A/N: Holy shit, ICU month is easily the most brutal month in my entire residency year. I've been so busy taking care of people who at their worst are super sick or actively dying, and I've had no time whatsoever to sit down and focus on FNAF stuff so that I could proceed with writing this chapter. It's particularly telling when I end up taking FOUR weeks to write a chapter as opposed to the "standard" 2 or 3 weeks I usually take. Thank God this month is over, June's a LOT more free.
Anyways, onto the third part of the Schmidt family's tour through the Pizzaplex. I probably won't go through every single room in the building because otherwise that would take literally forever, but I do plan on including the more important ones.
Jack0Lanterns: Yeah… 's email bot is completely fucked even after I tried to fix it, although it MIGHT have finally gotten its shit together a few days ago, I'm not sure. My general advice to you would be to check every 2-3 weeks or so to see if the fic got updated, since the notifications aren't reliable anymore. I'm also uploading the fic on AAOx3 as well, but it will take a loooooooong, long time for it to be fully updated.
ThePencilDude: The ghost kids actually have practically no exposure to the LGBTQ community whatsoever. Even if they did remember what attitudes towards homosexuality were like back in the 80s, they've completely forgotten about them (along with practically everything else) in the 40 years they spent as the animatronics since they were too busy focusing on their tortured existences. Even now that they've been freed, they don't really go out into public enough to have regular interaction with same-sex couples. If they did see one and ask about it, Mike would give them a brief, nonjudgmental description of what they're seeing and then they'd probably just move on with their business. What other same-sex couples are doing wouldn't be their business any more than what straight couples are doing.
As for your other question, I don't think the story will end immediately after Security Breach and its Ruin DLC, but I certainly don't intend on continuing the story very long beyond that either.
Guest: The bot is fucked, which might be why you're not getting updates.
Chapter 208 – Return to the Pizzaplex Part 3
All in all, Mike could honestly say that he was pleasantly surprised by the Pizzaplex so far. The admittedly impressive building and Fazbear Entertainment's most ambitious project was far from perfect. But considering that the worst-case scenario of it being an irredeemable and unsalvageable catastrophe had been very much on the table, Mike would happily take what he could get.
So far, the only two blatant and unacceptably dangerous problems he had encountered had been DJ Music Man's experimental bouncer mode and Roxy Raceway's unfinished state. The former of which Fazbear Entertainment's representatives would hopefully remove before the Grand Opening of the Mega Pizzaplex, and the latter of which was rendered moot by the fact that it was completely cut off from the public to begin with.
Although…maybe he should ask Nightmare to pay them a little "visit" in their dreams again. Not to torture them, merely to remind them of the demon lord's threat and the promises they had made to avoid another night of horrors.
"So where are we going next?" Jeremy wondered, breaking Mike out of his thoughts as they left Roxy Raceway behind.
Mike asked the question to their tour guides as they navigated through the atrium. "We are going to Rockstar Row," Mr. Raugelan answered. "It's a fancy museum-like area that also contains the Glamrock animatronics' Green Rooms."
"What's a Green Room?" Fritz asked.
"It's a kind of room in a theater or studio where performers can relax and wait in when they're not performing or about to perform," Mike explained telepathically as they approached a passageway leading behind the stage. Out loud, he commented, "I'm kind of surprised you need special Green Rooms just for animatronics."
"But of course!" Mr. Raugelan replied enthusiastically. "These animatronics are sentient with their own hearts and minds! And can you imagine living life without your own special place where you can relax without needing to care about work or life's problems?"
That was, admittedly, a valid point. "So which animatronics have Green Rooms?" Mike wondered. "Just the four main ones?"
"Just the four main ones," Mr. Raugelan confirmed as they entered Rockstar Row properly. "We've already put quite a bit of resources into them as it is, and any more beyond that would be completely unnecessary."
They stepped into Rockstar Row, and the Schmidt family couldn't help but be impressed at the sight in front of them. Rockstar Row was easily one of the most stylish and glamorous sections in the entire facility so far, rivaling the Atrium itself in its glory. It was fashioned almost like a museum, with multiple large entryways leading to the Green Rooms with the heads of the corresponding animatronics created from a series of neon lights hanging above them. In front of each of the Green Rooms was a towering golden statue of each corresponding Glamrock animatronic, confirming that the one statue in the lobby hadn't been the only golden statue that Fazbear Entertainment had commissioned for the Pizzaplex. The area itself was also full of display cases, featuring props from both more recent generations of animatronics as well as animatronics from the distant past. The ghost kids even recognized cut-outs from the Curse of Dreadbear DLC of Fazbear Entertainment's VR game, which was surprising considering that those had only come into existence because of Nightmare's work.
"Man, I have to admit it, Fazbear Entertainment really went all-out making this place as cool-looking as possible," Gabe admitted.
"Wait, what the heck?" Susie exclaimed, pointing at a near-perfect copy of the Cupcake that had once belonged to Classic Chica. "How'd they get a copy of Cupcake? And a bunch of other things that came from the old animatronics?"
"Uhh…I think you're overthinking it," Jeremy replied. "Fazbear Entertainment just remade a bunch of their old animatronics with that whole Special Delivery project thing. They probably just grabbed a few spare parts and tossed them in there or something."
"Oh," the former Chica inhabitant sheepishly replied. "Right."
"Would you like to see what's inside these Green Rooms?" Mr. Raugelan asked.
"Yes please," Mike replied.
Mr. Raugelan and Mr. Leelurd guided Mike and the hidden ghost kids over to Glamrock Freddy's Green Room, a room that was predominantly red in color with a brilliant blue neon star hanging from the ceiling. The room was filled with various pieces of furniture including a dressing table in front of a mirror surrounding by light bulbs and a large sofa on which a giant Glamrock Freddy plushie was seated. There were also many different decorations such as posters and collectibles, all of which featured Glamrock Freddy in some form, in addition to a large animatronic-shaped red cylinder with a lightning bolt painted on the front. At the opposite of the Green Room was a gray door with a line of black-and-yellow caution tape at the top, a cold and lifeless industrial feature that contrasted sharply with the rest of the room.
"What's that door doing over there?" Cassidy wondered.
Mike relayed the question to the two Fazbear representatives. "Those doors lead to elevators that take the Glamrock animatronics directly down to the Parts and Services area," Mr. Leelurd was the one who answered for once. "In case they need any immediate maintenance or repairs, we figured that them having direct access to it from their personal rooms would be a prudent investment."
"That's honestly not a bad idea," Gabe admitted.
"Can humans use those elevators safely?" Liz asked, with Mike relaying the question out loud.
"They can," Mr. Raugelan replied. "These elevators are the main ways to access the Parts and Services room."
"After we finish seeing the Glamrock animatronic Green Rooms, I would like to see the Parts and Services room myself," Mike declared.
Mr. Raugelan and Mr. Leelurd looked at each other uncertainly. "Mr. Schmidt," Mr. Raugelan hesitantly replied, "…I'm not sure if…"
Mike cut him off. "I wasn't asking."
The two Fazbear Entertainment executives glanced at each other and quickly accepted that this wasn't a fight they were going to win. While Parts and Services wasn't a public location like most of the other parts of the Pizzaplex, they hadn't technically been given explicit orders by the higher management to bar Mike Schmidt from entry into the Parts and Services location.
"Understood," Mr. Raugelan conceded. "We'll take the elevator down as soon as I've finished showing you the other Green Rooms."
Mike nodded and they moved on to the next Green Room, which happened to be Roxanne Wolf's. The room itself followed many of the same basic principles that Glamrock Freddy's room did, being filled with collectibles and decorations all centered around Roxanne Wolf. A few particularly prominent decorations included a whole-body mural of Roxanne Wolf holding her keytar on the left wall, and a set of three wrenches to the right. The entire room was purple rather than red like Glamrock Freddy's was, and the neon star hanging from the ceiling was green instead of blue.
"So basically the same kinda thing as Glamrock Freddy's room, only Roxanne Wolf-themed instead," Charlie summarized.
"Not particularly surprising," Liz commented. "I bet the other two Green Rooms are gonna look like this."
"I'm guessing all the Green Rooms follow a similar theme, correct?" Mike asked.
"They do," Mr. Raugelan confirmed. "There aren't any major stylistic differences amongst the Green Rooms, and the only thematic differences are obviously dependent on which animatronic is using the Green Room in question."
They left Roxanne Wolf's Green Room behind and moved on to the remaining two Green Rooms. Unsurprisingly, both Montgomery Gator's and Glamrock Chica's Green Rooms followed the exact same principles that the other two Green Rooms did, with the main differences (apart from the obvious different animatronic themes) being that Montgomery Gator's room was green and Glamrock Chica's was pink. Amusingly enough, there were quite a few pizza decorations in Glamrock Chica's room specifically, demonstrating that even in a much more modern generation pizza was still a central fixture of Chica's existence.
"Those are all of the Green Rooms that we have on Rockstar Row," Mr. Raugelan concluded.
"Wait, hold on a minute," Jeremy suddenly realized. "Wasn't there a Glamrock Bonnie that we saw painted on some of the walls earlier? How come Glamrock Bonnie doesn't have a Green Room? Actually, come to think of it…how come we haven't seen Glamrock Bonnie along with the rest of the animatronics?"
"That's a very good point," Susie agreed. "We have a Glamrock Chica, and I guess Roxanne Wolf is kind of a female version of Glamrock Foxy if you really stretch it. But if they have a Glamrock Chica, why wouldn't they make a Glamrock Bonnie and have some random gator instead?"
Mike asked the question to Mr. Raugelan, who sighed with what seemed like genuine sadness. "I regret to inform you that there indeed used to be a Glamrock Bonnie in existence, but for reasons that I'm not at liberty to disclose, Glamrock Bonnie has since been decommissioned and replaced with Montgomery Gator." Before Mike could press any further, Mr. Raugelan interrupted, "and please do not press me any further. I am explicitly forbidden from revealing that particular bit of information, and I'm already bending the rules as it is letting you go into Parts and Services."
"Fine…" Mike conceded. There might still be avenues to find that piece of information, but clearly the Fazbear representatives weren't one of them.
"Excellent," Mr. Raugelan declared, looking visibly relieved. "Now, please follow me into Glamrock Chica's elevator, and I can take you down to Parts and Services."
"Lead the way," Mike invited.
The two Fazbear Entertainment representatives guided Mike (and the ghost kids) over to the elevators. The elevator slid smoothly downward, pulling them down into the deeper parts of the Pizzaplex. After a few seconds, the elevator slowed to a halt and the doors slowly slid open, revealing the Parts and Services area.
The Parts and Services room was completely unlike anything that the Schmidt family had ever seen, either in the Pizzaplex itself or in old Fazbear restaurants. It was a large room with a cylinder-shaped operating room in the very center with a few work stations immediately outside of it. Beyond the cylinder-shaped room they could see doors with silhouettes of the Glamrock animatronics painted on them, demonstrating which Green Room their elevators would lead back up to.
As the ghost kids floated into the cylinder to get a closer look, they found a chair reminiscent of a dentist's chair large enough for a Glamrock animatronic to sit on, with several robotic operating arms hanging from the ceiling and to the side.
"The cylindrical room was built in place specifically with the safety of the workers in mind," Mr. Raugelan proudly declared. "If an animatronic goes haywire while they're undergoing maintenance or repairs, the cylinder's walls, windows, and doors are all strong enough to ensure that the animatronic in question won't break through and cause harm to any surrounding employees."
"Not bad, not bad," Mike commented with genuine approval in his tone. This was the first time in recent or distant memory that Fazbear Entertainment had taken measures to protect the employees by their own initiative, without coercion or outside influence. "So where are the extra parts for the Glamrock animatronics in case something about them gets permanently damaged?"
Mr. Raugelan and Mr. Leelurd looked at each other nervously, and the Schmidt family could already tell that they weren't going to like the answer. "They're not here…" the former finally admitted.
Mike's smile immediately froze, as did the ghost kids in the air. "Excuse me?" Mike asked in a dangerously calm voice.
"They're not here," Mr. Raugelan repeated nervously. "We don't store extra parts around here. They're kept in a separate facility quite a distance away from the Pizzaplex, and we only bring them in on a case-by-case basis for if a vital animatronic part gets damaged."
"…that is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard in my entire un-life," Fritz muttered.
"That is just ridiculously inefficient," Gabe agreed with a scowl.
"Just…fucking…why…" Mike growled. "Do you realize just how goddamn INEFFICIENT that is? Why wouldn't you have some extra parts stored around or near here, the fucking PARTS and Services room, in case shit hits the fan and one of your animatronics needs a part replaced immediately? Even a FEW extra parts around here on standby would be enough to make sure that you can replace something quickly instead of needing to either wait or go out to get it from another fucking building to repair something!"
"Uh…uh…" Mr. Raugelan stammered, clearly unable to come up with a good answer.
"What if a kid gets too close to one of your precious Glamrock animatronics and fucks something up by spilling soda on them or something?" Mike continued to rant. "What if something randomly malfunctions? I've worked in robotics before, and I can tell you right now that even the best-made pieces of technology occasionally go to shit sometimes. Wouldn't it make more sense to have some spare parts around like extra eyes or something so that you'd be able to bring the animatronic right down and fix whatever the hell's going in a few minutes instead of a few hours or even days?"
"I don't think I could've said it better than Dad," Charlie agreed with a thoroughly unimpressed look on her face.
"We'll…bring this issue up before the executive board," Mr. Raugelan promised, and for once his tone sounded like he was in full agreement with Mike's points. "I think having at least a few extra parts in the Pizzaplex would be prudent."
"And another thing," Mike took another look around to make sure he hadn't missed something in the Parts and Services room, before continuing, "why don't you have at least a few of those electric shock rods I brought in to the Special Delivery project's factory? The ones that proved themselves so incredibly effective at disabling animatronics whenever I used them against rogue ones? Having even a few of them around would make things a lot safer in case a rampaging animatronic going haywire somehow manages to break out of the cylinder."
"The executive board did discuss bringing them in here, Mr. Schmidt, but decided against it. The problem with your electric rods is that the high voltages in them tended to cause permanent damage to whichever animatronics they shocked," Mr. Leelurd countered. "These Glamrock animatronics are truly one-of-a-kind, complete with their own sentience. The high-energy shocks delivered by those rods regularly caused permanent damage to each animatronic they were used on. We might have been willing to allow that for mass-produced older models that we created several copies of, but not our Glamrocks."
That was…actually a fair point, Mike had to acknowledge. So many times whenever he had used the electric rods, the target animatronics was reduced to pile of broken, nonfunctional scrap. Still, there was one detail that they apparently weren't aware of. "Then just order the rods to have less power than the ones I used," he suggested, his tone more conciliatory than before. "The ones I used at the factory were high-voltage so that I could thoroughly neutralize any hostile animatronic that could pose a threat to my workers."
Mr. Raugelan and Mr. Leelurd looked at each other. "We can bring it up with the executive board, but don't be surprised if this gets shot down, Mr. Schmidt," Mr. Leelurd warned. "Keep in mind that these animatronics ARE sentient…and shocking them even at lower voltages could effectively be torturing them."
Mike winced. He had forgotten that small but rather crucial detail. "Yeah, okay, that's fair enough," he conceded. "I'm not going to push strongly for that change unlike the other ones I've suggested."
Liz shuddered. "I don't like the idea of electrically shocking the Glamrocks with those rods either," she added. "A little bit too on the nose, at least for me."
"Do you have any other questions for us before we depart from Parts and Services?" Mr. Raugelan asked.
"Yeah," Jeremy replied, not that the two men could hear or see him. "How do you even disable the animatronics if they go haywire? And is there even any other way to keep them safe if something goes wrong or they get hacked?"
Mike asked his son's question to the two men. "Disabling an animatronic temporarily is a fairly simple process to those who know about it," Mr. Raugelan explained. "On each of the animatronic Endoskeletons, there are two buttons at the base of the neck that, when pressed simultaneously, will deactivate the endoskeleton in question temporarily. This is a fairly new feature that we added ever since the near-disaster of the Special Delivery project. The Endoskeletons can also be controlled remotely, although if a Glamrock animatronic's main CPU is in an endoskeleton it takes precedence over all remote programming."
"I mean, that should be no problem for us since we're ghosts," Cassidy commented, "but I feel like somebody living won't be able to reach those buttons before getting hurt." Mike passed the comment along to the Fazbear representatives.
"The buttons can't be too exposed either," Mr. Raugelan countered. "Otherwise any overly curious child who touches them could deactivate the endoskeleton just by touching it. We're not stupid, Mr. Schmidt. We know full well that some children are disorderly enough to break the rules regardless of what they are. This deactivation system is more in place for the employees than for the children, if anything."
"Fair enough," Mike acknowledged. "As long as the employees at least can somewhat easily access those deactivation buttons, I won't fight too harshly about it."
"Better than nothing, I guess…" Fritz mumbled.
"Are there any other safety features in the animatronics?" Susie asked. "Especially the main four. They're the biggest stars of the show, and if it's anything like we were, then they'll be the most dangerous ones too if they get hacked."
Mike relayed the question to the representatives again. "There is one feature in particular in the Glamrock animatronics that hasn't been in previous Fazbear animatronic generations," Mr. Leelurd answered. "It's called Safe Mode. It reinforces safety by reducing an animatronic to all but its most basic functions, and placing additional safety measures on top of that. An animatronic will still be able to move, walk, and talk like any other person, and certain small amounts of features may still be active. But all other functions are disabled."
"That…could be good," Gabe mused. "Especially if the other functions that Glitchtrap potentially gets hacked."
"So how does someone trigger Safe Mode?" Charlie asked, with Mike speaking on her behalf.
"There isn't simply a way for a human to activate Safe Mode externally," Mr. Raugelan replied. Safe Mode is a reactionary measure by design, to be activated only in the case of an extreme emergency. If an animatronic critically malfunctions, such as through severe glitching, only then will Safe Mode activate and limit the animatronic to its most basic functions. It should also be noted that Safe Mode is a temporary measure that drains the animatronic's battery power, meant to buy time until the animatronic can be safely restored by our engineers and repairmen in the Parts and Services room."
"What happens when the battery power drains out?" Liz wondered, with Mike verbalizing the thought.
"If the battery power drains, then the animatronic will power down in short order," Mr. Leelurd answered. "Unfortunately, Safe Mode will be among the first features to deactivate, which means that the safety measures will be the first to deactivate prior to the animatronic itself."
Everyone either groaned, facepalmed, or both upon hearing this. "You've got to be shitting me," Mike growled. "You've basically just admitted that when the power runs out, there's basically a window of time where an animatronic that's malfunctioned can kill or seriously injure a person because the Safe Mode's not protecting them anymore. Please tell me I don't have to explain to how much of a fucking problem this is."
"We are aware," Mr. Raugelan assured him with a frown. "The problem is that if we change the animatronics' mechanisms so that Safe Mode is a first priority for conserving power when it runs out rather than the last priority, the animatronic will shut down much faster than it does currently."
"Who gives a shit, though?" Fritz retorted. "So the animatronic gets deactivated quickly, who fucking cares? That's a lot better than the animatronic killing or really hurting someone."
"I was lenient about the whole electric rod thing, but I'm not gonna be for this," Mike declared coldly. "I want the Fazbear Entertainment management to change the animatronics' programming so that if their battery power runs out while they're in Safe Mode, Safe Mode is maintained until the animatronic shuts down. I couldn't give any less of a fuck if that means the animatronic powers down faster. That's not even that much of a downside if they're already gonna shut down anyway, and this way it's much safer for everyone."
Mr. Raugelan and Mr. Leelurd looked at each other and shrugged. "We'll relay your stipulation forward to the executive board," Mr. Leelurd assured him. "I assume that this particular condition that this is non-negotiable?"
"You got that right," Mike confirmed. "And believe me, I have ways of making sure that the executive board complies."
After all, even if he couldn't verify that himself, he was sure that Nightmare could. And he was just as sure that Nightmare would be more than happy to torture some executives in their dreams some more if they refused to comply, or worse, lied about complying. When it came to issues as paramount to stopping a future mass tragedy as animatronic safety, Mike was perfectly willing to morally compromise on this particular issue and pray for forgiveness about it later if any true harm came to the executives because of it.
"There is one other thing you should know," Mr. Raugelan warned. "When an animatronic is undergoing repairs within the cylindrical Parts and Services room, the safety measures are temporarily disabled as this is a necessary of the process for repairs to go smoothly. And before you ask, we tried to test the repair process with safety measures in the past, and the programs clashed with each other so extensively that both the animatronic and the repair bots were fried and out of commission for over a week. So no, repairing animatronics with the safety measures active is simply not possible."
"Well, that sucks…" Gabe muttered, and Mike was in full agreement. If Fazbear Entertainment hadn't bothered to try, Mike could simply order or threaten them into making it so that the safety protocols stayed on while the animatronics were repaired. But they had genuinely tried and failed, so he'd look like an unreasonable asshole if he tried to force the issue further.
"Thankfully, only our most skilled and qualified engineers are allowed to perform maintenance on the animatronics," Mr. Leelurd reassured them. "Not even our regular employees are granted this responsibility. While it is possible for an animatronic to malfunction if maintenance is performed improperly, the malfunctions should not be enough to risk the death of the engineer in question."
The Schmidt family wished they could have as much faith in that statement, but they unfortunately didn't. Even if under normal circumstances that statement was true (and even that wasn't guaranteed), Glitchtrap and his possession victim were almost certainly going to show up at some point. And their interference could very easily transform what would've been a nonlethal malfunction under normal circumstances into a lethal one.
Unfortunately, Mike didn't have a strong enough argument to demand a change for this particular point. For one, like they had already established, Fazbear Entertainment had actually bothered to try to fix the problem and failed to do so. And for another, his entire argument was based on a hypothetical that hadn't actually been confirmed yet (even though Glitchtrap's influence was practically all but guaranteed in the future), and Fazbear Entertainment would resist his suggestions much harder if he didn't have a more concrete argument to back them up.
And it was important for him not to forget that as powerful as his influence over Fazbear Entertainment was, Nightmare only had control over about half of the executive board thanks to his nightmare shenanigans. Mike didn't have that same leverage over the other half, and the more unreasonable or exorbitant his demands were, the more likely that other half would resist and retaliate against his changes. And if he pushed too far, he would end up jeopardizing the promising gains that he had already made.
No, Mike would not be greedy here. He hadn't truly expected every single suggestion he and his ghost kids made to be unanimously and unconditionally accepted by the Fazbear Entertainment board, and neither had his children. They would take what they could get ahead of time, and just remove as many problems as they can before Glitchtrap got to work creating more.
"There is nothing more for us to see here at this point," Mr. Raugelan declared. "Let us return back up to the main floors of the Pizzaplex. There are much more interesting places to show you than what's down here."
Everyone else followed him to the elevator door that was marked by Glamrock Freddy's face. The elevator ascended back to the main star's Green Room, leaving the Parts and Services room behind.
/
A/N: And thus we have Rockstar Row and the Parts and Services room out of the way. The Rockstar Row was whatever, mainly getting the ghost kids familiar with more of the layout of the Mega Pizzaplex than anything else. But the Parts and Services was way more interesting for both the information that the Schmidt family discovered…and the problems that they exposed and tried to correct.
Am I the only one who thinks it's really odd that there were NO extra spare parts around for things like Glamrock Chica's voice box or Roxanne Wolf's eyes in the entire Pizzaplex? That the ONLY way Gregory was able to get his hands on them to upgrade Glamrock Freddy was to mangle the animatronics they belonged to just so he could steal their SOLE copies from them? The Schmidt family easily recognized this rather blatant problem and exposed it to Fazbear Entertainment to correct. And the addition of extra spare parts could very well have MAJOR ramifications for the events of Security Breach down the road, even if the Schmidt family themselves don't realize it.
Their demand for Fazbear Entertainment to change how the last few bits of power are redirected when battery runs out to focus on Safe Mode also has important ramifications, because prioritizing maintaining Safe Mode now means that instead of Glamrock Freddy killing Gregory when running out of power, he'll merely shut down and be disabled instead. Far from an ideal situation, but still infinitely better than your one trustworthy and dependable ally in the entire Pizzaplex straight-up murdering you through no fault of his own.
Of course, not every problem has a magical solution. Fazbear Entertainment actually shot down a few of Mike's suggestions, and for once actually had valid reasons to do so. And Mike recognizes this too, because he doesn't fight particularly hard for some suggestions the same way he does for others.
Anyways, next chapter we go all the way back up to the main Pizzaplex proper. Sorry again for the massive delay, but I hope you guys enjoyed nonetheless!