Chapter 17:

Awkward Artist

Afraid of being threatened to do it the hard way, the bear had no choice but to overcome his phobia of awkwardness. Meanwhile, Lily was doing the same.

Maybe, they could finally share confidences with each other?

Daniel ruffled his backpack before taking out what seemed to be a thick rolled piece of black and grey nylon cloth. He put it aside and took out more odd and bizarre-looking equipment.

As dumbfounded as Freddy was, for he had never seen these types of… components before, he was at least able to guess what they were used for thanks to his analytic programming, which had almost blazed afire when it was trying to find a solution to a dilemma back then.

"Are these… for camping?", he asked out of curiosity, or perhaps, it was no more than just a guess.

"That's right.", said the man, he was currently trying to organize the overloaded amount of things he had just pulled out of his gigantic backpack.

Seriously, though, how much was there inside that bag? Either the bag itself was bottomless or the man bore incredible strength, both of which made Freddy have a hard time rationalizing the impracticality beholding in front of him. He turned to look at the children standing beside him, they also bore the same bewildered reaction as his. Although Lily's face wasn't what one would call a shock, the boy was on another whole new level.

"What the…", tried as he might, the boy remained taken aback by the puzzling scene. "How much can you even carry? That's probably fifty pounds or more!"

"It's not that heavy, though, I can carry this all day long.", the man mused with his sarcastic innocent tone. A few moments later, having finished organizing the stuff being displayed on the table, he dusted his hands and took a good look at each of them. "Groundsheet, rainfly, stakes, poles, ropes, pegs…". With each spoken name, he used his index finger to point at each object while counting whether they were sufficient enough.

Ultimately, the man clapped his hands in satisfaction, and then proceeded to turn face to face him. "Alrighty, let me show you how a tent is set up professionally.", he declared, which was received a snort as a response from his little sister. "Firstly first, the most important and crucial part when you are trying to set up a camp in the middle of the forest, is that it must be executed on a flat surface. An explanation for this is because why would anybody want to make their life more difficult than it has already been?"

Ignoring the later part, his gears started clicking as electrical currents swiftly coursed through his processor as well as his entire body. Brainstorming – an activity which he so favoured. "Oh, I can see that. The tent will be more stable and more comfortable to stay in if it was placed on a smooth surface."

Daniel nodded. "When going camping in the woods, people usually have to make choices about whether they should camp here and there or not without coming across certain factors, such as the height of terrains, the density of the trees, and if unlucky enough: encountering wild animals. Lucky for us, we are standing on a campground, and the campground is a perfect place to set up a tent: clean and smooth surface, low trees density, no wild animals. On top of that, we have been provided with a campfire spot. We just need to find some dry logs so we can light it up with ease using a lighter."

After that, the man walked to the campfire circle, he then used his boots to sweep the dead leaves and tiny pebbles unevenly scattered on the bright-yellow soil. "We'll set the tent right here, right next to the campfire. Lily, fetch me the tarp."

Upon hearing that, the girl went to get the blue tarp placed on the table earlier and handed it over to the man. "Here."

Having received the tarp, the man continued his lecture. "Step one, find a place to set up a tent. Done. Step two, lay the base.", said the man as he put down the tarp. "Done. Just a few steps more. Step three, spread the tent out and stake it. Step four, add the poles. Step five, raise the tent. Step six, add the rainfly. Step seven, add the final stakes and supports. And finally, step eight, celebrate… It's actually only seven steps but why not make it even? Besides, eight is my favourite number."

Despite the simplicity and its minimal amount, the information he received rushed through his mainframe as though they were exaggerated to the point that his processor experienced a sudden sensory overload. Odd. This shouldn't even be happening. Even for a 'low-grade' animatronic such as him, as generally speaking, he could absorb the data just fine. But what if he was indeed an outdated machine incapable of learning as fast as any normal robot could do? Perhaps, it was not because of the amount of data he received that caused the sensory overload, but rather… the unfamiliar concept that it contained.

As mentioned before, before leaving the Pizzaplex, his knowledge of the outside world was close to zero, barely reaching a single percentage. And when his dream had finally come true, he realized how tiny and insignificant he was compared to literally everything residing beyond the walls. Even the most simple term was too abstract for him to even fully grasp its basic definitions, let alone have to learn all of them one by one without stopping. And now, here he was, trying his best to catch up with Mother Nature and her green children.

"Excuse me, but… I do not think I understood what you have just said. Could you… um, repeat it in simpler terms?"

The man smiled. "How about I give instructions and you do all the steps by yourself instead? That way you can learn how to set up a camp by yourself in the future." He then turned to look at the boy. "Hey, kid, lend your buddy bear a hand."

Later…

"Ugh! This isn't like what I saw on TV at all! So frustrating!", grumbled Gregory.

"Be patient, Gregory. We should not expect ourselves to be perfect at the first lesson…", reasoned Freddy, his narrowed eyes remaining locked on the two pieces he was holding. "Remember, failure is the mother of success. Now, if you please be quiet, I have to focus at the moment. I am trying to… stick these two poles together…"

"Are you sure this is how a tent is set up?", asked the boy as he diverted his gaze at Daniel.

"Of course! Why would I lie? Do you know why the tent couldn't stand up straight? Here, let me show you…"

A few moments passed… they still couldn't properly raise the tent up.

Lily had literally nothing to do.

She could only do so much as stare at her friend and the bear who were trying their best to raise the tent up without getting the other poles snapped mid-way. As much as she wanted to lend a hand, Daniel wanted them to do it by themselves, and she couldn't just disagree like that. The man had a point. Though, she doubt that they would need a tent on their journey. Reasonably speaking, why would they even need one in the first place when they already had the van? It's not like they had the time to do such a thing as going camping, anyway.

She also had nothing to say other than silently observing the duo's hilarious attempts: Gregory wouldn't stop grunting since he couldn't keep the tent steady for five seconds straight. Freddy… well, he always bore this face, the one she would refer to as a "clueless embarrassment" face whenever the boy was moments from an emotional outburst. With hands as twice big as her face, it was no surprise that the bear had difficulties handling small objects, especially when attaching them together. And when she saw him using his gigantic fingers to connect the tent poles, she couldn't hold back the giggles.

Anyhow, having stood next to everyone doing nothing but staring, she felt as though she was wasting the precious time that she could have used to do something else much more productive. If she couldn't, or rather wasn't given permission to help set the tent up, then she would be at utmost glad to distract herself with doodles and sketches. With that being the case, she went to sit at the tables, took out her lovely notebooks, and began squiggling the first lines.

But, what should she draw? A simple portrait? Cartoon figures making extreme yoga poses? Random everyday objects? Or maybe, practice picturing environmental elements such as height, width and depth? Truth to be told, she couldn't decide whether creating artworks was her future career specialisation or was merely just an ordinary hobby with a teeny-tiny bit of professionalism and mastery within it. She knew that artists who made a living through their paintings, whether traditional or digital, would likely experience frequent financial crises if they were not good enough – whereas "good enough" was rather outstanding skillfulness.

So, perhaps it was just a normal hobby?

Distracted by the disruptive chattering, she stood up, grabbed her backpack and started finding a tree so that she could lean onto it, and at the same time, slowly introduce herself to the serene nature.

Her brother noticed it, so he called out:

"Where are you going?", asked the man, who made the boy and the bear turn their gaze to look at him, and then at her.

She halted. "Um… I'm just going over there. You know, exploring the woods and taking pictures of it."

The man didn't seem to question her introversion. "You forgot your camera."

Ugh… Graceful be the heart, thoughtful be the mind, it seemed that she had yet to recover the necessary amount of the grey matter she had lost in order to maintain her imbalance sanity. For patience's the key, she ought to not haste the healing of her precious brain. Uncomfortable, yes, but if she wanted to stabilize her mentality, she had to endure it for a while…

…After what seemed to be fifteen minutes of self-reflecting and contemplating the beauty of natural beauty, here she was, leaning herself against a tall evergreen. The striking tree was situated along a small nearby brook, its bark was greyish brown and scaly at the base. Further up the trunk, it broke off in irregular plates, revealing a creamy white, mottled layer beneath. She imagined each dancing leaf as one from a favourite book, each one with a story of nature, with its own lyrics of the wind and memories of the birds. Each one was art, a bold green with infinite nuance for the eye who dwelled in awe and love. These trees, these mighty feats of nature, had taken so many years to grow, all of those tiny moments morphing imperceptibly into the present. And yet, despite the mighty and ancient look of them, she suspected that it had only just emerged from its adolescence youth.

Still a long path to walk, still a long life to live.

She held out her notebook, upon which a squiggled sketch of the landscape was imprinted on the thick and rough pages; or rather, what were once a part of an anonymous trunk. It looked… barely acceptable. Even though she somewhat took drawing as a hobby, having witnessed an abomination such as this had delivered quite a knock to her self-esteem. Maybe, she should have just stuck with the usual character design – it's easy, simple, and no need for careful in-depth visualization unless the pose was dynamic.

Well… it's been a while since she last made drawings of the bear. Now that he had a cloak to wear, which she still couldn't believe her brother had spent a hundred bucks on it, her "fanatic" view of him had entirely flipped upside down: from a friendly and joyful bear in open arms to a quiet and unpredictable figure concealed under the hood. Not that she no longer loved him, it was merely the fact that the Freddy she had known for so long was no longer the same; or so she thought.

Hands waved in lissomness, performing in such flexibility that they produced curvy lines of darkish graphite. So soft and delicate yet bold and thick at the same time that all were equals to their respective counterparts. In just a few minutes, she had already finished sketching the head and torso. For her, it wasn't surprising to be able to draw this quick, considering the amount of artwork she had made about the bear. Maybe tens. Maybe hundreds. How many they were, only she knew.

Just when she had finished sketching the cloak and lining the remaining features, barely given time to review and fix the mistakes, her personal peace was unexpectedly disrupted by a sound.

"H-Hello, Lily."

Or rather, a robotic voice.

She screamed both of her lungs out upon hearing it. Her body recoiled in an instant as though it had sensed danger and was put into a fight or flight mode. She lift her head, eyeing the towering figure standing beside the tree she was leaning against. Her eyes widened, her mouth gaped, her legs shook, her hands trembled.

It was Freddy.

It was her scream that his processor was put to a halt in a span of a millisecond before normally functioning again. He didn't expect this, he didn't expect this at all. He didn't expect to be the one to go find Lily and have a check on her so that she wouldn't get lost in the forest. He remembered noticing Daniel and the boy muttering something from the other side of the table when he was busy scanning the products brought from the gas station. It was one of those few times when his curiosity would rise voluntarily, despite his respect for other people's private matters. He just couldn't help it.

Either way, when the two finished their quiet chattering, which was when he immediately switched his gaze back onto the grocery products, they gave him these… oddly glares full of mischievous plans… or he was just imagining. Then, Daniel asked him to go find Lily and have a quick check on her. At first, he wanted to ask the man why he wouldn't do it instead. But, before he could even get to ask, he was greeted by the boy's dauntingly serious stare. Without the need for in-depth analysing, he was certainly sure that it was a warning, a "friendly warning" that came with a much greater consequence.

Having no choices left, he went to find Lily. And he didn't expect the girl to be this terrified of him. Didn't Daniel say that she was a big fan of his? She even wore a wristband with his name on it. Surely, such a reaction he had just witnessed was merely just his mistake when trying to approach her.

"H-Hey Freddy… W-What are you doing here?", the girl asked in her stuttered voice. She was still on the ground, too shocked to even move a single muscle.

"Y-Your brother asked me to check on how you are doing."

"I'm fine, t-thanks for your concern.". She dusted her hands and clothes as she went to retrieve her notebook which she had just dropped earlier.

He blinked in silence.

What now? He had done what he had been told: go and check on Lily. There were no tasks coming after it, the queue was empty, and he was left to do things on his own accord, without guidance, without instructions. Actually, there was still one last unfinished task he had not done yet. That was, as he guessed it, the hardest one as well. Truth to be told, he didn't feel like playing with a child at the moment. His programming should have had no problem in pumping those electrical enthusiasms into his processing unit, where most of his actions were performed. Unfortunately, for some unexplainable reasons, it seemed that the codes didn't do their job properly anymore.

As though their influence had become weaker and weaker, he felt less bound. At the same time, he felt… more independence, somehow.

"Um…" Gosh, he felt ticklish, as in robotically speaking. If he did not want to experience that feeling again, the one which he so despised, then he must do something, right and now. For the sake of him and his fangirl. "Can I… join you in the mood? If you do not mind, that is."

"S-Sure, I won't mind.", replied the girl as she slid to the right, creating the space for him to sit down.

His metallic body kissed the soil adorned with uneven patches of green "fabric", or "moss" as a human would say. He kept his legs close, and hugged the knees to his chest. He dared not to lay any single gaze on the girl as he assumed she was keeping a locked observation on him. So, he just stared at the flowing brook in front of him.

He thought of how lovely and how strange a brook was. The stream slowed its pace when it came to a sandbank heaped with little pebbles and spent another unhurried moment swirling around the leafy greens that grew in the shallow waters of the stream. The water made soft, gentle sounds of gurgling when it was flowing past a forest filled with prickly shrubs. The water flowing through it was never the same water and was never still. It was always changing and was always on the move. And over time the brook itself changed, too. It widened and deepened as it rubbed and scoured, gnawed and kneaded, ate and bored its way through the land.

Moments passed as though there were no observers to witness its moving passage, the girl finally spoke up with her nervous tone.

"Um… so… I heard that you like relaxing by the brook, don't you? Gregory told me that."

Freddy jumped, but not too dramatic to the point that it was noticeable. He turned to look at the girl, ears wiggling. "Y-Yes, it is indeed so. I find its melody rather soothing. Whenever I feel… nervous, I always come to one and listen to the tunes it makes."

"Really? I… I didn't know a brook could make a song.", mused the girl, a faint smile was forming on her lips.

"It is not what I would call a song. But perhaps, it really is a kind of music."

Then everything fell silent, again…

"Um…"

Lily was having trouble forming basic sentences while he was doing nothing but remained dead silent. He couldn't believe he was letting a little girl desperately trying to start a conversation with him, while he clearly should be the one doing it. Such a shameful act that he began to reconsider his family-friendly programming. Think, think! Why was it so hard for him to talk to a child? He had no difficulty talking to Gregory. Surely, talking to Lily wouldn't be much of a different, no?

Well, someone ought to not let a girl down.

"I… uh, heard that you have an exceptional mastery in making artistic drawings, correct? Gregory told me that…", he said. And incidentally, it had the exact same sentence structure and meaning spoken by the girl just earlier.

The girl widened her eyes. "Exceptional mastery?", she rephrased in disbelief. "You got it all wrong, I… I'm not that great at drawing!"

"Oh…"

Frankly, what he had just spoken wasn't true at all: the boy didn't use such emphasizing words to express his commentary on Lily's drawing skill. He only said so merely because he want to sound… courteous and formal. Well, that didn't perfectly go out as planned. Worry not, as a Fazbear, plan B was a must in any given circumstances.

"Can I take a look at your drawings-"

"No!"

He jerked back, ears drooped. Did he do something wrong?

Lily's face reddened, especially her ears. "I… I mean sure, w-why not?"

She was hesitant to hand over her notebook, but she did it nonetheless. "H-Here…"

Upon opening the book, the first thing he saw was… doodles, lots of doodles. These random mini drawings illustrated random everyday objects from furniture such as TVs and couches, and school equipment such as books and pencils, to vehicles like cars and bikes, and animals like bears and wolves… Although, in terms of realistic accuracy, these illustrations were yet to fully depict their real-life counterparts. That was, the animals looked like what he would see on the carton boards hanging around the Pizzaplex – the cartoon version of him and his friends. Now that he had mentioned it, these cartoony sketches faintly reminded him of… him.

A few pages forward, and those doodles were replaced with cartoony characters, most of them have simple designs and wore casual clothes. A few pages more and they started to have more of a dynamic pose.

And then, it went to a whole new level – environments and the surroundings. And he was at a loss for words despite not having anything to say in the first place.

He quickly glanced at Lily as he lowered the notebook, eyes widened without giving any context. The girl noticed him and immediately looked away with two blushed cheeks. He said nothing as he returned his gaze back onto the book.

Through his robotic eyes, he saw a mountainous landscape filled with pine trees, chiselled with curvy streams and rivers alike, and populated with a diversity of faunal denizens. Despite seeing no sights of any animals within the sketch, aside from the flying birds in the sky, he felt as if the artwork itself wasn't so forsaken as it seemed. Somehow, despite being depicted only in black and white, he could still feel life thrived like what he would see right now, at this moment that was transpiring right in front of his eyes. These simple yet vivid and vigorous works of art had spectacularly exhibited the three-dimensional viewpoints of the material word – height, width and depth – while ignoring the fact that it was completely drawn on a flat, two-dimensional surface.

He spent half a minute staring at each drawing.

Huh... fascinating. Very fascinating indeed. He felt as though he was watching a person born with a burning hope and sizzling passion slowly improving themselves day by day. And against all odds, they managed to overcome impossible obstacles and accept failure when it came about. What was it called again? He remembered the term for it, for those whose traits and personality changed over time due to certain effects around their life, either physical or emotional, or perhaps both.

Character development, no?

The following pages were blank, indicating that he had reached the end of the exhibition.

"Thank you for letting me borrow it."

He returned the notebook to Lily. And oddly enough, he was sure that he had just seen the girl let out a relieving sigh as if there was something he wasn't supposed to see in the notebook. Surely, he had looked at all of the drawn pages, right? There was nothing left to see. Or, maybe there was indeed something behind the back?

"Um… So… What do you think about my drawings?", she asked, still not looking at him.

"I… Your drawing skills are beyond what I would imagine!", he exclaimed, but not too loud. "I love your character designs, each of them looked very expressive and alive somehow. For years I have received countless drawings from my fans, they might look similar in terms of creativity, but never have I stumbled upon such masterpieces as these! And yet, you even pushed it further by creating such realistic and lively landscapes that I thought it was impossible to fully express all three dimensions on a flat paper surface! Hard as I might try, I still could not wrap my head around how one could possibly achieve an accomplishment such as this!"

"T-Thanks… Freddy.", replied the blushed girl. "But really, I'm not that good at drawing! I have only just practised drawing landscapes for a week or two before visiting my relatives on my summer holidays. And compared to other people, especially famous artists, I am nothing but another ordinary amature. If you wanted to see what 'real art' looks like, then maybe you should take a look at famous classic paintings like The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci or The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh… Well, if you have a phone or a computer and internet access that is… Since you and I are currently in the middle of the woods, I can't show you what they look like."

"I see…", he mused. "Perhaps, someday in the not so far future, the time would come and I could finally see what those paintings look like."

Art – a comprehensible yet abstract concept of the world that a mere robot such as him might never be able to fully grasp its true meaning. He knew what the definition of the word was, but that didn't help him understand it any better. Even if he was given some clues, the fact that he was not built like any other learning robot had already been a rough obstacle to get over.

There was no limit on what could be considered art, for art was like a taste with an indescribable flavour until someone took a bite of it. With each bite - a different flavour, and that flavour was unique to every human being.

So, he wondered: Ignoring the impossibility of a machine to experience the concept of taste, what would that flavour of art be if he took a bite of it?

If he couldn't "taste" it, then perhaps, could he feel it, admire it, create it, as robotically speak?

Well, he could try.

"Lily…", he said, fingers twirling, ears wiggling. "It might be too much to ask you this, but… if you do not mind, will you teach me how to draw, just like you?"

Upon hearing that, the girl was taken aback. She shot him a pair of wide and staggered eyes with a bit of excitement in each of them. "W-Wait… What? R… R-Really?"

"I-I am being fully honest."

There was a brief silence. "I… I don't know, Freddy. I'm not sure if there's anything I can teach you. I mean… where do I even begin? I have taught Gregory before during yesterday afternoon. But you're different, Freddy. You're a robot, an animatronic bear. I have never taught a robot how to draw before!"

He could not keep his eyes locked on Lily for long. He wanted to gaze upon the flowing brook, because it was what made him calm and collected. "I understand that it is difficult for you to get used to new things when they appear out of nowhere and are so suddenly. But… there is nothing unique about me. I am a robot, a robot that is a creation of a human person. And to be created by a human is to be expected to have their features and attributes. As such, I am no different from a child who is curious and is eager to learn. So, you can teach me as though I am your friend Gregory, teach me like how you have taught him."

Another silence, which was accompanied by the girl's perplexing stare. Then, came a sigh. "Well… Alright, I will teach you how to draw. How could I turn down an offer coming from my biggest idol?"

"A friend would be more suitable to use… I am a runaway robot that has broken many rules, you know.", he smiled.

"Oh… R-right, a friend…", the girl repeated the word multiple times, her face reddened again. "A friend…"

"Nonetheless, thank you for accepting my request! Where should we begin first? Doodles? Cartoony figures? Or drawing landscapes?"

Lily was snapped out of her thought upon hearing that. "What? No, Freddy. Drawing landscapes is too early for you to even try. In order to master drawing, or learn how to create simple lines, the first step that all must learn is drawing the basic geometric shapes! You know, circle, ellipse, square, triangle, rectangle, pentagon, hexagon, octagon, rhombus, trapezium, parallelogram, oval… "

"O-Oh… there are some names that I am familiar with. The rest are…"

Lily giggled. "You don't have to learn all of these shapes in order to draw skillfully, but since we are on the first step, I might as well teach you a bit about geometry as well. Like heptagons! Not all often have a chance to see a heptagon-shaped object unless they are studying geometry, so it's alright if you don't know what it looks like. That shape is the hardest to draw as well, especially when you are trying to draw an equilateral heptagon."

"Why is hard to draw an e-quil-lay-ter-ral heptagon? From I have been told, 'hepta' means 'seven', no? A seven-sided shape would not be that hard for everyone to draw. Is it because of the word coming with it? E-quil-lay-ter-ral? What does it mean?"

She gave another chuckle. "We will get to that part later. I don't want to stuff your head with a bunch of complicated concepts yet. Now, I just need to find something to help you practice drawing. I doubt that you would be able to draw using those gigantic hands of yours."

Freddy took a look at his hands upon hearing that. True to her words, even his palm had already covered the girl's entire face. Without the need to calculate, he could jump straight to conclusions and conclude that it was practically impossible for him to use a pen or a pencil to even create a proper shape, let alone make sketches. But hey, at least he was still able to write his signature.

And here he thought he could have a chance to learn more about art. Well, that was a letdown.

"Oh, I have an idea! Let's find some sticks and then we can start drawing on the banks by the brook over there. How about that?"

"Yes! Let us do it right away!"

Core instability: 29% ~ 32%

"To you, art is beauty. To me, it is something far greater. And yet, somehow, I can feel it closer than ever before."