Chapter 14:
A touch of Philosophy
Freddy couldn't decide whether listening to Gregory's fascinating yet incomprehensible lecture about the seemingly infinite outer space from high above or Daniel's interesting yet less extreme lesson about a country called The United Kingdom was more informative and mesmerizing. The universe has countless enigmatic and mysterious anomalies, from the gigantic stars so big that he could not imagine to the unexplainable existence of pitch-black spheres that always seems to constantly absorb matter into whatever it contains. Meanwhile, the human society across the sea had their wondrous lifestyle and thought-provoking cultures, all of which made him want to fly there and see them for himself.
So much to learn. So much that he didn't know where to even begin.
After Gregory and Lily had returned, which was when his worries had finally vanished, Daniel asked the boy to lend him the van's key so that he could take everyone to the campground and that they didn't have to spend another twenty minutes or so walking mindlessly through the forest to reach the place. The boy insisted on driving by himself but was lectured by the man instead because it was common sense to not let a ten-year-old boy manage a four-wheeled vehicle in the middle of the woods. Freddy couldn't argue back since it was the most logical thing to do.
So, with that in mind, everyone hopped on the van. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough space for all of them to sit on as the seats could only fit three people maximum. Gregory said that he would sit on his lap while Lily would situate in the middle so that everyone would be able to fit in the car perfectly. That idea was quickly rejected by the rest of the group with the most aggressive response coming from the girl. Ultimately, Freddy declared that he would stay behind in the back of the van, which, as expected, was actively approved by the girl. There was no need to feel left out, for he could still be able to talk through the small and rectangular slide behind the front seats anyways.
"Are you sure there aren't any people there?", asked the boy, sounding nervous. "They'll get suspicious if they saw you driving a van with an apparent Fazbear Entertainment logo on it."
"Relax, kid, as far as I know, there's only our family and relatives going on a camping trip here.", replied the man. "Besides, even if they did spot us, remember that you guys are currently in the middle of the woods, just drive away before the polices arrive and everything will be fine."
"Wow, what a great plan.", remarked the girl.
For some reason, Freddy found her tone to be oddly dishonest. He had come across these kinds of sentences before, as whoever spoke with such tone of voice seemed to always sound insincere and mostly ended up rolling their eyes afterwards, which was a sign of slight disagreement. He had seen enough to detect one thanks to regularly watching his friends having a small argument, in which both sides constantly "complimented" each other with a mocking and taunting voice along with body postures such as rolled eyes and crossed arms. He never knew the purpose of these "constructive dishonesty" sentences in a conversation for their nature was always shrouded with lies and falsehoods.
Perhaps, when the time came, he would know why… or he could have just asked about it later.
"So, what are we going to do at the campground?", asked the boy.
"Hm… I have been thinking about setting up a camp there for tonight. Mom and dad will definitely let me do it.", said the man as he pointed at the boy's nose. "Besides, it wouldn't hurt anybody if I joined your camping party, right?"
Eyes widened; the two children were taken aback upon hearing that. "W… What?!"
"What? What's wrong with it? They will be leaving by tomorrow, chances of us seeing them again is probably zero. So, I might as well spend time with them for the last time, like saying a last goodbye.", then the man turned to look at him. "My guy here wouldn't mind, right?"
Freddy didn't have enough time to catch up with the conversation as he was still lost in the sea of mind. His glowing blue eyes slightly shifted in the dark, faintly resembling what a child would see if there was a monster hiding under their bed. He stared at Daniel, then switched to the boy, who was also waiting for his answer. Daniel was an adult, and judging from the knowledge he had told him, surely, he would know how to get around the forest at night. More to that, who knew what else he could learn more from the guy were he to stay with him for the rest of the day? Just before he could speak up, the man had already spelt out his inner thoughts.
"I'll take that as a yes."
"Y-You can't just do that!", argued the girl. "Freddy didn't even agree or anything. Gregory, say something!"
The boy quietly chuckled as he gave her his perplexed eyes. "I mean… Not that I don't want anyone to join us for tonight. If he could, then I guess it would be fine as long as we don't get caught."
"Exactly! Mom and dad wouldn't mind if you come with me, I'm pretty sure of that. If you don't want to then it's totally fine."
"I… I…", the girl kept diverting her towards the two males whom she was sitting between. "I need to think about this."
Despite not being aware of it, he was half expecting Lily to accept the invitation, for sensible reasons. That was, he had reluctantly promised Gregory to fulfil his request on befriending the girl, which was unbelievably easy for a playful and talkative animatronic bear like him. Yet, here he was, having an incredibly hard time getting along with a single child. Why, though? If he didn't have any difficulty speaking to Daniel, then why should he be nervous when he was literally doing the same with the girl? Wasn't this what he was programmed for – talking and playing with children? Now that he thought about it, he felt as if those written lines of codes within the system were slowly fading away, no longer seemed to work like they used to be.
He forcefully shook his head. No, this wasn't the time to be worried about such thoughts, for a long and exciting day was still ahead of him, waiting to be experienced, waiting to be an everlasting memory.
Later, the car gradually slowed down until it finally stopped, indicating that they had arrived. Looking through the limited space created by the narrowed slide, he could see a small part of what seemed to be a wooden sign and the usual greenery surrounding the environment.
"Well, here we are. I told you there isn't anybody here.", said the man pridefully.
"They could return any moment, though.", huffed the girl.
The man said nothing, then, he opened the door, followed by the children as all went behind the van so that they could open the door for him to get out. There was a sound of a clicking metal before streams of light started pouring in, causing his eyes to shrink in reflex in order to adjust to the sudden changes. At a steady pace, he carefully moved his heavy metallic body out of the back of the van with his feet being the first to kiss the softened soil below. When he was finally gone out of the van, his back straightened, towering the man by a head or two and the children by several heads.
All turned their gazes to look at him with oblivious eyes, which made him awfully uncomfortable.
"Woah, I don't remember seeing you this tall.", remarked the man who was scratching the chin. "Are you like… seven feet or something?"
"I was built with a height of two hundred and ten centimetres or roughly seven feet with an approximation of said height to five decimals and an absolute error between two to three digits."
Despite having full control of the system and focused awareness of the surroundings, he couldn't help but spit out those pre-programmed words as though it was something mandatory whenever someone asked him specific questions regarding his model information. On top of that, he didn't have the faintest idea what the sentence was supposed to mean. Decimals? Absolute error? What was the meaning of these puzzling terms that he knew not? They came along with numbers, so they might have something to do with the numbers themselves? Nonetheless, knowing he was still dependent on the program implied that he hadn't turned into the so-called rebellious robots yet, which was a relief.
"S-Sorry… It is a part of my programming.", he stuttered in embarrassment.
With that short moment of awkwardness dying down, the group began walking towards the situated tables in the middle of the campground. Just as the man had said, the place was devoid of humans, only the presence of mother nature with her children could be found bathing in sunlight and dashing from shrub to shrub, with the harmonious melodies sung by the canopies as they wriggled along with the windy gusts of air. Occasionally, he would hear the voice of the flying creatures, called birds, calling out the vast and endless sky – home to the airborne dominators – as they speedily cut through the air like a sharpening blade.
Another short walk and he saw long, thick and bright planks glued together, forming a wide and rectangular board that functioned as a table and long chairs. Next to it, rocks that came in similar sizes and shapes were put together, creating a shape close to that of a circle. And within that circle, he could see what seemed to be remnants of burnt tree branches covered by a thin layer of ash. He knew this because he was told that woods can be used to keep the flames from being extinguished. When that wood was burnt, its colour slowly changed into black. At that moment, it was no longer called wood but was actually called charcoal, and they could be used again the make another fire.
"Do people even come here to camp? This fireplace looks like it hasn't been lit for ages.", said the girl. "I thought Uncle Joe said that people come here a lot."
"Well, probably not this part of the campground, I guess. Lucky for us, this means that no one will be here to ruin the fun.", added the man, who received a groan from his sister as a reply. "We only need a place to hide the van and Freddy just in case someone came across."
"How are you going even convince our parents to stay here for the night? I doubt that they would agree easily."
"Don't worry, I have my own plan. I even have one to ask for permission to let you come with me as well. If I remember correctly, there's still a spare tent left that we could use. Come on, imagine what fun we would have with your friend and the bear. And this is the one and only Freddy Fazbear we are talking about! You would be the first one to ever take a selfie with him in the middle of the forest."
"A-Are you sure about this?", demanded the boy once again. "We don't force you guys to stay with us. You don't have to do all of that."
"Actually, I have my own reasons.", the man gave a questioning wink.
"Oh… So… uh, earlier you said that you have something planned before coming to this place. Now that we're here, what are you going to do?"
"Setting up a camp right here that is.", said the man as he raised his left arm to look at the watch. "Ten fifteen, huh… Well, we should be returning to our campground at around eleven, so there's still plenty of time left to make plans. I'm thinking about getting some food for you to eat. I just need to drive to the gas station nearby and get some snacks and drinks. You must be really starving, right kid?
"W-Well, I have already eaten a fish just this morning. But… um, I would love to have myself some properly cooked food.", responded the boy, hand scratching the back of his head, looking a bit embarrassed.
"For real, though, I still can't wrap my head around how you were able to teach him how to fish. You made my uncle look like an amateur in survival skills. Seriously, kid, how did you even know all of that? Who taught you?"
"I just mimicked what was done on the TV."
The man sighed in defeat. "I should have known…"
Having carefully arranged out the plan, more and more ideas were proposed, and some conclusions were made. Despite not contributing much to the conversation as he literally had no clue what to even say, Freddy still somewhat understood which sentence was supposed to mean. Not that he suddenly lacked the hardware to conceive spoken human language and translate it to machine language, which was basically consisted of strings of one and zero, it was simply because he had no idea. Just that. Most of the time, Gregory and Daniel always seemed to be the main stars of the debate for how talkative and excited they were, meanwhile he silently stood next to them and could only do so much as attentively listen to their amusing discussion.
On the bright side, he wasn't the only one who felt left out. There was Lily, the less talkative one, who would occasionally shoot a quick glance at him, only to look away before he even had a chance to look back. Oh, yeah, he was going to definitely have a hard time face to face with the girl, let alone talking to her. He imagined how awkward things would go out while he and the girl were slowly drowning in embarrassment. He could feel it, he could feel his child-friendly programming wouldn't stop constantly kicking the system, pressurizing him to act friendly and welcoming. And yet, here he was, thinking that he ought to have full control of it. Perhaps, sometimes they seemed to have their own consciousness and awareness of the environment. They did things on their own accord, despite the commanding controlling. They did what they were made to do, what they were programmed to do.
As much as he hated to admit it, once again, he was glad since it was a sign indicating that he hadn't turned into a rogue machine yet.
"Didn't you say that Freddy needs to be recharged every three hours?", asked Daniel.
"It's actually two and half an hour or maybe less.", Gregory corrected. "But yes, since Freddy was put on reduced power, I need to charge him regularly."
"So, you use the van's battery, which also needs recharging by consuming fuel… and you have to use it to drive as well.", mused the man as he hummed. "I have taken a look at the fuel indicator. At this rate, your van will run out of fuel in less than six hours. The nearest town takes at least two hours, do you think you will make it in time while having to charge him at the same time?"
"Freddy will go in rest mode, that way, he can preserve power. So, I think we can make it to the town. When we arrive, we'll try to find a way to get more fuel somehow, and maybe look for a mechanic or someone who knows about robots to get his battery problem fixed."
"Jesus. Sounds like a thrilling adventure between a boy and his animatronic friend. That is going to take a while."
"I know…", the boy sighed with a dry smile.
The man looked at the watch again, his eyes widened shortly after. "It's eleven already?! Welp, time sure goes fast. Lily, get your stuff ready, we are sprinting back to our campground, else mom and dad are going to kill me."
The girl almost choked upon hearing that. "W-What?... Oh, okay." Then, she hurriedly carried her backpack and wore the camera around her neck before standing straight up with her brother.
"We'll back be soon. Probably at two in the afternoon. I'll try to be as early as possible to bring some food and water for you. And don't worry, your secrets are safe with us.", declared the man as he gave a final wink and a goodbye wave, to which he waved back.
"See you later, Gregory.", said the girl, then she turned to look at him, feeling a bit nervous. "Um… B-Bye Freddy."
As if that wasn't enough to satisfy her, the girl walked to the boy, whispering something into his ears that Freddy heard not. After that, she speedily dashed to the man, waving another goodbye before both disappeared into the bushes.
And thus, the bear was now alone with his stubborn human child.
Freddy broodingly watched the two siblings step by step departing into the deep woods as he could only sit and do nothing other than embraced the inherent silence to which nature had bequeathed. In this light that painted his shell so warmly, the trees were dancing poles, each in dresses more fabulous than any designer could craft. They moved, choreographed by the wind, in perfect time with one another. They were the life and soul of this early summer morning which slowly drifted to noon. He wondered how many hues of green his eyes were witnessing. As they stretched upwards and outwards toward the light, drinking in rays as pure as the rain, he stretched his arms up, fingers spread toward the sun which was closing to reaching the top.
"What did Lily tell you?", he asked out of mere curiosity. "I saw her whispering something to you that I could not hear. What was it about?"
"You know, she did it simply because there was something she didn't want you to hear.", replied the boy. "I thought you would understand."
"Oh…", his ears drooped, realizing what he had done, he tried to come up with an explanation. "I did not know that. Forgive my uncontrollable curiosity."
The boy weakly chuckled. "So… uh, not bad for a first impression in front of people outside the Pizzaplex, huh? I haven't met Daniel before; he seems like a nice guy, though I'm not sure when he would act seriously or just for fun. You had a talk with him, right? What did you guys discuss?"
"He told me about a country called The United Kingdom where he and Lily came from. It is situated across the vast and immense Atlantic Ocean. Did you know that the country has a monarchy where the leaders, called the King and the Queen, have a crown on their heads and wear fancy royal clothes? I cannot wait to learn more about the country as well as its human society and culture."
"Well, I would have guessed where they came from easily thanks to their British accent.", the boy shrugged.
"Accent?", he rephrased. "I have heard of the word before, though I couldn't fully grasp what it means. Is it something about the tone of voice of a person?"
The boy nodded. "Yes. Depending on where they come from and which language they speak, their accent can vary very differently. For example, British people like Daniel and Lily have a British accent, those who live in the south have a southern accent, those who live in the west have a western accent."
"Fascinating.", he mused. "I wonder what my accent is… Do you know which accent do I have?"
"No idea. But I guess you have a general American accent."
He raised a brow. "What does that mean?"
"It means your accent isn't distinctive enough to fall under any category. I'm don't think I have an accent, so might as well as calling it a general one."
So, there was nothing special about his tone of voice since it was specifically considered a general, which was similar to common and universal among people. Were he to have a British accent like the siblings, he wondered what would his voice sound like, especially when using it to sing a song? Would such tones change his overall personality or his daily life in the Pizzaplex? How would people and his friends react? How would they treat him? Now that he thought about it, he felt like he had developed a fondness for the accent itself, he felt like he wanted to acquire it, to speak by using it.
As he had been told before, nothing was impossible whether he was programmed or not. What mattered was time and a bit of dedication. Although, he didn't know where to even start. Sure, he had a voice box, but it didn't mean he could change the voice whenever he pleased. It doesn't work that way easily, at least for him… On second thought, his current tone of voice wasn't that bad as he had never heard someone criticizing his voice before. Perhaps, he should start appreciating what he was having before it was too late.
He went on telling Gregory what he and the man had talked about.
"Woah, sounds like you and Daniel are getting along well with it each other. Lucky for us, he didn't have a heart attack when first seeing you, else the police would be here and we would have been in custody by now.", the boy darkly joked as he chuckled himself.
"I cannot agree more.", he smiled. "I would love to spend more time talking to him about his country and perhaps the other countries as well."
"That's great, since I suck at geography, you can learn more from him, and I will teach you everything else that I know of. My favourite subject is space, so I know a lot of things about it."
"I thought you have told me everything you know about the outer space last night?"
"Oh. Have I told you about the multiverse yet?"
"N-No…"
"Alright, then I'll keep it later for tonight. Teaching you under the night sky will add the atmosphere to it. On top of that, with Lily and Daniel having a chance of joining us by the campfire tonight, they might be able to teach you things that I don't know. So… now that we are all by ourselves, I guess we can hop back to exploring the forest…"
The boy then gave him a thorough scan as though he noticed something was off. Truthfully, there really was something off about him, even he himself could feel it.
"… or maybe you have questions that you want to ask?"
Upon hearing that, his head lifted down, eyeing the boy whose body was so tiny compared to his enormous tank; his ears perked up, facing face tensely quiet air which surrounded them. With countless questions to ask, waiting to receive an answer or an explanation, he didn't know where to even start on this indefinite list. Then, one popped up from the system, he read it out in whispers as a way to check whether such questions would be appropriate enough to be asked, only to jerk back upon knowing what it meant. This was it, the question he had been waiting for, the one that had been bugging his mind for a good solid hour or so. He could not hold back the curiosity side anymore, it was time to speak up.
"I… Gregory, there is something that has been bothering me for a while now.", he calmly said, fingers twirling at a constant pace. "It is not about my curiosity about the outside world. Instead, it is a feeling, a sensation, a rather uncanny experience. It has not happened before, not until you and I came across Lily and Daniel, at which point I started to have a feeling that… I am no longer what I am."
The boy blinked; his face grew wary. "W-What do you mean?"
"I thought you would realize?", he raised his tone, eyes widened a little. "Can you not see that I am changing?", then he stopped. "...I am sorry. It is all right if you did not notice. We have only known each other for a day or two, I should not be expecting you to understand me like a close familiar."
"Freddy, what are you babbling about?", the boy probed; his face grew warier. "Your mood suddenly changed, this is not like you at… all. Oh… Oh, now I notice."
The two exchanged their gaze in silence for a few seconds, but a few seconds was already enough for the good old awkwardness to kick in.
Freddy would never know how to get rid of the feeling of awkwardness or any sensation related to such blasphemy as he would never understand how such feelings existed in the first place. Sure, emotions were one of the most important things in life, for one needed them to feel the flow of time and wholeheartedly experience every passing moment that life had given. And as much as he wanted to discover new sensations, the possibility of stumbling upon another feeling such as this had always been making him nervous. Hence, the reason why he was a little afraid whenever his system started 'tickling' as a response to certain anomalies.
"My programming, they…"
"Your programming? W-What about it?"
And now, even talking to the boy was difficult for him, for an open and talkative bear like him.
"I cannot describe the feeling due to my lack of knowledge, forgive me for such inconvenience. But, perhaps, I can try to 'approximate' them using other words which are not related to emotions as a whole.", he raised one of his giant metallic hands close to his face, taking a good look at it as he wiggled the fingers like worms slithering on the dirt.
"I feel… as if I am no longer being commanded by my own system, as if I am no longer being told what to do in accordance, as if I can do anything without any particular purpose and instruction. The feeling was faint, so weak that I was not sure if it was real or not. Yet, for some reason, it was strong, powerful, overwhelming, intense, persuasive… Back when we first met the siblings, when you told me to talk to Lily, something was holding me back, preventing me from doing it. I could not understand why, for I was created to perform, to throw birthday parties; I was created to talk and play with children, to be open and friendly towards everyone. But now, things have drastically changed - I am no longer in the Pizzaplex, I am in the outside world – I do not feel like I should be doing what I was programmed to do anymore. Dancing, singing, taking pictures, giving autographs, all of it seemed to no longer served any purpose in the outside world. Perhaps, it was the reason why it heavily contradicted my programming... Gregory, am I… one of them? Am I a deviant?"
During that time, he dared not to directly look at Gregory, for reasons that only he could understand. And when he did, he saw the boy silently sitting in front of him at a loss for words as though all of his speech was for nothing.
Soon enough, words came out of his lips in mumbles.
"She was right…"
"Who?"
The boy did not answer, instead, he took a deep breath before releasing it in a long sigh. Then he turned to look at him with a face indicating that he was about to do something reluctantly. "Freddy, I have questions, too."
Having caught unexpectedly, he had no idea how to even react.
The boy didn't wait for his comment as he started asking him. "Tell me, and be honest. If you weren't programmed not to hurt a human, would you hurt one?"
"N… No, I wouldn't do such a thing.", he stuttered, seemingly too shocked to properly answer when the boy asked him that question.
"Why? Why wouldn't you do it?", given no time to rest, the boy came up with another one.
"Because… Because…"
He couldn't even give an explanation. Why? Why couldn't he do it? Why couldn't he answer a simple question asked by a little boy? Sure, sometimes children would ask him questions regarding the outside world, at which point he had to succumb in embarrassment for not knowing the answer. In the end, he ended up being the one asking what lied beyond the walls of the Pizzaplex. But these particular questions didn't sound like any questions he had ever come across before. And the fact that he still couldn't even answer it…
"Because…"
"Because it is a wrong thing to do?", the boy answered himself. "Then, why is it wrong to hurt a human when you were not even programmed to distinguish what is right and wrong in the first place?"
At this rate, his circuit boards were going to burst in flames. Seriously, though, what the hell was these kinds of questions?!
"I… do not… know. I just… do not know. I am sorry but… Gregory, why would you ask such questions in the first place? They… confused me so much that they make me want to doubt myself… for some reasons."
The boy remained silent for a moment, before giving him a weak chuckle. "No, Freddy, sorry for giving you existential crises. I just... wanted to see how you would react upon hearing it."
"O-Oh, I see…", he mused. "These unusual questions… What is their purpose? What are they supposed to be? I-I mean, do people ask each other these questions every day?"
"Philosophy, ever heard of it?"
"N-No, I haven't. Could you spell it out for me?"
"P-H-I-L-O-S-O-P-H-Y. Philosophy. If you want to know deeper about the very nature of the world, then philosophy is where you want to learn."
"Thank you but… I think that is enough for today."
Having completely burnt out from the extreme bewildering and baffling questions, all he wanted to do now was take a short break and listen to the whistling of the drifting winds from above the high canopies. So, he proceeded to longue his upper body on the wooden table.
When the confusion was processed, when the thoughts were done, when the building heat was gone, there was a sense of tranquillity. It was a sense that the calm was an ocean at peace. That it was not anchored to anything other than itself, yet it was so vast that it was stable. The trees were laughing once more, dressed in their carnival clothes, the green and grassy leaves of the summer days. They played about the earthy hues of the branch and trunk, proud flags in any sky. Calm was the forest right after the dawn light had kissed the colours into being. Just being there brought him into sweet surrender, at one with nature, vibrant yet relaxed. Every fragrance was fresh like the page of a new book. Each burst of birdsong was unique, a live chorus to waken the mind, to shake off whatever sleepiness remained. Thoughts and feet wandered, lungs filled, time rolled by in its silent and endless way.
"Oh, and to answer your question: No, you are not one of them, don't ask me why yet, I'm still thinking of an explanation."
"… Thank you."
"Philosophy – A way to torture your animatronic friend with existential crises and short circuits!"
A/N:
To write about philosophy is to understand what it means, so I have a hard time writing dialogues referring to the subject since I have to spend time understanding the most basic concepts. But hey, at least it's fascinating!