Bonnie: *strumming on guitar* so, now you have summer vacation, do you think you can put out more chapter?
probably? I mean I still have several personal things that need my full attention, so only time will tell if I can put out more chapters per week.
Bonnie: pretty sure the readers would be happy if you gave them a chapter once a week instead each month.
oh go and eat a carrot and let me worry about writing.
Bonnie: and the hate comments
wasn't worth my attention, anyway, to the more happier comments.
to Dragon Of The Ecplising Moon: Sister Location will definitely be included. I might include some voice lines or scenes from Custom Night and I am still wrenching my brain on Help Wanted, would like to include GlitchTrap but not sure how I can put him in.
to Thedyingjokepastaway: heh, yeah, I did make Theo's mother after all those Reddit posts about Entitled parents, might be a bit cliché but even I cannot always avoid them. Well, that remark about what might happen in Theo's future punishment has my attention, and certainly something I would hear further suggestions about. and about the Freddles...
Molly: *trots happily away with a Freddle in her mouth*
yeah, not going to be a problem.
a lot of you asked about this back when I wrote Facing the Past, so enjoy this retake on the reunion.
Nathan loves his job, don't get him wrong but he really does not like the fact that he cannot leave when on duty unless someone he knows is dying. Well, it's quite the opposite for him at the moment; if what Mike told him was true that is.
His dead son has come back from the other side and is once again haunting the animatronic named Foxy. The detective wanted to see his son right after he got the call, but he couldn't as he was on duty in keeping Soren's mother away from her son and niece. Must admit it is quite the chore. Woman refuses to give up and he can only keep an eye on her for so long. The papers of Mike becoming the kids' new ward hasn't yet gone through and it's only a matter of time before he and the cheif can make up excuses to keep her away from the kids.
Fortunately, the woman does not know the children are living at Freddy's and if she did, well Nathan is pretty sure the once again sentient robots won't allow her to take them. Hopefully, they are smart enough not to harm the woman when they throw her out, this detective got enough paperwork as it is. Been one of the reasons why he couldn't go to Freddy's before week's end, and… well, Nathan is worried too, worried that Daniel won't forgive him for his past mistakes. He can't really blame his boy if that's the case, he hasn't exactly been the greatest father…
Still, this fear won't stop Nathan in going, he needs to speak the words he has held ever since that bastard took his son's life.
He went to the restaurant when sure the place has closed down for the day. He has to take a moment in his car to gather his nerves and with a deep breath, he leaves the car and walks over to the front door.
It does not take long before someone opens the locked door, it is Mike and the young man must've known why he is here. "He's outside." Is all Mike says and he lets the detective inside. Nathan thanks him and after have nodded a quick hello to the other animatronics, he heads outside. Here he finds the fox animatronic that houses his son's soul doing some sort of roleplay with a white fox and three young people, two of them are the children Mike is trying to get guardianship over.
Nathan does not approach the scene, instead, he watches his son build up a world for the young ones by mere words and his charismatic. To his small disbelief and deep regret, Nathan realizes that Daniel did the very same thing back when he had a body out of flesh. The only difference that Daniel now has learned how to make the story more coherent for others. He does not babbler or stumbles over his words as he did as a child. The enthusiasm jumping around is still there, and right at that moment, Nathan realizes that his son; even in such a small age knew exactly what he wanted… and all that held him back was his own father.
Unaware of the audience, Foxy continue on putting more meat onto the small game Soren and Hope started, now turned into an epic adventure about a wizard and his student have just encountered the quiet but strong warrior that has a familiar fox inside the Monster Forest. Being the monster, Foxy leaps out from behind one of the trees, doing a very good job in letting them know he is a threat to the heroes.
Thomas is the first to spot him and lifts his 'sword', ready to fight the monster. Before he charges in though, Soren stops him. "Wait, no mere weapon can defeat this monster." He pulls out the pouch he filled with sand not long ago and pours some of it on the large branch. Saying some makeup words for a spell.
"Now, your sword has the powers of a great storm." Soren explains. Thomas nods and charges in with Vixey close behind, Foxy leaps over Vixey to then 'stalk' around her and Thomas while doing monster sounds. The young adult jumps in to 'slash' his back but Foxy, wanting to make the two magic users to help, leaps away, grabs Thomas's leg and makes him tumble to the ground.
Hope gasps and runs over, Soren follows soon after. She waves her hands, shouting: "Ice storm!" Foxy pretends he gets hit by ice and backs away from the bit disorientated Thomas from the sudden fall. Soren then waves his 'staff' around and calls. "No one can break this magical shield!" "hich allows Hope to 'heal' Thomas up and give Vixey a power boost. Foxy waits patiently for the 'shield' to fade and when Vixey pretends horror that the shield is down. He goes in for the attack, is careful not to hurt the kids and allows them to hit him with their weapons. And when Thomas hits him on the back with the stick, he does quite of a show before he acts like he is dead.
"We did it!" Hope cheers, jumping up and down in sheer excitement along with Vixey.
Thomas grins widely to Soren who tries but utterly fails to pretend that he did not find this playfight epic. Vixey then waves the others to follow and they run deeper into the forest as their search for the magical artifact isn't over yet.
Foxy grins at those four bonding thanks to this game, he gets up and does wonder what kind of beast should stand in their way the next—
"Daniel"
Foxy's eyes wide in shock, slowly he turns around and in what feels like forever, staring at the policeman he knows is his father.
The detective stands a bit awkwardly, clearly struggling with what he wants to say. Foxy is glad he's not the only one, their last meeting wasn't exactly a good one.
"They seemed to have fun." The detective finally speaks and Foxy replies, still not entirely sure what to do with this whole situation. "Yeah, most kids do when I spice up the game."
"So I see."
Silence, and again an awkward one.
Foxy shifts unsure on his feet, wondering if it would be rude to excuse himself and leave?
Before he can even put that thought out to reality, detective Williams let's out a sigh and speaks. "Daniel, I… I am sorry." All the professionalism the detective usually have is completely gone, much to Foxy's surprise but he won't voice that as saying those few words clearly was hard for the man.
And it was, Nathan is a proud and also quite the stubborn man, but he needs to say this. He is uncanny lucky in having a third chance to speak with his son, something other parents would pay all their wealth for.
"I shouldn't have tried to make you into something you never wanted to be, to begin with. I should have been more supportive in your interests, even if I never did and never will understand the appeal to it." He has never been good with imagination, more into logic. Which has really been put to its test ever since that puppet involved him into all of this, however, Nathan will be more than happy to throw his logic away if it means to get a second chance with his son. "But it does not matter what I think. This:" He gestures to where the kids are playing. "Makes you happy, and that's good enough for me. I know I haven't been the greatest father and…" Nathan lets out another sigh, he's not used to rambling like this. "What I am trying to say; can we do a fresh start?"
Parts of him want to say no, mostly from the very few memories he has about his father but… Foxy still remembers how he envied the children when watching them be around their parents while he was lacking the only two who could offer him any sense of having a supporting adult role. Yes, he still considers Scott his father and that probably will never change. Foxy is not sure he ever will consider his biological father as his father without his human memories, but he does not want to remember. He is content in simply being Foxy. Yes, parts of him think he does not need the detective but another part of him: wants to repair what little they had, now that his biological father finally has accepted who he is. So, he agrees on the detective's request. "Yeah, let's do a fresh start." The detective's eyes light up, and Foxy hates to destroy that but he has to tell his father that he probably never is going to see him as such. "I really hate to break this to you but… a program in me makes me consider someone here, a man named Scott as my father."
That newsflash hits hard, but Nathan tries not to let it affect him too much. "Oh, um… you won't see me as your…?" Daniel shakes his head with a somber. "Maybe if I remember my human past." The look in those yellow eyes shows that Daniel is afraid to remember, and really, Nathan does not blame him. He will be forced to remember his own death and according to Mr. Fitzgerald: there is a great chance the possessed animatronic goes insane from being forced to relive their own death. Not something he wants his own son to relive, not even to be called dad again. "I understand..." Nathan muses. It is really disappointing to never be considered a father from his own son, but, he shouldn't take he at least gets a second chance repairing their relationship for granted. "Does this Scott treat you good?" He asks, mostly just to be polite and really has to bite down his pride from how Daniel lights up. "You have no idea! I'm surprised he was able to put up with us— back when he found us, I, Freddy, Bonnie and Chica weren't really there in the head but he stuck with us and boy am I glad he did it!"
Nathan listens to his own son gush over a man he now considers his father, it hurts but he refuses to let it affect him. His son is happy and that is all that matters.
However, he needs time to adjust for this major change and excuses himself after about ten minutes of his son praising his adoptive father. Daniel didn't seem to mind and with a cheerful. "Talk to you later, detective." He heads over to the children playing inside the small forest area they have. Nathan refused to show how much it stung being called detective instead of dad by his own son.
Walking back inside, it does not take him long to notice which of the remaining people of who the animatronics considers their new father.
Fre— no Sean, is talking to a man a few years older than Nathan, in a manner of respect a child would to a parent they care about. Nathan decides to have a little chat with the man, hopefully, he is not interrupted in an urgent discussion. "Can I talk with you for a moment?" He asks Scott.
Forgetting about the talk on their restocking their storage with Freddy, Scott turns to the Detective, worrying their local policeman wants to talk to him about something serious. "Of course." and tells Freddy. "I will check the list a bit later."
Freddy nods, eyes Detective Williams and gives the man a polite nod in which the detective returns. Freddy then leaves to give them some privacy.
"I spoke with my son." Detective Williams remarks, catching Scott by surprise as this was not the conversation he was expecting. "Oh, how did it go?"
The Detective lowers his gaze and begins to scratch his neck. "He is willing to give me a second chance."
That's good news, before the whole soul release, Foxy did at one point voice that he did not feel like giving his biological father a second chance, glad to see that Foxy changed his mind. "That's good news." He smiles, but it does fade when he realizes that Foxy's true father does not seem as thrilled as he should. "Something wrong?"
Detective Williams lets out a sight. "He does not consider me as his father, but you."
Oh, he forgot about that imprint program. Scott feels bad he- without meaning- took that title away from Foxy's biological father. "I'm sorry, I uh, never meant to rob this away from you."
The Detective nods, he did not seem happy but at least has a look he is trying to come to terms with this. "Daniel said some program did it."
"Yes, we call it the imprinting program." Scott replies, thinking maybe he should explain how it works. Well, as best as he now can since he does not fully understand it fully either. "I do not fully know why they have it, only that they bonded to me in a time of great distress. They were so scared that it made them, uh well pretty dangerous."
"How dangerous?" Nathan asks, he does not like how Scott is checking if anyone is close enough to hear them and he especially did not like the answer. "Um…well, let's just say, the company got quite good at hiding evidence…" Was it really that bad? "How many?" He asks but parts of him really do not want the answer to that question.
Sensing that, Scott muses. "It's best you don't know…" and it is a bit of a surprise that the Detective did not press him for a solid answer or where those poor sods now lie buried. He is however not surprised by the next question. "Were they aware of this?" and to this Scott can confidently say: "No, their mainframes were too limited for such awareness." Yes they are aware they accidentally hurt him, but he thinks it's because they kept seeing him and the limp he dealt with back then.
Nathan nods slowly, it is against his moral of not reporting this but… hell, would anyone believe him that the robots that took those people lives were sentient robots, having child spirits stuck inside? He highly doubts it, so maybe this topic is best left forgotten. For the animatronics sanity and safety sake.
"Don't ever reveal this to them." He tells Scott in a commanding tone, well aware that it will break his son and friends if they knew they have killed people.
"I promise." Scott replies. He has long told himself that this secret will stay buried like the building that once was Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy's home.
Detective Williams has done a lot of mistakes when it comes to his own son, but he is willing to repair their relationship, even if it means accepting something he never is going to understand. I am pretty sure a lot of parents feels the same way.
I will try and see if I can put out a chapter once per week, but no promises.
till next time.