#(oii) original universe: copycat

[runelocked]

IT  HADN’T  BEEN  WORTH  THIS.  That’s  all  he  can  think  as  the  cycle  repeats  once,  twice,  thrice,  never ending  pain  and  terror  rendering  him  breathless.  None  of  it.  Not  the  discovery  of  remnant,  not  the  murder  or  experiments  or  those  thirty  years  stuck  in  that  suit,  clinging  to  life  like  a  roach  -  William  regrets  it  all,  wishes  nothing  more  than  for  the  ability  to  rewind  time  and  try  again.  Not  for  his  victims,  no,  he  doesn’t  give  a  damn  about  them,  but  for  himself.  To  avoid  this . . .  Agony.  And  if  a  tiny  part  of  him  trembles  in  remorse  with  every  death  he  goes  through  that  reminds  him  of  the  children,  well.  He  will  not  give  Cassidy  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  his  resolve  is  crumbling.

No  escape.  It  terrifies  him.  Is  this  his  eternity?  God,  give  him  the  springlocks  again;  give  him  the  burning,  give  him  the  pain  of  un - life,  give  him  anything  with  an  end !  Each  death  brings  a  new  wave  of  fear  and  memories,  each  death  sends  him  that  little  bit  lower:  little  more  than  an  animal,  grasping at  scraps  of  life  before  his  inevitable  new  death.  By  the  time  Cassidy  pauses  again,  William  is  not  himself;  choking  on  sobs  and  gasps  and  adrenaline,  body  twitching.  The  scars  on  her  body  mimic  his  own:  isn’t  that  funny?  Just  another  way  she  is  like  him,  now.  And  yet  infinitely  more  powerful  -  the  man  in  the  chair  cringes  away  from  her  words,  a  delirious  groan  stringing  from  his  lips.  For  a  moment,  his  mind  grants  him  a  little  mercy.  Shows  him  not  Cassidy,  but  Liz;  gives  him  someone  even  vaguely  more  comforting  to  cling  to  while  he  scrapes  together  what  little  is  left  of  his  courage. 

“ You -  Hah - -   Please. ”  Begs  to  Cassidy,  begs  to  Elizabeth;  please  don’t  hurt  me  again,  please  don’t  look  at  me  when  I’m  like  this.  William  heaves  for  breath,  struggles  in  vain  to  dignify  himself.  “ Don’t.  Don’t.  Not  again. ”  Pride  shattered,  will  crumbled.  There  are  a  lot  of  words  to  describe  what  Cassidy  is  doing  to  William  Afton,  and  none  of  them  are  pleasant.  His  thin  frame  pitches  forwards  in  his  chair like a drunkard,  reaches  feebly  for  what  his  mind  tells  him  is  Elizabeth.  “ Leave  me  alone,  ‘Liz.  You  shouldn’t -  shouldn’t  be  here. ”

How  does  it  feel  being  on  the  other  side  of  things?  Cassidy  had  asked.  And  William:  well,  William’s  delirious  agony,  tottering  and  terrified,  serves  as  his  response.

CONTINUED. / @curseofbreadbear

[runelocked]

HE DOES NOT THINK HE WILL EVER GET USED TO THIS. The snapping teeth, the flashing claws. The howls and the shrieks and the lights and the cameras and the clock that never moves quick enough. William is reset — physically — after each failure, but his most recent deaths are visible in his twitching limbs and darting eyes and the cold sweat on his forehead. To say of his posture — hunched, small, like it never had been in real life. At least not for a long time.

But despite it all, the unending torture and agony and terror, the repeating death and pain that follows him as he tries and fails to outsmart each of his victims, there is an unsettling smile on his face, because he knows this is . . . if not victory, then the closest thing to it in this godforsaken place. The child in front of him is cruel — he had underestimated her — but he had also overestimated her, vastly.

“ You are nothing here either, ” he tells her, voice ragged, as if his muscles remember being torn apart by the claws of a gaping - mouthed fox only moments before, “ no matter what you think. I almost feel sorry for you — ”

His laugh, tremulous, but genuine, is the most unnerving thing he’s said in a long, long time.

“ I’m still the monster under your bed, aren’t I, Cassidy? The one you feel you need to prove isn’t so scary any more. And yet you still can’t let me go. Can’t turn your back for fear I’ll be there, waiting. ” A grin splits his cracked lips: maybe antagonising her isn’t his greatest plan, but it beats cowering in his chair. Anything to stop her resetting the cycle. “ After everything, you’re still just the same frightened child you’ve always been, trying to face off against the big bad rabbit. ”

LABYRINTH STARTERS (MY BELOVED…) || ALWAYS ACCEPTING! || @slaughterlocked

slaughterlocked asked: "YOU HAVE NO POWER OVER ME." [to cassidy!!!]

❝ You're wrong. ❞

[There was a sinister, yet giddy tone to her voice; if William thought she had no power here, then clearly, she needed to amp up the torment. This was HER domain. She had influence over everything within; there was no escape for EITHER of them. It had to be that way if she wanted to erase William and his influence from the outside world.]

❝ I will never let you leave. I will never let you rest. I'm going to make you suffer the way I did, forever. ❞

[A wicked grin spread across her features; her hand rose, ready to "snap" and send another flurry of animatronics after him. She'd been going too easy on him -- maybe sending everyone after him at full power would teach him a lesson. She was eager to witness the gruesome results of her vengeance. She thrived on the thought that she might hear him scream, plead, beg for his life...just as she had, all those years ago.]

[runelocked]

SCARED OF HER? SCARED OF HER? The broken remnants ( hah ) of William’s pride flare, grate against each other like bone. How dare she — how dare she — he is not scared of a child, a child he has killed, what’s more — he has long surpassed the ability to fear anything, and—

Except this place is different. In this place, he is human: startlingly, starkly so. There is no remnant, there is no axe or suit or smiling mask to hide behind. There is only him, and his body, and the animatronics that destroy him, and her. Cassidy.

And he’s gotten under her skin, hasn’t he? That twitch in her eye, the vicious anger she faces him with. Revenge, justice, call it whatever she likes — William knows, KNOWS, he still has some of his old scare factor. Tries to utilise it, clinging to scraps of power as if he’s a drowning man at sea.

“You think this is frightening, I’m sure,” he acknowledges, raspy, taunting, refusing to look at her, just to prove his fearlessness— “Big scary animatronics, a powerless death. All ringing close to home, Cass? Dear me. And here I thought this was all centred around me. This is YOUR idea of hell, isn’t it?— Projected onto me. This—”

Whatever his words, they fall short of the sheer terror in his flinch when Cassidy appears closer to him, and they are nothing compared to the hunted look in his eyes the second before she takes them. Agony is nothing new to him — hadn’t the last decades of his life been spent in nothing but? — but this kind of pain is new, raw, unending. William howls: a dog with no bone, and is almost sickeningly relieved when the same hand sliced through his throat. A puppet with its strings cut, he drops, clasping futilely at the gash in his throat like a child trying to hold back the tide. Always so frightened to die, even after all this time. Does not sob, not yet, though the noises he makes come close to it, as life fades from his form. A temporary relief — so temporary, so fleeting, he almost does cry when he’s brought back. One pale, trembling hand wraps over his eyes, both to reassure they’re still there and to hide his view of the creature tormenting him. No smart words, no clever sneer. He cannot bear to look.

CONTINUED. / @curseofbreadbear

[runelocked]

IT'S ONLY AS HER SMILE DROPS THAT HE REALIZES THE MAGNITUDE OF HIS ERROR. By then it's too late. But for the blissful, broken moments before his realization, when Cassidy Elizabeth takes his hand and comes closer, William crumbles further than he has in what amounts to years of torture. It's too much: Elizabeth here, talking to him, reminding him of his sins - perhaps the only way to make him truly regret any of the atrocities he'd committed, aside from the physical torture, is giving him his daughter, hearing her speak.

The trembling in his hands don't stop when she takes one of them: if anything, it only gets worse, his shattered mind recoiling at the touch. Cassidy, Elizabeth. They blur in his mind, combine the paternal pride and maniacal amusement into one roiling, raging lake inside of him - William actually does cry out when Eli - No, Cassidy - rakes at his arms, draws blood easier than a knife through butter. Is too addled to actually comprehend what's going on, by the end. Only mumbles a thick, " I never wanted you hurt " to his daughter, barely audible through the blood oozing down his face and the concussed slur in his words. It's not enough - it never will be - and it's not even said to the right person. But for a second before he dies ( which is even before she tugs out his heart ) William Afton proves he had at least once been human, voice ragged with unspoken emotion. If he'd known how badly he had upset Cassidy, he'd have laughed until he'd cried: it seemed even his children had been treated fractionally better than her !

. . . And when he does respawn, barely aware of his surroundings other than the crackling of the intercom and the creaking, groaning sounds of the vent, he does not try to taunt Cassidy again. Even an old dog can learn new tricks under the right pressure.

CONTINUED. / @curseofbreadbear !

[runelocked]

“ HENRY WAS A COWARD WHO DESERVED WORSE THAN WHAT I GAVE HIM! ” The words rip out of him; despite anything he’ll admit, the torture in this place, the unrelenting agony and fear, has warped him. He doesn’t have the patience, the composure, the power he’d once wielded with ease. And so pinned against the wall, William wheezes for breath and digs deeper, desperate to hurt the brat in charge of his painful existence. “ Oh, you think too highly of your dear old Uncle, you do, you know. Jealous ?! Of him? That sad old man?! ” A cackle despite his anger. “ I forget you’re just a child. A little girl trying to play with the grown - ups. Your Uncle Henry shut himself away rather than face me; and what’s more, he— ”

Cassidy mentions his own children. And the pathetic excuse for a man is not William Afton, not at his peak. He’s a ghost of that man. So anger, stark and visceral and raw, splatters across his expression, and he actually strains to fight back against the Fredbear claw…

Oh, Evan. Struggles die abruptly, and William’s eyes travel upwards towards the nightmare twisted thing from his son’s mind. And he wilts, just a little.

“ You don’t know anything about my family, ” he mutters, voice gritty, dark. A warning (though he’s helpless here). “ Just because your own family life was so pitiful, that doesn’t mean you have to self project onto my children. ”

But he’s rattled; if the poor attempt of a taunt doesn’t show it, then the still stiff silence of his body does.

CONTINUED. / @remnantbound

[runelocked]

"i warned you this would happen."

SPITTING BLOOD, A CHILD FLOUNDERING IN THE DEEP END. William Afton has a lot to think about in his eternal hell and Cassidy's role in his downfall is occupying a bigger space in his mind than it should. He can't help but be bitter, even facing down animatronic after animatronic; some of them the faces of his own creations and some of them Henry's. ... The latter of which stings more, because he's never been able to let go of his resentment and envy of her uncle, not even in his torment. And now his brat of a niece has power over him beyond comprehension - well, the whole thing leaves a bad taste in his throat alongside the blood and stench of death.

" . . . Warned me ? " Lies on his back, gasps for air that doesn't come and isn't necessary. Doesn't bother hiding his rage and ugly burning hatred; he focuses instead on trying to hide that fear that crawls through him not dissimilarly from the remnant during his lifetime. Black hair slick with sweat and exertion covers his face: it's all he can do not to try running again. Hah. Like that's done any good, the last dozen times he'd tried it. He's fast, but he can't outrun the girl in charge of this whole space. " This is - beyond anything I put you through. " Beyond any torture on earth. William's eyes open - he's back at his desk, and that age old terror caresses his heart in its cruel hands. " You're more of a monster than I ever was. "