Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

[CUT TO NEXT MORNING - Riley is excitedly eating breakfast, while in her Headquarters, Joy is playing the accordion loudly. Inside Headquarters on the second level, the other emotions wake up, clearly unamused and annoyed at this.]

Joy: Hello, did I wake you?

Anger: Do you have to play that?!

Joy: Well, I have to practice. And I don't think of it as playing so much as hugging.

"I'm good at playing the accordion too," Mirabel said.

"Oh, we are so besties!" Joy said.

Mirabel smiled. It felt so good to have a friend who liked the same things she did.

"You know, Joy reminds me of Matthews," said Becky to no one in particular. "He's the boy who always smiles at everything, even when it's danger or life and death situations at our school, and when panicking."

(Joy throws away her accordion, and they head downstairs.)

Joy: OK, first day of school! Very, very exciting! I was up late last night figuring out a new plan. Here it is: Fear!

Fear: Huh?

Joy: I need a list of all the possible negative outcomes on the first day at a new school.

Fear: Way ahead of you there. Does anyone know how to spell 'meteor'?

"Why on earth would a meteor strike happen on the first day of school?" asked Helen, doubtfully.

"The probability of being struck by a meteor is astronomical." Jimmy Neutron said.

Immediately, the audience stared at Jimmy, dumbfounded.

Joy: Disgust, make sure Riley stands out today, but also blends in.

Disgust: When I'm through, Riley will look so good, the other kids will look at their own outfits and barf.

"I couldn't have said it better myself." Disgust said.

"Uh, you just did." Fear said.

Joy: [starts talking to herself] Joy! "Yes, Joy?" You'll be in charge of the console, keeping Riley happy all day long. And may I add, I love your dress, it's adorable. "Oh, this old thing? Thank you so much. I love the way it twirls."

Camilo snickered a little at how funny it was to see Joy talking to herself.

(Outside, a train's horn is heard as it pulls in on tracks that magically appear.)

"What is that?" asked Felix.

"That, Felix, is a Train of Thought." The FilmMaster said. "Everyone has them. They're all-terrain choo-choo trains with a self-generating track that delivers daydreams, ideas, and other thoughts to a person's Headquarters. It's also used to transfer memories to different regions of the mind. But take note: When the person sleeps, so do the operators."

"And you told us all that because of plot exposition, right?" Pepa asked.

"Give the weather maker woman a prize." The FilmMaster stated.

Joy: Train of Thought, right on schedule. [to Anger] Anger, unload the daydreams. I ordered extra, in case things get slow in class.

Anger: Might come in handy, if this new school is full of boring, useless classes, which it probably will be!

"I know the feeling of boring, useless classes, like Maths," said Mitchell.

"School is important for a good education, you know," Libby said.

Joy: [Catches Sadness] Oh, Sadness. I have a super important job just for you.

Sadness: [hopefully] Really?

Joy: M-hm, follow me. [walks off with Sadness following]

"I wonder what the job is," said Carl in wonder.

(Somewhere else, Joy draws a chalk circle around Sadness' feet.)

"Why is she drawing on the floor with chalk?" asked Luisa.

Sadness: What are you doing?

Joy: [finishes the circle] And there, Perfect. This is the Circle of Sadness. Your job is to make sure that all the sadness stays inside of it.

Everyone stared at it with expressions of complete astonishment.

"That's it?" said Cindy crossly. "That's the special job you wanted Sadness to do?!"

Sadness: So, you want me just to stand here?

Joy: Hey, it's not my place to tell you how to do your job. Just make sure that all [pushes Sadness into the circle]...the sadness stays in the circle. See? You're a pro at this! Isn't this fun?

Sadness: No.

Joy: Atta girl.

(She walks back to the front of the room.)

Most of the crowd gave Joy numerous looks of disappointment and anger.

Joy, who was twiddling her fingers anxiously, was also thinking of what the people were going to say.

"I can't believe this," Shrek sighed, breaking the silence at last. "Joy, why on earth are you pushing Sadness away from the console and not letting her be with the other Emotions?!"

"That's low even for you!" Donkey agreed.

"I never thought I'd say this, Donkey," Shrek stated, "But for once, you make sense!"

"Well," Joy began innocently, "I was trying to make sure Riley stayed happy all the time. After all, that was a long time ago."

"Still, that was no excuse to exclude Sadness for any reason you think!" snapped Libby. "For shame, Joy!"

"Yeah!" said Fiona. "You're unbelievable, Joy! You're behaving like a... like a..."

"Like an ogre." Shrek quickly finished.

"Shrek," Fiona said in astonishment, "How did you know that I was going to say-"

"You used that on me once," Shrek said, remembering his argument with Fiona in Far Far Away when they first arrived.

Fiona quietened down, thinking back to how hard it had been for her to get over her feelings from that argument.

"I still think it's quite unfair that Riley's not happy with how the move's gone and you're trying to act like everything's fine!" Ratchet snapped at Joy. "Well, news flash - IT'S TOTALLY NOT FINE! Riley's new house is awful, the moving van is lost..."

"And the pizza is awful!" Anger shouted.

"Yeah, that too!" Ratchet snapped.

"And all that Little Miss Joyful does is go all happy happy joy joy in her carefree world like nothing's going wrong!" snapped Isabela.

Before long, everyone was complaining about how things were going right now - Joy being so pushy and wanting Riley to be happy all the time and excluding Sadness like she was junk was getting irksome to them.

Joy could only bury her face into her knees and pretend they weren't there right now.

Mirabel immediately stood up, deciding to put a stop to this.

"Alright, everyone!" she said, getting their attention. "ESPARA!"

Everyone stopped arguing to look at her.

"OK, look, we shouldn't all be going off on Joy just because of her actions," Mirabel said. "I mean, I'm just like Sadness."

"You are?" asked Sadness, puzzled.

"Si," Mirabel said. "Lots of people back home believed I didn't have a purpose, since I didn't have a gift like mi familia."

'Wow.' Sadness thought to herself. 'Mirabel and I have so much in common.'

Mirabel's family slowly began to show some tinges of regret for how they treated Mirabel. Maybe her being cast aside hadn't been a good thing for them to do. Maybe Mirabel was just like Sadness.

Carla Delgado could also relate to Mirabel and Sadness - when her father had been turned to stone, Crown Princess Elena and her guards had brought her to the dungeon, and kept her there till Elena needed her and Victor to free Ixlan, the Lightning Warrior. Throughout all that time, Elena and her family, and the guards, not one of them had shown any care or compassion for her - apart from providing food for her. They hadn't even visited her cell on Navidad. How sad and lonely it made her feel when that happened, even more so without her father.

"So maybe," Mirabel said, "we should all stop belittling Joy over this, and carry on watching the film."

The audience reluctantly agreed, and settled down.

Joy: Alright, everyone, fresh start. We are gonna have a good day, which will turn into a good week, which will turn into a good year, which turns into a good life!

[Riley's Mom helps Riley with her backpack]

Mrs. Andersen: So, big day. New school, new friends, huh?

Riley: I know. I'm kind of nervous but I'm mostly excited. How do I look?

"First days at school are always hard." Woody said. "I remember going to Bonnie's kindergarten orientation."

(In Headquarters, Joy watches Family Island start up outside the window.)

Riley: Do you like my purse?

Mrs. Andersen: Very cute! You gonna be Okay? You want us to walk with you?

Disgust: Mom and Dad, with us in public? No, thank you.

Joy: Yup, I'm on it.

(She pushes a button, and Riley perks up)

Riley: Nope, I'm fine. [OPENS THE DOOR] Bye, Mom. Bye, Dad.

Mr. Andersen: (putting a call on hold) Have a good day at school, monkey.

(They make monkey noises at each other; Goofball Island sets off. Riley giggles and exits.)

Mrs. Andersen: Have a great day, sweetheart.

(Outside, Riley walks down the sidewalk until she comes to her new school; she stops and hesitates.)

"Wow." Becky said. "I never thought I'd say this, but Riley's school is SO much better than ours."

"I kinda wish we'd transferred there instead," said Mitchell. "At least it has a lot less strange things happen."

Fear: Are you sure we wanna do this?

Joy: In we go!

(This prompts Riley to go right for it.)

Fear: OK, going in. Yes!

(Riley sits in her new classroom; the students talk amongst each other. Riley notices them; Disgust picks up three girls in particular.)

Disgust: OK. We got a group of cool girls at 2 o'clock.

Joy: How do you know?

Disgust: Double ears pierced, infinity scarf.

(Their leader turns around - she has blue hair.)

Joy: Whoa! Is she wearing eyeshadow?

"Whoa!" said Envy in awe. "How I wish I'd come up 2 years earlier! Those girls are SO PRETTY!!!!!"

Disgust: Yeah, we wanna be friends with them.

"Sometimes, Cool girls like them do NOT wanna be your friends. They walk over you like they own the place." Becky stated, remembering Stephanie Bethany, the cool girl in her school, and of the time she belittled her when running for class president.

Joy: Let's go talk to them! (starts to work till Disgust interrupts)

Disgust: Are you kidding?! We're not talking to them! We want them to like us.

"Just how I wanted to like Mariano," Isabela muttered sadly. Her parents understood, and so did Mirabel. Isabela never really loved Mariano Guzman; she only did this to hopefully benefit the magic of the Encanto, for her Abuela. Which, of course, turned into a potential disaster, with her breaking his nose and ruining the dinner.

Joy: Oh, yeah. Wait, what?

(Fear comes over, holding a stack of sheets.)

Fear: Almost finished with the potential disasters. Worst scenario is either quicksand, spontaneous combustion, or getting called on by the teacher.

"Excuse me," said Jimmy. "Why on earth would quicksand or spontaneous combustion happen in a school?"

"It would happen in ours," Mitchell said.

"It's like you're making this up," said Cindy with a deadpan.

"No, that's what the scriptwriters wrote for the film script." Fear said in defense.

"I can't believe you broke the 4th wall," said Cindy to Fear, incredulous.

"What happened to the other 3 walls then?" Sheen asked.

Fear: So as long as none of those happen...

(The teacher arrives and steps to the front of the room.)

Teacher: OK, everybody, we have a new student in class today.

Fear: (scatters the sheets in fright) Are you kidding me?! Out of the gate! This is not happening!!!!!

Teacher: Riley, would you like to tell us something about yourself?

Fear: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Pretend we can't speak English!!!!!!!!!!!

“Ugh, just, relax, Fear, and act normal, you’ll be fine,” Woody said, a little annoyed by this. 

"Ay," Pepa sighed. "I bet that's what my Fear is like."

Joy: Don't worry, I got this.

(She does her work; this prompts Riley to speak up.)

Riley: Um, okay... (stands) My name is Riley Andersen. I'm from Minnesota, and now, I live here.

(She glances over at some of the students and the cool girl.)

"So far so good," said Tramp.

Teacher: And how about Minnesota? Can you tell us something about it? Well, you certainly get a lot more snow than we do. (chuckles)

Joy: (also chuckles) She's hilarious...! (She does more work.)

"I agree." Camilo said through stifling a chuckle. "It IS hilarious."

The villains were beginning to feel bored.

"Ugh, this is taking ages!" sighed Prince Charming. "When are we getting to move on from this... crapfest?"

The FilmMaster sighed. The villains were now starting to test his patience.

Riley: Yeah, it gets pretty cold. The lake freezes over, and that’s when we play hockey. I'm on a great team. We're called the Prairie Dogs. My friend, Meg, plays forward, and my dad's the coach.

(Joy pushes a button which makes a happy memory come down the recall tube and projects onto the screen; it shows the Andersens playing hockey on a frozen pond.)

Riley: Pretty much everyone in my family skates. It's kind of a family tradition. We go out on the lake almost every weekend.

"I sure wish we had traditions like that," said Mirabel.

"Do you guys have traditions?" Joy asked Mirabel and her family. "Like maybe, Christmas traditions or anything?"

"Well," Mirabel said, "In December, we have a tradition called Día de las Velitas, where we light candles and lanterns on our balconies, in our windowsills, and on the sidewalks."

"Sounds kinda dangerous." Fear said anxiously.

"Si, but on Xmas Eve, we have a meal, with Pernil de Cerdo, bunuelos, and Natilla," Luisa stated.

"Natilla sounds like a lovely friend you have every Christmas," said Templeton.

"It's a dessert," Dolores said.

"Oh," said Templeton.

"And 3 days after Christmas," Camilo said, " we have the Día de los Inocentes, the Colombian Tradition of Pranks. It's one of my favourite holidays. We play pranks on one another."

"Wow," Joy said. "Sounds like fun."

"We should totally have Colombian food next Christmas!" Anxiety said.

"Yeah!" Donkey said.

(Suddenly, the memory turns blue; Riley's mood sinks.)

Suddenly, all talk of traditions was scrubbed; now replaced by the surprise of the memory of ice skating turning blue.

"Oh dear," Joy muttered quietly. She knew where this was going.

Riley: Or, we did, till... I moved away.

Disgust: Hey. What gives?

Fear: Wait, what?

(The culprit is Sadness, who has left her circle and touched the memory, changing it.)

"No prizes for guessing who the culprit was," said Megamind.

Joy: Hey! Sadness!? You touched a memory!? We talked about this!

Sadness: Oh yeah, I know. I'm sorry.

Joy: Get back in your circle!

(She attempts to remove the sad memory and cheer Riley up, but the console does not respond.)

Joy: Ugh... What's going on!?!

Fear: Get it out of there, Joy!

Joy: Eject!!

(Still nothing happens; Riley's homesickness begins to take over.)

"Something tells me something bad will happen," Ratchet said. "I'm no stranger to bad things happening."

"Neither am I," Rivet said.

Riley: (sniffling sadly) We... used to... play tag, and stuff...

Disgust: Cool kids whispering at 3 o'clock!

(Indeed, the cool girls are whispering to each other.)

Fear: Did you see that look?

Joy: Oh, no!

Fear: They're judging us!

(Joy and the emotions struggle to remove the memory from the recall unit; behind them, Sadness notices the console is open and rushes toward it...)

"Where's Sadness going?" asked Luisa.

"Watch, and you'll see what's gonna happen." The FilmMaster said.

Joy: Somebody help, grab that thing... Everybody put in...

Riley: (beginning to cry) But, everything's different now... Since we moved...

(She starts shedding tears and sniffs again; the students stare at her in silence.)

Everyone [sans the villains] was now showing sympathy for Riley. But some of them were puzzled and worried, especially since she was crying. In class.

Fear: [sees what's happening] Oh, no! WE'RE CRYING!!!! AT SCHOOL!!!!

Joy: Wha...?!

"Sometimes things like that happen." Bob Parr said. "When Violet was younger, she was afraid to start school as well. She clung to my side and slightly cried all the time till it was time to go inside. Still, she was brave to get in there."

"Dad!" Violet said in embarrassment.

(Still struggling, Joy turns and sees Sadness is working the console, it is responding to her and her alone.)

Joy: Sadness, what are you doing!!?!

(She successfully ejects the memory and rushes up to her, pulling her away from the console.)

Sadness: Whoa!!! I'm sorry. I, oh...oh!

(A loud flash and ding is heard; a new Core Memory appears from behind the screen. Unlike the others, this one is blue and sad.)

Everyone in the auditorium gasped in amazement at the creation of the first-ever blue Core Memory. Joy & Sadness, on the other hand, were worried, since this led to their scuffle that had them both stranded outside of Headquarters.

Fear: (gasps) It's a Core Memory.

Disgust: But it's blue!

(Indeed, it is; it shows Riley crying in front of the whole class due to her homesickness.)

"Wow!" A BLUE Core Memory!" said Hugh. "That's amazing!"

Then he saw everyone looking at him like his dick had shrunk into his body. "Uh, but I'm also betting that's a bad thing, right?" he asked.

"Too right, Hugh," said the FilmMaster.

Joy: (gasps) No, wait! Stop it! No! Agh! No!

(The memory sinks into the floor before she could grab it; it flows down through the track to the core memory pedestal, and she opens the pedestal and grabs the memory just before it could settle in. She then pushes the "end of day memory flush" button to activate the recall tube and flush all the memories off the shelves.)

Sadness: Joy, no! (Tries to pull the memory away) That's a core memory! ...Wait!

Joy: Hey! Stop it! Let go!

[Joy & Sadness get into a tug of war with the Core Memory.]

Riley's new Emotions all watched this scene with looks of shock, amazement, and horror on their faces. 

"Oh dear," said Anxiety. "So, Sadness, was this what you and Joy were like before we came in?"

"Yes." Sadness said.

"This is not gonna end too well," said Lady.

(Suddenly, Joy breaks free of her grasp; stumbles backward and hits the pedestal, causing all the Core Memories to fall out, and the pedestal powers down as they gasp.)

Fear: The core memories!

"Was this supposed to happen?" asked Carl.

(The result causes the light poles to go out; the Personality Islands all power down, and then become greyscale.]

“Okay, now this is bad, like very bad!” said Coco Bandicoot.

"Yeah!" Mirabel said. "Riley's lost her personality! She doesn't know who she is anymore!"

[Riley's head raises, still breaking down and losing thought.)

Joy: AGH!

(She throws the sad Core Memory aside and gathers up all the happy ones that fell out. But then she sees Sadness trying to insert the sad Core Memory and gasps; she jumps at Sadness, knocking her over and dropping the sad Core Memory as it rolls toward the activated recall tube and gets sucked up through it and out of the roof to Long Term Memory.]

"Ay ay ay, they must stop fighting at once! It’s only going to make things worse!” Felix said.

"Oh, it IS gonna get worse, alright," said the FilmMaster.

"Why?" asked Felix.

[Suddenly; one of the happy core memories begins rolling toward the still-sucking tube as well as it starts coming down from the ceiling.)

“Oh NO! Not the happy core memories!!” cried Carla.

Joy: NO NO NO NO -- !

(She grabs the memory but gets sucked up the tube herself; she tries to keep herself weighed down by keeping her foot hooked outside; she struggles to reach her other foot down, but Sadness gets sucked toward her as well!)

Sadness: Whoa...

(And then, Both Joy and Sadness are sucked up!)

Joy & Sadness: AAAAGH!!

(They disappear out the roof hatch, and the door closes as the tube retracts.]

Many of the audience members stared longingly and vacantly at the screen after what had just happened, completely at a loss for words.

"OK, now that was worse than when Junior flew off the windmill," Sheen said.

[Riley silently sits down and wipes her tears.)

Teacher: Thank you, Riley. I know it can be tough moving to a new place, but we're happy to have you here. Alright everyone, get out your history books, and turn to chapter 7.

(The students do so; Riley hides her face behind her book, not saying a word. In Headquarters, the remaining emotions are still distraught.)

Anger: Can I say that curse word now?

"NO!!!" Judy Neutron shouted, "YOU ARE NOT SAYING A CURSE WORD ANYWHERE!! NOT HERE, NOT OUTSIDE, NOT IN THE WHOLE UNIVERSE!!!!!!"

"There's no need to shout, Mom," Jimmy said. 

"I have to say that was quite a disaster," said Donkey.

"Oh aye, ya think, Donkey?" Shrek sighed in annoyance.

"Well, we all know it was Joy's fault," said Donkey, pointing to Joy with his hoof.

"My fault?!?" said Joy, puzzled and shocked.

"Yeah!" Shrek said angrily. "I never thought I'd see the day when Donkey was right about something for once!!!!"

Before long, most of the crowd advanced on Joy.

"OK, let's all try and be civil here," said Mirabel. "OK, so it was Joy's fault that caused all of this mess with Joy and Sadness getting sucked through the recall tube, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't blame her."

"No, we should actually blame her!" snapped Ratchet. "She's so caught up in her own stupid little happy planet that she completely neglects Sadness! Sadness was just trying to be helpful! And what does Joy do?!" his voice then rose to a shout. "SHE PUTS HER IN WHAT SEEMS TO BE A TIME-OUT AND HOGS THE CONSOLE LIKE SHE'S THE QUEEN OF RILEY'S HEAD!!!!"

The 2 mentioned Emotions could only look at each other with worried expressions on their faces. Ok, it did feel quite humiliating to have their whole fight and scuffle shown for everyone, it had gotten them to work together to get back home and make Riley truly happy.

"And not forgetting she tried to get rid of a Core Memory that Sadness created!!" said Isabela angrily.

"I was trying to make Riley feel better." Sadness said.

"Well, perhaps if Sadness had stayed where Joy told her to and did her job, we wouldn't have the crying in class moment at school!" Mr Potato Head snapped.

"Whose side are you on, Potato Head?" snapped Woody.

"That's Mr. Potato Head to you, Woody!" Mr Potato Head snapped. "And I'm sticking with Joy's side on things!"

"Still, I think she's a TERRIBLE leader!" Ratchet snapped.

Before long, everyone got in on the argument about Joy and Sadness.

Emily, on the other hand, began to feel like this was going to escalate. She blew her whistle loud and long to get everyone to stop arguing and listen. "Ratchet, Joy is not a terrible leader!" She scolded. "Well, yes I mean, she's made some mistakes, but that doesn't mean everyone's perfect. Nobody is! Not even you!" she said firmly.

Ratchet froze. He remembered when some of his arrogance and obsession over things led to mistakes - like the Dimensionator.

"Emily is right," Alma said to Ratchet, speaking up. "Joy being so much in control all the time reminds me of... me," She was now remembering how she used to be before the incident with Casita changed everything.

"Well, yeah, I guess you're right, Alma Madrigal," Ratchet said slowly. "I mean, I'm just too stubborn sometimes, like you were."

Alma felt saddened. That reminder reminded her of how strict and overprotective she used to be, which led her family to face pressure over their gifts and work in the Encanto.

"I guess, nobody is perfect," he said, settling down in his seat.

"Exactly my point." Emily said.

ZOOM INTO Ratchet's Head, which was designed like Grim's garage from the Ratchet & Clank 2016 movie. All of Ratchet's Emotions looked like him, but with different colour schemes for the fur.

"Yeah." Ratchet's Anger said. "I guess I kinda did get overboard."

"It's Cool." said Ratchet's Joy. "Now let's put on a memory of some cool ship-flying moments to calm down."

He summoned a memory of flying through space in the Star Explorer to calm Ratchet's mind.