On October 27th - opening day - I watched the FNaF movie. On November 2nd - while housesitting for a friend out in the middle of nowhere without internet or cell service - I started working on A Composition for Decomposition. I had a vague idea and no character to carry it, so I made two consecutive choices: it would be a 'choose your own adventure' type deal, and because of this, it would make sense for the MC to be the 'reader'.
With two choices came two glaring issues: I had no idea how to code something so complex on AO3, and the more I wrote, the more the 'reader' became a fully fleshed out character rather than the traditional 'blank slate' that is often expected from this genre of fic. I was in a pickle, but I was committed to finishing what I started.
ACFD took six months to write. I had just wrapped up a novel I had spent the last two years working on, and my idea of a writing break was to go all in on a 104,000 word behemoth of a fic. I had the FNaF brainworms and there was no saving me. For six months I did not miss a single update on AO3, and that remains one of my proudest fandom achievements.
So, I had a complex fic with a character who secretly had a name and physical appearance. What now? I mentioned it on tumblr and a mutual mentioned that, if I were to rewrite it in the 3rd Person, he would read it. (Jamie, wherever you are right now, a thousand thank yous and all the best wishes.) Cue the next year or so of rewriting, treating this fic with the same love and care I would give to any of my original works. I began posting the second draft, Driving Through Tunnels, in April 2024. As of writing this, nearly fourteen months later, 31 out of 40 chapters are up on AO3.
While the story hardly changes between both fics, the key difference being that of Reader POV versus Ricky POV, the deeper I sunk into FNaF's lore, the subtler some significant alterations became. Not enough to change the direction of the story, but enough to ripple across the wider scope of this AU.
You see, when I watched the movie, I knew nothing about the lore outside of some Game Theory videos I vaguely paid attention to. I knew the basics, but to provide some perspective, the friends who accompanied me to the theater were singing along to the credits while I sat there, utterly baffled that they all knew this song from a band I'd never heard of before. The reason we even watched it on opening day was more 'for the meme'/'internet culture relevance' for those of us (my friends) who regularly watched Markiplier.
The slippery slope caught me when the infamous "A Brief 9-Hour Explanation of FNaF's Lore" video dropped on YouTube and I could not escape it. I bit the bullet. Committed to the bit a little too hard. Suddenly, I was introduced to the lore's bread and butter: the contradictions. I was befuddled and intrigued, fascinated by so many story elements that I often use in my own works.
I blinked.
Don't ask me how I ended up reading every single book, playing every single game, watching… a solid chunk of theory videos from different creators and getting absolutely tilted because none of these people understand the difference between theorizing and thematic analysis, etc etc. I was locked and loaded and overflowing with ammunition and this profound grief that no attention was ever put on any of the victims.
ACFD was still in its infancy, Ricky's name had floated down to me, and suddenly my movie!verse fic had characters like Henry thrown in. And don't even get me started on the Steel Wool era of games (Security Breach was actually my first introduction to FNaF. I'm such a sucker for nostalgiabait.) That too bled into these fics. And then Into the Pit happened, and then the CYOA books that I nearly lost it over because 'HEY! I thought of that first!'
Anyways. There are key differences between ACFD and DTT, but that's where the 'Choose Your Own Adventure' kicks in.
Whichever one you choose to read, Reader or Ricky, is entirely up to you. And as it goes with this genre of writing: choices have consequences.
Each installment of CC.exe follows the 'same' MC regardless if it's 2nd or 3rd Person POV. The caveat here is that the MC is a different iteration in each individual story. Canonically speaking, if someone chooses to read the 'Reader' version of a fic and self-inserts themselves into the MC's shoes—that MC's interpretation is canon within the CC.exe universe.
Why? That's up to you to interpret depending on the path you choose to follow.
Due to the nature of the narrative's fluidity, there are some elements and attributes that are not addressed in the 'Reader' versions, and some that are. For example, the MC goes unnamed and lacks physical descriptions, except for the following: he is a transgender man who uses he/him pronouns, is MCI!Jeremy's older brother, and is subtextually implied to be a person of color. Odds are you won't pick up on that last addition unless you yourself are POC (or you're, you know, aware that MCI!Jeremy is canonically a Black kid).
I bet this all sounds complicated. You're right. But look at it this way: it can't possibly be more complicated than the concepts of remnant and agony. I promise it does make sense once you're in it, I'm just trying really hard not to spoil the entire AU.