I Don't Own Fnaf
The Cove was awful, the second that Mike had walked in, he had nearly turned right back around and walked out, but he couldn't, he was the owner, he was the boss, he was the one who started this, and he was the one who didn't have a choice but to be strong here. So he kept walking, he kept his head up, and he made himself look over the sight of destruction before him, as the others followed suit.
The arcade cabinets had almost all been either smashed or dented up, the tables had been tossed around, and even from here he could see where a number of the legs of them had been broken, one of the speakers that had been hung up on the side of the walls had been torn down. The curtains on the stage had also been ripped down and looked half shredded. Along with what looked like half a dozen other things that had been beaten on in some form. Not to mention at the front of the building, where there was a large open window to be able to look inside, which had even had a stencil of the Foxy's Cove logo, had been completely shattered, leaving dozens of shards of glass on the ground.
The fox to his side let out a pained whining sound at the sight of it all as he moved forwards, his eyepatch flicking up, so he could see the destruction with both eyes, his face twisting up as much as it could with anguish. Mike knew just how the fox was feeling, it was like someone had taken a knife to his side, hell even that wasn't quite as painful as to see what was in front of him. But he couldn't quite find the words himself to try and comfort the animatronic, not right now when he was to busy trying to keep himself controlled.
It was easier than he thought it would be, but then again, Mike was at his best in a crisis, and this was no expectation, as he listened to the sound of Jeremy moving to consul the fox as Mike turned to look at Fritz, the man was just grimacing at the sight of it all, but noticed his glance soon enough, as he said.
"This is going to take more than a week" Mike sighed, but nodded, he figured as much.
"Yeah... How much of this is a lost cause?" Fritz shrugged, taking another look around, the longer he did, the worst the expression on his face grew.
"More than we can afford... We'll have to take out at least a third of the arcade machines, I could fix them, but that's hours if not days for each and we just don't have the time. It'd be faster to just switch them out with a few of the not as good ones at the warehouse. I can get the dents out of some of them though, but the ones with the broken screens, those are lost causes unless we want to send them somewhere for proper replacements. The speakers might be fine, but I'll have to look them over and see if it's just that one that's broken, the rest... We'll need to replace"
Mike nodded, but it felt like a punch to the gut. That was a lot, most of the tables would have to be replaced, who knew how many chairs, and the idea of having to buy arcade machines to make up for the difference they no doubt would have by the end of this... Not even considering the other things that had been broken, like the window which they would have to call someone out to be able to replace. This wasn't going to be nice or easy.
They had a fair amount of money in the business account that they had been saving up for a cargo van, but it was clear that most, if not all of it would be going to repairing the place. It was a harsh step back, and knowing that they would have to close their doors for at least the two weeks Mike had predicted didn't make anyone feel much better. Saying finally back to Fritz.
"Right, well... Let's get the place cleaned up, move the things we know we're going to have to toss out in the back alley to deal with later, maybe we can sell the tables and machines for scraps or something. We can worry about the rest once we know what we can't just take from the warehouse to replace" Fritz just nodded as he made his way to the supply closet where they had taken to store the cleaning supplies, in this case, they had a lot of sweeping to do.
Still, with that he turned to look over at the one person that hadn't done anything quite yet, Marionette, who was still just standing there, staring ahead at the wreckage, as Mike felt the constant frown on his face shift into one more of concern than dread, as he moved over, reaching up as he placed a hand on the puppet's shoulder, getting his attention, as he asked.
"Hey, are you alright?" Marionette's form slightly shook and Mike was sure he was barely holding himself together, but still managed to answer despite any kind of obvious break down.
"I- I should have been able to stop this" Mike wasn't sure just what that meant, but he did know it was clear that Mari was trying to for some reason place this on himself, as Mike moved just a bit to be taking up the puppet's line of sight as he asked.
"And how would you have managed that?"
"I- he was trying to get in contact with me, he spent months trying to speak to me. If I just understood then-" Mike just shook his head, interrupting the puppet as he spoke in a comforting, but still stern manner.
"No, this isn't on you, I didn't notice anything either, and I had all the clues right in front of me. We couldn't have known, and Bonnie didn't seem all that interested in letting us in on his thought process, so no blaming yourself alright?"
"But-"
"But nothing, come on Mari, we're all fine, it's just a building, we can fix the place up good as new soon enough, no need to place this on yourself" Mari still seemed to struggle over something, but in the end just gave up on whatever it was, and instead just moved in for a quick hug, pulling back before Mike himself could be able to give the hug back, but it did seem to help, as the puppet said lightly.
"You're brother was right. You're way too nice" Mike just huffed, his face felt like it was heating up just a bit at the unique compliment, no one exactly thought he was the nice type and now he had heard it twice today.
"I have no idea where you all get that idea from" Mari just let out a small chime of amusement at the almost bashful look on Mike's face, before it faded back as he got a small, apprehensive look on his face, before that shifted into something else, determination. Before Mike could question it, the puppet was already speaking.
"Hey, in a while, could we... Could we talk about something?" Mike paused for a moment, before just nodding, a bit confused at the idea that they had to schedule a conversation, which did make something in the back of his mind tense up just a tad, but he wasn't worried.
"Sure, what about?" Mari didn't say anything for a long moment, before just shrugging.
"Uh, you know, just... Something" He sounded nervous, but Mike didn't get the impression it was something to do with the situation here, so he let it drop without any more questions, though it did make him remember his plan that had gotten sorely interrupted... Hmm, maybe he could still get something worked out before tonight, if anyone deserved it right now, Mari most certainly did.
Yeah, that sounded good, now he just had to figure out a new way to get to what he was wanting to achieve... His eyes glanced around the Cove for a short moment, before catching back onto one of the few broken things that he had noticed when he first walked in... Hmm.
"Alright, ominous, but sure, we can talk in this vaguely determined future about 'something'. For right now though, could you go get Jeremy and start on sweeping the glass up, while I grab Fritz and Foxy and start moving the broken machines out?" The puppet seemed to find that a good enough idea he just nodded, clearly still fidgeting a bit over... something, as he moved over to take the two brooms that Fritz had managed to get from the supply closest, before floating over towards Jeremy, as Mike himself moved to the slightly older man.
Perhaps this wasn't the best time for it, but Mike... Mike really needed some kind of win today, and he'd be damned if he didn't get it.
From there the next few hours weren't the most fun, but they were at least pretty effective in getting at least the basics done. The glass and all the broken off smaller pieces had been picked up and tossed into the dumpster out back, and they had moved all the broken machines into a corner where they could be moved back out to the warehouse where they could then be dealt with for later. he had also gotten Fritz to look over the speaker that had been knocked down and thankfully it was in a good enough condition to set back up. It might not work perfectly anymore, and they'd definitely need to replace it later, but for right now it was good enough to function.
Beyond that, he and Jeremy also managed to get a big enough plywood board that could cover the busted up window. As well as Mike had managed to make a quick new sign on poster paper saying that they were closed for the next two weeks, just, you know, with enough flair and cartoonish images that it fit with the business branding. He just had to hope that people would remember about the place after such a long break in business. It felt like all the momentum that they had built up over the last few weeks had come to a screeching halt.
But he kept his worries to himself and instead just kept at it, by the end of the day he was beyond exhausted, as everyone around him all were in much the same boat, but it wasn't quite over just yet, even as Jeremy was tossed Mike's own keys to get Foxy back to the warehouse, where Evan had stayed behind just in case Bonnie happened to turn himself back on, given no one was quite comfortable with Foxy staying here alone at the moment with one of the windows busted.
Fritz would be going with them, in his own car, with a certain pink fox in the trunk car, so they could get Mangle out of the Cove as soon as possible, given it was clear being around it was still having an affect on Jeremy, shocking the literal hell out of it or not. Which left Mike and Marionette alone in the building, simply waiting for Jeremy to finish the drop off so he could take them back to their own home and Jeremy could get his own car back from their driveway.
They probably had at most about half an hour, which was more than enough time for Mike, as he glanced over to Mari who was going around and making sure nothing had been missed, the puppet was a bit of a neat freak, so that on top of everything probably had lead to the clear stress on Mari's shoulders as he moved about in his version of pacing. With that in mind, Mike slowly got up before moving his way into the office, where a number of the sound controls had been set up. Fritz had looked like he thought Mike was an idiot when he told the man his plan, but to give the man credit, he clearly seemed to realize that the man and puppet both could probably use this, so he didn't say anything else, which Mike appreciated.
With that he found himself looking over the options of the music player, unsure really what he was supposed to pick, and frankly not recognizing most of the names of the music listed, before deciding that he didn't really care that much, as he clicked on one. Thankfully his guess wasn't an awful choice, as a slower more classical tune began to play out, something Mike wouldn't be too surprised to hear on a ballroom episode of one of his dramas. It wasn't exactly his preferred type of music, but it was one that would work out perfectly for what he had in mind.
Quickly moving out from the office, he managed to spy Mari before the puppet saw him, as the animatronic was too busy looking up at the speakers in confusion at them suddenly playing, as he just managed a proper smile for the first time today, as he called out to the puppet.
"Hey" Whirling around, Mari's confusion was on clear display as Mike just slowly moved over, until he was in the suddenly big opening in the main room, where the tables had been placed before today, as he just held out a hand and said, "I wanted to do this at home, set up something a bit nicer, but... I think this is a good enough time to prove I can get you to dance" The puppet let out a sharp warbling sound of surprise, as his face moved into one that was clearly surprised and not a little bit flustered. Mike's smile became much more genuine at the sight, as he said softly, "So?"
Marionette just slowly drifted forwards, staring at the man who had an easy and open smile on his face, his chest feeling like it was about to explode with how warm he was feeling, as he reached out and took the man's hand into his own and nodded, "I-... I'd love to" It felt like his mask was going to crack with how wide a smile he had on, as Mike's expression melted into a smile so warm that for a moment, in that instant, as Mike took him into his arms, and they began to move, Marionette forgot the day they just had, forgot his fears, forgot everything, besides this moment.
Jeremy was right, he would have to tell Mike, because there was no way Marionette was ever going to stop loving this man.
Jeremy felt like death itself warmed over by the next day, even then he pulled himself up by his bootstraps, and managed to get to the Cove anyways, while no one had been expecting the Cove to be destroyed, that didn't mean he had the excuse to sit down and just do nothing. At the very least that was his plan, mostly just falling in a corner with a chair and some papers he could at least get some of the paperwork done for being able to order a new window... along with figuring out who you called to get a new window.
But now that he was here, and getting a set of four matching looks of concern, he might have underestimated just how bad he looked and how much his friends wouldn't just go with his idea of getting some more work done.
He wasn't sure just how it happened to be honest, but one moment he was trying to convince them he was fine, the next he was being sat down and fussed over. It was... honestly it was pretty embarrassing, but once he was sitting down, suddenly the idea of standing didn't feel that great of an idea anymore. Still, he managed to croak out just why he was suddenly several shades paler than normal, lightly green, and already sweating through his clothes to his friends before they panicked too much harder and called an ambulance for him.
Needless to say he got a not so pleased look from the group at that, Marionette was fussing the entire time, Fritz looked like he had no idea what to do, and Mike looked ready to give him a stern talking to about taking care of himself before sending him to bed. Foxy was the only one that wasn't that worried, even if he was a bit too loud about complimenting Jeremy on sticking through the sickness to help rebuild the ship.
It goes without saying that Foxy quickly changed his tune from a shared look from both the puppet and Mike.
Admittedly Jeremy kind of zoned out through a portion of whatever was being said around him at that point, but he was very confused and just a bit embarrassed when he was lifted up like he weighed nothing by Mike and moved out to Fritz's car. He tried to protest, mostly because it was more than a little humiliating, but the overwhelming and confusing protectiveness he was feeling roll off the man he was being moved by and the worry being washed over by the others made him keep his mouth shut for a reason he couldn't quite quantify in that moment with his mind being a lot like soup.
From there he wasn't really sure what was happening around him, he realized that he was being moved again at some point, but it seemed that he had underestimated just how bad he would be hit in his rush to be able to help out. Given the next... however long a time had passed, that just nailed the point home as he drifted out from the uncomfortable sweat sticking his clothes to his skin, to the uncertain ability to tell just what was happening around him, as when he managed to creak his eyes open, all he could see was swirling colors that made him close his eyes soon after.
He felt beyond awful, and it only got worse, but thankfully at some point he slipped into unconsciousness, getting a break from the aching that filled out through his entire body with every faint breath he managed to get out.
Of course it couldn't last, but when he awoke the next time, thankfully he was more aware of himself, even if it was hard and not really worth the effort, he did manage to lift his head, feeling the faint shaking of his body, the seeping chill that radiated out of his body as he shook, his eyes moving around to look at the bedroom he was placed in. He didn't recognize it.
Though before he could start to panic or anything, he managed to spot a nearby picture frame, resting on the bedside table, where two similar looking men stood side by side. Squinting, Jeremy managed to press himself closer to it, though not really able to make out to many details, given he didn't have his glasses on him, something he noticed where resting on the table as well, though the idea of sticking his arms out of the covered and layers of blankets he was wrapped up in was one he didn't think was worth it.
Still, it was good enough to recognize Fritz in the picture frame, and after a long moment of his mind just being unable to connect the dots together, he managed to put together that the other person in the frame was Fritz's brother, Jeremy had been told about the man once or twice, he couldn't remember much about the man, unsure if he had even been told his name, but Jeremy didn't think to much about it.
Mystery solved, he just rolled back properly into the bed, and just closed his eyes before the spinning in his vision made him need to get up to find wherever the bathroom in Fritz's apartment was. Instead he just accepted the strange, not new, feeling of being taken care of, just this time, not by family who were obligated to help, instead by his friends. It was a nice thought, one that if he wasn't shaking from feeling like he was being doused in ice, would have made him feel warm.
As it stood, he mournfully wondered just how many more blankets he could get added as he continued to shiver and shake, already wanting to pass out again.
"Hey Charlie, thanks for doing this" The young adult just shrugged, as Mike moved past her into the house he had asked if he would look around in.
"It's no trouble, just... If you don't mind me asking, why do you need dad's notes?"
"Needs must, we got an old animatronic, but it needs a lot of work to get back up and running. I found a file on the blueprints, but..." Charlie filled in the gap.
"They weren't great?" Mike shrugged, that was one way of putting it.
"More like just want to fact check them" The fact that they were blueprints that Miller had used, who knew just what was on them that differed from the originals, it had been years since Fritz had worked on them, and while he could probably do the work from scratch, it was easier to just have the original designs to use and then they could compare them to the ones they had to see if anything else was wrong or needed to be removed. At least that was what Fritz had told him, so...
"Makes sense, uh, small thing though. I haven't really... gone through his office, the door is locked and I don't have the key so..." Mike just waved her off.
"Don't worry, I can get in" Now Charlie looked a fair bit concerned, as she asked in a joking matter.
"Mind telling me how? I think I'm going to have to ask you to not if you're planning on kicking the door down" That got a laugh out of the man as he just shook his head as the two made it to the door in question. It was very much an indoor home's door with a standard lock on it. Mike simply said to the woman while casually reaching into his pocket.
"You know most locks aren't actually designed to keep anyone out? They mostly just exist as a measure to keep people from trying or thinking getting through it isn't worth the effort. Most padlocks for example if you hit them hard enough at the right angle just pop open if you're pulling on the latch when you do so" As he spoke, he had pulled out a Pirate's Cove business card, and moved it into the groove of the door, jimmying it around for a few seconds while pressing himself into the door until with a faint click, the door was pushed open, as he reached his hand around to unlock the door from the inside.
"Well, thanks for that, now I feel incredibly unsafe" Mike just gave a small laugh at that as he said to the dry toned Charlie.
"Yeah, no problem, I wouldn't worry though, this is hardly the most crime riddled area. You got nothing to worry about, and if you do... Well, that's what the police is for" It felt a bit hypocritical for Mike to be telling someone to rely on the police, given... everything about the last decade of his life, but that's besides the point.
So with that the two walked into the office, as Mike just looked around for a moment, he hadn't ever been allowed in here the few times that he and his siblings had come over to visit the Emily family. It was a fairly standard office, a desk with some loose papers on it that had collected probably a few years worth of dust on them, a file cabinet in the corner, and a second desk against the sidewall which had a number of parts and tools on it, clearly a tinkering station that would no doubt have it's drawers filled with bits and bobs of tools and parts.
Moving over to the desk, Mike however found himself pausing before looking over the papers, instead focusing on a small picture frame that was on the desk, also covered with dust as he reached down and picked it up. Brushing his thumb over it to clean the center of the picture as he just looked at it. It was a simple picture of Charlie and her family, all sitting around, all wearing matching outfits, Christmas jumpers... He quietly just moved the picture over to Charlie who picked it up and just stared at it for a moment, her face gaining a mournful look to it that Mike was all too familiar with.
He didn't say anything, and neither did she, they both knew there wasn't anything that could be said, and so they just gave the moment the silence it deserved, before Charlie simply put the picture back down, probably with the plans of keeping it there until she found a place for it, as with a faint cough, she asked.
"R-right, what animatronic did you need?" Mike was worried for her for a moment, before deciding she was doing the same thing he did when he didn't want to think about something, she was searching for a distraction, and he could give her that.
"Toy Bonnie" She nodded before moving over to the desk to look through it, while Mike decided to move to investigate the cabinet. Opening it up and looking through it for a long moment, the thing wasn't quite as well organized as the ones he was used to looking through, but not quite as bad as the mess that some that he had gotten from the old Freddy's had been. Still, after a long moment of looking Mike found himself pausing as he pulled out a file for what seemed like an endoskeleton construction memo.
A memo with a familiar logo in the corner of it, the sight of the letters AR surrounded by gears... Checking the date, Mike frowned, the memo was dated for the middle of '86. Moving through it for another long moment, he asked over his shoulder.
"Hey Charlie, you said your dad carried out the designs right? For the Toy Animatronics?"
"Uh, yeah? The toy versions of the original four at least, why?"
"Was he the one who made them?"
"I... Believe so, just those four, he kept it mostly to himself, but yeah" Mike continued to frown, as he opened up another drawer as Charlie asked, "Any reason why you're asking?"
"Well, I'm seeing a lot of Afton Robotics files here"
"Wait what? What's that?"
"Don't remember? It was my dad's company, sort of, it was just a thing on paper for tax deductions, at least I thought so, but..." But he was seeing this symbol a lot over the last few months, to the point he had begun to simply just tune it out, figuring that Fazbear Entertainment had just used it as a shell company or something to seem bigger than they actually where, but he was now pulling out memo after memo of orders to this company like it was a real thing. Charlie moved up to see what he was looking at as she said with some clear confusion.
"But if it was just on paper, why send reports to a secondary location to have parts be made?"
"Exactly... Unless there was an actual off sight operation... Thoughts for later and questions for someone else, don't worry about" Charlie didn't seem all that pleased with Mike suddenly basically just shutting down the topic, but didn't do much more beyond giving him a look, as she moved back to look over the files, though soon after a thought occurred to Mike, as he asked once more, "Uh, hey, this is a weird question, but you don't happen to know who made Balloon Boy do you?"
"You mean that weird creepy kid animatronic? No? At least I know my dad didn't, he said the thing looked creepy, I thought so to" Right... What the hell was going on here... So the main cast, foxy, bonnie, chica, and freddy's toy variants had been designed and built primarily by Henry, but... not Balloon Boy, who everyone else was sure was a Toy Animatronic? He was missing something here, and he had the sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with Afton Robotics, something Mike had been slowly more and more wondering more and more about.
Just another thing to have to deal with, Mike supposed, as he went back to searching through the files before Charlie said suddenly.
"Ah! Here it is" Turning around, he saw the girl lift up a folder with a look of accomplishment on her face as she handed it over, while Mike just opened it up and... Yeah, these were the plans for Toy Bonnie... Perfect. Looking up, he gave his friend a smile and said.
"Thanks a lot, this is going to be a big help" She just shrugged, looking around quietly at everything else in the office, before saying simply.
"It's not like it's getting any use just being left with me here, if you need anything else then just let me know, you know I don't mind helping out, even if I'm not looking to get on any kind of payroll" Mike made a huffing motion.
"Yeah yeah, still to think you're too good for the pizza grease, I get it. Seriously, thanks... Uh, actually... Mind helping me look around for the plans on Mari-, I uh, mean the Marionette? He hasn't had any maintenance done on him in... who knows how long, it might be handy to have on hand now instead of having to search around if anything gets worn down" Charlie grimaced suddenly, looking about as comfortable as she did the last time the puppet came up in conversation, but nodded quickly enough.
"Uh, sure, I-... I'll look around for it, I can call you when I find it, but uh, not to run you off but..." It was clear she was trying very hard to come up with something to say to get him out, Mike just tilted his head to the side in a bit of confusion about it, but ended up deciding that he probably shouldn't push her right this moment. Instead just nodding, and that was that.
"Yeah, no problem, I need to get back home anyways" He really did, he had some soup on the stove that Mari was being nice enough to keep an eye on, it was for Jeremy, the man needed something easy to get down, but also something that would actually fill him up. And given Fritz had told him the man had been shaking like he was freezing since Mike had seen the man last, Jeremy would probably appreciate something warm.
Goldie (Or... maybe Evan? He was still unsure with himself on where he was drawing the line, if there even needed to be one) was uncertain just what he was supposed to be doing. Or at least, he knew exactly what he had been asked to do, stay at the warehouse and make damn sure that nothing more happened, the others trusting him to know what to look for, given it seemed that most of the abilities that Toy Bonnie had learned to use over the last few months had been the same ones him and his golden companion had used for years.
He didn't mind the role so much, the idea of being a warden to a deranged animatronic wasn't a particularly nice one, much less one that had tried, and had been trying, to kill his brother for months now, but such was life, even if he'd rather different means to solving this problem it was still something to do. Michael had been very clear about how they couldn't just leave Bonnie in the state he was in.
Goldie of course could understand why, just... he didn't particularly find it in himself to be all that merciful at the moment to the bunny animatronic, knowing what he did.
He had never been close to the toys, they were Marionette's little gang, as the bear had mostly stuck, as much as he could, with the original four, as much as those words could be applied for what all the animatronics could do during their times at one of the many Freddy's, which wasn't much. It made it sound more serious and faction-like than it actually was, but the point still stood, he didn't hold much interest in the toys at the time beyond being more to hunt with, and the regret of knowing they had been killed once more when news of their decommission had reached him.
It was for that reason he was so unwilling to give this Bonnie a chance, but if the others were going to fight him on it, then it wasn't worth the effort, especially knowing Michael wouldn't take no for an answer when there was someone in need of rescuing, with that damned hero complex of his older brother's. Still, at least Michael wasn't blind, if this Bonnie couldn't be convinced to see the truth or was simply beyond saying... They'd 'revisit' it.
Maybe he was being a bit too cruel, but Golden Freddy had never been known for his mercy, he had never been given it in his life, and he had only begun to relearn it now in his death. But no matter what, he couldn't get the image of his brother's blood stained arms out of his mind, the fact that if he thought to hard about it, it would only be to easy to realize those kind of cuts would have been the exact same Michael would have given himself that night if Goldie hadn't interfered, and that's what really made his mind up about this newest problem.
As he sat there, not too far from the crate in question, that feeling once more bubbling up inside of him, Goldie couldn't help but let out a faint sigh of nothing, life sure was so much more complicated these days. Foxy would no doubt be calling him soon about joining him for the Cove's 'grand re-opening' for the short time it was closed, he was on Bonnie watch or he'd be helping move things around to help the Cove, and his brother was being incredibly troublesome as always.
...But at the same time, it was a complicated life that he got to live for himself, so even if he'd like to think of a complaint about it all, no matter how hard he tried, simply nothing came to mind.
Marionette was... slightly terrified.
Ok, Marionette was completely terrified if he was being honest with himself. But he also couldn't ignore the digging urge to do this either, it had been weeks since he had his... realization, and no matter what he did, those feelings hadn't done anything to decrease, in fact if he was being honest with himself, they had only grown. So that meant he had to... tell Mike, but the idea of that was more than a little threatening for a lot of reasons, the main ones even being annoyingly logical.
With everything going on, it would only make sense to not tell him at least until everything had gone back to normal, when they weren't dealing with so much going on. To say his thoughts weren't often filled with concern over his old friend and was uncertain of just what they would be doing in the future to try and help Bonnie was a minor understatement, but... But no matter how much Marionette would have liked to hide from his own thoughts and feelings just a bit longer in this particular regard, a much louder part of his mind kept reminding him that if Mike had died, then that would have been it, he never would have been able to know, and somehow, that idea scared him almost as much as the idea of losing Mike did.
So here he was, fidgeting, uncertain, and more than a little nervous, hovering behind the couch where Mike was already sitting, seemingly lost in his own thoughts, his hand rolling his phone in his palm. It was the evening, late in the evening at that, Marionette had planned it that way, so he would be able to end the conversation and head to sleep, a planned escape if there ever was one. Which honestly probably helped increase his nerves than helping, but he couldn't exactly not do it... Unless he could- No! Had to do it now, just... he hadn't exactly planned how he was going to go about this.
Marionette was so busy having no idea what the hell he was going to do, he didn't notice as Mike's head dropped backwards over the couch cushions, and was now actively watching as the puppet had his freak out, before asking with a mix of concern and amusement.
"You doing alright there, Net?" The puppet let out something close to a sharp chime of surprise at the sudden break of both his thoughts and the silence, as he managed to wave off Mike as he said quicker than he meant.
"F-Fine! Just, uh, what are you thinking about?" The man raised an eyebrow at the not so smooth lie, but answered all the same.
"Thinking about how I need to call Phone Guy soon, when I was visiting Charlie yesterday I came across some stuff. If anyone would know about it, it would be him" Suddenly a bit more interested in the conversation, and only slightly abashing himself for knowing he was delaying himself, the puppet still found himself asking anyway.
"What do you need to talk to him about?" Marionette wasn't a very big... fan of this 'Phone Guy', but he couldn't deny that the man was certainly useful enough to keep in contact with the man, which seemed to be about what Mike himself thought of the man, even some others, mostly Fritz, being more interested in keeping in contact with the man casually, Mike only ever talked to him when he needed to know something, and even then it was usually for something important.
Mike himself just sighed, leaning back a bit more, his eyes moving off from the upside down puppet from his view point, and instead moved to be staring up at the ceiling for a short moment, only to say instead with a faint moment of consideration.
"Potential family drama, nothing I can do about right now though so nothing to worry about just yet" Marionette had the faintest feeling that Mike was avoiding something, but before he could do anything with the thought, it was quickly overridden and forgotten as the man's sharp dark blue eyes found themselves looking back at the puppet as he said casually, "So what were you thinking about?"
"I- uh, well, you know?" Mike's eyes squinted a bit, clearly showing that he had no idea what the hell the puppet was saying, as Marionette tried to keep himself from freaking out as he was suddenly once more put on the spot, he really should have actually prepared something for this instead of just deciding to tell the man. "It's... Well, I-... I'm uh..." His words just weren't working, and before he knew it a faint cracking sound of his music box hitting a sharp note came from his chest from the stress, as Mike's eyes widened considerably as he said.
"Woah, are you alright? Is something wrong?" He was already half moving to his feet, and Marionette, being the dummy that he was, overreacted like he always did when he was over thinking, and quickly shot his hands out, placing them on Mike's shoulders, quickly pushing him back down as he let out in a bit to high pitched voice.
"Nothing! Nothing's wrong! I promise! I just... I'm- Uh... You know when I mentioned I wanted to talk about something? This is the something!" Now Mike was looking more and more concerned, even still sitting like Marionette for some reason made him, he was still twisted around to look up at the puppet, and Marionette couldn't even blame him, he had no idea where this stuttering mess of words came from.
"Uh, right... Are you... Is this something bad or..." Mike clearly had no idea what was happening and was slowly beginning to think worse and worse of whatever Marionette was going to say, as he managed to shake his head before saying in the least comforting manner possible.
"No! Nothing bad! Uh... Maybe? I think, well, it depends on how well you'll take it?" Mike slowly just nodded, before seemingly making a decision as he managed to put on something of a comforting smile as he said.
"Right, well, whatever it is, it's clearly important to you, so no matter what it is, we can talk about it. I'm not going to be upset or anything, well, unless you're telling me that I'm being cut off from your baking, then I think I might riot" A chiming laugh came from the puppet before he could help it, as he managed to give Mike a look at that, who didn't look at all apologetic for breaking the nervousness in the air, if only for a moment, as Marionette still found himself fidgeting slightly as he asked quietly a moment after.
"I- it's important, but I just don't want it to change anything between us" Mike raised an eyebrow at that.
"Mari, I've mentioned before you'd literally have to try to kill me to get me out of your life. I don't care whatever it is you're about to say, I promise I'll be fine" Maybe it was the comforting words on their own, said by someone he believed, or maybe it was the inbuilt need most people had to test what they are told, something that Marionette knew he had a bit of himself, but no matter what it was, it helped him get the words out.
"I'm in love with you" It was said with a surprising certainty, conviction that pushed past any nerves, stated loud and with more confidence than Marionette was pretty sure he had ever felt about anything in his life. So of course it was the second after the words had left his chest, it felt like he had been slammed in the chest with nerves, like something was bottoming out in the stomach he no longer had as he watched with anxious unease as to how Mike would react.
And as for how he reacted... Well, the man blinked once, then twice, for a moment seemingly unsure as to what he had just been told, before he let out in a faint confused tone.
"Wait... What?"
HA! It finally happened! As for what is going to happen next... Well, no spoilers, but I am content!
Because guess what people! We've done it! This is the end of act two! Isn't that fun. I was honestly debating for a long moment on just how I wanted to end this act, but this felt like a good enough way to handle it. Leading straight into Act three with chaos at every quarter, no where nearly as narratively complete as the end of Act One was, but that's because chapters 1-19 were a planned and completed work before I decided continued this story project with the plot bunnies I had left running around. So yeah, we got a cliff hanger, but that's for next chapter to worry about.
In the mean time, I wanna talk about the last twenty-five chapters! A lot of things changed from what I originally was planning, like, a lot, so here's some fun behind the scenes information; Marionette was suppose to have a completely different realization at the end of chapter 35, Charlie was suppose to be there are the Warehouse during Shadow Bonnie's siege, and was even suppose to be an employee at the Cove instead of Janet, the situation and scenes between Foxy and Goldie's friendship got delayed heavily, along with Mike learning about Marionette's Give Gifts Give Life ability, Foxy was planned to be with Jeremy when the Cove was attacked by Mangle, and while it wasn't brought up beyond in passing, I've completely skipped over both Mike's and Foxy's birthdays, which I had some thoughts on how to write but eventually decided against bothering, along with, like, half a dozen smaller things that I just changed for flow of the story.
And the biggest thing, the timeline, we are currently in the story, in the middle of July in 1992, this section of the story started in mid January. Act two, aka the last twenty-five chapters have taken place over the course of six and a half months. I had planned in the beginning for it only to be around four, but pacing meant I had to stretch it out a bit more than I had thought. But I think what we got is definitely the best version of the story for what I have planned, because I'll be real, Act Three is going to be a long one, not to give to much away, but I think I've set up enough to make it clear we're going to Afton Robotics soon, and we all know what's waiting for Mike when we get there.
Act Three is going to be... chaos, in a simple way of saying it, Act One was a lot but with only one clear threat and issue to work towards. Act two was a lot more character focused with a bunch of mini stories threaded throughout it to build and set-up the surprise antagonist at the end. Act three is going to be a lot of both, so be prepared. With my current ideas, which admittedly aren't nearly well fleshed out at the time of writing this, I think it'll be about... thirty to forty so chapters, probably thirty-five if I had to put a hard number on it, cause each act needs to be longer than the last. So look forwards to that I suppose. Anyways, See ya!
