Joey and The Ink Machine. || A BATIM AU FANFICTION.

MOVING PICTURES - PART 3

The second round of object-collecting began as Henry walked into a narrow corridor, and into the large (not too large of course) and vast area of the cafeteria. As he walked down the steps, Henry noticed he wasn't the only one in there—with one man and one woman talking to eachother in a corner while someone else filled their mug with coffee in another corner. Though as quickly as he entered, none of the three people in there seemed to notice him.

He was always like this. Being so.. unnoticeable. It only came natural for the quiet artist type like him. Whereas being noticeable just came natural for a loud idea-man type like Joey. Joey had always been a bit more.. particularly social than him. So Joey was right when he boasted about being somewhat better than him. Or was he just joking when he said that?

..no matter. Henry shook his head, letting the thoughts fade. As soon as he walked down the staircase and his feet met the floor, his eyes scanned the room for any objects he could collect.

The small curtains that were for some reason in the room made the area almost a bit darker than it actually was, but the artificial light was just conveniently above the tables. So—Henry could see what was on them. There were.. various things upon one small table in the room. A bunch of books, and a few wheels.

There was a singular book on the table—signed, "written by Joey Drew".

Ah.. that was right. His friend had written a few books in the time he had become famous due to Henry's—no.. their characters that they created together. Henry had to remember that no matter how much he insisted he made them, it would upset Joey to claim it as anything other than something he worked on.

He—hoped it wasn't important. That Joey wouldn't get angry with him for just taking a copy of a book he wrote to turn the Ink Machine on. It was hard to tell when or why he'd get angry sometimes, and he could be very unpredictable when his emotions.

Simply walking closer to the table, Henry slipped the book into his hands—wiping the dust off of the cover. And letting out a sigh once he realized he'd probably have to go all the way back to the pedestal room since he managed to collect another object.

"That's another one down.."

————

The third round of object-collecting began as soon as Henry left the pedestal room after placing one of the books on the pedestals. And right back into the Ink Machine room he had went—in search of anything he could find to use to turn the Ink Machine on.

The room had been a bit louder by now—the Ink Machine was still lifted upward as it had been before, only a few workers down below were surrounding it now and seemingly discussing a few prints of it with eachother.

Henry walked to a shelf as he glanced at the lower area of the room. He had noticed a singular wheel on the shelf, so he figured it probably wouldn't hurt to take it for collecting. If.. if no one was using it for anything involving the machine anyway. By now, "Jack" and "Jim" were noticeably absent—most likely having been on the lower area as well.

Henry slipped the wheel into his hands, though his eyes then lingered to the lower area. His mouth instinctively curled into a frown once he processed a familiar figure standing near a table and chattering with some of the other employees, occasionally laughing as he often did. Henry only watched as Joey's smile became bigger. He couldn't hear what he was saying from how low to the ground Joey was, but he was clearly talking to them. It was hard to tell if it was even about the work though with how much he was laughing.

Henry only let out a sigh, and looked back to the wheel, dusting it off with a hand.

"..I.. guess this is another one down."