"This is not working," Joy grumbled as she continued to drag Fear through Long Term. Her hair was a frazzled mess, her previously energetic movements were sluggish, and she was at her wit's end with how much time they had spent wandering through the maze with no end in sight.
The dusk brightened into dawn, prompting a frustrated groan from the yellow emotion. "And Riley's awake now…great…"
Her grip on the core memories slipped, and they spilled across the floor. One of them rolled near the purple emotion, who reached his hand out towards it. Just as the lavender wave began to take form, she scooped it up with the rest of them, putting an end to the color change.
"Stop! You don't want those memories to stay afraid, right?" she reminded him.
"Oh, sorry," he apologized, letting his hand drop onto the floor.
Their journey continued until they arrived at two jelly bean shaped creatures analyzing some of the grayed out memories.
"Mind Workers!" she brightened up, dropping Fear and running up to them.
The male Mind Worker held up a vacuum hose while the female Mind Worker directed him to a shelf filled with a large quantity of grayed out memories.
"That's weird. I could've sworn most of these memories were just fine yesterday morning," the male Mind Worker brought up.
"Is that so?" the female Mind Worker questioned. "Alright, let's leave this shelf behind for now."
As they moved onto the next shelf, one with far less gray memories, they got to vacuuming up several of them, from phone numbers, to piano lessons, to the names of the Presidents, to the names of the Cutie Pie Princess dolls. After Joy tried to get their attention several times to no avail, she leaned in and tilted her pupils in opposite directions while sticking her tongue out, startling them.
"Wah!" the male worker cried, releasing the hose out of surprise.
"What do you want, lady?" the female worker asked, annoyed at the interruption.
"Why are you throwing them away?" Joy responded with her own question. "They're good memories!"
"See how faded these memories are?" the female worker explained. "Riley doesn't care about them, so they're going into the dump. Gotta make room for the new ones."
"Yeah. We're Forgetters, so this is our job, okay?" the male worker added with irritation.
The yellow emotion raised an eyebrow. "Really?"
"Really. But you know what never fades? This one right here!" the male Forgetter replied, holding up a bright yellow memory from a nearby cart. He played the memory out, causing Joy to tilt her head back in annoyance.
"The song from the gum commercial?" she bemoaned.
"We send it up to headquarters every now and then just because," the male Forgetter smirked while dancing along to the tune.
"And it loops in Riley's head over and over!" the female Forgetter beamed, dragging her finger across it. "Like now!"
The Triple Dent Gum jingle replayed itself, prompting another frustrated groan from the joyful emotion. "Yeah, yeah, we all know the song. Real catchy stuff."
"What do you say we whisk it up again?" the male Forgetter asked his coworker. "If there's one thing Riley won't forget, it's this one!"
"Let's do it!" she gave her approval.
"Here it comes!" he declared, singing along with the song before flicking the memory against the shelf. It rocketed all the way up to HQ, interrupting the quiet morning Disgust, Anger, and Sadness were currently having, the latter hanging far back from the console.
"This again?!" Anger slammed his newspaper down. He stormed up to the console and slammed his fist against it, ejecting the memory back where it came from.
The two Forgetters shared a hearty laugh and were about to depart before Fear rushed up to them, having watched them from a distance. Putting his own irritation at the gum commercial aside, seeing them send it back to HQ had sparked an epiphany in his mind.
"WAIT!" He shouted at the group. "There's something I just realized!"
Everyone froze, turning towards the purple emotion.
"Joy, what if we sent these core memories back to Headquarters with those Recall Tubes?" He suggested, feeling proud for coming up with a surprisingly easy solution to their problems.
The yellow emotion wore a surprised look before it morphed into pure excitement. "Wait…we can just do that? Oh my gosh, you're a genius, Fear! We send them back through the tubes, then the rest of the islands won't collapse!"
Joy jumped towards the empty space in the memory shelf and set the Friendship Island core memory down in place. She gave it a hard push, sending the core memory into the tube. After everything that had transpired, luck was finally on their side!
—
"Triple Dent Gum will make you smile…"
Riley hummed to herself as she listened to her friend Meg on video chat from her laptop. Her eyes were only halfway open as she stared at the screen in front of her.
"Do you like it there? Were there any earthquakes? Is the bridge cool?" Meg asked her questions one after another.
"It's fine, no, and we didn't actually go on the bridge," the blonde girl responded flatly. "What happened with the playoffs?"
"Oh, it was so much fun!" the redhead beamed. "Coach said we might go to finals this year, and we got this really cool new girl on the team, too!"
Inside Riley's mind, Disgust scrunched her face upon seeing the photo Meg took with her new friend. "Uh, she did not just say that."
"She has a new friend already?" Sadness despaired. "We're going to be forgotten…"
Anger clenched the newspaper in his hands, growling with rage.
"Hey hey, stay happy, you two. We don't want to lose any more islands," the green emotion reminded them.
"We were passing the puck to each other without even looking," Meg continued to ramble on. "It's like mind reading!"
The furious emotion stomped up to the console, having heard more than enough. "You like to read minds, Meg? Read this, you backstabbing–"
"Stop right there," the fashionable emotion warned, walking up to him. "Remember what happened with Sadness yesterday? You need to calm down, dude."
"DON'T TELL ME TO 'CALM DOWN'!" Anger hollered, shoving Disgust aside and yanking on the outburst levers, his head erupting.
Riley narrowed her eyes towards the screen. "I gotta go."
"What?" Meg blinked.
"I gotta go!" the upset girl repeated, slamming her laptop shut.
—
The yellow emotion's celebration was cut short when the core memory rolled all the way back down, hitting her dress and knocking her down.
"Ow!" she cried out, pushing herself up to her feet. "Wait…it didn't work?"
Just as the words left her mouth, they heard rumbling in the distance, causing Fear to let out a squeak and huddle up against the shelf with his hands over his eyes. Joy saw that Friendship Island was falling apart, and within the span of several seconds, it had plunged into the Memory Dump.
"No! We were this close to saving Riley's favorite island!" she exclaimed.
"It's just like Goofball…never to be seen again," the unnerved emotion mumbled, still trembling against the shelf.
Joy took a breath, finding her resolve. "I'll try again with the other core memories."
One by one, they all came tumbling back down from the tube, leaving the bright emotion aghast. "But…why? Why won't they go up?"
A female voice called out from behind her. "Oh boy…that's not good."
Joy turned around, not liking where this was going. "What?"
"Riley's been having trouble recalling a lot of her memories lately," the male Forgetter mentioned. "So if she can't even recall those core memories…"
Fear jumped up from his spot against the shelf. "Well, she's gotta remember both of us! Right, Joy?"
To Joy's surprise, he scrambled into the tube, pushing his way in. However, before he even had the chance to press his hands against the glass interior, a suction blew him out, sending him rolling across the floor and into the opposite shelf.
"You've got to be kidding me," Joy frowned, shaking her head. "Is this some kind of worst possible timing security update?"
"I get the feeling it's much more serious than that," the female Forgetter worriedly tapped her chin.
"Maybe if you find a way to get into contact with Headquarters, they can do something about these Recall Tubes to make them work properly again," the male Forgetter suggested.
"Would you two know a way to do that?" Joy asked, now desperate for a proper solution.
"Sorry, but we're just Forgetters. We don't know the intricacies on how those tubes work," the female Forgetter broke the bad news.
"Plus, we gotta get back to work right about now. Hopefully both of you manage to find a way to solve this mess," the male Forgetter waved the emotions off, departing with his coworker.
"I thought my plan would've worked, but once again, it was a bust…" Fear despaired, still lying on the ground.
"Now now, Fear," Joy gave him a reassuring smile. "That was a really smart idea you had there! Honestly, I'm surprised I didn't think of it earlier considering how obvious it was."
She walked right up to the purple emotion and offered her hand. "You know, I'm impressed. Going right into the tube like that takes guts, even if it didn't work out."
The nervous emotion's jaw dropped, surprised at her words. "You mean it, Joy?"
She gave one meaningful nod. "I mean it."
He was briefly left speechless before taking her hand and standing straight up, at the ready. "Let's keep going! I'll try not to collapse this time."
"Yes! Onward we go!" the bright emotion grinned at his newfound enthusiasm as they embarked on their journey through Long Term once more.
Thankfully, it didn't take them nearly as long before they encountered someone else along the way. This one was a male, pink elephant-like creature with a brown coat and a hat who appeared to be eyeing certain memories, putting some of them into a bag he had with him.
"Hey!" Joy greeted the creature, who jolted up and bolted off.
"Wait!" the yellow emotion dashed on towards the pink figure with the purple emotion following her from a distance. "We just want to talk!"
She heard the sound of panting to her right, and there, she found the creature panting frantically with his hands over his face. "Excuse me?"
"Ahhh!" the elephant-esque being sprung up, shaking his head wildly. "I, er, uh, I was looking for–DIVERSION!"
"What?"
He snatched a blue memory and chucked it towards his right, leaping to his left. "So long, suckers!"
His face met a cart filled with memories, knocking them over, and he fell to the floor in a daze. "Ow…everywhere hurts…"
Joy let out a gasp upon recognizing who the creature was. "Wait, you're Bing Bong!"
"Who?" The pink creature quickly denied, putting his hat back on. "I don't know what a Bing Bong is."
"Sure you do!" the yellow emotion insisted. "You're Riley's imaginary friend!"
Bing Bong's eyes widened. "You really do know me?"
"Of course! Riley loved playing with you, both of you were best friends! We could use your help in trying to get back to Headquarters."
"Headquarters?"
"Well, yeah. I'm Joy, that's Fear over there," she pointed towards the purple emotion, who was hanging behind the corner.
"You're Joy? The Joy?"
She gave the imaginary friend a firm nod in response.
"What the heck are you doing out here then?" Bing Bong wondered.
"About that…you wanna answer for us, Fear?" Joy asked him.
The nervous emotion shrunk behind the corner, remaining silent.
"Hey, don't be shy, Fear! He's not gonna hurt you," she tried to reassure him.
Fear swallowed, trying to put aside his apprehensiveness at the newcomer. Slowly, he stepped out from the corner and approached them.
"Without you, Riley can't be happy," Bing Bong remarked. "I'll make sure you get back. Follow me!"
Joy's smile widened. "Oh, thank you so much!"
The two companions traveled through the Long Term shelves while reminiscing on the days when Bing Bong and Riley were in a band, played tag, and rode on his rocket while singing the "Bing Bong" theme song.
"Who's your friend who likes to play?" Joy recited the lyrics excitedly.
"Bing Bong! Bing Bong!" he cheered.
"His rocket makes you yell 'hooray'!" she sang out, twirling around on her foot.
"Bing Bong! Bing Bong!" they chanted simultaneously.
Fear raised his hand, having thought of something to ask of the imaginary friend. "What are you, exactly?"
"I'm not 100% sure, really. I'm made out of cotton candy, but I'm part cat, elephant, and dolphin all at once," Bing Bong answered.
"That's a lot of animals," Joy remarked.
"Oh yeah, they were all the rage back then. The bird goes tweet, the pig goes oink, the fox goes yip, and so on."
"What have you been doing out here?" Joy followed up with her own question.
The pink creature slowed down, a sense of melancholy and uncertainty washing over him. "Well...there's not much for an imaginary friend like me to do these days, so I've, you know, been…"
He tensed up, going quiet on the spot and drooping himself over.
"Hey, don't be like that! When we get back to Headquarters, I'll make sure that Riley remembers you," Joy promised.
"You will?" Bing Bong perked up at her offer. "Awesome! This is the greatest day of my life!"
He spun around and bounced up and down excitedly, celebrating the future ahead of him. Then he felt a crack in his left heel and he gasped in agony, clutching it with his hands. He was forced to sit down in an effort to reduce the acute pain while crying out candy from his eyes.
"Are you okay?" Joy asked, concerned.
"Is that…candy?" Fear stared at the sweets, confused.
"It is," Bing Bong confirmed in between his tears. "Try the caramel, it's delicious."
She reached towards one of the pieces, but almost lost her hold on the four core memories in her arm. Upon seeing this, the imaginary friend offered his backpack to her. Though he had to empty out the other memories he had stored there first, as well as a boot, an anchor, a trumpet, a sink, and a cat.
"Here," he held the empty backpack out for her.
"You're a lifesaver," Joy complimented, stuffing the core memories in the backpack. "It'll be a lot easier to walk back to Headquarters now."
"Walk? That's way too long!" Bing Bong refuted. "We're gonna get on the Train of Thought!"
He led the two emotions out of Long Term, indicating the train chugging on the tracks.
"The train, of course!" Joy realized.
"But how do we get there?" Fear asked.
"It goes all over the place, but the nearest station from here is in Imagination Land," the pink figure pointed towards a huge metal wall with a door. "This way's a shortcut!"
As they walked towards the wall, Fear's eyes went wide at the sign above.
"THAT'S our shortcut?!" the purple emotion exclaimed out of fright and disbelief.
"D-A-N-G-E-R. Shortcut. Don't you see?" The simple-minded elephant gestured with his trunk before opening the door up.
Joy didn't see any problems with the path forward. "Well, he says it's the fastest way to Headquarters, so…"
"Yeah, there is no way in heck I am going in there," Fear vehemently shook his head. "And you two shouldn't, either!"
"Come on, Fear! You were brave enough back there with the Recall Tube, you can handle this!" Joy encouraged before adding, "Besides, what's our other choice? Look at how long this wall extends."
"That sign clearly says 'Danger'!" the unnerved emotion exclaimed. "I don't know what that place is, but we're likely gonna die if we get stuck in there!"
Joy let out a drawn out sigh, her patience running thin. "You're freaking out over nothing again, Fear. If you want to go the very looooong way around, that's up to you, but Riley needs to be happy!"
The imaginary friend entered the ominous structure first, dancing in place. "Look at me! I'm closer to the station, cause I'm riding the shortcut!"
"Bing Bong knows what he's doing, and I can't afford to miss that train," the yellow emotion stepped in with the bag of core memories. "He's part dolphin, those creatures are smart."
The tense emotion watched them stroll further into the building, unwilling to take the risk himself. Was he a coward for hanging back? He wouldn't refute that. But he just knew that it was better than the prospect of getting stuck in a place that was very clearly marked "DANGER".
—
On the second day of school, Riley, dressed in a gray long-sleeve shirt and blue jeans, walked outside with her lunch tray. She spotted the rest of the students all conversing with each other, making her feel disconnected from them. There was an unoccupied bench a fair distance away from the tables, and she walked off to sit down on it, setting the tray on her lap.
…all while remaining oblivious to the sounds of buzzing above her.
—
"Uh…Anger? Disgust? This isn't good!" Sadness called out to them, getting their attention.
"Riley, what are you doing?" Anger dropped his newspaper. "Are you listening to what's right above you?!"
As Riley picked up the hot dog bun, the screen shifted to show the rest of the classmates at the tables, with several of them whispering among themselves and a black girl sending a concerned glance her way.
Disgust urgently scurried towards the console. "We need to get Riley out of there. Now."
A/N: Thanks to my beta reader essen for helping me with the scene that addresses the plot hole of whether or not the core memories and the emotions themselves could be recalled when the Mind Workers send the Triple Dent Gum memory up to HQ!