Inside Out reImagined

Joy plans

One thing that the thought forms just couldn't get, no matter how much they wished for or how much Imagination they put into the wish, was a functioning clock that ran neither fast nor slow. The emotions always had a rough idea of whether it was morning or evening — thanks to Riley's consistent sleep schedule, something not all fourteen-year-old girls had — but beyond that, they were on their own when guessing the exact hour of the day.

Long-distance flights complicated the matter further. The kind of flight that Riley took — from Chicago to Shanghai, straight across the international date line — was perhaps the worst one in terms of possible jet lag. Luckily, she got a head start by sleeping on the plane, but the economy class seat didn't make for the most comfortable bed, which showed as Riley had not been the most alert or functioning throughout all of Wednesday. Tonight, she needed the sleep, and she needed a lot of it.

However, Joy knew, as much as a thought form could know in general, that this sleep lasted just too long. Especially since she froze the Dream Theatrical Studios staff, she only had herself, the mostly useless console and the blank, except for abstract, meaningless patterns, Consciousness Screen. Not having a clock, Joy made noises reminiscent of one — tick, tick, tick — to show that she was bored out of Riley's mind and wanted something, anything to happen.

She couldn't even recall any memories to brighten her night; the console prevented her from doing so. During the night, recalling memories and building dreams upon them was strictly the job for Dream Theatrical Studios — and now, during this crucial moment where nothing wrong could happen, they were out of a job. They wouldn't completely relinquish their position, and they would continue with the same nonsense the next night, but then, Joy wouldn't be serving Dream Duty anymore, and it would stop being her problem.

If only I could solve my other problems by freezing the thought forms involved, that would be great! Joy thought to herself. But no, I'm stuck here, in Headquarters, being the shepherd to a bunch of sheep that refuse to listen and... they do sheep things, all over the place... Yeah... sheep things... like the sheep that they are, listening to me...

At first, Joy was oblivious to signs of trouble staying up. Repetitive thought was certainly one, but she still felt like she was fully up; sleep, both for humans and emotions, happened to be this little devil that took them unexpected. Another sign, that Joy should have really noticed, was her toppling her chair by the console and getting down to a reclined position; she really thought that she was comfortable in that position and that she wouldn't be falling asleep anytime soon.

With all of the emotions, as well as all of Dream Theatrical Studios, being asleep, nearly asleep or otherwise incapacitated, the Stream of Consciousness slowed down, now visibly moving from Formative Memory to Formative Memory overhead. That was, perhaps, the most significant sign, and one that Joy did notice; however, by this point, she was already too tired to do anything about it, only being able to lazily turn over.

Luckily, just before Joy could fully go to sleep, something happened in the outside world, bringing her to a period of confusion that necessarily prefaced full alertness. Riley's alarm clock, which she had set to 7:00 AM local time in order to be able to wake up for her special greeting party at school, rang, and Joy's grand scheme was finally set in motion.

First, she launched herself and her chair back to an upright position, mostly using her Imagination, as was required for an event that defied the laws of physics. Subsequently, she ended up slamming face-first into the console. Then, after needing to recover from pain on top of the confusion, she pushed a button on the console that was rarely used, but which would be useful in this special case. It had an energy meter associated with it, that went up as long as the button was pushed, and while there was energy, the input from the emotion who pushed the button would be continuously received.