(im starting this off in the best way i know how: with coineedle
this was originally for volume 1, but then i had second thoughts on keeping it published so i took it down, then i had reconsiderations on that and decided to start off volume 2 with it
this is hopefully not indicative of current quality, maybe, possibly)
These mountains had been a nice change of scenery from the usual flat and boring Goikian plains, but Coiny was starting to get *very* tired of them.
It had been ten, or twelve... sixteen? It had been *a few* hours since Coiny had been separated from the rest of his friends and forced to hide in this mountain range. Ever since then, he'd been trying to reconnect with them or with any sign of civilization, but it rapidly became clear that he was less familiar with this place than he thought. He should've paid more attention to the map, he reckoned. It wasn't like he was at any risk of dying, or anything; objects had weird anatomy like that that prevented them from dying from any normal means. But with nothing but the scorching heat, the rocks scraping his bare feet, and the prospect of hours more of nothing but this suffering... he wished he could die.
Everything had changed so drastically, and so quickly too. One moment he was enjoying normal, everyday life alongside his two closest pals: Pin, Coiny's partner in crime and fellow leader of whatever team they could hack together; and... who was it again? Uh... Firey? No, he *hated* him. It started with an N? ...Nickel? Whatever. Then the next thing he knew was they were suddenly transported to Dream Island. Well, Pin *called* it Dream Island anyway, but hiding inside a cave all day and only going out to recruit others for a brand-new team was no dream of his. And then the fighting started, and Pin started tasking him with going all over the place and competing in a brand new Battle for Dream Island...
What was he thinking? In what world did he think this lifestyle of scheming and leading was a match for him?
Coiny kicked whatever loose pebbles and stones he could find. Anything he could possibly take out his frustration on. He wanted to take it out on Pin most of all; he tried his best to convince her that all of this was a bunch of nonsense. He attempted to persuade her into not having him go off to this strange, unknown land. But Pin had... changed. Been spending less time with him and more time muttering about leadership and talking with all sorts of strangers. Whatever happened to sticking together? What happened to being a good team? What happened to working things out, regardless of all their differences?
Coiny groaned in frustration. If he wanted to die, then he might as well go out and actually do it. He laid down on the rough ground, gazing up at that orange sky becoming darker and darker by the minute. There he laid, waiting for some avalanche to bury him or someone to find him and take him out of his misery. In fact, the latter might just be how he goes out; his ears could just about discern the sounds of someone running by, getting louder and nearer. He could hear the small rocks shaking about, their slightly heavy breathing, and...
It stopped.
It stopped? Did they stop to look at him, or was it all just a figment of his imagination? Did he hallucinate all that? Was he already going insane after all this time? How come it was *this* that finally did a number on him and not all the months he spent on that dark, depressing cavern with that pitiful excuse for a-
"...Look at you."
*Needle*. That's who it was.
In his essentially-drunken stupor as his mind raced, Coiny barely noticed the slender metal object leaning down and gazing into his soul. Needle scoffed. "And to think in the past you kept calling me 'needy'. Needy this, needy that..." She grumbled. "I mean, who do you think you are, constantly trying to anger your friends? All those who care so deeply about you?" She sighed; she was getting off-track. "Now look at you. Needy for death."
Quite a lot of words for someone that was usually so quiet or reserved. Or maybe Coiny just never cared about any of the times she spoke. But he wouldn't notice, since he was completely fixated by the completely wrong things; Needle had a completely different look and feel to her (compared to what little he could remember, anyway), but it was still unmistakably needle-shaped. What little sunlight remained also seemed to act all weird around her, giving her a bright, shimmering halo that was befitting only the highest of angels. What parts of that were the real deal and what parts of that were him losing it... didn't matter.
"...Needle?" Coiny only managed to register that now. Needle chuckled. "A bit surprised you actually remembered my name. Considering..." She shook her head. She clearly had a lot of things on her mind, but felt like that wasn't the priority. Based on experience, nothing about her was a priority to anybody. "Get up." Needle gave him a firm kick. Well, Coiny thinks so, at least; in the short time he was laying down, his skin had apparently become incredibly numb. Was that the will to live just *draining* from his body? Someone can actually just will themselves to *die*?
Needle began walking away, and Coiny let out a pained groan; he was probably trying to call out to her, but it was all he could muster. Needle wasn't buying it, however. "Quit being so *dramatic*." She yelled, anger clear in her tone. "You survived BFDI, you'll definitely survive this." Coiny continued whining and complaining, but it was starting to become painfully clear that he wasn't going to get any favors. He then quickly got up and quickly made his way over to Needle, who was already well on her way to disappearing again.
They began retracing Coiny's steps, as Needle had been running in the opposite direction Coiny had. "So..." The currency of questionable value looked at the only good character the Battle for Dream Island had to offer. "What brings you here, anyway? You got..." He stumbled on the words. He wasn't quite back up to speed yet. Well, he hasn't been in ages, but... "...You got teleported here too?" Needle raised an eyebrow, perplexed. "...Wha?" There was a moment of awkward silence before she continued. "I was just going for a jog. Making sure I'm still the fastest." She chuckled. "Been liking going around this place for a while now. This place kinda reminds me of... me."
Yet another moment of awkward silence passed. Needle frowned. "Now, did you ask that because you *actually* cared about me, or because it was the only thing to do?" Coiny did likewise. "Alright, *seriously*, Needle. What's your deal?" He asked. "You weren't like this before! You used to just get things done without a word! You-" "*Really*?" Needle squinted at him. "I *wasn't* like this before?" She groaned. "...I should've known. All you've ever cared about was Firey." She glanced away. "...And Pin." She muttered.
Coiny scoffed. "Well, *excuse* me!" His energy and vigor was starting to come back again. Anger is a good motivator. "I wasn't the one who only cared about whether or not someone called her 'needy'!" He saw Needle's arm twitch slightly, only to be forcibly kept still by the other one. "Of course I wouldn't know anything about you! You were always so quiet! You kept to yourself all the time and never spoke to anybody!" He sighed. "How was I, how was *anyone*, supposed to know that you weren't okay with this? You never complained, never gave any ideas, never did *anything*! You were so *needy* for attention, and yet you never did anything about it!"
Needle's eye twitched. "A-And why exactly do you think I keep to myself, exactly?" She began. "Because-" Coiny tried to continue on his tirade, only to find himself completely frozen as Needle went on. "You forced me onto your team by threatening to do the *one* thing I said I didn't like. You guys willingly burned me alive, and I had to *ask* for an apology!" "I-I thought you knew it had to be done!" "You know what *also* needed to be done?" Needle asked rhetorically. "Asking me *once*, just once, if I was alright, if I had anything to say, if there was a reason I was so quiet. Just show that you actually *cared* about someone other than yourself for once! Did you ever know that *that* needed to be done?"
...Coiny didn't know how to answer that.
The last few vestiges of daylight were quickly swept away by the inky tide, and the moon was high in the sky. The two came to a stop at a slightly more expansive stretch of mountain pass, one with a larger, denser collection of trees and a stream lazily flowing throughout. Were it not for the circumstances, one could call it calm or cozy. Coiny tried climbing one of the taller trees to try to get away from responsibilities, but Needle was able to easily yank him off with a good tug of his leg, sending him tumbling onto the ground. "Get to work." She flatly ordered. "We need to start a fire." Coiny groaned. "Why do we need to-" "You want to be found, right?" Needle interjected. "Friend or not, it doesn't matter."
Coiny relented but ultimately got to work on gathering twigs and branches, even if it was only to get away from Needy Needle. He started gathering it all into one big pile; every single time he returned to it, he found it no larger and with Needle just idly sitting around next to it. For someone who complained so much about... Coiny shook his head, dumped his latest collection, and went back to gather more. This went on a few more times until Needle raised her hand. "That's enough." She stated. "No need to overdo it, like most things you do." Coiny's eye twitched. Who does she think she is? He could easily grow tired of her and discretely... deal with her in any number of ways, recalling a thing or two about what Pin taught him. Why on *Earth*...
...Why on Earth didn't he do so already?
Coiny got to work on actually lighting the whole thing, once again with Needle doing absolutely nothing. As he was smashing rocks together to figure out just how this worked, he'd look at Needle with a dissatisfied look. "Couldn't you do *something*?" She simply looked at him and shrugged. "Maybe." Coiny would be absolutely baffled by this, but would quickly return to getting that fire started. For whatever reason, this night was *especially* chilly. Eventually, with enough random chance, Coiny would finally manage it; the fire quickly grew into a large, roaring mass that reminded him of a certain someone, and he and Needle would sit close to it.
And close to each other.
Sitting next to this fire, doing absolutely nothing and having absolutely nothing in mind (despite Needle being right there) quickly got Coiny to think. It'd been quite a while since he did anything of actual effort; team-building *sorta* counts at that, but he had intentionally been failing since he thought that everyone that was deemed 'promising' by Pin was a bit *weird*. Gathering all the wood to start a fire, and getting rewarded for it by being able to go two seconds without a cold breeze blowing away on his face... That was a relief he didn't even know he wanted. And to think that he'd never know if it wasn't for-
Coiny looked at Needle.
If it hadn't been for Needle, he wouldn't be here right now, enjoying warmth and comfort instead of cold and irritation. He wouldn't be enjoying the presence of someone else after being stuck in this desolate place for ages. They wouldn't have even had a chance of making it to Yoyle City. They wouldn't have managed to make it out of that canyon. Their team would've been a bit more lonely without her. They wouldn't have been in the lead in that one contest for even a moment (even though they ended up losing catastrophically anyway due to a series of contrived events). And, most importantly, he wouldn't know that there was actually someone that...
Coiny sighed. "...I guess I was just busy, you know?" Needle looked at him, confused. "Hm?" She raised an eyebrow. He sighed again. "Here I was, spending all this time *desperately* trying to be something I'm not." He paused for a moment. "I'm not exactly leader material. Never have been. The only time I've ever committed to something is slapping Firey." He paused again, contemplating his words for the first time in his life. "...I never stopped to think, for even a moment, that maybe things were fine... as is." He sighed. "I didn't think that there were people that could possibly like me as I was. I thought I needed to change."
Needle stared at him and couldn't help but snicker. Coiny frowned. Did he mess something up *now*? "W-What?" He panicked. "Nothing." Needle chuckled. "Is *that* your best excuse for an apology?" This went on for a little while before Needle tired herself out. That was enough happiness for one day, probably. She looked away. "...Don't bother." Coiny was perplexed. "W-Wha? But you said-" "I know what I said." Needle interjected. "But saying sorry won't fix things. The damage has already been done." She sighed. "Just... try to be better from now on. I've seen what you've been doing, and... it isn't pretty." Coiny thought about it for a moment, unsure of what to say... or do.
The coin creature smiled. "...I mean, if you say so." He replied. The strange nature of that response made Needle look again. "Sorry, *what*?" The confusion that it brought caused her to be unaware that Coiny had made his way over to her and started settling down on her lap. Well... her legs. They were sitting down on the ground. Well, *she* was. "H-Huh?" Needle instinctively looked down, and upon seeing Coiny's smug face just staring down at her, she'd immediately go red.
"W-What're you doing?" Needle angrily asked, very much trying her best to hide her flustered tone. "I could ask you the same thing, really." Coiny chuckled. "I-I'm not doing anything!" Needle became even more red. "Y-You were the one that-" "Has anyone ever told you that you look *beautiful*, Needle?" Coiny interjected. "I mean, just the *way* the moonlight shines on your face... And speaking of, the moon *exactly* fills up your little hole in that exact position. Please, stay there. Keep looking at me." Needle grew angry. Well, she tried to, anyway. "I-I-" She tried to angrily shove him away, but would find that she couldn't. What was up with her? What was up with *him*?
"Er..." Needle cleared her throat. "F-Flattery isn't going to get you anywhere. Especially now, what with-" "Why would I wanna go anywhere?" Coiny remarked. "I'm right where I wanna be." "Excuse me, wha-h-HUH?" Needle grew frustrated. She was the one that was supposed to have Coiny on the ropes here, not the other way around. What inexplicable force suddenly caused this reversal? 'Bad writing'? Don't be ridiculous. "Just *what* do you think you're-" "You want someone to talk to you so badly?" Coiny interjected. "You want someone to check up on you? Are you *that* needy for attention? Well, here it is."
Needle immediately moved to slap him with all the force she could, but the moment she brought her hand down to do so, she'd unexpectedly find her cold hands suddenly make contact with his warm palms, clearly roughened up from whatever he's been doing, but still cozy and inviting. His five fingers were like treacherous snakes, delicately doing their little dance as they wrapped around hers, injecting her with the venom of peace and serenity...
Wait, no.
"I-I don't know what you're pulling, Coiny!" Needle kept desperately trying to push him aside, only to be met with futility with every turn. "B-But this isn't going to-" "Who says I'm doing *anything*?" Coiny snickered. "You're finally getting what you wanted, and you're trying to push it away?" He sighed. "...You said before that you loved me, right?" Needle could barely string together words at this point. "Uh... I-It wasn't *exactly*-" Coiny sighed again. He was enjoying every single moment of this. "I couldn't say it back then, so let me make up for it by saying it now." He took a deep breath. This was going to be a big one.
"...Needle, I love you."
For a moment, time stopped. It was a cliche that's present in all the romance movies ever made, but there's a reason for that. That rare moment in time when there's nothing but you, the one you love most dearly, and all those *feelings* you have for each other... That's a high some people spend most of their lives chasing. Some end up destroying themselves for the sake of it. And some try to think of themselves as being above all that nonsense and pretend like they don't need any of that. Coiny has tried his hardest to be like the latter, but now...
Needle froze. How could she say anything after such a brazen act? "...I..." She frowned, sweating bullets. "I don't..." She tried her best to wipe it all away, but more would just arise the moment she did so. "...I don't know what to say, I..." She was clearly torn; to either reprimand him for such a dumb decision, or to fully embrace it and enjoy the moment. Probably difficult. Coiny smiled. "Don't say anything, silly." He replied. "I mean, you've already said so much..." He sighed. "How about you just, uh..."
Coiny always was the bold, forward-stepping one. He'd reach out to Needle and give her a pat in the back, before pushing to make her lean in forward for a kiss. A gentle nudge was all it took, and soon Needle was doing it on her own. Coiny closed his eyes as this anticipation built up within him. The feeling of buildup was absolutely nothing like he'd ever experienced before in his life; the tingling, almost burning sensation in his limbs, his body heating up and getting all sweaty, and finally, something gently tickling his lips...
-
Coiny woke up with basically every part of his body in pain.
He instantly got up, and it was very quickly proven to be a mistake. He looked around and saw all the land around him burned and charred. The fire he built - presumably the culprit - was now nothing but embers. He looked at his limbs; they showed clear signs of burns and other such injuries, but objects worked in weird ways like that and all it was going to take was a few bandages and he was going to be just fine. He didn't care about any of that.
He only cared about one thing.
"...Needle?" Coiny quickly got up, the adrenaline quickly getting rid of any nagging feelings in his body. His eyes anxiously darted around, and there was not a single sign of Needle in sight. The fact that it was still near midnight was especially of little help. "NEEDLE!" He immediately rushed to go look for her. He can't lose her now. He can't lose her after all that. After everything he just realized? It'd kill him.
The earth rumbled as Coiny continued his pursuit. Basically every single thing in his basically-blurry vision looked like Needle to him. His footsteps heavy, his breathing out of whack, his frustrations out of control, he was essentially only fueled by his desire to see Needle at least one more time and not much else; he would've collapsed onto the ground, knocked out in an instant if it was any other instance. The rumbling grew louder, as if it very much knew the state Coiny was in. At any given moment, he was going to break...
And all of a sudden, it was daytime again.
The searchlight blinded Coiny and finally forced him into a standstill. The helicopter flying overhead remained steady, and a booming voice would come from one of its occupants. "Gotcha!" A familiar voice would call out to him, one that finally snapped Coiny out of it, made him remember who he was and what he was doing out here. "Make your way over to that nearby empty spot. I think you know where it is. We're gonna land there." The helicopter quickly turned to leave, and Coiny quickly went to follow it. Of course he knew where it was. He made his way back over to the spot the fire was at and waited as the helicopter descended, and out came a familiar face.
A bit *too* familiar.
"Coiny!" Pin ran over to him and quickly hugged him, seeing as he was very clearly out of shape. "You alright? You aren't hurt *too* bad?" "Uh..." Coiny groaned. "...Not really- no, *definitely*..." The adrenaline was wearing off and the pain was coming back. "Let's get you out of here, alright?" Pin carried him off to the helicopter; Coiny would essentially get thrown into one of the seats, unable to sit up straight and requiring Pin to make sure he wouldn't fall off (in both senses of the term). Before too long, the helicopter was up and away, far above the mountains and whatever nonsense had happened there.
Pin turned on the lights to get a better look at him. What she saw... was definitely concerning. "What *happened* to you?" She asked. "I... Uh..." Coiny frowned. What *did* happen to him? He got separated from his friends, he was wandering around the mountains... The next thing he knew, it was the middle of the night, everything around him was burnt to a crisp, and he was covered head to toe in burns. "I don't..." Pin sighed deeply, covering her face with her hands. "...Need to do a more thorough analysis once we're back on the ground." She muttered to herself.
Pin went on to talk about a bunch of other things, but Coiny didn't care about it one bit. He looked out, out at the mountains, the trees, the great big beyond. Just what was out there? What was trying to get them? And most importantly, what was Pin trying to hide, exactly? It had always irked him that he couldn't enjoy 'Dream Island', but up until now, for... *whatever* reason, he never decided to act upon it. Perhaps it was his inability to let go of all that he knew, or something. But now, thanks to... some new feeling inside his heart, he felt a bit more confident. Bold. He wanted to return to his past self: uncooperative, unmanageable, rowdy, the whole lot.
It was time to renegotiate.
