Chapter Text
The sound of rolling wheels kicking up loose stones on the road was the main sound that could be heard as the van drove on by. The driver of the van, a trans woman who very much did not want to drive said van, sat uncomfortably before the wheel, staring down the road like it owed her money, doing her best to keep her eyelids open, a task that was proving to be rather difficult considering how long she's been awake for. She was lucky that no one else was currently on the same road as she was.
The blue van continued down the road, swerving slightly from the driver's lack of sleep. Said driver, however, had her attention momentarily taken off the road when her radio went off, the beeping causing her to almost lose control of the company vehicle. Grunting as she managed to barely regain control of the vehicle, she went to activate her radio, which was built into the vans actual radio, in fact replacing it so she couldn’t play music. She knew exactly who it was, and so as she pressed the button to answer the call, a sigh slipped from her lips.
“Tabitha! Hey buddy, this is dispatch with Fazbear Entertainment. How are you feeling?”
“Not the best, almost died at the last job, and I’m struggling to stay awake because I’ve, oh I don’t know, been working for fifty hours now? Not like you’ll care anyway.” The woman’s voice sounded lifeless and empty, the only noticeable thing about her voice, minus some of her irritation finding its way through, was her British accent.
“Awesome to hear,” yeah, she wasn’t shocked by this, Dispatch never actually listened to her, he only heard what he wanted to hear. “Well listen, we need you to take one more shift for us since you’re our closest technician in the area.”
Wait… WHAT?
“Okay, hold on, firstly I’m not a technician, I’m just some ‘retrieval specialist’ or whatever. Also, I’VE BEEN WORKING FOR FIFTY HOURS!”
“I know, the grind is exhilarating, isn’t it? And we’re so happy to have you on the Fazbear team!”
A quiet “but I’m not on your ‘team’” was uttered under Tabitha’s breath in response, but Dispatch clearly didn’t notice that so he instead continued on.
“You can’t fool me though; you’re just trying to snag one of those ‘five hour’ holiday breaks the company is rewarding at the end of the year for outstanding performance!”
“Wh- What?” Since when was that a thing? “No! I’m only working for you guys because you– Ugh, you already know why! What is wrong with you?!” This time her anger made itself clearer in her voice, her eyes momentarily removed from the road from her annoyance, which led to her swerving again and needing to focus back on her driving.
“Ha! I love that enthusiasm!” And as per usual, Dispatch ignored what she had actually said and instead heard what he wanted to hear. She swore, sometimes she was under the impression he wasn’t even human. “So anyway, this will be a piece of cake.”
Despite her protests, it was clear to Tabitha that she had very little choice but to hear him out at this point as all he did was continue on talking. So she decided she may as well listen, at least to make sure she didn’t miss anything important.
“We used to have a contract with this old company called Playtime Co; they were making and selling merchandise for our brand a while back but a while ago they went quiet, those still around went quiet and refused to comment,” Tabitha chose to not question what meant by ‘those still around’, not like he’d answer her anyway. “An old employee of ours, an admin, had left behind some blueprints for some merchandise, super secret and private stuff. NDA level. So we’re sending you in to get it.
“The building has since been abandoned, so we don’t expect any kind of confrontation. We’ll follow up with more instructions soon. For now, just follow these directions we’re sending you, and find your way into that building!”
“Fuck you…”
“Amazing! Thanks for being a part of the Fazbear Team! Dispatch out!”
And just like that he was gone. Good riddance. Still, now she had a new task. And just as Tabitha was going to head back to her apartment and sleep. Too bad she’s going to have to throw those plans out of the window!
Fucking Fazbear…
The drive took a while, because of course it did, and constantly being on the verge of sleep wasn’t helping Tabitha much either. Eventually she had to pull over in a small neighbourhood and knock on some random stranger's door to ask for directions. The old man was rather strange, he looked incredibly drained and, well, empty even, something the both of them seemed to have in common. It took a lot of pressing to finally get the directions, because he, rather oddly, seemed against anyone going there, but eventually he relented, presumably when he finally noticed the Fazbear logo on her company shirt.
Once she had gotten the information she needed she turned back to face her van, intending to leave, but then the strange old man gave her some weird sort of warning. Something about not using the main entrance because of some advanced defence systems they had? Tabitha would have, under any normal circumstances, driven home instead and told Fazbear to shove the job up their arse, but the sleep deprivation was getting to her and she honestly couldn’t handle any arguing right now or else she’d probably cry.
Plus, there’s also Fazbears… threat…
But, she still took the old man's warning and, once she finally approached the building, instead of stopping in the car park she drove round the back of the building, hoping to find a back entrance of some kind. It was weird, really. She couldn't help but feel like she had heard of the name 'Playtime Co' before...
Once she was close enough to the building, her radio began to go off again. Tabitha squinted her eyes at the radio, not wanting to answer it. Thankfully she was driving at such a slow pace now that she didn’t need to worry too much about possibly crashing. She didn’t want to dent the van though, Fazbear would take that out of her paycheck, even if it wasn’t her fault. So she eventually returned her eyes to the driveway, answering the call.
“Hey! You found it!”
“How… How do you know that?” Sure, this wasn’t the first time Dispatch had seemingly known that she had arrived at a location or done certain tasks, but those were at other Fazbear locations, ones that had cameras there that Dispatch probably had access to. This is Playtime Co, NOT Fazbear Property.
“All Fazbear Entertainment vehicles have conveniently named Freddy Faztrackers installed! In fact most Fazbear property does, including the uniform you’re wearing.”
“Eww, gross!…” Tabitha exclaimed, eyes widened from just how… eww… “Even my skirt?”
“Yep!”
Thank god this guy wasn’t a pervert, Tabitha was pretty sure he was asexual or something, since for pride month Fazbear Entertainment did a big show about how one of their ‘most important employees’ was a member of the LGBT community. She was certain it was all for show and that Fazbear didn’t actually care, but still, that means that he, hopefully, wasn’t thinking things about that skirt tracker… which is ridiculous.
“Anyway,” thank god someone was moving the conversation away from this topic. “To access the building you’ll need some weird and super complex device Playtime Co made called a ‘grabpack’. It’s this rather large and super inefficient machine that would fit on your back and would shoot out two sticky hands? Kinda like those kids toys of little gel hands that would stick to stuff. Either way, it’s an awful device that sounds more like a burden than an aid.” That was a weirdly detailed description. Still, it’s weird that for once Tabitha actually found herself agreeing with Dispatch on something.
“But thankfully you shouldn’t need to have one of those. Back when we still contracted out Playtime Co we had our Admin employee stationed here, and because of his complaints about the grab packs all grab pack button… things… were refitted to have access ports behind them. So you have been provided with a ‘Data Diver’ tool, an old invention of MCM which we now own the rights and blueprints to.”
Tabitha finally found what appeared to be a viable entrance, it being some form of loading bay, the giant garage doors being closed, all except for one which remained mostly open. Although it looked like it was forced open somehow, the bottom of the sliding garage door looking crumpled up, almost like how you’d crumple up paper. Either way she had found her entrance, and so parked next to the opening.
“It should be stashed in the back of the van, inside an industrial looking case. The data diver should be easy to spot, the device itself looking like some old school version of those Fazwrenches you’ve been permitted to use, except a sort of brown-y orange colour and attached to a large cassette player looking thing.”
“Okay, okay, I’ve only just parked.” Tabitha turned off the van and pulled out the keys before climbing over her chair and into the empty space in the back of her van, Fazbear equipment filling the space. Just as Dispatch had described, sitting in a small storage space was the suitcase. Pulling it out she opened up the case, which then caused the device inside to rise up, standing upwards now when it was stored laying down, some sort of mechanical motors clearly doing this… for some reason.
“You found it yet?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ve got it.” Tabitha reached her hands forward, each hand grabbing a different part of the device. Her right hand gravitated towards the Fazwrench looking part, the similarities were uncanny. Just as Dispatch had described this part of the device was basically a Fazwrench, except the bright orange of the basic, uncustomised, Fazwrench was replaced with a sort of beige colour, it also had a slightly wider handle, and the whole thing seemed flipped, with the indent in the device made for the hand being on the right rather than the left of normal Fazwrenches. Tabitha did find herself actually preferring the design of the data diver to that of the Fazwrenches, she wasn’t sure why, maybe it was the retro aesthetic?
There was one flaw though, Fazwrenches had a dial and two buttons, something done to allow for proper interaction, the data diver, however, only had one singular trigger located roughly where the handle is. This suggested that the data diver, despite looking super awesome, was much simpler as a tool.
Whilst that is what her right hand grabbed, her left hand found itself moving towards the other part of the data diver, and once again, Dispatches description was rather apt. This part of the data diver really was basically an old walkman, perhaps wider than one. The reason for its larger width appears to be because it actually can play cassette tapes, however unlike walkmans which have the cassette fit in by fitting the same proportions, having the cassette match the angle as the walkmans shape with both the device and the cassette having the longer side facing downwards, the data diver was the opposite. The shorter sides of this large rectangle were the top and bottom of this thing, yet where you placed in the cassettes was with the longer side facing downwards, and specifically the place to put the cassette was at the top of the device. The device was the same beige colour as the other half of the device, with a dial on the left side at the top, and a few ports dotted around other sides. It was a strange device, one connected to its other half by a springy, dark green cord.
With both hands on both halves, she pulled the device out of its case and moved it towards herself to get a better look at it. It was definitely outdated, the paint on it looking chipped in some places. However, it was definitely functional. Once Tabitha accidentally pressed the trigger two metal prongs poked out from the top of the device, and the screen of the data divers' Fazwrench part lit up, revealing six different symbols. Most were lit up, minus the last two, one symbol that looked like two triangles with their tips touching, and another that was a series of four rectangles in a weird sequence. One of the lit up symbols did surprise Tabitha though as she was fairly certain that was the Team Fortress logo.
“Good job. Well done. The ‘data diver’ is old tech, like, oooooold tech, back from the 70’s. There aren’t many of them left, what you’ve got there is one serious relic. So look after it. Seriously, don’t lose it or break it. If you do then it’s coming out of your paycheck and, let's be honest here, you’ll never, ever, get even half of the money that that’s worth.”
Well duh, it’s not like she was intending on breaking it.
“Plus, that ‘data diver’ is your master key to the Playtime Co facility. If you lose it then, well, suffice to say you’re stuck. Also you’ll need it to access the blueprints.”
Tabitha looked down at the device in her hands, confusion lighting up her face. “Uhm, am I supposed to just carry this the whole time?” It sounded like a stupid question once she said it out loud, but the idea of having to carry this device in both hands the entire time seemed like it would be a bit of an inconvenience.
“Oh right! I almost forgot, ha ha.” She hated his stupid laugh, it was always so fake. Also, Dispatch never forgets stuff. “There should be a sort of belt nearby, have a look around, it’ll have a pouch to slot both the ‘data diver’ and the storage unit in.”
Once again, a quick sweep over the van led her to find the belt he was talking about. It was a darkish yellow in colour, kinda similar to the beige of the data diver in fact, and it had two pouches on it, one that would be towards the wearer's right, but still in front (roughly facing north east, if north is forward), most likely used for storage, possibly of tools, but the other was special. It had a sort of hard back to it whilst the front had the same material as the other pouch, except with no top, clearly designed for the data diver to fit inside snugly. The pouch was separated into two segments, one larger one on the left and a smaller one on the right. It was clear which part went in which spot. This pouch was also forward facing but more to the left (it facing north west if we go by the previous analogy.
Tabitha placed down the data diver to put on the belt, it thankfully being adjustable to fit all, then she picked the data diver back up, slotting the data diver into her pouch, the two almost snapping into place, as if something inside the pouch was able to hold the two in place. That would be useful, maybe.
“Okay, what now?”
“Now, get in there and retrieve our property!”
Tabitha moved towards the van's side door after hearing this, reaching her hand out and opening the door by pulling down the red inside handle. However, once the door opened and a ramp extended, before she could get out of the van Dispatch spoke up once again.
“Oh, and one last thing, before you go.”
“Ugh, what now?” Tabitha groaned as she moved back to the centre of the van, hands leaning on the two shoulders of the two front seats while she stared at the central radio, almost as if she was looking at Dispatch.
“This will not just be the last job of your shift, but it’ll also be your final job. Understood?”
“W-wait, my final job? As in.. my–”
“Yes, our little ‘battle’ will be over, you won’t have to worry about us trying to take what you own.”
Relief filled the Brit as she heard that. Finally she’d be free, and she’d never have to deal with Fazbear ever again. Now with a newfound vigor, and a smile forming on her face, even if it’s small, Tabitha was determined to finish this mission.
However once she stepped outside of the van and gazed into the dark pit that was the back entrance to the factory, her concerns began to almost instantly resurface. “Uhm… Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“Huh? Of course it is! Now go and get ‘em, tiger!”
“But, like, is this legal? I mean, breaking and entering into another company's property?”
“Is it really breaking and entering if it’s abandoned?” The sarcasm in Dispatch's voice was palpable, making it rather evident that this was a rhetorical question.
“...Yes?” This also was sarcastic, Tabitha’s response also being rhetorical.
“Well too bad, have fun in there! Over and out.”