"The spontaneous sounds and movements of the face and body that are instinctive expressions of lively amusement… nah, too wordy."
"The sensation of laughter is one shared by everyone… no, no, no, no. That sounds dumb."
"Laughter is an instant vacation… GAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Mike hastily jabbed the backspace button on the computer keyboard until the sentence had been deleted under the bold and underlined word 'Introduction' on the computer screen. He had the information on the history of laughter, the method of stimulating it and how it has become an integral part of the monster civilization and any other topics and arguments the round, lime green cyclops crammed onto the glowing monitor in the darkness of his home office. However, the one section where the reason why any monster should even read further than page one, was the only part missing in what he hoped to be a creditable article that could be used by university students in the future.
Mike closed his one mint green eye and rubbed the top of his head with both hands and exhaled in frustration. He didn't usually have any problems filling a whole piece of paper with words discussing the topic he had in mind or was instructed to write. So why out of all the monsters the chairman of Monsters Inc, James P. 'Sully' Sullivan, could have picked to write an article on how children's laughter became the new revolutionary fuel for Monstropolis for a client, did he choose Michael Wazowski?
He supposed the likely reason was because his best friend was too busy running the company, and typing up a report would be another job on his never ending job list.
The personal reason that Mike knew alone was that Sully had never been much of an academic (he forgot to bring his pencil on the first day of university for crying out loud) and as much of a reputation the giant, blue furry monster with purple spots had in both scaring and running a company based on laughter, he admitted to Mike that he'd be lost in a maze of overwhelming information. It was only upon the mention of Sully purchasing Mike's lunch and coffee from his favourite fast food place for six months that he agreed to take on the task. That and the combination of Sully whimpering, "You're one I can trust to do it right", while pulling the old 'sad eyed monster' look with a quivering bottom lip was something Mike could never say no to. Needless to say, Sully was a very good actor.
The third reason Mike knew Sully would ask him to complete such arduous task was going back on what he said when he groveled to him; "You're the only one I can trust to do it right". The cyclops leaned back in his black, leather swivel chair and exhaled a long sigh. He could clearly remember all the times they trusted each other when confronting problems, which some he'd admit was caused by the pair themselves; getting kicked out of Monsters University without graduating being one of them.
At the time when they were given their marching orders and stood outside the gates of the university, Mike didn't have a plan beyond telling his parents the disappointing news. However it was like they always told him; sometimes bad things happen because life knows one could live better than they already did. The newspaper job advert for working in the mailroom Mike found must have been 'Life' directing them to Monsters Inc. The thought provoked a chuckle from him knowing that working in the mailroom wasn't always easy, and it puzzled both Mike and Sully's parents when they told them of their escapades in the style of an epic fairy tale. The stories however never got boring or repetitive as they climbed the job ladder in the company, promotion by promotion, all because they could never stop smiling while doing it. Even at the times where one could easily break down into tears, they managed a grin convincing enough to fool everyone. Of course smiling alone wasn't enough as doing the job but it got the friends to the point they've dreamt about since they were kids: top scarers. Well technically, Mike wasn't scary at all but he ended up being Sully's scare manager since he could memorize every scare tactic that ever existed and gave him the encouragement needed to succeed.
Then along came Boo; the little girl who nearly ruined everything they worked for. The toddler would also be the basis of the revolution of turning laughs instead of scares into energy solving the crisis their previous boss, Henry J. Waternoose III, couldn't resolve through legal means. In short, a two-year-old girl had saved a whole civilization from a potential tragedy to both monsters and humans alike. At the time when Boo was loose in Monsters Inc., Mike and Sully's main priority was to send her back to the bedroom from whence she came without anyone discovering her existence. It was that mission that nearly broke their friendship while banished to the Himalayas by Waternoose. Everything during that period was intense and stressful but now both monsters can simply laugh it off since it turned out well in the end.
That reminiscence struck a light bulb in Mike's head as his fingers rapidly typed a sentence down on the computer screen. After placing the full stop at the end, he read it over to make sure it sounded right. Then another flight of fingers on the keyboard hurriedly jotted down more words which became more sentences until finally he had a small paragraph. He applied another full stop and scanned what he'd written with his one eye.
It is said that laughter is the shortest distance between two people (Smirnoff, Date Unknown). The Monstropolis Daily, published the story of how James P. Sullivan enhanced the technology to use children's laughter to power the city instead of screams. In the article, Sullivan stated, "during the research of using alternative emotional stimulation as energy to powering our city, we've discovered that laughter is a more effective power source than screams". He also added that, "this discovery would not have come to light had it not been for a child escaping into Monsters Inc." (Bugle, 2001). Laughter may erupt from all kinds of sources, even if the situation isn't as amusing as it seems but it is still a positive reaction monsters and human alike all share.
A smile rose on Mike's lips as he took the paper coffee cup to his mouth. He took a gratified sip from the milky coffee only to spray it out away from the screen. It had gone cold, which was a shame since Sully bought that along with Mike's takeaway dinner from his favourite fast food joint, Chews as a thank you reward. Mike let out a groan at the realisation that his home office had gone awfully dark and placed the coffee cup back on the table before saving the new paragraph he added. He planned to print out the whole thing and hand it over in a folder to Sully with nothing but the most satisfied smile on his face
FIN.
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Well this is something different from me. Last week or so, I watched Monsters University thinking it won't have the magic Monsters Inc. had. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, although it didn't make the same impact as what the first movie did. Nevertheless, I just sort of imagined this happening and I wrote it down. Originally it was going to include a pep talk from either Sully or Ceilia but as I was writing this, it took a turn in a different direction and it turned out like this.
This is my first story in this particular fandom and I don't know, maybe I'll do a few more for Monsters Inc.
Until then, review and fave!