The Miss and The Music: A Marionette X story

Where did the party go

•Janus's P.O.V.•

The bell rang as I took my seat, pulling up the tablet. Everyone was in place still, but the phone rang, scaring Katie and I both half to death. The voice on the other end seemed friendly enough.

Uh, hello? Hello, hello? Uh, hello and welcome to your new summer job at the new and improved Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. Uh, I'm here to talk you through some of the things you can expect to see during your first week here and to help you get started down this new and exciting career path.

Uh, now, I want you to forget anything you may have heard about the old location, you know. Uh, some people still have a somewhat negative impression of the company. Uh... that old restaurant was kind of left to rot for quite a while, but I want to reassure you, Fazbear Entertainment is committed to family fun and above all, safety. They've spent a small fortune on these new animatronics, uh, facial recognition, advanced mobility, they even let them walk around during the day. Isn't that neat? But most importantly, they're all tied into some kind of criminal database, so they can detect a predator a mile away. Heck, we should be paying them to guard you.

"Oh my lord this place is interesting already." Katie said, her eyes wide.

Uh, now that being said, no new system's without its... kinks. Uh... you're only the second guard to work at that location. Uh, the first guy finished his week, but complained about... conditions. Uh, we switched him over to the day shift, so hey, lucky you, right? Uh mainly he expressed concern that certain characters seemed to move around at night, and even attempted to get into his office. Now, from what we know, that should be impossible. Uh, that restaurant should be the safest place on earth. So while our engineers don't really have an explanation for this, the working theory is that... the robots were never given a proper "night mode". So when it gets quiet, they think they're in the wrong room, so then they go try to find where the people are, and in this case, that's your office. So our temporary solution is this: there's a music box over by the Prize Counter, and it's rigged to be wound up remotely. So just, every once in a while, switch over to the Prize Counter video feed and wind it up for a few seconds. It doesn't seem to affect all of the animatronics, but it does affect... one of them. Uh, and as for the rest of them, we have an even easier solution. You see, there may be a minor glitch in the system, something about robots seeing you as an endoskeleton without his costume on, and wanting to stuff you in a suit, so hey, we've given you an empty Freddy Fazbear head, problem solved! You can put it on anytime, and leave it on for as long as you want. Eventually anything that wandered in, will wander back out.

"I was wondering what that thing was for." I reached behind me, grabbing the head. There was only one though, something you would have thought they would have fixed since there would be two night guards.

Uh, something else worth mentioning is kind of the modern design of the building. You may have noticed there are no doors for you to close, heh. But hey, you have a light! And even though your flashlight can run out of power, the building cannot. So, don't worry about the place going dark. Well, I think that's it. Uh, you should be golden. Uh, check the lights, put on the Freddy head if you need to, uh, keep the music box wound up, piece of cake. Have a good night, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.

"Oh no, he's going to be calling again?" Katie's sighed. "Flip through the cameras, see who's running around."

"Just seems to be Bonnie and Chica," I said. "Bonnie's in the vents though, you get under the desk and I'll put on the head."

Katie did as she was told and I put the head on over mine, watching the lights flicker slightly as Bonnie passed through the room. He looked baffled for a second, but he left soon enough. Katie got up when I kicked her and I pulled the mask off. She grabbed the flashlight and flashed Chica in the hallway, a smirk on her lips.

"Prostitute chicken." She laughed.

"Hey, be nice, they can probably hear us and remember what we say." I heard an alarm noise from the tablet, and saw that the music box had unwound. In a fit of panic I held it down, the puppet already up and out of its box. Thankfully it wound right back up though and it slipped back down, the lid closing.

"Hey Chica you're a whore!" Katie yelled down the hall, just before the bird turned and left. She snorted softly, laughing at the animatronic.

"Wow you can be cruel sometimes."

"And you can be a douche canoe. Now check the cams and keep us alive."

I whistled. "Snappy much, miss panties in a bunch?"

"You're gross." She laughed, flashing the vents. "All clear."

"Looks like we're going to slide right on by, ain't we?" I smiled, taking note of the time. I was glad I slept before coming here, with school almost coming to a close we weren't being given much homework. Me, none. They knew I wouldn't do it anyway.

"Hey don't you have that final in choir today?"

"Yeah, that crappy present a composer thing. I can't believe she couldn't come up with anything better."

"Hey, we'll be graduated in like, two weeks. Just suck it up and pull through man."

I sighed. "Yes mother."

The bell rang suddenly, scaring me yet again. I set the tablet down, smiling, while Katie and I did another celebratory high five. I ended up dragging her into the bathroom again so we could do our make up before school started. As we ran out of the pizzeria I was glad to have spent my night here. Better than sleeping, that was for sure.