Chapter 5: Mind in Motion

Disgust hurried into Dream Productions. Looking around, she could tell something weird was going on. There were plenty of mind workers coming in and out of the area, but they seemed to be running into each other. As if they wanted to be somewhere, but were unsure where that place was. Two of the sound stages were glowing, while another had gone dark. Some mind workers were running with tools. Some with set pieces. It looked like chaos.

Disgust then got bumped into. "Hey, watch where you're…" then she got jostled again. "Knock it off!" Finally, after at least 6 more bumps, she finally made it into Sound Stage A. She took some deep breaths, finally having a moment to herself. Then she looked out to the set that looked like it was trying to put together a dream. Disgust tilted her head slightly, trying to figure out what was going on. The dream workers looked like they wanted to dress up like the emotions, but then they were in school? It was very confusing. Disgust began walking towards the set. Then she saw the director Paula coming at her, a bullhorn in her hands.

"You!"

Disgust pointed at herself. "Me?"

Paula raised her bullhorn in Disgust's face, and shouted, "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! IF YOU JUST LISTENED TO ME AND DIDN'T HAVE RILEY LUCID DREAM, THEN NONE OF THIS WOULD'VE HAPPENED!"

"Okay, Okay! No need to shout it in my face!" Disgust slowly lowered the bullhorn down from her face. She quickly touched her hair. It was a little frazzled, which only made her wince more, since now she looked even MORE like broccoli. So she patted her hair down slightly, adjusting herself. "Maybe pulling the manager card was a little haughty of me since you're all on the ground of what goes on in Riley's mind." Disgust then got down to Paula's level. "But can you honestly say that you and your teams weren't happy to have her come down here and see her face to face?"

Paula opened her mouth, then closed it, then looked away. "Well, okay. That's true." Paula then turned back still with an upset glare. "But it also made my teams lose so much work! We had so many dream plans while Riley was here, but all this Lucid Dreaming meant we had more nights off than normal! Some of the crew was starting to get disgruntled on how long they hadn't gotten to make a new dream, or even use the same dreams we'd hoped for at the start of the night. And don't get me started on emergency dreams we had to throw together when she went back to sleep! Hardly our best work!"

Disgust sighed. All their work at Headquarters only seemed to get more complicated the more they left it. "Well, once we save Riley, we're going to change things. Anger already talked about making Riley sleep normally for a week as a kind of punishment for trying to suppress us. I'm sure Dream Productions can get into a new rhythm when we figure out a new system for how often Riley can come down here."

Paula let out a sigh too. "I think we're all scared right now. That's why I got so mad. All the studios are trying to figure out if we can break the lucid connection to restart Riley's mind or get her out of wherever she is right now. We've tried some different dream layouts. We tried turning off the camera. Studio C wanted to experiment with a remake of I'm Falling Down a Deep Pit to see if we could scare her awake somehow. We've tried reapplying the reality filter a couple times, but nothing seems to change. And we've had a few filters break for reasons we can't quite figure out."

Disgust frowned. That could be a problem. "How many reality filters do you all have?"

"Oh, plenty. Reality is easy to change depending on what Imagination Land sends us during the day. Although, our extras weren't really replenished yesterday." Paula nervously looked back at the camera. It had its filter off right now, but a mind worker was fiddling with the camera as if he wanted to put a new one in.

Disgust nervously let out a breath. It seemed that Imagination Land really did have a lot of influence on what Riley wanted or could do in other parts of her mind. "Well unfortunately, we don't know if that'll help. Riley's currently lost, but the manual on Special Emergencies said that she's in a limbo state between waking, sleeping and unconscious. My guess is she'll need to break her own lucid dream rather than be pulled out by Dream Productions."

Paula looked down. "So there's nothing we can do?"

Disgust straightened up, giving Paula a look of command but also sympathy. "Actually, there are two things you can do. First, I need to know if you all have anything to stay in contact with other parts of the mind. We have an idea how to fix this, but we'll need to talk to each other as we go."

Paula put down her bullhorn, thinking to herself. "Well, Dream Productions is normally pretty self contained. Our headsets only work within a pretty short distance of each other. But…there was some discussion from the construction crews about building a studio D & E for more "nostalgic" dreams. There might be some construction worker walkie talkies you can find to use over there."

Disgust nodded. "I'll swing by that area to take a couple of both. The headsets will be useful when we're rebuilding a console, but the walkie talkies will be great for if we get farther away." Then she held out a second finger. "More importantly, could you tell your crew to start working on Protocol 1999?"

Paula stopped. She looked Disgust in the eyes. "Protocol 1999? Are you sure?"

Disgust was a little creeped out by the sudden shift in tone, but she pressed her lips together. "Yes. The Manual said the first step is to enact Protocol 1999."

Paula frowned. But then picked up her bull horn, and turned back to the studio. "EVERYONE, PRODUCTION IS TEMPORARILY CANCELED! GET TO THE OTHER STUDIOS AND TELL THEM TO BEGIN PROTOCOL 1999 IMMEDIATELY! IF YOU RUN INTO ANY CONFUSED WORKERS, TELL THEM TO DO THE SAME!"

The dream workers all paused. There was the sound of someone dropping a hammer, and then they all ran for the studio door. Some were still holding their tools. Some had picked up some set pieces. Some had ropes between them. But before long, only Disgust and Paula were left in the now empty studio.

Disgust then looked at Paula in shock. "Just….what does protocol 1999 mean to you all?"

Paula gave a cheeky grin. "Since the protocol is about preserving as much of Riley as possible, our team is going to work on creating safeguards to protect Riley's mind from The Memory Dump until it's fixed."

"How?"

Paula smiled even wider. "No, I think I'm going to surprise you as we work. Just know that we'll do our part to have Riley ready to dream again when this is over." Then she handed over her horn to Disgust. "Here. You can use this if you need to move a crowd of mind workers quickly."

Disgust gave a very confused look. But then shook herself to refocus. "Okay. I'll…go over to Studios C, D and E now. Thank you." Holding the horn close to herself, she stepped outside to find…a flood of mind workers all moving in different directions. She even noticed Rainbow Unicorn running around with a crowbar in her hooves, prying open a crate. Sighing in exasperation, Disgust raised the bullhorn up. "CLEAR A PATH EVERYONE! DISGUST HERE. AND I NEED TO REACH THE NEW STUDIOS! ALSO, KEEP WORKING THAT PROTOCOL 1999."

The crowd parted like the waters, and Disgust followed an open pathway towards the far side of Dream Studios. At least she could get back to the others with successes to show for it.

Joy was seriously concerned about Riley's mental health as she and Fear made their way through Imagination Land. If the land was burnt and messy last night, it looked positively awful right now.

Coming in from the backside, Storybook Land had mind workers chasing down what looked like assorted monsters. Cloud Town looked all stormy and black. The card towers were all knocked over. And from where they could see the far side of it, the french-fry forest had all been cut down. And what's more, there hadn't been too many mind workers running around. Presumably, a lot of them had moved out due to the Protocol, but the ones they did see were running off far enough away from them, they hadn't managed to stop one for help yet.

Fear gave Joy a glance as they walked to the stream of consciousness. Stopping by the banks, they noticed it seemed a little lower than normal. Fear then knelt down, before pulling out a ruler.

Joy blinked. "Where did you get that ruler?"

Fear glanced over at her, before gesturing to a black bag on his back. "I grabbed my emergency kit before we took off. It's useful when you're dealing with unusual situations." After a moment using the ruler, he stood back up, giving Joy a nervous look. "It looks like the stream is at least 4 inches lower than normal. I think this means Riley's mind isn't thinking as fast as before. We are definitely on the clock."

Joy nervously rubbed her hands. She had a question on the tip of her tongue, but she was afraid of what she was going to hear when she asked it. Fear looked over to Joy, raising an eyebrow.

"Whatever you want to say, say it while we're moving towards Trophy Town." They started down the puzzle piece path, walking in silence for several moments.

Joy finally cleared her throat. "Fear, do..do you blame me for this mess we're in?"

Fear stopped in his tracks. His back was still turned to Joy. "Do you know what I wanted to say to you before you talked to Riley the first time?" Joy shook her head. Even though he didn't see it, Fear continued. "What I wanted to say was that I was afraid that this could go wrong and put her in a coma. And what has happened to us?"

Joy shakily replied, "We're…in a coma?" Fear didn't reply at first. "So you do blame me?"

Fear then looked back at Joy. He definitely had a frown on his face, but he didn't look angry like back on the couch. "Joy, why didn't you listen to me? This was my third worst fear for Riley after the intercom broke, and instead of avoiding it, you jumped right into it. Why did you break the illusions Riley had about us in her head?"

Joy met Fear's gaze, but she definitely was feeling a mix of emotions. Shame, but also some of Anger's fire. "I did the best I could with what we knew at the time. You knew why I needed to do it." Fear opened his mouth, but Joy cut him off. Growing louder as she kept going. "What would've happened if Riley ever managed to hear us while we whispered at the console? She might not have adjusted to the idea of us, and panicked into doing something without ever listening to us. And what if we destroyed the intercom? Then next thing we know, Riley might've gotten ACTUAL Schizophrenia. And you would've never been able to handle hearing voices that weren't even us All the time."

Fear's brows shot up. He opened his mouth to reply, then shut it. His eyes darted back and forth, and he turned to keep walking, but kept talking too. "Well, you're not wrong." Then he paused for a moment. "Do you know how hard it is to be me sometimes, Joy? The rest of you usually don't second guess your actions. But me? I have to think about everything out there that could be a problem for Riley, and depending on the day, that can be a lot. A good day for me is Riley reading a book with gloves on. Maybe even another of the Tragic Vampire Romance series. But we all know that she'd never go that far. So I have to keep interjecting myself to try and keep Riley away from worst case scenarios. Even if she thinks her wildest dreams are on the other side. It can get so frustrating when you or Anger push past me and then Bang! We're running away from home or falling over during hockey, or losing our Joy in the middle of the day!"

Joy frowned. "I suppose you're right. I have led you all astray a few times." She pondered for a moment, then brightened up. "But don't forget Fear, even when you're the most cautious, you are good for catching us before we fall. YOU saved Riley when she forgot how to fly on Monday night. And Anger told me what you did for Riley after I left Headquarters." Joy then smiled. "So thank you, Fear. You've probably saved Riley's life several times just since we started talking to her."

Fear paused again, then sighed. "The truth is, I don't really blame you, Joy. Or even Anger. This was all one enormous accident that got out of control. One we couldn't even fix once we tried." Fear then turned with a half smile. "And even if Riley is a trouble magnet, I..I did like having her come see us. Just because I get scared doesn't mean I hate everything with the slightest bit of danger. Or we'd never have a life." He then looked sad. "Being in this situation has me worried that I did something wrong. If there was a place where I could've stopped Riley somehow. Changed her view of us. Cut her off somewhere."

Joy shrugged. "I'm sure there are areas where you could've rethought your words a bit. Maybe if you weren't so worried about Riley hating us, she wouldn't have been so tense the last few days." Fear grimaced at that. "And don't forget, this wasn't caused by neglect. You didn't try quitting like when you three were in charge of Headquarters."

Fear flinched. "When did you hear that?"

Joy gave Fear a disappointed look. "Disgust told me a few weeks ago on one of my breaks during that scary movie we saw."

Fear drooped HARD. "Yeah, that's definitely my worst moment. And it's why I didn't talk about it with Riley on Monday night. She'd have HATED me for trying to leave her when she needed me to keep Anger in check." Fear looked down. "Although, I think I might've subconsciously wanted to find you. That by going off, I might've been able to find you wherever you were...Or I just got too scared to keep dealing with losing all the islands. That's also possible." Fear then looked at Joy with a twitch in his single strand of hair. He looked very sad and nervous. "I..I'm still scared that she hates us deep down. I wish I could believe her when she kept talking about caring about us, but it feels all wrong after she locked us out and lied to us."

Joy gave Fear sad eyes. "You saw how sad and hurt she was during the collapse. Our girl looked just as broken as I felt afterwards. Just like when she blamed herself for running away. I think…" Joy suddenly put it together. And her expression turned fearful as well. "I think she might be angry with herself. There's so many times Riley thinks she has to be perfect, and every time she makes a mistake, she's so hard on herself for 'failing' those who expect things of her. Something I might've accidentally planted in her mind during the move. And then it just got worse when she tried to change herself and ended up only causing herself more trouble? She must've felt like she let us all down, and pushed us away."

Fear's eyes widened. "That...makes too much sense." He then looked at Joy in alarm. "But if that's true, how can we save her? How do we pull her back to consciousness and the outside if she feels like she let everyone down both inside and out?"

Joy didn't respond right away. Looking at Fear, she gave a quiet reply. "I don't know." She slowed down as they walked past what was left of Cloud Town. "I suppose we'll have to figure that out when we actually find her." Then she looked at Fear with a fire back in her eyes. "But don't forget what you told Riley before the collapse. That you wanted her to be brave despite the…well, you. So we'll just have to keep going forward no matter what to fix this." Joy's expression became more thoughtful. "I can't believe you actually said that."

Fear gave a sheepish grin. "It's one of those things I've been thinking about the last few days. I was so terrified of Riley hearing us, I didn't sleep at all that first night. But the second night? I think I slept more soundly than I had in years." Fear then smiled a little bigger. "I think part of it was I did a good job protecting her on the first night inside, but I also realized that if I didn't think about some positive futures, I'd never sleep again. So I needed to take that fear, and tame it with knowing that I could help her through." Fear then scratched the back of his head, looking quite embarrassed. "I guess…I sometimes want to be like you, Joy. Someone who can look at the future and see not just the dangers, but the way forward. I think that's why I tried so hard to be like you after we moved."

Joy looked flattered at what Fear just said. "Oh. Uh, thank you." Then she smiled back. "But don't be just like me. After all, you're you. Okay?" Fear nodded. Seemingly in better spirits. "Alright. Now how about we find some way to talk with the rest of the mind?" And they made their way over to Trophy Town.

Disgust poked her head into Studio E. After grabbing a bunch of headsets from Studio C, she was now here seeing if she could find those long range walkie talkies that Paula mentioned. The studio was still being roofed, but the walls were up, and there was still some scaffolding around it. She made her way towards the back of the area. In the distance, she noticed a resting area on some of the scaffolding. And on top of it, walkie talkies. Disgust gave a satisfied smirk. "Bingo!"

But as she got closer to the scaffolding, she frowned. It looked like there were a few sets blocking the way to the ladder. A couple tight holes to crawl through, and the ladder itself was more than a little small for her to climb safely without worrying about breaking it. Disgust let out a groan. "Come on! How am I supposed to reach everything if I'm too tall?"

"Hey! Don't say that. I would die to be as tall as you."

Disgust looked around, then looked up at the roof. Right near where one of the extra tall ladders was leaning against the wall, there was a small teal being caught on a plank dangling off the hole in the roof. Suspended above the ladder, but seemingly stuck. As Disgust moved closer, she noticed this girl had a light purple dress, hair that went out in two different directions, and slightly larger eyes than even Fear.

Disgust raised Paula's megaphone up to shout up to the being. "Uh, who are you, and how'd you get stuck up there?"

The little girl squirmed. "I..I got stuck after I was flung out of Headquarters. I wish I wasn't so small, or I wouldn't have bounced off the roof to get hung over this hole!" Then she saw who she was talking to. "Oh! Disgust! I always wanted to meet you one day. You're the prettiest emotion I've ever wanted to be like." And then, the girl piped in one more thing before Disgust could respond to that. "I'm Envy! Can you PLEASE get me down?"

Disgust looked more than a little uneasy due the height she'd have to climb. Then she looked back at the walkie talkies still so far out of reach. She sighed. She didn't have any immediate ideas on how to get through, so she set everything down and started climbing.

It took a bit of time. Not so much because it was that high up, but Disgust had to stop every couple seconds to shake out her sweaty hands or complain about the dust as she got higher and higher. Until she finally reached the top of the ladder, and there was Envy, still suspended by her dress.

"You look so much better up close! And your hair…" Envy began reaching for Disgust's hair.

"Hey!" Disgust snapped. "We are too high up for you to do this now!" She gently reached for Envy, and started pulling. It took a few gentle tugs, but she finally got Envy free and in one of her hands. She gently lowered her onto the ladder. "Also, I'm not carrying you down."

Envy frowned. "But I…" Then she suddenly got an idea. "Oh, I know! Now that I've experienced being shot out of Headquarters, I know exactly what to do to get down!" And with that, the little emotion leapt from the ladder. "GERONIMO!"

Disgust looked in shock as Envy soared down, until she somehow landed on a slanted piece of wood. The wood cracked on impact, but Envy bounced off it, and landed on the ground before rolling 10 feet and finally coming to a stop.

Disgust hurried down the ladder, making her way over to Envy as quick as she could. "Envy! What were you thinking? We're emotions, but we're not invulnerable! Are you okay?"

Envy hauled herself up, before dusting herself off. Her expression was downcast. "My whole body feels sore. And I feel more than a little upset that I landed on my face when someone else might've landed on their feet." Then she looked up at Disgust with a bright smile. "But other than that, I'm perfectly alright."

Disgust groaned, placing a hand on her head. "Just…don't do something like that again."

Envy then started jumping up and down. "So, how do I get your hair? Huh? Huh? You have to tell me your secret!"

Disgust frowned. "I...was born with it? Honestly, I've been trying to change it for the last few days."

Envy gasped. "But why? It makes you look so stunning. And it goes great with your dress."

"Yeah? Well, it also makes me look like the worst thing in the universe! Broccoli! Riley just made me realize it, and it's…oooh, I wish I could just fix it up so I didn't look like what I hate!"

Envy blinked a few times. "Oh." Then she brightened up again. "Well…how do you know Broccoli doesn't look like you rather than the other way around? Then it would be a copy of you, and the most beautiful vegetable in the world."

Disgust made a gagging noise. Then she looked down at the short emotion with a disappointed look. "You really need to get up to the main headquarters sometime, Envy. Being compared to something you don't like in a positive way is still being compared to something you should stay away from. I'd just as soon grow my hair out than keep looking like Broccoli."

Envy frowned. "It was just a thought. After all, you and I are like...cousins in what we do for Riley. I just wanted you to like yourself as much as I do."

Disgust then looked guilty. Here she was, complaining about her hair, and this other emotion they'd never even worked with before was treating her like she was cool. Disgust then knelt down so she could be closer to Envy's level. "I'm sorry. As you can probably guess, it's been a hard week."

Envy nodded. "Yeah. I don't envy all the work you had once Riley went inside her own mind." Then she smiled again. "But, you have a plan to save her, right?"

Disgust gave a curt nod. "We need to rebuild the console, find Riley, and make sure we don't lose our memories in the process. That's why I came to this area. I was looking for mind worker walkie talkies so we can talk to each other while searching for Riley." Then she gestured over to the scaffolding. "But now that I've found some, I can't even reach them without moving all this stuff!"

Envy looked over, and she got a bright smile. "Oh! Of course! Wait right here." And she took off towards the jumble. "Maybe I want to be like you someday, but today.." Envy reached the first hole, and began squeezing underneath a star board. "Today, you're lucky I'm closer in size to a mind worker than you or Joy." Then she jumped over a dowel, before climbing onto the wooden board she cracked. She braced herself, then jumped to a circle, which she ricocheted off of, and grabbed onto the ladder up. She climbed and climbed, and before long she reached the walkie talkies. "How many do we want?"

Disgust had watched in surprise while Envy was doing all this, before quietly saying, "All of them?"

Envy let out a whoop of excitement. She scooped them up in her dress, and then leapt off the scaffold. Landing on the star shaped piece of wood and sliding all the way down, before hitting the ground and tripping again, scattering the walkie talkies over the ground. "Ah man! I was almost perfect!"

Disgust couldn't help herself. She laughed. "You may be Envy, but you're adorable right now." She looked over, and saw three walkie talkies. "How did you even carry all these down?"

Envy shrugged. "I wanted to, so I found a way."

Disgust gave a light smirk at that. "Well, we can talk about hair strategies later. For now, we need to get all these over to the other emotions. I'm sure Sadness and Anger will find you…interesting to meet." Disgust scooped up the radio talkies and placed them on the inside of the bullhorn on top of the headsets. She lightly shook it, with only one walkie falling out. And after seeing Envy pick up that Walkie Talkie, Disgust made her way towards the exit.

Envy immediately scampered after her. "Hey! Wait up! I'm so much shorter than you, so I have to try much harder to keep up!"

Disgust rolled her eyes. "You want to be Riley's Envy soon? You'll have to work hard! So keep to my pace. We don't have forever." And she exited out Studio E, with Envy rushing to keep up behind her.

Wandering into Trophy Town, the two emotions were surprised to see some mind workers tipping over the goal. While surprised, they moved towards the group, noticing that there were more than just mind workers working on changing things.

Joy stepped forward. "Uh…what are you all doing? Is this a part of protocol 1999?"

One of the mind workers turned to look at Joy. "Protocol 1999? I know we need to preserve Riley's mind, but we're going all the way to that now?"

Joy nodded in confusion. "It's in the manual for something exactly like this."

The worker looked back at the goal, but then shrugged. "Well, this counts in its own way. We needed to start revitalizing Trophy Town into the Metropolis of the Future anyways." He yelled over to everyone else, "Take 5. The Emotions are here!" The goal finished tipping over, while workers and imagined creatures made their way forward.

"Joy?" Fear put a hand on Joy's shoulder, and pointed. "Is that…"

Joy looked at a certain someone coming over. "BING BONG? YOU'RE ALIVE?"

The imaginary creature walked over to them, but he looked very confused and upset. "Why does everyone keep calling me that? Bing Bong died! He died for Riley, asking for her to go to the moon with his last words? Why does everyone keep saying I'm him?"

Fear and Joy took a closer look at this being, and that's when they realized that this wasn't exactly Bing Bong. While he looked pretty close, the fine details were a little off. His jacket was a little bigger. His ears were a little smaller and slightly orange. And most of all, Joy could tell that he didn't really have any trace of Dolphin in him. They looked at each other in confusion. Then Fear had a sudden understanding come over his face.

"Oh. Riley couldn't help herself." At Joy's confused look, he explained. "When we described what Bing Bong was like, her memories of that night must've led to the creation of something close to Bing Bong, but not quite since she didn't restore the memory."

Joy grimaced. "Oh no." She looked at "not bing bong" with sympathy. "I'm sorry. Riley decided not to revive the memory of Bing Bong, but you must've been created from her soul memories describing him." She then lightly smiled. "You're not Bing Bong."

The being sighed in relief. "Thank you! Finally someone says that to me!" But then he frowned again. "I still feel like him. I guess because Riley hasn't really forgotten after her dreams included him."

Fear scratched his head. "Well, are you okay if we call you Zing Zong or something for now?"

"Zing Zong" frowned. "It…just doesn't feel right to be anything but Bing Bong. Not Ding Dong or Fing Fong or even Ping Pong. How about, just call me Bing Bong Jr. until we figure this all out."

Fear and Joy looked at each other and shrugged. Then they turned their attention to the mind workers. Fear spoke up first. "We need something to talk across the mind. Does anyone know of anything in Imagination Land which might help with that?"

The mind workers looked at each other, until one that was a little taller than some of the others stepped up. "I'm Pete. I'm normally a foreman for reorganizing Imagination Land based on Riley's tastes." He reached down, and unclipped a walkie talkie from his belt. "No matter how important I might be, you all will definitely need these more than I will. Thankfully, other workers can pick up the slack." He nodded to Atta and Bobby, who reluctantly unclipped their own radios, and handed them over.

Joy and Fear both nodded gratefully. "Thank you," Joy said. "Keep up with Protocol 1999, and we'll make sure to find Riley." Then she added, "Even after all that happened, you warned me about Riley's secret plan so we could try to protect her. Thank you, especially to Paula and Bobby."

The mind workers all gave a nod, and began making their way back towards trophy town, seemingly determined to move the trophies to a new spot. Pete however stayed behind just a moment longer. "With all the moving around going on, you all might need some help." He looked at the two familiar people still standing nearby. "Harry, Bing Bong Jr. ? Why don't you two give the emotions a hand?"

Jr. looked thoughtful at the idea, but Harry still looked rather reluctant. "I..I don't know if I'm ready yet. I still haven't found my personality fully, and I have no idea if Riley would properly generate me again if I died. This feels too big for any boyfriend to handle."

Fear picked up the radios, while whispering into Joy's ear, "We can't afford to pep talk for too long, Joy. You know Riley's beginning to slow down. We have to get going."

Joy stepped forward, trying to be a mix of herself and Sadness when talking to Harry. "Well, this is a perfect opportunity for you, Harry. If you want to be brave, then you can prove that you are by coming with us and saving Riley. Then you'd be sure to know how well you'd die for Riley." Joy then looked at both the imaginary beings. "I know both of you aren't exactly in good shape right now, but this is a chance. A chance to really make Riley happy. And to show that you're more than what you were originally made for. What do you say?"

Harry and Jr. looked at each other. But it was Jr. who smiled first. "It'll be so much fun. And if worst comes to worst, we'll also fulfill what we were meant to do."

"What's that?"

"Make Riley happy. Even if we die in the process."

Harry scoffed, but then put a hand on his chin. Finally, he sighed. "Well, alright. For Riley."

And so the new quartet began retracing their steps back towards the plateau between Imagination Land and Dream Productions. Little did they know that two of them would be returning to Imagination Land sooner than they thought, and Joy's words would be far more prophetic than she might've wanted.

I didn't want to write one part of this chapter. It felt like I would have to continue the inevitable march towards having way too many characters to juggle. But, I couldn't ignore Harry's comment from the last official chapter of Intercom. So, I had to come up with a way to use what we were given. I still haven't fully settled on how I'm doing that, but I am committing to making something happen.

Truthfully, a part of me just wants to get out of the Inside to see how the Outside is reacting to all this. But again, my framing device won't allow it until we finally catch up with Joy asking, "How did we get here, Mom?" I think I know how I want to take it from here. Then again, I actually added more to this chapter because I had some last minute ideas, so I could change my mind as I'm going.

Anyways, next time, we finally catch up to the first chapter, as the emotions properly split up to begin fixing Riley's mind.