Somniphobia | Pressure | Cleithrophobia
The last thought Luca had before thoughts were beyond him was that his inner compass was working again. His final act had not been someone else’s idea. It had been his own.
In his friend group, Luca's the follower. Asher is determined and outspoken, Nolan is boisterous and confident, and Maddy's just too pretty (and bossy) to argue with. Luca doesn't always want to follow in their shadows, but he doesn't want to argue. That's how it's always been. When the friends end up in the Urban Legends Role Play Auditorium, and they decide they want to play Green-Eared Killer, he finds himself hopelessly outvoted despite his own hang-ups in having to play a child killer. Then he puts on the suit... and can't get it off. Someone swapped it out for a real Springlock suit, and the springlocks are going off. Luca doesn't have a lot of time, and no words to describe what's happening to him.
The eighth Tales from the Pizzaplex story, and the second of the third book, Somniphobia.
Tropes related to “Pressure”:
- Adorably Precocious Child: Asher had apparently been this when the kids were younger, as he always wanted to play courtroom and be a defense attorney like his dad.
- All Guys Want Cheerleaders: Maddy only becomes attractive to Luca after she becomes a cheerleader and starts paying more attention to her looks as a consequence.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's a complete mystery how an actual Springlock suit got swapped out for a fake one in the Mega Pizzaplex, especially since most Springlock suits were decommissioned.
- And I Must Scream: Luca finds himself slowly being springlocked, but unable to speak due to the blood pooling in his throat.
- And You Thought It Was a Game: Asher, Maddy and Nolan fully believe that Luca is just really good at getting into character, and have no idea that he's actually trapped in a killer suit.
- Bloody Horror: The Springlocks slowly make Luca bleed out, and the suit is soon coated, at least inwardly if not outwardly, with his blood.
- Body Horror: The slow process of Luca's springlocking is described in vivid detail, as is the pain he goes through because of it.
- Call-Back:
- The history of Fazbear Entertainment being repackaged as urban legends was first established in Five Nights At Freddys VR Help Wanted.
- "Green-Eared Killer" seems mostly reminiscent of Five Nights at Freddy's 3, but the set is mixed with that of Five Nights at Freddy's, with an exact recreation of the Office.
- Though it's referenced as part of Help Wanted, Luca remembers the security guard using audio lures of Balloon Boy's lines to distract Springtrap.
- The Cassandra: Luca tells his friends that he thinks the indie games were actual events that Fazbear made light of to save their reputation. They call him a Conspiracy Theorist.
- Childhood Friends: Luca had been friends with Asher and Maddy since they were really little. Nolan's the new addition to the group.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: As Springlocking tends to be in this franchise.
- Dark and Troubled Past: The real reason Luca doesn't want to be Springtrap is because, before he'd met his friends, he'd been close with a young boy named Kenny who lived in the neighborhood. Kenny was later kidnapped, and his body was found in the same creek the boys had liked to play in.
- Dying as Yourself: With his last dying act being killing a pedophile, Luca realizes with relief that the last thing he did was something that was his idea, and not something he'd been pressured into.
- Evil Tainted the Place: When Luca enters the recreation of the hallway that Afton led his victims down, he says that "it could easily be the conduit to a very bad place."
- Failed a Spot Check: Nobody, including the Pizzaplex employees apparently, noticed that there was a real Springlock suit in this place. It's been speculated that Earl may have brought it in in hopes of being a copycat killer, but he seemed pretty content to wear the fake suit by the time Luca finds him, and is surprised to see a second Springtrap wandering around.
- Foreshadowing: Before he finds out the suit is springlocked, Luca notices that it smells and feels disgusting and old. As Asher is reading the rules, he notices that there's weird metal poking at him.
- Girliness Upgrade: Former Tomboy Maddy becomes more feminine after trying out for cheerleading.
- Green-Eyed Epiphany: Luca realized very late that he had a crush on Maddy, but because he never asked her out, Nolan did.
- Guilt-Induced Nightmare: Luca remembers having had a recurring nightmare for months after Kenny died, about being unable to save him.
- Hair-Raising Hare: The years have not been kind to this old Springtrap suit.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Instead of trying to leave and get help, Luca spends his last bits of energy saving a younger kid from a child predator.
- Jealous Romantic Witness: Nolan asks out Maddy despite knowing full-well that Luca likes her. "You snooze, you lose."
- Jerkass: Nolan, who "seemed to be growing more arrogant every day."
- Meta Twist: For this story, the threat to the children is the Pizzaplex's security guard, and Springtrap is only trying to protect the kids. Bit of a role reversal from, well, all of the games.
- Monster Fan: Luca says that Nolan always roots for the killers in horror movies.
- Motor Mouth: Luca is mainly able to track his friends due to Maddy being an "avid talker."
- The Movie Buff: Luca, Asher and Nolan all bond over their shared love of horror movies.
- No Full Name Given: No one in the short gets a last name.
- Pædo Hunt: It's never stated explicitly what Earl's plan is, but with him described as looking at the little girls "salaciously" and Luca calling him a "pervert," it's hard to read any other interpretation. When Luca sees him actually attacking a child, he responds by strangling him to death.
- Peer Pressure is Bad: The Aesop, as Luca is continuously pressured into things by his friends, and it ultimately kills him.
- Performance Artist: Asher becomes this as soon as he tries out for the school theater. He wants to be an actor now.
- Recursive Canon: Luca has apparently played all of the Five Nights at Freddy's games and is quite knowledgeable on the lore.
- Taking You with Me: Knowing that he's dying, Luca decides to use the last of his strength to strangle child predator Earl to death.
- With Friends Like These...: While the kids' pressuring of Luca to put on the suit could just be seen as them being frustrated, they then proceed to abandon him in the room for no real reason, which results in his Springlock death.
- Younger Than They Look: Luca thinks that he looks more like a thirteen-year-old than a high-school freshman.
- You Remind Me of X: The little girl that Earl goes after reminds Luca of Maddy, or at least how she had been when they were little.
