Alternate Battle for Dream Island

ABFDI 21a: The Glittering

Everything was nice and quiet for the first time in quite a good while.

As soon as Leafy was the last one standing, the Announcer immediately offered to help her get back down to Earth and continue on with the whole 'Battle for Dream Island' thing; she appreciated the offer, of course, but decided that that can wait for a little while. It was gonna take at least a minute or two before the next thing happened, right? She wanted to take even the briefest moment *finally* having some time and space to herself, floating high above everyone and everything that's been bothering her all her life.

She spent a little while still tethered to her comfortable seat (the only thing that prevented her from just floating off there), before going ahead and 'swimming' around for a period of time unknown to her. No clocks in this place, none that she knows of, anyway. She just let herself drift around wherever the forces at hand took her, not really caring one bit as long as it didn't, like, harm her. If they wanted to bring disappointment to her life once again and forcibly send her back down for another episode, it's not like she could stop her.

For the first time in ages, Leafy was doing... nothing. Nothing at all. Not even photosynthesis. She was finally well and truly alone, absolutely nothing and nobody surrounding her except herself and her thoughts. Quite a lot of room to reflect on things, quite a lot of time to let it simmer. She thought of everyone down there, how they'd been through so much throughout the competition, and how it drove them apart more than ever. They already were quite aggressive with each other beforehand, but this? This was just on a brand new level. She sighed, whether or not they could ever get along. If not them, then at least a few of them. If not that, then just two of them. If not... Then just *her*.

She really has let herself go, huh?

She tried her hardest not to think about it as she scrambled back onto her seat; trying to remember everything that she was taught during all those boring tutorials (already it was beginning to slip away from her mind), she'd spin her spacecraft around a bit to have it point straight down (relatively speaking), towards the Earth. That blue and green marble she's called home all her life, the only one they'll ever have. She thought she'd be able to see it all at once, like in her wildest dreams of her peaceful mission spanning the whole world. Yet it didn't take long at all for the blue hues to completely envelop her tiny window; if she didn't know any better, she wouldn't think she had left the planet at all.

She knew that the planet was big; even from her limited viewpoint in the green plains, that much was obvious. But *this* big? Just what else could possibly be going on down there? Were other people out there? Were they better? Worse? *Far* worse? Maybe even just the same? Leafy shuddered at the thought. She knew her job was gonna be difficult from day one, but now it seemed to have crossed the barrier to just being completely impossible. She felt like she couldn't even *see* the whole world, let alone help it. Were the odds really that stacked against her? Did she really not stand a chance at all against this cruel, indifferent, *immensely* vast universe?

Maybe Pin was right.

-

Golf Ball and the contestants had been idly waiting around the Cake at Stake for quite a while now.

"Where's Leafy?" GB asked. "She should've gotten here ages ago." "I dunno." Pin shrugged. "Last I saw her, she was..." She trailed off; considering the previous incident, *maybe* it's best not to disclose... that. Pen, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind. "She's still in space, I bet." The writing utensil remarked. "Floating around there; it took us a while to get there, so getting back is probably..." The dimpled one blinked, in utter disbelief. "What." "Y'know... Space!" Pen continued. "That thing you see up in the night sky. The one with all the stars. I thought you'd know that, since you're so-" "I *know* what space is." Golf Ball grumbled. "What I mean is..." She sighed. "You must be *severely* mistaken. Nobody's gone to space in the past 2,763 years. Ever since the..." She'd quickly stop herself, realizing that nobody cared about all that. "Point is, there's *no* way you guys went to space. It's *impossible*!" "Yeah, I thought so too." Barf Bag remarked. "But that speaker box just sent us up there for a casual contest. Just like that." Pen scratched his head. "Now that I think about it, it *kinda* makes sense." He'd remark. "I mean, the first time we saw him, he literally fell out of the sky, right?"