"Good day, sir!" Said the small animatronic as I walked into the building, setting my bag on the table for me. "Are you ready for another day? We have a special surprise for you at the end of the week!"
"Hey, Helper Freddy! Ooh," I crooned as I hung up my jacket, "What's the surprise?"
"Well, that would eliminate the surprise, now wouldn't it?" He replied with a slight giggle. It was intriguing seeing how a robot I designed could be so full of humanity, especially considering it was a tiny bear. I supposed I got it from my father; affinity for robotics practically ran in my blood. "You have a new catalogue to browse, sir; Rare Finds Auction! There are some things in there you may be interested in. New animatronics, floor plans and attractions! Be careful of the risk, though!"
"Don't worry, I will," I assured him, patting the small robot on his head. "You won't catch me getting sued."
"Uhm, about that..." Helpy said, awkwardly tapping his fingers together. "You're about to go bankrupt. One more lawsuit and you'd be done for." He anxiously twiddled his little thumbs, pointing his head towards the pile of papers. Lawsuits.
"Shit!" I shouted, running over to the desk. At first glance, I counted at least five. "How much money do we have?!" I asked, expecting the worst.
"...Forty dollars," he said slowly, giving me the worst. My heart rate immediately increased. Sensing my panic, Helpy added, "Don't worry, sir, if we make lots of money today, we can pay these off easily!" He totted over to the catalogue that also sat on the desk. "There are some cheap but valuable animatronics here you may enjoy having in your pizzeria! Like this one, Lefty! He's only five dollars, but he's worth more than two thousand!"
"Two thousand?" I asked, shocked and in disbelief. "That's so much more than the selling price! Are you sure it's safe?" Helpy shook his head sadly.
"Well..." He said, "That's the thing. It's got a risk of 9/9, which is, well, all of it." At this number, my eyebrows shot to the ceiling. "But we can lower that number!" He continued speaking, but I was more focused on the image of Lefty in the catalogue. Looking closely at his arms, I thought I spotted some black-and-white-striped tentacle inside it, but I brushed it off. Endos these days, I thought. The condition of the animatronic was fantastic, but it was so risky even the catalogue editor put a little text box near the price saying, "Are you sure you wanna buy this?" And to be honest, I wasn't. I was sure I didn't.
"Are you sure it's worth it?" I asked. "I mean, that's a lot of potential lawsuits, and even the two thousand it'll get us might not be enough to pay them all off." Helpy shook his head in remorse, and I let out a long sigh. It was going to be a long day. "Alrighty," I said, "I guess I'll get started on the pile of lawsuits." Helpy hopped out of the way, and I sat down on my desk chair, grabbed a pen and started flipping through the papers until I found one I could work on for the night.
His head was bitten by an animatronic - "Oh, great." - and broke 100 bones. The bite hospitalized him for ten weeks. "Hm. Now how could he stay alive like that?" I pondered. "If his head was bitten by an animatronic - these ones are pretty smart, too, so it can't have been the restaurant's fault."
I was suddenly brought back to the year my brother turned seven years old. The very day after his birthday, in fact. That wasn't Fredbear's fault, either, I reminded myself. That was all me and my friends. I tried to shake the image out of my head, but it wouldn't leave. I could no longer focus on the lawsuits, as that day in 1983 wouldn't shake away. Suddenly, I felt a small metal limb on my hand, and I jumped.
"Are you okay, sir?" Asked the minuscule bear. "You seem distressed. What's on your mind?" As well as helping me manage my restaurant, I also designed Helper Freddy to sniff out when I was relapsing and needed a hug or just a talk. I exhaled in relief, knowing that Helpy was there for me even if no one else was. I wasn't even in contact with my godfather, Henry Emily, anymore, so my little animatronic was all I had left. My breath calmed, and the shaking I hadn't noticed there had stopped - one of Helpy's many therapeutic features, massage, had flicked on.
"It's okay, Helpy," I said. "I'm okay, just... This lawsuit is so silly, isn't it? Seriously, how could any of this even be possible? I continued to ramble and vent as Helpy listened intently, understanding, though not interrupting or walking away as everyone else in my life seemed to. I had designed him that way specifically. For the first time in a long while, I was proud of the robot I'd made, and I was glad I made him.
This was so short istg wHY did it take me so long for SUCH A SHORT?!?!
Whatever :)
