This one's from a movie...
Nobody had slept these past few days.
Not the mind workers, not the emotions, and certainly not their host.
Nobody.
Granted, they hardly needed sleep as it was, but their host hadn't slept, and short term memory was starting to clutter. What's more, as time had gone on, the cluster of golden yellow suns began crumbling to red and purple, some green, and blue. Spurts of joyful memories popped up at times, but they clearly were in a struggle against the rest. The latter stuck out in staunch contrast to the cheery wallpaper plastered around the room, an obstinate effort by Joy to keep things upbeat and happy in spite of trying times. His efforts were in vain, though; trial after trial sunk in, inevitably suffocating his efforts. Now, the five were anything but happy - and there wasn't a thing to be done about it.
Their bad situation only worsened as the mind's eye showed the dark ground far below rushing to meet their face. Fear jumped to the rescue as best he could, screaming (of course) as their host slammed to the ground. Pain smashed across them, and Fear stopped screaming long enough to process what had just happened. Then, before Sadness could make a move and take over properly, her purple peer was panicking once more, hands flying across the console in a blind blur. The monitor in front of them showed the outside world, and their host didn't like it one bit. They scrambled, attempting to find a way out, but the more they struggled, the more apparent it was that said struggle were futile, and it took a verbal slap from their nearby friend to get them to see as much.
In the numb silence that followed, Sadness tried approaching the console. Joy shot out his gold arm, blocking her path.
"No, please, Sadness, please..." he begged. His voice wasn't sure of the words it was saying, but he continued on anyway, mouth automatically spouting off the phrases he was so used to: "We've gotta think clearly, not with a sad distraction," "If we give in, we'll never find a way out," "Now is not the time to lose hope..." The phrases tumbled out, but like a hose slowly turned off, they trickled to nothing. The silence returned while the two emotions eyed each other. Their minds were on the same subject. Joy knew, and Sadness knew, and their host and siblings all knew it: there wasn't a positive side to this. But for Joy, it was different. For Joy, admitting as much was admitting defeat, in some vague way. If he acknowledged it, if he let Sadness step up now, it would mean there really was no good side to this predicament. And that stung. Joy was merely delaying the sting.
For all his short life, he'd struggled with his own self-reliance, his need to be the light of the group, to lead them valiantly forward. And - yes - he'd given up controls to the others (even Sadness) when times demanded it, and when they insisted, but he didn't want to, and now he especially didn't want to feel what he was feeling. Yet there it was, that icy hot burn in his and everyone's chest, creeping up and seizing their hearts. They all felt what Sadness felt, and they all knew it was useless to argue against her. With visible effort, the gold one stepped back, and Sadness manned the console.
As she went about her task, Joy considered their situation to himself. Here they were, far from home, in the worst place in the world, with only their friend for company. Yet none of this had to happen. Had Joy simply listened to the others when he needed to, had he simply acknowledged when they were right rather than making up excuse after excuse for his behavior... well, perhaps he wouldn't have driven their host to such extremes. Looking at the memories along Short Term's shelves, Joy knew that he'd screwed up. The moments stuck out like sore thumbs; moments where he'd taken over again, or shoved the others aside. He just had to stay happy, didn't he? Just had to go and push those buttons. It was like a nervous tick, a mental itch. The warm feel of the console as he clicked its buttons and moved its levers... it was addicting, to say the least. And yet, he knew. Deep down, he'd always known when he'd gone too far. He denied it, but he still knew. And the price?
This situation. This miserable situation.
Sadness continued her duties, for once uninterrupted by Joy. Her fingers worked their magic, and a melancholic sense of right struck them. It wasn't happy, not in the least. But they didn't want to feel happy. Anger didn't want to lash out, Disgust didn't want to gag, Fear didn't feel like panicking, and Joy didn't feel like laughing. They all felt exhausted, drained of themselves and replaced with Sadness's sphere of influence. The mind's eye affirmed that what they were feeling was right. Memories were recalled, pictures from years ago, when prospects were high and happiness reigned supreme, unquestioned. It only made the present hurt even more. As Joy watched these visions pass across the screen, seeming to turn blue on their own accord, he felt something he never felt before. He felt boiling heat, right in the middle of his chest. It rose and swallowed his cheeks, and eyes, and tears formed. He sniffed, and violently wiped them away, but more replaced them. His arms rubbed furiously, and his head jerked itself away from the others, but the tears only redoubled their flood, and he slammed down on the couch, and his body shook with each silent sob. He (and his host, for that matter) had never felt this before, but - as Sadness reached across that console and pressed that button - all felt the tears breaking their eyes.
All, save Sadness, whose stoic mind was wrapped up in her duty.
Meanwhile, on the outside, grey corpses of forgotten memories filled the dump around Joy. In solemn silence, Bing Bong watched on while she sobbed to herself. There she was, Joy, the sole light in this dark place, brought to tears by the crippling reality of it all. She'd tried so hard for Riley, tried so hard to keep her happy all the time, to keep her from ever feeling upset or Sad, and it had all blown up in her face.
One of the many tears landed on the memory she was watching. Moving to rub it off, she noticed a peculiar change. The orb shifted to blue. Sniffing once more, she moved it further back in time, and the color deepened, deepened, until the whole orb was swallowed by the icy grip, and Riley was left alone, on a tree by herself. What was this? Her parents came, and comforted her. They came to help her, to lift her up after her spirits had taken such a savage blow.
"Sadness..." Joy mumbled, "Mom and Dad... the team... they came to help because of Sadness..."
It was starting to make sense.
After all this time, after all these years, it was starting to make sense.
Joy rose.
"We have to get back up there."
Happy April Fool's Day!
I have been waiting to do this one for quite some time. Would you believe that I was initially going to end on this one? Heh, it's true! But I've gotten more ideas since then, and I can safely say this fanfic isn't ending yet! I'll be going on a temporary break (more on that later), but I won't be ending it right now.
Okay, the clues this time around:
1. The lack of sleep in the past few days. If you'll notice, Joy never slept since being sucked out the memory tube. Granted, we might guess she caught some Z's while the camera wasn't on her, but - really - it doesn't appear to be so.
2. The pattern on short term memory, going from happy to sad, was reminiscent of Joy's experiences thus far in San Francisco - going from happy and upbeat to more worn out and downtrodden as things got worse off. A few bursts of happiness, of course, but those became further and fewer between as things piled up.
3. The cheery wallpaper plastered around the room, and Joy's Joy's constantly upbeat mentality were meant to be reminiscent of Riley's Joy's default bubbly state.
4. The pattern of events, naturally, mirror the scene in the memory dump (including being scared of the fall, panicking and trying to get up, before succumbing to the fact that the situation was hopeless).
5. Joy's Sadness is repressed by Joy's Joy. Sound familiar?
6. This is the first time Joy's Joy or Riley's Joy (gah, that's so weird and confusing to type) ever cried. I made sure to note that.
7. The "flood of memories" being recalled is - naturally - when Riley's Joy is remembering the times she spent with Riley as she watched the happy memories she'd found in the dump.
Okay, so that's it! And before going further, let me say that I do not subscribe to the theory that Inside Out has layers upon layers of emotions. Rather, I have my own theory that I think is the most straightforward one and that covers the facts:
Quite simply, each emotion in Riley's (or anyone's, but I'll stick with Riley because it's simpler) head is like a version of Riley more sensitive/prone to that emotion. So, Joy is more prone to happiness, Sadness is most sensitive to negativity and somberness, Fear is more prone to panic, Anger to rage, and Disgust to feeling grossed out or annoyed. All these things factor in and show that - while each emotion can feel other feelings, it's their main mood that they're most sensitive to. Symbiotically, they feel their host's mood, but are most sensitive to their own specialty. As their host matures, as in the case with Riley's parents, the emotions become more balanced the more in-control the host is (hence the adult emotions looking and behaving more like their host - the parents have more control of their emotions), and as a result are less likely to explode into... well, whatever it is they'd explode into. This varies with each individual person, of course, as some people are clearly more grim or light-hearted than others, and each person's unique personality is reflected in their emotions and personality islands, naturally.
So, that's what I've thought and continue to think, that - rather than having five little feelings of their own in their heads - the five emotions are just five little creatures more sensitive to certain aspects of their own host's feelings than others.
Am I right? Who the heck knows? It's not addressed in the film, and I have serious doubts that it ever will be. That's just my measly theory, and I threw it out the window for the sake of a unique April Fools Day chapter!
