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

[voiceinthephone]

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…"

Comments

[voiceinthephone]

Gray lit up at the smile and returned it as he answered, "A little, standard requirement for managers in a family restaurant. Small fractures, cuts, bruises, acid burns, I've had some close calls." That and how to keep a person alive when they've had their brain bit. "This is fancy! Wish I had one of these back home...what does it do?"

[celebrityskinned]

"It's basically like a training module? I mean, you put in a scenario..." She selects something from a drop-down menu, 'broken leg', one she's been rehearsing with Joly regularly- "and it teaches you what to do in a bad situation for it. I mean, some of the advice isn't useful, because it's like 'wait for medical attention' and you won't be getting that in the Arena, but..."

But it's easier to consider how to fix something that it is to prepare oneself to kill.

The hologram, bright orange against a transparent blue background, comes up as a life-sized supine human. Readouts indicate the severity of the fracture and the resources at their disposal during this exercise.

"Here, I'm bad at this, you give it a go."

[voiceinthephone]

Phil was startled by the sudden appearance of the model, like a puppy who saw a new toy. "I-I don't have that much...oh, that's pretty damn neat."

He thought about it, hand on his chin and proceeded to read the data. "Not in shock, probably feeling a lot pain, yikes." He picked to check for external wounds, any piercing of the skin by the bone. The next thing was to splint it, with whatever two rods and ropes he could find in the simulation. It wasn't great but he was smiling and learning with what Venus was teaching him, as if it were a new arcade game.

/wrap here?

[celebrityskinned]

Venus, for the most part, doesn't do much teaching, except for how to prompt the machine to give hints and instructions. She lets Phillip take the lead, enjoying the bonding without words, letting him enthuse over the technology and get into it.

yep! o7

[voiceinthephone]

He felt great learning new things and tinkering around, a kid in an arcade and asking questions at both the machines and the experienced tribute. He was the sort of man who could either break under the stress of the Games or learn from them. "Thanks," he'd whisper in between simulations, and resumed concentrating on the lessons, as if he hadn't said anything.