Chapter Text
An alarm blares into my ears and, annoyingly, tears me from whatever dream I was having. I fumble through the pile of blankets and pillows on my bed, practically digging through it trying to shut it up, only to wake up more and realize it isn't even in the bed. It's on the floor. I almost fall off the bed trying to grab at it and, when I finally get my hands on the damn thing, I shut off the alarm and toss the phone in some vague direction.
Good god, why do I have to wake up for work? And it's like.... 1pm. That's so early, what kind of torture is that?
After at least 20 minutes, I finally drag myself out of the very comfortable glue trap that my bed may as well be. I throw my hair into something that is, in fact, not a messy bun (my haircut is botched and far too short for that) but instead some kind of pathetic ponytail. It doesn't really do much for getting anything out of my face, but my manager would kill me if I dare show up to work with my hair down.
I pretty much zone out in exhaustion until I'm actually ready for work. At some point I put my uniform on, just couldn't tell you when. Thing is, though, when I went downstairs I got knocked out of my thoughts by the fact that my mom was standing right in the kitchen. She stares at me with some strange look... smug? Annoyed? I'm confused.
"...What are you doing here, aren't you supposed to be at work?"
"Aren't you?" What kind of response is that?
"I'm on my way to work, yeah. That isn't really an answer though?"
"Just... making sure the transaction goes well." She proceeds to take a drag of a non-existent cigarette and I make the conscious choice to ignore it.
"Do we, like, have a repair man coming, or...?"
She doesn't respond and a knock comes from the front door.
"They're here," she says with a definitely fake raspy voice. "Open the door for them, won't you?"
I'm probably going to be late for work at this point, but whatever, sure I guess. What she didn't seem to think was important to mention, though, is that the person knocking on the door was not a person. It was a giant fucking bear, all plastic and robotic sounds and probably 7 feet tall at least. A man stands beside it, pulls out a piece of paper, and nods, muttering something like "Yeah, right place."
I stare at whatever is in front of me for a solid minute before turning to my mom and closing the door.
"Yeah, okay, what was that?"
"See, I told you that if you didn't leave that dead end job ya' got then I'd deal with it myself. I saw an ad on Facebook saying that the big pizza mall thing was hiring 'permanent employees', so I thought, 'Hey, they won't fire you, that's great!'"
"That's awful–"
"Shut up, I'm not finished. They said you were exactly what they were looking for!"
"They want a random young adult that isn't going to college and struggles to keep a job?"
"I don't ask questions. But yeah, they said they'll give me 5k upfront for payment, it's a great deal."
"That sounds wildly illegal."
"Well, I need to finish paying my part of the childcare bills, so this is what's going on." She puts out the cigarette that she does not have (dangit, I forgot I'm meant to ignore that) and lightly pushes me towards the door again.
"Go on, start your new journey or whatever.”
—-
Turns out a metal bear isn't the most pleasant thing to share a car with. I do not know how that thing fit into the car, honestly, but according to the strange man they bring it along to "make the situation less scary". I told him it didn't work and he just shrugged, and the bear – apparently named Freddy? — turned to look at me like it understood exactly what I said.
Thankfully, before it could murder me for calling it scary, we arrived at the weird pizzeria/mall/corporation hellscape. It looked terrifyingly large, and I still didn't even know what I was meant to be doing in this building. I'm still wearing a fast food restaurant shirt. When I entered the building I was absolutely attacked by blasting pop music (normal for malls, I guess?) and surprisingly fluorescent lighting.
Before my eyes could fully adjust to the lighting, the man told Freddy something about getting a shirt from lost and found then taking the new “ employee ” (why did he say it so heavily quoted???) to the daycare.
“Okay whatever your name is – I don’t get paid enough to care – Freddy’s gonna get you a more on brand shirt, then it's straight to work for you.”
“What am I even doing exactly?”
“Hope you can deal with children. I have more important things to do so good luck, welcome to the family, this is your home now, basic company greeting bullshit.”
As the weird man walks away, I turn to Freddy in a ‘what the fuck is happening' way and it shrugs like this is normal (I’m already acting like this robot is alive, I’ll go crazy at this rate…)
“Mark has issues, don’t mind what he says. Based on what he said, I assume you may be working in our Superstar Daycare. I would show you around myself, but I sadly have tasks of my own to be completed before the next performance, so we must be quick.”
“Yeah, that… works, I guess.” How the hell is a robot trying to have a conversation with me right now? Is this normal?
Thankfully this shirt isn’t the most uncomfortable thing ever. At least I'm only stuck in this till I get to go home for the day; actually, wait, I don’t know when that is… maybe whoever’s in charge of the daycare knows? Speaking of the Daycare, it's somehow more vibrant and bright than the entrance, and there's some odd tune playing in the background (forget talking to robots, I might actually go insane if this plays constantly). No one said where to go, so I just opt for the slide (not like anyone could stop me). The “slide into fun” sign better not be lying.
Entering the daycare is the most aggressive whiplash I've felt in a long while. First off, it's not every day you can slide into your (maybe) workplace, and that alone brings me so much joy. However, secondly, this daycare feels like the exact opposite of the world as I know it. Sure, I saw it from the outside, but you don't actually realize how large and colorful it is until you actually enter it. Hardly anything is dull in color – the only thing that breaks the pattern is the computer desk that I assume someone sometimes works at. Emphasis on sometimes.
The floor is soft, supposedly so that random children don't fall over and get concussed while there's no adults around. That begs the other question, who takes care of this place? It is an utterly terrible idea to leave small, stupid children around where they would so insanely easily get hurt. I mean, there are literally wires on the floor, huge thick ones that lead into the various play areas. And I haven’t seen a single human employee since that Mark weirdo, and –
What the hell is that. There is a weird, lanky thing (animatronic??) doing what I assume is its best attempt at hiding and watching me. It's practically unmoving minus the occasional head tilt and, along with it, its weird head triangles moving. It takes a second to realize I've made eye contact with it, and proceeds to get so freaked out that it knocks over the tower of barrel-shaped things it was hiding behind, revealing its sun-like appearance. That explains one half of the sun and moon themed marketing everywhere.
It proceeds to frantically put everything back into a nice little stack, stare at it as if trying to remember what it was doing before, and then hide itself behind it again. It continues to look at me with its blank, inexpressive eyes, and that just makes me more confused.
“...You know I can see you, right? Your weird little ray things stick out too much for that to work.” I don't even know if this thing knows human language or can respond in any way, but hey, why not tr-
“Are you a new employee?”
Well shoot, guess all of my preconceived notions and ideas don't mean anything here.
“I think? I don’t actually know what I'm doing, how much I'm being paid, when I'm meant to clock in or leave, really anything at all.”
It doesn't respond, just tilts its head at me. I consider for a moment that it could be a child itself, somehow in some kind of mascot costume, until I really take a moment to look at its proportions. It is terrifyingly tall, its legs seeming to make up over half its body, its arms probably being similarly long (it's hard to see with its current… location.) Also, the head is so large in comparison to the rest of the body that I would be shocked if it didn't topple over at least a few times a day.
“....Is there anyone here that I could talk to?”
It shakes its head at me (how helpful) and continues staring like a scared animal.
“Who watches the kids then?”
“Me,” it croaks out. “Oh – and Moon, of course.” Well, that's the other half of the branding explained. Nice.
“Would this ‘Moon’ guy know what I’m meant to do?”
It perks up just a little bit. “Probably more than me, and – and actually, he might be able to find something for you to do. He’s always complaining about needing help during naptime.” It pauses and looks away from me, up to a balcony far from the entrance, then to the floor. “You’ll have to sit around and wait a little, though.”
“Oh, uh… is it busy?”
“Oh, no – I mean, sort of? – he’s – you know?”
I just tilt my head to the side confused (what does it mean by “you know”??)
It comes out from behind the tower of barrels, its rays shifting in a way that makes me feel like it’s confused in some way. “Have you never been to the daycare before? Or, I don’t know, in the Pizzaplex in general?”
Oops, was it that obvious? “Nah, my parents could never afford that sort of stuff. It’s my first time being in the building.”
Suddenly, its demeanor changes almost entirely, standing up taller and body language shifting.
“Oh, you’re new, you’re new! I am so so so soo sorry – I should be showing you around, telling you about my friends, cleaning up the place and making it as fun as we can!” Under its breath I hear it muttering something like “Fazbear co. meanies,” and “Too young to be corporate or a mechanic, too nice to be a manager… new security or helper, they’ve gotta be!”
It turns away and begins to clean frantically (the place is barely dirty, not sure what else there is to clean) leaving me at the entrance, dazed and confused.
After a moment, it swivels back towards me. “OH! I forgot to introduce myself! I’m Sundrop, but you can call me Sun, Sunny, Sunrise, Mr. Sun, Ms. Sun (Mg. Sun perchance!), Sunset, Sunlight – once a kid only called me Apollo for some reason – but that's besides the point! What's your name, new friend? Wait – are you a new friend? Do you like glitter glue? Fizzy Fazz? Arts and crafts? Googly eyes??”
No wonder his yellow candy is energizing, I didn’t even process most of that.
“I – (what is happening what is happening) – glitter glue is okay, I guess, crafts are fun. And I don’t know what fizzy fazz is.”
“ Oh-kay?? Just okay?! Oh no no no no no, that can’t be, you must have not tried our Sundrop and Moondrop flavored glitter glue! It’s more than just okay!”
Fucking – flavored?? Who flavors glue?
My instincts tell me to grab its – his? – arm and get him to snap out of whatever introductory rant he’s going on, but my better judgment reminds me I’ll probably get pinched by some uncovered joint. I’m not sure how this thing is safe to keep around children, but I don’t think Fazbears is safe, end of sentence.
“Hey, woah, okay, I know you’re excited and all that, but I’m not even sure if this is where I’m working yet. I need some kind of authority, some guy in control who knows what—-”
“No you don’t! Not here! This is a no adult zone , except for our friends!”
“Well can I talk to one of your friends that might happen to know anything about my predicament?”
Its rays shrink in a bit, just barely noticeable. “Wellll, our friends don’t visit a bunch soooo it’ll just be you, me and Moon. Oh, and probably some staff bots!” I might just be overthinking, but that first bit sounded like a lie.
“....Great.”
Suddenly, he takes my arm and starts dragging me away from the entrance with an amount of strength that is just slightly concerning.
“Nevermind any of that!! If you’ll be helping us and spending all your time here, you’ll need to know your way around! Come, come, there’s a lot to see, new friend! We’ll find your favorite snacks and toys and activities and have all the fun in the world!”
—-----------------------------------------
Jeez, that took for-fucking-ever. How can a robot even talk that much with hardly any breaks? At least his voice isn't terribly screechy, just higher pitch than I’m used to — he works with kids though, so that makes sense — otherwise my ears might be bleeding. Speaking of, where are the kids? Shouldn’t there be a herd of them or something?
“Soooo, are you excited? I sure am!!” Sun turns around to face me, very expecting of an answer. Oh shit, I wasn’t paying attention, what did he say?
“..Yep, very excited to…”
“To meet all the little stars! Oh you’ll just love them, they're so fun to play with! Oh, and they tell the best jokes (besides yours truly of course)!” He’s clearly not patient enough to wait for me to finish my sentence, but that works out in my favour here.
“I guess? Where are th-”
“Hold on just one little moment our new starshine, I just remembered I have a very important craft task to complete!!”
“Craft task??”
“It's no funny business friend! The art supplies call to me, so you’ll have to help Moo– HEY, WHAT'S THAT!?” He points to something behind me dramatically, doing his best attempt at a “shocked expression” (which is just all his rays sticking out as far as they’ll go).
I hesitate but he doesn’t move, and wow, that’s a level of dramatics I’ve just got to believe. Give me a second.
There’s nothing there.
Just before I can turn back, there is a loud as hell crash, the lights go out, and suddenly a very different robot is standing where Sun just was. What the hell? How the hell?? I was looking at Sun literally 10 seconds ago, no way can he run that fast. Now it's dark, though, and the night themed guy is here, so I guess the logic works. On the why, not at all the how.
“Nice to officially meet you. I’m sure Sun has told you about me already.”
“Somewhat? You’re the Moon guy, right?” It takes me a second to realize I am blinking aggressively. That probably looks weird. “Sorry, my eyes are still adjusting a bit.”
“I can tell.”
“Yeah, why are you glowing so blindingly ?”
“Do you want me – the large and (reportedly) terrifying robot – to be hard to see by the children? That’s how you get a screaming and crying child, and I’m not the one who knows how to deal with that.”
“...Right.”
There’s a second of awkward silence as I try to figure out what exactly my life is becoming. These robots sound human, act human, hell even sort of look human if you ignore the proportions.
Moon glances around, as if trying to figure out what has got me so entranced in thought, before looking me up and down. I’m going to assume he’s appraising me for danger. He looks like a scary-guard-dog type.
“Are you going to keep staring orr..?” He tilts his head to the side, just like Sun does. Am I being judged, or is he also just curious? Wait, I zoned out again.
“..Sorry, just thinking about things.”
“I can’t blame you. I would be too if I were you. Well, either way, the little stars – I’m assuming you know that’s the kids? – are supposed to be here soon. Head back to the main play area and I’ll go grab all the naptime supplies.”
“Yeah, where have they been? And what am I meant to do when they get here? Are there any human employees around here? None of my questions about anything have been answered.”
Moon – doing the thing I predicted the absolute least – does a shhhh gesture at me, gets picked up by a wire I didn’t even know was connected to his back, and swims through the air towards another area of the daycare. Did I take LSD or some shit?
He seems to notice my confusion but wrongly assumes what it's about, and points me to the main play area. Actually, no, that might’ve been helpful, because I actually can’t see what direction it's in without him directly pointing it out. I think I should get some kind of light source that isn’t this robot.
“Hey!” I yell up at him. “Do you guys, like, have flashlights? Anywhere?”
“We have Fazzlights, ” he responds, pointing… a direction (I have no clue what he’s pointing at, honestly). “Also, don’t you own a phone?”
“Right, yes, yeah, forgot I had that with me.” I pull out my phone, half intending to flash it at him for being a nuisance, but by then he's already gone and his lights shut off. As far as I’m concerned, he just turned his own version of invisible.
In that main play area I notice new piles of various blankets, pillows, sleeping bags, plushies… some are branded with Faz. Inc characters, but not all of them, so I assume these belong to the individual children. I also can’t help but notice two somewhat large plushies of Sun and Moon, and part of me questions where I can get something like that. They’re probably, like, 90$ though and I clearly don’t have money. Look at my situation. (Maybe stealing from the store is on the table…)
Next to each pile is a small paper with names written in unbelievably terrible handwriting, along with little doodles all around them. Small, cute drawings of what I assume are things each kid likes or is associated with. A cat next to someone's cat plush, extra stars next to someone who clearly has Moon favoritism. Okay, guess I give these to the children.
Oh god, I have to interact with children, like I’m qualified for this. And by the sounds of it, there’s a horde of them coming from the entrance. In the corner of my eye I suddenly see Moon, lighting up once again and swaying back and forth as he waits. Majority of the children scurry up to Moon talking excitedly about their days and asking about Sun, he explains it away as Sun preparing some activities for later. A couple of the more tired looking ones curiously approach me in search of their naptime items, making grabby hands at what’s theirs.
“Are you new?” One child speaks up, and suddenly I’m being surrounded by way more children than I’ve spoken to before.
“What's your name?”
“Why are you here?”
“Can I have my plushie?”
“Are you Mg. Moon’s friend?”
“Uhh..” Seems like Sun has rubbed off on these kids. “I’m a helper…?” I look over at Moon for help, except he just seems entertained.
“What are you gonna help with?”
“Are you going to play games with us?”
“Grown-ups usually don’t want to play!” A child argues.
“Well, they seem nice!”
“Don’t flood them with questions,” Moon interrupts. Somehow, all the chattering dies down once he starts talking. “You’ll all get to see their introduction after your nap.”
A chorus of “aww”s comes from the children, a few of them muttering “I am tired..” or “Yeah guys!”.
I feel a tug on my shirt and look down to see a small, seemingly nervous little girl looking up at me.
“I can’t find my blankie… can you help?”
“Oh! Um… (act professional act smart act like you know what you’re doing) What’s your name? I’ll be able to find it.” Well, I hope I will at least. That would be very awkward if I couldn’t.
“Don’t worry, little star,” Moon comes up from behind me, where I assume he was probably listening in to the conversation, holding a blanket. “I’ve got it right here. See, it's got Roxy.”
“Roxy!” She squeals, taking it out of Moon’s hands and holding it tight, then runs away to go say hi to some other kids. Moon watches, and part of me thinks he’s pleased or endeared in some way.
“Do you guys even, like, need me?” I question quietly, hoping to not seem so obviously unsure around the children. “You seem pretty good at this.”
“Some days are more difficult than others,” he responds simply, before walking off towards where I think a bookshelf is. I still can’t really see. I finish handing out the comfort items and see Moon return with a couple of well worn books in his arms.
“Alright, my stars, it’s time for storytime! Oh no,” he does a dramatic worried pose, and I stifle a laugh. “I’m having a hard time picking what we should read today. Our new friend over here has never been here for storytime, so we need to pick the best story! What do you guys think they’d want to hear?”
The children all collectively chatter, calling out names of books that I only slightly recognize. Moon glances around at them, clearly used to this.
“We should read The Very Hungry Chica!”
“Nooo, we read that yesterday! We should do Green Pizza and Cupcakes!” What?
“We haven’t read Bonnie’s White Shoes in ages!!”
Moon quickly looks over at the child who says that, almost in a panic. Half a second later, there’s crying.
“NOOOOO, NOT THAT ONE!” the kid cries dramatically. I look at Moon confused, but he just seems annoyed.
He moves over to the sobbing child, comforting them and trying to get them to calm down. “Hey, you know we don’t mention that book when Leo is here.”
“Well he’s a coward!”
The crying gets even louder and my ears hurt like hell. Is this really a common occurrence??
“Hey, that's not a nice thing to say. He can’t help what he’s scared of.”
All the other children have gone quiet, awkwardly looking at each other.
Moon looks up at me and points to where the pile of books up for being chosen is located. “Just go grab anything,” he says quietly. “Anything besides Bonnie's White Shoes.”
A grab at something random – Goodnight Moondrop. Fitting. I realize the reason I only sort of recognize all these books is because, apparently, these are all Faz Co. versions of normal kids books. Part of me wants to be surprised but unfortunately I’m not – I’m just sad these kids’ childhoods are built around Fazbear of all things. I hand the book to Moon, who has seemed to successfully calm down the crying child and scold the one who brought it up. He takes it with a smile – wait, pause, he’s always smiling, nevermind.
Either way, he seems happy to finally sit down and get reading. He shushes them all and does some kind of signal for them all to sit down.
“You little ones always make great storybook suggestions! Everyone circle up, make sure to leave room for others.” He turns to me and holds out all of the books that weren’t chosen. “Hey, starshine, could you put the rest of these away? You can set them on top of the bookshelf. Sun will probably sort them back properly once he's around again.”
“Yeah, I can do that.” I take the books from his hands, almost dropping them everywhere, and Moon returns to calming down the once again hyperactive children who are all somehow struggling to sit down.
Moon settles himself down onto the floor, opening up one of those cardboard kids books, the cover being covered in stars (apparently, that's his signature thing) and the edges worn soft. He flips through it and shows the title page like he's got this entire process down by heart. Which, yeah, it would make sense that he does, actually.
As he starts to read out every part of it with seemingly memorized intonations, I sit down next to him, just a little awkward. Would the kids want me around during their nap time? Real question, does Moon ? Well, neither have said anything about me leaving, so I'm going to assume this is fine. I will say, I get why kids like this stuff. I wish I had naptime and story time.
I'm not really paying attention to the story, honestly. Something about the other animatronics and nighttime and lots of rhymes -- normal kids book stuff. What I care about is that this is an easy moment to really sit and think about what the hell has happened. Some nice zoning out time, perhaps. Time to stare into the void (or, more accurately, the floor).
I don't realize he closed the book until his lights shift to be softer and he places it to the side. Weirdly enough, he sighs, and I'm left to question if he breathes or just has that programmed into him. The daycare is silent now, contrasting the usual constant music in a way that makes everything seem a little bit empty currently. Which, it totally isn't, there's at least 30 children and also a weird robot... thing... but still. I don't think he counts as something "awake" either.
Moon shuffles from his criss-cross sitting position and does a full body stretch, then turns to me.
"Questions?" he says bluntly.
“What?”
“Do you have them?”
"Oh –" I struggle to grasp the words for a moment. "Well – yeah, I do have some. Do you know the details of the whole 'permanent employment'?"
Moon hesitates. Part of me wonders if he's trying to remember before I force myself to remember he's a robot , that's not really how this works. "Not everything , but I do know it's one of Fazbear's more... illegal maneuvers."
"Yeah, no, I gathered that."
"And they mean it when they say permanent. You live here."
Now that's new.
"From what I know, you can't leave without permission either," he continues. "As I said, all of this is extremely illegal, but Fazbear's doesn't really care. They can pay off anyone to be quiet."
There's silence for a moment and I stare at my hands. What have I been put into.
Moon taps me, jolting me awake from my sudden existential ponder. Boring.
Turns out there's a good reason, because a child has woken up and found its way to us both, sitting themself down next to Moon.
"Can't sleep?" he asks, quiet enough to not wake up any of the others.
"Um..." the child looks away nervously, fidgeting with the blanket in their hands.
"You can tell me if something is wrong. That's why I'm here."
"I don't wanna tell you..." they say, then glance up at me. Oh shit. "I'll tell you."
Moon glances at me, a little confused, but he seems at least a little pleased that a child trusts me. They crawl over to me and do the thing where you cup your hands over someone's ear to whisper. I have to duck down for them to be able to reach me, it's a little funny.
"My -- my friend said that the, um, the children here get taken and possess the robots. And -- and they never come back..."
What am I meant to say to that?
"...Is that true?" Shoot, uh.
"No, of course not. They've never been mean to anyone! ( What do I say?? ) The animatronics love all of their friends."
Moon looks at me weird but nods, which I'm choosing to assume means I said the right things.
"Are you sure?" They whisper, looking up at me scared.
"Very sure." I am extremely not sure.
The child nods and scurries back to their bed, and silence follows.
Moon continues to stare at me as I watch the kid leave. I can sort of feel it – his eyes are boring into me. I realllyyy feel awkward about making eye contact now.
“Hey, so…” I try to begin before getting stuck in my thoughts, trying to figure out how I’m meant to word this. “Uh – they were – so, okay – shit –”
“Can’t say that.”
“ Shoot .”
“Better.”
…
“Are you dead?”
“The fuck?”