Chapter Text
Well. This was it.
Squinting up at the huge building in front of you, you let out a quick sigh.
Freddy Fazbear’s Mega Pizzaplex. Went bankrupt due to “unknown reasons”, but with the shit that Fazbear Entertainment has pulled in the past, you wouldn’t be surprised if it had a crime behind it. And you weren’t.
Apparently, a kid had gotten inside and messed with the animatronics; you had a few friends in high places who let some things slip to you.
Which is what led you to standing outside of the massive mall in the first place.
Your friend, Spike, had let you in on a few secrets over the years that they were head mechanic in the ‘Plex.
You two practically grew up together, attached at the hip for most of your lives. Got into the same interests and pursued similar careers.
It was a miracle that they managed to land a job at the Pizzaplex, but when you first heard you couldn’t help but worry.
It was no secret that Fazbear Entertainment didn’t particularly care about the safety of their employees, or their locations. Proper precautions never seemed to be put in place, judging by how many prior establishments had been closed over the years. A few even burned.
Weird how arson happened more than once…
You had even visited some of the earlier locations in your childhood. Fuzzy memories of the sticky tables and smell of mildew just underneath the scent of cheap pizza.
And, of course, you never forgot the robots.
The vacant stares and stiff movements, each action causing a sound that had flooded your senses with fear. Your body telling you to run, to hide behind your mother and garble out broken words through your tears.
But you were hushed just as other children had been, assured that it was alright. Tears wiped from your cheeks. All for the parents to gain a moment of rest.
Nothing had ever happened to you, but the ‘incidents’ you heard your parents talking about hushedly sometimes whenever birthdays rolled around didn’t go unnoticed by you. Too young to understand at the time, you were content with never having to go back to that horrible place again.
Yet you stand before the largest establishment of theirs yet, gearing yourself up to start walking towards the main entrance.
Spike had urged you to come check out the animatronic that they had been the main tech of, insisting that you had to see it for yourself and refusing to send any pictures. And being awfully vague about the whole thing in general. It was unlike them, and truthfully you were slightly worried.
So, you humored them, despite already knowing what to expect.
The same horrible and bolted to the floor robots that you remember from all those years ago. Maybe a bit smoother with their movement, possibly. You didn’t want to expect too much and then get disappointed. Or maybe be relieved. You’re fairly sure you can deal with the creepiness of the simple robots now that you are older anyways.
But Spike had been really hyped to show you, so here you were. Didn’t want to let your best friend down after all of these years.
Taking a deep breath, you steeled yourself as you slowly approached the doors.
Immediately after stepping in, you are blasted with all the lights and bright overstimulating colors of the Pizzaplex. Nothing like the old, dark pizzerias you had grown up with. No, this was something else entirely. This place was designed entirely to be a child magnet. And it was huge.
Closing your opening jaw with an audible clack, you take a deep breath through your nostrils, eyes closing. The scent of cheap pizza and harsh cleaner hits quickly and you choke, raising a hand to cover your nose.
It takes a few seconds for you to get your bearings again, squinting your eyes open to look around more.
The first thing you observe is the gates to what you presume is the Lobby, hardly paying attention to anything else as your curiosity is snagged by the huge golden statue that sat in the middle and the fountain that it accompanied.
Zeroing in on the giant bear, you quickly make your way through the gates and scurry up to the statue to inspect it. The bear that the statue was modeled after seemed to be caught in the middle of a performance, microphone and stand held in its hands and singing into it. The bear’s stance was wide, as if bracing itself. It even had a cute little tophat. This was the statue Spike had mentioned, right? Go past it, up the stairs, to the right.
Shrugging, you continue up the stairs, gawking at the synthetic palm trees as you walk under them. Everything was designed to be so bright and overstimulating it made your stomach turn. Taking another deep breath, you are once again assaulted with the smell of cleaner and pizza. That didn’t help the turning of your stomach at all. Quickly, you turn right and look towards the red set of doors that had the signage “Superstar Daycare Pick-Up” and double check your phone, tapping through the messages you had with Spike. It takes you a few seconds, but you eventually find a picture of the set of doors that they advised you to go into. And sure enough, you had a match.
Taking one last look around the Lobby, just now noticing the Photo Booths in your overstimulated state, you pocket your phone and turn to pull open the doors. Immediately the lighting is softer, and you let out a sigh of relief. Pressing your hand against your forehead, you rub your face in an effort to stave off the inevitable headache you were most definitely going to have later. Damn Spike and them being so secretive, making you come into this place.
Looking at the wall to your immediate right, you are greeted with an entire wall dedicated to a “Superstar Daycare Pick-Up” sign that also had a leading arrow, as if the obvious one that was above the doors wasn’t enough.
Shaking your head, you continue walking until you are able to see even more signage, along with a few bear trashcans and various vending machines that were advertising a soft drink called “Fizzy Faz”. Briefly pausing, you inspect each of the characters and what flavors they represented.
Your brain was calm enough to recognize the bear character as the one who the statue was modeled after, appropriately assigned the orange flavor. In the same pose as the statue had been in. How positively interesting.
You didn’t pay attention long enough to soak in every detail, quickly moving your gaze over to the next vending machine in line. This one was pink in color and advertised a Pink Lemonade flavor, with a character that looked like a chicken holding a star-shaped guitar that was blue. You quickly decided she was the cuter of the two, before moving on to the final machine.
This one was green, with a Sour Lime flavor accompanied by a bright green alligator. At least, you assumed it was an alligator, but you couldn’t quite get a good view of the snout from here. Would a greedy company really take the time to model the difference between alligators and crocodiles? Probably not. The character’s mouth was open so you couldn’t even see how the teeth sat. Would it be able to close its mouth all the way with those chompers?
You sit there for a few minutes, spacing out while debating over alligator and crocodile differences before your phone vibrates in your pocket. Snapping out of your little trance, you quickly remember your main mission and get on the move again to hopefully not keep Spike waiting too long. You were almost at your destination, after all.
On your mission, you passed by yet another fountain and statue. Strange how that seemed to be a commonly recurring thing. While that was to your left, you slowed down slightly to glance to your right and observe the two large advertisements that took up portions of the wall. This place really was huge, and the longer you stayed in there the more you itched to get out. Still, you couldn’t help but admire the characters in the signs. “Sundrops” and “Moondrops” respectively. Their expressions tugged at your heart, and you didn’t fight off the smile that rose to your face. You much preferred these characters over the other ones you saw on the vending machines. The designs weren’t as in your face, and the color palette of the art had a certain soft appeal. And you quite liked the celestial vibe that they seemed to be going for.
Shame this place ended the way it did, truly.
Not.
Fazbear Entertainment in general left an acrid taste in your mouth, so many things wrong with them that it was a jumbled mess inside of your head. Especially after going through the trouble of actually rooting around through various media to separate truth from rumor. And the things you found left you angered, never wanting to interact with any Fazbear products again. Unlucky for you, Spike loved all things Fazbear. Which left you in a difficult situation.
It would be the same old animatronics, you’d act surprised, talk, then go home.
Then you would be able to sleep, and work on something miles more interesting tomorrow. You’re sure of it. You tinkered around with a lot of things, and sometimes were paid to build or repair robotics. Almost always having something to occupy your hands with, at the very least. A few personal projects too.
Lost in your head again, you almost miss the call of your name from further down the corridor.
Turning, you’re met with Spike waving their arms, a large smile on their face. It had been a while since you two had last seen each other, and your eyes quickly soaked up the new details about them.
Spike was still as tall as you remember, with seemingly even more piercings than the last time you had seen them. A new addition was sitting comfortably above both of their eyes, through their brows. The jewelry was black, as was the rest of the jewelry in their ears. Jet black hair was dyed a fiery red at the ends, shaggy and unkempt. Unusual for them, but maybe they had turned over some new leaves since you’d seen them last. Not your place to make judgement.
Newly added tattoos crept over their hands, some fingers blacked out. You winced, just imagining how painful that had to have been. And they did that willingly. Something you’d never understand, even if it was for their aesthetic. They did wear it quite well.
Rubbing your arms, you approach them slowly. That doesn’t seem to stop them from sweeping you into a fierce hug, though. Wheezing, you pat their back until they decide to set you down. Jeez, why did they have to squeeze so hard..
“Been a while, hasn’t it?” Their voice finally reaches you as you blink back to reality, shaking your nerves off.
“It has.”
Spike studies you for a few seconds, keeping quiet. It isn’t until after a few beats have passed that they awkwardly clear their throat and begin to slip into small pleasantries.
How you have been, how each other’s careers are going, why exactly Spike had been so secretive about the animatronic they had previously been assigned to. Frustratingly, they still refused to give out too many details and simply told you to wait. You didn’t want to wait, you wanted to get the fuck out of here as soon as possible.
“I promise you, it’s worth the wait.” That smug smile was still on their face, and it quietly irked you.
“It better be, otherwise I’m gonna be real mad you dragged me out here for a simple bot.” Not bothering to hide the edge in your voice, you bristled as their only response was to laugh.
“Oh they’re not simple by any means, but they can be shy.”
A side-eye is thrown their way, raising a singular brow. “A robot can be shy? You’ve gotta be kidding me. You mean they’re programmed to be shy.” Only then did you catch sight of the huge pair of golden statues that they were standing in front of. It depicted the two characters from the candy posters, a sun and a moon. The sun character had their hands held high in the air, as if receiving a standing ovation at the end of an act. A bright, closed eye smile graces their face. Behind them, the moon character is dipped into an eccentric bow. One hand across their chest, with the other in a similar situation as their sun counterpart. Except they were holding up the end of their comically long hat. Huh.
Spike surprisingly doesn’t say anything during this time, simply watching you take in the statue with a certain sly smile that you can’t quite place.
They let this go on for a few minutes before finally opening their mouth to comment on your staring, “They’re gorgeous, aren’t they?” Quiet pride had crept into their voice, widening their smile more as they too turned to look up at the statues. The designs of each character were charming in their own unique ways, clearly leaning heavily into the celestial theme the company ran with judging by all of the baubles and trinkets shaped like suns, moons, and stars. It was hard to gauge all of the details since it was indeed a statue, and the lighting didn’t help in the slightest.
“The statue? I mean, it’s nice?” The statement ends up coming out more like a question on your end, and you awkwardly pick at the lint on the hoodie you had thrown on before coming over. It was late already, and Fall was creeping around the corner. The colder months would be here soon, and they were always a pain in the ass.
“Yeah, sure. Anyways, now to talk about what I called you here for. I’m cashing in a favor.” You perk up almost immediately. Spike always vehemently denied you when you said you owed them over anything. They had gotten you out of a lot of tough situations, and were currently the reason why you had gotten so far in this career space in the first place. If they were cashing in a favor, then it surely was extremely important to them.
“Fazbear Entertainment’s Mega Pizzaplex has gone bankrupt, as you already know.” Spike takes a breath, turning towards the large netting that you had failed to pay attention to earlier. There was a huge playplace behind it, a small child’s dreamscape. Unfortunately for you, the bright lights and clashing color palettes simply cemented the headache that had been stalking the edges of your mind ever since you stepped foot in this place.
“Yeah, and I say good riddance.” Comes the quick quip before you can hold your tongue, which they simply laugh off awkwardly. “I- sorry.” The apology tumbles from your lips and your fingers clench into the fabric of your hoodie in a poor attempt at self regulation.
“No worries, I understand.” And they did. You two had known each other since you were little, and your fear had presented itself at a young age after you had been dragged to Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza a few times for birthdays. Then came the hatred shortly after, steadily replacing the fear.
“The favor is buying the Daycare Attendant animatronic for me. Fazbear is holding a private sale, and I don’t want anyone else to get the chance to take them. They’re too sensitive and they’d tear themselves apart if separated from everything they’ve ever known, including me.” Spike’s tone was quiet, somber even.
The way they spoke about the animatronic was confusing to you. They spoke about it as if it was alive, when in reality it’s metal and code. But their sadness wasn’t lost to you entirely, they had always been so excited to land a job at the ‘Plex. You still remember their overwhelming enthusiasm when they first told you, practically bouncing off of the walls of your shared apartment at the time. Even back then, they had mentioned that the Daycare Attendant was their favorite. Which you always thought was strange, they weren’t the biggest fan of kids. But hey, what do you know?
“I mean, sure, but can I at least see it first?” You had quite a comfortable bed of money due to your job and the people you work with, but your curiosity had yet to be sated. Besides, you wanted to see the thing you were buying beforehand. Even if you’re going through with the purchase anyways. Spike had always had your back, now it’s time for you to finally return the favor.
“Sure, just stand back a bit.” They waved you back a few paces, before clearing their throat and bringing their hands up to their mouth in an effort to further project their voice. You had thought they would take you down into the daycare to show you a robot, presumably bolted down to the floor. Maybe they were calling someone to let them know you were going to come down? Why would you need to stand back if that were the case, though?
“SUNNNNAAAAYYY!!” Spike yells out, dragging the word out as they hollered. Before you could question who the hell Sunny was, the slide that had “SLIDE INTO FUN” above it began rumbling ominously. As if someone were climbing up it. Someone heavy. Why the fuck would a worker be coming up the slide.
Your words quickly die in your throat as the noises get louder the closer the thing gets to the top of the slide, and you tuck yourself behind Spike.
“SPIIIKEEEYYYY!!” A robotic voice chimes, just as a face pops out of the slide.
You choke on your own spit.