Nick Cawthon

**Nick Cawthon** is the main protagonist of *The Joy of Creation: Story Mode* and the son of Scott Cawthon, and is the first accidental target of Michael and The Ignited. He is the narrator throughout the game's cutscenes and tries to regain his memories of what had happened on the night that "Five Nights at Freddy's just ended." The player controls him in the Bedroom memory.

## **Personality**

As a child, Nick Cawthon has the qualities of a child, as described by himself later in life. He is lacking in skepticism, and convinces his parents to allow Michael to stay with them on the night of the attack as a result of that. All throughout life, Nick has been quite fearless and has nerves of steel, as demonstrated when The Ignited attacked him in the game's introductory level. However, he later describes it as "the scariest moment of [his] life" for obvious reasons, as a single mistake would have resulted in his death.

In his thirties, Nick is shown to be socially awkward, holding strange, uncanny philosophical views, likely due to the trauma caused by the attack on his home decades prior. For example, he doesn't believe in spirits due to everything in the universe being finite in some way and eternity not being a present notion, holding the belief that "nothing lasts forever."

## Biography

Nick Cawthon is one of Scott Cawthon's sons in *The Joy of Creation: Story Mode*. On the 2nd anniversary of *Five Nights at Freddy's*, August 8th, 2016, a child Nick discovered an unconscious, mysterious, seemingly-homeless man in front of the door of their basement and called his parents over to him. Scott, his father, interrogated him and the man shouted that his name was Michael, to his confusion. Nick thought Michael sounded like Scott. Val, his mother, wondered why he was inside someone else's house, and Michael responded that he couldn't remember anything. By Nick's offer, Scott decided to help him and allowed him to stay in their guest room while Val took Nick to his bedroom.

Nick initially believed that this would be the only time he and Michael would communicate, only to be awoken by Michael communicating to him via his transceiver, telling him in a childish and simple manner that The Ignited were coming to attack him, instructing him that Ignited Freddy appeared by the window and needs to have his vision divided by the curtains, Ignited Bonnie knocked on the door three times before he enters the bedroom and he needs to hide in his crib in the darkness to prevent himself from being seen, Ignited Chica will stun him if he doesn't avoid sleeping or turning the light on, and that Ignited Foxy would rise up and he needed to pretend to sleep for him to leave. Michael decides that Nick understands this and decides to leave him alone, telling him that he has to repeat this until they leave at 6 AM. After defending himself up to 5 AM, Nick became insane from the fear of the constant attacks, though never screams himself due to not being easily scared even as a child. In spite of his, after the event that he calls a "nightmare" due to how unreal it was to him, as Val was carrying him outside of the house as she was instructed to by Michael, Nick claims to have heard a scream not from himself but projected from one of the horrors he encountered, having no idea that it was used to lure his father up to his bedroom door to be attacked by Ignited Freddy.

While outside of the house with his mother, Nick found the house to suddenly be setting on fire, and to his confusion, who he believed to be his father emerged from the ruins, seemingly unconcerned by this and more concerned by the fire itself. "Scott" dodges the question and affirms that at least Nick and the family are safe, his voice repeating and distorting until Nick realizes that it isn't his father at all.

Following the events of the game an estimate of 25 to 30 years later, Nick returned to the house after its reconstruction by the landlord, Tobias, seemingly having been urged to return by Ignited Golden Freddy in his memories, telling him to "come back". During his time reminiscing, Nick recalls the events of the game, still unsure as to what happened and being hesitant to discuss his father. He claimed that he remembers the house to be what it was before besides the furniture having changed, deciding that he should recall what happened on that night, and how *Five Nights at Freddy's* "just ended". While simply revising the events that happened before, as he returned to the basement area again, he explained that due to the franchise's cancellation, everyone forgot about *Five Nights at Freddy's* and even Scott Cawthon himself, in spite of having countless forms of merchandise and possibly even receiving a film, believing that everything has to die and that the end is inevitable, though in his particular case, said ending came sooner than he thought. As he was narrating, Nick noticed Ignited Golden Freddy outside of the window and dismissed it, deciding to lead himself up to the attic, only for Ignited Golden Freddy to kill him there as Tobias called him out of worry, receiving no response from Nick. Concerned by this, Tobias returned inside of the house and discovered Nick's corpse in the attic with his mobile phone atop his blood splatter. Surprised by this, Tobias reported on this incident.

## **Narration**

Throughout the game, Nick narrates the story in four different cutscenes. His dialogue mainly serves to explain the events unfolding between memories.

### **Intro**

"It’s been... years, decades, at least... since I’ve been inside this house. I lived here when I was just a kid, with my family: My mom, my siblings, my, uhh... my dad. I received a call from Tobias telling me that they were finally done with the repairs this morning. Took them long enough. Heh. It’s funny. Even after what happened, and all that time away from home, it looks just like how I remembered it to be. Is my memory that precise? Ugh, of course, things like the furniture and photos aren’t here anymore, but, hey, can’t blame anybody for that, heh heh. \*sigh\* Right, right. I guess I’d better use that memory for something useful. I don’t have the full story, nor do I know why it happened. But, I can tell you how it started. Everything else is up to you to figure out. This is my story [of] the night I lost my home, my childhood, and almost my family. When *Five Nights at Freddy’s*, just ended."

### **Before Bedroom**

"After that, dad carried the stranger to our guest room. He thanked me for convincing my parents to let him rest at our house for a night. Or at least, while he collected his thoughts. After that, mom put me in bed. I can’t remember much about Michael, but I knew he wasn’t a bad person, or, at least he didn’t look, you know, dangerous. I was young, so I guess I just didn’t know any better. Certainly didn’t know what a burglar was, that's for sure. Um... not that I'm implying he was, I never talked to him again after that. Well, except for when the storm happened. That’s when I woke up on my bed, and I saw them..."

### **Before Office**

"For years, I thought that what I saw was just a bad dream. Something that couldn’t possibly have been real. Why would it? Monstrous beings, coming to get a helpless child from the shadows, poking their heads out from under the bed, peeking through the closet. Just a usual nightmare for a kid, right? No matter how real it felt. Well, most of what came after is foggy. Felt more like a dream, than the actual nightmare itself. Um... mom came to rescue me. Picked me up and carried me away, I was scared for my life. It was the scariest moment OF my life, for sure. I’ve never been a crybaby, though. Even when I was a kid, people told me they‘ve never seen me cry, or yell, or even scream. So even if I was terrified during all of it, I would’ve been silent the entire time. But that was the strangest thing about that night. Even though I never made a peep, as I was being taken outside by my mother, away from the nightmare... I still vividly remember hearing my own screams."

### **Before Basement (the last narration Nick gives)**

"Do you believe in spirits? Many do. Many claim they have seen one or have heard of stories of people being haunted by these white figures, or oily shadows. My dad made a game series about it. A horror franchise, in fact, it was his shining achievement. Apparently there was a time when everybody knew about it, all over the world. Clothing, toys, accessories, board games, you name it. Five Nights at Freddy’s was everywhere. There were even rumors of it getting a movie. Heh. Well, it didn’t last long, anyway. Nobody remembers it anymore. None of the characters, the games... OR my father. After that night, it all went away. Nothing lasts forever, and that’s why I don’t believe in spirits. Everyone has to die. Everything comes to an end at some point. Even if that point, comes sooner than you'd wish."

## **Trivia**

* Nick is a reference to the developer of *The Joy of Creation* franchise, Nikson.