AN: Another new project! This one was actually found buried under a lot of old WIPs, and completely rewritten because I loved the idea. I's a bit of a longer chapter- around 5k- and I got lost in the weeds a bit, but I enjoyed writing it. I might come back and work on the ending, it feels a bit rushed in comparison, but not until I finish the next chapter of Lottery.

Minor warnings for some casual swearing, minor mentions of blood, and descriptions of self healing. Fairly obvious references to nuerodivergence in the two main characters.

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Andania blue screened. Tix was cradling what looked like a modified motorcycle helmet in her arms with far more care than it seemed to warrant, considering it looked like it could take on a hand grenade and come out in one piece.

He probably should have expected something like this sooner or later, if he was being perfectly honest. Between the two of them, Tix had always been the one capable of tackling any hurdle they came across, and she’d never left Andania behind in those goals. But something like this- this wasn’t just tackling a hurdle or climbing a mountain, this was borderline flying into the sun. And now that he was seeing the results with his own eyes, Andania wondered how he’d ever expected anything else.

See, Andania had met Tix right around the time he started developing memories, when both of them were still toddling around in pull ups. He didn’t remember much of it himself other than the time he’d actually spent with Tix, but both their parents told a nearly identical story.

No matter which set of parents you asked, they would inevitably admit to being lost with their then-youngest child. Andania and Tix had both been very quiet, reserved children with unusual interests. Crowded parks filled with screaming kids had them crying within the first half hour more often than not, but even nearly silent parks could leave them distraught for no discernible reason. Both of them had been happiest sitting alone in a quiet corner of the park stacking rocks or mulch while their parents kept an eye on the older children.

Both parents had been park hopping for at least a month, trying to straddle some balance between quiet enough for their youngest and busy enough for the older kids, when they stumbled across Evergreen Park. Andania was left alone beside the ‘creek’- a rut in the ground that collected into a steam barely half a hand-span wide after it rained, and lined with all kinds of gravel rocks. Tix was dropped of barely ten minutes later, along with some simple instructions. Play nice Tix, the other kid likes your rocks too.

One glance at each other and they’d clicked. They understood each other on a fundamental level even their parents had failed to grasp, both with words and without. Andania liked sorting his rocks by color, and Tix by shape and size, and they filled in the gaps without a word. Andania would hand over a rock with a mottled color but the perfect size for Tix’s pattern, and get an awkwardly shaped pink rock in return, and they would smile without forcing themselves to look the other in the eye. Tix could ramble for hours about robots and Andania taught her about the stars, and together they made stories about space ships and robots that studied other planets, and ran on heat and gas collected from the stars.

One parent looked over and saw their odd child with bright eyes and waving hands, and made it their mission to hunt down the other parent and drag them into play dates. The other looked over, and saw the same joy in their own oddball child, and folded like a house of cards. They’d been inseparable ever since.

After years of that, this shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Tix had grown up to be an incredible inventor- the kind of scientist that one would find in children’s cartoons, or playing the villain in a supervillain movie. She could pull apart a toaster and turn it into a computer during breakfast, and use the extra pieces to make a robot to butter her toast. Andania on the other hand, hadn’t grown up into an astronaut or an astronomer himself. Instead he’d turned his sights towards becoming an author, where he could explore everything that real life had failed to grant him. It was the closest he could get to his dream of traveling to other worlds, once he’d realized space didn’t lead to the same sort of worlds he’d been thinking of as a kid. And of course Tix, who hadn’t settled on her dream for a moment, wasn’t going to let Andania settle. She was just like him. It didn’t take much of an imagination for her to understand how lost she would be if she couldn’t work on her inventions anymore.

So when Tix held out the helmet, he took it with just as much care as she’d shown the device, and inspected it with the silent curiosity it deserved.

The headset was slightly thicker than a typical motorcycle helmet, and had significantly less padding inside, clearly built for style and practicality rather than comfort or genuine protection. The inner surface was split into five nearly indistinguishable areas, each secured with tiny screws to protect the complex wiring and circuitry he knew must be hiding underneath. The visor was opaque and bolted to the sides of the helmet, clicking into two positions when he tried to move it. The first settled in the standard position shielding the wearer’s eyes, and the second rested on top the helmet outside their field of view. It could have been mistaken for a windshield if it wasn’t for the thickness of the visor. It had to be a screen of some sort.

There were no obvious buttons or exposed wires to be found- not that he’d really expected any. Tix had long since mastered whatever hand tracking tech she'd invented, and at the absolutely worst case she might hand him a set of gloves to use with it. It just seemed... a little small, for what he suspected it was supposed to do.

"What's this?" Andania finally asked. Maybe he thought it was obvious what that text had meant, but “I have something that can solve all of your problems,” wasn’t very specific. It was a fairly reasonable size for an advanced VR headset.

“I made a machine to let you jump between realities,” Tix confirmed, entirely unrepentant at her flagrant ignorance of the laws of physics. Under normal circumstances she would have turned around and started tinkering again, but she didn’t even lean against her desk. This was serious to her. Not just virtual realities then- she wouldn't be so serious about something that was merely close.

“That sounds. Absolutely insane. Tix, my dear, my star, light of my life, I have never doubted you once in my life, but what have you done.” How much did she have to invent from scratch to make it this small? How much money had she spent perfecting a machine she would never sell, never make a penny back on, just to see how happy it would make him. How many nights had she spent crying in frustration over a line of code that just wouldn't work because of this?

“Dude, Andania, you’ve wanted this since we were in diapers. Of course I was going to figure it out eventually! I’ve spent like ten years working on this. I had to get it right eventually!” Tix grinned so wide her eyes crinkled at the edges, and ducked into his line of sight so she could look him in the eyes just long enough to wink at him.

Andania sucked in a deep breath, focusing on the slight burning in his lungs, instead of the way his eyes had begun to sting. “Tix, I love you, but I think there might be something wrong with you.”

“Please, that’s the whole reason we’re friends,” Tix answered automatically, tapping the outside of his forearm three times. He returned the gesture, tapping two-one-two on the inside of hers.

"Okay, first we need to decorate, and then you're going to put that on so I can show you how it works," Tix said once she'd pulled away, gesturing to the massive stack of orange and purple paints she had stacked in the corner. "What are you painting- stripes? Space?"

"A sunset," Andania nodded to himself, already moving to inspect the jars of homemade paint for just the right shades, comparing the painted pieces of paper glued to each of their tops. "Amber to royal purple, with a space theme on the darker side. Lots of colors."

Tix whistled low- and he was still so jealous of that, he’d spent months trying to learn how to do that- and pulled over a chair to grab the other set of paints. The ones that came in shades that couldn't be called a shade of orange or purple. This collection was much smaller since Andania wasn't quite as picky about their shades, and covered every other color in the rainbow in a few select shades. Next to his three shades of orange and four purples he placed a bold sunny yellow and one so pale Tix had once mistaken it for cream, an indigo and a cyan, a shade of green he called lightning that was borderline neon, a scarlet red, a rose pink, and a plain black and white to mix.

Tix sat back while he painted, only providing a steady set of hands or one of her shape templates when asked, instead moving to work on another project at her desk. It might have been her lab, but both of them had a desk in the other’s work room so they could sit together in silence or show off their latest project. Andania’s was lit up by the whitest lights Tix could make, with drawers for every notebook, pen, sheet of paper, or paint he could ever want. Both of them worked in near silence, soaking in the other's company without looking away from their respective projects until he'd finally finished.

The final project wasn't perfect, a fact that would have tormented him when he was twelve, but could be accepted with something akin to grace now. Colors were smudged by thumbprints or distorted slightly while drying, a minor drip here or there where he hadn't been paying attention, or used too much paint. He had the general impression of what he'd been going for though, and he'd done it himself. Obviously, that made it better than anything anyone else could have made. (He’d tried commissioning a piece once- the artist had gotten all the shades subtly wrong, and the memory still killed him. The art might be worse, but at least the colors were right.) As close to perfect as it could be, and a silent mark of ownership and pride. Earlier, the helmet had been Tix's creation, Tix's gift, but now it was officially his helmet. If Tix wanted another one she would have to build it from scratch, and he sincerely doubted she would bother.

He stood up, taking a moment to stretch before he turned towards Tix. It took a good fifteen minutes for her to finish the current stage her own project before he saw his chance, eagerly shoving the helmet in her face the moment her hands were free so she could ooh and awe appropriately.

"Oh, that's a cool looking galaxy cloud," Tix muttered, unfazed. She hesitated briefly before brushing a finger over a pristine, clear cluster of stars. "You made the stars different colors, they really stand out. And the navy highlights really make the purple pop."

Andania ignored the minor slip up- even if it was obvious to him that navy would never have been bold enough to create that particular effect. She’d caught most of the pieces he was proudest of at least. The clear stars, which had been difficult to prevent bleeding into the darker colors. The vibrant swirls of color in the clouds, the indigo and cobalt highlights used to carefully exaggerate regal purples and evening violets. The only thing she’d missed was-

Andania’s thoughts derailed as Tix inhaled sharply, turning the helmet to get a better view of the sunset top. There wasn’t much orange, regrettably- most of the golden amber shades were confined to just above the visor, or highlighting the wisps of delicately painted clouds. The gradient between them was relatively thin, but the colors were bold and expertly blended if he did say so himself. Amber and rose and pale spring green highlights, faint notes of cyan, just enough to make the rest pop into brighter focus. It had taken him ages to get just right, and e was incredibly proud of the final product.

Preening his ego would have to wait though- it had been hours since he was first handed the helmet now, and he was absolutely dying to find out exactly what it did and how it worked.

Tix seemed to sense his shift- or maybe she just noted the way he was all but vibrating with excitement- because she quickly shifted from admiring his artwork to handing back the headset and settling into lecture mode. He didn't have to be told twice.

The headset activated a few moments after he put it on, vibrating minutely as the screen lit up before settling back into stillness. The screen split into a dual colored logo he’d only seen on Tix’s personal projects designed specifically for him. The left side of the screen a soft lavender, and the right orange sherbet. The logo in the middle was a pile of clouds- three, Andania counted with a pleased smile- split down the middle with the colors flipped to contrast the background. It suited the sunset-space theme perfectly, and he could feel Tix's pleased smile, even if he couldn't see it.

He blindly reached for the nearest surface, tapping two-one-two against the surface of the desk, and earning three soft taps in return.

The logo disappeared, displaying a HUD in their place. Translucent lavender boxes sat above a baby blue background, a bolder ring of Amber highlighting anything he hovered his hands over. Tix gave him a moment to look over the very small collection of options- Inventory, Fast Travel, Return, Call, Options- before he finally bit the bullet and asked. "Okay, walk me through this- what am I looking at?"

Tix giggled, small and soft, and he could hear the slight creak of her seat that meant she was swinging her legs. “Pretty much what it says on the tin. Inventory lets you store a couple items in a room I made you, which should directly interact with the headset no matter where it is, although I haven’t been able to test it as much as I’d like. It can't do anything too large, but anything roughly the size of a backpack should work. You can retrieve your stuff whenever, and we can use it to exchange gifts while you're off traveling. I’ve left a couple things in there for you, so you don’t need to pack.”

“Fast travel is the actual transportation option, so I'll get back to that in a sec. Return is supposed to keep a record of where you've been so you can go back and visit without having to find it again- such as this lab, or the moon, or wherever," Tix made a gesture, assumedly waving, because he could feel the slight breeze as she moved. "It’s like an MMO map. Once your touch the teleporter you’re golden.”

“Options is mostly decorative stuff, and access to the technical stuff I need if I'm going to install any future updates. You can edit all the colors in there, but you shouldn’t need to mess with anything else." Tix hummed, and she was smiling so wide he could hear the way it stretched her mouth out, could feel her joy radiating through the space between them.

"Now, Fast Travel... it's a little difficult to explain. I tested it, it works, it's just... It's designed to take you to a midway space, like a void? And if you take off the headset there's nothing, but the headset can detect and highlight minute disturbances that aren’t visible to the human eye. Places where other worlds are jammed against that middle space. As far as I can tell these weak spots are stagnant, but I haven't mapped them- you and the headset should be able to manage that. Once you visit somewhere the headset should be able to label it, and drag you back and forth through Return."

Tix paused then, taking in a deep shuttering breath as she collected her thoughts. "The problem is, I don't know what's on the other side, or how safe it is. What little I've been able to test makes it seem like things just cease to age in the void. You can breath and you can move, but anything left there refuses to rot. I held my breath for twenty minutes without issue." Tix stopped for a moment, just giving that a moment to sink in.

"My best hypothesis? You step out of your own time line when you leave, and time just… Stops affecting you. Wounds seem to heal slightly faster, which is a relief, but anything caused here doesn't. It's like it's trying to right itself, self-correcting to when time last affected you. If that extends past the void and into the other thin spots, then you should be fine, better than fine even, but if it doesn't? ...You could die. You need to decide if it's worth the risk."

Despite the sound of Tix's stuttered breathing in his ear, Andania knew he'd never loved her more than in that moment. They’d always understood each other better than anyone else, but the fact that she'd given this to him despite knowing it could kill him, risking the loss of her best friend? She could have never told him, and he wouldn't have known it was an option. He could have lived out a content life as a writer, and she never would have risked losing him. But she knew how much it would mean to have a chance, knew he'd jump in head first and take the risk anyway, and she still gave him the tools to be a stubborn, suicidal idiot. Just because it would make him happy.

Andania couldn't quite hold in the tears, and he doubted Tix was having much success either. He was willing to risk everything for this chance though, no matter the outcome.

“Can I-” Andania started and stopped, forced to choke down the lump in his throat. “Is there a way to let you know? If I make it?”

Tix jolted, a painful noise ripping through her throat. “Yeah, I made you a phone that should work. It’ll only work with other phones of the same type if it’s trying to make a cross universe call, so let me know if you need an extra to hand out.” There was an awkward moment while Andania blindly tried to grab for the phone, almost slapping it out of her hand. The wet laugh that accompanied his fumbling was well worth the embarrassment.

There was an awkward moment of silence before Tix stood, grabbing him by the shoulders and turning him. "Go on ahead idiot," she spoke, voice filled with a slightly bitter form of joy. "Just call me afterwards, I'm sure you'll be fine."

Don’t call me before. I don’t want to hear you die.

Fair enough, I'll just have to be quick about it, then. "Hear you on the other side, Tix." Andania smiled, the brightest grin he'd ever worn, even if it was damp with tears. He tapped the table again, two-one-two, and waited for the three responding taps before he reached up and hit Fast Travel.

"Don't die on me, idiot."

The moment Andania hit the button the world seemed to shift, shrinking and growing all at once as the floor beneath his feet fell away. He couldn't see anything- the helmet surprisingly tightly molded considering Tix had never measured his face, as far as he could remember. It was probably a bad idea to try and peek anyways, considering he’d just ripped a hole in time and space. Generally not the sort of thing the human mind was good at processing.

The headset flickered back to life after a few minutes, colors he couldn’t begin to label spilling into sight. A portal spun in silence behind him, the center dusted in a dozen shades of orange and ringed with vibrant purple so bright it almost hurt to look at. Colors that screamed of home and possession in his mind. That was his way back. A small lavender diamond hovered just above the portal, a small indicator that he’d visited this portal before.

The biggest surprise was the lack of any surface to stand on. Maybe he should have realized that a space devoid of anything would also be devoid of gravity, but he still found himself hesitating when he first attempted to move. Half waiting for a floor that simply wasn’t there to just reappear if he thought about it enough. Every little shift he made left him feeling unstable, like he was going to spin off into the darkness and never be seen again. Yet he couldn’t dim the smile still plastered to his face. All of it, even the uncomfortable parts, were proof he wasn’t just seeing things. That it wasn’t just the headset messing with his mind.

Mindful of Tix waiting on the other side, Andania spun around, trying not to feel nauseous. (He’d never been super great with VR when he couldn’t feel himself moving, and this was a pretty big step up from that.) Several rifts nearby were decorated in similar colors to his home portal, hopefully a sign that the world on the other side was familiar enough to be safe.

It took a moment to figure out how to move without gravity- and some embarrassing swimming kicks and an accidental front flip- but he ended up in front of a pale yellow-orange portal with hints of navy circling the edges, and sunshine yellow fizz drifting out from it. Color wise he couldn’t see any better options. This one meant health and happiness, learning, and the calm of a silent night right before you fell asleep. And while he knew those colors were solely based off the chemical composition leaking through from the other side, it was also the only thing he had to go off of at the moment.

Andania shook his head and reminded himself that it didn’t really matter. He had no idea what he might find on the other side of any of these portals, and he’d told Tix he would be quick about it. That was more important than any color. He reached out with both hands, trying to swim forwards enough to actually slip through the portal, only for gravity to finally catch up with him. He had a moment to recognize that it had to be leaking through from the other side of the rift, and then he was being sucked through for a second time.

Andania landed with all the grace of a fish being thrown onto a sidewalk. Pulled through face first, he tried to throw his legs forward to catch himself, only to snag his shoes on something unforgiving. The collision itself was spectacular. His hands hit the concrete and shredded like he'd gotten into a fight with a cheese grater, his knees and half the shins of his jeans were similarly destroyed, although it felt like his legs had only suffered some moderate road burn. He toppled forward and smacked the helmet against the ground, causing lights to burst in front of his eyes with a cheery 'Nice fall dumb ass!' bruising his ego just as thoroughly as his body. Nice to see Tix hadn’t forgotten to program her sense of humor in.

He was alive though, he realized a bit belatedly. He couldn't see just yet- the headset had switched to self-repair mode after the fall, and he wasn't going to risk taking it off before it gave him the okay. He was clearly somewhere though. Somewhere with rocks and concrete, and his blood dashed across it- and Oh. Now THAT was an odd sensation.

Andania's hands and legs were tingling like he'd just been electrocuted. Was that a side effect of the transition? A difference in the air reacting badly to his injuries? Just blood loss and the beginnings of a panic attack slash meltdown? The headset cameras finally flicked on, and Andania was faced with the sight of his own rapidly closing wounds. The blood still on his hands trickled backwards to reenter his injury, skin pulling back in where possible so it could knit itself back together. An impressive red streak was left behind on the sidewalk, though, completely untouched by the odd effect. Well, that answered... Some questions, he supposed. Tix would be glad to hear that whatever time affect she thought was going on was happening on this end too. Did that make him immortal? A question he both did and did not want the answer to.

Thankfully, he had more important things to worry about at the moment.

Andania flicked the visor up on the headset so he could see properly, gingerly reaching into the pocket of his jeans for his new phone. There was a momentary pocket shuffle after he pulled out his old phone instead of his new and improved one, but soon enough he had an amber flip phone in his hand. A not insignificant part of him wondered if she’d built it Nokia-style with the expectation that he’d eat shit in the first thirty seconds.

Probably.

He flicked through to contacts with only some minor difficulties, and hit the call button on the only contact on his list. It connected half a second later, and both of them immediately started screaming.

"Andania you're alive!"

“Tix oh my god this is so friggen cool, I'm in another universe!”

"That's a sidewalk, that means there's life! I didn't just send you to a random rock!"

"It looks kind of normal but that doesn't mean it is for sure- oh my god do you think they have magic here?"

"Why is there blood on the sidewalk, are you hurt?!?!"

"I'mFineI'mFineI'mFine! I healed like you said!"

"Oh it sticks?! Oh man that would be so useful in hospitals if I could set up the transfer right, but I can't because Capitalism-"

"It felt weird but not meltdown level weird and I might be immortal which would be fucked up but also the colors of the portal were good and close to ours-"

"-would just abuse it anyways and steal all their resources and I'm not dealing with that bullshit."

"-which might make it safer than the blue or green ones, but the point is-"

"I still can't believe it worked! I mean I knew it would but-"

"It worked! It worked it worked it worked it Worked!"

Both of them broke into a fit of relieved laughter, just soaking in the presence of the other for a moment. Andania closed his eyes tight and shook his head, before deciding it wasn't enough. He shook his hands wildly, letting them flap in the air as he laughed, twisted and rocked and switched to rubbing his hands together so the slight metal scratch of his rings rubbed against the other hand. He could hear the tell-tale creaking of Tix's favorite chair, and knew she had to be bouncing and rocking just as much as he was right now. His insides were daffodil yellow and lightning green fizz, happy and warm and excited and curious. It was perfect.

"Thank you," he smiled, words unsteady as he still gasped for breath. He tapped against the base of the phone, two-one-two, and beamed at the three rapid taps he heard back.

"What's it like then?" Tix finally asked, sound more relieved than genuinely interested. Andania took in the silent plea, and happily obliged.

"I haven't looked around much, honestly! Figured I’d let you know I was okay first. Want to find out together?" Andania asked, noting the hum and three taps that followed. She was done being verbal for now, then. two-one-two. "Okay, then, lets take a look then!"

Andania spun around, taking in the... admittedly very normal parking lot. "The grass isn't even a different color, what kind of cop-out is that!" Andania exclaimed, throwing up a silent middle finger when he heard Tix cackling on the other end. He tried not to curse much, despite Tix's own foul language- developed from far too many shocks and cuts over the years- but the middle finger was his one exception. It was the third finger from either end, which counted as an exception in his book.

He let himself ramble for as long as he could, noting street names, buildings, cute dogs he passed, anything that he could conceivably talk about to fill the air. Tix hummed along absently, probably working on another project. Something calming and repetitive, more clicking pieces together and turning screws than actual thought. Andania took the time to walk up and down the streets. He'd been dropped in what looked like a small city, with a couple multi-story businesses that weren't tall enough to be called a skyscraper, but a little too large for the place to be called a town anymore. He walked past a newspaper at one point and confirmed that it was still written in English, a problem he hadn't even considered until then. Tix helpfully pointed out that the signs had also been written in English, and Andania made sure to show off his favorite finger again.

It was a little over two hours later when Andania stumbled across what looked like a gigantic mall at first, and was confronted with the sudden realization that he knew where he was.

"Tix, is that- tell me that isn't a five nights at Freddy's restaurant. You play those games still, right? Tell me that isn't one of the ones from the games," Andania begged, half distraught and half thrilled at the discovery. Tix made a dissenting noise, and Andania flicked down the visor for a second, unsure if she couldn't see it, or if she was trying to show him something.

It was the latter, it seemed. The screen had split in two, the building in front of him still visible on the left in all it's glory, and on the right a digital copy so perfect that they overlapped with only the textures marking an obvious difference. Shortly after Tix sent through a couple of screenshots. Drawings of Freddy holding a little kid in his stomach, running away from someone in a bunny suit. A picture of an alligator robot, and a cool looking wolf, and half a dozen pictures of a set of sun and moon robots Andania vividly remembered from Tix's three month hyper focus on them. The self-transforming robots that inspired her to make light and temperature changing paint, which Andania had promptly hoarded for personal reasons.

Their bedroom switched orange in the daylight and purple at night, with stars that swapped between gold and indigo, and Andania had spent nine weeks silently thanking those two robots for it.

"I'm getting a job at Five nights at Freddy's," Andania declared immediately, only grinning wider at the distressed noise that followed. "No, seriously, listen. As far as we know I'm functionally immortal. They can hurt me, but I can't actually die, and I'm not dumb enough to be a night guard. I'll work in the daycare with the color changing ones if I can, and I'll probably end up a janitor if I can't." he ignored her pained whine, his glee jumping up another notch when he realized he had the perfect finishing move. "Besides, I doubt anyone but Fazbear entertainment would be willing to hire someone with absolutely no paperwork. I need to earn money somehow Tixie!"

Andania's grin brightened to something that could have been mistaken for innocent, and he relished the sound of Tix's head smacking against her desk. "Oh look, they even have a sign! Now hiring Daycare Attendant. Now isn't that just conv-" The phone let out a low beep, flashing a battery symbol across the small screen before going dark. Andania stared in silence for a moment, mentally backtracking. He'd only been talking for, what, and hour and a half? Two?

Tix had always been pretty bad at remembering to charge things, but this seemed like an odd thing to forget. Maybe it took more power to reach Tix than he’d expected? It was a pretty long trip after all.

The world continued to turn in silence. He could go home if he wanted to. Tix would still be there, sitting at her desk and working on some project. He could go back home, lay down in his bed and forget about leaving. His headset had plenty of power still, even if his phone had died.

He wanted this, though. He'd wanted it for as long as he could remember. Wanted it so fiercely that the mere thought of leaving made him sick to his stomach. Tix would wait, or she'd get impatient and build another headset just so she could visit. Tix would wait until he charged his phone and called her back with a hundred stories of all the cool things he'd seen that day. Things like the animatronics. She was probably sitting at her desk right now scribbling in a notebook, trying to figure out the logistics of how they would work. She would be fine without him for a while.

A little bubble of that familiar excitement bloomed to life in his gut as he thought about staying. On the surface it was just the same thing he'd always done. Get a job, find a place to stay, buy food, and generally try to survive. But in practice? Ghosts were real. Semi-sentient robots might be real. Someone might try to kill him, which really shouldn't have been as exciting as it was. He could rob a bank and run back home with all the money and not have to deal with the consequences. He could try to jump the border to another country. He could backpack across America. Long term consequences were minimal across the board. as long as he didn't let anyone else touch the helmet. There was so much he could do here, so much he could try. And that was without considering the hundreds of other rifts and tears he’d seen on his way here.

Deep breath in, deep breath out. Three taps against his thigh. This was fine, this was good. He just needed a plan. He needed to learn more about machines, obviously, so he could tell Tix all about the animatronics. No- he needed a place to stay, and then he needed to learn about machines. He could do that, he just needed a job. And he had the perfect one right in front of him.

Applying for Fazbear’s Pizzaplex was easier than even he’d thought it would be. The moment he’d mentioned applying to one of the random bots rolling around, he was whisked off to another area of the building for his interview. Daycare workers were generally the sort of people you wanted to have documents and an education, but when Andania quietly admitted his complete lack of identifying documents to the person interviewing them, he was shuffled off to another room to wait for one of the higher ups. It took a few hours to get one of them on video call, but once Andania had explained, a verbal contract was drawn up.

Ten years of work at the pizzaplex in exchange for a few less-than-legal documents, plus standard pay. He couldn’t quit until the ten years were up or he wouldn’t get his documents, and if he tried to sue them afterwards- well, they knew his documents weren’t entirely legit. In the meantime, one of the owners happened to own an apartment building near the pizzaplex, who would be willing to rent him an apartment. No down payment, and a slight discount for the first month.

If Andania didn’t know exactly what sort of disaster the Fazbear franchise was used to dealing with, he probably would have been more suspicious than he was. As it was, the biggest risk was being murdered by a robot- something he stood a decent chance of being immune to. And he could run off early if he wanted to, back to a world where he did have all his legal documents, at the drop of a hat. At that point, the rest was just hazard pay.

It wasn’t perfect, and he probably could have argued better if he’d taken the time to step back and think things through, but it was a start. He had his safety net in case things went wrong, he had a job, and he had what sounded like a below average apartment all to himself for the time being. He didn’t need much more than that, honestly, and Fazbear’s paid well. Probably had to, what with all the rumors surrounding the place. In a few months he could probably move to one of the better apartments, even if he couldn’t move out entirely for another ten years.

He was being shown his new apartment around the time the sun went down, and it was just about what he’d imagined. A single bedroom, barren of everything but the oven and a fridge that occasionally rattled. The room didn’t have any obvious water stains, thankfully, and there were no signs of an infestation, which was more than he was expecting honestly. It was an obvious downgrade from what he’d shared with Tix, but that was pretty much expected. They’d owned a house together, and even if an apartment could compare, it wouldn’t be his. Still, it was livable and cheap, and that was all that mattered for the moment.

There wasn’t much he could do to spruce the place up that night, restricted to whatever Tix had prepacked, but it wasn’t a terrible set-up. There was a charger for his phone and the headset, a couple of quick shelf-stable meals to pick through, a few pillows and blankets, and some much needed writing supplies.

It wasn’t the high life by any means, but the floor wasn’t too bad with a couple blankets acting as a buffer, and he wasn’t going hungry. He’d gotten his phone back online and texted Tix a few small requests for in the morning- shower stuff, towels, a lunch box, the little things. It was quiet, and he couldn’t help but smile.

That first night saw him laying on his makeshift bed, staring out the open blinds into a foreign set of stars. He couldn’t tell if they were different from the ones he grew up with, between the light pollution and his general lack of knowledge on his current location, but he imagined they were. A whole new set of starts to learn. It felt a bit like loss, and a bit like hope.

He’d been asked dozens of times why he wanted to do this- mostly by Tix over the years- and he’d never been able to explain it right. He couldn’t explain the tangled mess of hope and fear and joy that sat knotted in his stomach, or why it felt right. It just was, the same way he was a guy. Some things just made sense.

He’d have to try and explain it to Tix again in the morning, he decided. Maybe he’d figure it out by then.