Michael Afton: Outlived Purpose Chapter 36, a five nights at freddy´s fanfic

NOTES

Several new things on the Reddit, including a phenomenal piece of fan-art from UnmitigatedDizazzter!

(u/ParticularlyLargeRat)

Gonna put the notes on the bottom this time as well. See you in a bit!

Enjoy!

- Subtle Differences -

(I could have been centering the title this entire time.)

-.-.-

...

..Nnh.. My feet are already starting to drag.. I haven't even done anything yet today, what the hell's wrong with me?

...

Thought I'd do my 'nightly inspection' really damn early today, just to get it out of the way.. That's the excuse I gave the friggin' wolf, anyway. Don't know what her deal is, but she's been.. Overwhelmingly 'clingy' since she woke up..

Not that I'm tired of her; just need a portion of the 'morning' (6:30pm) to myself. A couple dozen minutes to take a walk and clear my mind is all.

Slept eleven hours, by the way. Must've been wiped.. Kind of hoped I'd wake up at a decent enough time to let the other animatronics that there's no guests coming in today, but they seemed to have figured it out on their own.

..Startin' to realize how far-fetched that idea was.. Fell asleep somewhere around 5:00am; so if I wanted to tell the animatronics something before the day started, I would've gotten to take a whopping 2-hour power-nap at most.

Roxanne still out-slept me, though. Pretty sure she didn't wake until an hour or two after I did; which is unusual, if not impressive.

Her case was a bit more understandable, though. Damn wolf kept depriving herself of sleep simply for the sake of defying me.. That ego's gonna get her killed one of these days..

Anyway.

It's only been a little bit since Rox woke, so there's still a pretty hefty portion of the day awaiting me.. The work is rarely exhausting, so I don't know why that thought fills me with a subtle sense of dread.. Already feeling my body protest having to move, for some damn reason.. The day's just begun, and god knows I'm well rested after that lengthy snooze.

Can't think of any real reason I'm feeling so sluggish.. Did a little running yesterday, but under no circumstance should that have pushed my body hard enough to still feel aches after an 11 hour fit of unconsciousness.

...

Well.. Not really sure how well the word 'unconscious' fits in this scenario.. I was dreaming, yeah, but I was still aware of what was going on around me.

Oh, speaking of which: It was an interesting session.

Time felt a little warped, which isn't uncommon for most 'normal' dreams. Was wandering the Pizzaplex for quite a while, but it didn't feel as mind numbing as 'eleven hours' of wandering.. Kinda weird, since those dreams tend to keep me for the entire length of the sleep. I seriously doubt it's all that important, though.

Bowling alley didn't work. Shame. Could've gotten to show my doppelganger my wicked bowling skills.

(I have suckass bowling skills.)

Alright, welp.. Now that he's already been mentioned, it's as good a time as ever to address the little mimic keeping me company in my dreams.

As far as interactions went with him, uhm.. Didn't have many.. Never felt a strong compulsion to march right up and confront them, so I didn't. Therefor, I probably didn't learn as much about him as I could've..

There were a few quirks I noticed throughout the course of the dream, though. Couldn't hurt to jot those down real fast..:

Rockstar Row, the room I met my doppelganger in, was the only room in that entire dream that seemed completely functional. I mean, it's not like the other rooms were broken, but that corridor was the only place that felt like it was actively being used.. The lights were on full-blast, whereas the rest of the building was dim. The AC was on and audible, as opposed to the dead-silence that echoed everywhere else. Things like that..

It's kind of hard to explain.. It's like you'd expect there to be one of the animatronics vibin' in there with you when you turn around, even though you know no one else is in the 'building' with you.

Anyway. What's interesting is that this quality wasn't actually exclusive to Rockstar Row, but simply applied to whatever room the doppelganger was in. Learned this the hard way, when all the lights and machines in the entire auditorium flared to life in an instant, scaring the jeebus out of me.

Don't know why.. Don't know what that's supposed to symbolize, so.. Think I'll toss that mystery on the back-burner for now..

...

Alright, let's chit chat about the doppelganger himself for a moment.

Well.. Neither of us really looked like we knew what to do with each other.. Every time we crossed paths, we'd only stare for a couple seconds until one of us loses interest. There was no real message being sent between us with our gazes, so I think every time we stared at each other was nothing more than the result of how jarring it is to see yourself at the other end of a room..

So, yeah. 'There's' a little comfort for those who were wondering if they were a threat of some kind.. Hell, maybe he is, and it just isn't obvious; Who knows?.. The point is, they aren't openly aggressive or repulsed by me. If they are, they're really damn good at hiding it..

...

Okay, so.. We're the same 'person', yeah, but there were some differences between us.. A few of which led to a some unpleasant theories..

Differences exist mostly in mannerisms, but that's just because, y'know.. We look the same, 'cause we're the same person... Tell you what, there were a few small things, though.. Not in outerwear or hairstyle, but a few things that seemed to be a result of the change in mannerisms..

The doppelganger's eyes were fierce, powerful, motivated.. Almost 'cold', but not towards me specifically..

They stood tall. Every action he took was filled with purpose.. There was a driving force behind his movements; one that suggested they weren't interested in much else other than what they were looking for.

There's a couple other small things, but the bottom line is..: Everything he did.. Heavily resembled how I used to act back during my first days at the Pizzaplex.. It's like the passion towards paying what I owed all the dead kids hadn't extinguished in him yet..

Guess that means the 'driving force' I mentioned has something to do with my father; or maybe just my father in specific..

..Our father, I guess..

At first, I thought he was supposed to be the representation of me that was still in the middle of chasing my father and hunting down animatronics, but I don't think that's the case.. If that was true, I feel like he wouldn't look the same as I do; with the metal arm, same-length hair, and even the tiny scar still left on my cheek from when Roxanne scratched me. All of which I'd received after killing my father and joining the Pizzaplex crew..

..The thing is, I didn't get the metal arm until quite a while after I'd stopped stressing about my father as much.. So while their mannerisms resemble how I acted in the past, he still looks like the most up-to-date version of me.. So, maybe that means he isn't an old iteration at all? If not, then what is he? A 'part' of the 'current' me?

Unfortunately, the more I thought about it, the more that made sense.. Long story short:

I think that's what my doppelganger is supposed to 'symbolize'..: Part of me that isn't, y'know.. This one..

Pretty dumb, huh?

...

The thing is, that's.. Ugh-, that's not how those dreams work.. They don't just take shady ideas and concepts I'm struggling with and give them some obscure physical form; they've never done that..

There've been tons of things I was struggling with while chasing my father around, and none of them were clumped together and given form, right? If that was possible, there'd have been a lot more to deal with in those dreams than just the four classic animatronics..

So unless there's been some giant-ass rule change, I don't think this guy was conjured up from nothing..

That's.. Not favorable, however.. That means this guy had to come from somewhere..

...

I did a bit of thinking, and Here's the working theory I've come up with.. It (regrettably) aligns with the idea that he's 'part' of me pretty damn well..:

At some point during my time here at the Pizzaplex, around when Roxanne was being voted for reprogramming, I decided to try and put some effort towards developing my relationship with those around me, instead of continuing to skulk around the complex and look for signs of my father.

For the sake of the argument, you could say that desire to get to know the others a bit more became one of my 'goals'.

I wanted to work towards that new goal, of course. However, that did not mean my 'old' goal of keeping everything surrounding Freddy's a secret had been replaced with this new one.. It just meant there were just two goals I wanted to develop, instead of one.

I had to figure out a way to work towards that new goal without trampling the old one. The concept sounded really simple: 'Get to know everyone without giving them any reason to believe that I was associated with the past.'

However.. At the time, my entire character and personality had been shaped by those same events I wanted to keep a secret more than anything else.. I couldn't just 'talk' with everyone the way I was; something needed to happen.. There was a need to disassociate from everything, so that I could work on both of my goals at once.

So, that's where the effort was focused for a while.. I worked towards separating myself from the past.. Pushed towards forming/creating a 'me' that had nothing to do with everything that happened.

That's what I've been doing. Every day, up until right this very moment, I've been separating the 'good' from the 'bad'. For the most part, it's been sub-conscious; but there have been a few barriers I needed to be there to break down myself.

And y'know what? There's been some bumps, and some unforeseen consequences, and I'm still far from perfect, and all that..

But, it.. Kind of worked..?

I've drastically changed since arriving at the Pizzaplex, that's getting more and more obvious by the day.. So somewhere along the line, there was a meaningful separation between the 'Pizzaplex' Mike and the 'Family killer' Mike.

So.. Yay? Look at me go? Separated the 'good' from the 'bad'..?

...

..That might have only created this new predicament, however..

I think the problem is that: even though I separated it from the 'good', the 'bad' is still here.. I never threw that part out, only severed it from the other..

So.. Now both the Pizzaplex Night-guard and Family Killer are stuck in here.. Like there's two of me in one body..

...

Does that mean, like.. In the dream, I'm just one half staring at the other? Arewe two halves of one whole?

..Sigh.

...

I don't know.. To be honest, I have zero real proof that that's the case.. I could be straining myself by thinking of dumbass conclusions again.

...

Is that why I'm so sluggish?

Snapping back to reality, I give the area a quick scan as if pretending to have been paying attention, before looking down at myself.

Had all the time in the world to 'think' while I was dreaming.. That's basically all I did.. It didn't really occur to me that the whole reason I was passed out was to recover from how much I was 'overthinking' yesterday, so maybe 'thinking' in the dream resulted being unable to give my mind the rest it desperately needed.. My head is still buzzing a little, now that I think about it..

...

Well-, that theory checks out for why my heads a little fuzzy, but it still doesn't explain why I'm sluggish.. That's my body being achy, not my brain..

...

Maybe I'm just 'not well', period..

Why would that be the case, though?.. Did I eat something..?

...

..Oh, tell you what..

Begrudgingly acknowledging a new possibility, I slide my phone from my pocket.

...

It was in the high 30's last night.. Winter may be behind us, but it can still get pretty chilly when the sun goes down..

With a tired huff, I slide the phone back from whence it came.

If I remember right, I was outside for over an hour last night.. I had a fire to keep me company, but both this me and lost-it me kept our distance on account of the contents of the fire..

Ironically, it wasn't the corpse that was repulsive, but the suit.. Burning plastic releases some pretty gnarly fumes; the kind you don't want to breathe in. Not to mention the smell.. Admittedly, I was worried the burning flesh would've caused more of a nasal disturbance than the plastic, but I don't recall the scent.. I sure as shit remember what it's supposed to smell like..

It's possible the body was just old.. Might not've had much flesh left to burn..

..Anyway..

Dangerous temperatures a little harder to judge with my fried nerves, so it's entirely possible I just sat outside and waited for a cold to set in. I'm considerably more susceptible to hot temperatures and I am cold, but I've always been that way.. If it gets too hot, my performance tends to decrease rapidl; even as a corpse.

..Still, I was the only one who managed to survive my Pizzeria's fire; despite Henry and I being the only ones who really didn't mind if we burned away..

I 'unno. The point is, sometimes I fail to distinguish 'cold' from 'too cold'.

And speaking of colds, I just might've politely sat outside until I got one.

That's gonna be a pain..

...

..If it is an illness, than it hasn't fully set in yet. I'm a little sluggish, yeah, but I doubt this is as bad as it gets.. With any luck, I might be able to stave it off until I can make it home and be as sick as I want.

It couldn't hurt to be a little extra cautious around the gang tonight.. I'm not sure if they're even capable of getting sick, but if they are, I don't wanna be responsible for knocking them out of commission.

...

Whoof.. Already letting my mind go wild today.. Maybe I should wrap up these last couple thoughts go back to 'not thinking' for a while.

There's not much left to say.. Regarding the dream situation: I have no idea what I plan to do. Don't even know if 'doing something' is a good idea.. It's not like me and my doppelganger are competing for anything; we just kinda wander until the dream ends. Maybe the only reason they happen in the first place is to let me know the status of things, as opposed to giving me some objective to accomplish.

So unless I know what to do, I'm not gonna do a damn thing.

- Brr -

I've been gone for seven minutes, lunatic..

-.-.-.-.-.-

TXT (Michael_Afton, Roxanne_Wolf)

Roxanne: Where are you?

Michael: I'm barely halfway done.

Roxanne: Holy shit.

Michael: Entertain yourself for a while; got a couple places I wanna run anyway.

Roxanne: Coming.

Michael: How could you possibly have reached the conclusion that this is what I want you to do?

...

Michael: Wolf, what do you mean 'coming'?

Roxanne: Guess, moron.

Michael: Stay put for a second. I'm not going anywhere interesting, just giving Monty his lighter back and popping my head in Freddy's room.

Roxanne: Monty's not in his room. Do it later.

Michael: I know where Monty is; headed his way as we speak.

Roxanne: He could be anywhere.

Michael: What did I just tell you?

Roxanne: Mike. I'm coming there, or you're coming here. One of these is happening whether you like it or not.

Michael: What's gotten into you in these last 50 minutes of consciousness?

Roxanne: Nothing.

Michael: Monty's with Chica and Trudge in the auditorium; top floor. Come if you want, but all that's happening is a lighter swapping hands.

Roxanne: Fine. Give me a couple minutes.

Michael: The entire interaction won't last three seconds; I am not waiting for you.

Roxanne: Get me more clothes.

Michael: This isn't what we were talking about four seconds ago.

Roxanne: I need them.

Michael: Not feeling too compelled to dedicate my entire net worth on your fashion sense.

Roxanne: They don't have to be expensive, shitass. Just get me a couple sets this time, alright?

Michael: Why am I the one you come to for stuff like this?

Roxanne: The old shit you got me is torn up because you exploded the damn phone. It's your fault.

...

Michael: Fuck, fine.. Don't buy anything without me; you'll get the wrong size.

Roxanne: I know my damn size, Michael.

Michael: Think so?

Roxanne: Hold on.

...

Roxanne: I'm a medium.

Michael: No you are not.

Roxanne: I just checked, dumbfuck.

Michael: You are not getting a medium; wait for me to get there.

Roxanne: Why is this so hard for you to frickin' believe?

Michael: I am one-thousand percent sure.

Roxanne: Think I'm fat, purple boy?

Michael: I think you're freakishly tall.

Roxanne: It's fine.

Michael: It is no such thing.

Roxanne: You have an outstanding affect on women, douche.

Michael: *effect.

Roxanne: Actually fucking die.

Michael: Alright I'm leaving the basement. I'll be with Monty in like a minute.

Roxanne: Mkay I'll be there soon.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Grumble grumble grumble.. Wolf-

"Mike, you told me you were-"

Deciding not to stop on my gradual trek after the gator and chicken walking a few feet ahead of me, I snag Roxanne's wrist and tug her along until she's matched my pace.

"You're doing this too.." I continue to grumble.

"Ow, purple bastard..! What? Where are we going?"

"Gave Monty the lighter and now h-"

"No, stop. That should be the end of that sentence. That's what you came here to do. You're done, lets go."

"Said 'sure' already.."

"Said 'sure' to what?"

"Failed to realize that the only reason Chica and Monty would be together is if they're working out an exercise plan.. Gave Monty the lighter, didn't fully comprehend what I was agreeing to when he asked me something, now I've gotta do stuff.."

"You're working out with them?"

" 'We're' working out with them.."

"No 'we' aren't. Why me?" Rox wrings her arm from my grip, but continues to walk alongside me.

" 'Cause you won't leave me the hell alone tonight. Now I'm forcing you to deal with me for a little.."

"No-, these are the last scraps of spare clothes I have after you blew me up. I'm not getting these sweaty."

"You're getting sweaty either way.."

"Am not."

"You will be when you try to outrun me, get caught, then drug back here.."

"I. Am stronger. Than you."

"That has yet to be proven.."

"It's about to be, night-freak."

"Still gonna sweat your ass off trying to prove that.."

"Why are you so damn monotone?" Rox huffs, crossing her arms and looking ahead.. Though still not showing any signs of trying to stop walking with me.

"Feel stupid for agreeing to this.."

"It was stupid. You are stupid."

"Fascinating.."

...

With yet another grumble, I speed to a jog until I catch the animatronics Rox and I are trailing behind.

"Wasn't Trudge with you two..?" I ask, sounding about as thrilled as one can be about this.

" 'Ran." Monty responds instantly.

"He ran?"

"That way." He continues, pointing directly ahead of us.

"..Why?"

" 'xcited."

"Where is he running to?"

"Lobby?"

"Don't know about that one?"

"We're headin' to the lobby.. He'll find his way."

"Mm.." I hum in acknowledgement, turning to look in front of us while Rox jogs up to my left. "..Since when did you start working out..? Do you need it anymore?"

"I could use s'more-, look at this big fella." Monty responds, gesturing to his gut. Or lack thereof.

"..I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be looking at."

"Mmmbelly!"

"I'm looking at the belly-, what about it?"

"Y'know! Gettin' a little jiggle..! Wobble wobble.." Monty grips either side of his gut and shakes his hands a bit; confirming that there is no 'wobble wobble' anywhere on his torso.

"Monty."

" 'Ja like the lighter?"

You and Roxanne need a lesson in staying on topic..

"It did as advertised.." I cautiously admit, reaching an arm up to scratch the back of my head. "..Who gave you that thing?"

"It's meesa-mine, Mike-a-like. See-, 'cuz it's got all the green and the dots 'n stuff.."

It is green and dotted.. Makes it kind of hard to believe that isn't meant for him..

"..You specifically were given a lighter? No one else was?"

"I 'unno. 've had it fer' a while.. Maybe I stole it from Fred 'n painted it."

"That sounds.. Memorable.."

"Y'know what-? Yeah, nevermind. Think it's mine for realio'." Monty lifts the lighter up towards the light, as if looking for any identifying engravings.

"What does the great Montgomery do with fire?"

"Wave it 'round Fred."

"..Has he ever thought to just lock you out of his room?"

"Ayuup', Plenty-o times." Monty chortles.

"It doesn't seem very effective."

"Greet gator's got his ways of gettin' places~."

"Like what?"

"Not tellin'."

"Why?"

"Might wanna use it on you one day."

"..The method of getting into rooms, or the lighter?"

Monty responds by cocking his eyebrows at the lighter in his hands and chuckling.

" 're ya fireproof?"

"No."

"Resistant?"

"Shockingly so."

"What- Really?"

- click -

"No-, Monty."

"Is it the purple?"

"Don't touch me wiTH- Mont-, it still burns!"

"No painuh, no gainuh."

"I'm not gaining anything-, turn it off..!"

"You're learnin' what it's like ta be caught on fire."

"Riveting, stop wa- Monty..!"

"Learnin' experience?"

"Is this what you do to Freddy..?!"

"Learnin' experience."

"Give me that thing!"

"Learnin' exp- No! Nononononono- Mike it's mine! It's green!"

"It 'nearly caught my hair on fire'. Give me the damn-!"

"Waiwaiwaiwaiwai-I'll be good! I'll stop doin' the- No!"

"If you don't let go of this thing in the next four seconds, I'm locking you outside."

"I'll 'ave a lighter t'keep me warm..! so HAH!"

"Monty."

"Leggo'!"

"I don't know who gave you this damn thing, but I'm lighting the Molotov I throw at them with it."

"Freddy let's me keep the lighter!"

"Freddy probably shouldn't do that. Give me the f-!"

"No-WaiWaiWaiWaiWaiWaiWait! Proposition!"

"Absolutely not." I object, still trying to pry the lighter from the gator's death-grip.

"Lemme say it firs'-, you'll like it!"

"Any outcome that results in you keeping the lighter will not be smiled upon favorably"

"Stopstop-here! If you lemme keep it, we can-!"

"Monty, give me the frickin'-!"

"Nonono! If you lemme keep it, we'll burn Roxy next!"

...

"Mmmm... Deal..."

"HHehehehe!" Monty immediately bursts into an evil cackle while recovering;

followed shortly by the two of us, in flawless unison, jumping off each other and break into a headlong sprint towards the unfortunately oblivious wolf.

Latter of which finally seems to be turning in our direction, though a little too late.

Shouldn'ta left a gator and a dumbass unsupervised, wolf.

...

"Wh.. Mik- MIKE!"

This was a mistake.

This was a mista-

- BANG -

Ow.

Oh good. Forgot to lock the doors. Cannot believe that came in clutch. Don't know what I planned to do if the doors were locked..

Skidding (nearly slipping) on the collection of pebbles on the pavement, I turn over my shoulder to see if I have enough time to double back and check if I damaged the lobby doors by bursting through them.

The answer is no. I am in immediate danger.

Admittedly taken a little off guard with how fast the wolf has proven to be, my right leg receives the signal to extend and push away, not checking if I have the friction available to do so.

I do slip on the gravel this time, which causes me to land on the opposite knee, and miraculously weave under the canine's furious lunge.

Ho yeah. Playing that off like it was on purpose. You have no proof otherwise.

I'm already on both feet by the time Rox is able to stop skidding in the opposite direction.. Part of me is surprised she was even willing to follow me out here. The other part of me thinks she's too angry to care.

Perhaps I should mo-VE..!

Thought I'd give myself an extra moment to make sure I'm securely planted on the floor before pushing away this time. It paid off, though not in the way I was expecting. Underestimated how quick this girl can accelerate, and the decision to not turn and run granted me the opportunity to reaction dodge the next sweep.

Breathily chuckling at my latent ninja skills, I choose not to waste time and take off towards the nearby field; deciding it's probably for the best I don't run into town and get seen running for my life from an anthropomorphic wolf lady.

What a way to one-up everyone that would be, though. 'Is your job this interesting? Uh, didn't think so.'

...

..Holy shit, how does she go 0-100 so damn fast..?!

..Still, I've managed to build up speed at a reasonable human rate.. Thank god she doesn't have the same speed superpowers as she does acceleration.

...

How's this for exercise?

...

I am going to die.

As beautiful as taking an evening run through a grassy field is, there is zero indication that the wolf's gonna slow down anytime soon. It's only been about a minute or two of running through unpredictable terrain, and we've already made a pretty impressive distance.

..The sun's setting, which turned the field a shade of orange.. Bet it'd be pretty nice to sit and relax around here. Maybe I'll ask the wolf furiously sprinting behind me if she wants to sit for a sec'. That can only go well.

...

..Hoo, maybe shouldn'tve jinxed that 'speed' thing.. Those footsteps are fast.. Perhaps we need to switch to the bargaining stage..

Y'know what? That might be what we have to do.. I've got some adrenaline helping me out, but mine's clearly gonna exhaust before Roxanne's blind rage does.

Alright. First step is 'survive the attempted onslaught awaiting me until she's reasonable again'.

...

Welp.

Deciding to position this confrontation on top of a dramatic grassy mound, I cut corners and combine sliding to a halt and whipping around into one motion; successfully awarding myself an extra deep breath before the two of us are in dangerous proximity.

Side-stepping Rox's initial drive-by swipe, I'm met with the realization that this is not something I'm gonna be able to do for very long.

It takes a lot of processing power to determine what her next move is and how to avoid it in time; a slip up is nothing short of inevitable.

Gonna have to cut the 'waiting for her to be reasonable' part out and- Fuck!

Roxy does manage to pull something off in her blind rage that fries my brain for a moment; accelerating towards me, but deciding against using her momentum and sliding to a near halt at the last possible second.

...

..Can't keep doing this..

Not being sent flying by her own attack ended up meaning she can swipe as many times as she wants with practically no delay. I have zero justification for trying to hit her back, so weaving and side-stepping is all I can think to do.

I like to think I've got a pretty sharp reaction time courtesy my time at Freddy's, but I'm still not much of a fighter.. I'm still just reflex dodging without any real thought put into it, which will end poorly once Rox figures that out.

...

..Alright, check this shit out. Time to do some judo nonsense:

(It wasn't judo nonsense. It was deciding to haphazardly block instead of dodge and use the blocking arm to push the both of us away from each other.)

Blocking would be ideal anyway, since preventing a strike from landing is considerably less exhausting then moving my entire body out of it's trajectory, but that logic is unfortunately shot down by the wolf's frickin' claws.. It's still possible to stop an attack without tearing my arm to shreds, but it's infinitely more precise, and requires just as much effort as moving out of the way. Not to mention 'extremely predictable' if I get caught doing it any more than twice..

Welp. I went for it, and it proved to be (shockingly) effective this time around. A gleam of courage forms in my chest as I see Rox trip over her feet while stumbling back a step. As soon as it looks like her back's about to collide with the grass, however, it's like she literally bounces, and is back to rushing me like she wasn't horizontal on the ground less than a fraction of a second ago.

Alright, y'know what? This might be as much time as she's ever gonna give me..

"Rox, Y'wanna-?"

"For the love of god, shut the fuck up."

"Waitwaitwait- I wasn't even-!" I manage to pull the genius move to dodge past her, instead of away. Granting myself some extra time with the added distance. "Monty was the one with the lighter..! All I did was-!"

"Die."

Another short flurry occurs, and the same scenario as before repeats itself.. It isn't an actual 'bounce', but she recovers so fast that it looks like she transfers all of her backwards momentum into forwards in an instant.. It's be cooler to watch if it didn't mean terrible things for me in the near future.

"H-Okay, okay! Look-, at least it's somewhere hard to spot, right..?!"

"Stand still, and maybe I'll stab you somewhere 'hard to spot'."

"I can't even see it from where I'm standing! it's-!"

"Get ready to 'see' the gates of hell, corpse."

Not a great fan of how calm and cold Rox's voice gets when violently angry.. Think I'd prefer her screaming at me over this.

...

I wonder if this looks anywhere as impressive as I think it is.. From my perspective, it's like a power struggle between two shonen protagonists, but can probably be misidentified as a shitty interpretive dance since I can't attack back..

Think I'm ready to be done, though.. Yep, ready to get off this ride..

..Please?

...

I'm gonna die here.

- Pompf -

Whoops..!

Misinterpreted a shove into what I thought was gonna be the 43486th swipe. It wasn't, and now I'm about to collide with the ground. Don't have Rox's magical bounce power either, so it'll take me the better part of a second to get up again.

Oh-kay, new plan..

Understandably, Rox tries to take advantage of my stumbling mid-fall. In another moment of comical genius, however, I manage to use the momentum of sliding backwards on the ground to do this janky-ass grounded bicycle kick.. It wasn't much of a 'kick' as it is lifting Roxanne with my foot and politely changing her destination from 'right here' to 'over there', I'l take what I can get.

It works, somehow. The weight shifts, and Roxanne is sent a small ways over me. Look at me go.

Fearing another instant recovery from the wolf, I spend more effort than necessary to get up to kneeling as quick as possible and watch for her next move.

Thankfully, Roxanne doesn't recover from this one as quick as before.. She landed on her knees as well, but it takes her an extra second to stop sliding on the grass and maneuver to standing. By the time she's able, I'm already on my feet and ready to roll.

..That just means we're back to square one though, which is bad.. Seriously doubt I'm gonna be able to keep getting out of her way until she calms down.. Hell, maybe dodging is only making her angrier..

"Hh.. Hope someone's recording this.." I grumble, coming to realize how out-of-breath I'm getting.

"Fucking..! Stop!" Rox blurts, immediately weaving her way towards me again.

"What do you mean 'stop'- I'm trying to survive..!"

"Yes! Stop!"

Fair enough.

...

"Hope this answers your 'who's stronger' query." I mutter arrogantly, following another uninterrupted dozen seconds of dancing around the top of this hill.

..Sarcastic remarks are going to get me killed, but I can't think of anything else to say.. Maybe I should just shut the fuck up for a few seconds then. Don't think I'm doing myself any favors by letting whatever crosses my mind fly straight out of my mouth.

"Mike, stand still..!" Roxy grumbles through a growl.

"Chill out, and I will.."

"It's only fair, fucker..!"

"Look- It's not that big a deal..! You haven't even inspected it yet - Maybe it's an easy fix..!"

"I don't need to inspe-!"

In a massive moment of LARP, Roxanne somehow decides the only logical thing to do in response to her swipes not landing is to try and knee me.

..I mean, it looked cool, and probably felt cool to do.. But, of course, it was also: sluggish, telegraphed, unhelpful, hard to recover from, and easy to maneuver around.

So, the both of us quickly realize how much of a mistake it was.

I'm able to act before she can and throw a cheeky low-kick of my own to sweep the only other leg keeping her standing.

Unbelievably, it really was that simple, and the big bad wolf falls all the way down.

In another magical stroke of luck, Rox fails to recover immediately this time as well; her back colliding with a particularly hard pack of dirt and dazing her just long enough for me to make a decision.

..This might be the only chance I get to force her to give me a little extra time..

As soon as my footing returns, I immediately lunge and try to land a foot on Roxanne's upper body; the hope being that I can pin her to the ground for an extra couple seconds.

However, my attack is slow, on account of not wanting to actually stomp on her chest and hurt her. It takes me way too long to register why this move is risky, and when it finally does, it's a bit late.

A quick shimmy on her end, and my foot lands in the dirt next to her.

Now, for the second reason this plan was a bad idea; I was planning to 'pin' her, so most of my weight has shifted over to this foot.

Roxanne appears to have recognized this, and instead of trying to get off the ground, simply twists and bludgeons my leg just above the ankle with her elbow.

..I'm a little uncertain why she decided against using her claws there, since she hasn't restrained herself like that at any point so far.. I'm worried that means she wants the strike she does land with her claws to count..

Anyway.. Even without the claws, the bludgeon is enough to displace my weight and cause me to collapse to a knee, which results in immediately getting tackled by the wolf.

That ain't good.

...

Naturally, it takes me a second to recover from the tackle; but Roxanne once again magically recovers in an instant, ready to continue way before I am..

..Welp. This is about as bad as it gets.. I force myself to crack an eye open mid-recovery, which only confirms that there's no obvious way out.. Gave Rox all the slack in the world by letting her tackle me, so now she's taken her sweet time sitting on my midsection and choosing what to do with me.

Deciding there's not much I can do, I just cover the most sensitive portions of my face with my arms and wait for a brand new gash to decorate my upper chest.

The only feeling I'm met with, however, is both of Roxanne's hands furiously gripping my shoulders, which sends me into a brief fit of confusion.

..I was under the impression that a sizable cut is what she was ultimately looking to get, which means she'd need the claws on those hands to do the desired damage.. Can't do much with 'em while they're on my shoulders, so I'm not entirely sure what she's trying to do anymore..

The uncertainty prompts me to let my guard down and get a look at the wolf towering over me.

Horrifyingly, her previously furious expression has been painted over with an equally enraged, though newly manic toothy-grin.

"Hey MIKE!" Wolfie barks from above me with twisted optimism, venom practically seeping from her teeth.

"What the hell's gotten into y-?!"

"What'd I tell you would happen if the phone was a bust, huh?!"

"The phon-?!"

"What did I tell you would happen if the phone didn't work!?"

"Rox- What the hell does that mean!?"

"It 'Means' I still owe you a 'BITE', Corpse!"

"No! No-, that'll actually fuckin' infec-!"

wAAH-!

...

"Oh- Here, found it." I call out to the canine a short ways behind me, legging it up the last couple feet of a hill. "Knew it wouldn'tve blown away in one night."

"Oh god-, do I want to look at this thing..?"

"There's nothing left you could possibly identify. Even the bones are dust."

..That's a little weird, actually.. I know body was old and brittle after being trapped in that suit for god knows how long, but would the bones have crumbled as w-?

"Fine.." Roxy mumbles, followed shortly by her footsteps in the grass approaching from behind.

I place my hands on my hips and stare out into the grassy field, not incredibly interested by the black soot that used to be a costume. The occasional breeze blows down my lungs as I catch my breath, inhaling and exhaling slowly.

..Just as scenic as it was last night. Startin' to get pretty fond of this patch 'a grass..

...

"Not a lot of light pollution a mile into a field. Got some pretty sights of the stars last night." I chime, though only really trying to make conversation. I can't help but tilt upwards a bit and look into the sky at the mention of the stars, but Of course, the sun hasn't finished setting yet, so I don't know what I was expecting to find.

"Fuuuuck.." A breathy expletive is all I get in response. Instinctively, I glance over to see if she's alright, but can quickly tell that the wolf's just trying to catch her breath like I am.

"Gonna survive?"

"It feels like we did something wrong. Like I did something wrong, and I wasn't even frickin' here.."

"..About the suit? How come?"

" 'Cause, like.. It's like we finished the job.. Someone in Freddy's killed him, someone else covered him up, and now we're here wiping away the track-s-, Jesus, hold on a second.." Rox interrupts herself, taking the last couple steps it takes to reach my side and lower to sitting.

"Startin' to think you needed this exercise more than I did."

"Shuddup. Sit down."

"Mkay." I mutter, already halfway through the process. "When's the last time you went for a run?"

"Holy shit, I'm fine. Spent too much energy dealing with you, so I was tired before we even friggin' started."

"Mm. Going batshit insane probably does take it out of you, yeah."

"Don't burn my fur.. It might not get color back, ever, fucker.."

"That can't be true - I don't think it was more than a singe."

"You don't know that. You didn't know that."

"The burnt hair'll grow out eventually. It'll be back to normal before too long."

"..It fuckin' hurts.." Rox mutters, meekly glaring down at the grass in front of her.

Aw.. I know she paid me back in full, and then some, but I really didn't mean to end up doing real damage.. Of course I feel bad, I'm just bad at expressing it..

"Alright, alright.. Here- Can I see it?"

"Don't fuckin' touch it.."

"I won't. Just wanna see."

...

"..I 'told' them not to give you the stupid lighter-.." Roxanne continues to grumble under her breath, but complies, extends her arm out to her left towards where I'm sitting.

I take the arm as delicately as I can; unsure where exactly the burn ended up being.

...

Mmm.. Shit, yeah.. That'll leave a mark..

Refraining from a wince, I gather as much information as I can.

I was right about it being somewhere guests won't be able to see, at least. The mark sits on the part of her fur that the band Rox wears over her arm as part of her uniform usually covers. Still, it's not the most pleasant of wounds..

'Wound' is an exaggeration.. It looks like it hurt, but I'm still confident in my judgement that the newly blackened fur halfway up her arm will grow back to normal colors naturally. Surprisingly, most of the hairs are the same length as they were before the burn, but they're still charred an indistinguishable black..

..That gets interesting the more you think about it.. I guess it was unlikely Rox had actual wolf fur, but any fur would 'burn off' instead of charring.. Here's another fun piece of trivia: fur doesn't even burn that well. The oils in the hair would be what ignites, rather than the fur itself, and there (usually) isn't enough of it to burn for any more than a moment or two.. Think it depends on the fur, though. For instance, cat's are flammable. Don't light your cat on fire.

Anyway, the point is, this fur burned just fine.. That could be for any number of reasons, though. Think a good amount of makeups are flammable, so maybe that's what allowed the flame to last as long as it did..? Do people put makeup on their arms..?

..I don't know- those are questions for later. Right now, I need to focus on what the effect was, rather than why it happened.

..The burned part isn't all that big, but it's sizable enough that it's hard to imagine 'accidentally holding a lighter too close' caused such a wide area to burn.. Roxanne, feisty as she is, managed to defend herself pretty well from me and Monty's game of seeing how close we could get the fire to be without touching her. Unfortunately, it did end up getting close enough to connect at some point without any of us noticing..

The tiniest of hairs caught on fire, but none of us knew; not even Rox, since she doesn't have any nerves in her fur to feel the fire with.. After what must have been no longer than 3 seconds of harsh lecturing from the wolf, there was an uncharacteristic yelp, and she immediately slapped her hand on wherever she was feeling the heat; smothering the fire instantly.

Of course, the only way she could have 'felt' anything was if the fire had gone on long enough to reach her skin, which inevitably meant the fire had spread quite a bit up until it was made known..

The result is this small blackened patch of fur around the size of a golf ball plastered halfway down her forearm.

..Which did not go over well with the gang member that values their physical appearance more than anyone else..

...

"Well hey.. No one's gonna see it, if that helps."

"You're seeing it, right now.."

"No one important, I mean. No one who's perception of you would change upon seeing a burn on your arm." I lift the furry limb a little higher, making sure there's nothing else that got damaged on the underside. "..Not that those are the kinds of people I'd worry about impressing.."

"Look- just.. Don't want any of the gremlins to think I'm weird, alright?"

"The kids will not care, even if they could see it." I reassure, lowering the arm again and pointing at the spot with my other hand. "...Hey, I know you said not to, but can I touch it a little? Wanna part the fur and see how bad the skin itself got d-"

"Yes, whatever."

I chuckle and cross my legs, repurposing my pointing hand to hold the arm steady,

"Where'd the sass go? Bummed all the sudden?"

Rox responds by groaning quietly, rocking a moment to reposition herself in the grass.

"Fuckin'.. Hate when you point it out.."

"What else am I supposed to do?"

" 'Keep your damn mouth shut'.. Ghh, I'll get sad, then you'll say something about it and single me out, which makes me feel like I shouldn't be sad.. Which makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong, which makes me even sadder-"

"Okay, alright, alright, fine.. Just an unusual emotion to catch you with. Usually you just get frustrated, or 'pissy'."

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

"Fuck you."

"There we go."

"Maybe you could go without b-"

I put an extra bit of effort towards separating the uncooperative burnt fur, causing the arm to tense and the rest of the wolf to wince, followed shortly by the latter pretending like she didn't.

...

"Sorry.. Almost done.."

"..Didn't say anything.."

"Yeah, my bad.. I'll warn you next time."

"No-, I didn't say anything.."

"You didn't say anything?"

"You're talking to yourself, is what I'm telling you."

"Well yeah, I know. Said sorry 'cause I saw you flinch; didn't realize where I was touching was extra sensitive."

"It isn't."

"What are you trying to prove right now?"

"Nothing.."

"You cut off in the middle of a sentence. Admitting something hurt doesn't color you in a bad light."

"You talk. So much."

"Calling you out on your bullshit gives me life."

"This how you make people feel better?"

"Mm.. No, sorry.. What are you so bummed about anyway?"

Quick progress note regarding what I've inspected so far: Very little of the skin got damaged. Just the part that was burning the longest ended up reaching the skin, so most of the flesh under the blackened fur is unharmed. The bit that is burnt looks a little irritated, though.. Hopefully nothing a little bit of cold water can't fix when we make it back to the Pizzaplex.

"The stupid burn.."

"Just the burn?"

"What- is that not good enough for you? Need me to go through a traumatic episode before you allow me to be sad about something?"

"That's a wild conclusion to jump to from the three words I said."

"I can hear it in your voice, corpse. Don't need, your-..."

...

I cock an brow, but continue to focus on the arm in my lap.

"..Did I touch a burned spot again..?"

"Godammit- Sorry.. Keep calling you that 'cause I know you don't like it, but always feel like shit afterwards.." Roxanne grumbles.

"Oh- 'Corpse' doesn't bother me, Wolf. The only one you're actually bugging by calling me that is yourself."

"It did get to you at some point, don't fuckin' argue with me on that."

"It did the first, like, two times; and just because I'd never heard it before." That's half-true.. It did take me off guard the first couple times, but only because I thought wolfy somehow figured out that I was, in fact, a corpse. "..Man- you must really be in a 'state' right now if you're feeling bad enough to dare demonstrate 'empathy'."

"Think I'm fuckin' soulless, huh?"

"You should see how you treat the day crew sometimes. It's like watching a Queen order her jesters to do menial tasks."

"That's 'cause they're idiots.." Roxy grunts, shifting to cross her legs. "But at least they're smart enough to know their place, though. Freak."

"Uh-huh. 'I'm' weird for not letting a wolf lady boss me around?"

"You're 'weird' because you don't ever recognize the consequences of not doing what I say."

"You've got a weird thing going on between 'oh my god I need everyone to love me all the time' and 'everyone else is below me and I don't care what they think'. Might need to make a choice one of these days."

"Don't you fuckin' call me weird, purple pizzeria prick."

"Look at you, rhymin' and all."

...

Welp. Only verdict I can come up with is to wash this with cold water for a few seconds.. The burn's got quite a dramatic appearance, but isn't much worse than something you'd get by touching something hot in the kitchen.

"Think you'll survive, wolfie."

"Thanks, dumbass."

"Might wanna get some water on it whenever we head back. Pretty much all of the fur is guaranteed to come back. A very little bit of the skin did get damaged, but I don't think it was enough to perturb hair growth.. You sh-"

I let go of her burnt appendage, and a new and slightly more jarring revelation catches my eye.

A bright, red, and sticky imprint of a hand on Rox's fur lingers as I'm taking my arm back, perfectly outlining how I was holding it a moment ago.

Ooh, um..

A bemused glance at the offending limb reveals that there are, in fact, a few watery strings of blood dripping throughout the metal concoction making up my mechanical hand.. Guess they had a good angle to seep onto her arm when I was holding it steady..

Shoot.. Didn't even feel the liquid trickling down this far.. I reflexively give the bitten shoulder a quick glance before returning my attention towards Rox.

Don't want her feeling bad about this; I only got what I deserved.. Plus, it's not like it's as bad as it could have been, since I'm still not able to feel as much pain as I should.

That crosses my mind way too late, however.. As soon as I let go, Roxanne brought her arm back and immediately grew curious of the colorful new handprint near her elbow. The time for damage aversion has already passed..

..To my surprise, however: Roxanne only responds with an arrogant snicker.

"What a gift. I've always wanted to have your blood on my hands."

"..Oh- it, um.." I stutter and lower my gaze, no longer certain how I should act.

"Almost wanna get this tattoo'd." Roxanne smirks, holding her arm up towards the sun for light. "Tell's the story of what happens when you fuck with me too much."

..Kind of.. Kinda thought she'd be taking this differently.. I was already starting to think of ways to prevent her from feeling guilty, since she was already in the dumps.. The handprint seems to have had the opposite effect, though..

...

"Anything to say for yourself, purple boy?"

"Not really.. For the record, though: never, under any circumstance, bite 'anyone' else, ever.." I mutter semi-sarcastically, inspecting the pattern of holes in my shirt around the shoulder where those infamous 'carnissal' teeth sank in.

"Felt good."

"Cool. Don't bite people."

"Got a lot of frustration out of my system."

"It certainly felt like it.."

"Might needa' bite you more often."

"You d-, Are you a frickin' vampire?"

Roxy chortles, while I inconspicuously wipe the metal appendage clean in the grass.

"I'm a wolf." Roxanne grins, staring out into the field ahead of us. "Most people wouldn't fuck with one."

"I'm slightly more prone to messing with a competent humanoid instead of an actual wild animal."

"It's how we mark our territory."

"I'm almost positive that's not true."

"It's how I mark my territory."

"Actual vampire behavior."

"Maybe I am one, then. Come to my room later, I'll try sucking your blood."

"I am not your 'territory', by the way.." I grumble, moving my shirt around and trying to think of ways to cover up the most obvious parts of the bite; just in case we stumble into Monty again when we head back.

"You are. I bit you."

"Rox."

"You belong to me because I want you, numbnuts. It's not your decision."

"Wow- I 'belong' to you, huh?"

"Yes."

"Quite the ego you have there, wolf."

"You can tell 'cause of the bite."

"Gonna need you to decide whether you're a wolf or a vampire."

"I can be both. Multi-classing."

"That's not what that means.. Was that a dnd joke?"

"I don't know. Saw someone say it online."

"Phenomenal. You owe me a shirt, by the way."

"You have more, dingus."

"Not of this one- when have you ever seen me wearing anything other than this?"

...

"That's the only one of those shirts you have?"

"Yes, it's my uniform."

"Do you wash it every night?"

"You never notice if I smell, so my answer shouldn't matter."

"I'll notice now, fucker."

"Fine, yes. It's only the shirt, so I throw it in the wash when I get home and take it out of the dryer when I leave."

"You wear those pants every day too."

"I wear jeans every day; I have a ton of those at home, and they all look the same."

"Do any ironing, caveman?"

"No I don't friggin iron my work clothe- I'm not here to look 'presentable'. The whole reason I took this job is because no one else is here when I'm working."

" 'I'm' right here."

"You don't count."

"Why the hell wouldn't I count?"

"Because you'll like me no matter what I look like at this point."

"Incredibly presumptuous of you to assume I've ever liked you."

"You just had a breakdown because I said I didn't trust you with-"

"Can you not, fuckin-! Can you let me keep a little dignity, dickwad..?!"

"Changing my mind was a hard decision to make; I get to relish in the fruits of it for a while." I quietly chuckle.

"Yeah? You were the one doing something difficult?"

"It was not pleasant."

"Don't recall hearing you begging and pleading, corpse."

"I didn't say 'you' weren't having a hard time. I just meant I had to break a lot of promises to myself for me to continue trusting you, so I'm trying to make the payout outweigh the cost."

"Chirst- I said I was sorry.."

"What? Oh-"

Repeating my sentence in my head, it does sound a little like I was chastising her.. Didn't mean to; I just let the words flow.

"-No, you're alright, I didn't mean-.. It's not that I was upset with you, there was just something I realized."

"That I forced you to trust me, then kept your secret for seventeen seconds?"

"No, it was a logical thing.. Stop, by the way. No one's perfect, and you were freaking out, so I understand. I've fucked up way worse before.. The longer you live, the more you'll find out that some of these things are inevitable."

"That doesn't make it 'okay', shitlord." Roxy grumbles, placing her elbows on her knees and supporting her head with her hands. "..What I did was especially fucked up, so of course I'm gonna hate that I did it."

"You were so cocky and arrogant two minutes ago. What happened to that?" I sneer, falling back to hold myself up with my arms.

"You brought this up..!"

"Can I bring it back down, then?"

"No, 'cause now I'm gonna think about it, and you're gonna be the one who deals with me while I'm like this."

"I'm not the best therapist."

"Don't need you to be a therapist - just don't be fuckin' stupid for a few seconds."

"That's what a therapist does, and therefore what I'm incapable of."

"Can I just fuckin' apologize for real before you leave again?"

"I'd prefer if you didn't, 'cause I don't think you need to."

"For my sake?"

The lack of insult following that last bit strikes me as uncharacteristic, prompting me to think about this a little more carefully.

"..I thought I forgave you already..?"

"What the hell's wrong with you? Why are you fighting this so hard?"

"I'm not- I just don't think apologizing for something you've already said sorry for a million times is gonna do you any favors.. In fact, I'm worried doing so will result in convincing yourself it's something you still need to feel bad for, when it really, really isn't. Y'know..?"

"What kind of person doesn't like getting said sorry to?"

"The same people who think you shouldn't be sorry..? I'm also not very good at 'getting apologized to' anyway. I'm usually the 'apologizer'."

"It's not h- frickin'.." Rox begins, but quickly cuts herself off and forces herself to take a deep breath. "..I want to say 'it's not hard', but it 'does' include shutting the fuck up for two minutes, which I know is something you struggle with."

"Why are 'you' fighting this so hard? I'm telling you, in advance: It's okay, I understand, and I already forgave you. My answer isn't going to change if you apologize; I'm just gonna say it again when you're done.. Aren't you constantly getting on my case about 'wasting time'?"

"You suck."

"This is what I prefer to hear from you."

"Masochism is a dangerous kink, you-"

"Alright- First of all, you shouldn't even know what that is. Second, I'm not a masochist, and lastly, we should talk about something else."

"Well choose then, purple man. This or the apology."

"Those are not the only two things we're capable of talking about."

"If you don't choose in the next four seconds, I'm choosing for you."

"How did we get here?" I mutter loud enough for Rox to hear.

" 'Masochism is the enjoyment of receiving pain or humiliation.' "

"Are you reciting the fucking article?"

" 'Masochism may also refer to Sexual Masochism Disorder: a medical con-' "

"It's a medical disorder?"

" 'a medical condition in which pain or humiliation is required for sexual ar-' "

"Holy shit, stop. Fine."

I feel like it's worth mentioning that Rox currently doesn't have my phone or any other method of accessing the internet on hand right now, so this is something she's commit to memory.

"Wow, you-, You're fine with machines trying to murder you and moving corpses around by hand, but this is too much? This is what it takes for you to get uncomfortable?"

"It's something about hearing it in your voice. You're meant for children."

"You're a child."

"I am older than you. Pretty sure I'm older than however old you're supposed to be."

"Wanna tell me what that number is?"

"No, because there isn't an answer that won't offend you in some way."

"I'm a healthy eighteen or nineteen, so-"

"You are, under no circumstance, either of those ages."

"What?"

"You are at least a few years into your twenties, I'd bet literally anything that's what you're 'supposed' to be. I don't know your actual age, though. Probably like.. One year, and.. two-thirds..?"

"Why the hell would I be anywhere in the twenty range?"

"You're young and alive, but chill and unapproachable enough to seem at least a little 'experienced'. That's what I get from your mannerisms, and what I'm basing that age from."

"Fuck you- How old are you then, birthday boy?"

"My birthday was yesterday, first of all. So-"

"No, moron. Your birthday is 'Tuesday', which is today. That's what you told everyone."

"Oh." I respond blankly, staring into space. "..Maybe it was Monday, then.."

"What was?"

"My birthday.." I mutter. A few seconds pass in silent thought before I decide it isn't important and shake the thoughts out of my head. "Mm, whatever. It's somewhere around here."

"..What?"

"What?"

"When's your birthday?"

"Sometime this week; I can't remember. I wrote it on my application as today, though-"

"No way did you just tell me you 'don't remember'."

"No- it's not like I have no idea. I know it's sometime between yesterday and Thursday."

"You're really trying to get me to believe this, huh?"

"..Yeah?"

"That you don't know your birthday?"

"Well.."

...

..Roxanne continues to badger me while I zone out for a moment..

Maybe I shouldn't have gone down this path.. I have a close estimate that's plus or minus a day, but the exact day is kinda fuzzy. It didn't really matter to me back when I was chasing my father, since I was planning to end up dying at the end of it all anyway.. That might be a little ridiculous, but any pieces of information I had that were only important if I continued to 'survive' wasn't reserved a spot in my long-term memory, since surviving was neither the plan or the desire. It's not like I've completely forgotten though. Admittedly, the only way I still know that my birthday sits around this area is because I have a vague recollection of how long the distance between my birthday was with Evan's, and lord knows his birthday has been burned into my mind.

Anyway, uh.. The problem is that I don't really have a way of explaining this to the wolf actively prodding me for an explanation..

...

..Come on Mikey, you've changed the topic in predicaments harsher than this.. Get the lead out; pull some purple magic..

...

Ooh~. I can make this work..

...

"Can you not go fuckin' quiet every time I talk to you?"

"..."

I slowly begin to lift my arm.

...

"Is this another one of your random-ass pieces of information that somehow relates to something you haven't told me yet? Something so ungodly ridiculous that it made you forget your damn b-day?"

"..."

Roxanne acknowledges the arm creeping up towards her face, but remains otherwise undeterred.

...

"Y'think I won't see you if you move slow enough?"

"..."

Alllmost there..

...

"It must be really easy for you, turtle-ing out of a conversation the moment you get bored of it. Bet you'd get sick of my shit real quick if I tried doing the same, huh?"

"..."

Squinting, I put my arm out of motion and extend my index finger and my thumb to be nearly touching the little black button on the end of her snout.

...

"Mike, if you- W-AAHh?!"

In one quick motion, I use the carefully aligned fingers to grab something just out of Rox's line of sight and fling it out into the field somewhere.

...

I watch satisfied as it flies off the hill, into the grass some 30-40 meters away with the assistance of the higher elevation. Did not think something that small could maintain so much momentum. Learned something today.

Lowering my hand back to where I was using it to support my weight, I nonchalantly return my attention wolf; who's now covering the end of her snout with both hands and staring at me in a wide-eyed horror, like I just did the most sinister, truly atrocious thing somebody could do.

...

"There was a piece of grass in your nose."

"..."

...

"Probly' from when we were fighting."

"..."

...

"Sorry - It was longer than I expected, so it probably felt weird coming out.. I got it, though.

"..."

...

"Did you see how far that thing wen-?"

- Pompf -

Faster than I could realize what was going on, but thankfully not faster than I can react, a fist flies towards my nose at light speed before colliding with my palm.

Whooof... I would not have caught that if we hadn't already been scuffling earlier.. Still got some muscle memory coursing through my veins..

I hold for a second or two to determine if that was the only thing Rox felt like sending my way, then peek around my hand once I think it's safe.

"Seems like an overreaction."

"Changed my mind. Not apologizing; and I want to fight again."

"How very tomboy of you."

"I'm gonna start if the next thing you say is anything other than 'sure' or 'no'."

..?

"You're gonna start..?"

"Yes."

"..I'm.. Unclear on what we're talking about - what am I giving you permission for?"

"Fighting."

...

"You're 'asking' me if we can fight..?"

"Yes."

"Oh-, like we were doing before?"

"Yes."

...

"Is this some sort of sport you've come up with..?"

"Yes. It's called 'beat the shit out of Mike'."

"That doesn't sound like the kind of game you'd usually ask 'Mike's' permission for.."

"It is."

"..So if I say 'sure', you beat the shit out of me?"

"Yes."

"Is that appealing to me in some way..?

" 'You' get to play 'beat the shit out of Roxanne', at the same time. Probably poorly."

..What..?

"..I'm not particularly compelled to 'beat the shit out of' somebody for fun."

Her fist and my hand still connected, the wolf uncrosses her legs and starts to stand.

"Monty said you need exercise."

"Are you-.. Like, are you being real right now?"

"Yes."

"You just want to keep doing what we were doing earlier?"

"Yes."

"Because I pulled grass from your nos-?"

"Because it was fun, and I'm in the mood to 'exercise' more.. Also because you need to learn to keep your hands to your-fucking-self."

..Oh I get it.. It's like when you go for a run, then when you're finished running and finally catch your breath, you feel that subtle desire to keep running.

"You thought it was 'fun'..?"

"You did too."

" 'I' got bitten, and don't really want to have that happen again."

"I'm not gonna fuckin' mortally wound you this time, dumbass. I'll do no worse than what you end up doing to me."

"That is not true."

"I'll do a little worse than what you-"

"Rox."

"I won't bite you, probably."

What in the world is happening?

"..I'm unclear on why this is desirable."

"Mike, you- Ugh..."

...

Roxanne suddenly decides it's easier to demonstrate, telegraphing a swipe before executing; requiring me to duck under and release Roxanne's hand in the process before rising to a stand myself.

"There. Ready?" She continues flatly, as if this cleared anything up.

"No- waitwaitwaitwait.." I interject, taking a step or two away from the wolf. "This seems like a bad idea; you still have to present yourself tomorrow, and I still need to be alive to do my job."

"Holy shit, then pull your punches."

"That covers the not-me part of that problem."

"I'll be gentle."

"That bodes poorly.."

"Fucking look-, did it or did it not feel good to throw each other around on top of the hill?"

"I was preoccupied with other thoughts at the-"

"Did it feel good to dodge my claw two seconds ago?"

"Why the hell are you using claws? That could do real damage to-.."

"Holy ff-, don't get hit then.. Did. It. Feel. Good?"

...

"Well..It felt good to move, yeah, but it-"

"Did it feel good to block my first punch?"

...

"..Sure..?"

"Good, then get ready." Rox commands, turning around briefly to take a couple steps in the opposite direction.

...

..Sigh..

"..Are there any rules..?"

"Don't die."

"Riveting."

"No there are no rules, they make it boring."

"Are you gonna use your claws?"

"Yes."

"Are you fine getting riddled with grass stains..?"

"Yes."

...

"..Do you want me to hit back-?'"

"Yes, Jesus Christ, what is there not to get?"

"Well- I wasn't hitting you back the first time, so you might not like-"

"No one likes getting hit, dumbfuck. You get one more question before we start."

What is-..?

...

..Good lord.. She really does look serious, but it's so absurd.. I do have a million questions, but I don't know if any of them would grant me any closure..

At least I managed to avoid her unnecessary apology..

...

Siiiighh..

"..Ready to regret this in fifteen minutes..?" I ask, exasperated; pulling up my sleeves and taking another couple steps back.

"Is that your question?"

"Yes."

"No, I doubt this'll even last fifteen minutes."

"Our first scuffle took way longer than fifteen minutes."

"That's because you ran the entire time. Give me 'five' minutes, and you'll be in the dirt, alright?"

..Wouldn'tve minded if you at least pretended to have faith in me..

"I can last five minutes, wolf.."

"If you can even last three, we'll call you the 'winner' of this fight, deal?"

Wh..? What happened to five?

..I'm not a damn child - I don't need your handicaps.. You couldn't even lay a hand on me until I missed my pin and gave you the win..

...

"..I can do five.."

"If you make it five, I'll be thoroughly fuckin' impressed, Mike." Rox grumbles, real skepticism lining her voice.

"It's not that hard staying out of your way, I'll-"

"Cool. Are you ready yet?"

...

Y'know what? The thought of giving Rox a jab or two in that big-ass mouth of hers suddenly doesn't seem like such a bad idea..

...

"Yeah."

...

- Pshh -

Apparently, I was zoned out hard enough to jump at the sound of the door opening for me.

I pause in the doorway to Roxanne's room, waiting to hear a reaction from the wolf to confirm that she's actually in there.

...

A few seconds of silence pass, however, before I'm able to make out the sound of a shower running behind the back exit of the greenroom.

Humming in acknowledgement to no one in particular, I invite myself in and continue to fiddle with my phone.

...

Ngh.. I've been struggling to communicate with Cooper that I need a new work-shirt, especially after the play-fight wolfie insisted we have.. Whether we did any real injury to each other or not, claws still have a fancy way of ruining whatever you're wearing..

Coop's been near impossible to talk to through text, though.. He's been telling me that, following last night, the police were finally able to tell what the deal was with the witness's testimony of an animatronic leading the missing children into the back room.

So, here's the rundown on how that's been going..

Apparently, one of the witnesses vaguely recalled some very basic features about the mystery animatronic's appearance. 'Big ears' was the first thing they said, which people reasonably assumed meant it was Bonnie. Shortly after, when one of the courtroom officials was recounting the physical appearance of Bonnie so that the jury would know who everyone was talking about, the 'color described by the official' didn't sit right with the witness, who was fairly confident that they saw 'yellow' instead of purple.

Apparently, as soon as they mentioned that, the few people in the courtroom who were well versed in Freddy's history lost their damn minds.

Right off the bat, the theory was made that the animatronic the witness recalled was Spring Bonnie, and was supported by the fact that those old suits were capable of being worn by humans.. I'm sure there was a lot more they could have figured out right there in the courtroom, but the Judge quickly acknowledged that there was something new that needed to be investigated further, and operations were suspended so that this new lead could be supported with whatever the police find regarding 'Spring Bonnie' in these next couple of days.

Which I can't imagine being much.. There's nothing left in any of the buildings.. Guess they still got that bullshit 'forensics' magic, though. So who knows..

Anyway, Coop's been transfixed on the case, and this blew him away.. I messaged him, and somehow we haven't even been able to get to what 'I' need to talk to him about yet.. Every few seconds, I'll get a new wall of text talking about how fascinating it all is, and how amazing William's mind was.

...

..Arin's stopped sending me updates on how he's doing getting through to Coop.. It's pretty obvious that nothing he's been doing has had any effect, and I'm worried Arin's frustration is slowly starting to turn into dread..

..I gotta figure out what the relationship between those two are.. Their personalities don't match up at all, they don't look related whatsoever, and it doesn't sound like they live with each other, but.. They're almost always seen together, and it's usually because of the effort on Arin's part.. Cooper wanders off and gets himself into all sorts of trouble, but Arin follows him no matter where he goes; even when Arin himself is against whatever Coop's doing.. It's kind of strange, actually.. Arin doesn't seem like the type to get attached to anyone with how rarely he bothers with anything not work-related, but the old fool's left some sort of impression on him.

...

There we go..

...

Finally.

Got the old man to hold a sense of reason for a few seconds, just long enough for me to mention my need for new work-clothes.

..It really is a mystery what the future holds regarding those two.. Hopefully 'a shirt for me', at least.

...

Still on my phone, I fall onto the wolf's couch; listening to the sound of running water.

...

..Eventually, my arms feel too frail to continue holding them up, and I let them fall onto the couch next to me.

...

I'm breathing with my mouth, I've realized.. Head's starting to buzz again, too..

..Being outside and 'exercising' might not have been the best idea, actually.. I was already feeling kind of iffy with the cold developing earlier, but I think all the sweating has only sped up the process.. At least the feeling decided to stave itself off the entire time I was outside, where the external stimuli was much more significant.. Now that I'm just sitting here and not doing anything, however, it's much easier to notice..

I'll manage, though.. Still don't think it'll get bad enough to be a problem until after I've already gone home.

I let my head fall back on the couch and stare up at the ceiling.

...

- Pshh -

Just as quickly, I lift it back up and peek at the door.

Heyy, it's Freddy.. Who's arm is slightly extended like he was trying to knock on the door before it opened automatically.

...

"You missed."

"I was-.." Freddy coughs politely and takes a couple steps inside, sheepishly fixing his bowtie. "..I was under the impression it would be locked.."

"Mm.. Automatic doors don't work very well for personal rooms, I've discovered.." I comment, letting my head fall back again.

...

"Michael, what on earth happened to you.." Freddy sighs, shooting me a gaze so unamused that I don't even have to look for myself.

"..Uhmm.."

"I understand there isn't much of a need to appear presentable in your line of work, but people are still going to see you, you know.."

"Right. I didn't mean for it to, uh.. Get.. this bad.."

"This was deliberate?" Freddy chides lightly, audibly rolling Roxanne's chair over for him to sit in.

"It was agreed upon. Got in a scuffle."

"You don't appear to have fared too well.."

"You should see the other guy."

I've always wanted to say that.

"Where could I find this 'other guy'?"

"In here once she's done showerin'." I reply, pointing lazily at the door preceding the sound of running water.

...

"I'm not sure if this is preferable to a random visitor or not.."

I chuckle at the thought of wandering outside and casually asking random people if they want to fight to kill time, as well as the idea that someone responded 'yes'.

"The two of us are alright. No biggie."

"What on earth were you two fighting over..?" Fred continues to badger, audibly leaning back in his chair and trying to make conversation rather than actually lecture me.

"..Well..."

"Michael."

"..For fun..?"

"I'm horrified at the thought that this is your legitimate answer.."

"Mmmmm.."

...

"Please do not fight members of our staff for 'fun'.."

"Actually it was Roxanne who insisted."

"I should certainly 'hope' so.."

"Fair enough."

"Though I'd appreciate it if you tried a little harder to respond 'no' next time."

"Mm.." I hum, cracking my eyes open a bit. " 'Next time'.. Hadn't even thought of that.. Can't keep getting new shirts every time she wants to do this.."

"That is not the concern I just expressed - Do you remember it fondly..?!"

...

It truthfully takes me a moment to respond. I know what my answer is, but it's kind of hard to believe it's coming out of my mouth..

"..I'm.. Actually ashamed to admit that it was at least a little refreshing, yeah.."

"That is.. Sociopathic behavior.."

"It's kinda hard to explain." I lift my arms and look down at myself. "Like.. Once the injuries stop 'hurting', but you can still feel them, they feel good..?"

"You are not doing yourself any favors trying to elaborate on this feeling for me."

"Sorry."

"Mike-, that feels good..?! you're bleeding in a few spots; I can see as much through tears in your uniform."

"Nahh, that's just.. They're just those tiny scratches that turn red but don't bleed. They'll be most the way healed in like a day or tw-"

Without warning, my heart sinks through the floor.

I flinch and quickly look down at myself again, arms hovering nearby in case something needs to be covered.

"Michael, your shoulder has, ah.. Michael..?"

...

My heart rate begins to slow back down, and the adrenaline seeps from my body.

...

"S..Sorry, just.. Got worried about one injury in particular.." I respond as casually as I can force myself to be.

...

I got very, very lucky.. None of the tears ended up being smack in the middle of the uniform, so none of them provide a direct line of sight to my 'scar'..

Can't believe it took me this long to even think about that.. If Rox had cut a slightly different part of the fabric, it would have been incredibly easy to see the twisted injury going up my torso, courtesy of Baby's.. That would have been catastrophic..

The only real thing keeping Rox, and maybe even Freddy, from making the complete connection between me and the 'document' they read are the sheerly impossible-to-believe parts.. I'm sure one of them, if not both, have already noticed how well the secret I told them yesterday lines up with what's in the document.. The only reason they haven't started thinking about it as the truth is because everything else in the document involves things like spirits, possession, bringing the dead back to life, and walking corpses.. Fred and Rox found animatronics wandering around and murdering people shocking because of how incredibly unlikely it is, but it's still barely within the realms of possibility, since for all they know, the animatronics really were just bugged instead of malicious..

The idea that the animatronics were violent as the result of a programming error is absurd, but the only other alternative would be to believe that they were possessed.. Despite how ridiculously hard it is to believe either of those options, the former one still manages to be just a little more reasonable than the other.

That.. That's the last bastion, if I'm being honest with you.. All other walls have been broken down, and if this last one crumbles, there won't be anything left for me to fall back on.. The idea that 'one option is slightly more believable than the other' is all that remains between those two 'knowing a secret' and 'knowing everything' frightens me a little..

The only upside to there only being one wall remaining is that there's only one wall I have left to defend.. There's a particular issue that makes it a little difficult, though.

All it would take for this wall to crumble is for either of them to be met with proof that something 'impossible' that happened somewhere in the document did actually happen.. From there, it would be easy to imagine that if one of those fairy-tail concept were true, then the rest of them probably are as well..

It does actually sound like I've got pretty good footing over whether or not they get that far, since 'obtaining and presenting proof of an impossibility' isn't something you can really do by accident.. And yeah, I'm pretty confident none of them are gonna stumble across proof that spirits were involved, or that William brought people back from the dead.. Something like that would take incredibly definitive proof to even begin considering as a possibility..

..Unfortunately, I'm carrying one of those pieces of 'proof' around with me at all times, in the form of my scar.

Chica's extremely emotionally intelligent, but to be honest, not the most book-smart.. She's far from an idiot, but 'logical thinking' isn't something she spends her time doing, as opposed to Freddy or Rox.. I think that's part of the reason I figured it was alright to show her the scar forever ago: Chica would find it intense, and probably gross, but wouldn't know enough about the human body to know if there's anything inherently 'wrong' with it.. The other two seriously might..

What Fred and Roxy know now is that: At some point during my time at Freddy's, I suffered a catastrophic injury, and survived.

..I'm worried that if they see it for themselves, they'll know that I couldn't have..

It doesn't matter who you are - Nobody could have survived something like this.. In fact, not even the current me would be able to, and I'm already dead..

...

I might be overthinking it again.. It's true that I'm on my last legs, but with any luck, it shouldn't be hard to maintain this bastion.. I've also been talking about Freddy like he's read the document, when that's not entirely true. All he saw was a portion of the document that I was actively writing at the time, so it's not like he read all of it. I'm not 100% sure what he did and didn't end up seeing, but maybe I have a little bit of leniency in his case..

I don't with Roxanne. Can't sugarcoat that, no matter how hard I try..

...

'Someone finding out'.. That's really starting to seem imminent, and it scares the hell out of me.. Who I am, what I am, what I've done, who I'm related to, what the animatronics were built to do, what the animatronics themselves were.. If last night was enough to damn near break me, then I can't even imagine what would happen if they figured everything else out.. It's worse by a factor of a thousand, and I don't think I'd be able to handle it..

It's not even a matter of trust at that point.. I really do trust everyone, and like relationships we've built here; but I'm horrified that things would never be the same if I acted on that trust.

Whatever the hell Roxanne and I have going on is something I wouldn't trade for the world, so I want to preserve it at all costs.. I'm afraid that Rox figuring out I'm a murderer, arsonist, bastard, and corpse would simply be too much to look past. So, by bearing my soul to her, I'd be crushing this way of life I'm trying to protect..

...

..no- What the hell am I doing? Stop.

Now is not the time to be thinking about this. There's someone in here with me.. Wallow in self-pity all you want later, but focus for a moment..

...

"..Oh-, sorry." I blurt quietly as soon as I get a hold of myself again.

"..'Sorry'?"

"Zoned out for a couple seconds; forgot that there's somewhere in here with me that I probably need to be listening to."

Freddy blinks, eventually crossing his legs; which has to be the most casual thing I've ever seen this bear do.

"I wasn't saying anything. Saw you were lost in thought and waited until you were finished."

"..Wow.. Good goin'.." I mutter, leaning back to relax on the couch again. "..Don't think anyone else's flat-out 'noticed' that before.. Rox just thinks I go quiet."

The bear grins and rubs his nose.

"Well that would be because I'm finally committing your mannerisms to memory~." Freddy remarks, as if it was some fantastic feat.

" 'I' don't even know my mannerisms.."

"There's a secret to everyone; yours took the longest to notice, but I was able to figure it out."

"Ominous."

"You do the same, I'm positive." Freddy brings his arm down and plops it on his leg. "For instance, what about Roxanne?"

"..What about Roxanne?"

"What does Roxanne do when she spaces out?"

"Oh, uhm.. Her eyes glaze over, I think..? More often than not she'll be staring at the floor somewhere in the distance."

"Loot at you go."

"Look at me go.."

"What about me?" Freddy asks cheekily.

"..I'm not sure; you rarely zone out when there's people around, so it's hard to catch.."

"Mhmmm?"

"If you do space out, it's only ever for a couple of seconds.. That's really the only theory I have.. Usually you're looking straight ahead when you do it, maybe..?"

"Are you waiting for me to confirm?"

"Can you?"

"I cannot. I fail to recognize that it's happening in time."

"Oh- well don't take my word for it, then.. Not positive about either of my answers."

"Perhaps it'll be enough for me to confirm or deny next time it happens."

"Keep me posted, I guess."

"I will update you on what I find."

...

He's staring at me expectantly.. I don't know what he wants..

...

Is he waiting for me to ask what mine is?

...

"..What do I do?"

"Well~!"

Ho yeah, that was it.

"It's a little difficult to tell when it happens, as you don't freeze and stare at one area when you get lost in thought." Freddy elaborates, leaning forward in his chair like this is the most fascinating thing in the world.

"Yeah?"

"Well- you will, unless a condition is met." The bear lifts his hand and points to his eyes, followed quickly by pointing at mine. "While spaced out, you will actively avoid eye-contact."

"..Oh- What? Really?"

That's.. Admittedly a little interesting..

"You do. Though I assume it only stems from your usual reluctance to look someone in the eye throughout any interaction with them."

That I'm aware of.. Not entirely sure why, but I usually prefer to be actively doing or focusing on something while talking, so that I can look at it instead of whoever I'm talking to.. It's not that eye-contact makes me uncomfortable; it happens sub-consciously.. Maybe it's a habit that carried over from my time at Freddy's, when interacting with as little people as possible was something I put effort towards.

Hearing that I avert my gaze while spaced out does confirm that it's something my body does without requiring me to think about it.. Well neat, I suppose..

"Huh.. That's one I've never heard of before.."

"I hadn't either, which is why it was so entertaining to figure out." Freddy claps softly, happy he got to share this information he worked so hard for.

"You have one for Monty?"

"Ah.."

Hey~. Guess the bear doesn't have all the answers.

"Mm, well.. It might be a bit presumptuous to assume Monty gets lost in thought, with how rarely he seems to think before he acts." I chuckle under my breath, letting my head fall back again.

"Perhaps.. It's hard to find Monty while he's relaxed, but it does happen."

"Yeah- I've seen that too. Found him strumming his bass in the dark back when the electricity was shut off, and I came in to drop off presents. Still haven't seem him that mellow since, but it was nice while it lasted."

Freddy lifts his head and hums, happily imagining a Monty that you can sit and chill with, instead of one that's constantly trying to break down Freddy's door and light him on fire.

...

..Now might be the time to tell Fred about Cooper, and the Pizzaplex's situation..

I crack my eyes open as the thought crosses my mind.

...

..Feel like there's been a lot left unsaid between us regarding everything that happened yesterday, but it took a while to really figure out what all those things were.. Now's as good a time as ever to talk about them, right..? I bet it'd be nice just to get it all out of the way..

I lift my head a little, getting a peek at the bear relaxing peacefully in Roxanne's chair.

...

..Nah..

My head falls back again, and my eyes close once more.

There's always tomorrow, or whenever else.. No rush.. Rox could finish up showering any minute, too; so it'd be best if I waited till the two of us had a bit more privacy to talk.

..Most of all, though. I just don't think I can bring myself to disrupt Freddy's peace by bothering him with something like this.. Despite everything that's happened in the last 48 hours, everyone's here, and everyone's happy.. Think I'll just let that be for a little while.

...

That's awfully calming to think about.. Monty's out exercising somewhere, Trudge and Chica are bouncing around and pretending to do the same, Fred and I are in here relaxing after a couple long nights, And Rox is in the other room freshening up without a care in the world.

As long as things keep turning out like this, I think I'll be alright.

...

"Did you need something in here?" I ask, 'disturbing the peace'.. Can't imagine the bear was taking an evening stroll through people's rooms for fun. Especially not Roxanne's.

Freddy continues to stare blankly at the ceiling for another few seconds before perking up in his chair.

"Oh- Right, this isn't my room..!"

"..Uh-huh?"

Just as quickly as he sat down, Freddy energetically slaps his hands on his knees and pushes himself up; spinning around a bit once he does so.

"Tape.."

"Tape..?"

"Sorry, I was just coming in here to, ah.." He begins before trailing off, eventually finding what he's looking for and pointing at it. "There you are."

"You came here for tape..?"

"I was out, and Cooper won't be back until tomorrow morning."

"..So you came here for tape?"

Freddy plops a hand on a roll of tape sitting haphazardly on Roxanne's desk, tossing it up to himself a couple times.

"I was under the impression Roxanne had tape."

"Why?"

"On account of having 'taped the night-guard to the wall' on her criminal record."

"Ah.."

"Not something you hear often, is it?"

"Not something you have happen to you very often, either.." I mumble, staring curiously at the hefty roll of tape now in Freddy's possession. "..What are you doing that somehow required more tape than you had..?"

"Dreams of self-defense."

"..What?"

"Anti-Montgomery measures, for my greenroom."

"...Really?"

"Yes. Please don't let Monty know." Freddy continues with a mischievous smirk, damn near visible from behind.

"I will not.."

Partially out of concern regarding what you'll do to me if I do..

...

"Alright- I can't waste anymore time Michael." Freddy turns around quickly, already speed-walking him to the door.

"Let me know how it goes."

"You'll know."

"..Also let me know whether or not it's safe to come into your room.."

"I will do my best."

"By-"

- Pshh -

..Someone's awfully excited about this idea of theirs.. I was wondering why Fred seemed like he was in such a good mood. Looks like he's planning to get a little payback for all the torment the green gator's given him.

...

Once again, my head falls back on the couch.

..If I keep doing that, there's gonna be an indent of my gigantic noggin' in Roxanne's furniture..

...

- Bzz -

Bzz?

Lifting my arms and looking down at whatever the hell just made that noise, I notice my phone lit up next to me.

..That was an unusual notification sound.. Did I just mishear it?

...

..Oh-, it's from my bank.. Guess that makes sense then; don't get many notifications from the damn bank app..

...

Ah. Well if it isn't the casual $1,500 gift from my boss. No biggie.

...

..Think I should text Arin and tell him Coop's drunk again..

- Brr -

Hey, look who messaged me first.

_._._._._._._._

Phone Messenger

Arin: Please don't accept that, for Cooper's sake..

Mike: I was just about to text you. Is he drunk again?

Arin: Yes.

Mike: Does he randomly give people money often?

Arin: No, and when he does, only ever to you. Cooper tends to get emotional when heavily inebriated, and he rambles on about how much he's appreciated your contributions lately.

Mike: He said that while drunk..?

Arin: I paraphrased. The terminology he used was far less elegant..

Mike: Should I be flattered?

Arin: If Cooper wishes to give you a bonus for your hard work, then I have no objections. I only ask that we wait until makes this decision while sober before going through with the transaction.

Mike: Does he have the money to spare to just.. Give me a thousand dollars..?

Arin: I'm not sure. It's difficult to figure out his financial situation in the state he's in.

...

Mike: Are you alright?

Arin: ..Truthfully, I'm not confident Cooper will be capable of making this decision while sober, either.. When he isn't drunk, all he ever talks about is William, and his..

Mike: Are you using voice to text..?

...

Arin: Yes; forgive the unprofessionalism.. Driving..

Mike: If Coop's neglecting his CEO work and it's getting to be too much, I can help. That combined with your regular duties is probably way more work than one person is capable of doing anyway.

Arin: No, but thank you. The work itself hasn't been an issue whatsoever.

Mike: Really?

Arin: I still finish most of the daily duties around noon, and often have the rest of the day to either keep tabs on the Pizzaplex or go home.

Mike: Wow.

Arin: The offer is appreciated.

Mike: It still stands, in case something comes up. Plenty of time get stuff done during my shift; lord knows it wouldn't hurt to make use of that time for once.

Arin: Understood.

Mike: I'm gonna decline the transaction; is that the plan?

Arin: I understand how tantalizing it is.. I'm simply worried that Cooper's spending more money than he's going to make when the customer count starts to decay..

Mike: That's admirable.

Arin: Thank you. It's refreshing to hear my efforts aren't for nothing.

...

..I can't help but feel like there's a little more weight to that last statement than he's letting on..

...

Mike: Alright, anyway. Don't hurt yourself trying with Coop. Not sure there's anything that'll calm him down now, other than waiting for it to all eventually blow over.

Arin: I have to try.. Though you may be right..

Mike: Are you driving 'home' right now?

Arin: I am.

Mike: Sweet. Goodnight, then.

Arin: Goodnight.

_._._._._._._

...

Look at me go, trying to learn how to talk to people. I told someone 'goodnight' today. Makin' good progress.

...

..If it isn't the work exhausting him, then that means it's Cooper himself responsible for how dreary Arin's been lately.. Being unable to talk Coop out of his obsession might be starting to really eat at him.. It's a little endearing to hear that he cares about the old man so much, but it's equally heartbreaking to know the strain that same old fool is putting on the poor guy.

...

Can't do much, I guess. The most I can do is decline the transaction, like Arin asked.

Sure, the extra money would be nice, but it's not like I need it. Still getting a considerable pay just to walk around and chat with my friends all night. More than I deserve, maybe, but that seems to be a theme with the old fool.

...

Navigating to my banking app, I hear the sound of running water behind me quickly fade into drips.

Oh good. Lonely little Mike with have company soon. Probably means I should figure out how to decline Cooper's transaction here pretty quick.

..Kinda interesting that the boss-man has the ability to direct deposit whatever he wants into all his employee's accounts on a whim.. Maybe that's standard with employers, though. I dunno. Kind of thought he only had the power to direct deposit hourly wages, but I guess there's no reason to believe he's limited to that.

...

- Fshh -

That was not enough time for someone to get dressed.

"I'm in here." I call out, lifting a hand up so Rox can see that I'm on the other end of the couch.

"Ugh.."

- Fshh -

I hum in amusement; forcing the wolf retreat back into the other room and get dressed in there rather than here.

..There's no way someone with that much fur managed to completely dry off in less than 60 seconds. It takes like twenty minutes for my hair to dry. Maybe it's good I'm forcing her to stay in there and not drip everywhere..

...

..Wonder how long it takes for her hair to dry..

...

With my mind on the subject, I reflexively reach up to ruffle my hair a bit.

Followed shortly by the most intense, dramatic, and truly exaggerated hair-flip humankind could possibly conceive.

...

..Not really sure why I felt the need to do that..

...

How the hell do I decline a transaction?

I know it's possible, but it's not like I've ever had the need to familiarize myself with my banking app before now.. I could make a better app than this..

...

- Fshh -

"All the clothes in there are fucked."

"Wonder how that happened." I reply dryly, still fendagling with my phone.

" 'You', you phone detonating, nose-picking freak."

"I didn't 'pick your nose', I just grabbed a blade of grass sticking out of it and threw it into the field."

"That's gross. You're gross. Don't turn around." Rox huffs, marching around the room behind the couch.

"I have no desire to do so."

"..That sounded more insulting than re-assuring, corpse.."

I snicker again, and hear the sound of dresser drawers opening.

"Impressed you caught that."

"Whatcha tryna' say, bastard?"

"Calling you unattractive, for once. Role reversal."

"Hard to imagine why you don't have a woman yet, purple boy."

"Everything you say regarding the subject can be said right back to you."

A hefty exhale is all Rox awards me from behind the couch; finally deciding that talking to me probably isn't worth the effort.

Arright, maybe I should give the girl a break.. She started it, though. So I can still make a case for self-defense.

...

"Nothin' to fuckin' wear.."

"I didn't even know you had more clothes than your uniforms and the lounge-wear I gave you."

"That might as well be it.. Nothing else fits.."

...

"Oh-, nothing else fits?" I respond after a delay, finally having figured out how to work the transaction out.

"That's what I said, dumbfuck."

"..Did you 'grow out' of clothes at some point..?"

I'll admit, that makes me curious, but I'm not turning around to see what she's talking about.

"I don't know, probably.. Don't think these ever fit, so they're probably just there for frickin' decoration.."

"Want me to run and grab Chica's lounge-wear, or something?"

"Chica and I aren't the same size."

"Mm.. Freddy's? Freddy never wears his anyway."

"No, fuck it." Rox grumbles, loudly shutting the drawer she was rummaging in. "I'll wear the stuff you tore up with the phone. It's in tatters, but at least it's clean.."

"Exciting."

"I bet it is, creepo."

"That's not what I mean, and I know you know that's not what I mean."

"Throw the stuff back here."

"..Throw the-?" I lift my gaze from my phone and look in front of me with uncertainty. Shortly after, I spot the torn-up, though neatly folded lounge-wear sitting right next to me on the couch. "Oh."

"What now?"

"Nothing, here. Didn't realize the clothes were sitting next to me." I continue, haphazardly lobbing the clothes over my shoulder where I heard the wolf's voice last.

"Idiot."

"Mm."

...

Spotting a desirable object, I lift from the couch and nab the edge of my laptop sitting on Roxanne's desk.

"Where are you going?"

"Creeping and spying on you, while stealing all your stuff since you're vulnerable." I state flatly, plopping back on the couch and very obviously cracking open my laptop.

"You're not very good at it."

"Haven't figured it out yet, but I'll get there."

Despite her best efforts, I'm able to hear an amused huff escape her snout.

...

A few peaceful seconds pass with nothing but the sounds of a clacking keyboard and clothes ruffling.. I'm already able to feel myself sinking into the couch, so I guess that means I'll be here for a while..

...

"Surprise."

"..Su-?"

After a short delay, a pair of furry arms materialize from behind me to quickly wrap around my nape, accompanied by the feeling of a furry face coming into the contact with the back of my neck.

I'm not really sure what to make of what's happening until her arms finally come into contact with my bare skin, and I'm met with the realization that Roxanne's fur is still fucking soaked.

The laptop nearly flies across the room.

"W-STOPSTopStopStopstopstopstopstopstopstopstop-!"

"What?"

"-stopstopstopstop- Whatdoyoumean 'what'?!- Getoffme!"

"I'm expressing my affection towards you. Ain't it cute?"

"Why didn't you dry off!?"

"It takes too long."

"You put your clothes on while still sopping wet?!"

"Saves time."

"Get! Off!"

I've never heard the wolf's voice be so soothingly coy before, but I can't take the time to appreciate it right this very instant.

"I ever tell you how much I appreciate you?"

I'll kill this woman.

"Why are you so fucking cold?!"

"Cold showers increase alertness and accelerates your metabolism."

"Why do you need either of these things-?! We're relaxing for the rest of the night, you don't need to be alert!"

"Whoops."

"stOP - ROX!"

In protest to my logical reasoning, Roxanne decides to lower a hand from my nape to slide under the collar of my shirt and moisten the very top of my upper chest.

"I had no idea you hated water this much."

"Stoppit!"

"No. This is fun."

Every attempt at moving my arms results in my skin stretching an causing the icey-wetness to spread.

"I don't hate water, I hate this..!"

...

"Fine."

Without warning, the hands retract to their owner, though making sure to drag along my skin for as long as they're able.

"Jesus..!" I exasperate, reaching up to hold all the areas around my nape now covered in lukewarm moisture.

There's a little more ruffling that emanates from behind me, before Roxanne walks out from around the couch with a towel balled up in her hand.

"You were getting used to it, so it stopped being fun."

"I was so comfy thirty seconds ago.."

"Mm."

I wearily look down at my lap, relieved to find that my laptop hadn't been sent sailing with how hard I jerked as the water touched my skin.

"You really don't take five minutes to dry off, sociopath?"

"I do. You were here this time, so I didn't want to."

"That was agony."

"Stay here." Roxanne commands, prompting me to look up before her balled-up towel collides with my face.

"Ow. Ew."

"Gonna dry."

- Fshh -

Tossing the towel to the side and hearing the door open prompts another response from me.

"You put clothes on before drying exclusively to fuck with me?"

"Yes."

"That can't-"

"Don't care."

- Fshh -

The door closes behind her, and I'm left to my own devices once more.

...

Friggin'... Wolf...

...

- Fshh -

The door opens again no more than five minutes later, and I can hear footsteps maneuver in front of me while I try and finish something up on the computer.

...

Realizing the footsteps have stopped, I decide to hold off on finishing what I was doing and look up at the wolf for the sake of self-preservation.

..Well..

..She's standin' there with her arms crossed, staring down at me like usual.. Don't know what she wants from me this time, though..

...

"..Lookin' good?" I mutter, cocking a brow.

"You aren't."

"Well-, you showered, and I haven't. This comparison seems unfair."

"I would have looked better than you anyway, coward."

Mm.. Fair enough..

Looking at her now: Even with the tattered clothes, there's not so much as a nick on her.. I, however, look like I took a Sunday drive through a blender.

"Yeah. I got pretty roughed up, huh? Crazy to think you promised to beat me in five minutes, then it took you an hour to get this far."

"Thought you said you'd try to 'hit back', corpse. What happened to that?"

"Whoops. Forgot."

"Uh-huh." Roxanne huffs, turning around and extending her arm out towards the lightswitch. "What the hell actually happened?"

"Imagine if Coop or Arin came back and saw you all scruffed up." I elaborate, adjusting the laptop's brightness to accommodate whatever Roxanne's about to switch the light-level too. "They'd probably wonder what the night-guard, who's job is to 'protect you', was doing when you got all dirtied up. Those two are pretty lenient, but they might actually consider firing me if they learned that the night-guard himself was responsible for all the bruises on your snout."

"You were afraid, huh? Like 'cowards' are?"

Roxanne impatiently turns the light-slider, dimming the room to about what we have it when watching a movie.

"Not of you, but of losing my job." I huff with a smirk. "Pretty sure I've already demonstrated that I don't need to be afraid of you. Since, y'know, you fought me while I didn't hit back, and still lost."

"I didn't lose, jerk. That wasn't part of the rules." She bites back, forcefully falling onto the couch besides me.

"My foot on your chest with your back to the ground seems to suggest otherwise."

"Who the hell said 'pinning' someone meant they lost?"

"Me, when I beat you."

"Look at yourself, Mike."

"Mhm?"

"Look at the condition you're in."

"I can see it."

"Now look at me."

"Mkay."

"Who's doing better for themselves right now?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean: Who's torn the fuck up, and who's completely fine?"

"The winner's torn up, and the loser's fine."

"Mike."

"What kind of clothes do you want?"

...

"Another one of those soft pants.." Roxanne mutters, head ferociously colliding with my shoulder and staying there.

"Ow."

"Shut up. That didn't hurt."

"That's still the shoulder you bit, rabid wolf."

"You can deal with it."

"You're still wet."

"Deal with it."

"Fine. What are you doing?" I ask wearily; sliding the laptop so that half of it is on her leg and the other on mine.

"I'm tired."

"What kind of tired?"

"What the fuck does that even mean?"

"Like.. Exhausted from being outside 'tired', or sleepy 'tired'?"

"Yes."

"There's a pillow five inches to your right; you can use that if you're sleepy."

"I don't need a pillow.." Roxanne grumbles quietly, pressing her head a little harder onto the bitten shoulder.

A bit apprehensive, I tilt my head as inconspicuously as I can in order to see for myself what the hell the wolf thinks she's doing; a little worried she might be sneakily trying to bite it again..

She isn't, though.. Thought Roxanne resting her head on my shoulder meant imminent doom for me in the near future, but it seems like she's taken a chill-pill.. Her eyes confirm that she's tired; fighting to stay more than 'cracked open'. The reflection of the laptop's screen is decorating Roxanne's eyes while she curiously gazes it's contents.. Despite the conversation we're having, and her tone of voice, there isn't much annoyance present in her expression. What little there is only seems to stem from her natural expression, rather than the actual emotions associated with being annoyed.

..Shockingly, Roxanne looks 'content'.. That's not something you see everyday from the wolf who always wants 'more'..

...

"What are you looking at?"

"Sorry. 'Thinking about something." I excuse, turning my head back to the laptop.

"Thinking about what?"

"You."

"Don't 'think' about me.."

I huff in amusement, scrolling down the web-page.

"Fine."

...

"..What were you thinking about me..?"

"You really are tired, huh?"

"Shut up."

"I was just watching the computer's reflection in your eyes. Thought it was neat."

"That's not 'thinking about me'.."

"I was 'also' thinking. Thought you looked peaceful."

"That a problem?"

"It usually bodes poorly for me, yes."

"Fuckin'.." Roxanne mumbles, not bothering to lift her head or look away from the monitor.

...

"Hey, before I forget again, are you doin' alright?"

"..Me?" She responds after a pause.

"No. Me. I'm asking myself if I'm alright, out loud."

"I'm fine, why?"

"You've been emotionally all over the place today. Thought maybe that meant yesterday was still buzzing in your head and causing a mess."

"What the hell does 'emotionally all over the place' mean?"

"Like, uhmm.. Out by the ashes of the suit, you were just jumping all over the place a lot. First you were aggressive, then got sassy, then sad, then cocky, then apologetic, then aggressive again, ect ect. I don't know- it didn't seem like you were doing bad, just kinda switched gears at random times."

"I'm okay."

Huff.

"I don't think I've ever heard you say 'I'm okay' before, wolfie."

"No-, I mean I was just trying to get okay again."

"You were what?"

"Dammit- that's not what I mean either, just like.." Roxanne lifts her head a little and tries to conjure her thoughts by shaking her noggin a bit.

...

"You're doing okay though, right? That's all I meant to ask."

"Ffffff..." Roxanne makes a noise life she's releasing steam, before giving up and letting her head fall back down again. "Yes, I am. Just needed a day to take it in, and now I've done that, so we're cool."

"How cool?"

"All the way cool."

"10/10 cool?"

"Mike."

"Max cool, yo."

"What?"

"Cool as a cucumber."

"Shut up, Mike."

"Mkay."

...

I spend a little time scrolling through various pages of the clothing website, waiting for Roxanne to indicate if she likes something. Every time I glance over, though, the wolf's still just staring at the computer screen with mild-interest.

...

"I'm getting you the same pair, if that's okay."

"..Hm..?" Roxanne hums softly.

"Of lounge-wear. Both the shirt and pants are grey."

"Mkay."

How suspiciously cooperative.

...

"You wanna scroll around and see if there's anything you want?"

"..You can do it.."

"Do what?"

"Buy whatever. I'll wear it.."

A curious look in her direction reveals that Rox's just about to fall asleep already.

...

"Hasn't even been ten minutes since you sat down and you're already about to pass out, huh?"

"..No-, I'm still awake, just wanna watch.."

"Want to save this for after you're done sleeping?"

"..No, you do it.."

"If I do it all, you're gonna kill me. I can shut this off right now so you can sleep for a while; you probably still need some after how long you went without it."

"Don't turn it off.."

"Why?"

"..Whatever-, I just wanna watch, okay..?"

"You are barely coherent.. Watch what?"

"The fuckin', uh.. Computer.."

"What are you- eight?"

"Can y-, I just don't wanna move, okay..?"

"So go to bed."

"..I don't wanna move from here, purple m-.." Roxanne trails off.. As much as I want to disprove what she's saying; every time I look, Roxanne still has her eyes cracked open and staring at the laptop.

"Alright, whatever.. I'll save a bunch of stuff you might like for you to check out tomorrow."

"Okay.."

...

Another five-ish minutes pass of saving a few outfits that either make good candidates, match with her color scheme, or are gonna be worth a chuckle later when Rox sees them. The peace is nice, I'll admit, but I'm sure there's something better I could be doing with my time.

Still not all that sleepy. Got my fill earlier today, so I'm hoping to bounce out of here once I finish making a satisfactory list of things for the wolf to check out.

...

A few minutes later, a ruffle sounds to my right. Following shortly after is Roxanne gently repositioning her head to burrow further across my shoulder; practically touching my neck.

..She's still awake..? I was confident she passed out almost immediately after we stopped talking, and I was just scrolling around this website out of obligation to do what I said.

...

There..

It's not the largest list in the world, but it's enough to give wolfie a start tomorrow. I'm not very experienced in this kind of thing, so there were a lot of more exotic or flashy outfits that I avoided simply because I didn't know what the thought process was behind buying one of them.

...

Unbelievably.. Checking out the wolf, Roxanne's still holding onto that last glimmer of consciousness.. Eyes cracked open, and watching silently as I wander about the website.. I doubt she can even make out what she's looking at, since she's still on my shoulder, and I doubt she has the brainpower left to correct the orientation of the screen in her mind.

...

Deciding that I've been on the laptop long enough anyway, I throw away the fear of reciprocation from the wolf and silently close the lid. Darkness envelopes the room, but my eyes had already partially adjusted by then.

Interestingly, it seems like that's all I had to do all along.. I gave Roxanne a few seconds to react, but all I see when I turn around is that her eyes had finally closed..

...

I decide not to move immediately and instead sit in the dark for a while. Wanna wait to make sure Roxanne's fully unconscious when I move to leave, so there's no risk of jarring her back awake.

...

..I don't-.. I don't really get it.. There's a lot of things I don't get as of late, but Roxanne's still just one big mystery.. I don't know why she acts the way she does around me, but it's welcome..

...

Bet she'll be excited that her raceway's gonna have that weird rule lifted tomorrow.

Kinda torn on whether or not now was the greatest time to remove it, now that the customer count is decreasing.. Guess it'd be pretty sucky of me to intentionally keep that rule there for the sake of making things easier to explain, though.

...

I lift my head a bit, getting a look at the rest of the wolf.

..Accidentally spent the entire day with you again.. Have to remind myself that I work here from time to time..

Mm. Hope I'm not getting her face dirty from letting her do this.. That is the shoulder that got bitten, and there are plenty of holes where the teeth sank in where blood might be able to poke through and get on her cheek..

...

..Sometimes I envy the other me..

I know that's random, but.. This scene gets me thinking..

It's kind of weird how, if I'm right about regarding the doppelganger in my dream being some weird part of me, I'm just a part that's envious of the other.. You'd think I'd have nothing to envy, since we both make up one 'me', but I do..

That was the me that could get things done.. That was the me that had purpose.. The me that could surpass any hurdle, including death, to accomplish what I desire..

I'm not so sure I could do that anymore, and that makes me a little envious.. There are still things I have to work towards, but I don't have that part of me that knows exactly what to do and executes without a hitch to help me out..

I was a little ashamed to admit it back then, but whenever we stared at each other.. I could feel a little bit of that envy reach my gaze..

That's the Mike who can do anything, and I'm not entirely him anymore.. I wanted to be like that again when I looked at him, because he could do anything..

..That got me thinking though.. Is that really the Mike that can do 'anything'?

Is there something I can do that he can't..? All my passion and purpose went with him when we split, so how could there be anything I can do that's beyond his capability? If there is something he can't do, what could it possibly be?

...

..Can he do this..?

If I handed him the reigns, would he be able to reach the point where I am? Could he sacrifice so much and get this close with Roxanne? With any of my friends..?

It might be a struggle sometimes, but 'I' can maintain this relationship I have with everybody; and not only that, but prompt it to grow further..

Could he..?

..Since we split, all I've ever wanted was to be more like him again.. Passionate, purposeful, strong.. An unbreakable iron will resonates in his heart with every beat.. But what does he want..?

What is it I wanted while I was chasing my father? I had that passion, that purpose, that strength, that will; all the things that I want now.. But I certainly don't remember being very 'happy' back then.. So if all that wasn't enough to fill my heart, what is it I wanted..?

..I wanted it to be over..

I wanted my father to be dead and out of the picture, and to live in a world without him or his horrible creations.. I wanted nothing more than my story to end, and to live a life that had nothing to do with despair my father brought down on countless families..

...

..More than anything in the world.. I wanted to make it so I didn't have a purpose anymore..

...

..So now, looking back to my dream with him, I can recall a detail I missed the first time..

Every time we bumped into each other, I stared at him.. I stared at him, envious of what he was..

..And he stared back, envious of what I had..

...

How's that for a cruel joke?

I split into two parts, and each part wants nothing more than to be the other.

NOTES (Bottom edition (Don't act like you're not impressed))

Heya.

So, might've unintentionally upped the standard for how long I like my chapters to be. This one ended up over 20,000 words, making the third longest chapter, and it isn't even all that special.

All that's to say: Schedule may grow even more inconsistent, with the trade-off that each chapter is ridonkulously long.

As of writing this, I think it's been just under two weeks since I posted chapter 35..? The wait this time might have been anomalously long for this chapter in specific for a couple reasons, though. First, I took a few days of break (which was phenomenal, by the way!), and second: I haven't gotten sick in over a year, but immediately after posting chapter 35, got sick *twice* in quick succession. Neither of them were serious, and I got over each of them in a day, but I still went those days without writing.

Arrrrrrrright, anyway!

THANK YOU for all the music suggestions! I've listened to every song you guys have suggested, and played around in every playlist! Can't tell you how much it helps!

As for the chapter!

You can probably tell that things weren't intended to be all that intense this time around, and instead took its time in letting the dust settle from last chapter. The entire play-fighting portion wasn't planned to be in this chapter at all, but ended up working out as a good series of transitions to things I had no idea how to stick together. (Plus, it was addicting to write out :p. I was VERY close to writing out the second fight they had before deciding that it was probably redundant and wasn't as exciting to read as it was to write. (Actually, let me know your thoughts on that whole thing: Do fight scenes go over well in fanfictions or are they better left out?))

Mkay REDDIT!

A great many new things have been added to the Reddit since the last chapter, first of all. Like, 9 drawings across 5 posts. Most notably!: A piece of fan art! Drawn by our very own UnmitigatedDizazzter! (u/UnmitigatedDizazter if you want to go straight to his account to check it out.)

(I know you and I have talked plenty in the last couple days, but it seriously blew my mind; I can't get over it. Thank you, so much, for the phenomenal gift. It means so much more than you'd think!)

(Also! KnightOfTheLunarRepublic, CheckerWreckerWreckingBall, Dethcat, and Grimmdeals; I posted another reviewer pfp drawings thing with you guys in them, but it's an unfinished/scrapped version of the art. Come check it out if you want, but rest assured I'm gonna draw it again from scratch!)

Alright, so besides the art, I think I'm gonna make the occasional chapter-status post on the Reddit from time to time. Just so that, if a chapter's been taking forever to come out, anyone can poke their head in and see how much longer it's gonna be. (Thanks for the suggestion, Obamaisprettyepic2277! Super glad you enjoyed the chapter!)

I don't know how some of y'all managed to read that last chapter in one day, and some people in one session. You guys are superhuman, and I bow in awe of your power.

Uh.

...

There's something else I wanted to say, but can't remember.

Here's a funky little story for you while I try to recall:

I was talking with someone earlier and mentioned something I thought you guys might find interesting. This fanfic was very, very close to being a FNAF 1 fic. Like, I had even written the first two chapters before deciding to scrap it entirely and do this story instead. Eventually decided against it because I just couldn't make it original enough to be interesting. There are so many FNAF 1 fics out there, and a LOT of really good ones at that. I can't remember which fic I based it off of, but the story started with an intruder breaking in and getting a hit in on Foxy before the night-guard is able to stop them; which ends up breaking Foxy's voice box, making 'HER' mute. The night-guard attempts to fix the utterly horrified fox, which warrants the animatronics deciding not to attack him anymore, ect ect. The whole story was basically gonna be about a mute Fox following the night-guard around everywhere until he's able to fix her. Even writing about it now, I enjoy the concept, but there were a lot of hitches that made it difficult to work with. That, and I eventually decided I wanted my favorite FNAF character to exist in the story somewhere: Michael Afton.

(Fun fact: The night-guard and protagonist of that fic was named "Trudge". Oooooooooooooo)

Alright, somehow that worked, and I remember what it is I wanted to say.

I've been really meaning for the other characters outside of Mike and Rox to play a bigger part in these last couple chapters, but things kept getting in the way, and we've basically had two exclusively-Roxanne chapters in a row.

...

Here's a little secret to make up for it, though.

If I stick to my current plan, Monty is going to play a COLOSSAL part of chapter 40.

And chapter 40

Is titled "Doomsday"

(Spooky ghost sounds) (Bones rattling) (Owls hooting) (Wind howling) (The first four notes of Megalovania) (The fifth note of Megalovania)

Arright.

I'm losing it. Need to stop writing and actually post this damn thing before I go insane.

Ooh- here's ANOTHER fun fact, though: Every significant/plot heavy chapter's title has the word "Day" in it. (10: Day) (20: Holiday) (30: Workday) (35: Birthday)

(This was not intentional 'till chapter 30)

Lastly, I've proofread this chapter in segments, but I have yet to read through it all at once and thoroughly proofread it that way. So if days come and pass, and you notice this chapter is slightly different in the future, that just means I did a little editing :D

Alright, time for bed.

See y'all in a bit!

Zerutso

u/ExtremeAd2591

u/jh1021111

Dethcat (You should see the pizza this guy makes.)

And, of course: UnmitigatedDizazzter

It's been amazing to talk to y'all these last couple days. I can't express how much of a pleasure it's been, and even less how much it means to me.

Dethcat, I could talk with you forever.

Dizazzter, I will never get over the fan-art you sent me. Not in a million years.

jh102, thank you for the music and the kind words! ExtremeAd, thank you for the support with my 'art'!

Zerutso, you've been here since the beginning, and I'm dragging you along with me until we reach the end. Always a pleasure to see you sent me something!

Love you all, and I'll see you in the not-too-distant future!

~ a Particularly Large Rat