Chapter Text
“…so… let me get this straight-”
“Could never tell if you ever were straight, stardust.” Moon teases.
You glare at him for a moment. Your head was still reeling after spending the last hour and 18 minutes in an obnoxiously cozy tent with two animatronics determined to have you remember them. (37 of those minutes were spent primarily helping you figure out your own robot brain. You found out that you have a clock, timer, and stopwatch in there.)
You want to continue with your sentence but Moon’s statement sends your train of thought in an entirely different direction.
“..w- I- guh- but… can I even be considered anything if I’m a robot and pretty sure I don’t have a gender? Can robots even get into romantic relationships??” You flex your metallic joints, just for emphasis.
“I- WE! Think that robots can get into.. romance!” Sun giggles and spins his faceplate, rubbing at it after three full rotations.
“Yeah. Whatever Chica and Roxie have going on can obviously be considered romantic.” Moon adds.
“Yes yes that that!” Sun continues giggling.
“Oh. Huh. I suppose so.” You look back up at the daycare attendants. They seem to be leaning in a little closer than before. “Guess that ends that debate.”
The three of you sit in silence for a moment before you play a robotic gasp through your speaker (the closest thing you can get, anyway. Darn machinery hindering your dramatics.) Sun and Moon both seem to straighten up and become still.
“WAIT YOU WERE JUST DISTRACTING ME!”
They seem to deflate a little and Moon chuckles roughly.
“As I was going to say, if I can get my supposed life story from the past five years straight…”
You give them a moment.
Neither of them interrupt you this time.
“I already told you two about my heart condition thingie, ended up helping you two with working at the daycare despite the fact I am absolute garbage at dealing with kids… oh! And made myself an animatronic body so I could continue helping you after I died instead of just… moving on?” Your voice gets increasingly exasperated as you talk, the situation seeming weirder and weirder. “Did I miss anything??”
Sun raises his hand and waves it around, like a child waiting to be called on.
“Uh… Sun?” You stare at him in confusion.
“Okay, so you missed the part where you spent 5 years with us because you liked us so very very much!! And also the part where we kinda sorta need you to survive because you’re really good at maintenance.
“…the maintenance that I no longer know how to do because I’ve never once worked on a Fazbear animatronic?”
“Yes, yes that maintenance!”
“…fun”
You grumble and flop onto your back, landing on an extremely comfortable pillow that you sink into.
There’s so much that apparently happened to you and you don’t remember any of it. You must have gotten really close to these two dorks if they relied on you to survive. It’s slightly overwhelming, and for some reason… makes you feel warm?
“If dead me liked you guys so much and you guys liked me, why didn’t you stop me from, you know, dying?” You mutter, not bothering to sit up. You don’t even need to, anyway, to know the animatronic’s reactions.
A metal hand grabs onto your ankle and yanks you across the tent, causing a static yelp to escape your voice box.
“Don’t refer to yourself as dead.” Moon hisses, holding onto you a tad too tight.
“He just means.. it was an odd thing to say! anditmakesussadbecausewewerereallyreallyhappytohaveyou-” Sun’s voice sounds like it’s melting as he wraps his lanky arms around himself, his head twitching some.
You flinch and kick at Moon’s hand with your free foot. He lets go and you crawl backwards to the furthest part of the tent. Shaking slightly, your eyes dart back and forth between the two neon nightmares. Your chest stimulates breathing, fast and short. (Ducking… old you, probably just wanting kids to feel comforted but this is not helping your current problem.)
After too long, Moon is the first to say something.
“…sorry…” He sounds like he means it, but the way he sits in a crooked crouch makes you too unnerved to care. He might look like a cartoon character but the way he stares at you with beady glowing eyes is horrible.
Your chest finally slows down and you relax your hands…
You… didn’t realize you were tensing up. The comfortable pillow from before now has a good sized rip and is leaking a small amount of stuffing.
Sun makes a noise that sounds like uncomfortable chuckling.
“Dewdrop… We can’t go back. We just can’t! I can’t! We missed you. When you… when you left, right before… we…. I… he…”
His voice trails off as he continues laughing. His hands twitch, reaching out to you. You flinch back. Sun’s hands reach up to his head and grab onto some of his sun-rays, holding them too tight.
You look down at the colorful, padded ground.
“I don’t remember you. Either of you.”
Sun makes a noise of distress, Moon doesn’t even flinch.
“….but… I’m not against getting to know you again..?”
You look up. Sun has twisted himself into a sort of contortionist-esque position, his legs over his head and his arms still wrapped around his torso. Moon is sitting with his legs crossed, his fingers slowly tapping rhythmically across his pants.
“What does… what do… um… what….” Sun trails off.
After a moment, Moon finishes for him.
“What does that even mean? It doesn’t seem fair. We already know everything about you, it would take so long for you to learn who we are. And you didn’t pay close attention the first time, I doubt you’ll pay any this time.” His voice is sharp and his eyes narrow as he looks at you.
You open your mouth before closing it again without having said anything. For taking care of chatty children, these too sure are bad at continuing conversation. (Or it’s just the unbearable tension between you all. Still, you should cut yourself some slack because they aren’t exactly making it easy for you to… to… well, to come to terms with whatever terrible demise you just experienced. Or whatever.)
This is stupid. All of this is stupid. It’s stupid that you died in the first place, it’s stupid that you didn’t do anything to stop it and it’s stupid that these robots are making you feel guilty for dying. It’s stupid you don’t remember anything and don’t remember why you don’t remember anything.
“Stardust… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it.” Moon’s soft voice gently pulls you back to reality. You blink a few times and look up at Moon. The pity in his permanent smile is painful.
“It’s fine. I’m fine. I don’t care, it’s… stupid anyway.” Your voice trails off as both of the Daycare Attendants stare at you. You squint as Sun slowly trails a finger down his cheek, running from his eye to his chin.
What the bell does that even…
“OH.” You rub your cheeks. You don’t feel any tears, but considering you didn’t the last time you aren’t surprised. You grunt and close your eyes.
Despite having screens, you can still “close your eyes”. Everything goes dark and apparently digital ‘eyelids’ come down and hide your eyes.
You take a deep (digital) breath in. Then let a deep (digital) breath out. The little part of you that keeps commenting on how you aren’t even human anymore can shove it.
“You… said you know everything about me.” A distraction will calm you down. “What all does that include? Do you know like… my full name? My birthday? What?”
Sun starts untangling his metal mess of limbs and giggles. Not the awkward giggles from before. A genuine, goofy sounding laugh.
“Oh silly Stormcloud! Those are just available because you were a Fazbear employee! No no no no, what Moonster meant was how we know your favorite color used to be purple but then became red over time!”
“And how you’ve only ever been in one romantic relationship and it was a total flop.” Moon chuckles softly.
“Aaaand how you used to have a kitty that lived with you in your apartment but you had to give him away to your friend after your landlord said you couldn’t have pets!” Sun adds.
“Wha?? I don’t get to keep Hamilton??” You lean forward and frown. Sun flinches backwards.
“Nnno… you don’t… you were very sad at the time and I don’t know why IthoughtIshouldbringitup-” Sun lowers his head.
“It’s fine… hopefully whoever the friend I give him to likes him…” You sigh.
Moon tilts his head slowly to the side, watching you closely. You frown even more and stare back at him.
“If you don’t experience the same things, will you be different?” He asks quietly.
“..I dunno. Maybe?”
You can’t tell if that was the right answer or not, because both of the animatronics go deathly still.
You hear a static click inside of your head followed by familiar voices sounding awfully giddy.
“Moon! Do you know what this means?”
“We can try again. They won’t.. they don’t remember the first time!”
“Try what again?” You ask. You’re already getting tired of these two trying to talk in their ‘secret robot channel’.
As if taking mental damage, Sun falls backwards and covers his face with his hands, stuttering and making short, embarrassed squeaks as he squirms.
Moon just turns his head back to look at his daytime counterpart, pointing at him and simply saying:
“Ha.”
You hear another static click and roll your eyes.
“What do you mean ‘ha’? You’re the one who talked about me not remembering the ‘first time’.”
Moon’s head jerks back to you and he narrows his eyes.
“No I didn’t.”
“Wha- yes you did?? That was your voice!… I thought???”
Moon tilts his head to the side and leans back.
“No.”
You swear to God, if his smile could get any wider it would. You can’t help but smile as well.
“At least now I know that one of you, most likely both, did something so unbelievably embarrassing the first time we met. I’m going to do everything I can to find out what it was.” You chuckle as Moon’s eyes squint even more and he grips onto his pants.
“Ohh nooOOoOo!! Wasn’t me, wasn’t me!!” Sun giggles as he sits up, crawling through the tent to get closer to you.
“You’re going to do everything?” Moon sighs. He perks up and looks between you and Sun quickly. “Does everything include hugs? In exchange for answers, of course.”
Sun sits up straighter and gasps, leaning forward even closer. Bordering on personal space.
“Yeahhh, no. Not including hugs.”
“Awwwww Stormclooouuuudd!” Sun whines and flops onto his stomach. “But you give the absolute BEST hugs!!”
“Oh I do?” You laugh and cover the bottom half of your face with your hand.
Sun nods aggressively.
“Well that’s just too bad. I haven’t hugged anyone since I moved out and I don’t plan on hugging anyone still.” You smile even wider. Moon places his hands on the ground, making one of them ‘walk’ closer to you.
“You’re wrong there. You always give us tons of hugs. You are very squishy.” He chuckles, warm and comforting. You push his hand away with one of your feet.
“That’s an awful way to describe someone.”
You have to cover your face even more, but sadly your hands can’t stifle the snickers that slip out of your voice box.
“Noooo, it’s a wonderful way!! And was perfect for youuuu” Sun sighs and sinks happily into the pillow covered ground.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s ‘wonderful’ or not anymore, I don’t think I can be considered squishy anymore cuz I’m a robot now.”
“You’re still squishy.”
You pause for a moment. You slowly look over at Moon, the one responsible for such a statement.
“Excuse me?”
“You’re. Still.”
He wraps his hands around your leg
“Squishy.”
And yanks you over to him again.
In a moment, the tent becomes a mess. Moon pulls you into a hug which you loudly let him know you disagree with, shoving against him and kicking everything nearby. Sun tries to scramble across the tent, getting toys and pillows knocked into him.
You feel your brain racing yet there’s no thoughts. You can’t escape Moon’s grip as he holds you to his chest, gently pressing his faceplate to the top of your head.
You finally stop squirming, your chest moving too quickly once again. You squeeze your eyes shut and try to bring yourself to continue yelling at Moon.
But you don’t.
Instead, you just hear him whisper:
“It’s okay.”
And for some strange reason, the sincerity in his voice just makes you… pause. His hands are on your back, he squeezes you gently. This feels so insanely familiar in an impossible way.
Sitting with something blue when the lights are out and the children are gone. Gentle whispers, ghosts of teasing arguments. Someone tells you to go to sleep but doesn’t force you. It likes just holding you, keeping a hand on your back. In the room, there’s only two, you and the something blue. It makes sure you feel safe. It makes you feel okay.
You press your hands into Moon’s metal back, your brain feeling like it’s splitting. He doesn’t move, just keeping his arms wrapped tight around you, like he’s protecting you from something. Like he’s trying to keep you safe. The way he says your name, so deep and so slow, forces you back to reality.
“…It’s… Just us here. It’s just me… and Sun.” The nap time animatronic speaks almost like he’s singing a lullaby and moves his hand slowly up your back. “We aren’t going to think badly of you, we aren’t going to speak badly of you. It’s… going to be okay.”
He holds you tighter and you hear the clicking of gears coming from behind you. The scream building up on your chest dissipates. This… isn’t terrible, you decide. It’s strange, but not terrible.
You guess you’ll just give him this one, since daycare workers are probably used to little kids giving them attention all the time. So really you’re doing it for them, helping them grieve and stuff.
That should be a good enough explanation for why you’re hugging him back so desperately.
You slowly open your eyes and look up at Moon. His wide smile and calm expression… doesn’t feel out of place. You feel his gaze slowly moving along your face, lingering at your cheeks.
You unwrap your arms from his torso and lean back a little, he lets you do so. You scoot backwards, out of his lap that he pulled you into and back onto the padded ground. You look around and realize Sun made his way behind you and is watching silently, save for the apparent clicking noises coming from him as he slowly tilts his head.
You exhale deeply. (Even if the breathing noise is fake it still helps calm you down.)
“I don’t… know what you two did to de-… the old me that convinced them to give you hugs… And I’m not saying you’re allowed to give me any yet! But… if I’m going to be helping in the daycare I’ll need to… learn to take and maybe even give affection. I’m guessing kids aren’t gonna like someone who would rather run and hide than give them a band-aid.” You force your face to stay neutral, which is harder than expected.
“Sunspots and solar flares!!!” Sun gasps and giggles from behind you, grabbing you from behind and squeezing you tight. “Does that mean we’ll get to teach you… again!… how to be our assistant??”
“AY-” You try to squirm your way out of Sun’s grip but run out of willpower before you can even pry off a finger. You sigh and grumble as he cuddles you closer, a weird feeling in your chest making you grip the edge of the worn out Fazbear shirt. (Ugh, you really gotta find some actual clothes.)
“Don’t you worry, dewdrop! It’s going to be an absolute BLAST and now you have extra super duper robot powers to help you!!” He says cheerfully, pressing his faceplate into your cheek before erupting into a fit of giggles. You shove his face away and (finally) successfully wiggle out of his arms.
“Ah, yes, we’ll have to teach you the wondrous ways of animatronics.” Moon lays down, resting his head on his hands and closing his eyes.
“..aa..ah… I forgot about that junk.” You blink a few times. A weird, sleepy feeling is starting to creep up on you. You frown as you rub your face, everything feeling different about it. “Oh, actually, speaking of animatronic-ness, you two have to answer a few questions about that.”
“Hm? And what might those be?” Moon sits up a little, a playful tone in his voice.
“I know I already asked about the… ‘two-for-one’ situation you guys had to deal with.”
Moon plops his head back down and scoffs as Sun flinches, fiddling with his fingers as he tilts his head. (It’s too late to stop now though, you’re just too curious.)
“But how did it work? And I mean like, really. Not personality wise or ‘how much did it suck’, I mean physically. How the luck were both of you functioning in one body without exploding??”
After you finish your question, the tent goes silent.
(Tick.)
(Tick.)
(Tick.)
“It… we would shift, you know that.” Sun mutters.
(Took 37 seconds before either of them said anything. Gotta love your brain-stopwatch).
“I was triggered by the light, Moon was triggered by darkness. We had the same systems, innards, everything. Just… different AI.”
“Oh. Guess that means fixing one is gonna be just like fixing the other. Makes it easier.” You whisper to yourself, making a mental note.
Sun chuckles, quiet and slow.
“Oh, now, isn’t this funny, storm-cloud.”
You look over at Sun. He sitting all hunched up again, itching at his faceplate and swaying side to side.
“You… um, eh heh heh…”
“You changed that.” Moon interrupts, monotone.
You turn to face Moon. He hasn’t moved an inch.
“Come again??’
“You changed us. Made us different from each other because… as you phrased it, ‘night and day deserve to be special.’… more or less, you just gave each of us different upgrades to suit our roles better.” Moon stays as still as possible, only his eyes drifting slowly across the tent. You can’t tell if he’s really indifferent or if he’s just trying to seem that way.
“So… I made things harder for myself??” You groan and lean back, right into Sun’s lap. It causes him to squeak and look at you with amusem*nt. You pause then sit back up, crossing your arms and glaring down at the ground.
“But easier for us, dewdrop.” Sun whispers. His voice sounds like he’s proud of you or something. Guess he really liked having a personal mechanic?
“Huh. Now I don’t know if to ask you if you still have the programming stuff to shift into each other or to ask what stuff I added.” You look between Sun and Moon with curiosity, hoping they’ll answer one of the two.
“No.” Moon growls.
(2 seconds after you finished talking. Thank you again, brain stopwatch! Strange which questions these two will answer fast.)
“W-well the thing is I… we haven’t tried!” Sun tries to keep sounding cheery, only faltering for a moment.
“It just doesn’t work.” Moon scowls. God, if looks could kill… (wouldn’t matter much though, you remind yourself that you’ve already died once before.)
“….mkay. Then uh, ignore that question. What did I add to you two?” You try to redirect the conversation. Moon sits up, digging his fingers into the ground.
“Ohhh, just… little things here and there! Moon got a music box and heating pads, and I got… a few things as well!” Sun squeaks and turns his head away as he chuckles quietly.
“He can shoot paper out of his hands.” The nap-time animatronic has a smug tone to his voice.
You turn back to Sun and tilt your head.
“EXCUSE YOU it is STREAMERS and it leaves NO MESS!!” Sun huffs and crosses his arms.
“WHAT WHY???” You laugh and bury your face in your hands. “Why did I put streamers in your hands???”
“Because I asked you to and you are just so wonderful!” He giggles.
“But it sounds absolutely terrible to clean up!” You look over at Sun as you’re laughing, still wildly confused.
“No no you didn’t hear me!! They stay attached to my wrist so they can just disappear back into my arms!! AND I have MULTIPLE COLORS!!!!!”
You can’t stop wheezing, despite not even needing to breathe.
“You’re laughing but it is a wonderful sight to see the children get so excited when it’s someone’s birthday and I get to provide the streamers.” He huffs playfully and turns (just) his head 180 degrees away from you.
“Gosh, a giant colorful machine shooting out strips of rainbow paper does sound fun.” you roll your eyes as you snicker, but your eyelids can’t help but droop.
The two animatronics lean in closer to you, Sun’s neck whirling around faster than you can blink.
There might be nobody around but they’re still a little too close for comfort.
“What?” Your voice is a little quiet. Something feels a little off.
“Supernova, do you know how to check your battery?” Moon whispers.
“Uhhh… no. We haven’t gone over that. Why? What’ll happen when my battery runs out?”
“…Don’t know. Probably just sleep. But we don’t know how to charge you.” Moon’s head spins slowly, like the seconds hand on a clock.
“What?!? Did I really just…” it takes a moment for your brain to form the right words. “Not come with instructions??”
Both of them tense up.
“You… did, actually! Of… sorts. On a broken laptop. But they’re bringing somebody to fix it so we have no worries, no worries at all!” Sun scratches at his face again.
There’s something about the way he and Moon look at each other that gives you a sinking feeling that they have something to do with the ‘broken’ part of the laptop.
Now you have to worry about not using up your energy before either someone fixes the laptop or you figure out how to charge. Great. This day just keeps getting better, doesn’t it?
“Is there any way to… conserve battery power?” You ask in an even quieter voice. (Maybe lowering your volume is like battery saving?)
“Well, I um… I suppose you could. Uh. Er…” Sun fumbled over his words, his gaze shifting around the room.
“You could always just go into sleep mode.” Moon says flatly. Then, after a pause, he slowly spins his face plate around. “We could always force you into sleep mode.”
You hear a quiet rip and jolt in place. You look down, seeing how the bottom of your shirt is ripped, the tear in between your hands.
…you really gotta work on your grip strength. ‘Do Sun and Moon deal with this a lot?’ A little voice whispers inside your head. You try shrug it off.
But if you think about it too hard, does that mean they have to be careful when handling the children? Were they ever a danger to you if things went wrong? Have they ever gotten in trouble because of it?
The three of you sit in silence for a long, long moment as your thoughts swarm around you.
There’s a simulated sigh from behind you, causing you to twitch. You feel Sun place his hand on your shoulder.
“Stormcloud… It’ll… You’ll be okay.” His voice is steady. You really wish he didn’t sound so sure.
“You say that, but you don’t know that. I’ve died before apparently, so not everything always works out.” You mumble, not moving away as Sun gently rubs your shoulder. You do, however, crane your neck backwards to glare at him.
“But you’re still here! Even if it’s not like you were before, I’d still take it as a win. And we will work hard to keep you here.” Sun’s voice is so oddly soothing, like he really means what he’s saying. “We’ll figure out this battery problem. It probably just means replacing silly dance parties with some sleepy chill time, something that I’m sure you’re not unfamiliar with. Besides, we’ve got a few days of preparing before you get to meet the kids! A… Again!”
Your face twists into confusion, taking little comfort from his words.
“Now, what do you mean by ‘a few days’?”
Sun tilts his head as you ask your question and his hand slips back into his lap. Not that you cared where his hand was. It’s his hand he can do whatever he wants with it but not in like a weird way and you’re just going to stop thinking about his hand so much now okay? Okay!
You blink a few times and stare down at the ground, pointedly looking away from Sun’s hands.
“Did you not get the announcement, little supernova? The pizzaplex is closing because of renovations to introduce a new animatronic.” Moon titters as he tilts his head.
“They’re really just covering up the fact they found a dead body, right?” You look at him, unamused. He shrugs.
“Double duty. Fazbear sure does like to make use of a single thing for two reasons, like using a nap-time animatronic as a security guard.” Moon lays down, stretching himself out to take up as much space as a lanky robot possibly can.
“You’re a security guard?” You lean toward him, obviously intrigued. The only response you get is a digital sounding snort. You sigh and try again.
“Why aren’t you out security… guarding… uh, right now?”
“He’s got the night off to deal with you but- I’m sorry, did you really not get the announcement??” Sun slips back into the conversation, sounding somewhat stressed.
“No? Did they say it over the intercom or something and I just wasn’t paying attention??” You turn your attention back to the playtime animatronic, fidgeting with the now frayed end of your shirt.
“No, it… Freddy announced it over channel 3. Did you somehow find out how to get into Moon and I’s personal radio before you could hear the important stuff??” He reaches forward and grabs your wrists, peeling your hands away from your shirt to prevent you from ripping it further. You consider yanking your hands away but decide to pay more attention to the conversation you’re having instead of the gentle way Sun’s fingers wrap around your hands. Yeah, yeah, conversation is more important. Yeah. (You’re done thinking about his hands!!)
Sun softly squeezes your wrists and you look back up at him, slightly startled.
“No! I, wait, yes, I mean-” You jerk your hands back and close your eyes. It’s surprisingly hard to concentrate right now; you’re pretty sure it’s just the battery problems but a small part of you thinks it just might be something else.
“I think yes? I wasn’t told that this place was gonna be closed tomorrow… or a few days… Or however long it’s gonna be closed. All I’ve heard inside my brain is my own thoughts and you two laughing.” You trace a finger along your face, feeling the strange texture of the fake skin. You have to take a moment after squishing your cheek, because everything feels so… not wrong, per say, but… different?
Things feel so slow right now, like you’re having to work especially hard just to string together your own thoughts. Even then, some are easier to think than others. It’s relieving to realize you don’t have to worry about your heart anymore but it’s annoying to think that you’d let yourself get bad enough to… to…
To fight back? Against death? Is that such a bad thing? To have not only someone, but multiple someones that you’d cheat death just so you could stay with them? Have you been down this train of thought already? You can’t tell. That’s one of the harder thoughts to think. You feel like there are walls in your brain that keep you trapped away from certain things. It’s hard to remember anything about anyone, much less yourself.
You liked the color blue, though.
It’s not your favorite, but it’s nice.
Same with yellow, both of them are such comforting colors.
You think of swirls and slushies. Of pillows and comfortable naps, even if you are an adult and insist that you don’t need sleep. The blue points out your sickly eyes and convinces you to sleep anyway.
And then there’s playtime. The yellow lets you wake up and, even if you’re awkward about it, teaches you how to play the children’s favorite games. Strange how colors make you feel like this.
.
.
.
Did you feel like that before you forced yourself into an animatronic?
Something tells you that… you did.
You’ve always liked those colors to some degree.
Everything feels very slow right now.
You wish you could feel your heartbeat again and You need to wake up.
You open your eyes, forgetting that you had even closed them. You startle into a sitting position, not realizing you had laid down. You place a hand on your chest and feel how it slowly rise and fall. A comforting thing even as a robot. Speaking of!
You are still a robot. You grab your robotic face to make sure of the fact.
“Ok, ok. We’re fine. Fine! Happy, dandy, aaaaaand… healthy…” You mutter to no one in particular, reminding you: Yep! Voice still auto-tuned. It’s close enough to your real… your old one? Let’s settle on just calling it old. It sounds almost exactly like your old voice, so it’s okay.
You let out a digital sigh and look up at the two charming animatronics who made this lovely cozy fort you’re currently in.
Except they aren’t exactly in the blanket fort anymore.
You scramble onto your knees, crawling to the plush exit of the fort, and stick your head out. You blink a few times before realizing you don’t need to, the darkness you peeked out into is crystal clear. At least, you can see crystal clearly out into it. High tech robot eyes for the win! You feel very proud and thankful of this singular fact.
Anyway, you look around into the darkness. You’re still in the superstar daycare, the cartoony play area exactly like you remember it looking. You can’t quite get over how giddy it makes you that the shadows don’t even matter anymore. There is still some light, though, sneaking in from the giant neons that fill up the rest of the pizzaplex. Then there’s a little more. There’s a warm glow up from a balcony. High tech robot eyes for the win AGAIN because you can see clearly enough to make out Sun and Moon sitting on the balcony, the light radiating off of somewhere on Sun. (An upgrade you did, maybe? A night light is sensible for daycare attendants.)
They aren’t talking in the private channel in their brains, because you can hear their actual voices echoing through the play area. They’re both sitting on the balcony with their legs hanging off the edge lazily. It doesn’t seem like they’ve noticed you yet.
“They’re going to wake up, Moon.” Sun says, a bit of an edge to his voice.
“And what if they don’t?” The other attendant hisses, “Just admit it, we’ve completely broken your favorite toy.”
Sun shifts a bit, you can’t tell if it’s out of annoyance or awkwardness.
“We both know you care just as much as I do! Their battery is just… low! We’ll figure out how to get them activated again. And you can’t just… pretend this isn’t your fault!!” the playtime animatronic turns his head away from the nap-time one. You stumble out of the tent, not sure if you even should get involved but gosh darn it if you weren’t going to try. Thankfully, the two are too distracted by each other to notice you flailing about below them.
“Oh. Oh ho ho ho?” Moon titters, rotating his faceplate. “Shifting the blame, aren’t we Sunny? Makes sense, of course. How Moon the monster is always the one to do something wrong. Well. I can play your game, brother.” His voice sounds like a children’s cartoon, a melody to his words, yet it sounds strained. They both sit so still, it reminds you of cats preparing for a fight. A wire descends from the ceiling and Moon clips it to his back.
“Now what is that even supposed to mean?” Sun sounds like it takes everything he has to keep himself from raising his voice.
“Hmm… I can pull your toy’s trick, I can pretend to not know. In fact, I might not even have to pretend! The option of truly forgetting is very tantalizing right now.” Moon’s voice is so steady, you’d assume he was telling a story instead of arguing. Sun’s reaction, though, makes it clear that Moon’s words aren’t some bedtime story. He stands up, a static sputtering coming out of him.
“Moon you are an actual FOOL if you think that’s the right move here. We can share! I’ve always been able to share! You’re the one who’s just sssso…” Sun’s voice box hisses as he loses his words, glaring at his night-time counterpart, who is still deathly still.
“I’m so what, brother?” Moon chuckles humorlessly, “I’m so selfish, perhaps? Was that the word you wanted?”
He doesn’t get a response.
“Always the main character, always the star… The spotlight is sooo hard to share, isn’t it, superstar Sundrop?” The nap time animatronic sways hypnotically in the air.
Sun huffs in response and his hands twitch at his sides. Moon chuckles again, cold and dry. You want to run so badly, feeling like a deer about to watch to mountain lions fight (or whatever lions eat. You don’t know!! You’re busy trying to not freak out here, you don’t have time to figure out what some stupid big cats eat!!)
…
…
(Yeah they eat deer.)
You’re reminded of the SITUATION AT HAND when you hear a gravelly laugh come from your good friend and fellow animatronic, Moon.
“Well who do we have here?” He lowers down from the balcony, the wire clipped to his back giving him free motion. You yelp, feeling your body tense up. You then hear a loud, long ripping noise. Moon tilts his head and freezes in place.
You look down to see that, once again, you have no pants.
“UGHH WHAT THE LUCK???” You scream, stumbling around at the new feeling of being weirdly full and the old feeling of being ‘naked’. Sun peers down from the balcony, leaping off it a second later and landing in the ball pit.
You care a little bit less about that and more about WHAT just DUCKING HAPPENED to your CLOTHES?!? (You also don’t care for Sun’s muffled pleas from the ball-pit for you to stop trying to swear. You aren’t swearing though! Your computer brain is making sure of that!!)
Moon has set himself gently onto the ground beside you and Sun has scrambled out of the ball pit before you finally find out what happened.
After fiddling around in your beloved computer brain, you realize that you have the ability to do quick changes. You can suck up your outfit into an empty compartment in your chest and swap it out with another one, stored in a similar space inside your metal body. You think back to the closet room place, the stacks of boxes, and the colorful costumes. Those must have been what you were supposed to use this feature on. Unfortunately for you, you just used it on regular clothes that don’t have Velcro sewn into them.
Fortunately, you figured out how to bring the clothes back out!
They’re ripped, though. Of course.
You stand there, undoubtedly with a red face, as the dirty, gray, extra-large Fazbear shirt hangs loosely over your shoulders, a giant tear down the back, and comfy sweatpants with a matching tear.
It seems that nobody even knows how to react.
That is, until Moon starts cackling like a gosh-hammed witch.
“Putting on a show and you aren’t even the clown here! How ridiculous.” He cheers, placing his hands over his face and pretending to cover up his mouth as his laughter keeps ringing out. You tense your hands and let out a painful static scream.
“Would you just stop it?? You are a ducking JERK!! Both- BOTH OF YOU ARE JERKS!!” You see the animatronics wince back when you shout, “I have NO CLUE what’s going on and NEITHER of you are ACTUALLY helping! Why did I just suddenly black out? Why are you two fighting? And WHY does everything still feel so gosh darned FAMILIAR??”
Once again, everything feels too loud but waayy too quiet because no one is talking, and time is moving so slow that it feels like it’s slipping away. You don’t want to scream or whine anymore, it makes you feel terrible, but there doesn’t seem to be another way of getting these two’s attention.
“I DON’T- I don’t want to… I don’t want to talk to either of you right now! Because you don’t give me straight answers!” You rub your face, feeling self-conscious and remembering the electronic tears, as you try stomping back to the blanket fort. You’re stopped by a blue figure hovering in front of you.
You glare up at Moon, jealous of how he can just hang from the wire and probably leave so easily, but he gives no reaction. He just stares down at you, the neutral smile on his faceplate so painful to look at.
After another moment, he moves to the side and you continue on with your (minor?) tantrum and trudge your way back over to the giant colorful tent.
You’re going to need to talk to them soon. They are the ones who know more about what’s going on here. But…
You want to try and remember something on your own.
As impossible as it sounds, considering your robot brain seems to be broken, you think you might be able to at least think of something. When you blacked out earlier, whatever weirdness you thought about felt familiar. Sun said something about your battery, so you’re assuming you must have blacked out for that reason. Emergency battery-saver, maybe? If you’re activating something like that, though, it means things are already pretty dangerous. You don’t want to waste this whole ‘second-chance-at-life’ thing.
…
You squint angrily at the Sun plush and the Moon plush, holding them up like prisoners on display. You’ve been sitting in this stupid tent for way too long and you’re starting to get annoyed at the silent grinning mugs of these two.
“It’s your guy’s fault that everything sucks.” You grab onto both of them, squishing your thumbs into the chests. “If only you weren’t so… weird and twitchy. Maybe you’d talk to me like a normal person without making vague references to weird sit… weird stuff.”
The plushies don’t respond. They just stare mindlessly forward. You hum a little and scrutinize the Sun one.
“Youuuu seem to be more willing to tell me stuff, though. Moon seems to be upset about his loss of a loved one, which makes sense but STILL-” You feel a bit like a kid, talking to toys and speaking so childishly. You won’t lie, It’s kinda fun.
Ok, it’s really fun.
“I’ll have to do detective work on my own death, it seems. Ugh, I don’t want to go back to that closet… Talking to the other humans maybe?.. Hmmm…” You set the Moon plush down on a pillow. It falls over and you prop it up on the side of the pillow instead. “Sun, you’ve gotta help me out here! I’m just lost and everything is all stupid… Maybe I should try doing something easier than remembering five whole years…”
“…What about learning to work with kids? You’ve already had all the lessons before.” His cheerful, although somewhat quiet, voice chimes in. You smile.
“You know, I guess it wouldn’t be too bad. And I’ve gotta get ready for the job and alL WAIT A MINUTE WHAT-” You launch the plush across the tent. It slams into the blanket wall and threatens to take the whole place down. You’re less worried about the stability of the fort and more about the TALKING PLUSH??? HUH??
You hear awkward chuckling coming from the opening and whip your head around to see a sheepish yellow animatronic standing in the doorway, scratching at his face.
“…Sorry to interrupt your serious conversation with a very serious toy, but I think I might be able to help with your confusion. Or- ah, At least provide a distraction.” He stays crouched over in the ‘doorway’, leaving a comfortable distance between the two of you. You glare at him and grab onto a nearby pillow, arming yourself. He tilts his head and you get the feeling he’d frown if he only could.
“Dewdrop… Friend, please. I know you are mad, you’ve sat in this tent grumbling for the last half hour, but this whole… situation isn’t the type of thing that we should just… ignore. Nothing good can come out of that.” Sun says with a painful somberness (possibly regret?) to his voice, like someone who’s watching their friend make the same mistake again and again and again. You glare over at the upside-down plushie version, it’s more bearable than looking at the real thing. You can hear him let out a simulated sigh and sit down.
You don’t exactly know why you’re being so difficult right now. The worst part is that you KNOW you’re being difficult, but you can’t help it. They haven’t done anything to make you trust them. Except for maybe messing with that Cody guy. You didn’t like him much.
You still think this whole thing is stupid, though, and that the robots are weird.
Buuuuut they are kinda trying, in some weird way, to help. You guess. Maybe you should at least give them a chance? Something is telling you that they wouldn’t want to hurt you, not intentionally at least. You can’t remember them hurting you on purpose. (Although you’re also being delusional, you can’t remember much at all).
If looks could kill the little Sun toy would be a smoldering pile of ashes. ( You make a clicking noise, look over at the real one, and sit up straighter. Sun twitches slightly and does the same, sitting up and fixing his drooping posture.
“Fine. Fine. Let’s… do something as a distraction, then. Where’s the other one?” You rub your ‘eyes’ (the screens), and grunt in dissatisfaction at the smooth texture.
“…Do you mean Moon? He’s… Busy. He’s trying to, ah, clean the mess up.” Sun pinches a part of his puffy pants between his fingers. You tilt your head and make a questioning hum, letting him continue.
“He’s trying to find a way to keep you running. Looking for a… A replacement battery, charging station, something like that. So for now… You’ve just got me to keep you company, hope you don’t mind!” The animatronic chuckles awkwardly and shrugs. You hold a little tighter onto the pillow. Sun’s reactions feel too familiar, like you could almost predict what he’d do next. You can obviously attribute it to the fact you’ve apparently spent 5 years tending to this machine, but that still means you paid attention to the little things about him. You need to get those memories back somehow.
“Okay, I can… I can deal with that. Moon can go find out robot stuff and we… We can… um…” You mumble, a bit more to yourself than to Sun.
“We can play a game!” The cheerful animatronic spins his rays, his tone more begging than suggesting.
“I was going to say get me some new clothes, but that works too, I guess.” You sigh. Setting the pillow down, you look Sun up and down for a moment, having to finally resign yourself to the realization that, yes, you probably are going to be stuck with this wacky jester for the foreseeable future.
“Oh well, yes, that too, that too.” Sun’s odd twitching seems to have calmed down a little bit as you crawl out of the tent. He scoots along the floor to get out of your way yet still stays sitting down. He has to tilt his head up a little bit to continue maintaining his weird non-blinking eye contact with you. It’s almost hard to think properly and it’s hard for you to tell why. Your immediate thoughts consider him, the lemon-colored crazy clown, to be charming, but when you pause for a moment to ACTUALLY think about it you decide it’s best to consider him annoying.
You look at his still expression for a few long moments, noting how his rays keep slightly twitching (looks like he’s trying to stop them from spinning?). His faceplate is surprisingly clean for someone who works with kids daily. You’re also sort of starting to think the frozen smile isn’t so bad? Sure, he could benefit from a range of expressions, but his face is much better than the horror-themed ones you’re used to looking at.
He makes a fake throat clearing noise and pokes his finger into his cheek.
“Dewdrop, my sunshine! You silly supernova, oh, my lovely friend…! What’s got you staring?” He asks, giggling slightly more with each different nickname. His voice dropped a little low near the end, startling you and causing you to take a step back. You rub your eyes, you’re probably reading deeper into this than you need to.
“Noth- Nothing important. I’ve got to get used to looking at you if I’m going to continue being your personal mechanic.” You mumble a little as you talk, so you can’t tell if Sun is leaning forward to hear better or just because he wants to. His hands are getting all twitchy again and he digs them into his colorful pants.
“Great!! I am so very happy to hear that you’ll continue doing that! I take it you aren’t mad at me- us- Anymore?” He sways side to side as he speaks in a sing-song way, still looking up at you from the ground.
You pause for a long moment to think of the words to say next. You stare down at the ripped shirt you’re still so loosely wearing, replaying the day in your mind and trying to find an answer.
You died. Then effectively revived yourself, minus your memories, for some reason possibly pertaining to Sun and Moon, who already know you too well. Then there was Roxy Raceway, the lack of any other animatronics aside from the ones that look like you, and Cody, the guy who just made you feel uncomfortable.
Oh, and there are the other humans too. Noel seemed to know something at least. You might be able to get help from them? If the pizzaplex is closed you can try to talk to whoever is on the nightshift.
The daycare attendants have already been trying to help you though. This is just a very difficult thing to help with. It’s very difficult to keep a clear train of thought!
You blacked out earlier, it maybe had to do with battery problems, so now Moon is off who-knows-where doing God-knows-what to try and find a battery. So…. You’re just here with the big yellow guy looking up at you like a puppy begging for treats.
You groan and cover your eyes with your hands.
“I’m still mad at you.” You hear a sound of distress come from Sun, “But I’m allowed to be. It’s just kinda… vague mad. I’m mad at everyone right now, so I don’t mean anything rude by it. I’ll still take your offer of playing a game though, I need a distraction. Let’s just… not do something too energy consuming, you know?”
You drag your hands down your face, desperately missing the feeling of squishing your face or chewing on your skin or something. You look back down at the sunny animatronic, but startle when you realize he’s stood up, leaning forward with his hands held behind his back. His rays are spinning so joyfully, you can’t help but snicker.
“I’m glad we’re getting to do this again, friend!! I promise the games we play together have always been the most fun.” He cheers, standing up straight and clapping his hands together. You might not fully trust him, but he is programmed to take care of children so it makes sense why he’d be amusing.
“I’d still like to get some clothes first, bud.” You chuckle and pull on your shirt, feeling the faint smile on your face.
“Ohh right right right right, sorry dewdrop. You could just go without clothes, though, it wouldn’t be soooo terrible.” Sun teases, patting you on the head. You can feel whatever lights are in your cheeks heat up and you bat away his hand, the heat almost getting too much when Sun just leans closer.
“Weirdo.” You grumble, forcing yourself to look away from him.
“Mister Fazbear and most of his friends don’t wear extra clothes either,” The animatronic mentions as he sways back and forth, “and they don’t get complaints from any of the parents. I wouldn’t mean anything other than that.”
You roll your eyes and turn towards the metal desk, the one that’s kinda sort of yours. (if you’re still the daycare assistant that is..?)
“Great. I’ve gotta think about what parents think of me. Isn’t that just something lovely to add to the stack of worries I’ve got.” You run your fingers along the top of the desk and hear how Sun laughs before following behind you.
“Oh sunshine, the parents have never had a problem with you. And you’re so good at arguing with the mean ones!” He chimes with such excitement in his voice it makes you pause. You stay staring down at the smooth surface of the desk, mind feeling blank and mushy. Sun stutters before continuing.
“…Not in… a threatening way. It’s just so… It’s a wonderful thing having you here, stormcloud. And- and I know it’s weird. Goodness, I know I’m weird! But- But we were friends before. I have no doubts that we could try once more! And you know it’s true because it even rhymes.” The animatronic chuckles and puts his hand on the desk beside yours.
Brightly colored metallic digits, not quite human but just as effective. His hand is quite big, definitely longer than your dull red fingers stolen from a STAFF bot. You still haven’t quite gotten over being a robot, it seems, because you stare for a long moment, comparing Sun’s hand to yours.
His fingers twitch every so often, either out of impatience or jitters, but he doesn’t move away. You look back up at his faceplate, turned directly to you.
You guess you might as well give this goofball a shot if he’s got so much trust in you already. Maybe… You’ll grow to trust him as well. Definitely not soon, since he’s still a crazy weirdo, but there’s a strange feeling and a chance that you might change your mind once you get to know him.
Or! Maybe! Just skip the whole bonding thing, sneak away from him, go back to the closet with your dead body, get your memories back, and try to leave this cursed place?
You’ll go with one of the two options, both seem fine.
