I have not yet determined a name for this

~Prologue~

This place was in complete disarray. It made sense; it was a daycare, filled to the brim with hyperactive children left to their own devices. I wouldn't have expected much less. Still, I couldn't help but suppress a nervous smile as I watched kids dart by, dirty footprints and remnants of food and crafts left in their wake. The taller individual standing beside me coughed as he scanned the room, singling out a rather lanky animatronic who seemed to be chasing the children around. It was difficult to tell if it was playful or otherwise, but it didn't really matter. The man beside me cleared his throat loudly, and that was all it took to alert the robot to our presence. It snapped its neck towards us and suddenly skipped right over, causing me to nearly stumble backwards simply in surprise.

It was, for starters, ginormous, even with its head held low to scrutinize me; it was hunched over and waving its arms about in an almost mesmerizing manner, as though it were trying to keep my attention. It seemed to snap out of this strange movement pattern as the man beside me addressed it. "Sundrop," he greeted, though he only had time to gesture towards me before any explanation could follow.

"Oooh! Who is THIS?!" The robot questioned loudly; its voice grated on my ears. It was dramatic and almost whiny, too high-pitched for the likes of comfort. I just barely stopped myself from wincing at the sound. "Hiya, new friend!" It—he? Continued, his expressionless eyes locked in my direction. "You look a little older than the others, but that doesn't mean we can't have fun!!"

Thankfully, my employer stepped in for me. "Ah, no, she's going to be working here," he explained somewhat nervously, once again gesturing towards me while I offered the towering animatronic an anxious smile. He seemed nice enough, at least, but that's how he was undoubtedly programmed to be.

"Working here?!" Sundrop squealed.

"She'll be taking care of janitorial duties within the daycare," the man continued. Right. This job was janitorial, and the daycare of all places was certainly in heavy need of it. It wasn't something I was exactly looking forward to, but at least it didn't involve customer service. Obviously, I was going to end up mingling with children here, but I was surprisingly good at handling them despite the frustrating messes they left behind, and working alongside one of the animatronics actually seemed quite thrilling. Y'know, if this one here wasn't damn near about to blow his lid.

"But—but I can take care of that!" Sundrop insisted, his voice actually wavering a little. "It's part of my job!" How could one guy, even a robotic one, take care of this entire daycare and all the children within it?

"There's no harm in an extra helping hand," my employer gently assured him, clearly trying not to stress out the poor guy. "She won't get in your way." I nodded dutifully alongside this, trying to ease any tension as well as I could.

Sundrop seemed to hesitate as his pupilless gaze drifted between me and his superior, his fingers jittering a little. After a moment of silence, he appeared to relent. "Well, okay!" he chirped, standing up straighter and placing his closed fists against his hips. "I guess she can help! Just so long as she doesn't get in the way!" Yeah, he already said that, thanks.

I planned to stick by this. My employer left me with a semi-reassuring thumbs up and a walkie-talkie in case I should need to contact him or other staff—y'know, in case the animatronic malfunctioned and tried to strangle me in the ball pit, presumably. I wasn't actually too fearful of this, as I'd always admired and wanted to physically get closer to the animatronics if possible, but it was hard to imagine one being fully capable of having such large-scale interactions with humans, especially children. How was he managing? He had to be a very advanced AI. However, his appearance was a little less than advanced, surprisingly—I actually wondered, as I swept candy wrappers into a dustpan, how he had been created with the intention of being around kids. He was admittedly creepy as hell, and that wasn't even by ordinary animatronic standards. His eyes were practically soulless, and he seemed to be unable to emote aside from presenting an eerily realistic, toothy grin that only made him freakier. I found this strange, considering I'd seen the other animatronics before, and they were all able to move their mouths. You'd think the guy interacting with kids would be first on the list or something.

Even his body looked somewhat unfinished, with wires poking out from underneath his arms and parts of his metal appearing discolored. It was nearly disturbing, especially since his behavior and movements differed so drastically—he was almost like a living, breathing person in costume.

For the most part, I stayed out of his way as promised, offering curious glances here and there to observe how he moved and interacted with the children; it really was mesmerizing despite his ugliness. It seemed that a great majority of the kids didn't desire to interact with him personally, and I couldn't exactly blame them—some would scream if he popped out before them, and it didn't always seem like fun, innocent play. Sometimes they seemed genuinely scared, and Sundrop's attempts to remedy their fear only made it worse. Most of the kids wanted to play on their own or with each other, forcing him to simply look after them and step in only when needed, making things almost awkward. Some did seem to enjoy his theatrics, however, and I found myself occasionally stalling in favor of watching myself. It was like a free show on the job.

It was only a matter of time before I was forced to engage with him myself, though. At some points, he nearly scared the shit out of me—imagine picking up trash in front of a slide that appears to be unoccupied, and then suddenly THAT pops out with an overly loud and excited greeting. Nearly made me shit my pants. I'm pretty sure he saw me jolt right out of my skin, too, which was embarrassing. Should I have been embarrassed in front of a robot? Maybe not.

These encounters weren't so personal as others, though, the kind that appeared into the later hours of my very first shift. I would try to pick up after children, or put things back where they belonged; I took notice of where things were supposed to go and did my best to follow this unspoken guide, but Sundrop didn't seem to like it very much. As I restacked a previously fallen tower of pillows, there was suddenly resistance from the other side. "I can take care of this!" A loud voice pierced my brain, causing me to jump before I locked eyes with the large animatronic now gripping the same pillow I was.

"Oh, um—okay," I relented easily, not wanting to instigate something. I released the object and allowed him to conclude the work, forcing me to wonder if I had been stepping out of line in the first place. I mean, I didn't think I was, considering it was part of cleaning up. Maybe the guy just wanted to do it all himself.

It happened again later, unfortunately. A child dropped a small toy or craft of some sort, and I instinctively reached down to retrieve the object—only to suddenly be swallowed by the shadow of a nearly 7 foot tall animatronic with a permanent grin. "HEY, what's that?" he questioned loudly, and I hardly had a chance to explain myself before he was examining the small object in my hands. "That belongs to one of the kids, right? You shouldn't take their stuff! Ooh, I'll bring it back to them!" Oh my god. He was practically swiping for the item before I could even begin to consider handing it over.

"T—they dropped it," I managed, instinctively taking a step backwards to avoid the reaching hands of the sun-themed robot. "If you want I can bring it back to them, I just didn't want it laying on the floor—"

"That's not your job!" he said, his tone growing more authoritative. "You should give it to me!" Okay, shitass. I quietly returned the little craft to Sundrop with a mildly concerned smile.

"Sorry," I mumbled, embarrassed and also a little annoyed at being lowkey chastised by a walking, shouting sun. I could tell that this was going to be a reoccurring theme regardless of my loyalty.

Needless to say, my first impression wasn't very good.