Andrew sat at home one morning at the table, alone, eating his breakfast, bowl after bowl of cereal. Because this task demanded such little focus, the emotions decided to pass the time by watching an old joyful memory; one of Andrew's favorite episodes of The Nostalgia Critic, a comedian whose show centered around him reviewing bad movies and making fun of them.
An alert came up on the dashboard, indicating that the train of thought had arrived at Headquarters for a delivery.
"I'll get it!" Joy announced as he sprang from his seat and slid over to the doorway where the delivery would be dropped off.
The other five emotions stared back at the screen and watched the show. After a few minutes, Joy came back.
"Alright," He said. "We got some more daydreams, and – ooh!"
"What? What is it?" Fear asked.
"It's part of a manuscript for another fanfic idea!"
"Oh! Wow!" Fear paused the memory as he and the other emotions got up to have a look at the manuscript. Anger was slightly annoyed, as he was enjoying the show, but he got up anyway.
"So what's this one about?" Fear asked, clearly excited.
"Let's see…" Joy skimmed through the pages before answering. "It's a crossover between Five Nights at Freddy's and The Evil Within. Sebastian and Joseph investigate the murders going on at the pizzeria!" He passed the manuscript around so everyone could have a look at it.
"Wow!" Anger exclaimed. "There's a part about Seb and Joseph interrogating Mike at his apartment! Andrew's already got most of their dialogue thought up. This is good stuff!" He looked through a bit more. "There's another part about them interrogating the manager!"
Sadness got to see next. "I like this one part about Seb talking to Joseph about how much he hates child murderers," he said. "It goes into Seb's character and his past with his family."
"Yeah!" Joy exclaimed. "This is a great idea! Can't wait to get around to writing it!"
That night at home though, Andrew did not get started on writing that fanfic like he and his emotions had planned earlier. Instead, after a long day of work, Andrew was happy to sit in the basement and play some video games, in this case, specifically, Skyrim.
In fact, Andrew did not get to work on the fanfic for the next couple of weeks. He seemed more interested in spending his free time either playing video games, watching TV shows and movies on Netflix, or going to the gym.
The fanfic was not discussed or addressed by Andrew or the emotions again until about two weeks later. Andrew was once again playing Skyrim in the basement. Five out of the six emotions were watching Andrew playthrough with glee.
"Woo!" Anger cheered. "Take that, dragon!"
The illusion was broken when Logic cleared his throat, drawing everyone's attention to him.
"There is a matter that I think we need to discuss," he stated.
"Umm, okay, if you say so," Fear shrugged. "Assembly, everyone."
Andrew, playing his game, and being in the all-too-familiar state of pure bliss, didn't need any extra guidance from his emotions at the moment, so they left the console unattended as they got together at the table.
"It's about the fanfic idea," Logic started.
"Fanfic? What fanfic?" Fear asked.
"The crossover story between Five Nights and Evil Within." Logic placed the manuscript on the table.
"Oh yeah! That one!" Joy exclaimed, nodding his head. "What about it?"
"Andrew is never going to get around to writing it, and we are never going to motivate him to do so. Therefore I propose we dispose of it."
"Woah woah what?" Joy stammered. "Bu – but it's such a great idea! You can't be serious!"
"Joy, this guy is always serious," Anger grunted. "But yeah I'm with Joy. I mean it's a good idea! Lots of readers I'm sure will like it!"
Logic continued. "The fact of the matter is that a story of this premise demands a lot of time and commitment. And I am certain that neither we nor Andrew intend on committing that much to something that will have such a minuscule impact on Andrew's life.
"Miniscule impact?" Joy repeated. "What do you mean?"
"I mean Andrew will not make any money from it, and it is not applicable to any jobs or resumes. In other words, it is entirely unproductive.
"Well how's that any different from video games or TV?" Fear asked.
"Watching shows is productive in the sense that it increases Andrew's knowledge of media and entertainment, and video games are euphoric. Writing fanfics, however, is less euphoric, I'm sure we've all noticed.
"But… it's…" Joy stuttered, trying to think of a counter point.
"You're right, Logic," Sadness sighed. "Let's face it; at this point in our life, we have more important things to commit to and focus on than fanfics. We're gonna have to start working on our thesis soon, and then we'll be finding a job after college, and then we should try to write a real novel… it's just too much. Video games and TV shows are just a better use of our free time.
"But…" Finally, Joy relented and let out a sigh of defeat, unable to argue against the points Logic and Sadness were making.
"Well… okay then," Fear spoke up. "Are you guys sure about this? I mean I do still think it would be a neat story to write."
"There is no doubt," Logic replied.
"Fear sighed and hung his head. "Okay then."
"I'll do it," Sadness said. He got up from his seat and picked up the manuscript, and then headed over towards the Headquarters trashcan. Halfway there, he looked back at Joy and Fear, both of whom were clearly devastated by this decision.
"This sucks," Anger huffed.
Disgust, who had said nothing throughout this talk, was pouting, expressing his own disappointment.
"I'm sorry guys," Sadness whispered, finally reaching the trashcan. Without anymore hesitation, he dropped the manuscript down the can, knowing the pages would fall straight down through a pipe and down into the Memory Dump where the idea would fade away from Andrew's memory.
Author's Note: This is legitimately a problem I have with my fanfics, I get all these great ideas for long fanfics, but they're all really long ones and I can't or won't make time for them. Anyone else know this feeling? Having all these great fanfic ideas, but never the time to write them up?