I Don't Own Fnaf
Scott had a busy morning, though that was to say almost all his mornings always seemed to be busy nowadays.
Breakfast, for when he remembered it, had become something of an important cornerstone of the day. Eggs often bunched themselves into the kitchen to watch. Scott really didn't get it, but they loved food related stuff, they especially loved watching things get eaten. The cooking channels were the most commonly played thing on the television nowadays, though they had some weird obsessions with breakfast specifically that didn't come up for the other meals nearly as much.
Not that any of the other things that Scott made were all that complicated, nearly everything he made was just some variation of something he could toss into a heating implement and then bite into whatever came out of it after a set amount of time. Currently it was toast, with Eggs hovering right over the toaster, staring into the slots, probably trying to see the bread brown up in real time.
It was kind of... cute? Maybe not that, but seeing a five foot seven wire monster stand against the counter, peering over into a toaster of all things with obvious fascination with how many of their numerous eyes were locked onto the sight, was... Something. Endearing, somehow, but also most definitely something.
He had thought about asking about it more than once, but whenever he thought about it, he then started to think about just what the answer might actually be and got a bit too cold feet to actually manage it. But if the kids were happy with watching toast be made then... Well, he supposed that was good enough for him? Or, was that just something to show just how little he actually gave them to do if this was one of the more interesting parts of their day?
Scott decided to not think about that at the moment, mostly for his own sake, because he was already almost always fretting about doing this all correctly in the first place. He really had no idea about how to take care of a kid, much less three, especially under the current... circumstances.
So he didn't think about it, instead saying over to Eggs.
"Hey, would you mind taking them out and putting them on a plate once it's done? I need to go grab something from the bedroom" He... wasn't really sure just why the animatronic twitched like they did at his request. Maybe they were going to refuse? He tried to not ask too much, or, really anything from the three if he could help it. Partly out of not really knowing what was and wasn't too much to just ask, and partly because of his guilt making him not want them to have to do anything more than they needed to, which often mostly just included ruining couches and losing the tv remote.
But surprisingly the three seemed... more excited than anything, their head twisting around to look at him while their body didn't move from standing facing the toaster. Scott did his best to act like he had gotten used to seeing such horrifying sights of body twisting. The worst part was it wasn't that hard to manage because as it was, he really was getting used to it. Eggs had no interest in acting like their body wasn't malleable and manipulatable in ways that hurt Scott's bones just to watch.
"Yes! Y-You got it Scotty! Anything else?" Uhh... Scott just blinked, not expecting enthusiasm, but... Maybe he should have? He shook the thought off and instead just asked carefully.
"I mean, if you want to start the coffee going I'd really appreciate it?" The animatronic half twisted about as they moved in the direction of where Scott kept the coffee grain bag... Yeah... That's probably going to be fine. Turning away, he moved out before heading back to the bedroom, he really did need to grab something that he had forgotten, though it didn't take nearly as much time as he had apparently made it seem, but Eggs had seemed excited about the idea of doing something, even if it was weird that a robot wanted to make food of all things.
He had been told in passing that the marionette was the one who did all the baking for the Cove, he wondered if it was just a robot thing, to make something they could no longer have? He didn't like to think about it that way so he chose to stop thinking about it at all, and instead went back to the kitchen, his reading glasses that he had snatched from the bedside table in his bedroom in his hand.
Only for the smell of something acrid and bitter hit his nose the second he had crossed a certain invisible threshold within the hallway from the point where it was closer to the front than the back. Gagging a bit on nothing but air, Scott found himself very unwillingly taking a deep breath and holding it as he rushed forwards, unsure what had happened, but knowing it couldn't have been good, as he rushed into the kitchen and... saw...
"W-What are you doing-/I'm making coffee!-/No you idiot that's milk/Milk goes in coffee/Are we supposed to use the stove for this?/O-obviously, that's how it get's warm!" Scott could only watch in horror as he stared at the burning on the stove, cranked to full blast, encased the bottom of one of his plastic cups, which was already turning a violent and charred blackened mess, as Eggs continued to talk casually amongst themselves while tossing in everything from milk to creamer to sugar into whatever other liquid and items were already in the cup before it had been placed onto the heat.
"M-Move!" The animatronic jerked to the side a bit, which Scott was thankful for, given there was no way he'd actually be able to push them to the side even if he had wanted to, as he reached over quickly to turn off the burner before trying to grab at the top of the cup, trying at the same time to not look into the murky brown mess that was left inside of it, with clumps of poorly incorporated cubes of brown sugar. Scott didn't even know he had brown sugar, the thing must have been in the back of one of the pantries, no doubt solid as a brick at this point.
Not that knowledge helped the fact that Scott couldn't get the cup[ to budge, the bottom, that was mercifully thick enough to not have been melted through already, had melted and merged through the heat to the metal of the stove table... He just had to pull his hand back after a second when the remaining heat made his hand ache with warmth.
Unable to really do anything more but just stare mournfully at the sight.
"D-Did we do it wrong?" Scott felt a strange noise emit from his throat. Somewhere between a pained whine and a startled awkward laugh as he just stared at the sight before him. The animatronic's whole body twitched at the sound and before he knew what was happening, they were speaking again, though clearly to not him, "I told you we weren't doing it right!/Shut it! I knew what I was/Then why is Scotty broke!/Oh will you two be quiet?/Shut-/-up!"
It didn't happen a lot, but it wasn't too uncommon for something to happen that the three couldn't manage to have some level of cooperation enough to stay... together. It is usually because of Poach and Ben, they fought more than any other combination of the three, with Fritta often usually not quite being the voice of reason but just annoyed and offering snide comments when she wasn't looking to play peacekeeper. It was always uncomfortable to watch, seeing the way their body twitched and the eyes around them spasm around. Not pulling apart physically, the red cog on their chest kept them in place, but it was still not something Scott ever liked to see, as he spoke up quickly, trying to gather their attention.
"H-Hey!" They didn't notice him, as the sounds of voices began to get louder and for some reason more frantic, as he tried to call out again, only to be overrun by noise, as he finally had to take a step back, panicking a bit, before finally shouting, "HEY!"
This time they heard him, and this time the reaction was more than he was expected, as Eggs nearly jumped straight into the air, their body twitching and spasming as they jerked around to look at Scott who was still standing there, and only seemed to just realize that he had been there the entire time, as they flinched back a bit, their voices all merging back into that mess of noise that was impossible to make anything out of, Scott just winced and did his best to not shrink back from the sound and the way their eyes seemed locked onto him, as he asked carefully.
"Mind, uh, repeating that?" They're eyes flickered all over his form, a few rolling back and around to stare at the stove behind them, before finally saying quietly.
"Sorry about the coffee" Scott just stared at them, apparently for long enough for them to start twitching again, as all of their eyes rolled back to look at him fully, as he just stared. Just like always when they did something that caught him off guard, he had no idea just what to say, much less do now that they had seemingly gotten in a fight over it with themselves. Still, it was getting awkward as he managed to let out a sigh to at least act like he was thinking instead of staring off into the void space between the two of them. Only the animatronic seemed to take it the wrong way, saying a tad nervously now. "Y-You're not mad... Right?"
Scott could only blink, the blank look on his face, because he truly had no idea what the hell he was suppose to look like after watching the mess of what had happened in his kitchen, quickly being replaced by a look of confusion, because out of everything that both had and more importantly hadn't gone through his mind, being mad certainly wasn't one of them, as he managed to finally turn his focus onto the animatronic who was being surprisingly silent, grasping at the direction that they had given him to to into, and found himself speaking before he could mean to stop it.
"I- No? Of course not. I mean, I'm not happy about the cup, I mean I liked that cup, and it's, uh, well, it's probably not going to be easy to get it unstuck from the metal, but I'm not mad. It is just a cup, it's fine. I- uh. Well, I probably should have known that you three wouldn't know exactly what went into making coffee, I should have showed you the process instead of just leaving" He was rambling now, but he really wasn't sure just what he had been thinking, of course they had no idea just what went into making coffee. They watched him do it a few times, but they also saw him put a mug on the stove to make tea, it wasn't unsurprising that they got the two processes confused.
"You can do that now!" Scott blinked at the surprisingly enthusiastic tone of the wire animatronic, as he made to stop himself before he continued on to ramble about... whatever it was that was liable to come out of his mouth, and instead just asked.
"I- I mean if you're sure? It's not hard, but it doesn't involve the stove, we use this thing, the coffee maker" He could have sworn he heard a faint 'Told you so' from somewhere, but he assumed it was a muttering amongst themselves that he wasn't supposed to have heard, so he made a point to pretend he hadn't heard it. Instead moving over and noticing, thankfully, that the toast had been taken out and hadn't been left in the toaster to get burnt to a crisp.
It really wouldn't have made the situation better, given the kitchen smelled awful, as he moved over to the sink and reached up above it to crack the window, before moving over and starting the fan to be able to hopefully get the smell out somewhat quicker without it seeping into anymore of the house. He was very glad that he'd be spending the rest of his morning in the office. He had no idea how Eggs was dealing with it, even other deep breaths made him feel like he wanted to gag... Did they even have a sense of smell? They could see, and they saw a lot, cause they had a lot of eyes, but it's not like they had a nose either...
Scott decided he had no idea and he wasn't sure just how in the world he was supposed to ask something like that, so instead of bothering he just banished the thought away and decided it would be much better if he never thought about it again. If only for his own sanity of trying to make sense out of something that never had before.
Instead he focused on making sure to make the most average cup of coffee in his life, making sure to show off the measuring cup in the bag of coffee grounds that the animatronic had dubbed the 'weird spoon' when they had gotten the bag for themselves. Showed them how to use the lines on the pot to show just how much to make for the amount of grounds that he had put in. Made double sure they knew what a coffee strainer looked like and how important it was, and before long, a pot of coffee was being brewed, and Eggs continued to look fascinated with it, leaning in close to see the way the now dark brown liquid poured out in a small stream into the pot.
Scott really didn't get it, but he just let them be, instead moving over to grab the butter from the fridge, mournfully realizing he really should have put it out when he first started this endeavor so it wouldn't be like carving a brick to get something out of it, but he still managed, and did his best to ignore the gleam in Eggs' many eyes and the weird half cackle that escaped them, as they saw the stick of yellow fat and cream, as he managed to get enough to start to melt on the slab of barely still warm bread.
Them randomly laughing or making other out of place noises wasn't exactly unexpected, they had whole conversations all the time in a way that Scott would never be able to hear, and while it had freaked him out, a lot, early on, he liked to think he had somewhat got adjusted to the randomness of it.
Even if he did occasionally wonder just what all he was missing out on, not being able to hear what all was said between them. They didn't often actually talk out loud separately, and thinking at each other felt weird when he still didn't really know just how the merged thing worked, so, like with the nose thing, he quickly decided to stop thinking about it. Instead moved to just get his quick and admittedly a bit pathetic, breakfast over with so he could escape to his office and away from the still present acrid smell.
Sadly though, just as he took a sip of his coffee, and was getting ready to reply to the many questions that were coming from the wire animatronic about what coffee tastes like, a knock interrupted his thoughts, as the two turned to look practically at the same time to stare in the direction of the sound. His eyes glanced over to Eggs, like they had any idea who it would be, though one or two of the eyes did twitch back to meet his gaze, even if the ones in their head were still locked in the direction of the front door.
Scott decided that wasn't a good idea to let them focus on that, just in case... Anything happened, so instead he quickly cleared his throat as he got up to his feet, patting awkwardly the animatronic on the side to let them know they needed to move a bit to let him actually get past, before heading to the door, his mind moving over the confusion that was racing through it.
Scott wasn't sure what to expect, the mail people knew at this point he wasn't really the type to accept anything in person, the people who knew him knew to call before showing up, so the only person he could think it could be would be a concerned neighbor, which... With how busy everything had felt and no doubt how much louder the house was in comparison to the time in the past years where he was too scared to so much make a sound... It probably was genuine concern. Given there might be actual smoke being pushed out of the window he just opened to get the smell out, maybe they thought he had accidentally started a fire and were making sure he was alright?
It wasn't like he could really explain himself, even minor explanations wouldn't really be able to do anything, because those explanations wouldn't really make much more sense. How was he supposed to explain that he had more or less adopted three kids, much less that those kids were a wire monster that both was taller than him and several times heavier?
The names alone would get him weird looks. Who named their kids after ways of cooking an egg?
W-Well, not that they were his kids or- well, it was just...
The knock thankfully grounded him back to reality, as he realized he had made it to the door, as he just gulped, preparing himself to have to figure out a way to convince his neighbor he was fine, before grabbing the door knob and opening it up to... See someone who was very decidedly not his neighbor.
Scott felt frozen as he stared in mute terror as Clay Burke stared right into his eyes, an unamused and cold look to his eyes, clearly about as happy to be here as Scott felt about seeing him.
"U-Uh... Hello?" Burke just grunted.
"Callton, we need to talk" Scott very much had to hold himself together so he didn't start to shake, as he blinked, once, then twice, gulping lightly, as he leaned back, glancing back into his home, the smell the last thing on his mind, as he saw the way that Eggs leaned out of the side, staring right at him, before, without a second thought, waving, as his face twisted up into a grimacing smile to try and at least not feel about the many ways something would go wrong with a cop in his house, as he turned back quickly and said mostly out a desperate hope the man wouldn't ask to go inside.
"S-sure, we can talk out here?" He said it like a question when he really couldn't afford any other answer than a yes, but thankfully there was some mercy in the world, as the man just nodded, looking not really relieved to not have to deal with all the hassle that came from being invited in, probably expecting Scott to have stumbled over offering him coffee or something. Scott wouldn't have, it was about as aggressive as he could get, not being stutteringly nice, but still.
He wouldn't have.
"Whatever, listen, I need information" Scott just gulped again, his brain replaying the last time this man had told him that. About how last time he had been questioned it had been in handcuffs, in a tiny room, with the man sitting across from him with a metal table placed between them and a one way mirror to their side. He did his best to push the thought away, but it was hard, with the way the man didn't seem to care to do anything other than glower at him, as he managed to stutter out.
"A-About what?" There were a million thoughts that raced through his mind, about the man asking about Mike and his history, no doubt knowing that Scott must at least remember him from when Mike wasn't the giant man he was now, but a teenager that was still admittedly way too tall. About the Cove, maybe he had found out somehow that Scott had been there before, had connected a few other businesses with the Cove, maybe knew about how he was still in touch with Fritz and to a lesser extent Jeremy, both who might have something to say to him but not to the police, maybe-
"Henry Johnson, what do you know about him?" Maybe Scott was way further out of his depths than he thought possible. HIs mouth opened and closed more than once, and before he could help it, words were stumbling out from him.
"Ah, who?" Apparently a decade of being under or at least glanced at by the police for working for one of the most disastrous companies in the history of the state, meant that even now, nearly two years later, he still couldn't help but deny or admit to anything. Which was good, because he was too busy panicking over how Burke knew that name, much less to talk to Scott about it. Sadly, it was very clear that the man didn't buy it, and even worse, he had proof.
"Don't give me that Callton, I called up a few businesses around the state that are into that robot crap from the remains we gathered from the burned building, a few mentioned you had been making calls and that their machines had been bought by a man named Henry Johnson... So answer me, who is Henry Johnson" Scott just stared at the man, as two thoughts rolled through his mind at around the same time. One, that he was so screwed, the man had connected him to freddy's and therefore the second he had an answer about who Henry Johnson was, Scott himself was no doubt going to be dragged in for even more questioning, and two... He had no idea who Henry Johnson was, and he never would, because the man never existed... But the name did...
His voice filled his ears before he had even realized he had started to talk.
"I mean, I can't tell you much, I never met him. Sheldon asked me for some help, and that's all I did, just made some calls and got them some things to fill the building with, anything beyond that... I don't really know, I never even got paid for it. I was only told the man's name was Johnson, and I don't know any Henrys, not after... Well..." Burke's eyes were sharp, as they looked over him, but Scott hadn't told a lie, it was all information he had been given by others, anything outside of that wasn't what Burke was asking after all. And Burke knew just as well as Scott did about just how dead the only Henry with a stake in Freddy's was. He had been there for that funeral after all.
The man wouldn't make the connection.
No sane man in a sane world would even think of making it. Of course, that doesn't mean the man was done, he never was.
"I see... Do you find it strange that you're the only one that worked there that isn't dead? Everyone else was found, everyone else but a man by the name Henry Johnson that I can't find a single record of... And you. What do you think about that?" Scott could feel the way his heart was starting to race, the uncomfortable weight of what he was saying and implying laying thick in the air. Burke thought it was him, he thought Scott was... Oh god...
"I- I mean, it's a bit weird I guess, but I never really worked for them like I said, I wasn't even paid. I-If you want proof, I have the phone call recorded somewhere, where Sheldon called me to ask for help. I mean, if it would help" The man stared at Scott for a long moment dead in the eyes, and, frankly, it was intimidating, but somehow Scott managed to keep the man's line of sight through it all. Maybe living with a wire monster covered in eyes was making him immune to threatening looks? He wasn't sure, but after a second, it was Burke who looked away first.
"I see... I don't think it's you, you're too much of a coward to do something like this" Scott couldn't withhold his wince at just how bland the man's tone was, like it was simply just obvious that Scott was to meek and cowardice to do anything like what had happened at freddy's, the worst part was he couldn't really argue, not only would it be very counterproductive to not being landed under suspicion, but as well as it was simply just true. He had never once been brave, never enough for something like the mess Henry had concocted, not like he'd ever want something like that now, but still.
"R-Right... I- uh, I don't really have anything else to tell you then" The man just looked him up and down for a moment, before asking simply.
"What do you think about Afton?" Scott really shouldn't have tempted fate, but he couldn't help but ask anyways.
"Uh... Which one?" The man didn't roll his eyes, but it was clear he wasn't amused by Scott's avoidance, even as he clarified blandly.
"The alive one" Scott had no idea what to say, so he went with something that would get the man to leave him alone the fastest.
"I- I mean, I don't really know him?"
"No? Aren't you buddy buddy with that Smith fellow? I heard from a few other calls I made that you even put Afton's little restaurant in touch with a few others"
"W-Well that was more a favor to Fritz, I can't say I really talked to him much at all" The man just stared at Scott who was having a bit harder of a time now to not fidget, but finally he seemed to get whatever he was looking for, as he just nodded.
"I suppose... I'll leave you to your morning then. If you have anything else you just happen to remember, well, you already know my number I'm sure" With that, he turned and walked away, leaving Scott standing there, feeling vaguely nauseous, as all the anxious energy he had kept formed up into a tight ball in the pit of his stomach exploded into a wave of something close to vertigo, strong enough that his body literally swayed before he found himself half falling back and resting against the wall of his porch at the same time he could no longer see the car Burke had gotten into, having moved to far up the road.
He... He had to call Mike.
Mike... Well, Mike was getting really tired of getting told about things that Burke had gotten up too, even if he had to admit the man sure was persistent if nothing else. But at the same time Mike knew all too well just how dangerous a person who didn't give up could be. His talk with Charlie and Mari had only been a few days ago, and he hadn't really mustered up just what he was supposed to say to Jen.
He was regretting that now, not that he thought it would have solved anything, Burke was during his genuine due diligence, chasing down more than just one lead, even if the lead might not involve Mike himself at all. Unfortunately if Burke did continue on that path, there was no telling just what he might uncover.
Hence the situation now, after Scott had called him, his next steps were to call the others, and before long they all were in the warehouse, meeting up to discuss just what the hell they should do, because as much as he didn't want to admit it, this wasn't something they could just ignore... Even if his own words were immediately tossed into his face by Fritz, who led off the conversation by asking.
"Why can't we just ignore it? I mean, it's not like Henry Johnson was a real person, there's no way to track who he was down right?" Mike just grimaced, it wasn't like he hadn't thought about the issue with that before, though if he was being honest, there was a lot he tried his best to not think about at all that only worked so well for so long before he did some level of thinking.
It had never actually seemed like a threat before though, the idea that anything would come up from a fake name... Thankfully, he was saved from having to explain it and feel unbearably awkward about being wrong, as Scott himself explained the issue with that.
"Henry Johnson wasn't a real person, but he was still someone who existed, that people heard the name of and even talked to over the phone. The name might not be linked to anything, but he does exist, at least, in the way that he's had an impact... An impact that can be traced back to us" Mike could only nod, while Jeremy just frowned, thinking it over and asking clarifying.
"So, if Burke does find anything out about Johnson then it might lead back to us somehow? How exactly? Cause Fritz is right, we made sure we were completely unrelated to that whole pizzeria thing up until we were in the thick of it burning down, and no one that is around could actually say or prove we were there" Fritz nodded along, clearly thinking along the same lines, but Mike had to answer it anyways.
"Because we weren't at all interested in Freddy's, doesn't mean they weren't interested in the Cove. We know at one journalist came in and asked all sorts of questions last year was actually working for He- Johnson," It was better to separate them, he could tell Mari was getting a bit twitchy with his dad's name being constantly dropped into conversation, and while he couldn't read bear traps as well as golden bears, he could tell Charlie, who was standing a bit off to the side but not quite actively in the conversation yet still listening in, wasn't doing much better, as he continued,
"We all assumed it all got burnt up in the fire, but if it didn't... If there was any more information anywhere else, under Johnson's name and Burke happens to find it... I'm not so worried about me anymore than what he might learn about the animatronics. That information can't just be around for someone to stumble onto" That made everyone seem to understand just what was at stake.
It wasn't so much that this was a risk to the humans present, at worse for them it would be a very bad light for the chief of police to think there was an even bigger link between the Cove and Freddy's, and Mike himself would probably be put under even more scrutiny, but that was it. But for the animatronics? That's where the real risk was. If they were discovered? If that stuff was put into evidence somewhere for any officer, and then who knew how many people after, to have access to it?
If that information did exist somewhere, with anything even approaching proof of living animatronics, then it meant that they all would be on a clock to their potential doom. Mike had never quite considered that aspect, had never thought Johnson would be so bold as to be so sloppy, hadn't thought outside of himself and the risk that man's burnt legacy might have on everyone else.
He... As much as he hated to say it, he fucked up, or rather had been caught lacking in a spot he hadn't even thought he needed to be aware to look out for. He had been blinded by thinking Burke would be blinded by him, just as much as he had been blinded and tunnel visioned on the other man. Maybe he just hadn't wanted to think about it, not wanted to put in the effort to make sure, too much entranced with the worst of it all finally being over, with there being nothing left that he could do beyond wait for the turbulence after the storm to end.
Well, he had waited, and now it felt like it was suddenly everyone but him that could pay the price for it. The thought of that settled like an itch under his skin, a faint kind of buzzing energy and uncomfortableness that he hadn't felt in a few months now.
He really hadn't missed the feeling.
While he was caught up in his own thoughts and annoyance with himself, Mari had, somewhat surprisingly given the topic matter and with the fact that Scott was present, taken over speaking for him. The man in question jumped a bit at the sound of the puppet's voice as he spoke carefully to the group.
"We'll need to be more careful at the Cove, that's how that journalist person knew something was wrong right? We know that... That Johnson knew about Goldie and Foxy both, that's probably how he learned about them. We don't keep cameras inside of the Cove anymore right?" Fritz nodded.
"Yeah, we still keep them at both entrances and on the sides as well. It might look a bit weird to see us carting Foxy and Goldie in and out every day, but that can be easily explained by just needing to do maintenance on them here. It wouldn't really be a lie, I need to occasionally make sure Goldie's moving right, and Foxy likes to stress out his speakers" Both, who were standing around but not really sure just how to contribute to something like this, looked mildly awkward, Foxy almost looked a bit embarrassed about being called out on that.
"What about me? I always just appear where I need to go, won't that be weird if only two out of the three need constant work done on them? Especially daily?" It was a good point Mari brought up. Foxy spoke up before anyone else could.
"We could just wipe the cameras and I could stay at the Cove from now on, Goldie's old and creaky, it'd make more sense for him to be moved daily outside of being on the stage" Evan clearly wasn't a fan of that, shooting the fox a look before saying right back.
"I can stay at the Cove to" Mike wasn't sure if his brother was annoyed about the old comment, which wasn't untrue given his suit was older than the soul inside of it, or if he was annoyed about Foxy seemingly deciding to go back to spending most of his time alone. It could have been either or both depending on the bear's mood, but it didn't really matter as the fox spoke back just as quickly.
"You can't, you have to keep an eye on the biter and the rest" Evan just rolled his eyes.
"I can 'keep an eye' out from anywhere. Only Plushtrap needs anyone to keep an eye on them, Charlie and the Reenas are both here, they can do that" Foxy seemed to get a bit riled up about that, and Charlie didn't seem only enthused by the idea, even if from what Mike knew, she didn't not get along fine with the small rabbit, but Jeremy spoke up instead before either could put up their own protests.
"I mean, I could take them? They seemed to get along well with Bonnie, and he can look after them while I'm at work... I think, I might have to talk to him about it, but I don't... think it'd be a problem" He sounded more an more unsure as he spoke, but it was obvious that he did think it would be an alright idea if it meant everyone got at least a bit of what they wanted. And Mike knew the man was serious, because otherwise he wouldn't have brought it up in the first place. Mike made the effort to not make a joke about collecting rabbits, and instead just nodded. Glancing over at Foxy who still didn't seem certain.
"I think it's a good enough idea" The fox grumbled but finally nodded, as Mike looked over to Evan next, "You have the most authority here though, at least with the Reenas, see if you can talk to them about making sure they know to play still if Burke ever shows up to poke around. We don't need any accidents cause they don't know to keep an eye out before you go" The bear just nodded, seemingly already having that on his mind, as Mike just grimaced, mostly to himself, as he moved to speak to the group as a whole.
"With that out of the way, we got off point. Prevention methods to make sure Burke can't think anything about the animatronic here only will matter if he ends up finding something that our most loathed Stitch Wraith left behind. If we can find if there is anything that was left before Burke does, then it won't matter. Still, it's way safer to be prepared anyways, but... We should be a bit proactive about this" Everyone seemed to agree with that, even if Mike was very pointedly ignoring the look his brother was giving him, he already knew the bear was going to be giving him the biggest 'I told you so', of his life soon enough.
Janet, who had been mostly silent for the conversation so far spoke up, her eyes lighting up a bit as she seemed to think about something.
"So, we need to find out if he had some place that he would have been working out of right? What about AR? Lolbit mentioned that it wasn't the first time that Johnson had been there" That was a good point, but before any talk about that could continue Fritz's eyes went wide as he said quickly.
"He worked there, Hen- Err, I mean, Johnson, he was in the system, as one of the technicians. I remember seeing that, because I thought it was weird there was both a Michael and a... you know, working at Afton Robotics. It'd explain how he knew so much about stuff and where he got a lot of parts from, but I don't think he would have used it to work out of" Scott added onto that.
"Definitely not, the kids would have mentioned if someone was poking around more than I had been, and I was there a lot in the months leading up to Freddy's reopening" Right... That was definitely a good point, but it did offer something of an idea... Mike shot a look over to Fritz and Scott, saying out his thoughts.
"I don't suppose you two could ask your respective funtimes about Johnson? Lolbit worked with him, he might know something, or maybe we'll get lucky and Ennard will have something" Neither looked particularly happy with the idea, but they also didn't say they wouldn't, so Mike assumed it was about as positive of a response as he was going to get, as the rest of them kept trying to think of what else they could do to try and track down the man.
The only comfort of coming up short was the fact that if they were having this much trouble with everyone combined thinking about it and with way more information to work with, it did mean Burke was probably at least safe to say a step or two behind them. At least for now. There was no telling of this information, about someone who didn't exist running the show, being enough for the man to be able to open a proper case with actual man power into the fire, which would not be ideal.
At least until Charlie spoke up, a concerned note to her voice as she said it.
"Didn't... Did dad have a workshop?" It took Mike a minute to remember just what she was talking about, he hadn't even thought about the place she was talking about in probably over a year, but it didn't stop him from cursing to himself when he realized she was right.
At least they had a lead... Now if only they had some way of figuring out just where the hell that workshop was.
What this? Plot? Long lasting consequences for both other people's actions and one's own inaction? Wild. Get ready for a ride folks, cause this is when everything really gets started.
I think it's going to be a lot of fun, or at the very least going to be plenty interesting going forwards. I'm planning on delving more into the mystery side of things for a fairly large section of this story going forwards. Which, while a definite part of the last book, was occasionally overshadowed by the horror aspects that I kept in line with it. Now however? Well, I'm still going to work on making sure there are some properly spooky moments, but the main goal of this story is going to be the mystery aspects of it primarily with a whole lot of plot threads that I hopefully should be able to get everything where I need it to go.
But for now, we're on the other side of things, sort of, with the group needing to be able to keep the mystery of what happened during the last events of Welcome to the Show, hidden away and obscured, to make sure Burke won't be able to pin anything on them. While having to do a bit of detective work of their own to be able to find out just what all they were missing from that story to begin with. It'll be interesting. But in the mean time, See ya!