#'oh william pausing was because he recognized garrett's last name' mf why would he KNOW that if he just took a random kid.

[bravevolunteer]

VERSE — MOVIE ( CONTAINS SPOILERS & CANON DIVERGENT, tw for canon-typical themes & suicide mention )

just to get straight to the point : it's mainly canon divergent in the sense that i will be altering details in order to make mike an afton. do i think this is going to happen in the movie timeline? no. do i think it's more likely that they're going to explain the oddly personal kidnapping through mirroring the emilys? probably. but it's MY michael afton blog and i can put on my tinfoil hat as much as i want about it. of course i am willing to adapt based on other's info / preferences but given that this isn't my main canon anyway it is meant for those that are interested.

Mike thought he knew everything there was to know about what happened to his family: what he was never told is who his real father was. He was too young to remember anything about William Afton before his mom separated herself from him entirely ( one night stand, breakup, what have you, i'm not picky- ), so he always thought of the father he grew up with as his dad, the reality never changed anything about that.

Until he was twelve years old and Garrett went missing, and everything fell apart. William followed the Schmidts there, taking Garrett in a targeted attack ( whether or not he was trying to grab Mike, took him out of spite, anything else is also flexible ). Everything grew solemn and tense, each of the Schmidts lost in their own individual grief. Slowly, they stopped having dinners together, stopped going out as a family, stopped being able to feel like things were normal. The grief and guilt only added to Mike's developing anger issues and depression. Although it wasn't on purpose nor with any malicious intent, his dad was the more distant of his parents at the time, serving as the first hint towards his biological parentage and simply because as much as he cared for mike, he was grappling with losing his biological kid ( think tse henry- well meaning but drowning in grief enough for the child to pick up on it ).

This is where Abby comes in, where the Schmidts have another kid in an attempt to feel like a normal family again. It almost seems to work, although there is still that underlying sense of collective grief. Mike was older by then, too ( while he graduates high school, he either doesn't go to college at all or doesn't finish it ).

Their mom dies and the brief sense of possible stability disappears again. It's when Mike is staying at home again for the funeral/to help with Abby that their father commits suicide, unable to take the grief. Mike has had custody of Abby since then.

The events proceed as they did in the movie, William's recognition of Mike in the office not only stemming from the kidnapping but the fact that it's his kid, although Mike doesn't find anything out beyond the fact that it's the man who took Garrett. There is potential for more hints towards this in past interactions with his aunt or birth records or even his dynamic with Vanessa, but for the most part this specific realization is left open.

Following the movie's events, he... does come home to his aunt in the living room. After reporting her death, Mike actually goes back to Freddy's one more time to get security footage in order to prove his innocence. Afterwards, he does his best to hold down another job to keep taking care of Abby in peace, but something about Freddy's gives him the sense that he'll come back to make sure nothing like this happens again.

#⁂ ･ﾟ: the secrets that you keep when you’re talking in your sleep ➛ movie #fnaf movie spoilers #this is waaaay longer than it needs to be i have got to shut up #so i'm cutting it here despite having more thoughts those can be hc posts #ANYWAY YEAH. GOING WITH A.FTON THEORY. HONK HONK #i do really like the idea of them mirroring the emilys and i KNOW this barely changes shit but #i am just trying to find a way to Combine The Two in my brain and keep the general basis i've been working with for so long #it's like... he's michael but grew up under completely different circumstances. why he didn't treat his brother the same way. #he has completely different experiences but they resulted in a similar guilt. similar reactiveness. similar protectiveness. #so the a.fton thing just helps me tie them together even if it doesn't *really* come into play #'oh william pausing was because he recognized garrett's last name' mf why would he KNOW that if he just took a random kid. #'mike looks similar' that was a BABY. why would he go all the way to nebraska to kidnap some random kid it's so personal! #something about the way he's the only one to call mike 'michael' in the whole movie! #fnaf is all about going wild with it it's fiiine