Nice to meet you, guten tag, hajimemashite! Welcome to my first multi-chapter fanfic. I tried one before, and it didn't work out so well, but I feel more comfortable with this one
It was just Riley and me forever...
A loud, unfamiliar noise broke the happy baby noises Riley had previously been making. Joy wasn't quite sure what it meant, but she knew one thing: it didn't sound like a bundle of Joy.
She turned back to the button in front of her, thinking that if she pressed it again, maybe Riley would go back to giggling.
Well, for thirty-three seconds.
A short, squat newcomer was standing there, pressing the button while frowning. She was blue, with blue hair and blue eyes, and a small circle of blue light glowing around her feet. She was wearing purple glasses, a white sweater, and blue pants with blue slippers. The button, which had turned a soft blue color, created a new memory, also blue.
And Riley was still crying.
Outside, Riley's parents tried to comfort their newborn daughter. "Oh, don't be sad."
The newcomer noted this. She turned to the still surprised Joy. "I'm Sadness." She held out a hand for Joy to shake.
Joy looked back up at the screen, and back to Sadness. "Oh... uh, hello! I'm Joy!" she introduced herself, shaking her hand.
Sadness acknowledged it, and turned her full attention back to the screen.
Joy may have appeared less than a minute ago, but she could still put two-and-two together: Sadness pressing the button was what was making Riley cry. She tried to politely scoot her off. "If I could just..." Sadness paid her no attention. "If you could just let me... I just wanna fix that..." Sadness still didn't even bother to turn her head, so Joy pushed her unexpected house guest even further, inadvertently squishing her chubby face. Finally, Joy pressed down on the button again. Riley made soft cooing noises.
Sadness, seemingly unfazed, just pushed the button herself, and the crying returned.
This fight for the button went on for a more minutes, until finally Riley's father came back with a bottle. When Riley's mom put it into her mouth, Sadness finally stepped back.
"Oh, uh, thank you." She quickly took her spot, so that Sadness would not be able to reach the button again.
After a short time, Riley's eyes began to flicker closed. Finally, they shut completely. This made the area very dark, and the only light came from herself and the gold and sapphire memories on the rack. Joy was not sure what was going on, so she turned around to look for her companion, only to find she had completely disappeared. "Uh, Sadness?" she called.
The blue emotion emerged from behind a corner. "Huh?"
"Oh, good, I was just... what are you doing?" Joy inquired.
Sadness let out a slight sniffle and rubbed her nose. "Just looking at this list." She pointed to behind the corner, and returned back to whatever she was doing. Joy bounded toward her, a little scared to be alone in this dark world. She turned the corner and found that there was, indeed, a short list hanging on the wall. It said:
1. Intiating long-term memory:
Find the "end-of-day" memory button, located behind the console. This sucks up all short-term memories and transports them to long-term memory for semi-permanent storage. This should only be done when a state of unconsciousness is achieved.
Joy was kind of clueless as to what that meant, but Sadness nodded as if it made absolute perfect sense.
She shuffled back out and looked around, glancing at the button, then the orbs. Joy followed her, curious as to what she was doing. Sadness looked around on the wall behind the button, then at the floor. "I think this is it." She pointed to a little button on the ground, about the size of Joy's foot. Joy, excited at his new discovery, pushed Sadness gently out of the way and tentatively pressed it.
A tube opened up on the wall behind the memories and sucked the very short collection down. "Hey!" Joy exclaimed. "I just made those."
"Oh, that's sad," Sadness moaned. "We have to do that every time she falls asleep?"
Joy sighed. "What do we do now?" she asked, only half-talking to the gloomy emotion beside her.
Sadness just slumped to the floor. "Manifesting is so exhausting," and just like that, she was asleep.
Joy groaned. This newcomer was exhausting.
She decided to go off and look around. Sure, she was a little apprehensive, but she didn't feel like waking up her moody companion. Her glow made it so that she wasn't completely in the dark wherever she went, so she was glad that she always had a little light. She went back to where Sadness had found the list and looked to the right.
There were a couple of chairs, some empty shelves, and two little boxes shaped like toy chests. (1) One was bright yellow, with a smiling sun. The other was a good bit smaller, and painted blue, with a frowning rain cloud.
Joy opened the yellow one up and found a blanket and a pillow inside. Other than that, it was completely empty.
She could guess that this one belonged to her, while the other was Sadness's. She opened up hers which contained the same objects.
Joy returned with them. Just because Sadness was a little... weird... didn't mean she shouldn't try to be nice. However, when she got back, she found that the screen was slowly brightening.
Joy tiptoed around Sadness, not wanting to wake her up and have her press the button again. Joy pressed gently, and sighed in relief when she heard the happy noises coming from Riley.
"Don't worry, Riley," she whispered. "I'll always protect you."
But of course, ten chubby, blue fingers found their way between Joy's arms and onto the button.
"I'll protect her too," Sadness, who had awakened shortly after Riley.
It took all of Joy's willpower not to roll her eyes, as Riley began crying again. This might get a little difficult.
(1) These are the form of the lockers from when Riley was very young.You might be able to guess what the list will be in the future.Remember that the mind world expands as Riley grows older. Since Riley is a baby now, most of the objects in the mind world take after baby objects.
Have any suggestions for future chapters? Please tell me in a review! I need all the inspiration I can get!