Michael Afton

"Take it for what it's worth, but I'd hate to see a beautiful woman lose her business over a silly 'hunch'." - Michael Afton

About
Son of William Afton I and father to Emelia and William Afton II, Michael was more of a hardware specialist compared to his father's software expertise. When the elder Afton is found murdered in the underground facility where the company develops and manufactures the animatronics, Michael took over Afton Robotics and continued working on the latest designs left behind.

Confrontation with Isabella
February 1998, Michael was confronted by a florist named Isabella, who accused him and his father of having done something to her brother, Lucian. Michael conducted an internal investigation, finding that Lucian was a former employee but the bulk of his files and his full name had been redacted and sealed by his father as part of the Remnant Research Project in the weeks leading up to his murder.

When Isabella confronted him again, demanding to know what was done to Lucian's 'soul' to change his personality, Michael denied any knowledge of Lucian being employed at the company, citing no records appear under the name Enfuego. He attempted to soothe Isabella by giving this information as kindly as possible, finding an interest in her passionate and emotional personality compared to the aloof and cooler personality of his wife, Elizabeth. Isabella didn't take to Michael's romantic interest and refused his attempt at comfort.

He was confronted by Isabella a few more times over the course of a month; she would demand he confess to his family stealing Lucian's soul, he would deny and attempt to woo her, she would refuse and leave. After several encounters like this Michael found his frustration reach a point where he threatened to expose her relation to 'a serial child killer' to public knowledge if Isabella continued investigating, pointing out that her family and business would be ruined in the public's eye. Isabella countered with a vow that her family would reclaim her brother, no matter how long it would take. She then left and he never saw her again.

Driven by Tragedy
January 1999, Michael suffered the loss of his only daughter, Emelia, to the animatronic called Circus Baby during the testing phase of a new pizzeria franchise he created as a rebranding of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. Devastated by her death, Michael cancelled the opening and took the animatronics back to the facility for dismantling. It was there that he discovered Emelia's Remnant and spirit had become attached to Baby's endoskeleton, her voice calling to him from the animatronic for help. Michael remembered Isabella's accusations of a 'stolen soul' and went looking for his father's files on the Remnant Research Project again, this time reading through it all carefully.

In the files, he discovered that it could be possible to draw Remnant from a child and transfer it into a digital form for safekeeping and Remnant could be fused to specialized animatronics built for the purpose of using Remnant as a source of awareness to 'give life' to both the soul and the machine. There were some theories in transferring Remnant between living beings to grant the soul new life in another human body, but there wasn't enough data to work out how the transfer could be done.

Michael searched a bit more and discovered that Elder Afton had arranged for two of his own animatronics to be sent to a Freddy Fazbear's Pizza shortly after his death for the purpose of gathering information on Remnant and observation of experiments in transferring souls into human bodies, the Marionette and Balloon Boy.