A/N: Hey everyone! This was inspired by a weirdly awesome Inside Out dream that i had before the movie came out involving Riley being some sort of experiment-person who was observed by an Emotion Council. After the dream I figured it could be an interesting AU fic idea, so, I decided to try to give it a shot! There are a group of OCs in this, though Riley and the emotions from the movie will also be main focus characters, especially Riley and Joy.

Disclaimer: Inside Out belongs to Pixar.

The pressing of buttons and a faint murmuring were the only sounds that could be heard from the chamber. Of the two beings in the room, one was doing all the chatting.

The one who filled the silence with intent muttering was a thin, violet-colored being named Panic. He was checking up on the progress of the other being in the room, carefully getting close to the container. Panic took out a black pen from the pocket of his lab coat and lowered his glasses as he made several notes. Energy pulse functioning; Ri is still unresponsive on a directly conscious level but showing signs of life.

Brushing his mop of scruffy hair out of his eyes, Panic twirled his pen in his fingers as he glanced at the being within the clear cylinder. Her body, about the size of a 11-year-old human, was curled in on itself, with a shimmering light-orange brightness that served as clothing, and straight strawberry-blonde hair falling over her face. Officially by document standards she was known as R.I., short for 'Radiant Intelligence", as an experiment. But more often than not in the analysis notes, only the R was capitalized to give the girl less of a designation and more of a name—that had been Delight's idea.

Panic glanced at Ri again, peering closely and looking for any significant movement. Ri's energy structure of particles was holding, her chest steadily rising and falling with each silent breath. Everything checked out okay for now.

He could see nothing out of the ordinary—her eyes were closed and, taking her stillness into account, she seemed as unresponsive as if she were in a coma. She basically was in a coma, for all intents and purposes.

Now all they had to do was wait for her to wake up.

"You know..." he said thoughtfully, turning to the being in the containment unit, "sometimes I worry that increasing the energy flow might hurt you". Another dial was pressed, causing the wires to pulse with energy and the container to brighten for barely a second. He looked carefully at her for any hint of response, of understanding, but all that happened was her structure, thankfully, becoming more defined. "We don't want to hurt you, we want to watch out for you." He cringed at the thought of anything happening. "You'll let us know if you're uncomfortable, right?"

As usual, Ri made no response. At least, not directly to him.

The human-like girl had heard Panic speak, sort of. She was aware at least, of a voice speaking, but it was as if the voice was speaking through water. She couldn't see or move or get any idea on her surroundings aside from the speaker—she recognized it was the nervous voice this time.

With nothing else to do in her wavering states of awareness, Ri had kept track of the few voices she heard for company by their tones. She remembered primarily six—Nervous (who she thought was sweet), Stern (who she disliked), Bored (who she didn't care for one way or the other), Gloomy (who sounded sad a lot but at least eased the loneliness), Friendly (who brightened her mood) and Chatterbox (who was her favorite—certainly the one who talked most).

"I-I'm sure you'll wake up soon. You're a strong girl, right?"

Ri vaguely heard Nervous talk again before she began to fall into unconsciousness once more. She had heard him clearer that time, for once able to make out words, heard about waking up and her being strong... but she didn't feel strong enough to do that. Not yet.

Panic's interactions were picked up by a security camera on the wall, which one of his colleagues looked through with interest in the central room of their building. The large room was nicely furnished, crimson red covering the carpeted floor and cherrywood walls. Memory orbs of all different colors were lining the walls in rows that were positioned around a large square monitor system.

Getting up from where she sat and standing in front of the monitors, the one watching him, a blue-skinned emotion named Grief, struggled to rub the sleepiness out of her eyes as she observed what was going on in the laboratory chamber. Panic didn't seem too freaked out over Ri's state (which at least was something good), and Ri herself seemed reasonably stable. Not perfect as they wished, but it was something.

She got out a few more of the papers from the days before, comparing the notes. Ri's stability had been on a decline for a while, but now it was steadily improving, and Grief wondered if she would finally wake up soon. With the way her stability was going, she'd have to, by necessity. The only alternative was that she'd disintegrate and die.

A ping drew Grief's attention, and she glanced at a monitor showing the data of Ri's energy signature, which Panic had just sent over. She frowned. The energy levels seemed to be a little less prominent than yesterday. She went to the speaker on the wall and pressed a button over it, opening the communication.

In the laboratory, a click was heard and a light turned on next to a speaker, causing Panic to look toward it. "Is Ri still stable?" he heard Grief ask.

He sighed, worry pricking at his heart. "She's holding, but she c-could be better. I'm sending you the documents now."

Grief could hear a slightly nervous tone in his voice, though that wasn't unusual for him. She wondered if at least part of his anxiety was due to how well Ri was doing. She couldn't blame him. Ri's particle stability had to be kept firmly in check, as close to 100% as possible. And hopefully, in time, the transfer from their realm to the human realm would prove successful, showing that a transfer from one state to the other was indeed possible. But Grief suspected preparing her for that would take weeks, if not months, when she did wake up. However long it took for Ri to be ready for it.

Assuming, of course, she survived.

Grief sighed, tucking a loose strand of hair back into her bun. If things did take a turn for the worse, she wondered how she was going to break the news to Delight. Delight had more of an attachment to Ri than the other members of the Council did, and Delight's teenage daughter Joy even more so. Though Grief had only talked to Joy directly a handful of times, she always was privy to how Ri's progress was, even though she wasn't allowed in the chamber itself when they were doing some of the more meticulous tests. But when she was around, Joy would end up aimlessly chatting with Ri about whatever was on her mind that day, even if she just had to imagine Ri's responses as she remained near the casing.

As Grief waited for the documents to come printing out of the slot to the right of the monitors, the door opened, and she couldn't help but have the barest hint of a smile cross her face in spite of Ri's progress. Delight practically bounced into the room, her blue ponytail practically flying behind her. As she started to remove some papers from the pocket of her white lab coat, Joy nearly crashed into her in enthusiasm, twirling her chartreuse dress in an enthusiastic dance.

"Joy," Delight said fondly. "Don't hurt anything."

"Come on, Mom," Joy said eagerly. "I can't help being excited! She was due to wake up today, right?"

"That's what we've been hoping for." Delight smiled at Joy's antics before turning to Grief. "So, how's Ri doing?"

Joy glanced at the monitor that gave them a view into the laboratory. "If she wakes up today, then it finally won't just be like I'm having a conversation with myself!". She grinned. "Although admittedly its kind of fun having conversations with myself."

Grief made sure to not look at Delight or Joy, not wanting to see the expressions on their normally bright faces when she told them. "You... might not want to get your hopes up."

The smile fell from Joy's face. "Why?"

Grief started organizing the documents, making sure that all of them were in the proper order. She sighed. "Ri... could be doing better."

Delight frowned in concern. "What's wrong?"

"Her energy input and stability were a bit low. Increasing the input increased her stability, but it nearly shorted out the system. We're hoping it will be enough to help her remain intact though."

"How low was it?". She knew that as far as Panic, being the main technician, was concerned, anything below 95% was a cause for anxiety.

Grief surveyed the documents that Panic had sent. "It was 83% earlier this morning, but now it's 88%. At least, it was a few minutes ago."

"Well, she's still mainly holding up, she'll get better!" Delight assured, trying to remain optimistic. After all, over 4/5's stability wasn't 100%, but at least meant that Ri wasn't going to disintegrate.

Joy frowned thoughtfully. She felt worried about Ri, as they all were, though she had something else on her mind as well. Sometimes the way they talked about Ri, especially the leader of the operations, Aggravation, had her seem more mechanical than alive. Even her name designation. "Ri" was just a shorthand, nothing more. She wondered if they might give her a different name, one that seemed a little more personable to help her feel a bit more welcome—of course, they'd have to ask her, and asking was difficult if she was unable to answer. With no other name to call her (especially with Aggravation enforcing it), "Ri" would have to do for the time being.

The speaker crackled to life again, and levers and dials could be heard being adjusted. "Her stability's at 95% now. Seems pretty steady, but I'm not sure how much longer she'll be asleep for. There's a chance she could wake up soon, but considering her fluctuations I can't be sure."

Grief was about to respond, only to turn as the door opened. A tall, blocky-looking emotion, Aggravation, entered, towering over Joy, his stern expression and red-orange coloring giving him an intimidating appearance.

"Heeyyyy Aggravation!" Delight said brightly as she darted in front of him, noticing her colleague's sour mood and hoping to get on his good side. "Ri's doin' well; Panic said she might even wake up today, isn't that great?"

The expression on Aggravation's face, however, made it clear that wasn't going to work in lightening his demeanor. "What exactly is her status?" he asked. His voice was gruff, with a definite no-nonsense attitude showing through in his voice, glancing at his coworkers suspiciously and ignoring Joy's presence entirely as if she didn't exist. "And where is Contempt?"

The cheerful glow around Joy faded slightly. She had hoped she'd get to have more one-sided chatting with Ri today, even a two-sided one if they were lucky enough to have the energy-human wake up. But there was no idle chit-chat whenever Aggravation was into his stern demeanor. Just business.

Delight noticed her daughter's disappointment and gave her an encouraging grin. Joy smiled hopefully back.

"Contempt went downstairs to get coffee since not much was happening—"

Aggravation huffed at that remark. "There's always something..."

"—And Ri's stable for now," Grief went on quickly. "Her particles are holding good and she doesn't seem to be in any sort of discomfort." She paused, looking a bit uneasy, and just when it seemed she was about to continue, the wooden door opened and Contempt, a pistachio-shaded emotion with short forest-green hair, showed himself in, carrying five cups of coffee on a tray.

"Got one for each of us," he said in a drawl that Joy felt sounded like he was bored and disgusted with everything around him. "Though I think they didn't put enough sugar in mine and too much in the other ones."

"Do you always find something to complain about?" Aggravation asked with a roll of his eyes.

Panic started to hum a little to himself as he double-checked the documentation and the scanner readings. Stability at 97%, and aside from those three missing increments Ri seemed otherwise healthy. Things were starting to go well again.

Meanwhile, Ri found awareness coming back to her, hearing Nervous-Voice's humming. Her hand twitched, and a realization dawned on her: I can move.

Testing her newly-gained mobility, she hesitantly tried to move her hands and feet to get a feel of where she was. Despite her efforts, she could barely move, but the fact she could at all felt so liberating. She fought to open her eyes, and when the first rays of light shone through, giving her a view of the outside for the first time, she squeezed her eyes shut again. Too bright.

Her eyes opened a little wider as they became slowly more accustomed to light, revealing shimmering blue irises.

And Panic, who had just noticed as the equipment started to buzz wildly in activity and noise, looked like he was going to have a heart attack.

Now that she could see him, their eyes met, at least for an instant before Ri shut them again. Then slowly tried to open them once more. She struggled to focus, most of her vision still shielded by the closed darkness of her eyelids that she had known for so long. She wasn't sure where she was, even what she was. All she was aware of was that there was way too much going on. The light was too bright and the machine's buzzing hurt her head and if Nervous is here where are the others...

"Ri... Y-You're awake..." Panic stammered, stumbling back before scrambling over toward the equipment again. "Y-You're awake! Ri's awake! RI'S AWAKE!"

Aggravation took his coffee along with the others, scrunching his face up a bit at the overly sugary taste, before he focused on Grief again. "You were saying?"

Grief cleared her throat, intimidated by Aggravation's look. "Ri's stable for now. But..."

"'But' what?" Aggravation demanded, placing his coffee down onto the desk. "Panic mentioned her energy was low but that was fixed, what else is wrong?"

Just as Grief was about to say more, the speaker let out a loud, static-y crackle causing all the emotions to cringe and Contempt's coffee to spill over him and onto the floor, making the green emotion at least thankful that he had worn a brown coat then.

"Aw dang it!" Contempt exclaimed, glaring at the speaker. "What was that f—"

But Panic's next words stopped Contempt. "GUYS! Come into the containment room! NOW! It's Ri," he panted, sounding like he was on the verge of hyperventilating. "She's... she's..."

"She's what?!" Aggravation shouted with a glare, looking at the monitor (as did everyone) and noticing that the chamber was looking significantly brighter, and what they thought looked like movement in the containment chamber.

They noticed that rather than Panic strictly sounding, well, panicked, his tone was one of anxious excitement. "She's waking up! SHE'S AWAKE!"

Instantly, everyone was mobilized. It had worked. The energy formation had worked.

"Let's get over there!" Delight said with an excited cheer, practically flying out of the room with the others hot on her tail.

Joy felt an excited anticipation stir in her chest as she raced down the halls, the environment nearly a blur. Meeting up with her friends would have to wait. Ri was waking up. And she was there to see it.

Wait til I tell the others about this!

A/N: First chapter done, yay! :D. And don't worry, the other Emotions are going to be showing up in the next chapter. Hope you enjoyed and remember to review!