Chapter Text
It was the spring of 1982. Toni’s family had picked out a rental resort in Utah for their first vacation of the year. They were only a few days in, but a weekend of hikes, sightseeing and shopping was already proving to be exhausting.
But today was different. Today was Toni’s day.
She awoke at the crack of dawn to the screech of her alarm clock. Sitting up, the girl shook herself awake. Pushing the hair out of her face, Toni’s gaze fell on the backpack in the corner of her room. She had of course filled it the night before, but it would be a good idea to double check. She hopped out of bed and opened up the bag.
“Notebook, check. Pens, check. Recorder, check. Cassette…” Toni opened up the player to ensure the cassette inside was wound fully and secure. “Double check!” And money of course. Everything was in there, and there was still room for a certain furry friend.
Toni turned her attention towards the teddy bear sitting in the bed by her pillow. Diving onto the mattress, she grabbed the bear in both hands, giving it a wide grin.
“You ought’a come too, Buddy! To show ‘em how serious I am! Betcha could guard my stuff while we’re at it. I got real important equipment in there and nobody else would be better suited.”
The bear sat motionless in her hands, until she manoeuvred one arm into an approximation of a salute. “Aye aye, Toni! I’ll protect your stuff with my life!”
“Atta boy! Now, let’s get ready.”
By the time Toni was at the breakfast table, she could hear her parents getting out of bed. She shrugged at their late awakening to continue shovelling cereal into her mouth, all the while practising her questions with Buddy. Whenever she looked from the questions to the bear, Toni stared hard into his eyes, as though trying to pierce right through him with her gaze alone.
“Aaaaand that wraps up this interview! Thank you, Mr Emily and Mr Afton, for takin’ the time to talk, and… and…” Toni’s attention turned away from the bear and down to the floor. “Shoot, what was it again? Gah! I can’t forget my lines now! What if I choke in the recording?”
Mum chuckled, stepping up behind her daughter and placing a hand on the girl’s shoulder.
“I’m sure you’ll be fine, honey.”
“But what if I forget what I’m gonna say?” She dropped her spoon into the bowl and reached out to hug Buddy tight.
“Then you improvise.”
“But I’m no good at improv.”
“But you’re passionate! Just let yourself relax into the interview and the words will flow naturally. I bet you’ll even begin to wonder why you wrote that script in the first place.”
Toni pushed herself to look into her mother’s face. That well practised, pretty smile looked so natural. A wave of warmth and encouragement washed over Toni and she returned it with her own lopsided grin.
“Okay… I’m gonna go practice my questions some more before we go.”
Mum laughed. “No need to rush, hon. It’s only eight! You have plenty of time.”
All the same, Toni rushed off to her room for extra practise.
The morning was a slow one. When Toni was finally happy with her line delivery, she still had a few hours to kill. She showered, waited, argued the merits of jeans and t-shirts over blazers and blouses, waited. Oh, mum wanted her to wear make up. Yeah, sure. Mum helped her with that. And with styling her hair. She had to look presentable after all.
As if the recording was going to show her face.
11:45.
Toni checked her bag again. Everything was still there. She pulled an RC remote from her drawer and stuffed it in the bag. Pulling the bag over her shoulders, Toni picked up Buddy and bounced into the sitting room.
“Okay, ready!” she announced.
Dad grunted and folded his newspaper while Mum eyed the bear in Toni’s arms.
“Oh, you’re not bringing that into the diner, are you?
“Why not?” Toni replied. “He’ll help me.”
“Honey, you’re 14 now. I know you’re proud of that, but don’t you think it’s a bad idea to carry a teddy bear around like that?”
The girl grimaced. She was probably right, but this was Toni’s favourite thing. “But…”
“Listen to your mother, kiddo,” Dad said. “Kids there’ll laugh atcha. Then ya won’t be able to hold me back n’ we’ll all get kicked out!”
Letting out a sigh, Toni nodded and took Buddy back to her room. She closed the door and listen. They were heading out.
Now was her chance.
Opening up her bag, Toni stuffed the bear inside, careful not to twist his joints. Another look towards the door, and then she saluted her charge.
“Good luck soldier.”
The car was soon full of voices. Starting with Toni, chattering away about the coming day.
“I still can’t believe you got me a personal interview with the owners. Y’know I heard they had plans to add an arcade but couldn’t fit it in the budget. It’s too bad ‘cause an arcade would’a been really fun. Oh, we’re stayin’ for lunch, right? They’ve got the animatronic show, n’ I definitely wanna see that! Maybe I’ll be allowed to record part’a the music for my project!”
“Whoa, slow down, kiddo,” dad answered from the front.
“Of course we’re staying for lunch,” mum said. “But we’re going to have to set some ground rules.”
“Aww, seriously?” Toni slumped back into the seat.
“Seriously,” mum answered back. “We all know how you get when you’re… overwhelmed.”
“Mom, I’ll be fine! This is too important to mess up! Dad, tell her!”
“I don’t know, Toni,” dad said. “Ya got a habit of getting’ carried away. Settin’ some rules could be just whatcha need.”
The girl huffed as her mother began rattling off commands.
“First, when you’re talking to the owners, sit still. You want to be taken seriously and you’re already on thin ice in those clothes.
Next, make sure you manage your ratio of talking to listening. You’re going there to ask questions, not talk their ears off about your own projects. If they’re interested, they’ll ask.
Be confident. Sit up straight, chin up and make eye contact. Poor posture will have you mumbling and this whole trip will be a waste.
Finally, and I shouldn’t even have to say this at your age, but please. No hissy fits. I don’t want to catch you screaming, stomping, punching, anything. Understood?”
Toni hesitated, pulling her bag close to her chest. “Understood…”
“Good girl.”
There was a heavy silence after that, shortly broken by dad and a clearing of his throat.
“Don’t forget the most important rule,” he added. Toni groaned. Another one? “Relax! Have fun! This is the place where fantasy and… Oh, what was the motto again?”
“Where fantasy and fun come to life,” Toni sighed. “That’s Freddy’s. Same owners, still under construction. S’posed to open in time for summer vacation.”
“That’s the one! See, kiddo, ya know your stuff. You’ll be fine!
They finally pulled into the diner parking lot. Relieved to be out of the car, Toni pulled her bag on and darted ahead. She stopped short of the entrance, where the jolly figure of Fredbear had been painted on the wall to welcome guests inside with a jovial smile. She tipped an invisible hat to the yellow bear and bounced through the double doors.
“Immediately, Toni was hit with a cacophony of noise, lights and colour. The smell of freshly cooked pizza wafted through the air. Balloons floated up to the ceiling, though evidently some had succumbed to the lights or especially tight grips, leaving their remains strewn across the floor. The place with heaving with energy. Parents sat chatting at tables while their kids ran rampant, leaping into the ballpit, or onto each other. One kid even looked like he was trying to climb up on the stage.
And there they were. Fredbear and Spring Bonnie. The former spoke into an oversized microphone while his friend sat plucking the strings of his banjo. In the day light there probably wasn’t much need for spotlights, but the staging made use of them all the same. Probably to help draw attention from the audience, even when they weren’t performing yet.
Toni could barely contain herself, racing toward the stage before her parents could even think about holding her back. She found a spot by the animatronics and pulled the notebook from her bag. The girl would scribble down everything she could observe about the animatronics; the stature, the mechanical cycle in which they moved, even the pre-recorded lines of their occasional banter. Anything Toni could find about the characters, it went into her notes. Alongside those notes, a series of attempts at blueprint style drawings followed.
Toni didn’t even notice she was being approached until she felt a force pulling at the neck of her t-shirt. She grunted at the sudden pressure on her windpipe, stumbling backward.
“Bit old to be getting excited over Fredbear, aren’t we?”
The face in front of her was obscured by one of those promotional Freddy’s masks; the Foxy one. All she could see of the stranger were a pair of icy blue irises and a mop of purple hair bursting out from behind the mask.
“You’re a new face, aren’t you?” New? He sounded more foreign than Toni! Some English kid by the sound of it. Some others that looked to be the same age crept up behind, all donning masks of their own; Bonnie, Chica and Freddy respectively. “You know what that means? You’ve yet to have your Hurricane welcome.”
Whatever that was supposed to mean, Toni had no interest in finding out, but she found herself unable to answer. She backed up against the stage, scooping up her things and seeking out her parents. Her father was nowhere to be seen, and her mother sat in one of the booths. If she could just get over there…
Toni was considering climbing up onto the stage and seeking shelter behind the animatronics. But, before she was able to come to a decision, the one in the Chica mask wrapped a hand around the girl’s arm in an uncomfortably tight grip. He jerked her into the group with an ugly chuckle. “C’mon, kid, there’s nothing to be scared of!”
She was yanked backwards by the Freddy mask, dropping her bag in the process. “Yeah! We just wanna be friends! You do like friends, don’t you?”
The Bonnie mask had taken up the bag and pulled Buddy from it, waving the bear above their head. “Nah, looks like she’s got a little friend already!”
Toni stared at her poor bear, reaching out an arm to grab for him. The Bonnie mask held him out of her read.
“Hey, no snatching! Aww, what’s the matter? You gonna cry? You a little crybaby?
The Foxy mask pulled Buddy out of his friend’s grasp, dangling it by it’s like as he laughed. “I bet she is! Just like-” His comment was cut off by the whining of an emerald-eyed little girl with bushy red hair.
“Miiiiiiiiiike! Daddy’s looking for you, and he sounds really scary this time!”
The one apparently called Mike groaned and waved his cohorts off of Toni. “God, fine. Come on then, let’s get this over with.”
He tossed Buddy back at Toni, who clumsily caught the bear in both arms. The rest of the group snickered, following their leader off with glee at whatever trouble he was in now. Somehow Toni suspected this happened a lot. If he wasn’t a dick she might have felt bad for him.
The little girl sauntered up to Toni with hands on her hips and a cheeky grin. “You’re welcome,” she said, before skipping off to play with her friend; another little girl with curled brown hair and missing one of her front teeth.
It took some time for Toni to even register how tense she was. She couldn’t move. Eventually she would come to realise she was holding her breath. She let out a wave of air, allowing the rigidity in her body to ebb away, just enough to get moving. Now was her chance to escape, so Toni retreated under one of the uninhabited tables to calm herself.
Stuffing her notebook back into her bag, Toni held Buddy close, encasing him in her arms so that no one may take him from her again. She pulled her knees up for added protection, taking deep breaths until her shoulders would finally lower.
Just relax, like dad said.
After all, this was Toni’s day.
So no crying.
No crying.
“Um… Are you okay?”
Toni jumped, backing off from the space next to her until her back hit a table leg. How had she failed to notice the kid sitting under the table? A little brunette boy no older than 8 stared up at her. His doe eyes were tinted red, like he’d been crying for some time. Actually, he looked like he was ready to cry again at the drop of a hat.
Even for a kid, her voice wouldn’t come, so Toni nodded as she looked for something to focus on besides the kid’s face. Her gaze landed on the yellow bear in his arms.
“Are you sure? I saw what happened by the stage. I um… I’m sorry they did that.”
It sounded like he shared the same accent as the Foxy mask and the little redhead. Maybe they were related…? Her grip on Buddy tightened a moment, afraid he might rat her out. But he seemed okay for now, so she took a breath and held Buddy out to the kid. He looked at the bear quizzically, and then his own.
“You want to play?” Toni nodded. “Oh, well okay then.” He crossed his legs and got comfortable, holding out his yellow bear to shake Buddy’s paw. “Hi there, new friend! It’s nice to meet you!”
The girl smiled briefly at the little interaction, taking another deep breath.
“Nice to meetcha too,” Buddy replied. “I’m Little Buddy, or just Buddy for short! That’s what all my friends call me!”
“Then that’s what I’ll call you too. I’m Fredbear, but everyone around here calls me Freddy.”
“Freddy?” Buddy tilted his head. “But don’t that get confusin’ with the other bear?”
“Nope! But if it ever does, they can just use my full name!” Fredbear pulled a ta-da pose, drawing a giggle out of Toni. “Now that we’re friends, we can play games together! What games do you like?”
Buddy paused. “Oh… I dunno. I just talk to my friend Toni or guard her stuff against danger. There’s a lotta that around our school.”
The bear looked up from the bears with a raised brow. “Your name’s Toni?” She pulled back at being directly addressed, but nodded. He gave a wide smile. “That’s a nice name. Mine’s Evan. I like Buddy.”
“She kept her eyes trained on the bears, as Buddy spoke out. “Well I like you too, Evan. Your buddy Freddy sure is nice. I’m real sorry I don’t know any games, but I can do this!”
Toni carefully positioned Buddy to keep him steady and fished the RC remote out of her bag. She could feel Evan’s curious eyes on her as she switched on the remote and worked its modifications into place.
The boy’s eyes widened when Buddy took his attention once again. Now the bear walked seemingly on his own towards Fredbear. He stopped short of the other bear and gave a wave, before promptly toppling over onto his back.
“You can walk!?” Evan had brought his whole body down to be eye-line with Buddy. Toni set aside the remote and lifted the bear.
“Yup! We’re still workin’ on the balancin’, but one day I’m gonna be able to walk, dance, even talk on my own! When we get the parts anyhow.”
“Wow… You’re so lucky. Fredbear talks too, but only when other people aren’t around. I think he’s a bit shy. He doesn’t do any of those other things though.”
With Toni’s help, Buddy picked up the remote and held it out to Evan. “Wanna give it a shot?”
The boy’s eyes sparkled, and he tentatively took the remote while Toni set the bear up again. Soon enough, Buddy was on his way. He wandered around under Evan’s control. Wherever the kid wanted, Buddy went; between chair legs, circling little Fredbear and finally plopping himself down on Toni’s lap. Or rather, falling there.
Evan’s expression dulled as he stared at the now face-down bear. Did he want to play some more? He looked up at Toni as if about to cry again.
“Can I ask you a question, Toni? Or, um, Buddy.”
Toni turned Buddy over to look at the boy, though instead of posing him in reaction, she held him limp on her arm. “Uh, shoot.”
“Do you think characters can go bad?
Can characters go bad? She had never really thought about that. It seemed a ludicrous thing to even think about.
“Oh, uh…”
“Toni!”
She was cut off by the call of her mother, who now seemed to be searching the diner. She looked positively flustered. The girl looked back to her young friend with an apologetic grimace.
“Sorry, I gotta go.”
Snatching up her bag, Toni climbed out from under the table and ran to join mum. “I’m here!”