f
Foxy had taken the news that he was expected to perform the next day with... an unknown amount of energy, whether that was a good or bad thing, Mike had no idea, he had made the courageous point to call his brother so the bear could be the one to talk to the fox about it. Either way, Foxy had agreed, so Mike took that as a good thing, giving the bear to give the fox the general information about when he would be by to pick up the animatronic to bring him to the party.
Mari had been more subdued, but Mike hadn't really expected him to be bouncing off the walls. He did seem quite interested and a bit excited about the idea of a house call though, asking if they were going to make it more of a common thing, no doubt the puppet was more than a little interested in being able to explore the world outside of their home, the warehouse, and the Cove... It nearly made Mike cave instantly and say yes, but he managed to just give a shrug instead.
All the same, while Mike was sure he normally would have rather not have so much stuff happening going on right now, he couldn't just not keep with the plan of at least scouring AR out, as Mike had found himself making the effort to say instead of Afton Robotics, mostly because it was getting increasingly weird to say his last name out loud so often after doing his best to not think about it for months.
Fritz still wasn't a big fan of it, but walking about on abandoned properties was honestly no where near as dangerous as it sounded. Sure, if it was still within the property rights of someone then it could get them in trouble, but someone needed to care for that to be an issue, and Mike... doubted that would be the case.
For some strange reason Mike's logic seemed to not help Fritz at all, but he was still convinced after a bit more effort, and soon enough the two men were in the car and on the road, Marionette taking the time to go over to the warehouse and talk with Foxy to discuss a few things ahead of time, given both of them were planning on showing up to perform and as such needed to find a way to work together without getting in the way or the other or stealing any spotlight, where as in the pizzeria the roles were a bit more defined as Marionette primarily being the one in control over the prize corner and a performer more on the side, with Foxy being the star and main attraction. Which simply wouldn't work with the prices Mike managed to gouge out of the family requesting for the animatronics, hence the improv planning session.
Mike just left them to it, know that the two would no doubt be able to come up with something, while he found himself in a silent car ride with Fritz in his passenger seat. it was... Weird, seeing someone who wasn't a puppet half curled into the floorboards in that spot, but he kept that firmly to himself. Even if the silence soon got to him enough to try for the effort of making small talk.
"So... How are things with Janet?" Fritz jumped a bit at the sudden voice, glancing at Mike like he had done something strange, before answering back quickly enough.
"Uh, good, things are going good... A bit weird cause of the whole shutting down the Cove thing. I told her it was a burglar by the way" He said that last part absently, now simply staring at the side of Mike's head, Mike just ignored it, Fritz was a thinker, he got zoned out plenty when he was working on something or just when he was going over something in his head.
"Yeah? How'd she take that?"
"Not well, nearly made me march with her to the police to file a report. I never saw her like that before, it was kind of scary" Mike decided to save the man the embarrassment of pointing out the grin on his face at the memory, it helped that it quickly vanished into a more awkward look as he continued to explain, "I managed to talk her down and convince her that it wasn't a good idea... I might have mentioned you might have had a record with the police that would have ended up hurting the business"
Mike winced a bit at that.
"Did she happen to ask questions about that?"
"I mean... yeah... But! I didn't mention anything about Goldie or anything, just... might have let it slip that you might have been caught breaking and entering a few times" Mike grimaced at that, but managed to keep himself in check seeing just how guilty Fritz looked... He knew to well that they couldn't risk the cops investigating anything to do with the Cove if they could help it. There paper work checked out fine, but that didn't stop the fact that if anyone that wasn't in the know happened to review the footage of the security cameras at the Cove they would be in for one hell of a surprise. Something none of the men had thought about before now in the need of assurance of protection for their patrons. A blind spot opened up from their collective pasts at Freddy's and it's poor handling of protecting kids.
Mike sort of still wished he wasn't the bartering chip that got thrown under the bus to keep Janet from doing anything rash.
"I guess B and E isn't as bad as third degree murder, though for the record I never got caught for that former one, just called in for questioning a few times... We should work on fixing out security in the future by the way, maybe focus the cameras on the outside and remove the ones on the inside, I'll have to remove the footage from it later" Fritz got a complicated look on his face over the casual mention of past crimes, before just nodding in the end.
"Yeah, we can keep and get better angles on the entrances and the parking lot to make up for it, so we at least know everyone that's gone inside the building, that should be good enough if anything happens, but we can't really risk anyone getting hands on footage of Foxy and Mari helping us out with random chores or talking" Just another thing to think and worry about, but one that hopefully shouldn't be to horrible to deal with, which wasn't a particularly great silver lining but it was the one they had.
"Sounds good, remind me to whip it before Janet's war path can lead her to looking it over behind our backs to try and find out who she needs to beat up" Fritz snorted at that, clearly finding that visual amusing, though Mike wasn't quite sure the younger woman wouldn't be the type to throw down if she thought it was necessary. She gave him that kind of feeling, and given just how many women over the years had tried to either shoot or stab him when they thought he had ripped them off... Well, he wouldn't be surprised if there was hidden steel in Janet that had yet to be revealed.
"Sure... Uh, speaking of her though..." Fritz sort of stalled out, enough that Mike glanced over after a long second to make sure he was alright. The man looked... almost pained with how awkward the expression on his face was, Mike just raised an eyebrow and asked.
"Speaking of...?" It seemed the prompting had done something to break the man out of whatever stuttering his brain was undergoing as he let out a breath before stumbling out his words.
"Just... You've... Had experience with women before right?" Fritz looked horrified with himself. Mike took a short breath before saying with as much control as he could manage so he could ignore the waves of second hand embarrassment.
"I'm going to give you another chance to reword that with the actual question you want to ask before I say anything" The man looked painfully relieved and very quickly took him up on the offer.
"Thanks, no, it's just... Me and Janet... we're..." Fritz was stalling out again, and Mike was getting more tired of the awkwardness than anything, as he spoke for the man.
"Together? I noticed" Fritz just nodded.
"Right, been a few weeks now, few months actually thinking about it" The thought clearly startled Fritz, but Mike could understand that, time seemed to fly by sometimes, it was weird, "Anyways, we've been talking, and I have that spare room in my apartment that's not doing anything, and she's been looking into moving out of her parents for months now..." Oh, Mike was beginning to understand just what was being asked about.
"You want my advice on if she should move in or not?" Fritz slowly nodded, clarifying after a second with a shrug.
"Sort of, I mean, you both have experience with having a roommate, and you've mentioned in passing about dating before so... I honestly don't know what I'm asking for, it sounded like a good idea in my head" Mike thought that over, wondered just why he was being asked, then quickly realized it was either him or Jeremy the older man could talk to about this given none of them had exactly made efforts to expand their social circles. Still, the other man would probably have be better at this, but Fritz was right, Mike certainly had some experience with roommates, heck, he had now a lot of surprising experience with dating one's roommate. That thought made a warmth bloom in his chest and for some reason made him start talking.
"Right, you just want to know what it's like to have a roommate? Or, like, dating tips... How long's it been for you anyways?" He said it mostly off-handedly, but the way Fritz winced probably meant it was more a sore topic than the other man had expected. Still, Fritz answered honestly.
"It's... been a while, I never felt comfortable with it when I was working at Freddy's, and that's been the last half decade of my life so..." So Fritz would have been what... Mike's age the last time he dated someone? That was certainly one way to put the small age gap between them into perspective the taller man supposed. Right, well then, dating advice...
Most of his dating experience usually ended poorly for either him or the girl he had been dating, and his current relationship was with a guy, and given that was the least unusual part of the circumstances around their relationship, Mike figured that wouldn't be much help either. So dating advice was out of the question, but Mike had plenty of experience with dealing with people in his space, homeless shelters, 'community' housing, things like that. Plus, just general roommate tips.
"Right, well, the basics are just making sure you two are comfortable with the situation, it's going to be really awkward if she wants to move out of her parents, but you aren't all the interested in her moving in"
"No, it's not that, at all! We've already talked that over, it's a bit fast for both of us, but-" Mike interrupted there before the man could go on a long frankly unneeded justification about it all.
"Dude, I brought home a puppet who had tried to kill me, like, the night before. Comparatively, you're moving about as slow as a snail, as long as both of you are fine with it and can talk about any issues as they come up then you'll be fine" That seemed to help a lot more than Mike thought it would, as Fritz perked up a bit.
"Right, yeah, it'll be fine"
"Totally, just... compromise, and make sure you both set some expectations alright? That was a big thing with me and Mari for a while, he's a clean freak and I'm the type who likes to just leave stuff places, it drives him up the walls, but we've talked about it and I've gotten better about it, and he's stopped sorting things as much"
"That second part doesn't sound like much of an issue" Mike snorted at that, though there was a clear fondness to it as he spoke.
"Maybe not on it's surface, but nothing is more maddening than setting somethings down, leaving, and then coming back and having to turn the whole house upside down because I have no idea where it went" That happened more than a few times with Mike's jacket, not his work one, but the other, thinking of, he needing to replace it still, given he had turned it's sleeves into wraps for his bleeding arms, so he had been wearing his purple security jacket in it's place just out of habit, he had it on now. Still he had been lucky to not need stitches, though they would no doubt scar up a bit, not something he was happy with, more marks on his arms, but not something he could exactly help either.
Maybe a red one this time? Or just give in to his theme and double down on the purple? A purple hoodie might be nice... Thoughts for not now as Fritz just hummed.
"Yeah, I suppose we'd both have to adjust right? I doubt it'll be as complicated as it was for you two, but it's been a long time since I lived with anyone else"
"It'll be fine, I'm glad you two got together though" Mike really was, Fritz seemed to get brighter when she was brought up. The taller man knew all to well what it was like to hold an almost fear of connections and how liberating it could be to be able to have such a strong relationship with another.
"Yeah, it's been a bit awkward, but we both just..." He seemed ready to start to ramble, which Mike would have been fine with, but it seemed the man felt a bit to awkward still about how the topic had started to get into any more, instead switching the focus back to Mike, "Anyways, how did the music system work? I've been meaning to ask" Ah, yes, the totally platonic slow dance he and Mari had literally the same week they got together, which was the same week that Fritz was asking this question.
Damn, Mike was dense, anyways...
"It was good, Mari I think really needed it, I think I did to, to be honest. This whole thing has been really stressful" That was an understatement, Mike felt like he was constantly on the verge of a headache since he had found those documents of Henry's with the help of Charlie. And with the talk about the place they were now heading from Phone Guy... Mike wouldn't be surprised if he got a stress migraine at some point over the next few days. Mari had been an absolute saint about it, probably being the main reason Mike hadn't ripped his own hair out and had been sleeping at all.
"Yeah? I couldn't imagine" Mike snorted.
"Yeah? You're the one who's hands are going to be the most full, it's going to be the start of the Cove all over again, checking over everything we find" Fritz didn't take to the teasing though, instead a faint concerned look coming over his face for a moment even as he tried to say his next words casually.
"Maybe, but it's not family for me" Mike tensed a bit, but didn't say anything, as Fritz continued, "You never knew about this place, it must... I don't know, but I can't imagine it's easy" Mike just shrugged.
"Maybe, but it might just be a handy place for more parts and nothing else" Mike said it more to have said something more than actually believing his own words. Fritz noticed as he just gave Mike a consoling look which had the man backtracking a bit with a sigh, "Yeah, I know. At least with Freddy's it was just seeing how everything went bad afterwards, I mean, the one I worked in was several Freddy's past where my family pulled out from the Fazbear game, the only link to it was Phone Guy still being around, now? I don't know, it's more personal cause my name's posted just about everywhere I guess"
"It'll be fine, no matter what it is" Mike just nodded. He didn't really have a choice but to deal with it, just he wished he could have done this on his own time, not because he had to, but then again, maybe this is what he deserved for stalling looking into the things that he had noticed for a while now. He wasn't blind, he had known something had been going on with AR, but he just hadn't wanted to deal with it, not just yet.
Mike didn't get scared, not really, even with everything that had happened in the last year of his life alone, with everything insane that had happened in it, he could only count on a single hand how many times throughout that he had been genuinely scared. Worried? Sure. Concerned and traumatized? Plenty. But scared? The only time he could recall a true fear was when he had been trapped inside of a springlock suit.
But maybe that wasn't quite right. Mike wasn't much for lying to himself, and he couldn't ignore the stirring and growing dread in his chest as they drew closer and closer to the location in question, it wasn't in Hurricane, not really, it was closer St. George, but that didn't mean it was still all that far away, a bit far from Mike's own house, which was basically next door to the Cove, at the very least being in an easy walking distance. Still, only about a thirty minute drive.
Not long enough.
Afton Robotics, it was not quite what Mike had been expecting, but then again, he had no idea just what he had been expecting in the first place, so all he could do, as he pulled into a broken up and poorly maintained parking lot, was look at the building itself and take it in.
It was a single story building that was caught awkwardly between being some kind of industrial plant and office complex. The walls were metal paneling for example, but with the sleek but now incredibly worn down and washed out familiar symbol of Afton Robotics was decaled on the side... Along with a large number of graffiti markings covering the walls. Mike pulled out a side observation before he could fall into a pitfall of thoughts about being here.
"At least we know the police aren't around"
"How do you figure?"
"The graffiti, basic community service to clean the place up for any vandals that get caught in this area for misdemeanors... Given where we are, we're probably between jurisdictions, no reason for police to patrol out here and any calls would be a scatter shot about who would respond, if anyone. The HCPD are pretty territorial for how generally horrible they are at their jobs, blind eye and all that. I doubt the SGPD would do much more than just kick the calls to Hurricane's police department and call it a day, and half the time those calls won't end up anywhere" Mike was mostly just rambling to ramble, not quite wanting to think of the building it self, but with a pained grimace realized just what his own words implied while Fritz looked slightly horrified himself as he gave Mike a look.
"Great, it's a place where no one can hear us scream and where help can't reach us... I'm also just am not going to question just why you know so much about the police departments around Utah" Mike winced a bit at that, realizing that wasn't exactly a normal thing to just know about blind spots within law enforcement jurisdictions and said back.
"That's probably for the best. And it's not that bad, as long as you clarify that it's an emergency foggy jurisdiction loses meaning, especially if it's a high target emergency... Though I'd still recommend calling St. George's station if you had to, they're faster"
"Also not going to question any of that... Come on, let's go look around" Mike wished he could have kept stalling, even if it was no doubt making his companion's nerves a bit more frayed the longer he talked, because it meant longer that he wasn't actively having to do the exact thing that Fritz just said that they should, the exact thing that Mike had dragged the man out here for... Mike was really wishing that Mari would have been able to come with them.
As it stood, wishing wasn't going to get him anything, so with that the two walked up to the front doors of the building, solid metal and almost eerily familiar to the ones that Mike remembered from his time at Freddy's. Still, they weren't blast doors, just strangely reinforced, just another thing that made thing whole thing so much stranger than it needed to be as he reached down and gave them a pull. Locked. He shot a glance to Fritz who just waved him off, so Mike got to work.
It took a minute, he was losing his touch, but soon enough the doors were unlocked as he pulled them open, as the two walked inside.
It was immediately obvious just how long it had been since anyone had been there, dust coated just about everything as the two men stepped inside. Fritz instantly coughing at what had been kicked up from the wind form the door being opened up as Mike looked around the dark entrance.
It looked almost like a lobby of some kind, not particularly all that interesting, with a small sitting area and a man desk off to the side, while directly in front of them was a hallway going perpendicular from where the two men were standing, splitting off what looked like left and right, while in the exact middle was an elevator which probably headed to the floor above them. The place didn't look trashed or anything either, just abandoned, old and now withered potted plants were in the corners, a clipboard was resting on the front desk, the computers behind it looked undisturbed, but it wasn't super easy to tell given the only light flooding into the place was from the door they had just opened. Glancing at Fritz, Mike asked.
"You got the torches?" His voice seemed to break the other man out of his thoughts, as he glanced at Mike and the way he had phrased it, before tilting his head to the side instead, a frown marring his face.
"Do you hear that?" Mike just blinked, confused now, as he tilted his own head in mimicry while trying to figure out what the man was talking about. It took a second, but there was something... A very light thrumming that was almost familiar but not quite, itching at something in the back of his mind. What? He shot a confused look over at Fritz as the man just turned back and moved over to the side of the door they had just walked through before flipping the light switch.
And surprisingly? The lights turned on, a number didn't, showing that they were burnt out, but the fact that any of them worked at all was something that neither man had been expecting as Fritz just staring up at the ceiling lights for a moment with a grimace before mentioning to Mike.
"The back up generator at the last Freddy's made this light thrumming sound when you were close enough. I bet the place is full of them in the back for us to be able to hear it from here" Mike just slowly nodded, looking around for a moment, noting just how yellow and grainy the room looked with how much dust there was, before asking.
"How much power you think the place has?" The man just shrugged.
"If everything was turned off before it was abandoned? A few days of power at least if I had to make a guess, enough time to get everything out and about, as long as nothing has been to big a drain on the system I mean, and even then these old types of generators recharge after a while, it's why it's the kind that Fazbear's management picked out, they kind of suck but they don't cost a lot in maintaining them" Mike slowly nodded, that was more information than he was expecting, but then again, if anyone would know, it would be Fritz.
"And since it's been years since any power was being used, the place is probably stocked up on juice" The man just shrugged.
"Maybe, I'm making a lot of guesses here"
"Doesn't matter, let's look around, see if we can find the storage room or something, you wanna take left and I'll take right?" Fritz gave Mike a look like he thought the man was crazy, and then proceeded to say as much.
"We are sticking together thank you very much, I ain't about to be no horror movie trope" Mike snorted at that, saying back lightly.
"Fritz, our entire lives are just one bad horror movie, there's no one here" The man just huffed, looking not at all convinced., though with his tone it was fairly easy to see he was mostly joking around to try and fight off how genuinely creepy it was to be here.
"You say that, but if there is some serial killer here, who you think they're going to get first? The seven foot tall giant who could throw a normal person around with one arm, or me?" Mike felt a proper laugh come from that, as he just shook his head as the two began to actually walk around, both choosing to go left as they wandered down the hall. The faint tension that came from just being here in Mike's shoulders fading just a tiny bit, something the man himself didn't notice, but one that Fritz did, who had a small victory grin on his face at the sight.
It was almost comedic given the fact that, even though the men were joking, neither really had thought they would find anything all that fast, and yet as the short hallway path to the left had ended with a door, when it was opened revealed-
"Holy-" Mike cut himself off at the sight in front of him but Fritz wasn't quite as subtle as he let out a faint-
"Damn" Mike could only just nod in agreement. It looked like the place had used to be some kind of storage room for records, there was a number of large file cabinets that had been all moved and pressed tightly into one of the corners, and even then there had probably been a number that had been moved around somewhere else, because in the main center of the fairly large room that probably took up a large section of the floor space, was... Well, just about everything Mike could think of that they could use.
At least a dozen arcade cabinets all pressed tightly together and covered in a thin transparent tarp, a few small single kid sized rides, a few scattered pieces of furniture like tables and chairs, among several other things that Mike couldn't quite focus on at the moment as his eyes were to busy looking around at everything else. Finally his eyes caught on what looked like a big wooden pallet that seemed to be holding stacks and stacks of different kinds of unused advertisements.
On the surface, Mike found himself staring at one that cheerfully held in large bold font wrapping over the top 'GRAND OPENING: Circus Baby's Pizza World Coming Soon!' and underneath it was the sight of a number of animatronics. Mike moved over a bit to them while Fritz gravitated towards the machines, as he looked over the images of the performers for the place that never had been.
Circus Baby was probably the one in the center, the white and pink versions of Freddy and Foxy were a bit of a surprise, as he found himself just staring at the foxy in particular. It looked fairly different from Mangle, or, rather Toy Foxy, Mike had seen the designs for that bot even if he had never seen the animatronic in question actually in working order. This was clearly a unique model with just a similar color scheme, but the similarities were... strange.
Also what was it with people rebranding the fox in the same way? What was wrong with the original? Well, realistically nothing, there was something wrong with the person who had came up with the pirate design however... This was about as opposite one could get to what Mike would have liked back then, a weird way of distancing themselves from him, if that really was the case, but a strange one at that.
Still, something else itched at the back of his mind as he looked over the characters, the designs felt... Off, or at least something close to it, but he couldn't quite put his finger on just what it was. Then there was the last animatronic, another much more human designed machine, it made his stomach lightly twist at the sight of it, and suddenly a few things clicked into place. His father made these, Mike had already known that of course, the man had to be at least responsible for the designs if nothing else, the man had a thing about creative control.
And here Mike was, staring at two female based humanoid animatronics, one with bright red pigtailed hair, and another that was clearly some kind of dancer, ballet if he had to guess based on the pose the animatronic was being drawn in on the poster.
Circus Baby had the same hair as Lizzy, his mom had been a ballet dancer... He almost felt shaken, but that's when he realized something so much worse, as his eyes traced back to the Freddy, why a Freddy? What would cause his dad to make another bear? And why did it have a strange Bonnie hand puppet as well? Afton Robotics became real after Mike went to prison, after Evan had been killed through a bear animatronic... And then there was the white and pink Foxy... Michael's animatronic.
Oh, oh god... It was them, it was the Aftons, even his father was there, the man had always liked Bonnie the most.
The man recreated them, but... but why? Lizzy was still with him when eh was making these... things.
No, that was a stupid question, his father had always had an issue with control, and lost himself in work so easily that it was a miracle if he remembered to eat some days, it was how he coped with grief along with booze when he couldn't work. It's how he dealt with Mom's passing, he worked himself to the bone to create the original four with Henry. After losing Evan? After Mike got shipped off? After the diner and Juniors failed?
Suddenly being in here felt somehow even more overwhelming, this wasn't just a secret part of his father's potential life, it was a monument to his grief.
Mike felt sick to his stomach.
"Hey, you alright?" Mike blinked out of his thoughts, even as his gut clenched and a pain stabbed itself through his chest, at Fritz's words, as he turned to focus back on the man, speaking before he could stop himself.
"Just... need a second, you going to be ok in here?" Fritz looked decidedly concerned, but nodded all the same, slowly, as Mike just nodded back before half stumbling his way out of the door, back into the hallway, and before he knew it, he was outside, pressing his back to the building's wall as he felt his lungs twist and squeeze in his chest. He couldn't help but likely lament just how pathetic this was, being worked up over something like this after all he had been through, but family had always hit closer to home than anything else for Michael, and he had a feeling nothing would be able to change that about him.
Still, he had things to do, things he needed to get done. He couldn't just break down like this, he needed to get himself together... Mike swore this used to be easier, but as it stood, his chest was still beating, he still felt almost ill, and his head felt like it was being dunked in water, as he, after a long moment, had to admit, he needed help. He had never been so thankful for having a phone in his life.
Foxy and Marionette were of course incredibly busy, the two were basically having to invent a whole new performance for the gig that they had been requested for, but it was clear both enjoyed bouncing ideas off each other for what Foxy could do, while Marionette, as he didn't have a control stand for something like this, was forced to be only able to perform in his box, and would mostly just be there to do the gift giving with the few performances he could manage.
It was a good break for the two it seemed after the last few days, though Goldie himself, given he was the one who was forced to be the audience for the two to give feedback, was mostly just stuck trying to find new ways to saying what he was seeing was good. Apparently he wasn't the best at creative feed back.
Thankfully he was saved from the most recent performance as a call came from the office, the three animatronics' heads turned to look in the same direction before Goldie was the one to stand up, moving over, as he said to the others.
"Keep going, I'll see what it's about" Thankfully Foxy didn't need to be told twice and Marionette was caught up in the act of examining the fox's movements for anything that could be improved upon so his escape was a quick and easy one. Getting to the office, and picking up the phone in his large pawed hand, he lifted it up and spoke into the speaker, "Hello?"
"Hey, Evan?" It was Michael, the man sounded... out of breath. Frowning the bear asked quickly back.
"Is everything alright?" There was silence over the line for a short moment before-
"Working on it, listen, if Mari still over there?" He would never admit to it, but there was a small part of him that did hurt at the not quite casual dismissal. There was a tension in his brother's voice that made him feel concerned. It was a bit of a dumb thing to do, he could admit to that, but he found himself saying anyways.
"He's a bit busy at the moment, is it anything I can help with?" If Michael needed the puppet out there, then talking to him wouldn't do anything, Marionette couldn't go somewhere he hadn't been before, so he'd have to be picked up anyways. The man was silent for another second before saying with a sigh that told the bear just how tired the other man really was.
"Not really, just... This place is already getting to me" Goldie frowned, the man sounded about the same as always, but the bear had been there for the moments when Michael wasn't the same as always, maybe not as much as Marionette, but he had a feeling he knew why the other man wanted to speak to the puppet. It was... strange, to think that his brother, someone even now he couldn't always get out of the mindset of being able to do whatever he wanted, needed to talk to someone to keep himself in check.
"What's it like?"
"It's just a building, we haven't looked around to much, but I found some posters of the animatronics here, they're... unsettling" Now that must have been an understatement.
"Thinking about bringing any of them back?" Mike just huffed, though it seemed having a conversation topic helped get him to open up a bit more.
"Well, there is another Foxy model here, it'd be nice if a place called Foxy's had more than one fox I suppose... I have no idea if they're here, they weren't in the room with the other pizzeria supplies, so I might have to search around for them later" Another fox? Goldie found himself somehow reinvested into the conversation, while he didn't doubt Foxy himself would mind another hand at the Cove, the animatronic was a bit... silly when it came to what he thought was his own responsibilities. Another fox showing up at the Cove might mess with Foxy, even if it wasn't as alive as the other fox is.
"What's it look like?"
"Like a fixed up and more streamlined Mangle... Hey, you remember the Security Puppet?" Goldie frowned, the words triggered some kind of memory in the back of his mind, but it was a fuzzy mess of one that didn't hold much meaning to him.
"Not really, why, did you find it?" Now that would be an interesting reaction to see how Marionette would react to that. The puppet seemed a bit like the jealous type, in spite of the fact that the animatronic would no doubt never actually admit to that.
"No, just... the designs I saw, it reminds me of that puppet, it's mask was made from plated metal, the face plates look segmented instead of in one piece over here as well. I bet the security puppet was the precursor to these animatronics, like how Mari's the precursor to the Toy line. So, who knows, maybe we will find it somewhere, Marionette never got all that much advertising back at Freddy's, might be the same here with a few side animatronics" Michael sounded a bit better, the old familiar curiosity pulling back into the man's tone, it made something in Goldie's chest, one of his springs probably, loosen up and relax.
"I see, what about the others?" The line was quiet again, but Michael did answer after a second.
"Well, there's a Freddy here, with a Bonnie hand puppet. Then there's Circus Baby and another one... I'll take a poster from the collection so you and the others know what they look like. I-... Uh, hey Evan?" The man's voice hitched just a small bit
"Yes?"
"Just... You know I love you right bud?" Stunned silence was the only thing Goldi-... The only thing Evan could think to answer with, because he had not been expecting to hear that, as the awkward silence over the line continued just for a second as he spoke back softly.
"I-... I know Mike" A relieved sigh came from the other end, but the bear couldn't focus on that past the strange familial warmth rolling through his body.
"Right, of course, just... I'll see you later ok kid? I'm going back to help Fritz look over the stuff after I make that call" Evan didn't get the chance to say anything before the call disconnected soon after, he knew what his brother was doing, he was running from the awkwardness, but he couldn't find it in him to be annoyed, because he honestly probably would have just hung up the phone right then and there if Michael hadn't.
Because the bear had no idea what to say to that, and yet he still found himself stumbling back just a bit before sitting down onto the couch in the office.
It was hard some days, not often, but enough, to remember sometimes, to understand how everything was different, or to just not look at things with the eyes of a pessimist that he learned to use after years of misery and hate.
He would never admit it, but somedays, or rather, some nights, he wondered, if only to himself, if Michael only cared for the bear out of guilt for his actions. They never talked about how the other felt about them, it was just to dangerous, on both sides, Michael was scared of Evan saying he still held hate for the older of the two, no matter how untrue such an idea could be these days...
And Evan... Evan was terrified that there was the chance that his big brother didn't care about him, not truly, just like he had often had been so sure of when he was nothing but a kid who didn't know what was happening in the world around him. He wasn't sure just how much it would hurt to be told that, that the man he unwittingly once more found himself relying on, was only here out of some mistaken forced moral than anything else.
If he was still that emotional little kid that he had been, before he had been forced to grow up so harshly, he might have pulled a Marionette, but he was in no interest to see just what colors his tears would be, and he had long since refused to cry for any reason, even... Even relief. He was better than that now, he wasn't a cry baby... Even if the almost painfully gratifying feeling filled his chest, he just simply accepted it, and... And was happy.
The crashing sound of splintering wood, the sharp chimes of shock, and rough pirate flavored curse words broke him out of his thoughts, as the bear slowly turned to stare out at the door of the office for a long moment, before letting out a long put out sigh, more than a little used to Foxy's habits of overcommitting, as he moved to stand up and go check on the damages.
Though, even if it was hard to tell, the golden bear was smiling to himself all the same, with fond exasperation.
We've arrived...
We're at Afton Robotics people! Finally, only have had people asking about when this place was going to be introduced since... what, chapter twenty? But we're here, and I'm content with the shit show that these dumbasses are unknowingly about to unleash into their lives. Act two was to make sure these people were mentally healthy enough that the shit going down in Act three wouldn't break them, cause I'm kind like that... Anyways, very fun chapter.
I love how awkward at times Fritz is, he had no idea what he's doing, because his life has been on pause for years now. I also just like giving the human-trio, Fritz, Jeremy, and Mike, all just little moments with each other to show just how close they all are, even if it's kind of weird or at times awkward. Like, Fritz literally without questioning it literally nursing Jeremy back to health and Mike bringing food over for him, not to mention Mike's tendency to just give snacks to Jeremy as well, which I kind is so fucking precious. And then this scene, where it's super awkward, given Mike is the youngest of the three, being asked advice by the oldest, but it still shows a level of comfortableness between them all that I just like.
Remember when Fritz was fairly convinced that if he didn't agree with what Mike said and tried to run, he'd probably get the shit beaten out of him way back in the single digit chapters where literally no one trusted anyone? Wild times. Fuck, I love character development, it's just great.
Speaking of character growth, then there's Evan! The golden child! So proud of that little murderous psycho, he's come so far! i could honestly gush a lot about all of the characters, but I think I'd be here for way to long, but just looking back at these chapters while adding in these notes has got me in a weird mood. This isn't my longest story, not by another few dozen thousand words, but it's fairly close, and this one I've put so much effort into things like the characters that... I don't know, I'm just happy with how everything is going here, it's super surprising as well given just how fast I've been pouring out these chapters and I honestly still haven't felt much burn out. Sure, there's times I go a week or two without writing anything, but once I'm back at it, I crank out like three chapters back to back, it's pretty wild how invested I've gotten in this silly story.
Hope everyone out there is enjoying it as much as I've been writing it at the very least, but in the mean time, I don't see a point in keeping going on about nothing that's all that interesting to you all, so, See ya!
