Slappy found himself once again feeling the familiar sensation of waking up, gaining sentience, and having his eyes open. Though they never technically closed. He had some slight confusion at first as he hadn't remembered being put to sleep, but he figured there was probably some freak accident that lead to his slave dying and him being given away.
Believe it or not, it's happened before. Life can sometimes be exciting as a living ventriloquist dummy. Though it's honestly just a bit more disorienting than exciting on the dummy's part.. eh. Whatever.
These cloudy passing thoughts left him in almost the same second they formed. Almost being so wispy in nature they verged on being only subconscious thoughts. As he woke up fully and became more alert he realized something. There was nobody holding him, instead of warm human skin there was hard plastic below him.
And this was actually really strange since usually when a new slave would find the enchanted paper to bring him to life they'd be holding him. Or, in some less pleasent situations, he'd be in their lap.
But instead this time he woke up sitting in a small, hot pink, (he could see it from his peripheral vision) plastic chair at an empty, brightly colored, (also hot pink) plastic table in what looked almost like a basement. Or at least that's the impression left with him from the undecorated concrete walls. But the strangest part was that across from him there was... well, another him! Another Slappy.
It, or maybe he, if he was "awake," was just sitting limply in another bright pink plastic chair like himself. Slappy had mixed feelings, being both confused and curious. He wanted to investigate more into it. But before allowing himself to inspect his surroundings, or even move, he had to make sure the area was devoid of people.
He listened and watched from his peripheral vision as best he could as he stayed limp, but he neither heard nor saw anything. Not even the soft sound of footsteps or breathing. He was confused, since someone must've been nearby to have read the paper, but he was also utterly grateful. He hated having to play dead all the time.
So finally he lifted his head, straightened his back and folded his hands in his lap to look at the Slappy across from him. "Hello?" He decided to first ask, rasing an eyebrow slightly in suspicion.
But the Slappy opposite him didn't move an inch. Instead Slappy stood up and went over to him, hoping to get a reaction still. But all it did was stare forward. He shook it's arm and it's head just lolled to the side lifelessly.
"Must not be awake..," He thought out loud. He seemed to be almost subconsciously already accepting this as another version of himself. But he also couldn't find himself resisting these thoughts, it felt almost as a natural instinct.
His eyes flashed in quick recognition as he realized that these feelings reminded him of the magic that let him know where his slave was and when it was nearby. He narrowed his eyes slighty, something better not be using magic on him..
It shouldn't be possible anyway, since he was already a cursed object, but this felt honestly too reminiscent of the feelings of magic. For now he decided to shove this topic aside.
Instead, it might also be possible an old slave of his made a copy of him. Though for what reason he couldn't be sure. Not without asking, and that's assuming he got an answer instead of a punch in the face.
Though that also didn't seem too possible as Slappy could sense a magic presence from this double. But it was pretty faint.. Usally a cursed object with the magic fully activated (allowing them to be "awake") would have a stronger magical presence. This didn't seem to make a lot of sense..
He decided to see for himself if this version of him was even capable of coming to life. As a way to double check really, since the magic presence was as faint as it was. He looked in the coat pocket of his double and sure enough there was a paper slip there with some familiar words.
Due to the enchantment on the paper he found himself wanting to read it but he easily resisted. Instead he just slipped back into the doubles pocket and patted it closed.
"Well I'm not becoming one with you, tough luck on your end, buddy." His voice sounded raspy to his own ears. How long was he out? He should find a calander. Unfortunately, there wasn't one on the walls in the basement. Whatever.
His old plight somewhat forgotten he moved onto more important matters, such as his physical condition. He moved this dummy's head back to how it'd been originally, in case someone would notice, and went on to stretch his stiff joints and explore the room.
He moved a few stiff steps forward from his spot on the right of his copy, having to lock his knees to remain balanced, before he stretched his arms and rocked on his heels to be rewarded by the creaking of wood from his joints.
Once he no longer felt as if he was made of wood, even if he quite literally was it was still an uncomfortable feeling, he decided to have a good sweeping look of the place. He moved his head to and fro, savoring the feeling of his neck creaking and becoming less stiff as well, and started inspecting his surroundings.
The whole room was basically made of concrete, except for the ceiling which had wooden beams and wires indicating there was a floor above his head.
The fact that this was a basemnt was further made apparent by the broad, simply made, wooden staircase seeming to protrude out of the wall. He could see underneath the staircase as it had gaps in between each stair, but there was nothing to be found there except for dusty unlit spots of concrete with cobwebs and mothballs for company.
No thanks, not unless he absolutely had to. He peered up the staircase cautiously, hoping to see where it would lead, but was only rewarded by a closed wooden door. It was tall and made with a dark wood, probably dark oak, and it had a bright golden doorknob. No dust. At least it seemed to be in good condition.
That meant it was unlikely both Slappy's would be abandoned or forgotten about down here. Plus, thankfully, it didn't seem to be locked. Not that it would do him much good. He didn't know who or what was up there and the steps were so broad he would have to crawl up them if he hoped to make it to the top of the landing. And forget reaching the door knob, maybe if he managed to bring a plastic chair with him but that wouldn't exactly make for an easy cover up.
He continued to look around, moving on from the staircase and door but keeping his ears open. The only furniture in the room was the small plastic table and chairs Slappy first found himself at. There were four chairs in all surrounding the small round table. It was altogether weird. It seemed so out of place too, with how big the room is.
While only one small table occupied the space about 15 - 20 of those sized tables would fit in here, side to side.
Suddenly, Slappy had thought he heard something from above and he froze, preparing to move to the table silently. He hadn't moved too far from it for this reason. But the small creaking sound of what could've been someone walking overhead was lonesome.
There was no sound after it and Slappy felt content to keep exploring after waiting 10 fruitless minutes. There was one small rectangular window at the top of one of the walls but even that was cloudy and Slappy, from his height, could barely even see it. Overall, the room was pretty boring. And all Slappy could really do was wait and think, so he did just that.