I'm not sure why my inspiration went to Journey Into Your Imagination. I was reading Aquarian Wolf's "Welcome to the Tragic Kingdom" the other day so that probably has something to do with it. (If you haven't read that, go do it! It's brilliant.) I never saw the attraction when it had Dreamfinder but I have some of the ride audio and I absolutely love his interaction with Figment in the sound clips.

Also I'm scrapping the 500 word thing. There's too much that needs to be said.

Enthusiasm

When he'd first heard his attraction was going to be updated, Figment went literally through the roof with excitement. When he'd found out that his creator was no longer going to be in it, however, he'd thrown a hissy fit that still had Maintenance Cast Members wondering what had happened a decade later. His pseudo-father had calmed him down by assuring Figment that it was all a new adventure, that Dr. Nigel Channing was sure to be a font of hundreds of new ideas.

And it turned out he was…when Figment could pull him away from his laboratory long enough to let his imagination run wild a little. Figment wasn't trying to be a pest, really! It just took a lot to get the good doctor to stop thinking in such a straight line. Getting yelled at and chased off was a small price to pay if it meant the Doc had to use creativity to do it.

Baiting Nigey was fun, but at the end of the day it was Dreamfinder that Figment always wanted to return to. Though the bearded inventor didn't appear in the ride anymore, a door in the waiting area bearing the name Dean Finder made sure his memory was still present in the park.

Dreamfinder was never cross with him, no matter how boisterous the little dragon got. Instead of yelling the jolly old soul would simply direct Figment's energies in a more useful direction. Every word out of his mouth was encouragement and fancy; never once did he try to suppress the spirit's creativity. He was always ready and eager to play, to dream and laugh and see what new thoughts they could come up with together. And, like every night, it was to Dean Finder's office that the dragon zipped as soon as the last Cast Member had left the pavilion.

Ignoring the door completely, Figment popped into existence above the desk in a puff of purple smoke. "Wwwwooooowww, what a setup!"

The inventor was whistling a bouncy version of "One Little Spark" to himself as he fiddled with a massive children's connector set. He looked up brightly as his favorite creation burst into the little office. "Well hello there!" Unlike Nigel, Dreamfinder was always genuinely happy to see him.

"What's all this for?" Figment flitted about the room, excitedly examining the miles and miles of colorful interconnected sticks that had taken over the space. "Are we gonna build a whole city?"

"Give me just a moment..." The bearded gentleman put a finishing touch on the tower he'd been working on. "Ha! Here we are."

He flicked a bright green stick and the silly contraption came to life. The one stick knocked into another, which knocked into another, starting a domino effect that sent piece after piece spinning and rocking in a wave until the entire room was alive with the moving toys. The trash can rang out as nearby sticks knocked into it with tiny ding ding dings and in the corner a spinning circle took off like a string-launched helicopter.

Figment clapped enthusiastically and with another purple poof shrunk himself down small enough to fit between the sticks, zooming around inside the models and trying to dodge the moving parts. "Neat, neat, neat!"

Dreamfinder flicked the green stick again to keep the connector set in motion, happy to see someone having such fun with his latest idea. That's what made ideas wonderful: the possibility that they could be enjoyed.

Poofing into blue smoke this time, the dragon reappeared over the desk. "Oh! Oh! Look what I came up with today!" He pulled a bizarre-looking instrument out of thin air: some kind of cross between a giant orange conch shell and a set of bagpipes, with trailing fish-fins fluttering about holes in the sides. With a flourish, he blew a huge breath into the shell and a noise like the call of a whale bellowed out of it, the little fins making the whole sound seem like it was coming out of bubbles. For an added touch, streams of water spurted out from the topmost holes, raining over the connector set and sending droplets flying everywhere.

Dreamfinder laughed merrily. "Marvelous, Figment!"

"The Doc didn't like it." Figment flipped to hover upside down, not seeming the least bit perturbed by Nigel's opinion. "Said I was getting his notes all wet."

Dreamfinder stood and retrieved his hat from the stand near the door. "Ah well. Let him have fun in his own way and we'll have fun in ours. Now if I'm not mistaken, there's a meteor shower later tonight. Think what delightful things we could do with meteors!"

"Meteors? Comets, suns, and shooting stars! Asteroids and life on Mars!" The dragon exploded in a small burst of pink and purple fireworks, each one with his face in the center, before reappearing next to the hat stand. He was all ready to go, wearing a white scientist's lab coat and holding a collapsible telescope. "Maybe Nigey should take up stargazing. He needs to learn to think outside the box! You should hear all the silly things he wants to find out about imagination and creativity. He thinks he can quantify it!" Figment doubled over in the air, giggling madly. "Stuff it into test tubes and formulas and measure it! How clueless!"

Dreamfinder smiled along with him. "My goodness. That is a rather farfetched notion. I have to admit I never would have imagined that…would you, Figment?"

"Never in a million years!" Figment cackled for a few seconds longer before the words sank in and he froze, nearly falling out of the air in shock. "You…you mean Nigey came up with an idea we didn't?"

Dreamfinder plucked his purple creation from the air and settled him on his shoulders piggyback-style, wandering out into the night. "He very well may have. Everyone assumes that imagination cannot be measured – and I'll admit I have to agree – but Dr. Channing is certainly persistent in his research and you and I both know there's no limit to what we can do when we pursue an idea."

"Huh." Figment leaned on one elbow atop the head of bushy red hair. "Maybe the Doc is on to something. Go figure."

Dreamfinder reached up to scratch the little dragon's scaly back, chuckling. "That's not to say he couldn't use some help from someone who really knows imagination."

Figment cooed at the petting and wrapped his arms around his creator's head, stuffing his face up under the wide blue hat and giggling as he rode along. Maybe Nigel wasn't a totally hopeless case, but he wasn't nearly as fun as the silly old inventor. And he didn't tickle nearly as well. Eh, he'd worry about the doctor later on. For now, they had meteors to watch and ideas to create.

The splash of the jumping fountains told him when they'd reached the edge of the pavilion's promenade and Figment shook his head out of the hat to look up at the stars, still hugging the red hair. Dealing with Nigey was a daytime job. At night he really didn't care. Life could throw whatever it wanted at him just so long as he had Dreamfinder to come back to.