Alternate Battle for Dream Island

ABFDI 25c: Return of the Island

Once again, like always, they just *couldn't* immediately get the thing they were entitled to. The one thing they've spent so much time battling over.

Instead, as soon as the sun rose, the Announcer got everyone in a single-file line and got them to start marching towards Dream Island. The island, as one could probably guess, is an... island. It's a small piece of land, surrounded wholly by a body of water. The contestants have frolicked in these green fields for as long as they can remember, and not once did they see such a massive ocean or sea until the Battle for Dream Island came along and introduced them to the Goiky Canal. That's where they're going, presumably; despite the island seemingly being so close, it was still *barely* out of reach. Minutes passed, then hours, and still there was no sign of the shore, let alone Dream Island.

And so, they talked. Partly to rekindle that spark of joy that was once in their lives prior to the competition, partly to tie up loose ends and patch things up, and *mostly* to distract themselves from the increasing pain that comes with having to walk for so long. They talked of what their plans for the future were, what their next adventure was now that they were free of this whole nonsense. They talked about how much they were gonna enjoy Dream Island, the sorts of lessons that they had learned along the way, the friends and enemies they've met. All sentimental, all emotional, all pretty moving stuff.

And all stuff that any sane person shouldn't really care about.

Pin, as always, had a whole lot on her mind. And as they continued their trek to Dream Island, there would somehow be *more* occupying her head. Despite not winning the island, it was all she could think about. Now that it was... *theirs*, now that an unknown quantity of people will finally get to see it for themselves, what'll happen next for this hapless group of twenty?

Er, nineteen?

She tried to get an audience with Pen, figure out his side of the story, but he was constantly getting swarmed with people asking what his plans were, what was on his mind. She grumbled and eventually decided to just back away; she'd probably get a chance sooner or later, anyhow. If she wasn't gonna be able to get to him, most likely *he* was gonna go to *her*. It was only an inevitability, she surmised; it's only a matter of time until the pressure of owning the one island everyone desired gets to him, until the conflict between the others, now his own in a sense, would cause him to succumb. And then he will flock to her, as he should've done ages ago. As *everyone* should've done. That's just how things went. That's the natural order of things. People want to make sense of the world, they want to find their place in it. And so, they'll try and find that themselves, to assert themselves as the one keeping things in check. And then, most of them will cave and crumble, collapse under the weight of their ego and hubris. They'll become demoralized, unwilling, incapable. And they'll naturally gravitate towards those that actually know a thing or two about leadership. Those with an actual capacity to rule. She could already see the path to it now. Dream Island was as good as hers.

For now, though, it was probably best to learn more about her future possessions.

She'd notice Tennis Ball lingering in the back, just barely keeping up while maintaining a lot of distance between him and everyone else. The pushpin silently cued Leafy to follow her, and they'd slowly but surely slow themselves down to make their approach; Tennis Ball would very quickly notice and start slowing down as well, almost coming to a full stop as they got *too* close for comfort.

"You mind telling me what's at Dream Island again?" The thumbtack asked. The fuzzball sighed. "That robotic talker already told us." As much as he didn't want to do so, however, he'd pull up his remarkable memory. "Dream Island's a whole square mile of paradise; a five-star hotel, a casino, six restaurants, robot servants, and the winner gets to decide who gets to come in and who doesn't."