Alternate Battle for Dream Island

ABFDI 15b: Cleaning Up Vomit

Match cautiously exited the PRISON.

She'd repeatedly debated and hesitated from going in; the... *incident* a little while back seemingly convinced her not to go and raise tensions further, but that whole thing died down *just* before she became 100% certain, leaving doubt and guilt to devour her once more. The matchstick spent quite a while wandering in circles in the apartments, making sure that Leafy or Bubble or whoever wasn't keeping a close eye on her for... whatever reason. I mean, she knew what she *would* be doing if she wasn't so wrapped up in all of... this. After one final quick check, she'd hurriedly rush out and sprint most of the way to the PRISON; that vast stretch of green, empty plains where she was the only landmark for miles around, sticking out like a sore thumb. Eventually, *eventually* she'd make it.

She ended up having to wait a while before Pence-Pence would finally turn up; Match panicked about it, of course, but her snooping in an effort to distract herself yielded some pretty interesting results. Tucked away, hidden behind an inconspicuous piece of furniture, was a tiny little switch. Flicking it caused a few quiet clicks, and when she started messing around to find out what happened, it turned out that the one exit was now locked and sealed. If she'd forgotten about the switch (which she came dangerously close to doing), she would've been trapped there *forever*. Well, at least until Golf Ball presumably would let her out.

She'd keep everything locked for the time being as Pencil would finally show up; the two ended up having a conversation that was drawn out and yet said so little. They'd be in the middle of some deep conversation when another one of the eliminated would suddenly chime in, very blatantly spying, or Match would hear some rumbling from outside and briefly panic. Overall the talk, though under less than ideal circumstances, would further reinforce the bond that was faced with near-certain death just a little while ago; they had *just* managed to patch it up, and this silly little elimination wasn't going to get in the way of that.

And neither would anybody.

Match could've easily spent the rest of the day talking to Pence-Pence, but she knew the longer she lingered the more likely she'd be caught; after basically forcing herself to wrap up the conversation, she'd unlock the door once more, and would make sure absolutely *nobody* had turned up in the intervening time before finally exiting the premises. The afternoon sun lazily hovered above the fields, the wind continued to blow, and so on and so forth. The matchstick was... somewhat relieved. Pencil didn't seem to be in any trouble, she wasn't subjected to anything horrifying in the PRISON, and she was more than happy to stay there as long as she knew that Match was continuing on strong, one of the ten contestants remaining in the Battle for Dream Island. Why did she have to worry so much? She'd take a deep breath, calm her nerves, begin the uneventful walk back to the apartments...

"Oh, hello, Match!"

What little calm she'd managed to gather within herself would immediately be taken away, yet another cruel prank of the universe. "Um. Like, hey." She'd wave back at Leafy, who had that wide, unconvincing smile on her face. The type one would do while *very* much trying not to incriminate themselves for something they just did. "I was just, you know, taking a walk outside to, like, get some fresh air." The matchstick continued. "Gets pretty stuffy in the apartment; you'd, like, probably know." The leaf chuckled. "Yeah, right?" She'd reply. "Not really liking it there either. *Already* have plenty of bad memories."

Match chose not to address... *that*; she knew that doing so was pretty much walking straight through a minefield. "Well, I'm already, like, on my way back." She'd anxiously take a step in the right direction. "It's almost night, and the one redeeming feature of that place is, like, their *super* comfortable beds." One more step, then a couple more. "Don't let me bother you from, like, your photosynthesis. I'm gonna go ahead and-" "Ah, no!" Leafy smile somehow became creepier. "We can keep talking; in fact, that's what I wanted to do. No better way to spend your day than having a nice chat with your pals!" "Yeah. that. like, sounds great." Match nervously chuckled. "But maybe we can do that at, like, another time; there's some stuff I gotta attend to, and-"