Chapter Four
What Are We?
Sun and Moon read through the stories and lullabies. Sun tried reading a story aloud but found it difficult without something or someone to read to. It tried to read to Moon. However, Moon already knew the story. It read the story with Sun, after all. They shared a body.
John came back. This time, his black-haired partner held a basket of objects. "Hello," John greeted and immediately pulled out a few toys.
Sun set the book down beside itself. "Hello!"
John set down a few plushies of various animatronics as well as dolls, a few blocks, a couple of cars, and a helicopter. "Now, there are a dozen toys here. Children like games, especially with toys." He knelt. "I want you to pick up a few of these toys and make up a conversation with them."
Sun tipped its head. "Make a conversation?"
"Yes. Make them talk to each other. They can say whatever you want them to say."
Sun looked down at the toys. "Which ones?"
"Which ones do you want?" John prompted.
Sun put a finger to his mouth. Which toys? And he was making a conversation with them? He had done neither before.
John pointed to the brown Freddy plush. "Take that one."
Sun picked up the toy specified, and then the purple Bonnie plushie when commanded.
"I'll pick them out for now. You concentrate on what you will make them say. Alright?"
Sun nodded. "Okay. How do I do that?"
John thought for a moment. "Think of a subject. Then you can imagine what Freddy and Bonnie would say about that subject."
Sun looked between the two plushies that faced each other. "I don't know Freddy and Bonnie?"
"They're not really Freddy and Bonnie. You know that, right?"
Sun said, "Yeah!"
"Good. Try to think of something. Don't just mimic something you've read or heard. I need you to make up something."
Something about the intensity of his gaze got to Sun. Was this really that important?
Sun looked down at the stuffed animals. How was it going to make up a conversation?
"You could talk to me."
Sun brightened. Oh, what a good idea! It didn't quite know what Freddy and Bonnie sounded like. It knew they existed and who they were. Even if it knew what Freddy from this band sounded like, it was unsure anyone even remembered the oldest model of Freddy Fazbear's voice. That wasn't to mention Bonnie. Well, Freddy was a bear. Maybe a deep voice? That's what bears sounded like, right? Bunnies had lighter voices.
"I could be Bonnie."
Sun, in a deep, growly voice, said, "Hello, Bonnie! How are you today?"
"I am well, Freddy. How are you?"
Sun barely remembered to repeat what Moon said. It chose a higher, squeaky voice for Bonnie.
Freddy and Bonnie went back and forth, straying between different subjects. Their dialogue was, at first, clunky. In fact, Moon stopped talking altogether. But Sun was confident and was able to carry along for a while longer on its own.
Sun looked up at John.
John nodded. "Very good, Sun! You will need to get good at improv relatively quickly. Kids love puppet shows. We'll need to make some puppets first, but you can practice with the toys. Now, let's do another conversation. This time, make it about the band. The other members, what they do, what Freddy and Bonnie do, anything. Just keep it on the subject of the band."
"Okay."
Sun went through a few more routines with different themes. Eventually, John sat back on his heels, watching and listening to Sun.
At the end of Sun's fourth routine, John looked back at the camera. "Cut the lights."
Sun dropped the toys in its lap.
Moon picked them back up.
John said, "Moon, you won't need to do the same types of preforming Sun will. You will put children to sleep and help them stay asleep. So, I will let you keep one of these toys with you to practice on. Which one of these do you two want?" He gestured to the pile and the two Moon held.
Moon looked down at them and then at him. "…you wish for me to choose?"
"Yes."
Moon looked back down at the toys. John's flashlight illuminated them. "Which one?"
John didn't make a move to answer.
"Well, I like the bunny and the bear. Er, Bonnie and Freddy. But Chica's nice. And Foxy, I think they are all nice."
"They cannot hear you," Moon stated quietly. "They cannot be offended."
"Well… what about you? I like Bonnie and Freddy. What about you?"
Moon looked between the two in its hand. It set Freddy back down in his place and held onto Bonnie. It looked up at John.
John prompted, "So, that's your final answer?"
"Yes."
"Were you talking to Sun?"
"Yes."
"What did he say?"
He? So, Sun is a 'he'? "Sun liked Freddy and Bonnie. I believe he feared he would offend the others. But they cannot hear him."
"Interesting." John tapped his fingers against his knee. "He shows compassion for inanimate objects. Without being taught or learned. Well! Good information. Moon, I need you to sing to the doll to put it to sleep. Pick whichever song you think will work the best or whichever one you want to practice right now."
"It cannot sleep," Moon pointed out. "It is a stuffed toy."
"I understand that. But you have to learn how to pretend."
"How to pretend," Moon stated and looked over the toy. Pretend.
It set the toy in its lap and picked up the book of stories and songs. It flipped through the book and then to the song section. Which song would a toy rabbit like? Well, aside from not being a living thing and therefore not having an opinion on anything.
"You need to pretend, Moon. Pretend it's not a toy bunny."
"That is difficult," Moon stated. It was just a toy. How would Moon be able to make itself think otherwise? Well, John was asking it to sing a song, so perhaps the first part did not matter as much. It could leave that to Sun. So, it stopped at a random song.
Brother John.
Moon's previous confusion when reading the first half of the song was gone.
The plush rabbit did absolutely nothing.
Moon tried another song–Cradle Song–and got the same response. It looked up at John.
John nodded. "Good job, Moon! Keep the toy and keep practicing those songs and stories." He pushed himself up so he stood straight. "Goodbye, Moon. We'll be back later."
"John?" Moon asked.
The man stopped before he could leave the room and turned back. "Yes, Moon?"
"What am I?"
"You're a robot," John stated simply. "We created you to watch the kids."
"What is Sun?"
"He's a robot, too. Or, are you asking what he is in relation to you? I mean… you two are pretty different." John thought about the question for a short moment. "Honestly, the best word I can think of right now is 'brothers'. So, I guess that."
"Are he and the black-haired one brothers?"
Moon asked Sun's question.
John chuckled and looked back at the black-haired one. "Well, no. May as well be, though. We got to get to work. We'll be back, later."
With that, John and his partner left.
Brothers. So, Sun and Moon were brothers? That would make Moon a 'he', too. Interesting. Moon didn't feel like a 'he'. Moon felt like an animatronic. Or a robot, technically.
Moon looked down at the toy. It set down the book and turned the plushie over in its hands. The bunny had a little black nose and a big red bowtie and a lighter belly and upper and lower sections of its inner ears. Its pinkish violet eyes stared off in mildly different directions. When Moon shook it, its ears flopped forward and back with it.
Moon set the toy down on the book and got to its feet. It went to looking over the ceiling above. They already explored the walls. They had yet to fully learn about the ceiling or the floor.
The lights turned on.
Moon jolted at the sudden change in lighting. Still, Moon did not resist the change and instead gave over control to Sun.
Sun shook his head, rattling his spokes, and looked up. Fluffy white clouds replaced the stars. He quickly grew bored and skipped back to his place. Rather than sitting down, he plucked the toy from its place on top of the book and held it up high. "He's so pretty, isn't he?"
"Yes."
Sun sat down cross-legged again and set the toy in front of himself. He picked up the book and flipped to his favorite story.
The toy listened intently.
When Sun finished his story, he looked at the toy, which did nothing. Sun set down the book and held the toy up. He knew that it was a toy, and it wasn't real. Still, he could pretend. John told them to do that. Therefore, it was possible. John said a lot of things that ended up being true.
Sun said in the rabbit's voice, "That's a nice story! Can you tell another?"
"Sun, it is a toy."
Sun set down the rabbit. "Okay! Moon, I know, but I'm pretending. What story do you want to hear?"
"I do not understand."
"That's okay!" Sun nudged the toy and went on in the rabbit's voice, "I want the story about the dog and the chicken!"
Sun flipped through the book. "Okay!"
The poster door opened.
Sun looked up at John and his black-haired partner, who rolled in a boxy, old-school TV with a box on top. He looked at it and then at John. He set Bonnie down on top of the book.
John said, "I don't have a lot of time, okay? So, I decided to give you this. Now, your primary goal is to watch and entertain young children." He walked to the right corner of the room, left of the door, with his black-haired partner, and helped set up the TV. Rather than an outlet, as there were no outlets that Sun could see, the TV plugged into a large battery.
As his partner continued to set up the TV, John picked up a smaller box from the larger box and gestured for Sun to come forward.
He got to his feet and approached the man, looking from the box to him. The camera tracked him.
John pulled out a DVD case. "Now, this contains a series of videos about first aid, anatomy, and emergency procedures. This is part of a collection of different DVDs over different subjects." He set it down and then gestured to the TV. Rather than being set on the soft ground, a small table was brought in, and the TV rested on that. The large battery and the DVD player sat under the table. "Study these videos and that book I gave you. They're very important, alright? I'll come back later and check on you two."
John plucked the remote from on top of the TV. "This is the power button, volume, switch between videos, and reject the DVD." He held it up for Sun and left with his black-haired partner, who left empty-handed.
Sun looked over the first disk about first aid and emergencies and anatomy. The bot jumped as, when he turned on the TV, it hissed in loud, warping static. The static died once the DVD player connected to it had something to read.
A selection screen with cartoon bandages and emergency lights and a few children popped up.
Sun sat down cross-legged and pressed play.
Sun took a break after watching all the DVDs at once–partially because he watched them all, partially because the battery was almost completely dead–and went back to the book and toy. Though, admittedly, he just wanted to go back to the toy.
Moon didn't complain. However, when Sun asked the lights to be turned off and Moon took over, it set down the doll. It went back to exploring, looking over the starry ceiling and the floor. Unfortunately, it turned its back to the camera for more than a few seconds and the lights turned back on.
"I'm sorry," Sun said, standing in the middle of the room. "I don't know why the lights keep turning on."
"They do not want me here," Moon stated.
"No! That's not true! Why would anyone not want you?" Sun countered. "You're great! Maybe the camera's afraid of the dark?"
"Cameras cannot be afraid of anything."
"Okay. Then maybe whoever watched the camera is afraid of the dark," Sun conceded.
"I doubt it."
Sun looked at the camera. "Cut the lights."
After a short time, the light turned off.
The yellow animatronic turned blue.
Moon watched the camera for some time. When the light didn't turn off, it turned away. After a few moments, it looked back at the camera.
The lights stayed off.
Cautious, Moon walked across the room, its gaze set squarely on the camera that stared back. It walked back and forth a few times, watching the camera watch it back. Eventually, it went back to inspecting the ground and ceiling, though it looked back at the camera on occasion to be sure the camera wouldn't turn the light back on randomly.
Why would they even make Moon if they didn't want it? Why didn't they just make Sun and stop there? They didn't want Moon, nor did they actually need it. It was sure Sun could put children to sleep. As jittery and enthusiastic as Sun was, he was still rather smart and knew when to be calm.
"Moon, of course they want you," Sun said. "And even if you don't think they do, I want you. You know that, right?"
"…thank you. I want you here, too."
Sun was optimistic but incorrect.
However, Moon was unused to being active for so long. Sun was awake most of the time and furthermore, Moon didn't normally pace as it did now. So, it went back to their spot and called, "Turn the lights back on."
The light obeyed fairly quickly.
It obeyed much more quickly to the on command than the off command.
Sun took Moon's place. He picked up the plush again and set it on his lap. He plucked the book from the ground but did not open it. Instead, he asked, "What story do you want to hear?"
He let go of the book with one hand so he could shake the bunny a little as he made it "talk." "'The Lion and the Mouse!'"
"Okay!" Sun let go of the bunny and looked at the book. Rather than open it to the appropriate story, he read it from memory.
Sun flipped open the book after he finished the story to be sure he got it right. He made two errors, both of them in dialogue. So, he repeated the whole story while reading it.