When Harriette woke up she wasn't entirely sure where she was. Curled into a ball, under her baby blanket she thought she was in her cupboard and that everything was a dream. She almost cried. Emelia, Mayla, Genni, Katrina… Mr. Sun and Mr. Moon wasn't real. Tears were pricking her eyes, turning her head into her blushies sent an indescribable wave of relief. Then she remembered what happened with her uncle, no Vernon. She refused the think of him as her uncle anymore. She sat up rubbing gunk out of her eyes. She needed to got to the bathroom but she didn't know if the pizzaplex was still open. Maybe she'd have to find a place in the dump to do it. She shuddered. She really hated that idea, especially since she wasn't entirely familiar with the place yet. She'd have to deal with it eventually though. She debated leaving her backpack and other stuff there. She didn't want to lose it if she had to leave the plex after all. She stood up. She'd find out if the place was still open first. She could probably avoid the staff and use the bathroom without getting caught without it being open. She'd just have to be sneaky and careful. She was good at being sneaky and careful. She had to be living with… She shook her head.
It was chilly in the pizzaplex, because there were so many bodies the heat would be too much without good air conditioning. Mr. Moon had told Harriette that. She was wearing her coat already, so she packed up her backpack and fed Ms. Spider again. It had been a whole week since she'd fed her, but spiders only need to eat once a week. Though they prefer to eat more if they can. She let her out in her little house.
"There are lots of bugs here, 'cause of the trash so you'll be able to catch lots and lots," she said, smiling. She found an empty water bottle and poured some of her water in the lid and set it near where she'd put Ms. Spider's jar. "I'll leave you some water too. I have to go now, stay safe Ms. Spider." Harriette waved good-bye as she pulled her backpack on. Once she was out of Mr. Spider's sight she frowned, sighing. She smacked her cheeks again. "I'll be okay." She told herself. "I just gotta be-" She sniffed, trying to stop the wetness building in her nose. "It really is cold. Maybe I should get a scarf from somewhere. There's probably a lost and found, and its not really stealing if no one will ever come and get it." She said she'd reached the foot of the stairs. "I'll be okay."
Harriette was grateful to find that there were still people around the plex. She pulled her hood up and made herself as invisible as possible. The plex was so complicated that she was worried she'd never find her way around. She spotted one of the robots handing out maps to guest. It took her several minutes to get the courage to actually walk over to it.
"Um, hello, can I have a-?" She started.
"Take a map," The bot said.
"Oh, that's what I wanted, thank you," Harriette said, gratefully taking the map. She found her way into one of the spots that none of the quests used, and laid the map out. "Alright," She looked over the marks of the map. "Alright there's the exit. I'll need to make another for other things, but I'll be able to find most things with this." Harriette wandered around the plex, sometimes sneaking things off tables that were left behind. She made notes on her map to mark off spots that she thought would help. When it was getting close to the plex closing time she slipped back under the plex to the dump with a decent collection of freebies and small lost things. She's found a few tools that employees misplaced. Including a screwdriver. She'd use that to get into the vents. She'd found a keycard, and a scarf, as well as a few dollars in change and a notebook and pen from the trash in one of the employee areas. And that wasn't counting the food she'd found. Several bags of chips, a few cans of soda, a snack bar, some chocolates, a thing of trail mix, and four water bottles. And she still had some stuff from Mr and Mrs. Raywood and her friends from the daycare.
She laid out her supplies. You could survive three days without water, and about three weeks without food. She'd need to wear clean clothes to blend in enough with the crowds and she'd need to be cleanish herself.
She had two things of trail mix, one found the other from the Raywoods. There was a thing of beef jerky; Harriette could only guess it was homemade 'cause the label was written by hand. Five granola bars, and five snack bars. A thing of fun shaped crackers. Two baggies of various dried fruits and some veggies, and seven water bottles, four from the Raywoods, but Harriette already drank one. She could probably refill them and find others too.
The chocolates from games at the daycare; ten coins, four fazbear treats (Tiny chocolate ball with various fillings: I made this up don't worry 'bout it), and two small bars of Fazbear entertainment themed chocolate bars, those were for participating in a clean up game that nobody else had the first two days Mr. Sun decided to have it. Harriette wasn't the best cleaner on the others, but she still ended up with four fun sized bars for the other days. Two for one day, cause Mr. Sun had to do the game twice.
She'd also earned about half a bag of Sundrops; which were Mr. Sun's branded candy. Mr. Sun had started giving them to her because he'd caught her cleaning up several times and wanted to reward good behavior. And some were from naptime because sometimes kids just needed a pick-me-up. They were designed as a pick-me up for after naptime. Mr Moons were a lot more useful in Harriette's opinion, they helped kids get to sleep and Mr. Moon had actually given her a whole bag, she wasn't confident in using them just yet, but she might later.
She had five days of clothes, then she'd have to do laundry, unless she wore some things twice. She might just decide to do it that way. There was a package of socks and underwear, a whole package of each. All for her!
Her two maps and her hand light were also added to her survival supplies, after some consideration she also added her blanket. She pulled the notebook and made some notes. She'd already added notes to both maps. Marking down the stores around the plex, and none marked things in the plex. She listed all of her supplies as well as her comfort items.
She had the transformer that Dudley gave her when he'd started being nice to her. The broken action figure that Dudley had removed the arm from, and two army men that Dudley lost the rest of. Several broken crayons; two greens from two separate boxes that didn't quite add to a whole crayon, a red, one blue and less than a quarter, and a nearly whole yellow, her almost nub of a box of pencils, a melted blue crayons. The world's tiniest bag with a single button, a piece of thread and a needle in a thing to keep it from stabbing the bag. And a few hair stuff, including a brush and hair ties. Her Sun and Moon Plushies, her drawings of her friends from the daycare, and a few blank pieces of paper; maybe four.
She hugged her pictures against her chest. She definitely didn't want to lose those, and she couldn't afford to lose her survival supplies. She packed all of those things back into her backpack, shuffling to make sure all of it would fit. She'd hold her Sun and Moon plushies, and she decided to put her light and the pen in her pocket along with the maps and the notebook was put inside to coat, the elastic stomach part made it stay right against her chest. She stood and moved around making sure that this would work. She decided that it might not work if she needed her hands for things. She'd have to come up with something for that. She had the needle, maybe if she found more thread she could make something for them. She wished she'd held onto that broken shirt now. Oh, well, no point in crying over spilt milk or whatever.
Mostly satisfied, she settled in for the night.
"Night Ms. Spider," She said, laying the backpack down as a makeshift pillow after pulling the blanket out. She set the Sun and Moon plushies down in front of her and to face them while laying down. She looked at them for a moment.
"Why don't you come to us Harriette?" she had the Sun plush ask.
"I, well, Mr. Moon is part of the security," Harriette said. "I don't want to get you into trouble and you might not be allowed to help me. Even if…" She stopped, shaking her head. "Even though I know you'd want to help me, you might not be allowed." Harriette said. "So, I'm going to learn all the ways I can sneak into the plex and all the best hiding spots first. That way I can… I'll figure something out." Harriette smiled. "So, don't worry. I will come to you soon. I'm sure."
The next morning Harriette woke up feeling groggier than usual. Not wanting to risk being caught off guard she sucked on one of the sundrops till she was feeling more awake. She found a bathroom and brushed her teeth and searched out a better breakfast option. She might have food but she didn't want to use it if she didn't have to. She might find she'd need it later. She'd used one of the hair ribbons to tie her Plushies to her backpack. She felt embarrassed that she hadn't thought about it. She also realized she was allowed to grow her hair out if she wanted. Nobody could stop her, and that might be for the best. Her Aunt and Vernon thought of her as a boy, so if her relatives were forced to report her, everyone would be looking for a boy. Because of that she'd decided to wear the one skirt and to put her hair into a pair of ponytails on the side of her head instead of the bottom. She felt nice. She was still careful to avoid staff, and people she'd seen the day before. She made sure to carefully avoid staring, or drawing attention to herself. She was able to sneak more food abandoned at tables for shows, and by just wasteful lazy people. She wondered if she should be annoyed that they didn't clean up after themselves or be grateful. She eventually decided it didn't matter.
She threw away the stuff she couldn't eat. If someone did notice her they might be nicer to her since she cleaned up after herself, well maybe she was cleaning up after others, since even if she didn't eat the food she still threw away the trash and stacked any trays she found. She managed to get a decent breakfast by wandering the food area, she dodged around security bots, they had facial recognition and guest files would flash on their internal screens if she was seen by them. She didn't want them to call the actual security on her.
She decided to go to one of the arcades and snuck further in the back. She remembered Emelia mentioning that sometimes there were just open vents, and Mr. Moon said that the MiniMusicmen made those their home. Since she was going to be sharing the space with them, she thought it was only polite to greet her neighbors. Besides, they were supposed to be nice as long as you weren't rude, so they might help her if she's not rude. She found the vent she was looking for and as luck would have it there wasn't a cover. She checked to make sure no one was around then she knocked on the side of the wall and waited. The TinyMusic-man appeared in the opening looking confused. Harriette hummed the greeting tune Moon had taught her late one night after a bad nightmare. The TinyMusic-Man greeted her in turn.
"Sorry, that's about all I've learned so far, but I would love to learn more of your language," Harriette said. "I hope that's not rude." The TinyMusic-Man chimed, waving a hand. "I hope that means it's okay to learn your language." TinyMusic-Man nodded. "Thank you." Harriette said, smiling. The TinyMusic-Man waved. "Thanks for talking to me, sorry for bothering you. I'm sure you have other stuff you'd rather be doing. I like your design by the way." Harriette said. "Oh, we should both probably go," She moved her hand up to signal she was going to tell him a secret. "Neither of us are supposed to be here." Her smile grew wider at the chime of the TinyMusic-Man. "Bye-bye, Mr. TinyMusic-Man." She said, standing, and waving, the TinyMusic-Man waved her forward, backing away from the entrance and waving some more. Harriette crouched down.
"Huh? Are you- are you inviting me inside your vent?" Harriette asked. Mr. TinyMusic-Man nodded. "Really? Thank you. I know how big a deal that is, so I'm really happy that your letting me share your space even for a little while." Harriette said she checked to make sure nobody was looking and then slipped into the vent.
Harriette followed Mr. TinyMusic-Man for several minutes before arriving in Mr. TinyMusic-Man's 'home' it was a small… Pocket, grouping, area? Harriette wasn't entirely sure what to call it, Harriette and Mr. TinyMusic-Man fit in the small square outcropping fairly comfortably. Mr. TinyMusic-Man pulled something toward her. It was a packet of glow in the dark stars. Harriette looked confused. Mr. TinyMusic-Man chimed, before showing her that he just couldn't open it. His hands just weren't designed that way. So Harriette opened it for him. He chimed.
"It that a thank you?" Harriette asked. "Because if it is you are very welcome." Mr. TinyMusic-Man nodded. Pulled out one of the stars and pointed making a very specific note. Harriette nodded, humming the tune herself. "Is that star?" Shake. "Sticker?" nod. Another tune and then Mr. TinyMusic-Man traced the shape of the star. "That's star?" nod. Harriette hummed the tone. Then Mr. TinyMusic-Man tried to remove the back of the sticker so they could stick it on the wall. Harriette ended up helping with that. Mr. TinyMusic-Man teaching her the tunes for several words. Harriette humming along as best she could. Harriette helped the TinyMusic-Man decorate his home before going back to the rest of the pizzaplex. She scrounge up a lunch pretty easily, cleaning up the tables. She wrapped up another a bit of food for dinner. She was walking past another of the pizzaplex's many arcades when it happened.
"Mummy, look what I won!" a little boy shouted. Harriette wasn't sure why she turned to look. The boy was dressed in a colorful shirt with a picture of the character that Harriette learned was Freddy Fazbear. The woman was wearing a matching shirt, the boy practically threw himself into her arms. She laughed.
"Good job," She said, adjusting the hat on the boy's head so they were looking at each other properly. Harriette swallowed. Her throat suddenly felt desert dry, chest hurt. She watched the two as the woman dipped down to kiss the boys forehead, and Harriette's own forehead felt like it had been burned. Her fingers twitched at her side toward the pair as they laughed, passing by her as if she wasn't there. Harriette looked down. It hurts to breathe, she gripped her backpack straps and forced a lungful of way too hot air into her lungs. She continued walking.
Harriette had mapped out all the ways one could get into and out of the pizzaplex, by day two. She'd also met a good number of the TinyMusic-Men that lived in the vents. She'd been in listed to help several of them to properly set up their homes. She learned a good chunk of their language too. She wasn't fully fluent in it, but she could understand most of what the TinyMusic-Men were saying. Harriette also learned a bit about their culture. They were sort of complex little guys. For instance most lived in the vents but any small space with good access to other things would work just as good. They liked decorating their 'homes' with stickers, and little bits of colorful string, tensile, confetti, plastic, and other things. They actually had quite sensitive noses despite not needing to eat. They made nests like birds or rats. They had their own system of rules and their own language. Harriette was happy she'd made friends with them.
Harriette also learned a lot about the various types of bots that lived throughout the plex. For instances the staff bots likes decorating their hats. The wet floor sign robots, were smart and liked playing twenty questions, as long as Harriette stuck to yes or no questions. She'd even helped pick out names for a few of them, and gave some of the staff bots nicknames. A few of the human staff had noticed her, but they mostly ignored her. Especially any Janitorial and restaurant staff. One had even handed her a missed order when she'd been walking by. Marnie, she worked at El Chips and had purple hair.
She avoided most security staff and bots. She knew two security bots that were fine because one was in love with one of her staff bot friends and the other had was friends with a wet floor bot and one of the TinyMusic-Men, Tensile.
She'd started decorating her own 'home' with stuff too. Some were things she'd been given by the TinyMusic-Man she'd helped that day, some were just things she'd found around the plex. Others she made herself. One of her security bot friends even gave her a flashlight, so now her little hand light was settled permanently on the roof of her 'home'. The under belly of the plex was dark so she always needed more light.
Harriette was pretty familiar with the pizzaplex when she finally got the courage to leaving her own 'home' at night. She was pretty sure that between her knowledge, the flashlight, and her own freak abilities she'd be okay to work at night. She'd learned that there were other freebies for guests in gift shops sometimes, and she hadn't had the courage to go into one during the day. She'd been sure that even sneezing around one of the stores would get her caught. But under cover of night she could sneak in just fine.
Notes: IDK So... I don't know how painfully obvious it is that I'm not british. I'm from the U.S. of A in fact. IDK what to put in those chapters I skipped yet. Advice would be appreciated. Thanks for reading this thus far.