8/27/2024: I've rewritten part of the family dinner scene as I feel like my changes better suit the type of story I'm going for and because I realized that indigo is Ennui's color and she's not around for the first movie.
If there was any time when Fear felt that his life was flashing before his eyes, it was now, in more ways than one. He had screamed plenty of times throughout his life, whether it be from a nightmare, from Anger bossing him around, or from being touched, but never had it been so deafening. He couldn't even hear Joy's own screaming over his own, and when the view of the Memory Dump loomed directly above him while he was forcefully dragged by the vacuum, he was surprised that he hadn't passed out by now.
He could see the core memories falling away from him and Joy, each of them getting smaller by the moment. In between flashes of gray, he noticed that four of the five Islands of Personality were inactive and dark, while the remaining island continued to radiate a golden glow. Judging by the golden balance scale, the purple gavel, and the white building, it was Honesty Island. Somehow, he had managed to salvage things, if only by a little.
(…wait…he touched its core memory, didn't he?)
The nervous emotion didn't have time to ponder over that, as he landed face first into a big pile of memories in a bin. When he pulled himself up, a yellow memory and a blue memory fell from his eyes, and he spat out a green memory. Right beside him was Joy scrambling through the memories, gathering the core memories together. After reclaiming the fourth golden core memory, she spotted the blue and lavender core memory. Gripping it in her hand, she winded her arm up and prepared to lob it far, far away, towards the dark chasm.
"Joy!" he shouted, springing to his feet. "Stop it!"
The yellow emotion dropped the dual-colored core memory, her concentration broken. "Why? It's all this thing's fault that we're stuck out here!"
"Are you listening to yourself?!" Fear shouted back at her. "If that core memory falls into the dump, who knows what will happen to Riley!"
Joy's grip tightened on the blue-lavender core memory, pondering over his words. After a brief period of silence, she conceded, stacking it on top of the other core memories. The two emotions hopped out of the bin, taking in the new environment they had found themselves yanked off to.
"Where in the world are we?" Joy had to ask.
Fear let out a gasp, clutching his tie upon seeing the grayed out islands. Now that he wasn't shrieking like a banshee, the direness of their predicament dawned on him. "Riley's Islands of Personality! They're broken!"
"Wait…check out that island," Joy pointed towards the one that was still lit up. "Honestly Island's still functioning!"
"Yeah…" he trailed off.
"One of the core memories didn't get sucked out with us," she deduced. "But how?"
"Well, it's good that didn't happen, heheh…" the purple emotion chuckled nervously before tensing up again. "But what about you? Riley can't be happy without you around!"
"And that's why we gotta get back up there," the yellow emotion declared. "All we have to do is return the rest of these core memories, and bingo! Riley will be back to normal."
She started running towards Goofball Island while Fear stood where he was, uncertain about her plan. "Wait, you want us to walk over that island?"
Joy paused, turning back to Fear and pointing towards the tower beyond the island. "It's our fastest way back to Headquarters."
"I-I don't know if this is a good idea," he stammered. "What if that island falls apart while we're on it?"
"Don't be ridiculous! It's not gonna fall down, Fear!" Joy denied.
"...alright," he agreed, albeit hesitantly.
"I'm coming, Riley," Joy nodded, running forward with determination.
Still on edge, he followed her onto the bridge leading to Goofball Island, trying to avert his gaze from the eternal darkness beneath him.
—
Back at the Andersen home, Riley wore a tired expression on her face as she picked at her food in the container.
"So, it seems like Friday's going to be an extremely hot day here. The forecast expects a high of 95 degrees Fahrenheit and a low of 88," Mom reported.
"What is up with Riley? She's acting super weird," Disgust pointed out.
Anger glanced out the window and groaned. "What did you expect? All but one of the islands are down!"
"If only Joy were here, she'd know what to do," Sadness hunched over with a sigh.
The red emotion brightened up at her words. "Then it's up to us to be Joy for now!"
"Well, aren't you a rocket scientist," Disgust quipped. "Anger, Disgust, Sadness…how are we supposed to be happy?!"
"That's the bad news," Mom continued before smiling. "The good news is that I found a Junior Hockey League here. And get this: tryouts are tomorrow after school!"
The three emotions shared a look of uncertainty with each other.
"Uh-oh, what do we do?" Disgust questioned.
"I'll be Joy," Anger stepped up, ready to press one of the console's buttons.
"Won't that be exciting, Riley?" Mom asked.
The kid let out an annoyed grunt in response as the console glowed red. "Yeah, whatever."
"Bravo. Perfect imitation of Joy right there," Disgust snorted.
"Ya think?" Anger huffed. "I'm a lot of things, but I guess Joy ain't one of them!"
Mom stared at her daughter, taken aback. Inside her head, her emotions were discussing how they should approach the situation.
"Did you guys pick up on that?" Mom's Sadness asked her team.
"Yeah, something's wrong," Mom's Joy agreed.
"Should we ask her?" Mom's Anger suggested.
Mom's Sadness nodded. "Let's keep it subtle so she doesn't suspect us."
"So, how was the first day of school?" Mom inquired.
"Oh…I think she knows," Sadness stated, her eyebrows rising up.
Anger threw his arms up and stormed off. "Screw this. If you guys wanna be Joy, be my guest."
Disgust was the next to take command. "Guess I'll have to try, then."
The green emotion tapped a button with her finger, causing the console to light up in green.
"It was such a fun day, alright," Riley rolled her eyes.
"Wow, you couldn't get any less Joy than that," Anger scowled.
Disgust shrugged, walking off without a word.
"Something is very much wrong," Mom's Disgust observed.
"She hasn't been like this in a while. What do we do?" Mom's Fear asked.
"Let's find out what's going on," Mom's Sadness replied. "But first, we need to signal the husband."
Mom cleared her throat, looking towards her husband in the eye. Inside his mind, his emotions were fixated on a hockey game, cheering on the winning team. His lack of a response caused her to clear her throat again while narrowing her eyes.
"Oh boy," Dad's Anger sighed, realizing that the wife needed his attention. "She's looking at us. What was she saying again?"
"Uh…seems like nobody was listening, sir," Dad's Fear reported. "Sorry."
"And after all the nonsense I've had to put up with today…okay, fine. What does she want?" Dad's Anger grumbled.
"There's that stupid face again," Mom's Disgust groaned.
"I could strangle him right now!" Mom's Anger seethed.
After another signal from Mom, Dad snapped out of his zone and glanced at his daughter, who had gone back to picking at her food. "Ah, so…Riley. How was school today?"
Mom fought the urge to facepalm right then and there while her emotions didn't bother holding back their exasperated reactions.
"Sadness. It's your turn now," Disgust told her.
Sadness backed up, uncomfortable. "Wait, how am I supposed to be Joy? I'm her complete opposite!"
"Well, it can't hurt to try, you know?" Anger encouraged. "Besides, you saw how well that went with me and Broccolady there."
Disgust shot the red emotion a glare. "You did not just call me that."
"Well, I did. Loud and clear," Anger retorted.
The fashionable emotion looked ready to castrate the hotheaded one while Sadness slowly approached the console and pushed a button, making the console shift into a blue hue.
"School sucked, okay?!" Riley cried out.
Mom stiffened, taken aback by her daughter's outburst. "Riley! What happened?"
Disgust and Anger stared at the screen and went silent, their argument dying out on the spot.
"Whoa…that was more than I expected," Disgust commented.
"Sir, she just yelled at us!" Dad's Fear informed his team.
"Shall we take it to Defcon 3?" Dad's Disgust asked. "Or Defcon 2, perhaps?"
Dad's Anger stroked his chin. "Hold up. This might be a false alarm. I don't want to have to resort to the foot."
"Riley, calm down," Dad instructed. "Take a deep breath and–"
Suddenly, the console's blue color faded as a black tint began to overtake the edges of the console.
"Huh?" Sadness almost fell backwards from the shock. "What's going on?!"
The bespectacled emotion scrambled her fingers across the console, trying desperately to drive the black color away. The console lit up in blue again, but the black tint didn't quite subside. "Make it stop!"
"Stop telling me to calm down!" Riley exclaimed, clenching the table with her fists curled and tears forming in her eyes.
"What the heck is this?!" Anger shouted, rushing forward. "We gotta fix this!"
He tried to pound his fist on the console, but got knocked back by Sadness's frantic movements.
"Sir! Incoming bad attitude!" Dad's Fear exclaimed.
Dad's Anger gave a firm nod. "Take it to Defcon 3."
"You heard him, gentlemen. Defcon 3!" Dad's Fear announced, sounding off the alarm.
Dad hardened his expression towards his daughter. "Riley…"
The blue emotion slapped her palms against several buttons all at once, creating a flash of blue. The black color began to dissipate, but outside…
"This home sucks, my school sucks, everything sucks!" Riley shouted, clenching her fists.
"Preparing to put down the foot!" Dad's Disgust declared.
"Give the command to launch, sir!" Dad's Fear saluted.
"Listen, Riley, you need to stop. Stop yelling at us or else…" Dad warned.
"Sadness, it's gone now!" Disgust called out. "You should let her go."
"Nonono, our dad's mad at us now! We gotta get out of here!" the still panicking emotion cried out as she grabbed the outburst levers that Anger normally used.
"Wait!" the green emotion warned. "Don't do it!"
It was far too late for warnings now. Sadness pulled on the levers as hard as she could while letting out an ear-piercing shriek.
"JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" Riley shrieked, jumping from her seat with such force that she knocked over her container of food before rushing her way upstairs, leaving her parents utterly speechless.
"ABORT!" Dad's Anger shouted.
"Abort?" Dad's Sadness questioned.
"You heard me the first time, gentlemen," Dad's Anger affirmed. "It was a false alarm."
"Disengage the foot, everyone!" Dad's Fear ordered.
"Phew! That could've been a disaster if we had put the foot down!" Dad's Joy sighed in relief.
"Well, that was a disaster," Mom's Sadness shook her head.
—
Right as Joy and Fear ran up to the edge of Goofball Island, they spotted a wire connecting the island to HQ. The latter's ears picked up on a low rumbling in the distance, causing him to halt.
"Did you hear that, Joy?" Fear asked.
Joy turned back to him, confused. "Hear what?"
"That rumble! It could've been an incoming earthquake! I think we should get outta here before it's too late," he hastily suggested, glancing over his shoulder.
The bright emotion shook her head while flashing a bright smile at him. "Come on, Fear! We can't back down now. We just need to cross this wire and then we're home!"
"You want us to walk across that thing?!" Fear yelped, peering over the edge. "No way. Not happening for me."
Her face contorted into mild irritation. "How else are we going to get back, then?"
The nervous emotion went quiet, still remaining on the island, but letting Joy walk across the wire. His anxiety briefly flared up when he saw her almost lose her grip on the core memories when she tried to rebalance herself.
Back in the real world, Riley collapsed into her sleeping bag, trying to wipe her tears away. After several minutes, she heard knocking on her door, and her dad entered the room.
"Hey, so…things got a little out of hand downstairs. Do you want to talk about it?" Dad asked.
His daughter didn't respond, so he tried a different tactic.
"Come on, where's my happy girl?" he smiled, imitating a monkey with his hand and the sounds from his mouth.
"He's trying to start up Goofball!" Anger realized.
The red and green emotions looked out the window as they heard Dad's monkey noises echo in HQ. They had to strain their ears to hear it over the sound of the blue emotion sobbing in the corner with the Mind Manuals.
Riley only responded with a sullen glance before turning away from him.
Upon seeing the wire start to fall apart, hearing the sound of crumbling, and feeling the island shake violently, Fear completely lost what little cool he had remaining with him.
"AAAAAIIIIIEEEEE!" the unnerved emotion screamed his head off, breaking into a mad sprint back towards Long Term Memory.
Joy, startled by the wire breaking down and Fear's shrill scream, felt the core memories slipping from her hands. She managed to hold onto the four golden ones, but the blue-lavender core memory fell off from her stack, and in her haste to retreat back to the island, she was unable to prevent the memory from falling into the Memory Dump. It was an unfortunate loss, but to her, it was the least important of the core memories, so it could've been worse.
By the time she made it back to the island, Fear was already halfway across it, dodging debris left and right.
"I THOUGHT YOU SAID EARTHQUAKES WERE A MYTH, JOY!" he hollered, pushing himself to his absolute limit because his life absolutely depended on it.
He dashed madly across the bridge, maintaining his speed up until he finally made it back to Long Term Memory, at which he collapsed onto the ground. The sounds of the island breaking apart continued to fill his ears as he laid there, not willing to spare a glance behind him.
Soon, the energetic emotion managed to escape from the island by the skin of her teeth. Joy watched helplessly as the rest of it fell into the black void. She didn't even get to see or hear it land, as it seemed to vanish from existence without any fanfare.
"Goofball Island…it can't be…"
She held up its core memory, watching Riley spin around gleefully as a baby on a hill with her parents, then as a kid jumping on a trampoline with them, and then riding her dad's shoulders with chocolate ice cream smeared across her face. It was all a massive shock to her, witnessing the collapse of one of Riley's Personality Islands firsthand.
Outside her mind, her dad ceased the monkey act, taking a step back.
"I understand. You need some alone time," he acknowledged before heading towards the door. "Let's talk tomorrow, okay?"
Inside HQ, Disgust and Anger stared outside the window in disbelief.
"We have a major problem."
"Ugh, where's Joy when you need her the most…"
Another sob echoed throughout the building.
—
"The island's just…gone? And you lost one of the core memories, too?" Fear wasn't taking the news well. "H-how's Riley going to function without it? A-and also, what about Friendship? Or Hockey? Or Family? O-or even–"
The purple emotion tried to pick himself back up from the ground, but swayed back and forth on his feet, hyperventilating.
"Nonononono, don't be scared, Fear! You survived an earthquake just now, you should be proud of yourself! That takes a lot of courage!" Joy begged.
Fear devolved into an emotional wreck as his legs gave out, muttering unintelligible sounds as he rolled around on the ground.
Joy let out an exasperated groan at the state of her coworker. "We don't have time for this, Fear."
She walked on ahead, assessing the distance they needed to travel to get to Friendship Island. It was going to be a lot more than she had anticipated, as the memory shelves extended up to the edges of the cliff. As she headed back to Fear, the sky above them transitioned into dusk.
"And now Riley's asleep…which is great, actually!" Joy's face morphed into a grin. "That'll give us the time to go through the scenic route. Nothing bad can happen to her while she's in her slumber, after all!"
Right as the yellow emotion was about to walk into the depths of Long Term Memory, she heard him speak up. "W-wait! You're just gonna walk into Long Term Memory?"
"Yep!" Joy winked. "You just gotta think positive, and we'll make it through!"
"Well, I'm positive you'll get lost in there," the purple emotion muttered under his breath before raising his voice. "That place is an endless maze of memories. I'm telling you, the manuals don't lie when it comes to this!"
"The manuals…that's it! You've read the manuals, so you should know the way to Friendship Island from here!" Joy beamed.
She excitedly stomped her feet and flashed a wide smile. "Oooooh, hehehe! Let's go! Lead on, my map!"
Fear laid still on the ground. "Sorry I can't move…I almost died a few minutes ago."
Joy swallowed her frustration, opting to drag Fear by his leg with her left hand while carrying the four core memories in her right hand.
"This doesn't hurt as much as I thought it would," Fear commented.
"Isn't this great? We'll be back to Headquarters before morning!" Joy walked into the maze as Fear gave out directions left and right. "This is totally working! Haha, I rhymed again!"
A/N: Next time, a major plot hole from the original Inside Out 1 is recalled and addressed.