Wednesday, February 1, 1995
After her disastrous first outing, Mangle spent the next few weeks building up her confidence and social skills. She got plenty of practice just interacting with the Aftons every day, but she also spent a good amount of time actively practicing by herself. In addition, William's experience with being both a businessman and an entertainer made him an invaluable source of advice when it came to things like how to present herself, act confidently, and how to influence others.
Of course, Mangle also continued her studies, taking full advantage of the hours where the others were asleep. Over the course of just a few weeks, she read literature from all manner of writers, from Plato to Rousseau, from Aristotle to Kierkegaard, from Adam Smith to Karl Marx, from Sun Tzu to Clausewitz. She practically devoured every single book that caught her eye thanks to her newfound thirst for knowledge. It wasn't just that she wanted to understand how the world worked and become more knowledgeable and capable, but she also took a great deal of joy and satisfaction simply from feeling smart. The way Evan looked at her whenever she spoke about something that she knew more about than he did was the best feeling in the world, and really helped her feel like she was on track towards becoming his intellectual equal. And he was always more than happy to go to and from the library on her behalf, though it probably helped that the library was right next to his school.
Despite spending the nights studying, Mangle still went to bed with Evan and got back in bed before he woke up. She greatly enjoyed the intimacy of cuddling up to and sleeping next to him, as well as waking up together. It was something she wouldn't trade for anything in the world, and in total it only lost her one to two hours of study time each night.
Between Mangle's new body and finally being allowed inside of the house, she and Evan developed a synchronous morning routine—they got up together, got dressed together, went to the house together, then went to separate bathrooms to shower and groom themselves, before rejoining in the kitchen to eat breakfast together. It was just a simple little routine, but Mangle treasured the sense of normalcy it gave her.
While William and Michael had previously been the only ones to make dinner, Mangle insisted that she and Evan could cook every now and then. And as they both became more adept at working in the kitchen, the Aftons eventually decided to rotate between the four so that William would make dinner one day, Michael would do it the next day, then Mangle, and then Evan.
As for Evan, he quickly finished up the abstract, data book, and display board for his science project before shifting his attention to his next big project—finding a way to replicate Mangle's mysterious invisible component. This proved to be an enormous undertaking, requiring him to invent a completely new kind of computer architecture specialized for evolving, self-learning AI from scratch.
—
William, Michael, and Mangle sat around the dinner table, patiently waiting for Evan. Before long, the sixteen-year-old emerged from the kitchen carrying a cooking pot filled with spaghetti. He placed it next to a saucepan filled with bolognese sauce and then sat down next to Mangle.
After putting a generous helping of spaghetti on his plate, William passed the pot to Michael before turning to Evan. "So, sport, how is your next big project coming along?"
"I'm slowly making progress, but it's likely going to take me years before I can actually make a prototype," Evan replied.
Mangle then spoke up as Michael passed her the spaghetti. "Have you thought of a name for it yet?"
"For the animatronic? Not yet," Evan replied. "As for the system itself, I'm considering calling it a 'volitional artificial neural network'. Or VANN, for short."
"Fascinating…" William noted as he poured bolognese sauce onto his spaghetti. He looked at Mangle and asked, "And Mangle, how do you feel now that we're only one week away from the science fair?"
"Honestly, I'm really nervous," Mangle admitted. "Despite all of my preparations, I'm not sure how well I'm going to hold up once I'm out there with a bunch of strangers."
"You're worried it's going to end up like last time," Evan said as if he read her mind.
Mangle nodded somberly. "... Yeah."
Michael, who was absentmindedly playing with his spaghetti, then spoke up. "What if you did a trial run?"
The vixen blinked. "What do you mean?"
"Like, what if you hung out with a bunch of strangers in a friendly setting?" Michael clarified.
Evan narrowed his eyes at him. "What are you getting at?"
"I'm just suggesting that I could ask my friends to come hang out with you and watch a movie or something," Michael suggested.
"No! Out of the question!" Evan replied almost instinctively.
"Actually…" Mangle began as she carefully considered the offer. "That's not such a bad idea."
"Yes it is!" Evan objected. "And we're not doing it!"
"Evan, I know we were horrible to you when we were little, but that was several years ago. We've all grown quite a bit since then," Michael said, trying to be diplomatic.
"Oh, I guess that makes it okay then!" Evan said sarcastically.
"You know that's not what I meant," Michael retorted.
Mangle took the sixteen-year-old's hand and gently squeezed it. "Evan, I get it. I really do. But this could really help me."
He stared at her, searching her face. He then shut his eyes and clenched his teeth, before finally relenting. "Fine. But I'm staying in the barn. I refuse to spend even a nanosecond around them."
The vixen nodded sympathetically. "That's more than fair. Thank you."
William then audibly cleared his throat so as to draw everyone's attention. Pointing his fork at Michael, he said, "I believe you've forgotten something."
"Right, um… Do I have your permission to have my friends over on… say… Saturday?" Michael asked with a sheepish grin.
"Yes, that is fine," William said with a smirk. His expression then grew more stern. "But only on three conditions—no drugs, no alcohol, and make sure everyone cleans up after themselves."
Michael faked an amused smile and replied, "Father, we're not kids anymore. Of course we won't—"
William gave Michael the most doubtful look that Mangle had ever seen.
The twenty-one-year-old cringed under his gaze. "S-sure thing, Father."
—
Thursday, February 2, 1995
Michael parked his car in the parking lot of Sandstone Grill—him and his friends' favorite hangout spot. As he got out, he looked around and spotted the cars belonging to Carlos and Liam.
It seemed like the girls were late as usual.
After locking his car, Michael went inside of the diner and spotted his friends sitting on the sofa in their usual booth. Carlos had his arm around Daryl, who was leaning against him. Liam, meanwhile, seemed to have been waiting in anticipation, and upon seeing Michael, he immediately perked up.
Michael smiled fondly at Liam as he walked up to their booth, and before the latter was able to react, Michael leaned down and kissed him.
Breaking off the kiss, Michael smiled at his boyfriend and whispered, "Hi, babe."
"H-hi, Michael," Liam replied with a blush.
The twenty-one-year-old turned to Carlos and Daryl, and the former gave him a shit-eating grin and asked, "What? Don't we get kisses too?"
"Fuck off," Michael chuckled as he sat down between Liam and Daryl. "Any idea when the others are coming?"
"They should be here any time now," Daryl replied.
As if on cue, three young women then entered the diner, and Michael smiled at them.
Zoey—or Tyler, as he once knew her—had come a long way since her parents kicked her out. He almost envied how she had the courage to live as her authentic self while he was still too scared to come out to his father. Of course, her parents' response was definitely the kind of thing that made him wary of opening up. After all, if Ashley hadn't been there to take her in, Zoey would've ended up on the streets.
Speaking of Ashley, she had once again brought her nerdy girlfriend, Becky. It's not that Michael had anything against her, of course. He just didn't like hanging out with eggheads when he was away from his family.
"Hey, boys!" Zoey greeted them.
Michael and the rest of the guys greeted the girls in return, and they came over to join them. Like usual, they all chatted for a bit and caught up with each other before ordering their food.
As the waitress left, Michael spoke up, "So, there was something I wanted to talk to you guys about."
"Oh? Are you finally going to come out to your dad?" Ashley asked jokingly with a grin.
Michael rubbed the back of his neck. "What? No, I—"
"Oh come on, man!" Carlos replied. "You literally told us that his beloved grandpa was gay and that he resented his dad for pushing him away, so what makes you think that he would do the same to you?"
"I just don't want—" Michael stopped himself and let out a frustrated sigh as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Look, that's not what I wanted to talk about. There's something else we need to discuss."
"Okay? What?" Zoey asked.
Michael took a deep breath to steel himself. He hated lying to his friends, but he knew how important it was to stick to the 'official story' instead of the truth.
"You guys remember those 'new and improved' animatronics Freddy's had back in 87?" Michael asked.
"You mean the ones that went haywire and maimed a bunch of people?" Zoey asked in return.
"Yeah, those," Michael replied.
"Hard to forget something like that," Zoey remarked and crossed her arms.
"Yeah, that last week was a complete horror show," Carlos added.
"Well… my brother got really attached to one of those animatronics," Michael continued.
"Oh yeah! I think I remember that, actually," Carlos said as he tapped his chin. "It was that fucked up Foxy animatronic, right?"
"Right," Michael confirmed. "Mangle, he called it."
"Oh yeah, that's what the staff called it too," Carlos recalled.
"Wait, hold on, wasn't your brother fucking terrified of animatronics?" Zoey asked.
"He was, but… somehow Mangle was able to win him over," Michael replied. "Anyway… After Mangle got scrapped, along with those other animatronics, Evan was absolutely beside himself. He just cried and cried, day in and day out."
"Awww," said Liam.
"And since Evan didn't have any other friends, Father decided to make him a new Mangle, but only on the condition that he learned how to maintain her on his own," Michael continued.
"Wait, 'her'?" Daryl said, raising an eyebrow. "I thought Foxy was male?"
Michael grimaced slightly. "I'll, uh, get to that part later."
The gang exchanged confused looks.
"Anyway, Father gave this new Mangle a self-learning AI, similar to that of the original, and since Evan didn't have any other friends, he spent pretty much all of his free time interacting with her," Michael continued.
"That's just sad, man," Carlos remarked.
"Yeah, that's just awful," Zoey agreed.
"Honestly, that kind of sounds like child neglect," Becky finally spoke up. "Why didn't you or your father step in?"
"Oh believe me, I tried!" Michael replied. "I tried over and over again to get him to go spend time with other human beings, and when he refused, I tried talking sense into our father, but both of them just ignored me and treated me like I was the asshole!" He shut his eyes and shook his head, reminding himself that he was not there to rant about his family. "However, as it turned out, things kind of worked out in the end."
Once again, the gang exchanged confused looks.
Finally, Becky asked, "What do you mean?"
"Well… Evan actually became something of a robotics prodigy, and after years of interacting with Mangle and tinkering with her systems, she became—and this is going to sound fucking wild—but she became… sentient," Michael explained, but he couldn't help but to cringe slightly as he said it.
Everyone went silent.
After what felt like forever, Carlos turned to Daryl and asked, "What does 'sentient' mean?"
However, before Daryl got a chance to respond, Becky answered in his place. "It essentially means having a human mind."
"What?!" Carlos turned to stare at Michael with an incredulous expression on his face, and he wasn't alone. "You're shitting us, right?"
"I am more serious than I've ever been in my life," Michael reassured him. "And honest to god, when Evan first told me this, I thought he was crazy. Like, I honestly thought that his obsession had gotten the better of him and that he was going to be sent off to the loony bin one day, but then I met her, and I swear to fucking god that it's true!"
"Okay, but, like, when you say 'sentient', what do you actually mean?" Zoey asked and then quickly turned to Becky who had already opened her mouth to answer and said, "And no, I don't mean the actual definition of the word."
"I mean she's like any other teenage girl—like any other girl—she just… happens to be a robot," Michael explained.
"Holy shit," Ashley said in disbelief. "Okay, I fucking have to meet her!"
"Yeah, me too!" Zoey agreed, along with everyone else.
"And that's sort of why I'm bringing this up," Michael said. "See, Evan made this… insanely advanced new body for her as his project for the science fair, and she's going to be presented to an audience—to the world, I guess—next Wednesday, and she's understandably nervous. Especially given that she had a pretty awful experience when Evan first took her out back in December."
"What happened?" Liam asked.
Michael grimaced. "She… basically got sexually harassed by some teens."
Carlos, Daryl, and Liam looked horrified by this revelation, whereas Ashley, Becky, and Zoey glanced at each other knowingly before looking sympathetically at Michael.
"Yeah… that unfortunately comes with the territory of being a woman," Becky said dejectedly.
Carlos blinked. "Huh? You guys have been sexually harassed too?!"
"Oh my god, Carlos!" Ashley exclaimed. "It's not like I've mentioned it a thousand fucking times!"
"No, you haven't!" Carlos retorted. "I mean, you've ranted about men lots of times, but you've never mentioned being fucking sexually harassed!"
"What the fuck else did you think I was talking about?!"
"I don't know!" Carlos said defensively. "Patriarchy and… stuff!"
Zoey burst into laughter. "Carlos, you know we love you, but god damn are you dense!"
Everyone laughed at that.
"There's still one thing I don't get," Daryl then said, turning to Michael. "How come she's a girl?"
"Oh my god! Is she trans too?!" Zoey asked excitedly.
"I mean… maybe?" Michael replied with a shrug. "Honestly, the way she works is so far beyond my understanding that I've just resigned myself to treating her like any other person."
Zoey squealed in delight upon hearing this.
"Anyway," Michael said aloud so as to get back to the topic at hand. "I wanted to ask you guys if you wanted to come over to my place on Saturday to hang out with Mangle and maybe watch a movie, just so she can get used to being with a bunch of new people in a safe setting."
"Oh, hell yes!" Zoey exclaimed. "I am so there!"
"Same!" Ashley agreed.
"Me too," Becky concurred. "This is so fascinating."
"I'll definitely be there!" Daryl said.
"Yeah, me too!" Carlos grinned excitedly.
Daryl turned to Carlos with a raised eyebrow. "Didn't you say you had to help out your uncle this weekend?"
"Oh, fuck that! There's no way I'm missing out on this!" Carlos replied.
"I guess you can count me in too," Liam said to Michael and then blushed. "If… that's okay, that is."
"Of course it is, babe" Michael replied and pulled Liam in for a side hug and a kiss. "Father's not going to be home anyway, and I doubt that Mangle would rat me out."
"What about your brother?" Liam asked.
"He, uh… won't be joining us," Michael replied as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"Why?" Becky asked. "If Mangle is as sentient as you say she is, I'm sure she could use the emotional support."
"He… resents us for the way we treated him when we were younger," Michael replied with a downcast gaze. "He can barely stand being around me as it is, and I'm his brother, and he straight-up refuses to be anywhere near the rest of you."
Zoey cringed with a guilty look on her face. "Yeah, I… I don't blame him."
"Me neither," Daryl agreed.
"Yeah…" Carlos nodded, his eyes filled with regret. "We really fucked him up."
"Have you considered apologizing?" Becky suggested.
"My brother isn't exactly the forgiving type," Michael replied, and then let out a sigh. "Anyway… regarding Saturday, there are some things I have to ask of you."
"Like what?" Ashley asked.
"Firstly—no drugs, no alcohol, yada yada," Michael replied.
"Yeah, we know the drill," Zoey said.
"Secondly—make sure you treat Mangle like an actual person," Michael continued. "We're there to help her feel confident about herself, not treat her like an attraction."
"Of course." Becky nodded. "That should go without saying."
Michael turned to Ashley. "Thirdly—I need you girls to pick out a good female-empowering movie. Could you do that?"
Ashley grinned knowingly at Becky. "Oh, I know just the one!"