With the animatronics return, it feels like this place is getting more crowded by the day, that's at least what Jeremy feels like and for once he finds that a good thing. He was getting bored from not having much to do all day and much rather want to have trouble in keeping track on people than be watching the same family for hours on end.
He is glad that things have more or less returned back to how it was before Vincent came and fucked it all up. Glad he's a simple security guard whose only problem is annoying customers and rowdy children.
He does fortunately not have to deal with stupid parents who think the world spins around them, only a pair of preteens that have a potty mouth like him.
"Hey, I know you two are having fun with the game, but try and keep the swearing down." He tells the two in a hard but also trying to keep it friendly tone. The two kids looked ready to give him snarky combat, that until they recognize him and so did he. Last time they caused trouble, he threw them out and it looks like they remember he's not the type taking crap from anyone.
"We will, sorry sir." One of them speaks in a polite tone and they do keep their swearing down. Jeremy must say he is impressed that a pair of preteens, two he knows have attitudes, did in fact listen and did as they were told. And for that, he will allow them to hog that game, even if their time is long overdue.
He passes the book corner where he spots Goldie reading a book for several kids, his brother is not there though. Probably stalking him, ready to do one of his antics.
Well, not this time. Jeremy spots his brother at the Parts and Service door, seemly having a chat with his son. He decides not to head over and hear what they are talking about, he thinks it's best father and son handle that on their own.
Scouting around for troublemakers, Jeremy has to stop for a moment and watch the usual reversed and snide Soren is all social by playing with a small group of kids. All of them using an item they either brought or won from the gift corner in their small game. It's good to see the young teen act more like his age, but not even he can deny the fact that Soren has been forced to grow up fast thanks to what he has already been through.
Jeremy does however not approach the kid, the shadow of the Twisted One still looms over him and he fears he might give in and do something to harm the kid, and that's the last thing he wants. It was bad enough he hurt Mike.
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Near closing, a small family walk inside Freddy's, bit unusual since people are starting to leave but this family has a very good reason to come at this hour.
At the scene, Bonnie notices them and his face changes slightly from his surprise in reaction to him recognizing the mother. The customers did not notice this faint reaction, the parents of this small family did, but for now ignored them and instead takes a seat at one of the tables.
A waiter comes over and has to give the family a heads-up. "I'm sorry, but you won't be able to get any food at this hour near closing. Only drinks and a few snacks."
"That's alright." Askr replies the woman with a friendly smile, he and Kate did expect this and they didn't come here for the food. However, the drive over here did make him thirsty. "Could I get a cola?" The waiter nods and turns to his wife.
"The same." Kate replies while she gently rocks the stroller.
The waitress leaves to fetch them their drinks, waiting for both that and the animatronic to be ready for their reason for coming.
On the stage, the three animatronics are watching Kate and her family closely, all three a bit confused to her sudden arrival and more so when it looks like she's here for the sake of family and not for business.
Bonnie eyes Freddy and asks quietly. "Any idea why Kate is here with her family I presume?"
Freddy gives the rabbit a small shrug, he gently puts a hand on the microphone before he replies. "We will see in a few moments. Place about to close."
And so right he is. The waitress gives the two their drinks and from how she spoke to them. The three know the waitress warned them that the restaurant is closing for the day. She did begin to shift strangely on her feet from whatever the man is saying. Freddy and Chica glance to Bonnie, the only one of the three that has any hope on catching what the man had been saying.
Bonnie frowns at what he heard. "He's here to speak with the owner." Completely ignoring the few eyes are left, Bonnie turns to face Freddy, not hiding his confusion of the situation. "Something about being our lawyer."
Freddy and Chica blink, with the latter asking. "Since when did we get a lawyer?" But none of them have an answer to that. So all they can do is wait for the staff to leave, so they can figure out what's the deal is with this lawyer.
With the last of the cleaning staff out, Askr leaves the table and steps over to the stage, where he speaks directly to the one Kate said is the owner of the restaurant. "Hello, Freddy. I'm Askr; your unofficial lawyer."
Freddy eyes him but does not respond, Askr is quick to realize why and he does not blame him from being careful. "Ah, don't worry about hiding your sentient around me. I mean, my father-in-law is Calem." He chuckles and as hoped, that broke the ice.
"One hell of a way of starting a conversation." The purple rabbit laughs and jumps off the stage. Askr laughs at the rabbit's response but before he can even reply on the rabbit, Freddy calls annoyed. "Bonnie!" In which Bonnie blows a raspberry at the bear. "Lay off, I'm off duty, so I can speak whatever the hell I want."
The chicken leaves the stage as well, giggling joins Bonnie. "You do know he will knock you out for that." In which Bonnie replies cheeky. "I like to see him try."
"Challenge accepted, Bonnie!" Freddy calls back and as hoped, that wipes his stupid grin off. Bonnie makes a face like he bit citrus. "You take crap like this too seriously…" and leaves along with Chica who is laughing her butt off. Freddy laughs too, does quickly stop as he turns to the man who introduced himself as Askr. "I presume Kate told you this." He speaks to the man and follows Askr over to one of the tables.
Askr nods he guessed correctly. "Yes, I have known about your sentience for quite some time now." The man takes a seat and Freddy follows suit, he does blink when Kate explains him briefly. "Askr was the one who ensured you got the ownership of the company after Scott was presumed dead."
Ah, that explains that little mystery, Freddy has a few times been questioning how in the world they got enough money to start this whole business. "Then for granting us a chance of a normal life: I and every other animatronic thank you Askr." He tells the man and adds just as sincerely to Kate. "And the same for you Kate, Goldie said you regret what you put us through during the Upgrade." Kate winches slightly by the mention of that whole ordeal. Freddy rather not go through the pain again, but- "I can say this with confidence that I will gladly go through it again if it will save me from the existence you first saw us in."
Hearing that from Freddy, one who did put up quite the fight during the Upgrade, Kate can now feel at ease knowing that he is thankful for have gone through the agony in return for the body he has now. "I'm glad to hear I made the right choice." Freddy nods in agreement, his friendly smile does get replaced with a somewhat hard expression, one she recognizes as his "down to business" face. And so right she is as the animatronic bear asks Askr. "Why did you come here as our lawyer? Has something come up?"
"Unfortunately yes." Askr replies Freddy, he hands the bear the papers of an upcoming trial. "Thanks to the papers from the father and Mike joined to be a foster parent, I was able to put Hope under his care. Soren… well, there are some issues with his foster program. One of them being his biological mother."
Freddy tenses up, and Askr can only guess the full reason to why. He only knows from the detective that Soren's mother might have attempted to murder her own son. The papers he gave Freddy are the date and reason for a court of who should have Soren under their care. "She is demanding her son back and unfortunately, she has every right to claim him. The only thing keeping her from taking him is the detective and me. I demanded the court of a trial about the guardianship of Soren." He lets out a small sigh and explains while resting his chin in his hands. "You have to attend if you ever wish a chance to win guardianship of the boy. Oh, and Soren has to attend. His testimony might be what makes or break this whole thing."
Should have known having the two children wouldn't be that easy than simply giving them a roof over their heads. However, Freddy is willing to fight for the young boy. Not because he is a Medium but because Freddy cannot stand idly by and let an innocent child get hurt.
Not when he knows how much doing nothing can resolve in the end.
"We will come, don't worry." Askr nods and hands him a few extra papers, a quick scan reveals them to be notes about what he and detective Williams have been doing in order to keep Soren's mother away.
With the business done, Kate feels like it's about time her father meets his granddaughter. "Dad, dad come over here!" She calls.
Goldie turns away from Spring, first there he notices that not only his daughter and husband are on a visit but besides Kate is a stroller. He does not even bother with walking over, he teleports and appears right before the stroller in knelling position. The toddler in the stroller stares at him with olive wide eyes from the giant golden bear that has appeared right before her. He smiles down to the young child. "Hey, little one." He greets her quietly so as not to scare her further. He's not surprised that she keeps staring wide-eyed at him.
Turning away from the still processing toddler. "She's beautiful, not much of talker though."
Kate chuckles lightly. "Not a surprise, she's deaf like me." Ohhh, that explains it.
Goldie turns back to the child, waves hello before he signs. 'You are cute' there his granddaughter reacts and smiles, she then signs 'hello' quickly, followed by even one with hearing knows the meaning off. She lifts her hand up and jumps slightly up and down, chuckling Goldie comply and lifts the toddler up in his arms. Her small hands dig deep into the fur, like many other children, wants to touch the giant golden teddy bear as he is.
"Well, that was fast." Askr voices, Goldie glances to him and the father of his granddaughter explains. "Cressida is a rather shy child, so to see her open up this quickly is rather surprising."
Goldie laughs at this, not as loud as he usually would, can't have he scares little Cressida. "Of all the things you have seen, this:" Nodding to the toddler playing with his purple neck band. "Is what surprises you?"
"That's why I love him." Kate remarks with a smirk to her husband. Askr chuckles. She then turns back to her father. "I'm sorry you didn't see her during your last visit. Had a lot on my plate back there."
"Perhaps that was for the best. I wouldn't have been able to hold her." Goldie replies and is quite happy he can now without the risk of crushing his granddaughter.
He glances to Freddy when his adoptive brother gets up. Before he leaves though, Goldie stop him. "Come and say hello to my granddaughter."
Freddy eyes the small child and feels a bit hesitant. He likes kids but only when they are way more study than that. "I prefer older children." He replies, does give the toddler a small wave before he leaves Goldie with his biological family.
Rena and two of the Toys in form of Chiara and BonBon come over to greet Kate's and Askr's child.
The rest kept a polite distance so not to overwhelm Cressida and overcrowd the parents.
While most gushed over the baby or simply goofing around in the Game Room, Freddy pulls Soren aside and explains to the young teen what Askr told him. Soren did not look thrilled about the thought that he has to be in the same room as his mother. "I know this might be hard for you, but without your testimony. The chances of Mike gets the right to be your ward will vastly decrease." Freddy explains him calmly but in a tone that this is quite a serious matter.
Soren slowly nods, he does refuse to meet his eyes though. "I know." Freddy watches the boy quietly and is pretty sure that he had the same face back when Vincent plunged that knife into him. Freddy can easily see that Soren is scared and he does not blame the kid, he gently puts a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Facing one who has hurt you is not easy. It's okay to be scared." Soren looks as if he wants to deny it, but no word ever leaves the boy's mouth. Freddy gets down on his knees so he at least does not have to force Soren head up for their eyes to meet. "But you can't let it stop you. If you do, then the person who hurt you will win."
"But what if she tries to kill me again?" Soren asks Freddy quietly, he is scared to face the woman that should be his mother, now is one under the Twisted One thrall. "What is going to stop her finishing the job?" He highly doubts she will respect the rules inside the court, his mother is one of those people who doesn't give much of a darn on authority and he is certain that the moment she realizes he will not return to her: she will snap.
Freddy squishes his shoulder slightly, in a sign he is careful not to hurt him. "There are people there whose job is to keep that from happening, one of them is Detective Williams. But:" Freddy straightens himself up and if Soren didn't know Freddy has a friendly soul, then he would've been a bit scared of the large robot towering over him. "If it will make you feel safer, one of animatronics of your choice can go with you."
Hearing that puts Soren's mind at ease, but only for a moment as his mind now is filled with confusion. "Don't you think it would be weird if an entertainment robot came waltzing inside a courtroom?" He asks Freddy deadpan.
Freddy chuckles at his matter of fact. "We have a second form to use when leaving the restaurant." Which only makes Soren the more confused but also curious that the animatronics haven't shown all of their secrets. He does have a feeling that little secret will be shown at the court date. "Can you go with me?" He asks Freddy, not only because Freddy house a protective spirit, one he knows won't allow any harm come to those he cares about but also because he thinks the judge might come at their side if Freddy gets a chance to speak with him. The icon of the restaurant does have the charisma to makes people side with him and Soren hopes that small ability will help him in the court.
A bit surprised by the request since Freddy did expect Soren to request Goldie, however, he did say that Soren can freely choose and if he thinks having him around is best, then he will go. "Alright, I will accompany you to the hearing." Soren lets out a sigh of relief, Freddy smiles down to the boy and assures him one more time. "Don't worry, we won't let you return back to her."
"Thank you." and Soren truly means it. It feels like forever he last met such kind people and it is a breath of fresh air he has longed for from what feels like a lifetime.
I was at first planning that Kate and Askr didn't have children, but after my older sister gave birth, I figured I could use the new baby for possible scenes.
Like Freddy, I don't really know what to do with the baby.
so, a court, yeah not exactly what you might have expected but a raging woman won't pose much of a threat to a building filled with animatronics.
I can't promise this court chapter will be 100% correct. all of it will be from papers and videos on how that stuff works.
like always, suggestions or simple comments about your thoughts are always appreciated.
till next time.