"Come on Joy. One more time. Got a good feeling about this one." Bing Bong says as he is walking back to Joy and reaching a hand out for her.
They attempted one more try. As they go rushing down the hill as they are singing from the top of their lungs, Bing Bong halted his sing and is instead shouting at joy to sing louder. Just at the last possible moment before they hit the ramp is when Bing Bong jumps out of the rocket.
He looks upward hoping that the rainbow rocket will make it over the cliff.
Joy sings and sings at the loudest setting her voice can go and still its not enough to keep the rocket going. It gives up the ghost and ends its upward momentum. In the few seconds between where the rock ascends to when it starts crashing down back into the pit. Joy thinks quickly and removes the satchel of memories off from around her body. And with all her strength she let's out a hardy grunt as she thrusts the bag over the cliff and onto solid ground. A smile spreads from Joy's face as she plummets back down onto the fading memories. Joy looks up and sees that the rocket has broken into pieces. She gets up to find Bing Bong.
"Bing Bong? Bing Bong!?" Joy shouts into the darkness.
She doesn't step much farther after that when she spots the familiar pink figure.
She runs toward him, but as she gets closer her speed decreases and she is noticing something terrible. 'He's fading away.' She thinks to herself.
She comes to an abrupt halt 10 feet away from him. She looks at him in shock.
"I guess you didn't make it huh?" Bing Bong says, half smile with disappointment spread across his face.
Joy can only nod. She is fighting back a wave of tears.
"And the rocket is broken huh?" He says, still keeping the same expression.
She nods again. The tears are so close to falling.
He'll hold out his arms and even though Joy can't see it he is actually walking towards her. She notices his gesture and wants to return it. She holds out her arms and begins walking too. They both meet in the middle of nothingness and they wrap each other in a deep embrace. The tears are finally falling as she is apologizing. "Bing Bong-h I'm so sorry-h!" She wails as her face is being covered in tears.
Bing Bong doesn't response. Just as he starts to fade into full and complete nothingness. He'll say "I love you Joy. I hope Riley will be ok." Just before the last of him disappears he'll say, "See you on the other side." We'll be the last thing she hears as she opens her eyes and sees that her friend who has been there for her this whole journey and was once Riley's favorite friend has disappeared forever. She falls to hers knees as she say's in denial. "No." She can't go out like this, not her.
The scene panes out from here and begins showing the vast void surrounding her very existence. Will Joy be ok?
Sadness rushes to the edge of the abyss. She spots the satchel and immediately picks it up. "Joy," she shouts hoping her co-emotion is somewhere close by. But there isn't an answer. But she hears a voice call her name. "Sadness!" The male voice shouts out.
"I'm here!" She shouts back.
They finally get closer to each other. They can plainly see one another.
"Where's Joy?" Sadness has to ask.
"Joy went into the pit Sadness. She's gone." The male mind worker looks at her with sympathetic eyes.
All she can do is stand in the silence in the fact that Joy is gone. Gone forever.
"But you're still here and great news, the Train of Thought is back up and running." The male mind worker will say to try to cheer Sadness up.
It works. She'll look up at him with a surprised look. "Really?"
"Absolutely, so if you could follow me I will take you to it." He says as he waves a hand forward.
"Say, what is your name?" Sadness asks as she does follow the little mind worker.
"I'm John. Nice to meet you." John will say as they continue walking.
Both of them will board the Train of Thought. He will then stay on the train once Sadness reaches Headquarters and joins her other emotions.
"This is ridiculous she shouldn't run away." Anger says in despair as he sees his girl standing in line to board a bus.
As the scene in the outside world show Riley boarding the bus and taking a seat. Sadness will enter the room and rushes to the console. The other look at her in silence. She is quick to remove the bulb and the controls come back on. The screen shows Riley getting off the bus and back on to the street.
"Sadness you're back. But where's Joy?" Anger says.
But Sadness won't say a thing and she'll start to put the core memories back into the holder. However, she notices that all the memories have turned blue, but it's all she has. She'll place them in the holder regardless. She even puts the core memory she created into the hold as well. A blue beam of light shoots across the room and goes through headquarters to bring the islands back. The islands magically reappear. The new island was created by Sadness' core memory is Insecurity Island.
"Ok, so we have insecurity. Wonderful." Fear says as he is rolling his eyes.
"Yeah, like not making any friends because of it." Anger growls in frustration.
'Boys please, let's just focus on getting Riley home." Disgust says as she is focusing on the screen. Watching Riley run home.
Riley returns home. She sees her parents running to her side wondering why she would do something like this. Riley is sad, and it works to her advantage. However, even though her parents are wrapping her in a deep embrace and comforting her, she is still sad. And that is all she feels.
That moment will create a memory. It's bright blue and it's a core memory. Once it reaches the holder of core memories it causes the other family core memory to be removed from the holder. The new core memory upgrades Family island. However, the island has a more somber appeal to it. It has a deep focal point for Minnesota.
"What kind of island is that?" Fear asked, not sure what's going on.
"What's with all the Minnesota stuff?" Anger huffs.
"I don't know. I'll do some research later." Sadness says as she works the controls.
Pretty soon the ordeal is over, and Riley is asleep. The emotions will do the same, except for Sadness. She will be reading mind manuals all night long.
As days, weeks, and months pass by Riley struggles to adjust to her new life in San Francisco. Unfortunately, everything she does that brought her Joy only makes her sad. It brings out melancholia for Minnesota. She longs for the days where she was younger, and life was simpler. She misses those days and no matter what she does in her current situation, she can't quite be her happy self.
In headquarters the room which was once a shining beacon of joy has become a blight of unfathomable sadness. The emotions have had to work harder to compensate for the fact that one of their own is gone. None of them could have accounted that Joy not only was Riley's happy emotion, but that Joy herself acted as a stabilizer for the rest of the group. She was the voice of reason. She was the bright twinkle of candlelight in the coal mine that is Riley's mind. But now that light is snuffed out of existence and the others are left to their own devices. Each emotions' own personality being magnified exponentially. Not only are they more emotional, they are also magnifying the emotions Riley is presenting during everyday moments. Like Riley sobbing after watching a sad movie or being furious over someone knocking a book out of her hands by accident. Not only are these moments uncharacteristic of Riley, it's also causing a rift among her parents, teachers, and friends.
Sadness, who has been spending late nights trying to figure out a plan out of their current situation.
Early in the morning Sadness will wake up the other emotions to tell them of her plan.
"Do you mind telling us why you had to wake us up so early in the morning? I mean Riley isn't even up yet." Anger says as he rubs his eyes angrily.
"I woke all of you up because I have a plan for our current situation." Sadness says as she is confident in the idea she has created.
"Ok, so like, what's the plan?" Disgust says as she is rubbing wrinkles out of her dress.
"I'm sending mind workers to search the abyss of forgotten memories. They're going to find some memories that are faded but still has some kind of yellow glow to them. Once we get them back up to headquarters we'll play them. Hopefully those memories being played back will remind Riley of what Joy is."
The other three emotions will sit back with tilted heads. Not sure what anything Sadness is saying makes sense. Before Anger could say something insulting, Fear will speak up. "I think that is a great idea Sadness. We need to do it ASAP."
Disgust will vain a head nod. "Yeah, we need to do this quickly. Because recently things have not been good for Riley."
"Yeah, she's been doing a lot of weird things." Anger says quietly. "She's been sleeping in later, missing school, and is just hasn't been herself."
"Which is why we need to do this now." Sadness says with a commanding voice.
The others will agree.
In the dark abyss of the memory dump. Two mind workers will walk through pile of forgotten memories. "So why are we down here?" One mind worker asks to the other.
"Upstairs had an idea and they needed someone to go down here and retrieve some old faded memories." The other mind worker answers.
"So, we are out here in this hole, risking our own lives to make the top dogs look good." The first mind worker will say.
"Now is not the time to stick it to the man Frank! Can we just do our job?" The other mind worker will say in a loud tone.
Frank will just sigh. "Whatever Jim. Let's just get the memories we need."
All of a sudden, a voice will speak into the void. "It won't work."
"Who said that?" Jim asks to his coworker.
"I did." The voice says.
The two mind workers will turn to see a golden light. But that is all they'll see.
"Uh is anyone there?" Frank will ask.
The golden light will move closer to them. "I know you can't see me. But I'm Joy."
The mind workers will stand in shock. "But you were killed. You fell in the pit."
"I thought I was going to die too." The light moves back and forth. But as you can see and hear. I'm still around."
"So, why can't we see you?" Jim asks.
"Because the physical form left me, but what remains is my light." Joy answers.
"So, are you like a ghost or something?" Frank asks.
"Well, not exactly, I'm more like the embodiment of what I use to be." Joy says as she continues to move about the two mind workers. The light moving swiftly around the two.
"Well I know you said that the idea isn't good, but you don't even know what the idea is." Jim says.
"Ok, humor me, what's your plan?"
"Well, we are sent down here to find old faded happy memories. Once they get up to headquarters and are played maybe Riley will become happy again."
Joy will chuckle softly. "That Sadness tries so hard. In any case, that idea will only create a temporary moment of happiness. It will be fleeting and will only cause more harm than good."
The two mind workers will just stand, looking down at their feet. That is until Jim has an idea. 'Say Frank what if we get her out of here?" Only the other mind worker could hear that.
"What good will that do?" Frank asks.
"Well would you rather still have her down here?"
Frank sighs a loud sigh. "I guess not."
"Ok, Joy were going to look for those memories and then if you'd accompany us back up to the surface."
Even though Joy's expression can't be seen, she is indeed surprised.
The workers find the necessary memories and begin to ascend back up to the surface. The golden light on top of the workers. The workers are being pulled back up to the surface by a rope.
The three make it back up, the light will move about to see her current surroundings. As she can see the inside of Riley's mind is dark, tainted with black storm clouds. "This isn't right." She says.
"All this will be fixed. Come on." The two mind workers will motion Joy to get on the Train of Thought with them.
The three will arrive at headquarters and walk in. The two mind workers will greet Sadness and show her that the memories they grabbed match the ones she asked for.
Even though Sadness is touching them; the faded memories don't turn blue. "Good work guys." She'll walk over to controls and turn on the memory play back. She'll then start to place the faded orbs one after the other.
The other emotions watch the main screen. Except for Anger, he's to busy sticking his arm into the bright yellow glow that is next to him. "Stop it!" Joy will utter toward the brick.
All the memories being played are ones of common moments in Riley's life. So, they don't mean anything to the older Riley. But at some point, the younger Riley thought these moments were pretty cool.
One memory is of Riley playing in a hockey game at age 7.
Another is Riley and her parents hiking in the woods in Minnesotta.
One is of her doing the chicken dance.
Her confessing to something she did wrong is displayed in another memory.
The last one is of her and Meg playing in the sprinkler on a hot summer day.
As all these memories play back in a dim haze and is eventually out matched by an intense golden hue. The familiar color that has been seen by many happy memories. The memories are brought back to life.
As the emotions watch in awe over the little moments being played back, Joy will utter a few words quietly. "That's it Riley. Remember these moments. Remember what its like to be happy. Remember me."
Suddenly the room will fill with a bright and intense light. Swishing sounds penetrating the air inside headquarters. Followed by a cheery laugh. Once the light dies down a figure will emerge from the bright light. Her figure is almost sprite like. It's a familiar shape. Then the light will subdue completely to reveal that Joy has returned. Everyone stands in slack jaw over the sight. Even the mind workers can't believe what they saw. They witnessed a miracle. Joy has returned to her real physical form.
Joy will turn to see all the emotions. She'll spot Sadness and walk to her. She'll wrap the tiny teardrop in a big hug. Sadness will sob happy tears. "Thank you, Sadness." Is what Joy will say to her blue co-emotion. She'll break the embrace and then turn her focus to the others. "Ok team let's make some happy memories."
Riley was having lunch when she remembered those forgotten memories. It brought her a sense of joy that she had long since felt. It brought her a moment of sheer bliss and it just got better from there. Joy had a lot of time to think about her position as leader of her team. She realized that maybe Riley shouldn't be happy all the time. She needed to be sad during sad times. So, she eased up on controlling every waking moment and let the other emotions guide their girl for a while. In case you were wondering. Since the change, Riley has made new core memories, developed new interests, and has become an emotionally healthy child.
