I Don't Own Fnaf

Mike wanted to spend most of his time doing something, but instead he had to find a new job. Thankfully it wasn't hard to find work, just it was a pain to get work that paid well enough to be able to be worthwhile. While a large number of the bigger costing items had been taken care of thanks to the sudden item influx from the warehouse, that didn't mean all the smaller things and all the moving of everything was suddenly handled. Or that the work at the warehouse was even close to finished, Jeremy had to bring Fritz in to help him itemize everything in there with all the parts and all. It was probably a good thing the technician of the group knew what they were working with, but it also meant it was slow going.

They couldn't even get moving the arcade cabinets over yet, instead Fritz spent most of his time at the warehouse plugging in and testing them out there so they could at least make sure the things were working correctly. Transportation had been a big issue, to the point Mike was beginning to wish he would get another sudden and random phone call from Lawyer Guy telling him his dad had also happened to leave him a moving van, but that would only be too convenient, so in the meantime, everything stayed at the warehouse, waiting for them to be moved over at some point.

But at least things were beginning to come together, the diner had been mostly cleaned up properly, from a combined helping hand from Marionette, the three men, and even Goldie and Foxy. With so many hands working on it, it didn't matter that Mike was down one hand and Foxy had a hook, which wasn't great for handling a broom. So at least the building itself was getting close to working order, but then everything once more reached its stand still as it always did in regards to the cash flow.

Hence Mike's current situation, sitting at the table in the kitchen, a newspaper in hand, checking off the job listing section slowly but surely while Marionette sat across from him, doing the same to speed the process up, occasionally asking questions to make sure Mike would or wouldn't be able to meet certain qualifiers. Unfortunately most jobs required at least a high school graduate if not a college education, and while Mike was not above lying on a resume, that didn't mean he was suddenly capable of the skills that were being requested from him for the latter.

Thankfully a break had to be given at some point, and Marionette was the one who found it as Mike with more aggression than necessary struck out another job listing.

"Oh! Here's one, it's another guard job, you know how to do that at least" Mike glanced up before asking.

"What's the hours and pay?"

"It's... oh, it's a night shift thing, that'll be a struggle" Mike slowly nodded, he was already spending all his waking hours cleaning or on the phone organizing plans and trying to get things into some sort of working order when he wasn't helping either Fritz or Jeremy with whatever it was that required another set of hands. A night shift meant he'd have to sleep during the day or in the evenings...

"I could do it. If I could handle Freddy's then I'm sure I can handle some boring graveyard hours, I'll just have to ration my hours out more" Marionette let out a soft chime that made it clear he'd been trying to keep Mike to that word as he brought up.

"Well, the pay isn't too bad"

"Any pay is good right now Stripes, I'm on the last dredges of my savings, Fritz and Jeremy had to pitch in to keep the lights at the diner and warehouse on for the month" That had been a humiliating request, but neither man gave him any crap over it at least, though it was clear the two were struggling at the moment as well money wise. They really needed to get things moving soon, this stalling trying to get all their ducks in an order was hurting worse than Mike thought it would, "Here, hand me the paper, I'll write down the number and call them up in the morning"

"You sure you'll be able to handle it? Your hand is still broken you know" Mike just waved the puppet off.

"And the rest of me is basically back to normal, I'm not even in pain anymore, and if some angry businessman can take me down just because I'm one armed then good on them, they deserve to have their moment" Marionette seemed much less amused by the cynical response as Mike glanced back up at the puppet and said drily, "I can handle myself fine Mari, if I could take down an enraged Foxy the day after I got out of the hospital, I think I can handle something like this" That seemed to do a lot better job of assuring the puppet he would be fine.

With that he wrote the number down awkwardly with his left hand, mildly lamenting the massive pain the broken bones had been for him, he couldn't do most things with ease at the moment given he was right handed, and even simple things that he had liked to do before now, like draw occasionally he couldn't do. The fact that he was constantly also trying to move and shift around things like furniture also meant he had just about everyone breathing down his neck about it as well, trying to make him take it easy.

It was just weird, and kind of annoying, but Mike put it to the side, and just accepted the concern as it was, he was trying to do his best to not overthink people asking after him, Marionette for example had been doing that a lot recently. Mike figured he was just trying to help Mike out like he had apparently helped the puppet when he was going through something. Mike honestly though felt fine, maybe not great, but better than he had felt in a while, stressed to all hell and back? Sure, but nothing that was actually new, and this stress was so much better than it had been back in December, the new year had started off much better than the end of '91 had been, a busy stress for a future he was trying to build was simply better to have than the stress of wondering if he'd lose everything again to a new monster.

Mike was broken from his thoughts at the sound of a knock echoed off the front door, as his head craned over to look over from the kitchen table. By the time he looked back, Marionette had vanished off to somewhere, Mike just huffed, the puppet was pretty paranoid about being seen these days, not that he could blame him. So instead he just stood up and headed over towards the doorway, grabbing onto it and opening it up to reveal... Carol, the nosey neighbor.

Mike withheld a groan at the sight of the woman, she wasn't horrible or anything, but she was a gossip and liked to nose her way into things that she had no business in. Mike mostly just talked around her, letting the woman talk her heart out about whatever was on her mind, usually having something to do with the other neighbors more than not, until she got bored and left him alone. He was banking on her getting bored of his constant nonanswers after a while, realizing he was just a boring dude, and leave him alone. It was much better than her realizing he housed a ghost, given Mike could only imagine the hell she would wrought on him with that kind of gossip in the chamber.

So with that in mind, Mike pulled a smile onto his face, and said with as much warmth as his dry tone could manage on short notice, "Hey Carol, what's up?" She returned his smile with one that was much more honest and said with a warm notice.

"I was just in the neighborhood and thought I'd drop by!" Mike held back from wincing at the poor joke, "I was actually wondering if you'd be interested in something. My daughter is going to be in town soon, she'll be staying with us for a while, and I was wondering if you wouldn't mind showing her around" Mike... felt distinctly uncomfortable, as he managed an awkward laugh that was more genuine than he wanted it to be, as he asked.

"Are you trying to set something up here?" Carol gave a clear wink and Mike felt a part of his rebuilding will to live crumble just a tad as she said in almost an conspiratorial tone.

"Well, I know you're doing nothing but work all the time, and I think it would be nice for a young man like you to be able to spend some time doing something else. And my daughter is a lovely lady, I think you two might just get along like a house on fire" As it stood, Mike was debating setting his own house on fire to get out of this. Now he almost wished he hadn't clarified his and Marionette's situation to the woman, it would have made this conversation not come up, then again, it just meant he'd be feeling uncomfortable in a different direction.

He wasn't sure which one would have been worse as he spoke.

"You'll have to let me know, but I am busy most of the time, I'm even picking up a night shift job soon you know, but I'll try to keep an open schedule" Mike was a liar, but this was most certainly one he wouldn't think twice about telling as many times as he needed to get out of being set up for a date of all things. All the same, Carol seemed pleased that he seemed to be considering her proposal.

"Oh, I'll certainly keep you up to date, so you keep yourself free alright? Though, speaking of free spirits, where's Mari? I've been wanting to meet the lad for ages now!" Ignoring just how a bit too close her choice of words had been, Mike kept his smile and said.

"Oh, you know, working, it's all we ever do, I'm sure you'll catch him one of these days" She just hummed but didn't say anything more, thankfully with that the conversation seemed to peter out now that she had already gone through what she wanted to say. She still tried to pry some stuff out of him, but Mike kept it as vague as ever, and after a painful ten minute long goodbye, she was finally off his front step and making her way down the road to no doubt mess up some other schmuck's afternoon.

So with that he closed the door with a sigh, resting his forehead against it for a moment before turning around, only to blink at the sight of Marionette hovering behind him.

"I hope you weren't there the entire time, otherwise I might have to recommend to Carol that she get's her eyes checked and you to get some stealth lessons" Marionette on the other hand didn't seem nearly as amused by the dry comment as he normally would be, instead he just huffed.

"You really need to get some boundaries set up with that woman" Mike quirked an eyebrow at that, only somewhat used to Mari's not too pleasant manner he took with most other people their age or above. It was probably a miracle Marionette got along somewhat well with Jeremy and Fritz, even if all three more or else awkwardly existing around each other was all they could manage on a good day.

"I'm not going to alienate my neighbors just yet... I'll wait until the neighborhood potluck, that way I can do it all at once with food poisoning" Still nothing, Mike frowned now, sure, not all his material was gold, but Marionette liked to at least humor him most of the time, even playing along on occasion with his bits, this time there wasn't even an reaction. "Something the matter Mari?" The puppet just waved a hand, trying to act casually about the manner and failing.

"It's nothing, just wondering how all it takes it one old lady to tell you to relax and suddenly you're setting up dates, but I can barely get you to get eight hours of sleep in" Mike thought about bringing up how Marionette should not be the one talking to Mike about sleeping consistently, Mike was half certain that Marionette needed nearly as much sleep as Mike did at this point, and still the puppet only let Mike use his music box a few nights a week. If Mike was overworked and under slept, then Marionette was just as bad only he was willingly doing it to himself. But Mike knew why Mari did that, and wasn't willing to risk another argument, the one they apparently were having now was enough for the time being, as he arched an eyebrow and said back dryly.

"I'm not going on any dates, unless this woman Carol is trying to get me with happens to have a vested interest in robot foxes and sock monkeys, I don't think we'd work out"

"But you'll still meet her right?" Mike shrugged.

"Probably? Carol will try to push it I guess, bring her around so we can meet, but once the parent leaves then I'll be a big boy and just tell her I'm not interested"

"And how do you know that? Men get dumb around girls you know" Mike was now more amused than anything with how serious and matter-of-factly the puppet had said that. He might not be a kid, but it was clear at times he missed out on a few things from having a different upbringing. In this case, common sense.

"Yeah? Speaking from experience?" That seemed to finally get a proper reaction of the puppet, looking a bit flustered at the sudden question, and clearly trying to find something to answer it with, but Mike just cut that off and went to reassure to at least get the argument out of the way, "You don't have to worry about that, I highly doubt I'll find her my type" That caught the puppet's attention out of his flustered state as he asked with slight confusion.

"And how can you be so certain?" Mike just shrugged, not overly bothered with answering as he finally moved to leave the closed front door to head back to the kitchen to gather the newspapers up.

"Eh, attractiveness... doesn't really mean anything to me? I mean, some people are good looking I guess, but it's not really my thing. I'm hardly going to be falling for any random girl cause she's stunning if that's what you're worried about" Mike had been called weird for that before, but frankly he just wasn't all that interested in people like that, it just... didn't matter to him. The few times he tried to date it usually became something of an issue, and needless to say even if he was willing to bother giving it another try now, it wasn't like he had the time for something like dealing with some random girl he's never met before when he was to busy with literally everything he could be busy with.

"I see... I guess that's ok then" Mike quirked an eyebrow that Marionette couldn't see at the sudden drop of interest in the conversation, he had a feeling something was being left out, that thing being Mari just being worried about him bringing strange people around the house, given the puppet's already wary state when it came to adults, the idea of any unknowns coming in must have been somewhat worrying to think about. It was a weird thing to get worked up about, but Mike had seen Marionette get his strings in a twist over smaller things before, such as the organization and order of his plushy collection now set up in Mike's old room where Mari's box had found itself after they finally fixed the window, which had been growing by the day with each trip to the warehouse, so Mike didn't think hard about it.

"Glad we have my lack of a love life sorted out then. Let's get back to working on my lack of a financial one next" That finally got a laugh from the puppet as Mike let himself smile just a bit at the sound before moving back to the papers to see if he could find any other possible jobs.

Goldie wasn't sure just how he got packed into being the grunt worker of the diner-pizzeria project his brother was so set on, but he surprisingly didn't mind as much as he thought it would. Of course, he wasn't much of a fan about the opening of another pizzeria, and made his thoughts on performing at any location even somewhat related to a Freddy's very clear to Michael, but that didn't mean he would take it away from the others that were eagerly awaiting the ability to perform for kids again, and if he had to admit it to himself, it was a good idea.

There wasn't much else they could do beyond wasting away out of sight and mind of the world, and it kept Michael here which was a bonus. Goldie wouldn't say he was overly concerned over his brother, he was only just coming out of continuing to try to keep hating the man. So caring too closely about what all Mike was up to and how he was doing wasn't something Goldie was concerning himself with, instead leaving that to the others while he was carted around and did most of the heavy lifting in between check-ins with Fritz so he could finally be in perfect working order.

While it was definitely grunt work, moving around, grabbing onto, and carting arcade machines and other such heavy equipment around the warehouse for one reason or another, it was also just simply nice to be able to do that much in the first place, to feel like he was doing something that mattered outside of just trying to kill someone. The shadow that the Purple Guy, Dave Miller, according to Michael, was a big one, but it felt like he along with the others still left, were beginning to come out of it to the brighter side.

Goldie hadn't ever given much thought to if he would stay around, didn't really know much about the process of moving on beyond choosing to move on after you finished whatever it was you stayed around for in the first place. Goldie didn't even know what he stayed around for was anyways, it wasn't the Purple Guy, and he didn't have enough hate for it to be Michael, at least not anymore that he'd do anything on it, so he was just... around. Around, but fixed, able to move and talk without issue even, something he hadn't had in so long that being able to have any excuse to exercise either was something he'd gladly take up.

As it was, he was currently rolling another arcade game, this one was some kind of space ship shooter game, on a dolly over to Fritz, so the man could hook up some stuff to it to make sure it was still working fine, apparently a lot went into making sure these things worked. More than he thought would, everything from the coin slots, the time allocations, the scoring system, the control, among other electrical stuff and minor things like clearing the leaderboards was important to have in working order before they could put it into the diner without worry it would suddenly break down in the middle of the day.

Having to do each arcade game along with a number of things, such as stage lights, sound equipment, cookware, and other things, meant that Goldie and Fritz were spending a lot of time in the warehouse together, often Jeremy was somewhere around, marking things off and noting their location on the shelves from a frankly impressively long list of items that the man had copied over from the first list that had been found of the inventory of things that might come in handy later on, so they'd all know where everything important was in the future without having to spend days shifting through everything.

Goldie had been helping with that as well, moving around the isles during the nights that he was staying over and checking things off the list that Jeremy left behind to the best of his ability with his clunky fingers. Having to relearn how to write with them had been a struggle, but he was managing fairly well now that he had the time and willingness to practice. The small things like that had been both incredibly satisfying and frustrating in a way that Goldie would never wish to not have.

With that he set the dolly with the arcade game down nearby where Fritz was working so the man could start messing with the thing when he got to it. Said man was absently and distractedly working on something else at the moment, though his eyes did flicker over towards the bear for half a second as he called out a faint distracted tone.

"Thanks Gol, Fox Rage is perfectly good to go, if you want to move it by the others" He didn't say anything more, easily focusing back on to the project he was currently engrossed in as Goldie took the faint buzzing warmth in his chest as nothing special, it felt nice in a way he hadn't thought possible to be seen, acknowledged, and dismissed without any trace of fear, like he was just anyone else. Mike walked on egg shells too much to be able to do it to him like he did to the other animatronics, but Fritz and Jeremy both were like that now with him at the very least. It took months of interactions to get to that point, a point that Goldie hadn't thought he'd even want or like, but he couldn't say he didn't find himself appreciating it.

So he just went back to moving things along, not bothering to answer verbally when the sounds of the dolly being moved around would do the job more than well enough.

They had a fairly sizable amount of arcades ready to go, while at least dozens of machines had rotated through the doors of some of the bigger Freddy's locations, the diner, while a fairly big place for what it was, having gone through a few renovations during the height of it's popularity under the Afton-Emily owners to keep up with client flow, it wasn't beyond massive, the arcade corner wouldn't be able to hold all the machines they had even if they all happened to work perfectly. The dozen or so machines that were ready to go would take most of that space against the back wall, then they'd have to start getting creative with the floor space to not make everything crowded while not pressing in on the tables of the main room where most of the patrons would be if they wanted to get more in the space, or just knock down the back wall and combine it with one of the side rooms.

It was a strange thought, knowing the place he had thought of as his prison being restored to something of a mix of what it had been and what it could have become in a more ideal future when things hadn't gone quite as wrong. Goldie himself wasn't quite sure just what he was going to do about it, he had no real interest in living at the diner, it didn't have any truly bad memories attached to it, beyond his death, but he was slowly moving on from that finally, but he also had zero interest in moving in with his brother anytime soon.

A part of him was debating raising the question of living at the warehouse, it was hardly the worst place, it had plenty to do and work on, and he already spent more than a few nights working on things here, it would only make sense in that case to stay. Though he hadn't made any decisions, it felt better than staying at either of the other two places he could be welcome at.

Goldie's thoughts on the matter were interrupted as he glanced over at the sound of echoing footsteps as Jeremy rounded the corner of one of the isles, papers in hand, as he moved over in the direction of the human and bear, waving a bit to get their attention.

"Hey! So I just found something, I need some help getting it open though" That was Goldie's que, as he gave a nod and moved to follow after the man who had already turned back to head further into the warehouse. Jeremy explaining on the way with an eager look, "I don't know exactly what it is, but it was labeled in the manifest as 'advertising' I know Mike's planning on doing some posters and stuff once he can draw again, but we can probably reuse some of them, it's a big container so I figured it probably has some other kinds of promotional materials in there as well. It'll help better than just word of mouth to get our name out there" Goldie just followed after, not seeing the point in giving some sound of agreement, but after a moment considered something enough to voice.

"What are you all planning on calling this place by the way?" Jeremy just shrugged.

"We haven't really talked about it, probably something like Pirate's Pizzeria Cove I suppose given Foxy's going to be the star of the show and he's already got a theme we can work with" Goldie just thought that over, it made sense, better than something like Fazfox being on the door, that would be a bit to ridiculous.

"And you're fine with working there with my brother?" Jeremy paused, if only for a moment, the man feeling like something was being led to, as he glanced over at Goldie who just looked back before they both continued their way through the selves to the metal container that Jeremy had found that he needed help prying open.

"Do you, uh, mean about me knowing what happened between you two or, just like, in general?" Goldie had to take a moment to figure out in all honesty which one he had meant, but in the end settled for in general. Jeremy was silent for a moment after that, clearly thinking of what to say, before coming up with his answer, "We don't really know each other that well, but I trust Mike and his intentions, and that's enough for me until I get to know him better"

"That seems optimistic" Jeremy just shrugged.

"Mike and Fritz and even you can be as realistic or honestly as pessimistic as you all want, but I find it's easier to handle things like this when you have a more positive outlook. It helps when things are actually going your way, we're finally out of the storm after all, might as well enjoy the ride after as best we can instead of dwelling on it" Goldie couldn't really find fault with that, everything was going perfectly well for them all, the idea of just holding onto the negatives at this point was pointless, there was nothing to threaten them now that Purple Guy, the source of basically everyone's problems ever, had died.

"I suppose... It's hard to remember some times" Jeremy gave Goldie a sympathetic look as they finally got to the container. There weren't any actual words on the container that labeled it as advertising, but there was, like with most of the other containers that Goldie had cracked open, a serial number that had been stenciled onto the side that Jeremy had matching to the manifest which told him what was in them. Most of which had been machinery that was safer to have locked up than out in the open in case of a break in.

"It's a new normal, it makes sense that'll take time to adjust to it, just give it that time and then the past will be nothing more than just bad memories" Goldie figured if anyone alive would know, it would be Jeremy. Instead of engaging that, Goldie made to end the conversation by moving over closer to the doors of the container, looking it over for a moment, seeing how there was a fairly large padlock and chain that had been put around this one, that was also used for machinery, the last time Goldie got one of these open, it had been filled with most of the arcade machines that Fritz had been working on.

Not really something that would be used for promotional material of all things, unless the paper's that the posters had been printed on were worth their weight in actual paper money, it seemed strange. All the same, Goldie moved over, grabbing onto the chains, grabbing the sides of the two links that were connected to the padlock itself and began to pull them apart. It took a solid second, but given no one knew where the keys to the locks all were, there was no point in worrying about breaking the locks, they couldn't reuse them without a key or his brother's ability to get around locks, so with that and a solid yank, the rightmost link connected to the padlock snapped apart, and from there it was simply to pull the chain out from where it was anchored to the door to keep it in place.

The bear took a second to appreciate and be just the tiniest bit smug about the ease and strength he now had at his command, before feeling those emotions drain away to something much worse as he and Jeremy both looked on as the older man had pulled the doors open to see what was inside. Goldie could feel the faint crackling of his voice box as a mild distorted hum began to play out of him as Jeremy said with a faint tone.

"W-we should call Mike" As they looked at what the crate had been hiding, Goldie couldn't help but agree.

Mike had only just managed to finish his call to the business he was trying to get a job at, securing an interview for himself, when his phone started to ring. Seeing that it was Jeremy, Mike accepted quickly, ignoring the look Marionette was giving him, given the puppet had clearly been waiting around to hear the news on the job situation, so Mike shot the animatronic a teasing grin, saying into the speaker as the line connected.

"Hey Jeremy, what's up?" The grin on Mike's face slipped off as he heard the distressed sound of his friend's voice.

"Uh, well... We found something down at the warehouse, you should come and see it, it's not... pretty" Mike was now actively frowning as he said cautiously in the line, turning away just a bit so Marionette would stop trying to study his face.

"Right, how bad are we talking about here?" The line was quiet for a long moment before-

"We found... We found where the toys were stored... after" Mike felt himself freeze in place for a moment before simply sighing, that... that wasn't great.

"Alright, are they...?" He didn't want to say anything, mostly out of concern for Marionette who he could still feel behind him, staring with unabashed curiosity. Jeremy gave a sharp break from a rare moment of potential hope for Mike soon after.

"None of them are around, neither me or Goldie can.. sense them, they're all decommissioned, some in better states than others and some are the... same" Jeremy sounded vaguely nauseous as he said it, and Mike instantly realized why. Both out of concern for Mari and Jeremy, not knowing how either would handle it, the first without the context of the name being dropped, and the second in case it brought up to many memories right after seeing the animatronic itself again, Mike didn't say Mangle's name out loud, or even acknowledged that it was there in the first place, instead asking something else.

"I'll be over soon, but first... I don't suppose there's a bunny missing from the set?" Mike tried for hope once more, but just like before-

"Uh, Toy Bonnie? Yeah, it's in there" And that meant they were as lifeless as the others. Mike was honestly sort of relieved that there wasn't anything nefarious about the situation, that Toy Bonnie wasn't in some hell like Mari had been because his file was missing a single piece of information. The animatronic had been left by its spirit, and Mike chose to think of that as a good thing as he said over the line, knowing that the mention of any kind of rabbit would concern the puppet and he needed to do damage control soon.

"I'm on my way then to take a look, but for right now just leave them be, it's hardly like they'll be getting up to anything at this point" It had meant to be reassuring and to break the tension that was clearly still wracking Jeremy over the line, Mike wasn't sure how well it worked given Jeremy just hung up soon after with a mostly stilted goodbye over the line.

Putting his phone back into his pocket, Mike glanced back to the sight of a now actively worrying puppet, and said, "So, funny story" before explaining the events of the call.

Needless to say, Marionette didn't seem all that happy for the chance of a reunion with his old friends' corpses.

I subscribe to Ace Afton Supremacy. By that, Mike's asexual, not aromantic though, as mentioned he has dated people, so... have fun with that information, not that those terms mean anything in the 90s. Just wanted to mention that for clarity, but now onto other more important things! The toys! They had to turn up at some point right? Yeah, they're lifeless, but we'll get more into all of that later, but this is just to show this place definitely has secrets that it holds, but that's also for later. Beyond that Goldie's really just one of the guys at this point, and I love that for him. Just going around and being happy to be able to do the simple things in life is great after spending half your life paralyzed being able to do nothing. Just a whole other kind of trauma, but thankfully for everyone, Goldie is surprisingly well adjusted all things considered, even if there are still plenty of things he needs to address, that's also for later. Though Jeremy is still just the best, man's just doing his thing, being well adjusted and sane, and I loved him for it. I honestly really like how all these characters are, but that's a whole thing I can gush about, so I won't, now at least. Anyways, See ya.