I Don't Own Fnaf


Mike had brought up the situation to the two other human workers when they all had been getting ready for the day. Both the men agreed that it was a good idea to get some good publicly on their side and that was mostly all they talked about besides the fact that apparently Mike's kitchen was already beginning to fall apart. That was nice...

The day itself went about the same as yesterday, about the same amount of foot traffic, if maybe a bit less, though that was fine, it was still more than anyone had been expecting still, but it seemed that people were starved for entertainment in this town. Or at the very least, eager to be able to leave their kids alone for long periods of time without worrying about having to deal with them. Which, honestly, Mike kind of disposed, knowing that this was exactly how Miller was able to do the horrible things he had done in the first place.

But, well, if anyone tried anything here, then they'd have more than just Mike to answer to, and Mike himself usually would have been more than enough, so the puppet and fox were probably over kill. Not that Mike would ever mention as such in case a situation like that had or would ever come up again, because if that was the case, then, well, Miller would probably be getting a new room mate in hell, and Mike himself was uncomfortably ok with that.

The day passed by, Mike got to enjoy it and the mindless work that was just making pizzas a lot more than before, and soon enough a rhythm had been found.

Work for the rest of the first week went by much the same way without much of a change, a fairly big weekend bump was the highest point of the work day in all honesty beyond a few incidents where a kid spilled something, and that was fine, having a flow that everyone dipped into honestly helped settled any more nerves that anyone had about the business that wasn't or hadn't been pressed down by the first days jitters. Mike had to come out a few times to help just get orders in or help clean something up or just to have another set of eyes out on the room, and he did wear his mask for it, if only because he was paranoid.

The only thing it got him was a few kids coming up to him wanting him to perform for them. He had no idea how to handle that so just pulled on his accent and half convinced a bunch of kids that some pirates sounded British, but they ate it up and the few jokes he made, but it was still awkward for him and he escaped the situation as quickly as possible. Marionette mocked him incredibly for it, but a number of the parents thought it was 'cute' and asked if they sold any for the children at the prize corner... which honestly was more embarrassing than anything that the puppet could have said to him.

During that time they had their first party, using one of the private party rooms for the first time, it worked out well enough, Foxy moved into the room for some one on one entertainment for the birthday boy and Mari had been the one who brought in the cake, that the puppet had baked himself the night before, in on his track, as well as after a bit, during the gift giving part, had moved back into the room with a present of his own which was just a small striped black and white goody bag that he and Mike had set up for birthday parties that basically just had some free tokens and a free plushy of one of the off-colored Foxys that were harder to get than the normal ones that were hidden and ready to go behind the prize counter.

Marionette beamed the entire time afterwards, his default and unchanging smile barely holding in place for the rest of the day, and Foxy noticeably put a fair bit more energy into his routines after the party, both clearly loving every moment of it. Mike had willingly left the kitchen, if only for a bit, just to watch and be able to see the energy and enjoyment roll off them even if they purposely made sure to not act to human, it was clear to everyone in the know that the two were beyond happy to be able to do such a task once more.

They hadn't had any protestors yet, but Mike was sure he had seen a care drive past more than once a few times over the last few days, and that had set his nerves up a bit, but if anyone caused any trouble, then, well, the entire cast of employees were either former or just was security guards, they could handle a disruptive situation.

For right now, they were just handling closing for the last day of their first week. While everyone had some level of energy still for the accomplishment, like most things had been this week, Mike was simply just beyond exhausted, working several night shifts over the last few days that made the later parts of his day seem to last and drag on forever, only to pass out in exhaustion when he got home more often than not. he was averaging about four to five hours of sleep nightly, which compared to Marionette, who was fussing at him about it, who actually, recently, had been sleeping every night, and that clearly showed in the puppet's energy levels, compared to Mike's doubly so.

Still, he zombied his way though cleaning up the kitchen, making a note to restock on basically everything, something he had to do already once this week, while making a note to bug Jeremy about some accounting thing to make the buying in bulk thing work out more smoothly in the future. Once they knew on average how much they'd be going through in a week at least given he had no idea if it's going to go up or down in the following few weeks. And... mostly because he was to tired to try and do that math at the moment right now himself.

He was probably going to have to call off his shift tonight, he wouldn't be able to keep himself awake unless he downed a frankly ridiculous amount of coffee before hand, and that had the chance of just making him a ball of nerves that jumped at shadows instead of waking him up.

Thankfully, he didn't have to think much about that for right now, instead he was interrupted as Jeremy walked into the kitchen, looking more than a little tired himself, no doubt from running tables all day, Mike wasn't sure he would have had the energy in him to deal with so many people all day long himself, he was glad to be back in the kitchen in that regard.

"Hey Jere" The man just nodded back, looking like he was gearing himself up for something, which instantly put Mike on guard, as he said.

"We got a note during the day, I only just opened it up. I figured it's be some letter from one of the kids to Foxy or something, but..." Instead of explaining, the man just held out a slip of paper as Mike's hand snatched it a bit to quickly out of his hands and quickly opened it up, asking as he did so.

"Is it hate mail?"

"Ah, no, nothing like that, it's... a compliment? Sort of?" Mike frowned at that, before scanning over the letter.

It... wasn't hateful at all, Mike had honestly been expecting it to say someone was willing and ready to fire bomb the diner, but maybe that was his own past's... activities getting in the way of his logical side. But instead of that it read as the following:

'Hey, I saw you decided to use Foxy as the mascot, that's a good idea, he always was a fan favorite.

If you ever want to get in touch, I think I have a few things that you might be interested in, my numbers at the bottom, but if not then don't worry and please just forget about this letter'

"This... Tells us nothing? Like at all, they just said good on us for using Foxy and asked if we wanted to talk but they didn't even mention what it is they want to talk about or who they even are?" Mike glanced up to give Jeremy a look to show just how confused he was, the man himself just shrugged in response.

"We just found it on one of the tables, so we don't even know who left it unless we want to spend an hour running through our cameras" The idea of that made Mike even more tired, but he was technically the one playing guard, and if this wasn't vaguely suspicious then nothing was...

"Leave it, just... One of us can call them tomorrow morning and just get answers then, or just, not at all, frankly I'm tired of playing scavenger hunt to get a question answered. I'm tempted to say screw that guy and just forget it happened"

"That might not be too bad of an idea really" Jeremy didn't sound all that interested in the letter either, but that could have been his own tiredness playing up as well at the idea of dealing with something new right now.

"Either way, we can deal with it tomorrow, you already tell Fritz about it?"

"Yeah, he was closer than the kitchen" Understandable.


Marionette happily hummed to himself as he moved around the table, arranging a number of pieces of cake around in front of the number of plushies, absently talking and discussing various things he had on his mind, it was mostly just a lot of nothing, some talking about the pizzeria and a few kids that he thought were nice and wondered if they'd come back in the future. As well as a few other things.

"And then, if you believe this, Foxy looked ready to dive off the stage! Ridiculous right? I couldn't believe it myself, but Fritz had to get up and talk the fox down while explaining that it was the 'wrong show program' running, it was hilarious! You should have seen the look on Foxy's face!" The toys didn't say anything back of course, though the plushy of Toy Freddy did sort of fall over on the table, which Marionette took with a huff.

"Oh please, he totally would have, Foxy was always pretty dramatic, though, not nearly as dramatic as some isn't that right?" He shot that line over at Toy Bonnie, who just sat motionless, much unlike what the bonnie model would normally do when teased. Marionette paused, frowning for a moment, before looking around.

Where was he? It was pretty dark besides the table... Eh, didn't matter. He just went back to talking to his friends again.

"Anyways, so then Mike had to come out for a while, got roped into playing with some of the kids like he was part of the entertainment! I couldn't help but leave the prize corner for a while just to watch! He put's himself down a bit, but honestly? I think he's a natural performer, he just doesn't think so. Oh! But I can leave my corner! Isn't that great? Back then I could barely move around and was always stuck in my box, but now I can do whatever I want! At least, as long as I don't get my strings pulled on, a few kids got a bit handsy thinking I could be pulled off my cross, like I'm one of the prizes!"

He waited, thinking he'd hear something back for a moment, before dismissing the silence with a wave, saying, "Not a good one? Mike made that joke really so blame him, I think his sense of humor is wearing off on me, well, he said he might have to start putting sock monkeys in the prize corner just so people would stop trying to win me when he was the one who'd have to fight them off" The memory made him feel warm for about half a second, before he realized something. "Actually... I told Mike about it, but... That's because I only talk to Mike really, I didn't really speak to Goldie or Foxy much unless I had to, and never to the others, so... Why am I talking to you all?"

He turned back, and seemingly for the first time really realizing he was talking to actual toys, not his friends, a frown marring onto his mask as he looked around once more, at the walls, expect there wasn't walls, it was just... the void, the only thing lit up in the 'room' was the table that he had been serving at, with the representations of his old friends.

"I-... I'm dreaming?" Marionette looked around, confused now, before simply looking back at the table, the toys were missing... He wasn't often aware when he dreamed, and often those dreams were nightmares, not unless he was willingly trying to send a message to the others. It was how he communicated so long ago with the others while he was forced to sleep, to give orders and help get the others to chase the Purple Guy while making sure they all were still safe.

He never did much for the theatricality of... whatever this was, making him think it really was just a dream, just one he was aware of because of how shocking it was that it wasn't a nightmare, or something like that at least. he hadn't had to do this in a long while, never had anyone he needed to talk to, he had thought they were all gone, and during his time... trapped he simply couldn't even if he wanted to. This was strange, but it didn't feel like his doing, he would have known, have noticed before now.

"Hello?" Marionette, perhaps not really real at the moment, still felt his gears tighten in his chest at the idea of someone being able to hear him. He was careful with is voice, even when he didn't need to, and the idea of someone seeing him, act and be himself at all without his full permission made an uncomfortable, nearly violating feeling flood into his gears and mind. It was months of knowing the two men and he still didn't speak directly to Fritz and Jeremy, even if he really was slowly warming up to the idea over time, it was still just more comfortable to not push those feelings.

And now it was possible someone made him act a fool without knowing, and that made him feel sick. Anger was easier to hold onto and use to mask the gross feelings filling his chest at the idea of that as he called out, sharper.

"Is anyone there? Answer me!"

He floated up and spun around over the top of the table, trying to find where anyone could be, if anyone. For a moment Marionette really thought that maybe he just accidently fell into lucid dreaming, when, in the distance, Marionette swore, just for a moment, that he saw a set of round glowing white eyes before-

Marionette felt himself burst out of his box, unsure if it was out of surprise out of waking up after his spook or his own programming fueling his actions as he moved to get out, but it didn't matter as he continued to movement as he floated up and around, looking around for a moment, trying to see if there was anymore floating white eyes that could have been literally any spirit. It took him a minute to realize he was letting out a sharp droning chime as he searched for something that wasn't there.

Only to jump again when a dry voice spoke up from behind him by the door.

"So, did jack want his box back or something?" Spinning around, half ready to jumped, only to stop with a faint embarrassment at the sight of Mike, his eyes half open, a glass of water in his hand, as he stared at the puppet while half leaning against the door way, just watching. Marionette tried to find something to say, but no matter what it was, it felt lacking, it was just a nightmare of all things, he knew there was no one out there that could have gotten in touch with him, everyone was accounted for... probably. He had given a lot of gifts, but everyone that he had knew personally at least, and the idea that a nightmare of all things had that much power over him to freak out this much was just... No.

Mike of course noticed the long stint of silence and instead frowned, asking with a bit more concern visible in his tired voice.

"You doing ok Stripes?... Have a bad dream?" He sounded like he was taking a shot in the dark, but it made the puppet feel like he was the one being hit with the hammer with how on point it was. Mike of course noticed that as well, even tired and half awake, he was incredibly observant, Marionette usually appreciated that about the man, not so much right now, "A nightmare huh? Want to talk about it?"

"Not really" Mike just hummed for a moment, staring in the room at the puppet for a bit to long to be comfortable, Marionette having no idea just what was going on in the other man's mind, before Mike simply shrugged.

"Yeah, alright, you awake for a while or want me to wind you up again?" Marionette let out a soft chime of confusion at the ease at which the topic was dropped, Mike picked up on it and explained simply, "I get not wanting to talk about nightmares Mari, why do you think I'm awake at this godforsaken hour?" Oh...

"I-... Uh, want to talk about it?" It felt awkward but Mike had offered first and if felt wrong to just ignore it, Mike on the other hand just snorted.

"Nah, nothing about it is new enough to need to talk about it" That felt more loaded that the tired man probably meant it to sound like, he realized that after a second and seemed to think about clarifying before giving up on it, instead nodding his head towards the living room and saying, "So, wanna stay up until morning watching reruns of crappy movies or go back to sleep?" Marionette, surprisingly, found his answer coming to him quicker than he thought, not even thinking about going back to his box as he said as he floated to the doorway.

"Sure, as long as I get to pick the movies" Mike just rolled his eyes, but he had a small smile on his face as he said, while turning around to head to the nearest comfortable surface he could fall on.

"Don't push your luck Stripes... We'll trade off the remote" Marionette just let out a soft chime as he followed along, already feeling better as the two found themselves on the same a bit to small couch at an ungodly hour at night, neither caring to much as they half focused on the screen of the tv and the company, but not what had caused them to be on the couch in the first place. It was more relaxing than Marionette had expected.


Fritz admittedly shouldn't have been thinking about it so much, it really wasn't all that important, but his mind kept flicking back to the note. He had written the number down before he had gone back to his house for the night, just wondering what it was about, but not thinking to much about it, at least, not until the witching hour and he couldn't shake the feeling he should do something.

Chances were the number belonged to an old Freddy's employee, and while he wouldn't mind Mike or Jeremy being the one to call it, it felt... Wrong, to not do it himself, that was the main thought that kept him up after he had thought about it. He had been around the longest working under the Fazbear logo, had seen the most of just how horrible the company was and everything horrible that happened during it. And while most employees went missing, that didn't mean there weren't ones that left angry and looking to be able to do something, just unable to with how many lawsuits were ready to be aimed at the whistleblower.

But with Fazbear defuncted, that 'protection' was out and chances were anyone with a grudge still on hand would target it right on Foxy's, protests would be the least of their worries if someone connected the two, or even if they didn't care about connecting, and just tossed all of the bear's garbage onto their clean business. Worse yet, if past things were brought back to life, all three worked at Freddy's, that was more than a connection, without mentioning how Foxy and Marionette both were old Freddy's animatronics. Mike's... history and family.

And if that was the case, then wouldn't it be best if Fritz handled it? He had spent the most time at Freddy's, he could relate the best and could use that to try and get around any issues that could pop up. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense.

It wasn't that he didn't trust the other two to handle it, even if he could admit Jeremy didn't always do well with things from the past being brought up to him, especially ones with bad memories attached which was all that Freddy's held for the man, and that Mike, while great at being able to talk people into doing things, happened to also be... not the best at taking threats without responding with a threat himself, and that wasn't really what they needed right now.

But beyond all of that, it felt like it was something he was, or rather, should be responsible for, something he should do, and so, that's what he did. After a fairly sleepless night of sleep, he got up at an early hour, and made the call, listening to the line drone on and on for a long moment before connecting with a faintly tired sounding man on the other end of the line.

"Uh, hello hello?" Fritz felt his blood freeze.


Mike woke up on the couch, having passed out at some point during the night, with a weird sight to be found. Mari was asleep with him, the two, with their long limbs having managed to get themselves sort of tangled up along with the couch pillows leaned to it being fairly awkward of a situation for most people. As it stood, Mike just blinked the sleep out of his eyes and just watched the puppet for a minute. He hadn't ever seen the puppet sleep really, Mari was always in his box when it happened.

It was kind of... creepy. Not in an fearful way, the idea that Marionette could scare him at all was ridiculous, no, it was just... unsettlingly to see the puppet so still and lifeless when he always saw the animatronic anything but still, always animated and moving about, but now just laying there completely motionless. Mari wasn't human, so his chest didn't move up and down to show breathing, the only thing that showed he was anything but just a lifeless robot was the way he acted and moved.

So yeah, it was unsettlingly to see that missing, even he could feel the faint ticking and whirls that made up the animatronic's internals. If Mike could get his head around it, it was actually a bit like a heartbeat. That thought stayed with him for a while, as he slowly focused more and more of his now fully awake mind to the soft feeling of vibrations of those moving bits of Marionette's body. It was kind of soothing, like a metronome in a way...

He was sure he's thought about it before, but it was true, the mechanic of Marionette fascinated a part of his mind, so did the others, but he had been around and basically involved with every aspect of Foxy and Goldie's refurbishing and being rebuilt, he honestly knew all about them from helping Fritz in the smaller ways he could, but the puppet was a mystery, and Mike always found himself invested in a mystery.

Which was funny given he was sure he knew Mari better than anyone else alive given the fact they lived together, it just meant there was still a ton to learn about the man, and that was... something. Mike wasn't sure what, but it was something. Even if Marionette wasn't at all interested in learning more about himself for the time being, instead living in the moment, and Mike would respect that, it didn't mean he himself wasn't curious and wondering for when the puppet would want to learn so he could be there with him when they looked for answers.

It was just his nature Mike supposed, not much else to it, thought it did make him feel a bit like a bad friend that he knew that a part of his closeness with the other was the fact that he was interested and drawn into the mysteries around the puppet.

His thoughts were interrupted by the faint shifting from the puppet and instead just chose to watch with interest as the puppet's whole body lightly stretch out and seemed to shake for a moment before Mari lifted his head up, looking around quietly for a moment, Mike could practically read the faint confusion on the puppet's unmoving face. Normally he would have already made some kind of comment, but instead found himself staying silent, instead just watching.

Finally a faint low chime came from the puppet before that spiked into a more surprised sound as Mari caught sight of Mike who simply raised an eyebrow and waved. That seemed to get him properly awake as the puppet quickly untangled himself from Mike, one of his long arms had been caught under Mike's body, which Mike himself hadn't realized until Mari moved up to sit up straight, pulling away as Mike shifted to try and get comfortable again as Marionette let out a sharp awkward chime and said.

"Uh, hi!" Mike just continued to smirk, the flustered tone from the puppet was adorable.

"Hello, good morning"

"Right, morning... I was sleeping?" Marionette sounded confused for a moment so Mike just answered the question.

"Yep, out like a light" As he said it, Mike himself moved to stand up, actively stretching and feeling the way his body moved trying to get itself as awake as his mind already was.

"I-.. I don't remember the last time I sleep without my music box!" Marionette went from flustered to quickly being excited, near jubilate really, "What if I don't need it at all!"

Mike hadn't really thought about the idea that Marionette actually required the music box to sleep, none of the others did, he just figured it was quicker and more effective and could bypass Marionette's slight fear with sleeping, but apparently this was a big deal, so he took it as such.

"Maybe, when's the last time you tried to actually go to sleep normally?" The puppet paused, clearly thinking about it, raising a hand to his chin, thinking it over before saying with a faint surprise.

"I don't remember, so I guess I was still alive" Mike just hummed, ignoring the standard gut clench that came at the reminder.

"Sounds about right, you can try and sleep like a real boy then tonight, see if it takes" Marionette seemed pleased with the idea, nodding to himself as he moved off to head back to his room while Mike took a deep breath before shaking off the rest of the sleep trying to stick to his limbs, before heading to the kitchen to get something to eat for his breakfast.

He had only just managed to put something into the microwave while the coffee pot started it's brewing when his phone started to ring from his bedroom upstairs. Mike could barely hear it, but Marionette apparently could, as by the time he had walked out of the kitchen, ready to hurry up to go get the device in hand, he only had made it back into the living room fast enough to watch Marionette float down the stairs towards him with Mike's phone in hand.

Mike simply gave the puppet a thankful look at not having to run around this early, before flipping the phone open to accept the call, staring at the screen just long enough to see who it was that was calling him, before holding up the phone to his ear to say, "Hey Fritz, early morning for you as well?" Mike was a bit confused about the call, but his frankly nice morning mood made him unworried about anything happening.

Of course that's when his mood crashed and burned.

"Mike! Hey, I'm going to give you an address, you need to get over here now" Mike blinked, a frown creasing his face as he heard the faintness and frankly worryingly frantic tone of the man's voice.

"I- Ok? What's happening?" Fritz still sounded shocked, but in the end said with an almost excited note to his voice.

"You know that number that was left at the pizzeria? I called it this morning, I know who it is, just... Get over here, you'll want to meet him" Mike had no idea what the hell was happening, and while he knew he probably should be a bit annoyed about Fritz jumping the gun without telling either him or Jeremy about it from the sounds of things, he instead just let it go and said.

"Alright, just, give me a second to find something to write it with, have you told Jeremy yet?" Mike started to try and look around but thankfully Marionette was a saint and had floated over to the couch to pick up a notepad that was laying there to hand to him with a pen. Mike gave the puppet another thankful smile at their slightly curious looking face at whatever it was about.

"Ah, not yet, you're higher in my contacts, he's who I'm going to call next. I think this'll be a... conversation we all should be there for" Mike raised an eyebrow at that, asking simply.

"Is that a good or bad thing, because if I need to I can bring my attack puppet or the baseball bat if I need to" Marionette now seemed a bit more concerned, though still shot a look at Mike for his description, it helped Mike keep from feeling to tense himself, as he shot a cheeky look to Mari, as he listened to the answer.

"No! Definitely do not bring Mari, and I really doubt you'll need the bat, this isn't some weird gang intimidation tactic thing" Mike chose to not feel to weird about thinking that was a reasonable thing he thought of or that Fritz realized what he was getting at, "The worse you'll get is your ear talked off a bit, just... Expect a heavy conversation" Oh, great.

"My favorite kind, I got a pen and paper, give it to me" They got off the phone soon after as Mike took a moment to shove the microwaved leftovers on a plate while Mari was nice enough to get a thermos out for his coffee as he explained the situation to the puppet before rushing up to his room to get changed into some day appropriate clothing while trying to get as much food in his gut as possible before he was out the door.

Marionette seemed concerned, but Mike just assured him it would be fine, and within the next few minutes he was pulling out of the garage and making his way across town. Of course, that was just because that's how Mike was, he didn't like panicking people, but as it stood, he was more than a little freaked out himself. He hadn't thought much about the letter, mostly to tired to want to bother, but now?

He was going to trust that Fritz knew what he was talking about, but Mike couldn't help but wonder just how horrible all of this could go if something went wrong, the fact that he knew nothing about what was happening just mean that he had a lot of things on his mind that this could possibly be about.

Finally though, after a long minute to searching the road he was suppose to be on, he finally found the house he was suppose to be at. Seeing Fritz's car already in the driveway, Mike pulled up behind it and quickly pulled himself out while looking up at the house itself. It was smaller than his, but that didn't really say much. It was a nice place, much better than what he had been expecting, whatever that was, given he didn't really know himself beyond something vaguely uncomfortable and trashy probably.

Taking a moment to get himself ready for whatever it was about to happen, Mike pulled himself out of the car, looking around the neighborhood for a moment, this was in a nicer part of town, which probably spelled something good, at least he hoped so, as he began to make his way to the door. Knocking on it and having it open soon after as Mike opened his mouth to say something only to have it frozen in his throat as he and the man both stared at each other in equal surprise.

Mike recovered first as he said the first thing that came to his mind.

"I'm pretty sure you died" The man, who wasn't as ghost because Mike knew what those looked like, just stared at Mike for another moment before saying.

"Honestly? I thought you'd be dead by now to, with the, you know, jail thing" Mike just kept staring as the man awkwardly cleared his throat, "Right, well, it's nice to see you again Michael, come in" Mike just blankly followed, shooting out some words as he went while actively forcing his brain to get with the memo and move on already. One would think Mike would be used to working with dead men by now.

"I go by Mike now" The man, Phone Guy, just chuckled, it also sounded awkward.

"Heh, yeah, I had a thought that it might be you when Fritz mentioned a Mike, but I didn't hold out to much hope. It's... weird seeing you again kid" Being called kid felt weird in general, but then again, the man had known him when he had been a young teenager, but Mike didn't point that out, instead saying.

"No, seriously though, how are you alive? Because I was there when I heard your little recording on my fourth night. I heard you get stuffed" Mike had more than a few nightmares about it to, especially after his own experience being pressed into a suit of his own. Phone Guy just sighed, before getting a hint of a smile on his face, looking just the tiniest bit smug.

"It was a bad night, I got... hurt, nearly got stuffed, but I got out, just figured might as well use it to finally get the hell out of Fazbear's clutches for good while I was at it, quitting never did anything, and given they were going to go under again soon enough... Nearly got myself killed doing it, spent the last few months in the hospital, got out in February, to recover from it all, but it was worth it" Mike... just hummed.

"Huh, right, well faking your death can be very effective" Phone Guy raised an eyebrow at that as Mike figured he probably shouldn't clarify any experience he had in doing anything similar. Instead looking around as he found himself in a fairly small kitchen where Fritz was standing, giving him a small slightly tense smile at Mike's raised eyebrow look.

"What about you? I mean, I get the name change, even if I really didn't expect it to be you, but I heard from Fritz you're the one who decided to open Foxy's... Any reason?" That felt... targeted, Mike turned and stared at the man, really looking him over now, studying him.

While he still couldn't remember the man's name, though he was sure it would come back to him eventually, he looked pretty much the same as Mike had known him, just older. He had been a younger man back when they had first known each other, around Mike's current age, back when he himself was barely a teenager, that meant he had to be at least around his early thirties at this point, about a decade older than Mike himself.

Short and cropped brown hair, wearing more formal clothing than anything Mike had ever worn, a sweater vest and some slacks, didn't strike all that imposing of a figure, and given he was only about as tall as Fritz, who while kind of tall wasn't nearly at Mike's height, and was skinnier than the technician didn't help make him look all that dangerous. He wore glasses now, hiding two tired and already lined with stress light brown eyes. He looked... weathered down and aged for not being at all that old, but more than that, he looked sharp and alert, even past the faint trembles that Mike could see in the man's hands, this was a man who survived Freddy's for at least a decade, longer than any of them, and had gotten himself out, even if it meant nearly getting himself killed to do it.

So why bring the crew at Foxy's attention back to him at all? Why give out his number and then invite them into his home when he had escaped everything that had been linked to Freddy's? What was the point of doing that? There wasn't one, not unless he had some motivation that Mike couldn't have known about. And that, that made Mike put himself on edge, even as he actively hid it, instead answering the man's question with a casual ease he didn't feel.

"Figured it was about time something from Freddy's got the chance to do some good as intended, been long enough since the dinner days when things were just there for simple entertainment. Given I had a claim to my fair share of things, I figured it only made sense if I was the one to do it. Fritz helped a lot, Jeremy too if you've heard about him yet, couldn't have done it without them helping every step of the way"

Fritz puffed up a bit at the praise, though he could tell Mike was acting weird, he had already talked to the man for a while, and so kept to himself for the moment, watching the two interact, now paying a bit more attention. Mike just kept his eyes on the man in front of him.

"Yeah? That's good, the place never really got it's magic back after the two owners sold it off the first time around, not even Henry could save the place later, and then he left again" They were dancing around the subject, Mike could see it from a mile away, everyone knew about the robotic elephant in the room but no one was making the step to mention it, not yet. Mike didn't either, instead pressing something a bit more serious.

"And Miller showed up and started taking charge then I'm guessing?" He would never get an answer about Miller from the man himself, so someone who was there when the man showed up would have to do. Phone Guy was there for all of it, he must have known the man. Phone Guy just frowned, more a grimace, at the mention of the name, looking away for a second before saying.

"Right... Miller..." Phone Guy gave Mike a long look before continuing, "He was around, after Henry he just seemed to come out of no where with plenty of ideas, even after the... uh, bite in '87, he managed to keep the company running even without an actual location for a while until they opened up again in '89, used the branding for things and... other projects he already had in the works, we didn't really talk much, I don't recall ever really seeing him much either, but... You kind of resemble him" Mike took that as the insult it no doubt was, and was more than ready to say something incredibly harsh back when Fritz surprisingly broke his silence to say something.

"Me and Jeremy thought the same thing, it was the height more than anything I think" Mike... kept his thoughts on that to himself, and yet conceded the point that there wasn't a lot of people around that were nearly as tall as he was, though he liked to think he had a few more traits beyond tall, but instead forced it to move on as Phone Guy spoke up, seeing the nonreaction on his face.

"I... suppose so... I don't know what the man is doing at the moment though, or why you brought him up" Now that got a grin out of Mike, they had been leading each other to this talk, and he was more than willing to share on this bit of information, see how the man reacted to it would tell Mike more than enough on just if he wanted to even think about keeping this conversation civilized.

"He was the one behind the missing kids. A few months ago, a bit after Freddy's closed, he had a bad night" Mike probably took a bit to much enjoyment out of the reaction he got from the older man. Though he was very pleased to see relief was one of the main ones to be found on the man's expression.

"T-that's... That's, well, I should say good to hear, but..." Mike finished it for him.

"It's good to hear?" That got a small laugh from the man.

"Something like that... I had... suspicions, well, I had suspicions of a lot of people, but he... Something about his interest in the animatronics never felt genuine, like he knew something" There it was, a chance, and Mike pounced on it, Mike felt it was only right to ask.

"And those animatronics, do you happen to know something about them?" Now it was panic that seemed to cross the man's face, he was surprisingly incredibly expressive, probably because he spent most of the time over the phone, never had to really figure out how to handle anything but his voice, and even then Mike could still remember the rambling like calls he got from the man.

"I- uh, well, I mean, what's there to say?" Mike gave a very unimpressed look, that seemed to make the man almost deflate a bit as he finally said what they all knew, "Right, I knew about them, I was the night shift, and I was around when the... incidents happened, but not much more than that, there... there wasn't much I could do to help" Mike frowned now, his face scrunching up at that horrid answer as he felt an old anger quickly and painfully push straight to the surface before he could control it.

"Nothing?" The man shrunk back a bit at the biting tone in Mike's voice, not quite out of fear, people who worked the night shift didn't fear quite as easily as other people, but from something else, Mike didn't care much about what it was, instead continuing on, "I was gone for nearly nine years, and within two months those kids had returned back to themselves and most of them moved on after Miller was taken care of! So don't talk about not being able to do anything to help, there was plenty that anyone who knew could have done!"

Phone Guy was now actively shrinking back from both fear and that other emotion that Mike could see for what it was now, guilt. That just made Mike angrier in all honesty, he could feel his fists balling up, something in the back of his mind itching to do something, but before anything more could happen Fritz had gotten up and moved between the two just as the same time the doorbell rung, signifying Jeremy's arrival.

The room went silent at the sound as Phone Guy half scampered away to answer the door at the great excuse to leave the room while Fritz and Mike were left in the awkward situation that Mike had created... Just... Great.


Holy shit Phone Guy's alive, what the hell?!

Yeah, he's still around, wild isn't it? Weird how his body was never discovered thinking about it isn't it? Almost like this was planned... Eh, probably not.

Look, I could mention a lot about this chapter, cause there is a lot, from Mike's reappearing anger issues which is very interesting when it comes up given how much time the man spends seemingly scared of his own temper, or the very weird dream thing that Marionette went through and the scene that came after it, but first I want to say, holy shit me, I was on some serious pacing for the first half a dozen chapters for Act two. As is my standard, I'm way in the future in terms of how many chapters I have in the back log, which is why I'm so fine with posting twice a week, but the pacing in this early section goes crazy, it slows down into the more day by day stuff that makes up the next few mini-plots, but this first section really just had me tossing everything at the wall. Good on me.

Now for the other things I mentioned... Eh, I'm sure their fine! Nothing to worry about there, ever, so it'll be fine.

But in actually interesting news... Holy shit, time to date this chapter everyone! The Fnaf Movie is out today! Holy heck, I was a freaking child when it was announced, and now I feel old! But, seriously, I'm surprisingly hyped to see what all the movie has in store, but that's for later me to talk about, maybe. Anyways, See ya!