Dream glanced at the lady's nametag before looking at the floor. "Sorry, Melissa." He practically mumbled.
"We got a little carried away and overwhelmed."
"Um." She replied intelligently, frantically flattening a few stray hairs back down.
"Right." She laughed breathlessly, awkward. "Someone else was saying you were glitching out with a seizure. You uh. Weren't having any problems, right? My boss would blame me." She added the last under her breath.

"Nothing other than a pretty stupid argument." He sighed, mostly a whirr of something that was usually quiet. She blinked owlishly, checking her tablet.
"You were arguing with Jared?" She tried.
"What? No?" Dream blinked back, suddenly glancing at the mirror as if to look at Nightmare in confusion.
"We were arguing with each other."

"We?" She echoed, swiping on the tablet before pausing in realization that swiftly became concern.
"Your AI's aren't supposed to be active at the same time."
Nightmare was the one to reply. "We noticed. We just don't care. You put us in the same body, so we are going to interact with one another whether you like it or not."
"That's.. not how that's supposed to work, but okay." She accepted that despite one brow being raised as she looked between them and her screen.

"Are you sure you're not having any glitches? Your optics aren't supposed to be yellow. Actually-" She swiped a couple times, frowning at something on the tablet. "Yeah they're not supposed to glow at all- you're Sun, right? Wait no, it says- hang on, that doesn't make any sense." She rambled under her breath before Dream gently grabbed the hand on the screen, forcing her to look up with surprise.

"It's not going to make sense." He decided to tell her, still nervous about revealing how aware of the fallacies he was. "But it's okay. Sometimes things just don't make sense. Can I simply ask that you ignore those details? We really are fine. It's just a lot of change to experience suddenly."

"I could get fired." She replied abruptly, staring intently. ".. You're really advanced for a newbie."
He stared back, working out that she still believed they were both just AI. It was for the best she believed that anyway.
...They could both still feel a hint of tension in front of them, wondering if it could somehow be a hallucination brought by yearning for their old senses again.

"Well let's make a deal." Dream offered, holding out his hand. "You report to the boss that everything is working as intended, and we prove that there's really nothing to be worried about. That sound good?"
Melissa stared at the hand as if it were an alien thing for a good few seconds- then finally grasped it.
"If I don't get fired, I'm quitting in 6 months." She stated.

"Because this company sucks, right?" Dream asked, commiserating. She paused at that, then snorted. "Is it really that obvious?"
"Yes." He flatly replied. "It is."
She laughed at that, shaking harder before her hand slipped away, shaking her head.
"I love working with animatronics, I really do, you all have such human personalities, but I just can't stand the jackasses up top anymore. Too many secrets and rumors already. You." She paused uncertainly.
"You'll protect those kids, right?"

Not knowing how to respond, he just went with the obvious. "I'm designed to."
She seemed pained by that response, arm falling to the side. "Right."
"Fazbear Entertainment has a lot of secrets you don't want to share, doesn't it?" Dream asked instead.
"... Nothing concrete. Though.. if you have security clearance, you should probably check the unfinished sector. I think it's going to be a racetrack. Heard some bad things happening over there."

Nightmare automatically started looking through the cameras he could see through, searching for somewhere unfinished to examine as Dream finally took notice of the fairly useful ability.
"At some point we'll try to visit directly.. having access to the cameras doesn't seem to reveal anything out of the ordinary. Except a few questions. Like why do they already have carts out when they don't even have a track? Isn't that counterintuitive?"
"Yeah I can't understand a damn thing they do either."
"That's ridiculous. Everything about this place is bullshit."

At her slight flinch from the swear, he pointed. "No tattling, we're both adults here. I get to call bullshit."
"You know what, that's fair enough." She shrugged it off. "I don't know how they skipped the censorship but sure. If you can pass the turing test you can say fuck in my opinion."

She then seemed to remember something, glancing around to find Jared's clipboard on the sink, bending the sheets to grab something underneath.
"Another USB?" Dream asked.
"Yeah, updates typically should be implemented while you're at least in rest mode, but to hell with it, you know? Can you sit down?" She glanced at her tablet before frowning. "I think this damn thing's broken already."

"You're not surprised?" Dream asked, somehow not surprised either.
"No, everything here save for you animatronics and the daycare is a piece of crap. Half the elevators aren't even elevators, and it's saying just Moon is active when you're obviously Sun." She impatiently tapped the screen as Dream realized the problem.
"Oh. There might not be enough light in here." He realized, starting for the door.
"It's not the tablet at all."

After a moment of confusion, Melissa grabbed the clipboard and followed, speedwalking to keep up. Dream privately wondered if this was how Papyri felt walking beside their brothers.
They eventually returned to the daycare again, which seemed back on a light cycle.
Nightmare hissed internally at the light, recoiling and briefly fading out before forcing himself to stay awake as the AI's switched out.

"What's it say now?" Dream asked, glaring briefly as the pants changed. "Seriously, who designed this. That's the filthiest shade of yellow I've ever seen." He paused, looking up at Melissa to see her holding in laughter.
"I don't even like red." He deadpanned.
She stopped hiding it, snickering into her hand.

He kept ranting, pleased that it was at least lifting her mood. "I mean, seriously. We're based on celestial bodies, we have the sky in common, yet they decided the color we have in common is red? That is the exact opposite of blue! Couldn't be any further from it! Are they trying to make us look bad on purpose? Because it really feels like they are."

She doubled over briefly with a wheeze before righting herself, chuckling.
"I don't know, but I can put in a request to change it?" She offered, laughter evident.
"We both appreciate it but honestly we'd rather focus on this hot mess first." He gestured to his mask face.
"How did they think this was even remotely a good idea? Around kids, no less! They're going to be traumatized, at least give us the ability to actually smile or something."

He then gently plucked the stick from her hand, disregarding her gasp as he let Nightmare guide him to the port from before. It felt weird doing that, but at least he didn't physically feel anything. That might've made it weirder to feel it plugging in.
"You know where that is?" She asked in surprise.
"Well, there aren't many other places that can plug things in. Unless this opens up." He gestured to his torso before freezing at her expression.
"..It does?"

"It's where your battery's stored. And most hardware." She tacked on helpfully, pointing. "It opens with a button sequence, though I don't know it. Not my field."
"Perfectly valid on your part. I don't think I want to know how to open myself up just yet anyway. I don't feel ready to see what's going on in there."
"But you would look if you knew?" She raised an eyebrow.
"I would look if I knew." He nodded.

"And you think it'll bother you?" She added. "Most of the animatronics can open their chest compartments at will, mostly for temporary storage like cakes and stuff."
"See, they're used to it. Does this look designed for cakes?" He gestured again to the slim torso.
"Of course not, you're built for agility and flexibility."

He started to snap his fingers and continue when abruptly, he.. knew things. A lot of random facts and information, more just flowing in almost inexplicably. Some felt like he shouldn't know them.
"Shit, you're not buffering, are you?" Melissa was concerned.

Dream gathered his thoughts, slowly replying.
"Listen.. if you had several terabytes of medical information downloaded into your brain at once, you'd be buffering too."
"The human brain isn't designed to handle that."
"Well neither am I." He declared, pressing a hand to his face helplessly.
"I think a medical doctorate was just implanted in my sk- head. Not fun."

"That's.. a massive update, actually, I was told this was just first aid- fuck, you should have been sleeping for that!" She panicked a little, fixated on the tablet again. Dream just sat down on the floor.
"I'm fine. I'm okay. Just.. need a minute. I never wanted to know this much about human anatomy."

"You're sure you're not overloaded?" She questioned shrilly. Dream mentally regarded how the information outright knocked out Nightmare and the AI in the back of his mind seemed to literally be buffering.
"Why did I ask that, you wouldn't be responsive-" She swore under her breath, typing.
Dream didn't want to explain that he wasn't the AI and it definitely was overloaded, so he just awkwardly gave a thumbs up.

"Shit." The human swore quietly, glancing at him. Dream hesitated, concerned.
"You might need a system restart to clear up the confusion. It says here you're overloaded.. but you're physically handling it pretty well."
He wasn't about to explain why.
"Sure.. reset everything." He waved, other arm draped across his knee.

"No, not everything." She muttered, typing. "But this should just take a moment."
With one last tap on the screen, she glanced over at them as suddenly everything became stiff- he almost blacked out, but managed to stay up. Then he realized the AI was quiet. Melissa was staring. He was still staring back.
"Um." She typed again, sending something, only to stare at her screen, eyes flicking between him and it as Dream realized he might've fucked up.

Especially as she suddenly paled.
"I can explain." He abruptly stated, a little panicky as he held up his hands.
"How.. you're functioning?" She asked faintly.
"Yes. It uh." He paused as she regarded the screen again, looking at him uncertainly.
"The AI was definitely buffering." Was what he went with. "Completely just stopped doing anything."

Oh boy she was only getting paler, taking a step back. Dream hesitated, understanding that he really should have just let himself black out with it.
"...Please don't tell anyone." He quietly begged.
"I don't know what happens if they shut us off permanently."

There was a long silence between them, one staring at the other in a sort of stalemate.
She eventually spoke up in a low voice.
"So.. when Jared.. called you haunted.... What did he mean by that?"
Gripping the ugly striped pants, Dream stared at the floor as he answered.
".. Exactly what you think it means."

Her knuckles were white as she gripped her device.
"So.. you're an actual spirit."
"Two spirits. Me and my brother. We.. we're stuck like the AI." He quietly admitted.
"Is this why you wanted me to stop asking questions?"
"...A little bit. I didn't want you to stress out too much, you know? It's not going to make sense. We don't understand it either."

Another lapse in conversation, Melissa staring as Dream decidedly stared at a nearby cyan playmat on the floor.
"..How did you get released without anyone noticing this?" She eventually asked.
"Believe me, I don't know. We can only assume the manager didn't care for our.. antics."

She stared, some color returning to her cheeks as she seemed to just study him. There was curiosity in that gaze.
“And you simply got away with it?”
“Somehow. Believe me, I'm still baffled. And more than a little concerned.”

Melissa then bit the inside of her cheek, as if having an internal debate.
“Did.. are you ghosts specifically?”
For a split second, Dream was confused why she was asking- then he remembered what ghosts were in human culture, debating how to answer.
“We.. are spirits.” He hesitantly reiterated. “And we did.. die. If you ask what happened between now and then, I wouldn't be able to tell you. We have no memory of it at all. Just waking up like this.” He gestured vaguely.

“..How did you die?” She asked softly. Dream winced, vividly recalling how his hand twitched and sent the arrow flying downward.
“Fighting.” Was all he said, forcing himself to his feet and stumbling without the usual presence in the back of his mind. He wasn't aware just how much it helped him deal with the new, ungainly form.

“I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked.” She murmured uncertainly, automatically stepping away now that he was towering over her.
“I think um. What I meant to ask is where you died? Was it an older pizzeria location?”
He hesitated, blinking. “Why? I don't remember much, we were just…” He shook his head, the rays spinning. “Some old checker floor restaurant. It was abandoned anyway.”

She seemed to take it in stride, thinking. “I thought for a sec you were one of the victims of FazCo.”
“This face makes me a victim. It's a hate crime.” He remarked drily from sheer disgust.
He then gestured behind his head, miming a grab. “Can I remove this now or do you need to restart the system first?”
Melissa outright jumped at that, turning her tablet back on distractedly.
“Does it really matter? How developed even is the real AI?”

“It's not horrible.” Dream defended. “I just realize in hindsight I should have let it learn a little more.”
“That really doesn't tell me anything.” She muttered, typing. A moment later he practically felt invigorated as machinery quietly whirred back to life,
“That's much better.” He slumped a little, no longer straining to move.
“It makes a difference?” She seemed all curious now, green eyes bright with intrigue.
“Yes, it's less of a pain to move around.” He confirmed, a little more comfortable now that she didn't seem ready to panic.

There was the sound of a door opening, and they both glanced over to see someone else peering in, gesturing at Melissa to hurry it up. She seemed to wilt at that, clearly disappointed.
“I guess I'll need to take the stick back.” She sighed.
Dream easily handed it over.

She stared at the USB for a long moment, before looking up at him. “You know, I might not quit in 6 months.”
“Are we that much of a mystery to you?” He asked.
“Well it's not every day you get to interact with a possessed animatronic.” She shot back, putting it away while glancing at the man at the door.
“Be careful what you wish for, Melissa.” Dream warned. “You never know what might wind up as reality.”

She barked out a laugh, only to pause with concern when he didn't laugh with her.
“Well, I'll see you two tomorrow. Probably.” She waved, walking backwards at first until he waved back, then turning around to walk normally.

“..That could have gone worse.” Dream noted to just himself.