(tried to fit lollipop into this but she isnt really one for emotion is she)
A lot of things in the Battle for Dream Island don't really make a lot of sense. This was one of them.
A long time ago - really just a few episodes ago, but it's pretty much the same thing - Taco died; one moment she was leading her team through the harshest environments possible all for the sake of winning the challenge, the next she was... not. When she was taken from the sweet oblivion of death and back into the painful reality of the competition, she initially thought that she just went from one complete darkness to the other. The confines of her delicious prison left her absolutely no context, and it wasn't until she heard muffled voices from beyond that she realized that she wasn't out of the game quite yet. There was at least one attempt to break her out, but ultimately they gave up and essentially left her to rot; not deterred in the slightest, she decided to use her fishy wits and hard gumption to break herself out. It took her an awfully, *awfully* long time, but she eventually managed to make her escape, and all became well.
That *should've* been the end of the story, anyway; Taco was more than ready to push that chapter of her life aside, shelve it into the pages of history like the fact that the speaker boxes or Needle existed. But the universe is pretty funny.
Despite the fact that Book prided herself as a know-it-all that had knowledge in the many, *many* fields of the world, and despite the fact that Four *literally* stated that it was what happened (not that Taco would know, but bleh), that volume somehow didn't put two and two together and realize that maybe, *just* maybe, their allegedly lost teammate was in that big sphere they keep lugging around. Somehow the idea that got into her head was that Taco intentionally ditched them, and she ended up spreading that infectious disease onto others; her breaking out was not a moment met with joy and celebration, but with disgust and exasperation as they were baffled she ever returned at all. They were so infuriated with the soft-shell food item that they didn't even give her a moment to explain things, or just urge them to use common sense. Despite all signs pointing in the same, obvious direction, her team's collective brains chose to run in the exact opposite direction and continued following the narrative that Taco abandoned them and was not to be trusted. Despite being down an extra set of hands for no good reason and with no possible benefits, they chose to isolate a teammate that did everything she could to help them out and keep them in the game.
It was another pointless bit of running around in circles, just like everything else in this terrible show.
-
Taco looked at Book and Lollipop angrily complaining about her. Again.
She'd tried just about everything at this point; just sitting down next to them and engaging in conversation didn't work out, so she tried attracting attention to herself in all sorts of other ways. Causing trouble in-between episodes got them to drag her out of the mess she dug herself into, but that only got them to care *just* enough to berate her again about the abandonment. She did as well as she always did in challenges, but she'd always somehow do *something* that would cause them to get grumpy again. Every time she tried to carry the team, they thought she was just trying too hard to make up for things. Every time she went more than a meter away from them to deal with something, Book complained that she was abandoning them again. Taco reckoned that literally *all* she needed was just one minute of them focusing on her, to allow her to make her case and clear things up, and yet that always seemed like an impossibility. A lot of things were basically impossible to get, such as a feeling of peace and tranquility, or freedom from this dumb Battle for Dream Island, but given that she hung around those people on the daily, she felt like she should have even the *slightest* chance of a possibility.
But nope.
Taco angrily took a deep breath and got up, finally deciding to meet with someone she'd debated to herself about asking for help many, *many* times. She didn't really know much about Blocky, and the hexahedron *definitely* didn't know *anything* about her. But she knew just enough to know that he was the master of grabbing people's attention. If *anyone* could finally get those two to sit down and talk, it had to be him.
"Look, uh..." Taco bit the bullet; they were on different teams, there was no reason for them to talk, so of *course* there was gonna be an awkward introduction. "I need your help. I-" "Yo, Eraser!" Blocky suddenly interrupted. "Your free food is here!" He'd then burst into laughter, leaving Taco utterly befuddled. "...What." Blocky's laughter died down. "Nah, nah; just pulling your leg there." He'd explain, taking a deep breath. "...But seriously, though. Why are *you* here?" Taco folded her arms. "Believe me; if there was *any* other option, I wouldn't wanna talk to you either." Blocky raised an eyebrow. "What's *that* supposed to mean?" He'd ask, but the foodstuff didn't care. "You're a master prankster, right?" Blocky nodded slightly. "Yeah." He'd answer. "What of it?" "I was just wondering if you could pull a prank on Lollipop." Taco asked. "You know her, right? You've heard her, at least." Blocky groaned. "*Her*? You kidding?" He'd think it over for a moment. "Normally I don't accept requests from randos like you, but since you caught me in a good mood, *and* it's on her, I'll give you a discount." He'd pause. "It'll still cost you, though." "Cost?" Taco raised an eyebrow. "Cost *what*? We don't have any money."
Blocky looked at her, and a wide smile emerged on his face. "Perfect." He'd mutter to himself. Without a moment to spare, and without listening to any of Taco's concerns, he'd immediately rip the lettuce right out of her and start munching into it. "HEY!" Taco shouted. "WHAT ON-" Before she could take it back, Blocky already took the first bite. "You want your prank done, don't you?" He said with his mouth full; he'd then spit a bit out, disgusted. "I *hate* vegetables." Regardless, he took a second bite, then a third, then a fourth. Taco stared, astonished, as Blocky proceeded to methodically take out chunk after chunk of lettuce until he finally had a near-perfect square of the green stuff. "You gonna tell me what's that for?" Taco grumbled. "Or are you just gonna-" "It's exactly what I needed." Blocky remarked. "Paper does better, but it'll do." He'd then take out a mini-Pencil (stolen from the original during a prank before she got the boot) and quickly write something into it, folded the lettuce into a paper airplane, then threw it as hard as he possibly could.
-
"Taco's a terrible two-time traitor!"
Lollipop was keen on letting Book do all the heavy lifting in this conversation; she only had something to say whenever she had a quip or two, after all. It was a great way to have those good-for-nothing delinquents she's forced to call teammates to let out some steam and become slightly less of a nuisance. And speaking *of* delinquents, that well-read dictionary was starting to get on her nerves as well; it was initially fun to join her in the joys of ostracizing Taco, but lately she'd been doing a little bit of the thinking that fishy fiend told her to do, a bit of the old common sense, and she realized that *maybe* she'd gone a bit too far on the whole thing this time. The more she gave it some thought, the more she realized they completely threw a teammate under the bus for nothing and unintentionally sabotaged their performance for no real reason other than pride, the more she
Something then suddenly struck her head.
"Ow." She'd flatly remark. "What is it?" Book finally stopped on her tirade, raising an eyebrow. "Something just..." Lollipop scrambled to find what it was, picking it up. "Ugh." She'd wince after feeling it. "Someone threw this over and hit my head." The piece of candy then started unfolding the lettuce airplane. "Is this..." Something else then took her attention, and she'd raise an eyebrow. "Something's written here; can't read any of that horrible scrawl, though." "Give me that!" Book took it from her. "I'm a dictionary; I might be able to decipher it." She'd take a closer look at it. "You... are... a... mean... mean..." She'd squint. "Meanie?" She grew angry. "Who would..." She then realized just what it was written on.
"TACO!"
-
Taco was minding her own business, wondering what life would be like without her lettuce, when Book came knocking.
"You've really gone *too* far this time, abandoner!" The dictionary started whining. "First you leave us behind, then you have the *audacity* to call us names! Sorry that we weren't good enough, you-" "For the *LAST* time!" Taco quickly got up and shouted back at her. "I *didn't* abandon you guys! Where did you even *get* that idea?" "I saw you leave us with my own two eyes!" Book pointed at the eyes in question. "I saw you disappear into the distance while the rest of us did the challenge! Don't give me tha treatment when it's so obvious!" Taco grumbled. "*That* again?" She'd sigh. "I already *told* you that it was part of my plan to help you guys! You saw the results for yourself too!" "Yeah, yeah." Book folded her arms. "Help yourself, more like! I just don't get it!" She'd angrily kick the grass around her, frustrated. "We've done absolutely *nothing* to you! We're on the same team, we have the same goal, we're doing the same things! And we've only been together for *such* a short time! What on *EARTH* could we have possibly done that could've already infuriated you *that* much?" She'd take a deep (fried) breath. "All we've ever done is be nice to you! Why can't you just be nice back? Was it something we did? Tell us!"
Taco snapped. "Well, what about *ME*, huh?" She'd take a step forward to assert her position. "What did *I* ever do to *YOU*? What made you think that I intentionally abandoned you all and didn't plan on coming back? What caused you to think of me that way after such a short time, huh?" She'd start tearing up. "*I* don't get it! All I've done is be a member of the team, just like everyone else! How come *I'm* the target of all this? You guys didn't do your job and break me out of that jawbreaker, and yet when *I* leave my teammates behind, *that's* unacceptable?" She'd take a deep breath. "What's the deal with *THAT*? What gave you the idea that I was nothing but some traitor to the team? What made you convince others of that? I get to finally prove myself for the first time ever, after being stuck in that metal box for so long, and then I get pushed around and ignored over what? Something I had *no* control over?" She'd stare Book directly in the eyes, the anger, frustration, and sadness as clear as day. "I-I don't get it! I don't get it! You're supposed to know more than the rest of us, you're an entire book full of knowledge! How come it's *you* that decided something so silly, so nonsensical?"
For a moment, Book froze; this was the first time since Taco abandoned them that she saw her in such an emotional and passionate state. This was the first time in a long while that she saw Taco not as the one that abandoned them and left them to die, but as that focused and driven teammate that was more than willing to push through situations where even they faltered. Could that betrayer have been right all along? Was all of this really just some big misunderstanding?
Book shook her head. "Now you're accusing me of being dumb? That's just absurd!"
