I Don't Own Fnaf
Waking up in a motel room with a puppet staring at him from across the room was quite the surreal experience, especially because he had the blanket from the other bed draped over his body as well as it could be, showing very clearly just who had put it there. Slowly shifting up into a sitting position, Mike absently ignored the feeling of death in his body and something of equal measure in his mouth, and instead just gave a good morning before immediately standing and breaking into the vast selection of one instant coffee mix that was laid out on the dresser. He had a feeling he would need the caffeine.
The puppet didn't do much, just watched him as he went about doing his thing, getting himself awake and trying to not feel like death to much, he gave a small excuse about getting some information and something to eat before slipping out of the motel room to get his own barings. It was mid afternoon according to the sky, and given just how late in the night, or more accurately how early in the morning it had probably been when he had succumbed to sleep, that wasn't too surprising.
He still felt exhausted, but it was more the type of being tired from his body trying to heal than actually tired from doing too much. The mental exhaustion was there to, but that was just a staple of his day to day life, so Mike was able to ignore that one a bit easier as he made a quick trip around to get a few things in the surrounding area to learn some things while also doing his best to get his head on right after last night's... melt down.
God, now that he was thinking about it, that really was just embarrassing, he'd have to apologize to the puppet later about it, sure last night was hell, but he can't just break down like that when he had things he needed to do. Not to mention the fact that the animatronic saw and clearly recognized what the scars on his arm meant, that was probably the worst part, Mike hated those lines on his skin. Hopefully it wouldn't make everything too uncomfortable, Mike made the decision then and there to just ignore it ever happened in the first place.
It wasn't like the puppet could be able to ask about it anyways right? So it would be fine, in the meantime, as Mike moved about, he did his best to get his mind back into the game to be able to deal with everything he'd have to get done in the next few hours, multiple conversations that he wasn't exactly looking forwards to, along with another animatronic he'd have to find something to do with.
He finished up and returned to the room about an hour later, Mike had only been taken for a bit over a day according to the calendar in the motel's check in desk, of which he had been unconscious for most of it. He honestly had no idea how long he had been gone before then, it was good to know not that much time had passed, though unfortunately he was in a bit of an annoying situation, as he glanced back at the puppet, a gross applesauce mush pouch in his good hand that he got from a nearby gas station, given solid foods wouldn't go down easy, and said.
"So, how are we going to get you across town? I mean, I could cart you around and say you're modern art and hope no one questions it" If Mike had to guess, the puppet didn't look overly enthused with that idea, as they rose a hand and pointed at his now ugly and swollen right hand which hurt like hell to move at all, Mike just grimaced before nodding, "Yeah, probably not a good idea to carry anything around. Not to mention you look hard to move around without, like, princess carrying you, but I think we both would rather avoid that, plus I'd have to cart around your plushy ensemble as well, and I look a bit to much like a circus attraction already without the rewards to match"
That got a small chime from the puppet, which Mike was pretty sure was laughter at this point, it made him feel somewhat better, most people didn't exactly laugh at his jokes, he still made them of course, they helped keep his sanity intact, but it was certainly nice that someone found him funny.
"I could go to the house, grab the car, and then come and pick you up if you don't mind waiting here for a while?" He glanced over at the puppet who seemed to consider that for a moment before simply nodding, right, that shouldn't be to bad, he could catch a bus, it was already fairly late given just how late at night it had been, or rather early in the morning it was when Mike had passed out uncomfortably on the bed. He could be there within an hour, then get his dad's old car running, come by and pick up the puppet before bringing the animatronic back to his place.
No need to test the waters with his brother right now, he had too much to focus on for the time being, the two could meet up later, they probably already knew each other realistically given that Goldie was around before all this started, so the puppet must have been at one of the locations as well when Goldie was around. He never mentioned a puppet though, only the toys, but apparently there were more souls in circulation than Mike thought there had been, and he didn't want to think about that just yet.
Not to mention Mike really needed to get to the hospital, like, now, he felt like shit and it was getting really hard to ignore his hand at this point.
"Right, well I'll be back within an hour then, look out for the purple monstrosity of a car, that'll be mine" The puppet was strangely quiet at that, Mike had been turning to leave out of the door but the silence was almost startling as he turned back to the animatronic who was how standing, just... there, floating. He felt more unnerved than he should have given how adjusted he had gotten to the puppet already, given he had the thing floating after him in the middle of the dead of night already.
"Something wrong?" Slowly the animatronic just shook there head, Mike had a feeling he was missing something, he didn't a great feeling about what it was, "Listen, I get purple is a touchy thing, but the car's not got anyone's blood in it, hell, it's probably the only machine in the past few days that I've interacted with that hadn't been haunted or tried to kill me" That seemed to help, as the animatronic let out a low chime, though it seemed slightly strained, Mike couldn't think more on it as the puppet just gestured to the door, if in a slightly stilted way. Probably telling him to hurry up.
Mike wasn't great with whatever this was, so he just managed a nod and quickly headed out, hoping the puppet would still be there when he returned, that silence and frozen way the puppet stood gave him the impression that they'd rather die again than be around something purple. Given how the three at Freddy's liked to treat him after seeing him in the color one time... He sort of understood.
Whenever Mike finally found the night guard who caused all of this, he was going to have a long talk before tossing him to the robotic souls, he was feeling a whole lot less bad about the murder plot now after last night.
As Mike walked down the street, trying to remember just where the nearest bus stop was, he tried to ignore just how easily he was fine with abandoning his put-upon morals. It was surprisingly easy given the torture method the man used to try and kill or contain him, a freaking springlock suit.
Mike wondered if he had enough spite in him that he would join his brother in sticking around, or if wanting revenge was even a deciding factor at all, maybe everyone who died in or around a suit happened to just be put in them, maybe there were souls stuck in animatronics all over the country, they weren't exactly a mainstream media for kid's entertainment, but they got fairly popular for a while after his family's businesses success from what he remembered. He knew there were a number of spin offs in the surrounding counties and cities throughout the state but not much outside of that.
Mike hadn't exactly traveled a lot in his lifetime, never had the money to afford it or the will. Maybe it was the want to live that made people come back? If that was the case, then Mike definitely wouldn't be around afterwards if he had been killed in that damn chicken suit.
Shaking his head away from the thoughts, he looked around the street for a moment, it was getting late, but he knew where he was at least now that he was closer to downtown Hurricane, he could take a shortcut from here, with that he took a sharp corner around a block and moved to get off the main street, not noticing the way that a familiar face in their car that had been looking around for him at the time.
Driving the car was a weird feeling, he had never been in the driver's side seat of the thing, but frankly he was mostly just glad the thing turned on without issue, having no idea just how long it had been sitting there before he stumbled into the driver's seat.
He thought about stopping by the diner, but he wanted to get what he had to over with now, he could talk to the others later, he didn't know either of their numbers by heart, and they wouldn't be there right now, so there wasn't a point beyond just seeing his brother, and he'd rather not worry the teen before being treated, he'd have to go by tomorrow morning then to catch Fritz up with everything so the man could give a warning to Jeremy.
With that, he took the back roads to get back to the motel, where he quickly let himself in to see... The puppet, who's head snapped up to look at him for a moment before giving a wave. He let out a faint breath of relief that he wouldn't be chasing anyone around a mulberry bush, but didn't mention it, instead moving over and began to pick up the plushies while saying over his shoulder.
"Right, let's get you moved, no one was around from what I saw, so we can get you into the back of the car, you can just lay down in the backseat, I'll carry this stuff out, alr-" He turned around just in time to watch as the puppet vanished right before his eyes, but not in a one second there and the next gone, more like a faint flicker of its whole form before it just flickered out of sight... Mike just blinked before giving a soft nod to himself, right, so the puppet can definitely teleport then... Mike chose to not think too hard on the implications of that for the time being, especially about why if they could literally teleport then just how had they been locked in that crate in the first place…?
Maybe the electrified metal acted like a barrier? No! Nope! That was the opposite of not thinking about it. Instead Mike quickly gathered up the toys and the music box, headed to the car, dumped them into his passenger seat, before quickly moving to return his keycard to the room before heading back. The puppet was in the backseat like he had suggested, just staring up blankly at the car roof. Mike couldn't tell well but he was certain it was slightly shaking before Mike had pulled himself into the driver's seat.
Mike just hoped it wasn't out of murderous rage, the puppet was in a great position to kill him via being choked to death at the moment and he really didn't have the energy to want to fight back right now, driving with one hand was a pain in the ass. To try and break the tension he spoke up, deciding to try and mention a few things to make sure the puppet knew he was, not in fact, the Purple Guy.
"So, I remember the prize corner puppet, or, well Marionette, but it's been a while, I guess you got recycled like the rest huh?" That seemed to get the puppet's attention, which was what he was going for, as he glanced in the rear view mirror to see the puppet raising their head to look up at him, he could have sworn for a second their mask changed a bit, but it was back to the blankness that it could have just been the angle of the reflection.
"I'll take that as a yes, not sure what all you've gone through, but bet it's been trauma inducing, it seems to be a trend with Freddy locations. What do you prefer by the way? Puppet or Marionette, I've been mostly thinking of you as Puppet, but I know you're not technically called that. Or if you want a pen, you could write down your... original name, if you remember it, I hear that's been an issue with some of the others" The puppet gave off a half hearted chime at that, before pointing to itself.
"Don't remember?" A nod, Mike frowned before just nodding, another dead end... He shouldn't think that way, it was fine.
"Then Puppet or Marionette? Or maybe I could keep calling you Stripes" A sharp shake of the head, Mike just smirked for a moment before they lifted up a hand, their hands weren't human, but they did have fingers, just... three of them instead of five, they held up two of them before giving a half wave in a dismissive manner, which Mike took as taking the second option though they weren't overly picky... Alright.
"Marionette it is, nice to meet you. Like I said last night, name's Mike, though I don't uh, I don't really go by Afton anymore, it's Schmidt if anyone asks, though... I doubt you'd be the one to talk about it with someone else huh?" A chime of amusement, a good sign if any, they definitely were more calm then they first had been. Though after a moment they made another soft sound, it had a weird uptick at the end, if Mike had to say something about it, he'd say it's what a person would suspect a question mark to sound like.
"Why?" Another sharper ring of confirmation. He was getting good at keeping a conversation with mutes, first Foxy and now them. Though Mike did wish it was over a better such matter, "Bad association with the name, I have some... history, family and personal that I'm not all that proud of, wanted a break from it without it all holding me down, so picked a new name and made a horrible decision to work at Freddy's and then the even worse decision to learn about the haunted animatronics there and now here I am, not much else to say about it"
Marionette slowly nodded, seemingly letting the topic drop which Mike was grateful for, but the silence was already eating at him, he needed something to keep his mind focused, so Mike kept talking.
"Anyways, I'll drop you off at the place I've been staying at, try to not judge it too hard, or me really. It's kind of trashed right now, but I don't have to pay any bills at least, just at the cost of... you know, electricity and running water" Mike could feel the judgment in the next series of chimes as he felt himself flush a bit before snapping back.
"Look ok Freddy's doesn't exactly pay a lot, besides I do own the house, I just haven't had the want or need to turn the utilities back on. I've been needing my money on other things" It was true, things had been moving smoothly on getting everything moved over to Mike's name, not everything of course, but no one was trying to fight off ownership of the house of all things, so that had been one of the first things to reach a conclusion. Mike wasn't homeless anymore, though it certainly felt like it at times without the things he was just mentioning he didn't need.
The ringing sound he got in return from Marionette told him just how well he was convincing the puppet of his words.
"It's a fine place, I just need to find a few weeks without dealing with ghosts to clean the place up and get enough savings to be able to get the stuff turned back on. Besides, you're the one who's going to be bunking with me, I don't want to hear about you complaining, the others don't have nearly as nice spots you kno- Ah, hey, get back in the back!" Mike half scrambled to not slam the breaks out of panic as marionette moved towards the front, just as Mike was about to make a turn to head onto his road, when Marionette just stared at him.
Mike took a deep breath before continuing onto the road, as Marionette's eyes wandered around the street for a moment, it was more of a clear road, but it was strange that they suddenly moved up to look around now. Maybe it was just hitting them that they could see the outside world? He had no idea just how long they had been in that box, trapped by Purple Guy. The thought sat like sludge in his chest at the thought as he hissed out to the puppet.
"Just, calm down, you can explore the house all you want, but I really don't need people seeing you right now, I don't need the neighbors starting any rumors about me and my doll collection" Marionette just gave him a look before leaning back into the back for a moment as Mike quickly pulled into the driveway, getting out to open up the garage manually before pulling the car inside. The second he was parked and the shutter was brought down, Marionette was out, clutching onto one of their chica plushies, looking around with obvious curiosity, floating towards the door that connected the garage to the kitchen before pausing just for a second to turn back to look at Mike, who only just sighed before waving the animatronic off.
"Feel free to look around the main rooms, heck, claim a bedroom if you want to get some rest in and the couch doesn't agree with your bolts, just try to not break anything alright? Some things in this place are... fragile... So just be careful. When it gets dark there is a flashlight on the kitchen counter if you need the light" The puppet only nodded for a moment before moving around to explore the place, Mike just sighed before calling out that he was heading to the hospital now, he got a distant chime but nothing much else...
Well, he needed to trust the thing at some point right? Might as well be now.
With that Mike went back through the painful process of lifting up the garage door, bringing the car back out, after unloading all of Marionette's collection of toys, wondering briefly about their age, before closing the garage back down with his one hand.
And with that, he was back on the road, now he just had to not crash for the next hour it would take to get to an emergency room while thinking of just how the hell he was going to explain the fact that it looked like someone had made an attempt on his life, given he couldn't really clarify that it was actually several people.
The whole thing went by just as quickly and as slowly as he thought it would be. It took nearly an hour and a half to see someone, but after that, he got an x-ray, turns out his knuckles were half way between being out of their sockets and there was a hairline crack along two of his fingers, he got a cast within the hour after a very painful series of tugs to get his bones to be set right. For everything else, he was just given some pain killers and some weird jar of cream that should numb the skin around his throat to make eating and breathing a bit less painful while it was healing after a doctor checked to make sure nothing on the inside was damaged from the tension on his windpipe.
It was nearing midnight by the time he got back to the house, pulling into the driveway and too tired to give a damn about dealing with the garage, instead just stumbling to the front door, something he had only started to do recently, and managed to get the door open, stumbling inside as he looked around for a moment before moving straight to the couch, willing himself to make it there before passing out. It was probably a miracle he hadn't crashed the car, but even though he had only been up for a few hours, they had been more tiring than he thought they would be, and he hadn't even accomplished nearly as much as he needed to do.
It made him feel unsatisfied as much as he knew he didn't really have a choice in the matter, he had been running around all day as it was.
Sadly before he could nod off on the couch, the sound of faint chiming could be heard, it sounded... Aggressive. Tilting his head back up, he looked around for a moment before yelping in shock and a bit of pain as a flashlight was suddenly blinding his eyes as he stumbled up to his feet to look... at a very disgruntled looking puppet.
Like, actually disgruntled, their mask had changed, showing an annoyed expression on the porcelain that caught Mike very off guard, he knew Foxy could sort of emote himself, even though the fox's head wasn't exactly made to move outside of opening and closing his mouth, but this was actually a full on expression change. For half a second Mike's tired mind thought that maybe Marionette had smuggled another mask in the plushies and had changed out their face before quickly dismissing the idea as dumb. The puppet's face just... changed on its own, sure, why not, it's not any more crazy than teleporting or causing visions or whatever else the possessed robots could do.
"Oh, hello there. I don't suppose we can stop with the riot act? I just left the hospital for everything else, I'd rather not go back around for an eye check up next" The light was removed from being pointed right at his body, and instead used to light up the rest of the room as Mike blinked the spots out of his vision. The two just ended up staring at each other for a long moment before Mike asked finally, "So, what did I somehow do wrong when I wasn't even here?"
The puppet let out a faint static sound that was very similar to the kind of aggravated noise both Goldie and Foxy occasionally gave off, but they weren't singing their nursery song of death just yet so Mike figured he wasn't in any actual danger. This thought was proven even more true when Marionette just waved their arms around wildly, sending shadows and light dancing around the living room as they pointed around and gestured at... just about everything. Mike just furrowed his brows at the sudden game of charades before huffing out in mild annoyance.
"What? I said the place was without the basics right? It's not that bad" The puppet's face shifted in front of Mike's eyes this time, it was uncanny seeing literal porcelain shift and change shape, it didn't happen like a normal face, but it didn't snap into the new expression of exasperation either, it was like one of those stop motion movies, shifting in phases to the new expression, almost fluid in movement, but not quite. Mike strangely enough found himself fascinated with just how that somehow worked with his tired mind.
He got a harsh static covered chime as the animatronic gestured with a frankly undeserved amount of passion at a nearby table which had... ok, a few things on it that weren't supposed to be there, a number of mostly empty water bottles, a old cup of microwave noodles, along with a bag or two of chips. He just glanced back before saying once more with a defensive tone.
"I wasn't exactly expecting any guests, okay! And I've been busy!" Marionette let out a noise that sounded a lot like a huff as Mike just huffed back as well in a more exaggerated fashion before pausing for a moment, as he blankly stared ahead for a long moment, before he finally couldn't take it anymore as a slow and low snicker came from him before he could help it, only to quickly devolve further into an almost ugly and kind of painful laughing fit.
Marionette let out a more confused sound this time, almost like they were concerned over the sudden hysteria, that just made Mike laugh even harder as he choked out, "I got kidnapped yesterday! I woke up and was nearly killed several times and now I'm arguing with a haunted sock monkey over the state of my house! What the hell!" Mike tossed his hands out like he was trying to show off just the insanity of this that he couldn't help but find it funny, the puppet just gave me a look that showed they didn't find this nearly as amusing as he did. He just huffed and waved the animatronic off, not noticing the way Marionette's eyes traced on the dark blue cast Mike had gotten on his right hand.
"Let me have this ok Mari? It's been a long while since the last time I had a good laugh" Mike didn't notice the faint surprise on the puppet's face at the new name, he was too busy thinking about really how long it had been. Long enough that Mike didn't like to think about that much longer, instead just letting out one last huff of amusement before shifting his attention around the room that was still being illuminated by the light Marionette's hand. He hadn't thought it was that bad, in fact he had been making what he had thought was good strides in cleaning the old messes up... Or at least he did a few big things, but Mike was quickly realizing without anyone coming by to pick up his trash often, he had let a few of his own things begin to build up.
Mike still really didn't think it was that bad, but he just had to pick up a neat freak of a ghost didn't he? That would be his luck of all things, the thought nearly had him laughing again, or at least almost let out an unflattering snort, but instead he said in a more appeasing tone, "Look, I can clean up alright? It's not the end of the world that a few soda cans are ou-"
Mike was stopped as he spoke as the puppet lifted up a garbage bag that they had snatched from the ground next to them, the thing rattled around in their grip showing there was a number of cans inside it already like the world really wanted to make that point clear. Mike just blinked in confusion for half a second before realizing he hadn't brought that bag out, the puppet...
"Have you been cleaning?" He knew Marionette had an issue with it, but he hadn't expected they would be actively going around and cleaning things up. Honestly Mike had been expecting the puppet to just complain about it and have Mike do it at some point, and he was even willing to do that, it was strange he hadn't assumed the animatronic would be willing to take matters into their own hands as it were, but he just hadn't expected it. It was... Human, incredibly human, a pet peeve of all things even.
Mike knew that of course, he knew they were all humans, just all a bit... distant from who they used to be, Evan certainly wasn't the same as he was as a kid, and he doubted Foxy was the exact same as he was when he was alive, and as such he treated them all like people, but still... Sometimes it just caught him off guard when one of them did something so incredibly human like. It might have been hitting harder because he was tired, because this wasn't the first time, the puppet was the most human looking animatronic that he's met so far so it probably had something to do with it as well.
Or maybe he was really tired and seeing an angry puppet complaining about his messy house was simply weird and he was drastically over thinking this.
Marionette broke him out of his thoughts as they gave a sharp nod before holding out the, offering for him to take, Mike just raised an eyebrow before sighing.
"No Marionette, it's past midnight at this point, I'm tired ok? We can do some really early spring cleaning tomorrow after I get some things sorted out alright? Now let's just get some rest. Feel free to use one of the rooms, the one down the hall on the left is free" That one had been his, though Mike ignored the faint voice in the back of his head that told him that he probably shouldn't be giving a room to the animatronic, it made this seem a lot more permanent than it was going to be... Then again, he didn't exactly have anywhere else for them just yet... Well, that was straight up a lie thinking about it.
Thoughts for later as Marionette gave a dissatisfied look before putting the bag down before floating down in the opposite direction of the bedrooms, instead heading to the kitchen, confusing Mike for a moment before they came back with a now familiar music box. Mike just blinked, looking at it with faint confusion before it was offered to him, as he just raised a tired eyebrow.
"What am I supposed to do with this?" Marionette now floated past him, heading into Mike's old bedroom, Mike just sighed before following after them, as the two arrived in the room he just watched as Marionette looked around for a moment, before their eyes caught onto a particularly large cardboard box Mike had been using to put some stuff up with. Because he actually was working on cleaning up the place, thank you very much!
...That point would have been made to the puppet as they looked over the box with curiosity, if, you know, the box actually had anything in it yet. Mike ignored that and instead watched with faint confusion as the Puppet climbed inside of the box of all things, their long body contorting in a way that made Mike's spin ache to look at. Given the two were actually around the same in height, though, actually, Mike being a few inches taller given Marionette's tendency to float instead of stand. Still, the point was, the idea of him trying to do the same hurt his back to look at. It was probably because the animatronic was so skinny it managed to work at all.
He was so busy watching the strange sight he nearly missed the puppet staring up at him with those blank eyes, waiting... Mike just stared back, not knowing just what he was looking at still. A soft humming sound escaped the puppet as they lifted their hands up and made a cranking motion with their hands that Mike finally got what they were after. They wanted him to play the music box that was in his hands.
Why they wanted that Mike had no idea in the slightest, but instead of thinking about it, he just shrugged and went with it, as he reached up and began to wind the box up until the thing wouldn't turn anymore before letting it play, watching with interest as the puppet's entire body instantly seemed to slack just a bit as they quickly pulled themself back into the box before seemingly stilling into motionlessness...
Huh, was the music some kind of shut off protocol for their programming? That was certainly... a weird way to go to sleep.
It was then Mike decided he didn't give a shit and was way too tired to deal with the cramped up couch right now while he was recovering, and so made the effort to move the extra three feet more into his own room to drop the music box onto his old dresser before flopping down onto his old bed. It was way too small for him, but at least his legs hung off the edge more comfortably than they did on the couch, and that was the last thing he thought about before passing out in a near instant with the sound of the chiming music box echoing out into the room.
This is more a rest chapter, Mike even got to go to the hospital, isn't that nice? Also, yes, the thing where Mike was seen was Fritz who was driving around to look for him a few chapters ago. I mentioned that the timeline here is kind of wonky, but basically everyone has been a bit ahead of Mike and Marionette's POVs, but we're finally getting close to everyone being synced back up, so that's pretty cool. This was a nice chapter, got to explore Marionette's character, abilities, and personality more which is always fun, Mike get's to finally have an audience that thinks he's funny, which I think is just great for him, and over all just a lot of fun character interactions between the duo. Not much more to say about it than that really. Nothing super plot heavy happened here, this is more a transition chapter to get us into the next big set piece than anything. So, See ya.
