I Don't Own Fnaf


Mike and Mari were in the car and then at the warehouse in a time period that probably implied more than a few road laws being broken, but Mike decided it was worth it to keep Marionette at his side than letting the puppet getting to impatient to get to the warehouse and teleporting himself over without Mike around to head off any possible reactions. He didn't know just what kind of reactions those would be, but he didn't think they would be emotionally stable, and he didn't want the others to just be around to happen to see it.

Mike hated it when people saw him when he was in any kind of state of weakness, and he had protectiveness to him when the puppet was concerned given how much Mari had been of help to him in nearly everything since the animatronic joined his life. Honestly, if anything, Mike really just wanted a break from all the mess of the past if only so Mari could have at least one week where something didn't come around to whack the puppet across the head with bottled up feelings. Mike knew the feeling only too well, he just happened to be a bit better at releasing and managing the stress, a skill Marionette hadn't had to learn. So Mike would just be around until then, helping in any way he could, it was the only thing he could do, so that's what he would do.

Pulling up to the warehouse, Mike stared at the building for a moment, wondering if he should ask, before deciding to do it anyways.

"So, are you going to be oka-... And he's already gone, and now I'm just talking to myself. Great" Pulling himself out of the car, Mike sped walked the rest of the way to the door to the building, slipping in without issue and quickly heading back in the area that Jeremy had told him about. He noticed Marionette floating behind him, having to follow after Mike given he didn't know where the two were and floating around would probably just have the puppet lost.

Mike decided to not make conversation now that they were already inside, instead just walked forwards, quickly finding Jeremy and Goldie standing a bit away from one of the containers that had been opened up. Mike could already see what looked like the broken up body of Toy Freddy from where he was standing. Marionette shot past him, stopping just in front of the container's entrance, simply staring into it, looking over the animatronics.

Mike walked up behind Marionette, and looked over the puppet's shoulder, staring inside, giving the animatronics a look over. They weren't as beyond repair as the original three had been at the end, being nothing more than broken up pieces in a mixed up pile of parts, but that didn't mean they were in great shape. The more plastic-like outer plates that made their suits instead of the more felt like material that someone like Foxy had meant that the damage to them wasn't like patches of material missing, it was large ugly cracks and breaks almost like glass spreading over them with large sections of their body's missing, revealing the endoskeleton's underneath.

Freddy was missing his top hat, and his entire chest looked like someone dropped a bowling ball on it. Chica's beak and eyes were both missing along with the entire outer yellow arm was just gone, meaning that all that was there on the outside was the metal endoskeleton arm and nothing else making it incredibly off and dangerous; the rust didn't help that imagine. Mangle looked like they lived up to every horror story that Fritz had told him about and that was about all there was to say about the frankly creepy looking mix of limbs and extra parts.

Then there was Bonnie. If Freddy looked like his chest cavity had been crushed, then it looked like someone took a bat to Bonnie's face, most of the plastic was broken to pieces showing off the endoskeleton head inside the plating, both ears were still there, but there was only one green eye staring blankly at the wall across from the animatronic. The eye mount that had its eye missing was bent in, like it had been smashed in with something heavy.

Those were all the main clear points of big damage, but like Mike had noticed, there were spider web-like cracks and other such shared damage all over the cast of four. It made them look withered, or more accurately, shattered, and Mike couldn't help but feel a bit bad. Though honestly, he had expected a bigger reaction out of himself, but knowing that there was no one inside those suits suffering made it a lot easier to deal with, knowing that they all were just lifeless husks of what had once been, something that Mike had never gotten to see. Though, now that Mike was thinking of it like that, it felt a lot more morbid than it did a few moments ago.

Looking to his side at Marionette, he watched as the puppet slowly made his way into the box, slowly looking around at the four as Mike glanced back towards Jeremy and Goldie, deciding to move to them to give the animatronic a moment to himself and his thoughts.

"So, how'd you stumble on them?" He poked his thumb behind him over his shoulder to just make sure no one was confused about the situation as Jeremy just sighed.

"I was looking for some advertising stuff, the logs said that's what the container was being used for, instead we got..." Mike finished it out for him.

"A blast from the past, yeah... You doing ok? I didn't know them but you both did" Mike glanced over at Goldie as well, just in case the bear didn't catch on that Mike wanted to hear from him as well, having heard from Jeremy and Fritz how the bear had taken it when the original three had been attacked.

"I'll feel better once we get them logged and get them out of sight and out of mind" Mike just hummed, glancing at his brother next after Jeremy's honest answer. The bear simply stared ahead at where the puppet was still, before finally glancing at Mike.

"I accepted they've been gone for a long time, those aren't them, I'm fine. He will be to" Mike slowly nodded, glancing back at the puppet again. It was just reality hitting more than likely, it was always hardest when whatever it was was put right in front of you where you couldn't help but look at it head on. Mike kind of felt like an ass for what he was about to say.

"Yeah... I might have Fritz see if he can get them fixed up, after I make sure everyone else will be fine with it of course" He shot that question towards Jeremy, who shuddered for a moment, but did actually consider what Mike was saying. Sure they had Foxy and Marionette, but the diner was a big place, having more entertaining animatronics, even if they weren't quite as aware as they used to be, it could be a big benefit to them. The original three were in a state that Fritz himself said it would take months of work to even get the basics restored, but these four? It looked like it was mostly just the outer layers that needed to be replaced, and there were spare parts everywhere for something like that, even if there wasn't much about the toys, the fact that had been stored here meant there was probably something to be found.

"I-... I know we're working on being a fox based place, but I don't think I could handle Mangle being back on any kind of stage" Mike nodded easily, that had been a given in his mind, if he couldn't handle Fredbear being back in the performing game, he wouldn't dare put that expectation on Jeremy for his own bite based trauma, but he wanted to make sure Jeremy was on the page Mike thought he would be on as well.

"Yeah, I don't think any of us are good enough at twister to begin to figure out how to get that fox sorted out enough to be seaworthy. We'll be a one fox show for a bit longer for our pirate pizzeria. What about the rest?" Jeremy shrugged.

"I-... I wouldn't mind too much I guess, it'll be weird though, but I could handle it. Would we be able to use Freddy?" Mike paused before shrugging.

"We'll have to check the legalities of it, but any amount of extra performers couldn't hurt right? Well, actually the bear might bring our rep down by association but I'll willing if it gives us extra hands that I won't have to pay" Mike ignored the fact that he didn't have any rights to either Freddy or Chica technically, and instead focused on the fact that he literally owned the bots themselves, that probably counted for moment, it had with the original Freddy and Chica. Besides, he still had a few more people to get through before he'd even go through with the process of getting them fixed up on top of everything else he had on his plate, or rather, Fritz's plate. Glancing at Goldie, the bear just shrugged, showing he didn't care much one way or the other, Mike took that answer as it was and decided that was enough questions for now.

He would ask Marionette later when they were home, or more than likely in a few days, so the puppet could sort through his own thoughts and feelings before dropping that on the animatronic. And if Mari said no? Well, one less thing to have to think about Mike supposed. Fritz would probably be happy to not have to deal with even more animatronic repairs, though these ones being completely docile might help sway him...

Mike glanced back at Marionette for one last time, still worried, before deciding to get his own mind off of all of this while giving the puppet some privacy.

"How about we go looking for those posters, they got to be held up somewhere, and I think it'd be good if we checked through the rest of the containers anyways, to make sure we're out of surprises in this damn place" Jeremy nodded easily enough, looking more than happy to get away from the container as the three men moved away to start looking around for what they were looking for.

In the end, they found some old posters and promotional material in a big wooden crate that Goldie casually ripped open after they were sure they had found what they wanted. Most of the other containers didn't hold anything trauma inducing either, which was certainly a bonus, an additional springlock suit was at the height of all the discoveries, which was only a bit surprising more than anything else.

Mike had labeled it as Silvered Foxy given the design and color of the suit itself. It looked to have been about as old as the Spring Chica springlock suit, so newer than Golden Fredbear and Spring Bonnie, but not nearly that new, still at least a decade and some change in years old. Now that they had a foxy model, Mike could at the very least say it couldn't have been more than fifteen years old, but that was still a pretty big time line.

It also wasn't alive, certified by both Goldie and Jeremy, though Mike did make the joke that maybe they could still have it set up somewhere if Fritz could get the thing back into animatronic mode. Neither Jeremy or Goldie let him keep that idea around long enough to actually think about it though, and frankly Mike was fine with that, he wasn't much of a fan of springlock suits in general these days and it felt a bit too dangerous to keep around a bunch of kids. Though it was a real shame that they had two actual fox animatronics around that they just couldn't use. Three whole generations of foxes at that, a springlock, original, and toy line model all here. Teenage Mike probably would have had his heart stop with excitement to get the chance to see them all perform.

Adult Mike could tamper those feelings, though the fondness he had for pirate foxes still meant he loved the idea of it, he just knew it wasn't a viable thing to work towards for the time being. But... One could dream, though in the meantime Mike was a lot more interested in something else than visiting that admittedly strange fantasy for the time being.

And that was a symbol that had been showing up more and more often than Mike had expected it to, and by that, he meant at all.

The stylized letters 'AR' superimposed over three interconnected gears making up the spaces of the A and R, with the letters LLC in much smaller font underneath them, all held in a purple lined circle. It was the symbol logo apparently for Afton Robotics, and it was on about one-twentieth of the things that were found around the warehouse that could be considered or related to robotics. It was weird.

Mike hadn't said anything about it though, instead just moving on with helping Jeremy with his work for the time being, but the logo stayed with him for a while. Even in the car ride back to the house, with Marionette laying down in the back seat, as he and Marionette stayed in the silence for the drive, both lost in their own pasts.

Getting home hadn't changed much, the two went about, doing their own things, Marionette vanishing to his room while Mike decided to get his thoughts off the manner for the time being by getting some things out to cook a proper dinner with, something he had been enjoying the chance to be able to do given it had been awhile, then maybe watch something on the tv for a bit.

Mike genuinely enjoyed cooking, it was like drawing, something he could just devote his time to for a single thing that at the end would have a nice and neat end to it, and unlike his art, he could actually eat what he made. It was something he hadn't done in a long time though, it was more a rediscovered passion more than anything, it was something he had done a lot in his early teenage years, after, up until he was an adult, he hadn't exactly been allowed in a kitchen, and since then he hadn't been much for caring about being nice to himself all that often.

It was certainly a fun thing to relearn though, a nice way to destress after his continuously long days of work. He also occasionally found himself making more than he needed to, living with another person had that inbuilt habit still there, but Marionette didn't exactly eat, so he often found himself with leftovers, he hadn't actually had to cook a breakfast in a few days now, living off his mornings with whatever was in the fridge. Mike honestly enjoyed that as well though, he wasn't much of a morning person, so a simple coffee and nuking last night's dinner back to being heated was a much nicer start to the day than breaking out the measuring cups for something more traditional.

So that's what Mike did, spending around an hour or so bumbling about the kitchen, double checking the recipe more than he probably needed to from a book he had found on one of the bookshelves that his parents had liked to use to look like they read a lot more than they actually did. Mike had plenty of cooking books around that his parents never so much as opened and as such just were left laying around collecting dust until Mike or Marionette had moved to dust them off and see if they should be moved to the attic or not.

Both had decided to keep the books, Mike having cleared out a shelf in the kitchen to actually have them organized where they should have been to begin with, and Marionette and him both placing the books there whenever they found a new one. They were separated between recipe books meant more for family or quirk meals and books meant to make someone gain a few pounds in under a week. Turns out Marionette preferred the second kind while Mike was more interested in the first kind. Turns out Marionette could bake, and bake well by the way.

As almost to prove that point, just as Mike was beginning to wrap up in the kitchen, having just gotten a plate out to be ready for when he pulled the pot off the stove, Marionette had floated in the kitchen, looking around for a moment quietly, before heading to the cupboard that had been used to hold the cookware, and pulled out a cupcake mold metal sheet, before moving to get the ingredients out to make the small cakes from scratch.

Being honest, Mike was probably struggling a bit more than necessary money wise because of his eagerness to fill his fridge up with everything he wanted without thinking too hard about the price of them. Marionette only capitalized on that for his own kitchen related interests, but it was still something Mike probably would have to think about over the next few months when it came to rationing out his expenses...

Or maybe not given the idea of a constant source of sweets was one that felt like a hard thing to turn down... Maybe he could write it off as a business expense if he got Mari to do most of the baking for the pizzeria's birthday parties. Was that how it worked? He'd have to ask Jeremy later. Though the thought of the man, or rather, thinking of the pizzeria again made him think of the events that had happened today just as he moved the pot off the heat and turned the stove off.

Mike took a moment wondering if he should push now or not, before letting his more impulsive side win out as he asked in a casual voice to Marionette.

"You doing ok after today Net?" The puppet let out a faint chime of confusion that quickly shifted to a warm amusement, latching onto the wrong part of what he was saying.

"Net?" Mike just shrugged, going along with it for a moment.

"Sure, I like giving people names, I think that's clear enough by now, and calling you Puppet Guy seems a bit pointless when Marionette already covers that and has enough smaller names in it already. Don't like it?" The puppet seemed to consider that for a moment, before eventually saying.

"I think I like Mari more, but anything's better than Stripes, or Sock Monkey" Mike made the mental note to continue to make more jokes about the latter and to use the former on more occasions while saying out loud.

"I could technically call you Mario" That got a dry tone back.

"I think I'm missing a few things for that to work" Mike just let out a hum.

"You sure? You certainly look enough like a video game character... Maybe not the main hero, but you could definitely be a nice horror stand in. I'm sure your jump scares are on point" The faint tune of 'Pop Goes the Weasel' seemed to start up on que, as Marionette said with a playfulness to his words that couldn't be hidden by his attempt at sounding scary.

"You've experienced it before, and you will again if you keep up this talk" Marionette sounded too amused to actually be serious, Mike decided against keeping the banter up to finally steer it back to the main point he had been trying to get at.

"Then let's talk about something else. Like the warehouse." Marionette's amusement faded quickly at that, the tune coming from him stopping with a sharp stuttering chime, though his voice remained somewhat casual still, even as he moved and fussed about with some measuring cups.

"What about the warehouse?" Mike glanced over and made sure the puppet could see his look, given there was only so much they could be talking about right now, the puppet slowed down, just for a moment, before shaking his head, "I'm fine Mike, we've had this conversation before, I'm not a child. It was... rough, I'll admit, to see them all in that state, but I'm more relieved that I know where they ended up more than anything. You don't have to be concerned for me every time something moderately upsetting happens you know?"

Mike just shrugged, hiding how he felt faintly embarrassed about being called out on it. Marionette had a point, just because Mike saw a few bad points doesn't mean Mari couldn't handle his own emotions on his own. The idea that Marionette would do that to him just because on the day they met the puppet saw Mike's... problems and past mistakes, made Mike's guts turn at the thought. And if he was doing something like that to Marionette...

"Fair enough, just wondering if you wanted to talk about it. Purple tears doesn't have to be involve" Marionette let out a faint hum that told Mike that he knew exactly what Mike had been expecting and that he wasn't covering quite as well as he thought he was, but didn't stress the point either.

"I don't, not right now" Mike decided to accept that, but also give the puppet a warning.

"Alright... I talked to the others, just to let you know. Fritz thinks he can get a few of them back into working order. I know Foxy and you will probably be the main draw, but the toys probably still have their performances saved from what Fritz told me, if he can get them repaired then they can work as secondary characters" Mike heard more than saw the sudden difference in the puppet's behavior at the mention of that, given the sounds of whisking had suddenly stopped as he tacked on quickly, "Nothing's set in stone, and we can't have all of them, Jeremy can't handle seeing a repaired Toy Foxy for example and I have no idea if we can use the Freddy or not, like, legally, but I've been getting everyone's thoughts on it to see if it we should think about doing it some time in the future when we have the time and resources, you know, after we make sure the pizzeria isn't going to be a failure and we need more entertainers on hand"

He tacked that bit on the end both trying to ease the perceived tension and as well just because he had been rambling a bit more than he was used to and didn't really know how to stop. It felt awkward, but there was a very real chance that was still just Mike being weird about how he realized he had been babying his roommate in a way that he knew he would have found downright insulting and was still reeling a bit from that realization being pointed out to him.

"I-... I'm not sure, I don't think it would be a good idea right now with everything else, but you're right, in the future, if we need more help, it would be best to use some of them to take the load off. Better than hiring a bunch of strangers" That... wasn't exactly what Mike had meant, the sudden reminder that Marionette didn't handle unknown faces well popped back up, but that was a staffing problem for the future, right now he simply agreed.

"That's what I figured as well, no reason to try and get Fritz to quit on me from overworking the man when it's not necessary, even if I think he actually is really enjoying all the work" That wasn't a lie, Fritz seemed to genuinely thrive on the work now that he wasn't being forced to just do the bare minimum to keep things functioning, not only from being told to by Freddy's manager, but as well as for his own safety. As for how much sleep he was getting though... Well, Mike was hardly the only one pulling late nights.

The conversation faded out from there, with Mike having no reason to stay in the kitchen with his food now beginning to cool off, he made sure his plate was set right, grabbed some silverware, and made his way into the living room, in a bit of a rush when he realized what time it was and how close he was getting to missing it.

Getting himself as organized and set on the couch as quickly as possible, he grabbed the remote and quickly turned to the channel in question, just in time to catch the second half of the recap of an older episode of The Immortal and The Restless. Mike gave a soft smile before moving into a more comfortable position as he got ready for a mindless evening. He had been missing this show something fierce, simply not having time to catch up on the newest season with everything going on, something he was going to try and make an effort to correct.

It was... nice. Being on a couch in a warm house with company, a freshly cooked meal, the scent of promised sweets, something chocolate based on the smell, on the way from behind him, and some quality entertainment... It was really nice, especially after a taxing and strange day.

For the first time in a long time, Mike had a soft smile on his face for most of the evening, and into the night.


The next few weeks went by in a blur of activity, everyone was in a rush to do something within the few hours they had available. Mike's new job was simple but it was tiring, being on guard, even if not nearly as much so as he been at Freddy's, for most of the night, even if he did have another guard with him, did nothing to give him energy in the mornings to be able to handle the constant moving around and helping with everything he could get his hands on.

From sorting out and filing paperwork where they could, to helping move around and set up the diner with furniture with a moving truck that the three men bit the bullet on and rented for the entire month, to helping Fritz handle as much of the machinal side of things as much as he could possible do with his limited education, and even helping Marionette set up the prize corner, as much as he was allowed to at least. Mike got to put up some shelves and chauffeur over the foxy plushies that were in good enough condition to use from the warehouse to the diner.

Along with other smaller things, with the promotional material they had found, and a bit of work from Mike, which took more time than his artistic ego found himself comfortable admitting, one handed or not, he managed to sort out all the ones that used Foxy's imagine, and modified a number of the ones that didn't, and even managed to get a few new ones made that was around the same quality though not perfect given his cast. With that, and a vaguely set date labeled on all the posters as 'Coming Soon', the three men had begun passing them out and having them set around town as well as they could.

And just like that, word of Foxy's Pirate Cove Pizzeria began to spread.

It was exhausting, it was stressful, it was even occasionally demeaning, but it was worth it. Mike didn't have a lot of things in his life that he was all that proud of, in fact he could honestly say he regretted about ninety percent of the last decade of his life, but this? This was something he was proud of.

The stage had been replaced and looked more like the sides of the stage looked almost like a boat, the wallpaper replaced with more oceanic waves as a pattern, the lights had been set up, a curtain had been put up in the same style that had been there at Freddy's, a deep purple with a star like pattern. The tables had been put in and the arcade corner was ready to go. The kitchen finally had its appliances returned to it and were functioning enough that they didn't have to worry about anything breaking down on them in the foreseeable future. Along with the prize corner, now filled out to at least look full of different old fox and pirate styled merch.

They hadn't quite found a supplier yet, Mike himself was still trying to track down the company who had used to make the merch back in the days of Junior's, whether they were the same one used by Freddy's in the near past was still a question, one none of the three men really could find the answer to by themselves, but Mike knew the company had been reliable back then at least. Too bad they had changed their number apparently, along with their name, making it hard to find the right people to talk to, but at least it was an ongoing process, and they had enough stock for hopefully a while in the backlog.

It was around the end of February now, and right now with how things had been going, they were expecting to have their doors open around the end of the first or at least by the end of the second week of March. There was a definite air of excitement to them all, most of all the hard parts had all been done by now, everything was set up to go, and while it was a bit early to be celebrating, it felt like it was worth it.

The diner was already ready to go so why not put it to use? That had been Jeremy's words, Mike just went along with it, as the 'team' all gathered up together one Sunday evening when they all were free, and just... hung out. It was nice. Over the last few months, it had been easy to get attached more and more to the two men that Mike was now opening a business with, the three all now well and truly friends at this point, but they all were so busy that it was rare that all three got to spend time together, muchless when that time wasn't involved in some pizzeria project, so this had been a very nice change of pace.

Of course, that didn't mean everything was great and prefect, Marionette had been caught talking a number of times at this point by Jeremy and Fritz, just happening to be around in the warehouse or the diner when Mike and Mari were holding a conversation, but the puppet was still too stubborn to actually just speak with them about it. And neither Fritz nor Jeremy seemed all that invested in breaking past the communication barrier either. Mike had tried to push it a few times, but all it did was end up with him awkwardly holding a conversation for three people by himself. Still, they all could exist in the same room without issue at this point without any awkwardness, just no one should expect a dialogue to open up any time soon.

Then there was the thing between him and Goldie. Mike genuinely thought that the two were in a much better place now, working together towards a common goal finally, and even having the occasional conversation meant that at the very least the bridge between them was at least somewhat rebuilt, but that didn't mean it was sturdy, some days it felt like neither had any idea what to do with the other and it just devolved into an awkward and tense silence. The lack of real conversations between them didn't help, only discussing things about the pizzeria or whatever they had been up to, but never anything actually deep and the two most certainly never talked about their situation, it felt almost taboo at this point to bring up, like once it was brought up then something between the brothers would break again.

Thankfully though, no matter how much awkwardness there was among certain parties, it didn't hold up to the sheer energy that Foxy had for the small celebration. He was in an incredibly talkative mood, bouncing around and boasting off every little thing in the diner that he could see without a single care that he was preaching all of this to the people who had put those things there in the first place. It was adorable and charming in its own way.

And even if Foxy was more than likely the youngest of the group, the jury still being out on that one given the fox couldn't remember his birthday, or most things given the few times Mike prodded, he certainly didn't care about that enough to not get on stage and show off more than a few of the acts he had planned for the kids on opening day all the same to the other animatronics and humans alike.

Currently though, the fox was engaged with Mike himself, the two weren't quite talking, mostly the two of them sharing in a same strange warmth that came from just looking around and basking in their business, the main star and the owner, the both had surprisingly similar feelings at seeing it all come together, and seeing the people who helped get it there talking and interacting with each other with an ease comradery between them all.

It really was nice that everyone could get along, outside of some obvious hang ups, it didn't mean they weren't all somewhat close to each other at this point, like, even with that lack of ability to really talk to each other, Marionette was still floating somewhat around Jeremy and Fritz, even chiming occasionally or gesturing about something to give his opinion, he was just tight lipped, which was much better than it had been before, on both sides. Jeremy didn't even look like he was mildly worried about being so close to the puppet.

Mike never really did get an answer out why of all the animatronics, Marionette was one that struck an equal amount of fear into both men, Mari looked a bit creepy, Mike could admit that, he had thought so back when he was a kid and could still sort of see it now, even after getting to know the puppet, but that was also half the reason why most people had liked the puppet back then, Mike included. But nothing was never brought up about it so Mike decided to not question it to hard, it probably had something to do with the fact that Marionette was a lot more showy about being supernaturally inclined with the floating and teleporting and all, but the past was the past and all that so Mike also didn't ask about it either. Something he was trying to live by more and more, and was only partially succeeding at.

His thoughts were interrupted as Foxy suddenly spoke up besides him, sounding somewhere between teasing and serious.

"Yah know, with that mask of yer's yah could join me up on stage for a time or two" That got a surprised snort out of Mike, as he turned back to the fox who did his version of a grin back. Foxy couldn't emote nearly as well as Marionette, but he and Goldie both sort of... could do something weird where you could get the impression on whether they were smiling or giving a look or things like that.

It was weird, Jeremy said it was some kind of reverse empathy thing, their body's just weren't made for it as good as Marionette's who's mask literally was able to change with no explanation given. Mike didn't understand it, and frankly he was fine with that, the one thing his curiosity wasn't interested in getting too many answers about was the supernatural elements and abilities of the animatronics. It just made his head hurt to think about most times.

"Well, I'm not much of a singer, and I think we'd prefer to keep the kids inside the pizzeria instead of screaming and running in the opposite direction. So I think I'll have to decline Captain" The fox just let out a sound that was more a thrum than a hum, but it got the gist across as the pirate said.

"Maybe then fer a pirate jig or two. Yah now, it'd be nice to perform with the original pirate fox" Mike... blinked at that, glancing over, closer at the fox, who seemed like he was trying to figure out his own words... Like he was trying to figure out how to say something. The comment tipped off Mike as to what it might have been. He let the conversation continue on normally, though did begin to lead to the topic he, to let the fox have control.

"I don't think I can be considered the original, missing a few to many parts for that, so I'm pretty sure that's you" It was, Mike knew that for a fact, kind of hard not to when he was there for the animatronic's creation, hell he was kind of responsible for the animatronic's creation as well. The fox however just waved him off.

"Nah... I- I remember a foxy before Foxy yah know? First got a glimpse of me memory of him when the two of us... meet, but it's been commin' back to me more" Yeah. Mike was right, Foxy was beginning to remember things... Didn't quite explain to Mike why Mike himself was being used as a Foxy stand in, but he was willing to give it the effort to figure it out.

"Yeah? What about them do you remember?" Foxy was quiet for a long moment before quickly saying, almost like he was a bit shy to admit it.

"I- I remember thinking they were cool... I wished my brother brought him around more often, I loved the mask, could remember it even in death, even if 'Foxy' never let anyone else play with it" Mike... Mike was frozen at that, as he felt like his throat dried out, the accent in the pirate's voice fully fading around half way through, leaving the teenager inside sounding like any other person, young, probably a year or two younger than Mike's own younger brother. Finally though, Mike took a deep breath and said.

"Yeah? He certainly never let that thing leave his face, you know? Loved the thing way too much, practically showered with it" Foxy let out a sound of amusement before that too faded and said in a more quiet tone.

"Maybe, but I remember when he got his friends a matching set... My brother loved that Bonnie mask you know? Wore it nearly as much as you did foxy" Mike... Mike slowly closed his eyes as he felt pain coursing through his chest as everything truly clicked into place. It hurt, fuck it hurt bad, but in the end Mike forced his eyes open, glanced over at the fox who was anxiously waiting for some kind of response, and said with a soft voice.

"I'm glad he did, it took me ages to convince my dad to make a full set you know... It's nice to see you again, Gabriel" The fox's body shuddered for a moment, but stilled soon after, like the sound of th- of his name had caused some sort of surge past just one of emotions, before saying while slowly slipping the pirate drawl back in his words.

"Aye... Michael, but it be Foxy now" The two didn't say anything more, both to busy staying in that quiet moment of mourning, for Mike of the sixteen year old trapped in the animatronic at his side, and Gabe who mourned the family he was only now beginning to remember he had lost in his death. But after a while Mike asked quietly.

"How long...?" Gabe, or more accurately, Foxy slipped back into the voice, almost seemingly defensively in the action, as he answered in a more casual manner than Mike would have been able to.

"I been recognizing the mask the whole time, lad... Remembered it belonged to someone kind. Just took a while fer the rest of the ol' pieces to sort themselves out in me noggin is all" Mike simply nodded, retroactively realizing just why Foxy hadn't killed him on his sixth night working at Freddy's. The fox had recognized him, if only faintly. It was a strange feeling to have, a sorrowful one, knowing that another child Mike had known had been killed. He hadn't ever been close to Gabe, he was just the younger brother of one of his friends, but he had still known the kid, and apparently Mike still did.

...This was going to make not thinking about the past a whole lot harder wasn't it?

"I see, thanks for not killing me then, but I'm still not going to be performing" That got a sudden surprised gwaffing kind of laugh out of the fox as he said with a sudden and probably a bit put on return of energy.

"We'll be seeing about that lad! Never say never to a pirate" The fox bounded over to say something to one of the others after that, not letting Mike have another moment to try and turn the offer down, and instead just left the older man to sigh, before shaking his head before slowly getting himself back into the mood of the party. This didn't change much, not really, it just let Mike know a bit more about who he was working with, and that was fine.

Even if it did sting like hell as he moved as well to lose himself into some kind of conversation with Fritz.


Ah, we be getting Foxy lore, about time! Now, seriously though, Foxy is a super interesting character, or at least he will be here, which I get to say as someone who is writing these notes like a month after I wrote this chapter, so I got that future author foresight. But that's for later developments down the road, for right now we get to talk about the things we know now. Like his name, Gabe, yep, another animatronic swap if you're caught up on lore, you'll know a kid name Fritz was the one in Foxy, but let's be real, the four missing children in the original four suits could be shuffled around without anything changing, and it was either that or have Foxy be named either Fritz or Jeremy, and both of those names are kind of already in use so here we are. And we finally got an answer as to why Foxy didn't kill Mike on his sixth night when they were shacked up together in the old Pirate's Cove. I hope that's a good reveal, it's been planned for Foxy to been one of the masked bullies younger siblings for a while now. I thought it was a cool idea and still do, and I love the concept of Foxy considering Mike to be the 'original' fox as it were, there's probably some kind of symbolism in that somewhere with them being the star and owner of the fox themed pizzeria, though I have no clue as to what it would be.

Beyond that, Mari, or Net, or Puppet Guy, or whatever else the master of nicknames Mike, has called Marionette, has gone through some shit hasn't he in the last few weeks? Not sure what else to say about it though, they had a talk, worked through it, and Mike came out with a better understanding of his friend, which, once more, let me just say, communication people, it solves most issues. I want the relationships among the characters, and especially in this case between Mike and Marionette to be believable, and sure often times things will be avoided or not talked about, as with the case with Goldie and Mike, because those Afton's aren't health communicators, and that happens to, but the idea that everyone just won't say anything or discuss their issues is just not realistic to me. It just a over used and often inconsistent use of a character's personality to stereotypically drive up pointless and hallow drama simply because two people are fully unwilling to talk to each other. But when used right, it doesn't create drama it's used to show tension and uncertainty instead, like as is the case with Goldie and Mike, both who are to unsure of themselves and their standing with each other to want to risk prying into a past they both don't want to relive, instead both somehow stumbling into the nearly healthy option of giving themselves and each other time before truly starting that conversation with each other when both just aren't ready for it.

It's a process basically, and there isn't some kind of uniform thing to it and it's confusing and messy and oh boy I'm sure I've somehow made myself sound like a hypocrite somehow, but that's life and while I'm not exactly... great at capturing the emotions in words as I'd like to be, I do like to at least think I'm realistic in the ways and reasons behind everything that's happening in terms of characterization and motivations of the cast.

God, these end notes go on sometimes don't they? I just like to get my thoughts out in this section and explain the things going on in my mind when I discuss the chapter at hand. I wonder how many just skip over these or just don't give a damn about them? Anyways, See ya!