"If the human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn't." — Emerson M. Pugh, 1938 (first attested 1977)
Joy awoke in her room, being first disturbed by light shaking, followed by the sound of splashing water and the sensation of droplets on her body.
She didn't find the sound or sensation of water unusual, as she had slept in a bathtub. Something to note, though, was that there was no conventional bed in sight anywhere in Joy's room; her bathtub was her bed. It was a fairly large one, allowing Joy to stretch her body out without touching the walls on either side, and the water inside was just warm enough that she could comfortably lay in for just five more minutes, only her face floating above the water level for breathing, without a single care in the world.
However, Joy took her job rather seriously, and found "just five more minutes" to be completely unacceptable. Without further ado, she thus stepped out of the water and onto the rug by the bathtub, which had her name written on it in blue on gold. Immediately, she felt a different type of satisfaction, coming from the bathing suit tightly wrapping around her petite body. Indeed, she was awake and refreshed, and from here on, she would simply have to take care of routine tasks preceding yet another day of work.
Joy wasn't sure how she felt about working such early shifts, or, for that matter, working throughout the near entirety of her waking life. Many others, she presumed, would find the experience to be absolutely soul-crushing and would quit such a job in a heartbeat. However, that wasn't really an option for Joy, and regardless, she and her partners had gotten used to it.
And what mattered more than anything right now was that people didn't usually go to work while soaked, and Joy would need to dry herself off.
She wasn't one to dry herself off in a typical fashion, with a towel and all, and in fact, there was no towel in her room either. Instead, she stretched her arms upwards, before shaking the water off, much more reminiscent of a dog drying off than a human, and after a shake or two, her body was completely dry. Her long, flowing waves of blue hair still proved to be an issue, but once she picked them up by one end, rolled them up like a towel and gave them a good rinse, they, too, were dry, flowing to her mid-back like a river of happiness.
Of course, it went without saying that almost nothing mentioned so far would work for a human in the physical world. After hours of sleep in a bathtub, human skin, especially at the fingertips, would have shriveled up and everything would have become rough to the touch. In addition, the water in the tub would have become so cold as to cause significant discomfort and possible hypothermia, not things one would really want before a work day. Besides, drying yourself off like that would never work, and one would still need a real towel for the body and an electric hairdryer for the hair, likely spending an hour on locks as long as Joy's. One didn't even need to consider that no matter how diligent a human seemed, worker unions still existed to protect them from working hours even closely resembling Joy's schedule.
However, Joy wasn't exactly one to be concerned with pesky minutiae of the physical world, nor could she be called a human — at least, not if you severely stretched the definition.
At first glance, she could easily be mistaken for a human. After all, she had the body shape appropriate for a girl just starting puberty, with only the beginnings of curves having formed. However, even a second glance revealed many peculiar details about Joy. For one, her skin was bright gold and glowed, unlike that of any human. Furthermore, her body and hair weren't made of solid matter, but rather, millions of particles that spontaneously appeared and disappeared, shimmering like TV static viewed through a golden glass.
Also, if one looked closer, they could notice more subtle, but still rather peculiar details about her anatomy. For example, while she had fingers on her hands, she didn't have toes on her feet, and instead, they looked solid through and through. Even on her hands, her fingers lacked nails. In addition, while one could easily make an assumption that her ears were just hidden behind her hair, they were, in fact, completely missing. Despite this, rather mysteriously, her hearing worked perfectly well.
The truth of the matter was, Joy was an emotion, living and working inside a human mind; namely, the mind of one Riley Andersen, who had recently turned fourteen years old.
Though the emotions were rather starkly factually aware of the rules of the physical world as lived through Riley, in their actual perceived life, it didn't concern them in the slightest, due to a little something called Imagination. Inside a human mind, Imagination allowed for virtually everything that was, well, imaginable, and those who wielded it were quite literally living their dream.
This especially applied to emotions amongst all thought forms, as each of them represented and was entirely composed of a single element of Imagination. This purity allowed for an immense prowess over the essence, unmatched by any other thought form. There was no overstating it, or repeating it too many times: Imagination allowed for anything, especially if you were an emotion.
However, while those abilities were incredibly powerful and useful in other circumstances, they were far from practical for Joy's job or the preparation for it. Each and every day, she would have to go through her routine, almost like a human.
Almost.
Joy wasn't one to go through lots and lots of intricate steps of a morning routine. In her heart, she was a carefree soul, who would be ready for virtually anything, the moment she was thrown at it — or more often, the moment she threw herself at it. After drying off, she only really saw a single immediate issue with herself: the way she dressed was far from presentable at work.
For her bedtime, Joy was dressed in a lime one-piece bathing suit, decorated with light blue, disparate bursts and very thin, intersecting black lines. Indeed, this was perfectly fine while she slept, as she wouldn't want to get more things wet than necessary. However, at work, Joy was a commander, leading Riley to a bright and fulfilling future and helping the other emotions do the same, and couldn't afford to look like a little girl about to go on summer vacation — not that the emotions really had a concept of summer vacation, the outside world notwithstanding.
Luckily, her usual work outfit was right there, on a hanger put up on a nail in one of the walls, in lime much like her bathing suit. It was an outfit well-suited for a military general; while the pants weren't too different from ones a human would wear, the overcoat had lots of decorations, including pockets, buttons, shoulder pads and, most prominently, a badge on the right side of the chest. The badge looked rather simple: a blue bordure, encircling a black-on-white stylized smiley face. There weren't really any shoes to go with it; Joy usually went to work barefoot, and preferred it that way. In addition, the bathing suit doubled as underwear, and taking it off in order to put something else on was unnecessary and even silly.
Having gotten dressed, a task which took her no more than a few seconds, Joy was ready. She took a quick glance at herself in the water reflection on the bathtub, finding bright blue eyes staring right back at her, and then another quick glance at her room overall, the walls of which were mostly lined with various pictures of moments from both her and Riley's life. It was a familiar sight for her, one she didn't need to dwell upon for long, and soon enough, Joy found herself gracefully walking to work, almost flying.
Once she made her way through the door — a light lavender door, with a small, golden, star-shaped window — she was greeted with a view of the antechamber of Headquarters, the heart of Riley's mind. Immediately outside her door, there was a narrow, raised pathway with rails, and along that pathway, four more doors could be found, each with a little window with a unique color and shape: the other emotions' bedrooms, with Joy's right in the middle.
The pathway, when walking on either side, descended onto a lower level, and led into an expansive lounge, primarily decorated by a winding tube that made lots of rather regular twists and turns. There were also other occasional decorations, like a relatively wide window revealing that Headquarters was rather high up compared to the rest of Riley's mind, as well as chairs of various shapes, for varying degrees of comfort.
However, the most significant portion of Headquarters was at what Joy chose to see as the front: an elliptical screen, only slightly bigger than the window in the back, and a control panel right by it, with lots of buttons of varying sizes, colors and arrangements, as well as a double lever right at the center, colored in a slight blue tint. These two were the main instruments the emotions worked with: the Consciousness Screen, letting them see what Riley was seeing and hear what she was hearing, and the console, letting them tell her how she should feel and act about it. While the Consciousness Screen provided accurate color of what Riley saw, the console lit up dependent on which emotion was using it at the moment.
Many humans, and even those working closely with humans, would find it unusual that Joy's workplace was just downstairs from her bedroom. In fact, most of the time, she didn't think of it as a bedroom belonging to one's personal house, but rather as a dorm, much like a place where she would have to live for a temporary stay.
Yet, the emotions lived according to rules of their own, which did, in fact, establish this as a permanent placement. These were by no means rules of their own making, nor were they written down anywhere, but nevertheless, the emotions abided by them, even if there wasn't exactly a consensus as to what those rules actually were.
What had already been agreed upon, though, was the concept of Dream Duty. The principle of Dream Duty was rather simple: when Riley slept, four of the five emotions slept too, and one of them was to stay awake, sitting through the various phases of Riley's sleep, including the dreams which gave Dream Duty its name.
Given that dreams were far from predictable and often not as dandy as she would like, Joy didn't like Dream Duty that much. Indeed, she was glad to take the night off and sleep in — if it could even be called a night this time, with Riley going to sleep so early. Yet, she respected the duty, as well as whoever was taking it at any given night, including herself.
Choosing not to dwell on Dream Duty anymore, Joy wasted no time in dancing her way down the pathway and to the seats by the console. The emotion currently on Dream Duty was quick to realize what was happening, too; however, she was rather slow in getting up from the main seat at the center to the next seat over to the left.
"Oh, hi, I didn't notice you…" this other emotion said, in a rather miserable tone, as she scooted over.
"Heya. And no worries." Joy shot back, giving the other emotion a quick glance before taking a seat of her own.
This other emotion was Sadness, and she could easily be described as the antithesis of Joy. The only two features that Joy and Sadness had in common were the bright blue hair and eyes, and beyond that, the two were as different as night and day, in appearance as well as demeanor.
Sadness was a whole head shorter than Joy, and overall, had a heavier build. The particles that composed her body were light blue and didn't glow; they still had a vibrant color, but it was one that evoked melancholy, rather than glee. Whereas Joy had rather large eyes, which, alongside her own rather frail build, gave the impression of an excited child, Sadness's eyes were comparatively small, and further visibly shrunk by her glasses, which took up most of her face, appropriate for a contemplative thought form. In addition, while Joy preferred longer hair to emphasize "going with the flow", Sadness preferred shorter hair, only reaching up to her shoulders, as it was easier to maintain.
Despite this, Sadness, too, was an emotion, and shared quite a few of Joy's oddities in anatomy. Like Joy, she lacked ears; though, due to the shorter hair, this was more easily noticeable on her. This, of course, meant that her glasses hung solely on her nose. Her lack of nails, too, was visible; however, her other oddities were well-hidden behind her clothes.
As far as dressing for work went, while Joy's outfit reflected her representable attitude, Sadness preferred a more casual, comfortable fashion style, with a white sweater, dark blue jeans and dark blue flats. This was easily the most noticeable difference between the two, and emphasized their personalities the best; neither of them would be willing to trade their clothes in for their partner's, and very likely, due to the different physiques of the two emotions, the clothes wouldn't fit at all.
Their differences aside, though, Joy and Sadness enjoyed each other's company as co-workers and housemates. If anything, the difference between the personalities only made them complement each other, rather than contrast: since Joy would easily be the one to go on endless tirades about nothing in particular, Sadness found herself listening to it, and proved to be a good listener.
That being said, while they interacted, for the most part, their individualities mattered very little. What truly mattered was their job, which primarily entailed becoming one with Riley: seeing what she saw, hearing what she heard, feeling what she felt and doing what she did. After the short exchange, the eyes of both Joy and Sadness were set on the Consciousness Screen, watching Riley's first reaction to the shaking that woke her, as well as Joy, up.
It looked as though Riley struggled to open her eyes, as evidenced by the Consciousness Screen only displaying a thin band of view in the middle, but nevertheless, that was enough to provide the two emotions with bearings in the so-called "real life". It looked as though Riley was seated, seat belt buckled at another emotion's insistence, and many other people were seated around herself. However, out of all of them, the emotions only recognized two of them: Riley's mother to the immediate right, sitting by a window of sorts, and her father to the immediate left, sitting by a pathway that separated another section of seated people.
Riley's father, Bill Andersen, was rather tall and thin, only slightly muscular, and dressed in a formal business suit. He had dark brown hair and eyes, as well as a moustache. His hair was combed backwards, providing for a rather "smart" look, which the moustache, although it was plain and not overly curly, helped assist.
On the other hand, Riley's mother, Jill Andersen, was slightly shorter than her father and significantly more curvy, a clear sign of formerly having gone through motherhood. She wore a patterned, but mostly red and yellow sweater, together with jeans and flats. Like her husband, she had dark brown hair and eyes. Her hair was done up in a ponytail, and like Sadness, she wore glasses; however, while Sadness's glasses had simple, black and circular frames, Riley's mother had thick red frames, which were in fashion as of lately.
Yet, the all-too-familiar visages of Riley's parents weren't that useful in determining her bearings, and instead, background details, that others would often overlook, proved to be king for the emotions. They could quickly note the multitude of seats and conclude: not only did buses and trains not have that many seats, but they also didn't come with the sort of shaking that woke both Riley and Joy up. The final piece of evidence for Joy and Sadness was that the view through the window was a pale white, rather than any sort of scenery one would expect on a ground-based vehicle. They nodded to each other, realizing what it meant: the Andersens were still flying.
"Still up in the air, huh?" Joy commented, sighing deeply as she did; she had always dreamed of Riley being able to fly through the skies like a bird, and now, she had to confront the fact, only for the second time in her life, that flying in reality was a lot less magical.
"That much is right…" Sadness lamented, before her thoughts drifted to the length of time that the flight took. She couldn't help but comment: "Already, we're so far away from home…"
"But… we're getting closer and closer!" Joy suddenly exclaimed.
This made Sadness cock an eye; it would seem that she was still thinking of Riley's old home in Minnesota, in the American Great Lakes area, whereas Joy, instead, was focused on Riley's destination, which the emotions would have to call home from now on and for the time being. Indeed, this sort of confusion, with Sadness and Joy being almost on two different tracks, was common, and it didn't fail to surprise the two emotions each and every time.
However, in the ensuing confusion, neither of them remembered exactly where Riley's destination was in the first place. In order to settle this, it looked like they would have to recall a memory from somewhere within Riley's mind.
If the emotions were the "head" of the mind, then memories were definitely the heart and soul, giving the little world in the mind a definite shape and purpose. Understandably, the console, their primary instrument of work, let them interact with the memories extensively, creating them as well as recalling them.
When newly created, memories took the form of glowing spheres, which showed a brief snippet from Riley's life; these spheres were usually pale, and only few had a slight colored tint. In addition, they weren't fully reliable, failing to properly capture every single detail of an event, and for significant events, it was always useful to keep spares.
However, in the particular case, Joy and Sadness were looking to recall a memory from an earlier point in Riley's life. Memories were usually flushed whenever Riley slept, and in order to be useful again, they had to be processed in foundries and factories far beyond Headquarters. As the emotions only left Headquarters on rare yet semi-regular occasions, these processes were a mystery to them, but they weren't terribly concerned with the finicky details; what mattered were the final results.
A rare type of processed memory, the audiovisual memory, could come back the way it was, but it would often be distorted, as the gaps in the memory had to be filled in using Imagination. However, most types of processed memories had significantly different shapes, dependent on which part of the event they captured.
That being said, in this case, Sadness didn't "ask" for much; perhaps a single statement or, if it was saved, a map of the general location, in the world. However, the sequence that she punched into the console was far from exact, and Sadness would simply have to wait and see what was actually being recalled.
Thankfully, the process didn't take too long, and in due time, a processed memory made it to Headquarters. Once it dit, a projector behind Joy and Sadness turned on, projecting the memory's image onto the Consciousness Screen. It seemed to be a map, after all, with a coastline looking like that of eastern Asia, with a city clearly marked: Shanghai, China.
Watching the memory being recalled, Joy nodded to herself; indeed, she had already put a lot of hopes and dreams into the new and exciting place. The foreign culture didn't deter her at all — if anything, Joy only saw it as an opportunity to learn more and be more mindful. The distance that was going to separate Riley from her current friends didn't diminish Joy's enthusiasm either — after all, it was the year 2020, and video calls across the globe were already commonplace, to say nothing of the fact that Riley would probably have next to no trouble finding friends in China as well.
Unsurprisingly, though, Sadness's thoughts were a lot more somber. Indeed, she agreed that video calls were a thing, but they were definitely not a replacement for being able to talk to someone in person, without the need for a screen or the issues that came with electronics. In addition, making friends, especially when they held different values and spoke in a different language, was going to be a lot more difficult; Riley would have to learn a lot about the Chinese culture, as well as reach a conversational level in the Chinese language. All in all, Sadness felt it in her heart: the process of adapting would be more difficult than it seemed.
Both Joy and Sadness neglected to remark one thing, though: it seemed as though Riley didn't want to stay awake. Once the processed memory was sent back to its storage over at one of the numerous Memory Lanes, the Consciousness Screen showed a pure black view, indicating that Riley had fully closed her eyes.
However, once the remaining three emotions of Riley's personal team woke up, got ready for the day and joined Joy and Sadness at the console, that was to change for good.