I Don't Own Fnaf
"I don't need to leave!" Goldie rolled his eyes at the whining tone in the fox's voice, before saying reasonably down the phone line.
"Well, I want to talk to you in person, and I can't go over there, so you'll just have to come to me. Unless you aren't interested in talking" The silence over the line told the bear all he needed about the sudden stricken thoughts going through the other animatronic's mind. Was it a bit mean to corner the fox immediately into doing what Goldie wanted him to do? Maybe, but Goldie was fine with being a bit mean if it meant getting around his friend being stubborn, especially when it was for the fox's own good.
"I- I mean, I want to talk, just... I can't leave" Goldie held back from mentioning how that made no sense, given the fox was more than capable of doing whatever he wanted, and instead just asked further.
"Why not?" The line was quiet for another long moment before-
"Because... Because I wasn't here before, so I should be here now just in case" Goldie paused at the quiet, almost guilty, admission from the fox, as he tried to make sense of it. Was... Was Foxy feeling bad because he didn't happen to be at the Cove when it was attacked? That was... Dumb. Goldie had a feeling he should probably try to find another way of saying that, though as it stood, once more the bear found himself annoyed that he didn't quite know how to talk to people, as he said.
"In case of what? A random person breaks in? There's no threat to the Cove" Clearly he hadn't said the right thing to say, as Foxy went on the defensive, a faint rougher tone to his voice bleeding through the accent making the guilt masked over by the anger in his tone.
"We thought that before and then that damn rodent went and brought another fox to my den!" This... really wasn't a conversation for Goldie to have, this was something one of the others would have been infinitely more suited to handle, but he was the one on the phone, so he just took a second to try and think of anything to address that that wouldn't sound like he was being more than a bit mean this time around, and found the words leaving his mouth before he could help it.
"We couldn't have known about it, so are you just going to sit over there waiting for something to happen?" Goldie couldn't do comfort, and he couldn't tell his friend he was being paranoid over nothing, so he just had to point out the lack of logic in Foxy's words and hoped the fellow teen could be able to figure it out for himself.
"If that's what it takes! It only happened the second time I left! What if that damn bunny waited until it could strike at the best moment? I ain't giving another chance!" While Foxy tried his best to sound as serious as possible as he spoke, Goldie could still hear a hint of something else in his voice, past the guilt.
"Bonnie is shut down and completely under my watch, he can't hide now that I know what he's doing. So unless you don't trust that I can keep an eye on the animatronic and keep it from doing any more damage, you're going to have to tell me the actual reason" The phone line was quiet for a long moment, before Foxy quietly spoke up.
"I-... I need to do this alright?"
"Why?"
"I just... I just do alright?" Goldie was beginning to understand what the elder Afton had meant when he had said Foxy was being a lot like a stubborn teenager. But unlike any level of annoyance that the bear was certain he would feel in any other circumstance with another person, Goldie's patience just continued as he asked once more.
"Is it something you don't want to tell me?"
"N-No... Maybe... It's nothing"
"Doesn't sound like nothing if it's keeping you hostage over there"
"I'm not being held here! I just-... It's dumb" Goldie chose to not say anything, and like always with Foxy, he couldn't handle the silence for long as he stumbled over a hesitant explanation, "You'll think it's dumb. And it's not like it's a big deal, so I'll just stay here, nothing you have to worry about"
"I think I'll be the judge on what I think is dumb or not, and even if it is, you could still tell me" The silence was a long one, making the bear consider for a moment if he was more mean than he thought to the fox, when Foxy finally spoke up.
"It's just... I'm not doing anything you know?" Goldie didn't know.
"Not in the slightest" A huff came over the line, showing that the fox wasn't appreciative of having to spell the issue out, but the bear really just had no idea what the fox meant by saying that. Didn't do anything? What did that even mean?
"You know... I don't do anything, or at least I have nothing to do, you're guarding the sprog, Jeremy's being busy being sick and Fritz is taking care of him, but even then he's still repairing things, Michael's making plans and basically leading the charge, and Mari's been around making notes and doing things. I haven't had to do anything and I... I don't like it" Goldie frowned to himself at the mix of pitiful and pouty tone in the other's voice.
"I mean, it's not on you to do anything, and I'm sure you are helping"
"I moved broken stuff around for a few hours, but that was days ago! The least I can do is make sure nothing else get's broken while everyone else is actually doing these business things that they don't want me involved in!" Ah... Goldie thinks he might have just figured out the issue.
"Do you have an issue with it?" He hadn't expected the sudden explosion he just got.
"I- How couldn't I! They just... do stuff, and I'm not told about it, just perform my heart out and just wait until things change! I'm the star now, right? The captain? Shouldn't I at least be kept up to date with this? Shouldn't I be responsible for doing more than just... stand around until someone needs something moved and I'm the only option? Should... Shouldn't I be able to do more?" Nor was Goldie ready for the way Foxy's voice slowly lost its energy until it was a conflicted and uncertain voice that had lost all his rough pirate overtones, leaving only the person inside.
"Have you talked to anyone about this?"
"No, it wouldn't change anything, they see me just as a kid, it's unfair" Goldie did his best to not point out that Foxy was in fact a kid, and instead said.
"Not talking to anyone about it probably isn't helping, they can't read your mind, at least, Jeremy's too busy being sick to do the next best thing" That got a reluctant huff from the fox, which wasn't really what the bear was going for but considered it a win all the same.
"Maybe, but it's true, I'm just a kiddy to them, no different than the ones that come in. I'm not told about anything important, my title just for show" While Foxy might have had a point in most other circumstances... Goldie was barely old enough to be considered an adult, and he had more than a few serious and not so kid friendly conversations with practically everyone on staff at one point or another, most of which was when he was seventeen himself.
"Have you actually ever asked or shown any interest in knowing about the business outside of performing?" ...Goldie slowly took a moment to not sigh audibly down the line at the telling silence, and instead said simply, "So, when do you want to come over?"
If anyone asked, Jeremy would say it was the soup as to just how he was able to be up and moving again after only five days of being stuck in bed, he normally found the very idea of eating when he was sick like this to be enough to have him puke, but Mike somehow managed to get around that. For most that might sound like a lot of time to be sick, especially when at his age most colds only should knock someone down for a day or two at most. But as it was, it was pretty good for him, which was good because after finally waking up without feeling like death, he wanted nothing more than to move around and do something.
Nothing was worse than being stuck in a bed feeling miserable without the ability to be able to do anything, even Fritz, who was nice enough to move a radio into his room so he could at least listen to something, hadn't been able to really take away from that anxiousness and bad feeling of knowing that there was so much more that Jeremy could be doing, really should have been doing, before he had managed to run himself into the ground with his fever.
So here he was, at the Cove, looking over the budget and holding back a pained look with what he was seeing. Fritz, who was with him, given the man had to drive him here so he could finally pick up his own car since it had been left in the parking lot for the last week, just gave him a sympathetic look. Telling the younger of the two all he needed to know about their situation without even having to look more closely at what they had to work with. Clearly one of the two others had already done the numbers during his required bed rest.
"Being closed is going to bankrupt us if we try to replace everything we lost, we might have to take out a loan just to make sure we can keep up with operational costs... And we're less than a month out before schools are back in session for the kids" He didn't need to mention that most of their busy over the past few months had mostly been because it was the summer and parents needed a way to keep their kids busy during their work days. Without that... It was going to be rough.
"Mike said he had an idea, we'll have to see how it pans out, but we also talked about other options. We hadn't had to go through with it before, but we do have the warehouse which is still full of junk that we just don't need or even know what it's for. A ton of it we could probably find a seller for" Jeremy slowly nodded, but still reached up and rubbed his temple all the same.
"Maybe, but that's time we'd have to spend organizing it, looking into finding people who'd want random scraps of old Freddy's junk, and we just don't have time for that. We need to get our doors back open as soon as possible, we're already a full week of income lost and that already would have hurt us. We were comfortably in the green, but not enough for something like this, we'd be out of our savings and then some"
"We'll make it work, we kind of have to" Jeremy sight but conceded the point, there wasn't much of a point of groaning about it, but he had spent the last several days bedridden worrying while being sick out of his mind about all of this stuff, so seeing it all now, showing just how much this was going to hurt... Well, Jeremy wasn't one to get angry easily, but he could admit, he would be having quite the bone to pick with Bonnie once the animatronic was sane again.
It hurt to see the Cove like this, the main floor was painfully bare of tables, half the machines had been moved into another corner to be moved later once they had transportation, another thing the men would have to think about, the main stage curtains being torn to pieces as well... It just hurt. He had thought a few days after seeing it like this, when it had first been wrecked and he had been the only one to see the destruction, it would have been easier to deal with, but the emptiness... It hit something in his chest that he was painfully uncomfortable with.
"I guess so... Here's hoping Mike's idea pans out" Fritz managed a small grin at that, as he said with a slightly less strained confidence.
"They usually do" Jeremy smirked a bit at that as well, saying back.
"You mean they start off as a good idea and then usually leads to more trouble" Fritz nodded.
"Well, yeah, but as long as it keeps us out of the red, I think we can handle a bit more trouble... As long as it's not bunny themed, I'm really sick of rabbits at this point" Jeremy felt that to his soul, as he said.
"No kidding... You know Bonnie used to be my favorite, at least as much of a favorite as one can have when they've tried to kill you a few times" Fritz just hummed at that, seemingly thinking something over himself before saying.
"I think my favorite was Freddy, the main star and all that, though that might also be because he was one of the ones that only really got aggressive in the later parts of the week... I'd ask Mike later who his favorite was but..." Both stared at each other for a moment before laughing, as Jeremy just shook his head.
Maybe things were hardly the best, but it was hardly like this was the worst thing the group had gone through, they could handle this.
"H-hello hello?" Phone guy sounded as nervous as ever, unsurprising really, the man seemed to go through paranoia spirals from what Mike had been told by the people around him that actually liked to interact with the man over the phone, or at least felt obligated to check up on him occasionally, as he was sure Fritz didn't actually find the stuttering and constant anxiety all that charming. Though perhaps Mike shouldn't be able to say anything, as he felt his own anxiety surge as he found his voice speaking over the line.
"Hey, it's Mike, I had a question for you about something"
"O-oh? Is it about what I heard? The Cove is shut down right now right?" Mike frowned, it had only been a few days, but apparently the man had been keeping some kind of track on the business given he was pretty sure Fritz had been too busy to think about updating Phone Guy of all people about the status of the Cove. Still, he heard himself speaking anyway.
"Yeah, something happened, if you want I can tell you about it in it's whole murderous animatronic glory" He got a very fast and stumbling denial, clearly Phone Guy wanted to hear nothing about the idea of haunted animatronics, which Mike was more than fine with, he didn't really want to explain it all anyways, "Well, to summarize, the past tried to kill me again, just an old cast member looking for a... surprise encore, but it's been handled, everyone's fine, but the Cove was wrecked a bit"
"And you thought I might know some people to talk to about replacing everything that was broken?" Mike raised an eyebrow to himself at the sudden not so stumbling words coming from the man's mouth, but the few times they did talk, it seemed that discussing straight business was a whole lot easier to get a direct answer out of the man than anything that had to do with any of the animatronics.
"Sort of, I'm hoping first we can just get everything replaced through other means before we have to shell out the cash" The man on the other end didn't seem to have anything to say, but Mike just continued, "I've been meaning to actually talk to you about this for a while now, but things kept coming up"
"Oh, I see... I hope you aren't trying to get me implicated in anything... Heh" The laugh at the end came way too late to be genuine, more just something because the man was back to being nervous and the extra second of silence made him uncomfortable. Mike rolled his eyes a bit, before saying.
"Nothing like that, just need any information you might have had on a place called Afton Robotics, it was my dad's company? Ring any bells?"
"Oh! Uh... Yeah, I know about it, I thought you would have as well" Mike wasn't blind enough to not notice the very clear hesitance to the man's voice, as well as something else, a... reluctance that wasn't the same as the rest. Mike bulldozed forwards, uncaring too much about just what was bugging Phone Guy about this, he needed to know this information and that was mostly what he cared about.
"I'm still playing catch up on some stuff, I mostly thought it was just a paper company, but I got some old statements recently about it being a whole location where one of the old Freddy's sent requests"
"Right... Well... I suppose you're asking so you can look to see if there is anything there that you could use?"
"Yeah, and just anything you know about it, there aren't a lot of people I can ask about this"
"Yeah... Uh, well, there's not much I can tell you really, I mean, I know things of course, but it wasn't something that I was directly interacted with, it was a... project that your father had in mind, Afton Robotics was mostly separate from Freddy's, and after the original one closed it's doors in the end of '85, then they tried to their own thing for a while, made a whole new brand, ever heard of Circus Baby's?" Mike frowned at that, the name not striking any kind of memory, the feeling he was missing more and more beginning to spread in an ugly pattern throughout his chest as he answered.
"No? What's that?"
"Another pizzeria, Circus Baby's Pizza World, it... it didn't go anywhere, but everything was set up and ready for it. Had a location and everything from what I heard, but... there were some... technical problems, gas leaks I think, so it closed soon after. I don't think it even lasted a week actually, then, uh, then your father... left. The place was left in limbo for a while after. Then, uh, Freddy's picked it up for a bit I think, for the location in '87, it was used as a creation plant for some of the animatronics, though most of them didn't go anywhere and were replaced or moved out over time, just outdated ideas. I don't know much after that, I think it got abandoned after that Freddy's... fell through"
Mike felt himself frown more and more as he continued to listen to the man speak, that wasn't... It was sad to hear, and there were obviously a lot of things that he still had to learn about this place, apparently his dad had tried to make a whole new chain? But... But it hadn't failed, and then he vanished... Shaking his head, just to clear his thoughts, Mike spoke over the line before too long a silence could form.
"R-right, mind giving me the address?" The line was quiet for a long moment until in a more serious voice than Mike was expecting, Phone Guy spoke up.
"I can, but the place went under, it's one big abandoned building that hasn't had any upkeep in years, and there's a good chance you'll be trespassing. Even if there are things there that you could use, there's a chance that there are going to be things that... that you're not going to want to see" Mike frowned at the ominousness in the man's tone, as he took a moment to try and figure out just what that meant, before saying.
"What's that mean"
"I mean Freddy's isn't the only place where I'd expect skeletons to be found, maybe not quite as literally at Afton Robotics, but there are some things that are better left unsaid, things I don't know and couldn't' tell you" Mike... Mike felt something heavy settle in his lower gut at the news that this wasn't going to be something as simple as he wanted it to be, at least, it wouldn't have sounded if he went out in search of answers, which... Well, it was a low chance of that not happening, but at the same time...
"I'm not planning on snooping right away, I just need to find where they kept the old machines so we can have things to replace our broken parts with. Even then, it doesn't matter if I want to or not, we don't got much choice unless you know someone who's willing to handle transportation as well as give us one hell of a discount" The silence over the line was answer enough, as Mike soon found himself with the address, and soon after found himself putting his phone down as he let out a sigh, sinking lower into the couch from where he had placed the call from. he could already feel a stress headache coming on.
It was always one thing after the other wasn't it? A whole other restaurant, one that didn't even last a full week from the sounds of things. It made something in the back of his head itch with paranoia, but before he could start falling down some thought spiral that would lead him no doubt to thinking the worst of whatever it was that they were going to have to deal with in the coming days, he found instead a familiar pair of hands laying themselves on his shoulders and a comforting voice ask.
"Find out what you wanted?" Mike leaned his head back just enough to see Mari hovering behind him, as he felt a small smile pull itself to his face in spite of his mood as he said simply.
"Guess so, we'll have to find out if that's a good or bad thing later though" Mari just let out a humming sound as he leaning in a bit, so his arms were wrapped around Mike's shoulders now, as the man just enjoyed the closest letting the thoughts fade for just a moment, as he reached up and placed one of his own hands over Mari's arm.
"It'll work out" Mike just hummed this time, not really wanting to think about it, but answering all the same.
"Maybe, but I'm a bit too used to things going horrible for me to hold out too much hope... I'll talk to Fritz about it tomorrow, we can talk it over and then head over in the afternoon if nothing else breaks before then"
"Not Jeremy?"
"Well, I'll tell him of course, but we need Fritz because he's the one that knows what to look for to make sure if we do find anything, to make sure it both works and is something we can use... Have you ever heard of Circus Baby's Pizza World?" A confused chime was all the answer Mike really needed, but Mari answered all the same.
"No?" Mike figured not, but he found himself explaining it anyways, before deciding that he needed to keep his thoughts off the matter, and got up to go get started on dinner. Silently enjoying the quiet following Mari did without a second thought to keep close to the man. He could remember a few months ago when he found the strange almost clingy actions of the puppet's as almost overbearing and smothering, now... Now it just made his chest feel warm and the want to just hold onto the animatronic grow stronger.
Though, after they had finished talking about the business side of things, Mari took a second to pause, while Mike moved about the stove, before saying something.
"Hey Mike?" Mike glanced back to give the animatronic his attention, "Have you ever wondered who I was?" Pausing for a moment, mostly out of surprise of the topic more than anything else, the man replied fairly quickly back. It was an easy thing to answer.
"Sure, I haven't put to much thought into it though, I know you aren't all that curious so it felt wrong to try and find the answer out without you knowing or wanting to know" Mari let out a small chime, feeling a warmth bloom through his chest at the simple admission of not wanting to pry in the other's past, it didn't sound like a lot, but this was Mike, the guy who couldn't help but want to pry into things.
"Thank you, but... I've been thinking for a bit now, and I had a talk with Goldie and Foxy about it as well, and I think... I think I might want to find out" Now that really caught Mike by surprise, as he made sure to reduce the heat of the stove, just in case, before turning back to Mari to show his surprise, as the puppet quickly went on to say, "Just, I didn't think it would be that big of a deal, but I've been already having dreams, even without Bonnie causing some of them, it'll happen eventually right? So..."
"Do you actually want to know, or are you just trying to get ahead of it before you find out in a not as controlled manner?" Marionette winced at the blunt and simple breakdown of the issue, as Mike noticed, clearly about to rephrase or say something to try and take it back, but the puppet answered before Mike changed his words or Marionette himself could lose the nerve to answer.
"Both, mostly the latter though if I'm being honest... I-... I'm not worried per say of what I'll remember or anything, the bits that I do are nice, but... I don't know, am I just being silly?" Mike could only shrug, moving to be a bit closer to the puppet to make Marionette's eyes look up into the other man's so they weren't looking away, as he said.
"Maybe just a bit, but there's nothing wrong with that, you can have any reason you want" He gave a soft smile, and Marionette couldn't help but feel his chest warm up with how caring the simple action looked as Mike continued to say, "Just need to tell me what it is that you want, so I can do my best to help" A soft trilling note left Marionette along with words he couldn't hold back from saying.
"I love you" Marionette adored the way Mike's face expressed shock for just a second before, unwittingly no doubt for the naturally stoic man, his expression melted into one of a faintly embarrassed infectious smile, a light blush dusting his cheeks at the simple truth. A truth Marionette loved to say at any opportunity partially for that reason, the other being just how warm he felt being able to say it out loud so easily.
"So you think that this place might have some things that we can use then?" Mike nodded at Fritz's question, before explaining in more detail.
"Definitely, if it's like the warehouse, then I bet everything from this Circus Pizza Place ended up just being brought back to Afton Robotics to be stored away, some things might have been sold off later or what have you, but I bet there's still a ton of things that just got left, from what I was told, the place was basically abandoned after the Circus came and went with it's spectacular failure" The man slowly nodded, seemingly agreeing with the idea of it on paper, before he suddenly frowned before asking cautiously.
"Wouldn't that mean there is probably also the animatronics that were used at that pizzeria there as well?" Mike nodded, but Mari quickly chimed in.
"Maybe, but they shouldn't be haunted or anything, the events that happened at Freddy's was a very... unique set of circumstances that led to me and the others becoming like we are. I doubt it would have happened at Circus Baby's if it truly was open for so short a time, even if Miller was potentially involved, he just wouldn't have had the time or the means to do anything" Mike ignored the faint burning in his chest that knew just because they wouldn't be running into any haunted machines, didn't mean that there wasn't the knowledge that there had still been kids killed in the attempt anyways. Still, Fritz seemed much more secure in the puppet's knowledge, as he said a bit more readily.
"Right, then we'll have to drive over there and see just what all we can work with... We can do that right? You're not just implying we break and enter and just steal everything that's not bolted down" Mike... was pretty sure he was supposed to be offended by the half serious tone in his friend's voice, but it was a very fair thing to ask, so instead he just shrugged and answered honestly.
"The place is abandoned, we could... But I've already talked to Jeremy, he's looking into making sure that nothing is going to get us in trouble. But it shouldn't be an issue, I mean, my name is literally on the building, and even then, the place is abandoned and well out of the way, chances of even being noticed is slim already" Of course, even as he said it, Mike was pretty sure he didn't actually own or had any standing with Afton Robotics, otherwise the lawyer he used to get everything else would have known about it and told Mike himself way earlier. Meaning it had probably been sold to Fazbear Entertainment or had been completely shut down before that and therefore out of anyone's technical legal ownership. But it didn't hurt to double check, it would be nice to not break the law, though needless to say Mike had no qualms about doing so, especially when it was incredibly easy to get away with.
...Mike hoped Jeremy didn't have any moral hang ups about forging documents to make it seem like anything they took from Afton Robotics were things that were actually in the warehouse... Well if he did, then Mike could do it, wouldn't be the first time.
"Right... Well, I'd rather wait just in case to see if it's legal or not, then we can head over and take a look around closer in the evening or night if it is" Mike... debated for a long second on mentioning going at night was much more suspicious if anyone did happen to drive by, before deciding that Fritz was probably already being stressed as it was to go with the plan even if it was illegal in the end, and as such counted it as a win and kept his mouth shut on that topic.
So of course when he had opened his mouth to talk about something else, the sudden ringing from the back room caught his attention pretty handedly, as the three men turned to look mostly from how it broke the silence more than anything else, as the ringing soon stopped, given Jeremy was in the office doing research on the window installing company Mike had found when the man was out of commission to see if they could get some kind of deal out of them, showing the blonde man had picked up the phone.
Turning back to Fritz to continue the conversation, he was stopped again by a hand on his shoulder via Mari, as he glanced back and noticed the puppet nodding his head back to the office, where Jeremy was now standing, waving for Mike, apparently, to come over... Right, apparently it was one of those 'important' calls.
"Right, I've been summoned, be back in a minute" He glanced back to Mari and gave him a questioning nod in the direction of Jeremy then Fritz, the puppet just let out a chime as an answer which was all Mike needed, as he left while Mari would keep the conversation up in his steed, the puppet knew Mike wanted to at least see if they could head over there and see if there was anything that they could get before actually taking anything, so it was on Mari's shoulders to see if he could get Fritz to do that much at least while they checked out the legalities of their future actions to keep their doors open.
Now at Jeremy, Mike just raised an eyebrow as the shorter man said.
"We have a call about hosting a party" And now Mike was confused. Sure, they had gotten a number of calls over the last few days, a surprising amount really, asking everything from when they would be open again, to asking if everything was alright, and even if there was anything they could do to help. Apparently Pirate's Cove was something of a hot spot among the community, or at least there were parents who appreciated getting rid of their kids in a consistent manner and wanted to make sure it wouldn't be going anywhere. So a call wasn't unsurprising, but all three men had answered them at this point and had handled them, so Jeremy calling Mike over made him think it was something else, as he asked.
"Did you tell them that we're closed for the next few weeks?" Jeremy just nodded, looking conflicted for a moment, before saying quickly.
"Yes, I explained that the Cove was undergoing 'renovations'" Mike snorted at that, but it was a good enough excuse, one he kind of wished he thought of before now, "But they asked if we could do something else, they asked if we could rent out Foxy for a house call, they seemed pretty desperate" Now that got Mike's attention.
"Did they? What did you say?" Jeremy just scratched the back of his head.
"That we could but my boss would have to schedule it?" And that explained why the man looked lightly flustered, "I kind of put them on hold so..." Mike just slowly nodded, thinking that over, before saying.
"We could really use that income couldn't we?" Jeremy nodded.
"Yeah, it's kind of why I agreed before I could really think about it" Right...
"Well, I'm sure Foxy would be delighted to hear he's being requested for a private show. Right, I'll talk over the details. How much do you think I should charge? Same as a normal private party plus… what? The trip costs fifteen percent?" Jeremy thought it over before saying.
"I'd say twenty-five percent more, the calculators in there" Mike just nodded, before looking back to the other two in the empty Cove before saying quickly as he moved into the office.
"Hey, go ask Mari if he'd be interested in performing. If we're lucky they'll want him as well and I can upcharge them a bit more" Jeremy, ever the capitalist, quickly nodded and moved to do as asked, while Mike finally entered the office proper to pick up the phone. Apparently the crew at the Cove weren't quite as out of business as they thought they were... Maybe while they were working on their 'renovations', Mike could get the word out about renting the animatronics out for parties, house calls would definitely help make up the loss in income... But if that's the case, then they'd probably have to offer a free one to the few that they had to cancel parties at the Cove for...
Thoughts for later, right now Mike reached down, took a small breath to get his 'Business Owner' voice in place, as he picked up the phone off the receiver, and said with confidence.
"Hello? This is the owner, Michael Schmidt, I was told you'd like to rent out one of our animatronic performers? If that's the case, then I should let you know in advance before we start talking about the details, if you wish, you can get both for a small discount if you so wish, as well as all the other things that we can offer as a service, such as plates, a cake, and other such things" He was largely bullshitting, but no one had to know he was making up every word he was speaking.
And within a few minutes, they had a party scheduled for that Monday... which was tomorrow... Mike hoped Foxy didn't mind probably needing to come up with a whole new routine for what would be a much more interactive and direct experience for the kid... It shouldn't be that different from their normal private parties, so hopefully it wouldn't be too bad. Just one more thing to think about and work around, but one that would hopefully help keep them in business while they were working everything else out.
I'm going to be trying something... new with Arc three of this story, at least, structure wise, it's probably not going to be super noticeable, like, at all, but it's something I figured I'd mention, this chapter for example is a lot more segmented, there will be a few of these kinds of chapter structure that shows up occasionally.
Admittedly, Arc two went a bit long in small places because it was only around chapter twenty-five when I finally finished what I had planned for that section of the story, while here, I've got myself bullet pointed out for the next twenty-some chapters and will be finishing up the planning for it soon... unless I get distracted with the actual writing part. But yeah, this one's going to be more like Act one, more streamlined and directly spooky plot heavy, but with some clear layers of character interactions which act two was filled of. Basically I'm going to try and reach an even mix of both and hope I don't flail around like an idiot in the attempt. At least that's the plan. Anyways, See ya.