Disclaimer: All Disney works are the property of The Walt Disney Company. All other characters and settings are the property of their respective legal owners.
Author's note: Originally posted by Anon e Mouse Jr. on 2017-11-10. This is the first of three chapters posted today.
Disney/Kingdom Hearts Loops, Chapter Fifteen
15.1 (kingofsouls): [Inside Out]
-Reality-
Riley Anderson.
11 years old, born in Minnesota.
Favorite Sport: Hockey.
Family Nickname: Monkey
Riley sat in the car, approaching their new home in San Francisco. Mom was reading the map, directing the little family towards an uncertain future in their new home.
Yet for Riley it wasn't exactly uncertain.
She swore that she had already lived through this. It was either that or she was overthinking things.
"Riley, look at that!" Riley eyed what her mother noticed: A collection of giant dinosaurs.
She smiled as the family slowed down and prepared to visit. At the very least, the familiarity felt nice.
-Meanwhile, at Headquarters-
Havoc was an apt description of how Joy's last week had been. The most primary concern of hers was keeping Riley happy, that much was true, but this situation overrode that harder than a landslide crashing down a mountain.
Mostly because of the panic Fear was endlessly screaming, running to and fro as Riley's emotions tried to make sense of the crisis that they faced. He was screaming on and on to the point where Joy didn't really mind Anger punching him to make him stop, even if it only bought a few seconds of silent calm.
"Fear, I know the whole being afraid thing is yours, but aren't you being a little bit...dramatic?"
Fear stopped in the middle of his raving to face Joy, the emotion and Ringleader of Riley's emotions standing calm. "Joy, we are in the middle of a catastrophe!? How can you be so calm about Riley's life turning upside down?"
"It's not so bad Fear, honest! It could be an adventure!"
Fear grabbed Joy in panic, taking her to the control Panel. With a push of a button, several memories came from Long Term Memory. "Joy I am not sure if you noticed - OF COURSE YOU NOTICED YOU WERE THERE - but Riley's memories aren't working right! It was fine a week ago but now everything isn't working right, and we should panic!"
To prove his point he recalled a memory, the golden orb coming down from Long Term Memory and showing the memory inside: Riley in full hockey gear, standing in a park with her team, grinning in unison. Her parents stood off to the side, their joy in their daughter evident. Joy just scoffed as she walked over to Fear. "Fear, there's nothing off about that memory. Riley had a good time. Heck, we got pretty far. Quarterfinals, am I right?"
"Joy, that's not what I'm panicking about." He replayed the memory, and froze it on a rather jarring piece of evidence: The Golden Gate Bridge standing tall in the distance. "How can Riley have a memory of being with a hockey team in San Francisco! We've never been to San Francisco!"
"Fear makes a pretty good point." mused Anger behind his paper.
"See, even Anger agrees with me. And don't get me started with the Core Memories and the Islands."
With a push of its button, Fear opened up the holder for the Core Memories - the very essence of Riley. In them stood several of them, many of the orbs a mix of different colors.
Joy's (new) favourite was a golden orb mixed with blue, Riley embracing her parents in a tearful hug as Mom and Dad returned it. Joy could almost feel the raw power of that single moment.
Fear didn't see it that way. "The core memories changed as well, Joy. Her entire personality could have changed! These are the end times, Joy!" Fear bellowed, shaking Joy as he begun to panic like he had never panicked before - a great feat to accomplish for a man who was the embodiment of fear itself. "The end times I tell you! The end times!"
"Uh... Anger? Could you...?"
With a single punch, Fear smashed into the glass windows of Headquarters, slumping off into unconsciousness. Brushing herself off, Joy smiled at Anger, the emotion walking back to his couch. "Thank you."
"Fear has a point, Joy." Disgust, having been looking out of the windows and at the Islands of Personality - the strongest parts of Riley's personality given form within the mindscape - called over Joy as she gave a look of indifference towards the Islands. "Core Memories don't change overnight. I mean, can you even get another memory to replace a Core Memory? I hope so, because those new Islands are clashing with each others color schemes."
Joy mused, walking back and forth as Sadness leafed through a mind manual. "I don't think so. Nothing in the manuals say anything about Core Memories just… changing overnight, or Core Memories of two different emotional colors. What do we do Joy?"
Joy said nothing as she paced, thinking and thinking about what was happening. For some reason, the others were unable to remember what had happened in the past year and expressed concern about the sudden change.
Yet Joy had not. Why?
Before she knew it, Joy found herself surrounded by her fellow emotions, Fear awoken from his impromptu slumber. They eyed Joy with expectant eyes, eager for her to lead. It was if they were lost sheep, and Joy their shepherd who always knew where to go.
"Joy? What do we do?"
Joy uttered the words she was always afraid to say:
"I... I don't know."
15.2 (kingofsouls): [Inside Out]
-Reality-
Riley heard the news again that day. How her father had once again gotten a new job, and how they were once again moving to San Fransisco for that job.
Somehow, someway, Riley was back in her old home, just in time to move to her new one. Again.
Something was definitely strange. She slowly swept her gaze over her room, once filled with her possessions, now barren and save for her laptop.
On impulse, Riley flipped it open and turned it on. She was thankful Dad hadn't disconnected the wifi yet, just in case it was still needed. Which, in her opinion, it most certainly was.
After all, she needed to do some research.
-Headquarters-
Anger muttered irritably as he sat on his couch eyeing the other Emotions as they processed the changes that had overcome Riley before they knew what was happening.
Currently, Fear and Disgust gazed at the Islands of Personality in confusion, taking in the... altered view. Sure, the five initial Islands, Goofball, Hockey, Friendship, Honesty and Family were all there, but they were vastly overshadowed by the array of much larger and more detailed Islands that loomed before them.
While the two cautious Emotions were relatively okay with the situation for the moment, Joy was an entirely different story. The peppy Emotion had taken one look at the scenery before bolting for the Core Memories. While the fact that the original five golden Memories she was responsible for were faded and cloudy was enough to whip her into a frenzy, it was the sight of the mottled colors of the far more prominent and influential Memories that had induced the mother of all panic attacks, causing her to rush to a far corner of Headquarters where she was currently hyperventilating while muttering about finding her happy place. Sadness stood vigil, concern for Joy obviously mounting within the blue Emotion.
Overall, the Emotions knew something was seriously off about their situation, but Riley was normal, the Islands, odd as they were, were working perfectly, and for whatever reason Fear couldn't truly find it in himself to get Riley to panic. Hence, the real question was if there was a problem in the first place.
"You know, those islands look kind of tacky..."
"You think they're safe? They look kind of crowded. Do you think there's a chance of cross-contamination?"
"How can the Islands cross-contaminate?"
"I don't know, actually. I just hope things won't get any worse."
"I don't see how they could look any worse. Heck, I'm freaking out just as much as you usually do."
"I do not freak out that much." Disgust scoffed, giving him that look. "Okay, so maybe I do freak out a lot, but come on, it's my job! I need to keep Riley safe, you of all people should know what that's like!"
"Then be afraid then! Look at this mess!" The green entity waved her arms frantically. "Doesn't any of this ring any alarm bells with you!?
"I'm trying Disgust, but I-I-!" Fear fumbled frantically for a second before groaning and slapping a hand to his face. "I just can't. I know I should be afraid, but I'm not. I'm more afraid about not being afraid." Fear gasped, implications finally reaching him. "Oh no. What if I'm sick? What if I'm crazy? What if I'm sick and crazy!? What's going to happen to Riley!? I can't keep Riley safe if I'm sick and crazy!"
Anger rolled his eyes as he shuffled his paper. "We're emotions, genius. We don't get sick."
"You don't know that for sure!"
Anger huffed as he balled up his newspaper (BREAKING NEWS: TIME IN TURMOIL! WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON!?), deciding enough was enough. "Alright, enough is enough. You two arguing isn't going to get us anywhere any time fast."
Disgust was the first to gag. "Anger, I'm not sure if you've noticed, but the Islands are different and Riley isn't acting weird. Isn't that a good time for you to do your job?"
"Look, you want proof everything's alright? It's standing right in front of you." Anger jabbed a fuzzy finger forwards.
Fear flinched as he glanced left and right frantically before staring at his shorter counterpart in confusion. "M-m-me?"
"No, doofus, the other purple coward. Of course you!" Anger barked irritably. "You're not panicking about the islands, you're not freaking out about how Riley's acting, and you know why? It's because deep down, you know that this is right and that this is how it should be! Am I wrong?"
"U-uh, well, I, uh..." Fear shuffled nervously as he was put on the spot.
"That's what I thought." Anger nodded gruffly. "Instead of making Riley worry about the changes inside of herself, you should be making her panic about how the world's changed around her instead."
Fear's pupils shrank to pinpricks as he processed that statement. He tried to dart for the console...
"Except!"
And was promptly brought to a halt by Anger grabbing the back of his collar and holding him in place.
"I'm not going to let you do that." The tough Emotion growled. "Panicking won't accomplish anything. What Riley needs most of all at the moment is a clear head, and that's what I'm going to give her."
"How come Joy's freaking out but you're taking this so calmly, huh?" Disgust cocked an eyebrow expectantly.
The red Emotion snorted as he cast a glance at the panicking Emotion. "That's easy: Tinkerbell over there can't handle the concept of Riley having a less than perfect day, much less the idea of her having any Core Memories that aren't glittery gold."
"Hey..." Sadness frowned as she tried (and failed, she couldn't help but note miserably) to comfort her hysterical friend. "That's not very nice..."
"You gonna tell me it ain't true?" Anger cocked an eyebrow expectantly.
Sadness hesitated before biting her lip and focusing on Joy again.
"Yeah, that's what I thought."
"So how is this doing your job?" huffed Disgust.
Rolling his eyes in exasperation, Anger got up and walked towards the console, keeping a close eye on Joy as he went in case she decided to do something rash. "Then let me explain. Just yesterday we were in San Francisco, and now we're back in Minnesota, ready to move to San Francisco again. And the only two who remember are Riley, and me."
"I figure that since it seems like we're in some sort of a science fiction movie, and a really bad one might I add, some research might be in order. Good thing Riley thought of it." Anger shuddered heavily.
After the... 'incident', he'd sworn off putting ideas in Riley's head. At least, not without a cool head and consent from the whole crew anyways. Something he wasn't going to get any time soon if Joy's frantic rocking back-and-forth was anything to go by.
"Anyway, what better place to start than the internet, using all of those stupid sci-fi movies dad made us watch instead of the cartoons we wanted as a point of reference?" Anger manned the console, pushing a button and summoning a Memory from Long Term Memory.
"Tripledent Gum! Will-!"
Anger hastily let go of the joysticks as his eye twitched in impotent rage, a torrent of flames erupting from his skull. The last thing Riley needed at the moment was to put her fist through her computer's monitor in a burst of inexplicable fury.
'One of these days...' He thought murderously. 'I'm going to turn each and every one of those chortling doofuses into charcoal.'
15.3 (kingofsouls): [Inside Out] / [Harry Potter]
-Headquarters-
Joy grinned as she opened her eyes. "Another bright new day." She leapt up to her feet, and danced over to the central console to check up on Riley's Core Memories, and to see if they had shifted or not. She hummed softly to herself as the column rose, before choking. The core memories were… yellow! And there were only six.
"Oh no, now this weird, deja vu thing is taking away the Core Memories!" Joy moaned as she paced around the central console. "Okay, think, Joy, think. Where could the Core Memories have gotten off to?" Joy peeked through her fingers at the rack of books off to one side. "Maybe I should skim through the manuals?" Joy shuddered. "Not that desperate yet."
That was how the other emotions found her a few moments later, pacing in circles in front of the center console.
"Already up and at it, eh?" Fear smiled, weakly. "Figured you'd be excited about this trip to school."
Joy jumped, then spun around, plastering a smile on. "Oh, yep. School. Super excited for school and... books." Joy grinned a bit wider.
Disgust huffed. "I just can't believe we have to ride a train. I mean, it better be cleaner than that alleyway that we bought our things in. That place was filthy, and I don't even want to think about all those things we had to buy for potions."
Joy blinked. 'Train? Alleyway? Potions?' Before she could properly ask, Fear jumped in, holding up a large chart.
"So, I've had to revamp our Potential Animal Attack Anxiety Scale with all of the new information from the books we read. Do you think Dragon should go between Bear and Shark attack, or Lion and Alligator?"
Joy opened her mouth, but Fear just kept on rambling. "I mean, I was thinking of putting it at the very top, but then we read about manticores, and I remembered that nature documentary with the alligator and the goat, and that time with the bee's nest on our head, and..."
"That's great, Fear." Joy cut him off. "Um, do you think you could excuse me for just a moment?" Without waiting for him to respond, Joy darted off, quickly ducking behind a set of shelves. Rapidly, Joy began scanning across the memories.
"Okay, let's see. We have a few childhood thoughts. A couple of school memories. Britain? We're living in Britain?" Joy ducked out to look out of the window. "Hockey Island's still there, so that's a relief. Friendship, Family, all the basics." Joy blinked as she realized something. "Wait, there's six. What's the island with the big cauldron supposed to be?" Glancing surreptitiously around, Joy snuck forward and poked at the unfamiliar memory on the Core Memory Stand.
-Riley was sitting on a chair in the living room, watching an older woman who was talking to her parents. The woman smiled, setting down the teacup she was drinking, and then pulling out a long thin stick, which she waved through the air sharply.
Immediately, the tea cup rose into the air, spinning around and rotating slowly. Another wave of the stick lead to all of the tea rising out of the cup and transforming into a flower, which floated over and settled into Riley's hands.
"Miss Anderson, you are a witch."-
The memory began to loop over, as Joy stared, mouth agape. 'What is going on?'
Joy had managed to gather her wits as she stepped forward to the console, where Fear was currently fretting over the controls. Glancing at the View Screen, Joy saw that they were getting out of the car and hauling a big trunk into a crowded train station.
Fear glanced up as she skipped up (total upheaval of her worldview wasn't going to keep Joy from bouncing on her feet) and let out a massive sigh of relief. "Oh, thank goodness you're back. Joy, I don't know if we can do this. I mean, McGonagall said that we have to walk through a solid wall to get through to the platform, and what if we walk into the wrong one? I've estimated that there are at least a dozen walls in there, and we could get the wrong one, and then we'll smack our nose and we'll miss the train and..."
"Fear!" Joy cut him off. "It will be ok. We are going to be fine." 'I hope.' "Now, we just have to follow Mom and Dad, and we'll make it to the platform."
"Right. Right." Fear nodded tiredly.
"There you are!" Joy turned as Anger stomped over. "Where have you been? Fear's been hogging the console, and we dropped the stupid trunk on our foot, so we're still getting some Pain-a-grams sent in, though they've downgraded to Sore Status by now."
Joy reached over to tap a couple of buttons. "I was just getting a few things together to help get Riley excited for this trip." Several memories popped up one after another. Memories of a family train ride out into the country, a play pretend game of being a magic princess when she was younger (featuring Bing Bong), and the meeting with McGonagall. The room seemed to light up a bit brighter as Riley's excitement built up.
Anger huffed. "Ok. Well, good. Glad you're back on the ball."
Joy nodded. "Yep. Now, I want you to take the wheel for a bit, help Riley get that trunk to the train. Think determined thoughts."
Anger smirked. "That trunk'll never know what hit it."
Joy grinned. "That's the spirit." Twirling, she darted over to Disgust, who was sitting back on the couch. "Disgust, we're going to need to be making new friends. I need you to be on the lookout for good potential."
Disgust sighed. "Alright. I just hope that we don't get stuck wearing those baggy robes all the time. So unfashionable."
"Fear, start thinking up the ways magic spells could go wrong. We don't know what magic can do, so we need to be prepared. And have you seen Sadness?"
Fear nodded as he started scribbling at a sheet. "Yeah, she's over there." He gestured towards the manual shelves.
Joy walked over, then winced. Sadness was standing in the chalk Circle of Sadness.
"Hey, Sadness."
Sadness glanced up, then slumped back down. "Hey."
Joy sighed, then drew herself up. She knew what she needed to do. "So, I'm going to be doing my best to keep Riley excited, but I know that she is going to end up missing home. So, I need you to start thinking about a good letter to write to home. Don't be afraid to let some sadness show."
Sadness looked up, eyes wide with disbelief. "Really?"
Joy nodded, determinedly. "Yep, really. If we're going to keep Riley happy, we have to let the sadness show a bit sometimes too." Then, reaching down, Joy quickly scuffed out the Circle of Sadness.
-Reality-
Out on the Hogwarts Express, Harry, Ron, and Hermione observed the new girl.
"And you're sure she's not Awake?"
Harry nodded. "Positive. I mentioned time travel twice in my introduction, and it didn't so much as blip on her radar. So, either she is an excellent actor and Stealth Looper, or she isn't Awake."
Ron shrugged. "Eh, whatever. Want to go turn Draco into a monkey?"
Harry grinned. "I've got the crate for Borneo all ready to go."
15.4 (LordCirce): [Inside Out]
-Headquarters-
Fear hummed to himself as he opened up the newspaper and sat back to monitor Riley's dreams. If there was one thing he was glad for, it was that even when time repeated with this whole, deja vu experience, Riley's dreams were almost always different. Even when Fear was the only one remembering, and none of Riley's special Core Memories showed up, the dreams were always just a little different. Kept things interesting, but not too interesting.
The first dream of the night started up, showing a happy pizza parlor, probably inspired by the horrible pizza they had eaten the night before.
"And cue dancing pizza slices." Fear chuckled.
Only it didn't happen. The pizza didn't get up and dance, the balls in the ball pit didn't turn into ice cream, and Rainbow Unicorn didn't come dancing in to join the band on stage. If Fear hadn't known for a fact that Riley was asleep, he might of thought he was seeing a normal memory.
Then the lights went out.
"Oh, here we go, it's going to be a nightmare. Great." Fear grumbled slightly as he pulled out a clipboard. "And they didn't even have the decency to send up a warning. I wonder if it's too late to wake up Joy."
Even as Fear surreptitiously began to stand up, an eerie tune began playing in the dream. Lightning flashed, and Fear gulped, as the brief light had made it seem like the animatronic figures on the stage had moved.
"PEEKABOO!" Suddenly, the face of the stuffed bear that was the mascot for the pizza place popped up in the middle of the View Screen, mouth wide and full of sharp teeth.
"AHHHH!" Fear screamed, slapping desperately at the abort button.
-Reality-
Riley shot up and Awake with a jolt, her eyes wide, as the fearful nightmare dissipated from her mind. After several frantic moments, Riley slumped back onto her bed, groaning.
From now on, she was not going to eat any more broccoli pizza right before bed.
15.5 (kingofsouls): [Inside Out]
-Headquarters-
Joy and Disgust circled the column that bore the Core Memories, the multicolored orbs glistening in the light of Headquarters. Around and around they went, like two sharks circling their helpless prey.
To say that Joy was in a state of panic was an understatement. "Okay Joy, calm down." she told herself. Her arms were thrust into the air, thus ruining her illusion of total control, but at this point Joy didn't care. "It's cool. It's totally cool. It's only the core memories that make up Riley's very fiber and being suddenly being turned into other Core Memories that. Aren't. Happy. But it's cool. Totally cool."
Joy wasn't a good liar. It was clear that she was having a panic attack that wasn't going to end soon.
Disgust in turn groaned, the sound mixed with her trademark gag, "Stop whining about the Core Memories Joy, they're fine!"
"But they're not happy!"
"Joy, are the Islands up and running, there is no problem with them."
Joy screeched to a halt, facing the windows that showcased the Islands. All of them – old and new – were fully functioning, proof that Joy's fears were unfounded.
At least, to everyone except Joy. "Disgust, they're not happy!"
"Joy, Riley is in the car moving back to San Francisco again. With all of our stuff in a moving van! And this wasn't the first time me and Riley were stuck doing this. We're doing the whole week of heck again like one of Dad's dumb sci-fi movies!"
It was true: Off to the side near the couch was a small mountain of memories stacked in a neat pile. Several of the memories contained functional duplicates of each other, with only small changes here and there. Anger sat there, reading The Mind Reader (RILEY REPEATING MOVE AGAIN. WE'RE NOT SURE WHY EITHER.), staying out of the scuffle with Disgust and Joy for now. With a scowl on his face.
"You know what that means right?"
"It means that Riley won't be happy?"
"It means that if this keeps up," Disgust then gasped in horror, having trouble coming to grips with what she was about to say, "it means the fashion trends won't change! Riley will be stuck wearing the same outfits every day for the rest of her life! You realize that this is an emergency now right? RIGHT!?"
Joy didn't know what to say to that, mostly because it was a little... out there.
15.6 (LordCirce): [Inside Out]
-Reality-
Riley shuddered, crouching behind the barricade of desks that had been erected in the center of the darkened room. Beside her, several of the other kids crouched. Several of them were crying, and holding each other. For some reason, tears just wouldn't come to Riley's eyes.
'This is not right.'
-Headquarters-
"THIS IS A DISASTER!" Fear was pulling what little hair he had out as he struggled at the console. It was all that he could do to keep from sending Riley off screaming to find some place to hide. The main issue with that course of action was that this was the only place to hide. And even then it might not last long.
Unbidden, the Recall Light activated, and memories of what had happened early popped up on the screen.
-Riley had been standing up to give a presentation to the class, when suddenly, one of her classmate's cell phones had started ringing. The teacher had glanced up, but before she could reprimand Sally, the owner of the cell phone, Thomas's cell phone had started to go off as well. Then Judy and Heather's. Riley's had been part of the next batch, and she pulled it out to find that it was Mom calling her.
Riley had glanced at the bewildered looking teacher, and then had hit Answer.
"Hello?"
"RILEY! Thank god you're safe." Her mom sounded frantic, and Riley's breath caught at the panic in her mother's voice. "Riley, listen, you cannot go outside. Stay inside, and... we'll come find you."-
"Turn that off!" Anger's voice was sharp, and Fear quickly turned off the Recalled Memory.
"It wasn't me. The subconscious is overflowing, and they keep shooting them back up here."
Anger growled. "Well, whatever. It ain't helping me in getting any of the others to respond."
Fear glanced back at the rest of Headquarters. Memories orbs were rolling around everywhere, most of them the purple hue of Fear or the green hue of Disgust. The purple outnumbered the green though, given the fact that Disgust had gone comatose after the... incident in the hallway.
Almost as if drawn by Fear's thoughts (and maybe an accidental panicked button press), the Recall Lamp lit up again.
-Riley was peering out of the door to her classroom. Her teacher had run off after receiving a phone call on the class phone, leaving the class sitting there. Shortly thereafter, the power had died, leading to several of the students screaming. Riley's mom hadn't told her what was making her so upset, and from what the rest of her classmates said, none of their parents had either.
After several moments of sitting in the dark, Riley had decided to peek out of the door. The hallway was darker than the classroom, on account of fewer windows. Riley had crept out slowly, while the rest of her classmates had peeked out behind her.
Then came the scream.
A teacher, one that Riley had only seen in passing, came dashing through one of the doors off to the side, screaming loudly. He spun, grabbing the door to try and close it, only for it to crash open and let... something through.
"Zombie." Riley's voice was barely a whisper, as she watched the zombie grab at the teacher. It seemed surreal, like a movie or something. Then the zombie bit down.-
*WHAM* Anger's fist smashed down on the console, knocking the Recalled Memory off. "WHAT DID I JUST SAY?"
Fear flinched back. "I'm sorry. I'm trying the best I can, but... I don't know what to do. I just know I'm never complaining about moving to San Francisco again."
Anger growled. "You can say that again." Anger and Fear were the only two who remembered things being different this time. Joy, as per usual, hadn't paid any attention to what they were saying, Sadness had moped in the corner, and Disgust had looked at them like they were crazy.
Fear glanced towards the couch. Now, Disgust was sitting there, staring off into the distance, her entire body shuddering. Sadness was sobbing back by the manuals, probably soaking them through. And Joy...
Joy was catatonic. She was just sitting, staring at the Core Memories, but not doing anything. Just rocking back and forth.
"Do... do you think that the whole 'deja vu' thing is why we didn't fall apart?" Fear was honestly wondering about that at this point. If anyone should be breaking down, it should be him, but he wasn't. Part of it was that it just didn't seem real, and part… part of him just felt braver.
"I just hope that the Deja Vu thing doesn't make any of this mess another Core Memory." Anger glowered at the screen, his fingers flexing and unflexing.
Fear paused, taking a deep breath, then stepped back from the controls. "I think... I think you need to take the wheel right now. I... Riley needs to be ready to fight, not try and run away."
Anger blinked, staring at Fear. By their nature, none of the emotions really liked to give up control at the console. For the most part, they deferred to Joy, mainly because that typically led to the best outcome for Riley, but they all still wanted to do their part, to help Riley along in their own way. Stepping back… took some courage.
"Alright. But keep an eye out. Never know where those zombies will jump out from." Anger stomped forward and grabbed the levers.
-Reality-
Riley exhaled, and something in her chest seemed to firm up. She hadn't heard from Mom since that first call, and neither her or Dad were answering. She was worried, really worried, but, she glanced around the classroom, right now, worry wasn't what she needed. Her classmates were doing enough of that.
Gripping the hockey stick that she had in her hands, Riley let the burning anger she was filling swell up. When those zombies came, if they came, she would be ready to fight.
15.7 (kingofsouls): [Inside Out]
-Reality-
Another day, another repeat.
Another repeat, another move to San Francisco.
Another move to San Fran, another first day of school.
Riley went through the motions, playing along with her parents as they bid her farewell on her (by Riley's count, twenty-first) first day of school.
And so Riley walked, a smile on her face as she thought about what to do this repeat. Whatever the case, Riley felt pretty good about herself.
Almost as if something put her sadness somewhere else... at least for now.
-Headquarters-
The single door that led out of Headquarters, used only for Mind Workers, opened, and into Headquarters slinked Sadness.
Unfortunately for Sadness, Anger was standing there, waiting for her. "Hello Sadness."
"Hi Anger..."
"So, where were you?"
"…uh... I was..."
"Sadness, you went into Long Term Memory, didn't you?" Sadness sighed, Anger hitting the nail on the head as the red Emotion's head started to spark. "You know we're not supposed to go into Long Term Memory!"
"I know, but..."
"But what?"
"You wouldn't understand..."
Flames began to rise. "Try me."
"...I was visiting Bing Bong."
This calmed Anger down as the flames that were just beginning to form subsided. "That pink clod? All I need to know. Just don't do it again. You could get lost in in there and then we'd have to pull double duty to make up for it."
Sadness simply nodded in agreement as Anger went off to sit at his happy place - the couch.
"Hey Sadness, you're gonna miss the first day of school!"
Sadness smiled as Joy waved at her. The glowing emotion was (to Sadness's great relief) was a lot more open to having the other emotions man the console than the other two Joy's Sadness had met.
She was still hyperactive but eh, it was Joy. Not much could be done there.
15.8 (LordCirce/kingofsouls): [Inside Out]
Takeout Chinese food.
Idly Riley played with it, her chopsticks sending a piece of broccoli back and forth inside her box in a never ending game of back and forth. It seemed fitting, as no matter how many times the (evil) broccoli she played with moved inside the box, it was still the same piece of broccoli in the same box being played with by the same Riley that did the same action seconds ago.
The similarities to her situation were uncanny, and accurate.
"So, how was the first day of school?"
She's probing... again.
This was the thirty-fourth time Riley had relieved her life, and without fail Mom asked her that same question.
Time to dance the same old dance again...
-Headquarters-
Joy sat with her fellow emotions, watching through the view screen. "Say something happy." She urged. Disgust just scoffed, gently pushing a button on the console.
"It was... boring I guess."
"That's not happy."
"Uh, of course not." the fashionista scoffed. "I'm not you."
"Then let me let Riley be happy!"
Disgust rolled her eyes as Joy struggled to get out of the ropes that bound her to the chair she was in. Thanks to these repeats, Joy had become… well unhinged wasn't exactly the most polite thing to say to a colleague.
Then again Disgust wasn't always polite.
"Joy, do you want out of the chair?"
"Yes..."
"Then stop acting crazy!"
–-Reality, sometime later-
Riley sat in her sleeping bag with her trusty laptop, website after website of sci-fi trivia and time travel theory in her collection of tabs.
So far, all she had to show for it. All she had was retreads of what she had already spent several of these time repeats learning: for some reason time was repeating, and everything she tried ended with another repeat starting.
"Just... one answer. That's all I want," Under her breath, the words flowed out. "Just one answer."
A knock on the door jolted her from her thoughts. "Riley? Can I come in?"
"Sure Dad."
Through the doorway came her father, sitting down next to his daughter. His face was one that was tired from the long trials that he faced thanks to the move, but he smiled as "So, first full day in a new city. Pretty exciting, huh?"
"Yep."
"Something tells me you have something on your mind."
"Sure do."
"You want to talk about it?"
"It's... well... it's... complicated."
Dad scooched closer to his daughter, the simple act eliciting a small smile from the 'young' girl. "Try me."
"Dad... I think I'm going crazy."
That surprised her dad, and he mused on exactly how to respond to that…
-Dad's Headquarters-
Dad's anger looked at his men, each emotion looking at the other with a variety of mixed looks. The common theme of confusion was the only common element. "...How do we reply to that!?"
-Reality-
Dad reached out and slid his arm across Riley's shoulders. "Hey, kiddo. I promise, I won't think you're crazy." He gave a small smile. "Well, any crazier than my monkey usually is."
"Dad, you remember that one movie? The one with the groundhog?"
-Dad's Headquarters-
Dad's Fear looked up in alarm. "Sir, the joke didn't work."
Dad's Anger leaned forward. "Alright then. This is serious."
-Reality-
Dad blinked, his smile fading slightly. "I remember."
Closing her laptop, Riley faced her father, clutching at her pant legs uncertainly. "It's... happening to me. And... I don't know why."
-Dad's Headquarters-
"Uh… let's go to Defcon 3… we should we try a joke... again, sir?" Dad's Fear looked hesitant, as Anger was shaking his head.
"No. This is a Code Stoneface. Riley needs us to listen."
-Reality-
"It's... scary being a time traveler, Dad. Scary being alone. No one else remembers, and no one believes me." She took a deep, shuddering breath. "Sometimes it's normal. We move, and I go to school, tryout for the hockey team. Like nothing's wrong. Like…" She shuddered again, this one longer, "Like everything is normal except me…"
"Riley..." Dad squeezed her shoulder lightly, but she forged on.
"Dad…. I tried to run away back to Minnesota the first time. And then... this happened and I thought it was because I did, so I didn't run away but the repeats still happened...this is me being punished by something? Because I did one bad thing? I don't know, nothing makes sense because I fixed the bad thing by not running away but I'm still being punished and…" Riley broke down into sobs. "What did I do to deserve this?"
-Dad's Headquarters-
Klaxons blared throughout Headquarters as Anger worked fast. "Sadness, Joy," he commanded. "Take the helm now!"
"SIR YES SIR!"
-Reality-
"Riley…" Dad ran his hand through his hair, uttering a silent prayer for help. "I don't know… I don't know why this is happening to you. Why you are having to live time over and over. But I know that it isn't because of anything bad you did."
Riley looked up, blinking tearily. "What? But…"
Dad shifted to look her straight in the eyes. "Riley, you are my darling girl. You are always so happy and cheerful, and…" he shook his head, "and I know that… whatever this is… it isn't your fault."
"So… you believe me?"
Dad pulled her into a hug. "Of course I do, sweetie."
"Dad?"
"Yes, sweetie?"
"There's more. I… You know how I said that sometimes it's normal?"
Dad nodded slowly, leaning back from the hug. "Yeah?"
"Well... sometimes... it's not. One time, there were zombies… everywhere. I don't… I don't know what happened to you, but… it was so scary and…" Riley cut off, wiping her eyes. "I'm glad it wasn't permanent.
"Another time, I was a guy. It was super strange. And then there was the time with the dancing hippo..." a laugh, one clearly forced, accompanied Riley's doubts. "I know it sounds crazy, like I'm crazy, but it's... it's... so…?"
"Overwhelming?"
Riley nodded tiredly. "Yeah, overwhelming."
Dad chuckled. "Yeah. Well, whatever happens, we'll get through it together." He turned and smiled down at her. "Tell ya what, how about this? Tomorrow, we go explore San Francisco, just you and me. You can show me all of the sights!"
"Da~ad."
"What? It'll be fun, having my own pretty little tour guide to show me around."
They both giggled, and then fell into a restful silence. Finally, Dad broke it, running his hand across Riley's bangs.
"And if you ever need someone to talk you, I'm here for you. Even if I don't remember next time, know that I will always love you and support you."
"...yeah. Thanks Dad."
Some things never changed. Riley smiled as she snuggled up against her Dad and drifted off.
15.9 (blazingen1): [Inside Out]
-Reality-
Riley was scanning through the internet for any more information on the strange time repeats. This repeat, almost everything was normal, all except her dad. While he still acts like the beloved father she'd know all her life, this time, he was really... weird, and that was putting it nicely. In fact..
*Knock knock knock* "Oh Riiiileeeeyy..."
-HeadQuarters-
Disgust and Sadness, the only two Emotions Awake this loop, were at the control panel. Joy was bound and gagged on a chair behind them, with Anger and Fear nearby.
"Oh no, not again," moaned Sadness.
"Ugh, seriously!? This is the third time this week!" exclaimed the annoyed and incredulous Disgust.
-Reality-
"I'm both respecting your privacy by knocking but asserting my authority as your father by coming in anyways."
With that, the door smashed open revealing her dad with a battering ram.
'Yup... very weird,' thought Riley.
15.10 (kingofsouls/Lord Circe/Blazingen1): [Inside Out] / [Phineas and Ferb]
-Welcome-
Headquarters
The dimly lit Headquarters was tranquil and empty as Joy walked around. Riley was sleeping, thankfully a sound sleep, and it was just her on dream duty. She preferred it that way, the tranquility of the silence her reward for reaching the day's end. Thought the silence was not only comforting that night; it heralded confusion and apprehension.
Having just became aware of the repeats - which was hard to not notice when Riley was just playing in the park one second and sound asleep the next - Joy was thankful for Riley's current status as asleep. It gave Joy the chance to soak in the atmosphere.
The golden emotion eyed the Memories that stood in their shelves, the spectrum of colors, mostly purple and blue and most holding events she'd seen half a dozen times over, were evidence that Riley's repeating was still going on and causing her undue stress.
Thankfully Riley was a strong girl, able to soldier on despite the strange situation she was in.
The dream playing was a repeat, something about zombie rats and living pants. Without a doubt it was one of the weirdest combinations that Joy had personally monitored, but then again who could blame Dream Productions for wanting to experiment every now and again.
Joy was just about to check on the Core Memories, wanting to make sure they were the same as Riley remembered them the last time Joy had repeated with their person.
Just as she was about to open them, a single firm and irritated "Ahem" echoed throughout Headquarters, drawing Joy's attention towards its source. Standing at the top of the stairs leading to their sleeping quarters stood Anger, who was glaring down at her defiantly.
Cowering behind him was Fear who was shaking like a leaf as he tried his best to put on a brave face. He was failing monumentally, but at the very least he was getting out of his comfort zone and thus got an A for effort. At his sides stood Disgust and Sadness, the green Emotion glaring at her scathingly while the blue one just wrung her hands and stared at her with concern.
"And just what do you think you're doing?" Anger growled acidly.
"I'm checking on the Core Memories...?"
"GET HER!"
To Joy, there were very few things that she would not consider fun. Getting dogpiled was going on that list.
-Reality, sometime later-
Riley awoke inside the car, the scenery blazing past her as Dad drove them towards their 'new' home, yet again. She quickly noticed the blanket that covered her, and realized that she had fallen asleep in the car.
'Honestly' thought Riley, 'Not the strangest thing to happen to me…'
"Wow, Riley, you slept like a log."
"I feel like a log…" As she spoke, Riley's eyes drifted to see where she was, trying to make since of the unusual situation she was in. Usually the repeat would start just before her Dad announced the move from Minnesota to San Fransisco, but this time she was already in the car and the move already underway.
Weird.
"Well, you were having a hard time staying awake." Mom remarked. "You went back to sleep as soon as we got going."
"Getting up at 5 tends to do that, right monkey?" Dad remarked.
"...oh, oh yeah. Totally."
"Well, at least we're almost there, right honey?"
"Oh you bet. All this driving is killing me."
Riley smiled. At least this time the car trip was mercifully short. Repeating that long car trip every repeat was up there on Riley's personal dislike list, just under broccoli and clowns.
Riley yawned, doing her best to completely wake up as she went over what she was planning to do this repeat - which mostly consisted of practicing her hockey skills and time travel research since anything else just seemed not as important. "So...when are we going to get to San Francisco?"
"San Francisco?" Dad chuckled, Riley raising an eyebrow in confusion. "I wish. Always did want to go there though."
"Wait, we're not moving to San Francisco?"
Mom turned around, her warm smile comforting Riley just a little as she tried to make sense of this sudden reveal.
Headquarters
Fear did what Fear did best.
Screaming out loud at the highest pitch possible and then breaking into a run through Headquarters like a chicken with his head cut off. "THIS IS A CATASTROPHE!"
"Yea, no kidding." huffed Anger. He flicked his trusty paper (BREAKING NEWS: WE'RE NOT MOVING TO SAN FRANCISCO! UM...OKAY?), trying his best to ignore Fear's incessant screaming.
So far it wasn't working.
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME? WE'RE NOT MOVING TO SAN FRANCISCO!? THIS IS BAD, VERY BAD! DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE WE'RE EVEN GOING BECAUSE I DON'T! OH, RILEY IS IN DANGER, BIG BIG DANGER! TIDAL WAVES, MAD SCIENTISTS, METEORS, ZOMBIES, OR A ZOMBIE TIDAL WAVE CREATED BY A MAD SCIENTIST METEOR! DOES ANYONE ELSE SEE THE INHERENT RISKS OF MOVING TO ANOTHER CITY! THE NATURAL ORDER HAS BEEN DISRUPTED! WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO, I DON'T KNOW WHAT HORRORS AWAIT RILEY IF WE'RE MOVING SOMEWHERE ELSE!"
Anger groaned as he buried his hands into his head to try and block out the ranting. Disgust, on the other hand, simply reached underneath the console - which she was manning - and put on a pair of earmuffs, freed from the living fire alarm that called itself Fear. "Ah, much better." The poking of her shoulder drew her eyes to Sadness, who was also manning the console and trying her hardest to cover her ears from the apparently endless rant.
Fortunately Disgust learned to be prepared, and revealed a second pair of earmuffs, one that was a light sky blue that went well with Sadness's coloring and was just her size.
"Thanks, Disgust."
Disgust, having a hard time hearing exactly what was said, simply gave Sadness a thumbs up.
Anger on the other hand, had enough, and walked towards the console, and calling for a memory to be recalled. In seconds the summoned memory - golden in hue - landed from the ceiling and into his waiting hands. "Here we go."
He turned around, Fear running around in a rough outline of a figure eight. His ramblings continued, going on about something Anger cared nothing for.
With a shout, Anger let lose the memory orb, and it flew along its path straight and true, and hit Fear straight the mouth, the orb now a temporary muzzle. The sudden impact sent Fear tumbling into the ground, somehow entangling himself with his limbs as he rolled into a nearby wall.
With a sigh and a smile, Disgust removed the earmuffs. "Nice shot, Anger."
"At least I found a use for that dumb gum commercial."
Spitting out the Memory and quickly getting himself free, Fear marched over to the others, clearly enraged. "What was that for?"
"It was to keep you from shouting! Not only does it annoy me, but we really don't want..." there was a moan, and Anger's head began to spark. "...and it looks like you just woke up Joy! Greeeeeeat job."
"Yeah, way to go, Fear. Now we have to deal with psycho Joy now."
Fear tried his best to slink away. Of all the things he feared, psycho Joy was the newest one, and was pretty high up there on the list.
Groaning, Fear just walked off to his room, leaving Sadness, Anger, and Disgust to confront Psycho Joy. Upon entering, he walked to the desk in the far corner, where lay all of the emergency plans he had meticulously calculated. Littered throughout the room lay huge piles of papers sitting on the floor in neat stacks. Hanging on the walls were a variety of diagrams, crossed out plans, and tackboards with several yards worth of yarn connecting several places like a giant game of connect the dots.
It was chaotic perfection in the complex simplicity of it. Digging through the mishmash of papers on his desk, Fear riffled through them, and quickly found what he was looking for.
'Here is is: List of things to do when moving to a new city, version 14.' He took the list, which was a fair size with several dozen items on the list, though not as long as his other lists. "Don't worry Riley, I'm here for you, no matter where we go. I will keep you safe."
later
Phineas and Ferb sat in front of the backyard's lone tree, the summer sun beating on them in celebration of the first day of summer being underway.
The sounds of moving trucks echoed out on the street, and from the sounds of it they were getting closer. "Hey Ferb, did you order anything today?"
Ferb shook his head.
"Let's check it out."
As soon as they stepped out of the backyard, the source of the sound was easy to identify: Two houses down from theirs were several moving trucks parked on the curb, alongside a station wagon.
"Wow, Ferb, a new family moving next to ours for the Loop! How serendipitous is that?" Phineas grinned, excitement rising as an infinite number of ideas began to form within his mind. Ferb simply gave him a stoic glance. "You're right Ferb, it has been a while since I said that last. Let's go say hi to our new neighbors!"
As they walked near, one of the movers got out of his truck and approached the driver's side of the station wagon. "Alright, Mr. Flanders, where do you want me to start unloading things to?"
"Flanders?" The man who had gotten out of the car looked confused. "We're not the Flanders, we're the Anderson family."
The delivery driver blinked, then checked his clipboard. "Anderson? Anderson, Anderson… oh, Anderson." The driver chuckled. "Yeah, your truck is in San Francisco."
"San Fran… San Fransisco! How… we were following you almost the entire way!"
The two men moved off behind the moving truck, and Phineas glanced at Ferb. "Huh, got any plans for tracking down moving trucks?" Ferb flipped through his notebook, shrugged, then gave a thumbs up. "Awesome. Well, I think I know what we're going to do today." The two brothers smiled at each other, as a faint choir sang in the background.
*Ding-Dong* Mrs. Anderson looked up from her cell phone, where she was currently on hold with the moving company. "Now who could that be?" She stood up from the table and walked over to the front door, opening it to find two young boys standing on her front porch.
"Hi! Welcome to the neighborhood. My name's Phineas and this is my brother Ferb. We were wondering…"
"Hello, thank you for holding. How may I assist you?"
Mrs. Anderson jumped as the representative began to speak on her phone. "Oh, hold on one second." She then put her hand over the phone and turned to the boys. "It's really nice to meet you two. My daughter is actually just in the back yard, if you want to go talk to her." She then turned back to the phone. "Yes, hi, I'm… yes, that's me. Yes, I was wondering how the trucks could get so messed up…"
Phineas and Ferb looked at each other and shrugged, before heading around to the back yard.
Riley was…. conflicted to say the least.
Moving to a new city - an actual new city this time - was only part of the issue. What frustrated her to no end was that her family's moving truck was not only displaced (an annoyingly consistent occurrence, given how much everything else tended to change), but it was in San Francisco this time.
San Francisco!
Of all the cruel ironic twists that could happen, the one time she didn't move to San Francisco was the one time the moving van got the location right, so to speak.
It was almost enough to make her scream!
And so Riley sat in the backyard, and simply sat in the backyard unsure of what to do or what to feel. She thought she had a general grasp of the repeats, how they worked, but it seemed that every other repeat threw something new at her, something unseen always had to happen, and it caused Riley to rethink how these repeats even worked.
The sound of the backyard gate opening pried her from her latest personal crisis, and Riley glanced up as a pair of boys entered. One had reddish hair and a rather oddly shaped head, while the other was taller with bright green hair.
"Hello. My name's Phineas, and this is my brother Ferb."
"Oh… uh, my name's Riley." Riley waved her hand half-heartedly.
"Cool." Phineas then pointed over his shoulder. "So, we heard your dad talking about how your moving truck is out in San Francisco, and we were wondering if you'd like to come with us to go track it down!"
-Headquarters-
"Um, they've got to be joking, right?" Disgust looked over at Anger, incredulously. "We're like, over a hundred miles away."
"KIDNAPPERS! CHILD KIDNAPPERS!" Fear flailed around in a panic. "I'll admit, when that fear has come up, I never pictured the kidnappers actually being children, but still, KIDNAPPERS!"
Anger scowled, before punching out and knocking Fear over the couch. "I don't know, but this is just like the Big Bad Runaway Idea all over again, and I, for one, am not going to stand for it." He began stomping towards the console.
Joy's eyes widened from where she was tied up. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait! Anger, they're just kids, you can't just explode at them!"
Anger spun to face her. "Oh, and I suppose you think we should dance off and play whatever, fluffy imagination games they're cooking up, huh?"
Sadness raised her arms feebly from where she was standing next to Joy. "Wait. I think... Joy is right. I mean, I don't think we should get angry at them, because that will probably just make them sad."
Anger glowered. "Oh, so now you're on Miss Sunshine's side?"
"I'm not on anyone's side... I think."
Voices raised as Anger and Joy continued to debate and were joined by Fear's renewed shouting and Disgust's scoffs at all of the noise. Unnoticed by all except Sadness, the buttons on the console began to flash a rainbow of colors.
-Reality-
Before Riley could make up her mind about Phineas's bizarre invitation, a sudden spike of pain shot through her head, followed by a flash of gut clenching anger, then a spurt of fear. She moaned softly as she pressed her hand to her forehead, feeling kind of like she had just gotten a brain freeze.
"Are you alright?" Phineas asked, looked a little worried. Riley giggled at his face, before a couple of tears escaped her eyes.
"Just peachy." Her voice started as sarcastic, but slipped into a higher, sing-song pitch at the end. It was followed by her gritting her teeth, and then lifting her hand back to her head.
Phineas glanced at Ferb. "Seems like there's some sort of mental weirdness going on. Do you still have the Mind Machine from when we invaded Candace's head?"
Ferb gave a thumbs-up.
"...This can't be real..." laughed Riley as she shifted into an angry growl. In minutes Phineas and Ferb had lead her to their backyard, and had quickly set up... well a thing. The best way to describe the thing was a red sphere attached to a yellow box with blinking lights. Endless cords came from the box and lead to a trio of lawn chairs.
"Well why wouldn't it be?"
"At least someone's happy." Riley mentally snarked.
Phineas and Ferb were finishing setting up the machine as another friend of theirs got ready to man the machine and keep it from blowing up or any other equally unpleasant outcome. "Hey, Baljeet, is everything ready?"
"Everything is fully functional, Phineas." Baljeet replied. "We are ready to go when you are."
"This is really elaborate for a game." The headache intensified, an intense spike of fear coupled with happiness reflexively drove a gentle hand to caress her aching head. "I'm not really in the mood, though."
"We're not playing. We used this to go into our sister's mind awhile ago."
Riley raised an eyebrow, disbelief surging through her. "Right..." Still, another headache stabbed through her head, and she quickly sank down onto one of the lawn chairs, barely noticing as Phineas and Ferb put something on her forehead and then jumped up into the other two.
"Hit it, Baljeet!"
Before Riley could protest, pretty bright colors assaulted her eyes.
-Headquarters-
"Wah!" Fear let out a yelp as he was once more propelled across the room by an punch by Anger, who was currently charging after Joy. In the middle of their big argument, Joy had managed to bunny-hop the chair she was in over and block Anger from getting to the console, which naturally led to him blowing his top. It had also helpfully burned through her bonds, letting her dart away before the others could dog-pile her again. This had led to the current game of cat-and-mouse, with Anger trying to grab her and her twirling away out of reach. Disgust sat on the sidelines, making snarky comments at both of them, while Fear ran around, still panicking over the craziness of everything.
It was like some dam had burst, and all of the tension and uncertainty they had been feeling about these repeating lives had exploded all at once, unleashing total chaos.
"COME BACK HERE, YOU..."
"No way! I'm not letting you dogpile me again."
"WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!"
"...um, guys?"
"How about kicking you out of the tower then?"
"No way. Riley still needs to have at least some Joy in her life."
"DOOM, DOOM I SAY! And possibly some gloom, too. DOOM!"
"Yeah, but knocking you down a few pegs will give me some joy."
"Guys?"
"Ugh, you're both so immature. And you're making a mess of the place."
"Hey, you guys started it. I was just checking on the Core Memories."
"Yeah, looking to swap them out, probably."
Joy actually pulled to a stop at that. "What? No, I..."
*SHREEEEEE* A piercing whistle sounded through Headquarters, causing the four squabbling Emotions to stop in place and all clap their hands over their ears. They turned towards the source of the sound to find Sadness, slowly lowering her fingers from her lips, and looking rather bashful.
"Um..." she then pointed towards the viewscreen. "I think something bad has happened."
The four followed her finger, and then gaped as one. The viewscreen, which should have shown what Riley was seeing, was blank, with a few odd static lines running across it. More so than that, the console in front of it was dark as well.
Their animosity forgotten, the scared emotions rushed to the darkened console.
"RILEY!"
Long Term Memory
The first thing Riley saw when all the pretty colors disappeared were the shelves. They rose several feet into the air, curving alongside its fellow shelves. And from the looks to it, there were thousands of them as far as the eye could see standing in silent vigil
The most startling aspect were the orbs. The shelves had an endless amount of them, each of varying colors. "Where… am I?"
"We're inside your mind!" It didn't take long for Riley to find Phineas, who was walking up to her alongside Ferb. "I gotta admit, this looks pretty different from Candace's mind."
Ferb shrugged. "Well, not all minds are created equal."
"That's true."
To say Riley was freaked out was an understatement, despite her forced smile that had emerged. "No way, this can't be real. I'm dreaming, right? This is one really big strange dream after eating too much broccoli."
"Well, these look like you." Phineas held an orb, a green one, and inside it was an image. Even as Riley watched, she saw it moving. It was her, at about age seven or so, at a long wooden table. She was eating a plate full of food, and she had just picked up a long piece of boiled spinach. She made a face, then dropped the piece of spinach under the table.
"I… I remember that. That was at my Grandparent's house, I was feeding my veggies to their dog." She blinked. "How can that be here? I mean..." Riley shook her head, which she idly noted was actually feeling a bit better.
Phineas shrugged, handing the memory to Riley as he mused, "I guess it's probably a memory. Candace's were stored as trees, but I think your way is much more efficient." He glanced at the maze of shelves. "Sort of. They're pretty to look at though."
Riley put the memory down in the gentlest way she could, and looked over the wide collection of orbs. They reminded her of snowglobes, only instead of snow it was her life, snipped into pieces and stored in an incoherent pattern. And so Riley browsed the shelves, not saying a single word as she gazed at moment's of her past.
A yellow orb that bore a memory of her at a street fair in San Francisco, enjoying the most delicious pretzel she had ever eaten.
A red orb, the Riley within screaming towards the heavens in anger alongside a blue orb of her consumed by the sadness of being trapped in the repeats.
A green orb of her groaning about the dress her mother insisted on having Riley wear to her first dance.
A purple orb with bits and pieces to her favorite scary movie: "Shoes of Doom".
A blue orb of her in her raincoat, assaulted by an unrelenting rainstorm.
A yellow orb that sat next to that blue orb, featuring Riley dancing from puddle to puddle without a care in the world.
She frowned as she picked up the next one. A red orb mixed with a dash of purple, the memory within one she wished was a forgotten memory.
The roar of a zombie just as it was struck by Riley's trusty hockey stick.
She hated that repeat.
"Hey Riley, did you find anything?" Phineas snuck up on Riley, eliciting a shout and dropping the hated memory.
"Uh… no! No no no no… everything's… great!" She grabbed the memory, forcing it back on the shelf from whence it came. "So… what now?"
"Well, what we need to do is find the source of the headaches," Phineas explained. Riley was starting to get the vibe that he knew a lot more than a kid his age should know. After all, she was in her own mind, all thanks to Phineas and Ferb. If that didn't scream 'genius', then Riley didn't know what did. "The headaches are probably located someplace that's close to your higher brain functions. We should probably head there next and see what's causing these headaches."
Though it was clear Riley was over her head (while somehow being inside of head: Riley decided to stop thinking about it before she got another headache trying to figure that one), Riley smiled, thankful that Phineas seemed to know what he was doing.
"Okay then. So, where do we go?"
"Well I wouldn't know exactly where that would be."
Crestfallen, Riley sighed.
"This is, after all, your mind."
Riley groaned, despair taking its toll as she slumped onto the ground, knocking several of the memories off of the shelves. "I've never been in my own head before! I don't know the first thing about how my own head works!"
"No problem, then. We'll just walk around and explore. Chances are, we'll stumble across it in the middle of a musical montage."
Riley couldn't help but grin from Phineas's awkwardly worded sentence. "Thanks Phineas."
"That's what friends are for, right?"
It then dawned on Riley that their trio had been reduced to a duo. "Um... Phineas? Where's Ferb?"
"Ahem." Riley and Phineas turned to see Ferb standing near the entrance to the row, followed by a large blue... blob. It had arms and legs, and reminded Riley of a slightly overripe blueberry. It was also talking.
"...so you say you need to find the source of the headaches, eh? Well, I don't know about..." it trailed off as it caught sight of Riley. "You... you're... you're her! I mean, you're you, but... what are you doing down here?"
Riley blinked. "I don't know where 'here' is. I mean, they said this was my mind, but that is ridic..."
"You need to be up in Headquarters, I think." The blob looked really confused. "Though, I don't think… I've never heard of... then again, what do I know? I'm just a Mind Worker." Shaking himself, he quickly gestured for them to follow. "Come on, we're pretty close to the Inspiration Lift, we can get you sent straight to the top." He then headed off.
"Well, you heard the man, er, blob," Phineas said brightly. "Let's go!"
-Headquarters-
"...ohnoohnoohno..." Fear's chant was a continuous drone in the background as the Emotion's crowded around the console. They had quickly confirmed that Riley wasn't dead, luckily, but she also wasn't asleep, or they would have been getting some sort of package up from Dream Productions. It was like she... just wasn't aware.
"I told you, kidnappers. Didn't I? Didn't I?" Fear was pacing and twitching behind them, mumbling to himself as he wrung his hands. Meanwhile, Anger kept pounding at the controls, while Joy was frantically paging through the manuals. Normally, she would turn to Sadness, but after her spurt of bravery in getting the others to pay attention, Sadness had broken down, and was now sobbing into a bucket that Disgust was holding.
"We broke Riley!" she sobbed.
Then Joy jumped to her feet. "Guys, we didn't break Riley, she's fine!"
"Okay then Joy, if she's fine, where is she, huh?" The purple emotion had a good point. Joy fumbled as she tried to answer that. "Ummm… umm..." She paged through the manual. "I think, maybe it's due to, ummm... what's a neuron supposed to be..." she sighed, shaking her head, "I'm not sure exactly, but I think this is just like the time Riley got heat stroke during that summer camp. When the screen went all fuzzy and she almost fainted, only she didn't faint this time."
"So then HOW do we get her BACK?" Anger growled, slapping the controls again.
Joy scooped up the manuals and quickly made her way around to the side of the Viewscreen. "Let's see, lucid dreaming, OBE, subconscious memory… okay, I think if I just… physical senses to sense of consciousness..." Joy quickly began poking around behind the screen. The other Emotions just watched, until a loud crackle sounded and Joy was propelled backwards, away from the screen. Then, with a flicker, the screen restarted, fuzzy with static at first, before growing into focus.
It was a white elevator, with the two boys, Phineas and Ferb standing to one side.
"Where is she?" Disgust looked at the screen, incredulously, absently patting the still hiccuping Sadness on the back.
"Kidnapped!" Fear let out, only to fall silent at a growl from Anger.
"Ow ow ow," muttered a still smokey Joy as she approached the now back-online control panel.
There was a faint ding from the Mind Worker Entrance into Headquarters, then, simultaneously, the doors to Headquarters and the doors of the elevator Riley was in opened.
Revealing the Emotions staring at themselves on the screen, though viewed from the side.
Confusion was an apt way of putting how Riley had felt during the last ten minutes or so. She had apparently traveled inside her own mind, and was now entering what the blueberry man called 'Headquarters'. The doors to the lift opened, revealing a rather neat looking room, with more shelves covered with the memory spheres. Standing in the middle of the room, there was a fancy looking podium, covered in buttons. Five brightly colored figures stood around it, staring off to a screen on one side of the room.
The moment that Riley stepped into the room, all five of the figures turned to look at her, before promptly letting out a unified scream.
"AAAAHHHHHH!"
Riley jumped at the sudden burst of noise, letting out a loud scream of her own.
"Aaaaaaaahhh!"
"AAAAHHHHH!"
One of the figures, who was bright yellow, suddenly turned and gave the purple guy a push, shoving him away from the controls. "Fear, step back. You're scaring her."
Immediately as he stepped back, her heart rate did seem to settle a bit. Then the purple man began to speak.
"But... how... but... it's… it... but… how…" He turned, glancing between the screen and Riley. Riley did the same thing, and then let out a second yell of shock. "Whaaaa?" The image on the screen showed the screen, which showed a screen, which showed a screen…
Riley quickly spun away, feeling dizzy and just a bit nauseous. Behind her, she could hear the yellow woman speak again.
"Disgust, let go of that handle. Everyone, step back. We need to calm down, or Riley is just going to get more upset."
A gruff voice answered, sounding surly. "Oh, so I guess you're going to take the wheel again, huh? Just like always…"
"No," the lady responded. "Myself included. No one touches the console until we've sorted things out with Riley."
There was a bit of muttering, then Riley felt a hand gently touch her shoulder.
"Riley?"
Riley jumped, as the moment the hand touched her, she felt a shock go through her, culminating in a bubbling laugh. She spun around, tripping as she did so, and landed on her butt, staring up at the yellow lady, who had taken a step back.
"What the… what was that?" Riley shook her head. "No, wait. More importantly, who are you?"
The lady took a deep breath, then nodded. "Right…" She then smiled and stuck out her hand. "Hi Riley, my name is Joy."
Hesitantly, Riley reached out and grasped Joy's hand. Once again, the same shock slid through her, filling her stomach with butterflies and laughter. Joy didn't seem to notice, quickly pulling Riley up to her feet, and skipping, pulled her over to the others. She waved at a shorter, blue woman.
"This is Sadness." Riley stuck her hand out without thinking, and, looking a bit surprised, Sadness reached up and shook it. Another shock went through Riley, though this time, it was, well, sad. But, at the same time, there was a feeling of comfort, the sort of release of tension that you get after a good cry.
Joy was moving on, pointing to the green lady in the sparkling dress. "This is Disgust." Riley blinked at the name, which didn't seem to quite fit with the pretty woman, but stuck out her hand again anyway. Another jolt, this one twisting her stomach up oddly, with slight feelings of nausea, but also self-assuredness, or boldness, that caused Riley to stand a bit straighter.
"Then there's Anger." The short red man stuck out his hand, giving her hand a firm shake. This time, the jolt brought with it a sense of rage, but also excitement, the sort of rush that Riley felt when she was barreling across the ice in hockey. Her lip twitched up in a grin, which Anger matched.
"And finally, Fear." The taller purple man twitched slightly as he shook her hand, and Riley could feel her feelings of nervousness take a quick boost, but underneath that, she was startled by a massively strong feeling of protectiveness.
Riley stepped back, her head reeling slightly from the intense feelings she had just felt. The five figures crowded together slightly, and Joy spoke up again, gesturing with her arms. "We are your emotions."
Riley waved, awkwardly. "Um, hi, I guess. I'm Riley… but I guess you all know that." She laughed awkwardly, and the group of emotions mirrored her. She rubbed her arm. There were so many questions she wanted to ask, but they all seemed to be jammed up into her throat. She opened her mouth several times, then closed it again.
The awkward silence was broken when Fear leaned over to Joy and whispered, "Do you think now would be a good time to talk about the whole deja-vu thing?"
Riley blinked. "Deja vu? You mean the time traveling?"
Unnoticed by the group, Phineas and Ferb looked at each other, eyes widening. "That's it!" Phineas stated boldly. Riley jumped and looked back at him, and the emotions peered around her as well.
"What's it?"
Phineas grinned. "I think I know what you're going through. We actually have a song to explain it!" He turned to look at Ferb. "Ferb, I'm going to need Introduction Song Number 5."
Ferb gave a thumbs up, then squeezed his eyes shut. With a pop, a music player appeared in the air in front of him, which Ferb caught. He then hit play, causing a gentle melody to begin playing. Phineas stepped forward, holding a microphone he had pulled out of somewhere, and the lights in Headquarters seemed to dim a little bit as he began to sing.
"~Have you ever thought tomorrow happened just yesterday?~"
"~Have you ever thought your life was moving in the same way?~"
Riley nodded quickly. "Yes, exactly!" Behind her, the Emotions murmured slightly with excitement.
Phineas grinned, and the music shifted into an upbeat tempo, the lights brightening.
"~Then you're Looping! Looping over and over, my friends!~"
"~Looping! And so summer will never end!~"
"~So many adventures! So much to do!~"
"~So many new people to meet, and it's all happening to you!~"
-Reality-
Candace frowned as she sat up in her bed. "Hold on, Stacy. My busting senses are tingling. Got to go." Hanging up, Candace raced to her window and leaned out. "Ah-ha! I knew it. You guys are... taking a nap." Candace stared down at her brothers, who were laying on some vaguely familiar lawn chairs in their backyard next to some girl she didn't recognize. From this angle, she couldn't see the Mind Machine, hidden by the tree branches. "Well, that's not bustable. Though I wonder what happened to Isabella?"
-Headquarters-
"~It's a wide Multiverse out there, hung on an interdimensional tree.~"
"~So many new things to share, and wondrous things to see.~"
The Emotions and Riley were sitting, eyes wide, as they listened to the musical story about why these time loops were happening. The Emotions were doubly confused, given the fact that several Mind Workers had shown up and joined in with the musical number, as had Rainbow Unicorn, who was doing a tango with a random zebra.
Then, the music changed, shifting to a more downbeat tempo. The lights cut out, and then a spotlight shone on Phineas.
"~But not every~y~y~thing is rosy. There's trouble i~i~i~in paradise.~"
"~Yggdrasi~il is broken, and so... we are... re~peat~ing our LI~I~I~IVES!~"
Silence reigned for several seconds, before the song came back, more upbeat than ever, and the lights flashed on to reveal a massive stage that had somehow spontaneously appeared in Headquarters. The stage barely fit, taking up most of the space in front of the Viewscreen, which was now displaying some psychedelic colors to match the song. A massive ensemble of Mind Workers and random other characters none of the Emotions or Riley recognized stood on the stage, dancing around, including what looked like a living old-timey bathing suit, a small white doll in a pink hood, and a floating baby head.
"~And now we're Looping! Our lives will begin again!~"
"~Looping! And doing it with a new friend!~"
"~We have so much to tell you! The Ping and the Pocket!~"
"~So much to build! A rollercoaster and rocket!~"
"~So much to do, and time moves so fast!~"
"~Though it will begin anew, let's make each moment last!~"
"~As we Loop with You!~"
The song finished with a grand flourish, with everyone pointing towards Riley.
Joy was the first to recover, and she quickly began applauding. Riley joined in, and the other Emotions soon followed, though Sadness' claps were rather half-hearted. Phineas jumped down, as the Mind Workers began breaking down the stage and carting it away.
"Thank you, thank you. So, do you have any questions?"
Riley exhaled. "So many, but... first, what was with the floating baby head?"
Phineas shrugged. "Honestly, we have no idea."
While the musical number was enlightening (and catchy, much to Disgust's frustration), Phineas and Ferb decided that explaining what wasn't explained in song was the next course of action.
What followed was an incredibly elaborate presentation that more or less explained everything. It helped that they were inside of Riley's mind, so they could get the materials they needed in an instant, rather than having to make them, which saved them "a couple minutes or three", according to Phineas. Given that holographic projectors, tiny animated figurines, and a dizzying array of flipcharts was involved, Riley wasn't sure she believed him.
After that, Riley sat with her emotions as Phineas and Ferb decided to just stand back and let the new Loopers sort the revelation out amongst themselves. Riley soon found herself sitting on a nearby couch, and noticed a newspaper lying on it. She picked it up, and stifled a snicker. The paper was labeled 'The Mind Reader', and in big bold letters was the headline "RILEY INSIDE RILEY'S MIND? POSSIBLE PARADOX DETECTED!"
The letters then quickly morphed into "BREAKING NEWS! WE'RE NOT CRAZY!".
To say it was surreal was an understatement.
And so the six sat down, and swapped the stories that they had to tell. By far, Riley's favorite was the one Joy had experienced without any of them, at a magical castle. But as the stories were swapped, Riley had one question she needed answered. "So, you all have been there since the very beginning..."
"You betcha!"
"So, what the heck was going on the first time we moved to San Francisco?"
Joy's smile dropped, and the other emotions glanced around uneasily.
"...it was my fault," Sadness spoke up from her seat, staring at the ground. "Something changed, and when I touched some of the memory spheres, they turned blue and wouldn't turn back."
"No, Sadness," Joy interrupted. "It wasn't your fault. It was mine." Joy turned to look at Riley. "All your life, I've done my best to make sure you were happy, even at the expense of pushing the other emotions away."
"...understatement of the year…" Anger muttered. Disgust elbowed him and gave him a pointed look, to which he just rolled his eyes.
Joy nodded. "So, when you were moving, you... well, I guess you should have felt sad, it was natural for you to, but I stood in the way, so I think it kind of built up in Sadness, and got let out when she touched the orbs. Of course, I panicked, especially when she touched some of the Core Memories, and, well, long story short, Sadness and I got sucked right out of Headquarters and down into Long Term Memory, over by Hockey Island."
Riley smiled a little at the mention of her favorite sport, and Phineas and Ferb, who were chatting with a couple of Mind Workers, glanced at each other after overhearing the word 'Hockey'.
"So, Fear, Disgust, and Anger were trying to hold down the fort while we were away, but… well, they didn't have any experience making you feel joy, and…" Joy trailed off, not sure how to bring up the next bit.
Anger let out a huff. "Then I had a really dumb idea. Ya see, what Joy didn't tell you was that all of your Core Memories got sucked out with them, so your Islands of Personality were all out of whack. That's why you couldn't play hockey or seem to connect with your friends. So, I had the brilliant idea that, since all of your Core Memories were made in Minnesota, that you should head back there to make some more."
Riley's eyes widened a bit, as she remembered how she had thought about how much happier she had been in Minnesota and had seized on the idea that if she went back there, things would be better. "So you made me get the bus ticket?"
Anger scuffed his foot. "Well, not really, I mean, I gave you the idea, but then, it got stuck, and we got locked out. We couldn't make you feel anything, it was like you were emptying out." He then pointed back at Joy and Sadness. "That's when they showed back up, when you were on the bus. Sadness managed to pop the idea out, I still don't really get how, and then she pushed you to get back home."
Riley turned to look at Sadness, who was fiddling with her fingers. After a couple of seconds, she realized they were looking at her, and let out a small 'eep', before speaking. "I just kind of did it. I mean, I thought about what you were going through, and about how you needed support, and stuff. And that's what we do, most of the time, is support you, and help you to live a good life. And even if my parts aren't as nice as Joy's, I'm still here to try and help you." She waved her hand at the others. "We all are, no matter what. And we make mistakes, because we're still learning along with you, but… we do it out of love." Sadness gave a small smile, which Riley returned, and the group lapsed into a gentle silence.
With was then quickly broken by Joy.
"GROUP HUG!" Joy then jumped out of her seat like a rocket, and glomped her host before Riley could protest. The warm feeling was nice, almost in intoxicating, and Joy motioned to her fellow emotions. Sadness was the first to join, accepting Joy's invitation as the yellow emotion opened up a spot in the hug for her. One by one Fear, Disgust, and Anger followed, and the six embraced one another.
The same jolt she had felt before came, with a dizzying mix of emotions pulling every which way - joy, sadness, disgust, fear, and anger all hitting her at once, but under it all, a simple truth filled her.
Throughout the repeats, she had always felt that she was alone, never truly able to find someone who could understand. But now she knew, she had five little voices, who understood what she was going through. They were with her, always, and would stick with her till the end, and even if they weren't Awake, they would still be there for her.
And in that single moment, Riley realized that her emotions were not just emotions. They were not just people in her head that watched over her. No, her emotions were more than that. They were her friends.
They were family.
"Riley?" Sadness asked. "Are you... okay?" Tears fell from Riley's face, as she looked at Sadness with a warm smile.
"Yea. I'm okay. It's just," Riley paused, all eyes on her. "I'm home".
*DONG*
Riley looked up as a sound came from the machine in the corner, which had been quietly pumping out little memory spheres as Riley had listened to Phineas and Ferb's explanation. A shining sphere popped out and began to roll down the track, and the emotions quickly jumped up and ran over to the track.
"It's a new Core Memory!" Joy explained, as Riley walked up behind them.
Riley blinked, then nodded. "Those are the memories over in the center, right? The ones that are important?"
Joy nodded, even as she leaned in to look at the sphere. At first glance, it almost looked like it was clear, but when you tilted your head, you could see a red tint, then a green, then yellow, and so on. A rainbow of colors seemed to swirl, just under the surface, bleeding into each other in a swirling pattern, and in the middle, the scene of the emotions gathering for a hug displayed, Looping over and over.
The orb dropped into a channel beneath the floor, glowing as it slid around to the Core Memory Plinth. The other Core Memories shifted, but rather than take a place in one of the circles of memories, it slid into the very center of the pillar, a small dimple forming to reveal it in the middle of the circle on the floor.
Then, light seemed to spill out of the sphere, washing through Headquarters in a rainbow display of light. Everything that it touched seemed to get a bit brighter, the room seemed to get a bit bigger, then the light shot out of the window. The emotions raced over, looking down, and gasped, pointing and whispering. Riley made her way over after them.
"What's happened? What did it do?"
Disgust was the one to answer. "Usually, one of those Core Memories will make an island over there," she pointed across the deep chasm below, to the cluster of islands floating near the other side, long thin rails linking them to Headquarters, "but this time, the new island is down below us."
Disgust pointed down, and Riley leaned over to press her nose to the glass. Down at the base of the Headquarters tower, she could see that a new island had formed and was spreading out at the point where the tower linked with the rails to the other islands. Numerous statues had appeared down below, with what looked like a statue of her forming right next to the base of the tower.
"Is… is that bad?" Riley asked, hesitantly.
Disgust shrugged. "I have no idea."
Fear gazed at the island below, notably not afraid of it like he was with every other new thing that he encountered. "So... what do we call it?"
Joy then looked at Riley, suddenly felt all the attention in the room fall on her. She stared down, at where the light from the new island was spreading down the connections to the other islands, turning them into bridges.
"Unity Island. Because it shows that we are all in this together."
The emotions looked at each other, then turned back, smiling, and nodded at Riley.
"So… now what?" Fear asked.
Ferb coughed, drawing all eyes to him. "Well, you do still have a truck in San Francisco."
Later
"Look, mister, how many times to I have to say this: We are the Flanders, not the Andersons!" Mr. Flanders screeched at the movers, anger rising in both voice and facial tone.
"Hey buddy, this address is on the sheet." The mover argued back, waving his clipboard. "What's written on the sheet is where we go."
"Oh, so what am I supposed to do huh? Just stand here and wait for our moving van to just drop out of the sky?"
*Honk, honk* The Flanders' moving truck then suddenly dropped out of the sky. He then looked up, just in time to see a bullhorn that falling from the sky as well. Startled, he managed to catch the bullhorn, then stared up at where it had come from.
Above the urban sprawl of San Francisco was the strangest airship he had ever seen, a bizarre mix of a brightly colored blimp and a wooden airplane, with rocket boosters and at least a dozen propellers. Its cabin was more like a hanger as seen on an aircraft carrier.
Leaning over the railing of the flying machine were four children, three boys and a girl. Through another bullhorn, the girl spoke to the two men below. "Uh, excuse me? This is the Flanders' house, right?"
Mr. Flanders fumbled for a second before replying through his horn. "Uh yes... who are you?"
"I'm Riley Anderson. My parents and I moved to Danville, but somehow we got your truck and you got ours, and me and my friends are here to switch them."
Mr. Flanders blinked, his mind not quite believing what his senses were telling him. "Well, at least someone here is doing a good moving job."
The mover just shrugged at Mr. Flanders' scathing remark, before he turned his attention back to the blimp thing above him. "Not to sound ungrateful, but aren't you and your friends a little young to be flying blimps and moving trucks?"
"Uh... Yes. Yes we are."
The mover nodded. "Oh. Okay. Truck's all yours, kid."
The green haired kid then pushed a button on a remote, and a claw emerged from their flying machine, reaching down and gently clamped onto the truck, before swiftly lifting it up into the waiting skyship.
"Thanks!" The girl called.
The blimp ship then took off, flying off into the wild blue sky. Mr. Flanders and the mover then looked at each other, not really sure what to think in regards to what they had witnessed. "Uh… Mr. Flanders? What did I just see?"
"I don't know, but I know I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth."
"So, what's next?" Riley was back in Phineas and Ferb's backyard, the day after they retrieved the moving truck. Weirdly, the adults had all brushed off the weirdness of the truck just magically showing up, but Phineas has said that was normal.
Phineas grinned at Ferb, who held up a rolled up blueprint. "Well, we were thinking you might like to take a look at a little sport we invented, named Hockey Z9."
Riley grinned as she walked over, glad to know that she wasn't on her own, anymore.
Joy hummed to herself and smiled as Riley looked over the plans for the new game. Anger was at the console, hooting and grinning over all of the changes, especially the polar bear, while Fear was going through minor conniptions over the same. Disgust was moaning about the disaster that was the outfits that had been used in the game, but Joy saw her working on a few daydreams about possible costume designs.
With a twirl, Joy spun around Sadness, who was deeply engrossed in one of the Manuals for the new, expanded console that Phineas and Ferb had helped set up, complete with Telepathic Telecommunication, so that they could speak with Riley without her having to visit. Ferb had assured Joy that the console would show up whenever Riley was Awake.
Awake. Joy liked that term. Riley was Awake, and so were the Emotions, and they were ready to have whatever these Loops could dish out. After all, Riley knew about them now. What could happen?
(Loop primary responses all written by kingofsouls this time. My thanks to him for assembling the chapter back in July 2015.)
15.1: Welcome to the Loops Riley/Riley's Head!
15.2: Man, the Mind Workers have either really good timing or really bad timing.
15.3: You know you're good at Stealthing, Looping or otherwise, when one of the Original Seven can't find you.
15.4: IT'S ME.
15.5: Wow... way to keep your priorities straight Disgust.
15.6: Zombies. There will always be zombies.
15.7: That's right. Bing Bong LIVES!... somehow.
15.8: Parents; they are always there to shed light onto the darkness, even if they are not sure if they understand or not.
* Anon's response: D'aww...
15.9: You could say this Loop is Fairly Odd. *lol*
15.10: Oh wow, this one became huuuuge. But it was fun to work on.