A/N: Inspired somewhat by "Emotional Response", this short story tells about the creation of one of my own Islands of Personality. Chapter 1 is set when the island is created. Chapter 2 will deal with a much more recent episode in my life.
After some thought, even though I am male, I've elected to leave the genders of the Emotions unchanged from Riley's. I will be substituting "Mitch Harahap" for my actual name.
Inside Out is the property of Pixar. Star Trek is the property of Paramount Pictures.
Mitch's Headquarters' layout had changed periodically. For a year now, it had been modeled on the bridge of the Enterprise-D. Joy, of course, sat in the captain's chair at the center. Anger took the weapons station, standing above them all. Fear occupied the helm (front-right), and Disgust had Ops (front-right). Sadness sat at the rear, behind Anger, usually not even looking at the viewscreen. They even wore appropriate uniforms: Joy and Fear wore red, Anger and Disgust wore yellow (Anger even had Worf's Klingon sash) and Sadness wore blue.
The resemblance ended there, however, as Joy did not act in any way, shape, or form like Captain Picard.
"Yay!" Joy declared, practically bouncing in her seat as Mitch walked down the stairs with the rest of his classmates. "Judaica time!"
"Finally!" Disgust whined. "That song was so corny."
With the end of singing time, they were a bit over halfway through Sunday School. They had started with Hebrew, and now they would finish with Judaica.
As Mitch took his seat on the floor with the other students, the teacher came in through the door. Except it wasn't the teacher.
"Uh," Fear asked, "what's Mom doing here? Is something wrong? Are we in trouble?"
"Why would we be in trouble?" Anger snarled. "We haven't done anything wrong!"
Joy held up her left hand. "Relax! Relax!" Her right entered a few commands into the console in the armrest of the captain's chair, and two Memory Orbs - both colored yellow - floated down. Mitch's Mind Eye displayed them in corners of his vision, like the Insert function on the TV. Each showed a different woman coming in when the normal Judaica teacher should have.
"As you can see, twice before, other kid's moms have substituted for the Judaica teacher. This time, it's our mom! Even better!"
As Mom came over, giving Mitch a quick hug, everyone relaxed. Disgust gave a quiet sigh at being embraced in public, but didn't interfere as Joy had Mitch return his mother's embrace. A yellow memory orb rolled out from near the screen. So far, all was well.
Until it wasn't.
"Wait," Sadness said, turning around in her chair. "Mom doesn't look happy. I mean, she's happy to see us..."
"She probably had something else to do today," Disgust scoffed. "Probably something for work. Our parents are very busy."
"I don't know..." Sadness' voice trailed off.
"Quiet, everyone!" Joy called. "Class is starting! Time to absorb some knowledge!"
The Star Trek layout didn't give Joy a direct view of the Islands of Personality, but that was what consoles were for. Sure enough, Knowledge Island was at full power. Family Island was also active.
"Shalom [hello], everyone!" Mom said, smiling. "My name is Mrs. Harahap. I'm Mitch's mom, and I'll be substituting today."
"Shalom, Mrs. Harahap!" all the other kids chorused. Joy pressed a button, and Mitch responded with "Shalom, imah [hello, Mom]!" Mom smiled at that.
"Today," she continued, "we'll be learning about the Holocaust." She sat down facing the kids, and pulled out a book.
"A book!" Joy squealed. "We love books!"
"Wait!" Disgust held up her hand. "I'm getting some bad readings. Let's see... hardcover... longer than it is wide... extremely thin... ugh! It's a picture book. Probably only a few lines per page."
"What's the title?" Anger asked, his tone neutral.
"Uh... 'Shoah'." Disgust sat back in her chair. "Huh. Not in our current vocabulary. Sounds Hebrew."
Mom was opening the book. It turned out to be even thinner than Disgust's estimate. A woman spoke about her village, which was then consumed completely by fire. That turned out to be the meaning of both "Shoah" and "Holocaust" - total consumption by fire.
Mom closed the book and put it away.
"That was a sad book," Sadness sighed. She manipulated her console, and a blue Memory Orb rolled out.
"In the 1930s - about sixty years ago..." Mom began.
"History!" Joy squealed.
"...a man called Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. He hated Jews..."
"Hated Jews?" Fear whispered.
Nobody touched their consoles. Mitch probably wouldn't form a Memory Orb for a bit. He would compile all the information into one big one.
But that was only part of it. The information just got more horrible. New words were added to Mitch's vocabulary. Words like "Nazi" and "concentration camp".
"...put on trains..."
"...showers were gas chambers..."
"...six million killed."
The number appeared on screen. "SIX MILLION" became "6,000,000" became "6 x 106". Unlike most kids his age, Mitch was used to thinking in those terms because of his interest in astrophysics. Hearing big numbers of years didn't phase him. But six million people...
The viewscreen turned red. An angry memory was being formed. Everyone turned to look at Anger. The fire atop his head was burning bright, but he wasn't in a rage. Slowly, methodically, he was pressing buttons on his console.
"Anger," Fear asked, "what are you doing."
"This is wrong," he replied. "This is very wrong."
"Anger, Mom wouldn't lie to us..." Joy began.
"Not 'wrong' as in 'incorrect'. 'Wrong' as in 'bad'. This is very bad."
Anger pointed a finger at a picture of Adolf Hitler Mom was showing them. "That man killed six million of our people just because they were Jews! He'd have killed us too! And Mom, and our brother, and everyone in this class, all because we were Jews! He's worse than Antiochus!"
Those words sent a chill through Headquarters. Antiochus, the villain of the Chanukkah story, had until now been Mitch's standard for evil.
Another red light flared. A new angry memory had formed, only this one shone with the brilliant light of a Core Memory.
An Angry Core Memory.
For a moment, Joy wanted to stop it. Until now, all of Mitch's Core Memories had been happy ones. She got out of her chair and followed it to the rear of Headquarters. This area was modeled on Main Engineering, with the Core Memories in place of the warp core. They hovered in mid-air, sending golden beams of light up and down.
Joy could have stopped it, but she didn't. She couldn't stop a new memory, especially not one that contained so much knowledge. Instead, she watched as the new Core Memory floated to join the others, its crimson light distinct from the others.
By now, the other Emotions had joined her. They watched through the rear window as a burning line shot out from Headquarters over the Memory Dump.
Joy took a moment to admire the other Islands of Personality. Knowledge Island, a computer surrounded by books. Family Island, with pictures of Mitch's extended family. Astrophysics Island, a galaxy and atom. And Star Trek Island, with twin Enterprises. There was a gap where Baseball Island had been, destroyed with the Seattle Mariners' final defeat in the 1995 American League championships. That was where the burning line headed.
The creation of some Islands was different from others. The most memorable had been Astrophysics Island, which had formed in a brilliant flash of light.
The new Island was born in a nuclear explosion.
For a few seconds, Headquarters shook and the window was filled with fire.
"The other Islands!" Fear yelped.
Fortunately, despite the rage of the explosion, the other Islands appeared unharmed. But the new Island was very different. This Island took the form of a concentration camp consumed in flames. It reminded Joy of the Ner Tamid, the Eternal Flame, which hung above the altar in the sanctuary.
This was an Eternal Firestorm, burning like a reactor at the heart of Mitch's soul.
Holocaust Island.