Chapter 6 - Irregularities
The rest of the trip to the rehearsal room was... awkward. The duo stayed in uncomfortable silence while walking, both Jack and Roxanne were still shocked by their earlier encounter with Vanny. Jack couldn't stop wondering about the strange rabbit lady, she radiated a strange and malignant aura. There was something unnatural, maybe even paranormal about her... The thought sent chills down his spine.
Meanwhile, Roxy was furious, but she tried to hide her anger for Jake's sake, Vanny's words had hurt her a lot more than expected.
After finally reaching the Rehearsal room, they were greeted with a large open space, with speakers, microphones, and everything you would expect from a rehearsal room. "There should be a backstage pass here somewhere, go search there while I search around here," Roxy said, they both parted ways to go look for the backstage pass.
Jack was searching through the place when he stumbled upon a table with several documents on it, but the title of one document, in particular, caught his attention.
"PERSONALITY CHIP IRREGULARITIES REPORT"
Jack being the curious kid he is, took the document to read it fully.
PERSONALITY CHIP IRREGULARITIES REPORT
By: Dave Smith - Head of Technology Department
The creation of a conscious machine was by far Fazbear's Entertainment greatest achievement, each Glamrock animatronic is programmed with its own personality and unique characteristics through the Personality Chip.
Unfortunately, the creation of the personality chip has come with unwanted side effects and irregularities in their personalities and behavior.
Each Glamrock shows a unique irregularity:
GLAM_CHICA: Glamrock Chica has a sweet and kind personality, with a passion for food. Although this passion quickly turned into a dangerous obsession, Chica seems to have developed an eating disorder, she eats any available organic material, most likely trash. Even if Chica can taste and "eat", eating excessive amounts of organic material can cause damage to her internal system.
MONTGOMERY_GATOR: Montgomery Gator, or simply Monty, is by far the animatronic most affected by the irregularities in his personality chip. Monty's design and personality were thought for older audiences, he is a tough and mostly chill guy, being the mascot for Monty's Gator Golf. Despite Monty being initially programmed to be relaxed, he is the most aggressive animatronic, displaying anger issues that can oppose a threat to both robot and human employees if not maintained under control. Monty often destroys his room during episodes of rage, he also likes to destroy other Fazbear Entertainment properties such as S.T.A.F.F Bots. The origins of Monty''s anger are still unknown to us, but we believe it has something to do with the decommissioning of an older Glamrock animatronic.
ROXANNE_WOLF: Roxanne Wolf, or simply Roxy, is the second most affected Glamrock animatronic. Much like Monty, Roxy was made for an older audience, mostly teens. She is a tough girl and extremely competitive, being the mascot for Roxy Raceway. The competitive side of her programming likely made her develop a narcissistic and arrogant personality, often acting hostile towards personnel, both robots, and humans. However, Roxy's psychological state was shown to be more complex, she can often be heard crying in her room, and the motives for that are still unknown.
GLAM_FREDDY: Glamrock Freddy is the leader of the Glamrock band and the official mascot of Fazbear's Entertainment. Surprisingly, Freddy is the animatronic least affected by the irregularities. Freddy is very friendly and caring towards others, especially customers and bandmates, however, he can be very naive at times and excessively worried about others.
After finishing reading the document, Jack was left unnerved. The thought of animatronics developing such human problems was insane, but this only proved how careless Fazbear Entertainment was towards their customers, they were clearly aware of these irregularities on the animatronics but didn't seem to do a damn thing to fix them, instead, they just let the unstable machines interact with children all day. It was probably because of this incompetence that Jack was stuck in the first place, being hunted down by their very own animatronics.
He read the part that interested him the most again, "...She is a tough girl and extremely competitive, being the mascot for Roxy Raceway. The competitive side of her programming likely made her develop a narcissistic and arrogant personality, often acting hostile towards personnel, both robots, and humans." Jack looked over his shoulder and glanced at Roxy suspiciously. It wasn't a surprise to him that she sounded cocky at times, when he first saw her in her room, she was praising herself in front of a mirror, he was weirded out by the action but thought it was just something of her character, but now learning that it wasn't an intended thing and was completely unstable made him question his trust on her. He was thankful she didn't give in to Vanny's offer earlier and didn't hand him to her, but how far could he really trust her in protecting him?
He kept reading, "However, Roxy's psychological state was shown to be more complex, she can often be heard crying in her room, the motives for that are still unknown." Things had just gotten weirder, 'The animatronics can cry?!' he thought to himself. That just didn't make any sense to Jack, if Roxy really believed she was perfect, why would she be crying at all? His questions about the wolf animatronic only increased, questions he was just too afraid to ask, in fear of triggering an unwanted reaction from her. He swallowed his curiosity and shoved the document inside his Roxy-themed backpack.
"Hey, Jack." A familiar robotic voice suddenly asked, making him jump a little, Jack looked up at Roxanne who was towering over him. "What were you looking at? Did ya find anything?" Jack gulped, "Umm... N-No, I'll keep searching" Without saying any more words, Jack quickly walked to the other side of the room, leaving Roxy confused. After walking to the other side of the room, he found a gift box, he turned the handle and after playing a soft melody, the box opened and he finally found the backstage pass.
"Roxy! I found it!" He said showing the pass to her, "Great job, kid, now follow me to the Backstage office."
After walking through a door, they found themselves back on Rockstar Row, they made their way to a door with a sign that said: "To stage controls." Jack made sure to stay a bit behind Roxy, he didn't want to be so close to her since he was feeling conflicted about the animatronic. They walked towards two metal doors, one having a pink guitar on it and the other a green guitar. They entered a room filled with monitors, computers, and other technology stuff. Jack walked over to a security badge box, he opened it and found a strange old disk with the word "SHOWTIME" written on it. Confused, he showed Roxy the disk, "Huh, Roxy, what is this?" "Oh, that's a program disk for our stage shows, we can use this to activate the lift, we should go back to the main atrium and-" Before she could finish the sentence, loud alarms suddenly began to blare in the room along with flashing red lights.
"ATTENTION. INTRUDER ALERT IN THE BACKSTAGE OFFICE."
Jack yelped and grabbed both of his ears in pain, 'God, this is so damn loud! I hate this!' "Roxy! What is going on!?" "Crap! The security system must have identified you as an intruder! And it alerted the others!" She pointed at one of the camera feeds, showing that Chica and Monty were approaching their location. "We have to find a way out of here!" Yelled Jack, "Don't panic!" Roxy stated, clearly panicking, "L-let me think of something!" She paced around the room, thinking of a solution, she then spotted a large vent on the floor, Roxy looked at her claws, she could use them to open the thing. "Alright listen carefully, Jack! I'll open this vent so we can escape, but that might take a while, you can't let them enter the office! Use the buttons on the side of the doors, it should stun them, got it?" After letting all the information sink in, Jack nodded, but before he could do anything, something else caught his attention. The monitors suddenly glitched and Vanny's face appeared on them, "Hi Jaaaaack~ I hope you're having fun, see you sooooon~" The boy stared petrified at the monitors, a feeling of both anger and fear rushed through his body at the sight of Vanny, but what surprised him the most was Roxy's sudden action, with a loud growl she slashed one of the monitors with her claws, she seemed angrier at Vanny than he did. Jack backed away a little at the sudden action, 'Woah...', but he quickly got all of his focus back on the situation.
As Roxy tried to open the vent, Jack heard Chica banging on one of the doors. "Jaaaaaack~ You must be hungry! Come out, I have candy~!" She said with an eerily friendly voice, Jack quickly ran to the door and pressed the button next to it, making Chica yelp in pain. "Come on out ya brat! You can't hide forever!" Growled Monty while banging on another door, Jack was quick and pressed the button, making Monty yelp in pain, "You are in big trouble now kid!"
This game of pressing buttons and running from door to door continued for a while, and Jack was getting exhausted, not only from running from door to door but also because of the loud sirens that pierced through his ears, he could also feel his eyes burning from all the flashing red lights around him, he was having so much sensory overload at that moment that he thought he would pass out. "Roxy! Are you done yet?!" He yelled while running to another door, "Just a second... Done!" She shouted while ripping off the vent's grade and jumping down. "Come on! Jump!" Roxy yelled, Jack, didn't hesitate and jumped straight into the vent.
He was caught by Roxy's arms before hitting the floor, she held him close to her for a moment, scanning the area to determine if it was safe or not. Being in Roxy's arms should have been a nice moment for Jack if it wasn't for the fact that his body still hadn't recovered from that horrifying loud room. After determining that the place was safe, Roxy placed Jack on the ground, he stepped back a little and rubbed his temples while panting, his head was pounding but he could slowly feel himself calming down. "You good?" The animatronic asked, Jack nodded. "What do we do now?" He asked while still panting, "We gotta use that Showtime disk in the sound booth at the main atrium, that should activate the lifts." She answered, and the boy nodded, "Let's get going then."
After walking through some dimly lit corridors, they finally reached the main atrium. Monty and Chica thankfully didn't seem to be there, with only some security bots lurking around. "Monty and Chica aren't here, good." Roxy said while scanning the place with her special eyes. She walked up to the center of the main stage, Jack following right behind. Once they were there, Roxy stopped and knelt down to the boy's eye level, "Listen, kid, you have to get to the sound booth on the third floor, once you're there just use the disk to run the performance program, then meet back here, okay?" Jack raised a brow, "W-what? You aren't coming with me?" he asked confused, "I... I have to do something else now." He shook his head slightly in confusion, "But-" Before he could question her, she turned around and quickly walked away, leaving him there, dumbfounded, 'What the... What could she possibly need to do right now?!' His confusion only grew as he watched her enter a nearby restroom, what on earth was she doing?
Part of him wanted to follow her to see what was up, but he couldn't lose any more time, so he got back on his feet and began his journey to the third floor. He had already dodged so many security bots that he was no longer afraid of them, it became clear to him that they were completely useless on their job to find him, they were just an inconvenience for Jack now. He sneaked past the bots with ease, and in no time, he was on the third floor. He eventually found the sound booth and inserted the showtime disk into a sort of DVD player. He stared amused at what followed, 4 giant holograms of the Glamrock band appeared on the stage as the main theme of the Pizzaplex softly echoed through the place. Even if Jack completely despised the Mega Pizzaplex he was currently stuck in, he had to admit, that was very cool. "Alright, that should do it, back to the stage now!" He said to no one in particular.
After dodging all of those dumb Security bots again, he made his way back to the main stage, but Roxy wasn't there. 'What? Where is she?' He thought for a while before remembering she had gone to that restroom earlier, without thinking twice, he went to that same restroom. As he approached the restroom, he could barely hear Roxy seemingly talking to someone, his blood went cold, who could she possibly be talking to? He hesitantly entered the restroom, afraid of encountering Vanny or any other animatronic, but after peeking into what Roxy was doing, it became clear to him that she was not talking to anyone in particular, but herself.
"You are the best! You are perfect! Everyone loves you DAMMIT! You are NOT a loser!" Roxy said aggressively while pointing a finger to her reflection in one of the restroom's mirrors. 'Oh... She's doing that... again.' Jack thought to himself as he peeked through a wall. When he first saw her giving herself a pep-talk, she had a soft and cocky voice, but now, she was aggressive and seemed like was about to tear that mirror down into pieces with only her glare, it really seemed to Jack that she was forcibly trying to push those labels into herself, it was quite a disturbing sight. "No one is better than you... especially not VANNY! You'll get her, you're the best!" Jack raised a brow at the mention of Vanny, he was surprised that someone as confident as Roxanne had been so much affected by Vanny's words, maybe her ego was more fragile than he thought. He then began to self-reflect... Trust was something Jack had a hard time with, there was no one on earth right now he could trust 100%, not even Sarah, his best friend, so how could he trust someone as flawed as Roxy to keep him safe? He sure was grateful for everything she had done for him, but how far could her kindness towards him go? As he kept doubting his trust in Roxy, he reflected on another bad feeling he has been having. Vanny had multiple chances to kill him so far, but she didn't do it, he fears that every step he takes it's just another step on her sadistic game with him, she enjoys hunting him down, she's just playing with him. He felt like a fly stuck on a spider's web, that feeling filled his mind with anxiety. All night, he was doing everything he could do to appear strong and capable of surviving, but in the end... He didn't feel like that at all, he felt weak, scared, and tired, he just wanted to fall to the ground and cry until the sun rose. But he didn't have that privilege, he had to keep going, if there was any chance of him and Sarah getting out of there with life, he had to try.
"Hey! What are you doing?!" Roxy suddenly yelled at him, snapping him out of his deep thoughts, she noticed him peeking. "U-uh... I'm sorry, I was just l-looking for you." With that said, he quickly ran out of the room.
He paced around the entrance of the restroom waiting for Roxy to come out. She eventually did come out of the restroom, Jack forced a smile and looked at her, doubt filling his eyes. That stare... Roxy wasn't dumb, she knew something was up with the boy, ever since their encounter with Vanny, he has been acting strange to her, she noticed how he was maintaining distance from her as he did earlier in the night, he also looked strangely at her, as if he was judging her. Something was making him distrust her, and she was in no good mindset to handle something like that, she had to find out what was going on. She walked over to him, "Jack, why were you spying on me?" She asked while crossing her arms, she could hear him gulp before speaking, "As I said, I didn't know where you were and I went looking for you... And It isn't like I hadn't seen you talk to yourself before, we should just keep going." Jack tried to turn around and walk away, but Roxy was quick and grabbed his shoulder, turning him to face her. "Be honest with me Jack... You are beginning to distrust me, aren't you?" Jack's face went pale, "N-no! It's not that it's just-" "What?! You think I'm not good enough to protect you?" She yelled while tightening the grip on his shoulder, but stopped herself before completely snapping at him, she closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her snout with her free hand, 'Calm down Roxanne... He's just a kid, control yourself...' She opened her eyes and noticed his terrified expression staring at her, she felt her hypothetical heart ache at the sight. There was no choice, if she wanted to regain his trust, she would have to be honest with him.
She looked around, making sure no one would hear what she was about to say, she then sighed and knelt down at his eye level. "Jack, I'm going to tell you a secret, but I'm only going to tell you because I trust you, I know you will not tell this to anyone else, this is only between us, okay?" Jack was a bit surprised by this, the tone of her voice was different now, it was completely serious, without any of the cockiness it had earlier, she sounded the most serious she had ever sounded, whatever she was about to tell him, sounded important. Jack hesitantly nodded, and Roxy sighed before speaking. "You know what the worst part of being a conscious machine is?" Jack shook his head confused. "It's the "conscious" part that hurts Jack, I'm not alive, yet I think and feel, but others just see me like an object, something they can just use for their entertainment and discard. If I'm that discardable... Am I really all those things they made me believe I was? Then why do I feel so worthless? Am I worthy of all those trophies in my room if I never had done anything to deserve them? I'm just programmed to be the best racer, I never had to train to get better!" Jack could feel her hand shake on his shoulder, "Is there anything special about me? There are probably countless other Roxannes in other locations, so what makes me special? Am I really nothing but a simple discardable machine?!" She could feel herself start to tear up, 'No... I can't cry right now, not in front of him...' "I feel unbearable pain in my chest... And this pain can manifest itself in many forms. I know that sometimes I can act like a bully to others, but that's because in the end... I hate myself and I project that into others to ease the pain. We all have ways to deal with the pain, don't we? That's how I deal with mine, I try to reassure myself constantly to keep these thoughts away. So I ask you, Jack... Please trust me, I know you're scared but I'll protect you, I promise." Jack's expression had changed from scared to empathetic, his eyes spoke of no judgment, "Oh... I didn't know about that, Roxy... It seems very rough for you." She smirked apathetically, "Yeah it is, but nothing I can't handle, kid." Jack sighed and looked to the ground, "Ah, I'm feeling awful now, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have judged you before knowing the full story, I'm really sorry-" Roxy interrupted him by placing a finger on his lips, "Shhh, what did I tell you about apologizing? You have nothing to apologize for." She stood up and sighed, "Sometimes, things can hurt even the toughest of us, right champ?" She said while chuckling. She meant "toughest of us" as Jack and her, it was clear through the way he spoke and his facial expressions that the kid was going through some rough times outside the Pizzaplex, that fact concerned her deeply, she wanted to question him about this but she didn't know how to approach him.
They walked up to the center of the stage, Jack pressed a button and the stage began to go down. As the lift took them down, Roxy patted Jack on the back, "Hey, thanks for listening to me kid, I feel much lighter now." Jack gave her a warm smile, "You're welcome, Roxy."
