Author's Note: First off, for those confused, this chapter is set before "Mr. Andersen."

For me, the original piece (the first chapter) was not "Inside Outey" enough, and long ago I decided to write a second piece that took place from the perspective of the emotions. Seven months later, I decided to finally write it. So hope you all enjoy.

As with the first fic, this is written in third person, but primarily reflects the perspective of Sadness. Unlike Mr. Andersen, Sadness understands Riley's identity, and uses masculine pronouns. (The emotions themselves are the same genders as in the film.)

This was originally intended to be another one-shot, but the writing isn't going as quickly as I imagined, so I'm posting this as a multi-chapter short piece. I expect this to be no more than 3 additional chapters, ending with a depiction of the first chapter from the "Inside Out" perspective.

Also, as there were some questions about this, the reason I referred to Riley with feminine pronouns in the first "Author's Notes" section was because I was referring to the canon character, who is female. It's part of the problem with writing a character as a different gender than they are in canon. Hope that resolves the issue.

…..

Not again.

A groan slipped from Joy as she slumped over the non-responsive control panel, which had gone dark at her touch. She lifted her head, staring helplessly at Sadness. With a knowing nod, the blue emotion shuffled over to her, but not before Joy had shamefully crumpled to the floor.

"You tried, Joy. It'll work eventually."

"That's what you said last time."

Sadness took Joy's outstretched hand and hoisted her up to her feet. She shuddered. Joy's physical shine had managed to dim even further than before. It was as if she was running on emergency power.

"Sadness, it's getting worse."

"No it's not, Joy! Just today you managed to make 7 new happy memories! That's the best you've done all week!"

"Yes, those 7 yellows look so spectacular amidst the 82 purples, 58 reds, and 119 greens."

"…You forgot to mention the 138 blues."

Joy smirked. "Okay, little miss narcissist." There was a flash of momentary brightness, and Sadness felt the warmth of her friend's light as it briefly crackled into existence. But just as quickly it had returned to its cold, faded state.

Sadness felt the cold, cruel irony of her need to cheer up Joy. She wasn't used to it. She was supposed to simply be the shoulder to cry on, the empathizer, the one who could listen to problems and relate to them. But the unfortunate fact of the matter was that Joy need more than a therapist. She needed a coach, lest she forget the reason for her own existence.

Sadness turned to the control panel. Riley was staring blankly, helplessly in the mirror once again. What was he doing again? Ah right, he was about to take a shower. And Joy had wanted to indulge in Riley's childhood habit of making funny faces in the mirror. But pointing Riley toward his own reflection was a bad mistake, and the panel had immediately cut off Joy's access.

Disgust had compulsively taken control of the panel, as she was apt to do these days. She took no pleasure in what she did anymore. But anytime Riley's train of thought was directed at his own body, Disgust felt an irresistible compulsion to take control. She couldn't put her finger on it, ever, but there was just always something that felt wrong that she had to fix. First it had been Riley's clothes, which were just way too girly. Then the hair was just simply too long. Then Riley's breasts…

It had all started innocently enough, but by this point Disgust was all too aware of just how potently she was affecting Riley. She couldn't help but feel how much she'd failed her human. The emotion that was simply meant to keep Riley from being poisoned had become a toxic influence, unable to stop herself from doing damage. And Joy could not forgive her. Disgust had pleaded her case, but Joy only saw her as the reason Riley couldn't feel happy anymore.

In fact, Joy had become more or less estranged from all her colleagues, except Sadness. To her, the other emotions had just become enablers for Disgust's compulsions. Anger had gotten into a terrible habit of lashing out when people questioned Riley's appearance changes. If anyone who wasn't a parent asked her about his hair, that person earned an angry snarl. And if anyone was foolhardy enough to ask something after that, Anger went full fireball. At this point, Riley had few friends left. Jordan was one of them, but even he was tentative whenever they talked.

Fear was no better. He had gotten it into his head that if Riley's parents got even one hint of what was happening to him, the consequences would be unimaginable. The list of possible negative outcomes stacked immensely high, and items such as "spontaneous combustion" and "deadly meteor strike" had moved into the positive outcome list. As a result, Riley could now barely function when his parents were in the room. Anytime they asked how school went, he choked. Anytime they asked if Riley wanted a haircut, he dodged the subject. He couldn't bring himself to go to the movies with them anymore, much less go out for dinner. In short, Fear's overcompensation for Disgust's actions had left Riley a nervous wreck.

But for all of her companions' powerful changes, Sadness was most stunned by Joy. Months ago, Sadness never would have believed Joy could have ever become grimmer than she was during the moving incident. But as the control panel started to malfunction on her more and more, Joy had started finding it harder and harder to put a positive spin on it. At first she'd been happy to let Sadness take control more, and had assumed, like most of the stuff that had happened to her body for the past two years, that it was simply another side effect of puberty. But after weeks of nonresponsive buttons went by, Sadness had started to notice an edge in Joy's voice. By two weeks ago, Joy had picked up a brutal snarl in her voice that intimidated even Anger. That was when she had started to blame the other emotions, lambasting Disgust even as she begged her to understand.

What made it all the more cruel for Sadness was that she, alone among the emotions, knew why this was happening.

Sadness ushered Disgust away from the panel, and Riley, snapping back to reality, turned and stepped into the shower.

…...