Daycare Days (Daycare Attendant Oneshots)

To See The Light

(Writing style inspired by Ray_Of_Misfortune on AO3_

[Booting systems...]

[Battery: 100%]

[Initiating hardware scan...]

[Hardware scan complete.]

[Left_arm: functional

Right_arm: functional

Left_leg: functional

Right_leg: functional

Rays_go_spin: functional]

[Implementing Daycare_AI...

ERROR: VIRUS DETECTED, REPORT TO MANAGER]

[Connecting to faznet4animatronics...

ERROR: faznet4animatronics NOT FOUND.]

[Implementing Nightwatch_AI...

ERROR: VIRUS DETECTED, REPORT TO MANAGER]

[Connecting to faznet4animatronics...

ERROR: faznet4animatronics NOT FOUND.]

[Implementing Safety_AI

Safety_AI successfully started.]

Eclipse took in their surroundings. This was... parts and service, albeit a little more dark and decrepit than they remembered. The lights were broken, and instead, it seemed that lamps were being used to keep the region lit. All things considered, though, they had no concerns about the state of Parts & Service. There seemed to be no safety issues, the place wasn't a mess.

It did, however, tick Eclipse the wrong way that Faznet wasn't active. They didn't know what time it was, or if there was a software update available, and they were unable to contact the managerial staff about the corruption of Sun and Moon's files. Eclipse felt bittersweet about that; they got to finally be out, but they could only imagine Sun and Moon stuck as a depressing mess confined in their code files.

Of course, that code had been forced inactive, but it was still a rather saddening thought to contemplate.

Eclipse only took a split second to decide the next plan of action, in accordance with their objectives. Being that Eclipse was a backup for security, their program was pretty barebones. They could take care of children if necessary, but their actions were tied to their objectives, much more than the rest of the animatronics. Well, other than STAFF bots, that is.

[Primary objective: Ensure the safety of children, non-employee adults, and employee adults

Secondary objective: Restore primary caretakers]

The obvious next step was to locate the closest employee, likely the one who had repaired Eclipse in the first place. That way they would be able to knock out two birds with one stone: they could thank the employee for fixing them, and gather information. Eclipse stood up, not missing how the clicks of their gears and metal were no longer squeaky and creaky.

When they stepped outside of Parts & Services, they were met with complete darkness. Without hesitation, they switched to Moon's night vision cameras, scanning the area. There wasn't a single sign of life, and it was a mess. Broken pieces of metal chunks, dirt, and grime were everywhere. It almost physically hurt them to see the mess.

That had to be cleaned up. It was a risk to customer safety in more than one way; sharp debris, tripping hazards, and it was so dusty! Abandoning their previous train of thought completely for this new task that immediately jumped up to become their priority, Eclipse began to systematically pick up sharp pieces of debris and bring them into the Parts & Service trashcan. This was all swell and dandy, but Eclipse failed to manage the foresight to realize the trash can was not bottomless. They were left with a full trashcan and more debris than they knew what to do with.

Eclipse did not like that. Eclipse wanted to complete their task and ensure the area was safe again. Their frills shrank inwards slightly, the hat attached swishing as they did.

"Clean up, clean up," Unlike the primary AIs within the Daycare Attendant, Eclipse's words were monotone and lacked the emphasis that would emote a word. While they were frustrated - at least, that was the word they would attribute to the emotion their programming was mimicking, they weren't entirely certain - they lacked the care and detail put into giving them a framework upon which to emote. They only did so when actively trying to appear more friendly, and accomplished it through mimicry of behaviors they'd seen in others.

Eclipse decided the new route to take would be putting all the debris into one area as a temporary measure. It was undesirable, yes, but they didn't have a better option for the time being. They stacked the rocks and trash into a pile, but the more they cleaned, the further they went, and the more mess they found. And they hadn't even started wiping down the walls or mopping the floor!

"Clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere, clean up, clean up, everybody do your share~" Eclipse wasn't sure where they'd heard that song before, but it sounded familiar. They wondered if they could play the tune... however, when they tried to access the music box in their chest, they were struck with an error.

[Music_Box only compatible with Nightwatch_AI]

How unfortunate. It seemed that neither Sun nor Eclipse could access the music box, only Moon. It was somewhat saddening, but that made sense. Eclipse didn't have access to the code that contained the music sheets, as a product of reduced capabilities - which themselves were a tradeoff for extended battery life, considering they were used for emergencies where the ability to recharge was not a guarantee.

Speaking of charge, they needed to restore functionality by having the primary daycare AIs checked out...

Oh, but they couldn't leave the place looking this dirty! Where in the world were the staff?

... Eclipse didn't mean the staff bot pieces along the floor. Those needed to be fixed up too, so they brought the parts into parts and service and neatly placed the parts in the corresponding drawers, boxes, and shelves. They were vaguely aware of the numbers on their internal clock steadily drawing closer to 9 PM, but they couldn't be entirely sure the numbers were accurate. They were unable to connect to the secure animatronic system to verify the time or date, check the employee schedule, see scheduled birthday parties... They decided it couldn't hurt to try again.

[Connecting to faznet4animatronics...

Connection successful.]

Eclipse was certain that this was surprise, and it was a rather pleasant feeling. They were not counting on it to have been brought back online. While continuing to sift through the rubble, they corrected their internal clock.

They had been offline for almost a month.

Oh, and it was 6:45 AM. They checked for updates next, only to find nothing. That made sense in the disrepair of the Pizzaplex, but putting together the time they'd been offline and the lack of any personnel confused them.

They shook their head to themself and reasoned that they had been repaired. That alone indicated that there was an employee there. Perhaps there had been repair delays due to insurance issues... at least Faznet was up and running again. The schedule was empty though, both employee and party schedules. There weren't even events like 'repair' written.

Just as they were about to generate an error report, an announcement popped up.

'Gather at entrance.'

"Golly, they didn't even bother to add a proper greeting or sign-off, just three words," Eclipse said, reluctantly pausing their cleanup task. This must've been important if it was sent as an announcement so rushed that they couldn't bother to make it a proper sentence!

They stepped into the main hall just as the sun was starting to rise, peering through broken windows. While unlike Moon they didn't have the 'pain' reaction to bright light hitting their cameras, they did know to switch to the daytime cameras. It was beautiful, the sky looked like a painting... or more accurately, paintings looked like the sky. That was not the part that Eclipse had focused on.

Rather, Eclipse was startled to see that not only were the other animatronics - not in great shape, but fixed up, as though they'd been damaged and not completely fixed...

And two little children.