Inside Out reImagined

Riley snaps

No one in Riley's mind fully understood what took her over. Moments ago, though downtrodden and anxious, she was ready to make small steps forward, eat up when she was hungry, and even talk when she was scared. Yet, now, her thought forms were reminded of the reality: that everyone asked for more than what she could deliver, and in the end, she was still, to quote her mother from yesterday, "a small town Yankee girl in the biggest Chinatown in the world".

Her emotions couldn't really hear her inner thoughts, but the way she stormed off — mostly angry, but very noticeably clutching her heart — was plenty telling. Three out of four emotions agreed: she was simply overloaded and needed time to cool down — time during which she didn't want to see her parents at all.

Joy, however, couldn't shake certain thoughts — even in the face of surrender to this new Riley. What if this was all temporary? What if, when Console Maintenance came over tomorrow, they would be able to fix everything, allow her to feel happiness again, and once again, make her into a happy, harmonious girl, making sure that the rest of the world was happy and harmonious, too?

Nevertheless, Joy still wanted to hear what Riley had to say, and in order to do that, some other emotion's input would be required. "That was not what I was expecting at all, but apparently, I'm not even one to speak. Care for some summarizing words?"

Hearing Joy's request, Anger was the first to speak. "Well, for starters, you clearly don't know how to be a leader anymore, and—"

"I meant from Riley. Console work. Do it." Joy clarified, not quite ready to face an insurgence against her rule — even if she, herself, agreed that one may be needed.

The others weren't really sure if Anger should take control like that, given how badly the altercation in the kitchen went down. Yet, despite a multitude of reasons — not the least of which was that if he disobeyed, he could tell Joy to shove it — he felt like the console called to him, and obliged.

He pushed buttons around, before gently pushing on the big lever. As he did, the console once again turned red, and the emotions immediately felt the tension.

"That's what they deserve." Riley muttered, clenching her fists, to herself — yet, for all the emotions to hear.

"It sure is!" Anger nodded, devilishly grinning.

Meanwhile, Joy took the moment to jump down from her high chair, toppling it in the process, and walked over to the console, asking herself the hard-hitting question: "There's just one thing I don't understand. Why am I locked out? Why won't Riley smile?"

The others didn't exactly have to move aside; they all had their own chairs, and Joy could simply take the front and center position that she usually did, whenever she worked at the console. However, as she pushed buttons around, they did give her weird glances, and when the console stayed red despite her input, they grew increasingly worried.

"Thinking I have figured everything out and that a well-placed smile, or a walk through the park, will fix everything..." Riley continued cursing her parents, under her breath.

"Ugh! Even you?" Joy suddenly shouted out, not even entertaining a single thing that Riley said from this point on. "Do you know how sick I am from everyone not listening to me? I thought at least my own girl might wanna listen to Mama Joy, but no."

"No, no, no, we serve Riley, not the other way around!" Fear suddenly spat out.

"He has a point." Anger agreed.

Seeing Anger, perhaps the most polarizing figure in Headquarters, suddenly come into agreement with both Fear and Disgust, once again, Joy couldn't take it anymore and lashed out: "Why do you care? Riley's not an angry girl or a scared girl; she's a happy girl, and that means listening when I... interact... with the console!" Without looking at the console color, which stayed red and even brightened with every touch, Joy continued doing her thing.