Chapter Text
In another world, the Projectionist screeched and charged when it saw Henry, who had frozen in surprise at the grating noise.
Just before he slammed his raised fist into Henry, the Projectionist stopped. Its head tilted slightly; Henry didn’t dare move as the massive toon leaned over him. The speaker set into its chest crackled, cycling through some static before asking, in a soft but garbled voice, “Henry? Is that you?”
Henry’s eyes widened. It sounded like— “Norman?”
The two stare at each other for a long, long moment, both surprised to see the other. Henry fidgets with the Tommy gun nervously, and Norman seems to be eyeing it with apprehension. Well, as much a someone with a projector for a head can eye something, anyway.
After the long moment, Norman backs away. Before Henry can react, the toon is gone, and he is left staring at empty space and wondering just how the massive thing that Norman had become had left so quickly, without even making a sound.
Without a second thought, Henry drops the Tommy gun in the nearest Little Miracle station and continued collecting ink hearts. There’s no way he’d be able to shoot something after that.
He’s wondering just who the other monstrous toons were. It’s obvious who Sammy was, but….who was the searcher he axed in half? Who was the Piper that he’d beaten to death with a pipe? His mind was sort of calmed by the knowledge that they reform, but how much pain had he caused just within the last day or so?
He has no idea. He’s not sure he wants to know.
As Norman reforms in a different area of Level 14, he thinks. He thinks about Henry, and Joey, and how he came to be. He thinks about what happened to Sammy, and he thinks about the unmistakable feeling he gets when Boris - Wally - wanders down to Level 14.
He thinks about Henry the most, though. What could possibly have happened to bring the man back here? And why?
He’s not entirely sure he wants to know, though. Henry had been very angry when he left, and up until now, he’d kept his promise of never coming back. It has to be serious. And among the many things that Norman absolutely, positively DOESN’T need in his life right now, number three on the list is “other people’s problems”. (Number two is “a deranged angel with an axe” and number one is “Joey Drew”.)
And so he stands, and he thinks.