It was a beautiful Saturday morning at Freddy Fazbear's Pizzaplex. It was about 6:30am, the security doors had opened some time ago and the night guard had already traded with the morning crew. The few humans still needed in this almost fully automated mall going about their tasks to prep for the opening at 8am. Though there was an additional person that usually wasn't there.
Delilah Swanson was the manager of the Pizzaplex, a cushy job that paid well and let her work from home, seeing as the place was so heavily automated it required little management that she couldn't delegate to someone else. Her black business suit and long brown hair stood out amongst the few human workers and their Fazbear branded uniforms. She had few duties to attend to and normally only showed up about once a month unless something needed her immediate attention, or she had to hire someone new. A perk she loved immensely, except when she needs to hire a new technician and everyone she hires quits within a few weeks of starting. She couldn't blame them though, if she was forced to work on Montgomery Gator all the time, with his infamous temper and penchant to break anything he can reach, she would probably quit too. As it stood though, it brought her an enormous headache having to onboard so many new technicians, she was praying for one to stay more than a month. Having the good idea to go cheap instead, she looked for some more recent college graduates, people in desperate need of a job to pay their immense student loans.
Her thoughts were interrupted as she watched a car pull into the rather empty parking lot, pulling up to a front parking spot before the car shut off and a man stepped out of the driver seat. He was average height, around 5'7" with short black hair. He was dressed in a blue button up dress shirt and black dress pants. She couldn't help but snort at how professional he looked. 'He must really need this job' She thought. 'Luckily for him the job is already his. I can't wait to finish this up and head home…' She quickly stood straight and professionally as he neared the doors, opening one and holding the door open for him. "Hello! Welcome to Freddy Fazbear's Pizzaplex! You must be Oliver Hadaway, right? Here for the technician job?" She put on a polite face and greeted him warmly as he approached. Once the man got close she was able to see his brown eyes as he looked at her with his own smile in return.
"Hi there! That's me, Oliver. You must be Delilah right? The one I spoke to over the phone. I'm really excited to work here. I've heard so many good things about this place." She had to stop herself from laughing at his eagerness, idly wondering how long it would last before ushering him inside. "I'm glad to hear it! We can't wait for you to have a long and fulfilling career here at the Pizzaplex. Follow me, we'll walk down Rockstar row and you can see the animatronics you'll be working on, then we can pop down to parts and service to get you familiarized with your work station and start the orientation. Here you go, you'll need this." She said as she handed him a laptop and a piece of paper with instructions and passwords needed to use the computer. "This will be your onboarding equipment, we will need this back once you are finished with your orientation however." She quickly turned and walked off, hearing his own footfalls as he caught up and followed her through the big sliding door and into Rockstar row. "This is Rockstar Row, here we have the 4 greenrooms for each of our animatronic performers. They usually stay in their rooms after their last performance of the night and do meet n' greets until the place closes. When not performing they are usually in their own designated areas to entertain kids in the many attractions we have. I'm sure you know of them, but just in case, we have Freddy Fazbear, Chica Chicken, Roxanne Wolf, and Montgomery Gator. There also is the daycare attendant and some security and staff bots, but the majority of your work will be on these four." she said as she stopped in front of a large glass wall that led into the greenroom of Freddy Fazbear.
"This is Freddy Fazbear, our main mascot, owner of Fazerblast, and the band's lead singer." Oliver watched in fascination as the large bear animatronic seemed to be fiddling with his microphone, before his attention was diverted to the two standing outside his greenroom, his eyes lighting up and his faceplate lifting into a smile as he gave a wave to the manager and what he inferred to be the new technician for him and his bandmates. He smiled and returned the wave, before hearing Delilah walking away to the next greenroom. He quickly turned and ran to catch up to her, missing the chuckling of the amused bear through the soundproof glass.
Their next stop was Chica's greenroom. They peered through the glass and watched Chica as she practiced on her guitar, with her back to them. "This one is Chica chicken, the mascot of Mazercize and the band's guitarist." As if sensing her being discussed about, Chica looked over her shoulder at the two, before stopping her practice and turning around, seeming very interested in the two as she walked over to the glass and looked Oliver up and down with a bright smile and a very enthusiastic wave. Her mouth was moving as if she was talking, but no words could be heard by the two, the soundproof glass being a recent upgrade, mostly for Monty's sake, as he constantly trashed and broke his room and the sounds were usually scaring people off. They couldn't just upgrade one of them, so they had to do all of them. The sounds of footsteps again brought Oliver out of his staring as he moved to catch up with the manager, leaving the excitable chicken behind in favor of the next greenroom.
"This is Roxanne Wolf. Mascot of Roxanne Raceway and the band's Keytarist." Said wolf was staring at herself in the mirror, combing her hair and… talking to herself? Roxanne, catching their appearance in the mirror, turned to look over her shoulder, before scoffing and turning back to what she was doing as if they weren't even there. Oliver was a bit put off and confused, but the familiar sounds of Delilah walking away had him moving to keep up.
The last greenroom had its green curtains shut, and Oliver couldn't see or hear anything from its occupant. "The last one is Montgomery Gator. Resident of Monty Golf and the band's bass player. He's uh… a bit shy." Oliver nodded, now with more questions that would of course have to wait as she once again started walking off, leading him through the employee only section as they wandered through the winding corridors until they made their way down to Parts and Services. She stopped in front of a big cylindrical chamber with a large chair in the middle, housing a bare endoskeleton and a ring of tools and parts hanging from mechanical arms in the ceiling. Oliver had to admit, the animatronics are pretty creepy without their plastic casings.
"And Finally, this is Parts and Services, where you will spend most of your time. We have provided you with a bare endoskeleton for you to practice on while you do your orientation to better familiarize yourself with their systems before you work on our animatronics. Don't be afraid to break him, he's a spare we keep around for training, he doesn't work anyways. Go ahead and set the laptop up wherever you feel comfortable and get started on those orientation videos. It'll likely take you all day but it's really condensed so you should be ready to start work tomorrow. Here is your uniform, feel free to take any employee locker but you must provide your own lock. We at Fazbear Entertainment are not liable for any property stolen if you did not lock it up. Here is also a map of the pizzaplex, I suggest you don't lose it as it will help you navigate around until you memorize the layout. Even then, it's best to keep one on you at all times regardless…" She trailed off and grimaced at some memory, before shaking her head and looking back. The laptop is full of FAQs and resources for you to use if you have any questions, or feel free to ask your coworkers too. I'm sorry to cut this short but I have a lot of important managerial work to do. I'll check up on you sometime, just don't break anything and follow the rules and you should be just fine. Welcome to the team, we're so happy to have you here. Good luck!"
Oliver could barely even get a word in as he watched Delilah close the doors behind her and speed walk away from parts and service. "That was… odd… I guess she must really be busy…" He looked down at the uniform handed to him, a blue and orange pair of overalls with the word Technician across the back, and a winking cartoon Freddy head giving him a thumb's up on the front. He folded them up and set them aside before grabbing the nearest rolling table and a stool, setting up the laptop and getting started on his video orientation. "Congratulations on your new career with Fazbear Entertainment!" The video started in a dull robotic voice and he couldn't help but sigh. This was gonna be a long day.
Roughly 8 hours later, Oliver was performing the last video exercise on the bare endo, standing inside the protective cylinder in Parts and Service. Attaching the last few wires and following the instructions of the Robotic voice assistant, he finished his last task and started to clean up his workstation, having to struggle and drag the endo over to one of the holding cells along the sides of the room. After a lot of heaving he finally managed to prop it up in the room, wiping his brow before moving to clean up his workstation, grabbing his uniform and laptop. Just as he was heading to the door, a series of heavy metallic clangs came rhythmically from the hallway, before the doors swung open and Oliver came face to chest with one of the very animatronics he was supposed to be working on. Taking a step back to avoid bumping into it, he realized the clangs were its footsteps as he looked up at the faceplate that was now staring down at him, taking a moment to click and notice it was Roxanne Wolf.
"Who are you?" The wolf snarled. Just as he was about to respond Roxanne cut him off with blue scanning lasers that popped out of her eyes, roaming up and down his body for a few moments before it stopped. Thankfully it seemed she found what she wanted as her face turned passive a second later. "Oh. You're the new technician. Perfect. Some kid spilled Fizzy Fazz on me after the last show and it got into my right elbow joint. It's not responding properly. I need you to clean it up and make sure nothing is damaged." She said before pushing her way past him and over to the protective cylinder. Oliver watched in confusion and a bit of apprehension. He hadn't even started his first shift and he was already having to work on an animatronic? Sure, he'd worked on the broken endo but that was a bit different than a working fully cased animatronic. The videos were quite clear that safety protocols were disengaged during maintenance mode.
"Hey! Hurry up! I gotta be at 100% to be the best! So get over here and get started already!" He was brought out of his thoughts as he looked over to the wolf, already sitting in the chair within the protective cylinder and glaring at him. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves before setting his stuff back down on the rolling tray and moving over to the attached computer. It probably took a little longer than normal to get the maintenance mode up, as the next thing he heard from Roxanne was another annoyed jab. "What's taking so long? You've done this before haven't you?"
"Uh… Y-yeah… A few times on the test endo. Just trying to remember the codes…" He managed to start the maintenance mode on the cylinder, the machine whirring to life and lowering the tools. Just as he was about to put her into maintenance mode as well, she stopped him. "Hey, if this is your first time I'm not about to let you put me to sleep. Get over here and get to work. You're just cleaning the joint anyway, You don't need maintenance mode for this." In reality, all animatronics are always supposed to be in maintenance mode while being worked on, but Roxanne was pushing him to see what he would do. Most of the animatronics dislike going into maintenance mode, with Monty in particular hating it. Something about being so vulnerable while someone was digging around in your insides made her circuits crawl.
"That's against regulations… I can't work on you without-" She quickly cut him off. "I don't care! I'm gonna watch you to make sure you do it right. Get in here already before I drag you in myself." Surprised by her outburst and the fierce glare she was giving, and not willing to risk any actions from the shockingly very sentient animatronics, he quickly gave in and walked into the cylinder, the door shutting behind him. Roxanne for her part was inwardly smiling, many of the old technicians would shock her or forcefully put her into maintenance mode at her threats, but he just went along with it, breaking the rules at her insistence. He was already leagues above the previous techs, but he was still just another technician. He'll probably quit before the month is over. They all do.
She watched as he pulled some tools down and got to work opening up her arm plates, exposing the endoskeleton within and the elbow joint covered in sticky orange stains, likely the soda that had mostly dried, slowing down the joint significantly. He grabbed a wet rag and started to wipe away the big stains, before opening up the joint to clean the bearings inside. All the while constantly looking up at her, as if making sure he was doing okay. For her part she just stared at him, her faceplates maintaining a neutral mask. Midway through, he tried to make some small talk. "So… You guys are pretty sentient huh… I'm really surprised. I thought it would be a bunch of pre recorded lines but you seem to have a sort of learning ai. Right?"
"Of course I'm sentient. I'm the best there is! You can't get this level of perfection with a bunch of pre recorded lines and dance moves. That's all me." She smiled, always happy to sing her own praise to anyone that'll listen. "Wow. That's awesome. You really are amazing. I've never seen any animatronic so responsive and alive. You're practically a marvel of engineering. Definitely the best compared to what other people make" He replied and she couldn't help but smirk and toss her hair with her other arm. "That's right! Like I said, I'm the best there is. Glad someone around here recognizes that too."
He chuckled as he wiped down the last bits of soda, and sprayed some WD40 in the joint's bearings before closing it back up. "Alright. Should be good to go. Give it a test and I'll close up your arm if you're satisfied." She was pulled out of her self indulgent thoughts as she looked down at her arm and bent the joint around to test it. "The joint feels good as new. Good job! I'd be surprised if you messed that up, as easy as it was." Rolling his eyes at the rather backhanded compliment he closed up her arm and sealed it tight before exiting the protective cylinder to turn off the maintenance mode as Roxanne stood up and exited the cylinder as well.
"Alright! You're all good to go. Anything else you need?" He asked her. "No. You can go now." She waved him off and walked around to the back of the cylinder, heading through the door labeled with her picture as it shut behind her. Oliver stood there a bit, a bit disappointed with the casual dismissal, but at least satisfied she left with a smile on her face, even if she seemed like she was trying to hide it. "Hm. Must be her personality I guess…" He mused as he shut down parts and services behind him, making sure to grab his things as he left. Using the map to navigate his way around, he made it to the front entrance just as the last few customers were leaving for the day. Making sure to drop the laptop off at the front desk, he headed out the doors and to his car before pulling out and heading home, intent to rest and relax before his first official day at the pizzaplex.
Around the same time, Roxanne was exiting her elevator and walking into her greenroom, before she was suddenly ambushed by her excitable chicken bandmate, Chica. "Oh my gosh Roxy! That was fast! How did it go? What was he like?" Roxanne gently pushed her off before she could ask anymore questions. "It went fine. He cleaned up my elbow joint, nothing serious. He wasn't half bad." She flexed her elbow joint a few times to show it worked fine. "You'll never guess what he did though." She smirked. Chica gasped. "He didn't do anything weird did he? We can easily get him fired if-" Roxanne cut her off. "What? No! He didn't do anything weird. He was actually rather nice." "Oh. That's a relief. So what did he do then?" Chica asked, leaning in excitedly, always one for gossip. "He didn't put me into maintenance mode while he was working on my arm." Chica squawked incredulously. "He didn't!? Why not? Isn't that against the rules?" Roxane laughed. "Yep! But I just yelled at him till he came in and started working on me. Didn't even put up much of a fight. The guy is easy to make do what we want. I bet you can just ask him and he'll do it for you too." Roxanne said casually, without a hint of remorse for her actions. "Roxy! You can't just yell at the technicians!" Chica yelled, though inwardly was rather surprised, and a bit hopeful that he might keep breaking that rule. "Eh, he'll probably just quit soon anyways. They all do after having to work on Monty a few times." Roxanne shrugged without a care. "Well… You're not wrong… But… don't you wish we could keep one technician for a while? They all keep quitting just as I start getting to know them…" Chica almost whined. "Eh. I guess it would be nice. But they're all just techs anyways… another one always replaces them." "True…"
After that, the two fell into a comfortable conversation for a bit about the goings on around the pizzaplex before Chica eventually left to her own greenroom, and the animatronics went to their recharge chambers to prepare for the next day of performing and entertaining kids.