Chapter Text
After the events at the Freddy Fazbear Mega Pizzaplex, a savvy investor (and thrilled competitor) came along to purchase the financially crumbling enterprise. Snatching up the corporation, its assets, and the few animatronics saved from the fire. The new investor, a woman who went simply by De, was a well-respected robotics designer. After her acquisition, she quickly patched up the most intact animatronics, Freddy, and the daycare attendant. All that remained of Monty, Chica, Roxy, and the DJ were their base personality chips and only some of their motherboards. While De was able to quickly get started on the manufacturing of new casing and mechanics for the destroyed bots, working out the kinks in their code would take some time.
You have been working for an elite robotics think tank for the last few years, designing high tech robots and system components for investors with a variety of problems. Taking on difficult mechanical and technical challenges to build machines for complex physical tasks such as acrobatics and advanced AI tasks like companionship and hospital servicing. You even worked on a series of rather unique animatronics for a chain of love hotels. De started attempting to poach you almost six months ago, but you have turned her down over and over again. You liked the think tank, you were brought all kinds of problems to solve, and the variety of work kept you engaged. Why would you want to leave for a stagnant position at an entertainment chain?
Until one night, when De called and finally gave you a reason to really consider her offer. Which is where your story really begins…..
Your days had been starting very early on your most recently assigned project, so you were long asleep when the phone rang at 1 AM. You reached out in the haze of having been jarred awake, fishing for the device somewhere in your mess of covers. When you finally find it, now getting annoyed with the ring tone, you flip it over to see the caller ID. You see “De” lighting up the screen and glance at your bedside table clock. The red hologram 1:03 AM glares back at you, and you wonder to yourself if she has completely lost her fucking mind. You decline the call and roll back over. As you settle back in under the covers, just starting to relax into your mattress, the phone begins ringing again. You jolt up, grabbing the phone and squinting at it again.
“De,” the caller ID reads, again.
With a huff, you answer, “De! This better be really fucking important. Do you know what time it is??!” you snap. You hear her tired but still lackadaisical laugh on the other end of the line, “Well, you sound like a ray of sunshine. Why am I working so hard to get your attention again?” You pull the phone back from your ear and scowl at the screen before responding, “I have no idea; I’m hanging up now.” Before you can hit the end call button, you hear a scurried clatter and “wait, wait, wait!” You pinch the bridge of your nose, “De….” She cuts you off, “Look, I know you are getting sick of hearing from me, but I wouldn’t be calling at 1 AM and chasing you around so hard if I didn’t think you were the ideal candidate. I….. I’m still at the office, and I am just…completely worn out and at a loss with this project. I NEED another pair of hands. Your hands ideally, and that sharp mind of yours if you don’t mind bringing that as well.”
You roll your eyes, “De, I already told you I’m not interested. You own a chain of kids' entertainment systems with basic song and dance features. Literally, ANYONE could work on them; it doesn’t need to be me. For fucks sake, go snag some smart kid from the local community collage robotics program; they’ll do fine and would be MUCH more thrilled to hear from you than I am!” There is a long pause, and then De says, “Well…..what if what I purchased wasn’t a simple song and dance system?” Your reply is deadpan, “De, I’m starting to get worried that you're manic.” She chuckles sincerely in response, “Honestly, you might not be wrong, but that doesn’t change my reply. I haven’t been able to give you extensive details because it’s confidential, but these bots are way more complex than your typical attendant and entertainment systems. Just…hold on, let me show you something.”
On the screen pops up the icon for a video call. You shake your head and answer it. De’s face pops up, “Wow! You really were in bed, huh? Sorry about that.” She squints at you, “Cute pjs, though!” You roll your eyes at her, pulling the covers higher, “Just show me what you got.” She laughs, “Alright, alright, just a moment, let me call him in.”
De props her phone up and looks away from the camera, reaching for something you can’t see. You hear a buzzing sound and the sliding clang of a metal door. “Sunny! Are you still out there?” You hear the jingle of bells and a response “Yup yup yup! Sure am Miss De! Did you decide to take me up on my offer to play a game?? I still have Uno in my pocket…..” The overly cheery voice trails off as it enters the room, then drops into an anxious whisper, “Oh gosh! I’m so so sosososososo SORRY, Miss De! I didn’t know you were on a call!!” De laughs, “Sunny, it’s fine.” Clearly still worried, the voice responds in an even softer tone, “umm…What can I do for you, Miss De?” You finally cut in, “De, I don’t have all night. How long will it take for your employee to get the demonstration set up?”
You become almost concerned when De erupts into side-splitting laughter. Your brows knit together as you wait for her to compose herself; finally, she picks up the phone and says, “Well *chuckle* I guess you could call him an employee,” and she flips the camera orientation to show you Sundrop, towering in the doorway. The animatronic must be nearly nine feet tall, with sun rays framing his face. His design is jester-like, with billowing trousers, upturned shoes, and matching frills and ribbons. Bells hang from his wrists; that must have been the jingling you heard. You’re speechless as Sun glances nervously to the side, fiddling with his hands. He looks down and then back at the screen and sheepishly waves, “Hi, new friend!” He says. You sit up, watching his movements through the screen closely now. The intentional movements are smooth, clearly fantastic engineering, but it’s the subtle, seemingly unintentional motion that really catches your attention. The animatronic sways slightly from side to side with nervous energy, fiddling as he glances around, not sure what to do. These tells come across as almost human.
“uhhh, Hi Sunny..” you finally say, “Sorry to disrupt your evening.” The animatronics eyes flitter up, you assume, looking at De, and then back down to you on the screen. He perks up a little more confident and takes a few bouncy steps into the room “Oh, that’s ok! I always have time for a new friend! Especially a friend of De’s!” His arms flick out in a flourish to emphasize the statement, and then, with a little spin, he sits down cross-legged in front of the screen in one fluid motion.
Now it’s your turn to giggle, the last remnants of sleep falling away. De’s plan worked, she has piqued your interest. You hear her in the background say, “Sunny, can you tell my friend…” You snort a little when she calls you her friend. She pauses for only a second; you are sure to roll her eyes before she continues, “.. can you tell my soon-to-be VERY GOOD FRIEND about what you and I have been working on?”
Sun tilts his head to the side, the rays around his face turning in an almost inquisitive motion at De’s emphasis before nodding his head enthusiastically in reply, “Yup yup yup! We’ve been working on setting up a new daycare! It’s been so so sososososo fun! We have a brand new ball pit and lots of new activity centers! Miss De even let me help in the design process and pick new games. Oh! And-and I just finished the cuuuuuuutest mural on the ceiling!” The bot rocks back and forth with giddy excitement as he talks, embellishing his description with grand hand gestures before clasping them together in an endearing jester close to his face “The children are going to love it so much!”
De chimes in again before the Sun can continue, “That’s right, but can you tell her about what we work on at night?”
His face freezes up a bit, taking on a sense of nervousness as he fiddles with the slick fabric of his pants. He looks back at you, “Oh.. Um, yup! Just working on getting Moon ready for the kids too…” He stands a bit abruptly, “It’s a work in progress. Really he’s great! He’ll be great! Things are different here, so I’m sure it will be fine!” You are not sure if he is trying to convince you or himself. As he rambles, he takes a few steps back into the doorway again, “Plus, Miss De is so very, very, very smart! I’m sure she will get Moon in tip-top shape in no time! Right, Miss De?”
De replies in a calming tone, “Of course, Sunny, and my friend is going to come and help too.”
Sun smiled wider, a tense but still convincing excited expression “Oh, that sounds fantastic! I can’t wait to meet you, friend!”
With that, De kindly dismissed him, “Thanks for helping me out, Sunny. You can head back to the daycare now.”
The last thing you see before De turns the camera back to herself is the poor animatronic, looking like he wants to quite literally run away say “Oh, of COURSE! Let me know if you need anything else, Miss De! I am going to go work on cleaning the daycare some more….Can never be too squeaky, squeaky clean!” And with that, he disappears from the frame, and De turns the camera.
“So, what do you think?”
“I’m thinking, what the fuck was that? Did that ROBOT have anxiety? And maybe ADHD??? Where did Fazbear even GET an AI like??? Why would they design him that way? I have never seen anything like it, De!”
She laughs, “I knew this would get your attention, but legal and the other investors are going to murder me if they find out I showed him to you after the new upgrades.”
“It’s pretty damn impressive. I’ve worked on all kinds of physically complex machines, but AI that smooth and that life-like, nothing I have worked on even comes close. So what’s the catch?”
De suddenly looks like the Cheshire Cat, her eyes angle as she grins mischievously “Well, all I can tell you is that Sun isn’t just one A.I., he’s actually two. That other A.I. has some bugs from before the acquisition that even I can’t work out. That’s what I need your help on.”
“Two A.I.s? In one machine? Why?”
De shrugs at you, “That’s all you get tonight. I’m already way past breaking protocol. Don’t tell Sunny. He’ll throw a fit." she says with a wink, "So if you want more details, you’ll have to come work for me.” She winks at you.
There she is, De, the saleswoman.
“He’ll throw a fit? He has MORAL AWARENESS????” You shake your head in disbelief as De laughs. Then you purse your lips and furrow your brow at her. You look away, eyeing the time, 1:25 AM. You have to be up in 2 hours and 35 minutes. De seems like she is holding her breath but maintains a pretty solid poker face.
You sigh, running your free hand through your hair “Fine, De. You got me. I need three weeks to wrap up and hand off my current project. I want a one-year contract to start, nothing longer.” De erupts in an excited cheer, but you cut her off, “and it’s going to cost you, De! I’m interested, but I don’t come cheap!”
She laughs, clearly still excited by the thrill of a successful poaching. “That’s fine! This project will be worth every dime! I’ll send you the paperwork now.”
You roll your eyes, “I’ll look at it in the morning. I’m going to bed now, Goodnight.”
“Night!” De chimes back excitedly as you press the ‘end call’ button.
You fall back into your pillows, contemplating the decision that you just made. Maybe it was stupid and rash, a bit out of character for you, but Sunny was something else. You replayed the conversation with the animatronic in your mind, going over every little feature and trigger that you could remember. You never did go back to bed, but by morning you figured this was going to be a pretty interesting project.