STATEMENT OF NEIL HARRIS, EMPLOYEE OF FREDBEAR’S FAMILY DINER, NOVEMBER 1983

”He was almost always alone, only the Emily girl really tried to get to know him, and even then they only met at one of the restaurants when both their parents were there. He didn’t really make himself endearing with his interest in the macabre, but he wasn’t a bad kid either, just a little odd. It certainly gave him a reputation with the other kids though, a reputation that seemed to follow him wherever he went, and everyone who knew tried to keep out of his way. I talked to his father about it a few times, but he always blew me off like it wasn’t an issue, said that he would ’grow out of it’ eventually, even though it obviously disturbed him too. Said he’d talk to him about it and never did, which was definitely just an excuse not to think about it, about him, and just keep pretending that everything would sort itself out on its own, which I guess it did, in its own messed up way.”

STATEMENT OF SHARON CARTER, FOURTH-GRADE TEACHER, NOVEMBER 1984

”Always looking over his shoulder, that one. Like something would come crawling out of the walls and snatch him up, which might’ve been true considering how his brother treated him most of the time. He got really good at hiding from the other kids, too. It was always a hassle counting the class after recess and coming up one short because that kid had squirreled himself away in the grove behind the school somewhere, so someone would have to go out and drag him back before class could actually start. Eventually we had to get someone to stand outside and keep an eye on him specifically so he didn’t run off again, but he still occasionally managed to give her the slip sometimes. It was weird not seeing her standing at the edge of the playground after…the Big Bite. Maybe if someone had been there at Fredbear’s that day then he wouldn’t have gotten, y’know, crunched. It was terrible, shouldn’t have happened at all.”

INTERVIEW WITH JEREMIAH FITZGERALD, PARANORMAL PATROLLERS, 1986

”The kid was a little creep, he was always doing something weird or gross every time I saw him. Like how when his foxy toy lost its head he’d tell everyone that ’Chica bit it off’ or fishing bones out of ditches to ’make his own Freddy’. Even weirder was that he would still collapse into a blubbering mess over nothing! He’d see something stupid like a lost glove and fall to the ground sobbing, and whenever anyone tried to get him to calm down he just cried even harder! It’s no wonder nobody actually liked him…I’m sorry, I shouldn’t say that. Anyway, nobody really wanted to be friends with him either, and there were a ton of rumors about him, in a place like this they spread like wildfire, especially when he made it so easy with all the shit he did. The only person he really played with were his toys, and Sam’s sister, but that didn’t happen often...I’m sorry, this was a bad idea, I shouldn’t have brought it up, he was just a kid, he didn’t deserve that.”

STATEMENT OF GABRIEL MONTERO, WITNESS/ACCOMPLICE, 1983

”He ain’t a bad person, just a little…rough around the edges. Loud, snarky, never held his mouth shut or backed down from a fight. Complained to us all the time about how he had to spend time with his siblings when their parents were gone, took it out on them sometimes, especially his little brother. I guess I didn’t see anything wrong with it then, me and my sister messed with each other a lot, and he did seem to enjoy creepy stuff sometimes, so I didn’t really question it. I should’ve, especially when he didn’t stop crying after Michael pounced on him with that mask, or why he tried so hard to hide from us when we came over for movie night. I thought he was just shy, and that Michael wouldn’t do anything if it would actually hurt him. He cared about his brother as much as he tried not show it, even got him that yellow bear plush he took everywhere, but after that I don’t know what he could’ve wanted. I do know he never meant for that to happen at least, not like it did.”

STATEMENT OF AMELIA DAVIDSON, FAZBEAR TECHNICIAN, 1983

”He was terrified of that thing, just the sight of it was enough to drive him to tears. Not even the robots at Freddy’s scared him that bad, he was fine with them, it was that yellow bear costume that drove him hysterical. He would sob so uncontrollably every time his brother or his father took him there that he was completely unable to articulate exactly why, just that it was ”gonna get him” if he stayed alone with it. Don’t get me wrong, springlock suits can be dangerous, those things are Iron Maidens disguised as mascot suits, but that’s not what he was scared of, and there’s no way he could’ve known about how many safety regulations were being violated or why he thought those might hurt him. It got even worse as the party approached too, drove the rest of his family nuts, but I guess he ended up being right about it in the end.”

STATEMENT OF RALPH BURGESS, MANAGER OF FREDDY FAZBEAR’S PIZZA, 1984

”When something like that happens, especially when Freddy’s was getting so big, you can’t really just move on. People associate it with the brand, and soon the name is associated with the tragedy more than anything. You can’t even say ’Fredbear’ anymore without people suddenly going quiet and staring like you just invoked the devil himself, it’s like the placed was cursed, even with the doors closed and carpets bleached. I heard rumors too, about how the shadows would flicker strangely across the stage, about how people felt like they were being watched by something unnatural, and of course there was the crying heard in the back rooms. Mr Afton tried to keep spirits up, said that we could rebrand and move on from the incident, but everyone could tell things would never be the same again. I don’t think even he believed it, in the aftermath, the entire family just sorta…shut down. Mrs Afton barely felt like she was part of the family anymore, you’d still see her around town, but never with her husband or her children, and if you asked, she’d change the subject or just make an excuse and leave. Real cagey about everything else in her life too, in hindsight we all probably should have seen it coming, but I guess she didn’t strike anyone as the type to just up and run away like that at the time. The daughter, Elizabeth, kept trying to make people happy, as well as a little girl could, anyway. She even made up an imaginary friend to keep her company, a big bear with red eyes who lived in her closet that she would tell stories about. I don’t think she ever really understood why one of her brothers wasn’t coming home anymore, even after the funeral, and nobody had the heart to tell her he wasn’t coming back. Michael, the oldest son, changed too, he wasn’t acting out as much anymore, which you’d think was an improvement, but he barely seemed like he did anything else, either. Any interactions were made as short as possible, and he would get twitchy if someone spent too long trying to chat. It was clear he hadn’t been getting enough sleep as well, with how dark those rings under his eyes were, something must’ve been keeping him up at night, and it’s not hard to imagine what.”

I always found it weird how Nightmare BB and Mangle didn't have cracked plastic in there designs??? Like BB is in pristine condition and Mangle was made of fabric??? Like I know Nightmare Mangle isn't canon but still it's weird... Also BB should've been damaged too...

YES. A little infodumping on 4, because I can't resist.

So, FNaF 4 is a memory/nightmare in my AU, ofc being those of Michael. They're triggered by his shifts at Freddy's during FNaF 1, due to both the spiritual energy there and his brother's soul being able to somewhat try to communicate... not that that's easy with how fractured BV is.

But the Nightmares do actually have two sets of appearances. The first is their original appearances during the gas experiments, where they look very similar to how they do in-game. But in Michael's nightmares reliving the experiments, they're (similarly to Frickbear's 3, it's an idea I'd been considering for a while and that game gave me the push I needed to incorporate it) basically oversized, partially mechanized plushies that reflect both BV's plushies and Michael and his friends.

Foxy's probably the most 'important' of the basic group. He's a little more... insidious than he is in the actual game, with the occasional audio cue, and also tends to try and sneak into the bedroom rather than only running in. He represents Michael himself... so he's sort of a more important threat, given that Michael was BV's main tormentor. He also tends to taunt Michael.

Foxy had more or less his in-game role during the actual experiments, as William wanted to focus on overwhelming Michael through variety rather than sheer power. In Michael's dreams, Foxy is more prevalent and, as I said, more insidious. I'd say that he also technically has influence from William, since he's representative of Michael's own path at the point he was most like his father, rather than Michael's actions under coercion later on.

Bonnie is also a bit more prevalent because BMB was the one to help Michael lift BV into Fredbear's mouth. But I don't have much to say on him.

For 'trivia' stuff... I'm not sure if I actually have anything on them that would count as trivia, so I'm just going to talk about their plush designs here;

Foxy's plush design has a very obviously reattached head. Don't need to say what that's from. He has a weird hole in his chest area that's representative of Michael's perception of his past self as 'heartless' while also foreshadowing Michael's fate. Has some themes around his behavior that are... somewhat child-oriented? I'm not sure exactly how best it'd manifest, but it's meant to represent Michael's parentification and the destruction of his childhood for his siblings' wellbeing, as well as the resentment that created.

Plush Chica has a split jaw (funnily enough, reflecting what happens to Mike's mouth later on) which sort of reflects Sapphire's role in the group— I haven't decided whether she's the mean girl type or more close in character to actual Chica, but Sapphire mainly contributed to conflict involving the group with her words. Instead of just Chica, her Cupcake is also present, which also represents Susie and her dog.

Plush Bonnie has a sort of physically two-faced thing going on, although I haven't decided how exactly that aspect of his design looks, because there were actually two individuals who wore Bonnie masks in Mike's group, being twins. This also kind of connects to Jeremy, as Jeremy died of blunt force trauma to the head (let's just say that Withered Bonnie wasn't the first time Jeremy was functionally faceless) when William ended up throwing a heavy object at him. Bonnie is overall one of the most aggressive, right after Foxy, reflecting both the male twin's propensity for escalating situations and Jeremy's own aggression.

Sorry for disappearing all of April, I didn't do much besides play Tomodachi and other things. Anyway, I finally finished all of FNAF 4

Nightmare Kuromi