Chapter 8: Stewing in Thoughts

Anger, Fear and Harry arrived at the staircase to The Subconscious. Staring down, Fear was already twiddling his thumbs, staring at the enormous doors. This was hard enough last night, but now those doors looked like giant monsters waiting to swallow him up.

However, another, even bigger obstacle was already present. Namely, the mind police. They seemed to have cordoned off the entrance, with police tape and several officers around, standing about imposingly, or arguing about whose hat was whose again.

Anger scowled as he made his way down the stairs first. He wasn't about to let a little bureaucracy or danger get in the way of rescuing Riley. Both Fear and Harry were behind him, but carrying themselves with far more hesitancy. As they reached the bottom, Anger made his way right up to one of the leading mind police. One with a fancy badge that designated him as "Captain Jonas".

"Alright fancy pants," Anger declared. "Let us in!"

Captain Jonas looked over at the emotion with a scowl. "And just what gives you authority to demand that of us, shorty?"

Anger could already feel his head smoking. "I don't have time to argue with the likes of you! Useless…"

"Anger, don't get carried away before we even get inside."

"Shut up Fear! We don't have time for this!"

Fear gently stepped around Anger. "Sorry, we're kind of in a time crunch." He looked Captain Jonas up and down. "Captain, as members of Headquarters, we need access to the Unconscious. And to do that, we have to go through the Subconscious."

The mind officer looked at Fear with a scoff. "Oh I'm sorry. Do you really want to risk letting Jangles and Grandma's vacuum run wild when we're in a crisis? This space is secured for now, but we don't want to take any chances."

Fear pondered for a second, then decided to try something. "Not even for Protocol 1999?"

Captain Jonas suddenly took a step back. "What's that you say? We're supposed to follow Protocol 1999?"

Fear nodded. "It's the main path forward for a mind affected by consciousness tampering. So if the mind police need to do anything special…"

The Captain pulled out a whistle, and blew it. "Lads! Half of you get to Language Processing. The other half, help me get these doors open. It's protocol 1999!"

The officers quickly began scrambling about. Some went back to the stairs, others began running for the doors.

Harry came up alongside the two emotions, slightly confused. "So..what does protocol 1999 mean to you captain?"

Captain Jonas gave a rueful grin. "Protocol 1999 is a special emergency for the force. We need to protect Riley from losing her ability to speak, but it also gives all emotions absolute authority until Headquarters is rebuilt." He looked back at the door to the subconscious as officers began pulling at the rings. "No officer has ever made the full journey from the subconscious to the unconscious, but if you say you have to go there, then you'll need this." He reached under his hat and handed them a key. "At the deepest point of the subconscious, there's the gate which helps keep the two separated. You'll need to use this to unlock it. But DON'T LEAVE IT OPEN! Even if you have to double back, be sure and lock up when you're done."

Fear grabbed the key, and placed it into his emergency pack. "Understood. Thank you Captain Jonas." The three travelers then made their way to the door, slipped inside, and the gates closed behind them with a thud.

Fear looked backwards briefly. "So, do we want to try coming back out this way once we find Riley? It might get messy down there, but we can definitely go back the way we came if we want." He reached into his pack, pulling out a rope. "I don't know how far we'll have to go, but we can at least follow this backwards if we want."

Anger gave Fear an annoyed glance. "We might need that rope as we go down. We'll just have to wing it until we actually find our girl."

Harry stared ahead into the darkness. "So, you all were here yesterday, right?" The emotions nodded. "Did anything…interesting happen while you were here?"

Anger and Fear gave each other a brief glance before Fear spoke. "Riley wasn't exactly in a good place when we visited here last. I think she wanted to come to try and get rid of her fears. She tried conscious tampering in this space, but almost caused a cave in when she tried it on Grandma's Vacuum Cleaner. Although, I do think Jangles did get caught up in the mess."

Harry nodded, seemingly noncommittal. "Alright. So, which way do we go to the Unconscious?"

Anger paused for a moment, looking at the things in the entrance hall. He scowled at the Broccoli to his right. "You still ruined our first lunch in San Francisco, Broccoli! I'd burn you down myself if we weren't in a rush." Then he turned to his left, and looked at, "The stairs to the basement in our old house!" Then he looked at his two companions who were both nervously holding each other. "Well, if we need to go down, then let's start by taking the stairs."

Fear swallowed deep. "Okay. Why…why don't you lead the way Anger? I may want this, but I am NOT confident that I won't run back screaming if I go first."

Anger sighed. "Keep up you scaredy cats." He began making his way down the stairs, with Fear and Harry right behind him.

They were making their way into pitch black, but Anger had a scowl of determination on his face. And so, his head was lightly glowing as they descended downwards, giving them all some light. Fear also reached into his bag, pulling out a flashlight that also lit the way down.

Harry looked over to Fear. "If the unconscious is locked behind a gate, does that mean Riley naturally created a boundary between those two parts of her mind? Or did something actually manage to create a gate to protect Riley?"

Fear shrugged, his hands shaking as they kept going down. "Probably the first thing. The Captain did say that nobody had managed to go all the way to the unconscious before."

"And…you're not worried that when we reach there, something terrible might be waiting behind it?"

"Of course I'm worried!" Fear exclaimed. "We are literally in my least favorite place of Riley's mind right now. If we weren't in a coma I wouldn't come within 80 yards of this place. But we have to save her, and if that means going down, then we're going down!"

Anger then paused for a moment, seemingly at the end of the staircase. However, in front of them was now a mountain pass which seemed unnaturally thin. It led to a bridge that had a gap over what looked like a chasm. Anger turned to look at Fear, frustration in his eyes. "So, you really didn't like when we drove through the mountains, huh?"

"That mountain pass in Idaho was WAY too narrow and high!" Fear immediately said.

Anger then pointed to the path ahead. "Oh, and I suppose you're going to jump us over this bridge now? We were making perfectly good progress, and now we're stuck!"

The two emotions got face to face. Fear now crossed his arms. "Well, we could tie the rope into a noose to then get across."

"What do we have for it to grab onto?"

"I'm pretty sure I might have a poll if you want to try jumping the bridge."

"I'm not putting myself at the mercy of YOUR gear you wiggly wimp."

Fear opened his mouth, but was interrupted…by Harry. "Let me try."

Anger and Fear both looked over at the figment, both with a raised eyebrow. Harry met their glances. "I'm just as tall as Fear, and I think I can make the jump. Give me the rope, and I'll bring it across."

Fear nervously looked at Anger, who shrugged, and gestured to 'well, hand it over.' Fear reached back into his bag, and pulled out the rope. Handing it to Harry, he tied a noose on both ends, and then took a few steps back. He then broke into a run, and leapt at the hole. Soaring over the gap and…landing securely on the other side. Harry took a deep gasp immediately after. "I'm…brave? I…I'm brave. I would die for Riley." He then put one of the nooses over a raised piece of concrete, and threw the other half to the emotions.

Anger caught it with an impressed smile. "Well, good work Harry." He then tied the rope to a splinter of wood, and began climbing across the rope, clinging to it with his whole blocky body. "Maybe this won't be as hard as I thought."

Fear groaned as he grabbed onto the rope next. "Please don't say that Anger. That's like whenever Joy says 'what could happen?' You know that we haven't even reached more substantial things that I worry about." Fear kept inchworming across the rope, shaking, but moving quickly. "It's only going to get harder the farther we go."

Anger grabbed Fear as he reached the other side. Giving Fear a raised eyebrow. "Do you have any..ideas of what might be further down?"

Fear nervously shook his head. "Even if I did, there's too much to think about."

Anger frowned. "Let's keep going," he commanded. He took the lead again, as the three continued on in darkness and fear, continuing their search for the Unconscious.

Disgust gingerly placed a foot on the tarp Paula had set up. Wincing slightly as the sole of her shoe dug into it. Envy was right next to her, looking uneasily at the long distance they had to go.

Envy quietly and shakily said, "You know, maybe Sadness was right the first time. This does seem really unsafe."

Disgust frowned. "You promised to come with me, Envy. Don't tell me you're getting cold feet before we even start."

Envy shuffled her tiny feet briefly, looking down. Then she tapped a shoe on the cover too. With a bit of treble in her voice she replied, "I…I'm more worried that by the time we reach the middle, it'll slump down and we won't be able to climb back up from there."

Disgust thought about that, but then looked at the mind workers still strengthening other covers going over the dump. "Well, the alternative is taking the long way around through the unseen long term sections. This is going to be faster." Then she looked down at her shoes. "And at least Riley created me wearing flats instead of heels. Then we can stay on top without worrying about creating punctures as I walk." She took one step onto the cloth, putting her weight on it. It sagged slightly, but the poles holding it on the near side seemingly held firm. "Come on. We got a kid to save. And we'll take it every step of the way together."

Envy looked at Disgust still with some nerves. "Really?"

Disgust swallowed, but put on a smile. "Really."

Envy hopped next to her, causing a deeper indent, but no other damage seemingly. "Well then, let's go."

The two emotions began making their way straight across. It was seemingly slow going, but at least they could tell they were making progress as Dream Productions got farther and farther away the longer they walked. There was a silence between them at first, but then Envy, seemingly wanting to calm her nerves, spoke up.

"Hey, so, what do you think Riley SHOULD do once we wake her up?"

Disgust looked down as they kept going. Not answering at first. Then, turning it around on Envy, Disgust replied, "Why do you ask?"

"It's just, my job is to make sure Riley knows who she should be like and what other cool things she should have. Great hockey athletes like Katie King or Hilary Knight. Or maybe getting that killer game system we saw in the store window a few weeks ago. However, when it comes to this? We don't exactly have an example. For all we know, we're going to be one of one for all our life. So, what do you think Riley should do after she wakes up?"

Disgust thought for a bit. Remembering everything they'd been through and done all this time. Trying to think of a good answer, Disgust looked over at Envy, who had a concerned look on her face.

Envy then uneasily asked, "You…don't know. Do you?"

Disgust scoffed. "I have my opinions, thank you very much. But, so will all the other emotions too. I'm sure this is going to give Fear all the excuse he needs to try and find a way to fix the intercom so this can't happen again. Or Sadness might want us to more seriously talk with Mom and Dad about when might be a good time to take antipsychotics. See if that helps."

"I'm not asking what they would think. I'm asking what YOU think, Disgust. And I don't like that you're not answering me."

Disgust frowned. Envy was more perceptive than she thought. "Alright, alright," she conceded. "The truth is, I don't think there's necessarily anything Riley SHOULD do once she wakes up."

Envy looked at Disgust very confused. "So…you want her to keep going like nothing's changed?"

"No. I'm saying that I don't think there's anything Riley HAS to do once she gets out of this."

"But she has to do something once we wake her up! We can't just stand around and let everyone else decide what's best for us."

Disgust raised an eyebrow over that statement, reminded of another short emotion who made a similar declaration last year. "Riley's still only 12. I don't see why we don't just listen to our parents and have them take care of it."

Envy then gave a deadpan look very similar to what Disgust would sometimes shoot Joy or Anger when they said something rather silly. "Unless you want to tell them about us, I don't see how what they want is what Riley needs."

Disgust looked away at that. "But how can we say we know what she needs either?" She then looked back at Envy, whose eyes widened a little seeing the upset look on Disgust's face. "We tried pretending like nothing changed, and all we got was a distracted and frustrated Riley. We tried drip feeding information, and that's when Tracy started calling Riley crazy. We tried telling the truth, and Riley locked us out. Then we tried to give emotional advice, and Riley thought that she was going to be forever alone on the outside! She said she hated her life!" Disgust had slowly raised her voice, getting more and more passionate the longer she talked. "And then after another bad day of tests and arguments and maybe intercom breakdowns, she decided that she'd just…override us to try and lock herself inside!?" Disgust finally stopped walking, looking down at Envy with a mixture of distaste and grief. "Don't you get it Envy? Riley needed us more than anything to guide her through all this. To protect her from all the poisonous social minefields she was walking and I let her down! Why should what I think matter after how much we messed up?!"

Envy now looked genuinely scared. Actually falling down, staring up at Disgust in shock. "Disgust, I…I didn't…"

Disgust growled. "Forget it. I don't want to talk about it. It doesn't matter right now anyways." Disgust then moved away, a little faster than before. "Once we get an actual console, and bring Riley to it, we can start over and let some other emotion figure out what to do."

Envy stayed there for a few seconds longer, watching Disgust move away. She hauled herself to her feet, and started after her. But as she rushed to keep up, she mumbled to herself, "We're cousins in action Disgust. We're supposed to be the smart, social ones. We should have an opinion, because otherwise we'll just blow up more of those mines when she wakes up again." Disgust didn't seem to hear her, but Envy now realized that she had to find some example to draw on, or Disgust wouldn't be ready once they restored Headquarters.

Sadness stared at the last manual in her hand: Outside Assessment. While this would certainly be useful once Riley began recovery, this wouldn't help them with getting the console ready. She gave a heavy sigh, looking over to Ennui. "It's not here."

Ennui sighed right back. "Bien sûr que non." (Of course it's not)

Sadness looked with unease out towards the long term shelves. "I have no idea how fast Anxiety can run, and even if I did, we have no idea how far a manual could end up from headquarters. We'll be looking for a needle in a haystack! It's impossible!" Sadness finally let out a burst of emotion, collapsing on her face.

Ennui looked down at the grieving emotion before letting out an exasperated groan. "Pick yourself up La Tristesse." She roughly gave Sadness a boost, setting her back down on her feet, though Sadness still seemed like on the verge of tipping back over. "Maybe all we need for right now is a little patience."

Sadness gave Ennui a confused stare, and sniffed. "We have no idea what surgery will do to us or to Riley. We have to get her going before it's too late!"

Ennui snorted. "Well, perhaps it's best to just lie here and find out. If it works, then maybe we won't have to try so hard from our side. Maybe Riley does need brain surgery to be a normal girl again."

Sadness frowned at that, but tried to take Ennui's words seriously. Thinking about their situation, she looked back at the manual on Special Emergencies. "Whatever we're in now, we don't even know an outside surgery will work. Do you want to risk everything on Riley getting close to death before she gets a surgery that might not even work?"

Ennui frowned a little deeper. "Turning my ideas back on me? Ooh La La." She looked at the manuals again. Then back to the tarps now beginning to cover the memory dump, even as rocks continued to fall, and memory orbs were flying out of pipes into the dump all the while. "Well, it's too bad we can't track where manuals would land if they flew out of Headquarters."

Sadness slowly turned her head at that. "Say that again?"

Ennui frowned. "No."

Sadness frowned looking down. "Just…once more? I won't ask you to do anything else, Ennui."

"It's…too bad we can't track where manuals would land?"

Sadness blinked. Then hurried to the alphabetized manuals. She ran her hand over the various titles, before picking out Manual 1: Your Mind: An Overview. She opened it up to a section that came out like a pop up book. On the pages was a map of Riley's mind.

Ennui looked very confused. "Wait…if this manual has a map of The Mind World, then what did you give Anxiety?"

"That manual was Long Term Memory Organization. This is an overview of the mind on a healthy day. And…" She pointed a finger at the Headquarters in the middle of the map. "Emergency Evacuation is set up to send things towards the back of the mind, so we don't have to worry about everything on the other half of the map." Then she pointed a finger to the space between Imagination Land and Dream Productions. "We landed here, but we were on the Train of Thought. Being so big, the train didn't go as far as other things could. Disgust finding Envy in Dream Productions means that something smaller probably went farther. But since Envy only made it to Dream Productions, it's unlikely any manual went all the way to the expansion territories." At that, Sadness pointed towards an area without many special areas closer to the back of the mind. She then swept her hand over the picture of long term memory, and pointed to two specific areas bracketing the middle of the mind. "Anxiety is covering most of Long Term memory, so the two places we could meaningfully search are here, and here."

Ennui looked at the spots. "Abstract Thought and The Vault?" Sadness nodded. Ennui looked at the two spaces, then sighed. "Well, not that I care, but I'd look at The Vault first. If the Mind Police found a manual and thought it was dangerous to leave lying around, they'd throw it in the vault first thing. You could follow the train of thought tracks straight there if they haven't broken during all this." Sadness gave a small smile at the suggestion. Ennui rolled her eyes. "I'm not going. I don't want to argue with the guards to get into the other guarded area of Riley's mind."

Sadness again frowned, but nodded. "Someone needs to be here if the others need information from the manuals."

Ennui gave a belligerent groan being reminded of that. Then she scooted over to grab one of the imaginary chairs, and plopped down in front of the organized manuals, grabbing the radio Envy had left behind. "Well, you better get going. You and Anxiety are the ones who put the most work in reading these. I won't be able to find things as fast as you." Ennui then pulled out her phone, and turned her attention towards it.

Sadness didn't directly respond to that. Instead, she glanced at the position of the Vault, and gave Ennui a small, "Thank you." Then picking up the other remaining radio, Sadness made her way out into the mind. Off on her own mission to find the last missing manual.

Joy's head was still sensitive, but not from pain. Frankly, she found the Unconscious a very confusing area to navigate. It was weird enough when all she saw was flying memory orb pieces, but right now she seemed to be running in a spiral. And not up or down but sideways as if she was a propeller running along a black rail that had no floor.

The worst part though wasn't the visuals, it was the sound. The Unconscious had very strange sounds all around her. Some music, some crickets. Sometimes as she ran, the only sound she could hear was her own feet.

Joy REALLY hoped that Bing Bong Jr. was able to navigate this world easier than her. In a place like this, it would be TOO easy to get lost. But she couldn't stop now. Not until she found Riley and got her out of here. There was no turning back anyways.

As Joy kept running, she came out of the swirl and found herself in a field of what looked like food. A LOT of food. Pizza, hamburgers, Bundt Cake, Cheese Curds, Crab, and surprisingly enough, Broccoli. Joy hesitantly walked up to this cluster, walking among the tall towers of pizza and seafood. "Well, at least I'm not going in nonsense directions anymore. The only trouble is, I have no idea where I am."

"Ah! Company! Welcome To My Home!"

Joy turned, and took a small step back seeing an enormous looking man step in front of her. He wasn't enormous for being tall, although he was clearly at least 20 feet taller than her. But rather, he was very wide, with a stomach that bulged out. He was Purple, Indigo, Yellow and Green, and while he had a smile on his face, Joy didn't like the way he was staring at her.

"Uh…hi. I'm Joy. I'm from upstairs." Joy paused for a moment, seeing his eyes sparkle with recognition. "Can I ask who you are?"

The being grinned. "Oh my word! Joy?! You're just who I've wanted to meet one day. I'm Hunger!"

"Hunger?"

"I'm not exactly an emotion, but you all can't do a thing without me to keep us going." Hunger grinned toothily at Joy. "It'll hit the spot to…EAT YOU! THEN I WILL BE THE NEW THING IN CONTROL OF RILEY!" His voice turned deep as his eyes turned red, and he reached down to grab Joy. Yelping in surprise, Joy took off.

"Why, why, Why didn't I just hold onto the bag?" Joy cursed at herself as she wove through the different foods. She hid herself behind a piece of bread, only for it to be lifted up by Hunger, who tried reaching for her again. Joy jumped through his fingers, then ran up his arm. She didn't exactly know what she was doing, but she had to deal with Hunger if she was going to escape to find Riley.

Hunger kept trying to grab Joy, only for her to pause right in front of his face. An idea sprouting in her mind. "Right here big guy," she waved. Hunger reached for her again, but this time Joy jumped straight down. Hunger smacked himself in the face, and Joy landed on his belly, barely feeling the drop. As Hunger toppled over, Joy jumped off, and began running for a stalk of broccoli nearby.

"Wait! Stop! I'm sorry."

Joy stopped for half a second, and turned to see Hunger on his hands, tears in his eyes. "I really am sorry. It's just…so many of the others down here think of me as a joke!"

Joy very cautiously stopped moving. "And why did you think eating me would change that?"

Hunger slumped down. "That's all I know. Somehow, I think food will make everything better. And I thought, if I get my hands on Joy, then maybe I'll finally be taken seriously."

Joy frowned at this logic. "Well, if I'm not working, how can you even know if it's working? Riley needs me to be happy."

Hunger sighed. "I suppose you're right. Riley isn't too reliant on food in itself. She's so…patient with it. Treats it as nourishment but not comfort. It's so weird to me."

Joy slowly began to smile. "Hey, that's not true. There's nothing like a good slice of pizza to make a day more bearable."

Hunger gave a half smile at that. "I suppose that's why the pizza towers are my favorite." He glanced at the towers of Pepperoni, Meat Lovers and Cheese Pizza that loomed over them. "But, what ARE you doing down here? Emotions shouldn't be anywhere in The Unconscious. It's really easy to get lost!"

Joy sadly began walking back towards Hunger. "I had to come down here. Riley's in Trouble!" Seeing Hunger's shocked expression, Joy went on. "She accidentally overloaded the console, and Headquarters collapsed into the dump! According to the manuals, this is the most likely place she'd be, but everything is so confusing here I can't find any sign of her!"

Hunger now looked horrified. "Oh no! If Riley's stuck down here, then she'll never be able to eat real food again! And I'll never get to expand my palate!" He slowly tried to pick himself up. Not an easy task with how wide he was, but eventually, he hauled himself up. "You…you have to find her! Wait…" Hunger then became pensive, and then frowned. "Is this why Gloom has been so active of late? Some of us down here in the Unconscious were starting to get annoyed how many times Gloom began overtaking our areas. That stuff is like a blight down here!"

Joy frowned. "Maybe? It did get up into the console a few times…" She shook her head. "We're hoping to find a way to better manage it in the future. But, has anything strange happened down here recently? Anything that might've been caused by Riley?"

Hunger pondered for a moment, then snapped his fingers. "There was something a little strange, although it was pretty far away. I noticed a bright light fall towards one of the nexuses of the Unconscious only a few hours ago. It seemed so small compared with some of us, but it shone like an orange in the sun!"

Joy perked up. "Where? Which way is it?"

Hunger pointed towards a green swirl to his left. "Follow that corridor until you reach Egopolis. Then turn towards the forest of hidden influences. I think the light might've fallen somewhere in that area."

"Can you lead me there?"

Hunger frowned, then shook his head. "I get too hungry without indulging in my food. I wouldn't be able to help myself if I came with you. I'd try to eat you."

Joy sighed in disappointment, but put on a smile. "Well, thank you for the directions, Hunger. I'll be sure to send down some extra pizza when we fix all this."

Hunger's eyes started to turn again, but he closed them, and turned to look at a chicken drumstick. Without looking at her, he solemnly said, "Goodbye Joy. I hope you never have to come down here again." He lunged at the chicken, and a terrible eating sound was heard.

Joy ran for the green swirl with a nervous energy. As she reached it, the swirl opened up into a surreal tunnel that blinked. Joy just kept running. Watching little meteors of memories fly past her, and once again finding herself running in a spiral. Not again! She mentally complained. But she just kept going, until at last, the tunnel opened up to a shining city. It almost looked like it was made of glass, but it shone with a yellow light as if it was being lit from the center.

Joy came to a pause. She seemed to be on a black hill overlooking the city. And that's when she saw the sign. "Egopolis: It's the City all about Me." Joy blinked at that last part. "Who's me though?" she ruminated. Then she remembered what Hunger had shared, and looked for anything that seemed like a forest. After scanning over the area, she finally noticed what looked like a forest on the right side of the city closest to her. Joy chanted to herself, "Hang in there Riley. I'll find you soon enough." Then she started making her way down the hill, eager to reach Riley no matter the cost.

Bing Bong Jr. uneasily paused in his running. He wanted to find Joy, and had sped off down the mountain trying to reach her, but lost track of her after her rock sped off over the horizon in a swirl of colors. Jr. wanted nothing more than to run after her, but remembered Joy's last words.

"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."

Reluctantly, Jr instead pivoted himself to walk off in a different direction. But before going farther, he reached into the bag, and pulled out the radio. Pressing the button on the side, he shouted out, "This is Bing Bong Jr. Can anyone read me? Hello? Hello?"

After a brief crackle, a voice came out. "This is Sadness. I can't help you right now Bing Bong Jr. I'm away from the manuals. Turn your radio to channel 5. I think Ennui is on there." Then with a little more cheer, Sadness added, "At least we know these can work in the Unconscious. So turn your knob to the left until you can talk with Ennui. She has the best chance of giving you help. Oh, and tell Joy that I'm glad you all made it through."

"Sure Sadness….it's good to hear from you. I'll be sure and tell Joy that," Jr said. He frowned, realizing the unintentional lie he'd just said, but shook his head. "I will find you," he murmured. Then following her instructions, he turned the radio channel, and spoke again. "Ennui? Are you there?"

After about eight seconds of waiting, "Ugh. Who is this?"

"This is Bing Bong Jr. Do you have any way for us to get around the Unconscious? Any way to determine where to go?"

"UUUgh. Stand by. I'll see what I can find."

Jr. sat down where he was, watching memories fly by. He even managed to catch one which had an image of Riley riding Bing Bong's wagon. He smiled at that, but then sighed. "Those aren't really me. I still love Riley, but I'm practically a stranger to her. Maybe we should go on a play date after we get back. Establish real memories in her mind that are of me rather than my father."

Finally, after a few minutes a crackle came over the radio. "So, we don't exactly have maps. But I can tell you that the Unconscious usually will have anchor points for some of Riley's more significant troublemakers. The belief system is supposed to be directly below Headquarters, so if you want to get there, try and figure out which way would be back towards the memory dump from where you came out."

"Okayyyy…"

"Joy got separated from you already, didn't she?"

"What? No! What makes you think…"

"Please Bing Bong Jr, you wouldn't be using these if Joy was there to operate it instead."

Jr. sighed. "Okay, that's right. But as soon as I find Riley, I'm going to find her!"

"Whatever. Just, don't get caught. There are things down there that would do anything to get out and use you as the means."

"Alright. Thank you Ennui."

"Keep going Imaginary Elephant."

Jr looked back at the mountain they came from. Reaching into his memories, he recalled how they swam down, but came out facing away from the memory dump. "So, I need to turn around, go around the mountain to start getting to the belief system." And Jr. did just that.

Strolling through the black and blue space, he sang to himself. "Who's your friend who likes to play? Bing Bong, Bing Bong. His music makes you shout hooray! Bing Bong, Bing Bong." It wasn't much, but it was enough to keep his nerves together as he walked along. He kept on going for what seemed like 20 or so minutes, before coming on what looked like a black void, with a single spotlight that shined in the middle. Jr gave a blink, but shrugged. "Well, the only way out is forward." He stepped into the light, making his way across. However, as he reached the edge of the light beam, he seemed to bump into something. "What?"

"Who…who are you?"

Jr. turned around, to see what looked like a grey being. With long hair, and darting eyes. They were wearing something grey and overcast, and although they looked pretty small from where he was standing, as it got closer, it felt like it was getting bigger.

"Oh, uh, hi! I'm Bing Bong Jr. Who are you?"

The being kept getting closer, and bigger. It was now about 18 feet away, but it already looked 10 feet tall. In a slightly raspy voice, it said, "I…I'm….Loneliness."

Jr. looked up at Loneliness, still smiling, but feeling a light unease. "Oh, Loneliness?"

"I was born…last year. After Riley sat alone during lunch. Because…Sadness does a lot of my job…I was sent down here after I appeared…in Abstract Thought."

Jr looked down at Loneliness's feet, and noticed that there was a blackness spreading out from her. "Hey, what's that near your feet?"

Loneliness looked down. Then shrugged. "It happens sometimes. This darkness…is like my old friend. The one thing that I'll…always have to be with. Like so much of my life. Always alone. Never with anything…to give me comfort. Never giving comfort…except in a full embrace."

Jr frowned sympathetically. "I can understand that…somewhat. It's not easy being by yourself. But that's why it's so important to have people you can enjoy being with."

Loneliness now was within 6 feet of Jr, and towered over him like Jangles would've. "So many others come here…but they never stay. Riley needed me so much lately…but Spite and Narcissism said that I can never truly come out…because of the emotions." Loneliness then came down towards Bing Bong's level, but its eyes were as big as the elephant. "Why? Why does Riley feel so alone? Why…did she call on me so much this week? I thought after…she hugged her parents….that I could rest…but I can't! What is going on up there?"

Jr very quietly got close to Loneliness's ear, and whispered into it. Loneliness jerked back. Glowing yellow eyes shining in shock. "No. No! I couldn't…I couldn't have…why would she…did I make her…"

Loneliness looked down at its hands, then looked at Jr, who then took an uneasy step backwards.

"I…I can help? We're going to find her and make sure you can rest."

Loneliness then looked at Jr, and reaching down, grabbed him, hauling Jr up to its face, bag and all. "Not yet. The others will need to see you first." The light above them seemingly clicked off, and Jr gave a distressed wail at the sudden darkness. However, Loneliness reached its other hand up and gently stroked Jr's head. "Don't worry. Even down here…nobody wants Riley to die. But I need direction. And…maybe you need it too. Maybe…maybe this is how Riley was always meant to be."

And Loneliness began to slink away. Jr was now very aware that he might be in a lot of trouble. "Oh," he whimpered to himself. "Where are you Joy? Where are you Riley?" Loneliness turned its head to hear those words, but didn't say anything at first. Just slinking into the swirling blue masses that lead deeper into the Unconscious.

My writing style typically has me come up with anchor events to hold the story together, and then writing around it. So this chapter I went into with no real plans for what might or might not happen. However, that also gave me a chance to just have some interactions for the emotions to bounce off each other. On the other hand, this is also my first time poking at "The troublemakers" of the Unconscious. And trust me, while the first two are relatively benign in this form, hunger and loneliness can easily form into worse things if left underexamined. Hence how Loneliness can unconsciously make Gloom even if she doesn't mean to.

Sorry this took a little longer than other chapters to come out. I'm...hoping to get at least two more chapters out before Christmas, but we'll see how my time rolls out.

Next chapter: more traveling, and Joy comes close to finding who she's looking for.