This story almost has ten faves! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Oh, sorry if the humor is getting a bit dry. We're getting a bit grim, so I kind of put the humor level down a bit. Really, it's hard to be funny when:

Being chased by some guy who wants to kill you.

You're dealing with depression.

Worrying about the fate of your friends.

Did I say too much?

Chapter 7: Origins of an Emotion

Joy sat up from her spot when she heard the loud clunk.

When Riley had fallen asleep, the four emotions had discovered two bedrooms in the dream house, both second floor. Like the first floor, there was no furniture whatsoever, so they split between guys and girls. That left Joy, Disgust, and Sadness lying on the floor in one of the rooms while Randomness slept by himself in the other.

Joy rubbed her eyes a bit before going to check on what that was. She tiptoed out of the room, careful not to wake up any of her fellow emotions. She stopped halfway down the stairs and saw what was going on.

Downstairs, where the living room usually would be, was Randomness. He was holding a grey orb (a faded memory, perhaps?) and was looking at it with a strange fondness.

Joy squinted, careful not to get caught, trying to see what was going on in the memory. It was hard to see, but she could see multiple figures moving wildly and watching a television, based off the glowing square in it.

"Joy, what are you doing?"

Joy jumped in surprise and found Sadness right behind her. She started trying to hide them both from Randomness's view until he asked, "You two watching me?"

Joy came out from her hiding spot and found Randomness, who was looking quite confused.

"Erm… no," Joy told him. "We were just… leaving."

"No, it's okay," he replied. "You mind if you can help me with something?"

It took some time for Joy to realize he was actually referring to Sadness. Something she didn't recognize boiled inside of her.

Randomness must've seen something shift in her, because he quickly added, "You can hang out with us, too, if you want, Joy."

Both emotions sat on opposite sides of him and took a look at the memory.

Sure enough, there was a group of rowdy boys playing some kind of video game on the television set. They could hear their laughing and yelling.

"My human was William Howardson. He and I went perfectly. With my guidance, he became bubbly, energetic, funny, and even smart. I thought then that I would be one of the lucky Randomnesses, thinking he would be a great person.

But something… happened. I made mistakes. He started crumbling. I accidentally showed him things he was better off not knowing. Turns out, him and I were quite fragile.

The main mistake we made was him going crazy… a bit too crazy.

We lived with it for some time. We would pretend to have no idea why there were dead bodies starting to pile up all over the city.

Then I found another emotion watching me. He called himself Insanity. Next thing I knew, I was only a spectator, unable to move from my spot.

I watched him control William, make him do unmeasurably horrible things. After some time, I was in the chamber of the Master of Memories, who said nothing but let me watch William's fate.

He got caught for murder after a whole year of bloody rampaging. He was only sixteen at that age."

Randomness made them both jump by making a loud shout of anger and banging at the walls. They could hear Disgust grunt from upstairs.

Randomness took a breath and asked, Sadness, "What do I do?"

It seemed, however, that it was Joy who was the expert on that category.

Joy put a hand up in front of Sadness and answered, "You have to replace your old bad memories with good ones. You can't always dwell on the past; you have to move on."

Randomness blinked several times, considering this. Joy saw Sadness give her a thumbs down (that was a good thing).

Then, slowly, Randomness retained his giant grin. Unexpectedly, he wrapped Joy in a hug.

"Thanks, Joy," he said after pulling away. "But to be honest, I'm surprised you knew that."

Joy smiled back and told him, "It worked for Riley."

She gave Sadness a small wink.

Randomness picked up his memory and threw it over his shoulder, saying, "I don't need that anymore."

"Actually, you should still keep that. It's a good memory."

"I suppose you're right."

Randomness went over to the memory and put a hand over it. He said a few things and it disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.

Long-Term Memory

The Master's right hand stretched and bent until it was a full-on sword. He stabbed wildly at Fear, who only managed to avoid the hard strikes due to his skinny frame.

"Stop running, pest!" he shouted at the purple emotion. "Stand and fight!"

"I'd prefer not!" Fear replied, running off.

The Master considered this, but was blasted from behind by a large burst of flame.

"Guess you like it hot!" Anger shouted at the Master.

The Master just watched him for some time without reply. Then his left hand became a colossal battle axe.

"I would make a pun about making you shorter," the Master said. "But I'm afraid you're too short for me to make you any smaller."

Anger's blast of fire was the only reason why the Master hesitated. The Master took his time to deflect it with his sword of a hand, but found his targets gone.

"Seems like I'm going to have more fun," he commented dryly.

Sorry if I'm getting a bit lame. I mostly think of the main events, to be honest. That means the beginning and end. I honestly don't think about 'in between' moments unless it's important (coughcoughshippingmomentscoughcough). So sorry if I'm getting weak with this.

R&R everybody!