Prankster | Kids at Play | Find Player Two!
SLOW: KIDS AT PLAY.
"You've got a great life, dude, and instead of appreciating it, you're always grousing about it. You're in such a hurry to leave it behind."
Joel D'Agostino can't wait to get out of town. His parents are overbearing and want him to mature as fast as possible. He just wants to rock out and become a musician with his friends, and never have to talk to his family again. So one day, he's driving his car down the highway, speeding a little to get an adrenaline rush... and he turns a corner and hits a kid, sending the body careening down into the ditch below. Dumbfounded, he stops the car to collect himself... and then drives away. He can't be jailed for this, not when he's about to get out of town. Besides, it was totally the kid's fault for being out this late, right? He can't throw out his life over this. All he has to do is keep his head down, play dumb, and try not to notice the rapidly-increasing Kids at Play signs that are popping up all over town...
The thirty-second Five Nights at Freddy's: Fazbear Frights story, and the second of the tenth book, Prankster.
Tropes related to “Kids at Play”:
- The Alleged Car: Joel was promised a car upon completing a semester, but that his parents would knock a year off its age for every class he failed. Figuring that a five-year-old car wouldn't be that bad, Joel deliberately failed his classes. Upon hearing his justification, his angry dad gives him the oldest truck he can possibly find, one that barely works.
- All for Nothing: It turns out Caleb's alive. Joel considered this possibility, but decided that if the kid was alive, he would be able to identify Joel as the driver and get him arrested, and thus went out of his way to not find his body, abandoning him to die slowly. When they find Caleb, though, it's unclear if he was even conscious enough to remember who hit him.
- And I Must Scream: Played straight, as Joel is literally unable to scream even as pain and fear takes over his body. The force piloting his body only gives him the consciousness to realize what's happening, and none at all to stop it.
- Asshole Victim: Joel is self-absorbed, ungrateful, and constantly disrespects his parents. When he hits a child wandering outside in the night while he's speeding on the road, he decides to not help the child or tell anyone what happened so he won't jeopardize his own future, and tries to justify it by blaming the child for being outside after midnight and outright tells himself that one stupid kid isn't worth a potential criminal record. His fate is deserved but nonetheless horrifying, especially considering he is just a teenager pushing against parents who don't listen to him.
- Black Eyes of Evil: Specifically the "Kids at Play"'s black eyes unnerve Joel.
- Black Sheep: Mr. and Mrs. D'Agostino are beloved by the community. We're not actually sure what everyone's opinion of Joel is, but he sure hates them quite a bit.
- Blaming the Victim: Joel tries to justfiy his abandonment of Caleb by saying it was the kid's fault for wandering around at night, or at least his parents' fault for letting him.
- Bloody Horror: After hitting a "Kids at Play" sign, Joel sees some kind of sticky substance pooling underneath it. Grossed out, he drives off. Considering what happens to him, it's likely that he actually caused the sign to bleed.
- Body Horror: In the climax of the story, Joel's body is taken over by an unknown force and piloted to the location where he hit Caleb, before undergoing a slow, visceral transformation into a plastic Kids at Play figure, with the process being described brutally and in detail.
- Bratty Teenage Son: The D'Agostinos refuse to give Joel what he wants, but that doesn't stop Joel from increasingly demanding it.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: The reason Joel isn't going to college, and might not even graduate high school, is because he simply doesn't care enough to complete his schoolwork.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Joel thinks he's doing this at the beginning of the story when he gets temporarily fired, but really he's just venting his frustrations.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Being Forced to Watch as your teeth and hair fall out, feeling your eyes pop out of your skull, and then feeling your skin literally peel off of you is certainly a way to go.
- Demonic Possession: Possibly; it's unclear what actually possesses Joel as he turns into a sign, but it sure isn't something he wanted to do.
- Doesn't Know Their Own Child: Implied with Joel's mom, who redesigned his entire room without even listening to his only request: that he have enough room to play his instruments.
- Establishing Character Moment: For both Joel and his dad in the first scene, and Joel tries to skip out on work seven minutes early and Steve yells at him for it. At first it seems like Steve is being overbearing, only for Steve to reveal that Joel is constantly late, constantly leaves early, and rarely does any work.
- Forced to Watch: Joel can do nothing but view his teeth, hair, eyes and skin falling away in succession.
- The Ghost: Oddly enough, the Fazbear corporation. We find out at the end that they're responsible for the vast amount of "Kids at Play" signs, having placed them around the town in some kind of road safety awareness campaign. Whether they knew these were somewhat mystical objects is unknown.
- Honor Thy Parent: Joel is shown to be an asshole by constantly disrespecting and demeaning his parents.
- Humanoid Abomination: The "Kids at Play" signs apparently are these, as they are made out of living people.
- Karmic Death: Joel ignored the first "Kids at Play" sign that he hit, which resulted in him hitting Caleb. So he becomes the sign that haunted him.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The "Kids at Play" signs seemingly gave Joel a whole day to see if he would do the right thing and report the accident. When he didn't, that's when they struck.
- Like Father, Unlike Son: Angry, moody, rebellious Joel is nothing like his kind, social and hardworking father.
- Missing Child: The whole town comes out to look for Caleb when he goes missing, giving it the appropriate level of seriousness. Joel's increasing guilt is read by everyone as increasing worry for the kid.
- Monster of the Week: Surprisingly, a generic "Kids at Play" sign.
- Never My Fault: Joel tries to mentally justify his actions by pushing responsibility onto others. He puts his behavior on his parents, and his accident on Caleb and his family.
- Objectshifting: Joel is gruesomely transformed into a "Kids at Play" figure.
- Outliving One's Offspring: It's likely that Joel will be declared a missing person, but since he's a literal road sign now, he's never gonna be found.
- The Pig-Pen: Mrs. D'Agostino is constantly reminding Joel that he stinks and needs to shower. He keeps brushing her off.
- Properly Paranoid: After the accident, Joel is terrified of being found out. While none of the humans suspect him, he's actually right that more and more "Kids at Play" signs are popping up, and may be following him.
- Proud Beauty: As well as a musician, Joel is hoping to become a model once he leaves town.
- Rebellious Spirit: Teenage Joel wants to do nothing but play drums and guitar and shout about how unfair life is.
- Small Town Boredom: Joel hates this town and everyone in it for not wanting to achieve more in life, and he can't get out fast enough.
- Spoiled Brat: Joel's parents made several attempts to keep him from becoming this, but their pushing to make him grow up and work ended up turning him against them and making him think that he was deserving of more than they offered.
- Strict Parents Make Sneaky Kids: Despite his parents' attempts to make him grow up, Joel remains childish and entitled, and comes up with elaborate plans to convince his parents he's changed rather than actually do anything to change in the real world.
- Struggling Single Mother: Implied with Julia Bell; Caleb's father is never mentioned, and it's said that she takes night classes.
- Teen Rebellion: Joel, who began acting out the more his parents tried to control him.
- Uncleanliness Is Next to Ungodliness: Gross, unwashed Joel is rude and entitled, and fine with getting away with murder if it means not paying any consequences.
- Unnamed Parent: Joel's mother isn't given a name.
- Villain Protagonist: No getting around it, Joel committed a hit-and-run on a five-year-old boy and did all that he could to get away with it.
- Was Once a Man: The signs are revealed to have been reckless human drivers that were transformed for hitting a child with their cars.
- Where Did We Go Wrong?: The D'Agostino's reaction to Joel's immaturity, usually marked by his mother saying "Why did we even bother..."
