"Joy?" Disgust asked, rubbing his head, "What the heck are you..." His voice trailed off as he noticed the dropped memory orbs. He quickly shot Joy a rebuking glare. "What's that?!"
Joy immediately jumped to his feet. "Uh... uh..." he began, trying to come up with something. He looked around. Fear's worried eyes met his. Quickly, Joy jabbed a finger at the monitor. "Hey!" he announced, "Hang on, I gotta handle this."
Hopping in happiness, the trio found themselves boarding the Train of Thought just in time, as Riley woke up for the start of a new day. As the machine streamed off into the air, Joy couldn't contain herself. "Guess who's heading to Headquarters?"
"We are!" Sadness enthused, a rare smile crossing her mouth. Truly, spirits were high among the group.
Running over, Joy yanked a lever, and the Film geek felt his lips curve into a warm smile. Joy smiled, too.
"Ahem."
His smile vanished and he spun around, eye-to-eye with Disgust, who had just finished returning the orbs to their proper place. "You know, Joy," he said in mock confusion, "There are a lot of empty slots here. What do you suppose is going on?" His cold stare met Joy.
While the trio in the Train of Thought may have been elated, the same couldn't be said for those up in HQ, as Anger and Disgust groggily made their way to the main room. Noticing Fear, curled up in a ball on the floor, Anger scowled. "He did it again!" he complained, irate. As Fear continued muttering to himself about clowns, parties, and Bing-Bong, Anger made his way over to the lightbulbs. "This is ridiculous!" he proclaimed, "We can't even get a decent night's sleep anymore! Time to take action." Reaching in, he pulled out the 'Happy Core Memory Development' lightbulb and held it up for the others to see.
"Ah!" Fear yelped, "No! Please, oh, please don't- don't do it!"
"They're gonna do it," Disgust nonchalantly responded, his eyes not breaking contact with Joy, "It makes sense for the plot, just watch."
Fear whimpered.
Getting a grip on himself, Fear managed to look nervously at the bulb and mutter out, "N-no... no no no no no..." the vote was tied. They looked over at Disgust, who - after the slightest of hesitations - nodded.
"Let's do it," she said, resigned. With that, Anger trotted right over to the console and Riley began looking up something on her computer.
"So..." Fear nervously ventured, "H-How are we gonna get back to Minnesota, exactly?"
"Oh," said Anger with a false tone of cheer, "We'll just go down to the elephant lot and rent an elephant!"
Disgust, still locked to Joy's gaze, flicked a switch on his remote. The film geek snickered at Riley's Anger's cynical bite. A green orb came in.
"Hey!" Joy spat, "What do you think-"
But he was interrupted. "I'm waiting," Disgust said as he tapped his foot, "Tell me where you put the other orbs."
Joy was about to say something, second-thought himself, then slammed his mouth shut and forced a scowl onto his face. His green coworker raised a single eyebrow, as if to say, "Is that the best you've got? You're really bad at this."
"Ooh," Fear nodded, seeming to like the idea, "That sounds good!"
"We're taking the bus, nitwit!" Anger flared through gritted teeth, causing his purple coworker to flinch in response, continuing to guide Riley's actions. As she scrolled down the webpage, determination in her eyes, she noted something. "There's a bus leaving tomorrow," Anger said, "perfect."
"How are we gonna get money to pay for it?" Disgust asked.
"Mom's purse," Anger nonchalantly explained.
"Aaaaagh!" A roar came from Anger's room, yanking everyone's attention. Smoke billowed out. Disgust slapped himself in the face as his small red coworker coughed and hacked her way out of her room, still clutching the remote. "It's not broken!" she announced, holding the untouched remote up in the air, "I just want you all to know that I did not melt Disgust's precious little remote!" That's when she noticed Disgust and Joy standing down beside the console.
Sadness peeked his head out of his room. "What's..." he began, but then noticed the tension in HQ. "Oh," he sheepishly muttered before yanking his head back in and closing the door.
Disgust let out a scandalized gasp at Anger's suggestion. "You wouldn't!"
"Oh, but I would. Now, let's see... where did we see it last?" He pressed a recall button.
"Tripledent Gum-"
Before the song could continue, Anger's eyes widened and his pupils shrunk as he hollered, "Not now!"
"Heh," Joy and Disgust said instinctively, each pressing a button at the same time. The coincidence only reminded them of each other's presence, and they locked figurative swords again.
"What?" Joy asked.
The song went right away, seemingly scared of Anger's outburst. After a moment to recompose himself, the small red cube concluded, "It's downstairs somewhere. Mom and Dad got us into this mess, they can pay to get us out of it."
"Nothing!" Disgust insisted, "What's your problem?"
"Nothing!" Joy replied as he stood tall, "What's yours? What's your deal? Why can't you just sit back and enjoy-"
Blissfully unaware of the disaster that was cooking, Bing Bong was giving an impromptu 'tour' of Riley's mind to Joy and Sadness. "This is really a great view," he said happily, pointing things out as they passed by off-screen, "You can see everything from this high up - look, there's 'Reasoning,' there's 'Deja Vu,' there's 'The English Language,' there's 'Deja Vu,' there's 'Critical Thinking,' there's 'Deja Vu'...," then something caught his eye in the train cart, something he probably should've noticed already but somehow had failed to up until now. "Hey, look! Memories!" He happily went over to investigate, leaving Joy a moment to talk to Sadness.
Disgust had been gradually tightening his grip on the remote during the entire playout, and - as a result - the Film Geek felt more and more annoyance the more Bing Bong talked. "Well," Disgust said with a mockingly sweet tone, "Since you asked: that is the reason!" A firm green finger jutted at the screen. "I can't stand idiotic, childish jokes that repeat themselves, I can't stand obnoxiously happy, bright, joyful things (both, might I add, are items this film's filled to the brim with), and I most definitely can't stand that irritating pink moron! Hence, the 'overabundance' of green memory orbs. Now, tell me why you stole them!"
Joy scoffed, "Well, I never-"
"Hey, that's right..." Disgust said, "You've never bothered asking me. Oh, sure, you always demand an explanation for my annoyances, but you never ask me why we should feel annoyed. You always just assumed I was being arbitrary, spiteful for the sake of spite. And now you've taken it too far."
"Hey..." she said with a warm, genuine smile, "That was smart thinking back there, waking Riley up. Not so bad."
"Really?" Sadness asked, seeming to scarcely believe what she was hearing.
"Yep," Joy affirmed, walking to the train car's center. Sadness followed, grinning at the compliment.
Still glaring, Joy reflexively slapped Disgust's reaching hand away and tapped a button on the control panel. 'Aww...' thought the Film Geek to himself, warmly glowing at the sight of Riley's two emotions beginning to get along like the friends they should be.
They sat quietly in the train for a moment or two before Bing Bong asked,"Hey, is this Riley?" in his hands was a golden memory, one of Riley being lifted high in the air by her hockey teammates. But that wasn't what caught the imaginary friend's attention. "She's so big now! How will she fit in the rocket? We gotta get to the moon somehow..."
Now it was Disgust's turn to scoff. He shoved Joy back and pressed a button. The Film Geek rolled his eyes at what he felt was utter stupidity on Bing Bong's part. He wasn't sure why, but Bing Bong really got under his skin.
While Bing Bong pondered his minor conundrum, Joy was taken with nostalgia. "Oh wow! That was a great one! Remember?" she looked over at Sadness, showing her the orb, "The hockey team showed up and Mom and Dad did, too... this is one of my favorites!"
"Oh, is that how it is?" Joy snarled.
"You started it, Tinker Bell!"
"Hey! Don't you call me-"
"Guys!" Fear ran up, standing between them, "We-we- w..." she paused and noticed that Disgust and Joy weren't even registering her presence. They weren't looking at her, they were looking through her and at eachother. She felt like she was between two ends of a tightly wound guitar string. Nervously, she chuckled. "I'll - I'm gonna... Sadness!" She darted off and jumped into Sadness's room, slamming the door shut behind her.
Joy and Fear began circling the room's center, their heads unmoving as each laser-focused on his "enemy." Anger fidgeted, trying hard to find a non-angry solution to diffuse the situation. Unfortunately, no ideas were coming.
"Mine, too," Sadness nodded with her always faint voice and smile.
Joy looked taken aback, but quickly grinned, "There!" she said with encouragement, "'Atta girl! Now you're getting it!" Her happiness soon faded, though; rather than enjoying the golden gleam of the memory, Sadness pointed out probably one of the most depressing things Riley had experienced.
"That was the day we missed the winningshot, and cost the Prarie Dogs the playoffs." Unaware of the shock on Joy's face, Sadness continued on happily, "We felt so bad, we just went off and cried..." That's when she looked up and noticed. "Sorry," she meekly mumbled, "I got sad again, didn't I?"
Curled up on Sadness's bed, hidden under blankets, Fear peeked out and watched as the blue emotion, seated comfortably on his bean-bag chair, pressed a button and the Film Geek felt a twinge of sympathy for Riley's Sadness. "So," the real Sadness said, "They're basically about to fight?"
"Y-Y-Yeah! Do something! Calm them down!"
"Right... I don't think I can."
"What?!"
The emotion sighed heavily. "Let them work it out on their own. Trust me, they really need to."
"But- but- but-"
"Look," Sadness said, rubbing his head, "Are they forgetting to react to the movie?"
"What? Well... well, no, but-"
"Then they're still functioning, and they're still doing their jobs."
Fear just trembled under the blankets.
Sadness gave up explaining the situation. He wished he could help. He wished he could comfort Fear and let her feel better or go out and diffuse the situation. But the fact remained; nobody felt sad. Fear was afraid, Joy was angry, and Disgust was equally as mad. Sadness couldn't do a single thing. So, in his opinion, the best solution was to not interfere and risk complicating things further.
Always one to put a positive spin on things, her golden friend simply said, "Eh, we'll just work on that when we're back in HQ!"
And, on that note, the scene changed again.
Hesitantly, quietly, Riley snuck downstairs in her dimly lit house. There it was; Mom's purse, on the dining room table, illuminated by the kitchen's sparse light. While this made things easier, it also made it more difficult - Riley's mom was in the kitchen, her back turned to the purse and too wrapped up with a phone call to notice her little girl walk up to the leather bag.
Fear sat bolt-upright, mouth open. "Oh, she can't- she- she-"
Quietly - oh so quietly - Riley flipped it open and took out the credit card.
"Ah!" Without thinking, the purple emotion lept from the bed, knocking Sadness over and grabbing his remote, slamming on a button. The Film Geek tensed up. "What?" Fear asked, looking at the remote. "What? No! I told you to scream!"
"Oh," Sadness said, "The sensitivity's-"
That was when her mom turned around.
"Aaaaaah!" Fear shouted. The Film Geek felt his eyes automatically widen in heart-pounding tension. His nostrils sucked in a sudden breath of air. His 'underwhelmed' (in Fear's eyes) reaction only made the purple twig scream louder and panic more, all while Sadness tried to explain how dull the remote was. His words fell on deaf, or - rather - overwhelmed ears.
For a stunned moment, it looked like she would be caught. Her mom's eyes were down, however, and she didn't see Riley quickly dart away. By the time she looked up again, Riley had left, leaving not a trace behind, and her mom returned to the phone call.
"Oh, whew," Fear said, handing the remote back to Sadness (not even registering his tumbled-over state). Without a word, the blue emotion grabbed a second chair and sat down in it, adjusted his sweater, and resumed watching the film.
She might not have made a noise on the outside, but inside her head, an earthquake violently shook 'Honesty Island.' Before anyone could react, the floating landmass crumbled, toppled, and careened into the Train of Thought, sending it falling down to the Memory Dump.
"Nooo!" Fear panicked. She lunged over for the remote, hitting Sadness again and knocking him over once more. Frantic purple fingers jabbed a variety of warning buttons, and their host felt his heart begin pounding again. "They're gonna die! They-" she looked at Sadness and yelled, "They're gonna be gone forever!"
"I'm right here," came the blue emotion's barely-audible mumble.
If it weren't for the cliffside rushing up to slam into it, all might have been lost. As it was, the cliff caught the derailed train, giving the nearby mindworkers just enough time to scramble over and help pull everyone out. Then, creaking, groaning in protest, the Train of Thought plunged into the darkness with a thunderous crash.
"Oh thank goodness," Fear sighed as she melted down into the beanbag chair. Sadness was about to ask for his remote back, but then realized what was happening on screen and thought better of it. He'd probably not be needed anytime soon.
"We lost another one?" Joy said, on the brink of a total meltdown as the stress sunk into her, "What is happening?" She looked scared.
"Haven't you heard?" a mindworker said, surprised that Joy seemed so out of the loop, "Riley's running away."
The news slammed into Joy like a car. Empty quiet settled on the group. Joy was at a loss for words.
Up in HQ, Fear wasn't quite at a loss for words. "Hang on, guys!" he finally got up the guts to say, letting Riley pause in the middle of packing to think about what she was doing. "Are we really sure about this? This is serious!"
"Yes!" Fear said, "Exactly! Stop it! Just- Just don't run-"
Anger wasted no time debating as he shoved Fear aside. "We've got no core memories! You want to make Riley happy? Let's go back to Minnesota and make more." With a scowl of determination, Riley finished packing her backpack and moved confidently downstairs.
"Noooo..." She groaned, gripping the remote tightly. Sadness reached over quickly, trying to pry her fingers off.
"Hey! Not so tight!"
The clink of a blue-and-purple memory orb could faintly be heard.
Inside, Sadness was the first to speak up. "Joy," she said quickly, motioning off in the distance, "If we hurry, we can still stop her!" Joy followed her shorter friend's gaze, to...
"Family Island!" the golden emotion exclaimed. Resolute, she added, "Let's go!" before running off, leaving Bing Bong and Sadness to keep pace as they ran towards the last thing that made Riley Riley. However, the closer they got to the island, the more Riley became detached from her parents, and by the time the trio had made it to their destination, said destination was undergoing too-familiar spasms.
"Joy!" Sadness said, grabbing her and forcing her to stop, "It's too dangerous! We won't make it in time!" As if to enforce Sadness's point, the Island let loose giant boulders of rubble as it continued its death throes.
Eyes wide, Joy didn't seem to register what was happening before them. "But that's our only way back!"
"I-... I..." Fear stuttered, at a loss for words as the situation escalated. She still had the remote seized in her hands, slamming a button tightly. There would be no relenting while the suspense was still running, so Sadness made the most of it as he reached over and tapped a button himself. Clink. Another mixed memory.
Another violent tremble shook the area, knocking off a chunk of land nearby. Its rip - in turn - tore open a shelf of memories, exposing a recall tube beneath. "A recall tube!" Joy exclaimed, "We can get recalled!" Said tube came loose. Now open, the suction was gone and the tube was useless... but not to Joy. To Joy, it was a way back. She didn't wait. She ran. She ran right up to the tube, Sadness shortly behind her.
"Hurry, hurry, hurry!" Fear shouted, jumping from her chair and practically slamming her face against the monitor, "Just get in!" It may have been him overreacting, but Sadness could've sworn he felt a crack in Fear's voice, a twinge of gloom.
Riley had just reached the front door, when her Mom called to her. "Hey, see you later sweetie!" she said.
"Have a good day at school, monkey!" Her Dad called out as he moved a box around. Riley worriedly glanced over, but steeled herself and pressed on with her decision, determined to go to the only place she'd ever considered home.
"I... I can't..." Fear trembled, tears filling her eyes. Sadness stepped over. "There, there," he said, patting her back, "It's just a movie, okay?"
"I know, but... but they're gonna die!"
And so Fear became a fountain of salty tears, leaning on Sadness's shoulder. "Here's the tissues," he said, handing her the box. They've done this routine before. Frequently, in fact.
Anger had resolved to do the one thing she knew how to do: her job. Ignoring the escalating barbs and words from Joy and Disgust, she'd stepped up to the console to ensure that everything she needed to do was covered. And, hopefully, something would enrage them enough for the two bickering fools to come to a ceasefire. But they weren't. They kept going. And Anger's anger only grew on the inside.
"You're just a little green punk who hates everything that's nice!"
Anger gritted her teeth.
Joy, Sadness, and Bing Bong arrived at the tube as Riley's mind protested against her running away. In one swift motion, Joy stepped up to jump in the tube, with Sadness scrambling behind her. At once, a sharp ringing emitted; the cores were turning blue again.
"Let me know when you come up with good insults, glowstick. Now, for the last time: where are the orbs?! Or will I have to start seeing fluffy white bunnies and pretty flowers everywhere before you let me in on the secret?"
Anger breathed in, and breathed out, trying to calm herself as a whisp of smoke trailed up from her head.
"Sadness!" Joy exclaimed, pushing her away again. Quickly taking a core memory out and showing her, she added, "You're hurting Riley!"
Now fully attentive to the screen, Anger muttered to herself, "Oh, seriously?"
"What?!" Disgust asked, then noticed the screen as well. "Seriously?!" he asked.
"No!" Sadness whined. She shrunk back from the orbs, fearing the worst. "No, no no not again!"
An awful truth seemed to be piecing itself together in Joy's head. "If you get in here," she said, "You'll- they'll stay sad!" A wounded expression came from Sadness, and Joy glanced back and forth, her eyes bouncing between HQ, the memories, Sadness, the tube, and Family Island, as Riley's mind fought a losing battle. Painfully, Joy forced herself to say, "I'm sorry, but Riley needs to be happy!"
"You idiot!" Anger yelled. Bright flames shot up into the air. The heat smacked Disgust and Joy, and they shielded their faces from the miniature supernova of fire. They jolted back from the intense heat, their personal qualms briefly forgot in the moment - just like their environment was completely forgotten. They backed away, unaware of how close they were to the nearby elevator.
Anger continued erupting.
"Joy?" Sadness said. If she planned on doing anything, she wouldn't have had time. Joy was too quick; she lept into the tube and slammed it shut. The vacuum was back, and with it a force that shot Joy straight up through to Headquarters. As she rocketed up into the air, she cast a regretful gaze down at her small blue friend.
"You could've waited then let Sadness get in after you! Why not that, you selfish little brat?!" Unreasonable? Perhaps. True to herself? Without a doubt. Startling? Most of all. Disgust jumped back at the new, sudden eruption. Joy had followed suit. They both landed in the already weighed-down elevator, whose straining sides were bursting at the seams with green orbs.
It was about that time that Anger looked back and noticed. She went from enraged to scared.
The ground shook again.
Joy poked his head out of the pile.
The tube broke open.
Disgust did the same.
Joy fell.
The elevator creaked only once more before its weight got the best of it, and it began plummeting down. The cries of the two emotions echoed up behind them, an invisible trail of terror.
As the bright emotion came screaming down, Bing Bong lunged out to catch her while Sadness stood petrified with horror. Nothing could be done as the ground crumbled under Bing-Bong's feet. He fell, and Joy came right with him, down into the black emptiness of the Memory Dump. Sadness could do nothing but look on, helpless. "Joy..." she said through a broken, strained voice. She was alone, like Riley, who vanished into the all-encompassing fog of San Fransisco's morning air.
The Film Geek sat alone in the theater, numb with shock at the sight.
His Anger felt quite the same.
