A/N: Sorry for the length of this author's note, but I have a lot that needs explained. I won't post it in any other chapters, though, so hopefully it won't mess up the wordcount too terribly.

Hello, fellow FanFiction writers, readers, and haters! It is I, Steveles, and I'm here to invite you to play a game with me. "Really?" you ask, "What sort of game?" Well, I'll tell you: It's a guessing game I've made up, called "Whose Mind is it, Anyway?" (because puns are simultaneously the best and worst things to have happened to the English language). Here's how it works:

I will write out a small vignette* about an event from any book/movie/play/whatever. The catch, of course, being that it's from the point-of-view of one character involved in the event... or, rather, from the point-of-view of his or her emotions. You'll see them react to what's going on in vague terms (i.e. I won't drop names of other characters, I won't use proper nouns, and I won't be completely clear with what's going on).

Nonetheless, perhaps I will occasionally drop names of the character's Personality Islands, and maybe even describe what their Headquarters looks like. Heck, I might even go so far as to describe what their emotions look like; though the genders will be randomized so as not to give too much of a hint (this means that, yes, a male character could potentially have a bunch of female emotions trying to help him, so don't think the genders themselves are a clue; you'll more than likely get a wrong guess).

Once I've described the inner workings of this person's mind, I'll zoom out and do a few paragraphs explaining what's actually happening, and - therefore - giving up the answer. The keywords are, "Meanwhile, on the outside..." So, when you see those words, know that the answer is coming up and you shouldn't read further unless you have the guess you think is best. Yes? Yes.

Feel free to make your own guessing games like this (as long as you come up with your own unique title for it, of course)! I'd be thrilled to see an entire "guessing game" genre of 'Inside Out' fanfiction show up.

A CAVEAT: Not all these characters are from stories I'm necessarily fond of. Then again, there are many I like. The thing is, I'll use characters that I feel would be fun to use for this game, regardless of how much I like the source material. So, don't think that my posting of a character automatically means I enjoy the story he/she is from; I might actually hate it, but think the character would work well for the game. So, there you go.

Also, if the character is from a story you've never heard before, then you can't be blamed for not knowing. Don't worry, and don't feel obliged to count that as a "loss" (if you're even keeping score at all, of course). Last of all, I'll try to avoid spoilers.

Now, with that artery-clogging nightmare of an author's note finally out of the way, let's begin this round of "Whose Mind is it, Anyway?" This one's from a book/movie...

The neatly-organized drawers and cupboards of Headquarters were silent, lined with memories sorted in perfect order and without a shred of disorganization to them. Each one was methodically placed right where it could be easily accessed and reviewed. Or, rather, that would have been the case, had there been any memories around today. But it was only morning, and - therefore - there were scarcely any memories to be had. What ones there were, however, were all purple.

At the console, the only emotion currently awake was nervously stroking her chin, tea in her free hand. Sipping cautiously, her eyes glanced all around the window to the real world in front of her. Carefully, she set the tea down on the console's polished wooden surface, then pulled a lever. 'Around that corner!' she thought 'They're right there, I just know it!'

But as the view shifted to just that, it revealed nothing. Fear sighed in relief as another purple memory came rolling in. Swallowing another gulp of tea, she moved on to search the other rooms, feeling nervously that they were not alone. But as she searched and searched, there wasn't a trace of anyone else; not even a scrap of paper. It was as if they vanished into thin air (a thought that made Fear all the more nervous)!

Minutes passed, and she was startled as Sadness walked in, still groggy, and said, "Morning, Fear..."

"Whoa!" she yelped, then - calming herself, said, "Good morning, Sadness."

The blue emotion stretched, took his seat, and looked up at the view. "Hey," he asked, "where is everyone?"

Fear shrugged. With a nervous laugh, she said, "Hopefully gone."

"Oh..." Sadness said. He nudged a button or two, "That's a shame... I wanted to at least show them out the door... Besides-"

"Hey guys!" Joy shouted at the top of her lungs as she bounced downstairs, "Hello hello hello! What a wonderful day we'll be having! Where-" she stopped as she saw what was happening outside. Her shoulders slumped, she sighed, and she thumped down in her chair without saying a word.

"I know," Sadness said, patting her on the back, "There, there, it's okay..." In reality, it looked less like Joy was the one that needed comforting and more like Sadness needed a hug; he was on the brink of tears.

Soon enough, Anger and Disgust joined the group. "Ugh," Disgust said as he wiped some shaving cream off, "Thank goodness they're gone! They smelled disgusting."

Unable to take it anymore, Sadness burst into a bawling fit. "We're too late!" he moaned over and over again, as Joy did her best to make him feel better. It wasn't working.

"Well," Fear announced, "As leader, I feel we did a good job! Good riddance, I say!"

"Agreed," Disgust added, "There's no way that-"

But Anger interrupted it all. "What do you mean?!" she shouted out, "We wasted all that time for nothing? We missed our chance? Rrrgh! Aaah!" She swung her arms in exacerbation and - in the process - spilled tea all over the console. Disgust and Fear groaned in unison, and both jumped up to go grab some rags to clean up the mess. As they went to a back room, Joy took the controls in an attempt to cheer up Sadness.

"Well, it can't be all that bad," she suggested, "How about we light up a pipe and enjoy this nice morning air, eh?" As she inserted the candle-shaped idea into the control panel, Sadness suddenly sat upright. "Wait, stop!" he said. Everyone froze, and the candle was taken promptly out. The three emotions looked up at the screen, mouths agape.

"They left it behind..." Sadness said. Joy was temporarily awestruck and unresponsive, and it took a brief slap to get her to focus. "Hurry! Now, Joy! Now's our chance! We can sign it! We can sign it and take off while Disgust and Fear are still gone!" That was enough for Joy, who jumped over to the candlesticks, stuck one in the appropriate slot, and beamed as it was accepted then lit up on its own.

A few minutes later, those two emotions returned to clean up the spilled tea. As they did so, they looked up to see Sadnness, Joy, and Anger beaming and grinning. "What the..." Disgust began, but was interrupted by Fear jumping up and pointing an accusing finger at the candle sticking out of the controls.

"What is that?" the purple emotion demanded. Throwing the rag down, she scurried over to the candle and attempted to pull it out, but to no avail. She blew on it again and again, but it stayed lit. She attempted to pinch it out, but only succeeded in burning herself; it was secured in there tight, and taken completely.

"No!" Disgust yelled as he stared up at the giant glass window that consisted of their view to the outside world.

The others (well, all but Disgust and Fear, who were catatonic) were cheering and celebrating as they saw the front door fling open and the yard begin to rush by. They were on their way!

Meanwhile, on the outside, without a walking stick or even a pocket handkerchief, Bilbo Baggins was running at full speed down the hill that consisted of his home in Hobbiton. He flung himself over a fence and made his way, contract in hand, down through the village as quickly as his feet could take him, ignoring roads and signs and boundaries, making a beeline to Thorin's company on the outskirts of town. A passing neighbor was nearly hit by the hobbit as he darted by.

"Oi! Bilbo! Where are you off to?" he asked, decidedly confused.

"Can't stop!" the hobbit replied, beaming such a smile that hadn't adorned his face since youth, "I'm already late!"

"Late for what?"

"I'm going on an adventure!"

By request, I'm going to explain the proper hints at the end of each chapter, to help you guys follow my thought process and see what exactly you could have looked for to help (or to perhaps judge that I didn't give enough hints). Here they were for Bilbo Baggins:

1. The organization - okay, so it's someone who is obsessively neat and tidy.

2. The fact that Fear is in charge - so it's someone who's frequently timid.

3. The fact that the controls are wooden and that I very carefully avoided referring to the screen as a "screen" - in Bilbo's mind, it's actually a giant glass window - were there to imply that it was someone from castle ages and NOT the modern world. I assume the emotions would only know what the character knows, and - logically - the headquarters would reflect that time period.

In a similar vein, the lack of lightbulbs and the use of candles for ideas was also supposed to indicate that electricity isn't yet being used for power, so it's likely to take place in medieval times.

4. Joy suggesting smoking a pipe as a fun pastime indicates it's someone that frequently smokes a pipe outside.

5. The fact that "The others" are missing refers to the dwarves from the beginning of the story (you can see where - if I used the term "dwarves" - I'd give away my hand), when they crashed in and wrecked his house, then were gone by morning. He was timid that they might show up, then disappointed that they were gone, disgusted when he reflected their untidiness, angry that he missed his shot, and then - of course - joyful when he saw the contract still sitting there and had the chance to sign it and go off on the adventure anyways.

Naturally, this is using the movie as a reference, but I felt like that was the one people were most likely to recognize (because if you read the book, chances are you've at least watched the movies (opinions of them aside), but someone who's seen the movies may not have necessarily read the book yet). Besides, the setup for that particular scene was fairly similar in both the book and the movie.

Closing note: Well, what did you think? Do you like this idea? Did you guess correctly? What are some characters/situations you'd like to see this guessing game applied to? Let me know! Or, better yet: do your own guessing story like this! The more the merrier!

I'll leave this story marked as incomplete for now, because I plan to periodically go back to it and update it each time a new character/situation occurs to me that would be fun to use. I don't know how many chapters there will be, though. There could be as few as five or as many as fifty.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it!

*A brief description of a scene or event - not intended to be a full story, but rather a "picture" of a situation.