Chapter Text
Sun had been following Vanessa around all morning, squealing about how her vitals were all 'extremely concerning' and that she 'absolutely, 100% needed to debrief' with him. So here she was, laid out on the floor of his domain while he tried method after method to get her to relax.
Stacking blocks hadn't worked, drawing hadn't worked, talking about her feelings hadn't worked - for how good Sun was at taking care of kids, his skills didn't seem to pass over to anyone over 10. But when Vanessa checked her watch and realized her break was over, Sun had refused to let her leave.
"Miss Vanessa, you're in no state to be wandering around right now-" he'd said, wringing his hands nervously. "W-What if you get hurt? O-Or hurt someone?"
"I think I know what's best for me, thanks," Ness muttered, rolling her eyes as she tried to push open the painted gate sealing the play area off from the rest of the Daycare, but it didn't budge. "Sun. Let me out."
"I- I simply can't let that happen, Officer Vanessa. M-My programming puts the safety of children first. I won't let you out until y-you calm down."
Vanessa was sprawled in the Daycare, the multi-coloured foam squares carpeting the ground she lay on.
Despite all the tampering she'd done with Sun's systems over her few months at the Pizzaplex, the bot sure seemed adamant about his primary purpose as a caregiver. She'd managed to completely disable his emergency systems for a few hours every evening, which he dubbed 'Therapy Time', when she'd creep her way into the Daycare to vent to him about whatever poor kid she'd brutally killed this week without him pulling the alarm. Perhaps those little sessions had fueled her ego too much, because now she was being talked down to like a child in the middle of a playground.
"Okay, so- the other methods aren't working, I- I've been downloading other content to try and fix you-"
"Fix me?!" Vanessa snapped, sitting up.
"- and we tried the journaling, the yoga... let's do the meditation!" Sun clapped jovially, hopping from foot to foot. "Now lay back down, place your palms flat on the ground, and take some deep breaths..."
This is stupid. This is dumb. This isn't going to do anything.
"Now close your eyes and just... imagine. Imagine you're somewhere else..."
Sun's voice faded away. Vanessa tried to sit up, but she couldn't move. She couldn't open her eyes. She couldn't talk. And then she fell unconscious.