NOTES
Alright, so these last two chapters came out a bit quicker than I expected. I'm still in the middle of finals week, but I found the spare time to pump these last couple chapters out.
The next chapter will, of course, take longer than usual to come out. It's gonna be one of those big chapters, like chapter 10, so it'll take a bit longer to write. Hopefully, though, it'll just take 'a bit longer than usual' instead of 'a ridiculous amount of time'.
See you in a bitsy
Enjoy;
Wall Talk
The clacks of the keys dissipate into the air around me, and take in the productive and fulfilling silence.
Think I've done a pretty good job formatting this document into an actual story thus far. Now that it's most of the way done, I'm starting to realize it was something I desperately needed to do anyway. Before, it was just a dump of information in somewhat comprehensible chronological order. Now there's flow and order; something you can actually follow.
I let my head rest against the wall of the all too familiar corridor, letting out a satisfied sigh while I do so.
The wall sure is a lot less comfortable than a bean bag, but clearly I wasn't close enough to the wall last time. I reckon you can't get much closer than physically sitting up against it.
I'm also a lot less conspicuous over here. I'm in the same area I was a few nights ago, but I don't stick out nearly as much. Trudge and Chica have even run through a few times without noticing me.
They haven't come back through in a while, now that I think about it. They must've found something interesting to do.
...
I rest my eyes. The neon signs staying in the same part of my vision for an extended period of time gets a bit annoying after a while. Once you focus on them, it's impossible to not focus on them. Hopefully keeping my eyes closed for a while will undo that affect.
...I'm tired...
Chica dragged me around the Pizzaplex nonstop last night, even after visiting Freddy. Trudge caught up to us, and we spent the night messing around. I actually stayed a bit late to actually do my job before I left.
I'm glad Chica's not feeling so self-conscious anymore. It seems like she really took our conversation last night to heart. She's as chipper as ever, and isn't afraid of being 'weird' anymore.
At least, for the time being.
I wonder how in the world she got so obsessed with the concept of being weird.. You'd think the animatronics wouldn't have very many worries, since they don't have many responsibilities outside of performing during the day.
Or, y'know.. You'd think they wouldn't have very many worries because they're friggen animatronics.
...
Whatever. Thinking about it isn't gonna make it better.
...
I wonder if any other of the gang have things they're struggling with..
No, stop thinking. Make brain hurty.
Just chill for a moment, clear you mind.. Vibe for a minute..
'Vibe'.. Look at me picking up on, mm.. on modern slang...
...
...
...
My eyes crack open with a hefty exhale. Only then do I realize how crusty they were.
I rub my eyes with my good hand and open them further.
Mmm.. Must've fallen asleep.. Again..
Sleeping without dreams is weird.. It's like closing your eyes for a moment, and when you open them again, you're in the future.
I'm not too concerned with falling asleep anymore, but I know I probably should be. Makes me feel like I'm cheating Cooper by getting paid to sleep through my job.
I look at my watch. Thankfully, hardly more than a half-hour has passed. Less time than I've spent sitting here and typing my 'story'.
...
I lift my head from the wall with a yawn, but feel my hand brush something as I use it to support my weight.
..Huh..
A foot or two away sits the silver sleeping wolf, leaning on the same wall I am.
She has her arms crossed, like always, but her sleeping face betrays her usually impatient posture.
I can't help but watch her breathe for a while. Before long, the thought that she might've read the document breaks my focus. Thankfully, the laptop remains closed in my lap, how I left it.
My gaze turns back in her direction. I know she expressed her desire to read what I've written so far, but I don't think she would be the kind of person to take advantage of me sleeping to read what I told her I didn't want her reading yet.
...She's peaceful...It's almost mesmerizing.
No movement other than the expanding and retracting of her chest as she breathes. Kinda nice to be hanging out with her in a way that doesn't include trading snappy remarks back and forth.
..Hanging out.. Oh man, did she need something from me? Probably didn't give her the greatest impression, finding me sleeping on the job.
Now I'm torn between waking her up or letting her sleep. I'd argue that she needs it, but as far as I know, the animatronics might not need to sleep at all. They seem awfully active during the night, and doubly so during the day. And, well, when else would they sleep?
...
Looking down, I see that all that separates the two of us is Roxy's tail. This must be what my hand brushed up against.
..Does anyone else have a tail? Monty does, I'm pretty sure.. Maybe Chica and Freddy don't since their tails would be small anyway, like actual chickens and bears.
...
Before I really know what I'm doing, I'm gently toying around with her tail. Either just brushing it or lightly holding it.
...
"Mmn.. Mike.." Rox murmers.
Oop- shit. Caught.
I lay the tail back down.
"Sorry, I got curious about something." I whisper back.
...
Curiously, there's no response. I turn to look at her face again.
..Is she still sleeping? Didn't she just call me out?
"Rox?" I whisper again.
This time, I see her twitch and her eyes press shut a bit tighter.
Whoops. Well, she's waking up now, that's for sure.
I inconspicuously open my laptop and act like I was minding my own business, but continue to watch her wriggle awake.
Her eyes crack open. She blinks a couple times before continuing to open them further. I wait until it looks like she's awake enough to think straight.
"Sorry, did I wake you?"
She continues to stare forward for a moment, before turning to look at me and blink a couple times. Think I jumped the bullet, looks like she's still waking up.
Eventually, she shakes her head in attempt to both answer my question and shake herself awake.
"No, no, you're fine, I was just.." She instinctively replies, rubbing her eyes like an infant. That was adorable.
"Still waking up?"
"Uhm.. Yeah, just.."
She makes a circular motion with her hands up next to her head, demonstrating that the gears are turning.
"I was messing with your tail a moment ago, sorry if that woke you." I admit, mischievously taking advantage of her drowsiness.
"No! no.. you can-.." She's quick to defend.
Roxy's awfully nice when she's half asleep. I could get used to this.
Unexpectedly, instead of trying to finish her sentence, she lowers one of her hands from her eyes to grab her tail and lift it onto my lap.
I lift my arms in surprise to avoid touching her tail as it landed loftily where my hands were once clacking on my keyboard. Roxanne's hands return to her face as she finishes forcing herself to wake up.
I stare at the tail in front of me. Part of me doesn't want to touch her tail without permission.. I mean, I clearly did get permission, but she also clearly isn't thinking straight yet.
...
Welp, at least I'll have an excuse to give her if she gets angry.
I start playing with her tail like I was before with one hand, and start clicking around on my laptop, deciding there's always something I could do that doesn't require a keyboard.
...
Roxanne's now staring at the floor in front of her with half lidded eyes. It looks like she's battling the urge to continue sleeping.
"You don't have to wake up yet, there's still hours before the day starts."
She shakes her head again.
"No, I'm alright.. Some shit I gotta finish for tonight.." She explains, but she leans her body back against the wall again.
"Mm." I hum in acknowledgement.
...
About a minute of comfortable silence passes between us, only broken by the occasional click of my mouse and ruffles of her tail.
Finally, it starts to look like Roxanne is back up and at 'em. She's still resting her head on the wall, but her posture and expression all seem to suggest she's wide awake now.
I decide not to comment on it, and turn my attention back to my laptop.
The sound of her yawning and sitting upright precedes her snout coming into the corner of my vision; she's either looking at me or what I'm doing. I decide that's enough reason to start talking again.
"You found me sleeping, huh?"
"Mhm. Nice going, by the way."
There's that sarcasm the conversations been lacking.
"Sorry, I guess I drifted off without trying."
She sighs, suppressing another snarky remark before continuing.
"You're lucky I did the same, otherwise I wouldn't be letting you off so easy."
"Well you don't have any obligation to be awake, do you?"
"I said I'm letting you off easy, don't change my mind."
"Okie dokie."
...
"Did you need something from me?" I ask, almost forgetting that was a concern of mine.
"No."
"You sure?"
"Yes."
"Just felt like sitting here?"
I see a small grimace appear on her face as she realizes that it's slightly embarrassing to admit.
"I can sit wherever I want, Mike."
"Never said you couldn't."
"Well- why the hell did 'you' sit over here, then?"
"I wanted to-"
"Don't lie to me."
"I wasn't going to..?"
She huffs besides me.
"I never know with you.."
"Actually, I've been lying a lot less because of you."
Apparently, what I said was funny enough to get a skeptical snicker out of her snout.
"Mmmhm. How much is 'a lot less'?"
"You were right in thinking I was a liar, I hadn't noticed until you told me to stop. Usually not about important things, of course. I'd just say whatever made the conversation go easiest for me." I take the hand I was typing with and begin using it to pet Roxy's tail as well. "But you were right, it's hard to get anyone to trust me with important things if they can't trust me with unimportant things."
Roxanne huffs, realizing that I wasn't just making conversation this time around, and actually meant it.
"..'s about time.. Now maybe you won't be so annoying." She jabs.
"So thank you." I continue, not acknowledging her sarcastic comment.
"...What?"
"Thank you."
"For what?"
What do you mean 'for what'? What did we JUST talk about?
"It was a bad habit of mine, one that I still haven't broken completely, but you still helped me be a little better."
It takes a moment for her to respond.
"All I did was tell you that you were annoying when you lied."
"Maybe, but it still helped."
"Mike, I don't think I-"
"Rox, I'm not taking the thank you back, no matter how hard you try."
"But I didn-!" She raises her voice a little bit before I interrupt her. I'm surprised she isn't immediately taking credit for something good that happened.
"Thanks, Rox."
"You..!"
...
I tilt my head just enough to see what she's doing after a peculiarly long silence.
She has her head turned away, with a scowl on her face, and slightly reddened fur.
"..Stop.. Calling me that.." Is all she can manage to mutter.
I chuckle audibly, just enough to get Roxy a bit more flustered.
A couple dozen minutes pass, the two of us respectively doing whatever it is we found to do.
...
...
"Hey Rox?"
"Mike, die."
"Didn't you say you had something to do tonight?"
Her gaze raises above the claws she was fiddling with, evidently trying to recall that part of the conversation.
"Oh.. I said that, yeah."
"What is it? There's only a couple hours left of the night."
"It's.. ugh." She sighs with a hint of frustration, leaning back against the wall. "Nothing. Nothing I absolutely have to get done 'tonight'."
"Mm. I don't mean to keep you here if you'd rather go work on whatever it is that needs work."
She shakes her head.
"It's alright, I'm not in the mood to work on it anyway."
"Sounds like it's been eating at you for a while."
"I don't want to talk about it right now."
That sentence seems like a red flag. I really want to acknowledge that she doesn't want to think about it at the moment, but now I've gotta ask.
"Is it something serious?" I close my laptop to show that I'm willing to listen.
"Not really." She scoffs. "But that's probably part of the reason it's so damn annoying."
"...Is it something with one of the carts?"
"Yeah."
"What's wrong with it?"
"I thought I just told you I didn't want to talk about it?"
"I know, but you've interested me. If I can help, I will."
She skeptically chuckles.
"What do you think you could possibly do?"
"Not much."
"I didn't think so."
"But I'll still be there, if you want."
Roxanne takes a breath, and closes her eyes while resting against the wall.
"Not your problem, Mike."
"Why not?"
" 'Cause it's MY problem."
"Why can't it be OUR problem?"
"You wouldn't volunteer if you knew the shit you'd be getting yourself into."
"I think I would."
"How would you know? You STILL don't know the shit you'd get yourself into!"
"Then you can tell me."
"If I told you, you'd try to help me."
"I would. That's what I'm saying."
Roxanne thinks about the last couple lines of dialogue and growls into the air.
"Damn it, Mike.. You're impossible to win against."
"I'm stubborn."
"You certainly are.." She exhales while letting her hands fall from her face.
"So what's up?"
"...It's hard to explain..I don't wanna go show you tonight."
"That's alright, just tell me when."
"Tomorrow. After your makeup is done, you're working with me until that damn cart is fixed."
"Sounds good."
"It isn't."
"..Alright."
Sensing the serious conversation is over, I flick my laptop back open and click around some.
..Y'know what, I think I'm done pretending like I'm being productive on this thing.
I plug the gamepad I took out here with me into the side of the machine, and take a moment to close out of unimportant tabs, save important documents, and open the first game that comes to mind.
"Have you seen where the day crew put the tree chomping thing?" I ask while getting comfortable. Roxanne and I moved that thing into the building a few nights ago, but I haven't seen it since. I can't imagine where the day crew might've put that thing where it wouldn't be a gigantic eyesore.
Surprisingly, this gets a scowl out of the silver wolf.
"Yeah, in MY damn raceway.."
"Really?"
"Of course, why would they put it anywhere else?" She continues with palpable sarcasm.
"Where? Is it somewhere obvious?"
"Ugh.. No, not really.. But it doesn't take much to accidentally stumble upon it, like a bunch of visitors have already done."
"Mm.. A machine like that would look a little dangerous for a place with kids running around everywhere."
"That's exactly it. None of the visitors have complained to the staff yet, but they have complained to 'me', as if I can fuckin' do anything about it.."
"Want me to tell Arin about it?"
"I doubt he'd care.."
"I think he would. I'll see what I can do about getting it moved somewhere else."
"It's not your problem, Mike."
"It is, it's not fair for the visitors to get a negative connotation of your raceway when you have no power to stop it."
"...Sigh, alright. Let me know."
"I will."
Another comfortable silence creeps its way back into the room. The wolf and I continue doing our own thing. I lean back and use both my hands to use the gamepad.
...
..?
Until Roxanne's tail starts slightly flicking every once in a while..?
It isn't until I notice it happen for like, the fourth time in 60 seconds. It's like it's expecting something.
I tilt my head a bit to glance towards Rox.
She has her hand/claws in front of her face, like she was inspecting them before, but her gaze is lifted slightly above them, like she isn't focused at all on what's in front of her.
It isn't until a few more seconds pass, and I can see her eyes inconspicuously glance in the direction of her tail. I follow her gaze back to her tail as well, and stare at it as if I'm waiting for it to do something..
Of course, nothing happens besides another flick. I'm about to write it off as Roxanne being weird and return to my game when I get a look at my controller.
My controller, with both of my hands on it.
Oh.. Is she waiting for me to keep petting her?
Unsure of the conclusion I've reached, I casually bring one of my hands down to start brushing her tail again.
Almost like I flicked a light-switch, Roxanne immediately continues looking at her nails like she was doing before.
...Huh...
I keep petting for about half a minute before returning my hand back up to my controller.
Rox doesn't react straight away. About 20 seconds pass before I think she realizes I stopped petting her, and her eyes glaze over like she's focused on something else again.
And sure enough.. Flick..
Holding back my urge to laugh, I settle with a sneaky smirk and continue to pet her, which returns her back to normal.
I guess I'm not playing games after all. Need both my hands for those.
...
...
...
"Hey Rox."
"Hm?"
She didn't acknowledge me calling her Rox that time. I'm winning this battle.
"You see that it snowed last night?"
"No."
"...You want to go see it?"
"It's just snow, Mike."
I'm not falling for it. I know you're interested.
"Mm, I guess so. Welp."
I close my laptop and scoot Roxy's tail off my lap, which is quick to get her attention.
"You can stay here then, I'm running to the break room to grab something. I'll be back in a second."
Y'know, the break room, the one with the 'window'.
"What? What are you getting?" Rox calls after me.
"Just a drink, they have a soda in that fridge that I like."
"Oh. Then I'll come get one too." She replies. I'm pretty sure she doesn't even like soda.
"I'll grab it for you, which one do you want?"
"The, um.. I can't remember it's name, I can get it mysel-"
"Just tell me what color it is, that should be enough." I respond coyly, continuing to walk away.
Maybe I shouldn't push it too hard, I don't want to actually convince her to stay here.
"I-It's, just.. T-The.."
...
- click clack click -
I turn over my shoulder to find Roxanne's jogging to catch up with me.
"Coming with after all?"
"I can go wherever I want, idiot.."
I turn back around, victorious.
"Suit yourself."