Alternate Battle for Dream Island

ABFDIA 9c: City

Once again, nothing and nobody would bother to stir in Dream Island.

Despite how every single one of the past 2,763 attempts has gone, Barf Bag decided to try her luck once more and see if her team would *finally* get going. She'd end up having to search for half an hour or so before she finally caught a glimpse of them, searching through much of the island and going through many of the buildings. As is tradition, the red cube and his... *friend* were out and about, having fun wherever they could and seeing what else this place had to offer. They were in the middle of yet more shenanigans when she approached, *very* clearly in the middle of something or other, and would most likely not respond kindly to anyone daring to ruin their fun. Even if it was for the best. Even if it was good for them.

Whatever.

She decided to just wait for a moment, watching them continue in their ultimately futile efforts to distract themselves from the horrors of the outside world. They found a number of items, as well as something that was vaguely spherical, and decided to go bowling with them; that was something they did quite a while ago, apparently, and they'd been itching to do it again. Why? The question they'd probably be asking instead is 'why not'.

She considered just stepping in anyway and telling them that they had far, *far* more important things to do. Things that wouldn't get heads turning and people angry. It wasn't like she *really* had anything to lose, did she? She'd most likely just get recovered again, even if it took a little while, since she was still a liability for them. Or maybe she won't get recovered at all. And was that *really* so bad?

Eventually, her better judgment ultimately got back to her, and she decided to just leave them be. The last minor inconvenience from them was still fresh in her mind, and she didn't want to be reminded of that for a second more. Barf Bag quietly exited the premises, left the building, and proceeded to aimlessly wander about the island once again. If they *really* wanted to find her, in the unlikely event that they actually wanted to, they'd probably catch up in no time. Most likely they'd be angry and fuming throughout, demanding some explanation for her 'abandoning' them. That seemed to be how things usually went around here, that's how rotten the luck was.

Without much else to do, she decided to get to searching for Pen again. He was *bound* to be somewhere around here, right? The Announcer said that he was taking care of him, didn't he? The more she thought about it, the more it didn't really seem to add up; there wasn't any reason why they couldn't just kill and recover him, and so the veracity of the speaker box's statements was... *questionable* at best. But what else could she possibly cling onto? What else could she rely on in this miserable rock of a planet?

She'd end up making her way back to that one pool. That pool where the unfortunate... *incident* occurred. Nobody had even bothered to clean up the contents, despite it having been quite a while since then. Nobody bothered. Nobody cared. Apathy was seemingly a running theme for everyone around here.

Everyone save for one, anyway.

"Oh! Barf Bag!" Leafy ran up to her, a fixed, fake smile on her face. "Oh. Uh..." Barf Bag took a step or two back from the edge of the pool. "No, I wasn't planning on going in. I can... go. If I'm in the way, or something." "Oh, not at all!" The leaf exclaimed. "You're perfectly fine. You can stay." "Uh... Alright." The bag maintained her caution. "You sure? Last time I talked, we were pretty... uh..."

Leafy's eye twitched. "No need to think about any of *that*." She'd interject. "I *will* admit that you weren't the one I was looking for; I was on the hunt for my teammates, wherever they may be. But I'm also happy that I bumped into you!" There's that smile again. "Look, I know we got off on the wrong foot, things ended up getting heated..." A hint of sadness, the slightest frown, would just barely break through. "But you understand, right? All part of the... contest." Barfy considered her next move for a moment before reluctantly nodding. "...Yeah. For the contest."