Emotions are thankless little things that you never really think about. We're hated more often than we're acknowledged. When we're acknowledged it's usually to consider our moderation. But those thoughts themselves are also us; emotion. There are so many little things going on in your brain and body that have such big, big stories attached to them, happening in real time while you worry about what the barista thinks about you. To you that is just a moment in time that you remember later as being a little embarrassing. To us, though, it looks a bit more like the bombs just dropped and we're scrambling the jets.
"No no no! What did we do to get a LOOK like that? Did we kill her dog?" Disgust hugged herself and shuddered. A tall green beauty with wavy, bobbed green hair and lime green skin. She wore tight jeans and a loose sweater that fell off of one shoulder to reveal a spaghetti-string strap. She noticed it immediately, made a face and pulled the sweater back up in an adjustment that was quick and without much thought. She rolled down a white projector board behind her and pointed while clicking a projector remote.
"We need to take a closer look at what could've caused this."
Anxiety bounced next to her, a short orange pixie with a pixie cut. She could barely reach the console, a large control station at the front of the mind, and therefore came up to about waist height of Disgust.
"Hurry, hurry! Once you get that figured out I'll hyperfocus on it."
"Fuuuuuuck that!" Anger slammed a button in the centre of the console, turning the whole thing a bright red. A tall emotion with red skin and fiery orange, shoulder length hair that covered one eye in a swoop.
"We're not tipping."
Anxiety screamed loudly, trying to reach the console. Anger kept her at bay with just the toe of her heeled foot.
"Let- let me in! I have to fix this! What if she's here next time? What if she never forgives us!? Oh GOD what if we go to the same school and she tells everyone that we are a no-tipper/" The orange emotion was close to pulling her red hair out.
A sultry, low voice from the back of the room let out a long exhale, then set aside her vape pen. Ennui was about average height with raven black hair. She wore pyjama pants, and she was perpetually just wearing yesterday's shirt. After a few seconds of anticipation she calmly stated
"Tipping culture is something that basically doesn't exist across the rest of the world. It's perpetuated by rich business owners who use it as an excuse to pay less wages to their workers. It's actually pretty unethical to even participate in it at all."
Anxiety was visibly shaken. "B-b-but we can't push that ethical assessment onto the workers in the mean t-"
"Not tipping feels pretty good right now, hehe." Joy grinned brightly. The emotion of joy wore a flowery sundress. She had yellowish skin and blue hair worn loosely without much styling. It just fell around her shoulders with a wreath of flowers being worn like a crown. She gave the thumbs up to Anger who pushed the lever once everyone was in agreement. The screen lit up as outside there was a front row, theatre-seating view of Madison very visibly and satisfyingly pressing the no tip button. She looked up to see the barista sneer at her.
Anxiety fell to her knees in despair. "Disgust, help me out here!"
Disgust stared at the screen. "I've actually come around to being disgusted by how disgusted she is. This girl..." She squinted to read the name tag.
"Kari with an 'i?' Heh... Yeah, figures. What. A. Bitch." Disgust sneered right back at the screen, offering a little half-wave with just her fingers.
"Enjoy your minimum wage, slut."
"We should say that! Hey! We should say that! Hey guys! Guys! We should say that!" They ignored the constant string of impulses without even looking back. The beginning was not an emotion, but many tiny impulses that were bombarding a shield that had been put up by all of them. The little tiny bulbs that each carried an idea fell into a funnel before being quickly ejected from the bottom of the control tower.
"Do NOT say that." Disgust uttered.
"Relax. It pisses me off that you think I would. We all agreed that impulse control is a good thing." Anger scowled, ceding the controls. Madison walked down the line towards the spot where the drinks would be handed out.
Finally, Madison was for all intents and purposes, us. A bright first year college student with cute brown hair, freckles, thin rimmed glasses and a beauty mark above her lip on the right. We loved Madison, of course, because she was ours, but also because she was humble and simple and smart and conscientious. She had everything figured out. The next eight years of her life were planned and that was largely due to our help. We raised this girl from the first moment she started to gain consciousness and... Well, I guess her parents helped, too, but if you can't thank your brain, what can you thank? Point is, we were in equilibrium and everything was going amazingly.
"Holy shit, what is THAT?" Disgust pointed out.
It was a girl waiting to get her drink. She looked to be from some sorority on campus, Madison recognized the letters. She was most assuredly not interested in that type of college experience, because she was here with a purpose and a goal. She was not here to play or party. There would be time for that later. The girl was wearing a pair of four inch heels while she was just... out and about. White stockings covered long, attractive legs and left just a bit of tanned skin showing between them and the short school-girl plaid skirt she was wearing. The Brittany Spears Toxic music video ensemble was made complete by a tied top that Maddison noticed as the girl turned and brightened to see her. Her thick red lips curled into a smile. As far as we could tell, the girl was not wearing anything under that tied top. Her nipples were showing through subtly.
"That's so gross." Disgust recoiled.
"How can anyone wear something like THAT out in public? She's literally showing off her tits and ass for the world to see? This is so, so, so not cool." Disgust pulled her own clothes tightly around her body insecurely, then clicked a button on her side of the console, it turned green briefly, causing Middison to give something of a look to the girl as she waited by the end of the counter. The girl acknowledged the look and smiled back happily.
"Let's not be the one that judges others over superficial things like looks." Joy argued, cancelling the look.
"Our Maddison is open to new things. New experiences and new people. I'm sure if we talked to this girl we'd find that she has a forest of thoughts and emotions and ideas just like us."
"Oh, hey, Maddi, right?" The girl asked.
Anger's eye twitched, but she did not go too overboard. Maddison responded evenly, maybe just a little stilted due to the unwarranted shortening of her name.
"Maddison."
"Oh, Maddison." The girl giggled, extending a manicured hand. The nails were immaculate and painted prettily.
Joy shrugged and took the controls, stepping in front of. "I mean... She's got cute nails and makeup is actually VERY nice. There is a lot to like about this girl."
Maddison relaxed, smiled and took the hand in her own. "Sorry, I didn't catch your name."
"Oh, I didn't give it. I'm Rini." She shook Maddison's hand delicately.
"I'm one of the sister's from SBU." She smirked and leaned in to add
"Sigma Bunny Upsilon."
Disgust shut her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. Maddison furrowed her brow.
"Uhm... Bunny isn't really a-"
Joy fixed things quickly. Maddison stopped herself short to avoid sounding condescending. She took a breath and smiled.
"Look... It's probably just for fun."
"Oh? I mean... Bunny isn't really Greek, but it's just a funny name." Rini offered with a wink. She released Maddison's hand and walked up to the far counter as her name was called, receiving a tall iced-cap loaded up with whipped cream and sprinkles.
"Oh my god! That looks so good!" Joy gushed.
Maddison eyed the drink with bright eyes before disgust stepped in. "We are watching our weight." Disgust gave Joy a death stare. The emotion simply sighed in response, lifting her hands off the console.
Rini noted the quick change and giggled. "You're funny, Maddison. You want a sip? All the fun of tasting it without the hazard of drinking it." She argued cleverly.
"I like this girl! Also, she's smart. She doesn't sound the way she looks at all." Joy observed.
"We can not judge a book by its cover, guys. Rini might make a really good friend. Maybe even a study partner!" She squealed, wiggling her hips happily.
Maddison perked up and leaned in to take a sip of the drink. She sighed happily. "Oh my god, that is so good!" She wiped her mouth carefully, then regarded Rini with a bit more class and respect.
"Oh it's chill. I mean, be honest. This is a look that kind of puts a wrecking ball to first impressions." Rini admitted, taking a short sip, and a bit off the top of the whipped cream from her drink.
"Yeah." Maddison chuckled.
"I'm really sorry. It's just... I saw everything and it kind of brought up a lot of assumptions. I'm new here, so I still have a lot to learn about the culture and stuff." She let that apology just hang in the air for a few seconds, offering a short shrug and a steady nod up and down of her head until Rini perked up and answered.
"I'd love to show you around SBU. Honestly, the reason I knew your name and face is because we're always recruiting good students. It's kind of our thing."
Maddison waved a hand in front of her, trying to be polite as she said. "I'm really not into the whole 'party' and sorority scene. I really, really just want to study and pave the way for what comes after, you know?"
"I hear you. But we're not really that into partying, either. Do you... Know anything about sororities, Maddison?"
Anxiety paced back and forth with her hands on her temples. "We made so many assumptions. So many. What do we know! Quick! Shoot!"
Anger nodded, turning around and spinning a few nobs. Balls of memories suddenly shot down through a tube, playing one by one at a rapid pace, showing them the collective knowledge Maddison had gained over the course of her life. Joy shook her head.
"Wait... Is this really just ALL movies and TV shows? This is what formed the basis of our understanding of what a sorority is? That's-"
"Dumb." Disgust sighed.
"I'm honestly a bit disgusted with myself right now."
"We were wrong!" Anxiety shouted.
"We need to try to seem more open minded! We don't want to be someone that goes through life never experiencing anything new. Also, where's our coffee!? We need caffeine, it's almost eight thirty!" The emotion bounced up and down.
Joy shrugged. "Be honest. She'll probably find it cute. Rini's been cool so far, so it makes sense."
"I'm just going to be honest. Most of what I know is from TV and movies." Maddison admitted with a blush.
