Chapter Text
This stain is a pain in the ass.
Nothing was getting it off, not even some of your stronger grease soaps, so it was time to bring out the big guns.
“I found the Clorox!” Maria says as she holds the large jug facing you triumphantly.
“Thank the gods.” You let out a small sigh of relief, in all honestly you didn’t think you’d have any, you were worried you wouldn’t be able to find something to clean it off and really it’s best if you all don’t question the animatronics’ stained body parts. Which reeked of something nasty…
The only way to actually start putting Sun back together without too many problems was to clean everything, which quite frankly was taking way too long.
And you did not have the stomach for this. How you could handle the nastiest plant rot and insects but not the funky mystery stains was, well a mystery. Thankfully your cousins were doing most of the cleaning. You’re gonna have to make it up to them with something after… maybe find a rare cactus on the trail to give to them? Make another custom print for them-
“So what do you want me to do with this piece?” Maria’s voice cuts off your inner monologue, almost startling you as she holds up a small panel that you took off of Sun's forearm earlier. It’s scratched, rust coating a good portion of the metal, with the paint lifting and wrinkly, overall in ruin, but large specks of a dirty yellow are still visible on the paint. You are assuming it’s Sun’s original coat of color, they at least look similar enough to the video you saw, if not dirty and gross. There is also some light blue visible under the scratches on the paint, that doesn’t make sense though. Why would Sun have blue paint on his arms? You don’t remember seeing anything blue on his casing in the video…
“Hold on to it for a minute.” You answer late, somewhat distracted, and pull out your phone, pulling up videos of the Pizza Plex and Sun. There’s nothing… How about just ‘Daycare attendant’? It’s still just videos of Sun… you scroll quickly down the rows of videos.
“Are you okay?” Maria asks, making you falter, dropping your phone in surprise and accidentally clicking on a video in an attempt to catch it. “Yea, all good... just, looking for something important I think.” You bend down to pick up your phone, flipping it so that the screen faces you, thankfully nothing looks broken. Only then do you see the character on the display, its faceplate looked similar to Suns, but had lighter tones and resembled a crescent moon, its eyes were red too, and the arms had a blue hue that faded to white so it definitely fits the color you saw on the arm plate. “Hey umm, Mari, Uli? Do you guys remember a… different attendant? One that resembled the moon maybe?
Uli shakes his head, but Maria looks at you slightly confused before looking down trying to remember something. Her eyes widened. “Actually I do! He was in charge of naptime! At least I think he was…” She rests her hand on her chin for a moment. A small humming noise and she looks up. “Yep, he was.”
You raise an eyebrow at her. “Well, that would make sense considering Sun is a daycare attendant, and daycares have younger children, who need nap time.” You shrug and turn, placing your phone in an empty pant pocket. “Also I’m parched and need water desperately-“ You point to the garage door leading into your house and turn in a dramatic spin following your hand, which gets a snort out of Uli. “I’m gonna go get a drink of water!”
Maria asks you to get one for her and you comply somewhat begrudgingly to be silly before going through the door and heading to the fridge in your kitchen. You open it and scan the contents. There's some leftover food, some soup, and Sprite…
You make a noise in achievement when you find your prize, some bottled water. Quickly you grab three, one for Uli too even though he didn’t ask for one, and open yours to take a hearty sip before walking back to the garage. Taking a small detour to grab a phone charging block and snapping it on your phone.
Clicking on the Bluetooth icon and connecting it to the garage speakers as you walk out, opening Spotify and scrolling to your work playlist, Merengues bailables, and clicking on it. This was about to get spicy.
Okay well, not really but it makes it feel more action-packed if you tell yourself that and not that you’ll be stuck cleaning the giant jester animatronic for the next few days.
Uli and Mari both thank you for the water and the three of you resume your steady pace of dismounting what wasn't already disconnected from the endoskeleton and cleaning it, before placing it in one of four boxes for arms, legs, core body, and electronics.
Hours pass by and it feels like you make almost no progress. Mari and Uli have already gone to do their chores around the land, taking care of their parents' plants. The piles of animatronic pieces are slowly growing in their boxes, and you can’t help but get a morbid feeling at the fact that they are the body parts of something, regardless of the fact it wasn’t human. You still care for robots. It’s all the same to you.
You shake your head, this is why you are fixing it. Him? Probably a him, or a them? Actually, you’re gonna have to ask when they wake up… if you and your cousins can even fix him that is.
Nah you guys can do this. You didn’t get a degree in entertainment engineering for nothing after all. Yeah, you got this…
No, you don’t but just keep telling yourself that and it might work. After all… what was the phrase again... Self-fulfilling prophecy? Psychology comes in handy outside of your virtual job it seems.
A whirring noise that is all too familiar to you comes from one of your 3d printers. The nozzle is parking itself and the arms whir louder. Has it really been five hours already?
You finish your current piece, which seems to be... a digit of sorts? A finger from one of the hands. It's ridiculously long compared to your finger, and you think about how large the Sun animatronic truly is in proportion to the average person… no he’s not average, in the videos you saw earlier he towered over the kids at easily about 7 feet in height. Maybe even more…
You set it down in the arms box and walk over to the 3d printer with the Kirby planter on it, completely finished and ready to host a new plant. Taking it off is much less of a hassle than taking off the Iron Man helmet piece because it was a curved surface, so it wasn’t completely flat against the printer bed.
You grab the Iron Man mask piece as well. Placing it onto a shelf of other pieces for the mask as you walk by, it was the last one you needed before you could build it, but fixing Sun was kind of a priority at the moment… You could do both. Besides, you'd need breaks from building both.
You take the Kirby planter and place it on the counter in the kitchen. You’ll get to it eventually, most likely you’ll put a spider plant baby in it.
You glance at the clock. It reads 2:30 p.m.
Looks like it’s lunchtime. Might as well get you to take a break anyway. Standing in the same position for… about 5 ish hours was going to make you regret doing it later. Not truly, you really couldn’t wait to keep working, and you don’t regret your choices, but in essence your spine will.
You walk back to the fridge, grab a cookie dough container, the leftovers from yesterday, and heat it up in a pot on the stove. Inside was a soup your grandma makes you sometimes, Sopa de Fideo. You and your cousins love it despite its simplicity, it tastes amazing.
You swear it’s because your grandma is magical, and there's no way that isn’t true. Considering her front yard looks like a jungle and she lives in the middle of Vegas. That and no matter what meal she makes it’s always amazing. Even if it’s food you normally don’t like, she somehow makes it amazing.
You should give her a visit. Your great-grandmother passed recently, and she was the only person living with your grandma at the time. It was about time you went and visited home anyway… sure you could talk to your family in group chats and all that, but seeing them in person would be a whole lot more significant than posting something online and getting views or maybe comments from them.
Yeah, your godparents wouldn’t mind you leaving for a couple of days… but not yet. You have too many things to focus on. You can leave in a few weeks. That shouldn’t cause problems for either of you…
The soup is ready by now, as you give it a stir, it’s a bit clumpy… shoot you forgot to add more water.
“Well, that’s just great.” You mumble to yourself, slightly grossed out as you use a spoon to pull out squishy tomato bits you realize with a slight disappointment that the entire soup is now completely messed up, the whole thing is covered in the strange tomato sludge.
That's okay. You can find something else to eat. You had tortillas and some cheese. A quesadilla works just fine.
You regrettably dump the soup into the sink and sigh, turning on the stove, placing a comal on it, and going to your fridge to pull out the two things you need for your meal.
You open your eyes, you swore you were just eating your quesadillas...
Sitting up makes you realize you fell asleep at the desk. Sun's hand is put together in front of you. There's an uncomfortable amount of drool all over your sleeve and an alarm going off somewhere behind you.
Once again blindly trying to find it in your workshop. A detrimental idea...
This time you don't hit your hand on the table.
Oh no that'd be ludicrous.
This time you cut it on a blade you probably left by your phone last night.
You don't really register the cut, just the warmth on your hand that looks red when you pull your phone back to you successfully.
The blood dribbles down your pointer finger and onto the black ring you wear on it, and all over your phone.
A glance behind you shows you the now bloody blade and a metallic smell you've grown all too familiar with.
The amount of blood you lose almost scares you, but it wasn’t squirting out so you didn’t hit an artery. The wound was kind of deep… but you didn’t see any muscle tissue, so you were alright.
Whelp. Time to clean up.
Some disinfectant and Neosporin later, you bandage your finger and start to clean up everything.
The time reads 8:46 when you finish. The day is... April... 12th.
Oh! That's great, okay.
You slept in a bit but that shouldn't affect any of your previous engagements for today. It just means you'll need to get ready faster and skip your morning drive.
Okay, maybe it sort of affects your previous engagements for today.
Never mind all that, you have work to do.
You just need to make sure you get to the Library on time... Why did you volunteer to go today of all days?
Right, you didn't have an animatronic you wanted to fix when you decided to do that.
Well, it’s just to teach the local kids about plant care in deserts such as these, and the like. And then the 'Makey Makey' thing after as well.
It should be fun enough, but you forgot that you had to do this in all honesty. You kinda wanted to work on Sun...
The random animatronic could wait. Besides you were going to go plant shopping after. Maybe another Monstera would be nice?
Or maybe some celestial-themed flowers? A Thai constellation Monstera at that point, would you even have the skill though... or sunflowers? Those are much easier to grow... Maybe even a moonflower vine... those are kinda super poisonous but you doubt you'd munch on it by accident.
Orrr why not all of them? It shouldn't hurt your pockets that much. And you can put them in the greenhouse when it's ready!
Yes, this will work very nicely.
Steeling your nerves for the day, you just had one thing to conquer. Public speaking with children.
How would you... wait no you have the perfect idea.
"... And those who behave will get to print an appropriate sticker of their choice when we finish!"
The kids, most of which were kind of bored about what you were gonna present, had all brightened up significantly at that.
"And remember, after this presentation and demonstration we will have another workshop with the Makey Makey so be sure to stick around!" This was the best customer service voice you've ever down wow.
You bring out a few cactuses, succulents, and vines.
"Now for the plants..."
As it turns out the parents were way more interested in the plant demonstration than the children were. Probably because a lot of them wanted to know how to grow plants here in the desert.
The makey-makey demonstration had gone better. The kids always love that. And while you love helping the kiddos out you were still itching to go back home and work on Sun again.
And after about 15 minutes of letting the kids mess around with the thing, it was time to pack up and finally go back home.
Unfortunately for you the moment you pulled into your driveway you got a reminder on your phone.
A reminder that today you made an arrangement with your friend Art and his wife Cindy to pick up their old woodworking desk and some tools so you could learn...
Well, you promised them you wouldn't get busy and push back the date further but...
Not buts about it. You promised and made a deal and you can't just let a new project get in the way of that.
And once more after a somewhat okay drive time of 30 minutes, you make it to their house.
Conversation doesn't take long, it is almost lunchtime and Cindy is waiting inside for Art to finish up in shop, aka his garage, and you want to get home too.
But you do stay for a bit, almost forgetting about Sun as he shows you how to use the bench he was gifting you, handing you a small slab of balsa wood and a wooden rack that held 12 different wood carving tools. Along with all of the whetstones you'd need to sharpen them.
"A sharper tool is a safer tool after all" were his words.
He also gave you a magazine about a nearby shop that sold tools and even gave classes on how to use the bigger machinery.
That could help you a lot with so many of your unfinished projects...
After a few minutes, Cindy comes out to say hello as you have a quick conversation about how life was, thanking both for everything they have helped you with as well.
Cindy asks if you've been practicing your newly learned Reiki, and you kind of choke, but it's not like you completely forgot about it! You just kinda sorta... forgot about it?
You practiced twice! In the last 2 months...
"Yes! I've been practicing the symbols too." You say somewhat nervously.
Cindy either doesn't pick up on it or doesn't care too much about the lie.
"Wonderful! I have to get inside before the food gets cold though, so I'll see you later!" She says cheerfully. You know for a fact that at least half of that meal is coming from their garden, it is always lusciously full of plants.
After a hug and some thank yous, Art helps you move the desk into the trunk of your car.
It is heavier than you expect but at least it looks nice!
You have to fold over the back seats of your poor Toyota Highlander, which has witnessed the horrors of life, and say goodbye.
You'd think you wouldn't be busy the rest of the week. You finally finished college and you didn't have any other things scheduled for the week, right?
Wrong.
The rest of the week is jam-packed. Working with your godparents on their own home and smaller garden, too many meetings about specifics on the greenhouse and construction, a Q&A you needed to watch about rollercoaster schematics, multiple counseling sessions, commission work, and more volunteering you are doing for random things.
Why are you like this?
Doesn't matter. The week passes by very quickly, that is once it is over, because enduring it was hell.
At least half of those things were fun.
It's Sunday when you finally get back to working on the project that has occupied your mind for the last week. Sun.
While you did do a small amount of work on his main body while you were busy, it was almost nothing in the total scheme of things.
You did do something productive though, you managed to upload his AI onto a computer, very luckily his chip was intact, along with a few other things.
Today was the moment of truth day, after downloading too many suspicious plug-ins from the internet and allowing the AI access to your computer, you are finally able to open the chips file as a program.
You make your tag on the website 'Number1Pl@nt3nthusiast' because you like the name, it is silly. And then if someone does inevitably hack you then they won't know your real name.
You start up the program and wait nervously, scared you either damaged the chip or it was empty.
You don't know much about coding, more about building a robot, or in this case animatronic. But much to your relief, the program loads text.
It looks empty so you start it off with a simple 'Hello!'
There is no immediate response so you leave it at that and disappointedly get to work on his body once more.
You end up getting much farther than previously and manage to put the entirety of his torso together with Neomotors that were surprisingly a perfect fit. You kept all of the gears to a medium setting, knowing it would be hell to take them all apart to change them should they not work, but medium gears gave you the best of both worlds regardless.
A big portion of this process was hope-based.
You keep working for a good hour and a half before a sound distracts you from your work. A notification ping, or sound you've never heard before.
Your phone wields no results, so after some rummaging you get an idea, you doubt it's right but there's no harm in checking.
Much to your surprise, there was a response from a program named DCADaytimeProtocol.exe. You have a good guess of who that is, but the message that you received answers any questions you could have.
'Hello! I am Sun, the sunny side of the daycare attendant here at Fazbear Entertainment. If you have opened this program for testing purposes please answer with "BetaTesting.Set.True", if you opened this program for maintenance purposes please respond with "RepairMode.Set.True".'
That was slightly disappointing.
But promising.
You lean forward and start typing.
'BetaTesting.Set.True'
You did want to test the AI, after all, maintenance... or full-on rebuilding was for the body.
A small jingle plays before the program opens a new tab on your application and a different string of text and a voice pops up from a new screen.
'Hello, Friend! What would you like to beta test today?'
That was the start of essentially online chatting with the AI you've come to know as Sun.
After some troubleshooting and a power outage that resulted in panic for both parties, you two started talking. At first just about how you wanted to see if he still worked. He had been nice, confused about his location and his access to the internet at first, you had to realize the animatronics at the plex were probably kept like prisoners without them even realizing.
It makes you feel bad for him and the others. He said he considered them family.
Maybe you could help him find them? In the future, but you'd still try.
The two of you became fast friends that day. At one point he insulted your tag and asked why you humans were so strange. It seemed like a joke though, so you let it slide, with a playful threat of unplugging him.
He did not take the joke kindly, immediately spamming with "sorry's" and "please don't take me offline!" among an assortment of other things, none of which were offensive to you.
You still feel bad about that day, how could you even playfully threaten him with that?? From his perspective that's like going into a coma and fearing you wouldn't wake up again. You felt horrible about that. Jokes were not your strong suit it seemed.
There were many apologies on your part and all was forgiven in the end.
The next few days were hectic. You had been working on Sun as much as possible, and you were nearing the end of your journey.
You talked with Sun a lot as well, finding a way to give him access to some of the appliances in your house like your echo dots. He liked to play random music on them. It was like having a house ghost, unexpected but not all too scary.
The first time he played a song, it was very embarrassing for you to say the least. The song he played was Walking on Sunshine. Fitting, and ironic to say the least as you had tripped and fallen face-first on the carpeted stairs.
It almost didn't hurt, just a small sting of, I hope nobody noticed.
Fortunately, Sun had no access to cameras, so all was well.
And a week later you were finally attaching Sun's body. All of the motors had been individually tested, which led to one or two incidents with the table, all was fine in the end and Sun's body surprisingly took no damage.
His faceplate looked different from the one in the promotional videos, you had to forgo his original one as you didn't have the proper materials for it and you were already running low on supply. Especially because some of the spots you had to fix were already very expensive for their color-changing ability.
You did some research on forums online to see what people knew about them and decided to add their ability to change between each other. You hadn't talked to Moon at all, but there was a post by someone named GGY who had advised you against doing more research about him.
The person was a child so you didn't bother listening to him.
You think in retrospect it was because the search led to nothing and was a huge waste of your time.
You apologized to him. For a child, he seemed a bit mature in his response.
You didn't care much about him after the fact, now that you were so close to finishing.
You had only hours left of work before turning him on. Today was the day. And then you'd apologize to your godparents and cousins about being a recluse for the last couple of weeks.
Just a little more to go...
You had fallen asleep again.
Why does that keep happening to you? It's certainly not normal.
The lights were off, but your surroundings were fluffy?
Fluffy??
You fumble around before managing to escape your blanket prison and tumble out of bed.
You just can't catch a break it seems.
Well, that's one way to get the adrenalin running at least.
After completing your morning routine and making yourself an iffy breakfast that consisted of way too much sugar with milk, you decided to take a quick break before cleaning everything. Everything is nice. You sketched a plant by a smaller window and it came out good for once!
When you go back to clean the dishes something feels off. A chill goes down your spine and it almost feels like you are being watched...
You look around at the cameras in your house before walking to the toolbox you have on hand and pulling out a screwdriver, checking your surroundings once more. That's not where the feeling was coming from so then what-
Two beady eyes stare at you from the far side of the room, completely still, a... yellow circular face? You couldn't see much of the being because of the lights in that part of the house being off. It watches you emotionless and unmoving. A large unnerving smile grins eagerly back at you.
You yelp and fall backwards, hitting the light switch before tripping on your kitchen mat and falling onto the floor, your screwdriver rolling away uselessly. The lights go out in the kitchen and the half-wall of the sink covers any view you still did have of whatever the hell that thing was, it almost looked like... but that should be impossible...
In the next instant it is by your side saying something garbled, you know it was words but your heart was pounding so hard it was all you could hear, you'd think it'd be able to hear it as it reached its hands out to you, the pinpricked eyes almost in your face.
Trying to scramble away proves fruitless and you try to get a good look at the thing, your eyes were just beginning to adjust to the lack of light. It looks almost nervous and its head is spiked. Its hand is still in the air where it reached for you and it has made no move to get closer.
There you two are, in a checkmate sort of position, this thing above you, hand held out towards you as you lay, neither making a move to run or fight. You want to scream but your throat is closed and breathing feels impossible.
Well, this is it, isn't it? You shut your eyes, at least you lived a somewhat fulfilling life. You just wished you got to see the greenhouse finished before your death... what about your family? Oh well, that's just great. You didn't get to make all the stuff you wanted to for them... you put your house on the will right?? What fucking will, you didn't think you'd die so soon in life... speaking of- why aren't you dead yet?
You cracked an eye open, expecting, and you didn't know what you were expecting, but the yellow beast sitting opposite to you on the kitchen floor was not it.
It looks at you, making some sort of movement with its claws... hands? The rustle of fabric, small ringing of bells, and the smell of grease and oil and dust reach you.
Wait...
"...Sun?"