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Littered pizza boxes and used plastic cups litter the passenger and back seats, yet you pay it no mind as you continue to drive like an escaped asylum patient. Cars honk and narrowly dodge your crazed driving while you refuse to take your foot off the gas pedal. Soon enough, the derelict factory comes into view, and so does the large fence that blocks off anyone from entering. Well, anyone not prepared at least. Slamming your foot on the break and narrowly avoiding crashing into a tree or fence, and without waiting for another moment, you grab for the glove box's handle to yank it open, breaking it in the process as piles of paper comes spilling out, but you don't care anymore. You hastily shift through the pile before finding it, the letter that almost costed many a driver their life. The hand writing is terrible, clearly written by some child, but the details contained can only have been known by someone like a Playtime employee. "Find the flower" that singular phrase is what sent you on such a frenzy, such a short but powerful sentence that singlehandedly offers you everything you had ever wanted ever since that dreadful day. The one damned day that you decided to sleep in, or call in sick, you honestly can't remember anymore.
With the police sirens behind you slowly growing louder, you leap into the backseat and throw aside the trash to find the recently purchased, but already stained, bolt cutters and crowbar. You kick open the car door and sprint out of the vehicle to quickly begin following the fence. After a short sprint, you find a suitable spot to start cutting, a small spot that is hidden by the various wild bushes and trees that surrounded the Playtime Co.'s parking lot. You cut open a small half circle in the fence, large enough for you to open and close it as if it were a circular door. Crawling through, the feel of loathsome concrete graces your knees while your heart begins to wildly thump against your chest as you take in the sight again. You grew to hate seeing the company's entrance over the years, but now it's like seeing an old friend. An old, dirty, perverted, and terrible friend. Taking in a shaky breath, you toss aside the bolt cutters, ignoring the sounds of shattering glass and the loud screeching of a car alarm, as you witlessly march forward. You can still hear it, the old theme that used to play every day from 6 to 6:30 AM that greeted the company's employees. You mean that literally, the old speakers are somehow still powered after all this time, though the tune is eerily out-of-sync with itself. You're only stopped by the tattered police tape and clumsy barricades.
After August 9th, the factory was abandoned by the city. Police and private investigators tried to search the property, but anyone who dared venture inside never came out. Some city officials tried to petition for it's demolition, including the company share-holders, but the grieving families vehemently protested and strapped themselves to the facility for weeks, the resulting debris, trash, and rotting tents of the protest still here after all this time. There was even a brief stint where bored teens dared each other to go inside the factory. Same note, different key. Among the local populace, August 9th is a day of mourning and pray, hoping beyond reason that their missing friends and family would somehow waltz out of the toy factory perfectly fine, or at least for any clue for what could've happened.
You approach the shoddily made wooden barricades, hastily made to deter anyone else from entering the premises. You would know, you, and the rest of the employees unfortunate enough to not come into work that day, made it yourselves. You take a moment to look at the offered memorabilia, flowers, and gifts. A family photo here, a bundle of poppy flowers there. Chocolates and other sweets offered have been ransacked by wild animals, or otherwise destroyed by the outside elements. You take in a long breath, before angrily beginning to dismantle the fortifications. Fury in each of your strikes as the wood splinters apart and dig into your fingers as you hack away at it. Your ferocious swings slip past the wood and crash into the front door's glass. The loud shattering echoes across the derelict parking lot. You pull aside the last plank and step back into the halls, your legs shaking with each step.
As soon as you walk in, the nostalgia hits. The front desk was usually politely chatty, filled with parents and kids asking to take a company tour, or to return a defunct toy, or to merely be inside the sprawling factory. You take off one of your old uniform's black gloves and caress the wood on the front desk, looking over to the other side to see the old computer had been thrown to the floor with it's glass littering the desk's chair and surrounding area. Despite how it haunts you, the events of August 8th are still hazy and have only been retold to you via rumor and half-truths, though, if your experience in the R.E.S is anything to go by, you- you don't even want to think about it. It's eerie, there isn't any blood, no bodies, no chalk outlines. It looks like how it normally would after closing hours. The only sign of any trouble would be the aforementioned destroyed computer.
Something clutters from behind the closed door that leads further into the facility, and you quickly sprint over while reoutfitting your glove to get a look. You are met with a large shutter, only able to be opened with the Grab Pack's blue hand. Even after all these years, one of the things you don't regret about the job was that Grab Pack. It was like a baby to you, you shined it until your face reflected off it, made it a point to inspect it after each shift, and even cried when one of the arms got ripped off during a particularly hazardous emergency. If memory served, your old Grab Pack should be with the rest of the R.E.S supplies and equipment. Unfortunately for you, the R.E.S supply bunker is located far, far, away from here.
Of course, that means you would have to find a replacement somewhere in the lobby, or try a different, and most assuredly more dangerous, entrance. Looking to your right, the brightly colored keypad stared back at you, and you immediately decided that it was mocking you. Eliot infamously loved his little 'games', practically built the whole factory as if it were one big playground for the employees, and he was the only one who was so enamored with that interactivity. Leith loathed every single one, wanted to replace them all, one of the few things you agreed with him about, yet he never had the funding, and no one else understood the technical know-how of the factory like Eliot did.
One time, you remember overhearing one of the technicians describe the wiring to be "-A nightmare, some Lovecraftian bullshit that only a madman could understand! Much less actually FUCKING fix!" before he threw a mug so hard that it put a mean dent into one of the vending machines. If memory served, that technician was assigned to anger management the following week.
This door was no exception to the founder's pedantics. Knowing Eliot, the answer was around here, wouldn't be much of a puzzle if it wasn't fair. Again, Leith and the security personal called such an attitude to be "idiotic," and "-A major risk of security, any half-witted thief could figure out at least half of these!" you would know, you're one of the dozens of people who practically screamed in his face about it. Looks like eggs on your face now. With a scowl directed towards the insidious keypad, you take the green 'warning' tape and put it into the nearby VHS. You can still recite the VHS by heart, the only reason why you put it in is for the background noise, and to make the lonely halls slightly less terrifying.
You enter the giftshop, previously often visited by travelling families or by those who had recently completed the factory tour. It looks ransacked, robbed. It isn't hard to imagine why, any Playtime toys made here are much more valuable now than the ones made in the, much more normal, newer Playtime toy factories. Supposedly, the newer ones aren't up to the same quality as the ones that were made here. If only if the common populace knew why. The one thing that wasn't taken was the revolving train above, though it's obvious more than a few attempts were made. The wooden toy has been chipped of some of it's color. Still, you have your answer for the keypad. Running back to it, you defiantly smash in the train's colors into the keypad and definitively defeat your nemesis.
Entering the small security office, you let out a sigh of relief at the sight of a Grab Pack, safely hidden behind a pane of glass. Remembering your starting days as a security guard for the company, before you started to climb the ranks of the company. You insert the Grab Pack training tape and begin to play it, immediately starting to impatiently tap your feet and mime the training tape's obnoxious, tired, warnings. Like the previous tape, you know the words displayed on the TV as if they had been imprinted into your membrane. Even looking away from the CRTV, you can still see the small examples and mannequins that the TV is currently displaying in your mind's eye.
You try to spy the label on the side of the Grab Pack, 'Hank'. It was common for R.E.S to name their Grab Pack and label it so, even ascribe the things little personalities and quirks, a behavior that was encouraged and nourished by Eliot. You remember naming yours 'Wuggy' due to the sleep-deprived state you were in when you received it, and the highly popular Huggy Wuggy toy line that got you interested in joining the company in the first place. It was a name your fellows relentlessly tormented you for choosing, funny for the first few days, horridly annoying after months of the same tired jokes, and tragically ironic following the theater incident. You already like Hank, the name offering a brief bit of levity as you chuckle to yourself and the tape ends. The glass opens shortly afterward and you strap the Grab Pack onto your back, feeling a bit less naked than before, as if you have been returned a lost limb. Though, it isn't perfect. Hanks' former owner was evidently a lot less attentive as you were, the red hand having been damaged beyond repair and needing to be replaced outright. You soothe the injured device and softly coo into the destroyed hand, apologizing on the behalf of it's last owner as your carefully remove the red limb and leave it to rest on the security office's desk.
With the Grab Pack's remaining blue hand, you carefully walk back up to the large door and fire your Grab Pack's left hand into the blue scanner. After a few moments, the door opens. Then, you see him. Huggy. Standing with that stupid grin and waving to no one in particular. To the normal employees, they would think it was just a statue covered in fur, but you know better. You can see the dried blood that's camouflaged on his red lips, the way his skin slightly sags, and the subtle way his body moves while he silently breaths. Yet, his eyes remain focused, never flickering to look at you, but you already know he's seen you. It's just a question of what he would do. During operational times, Playtime had conditioned him to stand guard near the front and 'protect' the factory from any would-be burglars. You shudder, remembering how you would be called back to work during odd hours of the night, before any visitors or less knowledgeable staff arrived, and have to clean off the blood on Huggy after he caught any trespassers. He was the company's giant guard dog, to put it as rudely as possible, and now he was free to do whatever he wanted. You briefly consider turning back, going back into your car and making a break for it, or turn yourself in, but the paper in your R.E.S suit's breast pocket steels your nerves. You've outran different Huggys before, you've even killed smaller versions of the thing during and after the theater incident. If the paper was right, then this monster can't be allowed to stop you. Nothing can. You try to confidently march into the room, never taking your eyes off the motionless monster and praying that Huggy had already gotten his fill of both food and righteous retribution.
Again, not a drop of blood could be sighted, not even a stray finger or scrap of clothing. The entire circular room looks almost pristine, save for the dust and cracks in the floor tiles. The stillness of the air being almost suffocating as you hug the wall and continue to eye Huggy, ready to bolt for the nearest door at the slightest bit of substantial movement. Though, if he were to suddenly jump at you, you already know that the lunge would be too fast to avoid. You slowly crawl along the walls, trying each of the doors only to find each of the entrances locked. Worse, one of the doors is locked behind a red and blue Grab Pack scanner, meaning that you have to find a replacement for the Grab Pack's lost right limb somewhere nearby. To do that, the facility would need to have it's power returned in order to restart the nearest Toys' and Grab Pack hands' production line. Unfortunately, the door to the power room is similarly locked. You try to think hard, closing your eyes for a brief moment longer than usual in a vain attempt to gather your thoughts and push away the fear of a sudden and violent death, before opening your eyes to find that key is practically right in front of you, but it's in the palm of Huggy.
You shoot a look at the beast, scrutinizing it as you aim your blue arm at the key. You wait until your safely near the opened shutter door before firing, and quickly snatch the key from the monster's hand. You immediately start to sprint out of the room as your hand rapidly returns to it's holster, expecting to hear Huggy's roars behind you, only to feel your heart drop to the bottom of your chest as the shutter door slams shut in front of you. You don't stop running though, throwing yourself into the shutter and begin to pound your fists into the iron in a panic. You can feel your hands start to bloody, and your heart beats so loudly that you mistakenly assumed it was Huggy's footsteps at first. With a final, pitiful, kick into the door, you run out of breath. Sliding down the surface, you turn, fully expecting to be greeted with the monster's open mouth and it's numerous teeth, only to find a far worst sight. Nothing.
He's gone, vanished into thin air. You blink, and rub at the specialist suit's visor as if it were somehow playing a trick on you. Yet, nothing changes. Huggy has simply disappeared without making a sound. Your eyes continue to dart across the room for any noises while leaning against the door for a moment, trying to collect your thoughts and panicked internal ramblings, before the sound of actual footsteps alerts you. Shooting back onto your feet, you start to sprint as you fumble to rip the key out of the blue hand's grip, only haphazardly checking your surroundings as you slam the key into the power room's lock and turn it, burst inside, and slam the doors behind you before hurriedly relocking it.
Stepping back, you slouch over on yourself as you try to catch your breath. Hitting your already tired knees with your fist, you can't help but be frustrated at yourself for being winded over such a short run. After a moment, you quickly check each corner of the room before you can invest yourself into repairing the facility's power. Finding the first sight of carnage, the stone walls are covered in large bloats of dried blood. The red-brownish hue of it tells you that it wasn't made recently, but it's mere existence confirms that the rumors of a massacre was, at least partially, true. You briefly loose yourself wondering who could've made it, and who the dried blood belonged to, until you shake yourself out of it. There are still people who need you, people who can be saved. Get up.
It's a trivial task, restoring power, you're able to repair the circuit in just a few short seconds. As the lights around the facility begin to shine again, you slowly slip out of the power room and check for any signs of Huggy. Your eyes snag on a lone piece of hair, that you slowly pick up and examine. At first you had assumed it was Huggy's, but it's hue doesn't match any of the monster's hues. It's hard to see, even with the new lights, but it looks to be purple. Of the Bigger Bodies you're aware of, none of them had purple hair. Pink? Absolutely. But those 'experiments', as the big wigs called 'em, were a bright bubblegum shade, not anywhere close to a deep violet. The sudden existence of the strain of hair doesn't strike fear in you, instead, it refortifies hope. This could be an employee's, or maybe even one of the orphans'. You discard the strand of hair and start making your way towards the production line.
Fortunately, it seems someone else before you had the same idea. The crane's controller is already powered and the red Grab Pack hand's container is shattered on the floor. Even more fortuitously, the red hand seems to not be damaged in any serious manner, and you're able to quickly reoutfit the Grab Pack. Though, as you test out your new limb, you noticed more strands of the violet hair surrounding the glass case, some of the locks having even made their way between the red hand's finger joint before you carefully pluck them out. Studying the hand further, an unnerving giggle rings out across the hallowed ground. You give the room a brief scan, catching the sight of a neon green eye. It shifts out from behind a box to reveal it's other eye and teeth share the same property. The experiment's laughter only increases as you step back. Chancing a look behind you, you curse to yourself as you turn and fire your Grab Pack's hands onto the production line's dual scanners, running along the conveyer belt as the scan processes and the rapidly approaching thumping and chackling from behind you grows louder and louder. The production line's door shoots open and you dive right through the entrance before hurriedly and repeatedly pressing an internal emergency stop button to slam the door behind you.
With a loud metallic thud, a screech of pain rages out from behind the shutter. You don't let yourself rest, continuing to run down the halls that weren't meant to be traversed by you, and almost trip over yourself while on the production line's rolling conveyer belts. Disturbingly, it looks like others had the idea of using the inner workings of the production line as a hiding spot, as you run past different chalk warnings and drawings, even small collections of bloodied blankets and torn pillows. You don't stop running however, continuing to sprint down the corridors as the factory springs back to life and starts pumping out various toy parts. As you look behind yourself to make sure you're not being followed, you don't see the slope in the production line until you're already tumbling down the conveyor belt with the rest of the toy parts. Only barely able to catch yourself in the frame and avoiding falling into the Make-A-Toy room.
"TAG!"
A tuff of hair slams into your the gut with the strength of an ox. You immediately crumble in on yourself, falling onto the floor as you're barely able to stop your body from throwing up. You wheeze and huff, holding onto your chest while trying to weakly limp away from the Bigger Body as they cheerfully hop towards you and their hair returns to form a large bundle of hair on top of their head.
It's only when they stop and are increasingly illuminated by the lightbulb, do you see the subtle signs of their 'skin' being made out of plastic, the neon green glow of their eyes and teeth fading as they step into the light, the rubber make of their black overall dress that's adorned with a star, and their eyes being far too large for comfort. It looks like they're playing hopscotch as they approach you.
Your hand fumbles for the Grab Pack's triggers before you masterfully shoot one of Hank's hands right hand into their face, successfully disorienting them. You don't waste any time as you scramble back onto your feet and take off into a sprint, trying to find any surface to grapple onto and escape the experiment before it can recover. You look all around you, before the Bigger Body's maddened laughter catches your attention. You watch in horror as the violet hair begins to unfurl again while their mad chackling echoes off the walls and rings in your ears. The hair looks like it's alive, snapping to suddenly coil around you like a snake choking the life out of it's prey, as they start to strangle you and bind your arms to your sides. Her movements are unfocused, jittery, like they have to convince their body to cooperate with them each time they move. Only one of the strands doesn't bind you, it's too busy precariously holding a Candy Cat head. They walk closer and closer, their mouth in a constant crazed smile as their hair tightens around your neck and arms. They looks like they're about to say something, before stopping themself as a flash of recognition crosses their face.
"It's you!" they squeal, starting to tap their feet in a barely contained joy. She releases you abruptly, causing you to fall to the floor with a thud. The experiment stops and squints an eye as they starts to talk in a slightly different voice "They're far too early!" they then slap the air and resume their previous tone as they turn to address the head held by their hair, "Early bird, gets the worm, Candy!" "They reek too. So sweaty." "Now don't be rude."
You're too busy coughing and recovering from the strangulation to fully register the fact that she's talking to herself, much less stand back up on your feet. You almost scream as the hair returns to grab you by the arm, but strangely, they instead help you back onto your feet.
"I thought *He* got you all." the experiment finally turns to talk you while still continuing to poke and prod at your suit.
You don't respond, instead merely trying not to further provoke them.
They stare at the spot where a nametag would normally be, "Silly goose, did you loose your nametag?" they put their arms on their hips and give you a coy smile.
They're obviously expecting an answer, and though you are definitely not a sociable person, you'd rather not potentially aggravate the experiment. "I- suppose? Do we know each other?" you immediately mentally slap yourself for letting that second part be spoken out-loud, watching as she takes a step back.
"Wow, forgetful too? You're a real piece of work, aren't 'cha? I'm Lily, you goof!"
"...Lily? Wait, Lily Lovebraids?"
She pumps her arms and twirls, using her long hair to hoist herself up into the air "DING-DING-DING, YOU GOT IT! Aw, it's been so long since I've last seen one of you!"
The confirmation only confuses you, cupping the area where your mouth would be to further muffle your mumbling "I thought they- why would they make a failure like the Lily Lovebraids toy line into a Bigger Body-" you try to concoct some sort of theory under your breath as Lily grows bored of observing you, instead choosing to walk around the room on her hair and talk to herself, occasionally whispering to the Candy Cat head. "It doesn't make any sense, I would've heard of you... where did you come from?" you mumble, low enough that she can't hear it over the sounds of her fiddling with the one of the toy assemblers. The loud tinkering disrupts your thought process, and you raise your voice to address her "What are you doing?"
"Getting ready for the party! Candy here has lost his suit, so we need to get him a replacement! Can *you* help?" she replies, sounding like a pre-school cartoon character asking the viewer for help.
You don't play along, your desire to know more overriding your survival instincts "What party?"
"You didn't get the invitation?"
You immediately think about the poppy letter and go to take it out of your pocket as she continues
"Pfft, some help that 'mailman' turned out to be. An errand boy for everyone else but us." "We really need to work on your manners, Candy. Maybe this new suit will finally be the bit of encouragement you need!"
You almost shove the letter in her face "This?! You're talking about this, right!? You sent me thi-"
She yanks it out of your hands and inspects it, sitting on her locks as if it were a chair, before haphazardly throwing the paper into the air with a shrug "Nope!"
Flabbergasted, you start grabbing at the slowly descending piece of paper, and clutch it near your chest. You give Lily a suspicious glare as her attention gets absorbed by the toy assembler's non-operative controls again. "It isn't going to work, you know. You'll need to restore power."
She looks at you for an elaboration, instead you only point upwards, to the overhanging catwalk, and she gets the hint. While she's distracted, you begin looking around the room for any way to continue your quest, only to find yet another reason to curse Eliot Ludwig's name. 'No one leaves without a toy', not even the employees. You sigh and start to look around for anything that could dupe the scanner, turning around to finally register the fact that power node has been ripped off from it's proper placement. Immediately cursing under your breath, you start to examine it for any signs of major damage. Thankfully, most of the critical components look to still be functional. Sighing in relief, you struggle to hold the power node in your hands, but the weight knocks the wind out of you and you have to stop before the previous nausea could return. Even your Grab Pack hands' superior strength barely budge the thing, and the clumsy way the hands make the power node roll around the floor doesn't inspire much confidence. You quickly stop trying to move the thing, fearing potentially damaging the node beyond repair. Your attention then turns towards an alternative exit, another production line shutter that's locked behind a Grab Pack's blue hand scanner. The idea is tempting, but you'd rather traverse the halls that you know. Before today, you've, unsurprisingly, never even been inside the internals of the production line.
A brief cyan light from above makes you flinch and, worried that Lily has damaged the toy assembler's power supply beyond repair, you hurry up the steps to find her looking like a carton character after being electrified. Her plastic skin is covered in black soot, and her hair is sticking out on it's ends in a uncontrolled frenzy. She looks like she's on the verge of a panic attack with a thousand-mile stare, her eye occasionally twitching. Not wanting to be locked in a room with a furious toy, you cautiously approach and take one of her frenzied strands and try your best to help her braid them again. She flinches as you take her hair into your arms, but doesn't protest your careful attempt to help. Despite the glove hiding most of the hair's texture, the sheer weight of it is staggering. Her hair weighs less like a mane, and more like a limb. After a while, she slowly starts to follow suit, though she's evidently more experienced than you are. The two of you work in a pleasant silence, well, the silence is pleasant for you anyways. However, considering her earlier chattiness, perhaps some light conversation could provide some relief for her, and, more importantly, help you not get murdered. "You, uh... alright? Didn't break anything, did you?" it feels weird to try to comfort an experiment, it feels wrong almost, like you're breaking company policy.
She shakes her head, her face static, almost stoic.
You briefly stop your braiding and pick back up her prized Candy Cat head that's been dropped down to the catwalk's floor. "Here's, uhm, 'Candy', I think?" your insincerity is painfully obvious.
She takes the head and starts to stroke it's side to comfort herself while you return to fixing her hair. "Th-thanks."
"It's John, by the by." it's not, it's just the first name that came to mind.
"I'm Lily." she offers a hand
"As you've previously said." your reply makes her snort, and you hesitantly shake her hand.
The rest of the 'bonding' moment is surprisingly normal, minus Lily continuing to talk to Candy. Honestly, it unnerves you by how much it *doesn't* disturb you. You already were a few steps away from talking to your previous Grab Pack like it was alive. In a way, this is just Lily's Grab Pack, just without the utility that yours has. A terrifying realization, and a realization you try to ignore and focus on the task at hand.
With the last of the strands corrected, Lily wipes the soot off herself, and immediately looks like she's about to shove one of her hair tendrils into the power socket again before you manage to stop her in the nick of time
"WOAH, Hey, let's calm down and-, just let me handle this." you fire your Grab Pack's left hand onto the socket and feel a calming vibration rolling across your back, the wire connecting the limb to the actual Grab Pack being highlighted in a nice electric blue. She watched with an invested interest as you make your way to the receiving power outlet, only for both of you to be confused when it doesn't work. The toy assembler tries to come to life, but the lights are constantly flickering and the connecting conveyer belt stutters in place. "Damn, I need the second node. God, that's gonna kill my back."
You almost recall the blue hand and turn away to start heading down the stairs, before you become awestruck by Lily managing to pull the power node up to the catwalk with ease thanks to her hair.
"Do we need another one of these?!" she calls out from the other side.
Your initial desire is to shush her, to prevent her yelling from attracting any unwanted attention, but you loose yourself in the display. Giving her an enthusiastic thumbs up, you begin to excitedly help her reinsert the power node back into it's usual spot. With a satisfying burst of electricity, the power node is reinserted, You pump your arms "YES!" the cat-walk trembles with her excited jumping, and you cling onto the railing until she stops.
Wrapping the blue hand's wire around the second power node, you fire your red hand back onto the other power socket and are rewarded with the subtle humming of the toy assembler fully coming to life. With a satisfied sigh, you turn to Lily, and barely stop yourself from screaming when you find her mere inches away from your face. You can tell by the look in her eyes that she's waiting for something. "Uh... thank you...?"
Lily takes an exaggerated bow "And thank *you*." before talking for Candy again, "Even though we did all of the hard work." she gives the head a look, rolling her eyes as she descends back down onto the ground floor. Lily throws aside the Cat-Bee bits until the parts she desires are dispersed. She tosses the given Candy Cat head behind her and places Candy in it's stead.
With wobbly legs, you walk down and join her in watching the production. It's strange, but you now feel the teensiest feeling of safety when around her now. She's absolutely some kind of insane, but you have the feeling that you'll going to have to take whatever help you can get in here. "Earlier, you mentioned a 'party', can you elaborate?"
"Well, it's only going to be a get-together of all my friends! And you definitely qualify now! Boop." She shoves something in your face, like it was sticker.
Catching the device before it can fall to the floor, it looks to be some kind of flashlight, with a tiny pixelated face on it. It surprisingly makes a noise and the expression changes to a crying face, to an display of surprise. "...Thanks. Always wanted a Tamagotchi night light" the flash light's face turns to anger and makes another noise at you, like it could hear you. Knowing Playtime Co., it wouldn't surprise you if it could. "Who are the people attending? Are they employees, or the orphans, or are they like you?"
She hums, putting a finger to her cheek "Most of the guests just bum around my house all day, but my bestest friend used be so good at helping us. She was so nice and friendly and sweet." she sighs in nostalgia, before her eyes rapidly become weary "but, eventually, all that work just tuckered Gracie out, so s-"
You stop her before she can finish "Gracie? As in Ms. Gracie?"
"Y-yes. Wait! Don't tell me- Do you know her?! Friends even?!" her eyes light up and she gets back a pep back into her step.
"Uh-" you wouldn't go anywhere near that, even considering Gracie to be a colleague makes you shudder. From your experience, Ms. Gracie was overly cheery, even when she wasn't working, and the work she did for the company left a terrible taste in your mouth, somehow even worse than the work that you did. Honestly, out of everything you've seen at Playtime Co., Gracie was the one thing that never stopped making your skin crawl. "Y-yes." but Ms. Gracie is also your second-best lead towards where the other employees could be.
She jumps into the air "Well, now you're uber qualified! Any friend of Gracie is a friend of mine!"
You recoil as she dances around you in an uncontrollable joy. "Then, why don't you take me to her? It's been ages since we've last seen each other."
She cups your face and looks you dead in the eyes "Ab-so-lutely." she squeals again "This is going to be SO. MUCH. FUN!"
As Lily breaks out into an uncontrollable fit of laughter, the toy assembler finished putting together the Candy Cat. You take it gently into your arms and observe it. Candy's body looks perfectly fine on it's own, but, with the addition of the ruined head, it looks somehow even creepier than before.
"Aw, look at you, all nice and proper!" she yanks Candy out of your hands and hops over to the toy scanner, placing the toy inside and opening the door. "After you."
It's in the aftermath of the oddly calming conversation with her, do you almost not notice the emerging beast in the large doorway. "Why, thank yo-" You're able to spot it in the corner of your eye just in time, making you shriek as you fall flat on your ass. You rapidly crawl away from him in a panic. With dead and overly dilated eyes, Huggy calmy steps forward. His mouth in an open grin to reveal his razor-sharp teeth. He doesn't chase you, doesn't lunge, only stares as he dopily walks towards you. You swear that he's drooling, either from his lack of awareness, or, far more horrifyingly and likely, hunger.
With a strand of hair wrapping around your waist, Lily pulls you away from him and haphazardly throws you aside. You catch yourself against a conveyer belt, looking back at her just in time to see her strike at Huggy with one of her tendrils. She starts to say something, but is cut off by the larger experiment shrugging off her comparatively puny might and knocking her aside with a backhand. Lily flies across the room with a scream that's abruptly cut off as her head slams against the wall, before she falls to the ground with a sickening thud.
Huggy looks between the two of you for a moment, seemingly deciding he'd still prefer eating you over her, as he resumes his slow march. Knowing how ineffective the Grab Pack would be, and being effectively cornered, your faintest hope is the flash light. Turning it on, you aim to shine it directly into the monster's eyes that makes it recoil back with a shriek. You try to capitalize on the chance, running towards the blue hand scanner and taking aim with Hank, until you're knocked back and are hurled into a wall.
Your head spins and you struggle to properly coordinate with your body for a few moments as you groan. Your vision slowly recalibrates as Huggy comes back into focus. He looks ready to pounce and tear you to shreds. You have just enough time to start screaming before your leg is suddenly tangled in hair and your quickly dragged out of the way from the monster's charge. Your head scraps against the dirty flooring as you continue your panicked struggle until Lily comes into view and she gets you back onto your feet.
You hear Huggy growl from behind as you recollect your bearings. Having barely just enough time to shoot the blue hand onto the production line's scanner before you can hear Huggy's signature screech and feel the tremors of his furious approach. You look behind you and get ready to roll out of the way while Lily gets a determined look on her face. She sends her hair off towards the rushing monster and ties her hair around his legs, making Huggy trip over himself and tumble forwards, somehow accelerating as he looses control of his momentum.
Seeing that he was now on a collision course with the two of you, you grab Lily by the hand and dive out of the fluffy ball's way. With a loud and meaty slap against the wall, Huggy looks to be disoriented and trips over himself as he tries to stand back up. You turn your attention back to the scanner to see that it's finished processing Hank's blue hand and opens the production line's entrance. You and Lily don't wait for another moment and almost trip over each other in your hurry to get out of the room. As Lily continues her escape, you press the internal emergency stop button again to prevent Huggy from directly pursuing. You can hear it's frenzied roar from behind the door, and can feel it's weight slam against it, You don't wait to see if he can break it down, instead following the conveyor belts. Your new flash light makes a beep and begins to vibrate violently, you chance a look at it to see what's wrong and are shocked to find that it also has a blacklight feature. The new purple light illuminates the dark and dreary halls and reveals a jaw-dropping amount of hidden messages. Your sprint coming to a near-halt as you try to process them all before the loud thumping returns, originating from a nearby hall. The sound making the entire hall shake under it's speed and weight.
You shine your light in the direction of the frenzied stomps, illuminating Huggy as he rapidly crawls towards you and almost grabs you with his large arms. You're only able to narrowly dodge it by rolling down a slope in the production line and taking off into a sprint. You try to steady the blacklight's beam, following the directions offered to you without a second thought as you start praying that they lead to your salvation. All the while, the furious pursuit of Huggy only increases and further shakes the flimsy halls of the production line, each of his roars makes your ears ring in pure agony as the sound repeatedly bounces off the tight walls.
You eventually loose track of how many turns you take in the twisted maze, each turn being ineffective in your attempts at loosing the ravenous monster. It's as you scramble to make a sudden right, do you see it. The symbol of a poppy flower, with a large 'DON'T' being written underneath. You refuse to heed the warning and immediately start to fervently follow the drawn poppy flowers. You claw at the air as if it would give your further momentum. You don't even register the panicked chirping of the flash light, or the feeling of your legs starting to burn, or your heart's beating becoming faster and faster. The only thing that matters is that flower.
As the production line's internal machinery becomes illuminated by the violet light, you shoot one of Hank's hands to forcefully pull down of a large metallic divider, originally intended to be used to direct the toy parts where to go, now is used to block off Huggy's pursuit as you shut it behind you. You hear it's muffled screech of frustration, before it hurriedly begins to explore the other paths in an attempt to find a way back to you and resume the chase.
The chalk warnings that decorate the shaking halls continues to grow and become more delirious in their messaging. The words spiraling around you as you keep running, knowing that if you stopped for even a second, you'd collapse from exhaustion. You can hear Huggy above you, both his roars and footsteps. It seems like he can also hear yours, as the monster begins to slamming it's hands down into the roof above you, causing outward dents that threaten to concuss you.
You cover your head under your arms and continue your sprint, and, as you run into a fork in the path's maze, you, quite literally, run into Lily. The two of you colliding into each other and knocking both of you off your feet.
She rapidly shakes her head out of the brief daze "Oh, there you are! Thought I'd lost you." "What a shame that would've been."
As Huggy's screams get concerningly louder at a horrifying pace, you grab her by the hand and lead her in the direction of the poppy flowers.
"Wait, no! Not the flow-" she tries to tell you something and yank her hand out of your grip, before the tremors and rapidly approaching sounds of Huggy's stampede makes her relent and follow your direction.
You see it, a large painted poppy flower ahead. While in sight of your goal, not even the deafening roars of Huggy can pierce your focus. You let go of Lily's hand and feel like you haven't ever run faster in your life before now. You and Lily shoot out of the production line's maze-like halls and onto a series of catwalks. You keep running towards the goal until Lily grabs your hand and forces your attention back behind you.
As Huggy rushes forward, you shoot off to grab the production line's metallic door and shut it in the beast's face. Only to recoil back as it immediately begins to break down the reinforced door. Lily's already working on pulling a large wooden box, precariously hanging off the edge of a conveyer belt above, down onto the catwalk. As Huggy's arms pierces the metallic frame and wildly flails in a feral anger, you begin to assist her with your Grab Pack's arms, hearing the Grab Pack strain to pull the unnaturally heavy crate towards you, even with the assistance of Lily. As Huggy bursts down the metallic barricade, the two of you finally manage to pull down the massive crate just in time to drop it down onto the catwalk. The sheer weight and power of the crate destroys the catwalk and sends the four of you falling down into the pit below. Huggy's roars are suddenly halted as it's skull smashes against the various piping, Candy falls down and disappears into the abyss, and you almost follow the both of them down below if it weren't for Lily saving your life, yet again.
You look at her, and find her barely hanging onto both you and another catwalk. The both of you are still trying to catch your breath when the catwalk strains under the combined weight and begins to give out from under it. Lily hurriedly throws you over onto a different walkway as the one she's hanging onto continues to deteriorate. You quickly get back on your feet and shoot your Grab Pack's hand to grapple onto her hair. As the catwalk she's hanging from crumbles beneath her weight, she lets go and briefly swings in the air as the Grab Pack's limbs slowly return to their holsters while fervently holding onto her. You help haul her over the railing and the two of you collapse from exhaustion.
After a moment to catch your breath, you notice Lily staring into the pit below. "I'm sorry about Candy." you reassuredly pat her on the back, only to be met with a small smile from her.
"Oh, don't worry about him. He's tougher than you'd think. I bet he'll be right as rain when silly-tilly find him again." she dosen't sound like her previously cheerful self, like even she dosen't believe the words, or maybe it's because of the painted flower.
"...If you say so." you turn your attention back towards the poppy flower, spying a mahogany door at it's center. You've heard rumors of a room like this, but such rumors were so ludicrous, you barely paid them any thought. You stumble forward, almost falling to your knees before you catch yourself against the railing with a ragged breath.
"Wait!" Lily hurries to catch up to you "You shouldn't go in there."
"I have to, my friends could be in there."
She looks shocked, "The only toy in there is the worst of us all." she looks around and whispers into your ears "Poppy." before she covers her mouth. Looking to having already regret what she's said. "*He* shouldn't even know that I'm up here, if He finds out I was anywhere near her-" she starts to hold her face in her hands while precariously walking around in circles as she spirals.
"Hey, hey, look at me." you force her to look at you "You're going to be fine. Whoever he is, he isn't going to hurt you." you don't understand why you're feeling empathy for the Bigger Body, nor why you didn't let her fall earlier. You thought the spark of empathy for the toys died during the theater incident, and you're not sure how to feel about it's sudden return. "Look, the letter I got told me to come here. If 'Poppy' is the only pers- thing inside there, then I need her help to find my friends." you let go of her "If you don't want to get involved, then fine. But I can't abandon them, not again."
Lily looks down to the floor, her breathing having normalized as her hair begins to rest on top of her head again. She let out a exasperated sigh, whispering to herself "What would Ms. Gracie want me to do?"
You force yourself to answer "Toys got to stick together, right? I need my friend's help to do this. Please." you feel sick as your words seem to win her over, though only barely
"...Alright." her normal cheerfulness returns half-heartedly, allowing you to lead the way to the center of the poppy flower.
The walk is dreadfully slow, due to a combination of the catwalk's winding pathway and your own exhaustion. Yet, it's as you walk, does something truly strange happen. It starts with just one faint glow, then another, then a whole swarm of lights slowly fly out from the pit below and fly by the walkways in a beautiful migration event caused by the chaos of the destroyed catwalks falling down to where they live. They look to be wind-up flying ballerina toys, a prototype design that never got finalized. They don't seem to acknowledge you, only peacefully flying by on their way to a destination only they know of.
Lily tries to grab at one with an outstretched hand, only for it to fly just out of reach. She lingers for a moment, looking at it wistfully and basking in the bioluminescent light. You stare at the passing flock with only half-interest, more intrigued by their mere existence rather than their beauty, before steeling yourself with a sigh and soldiering on.
You step up to the poppy flower mural, and find the mahogany door at it's center. Turning the knob, you're greeted with the oversized interior of a normal home. It's proportions distorted to make you feel small, the visual affect almost makes you trip over a small set of steps as you continue to lead the way further inside. The pleasant aroma of a poppy flower fills the room, and the relaxing dull greens are a nice break from the company's greys and bight primary coloring. As you walk, the hall gets tighter and tighter, eventually converging around another mahogany door that's normal sized.
Lily almost reaches out to stop you from turning the door's knob, only stopping herself at the last moment as the door creaks open. A faint red mist escapes out of the room and makes Lily start to cough into her fist, but your suit's design prevents it from affecting you. You calmly step into the room and towards the glass case in the center. Inside is a doll, a Poppy doll, the smash hit that launched Playtime Co. into the mainstream. She isn't moving, like she's in a coma. Yet, as the red mist dissipates, she stirs. You open the glass casing and watch as her eyes slowly flutter open. You can feel the tiny doll's gaze on you, her eyes flickering between her two unexpected saviors in fear, unable to focus on either of her.
"You opened my case."