thecapitol | Set a man to watch all night, My fair lady.

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Set a man to watch all night, My fair lady.

Who| Phillip Gray and YOU
What| Poor man got lost coming here after Night 4
Where| The Capitol streets then the Training grounds
When| After the Arena closed
Warnings/Notes| Possible graphic description of animatronic violence, spoilers for Night 4 of FNaF1

A. Arrival

Being able to move again was quite the surprise for a man who just a few minutes prior, had been staring into his makeshift coffin's soulless eyes. Phil swore he could still feel Bonnie and Chica's grip as they held him down while Freddy fetched the costume. He didn't struggle or fight, they could've made it even more difficult. They could've gone feet-first, break every bone in his body before finishing the job. Did they feel sorry? They must've if they let him keep his badge.

It didn't matter anymore, Phil wasn't in Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria…hell, he wasn’t in the United States if the announcers were proof of that. The Capitol? The Arena? Was he in some futuristic Roman Colosseum? Like that Stargate movie he watched while flipping channels? Did this mean aliens existed? If so, he owed Jeremy $5, a beer, and a supreme pizza. And what the hell was he wearing? It wasn't his FFP uniform (small blessings, no one needed to see the garish colors of a family restaurant security guard), but he never thought he'd wear what he thought was a dark, leather version of a superhero's uniform, sans mask. Taking pride in his former job, Gray put his head high and briefly polished his badge as he looked around, like a tourist.

"As long as there's no robo-" Spotting a peacekeeper shut that dream down instantly, and Gray sighed, "Never mind."

Robots in a giant colosseum, with weapons…it was both fascinating and terribly familiar to Gray, it reminded him of a certain fox bot. Actually, both fox bots. Maybe Toy Chica if she wielded that cupcake right.

Speaking of toys, all these strange looking people looked like Cher raided Barbie and Ken's closet with a chainsaw and the local Muppet factory. Was this the Capitol itself? MTV on acid? As he wandered around town, looking at his map, Phil briefly surmised that if this place was like this, what would the Training Center looked like? Either way, he was going to enjoy himself before his time was up and he'd have to fight.

B. Training Center

Phil hummed "Groove is in the Heart" (good song to hear as he would fix the bots for the day's activities) as he walked into his assigned district area. According to his map, his District was Transportation, a weird selection in his opinion but he figured the people who rescued him from death, saw something he could help out in. Least he could do after all that, maybe he could help with repairs?

Any illusions Gray had of these games being friendly disappeared as soon as he saw the armory and the dummies. To see an array of weapons, most of these definitely not kid-friendly, Phil was glad he hadn't spotted any firearms.He figured firearms would make for very short games, and not everyone was meant to hold a gun properly. Lord knows what a child could do unsupervised, if Mangle was proof at that.

A terrible thought slipped into his mind and he suddenly tensed up: was he…was he going to hurt, no, kill children here? "I…" he tried to speak but immediately shut up; questioning authority could get him in quite a pickle. It was an unspoken reality as he saw past tributes and victors: these were cruel games. Gray unconsciously placed his hand on his badge, just as he and the Fredbear Diner staff did when they found the boy's lifeless body in the back of the restaurant. For years, he'd been tracking down the child killer and now…now he'd be forced to join his ranks.

"Panem et Circes…heh, coulda work where I came from…"

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As if to answer his horrible realization, a small child appeared from one of the entrances to the large training area. She was wearing a jump suit with a number twelve on the sleeve.

She was young, only about ten or eleven looking with short and messy blond hair and could not have looked more bored with what she was here for.

Crossing the threshold she looked to be paying him no mind but for a brief moment her gaze shifted to meet his eyes. Only a moment before she went right back to focusing on the empty space she was heading for. When she arrived on the padded area she began some warm up stretches with the air of someone who did this every day.

Still as she stretched and twisted and worked her muscles into warmth she kept stealing glances at the newcomer, studying him.

"Hello? Hello there, are you from around here?" Phil did his damnedest to remain as professionally jovial as he could. He did berate himself internally for his double-hello tic; it slipped whenever he was nervous. Working with kids for a few years before night-shift, he knew they were heaps smarter than most adults gave them credit and by the looks of things, she'd been in this center longer than he ever thought. The former guard knew she was studying him, he recognized that look anywhere.

"Kinda lost in this new place...what's your name?"

He was already trying his damnedest to push back the imminent horror he'd realized earlier. He had to be friendly and get as much information as he could.

It didn't take long for him to speak, and in a way she was relieved. New people were a mystery and things that she didn't know were usually dangerous. This was a more direct way to figure out if this guy was a threat.

She stood up straighter and shook her head.

"I've only been here for two years. I used to live in New York."

A future New York that had cut itself off from the rest of the world but she didn't feel the need to go into those complicated details.

"I'm Sandy. Sandy Marko."

"If it's any comfort, it's two years more than me," Phil assured the young girl then said, "Phillip Gray, you can call me Phil, shorter and easier to call out if you have an emergency or in danger...not that you would be in danger. I'm from the Midwest, heh, not much to say about that."

Sandy looked like she was too old for the Pizzeria, though if he could, he'd offer a slice. This girl looked as if she's seen hell and deserved a break to be a child.

That prompted him to ask as he looked for a place to sit down, "What's it like here, Sandy?"

Oh boy...this guy was really REALLY new. He still had no idea just what he was in for.

Waving a hand for him to follow her she led him over to a row of tables were attendants stood by to help teach skills that tributes might need in the arena. Wanting something to do with her hands while she caught poor Phil up to speed Sandy opted for the table full of ropes.

Taking up a length of rope she sat in a chair next to the table and waited for him to do the same.

"What have they told you?" She countered. While she was small she carried herself like someone much older. Weary was a good word for it and the look of caution in her eyes was mixing with a sort of pity now.

He mirrored her and picked up a rope as well, "Well, that I'm honored to be here, that I am to entertain and that I have to survive. Not much after that, got the boot to the Capitol then here. I figured...I'll have to face and p-possibly have to fight to the death."

From the way Sandy behaved, "I'm guessing they left out a lot of details."

Her hands moved almost of their own accord not even looking at the instructions on the screen teaching her how to make a noose. She had done it enough times even though she'd never used one in the arena. The option was nice to have.

"Yeah, plenty. For one it's not a possibly. You're either going to die, or you're going to be the last man standing. And since you're new unless you're like...secretly totally bad ass? You're probably gonna die."

That's it Sandy. Break it to him gently.

"I've died eight or nine times...I think." She squinted and her fingers slowed for a moment. "I forget."

He fumbled a bit in making the noose then decided against it, preferring to practice other knots. He chose particularly ones he could use to quickly restrain his enemy and leave him or her to the elements or other competing Tributes. Adults were still an iffy subject but he could rationalize his killing as self-defense or survival if he needed to.

"Well that's just great, I'm gonna die," he said, a bitter tone underneath his pleasant demeanor. "At least people will find my body an-"

Did she just say eight or nine times?

"You forget when you die?"

She shook her head and with a bit more effort managed a decent looking noose. It wasn't perfect but it would get the job done.

"Not usually. The nightmares do a good job at reminding you. But it's happened so many times or I've come close to it so many times I always feel like I'm forgetting one or two of them."

She set the noose down on the table to hold up her hands counting on her fingers.

"Head ripped off by another tribute, Eaten alive by spiders, Eaten alive by a zombie tribute, almost killed by a mutant that pushed an egg in my face and it burst out my chest. Eaten alive by that giant eel, blew myself up fighting with a tribute trying to take her out with me...that didn't work. Then after that there was the time my friend was turning into a zombie and bit me so I turned into a zombie too. Then I got shot in the face by that guy with the evil mustache, broke my neck in a Go-Kart crash...and then the last one was someone smashed open my helmet while we were in space so everything just kinda...popped I guess. I don't know the science about it."

"So I guess that's nine." She decided looking at the fingers before picking up her ropes again. It sounded insane and she knew it but there was unfortunately video evidence of all of it and she had watched each death eventually.

Phil's jaw dropped at every death the girl had undergone and so young! He let slip, "Freddy ain't got shit on half of those deaths. Jesus Christ, this is horrible."

He was genuinely horrified at the events that transpired throughout Sandy's run in the game. He then realized what had slipped and he fumbled, "Sorry. All this for other people's fun? Wait, did you just describe a chestburster?!"

Phil definitely owed Jeremy now.

Despite herself, it was always kind of funny to see the looks on peoples faces when they realized just how much she had endured to make it this far. She stifled a smirk and nodded.

"We didn't really have a name for them, but a few monsters escaped into the city and the Capitol asked us to go after them. Big scary monsters with acid drool. But I never saw them because something popped out of an egg and took me out." She tapped on her chest where the scar had once been and was now gone due to the process in which tributes were brought back after each arena.

"Who's Freddy?" She added curiously wondering about his phrasing. Did this guy know some kind of serial killer?

"Eyup, you had a nasty case of infestation..." For once, all those afternoon feature movies paid off as he saw where the tapping of the chest. He was both fascinated at her toughness and terrified that someone went through and killed Sandy.

When she asked about Freddy, Phil immediately tensed up. He had to remember the managerial speech, "Ah, heh. Freddy Fazbear, he's this animatronic, a kinda icon back where I came from. He sings and performs for kids all around! He used to roam around...then something happened."

When he thought about it, Freddy was just as a serial killer as the man who stuffed the child in the body. "Now he just stays put."

There was a noticeable tension in the girl and she finished undoing the knot, working on a sling next, the kind to use in a trap for catching a meal or tripping up an opponent.

"We've had a few of those. To make things more interesting in each arena they put monsters or machines in to cause trouble. Like the spiders or the Giant Eel. One arena was almost destroyed by this giant robot dragon. And in another my friend and I had to run away from this robot fox thing."

They were her fingers began to fumble over themselves as she spoke in more detail it was clear she wasn't as cool and collected about the details as she was trying to put out. She had to undo the mess of a knot and try again.

The robot fox comment made Phil froze in place. He closed his eyes to try and relax but his hands gripped the rope so tight, it appeared to hurt. If someone were open his eyes, they'd see dilated pupils looking for any sign in the dark, looking through a tablet that consumed electricity.

He could hear the fast and running steps into the small security room, door to the left locked as Foxy rushed and stole the last of his power. He still remembered what he was telling Mike before the building shut down.

"I'm gonna to try to hold out until someone checks. Maybe it won’t be so bad..." he didn't know he said out loud now.

Well that was...an interesting reaction.

Sandy had seen and experienced alot of things in the past two years. PTSD was one of them though she didn't know the name for it. She just knew first hand that sometimes all it took was a word, or a scent or an idle thought to trigger some awful memories. It was worst when it happened in public or the arena where she needed her wits about her.

"Y-yeah..." She stammered softly trying to pluck up her suddenly missing confidence. "Well death is easy...dying is the hard part. Sometimes it's not so bad but...well I wouldn't wanna do it again if I had my choice."

Which of course she didn't.

Phil had to take a few breaths, and focused on Sandy's voice for the moment. This was a living child, she wasn't one in the pizzeria death count, this was not his town.

"M-Me neither...kinda want to live seventy if possible. But hey, you're here now, that's got to count for something right?" he tried to boost her morale again. He knew that the upcoming games would be a problem for him, too wet behind the ears to be a real contender...unless he learned.

"Wanna teach me how to fight? Let's make sure we do have a chance."

Watching him come back down to Earth was a good thing. He had issues just like the rest of them but at least he wasn't completely looney tunes yet.

She nodded and stood abandoning the ropes on the table. "What do you want to try? They've got just about every kind of basic weapon you can think of, spears, swords, bow and arrow. I mostly use the knives because those are easiest to get in the arena. Sometimes Sponsor's will just send them to you." She paused and added "If people from the Capitol like you they use their money to send you items in the arena."

Because he was probably going to ask about sponsors so she'd just get it out of the way.

"I'm...not really the best teacher. But I've learned alot from much better fighters so I can get you started. Just don't make me regret it."

The words were out before she could catch herself. They were bitter and she knew that it was unfair to assume he might betray her...but it wouldn't be the first time it had happened.

He had five years to wear his mind and his patience. It'd been so bad that he sometimes missed the sunlight for weeks straight. But he did it all just so some poor kid on retainer would cover for him. One night he took to have fun and fool around and the next day he had to mop up the blood and waste. He had to ask, "They can't send guns right? Kinda ends the games real fast, huh?" Bows and arrows were acceptable but he agreed with Sandy, "Knives sound efficient and easy, right? Right!"

The words were not missed and Phil had to assure her, "I won't."

Sandy nodded at his questions and led the way over to wear all the practice weapons were set up to choose from.

"Yeah they sent in guns once with very limited bullets. It was pretty dramatic. But usually it's just stuff you can throw or bows. Sometimes you gotta get creative like using ice skates or making spears outta branches."

Sandy had to this point never fired a gun, but being shot in the face was a pretty good indication to her of the power they held.

"We had squirt guns for the special kids mini arena. Some had water or paint or acid in them." That had been a rather painful discovery that she could still imagine vividly. Her hands had blistered and melted from the acid till the water washed it off.

Phil's smile dropped at the mention of "Kids' arena". "So it really is kids killing kids here..."

He took a knife and weighed it in his hand, but he did offer some advice, "If you ever run into acid again, wash it off with stomach medicine. Acids are neutralized by bases Lord knows how many kids got battery burns for me to know that."

Gray then realized, "I was a night security guard at a pizza place."

"Ah...well uh...yeah. That's pretty much how the whole thing got started. They didn't even tell you that much?"

It was ridiculous. How was this poor guy supposed to get anything done if he didn't even know the reason all this was happening to them?

...or...or maybe they were leaving people in the dark so they were forced to talk to others and create new drama for the cameras! Oh gosh sometimes Sandy felt smart for a few minutes before her own crushing self depreciation settled back in.

The advice about the acid was actually pretty useful and something she didn't know. it was enough to earn a soft smile. "What other sort of stuff are bases?"

A night guard at a Pizza place? Sandy loved Pizza but...well the Capitol had ways of ruining those too.

"Er, no, nor do I blame them because I probably would've told them to put me back to my death," Phil was quick to respond, "Rather just be eyes and teeth than be any part of that. But I said yes and now, here we are."

That and Phil has been running on five cups of black coffee and energy drinks since his last shift at Fazbear's. He might've forgotten the finer details and keeping his poor heart from exploding. The question made him think before answering,

"Milk. It's why you drink it when you eat spicy foods, water just makes the burn last longer. Milk of Magnesia or Pepto-Bismol help too. I had a kid swallow one of those button batteries during a fundraiser."

He examined the knife and tried to slash like in the movies. His stance was atrocious.

Despite not being a very good teacher...even Sandy could tell that was a terrible stance and she shook her head taking a knife and showing him her own stance. It was defensive and meant to give her an easier time dodging. Since she was small she wouldn't be able to deflect much with a dagger but if she could guide a blow away from her vitals and throw herself to the side then that was a good start.

"Uh...well then should i just...not tell you?" He was one of the first tributes she'd met who seemed like he might prefer ignorance.

Phil thought about it, and shook his head. "Might as well spill everything, Sandy," he answered as he imitated her stance and slide, "Can't cover the sun with your hands, you know?"

Ignorance was bliss when it wasn't life-threatening, he figured. "What's more, I would've found out the hard way in the arena, right?" He was being genuinely open to Sandy and to any child but let an adult in and he'd dial the charm up. He could see the cameras, he was aware they were always under surveillance.

I suddenly understand how Freddy and the gang feel...yeesh. he thought before he slide to the right.

It was almost funny when he said that she could spill everything. In a place where they were almost always being watched that was almost impossible without inviting total destruction upon her head.

Or worse the heads of everyone she liked.

Leading him over to a practice dummy she demonstrated a few basic stabbing motions as she explained.

"Well a long time ago in this world..." She made sure to add the last part to clarify that obviously things were different, "Mankind almost destroyed itself with war and selfishness."

As much as she would like to speak openly, most of this was coming from what Sandy had been told time and time again.

"When the dust settled, humanity pulled itself together and The Capitol rose tall and proud. And from the Capitol they created thirteen districts each in charge of an important thing, like electricity, fishing, harvest, our my district twelve. They take care of the coal."

Thrust, thrust, stab. His turn.

Set a man to watch all night, My fair lady.

B

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Just wait until he sees the videos of the special "Kids arena" where the five nights cast appeared.

That could emotionally eviscerate Phil to see his childhood icons kill kids... Let's show it to him!

Wonderful~ Sandy knows it's terrible but watching older arena videos is important training :P

PERFECT and let's toss in some advice on his end!

I'm just so happy to finally be tagging with a FN@F character :)

I'm glad! <3

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Shall we wind down now? Or is there more you wanted to do this go around? :)

lets wind down for this one!