#nmf au

~To Moon, it read like consent… You were one to wait, one who wanted to be noticed.

Sun and Moon also knew, because they had seen the logs, dissected the records…

That in your first few months upon being hired at the Megaplex, you had trailed the other animatronics just as closely. Followed them around like something eager to please; a puppy dog with wide eyes and too much trust. You had circled them all at one point or another, but perhaps not as long as your prior interest: The G̴̭͛à̴̡t̷̥̊o̸̲̎r̵̤͒.

Montgomery.

Seemed the lizard had been your… favorite [//ᵐᵒⁿᵗᵍᵒᵐᵉʳʸ﹕ ᵃˢˢⁱᵍⁿᵉᵈ [//ᵘˢᵉʳ⁻ᶠᵃᵛᵒʳⁱᵗᵉ ⁼ ᵗʳᵘᵉ[﹖]]

Moon needed no confirmation; the pattern was too precise for any doubt.

You had lingered at the edge of his stage room longer than regulation allowed, paused in maintenance corridors always just out of view, all to listen to his tired, recycled one-liners... s̶m̸i̶l̷i̵n̷g̷ ̷w̵h̸e̴n̶ ̷y̸o̷u̷ ̶t̵h̸o̶u̴g̸h̷t̷ ̸n̷o̷ ̸o̴n̴e̵ ̴w̵a̸s̴ ̵w̸a̵t̶c̵h̷i̵n̴g̷.̵ ̶

You had pursued Montgomery.

Below Moon, metal groaned, his fingers dug into the bar he was using for support, without him realizing it.

The whine of stressed steel cut through the ambient lullaby playing from the ceiling speakers, hushed but stark. The kind of sound a staff member could notice if they weren't so unfocused, undedicated to their own jobs.

The noise did not bother Moon, but the sensation behind it certainly did.

Moon could not call this pain. Even as he calculated the variables, he could not find anything to properly title the sensation gnawing at his core.

Instead, he reran the logs, which showed that the hours spent near Montgomery were 2.3 times longer than any other animatronic during that last week…

Blood gave them sentience, now they must upkeep their newly discovered appetites. For Sun and Moon, this necessity has become a source of twisted delight.