"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart." - Nelson Mandela, who, in this universe, died in 2013
[CreativityTheEmotion - 2015 12 22] Alright, going to make a bit of an executive decision: this story now comes first. It just feels better for me to establish how we act in an ordinary 2015 situation first, rather than go seven years ago to a time when we didn't even have an Internet identity. The other story is going to be moved to second place, and updated so that it has the 2015 feel as well.
Meet the Team
As you know from the summary of this story, there are two distinct teams of us, here in Headquarters. Since our host actually grew up in Lithuania and learned English half-in-school, half-online, one team only speaks Lithuanian, while the other only speaks English, but we both understand each other. Also, their names are not what you think they are.
It wasn't always that way, though. That is actually a thing since late 2008 or early 2009. I also wondered what the hell is going on when I appeared in my designated host and it turned out that not only there was a full team of emotions, but they had been at this for twelve years, but eventually, we all got used to it, up until I watched Inside Out and learned that it's not actually normal for other Mind Worlds (everything down below in this particular story).
Without further ado:
I should be Joy, but I actually am CreativityTheEmotion, or simply Creativity. The other Joy is Laimė (that's LIE-may).
I've been calling my team's Sadness "Writer's Block", though she objects, but the fact is that I just cannot write while she is around. The other Sadness is Nelaimė (ne-LIE-may).
My team's Fear is called Logic, mainly due to how he claims to be rational and stuff. The other Fear is Baimė (BUY-may).
My team's Disgust is called Coolness, and has taken a liking to her sunglasses. The other Disgust is Bjaurastis (be-ow-rus-TIS).
Finally, my team's Anger, and the one who's been fixing all my typos so I don't sound like a trollfic writer, is Irritation, and the other Anger is Pyktis (PEEK-tis).
Since you now roughly know who we are:
Mind World Structure - Part I: Headquarters
Our own Mission Control is on one of the upper floors of this building that looks like Vilnius (WILL-news) TV Tower, and is where the café I've never been to would be. That means that the entire floor can rotate, and that is good; even though the windows are wide and we have a 360° view, part of that view is consistently blocked by the screen that shows what our host is seeing. And we kind of need a 360° view, since the Personality Islands surround us 360°. Not only are there thirty-seven of them, some of them get pretty expansive. Like MarissaTheWriter Island.
So, Café Mission Control has this:
* The Screen
* The Console; only about a third of its area is taken up by the piano that I ordered to be installed, while the rest is the buttons everyone else is used to (even though everyone else now knows how to get some one hundred memories using the piano)
* Five office chairs to sit in while controlling the Console
* The Back Seat
* The Conference Table, where we sit at when our host is asleep and we want to discuss stuff.
* Oh, and almost forgot: the shelf where the ideas are stored by everyone else, until I haul a designated box from my room and put in all the ideas that I need while writing a particular story (and believe me, one story like this requires a lot of ideas).
That's it. We kind of need our workplace to be clean, which is why everything else is in different floors. There is a ladder in the center (as well as an elevator, if you don't just feel up to climbing), which leads to one lower floor and many upper floors. Oh, and that lever to rotate everything is on that ladder. Moving on:
The lower floor hosts the Core Memories, and is composed in this funny way where there is one in the center, and six groups circle it, and each group is a circle with six memories. It looks just as I want it, and it powers the Personality Islands just fine.
The first upper floor is Short-Term Memory, which I had moved away from Café Mission Control so that it wouldn't break the 360° view, so if you want a memory from there, you just use the console, just as with the long-term memories. (Though, commands to access anything in Short-Term are shorter, obviously.)
Then, there are two floors that are our dormitories. Imagine a pie chart with five equal-sized sections, except there is a circle in the center. That is our floorplan. On the lower floor, the other team lives, and my team is directly above them. Though, I ordered it set up in such a way so I would not sleep right above the other Joy. That would be awful.
Then, the bulging part of the tower ends, and fresh air enters your lungs as you go to the Observation Deck, where there is an actual 360° view that is not obstructed by some stupid screen. I like to go out there sometimes, just to catch inspiration so I would always be full of some.
Finally, there is the antenna that you cannot climb. This is a television tower, you know, and sometimes I just like to transmit the goings-on in Headquarters to everyone in Mind World.
With those two non-stories establishing what it's like to command/be our host, it's time for this particular story's context.
"Inside Out Island" - September 5, 2015
I had kept seeing this movie, Inside Out, mentioned on Tumblr, and thought it would be a great idea to watch it, since it's about a team of emotions that is hopefully closer to my team than the other. Unfortunately, that's just not how it works in Lithuania. First, the other Disgust had to correct me and insist that the movie is actually called "Išvirkščias pasaulis" (ISH-virk-sh-ch-us pu-SOW-lis). Then, we would have to go to the cinema ourselves... somehow. Luckily, one of the so-called "parents" of our host brought us there.
And finally, as the one big "fuck you all", the movie was dubbed in Lithuanian, which meant that the other team was sitting by the console having all sorts of reactions to the movie, while I and my team were just there, on the couch that I call "the Back Seat", being useless. Most of the time, as our host hangs out in the Internet, that place is occupied by the other team, but now, we were there, having no say on how our host liked the movie, and I'm pretty sure that the other five, like, didn't care at all, because they knew I dragged them in, and they were completely right.
But then, the movie ended, and now I can switch to narration.
"O be to, Railei jau dvylika. Kas dar gali nutikt?" [After all, Riley is twelve now. What could happen?] This parody of me said on the cinema, before the screen shut off and the lights on the cinema turned on. Deeply sighing, I ran up to the console to push some buttons (which, by my design, actually looked like piano keys) and get us away from the movie as fast as we could, so I could actually begin processing it.
Now, I hear you saying something about there being a credits scene. And yes, I actually considered staying in there and watching it, but then Coolness took control, saying that we will look awkward if we just stay there, so we went.
And with that, something else came to us. The brightness and sphericity of it were unmistakeable; that was a Core Memory to create an Inside Out Island, which, by default, had become my new favorite place, even before it was created.
"In honor of Inside Out Island, the thirty-seventh of our host's Personality Islands." I briefly said, as I watched how quickly the others from my team wanted some control as well, even though the other team wouldn't just give it up right now.
"Visos salos tau trisdešimt septintos." [Every island is thirty-seventh to you.] The other Disgust even spat back at me, as our host got out of the hall, but not out of the building; the other Fear had pointed out that we still needed to go to the bathroom, and even made our host ask whoever was in there where it is.
Since that would take forever in its own right, I just watched the Core Memory roll to the lower floor and enter its designated place, per the structure of our Headquarters and Mind World described above. For a while, I followed it with my eyes (which required me going to the lower floor). Then, the ray emanated from it, making me run back up to see where it would end up. As I predicted, it went with the group of Islands that I call "Fictional Worlds Islands", which is all about the fandoms I'm in.
Then, it bloomed. I could see the parody of Headquarters that I just saw in the movie, as well as statues of the five emotions that are so unlike either of our teams and some (fake) Memory Orbs for decoration. Unfortunately, the island was pretty small and I still couldn't make stuff out, which meant that it was time for me to go on the Train of Thought to actually visit Inside Out Island. Thus, I briefly got back into our host's affairs.
The other Fear had already done a good job of calling our mother so that she would pick us up, and therefore it was just a waiting game. Unfortunately, a simple waiting game would be boring, so I suggested: "Go chase the kids. Act like the target audience. And you know that the target audience is the main character's age."
"O gali Krieitiviti kada nors užsičiaupti?" [Hey, can Creativity shut up for once?] The other Anger asked.
"Ne." [No.] The other Disgust answered, and I looked away and began climbing up. There was just no use convincing anyone here to give control to me so that I could write stuff, and besides, the ideas were still in the Idea Fields and/or being transmitted to Headquarters, Elon Musk's hyperloop style. Therefore, there was literally nothing else I could do but go on my trip.
And it seemed that Headquarters, as an organic being, knew what I wanted. Once I got to the Observation Deck, there was already a Train of Thought waiting for me to sit in and get on the trip. It even had a fancy office chair inside. They just knew I love office chairs and spinning in them.
I thus sat inside, closed the wagon and allowed the train to take off.
Meanwhile, in the fake Headquarters, described using a fake narrative style...
Riley's emotions were in the end of a hockey game. In the end, the competing team was no match for the Fog Horns, and Riley herself had contributed a lot to the game, so by the end of it, Joy already cheered about winning.
She thus allowed the final siren to blow and for Riley to leave the hockey rink before saying:
"After all, Riley is twelve now. What could happen?"
Joy, though, had not said this without knowing that Fear would begin listing the possibilities. "Well, what about school? We also need time to study."
"And Jordan. Did you see his look when we bumped into him?" Disgust added.
"And the dinner. It'd better be great tonight!" Even Anger had his own two cents to add.
Sadness, though, remained silent. She knew that at least for this particular scene, she wasn't needed, and instead decided to check out a lever she had been seeing for the first time while she was here. It must have been added by the Mind Workers just now.
It stood there, by the window offering the view of Riley's Personality Islands. They already had checked out the view just before the hockey game, and therefore Sadness didn't look; she just pulled the lever and saw what would happen.
Suddenly, all Riley's Personality Islands disappeared as if they were just a picture on window blinds, and instead, there was a giant structure right in front of the window, which looked like a statue of a two-faced woman, with a gemstone on her forehead.
Mortified, Sadness just stood there. Joy had been exchanging words with Riley's parents, being happy about how the game turned out, before making Riley say that she should better get home, and glancing back.
Needless to say, Joy was as shocked by the new view as Sadness was. She loudly gasped, making Anger, Fear and Disgust look as well. Joy ran up to the lever and pulled it back, making the two-faced giant woman disappear and Riley's Personality Islands reappear.
"Whatever that was, it had no significance to us and we should just get back to our lives." Joy declared.
That was when I busted in, breaking this narrative that I had been forced into long enough.
From the perspective of Riley's emotions, or, as they will be known in my version of this story, the team that is nothing like anyone working with our host, I looked like Joy, but had a longer dress and longer hair. I'm not quite sure how to explain the hairstyle, other than to say I stole it from a Home- Look, my face is right there, on the cover picture of this story. In case you still think you don't know me that well enough, you're wrong.
I also had thought it was a good idea to drink something that tastes like blueberry juice, but which I think is alcoholic, during the train ride. (It's not my fault. They just had it there. I still had the glass, even. Complete with a drinking straw, and an added unbreakability stat.)
So, anyway, I walked in and immediately tripped over their door, collapsing on their floor. I gathered myself and began walking by the magic window, only to trip on the lever that had always been a part of Inside Out Island, pulling it with my leg and revealing that, just as I had seen on the train ride, they were right next to Steven Universe Island. I could pretty much see in my head that there would be an idea for me to write a crossover between these two.
But since I had enough of seeing in my head, I stood up. This fake-even-faker-than-that-guy Joy wondered what is wrong with me and why do I look like her but act nothing like her, but from the two times I tripped I just couldn't hear words anymore. Therefore, I completely ignored her (and I'm pretty sure there were other voices too) and walked towards Riley's console, but couldn't even reach that as there was this button which called up a Recall Tube which I tripped on, again, and fell on my face.
Though, I wasn't just sucked up to nowhere. Since their incident from the movie which I cannot describe right now, they added safety measures and stuff.
Then, I looked up at Riley's screen, and saw the car she was in, and that was the last thing I remember before officially passing out.
I woke up in what looked like my room. There was the bathtub that I slept in, since I still had dreams about our host taking up swimming that were harshly shot down, and there were these pictures that I had drawn and uploaded to deviantART, back in the day when we had a deviantART account. Everything just reminded me of what I am not.
Therefore, I didn't spend much time here and needed to get to work being an emotion and everything. I got into the sundress and picked up the glass and the phone that I had. My aim was still pretty bad from being groggy, so the glass ended up being filled with water that also had soap in it, and when I took a sip, I immediately spit it out.
Then, I walked out of my room, navigating these hallways and stepping down with absolutely no indication that there was no ladder, and ended up in our host's Headquarters - except they were still the fake Headquarters controlling one Riley Andersen from San Francisco, and it would seem her emotions did not recognize I was not their Joy.
Just... what.
This needed to be solved immediately.
I picked up my phone again and began scrolling through the contacts. While the movie was still being shown to us, all of us were awake, but since I had fallen asleep due to whatever that train did to me, and since our host doesn't exactly have the most stable sleep schedule, it is fair to assume that a few other emotions were asleep as well. Therefore, the choice of whom to make a call was still rather difficult, just like in that millionaire show.
And of course, at first I decided to call Coolness, and she was asleep already.
While I was hearing that godawful ringtone, Riley's emotions had finally noticed that there was this crazy lady talking to them. Her Sadness came first, and since she pays attention to details, she pointed out that when I came to this place, my dress was shorter. I just said "Whatever, it's not like I'm undressing in front of you." I then stepped aside, since I had been blocking the console for the emotions, and they began gathering while I stepped to the window that somehow, magically, has two views depending on who you consider the host to be.
Finally, Laimė picked up the call, and I blew up to him. "What the hell? Did you just leave me behind on Inside Out Island, expecting me to mistake it for the actual Headquarters?"
"Klausyk, tikrai dabar tavęs ten nereikia, aš viską sutvarkysiu ir..." [Listen, you're really not needed there right now, I'll take care of everything and...]
"Do you even know? Do you even have any idea how long I wandered Willy Wonka's chocolate factory before I realized I was in MarissaTheWriter Island and not Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Island?"
"That was when we gave you a timeout because you were causing trouble with our English." Another voice pointed out. Oh, how I hate Writer's Block. I understand, any team of emotions needs five people, but sometimes, I still secretly wish they didn't.
"Whatever. When's the next Train of Thought passing by? And you'd better hurry, you cannot handle ideas while I'm gone. Those are mine, since I suggested we go see Inside Out in the first place."
"Inside Out?" This time, one of Riley's emotions had noticed that I was acting rather hotheaded, and spoke things I shouldn't have spoken.
I put down the phone and began explaining. "You see, it is this movie where you are the main characters..."
"We're not real?" Riley's Fear pointed out. "The worst scenario ever! Quick, we need to discuss together!" At his command, Riley's other emotions gathered, while I just walked up to the door and waited for the Train of Thought to come, not even bothering to talk to anyone as I took a sip of soap-filled water, then spit immediately, not even hitting anything.
However, the call was still on. So, I decided to shut it off. "Bring the Train of Thought to Inside Out Island. I don't care what it takes. Goodbye." I hit the red button and got my phone in some pocket you don't know about.
Meanwhile, in the real Headquarters...
"Idėjos. Idėjos..." [Ideas. Ideas...] Laimė walked around, looking for where the ideas could be stored, before realizing that he stepped on something that was not an object, but rather another living emotion.
"Watch where you're going!" She shrieked. That turned out to be Coolness, rather painfully awoken from what she loves to call a "beauty sleep" without realizing the truth that our sleep schedules are out of sync with each other and with our host, and therefore that is just a label. She is like that.
"Ne, rimtai, kur idėjos?" [No, seriously, where are the ideas?] Laimė asked again, expecting Coolness to know something other than "just shut up" (and being wrong).
Luckily, though, Writer's Block came to her help. "The ideas generally come upstairs, to Short-Term Memory, but Creativity never lets me there..." Gee, I wonder why I don't.
Then, though, Irritation took her hand and pulled her up the ladder. They just felt they needed to get the ideas for me or something.
"It's not upstairs if there are no stairs!" Coolness shouted from below, but was pretty much unheard as Irritation began looking through the ideas, slightly lighting up (think a candle flame) whenever she saw a typo on one of them.
Then, though, Writer's Block pulled out an idea, and Irritation immediately looked at it and read the inscription on it. "Due to a dual personality, my mind has two sets of emotions. That's not an idea, that's a factual statement about us."
"Like the fact that I'll never understand any of these ideas." Writer's Block fell on her face once again, while Irritation descended to meet Coolness.
"Alright, here's an idea." Irritation held up the bulb.
Coolness, though, remained unimpressed. "Don't show it to me. Remember: with ideas, we have to act the exact same way as Creativity would. What would Creativity do?"
"Įdėtų idėją į valdymo pultą ir ieškotų kitos." [She would put the idea to the console and look for another.] Bjaurastis answered what she was never supposed to.
"B-bet be Krieitiviti gal mums nereikia... dar ji supyks..." [B-but without Creativity maybe we shouldn't... lest she get angry...] Baimė got all nervous in her high-pitched voice. As if I ever "get angry" at anything.
"That only matters if you push a button on a console. That paints it in an emotion. The ideas are already predetermined and have the exact same effect on the host, no matter what. Right, Logic?" Coolness elaborated. Logic, though, was probably looking at a programming contest problem and didn't even listen.
Having looked towards Logic's side for enough, Coolness thus just swiped the idea from Irritation and plugged it into one of many idea slots, and told others to look from more.
Our host, at the time, was in a mall (I think), and therefore didn't show any signs of having come up with the idea. But that was only the beginning of a disaster waiting to happen.
When I finally returned to Headquarters, our host was briefly explaining the deal to our mother, actually using the emotion names we picked up from Inside Out, and not the translated ones I found on an idea bulb maybe a month ago. Lesson learned: never, ever let me be in charge of translating the Pixar movies to Lithuanian. (I still have no idea how they got "La Stew" from "Ratatouille", I'll give you that.)
Therefore, I watched the scene on the screen as I descended the ladder. Just a moment ago I had passed Short-Term Memory and seen that Writer's Block was not there, but I learned everything about that fateful day from others. When there are ten people watching each other at most of the times, it is hard to hide anything, and the rogue Sadness looked depressed by realizing that simultaneously with me.
But she was of no importance to me. Instead, I got at the console again and pulled a headset from under the piano part. It is a wireless headset used to a) listen to what our host is thinking and b) command stuff to be thought via the microphone, sort of like the fanfic in this very database called Intercom (great read, definitely).
On a normal day, our host would act as an individual, thinking stuff of her own, and I accepted that. But not today. Today, all the thoughts I heard sounded exactly like some of the past encounters I had in Headquarters with everyone. I could even recognize the voices; that's how accurate they were.
I put the headset back down to its place and turned the office chair to face the other nine. "Well done, everyone. We fucked up big time, and this time I was completely not responsible for it."
While the nine chatted among themselves, I decided to pick up an idea to remedy all of it, at least partially. It involved writing a post on our Tumblr blog, still acting on behalf of our host. The final post, once we got back home and got to a computer and were able to write it, looked like this:
"Just watched Inside Out; is there any way to make me not think in terms of the emotions every time I do something?"
Anyway, since we made it this far, here's a sped-up version of what happened until our first story here.
Since February 2014, I have a rule that if I'm entering a new fandom, Caliborn (as real in our mind as any imaginary friend in yours) has to write for it first. Unfortunately, I had broken it with Back to the Future (as Coolness pointed out to me), but since the final word is mine, I reinstated it with Inside Out.
Therefore, for this special event, I actually invited Caliborn to Headquarters. I taught him how to use the piano, and he began writing, and then there was that brief part which for some reason is narrated in the third person, even though I was there.
That's it, folks.
The post, obviously, is real. Here: istrige-namuose. tumblr. com post 128416907888 just-watched-inside-out-is-there-any-way-to-make
Oh, and if you want to ask me what I thought of Inside Out: don't. I am not writing what could only be called Yet Another Inside Look at Inside Out. I want to be original, please.
Oh, and one last thing. If you're wondering what Personality Islands our host has, the Archive of Our Own mirror of this story is much better. For one, I can actually link to stuff.