I Don't Own Fnaf
Mike... Wasn't totally sure of his decision to be honest, but he didn't have much other choice, as he found himself with Foxy, the animatronic having been dropped off at his house when they had come to pick up Mari in the van, which he had appreciated, though now the two were mostly just sitting around while Foxy walked about things. Catching up mostly it felt like, it was nice, the two hadn't talked much in recent times, and the fox had plenty to say about recent events about Janet, so it was a good time waster, but soon enough it was getting to the point that Mike needed to get going otherwise he wasn't sure he'd be able to pull off what he was looking to do.
It was just before noon, probably the best time to try and get this going, as he waited for an opportunity before speaking up, saying to grab the fox's attention.
"Hey Foxy?"
"Yarr?"
"I'm planning on doing some digging into some things, want to help me out?" The fox perked up, was Mike just watched with a little amusement as his eyepatch flipped open to show his surprise as he said quickly.
"Yes! Err, I mean, uh, what are you trying to do? Cause, I mean, you still be hurt yah know?"
"Well, I mean, that's what you're here for buddy, it shouldn't be anything dangerous, but I know you can handle any heavy lifting if it comes to that" Was it a bit mean to puff up the fox a bit to make him more likely to not throw a fit later on? Yeah, but in Mike's defense, he really might need the fox's protection given he wasn't in a situation where he was comfortable with running for his life, and he'd much rather have not lied to Mari when he said he was going to be safe. Either way, he just watched as Foxy, with his chin raised high, said confidently with a hand on his hip.
"Well, if there need be a man for the job it's always best to go for the fox as I always say"
"Of course, it's just a short trip. Just to the warehouse, there's something there that I've been meaning to look into for a long time now"
The fox just nodded, happy with the idea of helping out in a way that kind of hurt Mike's chest just a little bit. They should do some more things for the fox, he was the youngest of the group, still just a kid, and honestly he was reminding Mike a bit of Evan right now. Not currently blunt and independent Evan of course, but old- or rather much younger- Evan, back when he was a kid who was a bit too desperate for praise or attention. Sure Evan himself was often spending more and more time with the fox, but usually everyone when they hung around kind of grouped off a bit, at the very least when they were together and doing something.
Thoughts for later, as he just got himself up and moved towards the garage, knowing he would have to risk his car's suspension one last time, as he said casually over his shoulder to the following fox.
"Right, well, I'm going to have someone else join us if you don't mind of course, just someone who might have some answers that I've been thinking about needing" He could feel the faint confusion roll off the fox for a moment before just shrugging, as Mike took that as a success on his part... Now he just had to hope that the animatronic wouldn't go kill mode the second that he saw the person in question, as he pulled out his phone as the two loaded up in the car, with Foxy laying down awkwardly across the seats to be as much out of the way of prying eyes as he could be, and hit dial on one of his less used contacts.
The line rang for a long, long moment, before it was finally clicked through to a connection, as from it came the timid and familiar voice of Phone Guy.
"U-uh, Hello hello?"
"Hey, it's Mike" He could feel the tension from the other end of the line as finally the older man's voice spoke back hesitantly.
"O-oh, hey Mike, been a while... I, uh, heard about your accident, hope you're doing better" Normally he'd already be cracking out the dead jokes, frankly he didn't like Phone Guy enough to spare the man's sensitiveness around the spooky nature of their shared experiences, the man wasn't his friend, that was Fritz's department, and even then it was questionable. Honestly to Mike, it was more like that one dog with a lame leg that you felt bad enough to keep giving attention to. Mike had no sympathy, but he did need the man to not be freaked out, so he said instead.
"Been doing better, listen, some things have come up, found some stuff out, but I need some help with some things, mind lending a hand?"
"Uh, I'm not sure that's a great idea. I mean, wouldn't Fritz or Jeremy be better?"
"They're running down a different lead on something related, but I wanted to be able to ask you a few questions and get your opinion on something that I've been wondering about" The line was silent for a long moment, it was very clear the man was just trying to figure out what he was suppose to say that would be able to keep himself from having to leave his house, so Mike quickly tacked on, "Listen, I get it if you're not interested in helping out, just... It's something important, and if I don't figure some of these things out... well you know how these things go"
It was a risky gambit, he was reminding the man of just what the dangers were, which was almost a guaranteed way to get him to shut down and not help out with anything for at least a few weeks. Phone Guy was a wreck of a person to be honest, like all those years of having to be one step ahead of his death meant the second Fazbear went away, all that pressure crashed right back down on him. Mike could almost relate, but once more, not enough to feel all that bad. Instead he was playing at something else, reminding the man what happened when things about fazbear entertainment went unchecked. If there was one thing that could get the man to help it, like he had been nearly dragged to before now, it was playing on his guilt.
This time it seemed to be no different, as after a moment the man said with a very clear reluctance.
"F-fine... I-I'll be over in an hour"
"Thank you, I'll already be there, so feel free to come on in, it'll be unlocked" The man just let out an awkward sounding noise that Mike couldn't tell if it was supposed to be one of agreement or more a whimper of fear, either way he just hung up soon after a hasty and regretful bye. He chalked it up to about fifty-fifty if the man would actually show up as Foxy chimed in, a faint tone underscoring his accented voice as he spoke.
"That be the Phone?" It probably said something about how little they actually knew about the man realistically that only Fritz and Jeremy probably knew the man's name, Mike could learn it fairly easily, but... At this point it was more a matter of pride to not admit that he still didn't know the man's name.
"Yeah, you're not going to try and toss him in the Spring Chica suit at the warehouse right?" Foxy just huffed.
"I can control myself, even if it's dealing with a particularly durable rat" Mike took that as a success as he just nodded after a moment, before saying casually.
"Right... Well, as long as I don't have to bury any bodies I guess, I don't have the core strength for that yet" Foxy just let out a barking laugh from the back at that, as Mike just smirked a bit to himself. Foxy was really the only other person in the Cove that had Mike's more morbid sense of humor. The others certainly had a morbid sense of humor, something that just came from all of their shared experience with a certain graveyard shift that really lived up to it's namesake, but it was mostly just the two of them that made the jokes about it.
Before long they were at the warehouse however, and while Mike wasn't... all that big of a fan of just what he was about to do, he needed some kind of answer today, and there wasn't a great chance that whatever the others found would mostly just give him more questions and an even more active attempt at denying what was in front of him. So with that the two stepped on inside as he looked around for a long moment before saying casually.
"I'm going to head to the office first to see if I can get anything off the computer in there, feel free if you want to just hang around" The fox just waved him off.
"Eh, I ain't doing anything already" Mike just nodded as the two entered the room, his eyes spying around for a moment at the few things that had accumulated inside of it since the last time he had been in here. It had been a fairly long while thinking about it. The radio had been replaced with one he didn't recognize, the tv had a bit more dust on it, Evan had moved out one of the arcade machines for another one, the screen already flashing with impressive high scores labeled as 'GLD' on the screen.
Goldie and the two Foxys, in plushy form that is, were still on the desk that held the computer that out of all the machines in the room, definitely was touched the least... If at all over the last few months, honestly being here now just felt like a reminder that Mike had been the one to say they shouldn't move it because he needed to look into it... Also months ago. It felt like he was getting complacent.
Was the reason he hadn't gotten out of AR's hell basement because of that? Had he lost his edge? He froze down there, he could remember that much, and it cost him a large percentage of his organs. He never would have done that last year... Shaking his head, he moved to turn the old computer on, listening to the faint whirring of the tower as the monitor flickered on and off for a moment before finally staying on as he looked at the login screen for a short moment, before reaching up and typing in the information he had seared into his mind.
It took a moment, but after a long moment, it opened up instantly to a blank and boring screen, nothing that was unexpected to it. Looking around the desktop, Mike just hummed, being aware, mostly just for a second it was new, Foxy moving over to look over his shoulder with mild interest, as his eyes darted around the screen. It had... nothing unexpected, a ton of documents, that from the looks of things, were just digital files of a whole bunch of nothing.
Unless the secrets of death and life happened to be in the spreadsheet document icon labeled 'Freddy's 1988: Month July Income Tax Form', then most of this was just useless, still he'd have to go through all of it eventually, but for the time being he opened the file manager and did the only obvious thing he could do if he wanted to actually figure anything out about what was happening here.
He sorted them by most recently modified.
The first few dates were only somewhat old at this point, the most recent folder being labeled only as 'GFP Security', was last modified and opened only about ten and a half months ago now, only the next three were files made past 1989, where there was a list of six similarly named files that were messed with around 1988, and then it was just back to the boring things, Mike made note of those last six though because of how they were labeled 'RA: Test Subject One' was the first, moving up to six as the last.
Either way, he held off from clicking on them yet, honestly already having a good feeling what would be in them from the name alone, and instead pulled his attention back to the first one, staring at the date with a frown as he recalled the end of last year. It would have been... about a few weeks before Mike had been locked up in this very warehouse and stumbled across Mari if he had his dates right. Around the time he would have been dealing with his first week on the job perhaps? Honestly, back then dates didn't really have much meaning to him.
Moving the mouse over to hover over the folder, Mike took a moment to just consider what the implications of this was going to be... Before clicking on it anyways, watching as the computer stuttered for a moment before a long list of... video files appeared. Frowning to himself, Mike leaned in a bit closer as he looked at the crunched up small video file preview images, before moving to make them bigger, sorting at the same time by most recent only to lean back just as suddenly in shock as he stared at an image of his own face.
The quality was static and blurry, poor was the best way to describe it, but it was him, even if for a heart stopping moment he thought it was someone else. Clicking on it quickly, he watched as the computer buffered for a brief moment before pulling up a video player displaying what the file contained. At first Mike thought that nothing was going to happen, only after checking to make sure the video was running did he realize that the camera that had recorded whatever this was, was covered up.
He realized that from the sudden thudding sounds of audio from the computer of footsteps, the sounds of shuffles and a few grunts of effort from somewhere unseen for a long, long, minute before with the sound of a wooden floor being scrapped against, light was suddenly introduced to the camera, as it was lifted out from somewhere dark and moved over to reveal what Mike had already been suspecting to see on the screen, it was himself. It was strange seeing him in playback, especially like this.
Maybe it was because of just how aware of his now deteriorated body, with its unhealthy graying skin and heavy bags under his eyes, but looking back now... This Mike, Michael even given he still wasn't really used to the name back then, looked... Tired, exhausted in a way that he just wasn't anymore, as he watched himself stare down at the camera in his hands with heavy eyes. Turning the thing over in his hands for a few moments before pausing, for a long moment, as the sound of squished fabric and then like crunching metal filled the air from the computer's speakers as Mike, with a grimace, reached up and paused the video. There wasn't a point anymore, he knew what this was.
GFP: Security, Golden Fredbear Plush Security Footage, this was the camera that had been stuffed in goldie, the plushy, that he had found so long ago now that he had nearly forgotten about it. It hadn't been what he had been expecting to find, but it was unnerving and answering enough as it was, as he closed out of the video, his eyes straying to the others, looking at the times on them, before with a quick few mouse clicks found the dates where these videos had been created... And when they had last been accessed.
All of them before that last one with Mike, now an adult, were from or before 1983, and... And most of them had been accessed years later, the most recent one being a few months into 1990. It... It wasn't proof, but it was something that was almost good as, as he just stared at the screen in dread, before closing it, not wanting to look at it anymore. It didn't matter right now what was in those video's, and more importantly, he wouldn't be able to handle seeing any of them, it was a history of videos that he hadn't known about, about his younger brother, and he... He couldn't handle that right now.
The very idea he might stumble into the video that had... That day recorded... Mike wouldn't be able to take that, so he just moved on. Standing up from the desk with a sigh, he turned his head, seeing Foxy giving him a curious look back as the fox asked, now prompted.
"So, err... What's that mean?" Mike just sighed, reaching over to pick up goldie, the plushy, and boy was he regretting giving his brother that nickname now, as he turned the toy around in his hands for a moment before saying.
"My dad, he hid a camera inside of Evan's toy when he was younger, I found it when I was looking for this thing to give back to him, that's the footage we just watched"
"Oh... Uh... What's that mean?" Mike just shrugged.
"Nothing good, just... builds up another piece of the puzzle, I'll know for sure soon though, come on, I'm going to need your help with this part before Phone Guy shows up to make sure I don't get a frequent flyer card from the hospital"
"What's the mean? We doing something dangerous?"
"Sort of, Fritz kept me up to date on his progress... I wanted to wait for Mari, but... Well, maybe I still can. Foxy, if you don't mind, what do you remember about Miller?" The fox tensed up, harsh and sharply at the question, it felt unfair, but honestly, Mike might have been trying to make everything a bit too complicated than it really needed to be. But there was still questions that he hadn't had answered for a while now that he still wanted to know about, he just hadn't had the time with everything else, it felt like that was for a lot of things to be honest. Something he really regretted.
"Eh? I mean, not much, the bastard killed me but... Uh, I mean, there wasn't much to remember about him, he was big, but what kind of adult isn't to a kiddy? It was night as well, I was... Anyways, I never got a real good look at him. And afterwards the only marker I needed was that evil purpleness of him... No offense" Mike just waved the off handed insult off.
"I've been seeing it more and more recently, I get it" Mike liked purple, it was a comforting color, frankly if anything the last few months have just made him an even bigger fan of it in some weird way he couldn't actually find a way to explain without sounding crazy for all the bad connotations connected to it, or maybe that was the reason and he just liked being a contrarian. Still, liking the color and having a few clothes of that color was very different than seeing it stained onto your own skin.
"Oh yeah, I guess you would... Well, yeah, there ain't much to say about the bilge rat, he be big, and he be purple, that's about it, nothing else really matters... Or stood out... That's weird" Mike just raised an eyebrow, prompting Foxy to continue, "It be nothing, just a thought, but we couldn't really tell anyone apart back then, at least I couldn't, don't know about the rest, but I never got that fancy face tracking stuff, and back then I was always so worn down seeing be difficult even without the patch, but... Wouldn't he?"
"What do you mean?" Foxy just shrugged, a faint look crossing over the fox's face of confusion and a clear thinking, his pirate accent fading out as he got more serious.
"Well, just... He was in charge right?" Mike nodded, as the fox frowned before saying with a bit of hesitance, "Well... Wouldn't he have had to been there then? At least occasionally? I was... broken down, a lot, most of the time if I'm being honest. But I could still see out me curtain, so shouldn't I have been able to see him? At least at some point? I don't think I ever saw purple during the day for how often it happened at night" Mike frowned at that, tilting his head to the side as he tried to connect that to something... And there was, something that is, but... He wasn't sure just what it was yet.
"That is weird... Another question for Phone Guy then, one that I was already thinking about, sort of, but not something we can have fixed right this second... In the meantime, let's see what we got here" Foxy hadn't been able to answer his question, but that was fine, he was mostly going for a secondary confirmation here, because he was sure Phone Guy would know the answer, thinking back on it, the man had been quite shifty on the subject of Miller. It made something curdle up in his chest, but he pushed it down quickly enough, he needed a cool head.
Especially for this part, as he walked on throughout the warehouse for a moment, leading him and the fox back to a certain crate in the back. The fox had been following behind silently, but once they got in line of sight with Mike's target, Foxy finally broke it with a surprised sound.
"Er... You sure that's a good idea?" Mike just shrugged, moving over to the crate, looking it over for a long moment, the lock was still in place, as he stared at the doors for a long moment, before turning his head to look back and up at the animatronic at his side.
"Fritz told me Bonnie's mostly repaired a little while ago... Well, his endo is, his suit is a bit damaged still, but the inner hardware is the important parts, we just haven't had time to address this elephant because of the rest of the circus coming to our door. No time like the present though"
"But what if he attacks you again?" Mike just shrugged.
"That's what you're here for, in case he tries and succeeds on getting out, he's not repaired enough for you to have much issue. But it probably won't come to that, I'm planning on talking to him through the door after I get him turned back on... If he isn't already" With that he shot a look back at the door, calling out a bit louder, just in case, "I wouldn't be surprised, someone as dedicated as you? From what I heard, you all can turn yourselves back on pretty easily, and you've certainly had more than enough time for it huh, Bonnie?"
Mike waited a moment, mostly wondering if he was about to look like an idiot, and if that was the case, he'd probably try and swear Foxy to secrecy before going into the crate to kick the rabbit into turning on. But he was pretty sure he was right, almost certain even. Mike could have his panic attacks, but he wasn't quite crazy enough to have started seeing things that weren't there. Not without outside help... Or maybe he was incredibly paranoid, and given that he admittedly was... Could be either thinking about it, so, needless to say, Mike was incredibly glad, if not naturally as unnerved as ever, to see the sight of a shadow forming itself on the front of the crate's doors, in the silhouetted shape of Toy Bonnie.
Mike was pretty sure before now, he probably would have shuddered, or had some reaction to the very obvious and weird supernatural thing happening in front of him, even if he had become so numb to Mari's brand of weirdness he was numb to it, new stuff or stuff he didn't see much? That still got a reaction out of him, even if he was pretty good at hiding it, but... now? Eh. Mike was pretty sure he couldn't get exactly scared or unnerved anymore, at the very least, he was pretty sure nothing was going to be getting his heart racing like it used to.
"Oh, there you are, I really hope I'm not about to see a shadow preform MMA on my body" The shadow just stared at him for a moment, as Mike did his best to not look like he was about to do anything, because he really didn't want to figure out if a shadow could hurt him. That would just be too embarrassing to admit to, to the others as to why he had to go back to the hospital, not to mention, he really wasn't into the idea of breaking his promise of being careful to his puppet.
"What do you want?" Mike hadn't been expecting the voice that came to ring through the air, not from the shadow, but it would have been easy to mistake it for being the source given it seemed like it was coming from it, only the sound of the higher pitched, young boyish voice, had been muffled just enough to let Mike know it was coming from inside of the crate in front of him. Right, no speaking through shadows... Well, if that was a thing Evan probably would have done that at some point instead of doing the mind bending hallucination thing he could do.
"A lot of things, my organs back, not having an absolute ton of medical debt, and answers being the top three right now, since I doubt you can manage those first two, I'll settle for the third. I figured I'm owed that much for the last time you tried killing me over a mistaken identity. Hope you've figured that out by now by the way"
"I've... realized" Mike might have been intimidated if Toy Bonnie didn't sound more or less like an almost pouty teenager getting his teeth pulled. Mari had been right about his guess towards his age then. The files had the animatronics' age in it too, but he had no idea when that number had been written, so it had been very much to interpretation. Mike just ignored it, he already knew Bonnie was young, but the confirmation from the voice was still hard, now that said voice wasn't masked by a few dozen layers of static from an improperly maintained and damaged voice box.
"Good, I'll take that apology any day now then"
"Go to hell" Mike ignored the not so static filled growl from the fox at his side, as he said back drily.
"Took a trip recently, didn't agree with me, but I guess we can move on. Purple Guy, tell me about him"
"Why the hell should I?" Ugh, teenagers. For a shadow entity, this bunny sure wasn't much for subtle and mysterious wording, much more direct and to the point. Then again, Mari had said he was dramatic, guess that meant loud, Mike had been figuring it would be more like a Foxy situation, but that was probably on him for assuming. At least this was infinitely less annoying than the bi-monthly murder attempt on him through his own equipment and building.
"Because I asked nicely? Because I helped kill the actual purple guy for you? Because you owe me for not having you disassembled and tossed into a scrap heap for the shit you put me and the others through and instead had you repaired? I could keep going if I need to, or you can start answering at any time" Mike waited a moment, before just rolling his eyes as he said, "Or how about because it's either answer me now or I tell Mari that you're more than capable of talking to him right now"
Mike had to withhold from flinching as the shadow figure in front of him flickered before appearing right in front of him in a wave of what could only be described as cloying and shifting darkness. It was way weirder than the way Mari moved around, but he held back a reaction and just stared right into the now staring directly into his eyes, voids of white in the bonnie silhouette as with a voice now filtering through a harsh static spoke.
"Don't you dare!" Mike just raised an eyebrow.
"Then answer my questions and you can go back to brooding alone while pretending you're still turned off" He was lying of course, he had no idea about any of this before he started this conversation, if he had been more certain before now, he would have told Marionette ages ago, but as it stood now, he'd definitely be telling the puppet the second everything else that was going to come from today was settled down... So probably tomorrow morning, if Mike was being honest with himself, but the rabbit didn't need to know that right now, as the two just held in their strange staring contest for a long moment before finally with an annoyed tone Bonnie spoke.
"Fine" Mike withheld the urge to let out a sigh of relief, he really wasn't bluffing, but he also really didn't want to put that on Mari on top of everything else going on right now, as he asked his first and most simple question.
"I look like him, right? It's not just the height, there's a reason you were so certain, you could tell the difference between me and the others, you targeted me specifically, not Fritz and not Jeremy, even though they were at the Cove and here just as much as I was, more than that, you knew them already from the past, you tried to kill them both, you saw them purple right? But not anymore, just me?" Mike was pretty sure he already knew the answer, honestly, he might have known for a while, looking back on the past few months, it spelled itself out fairly obviously with hindsight, but in the moment it had always been something he could just look past or excuse.
"Yeah, it's annoying, your face is annoying" Mike just rolled his eyes at that, doing his best to ignore the confirmation, as he continued to speak.
"Right, figured, you have those facial database stuff right? Is that how you recognized me as him? Because of how we look"
"No, I remember him because I saw his face... I remember seeing him before he killed me, I'll never forget him because it was the last thing I saw... I never saw him again after, just remembered the purple and just knew... Until you showed up and took the others" The voice gained that static quality to it again at the very end as Mike debated whether or not it was worth it to roll his eyes at every little thing this animatronic said to him. Instead he just chose to grimace to himself over what he was being told.
"Right... Thanks, that's all I need, you can go back to being dramatic if you want, I have a conversation with a phone I need to have" The shadow figure just stayed there, staring at him a bit too close to be comfortable with, before it's head turned to stare at Foxy, who up until this point, while very much tense and seemingly ready to pounce, had held back from saying anything, as Bonnie said one last thing before vanishing.
"I liked you better when you were in the scrap heap" Whatever that insult was meant to incite, it succeeded as the animatronic at Mike's side took it in the worst way as a sudden ferocious snarl was ripped from the fox as he pounced forwards, only just barely missing the shadow before he passed right through where it once had been, slamming straight into the crate, leading to a resounding bang and soon following horrifically loud screeching of Foxy's metal hook slashing at the doors.
Mike just watched in shock for a moment before quickly moving forwards, reaching out and placing a hand on the animatronic's shoulder, trying to get his attention, his mouth opening when instead of being able to say anything, the animatronic swung around, flinging his hand off and before Mike could really realize what was happening, a hook was suddenly pressed to his chest. He could feel the way the sharp metal poked a bit too hard into his chest, digging a small hole through his shirt and into his chest if only by barely anything.
His heart didn't race, and he didn't blink, only gulped but didn't move, just stayed there, waiting, staring up into the eyes of the animatronic, whose sole eye was darkened into a void with a familiar spectral light floating in it, just for a moment, before the amber yellow of Foxy's plastic eye reappeared. The fox's face shifted into shock before horror as he stumbled backwards away from Mike, looking down at his own hook with a shock.
I- Err.. I didn't-" Mike just took a deep breath, before saying, as he reached out and lightly rubbed over the new hole in his shirt, and chest, with a faint wince.
"I know Foxy, it's fine. I'm alright" The animatronic's ears flattened all the same in a clear shame at his own actions, as he turned away, staring at the crate for one last moment before quickly hurrying off before Mike could stop him. He wasn't really in running shape just yet, as he watched the fox sprint away at an impressive speed. He just sighed in the end, a faint dread pulling in his chest as he turned over to stare at the crate door as he said finally and sardonically.
"Thanks, really appreciated" He didn't get a response but Mike figured he wouldn't have, as he just turned and to ready to go and try and find the fox, only for the familiar echoing sound of the main door to the warehouse being opened up, as a voice rang out with as much uncertainty and nervousness that Mike was sure could be held in a voice.
"H-...Hello? H-hello?" Mike just sighed before deciding it would probably be a good idea to get to Phone Guy before the man decided to leave, as he called out into the air.
"Hey, I'm coming over, give me a moment" Mike pretended for both of their sakes that he didn't hear Phone Guy yelp a bit at his voice, as he moved around for a moment, slower than he would have liked, but long strides with his long legs still hurt just a bit if he moved to quickly, so he just took his time, as he moved around, out of the area where the crates were past the shelves, before reaching the main open space that was between the front door and office, as he turned the corner and spotted... Oh.
The Phone Guy looked... disheveled was a word for it, one that didn't the state of the man in front of him justice.
Mike honestly hadn't seen the man since... Well since the first time he met the man face to face for the first time in the last decade, back then he had been skinny, almost concerningly so, with an almost desperately normal outfit on, now it was almost the exact opposite. The man had let himself go, in the last few months it looked like he had put on at least fifty to sixty pounds, making him only look a bit chubby not nothing much more, while his outfit had broken down into a clearly to small outfit that had clear parts of it that seemed to have been worn down from repeated action. The knees on his slacks looked almost eroded from what Mike could only guess as from anxious pacing, the before mentioned weight probably from stress eating.
His hair had grown and while it was clear he had tried to tame it somewhat in the last day, or rather most likely last hour, it was more a rats nest than anything, still damp even from a shower, and his face had a thick scruffy and patchy beard that did the worst thing it could in addition to the man's face. Added onto the almost bloodshot look to his eyes that had clear bags surrounding them, and the way the man literally jittered on the spot with nerves, his eyes darting around at the surrounding items... He didn't look like he was in great shape, mentally or physically, and here Mike had thought he was looking rough, and he quite literally looked dead.
He... wasn't really a great person to come to for empathy, he had spent most of his adult life surrounding by people who often got what was coming to them, he learned pretty early on it was always better to make sure someone was in the bed they had made for themselves rather than being in it in their place. Phone Guy had been a part of some horrible things, but... This still didn't feel great, seeing how the man was now. Mike wasn't that cold, so he did his best to not sound too loud as he called out as he made his way over.
"Hey, thanks for coming by" The man tried for some kind of smile, it ended up awkward, forced, and obviously fake, as he said with a stutter.
"I-it's fine, u-uh, what did you want to talk about?" Mike just moved over to one of the nearby tables, it was one of the ones that Fritz used to do all his technician work when he was here, there was more than a few chairs around given just how much work was required during the few times that they had to add stuff or repair things at the Cove, that it had become something of the hangout spot while they all were met up at the warehouse, as Mike waved the man over to take a seat, something Phone Guy did without much hesitation, even as he seemed to now gained the habit of looking over his shoulder. Mike figured it would be a good idea to not mention the fact that there were two animatronics with him at the moment.
He truly hadn't expected that Phone Guy had been this bad off. Maybe a bit traumatized, but so was the rest of the survivors of Freddy's... Maybe he had been expecting too much, or maybe he, Fritz, and Jeremy, were much more outliers than the expected end result.
"Just a few questions, we went to Afton Robotics recently, it... went well at first, but we found some things in the basement where the animatronics were stored... They were alive" Phone Guy flinched, seemingly suddenly frozen in place as Mike just continued, "I and M- A friend, were down there, I got hurt pretty bad, they thought I was someone and tried to kill me... They, uh, well, let's say me and Jeremy got another thing in common"
"I-... I- I... I'm sorry?" Mike was pretty sure Phone Guy had no idea what that really meant, beyond maybe thinking Mike got bit or something, and frankly Mike was fine with that, as he brushed it off.
"Eh, it's not your fault... Just, did you know about them?" The man instantly shook his head.
"N-No! Not at all! I knew... I knew something was going on over there, but it wasn't... I was never involved in that stuff, I didn't know! I promise!" Phone Guy seemed almost desperate in that fact, like he needed Mike to be convinced so he could be convinced of that himself. Mike almost didn't want to believe him, but... As it was, he did, as he continued.
"Right... I figured you'd mention something at least if that was the case... Anyways, we know of four at the moment, they're... weird, but that's not what's important, they're still stuck down there and they'll stay down there" The man seemed almost relieved at that, though the revelation that there was even more animatronics out there somewhere seemed to keep it from being a full relief, "But that's besides the point, something they had said while I was there caught my attention. They thought I was the one that caused them to be trapped down there... That I was Miller, strange right?"
"I-uh... I mean, y-yeah, that's pretty crazy?" Mike just kept staring at the man for a long moment as Phone Guy took a deep breath, his legs both bouncing as he looked over Mike, as the larger man could only wonder if Phone Guy was considering if he could out run him or not in his current state, before finally Phone Guy just deflated as he said with a more serious and less painful tone, "Y-you're sure you want to ask that question Mike? O-once you know, you can't..." Mike just spoke up, determination flooding and breaking past the almost casual tone he had kept with before now.
"I already know, I just... I just need to know for certain, the others are looking into the designs for the Funtimes, and I have a feeling there's going to be something there that's going to give me all the proof I need, but... But I need that proof before we talk about it all. I need to know now, so I can know it and deal with it without the others being there" It felt selfish, but... But Mike wanted to know before anyone else, he needed to know, just for himself, if only for a little while, only for a few hours, but he needed something, some kind of buffer, so he could deal with it. Figure himself out before he had to admit it to everyone else, to deal with it affecting everything else.
He wasn't sure Phone Guy really understood just why it was important to him to know this second, or why the man had to be the one to tell him, but it seemed his seriousness was enough to cause the hesitant man to, after a moment, say anyways, a frown pulling on his face, as he looked down as he slowly began to recount something before finally answering Mike's sole question.
"I-... Fine... You're right. He looked different later on, you know? I- I couldn't tell you what he looked like, but after everything, after he was suspected, he never looked the same afterwards, but I could never forget that man, changing how he looked, how he spoke or not... The way he acted, the way he didn't care, no matter how he hid it, there was nothing that could make me forget that, even if it took me a while back then to realize just who it was, but he-..." The man took a moment, just to collect himself, before finally saying it out loud, a certainty in his voice that made something, that desperate part of Mike that still held some kind of hope, wither and die.
"William Afton was David Miller... He was the one who was behind everything"
Ah... it's happened, confirmation about something everyone has been asking for literal months! It only took forty chapters after Dave Miller was killed for it to be finally out in the open that the man behind the slaughter was in fact that one bitch. Feels good, figured we'd get to this a bit faster than we did, but that's cause I've had to slim and bulk out a lot of parts of this area in the story, I've finally committed to cutting a few things to make sure this doesn't drag on for infinity, while others took more screen time than I thought they would, which was any at all. Looking at you Janet!
Anyways, beyond that, Toy Bonnie is awake, apparently has been for a while, weird isn't it? I bet there's no reason behind that or anything, as well as Mike finds a set of very worrying recordings, this has been quite the chapter. Plus we got some more Mike and Foxy vibes, I enjoy the two's dynamic, honestly most of the dynamics are a ton of fun to write out because everyone is just different enough that every kind of pairing has a different vibe to them that I think is real fun and a great way of not getting disinterested in the relationships and friendships that are in this story.
Then there's Phone Guy, he's... complicated, but I really like his character and I'm real happy he's going to become a bit more important to the story some what soon. Honestly, this section has made me really worried about just how many characters I'm shoving into the spotlight, both new and old, with all the Funtime things happening, my main concern is with how much I'm bloating out the cast at this point in the story. That's the man reason I introduced characters so early on, like Phone Guy, Janet, and Charlie so when they became more important to the story it wouldn't feel like dropping an additional bucket of characters into the story without any warning or build up, and while I'm certain that's worked out well, I'm not sure it's well enough if that makes any sense... I don't know, this story has stretched my writing skills out in a lot of ways, the fact that this story is within, like, the top twenty longest Fnaf stories on this site and it was only started a bit over half a year ago might have a contributing factor to that as well, but whatever. I'm having fun, and this has been a really long end notes compared to what I've been doing, so I'mma end it off here. See ya.
