Riley woke up to the sun peeking through her window, groaning as she arose from her bed and sat upright. Her blonde hair was a mess of tangles, and her blue eyes had yet to fully adjust to the light her room had to offer. As she stretched her legs and went off to start her morning routine, the pre-teen girl was unaware of the five emotions starting their day within her head.
“Alright everybody, we got a big day planned today!” The energetic emotion known as Joy exclaimed, her yellow hands making the headquarter console the same color as she smiled her brightest smile. “We have that English presentation due, hockey practice after school and helping mom and dad try out that homemade pizza recipe they’ve been wanting to make!”
“Here’s to hoping there’s no broccoli involved in that,” Disgust shivered, a grossed out expression on her green face when she came closer to the console. “After all, they shouldn’t expect Riley to still be willing to try it after all these years, right?”
A masculine voice spoke out from behind her, his stern face revealed after putting down his newspaper with the bolded headline “PRESENTATION DUE TODAY: WILL RILEY MAKE IT?” front and center. “Well, either way, we can always just pick it out of our plate if that happens. I’m more concerned about that darn project we spent all of last week on!”
“Yeah, I agree with Anger here,” A tall yet skinny purple figure that went by Fear expressed with an apprehensive tone. “Riley’s been putting so much effort into that, and it still feels like we’re unprepared!”
“It’ll be really disappointing if she doesn’t manage to do well today after everything she put into it,” Sadness pointed out as she slumped her short, blue form onto the headquarter’s console with a tired sigh escaping her.
“Cheer up, everyone! There’s no need to worry, especially since we have our very own Logic here putting her best foot forward!” Joy eagerly mentioned, moving away from the console to approach a cerulean woman sitting on a long, magenta couch just a few feet away. “Ain’t that right, Logic?”
The woman in question responded to Joy with a neutral voice of affirmation, her face unwilling to convey any of the feelings she felt this morning. “That’s true, Joy. Last night, I managed to come up with a proper plan of action to get Riley to finish her presentation today. If everything goes according to plan, the only thing Riley will have to worry about is whether she’ll get a passing grade.”
“Which she definitely will, thanks to all your hard work, Logic!” Joy beamed, rewarding the rationale with an enthusiastic pat on her shoulder. “We really appreciate you pulling through here.”
Logic gave no reply other than a nod to show her thanks, standing up from her seat to go and do her part in helping Riley have a good day. Noticing Fear’s growing discomfort at the possibilities of the day’s events, she went over to silently hand his quivering stature a brown paper bag.
Detecting her courteous gesture, he thanked her as took the paper bag with urgency, the bag expanding and contracting in sync with his rapid breathing whilst Logic walked away from him to continue her job.
She was close to the same height as the fearful emotion, wearing a deep blue suit and pants with a white shirt underneath and royal blue flats. Her darker cerulean hair was left open to fall from her shoulders and frame her cerulean face. The only accessories Logic had on were her silver cufflinks and the smallest sterling hooping earrings, as she did not deem them as important as the rest of her attire.
As the morning went by without a hitch, Logic had opted to stay farther away from the console, knowing she would not be needed until later on in Riley’s school day. For the time being, she prepared herself for her upcoming task as she looked through some colorful past memories contained in a wooden box she had gathered many nights prior to help in her mission.
Logic also managed to assist in giving out supportive advice whether the ratiocination felt her co-workers needed it, from where she worked at the magenta couch she was (previously) seated on.
“Oh, gross, we just stepped in, no, not one - but two bubblegum pieces!” Disgust exclaimed in revulsion when Riley lifted her sneaker to see two pink wads of chewed up gum sticking to her sole and creating a thin line that connected the discarded candy to the smooth school pavement.
Joy winced as she and the other emotions observed the damage done to Riley’s shoes. It wasn’t life-ending, but they believed it would be a difficult issue to deal with for the rest of the day. “Don’t worry, it won’t be problematic,” Logic quipped from where she sat, her attention more focused on reviewing a yellow memory orb in her hands whilst everyone else turned their heads towards her.
“How do you know that?” The green emotion asked, gesturing to the console’s wide screen displaying the bubblegum smears on Riley’s sneaker. “Riley’s shoes are gonna be ruined now since those sickening stains affect her fabulousness at school today!”
“Not to mention school hasn’t even started yet,” Sadness added as she let herself face plant on the console, making it blue alongside Disgust’s green influence. “Those stains are going to take forever to get rid of.”
“Not exactly. If I remember correctly, it shouldn’t take too much to remove the gum,” Logic told them, setting down the bright sphere in her hands to pick up a checklist and pencil next to her instead. “Based on the clock, we still have around 8 minutes before our first class starts. So, we can just go to the girl’s washroom and use what’s there to get it off.”
“...You’re not seriously suggesting she uses her hands to take it off herself?” Disgust replied with bile rising up her throat at the mere thought as she covered her mouth. The rationale silently pointed to a large gray garbage bin close by, which the easily repulsed emotion ran towards.
“The washroom’s a place for washing hands, is it not? If it’s too much, you can always use a stick from outside,” She humored her, pencil making contact with paper as she wrote down the vivid memory’s recording to keep for later, the yellow orb resting close to her thigh whilst her co-worker emptied her contents into the bin.
“A stick? From outside? Of all things? You’re actually insane,” Disgust retorted, distaste present in her tone that didn’t seem to affect the woman she addressed.
“I’m not wrong, am I? Once again, wash your hands to remove the germs,” Logic stated, impervious to the emotion’s heated stare as she continued to work on her task at hand. “You may want to get started if we plan to get to class on time.”
Disgust only grumbled to herself as she stood up and input the thought on the console, allowing Riley to head inside the school and attempt to pull out the tossed gum.
It wasn’t until Riley left the girl’s washroom (with clean hands washed thrice) that the green woman acknowledged Logic’s presence again, her gaze staying on the ratiocination a moment longer with pursed lips before turning back to make sure Riley avoided the littered trash in the hallways.
As the day went on, a variety of emotions took control over the console with Logic being in the background to make sure they didn’t spiral out of control. She did this with a neutral face, unfazed even when the emotion leading the situation thought otherwise.
“Are you kidding me?” Anger ranted, his face contorted as he balled his fists and seethed standing. “I can’t believe those boys actually called Riley a dumb blondie!”
“Hey, Anger,” Logic called out to him, holding a blue stress ball in her hand when he turned towards her in confusion that rapidly turned into frustration. “Logic, if you pull that thing of yours again-”
“Catch.” Was all she said before throwing the ball nonchalantly, Anger moving so that he caught it in his hands before snapping back to reality and realizing what she had done. “Oohh, you did it again!”
The other emotions couldn’t help but chuckle at his reaction, Logic’s face remaining perfectly still as she returned to her note-taking with different memories. “Anger, don’t be so quick to assume just yet. Their attention wasn’t fully directed at her. For all we know, they could’ve been shouting at anyone.”
“I’m sorry, but do you see any other blondies out there?” The short man retaliated in aggravation. “I’m gonna go over there and teach those guys a less-”
“Look to your right.” Was her blunt answer, confusing the others until they did so on the console’s screen to see the same boys who yelled the insult teasing a blonde boy a few years younger than them. Their taunts were promptly broken up by a supervising teacher, leaving the emotions satisfied that Riley’s feelings weren’t hurt.
Anger muttered a “Thanks, Logic,” to the cerulean woman, who only nodded in response. She was usually less chatty when it came to the acclaim on her advice, merely giving her input only to step back when she was no longer needed. Logic saw no point in saying anything else that wasn’t related to the task at hand, and so she continued to work in silence where she sat.
At some point, her thoughts couldn’t help but wonder about the time when Joy and Sadness had been ejected out of headquarters through its recall tube, leaving her and the others to fend for themselves. She frowned upon remembering how bad of a turn things had taken from there, from Anger’s horrible plan to the moment the console turned gray and immobile thanks to his unpleasant idea.
“Needless to say, that was the most awful moment of my life,” Logic thought to herself, her blue eyes narrowing at the memory of their horror and devastation when her co-workers realized they were unable to make Riley feel anything.
Logic even believed it was worse than the first time she tried out dream duty, and that was saying something.
Eventually, it came time for the English project the emotions were worried about, where Riley had to choose a short story (that being The Gift of The Magi) and discuss its various literary devices in the form of an oral presentation. The ratiocination was finally able to put herself to good use when she took a wooden box filled with the memories she had collected throughout the day and brought it close to the headquarters' recall tube.
As she stood and intently watched the console’s screen for the teacher’s indication for Riley to present, Fear was making the console his shade of purple whilst his presence caused Riley to nervously drum her fingers on the edge of her wooden desk. He yelped once her name was called, biting his own fingernails in dread.
“Oh my gosh, the teacher actually called on us!” He cried out in terror, ducking under the console in hopes of hiding.
“Well, yeah, what did you think was gonna happen?” Anger retaliated with a stern expression. “Riley’s one of the last presenters to go for this class!”
“Alright, guys, it’s time!” Joy notified in elation as she zoomed over in front of the console (but not influencing it), turning her head towards the recall tube. “You ready, Logic?”
The rationale nodded in affirmation, taking from the box the first memory of Riley rehearsing her presentation alone in her room, a mix of purple and yellow as she lifted it upwards to the clear tube. The memory hovered in the air, displaying itself on the console’s screen as the other emotions surrounded the area in anticipation.
For the past week, Logic had been collecting various memories of Riley practicing her presentation aloud, whether it was by herself or in front of a small audience such as her parents. She took them all from Long Term Memory herself and kept them with her so that when it came time for presentation day, Logic could effectively place each memory inside the recall tube’s hovering space and project it on the console’s screen.
Then, when the memory’s time was over, she would swiftly replace it with the next memorized part of Riley’s presentation and gently position the former sphere on the floor. This way, Riley would be able to directly remember her rehearsals instead of struggling to pick them up from Long Term Memory, guaranteeing that she would give her presentation with no problem whatsoever.
The emotions watched the moment unfold in silence as Logic carefully placed and switched out the memories of Riley’s consistent practicing, allowing Riley to say her lines with the utmost confidence. Once Riley had finished, she was met with applause from her classmates as she shyly smiled from the attention. Joy whopped with triumph, jumping in elation when a bright, yellow memory orb appeared and added itself to the rest of Riley’s daily memories.
The other emotions then shared their own smiles and satisfaction amongst each other, glad that everything went as planned.
“Hurray for that not ending in disaster!” Fear congratulated as he approached Logic from where she stood next to the recall tube. “You did really good today, with all that memory handling and what not.”
“Thank you, Fear,” She responded, moving to place some of the memories she put on the floor back in their original box. “I do the best I can for Riley.”
The skinny emotion opted to continue the conversation as he bent down to help her in retrieving the rest of them. “You know, it must have taken a long time for you to find all these memories.”
“Yeah, it did,” She admitted, carrying three colored spheres in her arms before dumping them into the box and moving on. “But I'm just happy it’s over now, so Riley won’t have to worry anymore.”
“I’m sure mom and dad will be proud of us, right?” Fear quipped, looking to Logic for confirmation with nervous purple eyes where he knelt, placing the memories into their proper crate.
“I should hope so,” She answered as she brought herself a little closer to his position. “After all, they‘re always telling her how much they love her, aren’t they?”
Fear gave a wry chuckle at her response, a more uneasy expression on his face as he spoke. “Yeah, funny you should mention that.”
His words confused Logic, but she didn’t comment on it as she went on her knees and took the final memories on her side of the recall tube, placing them inside the wooden box.
The cerulean woman noticed a stray, yellow sphere in the middle of her and Fear and reached out to take it, unaware that he himself was about to do the same.
As fate would have it, their hands entwined on the orb’s luminous surface, and they both froze at the contact.
The two of them lifted their heads to look at each other, surprise and awe in their eyes as they stayed that way unknowingly to the other emotions chatting away at the console. In that moment, Fear gazed at her like she was the most interesting thing in the world, and something about it made her feel as though she was drowning from the captivation he gave her.
Before a word could be said from either of them, Logic slowly pulled her interlocked hand from his, fascination turning into disappointment on his part as she got up on her flats with the bright memory in hand.
“I should go and put these away now,” Logic broke the tension, speaking like the sudden moment between them never happened. “I doubt Riley will need to remember them anymore.”
“No, I guess not,” Fear sighed, taking the free hand Logic extended to him as he got to his feet with minimal effort. “Do you need help with putting them away, or-”
“That won’t be necessary.”
She then quietly took the crate of colorful memory orbs in her arms and left him alone to his thoughts. As she walked away, Fear ran a hand down his face in dismay whilst he groaned quietly to himself.
“Another day, another failed attempt at getting to know her,” He expressed woefully, going over to the console where the others were. “It’s like she doesn’t even want to be present around us!”
“Yeah, no wonder,” Disgust retorted, checking her makeup with her compact mirror. “Maybe it’s because she doesn’t actually need validation from you.”
“We all know Logic’s been her own mystery for a while now,” Joy chimed in with her cheerful demeanor. “If she wants to open up more, she’ll do it eventually.”
“Sure, but she has nothing in common with an open book. It’s not like she’s ever interested about anything anyway,” Anger blatantly expressed from behind Joy at the console.
“Logic’s always been stoic like that,” Sadness added, her body resting upside down against the magenta couch with folded arms.
“That’s because she’s very goal-oriented and doesn’t let anything distract her!” Joy said to reassure them. “My point is, Logic has her reasons for being…herself, so don’t try to force it. Alright, Fear?”
The skittish emotion only gave an “mhm” as a response, fiddling with his fingers as the memory of their hands making contact remained fresh in his mind.
The same could be said for Logic as she put away the last of Riley's memories into Long Term, her hands grazing against each other as to relive that moment of warmth. She couldn’t explain why she felt the way she did about their connection, nor did she plan to. The rationale was not usually the best at expressing how she felt, so she chose to conceal herself instead as to avoid the inner turmoil she felt within.
“Is that why I try to stay away from everyone else as much as I can?” Logic pondered, looking out the large windows that oversaw Riley’s Islands of Personality. She played with her silver cufflinks on each sleeve of her deep blue suit as she thought about her opinions on her co-workers.
“It’s not that I hate them or anything, I just…don’t see the point in getting closer. I’m not so sure they’d even be interested to do so either way: our jobs are vastly different and they can hardly get along with each other at times too. I’m probably better off staying on the sidelines, like I always have. I can’t be hurt by them if I avoid taking the risk.”
Eventually, it came time for Riley’s hockey practice after school, where the emotions were crowded around the console to encourage Riley in her usual puck shooting.
“Woohoo, three cheers for Riley!” Joy applauded when Riley managed to get a clean shot into the opposing team’s net. “Man, we are on fire today!”
“She’s on fire everyday, Joy,” Disgust corrected from her right side. “Today, she just happens to be more extra amazing than usual.”
“An awesome MVP for sure,” sadness said in an effort to be positive, wearing a blue glitter foam glove that was too big for her one hand. “Let’s go, Riley, woooooo.”
Joy praised her attempts before turning behind her to get Logic’s encouragement on the matter. “Logic, what do you think should be our game plan for the final round?”
The rationale used the recall tube from where she sat (on the magenta couch) to pull up a memory of the coach’s drawn tactics, from when the coach was explaining their strategy on a whiteboard for Riley’s team to follow sometime prior. “For now, we have to stick to what our coach told us and make sure we watch out for everyone on the offense. If we can manage it, Riley will be able to score the last two points she needs for her side to win the game.”
“That’s good, but come over here!” Joy encouraged, waving her arms over as she gestured to the cerulean woman. “I need you to be able to see, so you can help out!”
Her sudden invitation confused Logic. “Can’t I help out just as easily from here?”
However, she obliged anyway as she got up and walked over to where Joy stood. “See? Now, isn’t that better?”
Logic only nodded in response whilst she looked up to the console’s screen. Joy almost never called her up to the console of her own accord unless she was reminded of the ratiocination’s presence, which was usually little in between. The only possible explanation she had was that the bright woman only did so due to the assistance she had offered them during Riley’s English presentation.
“Alright everyone, let’s get this match started!”
As the hockey game progressed, Riley was beginning to have a little more trouble than anticipated getting past the opposing team whenever they stopped her attempts at achieving a goal.
“We get blocked one more time and I’m gonna lose it!” Anger steamed, visibly annoyed at how the situation was playing out. The others knew his reaction was understandable, as Riley’s side only had four minutes left before the game ended with the rivaling side victorious.
“Keep your cool, Anger - we still have time for one of those miraculous sports moments where we win it all at the last second!” Joy beamed, albeit her smile seeming a bit strained. Riley’s teammates had gotten better throughout the season, but it was going to be at the cost of Riley’s side losing today’s practice game.
Logic didn’t see the point in getting too stressed about it, as that was all this was: a practice game. Riley could always try harder next time if she didn’t win now, so it would make no lasting difference in her current progress. However, she chose to keep quiet about the fact, knowing that the emotions would rather get riled up over something they’d get over easily than quickly accept defeat. “It’s only in their nature after all. Might as well let them have the moment and let it pass,” She figured as she glanced at the hockey arena’s scoreboard, where the score 17-18 was displayed in bright orange lights.
At some point whilst Riley was skating through the scattered hockey players, she had almost crashed into the player on her side holding the puck, something Fear helped to avoid by making her swerve at the last minute. In doing so, he moved across the console only to collide onto Logic and send her plummeting to the ground on her side.
She felt a sharp pain in her torso and elbows once she fell, quietly groaning from the impact as she rubbed her hand on her aching head.
“Oh dear God - are you okay? I’m so sorry, I really didn’t mean to hit you at all! Gods, why do I have to be such a klutz?!”
Logic, however, did not bother to register Fear’s frantic apology. The angle at which her body collapsed allowed her to observe an empty spot on the arena where Riley could achieve a perfect goal on the ice. “If she moves over there, they could pass it over to her and she’ll get the goal in for sure!”
Scrambling to get up from her dazed state, she used her sore arms to prop herself up on the purple-glowing console before inputting what Riley had to do. This caused Riley to glide over to said spot before positioning herself and taking the opportunity to win a goal for her team. Once the puck was passed to her and shot into the opposing side’s net, the buzzer (indicating her goal) rang throughout the arena, the emotions startled by their co-worker’s quick thinking.
“Wow, Logic, way to go for the save!” Joy applauded as Fear helped the rationale to get up from the floor. “Now all Riley needs is one more chance and we’ll win this in no time!”
Ignoring Joy, the purple beanpole turned his attention towards the woman he slammed into, profusely apologizing once more for the accident. “Fear, it’s perfectly fine-”
“But are you sure you’re okay? You can walk fine and everything?”
“If I’m not dead, then nothing’s wrong,” She reassured, putting her focus back to the console’s screen. “Anger, do we still have enough time to get that final point?”
“Yeah, if we can manage doing it in a minute,” He pointed out, much to everyone’s surprise as they looked upon the arena’s scoreboard, counting down the seconds they had left.
As they quickly went to work on the console, Logic did her best to ignore the stinging pain searing throughout her limbs and did her part in helping Riley. She believed doing so was the right choice when Riley managed to score a goal in the last ten seconds of the game.
“WHOOO GUYS, we did it!” Joy acclaimed, confetti cannons turning on as their colorful contents flew in the air this way and that. Celebratory cheers followed soon after, everyone pleased in merry spirits over the uplifting victory.
Logic allowed a small smile to appear on her face, clapping her hands whilst she witnessed Riley surrounded by her impressed teammates on the console’s screen.
“Only Riley could effortlessly be this extraordinary,” She couldn’t help but think, glad that her hockey practice turned out for the best.
Riley had much to say when it came time for dinner, helping mom and dad with the new homemade pizza recipe they wanted to try out. “And then, I slammed the puck in like it was nothing!” She told them exuberantly as she stirred the tomato sauce with great vigor.
“We should know, kiddo: we were right there watching you,” Her dad responded with a tender grin, preparing the shredded cheese the pizza would need. “You were a superstar out there!”
“I couldn’t agree more,” Riley’s mom chimed in, her back turned due to her focus being on the pizza dough she was kneading. Within headquarters, the emotions watched on with pride as Riley’s efforts were praised by her parents.
“Well, I’d say today was an amazing success,” Disgust remarked as she tucked her short, green hair behind her ears. “Is Riley incredible or what?”
“You can say that again,” Sadness replied quietly, adjusting her round glasses. “What movie should we watch this time?”
“Oh, I know!” Joy answered, skipping over to pull up a few ideas on the console’s screen using Riley’s old memories from the recall tube. “We could try doing the mystery movie where that one cool-looking detective solves crime!”
Upon pulling out the memory, it displayed a rather frightening scene of several, freakish ghosts attacking the main lead with various household items they were possessing. This caused fear to jump out mid-air in horror at the sight, yelping and leaping into the arms of whoever happened to be closest to him.
In nearly all these instances, it was Logic who managed to catch him, this moment being no exception as he swiftly landed in her arms bridal-style.
For whatever reason, this was something that occurred without fail, an event Logic didn’t mind going through. She also happened to be the one who pulled him back up whenever he was knocked down, silently offering her hand for him to take before going back to whatever she was doing with a neutral face.
She wasn’t sure why she bothered to extend these courtesies towards him, but Logic merely supposed it to be an act of politeness she developed out of habit.
“And I thought this weird streak was gonna end today,” Anger quipped from his seat on the magenta couch, gesturing to an unbothered Logic holding a quaking Fear in her arms as he held a newspaper with “RILEY’S LATEST HOCKEY MATCH: A SUCCESS!” as its headline. “But I guess not.”
“Seriously, how do you cope with having to catch him every time?” Disgust added, her attention more on the other choices Joy and Sadness were contemplating on the console’s screen. Logic only shrugged before setting Fear upright on the ground, leaving his wide-eyed form behind to check in with the other two emotions.
“Hey, what do you guys think about this one?” The yellow woman queried when she showed on the screen an old action movie Riley had only watched once or twice. “That doesn’t seem too bad,” Sadness accepted, the other emotions and Logic agreeing with her as well.
The action movie they agreed on was what Riley and her parents watched together as they had their homemade pizza (with thankfully, no broccoli) for dinner. Her emotions had sat around the console’s screen to view it, either on the floor or the couches provided in headquarters.
“Wow, I can’t believe his best friend sacrificed himself like that,” Sadness commented, laying down on the floor with her body outstretched like a starfish as she observed the tragic scene.
“But why’d he have to do that? He could just have used the materials he had in front of him to make a make-shift parachute like he learned to do,” Logic pointed out, sitting criss-cross on the floor farther away from the blue emotion. “If he wasn’t so busy giving that whole speech to them, he would have figured that out.”
“Well, you can’t expect people to know everything, Logic,” Joy quipped, stretching to fully relax into the magenta couch she sat on. “Then the movie wouldn’t be as entertaining.”
Besides, I doubt it would have been able to save him anyways, not with that buzzcut he had going on,” Disgust said as she checked her manicured nails, rolling her green eyes at the thought.
“What I don’t get is why they did this so early. We’re not even halfway through this thing, and someone’s already dead!” Anger expressed next to her on the couch. “Don't get me wrong, I liked the huge explosion that came after, I just thought we’d have to wait until the end to get it.”
“I already knew he was gonna die sooner or later. If his ignorance didn’t kill him, his recklessness definitely would,” Fear added from his spot on the floor, legs stretched out as he laid his back on the front side of the couch where the armest would be.
Logic nodded at his statement and was about to speak when Joy attempted to put a positive spin on the matter. “But it wasn’t his bad traits that killed him: it was his loyalty and sacrifice that let everyone else live to see another day!”
“Yeah, and look where that got him,” Anger chortled, earning an annoyed look from Joy that he didn’t seem to notice.
“I don’t think this will be the last death we see on screen,” Logic mentioned, her thought more to herself as she gazed at the floor. “You really think that?” Sadness asked, turning her head towards her as Logic did the same.
“It’ll just be too unrealistic if everyone else manages to survive a movie based on bombs and explosions.”
“Yeah, I see your point. Who do you think’s gonna die?”
“It could be anyone, but I’d like to say Margret’s next.”
“Oh no, not Margret!” Fear lamented, having heard Logic’s hypothesis. “She was starting to grow on me!”
“But why would it be her?” Disgust questioned, now joining in on the conversation. “Isn’t she crushing on Darcy?”
“She’s supposed to be the most cautious out of everyone else too,” Anger added with his opinion.
“Well, that’s my point. If she were to die, no one would see it coming. It would be an emotional bombshell for everyone watching - no pun intended,” Logic clarified for her curious co-workers. “Plus, the element of irony would weigh heavily.”
Around an hour later, the movie ended with the main character somehow keeping everyone alive except for his beloved comrade, who willingly died falling into a dark pit so that his friend could survive the climax’s catastrophic events.
As they watched the tragic scene, Logic noticed that Joy was wearing a frown from where she sat, wiping away a tear or two with her thumb. “Joy, are you alright?”
The usually cheerful emotion snapped out of her trance to answer her question with reassurance. “Oh, don’t worry about it! I just got a bit teary-eyed, hitting too close to home and all that.”
“Ah. Well, it’s just a movie. He’s most likely going to show up in the next action film he stars in anyways,” Logic replied in an attempt to console her. All she accomplished was an “mhm” from Joy as she put on a smile that didn’t quite reach her blue eyes.
When the end credits rolled, the emotions and Logic got up from their spots and stuck around to help Riley in her nighttime routine until she entered her REM cycle, eyelids shutting closed as the console’s screen faded to black.
“Alright, looks like today was a complete success!” joy yawned, pulling out a chair and carrying it to the console as her back was turned to those she addressed. “Sadness, it’s your turn to take over dream duty, so good luck with that. The rest of you, go ahead and take your well-deserved rest.”
While everyone else bid their good nights and headed upstairs to their quarters, Logic stayed behind for a moment to see the screen lighting up with the latest presentation from Riley's Dream Productions. Sadness took her seat in the chair Joy brung over for her and began to watch the dream’s opening sequence. The rationale couldn’t help but walk closer to the blue emotion, stopping when they were beside each other observing Riley’s dream play out.
The dream in itself was about Riley taking some rather strange classes at school, the first one being a lesson on how to make cotton candy. “Wow, it would be funny if that actually happened to Riley, right?” Sadness commented as she leaned close to her in the chair, already aware of her presence and attempting to initiate some small talk.
When she didn’t immediately answer, Sadness looked over to see that Logic had more of a cold grimace on her face, her hands tightening into fists as small, shallow breaths left her chest.
“Logic? Are you okay?”
Upon hearing her, she realized what she was doing and took a deep breath, unclenching her fists before pinching the bridge of her petite nose with a reserved sigh. “Yes, I’m alright. I’m only tired from today, but I’ll be fine. Goodnight, Sadness, I’ll see you in the morning.”
She then left the emotion to her night shift, swiftly walking away and up the stairs to where her co-worker’s shared rooms were. Both Sadness and Joy slept in wooden bunk beds while Disgust and Fear had the same setup. The only ones exempt from this were Anger and Logic, who both had identical beds with semi-circle curves for their ceiling and were placed by themselves near the bunk beds of everyone else.
Each bed of theirs corresponded to their color scheme, Logic having cerulean blue in her overall setup. On the curved ceiling of her bed, bright blue crescent moons stickers glowed in the dark, its comforting light washing over the soft blue comforter and pillow of her bed.
The long, rectangular drawers that were conveniently within her brown bed frame and the square shelves in the blue walls contained her usual belongings such as a few hair ties, a handheld mirror, books of her favorite genres for nighttime reading and assorted meditation trinkets for when she needed to calm down after particularly stressful days.
Logic’s nightly attire consisted of a sleeveless frilly white top with blue capris pants, her brushed hair resting on her bare shoulders as she walked into the shared bedroom after changing from her signature deep blue suit. She didn’t wish to disturb anyone else sleeping, so she squinted her eyes to navigate through the dark with the glowing crescent moons as her guide.
She did this in silence, letting a sigh escape her lips when she was finally settled into the confines of her comforter. Logic’s last thoughts before sleep overtook her consisted of how much more smoothly things had been going throughout the past few weeks with Riley having better days with her friends and parents.
Ever since the incident when Joy and Sadness had been ejected out of headquarters (but luckily came back), the enthusiastic emotion had been more welcoming of not only Sadness, but every other emotion’s presence in keeping Riley safe. To the ratiocination, it seemed as though her occupation of helping her co-workers think about their actions and its consequences was becoming less and less important to them.
She thought this mainly due to the fact that they were getting better at helping each other point out their reactions and its outcomes, even before she could do it for them.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that they’re getting better at this - but it’s only a matter of time before I’m no longer needed to help them out. Then what’s going to happen to me?” She couldn’t help but ponder as she stared up at the glowing moons decorating her sleeping space. “It’s not like I’m as important as them when helping Riley. Compared to them, my job’s completely minor and…insignificant, even.”
…
“Wait, no! Don’t think like that! Things may be going good right now, but everyone’s still going to need me…right?”
Before she could answer her own question, Logic had yawned and nestled her head further into her pillow, a sign of her persistent tiredness. As she succumbed to sleep, she attempted to give herself one final, positive thought to end the night with.
“If things have been going well so far, then that means there’s no need to worry about anything. Everything is going to be just fine around here.”
Sincerely, Creative Stream
