Tuesday, July 21, 1987
The previous day had been much like the one before—Evan had tried over and over to fix Mangle, only for the other kids to mess her up all over again.
However, much to Evan's surprise, today when he entered Kids' Cove, instead of finding Mangle sprawled out on the floor, she was hanging from the ceiling. Somehow, the animatronic had found various hand- and footholds that she was hanging onto with her various limbs. From her elevated position, Mangle tentatively watched all of the kids, who were upset that they couldn't reach her.
Approaching the animatronic, Evan smiled and said, "Wow, Mangle! How'd you get up there?"
"I cli-li-li-li-limbed, silly," Mangle replied with a glitched giggle.
Aside from the obvious, Evan could tell that there was something different about Mangle. Instead of just blankly staring at him like she usually did, her pupils were moving around oh so slightly, making it seem like she was regarding him the way a human would.
"Um, do you want me to try and fix you again?" Evan asked.
Mangle looked herself over. As she returned her attention to Evan, her ears drooped. "But… if you fix-ix-ix-ix-ix me, I won't be able to climb around like this, and then-en-en-en-en…" She eyed the other kids. "... they'll ge-ge-get me…"
Evan looked at the other kids, who at this point were amusing themselves with other things, before he gave Mangle an understanding nod. "I get it."
Mangle tilted her head to the side. "But, we can pla-la-la-la-lay if you want?"
Evan smiled at the animatronic. "Um, sure! What do you wanna play?"
"How about a ga-ga-ga-game of hide-and-seek?" Mangle suggested.
"Sure!" Evan replied with a nod. "But, um, can we hide anywhere in the restaurant?"
Mangle nodded. "Mm-hm."
"Um, okay. I guess I'll start being 'it'," Evan said. "What should I count to?"
"Count to twe-we-wenty," Mangle replied as she dangled from side to side in anticipation.
"Okay," Evan said before he closed his eyes and began to count. Once he reached twenty, he yelled, "Ready or not, here I come!"
Evan began by looking around Kids' Cove, but he couldn't find her there. Of course, he expected as much. After all, Mangle had purposefully been avoiding the younger kids there.
As Evan left the Cove, some of the toddlers started to follow him. However, a creepy, tall puppet animatronic then climbed out of a giant gift box near the exit of the Cove and went after them. Understandably, this scared the crap out of Evan, but as he watched the Puppet herd the toddlers back into the Cove, he figured that it had been tasked with keeping the youngest kids in that area.
Evan resumed searching for Mangle, and eventually found her hiding on the ceiling in the Game Area behind a bunch of balloons.
"Found you!" Evan laughed.
"Awww, I gue-gue-guess I'll have to find a better hiding spot next-ext-ext-ext time," Mangle giggled. "Okay, now it's you-ou-ou-our time to hide!"
"Okay!" Evan replied with an excited smile.
"Alright, I'll start cou-cou-cou-counting now!" Mangle declared before she closed her eyes and began counting.
Evan hurriedly went down the main hallway, looking for a good hiding spot. It didn't take him long to realize that one of the Party Rooms was currently empty, and so he went inside and hid under one of the tables.
Because of how far away he was from Mangle and how noisy the restaurant was, Evan never heard the animatronic finish her countdown. He sat below the table for almost three whole minutes before Mangle finally found him.
"Fou-ou-ou-ound you!" Mangle said triumphantly as she poked her head through the tablecloth.
Evan giggled. "Okay, I guess it's my turn then."
"Mm-hm," Mangle replied. "You'll nev-nev-never find me this time!"
Evan laughed. "We'll see about that!" He then closed his eyes and started counting. Once he reached twenty, he yelled, "Ready or not, here I come!"
Evan started by searching the Party Room, followed by the main hallway, then the Main Area, and then finally Kids' Cove. However, he was unable to find her anywhere. Stumped, Evan decided to go look in the bathrooms, but on the way as he went through the main hallway again, he heard Mangle's very distinct giggle coming from one of the vents. Evan went over to it to investigate, and as he checked the vent cover, he found that it was possible to simply pull it out. He did so and then looked inside.
All he saw was darkness, but given that it was large enough for Mangle to crawl into, Evan decided to go inside. However, crawling through that dark, cramped space, it didn't take long before Evan began to lose his nerve.
He was about to turn back when he heard Mangle speak, mere inches in front of him. "Looks like you found-ound-ound-ound me!"
Taken off guard, Evan flinched, but as he regained his composure, he laughed. "Okay, this is way too good of a hiding spot!" As his laughter died down, he added, "I, uh, just wish it wasn't so dark. It's impossible to see anything in here without a flashlight."
"That-at-at-at's what makes it such a good hiding spot, sil-sil-sil-silly!" Mangle giggled.
"Yeah, I guess," Evan admitted. An idea then struck him. "Hey, I just thought of something."
"What?" Mangle asked and tilted her head to the side.
"What if I bring my flashlight and some comics with me tomorrow? We can read them in here where no one will bother us," Evan suggested.
"So-so-so-sorry sweetie, but I can't-an't-an't-an't read," Mangle replied.
"Well then, I'll just read for you," Evan said with a smile.
"Oh, okay-kay-kay-kay then," Mangle replied.
"Trust me, it'll be fun!" Evan replied with a grin.
Ramón Rivera started his shift as usual, by giving the main three animatronics some much needed maintenance after a full day of performing and interacting with the kids. Ramón had just finished cleaning and tuning up Bonnie when the manager approached him.
"Hey Ramón, would you mind going over the code of the animatronics?" Walton asked with a worried look on his face. "They've all been acting a bit unusual since last night."
"Unusual? Unusual how?" Ramón asked as he turned to face the manager.
"Just a bunch of little things. Like the way their eyes move has been really… odd. It's almost like they're sizing you up," Walton explained. "They've also been interacting with things and moving around in ways that frankly seem unbelievable. For example, the new night guard, Jeremy, reported that Toy Bonnie crawled through the vent leading to his office last night. And earlier today, Toy Foxy crawled along the walls and the ceiling like a fucking spider."
Ramón stared at Walton in disbelief. "Wait, what? Are you serious?"
"I saw it with my own eyes," Walton assured him. "Which is why I want you to go over their code."
"Okay, but that's going to take a while, so you better be paying me overtime," Ramón noted.
"That's fine. We just need to get them back to normal," Walton replied.
"Alright then, I'll get to it as soon as I can." Ramón was about to go back to performing maintenance when he noticed a weird look in the manager's eyes. "Is there something else bothering you, Mister Walton?"
"Yeah…" Walton let out a weary sigh as he ran his fingers through his hair. "Can I trust you to keep what I'm about to tell you to yourself?"
Ramón's eyes darted from side to side. "Sure?"
"Yesterday, two kids who came here were reported missing," Walton said. "And I just got a call a little while ago about three more kids going missing."
Ramón's eyes went wide. "Holy shit!" He exclaimed. "Do we know anything about what might've happened?"
Walton shook his head. "No. I even had Dave review the security footage, but he's found nothing even remotely suspicious."
"Dave? That's the new day shift guard, right?" Ramón asked.
"That's right," Walton replied with a nod. "He used to be the night guard before we switched him to the day shift, so we know he's reliable."
"Well, in that case, let's hope that those kids are okay," Ramón said. "I'd hate for this restaurant to go down the way the previous one did."
"You and me both," Walton replied. "Anyway, I'll let you get back to your work."
"Alright. See you later, Mister Walton," Ramón said before he went back to performing maintenance on the rest of the animatronics.
Once he had finished up with his regular duties, Ramón put Toy Bonnie in 'developer mode' and had him accompany him to Parts and Service, where he hooked up the animatronic to the main computer. Ramón started to boot it up, and while it did, he went and grabbed a cup of coffee.
Once he came back, Ramón sat down in front of the computer and used it to access Toy Bonnie's code. As it loaded it up, he took a sip from his coffee, but once it finished loading Ramón almost did a spit take.
The animatronic's code was interspersed with, and partially replaced by countless strings of seemingly random symbols. From the looks of it, the code had been severely corrupted to the point where the animatronics should no longer be functioning at all.
With a confused expression on his face, Ramón looked at Toy Bonnie, only to see that the animatronic was staring at him. Ramón screamed and almost fell out of his chair.
"What the hell is going on here?" He said once he had recomposed himself.
7/21/1987
Successfully extracted Remnant from 3 more specimens today. Although the Remnant Extractor has been a tremendous success thus far, it has come to my attention that something is starting to affect the extraction site and the animatronics therein.
From what I've gathered from previous observations and experiments, this should not be possible, as there is no "soul" to haunt them. However, while there are similarities to previous observations, the growing phenomena at the extraction site is markedly different. Instead of possessions and hauntings directed by some form of intelligence, the phenomena at the extraction site can best be described as distortions of some sort.
Hypothesis: The phenomena is caused by some form of exotic radiation or residual elements left behind during the extraction process.
Even so, discovering the underlying cause of the phenomena is secondary, as further extraction of Remnant must be prioritized at this time.