- 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.
- 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.
- Considering she might get a drug overdose later in the fic, we might have a catalyst for this too.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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!!
- 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..."
- 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.
- 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."
- 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.
- 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.
- If you do get ideas from other people, I hope they don't replace other things I would have wanted to read 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.
- Confirmed as of Chapter 22. To the point where the Mind Workers even said the "stuck for good" quote near-verbatim.
- 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.
- 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.
- This might be Riley's secret plan, or at least the main component of it.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 expresses interest in visiting the Subconscious in chapter 22, so it looks like things may be heading in this direction.
- Author here. Seeing as I started writing the story a few months before the movie came out... I like that, let's go with that!
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.)
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.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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."
- 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 (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.
- Until Chapter 17, that is, when we're introduced to her Happy Place and learn about her Tragic Dream. Even so, Joy's wish is less a desire to trade places with Riley and more wanting to experience life as a human does in general, having lived her life through Riley.
- 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.
- 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 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.
- 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.)
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:
- This would work very well if Riley's plan to make her emotions visible to others is successful.
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.
- 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.
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.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
Alternatively...
- 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.
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.
However, I'm guessing it will probably go more like this:
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.
- Jossed in chapter 22, although the author stated this was a candidate for the title.
- Technically jossed, but the actual name, Isolation Island, has the same essential meaning, so close enough.
- Considering she willingly but reluctantly just got separated from Headquarters AGAIN to save Riley's memories...
- 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.
- Confirmed. Though thankfully her anger was at her situation, not the game itself. So Hockey Island was still standing in the end.
- 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.
- Why don't you trust someone who loves you?
- Why are you angry?
- Why don't YOU think you're crazy?
- First part confirmed. As of 25, Joy knows now from the stream of consciousness and the mind workers.
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?