Work Text:
When you were made, you knew what you needed to know, you knew what they wanted you to know.
You knew that you came from a long line of Freddy Fazbears, that you were the latest model, that you were the star of the show, that your name carried weight.
(You never knew the true history of your name, the history of the children, of the golden you that sat like an antique doll waiting for someone to pick them up.)
You had a group of friends, all of you were performers, spending time entertaining children and keeping them happy. Their names were Bonnie, Chica and Foxy.
Foxy always seemed to fit the pirate types more than the punk rock looks you and all your other friends have. Yet it never meant he didn’t fit in. Foxy was your backup vocals, the acapella of the band whose voice had a strong undertone and carried itself with a roughness that gave their songs a unique sound.
Foxy was confident, walked with a stride and loved children like a father would. In private, Foxy speaks like how he laughs, like how he sings, harsh and rough, but you could always tell there was genuine care in his words. You loved him like you would love a confidant, a close friend.
Chica was the only girl in your band, but she burned as bright as the rest of you. To you, she always felt like someone who had something to prove to the world, despite all of you just being animatronics. She was also one of the backup vocals, bringing soft tones and soothing melodies to accompany Foxy's harsh notes. She played the guitar, her tunes a careful craft of love and care, like she poured her soul into the sounds, like she was doing her best to be a role model to the girls.
Outside it all, Chica was bubbly and fun, she liked moving, always happy to talk to children, always a loving big sister to the kids. Always smiling. She was a jokester, always trying to make light of the things she could, always lifting up the mood. You always thought of her as a bubbly little sister.
Bonnie was one of the bass players, but his main instrument had been drums. Occasionally playing on beat and cheering for the children to clap and contribute to the song, but mostly he played off-beat, giving the songs you performed a special touch of him. His drums were always loud, but it was never overwhelming, sometimes it was nothing but a simple lul as Chica took the stage with her guitar, sometimes it was as loud as the voice you use to sing to the audience. Yet never overwhelming.
Bonnie was always relaxed, he smiled easily, talked to children and guided them like friends, cared for them like a close uncle. He, like Chica, spent most of his off time practicing on the drums, playing his beats that you would occasionally listen to as your background noise while your batteries discharged itself to help power the Pizzaplex.
Bonnie was your close friend, he was easy-going, he was a great listener, he was a great helper and even got along with a few of the staff. He was loved dearly. You might have loved him like you would have loved someone close, someone dear. You might have cared about him more than that. You never truly knew.
(They always called you and your friends high maintenance, that repair bills were always high because of you. So you couldn’t help but think that it was your fault, if you had just been easier to manage then maybe they wouldn’t have been so angry.
It never crossed your mind that you never asked to be made this way.)
In the beginning, it was just the four of you, then it was Sundrop and Moondrop, then it was Music Man, then there were staff bots all around and suddenly the Pizzaplex had more animatronics than they had humans when there’s no guests.
—————————————-
You don’t know why Foxy got dismantled. Leading up to it, you knew that Foxy started having issues, he had begun getting twitcher, spazzing ang occasionally breaking outside the stage. His voice was glitched, going up octaves and then dropping into an unnaturally deep tone. He started scarring children. You were getting more worried for him after each visit into Parts and Service.
You couldn’t speak to him outside the stage anymore. You tried your best to talk and treat him like you always did, but he began attacking you, damaging you. You would have happily let him, because Foxy was your friend, but they always said repairs were costly, so you try not to let him touch you.
It hurt more than it should.
The announcement that they were discontinuing anything related to Foxy and replacing Foxy himself was not surprising, yet it came to shock all of you.
You wanted to beg the staff, ask them if they could keep Foxy in Parts and Service, you didn’t want them to scrap him.
(Deep inside you had known, known that he was going to be replaced. It hurt more than it should, they had given you sentience, you and your friends were as real as they could make you be, you were adaptive, you could emote to fit all occasions. You were all real, weren’t you?
Maybe it was the thought of you being made from scratch, never truly fitting the mold of humans that they treat you like less, like you are as they make you out to be. An animatronic that can never do their job like they want you to, too costly in repairs, too robotic to be human.
But has that thought ever crossed your mind? The thought that they made you as real as can be, only to treat you like less? Or are you just as robotic as they tell you?)
In the end, you, Bonnie and Chica snuck into the trash heap and pulled out his merch, the only memorabilia you can hide from the staff.
Chica took a Foxy plushie that she keeps behind boxes in the corner of her room. Sometimes, you would wander the Pizzaplex at night and see Chica holding the plush closer to her chest as she rested.
Bonnie took an old Foxy t-shirt, he keeps it in the backroom in a wind-up box, hidden far from wandering eyes in a place no one but you will ever know. Sometimes, you come visit him between break hours and see him holding Foxy’s shirt, a look of sorrow in his eyes.
You kept a small action figure of Foxy, oh so small in your big paws, but it never weighed so heavy. You keep it hidden under all the other plushies of you on the couch, only ever taking it out after hours have closed. You don’t have a heart, but your chest cavity suddenly feels emptier than ever.
(You all did your best to ignore the broken scraps of Foxy deep in that heap, ignored his empty sockets and broken body, torn apart by the machines.
No matter how much it pained all of you, it would be too obvious if you all kept old scraps of him laying about. But you took a piece of his finger with you, Bonnie took the hook Foxy always loved, Chica took a piece of his eye patch that he liked to wear after hours.
You all kept it somewhere no one will ever see, vowing to never tell it to anyone but each other.)
—————————————
When all of you met Roxanne Wolf, you greeted her with mixed reactions.
Chica was overjoyed to have another girl on the band, she jumped and squealed and ran over to Roxy, babbling on and on about how happy she was to have another girl, unbothered when Roxxane pushed her right off without a second thought.
Bonnie seemed hesitant even as he smiled and greeted Roxanne with a casual wave. His stance was ever so casual as Roxanne smiled back with sharp teeth, you think it was a way of intimidation.
You gave her a welcome as bright as you could, noting her almost off-standish nature. She didn’t bare her teeth at you, she didn’t push you away, but it almost felt like she looked down on you, lips pulled into a frown. You ignored it.
In the back of your head, you knew you and Bonnie were thinking the same thoughts.
This girl was Foxy’s replacement.
—————————————-
Roxy walked with the same confidence Foxy did, she didn’t sing like Foxy, but she played the guitar like Chica. Roxy’s laugh was harsh and rough, she spoke of the confidence of a girl that had all the experiences she needed in life.
She was a winner, she hated losers, she believed herself to be the best, always taking the spotlight whenever she could, even if it meant coming off as rude to the others. She ignores Chica whenever she speaks to Roxy, she speaks with a loathsome tone whenever Bonnie approaches her, she smiles and gives you backhanded insults when you are in the vicinity.
You loved her confidence, you hesitate to say you hate her attitude, even if Chica says so.
You truly want to like her, but the thought of her taking Foxy’s place, of her stand-offish and rude attitude to you all compared to the brash and brave personality of Foxy makes all of you hesitant, so hesitant, to like her.
You know Chica loves Roxanne and welcomes her as much as she could, but the constant cold shoulder for everyone but the children gave Chica a clear enough message after all her attempts.
It hurts knowing that Chica tried her hardest only to be pushed away, you know she truly wanted to put aside her hesitance to have a female friend, you know it hurt her more than Roxy or you or anyone else will understand.
You know she was aware, she knew Roxy was a replacement for Foxy, yet she tried her best to treat Roxy like her own person, to never be treated like a ghost, and tried to welcome her with more than open arms despite that thought.
The thought of all her efforts being slowly torn down makes you angry and sad, yet all you can do is ask the staff to talk her into being kinder.
(You don’t know when you started feeling emotions, the thought never crossed your mind.)
And if Roxy’s personality only slightly changed to be warmer towards Chica? You and Bonnie never minded.
(It’s not Roxy’s fault, you think one night when everyone is asleep, it’s not her fault that Foxy started to malfunction. She didn’t ask to be Foxy’s replacement, she didn’t ask to be built the way she was. She didn’t ask to be any of that.
But all you can see when you look at her is Foxy’s eyes.)
—————————————-
Montgomery Gator was a… fascinating man. That was your first thought when you met him for the first time.
Like most other unique animatronics, Monty had his own part of the Pizzaplex, Monty Golf, a dangerous looking golf court for children, filled with little amusement parks, alligators and bright green colors.
You thought that the golf course looked fun, if a little dangerous, but never a big problem. You thought that Monty had big ambitions, he said he wanted to be a star of the Pizzaplex, similar to you and your friends, he told you he wanted to be like you, a star, the face of the whole Pizzaplex.
Bonnie told you that he didn’t like Monty, that he was concerned about Monty. That Monty was dangerous, that he didn’t know the limits of what was okay, that Monty was reckless.
You never truly understood what he meant. Until one day.
After a show, Bonnie had told you that Monty had asked to meet Bonnie in Monty Golf that night, he never told you what it was about, but he told you not to tell anyone else.
Like an idiot, you agreed, believing that you’d see him again the next day.
The news of him being replaced by Monty the next day made you feel like you were going to malfunction.
No.
It was impossible, what happened?!
It was harder than you thought, watching Monty rock up onto stage with a big smile and taking over as a bass player.
Bonnie was a drummer, was all you could think.
Monty was, by all means, a great addition to the band. Him and Roxy got along swimmingly, he didn’t mind that Chica was in love with his mystery mix. He was joyous and he loved the kids like a big brother, he strummed and played the bass like a natural, Bonnie’s Monty’s sharp claws twanging against the cords.
The thought of maybe being able to save Bonnie was all that went through your mind.
Chica had long since fallen from her grace and brightness. From a girl with something to prove to the world to a girl that now digs around eating trash and rotten pizza. Once standing upright and jumping for the world, you could only watch with apprehension as she became a shell of the person you once knew.
(Distantly, you think it was only her chip malfunctioning. Because when were all of you thought of as humans?)
So maybe you shouldn’t have been surprised when the news of Bonnie had reached Chica, all she did was keep digging through the trash, like the thought of one of their best friends being replaced by his potential killer was as important as the thought of a fly buzzing around the trash she digs through.
(The rational side, the one that isn’t blinded by grief and dark thoughts, tells you that she doesn’t know, that you were the only one who knew, that she would hate Monty too if she knew.
But it doesn't give her a right to disregard the fact that Bonnie, their best friend, had been decommissioned and moved on so easily.)
Unlike Foxy, the staff had been unable to fully erase Bonnie, simply due to the fact that Bonnie lasted far longer than Foxy, who was decommissioned when the Pizzaplex was only just starting out, and had taken root in many children’s hearts.
Maybe that was the only reason why Bonnie Bowl, the last remaining memory of Bonnie still exists.
Despite that, only you go to the trash heap to collect memorabilia. Looking through the piles of Bonnie merch and ignoring the broken pieces of your dear friend, you took a Bonnie plushie and hid it under the Freddy plushies in your room, next to the old and worn Foxy figurine.
(You took one of Bonnie’s ears and hid it away in your own hidden spot. You moved whatever you kept of Foxy there too and took the time to sneak the Foxy shirt from the renovations in Bonnie’s Monty’s room.
You don’t know when you stopped trusting Chica.)
After Bonnie was gone, you had never felt so lonely.
Chica was always in her own world, chasing after pizza or Monty’s Mystery Mix, having fun with the children before she had to retire for maintenance.
Roxy had never gotten along with Bonnie, you and her have only gotten the slightest bit closer since the day she was introduced, whereas she and Bonnie had never gotten along before.
Monty, you don’t like Monty, you might never like him at all. But you put on your facade, smile at him like nothing was wrong, laugh and talk with him. You don't tell him about what you know, you will never tell anyone about what you know.
(It’s a rather selfish thing, isn’t it? To not tell the others of what Monty did. But Chica, Roxy and Monty look like they fit together so well, it feels like you’re the outcast when you’re supposed to be the star.
Maybe that’s why you don’t tell anyone, you don’t want Chica to be worse than she already is.)
….
You miss Bonnie.
(You blame Monty for Bonnie’s disappearance, you grow resentful of him as time passes. But you can’t act mean to him.)
—————————————-
No animatronic is wise enough to talk about the ghosts of their coworkers.
When news of an animatronic getting scrapped reaches your ears, you stay quiet and pretend they don’t exist.
It’s a unanimous thing. If you don’t want to get scrapped for showing humanity, just act like what they expect and talk about the robots when no one hears you.
(Once, while you were playing with the young children in the daycare. Moondrop sits down next to you.
No one was awake, it was lights out. You were going to leave for the show in 30 minutes.
“I never truly knew what Bonnie or Foxy was like.” Moondrop tells you, looking around cautiously.
“Why do you ask about them now?” You asked, keeping a calm exterior as you think about why Moondrop would bother.
“Sundrop was being sentimental, he wanted to remember the animatronics that got scrapped.” Moondrop started “He planned to talk to you when there were no staff nearby.”
“But you’re here, so you wanted me to tell you instead.” You said slowly.
Moondrop smiled at you, all mischievous like, but you know it was the only way he could smile “Yeah.”
So you tell him.
And it feels like you and Moondrop bonded over grief.)
—————————————-
When you met Gregory, it was when you had to reboot after malfunctioning on stage.
The young boy had a permanent frown etched onto his face, a bandage on his nose and hid in your chest cavity from the security.
You were caught off-guard by him. Never had a child done that before in his life. Quickly, you checked him over.
He wasn’t in the database, which meant he had snuck in somehow.
You had planned to give him to Vanessa, the security guard on duty for the night. But the boy stopped you before you could. Seeing him so desperate, you couldn’t help but help him.
Gregory was brave for a child, compared to you, he barely reached your knees, but he stood against the entire Pizzaplex with his head held high despite all the pain it put him through.
You failed him countless times, never able to answer him when he’s off the map signal, always at risk of hurting him whenever you run low on battery.
You could, have, already failed him countless times, yet he never faults you, still trusts you and relies on you when he needs help. It pains you to see the bruises on him, ones on his wrist from Roxy’s harsh grip, claw marks on his legs from Monty’s grasp, his eyes constantly moving for detection.
You don’t know why you help him, why you so willingly trust this young boy and put so many burdens on him.
He didn’t ask for this. But he had to adapt, and he needs you to help him.
(Maybe you help him because he reminded you of Foxy, of his unwavering bravery and harsh exterior. Maybe he reminded you of Chica before her descent, of a girl that had something to prove to the world, youthful and bright as a daisy.
Maybe because he reminded you so terribly of Bonnie, of his fierce kindness and the way he used to always voice his opinions no matter what others thought of him. He reminded you of your failure, your complacency when it came to helping your dear friend.
He reminds you of the brightest parts of your friends. Maybe that’s why you help.)
When Gregory led you to Bonnie Bowl with him, sorrow fills your empty cavity, the reminders of a friend that was almost erased from the world.
(You don’t see Gregory look up at you, young and curious eyes looking into your sorrow as you gaze onto the picture of Bonnie on the walls. You don’t see his eyes narrow slightly, the way he grips his bag tighter.
“I don’t come here anymore. I miss him.” You would tell him, and he would grab his bag tighter, like there was an unbearable weight on him.
You don’t know that he went searching through your room, that he found the Foxy figurine and the Bonnie plushie, worn with time but obviously well-loved compared to the pristine look your room was in.
You don’t know that he found a loose floorboard and pulled it open to find your friend's parts, that he saw the figurine and plush first and thought it was important to you so he took them as well.
You don’t know that you unknowingly confirmed that the parts he had were important to you.)
—————————————-
You tell Gregory that you wouldn’t do anything to hurt your friends.
It’s not a lie, they aren’t really your friends, not like Bonnie or Foxy.
And if Gregory decided to hurt Monty in some way, you’d claim that your systems had been shut off.
————————————
Gregory came to you, smiling triumphantly and holding something like a voice box, you thought it was just a voice box he found.
When he changed it out, you instantly knew.
“This is Chica’s…” You gasped, holding your throat “How did you get this?”
He looked almost ashamed for a moment, before looking up with unwavering eyes “She unintentionally got crushed by the trash machine, she’s still functioning, don’t worry.”
You couldn’t help breathing a sigh of relief, how…Chica of her. Always running for food even in the face of danger yet sorrow grips your heart at the thought of how deeply she had fallen. You tried your best to reign her in, keep her from getting decommissioned, but it was hard. You’d look at her and all you could see was a stranger staring back at you, her eyes more and more like the beings the humans built you to be each and every day.
(At some point, you think you might have fallen like her too. During those days, you keep the toys of your friends close to you as a reminder of who you do things for.
Maybe it was a harmful mindset, but you never knew what a helpful mindset was. You may have been a state-of-the-art animatronic, but you only knew what they wanted you to know.
You and your friends malfunctioned oh so long ago, the only reason why you and Chica haven’t been decommissioned was because they didn’t know how deep your sentience had gone.)
—————————————-
Gregory comes to you, holding up a pair of eyes, you had a little more incentive to be curious. Eyes aren’t usually laying around everywhere, so you wonder where he found them.
When he put it on you, you knew.
“T-this is…” You stammered, unconsciously stepping back” This is Fo-Roxy’s eyes… how did you get this?”
You don’t see the way his eyebrows draw together curiously at the mistake, but he tells you.
“There was an accident in the raceway.”
You elect not to press for more.
(The thought of this being Foxy’s eyes haunts you.)
—————————————-
Gregory brings you hands, and you’re scared.
You know those hands, they may have painted it different colors, but the hands have always been distinct.
The hands for guitar players like Bonnie have always been the same. When they took Bonnie’s hands, no adjustments had been made except for a change in color.
(Bonnie wasn’t a guitar player, he was a drummer, your mind supplied.)
It’s why you realize immediately that it was Bonnie’s hands, now Monty’s.
You try not to outwardly react, despite the sudden churning you feel. You let Gregory put Bonnie’s hands onto you, the feeling of it utterly unfamiliar.
You want to ask him what he did.
All that comes out is “This is… familiar.”
He smiles at you, proud with his chest puffed up and the questions you have digs itself deeper into your throat.
He thinks you like it.
You don’t have the heart to say that you despise it.
(You only hate it because it’s Bonnie, not Monty.
Yet you don’t realize that.)
————————————
Despite your reluctance, you still use Bonnie’s hands.
You punch through the gates, go deep beyond what you have ever thought the Pizzaplex could ever go.
You feel yourself malfunction when you get there. Feel your systems threaten to shut itself down constantly.
But you trust Gregory, you have faith that he’ll get out safely.
(If you were honest, you never minded dying then and there in the Pizzaplex, that way you’d be with your friends.
It always comes back to the three of them, hasn’t it?)
But Gregory succeeds, he kills whatever is sitting in the rotting basement of the Pizzaplex, he drags you out of the Pizzaplex and takes you with him to a happier life.
————————————
(Long ago, before everything fell apart, you remember talking with Bonnie, hearing him talk on and on about something.
“You never speak about yourself enough, Freddy.” You heard Bonnie say.
“I’m just not as interesting as you guys are.” You remembered replying.
“That’s just nonsense!” He had told you then “You’re plenty interesting as is! You don’t need a voice like Chica, eyes like Foxy or claws like mine. You’re the star Freddy, you’re plenty special.”
You remember hiding your embarrassment behind an awkward chuckle “I really don’t think so, Bonnie.” You told him earnestly “I’m just plain ol Freddy. Nothing more.”
“But you’re just so human” Bonnie had said “You truly adore the kids, whenever you play with them I feel like you’re just so happy. You love them more than we were all programmed to. You’re kind, selfless and passionate, Freddy. There’s plenty of things special about you.”
He had unintentionally set fire to your wiring. Metaphorically.
“Thank you” You said after a pause “It means a lot from you Bonnie.”
You remembered Bonnie’s smile that day, relaxed and carefree “It’s nothing, Freddy.”)
————————————-
(“Did you know that before we were Freddy, Chica, Roxy and Monty. We were Freddy, Chica, Bonnie and Foxy?” You had absently told Gregory as he waited for you to charge.
It had only been a few minutes since you went into the charge station. The silence felt unbearable after he had practically jumped into your chest cavity from Vanessa’s eyes.
After the trip to Bonnie Bowl, you felt especially nostalgic, it wouldn’t hurt to talk about it to someone that cared to listen to you, right?
“Well, I know who Bonnie is now, but I never knew Foxy exists.” Gregory said to you, absently playing sitting on the ground.
There was no one around, so they were fine to relax.
“When the Pizzaplex was just beginning to open, there were only 4 of us, me, Chica, Bonnie and Foxy.” You explained.
“Foxy, like his name, was a fox, he always liked the theme of pirates, so they had planned a pirate themed park around him where Roxy Raceway used to be.”
“Of course, Foxy looking like a private compared to all our 80s looks made him stand out terribly, so they had to redesign Foxy so that he both incorporated a water theme but also mix with the 80s theme we had.”
You chuckled “I remember how grumpy all the staff were when they had to brainstorm ideas for Foxy’s look.”
“What was Foxy like?” Gregory asked, looking up at you.
“He was brave, really confident.” You looked away from Gregory, lost in thoughts of a friendship long gone.
“He wasn’t so confident to the point where he came off as cocky, like Roxy. But he was confident in a quieter way, the kind where he sets himself up for something he knows he can achieve if he worked hard, but wasn’t so easy that he can grasp it immediately.
It was a tricky balance he had, but he always managed it.” You couldn’t help but smile. “He always pushed us to be our best selves.”
There was a short pause. “What happened to him?” Gregory asked.
“We don’t know what happened.” You said quietly.
“One day Foxy just started malfunctioning, several issues in his database started popping up with no prior warning. His systems started crashing, he became volatile and practically swung at everyone in his vicinity. They had to decommission him because he became a safety hazard to everyone.”
“They said that I was gonna keep running the shows while they slapped Foxy’s endoskeleton onto a new animatronic. We took what little we could safely keep of Foxy and kept it hidden while the staff erased basically all memory of him.”
“What about Bonnie?” Gregory said “You seemed really sad when you were in Bonnie Bowl.”
“Me and Bonnie were close.” You had told him “We loved each other like you would have close friends, maybe even more, I never knew.” You shrugged.
You were never truly sure of the nature of your relationship with Bonnie. But you knew you loved him more than you loved Chica or Foxy, that you cherished him more than anyone else.
You always doubt that it was a platonic love, but it was the only way you can say it without people thinking differently about you.
“When Chica started to change, it was only me and Bonnie left from what remained of the original band. Bonnie was kind and carefree, always relaxed and calm. He was our drummer, but he also knew how to play the guitar.”
“When everything started changing, both of us only had each other. We bonded a lot when he was still around. He always seemed like the wiser one out of the both of us.”
There was a pregnant pause.
“…What happened to Bonnie?”
You stay silent.
“Monty replaced him.”
You think you might have loved him.)