A/N: I watched Inside Out 1 a week ago after hearing about its sequel coming out, and it has become one of my all-time favorite movies! Hearing about the original drafts where Fear was the one who got separated from HQ along with Joy instead of Sadness got me curious on how things would've played out if that happened. So without further ado, may you find joy (or fear) in reading my Role Swap AU take on the story of Inside Out 1!
Chapter 1: Shine
In a spanless void, a yellow spark glowed bright. The spark shined brighter and brighter, materializing into a female creature with yellow skin, blue hair with a streak of lavender, a green dress, and a pair of arms and legs. A blue eye blinked open, followed by a purple eye. She tilted her head up towards a fuzzy white screen above her as a console opened up from beneath, presenting itself with a single colorless button. The creature, drawn to the console, laid her hand across the button and pressed it, causing the button to take on a yellow glow. She heard a sound that she would come to cherish: a baby giggling delightfully.
The screen shifted to display a man and a woman smiling from above with fondness. A ding sounded off as a yellow sphere rolled down from the fuzzy white screen, and the creature picked it up, fascinated by how it replayed the moment of the man and the woman smiling at her. She rolled the sphere back on the rail, and it continued on its journey, illuminating her surroundings in a multi-color pattern of red, orange, and purple. A bright smile grew on her face as she pressed the button again, hearing those lovely giggles from the baby once more.
At that moment, the creature realized who she was.
Joy. Or more specifically, Riley's joy.
It was amazing. Just Riley and her smiling together…for 33 seconds, that is.
When she briefly let go of the button, a shrill scream pierced through the multicolored background. Riley's face contorted, her eyes went wide open, and she would not stop screaming her head off. Joy's eyes darted to her right, seeing a purple creature with a thin curl of hair and dressed in a business outfit with a bow tie clinging onto the now-purple colored button.
"Uh…sorry for barging in like that. I'm Fear," the purple creature hesitated before introducing himself hastily.
Joy put on a smile as a friendly greeting. "Oh, hello there, I'm Joy. Can I just…" she paused as she tried to gently nudge the creature away to put her hand on the button.
"AAAAAH!" Fear yelped upon contact and dashed around in circles. "P-please don't hurt me!"
"Hurt you?" Joy bit back a sigh, trying to keep her voice calm. "I wouldn't do that. I just wanted you to move so I could fix something. Like so!"
She pushed the button, and Riley went back to happily giggling as Fear started to slow down. Having to share space with him was a prospect that she wasn't exactly looking forward to, but for now, she was ready to keep her kid happy!
—
The console had greatly expanded in size and complexity over the next few years as Joy and Fear settled into their Headquarters. Numerous yellow spheres filled the shelves above and below, with a few purple spheres among them.
Riley ran around the house without a care in the world, dragging a wagon behind her as Joy held her palm down on the console's button. The toddler turned a corner and up ahead was a cord trailing across the ground.
"LOOK OUT!" Fear cried out in fright as he tried to rush towards the console.
Joy held her arm out, stopping Fear in his tracks. "Don't worry about it! She's just having fun, you know!"
"But–" Fear tried to warn her, but before he could finish his train of thought, Riley tripped over the cord, landing right on her knee.
A short blue creature with glasses arrived onto the scene, holding her hand down on the console. Tears formed in Riley's eyes as she cried, hurt from the sudden impact.
"I'm Sadness," the blue creature spoke up as the toddler kept crying. "Crying helps me slow down and obsess over the weight of life's problems, like this one."
Soon, her parents showed up, concerned and asking her what happened. Riley pointed to her knee with a sniffle, and her mother told her father to go to the freezer while she sat down and hugged her child, who continued to cry into her mother's shirt. Her father returned with a pack of ice and instructed Riley to show him her knee. He gently placed the ice pack on the reddened area, and the toddler inhaled sharply from the numbing sensation. Slowly, she felt herself calm down as the pain began to subside.
As a blue sphere rolled down onto the shelves, Joy nodded approvingly at Sadness. While she was a little put off that the blue emotion also made Riley cry, she acknowledged that Sadness was crucial for Riley's well-being as the one who lets others around her know when she's hurt and needs help. Shedding tears every once in a while was something she could accept as a necessity for that.
"Maybe if we had stopped before crossing the cord…" Fear trailed off, having calmed his nerves enough to speak.
Joy shrugged. "Eh, what's done is done. What matters is that she got the help she needed and can now be happy again!"
—
When Riley's dad prepared broccoli for dinner, two new emotions took the stage.
The first was Disgust, who forced Riley to spit out the broccoli due to how gross it tasted. What if it was rotten or poisonous?
The second was Anger, who made Riley shout in frustration when her dad refused to serve her dessert if she didn't eat her veggies. It wasn't fair to be denied a sweet treat just like that, after all.
Then an airplane flew in and she gulped down the broccoli without further incident.
With a green sphere and a red sphere rolling into the shelves, Joy recognized the roles that the two new emotions served. This left Fear, who…
She wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to do. Beyond making Riley shriek on her 6th birthday when her parents took her to see Jangles the Clown, getting her to sprint away at the sight of a bug, and causing her to spend many a night waking up and screaming in terror, he seemed more like a liability than anything. But there wasn't anywhere else he could go, and she wasn't about to kick him out of HQ or anything like that, so here he was.
Joy spun around, checking on the many yellow spheres on the shelves. They served as Riley's memories, and she adored how happy each of them made her feel. She glided her way to a compartment and opened it up, displaying five golden spheres inside. Those memories were distinct in that they were core memories, having formed during Riley's most important moments in her life and serving as the power source for her five Islands of Personality.
Hockey Island formed when she scored a goal when she was two and a half years old.
Goofball Island took shape when she ran around her home with her underwear on her head.
Friendship Island came about when she made her first friend, Meg.
Family Island first materialized after Riley assisted her parents in baking cookies, and over the course of her childhood, it continued to grow, eclipsing the other islands in its size.
Rounding out the islands was Honesty Island. If she was being 100% honest, as per the island's theme, this one was probably her least favorite of the five. Why? Well…
—
*CRASH*
"Oh no oh no oh no, what are we going to do?" Fear whimpered upon seeing the plate that had shattered into several pieces.
"How should I know, beanpole?!" Anger shouted in frustration. "If they find out, we're gonna get punished!"
"Ugh, those pieces look real sharp now," Disgust winced. "Why did we think playing around with the hammer was a good idea?"
Sadness sat on the floor and sniffled tears of regret.
"Oh dear…" Joy trailed off, touching her finger to her head as she thought of what to do next.
"Should we tell Mom and Dad the truth?" Fear asked, the strand of hair on his head quivering. "What if they scold us? What if they take away our toys? What if they give us that 'I'm disappointed in you' look?"
Before Fear could continue listing off what ifs, Sadness pointed up towards the screen. "Look…they're already here."
Riley heard the footsteps of her parents getting closer and closer, and Disgust quickly pressed on the console, prompting Riley to hide the hammer behind her back.
"Step away from those shards!" Dad warned. "They'll cut your feet."
Fear tried to place his hand on the console, but Anger and Disgust were hogging the buttons, preventing him from getting his input in.
"Riley? Why is the plate broken?" Mom asked.
"Did you break it?" Dad followed up.
Riley rapidly shook her head, ashamed of herself and not wanting them to find out. Her eyes were looking off to the side.
"We heard something break from the other room," Mom pointed out.
"If you have something to say for yourself, you should say it," Dad gave a stern expression.
Sadness pushed herself up and pressed the button, causing Riley to cry.
"I…I didn't…" she sniffled.
Fear suddenly slapped his hand down on the console, Anger and Disgust freezing in their tracks at how quick he was.
"Fear, what are you doing?!" Joy exclaimed.
Riley looked up to her parents and held out the hammer that she was playing around with, apprehensive of how they'd react.
"I'm sorry, Mom and Dad," she admitted, wiping her tears away with her other hand. "I was having too much fun with the hammer and broke the plate with it."
"Riley, you shouldn't have been using that hammer without our permission," Mom scolded. "You could've hurt yourself with it."
"We appreciate that you told us the truth, so we're not going to punish you this time," Dad nodded. "But you're going to need to learn not to get so carried away next time, ok?"
"Yes, Dad," Riley set the hammer down on the countertop.
"Oh, that's good news!" Joy smiled as she pressed her hand against the console.
As Riley let out a sigh of relief while Dad headed towards the kitchen closet to get a sweeper and a tray, a memory rolled down the rails, shining bright like gold and settling in the center with the other core memories.
"Phew! This core memory's just like the rest of them!" Joy breathed out.
She turned to face Fear, not too pleased with his actions. "Why did you jump in like that? You could've changed the color of this core memory, and then I wouldn't have been able to change it back!"
"Yeah! What gives, beanpole? You're so jumpy all the time, but not 'jumping on the console' jumpy," Anger ranted.
"You could've made Riley afraid of telling the truth," Disgust remarked.
Sadness dropped down on the ground, giving Fear a sad glance.
Fear backed up, overwhelmed by the other emotions' reactions. He himself wasn't exactly sure why he did it. There were so many ways that incident could've gone wrong, so he should've stayed back for their safety, right?
"I…don't know," Fear uttered out. "S-sorry for almost causing a disaster there."
A smile returned to Joy's face. "It's fine. Mistakes happen from time to time."
—
Back in the present, Joy shook her head, trying not to let the unpleasant feeling of what could've happened bring her down.
After all, Riley's eleven years old now. What could possibly happen?