A/N: I was originally NOT going to feature the board meeting of the Fazbear Entertainment executives, since I wanted to wrap up the arc of the Schmidt family touring the (mostly) completed Pizzaplex. However, on further reflection, I realized that there wouldn't be any better way to demonstrate that the Schmidt family's efforts had a tangible effect on the Pizzaplex than to show that the Fazbear Entertainment executives were indeed forced to work on acquiesce to, at the very least, their high priority demands. Hence why I've decided to write this chapter after all.

The next chapter will almost certainly be filler of some kind because I honestly need a break from FNAF-related material for at least a little bit.

Guest: The reason why Nightmare is helping out is because he hates William Afton and Glitchtrap SO MUCH that he will actively go out of his way to fuck up any of his plans as thoroughly as possible, even if it means advancing the cause of good to do so. So basically an extreme amount of spite. He also respects Mike and has been directly ordered by Heaven to cooperate with him to deal with Glitchtrap, and Nightmare is pragmatic enough to realize that trying to fight against Heaven's will wouldn't end well for him.

Chapter 213 – Executive Capitulation

Mr. Averus was not looking forward to the board meeting today. It wasn't just any board meeting either, but the board meeting in which their representatives would present the list of Mike Schmidt's demands following his tour of the Pizzaplex.

Though none of them would ever say it out loud, Averus knew full well that Mike Schmidt was one of the very few outsiders who had both genuine and potent influence over Fazbear Entertainment, both because of the danger he posed and because of the help he had already given them. As much as Averus hated to admit it, Mike Schmidt had been the one to save their two biggest accomplishments prior to the Pizzaplex, the VR game and the Special Delivery project. To this day, he still had no idea why the man even bothered. He might claim that he believed in the Fazbear franchise and the dream that its late founder Henry Emily possessed, but there was no doubt in Averus' mind that Mike Schmidt's generosity was at least partially influenced by self-serving reasons if he had no idea what those reasons were.

But for all the help he had given them, Averus also knew full well that Mike had nothing but seething contempt for him and his fellow executives, and would be more than happy to destroy them if they failed to meet his expectations. It wasn't even Schmidt who he truly had to worry about, but the demon lord pulling the strings from behind the shadows. Averus honestly had no idea why Nightmare even gave a damn about Fazbear Entertainment to begin with, but that hardly mattered when the demon lord could crush their necks and give them a firsthand experience of Hell at any moment.

Averus shuddered as he recalled that one horrible night of torture he had suffered at the Nightmare animatronics' claws. There had been no pain in his entire life that could even remotely compare to the horrors that he had suffered that night, and even though his mind and soul had suffered no permanent damage (as far as he could tell), it had instilled such a primal and horrific terror in his soul to this very day. A terror that had awakened anew last night when Nightmare had shown up in his dreams. Though the demon lord had been merciful enough NOT to torture him a second time, the message he had sent was very clear.

Make sure that the reforms that Mike Schmidt proposed were carried out to satisfaction…or suffer the consequences.

"At least I'm not alone in this shitshow," he thought dryly. He knew full well that an entire half of the executive board would be joining him in the horror show…but on the plus side, it also meant that they would all be fully on-board with ensuring Schmidt's reforms were passed. Theoretically this would be enough by itself, but Averus wanted to make absolutely damn sure that as many of his fellow executives as possible were swayed to avoid potential problems down the road.

He made the drive to the Fazbear Entertainment executive building in silence. As he walked into the elevator, trying his best not to hide his fear, he could see Mr. Hyman shamble in next to him. They exchanged brief greetings, but Mr. Averus could detect a nervous edge to Hyman that the man didn't use to have in the past. "Could he have been visited by Nightmare like I was?" Averus couldn't help but wonder, although he obviously wasn't going to voice the question out loud.

They spent the elevator ride in silence, and once they had reached the top floor, the two executives silently left the elevator and made their way to the conference room where they always had their board meetings. Averus took his seat, and one by one the rest of the executives filed in. Just like Mr. Hyman, about half of them had a nervous and wary edge to them, although they did their best to try and hide it.

"All right," Mr. Averus began once everyone had gotten settled. "We all know what the purpose of this meeting is. Our appointed representatives Matthew Raugelan and Steven Leelurd have given Mike Schmidt a tour of the Mega Pizzaplex now that it is close to completion, and he has been provided a list of criticisms and improvements that he recommended we implement prior to the Grand Opening." He took a deep breath before continuing. "Mr. Raugelan informed me in advance that some of these are lower in priority and were not pushed particularly strongly, while others were considered serious or high priority to the point that Schmidt has demanded their full implementation, to the point that he will expose the Pizzaplex's flaws to the public if they are not corrected. And Nightmare will tear us to shreds a second time," he added mentally, although obviously he didn't say this part out loud.

"And how easy or difficult would these suggestions be to implement?" Asked a seedy, wiry-looking executive, whose name was Mr. Senester, as far as Averus could recall. He didn't seem particularly nervous or worried, which lead Averus to believe that he wasn't one of the ones who had been visited by Nightmare.

"According to Raugelan and Leelurd, they vary in difficulty," Averus replied curtly. "Some should be fairly straightforward, while others may be more difficult and time-consuming to implement."

"Very well," Mr. Senester acknowledged with a quick nod. "Let us invite them in, then. No point in wasting our time discussing this before we even know what Schmidt's terms are."

Nobody had any argument to that, and Mr. Raugelan and Mr. Leelurd walked into the board meeting. They set up a Powerpoint presentation that highlighted their findings, and presented it to the group of executives over the course of several meetings. While he didn't particularly care for either man personally, Mr. Averus could at least appreciate the fact that they had organized Schmidt's exposed problems and criticisms in order of priority and severity, with the more significant criticisms and high-priority solutions towards the beginning and the lesser severity criticisms towards the end. To Averus' surprise, Raugelan and Leelurd occasionally argued in favor of Schmidt's offered solutions directly, providing their own supporting insights and arguments even though they weren't explicitly asked for them.

When they were finished, a calm and level-headed executive named Mr. Callum nodded his head towards them. "Thank you for your insights, gentlemen," he thanked them politely. "You've certainly made things convenient for us by ordering the flaws of the Pizzaplex in terms of importance."

"Do we even need to implement all of these changes?" an angry-faced man named Mr. Aris growled impatiently. "Is it really THAT big of a deal?"

"Yes, we do!" an executive with a scowling face named Mr. Kharnath snarled back. The man looked furious, but Averus could see a hint of fear in his eyes…the fear of a man who had been mentally tortured by a demon lord, perhaps? "Some of these aren't things that we can't just sweep under the rug. If we do, and Schmidt discovers them, we're finished!"

Mr. Callum glanced over at Mr. Averus. "You've worked with Schmidt extensively in the past, Averus. How likely is it that he'll actually pay attention to any changes we make?"

"Extremely likely to the point of practical certainty," Averus replied without the slightest bit of hesitation. "I may find his attitude abrasive and pretentious, but I can't deny his intelligence. He noticed these problems the first time around, and he's absolutely going to be paying attention to make sure that the problems we noticed are corrected when he comes back once the Mega Pizzaplex opens." He sighed. "And yes, he IS vindictive enough to expose the Pizzaplex's flaws to the public and ruin us if he isn't satisfied."

Mr. Aris scowled. "I hate the idea of us just bowing to his whims and letting him do whatever he wants," he grumbled.

"It sounds like we don't have a choice," Mr. Senester replied with a frown. "That being said, Schmidt's attitude may be condescending and annoying, but there is no denying that he has been tremendously helpful for our VR game and the Special Delivery project. They were only successful to begin with because of his assistance. If there was any outsider whose advice I would take seriously, it would be Schmidt's."

"Let us address the major problems that he pointed out first," Mr. Callum suggested, before continuing. "The first major problem identified by Raugelan and Leelurd was the experimental bouncer mode for DJ Music Man. Schmidt made it clear in no uncertain terms that he wanted it removed entirely."

"He wants that removed entirely?" Mr. Aris exclaimed in disbelief. "But that was going to be an additional security measure to ensure the safety of the people in the Fazcade!"

"And it's also one that can be easily twisted to cause harm to those same customers instead," Averus interrupted curtly. "If the Special Delivery fiasco hadn't occurred, then I wouldn't have taken that concern seriously. But we have had multiple incidents now where animatronics have been maliciously hacked to actively attack humans. It's a legitimate concern, as much as it irritates me to admit it."

"Even outside of that, it may be more trouble than it's worth," Mr. Callum admitted. "The latest communication I received from the engineers working on that bouncer mode informed me that they are having difficulties getting it to work properly. While the animatronic has not been outright hostile to anyone, they have reported erratic behavior in the bouncer mode periodically. I've yet to receive the full report, but this bouncer mode may be more trouble than it's worth."

"Do we really need to go the extra mile with a bouncer mode just to ensure the safety of the customers there?" Mr. Kharnath asked with a sneer. "Just put in some extra S.T.A.F.F. bots for security and let's just scrap this pain-in-the-ass program like the waste of time it truly is!"

"All in favor?" Mr. Averus asked. The vast majority of the executives present raised their hands, signaling the passing of the motion. "Then it's agreed, the experimental bouncer mode will be removed. Although I can't imagine the engineers working on it will be too pleased to receive this news…"

"Who cares?" Mr. Kharnath sneered. "Just relocate them to something else, maybe give them a few extra dollars for their time and effort to shut them up."

Mr. Averus shrugged. It wasn't his problem to deal with that, after all. "In the meantime, we'll need to put up barricades in the ducts that the DJ Music Man can travel through to prevent children from climbing into them and hurting themselves," he pointed out.

Mr. Callum shrugged. "That should be easy enough," he replied. "Just add some barricades over the lower halves of the ducts and that should solve the problem." Nobody raised any objection, indicating that none of them thought it was an issue worth arguing over.

The next major concern that was brought up was the lack of spare parts for the Glamrocks in the actual Pizzaplex itself. This did raise an argument…although not for the reasons that Mike, Mr. Raugelan, or Mr. Leelurd would have anticipated.

"I told you morons that keeping all the spare parts for the Glamrocks in a completely separate facility from the Pizzaplex was stupid!" Mr. Senester hissed. "We reduced the inefficiency of our repair capabilities for no goddamn reason!"

"But we wanted to keep those spare parts away from where children could get their hands on them?" an executive Averus didn't bother to remember the name of feebly protested.

"The Parts and Services area is restricted to employees for a reason, you imbecile!" Mr. Senester viciously cut him off. "As are plenty of other areas in the Pizzaplex! I'm completely in agreement with Schmidt on this, there is no reason why we can't keep a few extra parts in the Pizzaplex to make sure that the animatronics can be repaired as quickly as possible, for efficiency's sake if nothing else! Why should we waste time and money waiting for a repair part from a building miles away when we can just have it in the facility and repair animatronics immediately! For the Glamrock animatronics at the very least, if nothing else!"

"I agree that not having any spare parts available in the Pizzaplex for the Glamrocks in case of emergency repairs was a stupid idea in hindsight," Mr. Averus agreed. "We should arrange to have a few extra parts available in the restricted areas of the Pizzaplex just to be careful."

After the sheer amount of vitriol in Mr. Senester's voice, nobody was stupid enough to disagree.

They spent the next few minutes discussing the complete travesty that was the current state of the Cupcake Bakery, as well as Schmidt's insistence that the Glamrock animatronics be reprogrammed so that Safe Mode was prioritized should the animatronic in question run out of battery. Mr. Callum suggested that the engineers who had been working on DJ Music Man's experimental bouncer mode be transferred over to solve this particular problem instead, which everyone agreed would be a quick and convenient solution to the problem. As for the Cupcake Eatery, that was already a known problem, and thus there was no need to deviate from the current plan of cleaning it up as quickly as possible and leaving it closed off to the public if it still wasn't ready by the time of the Grand Opening.

"And now for the Mazercise," Mr. Callum switched the topic over to the exercise labyrinth. "If I recall from your presentation, Mr. Raugelan, you believe that this is one of the more…problematic…areas of the Pizzaplex. An opinion that Schmidt seems to share."

"With all due respect sir," Mr. Raugelan replied, "not only do I agree with Mr. Schmidt that this is a problem, I've experienced difficulties with that problem firsthand."

"Go on…" Mr. Callum invited.

"When I demonstrated how the Mazercise's control panel operated to Mr. Schmidt, I was honestly shocked by irritating and how aggravating and problematic operating the control panel was," Mr. Raugelan reported with a frown. "There's no rhyme or reason to it whatsoever, and it was incredibly difficult to get even one proper maze layout established. After experiencing it firsthand, I honestly agree with Mr. Schmidt's suggestion that the program be completely overhauled so that only 10 specific maze configurations are possible."

"WHAT?" Mr. Aris exclaimed furiously. "But that would require either delaying the release of the Mazercise, or possibly even delaying the Grand Opening completely while we overhaul the programming!"

Mr. Leelurd coughed. "I should probably clarify the situation a bit," he interrupted. "Mr. Schmidt is not giving us a choice. This was one of the corrections that he clearly stated was not optional. He also specifically instructed that every layout should have access to the fire exit in the Mazercise no matter what, and that the pattern should be changed every 10 minutes only once all children have vacated the area."

"Who does Schmidt think he is, ordering us like this?" Mr. Aris exploded, his face a picture of apoplectic rage.

"He's pretentious and condescending," Mr. Senester replied coldly. "But that doesn't make him wrong. I had my questions about the Mazercise's programming as well, thinking that it was too vulnerable to incompetence, but so long as nobody else had concerns I kept my peace. Now that Schmidt and two of our own employees have highlighted its flaws, however, I will not keep silent any longer!"

"From what I remember," Mr. Averus added with a frown, "the current programming would require whoever is operating the Mazercise to both remember maze layouts by heart as well as the correct sequence of buttons to organize the maze correctly. Even I think that's stupid!"

"With all due respects, sirs…" Mr. Raugelan interjected. "I think this is a change that, while annoying and time-consuming to implement, will work out for the better in the long term."

"I'm inclined to agree," Mr. Callum nodded. "All in favor?"

This time, there was noticeably more division between their ranks, with more executives (including Mr. Aris) wanting to oppose the notion. But with every single executive who had been "visited" by Nightmare demonstrating their support, as well as some additional executives who favored the change regardless of Schmidt's or Nightmare's influence, the motion was carried.

The executive board then proceeded to discuss less contentious but still important topics, such as posting up lists of Rules to various areas in the Pizzaplex and setting up additional bars to the spiral staircases in the Fazcade and the safety rails in Monty Golf. These were comparatively simplistic problems to deal with, and nobody raised any objections to incorporating them.

The same couldn't be said for Mike's proposed changes to the shooting game at the top of Monty's Gator Golf…which Mr. Raugelan made sure to once again emphasize were mandatory changes.

"But it's a golf attraction!" Mr. Aris shouted furiously. "Why would we not include golf balls in our exclusive shooting game for birthday children?"

"Because the more I think about it, the more I realize that it's a safety hazard on multiple levels?" Mr. Callum asked in a deadpan tone. "I didn't realize it at first until Raugelan and Leelurd literally spelled it out for us, but I'm beginning to see their point. A golf ball flying out of a gun hitting a person at the wrong time is a lawsuit waiting to happen, and that's not even getting into the worst-case scenario of a waterfall of golf balls bombarding or crushing a child or employee to death through their sheer weight." He sighed. "There's also the fact that we don't have anything to collect the golf balls in once they've fallen down, which will make re-collecting them incredibly annoying."

"Do we really need to go out of our way to replace all of the golf balls with funhouse plastic balls?" Mr. Aris asked in a petulant tone. "All in the name of additional safety for an attraction that only one birthday child will be able to access a day?"

"Yes, we do," Mr. Kharnath snarled. "Now shut up about it, Aris!"

Mr. Averus opted for a more conciliatory tone. "If we didn't have our previous controversies, then we could probably have gotten away with sticking with the golf balls," he interjected. "Unfortunately, with every controversy and incident that has happened in our recent history, the public's scrutiny on our actions and behaviors is greater than it has ever been before. Our analysts have reviewed our online reputation, and their general consensus is that while the public may be willing to consider our products, they still remain suspicious of us. We cannot risk yet another major incident or lawsuit without the risk of destroying our reputations entirely, especially if Schmidt finds our efforts lacking and decides to ruin us because he believes we've failed our basic obligations."

Mr. Aris grumbled something unintelligible (and almost certainly uncomplimentary) under his breath, but he didn't actually argue back. Averus' words were apparently enough to sway the rest of the executives who weren't already convinced, as the motion to replace the golf balls with soft plastic balls was passed without any further arguments.

There was one last major problem, or problems that needed to be addressed…and unfortunately it was likely going to be the most problematic of them all. "Schmidt wants nothing less than a complete overhaul of the Superstar Daycare," Mr. Leelurd reported. "In fact, he had by far the most vehement reaction to the Daycare out of every single location that we visited. It was the only time that I saw him visibly lose his temper. I think it is safe to assume that failure to implement any of the changes that he ordered will almost certainly result in him exposing those flaws to a hostile public."

"Remind me again, what were the changes Mr. Schmidt insisted on?" Mr. Averus asked.

"The first was the holes in the floors of the play towers," Mr. Raugelan reiterated. "Schmidt made it abundantly clear that having that the holes were far too high up from the ground and could cause a serious fall risk to children."

Mr. Senester rolled his eyes. "We can have those replaced fairly easily, or at the very least cover them up with something," he replied unconcernedly. "Next?"

"Mr. Schmidt was also adamant that keeping the power generators within the play towers themselves was an unacceptable design choice," Mr. Leelurd added with a frown. "At best it's a tripping hazard for children or a spontaneous power outage waiting to happen due to the wires coming out of generators, and at worst it's an electrocution hazard."

"I knew that was a bad idea!" Mr. Kharnath snarled. "I argued against it long before Schmidt brought it up, and I wasn't the only one! You idiots ignored me back then, and look where we are now!"

"Well, we didn't have a choice back then!" Mr. Aris retorted. "We didn't have any better place to put the generators in! The play towers were the only places where there were any room for the generators!"

"Oh, really?" Mr. Averus asked sarcastically. "Because Schmidt was kind enough to point out that there was plenty of space next to the security desk where we can stack the generators on top of each other."

"But that would be so unsightly!" Mr. Aris protested. "It would completely violate the aesthetics of the Daycare to have all the generators just stacked on top of each other behind the desk where everyone can see them!"

"I don't think Schmidt gives two flying fucks about the aesthetics of the Daycare," Mr. Senester sneered. "And to be quite honest, I couldn't give less of a shit either. Unless you can come up with an actual solution to the problem of the generators, do us all a favor and quit your whining!"

As Aris sulked in his chair, Senester looked around at the other executives. "Now then, does anybody else have any alternate suggestions for possible locations for the generators that isn't behind the security desk?" he asked, his voice calmer than before.

"Could we position the generators in a separate room?" someone asked. "Or underneath the floor?"

"We don't have another room we can put the generators in," Averus replied grimly. "And trying to forcibly create another room would require bringing in construction and delaying the opening of the Superstar Daycare further."

"We may have to delay the launch of the Superstar Daycare regardless," Mr. Callum pointed out, "given that Schmidt didn't approve of the Daycare Attendant himself either."

"Schmidt was extremely vocal about his disapproval of the Daycare Attendant," Mr. Raugelan reminded them. "In fact, he disliked BOTH Sun and Moon. He thoroughly disapproved of Sun's hyperactive nature and complete lack of personal space, and he outright hated Moon for being an aggressive jackass who bullies kids, to quote the man's own words."

"Dammit!" Mr. Averus slammed his fist on the table in frustration. "I KNEW we should have listened to that one focus group we brought in to test the Daycare Attendant. They said pretty much exactly the same thing!"

"But the Daycare Attendant is a sentient being!" Mr. Aris protested. "We can't just fundamentally alter his personality like that!"

"There's a saying that one person's freedom ends where another person's begins," Mr. Senester retorted. "The Daycare Attendant grabbing children as Sun and aggressively bullying them as Moon almost certainly qualifies." He smiled coldly at Aris. "And please, let's not pretend that you actually care about things like the free will and autonomy of the animatronics. You just signed off on the Daycare Attendant's current personality despite the negative reviews from our focus group because you wanted to go on vacation and didn't want to bother doing the extra work to actually organize a team of programmers to moderate his personality."

"So this is all your fault then!" Mr. Kharnath snarled at Aris.

Mr. Aris spluttered furiously as a few of the other executives chuckled to themselves.

"With all that being said," Mr. Callum decided to bring the conversation back on topic. "With Schmidt's report, we now have multiple sources affirming that the Daycare Attendant's personality is extremely and unacceptably problematic. I would have honestly suggested that we modulate the Daycare Attendant's personality even if Schmidt hadn't labeled this change as non-optional."

"Find whoever programmed the Daycare Attendant's personality and tell them to tone his personality down," Mr. Averus snapped. "It's their fault for making him so hyperactive and aggressive in the first place. And if they screw it up a second time, fire them and find different programmer who can actually do his job!"

Aris looked like he wanted to protest again, but two simultaneous glares from Senester and Kharnath forced him to remain silent. The motion was passed with no further objections voiced, although quite a few of the executives looked very unhappy about it.

"Too bad for them," Mr. Averus thought. They didn't have a choice in the matter with Schmidt's ultimatum and Nightmare's unseen but ever-present grip around half their throats, and if he was being completely honest with himself, he'd thought that the Daycare Attendant was a pain in the ass even before Schmidt had brought the problem up.

"This is almost certainly going to Superstar Daycare's opening, if the task of moving the generators around wouldn't already," Mr. Callum pointed out. "The question is, should we simply proceed with the Grand Opening as we originally planned with just the Superstar Daycare being closed for the time being, or we should simply delay the Grand Opening by a few additional months while we deal with the problems brought up by Schmidt."

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but although we've announced the development and near-completion of the Mega Pizzaplex, we have not actually designated a specific date for a Grand Opening, is that correct?" Mr. Senester asked.

"Ever since the near-fiasco with the VR game, we've made sure to avoid posting specific dates for project releases until as late as humanly possible," Mr. Averus affirmed. "Right now, we've only described the Mega Pizzaplex as 'Coming Soon' without actually designating a specific date for the opening."

"Good," Mr. Callum replied. "Then there shouldn't be any major issues with delaying the Grand Opening for a few months while we fix the problems that Schmidt has highlighted on his tour. Since we didn't promise a specific date for the grand opening, the worst we should experience from the public are a few people wondering when the hell we're actually going to open the Mega Pizzaplex."

"Let them speculate," Mr. Kharnath scoffed. "If they actually want a Pizzaplex that will operate at maximum functionality, then they can wait a little longer while the Pizzaplex gets its shit together."

"Works for me. These were all the major problems, correct?" Mr. Averus asked. "Or at least, the ones that would require complex solutions to solve?"

"Correct, Mr. Averus," Mr. Leelurd affirmed. "However, there are still other problems with the Pizzaplex that are either not as high priority, or shouldn't require solutions that will be too arduous to implement."

"You mean we're STILL not done?" Mr. Aris asked in disbelief.

Averus groaned. This was going to be a looooong board meeting…

/

A/N: And that's the board meeting of the Fazbear Entertainment executives for you. They're such a pleasant and wonderful group of people, aren't they? I actually gave them names this time around, although they're still the same group of people who I only gave descriptions to the last time they showed up instead of actual names.

You might have noticed that despite being a bunch of assholes, they've actually greenlit the changes that Mike Schmidt and his family either requested or demanded, depending on the severity of the problem and how drastic of a solution is needed. Keep in mind that while they all might be a bunch of corrupt assholes, some of them are at least pragmatic enough to realize that, yes, they do need to solve the problems Schmidt pointed out if they want to avoid having their reputation and public perception destroyed by either Schmidt himself or another major PR disaster. And then there are those who might've opposed the changes normally…if it weren't for a certain demon lord visiting them and ordering them to get their act together or suffer the consequences. Mr. Aris was meant to represent the most stubborn executives who might try to oppose the reforms regardless…but he simply does not have enough influence to stop the executives who support them either due to pragmatism or "I don't want a demon lord to claw my soul apart a second time."

I only highlighted the major problems in this board meeting because otherwise this chapter would take forever and staying around this group of assholes for too long would probably piss me and my readers off.

Hope you guys enjoyed!