R-E-B-O-R-N [Sammy X Reader]

Chapter 2

--Previously--

"Tell that man that if he doesn't manage his spending, there's going to be some big problems in the future." I nodded, watching him walk away awkwardly. Of course I was going to tell Joey what Grant wanted him to hear (in a nicer manner) and inform him that it was Grant who'd asked me to. I was just nervous for some reason.

I guess I should be, he's the boss after all...
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Taking a sip from his coffee, Joey kept his eyes focused on the paper slip. In a split second, his calm attitude changed to one of concern. He was definitely surprised to see this month's bill so high. His ideas were the main issue. After all, he's had so many of them this month that our budget was too low for - which is due to him expanding the place and coming up with bigger projects instead.
"Problems, Mr Drew?" As if on queue, Grant entered the room. He continued his speech after gently pushing the door shut with the back of his heel. Grant could see the disbelief in Joey's eyes, which made him sigh. "I know that look. We don't have the money to cover it."
"We need more time..." Joey sighed, resting his head on his palms. "We'll just have to pause the construction of Bendy Land and the Ink Machine for the next week or so. Just make sure we have more time." 
Now, this was a common thing for Joey to say 'we need more time'. He'd always try to mask his worry of the place's corruption, but I can see right through him. His efforts were good, yet I still saw through them. Needless to say, Joey was upset. He was upset that we had to put most things on hold again - it was a thing we had to do often since the bills were getting so high. Since I've worked here, we're still nowhere near done with Bendy Land, nor had we even built half of the ink machine! It was all because of Joey's stupid ideas.! I could tell Grant was annoyed by him, and quite frankly, I can see why.
"I can try..." Grant, this time, didn't argue. It ticked him off having to repeat the same thing over and over again. He really felt the urge to just scream at him but that would be worthless - you can reason with a rock better than him! So after those words, Grant left the room; I didn't hear from him for a good couple of days after that.
As for now, Joey finally took his eyes off of the paper and looked up at me. I expected him to ask for a favour - that's what he did!
"(Y/N)" He called, folding a bunch of documents that had piled onto the desk over the past few days. He continued, knowing that he had my attention, "Would you mind working an hour-" He corrected himself, "-a few extra hours tonight?"
This was basically a plea from him. From the conversation, I knew why he wanted me to work tonight. Well, one of the reasons. The unfortunate thing is that I don't get paid nearly enough for it and my pay is so overdue. Not to mention how much he already owes me for extra time. Still, I agreed. I liked to believe that I was going to get the money I had rightfully earned someday.

I spent the rest of the day wondering what else Joey wanted to show me. It was always something different with him; he was unpredictable. The last time he'd asked me to work extra hours was when he got me to go with Thomas so that he could discuss with me about the ink machine - I was quite handy when it came to certain things, but not nearly as much as Thomas. The conversation fascinated me to say the least. I believed that it was built to help the animators upstairs and supply more ink so that we didn't get shortages often.
Before most people left, I strolled past Wally. He was in the dark depths of the music department. After just having spoken to Jack, I was on my way to Joey's office. That's when I saw him. Everywhere, papers were scattered. Jack had told me today he seemed to struggle a lot when trying to come up with lyrics. He said that he's not in the best mindset right now. You see, Sammy and him had always gotten along but today Sammy's attitude towards him changed. Jack was brought to believe he just had an off day, but not certain of the idea.
As for now, it was just me and Wally. I'd stopped in my tracks, feeling slightly bad for the janitor. Not only had he binned thousands of papers, but now he'd have to find a way to clear the ink. Earlier, the pipe had burst on him (while he was in the middle of cleaning anyway). This left Wally covered with ink from head to toe. To make his job even harder, this room had no valve to drain any of the ink! I stepped in to help him for a little while, even though I couldn't stay for long since Joey would be left impatient. Even so, Wally appreciated the small amount of help I was able to give him. After that, we waved goodbye.
Then, as I stepped out of the bottom floor of the department, I walked by Sammy's office. Standing outside was Norman, who was clearly pissed off at the man inside. Today, he'd been involved in a lot of drama. I even contemplated whether or not to step in to resolve their small argument; I shook it off since these situations would occur most days anyway. Still, it was rarely with him.

I met Joey at the newest attraction in the studio, noticing Bertrum and Tom having a conversation near one of the games. There weren't many of those little funfair games built at the moment, mainly because their focus was on the other, much bigger things. Joey, on the other hand, stood near the entrance, right under the welcoming sign. He greeted me using his charm (as always) and led me over to the other two in the distance. 
I stood there awkwardly upon noticing that they never even looked in our direction. Joey even had to 'clear his throat' for them to finally stop talking and turn over to us. Immediately, they noticed my presence and smiled at me.
"Evenin' (Y/N)" Thomas rarely got along with others at the studio, not because he was being petty, but since he just had no time to talk to anyone anyway. There was always time for me though since I was with Joey practically all of the time. Me and Thomas got along pretty well.
Bertrum never said anything though, he just kept his smile.
"I'm sure you two know why she's here." Joey looked to his side, right where I stood. I was merely confused so I raised a brow. "Don't worry, it's nothing bad. I just wanted to show you around the place so that you fully understand what's going on. You do have the right to know, you are my assistant, after all." 
Joey always liked to make that fact clear. Sometimes, I felt like he was making fun of me - always pointing out the fact that he ran things here and that I was his assistant. Naturally, I'd have to schedule things for him and such.

Joey patted my shoulder and gestured for me to follow him, which I did. He led me all around the place, giving me the grand tour (even though things weren't nearly finished). There was a specific room where he stopped. It was empty and looked like no one had really done any work there yet. The room was quite large and had nothing but a square base in the middle. On it were a bunch of A4 pieces of paper glued together. It was the design of a new ride they were planning to build. Of course, after tonight, everything would be delayed again.
"This looks like nothing, but I'm sure you've read over those papers." Joey saw my interest and smiled, deciding to carry on - he liked to talk about these things anyway. "Here, we've decided on building an octopus ride. It hasn't been touched yet, but after a few weeks, they'll get onto it."
To my surprise, Joey didn't explain it any further and let me read over the concepts and ideas for the octopus ride. Once I finished reading the papers, I got up and turned back to Joey. At this point, I didn't exactly know what else to say and was glad to know Joey had something in mind anyway.
"I've begun to think of those animatronics. Originally, I'd planned for the Ink Machine to be built there to salvage the ink supply, y'know, make it easier for the animators to, well, animate." Joey paused. "I'm beginning to think of how useful this ink machine could be. And those animatronics certainly don't look friendly. It wouldn't be a great idea for little kids to see them."
"Talk about it..." I muttered. Luckily, Joey never heard me.
"To make the Ink Machine more useful in the long run, I've wondered... What if there'd be a way to use the ink to bring our characters to life?"

Knowing Joey, he definitely meant it literally. Which only led me feeling concerned for the man. I know things were tough at the moment with financial issues, employees quitting and bad performances but this was a much bigger problem. I feared that the man I had known was turning insane and that I couldn't reason with him. You can never really talk to Joey Drew...
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Word count: 1633 words

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