#This is old but I really like lefty and puppet a lot

[ohnoesoesmalo]

[sugarywishes]

What is the favourite & least favourite animatronic or each of the Aftons & Emilys? Given what I now know about William, I'm especially curious to see if any managed to break their way past his dislike of making them.

This might actually be able to be my shortest ask! (Edit: okay, never mind 💀 prepare for a yap session, answers below as usual!) Also, sorry for the late response, I recently moved so it's been a little hectic!

William: Uh, he basically hates all of them 😭😭 there isn't one that particularly was his favorite in terms of creating them (he likes designing them though!) I guess the closest to a favorite animatronic is Springbonnie since he uses it a lot (it's literally designed to fit him) , but even then he doesn't really like it. Henry originally created the springlock suit ideas to save money, and look how that turned out for Will there! (Believe me if Will had fully kept his memory when awoke as Springtrap, he would have been PISSED, I mean he was still pissed when he became Springtrap but still !!)

Clara: She also wasn't too receptive to the way the animatronics look, but her 'favorite' was probably Freddy since he looked the least 'dead inside' as she said (...major foreshadowing there lmao) Her least favorite was probably the springlock animatronics like Fredbear and Springbonnie, they always kinda freaked her out as a concept (she'll also eventually hate the Funtime animatronics, since...yk 👀)

Michael: Foxy, he was the least dorky out of the main cast (and c'mon he owns a Foxy mask!) Anyways he also thinks the Glamrocks are sick as hell (and since there's no Foxy variant, and also because he thought it would be weird to possess a girl robot, he picked GlamFred, which like good choice) his least favorites are probably anyone else who isn't Foxy or the Glamrocks lmao

Elizabeth: She liked Chica when she was younger, because that was the only girl animatronic at the time, but that quickly changed when Circus Baby came into the spotlight! Her father made her just for her! (He actually only said that to get her to leave him alone, the 'similarity' is a coincidence) And funnily enough, Baby will also become her least favorite!

Evan: You think he likes *any* of these guys?? HELL NO !! (Actually, when he was about toddler age, he didn't have his extreme phobia of robots yet. His old favorite was Springbonnie because he knew it was always his dad under the suit!) Anyways a little while later he developed his intense fear of animatronics. He hates all of them !!

Henry: He is insanely proud of the fact he came up with the Springlock mechanism (and was in fact considering fixing the main gang to BECOME springlock suits too until William's accident where he almost fucking died lmao) so his original favorites were the springlock suits (and Freddy, mostly because Henry was meant to play Fredbear, and yk Freddy is a variant of Fredbear so...) But he will also hate every animatronic too. (Exception of the Puppet/Lefty cause yk that's his daughter, and Helpy !! Does he even count as an animatronic?)

Charlie: To be honest she wasn't really into the animatronic restaurant idea, so she's neutral on them. No favorite and no least favorite. She finds them all a little creepy!

[fazgoo-connoiseur-1987]

how about some charlie headcanons? :3

Charlotte....

She was a pretty rough and tumble kid but like the kind who would wrestle with you and then run in and grab you a plaster and some fruit.

Her and Mike were really close. They're very similar ages and they'd go out and play while their dads were working.

I think she likes baking and she made cakes (of varying qualities) for all her friend's birthdays.

She inherited a couple of her dad's traits like not being able to read social cues and an overwhelming facination with the mechanical. She her caring and her absolutly indominable will from her mum :]

She ADORES her dad she thinks the animatronics are so cool and it's even COOLER that her DAD made them!!

Springbonnie is her favourite cus it can't be Fredbear (that's cheating). But the bunny? Mikey's funny dad? The guy who's babysat her since she was born? Favourite material. She likes green so much cus it's Springy's eye colour, even :]

Charlie's possession is fueled by her care for other people <3 as the Puppet she's trying her best to help (it's also the only possession aside from Will's to happen fully organically). This starts out with her accidentally forcing the MCI kids to possess their robots but it morphs into trying to help them move on and sticking around to try and help Cass.

Speaking of Cass I think they clash a lot because Charlie just wants to move on and have everything over with but Cass wants REVENGE. These 10 year olds are having intense philosophical debates.

For the short time the Puppet was in use while she was in it she really enjoyed entertaining kids and giving them gifts :] her favourite bit was the mime routines she came up with.

Lefty is, unfortunatly, pretty painful to be in. It mostly acts as the culmination of her slooow realisation that her dad is deeply, deeply flawed. They patch things up again in purgatory but it's not the same- not bad just different.

She's the person running FNaF World as a little pocket of heaven for the Faz Inc victims.

[shifted-nights-au]

Shifted Nights Part 2

"Dyou like your ice cream?"

Evan nodded excitedly. "Thank you!"

"No problem, little dude." Michael smiled. The two sat on the roof adjacent to a parking garage balcony. It was their little spot, somewhere they always hung out when they just needed to be away from it all. Michael had one with Elizabeth, and Liz and Evan had one of their own. When the three wanted to hang out together, they'd hang out in Michael's office. It's where Evan did his homework, where Liz kept her toys, where Charlie and Liz sat and played together, and where the three Afton kids slept when they didn't feel safe in their own rooms. No one was allowed in except Michael, Evan, Liz, Charlie, and Henry.

The warm spring air gently caressed their cheeks and ruffled their hair. The sky was painted pink and orange and purple as the sun slowly drooped below the horizon. It was nice. It was calm. Just like old times.

The sun was long set when Michael begrudgingly took Evan home. After they finished their ice cream, they had spent hours at the arcade together, and even longer just wandering the downtown area. It took eight missed calls from Henry to actually get Mike to head home. After all, Evan did have homework he needed to get done.

The tension was so thick you could slice it with a knife. Scrapbaby almost immediately stiffened as she heard the door open, peaking Springtrap's interest. As he goes to leave his seat, he felt a firm hand on his shoulder.

"Leave him be. He's an adult now, he can spend time with Evan if he feels like it." His (ex?)wife's voice gently hummed behind him. Springtrap growled and shook his head, looking back at her.

Henry had put together a newer body for her so she wouldn't have to stay a part of Molten Freddy. The new animatronic looked similar to Ballora, but had more movement in her limbs and eyes. It also mirrored her former human self a lot more.

"The last time Evan was alone with Michael, he died. You really want that again?"

"That was almost twenty years ago, William. Michael is more responsible. They came home, didn't they?"

Springtrap pulled away from her without another word and shuffled through to hallways. Scrapbaby looked up at Ballora.

"You're just gonna let him?"

"What else can we do? Their problems are between them, and them only."

"I know what Michael did was wrong, but do you really think it's okay to just let dad keep hurting him?"

"Elizabeth, I'm not putting you and Evan and myself in danger because the two of them cant just leave eachother alone."

"The only reason Michael started hitting back was because dad tried to hurt Evan! You were there!!"

"Elizabeth-"

"Am I wrong?! You remember! Dad beat Michael within an inch of his life and it was all because Michael stood up for us for once!" Scrapbaby stood from her seat, towering over Ballora.

"Do not raise you voice at me, that was Michael's decision and there's no reason we-"

A loud crash interrupted their argument, and Scrapbaby found herself scrambling for the door, peeking out of the kitchen to see her brothers bolting for Michael's office, with Springtrap growling and quickly chasing them. She felt a firm grasp around her arm.

"Dont get in the middle of it."

Scrapbaby proceeded to completely ignore her mother and leave the kitchen.

"Daddy!" She giggled and tugged on his arm. If she could distract him, maybe her brothers could get away.

"Elizabeth, stay out of this." The man pushed her away.

"Awww, come on dad!"

"ELIZABETH!!"

Scrapbaby flinched, instinctively shrinking back.

It was a long night full of screaming and banging. The doors of Michael's office (luckily) held throughout the entire night. Despite this, when Henry had pulled Springtrap's attention away long enough, Michael had let Lefty, Puppet, and Scrapbaby into the office through the other door.

The children sat, occasionally catching the worried glances of other animatronics through the old glass windows. Evan sat, huddled up to Michael, trying desperately to finish his homework through unyielding tears.

"I hope Dad's okay..." Puppet pulled their limbs closer.

"I'm sure he is. William wouldn't hurt Henry." Michael leaned his back against the lockers behind him.

"But he would hurt you?"

Michael locked eyes with the Puppet. There was something so unsettling about looking into those glowing white pupils and knowing that was Charlie, the sweet little ravenhead who always shared her soup and gave her clothes to the younger Afton kids when she got too big. Charlie who always pulled the Afton kids away from their shitty home life to go waste away the hours playing with chalk and basketballs and dolls. Charlie who always brought extra bandaids and quarters and candy with her in her little backpack everywhere she went.

Charlie who their father killed out in the rain in cold blood.

She'd become so different.

Michael looked away, leaving her question wordlessly answered.

"What about mom?" Scrapbaby finally brought herself to speak.

"Ballora will be fine, she can protect herself." Puppet looked at the younger girl. "Besides, Dad wouldn't let him. Dad wouldn't let William hurt any of us again." They looked at Michael. "Right?"

"Yeah." Michael responded with utmost certainty. "Me and Henry will protect you guys."

"Who will protect you and Henry?" Lefty hummed simply.

Michael never replied to that question.

[lookforthefuture49]

Ok time for a fnaf SB rant (not a bad one!!!)

Very EXTREMELY spoilery, plz be careful. I don't know how to make a cut for spoilers so just know the following is obviously filled to the BRIM with spoilers.

So.

Security breach!!!

I hear a lot of people complaining about it, and I too complain about the bugs and the story, but honestly? No matter what I see or think I literally cannot help but adore Security Breach. Like, it's so much HAPPIER than any of the older games. I know it's still pretty dark, yeah, but unlike literally every other game, most of its endings are pretty happy, even the canon one, and I appreciate that. It doesn't HAVE to be so bleak I assumed before the game even came out that Gregory was gonna die- he doesn't die in a single one of the known endings. I wa surprised but also very happy. And also, for once, the pizza plex seems mostly innocent. If it weren't for the the fact Vanny and Mr. Afton were there messing everything up, the place would be perfectly fine to continue on as it is. Literally except for the iffy management it's a fine establishment and honestly I'd go if I could it's that cool.

I do think the writing is iffy at times, especially towards the ending, but I'm really glad that the animatronics actually get like... character. Maybe except Monty, he doesn't really get anything surprisingly, but like, Roxanne is over here entirely obsessed with herself and destroyed when suddenly she can't see herself anymore. Chica can't help but eat and eat and eat even though she's not supposed to. Freddy genuinely cares about his friends and just feels very real. It's amazing. Gregory also definitely had a different character than I expected, but he's still fun and I really like his and Freddy's dynamic. Its great.

The game looks freaking amazing, finally the 3d modeling is a style I like. I never really liked Cawthon's modeling style, something about it feels weird. Maybe the texture of the characters, or just it not being good in general. Its good for most of the animatronics, but I don't like close up over used models. I think the ones that look smooth, such as many found in the Desolate Hope and the Toys in fnaf 2, are good, but models like those from Chipper and Sons and many fuzzy/textured animatronics just look off. I think Steelwool does an amazing modeling job and I absolutely love it. Cawthon does a pretty good job for most models but some just looks so weird in proportion and texture I don't like it hah.

I've rambled a lot, I'm sorry I'm continuing.

I think the canon ending and the events leading up to it are my least favorite of all the endings and how to get them. It's just so.. underwhelming. I guess thought if Mr. Afton was gonna be in the game he was gonna be a prominent figure, and would actually pose a threat. But no, he's pitiful, he's disgusting. He was so powerful in Pzzeria Simulator and games before it (and also Help Wanted) that I can't help but be confused. Honestly, I think I'm glad he had an easy defeat. I'm just tired of him coming back (not tired of Michael though please steelwool just one more game with Michael in it is all I ask PLEASE) and he's so old and gross anyway its like of course he was obliterated in like 5 seconds. His boss battle was not one of a powerful being trying to take back control again, but just this old dead dude who's probably tired of immortality already because he got the worst form of it. He literally does nothing except try to take over Glamrock Freddy, and even that fails miserably likely because of a form of the power of friendship hidden in there. It is not beyond this game to use the power of friendship trope, I can tell, they just forgot to make Freddy mention it haha. Anywhom, I think the big amalgamate thing was also stupid, because I can't tell if it's Molten Freddy or a new thing. It has the og Funtime Freddy head, has classic Chica and Bonnie, none of the Pizza Sim animatronics except the puppet, but even that's a stretch because Lefty isn't there. I'm confused on that and honestly I think if something was going to make William stay in that fire it should have been Charlie or Michael. I would say Henry but I don't think he could attach to anything. Charlie is always possessing something (the Puppet) and Michael had who knows how much remnant in him. Anyway, the amalgamate felt very thrown in, but honestly so did William, so idk.

Oh yeah I forgot to mention it but I think William's new design is literally the worst. Legit I like Scraptrap better than whatever that THING is. Why would Vanny even take his corpse and shove it into another rabbit??? Cmon! Make a new body! A NEW one!!!!! Why make him super weak and terrible like cmon you can make him anything and you didn't make him like some fancy streamlined animatronic??

I think the only cool thing about the canon ending is that you go down underground and it's the Pizzeria Sim location. So awesome.

Anyway yeah this was a ramble.

Also bring back Michael

[ask-the-second-chance-frights]

Henry and Mike's father William actually created Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria. Henry built the animatronics; William handled the finances and logistics and whatnot, I don't actually know.

Now, it's actually quite a bit more complicated, but here's the gist: Will wears rabbit fursuit, Will stabs unknown number of random children, Will stabs Charlotte 'Charlie' Emily (Henry's daughter), children die, children haunt animatronics, Charlie becomes Puppet, animatronics proceed do their best to murder any adult unlucky or stupid enough to hang around at night, Pizzeria closes down, Will comes back, Will tears animatronics to pieces, ghosts show up, Will gets scared, Will hides in rabbit costume, oh, by the way, the rabbit costume is a literal death trap, Will dies, Will is sealed up inside a wall, Will becomes Springtrap, Will is found, Will is put in horror attraction, arson.

Puppet is still here because Puppet was elswher when everyone was being torn to pieces, Henry knows Puppet is his daughter, Henry builds Lure Encapsulate Fuse Transport Extract, aka L.E.F.T.E, aka Lefty, Lefty captures Puppet, Puppet possesses Lefty maybe.

This is a very basic summary, and a lot is left out (remind me to tell you about the bites sometime), but basically: Henry and Mike have teamed up to end the terror that is the supposedly family-friendly pizzeria. Oh, and Mike may or may not be a disembowled rotting corpse. Don't worry about it. Long story. It involves his sister, the Funtimes, and magical ghost juice.

That said, the Puppet, and by extension Lefty, have it in their nature to help and protect children. It's in Lefty's programming, the Puppet's programming, and Charlie's nature. Moreover, Lefty has more expirience, a lot more insider knowledge, and the Puppet was actually the one who allowed the other children to possesses the animatronics (give gifts, give life), so she might be able to reverse that and get you back in your own body. He also probably has a better idea towards what you're going through.

And also Lefty doesn't have a tendency towards arson.

That said, in the end, whether you choose to talk to Mike, Henry, or Lefty, it's your choice.

And 'Eggs Benedict' is actually the result of the most incompetent autocorrect I've ever seen. It's called HandUnit, it's not really dangerous, but it's an asshole.

Yikes you wrote an essay almost. What I know is that Fazbear Entertainment has been around for decades, I’m sure this certain pizzeria is probably ten years old, my family has been coming here for four years and it was already established before. I’m surprised with all this stuff that Fazbear Entertainment hasn’t been shut down permanently, the worse thing I heard about them was there was a fight in the arcade last year and somebody recorded it, it was on the news.

If Lefty is possessed by a human... it would have a level of sympathy I guess... but I can’t tell them what I did!!! Hurting Hazel, I’m sure he'd immediately label me as a villain... which yes, I do deserve to be criticised in some ways for acting like a brat and being completely blind... but he might use that as an excuse to let me rot here, I’d like to get home, I don’t wanna wake up and still be like this thirty years later.

Only thing that really stops me from getting help is... my appearance... I don’t look like a fifteen year old, I look like a child's toy. I could get called a liar if I tried to explain, I don’t know if they'd believe me, there is a difference between dead kids possessing animatronics and what happened to me... to the other abandoned kids...

Wait you said the name was Charlotte... that's very peculiar, one of Hazel's friends is named Charlotte... I remember her because she puked on me... Eugh... I don’t want to relive that experience ever again, that was disgusting, in fact... I'd rather forget the whole day in general because it was awful, but I can't.

[hideawayintheimaginationworld]

I am Machine: Chapter 4

He completely forgot about Helpy.

And how small he was.

He easily got through the hole like how he did.

“Wow it's both extremely claustrophobic and homey in here,” Helpy stood up, looking around.

He was blocking the only way in or out.

No way to escape now. Helpy had cornered him.

“You know, the hole is going to be repaired soon,” Helpy told him, “And if you chose to stay in here, you'll be sealed away forever.”

“You care why?” Alec had spoke for the first time in a long time, his voice sounded so unfamiliar now, he had forgotten what his voice had sounded like. He didn’t see the need to talk until now.

“Because forever is a really long time!” Helpy exclaimed, “So anyway, I'm Helpy.”

“I've seen on the safety posters around the pizzeria,” Alec nodded.

“Customer safety is very important to us!” Helpy had clapped his hands together, “That's why some of us have particular features! Like Security Puppet stops kids from leaving without their parents! And well.... Lonely Freddy's use to be walking security cameras... But not anymore, because they started to act strangely, but you seem different!”

“That's because I'm not a Lonely Freddy!” Alec shouted at him.

“I don’t understand I'm afraid,” Helpy shook his head, “You can't really claim to be something your not! If you have no good ground for it, you look like a Lonely Freddy, so you must be one??”

Alec heard his voice was practically drowning in confusion, so he spoke, “I heard you and your black bear talking and I remember he mentioned an incident with a Lonely Freddy and a little girl.”

“Oh are you that Lonely Freddy?”

“No I'm not a Lonely Freddy! That happened to me!”

“You're a little girl?” Helpy sounded even more lost than before.

“No! No!” He shouted frustrated Helpy was constantly irrupting before he could really explain, “My name is Alec! I'm not a Lonely Freddy!”

“Oh okay! Alec is a boy's name! I get it!” Helpy nodded eagerly like he won a game.

“I don't think you do Helpy.”

“Then I'll need an explanation then!” Helpy said.

“Your friend talked hypnosis,” Alec had decided he was going to tell Helpy, he seemed friendly enough plus what could he really do? He didn’t look interested in fighting, he looked more like a curious child.

It reminded him of when Hazel was a toddler following him around.

“Lefty! Yes he did!! He's actually a good guy! He may sometimes act weirdly but he's my friend!” Helpy was beaming when he talked about Lefty.

“I was a 15 year old boy, but something happened and Freddy's in my body!”

“Wait, a mind swap.... Like he's in your body and you are in his... A real body swap scenario?” Helpy frowned understanding.

“I guess that’s an basic way to define it,”

“Oh sugar honey ice tea..... Maybe that's why Lefty detected something wrong with them.... He was so insistent that something was amiss but he said he didn’t know what, he described it as feeling like it would steal his soul if he looked it in the eye...” Helpy muttered, “So you are a human really?”

“Yes,” Alec answered.

“Prove it!”

“How am I suppose to prove it?!” He snapped at Helpy.

“Well humans don’t usually look like walking teddy bears. Then again.... Your eyes.... They are green. Freddy’s eyes have always been blue all the way from the 70s to the current day, always blue. The only green eyes in the pizzeria history include the newer variations of Bonnie, the original had pink eye, the first version known as SpringBonnie had purple eyes, kinda creepy..... It's unusual..... Considering what Lefty said and the history we have, this seems plausible you were, well are suppose to be human... There’s a certain amount of creditability to your story,” Helpy answered.

“What history?” Alec asked, as far as he knew, this place seemed as normal as possible, aside from the obvious. However the way Helpy had said “history” sounded like there was something more dark and twisted below the surface.

“Umm too much to explain, we'd be here all night! Now how about we both get outta here before Mike decides to find us, it'll be far more difficult to explain it to him,” Helpy looked around nervously.

“Your friend won't hurt me?”

“No, in fact I think he will want to hear this strange story,” Helpy nodded then turned around and crawled back through the hole, “Come on Alec! We probably shouldn’t let anyone else see you!”

Alec hesitated, Helpy then poked his head through, “Let’s go!”

“Where are we going?” Alec asked.

“Back to my room!”

“You share it with the bear,” Alec said.

“He won’t bite.... In fact I'd be more worried about Chica, she ain't a scared cat but I once saw her smack a rat with a guitar, she's not scared to hit things....” Helpy answered, he pulled his head back as Alec crawled out of the space. Helpy pointed back to the room and they walked away, Alec following Helpy, seeing truly how small the world was, even Helpy was slightly taller than him.

“This is the strangest thing I've ever come across, and that counts the time some awful teenage brute ripped the arm of a Yarg Foxy toy, kids are one thing, I don't hate teenagers, but.... They don’t particularly like me, I was actually kicked across the restaurant once by a teenager. I was actually kicked straight at Freddy who was performing on stage, we both had the wind knocked out of us... Lefty.... He was absolutely furious and started screaming at the teenager asking if he'd like to be thrown into the wall.”

Alec had paid attention and wondered if Helpy was talking about him unless there was another teenager who tore the arm of a Yarg Foxy. As far as he knew, Helpy wouldn’t have seen that happen unless he was quiet enough to see it but to not draw attention to himself being there, meaning he would have by some luck, had to avoid being seen by Alec, Hazel and both of parents, which seemed impossible. Maybe Helpy heard about it, then again, Helpy was small.

Helpy pushed open the bedroom door and they both walked in, Helpy then pushed it closed.

“Must be weird, you can’t reach a lot of door knobs now!” Helpy said making a remark on Alec's situation, Alec turned and noticed something he didn’t see before.

The door had a lock on it.

“Um Helpy, why is there a lock on the door?” He questioned trying to figure out why there was a lock on the door.

“Oh! Um... The lock..... Um.... It's to keep anything bad out. Lefty said something bad happened once when I was asleep...” Helpy sounded really unsure, “I don’t remember what exactly happened but Lefty seemed extremely worried about me for a while and he wouldn’t explain why, we lock the door when we are both asleep, otherwise our door is usually unlocked..... Admittedly.... I've heard... What sounds like some pretty vicious growling coming from outside.... Lefty almost is always paranoid something is outside, he wasn’t that bad until this “Marionette” started speaking to him in his head,” Helpy explained.

“Maybe.... He's just looking out for you..?” Alec suggested.

“Yea! Kinda like an older brother! He's my best friend, I guess he is my older brother.... Hey Alec, as a human, do you have any siblings?”

Alec didn’t expect that question but answered honestly, “I had... A younger sister.”

“What’s your relationship with her like?”

“I don't feel comfortable discussing that,” Alec frowned.

“Oh understandable.... I apologise, I’ve been told I’m not suppose to ask those sort of things, I’m not invasive! I’m curious about you Alec! That’s all!” Helpy smiled, “Well.... Lefty'll be back soon.... You wanna do anything?”

“Like what?” Alec asked.

“I can go ask Mike for the tablet and we can watch some videos.”

“I've noticed, you mentioned Mike a few times, who is he?” Alec felt like he wasn’t out of line by asking that.

“Human Owner essentially....” Helpy answered, “He owns this place and does the work at night, apperantly, he's a night owl, he's use to being asleep during the day and awake at night, he's told me it's easier to do work here when it's quiet.”

“Could he help me out...?”

“No probably not, I'll be a minute, just stay here, sit on Lefty's bed until I get back!” Helpy said as he reached for the door knob and turned it, leaving the room and Alec alone.

Alec decided it was okay to wait for him, he climbed up onto Lefty's bed and sat with his back against the wall.

A few minutes passed, Alec tapped his feet together. He wondered when these guys slept, Lefty was performing usually from opening time to closing, which was ten hours on average, and he seemed to be awake between 12:00am and 6:00am, that left only eight hours for anything like sleep.

Alec then swore he heard a strange noise. Like scrapping.

He looked at the door, hearing the scraping from that direction, he then heard a snap and something winced in pain, it was then followed by a quite “ow”.

It wasn’t Lefty or Helpy.

“I can't get in again.” He heard a quiet voice speak.

Silences.

“Yea, yea, shut up I know you're angry again I can't get in! What do you expect?”

Why did it sound like it was having a conversation?

“Quit it. I'll get in eventually, you don't need to break in, otherwise the Puppet'll know we're watching again.”

Silences.

“Good one, yep he is exactly that. Tell our Master I'm coming back home, should be easy to do that.”

That didn’t sound good.

“Hey I brought the tablet!” Helpy opened the door, “Anything you want to watch? Funny videos? We can watch some cartoons! Maybe even a movie!”

“What exactly is there...?” Alec asked as Helpy got up on the bed with the tablet in his hands.

“Well let's see...” Alec watched Helpy open a application with videos listed, he saw a fee movie titles he recognised, he saw a tab that had a list names and numbers:

HELPY'S VIDEOS

230 MOVIES

20 TELEVISION SERIES

SERIES THAT MIKE AND LEFTY WATCH

34 TELEVISION SERIES

STUFF FOR EVERYONE TO WATCH

400 MOVIES

50 TELEVISION SERIES.

“Anything you recommend?” Alec asked him.

Helpy tapped on the list that had his name and the page loaded with video thumbnails and titles.

“Depends! You want a comedy? You want to watch a television series? An animated movie?”

The door opened and Lefty walked in, he locked the door behind him and looked at Alec.

“I see you've made yourself at home,” Lefty said in quite a monotone way, “Would you care to talk now or shall I continue to be suspicious about you?”

“He explained to me Lefty,” Helpy nodded, “Ummm... That girl with Lonely Freddy?”

“I don't really want to talk about it anymore-” Lefty pinched his nose bridge, shaking his head.

“It was a mind swap thing,” Helpy cut him off.

“You know that how....?” Lefty asked, his golden yellow eye glaring at Helpy, he was puzzled about how he could know that and what the concept even was.

“Because me....” Alec spoke.

Lefty frowned, staring at him, he didn’t understand. Then it struck him, this can’t be a Lonely Freddy. “Wait.... No.... No..... NO! God Security!!! Me!!! We failed to keep a kid safe!!” Lefty exclaimed grabbing the sides of his head, shaking, “It explains why I didn’t want to kill you and felt like I needed to hold onto you!! I'm programmed to protect children.... I sense your soul as a child.... That's why!! Oh no! How can I fix this?!?”

“Lefty! You don't need to worry!” Helpy yelled, “Calm down!”

Left crashed onto the bed, completely dazed, the two bears looked at him in confusion.

“I’m a failure to Mr. Emily, how did this slip pass me?” Lefty asked to no one in particular.

“We all missed this!” Helpy shouted, “This isn’t your slip up! It's our! Every animatronic here failed to stop this from happening, we have measures to prevent things like adduction, thief, hostage situations, murders, accidents, injuries... We never had something in place for this sort of thing!” Helpy was pushing his side trying to get him to stand up.

Lefty sat up and looked at Alec, “So you really are..?”

“Alec,” He answered.

“Alec.... Alec.... I need to check that name and find out exactly how long ago this happened to you... We write down every name in a book....”

“We don't need to do anything yet-”

“Helpy have you forgotten there is a rogue Lonely Freddy out there who looks human?!? And we have no idea what it's planning more importantly!!! Lonely Freddy's are the worse sort of unpredictable, you never know where they are and what they're doing! They don't act like the rest of us! They don’t socialise, they’re extremely invasive, and they don’t understand what’s wrong with the way they act!! Dam it Helpy I will not let that thing run free, they are cunning and manipulative! And that's why there's a lock on our door so they don't come in our room ever again!”

Helpy and Alec were silent.

Lefty looked around, realising what he said, his tone soften as he spoke again, “Helpy....”

“The truth Lefty,” Helpy spoke, “Why is that lock on our door? I honestly don’t remember what happened and I don’t know why! I have a great memory! Why won’t you tell me?? Is there something I should be scared of?”

“Helpy no! I will protect you from what’s out there!” Lefty exclaimed, “Human or Animatronic!”

“Lefty has a Lonely Freddy come in our room before? When we were asleep?”

Both looked at him for an answer, even Alec wanted an answer from him.

“I’m not answering that in light of this, it's unimportant,” Lefty shook his head, “However, Alec's problem is extremely serious, he needs to be a priority. He is trapped in a body that isn’t his...... Something tells me this far more serious than anything I'm programmed to do....” Lefty looked at Alec, his look was genuine confusion and concern.

Hope you enjoyed Chapter 4 AKA the Chapter "where it all comes out, Helpy figures it out quickly, Lefty has a mental breakdown and Alec is thinking why is there a lock?"

First Chapter | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

[moirai-au]

Charlie “Lee” Lewis (1920s edition)

(art by Ramvur)

@immabethehero @bupine @tabbynerdicat @i-maybe-exist @its-ethan-bro @sandinthetardis @honestlyitsjustkenna @taikeero-lecoredier @idkwheresanti @thebluejaysworld

Character

27 years old

born on May 25th 1893 in London, UK (Gemini)

homoromantic asexual (closeted obviously, the 20th century and he doesnt even know what those words exist)

he’s a leftie

internalized homophobia (product of his time and his father’s abuse)

needs his glasses to see shit from up close and read, otherwise he can see just fine

b a b y

seriously, he’s adorable

“fellas” “berries” “swell” “mooks” “what a pile of moonrocks” “dame” “huzzah” “cuppa” “bloody hell” “rubbish”

very touchy-feely! loves casual touches and affection

fought in the Great War. for ONE day.

Personality

hopeless romantic

modest: would never get completely naked in front of anyone, not even his romantic partner

repressed

daydreamer, creative

hardworking, organized

curious, cheerful

patient, honest

eloquent, very polite

realistic, indecisive

friendly, empathetic, considerate

obedient, naive, gullible

overall would never hurt anyone and would let people walk all over him because he’s just too nice

Issues

PTSD (from the war and from his time spent under possession)

fear of loud noises (phonophobia)

fear or others touching his throat

panic attacks

amputated right leg

phantom pains

thalassophobia (almost drowned when he was a little kid)

Likes, skills and interests

loves romance novels and poetry, wants to write some himself (he’s very good at it)

can play the violin

excellent dancer! he couldn’t do it anymore when he lost his leg, but that doesn’t stop him from doing his best

really good with his hands! woodworking, sewing and knitting.

favorite music genre: jazz

favorite animal: mice. they were mice in the attic his father locked him in as punishment sometimes, he liked to sneak in bread for them. they were cute and soft and kept him company.

favorite environment: hills and meadows

favorite time/weather: rainy autumn afternoon

favorite drinks: tea with milk and honey, cider

favorite color: bronze and indigo

 Backstory

youngest of three brothers

born in wealthy british family, with latent magical potential that was forgotten generations ago

had a formal education, with personal preceptors that taught him how to dance, and play the violin

he also loved to sew and knit, but that was considered a woman’s thing, so he did it in secret

but one day he got caught by his father, who got angry and beat him with his belt and called him a f*ggot

so he grew up really repressed, stopped knitting and stuff because he was so scared of the possibility of being gay

it didnt help with his studies, so apart from english he wasn’t good at a lot of academic stuff, unlike his brothers. 

his dad wanted him to work in high places, but that didn’t pan out

so, like the asshole he was, he decided to send charlie to manual labor, like factories or mines

ofc charlie was not thrilled, so he busted his ass to find something else

and miraculously someone noticed he was really good with his hands, so they offered him a apprenticeship in a tinker shop

that suited his father fine, so that’s how he started working in that shop

the years passed, and WW1 broke out in 1914 (he was 21)

he was enlisted in the british army by force in 1916, when compulsory conscription was put into place in the UK

he went to ONE battle in northern France, and was almost immediately knocked out when a landmine exploded near him

when he woke up behind the frontlines, his right leg below the knee was gone

when he came home, he ended up taking over the shop because the owner died in the war, and he made himself a prosthetic

and he was almost 27, no dame in sight

that  prompted his father to try and set him up with a girl from another noble family

poor charlie the hopeless romantic of course was appealed at the notion, but again, he was starting to believe that something was wrong with him because he didnt desire any woman he met

so all his doubts and fears are coming for him again

one day he was just in his shop and stressing out about it

when he heard a voice coming from his phonograph, over the music

the voice started talking to him and he freaked out

but the voice reassured him, told him they were a friend

it told charlie about his family, the magical potential that runs in it

he offers Lee a way out of his situation

voice: ill help you get out of this… predicament of yours, no strings attached.

Lee: I don’t buy that you wouldn’t want anything in return.

voice: of course i want something. i want a puppet!

Lee: a… puppet?

voice: indeed! you’re a talented artisan, aren’t you? a custom-made puppet would do nicely. see, i’m a bit of a… collector, one might say.

Lee doesn’t take the deal at first

but after a few weeks of coercing and sweet-talking

(and of Charlie trying to get rid of the voice without success)

he eventually gives in

over a few months the voice guides him

helps him to learn about his family history and magic

turns out spacetime magic is his family’s forte!

so with guidance he learns how to time-travel and “teleport” (its all actually different applications of binding spacetime around him)

then he arrives in 2020, exactly 100 years later

but the voice tricked him, he’s trapped in a warehouse

and the owner of the voice possesses him

(oh no the puppet was him all along who could have seen it coming-)

see, the way spacetime magic works, you can only travel to the future, not the past

so he can’t ever come back to his time

lee makes a good enough physical vessel until the fiend obtains the one he truly wants…

[clanwarrior-tumbly]

Any Nightmarionne Headcanons? I'm interested in your take on them.

I’m shocked I don’t have any for him hhhh but here you go!

FNAF 4

Goes by “he” pronouns, since Cassidy always envisioned the Puppet as a male.

The kid also had a figurine of the Puppet, unlike the other animatronics who were his plushies.

Always fight with Nightmare for leadership, claiming he’s the one who’s truly “pulling the strings”.

Only Nightmare Mangle, the Jack o’s, and Nightmare BB respect him as a leader.

His loose ribs can stretch to trap someone in them like a prison.

Never uses his teeth for anything. They’re just there for intimidation reasons.

Likes to slink around in the shadows, playing a broken version of the Puppet’s old music box.

His stare can paralyze victims in an instant, especially if they are children. But it’s just as effective with adults.

Sometimes he can induce sleep paralysis in kids, leaving them helpless and terrified but unable to call out for help.

UCN

Loves being an absolute jerk to William.

Any time someone looks at a particular spot for too long, Nightmarionne gradually appears, so they need to focus their attention elsewhere to make him fade away.

Because of this, he’s always trying to get them to look at him--sometimes even appearing right in their faces.

The Puppet and Lefty don’t really like him, though they tolerate his presence as he has slain Will quite a few times.

He floats around the office a lot.

[william-afton-positivity]

Who are the killed kids and what are they like?

Names, ages, and who they became in the order of how they died.

Charlotte "Charlie" Emily. 10 years old. Marionette/The Puppet. Now is the "leader" due to her being dead longer. Internally Short tempered with William but it mainly calm. Carries her anger throughout her afterlife all the way to Lefty where she releases her anger on William, now having superior animatronic strength.

Gabriel Hill. 9 years old. Freddy. The first to die. Tries to be leader but crumbles under pressure. Likes to play smart and sassy with William when on a good day.

Cassidy Marksman. 4 years old. Golden Freddy. Carefree. Always with a smile. Was killed too young to really understand life and death. Thinks her afterlife is normal. Thinks William/Springtrap is her father. Took the form of a golden bear after being shoved into the same suit as Gabriel but wasnt strong enough to take full control.

Jeremy Baker. 7 years old. Bonnie. Mischievous, witty, always planning a funny joke. Is somewhat sympathetic and silently hopes for Williams redemption.

Fritz Almer. 8 years old. Foxy. Mainly sad and frustrated all the time. Had the most painful and prolonged death after fighting against William to survive. Wishes he can torch him on the spot. Doesnt talk a lot

Suise Hutch. 10 years old. Chica. Naive, soft spoken most of the time. Isnt really happy most of the time. Is the second least violent spirit to William. "I was the first" refering tk being the first taken. "I have seen everything" refering to watching all the other kids die before her

[kidsviral-blog]

Martha Plimpton Moves On (Again)

New Post has been published on https://kidsviral.info/martha-plimpton-moves-on-again/

Martha Plimpton Moves On (Again)

In the course of nearly 35 years as a professional actress, the Raising Hope star has had only one steady job — and it just ended. But if there’s anything Plimpton’s illustrious, challenging career has taught her, it’s that nothing lasts, and that this is OK. And that it’s boring to still be talking about The Goonies.

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Photograph by Ramona Rosales for BuzzFeed

”Our lives as actors are so peripatetic. We’re always all over the place, and we never know where we’re going to be next. That period of intimacy you create when you’re working on something is so important, and so vital. It’s what everything springs out of — that trust, and that mutual respect. And it makes you grateful that you do this. Do you know what I mean?”

In someone who articulates her thoughts in well-contemplated sentences and paragraphs, and who magnifies her decisive ideas with an extensive vocabulary, Martha Plimpton’s conversational tic — do you know what I mean? — begins to feel ironic after a while. Because it is impossible not to know what she means.

There are performers — not necessarily the movie stars, but the actors — who become unknowing touchstones of our lives because we grow up with and live alongside them: Plimpton is one of those. At 43, she has been famous, or at least recognizable, for more than 30 years, having been acting professionally since 1980. Her range is vast: She’s excelled in classic stage roles and broad TV comedy. Despite all the perils that haunt kid stars, not to mention women in entertainment who dare age, she has created a place for herself in which she is both professionally prolific and a real person. From the consumed way she sounds when she’s talking about her work, she appears not to have lost her passion for it — nor has she lost her patience or her nerve.

Along the way, Plimpton has been nominated for three Tony Awards and three Emmys (winning once, for Best Guest Actress in a Drama in 2011, for her portrayal of Patti Nyholm, a maddening, occasional courtroom foil for Julianna Margulies’ Alicia on The Good Wife). She has been in more than 20 movies, both big and mainstream (The Goonies, Parenthood) and indie (I Shot Andy Warhol, Eye of God). She’s currently appearing as the trenchant, broken-hearted Brooke in Jon Robin Baitz’s Other Desert Cities at the Old Vic in London. Activism is a big part of her life as well: She co-founded the abortion rights-focused organization A Is For, and especially on the subject of abortion and lefty politics, she is a scathingly proficient user of the Twitter megaphone.

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Plimpton as Virginia Chance on Fox’s Raising Hope. John P. Fleenor / FOX

On Friday, Plimpton’s most lasting role, as Virginia Chance on Fox’s underappreciated comedy Raising Hope, will come to an end after four seasons. The show has revolved around the working-class Chance family’s loving and insane efforts to raise little Hope, who was conceived during a one-night-stand Jimmy Chance (Lucas Neff) had with a hot serial killer who was then executed in prison. As Jimmy’s mother and Hope’s (young!) grandmother, Virginia has been the show’s almost-reasonable/also ludicrous heart. Her loving constancy with her husband, Burt (Garret Dillahunt), has provided the show’s screwball, Coen Brothers-like throughline.

Other than these four years on Raising Hope, Plimpton’s career has been defined by the transience of film, theater, and TV guest spots — and for now at least, she’s back to that more free, but less stable, way of life. She’s used to it. “It’s just part of the lesson of being an actor: Don’t hold on to things,” she said. “Just find a way to be good at letting go. Always, at all times.”

And about saying goodbye to Raising Hope and Virginia, she said: “There were things about doing that character every week — every day — that were incredibly freeing and confidence-building and gave me a new relationship to work, and how to work, and how to be present and available and game. I will miss it. But I cannot complain. I don’t feel in any way robbed of anything. Do you know what I mean?”

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Photograph by Ramona Rosales for BuzzFeed

Plimpton’s mother, Shelley Plimpton, started out as an actor in New York City. She played Crissy in the original production of Hair, which is where she met Martha’s father, Keith Carradine, of the acting family of Carradines. Though Plimpton is close to her father now, Carradine was not around much during her childhood. She saw him “once a year for a few years there — when I was 6, 7, 8,” she said. “Most of my teens there wasn’t anything.”

“It’s not something I particularly like talking about,” Plimpton continued during our first interview, which was over a hurried lunch on a day when she was busy doing press for Raising Hope. “I don’t really feel like it’s anybody’s, you know, business. But of course, I love my father, I always have. He was a young man. And he had things to figure out.”

The Plimptons lived first in the Chelsea Hotel, and then settled on the Upper West Side (in an apartment Martha has lived in since — her mother eventually moved to the West Coast). In late 1970s New York, it was possible to be inventive, weird, and perhaps even poor in the city. “We did not have a lot of money,” Plimpton said. “I was raised by a sort of extended family of women — friends of my mother’s.” With her mother struggling as an actor, and then eventually tiring of the struggle and getting a 9-to-5 job, it was that network of friends who drew Plimpton into acting. “They were actors and artists and bohemians of varying stripes and colors and persuasions,” she said.

The writer/director/composer Elizabeth Swados was in this group, and she cast Plimpton first in a workshop, and then in a musical at the Public called The Haggadah. Or, as Plimpton put it, “Me and my blonde head did this musical about the Exodus.” (A young Julie Taymor, who would later direct The Lion King on Broadway, as well as the Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark debacle, did the show’s puppets.)

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youtube.com

The Haggadah led to more plays and workshops — and also to an attention-getting Calvin Klein commercial, one in a series of Richard Avedon-directed, up-close monologues that also featured Andie MacDowell and Shari Belafonte in separate ads. The commercials were more personality-driven than jeans-flaunting — each model was identified by first name by chyron, branding them. It was more innocent than the previous campaign starring Brooke Shields, also by Avedon, that featured the infamous slogan, “Nothing comes between me and my Calvins,” as intoned by the teenaged Shields, posed in full jailbait lure.

At age 11, Plimpton, a spiky-haired, New York-accented tomboy, was Shields’ opposite. And while happily thinking about that curious turn in her career as she drank a glass of Sancerre at the Sunset Tower Hotel’s bar, she doesn’t look so different now. “I love those ads,” Plimpton said. “I love them. I mean, come on, fucking Dick Avedon shot those things.”

Recognition from the commercial got her first starring film role, playing a spiky-haired, Southern-accented tomboy named Jonsy — with Tommy Lee Jones as her father — in a small, sweet film called The River Rat. Jones wasn’t a movie star yet; he was known mostly for Coal Miner’s Daughter and a riveting, terrifying, and Emmy-winning performance as Gary Gilmore in the TV miniseries adaptation of Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song. But he was as vivid a screen presence then as he is now, and the tween Plimpton managed both to match and warm him.

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Plimpton with Tommy Lee Jones in The River Rat. Paramount/ Everett Collection

As for whether choosing acting was a conscious and active decision, or whether it just happened, Plimpton said, “I think it was a little bit of both.” Regardless, she continued to get cast: In the pre-Disney-Princess-addicted youth world, the tomboy archetype was a common one, and Plimpton’s tough kid exterior made her an inheritor of a pop culture legacy that included Scout Finch, Harriet the Spy, Peppermint Patty, and the young roles of Jodie Foster, Tatum O’Neal, and Kristy McNichol. The Goonies came next.

Plimpton called it “the experience of a lifetime,” and said she had “a great, amazing time making the movie.” She played Stef, the slightly nerdy girl who is actually cooler than anyone else in the movie. It was a big cast of kids, several of whom also had famous actor fathers (Sean Astin, Josh Brolin). Was that fun at the time — had she found her people?

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Goonies Mary Evans/Ronald Grant/Everett Collection(

”I’ll put it to you this way: Teenage girls and teenage boys — no. You know? It’s not a good mix. I was, like, 13, 14. I was listening to Prince and Mozart on my headphones. I mean, I thought I was like — I was from New York. I thought I was smarter than everybody. You know? I think I just might have been just kind of an asshole. Do you know what I mean? And I know for sure that Corey Feldman was an asshole. I mean, he won’t mind me saying it: He was. A fucking asshole. We were children! And children are assholes. When they’re that age.”

After a few more questions about The Goonies, which has become a touchstone of ’80s nostalgia, she had enough, and made it clear, in no uncertain terms. “I’ve discussed it and talked about it and been interviewed about it so many times that I just kind of feel like there’s literally nothing new to say about it. Literally. Literally.” She was sort of laughing — and sort of not. Gesturing at her face, she said, “You’ll notice my eyes have sort of glazed over.”

But one parting shot: “I remember all of us making hardly any money off of it.”

When I talked to Garret Dillahunt, Plimpton’s Raising Hope co-star, about their working relationship and friendship, he said, “I never saw The Goonies. Which greatly pleased her.”

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Photography by Ramona Rosales for BuzzFeed

Jon Robin Baitz offered Plimpton the Other Desert Cities role shortly after she finished filming Raising Hope’s fourth — and, now, final — season in January, and she jumped at it. Plimpton is the only American in the cast of a very American play that through a single wealthy family lays bare the trauma of the Vietnam War, the Reagan era, and the Sept. 11 attacks. Though she had been nervous about London audiences, both because of their known reserve and because of the content of the play itself. “These audiences are incredible,” she said when we spoke on the phone recently. “They’re so smart, and they’re so present, and they’re such enthusiastic theater-goers, that I have found the audiences actually extremely warm and extremely receptive.” And in the city itself, “Every shopkeeper calls you ‘darling,’ and everyone says ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’”

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Martha Plimpton as Brooke, Clare Higgins as Silda in Other Desert Cities. Alastair Muir / Rex/REX USA

Other Desert Cities will run through May. If Fox had renewed Raising Hope, she would have returned to Los Angeles during the summer. That the show isn’t coming back is not a surprise — before the start of the season, Fox had moved it to Friday nights, which is often a death knell. “When you’re moving around so much on the schedule, I think it’s clear that there’s something not quite clicking for somebody, somewhere, I don’t know who,” Plimpton said. “The fact that they followed through with us regardless of that is pretty great of them. I feel like they did it really respectfully and really well, even though obviously if I ran a studio, we’d run for 20 years.”

Greg Garcia (My Name Is Earl, The Millers), the show’s creator who left before Raising Hope’s final season, has a different take on the experience. “I left for a lot of reasons, but certainly one of the reasons was I saw no support for the show on a studio or network level,” he said in a telephone interview. “It’s a shame. It’s a really good show. Had it been left in the same time slot from the beginning, had it gotten more support, I think it would have gotten a wider audience.”

About Plimpton, though, Garcia said, “I adore her. And I would jump at the chance of being on a set with her again.” He was originally looking at older actresses for Virginia — then he thought of Plimpton, citing 1996’s Beautiful Girls as one of his favorite movies. “Then I was, like, mad at myself,” he said. “Why was I not here earlier with this? I love Martha Plimpton, and she would kill at this role.”

Plimpton had done plenty of New York actor bill-paying guest roles, from an arc on ER to requisite appearances on various Law & Orders. She also had shot a pilot for Showtime with Matthew Perry in which she would have been a series regular, but it didn’t get picked up. When Raising Hope came along, she wasn’t actively pursuing a television gig as a goal, despite the financial rewards. “Because there’s so much rejection, and so much stress,” she said. “But I was definitely open to it, obviously.”

She thought the pilot script for Raising Hope was “hilarious,” and really liked Garcia. “He was, like, a really decent, swell, really smart, very talented guy,” she said. “I could just tell he wasn’t a Hollywood dickbag.” (Countered Garcia: “And I could tell right away that she wasn’t an actress ditzcunt.”)

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Greg Gayne / FOX

Plimpton said Garcia made everything go smoothly during the audition process. “And that moment when you have to sign that contract during the test process — to, like, literally sign six years of your life away — it was easy for me for the first time,” she said. “And normally when you do that, it’s really terrifying. Because you don’t know how you’re going to be able to look at these awful people day in and day out.” She stopped, and laughed a loud laugh. “Do you know what I mean?”

Plimpton has been selective about her jobs because of the intimacy required in her work. And she is an intense and intimidating person to speak to whatever the circumstances — in our three conversations, I found her to be dryly funny and sharp as hell. She’s also surprisingly blunt: When we talked on the phone to catch up, her greeting was, “This article sure is taking a long time!”

She has clearly found community in her work, and at Raising Hope, camaraderie too. When I asked Dillahunt and Garcia — independently — what their preconceptions of Plimpton were based on what they had seen her do, both cited a line from The Mosquito Coast in which her character tells River Phoenix’s, “I think about you when I go to the bathroom.”

“I used to say all the time to people,” said Dillahunt. “Just because I thought it was hilarious if I said it. Never knowing that one day that sexy girl would be my wife.” Garcia couldn’t remember the exact quotation, but when reminded of the wording, said: “Yes! Yeah! Holy shit! She made me uncomfortable and made me have questions, and it’s all coming out of that little girl. Yeah!”

“How bizarre!” Plimpton said when I told her about their mutual fixation on that line. Do people say it to her often? “It’s not that common, but they will occasionally,” she said. “And I always find it kind of creepy and weird.”

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Plimpton in The Coast of Utopia at Lincoln Center in 2007. Photograph by Paul Kolnik

Raising Hope gave Plimpton financial stability, getting her out of a debt she had accrued from years during which she worked almost solely in high profile, often Tony-nominated theatrical productions. After an ascendant career as a teenaged movie actor — she appeared in Peter Weir’s Mosquito Coast (1986), Sidney Lumet’s Running on Empty (1988), Woody Allen’s Another Woman (1988), and Ron Howard’s Parenthood (1989), among others — Plimpton hit what she called “a real big dry spell there for a long time.”

“My work in film was really sporadic: I never really, like, hit it,” she said. “There may have also been a period where I thought maybe I should be doing bigger roles than maybe I was ever going to get? And certainly my taste level is so high that I may have been too picky at times. And so I may have slowed myself down.”

Plimpton loves theater; it’s not an also-ran choice. “It’s not a process you get in any other medium,” she said. “And I love the collaboration, I love the rehearsal process, I love being in the room and working on a play. Working on the text, and excavating it. And laughing about it, and making mistakes.”

She paused. “It’s also true that there are just more interesting parts for women in the theater. There’s just more to do. I could play Hedda Gabler on stage, but no one will ever hire me to play Hedda Gabler in a movie. Do you know what I mean? Or a similar leading kind of role. There’s just more to sink my teeth into. I don’t have the face of a movie star. I have a face of a character actress. And there’s not that much character work for women. There just isn’t.”

Plimpton has played not only Hedda Gabler on stage (in a Steppenwolf production; she is a member of the company), but Imogen in Cymbeline, and Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Her Tony nominations have been for Top Girls, the revival of Pal Joey (she also sings), and for Tom Stoppard’s epic three-play cycle, The Coast of Utopia (about which she said, “I can’t think of a better experience.”).

That’s a small selection of her theater work; she has a remarkable resumé. An exhausting one, though. “I’d been working on stage — fortunately and luckily — kind of constantly. And I was finding myself physically wiped out,” she said about her pre-Raising Hope run. “And you couple that with the fact that you’re really not making any money, and you’re falling further and further behind in your bills — if you’re in the theater, and if you’re nominated for a Tony, you’d better hope someone’s going to help you pay for that stylist. Because it’s expensive to be nominated.”

Isn’t that infuriating, though? Never mind the discrepancy between studio-backed TV and film wages and theater salaries; accomplished working theater actors should be able to live in New York City, even in its current rich-person, Mike Bloombergian incarnation that’s so different from the 1970s Upper West Side of Plimpton’s childhood. “It’s everyone’s situation, it’s not unique to you,” she said. “There’s always someone working for less money than you in the theater. So if you’re going to bitch about the LORT contract” — the League of Resident Theatres’ minimum salaries — “then think about the guy working for $250 in some black box downtown. Or less. Or nothing.”

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Phoenix and Plimpton in the film Running on Empty. Warner Bros. Pictures / Everett Collection

When you’ve been in the public eye for 33 years, starting from when you were a child — well, we all know what happens to a good number of those people. There’s an extensive record of things Plimpton has said to journalists over the years, but nothing especially humiliating. I reminded her that when she was a committed vegan, she was quoted saying she was “trying to get away from wool — the farming of sheep is very inhumane.” That was in 1990. “Yeah, yeah, come on. I was, like, 17!” Plimpton said, laughing.

Plimpton was also a focus of attention after River Phoenix, whom she had dated, died in 1993 at age 23 of a drug overdose. The two young, serious actors had met during The Mosquito Coast and also co-starred in Running on Empty. They broke up, from all reports, because of Phoenix’s substance use. After his memorial service, Plimpton spoke damningly of those who chose to mythologize his too-short life, and how he died. “I don’t want to be comforted by his death,” she told Tad Friend in Esquire, “I think it’s right that I’m angry about it, angry at the people who helped him stay sick, and angry at River.”

I asked her whether she ever thought about what she said then, and what that was like to experience in public. “I don’t talk about it anymore,” Plimpton said. “And I haven’t talked about it since then for a number of reasons. Chief among them is that if I did, that would be all anyone would ever say I had ever said about anything, ever. Do you know what I mean? I mean, literally, it would be as though we had never had this entire four-hour exchange.”

Explaining further, she said: “So that’s one reason why I don’t talk about it anymore. Because I have a rich and full life. I don’t need to repeat myself, and I certainly don’t need to alter the terms of how I felt at that time. Or explain myself, or justify it to anyone. So I prefer to just leave it be. And so far that’s worked for me!”

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Photograph by Ramona Rosales for BuzzFeed

Plimpton’s friend Sarah Thyre, the writer with whom she co-founded A Is For (along with Lizz Winstead, the co-creator of The Daily Show, who is no longer with the group), described Plimpton as unwavering. “I question things, and then I proceed as if I didn’t have any doubts —because in my heart, I don’t,” said Thyre. “But Martha’s one of those people who just truly doesn’t question herself, and she just goes for it. I’m really, really proud to know her.”

Alarmed at the profound erosion of abortion rights, especially on a state-by-state level, they started A Is For in 2012. The nonprofit raises money, of course — general donations go to the Center for Reproductive Rights, and a January fundraiser in Los Angeles named “A Night of a Thousand Vaginas!” went to the Texas Abortion Fund. But beyond direct action, it’s a cultural shift Plimpton seeks.

When talking about a New York Magazine cover package about abortion published this past fall, Plimpton said she thought it was “great,” and that she was “encouraged by people’s willingness to speak,” but “there was a subtle sort of undertone of affliction to it.” She gathered steam, and spoke emphatically: “I’m looking forward to getting us to a place where this isn’t such a negative subject. Where we don’t assume that abortion has this sad, lonely, depressing feeling about it. Because for so many women, it’s the reason they are able to live. It gives women an opportunity, a chance, to participate. To go to school. To realize their dreams.”

As Thyre put it, “Martha really wants to change the way we talk about the ‘A’ word, and not have the definition and the driving form of the conversation come from the other side, which is how it’s been for many years.”

On Twitter, Plimpton often engages with people who disagree with her, whether the topic is those who blamed Philip Seymour Hoffman for his own death because he was an addict, Julianne Hough’s disastrous blackfaced Halloween costume, the Affordable Care Act, or, of course, abortion. Why does she endure the pain of going back and forth with people who are most likely crazy?

“I don’t want to automatically assume that someone’s an idiot just because they disagree with me,” she said. “They have to reveal their stupidity over time.” She does end up on rolls, though, when she’s arguing about inflammatory topics and simultaneously, as she calls it, “Blockin’ and rockin’.” Because the insults can be vicious, as anyone on Twitter knows. “It usually has to do with how ugly I am, and so I should shut up because I’m ugly,” she said. “Or I should have been aborted — because I’m ugly and stupid. And should shut up. Or that I’m a has-been — that’s always a fun one. That I’m a has-been who’s ugly and should shut up. ‘Ugly’ always makes its way in there. And I just don’t really want people who think that way to get away with it. I don’t think that that’s cool or OK. I don’t want it to work on me. And I don’t want it to work on other women.”

It’s not the way many — or any? — other celebrities act on social media, or in life. But Plimpton is different, and always has been.

“I’m a citizen and I’m a person,” she said, patiently describing something that should always be the case, but is actually rare. “And I don’t want my job or my career to get in the way of me being a citizen and a person.”

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