Alternate Battle for Dream Island

ABFDI 18b: Reveal Novae

Only a few people bothered to show up for the Announcer's announcement.

"Hello, everyone." The speaker box began. "Hello, Speakery!" Leafy enthusiastically waved at him. "How are you doing? Feeling better since that little injury of yours? Anything different we should know about?" The metallic one turned to her; though he had absolutely no eyes to speak of (at least in the conventional sense, presumably he had *some* sort of vision), the leaf could still feel a cold, piercing gaze faced directly at her. Despite all that, however, she'd maintain her happy, cheery expression. Just out of spite. "I don't know what you are talking about." The Announcer answered. "Anyway, I just wanted to talk to you all about something that has been bothering me about this competition as of late." "What, that it's just a complete and utter sham?" Pin asked. "That we haven't seen Dream Island yet?" Pen chimed in as well. "That it isn't exciting and *violent* enough?" Leafy joined it too. "Well, maybe that last one as well." The box remarked. "But I'm talking about the number of contestants." "Well, what's wrong with it?" The writing utensil queried. "There's, like, uh..." He'd quickly count with his fingers. "Seven left, right? I think that's a pretty good number." "No, not that." The Announcer answered.

"When the Battle for Dream Island began, there were nineteen of you." He'd explain. "That was not an even number, and so it cannot be divided evenly; so Golf Ball chose to become co-host, bringing the number down to eighteen. "What? That's crazy!" Pin remarked. "Just nineteen of us? Could've sworn for the longest time that there was an exact twenty. It just made sense." "I *know*, right?" Leafy's interjected. "Every time I remember, it's always jarring. Twenty's just an easier number to remember, isn't it? Every once in a while I remember we're one short, whenever I'm naming all my friends, and I'm like, oh, did I forget to count myself? But..."

While the two continued on with their little conversation, gears would start to turn on Pen's head; it sure does feel like he's had that exact same conversation, albeit with someone else. 19 people? It was rather statistically unlikely that the number of people randomly gathered together at any point is *exactly* 20 in number, but like Leafy said, it just... felt right. Not only is it *also* divisible by two, but that also means the teams could be split into 2 groups of 10; that's another nice, round number. It just felt like the right thing to do, you know? And clearly everyone else shared that sentiment; he *knew* he talked about that rather peculiar number once, how it just felt out of place in the natural order, despite its tendency towards chaos and confusion...

Pen blinked.

"Uh... Guys?" He'd walk on over to Leafy and Pin, still deeply engrossed in their conversation; he'd tap the leaf on the shoulder, since she'd probably be more receptive. "Hm?" "I think... there *were* 20 of us." The writing utensil began. "Call me crazy, but I *swear* we had someone else with us, someone called Needle. She-"

"Enough talking, all of you." The Announcer interrupted. "As I was saying, the fact that there are only 18 of you has bothered me for quite some time, so I am bringing in two new contestants to bring it up to an even 20. Please welcome."

The speaker box started playing a drumroll, turning towards the entrance doors; when the music stopped, the doors opened, revealing... a Barf Bag and a Taco. There'd be a bit of mild applause. "Welcome, new friends!" Leafy waved at them. "Uh... Hi." Barf Bag reluctantly waved back.

"No need for introductions." The speaker boxes turned back to the old contestants. "You will eventually get to know them." He'd then turn back to the newbies. "You will each be given 87 points, the average number a contestant has." The nearby screen then updated the point totals accordingly. Back to the old ones. "Anyway, as a result, we are back to the Final Nine; once again, you receive a prize." Pin frowned, remembering what happened last time. "Is it... any good?" "It's another half of a pair of scissors." The Announcer announced, throwing them onto the ground; Leafy, Pen, and Pin would end up picking up three each. "Distribute them to the others, please." "Here you go!" Leafy quickly went to give hers to the newbies.