Author's Note:
So yeah, this idea is admittedly cliché. But it's also so much fun lol. Hope you enjoy it!
Also, there have been a couple of questions about OCs. The best way to get an OC into the story is to submit them on the discord server. There's guidelines on which ones we accept there. Otherwise if you don't have access to discord you can PM me about them but I'm only online when I'm posting a chapter usually so replies will be slow.
Chapter 145
Wish?
Ruby got the call a few hours later and promptly threw her phone at the wall, forgetting it was Hedy's living room wall and not her dented bedroom wall.
There was a reason she had a Nokia.
She, Clint, and Alice were going to have to figure out something else as the brick of a cellphone was starting to get outdated.
She should maybe stop throwing things when they cut into her sleep.
But the sound of glass breaking did properly wake her up.
She didn't hear Hedy yelling though.
Did the mechanic go to the University already?
"What?" she hissed into the phone, hanging half off the couch just to reach it where it had landed after bouncing off the wall and not checking the caller id like she usually would.
A note on the coffee table caught her attention as she blinked the sleep from her eyes.
Went to get us some breakfast - H.
She didn't need to sign it. Hedy was such a nerd sometimes.
"Uh, Ruby?"
She blinked at the phone. "Harrison? It's ten!"
She did not need to be dealing with anything right now.
Especially...especially not right now… She threw her arm over her eyes and considered just hanging up.
Harrison didn't speak for a moment. "Right...th-this is Harrison...this is definitely Harrison."
"For the love of..."
Ruby frowned, confused but not alarmed yet. She was sure that was Toby in the background but he sounded… off.
"What's wrong?" she hissed, daring the older man to lie. She suddenly had a bad feeling about this.
Harrison stopped and started a few times, apparently struggling to get the words out. Funny, he never usually had problems speaking. Even when she was being bitchy. He covered the phone and she faintly heard, "Freddy what do I-"
Instead of Freddy though, Samuel's voice interrupted, which was just weird since he rarely talked anyway.
"Just tell her we need her. She'll come."
"This is fricking insane!" She heard BB, BB, shout sounding really frantic.
"Did...did BB just say 'frick'," she asked into the phone, befuddled. There was an edge of warning to her voice now.
"Please just...hurry..." Harrison begged. Harrison didn't beg. He was a man in his sixties. He didn't beg like a pouty child. "Before the manager gets here."
Marion could be heard faintly growling. "Of all the days the building decides to be a bastard!"
With no one to see her expressions, Ruby let the confusion show on her face. Whatever. She'd deal with it when she got there. Still, it was a surprise to hear any of the staff bring up the building like they knew what it was.
Did they?
It was weird enough that apparently all the bots and day staff were all together to call her.
She didn't like this. She scrambled upright and started yanking on her shoes as fast as possible.
"We can't open like this!" Mangle said, sounding completely freaked. It was her voice, but it didn't sound like her. The tone was higher and far more stressed than Mangle ever sounded normally.
"Izzy, if you crack my voicebox so help me-" Izzy was saying right as the call hung up.
Ruby stared at the phone for a second.
"What the hell?" she muttered. Were they playing a prank on her?
She ran out of the house, not even bothering to fully change into the fresh set of clothes Hedy had left on the coffee table. She had only really tugged one of Hedy's t-shirts on after the mechanic complained about Ruby being uncomfortable enough sleeping on the couch for the morning.
Ruby had been half-tempted to go upstairs and steal Hedy's bed but she had basically passed out after she and Hedy talked for a little longer.
Besides, she'd slept in worse places than a slightly lumpy couch.
Hedy called her when she was already halfway to the pizzeria.
"Did you just get a really weird call from Harrison?" Ruby asked her without even saying hello.
"Actually, Jerry called. It was...freaky. It didn't sound like him," Hedy answered slowly. "He mentioned Toby already called you, but he said 'Night Guard' instead of 'Ruby'. He doesn't call you that."
Ruby frowned. "What? Harrison called me, not Toby. Why would they make Toby call me if something was wrong anyway?"
"Do I sound like I know? I'm on my way. See you there. Don't kill anyone until we figure out what's going on. Unless it's a reporter. That's a joke, Ruby. Don't kill a reporter."
"No promises."
"Rub-!"
Ruby hung up on Hedy with a smirk. She felt like shit sure, but it was practically tradition to hang up on Hedy now.
Luckily, she didn't run into any idiots. It wouldn't have been good for them. Not while she was worried about her bots.
Whatever was going on though… At least she had something else occupying her thoughts instead of…
Even running most of the way, she and Hedy arrived almost at the same time, Hedy already out of her car as Ruby ran up and stopped for a moment to catch her breath.
She walked past Hedy and opened the already unlocked door.
Inside the only odd thing was that everyone, bots and dayshift, were in the main room together with no sign of any customers.
"What happened?" she demanded as Hedy came up behind her.
"Who's hurt?" the mechanic added, which got Hedy a few oddly fond looks from some of the day staff.
Jerry scoffed out a derisive laugh that sounded very much unlike him.
"The building if we don't fix this."
Andrew flinched, sitting next to Jerry. Weirdly close. He seemed to be trembling a bit and kept staring at Spring with wide-eyes. The teen usually was pretty confident with himself so it was disconcerting.
Another clue something was wrong was that Kitty was in the room instead of Fazbear's Fright. She was under a chair, staring at Andrew instead of weaving around Spring's legs.
Spring was oddly not as nervous, but staring at himself and around in confusion, occasionally poking his fingers and torso.
Mangle was pacing back and forth staring at her hands and muttering.
Meanwhile Izzy poked Olivia's cheek in curiosity.
Olivia just waved the other woman away and kept her eye on Goldy.
On Goldy?
The girls belatedly noticed that Goldy was out. In front of everyone. Out of her poster. In daylight.
What...
She was seated on the floor looking like she was trying to control her 'breathing,' which also didn't make sense. She was clearly freaked out and all the bots were looking at her in confusion and a bit of fear, which sent out its own set of alarm bells. Meanwhile, none of the day staff seemed remotely surprised by the ghost bear.
"Someone explain. Quickly," Hedy said, grabbing Ruby's arm to stop the teen's unconscious advance, no doubt to interrogate someone.
Everyone looked awkward, before BB spoke up. "What sort of freaky demonic shit is this?!"
"Language!" all the human staff snapped at him before Marion groaned and laughed at the absurdity.
"You better watch yer mouth, before BB hurts himself," Marion gestured at Henry who was glaring at BB in a way that almost made Ruby knock some sense into him.
But she, and Hedy, were a bit preoccupied by the stressed accent coming out of Marion's mouth.
"Foxy?!" Hedy cried while Ruby got whiplash looking toward the fox animatronic then back at Marion.
'Foxy' put up his hand and hook, backing away from Ruby. "Uh...I'm Marion. Can I wake up now? Please?"
"Foxy?" Ruby asked, tone almost uncertain as she pointed at him.
Marion coughed. "No, Lass. Over here." He waved a bit from his seat.
"What the fuck?"
"Ruby!" everyone snapped.
Well, everyone but Hedy. It wasn't like the teen hid how much she swore and she'd had a tough day so far. She kind of deserved to swear for a bit.
Besides, Hedy was having trouble with understanding the situation and felt the urge to swear too. "I had a dream like this once. It turned into a nightmare real fast."
"You're messed up, Hedy," Izzy said dryly. Not Izzy. Who was it really?
It sounded like something Mangle would say, maybe Foxy but it was already clarified who he was.
Oh fuck this wasn't just a dream was it?
Jerry grunted while Puppet shifted and looked at him nervously.
"Let me guess. Mari?" Hedy asked, wide-eyed when he nodded.
"Yes. I have a few new complaints about humans now. Everything's squishy..."
"Never...never say that again please," 'Puppet' moaned.
Hedy looked at Puppet's body while Ruby was staring off at something in the distance. They may have broken her.
"Jerry?" she asked hesitantly.
"I think so... Oh this is really weird. Everything looks weird."
Hedy sputtered a bit at the tone 'Puppet' spoke with. She looked across the room.
"Who's Goldy?"
Olivia raised her hand, taking off her security uniform hat with her other hand. "I got yanked out my poster and woke up...here. Olivia's freaking out."
Goldy...no...Olivia had Goldy's eyes closed. "Nope. Nope. I'm completely fine...I'm just an animatronic bear we've never seen before who's slightly floating and a bit see-through-holy shit am I dead?!"
"Are we in Hell?" 'BB' freaked at the same time.
"This is your hell Henry, don't drag the rest of us down with you," Toby said, the mature tone really sounding wrong. "Though if I had a choice, switching with the rabbit Toy would have been my last choice."
'Harrison' suddenly looked offended. "Hey!"
"Sorry kid, but make-up is not my speed."
'Bonnie' laughed a bit hysterically. "Uh... N-no offense Bonnie, but I would have been fine with Toby. Someone fix this please. It's...I can't...Bonnie's too tall." He was standing stock still, too afraid to move.
'Liam' actually looked sympathetic, sitting on a table and seeming a bit twitchy as he plucked at the cleaner's uniform and continuously glanced between his hands, Ruby, Foxy, and Marion. The last two in confusion. "Dude. I'm not that tall. Are you really that afraid of heights?"
"You know..." 'Chi' said, slowly and very unamused. "Yeah. We knew something was up with the bots, being alive and all. This place has always been weird, but for some reason...I...never questioned it too much. But never. Not once, did it ever occur to me there was actual magic involved."
"I'm going to guess Jess..." Hedy said.
'Chi' looked at Hedy and wordlessly pointed at Jess.
"Yeah..." 'Jess' mumbled. "Hi..." She glanced at Izzy nervously but Mangle in Izzy's body shook her head slightly, silently telling Chi to not say something.
"Hi Chi," Hedy said frowning, clearly still freaked but immediately suspicious. She knew when the Toys were hiding something.
Ruby looked a bit freaked out. Okay, actually a lot freaked out. Her hand twitched around Betty but she didn't have a proper target to hit. Hedy tugged her a bit further back and squeezed her arm in comfort. The teen did not need more emotional upheaval right now.
"I repeat, what the fuck?" Ruby's voice was a little higher than usual.
"Language!" most of them yelled. Marion, or Foxy? Foxy, just sighed. "I think some swearing is called for right now," he mumbled. He was watching Ruby carefully. Most of the bots were. The timing of this was suspicious and Foxy had the urge to kick a hole in one of the walls.
Jerry, or no-Puppet, nodded in agreement.
"I already have a headache," the teen muttered, looking at Hedy with wide eyes. At least she had something to occupy her mind now. This was far more distracting than…
Ruby squinted and looked up at the ceiling. Hedy had never seen her this freaked out. Actually, none of the bots had seen her this freaked out before.
And that was including the time she was seven and the whole thing with the slug.
"You have a headache!? I'm going to have a damn stroke," Hedy said. "How does this even happen?" She took a breath. "Spring?"
'Andrew' shakily held up his hand. "I'm okay."
"Andrew?"
"Here," 'Spring' said, "Dude this is so weird. Kinda cool though," he admitted. "Everything looks like a camer—!" he bounced on his feet a bit but something twinged. "Ah!" He yelped and Andrew held his side. He stumbled against a wall and the bots, uh... the day shift in the bots' bodies, yelped in surprise.
"Careful!" Hedy ordered. "I'm still working on Spring. Mangl—uh, Izzy...?"
It was still a guess but 'Mangle' looked up.
"You really have to calm down," she said calmly to the other woman despite her concern spiking.
"Calm down!?" Mangle's voice squeaked. "I-I don't even..." she was still pacing and Mangle's orange eyes were glowing brighter.
"N-no, seriously," Mangle said, standing up abruptly but losing her balance in Izzy's heels. The young woman grabbed the table to support herself. How the heck did humans even walk!? She put out a hand toward herself, attempting to be soothing, "You're gonna make me glitch and falling is gonna hurt a lot. Can you maybe sit down, please?" Oh, geez, Izzy was way too stressed and neurotic to be her.
Ruby snapped out of her shock at the reminder that the bots could get hurt. Something to focus on. That helped.
"Right, everyone find a seat. I don't care if it's on the ground. I just want everyone sitting and not possibly about to fall and break gears and bones." she walked up to Izzy and clamped a hand around her snout. "Quiet before you blow Mangle's voicebox. I swear if any of you end up hurting the bots I'll make sure to repay it to your human bodies when we've fixed this." Her gaze lingered on Henry in BB's body longer than the others in a clear warning.
He luckily kept BB's mouth shut and sat down on the floor.
Izzy whimpered as Ruby kept hold of her snout until she was eased into a seat.
Liam moaned. "C-can someone help me. Please?"
Hedy looked at him in pity, noting how he was stiff and frozen in place in Bonnie's body. She didn't expect Liam to have such a severe height phobia.
"Just go slow."
Liam glanced down at the floor and immediately looked back up with a yelp.
Bonnie looked alarmed. "A-ah. Uh. Liam, back up until you feel a wall and slide down. You can do that right?"
"R-right...h-how do I walk backward?"
Puppet groaned. "You have the same fucking walking mechanics!" He kicked out Jerry's leg in annoyance and pointed at it before immediately yelping. "AH! There something on my foot."
"Shoe," Hedy deadpanned.
"Not the stupid shoe. I know what a goddamn shoe is! In the shoe!" Jerry's voice went a pitch higher.
"Probably toes," Hedy said with the exact same tone of voice. "Ignore him, Liam. You can do it."
It wasn't lost on the bots that Hedy was being much kinder to the humans than Ruby.
Well, Ruby had always preferred the bots to actual people. Which probably wasn't healthy. Hedy was usually the one actually interacting with the human employees. In a pleasant way at least.
Ruby eyed Izzy for a moment before letting go of her snout.
"So how the hell did this happen?" the teen asked, rubbing her face. She was too tired for this. She wasn't even laughing at Puppet's freak out.
The bots didn't seem all that keen on moving, all stiff and anxious in these new bodies. The humans were all still in too much shock to do much more than follow instructions.
Mangle froze then settled in her chair, ignoring Chi looking at her. She inspected Izzy's veins in her arm with genuine morbid curiosity, dearly hoping her and Chi's little game last week wasn't the cause of this.
"We...don't know," 'Samuel' said. "I'm Freddy, by the way..."
'Freddy' nodded.
Mags glanced up, adding him to the mental list as the girls did, and then pressed into the skin, weirded out how it blanched before flooding back with color. Then there was the tongue. She wasn't having any trouble talking but it was disturbing how aware she was of the thing. It seemed like it should get in the way. She pressed into 'her' arm a bit harder and yelped at the dull pain. There was something hard. Oh shoot, was that the freaking bone?
Hedy snorted and Mangle looked up in a panic.
"Did I say that out loud?"
Ruby was eying Mangle suspiciously. She was being strangely quiet.
"Do any of you have a theory on what could have caused this? Because I've had three back to back shifts without more than a couple hours sleep so I have even less patience than usual to deal with this. I didn't even have time to grab a coffee." She wasn't about to bring up Jeremy's visit. Nope, wasn't touching that with a ten foot pole and she was punching the first person who did.
No one seemed to be the one who wanted to speak first and set her off. Ruby crossed her arms, scowl deepening as no one spoke up.
"It's obviously the building pulling something," Puppet said, crossing his arms as well and clearly very uncomfortable in a young man's body.
Jerry was only a little older than Hedy at about twenty-five with glasses.
"Yeah, but why?" Hedy asked, after watching to make sure Liam could get to the ground okay. "What are you doing now?" She asked accusingly and looked up at the ceiling.
"What...what are you talking about?" Marco spoke up in Teddy's body.
"The building has a consciousness," Hedy said bluntly. "And it's a busy body."
"Okay," Olivia said weakly. "Okay. While we're on something else that doesn't make sense. Who the heck is this?!"
"Me," Goldy said with a forced grin.
"Who the heck/hell are you?!" Half the day shift shouted at once.
Ruby sighed, being the more helpful one for the briefest moment. "This is Goldy. She was originally made at the same time as Spring. She never went back to work though after being put in storage and for some reason, she's now a ghost bear. Yes it's weird, yes she's been here the entire time and yes she knows who each of you are since she likes to watch during the day."
There was silence for a moment.
"That's kind of creepy," Izzy admitted quietly.
"Yeah but she doesn't really have a lot to do since everyone's busy working during the day."
"It gets boring," Goldy shrugged.
Olivia shook her head. "You didn't answer. Ghost?! Am I dead? Is...is she dead?! Can the bots die?!"
Hedy said yes while Ruby said no at the same time. They glared at each other for a moment, the topic an old argument between them.
Goldy rolled her eyes. "Yes and no. I'm not physical by default, but I can be if I just want to. Maybe I'm 'dead', but it doesn't really matter. It doesn't bother me and I don't really think I am. You're not dead Olivia. You just have my body, or what's left of it."
Oddly, that seemed to calm the day guard down a bit.
She just nodded and looked at Goldy's hands.
"Not dead," Ruby muttered to herself before straightening up. "Now that that's sorted, did anyone do something out of the ordinary today? Make a deal with one of the bots? Anything?"
"No deals," Freddy answered. "Not that I've seen."
The other bots agreed with him.
"Nope!" Chi said, a bit too enthusiastically.
Hedy immediately looked at her and Chi winced while Mangle closed her eyes.
"Deals...?" Harrison asked, looking concerned.
"I knew it was some demonic sh-"
"Henry... dude. Shut up," Jerry moaned, Puppet's hand covering his face. Jerry paused at the whirring sound his shoulder made as he moved and stared at 'his' three-fingered hand.
Don't take it out of the suit. Puppet thought, glaring daggers at the man.
Ruby looked at Hedy, looking absolutely done with the situation already.
"Are you as suspicious of those two as I am?" she asked, tilting her head towards Chi and Mangle.
Everyone else looked at the two bots in human form.
Hedy squinted. "Yes."
"What?" Mangle asked, actually pretty good at looking confused. Which honestly wasn't too hard with Izzy's face. Izzy dealt with a lot of the pizzeria stuff when the Manager lost it, but that didn't mean she understood it.
Chi didn't have nearly as good a poker face, even with Jess's face already lined with stress from a few years of cleaning up dead bodies. Plus Chi was a terrible liar by default. She talked too much to be good at it, unlike Mangle, who after fifteen years of not speaking had only two modes: speaking her mind too much, or complete control over what she said.
"What are you talking about? We didn't make a deal," Chi said. "That's ridiculous. Why would anyone ask for this? This is super weird. Why are you looking at us?"
Mangle sighed and bowed her head.
"Toy Chica!" Puppet snapped.
Chi eeped. "It was Mangle's idea!"
Now Mangle looked shocked. "What?! We didn't do anything!"
Ruby simply raised an eyebrow, looking completely unimpressed. It was the expression she used when the kids at the orphanage were misbehaving or fighting and it never failed.
The staff were surprised at how much like a disapproving older sister she looked. Mangle and Chi were actually squirming under it.
"And just what, exactly, was this 'idea' of Mangle's?" she directed at Chi, the obvious weak link.
Bonnie flinched for them. It wasn't nice being under that look. The ghost kids even cowered under that look.
Mangle was glaring at Chi too, glancing at Ruby out of the corner of her eye.
"W-we were playing a game..." Chi stuttered.
"It was a hypothetical exercise," Mangle interrupted, giving up. "Just a...storytelling game. While the ghost hunters were here. We were bored."
"Kinda a psychological game..." Chi added, ducking when Mangle looked at her.
"Spit it out," Hedy ordered sternly.
"If..." Mangle hesitated, now properly twitchy as the gazes directed at her hardened. "If w-we…" She almost lost her nerve. "Were...human..."
"Oh fucking hell..." Puppet facepalmed and bent over in his chair, doing his best to ignore the nose he suddenly realized was in the middle of his face. He may have smacked it a bit too hard.
Ruby groaned, burying her face in her hands.
"And then the building decided to be super helpful and made it happen," she muttered, the words muffled. "Fantastic."
The building gave a pleased little hum in the back of Hedy's mind.
Hedy frowned a little sadly, realising why it was going out of its way to be pulling this now. A distraction. A good one technically but Ruby really didn't need the extra stress.
"Mangle, continue." she demanded, needing to know how bad this was going to be. They still didn't know everything the building could do, after all. This was beyond anything she thought it was capable of.
Mangle swallowed nervously, a really new sensation. But it was automatic. "Uh...the question was, if...if each of us was human, what would be one thing we each would want to do...a-as humans."
Ruby was massaging her temples, feeling her headache growing. "For fuck's sakes, give me painkillers," she groaned. "I want ice cream and my bed. Couldn't I wallow in self-pity for a little longer?" She took a deep breath before straightening up again. "Sounds like it twisted the game into a sort of deal," she declared, pushing her own problems aside for now.
"I'm sorry, Lass," Foxy said automatically, wanting to hug her but unsure if he should move.
"But we didn't even call it a deal!" Chi insisted.
"We were just playing a game," Mangle said. "No dealing. No promises. We were just talking and being silly. We made up a lot of ridiculous ones."
"Yeah! Like..." Chi paused, thinking. "What was a dumb one...?"
"Well apparently the building took it as a deal," Ruby pointed out in exasperation. "I'm banning hypothetical thought exercises. Someone can't leave well enough alone," she looked pointedly at the ceiling as she said that.
The day staff just looked confused still.
"But...why now?" Andrew asked curiously.
"The building is being distracting," Hedy said softly.
Ruby frowned and her eyes went unfocused for a moment.
The staff that didn't know about Hedy's connection with the building. They were confused by her tone and the way that some of the bots glanced worriedly at Ruby. However, those that were there earlier wondered if this had something to do with that awfulness.
"This is too weird," Henry muttered, interrupting before Andrew could pry. The teen hadn't been there. "I'm hallucinating. I gotta quit..."
"Finally," Puppet said sarcastically. "Mangle, what exactly were the...?"
He was cut off as the door opened. Everyone froze as the Manager walked in. He usually came about a couple hours before closing these days, in an attempt to avoid running into the girls possibly coming during the day. Then he left well before the night shift started. He was barely at the place anymore.
Hedy vaguely wondered when his "vacation" had ended.
He glanced around, clearly a bit irritated to see everyone in the same room sitting around. He stopped, immediately paling upon seeing Ruby, then Hedy.
Izzy opened her mouth to greet him with a "Morning, sir" like she usually did, but Ruby wrapped a hand around her snout again.
Hedy internally cringed. She almost forgot they were open. They needed to close. Maybe they could close for the day. Hopefully, they didn't have any reservations scheduled.
"Manager, just the person I wanted to see," Ruby gave the man a shark-like grin, making him pale further. "There's a problem with the bots that Hedy needs to deal with and the staff are already here so we're going to do some bonding exercises. You know, keep the teamwork thing strong." She was lying through her teeth and it was a little disturbing how good at it she was. "So I'm afraid we'll have to close early today. No point staying open when the bots aren't work-ready. They're why people come here in the first place after all."
The Manager was already nodding like a bobblehead before she even finished talking. It was both amusing to see but also a bit discomforting. The staff hadn't realised how much control Ruby technically had over the restaurant because the Manager and board were so scared of her. She could probably get any of them fired with a flippant comment to the right person.
At the moment, Harrison couldn't help being relieved. He was terrible with kids. It would have been a disaster with him pretending to be Toby.
The manager swallowed. "R-right...how long is this going to take...?" He made a noise as Ruby's smile widened in warning. "I-I need Isabel for an errand!" he squeaked, hands up and looking about ready to try making a break for his office.
Mangle's eyes widened. Uh oh.
"What sort of errand?" Hedy asked, not interested in terrifying the man any more than necessary.
"I...she...I need her to drop some mail off at the post office and take the tax documents to the bank," he said nervously.
Izzy panicked. That was today?! Mangle couldn't do that! She...the bots had never even been outside right?
Ruby slanted a look to 'Izzy' and the mischief that flared to life told the bots that they were in a lot of trouble suddenly. A whole new world of pranks had just opened up to the nightguard.
They weren't sure if the upcoming trouble was worth it to see that light back in her eyes...
"Oh well, I'm sure we can compromise."
Foxy barely managed to hide a grin, trying his damndest to ignore the weird sensation of skin stretching as his face moved.
Ruby was a bit miffed with Mangle, so she was definitely going to be a target.
"How about this? Since the night shift really does need to bond with the day shift," she said it so earnestly too, they could now believe how she got away with so much in the community. "The day shift has to be with either me or Hedy. I'll go with Izzy to the bank. The rest can stay and Hedy will handle the trust falls and all those lovely things while repairing the bots' little...identity issue that's come up."
She smiled sweetly.
The manager just looked relieved that Ruby was willing to compromise. So much so that he had no problem leaving the rest of the staff to her and Hedy's tender mercies.
He walked backward to his office, nodding. "O-of course. That's...fine..." And he was gone.
Mangle waited until he was out of earshot before screaming. She stood up suddenly, almost falling. "I can't go outside!" She had to admit, part of her was very curious. But the rest of her was frightened at the idea.
"We...don't...go outside, Ruby," Freddy said hesitantly. That was very against the rules. He hadn't thought about "rules" in a while. But that was one they weren't really required to break through all the insanity they went through.
Ruby finally let go of Izzy's snout. She didn't look bothered.
"You're telling me that you're not a little bit curious?" she asked. "I know you can't leave usually because of the whole being animatronics thing. But you're not robots right now."
She looked to Hedy to get her opinion.
"This is your chance," Hedy said, with a growing smirk and a small shrug. "If the humans are okay with it. Frankly, if we're closed, you all could leave. I'll stay here and make sure no one breaks a servo or something. Or I can call Mike and he can." She wasn't about to leave the dayshift alone in the bot's bodies, confused and the collateral in this insanity, but she still wanted to see the bots' reactions to the outside world. She also wasn't convinced Ruby could corral all of them at once.
"Fuck no!" Henry complained. "You're going to get me arrested."
"What could BB possibly do to get you arrested?" Hedy deadpanned.
"I don't know?! Steal someone's car battery?!"
BB cracked up laughing and Hedy glared at him.
Maybe she needed to call Jeremy too...
Ruby tilted her head. "How about you call Mike and Jeremy and the three of us will watch them out there? Then I'll come swap with you so you get a chance to watch the entertainment too."
Foxy was the only one who had a growing smirk on his face. He was always the most likely to break the rules. "I want to try laser tag. You talked about it before."
Ruby positively beamed at the idea.
"Ah!" Chi yelped. "We made a list! That was one of the things we talked about. We were going back and forth about what Foxy would want and that was one of the things."
"We settled on laser tag," Mangle said, thinking. "That or trying alcohol. Rum. We couldn't get over the idea of drinking so we stuck with laser tag."
Harrison chuckled. "Should have stuck with the rum."
Jerry managed a small laugh. He was still panicking, of course. But the idea of Puppet walking around the city in his body was both hilarious and concerning. Puppet didn't seem the type to put himself in danger though. As long as they didn't run into anyone he knew, maybe this wouldn't be so bad.
Some of the staff didn't seem too sure. Those were their bodies after all.
Andrew stopped and winced, looking at Spring a bit disturbed. "Um... stay away from the mall, please. My girlfriend works there."
"I have to pick up my son from weekend school at three," Olivia said, looking at Goldy in concern.
"My wife is gonna kill me..." Frank muttered. "Chica. Miss, if my wife calls...do not answer the phone." He actually trusted Chica to not do anything stupid here. They respected each other pretty well after working in the kitchen together.
"If we're not finished by three, your son can stay with Ricky until it's sorted," Ruby offered. "And don't look so worried, everyone. Jeremy is the boring responsible type. And he's a cop."
At least she didn't try and convince them that she would be the responsible one.
Chica gave Frank a reassuring smile and nod.
"I want to try the rum thing as well. And vodka," Foxy admitted.
"Yeah, Jeremy should be in charge of Foxy," Freddy frowned. "Ruby can't say no to him."
Bonnie was looking thoughtful. "Didn't you say the Star Wars convention was in town?" he asked hopefully.
Hedy mentally braced herself. Today was going to really hurt her pocket. But...maybe the building didn't make the choices it did randomly.
Marion at the least was old enough that Foxy could go drinking.
And it was a nice coincidence for Bonnie the convention was happening...
"I think so, Bonnie. Mangle. Where's that list? Of all the things you have to do. Did you write it down or memorize it?"
"It got thrown away, but I..." Mangle touched her head and stopped at the feeling of soft hair instead of plastic. "I don't remember it all," she sounded panicked. "I don't..."
"Humans don't have a photographic memory," Hedy reminded, gentle but a bit annoyed. She sighed. "What if that's how we get them switched back? The bots have to do the things Mangle and Chi said they would want to."
The building shifted a bit and Hedy huffed. She hated being right but at least they knew what to do now. Sort of. It wasn't much help if Mangle and Chi couldn't remember what they said.
"I can get us tickets for the convention. I know a guy." Of course Ruby 'knew a guy'. "And Mangle's actually pretty observant. So I'd say let them each do what they really want to do and we'll probably get the list right."
She turned to look at the staff again. This was so weird. "We'll make sure nothing happens to your bodies. So just sit tight. We'll have this all sorted."
"Oh, please be careful!" Izzy fretted. "Those papers are important. And be very polite to the post office man, Mangle. He's rude but he once purposely lost a card I was trying to send to my grandmother. And don't leave my purse anywhere..."
"Izzy, Mangle plays with kids. She isn't a kid though," Hedy said. "She does have some common sense."
Mangle's impish smile didn't seem to calm Izzy.
But she took a deep breath. That...really didn't help as all it made was a whirring noise and Izzy panicked a bit at her own chest not moving with the breath.
"Izzy," Hedy said calmly, snapping the secretary back to the present.
"I'm okay. I'm okay." She stammered. "Mangle," she suddenly sounded serious, though still nervous. "Mangle. You need to go get the paperwork from the manager. Don't be mean o-or say anything that will get me fired."
"Why does everyone assume I'm going to be rude?" Mangle seemed insulted.
"You kind of speak your mind without much of a filter, Lass," Foxy pointed out.
"Filter?! I do have a filter," Mangle retorted, not realizing she was proving him right. "I got that stupid anti-swearing code or else I'd..." Mangle stopped.
Puppet snickered. It was a concerning noise from Puppet no matter what, even from Jerry's mouth.
"I was wondering when they'd figure it out." Ruby had a wicked grin.
Some of the bots had dawning horror on their faces.
"Mangle, no," Teddy said firmly.
Mangle smiled creepily, folding her hands in front of her mouth like a prayer. She giggled. "Mangle, yes."
"Mangle, no!"
She closed her eyes. "However, I shall wait until the perfect moment presents itself."
Hedy rolled her eyes and snorted. "Okay, while you do that I'm gonna call Mike."
Ruby laughed. "Make it a good one when it happens Mangle." She turned to look at Hedy. "You calling your brother too?" she asked slightly more quietly.
Had Jeremy gone home after escaping the reporters?
Where was he?
"Yep," Hedy said, chuckling at Mangle while putting the phone to her ear.
Andrew was slowly getting up, against Ruby's warning, testing out Spring's legs, while Spring eyed him nervously. It wasn't like they were expected to sit around all day, right? So he might as well enjoy whatever the heck was happening.
Ruby immediately had her eye on him. She hummed thoughtfully to herself.
"Guys, you should warn them about anything they need to watch out for," Ruby told the bots. Maybe this experience would help the staff realise how tough the bots had it sometimes.
"Stay away from flashing lights," Foxy immediately stated.
"Don't go to the closet. The programming might still be active," Bonnie added with a wince.
"I'm not freaking moving," Liam assured him.
"Flashing lights can set any of us off," Freddy added. "Foxy's just more sensitive. And it hurts more."
"Don't play my music box," Puppet muttered. "You're going to be frozen in place until it finishes the song."
"I'm kind of fragile, Izzy," Mangle said. "Hedy has to work on a lot of little problems I have all at once, so she keeps a lot of screws a little loose. If an arm or something falls off, try not to let the wires snap but just tell Hedy and don't freak out."
Izzy's eyes widened in horror.
Spring hesitated, not wanting to worry Hedy too much about something small that she would fix as she went along working on him.
"Be...careful. Don't move too fast," he said to Andrew. "If something seems stuck, don't force it. Move your arm or whatever it is back the other way and try again. Slowly. And if you hear something straining, freeze until it stops. If something..." How did he explain this? He put his hand over Andrew's side, feeling the ribs under the teen's shirt. "This might not make sense, but if it feels like a-a bone...? Is tight...o-or pressing against the suit, you're going to um...this is going to really hurt...but it's faster if you try to..." he glanced at Hedy and winced apologetically. "You push it back into place. It's going to snap, so b-be ready."
Andrew looked alarmed. "Snap?" he squeaked.
"It's the spring locks," Hedy said, glaring slightly at Spring. "Move a certain way and they can get stuck. It's better if you call me and let me undo them slowly."
Spring ducked. "Hedy, you can't be here every time it happens..." he said softly. "It's too often. It's not practical. It hurts but nothing has broken from snapping them back."
"Yet."
"We'll talk about this later," Ruby cut in but her tone promised that there would be a later. "They're not exaggerating or messing with you. Take this advice seriously if you want to avoid some painful situations. There's some damage Hedy hasn't gotten to fix yet. And some of it's just maintenance that's been left because of worse injuries."
"I'll watch them," Hedy promised, "I'll make sure there are no more surprises before we switch off.
She turned back to her phone as Mike picked up.
This was going to be an interesting day. They were going to need more coffee.