I Don't Own Fnaf

Mike choked down a laugh as he watched as a few kids, who were admittedly overstaying their welcome, were finally dragged out by a set of apologetic parents, as he just gave them a nod in understanding and walked them towards the door, chatting as he did so mostly out of obligation, hearing another set of compliments to his costume, and how real his skin looked, he had become desensitized to it over the long evening, and had made a point to ignore any mothers who made a point of talking about his face, given this was really the first time most of their recurring customers had seen just what he looked like.

It was a bit uncomfortable, but it was fine, he forgot about it pretty quickly with the sheer amount of kids he had to help keep track of, everyone had been swamped throughout the entire day, they honestly hadn't expected much for the afternoon, expecting the main business to come in the evening, but no, they had been consistently busy throughout the entire shift, and had quickly been run all around to keep everything moving.

Mike himself was incredibly proud of the turn out, but could admit by the end of it he had something close to a headache, a bit of chest pain from rushing around, and fair level of exhaustion, though to his own relief, he seemed to be the only one with such issues. The rest of the living crew was beaming, as he finally got the last few kids and parents out the door and finally flipped the sign on the door to closed, pulling the curtain closed as he heard Fritz and Janet talk happily about the day, as Jeremy walked around with a massive smile on his face even as he got a jump on cleaning up.

Not to mention the animatronics, Foxy was practically buzzing with energy still as he was actively talking Evan's ear off, his hands gesturing wildly about with every word as his brother just stared back, but clearly with the way his own body was slightly shifting about, showing he had more fun than Mike was sure the bear had been expecting to have for such a long and energy intensive say, even if he wasn't have nearly as much energy as the fox still did.

Then there was Mari, who Mike hadn't seen up until there was a sudden blur of movement out of the corner of his eye from where he was standing as he twisted just in time to let out a small yelp as his arms came out to catch onto the pouncing puppet who let out a loud musical chime that filled the air and bounced around a few notes, like the puppet was so ecstatic that words had left and the musical notes were the only thing he could manage to get out, as Mike just let out a laugh as he spun a bit to bleed off the pounce's force, ignoring easily the faint pressure on his ribs, and instead just let out a small laugh as he hugged the puppet back as he said as he pulled the animatronic close.

"Have fun?" A few musical notes were the only answer Mike got, but he assumed that was good enough as he let out another smaller chuckle before pulling the puppet back to look him over. He had taken off the hat he had been wearing, but besides that still had the adorable coat on as Mike leaned in a bit and whispered something into the puppet's ear and smirked to himself as the chimes that came out next were warbling and a bit to sharp to be normal as he felt his grin shift into something a bit more warm and genuine, before blinking as he glanced over and realized that everyone had turned to watch the two of them.

Jeremy had that 'awww' look on his face that made Mike feel a bit awkward, while the rest looked mostly a bit confused given Mike wasn't much on public affection this was probably very out of character for the two of them, while, Evan just rolled his eyes, but Mike was pretty sure his brother had a pretty good idea what was happening between him and the puppet, still... He just did his best to not feel too awkward as he separated a bit from Mari, even as the puppet made sure to stick to his side as he said to the others, moving back to the main center of the floor.

"Right, let's clean up the stuff that'll get sticky and then get out of here, we're going to be closed tomorrow so we can handle clean up and getting everything down then, but for right now I want some sleep before dealing with all this" No one seemed to want to say anything for a moment, which made Mike feel a bit more awkward, even if Mari himself didn't seem to realize it, still hovering about as close as he always did, before Jeremy just nodded, moving around and saying.

"Got it" And just like that the silence was broken as everyone moved back to doing the more basic levels of their normal closing procedures. Mike let himself be not so subtly moved into the Prize Corner by the puppet, who mentioned a bit to loudly needing help with carrying out the leftover snacks that they still had, as it seemed he had figured out what that silence had meant, as soon after Mike watched with a faint amusement as Mari covered his face with his hands, letting out a low musical groan.

"That was embarrassing" Mike held back from laughing, instead just giving the puppet a pat on the back as he said comfortingly.

"Maybe a little, but it's fine" Mari just shook his head, looking out in the direction of where the others were.

"How? What if they're thinking something's up?"

"What? That we might be in a secret relationship and have been for months? I doubt that's going to be the first thing on their mind, and it doesn't really matter. They will find out eventually you know, Jeremy already knows, and I'm pretty sure Evan has a good idea about us" Mari just let out a flustered little sound before saying.

"Yeah, but... But what if they think it's weird or something?" Mike shrugged.

"I think we had this talk already when we were talking about getting together in the first place" Mari shot him an unimpressed look as he said blandly.

"You said you'd fire Fritz, that's not an actual answer to this problem" Mike just hummed before shrugging again.

"And I still don't think it's that big of a deal... Okay, maybe it is, if it sends Fritz to the hills, and I'm not sure how Janet would react, but it'll be fine" Mari just huffed, but slowly nodded, not looking overly convinced, but Mike just let the puppet stew not to much longer, instead asking, "Ignoring all that boring drama stuff, now that you're back to using words, what did you think about today? We didn't have much time to talk"

That seemed to perk the puppet up more than enough as he excitedly broke into a rant on just about everything that had happened, saying happily and excitedly about the kids that had come in, and even showing off a new picture he had put up on his wall that was him in his Halloween get up, it looked good, whoever drew it had some talent, though Mike was pretty sure Mari would be beaming with pride even if it was a streak of black, white, and orange, it was incredibly endearing.

Jeremy had just finished loading up the van with a few of the easier things to pack away along with a certain golden bear, as he climbed into the driver's seat, before pulling off onto the road back to the warehouse, the day's events playing back in his head. It had been... it had been a really good day, everything had gone as perfectly as he could imagine them to be able to go. It seemed like that was a similar case to everyone else as well, Jeremy was pretty sure they all needed this more than anyone had really realized.

It was like a tension that had been racketing higher and higher throughout the last few months had been released from the walls of the Cove and from the others as well, it was just... Nice. He wished he could have talked to the others a bit more about the day, a weird giddiness and want to talk about everything that had happened wanting to bubble up in his chest in a way that he honestly had almost forgotten the feeling of, but Mike had been right, they all were tired, and no matter how nice good the day had been, that didn't really supplement the energy loss that came from rushing after and making sure all the kids were accounted for and having a good time, they could talk about it plenty tomorrow though, he was sure.

...Well, it wouldn't hurt to do a little talking now right? Before he could think to much about it, he turned a bit and spoke back to the bear.

"Hey Goldie, what did you think about the day?" The bear didn't move for a moment, nor answer, and for a moment Jeremy wondered if the animatronic had gone to sleep or something, before the animatronic spoke back.

"It was... It was nice" Jeremy glanced back, for a second, back at the bear, before asking.

"You don't sound all that certain?" Goldie seemed to come back to himself for a moment, as he shook his head and said.

"Oh, nothing. It was nice... A lot of kids. I'm just tired, this was the most performing I've ever done" That Jeremy could understand. Goldie mostly only did a few performances a day, he just didn't have the same amount of energy for it as Foxy did, given the teen in question seemed to have an unlimited source of energy when it came to the stage, something Jeremy had no idea where the fox got it from.

"Yeah, you were going for most of the day, Foxy kept dragging you back?" Jeremy couldn't really blame the bear for being tired after doing way more than he was used to while trying to keep up with someone like Foxy. Goldie shrugged, a faint wave of confusion pushing through his system, as he said back faintly.

"Something like that, he just... got this look whenever I said I needed a break, then I found myself staying on stage anyways" Jeremy just hummed.

"You didn't want to let him down when he was so excited about all of this"

"I guess... I'm still not all that sold about this whole performance thing"

"You've been doing it for a while for not being sold on it" The bear just shrugged, but didn't seem all that interested in explaining further, Jeremy figured it was also because of Foxy, the fox was definitely the closest to Goldie outside of his brother, and seemed to be the main reason the bear did just about anything. Jeremy thought that was nice, though Goldie should probably talk to Foxy about it if he wasn't enjoying it as much as Jeremy had thought he was.

The rest of the drive was mostly quiet, as they pulled up to the warehouse as Jeremy moved the van inside of the building to open it up and to get the ramp down to get the bear out. The bear just lumbered his way down, now shedding the outfit that he was wearing now that he was back in his own 'home', not that the outfit was much, just a hat on his head and an extra large pirate vest on his body, not nearly as much as Foxy had demanded for his own outfit, something everyone was pretty sure the fox would wear until said outfit destroyed itself, but it had worked for the day.

Jeremy himself had a number of small little outfit things on him, a pirate outfit in the main strokes but a fox one, something Mike had said as a joke and then had the fox being unable to leave Jeremy alone until he had agreed to it. It hadn't been bad, the tail was a bit much in his opinion, and for the first few days he had to use one of the foxy masks that the Cove had as prizes, but today Mike had been nice enough, for the big event, to give him his own Foxy mask. Jeremy wore it, and honestly afterwards couldn't understand how Mike managed to wear it everyday all the time as he did. The thing wasn't bad, comfortable even, but damn did it get hot in there.

Jeremy also ignored all the irony in wearing a fox mask in the first place, but he only got a light amount of teasing for the outfit from the others, no more than everyone else got for their own sea faring based costumes. He was pretty sure that Janet had tried to convince Fritz to put on a pair of fox ears as well for most of the week, but apparently that was where the man managed to put his foot down... For the most part, given Jeremy knew for a fact that Fritz had been sporting red ears at one point before the headband had 'mysteriously vanished' after the first day or so.

Honestly, he was pretty sure it was Mike getting a bit of revenge on him and Fritz for the times the two had teased him about being the original foxy and for wearing the mask so much. Jeremy really wouldn't put it past the man to have slipped the idea to Janet, and there was no way he didn't know what he had been doing when he mentioned the idea with Foxy in ear shot for Jeremy. but that was really neither here nor there, as Jeremy himself shifted a bit before looking around as he and Goldie got the few things they had put the effort in loading up into the van onto some of the tables to be sorted out later, before saying to the bear.

"I'm going to say hi to Bonnie before I head out" The bear just nodded, a bit unsure it seemed if that was a good idea, as he asked.

"Want me to go with you?"

"No I'll be fine, just want to check in and make sure he's doing alright" The bear just slowly nodded, as he looked around for a moment, saying.

"Right, if you need me for anything, I'm in the office" Jeremy just gave Goldie a smile and nod, saying as he began to move in the direction of the storage containers.

"I'll stop by when I'm done to say bye if you're still awake" The bear just grunted and lumbered off to his own area, as Jeremy watched him go for a moment, before turning back to his own task, a bead of nervousness beginning to try and worm itself way into his chest, as he moved forwards towards the container. He had slowly and over time been talking more and more with the animatronic in question since last week when he had delivered those supplies for Bonnie to mess with if he wanted. The talks hadn't been long, Jeremy had made a point of always leaving around the time Bonnie seemed to run out of patience with his presence or whenever Bonnie asked him to leave.

He was incredibly nervous that he was doing something wrong, because it didn't seem like his constant presence was doing much in the way of actually helping the rabbit any, but he just had to double down on keeping up with his goals and just hoped that it would work out for the best. That's along the lines of what Mike had mentioned, consistency was apparently really important for kids, and while Jeremy had no idea what he was doing, he figured the other man would probably have a good idea of what he was talking about, Mike was surprisingly great with children.

With that he arrived at the container in question, still unsure if it was a good idea that Bonnie spent so much time in this place, and a whole other reason he wanted the animatronic to not have to live in this warehouse any longer, he reached up and tapped on the side of the open door for a moment as he peered inside and caught sight of Bonnie sitting down messing with something, as the animatronic jerked up and spun his head around, a faint glare on his face that evened out pretty quickly when he saw it was Jeremy standing there.

"Oh, you" The animatronic didn't sound all that interested for a long moment, before just staring a bit closer, before proclaiming loudly, "You look ridiculous" That got a bit of a laugh out of Jeremy, taking that as an invite into the container given Bonnie hadn't told him to screw off yet, as he moved in a bit, saying.

"Well, it's Halloween, no better time to look a bit ridiculous" Bonnie just rolled his eyes, not seeming to be interested in saying anything else... before he caught sight of the bag in Jeremy's hands as he asked.

"What's that?" Jeremy just smiled, moving further in until he was at the small table and dropped himself down to pull out the item in question, holding out the small little device over to Bonnie who picked it out of his hands after a short moment of suspicion.

"It's a handheld game, I remember you saying that Goldie was being protective about the arcades, and you can't really get one moved in here easily, so I figured this would be the next best thing" Bonnie just continued to stare at him for a long moment before looking over the device in his hands for an even longer moment, before saying carefully.

"And... you're just... giving this to me?" He didn't sound at all believing that that was what was really happening as Jeremy just nodded.

"Yeah, want me to show you how it works?" The bunny just sat there for a long minute before finally saying.

"Uh... Yeah, sure, I guess" Jeremy did his best to keep the smile wanting to come onto his face from growing to big, as he leaned over to start pointing out the buttons.

Scott never did all that well on Halloween, too many things that made him think about the not so metaphorical ghosts he had dealt with in his life. This year was worse,, he hated the fact that was the case, he hated that he had survived so long under Fazbear Entertainment, but it was the months after he had gotten away were the ones that he was nothing more than a broken set of pieces that were barely able to keep himself working and breathing.

He was always thankful this time of year for the area he lived in, sure there would always be some kids that would come by, cheering and talking loudly, but he never left his porchlight on, and he never opened the door to the sounds of pounding knocks. This time was worse, every pounding knock made him flinch, even if he could barely hear it from the other side of his house where he was sat, in his office, trying to pretend nothing was different, but being in front of a monitor made it so every sound made his eyes flicker to the doors. It had been months, hell, it had nearly been a year since his last night shift, but he couldn't ever find himself not checking the doors around him at night, couldn't bring himself to leave them open.

It made him feel pathetic, the call he received to his phone line from Fritz only doubled that down, the line had begun to ring pretty late, about the time the kids would stop being out at all, and just when Scott was almost able to relax himself and try to convince himself it was just another night. He ignored the ringing, he didn't want to talk to the man, even though he knew he owed Fritz as many conversations as the other man wanted. He knew what would be asked, he knew what would be said, and those thoughts were already warring on his mind enough for right now.

He'd apologize later, but he didn't want to think about any animatronics, especially not tonight. Even if that made him feel ever more pathetic. Fritz had invited him out, had asked if he wanted to come to the Cove to see the Halloween party they had planned, but he had only said he would think about it, knowing that he'd never be able to bring himself to being able to go through with it, another thing he had to apologize for later, and probably apart of the reason why the man had called at all...

He had to do better, he knew he would have to go back to Afton Robotics, have to at least talk to... To... Ennard, he owed them all at least a talk, a chat, a chance to not be as pathetic as he knew he was, to just deal with it. But he didn't want to either, and because he was pathetic, he wasn't sure he'd be able to bring himself to be able to gather the courage to go back... But he would... He had to, and Scott hated himself for how convincing the little voice in the back of his mind was about telling him he could just leave, that he should have left a long time ago, moved to another state, another country even if he could manage, but... But he was trapped here.

He was always trapped here, once by contact, then by fear, and now... And now by guilt, he wouldn't leave, and he would have that talk, because no matter how pathetic he felt, he knew that he could at least keep living with himself a bit easier if he just gave into the guilt instead of trying to pretend for a while longer that everything was fine.

He'd... He'd go back tomorrow, even if the very thought of it made something sharp and chilled roll down his spine.

Mari could feel his whole body slightly vibrate from the excitement of the day that was only just beginning to fade, it had been just so wonderful! More than he had thought it would have been and he had gone in to it with more than a few high expectations, and yet they were still met and exceeded! The amount of kids he could remember with such massive smiles warmed his heart to see, it had been so wonderful that he honestly couldn't wait until the next time the Cove would have some kind of holiday event.

He was more than ready to rattle Mike's ear off about every single Christmas idea he already had brewing in the back of his mind, but sadly they were coming back to the house quickly, and even from here, Mari could see an unfamiliar car off to the side of the driveway. Charlie, Mike's old friend, was already here. The puppet had already been told that she would be visiting, though Mari had no idea just why, neither did Mike from what he could gather, but all the same, he scooted a bit more down into the flooring of the car as Mike quickly pulled them into the garage, giving a small apologetic glance to the puppet, asking quickly and quietly.

"You okay camping out in the garage for a minute while I talk?" The puppet just shrugged.

"If I get bored, I'll just go up to our room" The man got a little pleased smile at that for reasons Mari had no idea, but just nodded, leaning down quickly and deeply to press his lips against the top of Mari's mask before quickly pulling up and getting himself out of the car before Mari could do much in way of reacting beyond having to smother his music box's clustered sounds from the quick gesture. That had been bold, even for Mike, he wasn't usually the one that did stuff like that... Not that the puppet was complaining.

Still, he lifted himself up and looked around as the garage door was closed as Mike walked along the outside to greet Charlie and probably let her in through the front, as Mari himself just let himself move out of the car, no reason to sit in there for no reason, before floating around a bit, spinning about as he looked around for something to do. Admittedly he didn't really spend a lot of time in this part of the house, there was actually a number of rooms he only opened once or twice, and most of them he hadn't been in since the first few weeks after he had moved in with Mike.

Frankly there wasn't much to say about the garage, there was a shelf off to the side that had a lot of things on it, tools mostly, given Mike's father had been an engineer, it made sense that he probably worked a lot of on his own car, it was apparently a pretty nice one according to Mike himself. Beyond that, there was the side section where the washer and dryer were held, and... That was about it, there was honestly a lot of room out here that wasn't being used for much.

Then again, that was about all there was to say about most of the house, at most only two rooms were actively used outside of the living room and kitchen, was barely anything with how big the house was, it was mostly just a lot of empty space. Mari hadn't thought to mind it really, but thinking about it, it was a shame they didn't do more with the space they had. They could probably come up with something right? Not that they really need whole rooms for stuff, but it would be a nice project.

...And that was about all he could think of to entertain himself while floating out in the garage with nothing to do as he listened to the faint sound of footsteps from the door that separated the garage from the kitchen, before the sound of two voices came through, muffled and only barely hearable from how far away he was from the door in question... He probably shouldn't... But he was also bored, and admittedly incredibly curious about just what they were talking about.

He wasn't all that concerned about it, but there was a part of him that was surprisingly insistent that he should listen in, to hear this talk between Mike and this 'Charlie'. He had only really seen her from afar and not for long, never actually hearing her voice. Which was admittedly on him, given he had admittedly been a bit... jealous of Charlie when she had reinserted herself into Mike's life, but Mari was pretty sure he had nothing to worry about now about the two, given he could still feel the faint radiating warmth from his boyfriend's lips on his forehead.

Yeah, so he was a bit curious about the woman he had been jealous of without knowing anything about it except he just had got a weird vibe from her. And with that it was all the justification the puppet needed to give himself as he floated over quickly to the door, leaning in closely just in time to hear what sounded like the two finishing up saying hi to each other, as the feminine voice that Mari assigned quickly to Charlie said.

"Nice face paint by the way, that must have taken forever" There was a soft laugh along with the sound of running water, as Mike said back.

"Don't give me to much credit, most of this is natural"

"What's that meannnn-... Oh... Oh! Are you... alright?" Mari could only imagine that Mike had begun to wipe off the make up, to reveal that one of the colors wasn't added on.

"Yeah, I'm fine, apparently it's my new normal, something about blood pressure or whatever after my accident... I heard you visited me by the way, but it's been a while since we talked, so... Have to ask, are you sure everything is alright?" Mari leaned a bit closer, way more invested in this conversation than he had any right to be, it felt like, as he listened to the sound of Charlie hitching her breath for a moment, before finally answering.

"Y-yeah, uh, I'm fine, just been really busy with college you know?" Mike just said back dryly.

"Talking to a high school dropout remember, I have no idea what college is like"

"Oh...right" A long second of silence seemed to begin to form as Mike just bulldozed it away by addressing it directly.

"And I've made it awkward, that's got to be a record"

"No! Sorry, it's on me for forgetting, I can't imagine it's been easy... Ever think about going back?"

"To what? High school? Think I'm a bit too big for that nowadays" Mari had to keep himself from letting out an amused sound at the idea of Mike in his giant glory walking the halls with a bunch of fifteen year olds, backpack slung over his shoulder, acting like he was suppose to be there, it was a funny scene, even as Charlie said quickly.

"Well, I mean, there are programs for people going back, you know? To get their diploma"

"I... guess" Mike seemed hesitant for some reason, before quickly tacking on, "But I think it'd be a bit of a waste of time. I'm a bit too busy these days running a business already, so I think I'm doing pretty well for myself... Did you come here to talk about my lack of academic advancements or...?"

"No... Sorry, I'm stalling a bit, just... Look, I've been... Looking into some things recently, being back in Hurricane has been harder than I thought it would be, and my dad had a few... weird things in his office that I found after you visited a while ago looking after that stuff for Toy Bonnie, and it's lead me to looking into some stuff" Mari felt something tighten not so subtly in his chest at that, and he was sure Mike was worried as well, even as he spoke back without a hint of anything in his voice.

"Oh? I'm sorry to hear that... I get it, coming back to this place had been hard on me as well at first. What all did you find?" Mike sounded so genuine that it was only the fact that Mari knew the man as well as he did that he could tell the man was digging for information while hiding it as well as he could while acting as empathetic as he could. It was something Mari wasn't sure just how he felt about, he didn't see Mike's more... manipulative side often that it still caught him off guard after knowing the man as well as he did for as long as he had.

"Nothing much, at least nothing that made much sense, a bunch of files on Freddy's and some of their employees, an ID badge for my dad, some tapes that were ruined... It was just weird, but... I- I need the truth, because I've been looking and... And I have this friend, Carlton, do you remember him?" There was a long pause before Mike said suddenly, and a bit... sharper.

"The police chief's son" Mike sounded about the same, but Mari could hear the faint strain to the man's voice that seemed to come from recalling the police chief more than the son, and the puppet couldn't help but wonder if the two men had any run-ins during Mike's more... troubled years.

"Yeah, we, uh, talked for a while, and he mentioned something that his father had mentioned, and I just... I need to know... Did... Did Uncle Will..." Mari felt his music box tense and he had to use his own willpower to keep from any chord from escaping him as it felt like something had suddenly hit him in the chest at that last part and he had no idea just why, even as Mike said back, quietly.

"You're asking if my father was responsible for all those missing kids?" The silence was deafening for what felt like an eternity, as Mari could only assume that Charlie had nodded, as Mike spoke up once again, saying simply, quietly, but truthfully, "He did" There was the faint sound of the hitching of breath and the sudden movement of footsteps as Charlie muttered something that Mari couldn't pick up, even as he felt that feeling of needing to hear burn louder and hotter in his chest.

"I-... I- I can't-... I-..."

"It's fine, take your time, I get it... Trust me, I get it. I think... I think Henry knew as well, before I learned about it coming back" It was silent for a long, long moment, and Mari had no idea what was happening, and the need to know was beginning to burn too much to ignore... When suddenly Charlie's voice came back, in a faint emotionally raw tone, saying to Mike.

"I-... I know Michael"

"...About what?"

"I- I also found my father's employee badge- and- and Marla, she mentioned something about Foxy when she got her brother's birthday celebration from the Cove- and there was- was these mentions of plans, and I just-" She was suddenly cut off as Mike said, a bit firmer.

"What are you trying to say Charlie?" Silence filled the air for another long minute that was nearly too much for the puppet before Charlie finally spoke, her voice now almost calm.

"I-... When I-... When I came back to Hurricane, and I saw your business... I thought... I couldn't forget about what happened last time, so I decided to look into it after you shut the place down for a few weeks back in June, and then I learned that Un- That William was the main suspect for a while, but there weren't any missing reports about or around the Cove, so I thought I was just thinking the worst and I felt terrible about it but then... My friend, Marla, she has a younger brother, you went out to her home with Foxy and had a party there, and that's... That's not how animatronics work, especially not one as old as Foxy, so something weird was happening!" She sounded almost hysterical again, just for a brief moment before she cut herself off while Mari was too busy beginning to have a heart attack at what he was hearing, as Mike said carefully.

"Foxy was upgraded, I told you, heck I even said Fritz, my technician, could give you a whole run down about it if you wanted, I remember you asking, is that what this is about? Animatronics acting weird?" Mike sounded so convincing, but Charlie wasn't done.

"I'm in school studying stuff like animatronics Michael, don't... don't act like I don't know what I'm talking about, that's not right, animatronics can't just... that's not how it works, and I've... I've been around the Cove a few times, I- couldn't bring myself to go in, but I could watch, I could see how Foxy acted, how Fredbear acts... Are you going to tell me that you willingly somehow repaired that animatronic and upgraded it to be more advanced than any animatronic should be capable of?" The silence was deafening, but after a long moment Mike said carefully.

"Fritz repaired Fredbear, I don't know anything about that, and I'm going to be honest, I didn't sign on for that one to be on the stage any time soon, I-... I wasn't ready for it at the time, I still don't think I am, but I let it be up there still because it's either that or never be able to move on" Mari couldn't imagine just how much it hurt Mike to be able to say that with such a strong conviction to his voice, but... It seemed Charlie didn't believe it, as there was a long second before Charlie let out a huff, before it almost broke into a proper disbelieving laugh, but that too was cut off by Charlie saying sharply.

"D-Don't, just don't. Don't say that. I know, I said I knew, stop lying... I know it isn't just Foxy and Fredbear that's acting weird... I-... I mentioned my father's employee badge... It wasn't for Freddy's, it was for Afton Robotics, and it wasn't his real name. Remember we talked about that? I went there, after you got out of the hospital" There was a long quiet moment, this time it wasn't from Charlie, it was from Mike, for the first time stumped to the point that he didn't have an answer already on the tip of his tongue. But an answer did come, a full minute later.

"You saw... No... The computer, what were you doing? What did you see on it?" His voice wasn't right, it wasn't the same soft and caring tone that was reserved almost solely for the puppet, nor was it was nice but firm tone he took when he was acting as boss at the Cove, it was... not demanding, but it wasn't just normal questioning either, it felt like something that needed to be answered, and Charlie seemed to get that same impression as she said with a faint crack hitting her voice.

"It was security footage of that night... I didn't see what happened, but I- I saw you go in, and I saw you and... And..." She seemed to lose the energy to continue, having to gather herself half way through with a long moment of silence, before continuing, "...The... Prize Corner Marionette leaving, pulling you out... Are you going to tell me that the puppet was upgraded to not need strings anymore as well?"

Mari felt like he had just been stripped bare and exposed, that burning in his chest becoming almost molten as he nearly doubled over as suddenly his head felt like it was being hit over with a hammer, something trying to push itself to the front of his mind, but he couldn't focus on that, not now, not when this was happening, as he reached his focus out and grabbed onto Mike's voice as it came back.

"I see... What do you want me to say?"

"Just... Tell me the truth... Are the animatronics... Are they?"

"The souls of the kids that died? Yes" The sound of a half broken gasp came from Charlie, before she managed to keep herself composed to ask one last question.

"And... And the puppet?"

"What about the puppet?"

"Is it... Is it him?"

"Who? What are you talking about?"

"You-... You don't...? What about the others?"

"Not all animatronics come back with their memories intact, a lot of them can't remember who they were for a long time, it... takes longer for some than others. I'm sure you can guess just who Fredbear is now... He prefers to be called Goldie now" There was a faint moment before Charlie mostly just whispered out-

"A-after his toy" Mike didn't seem to bother with an answer, as he instead focused on something else, as Marionette, behind the door, felt like his head was pounding at him, his chest was burning, his neck aching for some reason he couldn't focus on.

"Why did you ask about Mari-onette" Mari felt himself slowly slid down against the door, flashes of images trying to press themselves into the front of his vision, even as for some reason he couldn't help but fight every single one of them, pressing them back and back, even as it was quickly a losing battle, as Charlie said softly, with a broken voice.

"Because... Because I know who's in there... It's-" It didn't matter what Charlie said, because Marionette couldn't hear whatever it was she said, instead the thoughts... The memories were finally too much, as he was suddenly and viciously dragged under, as he flopped against the door, a loud pained chime being the last thing he heard coming from himself before the memories washed over him in waves.

Huh, wonder what Charlie said at the end there? Bet no one knows or has any guesses at all... Anyways, fucking finally right!

Charlie took a while to get to it huh? I mean, sure, some could say that's totally on me and my overambitious want to have so many plot lines happening at the same time and not knowing how to juggle them properly making it so somethings have to be put on the backlog while more important story beats are hit... No, not at all. That couldn't be the case. It's all on the fictional character I control and nothing else!

Okay, seriously though, I really am glad we're finally at this part of the story, after so much build up and literal thousands of words of foreshadowing, that I know basically everyone picked up on right from the very start, we're here. I'm real happy that's the case, and honestly it's been a massive freaking test of patience to hold out on this kind of thing, like, the whole William Afton is Purple Guy thing, like, yeah, duh, and yet it took like, hundreds of thousands of words for that to be confirmed. But now that we're here, I'm really happy and excited to see how everyone thinks and feels about it, especially for next chapter when everything really starts to be explained.

While for everything else, might as well act like I'm not all that bias about my favorite parts of the chapter, not to much happened, just the skip over the events that happened, and a little cut in with Jeremy doing his best but not really knowing what he's doing. And a short Scott POV, that's fun, honestly the man is fun to write because of just the sheer level of traumatization I can dump on him, his actions, and his thoughts. But he's trying, and... well, that's the whole point of this story isn't it? Trying even when you have no idea just how it'll go, for good or bad, but needing to try anyways because that's all you can do. Phone Guy in general is just fun in a way that's hard to explain in a way that comes from being the one that's writing him and his characterization. Plus, admittedly, it's nice to have a character I can just beat the hell out of emotionally without having to consider any emotional weight to it like I have to with Mike and all the other more main character.

Which I say right as I work on my best to break down our favorite puppet lad. But that's besides the point! I don't have much else to add, so... See ya!