I Don't Own Fnaf
That Monday was one filled of a faint sense of uncertainty and worry, not that anyone really brought it up, Mike was no different, he just made sure to make himself look like he always did as he moved around the shelves of a party store with Janet, two carts between them, both already worryingly full, but according to Fritz's calculations all of this would be needed. Fritz himself was with Mari and Goldie working on sorting out the Cove itself, putting in hooks along the walls and spending some time working on making things just easier to modify for next Monday where they would be actually setting everything up.
Later on, once that was set up, they'd all be doing a walk around the town hanging up flyers that Mike himself had drawn up a few days ago and were now all just sitting in a cardboard box waiting to be opened up and passed about. For their first event, Mike was pretty sure they were putting a bit more effort into all of this than was really needed, the kids probably would have been content with something like a small kiddy pool filled with black, orange, and purple ducks with numbers on them, but this was as good a way to put all their focus into something that mattered without the heaviness of what they had been dealing with.
It was just... a break that everyone could get involved in, and Mike was honestly pretty proud of himself that he had come up with the idea in the first place, even if he was still admittedly a bit worried about Jeremy and Phone Guy... Or, Scott, as his name apparently was, not that Mike was going to be able to make that switch in his head easily, the point was, he was choosing to focus on this and trust that his friend could handle himself... And if he couldn't, then that's what Foxy was there for.
Breaking his focus, and bringing Mike back into the present, the sound of Janet's voice caught his attention, as he glanced up.
"What do you think?" Glancing up, Mike instantly snorted at the sight of Janet holding up a costume pack that held a... revealing and stereotypical mechanic's outfit, as he said back blandly.
"I think we'd get sued about a minute after you manage to get Fritz to wear something like that" Janet cracked a grin, but turned the package around to stare at it herself for a short moment, before asking casually.
"You think I could get him to wear it?"
"He'd hold out for about five minutes before caving to his need to please people... Though I bet he'd be real pleased afterwards" Janet blushed a bit, but didn't say anything, telling Mike all he needed to know, though he wasn't sure he really wanted to know that, at all, when Janet not so subtly dropped it into the cart, he let that be known as he said straight faced as he tossed another thing of orange streamers into the cart next to it, "Gross"
Janet didn't look at all perturbed, she had a much better poker face than Fritz did, as she just said with a cheeky grin.
"What? Just because most of this is going to be for the kids at the Cove, doesn't mean I can't get any enjoyment out of this holiday during my own time" ...Alright, that was pretty funny, as he smirked a bit, before moving around to see where she had gotten the costume from, hoping to find a few more that weren't quite as revealing and a bit more sea-faring themed. There were, he just grabbed a few and tossed them in as well, they were cheap things but Foxy had mentioned wanting a crew, and while a job uniform was a bit much, he figured this would be a nice thing for the animatronic. Janet noticed, but didn't comment on the outfits themselves, they had already agreed to get into the spirit with actual pirate costumes that didn't make them look like strippers.
"Grabbing a few extra?" Mike nodded, explaining as he did so-
"Just because these things are called adult sized doesn't mean it's going to be me sized, just grabbing an extra so I can patch work them together for the vest and stuff, though I'll have to get pants from somewhere else" Janet just nodded, letting out a faint 'Ahhh' sound as she did so, making a point to look at his face, making her neck crane up pretty sharply.
"Yeah, I suppose that makes sense, you're, like, freakishly tall" Mike shot her a raised eyebrow, but he was grinning a small bit to himself as he said back.
"It's not my fault you aren't exactly top shelf reaching height" He got a small smack to his better side at that, but it was in good faith, as he moved around to reach up, proving his point, to grab something from one of the higher shelves that admittedly even 'tall' people probably would have had to stretch to get to, as he easily picked it and dropped it into the basket as well.
"Yeah yeah, we all can't be machine or giant you know" Mike just hummed, checking off another thing on the list before looking around, Jeremy had mentioned a fog machine, but Fritz had said the one they found at the warehouse wasn't working the best and that they could rent one from this place if he couldn't get it working in time. Mike himself was planning on seeing if he could get in reserve just in case, given he didn't want the Cove out done by teenagers throwing a party or something.
"How does that work by the way? The uh... Ghost stuff" Mike blinked, glancing back at Janet, before looking around, this wasn't really the best place to answer that kind of question... Or, well, given as he looked around there was a skeleton just sort of chilling there, hung up, maybe it was the best place to talk about weird supernatural stuff without looking out of place, besides there was no one around, and the area they were in had a startling lack of camera for the prices on the items they were picking up... Not that Mike kept track of stuff like that anymore or anything, that would be weird... Totally.
"Not much to stay, sometimes when some machines are around, you tend to... stick around"
"Then... Why isn't there, like, an army of haunted cars?" Mike just shrugged, for a moment ready to say that those cars didn't have a particular puppet around, but... But Mari wasn't actually required for a gift, he's given the most, by far, but his father had figured it out... Hell, Mike himself had given the first gift that any of them knew about, so it wasn't actually some inherently supernatural ability, so... Why weren't there a ton of ghost cars? It didn't have to be an animatronic, Mike proved that, and it didn't even need to be a machine, Jeremy proved that... It took a moment for the information to sort itself out in his head, but admittedly he had been thinking more and more about this whole being dead thing.
"It... Uh, you have to start as... the ones we're familiar with, you know, suits cause of... I don't know, reasons. But if you happen to find yourself in a situation without one, then I hear puppets are pretty good at making things work out anyways" Mari was the outlining factor, he was the one who could do stuff like that, he had mentioned before a long time ago to Mike that he could move souls around, like, literally just out of one shell and into another, no one else could do that, and he was the one that had made both Mike and Jeremy stick around without being put in suits, while all Mike and his father ever managed was putting people into suits but nothing else.
It was kind of... not scary, because it was his puppet he was thinking about and Mari had never actually scared him even back when the puppet had actively tried to kill him, but the occasional reminder of just how powerful the puppet was was kind of startling. It didn't really come up anymore but that it was just... there, under the surface, waiting to be used if needed... Mike could admit that was probably his version to Janet and that outfit she had gotten for Fritz.
"That's kind of weird" Breaking from his thoughts, Mike just let out a laugh before saying casually.
"Welcome to the show, everything's weird" That got a laugh from her as well, as she nodded.
"Yeah, I- uh... I figured that out from what happened last week" Mike blinked before frowning, asking carefully.
"How are you by the way? Everything good?" She just shrugged.
"Nothing that I can't handle, bad dreams, but Fritz has been helping me out" Mike nodded.
"That's good, if anyone knows how to handle Freddy based nightmares it'd be him" She let out a huff at that, but just nodded. The conversation died out a bit from there, as they continued to move around, grabbing a few more things, Mike himself unable to help himself from grabbing a tricorn styled hat that was made clearly for a head of a decoration, but he figured he could pretty easily pad a side of it and get the puppet to wear it, the puppet would get a laugh out of it at least.
It put a smile on his face at least, Mari deserved it, Mari deserved so much... That thought stuck around as they made it to the front as they started to pay at the cashier where a teenager was working, a faint but tired look on his face. Mike just frowned, his eyes flickering over the kid's face for a long moment, noting a few things by how he was half leaning against his side of the cashier counter as he rang them up, making a note of the little name badge on his lapel, as they left.
"You know him?" Mike blinked, glancing over at Janet as they carried the bags out to the van, only to shake his head.
"No?"
"Oh, sorry, you were just looking at him weirdly"
"Oh... That... It's a Monday" Janet just slowly nodded, unsure what Mike was getting at as he turned back, staring at the front of the store, a frown on his face, "He should be in school" Janet blinked, confused for a moment, before looking back, saying casually.
"Huh, yeah, I wonder what he's doing working here then?" Mike just sighed, waiting a long moment, a thought turning and tumbling over itself in his head before finally he couldn't help saying to Janet.
"No idea, listen, mind putting this up? I'm going to run back in and see if they have a bathroom" Janet didn't mind, as he turned and quickly rushed back to the doors, slipping in and heading right to the kid.
"Hey kid, Devon right?" The kid in question looked up at Mike with eyes the man saw all too often, as he said shortly and a bit coldly.
"Yeah? Forget something?"
"No, just... You doing alright?" The kid's eyes sharpened.
"What's that mean?" Mike just sighed, unsure just what the hell he was doing, before reaching into his pocket and holding out his business card.
"Nothing, just... I run a business in town, Pirate's Cove, it's a... Family arcade kind of place, our hours are on the card. It's mostly for kids, but plenty of teens come in to hang out until night if they don't have anything better to do. I'm planning on starting a kind of... volunteer thing soon, so, if you ever want some free pizza and a couple play tokens to burn for an hour or two of helping out then feel free to drop by, or if you have nothing going on and just bored" Devon just stared up at him with clear suspicion on his face but Mike knew the right words to say, and it was clear they had the impact he was aiming for, as the kid snatched the card before to long as he just gave a nod, turning to leave when the kid spoke up.
"Why'd you come back in after you already left?" Mike paused, before just shrugging.
"Nothing, just remembered I have a pile of them burning a hole in my pocket" The kid just stared, but Mike was very good at lying and pretending, and before long the kid looked away and went back to just staring off like he had been before Mike had walked back in, as Mike just let the faint tension in his chest relieve itself as he turned and walked away, back out the doors where he shot a nod to Janet as they climbed into the van and drove off to the warehouse to drop of the goods and give a call to Fritz to come over and sort everything out to be ready to go.
Mike ignored the faint sense of worry in the back of his mind, as he drove, ignoring the weight of his sleeves...
Mike has worn long sleeves for a long time, when he was a kid it was because of the bruises, when he was a teen he refused them out of spite of what they meant, and now as an adult it was to hide the scars... Mike didn't need to remember his own childhood to figure out what that kid's home life was like, but it sure as hell made him a lot more willing to offer a place to get away, especially when he saw the bruises poking out of Devon's long sleeves.
Fritz wiped a line of sweat off his face as he leaned back and looked around the Cove, he had gotten a lot of work done in the few hours that he had been working on getting everything set up for future events, he was happy with everything he had managed so far, even as he moved over to drop down into one of the seats at the tables to take a break as he looked around the Cove itself.
It didn't look like much had changed in the grand scheme of things, and that's because it hadn't, but there was a large number of hooks now installed all throughout the Cove that decorations could be hung from without issue, and he had messed with the speakers for a while to get them loaded up with different tracks that would be more fitting based on whatever they were doing. It would speed up the process of actually setting everything up for the future...
The future... That was quite the thought, one that hit Fritz from the side of the head before he could think of trying to think of something else. The future... It was a very... strange concept to Fritz, and the idea that this was his future, that this was what he was putting his everything into was kind of startling to think about. Helping run a business, a restaurant, planning out and making things ready for him and the others to do stuff with for... years to follow... Now that was a daunting thought.
He had spent the better part of his twenties at Freddy's, and that had been awful... But the idea of spending his thirties at the Cove? His forties? That... wasn't nearly as scary, and in a way that was scary... Fritz wasn't sure how he felt about that, but before he could think too hard about it, his attention was dragged back over to the animatronics he was working with, Mari and Goldie, who seemed to be having a conversation of their own as they moved over towards the man. His eyes locked onto the water bottle in the puppet's hand, giving Mari a very grateful nod as the puppet got close enough to hand it over.
"Thanks" Mari just let out a soft chime before doing what Fritz himself had done and spun around to look over the Cove from the little viewpoint they had gotten to. The puppet had been a massive help for mounting things along the higher parts of the walls and on the ceiling, given he could just float out there and do the work without the need of a ladder... Though having to teach Mari about how to use some of the tools, like a hammer for instance, hadn't been something he had expected to have to do. Then again, he doubted any of the animatronics had a ton of blue collar based experience to pull on.
"This is going to be incredible isn't it?" The puppet sounded downright delighted, and they hadn't even put anything up yet. Fritz smiled a bit, the energy was a bit infectious, it had been a while... Okay, it had been never since the last time they got to do something with the Cove out of their own desire to do something, the first time was because the place had been a mess that had taken two months to clean and get ready, the other was them having to replace half their equipment because of Bonnie, so... Yeah, it was honestly nice to do a project here because they all just wanted to do it.
"I think so, it'll be a nice break for everyone" Mari just nodded, looking around for a long moment before saying.
"Yeah... This is going to be my first Halloween in a long time, I hope we can make it special" Fritz just hummed, glancing over at the puppet, curiosity making him ask.
"Do you remember your last Halloween?" Mari just shrugged.
"I-... Don't think so. I have a memory of baking someone I think was my mother, but I didn't see her, and it... uh, turned into a nightmare pretty quickly after, so I don't know if it was real or not. I was still a puppet in the dream and all, but I knew I was making something for the holiday... It was weird" Fritz just nodded, unsure just what to say to that, thankfully Goldie seemed to have a clue, saying to Mari.
"That happens, in the beginning for me at least I had no idea just what was happening, it's like the present and past overlap a bit and it takes a moment to figure out if it actually happened or not, when was this?" Mari had been nodding along, but at that question he paused, before looking away a bit awkwardly.
"Oh, you know... July?" Fritz wasn't sure why that mattered, but the bear just gave the puppet a very unimpressed look as he said with a tone to match.
"Right, Bonnie?" The puppet nodded, saying quickly like he was defending himself.
"I have been having more dreams recently though! And I know I'm a boy, or- uh, a human boy I mean, when I'm having them, not that the dreams are all that great or clarify anything, but I am having them!" Goldie just slowly nodded, before shrugging.
"That happens too, though that was nearly a year ago for me, next you'll be able to know you're dreaming. At least that's how it was for me, now I just see things and can just recall if I've seen it before I was like this. You're taking the long way around apparently" Mari let out a short chime before just shrugging.
"I can't really help it... I can't help but wonder just who I was though" Goldie just shrugged.
"It'll come to you, same as the others, you're stubborn about it, I was the same at first" Fritz was pretty sure the puppet didn't know if he was being insulted or not given that Fritz himself wasn't sure if that was an insult or not, but no one mentioned it and soon enough, before the talk could go on for much longer, Fritz's phone rang, with the caller ID showing Mike, answering and getting told that they were heading over to the warehouse before swinging by to pick up him and the animatronics so they could get to work with setting up all the stuff they had just bought.
The arrival of Jeremy and Foxy came around the mid afternoon at the warehouse, about an hour or so after everyone had gathered back there with a van full of supplies and a day of working on stringing everything together, Bonnie hadn't bothered to interact with them all beyond showing up long enough to see what they were doing and then leaving, muttering something that no one was close enough to hear.
Mike didn't really care that much, to busy working on everything, getting it all unpacking, looping streamers around each other, setting up decorations so all they needed to be done with was being hung up, it was a lot, but with him and everyone else working on it, the work went by surprisingly quickly, so when Jeremy did arrive to help out after his trip back to AR, everyone was ready to ask questions that putting him to work.
Fritz, who was the closest to the door, and therefore the first to notice him and Foxy, gave the two a wave and was the first to broach the subject, calling out as the two joined the group.
"Hey! How'd everything go?" Jeremy just gave an awkward kind of shrug that said nothing about what could have happened as he explained his last few hours.
"It... uh... Could have been worse?" Now that was alarming, as everyone began to walk over to get the proper recap... While Foxy had no issue in just jumping into explaining it all.
"Well you all see, after an incredibly awkward drive along the desert seas, we found ourselves at the horrid underground lair where the ol' Phone instantly wet himself and rushed off the second we made contact with the wire-y beast from down below! Needed to be consoled by yer's truly" Foxy ended the speech with his hand and hook on his hi, jutting his chest out as much as he could, and all around looking very satisfied.
Mike just glanced over to Jeremy who shot the fox a short look, but honestly looked a bit amused by the high energy, as he turned back to the group and translated the pirate speak.
"We got there and found Ennard... It was a bit tense, and uh, it almost came down to a fight, it freaked Scott out a bit so he ran off, Foxy went to calm him down and I talked to Ennard for a while... They aren't... all that in sync, it really is three of them in there and they all have very different opinions on some stuff, but we talked, and they all agreed that they didn't want to be down there, so when Scott's ready, I think they'll behave, at the very least I'm sure they're desperate enough to not want to put a toe out of line with the hanging threat that we could put them back there if they tried anything" Mike just nodded, asking quickly.
"So he didn't take them with him?" Jeremy shook his head.
"No, uh, we talked about it afterwards, he said he's going to do a few more visits before he can be certain he should bring them with him" Mike just frowned for a moment before deciding that it still wasn't a no, but not quite as much of a yes as Mike himself had been hoping for, as he decided to raise the mood a bit by saying.
"Right, well, let's hope he does that and doesn't just pretend the place never existed in the first place. In the meantime, get over here and tell us what you think, cause the rest of us are starting to see in only holiday themed colors and are losing our perspective on what's good or not" Jeremy smiled a bit but nodded, moving over to help out while Foxy bounded forwards at the invitation to talk about everything, and oh boy did the fox talk about everything, having an opinion on literally anything that crossed his line of sight.
It was all in good fun though, as everyone moved to get back to finishing up the large stretches of work. No one had noticed afterwards for a while when Jeremy had slipped out from the group proper with a number of things in his hands from the pile of supplies as he wandered around the warehouse, searching out the one person that wasn't with them.
Jeremy himself wasn't entirely sure this was a good idea, but with everything that had been going on with the Ennard situation, along with the thoughts he's been having about this for a long while now, he couldn't help but at least give it a shot. It's hardly like he was in any danger, Bonnie wasn't likely to do anything to hurt him or anyone else nowadays, at least he hoped so, but if not then the others were not even a minute away if something did happen.
Finding the rabbit wasn't too hard, though he was a bit surprised at where he did find the animatronic. It was one of the empty crates... yet it wasn't just any of them, it was already furnished. He didn't need to think about just what this container was, he had been told of course, from when he had stumbled upon this one months and months ago when he had been sorting through the warehouse, he had been told by Mike. This was the place where Mari had been held...
"You going to stand there gawking or do you want something?" Breaking free from his thoughts, he glanced back to the reason why he was here, Bonnie... The animatronic looked much better than the last time he had seen him, Fritz had done an admiral job with the parts that he had collected from AR the last time they all had been there. While the parts weren't quite fitting properly and of different material, they had been painted the same shades just well enough that it took a close eye to see the parts of Bonnie that had been replaced in his suit, but beyond that, he almost looked fully repaired, as Jeremy noted the way those bright green eyes were in place of the white dots that he had become almost adjusted to seeing.
"Sorry, just was surprised to find you here" The animatronic just shrugged, turning away from where he was sitting on the ground, at a small kiddy table, staring at it for a moment, before looking away, as Jeremy himself took that as a chance to step in a bit closer to look at what the animatronic was looking at. It was a paper that clearly had been left out long enough to age it, with a pretty rudimentary drawing on it of a few animalistic figures that Jeremy was pretty sure were suppose to be the toy animatronics, Mari was in the middle of them if the black and white figure was suppose to be the puppet... He glanced at Bonnie before asking quietly.
"You didn't draw that?"
"Nope..." Jeremy didn't push it, didn't acknowledge the wave of pained emotion from the bunny, instead moving a bit closer, holding out the small bag filled with the few things that he had collected, as he said as he moved to sit down to the animatronic that was still sitting away from him, and said calmly.
"Well, I guess there aren't too many places in this place to be able to rest, at least this one is carpeted" Bonnie didn't say anything, just still just sat there, probably wondering when Jeremy was going to get to the point if the wave of impatience had anything to say about it, as Jeremy just waited a moment before pulling up the bag and resting it on the table, saying carefully, "I noticed you didn't seem to interested in hanging out with the rest of us, but we're going to be here for a while, so I figured I'd see if you were interested in making any decorations"
The animatronic just shifted, before saying.
"What? That's why you're bothering me?"
"Do I need another reason?" Bonnie slowly turned around and stared at Jeremy, saying after another moment.
"Usually..." Before he suddenly huffed, turning away sharply as he said back. "You're just trying to get more hands to help aren't you? I don't want to help your damn pizzeria!" Jeremy tried to not flinch back at the sudden rise in volume, as he said carefully.
"You don't have to do that if you don't want to, if you want, I can just drop this stuff off and you can just have the supplies to mess with. I bet it can be pretty boring staying here all the time, Goldie complained about it before and I'm pretty sure he could go a month without moving if he wanted to, so I figured it must be pretty bad" Bonnie just shrugged, but did turn back to watch Jeremy as he pulled out the items in question, it was mostly just some of the coloring supplies and some of the more arts and craft items that he'd have to tell Mike he had taken before the man turned the warehouse upside down to try and find. But that was for later, as the bunny just stared for a long moment before saying.
"I guess... The bear's a jerk" Jeremy just hummed.
"Yeah? I guess he can be pretty abrasive sometimes" Bonnie let out a harsh huff.
"Sometimes? Try all the time, he's always complaining about every little thing I do, and he doesn't even let me use the arcades in the office or anything! He's just a massive jerk!" The animatronic let out a loud huffy sound before sharply crossing his arms over his now repaired chest in a way that Jeremy was certain meant the kid was pouting. Jeremy fought off the small smile on his face at just how easily the animatronic was talking about this, as he said casually and as unbias as he could.
"I see, that must be rough, but he hasn't really had his own space before, he's probably just protective over it, I hear you haven't been the best roommate to his things either" Bonnie just continued to pout, sitting still for a long moment, before saying in a small voice.
"It's his fault, not letting me do anything"
"Have you asked?" The animatronic's silence was answer enough, as Jeremy said carefully, "Maybe that would help... Though I'm not too sure the two of you will be getting along great anytime soon. Goldie's pretty good at holding onto grudges" Bonnie just shifted a bit before saying.
"I don't care if he does, as long as he stops being such a jerk" Jeremy just shrugged.
"I can talk to him about that if you want?" Bonnie turned and shot him a suspicious look, before shaking his head.
"I don't want some wannabe night guard doing anything for me... Why are you even still here, you dropped off your stuff, go away" Jeremy frowned, just for a second, before pulling the expression on his face before the rabbit could notice, as he just slowly nodded, moving to stand up as he said.
"Alright, if that's what you want, I'll be here tomorrow if you want to talk some more or just if you need more supplies, that's fine to" Bonnie just watched him as Jeremy moved to leave, unsure if he managed to really accomplish anything, but at the very least feeling good that he at least started to talk to the animatronic... The kid seemed lonely, something Jeremy could only relate to, too well.
Goldie was honestly just relaxing, he had been doing a lot of work the last few weeks, by actually working, and now with the whole event stuff, having been forced into practicing routines with Foxy that he honestly was mostly just going along with because the fox seemed excited about it more than any of his own enjoyment, practicing was just boring to him, but he still did it. Still, the point was, he was alone... Minus an annoying rabbit that hadn't actually bothered him today, or for a little while now thinking about it... so he was enjoying it as best as he could.
At least that was the plan... until the phone started to ring, as he lifted his head up a bit to stare at it, pretending there wasn't a faint flash of excitement because he couldn't be sure who it was, the warehouse got a lot of calls recently from the Cove crew asking Goldie about certain things that they were just too lazy to come over and see for themselves... And because of Samantha, who had become something of a reoccurring callers as well, they had spoken multiple times now, and while it often wasn't very long, with Samantha often ending the call only a few minutes after calling, they found themselves talking about pretty normal and mundane things in that short time anyways that Goldie was pretty sure meant they were friends.
Though, thinking about it, it was pretty late, well past the evening at least and into the night.
The memory of the last time he had a night interrupted by someone from his friend group popped up in his mind along with the images of a blood soaked Fritz and damaged Marionette, which instantly made him push those thoughts down and away. Getting up and heading over to the phone with a bit more speed than normally would be necessary, he picked it up and spoke into the line aiming for casual to not show any nerves, "Hello?" A now familiar once answered back.
"Uh, hey, Evan" It wasn't one of the others, meaning it wasn't anything horrible happening. The bear ignored the faint pleased feeling that it was her that mixed in with that relief that nothing was wrong, honestly he wasn't sure why he liked talking to her so much, maybe it was because she was just a break from everything, or maybe she just was that interesting, hearing small tidbits about her life, about a normal life, of someone who apparently wasn't much older than him from what he could gather... It was nice to hear, even if it did make his hollow chest sometimes ache with knowing he'd never get that for himself.
"Hello, you're calling a bit late"
"Yeah, just... Wanted to talk about something" She sounded nervous as the bear frowned to himself for a short moment before saying back.
"What about?"
"Uh... Just... Wanted some advice I guess" Now that made him a bit worried, they had talked about plenty, but advice? That sounded like something serious, and something he could mess up really easily, he wasn't really great at giving sound pieces of advice to people, given most of his responses, according to his brother, were 'Dangerous' and 'Unnecessarily violent' which he had a feeling Samantha wouldn't be interested in hearing. Still, he took a minute to not sound slightly panicked, and said back.
"What kind of advice do you need at... half past twelve in the morning" It was late, Goldie honestly wasn't sure why he was still up thinking about it given how tiring the day had been, but it was always kind of hard to keep track of things like that in the warehouse, there weren't much in way of windows in this office and that's where he liked to be most of the day and night when he wasn't working.
"Family advice... You mentioned a brother before?" Goldie felt his springs creak a bit as they instinctively tightened, as he said quickly back.
"Uh, yeah, but I don't think I'm the best to talk to about sibling help" The line was silent for a moment before she asked back carefully.
"No? Sorry, just... I figured you were close" G-... Evan had no idea how to answer that, so he just went with the truth, not like it mattered right?
"We are now, but we weren't for a long time"
"Do you... Do you mind me asking what happened?" Did he mind? Kind of, but honestly, something in his chest kind of wanted to talk about it, not everything of course, but when was the last time he just got to talk about what he went through without the things that came after holding him and the conversation down? He couldn't talk to Michael about it of course, neither talked about that if they could help it, and he just wasn't comfortable with bringing something like that up with Fritz or Jeremy, and Foxy just... He didn't want to burden the fox with that mess... Still, he wasn't that comfortable with actually saying everything that happened, he wasn't sure he'd ever feel that comfortable to talk about everything he had gone through, and yet he found himself talking all the same.
"It's not much to say, he was a lot older than I was, and I was terrified of everything and he was angry at everything, we just weren't a good combination. Eventually I got hurt because of something he did, and he went away for a long time... Last year we reconnected though, he found me and apologized pretty convincingly, talked about it all over time, stuff like that, and I think we're pretty close now" Evan knew they were hardly best of friends, but they were brothers again, and that mattered more than anything for the bear, it was something he never knew he'd treasure as much as he did, having his big brother back in his life, even if it did make him feel childish at times.
"I see... You, uh, you might be the best person I can ask to be honest, I don't really have anyone else I can talk about this that would... I guess understand what I'm trying to do"
"Well, I can try, but I'm not going to promise anything in terms of incredible advice, I'm not really the best at that kind of stuff"
"No, that's fair, just... I have a family member, my own brother, and we...haven't talked in a long time" Evan could guess where this was going, as he said blandly back.
"And you need tips on how to talk to him? I'd recommend starting with hello" That got something of a laugh which the bear counted as a success, even as she said back quickly.
"Yeah, probably, just... It's complicated, like, really complicated, you know?" Evan huffed at that.
"Yeah, I get family being complicated, if yours is anywhere as messed up as mine is then you'd need more help than I can give... What's the issue? Was he like mine and a massive asshole?" Evan didn't really curse much, but it felt fitting and he was sure Michael would agree, even as it gave a surprised snort from Samantha as she quickly said.
"No! Well... I mean... I don't know, so much has happened and everything, we got... separated when we were younger... uh, divorce and stuff" She said it more as an afterthought, not that Evan really had any reason to say anything on it, that was one thing he didn't know about in terms of family drama.
"Sounds hard... It's not going to get easier, you just have to rip the bandage off and go for it. It sounds like he won't be angry or anything, so there's nothing to really be worried about"
"Yeah... Nothing" She didn't sound at all convinced, as Evan just frowned, wondering what else there was to say, when she suddenly said.
"Thanks, Evan, seriously, I'll think about it, you might be right, I've been putting it off for a while now, it's just..."
"Daunting?"
"Yeah, that"
"I get that, but someone needs to take the first step, and if you want to do this, then you can't be the one who keeps her feet planted" God, he sounded like Michael, gross.
"You're right, I-... I think I'll do that... When I build up the courage"
"Well, I wish you luck"
"Thanks... And, uh, Evan?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm sorry"
"About what?"
The line went dead before he could get an answer, as he just pulled the phone away from his head and stared at it for a long moment in faint confusion and a bit of concern... Before deciding maybe she was apologizing for calling at such an early hour, maybe? He wasn't sure, but in the end, he placed the phone back on the hook and moved back to the couch.
The week seemed to fly by, and before anyone knew it they were working on setting up the Cove, the decorations being moved out and about, filling the walls over the course of two days of full of constantly asking questions to anyone around who would listen while doing their own thing if 'this looked right', the fact that none of them really were experts in interior design made it a bit of a guessing game, but at the end of it, Mike was pretty sure everyone was proud of what they had managed.
The Cove was covered in streamers of multiple colors, being red, orange, black, and purple, all loosely wrapped around each other and hung from the walls and the ceiling letting them hang in the air in a way that looked nice, if a bit cheesy, along with a number of hanging 'spooky' items from the ceilings as well, such as small skeletons, paper ghosts, spiders and webs, and the like. While the walls were covered in cartoonish renditions of jack-o-lanterns of multiple different styles, some had fox ears, others had the faces being incredibly similar in style to a certain puppet, and others were golden with purple little hats, that had been mostly Mike's efforts, and the animatronics all had loved them from what he could gather, even if Evan wasn't all that vocal about it when he saw the ones in his own likeness.
There were also multiple little stands scattered about next to small little game areas, which there was enough that two whole rows of the arcade machines had been moved out to have space for some of the little mini games that they had concocted. There was a ton, from a small tub full of spooky themed ducks that had numbers on the bottom, to a jar filled with fake plastic eyes to guess the amount, and even a small little scavenger hunt that they had put together, there was more than they had expected they had planned when it came to actually shoving it all into the Cove.
The kids though could play those games and could win 'special' tickets that could be exchanged for candy which could be gained from going to the Prize Corner. Mari had been thrilled to overhaul the Prize Corner, using up a fair bit of the room the side room had that hadn't really been used much before to add in a large long folding table with a bunch of types of candy and little cartoonish prices next to them to be exchanged by the puppet himself who had a massive bag of candy in place of where he normally stored extra merch to restock throughout the day behind the main prize counter.
There was an air of energy to the Cove as he just watched as everyone moved around, trying to make small adjustments to get everything just a bit more perfect, as perfect as it could be for them with how little they had an idea of just what they were doing... But somehow that just made the whole thing better, that old sense of pride he had in this place that he hadn't noticed had slowly been dying out with the more and more connotations he learned about what had first started to take place in these walls came back and burned brighter in his chest as he looked at it all.
This used to be his father's and Henry's, but it was his now, and this... all of this in front of him, seemed to reinforce that new thought in a way he hadn't realized he needed, it was almost like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, making it just a tad easier to breath without as much pressure pressing down on him that he admittedly had been putting on himself.
Honestly, things could have been so much worse... It was weird to feel grateful after the last few months, but damn Mike was.
Being interrupted from his thoughts, he turned just in time to see Jeremy walking over towards him, as he just shot the man a nod as Jeremy spoke once he was close enough.
"Hey, uh... Do you mind if we talk about something?" Mike just glanced over at Jeremy, the man seemed anxious but not in any way all that distressed, so he just nodded, glancing back at the Cove before saying.
"Yeah, what's up?" Jeremy just looked around for a moment, his eyes catching on the Prize Corner where Mari was still working on trying to make everything just a bit more perfectly placed, before glancing back to Mike who got the message pretty easily, even if the silent words in it confused him a bit, as he turned to move towards the doors, "Outside it is"
"Thanks, it's... I don't know, just want some advice on something" Mike nodded as they found themselves outside as he looked around the empty parking lot for a moment, before focusing on Jeremy who looked around as well, though mostly it seemed out of not wanting to look directly at Mike himself, before finally saying, carefully, "I- Uh, I was thinking about something recently... well, for a while now really, but with the Ennard stuff it made me realize we haven't really been doing as much as we should about Bonnie you know?"
Mike just slowly nodded, he didn't think so personally, his brother was staying with the rabbit and hadn't really mentioned anything, neither had Foxy who was constantly over at the warehouse, Fritz was constantly working on Bonnie and if it was anything like what happened with him and Foxy, the two probably spent plenty of time talking, and that's not mentioning he knew Mari had gone to talk with the animatronic a while ago, though the fact that Mike hadn't been told anything about it afterwards, he figured that meant it was private, and not anything bad because otherwise the puppet would have talked to him about it, at least he figured Mari would.
So to Mike's knowledge, the rabbit was getting as much attention as he needed, but maybe he was missing something, admittedly his thoughts had been focused pretty heavily on everything that had been going on with AR and all the things that had come from going there, so it was completely possible he had missed something, he had made a point to himself to let the others handle Bonnie a long time ago, back when the situation was fresh, because of the animatronic's dislike of him.
"I guess you could say that, why, do you have some thoughts about what we can do?" Jeremy looked incredibly awkward, looking around for a moment, before saying carefully.
"Well, I just... I thought about it, and given how Bonnie and Goldie don't really get along, and given just how many bad memories there are with him at the warehouse, I don't think him being there is helping him any, so..." Mike just blinked, the two didn't get along? That was news to him, as he just frowned to himself, but nodded all the same, Jeremy wasn't exactly the person one would claim to be seeing things that weren't there, if he said they didn't get along, then that was the case, but he had no idea why his brother wouldn't have told him that. The feeling of being out of the loop wasn't a great one, as Mike spoke.
"Right, well... What are you thinking? If the warehouse isn't a good place for him... Are you about to ask if I can take the rabbit in? Because I don't get the feeling me and Bonnie would be able to get along, especially when he'll eventually catch me and Mari being domestic" Given from what Mike had seen of the bunny, he was incredibly protective of the puppet, and while Mike could understand that, it was also very obvious that Bonnie disagreed very heavily about Mike and Mari's friendship, and that was when it was a friendship, and not them actively dating, and Mike didn't feel like dying in his sleep.
Thankfully Jeremy quickly shook his head.
"No, no... I, uh, you're right that would not be a good idea, but... With Scott trying to work on helping Ennard and maybe in the end taking them in... It made me think about it for a while and Bonnie isn't dangerous to anyone like Ennard is, so... I was wondering what you'd think about maybe me taking Bonnie back to my home?" Mike... blinked once, then again twice, before saying.
"I mean, it's... an idea, but what spurred this on? I mean, I'm not going to say it's a bad idea, just... Why?" Jeremy looked a bit uncomfortable for a moment, looking off to the side, before saying.
"I think we've been overestimating just how well Bonnie has been taking all of this... He's not like Mari who went through almost the exact same thing, Mari's a grown man, but Bonnie's... he's a kid, he's probably barely a teenager, and it just... It doesn't sit right with me to just hope things turn out right when I know what it's like to feel like a kid who has no idea what's happening or where they stand in the world for... For being different" Jeremy looked away at the end of that, and Mike was suddenly only to understand just where the man was coming from, as he looked off to the side as well, asking carefully.
"I'm not going to say it's a bad idea, hell you made a really good point, Bonnie can use all the help we're willing to give him, and if you want to, then I think it's a good idea... But you'll have to convince him of that yourself, you're right, he's a scorned teen, and trust me when I say they are a pain to convince to do anything, especially if it's in the best interest" Jeremy nodded, clearly knowing that, though... Mike couldn't help but ask, "Why talk to me about this? You said you wanted advice right?" Jeremy didn't say anything for a long moment, but still, turned back to face Mike, before saying earnestly.
"I mean, you basically raised Goldie right? And you've gone through, like, the worst childhoods I've ever heard of for not being put in a suit, so I figured if anyone would have tips on how to help an angsty teenager out..." Mike... Wasn't sure which part of that to focus on first, so he just shook his head and said.
"I-... Guess that makes sense... What kind of questions you got?" Needless to say, the two talked for a while before heading back inside, Jeremy content with more information and the agreement of the validity of his idea, and Mike slightly exhausted and a bit worried about the validity of what basically felt like a whole lot of parenting advice coming from a guy who really sucked at raising his siblings... The reminder of their childhood had stung more than he wanted to admit, thinking about Elizabeth usually did that to him, but he just ignored it with long practice and continued on his day.
Mike found himself staring at the mirror for a long moment, shifting a bit as he adjusted the jacket along his shoulders as he looked himself over. He looked... raggedly, but that was a bit of the point, as he looked over the lightly beaten up pirate outfit that was adorning his body. He wasn't really sure how he felt about it, it had seemed like a funny idea at the time when he came up with it, and had already talked to the others about it to make sure it wasn't in bad taste or anything. Mari had thought it was a bit much but hadn't stopped him, and Evan had just called him an idiot, so Mike figured the only hold up was now him.
The last few days of the events had been wildly successful, he and the others had been swarmed with so much business that it was kind of shocking, and today... Well, it was a Saturday and it was Halloween, and Mike was pretty sure that this was probably going to be the most busy they've ever been, not that he was going to complain, Jeremy had mentioned that by Thursday that they had already made their money back and then some, this was probably going to be one of their most profitable weeks of business since the height of the Summer rush they had a few months ago.
It made it very clear to Mike that these kinds of events at the Cove needed to happen a lot more if they wanted to get back to having a savings that they could rely on. At the very least they'd need to do something to capitalize on the fact that it was the holiday season with the winter season just about around the corner. Tis the season to be spending way more than someone probably should... Oh crap, did Mike have to start thinking about Christmas gifts soon? He... hadn't ever actually bought anyone anything for Christmas since... Well, he was pretty out of practice, and he had so many people he needed to get gifts for now as well...
Before he could continue to panic about things that were months out from when he actually had to worry about them, the sound of a faint knock on the bathroom door shocked him out of his thoughts, as he heard Mari's voice calling in asking if he was almost ready. Mike just took that moment to turn back to give himself one last check up and over in the mirror before committing to doing this.
He wasn't in his normal uniform for work, though a familiar security badge was still secured to the long and stitched together vest he was wearing, but honestly the hasty stitch work helped add to the look with how he had sliced the thing up and put a number of rips into the fabric, along with a beaten up and artificially dirty white under shirt that had a number of suspicious looking red stains, his jeans were as well a bit more tattered than normal. While his skin, while naturally in theme for what he was going for, had been done up a bit with some Halloween makeup that Mike only barely knew what he was doing with, adding in blotches of darker blues, purples, and blacks to his already greying and dry looking skin which really added to the aesthetic, as leaned in and looked at his eyes.
This had been a difficult part, getting the fake and colored contacts in was a pain and made Mike very glad he didn't actually need glasses or contacts in his day to day life, as a pair of milky white eyes stared back at him. All in all, as he ruffled up his purposefully gritty looking hair, and reached over and picked up a skull and crossbones bandana, twirling it up and then wrapping it around his head like a headband, he figured he made a pretty convincing zombie pirate, as he called back to the puppet.
"Well, I'm looking as dead as I'll ever be," Before reaching out and pulling the door open and said while putting on a smug grin, because he honestly was kind of proud of the costume, "What do you think?"
The puppet was seemingly caught off guard, as he leaned back a bit, taking Mike in fully, before letting out a delighted chime.
"Oh! You look you'd be an incredible extra in one of our horror movies, impressively rotten" Mike grinned before sending a wink at the puppet, saying back as his own eyes wandered over the animatronic in front of him.
"That's what I'm going for, you're not looking bad either" Mari let out a soft slightly embarrassed chime, but Mike was being honest, the puppet looked... Well, not scary, but that was a given for Mike, but certainly adorable. The puppet had gone for a slightly different theme after wearing the pirate hat Mike had gotten him over the last few days during the events leading up to the big proper party day.
They had talked about it, and while most of the crew would be filling in the pirate crew theme, Mari had wanted to make his first real Halloween a bit more unique, not that Mike could blame him, so the two had spent a while looking into different kinds of simple ideas that would work well for the puppet, given he would still have to work in the outfit and be suited to his body.
In the end they had decided on something simple yet fitting, as atop of Mari's head sat a striped black and white witch's hat with a large orange bow on it, and a nice flowy white and black cloak that was resting on his thin shoulders, and a spiffy little orange bow tie around his neck, along with two other thing, his mask paint. Mike hadn't been allowed to see the puppet up until this point, while he had been getting ready Mari had been redoing his colors, and it looked good, the red on his cheeks and lips were now orange, and the light purple stripes down below his eyes were now a far few shades darker.
He looked incredibly cute, and Mike was more than ready to mention that as he leaned in a bit to try and get some teasing in only to be stopped at the sound of his phone ringing from the other room, as he shot a look over in that direction with an annoyed huff, debating on ignoring it when Mari instead spoke up, his tone filled with delighted energy.
"Let's get going! I want to get there early to make sure all the treats are set up and ready to go for the kids!" Mike could only nod at the energetic puppet, as he watched Mari float off to the kitchen were all of the counterspace had been taken up with trays of Halloween style cupcakes, cookies, and the like, leaving Mike to collect his phone, as he shuffled over and grabbed it, answering as he held it up.
"Hello?" The line was silent for a long minute before on the other end a familiar voice spoke up.
"Uh, hey Michael... Do you have a moment to talk?" He blinked to himself, a bit surprised to hear the voice, it had been a while since the two had talked, but he nodded to the empty room, saying as he did so.
"Yeah, well, I'm about to head to the Cove to get ready for the party we have today, but I can still talk for a minute. What do you need, Charlie?"
"Just... I-... It can wait... Can I come over tonight? After you're done at work?" Mike frowned, this was suddenly beginning to sound a lot more serious than he was expecting the phone call to be, as he said back.
"If you don't mind me acting about as dead as I'll be looking, then no, but are you sure that's fine? We'll be going pretty late given it's a holiday and all"
"It's fine, just... I really need to talk about something"
"Right, sure, no problem, I'll see you tonight... Everything's alright, right?"
"Y-yeah, don't worry" Mike frowned, but let it be, as soon enough the call ended, as he pulled the phone away as he stared down at the phone in his hand for a long moment, before shrugging, it was probably nothing, maybe she just wanted to catch up? He'd have to mention it to Mari, but he doubted the puppet would mind, with how much of a good mood the puppet was in.
So with that he went back to the last few stages of getting ready for the day before facing the music of the puppet by helping him load in an ungodly amount of sweets in the car... And if he happened to sneak in as many comments about what he thought about the puppet's outfit while sneaking some of those cupcakes into their fridge for later, then that was neither here nor there.
Fun fact, the average length of chapters has dramatically gone up in the last while. I'm sure it's been somewhat noticeable, but for a long stretch of this story the average chapter length has very consistently been in the 6.6 to 6.8k range. The average of the last five chapters is 8.3k. That's pretty neat, it's only going to be climbing from here if I'm being honest. I mean, this chapter along is ten and a half thousand words which is pretty crazy isn't it? Anyways, that's boring technical talk that's not all that important really, just I think it's neat just how much more I'm writing in this and the future sections , this one is the longest for a reason after all.
Anyways, into the chapter talk, this was a highly segmented one, which is fun, and the reason it's so long is because of just the place I need it to be ending off as, as I'm sure if anyone can read context clues... Something pretty interesting is going to be happening soon. I wonder just who that random mystery caller of Goldie's is? Ha... I'm so good at foreshadowing, totally... Anyways, Charlie's going to have a fun talk with Mike, just like I'm sure Jeremy and Bonnie are going to have the funniest talk ever in the history of forever. That man has such a soft heart, I adore it.
Oh! One last thing given I'm writing this right before posting it the next day... Happy Pride people! It's June and therefore my gay ass is immortal for the next month... Now if only the world got the message and stopped trying to have me killed, that would be great... Anyways! I'm off to continue to write everything under the sun, in the mean time... See ya!