Chapter 6: Into Unconsciousness

Joy, Fear and the two imaginary beings hurried towards the stacks of manuals located between Imagination Land and Dream Productions. Jumping over the old Train of Thought tracks, they scurried to the emotions still there. Anger was shoving a manual to the side with an angry huff, while Sadness seemed buried in another one of them.

Joy hurried in front. "Sadness, Anger! We found something." Then she realized someone wasn't there. "Where's Ennui?"

Anger paused, and jerked his thumb behind them. Following his gesture, they saw Ennui laying the manuals down and angled on top of each other. Jr. gave a confused wave. "Hi. I'm Bing Bong Jr! What are you doing with those?"

Ennui looked up with a glazed over look. "Alphabetizing. In case we need one of these later." She then gave a groan. "It's SO BORING though!"

Anger glanced up. "Well, that's what you get when you decide to slack off while helping. Maybe you can put a little more effort in next time you're pretending to read a manual."

Ennui sighed and rolled her eyes. "Excuse me for not being you, colère."

Sadness then looked up on hearing Jr's name. "Bing Bong Jr?" She dropped her manual, walking towards Joy, a serious but sad look on her face. "Joy, why is there another version of Bing Bong with you?"

"Riley created this one from her soul memories when she learned who Bing Bong was. But, he knows what happened to the original one, so he asked to be called Jr. until Riley can better define him."

Sadness gave Joy a scrutinizing look, before leaning in. "Joy, as much as I'm glad to see a Bing Bong again, why are he and Harry with you? And did you find anything that can help with communicating?"

Joy glanced over at the two, who were conversing with Anger and Ennui, working on the mind manuals alongside the emotions. Although Ennui slapped Jr's hand, seemingly because he wasn't alphabetizing properly. "We need all the help we can get finding Riley. The head of Imagination Land, Pete, suggested bringing them with us. And he gave us these." She held up the radios for Sadness to see.

Sadness gave a small but unsure nod. "Alright. We do need all the help we can get. Especially because we might have a lead on how to find Riley."

Joy opened her mouth in excitement, but then overheard someone speaking up from a distance. "Hey, emotions! You'll never guess who I found when I was finding walkie talkies." Everyone turned, and saw Disgust hurrying up with someone short right behind her.

Anger looked at the little girl scurrying behind Disgust. And he suddenly gave an enormous smirk. "Why Disgust! I didn't know you were bringing home a little sister with you." Disgust gave Anger a deadpan stare. "What? I'm just glad that I'm not the shortest emotion anymore."

Disgust rolled her eyes at that. "Priorities please. And besides, Envy here was able to grab the walkie talkies we need to talk across the mind." She held up her megaphone, while Envy was right alongside her, holding up her walkie. Anger raised an eyebrow at the megaphone, so Disgust turned it upside down and the headsets and other walkies fell out. "It was a productive trip," she proudly said.

Envy for her part made her way towards the other emotions after clipping her walkie to her dress. "Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. It's all the old school emotions! This is so cool." She then made her way up to Joy. "And Joy! I just love how you glow. Like the light we're all trying to reach. I can't wait to get upstairs to work on improving Riley with you one day!"

Joy glanced down at Envy, then looked at Disgust and her pile of things. Disgust gave a firm nod, then raised an eyebrow at Joy's walkies in her hands. Disgust then commented, "Well, hopefully we'll have spares."

Joy gave a light smile at that. Then frowned. "Sadness, you said you might've found a lead on where Riley is?"

Sadness then held up a manual. Fear immediately stepped back. "Oh no. Not…not THERE!" Joy looked back at Fear in confusion. Fear then pointed at the manual like it was a spider. "That's the manual Sadness used to talk about The Unconscious. Sadness, PLEASE don't tell me that Riley is unconscious in her own Unconscious!"

Flipping towards the middle section, Sadness adjusted her glasses, then gestured everyone over. As the growing group made their way over, Sadness read in an utterly serious tone. "If a host was somehow caught in Headquarters during a collapse, there are several possibilities of where they could be. If a host is able to react quickly enough, they might've teleported to a section of the mind they feel most comfortable in. If not, it's quite possible that they might sink through the memory dump into their Unconscious. But if so, Emotions must do everything they can to prevent the use of Consciousness Tampering while there. The Unconscious is a fragile area of the mind. Any tampering in this area could result in permanent mind damage, and generate any number of issues for the future."

Fear gasped, gave a tiny shriek, then promptly fainted. The other emotions looked at him. Disgust gave a sigh. "I guess it's all finally catching up to Fear. Especially after everything Riley's done in just the conscious mind. If she's down there…" She gave the other emotions a hard look. And as they glanced among themselves, they all had various degrees of alarm on their faces at Disgust's implied concerns.

Sadness looked to Anger. "Wake him up. He wanted to find Riley, so he needs to hear this." Anger gave a serious nod. He walked over to Fear, raised a foot up, and stomped on Fear's foot.

Fear promptly shot up to his feet. "I'm sorry Mom! I promise I'll finish our homework now!" Then he realized what happened, and shook himself out with the tiniest bit of grace. However, he also gave Sadness a terrified look. "How do we know that Riley isn't just somewhere on this level?"

Sadness shook her head. "This said Riley would've teleported to a section they were most comfortable, or even knew. You didn't see her in Imagination Land, did you?" Fear shook his head nervously. "Disgust, did you see her in Dream Productions?" Disgust also shook her head with mounting dread. "Then the best place to look would be The Unconscious."

Envy walked closer to Sadness, a cautious look on her face. "So, how do we get to Riley?"

"It's not that simple, Envy. If we go to the Unconscious, we have to be extremely careful how we get out, or Riley's mind might splinter again under the weight of so many unmanageable things. Complexes, disorders, Gloom. We have to do this carefully, or Riley might lose herself even more than she already has."

Envy gave an unsteady nod, but gestured to the devices all on the ground. "That's why these are going to be so important. We'll have to be very careful not to lose them, but anyone up here can guide those looking for Riley down there with the manuals on hand. So, HOW DO WE GET TO RILEY?" The other emotions also looked at Sadness with nervous expectation.

Sadness stared back at them, then flipped the page. "Reaching the Unconscious can be done in three different ways. You can reach it through the lowest levels of the Subconscious. You can try to break through the memory dump if your Belief elevator tube managed to remain standing and swim out from there. Or, you can dive down to reach it through The Stream of Consciousness."

Envy gave a confused, "What? Belief Elevator? I didn't know we even had that."

Sadness shook her head. "It's a later installation once Riley manifests her Sense of Self. We didn't have it installed yet."

"Sense of Self?" everyone asked.

Sadness pointed to their Special Emergencies manual. "Remember how the manual said we need memories for the belief system to recreate headquarters? That system will manifest a sense of self once Riley thinks she knows who she is."

Harry didn't like the sound of that. "Knows who she is? She's been going through all this stuff inside her head, and was getting lost! How could she possibly know who she is after all this time she spent with all of you?"

Sadness gave Harry a sad but serious look. "That's why it's up to her to figure it out. We can certainly provide the memories she needs, but Riley will know when she's got a sense of who she is."

Anger solemnly looked at the manuals they'd looked through. Then at the emotions. Then at what they'd just read. Looking back up, he stared everyone dead in the eyes with a glare that was hard as a rock. "This could be the most dangerous thing we ever do inside our mind. But we have to get down there and get Riley out if we're ever going to be conscious again." He looked both Joy and Fear in the eyes. "Are you both SURE that you want to go find Riley like you said before we picked up the radios? There's no room for second doubts when we start moving into the Unconscious."

Fear looked like he was on the verge of fainting again, but then something changed. He took a step forward, and looked Anger dead in the eyes. "I HAVE to do this Anger. Riley's in terrible danger right now! I have to get her out even if we almost drown or die or get lost. It's what I was born to do! To protect Riley from something like this!"

Anger raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything. He turned to look at Joy. "And you, Joy? Are you sure you can handle this?"

Joy also gave a firm nod. "I brought Riley into her mind. I need to bring her out."

Anger gave a small smirk. "Well, how about that? And here I thought I was the only one with a spine among the emotions."

Disgust then chimed in. "Okay then. Everyone who's going down into the Unconscious, grab a walkie talkie." Joy and Fear both grabbed one, but Jr, Harry and Anger also reached for one. "That…you all want to do this?"

The two imaginary beings looked at Disgust, and both simply said, "For Riley."

Anger then chimed in. "If the Unconscious is as dangerous as the manuals say, we need a FIGHTER like me to defend against all the stuff down there."

Disgust groaned. "Well, we can't have all of you take a Radio. Some of us will still need one or two while we're working up here to get things ready."

Jr. promptly handed his walkie to Sadness. "I wouldn't really know how to use this anyway. I'm only two days old after all."

Harry thought for a moment, then handed his radio to Disgust. "We'll probably be traveling in groups anyways, so I won't need one."

He didn't sound entirely confident, so Disgust gave him a slight narrowing of eyes. "And are you sure you won't turn your own search for identity into an excuse to back out during the expedition?"

Harry gave Disgust a deep frown. "Haven't you forgotten? I would DIE for Riley. That's the core of why I was made. I won't give up just because something's being made on top of it."

Disgust stared at him for a few seconds, before changing the subject. "Sadness, do we know which method of reaching the Unconscious is easiest?"

Sadness just shook her head. "The manual doesn't say. Since you're not supposed to go in that area, they're both probably difficult in their own ways. And the Unconscious is a mysterious place in of itself. The Belief System might be an anchor point for you to reach, but in order to get there, you'll probably end up going through a lot of wild space where all her disorders and gloom still are."

Everyone shuddered at that thought. Joy then took a second to look between the stairs down to the Unconscious and the way back to Imagination Land. Finally, she took a deep breath. "I'll dive down through the Stream of Consciousness."

The other emotions looked with surprise and shock at that statement. It was Fear who spoke up with deep nerves. "Joy, at least if we use the Subconscious, we'll be walking through familiar things. Things we were able to partially clear up thanks to Riley yesterday. Swimming to the Unconscious? How do you even know you could hold your breath long enough to get there? And what happens if you don't? The stream runs through most of Riley's mind. You might end up in a part of the mind very far from normal operations."

Joy shook her head. "You said that the stream is lower right now because Riley's losing her thoughts. That means it'll be less far to get down to the Unconscious that way. We need to find Riley. And that's the fastest way for me."

Fear still wasn't convinced. "Four inches isn't exactly a huge difference. It's still not something you can control as much as walking..."

"We can't worry about control!" Joy snapped. Everyone was taken aback at that remark. "Nothing is more important than saving Riley. I'm taking the fastest way even if it's a danger to myself. And if I have to dive down alone, then I will."

There was silence for a moment, but then Jr stepped up next to Joy. "I'll go with her. I remember Bing Bong once tried swimming the length of the entire mind when Riley was 9. So I can save her if things go wrong."

Fear still wasn't fully convinced, but he sighed. "Clearly I'm not going to talk you out of this Joy." He then held her hands as firmly as possible. "Just…promise me you'll come out okay. Even if I find Riley first, you have to promise me that you'll get out of the Unconscious. WE need you."

Joy smiled a sad smile. "I promise."

Bing Bong Jr then chimed in. "I'll make sure of it too."

Disgust then spoke up one more time. "Joy, before you go…" She then held up the imaginary bag Joy brought from headquarters, and Paula's megaphone. "You never know what you might or might not need in the Unconscious. So take these with you."

Joy gave an embarrassed chuckle, and grabbed the bag. "Heh, that's true." She then put the megaphone and her radio in the bag. Then she briefly looked at the headsets. Disgust gave her a raised eyebrow at that, but Joy shrugged, and grabbed one, placing it inside as well. Joy then turned to Jr. "Carry this for me? It's going to drag when I'm swimming."

Jr. took the bag gingerly, slinging it over his shoulder. "Just let me know whenever you want it."

"Alright then everyone. Let's move out!" proclaimed Anger. He first looked at Joy. "We'll try to meet at the Belief System. If it's a fixed point like the manuals said, it'll be a good place to regroup." Then he turned to look at the four emotions not going down. "If we make progress, we'll radio up to you."

Disgust then pointed to the manuals. "If you ever need advice on ANYTHING, radio us. And don't leave the Unconscious until we have a safe route for you."

With that, Joy and Jr made their way back towards Imagination Land. Anger, Fear and Harry meanwhile began jogging towards the Subconscious. As the two groups slowly began going out of sight, Sadness, Disgust, Envy and Ennui briefly made eye contact with each other. All of them looked scared, but they all swallowed at once, trying to hold their unease back.

Disgust then spoke up. "So, did you find the manuals on Console Construction and Advanced Console Operations?"

Ennui chimed in. "Half. We did find a mention of Pituitary Assembly in the basic manual of Console Construction if we wanted to start making new consoles, but we still haven't found any manual about Advanced Operations yet." She then gestured to about 10 remaining manuals. "And we've almost gone through everything from Headquarters that was on the Train of Thought."

Envy then spoke with a serious demeanor that was almost unnerving coming from someone as small as her. "Where is the Pituitary Assembly?"

Sadness pointed out past the Memory dump. "If I remember right, it's on the other side of the dump. Somewhere between the second deja vu and language processing."

Disgust and Envy both immediately groaned. Disgust speaking first. "Getting there is going to take WEEKS! Ugh, where's Riley when you need to fly across the memory dump?"

"Why fly, when you can walk?"

"Don't be ridiculous, you can't walk across…" Disgust suddenly realized that Paula had said that. She turned to look at Director Paula, who had walked up smiling like a Cheshire Cat. "You can't walk across an open pit."

"You can if the mind is in the throws of Protocol 1999." Paula pointed towards Dream Productions. The sound of a catapult launching was made, and what looked like a long Tarp flew halfway across the dump. Then something sounding like a plane engine went off, and what looked like a dragon flew out from the tarp, heading towards the other side of the dump, carrying one end of the tarp in its claws.

Ennui looked half impressed, but then looked bored again. "That will collapse the second someone steps on it. How can that be safe to go across?"

Paula then pointed to the near side where mind workers were hammering on the material in different ways, trying to secure it even as the dragon continued to fly across. "We'll secure it. We need to in order to make sure the memory dump doesn't expand while Riley's unconscious. And to prepare for phase 2."

Sadness looked at Paula with unease. "Paula, you don't think this is a good idea, do you? I said the same thing to Joy when she tried to walk on Goofball Island back to Headquarters. It's too unstable and dangerous."

Then something happened that nobody expected. What sounded like a male adult voice drifted over the mind. And all five beings stopped and listened. "If Riley ... .any signs of an artery rupture, then….operate….the only way to protect ... .from any….lethal effects ... .if….symptoms are clear…have to move fast to save Riley's life."

Disgust immediately shuddered in alarm. "An operation? But surgery gowns look so tacky!" She then looked at Sadness. "Whatever's going on out there, it sounds pretty serious. Is this why you were so worried about Riley getting a Brain Aneurysm?"

Sadness gave a worried nod. "Riley's mind might've accidentally caused a problem when everything went haywire. If she actually hurt herself somehow, then Riley's in more trouble than we originally thought." She closed her eyes, and when she opened them, she had the same kind of serious look Anger had only a minute before. "We have no choice. We have to keep going or Riley might become brain dead. We need her dream self, but we should have the console ready when they find her, so we can get her back to normal sleep rather than this limbo state." She looked at Disgust. "Can you make it all the way to the Pituitary Assembly to let them know we need a replacement console?"

Disgust looked at the tarp. A second one was now being carried across by a giant butterfly animatronic. "I…I don't want to do this. It's so gross and dangerous. Even if I make it all the way, I don't know if I'll have the nerve to come back the same way. Even if there's a host of mind workers behind me!"

Envy grabbed onto Disgust's leg. "What if someone came with you? Someone who's light enough that it won't make as much a difference if you're carrying them or they're going alongside you? Someone who wants a modified console so something like this can't happen again? Someone who…"

Disgust glanced down at Envy, giving her a deadpan look that quieted Envy, before picking Envy up off her leg. Disgust still didn't know how to feel about this future emotion getting so attached to her. Then she remembered someone who wasn't there but could be. "Why can't we just wait for Anxiety to come back? She'd probably run across there in no time flat."

Ennui gave Disgust a skeptical look. "You want to risk everything on how fast Anxiety can run through long term and back to us?" That question hung over everyone. Finally Disgust sighed.

"Alright. For Riley I guess." She looked over at Paula still standing there. "You promise that you'll keep it tight when we cross?"

Paula nodded. "And if something happens, we'll swoop in to get you. It'll be our finest production."

Disgust cringed at the thought of getting stuck down there like Joy was, then looked at Envy. "Alright you little teal emotion. We've got a long walk ahead." She then began walking off with Paula towards the chasm, still holding her radio, but picking up another headset as well on the way. Envy took a step towards her, then stopped, as if thinking of something. She tossed her radio to Ennui, then scurried off after Disgust. "Can I hold the Radio? I want it!" She chimed as she chased after Disgust.

Sadness looked over the remaining unsorted manuals, then looked at the last emotion left in their space. "We better hope Advanced Console Operations is in the last few manuals, or we'll have to go into Long Term to look for it."

Ennui gave an exasperated sigh. "Ooh La la. Fine. But we have to be on call for the emotions in the Unconscious too."

Sadness gave a distressed moan at that. All she wanted to do was fall on her face and cry like the old days, but she couldn't cry until they were safe. So, Sadness turned around and made her way over to the unsorted manuals. "Then we'll have to split up if Anxiety doesn't come back with it soon." Ennui gave a little tut at that, but followed behind Sadness. Sadness rubbed her face as she reached for the next manual. "Oh, this is so sad! Riley needs us more than ever right now. I sure hope Joy and the others find her before she loses her memory like your manual on special emergencies warned." Ennui just grunted at the comment, and the two darkly colored emotions each reached for a manual.

Joy felt her legs slightly burning while backtracking to Imagination Land. As she and Jr. approached the stream of consciousness, she started taking deep cleansing breaths. She still believed this would be the fastest way to the Unconscious, but she no longer felt entirely confident that she could do it.

Bing Bong Jr looked at Joy, seemingly oblivious to her distress. "So, ready to go diving, Joy?"

Joy looked back at Jr with a bit of apprehension. "Jr, am I crazy?"

The cotton candy elephant looked confused at that statement. "Crazy? Why would you think that? Sadness herself said there's no such thing as an easy way to the unconscious, so this isn't any less dangerous than what Fear, Anger and Harry are trying to do through the subconscious."

Joy didn't look any happier. "Jr, the only way I managed to save Riley the last time I was out of headquarters was with desperation and a stack of imaginary boyfriends jumping off a trampoline that an island of personality hadn't lost yet. I'm very positive that it was a crazy idea that just so happened to work! But this? I've lived in headquarters for most of my life! I have no idea how good of a swimmer I actually am! And swimming all the way down? Sadness didn't even specify how deep I'd need to go to do that!"

Jr though gave a friendly if not entirely innocent smile. "You're Joy. Where's that positive attitude you need to get us through anyway?"

Joy frowned. "That attitude was squeezed out of me over the last week. I did my best, but Riley didn't always listen, and we kept making mistakes. And I just had my dreams shattered too!" Jr opened his mouth to ask a question. "Not the time! The point is, I want to save Riley badly enough to try, but we've been through too much for me to be confident in this working."

The imaginary being though kept his smile up nonetheless. "Every good thing takes effort to get. Like when Riley had her second tryout for hockey, or when she and Bing Bong first learned to play in a band." Joy blinked at Jr. knowing such small details. "The mind workers brought it up a few times while I was here. The point is that you lead Bing Bong and Sadness through so much already. I know that swimming down will be as easy as hugging mom and dad."

Joy gave a sad shudder at that idea. She hated the thought that the family island wouldn't be waiting for them when they returned. But, she quickly masked it, and turned to look at the stream. "Okay. Then let's go." She walked to the edge of the bank. She took some steps into the water until it was up to the hem of her dress, then looked Jr dead in the eyes. "In case we get separated, find Riley, then get to the belief system. No matter what happens to me, you have the radios, so you NEED to do that if you find Riley before I do. They're pretty easy to operate, so you should be able to figure it out."

Jr. joined her in the water. He didn't respond right away. "Joy, we'll get through this together."

Joy though looked the new imaginary friend in the eyes. "I'm not kidding Jr. Riley's been through too much this last week. You have to promise to find Riley before you find me. Get her back up to Sadness and the others before you even TRY to find me."

Again, the elephant gave Joy an odd look, but then nodded. "Alright. But I WILL find you if we get separated. After all, Riley needs YOU more than she needs ME."

As Jr. Reached out, they briefly held hands. Bing Bong Jr. gave Joy a big goofy smile, causing her to crack a half grin in response. Joy then slowly walked forward, leading the elephant behind her until the water was up to her chest. She turned to look at this accidental creation one more time, then swallowed. "See you on the other side, Jr."

Then the two of them dropped their hands, took a deep breath and dove into the water.

As she began to swim down, Joy could feel a voice resonating through her body, and into her own head.

"What's going on? Where am I? What am I holding? What do I do now? How come there's a huge giant near me? Oh no! Run! Help! Someone please! I don't know where I am! HELP!"

Joy could only assume she was still hearing Riley's conscious thoughts even when she was in the Unconscious, but as she kept swimming down, those thoughts got quieter and quieter. But with no time to dwell on that fact, Joy dove deeper. She just kept going and going. She could hardly believe she could hold her breath for so long. But she kept diving. And diving. And soon, she could see a faint light far below herself. She wanted to check to make sure Bing Bong Jr. was behind her, but that would take more energy than she would've still had if she could just reach that light. So she stroked and stroked, as the light grew brighter and brighter, until finally…..

Joy burst through a pool of water. But the moment she broke the surface, she went flying out like she was a bottle rocket, giving a cry of "Whoa!" on the way out. She soared over some darkness, landing on what looked like a rock, until that rock suddenly broke off, and she was sent flying down on that rock. Down what looked like a black mountain. She faintly heard Jr's cry of "JOY!" as she went sailing off away from where she'd broken through. She was skittering and sliding. Holding onto the rock for dear life, moving farther and farther from everything she ever knew was possible, into darkness, then into a swirl of colors. Just falling, and falling, until the rock hit a bump. Joy screamed in surprise as she went flying off, sliding through…whatever the surface was she was going through, and then finally passed out in shock from the fall.

And so, here she was. In the middle of the Unconscious. Lost. Alone. Without communication. Looking for their girl. Fighting her emotional guilt. Racing to rebuild headquarters. Trying to process what the other emotions had told her about family, guilt and courage. Dealing with some very strange sights, and trying to figure out how to convince Riley to not give up on the outside world. Joy gave a heavy sigh, then looked up again. The whole area seemed…drabber. Almost how Riley looked when she decided to run away. But…they were unconscious, so that felt…odd to think about.

Joy frowned to herself, then picked herself up. "Okay Joy. You'll never find Riley if you stand still." She briefly looked to the side and murmured, "I know..Mom.." She paused, then sighed. "I don't know how much longer I can keep this up. I think I'll have to let you go soon," she whispered to herself like she was trying to keep a secret. Then Joy looked out at the vast ocean of colors and shapes in front of her. And taking a step forward, Joy called out as she began to make her way through the Unconscious. "Riley! Riley? Where are you? I just want to talk."

And Scene. We've finally caught up to where Joy was when this journey began. From here on out, the mind is going to be divided between "parties" and all their different adventures. It's going to be a while before all the emotions are back together, and until that time, everyone will have things to do.

But with Joy now going searching, we're going to step away from Riley for a minute. This will anchor when and where everything is happening in Riley's mind, because we're stepping out of the inside, and checking in on the people Riley's left behind on the outside.

Buckle up everyone. The Ride is only just beginning.