Alternate Battle for Dream Island

ABFDI 23a: Mean!

The flight back was largely uneventful.

Pen in particular would just be looking out of the spaceship's window, watching as the wonders of the world just got reduced to a blur as they quickly went past. All sorts of vistas and views that he'd probably never get to see again, all sorts of places and faces that have tales and stories of their own, an entire new universe of possibilities and consequences, barely registering in his head for more than a second.

He felt that sort of thing before, a little while back; when they ascended up into space and saw the curvature of the Earth for the first time, it felt... weird. Perhaps the same sort of weird that everyone kept saying he was. Just *look* at it. All of it. Everything he's ever done, all he's ever thought, said, and acted upon, it's just on the surface of that miserable rock, not even visible if you didn't know what you were looking for. There's just all this... other stuff that exists alongside it, at the same time, perhaps just as worthy of one's time and energy, or maybe even more.

The first feeling that came to him was a sense of awe. Of course it was; after getting thrown into all sorts of nonsense so many times, you're bound to grow numb to... *those* sorts of feelings. You stop fearing the possibility of getting eliminated so much and you just try to enjoy it. That's just what reality is. That's life. Again, just *look* at it! A whole world out there to enjoy. Maybe Leafy had some sense to her words, after all. Nobody just bothered to listen, because of course they wouldn't. Nobody had ever seen *everything* from such a view before, so they don't even want to think about it. Their feeble little heads just couldn't handle it. All it could manage was a vague approximation; the sort that takes a lot of thinking and a lot of headaches, the sort that can only be withstood by those sport globules. But for a brief moment, it was there. Right in front of him. All of creation presented before him like a fancy banquet. The only thing he had to do was... dig in.

But gradually, ever so slowly, that all-too-familiar emotion would come flooding in. After barely coming to terms with the sheer size and scope of the stars, the vastness of the universe and the overall irrelevance of their little place in the cosmos... It must've taken some literally *astronomical* luck to end up in this dump, right? To think that there's so much else there, all this... *existence*, all this matter that's having infinitely more tolerable and appreciable lives, and yet he has to end up stuck here, with all these people that don't know any better, controlled by forces so vast that they couldn't even begin to describe it. Pen glanced at the Announcer, motionless and 'staring' off into the front window, and frowned. That age-old question remained: why was everyone following him? Why did everyone want Dream Island *so* badly? And why did this question keep popping up so many times, and yet they're no closer to the big answer?

Seeing everything go by quickly seemed to amplify those thoughts. At the very least, in the void of space you could tilt your head slightly and see nothing but the void. It wasn't exactly the prettiest sight, but it was... somewhat more calming. Soothing. But here, watching everything just get reduced to a smear as they returned to the status quo? It just felt different. It was just... Ugh.

Barf Bag tapped him on the shoulder, briefly taking him out of there for a second. "...You alright?" She'd ask directly. Pen blinked, shaking his head to clear away proverbial mist. "...Yeah." He'd reply. "Just, uh... Trying to clear my head after that last contest." The writing utensil looked out the window once more. "Turns up jumping into lava 2,763 times really does something to you, even if you get recovered."

"That's what I was talking about." Barfy interjected. "After the first dozen or so tries, I thought you'd finally throw in the towel; that you'd realize that you're doing something wrong and just... stop." She'd breathe. "But you didn't. You just kept on going until well after someone won. What's up?"