🌹🪆 - Poppy Playtime
CW: yapping, read my blog name 💔 you've been warned
Okay hear me out: Player is a toy theory/AU and was the Doctor's forbidden lover back then when they were both working at the factory.
Be aware that this is much more an idea and AU than a theory, and a lot of it is speculation with stuff from canon lining up so it doesn't interfere with the canon.
Yes, I picture that when the Player was human, they were male. Since Playtime Co. was in business back in the 90s and possibly the early 00s, I find it more likely for the Player to have been a man rather than a woman (yes women had entered the workforce, but they were always kept in low level positions).
I suspect that the Player was possibly diagnosed with a horrible illness, and ofc, since Playtime is stationed in the US, they had medical bills to pay. I think that Playtime paid their scientists a lot more than they did the regular workers, part of their wages being hush money to keep what they were doing to the orphans silent. So, they took up the job working as a scientist for Playtime.
That's where they met Dr. Gay Harley Sawyer, and they started working under him. They ended up getting close, and one thing led to another, and they ended up in a secret relationship (bc y'know, gay), and they were very close and fluffy when they were alone and outside of work. Unfortunately, Player got a terminal diagnosis, and they ended up becoming bedridden with their illness. (I will link a few songs to how their relationship was) Sawyer, originally a tired but mostly friendly guy to have as a co-worker, became stressed and much more irritable because of the diagnosis and the limited time he had with his love.
Then, Harley had an idea. In secret, he created a new toy. A toy that looked mostly human, but much less uncanny than Miss Delight and her sisters. A toy that looked so human that it would take a good, close look at it to realise that it was in fact, not human. He presented it to Playtime, but they rejected it for the reason that how close it was to a human would freak out the kids - which is exactly what he wanted - now, Playtime couldn't get rid of it, but they weren't going to mass produce it.
Sawyer brought Player back down to the lab, even though they were horribly ill, they trusted him to take care of them. He used a mix of The Red Smoke and heavy anaesthesia to sedate Player, to make the process of turning them into the toy as painless as possible. Just as the gruesome process had finished, Sawyer was kidnapped by his own team to be turned into the TV thing that he is now. Before he could see Player wake up in their new body.
Player woke up, but only years after being in stasis and because of the heavy number of drugs the Doctor gave them (and how long it had been), they couldn't clearly remember what had happened to them, they just knew that they were a Playtime employee. They ended up finding Poppy's note, and thus begins the canon events of Poppy Playtime.
This is why they need the Grab Pack to be able to move things, not just open doors. They are a toy, not human. It's also why the toys don't pick up on the abnormalities on the Player's body - they haven't seen humans since the ones they slaughtered in the Hour of Joy. The Doctor himself also doesn't recognise the vessel he created for his lover, because of his consciousness being split up between all the screens and the screens being his eyes.
I also like to think that during Ch4, Sawyer's and Player's memories of each other were becoming clearer (Player remembering Sawyer's voice, and Sawyer remembering nights he spent endlessly working on Player's unique body so they could live on). At the end it was just as he was dying that their memories fully cleared up in Sawyer's final moments.
Anyways songs that fit them let's goo:
Their relationship:
When Player got sick:
Player’s inner thoughts/concerns about Sawyer after they got their diagnosis:
Sawyer’s POV on Player (or the other way around if you prefer):
@cosmo-lives-here bc ik you're a Poppy fan and Sawyer simp 😋
