The way the plot gets kickstarted: Fear and Anger are having an argument over dodging hockey pucks, Anger demonstrates how to deal with them by throwing a punch at the wall... except at he chose the wall where the intercom was, with predictable results. Sadness sums up everyone's reaction in two words:
Fear backs away from the intercom, even though he was already far away from it to begin with, and stumbles up next to the Short Term Memory racks in a hilarious fashion in an otherwise tense moment for the emotions.
Apparently one time when Bill Andersen (Riley's dad) was going to sleep after a carnival, he heard voices arguing which cotton candy flavor was best. Considering how different his emotions are from Riley's, it calls to mind a hilarious situation of those militaristic emotions debating over what sugary treat is their favorite, on the off chance it was his emotions he was hearing.
Riley gets introduced with her emotions, believing herself to be dreaming all of it. After a bit of awkwardness with Sadness, she does her best to be friendly to her nonetheless, then has the following thought:
Riley: (thinking) "I'm trying not to hurt my feelings' feelings? Man, my dreams are weird sometimes."
Chapter 3, Well, This is Awkward:
Fear makes a declaration right away in the morning that the emotions shouldn't talk to Riley. In less than thirty seconds, Joy ends up making him break his own vow, and he's screaming for her to be quiet while he rushes up to her side.
The headline of the newspaper Anger is reading changes to "THE EMOTION VOICES ARE REAL?!" after Riley hears them again. Anger quietly grumbles that he was just reading the previous article about the "crazy dream" Riley had.
The emotions' reactions once Riley accuses them of watching her change clothes and shower. The first time, Joy gives a sheepish "Sorry?", but for the showering, all the emotions only manage an awkward "Um..."
Riley's reactions to the revelation as well, which also depend of which emotion is at the console. Because Disgust considers for the first time how weird it is for them to watch Riley while she changes, she is mostly Squicked by the implications. But when Fear makes the mistake of mentioning the shower while attempting to reassure her, she gets a brief nervousbreakdown:
Riley: (mumbling in her pillow) "I have people in my head who watch me shower."
After Riley tells the emotions to do what they normally do while she's out with her parents, she finds out the hard way that the emotions are generally pretty chatty during the day, and is soon wishing for them to shut up.
Chapter 4, You Mean I Look Like Broccoli?:
According to Riley's personal tastes, she considers only one pizza place awesome enough for her tastes. What was it? Pizza Planet!
Everyone (sans Joy) has hilarious reactions when someone else points out that they're shaped like something. Sadness stares at Disgust after being told she's shaped like a teardrop, Anger vehemently denies that he looks like a short firebrick, Fear denies that he looks like a nerve but soon reluctantly agrees, and Disgust flips out at Anger.
Disgust: "You're short and you look like a brick."
Anger: "Yes, I'm short and- HEY!"
As the title of the chapter suggests, Disgust is horrified to learn that she looks like broccoli, drawing a laugh from both Riley and Joy.
Disgust: "Why was I cursed to look like my least favorite thing in the universe?!"
Due to only getting descriptions, Riley's first drawing of Fear had his eyes on top of his head rather than just near the top. Fear's over-the-top reaction to this gets a chuckle as well.
When Riley finds out about Anger shooting fire out of his head, she asks this about earlier in the day.
Riley: "Is that why it sounded like a blowtorch went off in my head when Pizza Planet was closed for repairs?"
Chapter 5, Lucid Dreaming:
Fear's over the top reaction to tell Joy "You always, ALWAYS gotta read the fine print!"
Now that Riley knows that she has living emotions in her head, she asks for some privacy while she gets into her pajamas. Anger's response? "It's not like we did before." Cue Riley blushing, Joy glaring at him and Anger digging himself deeper:
Anger: "What? It's true."
Riding on the train of thought back to Dream Productions, Disgust is still hung up on the fact she looks like broccoli.
Fear's "Worst Case Scenario #37" is Riley getting amnesia after being hit on the head with a memory orb. Of all the ways to get amnesia, that's probably one of the most ironic.
Chapter 6, Welcome to the Mind World!
The description of Fear examining Riley's lucid form like "an eccentric doctor who drank 12 cups of coffee."
Upon Riley's arrival in the Mind World, the mind workers turn into fangirls and fanboys, and ask for Riley's autograph. Starting with Rainbow Unicorn.
Made even funnier by the state of the passengers when they come in view of Headquarters: Disgust has gotten sick, Fear has screamed himself hoarse, Sadness fares a little better... and Riley is having the time of her life.
Chapter 7, Riley: Recognized:
When she enters Headquarters, Riley barely has time to take a look around before she gets tackled into a hug by Joy. Then, said emotion gets so excited that she's bouncing all around while babbling gleefully... before pausing to get back her composure and make proper introductions.
Anger: "Wow... you're tall. You make me feel short."
Joy shows how the idea bulbs work on the console by plugging in the bulb that will give Riley the idea to study for an upcoming test. When Sadness's mood drops as she remembers about that test, Joy sheepishly puts that bulb back on the shelf.
Once again Puberty comes up in conversation. The emotions apparently never took time to find out the alarm's purpose, and give all sorts of vague responses to Riley about it, including "It just takes up space."
Disgust's description of why she and Fear ended up creating a core memory of Tragic Vampire Romance novels. Also doubles as a Take That! to said novels.
Disgust: "It was like watching a train full of fireworks run into a train of moldy broccoli."
Riley giving an impromptu session of impersonations of her emotions, and nailingthecharacterofeach, to their amusement.
Chapter 8, Scatterbrained:
Disgust straightens her hair to make herself look less like broccoli... and then it promptly pops back into its original position. The way it happens is priceless:
Disgust: (removes straightener) "Now nobody can say that I look like-"
(Hair poofs back into position)
Anger: "Broccoli."
When the Train of Thought has to be brought back in the morning, Riley designates Fear for the job, despite his reluctance to abandon his post at Headquarters. When he leaves, Disgust jokingly says that, given how cautious Fear is, he might take a long time... only for her to be immediately belied by the train zipping past the windows, Fear obviously in a hurry to get back to Riley's side ASAP.
Anger and Disgust are a riot in their reactions to being "Scatterbrained". Anger in particular is quick to slam his fist or his head on the console, expressing his and Riley's frustration at this new situation. Disgust meanwhile gives her best snarl when Dad starts talking about a fishing trip he took, with both Riley and Disgust straining not to roll their eyes at Dad for another one of his stories.
Riley's random line of thought while being scatterbrained.
The Mind World was fun.
I wish I could drive a car like the train of thought.
Wow, the Golden Gate Bridge looks like it's glowing the way the light bounces off of it.
Why doesn't it look that pretty all the time?
Spellcheck is sometimes a pain.
That "I before E except after C" rhyme has at least 3 exceptions.
How can you do a poem about your favorite color if your favorite color is orange? Doorhinge doesn't count.
Why are all the fish at the bottom of the ocean so completely terrifying?
Remember when Jordan at the end of Inside Out could only stare at Riley with his emotions going "GIRL! GIRL!" in panic mode? Well turns out that his emotional freeze is part of Jordan's panic button for the emotions. And his Sadness even grumbles to Fear that he "uses it way too much."
Ann also gives Jordan the "Hello! Anybody in there?" while his emotions are trying to figure out what to do.
Then when Riley mentions "Idea Bulbs", all three Fears in three different people (Riley, Ann and Jordan) go into freak out mode. Riley's Fear lets out a Big "NO!". Ann's Fear goes into shock before yelling at the top of her lungs. And Jordan's Fear begins hitting their panic button repeatedly.
Chapter 11, Dangers of an Open Mind:
Riley shares her "metaphor" about emotions with her psychology class, causing the emotions in everyone to flip out.
Chapter 14: Pure Imagination
When Riley scores a goal at Trophy land, she gets 5 trophies, Joy gets 2, and Sadness....actually gets 1st place this time.
The Imaginary Boyfriend generator generates plenty of laughs. In part because since Riley's only 12, she has no idea what a real boyfriend should be like. So she only just gives him a name when she visits.
Then there's Disgust. Being The Perfectionist, she has much higher standards for a boyfriend other than playing guitar, being from Canada and "dying for Riley." She even at one point drags him down to her level, telling him to get a better haircut before trying to be good enough for Riley.
Also, as the gang leaves, she snarks at him to get a personality since looks will only go so far.
Disgust: You have a brain...I think. You'll figure it out.
Chapter 15: Memory Lanes
For a brief moment, Riley contemplates looking at the inside of Abstract Thought. Then, for one of the few times in Riley's life, all her emotions agreed on something: They all gave her a "NO!!!"
Chapter 17: A Hole in Her Heart
Fear describes the sensation of being compelled to affect a memory, and asks Riley if she could understand what it's like to have a voice in her head telling her to do things. Riley and Anger's faces are all he needs to get what a stupid question that is.
Fear: Um..uh...I'll be, um...over here.
The Big "WHAT?!" when Riley announces her intention to fly again in Long Term.
When Sadness offers to do Dream Duty and Joy doesn't complain, Disgust points out how unusual this is for Joy, and proceeds to do her best impression of Joy, complete with a falsetto voice.
Chapter 18: Access Denied
Fear's freak out and running the Train of Thought back down to Dream Productions when he realizes that Riley's going to be groggy again. As he speeds off, Sadness muses whether they can have Riley cheat and teleport it back next time.
Even though it's not too funny afterwards, there's something kinda funny about Joy wanting to give Riley an emotional reaction, only to suddenly get a "wrong answer" buzzer when she tries.
Chapter 19: A Talk With Mom and Dad
The Mass "Oh, Crap!" and Jaw Drop of Jill's emotions contrasting with Jill herself just feeling a bit uneasy for no clear reason.
Jill's Sadness: (after seeing Riley's drawings of her Mind World) "Maybe she just has an accurate imagination."
Chapter 20: Mixed Emotions
The hard shutdown on Joy's hopes for the beginning of the day.
Anger, much like how he enjoys wrestling as a unique trait that Riley doesn't have, also loves Ancient Rome. Why? Cause of the Colosseum and the blood sport there! Which of course made Disgust roll her eyes.
The name Jordan picked for the band that him, Ann, and Riley are part of is Anonymous Nachos. Three guesses what Disgust thinks of it.
Chapter 21: Color Turns to Gray
In a Black Comedy sort of way, Tracy's mind is different from Riley's in several ways (Disgust is her lead for one). But one funny point of connection is that just like Riley a year ago, Tracy's Sadness gets confined to a "circle of sadness" too. Guess Riley isn't the only one that needs a little more emotional maturity.
Chapter 22: Fragile Mind
Riley gets the distinguished honor of finding out what Puberty is in her Life Sciences class. Needless to say, the emotions are NOT pleased as they find out what Puberty entails. Riley even goes full Head Desk bonk on finding out.
Jordan even knows ahead of time, cause the teachers are his parents. All he says to Ann as he disappears with his dad is, "I warned you."
Chapter 25: Layers of Truth
Anger snarks about how Sadness is going to tell them a fun bedtime story about a place of darkness and despair when she begins reading up on the Unconscious.
Meta
This story is by the same author who wrote Pages Of Harmony. Let that sink in for a minute, and then gape that the two fics are about 10 miles apart in terms of premise and tone. Pages of Harmony is called one of the pantheon of MLP grimdark fics. As dark as Intercom has gotten, the author isn't interested in going THAT dark.
The Mulan parody spurred on by the author at the beginning of Chapter 17 announcing her return from her Schedule Slip and Eric the Looney's review that followed:
PPK in Author's Note: *shouts like Mushu* I LIIIIIVVVEEE!
Eric as Great Ancestor: MUSHU! These..(I point to the Tv tropes recommended pages) are the favored ones of the IO Tvtropes overlap teams. They…
Eric as Mushu: Provide endless entertainment to those who care..
Eric as GA: And you, oh most reviewed one?
Eric as Mushu I...lead the pack with great writing and hundreds more reviews than the nearest one despite being half as long as some.
Eric as GA: That’s right. Now, back to work with you.
Eric as Mushu: (sigh) One new chapter, coming right up.
Part of Joshua's review of Chapter 18, regarding how next chapter is primed to have Riley finally try to talk to her parents about what's going on:
