Alternate Battle for Dream Island

ABFDI 17a: The Release

Golf Ball was all on her own at the Cake at Stake place.

When you didn't think about it for too long, maybe that was a good thing. Her head had been awfully full as of late; filled with thoughts of how to best manage this competition, what to do next, what to do after the Battle for Dream Island is wrapped up, how to deal with the more unruly contestants, how to deal with her alleged 'friends', and so on and so forth. Her head was bouncing between all these topics multiple times every second, giving her no time whatsoever to just sit around and be calm. And that's not even getting into having to deal with what she's doing in the *now*. As she worked on her latest surprise, or oversaw the latest contest, it was always with her, afflicting her like a plague.

Technically, she was still doing her job; the moment everyone showed up here for Cake at Stake, things would go back to normal and the regular routine would resume. But in some sense, she wasn't actually doing much of anything. She was just all on her own, comfortable in her little throne, taking in the fresh breeze and warm sunlight. For once in her life, she had actual time to reflect, actual time to think things through.

What was she doing with her life?

When she first dedicated her life to the pursuit of knowledge, when she decided that there were questions in the world that *had* to be answered and she was going to be the one to solve them, she figured that it was gonna be easy enough. Once you break that fragile shell of ignorance and actually look around you for once, instead of just focusing on yourself and whatever drama affects you personally, you come to realize that the history of the world, what sent you hurtling down the path to becoming who you are now, was written in every single inch of the world: just beneath the surface, in-between the blades of grass, and, if you're lucky, in more blatant ruins and artifacts. The truth of things was just... out there, waiting to be discovered.

Golf Ball thought she'd managed to uncover plenty, but only now did she realize... No. Not really.

The how and why of themselves, why objects deemed as inanimate were given the curse of life, why they wound up in this green field instead of one of the 2,763 others, why they were chosen by that speaker box to Battle for Dream Island, why that speaker box was there in the first place, the list just kept going. All those mysteries with no visible leads, no facts to anchor her theories.

Then there was the issue of not knowing when to stop; her hunger for knowledge and answers gradually nudged her brain to keep on pursuing goals, goals that only she ever really understood. Here she was, reluctantly co-hosting the competition, being forced to share the same world as the Announcer. All for what? Under some vague notion of teaching everyone a lesson? What sort of lesson even was this?

"Uh, am I the first one here, or did you all move on without me?"

Golf Ball snapped out of it; she'd see Pin casually walking up the steps, going around the place she never thought she'd set foot in for her entire life. "Uh..." The ball took a moment to return to her senses. "You're the first, yeah." She'd look at the pushpin. "You know why that is? Why everyone isn't here?" The thumbtack remained silent for a moment, as if that previous statement was some sort of joke. "Uh, didn't you come around to bring them here?" "I did, yeah." GB answered. "But you guys aren't expecting me to do that *every* time, right? You all should have some responsibility!" "Fair enough." The thumbtack shrugged. "But still, they probably won't know when to go; after all, they probably don't want to." Golf Ball groaned. "I know that." She'd reply. "That's why I sent a message to everyone on their DDS'; did you guys not get it?"

Pin fell silent again, unsure of what to tell her next. "Um." She'd roll her eyes. "Wait, so you don't know what's been happening?" GB glared at her. "...No." She'd answer. "As much as I try to keep an eye on all of you, you guys are *just*..." She'd stop herself from kicking something in anger. "From experience, I just know *something* can happen out of the blue that can change *everything*. I mean, that's how all this started, didn't it?"