"Stop!" Joy called out, her star-like shape spinning and falling again as the effects of Abstract Thought slowly wore off. "Stop!" But it was too late - the train was off and away, heading to some other part of Riley's mind.
In his dark, aqua-colored room, Sadness was seated on his bed's edge, looking at the glowing screen in front of him. The only other light was a moon-shaped night lamp, currently illuminating a wall next to the emotion's bed, where he had taped notes on everything they were doing wrong in life (he tended to think about that a lot before rolling off to sleep). But, for now, he was focused on the film. He felt a twinge of sympathy for Riley's Joy and nudged the appropriate button on his remote.
Groaning in frustration, Joy turned to look at the mostly reformed Bing Bong. "I thought that was a shortcut!"
"I thought so, too," Bing Bong explained, "But wow, we should not have gone in there - that was dangerous! They really should put up a sign."
Anger roared, "They did!" before twisting a knob on her remote. In the red glare of her quarters, she was seated on a simple wooden chair, snacks on a chipped and cracked (but still usable) coffee table in front of her. Next to them, a fan was going at full speed, struggling (in conjunction with a much-abused air conditioner) to keep the blood-red room at a sane temperature.
"How long to the next train station?" Joy asked.
"There's one nearby, and - get this - it always stops off there, right before going to headquarters! Follow me!"
The pink elephant moved to head on through but was stopped by Joy. "Whoa, this isn't another one of your shortcuts is it?"
Bing Bong let out a hearty laugh and said, "Yeah!"
"Hahahaaah!" Joy chuckled as he flopped onto his beanbag chair, opening a fresh energy drink. He paused a moment to flip a switch on his small remote, then pitched an empty can across the glaringly bright room and into a recycling bin, which was overflowing with a variety of plastic and paper wrappers from every instant food and caffeinated beverage one could imagine.
As the pink elephant skipped off across the tracks, Joy pulled Sadness off to the side. "Is there really another station?"
"Uhuh," her soft-spoken companion said, "Right through there."
"Welcome to Imagination Land!" Bing Bong declared, arms branching wide as he stood at the entrance to what was sure to be the most exciting segment of Riley's mind. Bright colors were everywhere.
Joy smiled in wonder. "Imagination Land?"
Disgust felt his stomach churn at the sight, and he immediately stopped slurping his soda long enough to adjust a small lever on his remote. Soon, he situated himself back in his lime-colored chair and continued watching. Briefly, he glanced up at the perfectly centered digital clock on a shelf. 'Okay,' he thought, 'you can get through this; Imagination Land probably won't last that long.'
"Of course! I come here all the time," Bing Bong said as they walked through, "I'm practically the mayor... hey! You guys hungry? There's French Fry Forest!" running over to the side, he grabbed one of the tall fries and took a bite of it.
"No way!" Joy exclaimed.
"Ooh!" the real Joy said, "That looks delicious!"
"Aw, man..." Sadness clutched his gut, "That makes me feel hungry."
"Oh, check it out!" Bing Bong said, scurrying off to another section, eager to share with his newfound friends, "Trophy Town!" He stood in front of a soccer net and promptly kicked a nearby ball in. "Everyone's a winner!"
"Yuck," Disgust muttered.
In HQ itself, not a whisper could be heard, save the constant audio coming from the main screen. The only noise was a metallic clink as a freshly-made green marble came rolling in. Then all was still again. You wouldn't know that anyone was there, for how placid it all was. In fact, you'd have to strain your ears very hard to make out the scritch-scratch of a pencil on paper.
Sure enough, a crowd of people appeared and then vanished just as quickly, leaving Bing bong decorated with a variety of first-place ribbons and trophies. "I won first place!" he declared.
"Me too!" added Joy, as the crowd left her with a gleaming golden trophy.
"Aww..." droned Sadness, glancing at her green ribbon, "Participation award."
Joy's faint laughter came echoing in from somewhere else in the building, followed by a gold-and-blue marble gleaming into existence.
From Cloud Town to a house of cards, the trio explored Riley's very active imagination, with Bing Bong acting as tour guide, Joy bouncing along, and Sadness silently sulking in the back.
"Oh, wait! Hang on just a minute!" Bing Bong said, rushing over and pushing some piled-up cards aside. From under them, he pulled out a wagon with wings taped to its side and a broomstick stuck to its back.
Joy gasped, "Your rocket!"
"Cool!" the film geek's Joy said, "Oh, that's so neat!"
"If I hear that song one more time..." Anger muttered to herself.
"Yeah!" Bing Bong said, "I've held on to it all this time so that I can take Riley to the moon!" With a swift shake of his hand, he smacked the house of cards, and they all came crashing down, ruining the mind workers labors. "Oh, I'm so sorry," he sheepishly added.
Clink! Another blue-and-yellow orb, followed swiftly by a green one.
One cut later, and the trio was still walking through, with the addition of Bing Bong's rocket. "I love imagination land!" Joy was saying.
"Isn't it great?" replied Bing Bong, "and there's always something new, like-"
They froze in their tracks and looked up at an odd machine. In front, its spinning panels formed the semblance of a teenage boy, with varying outfits and styles. With a clank, a teenage boy with overdone hair and a laid-back posture came out of the conveyor up front.
"Who the heck is that?"
"Imaginary boyfriend," a mind worker explained as he pressed another button.
"I would die for Riley!" said the 'boyfriend' in question, sounding like he was taken straight from a soap opera.
'Oh good grief,' Disgust thought to himself, 'Gag. Me. At least we never...' Suddenly, his eyes got wide. Someone was recalling a memory! Quickly he tried pulling it away, but not before a brief glimpse of a long-since-forgotten "imaginary girlfriend," popped up. It was only there for a fraction of a second, but the concept alone was cringe-inducing. Disgust groaned and felt himself blush in embarrassment as he cranked a knob and slammed his hat over his face. His cheeks weren't the only things burning, though. Over in Anger's bedroom, her wooden chair and ceiling fan had caught fire again. Smoke alarms went off. A sprinkler system activated from within.
After a moment, the sheepish sound of Joy apologizing could be heard.
Smoke billowed from Anger's room, and she stumbled out, coughing and muttering under her breath. Looking down, she saw the remote in her hand, ruined. Its buttons were popped, its wires were toast, and ash covered most of it. Snarling, she chucked it away and stomped over to the console. "Stupid," she said to herself, "Stupid stupid stupid idea! Well, if he wanted it to work so badly, then he should've given me a fireproof remote! Gah!" Folding her arms, she glared up at the screen.
Bing Bong winced at Riley's Imaginary Boyfriend. Joy shrunk back, repulsed. Sadness smiled quietly.
They wouldn't know it, but Joy and Sadness both said, "Aww" at the same time.
Disgust choked on another mint.
"I don't remember seeing you before," Joy declared, clearly not getting the concept.
"I live in Canada."
An awkward pause followed, but Joy quickly shook off her repulsed expression and the group was marching away again (with Sadness still waddling in the back, casting one last glance in the imaginary boyfriend's direction). "Hey," Bing Bong said, "Come on, we're nearly to the train!"
"Riley," Joy announced triumphantly, "Here we come!"
Meanwhile, on the outside, Riley was gearing up for hockey tryouts. A swarm of kids raced around the rink, darting left and right and sending the puck flying everywhere. Sitting beside Riley in the bleachers, Mrs. Anderson was trying to keep her daughter's spirits up and ready. When it was time for Riley to jump in, her Fear attempted to use a random hockey memory in place of a core one. That went about as well as the film geek's emotions expected, resulting in Riley's Anger giving up with and seizing the controls, throwing yet another predictable (In the real Disgust's eyes) tantrum.
"Way to stay cool, man," the real Anger said as she slurped a soda. Suddenly, she stopped, listening carefully. Mumbling. She was hearing mumbling. Setting the cup down, she squinted and strained her ears. The mumbling was coming from... right in front of her? She bent down and looked underneath the console "Fear! The heck are you doing?"
"Wha- ow!" Startled, the purple emotion had jumped up and smacked her head on the underside. Wearily, she got to her chair and dusted off. "Oh, nothing. Not a thing. Don't worry about me, I'm fine."
But Anger was still looking down, underneath the console. A web of notes and drawings was strung about in an intricate maze. "What's all this?" she asked.
"Oh, that!" Fear responded, "It's... notes."
"Notes on what?"
"No! Don't pick that up! They're all-"
Anger shoved Fear way as she read through one of the papers. "Fear," she said, "This is dumb."
"...I know," she admitted.
"You're dumb."
"I know." She slouched over in defeat only for a second before becoming jittery again. "But it's just so wrong! It's violating! Disney knows things they shouldn't know, you know?"
"No."
"I mean, why did they produce this film, huh? What... what idea was made that allowed them to see into a mind and figure out how emotions work?"
Anger just shrugged, "I dunno. What's it matter? Is there a point to all this gibberish you've made?" Fear opened her mouth to speak, but Anger finished with, "I mean besides needing a plan to be prepared for something bad."
Fear thought. She scratched her chin, bit a pencil, and strummed her fingers on the console, but to no avail. "I don't know, Anger, any more than you know why you get mad, or- or why Disgust knows why he gets..."
It was then that she noticed the emptiness of the room.
"...hey, where is everyone else, anyway?"
Anger groaned.
Over in Imagination Land, Joy was in just the right position to see Hockey Island fall with a roar of pain.
"Hockey?!" Joy exclaimed, "Oh, no! No! She loves hockey... she can't give up hockey!" Looking up at Bing Bong, she added, "We have to hurry."
"Sure thing," he said, understanding the urgency of the situation, "this way, just past Graham-Cracker Castle..."
Another shock hit them as they stepped forward. The castle was nowhere to be seen; only its crumbled foundation remained, ripped from the rest of it as mind workers swept up the excess rubble.
Disgust snorted once, thankful that he wasn't taking a drink at the time, otherwise the stinging beverage would have definitely shot out through his nostrils.
"Hey!" Bing Bong said, "Graham-Cracker Castle used to be right here! I wonder why the moved it. Hey, what's going on-" He stopped suddenly, seeing a wrecking ball as it swung high in the air, slamming into a white building that exploded into a cloud of glitter. "Princess Dreamworld!" the imaginary friend gasped. It all came crumbling down.
Disgust actually chuckled at the sight. 'That's... that's hilarious,' he thought to himself. 'They were blabbering too much for a second there, which is typical, but ripping that castle and the teddy bear more than made up for it.'
A much worse sight hit their eyes; among the piles of other junk, it was being shoveled away and thrown in with some other scraps, ready to be taken to the memory dump.
"Oh no!" Sadness exclaimed as he watched.
"Wait!" Bing Bong shouted, chasing the mind workers, "Riley and I were still using that rocket! It- I-It still has some song power left!" But they weren't listening. In his desperation, the pink elephant sung, "Who's your friend who likes to play?!"
The rocket sputtered a few notes in response, jolting forward. But it was only a minor inconvenience to the mind workers as they hauled it off. In only a matter of seconds, it and the junk it was with were being pushed towards the edge.
The blue emotion cringed.
"No!" a panicked Bing Bong said, "You can't take my rocket to the dump! Riley and I were going to the moon!"
His words fell on deaf ears, and his rocket fell into the chasm below.
Sadness let his jaw drop open.
Bing Bong slumped over in utter defeat, his watery eyes looking down at the blackness below.
Bing Bong's face was nothing but depressing, and Sadness pressed a 'Sympathetic Frown' button. Poor, poor Bing Bong.
Riley's Joy tried her best to cheer him up. "Hey, it's okay - don't be sad... everything's gonna be alright."
"She can't be done with me..." was all Bing Bong said.
"Oh, please no!" Sadness said, "Oh, that's even worse!" he began tearing up as well, his voice breaking.
Making a goofy face didn't lighten him up, he wasn't ticklish enough to laugh, and Joy's attempt at a game ("How About You Point Us to the Train Station and We Go There?") failed to help at all. Bing Bong still was on the brink of tears.
"Don't cry don't cry don't cry don't cry..." Sadness chanted to himself. His breathing became weighted with heavy gasps as he tried to keep the hot tears down. They fought against him, straining to break free and go gushing across his face. He sniffed, trying to force them in.
Quietly, Riley's Sadness sat down beside him. "That's sad," she said, "They took away you rocket."
"Sadness!" Joy said.
"Sorry," her blue coworker mumbled.
Then it got quiet again.
"K-K-Keep it to-ogether..." Sadness told himself.
"We were best friends," Bing Bong said.
"You two must have had a lot of fun together," Sadness replied.
"Oh, yeah - we sure did," through his tears, a faint smile crept onto Bing Bong's face, "Once we traveled back in time. We had breakfast twice that day..."
"Wow, I bet she really liked that."
"Oh, she did..." he said, before completely losing it. Bursting into a fountain of candy tears, Bing Bong embraced Sadness in a hug.
"It... I... I c-c-can't!" Sadness shouted, "Forget it!" and then he exploded into a fountain of tears. Crying and crying and crying, he rocked back and forth on his bed, knees up to his chest and eyes practically raining. Trembling, he forced himself to sit up with his weak arms and pressed the 'Tear Up' button on the remote. Then he went back to being a sniffling, blubbering mess. He pressed the button again. He cried again. Through tear-filled eyes, he looked back at the remote... and his crying stopped.
"Hey," he whispered, "Wh-Wh-What gives?" He pressed the device a few more times, but it didn't respond. It wasn't doing a thing! Not a flicker went through it, not a glow in response. Sadness fiddled with it some more, but it reamined dead - and the film geek remained with only a sympathetic twinge in his heart for Bing Bong, eyes completely dry. Now more puzzled than sad, the blue emotion blew his nose and composed himself before making a decision. 'Well,' he thought, 'If the remote's broke, there's no use being up here. I need to be at my station. Disgust can just get happy.'
Taking his snack and soda with him, Sadness chucked the device onto his bed and left the room.
Bing Bong finally got ahold of himself and let go. Standing up, he said, "Okay. I'm okay. The train station is this way," and promptly walked over to it.
Joy's jaw dropped as she ran to catch up with Sadness and Bing Bong. "Hey," she asked, putting a hand on Sadness's shoulder, "How did you do that?"
"Well, he was sad," Sadness explained, "So I listened to him-"
But - just as Joy was starting to understand - Bing Bong interrupted with a triumphant cry. "Hey! Guys! The train!"
There it was, the Train of Thought. With smiles all around, the trio hopped on board one of its open carts, stacked with boxes. The train took off. Joy couldn't stop grinning. "We made it!" she declared, twirling happily, "We're finally gonna get home!"
Crash! She accidentally knocked two of the boxes over, spilling a variety of chips into a pile in the center. "Oh no," she said, scrambling to fix the mess, "these facts and opinions look so similar!"
"Oh, don't worry about it," Bing Bong replied, picking some up and dumping them into the nearest empty box, "Happens all the time!"
"Pffft! Hahahahahaah! Oh, that's too funny!" Joy said, tears in is eyes from how funny he found it. Uncontrollably shaking, he fell backwards, smacking his head against the ground. It didn't slow his laughter a bit.
In HQ, nobody was feeling nearly as happy. "On a scale of one to ten," Disgust said, "I give this day an F."
Anger strangled his newspaper at that. "Well, why don't we quit standing around and do something!" With that, he kicked a chair away.
"Like what, genius?" Disgust retorted.
"Quitting!" Fear came walking in, holding a suitcase. "That's what I'm doing," he said as he stood on the recall tube's slot, "Sure, it's the coward's way out, but this coward is gonna survive!"
Joy pulled himself up, rubbing the back of his head. It hurt, but - somehow - that only made things funnier for him.
After Fear pressed the button and the tube came over him, everything shook. A torrent of recalled memories flooded the tube, pummeling the poor purple emotion. The tube retracted, and memories were spilled across the floor, with Fear at the center of the debacle.
"Bahahaah!" He guffawed. His loud laughter bounced all around the room, whose sound-proofed (Disgusts's idea) walls barely contained the emotion's outbursts. His smile faltered for a second as he recalled Disgust. It was his idea to separate the rooms. It was his idea to soundproof. It was his idea to enact this "Mixed Bag" contingency. Always finding things wrong. Always discovering something to be annoyed by. Never able to just enjoy a movie or book or anything.
With a jerk of his hand, Joy cracked open a soda can.
"We can't quit, genius!" Disgust said. In response, Fear coughed up a green memory that had been lodged in his throat. "Ew!" his green coworker said, shrinking away from the sight, "I thought we were supposed to be keeping Riley happy!"
His laughter returned, but was soon snatched away as he realized something. "I gotta go," he said. Picking up his remote, he scurried down his room's steps, not registering Sadness, whom he nearly crashed into as he rocketed down past HQ and to the restrooms. Sweet relief came soon enough, and he whistled a merry tune to himself as he walked back. His leisurely pace stopped when he saw a sign posted up by the door... courtesy of Disgust, of course: "REMEMBER TO WASH! GERMS ARE GROSS!"
Grumbling, he turned around and went back to the sinks. As the bubbles foamed up over his hands, Joy thought to himself.
'What's his deal? Who died and made him King of HQ?' He thought, actually frowning as he scrubbed his palms. 'He's a Scrooge, that's all. He hates having fun. He hates enjoying things. He hates laughing. He's way too serious... unfortunately, he's the one who happens to be in charge.' Rinsing the suds off, Joy happened to glance up in the mirror. He looked around, made sure nobody was watching, and then did his best impression of the green feeling.
"I hate that! That's cliched! Blah blah blah! I'm just... I don't like... Stop having fun... Uh..." Joy struggled to come up with a scathing, searing burn, something that would perfectly show what he felt. But he couldn't think of it. In fact, had Disgust been here, he probably would've beat Joy to the punch and made a witty remark before he could open his mouth.
'Maybe he's right...' Joy frowned at the thought. 'Maybe I am being too... simplistic. I'm like Riley's Joy, aren't I? Trying so hard to constantly make things happy, when - in reality - the human needs to feel something else. Something intelligent, not sheer, dumb happiness...' Jerking a paper towel out, Joy dried his hands off. 'No. It's wrong! Disgust's wrong. He knows about sanitation and hygiene, but so far he's done nothing but nitpick this film, pointing out every little mistake he can find! And I'm here to balance that.'
With that, the emotion slapped a smile on his face and shoved the paper towel in the trash can. He marched out of the restroom more brightly than usual.
In HQ, Sadness had arrived just after Anger and Fear left to get more snacks, and just before Joy came blasting by. "Whoa!" he shouted, "Watch out, man! You almost..." but, realizing that the living lightbulb was too far gone to hear him, he'd shrugged and gone back to his station, contemplating whether the remotes were malfunctioning for anyone else or not. A quick glance at the memories told him they were working fine for the others, as red, green, and golden spheres all lined the wall. He didn't see any of Fear's memories, but fear didn't really show up much during Disney flicks, anyways.
Sipping his drink, Sadness returned his attention to where it should be; the screen.
"That's it!" A smile and an idea hit Riley's Anger at the same time. He walked casually over to the shelf of lightbulbs and carefully picked one out. As he trotted back to the console, Disgust asked him what that was.
"Oh, nothing," he said, holding it up for all to see, "just the best idea ever! All the good core memories were made in Minnesota. Ergo, we got back to Minnesota and make more!"
"Waitwaitwait!" Fear sputtered out, "You're saying we run away?!"
"Oh no!" Fear - the real one - shouted. Sadness turned around to see the purple twig come scurrying to the control panel and flick a switch. The film geek furrowed his eyebrows in concern, and Fear sighed in relief, having done her job. Only then did she notice Sadness. "Oh, hey," she said.
"Hi."
"Well, I wouldn't call it that," Anger replied, "I call it the 'Happy Core Memory Development Program!'"
"You can't be serious!" Fear said, scandalized.
"He better not be!" grumbled Anger as she sat next to the others, a fresh bag of popcorn in hand. "That hothead has caused nothing but trouble since Joy and Sadness went missing."
"Hey!" Anger defended, "Our life was perfect until Mom and Dad decided to move to San Fran Stink Town!"
Clink! a green orb appeared in response. The others only briefly looked at it, then exchanged glances, then shrugged and kept watching the movie.
"But it's so... drastic!"
"Need I remind you how great things were there? Our room, our backyard, our friends!" Smiling with confidence, the small red emotion recalled a memory.
"Tripledent Gum-"
"-will make you smile!"
"Did I ask for the gum commercial?!" Anger screamed, shutting the replay off. Then, sheepishly, he added, "Anyway, that's my plan."
"Hm hm-hm hm!" Joy said, waltzing back up, humming the gum song. "I love it! I hope the soundtrack has a full version! That's great!" He hummed it and snapped his fingers in time as he walked back up to his room. Halfway to the door, though, he stopped. His eyes widened. He spun and jumped down the stairs, scurried across the floor and stood beside the others. "What are you guys doing here?"
Anger held up her burnt remote.
Sadness said that his was broken.
Fear said she hadn't tried hers yet.
"Minessota..." Disgust said, looking as though she was seriously considering it.
"Wait! Hold on," Fear, ever the voice of reason, said, "Shouldn't we just sleep on this or something?"
"Fine!" Anger said, voice peppered with a sarcastic laugh, "Let's sleep on it, because - hey - I'm sure jolly, fun filled times are just around the corner." That last part ended in a scowl and a clenched jaw.
"Hehahahahaah!" Joy let out his obnoxious laugh again. Wiping a tear away, he looked up as a golden orb came by, resting next to the newest green one. His smile vanished at that.
"Wh-what is it?" Fear stammered.
A pause filled the empty air as Joy thought. He opened his mouth to speak, then stopped, then started, then stopped again. This went back and forth for a while, before he closed his eyes and shook his head. After a moment's pause, he glanced down at the remote in his hands. "We should be in our rooms."
"What?!" Anger demanded, "Are you an idiot or something?!"
Joy kept his smile up and responded, "We have to go back, of course. Disgust said so! We... Disgust said so."
"Well, I would," Anger said, holding up her broken remote, "But-"
"Oh, you can use mine!" Fear happily chimed.
The others all looked at her at once. She shrunk back. Grumbling, Anger yanked the remote from Fear's hand. She inspected it closely. "Well," she said, "They're all the same, so I guess... I guess it'll work. But what about you?"
"I'll just stay here," Fear said quickly, "I'm too scared to be in my room now, anyways, and without my remote I'll need to be here."
Anger squinted suspiciously, then shrugged. "Whatever. If we can keep watching the movie, and if you can resist making us jump up and scream, then I'm good with it."
Fear smiled.
Everyone else went back to their proper rooms, with Anger not caring in the least, Sadness contemplating what to do with his remote, and Joy looking like his usual happy self. Actually, he was far more happy than usual, and his coworkers would have noticed the extra spring in his step and the larger smile on his face had they not been mentally elsewhere.
Between his trip to the bathroom and back, Joy had an idea - a brilliant idea - one that was sure to get back at Disgust and - hopefully - show him the error of his ways.
Or at least earn a giggle from Joy.
