I Don't Own Fnaf

Mike felt... weird, numb mostly. He was used to the feeling, he felt it constantly the last few years, but he had thought he had been doing better, it had been getting less and less often when the feelings of... Of when they cropped up, but today had been bad, he could recognize that, it was easy to see when in contrast everyone else around him reacted today like normal and actually functioning people, even the ghosts were able to be more alive today than he had been.

He hadn't lied to Marionette, he really did feel incredibly relieved at the turn out and how well the day had turned out, it was genuinely incredibly relieving and he did feel good about the day as a whole, but it was underneath of a layer of just... numbness that made it hard for him to care as much as he knew he normally would have. If it had been any other day he'd be off the walls internally, bursting with pride even, he was sure of it, and if he was lucky, it was how he would feel tomorrow, but for right now, even a long talk with Jeremy and Fritz while they finished up cleaning hadn't done much for his mood, even if the two didn't notice...

Or well, Fritz didn't notice and he and Jeremy had already had a 'talk' about his 'bad days' as the slightly older man had called them, which Mike supposed was a better word for it then when he felt almost like crawling into a hole and not leaving. Only 'almost', because he knew exactly what it felt like when he knew he really didn't want to actually leave, those days hadn't been back thankfully, but these ones still happened, and thankfully Jeremy didn't push him on them, just ignored it and treated him like it was any other day. Which honesty? It helped a lot, being treated like nothing was wrong by someone who knew, like he was normal and fine and not in some pit in the back of his mind.

Still, now he was in the car heading to the warehouse so he could talk to his brother, not sure at the moment if this was a good idea with just where his head was at, but also not really being able to muster up the care on if it was a good idea or not either, besides he had already told Marionette he would and he didn't like lying to the people close to him.

Besides, he really did want to check in on his brother anyways, seeing how the bear was getting used to the warehouse. It was something of a new thing, Goldie had been wanting to go over there for a while now, given he wouldn't have anything to do but sit in the back room of the diner and just exist during and after service hours, so at least at the warehouse he would have options, be it from the number of left over arcades or the computer in there that Fritz had made a new profile for so it could still be used without a company pass just without any company information, or the other entertainment options Mike had worked on letting the bear have access to.

There was another reason though as well as to why Goldie was there though, even though the plans had been put into motion a few weeks before Goldie himself moved in, also a few weeks ago now at this point.

And that was because there was someone, probably some teens, who seemed invested in messing with them, having broken in at least once or twice though probably more, having come into the warehouse with the only interest they had in messing with things. A number of things, mostly papers and minor things that were somewhat important were just moved around or placed in incredibly weird places that everyone knew they wouldn't have done.

Normally they would have just set up some cameras and called it a day, or gotten one of the three men who were all trained security guards to just stay there overnight, but, frankly, it just didn't work. Mike already worked at night and while Fritz and Jeremy tried for a few days to do switching shifts, it didn't amount to anything, nothing happening to the point the two figured it was over, so the second that they left the warehouse alone, it happened again.

While cameras would have helped, everyone all agreed without a second of thought that all security measures they could have set up around and in the diner than anywhere else. They were taking the kid's safety to as high of a level as they could possibly afford. Still, it was definitely someone playing a prank and that was the main reason none of the group took it too seriously, given everything actually important was locked up after the second time it happened, and instead Goldie simply raised the point if nothing would happen if someone was there, then he'd just be there himself. Worse case, it still happened and Goldie would be able to tell them who it was.

It worked, there hadn't been any more issues since Goldie the Guard Bear made himself at home to keep the lights on at night.

Mike didn't mind, he was mostly just glad that Goldie had a place for himself now, away from the bad memories and all the time he had spent trapped at the diner. Speaking of not being trapped at the diner, he was there, as he pulled up to the warehouse in his car, which had only recently been repainted finally to a new color, a dark blue, if only out of Mike's admittedly paranoid mind still thinking someone would recognize the vehicle, even though no one had noticed after months of driving it around.

Heading into the warehouse, Mike hit the main lights to announce his presence as he strolled in and straight towards the bottom floor office where he knew Goldie would most likely be. That idea was quickly proven to be true as he knocked on the closed office door and quickly heard a faint 'Come in', from it.

Opening the door and moving inside, Mike took a moment to just look around before finding his brother half awkwardly but definitely comfortably slouched up on the couch that had been put in the office.

"Hey Gol, wanna hear about how today went?" The bear shifted for a moment, as Mike watched as two silver eyes turned to look at him. Mike wasn't sure at this point if the eyes that Fritz had finally fitted into Goldie's head were better or worse with how used to eyeless Goldie he had become. The fact that he knew for a fact those eyes used to be blue before they had been put in was a whole other reason why it was kind of frankly creepy given Evan's eyes had been silver. One of the few things he got from their father, while Mike got everything else but the eyes.

The thought made the faint ache in his chest grow just a bit, though Goldie's answer thankfully pulled him from his thoughts.

"No need, I was watching" Mike... paused at that for about half a second before asking simply as he moved into the room, sitting down on the only chair in the room, the office chair that was sat by the desk which now also held a fairly big but still portable satellite tv on top of the computer monitor, as well as a radio.

"I thought you could only do that to that Freddy's not just anywhere, or is the diner special?" Goldie didn't seem too interested in answering for a moment, but eventually said simply.

"I can't see the old pizzeria anymore, there's nothing there that would let me see around them, before I had the others there so I could see what was happening around and to them, but now no one is there" Mike nodded, catching on quickly enough.

"Right, so since Foxy is at the Cove, then you can see what's happening over there when you want to" The bear simply nodded, it made enough sense to Mike, and by that, it made next to no sense at all, and while he would have been more than fine with leaving it like that, it also meant that he had nothing to talk about really, and that meant it was just a matter of time until they both feel into the awkward silence that occasionally came up when neither had anything to talk about, so instead Mike let himself press on the question. "So, what you were doing wasn't really, like, haunting the building then? I figured that's what it was, given that the original three seemed to do the same thing you were with Miller"

Goldie seemed a bit surprised by the line of questioning continuing, but seemed more at ease with explaining it than he had been before.

"No, unless you're incredibly powerful, it's next to impossible to actually haunt a building while staying in the body you're in, actually, no, it would just be impossible. I could make someone think a building is haunted by messing with what it is that they are able to see and hear, but nothing past that in a more literal sense, nothing that would affect multiple people at once unless I want to expend a lot of effort for a small pay off. Same with others with their own skills, they could make someone think that a place is haunted but not much else" Mike recalled the memory of seeing the vision that Goldie had made which had been of himself, before the bear continued, "But the others didn't have bodies to hold them down, it was a lot easier for them to work freely, though it made it a lot harder for them to stay around without fading away, we need these forms to anchor ourselves here, it was out of an incredible level of determination that those three managed to stay around even for those few days without anchors to do any 'haunting'"

Mike leaned back and thought about that for a moment before nodding.

"Alright, that makes sense, sort of, not really, but I get the jest of it at least" Mike got the impression that his brother was at least somewhat amused by that, so he took it as a win, though now that he was asking questions, he couldn't help but press a bit more, "So, any other common ghost facts that are fake that I should know about since I'm living with one?" Actually, given Marionette couldn't actually haunt a house, but was still a ghost living there, did that still technically count then? Was the diner and warehouse? How many ghosts did it take or was any amount more than enough?

"We can't float through walls and just disappear, or at least, most of us can't" Right, Marionette had his teleporting and flying habits...

"Could you learn how to do that? Like, become a gold flying bear? Because if so, then I think we'll have to rethink you not being at the pizzeria, that sounds like an incredible attraction, or maybe the circus" Mike was joking, though after a moment he realized maybe that wasn't that great a joke to make. Thankfully a faint rumbling sound came from the suit that Mike took as his brother's laugh.

Something he's learned is that animatronic laughter was different and varied by their models. Marionette chimed, Foxy more or less guffawed like an old man, and Goldie's suit let out small rumbles, like it couldn't handle making more higher pitched sounds of real laughter so it defaulted to that. Either way, it was nice to hear, knowing what it was.

"No, I wouldn't know where to start, Marionette had to learn out of necessity, all of us with more specialized abilities did, without that it's much harder to be able to figure out how to do things like that, especially on such a large scale" Mike just nodded, categorizing that as another thing in his mind's index of weird things he knew about, only to stop and blink for a moment, having to ask soon after.

"Wait, if it's out of necessity, then how come Jeremy developed some weird empathy thing of all things and nothing else? I'd personally try to go for telekinesis or something more useful" Or at the very least less invasive, though Goldie seemed to find that somewhat amusing for a reason Mike didn't know, he answered his question surprisingly easy, though vaguely.

"Jeremy didn't mean for it, but he was... visited by the toys, in the way that they could, while he was still in his coma, after Marionette had given him his gift to keep him alive, it kept his mind open from what I can guess, and he never had the chance to learn how to proper close it. His control would have to suffer from not being a true spirit like the rest of us, nor would he have the energy for anything more" Huh... that was weird but sort of mad-... Wait-

"What? Why did you say that like Mari did something weird and spooky to keep Jeremy alive?" Goldie just stared at Mike like he was missing something obvious here as the man just waited for an answer, didn't get it, and then continued to ask, "No, like, seriously, I'm not dumb here right? I thought he, like, nearly died and Marionette just kept him alive until help got there or something, and something rubbed off on him or whatever but this is the second time I'm hearing about Jeremy being given a gift and it sounds a lot weirder with more context"

"You don't know? I figured Marionette would have told you" Now Mike was feeling something deep and ugly in his chest being twisted at. He didn't do well with people hiding things from him, especially on days like these when he knew his stupid head would blow it up, no matter how much he tried to keep everything logical. it was for that same reason he heard himself speaking before he could find it in himself to let it go and simply deal with it.

"What's Marionette hiding from me?" It came out sharper than he wanted, more accusatory, he regretted it instantly, feeling that familiar wave of self-hatred begin to rear up its own head as well at how much he sounded like he didn't trust his friend and housemate. Forcing himself to take a breath, he asked in a much more controlled voice, "I mean, what's... what's all that mean? What am I being left out of the loop on now?" Mike didn't have the right to ever feel bitter about being left in the dark about something when he spent months with Jeremy and Fritz, doing the exact same thing, but he couldn't help but still hear it in his voice.

"Not for me to tell, ask the puppet or the man yourself" Goldie had heard it, of course he did, and that faintly static tone that came over his normally clear voice told Mike everything he needed to know about how his brother felt about how Mike was acting. He was being stupid, he knew he was, it was incredibly stupid, and he should have been fine, he should have had more control over himself than this, it was pathetic, it really was, but today had been incredibly tiring in so many ways than it had been relieving or thrilling as it had been for the rest, and it made him feel... wrong.

But that was just because he was, because only he was fucked enough that he couldn't even be happy after a perfect start to the business he spent months of work and effort putting effort into. It just... It made him angry, but Mike couldn't allow himself to feel angry, so instead all he could feel was the self loathing of being unable to even appreciate what today meant and now feeling horrible about not even being able to hold a conversation once more with his own brother.

Almost stumbling to his feet, Mike just sighed, saying as he pressed a hand to his head for a moment to fight back once more his own feelings, now after the spiraling mess he just barely managed to pull himself from before it got to bad, he just felt exhausted as he said to Goldie.

"Right, sorry for pushing, I'll be going now. I'll probably come by on the weekend, call if you need anything" He was just about to leave, half out of the door when Goldie, surprisingly spoke up, sounding hesitant himself, but still pushing through his words.

"Wait... I- I mostly only peered in at the start of the day, and a bit at the end, anything interesting happened that I missed?" Mike felt frozen for just a moment, but he wouldn't ever turn down a chance to be able to talk to his brother when he wanted to, never again, so instead he simply moved over, sitting back down, and managed to put on a smile as he began to work through the stories he had heard today to see which ones he'd be able to tell with the most comedic effect.

At the very least it should hopefully help keep his thoughts off his own stuff if he was too busy telling things he wasn't involved with, being hidden away in the kitchen as he was. Jeremy and Fritz had been more than happy to talk his ear off while they all were in the middle of closing and cleaning up anyways so he had plenty to work with. He felt a bit better by the end of it, and while he now had a number of questions on his mind, he had to admit, he was looking forward to getting back home, Marionette had a way of helping him not think about things.

But for now, he just appreciated the fact that Goldie hadn't kicked him out when the bear had the chance, it was a small thing, but one that still meant everything to the older brother. Small steps, they were both taking them, and that could be enough for right now, until they finally walked enough to get where both were trying to go.

Fritz was staying late after closing, mostly just to run one last test while he was letting the faint nerves of the day wear off, so he wouldn't be jittery at home or in the car, letting him just relax for the rest of what remained of his evening. He didn't need to do this, or even be here, all the work he had put in over the last few weeks had paid off and not a single thing had gone wrong today, and he was proud of that, but he wanted to make sure that after the stress test that was today of everything being run for over ten hours, that nothing would get worn down from constant days like today had been.

Thankfully he still had Foxy for company, so it wasn't like he was alone or anything, as Fritz looked over the arcade machines, checking and then double checking to make sure the amount of tokens that had been spent was the right amount a few times on a number of the machines. He had a feeling these things were going to be a lot more of their income than they had thought. It might be worth looking to see if he could get a few more of these things up and working, they still had room for another row or two before it really got too close to the tables...

He was getting ahead of himself, but it felt nice to think about the future in such a simplistic and easy going way on if they'd need more machines or not. Though one thing was for certain, they might have to get another token exchange machine in the prize corner for Marionette to make sure it was full, otherwise they might run out. The end of the week would tell him if that was in any way necessary for right now, but for the time being, Fritz let himself have that strange pleasant day dream late in the evening as he worked through the machines before heading out to look over the sound and audio equipment that had been used.

Most of it was old, but it still worked more than well enough for their purposes.

Though just as Fritz was about to run a simple systems test the sound of crashing metal hit his ears as Fritz flung himself to his feet and a bit away from the desk as he rushed out of the back room which had been converted into something of an office, where most of the equipment that ran the place was located, and quickly looked around. His eyes locked onto Foxy who was half charging into the kitchen, pushing the door in as Fritz found himself following along, a bit back just in case, but trusting that there wasn't much a massive several hundred pound metal fox couldn't handle.

Thankfully though there wasn't anything to handle as Foxy loudly proclaimed after a moment.

"It be the pans!" Now half confused, Fritz walked into the kitchen and saw the same thing that Foxy had. There was a large rack where a large number of dishes could be set at once to both dry and to have on hand, it was something he had seen Mike set up before leaving with Jeremy for the night. It turns out that the man, or more likely a few of the men, had missed something when they had set it up, with how instead of just resting on the counter, it was instead mounted to the wall with a bar running parallels to it to keep the plates and dishware off the ground to free up room on the counter so things could be placed underneath it. It was to save room apparently, Fritz hadn't questioned it.

But what had seemed to have happened was the mount that had been used hadn't been put on that well, and as such all the metal pans and pots that had been hung up ready to be used had all crashed to the ground at once.

Fritz just looked at it with a mild feeling mixed of exasperation and annoyance, before moving around to get a look at the wall as the faint noise of pirate sounds and curses filled his ears as Foxy tried to make himself helpful by reaching down and picking up and moving the pans to the counter instead of the floor.

"Looks like the screws stripped themselves from the weight" He said it mostly for Foxy's benefit as he looked over the wall, making a note that they'd have to fill the holes back in with some putty later if they didn't want it to be noticeable... Then again, no one was going to be coming back in the kitchen anyways any time soon, so it was hardly a priority. Fritz instead just reached down and picked up the dish rack and just laid it down on the counter like it probably should have been put on the first place, even if it was now at risk of toppling to the ground for a completely different reason, and made the note to tell Mike in the morning about it, given he'd no doubt ask.

Still, he had been looking for busy work to get the rest of his energy out, so with that he moved to clean up the pots and pans once more, unsure about the need for it, but knowing the customers would appreciate knowing the cookware was made sure to be clean of any floor related germs.

Though, just before he really got to work, having just finished rolling up his sleeves, he shivered for a moment, before realizing that strangely enough, one of the small vent like windows in the kitchen was propped open. Not thinking much about it beyond Mike using it to air the kitchen out and forgetting about it after a tiring day, Fritz closed it up himself before starting on the first pan.

Foxy stuck around as the two kept something of a comfortable quiet as he moved about.

Mike got home to the smell of vanilla, surprisingly it made him smile as much as it made his stomach clench, as he, instead of thinking too hard about it, strolled into the kitchen while finally shedding his jacket as Marionette turned to give him a smile and wave.

"Mike! Just in time, they still need to cool a bit to be frosted, but they just got out of the oven!" Mike himself just hummed, Mari seemed to still be coasting off the energy of the day, that made his mood ease a bit more, though he couldn't help but still say as he moved around to take a better look at the cupcakes, noticing the puppet had used the bigger of the two cupcake tin sizes they had.

"Am I really that obvious?" Mike sounded a bit more bitter than dry than he wanted, but he let the comment sit as Marionette paused for a moment, giving him a look of faux confusion, Mike just rolled his eyes, "You only bake in the evenings if you're upset about something or trying to make me feel better, and since you're still bouncing off the walls..." Marionette seemed stunned about something for a second before saying.

"I didn't think you'd notice something like that" He sounded almost self-conscious, which really wasn't what Mike was going for, he mentally kicked himself probably a bit too hard, before saying.

"Of course I did, I pay attention to you Mari, doesn't mean I'm complaining either, these are great" To make his point, his hand snaked out and grabbed onto an unfinished cupcake and managed to get away before Marionette could snatch it or his hand to hold it in place until he let go. The puppet didn't look all that amused about it, but it did seem to shake him out of whatever was going on in the animatronic's mind so it was a win in Mike's book, as he moved to lean against the counter to give a smug look while taking a bite from the cupcake. The puppet just looked away, probably embarrassed about being called out on it, but Mike honestly didn't mind, he loved the sweets, and they were a good pick me up. He just wished Marionette hadn't noticed something was wrong.

"Yeah, well, you're not obvious, I just... pay attention to" Mike paused at that, thinking it over, while taking another bite of the cupcake because the sugar helped him think, before deciding it was weird. It... No, actually, Mike couldn't remember a time when someone noticed when he was having any kind of problem, he was too good a liar for that. It's why he didn't like people asking him if he was ok, because usually it was when he actually was fine and it just felt condescending. But to know someone actually knew when he was in a high or low... Well, Jeremy could as well, thinking about it, but the man cheated, he always knew, not someone who took their time to learn to read him.

Mike personally thought the idea of it would have felt invasive as all hell, a hypocritical thought if there ever was one given his almost obsessive need to know things, but instead he just took one last bit of his cupcake and decided it wasn't that bad, especially if he continued to get sweets out of it. Mike felt his eyes move to the platter though it was clear from the unimpressed look Marionette was back to giving him, the puppet had noticed where his eyes had wandered.

"Don't think about it" Mike honestly had been ready to be patient... but that went right out with the look Marionette was giving him, instead he let the smug look of his own grow just a bit more as he said while leaning in a bit closer.

"Or what? Our last go in a kitchen was interrupted, and I don't think Fritz is going to be saving you this time" The puppet lowered himself, like he was ready to pounce, though the sound of faint chiming coming from the puppet's chest showed his amusement.

"Awfully confident are you?" Mike just smirked, the feeling of numbness fading more and more as the two bantered and played at a standoff. The puppet was really good at getting his mind off of things, and he honestly really appreciated it during these kinds of days, even if he knew he'd be pissing the puppet off soon enough when he broke the stalemate to make a lunge for another cupcake.

Mike woke up pretty early in the morning the next day, way earlier than he thought he would given just how tired he had felt going to sleep, still knowing that he wouldn't be going back to sleep, so instead just let himself get up slowly before going about his routine. He could still hear the faint chiming tunes of the music book from his ol- rather, Marionette's room, meaning that he was alone for the time being. That was fine, he could take the time to enjoy the early morning, it would give him a few hours as well before they would have to get ready to head to the diner.

Foxy's opened up in the late morning, half because of scheduling for the employees, all of the human ones of which had other jobs which meant having a late morning before opening up would be the only thing keeping them on their feet, as well as just because while they had an arcade and plenty of entertainment options, all three men agreed that no one was looking forwards to eating the options on their menu for anything that could be considered breakfast, pirate fox be damned.

Besides, the mid afternoon would be when they were the most busy anyways until summer started, but at that point they all were banking on having enough of a good income that they could afford to not need their other jobs so they could all focus in on the diner. Mike couldn't help but feel lucky about it all, the groundwork had been incredibly enough practically all set up for him and the others, there really wasn't much of a risk, no loans or anything had to be taken out, it was just a matter on if they could keep everything afloat, but everything else had simply just fallen into place.

It was always strange to think about, out of all the risks that Mike had taken in his life, this was one of the ones that was practically nonexistent, compared to all the many times he has had his life on the line, in one way or another, a frankly only barely majority of which had been in association of robotic animals. So why was it when he thought about it failing, even when there was hardly much of a loss to be found, realistically, that it made his chest hurt and a panic swell?

He could stare down death every other day for a week, he has done exactly that, with barely a flinch in the moment, but this was what made him worried when he so much as thought about it? It was just weird, but Mike pushed the thoughts away, choosing to not study it, and instead focusing on what he had been trying to think about while working on his food for the morning, yesterday.

Thankfully he honestly did feel better after some sleep, it usually lasted longer than just a single day of feeling like trash, the worse it had been recently had been about two weeks of that horrible wave of just meaningless nothing, so Mike wasn't going to complain about it. Instead was just glad, and willing to let himself bask in the enjoyment of having a great first day and ignoring the faint bitterness in his chest that he couldn't have been like this yesterday so he could have enjoyed it in the moment.

It was nice, though of course he quickly got bored of just sitting around with nothing but a plate of food and a cup of coffee and quickly moved onto something else. Finding himself soon enough laying on the couch, his feet propped up while his hands were busy holding and scribbling onto the drawing pad he had found at the warehouse. It had a big Fazbear logo on the front and the corners of the pages had little heads of the animatronic performers, but the paper was surprisingly good for drawing on, so he used it for sketches.

Right now he was mostly just drawing simple things, he had been trying to get back to work on more detailed work slowly but surely, but not being able to do any work for the month and a half it had been with his hand in the cast had been a big downside, not to mention he had to be careful with his right hand, it was a bit scrawny for a while given how little movement and work the muscles in the hand had gotten. But thankfully there shouldn't be any strange long term damage so Mike figured it was fine.

He honestly got lost in the sketches, just drawing out figures and adding in details as he went with anything that had been on his mind or even a few things that weren't on his mind. Drawing was one of those things that didn't really require him to think too hard, so he just let his brain drift and just do whatever he felt like in the moment and let the time fly. It had honestly been a while since the last time he had gotten into such a groove and he decided to make up for yesterday by just enjoying it as it was for as long as he could until he had to do something or something got his attention.

That something, unsurprisingly, was Marionette. Mike hadn't really heard the sound of the music ending, but he did notice when a hand was laid on his shoulder. It was mostly from just being used to the puppet's more touchy nature, no doubt an after effect of being touch starved for who knows how long, that Mike didn't do much more than loll his head back to look up at the smiling mask of his friend.

"You been up long?" Mike just sort of shrugged as well as he could with how he had been half slouched through the couch.

"A little while, you?"

"Just got up and saw you drawing, anything interesting there?" Mike simply held the pad out as Marionette let out a delighted chime, eagerly snatching up the offered item and quickly flipped through them. Mike just let him, watching with a mild interest and a lack of anything else to do, in the puppet's face. Marionette loved drawings, of any kind, the puppet adored any and all drawings of him and the others, no matter the quality. Mike knew for a fact that the puppet had kept a number of old drawings of himself in one of the dresser drawers in the puppet's room that he had gotten from the pizzerias that he had worked with.

Mike thought it was cute, the puppet's plans to have any new drawings of him put on the walls of the prize corner was just doubly so, not that Mike had said that, he was waiting until it happens to make one of a few jokes he had thought of over the last few weeks when he remembered about it. It was nice to be able to be able to think of jokes without it needing to be used as a coping tactic to deal with the weight that came from living his life, probably why he joked and played around so much now, especially with Marionette who at least found his quips funny.

Mike liked hearing laughter, even in chime form, made him feel like he was at least doing something right in those smaller ways, and he spent most of his time with Marionette, given they lived and worked together, so he happened to hear that one a lot.

"Ooh! I like this one!" Mike focused back in, absently realizing he had been zoned out staring up at the puppet still hovering above him whose focus was still on looking through the pages. Now though, Marionette turned the book around to show Mike the one he was talking about, Mike just quirked an eyebrow at it.

"If you want you can keep it, didn't think you'd think it's that good enough to hold onto though, I barely remember drawing it" The puppet just hummed.

"Why not? Nothing says party like cake, and it's cute" Mike just shrugged, as he watched as the puppet pulled the page out carefully. The drawing wasn't anything special, just a bib in much the same design that Chica's had been, the words 'Let's Party' though they were in large and bent text, each word making up half of a circle outline where in the middle Mike had sketched out the weird cupcake thing that had been on his office desk back at Freddy's. Marionette seemed to adore it, and Mike thought it was nice to see the puppet happy, so he didn't mention it.

It was also nice to hear appreciation for his art work, he knew he was decent at it, but compliments were always nice to hear when you didn't get many of them.

"You know I can dr-" Whatever Mike was about to say was interrupted by the sound of the door being knocked on, as Mike's head leaned back even further to stare at it as in the same moment Marionette had flickered out of his line of sight, a trained response at this point at the sound of company coming over. Sometimes it was a false alarm and it was just Jeremy or Fritz, though more often than not...

With a sigh, Mike rolled himself off the couch and headed to the door, opening it up to reveal... Carol... Yay...

Mike felt himself force a smile to his face as he got ready for the third conversation about how he really should give her daughter a chance, something said daughter, named Janet, had been mortified when she figured out just what exactly it was as to why her mother wanted her to meet with Mike. The two had a small laugh behind the woman's back at how ridiculous it was, which Mike was grateful for, better that there were no harsh words or hurt feelings, she was honestly a nice girl, but this woman... Well, he was ready for the conversation, which was why he was taken aback with what she said.

"You should be careful with that business of yours" Mike frowned instantly, feeling something coil in his gut defensively.

"Wh-" He had to pause himself before he said something too harsh, instead saying, "I'm sorry, what are you talking about?" Carol seemed uncomfortable but still pressed forwards.

"Well, I don't have much issue with it, but people don't all have small memories, I've been hearing some rumors that there's been some parents that are thinking about putting up a protest about something so close to this place called Freddy's opening up" Mike felt like something heavy fell into his lower gut as he managed to keep himself from showing it on his face as he said quietly.

"I-... I see, I'll have to keep that in mind then, thanks for the heads up" Carol just gave him a sympathetic smile and said.

"I know exactly how much you've been working on this Mike, it'll work out fine. I've been talking with some friends about it all and we're trying to help quell the rumors. Oh! You know what, I have a friend on the board of education that has a kid who's birthday is coming up!" Normally Mike would have suspected this all was a set up to have Carol try to get him to do something, and honestly the thought still crossed his mind... for about a quarter of a second before the idea of good publicity drowned out everything else.

"Yes, of course, we've already been getting ready to be set up for hosting parties, that sounds like an great way to spread the word and to make sure the kid has a good birthday" Mike, admittedly, cared a lot more about the former than the latter, but he couldn't have the offer going away as he put on his most appeasing look and said to Carol, "If you wouldn't mind and your friend is all for it, please tell them to give Pirate's Cove or me a call, we'll be sure to get something worked out. Maybe even a discount can be given after the fact if they think Foxy's is good enough to spread the word around"

"No problem!... Take my daughter out for that coffee and I think I'll see if I can talk to a principle I know as well to put a few flyers around" Mike could more than live with that, honestly saying.

"I'll talk to Janet, thanks Carol, honestly" She just gave him a smile, and while Mike honestly knew he was probably getting played, the game was so little for something with a big enough reward that he was more than willing to deal with it. Honestly, Mike knew the chances of more than a little bad press, and if he had any way to fight it then he would take it, he also had just thought it would take a bit longer before something like this would come up, not on their second day. Still, better to get ahead of it now and help get the word out at the same time.

The two talked for a bit more before Carol had to leave to do something, probably gossip, but for once Mike was leaving one of these conversations without a mild feeling of exhaustion of dealing with such a talkative person who said a whole lot of nothing, instead just feeling the faint buzz that came from getting ahead of something as he closed the door.

As expected the puppet was already there, arms crossed, though instead of looking annoyed, he looked more contemplative, which was good, Mike would have preferred to not have another talk with Marionette about people coming to his door like that was something he could control. Instead he just leaned back against the door and asked simply.

"So, what do you think about this" Mike had no doubt that the puppet had been listening in. Mari thankfully didn't bother even looking remotely like he'd act like he hadn't heard anything, instead just unabashedly getting into the topic.

"It sounds like a good idea, I don't think any groups will be able to have that much sway though, no one really cared back then either, people thought it was tragic, but no one really did anything, they never found the killer after all. You're the one who figured out who it was even, they still don't know" Mike nodded.

"To be fair, we can't really tell the police either without going straight to jail, still, it can happen, I figured it would eventually actually, once we got big enough that the word about us got out and people started to talk. Apparently we're already at that point, probably because of how soon we're opening up after the last Freddy's went under, so it's good that we can get ahead of it as quickly as possible. Who knew having Carol around would be a good thing?"

"It certainly pays to know a socialite I suppose, though I'm not a fan of the whole coffee date as a price tag though" Mike just brushed it off.

"It'll be fine, Janet's not a bad person, good conversationalist even so I won't even have to be suffering during our talk either. And it's just one coffee, I think our budget can afford it" The puppet just hummed.

"Maybe, but I still don't think I like it" Mike didn't really have any comforts for the puppet, as it stood, new people were going to have to show up in their lives at some point, might as well use this to get the puppet comfortable with the idea of Mike having a life outside of the pizzeria, it would probably happen at some point, even if a single coffee date wouldn't exactly be much. Still, he could leverage the tension of the whole situation off them a bit, Mike would much rather something else to think about besides a possible protest right now.

"I'm the one who'll have to give up an afternoon, don't worry about it though, I'll make sure that I'll be home by curfew" That got a chime out of the puppet as the two moved to get ready for their second day of work at their pizzeria.

What's this? An original character has actually done something to interact with the main plot? Wild.

But as a whole I got somethings I can talk about here can't I? Oh boy where to start... I guess in order is the best bet. Goldie and Mike... Look, their whole thing is going to be one long road taken in baby steps, this literally started with Goldie hating Michael's guts so much that he was actively helping the original four try to kill him when he worked at Freddy's. Hell, thinking about it, Goldie tried to help kill Mike longer than Foxy did. Needless to say, they are in a super complicated situation right now, both are trying of course, but in true Afton fashion, they kind of suck at it. But they are talking, just... not quite about what they should be. We'll get there eventually though. Whether it be through Mike's survivors guilt or Goldie's awkward conversation skills, we'll get there.

Fritz POV! ...Uh... I don't really have anything to say about it, it was very simple and nothing about it will come up in the future for long time. But know the attack of the cookware is coming, be fearful for when they rise we shall fall! But Trash and the Gang and their army will be for later exploration, probably sometime next year around, maybe, I don't know, the first of April or something.

With that we have had the angst of the chapter and the mundane of the chapter, which means we're in the comfort section, and that can only mean one thing, Mike and Marionette interactions! I don't have much to say expect I love writing the two, mostly cause I'm only good at banter and these two write it themselves by just existing. But, no seriously, I enjoyed it, it was a simple and short scene in the kitchen to just show how well they know and understand each other, even if the other didn't quiet know that themselves. It shows just how much time they've spent together and how close they've become as friends, even if a large portion of it was off screen.

Then the next scene, that was fun to, though it actually had plot in it instead of fun character moments. Can't talk to much about it, but it's mostly there to show a peek behind the curtain to the things that are happening in the world that involve but aren't directly in the line of sight of the crew at Pirate's Cove. Sadly the world doesn't actually revolve around Mike and his exploits. But we'll get to that soon enough as well. In the mean time though it also helps the Cove get word out about the business which is a bonus. Carol is honestly kind of more a plot device than a person really at the moment, which is why it's on her third on screen scene that something happens, rule of three, it also works in terms of establishing background characters before they can give plot relavent information. Anyways, See ya.