#im going to bed now jsdjhf

[echoingkarma]

Just A Normal Coffee Shop AU - Summary of Plot

This is a bit overdue but I did promise we'd write it when we had time, and I have a tiny bit now, so here goes. CW for discussions of death / murder, and faint disreality. Remember, the source of this is FNAF, so CWs for that apply.

The idea for this AU came from a desire to throw together characters I loved but who would never meet, and also to put them within a common AU idea. I went with a coffee shop because it was the first I thought of, whilst also thinking a lot about how as an employee there, you can do little but stand behind the counter and smile. Day in, day out.

That had its own sort of horror element to it. I wanted to pursue that idea; you're trapped behind that counter for your shift. If a 7-8ft tall animatronic comes in and asks you if you know Michael Afton, with your coworker hiding behind the counter clinging to your ankle for dear life and shaking, you can't just turn on your heel or tell him to get out. Not without provoking something, whether it be an adverse reaction or his suspicions.

So you smile and you tell him no you don't. Its not your business to give out to customers. They don't need to know who works here or not, what time their shifts are at, any of that sensitive information.

After that, Vanessa comes in and sits with Sun, and they have a hushed conversation as Michael sneaks off to the back room and you continue the rest of the shift. Sun downs a coffee and finds it amusing when you seem startled, and Vanessa asks him to pay attention, and his only real response is to hushedly murmur about how they already know Michael is there so they have nothing to worry about.

As some people suspected, Sun is a wildcard. Vanessa plays the bad cop, and Moon is good cop. This is just naturally how their personalities worked out, and they play up to their roles.

Sun visits again the next day, and Mike is nowhere to be seen. You and Charlotte Emily are left to work behind the counter for a while, a faint amiable chatter all that settles your nerves as you wait for something to happen.

Henry Emily comes out just as Vanessa enters, and he tells them to leave and never return, they're not welcome here. Vanessa is angry with him, and says he was also part of it all, and if he lets this go now... and then she goes quiet, because they have an audience and she doesn't particularly want to talk about child murder in front of them all.

On the way home you pass torn posters - one reads 'Afton Animatronics. One in every home'. On the poster is a little girl with pigtails, showing how the robots are now advertised for childcare after the Pizzaplex burned down a few years ago (the first and only Fazbear establishment in this AU. A lot smaller than the one in Security Breach, although it still boasts a few attractions and its own Daycare). Still, a very faded poster nearby reveals the old star, Freddy Fazbear himself, smiling away in his tophat and bowtie.

You feel a sense of unease at the name and walk on until you bump into Moon, who kneels down and shows you a photo, asking if you really don't recognise anyone in the picture. You find it hard to not linger on the image, but Mike Schmidt hasn't changed - he looks less tired now, a little happier, a little less dead in the eyes and his mullet is a bit longer. Overall, though, the boy in the picture looks exactly like your coworker.

The other two kids are familiar too, somehow. The boy with short brown hair and, even in the photo, a light in his eyes, and a little girl with two pigtails and a big smile.

When Moon sees you looking, he tucks it away in his pocket and asks if you really don't recognise any of them, and you feel like you've stared for too long, so you have to say something. He tilts his head at you when your only response is that you recognise the girl, although you don't know from where, and he hums and stands, offering you a business card for Afton Animatronics. The number is scrawled out and a new one is written in its place.

You tuck it into your pocket and thank him with a hoarse voice, and he turns and walks away. Suddenly, you're taking the long way around to your apartment, something niggling in your mind about being followed, about not being safe. You close the door behind you with a whoosh of air and an audible click, sinking down against it.

Your breathing hasn't yet calmed when your phone rings, and you lift it and look at the caller ID, huffing out a sigh when you see it's Henry. You answer, and he's as warm as you as ever, asking if you got home safe and if you'd come in tomorrow for a talk. You reassure him, but your hands haven't stopped shaking when you hang up and head to bed, throwing your bag and phone down beside it and immediately closing your eyes.

The meeting is about personal safety. Henry asks if you want him to come get you for work and leave you back again when your shift is over, but you turn the offer down. Mike is there, and he offers you a tired smile, both grateful and concerned.

You start to choke a little. You'd always kept people a bit distant, but the people here were treating you like they treated each other; a tight knit family, a trusted group, someone they could turn to and who could turn to them too, if you ever needed to. Mike puts a gentle hand on your arm when he notices you shaking, and Charlotte curses out Moon, who she'd seen stop you yesterday on her way home.

And for the first time, you sit there and decide you'll really and truly try to help. More than just saying you don't know, you're not sure - you're going to defend this little family of yours as best you can, rather than running away and avoiding people, leaving no roots to pull when the time came.

This resolution stays strong for about a week. You don't see Sun, Moon or Vanessa anywhere in this time, until suddenly you're pulled into a little alleyway between two stores on your way home and you have to swallow down a scream as you look up at the three faces together.

Vanessa looks furious and at her wit's end as she lectures you, telling you what's happened so far; there are children dying, and they need Henry to listen, they need Michael home because he's the only person who could ever have enough information to stop it.

The word sours in your mind. Home. Something about it prickles and simmers and sets off a spark. You faintly remember something, two little kids calling after you, and a third standing off at the other end of the room, watching with a warm smile and dark brown eyes.

And then it's gone and you're just back in some damp alleyway with three tall figures hovering over you, and you start to choke up, and you say you have nothing to do with this but they need to leave people alone who want to be left alone.

Sun regards you with a proud smile, although it twists a little with some sort of desperation at the edges, whereas Moon merely tips his head forward and lets his hat fall over his eyes, watching on keenly whilst occassionally looking out over the street.

Vanessa keeps trying to pressure you, and after a bit your phone rings and you flinch. When you go to answer it, Moon mumbles about it being time to go, and the three slink off and leave you with your heart in your throat as you answer the call, unable to find the time to hide the shake in your voice.

You're bundled into Henry's car within 10 minutes, and he takes you to your apartment to pack up anything you need, and then takes you back with him to stay in a spare room in his house. You realise both Charlotte and Mike live here when they join you for dinner and Charlotte makes a joke about this being the Daydream Coffee house now.

The coffee is closed for a holiday after you inform them of what happened. Henry chides you for not telling him the first time Moon stopped you, and then he sighs and flicks the business card between his fingers, considering something. He rubs at his temples before picking up his phone, and the room goes silent as you hear the faintest edge of the ringback tone.

Henry talks to Vanessa in a gruff voice, not warm but not harsh either. He asks her what's going on, and his eyes widen when she answers, before his face darkens completely. After a very brief conversation, he glances around at the three of you still sitting at the table patiently, each wearing your own look of concern, and he hangs up and puts his phone down.

With his hands carefully folded in front of him, Henry tells you all what's happening; Vanessa thinks William (Henry glances at Mike when he says the name, and the latter pales but sits steady as he listens) is using his animatronics to kidnap children. She doesn't know why he's doing it, but she took the Daycare Attendants when the Pizzaplex burned down and acted like she was going to help him before running as far as she could with them to find help.

The information you all learn over the next few days isn't any more pleasant; whilst working for Afton, Vanessa felt nearly brainwashed. The Daycare Attendants speak of a similar symptom, although their own problem can be tied into something in their code. Still, the three of them say the feeling dissipated the moment the Pizzaplex burned to the ground.

Vanessa also describes being invited to the basement one day. There was something down there, some documents about testing. She talks about the way the animatronics reacted, as though they were alive and sentient. Beside each of their names in the files, there was something else...

Freddy had Gregory, Roxy had Cassie, Chica had Elizabeth, and Monty had Evan. There were other plans for more animatronics, and random names listed beside them. In the next room over, she could hear machines whirring and ticking. She remembers seeing a small hand, and then her vision went purple and she was back upstairs, unaware of what had happened at all.

Mike, beside you, looks like he's going to be sick. The names pry at your own brain too, and he looks over and suddenly there are tears in his eyes, and for some reason its you he wraps his arms around and holds as he starts to cry, shaking with the force of it. You hesitantly put your own arms back around him and pat his back, and something purple flickers at the edge of your vision.

Sun and Moon both watch as your memory crashes back down on you. The tears start flowing before you even realise what's happening, before the images stop playing through your mind, something about Mike tearing down a forceful purple wall and revealing what had been hidden behind it for years.

You're a child standing in a living room. Two little kids stand before you and laugh, showing off some toys their father had made them a few days before. At the other side of the room, Michael Afton beams and crosses his arms, watching on with a relentless fondness. You feel yourself smiling back.

And then your smile fades with a harsh crunch. You hadn't seen much, and you're so grateful for it. Michael, however, had seen everything in that moment. He was standing right there when the animatronic locked onto Elizabeth, and he immediately went to grab Evan away before the same could happen to him.

Unfortunately, he didn't quite make it in time. The 'malfunctioning' machines locked onto the children and you remember the harsh cacophany before a sharp, stinging silence. You remember covering your mouth and hiding, brain sparking with static and a ringing in your ears. You remember Michael falling to his knees on the ground. You remember being told time and time again that the basement was out of bounds and no one was to go in there unsupervised.

But, then again. Elizabeth had always been interested in the animatronics, and Michael only wanted to do something nice. Your ears pick up on his sobbing again now, back in the present, but your mind stays in the past, where the boy knelt silent as death itself until footsteps descended the stairs, and you peeked out around the corner and saw William Afton come to a harsh stop as he took in the sight, eyes slowly widening.

There would be no way to explain something like this. As an adult, you would have wondered why the door wasn't locked and why none of you were being supervised anyway. You would have wondered about where he'd suspected you'd gone; you were staying the night again, as you did most days. You wouldn't be far away from the scene, you wouldn't have left Michael alone with the younger kids. With your younger siblings, perhaps not by blood but by a bond of familiarity and comfort, by many evenings shared together when it was the only place in the world you felt safe.

That night the feeling would disappear forever. You don't remember what William said, but you do see the edges of his smile lifting now in your mind. The same man who would pat you on the head, watching as the endoskeletons creaked to life, purple flowing in their tubes as they readjusted to stand straight, warm bodies slowly growing cold as they fall to the floor and leave behind only metal and unmoving faces you could still somehow feel the fear from.

Chica, Elizabeth. Evan, Monty. Your throat is on fire. A tiny hand, unmoving and still. Were the two the first, or merely a step in the experiments Afton performed, trying to perfect his craft? You remember playing with Charlotte too, the little doll she had. Everything always matched so perfectly, Afton would always say. It was designed just for her, after all.

You half wonder if you would have been left wearing a metal shell, had William peered around the corners of his basement that day and found you. You wonder if he'd have dragged you back there screaming and kicking to keep you silent.

You weren't there for the funeral. You'd left town by then, after becoming disturbingly quiet and unresponsive, and things seemed to fade away the further you got from it all, until one day you woke up and you couldn't remember any of it at all.

Now, it hits you like a ton of bricks. Like an endoskeleton tightening its harsh metal jaws around your skin, your flesh, and clamping down until bone and all gave way. You're left reeling and dizzy, and look around the table, and Henry seems to know just what has happened, and he curses under his breath and suddenly your breathing is too loud and you know you're going to be sick.

The evening is spent recovering as people talk in hushed voices between other rooms of the house. You tuck up on the sofa, a cold hand on your forehead - after your memories, its weird that you feel safe under Sun and Moon's watchful eyes, the two taking turns to comfort you and Michael. They must have been good at their jobs when they were in the Daycare.

Time passes quickly, and its another few days before anyone really feels up to making much of a plan. Its a shoddy one even when it does form; exposing Afton with nothing less than complete proof wouldn't work. He was used to covering up scandals, and would do anything to protect his company.

However, Mike had been raised on it all. He knew secrets no one else ever would; even moreso than Henry, who'd been a cofounder at the time before he found out what was happening and took quite a large sum of money off with him and opened a café instead, intent to live out the rest of his days in some sort of quiet repentence, protecting anyone who survived the Afton family.

Sun and Moon are incredibly helpful too. They know their way around the animatronics and have all the leftover code from the Daycare. This also means they have some of the first trial code on capturing children to use, which is something admitted very reluctantly as Moon admits he doesn't at all remember if he ever actually helped.

They also know where the main stars are being kept, and think it would be a good start to break them out and get their assistance, especially as they may be able to locate a lot more proof. Mike frets over this; do they think they'd remember..? Sun shifts in his seat, his permanent smile cast in shadow as he looks down, and Moon artificially clears his throat and says there's a reason they knew so much about him.

Everyone is assigned roles, and you all work together tirelessly - one day you see Sun pat the coffee machines sympathetically and break out in a small smile - until things are in place. And then you're all bundled up between two cars and you're on the move.

Everyone tries their best to make the roadtrip less terrifying than it is; Charlotte takes photos of everything, Mike insists on trying a new drink at every rest stop, and Sun and Moon find new ways to sit constantly to try their best to fit into the car. Vanessa and Henry are the two drivers, and whilst Vanessa takes her job incredibly seriously with a white knuckle grip, you can see Henry trying to join in on the lighthearteded activities, although you often catch him with pinched brows and a distant look.

It gets quieter and quieter as you get closer, and once you pull into the city everyone falls silent. Memories lit up purple scratch at your skull, and when you look around everyone seems to have a similar headache (including Sun and Moon, who occassionally spit out a string of static or have to step away to release a high-pitched beeping sound and pre-programmed lines about cleaning the Daycare and washing our hands before we eat).

But you all survive, and you make it there and before you know it you're all about to break in to the latest small venue he's opened, where parents can bring their kids to pick out an animatronic for their home.

Things are going smoothly until you see William Afton himself, smiling and laughing and looking down at a child the same way he used to look at you, and this time you notice the edges to his expression, the sharpness to his smile and the way he looks at them like one would a prized obsession.

You know you need to get that kid out of there, but aren't sure how until you see one of their parents approach and then walk off in your direction. When they return with a tray of drinks, you decide it's now or never, and bump straight into them, sending everything clattering down the front of their shirt.

Apologies are stuttered out and you can see the fight to maintain their patience even as their grab their kid and promise to return another day, they need to get home and get changed now. You apologise again as they leave, and almost breathe a sigh of relief when you hear someone clear their throat behind you.

You turn and look directly up at William Afton, and your breath seems to leave your lungs all at once. There's a sweetness like grape candy on your tongue when you inhale, a sensation that begs your mind to just let go, to forget again, to be happy here with the Afton family.

Trying to shake it off and praying he doesn't recognise you, you mirror his smile and say you're here to pick out an animatronic. Something ticks away in his vision, but William puts a hand on your upper back and leads you to look at the latest models, asking if you had any preferences and if you had kids or it was just going to do the housework.

Its not easy to lie when you're still struggling to breathe, the sweet taste of the air catching in your dry mouth, determined to make its way into your lungs and settle there, to make itself at home once again. Purple flickers through your mind and you fight it back with all your might until your phone buzzes and you ask if you can go take the call for a moment. You make your way outside as though calm, talking cheerfully, but the moment you're out you book it straight over to Sun and Moon in the car, gasping for air.

Everyone is out. They've found enough - nothing is described to you, but you're sure it will be compelling. Henry wouldn't do anything that would fail.

After this point, the story would definitely diverge off into exposing Afton and watching as things crashed down around him. Y/N and Mike would get to meet Elizabeth and Evan again, although they're possessing the animatronics and will be freed in the process, allowing them to finally be at peace. They tell Mike they don't blame him at all, even after having all this time to think. Everything had been planned out by their father, anyway.

You continue to have a family in Henry, Charlotte, and Michael. It grows quickly - Sun and Moon are just animatronics, they're not possessed, and so they remain as they are. Vanessa moves in a bit away again, and Henry asks if she's finally ready to live her own life, and you see the relief flood her features as she finally relaxes. You later learn of how she's been working for William since she was a young teenager as Michael's replacement once he'd managed to gather enough to move away, with Henry's help.

Another series of cafés are opened, and Sun and Moon are your new coworkers - Daydream Café remains animatronic free to keep jobs available for humans who still want to work, but the location you're transferred over to (and end up opening, blushing furiously as you cut the ribbon and listen to cheers ring out) isn't, allowing the two to work alongside you. They learn very quickly and the lot of you become close as well.

You treat Mike and Charlotte as siblings, and Henry welcomes you to take on his surname if you want. Essentially, everyone just finally gets to live. Mike opens up an animatronic company soon after because people were starting to rely on them, and you watch as his outgrows anything William could have ever made with an overwhelming sense of pride.

And then the next day, you get to go make coffee with your two favourite animatronics again, and again, and again.