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Sun stood in front of the daily group of daycare attendees, calling for everyone’s attention while doing his best to hide something in both of his hands behind his back. Of course, the attendant’s frame was so narrow that it really did barely anything to hide the fact he was clearly holding something, but the kids didn’t seem to mind and instead chattered excitedly amongst themselves about what he could be planning.
“Ok, is that everyone?” the sun animatronic asked aloud, doing a headcount. Finding everyone there he nodded quickly to himself and declared, “It’s group time! Today I thought I’d tell a story!”
“Yay!” cheered most of the children.
“Is it ‘Billy Goats Gruff?’ I love that story!” asked one child.
“Is it Sleeping Beauty?” asked a little girl, “I love when the Prince kisses the Princess at the end,” she added, giggling and making any boys immediately next to her groan.
“Um, no,” Sun unfortunately had to inform them as he sat down criss-cross-applesauce to be at a better level for telling a story -- his hands still behind his back (good thing for their inhuman sense of balance). “Those are all wonderful stories, for sure! But the one I’m going to tell you is a brand new one -- one that I’m going to make specially for all of you!”
Sun finally moved one of his arms from behind his back, and his up to this point silent counterpart started to actually take serious notice of what his sunny other half was up to.
“Wait, Sunny, what is that?” he voiced skeptically as Sun finally brought his hand back out front to reveal a Moon plushie, to the immediate confusion (and disappointment) of the children (and Moon).
“It’s a story about Moon?” asked a child in disgust and disappointment. And the room seemed to silently share the sentiment.
The pang of hurt that passed through both of them at the reaction was entirely expected, but that didn’t make it hurt any less.
“W-well, yes,” answered Sun, bringing his other hand around to bring a Sun plushie in front with no fanfare. He explained, his tone filled with a slightly forceful cheeriness, “But I’ll bet you didn’t know that Moon isn’t just Moon, he’s actually a King!” With the pronouncement he placed a miniature paper crown onto the Moon plushie. “King Moondrop,” he told his audience matter-of-factly.
There was a heavy air of skepticism amongst the small audience, except for one boy who spoke out, “Wait, I remember this! He was an evil King!” he spoke with betrayal, unable to believe that the beloved daytime attendant would tell them a story about a bad guy.
“It wasn’t always that way,” Sun spoke sadly, seeing this as a good segway into the actual story he had to tell, “People aren’t born evil, you know.”
“We weren’t technically ‘born’ at all,” pointed out Moon absently, but his voice was shaky, uncertain about both the premise of this story and the childrens’ reactions to it. Unable to hide his nerves, he asked, “Sun, are you sure this is a good idea?”
Sun shot back a reassurance, and told him determinedly, “Trust me, Moony. I’m gonna make kids not scared of you anymore, you’ll see.” He added, a touch of arrogance to his voice, “I am the (ex) Theater Attendant, after all. Who could be better at telling a moving and impactful story? Art can change minds, my friend.”
Moon scoffed, but he did feel a bit better. “Go on, then,” he said, seemingly flippantly, giving the sense of a dismissive handwave.
“Once upon a time…” Sun began, holding up the two plushies as his miniature actors, “There were two brothers who both ruled the peaceful kingdom of .. Playgroundia.” He plopped a matching paper crown onto the Sun plushie, and moved the two toys closer to make them touching shoulders.
(“Playgroundia?” snarked Moon, “Very creative.”
“Hush you, peanut gallery,” Sun retorted lightly. )
“King Sundrop and King Moondrop ruled together -- Sundrop during the day and Moondrop at night.”
Mini Sundrop and Moondrop pulled away from each other slightly to gesture one plush arm heroically in the air as Sun said their roles.
“Since one of them was always around to rule, their kingdom was the safest in the world. In the day people could trust Sundrop to help them, and at night they had King Moondrop.”
“King Sundrop would talk to people all day, helping with buying and selling, and coming and going, and all the other things people did when they were awake, so he was energetic and always cheerful.” Mini Sun went to and fro, arms waving energetically and head bobbing to talk to invisible conversation partners.
(“So humble,” teased Moon
“Hey, you down in front!” fake shouted Sun with no heat.)
“King Moondrop, on the other hand, had to work when people were asleep, so he was the quieter of the two brothers.” A much more reserved mini Moon seemed to shrug with its plush shoulders. “But he was a kind and patient king. And the gentler of the two by far. After all, nighttime is when the baddest things can happen! Like accidents, or sudden scary storms, or sometimes one of the citizens would just have a bad nightmare! And King Moondrop would be there to help people when these bad things happened. So everyone in Playgroundia slept peacefully, knowing that their kind and gentle nighttime king would be able to protect them if something bad happened.” MiniMoon crossed his hands over his heart.
“The two brothers ruled their kingdom together like this for a long time, loving all of their citizens and being loved by them in return.”
“Then everything changed…”
(“When the Fire Nation Attacked,”)
“...When a greedy evil wizard came to their kingdom. This wizard was named Fa ---Entco,” Sun hastily redirected.
(“Very subtle, even more subtle than ‘Playgroundia’,” commented Moon amusedly.
“Well, the kids won’t know what I’m talking about! …Probably.”
“I’m pretty sure there’s a rule against animatronics making fun of the company,” mused Moon.
“I didn’t use the ‘Faz’ part! That’s the main copyright so it’s fine!”)
“The evil greedy Entco hated to see the kingdom working so well, and being so safe, so one night he put a curse on King Moondrop!” Minimoon brought his hands to his head and looked down. “He knew -- as evil things tend to know-- that nighttime was especially scary for people. So if he took away their nighttime protector everyone would become scared and stressed and then they would buy his relaxing potions and he would make a lot of money.”
“So he cursed Moondrop, turning his warm blue eyes red,” the minimoon covered his eyes, “And cursed his voice so that his once soft whispers would become cruel and harsh.” One hand moved from the plush’s eye down to its mouth. “Now the kingdom’s once comforting nighttime protector was another scary thing in the night,” Sun recounted sadly.
“But King Moondrop had only been changed on the outside. On the inside he was still as kind and patient as before, and he would still try to help his people when they needed him, but they were scared of him, and they started to stay away from him.” The minimoon reached its arm out plaintively, before slumping over slightly.
“King Sundrop knew that his brother hadn’t changed, that he only sounded like a bad guy, and he tried to tell everyone. He told the citizens that Moondrop was only cursed. But when it’s the middle of the night and there’s a big scary thunderstorm and you’re met with red eyes and a creepy voice, it’s hard to not be frightened by that no matter what you know.”
“So to protect his people -- from himself, now -- Moondrop began to stay away in the castle, only leaving for super huge big emergencies. People didn’t come to him when they had nightmares, anymore, or to just drop by to be friendly. Even the rulers of neighboring kingdoms of Swampland and Maze of Ness stopped talking to both of the brothers.”
Sun brought the minisun up to lay a comforting hand on the shoulder of the minimoon. “Moondrop started to feel lonely, but he wasn’t completely alone. He still had his brother Sundrop, who knew he was good. And that kept Moondrop motivated enough to continue to protect the citizens, even if they thought he was scary. It wasn’t as good as before, but the kingdom was still safe.” The mini sun and moon went to their beginning position of shoulder to shoulder, though now the minimoon was more slumped than he had started.
“This, of course, made Entco very mad. So he made another curse, a bigger curse, one that would make King Moondrop as cruel on the inside as he sounded on the outside. Their nighttime protector would be truly gone, and King Sundrop would lose his beloved brother.” The two plushies stood far apart from each other, this time with minisun holding out a pleading hand.
There was a pause as the kids expected more, but as the silence dragged they realized that was it.
“That’s the end?! That’s a terrible ending!”
“Oh-ho-ho! It’s not the end, silly,” said Sun slyly, causing confused looks all around. After a pause he added, “It’s the beginning! This was a prequel, remember?”
“Sunny,” added a slightly exasperated Moon, “Not everyone has seen your original show. You’re gonna have to explain it for the ones in the dark, here.”
“Oh,” realized Sun. “Whoops.”
“Right, well,” he said aloud, “I won’t have time to do the whooooole show, but I can give the quick version! Cursed King Moondrop takes over the kingdom, but a big-hearted child with kindness and the power of light gifted through Sundrop candy dares to go up to Moondrop, because they still know who he really is. The child’s friendship combined with the candy-powered power of light banish the curse and save King Moondrop! The End.”
“Well, that’s better,” said the same child who had complained.
“Yeah, that’s pretty much how I remember it,” validated the child who had seen Sun’s original show, nodding to himself. Looking at the King Moondrop plush thoughtfully, he said, “I didn’t know he used to be a good guy, though.”
“There was never time to put in the whole backstory,” Sun fibbed, “But now you guys have an extra special secret information view of the story!” said Sun enthusiastically, still seemingly somewhat oblivious that this wasn’t really that special of an accomplishment considering so few people actually knew about the original version in the first place. Moon decided to be merciful and not bother pointing this out.
“Welp!” pronounced Sun, setting down his two actors to briskly clap his hands together, “That’s it for Group Time! We’ll have some individual play before naptime, so go have fun!”
The children broke apart, forming into groups that talked amongst themselves, and Sun just stood up and watched them go, though he could feel the metaphorical suspicious eyes of his counterpart on him. “What?” he asked innocently.
“You usually do Group Time right up until naptime so that the kids are already together in one spot,” he observed with no small amount of accusation. “What’s with this individual play thing?”
Sun hummed aloud, replying, “Oh, just giving them a bit of time to talk over the story they heard.”
“Sun, no! I don’t want them to think about it more than they have to!”
“Oh, come on! Gossip can be used for good, you know! I gave them quite a thinker in that piece if I do say so myself.”
“What if they come to the conclusion that I’m gonna turn completely evil or something?”
There was a significant pause as Sun thought back over his story and considered Moon’s argument. “Okay. I didn’t think about that.”
Moon’s silent disbelief spoke volumes without having words.
“I had to make it fit canon!” Sun protested defensively.
“Sun, no one has even watched the darn show it’s based on!” retorted Moon, almost too amused by Sun’s strictness to detail to be upset. But only almost. Deep within was the unsettling fear that the kids would take it the worst way, and only become more afraid of him. That seemed to be the way his luck usually went.
Sun gasped in mock-offense, but quickly turned more sincere when he could tell how scared Moon actually was. “Don’t worry, Moony. It’ll work, I promise. Kids understand more than human adults think they do, you know that. They’ll know what the story means.”
“You and your ‘art’,” Moon deflected once again.
“My art will change minds. You’ll see,” replied Sun with just an air of mischief, rays spinning quickly once and head tilted counterclockwise to form a true grin.
Moon retreated to a slightly uneasy silence as the clock drew closer to naptime. He didn’t even have the energy to feel the satisfaction of an “I told you so” as Sun had to wrangle all of the kids together from where they had scattered across all corners of the daycare, too busy worrying and wondering about just what they had decided to take away from Sun’s little fairy tale.
Despite having to go on a little scavenger hunt to get all the kids centered on the daycare floor, naptime was still drawing ever closer. Moon wished he could somehow delay it even further, but he knew the building’s wiring wouldn’t allow that. So, sooner than he would like, he once again found himself standing in front of a group of staring children. His posture sunk from Sun’s tall stance to a crouch as soon as they shifted controls, and in his nerves he couldn’t help but hunch further -- making the tall animatronic practically at head-level of the kids he was watching.
“HellOooo, children,” he drawled, internally hesitant. He didn’t usually greet the children anymore, but Sun was hassling him with encouragement to try. His posture tensed, prepared from experience for the fear that usually followed.
There was fear, still, but this time around it felt different. It was stifled, contained, like every kid had encouraged eachother to be brave all at once. Moon couldn’t help his head tilting in a careful curiosity.
Sun, of course, was ecstatic with the apparent progress, and urged Moon to speak again.
Moon hesitated further -- this wouldn’t work, this had never worked, he shouldn’t bother trying, he should just give them a sharp glare and get them to bed as silently as possible as he always did. But his pesky optimistic brother was sending him a near-constant stream of assurances, so Moon at last croaked, “Are you all ready for naps, little ones?”
None of the children replied right away, and he hadn’t expected them to. They still all looked uneasily between him and eachother, but surprised him when they all seemed to look to one boy, the one who had seen Sun’s show. Moon was more surprised to find that he was staring at the naptime attendant, and the animatronic was amazed to see the fear on his face slip away, replaced by a steely thoughtful frown instead.
A frown? He was upset? Not unusual, but usually the little stars would cry, not have this determined expression.
Moon was further flabbergasted when the child walked towards him, something the children had never done. He was still staring at him with that serious expression, studying him it almost felt like, and if circumstances were different Moon might almost be amused at such an intensely thoughtful expression on such a young face.
The kid made his way right up to the daycare attendant, and Moon had to fight hard against the daycare programming that urged him to provide physical comfort to a child in obvious distress being so close to him. His touch didn’t heal, it hurt, he knew this. The kid knew this so why was he getting so close?
“I’m sorry people thought you were scary, Mr Moon,” the kid finally spoke, and Moon suddenly realized that the kid was upset for him. His head twisted the other direction in shock, as the kid continued, “We didn’t know. Well, Mr Sun would try to tell us but he never really made any sense…”
Moon couldn’t stop the dry chuckle that escaped him at his counterpart’s expense, reflexively flinching at the reaction he expected to receive. But it never came, instead the boy grinned, having seemingly made up his mind about Moon.
“I…thaank you,” he said, and though it sounded sarcastic he meant it with every part of his metaphorical heart.
Head tilting to make his grin wider, he told them all teasingly, “Don’t think being so nice will get you out of napping, though.”
The kids all groaned, but it was only in normal child-like exasperation. The fear had dissipated once all of the children had witnessed their leader go up to the terrifying animatronic and no longer be afraid. Just like that, all of their opinions had changed, and Moon could only shake his head and think Kids. If only adults were so quick to change. “To bed, to bed with you all,” his voicebox let out a well (or ill, depending on how you looked at it) timed giggle. The kids were unbothered, and wonderingly, actually started to grab their things and get settled. Perhaps not as quickly as before, but for the first time with an actual air of peace in the room.
“I don’t want to go to sleep though,” pouted one of the children, and the naptime attendant could only again be amazed at how quickly they all went from completely terrified of him to being willing to talk back to him.
“Tell us a story,” suggested another.
“You want me to tell you a story?” he echoed in a way that nearly sounded like a threat. He was just once again taken aback, so used to kids wanting nothing to do with him. To have them actually want him to stick around, to want him to talk more was..just new. And something he had never thought would happen, and “Sun shut up stop being so smug”. As his silence dragged on, the kid started to wonder if the threatening voice wasn’t his “curse” and that he was actually mad, so Moon swiftly replied, “Of course I will.” The kid seemed relieved, so Moon daringly added jokingly, “I would have thought you all had enough stories for today.”
There were various noises of dismissal from the children still awake in the room, and Moon allowed himself to chuckle again.
“Alright then. Since Sun did a terrible job telling the end of that story,” he anticipated Sun’s dramatic response but was still amused by it when it came.
“How dare you! After all of my encouragement all this time!” lamented Sun melodramatically.
“...Why don’t I tell you about how King Sundrop saved his brother from a terrible curse?”
THE END