#five-or-so-missing-children

(- This is a closed starter for @five-or-so-missing-children -)

This all started like any other day in Kelly's life, or rather, Post-Life given the fact she died hundreds of years in the past.

She was walking around The Vast Ocean, more specifically a secluded part of the save system that housed a extremely beautiful site, a whirlpool of sorts, one that didn't seem to ever stop or even slow down, as she remember it being active even back when she still had a living body.

It was quite the hidden gem for sure, a place she remember visiting with her friends back before everything fell apart. It had a lot of colorful crystals embedded on the walls and the whirlpool itself was quite beautiful to look at...at a distance that is.

She knew the dangers it posed, hell it was something Toriel told her repeatedly, to the point of grounding her if she ever found out she went there back in the day.

But now, well, she didn't exactly need to answer to anyone, she was free to explore the underground as she wished, not like she was afraid of dying anyways, she experienced that before and is technically experiencing it right now.

She shyly sat at the edge of the edges that separated the beautiful phenomenon from the rest of the cave, her robot legs gently touching the streams as they all merged at the center, she wasn't afraid of water as the body was very much water proof, something she explicitly demanded to be done while it was being built. It was mesmerizing, also hypnotic in a way.

Suddenly, however, the ground under her gave in, catching the princess by surprise and causing her to fall into the water. Try as she could, she was unable to fight back against the currents, while her body wasn't going to be damaged by water, it wasn't exactly made for swimming, having little mobility in even calm waters.

She tried to scream for help but the rushing water muffled her voice, she tried contacting her friends though her robot body and, while she did manage to ask for help, by the time the message came through she has already sunk in the eye of the whirlpool. Luckily she didn't need to breathe but, even so it was still a very panic inducing experience.

Time after that was muddled, she could tell she was falling for much longer than expected, it felt like hours went by and she was still being pushed by the underwater currents, how deep even was this lake?!

Eventually, her body had to turn on its emergencies measures and shut down as to not let her soul be harmed, cause her to effectively black out.

Eventually she did wake up, at first she flayed around and shrieked, thinking she was still in the water, but quickly realized she was on land instead, inside a weird...thing? It was like a 2 meter squared container filled with colorful plastic balls filled with air.

She managed to sit down in the middle of this strange pit, her body still containing water inside of itself, though not enough to really cause any damages, at worst it was just a matter of waiting for it to evaporate, but it was still a pain since it made her heavier to move, making her exceptionally well tuned body to feel sluggish for the first time in her post-life.

Her sensors finally managed to calibrate themselves, her visors lighting up like two bright green flashlights, illuminating the darkness of...whatever this place was.

She looked around, trying to get her bearings straight and formulate a plan on what to do. She tried contacting the doctor and his son but to no avail, somehow she was out of signal, strange, she was sure the doctor's signal could cover the whole mount ebott and then some, just...where was she?

She carefully got out of the strange fit, looking at the strange decorations in the walls, they featured a bear, a bunny, a fox and a chicken, though they looked much more like monsters than their counterparts she remembered from the surface.

Eventually she noticed some kinda...theater stage at the center of this strange room, one with 3...robots? maybe? they didn't look human though, if anything they were way more monster life. Now that she thought about it, they looked like the beings in the posters and decorations all around the room.

She carefully approached them, her sensors strangely malfunctioning when around the creatures, making her even more nervous.

"...h-hello?" She meekly spoke, her voice still not being 100% given what happened to her today, causing it to sound way more robotic than she had hoped.

"Hello?" Steven calls out. His voice dissipates, soundless, reverberating throughout the building as something more like a thought than an actual noise.

He had seen something (or at least he thought he had). He knows it's not his replacement; "Mr. Schmidt" had been let go shortly after he had discovered Steven's body, and corporate had yet to reassign the position. So for now, it's just Bell.

...and the others.

"Hello, hello?" His voice is softer this time, gentle but a little desperate. He knows there are other spirits trapped here just like him, but they seem as hostile to him now that he's dead as they were when he was alive. It's understandable, in a way, but it's also frustrating. He might have failed to save them in the past, but they succeeded in enacting a gruesome revenge; can't they all just call it even?

There! That same flash of color as before. One of the children is peeking around the corner, and Steven starts to take a step forward before he stops. If he wants to make a connection with the other ghost, he needs to be smart about this. It's become painfully clear that they don't respond well to overbearing adults.

Another day, another night of roaming. Another night of trying to break free. Another night of growing frustration at his endless failed attempts. He has often thought about not doing this. About just letting himself rest and let this dingy, rat riddled maze be his home. Granted he didn't have much of a choice in the matter. But he shakes his head free of this thought each time it passes through his mind.

No.

He will not simply sit around and let himself be trapped any longer. He's been trapped for so long, he refuses to be trapped without putting up a fight.

One day it will pay off.

One day.

As he roamed tonight, he could feel the sensation of being watched. He looked up towards the camera, finding that it wasn't on. How odd, usually the 'nightguard' was the cause of such a feeling. He looked away from the camera, looking around as he squints a bit.

"...Who...is there?"

His voice rasped within the cold air, his intact ear lowering a little.

He knew he wasn't truly alone.

Edna felt a pit form in her stomach as she approached the building with a familiar name advertised on the front, a white and orange coloured fox plush in her arms.

It wasn’t the first time she has felt like this but that didn’t seem to help the matter at hand, the building loomed over her like it was ready to swallow her whole.

“Oi! Don’t get stuck in your head and don’t squish me so much!” Lolbit spoke when they felt Edna’s arms squeeze them, their voice echoing in the woman’s head.

“Right, sorry,” she muttered before finally pushing the front doors open, a sense of deja vu washing over her.

“We’re only here for a sort term job then we’ll be back at our own pizzeria before you know it,” the fox plush tried to assure the human as the white pinprick pupils looked up at her.

With one final deep breath the woman took a step into the building and mentally prepared herself for what was to come.

Night guards could be here? She ain’t knowing of that, she went over to the main stage, looking up at the animatronics that stood on the thing.”Well look at’cha, a good band, shoulda came earlier to hear you guys play.” She snickered to herself, shaking her head, perhaps bring her younger cousins here at some point? That would be nice, give their parents a break and all.

“Bet Mads and CJ would love it here.” She took a few steps away from the stage now, perhaps see what else there is to see here, in the dark, yeah not the best possible idea.”Should juust..” She sat on top of a table, looking at the stage once more.”Wait around till the mornin’, huh gang?” She has nothing else to do anyways, so talking to animatronics that won’t reply will do for now, she supposes.

Robyn quickly made her way towards the building in the pouring freezing rain with Sammy in her arms trying to keep the child warm until they get inside, thankfully her suit was a bit water resistant so she had some protection from the rain but sadly the small child did not. It was rather hard to see through the rain but Robyn was determined to get to the building, they weren’t far now.

She felt her child shiver in her arms and quickened her pace, her tail dragging behind her on the wet ground. “We’re almost there kiddo just a bit further,” she assured the 10 year old and felt him nod his head against the fluffy fur of her chest.

Finally after what felt like forever the two made it to the doors of the building and entered, the animatronic sea otter not noticing the sign that said Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. “That storm sure is a doozy,” she joked as she put Sammy down on the floor, taking the backpack she keeps with her off. “Time to get ya dry,” she chuckled and took the child’s hand in her free paw (hand?) before making her way to a table with six chairs, not noticing the other robotic animals.

(( @five-or-so-missing-children ))

Panting heavily, the young woman runs through the streets, looking behind her. She can’t see him behind her. Good. She keeps running until she sees the restaurant. She feels a few tears run down her face as she pants heavily and runs up to the doors of the restaurant. She opens them (finding them unlocked, seeing as how the restaurant is scheduled to close in the coming weeks), then rushes inside and hides behind the animatronic bunny, Bonnie. She hides on the stage, soon going behind the curtains as she pants heavily, her heart pounding.

     Peter sat alone in the heat of the office, grimacing as he tried to come to terms with wasting another six hours of his life away in this decrepit, inhospitable building.  Although the work was relatively easy, what with only having to look at monitors all night, he just found it to be a bit…  disturbing. And it didn’t help that his boss had decided to add a new feature to the attraction—an old, rotting animatronic of some kind.

     The empty suits did enough to frighten him as it was—sometimes he could swear they were staring at him, or talking in whispers he couldn’t understand—but now?  With one that actually moved?  It made him anxious just to think about.

     With an edgy sigh, he focused his attention on his phone, trying to ease his nerves with comforting messages from someone special.