[PI] Five Nights At Ceres: Night 1

Original Prompt: Tonight is the very first night at your new job. You receive a phone call/message from a colleague to talk you through the basics, but as they speak, a sense of dread starts to fill you as you realize that this job puts you in a "Five Nights" style situation.

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Hello? Are you there?

Ah, good. Settling in alright, miss Shale? I know this is a late hour for work however I say it, but the night security operator position is our best entry-level position that was open right now.

Right, let's start with the main welcoming spiel... "Welcome to Ceres' Hangar-Out, a space guaranteed to leave you stuffed and starstruck! Enjoy the performances and personalities of our cutting-edge animatronic associates as you while the day away!"

Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, let's cut straight to the point. Those animatronics have been rumored to act... off during the night shift. I don't even know where Management got them, or where he got the idea for these hybrid aliens, but the last guy who was in that office vanished with only a clip of Venus Vixarant dragging him away into a camera blindspot to show for it.

Speaking of Venus, she and Mars the Mantid are usually the first to act out during the week. Thankfully, they seem to have a pattern of approaching the security doors at the sides and front of your office. Venus tends to approach from the left, and Mars frequent the rooms towards your right. Should be simple enough to just shut a door in their face.

But then... there's the main masterpiece herself, Ceres Chiraptor - the bat-dino lady in the middle. She's pretty crafty, and... well, in case those mag-lock doors¹ jam in the closed position, there's a trapdoor in the closet behind you that comes out inside the Hologram Hall hyper-reality venue² on the second floor. It's a blindspot in your cameras, it's practically impossible to seal from the inside, and... Ceres has been just barely caught darting inside there, in some of the clips we have from just before a night guard went missing.

I know what you're thinking; "Why do we keep hiring night guards, then?" Well, some conspiracy theorists link the days the position isn't filled to... incidents in the surrounding area.

Fortunately, there is something I've always noticed about Ceres. You see, she was always found turned away from the windows with her eyes futzing out and her mood twitchy and irritable at a certain time of day, which we found out was because of the sun shining through one of the boothside windows and directly into her optics. When she subsequently lashed out at a guard and got a faceful of flashlight, we found out she had a persistent glitch when any kind of intense, concentrated light shines right into her eyes like that. Camera flash, sun rays, strobe - they all give her a distinct combination of "get it out of my face" and "where the heck am I going?"

How does this help you? Well, each camera in the establishment is equipped with a flash beacon - you know, to get a better look at any intruders. While the others just lock up if you flash them with a camera, it's especially effective on Ceres. She's practically guaranteed to get confused and stumble off to another camera to let her optics reboot - usually one that's farther away from Hologram Hall. Takes a while to recharge, though, so be careful.

Right, that should be everything. Thankfully, the building's main capacitors³ have a backup battery in the closet behind you, even if it takes a while to recharge, so with a proper balance of using anything powered and just using your eyes, you shouldn't have any trouble!

Alright, talk to you tomorrow, Ms. Shale.

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1: The quintessential powered doors of many Five Nights games.

2: I was inspired by the Void, a VR venue at the mall Rec Room that has regrettably been inactive for quite some time.

3: Ah, yes, the power limitation mechanic. The backup battery takes a bit of inspiration from the generator mechanic in Five Nights at Wario's 2.