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Simple maintenance work at a cool kids mall themed around animatronics. What’s not to love? Starting pay is nothing to snub your nose at. Employees don’t seem to stay for long but you chalk it up to stress or management. Why not apply, the worse you can do is not get a response, right?
Well, they call back the next day offering an interview. Must be desperate. Desperate is good though maybe you can have some leverage to ask for more pay?
The Interview goes well and even insurance is covered. They give a tour of the areas you’ll need to do work on. Mostly handling changing lights, some tune ups on a few of the bots, etc; things the robotic janitorial staff aren’t able to handle. It doesn’t seem like a bad gig really. You get to see a few of the animatronics and meet a few of the security staff, and everything seems good, nothing too complicated. You start tomorrow.
It’s hard to sleep, you are so anxious about the new job. Why is there such a high turn around rate, there has to be a catch , pay is good, everyone seems friendly. Maybe it’s more dangerous then they are letting on or perhaps things are more stressful then they seem initially? Are the rumors of missing kids to blame? You never put much thought to it, since you don’t have kids of your own. It would probably be easy to abduct little ones at a place so crowded and noisy... but you still get a feeling “What are they hiding?” You finally pass out about three hours before you shift.
Really should have got more sleep, you think as you follow the worker you’ve been assigned to shadow for your first day. His name is Kyle. He shows you where your work locker will be which has your company issue Faz watch and a FazPad, along with other company specific tools and your work duffel with a weeks worth of uniforms. Kyle also gives you a copy to the maintenance closet keys, and helps you get a cart set up with supplies for your shift. Lightbulbs, tools, and other gear, including your own personal safety harness for working in high areas. Jeez this place seems way bigger today. And there is so much that needs work done.
They start you simple , you need to do some routine checks on the active cameras. Kyle shows you how to access cam feed and network details as well as the facility map , and how to ping each one on your watch since the FazPad has to be plugged in to specific stations to access the facilities programs (to avoid tampering supposedly according to Kyle), whereas the watch works off local wifi.
The first cams you need to do checks on are located in Roxy raceway. Kyle helps you navigate to the locations and shows you where they store area specific equipment. You bump into the Roxy animatronic on your way “ Hey Superstar, what are you up to?” She questions. Kyle pipes up “ This is our new maintenance worker, y/n. Some of your security cameras just need to have some checks done and we will be on our way.” You let it slide as you really aren’t sure what to make of the big wolf woman, she turns to you and smiles “ Welcome to my raceway! Maybe we can play sometime when you are less busy! I warn you though, I’m the best!” You smile back at her “I think I’d like that but I don’t think I can play games when I’m on the clock, sorry!” Kyle nods approvingly. “Awe that’s no fun!” She mutters as she wanders off to find someone to play her games.
You manage to locate the cameras in question and set up a ladder to get up to do the diagnostic. You plug your fazwatch up and start the test. A few moments later you are alerted to a bug in the system related to tampering so you do wipe and reinstall the program correctly after fwding the flagged data and the error message as Kyle instructs you. It’s a bit concerning but he seems to brush it off as a test for the newbie. The second cam is fine, nothing flags as suspicious, So the two of you move on to Bonnie bowl.
This area looks like it could use a bit of work as you notice a couple of lights that need replacement , when you start your camera checks you notice they’ve been unplugged so you plug them back in and start diagnostics. Everything shows good so you decide to go ahead and fix the lights while you are there and send a message on to management letting them know about the camera situation.
You recheck your watch and note one of the cams in the daycare doesn’t seem to be functioning correctly movement wise so Kyle shows you how to find the camera locations based on the code and where to locate them on your employee map, as y’all make your way to it. It’s located pretty high up so the two of you have to take a maintenance stairwell up to a catwalk and make your way around to it.
Oddly enough it seems to have a doll jammed up behind it which is limiting its movement, lucky for you it’s a really easy fix. As you remove it you hear jingling and a light tap as Kyle starts talking to someone. “Hey Sundrop, this is our new employee here, y/n , they’ll be doing some maintenance work here and there so don’t mind them. They won’t be interfering with the daycare or anything. HEY y/n Say hello! This is Sundrop.”
You glance over your shoulder and see a lanky sun themed animatronic, they seem to be curious about you, if the tilt of the faceplate is anything to go by. “Why hello there new friend!!! We are going to have so much fun! It’s nice to meet you!” It enthuses. You smile shyly and nod “I’m y/n it’s nice to meet you Sundrop, I’ll be helping with some maintenance work if you think of anything that I need to work on let me know.” Kyle frowns but quickly corrects himself before you can ask what’s wrong .
“Okay buddy we got to make a few more stops today but I’m sure you will see y/n around later.” Kyle finishes for you. Sundrop bobs his head as if in agreement with a bow. “ It was nice to meet you! Stay safe! “ Sunny waves before spinning and hopping off the handrail, you lean over to watch as he seems to do some acrobatics before landing on his feet. Impressive.
Kyle clears his throat and motions you to follow seeming a bit nervous.
Once y’all are out int the maintenance tunnel he starts “I know they may seem pretty cool but just don’t let your guard down around them. Most of the robots are fairly friendly acting but sometimes they get carried away. Just be careful.”
“ what do you mean caried away?”
“ well like, for instance, say you give a handshake, they might accidentally break your fingers. Or if you give a hug , ribs are much more painful to break then fingers...” he doesn’t continue any further as y’all make it back to the security room. “Ok so you’re getting the hang of the basics, our management will contact you via fazwatch for any particular work you need to do for the day but mostly you’ll follow the check sheet of routine work. Your schedule should be accessible on your watch. Probably should have went over this earlier but it honestly slipped my mind, I’ve never had to train anyone before. ” He shows you how to access the different functions and how to clock in your hours.
Both of your watches ding at the same time; “LUNCH TIME” scrolls across in bold letters. Kyle grins “Being an employee has its perks, our food and snacks are covered as part of our employment contract. Let’s go get a bite.” You decide on Gator Grub, since it’s close to your last required stop for the day. You decide on some gator bites and Cajun fries. They’re not as spicy as you where hoping but they still taste pretty good.
“So why did you decide to apply for here?” Kyle wonders aloud.
“ well, pay is to good to pass up if I’m honest. My last job they layed off about half of us with no notice so I was kinda needing something to pay the bills. Insurance doesn’t hurt either!”
“Damn that sucks, I mean you may not like it here but as long as you show up and at least act busy your gauranteed your job here. We get a lot of people that start and then end up creeped out about the bots though...” he mutters the last part.
Y’all chat for a good twenty minutes till your watch chimes again “LUNCH OVER”.
The rest of the day goes by pretty quickly, you make it to the last item on your list. Customer complaints , a few lights that need to be replaced in the catwalk area above Monty golf so you hop to it. You manage to get them changed out pretty quickly, kyle seems a bit jumpy but it is getting close to the end of his shift so he’s probably just ready to go home.
You manage to get them changed pretty fast and start packing up your gear when you here the think of heavy feet coming towards you. Kyle looks around as if in panic and you spot a. Green and purple gator waltzing up the path towards you. When you motion to it Kyle freezes. “Hey there superstar, its rude to drop by without saying Hi. I’m Montgomery. But you can call me Monty, everyone else does. And who might you be?” He seems to almost roll his neck in annoyance. “ Hello! I’m y/n I’m sorry, I’m new here, I’ll be doing maintenance, I had received a request to fix some of these lights for your area...” He places a hand on his hip and looks down his nose at you. “ Well, next time I’ll be expecting a lil more hospitality before you start working in here. You wouldn’t like it if someone walked into your place without notice would y’a?” With that he winks before turning and making his way back down the stairs.
Kyle rushes to get everything packed and hurries you out. Once you get back to the staff room he begins packing his things. “ well I think you’ve got the hang of it... if you need anything else probably message management. Bye!” He heads off before you have time to get your own stuff packed. You start packing your work equipment back up for tomorrow when your watch dings with a new message, “DAYCARE ATTENDANT: Light replacement needed ASAP. Overtime pay approved!” You yawn and see you have received an email from your manager requesting you stay a little late and fix some lights in the daycare, overtime pay already in effect. So you shrug and get your supplies back on cart after sending a message to see how many lights need replacement, and get the response of 5 so you load them up and start heading there.
Once you arrive you realize you’ll need to get up to the mezzanine and then use your harness to tie off as you climb to each of the lights and change them out. Just as you are about to go out and try to find an employee elavator you hear a jingle and the sun animatronic lands directly in front of you. “ Hello new friend! Are you here to help?” He seems just as chipper as he was earlier, must be his programming. “yes, But I didn’t think through how I would get to them... do you know where a maintenance elevator would be Sunshine?” He seems to smile wider “oh we are using nicknames? I love nicknames!!! Yes! Yes! Yes! We know how to get up, up, up!!!” He scoops you up and before you can say anything you feel your stomach drop as you are suddenly in the air. Welp this was a short job guess you’re going to die... you start to think when suddenly you land on the catwalk. “One moment and we will retrieve your supplies stardew!” He hops back down and you see he is actually hooked on to a wire so maybe it was safer then you initially thought. Still might have to ask him to tell you before doing something like that again. Assuming it ever happens again.
You shout down at him what supplies you need and he springs back up as you move away from the side.
Something so big should not be able to land so lightly. It’s a bit unnerving. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! For coming so quickly! We hope we didn’t cause any issues!” You smile; he’s so cute. “It’s no problem. I’m getting paid overtime for it, I just need to make sure I get more sleep tonight so I’m not so tired tomorrow!” He seems to freeze. “Sleep is important for brain development and growth, you need sleep!” He seems worried. You shrug him off as you get your gear set up so you can maneuver towards the lights needing to be replaced. “I know, I just couldn’t sleep , was to excited about this new job I guess.” You try to alleviate his worry.
When you get your harness set you make your way over to the light and attach the safety line clip to the railing. The sun animatronic seems to be studying you. “We can help if you would like...” he murmurs. “ if you promise you’ll get rest when you get home”. What a sweet robot. You smile at him “I appreciate it but I really ought to do it myself in case management is watching.” You here the Whir of fans and he leans close to whisper almost conspiratorially “They only see the lower level. The cameras can’t see up here! Especially in our room.” Your hair stands up, something about the way he says it , how would he know that? “ um, well if you want you can help but I still have to do most of it or I could get in trouble.” He stays with you as you get each of the lights changed handing you the replacements and taking the no longer working ones to keep separate.
Finally done he offers to help you down but you shake your head. “ I think I’ll take the stairs if you don’t mind. But I’ll meet you at the bottom if you can get my supplies down there?” He seems ok with the agreement and begins to gather your tools as you walk over to the maintenance stairs.
Once down you head back to the daycare and find Sundrop looking a bit dejected. “What’s wrong sunshine?” You murmur hoping you haven’t upset him somehow. “Will you come back tomarow?” He frets. “Yeah? This is my job I kinda have to.” What a odd guy. “People always leave.” He seems so sad it’s hard to comfort him so you reach up and pat his arm. “I plan to be here! No ones run me off yet. Though I’m really tired!” you smile at him and note all your equipment has been organized for you. “I gotta go now or I won’t get any sleep tonight though!” He seems shocked by this and shoos you towards the door. “Sleep well, and come back please y/n!” You giggle and give him a nod as you exit the daycare and take your stuff to go put up. You check your watch and see you still need to clock out as you trudge your way to the exit so you click the setting and save the overtime data.
It’s been a long day.