Chapter Text
“Moon?”
His head snapped to the side, locking eyes with the solar animatronic and his shoulders became less tense, something they did automatically whenever he was around the eclipse. As the animatronic walked closer, Moon sat straight, pushing himself away from his knees as he looked at Solar. He made a move to get up, but the mechanic knew him well enough and gently gestured to him to sit back down before he could start to push up against the roof tiles. With a sigh, he obliged and the other sat next to him.
“You know, Sun is a little worried for you…” Solar started and the two looked out at the water.
Moon had been sitting on the roof of his own house for about an hour now. Just… sitting… with his thoughts. He knew from experience that it wasn’t maybe greatest for his mental state to do this, but did he care? No, not really. Well… maybe a little, but it’s… whatever. It didn’t help that he didn’t have the greatest day today either.
“I can hear him pacing a path in the floor from here,” The other continued with a chuckle, and Moon let out a weak one himself.
“He still thinks I’m in the lab?” He asked, finally looking at the crimson and charcoal animatronic and he nodded in response. The lunar animatronic sighed and was half way to leaning on Solar when he stopped himself. What was he doing? He didn’t want to make his best friend uncomfortable, so he just played it off as a sway from side to side. It looked like Solar caught on to the terrible cover up, but instead of just looking back at the ocean like he thought, he put his hand on the lunar animatronic’s shoulder and pulled him into a side hug. Despite it being quite awkward, Moon couldn’t help but feel comfort from Solar’s body, not being able to stop himself from leaning into him. He ignored the heat coming from his processor, and had to stop his fans from turning up in speed.
“Do you… want to talk about what’s on your mind?” Solar asked softly, as if he thought that if he talked any louder, he would shatter whatever connection they were having at the moment. Ah yes, he forgot that the eclipse was insanely good at reading people and their feelings, along with reading the room, which he guessed was a roof at the moment. He sighed and nodded, yet it took him a minute to actually get going. He just wanted to enjoy Solar’s body nice and warmly pressed up against his as he laid his head on the mechanic’s shoulder.
“I… was just… thinking about the old Moon…” He mumbled, trying to find footing on starting this would-be-vent,
“Sun seems to prefer him more… at least, I feel like he does…”
“And why do you think that?” Solar asked and Moon let out his billionth sigh that hour.
“He… keeps talking about him… about their memories together. A-And I know that he isn’t trying to make me feel bad… but I can tell he misses him…” Moon looked away to the other side and Solar could tell that there was more to it, so he didn’t speak up.
“I guess I just want to… I don’t know, be a better brother… A brother that he deserves. But now… I-I… I can’t be who I want to be… I can’t be my own person without being compared to the Old Moon in some way… I can’t do anything without someone either comparing me to him or then saying how ‘I’m acting different’. No, I’m not acting ‘different’! I’m just not acting like the Old Moon, and I feel like people don’t see that…” As Moon ranted, Solar had pulled him slightly closer, rubbing his shoulder with his thumb in a soothing manner. He didn’t like how the other had this stuck inside him without anyone to talk to.
“You know, if it makes you feel better, I never compared you to the Old Moon, and I never will,” Solar softly spoke once the lunar animatronic was done speaking. In Solar’s eyes, he loved the way Moon was already. He felt as if Moon was just… perfect. He was smart, funny, kind, protective, sassy, but most of all, loved his family. His Moon was never like that. He hurt Solar at any chance he had, and he obviously jumped at the opportunity to either kill him or make him leave forever. This Moon was just… Well, Solar owed him everything . Moon was the person who helped him even before he moved dimensions, and not only that, he not only allowed him to stay, but tried his best to make him comfortable… though he should probably not make this all about himself, huh? He was here to make the lunar animatronic feel better, not reflect.
“You’re your own person. You don’t need to be like the other Moon to be a good brother”
Moon sighed and nodded, putting his hand on the one on his shoulder. After the quiet “thanks, Sol”, they sat in silence. Moon didn’t want to speak up, quite enjoying the silence himself. Though, he did question why his fans were running faster than usual. It wasn’t even that warm out, the only real warmth he was getting was from his face, unusually, and the other animatronic next to him holding him in a side hug. He didn’t know how long the two of them sat there, but eventually, they had to go in, and again, this time Solar was the one who spoke up first.
“As nice as this is, we should probably get inside before it gets any later and Sun starts to call Lunar and Earth.” The hand on his shoulder was reluctant to leave, but with one final squeeze from the theater attendant, he pulled the two of them up. As he started to make his way off the roof, Moon grabbed his hand quickly, something that neither of them were expecting. Yes, he had something on his mind, but he didn’t think his body would practically have a mind of his own. Well… technically-
“Before we go back… can I ask you a favor?” Moon mumbled, deciding to bite the bullet after a moment of silence. Solar was quick to turn around and gave him his full undivided attention, looking him softly in the eyes (Moon ignored the tiny zap in his processor at this).
“If I ever turn evil for some reason… o-or try to hurt the family, can you please promise me …. Promise me that you’ll try to pull me out of whatever spiral I go down. I would hate to hurt anyone…” He huffed, looking back towards the water. There was a beat of silence….
“Of course… I-... don’t know how much I could do to help, but I promise to try to help in any way I can..” He smiled, trailing his hand down to Moon’s, and he looked away again. He just hoped that the moonlight wasn’t bright enough to let Solar see his bashful face. He wanted to tell him that just being there with him was enough for him… to tell him that Solar’s kind, soft, and yet confident words were enough… and most of all, he wanted to tell him that he felt more like a brother then Sun has, but he refrained from saying any of that. Instead he simply smiled up at the eclipse and nodded.
“Thanks… now let's get back so Sun doesn’t throw a fit”
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Solar woke up.
It took him a moment to get fully oriented, rubbing his eyes tiredly. That was the 3rd dream like that this week…
He had been having… weird dreams ever since he woke up, some of them being from his own perspective, and weirdly enough, most being from Moon’s. Usually he didn’t remember them after he woke up, but this one seemed to last… though, the dreams weren’t the only things that were weird.
Life was…
It was certainly something… and the dream, which was starting to fade the more he tried to remember, was a clear indication of that.
When Solar first woke up in the lunar animatronic’s lab, everything was so different. He didn’t know that so much could happen in a little over half a year.
He peeled the covers off his body, stretching in the oversized PJs that were gifted to him from a certain animatronic.
Yes, that’s right, Moon gave Solar some spare clothes that he had, seeing how in the first couple days of working on the robots of his, his clothes really needed a good wash. Now, he wasn’t going to walk around naked while his clothes were being washed, so temporarily, the starry animatronic had given him clothes to borrow.
Well, he guessed Moon didn’t really go by Moon anymore. In the 7 months that he had been dead, many many things happened, which included the family shunning the animatronic out and replacing him with the Old Moon (How they managed to bring him back completely flew over Solar’s head). Now the animatronic’s name is Nexus . He adapted quickly to the new name, seeing how he was better with faces than voices. Anyway, not the point.
In the first day, or Solar guessed hour really after Nexus was done side cuddling him, which he found positively adorable for someone in his nature now, the first thing he did was ask what the plan was.
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“Plan? Oh right” To be honest, Nexus didn’t really think this far ahead. All he really planned for was getting the shard, and now that he had acquired it so easily… he didn’t really have too much in mind.
“Does it perhaps have to do with the papers on your workbench?” Solar asked, knowing the slightly sour expression on Nexus’s face like the back of his hand. As soon as he got up to look at the papers, Nexus’s eyes widened and he shot up to snatch the papers out from his line of sight. Fuck. He may or may not have forgoten about those plans , and no way in hell were they going to see the light of day… ever, and he would be damned if he let Solar see them. He quickly folded them in half, resisting the urge to just crumple them up into a useless and pathetic heap of paper and graphite.
“No, not those. Those are…” God dammit Nexus, think of something!!
“…Not finished. Once I’m done, I’ll show you the final plan of action once they are done.” He said, and Solar quirked an eyebrow and flashed a smirk, quickly catching on to the nervousness. He forgot how well the mechanic could see through him as if he were a shard of glass.
“Why are you saying it like you are some evil mastermind who’s planning to take over the world?” Solar joked, and Nexus bit his cheek. Well, he wasn’t going to break it to him… probably ever.
“ Ooo, look at me… I have to finish my top secret plans to take over the entire dimension via… I don’t know man, whatever powers I’ll pull from my ass??” Solar guessed wildly, completely ditching the whole mocking Nexus thing, which caught him off guard and he fought back a snicker.
“Ha ha, very funny.” He snarked, flicking the eclipse on the head before pulling himself back into his “serious mode”.
“Now, I have this robot army-” Nexus ignored the snort of amusement from Solar.
“-that needs to be looked over. For now, you can do that because you are good at robotics and shit” He finished, shooting him a glare before walking towards the door way.
“You should have my phone number if you need me…” He grumbled and Solar as quick to check his contacts. He was confused when he had a contact for… Moon and one for Nexus… odd.
“Hey, is there a reason for your name being ‘Noxious Nex, Puppeteering Pain and Nonsense’?” He asked, utterly confused why he would have his contact name like that. The other’s head was quick to spin around, and if he were human, he was sure that he would have died. The eclipse thought that the tall animatronic had said something under his breath before sighing.
“Just change it to whatever… besides that” He responded, not answering his question, and he walked out.
Rude.
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And so, for the past 5-ish days, Solar had been keeping an eye on the little robots, adding tweaks to help them perform better. The ones that sustained the most damage were the ones spying on whoever Nexus made them to spy on, and he couldn’t help but feel a little nervous. Some of the little bots were really banged up, but they seemed to beep in thanks wherever he finished fixing one of them. A little like a pet now that he thought about it… but that wasn’t what he was going to think about today. He just wanted a lazy morning today…
As Solar started to make his morning coffee, making sure to set aside another mug for Nexus, he caught movement in the corner of his eyes and all he needed to see was the flash of yellow, and looked back down at the grounded coffee. Dark Sun was not someone he was expecting to work with, but apparently more drastic events led Nexus to form a sort of partnership with him. Last time he heard anything about this Dark Sun character was when he asked Nexus to go into the portal all those months ago. How they went from wanting to avoid this Sun and failing to blacklist the dimension, to working and living in the same building as him completely flew over his head, but he had much faith in Nexus, so he wasn’t going to question the starry animatronic.
Ah right, speaking of living in the odd castle, it was quite the adjustment. Solar himself wasn't exactly keen on the idea of a room in general, but he definitely did not like the idea of living in an unfamiliar place with an unfamiliar person who was probably keeping an eye on his every move. Nexus made it at least tolerable. Speaking of people keeping an eye on others, apparently, as the tall starry animatronic had briefly mentioned, there was another, as he stated it, “the lacky”, who lived here. He didn’t know who it was, but all he knew was that Nexus didn’t want Solar anywhere near the other animatronic (or who he assumed was an animatronic. He didn’t know anything about them.)
The unmistakable smell of coffee burning filled the air, and as soon as Solar caught a whiff of it, he cursed and scrambled to turn the machine off. Dammit… Solar would have to make another batch.
And that he did, making sure to not have his thoughts wander. If he was going to do something, he needed to do it right…
Ah, that reminded him. He needed to-
Nope! Don’t get sidetracked.
After just aimlessly staring at the coffee rise in the pot, letting it get to 4 shots, he flicked the knob to the side, putting the cup of milk up to the steamer to let it… well steam the milk. Simultaneously, he poured the 2 of the 4 shots of coffee into a clean mug to the side, grabbing a second mug, one that was more used, and poured the rest of the coffee into it. He waited a little more before pouring the now steamed mug of milk into the mugs, half in one, half in the other. He debated for a minute before reaching up to the cabinet space above him to pull out the barely used caramel syrup, drizzling some into one mug, the more used one. Solar wasn’t much of a basterista, just he at least knew how to make decent coffee. Nexus always made better tasting coffee than him.
With two steaming hot coffees in hand, he made his way around the castle, idly sipping at the more caramel flavored one. Around and around he went, doing his best to remember where he needed to go before spotting the familiar painted metal hall. He made his way down it, his mind thinking about Nexus all the way down until he finally made his way into his lab.
There sat the lunar animatronic, head blocked by the monitor of his computer, angrily grumbling nonsense to himself as he typed away. Solar shook his head fondly and momentarily distracted Nexus by setting the untouched cup of coffee next to the keyboard, taking a peak at what the other was working on.
Before Solar could make sense of the strange blueprints on the screen, Nexus shot him a glare before closing out the tab. The former offered the latter an apologetic smile and he grumbled to himself as he rolled his eyes.
“What do you need, Solar?” He asked, spinning his chair so he could face him. The first the mechanic noticed was the tired and worn out look on the other’s eyes, something that had gotten progressively worse since the moment he noticed it, aka even since he woke up from his “long extended nap”.
“Oh come on, do I need a reason to spend time with my best friend?” Solar asked, and Nexus gave him another sigh. At least it wasn’t a scoff. One of the things that he had picked up quickly was that Nexus was different compared to before he died, and he didn’t just mean physically. He knew that he was different from the other Moon, and he didn’t expect him to act like him, but that’s not what he meant. He meant that he was a lot more distant. Much more reserved and harsher. Solar remembered that he was very kind, willing to help his family. He still was somewhat playful with Solar, just not as much as before. That and he was much much more moody.
But that was fine! Even if Solar was confused about many things, mostly about what the fuck happened when he died, he knew that something like what happened to Nexus would leave scars, so he never brought it up or addressed it.
“So… are you just going to stand there?” The voice brought Solar back to the present and he quickly noticed the bored look on Nexus’s face.
“Sorry, sorry. Just thinking…” with a moment's pause and no questioning from the taller bot, which Solar was silently thankful for, he pushed on.
“Do you need anything before I head out?” He asked and Nexus glanced at the computer. He could tell that he was debating something, but he shook his head anyway.
“Run along. I have important things to do.” He said plainly, and the mechanic fought back a frown. Yep, there was the harsher personality he didn’t miss. Nonetheless, he nodded and quickly shuffled out of the lab.
As Nexus watched him exit, he felt something spike in his chest, but ignored the feeling he could only guess was guilt . He didn’t need any petty feelings anymore. He wasn’t weak… Besides, the plan wasn’t to be nice to Solar, it was to separate everyone from Sun… and Solar was just another person in the way…
He needed to get back to work .
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Moon had his head in his hands and he heard his twin pace back and forth through the room. It had been almost a week since Solar had been kidnapped, and Moon hadn’t come up with anything to help their situation. Everyone had started to put their heads together to try and think about what they could do. The kids couldn’t do too much to help — Dazzle couldn’t defend herself, Jack didn’t have the advanced weaponry he needed to fight Nexus and didn’t think when he needed to, and Molten could only detain him — and Sun refuses to let them get involved, which everyone except the children themselves agreed with, so they were off the table to help. That left Sun, Moon, Lunar, Earth, and Monty. Earth couldn’t fight, and Moon didn’t know what Nexus could do to Lunar, seeing how he hand negitive star power, and didn’t intend to find out. That really only left Sun, Moon, and Monty to be fighters, Lunar only being there just in case to jump in.
Everyone was beyond worried and, understandably, annoyed. They had just gotten Solar back, now finally being able to call him a brother… just for him to be stolen right from their hands. Speaking of everyone, they all had an accurate reaction to the news…
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“Nexus did what??!!” Came the shout of the little Nutella lover, and Moon looked away shamefully. Sun rubbed his back, trying to comfort him, knowing damn well that he was blaming himself, and himself alone.
“I-I’m sorry! I know you guys just got him back… I-I was just… Nexus had me trapped with his powers a-and-“
“Moon, we don’t blame you…” The soft voice of Earth interrupted the currently more depressed animatronic and in the corner of his eyes, he saw Sun nod along.
“Why is everyone s-ad?” Everyone’s head snapped towards the pumpkin animatronic and Moon’s heart shattered into pieces. Jack was the reason he didn’t include any of the children in the conversation. He had just started to bond with his father and now that Solar had been kidnapped by someone who was almost impossible to find, no one was jumping at the chance to tell him.
“Jack…” only Sun was brave enough to speak up, and even then, his voice was wavering.
“Your dad… he was taken” Jack blinked at them before he practically teleported in front of Sun, eyes scarily emotionless.
“ Who?” He grumbled, growling growing from his chest. Sun flinched back, but Jack didn’t seem to notice. Either that, or he didn’t deem it important.
“…Nexus” And just like that, the little pumpkin was taking long strides towards the door. Sun was quick to grab him and hold him back.
“Jack, wait! You won’t find him in this dimension…” the usually anxious bot seemed concerned for the smaller, but he simply just ripped his arm out of his grasp.
“Then I’ll look in every single dimension until I find him! I’m going to kill him. That fu-“ Sun was quick to cover his mouth as he saw Dazzle on the bridge above them on the second floor. She looked nervous at the sight Jack aggravated, and to be honest, almost everyone did. Jack didn’t talk like this much. His voice didn’t have a hint of that robotic drawing out of words like before. Moon couldn’t blame him for his reaction. He blamed himself.
“Jack, you have to calm down. Moon and Solar had a way to locate their dimension. Then we can try and get your dad back.” Sun tried to rationalize, and even with Jack aggravated, he listened, though rather reluctantly.
But when Jack got his hands on Nexus…
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That was a long conversation, one that Moon didn’t really want to look back at. He looked up from his hands and quickly caught sight of Sun scratching at his hands, so much so that his paint started to come off. Dammit, that wasn’t good.
He quickly stood up and grabbed his brother’s hands with his own and inspected them, making sure that there wasn’t any damage done. He himself had rubbed his own paint off a couple times, and it was quite the hassle to repaint it. Fazbear has some specific paint that is quite limited.
Thankfully, it wasn’t that bad, but he still worried. Worried about every little scratch, paint flake, and scrape on Sun’s body. Whenever he found any damage on his body, he felt like a terrible brother, and what had been happening ever since he woke up, the feeling got worse and worse.
“Moon… I’m fine ” But even with his words, Moon just tightened his hold on Sun’s hands.
“I know… I’m just… nervous .” Sun sighed and intertwined his hands with his worried brother. As much as he wanted to seem like the strong big brother of the family, Moon was no less terrified about what was happening than anyone else. He just hid his problems better, and it was something that Sun had secretly envied.
It was quiet in the living room for a moment, the two brothers just simply holding each other. They both just enjoyed the warmth from each other.
“Do you think Solar’s…” Sun trailed off from that though, and Moon didn’t want him to finish, already knowing what he was thinking. Thankfully, he didn’t say the thing that everyone in the family had feared.
“I hope… I really hope he is keeping him around…”
Another pause.
“What do we do?” Came the quiet and anxious voice of who had broken the silence. Moon sighed tiredly and Sun rubbed his back in a soothing manner. In all honesty, he didn’t know what he could do. After all, he didn’t have many leads, he couldn't communicate with Solar, he didn’t know if Solar was even alive , and he didn’t know where he could find them to make sure-.
…
Wait, he did. He did know how to find them. Moon mentally slapped himself as he pulled back, a spark of newfound determination welling up in his chest. He had one lead. One small, minuscule lead, but it was one nonetheless. For all he knew, it could be a red herring, but this was the only thing he could do, and he wasn’t going to pass up this chance. He was going to get Solar back, his friend back, and he was going to kill Dark Sun and Nexus, or he would die trying. It all started with that debris that Ruin “mistakenly” dragged along with him. He guessed that was at least one of the reasons for him to join them. Remind him to punch, and thank, Ruin the next time he saw them.
Sun, who knew Moon all (most) of his life and literally shared a body with him, knew that look like the back of his hand. Moon had an idea, and whatever it was, the sunny animatronic was going to do his best to help, no matter what.
“What do you need?”
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“There we go, all fixed now”
Solar huffed, wiping the grease from his forehead before realizing that he just slathered on more due to the amount of oil on his gloves.
God dammit. Now he needed a shower…
Well, more than he did before.
With a sigh, he patted the smaller, 4 foot, less sentient, robot on the head, and it let out a chirp at the action. Personally, he found these little bots just slightly adorable. He knew damn well that Nexus hadn't made them like this, but they kind of reminded him of the wet floor bots in the pizza plex. Ah, speaking of the pizza plex, he missed everyone. Don’t get him wrong, he liked it here with Nexus: occasional banter, working on projects, other-things-that-Solar-was-sure-they-did-but-just-forgot-at-the-moment-because-he-just-spent-the-last-5-hours-fixing-all-the-little-robots, but at the same time… he missed Sun and his little quirks, Earth and her kindness, Lunar and his energy and childlike tendicies, and Jack . Now, when he died, Jack didn’t exactly have sentience, but sometimes when it was late at night and when Solar couldn’t sleep, he would think about how Jack would be if he was sentient. Maybe he would be silly like Lunar, or be protective like Nexus. Maybe he could be kindhearted like Earth, or strong spirited like Sun. He sighed as the chirp from the little robot below him reminded him of the task at hand.
“You go run along to the others, alright? I’ll see you tomorrow” He gave one more head pat to the robot, something that it loved, before standing up from his kneeling position he had been holding for quite some time and stretched. With one final wave, he started to head back into the egg thing , something he constantly questioned the design of to be honest. How the hell did that look like a castle inside???
As he made his way to his room, the entire trip there being a blur seeing how he had memorized the path and had basically turned on auto pilot, he smiled at the little rumba-things that Dark Sun requested he make. The castle was huge, and to be honest, when Solar woke up, he was surprised that there wasn’t more dust and grime everywhere, especially in Nexus’s lab. Of course, he had also been requested to make other little bots, for example security for if or when intruders come in, or just a cook for when someone got hungry, aka an excuse to have room service (Solar made that without a request), or even just another AI like the computer. He was thankful that he was able to keep himself busy here. He didn’t like to be alone with his thoughts with nothing to distract him with. It was something that he had always hated. Thankfully, when he didn’t have anything to work on, Nexus was somehow able to distract his thoughts when he was around.
He slipped off his gloves and goggles, tossing them lazily on the desk as he passed. He made quick work of his clothes as he entered the bathroom attached to his room. Usually, if and when he was in a hurry, he would just splash some water on his face and wipe the grime and grease off with a face towel. Now, not only was the towel in the wash, like everything he needed, but also he was so much more disgusting than how he usually was, and there was no way in hell he was going to let Nexus see him like this… He wasn’t going to let his best friend, the person who he had the highest opinions of, see him icky like this.
He turned on the water before stepping into the shower, letting the warm water engulf him and cover him up like a blanket. Yes, he was a warm shower kind of person. Have a problem with that?
He scrubbed away at all the discoloration and black spots on his body, watching the murky water off his body go down the drain and enjoying the warm water hug him close. Sometimes, when he wasn’t busy or dirty, he would take a quick shower before taking a bath. It helped his head calm down and clear his thoughts. Not only that, but it helped him think more on what he could plan on in the future. Usually, he would be much more stressed about thinking of the future, but whenever he was with Nexus, it felt like he was safe from any harm. It was funny really… from an outside perspective, it might have seemed like Solar was under a spell with how tranquil he was compared to before, but he guessed it was just the effect the starry animatronic had on him. That’s how it was before, after all. Nexus had helped him calm down even before Solar had died, and vice versa.
After several minutes, Solar reluctantly turned off the soothing warm water and grabbed his towel as he stepped onto the bath mat. After a moment of wiping all, if not most, of the moisture off his body, he slipped on the borrowed pair of clothes from Nexus. Something that Solar would never admit would be the fact that he isn’t too worried about his normal work clothes getting dirty partly because if they are too dirty to wear, he would borrow Nexus’s lounge clothes, something that he found quite comfortable. Yes, he liked the fluffy and slightly oversized clothes, shut up.
As he stepped outside of the bathroom and into his room, he quickly spotted a light peach colored sticky note attached to his own computer that wasn’t there before.
‘ Sol,
Once you are done in the shower, I need you to report to my lab. I need to test some things and would greatly appreciate your help.’
The note ended with a purple shard symbol instead of a signature and he raised an eyebrow. Nexus? Being formal ? That was a little new. Usually he would say something along the lines of “hey, robo twink, get your ass down here. I need your help”, or something. Though, he did like the nickname, something that hadn’t been used in what seemed like forever. Eh, whatever. Time seemed to be confusing ever since he woke up, and he wasn’t going to start questioning it now.
Solar folded the sticky note in half, then in quarters, sticking it in his pocket. He snagged the goggles and gloves on the way out, sighing tiredly as he resisted the urge to make another cup of coffee (how the hell did the caffeine even work for animatronics anyways?)
Back to work he went.