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Driving to your new job in the middle of the night through a highway full of traffic probably wasn’t the best idea. Especially since that new job is at Freddy Fazbear’s Mega PizzaPlex. Oh, well. Too late now!You park your car as close to the building as possible (which is pretty easy since you’re an employee), and turn the keys to switch it off. Pocketing your keys in your bag, you exit your car and lock it. You give the night sky one last look before entering the PizzaPlex.Upon clocking in with your badge, you head over to the Superstar Daycare. Wait. Where was that again?With a groan you pull out your phone and look at your email. The instructions are still there, thankfully, and you’ve yet to delete them. The only issue is the bustling crowds of people trying to leave as the place closes.“Okay…” you mumble to yourself, re-reading the email. “Go to the Freddy statue…then upstairs…turn left and enter…scan badge to go inside…” You go over the directions one more time before you pocket your phone again and walk towards the giant golden Freddy statue. Upon arriving at the daycare, you’re shocked to find that it’s much larger than you expected. Instead of just the roomy, reasonably sized playroom, there’s that and much more.There’s a few rollercoaster rides, designed for both teenagers and little kids alike. They all have different themes with matching colors to the themes. One is set in space, another in Medieval times, and another is in a fun school-like setting. There are also a variety of other attractions, like go-karts and dart throwing.You shake your head in shock. This was not on the application website at all. What was Fazbear thinking?But…what could you do? You applied and got the job. It’s not your place to complain.Out of nowhere you hear something. Faint, unintelligible voices. Despite knowing how stupid it is, you follow the sound. Around a corner, there are two young adults mingling by a colorful and rather fancy door. They appear to both be women. One of them had beautifully clear dark skin with (presumably dyed) pinkish-purple hair. She wore the employee uniform: a black shirt and a purple jacket with purple pants and black shoes.The other woman wore the same outfit, but her hair was a strawberry blonde and her skin was covered in freckles that looked like stars. Both of them seemed to be friends.They laugh and head towards the fancy, swirly door, before entering somewhere through it and letting it shut behind them. You want to follow. You don’t know why. You just want to.“What’cha dooooin’?”You gasp and jump at the sound of a rather loud and teasing voice coming from behind you. You whip your whole body around to see a large sun themed animatronic standing hunched over just 5 feet away from you. It must be Sun, but he doesn’t…look as advertised.The animatronic’s pupils are blown out as if on drugs, and has only white sclera otherwise. The spikes on his head meant to represent rays seem to have been broken; they’re all cut down the middle with a large V shape. The frills around his neck are red and seem to resemble the petals of a flower. His waistband is of a similar color and has a drape on the sides. The pants are of a duller red color and go down to about his ankles, where brown boots decorate his feet. He has simple red wristbands.The only thing to contrast the animatronic’s red clothes and yellow-and-orange body is a light blue star on his chest. It seemed to glow.“Well?” the animatronic chirps impatiently. You blink. “Oh. Right. Sorry,” you mumble. “Those two just…caught my attention is all.”The animatronic’s grin seems to widen and his pupils shrink ever so slightly. “Oh, of course,” he exclaims, seeming satisfied. “Those two can be eye catching, can’t they, friend?”You give him a nervous smile and shrug. He eyes you before standing straight and offering a hand. He’s much more off-putting at his full height. “My name is Sun,” he chirps. “I’m the main daycare attendant! And you are…?”You give him your name and shake his hand. “I’m guessing you’ll be my boss, right?”Sun laughs, his mouth opening to an almost unnatural wideness. “Oh, no no no no no,” he huffs, as if you’d just told the world’s funniest joke. “No. I’ll be your coworker. Moon is your boss. Did you forget you also work security?”“Oh. Right. Yeah, sorry,” you sigh. “I’m just tired, I guess.”“That must suck,” Sun remarks in a way that catches you off guard with how sarcastic it sounds. He shakes his head and spins his body like the Tasmanian Devil from Looney Tunes and claps his hands together. “Yes! Well, I’ll give you a little tour of the daycare before I send you off to meet the others!”“Others?” you echo.Sun looks at you like an exasperated kindergarten teacher. “The other animatronics at the daycare! Moon, Eclipse, Earth…” he pauses, seeming annoyed now. “…the gods…and most importantly, Lunar! The big boss! Guy in charge over all of us here in the Superstar Daycare!”“W-wait,” you interject. “The gods?”“I guess I should tell you,” Sun groans. He begins to walk and motions for you to follow. He shows you the layout of the main daycare as he speaks.“The gods are just a group of animatronics that live past that fancy door you were looking at,” he says. “Just to clarify, not inside those doors. Go past the doors and you’ll find their attractions.”“The four of them are all named after gods and goddesses in mythology, so they call themselves that,” Sun continues, kicking a stack of colorful barrels over. “They think they’re so special.”His tone, as well as the anger in the swing of his leg, make you jolt. This was not what you had expected from the sunny animatronic. He seems to notice your unease and fixes the barrels with a smile.“Sorry about that, friend,” he croons. “I’ve…had a rough day.”“You’re okay,” you respond nonchalantly. “That’s understandable. Kids are rough.”With a tilt of his head to the left, Sun asks, “Then why apply for this job?”You shrug. “I need a job,” you explain. “Besides, I’m working security too, right?”Sun nods with an even wider grin. “Of course! Oh, you’ll just love it here! Now come on, let me finish giving you a tour.”The first thing he showed you was the ball pit. A large, 3-foot deep pit full of colorful plastic balls. Reds, blues, greens, and yellows were all around.Next, Sun gestured to the large play structures all around the main daycare. “These cords here,” he explains. “Go to generators. Just in case you need them. Dunno why they’re in there, but that was one of the only things that Fazbear wouldn’t allow us to change.”“Change?” you ask.Sun grows still for a minute, his incomplete rays spinning. “Don’t worry about it. It’s a very complicated situation,” he says plainly. “Anyway, on with the tour!” The tour took about an hour. Sun didn’t seem worried at all, despite your own worry that you might be wasting time on the clock. The tour ends when Sun stops in front of the fancy doors from earlier. He adjusts his waistband and the frills on his neck.“So, where’s your stuff? I’ll be happy to help you get it all into your room,” he offers enthusiastically.“My…stuff…?” You ask, growing both nervous and confused.This time, Sun spins his entire head as he laughs. The laugh is quite unnerving. When Sun’s head finally settles, his pupils shrink and he sighs. “Boy, Fazbear really loves to gatekeep, huh?”“What—““Here at the Superstar Daycare, all our employees live in a sort of…dorm room system, I guess,” Sun explains. “Most of our employees don’t live nearby or are working here for a while, so this is a basic requirement for all employees!”“Oh,” you say. “I…Yeah. I’ll be working here for quite a while.”“How soon can you get the stuff you need?”You sigh, tugging at your purple jacket and your lanyard. “I’ll make a call.”Sun nods and looks off into the distance, allowing you at least a semblance of privacy. You make your call, and the conclusion arrives that your stuff should be here in a few hours.That’s what you relay to Sun, and he puts his yellow and orange hands together enthusiastically. “That’s perfect, friend!” His voice is cheery, but distracted. “That gives you plenty of time to meet the others!”“Right,” you huff. “The others. Yeah…”“Go ahead and start with Moon. He’s the head of security around here,” Sun suggests. You don’t have a chance to respond before he rushes off, leaving you alone with your thoughts.
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Moon.Your thoughts are filled with the word, silently repeating it to yourself as you look at the signs on the doors around the daycare. Sun said that Moon was the head of security, so he must have an office somewhere, right? Right.It doesn’t take very long to find Moon’s office. The door was black with a yellow “police” badge painted in the center with a crescent moon on it. You knock. A strangely long amount of time passes before you hear the door open. It opens just enough for you to see who you presume is Moon.Moon is a tall celestial animatronic, though smaller than Sun, for some reason. His face was fittingly designed like a crescent moon. Similar to Sun’s face, but the colors were a dark blue and white compared to the warm colors of the sunny animatronic. Moon wears a starry nightcap that dangles low in front of him. A bell on the end jingles as he seems to breathe. His pants are blue with simple yellow shimmer designs on them. They’re few, but noticeable. His shoes are boots as well, seeming padded. Instead of a shirt, Moon is bare, only wearing dark blue wristbands.You stop analyzing him when he calls your name in a raspy voice.“What?” you utter, blinking.“That’s you, right?” Moon asks. He seems to tremble. You don’t know why.You nod at his question. “Yeah. That’s me. I’m the new employee.”Moon nods. “Good. Yes. Who have you met?”“Just Sun,” you tell him. “Why?”At your answer, Moon turns away and mutters something under his breath. He turns back to you and stands straight. “Let’s hope you last.”“What?”“Nothing. Don’t worry about it.”You brush off the strange statement, shifting your feet a little. “So…is there anything that needs done?”The lunar animatronic thinks for a moment, twitching strangely, before shaking his head. “It’s your first day. We use that day to…g-get acquainted.”“Are you okay?” you ask.“…Yes. Why?” Moon answers.“You stuttered all of a sudden,” you tell him.He blinks. “Oh. That. Yeah. Th-that’s just a little bug. Not an-an issue. I don’t do it too often anyway.”You nod, though you get the feeling that there’s more to it than a silly bug. You watch him twitch again with more intensity before he looks at you. “Go meet the others,” he orders in his raspy, almost trembling voice. “You can start tomorrow night.”With that, he slams the door in your face and locks it.What was that? You wonder silently. You stand in front of Moon’s door, frozen in bewilderment. That isn’t what you expected from your boss. But then again, tonight has been nothing but surprises.You set off on trying to find another animatronic that resides in the daycare. It doesn’t matter who it is, so long as you get to meet everyone you can.You walk over to the roller coasters again, examining them more closely. They look clean, but it’s a strange kind of clean. Like someone was rushing and taking their time all at once. It boggled you. “What are you looking at?”You whip your head around when a voice calls to you. It’s hoarse, but somewhat deep and, though you’d never say it out loud, a little soothing. The voice belongs to a dark version of Sun.The animatronic’s rays are still complete, and a dark red at that. He has extra, smaller ones in between the big ones that are a pale sunset orange. His face is also a crescent moon shape. That seems to be a running theme here; his face is shades of orange and some kind of red. His clothes are like that of a cashier: a loose collared blue shirt and burnt dark orange pants. His boots are brown and he has a lighter orange jacket wrapped around his waist. He sports a name tag that reads “Eclipse”. It must be his name.“Just the rollercoasters,” you respond. “They look clean and dirty at the same time.”Eclipse seems to deflate at your statement. He sighs, using two fingers to rub at what would be the bridge of his nose if he was human. “I’m always busy,” he mutters as if apologizing.“N-no, it’s okay,” you assure him, stepping off to the side. “I just noticed is all. Have they been overworking you?”He shakes his head and throws his gloves off, revealing a blue wristband on each arm. “Not that kind of busy.”“What?”Eclipse sighs. “I’ve been looking for someone,” he tells you. “She’s been missing for a while. It’s why you’re here in the first place.”“…” Eclipse looks around. “…But if you ask me, you’ll probably be kept around even if we do find her.”“Who are you talking about?” you ask.Instead of an answer, Eclipse gives you a look that makes you feel as if you shouldn’t have asked that. You stiffen. He relaxes. “Sorry. We don’t really talk about her,” Eclipse mumbles.You decide to just accept that answer, though you’re also hoping someone else will tell you. Mentioning a missing employee and then avoiding the topic immediately afterwards is…for lack of a better word, suspicious. Just what had you gotten yourself into?You look back up from your thoughts to find the animatronic gone. What? How did he leave so quickly? You never zone out for long…he must not like you. That must be it.That’s disappointing, you think to yourself. We talked for just five minutes, and he already hates me!With a sigh and a shake of your head, you look at the rollercoasters. You find Eclipse grumbling incoherently as he works on the controls. You walk up to him and tap him on the shoulders. “Do you hate me?”It was a blunt and rather strange question, but you felt the need to ask it. The solar animatronic shifts slightly, turning his head slightly to look at you. “No,” he breathes. “I don’t hate you. It’s just a sensitive topic, that’s all…”For the first time, you notice the shape of his eyes. The green in his black sclera look like that of a goat. Interesting.“Oh. Okay,” you respond. “Thanks. You must be tired.”Eclipse chuckles, smiling softly. “Yeah. I am. But like I said, I’m busy. I’ll be okay though.”“You should go meet Lunar, if no one else for tonight,” he finishes before you can say anything.You blink. “O-oh. Okay. Is he important?”Eclipse laughs this time. “He’s everyone’s boss here in the daycare, including Moon.”“Oh.”Eclipse gives you one last grin before making a waving motion and gesturing upstairs. He doesn’t even glance at you again, walking off in another direction. Well…that’s a little weird.You scoff lightheartedly and head upstairs, looking for Lunar. The daycare is very colorful, as are the decorations and doors. You can only hope that the door to where Lunar must be is easy to spot.You pass by several party rooms as well as a storage room or two. One of the storage rooms sends a chill down your spine as you pass it. It’s strange, but you tell yourself it’s just the nerves of going to meet your boss. You brush the feeling off and continue. It takes about 20 minutes for you to find the door. The make of the office doors is quite fancy, but the design looks as if a child drew it. You find it amusing and almost endearing. Upon knocking, you immediately receive an answer. “Come in,” a chipper voice calls to you.You enter as the doors creak, and you see a spacious office painted in shades of blue and pale yellow. There are blue, pink, and yellow beanbag chairs all over the floor. A large black desk stands in the center with a soft chair and a reindeer plushie on it. You look up just ever so slightly to the large window in the front of the office and see it.A small animatronic around 5 feet or so tall, colored different tones of light blues. His hat is like that of a jester’s: two ends with glowing star charms dangling from them. The hat is striped sky blue and white with a black rim. The animatronic wears a black bandana around his neck and plain blue jester pants that lead to white jester shoes. He turns around and you can see his face. He looks friendly. Almost too friendly. Like Sun. He has a star on his chest like Sun, but it’s yellow this time. He smiles.“Oh! Hi!” he chirps, waving. He has black wristbands on his wrists. Why do all of them have wristbands?You wave back, nervous. “Hi. I’m the new—““New employee,” he finishes. “Right. I’m Lunar, your boss! Well, technically, Moon is your boss, but I’m the boss of everyone.”You sigh, nodding. “Yeah. Okay.”Lunar tilts his head, walking over to you. “What can I do for you?”“Well…” you mumble. “I was told to meet you if I couldn’t meet everyone today. I already met Sun, Moon, and…and Eclipse.”This makes Lunar beam, visibly bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Good, good,” he chirps. “That means you’ve met everyone important! Well…almost everyone. You still need to meet Earth and your fellow human employees!”“What about the gods?” you ask.Lunar’s expression immediately sours. He sighs. “They’re not important. Don’t worry about it.”“Oh…kay…” you mumble. That, like so many other things tonight, was unexpected.Lunar does a 180, grinning from nonexistent ear to nonexistent ear and handing you a hardcover book. The title reads: “Daycare Employee Handbook.”“Read it,” Lunar insists. “All human employees need the instructions and information right here in order to succeed here!”Taking a moment to examine the book, you notice a couple things. The book seems old and worn, like it wouldn’t been new around 20 years ago. While the entire book is clearly worn down, the back pages seem especially worn down and used. You’d have to check that out later. At least it wasn’t that thick of a book.“Will do,” you tell him simply.“Will that be all?” Lunar asks.Upon noticing how he looks at you— that off-putting grin and stiffness of an overly alert person— you nod. “Yes. See you tomorrow?”“Whichever shift you feel like taking,” he responds enthusiastically. “Night shift tomorrow then,” you inform him. You give a small wave before taking the book and leaving. You’d managed to meet back with Sun by the fancy doors. He helped you carry your things into the separate dorm building. You were honestly shocked that you had your own room. It’s a nice one, too.The tall solar animatronic bids you a good night and leaves you alone in your new room. You lock the door and turn the lights off. With the book in your hands, you turn on your fairy lights. They’re calming, leave the room dark, and yet you have enough light to see properly. Opening the book, you begin to read.
‘Section 1: Rules and Regulations’
“Okay,” you whisper to yourself. “Shouldn’t be too bad.”
‘- Treat animatronics, customers, and fellow employees with respect and courtesy
- Do your job to the best of your abilities
• Accommodations will be provided if necessary and requested
- Unless invited, never enter an animatronic’s living space
- Employees are allowed to wander around the PizzaPlex and the daycare freely on their time off and when finished with tasks
- Always act professionally around customers and children even when off duty’
So far so good, in your opinion. All the rules seemed very reasonable so far. Maybe the yucky feeling in your chest was just playing tricks on you.You keep reading, and your confidence ebbs away. The rules become more strange as you read them. Your resolve breaks when you get to one of the last rules:
‘- The Sun animatronic has a large appetite. He must be fed weekly. Make sure you can get to safety at all times when you are in charge’
This explained the rules about maintenance and “stomach cleaning.” Somewhat. Their stomachs must be artificial. But you were right. Something was seriously off about Sun. You just…didn’t know what. You were too scared to pry anyway.You shiver and keep reading. Section 2 is the longest one, being information about all the animatronics, as well as anatomy and things to appease them if need be. The most terrifying thing on this section is Sun’s apparent taste for meat. You know it’s ridiculous, but with all the whiplash of unexpected things today, you’re bound to be a little emotional.Well, you’re almost to the end of the book. Almost to the really worn section. Once you get there, you find…diary entries?Yes. Entries made by pervious employees who have had this handbook. Clearly their real names weren’t signed, but strange nicknames. Misty, Sport, Tulip, The Twins, Goldbrick, and Lovebird. You wondered if Plum and Star were nicknames, too, because last names were written for those two entries. ‘Lovebird’ was the last person to have this book.Their handwriting is legible, but sloppy and clearly rushed. At least it isn’t too hard to read. You can’t help but notice that Misty, Sport, and Tulips were the neatest other than Plum and Star’s. Clearly they weren’t in a hurry or in a panic when writing their entries, and it seems like Lovebird and a few others weren’t in the best mental state when writing their entries.You skim through all the entries, too tired to pay much attention to random employees’ thoughts about working here. Even if some of them talked about Sun. You just want to know what that guy’s deal is.Closing the book, you decide to get some shuteye and dwell over it tomorrow. You change into your pajamas and climb into your bed (that you were somehow able to get out here) and turn off your fairy lights.It takes longer than usual, but you eventually manage to fall asleep after a long night.