Mourning Bing Bong
Author's Note: This is a quick little fanfic expanding upon the climax of Inside Out, exploring what happened after Riley came home.
Riley and her parents talked long into the evening. Like a weight being lifted, she felt relieved as she told her parents what had happened, revealing she had stolen her mom's credit card as well as had been avoiding her classmates at her new school. By the time they were done, the hours had grown late and Riley was exhausted from crying. Her parents took Riley to bed, kissed her goodnight, and turned the lights out.
Riley's eyes closed and the viewing screen in headquarters went black. The outside of Headquarters turned dark as Riley went into a deep sleep, happy and content. As the lights in Headquarters dimmed, the emotions breathed a sigh of relief, backing away from the console.
"Oh finally, it's over," said Disgust, "all that schmaltz was starting to make me gag."
"Can't you stand a little sentiment?" asked Fear.
"Well, I suppose a little is fine so long as we're not in public," said Disgust.
"At least she's finally calmed down," said Anger, "although I'm not looking forward to paying off that bus ticket we bought."
"It will only cost us a few weeks of allowance," said Joy, cradling the old core memories in her arms. "And I know we'll be able to do it."
Joy turned around to look outside and saw the three new islands of personality that formed outside. Joy and Sadness had managed to restore Family Island, and when Riley confessed she stole her mother's credit card and agreed to pay for the ticket, she had restored Honesty Island as well. When Joy plugged in the new sad core memory, it also created a new island. It was pale blue in color with a figure of a crying statue surrounded by happy and smiling figures around her in a loving embrace. This was Sentimental Island, showing Riley was not afraid to wear her emotions on her sleeve in front of others.
"We got two of the old islands restored," said Fear. "I guess we should plug in the rest."
But, much to the surprise of the other emotions, Joy instead put the core memories onto the ramps with the other short-term memories.
"What're you doing?" asked Sadness.
"Riley doesn't need these old core memories anymore," said Joy. "She'll be able to make new ones in San Francisco."
"Are you sure about that?" asked Fear. "What if she can't or she winds up worse than she was."
There was a dead silence from the rest of the emotions, looking noticeably concerned.
Joy smiled. "As long as we work together, we'll help her down the right path. Now, lets send these memories into long-term and go to bed."
She walked to the console and pushed the button to send the memories to long-term, but nothing happened. Confused, she pushed the button again to no effect.
"Ugh, what's wrong now?" asked Anger.
"I don't know," said Joy. "I'll call Maintenance." She reached under the console and pulled out a hand-held radio. "Headquarters calling Nerve Connector. Come in, Nerve Connector."
"This is Nerve Connector speaking," said a voice over the receiver. "How may I help you?"
"I need you to transfer me to Maintenance."
"Give me a second."
There was a long pause of silence before a new voice came on the receiver. "This is Maintenance. What can I do for you?"
"This is Joy from Headquarters. The recall tubes aren't working and I can't send the short-term memories into long-term. What's going on down there?"
"Oh yeah, sorry about that. The tremors we were experiencing took out all of the recall tubes. We're working to repair them as fast as we can, but it will take a few hours before you can send any memories into long-term. Don't worry, we'll have it fixed before Riley wakes up."
"Okay, thanks for you're help. Call me when the repairs are done." Joy hung up the receiver.
"Great," said Anger, sarcastically, "it's going to be a while before we get this mess straightened out."
"But at least everything has calmed down," said Disgust. "All this stress is giving me split ends."
"It has been a long day," said Joy, staring at the blank view screen. "You guys can go to bed. I'll handle dream duty."
"You don't have to tell me twice," said Fear as he walked off to the bedroom. "After what has happened these passed few days, I could use a long sleep."
The emotions said their goodnights and walked off to bed, leaving Joy alone at the console with her thoughts. She barely responded to the other emotions as she glared at the blank screen, feeling sorry for the mind workers who have to produce some new dreams despite all the damage that was caused by all the chaos. Knowing she had some time before the dream would start, she looked off toward where the core memories were stored, and saw Bing Bong's bag right where she had dropped it.
With a lump welling up in her throat, she walked toward the bag and scooped it up into her hands, carrying it toward the windows overlooking Long Term Memory. She stood there before the hole in the glass, cradling the bag with both hands. Joy sniffed as a single tear rolled down her face and splashed onto the bag, leaving a small wet spot on the fabric.
"Joy? What're you doing?"
Joy snapped out of her thoughts to see Sadness standing beside her.
"Go back to bed, Sadness. I want to be alone right now."
Sadness gave her a warm smile and a knowing look. "You may want to be alone, but I know that's not what you need. Come on, tell me what's bothering you."
"Sigh! I'm just thinking about Bing Bong."
"What happened to him?"
"He's gone. We tried using his rocket to get out of the Memory Dump, but it couldn't carry both of us, so he sacrificed himself to save me and the core memories."
Sadness put her arm around Joy's shoulder. "Bing Bong truly was a good friend in the end."
The lump grew so large in Joy's throat it hurt. "Yeah, but he wasn't the brightest blub in the box. He really needed to learn how to read."
"He may have gotten us in trouble at times, but his heart was in the right place."
"Yes, but Riley will never know what he had done for her. He no longer exists to Riley." She let out a soft whine of sorrow as she hugged the bag to her chest.
"Riley may have forgotten him, but we won't forget him or his sacrifice." Sadness put a hand to Joy's back and affectionately rubbed it.
"I just wish there was a way to repay him or at least honor his memory."
Sadness was at a loss as to what to say. Through the hole in the glass, she could make out Dream Productions as it stood beaten and battered. She turned around to see that the screen was still blank even though Riley should have entered REM sleep by now.
"I have an idea," she said. With her short legs, she scurried to the console, Joy following close behind.
Sadness reached under the console and pulled out the receiver. "This is Sadness calling from Headquarters. Is anybody listening?" She waited a moment until she heard an answer.
"This is Nerve Connector receiving you loud and clear."
"Connect me to Dream Productions."
"I'm connecting you now."
Once the receiver went quiet, Joy asked, "Sadness, what are you doing?"
"I know how we can honor Bing Bon's memory."
With a click, a new, feminine voice rang from the receiver. "This is the director of dreams speaking. Are you Sadness?"
"Yes I am."
"HOW DARE YOU CALL BACK AFTER THE STUNT YOU AND JOY PULLED. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW HARD IT WAS TO GET THAT CLOWN BACK INTO SUBCONSCIOUS? BECAUSE OF YOU TWO, OUR SETS ARE STILL DAMAGED, MOST OF OUR ACTORS QUIT, AND WITH THE TRAIN OF THOUGHT AND RECALL TUBES DOWN, WE HAVE NO MEMORIES TO MAKE DREAMS WITH. IF I SEE YOU AROUND HERE AGAIN, I'M GOING TO—" Sadness put her hand over the receiver, muffling the director's outburst.
"I think she's mad at us," said Sadness. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all."
"Let me try talking to her." Joy took the receiver from Sadness.
"IF WE CHARGED MONEY, I WOULD MAKE YOU PAY FOR ALL THE DAMAGE..."
"Look, director," said Joy, trying to keep her voice calm, "I know you're upset, and we're sorry for what happened. It was an emergency for Riley's sake."
"NEXT TIME, YOU SHOULD HAVE ASKED INSTEAD OF STICKING YOUR NOSE WHERE IT DOESN'T BELONG."
"Look, I'm sorry about what happened."
"Tell her we want to help," said Sadness.
"We want to help you," said Joy into the receiver.
"HELP US? WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP US?"
"Ask her if we have any nature sets remaining," said Sadness.
"Uh, do you have any nature sets?"
"Nature sets?" asked the director, surprised by the question. "What kind of nature sets do you want?"
"A desert," said Sadness with a smile. "One with a starry sky."
Joy gawked at Sadness, wondering what she was planning. As she looked at Sadness's smile, it suddenly clicked in her head. In that moment, she knew what Sadness was planning.
"We need a desert with a starry sky," said Joy into the receiver. "As well as wires and an extra large globe."
"A desert?" asked the director. "What do you need that for?"
"Trust me."
"And why should I?"
"Because it would mean a lot to Riley. Besides, how else are you going to make a dream without any short term memories?"
The director let out a sigh of frustration. "Fine! What do you have in mind?"
#
After the call, Sadness and Joy waited nervously for the dream to premiere.
"Maybe they're not going to do it after all," said Sadness.
"Don't worry, they just need a little time to set up the movie."
The screen came on with a loud buzz and an image appeared. The dream was shown from Riley's point of view, and through the camera's reality filters, Riley found herself standing on a white, barren land. She looked about the barren land, seeing not a trace of water or plant life anywhere. She looked up at the sky to see a black canvas of stars that filled the sky. As the view panned to the right, Riley could see the Earth hovering high overhead. Although it seemed real and vivid to Riley as well as Joy and Sadness watching from Headquarters, but in reality the stars were made from the memories of Riley's glowing stars from her old bedroom, the land was just a disused desert set filtered over a white light, and the Earth was just a large globe hung on a string. As the camera walked along, the strings hopped the camera up and down to simulate the lighter gravity. Riley smiled as she dreamed herself skipping merrily along the surface of the moon.
Joy wiped a tear from her eye. "Well Bing Bong, we took Riley to the moon for you. And thank you, Sadness, for thinking of this."
"I'm just happy to help."
They watched quietly as the dream played for them, showing Riley as she explored the lunar landscape in her head while Joy and Sadness happily watched.
The End