[Lately, Callum had noticed a concerning pattern of stutters and errors in Phone Guy's speech and mannerisms. Dialogue would skip, party booking and appointments would be rife with mistakes, and he couldn't count the amount of times he'd had to pull PG back into Parts & Service to patch him up.]
[All of those patches were temporary fixes, in the end. Callum knew, deep down, what the issue was. He'd just been delaying the inevitable.]
[Akin to Glamrock Freddy ( he'd really have to go back and personally fix that damned bear someday ), PG's latest crash had been in front of a crowd of children, presumably because the amount of guest input had been so overwhelming. PG's crashes and glitches had become an unfortunate regularity. No matter what he tried now, PG wouldn't be the same unless...unless Callum completely replaced his defunct parts and reset him.]
[The process would effectively erase any "extraneous" data from PG -- namely, his memories. Callum knew that PG was a machine, easily "replaceable" in the eyes of a simple-minded few, but he found himself...grieving, almost. He'd never felt such crushing sadness over a process that would ultimately be required. He hadn't shed a tear when his wife and child left; in fact, he'd only been irked that his wife had publicly divorced him. He'd been using them as a form of publicity, advertising that he, too, was a family man -- so having that relatability stripped was frustrating, to say the least.]
[Now, however -- now Callum was facing a true loss. PG was his ally, his closest friend, his right-hand man. He was devastated that he'd have to wipe that bond from PG's hard drive. It felt like he was killing the closest friend he'd ever had.]
[When he eventually forced himself to wheel PG back into Parts & Service, he did something unprecedented. He rebooted the animatronic just to say "goodbye." These days, simply booting PG up took a good few minutes, so Callum took the time to prepare himself. He took a few deep breaths, willing his tears away. PG's last memory shouldn't be of Callum crying. Not that it would matter in the end, but...he wanted PG's last image of him to be positive.]
[PG awoke with his usual "ring, ring," whirring back to life. Callum smiled at him.]
❝ Hello, hello, Phone Guy. How are you feeling? ❞ [He hadn't done any actual repairs, but rebooting PG should have the desired effect of momentarily bringing him "back to life." Once he started crashing, though, that was Callum's cue to shut him down once and for all. He just hoped that wouldn't be anytime soon.]
@mute-call 💜