Inside Out reImagined

Discussion on the Train

The Train of Thought, as it would seem, waited for no one and nothing. In the very least, with the amount of Console Maintenance personnel, not to mention related departments, who had been assigned to Joy's request for repairs, it was impossible to do a roll call — and no one called for one, anyway. The conductor, sitting far away from the crowd now separated by train cars, simply listened for the sound of Mind Workers crowding in, remarked it stopping, and then, started the Train, letting it roll away from Headquarters.

Yet, Fritz figured, Mind Workers in general, with only a handful of exceptions, had very strong teammate mentalities, and therefore, it was safe to assume no one had been left behind at Headquarters. And even if there was such a lost soul, they could probably just take the elevator downwards and catch up in other ways, and in either case, they could easily find some other purpose in the mind, while Console Maintenance would easily find someone else to replace them.

Therefore, it was probably for the best to open with what he wanted to say — and continue with talking, for it would seem Mind Workers weren't even exactly capable of prolonged thinking without eventually saying what they were thinking out loud.

"Well, then, this do be quite interesting, ain't it? The weirdest Headquarters assignment I've been ta, that's for sure." he said.

With him, there were quite a few Mind Workers from the assignment in various colors, but only two that he knew by names, and who would be most likely to respond to any part of his idle pontificating. Those were Margie, Fritz's right-hand thought form who he couldn't imagine work in Console Maintenance without, and Julia, an assignee from Romantic Fantasies who, even from Fritz first meeting her, seemed extremely flustered about something, and who had managed to make an impression on him in just one day. As far as colors went, Margie was broadly purple, while Julia was broadly teal.

As was usual whenever Fritz needed to bounce ideas off of someone for an extended period of time, Margie answered him first: "You don't say! We always do such a good job with the console each and every upgrade, it would be more surprising if there were technical problems with it!"

"Not exactly, 'cause then, it may be obvious that Anger and his fire had somethin' ta do with it. But yes, I get what yer angle be at. A console failure all on its own? Not on my watch." Fritz answered.

"That's why you're the boss! You always know how to coordinate work, and with you, Console Maintenance will forever be the best department in the mind!"

"Now now, don't get excited and straight into pattin' yerself on the back, because that ain't what I wanted ta bring up in the first place!" Fritz said, stopping Margie right in her tracks.

"Alright, then, sorry. What's your real angle?" Margie asked.

"My real angle... is that there ain't nothin' wrong with the console, but there's everythin' wrong with Headquarters! Like, did ya even catch Joy just doin' damage control all around? 'I don't have problems! I'm just stressed! I will also interrupt you if you even try saying a word about me!'" Once Fritz realized that he had an audience, there was no stopping him — and his Joy impression was almost terrifyingly accurate to the timbre of her voice.

Julia, on the other hand, just squirmed in the Train uncomfortably.

"I suppose I knew what being out of sync with yourself as an emotion was theoretically, but I never thought that's how it would manifest in practice." a Mind Worker Fritz didn't remember the name of — the same one with the glasses and bundle of papers — stepped in instead of her.

"So, yeah. If there's not much Console Maintenance can do, then y'all can just leave it be, but I've found the real problem, and I ain't stoppin' until it's fixed." Fritz spoke with a distinct resolve.