Chapter 9: You're not Human
Sun slumps over, lifeless on her shoulder. Marlene grabs his arm and shakes him gently, like a parent trying to wake a child from their sleep.
He doesn't stir.
Marlene's heart pounds in her chest as many thoughts run through her head - one panicked thought racing against the other.
'What's wrong? Is he out of power?' Marlene grabs the power cable and nearly plugs Sun into the wall but hesitates. His fans run loudly, like an overworked computer.
'Is he overheating? What if he explodes or catches fire? What if I make this worse?''
Sun was limp when Marlene first met him too. It didn't worry her back then - her only concern was getting him home. But now, he lies still and helpless.
It feels wrong.
'What if he never wakes up?'
A feeling of dread pools in her stomach and Marlene calls the only person she could think of. The line rings a few times too many for Marlene's liking.
"Hey, did you leave something in the car?" Jesse asks, their voice sounding far away.
"N-no." Her voice comes out weaker than she'd have liked and she takes a shuddering breath before continuing. "But I, um… I have a problem… a, uh, a technical problem. Can you please come back?"
"Of course. Is something wrong? You sound upset."
Upset. Feeling her insides twist, Marlene thought that was an understatement. "I… well, you see…"
She chokes, unsure of what to say.
'I have a robotic roommate who is malfunctioning and I don't know what to do. I need help.'
That's what she should have said. What she needed to say.
"Listen, I promise to explain it better when you get here. I just… I can't..."
Try as she may, Marlene couldn't get the words out. Tears leak out of her eyes and shame drapes over her uncomfortably hot, like a wool blanket. She had called intending to come clean to her friend but at that moment she couldn't. Or rather, didn't. Maybe she'd beat herself up for her cowardice later, but as long as Jesse came it didn't matter. Marlene sniffs and treats her wet face as she would a stained cloth by rubbing it hard.
"Okay. Hey? I don't know what's going on, but it's going to be okay, alright?" Jesse soothes. Jesse was always the calm and collected sort. It was a quality Marlene envied.
"I'll be there soon. Just hang tight, okay?"
"Okay…"
Marlene sits on the floor with nothing but her thoughts. More tears prick at her eyes and her throat tightens. Her composure slips and Marlene holds Sun's hand, blindly searching for comfort. Funnily enough, she found that his hand in hers made her feel a little better. She strokes his hand with her thumb, trying to ground herself.
There is a distant ticking in the background from the clock on the far side of the room. Since Sun had moved in, Marlene had hardly noticed the noises it made anymore. She used to find it peaceful on the good days and annoying on the bad ones. Her breath hitches as the clock's ticks and tocks echo loudly.
Now the sounds feel like a threat and she wants nothing more than to yank the clock off the wall and throw it away.
Instead, she clutches Sun's hand like a lifeline.
The doorbell rings and Marlene lets her hand slip away from Sun's as she answers the front door. There Jesse stood, a black backpack slung over their shoulder. Marlene steps out of the way, letting her savior step inside.
"Thank you so much for coming back, Jesse. I really appreciate this."
"It's no big deal. Not like I got that far anyway," Jesse replies, adjusting their shoulder strap higher, "What needs fixing?"
'Plenty of things,' Marlene thinks but pushes the thought aside. "Well… it's related to my roommate. I may or may not have… twisted the truth a little."
Jesse's gaze shifts into uncertainty and Marlene continues, her speech rushed.
"Nothing bad! But… Well, his name isn't Sam… it's Sun. And he's an animatronic from the Pizzaplex."
Jesse blinks once, then twice.
"...What?"
"He's passed out and I don't know what to do with him. I, uh… I think he is overheating. I didn't want to make it worse-,"
"No, just fucking - just slow down," Jesse interrupts and Marlene shrinks, "Sun - the robotic daycare attendant - is your roommate. Am I getting that right?"
"Yeah?"
"Marlene… what the actual fuck."
"Listen, we can talk about that later," Marlene tugs Jesse over to the living room, "but can we fix this first? Please?"
Jesse sighs. "Okay, fine. But we are talking about it later."
'I'd rather not.' Marlene frowns but nods anyway. She knew she owed her friend an explanation. At the same time, Marlene wants to keep it to herself. Perhaps it was a little silly, but everything that led to bringing Sun home embarrassed her to think about, much less to explain.
Marlene wasn't proud of the way she handled losing her job. The fact that there was still a part of her that wasn't over it made her feel pathetic.
And Marlene didn't want them to know that part of herself.
'But Sun comes first,' Marlene reminds herself, watching Jesse look Sun over. Before long, Jesse begins carefully working on detaching Sun's chest plate.
"I want a closer look at his internal workings," Jesse replies when Marlene asks what they were doing, "I don't wanna do more damage."
Marlene wonders how Jesse knew so much. Yes, they did work with technology but they also specialized in programming. 'How do they remember all this? Maybe that's why college wasn't for me,' Marlene thinks, hovering over Jesse as they work.
Sun's internal mechanisms look rather complicated to Marlene. She makes out the metal structure that reminds her of a skeleton, but she couldn't make much sense of the rest. That doesn't stop her from imagining the wires as blood vessels and the fans as lungs. Though Marlene supposes that they likely serve different purposes. 'Still,' Marlene thinks as she peers closer, 'We've got more in common than I realized.'
"Marlene, can you take a few steps back? You're in my lighting."
"Sorry!" Marlene yelps, jumping back.
Jesse finishes up, reattaching his chest plate before dragging the charging cable over.
"I don't see anything wrong," Jesse says, plugging him in, "but I suppose we should be able to ask. The nice thing about Fazbear Entertainment bots is that they have pretty good data collection skills. Whatever the reason was, it should be recorded."
Marlene thinks that would be too good to be true but nods, figuring Jesse knows best.
After a few seconds, Sun jerks back to life. The perpetual whirring of the fans finally slows and Marlene lets out a relieved sigh as Sun tilts his head towards them.
"Hello! Marlene, did you bring a new friend? I love meeting new friends!"
Jesse pinches their nose and Marlene could feel her friend's blood pressure rising. Marlene smiles widely, laughing a little at Sun's cheerfulness.
'He's okay,' she thinks, her shoulders relaxing. When had they started knotting up? Marlene couldn't remember.
"Sun, what's the last thing you remember?" Jesse asks, not interested in humoring the robot.
"Hm? Let's see," Sun raises his hand and begins to count off, "I remember waiting here for Marlene to come back and I was reading. I finished that book but I read it again since I didn't know if I could read any of the others. Then I dusted, swept…"
"That's delightful, Sun. But I said the last thing. What made you shut down?"
Marlene watches as Sun's head slowly shifts upside down.
"I remember…Marlene told me about the job and I just… I just overheated." Sun shuffles his feet. "I seem to have been having trouble managing certain data. Little things are fine, but there has been a lot of data that I don't know how to deal with."
"So you got overwhelmed, is that right?" Jesse asks, her brows knitting together.
"Yes, I believe so."
'A robot that used to take care of dozens of kids got overwhelmed here? In this quiet place? How does that make sense?' Marlene questions, chewing the inside of her lip. Not for the first time, Marlene wonders why Sun was designed in such a way. It seemed rather counterproductive to make a robot with flaws.
But then Marlene remembers that this wasn't the first time Sun expressed his emotions. Between happiness and fear, surely stress was also within Sun's capabilities. 'Maybe Sun learned a lot about emotions while working at the daycare,' Marlene guesses. She wasn't sure where else he could have learned about them.
Perhaps that was a question for another time.
"Sun," Marlene says, Sun twisting his head upright again, "what kind of data are you struggling to process? Maybe I can help."
Sun was rather quick to rattle off a list starting from the newest and working back. The first few make sense to Marlene. She could clearly see that he got upset when she told him about the interview and when they discussed Moon.
The last two that threw her off.
"...moving here, and leaving the Pizzaplex," Sun finishes, holding up four fingers.
Had those events stressed him out? It would make sense, but he seemed so calm at the time. Sun had certainly fooled Marlene into thinking otherwise. She remembered feeling a bit annoyed with the robot for being so collected at the beginning.
The revelation doesn't make her feel good at all.
"Yeah, those are tough things to deal with, Sun." Marlene edges closer, keeping an arm's distance. "It's okay if you need time to process those things. Humans are like that too, after all!"
"But I am not human," Sun argues, his tone angrier than she expected it to be. Marlene pauses, supposing the robot wasn't wrong.
"No," She agrees, "you're right. You're not a human."
Sun sinks a little, his face beginning to tilt upside down.
"...but I think you are a person," Marlene continues and Sun straightens up, "You can think and reflect on your thoughts and emotions. I haven't known you long, but I know you have a personality and will of your own. That sounds like a person to me."
'You're a person I want to know better,' Marlene almost adds but decides against it. That line feels a bit too cheesy - or maybe too vulnerable - for her liking.
Sun's head perks up to look at her and Marlene smiles, assuming their problems were solved - at least for the time being.
Until they weren't.
"So… you gonna tell me how this happened?" Jesse pipes up awkwardly, rubbing the back of their neck. Marlene sighs but nods, plopping next to Sun on the couch. Jesse follows suit.
Marlene tells her friend almost everything. There were a few details she left out, like how her actions were affecting her now but Marlene doesn't think much of it. Jesse didn't need to know that, right? She does tell them about how she came to find Sun and why she was there to begin with.
"I was off-putting to you?" Sun asks, tilting his head. Marlene blinks, stiffening up and giving Sun a rather guilty look. She hadn't meant to let that slip.
"A little," Marlene admits, "but I've never interacted with any of the animatronics before. I'm used to you now."
"Did I frighten you?"
Marlene shakes her head. She recalled feeling more frightened of the future than of Sun at the time. "No, not really."
Sun glances between Jesse and Marlene, and the fans kick on again.
"Don't you ever get scared? And I don't mean surprised, but truly scared."
"Of course I do, Sun," Marlene replies, "Lots of things scare me."
"Like what?"
'Well, that's an unfair question,' Marlene thinks, unsure at first how to answer. She feared lots of things. Creepy crawlies freaked her out to no end, and she wasn't terribly fond of heights. It doesn't take too long for Marlene to answer though. After all, she acquired a new fear very recently.
"Well, I was scared earlier when you powered off," Marlene recalls as she fidgets with her fingers, gently tugging on them. "...I didn't know if you'd be okay or not, and I hated that I couldn't do anything for you. All I did was phone Jesse and that scared me too, to be honest."
"What? Why?"
Marlene turns her head to face Jesse, having the sense to look a bit unsure. "I don't know why. I guess it was a new situation and I didn't know how I wanted to handle it?"
Jesse doesn't say anything which was what Marlene thought she wanted. But the silence that follows grates on her nerves instead. Marlene tries to think of a new conversation starter.
"I can try being moon," Sun blurts out and anything Marlene planned on saying to fill the void flies out the window. She jerks her head up to look at Sun's face, forgetting for a moment that his face doesn't change.
"Are you sure about that, Sun?" Marlene asks, "I'm still a little freaked out about you shutting down earlier. What if that happens again?"
"Jesse's here and they know how to handle that. You have a taser, don't you Jesse? All employees who work with animatronics are supposed to have one."
"I do," Jesse confirms, pulling a black one out of her bag.
"Then I can be brave and let Moon out."
"Are you really okay with this?" Marlene asks, trying to give Sun another out but he nods. Though still unsure, Marlene draws the curtains closed and joins Jesse by the light switch.
"On three?" Jesse asks, finger laying on top of the switch.
"On three," Sun repeats, sounding sure of himself.
The way the bells on his wrists jingle softly as his hands shake tells another story.
"Okay… One…Two…Three!"
The room plunges into darkness.