Nexie (Story)

"Ge-Get ready for a surprise!" Beware that this page may contain spoilers for related material. If you are new to anything, like if you have not played the games or read the books yet, please read at your own risk!

Not what you were looking for? See the book or animatronic of the same name.

Nexie
Information
Appears in	Tales from the Pizzaplex 6: Nexie
Author	Andrea Waggener
Genre	Horror
Pages	73
Chronology
Series	Tales from the Pizzaplex
Previous Story	Bobbiedots, Part 2
Next Story	Drowning

“Astrid doesn’t tell anyone about the strange things her Buddytronic doll has been up to.” — Summary, Tales from the Pizzaplex #6: Nexie

Nexie is the first story of Tales from the Pizzaplex 6: Nexie and chronologically the Tales from the Pizzaplex series' 16th story. It was written by Andrea Waggener.

Characters

Humans

• Eriksen Family
  • Astrid Eriksen
  • Mr. Eriksen
  • Astrid's Mother
  • Astrid’s Farfar (Grandfather)
• Geena's Family
  • Geena
  • Geena's Mother
• Brooke
• Jolie
• Remy's Family
  • Remy
  • Remy’s Father
  • Remy’s Mother
• Johnny
• Hugo
• Price Family
  • Warren Price
  • Mr. Price
• Camilla Palmer
• Brett
• Miss Hallstrom
• Karen
• Vince
• Mr. Mullins
• Roberta
• Fran's Family
  • Fran
  • Fren
  • Unnamed Mother
• Kai (Mentioned)

Animatronics

• Buddytronic Dolls
  • Nexie
  • Lexie
  • Funtime Foxy (Buddytronic)
  • Circus Baby (Buddytronic)
  • DJ Music Man (Buddytronic)
  • Montgomery Gator (Buddytronic)
• Glamrock Endo
• Freddy Fazbear

Locations

• Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex
  • Buddytronic Boutique
  • Arcade
  • Fast Freddy
  • Roxy's Raceway
  • Fazbear Theater
  • The Storyteller's Tree
  • AR Booth
  • Animatronic Parts Shop
  • Repair Facility

Summary

Astrid goes to the Mega Pizzaplex to buy a Buddytronic doll. As her doll is being made, the Storyteller's Tree glitches, producing an ugly malformed doll named Nexie. At first Astrid is happy with Nexie, but Nexie soon says mean things about Astrid and attacks Astrid's bullies. Nexie convinces Astrid to sneak into the Pizzaplex to get a new endoskeleton and skin for her. The next day, a large endoskeleton wearing Astrid's skin cut and stitched together walks into school, carrying Nexie.

Plot

Astrid is a fourth grader who wears hand-made clothes from her family and has gifted knowledge in building things. When she was really little, her mother moved across the country to become a model, something her father didn’t approve of. Astrid won free tuition to an expensive private school when she took first place in a math and programming competition. Although the teachers are nice, Astrid is considered a weirdo by the kids. Astrid is constantly bullied by all of her classmates except Remy, the son of the richest man in the county. Remy has to pretend not to like Astrid to maintain the image his parents want him to have.

All of the kids in Astrid’s school have Buddytronics, two and a half feet tall plush toys with animatronic endoskeletons and processors that allow them to talk and move. Due to her lack of friends, Astrid desperately wants a Buddytroninc, but they cost a thousand dollars. She’s constantly looking over at the Pizzaplex’s Buddytronics Boutique and watching kids pick out the features for their toys, which are then placed into a machine and programmed, with a large computer screen above the machine displaying an image of what the toy will look like, much like a Build-A-Bear. For her ninth birthday, she writes notes to her relatives asking for money. When her birthday arrives, she’s $120 short of what she needs. She cries and her farfar (the Swedish name for grandpa), despite not being a fan of modern technology, agrees to give her $120 since she likes the doll and he wants her to be happy.

When they arrive at the Pizzaplex, they find the place in chaos as the Storyteller’s Tree is constantly turning on and off, causing numerous glitches. Astrid and her farfar make it to the Buddytronics Boutique, but an employee stops them as she believes they need to shut down. Astrid’s farfar convinces the employees to let Astrid make one, and she picks features that resemble her mother, picks out a nice outfit, and names her Lexie. No one watches how the machine builds Lexie, so when it finishes Astrid discovers a hideous and disproportionate doll. Astrid is at first disgusted, but begins to think about how her mother abandoned her. A few years prior, Astrid overheard her father talking about her and using the word accident. She feels that she didn’t deserve to be rejected, so neither does the doll. When the doll is turned on, she introduces herself as Nexie. When Astrid introduces herself, Nexie explains that Astrid means beautiful.

The next day, Astrid takes Nexie to school. A bully named Warren kicks Nexie and calls her uglier than Astrid, causing a crowd to form and make fun of both Astrid and her doll. Astrid kicks Warren to get Nexie back, causing her to go to the principal’s office. At home, her farfar suggests returning Nexie, but Astrid refuses. Nexie claims that the boy was right and she is ugly, and since he called Astrid ugly they could be ugly together. Astrid is confident in her appearance and tries to explain to Nexie that kids just don’t like people who are different, but Nexie says that Astrid should match the meaning of her name. Astrid reads Nexie a story, but Nexie takes away from it that she needs to change her appearance in order for people to like her, and asks Astrid to fix her arms and legs. She also claims the torso needs to be longer, a new face is needed, and the hair needs to be smooth.

Astrid visits the Pizzaplex’s Animatronic Parts Shop and gives the woman working there, Roberta, a list of parts. Later, once her farfar went to bed, Astrid takes Nexie to her farfar’s workshop and gets to work, making small slits in Nexie's plastic skin so she can remove her limbs and put them in the right spots. Once finished, however, Nexie claims that she’ll need a whole new body as the proportions aren’t right. Nexie states that they’ll have to cut off the skin and put it on a new skeleton. Astrid isn’t sure how that would work, so Nexie takes a pair of toy scissors and removes the skin on her hand, showing it is possible. Still, Astrid isn’t sure how she’ll be able to get a new endoskeleton for Nexie.

The next day, despite receiving praise for fixing her limbs, the kids still make fun of Nexie’s face. Nexie claims that she has pictures of pretty girls in her database and has determined that big and far apart eyes, a wide mouth, and checks that show bone structure are pretty. Astrid can’t help but notice that, despite Nexie talking about herself, that her features are also the complete opposite. Still, she remains confident in her looks. Later, as Remy, Astrid, Camilla, and Geena are walking down the stairs, Remy watches as Nexie flies out of Astrid’s grasp and lands right at Camilla’s feet. She trips and nearly falls off the railing, but Remy and his friend pull her back up. When the principal comes to check on her, Remy defends Astrid and claims to have seen Nexie slip out of her hands.

At home, Astrid concludes that Nexie was acting out over her looks. She decides to call the parts shop and explains she wants a new body and skull for Nexie, but Roberta tells her that Fazbear Entertainment keeps the endoskeletons for company use only. As for building one, the only place where all the parts needed for a complete endoskeleton is the Fazbear repair facility under the Pizzaplex, but it’s top secret. Nexie insists on going there, but Astrid knows she needs a keycard to get in. Nexie says that longer fingers are better and once again reminds Astrid the meaning of her name. Nexie says everything she wants to do is for her. Astrid’s farfar arrives and surprises her with a new Buddytronic doll identical to the original Lexie. When he leaves, Nexie bites Lexie’s forehead and rips the skin off, then crushes the endoskeleton. In horror, Astrid says they could have used its endoskeleton, but Nexie says it was wrong.

At school, Warren tells Astrid she has beady eyes, and she begins to think that maybe her looks also contributed to her not fitting in. Astrid spends the entire class thinking about it, concerning her teacher and Remy. After school, Remy spots Warren repeatedly shoving Astrid to make her lose balance. Remy tries to step in, especially when he notices how close to the road they were getting, but Nexie falls out of Astrid’s grasp and disappears amongst the cars. Astrid tries looking for her as Warren taunts her, and Remy decides to help. He eventually finds Nexie crouched under one of the cars, and he watches in horror as the doll pounces on Warren’s leg and bites down, ripping away a huge strip of Warren’s flesh and exposing bone. Warren screams as Astrid takes Nexie and slowly walks away.

Later that day, Astrid convinces her farfar to take her to the Pizzaplex. Astrid is now a little afraid of Nexie and is desperate to get her what she wants as quickly as possible. She excuses herself and begins to look around for an employee to steal a keycard from. Eventually, she finds an employee distracted by a couple of twins fighting and steals his keycard. Later, once her farfar went to bed, Astrid calls the parts shop and tricks Roberta into giving her information about the repair facility. She learns that it’s only open between nine and five, meaning they weren’t there at night, so Astrid sneaks in just as the Pizzaplex closes at 11:00 p.m. As Astrid sneaks around, she thinks about how her insecurities have been building. Using Roberta’s instructions, Astrid finds the door leading to the stairs to the repair facility. The long, rectangular room is full of endoskeletons and parts. Nexie points to one that only needs a few joints and a skull, and Astrid completes it. Nexie approves and pulls out her scissors.

Remy misses a few days of school due to the biting incident, which others assume was an animal attack, and spends those few days worrying about Astrid. He sees Nexie being carried into the classroom by what he assumes is Astrid, but when he hears multiple screams he looks back and is horrified. Pieces of Astrid’s body were crudely cut apart and stretched over a much taller and broader body. The skin on the longer hands and fingers were nearly translucent, and ragged black stitches sew the skin together. Astrid’s blonde hair was smoothed over the top of a large skull, and her face was stretched out to give her wide eyes set further apart, a drawn out mouth, and flattened cheeks. Dried blood crusts the seams connecting her pasty white face. Nexie smiles as the rest of the kids shriek or flee. Remy watches Astrid’s mouth open and mumble the words “Perfect now.”

Trivia

• When Astrid and her farfar go to the Mega Pizzaplex to get Nexie, they pass by a crowd of people watching "the boy in the glass dome". After Nexie is created and Astrid and her farfar pass by the crowd again, cheers erupt and they look back to watch. In Tiger Rock, the boy is revealed to be Kai, who was trapped in the glass dome of the VR attraction.
  • Conversely, in Tiger Rock, Kai describes one of the people in the crowd to be a little girl with her grandfather and a strange-looking doll, referring to Astrid, her farfar, and Nexie.
• Strangely, Warren has a completely different fate in the story's audiobook. Instead of bitting down on his leg, Nexie instead pushes Warren into Remy’s mother's car, which had sped into the school zone. Warren is later said to have died in the hospital, and Remy stays home to be emotional support for his mother.