More often than not, Joy would take over the console before the rest of Wander's emotions even had the chance to process what had just happened. There was a joke around Headquarters that Wander's Joy existed as a spirit rather than a stable, tangible object, and the only sign he was there at all was a yellow blur and lots of shouting.

But one day, when Sylvia was sick, Joy was nowhere to be found. (Neither was Disgust, for that matter, but everyone else knew he was likely hiding in his room and trying not to think about the various fluids Sylvia was producing.)

While Sadness manned the controls - the panel's blue light flickered on lazily due to lack of use - Anger and Fear searched high and low until they finally found him curled up into a corner under the stairs. He looked at them, shaking, with huge eyes , as if it was much more than a cold. As if nothing would ever be alright again.

Anger and Fear looked at one another, down at Joy, and back at one another, wondering how the little guy would cope if it ever occurred to him that Sylvia's species had a much shorter lifespan than their own.