Inside Out reImagined

A Studio in the Mind

In the deep mind, there was little hope to be had.

The incident with the Mind Workers proved just how difficult it was for Sadness to find anything that she could hook onto, anyone who she could call a friend. The closest that she had seen today, perhaps, was Bing Bong, but even he had certain differences in the way he perceived Riley — differences that led to their inevitable separation.

And Sadness didn't know what hurt more: the idea of having no one, or the idea of having someone, only for that someone to directly betray her.

She also didn't know what to think about the bottled memories. It validated her somewhat that she wasn't the only emotion constantly put down by Joy, and that Fear had received a similar treatment. If she ever got back, that would definitely be a talking point, and the two could hopefully do something about Joy.

But once again, that came with a big if and an ever-shrinking probability. What were her options, even? Go back to Bing Bong, admit that actually, the idea to Make Riley a Little Girl Again was great and could be executed without any ill effects, thereby foregoing not just Riley's well-being, but also, her own element of Imagination? Or trek through the empty space left behind by Preschool World — one that she, herself, made — and hope that some sort of princess character looks past that, bestows Sadness with a purpose, and brings her back to Headquarters on a magical carriage?

And these were the two most realistic options, by the way, with no one except for Figments even caring to listen to what she said. All the Mind Workers treated her as a nuisance, possibly even ascending to the level of a witch who must be burned at the stake, and all the emotions were probably listening to the nonsense that Joy spouted about her being useless.

The only reason why they could do so, obviously, was because Sadness really was everything they stated she was: useless and a nuisance.

Even so much as looking up at the Consciousness Grid, now much more visible as night had fallen upon the mind, reminded her of that. The color of each Formative Memory was clearly visible, allowing Sadness to immediately assess and generalize: mostly gold, some of red, purple, and green, and searching for blue in Riley's Consciousness Grid was probably more difficult than searching for a needle in a haystack. It reinforced how much she was hurt in the world that didn't belong to her, and could never belong to her; a world she didn't belong to, and could never hope to belong to.

More importantly than anything, though, Sadness felt sleepy.

All the signs were there. The sight of the Consciousness Grid became a blur in her eyes, and she simply couldn't make heads nor tails of what was beside her, next to the little hub, one of many hubs that led down to the cellars storing all the bottled memories. In addition, her own thought processes became progressively more fatigued, with jumps of logic that led to contradictions and her getting confused.

If she really wanted, she could stay up all night. It would be just like Dream Duty, except outside of Headquarters. However, this drowsiness was stronger than usual, and for the most part, during Dream Duty, there would be something to watch, broadcast straight from Dream Theatrical Studios. These were the only Mind Workers who stayed up at night, and without them, she had no one to watch and no one to talk to, and boredom would get to her faster than the drowsiness did, with the same end result: laying down, closing her eyes and letting the night take her to the morning.

Except... her new predicament posed a new challenge. Back in Headquarters, she had her own room, and reasonable expectations of privacy, as no one, other than the other emotions, would ever knock on her door, and even the other emotions — yes, even Joy — knew better than to step inside. If she were to settle here, with no shelter whatsoever, then, come the morning, she would be spotted by at least one Mind Worker.