Inside Out reImagined

Excuses, Begone

No doubt, Sadness was delighted to know that her role in the mind was recognized. It would seem that most others were either merely interested in her powers as a curiosity or saw her as a nuisance, and Bing Bong, having made it his mission to get Sadness back to Headquarters, stood as the lone exception — at least, until Julia, Fritz, and Margie showed up.

Yet, by this point, even if all Mind Workers and Figments combined their strengths in order to help Sadness return to Headquarters, they were dealing with a force far greater than any of them. If she, a mere apprentice in Imagination, could make life miserable for three Mind Workers for as long as she wanted to, then Joy, a master of Imagination, could probably hold off the entire mind in order to get what she wanted.

Therefore, Sadness merely meekly spoke: "I appreciate the sentiment... but there's no way Joy would ever let me back in. I don't think you can negotiate with her."

The Mind Workers, however, just shook their bodies. Fritz and Julia found themselves speechless, and Margie merely spoke: "Oh, my sweet child of Imagination, how much did she tell you?"

"She told me..." It was in Sadness's best interest to keep this as brief as possible, so that they knew their task would be futile. "She told me that I was relieved of duty, and that was final."

The remark, however, only served to anger Fritz. "Relieved of duty? She ain't got the authority ta do so! She ain't the boss of ya!"

"She isn't? But I thought she was our leader..." Sadness noted.

As it would happen, Fritz knew the perfect analogy for this. "So, like, in hockey, there's a team captain and a team coach, right? And the team captain does gestures and stuff to let others know where ta go. But the team captain ain't gonna tell who can be on the ice and who can't! That's the team coach's job."

"Right, then. And you say that Joy is just the team captain?" Sadness asked.

The others merely nodded.

"So then, who's the team coach?"

It was Margie's turn to be as reassuring as possible. "Why, the team coach is Riley herself, and she's calling for you to get back on the ice, as soon as possible!"

"I don't understand. Riley herself? She's a thing, just like thought forms?" Sadness asked.

"Right. How to explain it to you?" Margie asked, mostly to herself, though she would gladly let others step in for her.

And, as it would happen, Fritz knew exactly how to start. "You know Imagination and Consciousness?"

"I suppose. We, the emotions, embody Imagination... and the memories embody Consciousness." This was about as much as Sadness could surmise from everything she ever learned about the mind.

"Right, but Imagination ain't gonna go no places without Consciousness, and the other way around, right?" Fritz asked, hoping to get Sadness to form her own conclusions.

Yet, she mostly continued to play along: "Yeah. I always understood that each of the two has its own domain. Like, it's not... I'm not supposed to remember..."

"And why do you think you're not supposed to remember?" Julia asked, stepping in.

Admittedly, Sadness didn't have a good answer. "I just... for one, we have the console to recall memories... and also, when I try to remember... I just can't help it but see all the negatives... it puts me in a bad mood... and Joy didn't like it when I was in a bad mood."

"What? You're Sadness! Being in a bad mood is your whole point!" Sometimes, Margie just couldn't believe what this emotion was spouting. "We'll get back to it, but I don't think this Joy knows anything at all."