The flight was fun. Scary, but fun. No layovers or anything, although yeah, you were C boarding so the seat you got wasn't a window seat before everyone else took them all. The email Wendy had sent you let you know that the movers wouldn't get there with your furniture and all until about 2 hours after you landed, so you didn't really bother to leave the airport for about an hour, giving you another hour to get home and wait for the movers to arrive. The airport had tons of food courts, pretty, giant slanted glass windows overlooking the runways. You ate your Chick-Fil-A there at a small rounded table in the corner. Piece of shit business, but their fries were really good.

Making your way down the long hallways, just for fun hopping onto the straight stepless escalator-like flooring thats only purpose was to make people go a little faster, you went to pick up Mimi who was boarded with you. She really didn't like her cat carrier, but you tried your best to be gentle and calm her down. Grabbing your rolling luggage bag at the baggage claim, you exited the double doors there and found your Uber that notified you they had arrived about 4 minutes earlier.

The apartments actually didn't look too bad as your Uber pulled into the gated community. Really the only "gated" part about it was the automatic gate separating it from the main street.

You had passed the Megaplex just a minute before getting there, and fuck.. It was massive. Not only tall but, huge. Wide. you couldn't see how long it extended backwards, but you're sure it would still surprise you.

You were dropped off at the reserved parking area for your specific apartment, and a rental car was sitting in the spot, already delivered. Just your typical gray sedan, nothing too fancy. It was paid for already so you had no complaints whatsoever. Free stuff is free stuff - for two months or so at least you mean.

Opening the door and carefully carrying Mimi in first, it was actually.. really nice. The kitchen was directly to your left when you entered. It had a bar area with stools linking into the kitchen via a little empty window space with room to eat or whatever upon. Microwave built into the cabinets, fridge shiny and metallic. The floors were gray brick tiles, it was cute, and looked cozy enough. To your right there was a half bathroom, no shower. As you walked further in and let Mimi out of her carrier, there was the living room with a cramped laundry room under the stairway. It was a bit small, and the cute little backdoor patio at the very back wasn't an exception. Cozy as well at least, you were already planning out in your head where all your stuff would go.

Wendy did mention in the email she sent that the apartment would be one bedroom, one and a half bath, but she didn't say it was two stories. The last time you had a two story apartment was as a kid and.. that didn't last very long. The stairs were to the right of the living room after entering it. They wrapped around in a cute L shape going up with the tiny wooden pillars and handrail leading upwards. It was carpeted and pretty like the rest of the house besides the tiled kitchen and half bath, and as you would soon see, your full bath. Mimi followed you on your heels, unsure of the new environment. At the top of the stairs you made sure to rub her head down to her tail to comfort her. To the right of the top of the stairs was the door that linked to your room, and in front of the stairs was the door that linked to the bathroom. Entering the bedroom, there were two windows on the back wall. You could easily fit your bed in-between them both, and the L desk in the corner directly to the right of the entrance. Your closet was on the far left, and so was the alternate door that also linked to the full bath.

A short melody chimed throughout the apartment, signaling the doorbell and likely the movers that were at it. You had more than enough exploration of your apartment, so down you went to coordinate with the movers. About two hours later, and making sure Mimi didn't get out, you were bidding them farewell, and gazing back into the furnished space. Your heart fluttered a little.. it was pretty, really pretty. You made sure to switch on your little roomba and give him his charging port before the occasional 'Ow's' would begin.

Wendy and others who you would assume were managers called and emailed you over the next couple of days. You were bit exhausted from moving so they gave you the weekend to tidy up and get comfortable. Today was Monday, you would start Friday. The emails and calls pertained to roughly what you would be doing. Apparently, there were two specific robots you would be working on as of currently, and for the foreseeable future. The emails they sent you regarding the robot's apparent 'personality' and reasons why you weren't simply a generic technician were a bit concerning. It would seem every other tech that worked with the robots either quit or were.. offered paid leave, to which they never did come back from. They couldn't keep mechanics, so that would explain why you had to sign a contract forcing you on for a year with penalty if voided. Yikes. You're worried why this was all necessary.

Sundrop and Moondrop.. Daycare attendants. Robots. As daycare attendants. Jesus.

They sent you documents and blueprints regarding the ins and outs of the animatronics. They were admittedly pretty fascinating, and advanced, naturally you went to drawing them occasionally. Lanky things. Apparently the bot had two different modes, ah - not two separate robots, although.. separate AI for each. Wouldn't that mean there's two different programs running inside the same body?

The more you read the more fascinating it seemed. Although you were definitely worried about the.. incidents regarding the technicians quitting - you were excited. Your heart jumped at the idea of exploring and understanding how they worked, how they ticked, what made them so advanced and life-like. You couldn't wait.

It was made clear that you'd be working in the Daycare, with kids. You weren't expected to do anything hands on really, all you planned to do was observe, although you would be interacting with kids occasionally anyways as that was your work area. Not too too bad. Not the worst thing ever you guess. You got along with kids fine. In middle school you were in a peer tutoring program. For some reason, the elementary school was integrated with the middle school for a bit, and having middle schoolers help out younger kids with their homework and the teachers with their busywork, you'd say you were qualified. Especially if the robot was competent and with it running the Superstar Daycare by itself for the past.. year or so? Yeah, you'd be fine.

Mimi hopped up onto your lap at your computer desk as you dug your claws into the guts and brains of the animatronic. Going through virtual blueprint after virtual blueprint, document after document. You only really focused on the docs detailing the behavior and AI of the bot though, their physical anatomy was fascinating, but after seeing videos of the main cast, you were only intrigued with their mind for now.

You needed to see this for yourself. This AI is like nothing you've ever even heard about. The code wasn't shared with you yet, but if the documents detailing the robots necessary functions and personality description were legit and not an over-exaggeration, it had to be insanely advanced. Just three more days..

You didn't really dabble into the blueprints too much. You liked to learn hands on. It wasn't irresponsible, if you had to,you'd refer to them on your phone tucked away in the email that was sent to you. But really all you did those next few days was draw, read, and freshen up on some coding here and there.

Thursday morning, Wendy had emailed you again.

Wendy

Hey! I do want to let you know exactly what you'll be doing and what's expected of you. This is coming from supervisors and managers, I don't think it's much at all, but lemme know if you have any concerns, okay?

Alright, so as you know, a lot of the previous technicians and mechanics would quit soon after working with our Daycare Attendants. The only thing that is expected of you is to try and figure out what's wrong with the bots and perform general maintenance here and there. Complaints from the Daycare have been increasing noticeably in the past month or so. They're a little dirty, acting a little bit out of character, and lots of parents would describe in their reviews the Sun robot acting incredibly anxious and fidgety while handing off children. Those who have observed Sun and Moondrop in the Daycare don't notice anything too unusual, it's only when introduced to technicians and more broadly, adults, that they begin to act a bit.. off. You should be completely fine however, I myself have done research, and it looks like they haven't hurt anyone - as far as I'm aware given the available incident reports. You shouldn't be in any danger.

We'll be checking up on you in a month or so (if you don't need anything sooner) to determine if the issues have been resolved, and what needs to be done, until then you're free to do whatever is necessary in order to repair the animatronics hardware and software. Your freedom is is pretty lenient within the complex. Please come to us with any questions or concerns!

Best regards.

~Wendy

So. Piece of cake? You didn't wanna really get your hopes up, but it didn't seem like something you couldn't handle. The previous techs going missing was a little concerning, but.. hm, you'd rather not think about that right now. Wendy said you wouldn't be harmed, so, hopefully that's enough to keep you satisfied.

It was about 7pm. Tomorrow, you had to be at the facility to clock in at about 4am. The earlier time than usual was for a tour and getting your bearings together, taking in the environment and all.

Brushing your teeth, popping a melatonin, and hopping into bed with Mimi, you snugged your Blahaj and passed the fuck out. Your alarm set to wake you up at 3am sharp.

Mmmh. You should really change your alarm sound. Calming down as you jolted awake, you wanna punch yourself from last night when you set the volume to maximum in case you were gonna oversleep.

Coffee.. yeah, you. You needed coffee. Not tea as usual.

After your shower, you went over the dress code email again. There wasn't a uniform nor specific limitations except for while doing maintenance work, and even then it was just some protective gear. Thank fuck. Might as well dress cute and comfy.

Going through your suitcase that you've still yet to unpack and hang everything up from, you decided on a black skirt with white flowers littered against it, some black and white thigh socks that probably weren't the same stripe consistency, and an oversized comfy T-shirt that went past your hips.

Makeup was very minimal, you did have chipped black nail polish on from a few days ago, but you didn't bother to clean it up. Just a little concealer, eyeliner, and blush, and.. maybe a bracelet. Oh - and of course, earrings.

Sifting through the small plastic tupperware container you unfortunately resided your little bit of jewelry in, you were about to decide to wear the white and pink butterfly earrings, however.. God was that a cliche? It was dumb. I mean, no one would really notice right?

Out of the like, probably seven pairs of earrings you have, there was a cute little duo of a sun and moon. You couldn't pass that up. You couldn't.

Filling up Mimi's bowl and making sure she had enough water, you made your way downstairs, triple checking you had everything on you - phone most importantly. Mimi bid you adieu at the door and so did your little roomba with the expressive little "Ow".

Locking the door behind you, you entered your rental for the first time, taking in the fresh car smell, and off you went just a few miles down the road. You thankfully had bluetooth, and played your favorite few songs during the six minute drive. Traffic might change that however.