Chapter Text
BEEP BEEP BEEP
“…’mm awake”
BEEP BEEP BEEP
“Ugh, ‘m awake”
BEEP BEEP BEEP
“I’m awake!”
Jesus Christ you hate this broken alarm, but it's the only thing that gets you up in the-
BEEP BEEP BEEP
You groan, thought half finished while groggily moving your arm to hit the ‘silent’ button on your alarm clock, and instead you hit the bedside table.
You pull back your arm, hissing in pain and cradling your right hand in your left, just your luck.
At least you are more awake now.
BEEP BEEP BEEP
This time, you look at the clock dazed but manage to turn it off with a more calculated hit, leaning back in bed before stretching a bit and taking a look at the time.
5:33 AM
Well, at least you’re up on time today, that doesn’t normally happen. You look out the window, the sun hasn’t risen yet but it's almost time for the morning ride. This time you can actually get stuff done beforehand, like watering your plants. It's been about a week so you should probably water most of them today.
Groaning tiredly, you make the very difficult decision to get out of bed before walking to your bathroom and brushing your teeth. You look at your reflection in the mirror and hope to yourself, today won’t be boring. Well, it's been fun ever since you moved to Arizona, to a very small town by the mountains… named Dolan Springs.
Honestly, you still can’t believe you managed to buy your own land, with help from family and friends of course, they all wanted to ‘support your dream of owning a greenhouse’, and you promised to make them ‘VIPs’ when it was finally open for the public. You giggle a bit remembering when your Godmother had originally said that.
You cough, semi-chocking on the toothpaste before you blink and realize you zoned out for a minute there. Spitting in the sink and rinsing out your mouth you start to plan out what you are going to do today.
First and foremost you’re going to get changed. You get into a comfy outfit, it's still summer so you don’t have to worry about freezing to death outside (well now you sorta have to worry about burning to death but that's a separate problem). You put on your favorite pair of overalls and a yellow T-shirt, which should be fine, and then brush out your hair.
You think for a moment before going with a bun, it's a messy one, but it doesn’t matter much since a normal one wouldn’t last anyway, then take a quick glance at the bed.
“Nahh I’m going to sleep in here tonight anyway.” You wave off making the bed. There's no point in doing it as people don’t come into your bedroom and you plan on sleeping in it tonight anyway.
Shrugging it off for later, you leave your room, passing by two different craft rooms on the journey to the kitchen, your specified arts and crafts room. Which of course still has multiple unfinished sticker paper sheets lying on the table, a painting that you haven’t tried to finish in a while, and some half-finished cardboard sea animals. You wince as you look inside and close the door. You can worry about that stuff later.
You look across the hall to the other open room, the designing room, which is filled with yarn and fabric of many colors, and a half-finished dress with a cape sitting on a shabby mannequin. It looks.. nice….
Hopefully you get to that soon because you actually like how the constellations look on the cape.
You make it to the kitchen, nothing fancy but also something big enough to host parties, god knows how your family loves to party and dance. You doubt you’d have family over soon though, they just came a couple of weeks ago anyway. Which reminds you…
You look at the large gash going from your thumb to the other side of your right hand, remembering the wire that was, unfortunately, sticking out of the piñata your aunt had brought. Your mom made a big deal out of it and it was sort of embarrassing, especially because it didn’t hurt, and also because you think the giant scar looks cool.
Then again you thought the grease-stained overalls and mechanic goggles you wore sometimes to shield your eyes made you look cooler too so…
Well, you had them custom-made and they were styled with steampunk elements, that sort of stuff always seemed impressive to you.
You blink and realize you zoned out again. That wasn’t going to do you any good when still wanted to get at least one chore done. Moving to quickly pour yourself some of your favorite cereal in a bowl before adding milk and eating it in a hurry.
Washing the dishes in the sink haphazardly you check the time, almost six, and then dry your hands. Grabbing your small decorated plastic watering can that your mom got you when you were younger, and taking it to your clean water tank to fill it up. Then you walk over to the giant window and open it, which regardless of the large amount of natural light, also has some grow lights set up because the plants in the area are cascading all over the place, and not many of them have access to the sun.
The sun is already rising, shoot.
Quickly you go over to your dry plants, like your Pothos and your Monstera, making sure not to water the succulents as they don’t need any yet. You get on your tiptoes to reach the vines you placed on the coat hanger you modified a while back, it left lots of room and also let you hang plants, which is a win in your book.
Somehow you managed to finish all of this before 6:10 so you go to your garage. Opening up the door just high enough for you to get your ATV out, you stop for a moment to smell the air, and you cough a bit.
Turns out last night's fire pit smelled much stronger than it normally does in the morning. Looks like someone either was too lazy to put it out right, or someone had a long night. You’ll be finding out soon enough.
Still somewhat coughing you try to waft the smell away with your hand, not that it does much, and look back at the 3d printers you had in the left corner.
It seems an important piece for your Iron Man mask printed well for once, you head over to its printer, click confirm on the screen, and turn it off, it needs a break, after all, it was printing all night.
You struggle to scrape it off, as always, you never know why that's always so hard for you to do. Probably because you suck at normal mundane tasks, and will continue to suck for the rest of your life so that's not too much of an issue.
Finally after some brute force, and the smallest of scrapes on your printing bed, which ouch that sucks, you take the supports off of the piece and throw it into your recycled filament box, which you will turn into filament again once you get to around a pound of scraps, and that honestly shouldn’t take too much longer.
You look at your other projects, some still printing, which was to be expected. Apparently, the Kirby planter will take another 5 hours to finish…
“Dang that's a long time, It's already been printing for about… 26 hours..”
You trail off, noticing your voice sounds a bit hoarse, and you clear your throat. Well, all 3D-printed things take time. You walk to the final printer and also struggle to take off the figure that just finished printing an hour ago, it looked cute so that’s the only reason you made it, never having seen the character before, that you can remember that is. It is a figure made to resemble the sun, with ruffles under its neck and a fluffy skirt, that much to your surprise actually printed well and without failing once-
In your struggle to free the figure, you break one of its fingers off. Well, that’s great. The rest is fine thank gosh but you aren’t about to print it all over again.
Checking over the body you see its chest had a couple of buttons, with its torso plate being slightly over its stomach. It has sun rays too, 9 of them, and its cheeks have swirls over them. The smile is a bit unsettling but overall you think the print is cute and you put it on your shelf, which showcases all of your 3D-printed minifigures and trinkets.
You take a step back, put your hands on your hips, and admire everything for a moment.
“Hey! Chucha! Stop being a weirdo and hurry up!”
You yelp, jumping slightly as you rapidly swivel around to see Maddy, your cousin, who is about to go on her morning ride it seems, and is as annoying as ever. (which is thought of with love because you don’t actually hate her. That much)
You calm yourself and roll your eyes, hand clutching your chest. “Don’t call me Chucha! Also, I’m not being weird, you’re the one watching me, you uh... you stalker!” You pause for a moment before whispering “Chango” and smirking a bit at the sour look she gives you. Two can play this game.
“Oh wow, you’re being racist now are you?” My cousin crosses her arms and cocks her hip, trying to look intimidating, but you see her act like this all the time and honestly, now it just looks silly.
You turn to your ATV and start getting on, making sure it's in park before you actually start the engine. “How is it racist if I'm Mexican though?”
You look at her, the engine of your ATV roaring to life, she isn’t surprised, just goes back to her ATV, turns off the break, and says what she always does to retaliate against my response.
“You’re still being a racist! Whitewashed kid!” She huffs at the end, proving that she was just messing around and we start to giggle “Well alright then Mono” She puts emphasis on the Mono, and pauses for a moment before speaking again.
“Uli is waiting for us, and I'm not gonna lie, you were a bit slow there, I’m not sure if Monkey would be a good name for you, definitely not anything fast. Caracol definitely works through”
She smirks at you, and you just stare at her in disbelief, before leaning your body closer to the ATV and zooming past her and through the gate that your other cousin, Uli, had just opened.
“IF YOU’RE GONNA CALL ME A SNAIL THEN PREPARE TO EAT MY DUST PENDEJA!” You shout hoping that she’d hear your words, even then there's not a very good chance of that, as you already made it off of the property, turning right so that your ride would go closer to the mountains.
You think she heard you though, turning to steal a quick glance at her, yep she doesn’t seem very pleased and she's also going faster. So you turn back around waiting to see the plot with lots of potted trees and bushes, once you do, you slow down a bit, you guys are coming up on a turn and you would very much not like to flip over. You turn right again, intending to go the long way down the dirt path. But you don’t speed up too much as the next one would happen rather quickly, and this time you take a left.
Now that the path goes straight for a while, it's time to go fast.
You push down on the gas switch and you are zooming off. The roar of the engine sounds like music to your ears. Mostly focused on the terrain as there are many large rocks on this portion of the track, which make it a lot harder to drive safely, barely registering that you’re clocking in at 60 miles per hour. You have to be very careful though, if the steering jerks too much you will get sent flying. And you’re not sure you want to die yet, you still have to finish your greenhouse, and complete all of your life goals. These are probably never gonna actually happen but still, you gotta try. Also, not so good, but you forgot to say good morning to the construction workers… you’ll do that when you get back.
Eventually, after a few turns, a winding path, a downhill, slowing down, and praying for life in your head, you make it to the gray house.
This is the house. The house, with the uneven roads.
Going fast here would result in flying on the road for a good moment, and that’s exactly what you want. Speeding up as fast as you can and leaning your body against the ATV, you start going at 60 again, and you make it to the house. Just as always, you go flying in the air, your hold on the steering and your lower leg around the seat are the only things keeping you from flying off the ATV completely. The feeling of flying is so death-defying and exhilarating.
And you absolutely love it.
And just as fast as the flying started, it ends, and you are rapidly approaching a bigger street. You look behind yourself and see that your cousins are colored dots in the background, perfect.
Once you see the street signs ahead you stop completely, checking for cars as they tend to come in more in the morning, because usually the people come to tend to their land here in the mornings.
You turn right again and see someone standing on their land, the one to your right, and you wave at them, and they wave back.
You smile at each other before you get on your way again, they leave your sight, and you’re almost back at your land.
Waving at strangers may seem strange, but it's smart to be nice to people here, you don’t ever want to end up on private property by accident and get shot by the owner… especially because that’s legal-
You shake your head a bit to dispel the thought, as you turn right and move forward for a few plots before making it back to your land. Slowing down and opening the gate to go inside, closing it, and heading to the construction sight of where your greenhouse is being made at this very moment.
You get off of the ATV and greet the workers, offering to give them something to eat or to go into your home once they are on their break. They smile, thank you for the generous offer, and go back to work.
You know that isn’t typical of people to offer them anything, you are well aware, but they have been really nice since they started working here. And some of them are really funny and they even helped you with stuff outside of your contract, so you honestly feel like you owe them. You get back on the ATV and go out the gate again, now waiting for your cousins to show up, and they don’t take too long.
“What did I tell you Maddy, eat my dust.”
You smirk, pleased to know you won the small unspoken bet you two had.
She looks at you, somewhat annoyed, and rolls her eyes, “Yea yea sure, this time at least.”
“Well I'm going again so I’ll see you two in a minute.” You wave them off and start heading down the path again, but this time instead of turning right at the end you go left, hoping to find machine bits again, like you do every few days. Your last find was a microwave, all the nuts were taken out, which was strange, but hey free metal and some wires so you aren’t complaining.
(Tw, description of departed)
As you go down the path you see a dead sheep, you didn’t see it on this path yesterday night. Pausing momentarily to look at it. It had a branding mark you haven’t seen before in this area, a very fancy-looking A. It mostly looked fresh, the wooled skin still on but it looked dry, and it was emptied completely from its stomach, the bones of its ribs, spine, and face visible. As you inspect the head you see the rope around its neck. It looked like an endoskeleton, one of a robot practically. Poor thing must’ve been sick.
Saddened somewhat by the thought but also fascinated, you stare at the sheep a bit longer, the skull honestly looks a bit cool, maybe if you come back with gloves? No, you can’t do that, seems a bit insensitive. Shaking your thoughts away you move forward once more.
That is until a large shiny disk blinds you.
You swerve off the path and slam your foot on the break, centimeters from crashing into a large spiky plant.
You pause to catch your breath for a moment, calming your racing heart before putting the ATV in park and getting off to look at what blinded you this time.
The disk- well, you thought it was a shiny disk until you take a closer look and realize it’s a… face? The face of an automation or a robot, it’s hard to tell but it was definitely a robot at some point. Now it’s just garbage.
People are always throwing machine parts outside, and you like to collect them. You love bringing back garbage to your garage and fixing it, and just because this one is, in the nicest way, creepy, doesn’t mean you won't also bring it back.
So you do, obviously. Placing a shaking hand on the shift and setting the ATV to park, you start looking at the entity as you get down. Needing to put in a good bit of effort when you carry it because it's really heavy, which is surprising because you're only carrying its torso. Then again... its insides look surprisingly clean and even in somewhat really good condition.
A quick look into the areas where the joints should be shows that the robot has most of the pieces intact. The only major issue would be putting the limbs back together and cleaning the casing of it up.
You put it in the storage bin on your ATV, being careful not to damage anything, and go back to the rest of the body parts, picking up the arms and the legs and doing the same thing.
Then you are left with its head, which looks very, very, unsettling.
An involuntary shiver runs down your spine.
Well, you already put the rest of the body in your storage so might as well. Also, he looks familiar for some reason…
You take a picture of it, as you always do when you find something, and post it on your Instagram, which is mostly family, and some of your friends, captioning it, “You would never believe what I found today! I have no clue who or what it is, but if you guys know please tell me. All I know is it’s a robot so I'm going to try to fix this thing up! :D”
You post it, and don’t bother to check if it actually loaded or not, it doesn’t really matter there's no internet this far out anyway, so you should probably get back to your house.
You take one last look at where you found it and see the shifted sand making a line leading somewhere in the distance. It looks like human footprints. There are also bolts, fabric, and… bells?
Well, that’s a strange thing to find, and with an animatronic, never have you found these before with anything…
You pick up everything, even the bells because why not, and put the rest of the stuff in your trunk. You close it and make sure it locks, then get back on your ATV.
You are off again, this time much slower and you go on a smoother path that’s off to the side of the original one you took, you didn’t take that one before because you like flying over the bumps, but now you wouldn’t want to jostle around the newest addition to your fixer up projects. Not that it could really be that much more broken.
You make it back to the turn and go right, going past the other plots of land before making it to yours. You see Uli and call for him to open the gate, seeing as he’s close to the front, and you don’t want to have to get off of the ATV.
He opens the gate for you, and you race to your garage careful of dirt mounds without sparring a second glace, he would’ve asked why you were so eager but the moment you entered the gate your phone had connected to the internet, and he got a notification about the post you made, which answered his question because you were always excited about bringing random scraps back.
You hear him call for Maddy, probably so the two of them can help set up your newest find in the garage for you to work on it. They are always helpful when it comes to these sorts of things.
You get back inside and turn off your ATV, jumping off and opening the trunk. A tiny cloud of sand comes out, and you swat at it. Dang, this little guy is dirty, well he’s not little but you get the point.
Maddy and Uli enter the garage, you think they sound excited too.
“Did you really find Sun on the side of the road?!” Maddy yells, yep they are definitely excited, wait-
“Who is Sun?” You say as you turn to look at them confused.
Maddy facepalms and Uli’s mouth drops open.
Uli looks at you incredulously, “You mean to tell us that you, lover of all things robots, and also plants,” he tacked on, “have no idea what you just found?! How? Like- What?!” he spluttered.
“Uhh, yes?” You really don’t know who in the world is Sun. “Wait a minute, that’s the figure I printed this morning!” You run to your shelf and grab the small Sun, now you realize a part of the reason why he looks familiar, now what's the other thing.
“Well that is a crazy coincidence, but also no” Maddy walks over and grabs the figurine. “You sure you reallyyyyy don’t remember him from anywhere? Like, oh I don't know, one Mega Pizza Plex?”
You pause and squint your eyes.
“Mega Pizza Plex?”
It sounds familiar, actually, you remember going there when you were younger. It was a giant mall with attractions, you can remember the laser tag and the go-carts…
But what else was there?
…
“Ohh wait! You mean the place with the giant animatronics!” You think that’s the place, there were 4, or at least that you remember, the bear guy, the chicken lady, the gocart wolf, and that one bass player gator.
Maddy looks excited, “YES! But there’s a bit more-“ she holds her hands out, gesturing for me to continue.
“Umm… There were a lot of… specialized areas?” You are trying to remember but honestly, it’s just not coming to mind.
Uli does a so-so motion with his hands, “Well close I guess? There was a daycare too. Remember we only went there once 'cause we were too old, so we were sorta passing by, but it looked, like a play place inside.” Uli started looking for something on his phone, and when found it he turned it around for you to see.
“Remember? This guy-“
You crane your neck to see the screen and your eyes widen in realization. “OH MY GODS- IT'S THE DAYCARE ATTENDANT THAT-“
“Talked with your mom about Reily-”
“HELPED ME WHEN I GOT LOST”
“-wait wait.”
”-wait what.”
Maddy stopped “What do you mean when you got lost?
You were confused too. “What do you mean he talked to Ma about my brother?”
She was surprised and somewhat taken aback. “Remember?” she starts slowly, “When Reily was in preschool we went to the Plex, and Tia and Tio thought that Reily would be hard to take care of while you guys were there. So we all went to the daycare and they talked with Sun at the gate entrance just to be sure he would be safe with the attendant.”
You remember that now. “Ohh right! And then I got lost because I thought it was cool inside the daycare, and then you guys left me.” You give a pointed look at your cousins, but they can tell you are just messing with them, mostly.
“Haha… yeah we did. But we apologized after, I think,” Maddy looks down a bit and squints her eyes, “Yeah I’m pretty sure.”
You snort, “Yeah I’m pretty sure too. But don’t you ever wonder how I even found you guys in such a huge place?”
Maddy looks back at you guys again. “Kind of, you sorta appeared out of nowhere, but honesty we are used to that-”
“Yea tend to be like a ghost, appearing in random spots or whatever.” Uli cuts her off and wiggles his fingers imitating a ‘ghost’.
“Well, basically I found my way inside, which I’m sure Sun noticed because right when Ma left, he went straight to me. Then he picked me up and twirled me in the air saying somethin’ like ‘Little girl, you're not supposed to be here!’ And then he asked me where my family was. He realized pretty quick it was the one that just left, so he called over a security person, she was blond I think, and he asked her to help me. Guess he couldn’t leave because of the other kids.”
You pause to take a breath, deep in thought. “She asked me what you guys looked like, and I described Ma and Papi I think. She talked with security bots, probably to help me find you. Then we left the daycare and you guys were right outside. I think she was leading me to a personnel-only door but then I saw you guys and you guys saw me so I ran to you.”
They pause, sharing a look. “Do you… Do you remember hearing about the kids that went missing there?”
“Yeah of course I do, they were all over the news. And there was also that one kid named... Greg? Or what was it... Gregory? The homeless kids right? Who set the place on fire just a week ago?” You wonder what that has to do with anything, you didn’t go missing and even then most of the kidnappings happened outside of the Plex.
“Well, they weren’t the only kids that went missing… It happened for a while before we ever started going.” Maddy looks uneasy.
“And what about it?” You really don’t see where they are going with this. It’s really random anyhow.
“They found the person who was behind it all last week when it went into flames- it was one of the only human security workers there.” She grabs Uli’s phone and starts typing something. “Look, here she is.” She hands the phone to you and you look at the image, it’s a blond woman, with a ponytail, dirt, and brown stuff all over her face, she looks familiar, and the plate under her hand reads, Vanessa Afton.
You pause
This was the woman who helped you. Well, you might question that thought a bit but you can’t deny they look very similar.
“Wait, she looked like the nice lady who owns the plot with the abandoned farm not too far off in that direction.” You point to the area that you guys are not allowed to go to with your ATVs on your own.
Your cousins look confused so you shake your head, never mind.
“Are you saying the security lady is the person behind the kidnapped kids then? You mean to suggest she was probably just going to take me backstage and I’d be gone forever?”
Well, you weren’t kidnapped thank the gods, and you were lucky your family didn’t have to go through with that.
“My gods, apparently she also tortured the kids and mutilated them. Some of them were found in old mascot costumes underneath an abandoned part of the Plex.. which are only accessible through personnel tunnels.”
You blink. “I’m sorry but what? Uh.. you know that I don’t want to talk about this anymore right now guys. So I’m just going to go fix up ‘Sun’ now, and hopefully, he’s not in cahoots with kidnappers. And also I don’t want to go down the rabbit hole of possible what-ifs right now.”
You turn back to the ATV, your cousins looking slightly guilty. Pulling some parts of Sun out, and onto the table next to you. You will not think about what could’ve happened, because it didn’t, you won't even remember about it tomorrow and it wasn’t important before, so it won’t be in your future.
Uli and Maddy pause for a moment, not that you notice, and exchange looks before going to help you. Maddy picks up an arm and somewhat struggles to get it out.
“Hey this thing is heavy, and it's just the arm too…”
“Oh don’t be silly, his head wasn’t that hard to carry.” You lift a skinny leg, what you assume is a thigh, and you don’t struggle, as much as Maddy did anyway. “See it’s not that hard.”
She gives you a pointed look while Uli takes out the torso. “Show-offs.” she huffs and crosses her arms over her chest. You and Uli laugh and continue taking out the pieces, placing them where you believe they will go.
You stare for a moment, “Woah, he’s really…”
“Freaky?” Maddy cuts you off.
“I was gonna say big, or well tall. But you know I guess that works too.” Honestly, if it weren't for the creepy smile you're sure he’d be a lot cuter. Well you mean, it’s not like he isn’t already adorable, the jester outfit and the sunrays and the little boots made him look silly.
You pause, not continuing that train of thought. No, the giant animatronic, is not adorable or cute or anything. Period-
“Are you okay? Your face is a bit red.”
You jump slightly, slamming your knee on the table making a slightly distressed noise as you double over. “NO!- I MEAN YES! Yes, I’m okay.” You say in a pained voice.
Maddy gives you a skeptical look. “Are you sure? Because you being jumpy is not normal. Did you overexert yourself carrying the parts~?” She is making fun of you… again, why are you not surprised.
You feel your face heat up a bit more significantly as you move to hold yourself up on the table, the injured knee lifted slightly. “What?! No of course not!”
She raises an eyebrow and gives you that look. “Sure sure. Cause if it isn’t that, then the only other possible answer is that you have a crush on the robot.”
You are taken aback, thinking you misheard her. “What? WAIT WHAT?! No?? Why would I-”
“Relax, Jesus I’m just messing with you. It’s always fun doing that.” She snorts. “Unless of course you actually do- then again you always respond like this to everything I tease you with so. But you know you can always trust me-”
“Last time she trusted you, well you told everyone about-”
You cut Uli off. “It’s fine, we don’t need to talk about him.” He continues, “But also I have to agree you are fun to mess with.” You stick out your tongue at the both of them, somewhat playfully, and Maddy gasps. Putting a hand over her chest and the other over her forehead. “You’ve wounded me! Bleh.”
“Oh no, whatever shall I do, my absolute most favorite cousin in the world.” You say sarcastically, and it earns you a pointed look from her. Giggling and rolling your eyes, you start getting all of the tools you need while Uli gets some rags and cleaning supplies from inside, and Maddy grabs the little bells and screws that were left over in the storage trunk.
“So…” She starts, and a pause fills the room with an awkward silence. “So?” You answer confused as you set your tools down on the table next to the one Sun is spread out on, and lean on it slightly.
She takes an audible breath and walks over to you, putting her hand on your shoulder and looking into your eyes, hers look guilty? The action is starting to make you both uneasy and uncomfortable. “What… is up?” She squints, pulling back and eyeing you up and down she sighs. “Nothing, never mind”
She drops all of the smaller objects into a small tray on the desk and picks up part of the ruined ribbon attached to one of the bells. And then hands you the sun figure that she grabbed a few minutes ago. You stare at its beady little eyes and take a breath, ignoring your cousin's strange behavior as you put the figurine back on the shelf.
“Well then guys. I’d say, it’s time to get building.”