"-so, yeah, that's pretty much all of the stuff that's been happening around the pizzeria as of late. I may have left out a few details, but that's pretty much the gist of it, with a little context. I thought it'd be a good time to tell you everything that's been going on, since you've been out of touch with current events for a while. Also, everyone else is away right now, doing their own things, so since I don't have anyone else to talk to right now, I thought it'd be a good idea to fill you in."
"Oh, I think I get it. So what you're saying is that pretty much nothing has changed all that much, except now, everything's a bit more festive?"
"Well, that's probably the simplest way you could put it, yeah. There have been a few other things, such as the voice in my head acting all weird and saying suspicious stuff, as well as us having to consistently deal with Dinah and his problems with making pizza. Besides that, though, your summary was pretty accurate."
Foxy was currently spending the day talking to Garbage. The fox had sat himself down right by the trash chute and had been spending his time informing Garbage on everything that had happened with him and his friends recently. He had, of course, glossed over many details to save time, but he had given a good enough explanation to give Garbage a somewhat thorough knowledge of recent events.
"Huh...I was expecting your guys' lives to be interesting every day, but I won't lie, that sounds lame." Garbage stated opinionatedly.
"Yeah, no joke, I agree with you on that one." Foxy responded, feeling that Garbage was right to call the recent events 'lame'. They weren't exactly boring, but it wasn't the most exciting thing in the world. "Nothing too interesting has happened as of late; it's mostly just been us going about our daily business. So, that's all I have to say. Out of sheer interest, how have you been? Anything going on with you as of late?"
"Eh, nothing much. It's been just as uninteresting down here. I've just been, you know...moving garbage piles here and there...sleeping the days away...eating and drinking whatever I can find...reading books I can find in the garbage...basically, the usual everyday routine for me."
"You've been moving things around? Does it look any nicer down there, now that you've been doing that?"
"Nope. It's just garbage piles after garbage piles. No matter how much I move it, it still looks and smells bad. I've even tried to shape it into stuff, but that never works."
"Shape it into stuff? What's the point of that?"
"Well, what else I am supposed to do down here? There's hardly anything for entertainment. You guys never bothered to drop down a board game or something like that. It gets boring fast in here."
"Oh, uh...I understand, I guess-"
"No, I don't think you understand at all what I feel like." Garbage interrupted, sounding very sour, and at the same time, saddened. "You've got everything you need. Cool friends, a spacious place to yourself, a bounce house, games, good food...everything! But me? I'm always down here all alone, with nothing to keep myself occupied, forced to search through smelly piles of trash just to get a mediocre bite to eat. You'll never know how much it sucks to be me..."
Foxy paused. He did sympathize with Garbage a little. After all, the former security guard was right: the animatronics had everything they needed, while he had the bare minimum. They had the freedom to whatever, but he could only do what was available in the sewer. His life certainly did suck.
But at the same time, Foxy didn't want to give up on having a pet security guard, and he didn't want to risk anything that would let him escape. He also knew that everyone else would revolt if he even tried to be more lenient to Garbage.
Despite this, Foxy decided that maybe he would give something to Garbage.
"Okay, you're right, but I'm afraid we can't let you go." Foxy finally answered. "However, for Christmas, I might be able to find another human to push down there so you can have a friend with you."
"...that sounds alright. As much as it sucks to not be able to go back to my old friends and family...it would be nice to have someone to talk to besides myself and you guys."
"Well, you can go dwell on things on your own. I'm going to go and find something else to do today. Peace out."
"Alright then. See you another time."
"Bye!"
Foxy closed up the garbage chute, blocking out Garbage's voice, and he decided to leave the kitchen by himself. He glanced briefly at Dinah, who was busy at the oven and was paying Foxy no attention. Then, Foxy left the room quietly, heading back into the main room.
He looked around at the room, decorated in its entirety, and looking festive in all it did. Just yesterday, he had been here with Ballora, Puppet, and Bon-Bon, where they had been fooled into thinking it was Christmas only to find out that Ballora was only doing a drill.
Today, the entire room was empty. Puppet, Freddy, Ballora, Bon-Bon, Baby...none of his friends were here today. He was all by himself. Foxy thought back on Garbage, who had said how Foxy had 'cool friends', but right now, all of his friends were not there to greet him, or to play games with him.
Foxy assumed that everyone was off doing their own things today. He didn't know what, and he didn't know how long they'd be gone, but he did know that they must have all decided to spend today by themselves. Foxy found this situation to not be too good, as days where most of his friends were too preoccupied to hang out had never yet turned out to be very fun or exciting for him.
Huh. It looks like nobody's around. Foxy thought in disappointment. Well, looks like today won't be a very interesting day. I might as well head back to my cove and sleep the day away.
"Hey! Foxy! I'm here to challenge you!" A voice called.
"Wha-?" Foxy stuttered, looking over and seeing that Puppet was coming out of his room. "Oh, Puppet! I didn't know you were still around. Where'd you even come from?"
"I was over in your room, looking for you!" Puppet replied, narrowing his eyes. "But I couldn't even find you!"
"Well, of course not. You should've gotten the message pretty quickly, seeing as how my room is smaller than everybody else's. See, look." Foxy led Puppet across the main room and into Foxy's own room. It looked the same as it always did, with the curtains of Foxy's cove ajar, having been opened some time earlier, when Foxy had woken up for the day. "See, look. It's not as big as your room or Ballora's room. You could've peeked into the room and you'd know that I wasn't there."
"I even checked every corner of the room, though. In that corner, and that corner, and even that third corner. And I never check the third corner."
"Maybe next time, you should check more than just the corners. You'll probably find me in my cove most of the time, seeing as I'm there a lot."
Puppet gasped, and then nodded. "I'm writing this down in my notes." He took out a small notebook and a pen and quickly scribbled something down on it, then put it away.
"Notes?" Foxy asked, curious.
"Eh, nothing important. I just like to take notes of things I want to remember. Anyway, as I was saying, I'm here to challenge you, Foxy."
Foxy shrugged. "Okay, sure. I've got nothing better to do today. What did you have in mind?"
"I challenge you to an epic, super insane...dance-off."
"...wait, what?"
"Yeah, a dance-off. I challenge you to that."
"Uh, Puppet, not to burst your bubble, but we already had a dance-off recently."
"Wait, really?"
"Yeah, hate to break it to you, but we've already done dance-offs several times. And lost at them, too. Kind of getting old now."
Puppet looked around confusedly. "Who's talking? Is Bon-Bon here or something? I swear I heard a high-pitched voice."
"No, that was the voice that's in my head, chiming in as usual." Foxy corrected, groaning. "Wish it would stop."
"Oh, that's right, you do have a voice in your head. I sometimes completely forget that you have that."
"Excuse me?! No! I won't stand for this! You already forgot about me once, and once is enough! Don't you ever forget about me again!"
For some reason, Puppet looked very uncomfortable. "Um...Foxy, you should probably be keeping that thing on a leash. I don't like it."
"I mean, I've been trying to, but there's not much I can do." Foxy replied, shaking his head. "Sometimes I can push it back to the corners of my mind, where it can't speak, but ever since it took over my body that one time, it seems to be getting a lot better at being able to talk through me. Is it a he or a she? Eh, I'll call it a she for now."
"You'd better. Once things fall into place, though, the circumstances will be very different..."
Foxy stared blankly for a second. "Um...okay, then. Good for you."
"Well, since we've already done a dance-off too recently to do it again, I'll have to challenge you to the second-best thing. Ready to hear this?"
"Uh-huh, lay it on me."
"Alright. I, Puppet, challenge you, Foxy, to a last-person-standing singing competition."
Foxy shook his head. "Nope, we've already done that, too. It has a been a while since we've done karaoke, yes, but since the karaoke room has been closed off and everything, we don't really have a dedicated room to sing anymore."
Puppet snapped his spindly fingers frustratedly. "Dang it, you're right!"
"Also, I won that time, so that's that."
"Wait, did you win that time?"
"I think so."
"Are you sure? Could've sworn that Freddy won."
"No, no, it was, uh, definitely me."
"Hmm...alright, I know one game that we haven't done for sure!"
"And what would that be?"
"I challenge you...to a shoelace-tying competition!"
Foxy let out a laugh. "While that is a game we haven't done before, we still can't do it. Puppet, neither of us wear shoes with laces. In fact, we don't wear shoes to begin with."
"Yeah, okay, you're right. Hmm...how about a sweater-knitting competition, then?"
"Uh, another problem here. I have zero idea how to knit a sweater. Besides, knitting sweaters for fun isn't my kind of thing."
Puppet shrugged. "Fair enough. I have another idea that I think can work for sure."
"Okay, what is it this time?"
"How about...a hibernation challenge?"
"Hibernation?! That sounds kind of boring for an epic challenge. And I know what you're thinking, and I'll say it right now: I am NOT a bear. I don't care for that joke and I don't want you to continue it."
"But...you have a big tail and similar ears to a bear, though!"
"Puppet, you have it backwards. See my tail?" Foxy held his tail into view. "It's long, unlike bear animatronics, who don't even have tails at all. And my ears are more of an oval shape than the circular shape of bear animatronics' ears. And, worse yet, I think you already know that and you're just acting like this to mess with me. Quit it, Puppet."
"Alright, alright, sorry. You know who is in hibernation, though? Freddy. I swear, I keep hearing him snoring from the roof above his closet."
"Wait, is he? I mean, I was thinking so, too, but I didn't know you already knew that."
"Didn't I mention it to you before, though?"
"Probably, but I probably also missed it. It's kind of hard for me to pay attention to half the things you say, since when we usually talk, Bon-Bon's always there yelling loudly, running around in circles...basically, being annoying, like he sometimes can be."
"Just my suggestion, but I really think you should put a bell on him, like people do with cats. You have yet to even do that!"
"Oh, yeah, I should've done that already. Keep forgetting it, though. Sorry."
"If you were sorry, you wouldn't have forgotten to do it in the first place."
Foxy put a hand to his face and shook his head. Puppet could really be a bit much sometimes, just like everyone else he knew, including himself.
"Anyway, back to the game ideas." Puppet continued on, changing the topic. "I just came up with another idea, one that's pretty simple, but challenging enough to be a good pick. All the cool people do this."
"What is it this time?" Foxy asked.
"I challenge you to an improv competition."
"Uh, sounds fine, but how on earth is that going to work?"
"Well, firstly, we're doing this without preparing. Just, on the spot, you know. Secondly, we're going to be figuring out who has the greater experience with intellectual thought. Basically, who has the better mind power."
"So then I'm going to win?" Foxy said, knowing that he knew quite a bit and would be a good challenge when trying to compare intellects.
"No, not exactly. I'm not too shabby myself, so I can put up a good fight." Puppet countered confidently. "Alright, so for the first round, we need to come up with a sentence, and then continue it by going back and forth, saying one word to add on to the sentence. And the sentence has to make sense, alright? No spouting random gibberish."
"Okay, I think I can do all that. Guess you can go first, then, since you seem to know what you're doing?"
"Alright, ready?"
"Yeah, let's go."
Puppet cleared his mechanical throat (somehow) and began. "The-"
"-cat-" Foxy added on, trying to keep pace by using the first word that popped into his head. Now that he had boasted about his prowess at these games, he wasn't about to lose and make himself look like a dummy.
"-went-"
"-on-"
"-a-"
"-walk-"
"-to-"
"-the-"
"-neighbor's-"
"-house."
"Alright, good first sentence. You've definitely got some skill."
Foxy laughed in a manner as if he was bragging. "Heh, told you I'm good."
"Then I guess we're tied, one to one, for this first round. On to round two!"
"Can I have my turn to start it this time?"
"Yeah, go ahead."
"Freddy-"
"-went-"
"-to-"
"-a-"
"-circus-"
"-because-"
"-he-"
"-wanted-"
"-a-"
"-new-"
"-elephant!"
Puppet narrowed his eyes skeptically at the sentence finisher Foxy had used. "Eh...Foxy, you're kind of teetering on the line between sense and nonsense with that word..."
"What, you wouldn't want an elephant yourself?! I mean, they do have elephants at a circus, you know!"
"Hmm...well, owning an exotic pet like an elephant is legal or illegal depending on the U.S. state the owner lives in...but yeah, I guess that one works. I'll give you a point for that."
"Hah, yeah! What a win!"
"Alright, on to round three. If you win this one, Foxy, you win the entire game."
"Oh ho, that quickly, huh? Well then, lay it on me! I'm ready for this!"
"You got it. I'll start off this time. Pizza-"
"-is-"
"-the-"
"-BEST-"
"-thing-"
"-ever-"
"-because-"
"-umm...uh...err...augh, I can't think of anything! I didn't expect to have to give a reason!"
"Whoa, so you're saying that pizza isn't the best thing ever?" Puppet repeated in surprise. "Wow, and you said you liked it! I'm going to go tell Dinah." Puppet ran off into the main room.
"No, wait, hold on!" Foxy called, running after Puppet, who turned around and looked back at Foxy as they came into and stopped in the middle of the main room. "You're misunderstanding why I couldn't follow up! Besides, you'd better not disturb Dinah right now. Last I checked, he's busy at the oven. Best not to disturb him in case he's finally making pizza."
"Aw, alright then. So...DO you think that pizza isn't the best thing ever?"
"No, no, I do! I mean, saying it's the best might be pushing it, but I do love pizza!"
"Then why couldn't you continue the sentence and give a reason why it's the best?"
"I don't know, I was just caught off-guard! I didn't expect you to continue the sentence after I said 'ever'!"
"Well, then that means I get a point too, meaning we have to continue on to round four. Winner take all. Want to start it off?"
"Yeah, I guess I can give this another try."
"Okay, then let's do this."
"Let's see..." Foxy racked his brains, trying to think of a good word to start the sentence. His mind flicked between word after word, trying to settle on one that Foxy felt would be good enough to grab him the win. Finally, he made up his mind. "Okay, I got it. We-"
"-are-"
"-the-"
"-best-"
"-animatronics-"
"-ever-"
"-created-"
"-so-"
"-then-"
"-do-"
"-I-"
"-clearly-"
"-see-"
"-the-"
"-blackness-"
"-in-"
"-my-"
"-soul?"
"Yeah, alright! We finished the sentence." Foxy concluded, grinning. "Wait...blackness in someone's soul?"
"Hmm...good question." Puppet replied suspiciously. "Which of us does that sentence mean to point out? You, or me?"
"Uh...maybe, both of us? We both probably have pretty black souls, since we...um...murder...a lot..."
"What? No, your soul definitely has to be darker than mine!"
"Ehh...don't count on that. Anyway, I think we just tied again, so let's have a fifth round. You go first."
"Okay, then here we go. I-"
"-love-"
Puppet paused for a small amount of time. "-Baby-"
"-because-"
"-she-" Puppet said, his voice starting to shake.
"-is-"
"-the-"
"-best-"
"-gamer-"
"-ever!"
Puppet laughed out loud, clutching his side. "Oh man, this was a close one."
"Oh, but that wasn't a confession right there, was it, Puppet?" Foxy teased.
"Well, if you think that, then maybe you should share some of the dark parts of your own soul with me!"
"Maybe you should!"
"I think we should just continue with another round, since we tied again."
"Sure, sure."
"Alright, then, we've had too many ties so far. This is where the safety shoes come right off, Foxy!"
"You're not even wearing any shoes, though!"
"Exactly, Foxy! I wasn't safe in this game to begin with! And you're not wearing shoes, so neither were you!"
"Great, then we know it's the real deal."
"Ready, then?"
"Yep."
"Then, here we go. Final round, whoever wins, wins. The-"
"-cat-"
"-went-"
"-out-"
"-into-"
"-the-"
"-snow-"
"-to-"
"-get-"
"-her-"
"-tuna-"
"-can-"
"-in-"
"-the-"
"-freezing-"
"-cold-"
Foxy kept trying to follow up with the first word that came to mind. So far, this sentence was getting plenty long, but he wasn't ready to admit defeat. He would win, he would win in great victory, and he'd show Puppet up.
"-and-" Puppet continued.
"-her-" Foxy added.
"-sweater-"
"-wasn't-"
"-on-"
"-but-"
"-she-"
"-didn't-"
"-care-"
"-that-"
"-she-"
"-was-"
"-cold-"
"-and-"
"-she-"
"-ran-"
"-into-"
"-the-"
"-car-"
"-with-"
"-her-"
"-tricycle-" Foxy used this word, which for some odd reason, was the word that came to mind. He decided to ignore the debatable possibility of a cat riding a tricycle and just say it anyway.
Puppet looked a bit skeptical, but thankfully, he went with it. "-and-"
"-the-"
"-police-"
"-exploded."
Puppet looked around at the room for one wild moment, and then asked: "Who won that one?"
Foxy let out a laugh. "Actually, I think neither of us did. A cat with a tricycle causing the police to explode doesn't even make any sense."
"Then...how about we say that you won, but you also cheated, so that way we can balance it out?"
"Sure thing. Ha, then I won! Bet you didn't expect me to use the word explosion. It's usually too random to risk using."
"So...what was that thing you were saying about your soul? You should elaborate on that."
"I don't know, Puppet...I may have an answer. But then, what was that thing about Baby? Care to explain the context of that?"
Puppet narrowed his eyes. "Well, I don't know, myself. I thought we were just playing around with the game and having fun."
"Yeah, and we were, but why pick her, specifically?"
"If I answer that, then tell me: why'd you try to bring up your soul?"
"First, you tell me why you picked Baby."
"Foxy, why are you trying to ask all these questions?"
"I dunno, tell me why you are."
Puppet paused, then shrugged indifferently. "You know, this got a bit weird. No idea where we're meant to go from here. Do we go back to our rooms, or play another game? What do you feel up to?"
Foxy grinned. "Let's do one more challenge, since I don't feel ready to quit yet. Is it gonna be the same thing, or something different?"
"Hmm...I say we go with the same thing, but we add a new rule to make this more interesting. What do you think?"
"That depends. What's the rule you wanted to add?"
"...I don't know, actually. Have you got one?"
"I do have one in mind. Let's make it so that you can't repeat a word once you've said it. You've got to come up with something new, or it's an automatic loss. However, let's just make 'the' the exception to this, since we kind of will need it in order for the sentence to make sense. Everything else can only be mentioned once."
Puppet nodded in agreement. "Alright, I think I've got that. Let's get ready."
They both took some breaths in (which amounted to simply using something similar to a vacuum, to suck in air, similar to how humans did), and then they decided to get started.
"Should I go first?" Foxy asked, wanting to see if he could start the sentence with something advantageous.
"Yeah, since you came up with the rule, you get to start this one." Puppet agreed fairly.
"Great! Let's see...Howard-"
"-went-"
"-out-"
"-in-"
"-the freezing-"
"Wait, but that's two words."
"It is? Oop, yeah, it is. My bad."
"You know what, though? I'm feeling generous, so I'll let you have a re-do. Just one, though."
"Thanks. Sorry, just made a bit of typo there. Anyway...Elves-"
"-are-"
"-every-"
"-where-"
"-BUT-"
"-in-"
"-the-"
"-vents-"
"-if-"
"-it's-"
"-Puppet, I said 'if'."
"And I said 'it's'. It works."
"Does that make sense? Hmm...okay, yeah, actually, it does. Once again, my bad. Just making sure."
"Don't worry, common mistake."
"Let's continue. If it's hot-"
"-out-"
"-then-"
Puppet was shuddering, trying to think of a word. "-t-they-"
"-run-"
"-e-elsewhere-"
"-to-"
Puppet paused, this time for a longer period, trying to conceal a grin as he tried to concentrate on finding a word. "-house!"
Foxy raised an eyebrow. "But that doesn't make any sense. There should be a word before the word 'house'!"
Puppet, still trying to conceal a grin, sighed as if holding back a breath. "Okay, you win."
Foxy laughed. "Ha, there we go! A win for real this time! If only you had said something before we said house, you could've kept it going!"
"You took all the good words, though! I couldn't think of a good sentence follow-up!"
"Hah, then that means I really do win."
"My goodness, that was hard. I didn't think it'd be that tough."
"Well, you could've used 'the' though, remember? That was the one word we agreed could be used over and over."
Puppet began to walk around in circles, putting his hands over his head as if he was stressed out. "I thought we already used it too excessively!"
"No, we didn't! At least not in that sentence. If I can recall, we used it...once, I think?"
"Once? Geez, that stinks. Game over for me, then."
"Hue hue hue!" Foxy laughed, and his mind started to shift into being childish as he held his hand up towards the ceiling and grinned like a flamboyant superhero. In that moment, he felt truly accomplished, despite that it had only been a small game played to break the ice. "See my skills, Puppet? With all that, you can just call me Foxy, the wordsmith!"
"Yeah, I agree with that title if you're this good at this game. I will admit, my CPU hurt a little from that."
"See? That just goes to show the caliber we were at. No need to thank me for giving you a good challenge."
Puppet shifted his attention elsewhere, looking around at the room, which was still so thoroughly decorated. It looked the same as it always did, yet Foxy noticed that Puppet always seemed to twitch in agitation whenever he took the time to fully observe it. Foxy wasn't surprised to see this kind of behavior; only Puppet ever found anything to complain about the way the decorations looked. Everybody else either really liked them, or decided to begrudgingly accept it.
"I will say...that game made my head hurt..." Puppet began, as his blank eyes stared around at the main room. "...but these decorations make my head hurt even more..."
Foxy patted Puppet's shoulder, smiling in a caring manner. "Yeah, today's been a bit much, huh? Want me to walk you back to your room?"
Puppet nodded slowly, facing the ground a little bit as he looked tiredly towards it. "Yeah, okay. I could use the company, I guess..."
And they decided to head back together, with Foxy leading the way.
"Hey, Foxy, have you ever had typos with reading or speaking before?" Puppet asked calmly.
Foxy nodded honestly. "Yeah, I have run into that on occasion. Like, over there, for example." Foxy pointed at one of the UNDER CONSTRUCTION signs nailed to one of the doors in the small hallway, just as they were passing by it. "See that sign? Sometimes, if I read it too quickly and too sloppily, I end up reading it as 'construction under' before I start to make sense of myself."
Puppet chuckled in good humor. "Woah, sounds silly."
"I know, right? Gotta remember to not read so fast."
"Hey, I've got another question." Puppet asked, eyeing the restrooms as they passed by them and entered the auditorium through the big hallway. "Have you ever tried to use the girl's bathroom instead of the boy's?"
Foxy shifted uncomfortably, the answer to that question being something that was a little too personal for him to say openly. "I...uh...don't really want to talk about that."
Puppet just chuckled again, but he didn't ask Foxy any more questions about the matter as he and Foxy approached Puppet's box. "Well, we're here. Thanks for the escort, buddy."
Foxy grinned again. "No problem. We're friends, aren't we?"
"Yep, definitely. I know things happen sometimes, but just know that we're cool, alright? Anyways, I think I'll go and relax in my box for a bit." Puppet climbed up onto his box.
Foxy nodded appreciatively. "You do you. Have a great day, Puppet! Oh, and by the way...if you see Bon-Bon anywhere, tell him that I've been looking for him and that I want to see him."
"I mean, I guess I could do that, but Bon-Bon's not down in my box right now, thankfully. Trust me, if he was, we would've heard him messing around down there."
"Usually we would, but I recommend you keep an eye out. He's pretty small, so he can be easy to miss. Make sure to check your bathroom, he might be hiding out in there."
Puppet gasped. "You're right! He could be hiding in a cupboard again. I'll go check now! See you later, Foxy!" Puppet disappeared inside his box, leaving Foxy's sight.
Foxy grimaced, a little afraid of the possibility of Bon-Bon actually being down there. Uh oh...hopefully Bon-Bon actually isn't down there, or we might have quite the mess to clean up. As he thought about this, he left the room to head back to his own room.
As Foxy headed into his cove, drawing the curtains open so he could head inside, the voice spoke up again.
"What, Foxy, do you want me to cheer you and then you'll agree? Fine. Go, Foxy! Go, Foxy!"
Foxy frowned a little unhappily. Uh...thanks, I guess.
"Are you appeased now? Good. Now, how about you help me out and give me those parts I told you I needed?"
Excuse me, this isn't the time! I'm not about to start helping you again, voice!
"Hmph, then I think you know what that means for you."
What could you be implying by that? You're not about to actually shut up, are you?
"Heh, nope. You'd have to be gullible to think that."
Foxy let out a deep, drawn-out sigh in his thoughts that only he and the voice could hear.
He just couldn't catch a break when it came to this annoying little voice...
