I Don't Own Fnaf


Marionette wanted so badly to say something, anything, to know what to do, but nothing came to mind as he could only watch as Bonnie just stumbled back a bit, a bitter choked sound coming from him. It made him finally break his silence as he reached out, words ready to spew out, of what kind the puppet had no idea, but he needed to say something, only Bonnie flinched away from his outstretched hand, as the animatronic moved slowly away, back to the table, saying over his shoulder.

"Don't bother... I know. J-Just leave Marionette" He sounded so defeated, and Marionette had no idea just what to do, he could only ask quietly.

"I didn't now, if I did-"

"Don't... Just don't" Marionette just trembled with his own emotions as he watched the way the animatronic in front of him shook as well as he sat back down on the table, it.. He was hurting Bonnie by being here, the realization made something creak in his chest, as he managed to give a stiff nod, saying as he slowly moved away, not wanting to leave but at the same time wanting to not be here.

"I-if you ever want to talk, please let me be there for you. I-" Marionette had just left the doors, unable to finish his words as the doors moved on there own accord, the pressure back, just for a moment, as the doors slammed close in his face.

The puppet let out a short pained trembling note of music, before drifting back away, just there, unsure just what to do, before deciding he needed to get to the Cove, he had a job to do, and the idea of falling back into his programming, to just exist in his box, in his corner, felt like a relief he didn't deserve.

The faint noise of what sounded like dripping water alerted the puppet to his own tears, as he just let out a shaky chime before quickly moving away from the crate, gosh, he was such a disaster... What a great time to have chased Mike off.

That got a huffing chime from him at the irony of it, as he moved away, trying to find where the left over cleaning wipes were, he didn't want to show up to the Cove looking like this, if he was lucky no one would bother him today until tonight, though he had no misunderstanding he'd be able to get this around Mike. Even if a part of him didn't want to burden the man with this.

They all were dealing with so much stuff already, and the man was still healing, it wasn't fair to him to put this on him.

Taking the equivalent of a long breath in, trying to get himself under control, the puppet cleaned himself off carefully, before vanishing to the Cove, it was fine, he could be fine.


Mike was confused a bit over the slightly nervous tone Jeremy had over the phone when he had called to ask if he could get picked up, the man had agreed though so, now Mike was just waiting on a random block in a part of town he hadn't really ever had a reason to be in. He had walked around for a while, but he stopped around the second time someone who was on what looked like their morning walk crossed the street to not have to walk past him.

He wasn't really sure what that was supposed to imply to be honest, because on one hand, he looked a bit like a mess still, and given he looked about as much of a zombie as he actually was one, it made sense, but on the other hand, it wasn't really a nice feeling. Honestly, if this grey thing never went away he was going to have to find some way to excuse it, he could probably just say it's a skin condition, cause, it kind of was, given Mike was pretty sure he had an everything condition now, on account of, as aforementioned, being a literal zombie.

That thought... wasn't getting easier to wrap his head around, but the jokes about it were making it a bit easier to address himself as such without the inherent panic of it, so that was something.

Either way, before long he saw the familiar sight of the van turning the corner, moving in his direction, as Mike just held out a hand in greeting as he watched as the van slowed and stopped beside him, as he moved over, opening up the passenger side door and carefully pulling himself up into the van, saying as he did.

"Thanks, got stranded and didn't want to walk the rest of the way back" Jeremy just gave him a short awkward smile, when another voice spoke up from behind the two men, it was familiar enough that Mike wasn't much more than lightly surprised.

"How did you manage that?" Turning around in his seat, he blinked at the sight of his brother just sort of... sitting there... Mike hadn't been expecting that, as he said after a moment.

"Phone Guy came over for a visit, it didn't go great, had to drive him home" Jeremy's eyebrows shot up at that, asking with clear concern.

"W-wait, what happened?" Mike sighed, remembering it and the talk he was probably going to need to have with Mari, as he answered.

"Nothing much, just didn't react well to Mari popping in, think he almost had a heart attack" It was said in jest, but no one laughed, as Evan just huffed.

"The man always was a bit dramatic" Mike just hummed.

"Right, well, you two were co-workers for longer than anyone else was technically, so I guess you'd know. Why are you here by the way? Just wanted to hang out with Jere beforehand or...?" Jeremy looked incredibly awkward, and while Evan wasn't the the type to react much, Mike could still see the way he fidgeted a bit in a way that struck him as familiar, it had been a long time, but Mike never forgot his brother's nervous tells, it was just Evan wasn't often ever nervous anymore.

Mike could already feel the way the puzzle pieces were beginning to slot into place, but he waited anyway as his brother shifted for a moment, as Mike continued to just wait and watch for an answer as Jeremy just took the time to get them back onto the road. Finally, just as the silence was beginning to get to the point where Mike was actively considering speaking up, his patience won out as Evan spoke up, haltingly and a bit more blunt than he needed to be, but speaking all the same.

"I-I'm... Going to the diner" Mike just blinked, before nodding slowly, asking while ignoring the faint pit of uncomfortableness settling itself in his gut.

"Uh, alright, any reason why?" The bear continued to shift about uncomfortably for a second before saying simply.

"I'm working there currently" Mike took a deep breath in, held it, before letting it go before the fact that he didn't feel the need to breath out could catch up to him, as he said with a carefully dry tone, as he looked over at the incredibly awkward looking Jeremy who was keeping his eyes locked ahead on the road.

"Oh, well, glad to hear me being the boss means so much to everyone" Before either could do more than wince a bit, he continued to speak, "H-how long has this been going on?" Mike was so used to the dry, almost monotonous tone his brother spoke with nowadays that the awkward and slightly guilty tone honestly helped him break out of his thoughts as the bear said.

"About two weeks?" Mike slowly just nodded, before sighing, placing his head into his hands before he could stop himself, trying to press the memories flashing in the back of his mind away. It wasn't working, but he managed to speak like nothing was at all wrong in his head, and instead just said.

"Are you enjoying it?"

"I-... I think so" Mike just nodded, pulling down on his face with his hands for a moment, before leaning back in the seat, his hands sticking themselves to his lap once he noticed the color that they were turning, before saying casually.

"Alright" Mike was pretty sure his answer startled at least one of the two, though he was too busy keeping his thoughts in check to want to pay too close of attention, as Evan spoke up carefully.

"Alright?" Mike nodded, looking back over his shoulder to give the bear a small smile.

"Yeah, if you're having fun then that's all that matters" That wasn't right, there was so much more that mattered, but they were Mike's issues, and if his brother wanted to do something that he was enjoying doing, then Mike would rather be scooped again than get in the way of that because of his own problems.

"I see... Thanks Michael" Mike just hummed to not give away anything else, as he ignored the way that Jeremy's eyes glanced over at him for a second, instead wanting to change the subject, and as such moved to turn to look at his brother before asking plainly.

"Anyways, do you think the grey makes me look scary or something?" The tension was broken, and Evan looked less than impressed, so Mike considered it a win, even as Jeremy sputtered out something in surprise at the tone shift.


Jeremy had just finished dropping off Mike and getting Goldie into the Cove, already feeling a bit tired and a tad guilty all things considered, as he moved to help Fritz finish up preparing for the day. Doing his best as he moved around to ignore the pounding feelings of guilt and general uncomfortableness from just about half a dozen sources, instead reaching out and gripping onto the feelings of the excitement of Foxy instead, using the teenager as an anchoring point for his own emotions didn't exactly leave Jeremy himself feeling great about himself either, but it was better than the alternative.

His control over his strange ability had grown in the last two or so months that he's been occasionally worked on it, in more than just one way, he could turn it down now, but not by enough to help him here, but as well... Back during the... 'misunderstanding' with Toy Bonnie, he had done something, he hadn't really known what it was, just... He had grabbed onto Mangle's, or rather Bonnie's anger and he used it as if it was his own. It was strange, some kind of... reserve empathy? He didn't really care to try and put a title to it, but it did open the gate to something new, another thing that was harder to balance, it was... easy, scarily so to just live with the emotions of others instead of his own.

Jeremy tried to not do it, he knew it probably wasn't good for him or anything, but when... But when all that was around him day in and out was stress and anxiety from his friends without even mentioning his own and the pain of dealing with all of this, it was hard to not grab onto it sometimes, on the joy of the kids or the, frankly put, loud optimism of Foxy. It also helped him not feel quite as secluded, a stupid thought as much as he knew it to be, did nothing to stop the feeling from creeping in more and more as time went on over the last few months of what felt like one thing after another.

Something he held a personal guilt for, he hardly was the one who had it the worst here, everyone else struggled with something while he just simply existed watching it all go by and yet felt affected by it personally when he knew he had no reason or need to stake such an emotional claim in everything.

So he did his best to ignore the waves of pain coming from the Prize Corner, even as that pain seemed to leech itself onto his chest, as he moved on and just did his job, giving a smile to Janet, talking a bit with Fritz, giving Foxy a wave when the animatronic peaked out of the curtain, trying to be sneaky as he looked for the clock to know how soon they were opening and failing at it. The fox just returned the wave before vanishing behind the curtain once more, though as Jeremy moved around it, he could hear what sounded like a conversation being held from behind the starry veil. Goldie was probably talking with the fox about just what had happened on the drive over.

That had been... incredibly awkward, at least for Jeremy, the other two had seemed content with how it had ended, though Jeremy was sure that there was something that Mike was holding back about the whole thing, he couldn't even tell that anymore about the man, so he just let it go and hoped it would all turn out alright, the relief that Goldie held over his brother waving off the concerns that Jeremy was sure that they all kind of held about the situation and how the tall man would react, was not an minor amount.

Either way, he just moved on, wondering just what he was supposed to say next, what would happen next that would try to break them, before doing his best to drown the thoughts away as he continued to get ready for the day. The Cove had become something of a sanctuary for him in a way, a place to work and distract himself, the others were probably the same way, even though he was sure he found himself more attached here than the others, after all, he was the only one who was alone at the end of the day, once everyone left, it was just him.


Fritz wasn't sure it was a great idea to have this be the part that Janet was brought in on, but he sucked at lying (It was a miracle he lasted as long as he had in keeping the inhabitants at the Cove's true natures a secret from her), so in the end he broke down and told his girlfriend about the details of the most recent string of misfortunate that they were dealing with in full, well, mostly, he kept a few of the more less important bits out of the way, but for the most part she knew everything.

He had honestly been hoping that telling it all to her would make her want to take a step back away from the more dangerous aspects that came from working at a place like the Cove, with the history that it tended to track in, but if anything it just made Janet more and more determined. Honestly, Fritz didn't get it, like, at all, but then again, he never really understood those that willingly placed themselves in this part of the world that most didn't know existed.

He hadn't gotten it when Mike had done so until after learning about the man's past, a past that seemed to become more and more important. It... felt off to Fritz sometimes, knowing so much about the man while in return it felt like he hadn't had to share nearly as much when Mike didn't really have much of a choice. But that wasn't here nor there currently, no the main thing was Janet was involved now, and wanted to be involved, and Fritz was really bad at saying no to the people he cared about, even when he really, really should know better by now.

So here they were, with the help of Goldie, who was more unneeded muscle than anything, setting up a printer in the office at the warehouse so they could look over the files in their entirety to try and find something that they could use and then have printed out so they- mostly Fritz to be honest- could have a proper filing cabinet filled with all the actually important things they needed to know, instead of finding a scrap piece of paper with a bit of useful information on it in a haystack of folders and files.

Janet was the one setting up the printer, Fritz had already kind of got himself stuck at the chair, feeling the need to get this started, it was a weird wave of motivation, but one he wasn't going to look in the mouth of. Goldie was helping her anyways, moving the things out of the way for her to have an easier time getting around the sides to plug the right wires in, the printer itself was plenty bulky as well, so it was nice of the bear.

Of course, Goldie himself just sort of stood there, not really saying much, even as Janet tried to start some kind of conversation with him, not that she seemed to mind, she rambled a bit when she was stressed or anxious, or just in general really when she had extra energy, something Fritz found cute. As it stood, he had no idea if the teenaged bar was listening in the slightest to Janet or was just tuning her out, if it was the latter, the bear didn't seem to not be paying attention, though given how much time he spent with Foxy, he probably knew how to at least act like he was hearing someone ramble at him.

Either way, right now Fritz himself was a bit busy feeling like he should slam his head against a wall, it would honestly be faster by giving him a concussion and some wild dreams that being able to learn anything from the drives in anything close to a timely manner.

Not to say the computer was super slow, it was definitely a bit outdated, and if they all weren't having to budget hard to keep everything running money wise, Fritz probably would have tried to get a better one by now, but it was hardly that bad. The issue was just the sheer amount of files here that were incredibly poorly labeled and named meant it was just a point of clicking on them and waiting for one of two things to happen.

One, either the file would be denied access because the computer itself didn't have the right program to run it, something Fritz had already realized a bit after he first put the drives in, needing one of those hand units more than likely, which he had no idea how they were going to manage. It was those file types that he hadn't recognized, he knew what they were now, but that didn't mean he had access to the tool that would let him access them.

Or two, the file would open up, but it would just be useless old information that had no reason to still be here in the computer in the first place. It was a Freddy's habit, burying everything so deep under the pointless information that it would be near impossible to find, but that didn't mean it wasn't annoying as hell to deal with, even if he knew what he was getting himself into long before he had sat down.

The most annoying part though, it was like the files were mocking him... That sounded crazy, but it was kind of what it felt like, the more and more he found files that he could access more and more they just held the same thing.

'Please Stand By!'

It was honestly kind of infuriating, but there wasn't anything he could do about, no matter how many times he opened up a file hoping to find at least something new to look at, and instead either got that same message or a long list of things so mind-numbingly pointless it wasn't even worth looking over in detail beyond making sure there wasn't any keywords that might catch his eye.

Still, it wasn't a total bust, though Fritz had to admit he got bored fairly quickly, and mostly had his focus moving into holding a conversation with Janet and Goldie, for as little the bear spoke, more than paying direct attention to the screen. He did find a few interesting things, not because they had been particularly hidden, just the file was buried deep for all the same reasons any file was a pain to find. There was hardly anything damning in it, but it was a relief for Fritz personally.

It was the file that had the designs and plans stored for a large number of animatronics, most of which Fritz himself honestly just wasn't familiar with beyond very faint memories of remembering hearing about them years ago, the files themselves were probably just there as a digital backup, which was surprisingly considerate of whatever technicians came before Fritz had been suckered into the role for the latter half of Freddy's history, but they were certainly useful, even labeled almost properly.

They weren't great still, but it was better than Fritz had suspected they would be, there wasn't any direct names on the files, just a string of letters with a number associated with them, clicking through them, Fritz was instantly aware of just how old some were and how new others were.

There was the toy's blueprints, checking them over with what he remembered from the plans he had gotten from Mike's friend Charlie, for Toy Bonnie, they seemed to be the same, no difference at least that he could spot. Those files, the four of them, were labeled as 'TL - 0#' the first being Freddy, then in order being Chica, Bonnie, and then Foxy. The TL probably standing for Toy Line if Fritz had to make a guess. But they weren't the only ones, there was plenty of animatronic short hands that Fritz just didn't recognize, along with the original four animatronic... Only those animatronic plans weren't right, because they were severally outdated. Something Fritz knew all to well because he had been the one who updated them... Not fully of course, he had been given the tools and gear but he had been the one who actually replaced and updated both them and their blueprints himself. these plans were for when the original four had been brand new, nearly two decades ago.

It was almost interesting to see the differences now between what the originals had looked like and what they ended up as, especially to Fritz, as the one who had seen them in their most withered states and had been the one who had pieced them back together into something close to a working order. These were the versions of these bots that the ones who had been here from the very start had seen them as. The ones Mike, Goldie, and Foxy, back when the latter two hadn't been who they were now, had seen on stage. It was also just as strange in a way, but he didn't think to hard about it, even as he ignored the way Goldie, who he had kind of forgotten about was there, leaned in to stare closely at the screen with the plans of the four.

From there, grabbing at something he's been wanting to have on hand for a while now, he did take a while to look through and try and find one file in particular, past all the animatronic labels that Fritz just didn't recognize, even opening a few and not at all recognizing any of the designs as ones that had had existed in his own time, as he searched around for it.

Eventually he found it under the file name of 'PC - 01', he hadn't actually expected this one to be it, he had been looking for something like MN or something, but PC was easy enough to figure out soon after. Prize Corner animatronic One, not that there had ever been anymore, but now Fritz finally had the blueprint on Marionette. He had been wanting to find this for a while now, it was the only one he was really missing out of the group of animatronic he worked on now, and it was something he had felt the impact of it's absence when he had needed to do an very sudden and emergency repair on the puppet not to long ago.

Honestly that night still played across his mind with much to many details, it had been a near miracle that the warehouse had happened to have the few parts that he had needed to, and Marionette hadn't been nearly as damaged as he had suspected, only his chest chassis had been bent and music box only lightly damaged, things that while difficult were mostly just labor to fix without any real complications. These plans however would help him if Mari ever needed more general maintenance in the future as well in case he got damaged again.

So with that he printed off the puppet's blueprints, making a note of the file as well as the many paths it took to find it, before looking around this section of information for a while longer, wondering if he was going to be able to find anything on any of the springlock suits. In the end he did find a few, though they weren't any for the two Springlock suits he was familiar with, Goldie and Spring Bonnie's blueprints just weren't there, instead it just started at SL - 03, which was that springlock chica suit that they had somewhere in the warehouse. Still, he printed that off as well, figuring it might still be useful for something in the future and he could compare it to the notes he had on Goldie which might help for... something. Fritz just wanted to have it more than needed it at this point.

Still, side distraction sorted, he moved and collected the papers up before moving and beginning to see if he could figure out if there was anything of importance here, and with that he began searching for a certain combination.

It was quicker, he actually nailed it on the head when he found the files labeled 'FT - 0#' which were obviously labeled that way for the Funtimes, the ones that Afton Robotics had built for Circus Baby's if he had to determine and actual distinguishing mark between these and all the other random machines that were listed here, honestly with some of the ones he opened, they weren't even actually animatronics, just anything that involved more complicated machinery.

Anyways, there was a lot to the Funtime design files.

FT - 01 was Bellora from Fritz opening it up, but after that there were files 01.1 through 01.4, which was strange, but after he opened them up, it seemed they were those strange dolls that Fritz had seen on some of the old ad papers, labeled 'Minireena One through Four', they apparently were controlled by Bellora based on what routine she was doing from the quick glance over Fritz gave her. That was... something, no one had mentioned them, so Fritz just moved on.

Ft - 02 was Circus Baby and like Bellora, she had here own minor animatronic helpers, labeled Bidybabs, there were only two of them recorded though being both 02.1 and 02.2, which Fritz was fine with. Mari had gotten Fritz used to his kind of puppet design which made him fine with the minireena's because they looked honestly pretty similar, but the bidybabs? They just looked... Creepy.

FT - 03 and 03.1 were the Funtime Freddy and a Bonnie hand puppet that went with the animatronic labeled as BonBon. Nothing much to say there, Fritz knew about the hand puppet, just hadn't known it had been it's own independent animatronic for... some reason. Though that might be a bit generous, the plans showed it was mostly just a speaker that could move around and not much else.

Ft - 04 was the Funtime Foxy... Though interestingly enough, there was something for him as well, though it was different. Instead it was labeled as 04.A, clicking on it opened up just brought up Funtime Foxy's design again... Well, there was a few differences, but none that looked all that important based on a quick look over, it was probably just an early version of the character that got left behind in the files for some reason.

Fritz just closed the files out soon after making sure to get a print of each of the main four animatronics' so he could go and actually look them over in more detail than the simplified ones that they had gotten from the AR files. As beyond that there wasn't anything else in there for him to find that was worth it with how late it was, even then he'd have to look into the files later on instead of just this moment.

Spending a minute to gather up the many papers he had printed out and getting them loaded up into individual folders to keep them organized, he moved over to one of the few file cabinets in the office, which they already used for keeping track of actually important things for the Cove, mostly the expenses and employee files and a copy of the contracts they had with the merchandise company they worked with. Jeremy had been the one to do it, saying it was important, and no one knew better to disagree with him, so it meant it was already in a good spot to add these new folders and papers in without worrying about them being misplaced again in the future.

As he was doing so, he absently noticed for the first time in a while that he was the only one that seemed to still be invested in the computer side of things, turning and looking over, Fritz blinked at the sight of Goldie and Janet, not... Talking really, the bear wasn't holding up the conversation much still, but he seemed at the very least a bit more invested as Janet looked over and seemed to be talking about the object in her hand. That old golden freddy plushy that Fritz never really got the story of.

Janet's rambling had had some point shift into less of a ramble and more an actual conversation, and Goldie while not speaking a lot, did reply it seemed, explaining something in short bursts in between a story Janet was telling about what sounded like her own brother and a bear he had as well when he was a kid. It was... It was something, Fritz sound himself just staring, caught in the sight of the two for a long moment, a smile pulling on his face before he realized it, even as he quickly did his best to mask it as two very different sets of eyes turned to look at him.

Fritz would like to make it very clear, he did not squeak nor did his face feel like it was on fire when Janet laughed at his face.


It was the next morning when everyone had gathered up again, instead of going to the warehouse or Mike's and making a few people to make more than a few trips, everyone met up at the Cove given it was still a work day it was just more effective. Mike hadn't really cared at the time, it was a shorter drive for him to make at the very least, but that changed around the same time he stepped inside the building and realized with a faint uncomfortableness that this was the first time he had been here since he had learned about his father... heck, it was before everything had happened at AR as well thinking about it, over a month ago now. The last time he had seen these walls he had been alive.

It made him... not feel great if he was being honest, the main one not even being about all the things he learned but just from the fact that, as the boss, he just hadn't been able to do anything in weeks in his 'medical leave', sure he had no real way to work the floor as he had been, and he had still been working with Jeremy for all the behind the scene things, but the idea that he hadn't so much as stepped foot in his own restaurant in over a month made him feel now that he was here...

Strangely enough it made his face itch a bit, though he put that to his new appearance and his already admittedly paranoid need to keep his face hidden while inside these walls. His hands itched for a mask at his side that wasn't there, and did his best to not feel just a bit too tight in the chest every time he realized that. He just made a point of shoving his hands into his pockets and not feel kind of useless, he wanted to fidget with something, but there was nothing around. So he just picked at his fingers as Fritz pulled out the files and mentioned everything that he had found out so far from the files.

It was... something, looking them over, Mike didn't understand all the technical stuff, but that was just to be expected, but he was surprised by just how many animatronics were down there beyond just the ones that wanted to kill him... It made something tight pull even harder in his chest as he looked over the plans for all the smaller animatronics. Maybe he was just overthinking it, but a small thought nagged at the back of his mind as Mari floated over with the others, them all talking about one thing or another.

From what Mike could just over hear from past the wave of sudden thoughts in his brain, it was about the functions of the Funtimes, Fritz pointing out strange notes and details that had some pretty concerning features that were placed in the funtimes and how he thought that he'd be able to learn more about them and look into the other files from finding some kind of machine unit that he vaguely remembered. They all were talking, some kind of discussion, Mike really should be listening, but his eyes were still stuck on the open files, finding himself staring right at some kind of strange skinny doll with a very familiar styled mask.

Even as they moved on to the other kind of animatronic files Fritz had mentioned seeing and Mari happily explaining all the side animatronics that had rotated in and out of Freddy's over the years when they hadn't been as popular as the main casts.

It was that which caused him to speak, the fact that Mari's voice had been the one to catch his attention being the thing that brought him over the edge as he stared at the files in front of him.

"We need to go back to AR and deal with the underground section" He hadn't realized just how much everyone was talking until they all went quiet in an instant. Mike just continued to stare down for a moment, before lifting his eyes up just enough to see everyone staring at him in a mix of confusion and in some cases concern, as Jeremy was the first to break the silence, asking uncomfortably.

"Are you sure? It hadn't been that long since we went back the first time" Mike just slowly nodded, as he stepped forwards, staring down at the pages for a moment, before saying softly.

"Yeah, we've... Everything we need to know or that can help us find out more about all this is down there, and not only that but there are apparently half a dozen more animatronics that we didn't know that are probably down there" No one seemed to get it for a moment, until Goldie spoke up, a pained tone in his own voice as he spoke Mike's thought.

"You think they might be like us?" Mike felt like his voice was dried out as Mari let out a suddenly distressed chime, as he said simply.

"I have no idea, but if they are... Then they were down there with Ennard for who knows how long" The air was tense for a long second, though Mike made the effort to huff and say not to long after, "Though if not, then we get to add a mini section to the Cove which wouldn't hurt either" It wasn't his best work, but it did enough to keep the air from getting to heavy, as Fritz leaned in and said with a small bit of histant interest.

"I mean, we do need that hand unit as well, and if there is anyone else down there, then we need to know about it right?" No one could exactly say no to that, even though Mike felt his like chest was being pried at, he knew he was right. That didn't mean he felt at all well about the idea of going back there.

But if there were more kids that needed help... Then what were they supposed to do but at the very least try?


Another highly segmented chapter, mostly just doing set up and the like, cause foreshadowing is never done, because there is always more to come. Beyond that, not much of anything I'm really sure as to what to say. Bonnie is a mess, and Mari has no idea what to do, but that's understandable for both of them, then there's Mike, at the end of this chapter, straight up disassociating through most of the conversation before making a very sudden and kind of brash decision with no regards for his own mental health, which, let's be honest, is in line with his character but still probably concerning.

Fritz got to do some of the detective leg work this time around, which is fun! Though it's mostly just setting up information that most people already knew and it's just now that the characters are being able to learn it, with plenty of little seeds tossed around for future funnies... Honestly, trying really hard to think of something to really add to this, with, like, an insightful comment about everything, but I got nothing, so I guess I'll end it off here, See ya!