Inside Out reImagined

The Time Outside

Though Riley outwardly appeared to be ready — at least, the emotions hoped so, especially Joy — the incident with the charging cable played a large role in getting them to constantly talk again, largely ignoring the occurrences on the outside world. One of these was Fear, who, as Riley was watching Mom lock the apartment doors behind herself, asked: "Are we actually hurt? Would we even feel anything directly if Riley was hurt? And what about the tablet? Joy, you did seem kind of rushed..."

"You know what I wish for? That the tablet had the fancy wireless charging ability. You know, like on the new phones? That way, we could be ready in an instant." Disgust countered with a remark more on the hopeful side.

"I mean, yeah, but you can't wish for everything in the world; you know Headquarters would be a lot messier if we could. Why not just be happy that we're in one piece, and so is the tablet?" Joy rebutted.

"Is it? I swear to Riley, I've seen it come apart once..." Fear remarked.

"Let me guess: it was a dream, and Dream Theatrical Studios were working with a memory of the other thing. The one where the side keyboards detaching is, like, the whole point." On the other hand, Anger and the others knew Riley's favorite Chinese tablet, as well as what other product in the world it was most similar to.

"Yeah, the one with the control sticks instead of the letter buttons. Seen those? Then it was 100% a dream. I know, I get that one too... wait, what's happening?" Disgust had their own two cents to add to the conversation, as well, but found themself interrupted by things in Headquarters moving around due to unstable gravity.

A quick look at the Consciousness Screen revealed the reason: with Joy having taken the controls, partly as she didn't need to involve herself with the current Headquarters debate, Riley was about to run down the stairs all the way to the first floor. However, just before she could make any progress, she was stopped in her tracks by Mom grabbing her hand, which caused all the swerving and made Riley nearly fall over, again.

"Hey! Don't get lost, will you? We won't be able to find you in this city!" Mom yelled to Riley's side.

For a moment, Joy was motionless, not being able to believe that she was not allowed to have fun, just like that. Instead, it was Sadness, who moved forward, replying to Mom: "We won't..."

In the end, they did the neat and orderly thing: taking the elevator. Boring as it was to slowly watch the number of floors tick from fourteen all the way to one, and painful as it was to listen to the same jingle, it was the utilitarian way, which they would have to get used to from now on.

Once they were on the first floor, they stepped forward, through the door, opened it and the dust flew through it. The air typical of Shanghai was still a tough matter, and both Riley and the emotions ended up coughing, but this time, it was at least somewhat better; it seemed that survival was possible, after all.

"Adaptation... more difficult..." Joy spoke through coughing, noting that it was more than just survival that Riley needed to do.

"And will happen... never... at this rate..." Disgust responded, having a more negative outlook.

"That's ridiculous, smokers... they get used to it all... all the time, wouldn't you say?" Joy responded.

"Really? Smokers? That's who we are aligning ourselves with?" Disgust gave Joy a glance, crossing their arms, before turning their attention to the Consciousness Screen again.

"I mean, if Joy says so. We're living here, like it or... or not." Anger also spoke, incidentally being in Joy's favor.

That being said, Fear, the one not involved in the argument this time, was quick to command the console, and as such, almost as soon as Riley found herself outside, she pulled out her favorite Chinese tablet, just to verify that it was, indeed, in one piece and its charging port was not visually broken.