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Riley won't be able to completely repair the cracks in Honesty Island...
...without confessing to what she did.If and when she confesses she cheated on that test, her parents and/or teacher won't just ask her how she cheated, but where she got the cheat sheets from. Riley always tries to be truthful, right? So while she can be slightly honest and say she used cheat sheets, she can't tell the complete truth without revealing her new found power to talk to her emotions.
  • Of course, this could also work in her favor somewhat: "The cheat sheets were in my mind!" "Oh, well then that's not really cheating."
  • Played with. Confessing did restore Honesty, but Riley still managed to bend the truth a bit in the process.

Riley will use her power of consciousness tampering to bring Bing Bong back.
The emotions appear to remember Bing Bong's sacrifice, and while they might have come to terms with it, there's still the possibility that the emotions might use Riley's ability to resurrect their friend so he and Riley can reunite at long last. If Riley is able to drive the Train of Thought when she's asleep, and is able to create white memories, then it's not impossible for her to be able to do this.
  • As of the chapter Memory Lanes, Riley has developed the ability to revitalize memories. If she were to use this on faded memories of Bing Bong left in Long Term Memory, she could remember him, and possibly revive him.
  • Currently jossed, but only so far as Riley hasn't intentionally brought him back, choosing to respect his sacrifice rather than try to bring him back.

Riley will fall into a coma near the climax of the fic
If a worst case scenario comes along, Riley could retreat into her own mind after a bad experience either inside or outside. Thus playing homage to a plot idea early in development, but also providing space for Riley to finish coming to terms with her mind, her emotions and her shortcomings.
  • Considering she might get a drug overdose later in the fic, we might have a catalyst for this too.

Riley will attempt to take action to prevent the Mind Workers from "forgetting" anything else.
At the end of chapter 11, Riley finds out that there's something called a "memory dump", and is clearly distressed by the (incredibly accurate) image that term brings to mind. She soon after expresses an urgent desire to go back to the Mind World, where she'll undoubtedly find her fears confirmed and learn about the "forgetters". As a result, she will most likely attempt to somehow prevent anything else from being forgotten. Depending on exactly how much control she has there (which, considering how she accesses that world, is likely quite a bit) she will most likely be successful. Hopefully she'll try explaining to the mind workers how she doesn't want them to throw out any more memories, so they can explain why that wouldn't be a good idea (assuming it is in fact a bad idea), before she does anything to make it physically impossible.
  • As of the end of Chapter 13, it appears this idea is going to be explored in an upcoming chapter in some way.
  • This can also go the other way: sometimes you might want to forget something that would otherwise be hard to forget. The most obvious situation is if you see something that warrants Brain Bleach, but there could be other benefits as well: for instance, you know how once you've seen a movie or TV show you really like, it's not nearly as enjoyable the second time you see it because you already know what happens? If Riley sees something she really likes, and wants to experience it again, she could literally find her memory of it and throw it in the dump, then watch it again as if it was brand new. She wouldn't even need to worry about remembering to watch it again, as she could have one of her emotions remind her.

Riley IS going schizophrenic
She's already getting symptoms as detailed in Fridge Horror, and the 6 of them just don't know it.
  • That doesn't seem fair. Given the metaphysics of Inside Out, we can't exactly call it real Schizo if the voices Riley hears ARE real and not imagined like typical Schizos have. She's not hallucinating if there's a genuine source and not just her own brain playing tricks on her.
    • I think the idea is that that's what schizophrenia is in that universe. Psychologists just think people are hallucinating the voices because that's a more logical explanation than what's actually going on. As for why the psychologists' emotions don't tell them they most likely aren't hallucinations, it's probably for the same reason as why Tracy called Riley crazy. (Though in the case of a psychologist, there'd probably be a different reasoning—knowing this would certainly help the psychologist treat his/her patient, and you'd think the psychologist's emotions would be aware of that.) This alone isn't necessarily a problem: as we've seen with Riley, some people may like having those voices in their heads. But for most people (even Riley, to a degree) it can be a problem, hence its classification as a disorder.
      • If that is the case, I have to be a bit worried about the character of some people's emotions, given that some schizo voices can be downright vicious. I'd seriously be questioning the intent of a person's emotions telling their person to kill themselves, since that would destroy the emotions as well.
      • Some people do have a low self-esteem, if not outright self-loathing that can lead to suicide in extreme cases. If their Disgust and/or Anger have turned against them and they're able to hear them...
    • In Chapter 19, Jill's emotions seem to draw a line between hearing emotions and being schizophrenic, indicating they're slightly different and implying one doesn't necessarily mean the other, but make of it what you will.
      • Then again, Jill seemed to recognize some common symptoms of schizophrenia like we did, and Riley's starting to get them.
    • Chapter 21 has Riley herself considering this possibility due to her psychology teacher describing the symptoms during class, one of those being an inability to distinguish between reality and illusion. That particular symptom does have the effect of causing Riley to question the existence of her Mind World. Of course, we have access to other people's Mind Worlds through the narrative and can assume they are all real, but Riley doesn't have this access, and neither do any other schizophrenics or psychologists.
    • 22 seems to indicate this is a looming issue, but what Riley has right now seems to be just outside "typical" schizo, as the mindworkers say that any worse damage to the intercom would lead to some REAL visual and audio hallucinations.

Riley's parents are going to find out about the Mind World not from Riley...
But from Riley's drawings. If Riley backs out of explaining everything to her parents the morning after her second Mind World visit, or can't fully explain everything, her parents might snoop around her room for clues, and they'll eventually come across Riley's drawings of the Emotions and her Mind World.
  • It would be especially interesting to see their emotions' reaction to that. If they see her drawings, Riley's parents might not know exactly what the drawings are supposed to represent, especially if she didn't label them. In that case they probably wouldn't even think the drawings have anything to do with what's happening to Riley—they'd just assume it's her being creative. Now as we've seen in the movie, not everyone's Mental World has the same design, but there are many common features. If Riley's parents see a drawing of an extravagantly-decorated room with a control panel, five little "people" in different colors, and floating "islands" representing various concepts in the background, without knowing what it's supposed to represent, they wouldn't think of it as anything more than Riley being creative. But if their emotions caught a glimpse of it, it would certainly look familiar to them, and they (especially Fear) would certainly find it pretty concerning. Especially considering they already suspected Riley was hearing her emotions. And their Fears would probably cause them to react in some way. Would they see the drawings as cause for concern, but have absolutely no idea why?
    • CONFIRMED!!

There's a reason Fear doesn't want Riley to read the manuals that hasn't been revealed yet.
This goes with my entry on the Headscratchers page about the manuals. Riley already knows about the existence of her emotions, and they have even shown her different parts of how the Mind World works. Yet for some reason, the specific prospect of Riley looking at the manuals is especially worrying to Fear. Since, as I mentioned in the Headscratchers entry, the manuals seem to contain information from an outside source, with no explanation on how that information got into the characters' minds, perhaps there are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know (well, more so than what we know of) written in there. Wild theory, I know.
  • Confirmed in chapter 16. When Riley asks why it isn't a good idea, Fear eventually confesses that there are things in the manuals that he found "[too] terrifying to think of". He gives three examples, one of which has particularly surprising implications: "Changing personality, changing things on the outside, hijacking the console..."

Other people's emotions' fears of Riley reading minds aren't completely unfounded
You know how occasionally in the real world, someone thinks they may have seen the future or heard someone else's thoughts due to a weird coincidence? This is a big reason some people believe Psychic Powers exist in the real world, even though all scientific evidence suggests otherwise. In some fictional universes, this actually is the result of latent psychic abilities. There are two occasions (in chapter 10, and then 11) in Intercom in which, upon realizing Riley may have some knowledge of the Mind World, one of another character's emotions gets worried that Riley may be able to read minds. Think about this though: emotions know a lot more about the mind than most humans do. If mind reading was impossible in this universe, they'd probably know, and wouldn't be worried about that.
  • The reason we're probably "expected" to think they're worried about that is because, to someone who doesn't know how Riley has this knowledge, one possibility that might come to mind (no pun intended) is that she is somehow able to see into other people's minds. But perhaps they're worried for a different reason: regardless of how Riley knows about the Mind World, perhaps access to said world could enable her to read minds. How? If the aforementioned coincidences were in fact caused by mind reading or clairvoyance, there would probably be some type of equipment in Headquarters that serves this purpose, for the emotions to use sparingly to cause these "coincidences" at times when it will help. If they use it too much, however, people might get scared, much like the reason why they don't normally reveal their existence. Since Riley can actually enter her Mind World, however, she would be able to use this equipment herself, without discretion.
  • This could also tie in to my theory about the manuals above. It would both explain how the manuals contain outside information, as well as why Riley's Fear is so worried about her reading them. There's a couple reasons he might not want her to know about this part of the Mind World (which would certainly be explained in the manuals) if it can be avoided. Perhaps he's worried she'll discover things she'd be better off not knowing, like how some people may truly think of her. Maybe he's worried she'll start becoming paranoid of other people, and feel compelled to look in their minds "just in case". It could also be because if she accidentally lets that part slip, it could cause a panic. Or he might just be worried for the same reason they're all apprehensive of telling Riley about the events of the movie: she might get mad and question their judgment, like why they didn't use it at certain times when it would have helped her.
  • I was on the Headscratchers page for the movie, and I noticed the following entry: "What if, in the IO-verse, there are some people who are actually capable of reading minds? Would those people be able to see flashes of the Mind Worlds of others, like their Headquarters?" Seeing as the term "Mind World" seems to be original to Intercom (I don't remember it being referred to as such in the movie), I checked to see who added the entry, curious if it was someone familiar with the fanfic. And who added the entry? Warrior Sparrow herself. So she's clearly interested in the idea at least.
    • As an FYI, the term's not original to it (good catch though)—the Essential Guide and The Art of Inside Out called it "the Mind World", so seeing as both are official Word of God things I went with that.
  • Just found yet another potential Chekhov's Gun. In chapter 13, Riley's mom's Fear says, "What if her hearing those voices the other night wasn't just a half-asleep thing?! What if she's hearing her emotions? Or what if she's not just hearing her own emotions, what if the intercom's broken to the point of—". What else could they be afraid of her hearing? Especially with the word "own" there...
  • If this does in fact happen, it will certainly raise some questions, such as why Riley's parents' emotions didn't use it to help figure out what was wrong with Riley—actually, they didn't even mention the possibility of using it for that purpose. But perhaps it's not something everyone's mind has. Or perhaps some people's emotions don't even realize it might be possible, and haven't thought to check the manuals to see whether or not it is.

Riley will eventually have a Secret-Keeper in the outside world
A lot of what Riley's concerned about in "ordinary" life is that all the humans around her would call her crazy for hearing voices. But what inevitably would help her cope with that is if she eventually found someone who listened and cared/believed. Perhaps just someone to discuss the beauty of the inside world with, or someone to hear about benefits and drawbacks of having "roommates" in her head.
  • Ann seems to be taking the idea pretty well; she seems like a good candidate.
  • Here's one way I can see this happening. I'll use Ann in this example, but just replace her with whoever you think it will be: Riley tells Ann, in private, that her "emotion personification" thing isn't actually a metaphor, and talks about her experiences and what she learned about how the mind really works. As expected, Ann's emotions go into a panic. ("If she mentions Memory Orbs or Personality Islands, then we can panic.") But then Riley starts speaking to them directly. Even though she can't hear them respond, she can guess at what's going on, and what they're worried about. She explains that she understands their concerns, and that, at least for now, she's intending on keeping it a secret between them. Now, Ann's conscious thoughts will probably be of disbelief—surely that isn't actually how the mind works; maybe Riley actually is crazy. But then, shortly after hearing Riley say something about an "intercom", which Ann doesn't understand, she herself hears an unfamiliar voice. "Hi, Ann. Sorry if this is sudden, but we've decided it's best you finally know...unbelievable as it sounds, everything Riley said is true."

Riley's Intercom accident will mark the beginning of a new era for mankind
It would start small, one sane person at a time, but like a series of dominoes, through not intentions of her own, Riley's little head accident would eventually lead to humanity discovering they have Emotions living with them all their lives. Some would react..poorly to this. Some would be freaked out, some might deny this as long as possible, but others might find it actually does have some benefits. Always having someone to care about your problems, or to challenge you if you're moving in a bad direction. Thus changing mankind in ways Riley could never have imagined...all because she didn't want to have her Intercom fixed right away.
  • Don't forget, the emotions would only be part of the discovery. The mind has always been a difficult thing to study. If the world discovers its "true form"—literally an entire dimension, where aspects of the mind have a "physical" form that can be directly manipulated—that would no longer be the case. Not to mention all the work of documenting how everything works has already been done: the manuals cover everything.
  • This discovery alone could improve people's lives in so many ways. Already we've seen how the Mind World can be used for:
    • Perfect recall of information. Riley came up with a unique strategy for taking her biology test, enabling her to perfectly remember all the answers, simply using an unorthodox form of memory. Whether you consider it cheating or not, if it becomes widely known, it will inevitably become a popular way to remember things like that. Teachers would probably recommend it to students as a general information retention strategy, useful for many things, including test taking. Tests might even become obsolete, to the delight of countless students.
    • Endless entertainment. Riley's adventures in Imagination Land are pretty much what actual lucid dreaming is generally like. (Yes, you read that right. You can do it too.) But normally lucid dreaming takes a lot of practice. Riley was able to do it very easily because she can actually communicate with the source of her dreams. Imagine (no pun intended) if everyone could do it that easily.
    • Preservation of traditional memories. As we saw in chapter 15, memories can be revitalized by the host. Even without that, people could ask the forgetters to not toss anything unless there's no room for anything else, and give instructions on what memories are the most important.
    • And all that as a completely innate ability, not relying on any external aids. We're sure to see lots more. As hinted by the name of Riley's new personality island, the possibilities would be endless—basically, any time someone's mind isn't working the way they want it to, they could change it. Having nightmares? Tell the people at Dream Productions what you'd rather dream about. Not happy with an aspect of your personality? Remove its core memory. Want to experience something you really enjoyed, every time as if it was the first time? Find the relevant memories and temporarily remove them from Long Term. (Or throw them in the dump if necessary.) Maybe you could even program the console to take control of your body temporarily and automate tasks you don't like doing, while you relax in Headquarters and watch. Really, it begs the question of why the mind doesn't work that way in the first place.
  • This wouldn't have to be unintentional from Riley's perspective. So far, the only real problems Riley has had as a result of hearing her emotions stem from other people, and what they think of people who "hear voices". If everyone could hear their emotions and access their Mind World, these problems wouldn't exist, and everyone's life could easily be better as explained above. Perhaps Riley will realize this, and try to get the message to as many other people as possible in a way where their emotions can't help but make it known she's right, whatever that way could be. Maybe that's Riley's secret plan.

Riley will become a prophet of sorts to humanity should she begin preaching/teaching the truth about emotions
Which naturally will make her and her emotions a bit uncomfortable. After all, they didn't set out to turn her into some kind of emotion teacher. And like any prophet claiming authority on something not as easily verified, this will lead to ridicule, questioning, and eventually disciples seeking to spread the truth of the human mind and emotions. Cause let's face it. As much as Psychology would be thrilled to get all kinds of new studies off of this new understanding of minds, it's the philisophical and religious impacts that would come before any study really got under way.

Potterphantomkitten isn't actually writing the story
Rather, she's secretly scheming to have us the reviewers and tropers write the story for her. By having us create these guesses, find fridge, anticipate reactions and imagine plotlines, she's secretly having us do all her creative work for her, and she just plans to write the dialog around our ideas.
  • PotterPhantomKitten here to provide Word of God on this: As of right now, I do have the storyline planned out, especially the climax (main idea of it I've had planned for months, the more concrete details of how it's initiated as of a couple days ago (10/17/2015)—by then that drama tag will be well deserved. However, the guesses, reviews, etc. have sparked some ideas here and there as to things to include in the story, and for that I thank every single one of you. Some guesses will be confirmed, and some will be jossed. Like this one being basically jossed. And now you will be kept in suspense.
    • If you do get ideas from other people, I hope they don't replace other things I would have wanted to read about!
      • I plan to put a kind of Bonus Material chapter (or two, depending) at the end that will include some deleted scenes, What Could Have Been points, general trivia, etc. For the most part, the ideas that I have gotten from other people are more add-ons to the larger plot I have, and the larger Stations of the Canon have been in my head for a while now. As of right now, even though there are things added to the story thanks to ideas from you guys, any plot ideas that have been "replaced" are simply ones that I was debating between myself.
    • Zigzagged. On one hand, PPK has the basic structure already there. But she admitted that she DOES draw a lot from tvtropes and the reviews to get ideas to build on her main point.

Riley being fully truthful about the emotions at a point of desperation or defiance
Will trigger the creation of a new Honesty Island. It will be another multicolored one, but I actually envision it being either all 5 colors or white, because she'd be feeling all those emotions at once. Angry, Disgusted, Scared, Sad and Happy that she's finally speaking truth about something so fundamental to who she's become, even if she's certain she might not be believed. This will also cause Honesty Island to gain a new feature: a religious motif to symbolize Riley now being strong enough to be truthful about things that aren't certain or that she might not be believed about.
  • Bonus points if the opening she uses is the same Joy said at the start of the movie: Do you ever look at someone and wonder, "What's going on in their head?" Well I know. Well, not everyone at least, but I know myself now.

The Intercom is truly broken
We don't know that broken intercoms and talking directly to ones emotions really is covered in mind manuals. So a big twist in the middle of the story would be if the emotions (or just fear if he thinks this has gotten out of hand) call up the mind workers to fix the intercom. But they took one look at it and instead say, "Sorry, but we can't help you with that. It's stuck for good." It would create that added level of tension in the fic that they can't have an out and just send things back to normal. That they do have to live with the fact that Riley will be hearing her emotions for the rest of her life.
  • Confirmed as of Chapter 22. To the point where the Mind Workers even said the "stuck for good" quote near-verbatim.

Alternatively, the Intercom can be fixed easily
Considering how vital it is to Riley, it really doesn't take a lot of energy for the intercom to break. It also seems odd that they don't immediately call the mind workers up, which seems like the most logical course of action. So, I predict that late in the story, the mind workers finally take a look at the intercom and fix it quickly, while also remarking that they could have avoided all of this drama.
  • Jossed as of Chapter 22, as the intercom is in fact stuck for good. While Fritz says that he and the others can try to come up with a way to fix it, he's not getting anyone's hopes up.

Ending guesses
Ok, so we don't really have ideas of how far the author's going to take this story, but we can always guess.
  • The theory above about Riley's accident leading to all mankind hearing their emotions might be good. I'd hope it doesn't end immediately there though; I'd certainly like it to explore different ways the world is changed by it.
  • Riley dies from a brain aneurysm due to her mind getting too much damage from consciousness tampering. Sure, it's a Downer Ending, but considering the author's other work, she could be baiting us to throw a downer at the end.
  • Riley and the emotions are forced to dump all white memories into the memory dump as their interactions were causing too much strain upon her mind. Riley never does remember what happened those few days, but the emotions keep the white core memory in headquarters...just not plugged in as a reminder of the few days that Riley truly was their friend.
    • Most likely jossed. With how long this has been going in for now and how many people have been affected, a memory wipe would pretty much be useless.
  • The Intercom is fixed as a way to give Riley plausible deniability for getting Schizophrenia. BUT, the memories are kept, so she never forgets those few days she spent with her emotions, and goes on to become a psychiatrist, dedicated to helping people in a way only she knows how thanks to her knowledge of the emotion beings.
    • Probably jossed, as the intercom seems to be irreparably damaged.
  • Riley and the emotions decide to set up "safe times". They fix the intercom, but instead of working it normally, they set up certain days/nights/times when Riley and the emotions can check in on how they all acted over the course of a day/week/year.
    • Probably jossed, see above.
  • Riley goes mad, ending up locked up in an asylum, muttering gibberish about "little emotions" that nobody believes her for.
  • Riley exits her coma, but with brain damage, so that she can no longer be normal the same way she was before.
  • Joy and Riley trade places in order to save both.
  • Riley does confess the truth, but it becomes a "family secret" rather than the worldwide mental change guessed above.

Through "consciousness tampering", Riley will come up with a more convenient way of accessing the Mind World.
In Chapter 14, Riley mentions that she wishes she had "eyes in the back of her head" that would allow her to always see what's going on in her mind. Fear tells her not to think about that, because then it might actually happen. But I don't think that would be a bad thing. Riley clearly enjoys being inside her mind; I'd be surprised if she didn't eventually take that idea even further. Perhaps she'll give herself a permanent presence there. Sort of like her "dream body" she has there, only more of a "secondary" body that always exists, which she can "switch" to and from whenever she wants. It's what I would do. Fear might object to it, but history has shown that it's not always wise to let your Fear stop you from doing things, even if most people don't realize it has a capital 'F'.
  • This might be Riley's secret plan, or at least the main component of it.

Riley will try reading the inside of a mind manual
But she can't! Because even in a lucid dream, you can't read a book while you're dreaming.

Riley: Ah!
Fear: AHHH!! Riley, are you alright? What's the matter?
Riley: I...I can't read it. It's just a jumble of letters!
  • Personal testimonies say that it is possible to read in a lucid dream, it can just be difficult to remember. Seeing as in this case the "lucid dream" is also a literal Mental World to visit, which has functioned for Riley's entire life even when she's awake, it's entirely possible for her to read the text of a mind manual. Though I do admit that above dialogue exchange had me laugh.

At one point, Riley (or the emotions) will accidentally (or on purpose) end up in the subconscious again
Things like Broccoli, the stairs to the basement and Jangles will still be there, but there will also be new looming fears that reveal how much the last year has affected Riley. These are...(feel free to add if you like)
  • The greyhound bus to Minnesota with a locked door, the driver saying, "Sorry kid. You're too late." It represents Riley's dark fear that she was almost too late to get away from the bad idea to run away from home.
  • Angry versions of her friends and parents, telling her that she needs to be locked away for her own good. Representing her fear of not being believed or heard when something's wrong with her/rejecting her for making new emotional friends.
  • A memory black hole. Cause losing her memories and herself is kinda traumatizing for her at the moment. Even if she now knows what to avoid.
  • One of her friends as drooling vegetable, representing her fearing accidentally hurting someone with her new knowledge.
  • Twisted versions of The Emotions, who point and laugh, saying "Oh. You actually thought we were real??? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! You foolish girl, you know emotions can't talk. You actually ARE going crazy!" And this would make for a special kind of Book Ends for Riley to deal with, since her trust is the only thing that ensures that she thinks all of the mind world, the emotions, all that she's done in her head is actually real. Confronting this buried fear would make for a great symbolic gesture on seeing what Riley REALLY has taken away from knowing her emotions better.
    • If you're always dreaming about someone who is only real in your dreams, but you can actually carry on a conversation, and they remember things from previous dreams, couldn't you build up a friendship in your dreams? That friendship would still be real, as would all your experiences. They may not be able to affect anyone else (unless you act differently in the real world as a result) but that doesn't mean it's any less real to you. Are Riley's emotions real to anyone else? No—at least not as far as we've seen. But they're still real to her, and they're still her friends. Even if her hearing voices was the result of a mental disorder (I guess it technically is, just not one known to science) the "voices" she hears are her friends. Not to mention she's seen how things in the Mind World can actually affect her mind. Would it really be any different to her if that was just an illusion her mind created? What exactly is she afraid of?
      • Riley's made a BIG deal about not being considered crazy. And in fact, if you'll remember back in chapter 2, when she first started hearing the gang, she was concerned that she might be losing her mind...or dreaming. She went for the latter that night, and when she heard them again, she slowly went from denial to anger to acceptance. Not to mention she has what she thinks is memories of her time in Mind World, which is a bit more personal proof for the validity of her experiences. BUT, what I'm drilling into here is her buried fears. That for all she's thought was real, she really isn't well after all, and all that she experienced was an illusion. And given what she found out about The Move, it could also be tapping in her her darker fear that her emotions aren't actually out for her best interests.
  • Riley expresses interest in visiting the Subconscious in chapter 22, so it looks like things may be heading in this direction.

The Intercom was an upgrade to Riley's mind as well
.Looking at the intercom's use, you have to wonder why Anger, Fear and Disgust didn't try using it to get Riley to stop running away. And in addition, in a brief shot at the beginning of Inside Out, the space where the intercom is described as being doesn't have an intercom there. Therefore, in a way to make both continuities work, I posit that the Intercom was added to Riley's mind after the move as well. That way, it could give the emotions a way to talk with Riley and prevent another depression disaster at the same time they got the expanded console.

The 3 mind manual titles that Riley saw will turn out to be a Chekhov's Gun for saving Riley's mind

Think about the titles.

  • Core Memory Retrieval. This would be useful if Riley somehow lost a core memory in a moment of anger or fear.
    • Considering how she just lost 5 cores in one go and Joy went after them (and couldn't even hold onto them), I sure hope Sadness remembers this manual for getting them back.
  • Console Construction: Useful for helping the emotions figure out how to help riley if she tried to lock them out again.
    • As of chapter 18, this one has been confirmed.
  • Outside Assessment: Helpful in case Riley gets mental damage. Great for figuring out if Riley's Ok now.
    • Or perhaps it refers to making assessments about the outside world that wouldn't be possible to make through normal means. If, like I predicted above, it's revealed that mind reading is possible in this story, that seems like a good place for it to fit in.
    • Along those same lines, maybe it's about allowing emotions to exit a host's mind to better "assess" the outside world. This would be very helpful for Riley's latest (as of chapter 20) plan (which is why it's marked as a spoiler.)

The white core memory for possibility island isn't just representative of possibilities and imaginings about the mind world

It also represents how much Riley loves her emotions as people. Which would also explain why when she starts trying to deceive them about a secret plot, the core memory flickered in its brightness.

Riley is going to bring some stuff back from the Mind World.

In Chapter 8, Riley said to Joy, "I mean, I wish that I could just drag some things from the Mind World and place them here! Maybe I could even replace my lamp with a memory orb or something!" I didn't think that would actually happen of course, as it's not like you can bring something from a dream into the real world. After all, if that were possible, the world would certainly be much different because everyone would take advantage of it.

Chapter 16, however, has an easy-to-miss hint that this might be possible. Among the things Fear listed as a few of the more "terrifying" parts of the manuals he's worried about Riley reading is "changing things on the outside".

It's unclear what extent these "changes" can have, but that hint suddenly makes it seem a lot less impossible.

It's possible, however, that it's simply referring to changing things as they appear to Riley, which while a lot less interesting, could still give Riley what she wants. With enough "consciousness tampering", that's not even something I would think is impossible prior to that hint.

If it really does mean what it sounds like, however, that would not only enable Riley to bring back "souvenirs" for her own enjoyment like she mentioned before, but it would also give her a good way to get other people to believe her. Like what if "changing things on the outside" could extend to allowing her emotions to somehow manifest as physical beings, or otherwise become visible to others? How would Tracy react? Would she think she was going crazy?

  • It looks like that last part (about allowing her emotions to somehow manifest as physical beings) is going to at least be attempted by Riley. No confirmation that it's actually possible though; just that she'll try.

Riley's plans?
Post your guesses for what Riley is planning as of the end of chapter 16 (plan A, plan B, or both).
    Instant Mind World access 
  • Plan A: Basically, the WMG entry I posted above titled "Through 'consciousness tampering', Riley will come up with a more convenient way of accessing the Mind World." This would provide a very effective means for her to "be free of her problems", as she'd be able to instantly go to what's probably her absolute favorite place, any time she wants. Besides being quite possibly the best thing ever for escapism, which seems to be her main goal, it would also be incredibly useful if there's something specific she needs to do there.
    • I'll also guess at some of the specific details. The "very specific" thing she's looking for in the manuals might be a way to instantly enter or exit "dream mode" at a time when it normally wouldn't happen. The idea would be to rig some type of system to allow her to activate this function herself, even from Outside. The next step would be to go to Dream Productions, and instruct the people there to stop using the reality distortion filter unless Riley asks them to. As for her physical body, the most obvious scenario would be for it to instantly fall asleep, but more likely Riley will come up with some way to go into "autopilot" during that time (probably with more information from the manuals), so she can do it even at times when it would be undesirable to fall asleep, like at school.
    • Plan A has now been confirmed to be something different. But this still seems like something Riley would want to do anyway.
  • Plan B: Plan B is referred to as a "last resort", with which Riley's emotions would definitely be uncomfortable, so it's probably something pretty extreme. My guess is that it's like plan A, except completely abandoning her outside life in favor of a permanent life in her mind. Plan B would become an option if, for example, Riley discovers that an unavoidable consequence of spending too much of her time in the Mind World is a permanent inability to exit. Going with plan B would basically mean acknowledging that as a worthwhile trade-off. Committing to live the rest of your life in one comparatively-small place is certainly not a decision to be made lightly, but of all places, that's probably one of the best. With access to Imagination Land, she'll never run out of things to do—she can, in an especially-literal sense, do anything she can imagine.
    • You know, it wouldn't be the first time Riley's made a decision like that. Remember what happened last time?
    • The whole "comparatively-small" part might not even be true, and even if it is, it wouldn't necessarily have to stay that way. We don't know how big the Mind World is (I actually posted a WMG entry about that for the movie) and it looks like it goes back pretty far. (Look at the background through the window in the screenshot.) It almost looks like there's entire cities, though one has to wonder what purpose those buildings serve. Even if not, it wouldn't be surprising if Riley could make it much bigger, and populate it with diverse forms of intelligent life. She'd basically be God, only in a different dimension. I wouldn't blame someone for wanting to live like that.
  • Plan B confirmed to be as described here.
    "The voices I hear are real! Here's proof!" 
  • I haven't thought of what specifically plan A and plan B would be for this one. If everyone knew how the mind worked, Riley wouldn't have to worry about being considered crazy, right? That would be one way to be considered free of her problems. But the problem is how to get proof. Nice as it would be, it's not like you can record a video in a dream and have it when you wake up. Well, everyone's mind works roughly the same way, right? Riley can use what she knows about her mind to guess at how other people's emotions might react to things. That's why Riley needs the manuals. What if there's a section in the manuals that says something like, "Try to keep your existence a secret from the host whenever possible, with one important exception." and said "important exception" is something that Riley can safely cause to happen to others?
    • Ladies and Gentlemen, this idea is hereby Confirmed! And the specific plan is much more interesting than what's laid out here. Riley wanted to see if she could project the emotions outside to show others. And her thought was that since emotions aren't imaginary, that means she thought they could be seen by all. This also explains why she wanted to try feeling on her own: in case something goes wrong in the process, she'd still be able to feel as she went.
  • Finding something like that in the manuals might not even be necessary. Riley could say something like "Do these terms have any particular meaning to you...or any part of you specifically?" and start naming Mind World-related terms like "core memories", "Headquarters", "personality islands", etc. While the other person probably won't notice any such meaning, this will most likely cause their Fear to produce some sort of visible reaction, perhaps unintentionally. Riley should film the exchange in case whoever she's telling forgets it—which very well might happen, considering emotions have direct access to their hosts' memories. Then ask the person why they think they reacted in the way they did. More likely than not, they won't have any idea. Riley can then explain why it happened. This would at least prove that there's something to what Riley is saying, that doesn't only apply to her own mind.
  • You know how Riley was eased into the existence of her emotions because she thought she was dreaming at first? She can suggest that to someone else's emotions (they can hear what Riley is saying, even if she can't hear them back), and tell of her own experience as an example of how being able to talk to one's emotions really isn't a bad thing. She can talk about some of the ways access to her Mind World has been beneficial for her. And then she could suggest that they wait until their host is about to fall asleep so they can be eased into it in the same way. The other person will probably think Riley really has gone crazy...until perhaps they next fall asleep.
     Riley: Dream Hopper 
Astral projection is... definitely an idea met with skepticism in the western world. However, what if this was part of Riley's plan A? Finding a way to project her consciousness into someone else's dreams, help convince them that she wasn't crazy through there? Maybe she could even secretly sabotage the dream staff in there, thus fulfilling her dream to direct a dream of her own from chapter 6.
  • Well, this is a fictional universe, not to mention one in which mind-body duality is known to exist. And I already suspect mind reading might be possible in the context of this story, as I explained above. So it wouldn't be too far of a stretch.
  • Another hint that this could be plan A: Riley was informed by Fear that part of the reason she got use to the emotions was because she was eased into it because she thought she was dreaming. What if she was now planning on fixing up her "crazy" accusations by easing her parents and friends into this through their dreams? This would also count as the "dishonest and dangerous" part of her planning.
    "What problems? I feel fine!" ✓ 
Perhaps Riley's plan involves altering the way she feels in response to certain situations. Riley knows that the console controls what emotions she feels. If she can override any input the Emotions give, she can prevent herself from feeling sad, fearful, angry, or disgusted at times she thinks she shouldn't be. If she tells her parents about the voices, and they call her crazy, she might normally be angry at them. But what if, before Anger has a chance to do anything, his part of the console suddenly stops responding, perhaps turning black like in the movie, and then Joy's part of the console spontaneously turns white and starts operating itself? It's not too far fetched, considering Fear mentioned "hijacking the console" being mentioned in the manuals.

This seems like something that would more likely be a plan B, with plan A dealing with actually fixing the problems. It's also clear why Riley's emotions wouldn't be fond of this idea; she'd basically be telling them, "no, you're doing your job wrong," and refusing to allow them to do it.

  • CONFIRMED!! As plan A! Guh, that must mean plan B must be pretty drastic, since that means Riley actually thought this would be something they'd be...somewhat ok with.
    • Well she did manage to do it in a friendly way. She's just asking them to try it on a temporary basis, she made it clear she knows they mean well and values their input, and she even invited them to help.
  • According to Word of God (via PM) Riley's "I feel fine" quote in the story actually came from the title of this entry.
    • More Word of God here: to be honest, I would have included the entire quote, but the different ways I was considering including it ended up making the dialogue feel too forced. So in the end I was just like, "What the heck, that'll work."
    Time Dilation 
Maybe Riley will do something to alter how time works in the Mind World. More specifically, to make it so while she's lucid dreaming, much more time passes there than Outside. That way, she could spend what feels like decades or more there at a time, and basically treat that as the main part of her life. But she'd still have a full life Outside, as all that time would only be in the space of a single night. She could live the life of her dreams (literally) in addition to her Outside life.
  • The only issue with this is that as Inception demonstrated, spending a lifetime in your dreams can lead to some serious problems in the real world.

Joy and Riley will trade places in some way.

Joy (presumably still) has a craving for being Riley (see WMG.Inside Out), and Riley clearly prefers the Inside to the Outside. They both have something to gain here. It could be permanent, as Joy could see tackling the whole "you are going insane" part head-on as protecting Riley, or it could be temporary, as Riley actually learns that being Joy is a job that she would have to take seriously.

  • The only problem with this is that there doesn't seem to be proper motivation from either party. There's been a HEAVY emphasis from Riley on insisting that she isn't her emotions. She may enjoy the mind world, but she's not interested in becoming an emotion. It's her "home away from home", not her be all end all. Besides, Joy's envious of her higher character, not her life from what we can see. She's her girl, not her goal, and there hasn't been any real indication of her wanting to be on the outside.
  • That probably won't happen, considering it's the topic of another fanfic the author is a fan of. Wouldn't be original. note 
    • Though, here's a point to consider: Outside In, as built upon Inside Out, has its own perspective on the Riley/Joy "Freaky Friday" Flip: since Riley isn't even consciously aware of her Mind World, she is largely shocked, while Joy just blindly dives into the concept, not being aware of the consequences because she cannot be forced to read more than a certain amount of the Mind Manuals. However, if Outside In was built upon Intercom, these problems would be averted: as Riley and Joy now are on familiar terms, the switcheroo could actually be consensual, with proper failsafes in case something goes wrong, and with a proper feel for each other's world without the whole freakout part.
  • Interestingly, if you're someone who believes in tulpas, this is something that reportedly can be possible. As such, assuming the practice could be applied to the sentient emotions, it may theoretically be possible for them to do it if they chose.

Riley will stop worrying about Honesty Island, letting it fall if it has to.
Lately Honesty Island has been doing Riley more harm than good, making her feel bad about things that don't hurt anyone (like the test, cheating or not) and making her paranoid about the tiniest lie breaking it. Apparently Honesty Island was created because Riley isn't good at lying. But what's a big reason lying can be harder than telling the truth? Unintentionally making your fear of getting caught visible...or in this case Fear of getting caught. Keep him away from the console, and problem solved.
  • You forget one person that Riley is hurting more than anything else with Honesty Island being damaged: Herself. This is also probably a fundamental divide that different users here on tv tropes have. And that's a divide of Ethics. Thinking that nobody's getting hurt with an action points to a more Utilitarian way of seeing the world. That life is about maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain. Hence the whole "not hurting others" thing. However, others might say that Honesty is essential for Riley, because it will help keep her bound to Truth, which could be seen as a more Kantian way of seeing the world. That there are imperatives and ways to act, and helping the most isn't nearly as important. Rather, it's about being bound to a way to act. And when you're cheating, you're not internalizing the knowledge for future and faster use without having to use a medium like the internet, or other beings like The Emotions. It's not really about what you remember, but what you can find the fastest. Which doesn't demonstrate that you KNOW the material you've learned, but rather how well you can use a computer or how much your friends know, etc. This could then extend to her telling the truth about hearing her emotions. Even if she might not be believed, or if she might accidentally cause a mental breakdown, it's still more important that she testify to the reality of the world. And if that includes talking about 5 beings that are with you all your life, then so be it.

The Mind World was originally designed under the assumption that it would be normal for people to go there
The Mind World doesn't look like something that evolved naturally; it looks like something that would be designed by some type of intelligent creator. (This is especially evident when you consider someone had to write the manuals.) Which would mean it was most likely designed according to a specific plan for how it would work. The manuals refer to the procedure of someone visiting their Mind World as something dangerous and heavily warns against it—but perhaps this wasn't always part of the plan. Various things seem to indicate the Mind World was designed with this in mind (no pun intendednote .) Perhaps God (or whoever/whatever it is) realized at the last second how it could go wrong. Perhaps the first few people to do it, not yet having any way to know of the dangers, weren't careful and did something that had disastrous results, leading to the last-second addition to the manuals warning against it. Yet some of the functions of the Mind World designed to support this weren't removed, under the assumption that they'd effectively just be Dummied Out. Some of the things I've noticed include:
  • The sky turning a unique color when Riley is there. The sky indicates whether Riley is awake or asleep. If there was originally a third possibility that was considered normal, it makes sense for a third color to have been assigned to it.
  • The special "white" console mode, and white memories. The console in Headquarters is able to detect who is operating it, as indicated by changing colors. Presumably if someone unauthorized (like an escaped monster from the Subconscious) attempts to access it, it will deny access, similar to how a fingerprint reader reacts to an unrecognized fingerprint. The fact that the console turns white when Riley touches it implies that it recognizes her as an authorized user (as it should) and doesn't mistake her for one of the emotions. She's probably the "admin user", come to think of it.
    • Chapter 18 shows that the console does in fact have a mechanism for denying access (it's even in the title of the chapter) and also shows that Riley has at least a higher "privilege level" than her emotions, being able to "revoke permissions" from them.
  • The Dream Productions camera's removable filter. If dreams weren't originally intended to be able to show the Mind World as it really was, wouldn't the reality distortion filter be built into the camera? The fact that it's removable implies it was intended to be used without the filter at times.
  • "Hijacking the console" in the manuals. One of the "scary" parts of the manuals Fear mentions in chapter 16 refers to "hijacking the console". Perhaps that section simply refers to someone remotely controlling their console from Outside, or otherwise doing things that require "admin privileges" as I mentioned before, which Fear referred to using a scary-sounding term because, partially because it was unfamiliar, it scared him.
  • It just makes sense. If your mind was an entire world where all your memories, emotions, aspects of personality, etc. had a "physical" form, wouldn't having direct access to that world make a lot more sense than the alternative? If people aren't aware of it by default, there's certainly some reason for that.

  • Except intelligent design, as a theory, has been heavily criticized. Nothing is quite too complex to just not have the possibility of having evolved via natural selection (including the human mind, and therefore, by extension, the Mind World, a direct representation of the human mind), and the existence of Mind World dates at least back to when mammals first evolved (as in the end credits, cats and dogs are shown to have emotions as well).
    • Normally it wouldn't be too hard to believe it was natural selection. It's what I believe is responsible for the real human mind, after all. But where would the manuals have come from? Who would have written them? When you're dealing with a fictional universe, intelligent design can very easily be how humans were created. (Actually, this isn't what I meant, but from an out-of-universe perspective, it always is.)
      • Manuals in cat/dog minds don't exist, obviously, since you can't write in the "language" of either. Therefore, it is likely that when proto-humans developed writing, their Mind Workers also used the invention to write the manuals, and the knowledge was simply passed on mouth-to-mouth (though very indirectly, as any indication that Mind World actually exists would result in complete and utter disaster, as Intercom shows us).
      • How exactly would passing the knowledge indirectly work?
      • Let's say Person A's emotions discover a "cool trick" based on how memories work. Given that this is Inside Out, the "cool trick" inevitably has some sort of translation to the "real world" language (be it scientific or philosophical), which Person A conveys to Person B. Person B's emotions translate it back to Mind World language and jot it down in the manuals.

The Inside Out fanfic archive will devolve into copycats of Intercom.

Before Intercom, there were still stories that were basically the fanfic author's mind, but it was treated the same way Riley's mind was in the movie: inaccessible to their host by any means.note  However, increasingly more and more stories involve the self-insert actually meeting their emotions, and Intercom just so happens to give an incredibly convenient way to do so. In addition, due to a sequel to Inside Out being out of question for the foreseeable future (especially with Pixar being determined to sequelize everything else they own), a fandom decline is to be expected.

Addendum: List of stories that list Intercom as their inspiration:

Meg will be a Chekhov's Gunman
During The Story, Sadness mentions that Riley "Still talks to Meg sometimes." This indicates that Riley did eventually find a way to reconcile with her old friend. This could just be a more bittersweet note to comment on the state of affairs, but why write that in if Meg is going to be a sattelite character at best? Well, what if she's going to have plot significance down the line? Perhaps as the last person to break through Riley's emotional barriers regarding RILEY'S new friends.

Intercoms are "installed" in people's minds after they have their first emotional crisis
Some reviewers wondered why it took so long for Riley to get an intercom, if there were 11 years where she could have heard a voice in the back of her head. It's possible that they don't get installed unless requested, or that they only come with the "expanded" console. That as a person grows in emotional maturity, they're also finally able to hear "their conscience" speak as well.

Emotions DO have parents
Joy in chapter 17 laments the fact that she has to grow up without parents like Riley has. Well, it's possible that like when humans have babies, emotions can pass on bits of their essence into children. So Riley's Joy actually does have energy parents in the form of bill and jill's joys. Although they don't ever get to seriously interact, it also helps explain how parents immediately form emotional attachment with their children even from just seeing them. It's more than the biological imperative. It's from the "parent" emotions beaming down at their kids in the new kid they have to raise and protect.
  • This would work very well if Riley's plan to make her emotions visible to others is successful.

Riley's worry about damaging Honesty Island is ironically the biggest threat to the Island.
Think about it: in the period of this fanfic, Honesty Island wasn't damaged at all until Riley "cheated" on her biology test. Up until that point, she wasn't too worried about it. After seeing it get damaged, however, she's afraid to tell her parents she isn't hearing voices, even though that's a very innocent lie, rather than the kind you normally associate with being dishonest. But remember what happened at the end of chapter 9, before she took the test? In a conversation with Ann, after accidentally referring to Disgust in a way that implies she's referring to a person, Riley mentions that she's personifying her emotions to help her in her psychology class. Nothing bad happened to Honesty Island then, nor was she afraid anything would.

So this means one of two possibilities regarding Riley's worry about lying to her parents: either she's wrong, and Honesty Island would be fine (it's survived something very similar before), or she's right, but the only reason is because this time she's worried about it. We've actually seen very convincing evidence that Riley's worry about Honesty Island can pose a threat to it. In chapter 16, as soon as Riley realizes that her big plan might be considered dishonest, she starts wondering whether Honesty Island will be okay. She's relieved for a second when nothing happens, as she realizes she isn't as connected to the islands as usual due to her currently being in the Mind World. But as soon as she remembers she created Possibility Island from there, which causes her to start worrying again, then it starts taking damage. Considering she is in the Mind World though, there is admittedly the possibility that it was merely a result of her accidentally using her Reality Warper powers, however.

Control Lockout day...
Well, we don't know exactly what's to come of Riley taking control of her own emotions for a day, but here's where you can make some guesses.
  • Riley comes to appreciate how hard it is to know when to react to something a certain way, and resolves to be willing to hear them out even if she doesn't like it.
  • "If you keep making a face, it'll stick that way." Metaphorically, that's what Sadness was trying to warn her about. That by doing lock down for too long, it would inevitably result in depression all over again.
    • Partially confirmed. Rather than restoring gloom with overuse, rather overuse means that she'll eventually lose the ability to have strong feelings altogether. She tries to make up for her choice once she hears this by giving power back, but it turns out it can only be fixed from the inside, so Riley has to deal with her decision for the rest of the day.
  • Riley begins hearing voices that aren't the emotions, furthering her schizophrenic descent into madness.
  • Everyone thinks she's hiding something even more, as getting personal control only makes you seem like you have a poker face. That you're still hiding an emotion rather than being fully truthful on how you feel.
    • Added on, this will only make her problems worse, as without her emotions, Riley won't be able to seem genuine in her anger, fear, sadness..etc. over her many issues. Only hesitantly feeling bad.
  • Not a direct guess, but this particular day is an homage to the concept of the emotions being shoulder angels/devils. In that they don't control her emotional state, but do provide advice since the Intercom seems to still be working fine.

Riley will prove to her emotions that they're still her friends by literally showing them her sense of friendship.
Normally you can't really prove to anyone that you feel a certain way about them. Even if you do something like get the person a gift that seems thoughtful, to someone paranoid (like Fear) there's always the possibility that's still just part of a plan to deceive them. The only way you could actually prove to someone that you consider them your friend would be if somehow they could see inside your mind.

Well guess what? In this situation, the friends in question actually have this advantage. In fact, they live in her mind. Since friendship exists in a person's mind, and in this universe that's an actual place, there's almost certainly some location where her friendship for them literally resides. The manuals can probably help her find this place, but the most obvious place to look would be Friendship Island and/or Family Island.

Riley is The Chosen One
Hey, this is WMG after all. I'm just going to throw this out. Riley is the first human to know her emotions and not Go Mad from the Revelation, and that is because she was chosen to be the one to finally reveal the existence of Emotions to the human race. Show them they're never alone even in their darkest hours, hint at the great reality they're part of, and many other things that were meant to be. So then, why Riley and nobody else? Well, because God chose the weak and disgraced of the world to shame the proud so that none could boast in themselves. Or to put it in trope terms, In Mysterious Ways.

Riley will attempt mental suicide at one point
Ok, now we're going to dark places in this section, but the clue I see for this is in Riley's internal thought process that she "wanted some quiet". And, well, isn't that like a giant warning sign for something awful to be attempted if she feels like she's truly at her lowest point? Of course, I use the term attempt because this fic IS rated K+, and an actual suicide would give an automatic T bump.

The method? The Sadness technique: throwing herself into the memory dump.

  • Except that's not something for which she would need information from the manuals.
    • Oh I'm not talking about any manual stuff for this. I'm saying that in a moment of My God, What Have I Done?, Riley will attempt suicide out of guilt for what she's done. Get the eternal quiet she might be wanting at that moment.
      • Oh okay, for some reason I was under the impression you were saying that was plan B.

Riley telling her parents everything will be delayed again
For two reasons, one being Rule of Three, and the other being Bill and Jill went into her room without her permission and looked through her stuff. Not only would this make Riley and Anger mad that they snooped, but it would also make Riley less willing to tell them the truth, and trust them as well.

Riley: "You went into my room, and looked through my stuff?!"
Jill: "We wanted to help you, sweetheart. We wouldn't have gone in if we didn't think what's going on was serious."
Anger: "Oh, you wanted to help? Well, going into Riley's room without permission certainly didn't help Riley trusting you with her problems! Riley, tell me I can use the console."
Riley: (thinking) "Go for it."
Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear: "Anger, no!"
Anger: "Raaaaaagh!"
Riley: Get out of my Room! OUT! OUT! OUT!

  • Considering her emotional state as of chapter 22, this seems more than likely, though not with the exact dialog.
  • Meh. Confirmed.

Disgust trying to change herself isn't going to work until Riley finds something else to be disgusted with
It's why she couldn't straighten her hair in order to look like Riley. Cause there's no way Riley's disgusted with herself. Rather, Riley either needs to find a new fashion look, or become disgusted with something new in order for Disgust to give herself a fashion shift.

Alternatively...

Disgust can change her looks
It's just that because she's been wearing her hair like that for 12 years, it's going to take more than just 10 minutes to straighten it.

Riley's already created a new Bing Bong. She just doesn't know it yet.
Part of why they went looking for a bing bong memory was because they thought they needed it to bring him back by having Riley "properly" remember him. But the thing is...well, she kinda already did. Hearing the story of the move meant that Riley already kinda remembers Bing Bong, and the fact that she codified that as a soul memory means she at least has a secondhand thought about who Bing Bong could be. So, it's entirely possible that a new Bing Bong sneaked into the Storybook section of Imagination land, since she now knows Bing Bong as part of a story. So her imagination's already created the closest thing she can think of for Bing Bong...in the same way she created an alternate memory dump as well.
  • Also, she clearly knows who Bing Bong is after waking up the next day, so it's possible that he could be there and just not known.

Tracy will push Riley too far
Anger pushes Riley to "punch" Tracy on several different occasions. Tracy will eventually press some sort of Berserk Button and cause Riley to lash out at her, seemingly confirming Tracy's accusations that Riley will hurt people.

If Riley's plan to bring her emotions outside works, they'll be able to somehow enter other people's minds
If it becomes established that emotions are able to leave one person's mind, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch for them to be able to enter a different person's mind. This would fit well with the apparent "hints" I pointed out about mind reading.

Imaginary beings can exit the Mind World and become visible to others
It's true that emotions aren't imaginary, but that doesn't mean they're any more real than beings who are. They're both just as real within someone's mind; "imaginary" simply refers to how they were created. Even though Riley thinks the reason other people couldn't see Bing Bong was because he's imaginary, and as a result that wouldn't be the case for the Emotions, she could be wrong. If the Emotions "leave" in the same way Bing Bong became visible to Riley, other people probably wouldn't be able to see them either. But that doesn't mean there isn't a different way they can leave that does make them visible to others, that works for imaginary beings as well.

Alternatively, maybe it is possible for the Emotions to become visible to everyone through the same method Bing Bong became visible to Riley. Bing Bong simply chose to remain invisible to others, and didn't mention he could become visible. This is because Bing Bong, like (most) Emotions, cares about upholding The Masquerade, which we know because he's been in Riley's Mind World. If he didn't care about that, he probably would have told her. Of course, now that Riley knows the truth, she can convince her emotions that what she wants is more important. (It is her own mind, after all.)

This of course would make it even more of a mystery why the Mind World was a secret in the first place, and would (IMO) be another reason Riley should share her knowledge with the world. That would be quite a useful ability to have.

Riley's parents finding about her "cheating" will unintentionally solve the other worry she has with her parents.
Right now, Riley's probably expecting her confrontation with her parents to go something like this:
Jill: (interrogating) What's this about cheating on a test? This is so unlike you, can you please tell us what's going on?
Riley: (unsure of the best course of action) I don't want to talk about it right now! I just want this day to be over! I promise I'll talk to you tomorrow when I'm feeling better! (runs up to her room)

However, I'm guessing it will probably go more like this:

Jill: (in a kind, "worried" tone) Riley, your teacher told me you cheated on a test. Does this have something to do with these "voices" you're hearing? We're worried about you!
Riley: Umm...yeah, it sort of does. But it's not what you think! Just let me explain!
Jill: Oh, actually, first, there's something else I want to ask you about. I know this is sort of an invasion of your privacy, but you need to understand how worried we are about you. We went in your room and found these drawings, and for some reason I suddenly got this weird feeling like it has something to do with what's going on. What's this supposed to be?
Riley: You went into my room??? Why did you—
Joy: Wait! Riley! I know you're mad, but doesn't this make things a lot easier? I'm sure her emotions are prepared now! That's probably what that weird feeling she mentioned was!
Riley: (thinking) You're right, Joy! (Riley decides that anger isn't the most productive feeling at the moment, and her console lockout helps her not feel angry.)
Riley: Actually, I'm not really mad. This makes it a lot easier to explain.
(Riley explains to her parents the meaning of the drawings)
Riley: ...so I had them write down the answers when I was studying, and they read it back to me during the test. I know I—
Jill: Wait, you're saying you had these "emotions" give you test answers from inside your head? Riley, that's not cheating. In fact, I'm very impressed! Maybe whatever's going on with you isn't as much of a problem as I thought if it's helping you in school! I need to call Dad; he'll definitely want to hear this. Oh, and Ms. Karol; you shouldn't have to retake the test if you weren't actually cheating.
Riley: Wait...really? Does this mean you're not going to take me to a psychiatrist?
Jill: Well there's definitely something strange going on in your head. But whether it's real or not, clearly whatever you do in that...dream world, or whatever it is, is really affecting you like it would if it were real. I can't say I really understand what's going on, but it seems like you understand why you've been acting so strange lately, and you said you can fix it, right?
Riley: Yeah, like once I start lucid dreaming tonight, I'll just fix what I did to the console, and that problem will be solved.
Jill: Just be careful there! ...Oh, you mentioned lucid dreaming earlier; I heard about that once before, it's when you know you're dreaming and can control what happens, right? Where did you hear about it?
Riley: Oh, Joy told me...you know, the emotion? Hey, wait, if she's just a hallucination, how would she know about something I've never heard of?

Okay, that last part is just something I added for fun that isn't really relevant, but it would be cool. :)

  • You really want to justify that Riley wasn't cheating, don't you?
    • Lol no, that's not why I posted that. I had Jill say in the example that she didn't think it was cheating, because as you know that's what my belief is. But the point was that clearly what's happening to Riley can be helpful to her, regardless of whether or not it was okay for her to take advantage of it in that one particular situation. In fact, if her parents do think it's cheating, it might not be good for Riley in terms of her getting in trouble, but at least that would in all likelihood mean they truly believe that she's communicating with other entities rather than simply "hearing voices" like someone with schizophrenia. All the arguments I've seen in favor of the idea that Riley is cheating are based on the fact that she's receiving help from someone else. If her parents are under the false impression that it's a hallucination rather than real people, I can't imagine how they'd still think she's cheating.

Riley's 11th Island of Personality will be called Guilt Island
Think about it. Riley's memory that created that moment was a scream of anger, fear, sadness, disgust and depression, storming out of class. And Joy did say she didn't want Riley to "hurt yourself" in the process. Not to mention that scream was created from Riley's own horrible realization that Anger had a point. If she hadn't done...well, several different things, from not getting the intercom repaired to doing that whole lockout thing on the emotions, she wouldn't be fretting and stewing like this. And as seen the night before, Riley already caries some self-loathing for trying to run away last year. So what would her new island of personality reflect but that inability to forgive herself about her actions? Anger, disgust, sadness all turned inward, fear at her future actions, and depression that she keeps messing up. And from this 1 memory, they'll be tempted to "change her personality" like was cautioned in the consciousness tampering section, only to somehow make it worse...or affect the other islands instead, making her guilt override her love of friends, hockey, etc. So that instead of "quick" changing the new core to something else, the only way to dim or bring that island under control is to forgive herself, and be willing to move on regardless of what comes.
  • Jossed in chapter 22, although the author stated this was a candidate for the title.

The new island is going to be called alienation island
Like with Possibility and Honesty, it doesn't tap into an interest so much as taps into a part of Riley she now feels ingrained within herself: alienation from others. From her parents whom she still doesn't trust even after last year, the shred of alienation she still feels from her new friends and home that wasn't continue from an earlier time. And most important of all, alienation from herself. Utterly drained and alienated from her negative actions, and confused about her relationship to emotions and mind. Wracked with pain from her mistakes, and now seeing herself at those moments like a monster doing the act, unable to see the good that came from bad choices.
  • Technically jossed, but the actual name, Isolation Island, has the same essential meaning, so close enough.

Joy is going to Rage Quit at some point
It's been set up already, due to her secret desire to have a family, to get guidance and so forth. At some point, one of the other emotions (or riley) are going to demand an answer from Joy to a question, at which point after everything that's happened to shake Riley's confidence, Joy's going to suffer a nervous breakdown. Perhaps screaming out loud, "HOW AM I SUPPOSE TO KNOW WHAT TO DO? ALL I EVER KNEW WAS THAT WITH MY HELP, RILEY CAN BE HAPPY, AND WITH THE OTHER EMOTIONS, SHE'LL BE HAPPY AGAIN IN TIME! WHY SHOULD I KNOW HOW TO HANDLE SITUATIONS LIKE THIS!!??? I Want My Mom! (cries)" And it's here that we're going to see that for all joy's learning, growing and so forth, there's still a part of her that feels she has to stay the strong guiding one for all their sake, only now with the situation she's been given, she's just....stuck. Drowning under her own expectations. Perhaps this is going to tie into a True Companions moment between the emotions. That Joy was never alone. That she always had someone to be with her, whether it was riley for 30 seconds, or Sadness to help show the way to greater joy after that. Cause Joy can't have a "standard" family, but the family she's born into with 4 siblings/spouses and 1 ward is just the support system she needs....just like how Anger and Fear are tight in Bill's head, or how all the emotions in Jill seem to be able to balance each other out.
  • Considering she willingly but reluctantly just got separated from Headquarters AGAIN to save Riley's memories...

The emotions are going to start turning on each other over Riley's plans more seriously than the small disagreements seen before
Depending on what Riley's plan B is, several of the emotions, based on who they are might actually think the plan was extreme...but acceptable. It's going to split them down the middle, along with 1 undecided who's going to be wracked with indecision to what side of themselves to follow through on to help Riley.

At one point, the emotions are going to stumble over how to confirm their existence to Riley
  • One will ask "What do you think", but since Riley's memory is partially directed, Riley won't feel confident in trusting herself to know what to think.
  • One will ask "What do you feel", but since THEY help ensure Riley can feel, there's that issue of subjective influence for that as well.
  • Finally, as part of Rule of Three, one will finally ask, "What do you believe?" While thinking and feelings influence belief, belief itself is more manifest in isles of personality, and even though emotions influence the choice, only Riley can decide if a memory is Core. And from that, Riley might be able to look to Possibility Island to think through that question for better or worse.
    • Of course, if Riley's plan is successful, that won't even be an issue.

Riley's going to be benched at Hockey Practice
Self explanatory, but with Joy gone from HQ, and with everything happening, Riley's either going to be too slow and without drive, or too aggressive. Taking out her frustrations and rage on the players around her. (Which would indirectly fulfill Tracey's fear about Riley going violent with Schizo) And given they're only 12, that'll send Riley with a 1 way ticket to the bench. And maybe a Rage Quit as well as History Repeats. Shame too. She's probably one of the foghorn's better forwards, considering they trust her with the faceoff.
  • Confirmed. Though thankfully her anger was at her situation, not the game itself. So Hockey Island was still standing in the end.

Riley's going to get brain surgery at the end of the fic to try and help with the "schizophrenia"
And then we will see if Fear or Disgust were right about how the mind world is affected by it. And besides, if you want to talk Drastic actions in the physical world, there's no more desperate attempt than going all the way to brain surgery as a last resort. Perhaps before agreeing to it, Fear will reiterate to Riley that, "Your safety is my top priority", and depending on whether riley "needs" it will be either a Ironic Echo or a Meaningful Echo.

The Emotions "rooms" are all Pocket Dimension spaces, not just Joy's Happy Place
While the entry under Retcon might make it seem like they have a long hall that they walk down before they reach the main floor for work, I propose an alternate idea: namely that the window all the emotions peak out of when they were woken up by Joy's accordion in the movie actually does have multiple rooms hiding behind the window. It's just that Joy was playing so loudly that they could hear her all the way from the main hall. I mean, looking at the emotions space, there's not exactly a lot of space for them to have their own room, and even if there was, the author has bee doing her best to try and make Intercom seem like a genuine continuation from the movie, so she'd want to gloss over and make sure her canon works as closely as possible. So, it's possible that inside that "small" purple sphere we see Joy playing outside of is a sizable hall with 5 doors in it that leads to each emotion's pocket dimension for them to have their own space and things to enjoy. Because hey, Joy and Disgust aren't the only ones who deserves extra space for personal vanities.
  • The only problem with this is that based on how the scenes before this were written, it makes more sense for it to be longer hallway upstairs, since Fear's had several instances running from his bed to the work space without interruption. It's probably better to just accept the Retcon and not force PPK to bend the reality of her fic too much.

Riley's going to lose a core memory by the end of this.
Not only is one of her cores in opposition to all the others ( Isolation), but being on the cusp of teenagehood means that some of Riley's interests might be shifting more as she starts developing newer values for her life. Losing things she'll need her whole life like Friendship and Family are probably not fine, but who knows for the the rest.

The Million Dollar Question for Riley
Somewhere in the fic, one of the characters is going to ask Riley the Armor-Piercing Question about not just what's happening to her, but her behavior as well. The question that should be underpinning what happens in the mind world. The question that should make the physical world a breeze. The question that would have Riley confront her anger towards her emotions and the choice to lock them out for a day. What might be underpinning her fear and anger. And that question is....
  • Why don't you trust someone who loves you?
  • Why are you angry?
  • Why don't YOU think you're crazy?

Riley's going to do a conscious tampering so drastic, that HQ is going to collapse into the memory dump
Given what we see in the preview for chapter 24, Riley's going to get Amnesia making her forget all about the inside and outside worlds. The clue for why the collapse is not only because she asked that question of "who would she be" if that happened, but also because the memory in her hand is for Possibility island. But since that's back at HQ as of chapter 23, that means that HQ will probably collapse, sending that core to the memory dump, and that by being there, Riley is losing her identity in full.

Riley's going to get lost in the Unconscious
And as a side effect, lose her memory of who she is, as the unconscious is "naturally unnatural". But, someone is going to be there to get her out, and it's not just Joy....it's going to be the original Bing Bong. Not only does she know who he is now, but if he wasn't forgotten by everyone, then where did he go from the memory dump? The Answer? Into the unconscious, where Riley unconsciously knows him, even though she doesn't fully remember him. And he's going to be there to get Riley out and save herself once again.

Joy is going to find out about Riley's secret plan before the others
How? A mind worker is going to run into her and tell her what Riley said that night to each of them. Because much like the emotions, every mind worker also only wants the best for Riley, so one of them "taddling" to Joy might fit with this. This in turn will lead Joy to try and confront Riley about the plan, but lead to a standoff as the other emotions won't know whether to believe Joy's accusation or Riley's denial (as children do sometimes when caught with something).
  • First part confirmed. As of 25, Joy knows now from the stream of consciousness and the mind workers.

The Emotions are actually fragments of Riley's Soul
This would this explain why they sometimes say "We" instead of Riley sometimes, and sometimes seem to have a separation between Riley and themselves. That they are and yet aren't her at once. It also ties into how they just "appear" in Riley's mind. That they're just being actualized by Riley in order to know what true emotion is when she first experiences one or the other. Depending on your religious views, it could also serve as an interesting nod to JRR Tolkein in that Humans are not creators but "Sub-creators". And like how God created people in his image, so humans also create within themselves, but not in the same sort of way due to our flawed nature.

Near the end of the fic, Riley will FINALLY get to see the emotion rooms
Since not going up there seems to be developing into a Running Gag after 25 chapters, she'll finally get to see the emotions as other entities when she notes all the ways they treat their private spaces differently from her. And there will be many hugs and laughter about how she finally has made peace with them.

Most of Riley's missing cores
were sent straight to the memory dumpThis might explain why Joy was only able to recover 1 of them while wandering around, and would add to her feeling a desire to reject truth, friends and family. Plus, it's more dramatic that way that they wouldn't find them for the most part. And as demonstrated in the original movie, it takes time for memories to dissolve, so there'd still be time to go retrieve them.

Harry the imaginary boyfriend will become a long-term imaginary friend or 'uplifted' into a tulpa.
The way he develops basic traits in response to pressure and being asked feels oddly similar. Being an imaginary character who is given more 'substance' and character especially.

Chapter 26 will never come out.
Because somebody had to say it...

There's an arc symbol that Riley's going to have in this fic, ending with Disgust taking over as Riley's lead emotion
It's just a pattern that I've begun to notice during Riley's visits to the mind world. During the first visit, she first hugs 3 of the emotions at once, but the more memorable hug the next chapter features Joy giving Riley a big hug for finally seeing her. More important. Those are hugs of Joy. On trip 2, Riley hugs Sadness first on reentry. And this hug is a hug of Sadness, needing comfort. On her 3rd trip, she hugs Fear first, and the hug is a hug needing reassurance. A hug of Fear. So, by extension, one can guess that later on she gives/gets hugs done in Anger and Disgust.

So why would Disgust be the last one? Because over the course of Joy being lost, Disgust has stepped up more and more as the emotion trying to direct the others in their actions. So if she does it last, it might make for a good final Passing the Torch of emotional leader from Joy to Disgust. Further, Riley's still on the brink of teenagehood, so why not have teenage Snark take over as her lead emotion?

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