Chapter Text
If Monty could hear this, and he very well may be able to, he would be proud.
Neat, beautiful, put together Roxy smashes her mirror with her fists, glass scraping against the casing of her knuckles and spilling onto the floor. Magazines either go sailing across the room or are torn into confetti, posters are slashed, her sofa turned upside down, stuffing bleeding out the sides from where she’s clawed it up.
She’ll get in so much trouble tomorrow morning when the staff find how she’s wrecked her room. It’ll have to be off limits for all of the next day, perhaps even the next one as everything is repainted, reupholstered or replaced. …But it’s not HER fault that that BRAT had pissed her off! She had insulted the great Roxanne wolf, to her face, in front of everyone! Humiliated her! And, oh, when she had finally snapped, she was the one being punished for it! All she had done was roar at them. Not her fault that the kid didn’t have the walk to back up her talk.
Chest heaving with mimicked breaths, she stands in the middle of her broken room, trembling with rage.
She’s run out of stuff to destroy, but the anger is still building and it just won’t leave her alone. Little snot nosed kid, can’t have been any older than thirteen, telling her that she looks like a freak, that “that’s why everyone loves Chica and not you.” What a joke! Roxy goes to collapse into the chair at her vanity, only to remember, oh yeah, she had broken the leg off it. She sits on the floor instead, drawing her knees up to her chest.
…What a stupid kid. What does she know. Roxy’s tough, beautiful, invincible! She knows what her fans say! She’s just as good as her band mates- better, even! The best! So what if they’ve been around longer than she has? So what if they don’t even have to try to be loved by the guests, by the staff? To be wanted. Or needed.
…If she’s being truthful with herself, she’s just a replacement. For Bonnie, or Foxy, either one. She’ll never be able to truly live up to the legacies they’ve left behind, though. Not really. The kids don’t want her, they want them! All half of them do during meet and greets is ask, ‘who are you?’, ‘where’s Bonnie?’, ‘where’s Foxy?’, ‘can we go see them instead?’ Worse still, many of them don’t even ask those questions to her, they just talk to the member of staff that legally always has to be present, like she doesn’t even exist. Like she’s nothing!
It doesn’t matter how hard she tries, it’s never good enough, or interesting enough. The techs tell her to be louder, more boisterous, like Foxy. Then they say that’s too much, to tone it down. But then they say she’s boring! Who the hell is she even supposed to be anyway?! Lately she’s taken to just trying not to care. Or, at least, to not let anyone know she cares. Every day she sinks further back into her persona, a protective shell, far, far back until no one can reach her.
Everybody wants Roxanne, but nobody wants just Roxy.
She only realises she’s crying when she lifts her face up from where she had buried it in her arm warmer, and finds the purple fabric stained black with her mascara.
Oh that is IT !
She snaps up to her feet, grabs that stupid broken chair and hurls it across the room to join the rest of the mess. It clatters noisily as it hits the wall, another leg falling off just before it meets its final resting place on the upside down sofa.
It’s ruined. It’s all ruined. And she can’t even see what a mess she looks like right now, because she broke her stupid mirror.
It’s the mirror that does it, that for some reason or another really gets to her and makes her insides feel like they’re melting into a gross gooey mechanical lump, and the memory of a techs voice sounds in the back of her software. “Don’t be so over dramatic!”
To hell with that. She lets out a sob and collapses back to the floor, whimpering into her arms. Isn’t that what they want from her, anyway? To be overdramatic? To cry over something as stupid as a broken mirror because now she can’t even give herself a pep talk?
The silence filling the room is deafening as she just stares into her arm.
…She’s not sure she likes it; who their version of Roxanne is. But she doesn’t know how to be anything, anyone, else. Maybe she was just… programmed wrong. Maybe that’s why her wires feel so crisscrossed and tangled up on the insides, why she feels so damn confused all the time.
Or maybe she’s just broken.
… …
She’s been sobbing intermittently into her fist for hours. It must be long since closing time now, and her little ‘time out’ is likely over, but she has no desire to leave her room. The others must have heard about what happened by now, either from the staff or from the absolute mayhem she’s been causing in her room, and she is not risking getting another lecture from Freddy right now. He means well, but God. She always felt like she was a little kid or something around him thanks to that unintentionally patronising way of speaking he has.
Smudging the last of her lipstick across her face, she’s just standing up, resigning herself to cleaning up a little, when the vent in the top corner of her room clangs and scares the absolute shit out of her.
Immediately, security protocols kick in.
Claws flash out, her teeth bare as her hackles stand on end and she snarls at the offending grate.
“ Who’s there?! ”
When there’s no answer, her anger only rises.
“Show yourself, coward!”
There’s another, long stretch of silence where she almost convinces herself that on top of being broken her mind is now making up voices, before the grate clangs again, an indecipherable warble ringing out alongside it.
That does it. Roxy flexes her claws, eyes turning black, hunting mode in full swing.
“Don’t make me come up there!”
Seriously. Don’t. She is decidedly not in the most merciful mood to deal with an intruder right now.
Suddenly, the grate swings then falls off its hinges, clattering into her room and leaving a noticeable scratch in the thin carpet that covers her rooms floor.
She stares at it until she sees red. Oh she is going to KILL whoever-
…
…Is that the fucking daycare attendant?
Her fury is tempered for the moment, purely out of shock. He’s the last animatronic, or person, she was expecting to come out of that vent. She’s caught glimpses of Sun in the daycare before when she’s left the raceway for maintenance and the like of course, and seen Moon a few times on his security patrols, but both the attendants always keep to themselves. It’s been almost a year since she was moved to the Plex now, so she’d just sort of figured they weren’t interested in meeting the glamrocks. Which you know, fine by her. She had no reason to care. There were enough people and robots in her life as it was, and they all annoy her in equal measure. No need to add another name to the list.
As she stares at him, his colours glitch out like a panicked chameleon in the bright purple lights of her room; blue to yellow to blue and- then stay yellow. Rays flutter out the side of his head rotating once, twice, and finally coming to a stop as golden irises nervously raise up to meet hers. His build is so different from the glamrocks that she almost finds it weird. Logically, she knows he’s got the same robotic strength as she does, but with that twiggy body it sure doesn’t look like it. She’s surprised he even had the confidence to come and visit her. Unless he doesn’t know about her reputation, but that seems unlikely.
Roxy meets his eyes back, lip peeling back to reveal her fangs as she slowly remembers to be angry- before she realises how she must look right now.
Not like cool, rockstar Roxanne.
Just Roxy.
And no one is meant to see her as Roxy.
She roars with embarrassment, making the intruding Sun’s rays shrink into his head as she hides her face in her hands. “D-don’t look at me!”
Wait- why was he even..? “Get out of my room!“
Sun flings his hands up in front of his face, frantically waving them in a surrendering gesture. “We’re- I’m- I’m sorry! But, well, you sounded upset, and so! I wondered, whether… you needed a friend?”
Oh. No… no fucking way.
Roxy raises her face out of her hands, slightly less bothered that this particular animatronic is bearing witness to her mess than if it was one of the glamrocks, since it’s not like she has to see him on a daily basis, after all. But not by much. It’s still embarrassing, and she doesn’t even know the stupid little guy. Why he thought trespassing in one of the most notorious animatronics in the pizzplex’s room was a good idea it beyond her. “What I need, is for you to get the hell out of here!”
Sun hesitantly raises a finger. “You... you told me to show myself...”
...So she did. He had her there. “W-well NOW I'm telling you to leave! Get the fuck out of here, freak!”
If she wasn’t so pissed right now, she might have laughed- because he looks positively scandalised. Sun straightens to his full height, which is still a good foot shorter than her, fists balled by his sides with a scowl on his face that just doesn’t look right on his brightly coloured faceplate. “Language!”
Really? That’s what gets him to stop stuttering and grow a spine? When she drops an f-bomb? It’s not like there’s even any kids around who could hear.
Well, this could work. If it gets him to leave, then... Her lips curl into a sneer. “What, too much of a pussy to handle a few curse words?”
Sun is making a shrill noise like a boiling kettle.
Okay, that actually makes her throw her head back and laugh spitefully. How is she supposed to take him seriously right now? “Piss off, little man! It's my room. I can say what I want.”
“T-time out!!” He blurts out suddenly, not yelling exactly- she guesses he's been programmed not to raise his voice unless necessary- but it's definitely more assertive than before. “I'm putting you in time out!”
She stops. Then snorts in disbelief. “You're putting me in time out. Me. The great Roxanne wolf?”
Her brief confusion seems to give him a bit of confidence, as his rays- that had been retracted until they were barely visible- now slowly slide back out of their slots, standing proud. “That's right, missy! So go... go... ...” He catches sight of Roxy’s eyes, feral slits trained on him. Yeah, never mind. He shrinks back as her snarling shadow starts to loom over him. “Ah. Uh. Um! S-sit in the corner! ...Please?”
Hah, yeah. She's a little bigger than the kids at the daycare, huh, Sun? She enjoys the fearful way he looks up at her, but the way the little punk still somehow has the nerve to look her in the eye? Not so much. Time to fix that. She lunges forward and Sun reacts with a yelp, but he's not nearly fast enough to move out of the way, and she quickly has him pinned between her arms against the wall.
Sunny-boy’s eyes look like they could fall out of his endo skeleton. “Miss Roxanne-”
To her annoyance, he looks less terrified and more flustered.
Wrong reaction.
She rakes her claws down the wall next to his head, leaving deep scratches in the paint, growling. “You think you can tell me what to do? You think you're better than me?!”
Sun lifts up a meek finger. “Mi-“
“ Speak up, coward!”
“…I… I’m not a coward.” Sun says softly, and seems to hesitate a little before continuing, “…You’re crying.”
And just like that, her intimidation tactics break.
“Huh?” She snatches herself back, hiding away in shame. Idiot, Roxy! Idiot! “…You’re just seeing things. Idiot.”
Does it make yourself feel better to call others what you think of yourself? A little voice in the back of her code whispers.
“I will crush you.” She mutters to it, running her claws through her hair in a little self soothing ritual that is not helping whatsoever.
“Y-you’ll what me?”
Ugh, he’s still here?!
“I wasn’t talking to you!” She wants to spin around on her heel and get in his face again, but that would mean that he would just see more of her- her mess. Instead she just frets her hair between her claws some more and tries to at least sound a slither of intimidating when she snaps, “Go away!”
It’s something Roxy knows intuitively, that to keep yourself in the position of power, you always need to have the high ground over somebody. Literally. But in this moment, she’s too tired to care, too exhausted and run down and fucking fed up to give a shit about what a stupid little sunbeam thinks of her. So she sinks onto the floor with her back to him, leaning to the side and resting her head against the wall with a soft ‘thump’.
“…Just go away.” She repeats again, but the words lose their bite this time around.
There’s only silence in response, and for a brief moment she thinks she’s finally gotten rid of him. But then his voice comes again from closer by.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Of course he’s trying to get her to talk about her feelings . He’s a daycare attendant after all, isn’t he? Probably just sees her as another pathetic, slightly bigger kid to deal with.
“ No .” She growls.
He shuts up. But he stays. He’s still there. She can feel his presence like a thorn in her side and it’s seriously pissing her off. Can she not even get privacy in her own room anymore without Freddy or Monty or Chica or now, joining the list, apparently this guy, bursting in? She just wants to have her little pity party in peace, thanks. To rant and think and rant some more, and punch the wall. Maybe try and find something else to break.
…Could she do that with him here?
Well. Personal issues aside, she IS still the great Roxanne wolf. And this little bumpkin is just an animatronic who runs a side attraction. What does he have on her, anyway? It’s not like anyone would listen to anything he has to say.
You know what, fine, whatever. He can be stubborn. He’s already seen the aftermath of what happened, anyway. Surely it can’t get any worse. She’ll let herself run her mouth a bit. Doesn’t matter if he hears. “So there was this nasty little brat who visited the plex today… …”
And to Sun’s credit, he listens. Like, actually listens, doesn’t just pretend to or whatever, making dorky little noises of surprise or annoyance as she tells him the woeful tale of her day.
Weirdly, after a while, she actually finds herself feeling… better. Sun doesn’t talk too much while she’s telling her story, which surprises her; she thought that with what she’s seen of his hyper energy, she wouldn’t be able to get a word in edge-ways. But he doesn’t even interrupt to scold her for her language while she rants, although she can feel that he desperately wants to.
He’s just… a nice guy, she guesses. Or a total pushover. Maybe both. How come he hadn’t come to meet any of the glamrocks before? Not that she even cares! Just curious.
This is one hell of a first meeting though. Not even one of the glamrocks have gotten her to break down like this, ugly crying like there’s no tomorrow. “…A-and Freddy and Chica and Monty were ALL there, they all heard her! They all heard her saying what a nobody I am. What a pathetic loser I am!”
His expression softens in a way that she gets the impression is supposed to be sympathetic. Wait- when did she even turn around to face him? “Well now, that’s a horrible thing to say! And to such a fantastic rockstar, too!”
She sniffs and wipes her eyes with the back of her hand. “Whatever. Ch-Chica and Freddy have been around for longer than I have. They wouldn’t have even MADE me if it hadn’t been what happened to Foxy!”
A hand extends towards her, offering a tissue. She miserably takes it, not even bothering to hide her face this time. Not like he hasn’t been watching her have a meltdown for the past fifteen minutes. “Nobody thinks I’m good enough to be on stage with them!”
Sun hums gently, tracing one of the stripes on his trousers with his finger. “That’s not true! I get SO many stars in the daycare come in and talk about how great you are! They think you’re the bees knees, sunshine!”
“They… they do?” The tissues started coming away clean a while ago, so her eye makeup must have completely wiped off by now. What a pathetic mess she must look. She’s so ashamed. If this guy tries telling anyone about this, she’ll take great pleasure in tearing his exoskeleton to pieces.
Oblivious to her ruminations, Sun just sways from side to side cheerfully. “Oh yes! Millie, Lola, Brandon, Tyler, Charlie! You’re their favourite! They draw loads of pictures of you- but I think they’re too shy to give them to you. I put them up in the daycare instead! And those are just the regular kids, there are so many more who drop by.”
Huh. Now isn’t that an interesting tidbit of information. She crumples up the tissue in her hand, turning it over and over as she thinks about it, the idea of having a little gang of admirers in the daycare pulling out the faintest of smiles from her. “You… you put them up? In the daycare? Why would you do that?”
A glow of yellow shines back against the neon purples of the lights on the wall. As she squints into the new source of light, she sees that it’s coming from Sun’s cheeks. Is that supposed to be a fucking blush?
His gaze slides to the side, avoiding her curious eyes as he plays with one of his rays. She catches herself wondering what material they’re made of, and has to mentally slap herself for even thinking such a dumb thing. It’s not like it’s important. “Y…eeeees? Why wouldn’t I? Hohoho! The kids worked so hard on them, after all!”
Wow. What a… dork. He’s literally the biggest dork in the entire pizzaplex. His dork levels outweigh even Freddy’s and that’s impressive. Roxy smirks, forgetting to be self conscious, the implications of his little slip up doing wonders for her ego. Who knew her fan base extended past a few kids? “That’s the only reason? I bet you’re secretly my biggest fan, aren’t you?”
She hits the mark apparently, if the rapid turn of his rays around his head are anything to go by. “Me?! No-ho-ho!” He squirms. Fidgets. “… Charlie’s the biggest.”
“So you admit you’re a fan.”
“I-I have respect for all the glamrocks!”
“Do you put the drawings of them that kids do up in the daycare?” This is too easy. Who programmed this guy to get worked up so easily?
Sun puffs himself up defensively. “Some of them! But sometimes the children want to keep them, you know!”
Pff. He’s so flustered. It’s- it’s- …oddly charming?
Roxy doesn’t even think before she tilts her head back and laughs, but not in the snarky way she’s grown accustomed to mocking the glamrocks or annoying brats with, a genuine, happy laugh that tickles her circuitry. When she refocuses on her sunny visitor again, he’s looking at her like she makes all the stars in the sky shine.
Why does that makes her circuits feel a bit weird?
She snorts, going to readjust a bunch of her hair that fell over her shoulder when she lost herself in giggles. No- not giggles, Roxanne wolf doesn’t giggle.
“You’re-“
Funny? Charming? Actually kind of nice? Not sassy enough. Not Roxanne enough.
“… Weird. ”
Sun’s grin falters, just the slightest amount, but enough for her to notice and feel bad. It’s not her fault though, right? This is how she’s meant to act, this is her whole programming, what else did he expect?
“Yes!~ …I get that a lot!” He fidgets with the ribbons around his wrists, bells jingling softly. “Though, I suppose you have to be a little bit weird to be able to play pretend with the little ones all the time!”
The jovial tone he’s had since he got here seems strained, and she senses she’s hit a nerve. Normally that would be a sign that she’s playing her part well, and playing her part well is all she’s meant to care about. So why do her wires feel so uncomfortable all of a sudden? Whatever. It’s too late to go back on it now, though. She won’t go back on it. “That makes sense. That’s why you’re so good at your job then.”
She had intended that to be a bit of praise, to soften the earlier blow, but she realises too late that actually, that’s, uh. Quite a backhanded compliment.
Sun nods, still fidgeting.
Fuck, this is her first time meeting the guy and he tries to be all kind, and she goes and screws it all up just like that. This is why she doesn’t have friends- or at least, not close friends. Not friends that she wants to talk to about her… emotions with. She’s not good enough to deserve that. She should just give up on this interaction now.
“The kids really seem to like you. Uh, a lot. At least, that’s what I hear.” She really has to open her mouth again, doesn’t she?
Luckily, this time the compliment seems to land true, and Sun perks up a little. “Oh, they say so? How sweet of them. I am very fond of all my little stars… sometimes it’s easy to feel that you’re forgotten about when you’re in the daycare all the time, though!”
Huh. So Sun-man’s got some insecurities of his own. Interesting. She must look a little too interested, because he abruptly jumps up like a pogo stick, dusting his- perfectly immaculate- trousers off with a warbled laugh. “Oh- oh, but enough about that. It seems that you’ve managed to make quite the mess in here, hm? Need a helping hand tidying up, new friend?”
Friend? That’s a bit much for a guy who spied on her and then pretty much fell face first into her room. Or maybe that’s just how he speaks to everyone. Probably, actually. She really needs to stop taking all this nice-ness to heart, it’s not like he means it. In fact, she’d be surprised if the techs even gave him the ability to be rude. Actually, after what he’s seen of her so far, it might just be pity. She doesn’t need pity. The tip of her tail flicks irritably, and his eyes dart to it, looking nervous.
That’s all the confirmation she needs. It’s either pity, or fear that’s making him stick around. He’s still being helpful, still being useful, so maybe it shouldn’t bother her as much as it does, but it really, really fucking does. Before she can stop it, a low growl rumbles from the back of her throat. “I don’t need your pity. I can clean it just fine on my own.”
“A-are you sure, friend? I certainly wouldn’t mind-“
“Do I have to tell you everything twice?” She feels her ears flatten against her head as her temper flares back up. “I don’t need help! Don’t you have work to do, anyway?”
He jolts. First she thinks it’s out of nerves, but then he clamps his hands to the sides of his head and starts babbling. “Oh no no no! I’m so sorry, Moony! I forgot you’re supposed to be on patrol…”
Moony? Who the fuck? Oh. Right. The attendants are literally joined at the hip, aren’t they? She didn’t realise that they were so aware of each other’s presence though. It must be hell to have someone in your head all the time; presumably if they can talk to each other like this, then they must be able to hear each other’s thoughts as well? Ugh. Roxy would rather be decommissioned.
Wait.
That means… did Moon hear all of her stupid ranting and crying too?! She’s just about to open her mouth to yell about it, when a scuffling noise snaps her attention back up to the vent, where she sees Sun is scuttling to. Without meaning to, her eyes trail down to the broken grate still on the floor. Perfect. Not.
He waves to her, head poking out the vent. “Sorry, friend! I- oh, I sure hope you feel better soon. Don’t listen to what that kid said, okay? She sounds like a big meanie. Ah-“ He tilts his head to one side as if he’s listening to something, before he becomes animated again. “We have to go now! Buh-bye!”
This can they seriously not stay still for two seconds?? “Hey wait-!“
Aaaand they’re gone.
She huffs with annoyance, staring at the empty space where the attendant was perched just a moment ago. On the bright side, now that they’re not actually here to hear her anymore, it helps her say the words she wanted to.
“…Thanks.”
And now she just has to hope that she never runs into him again.