Reconciliation

Chapter 2 Learning the Ropes

Tim led you to your office overlooking the stage.

You have to admit, the whole place was and technological wonder of the world.

You stared down from your office window, drowning out Tim's rambling as you pondered the mechanics of the holograms being projected over the stage.

"It's pretty impressive right?" A feminine voice suddenly spoke right next to you.

You jumped in fright, clutching at your rapidly beating heart.

"Oops, sorry I didn't mean to surprise you." The woman spoke.

She had blonde hair and was decked out in a night guard uniform.

"Gosh, I really wasn't expecting a white women jumpscare today." You laughed.

She laughed too.

"Ah I see you've met Vanessa!" Tim chided in.

"Vanessa I hope you wouldn't mind giving (y/n) here a bit of a rundown on anything that you think might be important? You have been working here longer than I have." Tim asked

Vanessa smiled,
"Sure thing, you go check the company emails and stuff, I'll handle it from here."

Tim thanked her and scurried off

"So, obviously the Pizza Plex is a very big step away from the previous locations. Have you ever been to one of the older ones?" Vanessa asked

You felt you stomach drop as memories flooded you. Your breathe became heavy and your wheeze was audible in the stale room.

You unconsciously raised your hand to your ribs, tracing the mutilated skin hiding under your shirt.

"Y-yeah, I, I've been to one before." Your voice trembled quietly.

Vanessa seemed concerned but also morbidly intrigued.

"May I ask, what hap- uhm, I mean, which establishment it was?" She inquired.

You took a shaky breathe. No. You weren't going to breakdown infront of your coworker on your first day, your pride was on the line.

She was obviously curious, yet didn't want to tread into dangerous waters.

"The establishment was Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria, the 'classic' as some would call it. The longest running and most successful iteration of the franchise till the Pizza Plex."

"Hm," Vanessa hummed happily, satisfied with your trivia.

"Well, on a basic level we function almost exactly the same, we provide food, party hosting and animatronic performances. Here, I'll give you a rundown of the basics."

Vanessa spent the last few hours of her shift training you on various things, basic errors that often occured like card declines, gift shop ticket label errors, how to handle incorrect pizza orders, common staff bot issues, lost and found procedures, basically everything.

By the time she had to clock out for the morning, you could fairly capably navigate your way around the Pizza Plex, besides you had a map that had been unceremoniously forced into your possession by a mapbot. At some point in the tour it appeared from around the corner, giving you quite the scare. Despite your internal distress you outwardly laughed it off, desperately trying to come across as well,a normal functioning person.

Vanessa waved you goodbye as she exited through the front doors, leaving you completely alone in the big empty building.

You stood there awkwardly for a few minutes, the silence of the large room allowing your ears to once again tune into the wretched buzzing of the neon lights.

Eventually some customers began trickling in and you scurried away to your office.

You felt at a loss on what to do, on one hand, nothing currently needed your attention, everything was running smoothly which means you could just relax in your office and get paid for doing nothing, but on the other hand, you felt like you should be doing something, to distract yourself from the absolute nightmare of the establishment's atmosphere.

Before you could think too hard, you heard an announcement playing over the speakers,
"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Fazbear entertainment would like you to put your hands together for the one, the only-"

Oh god-

"Freddy Fazbear!"

You tiredly groaned to yourself.
Today was an emotional rollercoaster already, you were not prepared to breakdown at work where there was literally no one else there to help.
Atleast that also meant no-one could witness it.

Your pride is once again saved.

Through the window of your office, several animatronics have appeared onstage, with instruments in hand.

To the far left there was Chica, though her coloration was a bit different now, with white and pink, she actually looked quite sweet.

Then there was,,,

To the far right was a new yet familiar figure, Roxanne wolf, the predecessor to Foxy. She looked downright dangerous in a fun way, total punk vibes, or atleast as close as you could get to punk in a children's establishment.

Then to the left of her was an entirely new animatronic character, Montgomery gator. He actually looked pretty cool, the sick shades and killer mohawk really sold it for you.

Listening to their performance, you didn't find it too bad, although the songs weren't exactly the most refined in musical taste, mostly being whatever is most popular with the kids recently.

God you hope it's not the same music everyday.

The performance came to a close the crowd of children screaming as they run off for after-show meetings with the animatronics.

You decided you would take this chance to see some of the attractions in action while the vast majority of customers were busy getting pictures.

Leaving your office, you made your way to the lobby. You recall seeing a machine in the gift shop that gave out tickets, you wonder if employees could get free ones.

Arriving at the gift shop you found it almost completely empty aside from a few families.
There were two kids excitedly racing around exclaiming that they were getting a free toy from the pass they had used throughout the day so far.

You chuckled a little, making your way over to the machine.

There were so many passes how could you keep up with any of these? There was practically a ticket with every possible combination of attractions and games with varying amounts of usage.

You decided on getting just a ticket for the arcade, it would allow you to play the games, one of the only things that you couldn't already do with your access to the whole building.

As you messed around with the menu trying to find the staff purchase option, you overheard the kids from earlier complaining about their gifts.

"Really? A magnet? I don't even know who this character is supposed to be!"

Man, what spoiled brats-

Suddenly the kid threw the magnet in anger, nearly avoiding your leg as it made an audible slap as it attached to the machine.

"Billie! Do not act so rude! You almost hit that poor girl!" The mother scolded.

"It's fine ma'am kids will be kids." You assured her.

Looking back down at the screen, it indicated that it had already provided you with your selected ticket, must've been the magnet.

You leaded down to peel the magnet off, hoping it hadn't permanently fried the circuits. You noticed that the machine had dispensed a ticket for you but upon closer inspection, it was not the correct one.

Well it wouldn't hurt to have a look around there anyway, so,

You made your way to the daycare.