Inky ^beta

Notes: First fanfic I publish. Kind of about a dream I had before chapters 4 and 5 of Poppy Playtime existed. I just want to let you now it's not based on canon.

...

Poppy glanced down at the discarded toys scrambled around the dark yellowed floor. Once those were her friends; now they belonged to the devil. When moving, their dirty voices would never leave her alone, never once stopping, even when she left the lab, echoing inside her mind. 

Dad protected her by making her stronger, in his own words, “They're pure evil,” and “One day you won’t have to see those horrors”… when the job was finished. When would it end, though? After years she couldn't even tell exactly what her job was, much less the time. Time was fickle, incomprehensible, and, most of all, nonexistent.

Poppy flinched after hearing the heavy stomp of her dad's shoes, his voice firmly giving orders to others. Her eyes moved. If she still had a body, that's the part where she would run and jump into his warm arms.

The silence of the room broke once he entered. Poppy could only hear his steps, the coffee sip, and him taking the white coat she always remembered him using -the usual routine. Though when he approached her, she noticed the clothes being much dirtier and his face older.

“Good morning, Poppy, my darling! How are we feeling today?” The old dad said, then leaving to turn each machine’s power on, his body rushing through the room, gathering materials and clumsily placing them on his messy working table.

Poppy took a long time to respond. “Good.”

His smile widened as he hummed a lullaby. “Good, good! When Poppy's good, she sets the mood.” It was one of the ad's quotes she listened to over and over again.

“I have a question, papa,”

“Anything,” the papa sang.

“Will I… become… become one of them?” 

The said dad turned his attention to the doll, giving her a reassuring smile. His pace slowed too. “Ooh, my sweet child. Don’t you know your purpose is way ahead of those ungrateful devils?”

After wearing the blue lab gloves, he approached the tall push cart Poppy was placed on and stroked her head. She could feel the warmth under the gloves and remembered how his hands once held her with love, putting her mind at ease so she could have sweet dreams.

“But papa…”

The dad left not in time to hear, maybe he purposefully did that. Dad's back to his work it seemed, now holding a filled, large-sized syringe.

A metal dragging sound announced the arrival of the caged experiment. The toy, a tall and blue-furred creature was brought into light, resting peacefully as it emitted snort sounds inside its cage. One of the merchandise toys probably, but the doll didn't remember it being introduced before.

“Poppy my dear, pay attention. This one's new.” The dad turned to the doll again, his eyes glowing confidently. “Now let’s sanctify it, shall we?”

He stood up there inserted the syringe inside the creature’s furred arm and smiled- turning his gaze to Poppy, who felt a little pain. Did he expect any reaction from the doll? Was it mockery?

The syringe was pressed and the liquid flowed inside, bubbling from the heat; the snort stopped.
"Mom...?" a quiet voice raised from inside the cage, its big body produced loud sounds from the struggle it had maintaining balance.

Poppy hesitantly moved her red eyeballs in the direction of his familiar voice and flinched with its grotesque appearance,“Poppy!” The voice cracked once its cartoonish eyes met her, he kept screaming from the deep inside of its guts. 

Poppy hardly whirled her neck in another direction, still making a bigger effort just to not see it. He’s not my friend… It’s not my friend.

The spaghetti plushie’s arm inclined towards the doll's direction, uselessly trying to reach her as he crawled more and more violently, scratching the bars and getting shocked by the protection it had. The creature failed to say anything comprehensible, only gut wrenching noises could be heard.

Dad’s smiling, he never stops doing that.

Poppy just wished no one could hear how she kept repeating over and over inside her head: please just go, please just go. All of her tiny body trembled, but she didn't realize how loud her body parts were when they collided with each other.

As if reading the doll's mind, the man came back to Poppy's side, carelessly turning her head so she could face the giant plushie again, she felt the outside part of her body cracking.

The dad held Poppy's head still so she couldn't ignore the brutal scene, even the eyeballs were imprisoned by his gloved fingers, “Now, now, sweet child, why do you fear these demons? They should fear you.” 

“I don't!” Poppy’s voice cracked, then she paused for a second. “... fear them.”

The old man chuckled in response, Poppy always hated how defenseless she felt when he treated her like that, like she didn't know her own feelings. Her head was finally freed but she kept staring at the thing, wriggling and contorting body.

Dad left Poppy and tapped the table in a rhythmic pattern, admiring his twisted work. “It should stop by any second now,” said with an excited tone.

Said and done; the toy slowly stopped moving like it did before. It seemed that its capacity had reached the limits, now the trimmed fur revealed some of the cloth like skin, burned patches ran through its entire body and a mixture of blood and fur spilled everywhere. Its haunting screams never stopped though, was it crying? 

“Your papa has some work to do. Don’t worry, it won't bother you anymore.”

The man gave her fragile forehead a goodbye kiss, it didn't feel comforting like the happy old days, though. Poppy looked at his eyes in return, because she couldn't smile. 

“Papa… when will my job end?”

I made a mistake.

Papa just ignored the question, purposefully this time. He deadpanned and pressed a button on her table instead. Why, why, why do I have to go. Not again. “No, please!”

An uniformed person showed up and immediately pushed the push cart like table, taking it outside the lab. Her dad didn't even looked back.

Poppy shouted again and again and again, "Please!"

No response, he just kept mumbling about some orders for the employee, who promptly nodded, writing down words and more words. “... Some months. It'll do it good.” was the last thing she heard before having her entire body covered with plastic, and the dad's white coat moved far far away blurring inside the dark lab.

“Papa… why,” Poppy's quiet voice murmured, would he listen to her if she cried? Look back and hug her like before? She couldn't cry or run or move, and he caused the suffering, why not end the suffering....