Archive of Our Own

Mike grips the steering wheel of his car, taking slow, deep breaths as he works up the courage to get out. It was a technique he used to use in high school before he dropped out. In the back seat sat Ennard, currently gazing at the video rental store Mike had parked in front of.

It had been a couple months since Ennard had moved in, and Mike felt things were going well. Well, they hadn’t killed him yet, so that had to mean something. He’d managed to pick up a new job after getting fired from that hellhole. Nothing special, but it pays the bills so who cares.
When he’s not home, Ennard is usually watching whatever they can find on the TV, or at least that’s what they tell him. When he’s home, they’ll hang out, sometimes watching more TV and answering any questions about what they watched, or they’d try out an activity Mike could get his hands on either for cheap or for free. They tried to play Monopoly one night where each of them had their own piece. It was definitely an… experience.

They seem to be getting used to their new body, though it wasn’t without its hiccups. Their janky movements were becoming smoother the more they moved around and practiced, but there will sometimes be conflicts on who is in control. He has noticed that Baby takes charge a lot and, while he can’t say for certain, he feels like she becomes irritated if someone else is in charge. This has been particularly noticeable when Freddy suddenly butts in, which he likes to do when he’s overexcited about something.

He's still been trying to get to know them as individuals, and a big thing he’s discovered is why Foxy is so quiet all the time. If she talks too loudly, some kind of megaphone filter activates and her voice is loudly amplified. This doesn’t pair well with her, in her own words, being extremely shy when she’s not performing.

‘It was fine, great even, when I got to perform. I really played into a loud, boisterous character and it was so fun, freeing even,’ she had whispered after she had tested it for him. She’d sounded on the verge of tears, ‘But I hate it now. I don’t even get to perform anymore. What’s the point?’

‘I could feel our entire body rattling,’ Baby had remarked, in a tone that sounded innocent, ‘maybe it is for the best that it doesn’t happen again.’

This had then devolved into an argument between Baby and Ballora, and Foxy didn’t speak again for a while.

Mike had taken them out of the apartment a few times too, most of the time at night to try and avoid being spotted. He’d drive them around in his car, showing them places around town, sometimes even the town over, and they’d stop at somewhere devoid of people so they could get out and wander around. The stars had fascinated them at first, and they had a great time giggling as they fled to the car after Ennard collapsed a swing set in an empty park, but they were beginning to grow restless.

‘We are not a new pet you hide from your parents,’ Baby had said when they discussed it. ‘We did not escape one place only to be trapped in another.’

And Mike gets it, he really does. He saw what it was like down there and they had been stuck there for a long time. But they’re an over 6-foot-tall clown robot made of wires and eyeballs. If he walked down the street with them on any day bar Halloween, he’d probably get the cops called on him and that’s the last thing any of them need.

They had an experience like that one night outside the apartment. He hadn’t realised one of his neighbours was coming back late from a shift, and he ran into them while shepherding Ennard back to his apartment. They’d stared at Ennard in the hallway, their eyes wide, until Mike had awkwardly said hi to them. They almost dropped their keys scrambling to get into their apartment. Ennard was quiet for the rest of the night after that.

They’ve said they do understand. They understand that the circumstances aren’t skewed in their favour. They have been surprisingly patient, and Mike does like to think it’s because they’ve genuinely enjoyed being out of there. So, the best thing Mike can do is try.

‘Miiiiiiikey!’ Freddy’s giddy voice snaps Mike out of his thoughts. He turns his head to look at Ennard, whose eyes are fully on him. ‘Earth to M-Mikey! Let’s go!’

‘If you stare into space any longer, we will start to rust,’ Baby remarks in her usual soft voice, ‘and if you grip that wheel any harder, it will break. Are you regretting bringing us here that much?’

Mike’s head snaps back to his hands, knuckles white and arms rigid. He releases the steering wheel with almost too much haste to call it casual, a dull ache quickly setting in.

‘Nah, just zoned out too hard. Let’s go.’ And with one last deep breath, Mike opens the door to his car.

It’s the middle of a weekday, meaning the streets were close to empty. It helped that the place they were going into – a movie rental store called “Vinny’s Videos” – was on a street off from the main road, so less foot traffic. Even still, as Mike hovers around the passenger door in case Ennard needs help getting out (though they weighed that much that if he tried to help them, he’d most likely end up on his ass. He was mainly making sure they don’t scratch his car too much), he can feel the eyes of people on them. It’s a feeling he hadn’t missed, and even now it makes his chest start to tighten.

He gestures for Ennard to move ahead of him and he keeps his eyes glued to their back, ignoring the sources of judgement as they made their way into the store.

Vinny’s Videos is, funnily enough, owned by middle aged man called Vinny. He’s a friendly guy, and an absolute movie fanatic. He’ll talk the ear off of anyone who will listen about anything relating to movies, whether it’s about ones you’re trying to rent out, ones that are in theatres right now, or just any movie that pops into his head.

He’s also the closest thing Mike has to a friend in this town, though Mike doesn’t feel like he has the right to call him one. Mike lets him ramble, and he’s gotten some pretty good movie recommendations out of it, but their relationship isn’t deeper than that. Not that Mike has tried.

It had been Mike who approached Vinny about bringing Ennard here. It was well known that Vinny was a huge fan of movie props, and the bigger, weirder and more extravagant the better. So, when Mike had told him he’d come into a possession of a peculiar animatronic, Vinny was ecstatic and asked him to bring it in. He hadn’t told him that it could walk on its own, and that it’s sentient. Mike is hopeful that it will just make it even better.

The store looks empty right now, which is a bonus. The store is filled to the brim with shelves lining the walls and stretching in rows across the room, full of empty VHS boxes ready to be taken to the counter. Ennard’s many eyes are already looking this way and that, taking in the cramped little store with what he can only assume is amazement.

While they’re distracted, he moves to the end of the first row and sneaks a glance at the store counter. Lounging behind it is a girl who looks around his age with short black hair. She’s currently engrossed in a comic book on the counter with a lollypop in her mouth, and the radio next to her is blasting out rock music at a higher-than-normal volume. She’s obviously not expecting anyone to be in the store yet, either that or she doesn’t care.

He's seen her a few times in passing, usually doing something else in the store while Vinny mans the counter. Never caught her name. Where’s Vinny though? Maybe he’s in the back?

Either way, it gives Mike some time to show Ennard around the store and hopefully calm his nerves. As he warily eyes the cramped walk space between the rows of shelves, he forces his shoulders to relax and he returns to Ennard’s side.

‘So, here’s what I’m thinking.’ Their eyes snap to him and he is proud that he doesn’t flinch. ‘Let’s have a look around and see what there is. You guys are gonna know pretty much none of these, so we can just wander around, read the blurbs and see if any catch your interest. We have a few hours before the streets start getting busy, so plenty of time. Sound good?’

He receives varying levels of energy from their agreements, though anything would sound unenthusiastic next to Freddy’s loud, high-energy tone. Ennard was practically shaking with Freddy’s excitement, restrained by the other occupants keeping him in check. Mike lets out a chuckle and then begins the tour.

Mike’s eyes wander the shelves until they land on a movie he knows well. He grabs a box with the words “STAR WARS” in big letters on the front. Ennard’s eyes were back to wandering the shelves, but they move to Mike when he turns to them, box flipped around so they can see the cover. He clears his throat.

‘”Star Wars is an elaborately spectacular film that represents the ultimate in cinematic entertainment. Writer/Director George Lucas’ unrivalled passion for space fantasy, adventure and romance is captured on the screen with awesome effects and extraordinary bizarre space creatures. Princess Leia is captured and held hostage by evil Imperial forces in their efforts to take over the galactic Empire. Venturesome Luke Skywalker and dashing spaceship captain Han Solo team together with lovable robot duo, R2-D2 and C-3PO, to rescue the beautiful princess and restore justice in the Empire”.’

He looks back up at Ennard, who is staring intently. ‘So, what do you think?’

They tilt their head to the side, like they are thinking. Baby is the one that pipes up first.

‘The description didn’t give much detail; your delivery could use some… work. It’s a “space fantasy”?’ She emphasises the word ‘fantasy’ in a way that sounds like she’s interested. Mike makes a mental note.

‘Yeah, so it’s a science fiction film, or sci-fi, so a made-up world with made-up science stuff, but it’s also a fantasy because there’s a bit of magic in it.’ Ennard perks up slightly at this, evidently catching Baby’s attention. ‘It’s also an action adventure-‘

‘Wait wait wait, adventure? A-Action? What kind? Cmon M-Mikey, spill us the details!’ Freddy cut in with his usual booming excitement, taking over as he almost lunges forward, looking excited.

‘Well, uh, there’s lots of fighting. Sword fights, gun fights, space battles in spaceships. There’s lots of big explosions too! You guys will love the effects in this one, it makes the stuff on TV look cheap and tacky.’

‘Wow, that so-ounds amazing! Do many people die-ie? Hehe, do they die slow, gory de-eaths?’

‘Freddy!’ Bon-Bon’s voice scolds as Mike raises an eyebrow. ‘You don’t need to know that, that’s not fun!’

‘It’s fun to m-me! I wonna know!’ he says in the same gleeful tone. Mike sighs and steps back in before it escalates.

‘People do die in it, but uh, it’s not gory or anything. It’s just people getting shot and then the scene moves on, that kind of thing.’ Ennard visibly sags. ‘But it doesn’t need to be gory to be loud and exciting. There are still plenty of fights you’ll get a kick out of. You’ll really like it, Freddy. Honest,’ Mike reasons.

‘Yeah, cmon Freddy! Sword and gun fights are super fun! And big explooooosioooons,’ Bon-Bon adds.

Freddy seems to mull it over for a moment and then bounce back as Ennard straightens up again.

They then shift into a position that Mike can only imagine is meant to be graceful. ‘Now that he is satisfied, I suppose it’s my turn. This sounds very much like the usual damsel-in-distress story,’ Ballora’s cool voice says, not sounding fully impressed.

‘The description makes it sound that way, huh? I won’t spoil too much but Leia is much more than some captured pretty princess. She’s stubborn and snarky, she stands up to captors and the moment she’s able, she’s blasting her way out of her prison. She can take care of herself, and she makes sure everyone knows it,’ Mike responds, bigging up some of Leia’s traits. He gets the sense Ballora doesn’t like “weak” women, so he makes a mental note of it.

Ennard cocks their head to the side and puts a hand on their hip. He thinks he has her attention.

‘Interesting. And there seems to be some kind of bigger plot with these “imperial forces”. What is that about?’

‘Well again, I won’t spoil too much, but the Imperials are trying to have complete control over the whole galaxy by any means necessary. Things are terrible for everyone, especially the aliens. Then rises the Rebellion, who want to defeat them and bring freedom back to the galaxy. Leia actually plays a big role as a rebel. She does something that lets the rebels push back hard against the Empire and she becomes a pretty high rank in the Rebellion.’

Ennard stares at him a few moments longer, before Ballora gives a satisfied hum. Then, suddenly, they move closer to Mike, startling him. Then he realises why, as he hears Foxy’s quiet voice.

‘ You said there’s-‘

‘This is beginning to get boring. Can we move on to the next one?’ Circus Baby cuts in, drowning Foxy out.

‘Baby!’ Ballora’s anger is immediate. ‘Foxy was talking! You can wait a few more minutes, it was her turn.’

‘Was she? I did not hear her,’ she says in her falsely innocent tone.

‘Yes, you did. We share a body, it’s impossible not to!’

Ennard has snapped back and is becoming more and more rigid, twitches and trembles becoming more prominent. This isn’t unusual when they argue, he assumes they’re fighting for control. He takes this opportunity to jump in before this turns into a full fight.

‘Alright, alright! Calm down, please. Look, Baby, we’re almost done and then I’ll show you guys another one. Ballora’s right, it’s Foxy’s turn. Once she’s done, we can move on, okay?’

‘That’s fine, I did not hear her.’ Mike can’t say he fully believes her, but Ballora doesn’t bite back with another remark so he continues.

‘Right, Foxy, you were saying?’

‘You said there were robots?’ Ennard leans in again so her voice can be heard better.

‘Yeah, there’s lots of robots, they call them “droids”. Though, they aren’t actual robots like you guys are, they’re actors in costumes. They’re very convincing.’

She makes a quiet disappointed hum, but continues on.

‘And… Romance?’

‘Yup, one of the main characters is a woman so it’s bound to happen. I won’t spoil who, but they have good chemistry. It’s a fun one, different, and this is part of a trilogy so it develops through it.’

The hum she makes is much happier this time, and Ennard leans away. He gives it a moment to make sure she’s done, and then turns and puts the box back on the shelf.

‘I actually already own this one, so we can watch it any time. I just wanted to warm up with one I knew. Cmon, let’s go have a look around.’

Mike feels himself relax more and more as they make their way around the cramped little shop. Mike leads them to some more big-name titles he’s a fan of and repeats what he just did: taking the box from the shelf, reading them the blurb and telling them the genre if he knows what it is and expanding more on what it’s about. He repeats this process with various movies he knows, until some of the other titles start to catch their eye, so he takes them off the shelf and reads those out to them too, even if he’s never heard of them before.

As time ticked on, Mike finds himself having more and more fun, his previous anxiety fading away. The perks of Ennard being how they are is that they’re five different personalities packaged into one body who all had their own opinions, reactions and an insatiable curiosity, so they were all bouncing off him with a large variety of thoughts and questions on the movies they were talking about and eagerly listening to his answers.

Even when Ennard almost knocks over one of the shelves on accident, Mike’s shock is quickly overtaken by laughter, and when another customer wanders in and stares from a distance, Mike finds himself not caring as Ballora asks him more questions about a movie that’s caught her particular interest.

In the end, the hours tick by and Mike is holding 3 movie boxes. He can only rent them out for a week, and that, crossed with his work schedule and how much they cost to rent meant he had to make multiple promises to Bon-Bon and Foxy that he would pick up their choices when he drops these off next week, not that either of them had made a particular fuss about it.

It had taken some time for all of them to decide on which movie they wanted to take back; Mike thinks he may have overwhelmed them with choice. Circus Baby had chosen first, picking a Disney princess movie that he mentally clocked as being a favourite of Liz’s. Ballora seemed to have a few in mind but settled on a murder mystery. Foxy had picked a musical, which at first surprised Mike, but then he realised he knew the least about her, so he tucked that titbit away.

Bon-Bon had picked a comedy, though Mike thinks some of the jokes may go over their heads, and finally, after a lot of jumping back and forth between movies and some opinions from Bon-Bon, Freddy settled on a western. Mike thought he would’ve gone with something gorier, but he’s glad he can dodge that while he can.

This would have been done much faster, but after Circus Baby had made her choice, she seemed determined to make some kind of comment about each of their choices or complained if any of them took too long. The rest seemed to power through it, though Ballora snapped back more than once, and Freddy refused to let her talk over him or Bon-Bon. Mike usually steps in if things look like they’re getting too heated, despite knowing he couldn’t do against 6 feet of steel if they didn’t listen.

However, now that he was approaching the counter with Ennard’s loud steps trailing behind him, the lurking anxiety that he had forgotten about begins to creep its way back in, that familiar tightness in his chest beginning to squeeze. The same girl from earlier still sits behind the counter, engrossed in another comic and listening to the same loud rock station. Where was Vinny? He said he’d be in today.

Mike takes a deep breath. Whelp. There was no getting out of this situation. Maybe this girl was as much of a weirdo as Vinny is?

‘Uh, hey, we’d like to rent out some movies?’ He mentally kicks himself when his voice wobbles slightly.

‘Sure, what have you got?’ Her eyes flick up from her comic to look at Mike, then they widen as her eyes find Ennard, who is currently standing directly behind Mike, peeking out behind him with a cocked head.

Her mouth droops stupidly as she stares, her lollypop falling out of her mouth and clattering onto her comic book.

Great. Cool. Alright.

An awkward silence hangs in the air as Ennard and the girl have an unending stare off, both ignoring Mike who wants to crawl under the floorboards and cease to exist. Eventually, he works up the nerve to say something, anything that can end this torture, but his inhale to speak seems to snap her out of her shock.

‘That… is…-’ Oh here we go. Mike starts to mentally calculate how long it would take for him to pack off his apartment and move to an even more remote town, never to be seen again.

‘-AWESOME!’

Wait, what?

The girl is on her feet now, hands slammed on the counter with her exclamation. Her eyes comb Ennard with figurative stars in her eyes.

‘It looks so cool! Is it some kind of robot or is that someone in costume? Where did you get it? Did you make it? Is it something from a movie? It looks like something out of a horror movie. Not in a bad way! It adds to its charm! Does it move on its own? Can it talk? Can it be damaged if it’s exposed like that? Those loose wires don’t look very safe.’ She begins to ramble, throwing questions at Mike that he has no time to even answer.

‘Uh-‘ Mike starts, which seems to make her realise she’s talking to an actual person.

‘Oh god, sorry! I just got really excited. Let me guess, you brought it in for Vinny?’ She says, composing herself.

‘Uh, yeah. He said he’d be in today.’ Mike starts to feel slightly nervous. He hadn’t actually told Ennard about that part of the trip, he had hoped he could just introduce them to Vinny directly. He silently hopes that if they take offence, they won’t bring it up until after they leave.

‘Yeah he called in sick this morning, I’ve been manning the store on my own today. Typical he wouldn’t tell me something as cool as this was happening though, that’s just like him.’ She rolls her eyes, but her expression tells him it’s in an endearing way. ‘I’m Bernie, by the way.’ She taps the name tag pinned to her maroon shirt.

Mike has a better look at her now. She has shoulder length, wavy black hair with bangs that brush her eyebrows and a longer back that creeps down her neck. Her eyes are a warm amber and her pale face is dotted with freckles. She’s surprisingly tall, almost the same height as Mike at 5 foot 10, and she looks close to 18, like him. The smile on her face reveals a gap between her front teeth.

‘I’m uh, I’m Mike. And this is Ennard.’ He gestures at the robot in question and looks them over. They had straightened up and froze in place, still staring at Bernie. He can only imagine the last few minutes has put them into shock. Upon realising they’re being directly spoken to, however, the blue eye snaps to Mike, than back to Bernie, and they tilt their head again.

‘Hello,’ comes Baby’s voice, seemingly the first one the snap out of it and take charge. Bernie jumps slightly in surprise.

‘Woah! It can talk?’

‘Yes, we can. We are not just some... prop.’ There was a drop in tone at the end of that sentence so Mike, knowing she’s annoyed, decides to jump in again.

‘I found them a couple months ago, they’re an animatronic. I’ve been taking care of them, and they wanted out of the house, so I spoke to Vinny and he said I could bring them here. I’m trying to find people they can… socialise with, I guess.’

‘Well, you’ve definitely come to the right place. We’re the weirdo hotspot in this town ‘cuz us weirdos have godda to stick together. Here, let me see whatcha picked out.’ And she slides her comic to the side and reaches over to turn down the radio.

Mike does as she asks, setting them down. She looks them over, nodding along approvingly.

‘These are some great choices! Lots of variety. Did you pick these?’ She asks, looking up and addressing Ennard directly. They perk up.

‘Yes-‘ Baby begins.

‘Yes-‘ Ballora begins.

‘YUP! This one-one is mine!’ Freddy crashes in. Ennard leans over the back of Mike, forcing him to bend underneath them, and they point at the western. Mike ducks out from under them.

‘Guys, cmon, one at a time! Freddy, I get you’re excited, but you can’t just barge into me like that.’ As Mike rubs a part of his back that got hit, he catches Bernie’s eye. She has questions in her eyes, so he stumbles to answer, realising what they’ve just revealed.

‘Uh, Ennard actually has more than one… personality sharing the body, which is why there’s more than one voice. I showed them a bunch of movies and they each chose ones they personally liked. They’re uh, actually 5 of them but I’m only made of so much money, haha.’ Mike laughs awkwardly, feeling his chest squeeze just a little bit tighter.

It eases a touch when Bernie perks up at this information, turning back towards Ennard and leaning her head on her hands, meeting them at their bent eye level.

‘Wow, really? That sounds really unique! Do you all have control, or is one of you in control of the body and the rest along for the ride? Oh! Or! Do you all control a part of you each, like Voltron?’ she excitedly asks.

Still in the same pose, Ennard’s head cocks. ‘The first one,’ Baby says.

‘Doesn’t that get a bit awkward with the 5 of you?’

‘Very.’ Baby’s tone drops, and Ennard stands up straight again, looking almost as if they were yanked backwards by an invisible force. Bernie straightens up herself more casually, still smiling.

‘Well, that explains why you guys chose such a variety! I’d love to know what the other two of you picked. Were you guys in here long? I didn’t even see you.’ She looks back at Mike, who has been watching this interaction tensely.

‘Yeah we’ve uh, we’ve been in here for the last few hours. I started showing them some movies I knew, then we just started looking at whatever caught their eye… or, well, eyes, and talking about them. There’s a lot of movies in here I’ve never even looked at before.’

‘Christ, you’ve been in here that long?’ Her head snaps up to look at a clock that’s hung above the front door. ‘Sorry about that, I’ve been really into this series, I managed to get a bunch of them in bulk.’ She gestures down to the pushed-aside comic book, scrunching her nose when she realises where her lollypop went. She carefully pries it off the page as to not rip it and puts it back in her mouth.

Mike shrugs, mentally cringing. ‘It gave us some time to look around. I think if you’d seen us straight away, your reaction may have made it a bit more awkward. Uh, no offence!’ He hurriedly adds. Bernie just waves him off.

‘Nah none taken, you’re not wrong. Hey! Did you show them The Terminator?’ Mike breaks out in a cold sweat as he sees Ennard’s head slowly turn towards him in the corner of his eye.

‘Miiiikey, what’s that one?’ asks Freddy, which Mike expected. He can hear the excitement creeping into his voice. The cold sweat he’s under masks the flush of embarrassment he feels over the nickname.

Damn it. Let’s get this over with.

‘It’s a science fiction action film about a robot assassin from the future going back in time to try and kill a woman to stop her from giving birth to her son who saves the world in said future.’

Freddy gasps, as if Mike had just given him the most wonderful present.

‘Hey, no!’ He points a finger at them. ‘You’ve already chosen yours for this time, you can wait until it’s your turn again!’

‘Aw, phooey!’

Bernie is giggling at the comical scene before her before she interrupts them. ‘Right, let me actually do my job for a second. We may be out of the way, but the streets get busy soon. I imagine you’ll wonna leave before then, right?’ She smiles at him.

Mike rubs the back of his neck awkwardly and nods, so she turns and goes over the sets of drawers behind her, flicking through them to find the right tapes. Mike steps up to the desk, they finish their transaction, and Mike is once more carrying the 3 boxes.

‘Now don’t be a stranger, okay? It was honestly really nice meeting you guys, and I know Vinny will love to meet you, Ennard! Plus, I have plenty of recommendations for you!’

They wave and make their departure, returning to Mike’s parked car. Ennard crawls into the back as Mike makes his way to the driver’s seat, dropping the VHS tapes into the passenger seat. No one seems to have spotted them, so Mike gives himself a moment to relax into his seat, sighing as some of the tension ebbs away.

‘Why did you lie to her?’ Baby’s voice cuts through the silence and Mike startles. He whips his head around to find them leaning forward, much closer than Mike is comfortable with, their single blue eye staring at him with a cocked head.

‘I didn’t lie to her.’ He turns back around and readjusts in his seat, trying to play off his reaction. ‘I just didn’t tell her everything.’

‘You told her that you “found” us, like we were a wandering stray you had brought into your home.’

‘I did find you. At my job in an underground facility you’d only ever see in some kind of sci fi horror movie, where multiple people died and you tried to kill me. Baby, I get where you’re coming from, but I can’t just tell her everything, she’s a stranger.’

‘But you lied to us. You did not tell us you had brought us there to meet someone, or from the sounds of it, show us off like a toy.’

‘I still didn’t lie, but you’re right. I should have told you and I’m sorry I didn’t. I worried that if I told you, you wouldn’t want to go. But, I told Vinny more about you than Bernie, so his reaction probably wouldn’t have been so… loud if he was actually there today. I was hoping it would be something much more casual.’

‘Who-who cares anyway?’ Freddy interjects. ‘We made a new fr-friend! Us weirdos have to stick together, after all!’

‘For our case, literally!’ Bon-Bon jokes and Freddy lets out his signature, almost maniacal laugh, with Bon-Bon joining in too.

Mike stares out of the windscreen for a few moments, lost in thought. Weirdo, huh? He guesses that what he is now. It’s much tamer than what they called him in high school, though it still kind of stung.

Damn it. He’d moved here to hopefully keep a low profile, escape his blood-stained reputation back in Hurricane. Not that he deserved to escape it. He knew this would happen after he brought Ennard home, but it’s only just setting in now.

It was nice though, talking to Bernie. He didn’t really go out of his way to socialise when he moved here, just keeping to himself for that low profile. That’s what he does at his jobs too, and half the time he leaves quickly enough that it doesn’t even matter. There’s Vinny, sure, but all they ever talked about was movies, and he was way older than him. Bernie may have her… quirks but she felt very genuine and enthusiastic. It was almost contagious.

Mike shakes his head, returning from his thoughts. He looks in his rear-view mirror at Ennard, who has now sat back and seems to be talking amongst themself while he zoned out. Mike starts up the car, which catches their attention.

‘Alright, now that that’s over, how about I make a brief stop for snacks and then we go home and watch one of these movies?’

And, with a variation of agreements from his metal friend, he pulls off from the curb and drives away.