Bunny Call | In the Flesh | The Man in Room 1280
"Springtrap did WHAT?"
There was pain, but there was also relief. The pressure stopped, the blood flowed, and Matt saw, emerging from the incision, one long green rabbit ear.
Game developer Matt is frustrated. He's recently divorced after his wife realized he didn't want kids, and his recent dates haven't been going well... mostly because he's a misogynist jerkass. He's also frustrated about his game– he's working on the upcoming Five Nights at Freddy's game, Springtrap's Revenge, but Springtrap just keeps on killing him. Upset at everything, Matt programs the game to run overnight, and make Springtrap live through each minute like it's a thousand. Then he goes on another unsuccessful date.
The next day, however, is strange. Springtrap isn't in the game. When Matt digs into the files, he finds that Springtrap had gone insane looking for someone to kill, spawned a new version of itself, and the second version had killed the first. This had continued in a vicious cycle that only sped up as it continued. He goes into the game once more and finds the last corpse of Springtrap, which shocks him with... something. All Matt is concerned about just then is making the new Springtrap model before the game releases. But little does he know, he's got a lot more to worry about now...
The fourteenth Five Nights at Freddy's: Fazbear Frights story, and the second of the fifth book, Bunny Call.
Tropes related to “In the Flesh”:
- And I Must Scream: VR Springtrap gets this treatment; thanks to Matt's sadistic revenge, the game is altered so that Springtrap finds himself wandering a maze without any victims to kill, while the game's frame rate is boosted so that he spends what's implied to be years in this purgatory in the space of a single night. It's implied that his desire to escape from this torment, and to find new victims, was at least in part what allowed him to escape the game and enter the real world via Matt's body.
- Asshole Victim: Matt is by far the least sympathetic protagonist of the entire series, being an arrogant narcissist with a positively disgusting attitude towards co-workers and women, and a general refusal to address any of his many personality flaws, even when confronted with blatant evidence of them. It's likely that the writers intentionally chose to make him so utterly unsympathetic to make his truly horrific fate somewhat easier to witness.
- Basement-Dweller: The hacker Gene, who lives in his mom's house and is about as good with people as Matt is.
- Best Friend: Jason, who's been Matt's friend for a while. He eventually leaves after he finds out Matt flirted with his girlfriend, but comes back and is horrified to discover Matt's body.
- Big Eater: Matt becomes this due to his pregnancy.
- Body Horror: First, how Springtrap looks, as usual. Then, Matt somehow becomes pregnant with an infant-sized, organic version of Springtrap, and he ends up cutting open his own stomach in order to extract the entity from within himself.
- Chest Burster: How baby Springtrap eventually escapes Matt's body.
- Death by Childbirth: Matt ends up experiencing possibly the most fucked up twist on this trope imaginable, cutting open his own stomach with a kitchen knife in order to extract a baby Springtrap out of his body.
- Expy: The fanbase likes to joke that Matt is a reference to MatPat, a theorist who has a friendly rivalry with series creator Scott Cawthon. Other than liking video games, there isn't actually much connecting the two men other than their common name.
- Evil Laugh: Much like the original Springtrap, the VR Springtrap takes utter joy in his killings.
- Fetus Terrible: The baby Springtrap.
- Go Mad from the Isolation: VR Springtrap, after spending years upon years wandering an empty game.
- Hair-Raising Hare: As always with our good buddy Springtrap!
- Hate Sink: Matt, as an angry, frustrating misogynist that flirts with his best friend's girlfriend and tortures his creations to get his kicks.
- Karmic Transformation: His wife left him when he told her that pregnancy would ruin her figure. So how does he die? Childbirth via Springtrap mutation!
- Mister Seahorse: Um. Yeah. Yeah? Yeah.
- Monster of the Week: The VR Springtrap.
- Never My Fault: Matt never once considers that he may be the problem in all his failed relationships. He's a genius programmer with a great paycheck, after all! Why would anyone hate a guy like that?
- No Full Name Given: For anyone in this story.
- No Social Skills: Matt's only real conversation starter is talking about how great he is.
- Politically Incorrect Hero: Our protagonist is extremely sexist, thinking that he deserves a fawning wife with a perfect body and no desires of her own.
- Pride: Matt's huge fatal flaw. He thinks he's the coolest, most important person in the world, and anybody would be lucky to have him.
- Recursive Canon: After Help Wanted hinted at the idea, "In the Flesh" officially confirms that a game series known as Five Nights at Freddy's exists in-universe, with Matt being part of the team tasked with designing Springtrap's Revenge, the next game in the series.
- Robotic Psychopath: VR Springtrap is programmed to want nothing but murder.
- Stealth Pun: The blurb for the book summarizes this story as "Matt redirects the residual anger over his many failed relationships into a video game, and ends up birthing the horrible consequences." That's... an on-the-nose description of what exactly happens.
- Straw Loser: Both Matt and the hacker Gene.
- Straw Misogynist: Matt.
- The Teetotaler: Eva, Matt's date, to his dismay.
- Transformation Horror: Not only does Matt become pregnant with a baby Springtrap, it's implied he's also somewhat turning into Springtrap, as he has strange bumps on his head where the ears would be.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Matt thinks that Jason and Meghan are this, and thinks that he should date Meghan instead due to his better looks.
- Uncanny Valley: Mentioned by name, along with
Nightmare Fuel. - Walking Spoiler: It's nearly impossible to describe this story without describing its ending.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: At the end, Baby Springtrap completely vanishes and is never mentioned again. Where'd he go? We'll never know!
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: Matt sets this up to happen to the VR Springtrap, which caused it to Go Mad from the Isolation.
