Chapter Text
There were a lot of strange stories surrounding the Freddy Fazbear Mega Pizzaplex; some funny, some ridiculous, and some were downright terrifying. Missing children demonically possessed killers, and dead bodies being stuffed inside janky old animatronics was enough to raise the goosebumps on any normal person. Children whispered rumors in their ears of their friends in the halls of the school, adults speculated over a cup of coffee with their coworkers. Even an elder or two could be heard cursing Fazbear Entertainment as the resting place of the anti-Christ. People of all ages would swear up and down in the ears anyone that would listen, filling their heads with warnings and cries of danger.
“Be careful, “They whisper “ Monty’s eyes can always see. If you feel them on you in the dark, it’s already too late. Monty is the one that likes to stalk .”
“ Don’t smile when the sun looks at you. Don’t wave back. Don’t let him know you like him. He won’t ever leave you alone .”
“ Take care not to fall asleep in the daycare center. The nighttime attendant doesn’t like when you’re asleep before naptime .”
“ Steer extra clear of Freddy. He doesn’t have to pretend anymore at night. You’ll always like him better when he’s acting.”
There were rules for every animatronic in the Pizzaplex as if they were characters in an early-style creepypasta and not an overly expensive ploy to drain the pockets of parents across the nation. If anyone were to ask you (not many did) you would happily tell them the stories were a fresh load of steaming bullshit.
Even the tamest horror story about the Pizzaplex seemed ridiculous to you. Dead children stuffed in suits? Seriously, that didn’t make any sense. How could their little limps move such heavy machinery; and wouldn’t somebody notice the smell, or the rotting flesh bits they were sure to have left behind? Eh, whatever. You had prosed the same questions to the more supernaturally inclined people in your life, only to receive a convoluted mess of a storyline as an explanation.
Something about crying kids and bites and frontal cortexes or something? It was hopeless trying to force yourself to understand; so, you didn’t. Each new horror story that found its way into your sphere was picked up and discarded without a moment’s hesitation. If ignorance was bliss you were truly at the height of all luxury.
That’s also why you had no problem picking up a position at Fazbear Entertainment when they posted a ‘Help Wanted’ ad in the window of your current job. Something about that seemed a bit of a dick move- the pizza place you were working (Zink’s) at was relatively new and struggling to sell its promise of authentic cuisine to a country where ‘cheap’ and ‘fast’ were preferred. And it was probably illegal or an infringement of some kind, but that didn’t matter. One glance at that sign that promised twenty-three an hour to help monitor the more complicated robots from 6-12 was way too good of a deal to pass up. You had your apron off before you had even fully passed the threshold
Sorry, Zinks. But that pay was worth the temporary guilt. You knew the owners enough to know they had bought the resultant with straight cash and had plenty more hidden in a vault somewhere. They would be fine.
And despite your friends' concerns, so were you. Because fucking duh, obviously you weren’t working alongside a league of dead children and their tormentor, no matter how contrary to popular belief. You’d been at Fazbear Entertainment for well over a month at this point and was even more confident now than you were before that even if there was something wrong with the franchise, it had nothing to do with ghosts.
There were, however, a lot of shady business practices and side deals and partnerships that made you feel dirty in all the wrong ways if you stopped to think about too long. Things you had overheard and would take to your grave for fear of being discovered. The people behind Fazbear Entertainment were not above doing some weird, strange things to keep their pockets full; and if they didn’t own you for the next year, you would’ve quit on your first day.
Unfortunately, you didn’t read a single thing before signing your employment papers. There was a liability clause they had you sign but that was the only thing that had stuck out initially; but hey, it was a giant company that followed the idea of spending money to make it closely- if their latest attraction and the money fronted on keeping it running was any indication- then obviously this one was of the places that could afford to be a little more upfront with their grimness. They didn’t need any preventable lawsuit on their hands, and they went through no shortcuts to find as many preventable clauses and their loopholes as possible.
Plus, you were more concerned with showing your friends that there was nothing spooky about Fazbear Pizzaplex. So, you missed the part where you were employed for a set time until after your new hiring manager, Cecil, was having you fitted for your various scene uniforms. Oh well. It’s too late now, and Fazbear wasn’t a bad gig if you ignored the body odor that some of your coworkers seemed to think was mandatory.
You liked working here. You got on excellent with the coworkers that took showers, got free pizza and
soda even though you technically weren’t supposed to because hello, you were a bot attendant you deserved to be fed, got to stay off your feet majority of your shift, and even got to work overtime- which meant even more money! Paying bills had never been so easy. You even liked the stupid costumes you had to wear depending on which part of the pizza plex you were working.
You had themed outfits for every bot you worked with Monty, Sun/Moon, and Freddy. They were showy and goofy, one of the many things Freddy Fazbear employed purely for the sake of the children that kept their business running, and more than unnecessary considering you were the only attendant that worked at night when the children’s attractions were closed. You weren’t even a real attendant- more of a glorified janitor that went and helped calm the animatronics and got them all cleaned up and ready for the next day.
There was another worker here that was the mechanic, and they didn’t have to wear the costumes. Or maybe they did- you’d never officially met, after all.
But still, you found the dress-up cute, and it helped put the bots at ease and made it so they could recognize you as a worker and not an intruder.
Speaking of- there was something about Fazbear Entertainment you just couldn’t shake off; their incredible work when it came to AI design. All their animatronics were just so unique, so lifelike- it was no wonder people had started spreading rumors about them. It was always hard for people to accept new breaches in modern technology; every new advancement was because of aliens or the Illuminati or the alien Illuminati. It was simply human nature, to doubt things that would have been considered a miracle a few years ago. You didn’t blame people for doing the same to the AI at Freddy Fazbear’s Mega Pizzaplex.
Even your charges were lifelike and unique in a way that blew your mind. You had personal relationships with each animatronic, inside jokes, and connections. You knew how Monty liked his nails filed (you wouldn’t think so but he was a huge diva about his claw maintenance), what song to sing Sun so his transition into Moon wasn’t so painful, what games to play with Moon so he wasn’t so…creepy, and where to rub Freddy’s shoulders after he was tensed from a day of performing and looking out for the rest of his animatronic family.
You’d described them all as friends numerous times by now and had no shame for it. Your real friends made their jokes and pretended to be jealous when you got off work gushing about some joke Freddy made or curse Monty tried to spit, but you knew they were only playing. And it seemed your safety and enjoyment had managed to quell some of their fears because you rarely heard any more of their usual scary animatronic stories. No- now you all sat and gossiped about what the CEO was hiding behind that locked door he thought no one noticed; that was just fine by you.
“YN?”
“Hmph?!?!”
Vanessa, one of the few people that stayed in the building after dark along with you and the mechanic popped her head around the corner, catching you in front of the whipped cream section of the froyo machine red-handed. She caught your eye and raised an eyebrow as your cheeks bled a dark red. It was futile but you still shoved the half-full cup of chocolate behind your back, as if she would somehow forget she saw it.
The smirk on her face told you that no, of course, that didn’t work, and you were an idiot about to get their fourth write-up for food violations within three weeks. They wouldn’t fire you, they couldn’t; you were the only person in the city who didn’t mind massaging animatronics but still; Cecil would probably yell at you again and you hated it when Cecil yelled. She could go on for quite some time and seemed to love the sound of her voice mixed with her onion breath-
“Quit pouting kid, I won’t tell. I just saw Cecil finish a beet and onion salad; I wouldn’t make ya sit through that. No one is that heartless. I just need a favor.”
You know, you had always thought of Vanessa as a bit stuck up- but minds could always change. She was an angel placed on earth specifically to help you fulfill your froyo-based dreams and you were probably going to marry her-
“Can you run down to the daycare? I know you aren’t due to start but we had to shut it down early. Sundrop’s gotten in a mood and hasn’t come out in the past 30 minutes. We sent the mechanic, but they just came back all red and saying it wasn’t a problem they could help with.”
Oh. Well, it's a good thing the marriage thing only happened in your head. Still, you couldn’t help but be concerned. Sundrop adored every minute he got to spend with the kids, it was in his programming. He’s never been able to bypass that in the time you’ve been working here, but if the mechanic couldn’t figure out what was wrong what in the world made those two think you could help?
Vanessa mentioned the mechanic looked red- and a glance at her cheeks showed them to be flushed a soft pink too. Was the issue that frustrating? You had introduced a new routine for Sun and Moondrop yesterday that was meant to help them calm down because they were the hardest to soothe out of your charges. They weren’t as advanced as the others, and more wired for lack of a better word. They ran instantly hot or cold and it was difficult getting them to come down from that. They needed stimulation, but not too much; cuddling seemed like the obvious solution.
You would have them lay their faceplate on your chest, and you would hum as you stroked the base of where their face and neck wires met. It was the easiest spot to reach and it seemed effective, both had faded into an easy rest during it and you had almost been trapped under them until the store reopened. Things weren’t going as smooth as you had assumed they were. You frowned. Well, it was reasonable that you’d have to fix this mess, you were the one you had caused it.
“Yeah, I got it, Vanessa. You can have the rest of the froyo if you want.” You were currently in your pre-work outfit, a pair of jeans, and a grey hoodie, but you were close enough to a dressing room that you could change in less than ten minutes.
“Hey, kid?”
You looked over your shoulder towards Vanessa. Was there something else she forgot to mention?
“Be careful, yeah?”
You laughed. “Be careful? Vanessa, I know Sun. I’ll be fine. Don’t tell me all those scary stories are getting to you!” Vanessa snorted and shrugged, shoving her hands into her pockets.
“Nah…but still. Accidents happen, kid, I’d hate to see ya get hurt.”
“Eh? Like the accident in 87? I thought you didn’t believe in all those superstitions?”
Vanessa lost her smile and stared into your face, silent and searching. Finally, she pushed by you with a sigh.
“I don’t.”