The Puppet receives a cosmetic upgrade courtesy of Charlie and Matt, after which they all go exploring an abandoned building that Henry has plans for.
Terror haunts these halls, don't trust these walls, they tell a story so unwelcoming.
The last couple of days had certainly been impressive. Since Henry had shown them the Puppet, both Matt and Charlie had fallen in love with it. Mari would play with them all day, never leaving their sides. The three had played all sorts of games from hide and seek to even some board games, which the Puppet was especially good at. They also drew and watched some movies together. It sung a bunch of tunes from its music box and was generally a great companion for the two children. It even appeared to grasp the plot of some of the films they had watched, although it was debatable just how much it had understood from them, or at least that was Henry's opinion. For some reason, the man seemed to underestimate just how smart Mari really was. It wasn't that he thought little of the animatronic, he was quite proud of the fact that the Marionette had adapted so quickly to interacting with the two of them, but he didn't consider the feats of intelligence it had displayed as remarkable enough, probably thinking that it was all stuff he had programmed into it- whatever the case was, the boy appreciated the fact that the man didn't ruin their fun. But even so, while Matthew was nowhere near the techno Wizz that Henry was, he still begged to differ.
For one thing, the curiosity it displayed could not be replicated by a simple machine. A computer couldn't really seek out information on its own unless instructed to do so. Mari was interested in every little thing that surrounded it without any outside input. That made it clear to the boy that the Puppet had its own interests, or could at least create them over time, and had the potential to develop its own likes and dislikes, which was honestly incredibly exciting. On top of that, Mari did not act like a cold, unfeeling robot. The way it moved, how it played with them, how careful it was around him and Charlie, how it used its music box to simulate laughter and giggling when either of them did something funny, it all went to show the personality it had, the unique quirks an AI wouldn't have. Programs, or AIs more specifically, were all about efficiency, to complete a task as fast as possible. Mari wasn't like that.
For example, when they played hide and seek with it, the Puppet took its time looking for them, making sure to create a sort of suspenseful atmosphere instead of running around at max speed in search of the children and when it was its turn to hide it did so superbly, folding and contorting to be able to fit in any spaces, no matter how tight, making Matt and Charlie have a hard time finding it. The Puppet moved and bent in such a way where one wouldn't think it had a metal skeleton underneath the black fabric, but it wasn't frightening or uncanny whenever it did, rather it made everything cooler and more relaxed. The point was the Marionette wasn't just a whole lot of preprogrammed responses, no, it was its own being capable of original reactions. Maybe Mari wasn't fully sentient, but calling it just a super smart AI would be insulting. It was capable of a far greater degree of Deep Learning than any AI Matt knew of, much like humans, and if it wasn't already clever enough to be considered self-aware, it was getting there pretty fast.
In a way, this had been the first thing to go against what Matthew had come to expect of this world. Granted, he hadn't spent enough in this timeline to get to the point where the important events would start taking place, but he hadn't been surprised by what he had witnessed so far. Mari being sentient opened the door of possibility to all sorts of new stuff happening, and that thought was just as terrifying as it was thrilling. As far as Matt knew, if he excluded the remnant infused Funtime animatronics, living robots had only been real in the games during Security Breach, where the cast clearly displayed emotions and had their own habits, like Roxy doubting herself, Chica liking to eat pizza and Monty practicing in his room, all activities normal robots wouldn't partake in. He wasn't counting novel Charlie as a living robot since she had been given life by Henry's grieving, a bullshit plot point that had never been utilized anywhere else in the franchise. Come to think of it, if one presumed that Charlie wasn't the one in Psychic Friend Fredbear, then did Evan's crying make the plush toy come alive? Hmm… that was an interesting idea for sure.
Welp, whatever. The thing was that it had never been confirmed if the animatronics were smart enough on their own, unpossessed and no remnant, to socialize with children, nevertheless the fandom definitely liked to assume so in their fanfics, fan comics and art. It was mentioned that the Toys in FNaF 2 could walk around during the day, Phone Guy even said they interacted with kids just fine in his night 4 phone call, but did that imply they could also play with kids and not just like, maybe high five and say some prerecorded line? If other bots were as smart as Mari was by themselves, it shouldn't have been unexpected for them to wander at night, and Phone Guy wouldn't have had to give you the "night mode" excuse. So, if Henry's first fully fledged animatronic was like this, what should he expect from the others that were soon to be built? Would they also share this level of intelligence? If Henry didn't change anything while he was making them, then yes, that seemed to be the most likely conclusion, Matt guessed.
On one hand, he was happy he'd get to experience new things from canon, but on the other hand, this could spell disaster for his plans, if what he thought he knew no longer applied to this world. The fact that at any moment something unpredicted could occur and he'd have no way to foresee it was one of his biggest fears… This universe was adjusting to his existence, so he too would have to adjust to the changes his presence would entail. He just hoped he wouldn't fail because of said changes. Matthew shook his head, right now had other stuff to deal with like, say, what Charlie was about to propose to her father.
"Can I ask you something, dad?"
"Sure, sweetheart. What is it?" the man said with a fond smile.
"Um, me and Matt were wondering if we can paint Mari's mask. Can we, please?"
"Ah, see, I-" he began before he was cut off.
"We promise we'll be careful not to mess it up. We just thought that it'd be a good idea to add some color to Mari's mask. She'd look prettier if she had some makeup. Having just a white face might to get really boring for some kids at Fredbear's, but if we color it a little it's going to look super good. So can we, please daddy?" his daughter continued, offering Henry completely unrefusable puppy dog eyes.
Damn, Charlie can be pretty persuasive when she wants something really bad, huh. Wouldn't have known her to be the manipulative type. She definitely knows how to persuade her father, that's for certain, mused Matthew.
"…Well, you know I can't say no to that look, dear." Henry sighed. "Alright, but be very careful. We don't have a spare mask if you smear paint all over it." Charlie squealed and hugged her father.
"Thank you so much, dad! You won't regret it!"
"I trust that you'll do a good job." He patted her head. "Okay then. Have fun!"
With that, the two rushed in Charlie's room to take everything they'd need for their tiny arts project then went back downstairs in the living room where they had told the Puppet to wait for them.
"How come you called Mari a she?" he asked, recalling how canonically the Marionette was a male character.
"I mean, dad said it was called the Puppet, right? And that's more like a… feminine name, sort of." she reasoned.
"Eh, I guess. Although when I look at Mari, I don't really see a girl or a boy, you know. Mari's just kind of there, so I feel like it would be more appropriate."
"Mari's not an object, Matt." she chastised lightly.
"I know, and you know that's not what I meant. It's just… Mari is a robot that's like, almost self-aware, literally the first of its kind and that's crazy! You get me?" he asked, but she was still watching him with a puzzled expression. "Actually, whatever, forget I asked. I'm not having a debate right now." the boy waved it off. "We're not on the cesspool that is Twitter. Or Reddit, though Twitter's way worse than Reddit." he muttered.
"What?"
"Never mind." he chuckled lightly. Over his time on the internet, he had learned from watching other people's discussions on the FNaF subreddit that it was better to simply pull out of those types of conversations early on before they got too heated, and it wasn't as if he wanted to start an argument. He had only been curious as to what had led Charlie to refer to Mari as a she when in the games the Puppet was called a he.
This kind of reminds me of the Mangle gender debate. I remember that being a way bigger deal than it had to be back in the day. Utterly pointless, but it was made funnier by the fact that Scott played along and never gave the fans a definitive answer. What with making Mangle supposedly be possessed by Susie's dog without telling us what gender the dog was. Heh. Man… those were some good times, he recalled with nostalgia.
The children made it into the living room where the Puppet was sitting patiently on the carpet in front of the TV. When it spotted them, it perked up, thrilling with a chime.
"Hey, Mari. Uh, we were thinking of painting your mask. You cool with that?" he asked. The last thing he wished was to make it uncomfortable, which if he stopped to think about, was a sentiment the animatronic probably shared with Matt in regards to him and Charlie. The Marionette nodded energetically at the question, scooting closer to the two kids. "So how are we doing this?" he asked the girl.
"I was thinking we could paint her lips red and maybe do a rosy circle on each of her cheeks." thank God she wasn't planning on doing a full-face makeup.
"You can do the lipstick and I'll take care of the cheeks then." she giggled.
"Of course." smiling, she set aside the supplies they had brought from her room, with Matthew doing the same. It was a couple of brushes and differently colored acrylic paints, even though they'd only be using red.
The two children sat next to each other and got to work. The Puppet opted to play a slowed version of The Bells of The Monastery as background music. Everything was relatively quiet for a while as the two painted, neither saying a word as they listened to the welcoming tune. Truth be told, this was not the type of experience he had envisioned when he'd realized where he was. He'd imagined more hardship, having to constantly be paranoid to keep himself alive and the like but he supposed that happy moments like this one were bound to happen as well. It wasn't all dark and gloomy. He was living moments no one from his own world had ever had the chance to live, and was one of the first people to do so even in this universe, to speak nothing of the fact that having one of his favorite characters in the series sitting right before him was an indescribable feeling. If he ignored the main threat of Hurricane and focused on the positives, he found that he couldn't really complain about anything. Life here was happy, or, no, it was peaceful, nice even, from the small amount of contact he had had with other people he'd seen that they were nice too. If there were two things he missed most from his world, they would've been his family and modern technology. All other stuff he didn't care for.
He leaned back to take a look at his work thus far. It was coming along well; Charlie was almost done and he only had to fill in the right cheek circle. Having brought some ring cutouts from upstairs he hadn't really struggled with the shape of the circles. The Marionette was looking exactly as its Pizza Sim counterpart, the FNaF 2 model only without the purple streaks running down its face. Being involved in the Puppet's iconic design's origin was amazing, Matt believed. Many dedicated fans would probably kill to be in his position- or maybe they wouldn't once they thought it through- but alas, he was the one to have been chosen for this.
In any case, he was grateful for being able to be a part of these sorts of activities. It was a dream come true, made better by the fact that summer vacation had just started, which meant no more school for Charlie, only free time where everyone could have fun, Mari included, all day. Speaking of, there was another thing that made the Marionette even more sophisticated, and Henry even more of a genius, and that was the fact that the Puppet's battery life could last for a full 24 hours. They wouldn't have to worry about Mari going offline while they were messing around throughout the house. Charging the animatronic was super easy too. Matthew had always been curious as to how Fazbear Entertainment kept the robots powered on, assuming they didn't know about the hauntings and just left the characters unplugged at all times. It had been fun to listen as Henry explained that all one needed to do was twist the middle button on the Puppet's chest while lifting it, plug one end of the power cable in the port with the other one in the nearest electrical socket.
After another two minutes, they had finished. In total, it had taken them around ten minutes to complete the makeup due to the fact that they wanted it to cover the selected white of Mari's porcelain face flawlessly so as to not leave any fading spots. Matt provided the Puppet a small mirror so it could see the "paintjob" itself. The green lights of its eyes blinked as it turned its head slowly, inspecting the two children's work, body language not revealing any of its opinions on the result. Charlie and Matt waited anxiously for a reaction when, without any warnings, the Marionette pulled the two in a tight hug, loud chimes coming from its chest. Relieved, they hugged back. All of this was observed by a Henry that had come out of the kitchen, coffee in hand, intending to work on the springlock models in the shed. Needless to say, he had stopped to observe the more than cute scene before him, relieved the kids hadn't ruined his creation's appearance, but had actually improved it.
"Hm, maybe it's not such a bad idea to let kids paint over an animatronic." The man hummed thoughtfully as he saw the end result, dismissing the notion soon after as he made his way to his workspace, mood just a shade brighter.
o0o
Toreador March was playing inside the car as its maker drove everyone to wherever he planned on taking them. The man had claimed that it was a surprise, refusing to reveal where they were headed, even when the little ones had asked. The Puppet looked out the window at the passing houses, registering the layout of the town as they went along the paved road. Since the moment it had come online, it had been outside the house plenty of times, most of them playing with the children in the backyard. Its extensive Data Pack contained information on all sorts of stuff, from music to chemistry to bedtime stories and lullabies, but it was one thing to know of something and another thing entirely to observe that something with your own two optics. The children had never rushed the Marionette whenever it had been curious as to what was causing the barking coming from the neighbor's garden or when a butterfly had landed on its shoulder, instead letting it explore the new it encountered freely and because of that, it was grateful to the boy and girl. Mari was allowed to understand its surroundings at its own pace, which wasn't often the case for humans, a fact that made it appreciate the children greatly, as much as its present programming allowed.
The Puppet replayed those memory files in its central processor as it stared out the window at its own reflection, its attention solely on the red accents on its mask. Analysis of the children's work concluded that they had the potential to become great artists in the future if they kept practicing painting or similar hobbies. After the first four days of engaging in "Simple Activities" with them, it had run a calculation to determine its success rate in said activities, the conclusion being 82%. Running the same calculation once more after it had received the appearance improvement had raised that number to 90.5%. Mari's systems buzzed gleefully at the positives they generated because so far it had been fulfilling its directives better than initially simulated. Being able to make others happy generated a reaction that was processed as satisfactory to the Marionette.
It gazed bellow at the two sitting next to it in the backseat. Both Matthew and Charlotte were bobbing their heads to the tune it was playing. Mr. Emily- Henry was inappropriate to refer to him as given that Mari was his creation despite what the man said- seemed to be doing so too. If it could have, it would've thanked its creator for bringing it along for the trip to wherever they were going. Being left alone, away from the ones it wanted to entertain was a situation it did not want to undergo. Still, had been the case the Puppet would've waited patiently for their return. It couldn't disobey Mr. Emily after all, no matter how much it might've wanted to accompany the kids. Thankfully, that scenario had not come to pass and it wouldn't have to be separated from its hosts unless it endangered or severely mistreated the children, an absurd notion it wouldn't dream of doing, or at least those were the repercussions initial prediction had shown when it did not have a general idea of who the people that encompassed it were. Now however, the animatronic didn't have to waste Memory Space worrying about that.
Mr. Emily stopped the car in front of an older, one-story building with two large doors at the entrance, and urged them all to get out. Complying, the Puppet stepped out after the little ones, its green optics focused on the in-need-of-repairs building that stood there. The crimson paint on the doors had chipped off decades ago, revealing the corroded metal beneath. The walls were in an even nastier shape, with countless cracks and holes spreading across their surface. One would never guess they were blue in color back in the building's heyday. A small play area with a swing and a seesaw led to a parking lot directly ahead of the actual entrance. The street was silent, showing no signs of life. This part of town wasn't as populated as the rest, it would seem, no one to spot the three humans and one robot. The entire car ride had barely taken two minutes, it noted. It didn't know whether it was a good thing that this place was so close to its maker's home or not. Whatever the case, it would learn the answer shortly, the Marionette rationalized.
"What is this place?" asked Mr. Emily's daughter.
"This, my dear, will be Fredbear's." Mari turned to look at Henry as he said that, suddenly very interested in the conversation.
"Wait, really?!"
"Mhm, me and William bought it last week but I kind of forgot to show you guys around, so I thought we could do that today." that name was familiar to the Puppet, having heard it uttered by its maker in many different contexts.
1 Name, [Male] Recognized
Will – William
Possibility To Match=100%
Positive Value=2
Searching Memory Banks…
9 Subfiles Found.
Will/Creator's Friend
Updating Designation…
William/Creator's Business Partner/Friend
Updated.
Saved Memory Subfile.
"Okay, um, so this is Fredbear's, right?" the girl squinted at the building, having a hard time finding her words. "Doesn't it look a little…" Charlotte trailed off, making her father chuckle.
"It does look a little worn out, I'll give you that but uh, hmm…" he rubbed his chin. "Ah, maybe more than a little, but this is perfect for what me and uncle Will have in mind. It's got just the right amount of space, and since it's the way it is we'll have more freedom to shape it how we want. It'll be easier to tear down what we don't like and just build something new."
"If you say so, dad. Can we go inside?"
"Of course, that's why we came. Here, let me just find the key." the man searched through his pockets. "There it is! Alright, follow me." he said as he walked towards the doors.
This was the place the Marionette would get to perform in along with its nearly assembled brothers, Fredbear and Springbonnie. It thrilled at the prospect of seeing the restaurant before its siblings. Getting to know the location before its grand opening would surely give it an advantage over its fellow animatronics when it would come the time to entertain the little ones. A small rivalry never hurt anyone, even if currently Mari didn't have anyone to rival, as it was one of a kind. And it wasn't as if it was doing something bad since all it wanted was to fulfill its purpose to the best of its ability, something that its brothers would also be required to do. Because what reason did they, as animatronics, have for existing if not to fulfill their maker's noble wishes, which were to purely make children happy and craft fun memories for them.
Positive Value=350
Saved. Feeling privileged for having this opportunity, The Puppet eagerly trailed behind its creator inside the establishment. The first thing its optics picked up was the quaint, albeit empty room they were in. Its length measured at 13 yards, with a width of 12 yards. The floor was checkered in black and white tiles with grey walls. There were a couple of puddles of water on the ground. Rain had most likely been strong enough to seep through the cracks in the ceiling. On the right wall there were the same crimson double doors that they had come through, while on the other side there was an opening that led to the second part of the building.
Creating Map – Fredbear's_Family_Diner…
"Wow, I'd like to imagine that this was very homey back when it was built. I mean, are you going to stick with the design or change everything? Because if this was restored it'd look great, at least in my opinion." said Matthew for the first time since exiting the car.
"Yep, you should've seen some of the old pictures of this place. Originally, it was a restaurant so we're not going to make a ton of changes to its overall design besides decoration since it works for what we want to do too. With this being the main room, it's going to be filled with party tables and all the way there" he pointed at the wall the doorway was facing. "-we'll put the show stage. As for the prize counter, this is where it's going to be." he motioned to the right. The Puppet looked in said direction, chiming. Immediately afterwards, its Memory Banks sent a notification. "Oh, it's going to be amazing, just you wait!" continued its maker.
Unknown Memory File Found
Error.
File_29/06/8#-46.7B Invalid Date
Internal Clock=26/06/1981/10:38:55 AM
Accessing…
Failed – Memory File Corrupted
Attempting Restoration/Decryption…
Successful.
Accessing…
File_29/06/8#-46.7B Playing…
The Puppet stood in a dark room resembling the establishment it was in, if only cleaner, missing the disrepair. It was not alone, however. There were four bodies slumped over in the corners. They matched the petite height of children, but were anything but. Almost identical, they had transparent grey bodies that didn't sport any outstanding features besides their empty, large pits for eyes that had tar dripping from them unending waves. The creatures remained motionless, but the Marionette did not. It did not walk, however, as one might've expected, rather it floated, thin legs gliding above the ground as it approached the first being, a present box in its supple hands. It set the box near the pseudo child, opened it and out of it pulled a brown bear head, similar to what Fredbear would look like, before placing it upon the ghostly head of the body. It repeated this process three more times, each one a new present appearing in its hands out of thin air as if summoned from some invisible place. First a red fox, then a purple rabbit and finally a yellow chicken head all the while the false command of "Give Gifts. Give Life." ran its systems. After it was done, the Puppet rose, still levitating without any assistance from hidden strings, and turned around when it spotted another phantom in the middle of the room. Unlike the others, this apparition was floating like itself, and staring directly at the Puppet. The fifth ghost wore the head of Fredbear. Beams of golden light were emanating from its open mouth and eyes, illuminating their environment. The two did not communicate in any way, only watching each other in a tense silence. Abruptly, the light engulfed the whole room in a bright flash, ending the recording.
End Of Memory File
Play Again: Y/N?
N.
Negative Value=500
Saved.
Small fingers curled around its own, shaking its hand. Its green dots quivered as it faced the boy. It produced a quick jingle as if to ask what is it.
"Mari? You good? You zoned out for a moment." it bowed its mask, patting Matthew's shoulder. Little ones should not make those kinds of concerned expressions.
Negative Value=350
Saved. The Marionette did not want to see that look again on the boy's face, even if it was resigned. Children should only ever be cheerful and laugh.
"He must've bugged out for a moment. Those things happen sometimes with robots, but it's perfectly normal. He'll sort himself out, no worries." Mr. Emily provided dismissingly, the Puppet nodding along at the explanation offered by its creator.
In truth, the Complexity Comprehension Engine the animatronic sported didn't help it better understand what it had spectated. It new it didn't fabricate the Memory File as it was unable to do that by itself. Furthermore, the date on the file was incorrect and to top it off, the things Mari did contradict fundamental logic. Also, how did the file appear in its Banks? Why did the Puppet remember it now of all times? Only its maker could program it and he did not download new footage to its memory, nor was there a new Data Package installed, or it would've known the second it occurred. It didn't know and the only conclusion it could draw was that of an outside source, but there was no such thing that could connect to the Marionette's systems and upload a file in them due to the fact that they were enclosed. The Puppet could not tune in to a radio the same way a radio couldn't send out information to the robot. It would have to replay that recording many more times to get a semblance of an idea of what it had seen.
The Marionette disliked not knowing…
"Uh, alright then?" the boy said, not sounding the least bit convinced. "So… where does that lead to?" he gestured towards the right doors.
"That's just an empty room. We're thinking of making it like a Parts & Service type of deal. I think that's where the employees will dress up and do maintenance. We haven't really decided yet. Well, let's continue." and so, they did into the left side of the restaurant. It was much of the same. An even smaller room in the exact state as the first one, and if they kept going, they'd reach what appeared to be the bathroom hallway at the end of the chamber. In the left corner there were more double doors, these painted white with circular windows however, probably leading to the kitchen.
Updating Map…
"This'll be the arcade room, essentially, with all the games kids these days like playing. Fun fact, this place's got an underground bunker." said the adult out of the blue.
"A bunker?" exclaimed both kids.
"Indeed. Apparently, it was built during the second world war but was never used. We might use it for storage, though. Even the previous owner forgot about it until after he handed us the building plans. Heh, it's pretty funny because the man would've definitely charged us more money had he known about it. But by then me and Will were the new owners of this place anyway. I guess the two of us had luck on our side."
"Huh." was all Matthew said, having an eyebrow raised, seemingly coming to some type of realization. Whatever it was, he did not share with the rest.
"Sounds fun. Let's go and explore it!" declared the girl.
"No can do. Sorry sweetie. To get there you have to take an elevator and I'm not endangering my children" the boy smiled. "-by putting them in a decades old hoist." Charlotte pouted slightly, but agreed with her father.
"We could go when it's finished renovating though, right?" asked the boy.
"Yeah, I promise I'll take you there once it's done, but for now you'll have to wait." Matthew didn't say anything else as he stared off into space, pondering something privately. Perhaps he had an interest in bunkers, the Marionette considered the possibility.
o0o
They didn't talk about their home lives when they hung out. Not because they were necessarily bad by any means, but because the two didn't want to be reminded of them in their spare time. At least, that was the case for her. She hadn't asked him and he never went into detail so she wouldn't be the one to bring it up. It was one of the things she liked about him, he kept to himself and didn't pry into other people's lives acting as if he cared only to badmouth you later. If she wasn't comfortable sharing something with him, he wouldn't force her, whereas her parents wanted to know every little thing about what she did, how and why. They cared, but they were so overbearing, had expectation so high she could never hope to meet them. At home she had no say in anything. It was always do this because I said so and so on, or risk being grounded for weeks if she disobeyed. Her mother wanted her to be a perfect princess so she could boast about her daughter at work while her father never missed the opportunity of comparing her to other children, pointing out the fact that she didn't act like a proper lady or whatever crap.
She loved her parents, and she knew she had it better than a lot of other kids, but she couldn't be herself while in the same house as them. Every day it was the same old routine of putting on a mask of happiness, pretending it was all fine, like she didn't constantly have the urge to pull people's teeth out or bash their heads in. It was all fake. Cassidy lived in a fake reality created by her parents presented towards the entire world. It was one of the reasons she didn't have many friends. Kids had this predetermined impression of what she was like but when they saw her for who she truly was they'd get creeped out and abandon any form of interaction, often resorting to bullying her for no apparent reason. Kids that were like that however, had another thing coming. Cassidy absolutely despised bullies, and if you were one, God help you if you so much as crossed paths with her. After all, getting into fights was one of her main qualities as she liked to stand up for the little guy. If others were too weak to defend themselves then it was your responsibility to defend them, otherwise you had no right to call yourself strong.
She was a rich kid that didn't have to worry about nothing, sure, but she hated rich kids. She hated those that felt they were better that everyone else just because they were loaded, or because of some stupid social status or whatever, and that somehow gave them the right to step all over others. She'd rather sleep in the trash then act like that. In spite of all the helicoptering, a good thing was that her parents were really easy to lie to. If she played her cards right acting how they wanted her to act she could get them to believe and do almost anything for her. Don't want to go to school, fake a cough and stay in bed all day without supervision since daddy is on a business trip for most of the week and mommy can't afford to stay at home caring after her sick baby girl no matter how much she might want to. In a way, her life was a blessing and a curse.
This was why she enjoyed spending time with Matt, why it was one of the only things she looked forward to most days. Around him she could drop the façade without being judged. She could be quirky and angry and all of the other stuff without the critical stares of stuck-up adults or the weirded out looks of other children her age. It was why she had acted more friendly regarding him when she'd learned he had moved to Hurricane recently. It had been the ideal opportunity to finally make some true friends and not some girls whose moms knew her mother. She'd taken a shot in the dark trusting the boy and she hadn't been disappointed since then. He too was fairly quirky, having a sense of humor she rarely understood and constantly referencing things she hadn't heard of.
Cassidy had found refugee with Matthew, an escape from the boring normal. Among other things, it was why the two of them had grown so close as buds in such a short span of time, a couple of months at best. She knew she could be too much to handle and so was very thankful to the boy for tolerating her presence for this long when most people didn't last five minutes. It really meant a lot to her and it showed that Matthew was different from most people, a rarity nowadays, especially among the residents of this town. She looked at him as he continued to ramble on about his father's creation.
"-And it's super cool how it can play with us and stuff. I mean, you should've seen what it could do. It felt like it actually knew what it was doing and not just following simple programing. It could be a reach, but I think this is the first ever sentient AI."
"Uh huh." she responded. From the way he was talking, this "Mari" seemed like quite the incredible robot, if it was able to act like a person. That was the kind of thing you only saw in movies though, so she didn't know what to believe. She'd had to see it for herself to agree with him, even though Matt wasn't the type to lie. Maybe he was just super passionate. Still, she had to admit that she was most certainly intrigued.
"…You're not really listening, are you?" he deadpanned at her response.
"Of course, I was. I even thought that it's pretty neat to have a robot companion." Cassidy defended herself.
"We can talk about something else if this is boring you." he paused to push the swing he was sitting on forward. "Like what was up with that dog we saw earlier."
"The golden retriever? Yeah, that mutt tends to run away from home almost all the time. Kind of goes to show that Susie is a bad owner, which doesn't make much sense since she loves that dog more than anything but I guess it's true."
"Susie?"
"It's good that you haven't met her. She's only the richest girl in Hurricane and sure likes to rub that one in your face whenever you see her."
"Aren't you rich too?" she glared at him.
"That's beside the point, dummy. I don't go around telling everyone how many dresses my mother bought me or on what island I spent my vacation. You should be thankful you've been lucky enough to avoid her for so long. At least she's not the worst girl here, the girls in my class are literal demons, but she's still an annoying daddy's girl that pretends to want to be friends with everyone. I don't like her." he snorted at her venting.
"You don't like most people, Cass. And I'm sure she isn't that bad." another thing she liked about him was the fact that he wasn't afraid to call her out on her BS.
"If I didn't like you, you would've had a broken nose by now, Matt, and trust me, she is that bad." the boy sighed.
"I'm flattered you think so highly of me... Okay, enough laying around, this is the place my dad's going to make a restaurant." He jumped off the swing, pointing towards the ruined building. "It's even got an underground bunker."
"Oh, that seems dangerous. Let's go explore it!"
"The elevator to get down there is busted, so if you have a Deathwish, go ahead. I plan to keep on living."
"You're no fun."
"Nah, I just avoid being a horror movie protagonist, that's all."
"Fine, but you're taking me to see that bunker once it's done. Is it going to be done?"
"Yeah, H- dad promised to fix it." she nodded, smiling mischievously.
"So, how do we get inside?"
"Through the roof, it's got like a dozen holes we can fit through."
"And how will we get out, genius?"
"…Um, let me get back to you on that." Matthew realized they might have their work cut out for them.
Welp, they had plenty of time to figure out how to get inside and if they couldn't do it now tomorrow was another day, after all.
For some reason, she felt as if that statement had a weight to it that she could never conceive. As if there were more things at play here than anyone realized...
Eh, she shrugged it off. It was probably nothing.
Chapter title from "Music Box Remix/Cover" by Dheusta.
