Five Night's At Freddy's: After Hours

//7//

"-the expo center is cute, but Afton needs to be more available with our PR guys if we want the next stage of Fazbear Entertainment to have confidence with the board," A taller older man with a beard was talking, his voice now reaching Jeremy as the blonde did his best to listen in.

"I understand that, but right now, William has been feeling sick these past few days. He'll need time to recover," That secretary. He remembered that lady was around Afton the first time they met.

"Miss Briar, you said that before in March. You said that again in June. And now you're telling me he's sick again? If there is a medical issue, that makes his reliability questionable at best," The slightly shorter more rotund gentlemen scoffed.

"We know how great his innovations have bolstered the company. Getting this far would've been impossible without his robotic expertise. But getting in contact with Afton is like trying to contact aliens these last few months. And the damages in the center itself? You have to realize that the President needs to know what exactly his employees and contractors are up to with these patents,"

"I thought we already discussed that last week. The types of animatronics on the expo floor were already negotiated to be allowed for display. We talked, we had provided the paperwork-"

"And yet we still find new robots missing. The old Circus Baby model? That was supposed to be sent to parts and services last year. No, not even that, since '99. Scrapped. For spare parts," The shorter one cut her off. "And that isn't the first time your great inventor kept junk for 'sentimental value'. We don't pay for sentimental. We pay for some damn cooperation. Transparency!"

"And Fazbear has been transparent to their customers? Hm?"

"How fucking dare-" The taller bearded one managed to stop the larger one from trying to get into the face of the secretary.

"No. Not here..." The aggressive one shook his head at that and simply walked the other direction. "Just...just don't make this a habit. Again, even if you managed to convince us, you have more people from the board to explain these disappearances from public view and company meetings. All of it. Make sure that Afton knows that,"

She simply nodded. Though from this angle Jeremy could feel a simmering that was oddly dreadful to him. She was clearly holding something back as she craned her neck, feigning a knot in her neck as means to hide that anger. Even back in that fleeting introduction back at the expo, she was meeker than this. As the two older gentlemen continued off to their own rooms, Vanessa was breathing heavily as the information was dawning on her.

Jeremy was noticing a pattern here. Afton was becoming problematic even to his own corporate friends. From the sounds of it, the tension was running thick between these two sides. The main Fazbear Entertainment industry and Afton's own robotics division. Just about to finally break down after who knows how many years of deals, promises, and betrayals between the two. What struck him the most was how this seemed to be a common complaint that that man somehow had dodged for so long.

If I had stayed away from work for months claiming to be sick, I'd be let go, the teen thought as there seemed to also be a method that allowed Afton to get away with his 'style' of working. Blackmail perhaps? With that comment of transparency arousing a spark of rage from that one businessman, Fazbear seemed complacent.

A guess that rang true from what Jeremy had experienced through those tapes and those dreams. A pattern of neglectful behavior in order to gain profits from each other. Not exactly unique to him, but it did provide some context. Yet there would be a substantial mark that Afton was keeping close to his chest in order to not only stay untouched, but to take company products for himself.