It was time for yet another, incredibly *boring*, episode of the Battle for Dream Island.
Before all of that, before there were things worth remembering, all anyone did for much of their lives was idly stand around the same old grasslands, doing the same old things, with those aforementioned same old things being a whole lot of boring stuff that nobody cares about. They sat around, they stood around, perhaps they even *walked* around, if they felt so inclined. They'd talk, they'd hang out, maybe they'd get up to some mischief. But overall, the average was just... *extremely* boring. Hanging around in the grasslands all day, doing not much of anything, *especially* not much of any value. They just... kept on existing. And existing. More and more. Second by second. One would pass, then two, then three, then four, then five, then ten, then a dozen, then several more, then 2,763. Just good ol' fashioned, no-nonsense existence. Existing for long periods of time, perhaps contemplating on that very existence, but always just... *existing*. Existing over and over again. Each and every day. Sunrise to sunset, there were just the same old shenanigans. Each and every time. Over and over again. Just pure, distilled existence. Staring out in the grasslands, all day, every day, with perhaps some time and energy given for a number of shenanigans, but it always goes back to *existing*. Existing time and time again. Over and over.
Even with the mere *description* of it being overly repetitive and circuitous, it still doesn't quite come to encompass just how *boring* it all was, in retrospect. And what's even more outrageous was the fact that everyone, for the most part, was just *fine* with it. They all had *some* comprehension of the world beyond, sure; Golf Ball and her... associate, they *especially* had that know-how. But considering the insufferable nature of those sport globules, nobody wanted to admit that they shared even just a single quality with them. Even though they had some impression that there was a life out there to enjoy, a world full of infinite wonder and endless possibilities, they just decided... not to do anything about it. They did nothing more or less than just mere existence. Over and over again. Day after day. Repeatedly. Again and again.
But then that speaker box fell out of the sky one day, and the machine promised them the world. Well, an island. An island filled with all sorts of stuff, an island that claimed to fulfill that great desire that everyone had, yet nobody seemed to actually want to act upon. Finally, *finally*, they'd get to have their own little corner of the world where nobody could ever bother them, and they didn't have to pay any amount at all to get it. Well, not in money, anyway. All they had to do was just make it through all the competition. How hard could that be?
It *would* be quite difficult, as it turns out.
They thought that it was something as simple as staying on a balance beam the longest, but if there's something the universe loves more than being infinitely boring, it's being infinitely cruel. Turns out that it was just to determine who gets to draw lines in the sand, who decides the teams for the much larger Battle for Dream Island. With the two arbitrary groupings decided, the competition could *really* get started. For episode after episode, that weird speaker box would throw whatever he felt like throwing at them on that day. They'd laugh, they'd cry, they'd struggle, they'd whine. Again and again, over and over. And to make matters worse, they were *also* getting periodically kicked out, their numbers quickly dwindling, and the fallen being subjected to a fate far, *far* worse than death. All that *definitely* wasn't good for their poor, fragile souls.
But nothing, *nothing*, could've possibly prepared them for what was quite possibly the greatest evil yet: despite all the action taking place, BFDI was starting to become *boring*.
The little minutiae varied from day to day, of course. But the overall structure of each episode, the general 'plot' each and every time, didn't seem to change one bit. One of them got the boot, then they'd be given their contest to do. They'd do it as well as they can, and those that did it the worst would end up being at risk for elimination. Rinse and repeat until only one was left, the one that will win Dream Island, but also (shockingly) occasionally bring back someone just for kicks. Just to keep things going for longer. Just to make things more painful for everybody involved.
