"B-199"

This was the label, written on the directory next to the stairwell which Joy had found on the bottom floor underneath the next floor above. The ceiling was a good distance up, leaving a lot of open air. Most light came from the shaft in the center of the arrangement. The rest came from furnaces, sparsely arranged in the dark underneath the platform.

It was daylight above, signifying that Riley was awake. Joy figured she must have spent all night at the bottom of the shaft. She went up the steps, to the next floor above.

The next floor up had a smooth metal floor, as opposed to the blasted and picked away stone surface on the ground floor. "B-198" Was the floor signified by the sign near the top of the stairway. They were basement levels, signified by that the number went up the further the floors went down, and down the further one went up. This confirmed to Joy that she was underground, and not in a very tall building.

The new floor was significantly more packed than the ground one. There was a mild crowd of Mind Workers who all had somewhere to go. Huge, stationary machines were arrayed about the open floor, with sparsely spaced support collumns going up to the next platform above.

There was no higher set of steps near the one Joy had just come up, and so she scanned the surrounding floor, looking for another upgoing flight of stairs. She hoped to find some kind of lift, as the floor directory claimed she was almost two hundred floors down.

Pounding and grinding could be heard all around. This noise enveloped the entire floor, as well as the shaft dominating the center of the donut-shaped stack of floors, the collective sound of every floor all around formed a constant, merciless din of noise. Some poundings and clankings maintained a reliable rhythm.

"Are you lost?"

Joy stopped from walking aimlessly, and turned to the source of the voice. It was a mind worker, wearing a hard hat and considerably shorter than her. "Excuse me?"

"You don't loook like you belong here. I'm asking if you got lost." He looked left, and right, at their surroundings. "Extremely lost."

She shrugged. "I don't even know where, or what this place is."

"Yes then." He moved along. "Come with me. I'll take you to see the Foreman."

She followed. "Thank you," she said in relieved exhale. "I really need to find a way out of here."

"What are you supposed to be, anyway? You look too humanoid to be one of those things from the tunnels."

"I'm Joy," she said. "What things from the tunnels? What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the reason we've had to gate off every last tunnel entrance, and gas entire sections before we go mining for go-juice. As if there isn't enough on our plate with the new school grade."

Joy was nodding at this. "Boy I hear you... Still, there are a lot of things to enjoy in school." They passed by a conveyor belt. It conveyed chunks of hard sediment through a long line of hydraulic hammers which broke them apart. It then went uphill until reaching the next floor up.

"This is the biggest content processing center south of Headquarters; referred to as the Thought Foundry. It started as a go-juice mine. Then we moved the refining and processing machinery down here to save on shipping costs, and also because the people in Headquarters thought our facilities were an eyesore up top."

Joy's perspective in this was whenever Riley had to think about things, or get used to something new which she had no experience doing. When this happened she and the other emotions would order thoughts. Conclusions and pieces of perspective to serve as comforting answers to whatever Riley was faced with. Rationalizing the world around her with an interpretation that fit with the sense of life maintained by her mind. Joy knew what the Thought Foundry was, and what it did, but she'd never seen it in person. "So does this place handle things when Riley does schoolwork, too?"

"Oh, definitely." The mind worker said as they walked along the floor. There were hundreds of other workers in Joy's view, who did their jobs with an indifferent efficiency. "Math equations, critical thinking. There's much more to being human than how you feel about things."

Joy looked to the left, and observed a casting mold. Its molten material took a long, circuitous route through seesaw channels and a marble madness setup before reaching the mold itself. "It looks like a lot of things could be more efficient."

"Oh absolutely. Riley is only twelve, you know. The power plant, to the northwest of here is still using steam cylinders, when everyone and their cat knows that turbines are the way to go."

"How do things like that exist in the mind anyway?" Joy asked as they continued walking. They were headed toward a narrow elevator shaft. "I mean, what was it like in the minds of people who lived before those things were invented?"

The Mind Worker shrugged. "All I know is, anything Riley percieves in real life has the potential to exist in her mind. She knows that power plants, factories and mechanized transportation exists in real life, and therefore it can exist here. And honestly why shouldn't it? It makes our job so much easier."

"That would suggest..." Joy trailed off, "that knowing about those things gives her a mental edge over people who lived in the past, whom did not know about them. How does that make any sense?"

"Humans are beings of knowledge." The Mind Worker answered. "The only thing that makes Riley different from her distant primitive ancestors is the knowledge and culture which the world she was born into has given her. And she is different from her ancestors. Much different. As are all children born into similar conditions. Therefore it stands to reason that her mind function in a different way."

"Okay," Joy shrugged. "As long as Riley is happy, the innards of her mind can be a cyberpunk urban jungle for all I care."

They reached the elevator. It was olde-timey in appearance, with an open cab whose lattice gate was opened and shut by hand. They boarded it, and the mind worker used a manual set of controls to unlock it from position and let it be pulled upward. There were no enclosed walls to the cab or shaft, and Joy saw the floor shrink as they went up. The open floor looked like a mouse maze of conveyors from her high altitude, with swarms of colored dots all moving about. Some pushing trollys loaded with peach-colored stone.

"This elevator goes straight to the Foreman's office." The mind worker said. "You can sort your predicament out with him. I'm heading back down and straight back to work as soon as you're off the cab."

Joy looked his way, nodding in understanding. "Thanks," she said.

The elevator entered the ceiling above, becoming dark save for a single bulb at the top of the cab's metal skeleton. It reached the top of its elevator shaft, with the gate side emerging to a well-lit interior room. The gate was opened for Joy as she walked out. Then it shut behind her, and the elevator headed down.

It was a free period in school. In which students were free to do as they wanted, as long as they did not leave their seats. Riley used this time to catch up on schoolwork.

"Ugh!" Riley's Disgust exclaimed inside Heaquarters. "Is there any way we could skip this? I was against doing it when it was assigned, and I'm against it now."

"What's even the point of it?" Anger added. "It's just boring useless junk we're gonna forget about in a few days."

"And the school year has only just started..." Sadness' face was buried on the console. "There will be more to come, and it's gonna pile up, and it will all end in catastrophic failure."

"We can't let that happen, can we..?" Fear said. "We should just bite the bullet and get it finished. I don't want anybody getting upset with us." The other three emotions groaned and growled at this.

"Oh come now! What's this I'm hearing?" The green-haired, dimly colored Joy said, addressing all of them from the center of the console. "It could be worse, and if we start now, and don't stop, it won't take long."

The other emotions took this in, working past their unique inhibitions. Even after the incident a year ago, they still trusted her judgement. The incident largely largely due to her arrogance, but she was also the one who found the solution.

"Who's on 'Team: Get the work done'?" Said Dim Joy.

They all quietly agreed. "I'll wire the data down to the Thought Foundry." Dim Joy continued. "Then, when they send up refined thoughts, we'll sort through them and see which fit."

Joy entered the Foreman's office tentatively. There were long consoles and terminal workers operating every seat. Short stairways to the left and right led to a slightly elevated area. Everyone was too occupied to notice her.

The office was rectangular-shaped, and three of the four walls were angled glass that overlooked the many floors of the Foundry from a high location in the central shaft. Joy saw this clearly when she went up the steps, onto the elevated area of floor in the center of the office, which was really more of a control room.

"Orders coming in from HQ!" A loud voice announced in echo through the room. The speaker was standing in front of a console in the center of the elevated platform. He did not notice Joy. The console was a 3-dimensional cylinder running from the floor up through the ceiling. An opening at eye level revealed strips of color running through multiple narrow channels from top to bottom. There were four colors, including white which signified empty space. The colors running by were code, and their order and frequency signified the function and nature of the thought running through the channel.

"Okay," the worker at the central console said. "It says that Riley needs to build an essay. Preferably with accurate language, if we can manage it."

One of the terminal operators poked their head up, looking at the worker at the central console. "What do we send 'em, Foreman?"

The Foreman Waved off a hand dismissively. "Eh, send up a sequence of Echo-Tens, Charlie-Threes, and Golf-One-Eights. We've plenty in stock and it seemed to satisfy them last time."

It bothered Joy that the processed thoughts he decided to send seemed to roll right off the front of his mind, decided immediately without any deliberation. "Ah... excuse me."

"Who the heck are you?" The Foreman asked.

"I'm Joy." She announced joyfully. "I was wondering if-"

"That's impossible. You're either a lookalike or someone pulling some prank."

She crooked her head a bit. "Excuse me..?"

"The order from HQ came from Joy, just a few seconds ago." He indicated his console. "This code explicitly states it came from Joy. So unless you can be in two places at once, there's no way you're her."

She waved this down. "Look, I'm not all that concerned about who you think or don't think I am. I just need to find a way out of here."

The Foreman, now looking Joy in the face, crooked an eyebrow. "If, bychance you are the real Joy, then perhaps you'd be willing to prove it."

"Nope!" She replied. "I just want to get out of here. If you could point me in the right direction..." She had a plan. As soon as she was on the surface, she would make her way to a Train station. Riley's mind was stable, so the Train of Thought would be safe to take back to Headquarters.

The Foreman shook his head. "I'm afraid that's undoable. Nobody who isn't a mind worker is allowed up to surface. And whoever you are, you're definitely not a worker." The Foreman, like any mind worker, was a jellybean-like body-head compound with thin, black arms and legs. In his particular case he was a bit bigger than average, and a more reddish color.

Joy averted getting angry. Averted getting upset. Averted becoming complaintitive. "Please, I need to get out of here. I don't know how I ended up here, and I need to leave."

"Sorry," he shrugged. "But if you're not a mind worker, you can't use the transit system out of here. You shouldn't have even been able to get in here to begin with. So normally an issue like this doesn't come up. But rules are rules. If HQ lifts the restriction I can let you leave, but until then..."

Joy was an emotion, and so was practically immortal inside Riley's mind. She would certainly have survived having been dropped into the shaft, which was likely the case. However, despite not being able to die, she could become trapped or imprisoned.

"If there's nothing else, I've got a thought foundry to run." He turned to his console.

The free period in school had ended, and Riley hardly got anything done. She told herself she'd have plenty of time to finish it at home. School was almost out for that day, and she couldn't wait for it to end.

She'd occupied her thoughts with daydreams, and pleasant memories. Working on her essay simply did not stick, and on her paper lay a grand total of five and a half sentences.

"Not exactly 'Team: Get the work done' right now, is it, Joy?" Disgust said dejectedly, feeling dejected at their not making real progress at their essay.

"All those bums in the Foundry sent us were the same three processed thoughts, again!" Anger said, looking at an info screen which was separate from the one displaying Riley's immediate perceptions. "Not to mention the teacher could have given us a more interesting topic. I blame her most of all."

Sadness was the next to speak, "it dipped way below the boredom event horizon." She was analyzing the particular data which she was keen to. "Riley has already done something like this before."

"Guys!" Dim Joy said joyfully. "It's not near as bad as you're making it out to be. We have plenty of time to finish it at home.

Fear was chewing his nails. "But then she'll want to hang out with her friends, and do any other not-boring thing other than this essay, and it'll be left to stagnate until it's too late!" He said this in an elevating voice. "I knew this would happen!"

"And in spite of all of that, Riley is going to be happy." Dim Joy said. She turned, and indicated the short-term memory rack. "Do you see the huge tufts of my memories that were made last night?"

There indeed were huge areas of only Joyful memories. The other emotions acknowledged this.

"Those memories are undeniably positive, right?" She said. "And we can make as much as we want, whenever we're alone."

"I guess so..." Sadness was holding a slack elbow with her other hand.

Disgust was also looking away. "If feels... dirty though, in an odd way."

"Oh," Dim Joy dismissed it all. "Don't be like that you guys. Positive is positive. It's important to have balance and all, but... Riley is going through change. The parents and teachers all say that these are transitional years. We have it in our power to make it as painless as possible.

There was a hard, ultimately relaxed sigh. "She's right you guys," said Anger. "We can't stop Riley from going through change. And it doesn't end well when we try."

Processed thoughts had been issued, and were visible through the angled window walls of the control room. A huge air tube came down into the foundry shaft as smooth, wide conveyors were extended out into the open air, crossing to the other side of the platforms' donut-shaped arrangement.

The processed thoughts, shaped, colored and fragmented pieces, were moved along the wide conveyors. When they came under the air tube, it sucked them up. When it withdrew a satisfactory number, the conveyor receded back into its floor to allow the tube to sink lower, to lower conveyors with different varieties of processed thoughts.

Joy, still in the control room after this process completed, had been scanning the terminals. One particular one she spotted operated trams that moved from the surface to the foundry, signified by a simplified wireframe map. She turned back to the Foreman. There would only be one chance at this. "I... actually am a mind worker." She said.

"That so?" The Foreman said indifferently.

"Yes!" She said with a cocksure, positive energy. "You said yourself that I'm not an emotion. What else would I be?"

His interest was piqued once again, and he gave her a sideways glance. "What kind of job do you do?"

"I, ah..." She thought quickly. "I'm an irregular! I was transferred here to... help deal with the infestation in the go-juice mines."

The Foreman looked pleasantly surprised at this. "That's great. But if that's the case, why did you go claiming to be Joy of all people."

She scratched behind her head. "That was just..."

"It's not like you were fooling anyone," he continued, on the verge of laughter. "There's no way you could be Joy." he pointed at her with an opened hand. "You're not near tall enough!" he looked left and right, at the terminal operators who were drifting a curious look at the scene he was making. "Everyone, this scrawny girl claimed, I kid you not, to be none other than Joy!"

The control room erupted with chuckling. Joy had sagged forward, staring blankly. She absentmindedly blew a piece of hair off her face. "Yeah... you know us irregulars. We're a weird bunch."

"Uh huh," the Foreman agreed. "Not any less weird than the other ones who showed up here."

"Other ones?"

"Yeah, same job as you. I think you'll want to go find them, right?"

"Yes! Definitely." Joy answered.

"They're on level B-One oh one."

"Okay." she turned to leave. If she could keep up her story of being a mind worker, she could get out of the Foundry at the first opportunity.

"Oh! I almost forgot."

Joy stopped, and turned back to look at the Foreman. "What is it?"

"I want to wish you luck. You and the other ones deal with our infestation for good, and the go-juice shortage will vanish."

Joy was lying about being a mind worker, but nevertheless she gave a thumbs up, still half-turned in his direction. "You can count on me." She proceeded to enter the elevator and leave.

After Joy left, the Foreman turned to his console. He switched on a small comm screen, on the other end of which was Dim Joy. "It'a just like you said, Joy. Some bum waltzed in here claiming to be you. Looked just like you, too."

"Well done, Foreman." Dim Joy replied. "You know your task. She is not to escape from the Foundry.

"Not to worry, Joy." He was saluting. "The impostor took up an impossible assignment. To prove she's a legit worker she'll have to pull it off. And when she doesn't, she can't possibly expect to leave."

She nodded. "This is satisfactory. I expect your next report on her progress in eight hours." The transmission ended.

Dim Joy cut the connection. It was done on a terminal out of the view of the other emotions. "Sorry, Joy." She said to herself. "But you're not going to ruin it." She walked, touring past the concentrated clusters of joyous memories. She stopped to pick one up, staring at it lovingly. "You're not going to ruin the glorious new discovery." She stared into the memory's contents. "The discovery of me; the discovery of my method of making Riley Happy.