Note: Thanks to the anonymous reviewers, too! :) Since I can't send you personalized reply PMs, I thought I could say it here. You guys rock!
Sometimes, she just wanted to be alone.
Yeah, Joy's we're-all-chummy-here thing was kinda charming every now and then, but it really got old after a while. Especially when it didn't work, which was always, really. More often than not, their resident Bouncy Ball was the only one who truly enjoyed the togetherness, and at times, Disgust found it hard to handle her radiating positivity; it really got on her nerves.
So she would hide out among the rows and rows of shelves full of memories, trying to find one to watch, and then be unable to decide on one because neither one of them was truly perfect; there was always something to make her turn away in distaste.
There were upsides to life in Headquarters, though, even if she had to look for them with a magnifying glass. Making Riley snark at her parents, for example. That was fun. Yeah, Riley always felt bad about it afterward, and maybe Disgust felt a little bad about it, too. Maybe. Just maybe. Seldom. If she didn't have anything better to do. But that was after the wisecracks. During them, she enjoyed herself, and she knew, she just knew, that Riley enjoyed the sarcasm, too.
Startling Fear was another upside to her everyday life. The guy was so jumpy that it was funny, even when he emitted those stupid, shrill shrieks. But she couldn't do it often, for she loathed being lectured by Joy about "proper behavior" and "respecting your peers."
There had to be something to that, Disgust knew, at least when she felt like being honest with herself. Because Riley sometimes received the same lectures from her parents, but rarely, only when she got into fights with others kids. That didn't happen often, though, only when Anger was in charge. Shame, really, but it probably couldn't be helped.
No, scratch that. It was exhausting to always go where Riley took them. The girl was a good kid, mostly, Disgust would give her that, but she really didn't know how to deal with people, and that led to cringe-inducing awkwardness and embarrassing misunderstandings more often than not.
Why she even still bothered was beyond Disgust. If she had had to deal with about a decade of this, she would have opted out by now, would have left to live on her own. Or something like that.
But, oh well. It was not as if she could go anywhere, and if she had to stick around anyway, she might as well make the most of each moment.
Note: I think it says a lot about me that the chapter with the sarcasm prone character is the longest by far…
Anyone else get a definite Toy Story vibe whenever the Emotions' feelings toward Riley are mentioned?
Next up: Fear!