B7-2 | Alone Together | Dittophobia
Repeated nightmares usually mean something...
“You’re safe here, Rory,” the voice said. “This is your home. You’ve been watched over here. You’ve never been abandoned. Never left alone. All these years, you’ve been cared for. Because you’re special, Rory, and you deserve to live in this special place. Safe and secure. Never alone. This is your home.”
Rory is seven years old, and he's been having a lot of nightmares recently. Every night, at midnight he'll wake up, and see terrible monsters crawling into his room: a fox-shaped pirate, a metal chick riddled with holes and holding a fanged cupcake, a mottled indigo bunny, and a mutilated bear head that appears from beneath his bed. The bear will bite him, and he'll pass out, only to wake up in the morning to everything being fine. Then he'll go outside and get breakfast for school. Then he'll be unable to find the door to school. Then he'll forget all about school and go back to sleep. And thus the cycle continues.
The twenty-fourth Tales from the Pizzaplex story, and the last of the eighth book, currently the last in the series. The short is heavily connected to the fourth and fifth games of the franchise, Five Nights at Freddy's 4 and Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location.
Tropes related to “Dittophobia”:
- Adaptational Explanation: While it's unclear if this takes place in the game series' continuity, this short offers explanations for the gameplay of Five Nights at Freddy's 4 and its connections to the Sister Location bunker, by explaining that the FNaF4 house was an experiment chamber enhanced by hallucinogenic gas meant to be used for fear experiments on kidnapped children. This does explain why the house in gameplay does not match the house in the pixelated minigames, and why the Nightmares in Ultimate Custom Night talk about not having been real before. It could also explain how Mike would know what Nightmare Fredbear would look like in the Security Logbook, if he was one of the children experimented on. In addition, it explains why the specific rooms are shown in connection to the Sister Location bunker, and why said bunker is full to the brim with unlabeled gas canisters.
- All for Nothing: Whatever experiments were being run on Rory were abandoned, meaning he's been going through the same torturous process for ten years with nobody the wiser to what's happening to him.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Apparently, Rory and Wade were outcasts prior to Rory's abduction. Rory specifically was disliked by the other kids and did poorly in school.
- Animalistic Abomination: All of the Nightmare animatronics, due to the effects of the gas.
- Bears Are Bad News: Nightmare Freddy is the final threat of Rory's nightmares, popping out from under the bed to bite on his arm.
- Best Friend: Wade was Rory's Only Friend back before he was abducted. Even though it's been a decade, Wade still holds onto their shared walkie-talkie, and is overjoyed to hear Rory's voice on the other end.
- Body Horror: Rory finds the Nightmare animatronics absolutely terrifying, with their huge teeth, holey exteriors, and missing limbs.
- Break the Cutie: Seven-year-old Rory is horrified to discover he's actually seventeen, his whole life has been a lie, and he was abandoned ten years ago to go through an endless, pointless cycle. Terrified and confused, he's quickly convinced by a mysterious voice to turn the illusion back on so that he doesn't have to confront what has happened.
- Call-Back: Most of the short is a callback to the fourth game and its gameplay, with the bunker section being a callback to Sister Location.
- The Cameo: Ballora and Funtime Foxy appear in the bunker when Rory climbs out to explore. He also sees Circus Baby on a poster.
- Canon Character All Along: Considering the location and methods utilized, it's heavily likely that the one conducting the experiments and the one who recorded the tape to gaslight Rory into going back to the illusion was William Afton. If this story takes place before Sister Location, as the Funtime animatronics' presence seems to indicate, that could imply that William's not even dead and really just abandoned this kid in the experiment chamber without a second thought.
- Control Freak: Rory's mother, causing him to feel like he was never good enough.
- A Day in the Limelight: Not really the Nightmare Animatronics, but the entirety of FNaF 4 itself.
- Downer Ending: Feeling completely helpless and unable to have any kind of life outside of the bunker, Rory turns the experiment back on and chooses to forget everything and live through constant nightmares and false reality so that he doesn't have to face what happened to him. The last paragraph reveals that the mysterious voice is a tape that rewinds itself, implying that Rory's been having the same realizations and turning the gas back on multiple times. The fact the voice comes from a tape also confirms Rory's suspicions that he'd been abandoned for ten years, and nobody knew where he was.
- Facial Horror: On all the Nightmares, but especially Freddy, who Rory really only sees the head of.
- Failed a Spot Check: Rory never finds it odd that his front door has disappeared, or that he has been living the same day on repeat. Justified due to Rory being manipulated by hallucinogenic gas for a decade, while stuck in the mentality of a seven-year-old.
- Feathered Fiend: The terrifying Nightmare Chica, thanks to the multiple sets of bottom jaws, imposing stature and gnarled suit.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Rory is surprised to hear of the technological advancements that have happened since he's been kidnapped.
- Foul Fox: Nightmare Foxy.
- Gaslighting: And gassing at the same time! The mysterious tape tells Rory that he'd run away from home due to his school woes, social problems, and familial issues. Rory seems to recall these, and ultimately takes the voice's suggestion to turn the experiment back on, so that he can be somewhere he "belongs."
- Hair-Raising Hare: Nightmare Bonnie. Rory thinks that he's the worst of the nightmare creatures, because he adores rabbits and hates seeing his favorite animal being turned so scary.
- Here We Go Again!: The last line says that the tape rewinds itself for "the next time Rory wandered too far," implying that this has happened multiple times, and will happen every time the gas runs out.
- Hook Hand: The first thing Rory ever sees of Foxy in his nightmares is the hook swinging out of the closet.
- Hope Spot: Rory actually manages to contact Wade, who encourages him to escape and tells him that everybody has missed him, and his family is waiting for him. Then Rory goes to turn on the generator to get the elevator working, and the tape recording begins playing.
- Kidnapped for Experimentation: It's unknown if the voice was telling the truth and Rory ran away, or if he was kidnapped from home. Whatever the case, he was definitely abducted and forced into the bunker at some point, as the tape seems to anticipate that he wouldn't want to be there.
- Magic Pants: Subverted. When Rory wakes up in his seventeen-year-old body, none of his clothes fit, and he barely manages to squeeze some shorts on.
- Missing Child: Apparently Rory's family has never given up hope that he will one day be found, and his dad still asks people for information.
- Monster of the Week: The Nightmare Animatronics.
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family: On the Nightmares.
- Neat Freak: Rory's mother, who was so obsessed with cleanliness that Rory would get in trouble for leaving crumbs after he ate. Even in his fake reality, Rory still meticulously cleans up after himself, believing she'll be mad at him if he's not.
- Nightmare Sequence: Rory has quite a few of these, showing the Nightmare Animatronics coming to attack him.
- No Full Name Given: For Rory or his family.
- No Social Skills: Rory had trouble socially even before his abduction. Part of his reason for turning the illusion back on was because he realized he would be completely unable to connect to anyone after everything that had happened to him.
- Older Than They Look: While the gas is active, Rory sees himself as a seven-year-old, the age he was when he was placed into the experiments. When the gas turns off, he finds out that he's a tall, unshaven seventeen-year-old.
- Plagued by Nightmares: As part of the fear experiment, Rory is given nightmares every night, and then given nothing during the day so that his fear is the only thing that can build.
- Plot Parallel: he setup of a character being forced into a faux house with a repetitive life and no seeming way out, realizing it is an illusion, but then being convinced by a mysterious recorded voice to turn the illusion back on, was earlier utilized in the second book's "Help Wanted," though with illusion discs rather than hallucinogenic gas.
- Posthumous Sibling: Though Rory's not dead, his sister was born after his disappearance. Wade says that she would love him.
- Prefers the Illusion: After being convinced by the tape, Rory turns the gas back on, convinced that he'll never have a normal life or feel loved outside of the experiment chamber. He then forgets the experience and goes back to bed, while the tape rewinds so that it can do the same to Rory every time the gas turns off.
- Scary Teeth: All of the Nightmare animatronics have these, with Freddy specifically biting Rory on a constant basis.
- Shattering the Illusion: Whenever the gas turns off, so does the illusion of Rory's fake life. Every time Rory tries to escape, he's eventually gaslit into turning the gas back on.
- Signature Headgear: Even in his nightmare form, Freddy still has his signature top hat and bowtie.
- Stealth Sequel: This short appears to be a sequel/explanation for the fourth game, and prequel to the fifth.
- Toothy Bird: Nightmare Chica.
- Uncertain Doom: It's very likely that Rory will be in the experiment over and over until he dies. Then again, Wade seemed to be real, and got at least a clue to his location to give the police...
- When You Coming Home, Dad?: Rory's father was a Workaholic who was never home. Little Rory interpreted this as his father not caring enough about him to come home.
