Poppy Playtime: Buddy's Little Journal

March 18, 1999

Journal Entry #4 - 6:00 a.m., Thursday

Everyone knows about the day Playtime Co. closed its Factory. It was sudden. Suspicious. Many rumors were made about why the corporate giant had shut down so randomly. For instance, a newspaper in Evansville theorized that some kind of gas leak comparable to that of the Chernobyl power plant incident had forced the company to try and contain the situation, using their lockdown protocols to accomplish this. In a news station in Carmel, the reporters stated, and I quote, "A rival toy company had gone to extreme measures to take out Playtime Co. and resorted to sabotaging the equipment and machines in the Factory.

Some of these speculations could have been proven correct if it weren't for efforts to explain what happened to the employees and the orphans that resided at Playtime Co. There was no reasonable explanation of what may have occurred to these people other than Playtime had killed them over a massive conspiracy, or they had gone on a 4-year-long company-sponsored vacation (that was sarcasm, if you do not know).

I have heard about how company executives had been sending what they call "Resource Extraction Specialists" back into the Factory to retrieve toy parts and to continue the Bigger Bodies Initiative. I even met one of them when I visited the factory two years ago. Around June, I believe...

Levy Kirk. That was his name, yes. He was entering the factory with some other specialists using the Train Station as a way of entry. I was going through a ruptured wall around the back of the Factory. We soon met at the middle of the Factory, in Zone 04 (it has a ventilation system that I use to evade any large toys like Huggy Wuggy). I believe our meeting went like this...

I was traversing the ventilation system, mostly nonchalantly because I had stopping by the Factory every month to find enough resources (I had a secret project that I used to work on which are related to Journal Entry #2, which I will talk about another time). While meandering through some machines lining the walls when Mr. Kirk turned the corner. For a moment, we were in a sort of face-off. That was until Mr. Kirk's goggled expression turned to pure terror.

"What the fu-." Before he could finish that sentence, I had covered his mouth and pinned him to the wall. I growled menacingly, "Keep it down, will ya? The toys might hear." Mr. Kirk nodded reluctantly since my outward appearance is hard to trust. We waited in silence for three whole minutes. During those minutes, we heard a thundering roar. This was unexpected, even for me, because this roar was unlike that of Huggy Wuggy or Boxy Boo. Once the roar died down, I turned to Mr. Kirk. "I will lower my hand slowly," I muttered "And when I do so, you will shut your yap and listen to me." The specialist thought to himself for a moment before nodding to my terms.

I was able to straighten out which side I was on (which is no side), and it all went uphill from there. I led him around the Factory grounds, showing him the best possible escape routes when being chased by a toy and some of the Game Stations holding toy parts. While I gave him the "grand tour," he told me what his life was like, how he did not agree with Playtime Co.'s decisions, and how beautiful his wife and kids were. It was very interesting what this human thought, and I found his family especially fascinating. I was never able to find a permanent family, so learning about experiences of having families lessens my pain.

After an hour or so, Mr. Kirk had to rejoin his crew. Before he left, he gave me a gift that I will always treasure: an old photo of him, his wife, and his little boy. It was to remember him once he and his fellow specialists left. We said our goodbyes, and we went our separate ways. I hoped to see him again next month, but... I was always unlucky. After the 4th of July, when I visited the Factory, I found in the Train Station several burnt corpses, which included Mr. Kirk, in one of the company trains. It had been derailed and had crashed into the wall. Exploded due to the fuel line being exposed.

I was truly saddened by his death, which marked the second time I sympathized with a human being. Before I left the Factory, I put the photo he entrusted me with in his pocket, so that he could be with his family for forever and ever. Just like what I wanted...