Sunday, June 12, 1988
Following Christmas, the VCR that Mangle had been gifted saw a lot of use, and it wasn't long before she and Evan had watched every single VHS that the Afton family owned. She was especially fond of Pinocchio, which she rewatched several times, and it always moved her to tears—or it would have if she had actual tear ducts.
Whenever Evan was at school, Mangle often enjoyed herself by playing with her dolls and her doll house. She had the doll of herself, of course, but she also liked to play with a male doll which she imagined to be Evan, and while playing she'd always pretend that the two of them lived in their own house together.
On Easter, Evan and Mangle painted eggs together. Of course, due to the animatronic's limited dexterity, she couldn't do any of the actual painting, and so Evan allowed her to come up with all of the designs while he painted them.
While Evan made tremendous progress with his studies, he ended up hitting a wall when it came to Mangle's repairs. Given how bent out of shape her endoskeleton was, it became clear that the only way to fully repair Mangle was by making a new one for her. And so with his father's help, he put together a list of parts that he would need to build Mangle a new endoskeleton. Unfortunately, most of those parts would have to be custom made by William himself, and given how preoccupied he was with his own work, getting them would take some time.
Evan slowly stirred awake, and as he opened his eyes, he was met with Mangle's face as per usual. However, on this particular morning her eyelids were raised in a smile.
"Well?" Mangle asked expectantly in a playful tone.
Evan rubbed his eyes and mumbled, "What…?"
"Aren't you going to sing?" Mangle asked, tilting her head slightly to the side.
Evan chuckled in response. "Mangle, I just woke up, gimme a minute."
"Fiiiine," Mangle replied impatiently and rested her head on the floor, her gaze still fixed at the boy.
Evan sat up and let out a yawn as he stretched his arms. He was about to get out of bed, but the look on Mangle's face made him reconsider.
Letting out a defeated sigh, the boy swallowed and said, "Okay, here goes…"
Upon hearing that, Mangle raised her head and regarded Evan eagerly.
While he wasn't anywhere near as good of a singer as Mangle was, the boy nevertheless sang to the best of his ability. "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you!
"Happy birthday, dear Mangle! Happy birthday to you!"
With an embarrassed smile, Evan asked, "Um, how was that?"
"That was wonderful!" Mangle cheered and hugged him. "Thank you so much, Evan!"
Evan let out a joyous chuckle as he wrapped his arms around Mangle's head. "You're welcome, Mangle."
Breaking the hug, Mangle looked at Evan with her eyelids once again raised in a smile. "So… do you have any presents for me?~"
Hearing that made the boy laugh. "Of course I got you a present, silly! It's your birthday."
This made Mangle bounce up and down and giggle in excitement.
Evan walked over to his school backpack, opened it, and pulled out a pink, rectangular gift box with a white ribbon. Then, with a smile on his face, he returned to the animatronic and handed it to her.
Mangle let out a gasp as she received it, and she took some time to admire the box itself. She could tell that the boy had very intentionally made the packaging in such a way that it would be possible for her to open it herself. She pulled on one end of the ribbon, untying it, and then removed the lid.
Inside was Disney's Robin Hood on VHS.
Mangle looked at Evan with great fondness. "Oh Evan, thank you!"
"I figured it'd be the perfect gift for you," the boy said with a grin.
"It really is!" Mangle admitted with a giggle.
Evan then gave her a knowing smile. "But that's not all. I also have a big surprise for you."
This immediately got the animatronic's attention. "A surprise? What kind of surprise?"
"I can't tell you, silly! That'd ruin the surprise." Evan said with a smirk as he got out of bed.
"Awww, come on! Can't you give me a hint? Please?" Mangle pleaded.
"No can do," Evan replied as he walked over to the clothes trunk. "You're just gonna have to wait until after I've had breakfast."
Mangle turned around to give the boy some privacy and pouted, "Hmph, no fair."
Evan took off his pajamas and underwear, then put on a fresh pair of the latter along with khaki pants and a gray-blue shirt with a white undershirt.
The boy smiled at Mangle as he made his way out of the barn. "Okay, Mangle, see you soon!"
The animatronic hummed a reply as she watched him leave.
Once he was finally outside, a big grin spread onto Evan's face. He could hardly wait to see the look on Mangle's face once she got her surprise.
Entering the house and going to the dining room, Evan found his father and brother sitting at the table, enjoying some French toast and tea. His father eating breakfast with them was quite a rare occurrence, something he normally only did on holidays and birthdays due to his otherwise busy schedule. However, he had made an exception for today.
"Good morning, sport," William greeted Evan with a smile and gestured towards the boy's usual spot, where a plate of French toast and a cup of English breakfast tea had been prepared for him.
Michael, with a slight smile on his face, gave Evan a polite nod and said, "Good morning."
"Good morning," Evan replied. And as he stepped over to his seat, he looked to his father and asked, "Is, um, everything ready?"
William huffed a laugh. "Naturally, sport. Now come have some breakfast."
"Yes, Father," Evan replied and sat down.
As the nine-year-old scarfed down his pancakes, Michael glanced in his direction. He then asked, "So what's the big deal, anyway?"
After swallowing a mouthful of pancake, Evan grinned and replied, "I'm gonna finish Mangle's repairs today! Father helped me build a new endoskeleton and everything!"
William chuckled at that. "All I did was manufacture the parts and give you some guidance, you're the one who assembled them and built the endoskeleton. That's no mean feat, especially at your age."
Michael regarded his father and brother with a frown, and then went back to eating his food.
It did not take long for Evan to finish his breakfast. Barely able to contain his excitement, he turned to his father and asked, "Father, may I leave the table?"
William couldn't help but to laugh. "Very well, sport. Have fun!"
Evan got out of his seat and hastily grabbed his dishes before going into the kitchen at a brisk pace, where he placed everything in the dishwasher. Then, after taking a brief detour to wash his hands, he made his way to the garage, where the new endoskeleton was waiting for him, along with a brand new shell. Of course, the endoskeleton wasn't completely finished. In order to move it into the barn by himself, Evan had built all of the major parts for it—the head, torso, arms, legs, and a tail—separately so that it could be transported more easily and be assembled in the barn.
The nine-year-old began with the head, which he loaded into a handcart. With the biggest grin on his face, Evan pulled the handcart along with him as he walked over to the barn.
Mangle, who was rewatching Robin Hood, seemed quite surprised when the boy stepped inside. "That was quick!"
"Well, I didn't wanna keep you waiting. And look…" Evan began as he pulled the handcart into the barn so that Mangle could see what was inside. "Ta-da!"
She let out a gasp and crawled over to get a closer look. "Is that a new endo head?"
"Mm-hm! And I also got a new endo torso, endo arms, endo legs, and an endo tail!" Evan revealed, looking quite proud of himself.
Mangle's eyes went wide. "What?! Y-you mean…?"
Evan nodded. "We're gonna finish your repairs today, Mangle!"
The animatronic bounced up and down, and squealed in absolute joy before pulling the boy into a hug. "Thank you, Evan! Thank you!"
"You're welcome, Mangle." The nine-year-old said with a giggle. "Now, why don't I get the rest of the parts so we can get started?"
Mangle hummed a reply as she broke the hug. She then sat down by the TV and waited, all the while she was shaking in anticipation.
It took Evan three trips to bring the rest of the endoskeleton to the barn, but he left the shell in the garage for the time being.
Once he brought the final parts, he smiled at Mangle and said, "Okay, are you ready?"
Mangle nodded with great enthusiasm and then skittered over to the workshop area, with Evan following close behind. Once there, she laid down flat on the floor so that the boy could work on her.
Evan chuckled to himself as he fetched the tools. He knelt down beside her and removed the battery panel from her chest with the swiftness and ease that had come from many hours of practice. Next, he reached for the power switch, but then he hesitated.
The nine-year-old swallowed. "Um… Mangle?"
"Hm?" The animatronic raised and turned her head towards the boy. "What's wrong?"
Evan looked down on the ground as he rubbed his elbow. "What if I mess this up?" He met her gaze with worried eyes. "I… I don't want to lose you."
"Of course you won't mess it up," Mangle reassured him. "I know you can do this, Evan. I believe in you."
"But…" Evan began but then stopped himself. Letting out a sigh, he asked, "How can you be so sure?"
"Because you've learned so much, and you're so thoughtful, and gentle, and careful," Mangle replied. "So I know you won't mess it up."
The boy looked deep into her eyes, and he could tell how much she trusted him. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath. "Okay. Let's do this."
"Yeah, let's," Mangle replied with a giggle as she rested her head on the floor.
And with that, Evan switched her off.
The nine-year-old then got to work, and very carefully disassembled Mangle so that he could collect all of her electrical components. Once that was done, he installed them into the new endoskeleton while assembling it. All in all, the whole process took a little over six hours, but that was mostly due to Evan taking frequent breaks to calm his nerves and wipe the sweat off of his hands.
Once he was done, the boy regarded the new, shiny endoskeleton lying on the ground before him with worried eyes. He swallowed, and with a trembling hand he reached out and switched her on.
Mangle's systems began to boot up, but Evan then felt a pit in his stomach when he noticed that the boot up sequence took longer than normal. His thoughts raced as he worried that he might've done something wrong, that he might've killed his only friend.
But then, much to the boy's relief, Mangle began to stir awake.
Smiling at her as she opened her eyes, Evan asked, "How do you feel, Mangle?"
"I… don't know," she replied. She lifted her right hand and slowly swung her arm around. "I… I can't move my neck."
The boy felt a surge of anxiety upon hearing that. Looking for something, anything, to help calm his nerves, he glanced at the animatronic's arm, which was still moving around, and said, "Well, um… at least your arm works."
"Huh? That's my arm?" Mangle asked, sounding quite surprised. After lowering her arm, she then slowly raised her head. "Oh! That's my neck!"
Whatever worries Evan had instantly dissipated as he burst into laughter, and it didn't take long before Mangle joined in.
"I'm so used to my head being on that side of my body," she laughed. However, her laughter quickly died down once she got a look at her new body. She lowered her ears and said, "Oh… you haven't put on my shell yet…"
Evan gave her a look of sympathy and said, "Well, no. Since you've gotten installed into a brand new endo, we need to make sure that you work the way you should first."
Mangle let out a whimper as she continued to look over her body. "Oh…"
"Don't worry, it shouldn't take long," the boy reassured her with a smile.
"Okay." Mangle let out a pained sigh. "So what do I need to do?"
"Well, um, for starters, can you stand up?" Evan asked.
"Hold on, lemme just figure out which limb is which." Mangle looked at each one of her limbs and moved them one at a time as she went through a mental checklist. "Let's see… that's my right arm, my left arm, my left leg, and my right leg. Okay, I think I got it."
With that, Mangle used her hands to push herself off of the floor and into a sitting position. From there she slowly stood up, but as she did Evan noticed how wobbly her legs were, and he couldn't help but to worry that she would topple over. Thankfully, the problem quickly subsided once the animatronic got a better grasp on her footing. Finally, she managed to stand up straight.
Evan smiled as he looked up at her, feeling both proud of his own work and happy for his friend. Although Mangle and the other Toy animatronics were notably shorter than the old Fazbear animatronics, she still towered over him at a height of five feet and eight inches.
"Okay, now what?" Mangle asked.
"Um, let's try to walk to the other side of the barn," Evan replied and gestured towards the entrance.
"Alright," Mangle replied.
As the boy accompanied and observed her, Mangle began to walk. Like before, her first steps were wobbly, but she gradually got better, and by the time they reached the entrance, every step she took seemed to be effortless. This seemed to do wonders to Mangle's mood too, as she began to wag her tail as she got a better hang of walking.
She turned to Evan with her eyelids raised in a smile. "I can't believe I did that so easily! I can't even remember the last time I could walk."
"And you did a great job, Mangle!" Evan said, which made Mangle's tail wag even more. Suppressing a grin, he then added, "Now, I just need to switch you off again to make a few adjustments. Is that okay?"
"Sure," Mangle replied with a shrug. Fidgeting with her hands and with a sheepish look on her face, she asked, "But, um, once you've done that can we please put my shell back on?"
"Of course!" Evan reassured her. He stepped closer so that he could reach her chest panel. "Now stand still."
Mangle hummed a reply, and then Evan switched her off. Her arms and head slumped down, but she remained standing.
With a giggle and a knowing smile, Evan placed Mangle's old endoskeleton in the handcart and left the barn. Going into the garage, he unloaded the old endoskeleton and put Mangle's new shell in the cart. Then he returned to the barn, where he set to work putting the pieces of the shell on her.
The new shell was not only pristine, but it was much smoother and shinier than Mangle's old shell had ever been, and this was because it was made out of the same kind of material and paint as the Funtime animatronics. Not only that, but Evan had her torso designed to be curvy just like Toy Chica.
Once all of the pieces of the shell had been fastened to Mangle's endoskeleton—well, all except for the front torso—Evan switched her back on. And as her systems booted up, he attached the front torso piece onto her.
When Mangle finally regained consciousness, she immediately noticed the new shell.
"What the…" She mumbled as she began to look herself over, and as she did her tail started wagging, slowly at first but then going faster and faster, until she was practically wiggling her butt.
Unbeknownst to Mangle, while she was distracted, Evan went to get the Polaroid camera and then returned to her with it in hand.
"Hey, Mangle!" Evan said aloud to get her attention while aiming the camera at her. "Say 'cheese'!"
Just as the animatronic turned to look at him, Evan snapped a picture. The camera then printed out the photo. The boy grabbed and fanned it until it had dried and the picture had developed. Then, with the biggest grin on his face, he went over to Mangle to show her the photo.
"What do you think?"
Mangle let out a gasp once she got a good look at it. "Oh Evan, you made me look so pretty!" She wrapped her arms around the boy and pulled him into a hug. "Thank you."
Even let out a giggle. "You're welcome, Mangle."
Breaking the hug, the animatronic twiddled her fingers together and asked, "But, um, you're still going to turn me into a real fox girl, right?"
"Of course I am," Evan reassured her. "But I want you to be in good shape and feel pretty while I work on that, you know?"
Mangle regarded the boy with great fondness and sniffled. She then pulled him into another hug. "You're the bestest friend I could've ever asked for!"
"So are you!" Evan replied as he leaned into the hug.
Breaking the hug, Mangle gave the boy a sheepish look and asked, "So… now that you've finally fixed me up, I guess you're going to start upgrading me, right?"
Evan let out a snort. "Not so fast, Mangle! Fixing you wasn't that hard, but figuring out how to upgrade you the way you want is going to take time, especially since I'd have to come up with brand new hardware for you," he explained. He then paused to think. "Of course, one of the things you want that would be relatively easy to make would be a proper sleep mode, since I'd only have to add it to your code."
"Then why don't we start looking at my code now?" Mangle asked eagerly.
"I mean, I guess?" Evan replied. "Just please don't expect me to make any modifications to it today, okay?"
"Okay!" Mangle giggled as she rushed over to the computer in the workshop area with her tail wagging behind her.
Evan chuckled as he followed close behind. Once they had both reached the computer, the boy pulled out a stool and placed it next to the desk.
"Alright, sit on that with your back turned towards the wall," Evan instructed as he gestured towards the stool.
The animatronic let out another eager giggle as she did as he asked.
"Now, don't move until we're done, or else you might get damaged," Evan said.
The nine-year-old then went behind Mangle and removed the shell on the back of her head, revealing a couple of interface ports. He then brought out a parallel cable with 50-pin plugs and connected one end to one of the interface ports.
"How are you feeling, Mangle?" Evan asked.
"I'm fine," Mangle replied with a giggle, her tail wagging slightly.
The boy smiled and then proceeded to plug the other end of the cable into the computer, which he turned on. He then took a seat at the desk and waited for the machine to boot up.
"This is so exciting!" Mangle said, breaking the silence.
"Totally," Evan replied with a smile. "And it'll be cool to finally see your code, especially now that I know more about programming and stuff."
Once the computer was ready, the boy used it to access Mangle's system. However, while he had expected to see code written in C, what he was met with was countless lines filled with seemingly random symbols. Baffled, he just stared at the screen, desperately trying to make sense of what he was seeing.
Taking note of the boy's silence, Mangle then spoke up, "Is something wrong?"
"Um, yeah. Your code doesn't make any sense at all, it's just a bunch of gibberish," Evan replied.
Mangle lowered her ears upon hearing that. "I… I guess it's just as broken as my body used to be…"
"No. If it was, you wouldn't be functioning at all," Evan replied matter-of-factly. He then focused on what was shown on screen, and that's when something occurred to him. "Unless…"
"Unless what?" Mangle asked, sounding quite concerned.
"Hold on, let me check something," Evan replied as he began to check various other parts of Mangle's system. Once he found what he was looking for, he turned to Mangle and explained, "So there's actually two versions of your code stored inside you—your source code and your binaries."
Mangle looked a bit confused. "My what now?"
"Basically, your source code is the version that's easy to read and work with for humans, while your binaries is the version of your code that can be read and understood by your hardware," the boy explained. "Normally when a technician works on an animatronic, he makes changes to the source code and then recompiles it, converting it to binary files."
"Okay… so what do you think is the problem?" Mangle asked.
"I think your source code has been corrupted or something," Evan replied.
The boy opened Mangle's binaries in a disassembler, allowing him to see the machine code in a much more readable format, and from the looks of it, it seemed fine. A self-satisfied smile spread onto Evan's face as he went through the code, feeling quite proud of himself. However, he then furrowed his brows as he noticed something odd. Along with all of the normal instructions that he was familiar with were numerous instructions that were completely unknown to him and looked 'off'.
"How does it look?" Mangle asked.
"Well… good news is that I should be able to add to your code by modifying your binaries directly," Evan explained. He then gave Mangle a rueful smile and added, "Bad news is that I'm first going to have to figure out exactly how your code works and how it interacts with your hardware, and that's going to—"
"Take some time," Mangle finished for him.
"Yeah. Sorry," Evan replied with a sympathetic smile.
"But you're still willing to help me?" Mangle asked.
"Of course!" Evan replied and stroked her head. "You're my best friend in the whole world, and I promised that I'd help you."
Mangle raised her eyelids in a smile. "Thank you."
Evan chuckled. "You're welcome, Mangle."
He exited her systems and turned off the computer, then went around the animatronic and unplugged her before replacing the shell on the back of her head.
"Now, why don't we do something more fun?" Evan suggested.
"Like what?" Mangle asked as she got up from the stool.
"Um…" Evan looked around as he tried to come up with something. His eyes then landed on the music corner of the barn, which had both a boombox as well as multiple music cassettes. With a big smile on his face, he turned to Mangle and said, "I think I have a great idea! Come on!"
With that, Evan went over to the music corner, with Mangle following close behind.
"So what do you have in mind?" Mangle asked.
"Well, since you can walk now, I figured that maybe you'd like to try dancing," Evan replied.
"That does sound like fun!" Mangle giggled as her tail started to wag again. "But, um, I don't know how."
"That's okay, I'll teach you," Evan reassured her as he grabbed a cassette.
The boy then put the cassette in the boombox and hit 'Play', and with that the sound of pop music filled the barn.
"All you have to do…" Evan began as he moved along to the quick beat, zigzagging his feet and swaying his arms from side to side. "... is to move along with the rhythm."
The nine-year-old was fully aware of how ridiculous he probably looked, but he didn't care, and Mangle looked quite eager to join in on the fun. With a giggle, the animatronic began to awkwardly bob her hands up and down as she sidestepped along to the beat.
They were both terrible at dancing, but they nevertheless had a blast.
After having spent the rest of the day dancing, playing, and reading together, Evan and Mangle ended their night by rewatching Robin Hood together.
Once the movie was over, Evan switched off the TV and the VCR.
He let out a yawn and stretched. "Alright, Mangle, it's time for bed."
"Okay," Mangle replied as she got up.
As usual, Evan walked over to the door, intending to leave so that he could use the bathroom and brush his teeth. However, as he reached the door, he heard Mangle cry out in despair.
The boy immediately swung around to see the animatronic standing in front of the bed with her ears lowered and covering her eyes, and he could hear her sobbing.
"Mangle, what's wrong?" Evan asked with great concern as he approached her.
However, she just continued to cry.
The nine-year-old placed his hand on her back. "Mangle?"
Sniffling, Mangle finally responded. "Y-you know how whenever you're in bed I like to curl around you and rest my head on your ch-chest…? Doing that has always been so nice and c-comforting to me… But now that I'm fixed up…" She let out a whimper. "I can't do that anymore…"
Evan frowned. He had no idea that something so simple had been so important to her.
He thought for a moment and then said, "Hey, Mangle? I think I have an idea. I'll be back soon, okay?"
The animatronic hummed a reply, though it sounded more like a whimper.
Evan then left the barn, and after using the bathroom and brushing his teeth, he got two spare pillows and returned to the barn.
Seeing what the boy was carrying, Mangle tilted her head to the side and sniffled. "Why'd you get more pillows?"
"Well, I figured that since you can't sleep the way you used to, maybe the next best thing would be to sleep next to me?" Evan suggested as he walked over to the bed. After pushing his own pillows slightly towards the side, he set down the new pillows right next to them.
"R-really?" Mangle asked.
"Of course! The way I see it, since you can't sleep it's important that you feel comfortable throughout the night," Evan explained. He then removed the blanket and gestured towards the bed. "Now why don't you come lie down?"
Mangle stepped closer and then tentatively laid herself down on one side of the bed. She then watched with wide eyes as the boy smiled and put the blanket over her, practically tucking her in.
Next, Evan went over to his clothes trunk to change into his pajamas, and Mangle looked away to give him some privacy. Then, after turning off all of the lights, he made his way back to the bed and laid down next to Mangle.
"See? Isn't this nice?" Evan asked.
Mangle hummed a reply.
The boy then leaned in closer to her and shut his eyes. "Goodnight, Mangle."
"Goodnight, Evan," she replied.
The nine-year-old smiled and began to drift off to sleep.
Mangle then spoke up again. "Hey, Evan?"
Evan hummed a reply.
"Thanks for giving me the best birthday ever," she said as she nuzzled into him.
"The first of many," Evan mumbled in response.
William grinned excitedly as he carted Mangle's old endoskeleton into his workshop. Despite the animatronic's proximity to his home, this was the first real opportunity he got to finally collect some useful data on her.
However, much to his dismay, the analysis of the endoskeleton only ended up raising more questions than answers. Unlike the other Remnant-infused animatronics he was familiar with, which had Remnant permeating throughout their metallic components, Mangle's endoskeleton only had trace amounts of the stuff. Finding this difficult to believe, given what he knew about the Toy animatronics and what he had heard about Mangle in particular, William ended up analyzing the endoskeleton numerous more times, using various different methods, just to make sure that the readings were accurate. But all of them gave him the same exact results.
Letting out a frustrated sigh, William sat down and ran his fingers through his hair.
At this point, he saw three possibilities. The first was that Mangle simply didn't have any Remnant other than an insignificant trace amount, which he found difficult to believe given how active and alive she was. The second possibility was that the residual Remnant that he unwittingly released while using his Remnant extractor somehow altered and enhanced the AI of the Toy animatronics, but that also seemed like a stretch. The third and final possibility was that Mangle was infused with Remnant, but it was somehow tied entirely to her circuits and was unusually stable, preventing it from 'bleeding out' and affecting her other components. Naturally, William leaned towards the third.
He got out of his seat and began to pace back and forth.
He would love nothing more than to take Mangle apart in order to learn her secret, but he couldn't bear the thought of taking her away from Evan. Not only was she his only friend, but she was the fuel that fed the boy's insatiable ambition, and William knew that he'd end up snuffing it out if he ever took her away from him.
William's mind went to his wife and daughter. Bringing them back was the priority, and he already had other avenues of research to achieve that goal. He reminded himself that while the mystery surrounding Mangle and the other Toy animatronics could lead to some valuable insights and discoveries, it was in the end just another distraction.