Dog Toy: A Poppy Playtime Fanfic

Chapter 5: Unpleasant Memories

With Dogday comfortably situated on your back, you activate the lift that you two had spent the night in, and come up to the upper floor. To greet you is a cardboard cutout of none other than the Smiling Critters leader himself. You smile inwardly at the optimistic expression of the character and wonder if the real Dogday had ever been like his cartoon counterpart.

“Hey buddy, is it alright if I listen to this? I kind of did for… the others.”

“Uh… Yeah, if you wish to, Angel. But please just one time, I already know what it says. And it’s far from pleasant.”

“Alright.” Agreeing to the condition, you slap a hand over the button.

“Dogday says: Fetch!”

You slap the button again.

“Go, go! As far as you can!”

Again.

“Why are you… just standing there?”

Trepidation starts to creep up on you. Again.

“You can’t be here. You can’t stay.”

“Angel…” You can feel him tensing on your back and you place a hand over his.

“Yeah?”

“The next part is quite… distressing. I won’t stop you from hearing it, but…” He trails off, the grip on your shoulders tightening as he tenses more.

“Dogday,” You speak softly to him. “I won’t listen to the rest if you don’t want me to-”

“No no, Angel. You should. So you know what Catnap is capable of.” His voice is steely with his last words, then shifts back to the gentle tone you’ve gotten used to. “I… just wanted to warn you so you’re not surprised.”

You pat his hand in understanding, then turn back towards the cutout. “Ok, I’m going to listen to it now.” He doesn’t respond with words, just buries his head against your back. You take a deep breath, then slap the button again.

The initial sound of wretched screaming makes you flinch, however you can’t say you’re surprised given that most of the cutouts had similar endings to them. Still, this one is most certainly the worst of them all. During the recording, you hear two distinct thuds, then it abruptly cuts out.

You’re momentarily stunned until you become aware of how much Dogday is trembling, basically shaking. You address him as quietly as possible so as to not make him worse.

“Hey dude, are you alright?”

“I-I still dream about it. When they punished me. When Catnap… took away my legs.” He sounds so eroded, so broken by what he’s been through, and you realise in that moment just how much torture he has suffered.

You make the decision to carefully pick him up from your back so that you can hug him. He puts his arms around you with no hesitation. You run a hand up and down his back, hoping that this is helping.

“I’m so sorry you had to go through that…”

“It’s fine, Angel. I’ve learnt to live with it.  But thank you for your concern.”

“Of course man.” You continue to hold him, your heart breaking over this poor, lovely toy. You two stay like that for a while until Dogday clears his throat.

“Angel, I think we should keep moving. It’s dangerous to be in one place for too long.”

“Oh, right.” He releases his arms around you so you can readjust him to hold onto you again.

“You ready?”

“Ready.”