A/N: We're skipping a bit and going straight to Christmas Day, so that I can write about one of the traditions that my family always used to do every year whenever we visited New York! Granted, the circumstances are a little different here since it's Mike and his ghost kids, but who cares about details.
To the one guest, AO3 is Archive of our Own.
RicAlburquerque: I don't really put much stock in the GregBot theory, and there's not really much definitive evidence to support it in-game, so it's probably not gonna be implemented in this fic.
Chapter 153 – Trip to the Big Apple 3
It really was amazing, Mike mused, just how different each Christmas had been ever since they had formed their family.
Their first Christmas together had been exactly what one would have expected from a snow-covered Christmas at a family home. Their second had featured the return of spirits who had long passed into the realm of the afterlife, and had been a major milestone for Liz in particular.
And now they were spending this Christmas on the opposite side of the country, in an urban environment that couldn't have been any more different from the quiet town of Hurricane.
"MERRY CHRISTMAS!" several joyful voices shouted in unison as Mike brushed aside the last vestiges of sleep still clouding his mind.
"Merry Christmas to you too," the man replied serenely as he got out of his hotel bed. It would be their last day in the Plaza Hotel, as Mike had plans to relocate to a hotel closer to the Times Square and the heart of New York where the action was. "Did it snow last night?"
Susie quickly peeked out the window. "Not really," she replied, "but there's still a lot of snow everywhere."
"Perfect," Mike replied. To be honest, he was relieved that the snow had not gotten worse over the past few days. While snow was the perfect weather for any Christmas Day, if it had kept falling then traveling through the city would have been an arduous, painful slog whether traveling on foot or by car. And if it had been too heavy, then it might not have been possible to carry out his intended plan for today.
"What are we gonna do about presents?" Gabe suddenly asked. "We completely forgot about that!"
"Oh my God, you're right!" Cassidy exclaimed in shock. "We don't even have a Christmas tree to celebrate with in our hotel room!"
Shit. Mike suppressed the urge to grimace as the ghosts began to ask questions about how exactly they were going to celebrate the time-honored tradition of Christmas gift-giving without any gifts to give. He'd completely forgotten about that in his excitement and his planning for their vacation. One could argue that the trip to New York itself was the gift for all of them, but that felt like a cheap excuse and a cop-out for someone who had more than enough resources to give each of his children a Christmas gift.
"We can figure that out when we get back home," Mike decided, bringing their attention all back to it. "For now, if you see something special that you really want, I'll get it for you as long as it's not too heavy to carry."
"That sounds good to me," Jeremy happily agreed, speaking for his siblings. "But what about celebrating with a Christmas tree?"
"I saw a big Christmas tree in the restaurant of the hotel, I think," Liz pointed out. "Maybe we can use that and pretend like we're celebrating back home?"
Mike's face broke into a grin. "That's the easy part," he replied, catching their attention. "We could indeed use the Christmas tree in the hotel…but I've got an even better idea. We just need to take a little walk in the city to get there."
A Few Hours Later…
"I should have taken a fucking taxi," Mike grumbled as he trudged through the streets, the ghosts surrounding him as he walked from block to block. While it was true that there hadn't been any new snow overnight, the winter chill was still deathly cold and bombarding him from all sides, with only his heavy winter jacket protecting him from being frozen to death. Even his kids seemed to be affected, given how they were shivering in the cold despite transfiguring winter clothes on themselves and being immune to the worst of the elements as ghosts.
"At least you're not dragging around a heavy suitcase behind you," Charlie offered.
"Thank fuck for that," Mike muttered. He had opted to first check in to his new hotel and drop off his suitcase before venturing back out into the city, a move that had increasingly proven wise in hindsight.
"Are you sure you shouldn't have just taken a car to where we're going?" Liz asked, concern in her voice.
"And where exactly ARE we going?" Fritz couldn't help but add.
"To answer Liz's question first," Mike began as he stopped to wait for a traffic light to change, "do you SEE the roads right now?" He briefly shifted his gaze over to the roads, and when the ghosts followed they cringed at how utterly clogged the roads were with cars. "If I got in a taxi to get where we're going, it'd probably take over an hour just to get there with all of this unholy traffic. I'd rather just walk in the cold and be done with it."
The ghosts could definitely understand where their father was coming from. They might be able to ignore physical limitations and boundaries thanks to their spectral nature, but their father was still mortal and still bound to those restrictions. And to even think about leaving him behind was simply not going to happen.
"As for where we're going…there's this place called Rockefeller Center," Mike explained. The traffic light shifted from "Don't Walk" to "Walk," and the man continued his walk down the street with his children following closely. "Normally, it's a decent enough tourist attraction with nothing too crazy going on…but that all changes when it's time for the Holiday Season. If I'm remembering correctly, they really go all-out with the Christmas decorations at the center when the winter season rolls around, and since it actually is Christmas today, there's no better time to go and visit it than now!"
"Ooh, I can't wait til we get there!" Susie exclaimed.
"Do you know how far away we are?" Jeremy asked.
Mike frowned slightly and looked at his map. "A few blocks away, I think?" he replied. "Hopefully it won't be too long. Apparently there's a building near the Rockefeller Center that has a really cool Christmas-themed show every year, so you guys can take a look at that too!"
"Hell yeah, I'm down!" Fritz exclaimed.
The family continued their journey, venturing past the streets filled with people and passing by the countless skyscrapers that made up New York City. It was every bit as crowded and imposing as Chicago had been, possibly even more so. After several more minutes of walking, Mike noticed that the crowd of people seemed to be getting denser, as though they were all focused on getting to the same destination. "I think we're getting close," he remarked.
"If only we could fly over these people and just get to the center already!" Cassidy whined.
"And leave Dad behind?" Gabe retorted. "Not happening."
"Thanks for the concern, but we're almost there anyway," Mike interrupted with a wry smile. If I'm remembering correctly, it should be just around this corner here." He fought his way through the crowds of people as he approached a large opening between two of the buildings further up and to the right. Moving together as a unit, the family finally made their way to their destination…
…and what they saw more than justified the hype that had been building up to this moment.
The plaza of the Rockefeller Center looked as though it had been directly imbued with the very spirit of Christmas itself. The walkway leading down to the plaza itself had been decorated with a garden that stretched all the way from the road to the edge of the plaza, filled with plants and flowers that were adorned with comforting golden lights. Flanking the garden were several statues of angels that looked as though they had been made out of pure silver wire, their bodies glowing with the same golden lights from the garden, all of them lifting golden trumpets to their mouths as though they were heralding the coming of Jesus. Next to the statues were smaller statues that looked like spiky silver constructions that looked almost like sea urchins, but were clearly meant to represent stars and the brilliant eminence that radiated away from them.
Yet even that was nothing compared to what lay ahead of them. Even from far away, the family could make out the shape of a positively gigantic Christmas tree out in front of them. A tree that was several stories tall and stood proudly over the Rockefeller center, capturing and demanding everyone's attention.
It really was as though a piece of Heaven had fallen from the sky and touched Rockefeller Center, capturing both the festive and sacred natures of the holiday in a way that the Schmidts had never seen before.
"Whoaaaa…" Jeremy breathed, his jaw dropping. "This looks so Heavenly!"
"How did the city make something this amazing?" Susie gaped at the beautiful sight in front of her. "I've never seen anything like this before!"
"Are those angels made of WIRE?" Liz asked incredulously as she studied one of the statues more closely. "Somebody actually made an actual made out of a bunch of wire? HOW?"
"It's so beautiful…" Cassidy gushed, her eyes glowing with happiness as she took in the scene around her. "This place looks like it's made of Christmas itself!"
Mike grinned. "Welcome to Rockefeller Center, guys," he declared. "It might not look like anything crazy on most days of year, but when Christmas time rolls around, there's no better place to spend it. Anybody want to go in and get a closer look?"
"YES!" Everyone else exclaimed at the same time. Mike nodded and began making his way down the walkway, passing by the angels and stars in the garden one at a time. About halfway down towards the end, he stopped and took out his phone, approaching a young couple who looked like they had come to the center out on a date.
"Excuse me," he addressed them politely. "Would you mind taking a picture of me next to one of the angels?"
"Sure!" the woman replied, accepting Mike's smartphone. Mike shuffled over to the angel and grinned at the phone camera, the ghosts flying around taking positions next to or on top of the angel. Even though they couldn't reveal themselves and be a part of the actual picture without causing mass chaos and hysteria at the center, it was still fun to pretend that they were taking part in the picture alongside their father. "1…2…3…"
"CHEESE!" the ghosts exclaimed, unheard by any but their father as the woman took several pictures of Mike on his phone. Once she was done, the woman handed the camera back to Mike.
"Thanks," the man replied gratefully as he turned away from the couple and looked through the pictures. Sure enough, they showed Mike standing next to one of the angel statues holding up its trumpet, grinning confidently at the camera. "Not bad, huh?" he asked.
"You look great, Dad," Charlie complimented with a smile.
"Thanks. I'll show these to Ryan and Melody later," Mike commented with a smile of his own, putting his phone away. He was about to proceed down the rest of the walkway, when Cassidy's voice suddenly interrupted him.
"Holy crap, what the heck is THAT?" the former Golden Freddy inhabitant shouted, pointing behind them. Mike and the other ghosts turned around…and quickly saw what had caught her attention to begin with. The family had been so focused on what was in front of them that they had completely neglected the building behind them, and it was only now that they realized that the building across the street had been prepared for Christmas in its own right.
The entire side of the building was covered in an elaborate series of decorations that made it look like it was part of a castle. Between each of the towering windows were vertical frames that looked like towers, complete with triangular spires at the top with star-like decorations on the pinnacles. At the top of each window was a crescent-like structure that was meant to represent a banner or a curtain, and right underneath the pinnacle at the very center was a circle with a snowflake etched upon it. The whole formation reminded the children of Disneyworld's iconic castle, bringing back fond memories of their vacation with the Marshalls one year ago.
"Is it just me or is there a giant castle on the side of the building?" Fritz asked.
Charlie's eyes widened in realization. "Oh, I know what this is! It's the Light Show on the Saks Fifth Avenue building!" she quickly explained. "Every holiday season they do a really cool light and music show here. I heard it's really amazing!"
"Do we know when the next show is?" Susie wondered, looking excited at the idea of watching a cool light show.
Mike thought for a moment. "It's been a little while since we got here, and I think they do the show every few minutes. So hopefully they do the next one soon."
His estimation would prove correct when, a minute or two later, Christmas music began to play all around them. Seconds later, the entire castle formation began to shine with brilliant white light, save for the stars that emanated a faint golden color. The Schmidt family watched in awe as the different parts of the castle glowed brilliantly in tandem with the music playing, the towers, curtains, and spires either intensifying or declining to create a vibrant and dynamic pattern of lights. The color of the lights themselves quickly changed in nature as well, reflecting the nature of the song that was playing and casting the castle in a completely different atmosphere. One moment, the towers and banners would be shining a brilliant gold, a true symbol of royalty and opulence. The next, the towers would turn black as the spires and banners glowed pink and purple, all while light blue icicles hung down from the ceiling above the castle itself. The castle could be cast in a fiery orange glow at one moment and then a dark blue aura representing the chill of winter only a few seconds later. All of these and more were part of the many colorful patterns that the Schmidt family witnessed as they watched the light show on the side of the building, beautifully complemented by the Christmas music that played all around them. The selection of holiday music playing throughout the show was as diverse as the lights themselves, a perfectly balanced blend of classical and pop music that the ghosts could actually recognize now that they had celebrated multiple Christmases with Mike and been exposed to the holiday music in the December winters leading up to those celebrations.
It reminded the children very much of the fireworks show they had seen at midnight in Disney World last year. The spectacle might have been contained to the side of a single building, but it was no less awe-inspiring and wonderful for them to see. And when the show finally ended with a final burst of golden light from the castle, the children were cheering and applauding enthusiastically along with everyone else present.
"That was SO COOL!" Cassidy gushed. "Coolest thing we've seen in this city so far by a long shot!"
"Reminded me of the fireworks show we saw back in Disneyworld," Gabe commented with a nostalgic smile. "Those were some good times."
"We're really celebrating Christmas in a whole new way this year, aren't we?" Liz asked, her green eyes twinkling eagerly.
"I'd hope so," Mike replied dryly, "otherwise coming here would've been a huge waste of time."
As the ghosts giggled at his dry humor, Charlie suddenly realized something. "I think there's something else here besides the light show. If I'm remembering correctly, there's a different Christmas show at this same building with the windows of the store. We should take a closer look before we go back to Rockefeller Center!"
"Hell yeah, let's go!" Fritz eagerly agreed. Nobody had any objections to Charlie's suggestion, so they quickly crossed the street to the building that had just presented such a wonderous light and music show to them. After about a minute or two of searching, they found the window that was clearly meant to be the start of the show. While the area immediately in front of windows was covered by a line of people, the ghosts fortunately had no problems with simply phasing through them to get a view up-front-and-center, while Mike was satisfied with watching the show from afar to minimize the amount of time spent as much as possible.
The first showed a snow-covered hill with snowmen lying on the hill in different positions. At the very top was a train track with festive red mine carts, which stopped underneath identically colored pipes. The ghosts watched as some of the pipes dropped large snowballs onto the carts, while others dropped what looked like piles of confetti into them instead.
"Is this meant to be the North Pole?" Susie wondered. "Is this a train that goes to Santa's workshop or something?"
"We'll find out soon enough," Jeremy replied.
They moved on to the next window, passing by a towering statue of a nutcracker as they did so. This window showed a much more active scene, showing an actual factory that was in the process of packaging candy canes together. Several boxes of candy canes were being moved on a conveyer belt, each one a different color, completing the depiction of holiday-themed industry. While it was still too early to tell, it was looking more and more like Susie's theory was the correct one.
"Man, look at all those candy canes!" Fritz looked hungrily at them. "I bet they'd be amazing to eat!"
"I dunno, part of me found candy canes annoying to eat more than anything," Mike countered. "I'd rather keep them intact and use them as decorations for trees, I like them a lot more that way. And no, before you ask, I'm not going to let you possess me just for the sake of eating a candy cane."
"Awww…" the former Foxy inhabitant groaned in disappointment as they moved on to the next window, once again passing by another nutcracker. This third window showed another factory scene, but instead of candy canes, the factory was packaging Christmas gifts. In the background, the conveyer belt was moving the presents at a much faster speed than they had the candy canes, and this time the machinery itself was colored in hues of red instead of the generic white from before, contributing more to the "holiday" theme overall. Several white gift boxes in red ribbons had already been packaged and laid out right behind the window, ready to be delivered to the rest of the world.
"What do you guys think is in those gift boxes?" Jeremy wondered.
Charlie shrugged. "Who knows?" she replied. "It could be those candy canes from earlier, it could be toys, it could be anything."
"I wish I could take one home with me," Cassidy commented a bit wistfully.
They moved on to the next window, which showed a rather different factory scene compared to the others. Instead of simple conveyer belts, there was a large grid on which several different-colored Christmas ornaments were falling towards an unseen collection basin at the bottom. There were much larger silver ornaments scattered around the floor in piles, as well as several machines collecting other ornaments to the left. What really caught the attention of the children was the giant golden hand that swung back and forth, although it didn't seem to do anything in particular. In the background was another conveyer belt scene, although this time the machines were putting the finishing touches on Christmas ornaments that were to be delivered.
"Is that how they really make ornaments?" Liz asked.
Gabe shrugged. "Don't ask me, none of us have ever been to an ornament factory."
"Would be really cool if that was how they actually made ornaments, though," Susie commented wistfully.
There was one more window left, this one showing a large and complex machine with several levers and buttons, as well as a computer showing a smiling face at the top. To the right, the machine was churning out a sheet of paper not too different from a receipt on a cash register, but unlike a receipt the paper primarily displayed a neverending list of names. Names, they realized, that were the children who the gifts were to be sent to. Even though Santa Claus hadn't actually made an appearance in this show, it was easy for the ghosts to identify that this was the master computer that ran the Christmas factory, one that was almost certainly situated at the North Pole and in Santa's workshop.
"Man, if only Santa Claus actually existed," Jeremy sighed. "It'd be so awesome actually flying around to people's houses on a sleigh to deliver gifts to everyone on Christmas."
"Imagine if Jesus and Santa were best friends," Cassidy suggested. "Both of them working together to make Christmas the best it can possibly be!"
"We can only dream," Liz sighed as they backed away from the windows, having reached the end of the line. Mike was waiting for them a few steps away, and they crossed back across the street to get back to Rockefeller Center and the walkway of angels that led down to it.
"Looks like we're FINALLY gonna actually get down to the Rockefeller Center now," Mike commented. "Didn't realize there were other things to see before we even got to the destination."
"I really want to get a look at that Christmas tree!" Fritz exclaimed. "I don't think we'll ever see a tree that huge ever again!"
They made their way past the final pair of angel statues, and suddenly found themselves at the edge of an overlook that looked down into an ice rink, where several people skating in circles on the ice without a seeming care in the world. To the sides of the giant pit that made up the courtyard were several trees covered in Christmas lights, while a golden statue with two dancers stood proudly right underneath the main Christmas tree. The main tree itself was also much closer in view, giving the ghosts a much better view of a tree that was positively covered in countless different types of decorations in a way that the ghost kids could only ever dream of replicating on their own Christmas tree. Surrounding the courtyard were several flagpoles in a row, each proudly demonstrating a different flag representing a country of the world. The kids could recognize South Korea's flag in addition to the U.S.A.'s, having visited that country before.
"We can go fly up and see the Christmas tree up close and personal, can't we?" Gabe realized.
"Heck yeah we can," Susie eagerly confirmed. "Just like every other cool thing we've seen so far!"
"I'm gonna go see what the view looks like from the top of that tree!" Liz declared.
As the ghosts flew up towards the top of the Christmas tree, Mike looked back down at the ice skaters down in the rink. "You know what, fuck it. I'm gonna go do a few rounds down there," he informed Charlie. "Make sure the rest of them don't do anything crazy."
"I got you," the former Marionette nodded. Mike turned to find the nearest elevator, and descended down into the lower level of Rockefeller Center. It hadn't been immediately obvious from the view above on the street level, but there were actually several different stores and restaurants for tourists to visit and dine in, although none of them held any interest to Mike at the moment. Instead, he beelined straight towards the ice skating rental, having already purchased a ticket beforehand to secure his place on the rink, and moved over to the rink itself once his skates were secured. He carefully stepped onto the ice, making sure that he wasn't about to fall, before following the rest of the ice skaters. It took him a few seconds to secure his balance, having not ice-skated for years, but once he finally got the hang of things again it took him little time to join his fellow ice skaters in making several circles around the frozen courtyard of the Rockefeller Center. As he did so, he looked up towards the sky, admiring the many different lights and decorations that had transformed the center into a true realm dedicated to Christmas, if only temporarily.
"Did my kids ever see anything like this before they died?" Mike couldn't help but wonder. "And would they have ever been able to see anything like this, if they'd been able to live their lives as they should have before William Afton fucked everything up?"
The man knew full well just how limited opportunities could be for someone who didn't have the resources that he enjoyed. Mike wasn't oblivious to the fact that if he hadn't been given that lottery ticket by Oskar's admirer, he'd likely have been chained down to Hurricane, Utah, for the rest of his life…assuming he didn't end up as a bloodied corpse in a Freddy Fazbear suit the moment his luck ran out in Freddy Fazbear's pizzeria.
He didn't know what kind of lives his children would have lived if they hadn't been sacrificed on the bloody altar of William Afton's cruel insanity. But he was grateful that the long and tortuous road that had been their afterlife in Freddy Fazbear's pizzeria had ended with their freedom. He was grateful that they had found their way into his house and given him a life he'd never known he'd needed. And he was grateful that they could enjoy the world in ways that no other living person on Earth could experience, thanks to their ghostly natures.
Mike wasn't going to say that being a ghost was worth all the suffering and misery that had led to that point, not at all. Nobody outside of the psychopathic mongrel who had made the tragedy possible in the first place deserved the fate that had fallen on them. But as he looked up to see his children flying around the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, inspecting the many opulent decorations and waving at him from the top of the golden star, he couldn't help but smile.
Something good had come out of the Fazbear tragedy in the end, no matter how horrible it might have been. And that was certainly something worth celebrating on this Christmas day.
/
A/N: Merry Christmas to the Schmidts indeed.
Out of all the places I've visited throughout my entire life, there's no place that captures the spirit more than Rockefeller Center during the Winter holidays. Christmas Day at New York City just wouldn't be complete without a visit to Rockefeller Center. I've tried to describe the place as best I can, but I highly recommend you look up a picture if you're not familiar with it already. In this case, a picture truly is worth more than a thousand words.
I'm still thinking about where I want the Schmidts to go to next, but there's a few possible options that I already have in mind. At any rate, I hope you guys enjoyed!
