MC POV.
"A smile is hope, A smile is love, A smile is understanding. And nothing-"
I woke up feeling tired, my mind felt cloudy. I was in a chair, and we were moving was my first thought. I tried to move but felt my arms were bonded to the chair. I could hear voices, but couldn't really focus on what they were saying.
I could hear what sounded like a poor digital recording, and adult voices talking to each other. When I looked outside the window I saw it. Playcare, I wanted to laugh. All that work, all that struggle was for nothing. I tried to fight, but here I was anyway. I wanted to cry, but something my mother told me once when I was younger shot in my mind. It was a strange thing to member, but there was a time when I was younger that I cried for not getting to go on a field trip. It wasn't going on the field trip that made me cry it was being poor, being broke. Seeing all my friends with new toys, new clothes, or shoes. While I got my brother hand-me-downs. Shirts, pants and shoes that were too big for me to wear. When my mom saw me cry, she looked at me and said "Max, crying wont get you no where in this life. People don't care about a sad story. The only thing people care about is hard work, so if you don't like living this kind of life then stop crying and do something about it." Once that memory left my mind I stopped crying, stopped feeling sorry for myself and decided to do whatever it took to prevent the hell that would happen to this place. I muttered under my breath and said
"Let it be known that when I walked into hell, and met the devil I didn't cry nor shed a tear"
There was a voice behind me that said
"Son, this isn't hell." To which I replied without even trying to look back
"Hell is the place that no one really knows. The sun is beautiful, but will burn you. The devil was once the most beautiful angel under God. Who's to say hell doesn't look like heaven from afar."
"May Playcare bring Joy, Inspiration, and Smiles to all who enter these doors. For wh-"
This was the end of the line for me, I could tell. I wasn't going to make it out of here. I was either going to die here or worse but god damnit I would struggle to the very end. The doors opened up, and I felt myself being pushed into Playcare.
I saw a couple of Playtime staff members whom I assumed were waiting for us, me specifically. I couldn't turn my head to see who was behind me, but I saw Monique, David and Dr.Goodman[ Note this is Paul or Santa] walk towards the greeting staff from the corner of my eye. They had walked down the small flight of stairs and greeted the staff members with smiles, and handshakes like they were friends.
It made me sick, even more so when I saw children ranging from 6 to 15 boys and girls running around. Playing with toys, playing tag, or whatever games that they were playing. I even saw some coming and going into the buildings. It was one thing to hear about things, another to see it in a video game but to actually see these kids here in real life hit in a different way. Its easy to disregard seeing a tragedy in media, easier still to disregard hearing about said tragedy, but seeing it up front in your face that wasn't something so easily dismissed. All of these kids were in for hell on earth. Some might get luck and be adopted, others were to become intelligent toys who would be tortured or worse eaten alive. Some would be turned into nothing worse than wild animals without any humanity left in them, and others would be taken by the main villain of the series "The Prototype" and who knows what fate awaited them.
The more I looked, and the more I thought of it the more determined I was to stop it and the more I hated all these adults. I started to hate the staff here, and even more so for the group that force me to come here. Some staff were playing with the children with smiles on their faces, but I only saw lies and mask from those smiles. I tried telling myself that not all employees were like that, and that the people who brought me here were just doing what they thought was best for me. But, humans are illogical creatures and it was easy to hate a group you already thought of as an enemy.
I couldn't hear what the group was talking about, but I saw David turn in my direction and wave over. I wanted to tell the man to 'suck a dick, I aint coming over' when I felt myself being pushed. I was startled, and jumped a little when I felt myself in the chair moving towards the group. When I turned my slightly upward to the side I saw hands on the wheels, further upward as best I could manage I saw the beard face of a man.
I couldn't really see much of his face besides the fact that he had a black beard. It wasn't a full beard, but it definitely easy to tell that man hadn't shaved in a while. Once were down the stairs, which we took the ramp for obvious reasons. I started to make out their conversations. They were talking about me, talking about my incident, and possible medication and therapy to use for me. Once I was close enough the stopped talking.
Dr.Goodman came up to me, and said
"Max this is Dr.Keckler. He is the head of the counselors here at PlayCare. I already spoke to him about your discharge incident, and that I believe that you should start on some medication. I know that you said you didn't want or need it but I really do highly recommend that you take something to help with…stress and anxiety. Dr. Keckler." He finished his sentence by gesturing for the man to step up and greet me. The first thing I thought of when seeing the man was a upperclass, rich, white nerdy dude who probably didn't know how to play or even knew what sports were. He was tall and skinny, he had glasses on and his hair was slicked back like he was trying to be white boy 'cool'. It was obvious that this man was bullied in school, probably college to based on his looks.
"Max, like Dr.Goodman said I am Dr.Keckler, you can also just call me by my first name Thomas if you want. Goodman told me you had some anxiety about coming here, well I want you to know that some other kids had the same anxiety feelings about coming here too. But, I want you to know that since coming here that they have either been adopted into a new loving family or are currently running around right now as you can see." He spoke like a business man trying to sell you a product that they believe was the best, but didn't know you in fact hated their product and wanted nothing to do with it. The way he pushed his chest slightly out, the way he turned his head upward, and adjusted glasses while he said that crap made me want to yell at him, and hurt him. But, I didn't one because I was in restraints, and two was because I needed to figure this place out. I was in enemy lines; I couldn't go acting like I wanted to. That would either get me 'adopted' faster, or something worse so for now I would follow prototypes lead. I would watch, study, learn and then strike with however I could. Either coming up with new toy designs to slowly make my way up to the top, they wouldn't kill me if I made them money or get Huggy, Kissy, and Mommy long legs on my side. If the event was going to happen anyway then having the 'Good' guys on my side would help me possibly over throw the prototypes rule. The plan could work, but needed to be studied and prepared for thoroughly. Sawyer and prototype were behind genius, and any stupid idea or worse some stupid plan which would lead to my quick death.
"Max are you okay?" Dr.Goodman asked with concern in his voice, he continued saying
"You looked like you were spacing out there. Did you hear and understand what Thomas said"
"Yes" I replied, my tone of voice was flatter then I suspected it could be. I sounded like a brain dead person replying to a question or a robot. I guess I was more emotionally affected then I thought if I sounded like a robot.
"David and I will be going it is already 4:35 p.m. and I honestly didn't think it would take this long" Monique said to the group before turning to me and saying
"I know this is scary Max, but remember if you need anything just let me know that if you need anything this has phone number on it. {She reached into her pocket, picked out a card and gave it to me] There is also a phone here were you can call me if you need me. And, I already left my number with the staff members here in case you lose my card or forget. And, remember Max we[she gestured to all the staff around the PlayCare area] are here to help you find a new home. I wish you the best of luck." With that said Monique and David walked towards the only train car that left this place. I couldn't turn my head to look back at them, and honestly I didn't want to seriously fuck them is the only thought that ran through my head.
"Alright Max, this usually doesn't happen but I will be staying here with you and Thomas to make sure you are okay. I almost forgot to introduce you to our patient support assistant, I am getting up there in age aren't I, Mr. Conner" The man that had been pushing me walked from behind me. When I finally saw his full face, I thought this dude looks like he is going through it. His hair was slightly messy, probably from work. His beard was unkept, and I was right when I originally believed that he probably hasn't shaved. He was probably late twenties, or very early thirties he looked overall like an overworked man. Whom probably only pushed me this far because someone either offered him a raise or Paul offered him money. He was still wearing the white inpatient hospital uniform, so probably a raise or both.
He straightened up slightly when Dr.Goodman showed him to me. He spoke in a tried but kind voice. It reminded me of a tried dad getting home from work to talk to his kids. I honestly don't know why I had that thought.
"Hey, little man. My name is Conner, I will be here with Mr.Paul and Mr.Thomas to help them and to help you alright. So if you need to use the bathroom or need a snack or a drink let me know and I will get it for you. Alright"
"Okay" My voice again sounded flat like a robot. I needed to stop doing that, or at the very least be more…I don't know innocent sounding. I couldn't make any 'friends' with my voice sounding like a defeat hopeless man or a lifeless robot. I need to figure out who I could trust to overthrow the current or new rulers of this place. And, I don't believe for a second that anyone would want to help or even worse want to talk to me if I sound like this. Hard to believe in someone if they already sound like they are half-way in the grave, helpless, and hopeless sounding.
"Anyway, here let me show you the counselors office. We will be going there to discuss how best to help you."
With that Paul and Thomas moved forward on the pavement that lead to the counselors office building. And, Conner walked behind me again and pushed me forward. He leaned in and said "This place isn't hell son, that's only for bad guys. This place is for kids that deserved to be happy and healthy. Just give it sometime and I am sure you will come to love it here. Get to play and make new friends and meet a good family. Trust me"
I wanted to believe him, but I was a realist. I looked at my situation with hard logical facts. I was in the Poppy Playtime universe in the year 1993. I was either going to become an experiment, die or worse between now and 1995. When in 1995 I didn't know, but when the Hour of Joy came I would learn my fate. I couldn't escape here, I was in the body of a eight-year old boy, I wasn't going to overpower or John Wick my way out of here. I had some military training, yes to be sure but they don't train you for this type of stuff. No one says "Hey let`s train our guys on how to escape a high level company, with the only exist to the outside being a single train car, with high level security cameras and oh there are also monsters that have been trained to love the taste of human flesh" not only that but even with the Prototypes help even what`s his name couldn't escape. So escaping anytime soon was about a good of a plan as just offing myself now and being done with it. And, me getting adopted? Yeah right I had shit luck in my last life, and that is probably going to be the case here too. If there was a 1 and 100 chance of something wrong happening it would happen to me. Just looking at my current situation was enough for me to learn that I wasn't going to win any lotteries or be blessed by good fortune anytime soon, But, hey I guess anything is apparently possible…righ?.