Golden Years: Halloween, 1982
As summer came to an end and fall brought with it its colder weather, the animatronics noticed that their weekday business practically disintegrated while their weekend business soared. It was a little bit sad to see most of the children stop visiting as often, and most of their attendees were children that were very young, or people that just wanted the buffet lunch.
In fact, as October arrived, there were so few children during the week that some days the band didn't even play, and just wandered around the mostly empty restaurant, talking to the staff or the few patrons that were there, until the children that came for the dinner rush arrived. Then it was business as usual.
Since Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria had been opened for several months, all of the initial hype surrounding the business had officially declined, with most of the customers now from the surrounding neighborhoods. They were still busy during prime hours, but faces started to become more and more familiar. This passage of time also resulted in the staff becoming much more adjusted to talking and interacting with the animatronics, and vice-versa. While the mechanic Nathan would always be their favorite, the robots began to bond with other staff members as well.
Chica was becoming friends with the cooks, who taught her how they made the pizza. The bird felt an interesting draw to cooking, probably because it was something else to do. After the pizzeria closed, and while Nathan worked on the others, she would sneak into the Kitchen to try the new things she learned. This typically resulted in a mess, especially when Chica tried to knead dough and spilled flour everywhere. Nathan nearly had an aneurism when she walked up for inspection completely coated in white powder.
Freddy, on the other hand, had gained a similar respect that Mr. Fazbach received, considered to be in a position of authority for anything related to the animatronics or their performances. This puzzled him, since the bear wasn't entirely sure why other employees looked up to him, in a sense. The other animatronics, even Foxy, thought of Freddy as a "big brother," and often confided in him with any problems they had. That was understandable, he experienced many of the same kinds. But employees began doing the same, and Freddy had no idea how to handle human problems.
"I'm just not sure she likes me, you know?" one of the waiters, George, said to the bear one day.
"I'm afraid I don't know, really," Freddy admitted honestly, straightening a table, "I don't have relationship experience."
"Well, maybe not. But you're a good listener," George replied, and headed off to grab the finished plates left by one of the few patrons they had at this hour. Freddy shrugged to himself. He always listened to people's problems.
Bonnie was the most liked by the rest of the staff, her constant happiness and friendliness infectious. She always greeted each staff member in the morning, and said good bye at the end of their shift when she could, and knew all of them by name. All of the animatronics did, since they had the memory for it. But Bonnie would always say hello.
The only one that had any real difficulty seemed to be Foxy, since it became apparent over time that he had gained quite a temper and at the absolute worst could even be violent. It never, ever occurred with children, for which he had a bottomless supply of patience, but anyone older than 18 seemed to rub the metal fox the wrong way. He wasn't exactly mean, but was usually a little bit irritable when he couldn't perform or was having difficulties with something.
Nathan wasn't particularly worried, since Foxy hadn't hurt anyone (the worst incident was Foxy flipping a table in frustration upon being told that his show wouldn't be running for the third day in a row.) The mechanic would work with him, trying to get him to control his anger. Foxy seemed to be the only one who experienced that emotion, and it was a real struggle for him to get a handle on it.
