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In the dark Mike room, Battat tapped the table impatiently as he stared at his theory board. On the other side of the room, Pluey was just entering after finishing their turn as Mike that day, watching first hand how the green pippins reorganized threads on the board.
The shadow guy passed right next to him, heading to get a cup of water. As they sipped, they glared at their coworker for a second, and there they saw it:
Colorful, bright scribbles and doodles all over Battat's arm. There were lots of shapes— rombuses, hearts, diamonds, a very unnecesarily accurate recreation of ICE-E... they tried to ignore that one as fast as they could. Aside of questioning that doodle choice, "I didn't know Battat draws!" was the first thought that came to the shadow guys head, followed by a very strong determination and curiosity.
Battat was too concentrated on the board that he didn't realize Pluey was suddenly behind him- he didn't even hear them coming in the room, and suddenly they were almost breathing on his neck as they attentively watched the scribbles on his arms, which almost made him have a heart attack.
"What the-" The pippins moved to the side a little to get some more personal space back as Pluey let out something similar to a whine. "Do you need ANYTHING? I'm clearly BUSY right now!"
Pluey's ears perked up as they spoke melodically, "You have cute drawings on your arm, boss!" Battat stared wide eyed, humming in confusion as he looked down to stare at his own arm like he forgot those were there. "Ah, these? Pfft, don't make a big deal out of them. They're nothing."
Suprisingly apathetic, probably because of his concentration on the board, Battat was just about to go back to submerge in his theories when the shadow guy quickly went to get some markers tossed on the table, almost as colorful as the ones Battat seemed to use to doodle on his arm, and happily handed them out to the pippins.
"Batts, can we doodle together?" Pluey let out happy notes, smiling at the die. Battat almost didn't thought about it and was about to refuse like he usually does, but seeing the shine on their costume's eyes and.. that stupid smile...
...
A little bit later, Jongler walked into Mike's room with some TV dinners in a bag for them and their co-workers. As they closed the door, they walked towards the living room and saw something unexpected; Battat and Pluey both sitting on the couch, markers tossed around both of them and the floor as the pippins doodled and scribbled all over the shadow guy's costume, the latter having the largest smile possible on their costume's face.
"..Did Is interrupt sumthin'?"
"Don't even ask."
Pluey giggled loudly.
The zapper walked closer, left the TV dinners on the couch, far from his co-coworkers, before they leaned down to pick up some markers to help the die make Pluey a colorful work of art.
Deep down, for the pippins, it was worth it to see Pluey so happy, specially for something as stupid as scribbling all over yourself, though he wouldn't ever admit it out loud.
He just has to make sure none of them find out the reason he does it, nobody would like to hear a "yeah I doodle to hold the urge to grab a knife and stab my arm with it", simply too edgy. He wouldn't like either Jongler or Pluey worrying about something like that.