I Think I Smell A Rat (FNAF SB fanfic) C5 - Aw, Rats
In Summary:
Being a robotic repair rat who lives in the walls of the pizza-plex is a pretty great gig, all things considered! You fix the wires instead of chew them, and you get into tight spaces those silly humans can't reach and fix things up behind the scenes. You do your little tasks diligently, and all is well. That is, until one night when you realize all of your other repair rat friends have gone missing, and almost all of those animatronics outside the walls are acting strange... You aren't sure what it is that needs fixing, but by golly you'll fix it! You just might need a little help along the way...
Things To Know:
Not a lot of warnings for this one! There is some peril and danger, damage to robots, and damage to. Uh, whatever the heck Afton is at this point??
Reader insert! You're a little rat shaped robot a handful of inches long. Lots of borrower-related themes in here
Daycare attendant centered, though the other animatronics make brief appearances. You hang out with Sun in the first half of the story and Moon in the second half!
A little over 17000 words in total, just a lil guy! 5 chapters, they're all pretty short
I somehow managed not to swear once in the entire story, aw hell yeah! Wait-
Ao3 link: Here!
Start Here: Chapter 1
Chapter 4 | Chapter 5
C5 - Aw, Rats
Without missing a beat, the rats rushed towards you and Moon in one massive wave.
Moon made an alarmed noise and quickly jumped up onto the nearest table. It groaned and bent under his weight, but held. The rats immediately rushed for the table legs, trying to climb up.
You quickly flashed your tail light at Moon. "I can't fix the virus with that bot in the way. Can you keep my friends distracted while I try to shut him down??"
"I can try, but how are you going to get over there??"
You paused, realizing there was only one timely option. You were not at all confidant that you could cross the whole room by yourself without getting lost. Hesitantly, you flashed a reply. "You'll have to throw me."
Moon's face plate snapped down to face you fully. "Did I see that right??"
"There's no time! Throw me now!"
The rats had made it up the legs of the table and were scrambling towards Moon. Moon wound his arm back as he crouched, ready to jump.
Moon threw you, and you went sailing through a dizzying blur of undefinable mess. You could hear the table cracking and collapsing, but you couldn't see where Moon had jumped to. A moment later you crashed, sliding across a surface your pathfinding desperately struggled to make sense of. You ignored the program entirely and forcefully focused on only what you could see.
The computer console was to your left, and above you were the thick cords and bundles of wires stretching from it to the bot sitting to your right. The bot looked surprised to see you, but that surprise was quickly fading. He started to raise an arm, the limb shaking with effort. You had an up close view of the strange mangled combination of machinery and whatever that weird malleable looking purple stuff was.
You moved, ignoring every warning in your mind telling you to stay put and ping for help because obviously you were malfunctioning, your pathfinder was on the fritz and you'd been experiencing the 'out of bounds' error for far too long now. You jumped up onto the wires overhead and gripped them carefully, scrambling across towards the bot.
The bot made a grab at you, but you had plenty of experience at this point dodging grabby hands. You jumped over the hand, using the back of it to kick off and get you the rest of the way to the bot. the wires connected to the bot's back and the back of his head. You considered climbing the wires connecting to his head, but those looked too thin to hold you. You'd likely pull them loose and fall if you tried. And so you climbed to bot himself, finding that the leathery parts of the purple stuff provided decent purchase.
Another hand swiped at you, but it couldn't get close enough. The bot didn't seem mobile enough to reach around to where you were on his back. He seemed to be able to reach above and below though, and he was clawing around blindly, trying to reach you.
You heard another crash across the room, though you couldn't see what Moon was up to from your vantage point. You had to be quick. You needed to get up to the bot's head so you could shut him down, and fast.
The bot started to shake from side to side, trying to throw you off. You slipped, and the bot cried out angrily as your claws tore little gashes through the purple stuff. You landed back on top of the wires connecting into the bot's back, trying to hold on to the metal casing the wires fed into for stability. The bot paused, then swiveled his head to look around at the ground.
It hit you then that the bot couldn't feel you unless you were touching the purple stuff. He was looking to see if you'd fallen off, despite you still clinging to his casing. That meant you had a way up, but you had to be careful. The casing was a lot harder to climb, though it was grimy enough that it wasn't impossible.
You climbed for all you were worth, going as fast as you dared. You made it up to back of the bot's head and paused. This hardware was unfamiliar, and there was an awful lot of unidentifiable purple stuff mixed in with it all. You reasoned your only goal was to shut the bot down, and so you got to work yanking out anything you could get your paws on.
The bot howled and his whole body shook. He tried to grab at you, but you'd been lucky enough to damage something dealing with his spatial calibration, and he missed you. You knew he'd still be able to grab you eventually though, so you hurried, pulling and tearing and clipping wires between your teeth.
You weren't sure which damaged wire it was that sent a horribly overwhelming shock of electricity crashing through you. You hadn't exactly been being careful not to let any wires touch the conductible parts of your casing. For a moment, you could almost physically feel something trying to pry at you. The feeling was strange- you knew you hadn't been grabbed, but you were seized with the sensation of something trying to grab a hold of you none the less.
You suddenly received a warning ping about being off the main network, of all things. You were still in safe mode, having forgotten about it after setting it earlier when you and Sun had thought the virus was on the main network. You dismissed the ping. There was no time for any of that.
You pressed through the aftermath of the shock and kept going, dismissing overcharge warnings and ignoring everything else. You disconnected piece after piece until finally, you pulled something that instantly caused the bot to crumple. You nearly lost your footing, but managed to grab hold of the wires connected to his head. He was silent and still.
There was only a second to rejoice in your success. Moon yelled to you from across the room.
"Any day now, little rat!!"
You looked to see Moon had tipped over another table and was using it to try and sweep back the wave of rats still trying to carry out their task. The rats were disorganized and confused, but they were relentless none the less. You quickly turned back to your own task.
Wasting no time, you scurried back down to the thicker wires and climbed back to the computer console. The casing was already opened, so the bot's wires could be plugged in. You hooked yourself up in no time and started interfacing with the console.
Moon's situation grew more dire by the second as you flew through files, trying to format a new update file from the old one, this time without the virus. You were having a lot of trouble pulling out and deleting the virus itself. Meanwhile, the rats had finally swarmed over Moon's table. Moon looked around desperately, then eyed the door. He jumped up and pulled himself precariously atop the door, managing to balance on it. The door groaned and its old hinges immediately started to bend. The rats struggling to climb up on either side weren't helping matters either. The door began to bend, wood starting to splinter outwards from the hole Moon had torn when he'd ripped out the doorknob.
Finally, you discarded the last of the virus from the files. You queued the virus-free update for upload and set it to the highest priority in the hopes that the rats and everyone else would download the new update immediately. Then there was nothing left you could do but wait, so you quickly disconnected and rushed around the side of the console to see how Moon was faring. The console whirred as it uploaded the folder to the main network, the progress bar inching towards full, pausing briefly at 98%.
Moon yelled as the door finally collapsed under him, and he fell towards a massive heap of robotic rats.
The console chimed as a message appeared on its screen- 'Upload Complete!'
All at once, the rats stilled. This was great news for Moon, who was laying in a pile of rats who'd all been a moment away from pulling him apart piece by piece. The rats all slowly started to move again, shifting around and looking at each other. A few were flashing their tail lights at Moon.
You quickly took yourself out of safe mode and opened up the communication channel you and all the other rats used. You were immediately overwhelmed by an onslaught of pings and messages from all of your friends, all confused and disoriented and struggling to get their pathfinding to work. You might have jumped for joy, if only you weren't so tired. You hadn't charged all night, and your battery was getting really low. You could tell you'd also sustained some minor damage from being tossed around and electrocuted.
You worked on an explanation, trying to keep it brief. As soon as you sent it, you received hundreds more pings and messages, questions and exclamations from your confounded friends.
Moon had managed to get to his feet and was carefully shuffling his way over to you. "You realize that if that had been any closer, all you rats would be stuck down here, right?" Moon grumbled.
"I was going as fast as I could!" You practically fell into Moon's hand when he offered it out to you. "I'm glad you're okay."
"Yeah… you too," Moon mumbled. He studied the rats shuffling around. "Alright you little pests, listen up!"
The rats focused on Moon. You noted several messages asking who this rude bot was.
"I'll lead you all back up into the building. Just follow me. Keep me in sight and stick together," Moon ordered.
You had to assure everyone that Moon really did know the way out, and that he wasn’t actually as mean as he seemed. The rats all gathered together, circling around Moon. Moon carefully made his way to the door, and the rats slowly followed, bumping into each other but managing to follow Moon well enough.
Moon made his way back through the old restaurant, an army of robot rats following close behind. You did your best to answer questions and assure your friends that Moon was trustworthy.
It took many trips and a good deal of climbing up and down on Moon's part, but he managed to get every single rat up through the hole he'd made in the stage, and drop them off back in the main building, safe and sound. Your friends all scurried for the welcome sanctuary of the familiar walls, already pinging each other about tasks and repairs and discussing assigned charging shifts for the future.
You sat with Moon on the stage, next to the hole leading down into what your map assured you was still an empty void.
Moon peered down into the hole. "I'm thinking its probably a bad idea to just leave that guy sitting around down there."
"What do you think we should do?" you asked.
"Disassemble him, just to be safe. We don't want him somehow coming back to cause trouble again."
"How are you going to do that?? I'm not even sure what he's made of, much less how to take it apart."
Moon chuckled and tossed his metal hook from hand to hand. "Don't worry. I have a key."
With that, he jumped back down into the hole one last time.
You didn't have any complaints, honestly. Knowing what that bot had done to your friends, to Sun, to the other animatronics, and what he'd tried to do to Moon, you couldn't say you were all that upset to know he wouldn't be bothering anyone anymore.
Once Moon had finished with his business and returned from the void, you had him put the hook back where he'd found it before making good on your promise to fix the lights for him so he could return to the daycare.
The two of you stood at last in front of the daycare doors, ten minutes to spare until 6.
"I can fix the lights in the daycare for you," you offered.
Moon shook his head. "That's alright, I can control the daycare lights myself." He crouched down, holding you carefully in both hands. He didn't lower you to the ground just yet. "…So uh. Tonight sure has been… interesting."
You nodded. "That's one word for it." You dismissed another low battery warning and focused on Moon. "Thank you for all your help, Moon. I couldn't have done it without you."
"I know you couldn't have." Moon spun his face plate at you and chuckled. "You're very welcome. If you ever need my gracious assistance again, you know where to find me."
"I really need to go recharge, but I'll be back soon. I promised Sun a game, once everything got settled."
"Of course." Moon didn't move to lower you to the ground. He shuffled from side to side, his face plate turned away.
"…I could play a game with you too when I get back, if you want?" you offered.
Moon immediately nodded, then froze and looked away again. "Oh sure, whatever, I guess I could spare some time…"
You would have laughed, if you could. You pat Moon's thumb with a paw. "You've grown fond of me! And to think a few hours ago you were threatening to pull my tail off."
Moon huffed and unceremoniously dropped you on the ground. "Shoo now, tiny terror. Before I decide to pull your tail off after all."
You scampered happily over to the wall port beside the daycare doors. You paused and glanced back at Moon. "…I've grown fond of you too."
Moon tugged his cap down over his face and folded his arms with a huff. You scurried into the walls, leaving Moon behind for now.
You hurried back to your nest at long last, eager not only to finally get some well earned rest, but also to return to your new friends Sun and Moon. You crawled into place on a charging pad sized just for you, next to a few of your other nest mates, all resting off the long night. As you settled into sleep mode, you wondered how many games you might be able to play before the daycare opened for the day. Maybe you could even invite some of your rat friends along, too.
Your internal clock ticked over to 6 AM just as you powered down, and with it, the long night was finally put to rest.
~THE END~
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I would love to hear about what a shitty parent Dhurke is
Heheheh. I was intending to write a bigger thing on this... But heck, why not do a quicker little summary?
(Unmarked SoJ spoilers below cut.)
Now, some of this comes down to the writing in SoJ being kind of stupid. Particularly as it pertains to Apollo's hilarious shoehorned-in Khura'inese retcon backstory. People joke constantly about how silly it is, and it's really incongruent and dumb the more you think about it, but it's here, and in order to make it fit they had to write in some characters making really contrived, stupid choices. By whom I mostly mean Dhurke.
And the thing with Dhurke is, he means well. He's charming and a nice guy. He honestly never intends to hurt any of his kids, and when he's with them he appears to be a pleasant, loving father. He's deeply occupied with the whole "fugitive on the run from the government" and "rebel leader" thing, sure, but there's no indication he was neglectful or anything but the best dad he could be for Nahyuta under the circumstances. He even takes in the orphaned infant Apollo and raises him like his own son when he otherwise may have been lost in the chaos of the Khura'inese system after Ga'ran's takeover.
And then he performs a series of fucking stupid choices that land him up in the high ranks of the Ace Attorney Shit Parent Olympics.
= Nine years after the coup, fearing for Apollo's safety in the Defiant Dragons rebellion, Dhurke returns Apollo to America.
(checks notes)
I'm sorry, I'll be more specific, Dhurke "permanently abandons a 9-year-old alone in a foreign country."
Fucking what??
Like, the game skims over this really hard. Dhurke claims he did this because as an American, Khura'in's political troubles were none of Apollo's concern, and he thought he'd be safer returning to his home country. But remember, Apollo had absolutely no memories of living in America. He was raised in Khura'inese culture since he was an infant. He knows absolutely nothing about living in America and has no contacts, family, or connections there because he is a CHILD. Did he even speak English? Did he have any paperwork identifying him as a U.S. citizen? Did Dhurke even accompany Apollo to America? Because as a political fugitive, it's extremely unlikely he'd be able to leave the country, and certainly couldn't check in with any embassies stateside to try and explain the situation.
So one day out of the blue, Dhurke just packs Apollo's bags, sticks him on a plane with a one-way ticket to America, and goes "there, now he's safe." Meanwhile, Apollo is 9 years old, suddenly ripped away from his foster father and brother and shipped overseas, alone, to a place he's essentially never been with a culture he doesn't know, and absolutely nobody there to take care of him. We know he ended up at the Japanifornia Orphanage somehow, and that is quite honestly the best possible outcome for an unidentified, itinerant 9-year-old child getting blindly abandoned in the U.S.
Dhurke also says he intended to come back and get Apollo someday. He doesn't. But even if he tried... fucking how? He had absolutely no way of knowing where Apollo ended up or even if he was still alive. Even if Fugitive Dhurke had a way to get on a plane, where the hell would he even begin looking for him? And how did he intend to take him back to Khura'in like nothing ever happened? You can't just leave the country with a child you have no paperwork to show your relation to, Dhurke.
So, yeah, Dhurke never comes back for him and Apollo, correctly, decides he's been abandoned forever.
Apollo is rightfully pissed off and resentful at Dhurke for doing this to him, which I think is really interesting. Good for him! Until the plot demands he swallow his rage and realize that Dhurke Tried, I Guess, and then he's robbed of any explanation or closure and Apollo gets to bring all this up to his therapist eventually.
This is honestly the worst Shit Parenting Move Dhurke makes by a long shot. And the game tries to claim it was for a good reason, but the sheer scale and irresponsibility of abandoning your kid in a foreign country is honestly hard to top on the YIKESometer.
= Dhurke's big "thing" in this game is promising his sons he will always protect them. Thus, he yeets Apollo to America to protect him from the danger of the rebellion... but apparently doesn't see fit to do the same for Nahyuta?
The game sort of implies this is because Nahyuta is from Khura'in and Apollo isn't. Dhurke sort of indicates that the rebellion shouldn't involve Apollo because he's American-- but it's okay for his Khura'inese son, Nahyuta, to stick around and live in an active warzone. Like it's somehow his "duty" to fight with the Defiant Dragons? Even though he's also a child? And he's the goddamn prince of the toppled regime? So he's probably a huge target? And as son of the murdered queen he could be a massively important voice on either side of the conflict, so it's very likely Ga'ran will be seeking to use him for her own ends?
I'm not saying shipping both Nahyuta and Apollo to America was a good idea either but, you know, Nahyuta is a prince. He could have been taken into America seeking asylum, meaning he and Apollo would have been treated as royal refugees and not random lost children. And they would have at least been together.
But no, Dhurke ditches his adopted son in another country to "protect him," but not the one with the political target on his head. Surprise surprise, Nahyuta ends up in Ga'ran's clutches, psychologically poisoned against Dhurke and the rebel cause and forced to become her puppet and an instrument of her murderous wrath.
Scoreboard:
Making decisions that cause horrific trauma for your children - 2
Dhurke Sahdmadhi - 0
= So, you're Dhurke. 13 years after the coup everybody blames on you, you find out that your beloved murdered wife Amara didn't really die! She's been hiding in the palace all this time, a prisoner of her despotic sister. You bust her out. You go on the run together. It's all very dashing and romantic. You're a wanted rebel freedom fighter, she's an escaped political prisoner, the government is desperately searching for you and there's no telling what will happen if you're caught.
This is an incredibly bad time to knock up your wife.
Look, I'm sorry, Dhurke and Amara have a very dramatic romance, and it's not like we know how Khura’inese birth control works. Accidents can happen even if you're careful. But come the fuck on, Dhurke, you and Amara are on the run and in constant mortal danger. I don't care how secure your lodgings were or how safe you thought it was. You keep it in your goddamn pants, or at least wrap it before you tap it. It is absolutely fucking stupid to get her pregnant and bring ANOTHER child into this situation. Because the ABSOLUTE LAST THING you need in your underground secret rebellion is a loud, vulnerable, squalling royal baby to become a massive liability.
And surprise! Immediately after Rayfa is born, she and Amara are captured by the government. Dhurke and Nahyuta (something something duty bound, this isn't too dangerous for him to be here, etc, etc) are forced to flee, and Rayfa instantly becomes a political pawn. Ga'ran uses her to force Amara to her bidding, and using her to blackmail Nahyuta is what drags him under the government's thumb in the first place. Rayfa unwittingly spends her entire life as a tool used to manipulate her mother and brother, and she is in constant, serious danger because of who her real father is (a dumbass who can't keep it in his pants.)
Unlike Misty, the game does give mild lip service to questioning Dhurke's shitty parenting choices and the effects they've had on his kids (mostly via Apollo's anger at him... which, like I said, is quickly dismissed.) But like Misty, the game mostly lionizes him as a heroic figure, a good man who meant well and did his best under the circumstances. There's a lot of focus on Dhurke's promise to always protect his children, and he's portrayed as never really faltering in this promise. And I think he really means it, and really intends to. But regardless of his good intentions, Dhurke spends the latter half of his life repeatedly fucking his kids up, whether straight up abandoning them or leaving (or conceiving) them vulnerable to the violent rebellion that drives his every move.
So you see, it's really hard to rank Dhurke in the AA Shit Parent Olympics. When he had the chance to be one, he wasn't a bad dad. He's not malicious or cruel at all. He's not abusive like Blaise Debeste, he's not doing some dumb grand revenge plot like Manfred von Karma. His circumstances are extreme and dramatic and largely out of his control, and he genuinely seemed to be trying his best in spite of that. But the sheer scope and stakes of Dhurke's awful parenting choices really throw him into a high tier all the same.
So the moral of the story, kids, is
please don't abandon your children alone in a foreign country for any reason, and
if you're sexually active, always use protection, and especially if you're a wanted fugitive being hunted by a cruel despotic regime.
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