Of Fazbears and Vaporwave Part 3

"Syd, why are we letting one of them wander off?" Syd inquired a bit nervously.
The other droids looked a bit indignant, that they didn't get a chance to wander off and do what they'd
like in public. Syd spoke, "First, I'd like to see what he's up to, second, it's an emotional time for
everyone and not everyone's quite adjusted to catching up on the last fourty or fifty years. I'd rather not
risk em getting violent."

"Violent? You did put safe guards on them, didn't you?!" One of her assistants started to look legitimately
worried to the droids and the other biological beings in the room.
"Hey, won't be a repeat of the war, they've got free will, but they're not predisposed towards killing or
anyth-" Foxy was twitching a bit, chest heaving and shoulders slumped, head ducked down and cartoony,
overly fluffy ears splayed as the droid clutched its head. "M-miss Syd? Could I get a different partner?
This toy voice wants to do scary things like run around really fast and jump from one boat to another. I
don't know how to swim...!" There was a hint of panic in the fox's voice.

Syd took a moment to try and delicately ease the droid fox. "Err, well, you can feel pressure and warm and
cold, but I don't think you feel pain beyond lots of pressure, Foxy. And there's no boats around, so you
don't need to worry about falling into the water...!" She tried to say reassuringly.

"Hey, if I'm sharing a body with this rabbit, we can sing right?" Bonnie piped up, clumsily patting Foxy on
the back who seemed a bit startled, the other assistants looking to one another and to the droids and Steve
and Syd tried to join in to help the droids settle down as the rabbit started to sing an old 80s song,
Thriller, extremely off-key and sounding horribly auto-tuned, resulting in a piano-like voice. Bonnie started
to get agitated to learn they couldn't sing properly as it was explained they could generally follow a
pre-programmed song, but they'd have to develop actual skills to do much on their own. Chica was getting
a bit grouchy and moved to the window to watch out of it.

There wasn't much to see, there were kids in the neighborhood walking along the sidewalk from one house to
another, but didn't seem like any stuck to play in the street or anything. Chica was also distraught that
she didn't really recognize the scenery and was paying closer attention to the adults while tapping her
foot a bit agitated. "War? Did Russia finally try to fire the bombs? Wait, no, that was a stand off that
ended with... What war happened?"

Steve piped up with a rather disappointed sigh. "Well, we had a bunch of nearly intelligent AIs in the past
who were hooked up to the weapons of war from previous generations who decided they weren't done killing
when the orders came in to stand down. Was like something out of an old sci fi, didn't go on for very long
though, their EMP shielding wasn't exactly hard to bypass for shutting them down. The talk of newer AIs
kind of makes most people a bit nervous, as a result, bu-..."

Steve's eyes went wide as his pearlescent grin brought itself to bear. "Round of drinks on me, not only did
the HQ approve, we've got a big investor!" The assistants took a moment to start applauding and even Syd
looked impressed as she rubbed along Foxy's back to calm the sobbing droid down a bit, sending Bonnie some
voice training lesson links to Bonnie for synth voiceboxes, Chica looking a bit puzzled at Steve as her
question was partially answered.

---------------

By afternoon and a lot of consoling and looking into some care for the droids as well as getting some
communications sorted out with HQ and with the investors, the team started to work on prepping the droids
on how to perform with preprogrammed song, when there was a knock at the door. Chica answered the door
without thinking as a scraggly, pale figure stood there with mutton chops and slightly balding looking a
bit annoyed, moreso as he looked the scene over.

"Syd, your turn to do the damn project for the prof. I covered the last one for you for physics. What the
hell kind of party are you having with splicers?" the figure snarled a bit, scratching at a patchy clump of
chin whiskers as he pushed what seemed to be a three ring binder, but with plastic sheets and orange
writing on the clear pages instead of paper and pencil as Chica was left holding the thing. "Whoa, who the
heck do you think you are?"

"Jessie, freeze the synapses, the hell's wrong with you? And talk nicer to guests and roommmates!" Syd
snapped back, giving the figure a glance of contempt, the droids looking rather confused and Steve stepping
a bit towards the back and out of the way. Silent messages were being sent to and fro the between Steve and
the droids as Jessie got closer to Syd, gave a sniff and rolled his eyes in disgust. "And drinking too?!
Sweet buttass, get yourself together and pull your damn share. This is due next Friday, if it's late don't
think I'm above putting in a bad word for you with your superiors. Especially with all these... Splicers,
sick freaks," to which Jessie stormed off and slammed the door shut.

Apparently this was a classmate and kind of a pseudo rival of Syd's, she apparently started the whole
series of fights off when she left him with a single night to do a team project to work on without her.
Ever since, he got her contact info and any time they shared a class with team projects he sort of forced
alternating who was left doing the entire assignment by themselves. Jessie was apparently a step son of a
company board member, while he wasn't persuing a future with the company, he was still pulling weight with
the help of his mother.

Jessie wasn't necessarily a bad person, just under insurmountable amounts of pressure as his star had
apparently left him and very few opportunities were left for him beyond trying to marry for status. He also
had legitimate annoyance at Syd being a bit late and disgust for 'splicers' as they were called. In
addition to biological modifications based off of human physiology which were expensive but effective,
there was also splicing which was cheaper, but a lot more dangerous, where animal DNA was spliced in to
cover some field biological mods did, but cheaper. His mother needed a new set of digestive organs, and
while the process was a success, it left his mother's genetic code destabilized and turned extremely
cancerous.

"Ugh. Sorry, maybe find a show or something for the droids to watch while we wait for Freddy to get back?"
Syd took the binder from Chica and popped it open to have a look.

------------

The one-eyed archer stood in the room with all of the Cloistered Clan, a series of robots designed to
remain insular from humanity as they silently stifle any sort of discussion on all fronts of communication,
their plasma launchers aimed on the archer. The hum of electronic weapons filled the room as the archer
pretended to sneeze and drew an arrow made of powered palladium with a lead-lined archery glove the
mechanical carnage broke out as machines were pinned to walls, features of the room turned to slag by the
blasts of energy as the archer picked off most of the robots.

Artificial blood and oil flooded the room, screams of pain from man and machine ripped from throats as the
battle went on for a minute or so, until there was just the leader of the cloistered clan holding an anti-
matter bomb and the badly injured archer left. Their dialogue was subtitled, explaining that by silencing
the truth and reason, humans could live in eternal happiness, the archer argued which set the robot off and
activating the bomb before getting its arm shot off with half a dozen arrows fired at once, the glowing
stems of skewering melting through the metal and plastic bits.

"I never really understood these cartoons from Mongolia, they did overtake the Japanese market though a
while back," Steve remarked, the droids all watching the high production value cartoon unfolding in three
dimensions as some of the assistants tried to watch. Syd was busy working on the assignment as well was
watching through live feed of optics broadcasting from a rather nervous Freddy.

------------------

Freddy stepped off the bus, looking back at a few of the passengers who made rude comments like
"Degenerate," and "splicing scum," with a quizzical glance, looking up the terms. While he felt two
different attempts to trip him from the aisle, he stabilized rather easily, barely losing his stride. Never
saw people who couldn't be distinguished from fish before though, that was something new.

This was it, the thought of a facility alone was enough to make Freddy's stomach churn, if there was a
biological one present. While the Jeremy in Freddy was having second thoughts, the curiousity of the child
and the AI forced one foot after the other as it forced the body towards the building, two votes against
one. Jeremy was starting to panic and fret as the Freddy droid twitched a bit, plodding on in its sombrero
and ancient coat, fear overwhelming one aspect of the droid's mind, the other aspects looking around and
heading to the reception desk.

Syd was keeping her cybernetic eye on a live feed of the droid, keeping tabs with an overlay of a street
map, relaying to her assistant where to pick up Freddy if this impromptu chance for an experiment went
sour. So far so good, no need to use the kill switch, would need to add some visual robotic tells though
from the sounds of peoples' reactions.

--------

Behind the door, was an old man coloring in a coloring book. He looked up at the confused-looking bear
droid, and his expression changed from amusment to horror as he tried to scramble away quite feebly in the
small room, hiding behind the bed and pointing a cane angrily at the droid, pretending to hold it like a
gun. "Guh-uh... go away, Fr-Fruh... Freddy...!"

Had Jeremy control of the head, he'd probably bow it in shame. The artificial intelligence and child ghost
looked on in absolute confusion as their optics adjusted, the reaction even stopped Syd in her tracks as
she paused her work on the assignment. Syd dropped her writing instrument as she was skimming over the
option Jeremy had come up with and her face gone pale.

More worrying was the AI and child had relinquished control despite how severe some of the consequences
could be, Freddy clenched his fist a bit and patted along the coat after a bit. Eventually reaching into
the coat and pulling out a crumpled, folded up coloring book from the old Freddy Fazbear's restaurant, it
was stuffed in one of the inner pockets and apparently pinched from Syd's old collection. Freddy flipped
through it a bit, discovering a few pages already clumsily colored in. He pulled it out with one hand, the
other taking off the sombrero and setting it down as he inched towards the bed at the upset and terrified-
looking old man.

"Heh, guess you got the worse end of the stick. Here, brought something to maybe cheer you up, sorry to
scare ya." He set the book down and looked for one of the guest chairs, which looked to be in disuse even
with the synthetic materials treated to try and hide age. He pulled one over and took a seat, noting the
lack of wear and tear in the furniture compared to everything else. "Doesn't look like you get visitors
often, hope someone you're scared of at least can keep you company?" Freddy gave his best smile, forcing a
tougher front than how he was feeling, the AI marking off which actions Jeremy could and could not carry
through for further, internal discussion.

The old man squinted at the droid bear with narrowed eyes before looking to the book. After a bit, his face
lit up with a rather dopey, and rather toothless smile, he set his cane down and moved the book over to his
little table where he was coloring and took some crayons to it. "Whuh, whut do you want? You broke e-
ehvrything!"

"Look. I didn't know what to expect when I came here to see ya, buddy, but seeing you like this... I really
hope we can at least be friends? I know I've hurt you in the past," Freddy began to apologize, shoulders
slumped, his gaze down and away as he bowed his head a bit.

"Yuh...you took even muh f-famulee away. Why are you buh... back and being so nuh. Nice?" The elderly
figure blew out his cheeks and frowned as best he could, the childish tone striking a chord with the child
ghost.

Freddy's somewhat stoically cheerful face contorted as the droid appeared to be trying to sob as the whole
frame shook. He at least felt better about what he was doing than his earlier plan of smothering the man to
death with a pillow to put him out of his misery. Still, he was alone in this retirement home for mentally
ill, and while it was painful, it was probably to the man's benefit to come visit.

The AI had come to the realization and remained deathly silent as it observed the behaviors in this
situation. A distance away, Steve was trying to get Syd to make sense as she was going on in almost
nonsense.

The man unfolded his arms a bit as he saw that he brought the droid to effectively tears, a warm, fuzzy,
robotic hand reached out and gently gripped the man's.

The bear spoke with a somewhat croaky voice, "Thanks, Jeremy, and sorry I ruined our lives."