I Don't Own Fnaf
Mike watched with a faint pain still in his body as Browboy's head slowly turned to look at the floating and frankly near glowing puppet, with how bright the pits of white in his mask's eyes were... Yeah, Mari was pissed, Mike was too busy to really consider that right now, instead using the moment of distraction to heft his hands onto the sides of Browboy's own massive ball hands before heaving out an incredible effort just as the puppet shot straight at the oversized animatronic, wires shooting out as he slammed into the thing, the wires wrapping around it's thick neck, using his own momentum to yank hard, nearly pulling the heavy animatronic down to the ground. It was a bit too heavy for that though.
Mike made use of the off even angle and his long legs, finally managed to get himself with his arms free enough to drop an extra inch or two to the ground to be able to kick off of it with every bit of strength he could muster. And down Browboy went, crashing down to the ground with an incredible crash. Mike nearly fell with it, but then Mari was next to him, pulling back and away as Mike stumbled back to his feet as he said with a faint grunt of pain coming through his words.
"You have great timing Net, let's get the hel- Down!" Mike stopped half way through, grabbing onto the puppet and with a yank pulled him away and down as a skee-ball shot past their heads, slamming into the front glass doors, shattering one of them into pieces, sending glass shards flying everywhere. Browboy in the meantime was just laying there, it's body trying to move occasionally only to seem to stop soon after. It... sort of reminded Mike of those robot vacuums when their pathing got messed up.
He didn't think about it, instead moving along with Marionette into the right hallway to dodge another flying fast ball, as he said simply.
"Ballboy, we need to get past him, but I don't think we should be diving through the shattered glass doors" Mike was still holding out hope that he didn't need to go to the hospital just yet, even as he held his side in pain. That seemed to be the wrong thing to do, as Marionette turned to stare at him, his eyes finding where Mike had been nursing his injury, a faint dialing tune breaking through his death music before it returned to pop goes the weasel.
"I'll deal with him" Before Mike could hope to protest, the animatronic flickered out of existence in front of him, as Mike just gritted his teeth before quickly rounding back around the corner just in time to see Marionette appear behind Ballboy, his strings coming back out and shooting forwards and wrapping around the much less heavy animatronic. Mike could only watch with faint amazement as the pitcher robot was lifted easily from the ground before, while attached to the end of Mari's strings, was slammed straight into one of the connected walls, before it too crashed onto the ground in a heap.
Marionette pounced soon after, reaching down, his strings like tendrils reaching in and seemingly breaking through the plastic casing into the machine's internals, and with a sound of a static echo from Ballboy, the machine stopped trying to awkwardly flail on the ground. Browboy in comparison wasn't quite as lucky for a quick end, with how heavy those arms were and with how big they were as well, it seemed that once he was knocked over, there wasn't much of a chance of getting him back up through normal means. As it stood, Mike was pretty sure it would take three of himself to even try.
Looking back, Marionette had stayed above the animatronic for another moment, making sure that it wasn't moving anymore, before quickly turning and floating back to Mike, who tried to give an appeasing look on his face.
"So... Nice night we're having?" Marionette's face still hadn't changed from the pissed look, but after a second it blanked out to his normal default smile as he said with a blank tone.
"Are there anymore?" Mike grimaced, yeah... He was in trouble.
"Two more than I know of, Balloon Girl and DD, the first leads those two around, and DD just seems to make things harder, but doesn't do anything else. There's another one somewhere on the right side, that's where Browboy was bringing me, I don't know for what though, frankly I'm not that interested in figuring it out"
"What? You don't want to risk your life for nothing again?" That made something hit feel like it was being hit into Mike's gut, yeah... He deserved that.
"Look, I'm s-" Marionette turned away and was already heading out of the door.
"Save it Mike... Let's get this over with" And just like that Marionette moved over, floating over to look at Browboy about... something. While for Mike he just stood there frozen, hearing that... It felt like someone had opened the rug out from underneath him, everything felt... off footed, like Mike was about to fall, a pressure building in his chest threatening to explode out in something Mike couldn't allow. After a moment he instead took a long moment before just letting out a defeated huff.
Yeah, there it was, how long was it? A few months? A new record in how long it took for him to fuck up one of the best things in his life because he was a dumbass who did something stupid, once again. God, what the hell was wrong with him? Why did he do this?
Shaking his head, his eye's absently caught the sight of the now simply sitting still Browboy, Marionette had moved a bit off, seemingly content with whatever it was he saw or didn't see and was now waiting for Mike to join him. For a moment Mike wondered if he went over there and just stood still if the thing would be able to swing that hand of it's around hard enough to... He shook his head again, no, just... not tonight. Mike couldn't handle that tonight, or any night. Instead, he glanced one last time at the hallway on the right, knowing there was more than a few things to be revealed still, and chose to focus on that.
"DD is in that room over there, Balloon Girl is somewhere down the hall last time I saw her" Marionette just nodded and moved along, Mike just followed after, feeling horribly like a scolded mutt.
He only stayed back and watched, Marionette had moved over to DD, she played a few lines at the movement, but not much more than that, Marionette just looked her over for a few minutes before moving on. Finding Balloon Girl was harder, but they did find her, half under one of the tables in the break room. Mari did the same thing to her, before moving, as the two headed to the last rooms to see just what the fifth animatronic was. Given that it hadn't... gone anywhere or done anything, Mike was feeling much more safe, Mari helped that feeling as well.
Soon, they found it, in the room that had been marked for BB, was...
"That's just nightmarish" Marionette let out a dull chime, though even that couldn't hide the shock at what he was seeing.
"Wh-who would even make something like this?" Marionette had a hard problem trying to keep himself stern with all the weird and annoying feelings he couldn't categorize right now in his chest, especially with something like this in front of him, Mike wasn't helping.
"Better yet, who would buy it?" Marionette thought about sending a look at Mike, but he just couldn't take his eye away from the thing in front of him.
"I mean... It does look a lot like BB, just... a lot worse" Mike had been fairly accurate with his description, it looked a lot like Balloon Boy, just a bit bigger and a lot wider, looking like an almost twisted version of itself. The hands were much more human-like, with long almost made to be boney fingers, his body was bulkier, his eyes were red and pointed, and then mouth... The entire head was separated at the mouth where Marionette could see rows of sharp pointed metal teeth glinting through where the two halves had been pushed tightly together to try and hide them away from the general audience.
"Yeah, like a nightmare, I wasn't kidding, I'm certain I've seen that thing before somewhere in the darkest of nights, or at least something like it" Marionette could hear the genuine and faint confusion in his friend's voice even as he tried for the joke, and a not so small part of the puppet was concerned about that, but he pushed it off as nothing right now, and instead focused on the subject at hand, they had enough to talk about later as it was.
"Well... Nightmare Balloon Boy then, whatever we call it, was trying to do something right?" Mike just shrugged.
"I don't know, obviously something happened here, murders, but I just know they were trying to get me in this direction, this thing is the only thing I can make sense of it, that this animatronic monstrosity has to have a soul in it" Marionette just felt a frown slowly shift itself over his mask as he leaned in, studying the Nightmare in front of him for a long moment, before saying softly.
"No... He's not possessed, none of them are" Mike let out a sound of disbelief at that.
"That can't be possible, why the hell else would they do this? Unless they were programmed to do something like that, but that's just it's psychotic" Marionette just sighed, feeling something deep in his chest tighten in a familiar old anger.
"Well, do we happen to know anyone who would sell off purposefully dangerous animatronics that have the express purpose of hurting people?" Mike picked up on the hint easily enough, a look settling over his own features, it made him look sharper, more dangerous, Marionette felt something else tighten in his chest, he ignored it in favor of listening to Mike speak.
"I think I'm going to have a lot of questions for Gasper tomorrow morning" The puppet let out a sound of disbelief at that.
"Y-you're kidding right? After what just happened? The place is a mess Mike, and he's no doubt going to suspect you" Mike just said back more calmly than he felt.
"He'll do that anyways, and if I leave town then he's just going to have police knocking on our door before the week is out. I need to get ahead of this and we need some answers here. And this?" Mike gestured ahead at the horrible rendition of the puppet's friend's likeness, "This and the others attacked me, I'm sure he already knew about Freddy's, he worked there after all. I have leverage, and as it stands, I can't just let this rest" The puppet studied Mike's face for a long moment, seeing the steeled determination already settled in, Marionette just sighed.
"You never can, can you?" Mike winced, Marionette noticed, feeling himself feel the need to give a correction in spite of himself, "It's not a bad thing, I admire that about you, I just wish you listened to me sometimes" That last part came out bitterly as he turned in a long spin around to leave the room, deciding the Nightmare Balloon Boy to not be a threat. Mike paused in the room for a second longer, staring at the animatronic for another long moment before following after the puppet, saying softly.
"You know I listen to you Mari, I'm sorry that I left without telling yo-" Marionette spun back around, a faint hissing static coming from his chest as he practically exploded at Mike.
"It's not that you didn't tell me! Mike, you left me alone and then nearly got yourself killed! I could have been there! I could have come with you, if you really insisted, I would have, but instead you chose to go around me for no other reason than just because you could! And I nearly lost you because of it!" That was the real crux of it, while Marionette was a bit miffed about being left alone while Mike sneaked out, he could understand why Mike did it, it was because if something happened then Marionette wouldn't have been there, and he... He couldn't handle that, knowing that there could have been a chance Mike died if he hadn't just happened to wake up.
"I would have been fine, I could have gotten myself out of it. None of this was supposed to happen anyways" It was the dismissal, that clear lack of concern for himself as he tried to sooth the puppet that just made the emotions still bubbling at the surface of the animatronic explode once more.
"I know you can handle yourself Mike! I'm sure you could have figured something out, but that doesn't mean I can't be scared, or that I can't worry about it or you! For all I know you wouldn't have tried!" Marionette froze and so did Mike, the puppet knew he had just crossed a silent line, one of the things they never really addressed and both had been seemingly comfortable with ignoring. But... But he couldn't just leave it alone, he couldn't just back down, not right now, not with how he was feeling, that terror of seeing Mike having the life squeezed out of him still flashing through his mind leaving echoes of horror still to be felt.
"I-... I worry about you Mike, and I just... You want to be here right? You would have fought back?" Mike answered immediately, his eyes though were on the ground, the two were moving still, walking through the quiet night to wherever the man had parked his car. It felt more like a march to the end.
"Of course I would have" Marionette wasn't done though, he knew the man was still holding something back.
"Why? Would you have fought back because you wanted to or because you had to?"
"I think those are the sa-"
"You know what I mean Mike... Please. Would you have tried because you didn't want to die?" The silence was deafening.
"I-... Don't make me answer that Mari" The puppet felt like something was cracking in his chest, like his gears were rusting against each other, the quiet admission was near resounding in the quiet around them.
"W-why not"
"Because... Because I don't know" Marionette was about to ask, even if he was scared to, when Mike had a small explosion himself, his voice coming out harsher, "I- I just don't know, okay? I don't... I don't want to die, I know I don't want that, I want to be here so I can stay with you, to keep talking with my brother, to run the Cove, to know Jeremy and Fritz better, but... I just... Sometimes I don't know if I deserve to want that, and it... It makes it hard to care" That hurt even more somehow as Marionette hesitantly asked for clarity.
"About us?" Mike shook his head, his eyes going wide with disbelief, looking almost like he was smacked, before somehow saying something even worse.
"No, about me" He let out a bitter laugh as the two finally made it to the car, saying with an almost defeated tone, "You want to know the truth Mari? I'm a failure, I've ruined every life I've come across, I've hurt people, not just in my childhood. Until recently I was a bad person Mari, and I just... I know I'm going to fuck this up, some how, some day, this all is just going to crumple around me, and I don't want any one of you to be in the blast radius when it does... It-... It sometimes makes me think it would just be better if I was gone so you all could just handle it yourselves" Marionette let like he was being stabbed, but he said back quickly.
"That's- We can't do this without you Mike! You're not some problem!"
"Yeah right, I stumbled into running a business, but honestly what have I done? Jeremy handles all of the business really, and Fritz handles all the machines, you're in charge of the prize corner, Foxy is the star. I'm a figurehead at best, I make the phone calls but I can't even claim the place itself, it's all my family's stuff, I'm... I'm just the only one left who could use it" They were in the car now, Mike hadn't made a move to turn the car on, instead was just sitting there, staring at the steering wheel.
"That, none of that, is true! None of us would be here without you! Mike, you've done so much, for all of us, I- You're the best thing that's ever happened to me, so please... Don't think like that" It felt like it wasn't enough, but Marionette had no idea what else to say, so instead he just moved over and wrapped his arms around Mike's hunched form, pulling him into a hug. The man tensed for a moment, before a shudder seemed to echo out of his body, slumping into the hug, before after a long moment.
"I- I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said all of that" Marionette just tightened his hold on the man.
"Hush, I want to know things like this dummy. If I don't know then how am I supposed to help?"
"You shouldn't have to, I should be fine" Marionette let out a small disbelieving chime.
"Why? What, you think it's all on you to fix every problem? It isn't Mike, so let me help you with this if you aren't going to talk to anyone else" Mike tensed again before saying quietly, still fruitlessly trying to dismiss the issue.
"It's... Today was just a bad day" Marionette felt something twist up in his chest at the quiet soft admission, like it had been some sort of ashamed secret for the man, as well for not noticing his friend's problem, for be so wrapped up in his own trouble that he didn't notice something he had made a promise to himself to look out for.
"That's fine, everyone can have bad days Mike, just let me know so I can help, that's all I ask. Just let me be there for you instead of running off thinking you can do everything alone" The man was quiet for a lone moment before finally saying
"Alright" Marionette doubted this would be the end of it, but it was better than it had been as he slowly moved away, letting Mike turn the car on, as the two silently drove back to the motel.
By the time that they finally got there, Marionette was suddenly hit with the realization that he had been asleep without his box, but bringing it up right now didn't feel like the right time, instead just hanging around, watching as Mike moved around. It was obvious the man was exhausted, as he without any real second thought moved to the bathroom to change before coming out in more casual clothing to wear for actually sleeping.
Easily slipping into the bed as Marionette stayed awkwardly now hovering about, unsure if he was supposed to get in the other one, to try and go asleep again, instead Mike just said.
"You going to get in?" Marionette glanced back, looking shocked for just a second before realizing Mike had already turned over on the bed and seemingly passed out around the same time his head touched the pillow. He must have been a lot more tired than Marionette had thought even before then... Still... After a moment of hesitation, he moved around quickly to turn out the remaining lights, before slipping into the covers next to Mike before he could think too hard about it.
Marionette found sleeper faster than he thought possible.
The next morning came by with the awkwardness of the conversation of last night. Mike felt like an idiot, but with a weird warmth he couldn't really put a name to finding itself in his chest at the same time, he still wasn't used to people caring after him, it had been a long, long time. But... This wasn't that bad. Certainly not as bad as his mind had made it out to be, and luckily it seemed that the puppet was willing to let the matter rest for the time being, so the two mostly went back to normal, if with that undercurrent of how... heavy the last conversation they had, still being there.
Marionette at least seemed to choose to enjoy the excitement of having another night of sleep coming from a quiet room instead of his music box. It made Mike happy to see that while he got ready to deal with the difficult conversation he no doubt was going to have. He really had torn to all hell up the place he was about to return to. Still, he had a plan, or at least an idea of what he was going to say, and he had a very strong feeling he wouldn't have to worry too much about this coming back to bite him in the ass later on.
It was that in mind along with a surprisingly supportive puppet in his efforts, that Mike found himself in front of the bounce palace once more, a grim look on his face as he looked at the shattered front door, but... At least there weren't any cops around, he was a bit out of the way, but it would be his luck if one was here, especially one that might happen to remember him from the not too distant past.
Heading inside, the first thing he saw was the receptionist lady and Gasper arguing about something, while nearby was Browboy, hooked up to what looked like a weird long dolly, probably to move him back to wherever on the catwalk the monstrosity was supposed to have been. Remembering how the thing nearly could have fallen straight on him wasn't going to be one of his favorite memories, but as it stood, it really could have been worse.
Moving closer, he listened to the tail end of the conversation before he was quickly obviously spotted. To summarize, Receptionist Lady was pissed because apparently it looked like the animatronics were at it again and she swore she would quit if that wasn't fixed. Gasper had an easy smile on his face that looked to Mike clearly awkward and forced, but seemed to be doing his best to calm the tension. Of course that's when he noticed Mike, who just raised an eyebrow, and paled out impressively quickly, smile now long gone.
"Ah, excuse me Maria, I need to talk to Mike over here" The lady, Maria, snapped her head over, and Mike watched with faint confusion at how she turned more red than white, probably just embarrassed about someone seeing her have a spat with her boss. Still, he just continued to stare blankly at Gasper as the man approached and said.
"I'm pretty sure we need to have a talk" The man gulped, but nodded quickly.
"Uh, right, please, follow me back to my office, it's a bit... less sound proof than before, but it should work out fine" It wasn't like there were many other people to overhear what they would be talking about, massive hole through the door or not. Following after, Mike glanced around for a moment, just at the sight of everything, before moving forward, something in his chest tightening as he got ready to do this. It had been a while since he had to do a shake down.
The second they were in the office he started, before the man even had a chance to sit down.
"I need a few things answered" Gasper paused, his hands tensing momentarily, before saying with a faint level of resigned tiredness to his still almost jovial tone.
"Of course! What do you want to know?"
"You know what I want. I was nearly killed last night, and I'd very much like to know why given I was under the impression this place wasn't like Freddy's" Gasper's hands tightened around the back of his office chair, his teeth gritting, before finally the smile fell as he said.
"Fine. I know... You want answers or should we just skip straight to the bribe? Because if you think you're getting much out of me after the repairs that I-" Mike cut the man off.
"I don't want your money, I just need answers, like who the hell made those machines do that? I know this isn't like Freddy's situation, no one has died here right?" That made the man tense, looking at Mike with wide eyes before saying with a curse.
"You-... Fine, I didn't choose that, I didn't want those damn machines to freak out like that, it wasn't supposed to happen, but it's... It's been like that since I rebranded with that old Balloon Boy, I asked for some help, and the Freddy's I got the thing from sent out a man to help out with getting it set up and he asked if I wanted to get the others at the same time tuned up... Everything since has been like that... But once Balloon Boy stopped working, the others seemed fine, but then I had to replace him and... Got that thing" Mike knew he was talking about Nightmare Balloon Boy, the thing still was in the back of Mike's own mind.
"And it started again?" Gasper shrugged.
"Yeah, yeah, I managed to keep everything safe, no one was interested in breaking in, and as long as no one was in the building by midnight nothing happened, but... Well, here we are" Mike just frowned, leaning back for a moment before asking.
"Who did it? Who sold you the old Balloon Boy, and who came out to mess with the animatronics? What did he look like?" The man shrugged.
"Some owner or stockholder, I think he was trying to get a buck off some of the less popular animatronics, it wasn't the first time Freddy's did that. And the guy? I don't know, he had one of those faces that you just can't remember, it was all a blur trying to remember anything really, beyond, well, he was really tall, about as tall as you actually" Mike felt his hands ball up into fists for a moment, because that was all the confirmation that he needed, it was him. Purple Guy had been here.
"What about the Nightmare Balloon Boy?" The man blinked before seemingly without wanting to huffing at the name given to the animatronic.
"It's not called that, but it's about as accurate a title I've heard for it... Some reseller that apparently got it a few years ago from some robotics company that used to do work for Freddy's, I don't know, I might have their number somewhere, but it won't get you much, I hear the company they got it from went under a while back" Great, well that was another dead end... Finally he asked.
"So, no kids died here, and the animatronics are safe as long as no one is here?" The man nodded, as Mike took a long moment before saying.
"Right, well that clears you of most of my issues, but there is still one thing left... How the hell did you know where I lived to drop off that business card?" The man blinked at that, seemingly confused at the question, before saying.
"What? I never left a card at your house? I left it on the door of Pirate's Cove" Mike felt like cold water was doused over his head at the clear and honest admission.
"You... You're not lying are you" The man shook his head.
"No, of course not, I have no idea where you live, but Foxy's is in the phone book, it was easy to find that address" Mike felt vaguely sick as he nodded absently as he thought that over. Who knew where he lived? A few people, all of which knew he was the owner of Pirate's Cove, but none of which would have done that without just telling him, Fritz and Jeremy both had been confused about it after all, so he knew they hadn't had known so... Who..?
"Right, well... I think we've said all we can say then" The man sighed, looking relieved before a grimace came on his face.
"Right, uh, you aren't going to be telling anyone about the... wandering issue right? This isn't something where you're trying to make me up-sell how much I give you?" Mike just rolled his eyes.
"I don't blackmail people" Anymore, Mike didn't blackmail people anymore… If he could help it. Still, the tension went out of the man's shoulders, as he nodded quickly.
"Right, well, good talk, if you ever want to revisit our deal then feel free to ca-" Mike was already walking out of the door at that point.
His thoughts swarming over what he had been told, while lightly scolding himself for not getting those cameras installed outside of his house like he had thought about so long ago now. But as it stood... It was fine, this was fine, he and Mari would just have to keep an eye out in the future, be more careful, but it was fine, Mike could also look over the footage at the Cove to make sure that Gasper was telling the truth, and moreover, if he was lucky, see who had taken the card to put at his house, because that place actually did have cameras. Beyond that...
As annoyed as he was to admit it, there wasn't anything he could do, unless someone just happened to see something, and his neighbors that were nearby would have no reason to have an eye out, then there was basically not a chance he'd be able to learn anything. But the idea some person had been creeping around made him feel sick. If they were after trouble though, well, Mike was willing to give it to them, he didn't take well to being threatened.
Then there was the whole case with Miller, the man, even long gone now, was still causing issues. And worse yet, it was in a way Mike had never thought about. He figured if anything, the man would have only stuck to Freddy's, doing everything there, but... But if anything, this proved that the man could have been anywhere over the last few years. The murders happened in '84, it had been eight years since then, that was eight years the man could have been active, he only 'settled' into a powerful role at Freddy's in the last two years of his horrible life to Mike's knowledge, but before then? He could have gone anywhere in and around the state of Utah or beyond for all Mike knew, doing whatever the hell he wanted.
That left a horrible taste in the back of his mouth, as he arrived back to the motel, explaining everything to an understandably concerned puppet, who looked disturbed at the idea that anyone had been around their home without them noticing, as well as the news that Miller had been more busy than either of them had thought of. It made the car ride more quiet than Mike was comfortable with, but soon enough the quiet just became the norm, as it was a long drive.
Marionette spent most of it peeking above the windows for portions or just sitting like a normal person during the long stretches of clear roads, just watching the world pass by. Mike couldn't even hope to drag up the same level of interest in the scenery, it was just a bunch of nothing to him, things that moved by as he drove, but at least there was something for them both for their minds to be occupied with. Even if Mike's was mostly just the unfiltered boredom that came with a several hour car ride that nothing happening could hope to beat back.
Eventually though they returned back in Hurricane as Mike quickly brought them to the pizzeria, parking behind it, they would be about half an hour late to work, but it was better than not showing up at all. Mike himself pausing just for a moment, realizing he didn't have his mask on him or even his uniform, in the time that Mari had vanished in, to go to his box. After a second, he made the decision that he wouldn't need it, he was going in through the back which he could get to the kitchen from without too much issue. And if he had to, he could kick someone out with a guard patch.
Heading into the kitchen was simple... Seeing Jeremy running around like a chicken with its head cut off was a bit less simple, but frankly it was more amusing than anything as he called out to the man who was moving back and forth between the oven and island in the kitchen.
"You need some help?" Jeremy just said over his shoulder, having apparently noticed Mike, his shoulders sagging a bit in a temporary relief.
"Yes, please, I have no idea how you handle this. We have some big family that decided to come in for lunch"
"That doesn't sound too bad" Jeremy grimaced, before tossing Mike an apron, which he caught and slid on easily enough, gritting his teeth a bit in pain when he tied the thing off behind him, his sides were bruising pretty bad and he hadn't moved much sense, being in a car and all, so now he was really feeling it.
"It wouldn't be, but it's their whole family. They're already taking up three tables" Mike let out a whistle, moving a bit quicker over to get to work, grabbing a look at the order ticket before moving around to see what was already done while getting to work on the sides that had been ordered.
"Well, let's get to it then" Jeremy looked grateful before pausing for a moment, giving a glance at Mike, before asking as he got back to work.
"What ended up happening at that BB place?" Mike grimaced, and noted the way Jeremy tensed, obviously picking up on his mood, so he forced himself to clear his mind, and said.
"Nothing great, but it's not haunted at least. We can talk more about it after closing" Jeremy nodded, seemingly relieved about that but still somewhat worried as he asked after a moment.
"Should I at least be worried we're getting a new cast member?" Mike shook his head.
"Nah" That reminded Mike of something else he needed to talk to the others about, but for right now he just noted the way the mild tension released from Jeremy's shoulders.
"Oh, good, BB was creepy" That got a laugh out of Mike, as he said with a faint amusement.
"Heh, no need to tell me that, just wait until you hear about his extended family" Mike left it at that, as the two quickly moved to get everything sorted out in the kitchen. It was a busy day, but in the end, everything turned out fine, Mike did apparently need to be caught up on something. Apparently Janet showed up at some point, asked about Mike given he was the only one she knew, but Fritz ended up being the one to talk to her for a while, apparently they got along.
Jeremy looked a bit amused about the whole thing, and while Fritz tried to downplay it, Mike could see he was pretty happy to get to know the woman, so that was a thing. He didn't push it though, instead, once the doors were closed, Mike found himself explaining everything that ended up happening at the Bounce Palace to Fritz, Jeremy, and Foxy, with Marionette around to add in his own expertise, at least to clarify for certain that the bots there hadn't been haunted.
Foxy didn't have much of a reaction to the news, just claimed the place was a hack and that he was glad they were ok. The other two were a bit more concerned directly about Mike, but he just waved it off, before getting into something else, something that would be a bit harder to talk about with the animatronic company present.
"This might be a harder thing to talk about though, uh, Gasper said something. We know that BB moved on it seems once Purple Guy died, but when he did, it was like doing so burnt out the things programming him, the animatronic he was held in just didn't function anymore, at all. Gasper ended up selling it to someone, a collector apparently, but if that's the case..." Fritz caught on first.
"Then even if I repaired the toys, or even the other three original animatronics, there's a good chance nothing would come of it" Mike nodded.
"I don't know the science or magic or whatever behind it, but once the souls are gone the bots just become unresponsive without something there to pilot it anymore, so we probably won't be having any of the uninhabited animatronics we have around helping out any time soon" Fritz just shrugged.
"I think I can live with that, this place has been a nightmare recently, the arcade machines are being a pain and I think I need to look over the breaker box at some point, I think something with the fuses are messed up because some of the lights keep burning themselves out way to fast, and the surges might be what's causing the machine issues" Jeremy mentioned something next.
"We weren't really sure we could use most of them anyways, so we'll be fine, though some extra help would be nice, the three of us were swamped today, it was hard to run the floor even with Foxy and Mari keeping most of the kids distracted. It nearly got pretty rowdy as well" Mike nodded at that.
"I think we need to get a proper cook at some point, someone who doesn't have to play multiple roles, I can handle it for the time being, but it took both me and Jeremy to keep up during the rush this afternoon, I also need to be on the main floor as well to make sure people know someone's keeping an eye out, and it'll give us another person to run the orders constantly as well" The two men nodded, before Fritz said a bit darkly.
"Now we only need to find someone willing to work in a haunted restaurant" Mike managed to put on a shrug as he said.
"I don't suppose you have those old Freddy's NDAs around do you?" Fritz gave an unimpressed look, before his head tilted to the side.
"I might actually..." Jeremy put a foot down at that, giving them both a look.
"We're not doing that, we can find a cook and it's not like they need to be here nearly as much as we are, Mari and Foxy don't break character during work hours so as long as we're careful then it should be fine" Yeah, that was fine. Mike glanced over at the two animatronics and asked.
"What about you two, any thoughts?" Foxy said first, casually with a wave of his hook.
"Havin' more hands on deck around t' help out would be good as long as they don't catch onto th' happenings' here" Mike nodded before looking at the slightly fidgety puppet, he was pretty sure that he already knew Mari thoughts on the matter, but still. Finally though, the puppet said.
"I- I think it'll be a while before we need that for sure, but it's going to have to be with someone we trust" Mike instantly followed that up, using the momentum while trying to not be too surprised about the change.
"Then I suppose we should get on the lookout then, unless either of you know anyone already?" Both Fritz and Jeremy shook their heads.
"No, do you know anyone?" Mike normally would have felt the urge to laugh at the idea of him even thinking about trusting any of his old 'friends' enough to even know that Pirate's Cove even existed, much less hiring them. As it stood, he just shook his head, as Fritz continued on, saying mostly to Mari, "Then I guess we'll have plenty of time to get to find someone then who passes our requirements" Just another thing to work towards, as it was, Mike ended the conversation there by heading back to the back room turned back office to look over the security footage from a few days ago.
He had some tapes to get through.
Oof, heavy chapter, Mike's still struggling, but he's beginning to let other people actually in enough that they could maybe help him, to the point he's even actively opened up and talked about his issues and insecurities with someone, which is pretty good progress. This is the arc for character healing after all, and we're somewhere between a third and half way through it already, so we should have gotten some progress in somewhere right? I honestly thought about making the fight between Mike and Mari a lot more explosive and the two being pissed off at each other, but... It just felt wrong, I could have done that, but it just didn't feel like it would be genuine to their characters, and if there is anything I want to show off the power of in these chapters, it's the power of communicating with the people you're close to. It can help a fuck ton people, and should just be done more. And as it stands, them just being angry at each other for being protective and worried for each other is just... dumb. That's some poorly written drama show kind of stuff instead of reality where they're just be concerned and worried before trying to move on the next day like any sane people would.
Beyond that boring stuff, like emotions, cause, blah am I right? Nightmare Balloon Boy? What the hell is he doing there? Kind of weird not going to lie, but I'm sure nothing to be worried about is there, or the fact that Davy boy apparently might have been a bit more... active than anyone thought up until now. The man, or at least his influence, seems to always come back. Weird how that happens huh? Anyways, there was enough boring foreshadowing and plot set up here that I don't need to get into, so, See ya.
