the Prototype was adamant on pushing these time crunching deadlines.
They can’t keep going like this.
Surely there was another way?