Alternate Battle for Dream Island

ABFDI 13b: Don't Lose Your Lead

"Hello, hello! I'd like to thank everyone that decided to show up!"

Now that the teams were gone and done, there wasn't really all that much incentive to continue sticking around with your former teammates; the alliances were still there on paper, but ultimately there can be only *one* winner, so for the most part people now looked out for each other.

This particular meeting had a little bit of everybody from all the former teams; Leafy and Ice Cube from the Grapes floated the idea, Pin agreed to it and dragged Tennis Ball and Firey along (Bubble was with Match and the others). Coiny was also there, mostly just because he felt like it. They all sat around in a rough circle on the grass beside the PRISON, with some uneven spacing between everyone as some felt more comfortable with others.

"Well, that's the most you could do, I guess." The coin creature scoffed. "No clue why I ended up here; I could be doing *literally* anywhere else." "Nobody actually *asked* you to come, Coiny." The leaf remarked. "I just... *politely* suggested it; besides, you're not with us, are you?" "Well, that's nice of you." Coiny sarcastically remarked. "Besides, now I remember why: that new voting thing means that Firey's gonna be up for elimination, like, *all* the time, and I wanna be there for each terrible step of the way." "Grr!" The flame exclaimed. "Well, that's not very nice..." Leafy remarked; Pin sighed. "You're not used to it by now?" She'd ask.

The plant rolled her eyes before continuing. "Speaking of, that's *exactly* what I wanted to talk to you guys about!" Leafy began. "So, as you all know, the teams are gone; we're no longer working with each other, and instead we're mostly focusing on ourselves." "Well, duh." Coiny interjected. "Everyone was there when that speaker box announced it; did you think we were *that* dumb that you needed to bring it up again?" Leafy simply glared at him for a moment before moving on. "But, you know... what if we *don't* do that?" She'd take a deep breath before proceeding. "I mean, we're all still Battling for Dream Island and all that; people are still gonna get eliminated, and they're gonna get stuck at that PRISON over there." She'd gesture towards the big room. "But, you know, now that we know where the eliminated contestants are, now that we can talk to them... is there a reason why this whole thing has to be so... aggressive?"

"Well, duh!" Firey chimed in while constantly swatting away repeated attempts at slapping by Coiny. "It's in the name; it's a *Battle* for Dream Island. At the end of the day, only one of us can get it. And-" "Sure, but *everyone* can enjoy it, right?" Leafy asked.

"What I'm thinking is this: we all get together one of these days, and we vote among ourselves to see which one of us gets to win Dream Island; someone who we all don't really mind the most. We agree to vote each one of us off, agreeing that none of it's in anger and all that, and eventually the winner just lets us all in." "Well, it *sounds* like a good idea in theory." Tennis Ball remarked. "But already I can think of a few problems with that plan: for one-" Coiny scoffed. "Well, *you* might have problems with it, sure." He'd quip. "Because you're *definitely* not gonna be the one to win; I mean, you can't even win *arms*, let alone an island." TB looked at him. "Well, you can't even win... uh... intelligence." Despite just how terribly that response landed, Firey would burst into laughter; anything that made fun of that dumb jerk Coiny was good in his book.

"Come *on*, you guys." Leafy tried to intervene. "That's why I said *we're* gonna vote for it; all of us together! That way, we can all agree on it." "Yeah, that's another thing." The fuzzball remarked. "Odds are likely that none of us are gonna agree on *anything*; most of us are gonna want to win the island for ourselves." "Yeah, that's true." Pin added. "Everyone just *loves* the satisfaction of winning, of taking something from somebody else and knowing that they can't take it back. I mean, why else would most of us keep doing that?" "I don't think agreeing on something is as impossible as you guys think." Leafy folded her arms. "I mean, I think I've been getting pretty close; look at my old team, for instance! You guys ever thought people like Match, Pen, and Teardrop could get along *that* well?" "Being on the same team probably helped that." Tennis Ball remarked. "Now that those are gone, there isn't really any incentive anymore."