Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Great. Just great. First week over and Chica could tell she was going to despise it here. The way the customers looked at her and her co-workers reeked of disgust, almost as if it was their fault the original act got replaced. What’s worse is the fact that she barely knew the building, and pretty much only knew where her spot on stage was and where the kitchen was. Yes, she had a basic map of the building uploaded to her hard drive, but it doesn’t help much when it doesn’t tell you how the rooms are arranged, or what their purpose is, or how to even enter them. As far as she knew, every other room could be a bathroom. Plus, her design. Good God her design. She hated it. Apparently the newest line (or, the “Toys” as she learned they were called) was supposed to be equipped with clothing. But, their creations were rushed, so all they had were the plastic, painted undercovers that were supposed to go underneath their clothes. Bonibelle and Fred both escaped the worst of it, they were only supposed to have a letterman jacket and sparkled vest respectively. Chica, however…she looked basically nude. She was meant to have a bright pink skirt and legwarmers, and lots and lots and lots of colorful plastic jewelry, but instead all she got was a bib and a pink painted pelvis piece that looked scarily close to bikini bottoms. She heard the complaints the customers had about “modesty”, but it wasn't like the employees could throw a coat on her, or something. They already tried that, the first song came on and she had torn it in two within the first verse. The band had stayed on stage all week, afraid that they’d be punished for leaving it, they weren’t allowed to leave during the day, so why would it be different at night? Well, Chica was sick of it, and she was going to do something about it.

“Hey Bonnie?” Chica quietly whispered. She knew the sky blue bunny could hear her, a twitch of her ear gave it away, but she still stood silently, staring as if she was trying to see past the empty dining room and into the parking lot. “Bonibelle, I’m not a moron, I know you can hear me.”

Bonnie sighed, still staring ahead before responding, “What do you want, Chica?”

“Aren’t you getting tired of standing around for days on end? I mean, don’t you want to get a ‘lay of the land” so to speak? Besides the guard we’re completely alone, it’s not like they’re gonna walk in at,” Chica checked her internal clock quickly “5:22 AM and see us!” Chica had her entire plan laid out, she just needed Bonnie to agree with her.

Bonnie sighed, frustrated, before saying, “Chica, I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times, I don’t want to leave the stage and sneak around just ‘cause you think we won’t be caught. Now leave me alone, I have to recharge.”

“Fine then, I don’t need you, I’ll explore all on my own and I’ll have an absolute blast!” Chica whisper-yelled to Bonnie, but she had already fallen back into sleep-mode. Grumbling, Chica slowly and silently stepped past her keyboard and quietly slipped off the stage. After stepping off stage, she looked around the main dining room. Dead ahead, she saw the mini rotunda that led to the entrance, and further into the parking lot. In the far right corner, she saw a doorway with loose curtains covering the entrance, and a sign above it simply reading “BUCCANEER BAY DAYCARE”. Along the left wall she saw a doorway that led to somewhere, but she could see a corkboard with a bunch of drawings pinned to it hanging on the wall. Further up in the corner she could see the arcade and prize corner, the vaguely space-themed room glimmered like the night sky with little lights embedded into the wall. Neon strips allowed some light in the dim room, but along the farthest wall she could see moonlight flood into the room.

“Better head to the arcade first, maybe I’ll find someone else!” Chica quietly walked through the dining room and slid into the arcade, her steps being silenced as she walked from linoleum to carpet. As she walked in, she noticed the utterly massive gift box in the corner, and a soft music box playing a song she vaguely knew. Across from it sat a balloon cart with a paper saying “Out for more supplies, be back soon! :)” with honestly kind of sloppy handwriting, Chica thought. She decided to make her way to the gift box and inspect it, noticing how the top was split down the middle with something inside.

The bird would knock on it, “Hello? Is anyone in there?” She would stare at the box before the top burst open and a massive spindly figure appeared. She jumped back and slowly looked up at the… Clown? Jester? Mime? Chica honestly didn’t know. She would stare silent for a moment before the Clown-Jester-Mime spoke.

“Well?”

There goes the Mime theory “Ah, hello! I’m uh, I’m Chica, I thought I would uhm,” Chica saw the Jester-Clown glare at her “ uh, n-nice to meet you.” Chica stammered, holding out her shaking hand. The Clown-Jester would look at her for a second, before laughing and taking up Chica’s hand in theirs.

“Well hi there! Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you, I’m Marionette! Or ‘The Puppet Thing’ depending on who you ask, Hah-Huh!” The Marionette’s voice was soft, cartoonish, and… vaguely British? Chica noticed how the Marionette’s voice seemed compressed, as if their voicebox was much, much older. Chica sighed in relief before taking the Marionette’s hand in hers. “N-Nice to meet you! I’m just walking around, trying to get familiar with the building, better get used to it if I’m one of the new stars, y’know?”

The Marionette would nod, “ Yeah, better get used to it and explore as much as you can, the building has a habit of pulling one over on you. One moment you think you know every nook and cranny of this place, the next you find a door you’ve never seen before. Heck, sometimes I feel like I’m a stranger in this place, and I’ve been here for years. Good Luck!” Before Chica could question what they meant, the spindly figure rewound into the box as it shut with a soft click. As Chica turned to leave, she saw the little red dot indicating that the guard was watching. She decided to hit a pose, a smile and a peace sign as she kicked her leg up. The red dot turned off and she heard the 6AM chime signaling the guard’s shift was over, and very quietly yet quickly rushed back to her spot on stage. As she powered down, she watched the nightguard walk past, taking note of how young he looked, and silently hoped and prayed that today was better than the last week.

Chapter Text

Second night, and Chica was still loathing this place. Despite her hoping that the day would go better the previous night, it hadn’t. More complaints came in about her design, an old man with particularly bad eyesight tried to hit on her, she enjoyed watching him get kicked out for becoming increasingly violent over her “denial” (read: ignoring of) his advances, and 2 hippies climbed up onto the stage and forced them to stop a show and close early by threatening to pour sugar into the band's pneumatics. She was pretty sure that wouldn’t have done anything, but the management and engineers didn’t want to risk it. Wonderful, just great, absolutely freakin’ awesome. Despite the last few hours feeling like a whole year, she was ecstatic when the evening crew left and the night began. 12:01AM, the night was fresh, and she had a newfound excitement about her next exploration. But first, enlisting a little help wouldn’t hurt!
“Bonnie.”
Nothing.
“Bonnie.”
The slightest shift of her body.
“BONIBELLE!”
“WHAT CHICKADEE!” The bright blue bunny wheeled her head around to face her. Literally. She kept her body forward as she turned her head to face Chica. Sometimes Chica forgets they can do this, it unnerves her to know how robotically they act when compared to regular humans.
“Weeell,” Chica began, her voice curious “I was wondering if you maybe wanted to-”
“No, Chica.” Bonnie replied, sounding exhausted.
“Wha- you didn’t let me finish!” Chica whined.
“No, I didn’t, because I know what you’re about to say. You want to go explore the building and you want me to come with, and like every night for the past month, I’m going to say no, and you’re going to go off on your own grumbling about it all the way, while me and Freddy stay on stage and recharge.” Bonnie explained, sounding exasperated with each sentence. Chica stopped, she didn’t know what to say, Bonnie had a point.
“But c’moooon, it’ll be fun!” Chica started again. “And-”
“Just- not right now Chica. Maybe tomorrow.”
Chica looked disheartened, before stating, frustrated, “Well fine then! If you want to be like that then so be it! I’ll go off on my own and have a great time! And I’ll tell you aaaall about it and you’ll be sorry you didn’t come with me!”
“Uh huh, sure.” Bonibelle sighed before powering down, the faint red glow on her cheeks indicating she was charging. Chica stared for a moment, before once again stepping out from behind her keyboard and hopping off the stage.
She stared at the empty dining room, the guests gone and the room quiet. The chairs were put up on the tables, and a few wet floor signs littered the ground. She checked her internal clock, 1:12AM.
“Dang, that argument must’ve taken longer than I thought.” Chica stated as she walked forward, her feet clacking against the linoleum floor. She stopped right in the center and looked around her. She could hear the music box from the arcade faintly playing that same familiar song, and to her right could see the, assumedly pirate-themed, daycare, its silver-starred curtains moving faintly in the breeze from the AC. Chica made the decision to head into the daycare, passing by the entrance and through the daycare’s curtain door. As her eyes adjusted to the even dimmer lights in the room, she saw… she saw…
Dear GOD , the room was a mess.
Papers and pencils and crayons and markers all littered the ground. A small, curtained stage sat in the corner and a ballpit sat along the same wall as it. There were toys thrown about everywhere, books were half-hazardly sitting on the ground, small plastic chairs were overturned and tossed about, and was that blood???
As Chica moved towards the unknown-splotch-that-definitely-maybe-was-blood, she felt a small bump in the carpet. Looking down, she saw nothing, so she moved closer to the splatter. No, no, it wasn’t blood, it was just some red acrylic paint some kid had probably thrown during a tantrum, Chica felt silly, of course the daycare wouldn’t have blood splatters in it, that’s stupid! Before she could say anything, she felt a whirring and a crank, and all of a sudden, the curtains to the stage pulled back, and Chica gasped at what she saw.
It was another animatronic, some sort of canine, but it was absolutely mangled . Its endoskeleton jutted out randomly, with wire and bits of casing hanging on desperately to what little remained of the original structure. It had two heads, one skeletal one that connected directly to the things wrist joint, and another that was clearly what the original animatronic was, a pink and white fox. But before Chica could reach out to it, a tune began to play, and the thing sang.
“C0M-COM3, AL1 Y0# Y0U-YON6 FE110WS AND- 4ND LIS-LI5-1IST3N TO M-!” The Mangled Animatronic whined and whirred. Chica heard the pneumatics hiss and yell and listened as the servos in the jaw skipped and cracked as the things jaw swung and snapped open and shut. She stumbled backwards and tripped over a book that laid between her and the exit. As the thing rose, its movements sporadic and jerky, Chica tried to regain her footing.
“W3Y- WE. H3Y! B10W TH3 M4-MAN D0WN-OWN!”
Chica rose to her feet and threw the book as hard as she possibly could at the thing, before turning around and rushing as quickly as possible to the exit. As she turned to look back at the daycare, her steps sounding loudly against the floor, she ran right into..!
… Freddy?
“Jeez Chickadee, are you alright? You look like you’ve seen a ghost!” The bear was a welcome sight, his round and jovial appearance bringing calm to Chica’s frantic mind. It wasn’t anything romantic, more so like seeing your best friend after the worst experience of your life.
Well, Chica supposed that’s exactly what it was.
“Freddy! You gotta- There’s a- I don’t- MONSTER!” Chica stammered out, frantically glancing and pointing at the entrance to the daycare, becoming more and more panicked by the second.
“Whoa, hey, Chica calm down! I came over to see what all the commotion was about. Here, why don’t you calm down for a minute and then you can show me this ‘monster’ you’re talking about.” Freddy was calm and collected, and Chica was glad he was, because if Bonnie were here, well Chica was probably getting a hefty dose of “ I told you so ”. Chica wasn’t sure how much time had passed when Freddy asked her again.
“Now, why don’t you show me this ‘monster’ you were talking about?” Freddy asked. Chica took a deep (simulated) breath before motioning to the daycare. Freddy walked towards the daycare, and as he moved the curtain aside, Chica winced and looked away for what was surely about to happen-
“Chica there’s nothing here.”
“...what?” Chica rushed towards the curtain and peered beyond it. Sure enough, the daycare was exactly as it was before she entered it, minus one book.
“But- But- But I know what I saw!” Chica quickly stuttered out. Freddy looked at her, concerned, the bear’s face wrought with worry.
“Chica, when did you recharge last?”
“I- uhm, I don’t- I think last friday?”
Freddy looked at a calendar on the wall, the date clearly stated as March 11, 1986. The bear sighed, before looking at Chica again.
“Here, why don’t we head back to the stage and recharge for a bit? I’m sure your battery would appreciate it, as well as your motherchip.”
Chica glanced once more at the daycare, before sighing and agreeing. As she passed through the main dining room, she looked at the camera, the blinking red dot once again giving away that someone is watching. She just looked at it tired, before going to move towards the stage. As she stepped back onto the stage, the clock chimed 6AM once again, and the night was over. As she powered down to recharge, she watched the nightguard leave again, noticing how he fidgeted with his keys before leaving. Before she fully fell into the recharge cycle, she had just one more thought.
“Tomorrow is another day.”