I had some guests ask a few questions I wanted to address:

What does Joy look like?
She looks almost the same as she does as an emotion - just nix the glow and give her a slightly more human body type.

How long is this going to be?
I don't really know. Considering current chapter lengths, lots of chapters.

What happened during the Interlude?
To be very clear: The Joy in the Interlude is not the Joy from Riley's mind. He is a he, and is Doctor Lyre's Joy. Also, I was trying to imply that Lyre was… well… mentally unbalanced? I mean, he obviously has some problems in his Mind Space. I'll leave it to you to figure out what they are.

What are the 'auras' around the humans? Are they emotions too?
Joy doesn't have an aura as far as she can tell, so no, they aren't emotions. Instead, Joy is seeing [spoilers.] (Give it a few chapters.)

(1.3) Afraid

Disgust was not happy. Her foot tapped on the floor as she regarded the Mind Worker that was currently laughing and rolling around on the ground. His blade, which turned out to be one of the (fairly dull) prop pieces, had landed on the floor with a clatter.

As the laughter wound down, she crossed her arms. The Mind Worker gave a few last giggles and sat up. "I'm sorry, it's just… *snicker* you're the worst fear I've ever seen."

Disgust blinked. "What? I'm not Fear, I'm Disgust."

"I know. I'm pretty sure you're not a fear. Just give me a second." The Mind Worker gazed her up and down critically. "Yeah, you're not."

"Well, thanks. Don't take my word for it." Disgust flipped her hair.

"Well, who are you?"

Disgust rolled her eyes. "I already told you. I'm Disgust."

The Mind Worker scratched his head. "It's not ringing a bell. What's your standard role?"

"What?"

"Are you from Dream Productions?"

"Uh… no." Disgust wrinkled her brow. "Is that bad?"

"How long ago were you out there?" The Mind Worker gazed at her. "Was it from the past day or so?"

"Yes. Why?"

"How were you not killed? It's suicide out there!" The Mind Worker was waving his hands wildly.

"It seemed pretty normal to me… except for the fact that there is not a single person outside." Disgust looked behind her through the door. "What's up out there, anyway?"

"You… you're the luckiest person I've ever met, then." The Mind Worker rubbed at his forehead. "Look, a couple of complete idiots came through yesterday and decided to wake Riley up early. To do it, they smashed the door to the Subconscious open. So, now, there's a bunch of things Riley's afraid of running about Dream Productions. We can't even turn on our cameras for fear of one of them showing up in the middle of the recording."

"A couple of complete idiots? What did they look like?"

The Mind Worker deadpanned. "That's what you got from that speech?"

"Well, I am in the middle of a hunt for my co-workers."

"Your co-workers, huh?" He sighed. "Fine. One of them is golden, kind of sparkly, and a bit taller than you." Disgust nodded to herself. "One was shorter than you, and blue." Disgust smiled. It was them! "The last one was pink, had a trunk, and was a taller than the yellow one."

Disgust blinked. "What?"

"Looked sort of like an elephant? Had a bushy tail?"

"I… don't know him." Disgust scratched her head. "I can't help but feel that I have, though."

The Mind Worker shrugged. "Well… I wouldn't advize going out there anytime soon until we fix this mess."

Disgust looked out of the door. "Why? I mean-"

She blinked. Then, she slammed the door shut.

"You're right. Not going out there."

The Mind Worker walked towards the window. "Why? What's- oh, yeah. The broccoli parade is low priority compared to some of the other ones. Not as destructive, you know?"

Disgust huddled, pushing against the door to try and ward off the evils outside.

The Mind Worker rolled his eyes. "Look, I'll get you somewhere safe if you're willing to help us."

Disgust nodded rapidly.

Anger watched as Riley splashed into a puddle as she dismounted the bus.

They were finally here.

He gave a snarl, and went over to the glowing bulb that was sunk into the console. "You can come out now."

He started to tap on it and twist it in an attempt to dislodge it.

It finally sprang out of the slot - and slammed him in the face.

He growled, took the offending bulb, and smashed it on the ground. "You are not coming back." He took his foot and ground the shards into a powder.

He took back his seat at the console.

Fear flipped the page in his mind manual and scanned down the page before shutting the book and rubbing at his eyes.

"See? You haven't even found anything." The voice echoed in his mind. Fear grimaced.

On the contrary.

"What? You can't tell me looking through that useless thing was actually helpful."

It was helpful. But that's besides the point.

"Then what is?"

Fear took a deep breath. You want to know what I know? I know that you're scared.

"Am not!" The voice was quick to reply.

You are. I can tell. It's my job. Fear clenched his fist in nervousness.

"I am not! Being afraid is not logical!" The voice was slightly flustered.

Fear leaned in. Then why are you so nervous?

"I'm not!" It was bordering on panicked now.

Fear closed his eyes. I beg to differ.

He waited.

The voice was silent.

Fear gave the voice another moment, then gave a victorious smile. He cracked open his book and once again began to read.

Sadness, having just condensed from the aether, blinked. She could see Bing Bong, who had just taken a step towards her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?" The static and fuzziness in the noise was gone.

"I…" Sadness wasn't quite sure. She felt like something was missing, but at the same time like something new had been added in. They didn't replace each other, but she still felt complete... somehow. She settled for a moderate response. "I'm fine."

"Great! It worked!" Bing Bong picked her up and squeezed her in a hug. "That was amazing!"

Sadness leaned on his chest. "It was?"

"Yeah! I've never seen anything like it. You were all whoosh and flames and wind. It was awesome!" He put her back on the ground.

She blinked. "Well, I may have just become a Daydream, but I-" she yawned, "-am exhausted."

Bing Bong nodded. "I think we have a little time." He looked about, and spotted the Librarian. "Hey! Can we stay here for a little bit to recover?"

The Librarian was staring around the messy room, at which she shook her head. "That's fine. I have to clean up this mess." She made a knuckle cracking motion, but with no actual knuckles to crack, no noise came. "There's a bedroom in the back right."

Sadness stumbled towards the aforementioned location as the Librarian began picking up the place behind her at top speed. She looked up at Bing Bong.

"Thanks for helping me with that. I… I'm not sure I would have made it out without your advice."

Bing Bong smiled at her. "You're helping me see Riley again. It's the least I could do."

Sadness opened the door, and turned as she was entering. "You've… really been helpful. Can you wake me up in a hour or two?"

Bing Bong nodded, and Sadness closed the door.

Joy was feeling much better. Her headache had abated enough for her to have a normal conversation. It had only taken four orders of eggs, two plates of pancakes, and a slice of breakfast pizza.

She looked over at Reynie.

He was sitting across from her and had his hands folded on the table. "So… what were you even doing in that alley?"

Joy cringed slightly. "It's… a long story."

Reynie leaned in. "I've got time."

"I'm not really sure you'd understand. I mean, I don't understand."

"Well, maybe I can help." Reynie tilted his head. "Can you at least try?"

"I… I guess." Joy looked down. "Just don't call me crazy, okay?"

"I won't."

"Here it goes then." She took a breath. "It all started when Riley moved to San Francisco…"