We hit the last station! I don’t apologize for any hurt or heartbreak, it was very fun to deliver it to your door still warm.
I hope you enjoy this last epilogue as much as the rest.
And in case you are seeing this fic for the first time:
Summary: You accidentally start to care about one AI from your night shift. And then you make it everyone’s problem. (And then everyone makes problems for you).
Start from the beginning.
New chapter! 54/57
Three chapters left! One heart attack and two epilogues to deal with the consequences.
In today’s chapter:
Read from the start!
184k
49/57
We do something about the reinfection.
And finally! The Slaydecker gets voted! Will (some) bots get their (meager) rights?
Whatever the outcome, it means safety!
…Doesn’t this feel… weird?
One more smoke break!
It’s the final countdown! Nine chapters left. Eight if you take into account the epilogue! Everything is written.
In today’s chapter, we took things for granted, and we can’t take them for granted anymore. Also, things go ignored. Secrets are shared with Moon. We learn if the rewire deal flies or sinks. And Sun is a lover, not a fighter.
I should really end my fic with some anonymous character gunning down the FazCo speak person with a bullet engraved “FAZTASTIC”.
Summary: I score for myself a better place to fill the weekly paperwork. My coworker is surprisingly ameneable to the change.
***
The next day I took with me a trench coat I had not used for years and I hung it next to the front door, in the broom closet. Why? Well, because Moon had passed my litmus test. He hadn’t been weirded out by the singed teasing, he had kept the cigarette. He was the kind of bastard I wanted to see more of.
When Moon came for his “smoking” break (and maligned me for my musical prowess the previous night) I presented the coat to him. He indulged me and put it on. He looked… bad, funny in my too small coat and the nightcap, but I bit my lip because I wanted to be right, dammit. …And because for a moment he really looked like someone instead of looking like company property. All the animatronics felt like they would turn and I’d see the FazTag sticking from their neck or something.
Summary: I say my coworker should clean his uniform. He makes me regret saying anything. I might still make a friend out of him.
***
The next day I was sitting on the same step by the door, with my mobile on my ear and listening intently as if I could squeeze an ounce of tranquility that way. The weak voice on the other side was not comforting. I was so worried listening to the voice that the soft jingling went unnoticed. I startled when I looked at the shadow on the corner of my eye and I had Moon looming over me.
After clutching my chest and sending him a dirty look, I shielded my microphone for a moment.
“Hey! Moon. I wasn’t sure you would actually come!”
He showed the cigarette now slightly chaffed in his hand and I nodded.
Summary: I meet a fellow night worker. He is a metalhead in the literal way but we have the same shitty bosses, and that makes me offer to share a smoke.
***
I was smoking and scrolling hateful videos on my phone next to the door of the Pizzaplex. Nasty habit, but it was the fifth time I had tried quitting and something always came up. This time it had been my being demoted to the night shift to “keep you safe” from the asshole I had complained about to management.
Bastards.
The doors opened and I caught the tail end of a conversation. An argument. A tantrum. A tantrum was what it was. A parent was leaving, dragging a toddler, and a very worried daycare attendant with what was clearly a complaint form clutched in one hand. Whatever the parent was shouting, it ended with the animatronic waving and wishing them:
“Have a Faztastic day!”
“You accidentally start to care about one AI from your night shift. And then you make it everyone’s problem.” [x]
OKAY! Thanks to a friend’s invaluable help, tomorrow everyone will get the first chapter of the last arc of this fic! In a few weeks the end will be posted, so now is an excellent time to join.
