Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A piece of paper sat on a wooden desk, a clawed hand picking it up to read the report.

Incident Date: 2/12/23XX
Employee Name: Alice Hope
Department: Counselor
Incident Details: Sammy, a child in my care, has begun to turn to violence, bullying other children, disrupting classes, and even destroying toys and equipment. The major incident involves experiment 1188, Catnap. They were settling down for bedtime, when Sammy decided to smack another girl, Crafty, who was helping that night, went to break it up, it led to a further fight, children were disrupted and it took Catnap’s gas to settle the boy.
Incident Causes: Several small injuries, panic attacks, and sleep deprivation.
Notes: Sammy has been punished, sent to timeout and told to apologize, but he might need more help then I could possibly help at the moment. I wish to set up a rage room for him, and a few more of the kids, to see if this helps.

The toys watched the kids as they went through their breakfast, Bobby, and Hoppy working at making sure the buffet was stock, as kids ran around, giggling and laughing. Some sat at tables, eating their food and talking, a calm chaos overlapping the room, putting the toys at ease.

They walked around, stopping to talk to kids, or offer help, until the bell rang. 

“Alrighty Kiddos, time to clean up!” Dogday calls, his voice overlapping the kids. A chorus of agreement follows.

The kids work at cleaning the room, the toys helping in some areas, as Bobby leads the younger children out to play. Whipping a window clean, was a young girl, Clara, she was a rather quiet girl, more to herself.

She pulled back from the window, and dipped the rag into the bucket, before ringing it out. She hums softly, before hands press into her back, and she is roughly shoved forward, the bucket crashing and spilling over, as she lets a soft whine out.

A sharp laughter sounded above her, as she frowned, looking up, a blond hair boy, named Sammy was laughing above her, pointing and teasing.

She sniffed, and cried, whimpering as she tried to clean the spill, hiccuping softly.

“Sammy! Get back to- Clara?? Are you okay??” Crafty calls, bending down to check the girl. She sniffed and hiccuped, as she struggled to answer the question.
“S-sammy! S-sammy pus-push me!” She cries, sobbing into the unicorn’s blue top.
“Oh Sweetie, it’ll be okay… Come on, I’ll take you to Carrie”

The girl hiccups and nods, the unicorn carrying her away.

The boy was still laughing, going to other kids and bragging about it. The kids had different reactions.
“That was rather mean”

“You could of hurt her”

“I don’t really see the humor”

The boy frowned, growling softly, as he tried to explain the humor, when really, it didn’t need explaining. He hissed, as they soon finished the task and was allowed to play.

He took a block from a girl, who growled. “Hey! Give it back!”

“No! It’s mine!”

“I had it first!”

“It’s mine now!”

“No! It’s not!”

The two kept arguing, soon leading to pushing and shoving. Two hands were used to push them away, a body setting through them.

“Children! Stop! Arguing and shoving each other doesn’t solve this issue.” Dogday gets out, speaking above the two, as they slowly calm and quiet down.

“Now! What happened?”

“He took my block!/She yelled at me!”

“Sammy, give back the block”

“But-!”

“No buts. And Salina, we don’t yell at people.”

“He took my block tho, and when I asked for it back he wouldn’t give it back!”

“Okay, everyone relax! Salina, go to the quiet corner and calm down, Sammy, your going into time out”

“But-”

“But nothing, now, both of them”

The two kids grumble and mumbles, as they walk to their respective areas. Dogday signs, and went to inform staff.

That was how Alice heard about it, and as such, when it was Sammy’s turn at counseling, Alice cut to the point. 

“Sammy, I heard you were getting into trouble this morning. Can I ask what’s going on?”

The boy growls, glaring at the woman. 

“Why?! You obviously don’t care!”

“I do care, I wish to know how I can help you. Especially if your causing harm to yourself or others”

“Who cares! We can heal! It’s not permanent”

“I do, the staff does, this behavior isn’t normal in you”

He scoffs again. “Whatever”.

The rest of the meeting was quiet, Alice sighing at the lack of progress. 

The rest of the day was relatively tame, a few kids having scrapes or bruises from Sammy, but was relatively fine.

Alice was inside the infirmary of Home Sweet Home, Carrie telling her about that day's injuries, and what all she was able to get from the kids, and it matched up. 

“I fear Sammy is becoming violent, I worry he might hurt the younger ones”

“He won’t, I’m sure of it”

“But what if he does??”

“We deal with it, but he hasn’t yet”

“But-”

“Miss. Hope, you need to calm down. Hypotheticals don't help. Now, the kids are going to bed, you should go and rest as well”

“Right, thank you, Carrie”

“Of course-”

They paused when a scream broke through the home, the two booking it towards where the scream was.

They arrived, just as a guy was on the floor, next to a bed, his arm bent in an unnatural way. 

Carrie immediately ran over, just as a purple tail wraps around the boy, who yelped.

“C-catnap”

“Catnap, don’t-”

“ Quiet. ”

The room went silent, as the gravel-like voice cut through, while silent, it felt deadly, as the cat kept the boy pinned.

“ Bed. Now. All of you ”

“But-”

“ Now, Sammy ”

“Yes… Catnap”

“ Good ”

The boy was let go, and went to his bed, the cat following, a paw on the boy’s shoulder. He got the boy in bed, and tucked him in, before going to the injured boy.

He was sobbing, in a bit of pain, as red gas slowly filled the small pocket.

The boy glanced up, hiccupping, as a paw gently pets his hair, trying to calm him, as the smoke 

did its job, slowly putting the kid to sleep.

Once he was asleep, Carrie and the cat got him stable, before leading him out.

“Okay… Ahem, time for bed”

“What about Sam?”

“Carrie will do her best, and he’ll be back in the morning”

“Okay”

“What about-?”

“Sammy will be punished in the morning”

The kids went and settled down, Alice flicking the lights off, and walking off to write her report.

Chapter Text

The world felt dark as they glared up at the ceiling, eyes struggling to stay open, as red gas slowly flew around the room, clinging thick to the air.
Their eyes slowly blink close, before opening, then again, taking a second longer to open, and again, taking longer and longer to open them, feeling more and more heavier to keep open.
They breathed out, and crashed, going into dark, dreamless sleep.

When they awoke, it was considerably more bright, more blinding, as their brain hurts from a headache, as muffled talking sounds around them.
It was blurry, the sounds muffled more, and more, until finally.
“Theo! You're awake! Good, the surgery was successful”
They glanced around, eyes still struggling as they looked at a man, face blurred and gone, as they kept glancing around.
They hissed and glares, feeling rage boil up, as voices hint to mangle, and kill, and feed. They swallow it down, body feeling wrong, too long, too lanky, too not right! It wasn’t right! It felt too tall, too bright! Too much!
They hissed, smoke bubbling in their throat, as the staff talked around them, ignoring how lost they was in their world. 

Chapter Text

The bubbaphant sneezed, frowning softly as his trunk honked, as he twisted a wrench. He was absolutely sick, but he ignored it, he had to finish this project! He knew he had to prove this theory wrong and right.

The kids brought up a theory, parallel universes ! He knew he had to prove it, and this machine would help, if he stopped sneezing and coughing, his body shaking, as sweat shines on his forehead.

He pulled his glasses off, whipping his forehead, before pushing them back on, fixing them on his trunk. He kept up his work, as he tried to focus, eyes blurring as he struggled.

Slide .

A door softly opens, footsteps going closer to the sick elephant.

“Bubba? You're sick… Please go back to bed?”

“I… I don't need… To finish this…”

“You look pale, you need to rest”

“No…”

“Yes”

“Carrie-”

“No”

Her eyes roll, as she pulls him away, ignoring how he weakly fought.

“No… I’m so close!”

“You're also sick!”

He hissed, as she kept dragging him, taking him back to his room, where he was tucked in, and feeding him some soup.

“I was so close”

“I’ll finish it”

“You're overworked already!”

“Relax, I can handle it”

“No”

“Yes”

She frowns softly, as she keeps feeding the Bubbaphant, chuckling. She stretched lightly, before standing up.

“Can… You turn it on”

“Of course”

She smiles softly, walking off.
-

Carrie finishes tightening a bolt, before flipping the switch, the pipe glowing softly, before going back to normal.

She shrugs softly, and leaves the room.

Chapter Text

Carrie looks back at the pipe, everyone once in a while, she would get items, blankets, soup, some medicine. 

She was interested, wondering what all it could do? Could she maybe reach out to someone, or something? 

Her mind wondering, she push her paperwork away, and grabbed a piece of paper, going to read it. 

'Hello, I'm'

She paused her writing wonder if she should use her name, or a nickname, she didn't know who she reach, it be best to avoid panic, right? 

She took a breath and continue. 

C! My friend made a machine that, according to him, can reach out to others in different universes.'

'I am here to try that out! If you receive this letter, respond. Please.'

'- C'

She took a breath, folding the paper, before putting it in the pipe, watching it disappear. 

Now she waited, and went back to work, giving a soft cough. 

Maybe she was getting sick? 

Oh well...