(1:4) Defense

As Joy began to explain the inner workings of the Mind Space, Reynie's aura began to burn a brilliant lavender.

"...so, there's these things called Core Memories, and they basically - are you okay?" Joy looked at Reynie inquisitively. He didn't seem to be paying attention to her, his eyes glazed over slightly. "Reynie?" Joy waved a hand in front of his face.

"I…" He blinked. "What?"

"Are… are you okay?"

"Um… who… who are you again?"

Joy had a sinking feeling. "I'm Joy. You just bought me breakfast?"

His eyes were flickering back and forth. "I did? I don't… I can't…"

Joy looked around, and then glanced back at Reynie. "Look… I can't stay. I would help, but I'm not on the inside, so I can't fix it."

He looked extremely confused, his purple aura pulsing. "What?"

"I'm sorry."

Joy strode out of the diner.

Riley sat on the swing, pushing herself back and forth and shivering slightly. Some of the rain from the previous drizzling dripped onto her hood.

She… wasn't quite sure what to do.

She needed to find shelter, but she couldn't use her old house - someone had already started to move in, and she didn't feel like getting caught.

She pulled her arms a little closer.

Anger hated seeing Riley so… well, she wasn't exactly melancholy, or miserable. She was too objective for that. But he still wanted to get her out of the rain.

He looked over the control panel, and slammed his hands over some of the buttons in frustration.

He was tired of being alone. He was tired of making all the decisions. He was tired of being out of options.

He wanted to do something again.

His eyes flickered down to the idea slot.

He gave a smile.

Disgust followed the Mind Worker as closely as she could. He had taken her down a staircase at the back of the lounge into a dark and - *shudder* - dripping tunnel. She looked back and forth.

"Why do you even have this thing, anyway?"

The Mind Worker looked back for a second to reply. "We do some of our filming down here. Have you ever seen on of those 'I'm trapped in a cave' dreams?"

Disgust shivered slightly. "I didn't like that one all that much."

The Mind Worker shrugged. "Well, our job is just to let Riley sort through her day. If it's in the script, it's in the script. Not my fault that you didn't like it."

As the tunnel wound around a corner, Disgust asked, "When has Riley ever been in a creepy cave?"

The Mind Worker rolled his eyes. "It's more abstract than that. When has Riley gone skydiving either? Generally, abandonment, loneliness, failure, and other things that come from Abstract Thought guide what kind of film we create or rerun that night." As they ducked under a low hanging bit, the Mind Worker continued. "You have to remember that there's more than just us in this mind. A lot of our props come from Imagination Land, and Long Term provides a lot of the memories from the day that we can use."

Disgust shuddered at a pile of slime on one side of the walkway, and carefully stepped around it. "And one of those places is the Subconscious?"

"Yeah." The Mind Worker nodded. "We actually use some of the fears from there for the occasional dream. We try to keep it to a minimum, but sometimes it's for the best, you know?"

"But… wouldn't it be better to never do that at all?"

The Mind Worker sighed. "Look. If it exists in Riley's Mind Space, it's important for her to have. Everyone here has a purpose, and just because you don't know what it is, or understand why they have to do it, doesn't mean that you should shun them for it."

"But those are Riley's fears! Those things she never really wants to think about in the first place!"

"Yes. But if she didn't have those fears, and she never remembered them, how would she know to be afraid of them?"

Disgust opened her mouth to retort, then closed it. They rounded a corner, and came upon a set of stairs.

"We're almost there," the Mind Worker called back. They stumbled up to a door set into the cave wall.

The Mind Worker pushed the door open.

Anger shuffled through the piles of ideas.

"No, we're not going to find a cardboard box. And we're not sneaking into our old house - that'd be awful. Come on, I know it's in here somewhere. It's- aha!" He pulled out the bulb with a flourish. "I knew it!"

He walked back over to the console and looked at the idea. "You'd better work."

The glass glimmered as he slid the base into the slot. His fingers crossed behind his back.

The light stalled for a moment, the flickered to life.

Riley was rubbing hands over her arms when an idea slowly seeped into her mind.

She stood up and grabbed her backpack, already walking before the idea had fully formed in her mind.

Anger watched as the idea glowed brighter.

Reynie stared down at the table. Several plates that obviously used to be full of food were off to his left. His eyes flickered to the door that had just shut with a clang from the bell over the frame. He looked down at his hands.

What had happened?

Reynie's Fear was not having a good day. In fact, he was willing to say that it was the worst day he had ever had.

"You know we can't let him know about us!"

It was mostly because he kept getting ripped at verbally by Joy.

"Why not?" Reynie's Joy was nailing Fear. "You put his memories into the dump! You don't just do that!"

"He can't know!"

"Well now he's just going to dredge up the Facts from Inductive Reasoning! Dumping the Memories didn't help at all!"

"Without the initial emotion to run off, the Facts break down faster!"

Joy flung her hand out towards a overhang with a window over a vista. Her finger pointed at a large mass of land attached to their tower by a string. "He has Curiosity Island for a reason, Fear! He's not going to stop trying to find out what happened!"

"Well, you know what, I want to know too! But I also know that that is dangerous!"

Joy ran a hand through his hair. "You… I…" She sighed. "Don't blame me if this blows up in your face."

She turned and walked over to the console, her head hanging slightly.

Fear was left with a feeling of foreboding.

Sadness's eyes blinked open to a pink trunk poking her.

A pink smiling face beamed down at her. "I think we need to get moving." It placed a pair of glasses on her face, and she saw Bing Bong, offering a paw. "Are you ready to go?"

Sadness grabbed the offered hand, and was yanked to her feet. "I definitely feel better."

Bing Bong grinned. "Then let's go! I can't wait to see Riley!"

He turned and ducked out of the door.

As she stumbled over the doorframe following him, the Librarian came up next to her. She pressed something into her hand and started to speak.

"This is your friend's Daydream. Keep it safe."

As she turned and walked away, Sadness couldn't help but feel she was drastically underprepared.