"Do it." Sadness said simply.
Joy turned back and slowly opened the door and saw the most amazing sight she, as well as anyone in Mind World could ever see: their host, 11-year-old Riley Andersen herself, barefoot and in her pajamas.
"Riley?" Joy asked both surprised and excited.
"Wait? Riley?" Anger asked, just as surprised.
"Riley's here?!" Fear shrieked in horror as he ran away to hide, worried about everything that could and would go wrong.
"That's Riley?" Disgust asked, stunned.
"It's Riley?" Sadness asked, finishing the chain.
It took a few seconds for Joy and the other emotions to truly process what (or rather who) they were staring at. Once Joy realized what exactly was going on, she lit up with a level of happiness she had never felt before.
"Oh my god… RILEY! IT'S YOU! IT'S REALLY YOU! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!" Joy shrieked in absolute happiness.
Joy was jumping around in pure happiness. This was unquestionably the greatest day of her existence. She ran over to Riley and hugged her as tightly as she could, not wanting to ever let go, worried that this was all a dream from her own mind.
Riley was super confused at what was going on. One minute, she was playing hockey. The next, she was pushed in a portal. Then she was stranded in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by glowing shelves, floating glowing islands. Then she rode a physics defying train. And now she was here, being hugged by some sort of energy being.
"Heh. Yeah. I-it's me." Riley said in an unsure voice. She decided to be nice and hug the yellow being back. But she still wasn't sure of what was going on.
What is going on with me today? Riley quietly wondered to herself. She was snapped out of her thoughts when she heard talking.
"That's enough Joy. Let go of Riley and give her some space." Sadness said gently as she and the others pulled Joy away from Riley.
"I get that your happy Joy, but don't overwhelm her! You want her to scream that curse word she knows? It's a good one!" Anger said in as calm of a voice as he could produce.
"Ugh. I can't believe she still wears those pajamas. They are so 5 years ago. And where are your shoes?" Disgust said, as she examined every part of Riley's physical structure.
At this point. Fear was now behind and under the couch of Headquarters, shaking with a new level of fear that he hoped he would never, ever have to experience.
"This isn't happening… This isn't happening…" Fear kept muttering while he was rocking back and forth in the fetal position, scared out of his mind.
Riley and the other emotions heard Fear's voice. So, they all turned to look in his direction. Disgust and Anger knew exactly what Fear was doing.
*sigh* "He's doing it again." Disgust said in an annoyed tone.
"Anger can you calm him down?" Joy asked, now having let go of Riley.
Anger just smacked his forehead in frustration as he walked over to the couch where Fear was trying to hide from Riley. He grabbed the purple emotion and did, what he called, "talking some sense into him"
"Will you stop shaking like a complete coward you nitwit?! You are freaking Riley out!" Anger yelled while he violently shook Fear.
"I'M FREAKING HER OUT?!" Fear screamed in horror, and ran in place while being held by Anger, above the ground.
Anger shoved him lightly, and then smacked his across his face, calming him down. "You're welcome everyone." Anger said, feeling proud of himself.
Riley's mouth was hanging open. She was feeling at least a hundred different feelings.
"Uhhhhh… what's going on here?" Riley asked, as she finally found her voice after a few minutes of standing in shock.
The other emotions stopped what they were doing to look at Riley. They all understood that Riley would have questions as to what was going on.
"Where am I? And who and what are you?" Riley asked in as calm and friendly of a voice she could muster.
"You're in Mind World Riley! And as for who we are, we're your emotions!" Joy said in an excited voice.
Riley didn't think it was possible, but somehow she was more confused than before. She was convinced she was hallucinating, or she was dreaming. To her, the second one seemed much more likely. But now, she was beginning to feel fear.
"Th-this can't be happening. Th-this is all a trick! There is no way I'm in my own mind, talking to five…things who say they're my emotions!" Riley yelled in a defiant tone.
The five emotions looked at Riley looks mixed with concern for their confused host, and surprise with how Riley was reacting to the news. They were expecting her to be surprised, but they weren't expecting her to be in full on denial mode.
"R-Riley, p-please just c-calm down. Everything is okay." Fear said in a reassuring voice. While he was trying to calm down his frightened host, and talk some real sense into her, he was also trying to calm himself down.
"No! This isn't real!" Riley shouted as she tried to walk backwards and fell down. The emotions slowly walked over to her. "Are you okay?" Sadness asked in a caring.
"Get away from me you…things!" Riley shouted, as she tried to crawl backwards, away from the approaching emotions. "I'm not dealing with this! I'm getting out of here!" She screamed, as she began to try and run away from Headquarters.
"No!" Joy shouted.
"Stop!" Fear shrieked.
"Wait!" Anger yelled.
"Don't!" Disgust screamed.
Sadness knew exactly what she needed to do, and how to do it. She began to slowly approach Riley with as friendly of a face she could muster. She knew she had to approach Riley and this situation as carefully as possible.
"Riley…please listen to me." Sadness said in a calm, reassuring, and gentle voice as she grabbed Riley's arm with a gentle grip.
Riley turned around to see the blue "emotion" holding her arm, not in a hostile way, and with a gentle expression on her face. She took the time to see what other expressions were on the others faces.
The red one had an expression of anger. The green one had an expression of annoyance. The purple one had an expression of terror. And the yellow one had an expression of happiness.
Riley decided to take a chance and dig further into this matter. Even if she was freaked out, a part of her still wanted to see what exactly was going on here. Maybe the beings in front of her were telling the truth.
"Someone please tell me what is going on here?" Riley asked, shaking as if Fear was controlling her.
Sadness approached the matter with great delicateness. She was the only one who could possibly help calm down Riley.
"Riley, please listen to me. I know this might sound extremely crazy, but you are somehow in your own mind." Sadness said, trying to make it sound as normal as possible to Riley.
Riley was freaked out, but she was also, admittedly, intrigued. "What do you mean?" She asked in as calm of a voice she could muster.
"Riley, you have somehow found a way into your own mind." Sadness explained. "This is Mind World, and I know you might think its impossible, but we are your emotions."
At this point, Riley had started to calm herself down. Sadness' explanation was working for her. The other emotions had caught on to what Sadness was doing.
"She's right Riley. We are what make you feel." Joy explained.
"So…you're real?" Riley asked as she was calming down. "This isn't a dream?" She asked.
"W-we don't know if this is a dream or not." Fear said. Anger smacked him again. Now she's gonna panic again. Anger thought as he shook Fear again.
"You're not helping Riley, Fear!" Anger hissed while shaking him.
"Sorry! Sorry!" Fear babbled. Disgust rolled her eyes, then smacked her forehead in frustration. "Can you two stop it?" Disgust asked sternly.
"No no! it's okay." Riley said. Man, if these things really are my emotions, then I probably just made everyone mad. Riley thought to herself.
As Riley and her emotions took their moments to fully calm down, both parties took their time to wonder about the situation they were in.
"So…uh…my name is-" Riley began before Joy cut her off.
"Riley Andersen. Age 11. We know all of that already, silly!" Joy said in a jovial tone.
"She's right, Riley. We already know everything about you. Even the nastiest of things, we know." Disgust said, confirming Joy's story.
"How do you know all of this?" Riley asked, surprised, but curious.
"It's like we said kid. We're your emotions." Anger said, for once not totally angry. "We are what make you feel the way you feel at any point in your life."
"We've been with you ever since birth, for every step of the way." Joy continued.
"Wow. That's actually pretty interesting." Riley said, now feeling more relaxed and ready to talk and listen to her emotions.
"I know you said you're my emotions, and trust me, I'm starting to believe that myself. But who exactly are you? Like what are your…names I guess." Riley asked, wondering how she should refer to her emotions.
The emotions all looked at one another, and exchanged glances that said that they were comfortable telling Riley who exactly they were. Fear was much more hesitant but agreed with the others.
"I'll start. I'm Joy. I'm the emotion who makes you feel happy." Joy said.
"So, you're the reason I always feel so happy so much?" Riley asked, in a bit of a joking manner. She had begun to warm up to her emotions.
"That's right! Having fun, smiling, laughing, playing, anything positive, I'm responsible for it." Joy said proudly, as Riley chuckled at the response.
"I'll go next, I'm Sadness. I'm the emotion who makes you feel sad." Sadness quietly said.
Riley looked at Sadness, then asked, "Why haven't I felt you very much?"
"Well, that's because I used to be unsure of what my purpose in your life was. So, I was pretty useless around here." Sadness explained.
The other emotions all looked at Sadness with guilty looks. For her entire life, up until a few months ago, Sadness had been mistreated by all of them, especially Joy. And even though now they were all closer, they still didn't like hearing Sadness say those things about herself.
"Wait, do you…make me…cry?" Riley asked, genuinely confused.
"Well, when I obsess over the weight of life's problems, yeah. But... everyone needs a good cry right?" Sadness tried to joke.
"I guess." Riley said.
"Well at least I now know my purpose in your life. I help signal to others around you that you need help." Sadness said, starting to feel proud of herself.
"So…compassion?" Riley asked.
"Yeah. Something like that." Sadness said.
"My turn. The name's Anger. I'm the emotion who makes you feel angry. But I mostly make sure that things are fair in your life." Anger said.
"Wait. YOU"RE the reason I get so angry?" Riley asked, now a bit miffed.
"Uh…yes?" Anger said, slightly leaning back, wondering if Riley was trying something with him.
"Just so you know Riley, flames shoot out of his head when he gets mad, which is always." Disgust sneered.
"At least I don't have a weak stomach like you, green blob!" Anger fired back.
"No wonder it always feels like my head is exploding when I get angry. It's you who's doing that to me!" Riley exclaimed, as she pointed her finger rather accusingly at Anger.
"Hey, I'm just trying to make sure things are fair for ya kid!" Anger said, trying to defend himself. Bur Riley was very clearly, not happy with the red emotion at the moment.
"You made me break my hockey stick on the net when I missed a shot. You know how stupid I looked?" Riley asked. "I had to sit the rest of that game because I didn't have a spare stick!" Riley said in a frustrated.
"Well…the stick was weak…and I felt you needed to feel…angry…" Anger said, as he slowly ran out of things he could say to Riley to make things better.
But then, without warning, Riley fell on her back and started laughing hard, having apparently made a joke of some kind.
"I'm just messing with you!" Riley laughed, as she shook Anger in a similar manner to how he usually shakes Fear.
Anger laughed back, now feeling more relaxed.
"That was a good one. Disgust said, as she and Riley high fived. "You made Anger actually feel afraid for once. Way to put him in his place." Disgust said proudly.
"So, who are you?" Riley asked to Disgust.
"My name is Disgust. I'm the emotion responsible for making you feel disgusted at certain things. I also keep you from being poisoned. Both by food, and socially."Disgust said, while checking her mirror.
"I see you also have a sense of humor." Riley joked.
"Nah. That's just Anger being Anger. It's easy to rile him up and get him angry. It's all he does." Disgust said.
"Hey! At least I don't barf when I make Riley feel angry!" Anger hissed at Disgust.
"So, when you say that you "keep me from being poisoned", what do you mean?" Riley inquired. Out of all the emotions she has met so far, Disgust was definitely the most intriguing as to what she did for Riley.
"Easy. I help you pick and choose your friends. I keep you from doing things that could humiliate us, and I help stop you from eating bad food like broccoli" Disgust said with pride in her voice.
"Ugh, broccoli is the absolute worst." Riley mused.
"Funny that you look like broccoli yourself, huh Disgust?" Anger joked.
"Says you brick head! I do not look like broccoli!" Disgust replied in a denying tone.
"Actually, now that I can see you all, Anger's right Disgust. You do look like broccoli. And not in a good way." Riley said, backing up Anger's claim.
"T-there's no way." Disgust said, denying the claim.
Riley then looked over at the emotion. He was the last one to go. As Riley looked at him, the other emotions also looked at Fear, trying to give him encouraging looks.
"I don't know about this Joy. What if something goes wrong?" Fear tried reasoning.
"We all did it, and as you can see, nothing happened to us or Riley. She's warmed up to us. Now it's your turn." Joy said, reassuringly.
Fear stepped forward and took a deep breath. "Okay…well, my name is Fear. And I'm the emotion who makes you feel afraid, which in turn helps keep you safe." Fear said.
"So…you're the reason I second guess myself a lot of the time, or even seem unsure about things?" Riley asked.
"Well sometimes. We all do it around here." Fear said. "I just happen to do it the most. Your safety is my top priority Riley!" Fear said, for once feeling proud of himself.
Riley smiled as she stared at her emotions. They had spent their whole lives being there for her, making her feel happy (Joy). Signaling when she needed help (Sadness). Making sure things were fair for her (Anger). Helping her make socially good choices (Disgust). And keeping her safe (Fear). She was impressed at what they do.
It was then Joy remembered something. Riley's here! It was time to celebrate. Get to know one another.
"So Riley, now that you're here with us in Mind World, what do you wanna do first?" Joy asked excitedly, ready to have a good time with her.
Riley looked around and saw a number of things she could do here. She had her emotions to help be her guides her as well. Maybe this would be fun for Riley after all.