Chapter Text
Gregory yawns, his jaw cracking open for a second as his vision blurs.
It's a mistake, of course, because he sees Sun's head tilt in his direction. Of-fucking-course the Daycare Attendant, a literal robot programmed to take care of kids, picked up on his yawn immediately. It's not like he was being subtle, but Sun isn't even facing him right now.
Well, whatever. Gregory jogs forward, pointing at the games. "Hey, is there anything that you're good at?"
"I've never played any of these games before!" Sun declares. He eyes the pick-a-duck pool and the puddles surrounding it with some distaste, giving it a wide margin. "We've seen some of the arcade cabinets before - probably pulled that one from the Starcade, it's usually in the corner - but we've never played those, either. So anything is fine!"
Gregory leans on his cane, frowning thoughtfully. "Let's try the shooting gallery," he says finally, and they wander over there.
It's a pellet gun, the kind that shows up at an outdoor festival, and the STAFF not manning the tent gestures cheerfully at the colorful balloons tied up along the back wall. It's a simple reward system: the more balloons he pops, the bigger of a prize he gets to pick. The STAFF bot has bags of deflated and unpopped balloons behind it, but... Even the bots in Fazerblast have pretty poor aim - Gregory doubts this particular stall is going to be cleared out anytime soon.
Hm. Not unless he does something himself.
He lifts the pellet gun with both hands, cocks his head, and fires experimentally. It goes wide, ricocheting off the back wall with a pop.
Gregory adjusts his aim and fires again. This time, a green balloon goes with a satisfying snap, the torn rubber hanging limply from its string. A smirk curls his lips, and he shoots again.
Pop, pop, pop, pop - a whole row of balloons is decimated before he runs out of pellets. He immediately turns to the STAFF bot. "Can I have more?"
It shrugs, then takes the gun, reloads it, and hands it back in quick succession. This repeats a few more times until only three balloons are left, hanging sporadically from the wall. Gregory kind of wants to keep going, but he's out of pellets again and he's pretty sure he's about to overstay his welcome - if he hasn't already.
He tunes back in to realize that Sun is clapping. "Bravo! You did so well!" the animatronic exclaims, hands clasped tight together. The animatronic is practically beaming with excitement. "Oh, that was amazing! We didn't know you were so skilled at this sort of thing!"
Gregory considers the pellet gun in his hand. He should see about getting an actual long-ranged weapon - his hand-eye coordination is better than he'd thought.
Of course, getting an actual gun is a passing fantasy. But between his taser and his flashlight, it couldn't hurt to improve his repertoire of weapons a little. Even a laser gun would be nice, although he's not desperate enough to steal the one from Fazerblast - or maybe he is. Goodness knows this company won't care if a souvenir or two goes missing. Although, if it happens on his watch, that's kind of a different story.
...Sun and Moon can probably help him with that. Fuck knows what kind of illegal shit they get up to for fun in their free time.
Gregory hands the pellet gun back to the STAFF bot. "That was epic," he says, grinning. "So what can I choose from?" He eyes the prizes above his head. They're hung from the frame of the tent, displayed proudly in all shapes and colors. Stuffed animals, light-up swords, backpacks, and other odds and ends in little cellophane packets.
The STAFF bot waves one hand carelessly, chirping at a pace that's almost too fast for him to keep up with. Not that he understands any of it anyway.
Sun practically squeals. "Anything you like! A bunch of small or medium things, or a couple of large items are a-okay!" he translates, practically vibrating out of his casing. In fact, he looks like he's about to start doing cartwheels.
"You good?" Gregory asks warily.
Sun blinks, then rocks back on his heels. "Yes, I'm doing quite well. I just - oh, it's so wonderful to see others having fun, and you looked like you were having so much fun. And then you did so well! I'm so p - happy! Isn't it great when you do well? I want to give you a gold star, but I don't have any unfortunately, which is such a shame. You deserve one!"
"Ah." Gregory turns back to the prizes. Mystery solved - it's those caretaker instincts again, and there's not much to be done about those other than attempt to try and distract them. "Hey, do you want anything while we're here?"
But Sun isn't deterred so easily, now patting down his overalls for something. "Hm, no other stickers either... ah-ha!... Oh. Perhaps this isn't really..."
Gregory glances over to see a crinkly piece of wrapped candy in Sun's fingers. It's a bright yellow sundrop. He raises his eyebrows at Sun.
The animatronic catches the look and sputters. "I just happened to have one on me, that's all! I wasn't going to give it to you, I promise!"
"Well, why not?"
Sun pauses, then looks at him, pressing a hand over his chestplate. "You're the one who said they're much too caffeinated!" Sun says. "I would never give you anything that's not safe, and after that statement -"
"Trick or treat," Gregory says immediately, holding his hands out, palms facing upward.
Sun's eyes narrow slightly. And then he laughs. "Alright, alright. For a job well done." And he drops the candy in Gregory's outstretched hands.
Gregory grins and pockets the candy, turning back to the STAFF bot. "Sorry," he says automatically. He glances over the prizes again, feeling a little sheepish for taking too long, and a little triumphant for getting candy. Maybe he should grab a candy apple later - the things are so awkward to eat when they're whole, but it's worth the effort.
Eventually he points at a star-shaped backpack, a few keychains shaped like certain members of the band, and a large pillow that's shaped like a moon and sun in one. It feels like too much as he's stuffing it into the backpack and it barely fits - the pillow takes up the most room, being large enough to fit in his arms - but the STAFF bot is simply blowing up and replacing the balloons, so he figures it must be fine.
No sooner has he finished packing away his prizes than Sun plucks the backpack from his hands, strapping it on with a wide smile. "We'll help carry this for you!" Sun says cheerfully.
"Ah." Gregory eyes it for a moment, then decides it's fine. Plus, the backpack suits Sun strangely, being star-shaped and all. "Thanks. So where are we heading next?"
"Let's try an arcade game!" Sun says cheerfully, leading them onward.
They try out a few shoot-em-ups and dungeon crawlers, then move on to carnival games. Sun turns out to be pretty good with darts, and they both have fun beating the basketball tent. Hoops and insults are made, although admittedly Sun's insults are more like aggressive compliments.
After that, they head back to the rides, first trying out a teacup ride - Sun spins the the teacups so fucking quickly that Gregory briefly regrets eating so much earlier in the night - and then they end up skipping over the roller coasters entirely. Sun's little lecture, combined with the long and busy lines, makes the rollercoasters less-than-desirable. Besides, at that point he's still feeling a bit nauseated from the teacups.
They almost walk right past the bumper cars, but then Gregory hears a familiar voice whoop with pure, undiluted joy. The voice is familiar, but the tone sounds weird. When he glances over and sees Roxy, he realizes it's because he's never heard her sound so unrestrained and happy before.
Before he knows what he's doing, he's running over, grabbing the railings and staring with wide eyes. Because that's Roxanne Wolf, isn't it? She's got the same prideful smile on her face, muzzle all twisted up in a snarl - but her eyes are clear, and she's laughing. She's smashing her bumper car into other bots; the test driver bots and STAFF bots and sign bots are all beeping in excitement as they swerve and drift and slam into one another.
Something in him eases at the sight. He'd done something right, fixing her - and it should stick this time, no surprise purple eyes or anything. Gregory lets go of the railing with a sigh, turning around -
- and jumps when he finds Sun right behind him. Sun's bells are absent thanks to his costume, Gregory realizes belatedly. The animatronics quickly moves away, but his eyes are locked on the bumper cars. "Did you wanna play this game?" Sun asks curiously, rays spinning slowly.
"Nah," Gregory says. "I was just looking." He grabs Sun and leads the animatronic away from the area before Roxy can spot them. "I'm glad she's doing better. I mean, I dunno if she's still gonna be mean as f - fazzing much as she was before, but it's neat to see that she's... good now, I guess."
"Oh! You mean Roxy," Sun says, sounding surprised. "That's good to hear!" He smiles. "I - we're very thankful, you know. Everyone - for everything you've done."
"Yeah, well I'm not the one sorting through years of documents," Gregory says, making a face.
Sun, strangely, seems close to making a similar face. "Ah, yes. Well, it's no trouble, no trouble at all," the animatronic says lightly. He waves a hand. "Where shall we go next, then?"
"Haunted house is that way. Let's go," Gregory says, grinning.