Alternate Battle for Dream Island

ABFDI 11b: Often Battling

Once again, Another Name was bickering over who the team leader should be.

Eraser was on his way to see that weird speaker box when all the other Namers suddenly stopped him, now in varying degrees of fury over the whole debacle. "*What*?" He'd grumble. "What *now*? I thought we all *finally* agreed that *I'll* be the team leader." "Yeah, well, I no longer agree." Coiny answered. "Long story short, you now have Pen with you; not only do you get to be the team leader, but half the team is *also* you or your pals." "Hey, we agreed on it!" Eraser complained. "This is just ridiculous; why do you all care so much about being the leader, anyway?" "Uh... 'cause it's cool?" Coiny asked. "Winning Dream Island is great and all, but I'd prefer if I did it on my own terms, instead of just doing whatever some bossy-bot said." Eraser glared at him. "You did *not* just compare me to GB." "So what if I did?" Coiny responded. "What're you gonna do about it?" Eraser went up to him, furious. "Well, you wanna see?"

Pencil, trying to be the level-headed one in this conversation, took a step back and sighed. "Eraser, we'd just like to have *some* say on how the team's run." She'd interject. "You and I both know that you can't *actually* run anything; you don't have a brain, remember?" Eraser turned to her, raising an eyebrow. "Uh, where'd you get *that* idea from? Of *course* i've got a brain, just where did you think I got my-" "You're seriously asking *me*, of all people, where I got that from?" Pencil folded her arms. "What do you think?"

Ellipsis.

The pink one shook his head. "Whatever; you agreed on it. *We* agreed on it. No changing it now." "Again, I changed my mind." Coiny interrupted. "Too bad." Eraser interrupted him back. Pencil sighed. "Too bad for *you*." She'd join in again. "Once again, we're in this rare circumstance where we actually agree on something; there's two of us, and one of you." "I still got Pen, remember?" Eraser clarified. "Well, where is he?" The only writing utensil presence asked. "He's..." The one that destroyed rolled his eyes. "Around." Pencil scoffed. "Just give it up."

Eraser grumbled. "Alright, alright." He'd sigh. "One question, though." He'd glance at Coiny, then at Pencil, then at Coiny again, and so on, and so forth. "Who's gonna lead us, then?" "Me, duh." Coiny immediately answered. "I'm the best out of all of us, and-" "*Excuse* me?" Pencil interjected. "I was the leader before he was; *obviously* I get to be the leader again." "That's ridiculous!" Coiny shouted. "That just means *I* should be the leader, because I haven't been one for longer; I even got a Win Token!" "How's that related to anything?" Pencil asked. "Well, you don't have one, do you?" Coiny quipped.

Eraser sighed in relief as he watched the two focus their anger on each other instead of him; he'd slowly but surely slip out of their sights, inching his way away before breaking into a full-blown sprint. He'd make sure he got a good distance between him and them before he finally settled down and caught his breath; that'd been a particularly close one. For a moment, he thought about everything he'd gone through, everything he's currently going through, as well as everything he's *going* to go through. Every single day carried a new pain to deal with, a brand new thorn on his side. He had more and more things to juggle, more and more things to worry about, and things were making less and less sense to boot. He thought about how an author- perhaps GB, since nothing would put a wider smile on his face than to see her fold -would go about recording his great exploits (after all, there's no better way to boost one's ego), and how they'd even be able to parse everything that's going on, let alone put it to writing; would they even be able to tolerate it, or would they go mad from trying to piece everything together?

That's all in the future, anyway.

Eraser finally made his way over to the Announcer, who was busy doing things that were far beyond his (lack of) brain. "Hey, speaker thing!" He'd shout to get the thing's attention. "What is it?" The metal box quickly spun around to look at him; though that steel speaker remained emotionless and featureless, one could tell that it was probably agitated. "Where's my prize, huh?" "Um." The speaker box feigned cluelessness. "Prize for what?" "Uh, for winning. *Duh*." Eraser folded his arms. "There are no prizes for winning." The Announcer replied. "Winning is its own reward." "Don't be kidding around with me!" Eraser shouted. "If you don't give me a prize, I'll..." He'd pause for a bit to think of a strong enough threat. "I'll kick you! I'll tip you over!" "Alright. Fine. Sheesh." The speaker box folded. "You can take the skis from the previous contest." "Alright!" Eraser was then handed the skis in question: three pairs of things that aren't much use unless there's plenty of snow and hills, and in the great green lands of Goiky... one can probably tell that there was a shortage of both.