Before we begin, there's something that I'll bet is one every one of your minds. Having read chapters 9, 31, and 4 of "Name That Mind!", "Whose Mind Is This, Anyway?", and "Guess Whose Mind", respectively, you were probably thinking, 'Woah. The three guessing game stories updated at so short a time frame? That's weird. Must be a coincidence. Hey, wait a sec - they all describe the same scene. They even have the same epilogue! This can't be a coincidence.'
You're right. It's not.
This was the first-ever Guessing Game Collaboration! Steveles, Lonelystar and Goldendragon, and I all collaborated on the exact same scene (which I'm not going to reveal here, go read it yourself). I certainly hope it won't be the last. Oh, for the record, I can't take credit for the epilogue. That was Lonelystar's ;)
And now, without further ado, the totally-unrelated-to-the-other-guessing-game-stories next chapter of Name That Mind!
Well, what are you waiting for? NAME THAT MIND! (Btw, if anyone gets this reference, they get a virtual cookie.)
This is from a play.
The outside world passed in a blur, and things were almost as busy in Headquarters. The emotions laughed, patted each other on the backs, and generally celebrated a job well done. Of course, Fear had been constantly reminding them the entire trip, the job wasn't quite done yet. The rest had been forced to agree with him, but that didn't prevent them from celebrating.
"I wonder what he wants us to do with this, anyway," Sadness quipped.
"What's been on his mind for I don't know how long?" Anger asked.
Sadness nodded assent, returning (as usual) to the back of Headquarters. She had a perfectly clear of the Personality Islands, out there in the jungle that was the Mindscape. Bright and colorful, they shimmered and sparkled as they came into use. Mischief Island was almost never inactive, as was Obedience Island. Magic Island was active right now as well, in harmony with Acrobatics Island. Joy had created most of the Islands by himself (except for Obedience, he'd had Fear's help with that one). In fact, if it wasn't Joy at the relatively small console, it was Fear, or else the two were working together. Disgust, Anger, and especially Sadness rarely, if ever, got a chance to help out. Sadness didn't necessarily like it, but there was nothing she could really do about it.
"We're here!" Joy announced, tugging the branch on the log that served as console which would slow their host down. The other emotions, eager to see what was going on, crowded around him. Joy didn't react to the sudden lack of space, but continued the conversation as if nothing had happened. New orders were given, and soon Joy had things on the move again.
"Over there, I think that's who we want." Disgust pointed to a humanoid shape on one side of their window. "The clothing makes it pretty clear, if you ask me."
"And there's the other one," Anger added.
Joy replied, "That was quick!" and moved his hands all over the console. The task was swiftly completed, and after a brief celebratory moment between the emotions, they were off once more.
They hadn't been moving long when Fear suddenly brought them to a screeching halt. "We're gonna get spotted!" he squaeled.
"What is it?" Sadness inquired.
Disgust ignored her and shook his head. "I'm not even going to try to attempt to make sense of this..."
"I can't believe they actually think this is good," Anger added.
Joy, meanwhile, had developed an all-too-familiar gleam in his eyes. Unseen by the other bantering emotions, he lightly stepped over the dirt and rocks to the knothole where idea candles were kept and picked out the perfect one. This is gonna be fun...
Meanwhile, on the outside, the Athenian ametuer actors continued to rehearse what they belived to be a play. The star slipped offstage for a moment, intending to wait for his next cue.
He didn't notice the rustling of branches in the canopy above him.
He didn't notice the conspicuous transformation of his own head.
And he certainly didn't notice the barely contained laughter of Robin Goodfellow, Oberon's gentle puck, merry wanderer of the night.
There's a good reason for using a nearly 400-year-old character here! Not only do I love Shakespeare in general, but I also got to perform one of Robin's (not Puck, as is so commonly believed) monolauges for a competition recently. That seemed like a good reason to get into his head. Here are the hints I placed:
1. Notice the naturey feel of Headquarters and the Mind in general. Robin, like the other fairies, lives and operates in the forest outside Athens.
2. There are mixed genders for the emotions. Two reasons for this, actually: Robin is very childlike in nature, and ambiguous in gender (I've seen boys and girls alike in the role, I myself emphasized the characteristic in my monologue).
3. You cannot play Robin and not imbue the role with childlike energy and happiness, so naturally Joy is the head honcho up there. However, he has his moments of fear (getting chewed out by Oberon) and disgust (that was added by me, I made him a bit sarcastic when talking about the Rude Mechanicals).
4. Okay, okay, I didn't physically describe the emotions. It's a play, so there's no set appearance for Robin. I wanted to emphasize that.
5. The islands all scream Robin Goodfellow: a mischievous, dexterous magic user with a strong sense of duty towards his master Oberon.
6. I started with Robin returning from getting the Love-in-Idleness flower. (I have him going fast because he claims he can "put a girdle round the earth in forty minutes".) He talks to Oberon, puts the flower juice in the eyes of the first Athenian guy he sees ("Weeds of Athens he doth wear!"), then runs into the workmen's "play" and gets the idea to... you know what? Go check out the play yourself to see what happens next. It's too good to spoil!