"Uh, hello? Hello, hello?"

"Hello," Dee greeted. He was 18, just old enough to get a job at the pizza place. It was pretty easy, considering his dad was a co-owner of the whole franchise.

"Uh, hello and welcome to your new summer job at the new and improved Dragon Prince's Pizza. Uh, I'm here to talk you through some of the things you can expect to see during your first week here and to help you get started down this new and exciting career path."

"Great."

"Uh, now, I want you to forget anything you may have heard about the old location, you know. Uh, some people still have a somewhat negative impression of the company. Uh... that old restaurant was kind of left to rot for quite a while, but I want to reassure you, Prince Entertainment is committed to family fun and above all, safety. They've spent a small fortune on these new animatronics, uh, facial recognition, advanced mobility, they even let them walk around during the day. Isn't that neat? -clears throat But most importantly, they're all tied into some kind of criminal database, so they can detect a predator a mile away. Heck, we should be paying them to guard you."

"Probably a good idea. I regularly do stupid things."

"Uh, now that being said, no new system's without its... kinks."

Dee fought down a giggle. He hung around Remus too much.

"Uh... you're only the second guard to work at that location. Uh, the first guy finished his week, but complained about... conditions. Uh, we switched him over to the day shift, so hey, lucky you, right?"

"Real lucky."

"Uh mainly he expressed concern that certain characters seemed to move around at night, and even attempted to get into his office. Now, from what we know, that should be impossible. Uh, that restaurant should be the safest place on earth."

"So while our engineers, which I COULD'VE BEEN. Sorry, uh, j-just ignore that. Our engineers don't really have an explanation for this, but the working theory is that... the robots were never given a proper "night mode". So when it gets quiet, they think they're in the wrong room, so then they go try to find where the people are, and in this case, that's your office."

"That's very comforting."

"So our temporary solution is this: there's a music box over by the Prize Counter, and it's rigged to be wound up remotely. So just, every once in a while, switch over to the Prize Counter video feed and wind it up for a few seconds. It doesn't seem to affect all of the animatronics, but it does affect... one of them."

"Ominous."

"Uh, and as for the rest of them, we have an even easier solution. You see, there may be a minor glitch in the system, something about robots seeing you as an endoskeleton without his costume on, and wanting to stuff you in a suit, so hey, we've given you an empty Dragon Prince head, problem solved! You can put it on anytime, and leave it on for as long as you want. Eventually anything that wandered in, will wander back out."

"Uh, something else worth mentioning is kind of the modern design of the building. You may have noticed there are no doors for you to close, heh."

"Because who needs safety?"

"But hey, you have a light!"

"Yeah, that totally makes up for it.

"And even though your flashlight can run out of power, the building cannot. So, don't worry about the place going dark. Well, I think that's it. Uh, you should be golden. Uh, check the lights, put on the Prince head if you need to, uh, keep the music box wound up, piece of cake. Have a good night, and I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Alright then, what do we have here..."

Dee flicked up the monitor to see what he was up against. There was the show stage that had toy versions of Dragon Prince, Pathos, and Rem. All ready and accounted for. The prize corner housed the music box, plus a wind-up counter on the monitor. It also held Emi, formerly Toy Anx. Dee recalled that a version of the toy was in his brother's pink bedroom.

He saw a small kid robot in one of the cameras. He had striped clothes, a balloon in one hand, and a squirrel on his other shoulder. He had a squirrel tail and ears with what looked like peanut butter on his chin and lower jaw. He also had glasses on.

"Weird," Dee noted.

He found a screen with old versions of the toys. There was a worn-down Dragon Prince and Anx, a faceless Rem, and a lower jaw-less Pathos. If he remembered right, these were from the one location that was closed down in '85. Dee remembered Erik having plushie versions of them, plus the unnerving Princey plush that seemed like it was following your every move.

Then the toys started coming towards him. They started just wandering around. But then, one appeared in the vent. Dee wasn't so sure about the whole explanation the guy on the phone made. It seemed like they were trying to attack him.

Dee went back to the prize corner and wound the music box. 6 am was there very soon. On the way out, he kept thinking about that weird plushie...

———
"Ah...hello, hello! Uh, see, I told you your first night wouldn't be a problem. You're a natural!"

Dee grinned. "I sure am."

"Uh, by now I'm sure you've noticed the older models sitting in the back room."

"Yeah."

"Uh, those are from the previous location. We just use them for parts now. The idea at first was to repair them...uh, they even started retrofitting them with some of the newer technology, but they were just so ugly, you know?"

"Yeah, I guess I can see where the company comes from."

"The smell...uh, so the company decided to go in a whole new direction and make them super kid-friendly. Uh, those older ones shouldn't be able to walk around, but if they do, the whole Prince head trick should work on them too, so, whatever."

"Okay, good."

"Uh...heh...I love those old characters. Did you ever see Anx the pirate?"

Dee smiled. "Yeah! He was my favorite."

"Oh wait, hold on...oh yeah, Anx. Uh, hey listen, that one was always a bit twitchy, uh...I'm not sure the Prince head trick will work on Anx, uh."

"I knew it couldn't be that easy."

"If for some reason he activates during the night and you see him standing at the far end of the hall, just flash your light at him from time to time. Those older models would always get disoriented with bright lights. It would cause a system restart, or something. Uh, come to think of it, you might want to try that on any room where something undesirable might be. It might hold them in place for a few seconds. That glitch might've carried over to some of the newer models too."

"Alright."

"One more thing - don't forget the music box."

"I won't."

"I'll be honest, I never liked that puppet thing. It's always...thinking, and it can go anywhere...I don't think a Prince mask will fool it, so just don't forget the music box."

Dee shifted around in his chair. "That's very comforting."

"Anyway, I'm sure it won't be a problem. Uh, have a good night, and talk to you tomorrow."

"Okay, night."

That night went very similar to the last night. The robots moved a little more, and so did the older ones, but they only appeared a few times. Dee didn't enjoy wearing that acrid smelling Prince head, though.

It was 6 am. Dee sighed and left the building, glad to escape that place.