From the Diary of William Afton

May 2, 1972

I think "success" isn't quite the right word to describe today. "Triumph" is more like it. It took several years, but I was able to do it. I have made walking animatronics! These aren't just animatronics that walk on a track. No, I was not ready to settle for just that. These can roam free, walk as we do. They can go anywhere.

I was able to figure out a way to put the main working components inside the animatronic, rather than below it, like many typical models. That was no easy feat. Even after studying the working parts of Merville, I realized that this would not be a simple task. It required me to look into how to make everything smaller and more compact. Given how many movements I wanted these things to be able to do, that took some ingenuity. I will need to apply for a patent for the circuit board I had to develop to make it possible. It's definitely a trade secret I'm going to want to keep to myself.

Still, what matters most is that it looks believable and that it is entertaining. Young William seems to think so. Of course, perhaps it is because I made the animatronic to look like his favorite teddy bear. Yet, it brought me such joy to see his face light up at the sight of it. I hope my creation will be able to bring that same joy to people of all ages.

And I might be able to make that dream a reality. I have been approached by an entertainment company who was impressed by my more typical animatronics. Fazbear Entertainment isn't quite on the level of world-class amusement parks, but they do seem like they are willing to consider innovative new techniques like what I have achieved. I cannot wait to show them this latest development.

Speaking of Merville...I have been doing more research on the secret society his creator was a part of. I was correct in hypothesizing that they somehow believed that they could transfer their dying spirits into their machines. During my search, I was able to uncover some notes taken by one of these inventors. While rudimentary, and certainly muddled in superstition, I do believe this society may have been onto something. I believe that with today's modern technology, and a little bit of risk-taking, we may yet be able to learn how to transfer one's consciousness to machines, thereby attaining a sort of immortality. Do not get me wrong, I love my work with animatronics, but this might be something worth studying. Not for now. I must celebrate my success today.


Author's Notes: So, this chapter is a little different from the order I was going in at the start. If I had continued on the pattern, I would have had a chapter from the killer's perspective that intersected with a diary entry from William in an odd place. So, to make the timing and the reveals work out the way I want them to, I had to rethink some of the ordering for this story. So, this time, we get another diary entry.

I had to do a little work on this one, at least from a research perspective. The majority of automata and animatronics out there actually have the major working parts down below the body. Most of what we see riding a ride or looking at an animatronic is the main structure of the figure, used for appearances. The actual parts that are running, the "engine" of the machine is actually outside of the animatronic. Still, it seems that we are making progress. Have you seen the new Beauty and the Beast animatronics in Japan? Those look pretty darn lifelike and have more movement than I've ever seen in animatronics. Still, they need to move and run on a track because the main systems exist below the figure. So, that was one aspect of the whole "they used to walk around in the day" thing that made things tricky, at least from a real-world perspective. But, I'll give Afton credit where credit is due. In the FNAF world, it's not hard to assume that Afton/Henry/whoever is a genius in the creation of these animatronics.

Also, it was fun to come back to the concept of remnant energy again. Actually, it isn't that far off from the kinds of things science is trying to achieve. Preserving consciousness in machines is something we've thought about and tried to explore. It doesn't work...obviously, but it is a part of humankind's dream for immortality, and Afton may be closer to it than he realizes.