It wasn't even halfway through the day and Cassidy was already sick of everyone's bullshit.
First of all, she'd had to deal with an annoying and far too talkative receptionist who kept trying to convince her the phone lines were haunted. Then she'd had to deal with idiot who murdered her brother failing at giving her a tour of the workplace. After that it was some beta tester who had the same first name as her not-dead brother rambling about guillotine paper cutters. Finally she'd had to deal with the murder lady again.
That was all without even mentioning how annoyed Cassidy was at herself. For some reason, she was in a constant state of anxiety being here. She was used to being on guard, but the anxiety was new and incredibly irritating.
Caution was good, caution was fine. But anxiety causes people to act irrationally and there was no need for her to act irrationally. So why did she get stuck with anxiety? This job sucked.
No one had even bothered telling her what work to do, but at least she was getting paid to sit in the break room and listen to rambles and occasionally check on a psychotic murderer? Ironic that they all claimed to be so busy and then wouldn't give her any real work. Not that she had applied because she wanted to work, but it was harder to try and snoop when she was stuck in the break room, waiting.
That interaction had been strange, one moment Vanny— the receptionist had called her Nessa, but Cassidy had a hard time thinking of her as anything besides Vanny after all these years— had seemed as anxious as Cassidy felt, the next moment she seemed weirdly happy and definitely acting different than she had before.
Cassidy thought back. Vanny had twitched slightly just as her behavior changed, or maybe she was just imagining that. Vanny had also seemed to want to say something this morning, but hadn't acted quite as strange.
Vanny was also a beta tester for the game and the headset looked like it had been tossed frantically on the desk, perhaps something strange had happened with that?
Obviously the game had some sort of malware or mind manipulation or even just stupid psychological tricks meant to drive the player to insanity or whatever.
While trying to restore public image was a good excuse, Cassidy figured William Afton was too much of a jerk to do something that simple.
Still, it'd be nice to know what it was that he had done. She could try asking Vanny again, but that seemed like a dead end. The other beta tester just seemed depressed and antisocial, despite everyone talking about how friendly he was, so she didn't have high hopes for trying to talk to him either.
Might as well try talking to Vanny one more time today, worst come to worst she would end up stuffed in an animatronic suit and haunt everyone who ever upset her for all eternity. Nothing too terrible could happen.
So, somewhat against her better judgement, Cassidy knocked on the door to Vanny's office again, it sounded as though she was pacing and talking to herself again before opening the door.
"Cassidy? Again?" Vanny asked, blinking in confusion.
Cassidy took a brief moment to note her surroundings before replying. Vanny looked even more distraught than earlier, somehow, but at least she wasn't still doing that creepy cheerful thing. There was a Spring Bonnie plush on the desk, but Cassidy was fairly sure that had been there earlier. It was odd, none of the other employees had personal items on their desks.
"I've been thinking about what you said earlier, I don't know why you expect me to believe that you were just shouting to yourself about the game. I'm not sure why you acted so cheerful all the sudden either." Maybe she was coming on a bit too strong. Oh well, too late now.
Vanny glanced back into the office and shook her head, looking as though it was aimed towards a specific person, despite there being no one there. "I'm... not used to having coffee and it's been causing some mood swings," Vanny replied, cringing, as though even she could tell how bad the lie was.
"You're not going to answer any of my questions, are you?" Cassidy asked scornfully, before looking thoughtful. "Do you even know what's going on? You seem pretty distressed."
Vanny forced a laugh and rapidly shook her head. "Everything's fine!" She paused and glanced back at the same corner of the office she had looked at a moment ago. "Completely normal," she said, with evident panic in her tone. A look of fear crossed her face, and she took a deep breath. "Completely normal," she repeated in a normal tone.
"Are people in danger?" Cassidy mentally banged her head against the wall. That was a terrible question, obviously people were in danger and obviously Vanny wouldn't want to tell her about that.
Vanny looked back into the office and shook her head at the same spot. "I... no. I mean, why would they be?" Vanny grinned weakly.
"Why do you keep glancing back into the same spot? Are you hallucinating someone there or something?" Cassidy pressed.
Vanny's eye twitched. Whether it was from irritation, frustration, or even fear, Cassidy couldn't say. "Look, kid, just... just go home, okay?" Vanny pleaded, looking almost desperate.
"I'm not a kid and I'm not going home until I find out what you're hiding. I know you know more than you're telling me. In fact, I'm even starting to suspect that you're very much in on whatever scheme William Afton has come up with this time. What I can't figure out, is why? Have you come to enjoy people getting hurt? Have you come to enjoy killing people?"
"SHUT UP!" Vanny yelled.
Cassidy flinched back, fear temporarily outweighing anger. Though not for long as that only made her angrier.
"No, no, no, I'm sorry," Vanny said, sounding truly genuine in her apology. "I wasn't talking to you, I just-- go home. Don't come back." She flinched again, just like she had last time her personality changed. "Until tomorrow. Don't come back until tomorrow, lots of tension in the office and it's been messing with my head, ya know? Everyone's so busy with their own thing, I'm sure you've probably been stuck in the break room doing your own thing!" Vanny shoved Cassidy away from the doorway. "Or hey, if you really want to be helpful, go clean up the break room?"
Cassidy stubbornly stayed in place. "I'm not leaving until I get some answers. You can't get rid of me as easily as telling me to go clean."
Vanny grinned and leaned over her, despite only being a few inches taller. "Oh? I suppose I shall have to find some other way to get rid of you!" She chuckled and slammed the door in Cassidy's face.
Right. So that went bad. Caused more anxiety but that's fine. Sometimes she did her best thinking when she was terrified. Not that she currently was terrified, she very rarely got terrified and would never admit being terrified to herself.
Cassidy paced up and down the hallway, it's not like anyone was walking here anyway. She could talk to Jeremy, but she was pretty sure that that would go even worse. She snapped her fingers as she thought.
The entire scheme most likely revolved around the game. So, if she could get a look at the game code, maybe she could figure the rest of all this out? Her parents had bought her some office supplies because they were proud of her for starting an internship. One of these was fairly new, but it would work perfectly.
She snapped her fingers one last time and ran to the break room. She grabbed her bag and ran into the office of a game designer, after checking that they weren't present, of course. "Okay... let's see..."
Cassidy smirked as she realized that they had the entire game file on the computer. She dug through her backpack and pulled out a USB drive. "Time to pirate some game code."
