Inside Out
Džoj sat with the other dæmons, watching their emotions work. Sadness is off to the side, reading through the manuals like usual while the other four do the actual work. Kesesihan is with Sadness but the other three dæmons are pressed against Džoj's side. Unlike humans, the Emotions can touch each other's dæmons without pain but it still feels strange. Anger touching Džoj will make the Border Collie feel angry and that's not how things should work. Emotions don't mix, Joy was certain of it.
When Riley went to sleep and Joy took dream duty, the puppy bounded over, jumping into Joy's arms as soon as the other emotions moved away. Joy laughed, catching her dæmon and setting him down on the counter, pulling up a good memory for Riley to dream about.
'The first time Riley went skating on her own.'
Džoj nods happily, watching the screen in awe as Joy starts copying Riley's motions, gliding across headquarters' floors. Her dæmon watches, the small glow along his fur increasing as he stares at the memory, at their girl enjoying herself. Dhaqaaq is a beetle on Riley's shoulder so Džoj doesn't have anything to copy but he can watch, very content is seeing his emotion happy.
Finally, Joy spins to a stop and dances over to her dæmon, sitting down next to him on the console. She rests her head on her arms, smiling widely at him.
'Do you think things could be any better?' She said, sighing happily.
'No.' He says, shuffling forward and pressing his nose to hers. He ignores Sadness and Kesesihan shuffling around behind Joy and smiles. 'Life is just perfect.'
Sadness smiles shyly as Džoj bounds over to her, jumping into her arms. The puppy presses his nose against Kesesihan's side briefly before jumping down again and trotting over to Joy. The glow around him fades from blue to yellow as he reaches her and Kesesihan tilts his head at them.
'That wasn't in the manuals.' The stoat says, staring at the other dæmons as they move between the Emotions. Cabsanina jumps behind Anger's back when Riley jumps at something and Dusmas growls at the screen, her tail pressed against Disgust.
'No.' Sadness says, pouting slightly. If she didn't know everything in the manuals, what was she good for. 'We should go check.'
Kesesihan nods and Sadness waddles over to the manuals while the other four sit down at the console. The two sit down, pulling down the nearest manual and flicking through it. Although Sadness' movements are slow and weighed down, they managed to read through the whole thing and make it to the next one quickly enough, reading it to the end but finding nothing. Kesesihan nudges Sadness as they place the manual back, pointing to the end of the shelf.
'That's new.'
Sadness looks up, frowning at the new manual. She reaches out to it, leafing through slowly. It has chapter titles like 'Memories: Reliving and Revising', and 'Combining Emotions'. Sadness perks up, as much as she can, and flicks to the end.
'What are you doing back here?'
Sadness looks up at Joy and Kesesihan stretches out to her, glowing yellow as he does. 'I have to read the manuals.'
'Do it later.' Joy smiles, pulling her up. 'We need you.'
'No, no, no, no!'
Dusmas follows her Emotion towards the console, watching him press- read hit- several buttons in an attempt to get Riley to react in the right way. It works, their girl storming away from the dinner table and marching upstairs. Joy looks worried about this but Kesesihan and Rikoriko distract her. Dusmas knows Riley's parents will join her in a second, explain what they meant and everything will be fine but Riley still needs to react to things properly so her parents know how she is feeling.
Anger slumps slightly, his head dangerous close to setting on fire. His honey badger dæmon has already began to glow like hot coals, the edges of her fur lighting up far more than usual. Anger runs a hand along her side, as if to comfort her, but they both know it won't help. Dusmas and Anger are too fuelled by, well, anger, to comfort each other in any way but they get a simple peace from touching each other. It's not enough to calm either of them properly but sometimes it stops them from hitting or biting Fear and Cabsanina.
'Calm, calm, we have to stay calm for Riley.' Anger mutters, his hand on Dusmas' back beginning to press painfully.
Dusmas bristles, pushing his hand away and biting on his leg, dragging him away from the console. They know that Riley doesn't need them right now, needs to react to her parents with love and compassion, with maybe some fear. Sadness shuffles to the console with Cabsanina. Dusmas looks up at Anger, smiling ever so slightly.
'We did good.'
Anger shrugs, pulling out a newspaper.
'Don't even think about it.'
Dusmas shuffles away from the controls, dragging Cabsanina with her. Riley has just had some strange pasta put in front of her and Disgust needs her full concentration on the food. With just one bite, she needs to tell if the food is poisonous and what the appropriate response to it is. This is something she can do, something she doesn't need Joy for. She can handle it, she knows she can.
But then, Riley likes the food. It's nice, spicy but not too much, creamy but not sickly so. It's good food and Disgust can't react to good food.
'What would Joy do?' Rikoriko says, perching on the console. The Siamese cat is staring at the screen, his tail moving from side to side. 'We have to do something.'
Disgust shrugs, pressing a button gingerly. Outside, Riley sneers slightly but continues eating and Disgust deflates slightly. Not a bad reaction all things considered, but not great. Riley is eating it, hasn't completely rejected it. Rikoriko jumps over to the memory as it emerges, green but not as bright as normal, muted. The cat looks back at Disgust as she moves away from the console, letting Fear take control. Disgust picks up her dæmon, walking away as Riley heads to bed.
'It'll be okay Ricky.' She says, stroking his head as she sits down. 'Riley will be fine.'
'I know.' Rikoriko sneers, shaking herself off. 'But she needs to be fine now. Joy needs to hurry up and get back.'
Disgust nods, stroking him again. 'She will, you know she will.'
They stay silent for the rest of the evening.
Fear is scared of Cabsanina. He supposes it makes sense, in a twisted sort of way. He is scared of everything, even his own dæmon. But he does hate it, when he flinches every time she speaks or she curls up every time he tries to get near her. She curls up more if it's anyone else so it's not too bad. But still, everyone else loves their dæmons and is loved back.
'Cabs?' He says, slowly and quietly. The hedgehog still jumps, spinning to look at him. He flinches at her speed but soldiered on, kneeling down on the floor and finally lying down right next to her. She was shivering, the poor thing, but she didn't run away. 'Why are you hiding back here?'
They were right at the back of headquarters, hidden from all the others and covered in shadows. Cabsanina was shaking less, but still looking at him with wide eyes.
'Džoj and Kesesihan kept trying to get close to me, then Joy was really close and I was yellow, I'm not meant to be yellow and-'
'Breath, Cabs.' He says, slowly moving his hand towards her. She freezes for a second, then moves forward, crawling onto his hand. Fear is still, smiling at her. 'It's okay, I promise. Džoj was green the other day. For like, two hours.'
Cabsanina laughs, a tiny bell-like laugh. 'I know. But it's new and scary.'
'I know, I'm scared too.' He smiled slightly, sitting up and pulling her to his close. Her spikes prickle against his skin but, strangely, he isn't worried at all. 'Maybe we can be scared together.'
Cabsanina snuggles closer.
'This one's my favourite.'
Bing Bong doesn't need to look up to know which memory the Qiyaasi is looking at. She'd put it at the very top of the shelf, to make it harder for the Mind Workers to take away. She was flying above his head now and, if he closed his eyes, he could see him and Riley, the two of them running about with their dæmons, so, so happy.
'I like that one too, Qi.' He says and she looks down at him. Like Bing Bong, she is made of many things, although not as many. She is a hawk, but her wings are that of a dragonfly and she is beautiful. 'Show me my favourite, please?'
She smiles, flying towards another memory. They can't take them away with them, because then Riley wouldn't be able to remember the great times they had together. Bing Bong's favourite memory was the last time he'd tried to reach the moon with Riley, they'd gotten so close as well. It hadn't seemed special at the time, but the older Riley got, the more Bing Bong enjoyed watching it.
Qiyaasi flew down to land on his shoulder, nuzzling his cheek. His trunk moved to stroke his cheek and they moved on, picking up new memories and putting them in Bing Bong's bag. If they came across one they thought was important, Qiyaasi would fly it as high as she could, keeping it safe and remembered for as long as they could.
Riley may not spend time with them anymore but she still loved them and still remembered them. They didn't want Riley to ever forget them
Dhaqaaq should have Settled already.
It hadn't been too upsetting when they lived in Minnesota, where a lot of their friends had Unsettled dæmons and Riley had been happy. No matter what form Dhaqaaq took, Riley was happy with it and Dhaqaaq was happy to stay that way. But he didn't, and it didn't matter.
Now he wasn't comfortable about any form.
The kids at their new school were cool and so were their dæmons, already Settled and in awesome forms. Riley was now not just the new girl, but the new girl with the Unsettled dæmon who cried on the first day.
'Why can't you Settle?'
Riley looked up at Dhaqaaq, who was moving about awkwardly in the corner of the room, shifting through a dozen different forms.
'Don't like them.' He said, stopping shifting for a second, before beginning again. 'You don't like any of them.'
It was true. Every time he stopped, she could only feel revulsion at his form or, worse, terror. Riley shuddered, pulling her legs up to her chest.
'Life was so much easier back in Minnesota.'
Dhaqaaq froze for a second, his painted dog eyes wide. 'Riley. Minnesota.'
She nodded, grabbing her bag.
'Do you think we should tell them?'
Ayuub looked up at the polecat pressed against Jill's leg. Jill and Bill were staring out the window at Riley and Dhaqaaq, and ignored their dæmons. The weasel shrugged at her husband, looking up at Bill.
'If they have too long to think about it, they'll think only about the negatives.'
Bill leans down to pick up Ayuub as Tekenan climbs up Jill's side. Jill purses her lips. 'But they'll have more time to come to terms with the move if we don't spring it on them.'
Bill frowns, looking sideways. 'We can't change it, but it'll just hang over her head for months. Let Riley stay happy for as long as possible.'
Tekenan looked up at Bill, dangerously close to his face. 'She'll be happy in San Francisco, right?'
Bill smiled at his wife's dæmon. 'Of course. We'll all be happy there.'