I Don't Own Fnaf
Goldie wasn't sure what to expect as he watched in his half slumped form in the back of his brother's car, as Jeremy pulled the three of them into the strangely familiar house. He recognized it surprisingly, he hadn't been sure just what he would know, but the second they had been on the road, everything just flooded back in a clarity that was almost crushing.
New memories resurfacing, or perhaps they had always been there and only now making him think of them for the first time in years.
The side walks he could remember walking down, clinging to his older brother as he watched as cars passed them by on the way to the nearby playground, the house down the street that he had thought was awesome because there was a pool in the backyard, and then there was the house... His house.
It looked the same on the outside, the large front, the garage on the side, the porch and the tiled slabs heading to the front door... The windows were covered now, thick black curtains having been hung up to keep any prying eyes away from the general public for who all was inside, or more likely just to keep Carol from peeking in, the nosey neighbor that Mike had complained a time or two about.
Before the bear was really ready for it, they had pulled up into the driveway and in the next moment they were in the garage. Goldie just found himself stuck there for a moment, just staring ahead at the sectioned off wall of the garage that a small part of his mind informed him was the 'laundry room' of the house. When a heavy hand was placed on his shoulder, Goldie jolted for a second before realizing that it was just Foxy, who was giving him a bit of a concerned look.
The bear just moved and carefully managed to get himself out of the car while Foxy quickly did the same, the back of Michael's car groaned lightly in relief as Goldie found himself just looking at the mostly bare walls beyond a few tools and some things for the lawn, and old push mower for example, that he just found himself staring at. A faint tingling in the back of his mind of a memory trying to pull itself free.
It was like that for everything, a constant ringing in the back of his mind in recognition just waiting for him to acknowledge so it could flood over and overwhelm him.
"Are you going to be alright Goldie?" The question from Jeremy who was peering at him through the window of the car snapped the bear from his thoughts as he said back without much thought.
"I'll manage, thank you for bringing us" The man seemed to think of something to say only to leave it to himself as he gave a nod, waiting until the two were out of the way and by the door that Goldie remembered would lead into the kitchen, before pulling out of the garage to head to... wherever the man was planning on going, perhaps to the warehouse as well with the other two living men.
Goldie didn't think more of it as the door to the kitchen was suddenly moved open as the garage door finally closed behind them to reveal Marionette giving the two his default smile.
"Hello! Come in! Uh, make yourself at home?" That got a laugh from the fox who in turn gave a pat, though more push, on Goldie's back, half making him stumble into the kitchen as he found himself already pausing for a moment to look around before getting out of the way to let Foxy in. The words coming from him before he could stop them.
"You redecorated" The puppet let out a chime of some kind of emotion as he floated around into the kitchen as he spun around with his arms wide like he was showing it off as he said proudly.
"Yep! It was a disaster, Mike had to get us both new cookware, and we moved some things around" Goldie could only nod as he looked around. The shelf he was used to seeing used as more of a second place to lay stuff now had a good dozen cookbooks resting on it, there was a new spice rack, two of them even, one seemed more filled with things Goldie was pretty sure was for cooking, and the other for baking.
The counter seemed almost separated in a way, the stove top and the oven weren't in one machine, and where the oven was there were bowls and measuring cups, while near the stove top the wall had a few handles up in where some pots and pans were hanging. The shelf with the books was somewhere in between the two spaces by the sink, but... As he looked there was clear overlap between the two 'sections' that clearly where the two people living in the house naturally found themselves.
It... Well, it was a kitchen, it was even the same one he remembered, the faint memories of sights and smells, of a tall kid standing on a stool reading the instructions of a box of mac and cheese with a faint bruise on his cheek finding itself at the top of his memories. The next one wasn't much better as he found himself turning to look at the cabinet that was resting above the fridge.
He moved before he thought to ask, reaching up and opening up the doors to reveal... Nothing, it was empty. Marionette seemed to notice as he mentioned.
"Ah, we haven't found a reason to use that, Mike said he cleaned it out before I was around if you were looking for anything...?" He ended the sentence off with a faint question, asking silently what the bear had been looking for. Goldie had no intention of mentioning remembering the funny bottles that made dad act weird, he knew what it was now, and it made his springs uncoil just a bit to hear Michael had thrown them out before even Marionette had come to live in the home.
"No, nothing" The puppet didn't pry, but he could feel the curious gaze from his fox friend, but thankfully Foxy was approaching the situation with more tact that the bear had expected, being mostly quiet and allowing Goldie to just... process it all, instead of bull rushing his way through everything in an attempt to keep everything from being to tense. The silence was needed just so he had the time to work through his thoughts, though he wasn't quite sure just what he was supposed to be thinking about, as he slowly moved out of the room into... the living room.
"And this hasn't changed at all" Marionette let out an awkward chime.
"Uh, yeah, wasn't really a need, I mean, we cleaned the shelves off and moved some pictures to the attic but that's about it" Goldie just nodded as he moved around the couch, standing in that space between the seats and the tv, before above the tv at the mantle that was up against the wall which held a number of said pictures. Some of them were familiar, having seen them in the photo album that Michael had shown him. And others... Moving closer to one that was hanging on the wall, Goldie found himself staring at the woman in the frame.
His mother... He didn't even know her name, he hadn't thought to ask Michael, and he couldn't even remember it now... He wasn't sure they ever talked about their mom even back when he was still alive. Yet he found himself looking at the woman with a faint sense of... something.
"Why did you move the pictures?"
"I- well, it made Mike... uh, it didn't help some days" Goldie nodded, the idea now coming to mind about how... not great it was to be surrounded by pictures of dead family members. He remembered a lot of pictures on the walls, their dad liked taking them, he remembered that much, but here... The walls were surprisingly bare as he looked closer. The furniture was the same, but that was about it... But as he thought to move away, he paused as he found himself staring down at the coffee table by his leg, just staring at it for a moment before reaching down, bending at the knee, and with a single hand lifting the side up easily.
"Uh, Matey, what you doing there?" The sound of a confused chime showed that Marionette would also like to know along with Foxy, but Goldie just found himself staring at another thing he had forgotten.
"Look" He made a gesture at it, and simply watched as the two bent over to stare at what he was looking at, and sure enough there was more than just the underside of the table. In large ugly now faded red was the big letter M.
"Why's that there?"
"It used to be a capital E, for Elizabeth, Michael did it so if dad ever found out Lizzy was scribbling on the furniture he wouldn't get mad at her. I don't know if dad ever saw it, but I remember finding it one day and Michael telling me he'd buy me a new toy if I didn't mention it" Goldie wasn't blind to the way that Marionette tensed at the mention of his father, but he didn't think to question it right now as Foxy simply leaned in and tilted his head, probably trying to see the original letter, Michael had practically made the small letter way invisible by making one that was much bigger.
"Whose Lizzy?" Goldie felt himself realize with a start that he hadn't ever really... explained his family to Foxy, or anyone really, Marionette didn't seem too surprised so he assumed that Michael had told the puppet about her, while he found himself explaining in as little detail as he could.
"My sister, she... didn't get a gift" It was as roundabout as he was willing to talk about right now, but it was clear that the fox got the message as the animatronic tensed for a moment before giving him an awkward pat on the shoulder. Goldie just didn't say anything more, letting the table rest down back onto the old carpet that he could remember spending time on coloring while his dad watched the tv.
So many memories were already rushing in and pressing on him with feelings he hadn't felt in so long, a... sense of longing pulling on his chest as well. Was this what it was like for Michael when he talked about their childhood? Because that longing ached in a way that he wasn't used to.
"What do you want to see next?" Goldie wasn't sure, but he turned to look at the puppet as he thought about his answer. He wasn't sure what he wanted to see, knowing it all would simply be too much for him, but knowing he needed to do it anyways. Eventually he settled on his old room.
Marionette decided to hold back and wait a bit, while the youngest two of the animatronics present moved down the hall that was made of a wall that was used to separate the living room to the three doors to two of the bedrooms and the ground floor bathroom.
Grabbing onto the door handle, he slowly turned it before pushing it in, as Goldie moved into the room...
It was the same. It was the exact same, a small pile of old toys on the ground, the closest slightly open, the bed made, the dresser in the corner and the nightstand... It was all the same, the only thing that showed time had passed was the light layer of dust on the items in the room, not enough to be from the years it had been left along, but a solid few months of build up showing his brother and Marionette had cleaned the place once when they were getting the house sorted and hadn't come back in since.
Walking into the center of the room over the old carpeted floor, Goldie just moved over to look at the bed for a short moment before glancing back over to Foxy who was looking over the room with interest.
"Uh, this be where you slept?"
"Yeah, don't think I'd be able to fit on that bed anymore" The dry joke caught the fox off guard leading to a short laugh before it cut off as he tried to figure out if he was supposed to laugh or not, while leaning over to look at the bed in question. It was a small single sized bed, clearly made for a kid. If Foxy himself laid on it, his knees would nearly be hanging out enough that he would still be able to rest his feet on the ground. While if Goldie himself tried, he'd be half hanging off the side, his suit wasn't exactly small, unlike Foxy who could almost be considered slender by their animatronic suit type's standard, Goldie was much more bulky.
"Well, beyond the bed, how are you feeling?" Goldie just shrugged.
"It's... weird. I remember things that happened here, but... it's just a place as well. A place that isn't the same at that, like... me. A new coat of paint for something that's really the same on the inside, just... treated differently" Michael's words from a few weeks ago coming back into focus, he hadn't really gotten everything the man had been trying to say at the time, but... he was beginning to get the idea the longer he was standing in this room, showing the unchanged anything from how it had been in a house that had changed in small ways with much different people in it.
"Er, sure... What's that mean?" Goldie shrugged.
"Just... I grew up in this house, but it's not the home I grew up in. Only one person of the four of us is still here, and someone else as well, it's changed a lot... Michael said something about that, or something related to the idea of it... Two versions of the same thing from different times that get crossed by knowing them at those points. It's the same building, but not the place I grew up... I understand that logically, but I see memories everywhere I look, so, yeah, weird"
"I don't really get it" Goldie let a faint amused rumble pull from his chest as he said back.
"I don't really either, I just don't really know how to describe what all I'm feeling right now" He really didn't so he just hadn't bothered to focus on the feelings, they were... well, weird was the word of the day for a reason. A mix of longing for something gone, a faint echo of fear and confusion, and... sadness. He didn't care much for his father, his missing memories of the man and the way the man had been described with the parts that he had remembered... Frankly, he was comfortable admitting the man was up there on the list of people he'd gladly help kill. But Elizabeth?
He... he wished he could have gotten to know his sister beyond learning who she had been through his memories. He couldn't help but wonder what she would have been like, would she have been more like Michael or perhaps like the mother he never got to meet, he had been told he himself had been the most like their mother, something that as he thought of it in his childhood bedroom, made something ache once more something fiercely in his chest.
He hadn't considered himself much for wishing for a better life or circumstance, but he did wish he could have known them better or at all. Though Goldie couldn't help but wonder if knowing them even for a brief time would have made the pain in his chest that much worse, it would explain some things about his last living family member, a thought he had on occasion that still consistently made him feel horrid to think of it... Slowly the bear moved forwards until he could reach down and pick up one of the toys, an old action figure that was painted badly in the attempt to 'make it look cooler'.
They used to be his only friends... Did he even believe that back then though or was it just a way to fill the void?
"I think I'm sad... Yeah, I'm sad for my family, for myself as well I think... What do you remember about your family?" Goldie wasn't sure what primed him to ask about it, maybe he just needed something else to think about in that moment or maybe it was from a genuine curiosity to his friend's past, whatever it was, the fox simply shrugged.
"Not much... I know I had an older brother and a mother, don't remember a dad... I could ask Mike, but I just... haven't thought about it I suppose" Goldie could hear the faint tremble in the animatronic's tone that told him that the fox wasn't quite telling the whole truth, but he didn't think to press on it at the moment, instead saying back.
"I see... Do you... Are you happy, like this, with... everything" That seemed to be really what floored the fox as he didn't say anything for just long enough to have the bear turn around to take a look over at his friend. That seemed to be what got Foxy to snap out of whatever he was thinking of as he said with a bit too much energy.
"I be happy!" The fox seemed to pause for a moment, his body seemingly sagging for a moment before he said in a much more... reasonable volume, and a much more serious tone, "I- I doubt this would have been anything close to the life I would have had if the bastard didn't get me but... It's the life I have now, it's the person I am now, and everything's been... So much better than it's been since I became Foxy. Don't mean I don't think about it from time to time and wonder, but yeah, I'm happy with where I eventually ended up, with what I get to do... What about you? Are you happy with where you are" Goldie was a bit surprised at the question being shot back at him, though maybe he shouldn't have been.
Even as he thought over Foxy's answer, he found himself struggling to really find what to say in an answer that could hold the same weight of what felt had just been told to him. Instead of trying, he eventually found himself just being honest, as he said quietly.
"I feel like I missed so much life since I became like this, and unlike you and Marionette, I... don't have anything to be happy with. I just... exist. I don't have something like the Cove like you and the others all have to rally around and find some sort of purpose in, I just stay at the warehouse waiting for another show to watch or beat my already ridiculous high scores" Foxy seemed to get what he was saying faster than Goldie did, as he answered the second that the bear had finished getting through what he was trying to get at.
"It sounds like you need something to do" That sounded almost ridiculous to Goldie as he heard himself scoff a bit at the idea of that as he said right back to the fox
"I have stuff to do, I have so much stuff that I can do, it's almost... paralyzing sometimes" Foxy didn't let it go however, instead seemingly regaining a bit of the energy he normally had as he said with his pirate accent returning back to full force to the point that Goldie hadn't really noticed when the fox had nearly stopped it before now.
"No, Matey, I don't just mean the ability to do stuff, I mean something to do" Goldie was confused, that seemed to show as Foxy waved a hook in the air and said, "You said it yourself, you don't have that thing we all do, you don't have a ship! You're missing a purpose, you just be drifting like a vagabond in the sea with nothing but the ocean to guide you, only you're a bit too golden to be able to drift into just any shore! Us kind of scallywags can't just show up anywhere all willy-nilly as you know!" Goldie was... lost.
"Uh, sorry, cut the pirate metaphors?" Foxy paused before huffing, the accent fully vanishing once more.
"You're just existing, you don't have a purpose that you can find yourself devoting your time in to be proud of like I and the others have with Pirate's Cove. You helped put it together with us, but you've always been removed from it despite being the one who spent the most time there. You need something like that again, something that you can find happiness in doing, like I do with performing and being able to make kids happy" Oh, right, that made more sense. Though frankly put now Goldie was more shocked because Foxy seemingly had just completely dropped character, which wasn't exactly something that happened often, or... ever.
Goldie more found himself focusing on the sound of Foxy's real voice, not with the accent or the one made from the voice that had been given to the animatronic, but his real voice. It was... softer than he was expecting from how rough it normally sounded, but it put in contrast the teenager's real age, he was seventeen, barely younger than Goldie himself. He found himself so caught up in it that it took him a second to realize he should say something, which he finally managed to do after another second.
"Uh, right, I guess... But there isn't much I can do, as you so put it, I'm a bit too gold"
"Well... I mean..." And Goldie suddenly knew where this was going.
"No"
"Bu-"
"No"
"You don't even know what I'm going to say"
"You want me to perform at the Diner" Foxy looked ready to try and defend his point so, "No"
"Come on! What's the worst that can happen?"
"You want me to do the same thing that this suit was doing when I was killed by it?" Goldie was mostly hoping his dry tone would get the point across. It didn't.
"No! Well, I mean, yeah to performing, but not the same thing! Those performances were completely outdated, you'd need fresh material"
"...Didn't you try and get my brother to perform with you as well?"
"Unrelated! Plus I'll get him to join us one of these days, he's already a performer at heart, and I reckon you're the same, or at the very least you'll certainly enjoy it a lot more than just sitting around watching tv all day with nothing to do!"
"And how do you know that?"
"You were built for it! Same as me and Mari and all the rest, you just got to give it a go!" Goldie was more than ready to shut down the idea, again, but... instead paused for a moment as he unfortunately decided to actually think about the idea. He... didn't really care much about the idea of performing, it didn't sound at all tempting, but it was something that he could do, something that would let him actually talk and interact with people that weren't the same three men and his fellow animatronics, and that was a lot more tempting than anything else about the idea of it all...
"Fine, but I'm not singing and I'm certainly not dancing"
"Come on, it'll be fu-... Wait, did you agree with me?" Goldie would have smirked if he could, as he just instead said casually.
"I'll try being around and doing a routine or something, but I am not performing any songs, you can handle that. And if I don't like it then I'm sealing myself off in the warehouse and you don't bring it up again" Foxy still seemed stunned, it nearly made Goldie laugh, but he held back long enough to watch Foxy perk up and say.
"Yes! I mean, uh, Aye! Aye-aye Matey! Right, we need to get Marionette! Plan out a routine! He'd be a great help with working in your dry humor, he already deals with Mike's all the time that I'm sure he's got some tips" Goldie wasn't sure he liked the idea that his and his brother's sense of humor was apparently close enough that Foxy thought they were the same, but... he wasn't sure he disliked the idea either, another weird complicated mess of feelings in his chest.
Like he didn't have enough of those already.
"Right... In the meantime how about we finish with the reason why we were here in the first place?" Foxy's bashfulness at realizing he basically bulldozed past the quiet and supportiveness he was trying to give off for the bear was more endearing than it should have been. It didn't really matter anyways, Goldie wanted Foxy here because he was Foxy, him acting like this was just to be expected, and appreciated. It was harder to think hard on the negatives with him around.
With that they left his old bedroom without much thought to reunite with Marionette who had been trying very hard to act like he wasn't awkwardly waiting in the living room.
The car ride had been about as quiet as it had been quick, mostly because Mike was thinking about the situation back home. He knew he had nothing to worry about realistically, but... He remembered how hard it had been for him to be back in that house that first day, that first night... It was probably only because of his friend that he didn't still feel uncomfortable being within it's walls...
Mike made the decision to stop thinking about it, instead as they got out of the car, he found himself trailing after Fritz as the man asked over his shoulder as they walked into the warehouse.
"Mind if we take a look at those machines before we find that sound system we were talking about?"
"Sure, it is what I said I was doing anyways"
"Yeah, about that, why not tell Mari?"
"Want it to be a surprise, figured he deserved something nice" Mike was worried about that nightmare, the puppet had them occasionally, but the one he had seen a few nights ago had clearly affected the puppet hard. He did what he could then, and while small gestures were good and all, it made him realize the two hadn't really done much in terms of new stuff, they really did have a routine, a nice one, one Mike enjoyed a lot, but doing something to break that just a bit felt like a good idea. Admittedly it was mostly just Mike's impulsiveness that was the starting point for the idea itself but his motivations really were for Mari.
Fritz just hummed, saying absently after a second.
"You sure do care a lot about him" Mike just shrugged.
"Of course I do" The older man seemed ready to ask a question, but before he could get to it, they had already made it to the office, and as such Fritz found himself focusing on the scores of the machines once more as he moved over and looked them over before giving a low whistle.
"Goldie has some talent, you too, you're scores are massive"
"I have way to many hours on the thing from my childhood, I was obsessed with this and a few of the other arcade games back then"
"Yeah? Nothing else to do?"
"Beyond hanging out with friends? Not really, and even then I could do this at the same time, given I wasn't much of the studying type. Being the kid of the owner meant I got as many play tokens as I wanted. Or at least it meant I knew how to get to them" Fritz gave a small laugh at that as he looked over the machine, saying back with a faint teasing tone.
"Yeah? Started your life of crime early?"
"You know it, I must have spent hundreds of dollars worth of tokens on these machines before anyone noticed. Dad was more proud than angry, of course he chewed the employees out about letting me into the storage room where the tokens were stored, but such as life"
"Damn, my pops would have been pissed, I once stole a pack of candy bars, my old man made me work an entire summer of chores just for the two dollars he'd make me use to go back to the store and tell them what I did and pay for it"
"Harsh"
"Eh, taught me a lot about responsibility, and about big efforts for little pay offs"
"Maybe not well enough given you're ripping apart an arcade machine because you don't know what was wrong"
"Yeah, well, the pay off of my satisfaction isn't going to be small. It'll mean I can get some proper sleep in tonight if I'm lucky here"
"This really has been bugging you huh?"
"No kidding... I mean, I'm glad it's over, whatever it was, but I'm sure you get having something happen to you constantly but nothing you do can find the answer to the problem" Yeah, when it was put like that...
"Fair, let me know if you're planning on killing anyone then, cause that's kind of what I ended up doing the last time I had a constant annoying question" Fritz huffed.
"Please don't remind me, that's another thing that's been keeping me up at night, half our staff has a body count"
"All our staff, besides Janet, at least I really hope she doesn't, it didn't come up on her resume" Fritz glanced back to give him a look as Mike said, "I consider Dave a team effort" Fritz paused at that, seemingly trying to find a way to refute that, before grimacing, as he said back.
"I'd say at best we were accomplices, but thanks, really, now I know I'm definitely going to have a nightmare tonight" He said it with enough sarcasm that Mike was pretty sure he wasn't being too serious, so he just said back dryly.
"No problem... So, need any-" Before Mike could continue, the hauntingly familiar sound of a power failure droned out throughout the warehouse, echoing off the walls as the lights all flickered out. The two men just tensed, out of long trained instinct, waiting a short moment out of reflect more than actual concern, as Mike found himself saying instead, "So, I don't suppose you did that?"
"Not unless the outlet to the machine is directly connected to the break box, then it's just a normal power out"
"Huh... Right, open that drawer to the left, there's some torches in it" Fritz did as asked, flicking the light on before handing the other one to Mike while asking.
"Torch?"
"I get more British when confused"
"Right... Well I guess we should just get those speakers then, nothing else we can do-" Fritz froze on the spot along with Mike as the sounds of creaking and moving metal echoed out from somewhere within the warehouse, as the two quickly shared a glance with each other as Fritz asked quietly, "I don't suppose Jeremy would have brought Goldie back this early?" Mike just slowly shook his head.
"No... And correct me if I'm wrong but that sounds like a whole lot more than just one animatronic" Maybe Mike shouldn't have said that so casually as he watched as Fritz lightly began to shake, just a bit, as he took a solid step back away from the closed door to the office, the reason why it had been dark enough in the middle of the afternoon to require grabbing the flashlights at all, as the sounds of scrapping uncared for gears and rusted metal moved against each other. Mike slowly gulped, feeling the way his heart was slowly and steadily beginning to thud faster and harder in his chest, the precourse of adrenaline his body was preparing him for what was about to come. "They are getting closer, we need to get the hell out of here, now"
That seemed to snap Fritz to attention as the man slowly nodded, as with one last deep breath to steady his nerves, he said, "Right"
The two quickly moved to the doors, opening it up to shove themselves out of it.
The main warehouse had a number of skylight windows to allow plenty of light in during the day, sure it wasn't as constant all over as if the lights had been on, but they could still see well enough beyond a large number of shadowy spots and general dimness in light quality. And it was for that reason that Mike and Fritz saw exactly what was moving at them, as Mike said with a quiet admission.
"Well... Fuck" As Toy Freddy and Chica, now directly in their line of sights, lumbered straight at the two humans, familiar black pits with motes of white filling their empty eyes.
Ah, chaos...