Inside Out reImagined

The Purpose of Sadness

When the Mind Workers searching for her arrived, Sadness wasn't doing much. She was simply idly sitting by Bing Bong's side, sometimes glancing out of the tent, as if to think of something else to do in the mind. Of course, she wasn't able to come up with anything — at least, not something whose worth would outweigh getting suspicious looks, and perhaps, even suspicious actions.

Yet, if some Mind Workers out there had said the E word, and if Bing Bong had jumped in order to defend her at all costs, then the commotion was something Sadness would at least watch.

She wouldn't intervene, or make herself known, at all. While she was up and coming in conscious use of her Imagination, she still needed to extensively focus in order to be able to do anything, and even if she didn't, she probably couldn't bring herself to use her Imagination offensively. Instead, she simply put up what remained of her cloud bed closer to the tent's window, sat on it, watched through the window, and listened in.

Of course, none of the Mind Workers even thought to announce who they were before announcing who the one they wanted to talk to was. It would seem this was one of the foremost unwritten rules of the mind: the Mind Workers were nothing, and the emotions were everything. Yet, Sadness, remembering the encounter at the cellar, knew that one member of the entourage was Julia, and as for the other two, some simple stereotyping — the Southern guy and the sweet lady — would do.

At any rate, Julia was the first to speak after Bing Bong. "Right. How do we tell him that we're not here to harm anybody?"

The Southern guy answered: "I don't think we can do that. If he wants to fight, he'll fight, and ain't no talkin' gonna stop him. Figments from Riley's childhood were all like that."

"Were, huh?" Bing Bong once again raised his voice. "So all of us are supposed to be gone by now? Forgotten? Turned to dust? Well, guess what: I'm still here, I'm still alive and kicking, and I'm ready to topple some bodies, right here, right now! For Sadness and for myself! And for Preschool World!"

"Brace yourselves..." was all that the Southern guy could mutter before the imaginary friend made his first attack.

He had a considerable advantage, being nearly twice as tall as each of the Mind Workers, and their legs looked really thin and ready to collapse from any weight more significant than their own potato-like bodies. Yet, the Southern guy somehow managed to stay on his own feet right after Bing Bong attempted to topple him whole.

At that point, Sadness's attention was called to Bing Bong's feet. They weren't quite like an elephant's or a cat's, and obviously, dolphins didn't have legs — was there some other animal that the imaginary friend was inspired by? Given that Preschool World was now in the realm of higher abstraction, would she even find the answer, at any point?

Nevertheless, though the Southern guy was not toppled, he was still badly hurt, and retreated to a place behind the sweet lady — who Bing Bong decided to take his anger out on next. He swatted her, as though to slap her in the face, but miscalculated the height difference between the two, and instead, hit thin air and swirled a bit.

That was where Julia came in, jumping a bit upwards and hitting Bing Bong in the back. He took a few steps forward, but by then, the sweet lady and the Southern guy had positioned themselves to Bing Bong's sides, and he saw nothing in front of them.

Finally, as he turned around to catch at least one of them, all of them struck at the same time. The sweet lady and the Southern guy held onto each of Bing Bong's arms, having surprisingly strong grips not unlike Patricia's back at Dream Theatrical Studios, and Julia took the opportunity to grab and yank one of Bing Bong's legs, toppling him before he could topple any of them.