Playtime Co Exposed

After the success of my side blog, @prototype1006defense, I made a new blog to focus more on Playtime co and focus on how the company as a whole as well as delve more into individuals responsible. This should hopefully keep the prototype defense blog free from Stella Greyber call out posts LOL. However, Playtime Co isn't just Stella - this is to show how deep the systemic rot goes.

Disclaimer: I'm not a psychological expert, but I know enough about psychology to be invested in it.

This is an analysis of Riley's journal that I started aaages ago but am now finally publishing. My annotations are in bold.

"August 8th, 1994

Riley, Age 12

First week at Playcare. I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know what I wanted it to be. There are a lot of people here, and they've given a lot to me. A room, a roof, a big pink bed, girly toys (I'm a little too old for that),"

Orientation Notebook about how all the kids were infantilized and older ones were conditioned to only be attached to Playtime Co toys even if they felt to old for it.

a"nd a journal. The adults encourage me to talk to the other kids, but I'm not sure what to say to them."

So Riley just lots her parents two weeks ago and is very obviously traumatized. I don't know much about child psychology but it seems kind of wrong to force a kid who's become withdrawn for such an understandable reason to socialize.

The AACAP - Grief and Children Says:

"It is normal during the weeks following the death for some children to feel immediate grief or persist in the belief that the family member is still alive. However, long-term denial of the death or avoidance of grief can be emotionally unhealthy and can later lead to more severe problems.

A child who is frightened about attending a funeral should not be forced to go, but a plan to honor or remember the person in some way, such as lighting a candle, saying a prayer, making a scrapbook, reviewing photographs, or telling a story, may be helpful to your child's grief process. Children should be allowed to express feelings about their loss and grief in their own way."

I'm pretty sure two weeks is not "prolonged" withdrawal.

"Most of them have been here almost their whole lives, or, at least, they were young enough that they can't remember what they lost."

Since the ON revealed the kids are being brainwashed to be loyal to playtime co, isolated from the outside world, it seems like they deliberately pick the younger kids who don't remember as much for ease of brainwashing.

"My parents loved, protected, and taught me, and I'm not sure the others even remember what that's like. They don't know what they don't have, but I do. I remember a lot. I try to be kind to them though, even if there's very little I can say. Right now, I think I prefer it like that.""

I underlined this because later on, either the counselors or couples at adoption interviews claim Riley "doesn't get along with the other kids". Whether it was the couples or the counselors, the counselors would've been the ones to give that information and have completely misrepresented it.

"The nice counselor who said I was quiet told me that I could say whatever I wanted in my journal, and it would only be for me. Make two lists, she said, one with what's important to me right now, in this moment, and the other being why. She said it might help me. I'm going to try it.

What's important to me:

That the nice counselor cares enough about me to try to make me feel at home."

Riley it's the job of ALL the counselors to make you feel at home. It's their JOB. Why does Riley feel like the others don't care? Or that them helping her is conditional on how much they care?

Trying to get comfortable here. Even if it's not home, it's all I have now.

That my life matters, since it can be lost so quickly.

That my parents' lives mattered too.

"Why: Because I'm scared. Anything can happen in an instant and leave you with nothing, and because of that, I'm scared that nothing matters. But I want to feel happy again (Really, I do),"

Riley sounds oddly guilty about not being "happy" here as she says this, like people are making her feel like she should be happier in Playcare, after all Playtime has given to her. :| (Once again refer to Orientation Notebook where the kids where kids are conditioned be "loyal" to the company by learning about "the role the company has played in their lives")

"and it's important to me right now, in this moment, that someone here cares that I feel at home, even if I'm not."

If this is the reason why Riley is doing this, does this mean she feels like the counselors won't care about her if she doesn't do what they say? What are they telling her that's making her believe this?

I think Elliot loved the idea of loving them.

Believe it or not, Elliot does have a conscience. It doesn't excuse him. Lots of shady individuals have consciences they are just experts at suppressing or shoving away. Elliot happens to be one of those people with consciences they are good at "negotiating" with.

I'll cover both Harley and Oliver in two separate sections: Harley:

He admits that his attracting Harley into his "human experimentation" pipeline is selfish. And then continues with it.

And look at how he handled Harley's rejection: he didn't talk to him in person. He sent him a letter. Harley was right there and available to be spoken to in person. He sent a letter that was 50% rationalization of what he was going to do to Harley, after he directly wrote that without kindness Harley's mind would twist, and after intuiting Harley wasn't getting that kindness wherever he came from.

He sent that letter and half of it seems almost like a rationalization to himself rather then to Harley: 

"In thinking about those days, I'm reminded that rejection can sometimes be the best thing for us. " " Ultimately, I believe it made me a better person, and I have to believe that doing this now will make you better too."

Ollie really was copying Elliot. Elliot tried to "make people better" too.

But anyways The way Elliot talks in this letter makes it perfectly clear he knows he's dropping a bomb on Harley's psyche and for whatever reason is talking himself into it and praying it doesn't go sideways (it did, infact, go sideways)

It's funny. With everyone else in his life Elliot locked down and never let go. For the orphans in Playcare: For Poppy, obviously.

Harley? The one example of a kid Elliot pushed away.

Oliver: I think Oliver was right when he spoke to Elliot in "Elliot and The Prototype" tape. That being said, I can tell Elliot feels some nagging, haunting sense of guilt: You can tell by how nervous he sounds at the beginning of the tape, when he asks if Oliver said something.

Whatever guilt, whatever care he had for these two boys, though, it wasn't enough. Wasn't enough to stop them from using them both to get Poppy back.

I also felt so disgusted, watching the first tape blind, when, just after Oliver poured his heart out to Elliot about feeling like Elliot can't stop talking about Poppy, that he feels like he's just a "test run" now, Elliot performs sympathy for five seconds before saying: "I think you and her would get along really well." ELLIOT. YOU ARE. TALKING ABOUT POPPY. Right at the one point when Oliver needed you to NOT.

He kept Oliver trapped under there, and since Elliot never introduced Poppy to Oliver (as she has no idea who Oliver really is or what his relation to her is) that means that Elliot never fulfilled that promise.

Did Elliot care about or feel bad for those boys? Oh I think he knew it was right to love and care for those vulnerable souls. The idea of shepherding them, guiding them, must have been appealing for someone who is sensitive to his public image as Elliot Ludwig.

But, did he really care? Well, I will say this: Whatever care, whatever guilt he felt, wasn't enough.

The first thing that came to mind while reading the description of unhealthy INTJ was Harley Sawyer.

"If I might be a bit selfish here, he is exactly who I hoped this program would attract." is doing some crazy moral laundering. Moral laundering is basically something to soften the reality of what Elliot's saying. "If I might be a bit selfish here" does exactly that. Elliot knows EXACTLY how "[This damaged, brilliant child is exactly who I hoped this program would attract.]" sounds and tries to pre emptively soften it.

But, if anything, that line confirms that the "He is exactly who I hoped this program would attract." sounds selfish because it IS selfish, and Elliot knows it. In fact, it's cold and sus as you could possibly get.

Elliot is unbelievable, that in this same chapter he fooled everyone into thinking he was a good guy with his "science for the benefit of humanity" rhetoric and trying to frame his rejection letter to Harley as for some greater purpose.

Elliot thinks it's strange that Harley doesn't want to have fun or takes the work completely seriously.

If this were an older group of children, then would that not be the bare minimum expectation? You wouldn't be surprised that they took the work fully seriously, you would be irritated that anyone didn't take the work seriously.

He also is surprised Harley doesn'n want to have fun. In a science program geared at older children, "fun" would not be upfront and it would not be a surprise Harley didn't do it. This to me makes Elliot's treatment of Harley even more ridiculous. In the older days sometimes teenagers were parentified and treated as adults, but Elliot is clearly writing in his own words a little boy who isn't acting like a normal little boy, and then acknowledging that he is still dealing with a young child.

And so,

I would put Harley as 10 - 12 at most, based on Elliot's own notes about what was normal for someone of Harley's age group.

Indeed she is. The fact that she couldn't see, hear, speak, or balance herself properly and they simply watched her instead of helping her is really sad.

Before I don't think I would have agreed completely as there were somethings I felt didn't fully fit into being a cult but this blog has changed my opinion.

This started with Elliot and with your post pointing out how young some people were when hired just feels even more off.

Like this was under Elliot's leadership but Thomas did not have to become an experiment. He chose that.

Jessica and the whole raised in Playcare and came back.

Also Eddie is around the same age as Poppy which trips me up sometimes.

"Choice" is a funny thing. Yes, Thomas volunteered to become an experiment, but it was after his whole life under playtime co. Being taught that INNOVATION IS KEY and total loyalty to the company.

If he had a family outside of Playtime Co, maybe he wouldn't have volunteered to become an experiment.

Plus, all we know is that Thomas agreed "of sound mind". We don't know what Playtime told him about the odds of survival. We don't know if he was pressured or showed the document to a lawyer or if the institutional indoctrination played a role at all. And if Jessica was indoctrinated she wouldn't know either.

When you're raised in one place and they teach you to revolve around them, that can really screw with people.

Of course they had more of a choice then the kids, but their choice was diminished.

That's what coercive control is. Look into it.

And look into the game DELTARUNE. It's a game that explores fate, choices, and how much freedom we have in our lives.

Let's start with the obvious, Eddie Ritterman: started work at Playtime between 1965 - 1969. And notice that the report specifically says that "he's been our guy closing deals" SINCE WHEN HE STARTED. He didn't start out at the bottom. They pulled him on fresh.

Eddie, at most, was 23 years old when he became a Playtime Co executive.

And then let's look over here at Thomas Clarke, on-site pediatrician.

1199. 11 Experiments after Theo became Catnap, (November 1990) and 23 experiments before Marie became Mommy Long Legs. (February 1991).

So Thomas, age 55 in late 1990 to early 1991, was a pediatrician at age 24???? And he's been working at Playtime this whole time between 1955 and 1990?

Someone correct me here, but isn't it impossible to be a pediatrician at age 24? Honestly, yes, these were young adults, but they were impressionable young adults who were probably very anxious to start working. Easy to indoctrinate.

Your blog is very fun and brings me joy!

I HC that Chum doesn't just give out food to Giblet, he goes out and passes out cans of food to everyone he can when the Prototype's back is turned. For some reason I also think Larry would be neat as Chum's true name.

I also think that when they met as experiments, even though their bodies and names were changed, Chum and Giblet somehow recognized eachother immediately.

I think that Harley is autistic (As I myself am autistic, I see some autistic traits in him). I also believe that he stimmed as a child but was bullied / chastened until he suppressed it. In my mental hospital ending for him he slowly begins to start unmasking (bobbing his head, rocking, saying "mmm" to himself more)