Michael Afton: Outlived Purpose

by ParticularlyLargeRat

THIS STORY IS GETTING COMPLETELY REMASTERED AFTER CHAPTER 50; IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THIS FIC, I RECOMMEND WAITING UNTIL THAT HAPPENS IF YOU WANNA READ AN ACTUAL QUALITY FIRST 20 CHAPTERS! -.-.- Michael Afton survives the Pizzeria Simulator fire and applies to the Pizzaplex when it opens to free what souls might be trapped there. There aren't any, and the animatronic gang grows on him

37. Chapter 37

POSSIBLY IMPORTANT NOTES (First section is important, but you can skip everything after the -._.-._.- if you're not interested.)

(Tons of new stuff on the Reddit, by the way. Like, 15 drawings. {u/ParticularlyLargeRat} I haven't been home these last few days, so unfortunately it's all sketchbook stuff. A couple of them are of THIS chapter though, and some reviewer drawings. (CheckerWreckerWreckingBall, Dethcat, Slender, and UnmitigatedDizazter are included in them if I remember right. ALSO, a drawing inspired by something Silverleone thought up) So that's cool, if you're into that sort of thing.)

(Oh gimmie stuff to draw, btw. Literally anything, story related or not. Constantly need more practice and never really know what you guys wanna see, so I solemnly swear that if you give me an idea of something to draw, I'll draw it. Within the day, probably. :D )

Heya.

Ridiculous notes section. Like, a couple thousand words. Before I get into it, I thought I'd at least tell you what it's about in case you're not interested.

It's mostly a collection of things in the original FNAF lore that have been altered in some way for/during this fic. If you are familiar with the story behind FNAF, I'd like to recommend you give it a read; just so you know which parts of this fic that differentiate from official lore are intentional and which parts aren't. If you don't know the lore that well, than it probably won't make a difference, so feel free to skip ahead to the actual chapter. (There's a full size chapter waiting for y'all at the end of these notes, I promise :P )

There are also a few small fic related things, like what Mike's age is in this story and a couple misconceptions I had, but most of the notes are what I just explained.

(Even if you're not interested in the lore, you might want to poke your head in for the section about Mike's age (Which is marked as the 9th item in the list in the notes further down). It might be referenced in as a plot point in the future, and I don't wanna leave anyone in the dark when it happens.)

Alright you've been warned. Rat tangent incoming.

-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-

_.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._

Okay, you're locked in now. You're in for the long run. Buckle up bucko, this rat's about to take you for a ride.

So recently I got a thorough refresher on what the current lore of the FNAF series is. Obviously, I haven't stayed 100% true to the lore over the course of the fic, but have been trying my best not to stray from it too far.

Buuut, there were two misconceptions I had that bled into the story a little while back. Individually, those misconceptions *would* have caused a couple unexplainable contradictions, but miraculously, two wrongs ended up making a right.

(I should mention that there's a ton of small things in this story that don't line up with the actual lore, but these two issues in particular could have caused a problem, so stood out to me a little more. Ultimately what I wanted to do when creating this fic was create a universe where the FNAF story really did end with Pizzeria Sim, and whatever story created in this fic is a result of the lingering effects of Mike's history rather than William still running around and causing issues. Because of that, I wanted to avoid straying from the canon lore of FNAF, because often referring back to that is what (partially) make this story interesting.)

BOTH of the misconceptions were regarding FNAF 2 in particular. I'll admit I've always been a little unclear on what all the lore was regarding that game in specific, so it doesn't surprise me that I made a couple mistakes.

The first misconception is that: I was under the impression that Michael never worked at the FNAF 2 pizzeria. Apparently, (while not totally confirmed), it's commonly accepted headcanon that Mike worked as a night-guard there under the name Fritz.

The second misconception is that: I didn't think the toy animatronics were possessed. Just recently learned, however, that there are *two* cases of several children going missing. One in '83 for the main cast, and one in '85 for the toys. I had mistakenly believed that the only reason the toy animatronics attacked the night-guard was because William tampered with their facial recognition systems to make each animatronic see every adult as a criminal.

Here's the funny thing about all that, though.

If I had known the first thing and not the second, it would have made no sense for Michael to go to the FNAF 2 pizzeria because there weren't any spirits to free.

If I had known the second thing and not the first, it would have left a huuuge plothole, since there'd be no explanation as to why the toy animatronics got their spirits free'd if Mike hadn't gone there to do it himself.

The fact that I didn't know either of these things, however, worked out..?

Me not knowing the toys were possessed gave Mike no reason to go there, and me not knowing that Mike went there means he didn't.

Soooo.

This wasn't really intentional, but I guess this part of the lore for this fanfic that differentiates from the actual lore that: Michael never worked at the FNAF 2 pizzeria because there weren't any spirits to free. Faulty facial recognition due to William's tampering is the current reason behind the toy animatronic's night-time attacks, peculiar behavior during the day, and (I guess) the bite of 87'.. There's more on that later.

Didn't mean to get either of those two things wrong, but somehow, it worked out. Look at me go.

(This logic ONLY works for the toy animatronics, I should mention. Think the old withered animatronics were possessed by the time the events of FNAF 2 rolled around. Don't really have a phenomenal reason regarding why Mike didn't go and deal with the old bots there, but he eventually had to go and deal with them in the FNAF 1 pizzeria anyway, so I'm not super worried about it.)

On that note, here's a list of the other (significant/un-elaborated on) things in this fanfic that are different than the official lore (that I can think of at the moment):

1: The order of deaths in the Afton family: Canonically, either William's Wife or Elizabeth dies first (Pretty sure it's the wife), then Evan, then the lovely father-son duo. In this fic, it was changed so that Elizabeth definitely died first, then Evan or Wiliam's wife, and so on.

- -This was also due to another misconception I had, but even after I learned what the actual sequence is, I liked it better this way for the sake of the fic. I'm unclear on 'how' the Wife dies in canon, but in this story, she commits suicide out of grief very shortly after either Elizabeth's or Evan's death. This way, the blows to William's mental state are heavy and in rapid succession.

- - The reason I want it to be like this is so William's motive for murder devolves from 'immoral scientific development' into 'sheer insanity'. Ideally, I'd like the Wife to commit suicide as a result of Evan's death, which was Michael's fault. This way, William's insanity can develop from an unparalleled hatred for Michael.. That's simply because I find this more interesting than something like Willy having a damaged mental state from killing his daughter and indirectly causing his wife's death, and shortly after, Michael kills Evan, which is the straw that breaks the camel's back. To be honest, i just like the idea of William going insane with a truly titanic hatred for Michael, instead of just, like, a 'distaste' for him being in his way.

2: In this fic, the Sister Location bunker is not built below William's(?) house. The idea of this is wild to me, but that's indisputably where it is in the games. In this story however, it's just a location like any other. It's easier to conceive it being discovered and investigated by the authorities this way, and I'd like the concept of 'William's house's bunker' to remain associated to the secret-lab-cellar thing where Mikey got the trinkets and his new arm from.

3: I'm not sure if this will ever be relevant, but: I'd like it if William didn't talk to Evan through his Fredbear plush either. I believe the reason he does so in the games is to contribute towards making Evan terrified of animatronics, so that he won't approach them and die the way Elizabeth did. The reason I think it's unnecessary for this fic is because of the next thing..

4: In this fic, Evan's deathly fear of animatronics doesn't come from William and Michael. Instead, Evan saw what happened to Elizabeth with his own eyes, which is why Evan sees the animatronics as monsters (like the nightmare animatronics in FNAF 4). - -

- - I also like this idea because Evan makes sense to be the only kid Baby fails to notice when counting the amount of children in the room. I guess the headcanon is something like this: Due to Evan's timid nature, Evan takes William's warnings seriously, but worriedly peeks around a corner after failing to convince Elizabeth to stay away from Baby, making him easy for Baby to miss. (Real headcanon hours). I also enjoy this idea because it means Michael torments Evan out of what he believes to be a pre-existing irrational fear of the animatronics, instead of Mike actually developing that fear in Evan himself (with the help of his father). With this in mind.. There's also another change I'm gonna make that I never even considered to be a possibility in official lore before..

5: The nightmare animatronics are nightmares.. Like, that's the change.. Apparently, this isn't the case in the official story..

- - I'm not entirely sure if this is commonly accepted as the official lore, but the medium I learned this from provided multiple pieces of solid evidence to suggest that the events of FNAF 4 don't actually take place in a dream. Apparently, the nightmare animatronics are real robots William built to further develop Evan's deathly fear of animatronics.. - -

- - Before you call me out for nonsense, I promise I didn't know about this until just a little bit ago either. I'll try to remember look for the video I watched explaining the FNAF timeline with proof behind every point they make (Brussel's FNAF timeline video. Thanks to Slender1870 for reccomending it! By far the most helpful fnaf lore vid I've ever watched). I thought it was ridiculous too, but unfortunately, I have seen a little too much evidence supporting it to dismiss it entirely.

- - ...Anyway, those animatronics ARE just figments of Evan's dreams in this fic. It's interesting to think about, but it would leave a gigantic issue of 'what the hell happened to the nightmare animatronics?' That'd potentially make for a really interesting portion of a fanfiction, but like I've already said, I'd prefer if this fic were to occur in a world where the threats of FNAF are already dealt with.

6: Funtime Foxy and Mangle are different animatronics. I'm almost positive they're the same in the official story, but there are a couple small things that would be annoying to work around if it's true in this fic as well.. I'm only making this change because I don't think it would really matter that much whether they're the same or not in this story, so if it's all the same to y'all, I'mma make it so they're different.

7: Mangle wasn't possessed by Susie's dog. Susie still had a dog that died in a car crash, and Willy still used it as mental leverage to lure her to her death, but there's so much jank included with the fact(?) that Mangle's possessed by the spirit of a dog that I just don't want to have to dedicate 20,000 words to working around it at some point. Plus, I'd like to stay true to the change where none of the toy animatronics were possessed.

8: Alright I'm not super clear on what's actually canon, but for the sake of this fic, FNAF 1 happened after Sister Location.. So Michael was already a corpse by the time he started working there. This is only important for the next bit..

9: - -Michael's age. - -

- - WHoooookay.. I did some thinking and talked with a couple people to get their inputs, and I think I've finally made a decision regarding how 'old' Mike is.. The biggest concern I had about this was the age gap between Roxanne and Mike, which is, like.. Pretty much the only reason I worried about it at all.. Canonically, at the end of Pizzeria Simulator, Michael is somewhere around the age of 56, which is both significantly older than how old Roxanne is (obviously) and how old she's 'built' to be..

- - So for a while, I was thinking about making it so that all the events of FNAF happened in a much shorter timeframe. Basically just making it so that there weren't several years (even decades) between games, but long story short, I decided against it.. If I chose to go along with that, I'd have to make the choice to change some major dates in the series, or make it so that this fanfiction takes place multiple decades before modern day. Like, before 2000, even.. I didn't want to do that second thing, and I *REALLY* didn't want to that first thing (I'd basically be changing things like the bite of 83' to be something like the bite of 17', as in 2017, and no one would have appreciated that.)

- - That leads us to the current consensus..: The events of FNAF took place in the same time period as they did officially, which does technically make Michael over 50 years old in this story... However. For the *sake* of the fic, I'm gonna make it so that dying and becoming a corpse ended up thwarting his natural aging process.

- -This next part's a bit of a stretch, but: I'm also thinkin' of making it so that Michael's mental age also halted after dying. Since from that point on, the only thing Mike ever thought or cared about was finding and killing his father, leaving little to no space in his brain to continue developing.. Still not 100% on this, so it might be susceptible to change.

- - There are a few ideas for gimmicks this includes that will effect the flow of this stuff in the future, but TL:DR, I'm going to be working off the assumption that Michael stopped aging altogether after the events of Sister Location.. FNAF 1 still occurred in 1993 (unless there's a contradiction with that that I haven't though of), and Sister Location still happened around the same time.

- - WHICH MEANS:

- - In this fanfiction, Michael is somewhere between the ages of 21-25.

- - (It really isn't all that dramatic, but I've been really struggling with what to do with Mike's age ever since I started writing, so it's dramatic for me at least. :D)

- - The reason I say this is because Michael was 25 during FNAF 1, in 1993. Sister Location happened at a very similar time, but like I said before, it had to have been before FNAF 1 in this fic. So, I'm abusing my rat power to say that there's a grace period 1 to 4 years between FNAF 1 and SL. Almost made it 5, but I want Michael to at least be old enough to drink. (or physically appearing that way, at least.) (Though I doubt Mike would care about the legality of that anyway.. I guess I just wanted both Mike and Rox to be a relatively similar age, while both being over the 'drinking age'.)

- - However. That's just his physical and (roughly his) mental age. Michael is still around 57 or 58 in terms of years he's been in existence in this fic, but stopped aging as a result of remnant/being a corpse.. This is slightly off topic: but I've sneakily been wanting to do things this way, because it works as another reason as to why no one's made the connection between Mike's document and the man himself; because as far as anyone's aware, Michael couldn't have possibly been there at the bite of 83', since he looks twenty years too young. (..This dooeeess, howwevveerr, open up a small logggiicc issuueee~. Sure would suck if it became plot relevant sometime in the future.)

- - Oh beyond that though, I don't know how old to make him specifically.. Maybe I'll leave that up to y'all.. If you guys have any interesting reasons why Michael might be a specific age somewhere between 21 and 25, let me know. I might just agree with you and make it official :D

- - (There might not actually *be* an interesting reason, though. I can't think of one off the top of my head. So, even if it isn't for a specific reason, if you want Mike to be a certain age, lemme know. Maybe just throw a number in there somewhere if you're planning to leave a review ;P)

Alright. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but those are the bigger parts of the lore that have changed for this fic. (Excluding the one's that have already been made obvious, like the current animatronics being a organic/robotic mesh and the FNAF 1 parts & service room.)

...

Welp.

..Nothing else to say, really.. Sorry for making you scroll down this monstrosity.

If there's any other plotholes you notice regarding these changes and the official lore, lemme know! Maybe we'll do some brainstorming together on how to fill that gap!

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

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

Hey!

You survived! Look at you!

{23,394} (Gonna start adding a word count to each 'a these)

Enjoy.

---

- Friendoskeleton -

(Wow. Whoever wrote those notes sure likes to hear himself talk, huh?)

-.-.-

...

- Dunk -

Mm.. Can't imagine that's the sound I was supposed to make..

"Nah- drop that one."

"Drop what..?"

"That fingie."

"Which fingie?"

"Thhee.." Monty trails off, before deciding to put in the effort to lean forward in his seat and point at the finger he's referring to. "That bad boy."

"I thought that's where it was supposed to be."

"Yer' one dot over."

"Oh."

...

"Feels wrong, don't it?"

"It doesn't feel natural, but it feels intentional.."

...

"Whoops." I mutter, somehow managing to miss the last string.

"No- You're doin' it! Chillax, you got it."

...

It took some trial and error, but eventually, a pleasant series of chords emanate from the bass as I pluck the strings.

"Hey. That sounded decent."

"D'aw- why are you so friggin' stiff..! 'Chillax', Mike-a-like, check it out.."

I glance in the gator's direction, noticing shortly after that 'check it out' was referring to 'check out what you sound like when you relax', and I should be hitting the strings again instead of staring up at him like an idiot.

"Didn't think the bass could even 'make' chords.." I mutter, positioning myself again.

" 'Course it can, 's like a guitar."

"Mm. Maybe I just don't hear it often, then.."

"Well we already gotta guitarist and a 'keytar-ist'. Got 'nough of 'em as it is."

It admittedly takes me a second to glean what his point is. Guitars and piano-equivalents are practically used exclusively for their ability to make chords, so I guess making three of the four 'instruments' play a separate chord at any given time would make a song a little cluttered.

...

"Maybe it'd be better if I didn't pluck the strings with this thing.."

"Yer' doin good, still."

I shimmy the instrument to reverse it's orientation.. This is a right-handed bass, so flipping it over's gonna be a little unnatural since the strings are in the reverse order, but it's not like I'll have to fight any muscle memory. Haven't been playing this thing for nearly long enough for that to happen..

"Think it might be a little harmful for the strings to pluck them with my metal hand.."

...

There's a couple seconds of silence, unfortunately suggesting that the gator's thinking about something.

"..I betcha we can find-.. hol' on a sec'." Monty interjects, pushing himself out of his chair.

...

"What's wrong..?"

"What'dya think the chances are of a left-handed bass bein' somewhere 'round here..?" Monty comments quietly, scratching his head and looking around the auditorium as if a bass is gonna materialize somewhere nearby.

...

-hey..

..I started to zone out and try and think of where a left-handed bass could possibly even be, but partway through thinking, I noticed my gaze reflexively move a couple inches.. For seemingly no reason..

The reason that caught my attention is because it reminded me of something Freddy told me a few nights ago.

..About how when I 'zone out' and stare into space, I instinctively try to avoid eye contact, and subconsciously shift my gaze if someone's looking at me..

And I was only staring into the auditorium, so it's not like Monty and I could have made eye contact.. Does that mean there's someone-...?

Curiosity piqued, I turn to look back at where I was staring a moment ago.

...

...

Yeah. Sure enough.

Endoskeletons..

A small group of three, I think.

Huh..

I mean- it's not rare to find one around every now and again, but they usually prefer to chill in their little area. When they do come out, the auditorium isn't typically their destination, so this is a neat little phenomenon.

They 'were' all turned in our direction, but kinda twisted to look at each other as soon as Monty finished his sentence.. It's a little difficult to make out what they're doing from this distance, but there seemed to be a split-second silent conversation they had with each other, as if they're making sure they all acknowledged something.

A couple simple hand gestures are shared between them (presumably because of their lack of ability to speak), and two of them begin to casually walk off from whence they came. Once again, they're pretty far away, so what the gestures were is still beyond me.

..Much more noticeably, however.. An unusual mannerism for the third endoskeleton..

As the other two started to move, the last one doubled back with an extremely quick and questioning glance in our direction, before looking back at the tiny crew it walked in with and realizing that they're leaving.

The third one perks when it realizes this, then quickly shimmies along after it's friends.

..Huh.. There was a lot of personality in that one.. That's the first time I've seen an endo be even remotely uncertain about something.. Usually they decide their next move with utmost confidence, and execute fluidly.. Y'know, Robotically..

...

Y'know what? Maybe I shouldn't be concerning myself with the mannerisms of an endoskeleton that's been here longer than I have.

I let my gaze lower back to the instrument in my hand.

..They tend to have their shit together more than any other of the bots, so I reckon I can trust them to resolve any outstanding issues they have; or at least trust them to know when to get help if they need it.

...

"Oh- Mont'."

"Ayeep?" The green gator swings around to look at me.

"Sorry, zoned out; don't need a left handed bass, I can manage with this one."

"Weeeell good." He chimes, taking a couple steps to reposition himself back in front of the chair he's dragged up onto the stage with us. " 'Cause I wouldn' know where to find a leftie one anyway..."

"I'd be surprised if there were any in the Pizzaplex. Pretty sure all the company owned bass's are meant to be played by the right-handed gator, so having a left-handed one sitting around would probably be a waste of space." I elaborate, moreso explaining this to myself than to Monty.

"..Well- in ANY case, we got spare righty-tighty ones, so you shouldn' worry about hurtin' one. We can make that one the 'Mikey' bass."

"That's alright. Think I'll play just as well as I was doing before.. However decent 'well' ends up being.." I finish with a mutter, holding the bass in a way that tells Monty I'm ready to strum and hear his judgement.

"Right-handed people 'ssually play better with a righty-tighty one."

I don't think he knows the proper use of 'righty-tighty'.. Or he doesn't care, and likes the way it sounds.. Either way, I'm pretty sure I'm encouraging this behavior by continuing to understand him.

"I'd imagine so..?"

..The two of us look at each other with a blank stare, not entirely sure what the other's point is..

"..Ooooooooh~! You're one of 'em lefty's then, huh?"

Way to make it sound like a slur.

"I'm both."

"Both hands?"

"Yeah."

There's a detail I don't mention often.. Pretty sure the last time I even thought about that was back when my right arm got severed..

In case anyone's forgotten, I'm ambidextrous, and the story behind it isn't that interesting.. There was a small gap of time between my pizzeria burning down and getting the job at the Pizzaplex where I didn't have much to do. I lived off the money my father had saved up from the various Freddy's location, which lasted me quite a while, and during that time, uhm.. Not much went down.. Spent most of my days scrounging every piece of news I could get my hands on to see if it had some relation to my father. None of it did, obviously. I just couldn't come to terms with the fact that everything was really over, so I kept scouring.

As passionate as I still was about that whole ordeal, I couldn't spend every minute of my waking life staring at the news on the TV or on my phone. So when I really, really couldn't take staring at a screen anymore, I practiced a bunch of random BS that I thought *could* give me a better chance at dealing with whatever I needed to deal with next. Shamefully, nothing came of most of my efforts, but there was one thing that I had a little bit of help achieving.

I might have survived the fire of my pizzeria, but that certainly doesn't mean I didn't get damaged enough to damn-near join everyone else in death.. It may be a little hard to believe, but I was in worse condition after the fire than when Ennard ejected from my body.. Don't feel the need to divulge detailed imagery of my condition, but for reference: I was barely holding together, literally. It's a miracle none of my significant limbs didn't up and fall off, because a lot of me did..

Anyway- the point of all that is to say; I was in super bad condition. But comparatively, my left arm was in better shape than my right arm was by a considerable margin. That, combined with the desire to improve in what little menial ways I could, I was able to become left handed until my right arm healed up enough to become usable again.

..I'm sure I am a little better with one hand than the other, but it's so close that it couldn't possibly matter.. Besides, no one else seems to have fully caught on to how magical this new arm of mine is. Remnant secured it to me so effectively that sometimes I forget I even lost an arm at all, so it's not like my right hand is inhibiting or harder to use in any way.

...

..Somewhat off topic, but this has been on my mind for a while..:

Remnant's done an unbelievable job of patching me up.. With each month that passes, my outward appearance reflects being a corpse less and less. It still has a ways to go, but how much it's already done is nothing short of incredible.. For reference: keep in mind that I was scooped, so I lost almost all of my organs. But, I have them now; new(?) ones. To be fair, several of them still aren't up and running yet, but they exist. Even my ribs grew back, which shouldn't have been possible whatsoever.. Not to mention my skin's been returning to a normal color, enough for Freddy to notice..

..So with all remnant has done so far, it's kind of weird how the giant-ass scar going up my body hasn't been given much attention..

It's a little bit better than when I got it, but it's like only the bare minimum has been done.. I had to haphazardly 'stitch' myself closed, which didn't require much elegance back then since all I really cared about was it's appearance, but remnant's taken care to heal it enough so that the scar naturally stays closed.. As soon as it did that, however, all progress had completely halted.

Haven't been able to think of a reason behind that, but I've also convinced myself that whatever the reason is, it probably doesn't matter.. It's not like whether it heals up the rest of the way or not makes any difference, other than 'looking weird'.. Maybe it has something to do with being the site of the scooper's 'remnant injection'.. Don't know why the hell that would matter, so that could be BS, but it's the only thing that makes that the scar any different than the rest of the injuries on my body.

...

..I'm here to play the bass with Monty.

Y'know what, as much as that sentence was supposed to serve as a reminder to hop back into the real world, this scenario I'm in seems just as wildly unlikely as becoming a slowly-healing magic zombie.

...

"Where am I supposed to hold this thing?"

"Same dots, just different hand. 'Member to strum in the opposite direction."

"Are the dots called something, or are they just 'dots'..?" I ask, bemusedly staring down the various circles scattered seemingly at random down the neck of the bass.

"Frets!"

"..Oh, really?"

"Ayup!"

"Thought those were the, uh..." I slowly trail off, not wanting to sound stupid. "..What are the lines called, then?"

"Frets! Oh."

"That's-, what I thought.. Are they-?"

"Fret markers 're the dots, my bad."

Can't believe I was afraid of sounding stupid in front of this guy.

"Okay.. Are there ways of distinguishing them from one another? Like, is this dot called something different th-"

"Man- you're both-handed?"

Mkay..

"..Yeah?"

"I didn' know people could do that.." Monty puts his hands behind his head and stares up into space.

"Not many people do. It's not very pleasant to learn.." I mumble, giving my remaining fleshy arm a once-over.

"Mkay- so you gots ta' learn it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like.. It ain't something that can happen normal? Like right hand 'r left hand?"

Right or left hand dominant, gator.. I know I suck at talking to people, and I'm the last person who should be judging others on their speaking ability, but accidentally leaving entire words out of a sentence isn't something anybody does often..

"Uhmm.. I'm not sure.." I mutter, staring off into space as well. "..It can probably happen naturally, but it has to be rare.."

"How'd you learn?"

"I don't have an answer that I'm proud of."

"Well nows I wanna hear even more."

"I.. Didn't have anything better to do..? There's a break I took in between working at my last job and applying here, so there were a few pointless things I taught myself."

"D'aw- it ain't pointless! Look-, it's payin' off right now!"

"Mm.." I hum in acknowledgement, looking at my arm again. "Yep.. Now I'll never have to hurt another instrument ever again.."

"That's the spirit."

I was being sarcastic.

"..Here, I'm gonna play again."

"..."

"..Sound good..?"

Still need you to judge if I'm doing anything wrong, gator-golf.

"Mont'.."

..I didn't say that, that was Monty himself.

"..Mont?"

"Ya' called me that a second ago. Can't believe someone managed to shortn' my name anymore than it is."

"Oh.. Sorry, yeah. Sometimes I refer to you like that to Rox, or whoever I'm talking to.. Humans have an affinity at finding ways to be as lazy as possible, and behold, I've discovered a way to remove a single syllable from your name." I elaborate with a touch of sarcasm, nonchalantly fendagaling with the bass.

"Hehehh.. Meesa like nicknames.." Monty mutters insanely, staring off into space even with an even dumber grin.

"..Mm.." I hum, taken a little off guard by the Star Wars reference.. Who taught you to say 'meesa'..?

...

Deciding it would probably take less effort to just try playing instead of attempting to get the gator to listen, I let my fingers slide around a bit, and play what little I've learned during this spontaneous crash-course I've had with Monty.

...

"Thar ya go!"

" 'Thar' ?"

"Didn' that feel good?" Monty proudly glances towards me, though still facing his chair off the stage into where the crowd would stand.

"Well yeah. I played it right this time."

"Yer' a little prodigy."

"I am neither little nor a prodigy."

..Suppose I'm a little small compared to this beast of a gator next to me.. Can't believe they decided to give this guy such a manly exterior, then throw the most goofy, non-confrontational face and personality onto him as well.

"Yer' a 'little bit' of a prodigy."

"..I suppose I wouldn't know whether or not that's true."

"Aw! Butcha learned so quick..!"

"How long have we been doing this..?"

"Like, 'n hour."

Dunno why I asked that.. Still don't have a reference on if that's good or not..

"..An hour, huh?" I ask, curiously glancing in the direction of my watch. "..Can't believe I've managed to stay in your vicinity for this long."

Monty responds with a mischievous chuckle, turning back to look out at the empty auditorium.

"Montgomery Gator's decided to go a lil' easy on ya tonight."

...

"..Why are you so mellow, out of curiosity..?"

That question may or may not have actually been out of curiosity. Last time the gator was this relaxed was Christmas, in the dark..

"Feelin' chill. Been 'uber slow these last couple nights, so there ain't been much energy sent back to us by the guests." Monty elaborates, unfolding the hands behind his head to form an exaggerated shrug. "Fine 's far 's I'm concerned. Couple slow days never killed 'nobody."

I nonchalantly continue to mess with the bass, but I can feel a shallow pit swirl around somewhere deep in my stomach.

..I'm still a little disappointed in myself for continuing to keep secrets from everyone, even after everything we've been through.. But, I still can't bring myself to explain why people are slowly starting to stop coming to the Pizzaplex, since doing so would mean I have to elaborate on Cooper's wild decisions, which would further mean that I have to dump quite a bit on the animatronics that still don't know about the 'rumors' surrounding Freddy's.. I know keeping secrets is dangerous, but no matter how hard I try, I just can't think of a scenario in which informing someone like Monty of all the bloodshed and tragedy that he himself is partially a product of would go very well..

Monty loves everyone and everything, and has an odd but fierce sense of justice. What would telling him that 'dozens of people, some of which were children, were brutally and occasionally 'painfully' murdered in the same franchise you've put so much effort towards keeping wholesome' do for him..? He's got that weird thing going on with the purple vision clouding his senses, but other than that, Monty's still got an air of innocence around him..

...

"Mm.." Is the best response I'm able to offer.

...

Deciding I'm not really in the mindset to 'learn an instrument' right now, I uncross my legs and delicately start to make my way to a stand.

"You can have this back. Think I've learned all I'm willing to learn tonight."

Only tilting his head halfway in my direction, Monty reaches back until I place the neck of the bass in his palm.

"Ya'd make a good bassist."

"I'll have to trust you on that."

"Got the look of one arright." Monty continues, fitting the bass firmly in his lap.

"I'll.. Have to trust you on that.."

"Mikey-Mont bass team?"

"What?"

"Monty-Mike bass team."

"..What?"

"Maybe we could, d'uhhhh..." Monty trails off, setting the bass up to continue playing whatever comes to mind, like what he was doing when I found him in here. "We oughta' name our jig with somethin' 'bout how our names start with M."

"..Our jig-? I currently have one hour of Bass experience to my name."

"Don't gotta brag."

..I want to say he's kidding..

...

After a few seconds of glaring at the back of his head, the gator begins playing, and the auditorium's filled with the soothing sound of an actually decent bass player.

..Sigh..

My gaze shifts a few degrees to stare into the empty auditori1um.

..I'm done playing the bass, but there's not really anything else I was hoping to do tonight..

...

Welp.

I take a couple steps forward, positioning myself parallel to the chair Monty dragged up onto the stage before lowering to a sit again.

..Even if the reason behind it is a little unsettling, Monty's rarely ever this chill, so I'll enjoy it while I can..

...

"Where's yer' wolf friend?" Monty asks over his music, closest to 'conversation volume' I've ever heard him speak.

"Her room, as far as I'm aware." I respond with just as little energy, crossing my legs.

"Startin' to get tricky to catch either of ya' by 'yerselves." He continues, gaze locked on his instrument.

"Not entirely sure what her deal is, but yeah.." I confirm with an amused huff. "..It's not that I don't like Rox's company, but she really doesn't need to get up and follow me everywhere I go.."

"D'aw. That's a little endearin' though, ain't it?"

"It is. I don't mind it, actually.. But I'm not exaggerating when I say 'everywhere'."

"Gimmie 'xample."

"Roxanne's followed me to my car a couple times.. Usually I don't even notice until I get most of the way out there. She fervently acts like there's nothing weird about what she's doing when I bring it up, though. Even while visibly shivering from the cold.."

The gator responds with a quiet chortle.

" 's it still cold ousside?"

"Sometimes. Only at night, though; and it's never less than forty degrees. Rox just hates the cold in particular."

"Ain' she got a fur coat?"

"Yep."

"That don't do nothin' fer her?"

"I don't know; evidently not much."

"Mm." Monty hums in acknowledgement, which is rare. "I dunno' enough to tell ya' if forty's cold 'r not."

"It'll make you feel cold if you stand outside long enough.. It's not unthinkable to go on a walk in that weather though, provided you bring a hoodie or something.."

"D'ya like the cold?"

"..Not particularly..? I don't dislike it.. I prefer it over heat, though. I start to get sluggish when it's warm." I elaborate, pretty much running through the thought process out loud so both of us can hear my answer.

"Coolio."

Coolio indeed, mega-gator.

...

"Oh-, she's started doing my rounds with me, too." I semi-blurt, recalling another intriguing detail about Roxy's behavior.

"Well that ain' so bad. I do that too sometimes."

"Mm, yeah.. I guess it's just not her personality to go on walks around the building, so it stands out a little more."

"Does she help ya' do the work?"

"Do 'you' ?"

"I'm there fer' keepin' spirits up when I go with ya'."

Certainly doesn't seem that way when you're cowering behind me while in the endoskeleton corridors.

"Mm. Roxy does make it a little more enjoyable, I guess.. Maybe an emotional support animatronic should be standard for my lap around the Pizzaplex." I conclude, reaching up to rub one of my eyes.

Monty breathily chuckles, warily cocking a brow whilst continuing to stare ahead.

"Didn' think the wolf was much good at 'supportin' emotions.."

"Yeah?"

"Sometimes she can be a lil' mean to the day guys."

"I've heard. I've seen, actually.. Demonstrated her magical ability to get anything she wants from anyone to me back on new-years.."

"..Roxanne doesn' seem easy to be friends with, if I'm bein' honest.." Monty continues, voice lowered a bit.

"Mm.. You have a bad experience with her recently?" I ask, a little amused.

"Mmwell-.." Monty mutters, scratching the back of his head. "Mighta earned it this time 'round. Had some stuff t'say 'bout the, uh.. Lighter.."

In contrast to Monty's guilty confession, I respond with a chuckle.

"I see. Rox didn't let me off easy either." I reply lightly, snickering at the thought of Roxanne cursing the Gator out for burning her.

"..Does she yell at you alot? It's a little scary when she yells.."

It's like talking to a bodybuilder with the mental strength of a toddler.

"I get my fair share. Roxanne's got a good voice for yelling at people."

"..Wish she wouldn' do that.."

"What else is she supposed to do?"

"Well- I arready felt bad 'bout it..!" Monty defends, strumming the bass absent-mindedly. "Bein' loud doesn' make it any better. Coulda just talked t'me and I woulda understood.."

"Mm.." I hum, leaning back to support myself with my hands. "..Think I prefer it when she get's angry, actually.."

"..Instead 'a just talkin'?"

"I don't think talking would get it all out of her system, is what I mean. Roxy can get intense when it comes to 'payback' for whatever you did to upset her, but that inadvertently means she doesn't bottle up all the things she wants to say to you, and instead lets it all out in one burst."

"...Uhhmm.. I think-.." Monty cuts himself off, letting his head fall back to continue thinking of a response. "..I 'unno.. I think I'd rather she restrain 'erself a little.."

"I understand. Don't know if I got my point across though.. One of these days I've gotta get better at talking.."

"Well- if Roxy don' hold back a little, she might say stuff she don' mean, y'know?"

I feel my gaze slowly lift upwards as well.

"..I think my point is that she doesn't hold grudges, which I admire.." I pause for a second, before taking the silence as a sign to continue. "Rox has said stuff she didn't mean in the past, but once you realize she doesn't mean what she's saying, it gets a lot easier to bare.. But still, it's reassuring to know that Roxanne doesn't secretly hate me for something, because I know if I do something she doesn't like, she'll let me know immediately."

...

Monty's gotten so lost in thought that his strumming of different notes has devolved to plucking one string periodically while he thinks.

...

"Huh.." Is the response I receive to my monologue.

"Here, just think about like.. Would you rather Roxanne scream at you like she did, then forget all about it? Or would you rather Rox go easy on you, but still hate you for what you did for however long it takes for her to get over it?"

...

"..Arright, 'guess I get it.." Monty mumbles, slowly managing to drag himself back into the real world. "I don' want her to still be upset with me, so.."

"I don't mean you should feel bad for preferring Rox to not yell at you; that's just a preference. You can't be right or wrong there.." I continue, deciding to rest my eyes while I sit. "..Just providing my input, I guess.."

"Well.. Still, I don' like the idea of Rox still hatin' me for- Roxy, I mean. Sorry.. But I don' like the idea of Roxy still thinkin' mean stuff about me still, so I guess I'd rather let 'er get it all out of 'er system.."

"..Okay.. Why'd you correct her name..?" I ask, following a small period of silence.

" 'Unno your opinion on it."

"Oh her name..?"

"Well- I jus' mean she still hates it when people call 'er 'Rox' instead 'a 'Roxy'."

"Still?" I huff.

"Ayup. Can' even sneak it by her. Catches is every single time.." Monty continues, nervously chucking and fiddling with a string.

"Huh.. Well- I don't care what you call her, first of all. Pretty sure Roxanne's the only one who still cares about that kind of thing."

It's not like I have any more authority over what people call her than you do, gator-green.

"She don' care if it's you, though. That's the funny bit."

"Yeah. Think that means is that I've grown on her a little."

"Dunno how y'did that either."

"Mm.. Rox made it sound like she intentionally tried to avoid getting close to anyone, including you guys. Don't know if she's gotten over that yet."

"Ooohh, so.. She's doin' it on purpose?" Monty asks with his head tilted in my direction, curiosity piqued.

"It might just be an old habit. She told me that being the 'best' to everyone meant not choosing favorites, or something like that."

"Roxy said that?"

"Roughly.. Don't think that was the point she was trying to make, with her ego and all; but I was able to glean that explanation from what she told me."

"Didn' think those words were capable of comin' out of 'er mouth." Monty snickers under her breath.

"Mhm.."

"Sorry, maybe that was a lil' rude.. She's still part of the family and all.."

...

...

...

"Monty, you-.." A sentence begins, but gets caught in my throat.

"...Whussup?"

...

...

"..Monty, it's okay if you don't like Roxanne."

"..Wh-.. 'course I like her..!" Monty quickly defends, turning over his shoulder to look at me. "We're the 'gang', Mike-a-Like."

"I know, but I doubt that was up to you in the first place." I respond, putting in effort to keep things as casual as possible. "..No matter how I look at it, your personality just doesn't mix with Roxanne's.. Maybe you do like her, I don't know; all I'm saying is that neither of you are wrong for being the way you are, even if those 'ways' don't match up very well."

"Mike, I don' got a problem with Roxy."

I chuckle a bit, staring out into the empty auditorium.

"That's just plain untrue. Even good friends have problems with one another."

"Aw- Mike, I don't-.."

"You dislike how confrontational she is, and how hard she makes it for people to approach her. Roxanne's blunt, has a habit of thinking herself above/below people, and doesn't miss a beat when it comes to making known what she doesn't like in others." I shift my weight to my left arm, lazily pointing a finger up to the gator. "You avoid confrontations if at all possible, and stop at nothing to make yourself as approachable as someone could conceivably get. You tend to only talk about things you 'do' like, think of everyone as equals, and almost never point out possible faults in others.. You see what I mean?"

Guess I hadn't really thought about this until the words had left my mouth, but him and Rox are damn-near opposites.. That might have been an intentional design to help contribute to the contrast between each member of the gang.

"Well-, that's just cause she's mean sometimes, y'know..?!" Monty exasperates, falling back in his chair and lifting his arms briefly. "..I mean-.. I get it if someone don' get along with someone else 'cause they think different, but I don' think Roxy is-.."

..A seemingly random brief silence follows, as if Monty prevented himself from dedicating to whatever he was going to say.. Not about to let anything be unsaid, I take a moment to replay his sentence in my head and deduce what the gator was likely trying to get at from there.

...

"..You don't always think what Roxanne's doing is 'different', but plain 'wrong'. " I finish for him.

"Awwuh- well that sounds bad.." Monty mutters, falling back and thinking in his chair for a few seconds. "..I 'unno, maybe that's right.. Roxy can be as different as she wants, but that don't excuse bein' mean.. If 'yer mean, that's a problem.."

...

I take a few seconds to think as well, but fail to come up with any definitive ways to connect what Monty thinks with what I think.

...

...

"..Mm.. We might just have to disagree on that, then.." I conclude lightly, falling back on my arms and staring into space.

"What if Roxy hurts somebody's feelin's 'cause she's tryin' to be mean?"

"She has, more than once.. I get why that's upsetting to think about, and I don't really know what to say to justify it, but I don't know if what Roxy does is inherently a bad thing."

..Monty clearly wants to say more, but is stuck staring at the ground in front of his chair..

...

"Mike, I 'unno.. That really sounds bad.."

"..I'm not the smartest when it comes to how people 'should be', so don't take anything I say personally, but I think the 'ideal person' would have a personality split evenly between yours and Roxanne's."

"One nice and one mean?"

"No-, not.." ..I pause for a second before sighing. "..I don't think either of you do what you do for the sake of being 'nice' or 'mean', but rather have an objective for how you want to act, then try to reach that objective through actions that could be interpreted as 'nice' or 'mean', if that makes any sense.."

It doesn't. That was an atrocious sentence.

"..."

Monty's silence seems to agree that I'm an idiot.. I'm either gonna make this better or infinitely worse by trying to elaborate, but here we go..

"..Here-, for example: You think a healthy state of mind comes from a happy one, so everything you do is for the sake of lifting spirits. Even if you think something someone is doing is 'wrong', you keep it to yourself in the interest of not wanting to make people unhappy, as making people unhappy would stray them further from the 'healthy state of mind' you want everyone to have."

...

"..Sure- yeah.." Monty concurs, casually leaning forward in his seat to get a look at me. "And Roxy puttin' people down is pushin' people further away from that mind thing, which.. Which get's annoying, y'know..?"

"I think Roxanne just has a different objective that doesn't work very well with yours.. Roxanne's tendency to make her problems with people known inherently causes some negative emotions, because no one likes being told that the way they do things is bad; but I like to believe most of the things Rox gets upset about are a result of people's actions contradicting with how she believes people 'should' act.."

Hearing myself speak proves how difficult to follow I am, and I let out a sigh over the course of a few seconds before deciding to try and explain another way..

"..The difference between you and her is that: If you see someone doing something bad, you avoid making a big deal out of it in the interest of not wanting to decrease someone's happiness and increase the distance between that person and a 'healthy state of mind'. If Roxanne sees someone doing something bad, she puts in an effort towards preventing them from doing that thing anymore, though usually through potentially aggressive/demeaning means.. But ultimately, I think her objective when she gets upset is to make it so there's one less person doing that bad thing in the world; even if it is at the cost of that person's current happiness."

...

..It takes a second for the explanation to make sense to both of us, but eventually we get there..

"..Oh, ngh, so-.. " Monty mutters, slowly relaxing back into his chair and putting his hands up to his head. "..'Fer the greater good' kinda thing.."

"I like to think so.. Her personality might get in the way of how efficiently she gets that done, I'll admit that much.. But I don't think she's 'bad'."

...

"Ghh.. So I was wrong fer' thinkin' that this whole time, then?" Monty grumbles, which is another odd thing for the gator to do.

"Oh- No, you're fine.. Still, neither of you are wrong, just different, and have a hard time finding common ground." I half-babble in attempt to avoid making the gator feel bad about something he really shouldn't..

"Oh right, yeah.. 'Cause the 'ideal person' would be a mix of us, or somethin'.."

..Mnn.. I know that's what I said, but it doesn't sit with me as well now that we've talked about it a bit more..

"Well.." I start, struggling to get what I feel across. "..Maybe 'ideal' when it comes to problems with people, but that's about it. I'd still very much prefer you two separate."

...

...

"I'mma be honest, Mika-a-like." Monty begins, letting his hands fall to the chair and staring out into the auditorium. "I still dunno.. If Roxy really does got problems with people and wants to fix 'em, that's fine.. Just dunno' if she's right fer' bein' so dang mean about it sometimes.."

"Mm." I hum, staring out in the same direction. "..That might be true then.. I don't know.. Roxanne's ego gets in the way of her better judgement sometimes." I finish with a silent amused huff.

...

"But I still like 'er.." Monty tosses that last point in.

Almost forgot that's how this whole conversation started..

"..You think so?"

"Well- 'course I do.. Sure, sometimes I wish the girl'd do stuff a lil' different from time to time, but I didn' say I hated her 'fer doin' it her way, y'know..?"

"Mm.. I guess so.."

...

With that, a short silence ensues. The two of us have our own things to think about, so it's anything but awkward, but before too long, things start to return to normal. Just as I finish running everything through my head again, the sound of Monty's bass echoes through the auditorium and severs my train of thought a little early.

..Guess it was a little presumptuous of me to think that the difference in character in these two would be enough to warrant a distaste for one another.. Now that I think about it, Monty's demonstrated that he cares for Rox before. Most notably being when everyone was watching the movie that one night, and Monty thought I'd hurt her and nearly begun to lose it the same way I do.

...

..A small weight lifts from my chest, and I lean back to support myself with my hands again.

Neither of them would be 'wrong' for disliking each other.. But I'm admittedly a little glad that isn't the case.. I like every member of the gang, and it'd be a shame if they didn't like each other back.

...

...

I start resting my eyes again while I sit and listen to Monty play, brainstorming anything else I could use as conversation practice with the gator.

...

"..So what'd Rox say to you?" I ask over the sound of the bass.

"Ah.. Nothin' all that bad.. Just really didn' like the way she said it, 's all."

"Was it exclusively about the burn, or did she get carried away?"

"Nothin' too far from it. Why?"

"Just curious." I state casually, adjusting my sitting position. "If Roxy gets really mad, she might get a little personal.. That's the point where she doesn't really mean what she's saying, though; so it's nice to keep that in mind."

"I gotcha. Bet I'd get a little mean if I got real angry too." Monty admits, seemingly improvising notes and chords instead of playing snippets of actual songs like he was before.

"..It's hard to imagine you truly angry, not including when your vision 'glitches' with the purple and all."

"Ahha.. I don' usually get angry back when someone else gets all uppity with me, so it don' happen very often. Most of the time I just try ta' end the conversation at that point." Monty breathily snickers.

"Has it happened before? Like, getting angry naturally?"

"..I don' think so..?" Monty slows his tempo while he thinks. "..Only ever get upset when somebody gets hurt, and that's the whole purple nonsense."

"Mm. That sounds about right. 'Angry' doesn't seem like something that'd come from you without something reeeally important at risk.." I note out loud.

...

A few seconds of listening to the bass pass before it's interrupted with a mischievous chuckle from the gator.

"Rox took off like a bullet after ya' when the burn happened. You get an earful too?"

I'm about to chuckle as well, when my voice gets caught in the back of my throat.

...

..My eyes crack open at the decision I have to make..

Kind of ironic how the conversation went from the gator's abnormal anger situation straight to having to tell him something that might trigger than anger to happen.. Maybe it'd be best to-.. hmm...

...

Y'know what..?

This might be a good chance to see if any progress has been made on that issue.. Besides, I'm here for damage control if things get out of hand.

...

"..Nah, she got all her anger out another way. Managed to make it all the way outside and into the field before we had a little scuffle."

"Ooh, girl was mad mad, huh?" Monty adds with a light wince-grin.

"Yeah. Check this out."

By the time Monty's able to finish the conclusion of his little song, I've already unbuttoned the top two buttons of my (new) shirt and slide off just enough for my entire right shoulder to be visible. An indistinguishable pattern of teeth create a curved design, but as far as I'm aware, none of the teeth sank in deep enough to leave a scar. With any luck, they should completely vanish as soon as I'm healed.

"Woah, Mike." Monty reacts, visibly repulsed.

"Got a shoulder-full instead."

...

I'm admittedly a little apprehensive towards how this all plays out.. But a few seconds of silence pass, and Monty seems to be holding himself together.

...

"..Mike, I'm not 'ntirely sure how 'alright' that is.."

"Did you see the burn on Roxanne's fur?"

"What..?"

Deciding this is enough information to work with, I quickly slide the shirt back on properly.

"The burn reached a bigger area than I thought at first glance.. I know the bite seems bad, but I'd say the bite made us about equal in terms of 'damage we've done to each other'."

...

I hear a hefty breath escape Monty's lungs as he presumably forces himself to be alright with what he saw.

"..Arright... Sheesh- if yer' serious, then it must've been worse than I thought.."

"To be fair, Roxy was mostly upset about the appearance of the burn, so she didn't take any real injury. Told her to run some cold water over it, and she took a cold shower as soon as we made it back to the Pizzaplex. So, I'd say everything's already worked out between the three of us."

"That'd be nice." Monty comments hopefully, turning around to stare ahead of us again. "Whole night turned inta 'a bit of a mess."

"I'm glad it's behind us." I agree, re-buttoning the last button on my shirt.

"Can't believe she didn' give you an earful, though. Pretty sure that's what she's good at." he half-jokes, positioning the bass on his lap.

"Rox doesn't hold grudges, so as soon as I got what I deserved, we jogged out to another part of the field and relaxed for a while."

...

Monty lets his head fall back for a moment, reassuring himself that he can let go of the stress he's held onto for these last couple of nights since the incident took place.

..He took all that surprisingly well.. I know something like this isn't akin to losing an entire arm, but he's almost lost it before he even had the chance to see whether or not there was even an injury to lose it over before.. I'll admit that I haven't been giving Monty's issue the attention it needs, but where the hell do I even start? At least he seems to be making progress getting over it on his own..

..Slightly off topic: I've been debating with myself over whether or not my 'splitting in two' theory regarding the dream I had is actually accurate, and the fact that Monty has a similar issue around 'seeing purple' kind of suggests otherwise.. I had started to theorize that when I 'lost it', that was the 'other Mike' taking over, but knowing Monty goes through something similar doesn't support that idea.. It suggests that there's something in common between us that results in the ability to 'lose it' if a criteria is met, and if that's the case, then my theory would only work if Monty has some mysterious doppleganger in him somewhere as well.. And I reeeeallly don't think that's the case..

..To be honest, I really don't know what to make of that whole situation.. Every possible explanation is supported by several things but contradicted by others, and I really don't know what that means for me. For us, I guess..

...

Another theory is that I'm just imagining the whole thing.

Maybe that dream Mike really didn't exist, and was only there to serve as a representation of something.. Hell, maybe I was just 'dreaming' like normal, and that whole situation really was just a pointless figment of my imagination.. I was under a lot of stress that night, so it's not hard to believe that my brain simply plucked a few things from the flurry of thoughts going through my head at the time and threw them into a normal-ass dream.

Ugh.. But that would mean I still have 'zero' idea what happens to me when I lose it, literally none.. At least with this obscure split-theory, I'm one step closer to understanding a couple things.

...

"Didn'tcha say she follows you everywhere?"

Oh..

Alright.. If I keep randomly zoning out, I might do the unthinkable, and go see a doctor..

"..Roxanne..? Yeah. It's starting to get a little ridiculous, honestly." I respond, closing my eyes and listening to the gator play.

"How'd ya' escape her clutches ta' come here?"

"Roxanne's Raceway had a parental restriction lifted recently, so her attraction's been seeing way more visitors. Relatively, anyway.." I haphazardly throw in that last bit, keeping the declining visitor count in mind.

"...Soooo, what? She lets you leave if she's in a good mood?" Monty asks through an amused exhale.

"It's more like 'I can get away if she's in a good mood'. Pretty sure the huge ego boost coursing through Roxanne's veins is responsible for how much time she's starting to spend in front of her mirror and working on her appearance."

"Really? More than before?"

"It's almost mesmerizing how much detail she puts into everything."

"Mmm I get it. Wolfie lets you do stuff until she's done preppin'."

...

..I almost respond, but I'm halted by the realization that the voice I just heard came from side of me opposite that of the gator's..

Reluctantly cracking my eyes open, I find Trudge sitting cross legged to the left of me, completely immersed in what appears to be two handfuls of grapes in his clutches.

...

"..Where the hell did you come from?"

"Up."

"Up?"

"Uhm-" Trudge extends one of his arms in the direction of the second floor balcony, unable to point due to the sheer amount of grapes in his hand. "That up."

"Which up?"

"That door, on the up."

"..The door on the second floor?"

"Yep."

There is no door on that part of the second floor.

"..Where did you get those?" I ask, narrowing my eyes at the grapes in his hands.

"Chica's places have a lotta fruit."

"They don't have grapes, though.."

"Yeah they do."

"They do?"

"I eat them all."

"You eat them all."

"I eat them all."

...

"Really like grapes, huh?"

"They're okay."

"They're okay?"

"They're okay."

"Just okay?"

"I like other fruits better."

Then why did you grab the fucking grapes?

" 's that mean Roxy's gonna come steal ya' back at some point?" A considerably rougher voice emanates from my right.

..I have to take a moment to think about what Monty and I were talking about a few seconds before this psychopath materialized next to me..

"Oh.. Well, probably, but Rox doesn't usually let me go when she's working on herself either. About loses her mind every time I mention going out to do something."

"Sounds.. borin'.. "

"How'd you get here, then?" Trudge asks, mouth full of grapes.

"Just kinda left.." I mutter, staring forward into the empty auditorium. "Pretty sure she hasn't realized I'm gone yet."

Trudge attempts a mischievous giggle, followed shortly by damn-near suffocating on the sheer amount of grapes in his mouth.

"Girl doesn' notice that you stop responding to her after a while?" Monty asks, curious smirk plastering his face while he inspects a part of his instrument.

"Ego boost made it so I don't even have to respond for her to keep talking." I respond, matching his amused grin.

"Prolly' means she's gonna have a couple ferocious words fer' ya once she notices."

"Don't think she's gonna have much of a case. I'm the night-guard; wandering around is what I do for a living."

"Think she's gon' care?"

"I'd like to believe so.. But no."

"So now what's yer' plan?"

"Wait for her to realize that I'm not in the room anymore, and call her an idiot when she finds me again."

"Sounds like a good way t'earn another bite."

"Maybe I can scare her off with fire."

"Got me lighter?"

"Brought my own."

"Good thinkin'."

"Night-guard has to be prepared, especially since wolf attacks are growing more frequent."

"Reawry?" Trudge's muffled, though unfortunately 'genuinely curious' voice emanates to the left of me.

...

"..Roxanne attacks are growing more frequent.."

"Oh."

"..Do you think there are wolves anywhere in a five-hundred mile radius from here?"

"Not anymore."

Whatever..

"Where's Chica?"

"I 'unno."

"..I can barely find you guys anymore with how often you're together, and now you don't know where she is?"

"Probly' up."

"Up?"

"Up."

"Second floor?"

"That's up."

"There's more than two fl-, Trudge, slow down with the grapes.."

"They're okay."

"Then eat them one at a time, maniac.."

"I like Monty's song."

Jesus Christ..

...

"Yeah.."

I've decided that it's not worth the effort.

...

Feeling defeated by the interaction, I shake my head a little and stare out into the empty auditorium again. Trying to focus on the gator's melody.

..Which is a little more difficult, if someone's loudly eating grapes in your ear..

...

...

"Trudge."

"Sorry."

...

"Thanks."

"I finished 'em anyway."

"..You ate all of them already? Both handfuls?"

"Yuh-huh."

"Trudge, d-.. What? All of the grapes you had when you sat down two minutes ago?"

"They're okay."

...

..This man is a legal adult.

This guy has the same voting power as I do.

...

..You're lucky I've lost interest in politics, otherwise I'd be considerably more upset with this information..

...

...

...

Y'know..

Gotta say, even if these two are the most chaotic individuals you'll ever find in the Pizzaplex, it's pretty nice to sit and chill with them.. I doubt sitting cross-legged in the dark is Trudge's first idea of a good time, but now that he's got the grapes out of his system, he looks pretty content.

..Bass fits the atmosphere pretty well.. I didn't really think so at first, but it's grown on me..

...

At least with this crew, there's no competition to 'come out on top' with every conversation we have, like there is with Rox..

...

...

...

..Kinda wish the wolf was out here too, actually..

...

...

..Um..

..An unusual group of footsteps delicately approach from behind.. The unmistakable sound of metal gives me a fair guess of who/what it is, but not a reason why they'd be up here.

...

I wait a few seconds to make sure the footsteps are, in fact, headed in our direction.. Monty's the last to notice them, but the first to turn around and acknowledge who they are as soon as he hears over the bass. I move to turn around as well, but metal legs weave their way around me to save me the trouble.

It's the endoskeletons. A group of three, so presumably the same ones I saw before.

The silence is somewhat unusual, but, of course, the endos can't talk, and no one else has any idea what's going on, so the silence continues for a moment while the group seemingly communicates with themselves for a second or two.

..Specifically, two of them are gesturing to communicate with the third.. Who quickly perks up upon realizing what it's supposed to be doing and outstretches it's arms..-

-..Holding a left-handed bass out to me.

"Oh-.. Huh.." I reflexively mutter, reaching up to take the instrument.

"Ooh, Hey~! We do gotta lefty..!" Monty chortles, lifting his own bass off of his lap.

"Interesting.. Since you're right handed, and-.." I trail off absent-mindedly, grabbing the bass and holding it a small ways off the ground to look at it.

"Well now you don' got an excuse not to play with your green gator friend."

At no point was 'there's no left handed bass' an excuse I made to stop playing..

...

While that mystery is worth investigating, I'm more intrigued with what the endoskeletons are even doing here..

I look up at them, but they're busy communicating between themselves. Though it still looks like the third endo that handed me the instrument is the center of attention between them.

..It's not unusual for an endoskeleton to help with something. The opposite, actually. They're extremely handy. Hell, being 'helpful' might be the sole reason behind their existance, but this case is a bit more peculiar.. If you want help from an endo, you usually need to go and communicate with them about it.. I don't think I've ever seen one linger in the background and wait until they overhear something they're capable of helping with.

...

Now that I'm noticing the peculiar behaviors, my sights are drawn to the third endoskeleton..

..There are a few anomalies with that one in particular.. But I need to get this bass situation sorted first.

"..I've already worn myself out of playing tonight, honestly.." I mention to the other two, making use of the fact that the endos are occupied with each other.

"Youue weft handed?" Trudge garbles, mouth full.

"I'm both."

"Thass weerd. Youu weerd."

Shut up, grape-man..

..Hey, actually, wh-?

"..What the hell are you eating-? I thought you were out of grapes?"

"Found 'em."

Y'know what? Pretty sure I don't want to ask him to elaborate on that, actually.

...

"..Well, anyway.. I can use both hands just as well.. Thought about using a left-handed bass because I didn't want my metal hand to damage the strings." I elaborate, eyeing the backside of the instrument.

"You know how to play bass?"

"No."

"I'm confused."

"Monty's been showing me a few things, but I barely know more than how to hold the thing."

"Ooh, gimmie." Trudge nonchalantly extends his arms towards the instrument in my hands.

"Give you?"

"I wanna learn."

"Are there grape juices all over your fingers?"

"I dunno."

The hell you mean you 'don't know'?

"..Well- still. This is a left-handed one, Monty has-"

"I'm left handed."

"Oh.. Really..?" I ask, reluctantly handing over the who-knows-how-expensive instrument to the grown man doing the 'grabby-hands' thing in my direction..

"Mmmhm."

"..Huh.."

..Neat, I guess..

A subtle movement catches my eye, and my gaze returns to the endoskeletons.

The third endo has apparently understood everything the other two have been trying to get across to him, and is reflecting this with a double thumbs up.

...

Before I can continue distinguishing why that one in particular is so weird, the three endos walk off in the direction of the lobby, leaving me sitting here to stare at them curiously.

...

...

I turn to look at Trudge to find him missing, and look the other direction to discover Monty trying to help the former figure out how to manage a bass.. The peculiar situation with the skeletons must not have held as much weight to them..

...

It may not be as much of a 'situation' as I'm making it out to be.. But whatever it is, it's interesting, and I wanna know more.

I turn to watch the metal contraptions reach the other end of the auditorium.

...

...

"Alright.. Think I should keep going.." I comment loud enough for the other two to hear, and begin the standing process.

"Keep goin'?" The gator responds, leaving the other to figure out the contraption for himself.

"I was using this time to do my rounds, but.. Got distracted, I guess.."

"Oh-hooo, Mikey! You're slackin'!"

"I'm not slacking, it was just interesting to find you so mellow.." I meekly defend, brushing myself off.

"I'm tellin' Coop."

"I doubt Cooper would even listen."

That statement held a bit more weight than I intended..

"I'm tellin' Arin."

"Arin's too busy with Cooper."

"I'm tellin' Roxy."

"Don't tell Roxy.."

"I'm tellin' Rox-"

"Bye."

"Bye!"

---

...

..Whoof..

...

Think I've done my socializing for the day.. I get bonus points for who I chose to socialize with as well.

...

Where the hell did these things run off to?

I wander down the lobby stairs, nonchalantly looking from side-to-side for any indication of the endoskeletons I saw walk in here a minute prior..

...

Then, there's an audible click from straight ahead, drawing my attention.

Sure enough, right next to the doors leading outside are the three robots of interest..

..It still seems like two of them are communicating with the third one, instructing him to do something.

..Teaching him how to do something..

I had a suspicious that's what they were doing before, but this case seems unmistakable enough for me to confidently claim that that is what they're doing.. This time it looks like they're teaching the third endo how to lock the front doors..

...

..I'm glad they know how to do that, since I've forgotten once or twice in the past.. But that makes the situation a little more embarrassing to intrude on..

In any case, positive affirmations are tossed around between the endos, seemingly encouraging the third one for his good work.

...

..Why..?

I mean-, it really doesn't look like they could possibly be doing anything else, but why wouldn't an endoskeleton know how to do everything already? They've all been here longer than I have, haven't they..?

...

Visually, the third one is identical in how the other endoskeletons are built.. There aren't any physical differences or markings to make the third one stand out more, but it's mannerisms make it clear as day which one's the oddball.

..All of the endoskeletons act relatively the same.. They all have those half-lidded, disinterested eyes that they're stuck with.. Their actions are well thought out, and executed smoothly.. They were all peculiar in their own way, but they still.. acted like endoskeletons..

This one's a little different.

It's eyes aren't half-lidded, to begin with. They're considerably more widened and curious, which I wasn't even aware was a possibility.. Every action it takes is animated, and laced with a subtle second-guessing that I've never seen in any of these guys before.. It responds to the other two endoskeletons with a thumbs up every time they communicate something with him, which is once again a brand new behavior..

...

The communication between them lasts a little longer this time, but I make it within 50 feet of them before the two regular endos make a gesture indicating a goodbye, followed by them walking in unison to wherever they feel like going next, leaving the third one behind to do whatever it sees fit.

..The third one responds to his 'friends' in kind, and simply watches curiously as the other two walk off.. I guess they got everything they needed to do together done..

...

Without really thinking about it, my feet continue to carry me towards where the group was standing until I finally tear my gaze from the two walking away and find the third one only a few feet away.

..Shortly after, it tears it's gaze away from them too, and immediately notices me standing at a normal conversation distance.

...

Uhm..

Before I can think of something to say, the contraption once again puzzles me with another unique behavior.

As soon as it realizes that the two of us are supposed to be communicating with one another, it once again perks a little, then exaggeratedly lifts his arms and plants his fists firmly on his hips; like it's communicating a mix of 'What's up?' and 'Whatcha need?'.. Which is a jarring difference from how they usually just stand there and stare at you with their arms at their sides..

...

..This thing has already defeated me.. It's so emotional and animated, in direct contrast to the stoic and sequential endoskeletons I'm used too.. There's a steadily growing mountain of things I want to think about regarding what I've already seen, but if I don't start communicating like a normal human being, this thing's gonna have a poor first impression of me.

"..What's up..?"

Mike..

If you were to take all the greatest minds in history and stick them into the same room for millennia, all assigned the sole task of creating the very worst thing you could ever possibly say to introduce yourself to this thing, their answer would still pale in comparison to what just came out of my mouth.

It can't talk, dumbass.

...

After optimistically staring back at me for a couple seconds, it takes one of the hands off it's hips and points upwards.

..What..?

...

..Oh, 'the ceiling'.

..No fuckin' way did one of these things just crack a joke..

"Sorry, that wasn't the best question to-.. A..Anyway, uhm.. Were those other endoskeletons trying to 'teach' you something..?"

Smooth as charcoal, Mike-a-like.

With the same hand it used to point at the ceiling, the endo quickly forms a thumbs up.. And, looks.. Looks at me 'happily', like it's proud of me for figuring that out..

"They were..?"

It bounces it's thumb up and down to reconfirm.

"Huh.." I mutter, unsure of what to make of this information."..Does that mean you're, um.. New here..?"

Just as I start to berate myself for asking another nonsense question, It's already proud 'expression' lifts just a little further, and it takes the other hand off its hip to give me a double-thumbs-up.. Apparently even more impressed I was able to figure out that it's new..

...

..What in the grand halls of hell could that possibly mean?

"Really..? How so?"

Curiosity starts to overshadow my desire to introduce myself to this thing properly, which unshockingly results in an immediate improvement to my speaking ability.

The machine returns another blank stare, before maneuvering both it's arms to a shrug.

Oh, yeah.. It probably can't answer that question with gestures alone..

"Sorry.. Were you built recently?"

Interestingly, it responds with a bounce of it's current shrugging gesture, indicating that it doesn't know that either..

"You don't know?"

It nods, lowering it's arms.

"..How long ago did you 'get' here? Do you remember?"

Another blank stare, but it soon plants one hand back on it's hip and proudly extends the other, holding up two fingers.

"Two hours..?"

It brings down one finger and tilts the other one upward, as if to say 'higher'.

..I guess two hours would be a little ridiculous.. Just because I haven't noticed this thing doesn't mean it hasn't been here for a while.. A much more significant period of time would make sense if the others have been 'training' him for all this time and just finished today. In order to get fully acquainted with the layout of this place, I'd say it would take something like...

"..Two weeks?" I state uncertainly. This place is huge, so I'd think it would take a little longer, but two months seems excessive..

It's entire body bounces a little for a reason I can't quite comprehend, then points it's thumb downwards to say 'lower'.

"Oh-really..? A matter of days? Two days?"

That was it.. Think it's whole body bouncing was it 'laughing'.. Didn't take long to prove to this thing that I'm an idiot..

Interesting, though.. That's not a very long time, considering the rest of the endoskeletons know the entire Pizzaplex like the back of their hand.. Maybe it's just finished it's training for the day..

"..Did the others just finish training you?"

The proud thumbs up resurfaces.

"For the day or for good?"

Once again, a blank stare, followed shortly by turning his thumbs up into raising two fingers; presumably indicating that the second option was correct.

"Huh.. They did all the training in two days..?"

The endo tilts it's head a bit to look towards where it saw it's buddies walk off, before returning it's gaze towards me and giving me a mix between a shrug and a thumbs up.

..Okay..

...

Admittedly, I'm far more interested in figuring out where this thing came from if it's somehow 'new' here; but if it doesn't even know where it came from, then I'm not sure how good the answers I'm gonna get from him are..

..'Him'? Her? Robo?

...

Guess now's as good a time as any for an ice-breaker.

"..Alright, well.. I'm Michael. You'll find me here from midnight to dawn as the night-watch."

I raise my hand to scratch the back of my head, but the very instant I begin to move my hand, the endoskeleton's arm shoots outwards, expecting me to shake it.

Reflexively, I do.. Getting another look at the thing reveals it's expressing a mixture of enthusiastic curiosity/welcoming in it's very limited facial features.

..Y'know, despite it's total lack of anything on it's face, it gets what it's feeling across shockingly well.. Of course, being an endoskeleton, it lacks just about everything but two big 'ol eyes. I'm sure there are audio-input speakers somewhere, but there's nothing on it that resembles ears; or a mouth for that matter. The only thing it has to work with are it's eyelids, which are apparently far more versatile than I gave them credit for.. The other endos eyes are constantly half-lidded, similar to the endoskeletons from older locations. This one seems able to maneuver them as well as a real person would; maybe even better..

...

This is weird.. Something like this usually qualifies for 'what people would tell the night-guard', so this thing's anomalous appearance here in the Pizzaplex is either explainable by Cooper forgetting to tell me, or that no one else knows about this thing either..

"..Guess I'm just telling you this so you know who the random schmuck wandering around the Pizzaplex is.. Do you have a preference on what people call you?"

It responds positively, giving an additional thumbs up with the hand it's not currently shaking. After a second of silence, the endo stops shaking my hand and looks down at itself once it recognizes the problem with the answer it's given.

..Don't really know what to do either now that I've gotten this far.. It's cool that he wants to be referred to as something specific, but it has no way of getting what that is across to me..

...

"Sorry, we'll figure it out later.. Should I be referring to you as, like, 'an endo', or do you prefer male or female, or.. Something?" I continue talking for way longer than I probably should.. Why would this thing-?

It doesn't have to think this time, lifting two fingers as soon as it understands what my question is.

"Oh- really..?"

It-.. He joyfully responds with a thumbs up, evidently pleased with what little progress we've made so far.

..Honestly a little surprised this thing had a preference.. It sure as hell doesn't look like any of the endoskeletons have a gender, so I was under the impression that they only thought of themselves as 'robots'.. All the main cast members are a discernible gender though, so I guess it's not unthinkable that if those bots think themselves something specific, these things can too.

"Understood.. Is it alright if I keep calling you 'endo' until you can tell me your name?"

Interestingly, the skeleton starts to nod before abruptly cutting off the motion and staring into space wherever it's head was tilted at the time.. A couple seconds of silence pass before his eyes narrow to a 'squint', as if unsure of this answer himself.

...

"..You rather we came up with something? Maybe just to differentiate you from the rest of the endoskeletons?"

Another couple seconds of squinty-silence pass, before the endo slowly continues nodding..

"Alright, well.." I start, finally releasing it's hand from the handshake I forgot we were having. "..Maybe we should find somebody then. I'm not the kind of guy most people would stick in charge of naming something."

Suddenly, as if offended by my audacity to dare suggest I'm not the best at something, the endoskeleton turns his head up to look at me, quickly straightens himself out, and throws his hand on his hips in disapproval.

"..Sorr-?"

Before I can finish, the endo passionately extends his arm to point at me.. If it were anyone else, I'd have no idea what this means, but it seems like this is his way of telling me 'Now I'm forcing you to choose.'

..It's oddly impressive how well this thing's able to get it's message across through gestures alone.. Maybe that's something a skill he learned from his endoskeleton tutors.

"Fine, um.."

...

My lack of creativity prompts me to stand and stare at the endo for a while, trying to conjure up a name that could possibly befit a walking metal contraption.

Once it knows I understood his point, it takes is accusing arm down and lowers it to his side, along with the arm on his hip.

...

..Reflexively, I fold my arms and tilt my head a little to indicate that I'm still thinking.. Apparently, the endo's found some form of amusement in mimicking my stance, which doesn't help me think any faster..

...

..Sigh..

"..Sorry.. I'm just about the worst person you could possibly ask to do this kind of thing.." I mutter after a while, uncrossing my arms.

In response, the endo takes a break from mimicking me and points at his head, spinning his hand in a circular motion as if to tell me 'just say the first thing that comes to mind'.

"I've been thinking about this too long for there to be anything in my mind." I respond through an amused exhale, trying to get the point across that he'd be better off letting someone else do this.

But nope. All this does is prompt him to bring a second hand up to his head to really exaggerate the spinning motion.

"..Look, I might be an idiot, but I swear I'm not making an excuse. This really isn't my forte."

Still, it responds by hunching slightly and doing the hand motions a little slower in what I can only assume to be an attempt at mocking me.

Oh good. With sarcasm like that, you'll fit in just fine.

..I put my hands on my hips and sigh, before begrudgingly acknowledging what he's doing..

"..Listen, friendo. If you follow me for forty seconds, I can bring you to a Chica, who would love nothing more than to name-"

No.

Halfway through my sentence, the endoskeleton extends his arms to full length and gives me the most enthusiastic double thumbs-up I've ever witnessed; along with the most positive and optimistic expression a face with only two eyes is capable of reflecting.. It took me a little to figure out what the hell this thing got so excited about.

This is not what we're doing.

"No- Absolutely not, if-" I begin, raising my hands in protest.

It quickly interrupts by beaming even harder and pushing the thumbs-up in my direction.

"If someone asks how you got that name, they'll think I'm-"

It tilts it's head diagonally but keeps its eyes locked with mine, as if to say 'c'monnn~..!'

"..If Roxanne figures out I gave you that name, she'd never let me live it down."

"There you are, purple boy."

Shoot.

..A painstakingly familiar voice rings from behind me, and I can only think to stand still and keep staring at the endoskeleton.

"Sneakin' away and talkin' shit behind my back, huh?"

The sound of a turnstile rolls from behind me, unfortunately proving that she's too close for her not to hear whatever I try to say to this thing.

Oh god...

...

I look over my shoulder to acknowledge the wolf, who's now only three or four steps behind me.

"..When'd you get so sneaky?" I comment as casually as I can.

"When you started avoiding me, corpse."

Despite the unpleasant situation, a huff escapes my lungs as the opportunity to mess with Roxy presents itself.

"I'm not 'avoiding' you; I've got a job to do."

"You can do your job when I'm done with you." Rox responds immediately, uncrossing her arms. "What the hell are you doing out here?"

"My job."

"Yeah?..." Roxanne begins, obviously intending to continue speaking until she interrupts herself and stares to my left for a couple seconds. "..Mmhm.. Who's your 'friend'?"

I turn around to look back at the endoskeleton, stopping myself midway once I realized it managed to quietly make his way right up next to me.

..At the mention of 'friend', the endo exaggeratedly sticks its arm out to lean on my shoulder and crosses his legs like we're a couple of 'cool kids'.

..Then sticks a finger up at me with the arm he isn't leaning on me with, like he's telling Roxanne to 'Check this out'..

...

"Is there a name you want me to tell her?" I whisper to the 'too cool for school' robot.

It only responds with an even more amused expression and a closing-in pointer-finger, getting the point across that I 'already know his name'..

"I'm *not* calling you-"

The endo's finger never stops growing closer, however; and eventually it starts poking my cheek.. Which appears to be is his way of reminding me that I'm both out of time and out of options..

...

...

I turn my head back towards the wolf.

...

...

...Sighhhhhh...

"This is 'Friendo'.." I confess without a hint of emotion in my voice, bringing my own finger up to point at him.

Almost immediately afterward, Friendo repurposes his poking hand by outstretching another brightly-beaming thumbs-up in Roxanne's direction; as if this is the coolest thing in the entire world.

"..What?"

"I'm not repeating it."

" 'Friendo'?"

"..."

"Did you come up with that name?"

"No."

Friendo furiously nods his head.

"..Yes.." I mutter, not too altogether fond of this lie-detector attached to me shoulder..

...

...

"..."

"Please stop staring at me."

"Mike- where did you get this thing?"

"I didn't get him, he's not a pet." I hopelessly defend.

Roxanne closes the distance between us with two steps, placing her hands on her hips and leaning down to face-level, a whole 10 inches away from my face.

..This isn't, and never was intimidating. Buuut, it's kinda funny to keep letting her do this and think it makes a difference.

"You already spend way too much time with everyone else, Mike. You don't need another 'friend'."

"..Rox-, excluding the night I was home sick with a cold, this is the first night since my birthday that I've been able to get away from you for even 30 minutes; I can barely spend any time with everyone anymore." I respond through a breathy chuckle, not entirely certain if she's joking or not.

"You're getting a little too cozy with all the damn bots." She continues, completely ignoring my response.

"Aw. I have a history with robots. I was bound to make friends with one at some point."

"Uh-huh. Pretty sure damn near all of them tried to kill you - so maybe don't try to make it sound like you're any 'good' with them." Rox continues, poking my chest.

"I figured it out eventually."

Friendo, deciding now's the time that he wants to provide his input, makes a dragon pose with his hands like he's about to eat me.

"Yeah- See? Now he's gonna get you."

"It wouldn't hurt for you to be on my side, for once.." I mutter to my new robot-dragon friend.

"Really think your buddy is non-violent?" Roxanne argues, still playing along with the endo, who's now wandered off a couple steps and is stomping around with his arms raised like he's trampling a village.

"This is a bad example."

"Dunno, Mike. This thing's a real threat."

I chuckle under my breath.. I wait until Friendo is a good couple feet away before I whisper back up to the wolf.

"..Oh- you might wanna be careful who you say that around, by the way. Regarding the whole aggressive-animatronic thing.. This guy can't talk, so I get why you thought it was safe, but y'know.. Just for future reference." I half-whisper and shrug, keeping the tone light so Rox doesn't think I'm getting her in trouble.

"What?"

"You and Freddy are still the only one's who know about all that, and I'd like to keep it that way if at all possible. It'd be wayyyy harder to keep Chica's or Monty's mouth shut." I elaborate, internally groaning at the very thought of having to deal with either of them.

...

A few seconds of incredibly suspicious silence pass, and I eventually turn away from watching the endoskeleton to see what in the world Roxanne's doing.

..What th-?

"Woahwoahwoahwoahwoah, stop, stop, chill." I quietly babble, instinctively grasping the wolf's shoulder. "Rox wh-..? Nothing's wrong. Friendo couldn't tell anyone even if he cared, which he obviously doesn't. Rox, you're fine."

"T..That was fuckin' dumb.." she finally whispers back down to me, pretending to be staring straight ahead. The strain in her voice betraying how hard she's trying to sound annoyed.

I warily look back to see if the endo's paying attention, but am relieved to find that he seems to have found something else nearby that captured his curiosity.

..What in the world's gotten into this woman?

"What? Rox, it's fine, nothing happened. Breathe for a second."

Roxanne's listening, but only continues to glare forward with her arms crossed.. I don't think I even would've noticed anything was wrong if her fur didn't pale a little.

"..."

"Wolf, why are you freaking out about this? Wouldn't 'I' be freaking out if there was actually a problem?" I ask, exasperated by this sudden change in behavior.

"..."

"Rox."

"Mike, stop pretending that wasn't-"

"No, I'm not pretending. It's not a big deal."

"It is a fuckin' big-"

"It's not."

"Can you let me talk, corpse..?!"

"Not if you're gonna keep passionately trying to make yourself to be some sort of supervillian."

"Didn't I promise not to say that shit anymore..?!"

"I've broken more promises than you in every conceivable way. You don't gotta lecture me on how it sucks, I get it. It's fine."

"Yeah? What if I said that in front of literally anybody else?"

"You didn't."

" 'What if', dumbass..!"

"I'm not gonna get upset over a what-if scenario. If that does happen, then it'll be an issue, but it hasn't yet, so there isn't one."

"What if I do that again in front of-?"

"Then it'll be a problem. So until then, there is no problem."

"What the fuck's wrong with you? Didn't you freak the fuck out last time I did this?"

Jesus Christ.. Whisper-arguing is harder than regular arguing, apparently..

"Yes- but that was Freddy. This is a mute endoskeleton.. I'm not too worried about this thing."

"And that makes it 'okay'?" Rox bites back, trying to be rhetorical..

"Yes, wolf. That's what I've been trying to tell you: it isn't a big deal." I huff.

"Mike."

"Wolf."

"Dumbass-, no it's not 'okay' if I go around and fuckin'-"

Holy shit.

A glint catches my eye, and I notice the endoskeleton making it's way back over.

Good. That gives me an excuse to shut this woman up.

Nonchalantly rotating to face the skeleton, I take a little bit of pleasure in reaching up and wrapping my hand around Roxanne's snout, forcing her mouth closed.

..For a brief moment, I can feel the aghast and unfathomable rage of a thousand gods about to befall me, but Rox thankfully manages to demonstrate some restraint once she also realizes that our endoskeleton friend is approaching.

...

"Where'd you run off to?" I ask, uncharacteristically initiating casual conversation.

It responds by pointing at it's open palm, slowing to a stop once it reaches a standard conversation distance.

...

Oh.

"Mm. Find a magnet in the gift shop?" I ask, trying not to chuckle.

As soon as I acknowledge what the 'problem' is, Friendo extends his arm to his side and shakes it rapidly.

...

Predictably, he stops and stares at me once he realizes it's not working.

"I believe in you."

It continues giving me a blank stare for a few seconds before bringing up his other hand and demonstrating that prying off the magnet only gets it stuck on his other hand.

"Maybe you can use the fence to slide it-"

Fed up with my not-so-subtle sarcasm, it thrusts it's hand in my direction.

"Fine, fine.."

I slowly release Roxanne's snout, keeping an eye on her but repurposing my hands for the sake of saving Friendo from this magnet epidemic.

..I was admittedly a little worried what she'd do when I let go, but surprisingly, not much.. A few seconds of nothing pass, before Rox simply huffs like an impatient child and turns her head away.

...

..As much as I was telling her that nothing of any significance happened a few moments ago, I do understand why asking her to hold off on casually mentioning the old animatronic's 'habits' impacted her a little harder than I intended..

That was a slip up.. I'm not even entirely sure whether or not Rox took into account that Friendo was incapable of doing anything with the information she had before she leaked it.. It wasn't intentional by any means; I was just the only person she was transfixed on at the time, so I guess part of her brain mistakenly told her that it's okay to talk about it since we were the 'only two' talking.. That sounds weird, but it's no different than a regular slip up anyone has about anything.

..Which doesn't seem like a big deal, if that wasn't the one thing I had nearly stopped trusting Roxanne over..

I needed absolute certainty that my secrets could be kept, so when Rox let those secrets slip to Freddy, I convinced myself that it meant I simply couldn't trust her anymore. Not because I blamed her, or didn't like her, or didn't think she took it seriously, or anything meaningful.. But because that ridiculously tiny chance of letting something slip was something I absolutely could not afford. It lowered the chances of my secrets being kept from 100% down to something slightly lower, but the fact that it wasn't a flat 100% anymore simply wasn't good enough for me.

..Of course, I eventually made the decision to go back on that in the end.. In order to preserve the relationships I've started building, I sacrificed absolute certainty that my secrets wouldn't be kept.. Rox mentioning that the old bots were hostile in front of Friendo was, however, the purest reminder to both of us why progress almost permanently halted between us.. Even if she didn't mean it, everything almost came crashing down because she let it slip once, and she just did it again..

...

It is kind of annoying how dramatic stuff like this happens at the most random of times, now that I think about it.. Rox mentioned something similar a few days ago, but I guess this is the first time I've noticed how things like this always happen without warning and with no regard to what we're in the middle of doing..

...

"There. Crisis averted." I comment flatly, pretending like the magnet didn't get stuck on my metal hand for a couple seconds.

Friendo toys around with his now magnet-ridden hands, then responds by pretending to wipe sweat from his brow and planting his hands on his hips proudly.

...

"Wanna take it back to the gift shop?"

In a truly phenomenal display of common sense, the skeleton responds with a single nod and takes the magnet back from my hand to wander off and complete his first official task he's ever received from me.

..Still amused I managed to get that to work, I plant my hands on my hips as well.

...

...

"All chilled the hell out now?" I ask, tilting up at the wolf.

"Fine.." Roxanne huffs, doing a 180 and taking a step back towards where she came from. "Have fun with your new friend, or whatever. But if you're not back in half an hour, I'm slitting your throat."

Wow.

"Sheesh. Don't even wanna talk about it?"

She growls under her breath at a volume she thinks I can't hear.

"There's nothing to talk about; it was just a stupid slip of the tongue.."

"Fine. Just remember that it doesn't mean anything to me if you have those anymore, like I said."

"Mike- am I six?"

"If you get to treat me like a child, I get to do the same sometimes."

"Fuck you."

"See you in a bit."

"Fine."

...

...

The furball makes her way out of my line of sight.

..I guess this is a step up from getting dragged to her room the moment she finds me.. At least she's giving me time to wrap stuff up this time..

...

Why the hell do I think she has any authority over me at all? I'm the night-guard..

- Dunk -

..Whatever. It's not like there's much left for me to do at this point anyway..

...

I slide my hand in my pockets and turn towards the source of the noise, where I find a slightly displaced wooden table and our new endoskeleton friend hopping around on one foot in the distance; grabbing at his other one in agony.

..This guy is his own mystery.. One that I need to dive into in the near future.. 'Spontaneously appearing friendoskeletons' isn't something I can brush off very easily.. At least I get a new mute robot friend to help figure it out with me. That oughta be interesting.

...

Sigh..

---

...

...

Oh..

..So, I noticed Friendo started waltzing along behind me whenever I went somewhere, so I had the idea to come and 'drop him off' with Monty and Trudge here in the auditorium, but I guess they ran off to do something else..

..Peculiarly, the only one I do find standing on the stage is none other but the main attraction himself.

My pace slows momentarily while I try making out what the bear's doing, but it doesn't look like he's doing much of anything.. Freddy looks lost in thought, staring at the back wall behind the stage littered with neon lights and monitors.

...

I look over my shoulder to find Friendo giving me a double thumbs-up.

..Well..

With a mighty fine jump, I make it up onto the stage from where the audience would be standing.

..Whoof.. I understand that the purpose behind it being so tall is to prevent younger children from clambering up here, but that's still quite a height..

The effort that went into my jump isn't silent, however; and I can see Freddy's ear twitch before looking over his shoulder at me.

"Boo." Is the totally appropriate greeting I'm able to conjure.

"Hello, Michael." He replies mindlessly, immediately turning back around once he realizes who it is. "..Would you happen to be aware of any malfunctions in the lighting during our showtime..?"

"Oh.. No, sorry. Haven-"

- Clank -

..Naturally, I glance over my shoulder and find that Friendo appears to have failed his attempt at making the same jump I did, and is now laying sprawled out on the floor beneath the stage.

"..No, sorry. I haven't visited the Pizzaplex during the day recently." I continue, curiously watching the grounded endoskeleton for a few more seconds before turning back to Freddy. "Is there an issue with the lighting..?"

"..I am uncertain.." the bear responds quietly, entranced in his thorough inspection of the wall.

"Oh.. What makes you think there's an issue, then?"

"I'm led to believe there's something not sitting well with the audience.. Returning visitors have been getting scarce.." Freddy elaborates, rubbing his 'chin'.

...

"..Mm.."

For a moment, the impulse to tell him what's been going on with Cooper surfaces in my chest.. If it weren't for the endo gradually scrambling his way up onto the stage with us, I might have acted on it.

"Perhaps it isn't an issue with our showtime..? Would that mean there's an issue with one of our attractions?" Freddy brainstorms quietly.

"..Are you sure it isn't just a slow couple of days..?"

"..I do not know. I'm accustomed to low customer counts resolving themselves in the matter of a day or two, but it has been longer than a week.."

"Huh.. Do you prefer busier days?"

"I wish for this location to thrive, Michael." Freddy responds sincerely, taking me a touch off guard.

"..Why's that..?"

That feels like a stupid question, but the way Freddy told me he wishes for success here at the Pizzaplex suggests there's a reason or two beyond 'because he works here'.

"..."

While I wait for Freddy's response, a pair of gentle footsteps from behind tell me that Friendo's managed to scramble up onto the stage, and made himself comfortable a couple steps behind and to the left of me.

...

"Fred?" I ask after a period of silence, wondering if he heard my question.

"Sorry.. I've been thinking about what you told Roxanne and I."

That's.. probably not a great sign..

"What about it..?"

...

"..I'm not certain. It is a little difficult to explain." Freddy admits, back still turned to us as he inspects the wall behind the stage.

"That's fair.. What I said, um.. Isn't something you hear very often..." I respond, scratching the back of my head.

...

"I suppose I just wish for our establishment to be different.. And making that a reality has proven to be a little overwhelming."

"How so..?"

"If I understand correctly, then being 'different' was also the objective of every location following the original."

"Mm.." I hum to myself, finally having a grasp of his point. "..'Many have tried, all have failed' kind of thing.."

"..That is a clever way to put it."

"Oh. I can't take credit for it, then.. Think that's something from a book.."

"It is still plenty adequate to highlight my concern."

...

For a few seconds, I simply stand and bask in the solemn yet filling silence of the auditorium, staring at the back of the bear's head.

..'being different was also the objective of every location following the original.'.. That's a reasonable conclusion to reach with the information he has.. It isn't entirely untrue, I guess.. Though in reality, several locations were built with ulterior motives. Baby's Circus Gallery was constructed by my father's sinister research motives, and my pizzeria was built from the ground up with the intention of being a trap.

...

I slip my hands in my pockets and remain silent for a little while longer.. Though eventually, I manage to think of a decent response.

"..I think this place is plenty different already. Entirely new management and ownership..; not to mention the lack of 'quirky' animatronics.."

"Then I wish for this place to thrive, and for us to become the new face of Freddy's." Freddy responds passionately, though quietly. There was a lot of determination in those words, and not even he understands what's happening to this place as we speak..

"Mmm, mkay.." I hum.. "So.. You want this place to be what's remembered of Freddy's, instead of all the tragedies associated with the old locations."

"Something like that."

"Sorry, yeah.. That is kinda hard to explain.."

...

Out of the corner of my eye, a metal thumbs-up creeps into my vision, as if to agree with how well I've been handling this interaction.

...

..I nonchalantly slip a hand out of my pocket and return a discrete thumbs up as well..

Even though I'm not confident he knows what we're talking about, the little bit of positive reinforcement felt nice..

...

..It's kind of weird how easily Friendo's taking all this, if I'm being honest.. Maybe it just hasn't sunk in yet that everyone's serious about the old animatronics and locations, but it doesn't really seem that way.. It's like he's hearing all about these nonsensical situations and acknowledging them with a 'gotcha' before moving on with his day like it's the most casual thing in the world..

...

"..Maybe things'll go back to normal soon." I comment, without a single reason to believe that.

"I'm almost positive that something needs to be done.." Freddy mutters in response, evidently dissatisfied with his fruitless search for faulty lighting.

"Like what..?"

"I do not know.. If I knew, I could get to work on it right away and be done with it.."

"You don't think things will go back to normal on their own..?"

"I have no idea, Michael."

...

...

...

Alright.. It's been an insightful take on what Freddy thinks about everything, but I think everything's been said.. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to try and move on to a lighter topic; lift this bear's spirits a little..

...

"Oh- hey." I blurt after another few seconds of silence. "You know anything about this guy..?"

Another small moment passes before Freddy realizes he should be turning around, and by the time he does, Friendo's already made himself cozy 'dramatically leaning on my shoulder' again.

"Ah.." Freddy hums reflexively, suggesting he wasn't aware of this thing either. "..An endoskeleton?"

The metal contraption immediately beams up at me, and I know damn well what it is he wants me to say.

...

...

I hate this thing..

...

"A Friendoskeleton.."

---

- Pshh -

"I hate the name 'Friendo' so damn much-"

"Right-?! What the fuck were you thinking?" Roxanne replies instantly, spinning around in her chair while watching me invite myself in and faceplant on her couch.

"It was supposed to be a joke, but he reeeeally liked it.." I explain, voice muffled by the pillow my face is currently buried in.

"Did the damn thing follow you here too?" Rox asks impatiently, leaning to look out of the door I walked in for any signs of the bot.

"No. Dropped it off with Freddy, who was interested in seeing what made it different from the rest of the endoskeletons."

"Good. Thing needs to wait it's turn. Maybe Freddy'll accidentally break the thing and be rid of it foreve-"

" 'too'? " I interrupt abruptly, lifting my head a couple inches off the pillow as I re-run what little conversation we've had through my head.

"..What?"

...

"What do you mean 'too'?" I ask with a little bit of snark, shit-eating grin slowly creeping it's way across my face as the opportunity to call out Roxanne on her bullshit presents itself.

"..What are you talking abou-, what about 'too'?"

"You said 'Did the damn thing follow you here too?' not even fifteen seconds ago."

"So?"

"What were you referring back to?"

"I said-..! Ugh- why? Why do you care?" Roxanne bites back, glaring at me like I'm doing something wrong.

"You are. So busted~."

"Don't get 'cute' with me you f-.. Mike, what the fuck are you talking about?"

"How did you know Friendo followed me around?" I optimistically accuse, letting my head fall back down a couple inches onto the pillow.

"Jesus, that's such a dumbass name.." Roxy grumbles under her breath, completely off topic; turning around and pretending to be preoccupied with something on her desk.

"Rox."

"What..?!"

"You know 'what'- You left before Friendo and I went anywhere, you have no reason to believe he followed me at all."

"That's not what I meant, I just said-, frickin'-..!"

"Gettin' a little dishonest, Roxy-pox?" I tease in the most truly infuriating tone a human is capable of producing.

"Jesus christ, you-!" she begins, spinning back around in her chair to face me; arm raised to point at me.

"You told me you were going back to your room~."

"I did NOT!" Roxanne barks, abruptly slamming her pointing hand on her armrest and using the force to shoot up from her chair. "I didn't say anything about where I was going, I just left..!"

For as long as I live, I will never get tired of Roxanne's bursts of guilt-ridden outrage. Watching her face get red from embarrassment while she screams at me for no reason fills me with a satisfaction I could never hope to describe. I'd make a living off of this if I could.

"You told me to 'be back in half an hour or I'm slitting your throat' or something, remember?" I shoot back, lazily pointing a finger up at her.

"Yes..! So I never said where I was going..!"

"You absolutely meant your room."

"No I didn't..!" She whines.

"Nowhere else would have made sense in that context. Your room is the only place in the Pizzaplex I ever need to 'be back' too." I explain, slowly pushing myself to sitting upright in case my teasing ends up pushing the wolf a little too close to 'violence'.

"That is not true-! You have an office where you keep all your shit..!"

"Yeah? So you were waiting for me to get back to my office?"

"You don't know if I was or not..!"

"Rox."

"What?! Shut up-! Stop doing that..!"

Spoken like the guiltiest living entity on planet earth.

"..Tell you what- Is that your final answer? Gonna try and make a case that you were in my office?"

Of course I'm not actually upset at her. The entire reason I'm doing this is because 'it's funny', and I'm sure Roxanne can hear that in my voice, which can only be contributing to making her angrier and wanting to prove me 'wrong' even more.

"Y...You don't know..!"

"Wanna think about that for a second?"

"No! What the hell is wrong with you..?!"

"Were you in my office?"

"Stop..!"

"Were you in my office~?"

"Mike, stop it!"

"Are there cameras in my office?"

"M-, wh..?! No there aren't cameras in your office- you check 'em all on your stupid ass watch thing!" Rox answers quickly, angrily pointing at my watch-arm with exposed claws.

..I'm admittedly a little surprised she was so confidently correct about that.. Didn't think she was in my office any more than like, four times, total.

"Sooooo~?"

"Mike- I'll fucking kill you, stop doing that!"

"Fine. Rox-, of course you weren't in my office, that'd be no different from being in your room. You had to have seen Friendo follow me, so you could only have been, like, two places. The lobby or auditorium." I finally divulge, deciding that at some point I'd just be torturing her by continuing with this 'bit'.

"I wasn't in the freaking-!.. No I wasn't!"

"Rox, listen to yourself."

- Pshh -

"FUCK you!"

Ooh..

...

Both of us reacted a little late to the door opening. Especially Roxanne, if you couldn't tell; who violently whipped around in a bit of a panic once the sound of the door registered in her brain.. Reasonably so, seeing as the first thing she did after the door opened was scream an expletive at me at the top of her lungs.

Admittedly, seeing Friendo in the doorway almost sends me into a cackling fit. It's eyebrows(?) cocked and staring into the room at us in an amused silence.

...

After a moment, my eyes lock with his.. In a moment of comical genius, I casually lift my hand to give him a thumbs-up.

Friendo responds almost immediately by giving me his trademarked double thumbs-up and nonchalantly backpedaling out of the room and out of our sight, letting Roxanne's door close once he gets far enough away.

- Pshh -

...

"That thing's starting to grow on me." I chime, pleasantly surprised by that little interaction.

"Ugh..!" Rox groans fiercely, falling furiously back into her chair.

...

"Sooooo~."

"Shut. the Fuck. Up."

"What's up with the stalking?"

"I wasn't 'stalking' y- fuckin-.. Psshhhh.." After sitting limp and grumpy in her chair for a few seconds, Rox eventually raises her arms and plants both hands on her face to obscure it from view; making a sound like she's letting steam out through her teeth.

This has been one of the greatest days of my life.

I lean back on the couch and kick my feet up on a (new~) coffee table we ordered while Rox was shopping for clothes a few days back.. Still don't know how that happened, honestly. I handed her my computer with a list of pre-selected clothing items I'd chosen for her pulled up, and she handed it back not even two minutes later on an entirely different website looking at a piece of fucking furniture.

..Still, it was cheap, small, and complimented the room nicely (according to her), so I had no qualms with getting it. I doubt any of the gang have had the opportunity to decorate their rooms with new furniture, so I suppose it worth it to see Rox pretend not to be excited (despite her furiously wagging tail) when it arrived.

This couch was in desperate need of a good leg-rest anyway, so it turned out pretty well for-

"Get your feet off my fucking furniture.."

Nevermind.

"Sorry."

"I fucking hate you.." Roxanne grumbles, voiced muffled by her hands.

"Think you've dropped an f-bomb every single sentence you've spoken since before Frie-"

"Mike, I don't care."

"Okay."

...

...

"Mnnnnnnngggg.." She moans through her hands again, like it's getting worse with every passing second.

"..All good?"

"No."

"..Cool.. Just making sure.."

"Die."

...

...

Doesn't look like this is gonna stop anytime soon.. Might as well continue onward.

"..Alright.. Just to get this out of the way: I didn't mind you sticking around with me and the endo." I comment, shrugging with my hands, despite knowing Rox can't see me do so with her hands over her face. "I mean, I don't really care if you'd prefer to stalk me from a distance somewhere, but I thought I'd make it clear that I've never minded you walking around with me while I do stuff in the Pizzaplex. So, y'know.. Just letting you know that you don't have to spy from the shadows, or whatever you were doing."

"I know.." Roxy whines.

"M'kay."

"Y-.. Mnngh.."

...

..I don't know what that means..

"..What's going on with you?" I emphasize a little more. "..Look- It's the furthest thing from a big deal, wolf; I just found it funny. What warrant's this?"

"What's that supposed to mean, corpse?"

"It means 'I was teasing you, it's not a big deal, take your hands off your face'." I explain with a small, slightly cautious chuckle.

"No."

"Why?"

"I don't want to look at you."

"..Wwwhy..?"

"Godammit. Mike-, you know why.."

..I, uh..

...

..I don't.. Am I supposed to..?

"..I do?"

"Mike."

"No-, I really don't, sorry, I'm, uhm... I'm clearly not thinking of something.." I meekly try keeping things light, scratching the back of my head.. I really am trying to think of the detail I'm missing out on here, but I honestly can't think of a reason why she'd still be on about this.. Is it something about Friendo..? Is she upset about the bad impression she left on him?.. Does Rox even care what Friendo thinks about her..?

"..."

...

...

"Is it.. Something about Friendo-?"

Like that was the stupidest thing she's heard in her entire life, Roxanne lets her hands slide off her face and slap on her legs; glaring straightforward for a second before quickly switching her gaze to be glaring at me like I'm the dumbest fuck to ever walk the planet.

...

..Uh..

..Additionally, this action has revealed some information of it's own.. Roxanne's hands falling to her lap means they aren't covering her face anymore.. Her expression's not too abnormal; still glaring at me with her unamused 'are you actually being fucking serious right now?' eyes..But, for a reason I haven't quite picked up on yet, the entirety of Roxanne's face that she was covering with her hands is damn-near crimson.. So much so that I seriously wondered for a second if something was wrong with her health-wise, but the longer I look at it, the more I become sure that it really is just some absolutely wild blush.

...

"Rox, I have zero idea. None.. Even less of an idea than before." I admit bluntly, completely unsure of what I'm supposed to be doing.

Almost immediately, Roxanne responds with a heavily exaggerated mixture between a groan and a growl; rolling her eyes so hard that it nearly makes me dizzy.

"so fucking stupid.." Is all I can hear of her grumble before she straightens herself out in her chair.

"At this point, just tell me.." I respond meekly, not sure which buttons to press.

"It's not hard, Mike- It's just embarrassing..! Fuck.."

"Well- it's not-.." I begin, pausing for a second to really think about what I'm saying, then deciding to go through with it. "..It's not that embarrassing, wolf, right? I get that it's a little weird to watch someone from a distance, but that's pretty mellow in the grand scheme or 'weird things you can do', right..?"

"Don't you fuckin' pity me- think I'm weird now, huh?" Rox shrugs with her arms while she asks... She's looking at me with a narrow glare, but is visibly fighting to maintain eye contact.

"No, what? Rox, even if it is a little weird, it's not even close to 'pity worthy'." I explain poorly, a little exasperated..

"..."

After a couple seconds of silence, I decide that I need to attack this from a different angle.

"Look- that isn't even the weirdest thing that's happened to me today, wolf. Trudge sat down next to me earlier with two handfuls of vines of grapes and wolfed them down in less than two minutes. Monty was in that peculiarly rare 'mellow' state tonight as well.. And hell, none of that even comes close to stumbling across an anomalous oddball of an endoskeleton now dubbed 'Friendo' running around and giving people thumbs-up left and right. I might've made fun of you for following us around for a little, but that was only really because I wanted to see your reaction; not that I thought it was really all that weird or something.. Hell, my entire job is defined by spying on people without them knowing. The only difference between you and I is that I use cameras to do it every day, and you don't.. That good enough to explain why it's not nearly as weird as you think it is?"

After my dramatic speech about tonight events, I just kinda pause in the middle of the last hand motion I was doing to watch the wolf and see if I got a little through to her.

...

...

It takes a minute.. I was about to conclude that I didn't end up making any progress, but just as I was about to brainstorm another angle to approach this from, Roxanne's undeterred glare softens just a little bit.

...

"..Fuck-, Really?" The wolf asks, half-sarcastic, half-expecting an answer.

"Yes, of course it's not that big of a deal."

"Doesn't bother you even a little?" she continues, skepticism lining her voice.

"It doesn't. I don't mind at all, just thought it was funny."

...

"Lying to me again?"

Holy-..

"Rox, I can't even begin to think of why it mattered to you this much in the first place. No I'm not lying.."

..Part of me wants to bring up the fact that this entire interaction started with her passionately refusing (lying) that she followed us around, despite knowing damn well that I had proof she did..

..Sigh.. Not really, actually.. I know it's a much bigger deal when I lie because of how much of a chronic liar I was in the past, and how much I came to rely on that ability to be deceptive.. It's human nature to want to be deceptive about something to get yourself into a better situation, but the difference is that 'I' was abusing that power to lie nonstop at every opportunity I got, and Rox just tells white-lies in the heat of the moment that don't actually mean anything.

...

Roxanne crosses her arms, obviously chilled out a bit more than before.

"..Fine.."

"Why did you stalk around anyway? I gladly would've kept you around. It's not like I was trying to hide anything from you."

"I know.." Rox replies through a sigh, spinning around in her chair to focus on whatever's on her desk for a moment. "..It's stupid, though.. It was just 'fun'.."

"Oh- sure." I respond immediately. "..That's probably the most understandable reason there is to do such a thing, I guess.."

"Ngh.. Sound's dumb saying it out loud.."

"What about it was fun..? Maybe I'll try stalking Friendo around for a little bit, to kill an hour or two." I theorize, letting myself sink into the couch a little more.. Only half-kidding..

Roxanne's still faced toward her desk, away from me, but I can just barely see her glare at me in the corner of her eyes for asking that question... The slightest tint of red remaining on her face, while the rest of it dissipated..

"..Ugh- It was just 'fun' to see what you do sometimes.." Rox begins, breaking eye contact and looking at her desk again. "..I just liked seeing what you do when you're alone. And how you're emotions changed when you scrolled through your watch.. It was funny watching you zone out whenever you saw something interesting; and felt good to see you go out of your way to fix shit during your 'rounds' or whatever.. I liked it when you randomly talked to yourself, and liked listening to you hum when you thought you were alone."

..I'm pretty sure she trailed off at some point and started trying to mumble quiet enough so that I can't hear her.. I could though, so that didn't go very well for her.

...

Okay, but anyway, on a way more pressing note:

What the fuck is she talking about..?!

...

"What?" I subconsciously blurt out after a few seconds.

"..What do you mean 'what'?" Roxanne responds, visibly a little hurt/nerved by my inelegant response to her lament.

"Wh.. Rox, what?"

"Mike-, what do you mean 'what'..?!" She repeats, spinning around to look at me.

...

"I d-... What do you mean 'talk to myself every once in a while'..?"

"What the fuck does it sound like I mean?"

"I didn't talk to myself- Friendo was with me. If I was talking at all, I was talking to him. So I wasn't 'alone' at all, on that note."

"Before that! Corpse!" Rox barks, like it should be obvious that's what she meant.

"What do you mean 'before that'..?!"

"What the fuck does it sound like I mean?!"

...

..A clear miscommunication has occurred between us, as evidenced by my wide-eyed confusion and Roxanne's frustration towards me not understanding what she means.

...

...

"It wasn't just today?" I ask after a brief pause.

"What wasn't just today?'

"How long have you been stalking me?"

Roxanne grumbles a little, averting her gaze slightly.

"No, don't-, ngh.. Mike-, Can you call it something else..? 'Stalking' sounds like I'm a fuckin'-"

"Rox- whatever, how long have you been 'following' me, then?"

..Her overreactions from before are starting to make a whole lot more sense..

"Jesus-, what happened to all your patience, Corpse?!" Roxanne responds venomously, unhappy with my newfound enthusiasm.

"I-, Rox.." ..Despite how ridiculously bad I want to know this answer, I play by her rules and force myself to take a long and steady breath before continuing. "..Fine, sorry, but I'm being serious. How long have you been-..?"

"..Thank you.." Roxanne responds with attempted sarcasm, crossing her arms.. There was a touch of 'earnest' in there, though.. I can tell she wasn't fully expecting me to actually act on her request for me to chill the hell out.

"..?"

..She crosses her arms and averts her gaze a little, clearly not completely over how 'embarrassing' it is.

"..Ngh, fuck, fine- Since your birthday.. It's not even all that long ago, so-"

Wh..?!

"..."

...

I didn't cut her off, but it seems like my expression did the trick for me.

"..Stop.. Stop looking at me like that-, you're freaking me out-"

"Rox, I thought you meant today..!"

...

This time, the blank and confused stare comes from the wolf's side.

"..What the hell does that mean?"

"Today..?!"

"Yes, Mike- what happened 'today'?"

"I thought you stalked me today..!"

"I did stalk y-, ugh, call it something else..!" Rox complains, turning her head away.

"Whatever- I thought you 'followed' me today..!"

"I did follow you today- That's how you figured out I followed you at all, dipshit. Remember?"

"No- Rox, I thought you only spied on me today..!"

"What?" Roxanne responds quickly, looking back at me and narrowing her eyes in skepticism.

"I thought today was the only day this happened..!"

"What-? No, I've been doing that. I just told you for how long." She repeats, raising her arms a little like 'duh'.

"Really..?!"

"Yes, Mike, you knew that..!"

"No..! Why would I have known that..?!"

"What?" She breathily replies, glaring at me like I'm the one not making any sense.

"Rox-" I cut myself off with a chuckle of disbelief; getting the air back in my lungs before trying again. "..Rox, I thought the only time you had ever followed me was a little bit ago when I was with Friendo."

"..No, I said since your birthday.."

"I didn't know that until you told me."

...

"What? No- you were making fun of me for it, so you had to have known about it." Roxanne continues arguing, though obviously just buying a little time to fit all the pieces together in her head.

"I was teasing you over following me and Friendo, and nothing else.. That's why I thought you were reacting way more intense than reasonable; because I thought you were only embarrassed about having done this one time. Today."

..There clearly must be a mental block preventing this from being a possibility somewhere in Roxanne's head, 'cause she's still glaring at nothing in particular, trying to make any sense of this incredibly simply concept..

...

...

"Wh..? No, 'cause-.." Roxanne mumbles, slowly trying to cross her arms.. I can almost see the puzzle pieces sliding around in her head, slowly but surely making their way to the correct spots..

...

Unable to wait any longer, I let a short and soft laugh escape my lungs before speaking.

"You've been following me since my birthday? About a week ago?'

...

Rox wasn't able to finish crossing her arms by the time everything started to fit together, so both of her hands are just kind of hovering mid-air in front of her while the very last of the pieces slide into place.

"How long did you follow me each time? Was it the entire time I wasn't with you each night? ..You said you liked it 'when I went out of my way to fix shit during my rounds', but the only two times I had to fix something last week were both in the kitchen. Did you follow me all the way down to the kitchen every night?"

...

..Calling Roxy's face a tomato would be an insult to tomatoes..

It's closer to a vibrant red balloon at this point.. I reckon that means she finally put it all together. She's looking at me like I just stabbed her..

...

..I might if she doesn't start giving me some answers..

...

"Rox, that 'is' stalking. That is what stalking is-"

"SHUT UP!" Roxanne shoots from her chair, clenches her eyes shut, and practically screams at me; which only contributes to how unbelievably red her face is getting. "MIKE, Y-YOU.. You said it WASN'T WEIRD!"

"This is different..! Not at all the same as following me around for fifteen minutes-, you've been doing this for a week..!" I huff, slowly raising from the couch and trying not to laugh in disbelief.

"I was just WATCHING! I-I didn't even DO anything!"

"Stalkers don't have to do anything to be a stalker- they just have to stalk..!"

Frankly, I'm not even sure if Roxanne's even able to listen to me anymore, and I don't really know where to take it from here.

..This might end up being one of the longest screaming matches we've had yet.

...

Ohhh wolfie. I will never let you live this down.