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"Ge-Get ready for a surprise!"
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“Something about the Springtrap costume in the roleplaying area of Freddy Fazbears Mega Pizzaplex chills Luca to the core.” |
Pressure is the second story in Tales from the Pizzaplex 3: Somniphobia and chronologically the Tales from the Pizzaplex series' 8th story. It was written by Andrea Waggener.
Characters[]
Humans[]
- Luca's Family
- Luca
- Luca's Father
- Asher's family
- Asher
- Asher's Father
- Maddy
- Nolan
- Grayson
- Mr. Weinberg
- Kenny's Family
- Kenny
- Kenny's Parents
- Earl
- Remy
- Valerie
- Adam
- Amy
- William Afton (mentioned)
- Unnamed Roleplayers
Animatronics[]
Locations[]
Plot[]
Luca is a 17-year-old who wants to coach in the NFL and is on track to do so. When Luca was younger, his four-year-old friend Kenny was kidnapped and murdered. This resulted in Luca having a horrible dream where Kenny cries out for help, but Luca always arrives too late. Asher and Maddy moved in a year later, and Luca became best friends with them. He became friends with Nolan during junior year, but his friendship began to falter when Nolan began dating Maddy and both of them changed for the worse. Nolan had known Luca was in love with her, but simply made a snarky remark and made his move. Meanwhile, Asher began to take interest in acting, and his behavior changed to reflect that.
The high school seniors make their way through the Costume Closet in Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex’s Role Play venue, "Urban Legend Role Players Auditorium,” where they pick out costumes based on certain scenarios and enter a set to play them out. Luca has done his research on the children that went missing and he believes that the video games and roleplay scenarios were created by Fazbear Entertainment to reenact the rumors associated with the company in order to dissuade the public from believing in them. Luca also believes that the animatronics were haunted by the ghosts of the missing children and the events of the games are real, but his friends call him a conspiracist.
Luca spots a group of little girls arguing over a Chica costume as his friends choose the scenario "Green-Eared Killer,” where three teens break into Fazbear's Fright Haunted House and have to escape Springtrap before they’re killed. Luca wants to be a security guard and a hero, but the scenario doesn’t call for it and his friends pressure him into being Springtrap. Luca knows that William Afton was the one who killed the kids and the real Afton got trapped in a rabbit suit and eventually died inside of it. According to Fazbear lore Afton's corpse came back to life as Springtrap, and his experience with Kenny makes Luca uncomfortable with putting the suit on, although he never tells his friends this in fear that they’ll mock him. The suit is crusty and scummy, and its awful smell further adds to Luca’s discomfort, but eventually he caves.
Luca puts the suit on, noticing that the fur and the metal skeleton beneath it stretched to accommodate for his height. As they’re waiting to start the game, Luca notices the three girls from earlier now in a Chica, Freddy, and Foxy costume. Behind them, a Fazbear employee named Earl creepily watches, but before Luca can find another employee to voice his concerns he gets distracted and Earl disappears. His friends pull him to the “Green-Eared Killer” staging area, which is a replica of the original Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria with some elements of the Fazbear’s Fright Haunted House. Asher reads off the instructions to the game, informing Luca that he has to start off in the Safe Room, where he’ll be locked inside with a fake knife until the game starts. Luca nods his head, but when he does something scratches his neck.
Luca notices that the halls to the safe room are filled with sounds of children crying and begging, making Luca even more uncomfortable. He's released from the room and finds his friends in the dining room. Suddenly, a performance starts before knocking the power out, and Luca decides to make his move. He chases Maddy down to Pirate’s Cove, where a statue of Foxy jumpscares both of them. Luca jerks back, causing something to clamp around his thigh. He tries calling out to his friends, but they run away as he begins to bleed. Luca makes his way to the Parts and Service Room, where Nolan attempts to attack him with an animatronic leg, but Luca grabs it and throws it back. As he pursues his friends, the suit shifts and something gouges his ribs. His friends run into an office and play a Balloon Boy audio distraction before escaping. Luca bends down to examine a vent, but he hears a snap as something sharp digs into his hip.
Luca has had enough and remembers that the exit only opens if the timer runs out or if all four players choose to end the game, which is difficult with them in the vents. Something pierces his stomach, and he tries to take the suit off, but more parts of the suit puncture his chest, solar plexus, and lower abdomen. Luca screams in pain, getting a reaction out of Maddy, and he tracks his friends down to a vent in a party room near the arcade. Luca knows what springlock suits are, and that they were discontinued not long after their creation due to the faulty locking mechanisms. Luca is certain he’s wearing an original suit, and can very easily end up like William Afton.
Luca grabs Maddy by the arm and tries to tell her what is happening to him, but the head of the suit clicks as metal pierces through his entire head. He screams in pain and Maddy breaks free, and when he tries calling out for help the metal clasps curled into his mouth and through his lips makes speech difficult and fills his mouth with blood. They run away and Luca tries catching up, but he trips over multiple things in his path causing more of the springlocks to go off in his arms and legs. His friends stop, but they believe it’s just him acting.
Luca tracks his friends down to the dining room, where they play a voice line from Nightmare BB. He tries running up to them, but his fractured legs cause him to trip and roll down the hall instead. His friends run off and Luca stumbles into the backstage area. He begins thinking back on his life, eventually remembering a camping trip he had with his father at the start of his senior year. Luca’s friend was arrested for grand theft auto, and his father explains how peer pressure causes a person to act in certain ways. He snaps back to the present, taking the pain back with him, and collapses in a storage room as he hears the exit open. Asher, Nolan, and Maddy leave the game and decide to get pizza. Nolan assures Asher that, if Luca really is smart, he’ll find them.
Luca wakes up and makes his way backstage. He sees a few costumes swaying and he hides behind the curtain of the stage as three kids enter the dining room. Luca realizes the new game means his friends left him for dead. He hears something behind him and finds Earl in a cheap Springtrap costume. Luca thinks about what to do, but Earl disappears. Luca accidentally makes a sound, causing the kids to split up. Valerie and Adam run towards the main hall while Amy runs for the kitchen. Earl enters the dining room and goes through a vent. Luca hears Amy scream and runs towards a maintenance closet, where he finds Amy desperately trying to break free from Earl’s grasps. Earl looks at Luca in confusion, allowing Amy to bite his forearm and flee. Luca lunges at Earl and begins to strangle him. As Earl thrashes around, Luca’s life flashes before his eyes, remembering all of the hopes and dreams he’ll never be able to live out. Once Earl dies, Luca dies as well, noting that his inner compass was working and his final act was his own.
Trivia[]
- One of the costumes available in the Role Play Area is a Golden Freddy suit.[2]
- The Role Play Area is mentioned in Under Construction[3] and HAPPS.[4]
References[]
- ↑ “Most of the stories have to do with trying to survive a night in the security office or trying to stay alive while patrolling the old restaurant or trying to keep a music box going so the ghost doesn’t get you.”
- ↑ Tales from the Pizzaplex #3: Somniphobia | Pressure | "Luca spotted a few of his classmates checking out a Golden Freddy costume and he smiled at a group of little girls arguing over who was going to wear a Chica costume."
- ↑ Tales from the Pizzaplex #1: Lally's Game | Under Construction | "Maya dragged her friends through the crowd, yanking on Jaxon as he tried to veer toward the Role Play area."
- ↑ Tales from the Pizzaplex #2: Happs | HAPPS | "It didn’t take long to hurry past the Role Play area, something Aiden and Jace hadn’t tried yet, and the employees-only section of the Pizzaplex—the behind-the-scenes janitorial, storage, maintenance, kitchen, and security areas."