Inside Out reImagined

A Little Girl Again

It wasn't unusual for an emotion to completely change their appearance, especially if they had been affected by a profound epiphany. As such, Joy already knew what the process was like from experience, and that it was almost never pleasant. However, this time, it seemed as though she was consumed by pure agony, as her thoughts were truly cornered by all the other emotions.

She continued watching as her long hair was blown away, and walking forwards in order to grab it. That being said, it seemed as though her body proportions were changing, too, and before she knew it, she fell over, her feet having snagged onto her own clothes, and hit the floor, only adding to the pain. For a while, she continued reaching out toward the other emotions, but then she shrunk so much that her head sank into her overcoat.

In another desperate, helpless attempt to save herself, Joy tried using her Imagination to free herself from the outfit that only served to trap her — perhaps, in more ways than one. She wanted to make it disappear, but the best she could do was form splits and cuts, separating it into patches by means of light rays visible to the others. Yet, even though she had gotten a little fresh air to breathe, the agony made it impossible for her to even focus on standing up.

Oddly enough, while Joy felt her arms, legs, and body shrink a lot, her head only shrank a little, and most of the changes there felt like burns on the scalp, from which hair was still falling as a new hairline was taking its place. Yet, the most searing change was to her thoughts, with complex understanding of the mind giving way to an absent-mindedness and lack of comfort. As the agony continued consuming her whole and making her lose herself, she had no choice but to give in and let it happen.

Finally, after what seemed like the longest minute in Joy's life, she finally stopped changing and could take some deep breaths. She coughed, in a voice that only somewhat resembled her at this point, before squirming from under the patches, coming into the light and standing up.

To everyone else, though, the emotion emerging from the mess of clothes and hair defied all description. The best they could do is think of her as being related to Joy, like a niece or something, rather than being Joy, herself. While she still had the distinctive blue hair and eyes and golden, glowing skin, the hair was now rather short, being done in pigtails, and the eyes were such that one couldn't stay mad at her for too long. The only clothing that she wore, appropriately for Joy's carefree attitude, was a lime sundress, decorated with blue, disparate bursts and thin, intersecting black lines.

Sadness was perhaps the most moved by the change of all the other emotions. Perhaps the most important skill she took away from her departure was remembering, and once she had it, she wanted to remember words spoken to her on the Train, over and over.

And I, Joy, have pigtails and am shorter than I actually am, like a little girl, and think everything is exciting, which I absolutely do not!

Was this how Joy felt about herself? Was she really trying to control herself more than the others, up until circumstances made it impossible? More so than anything, Sadness just wanted to give some of her hug energy to Joy, before answering every single question the two had about her, and immediately, her look softened.

However, the other emotions looked at Joy in exactly the same way they did before the transformation, and Joy herself was quick to notice. She spoke up: "I did something wrong, didn't I?"

Glancing around, Sadness suddenly felt an urge to protect this child, no matter what it took. As the incident at the Goofball Island train station taught her, emotions just didn't transform like that out of nowhere. If this transformation happened at all, it could only mean that Joy was willing to reject a large portion of herself and become a completely different thought form, ready to serve Riley in a completely different way. Sadness thus confidently stepped forward, already seeing her other coworkers as a threat, wishing to punish Joy for something she was already suffering from.