Months later, on a not-quite-as-boring June afternoon, the same film geek pulled his car into the parking lot at the magnificent Warren Theater. Minutes later, he was across the asphalt, out of the heat of the day, and in the wonderful world of movies. The smell of popcorn filled the air. That unique scent was wonderful, and he couldn't help but smile inwardly at it. He hoped to make movies one day, and popcorn's delicious buttery aroma always reminded him of the experience he wanted to give to others. But enough of that now.
"One ticket to 'Inside Out,' please,' he said.
After a quick stop in the restroom and then the concession stand, the man found himself walking down rows and rows of theater seats, nonchalantly slurping his ice-cold Coke. Finding a nice, empty row near the front, he sat down right in the middle and made himself comfortable, ready for the show to start.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Disgust and Fear said in unison.
"What?" Joy asked. Anger and Sadness looked puzzled as well.
"We can't just go guzzling down that drink before the film starts!" Disgust exclaimed.
"Yeah!" Fear chimed in, "What if we have to go to the bathroom? We'd miss a part of the movie, and since it will take that drink only an hour to fill up our bladder, we'll likely be in the middle of an important plot point when we leave! Remember 'Return of the King!'"
"Oh, yeah..." Sadness said as he sat down, popcorn in hand. Long ago, when they were - how old? Nine? Ten? - they'd missed out on the part with the army of ghosts (not that Fear was complaining) because of a small bladder and a giant drink. That very well could have been a core memory; they had a habit now of cautiously slurping drinks only once in a while during the film, and never guzzling the whole thing down before the lights went out!
"How long 'till the show starts?" Anger demanded.
"Oh, we've got..." Disgust punched in a request to look at the clock. The human turned his head and did so, showing that they were-
"Thirty minutes?" A spark of flame shot up in-sync with the words.
"Aww man..." Sadness moaned, before chucking some more popcorn in his mouth.
"Hey! Hey! This is actually a good thing!" Joy said. The others looked at him. "We can daydream, keep thinking on our current project!"
"Oh."
"Hey, yeah..."
"Not a bad idea."
"Nice..."
Happiness rolled his chair over to the daydream chips and plucked one of the cloud-shaped pieces of plastic from the bin. Juggling it a few times, he swiveled back to the console and plugged it in. "This should give us plenty of time to get snacks, right guys?"
Nobody argued with that. Happiness volunteered to stay behind and watch the daydream as the others left to grab their snacks (and - in Fear's case - use the restroom for the umpteenth time to make sure she wouldn't miss the film... (but then grab a big bottle of water to make sure she had an excuse to leave during the scary parts)).
"Joy... Joy... Joy!"
"Huh? Wha-?" Joy suddenly snapped to attention. He'd been daydreaming as he watched the daydream, feeding the human ideas and enjoying the not-yet-written story that was unfolded before him. He twirled his chair around to see Disgust standing there, a diet Dr. Pepper in one hand and a bag of mints in the other.
"Were you daydreaming during the daydream?" He asked.
"What? No! Of course, not, heh, don't be silly... I was just inspecting the screen."
"The screen?"
"Yes! There are white, fuzzy things all over it! I just noticed that! Shouldn't we get the mind workers up here to clean-"
"Joy."
"Yes?"
"It's always been like that."
"...Oh..." Joy said, with genuine surprise, adding in his head, 'It has?'
"Now, as I was saying - we've got about ten more minutes before previews, so move over and let me sit there so I can critique this daydream and bring it back down to Earth for you. You can go get your snacks."
"Hey! I can critique the daydreams perfectly well!"
Disgust slurped his soda in response. His eyebrows said, "Oh, really?"
"I mean it, dude! Why wouldn't I-"
Disgust took his mouth from the straw. "Let me see your notebook."
Joy blanked out for a second, then his cheeks turned crimson. He sheepishly passed the exposed page to Disgust.
"Joy?"
"Yeah, yeah, I know..."
"We don't have time to write 'Inside Out' fan fiction! Are you crazy?! We need to focus on IZTDM right now!"
"Yeah, but..." Joy's lanky arms flailed around as he tried explaining just how wonderful each daydream ever made was, "But there are all these great ideas! They'd all make such good movies or- or fanfics, I guess... so why not, right? Come on! What's the worst that could happen?"
"No, Joy," Disgust scolded, "We've been through this; when we get bogged down with too many projects, they all fail. Am I right?"
Joy sighed. "Yes, I know... But-"
"And we've talked about self-inserts, haven't we?"
"...I think."
"We have. And you know it." Joy didn't say anything, so Disgust continued, "Now say it with me, Joy..."
With that, Joy - more resembling Sadness - and Disgust (cheerfully) said together, "Self Inserts, OC's, Shipping, and Mary Sues are a plague on fandoms and shouldn't ever come from our fan art or fiction."
"Unless they're parodies," Joy added.
"Unless they're parodies," conceded Disgust with a brief nod.
"But, listen man - just hear me out-"
"No buts, lightbulb; go get yourself some snacks before the film starts."
"Well... alright, then!" With that, Joy brightened up (as he was wont to do even after getting verbally put back in his place... which happened quite a bit) and bounded downstairs to get some refreshments. As the bubbly emotion vanished down below, he startled Fear, who was on her way up. Disgust glared at the notebook page. "Ugh. fan fiction about us? That's... disgusting."
"And creepy," Fear added, sitting down.
"No, I was wrong! That's creepy!" Fear exclaimed, cowering below the console.
Up on the screen, the previews had started. This first one was for some film called "The Underdogs." It was currently showing a small Foosball Figurine, coming to life thanks to some guy's tears. Truth be told, none of the emotions could quite follow the plot. The dead eyes suddenly coming awake, the uncanny CG animation, and the fact that this film was clearly dubbed, all mixed together to make one creepy experience... for Fear, at least.
"Oh, get up, you baby!" Anger said, yanking the purple emotion up by her arm, "There's nothing scary about this."
"Except for how clichéd it is," Disgust scoffed.
"Is this what the film industry has come to?" Sadness said as sobs cracked his voice.
"Yes," Anger put bluntly.
Joy was too busy guzzling his Red Bull to comment. 'After all,' he thought as he felt the nasty-but-delicious liquid run down his throat, 'If you can't say anything nice, let someone else say it for you, then just nod in agreement.'
"Twelve," Disgust said, pressing the 'Eyeroll' button again. He'd kept track of how many times he had to press it since the start of the previews. That one was for the random hippie Figurine saying, "I don't condone violence, but that was pretty dope."
Quickly, Disgust ripped out another Mental Note:
"When getting movies into foreign languages,
Subtitles areWAY better and less distracting than dubbing.
Subs are better than dubs!"
With a click-click, he shut his pen and then crunched down on another mint, just in time to nearly choke on it as Joy yelled out, "Hooray! It's gone! Onto the next preview! Maybe it'll be good, right guys?" Then, right away, Joy punched in, "Finally," on the 'Whisper' panel.
"Finally..." the film geek whispered out loud.
The next preview showed up.
Disgust was now addressing the others. "Okay, guys, so - while the logos are still popping up - in review: The Underdogs?"
"I don't wanna..." Fear murmured.
"No way!" Anger spouted.
"It's too sad to think about," Sadness said, "Where has creativity gone these days?"
"It looked... kinda... neat?" Joy asked, looking at the others. Then, defeated by their questioning glares, said, "Yeah, it looks pretty bad."
"Okay," Disgust said, crossing it off the list, "We won't be watching that one. Next: Zootopia?"
"No comment," Fear shrugged.
"If they keep the puns away, it should be peachy," Anger muttered.
'I hear you,' Disgust thought to himself.
"I just hope they actually have an animal get eaten," said Sadness.
"I laughed! The tranquilizer was hilarious! Looks like it will be 'Chicken Little,' only good!" Joy exclaimed.
"Okay," Disgust announced, "That's going on the list to check out. And last of all: The Good Dinosaur."
"I have no clue," Sadness said, "I don't know enough about it."
"Looks like another good movie from Disney and Pixar!" Joy said, "I'm game, bro."
"I just- I just don't know," Fear said, "I mean, if we see it, we'll have to review it... well, we won't have to, but we'll probably want to, and- but- if- and people will probably get on us if we say it was good, because we actually don't believe in evolution, but if we address the elephant in the room- and we'll get- we'll be in trouble for believing in Creation, so we can't- we shouldn't- But I'm not saying we should lie- But either way- The film is fiction, of course, but-" With each syllable, Fear's voice squeaked higher and higher and higher, and she straightened up more and more tightly in her seat. Her breathing became fast and pounding.
"Calm down," Sadness said, handing her a brown bag, "In and out, in and out, like we practiced... you'll be fine. I'm sure we'll be okay. It's not like we aren't used to being bashed... by angry people... by angry, angry people... who make us feel worthless-"
"Well, that wraps up the previews, doesn't it, guys?" Joy said, trying to take their minds off the subject (wisps of smoke were trailing up from Anger's hair), "And you all know what that means..." He froze in place, a smile on his face, waiting for a response from the others.
"I'll mark 'The Good Dinosaur' down as a maybe," Disgust said.
"It means it's time for a short film!" Joy announced, his voice as bright as a trumpet. Sure, nobody really payed attention, but it was the thought that counts. "You all know how much we love those!"
Everyone looked back up at the screen. Well, everyone but Sadness, who was still tending to Fear.
"Calm down, there, sis. Calm down... okay, you feeling better?"
"Y-Yeah," Fear said, setting the bag down and taking a long swig of water. With a sigh, she added, "Yes, I'm feeling better."
They looked back up at the screen to see a giant, smiling volcano with pitch-black pits for eyes.
Fear fainted.