Alternate Battle for Dream Island

ABFDIA 14b: Taste Test

Once all the dust had settled, everything very quickly returned to normal.

On the one hand, that result was to be expected, really. The universe is full of all sorts of surprises and curveballs, and out of all the possible outcomes this fiasco could've possibly had... *This* one was certainly the most shocking. There was a brief moment, *very* brief, where the four (well, now five) of them thought that *something* was actually gonna happen, that the bandage was gonna get ripped off, that there was finally gonna be catharsis. I mean, come *on*. It just felt inevitable. Something strange is clearly going on, they've been separated from all their friends (well, it's the best term they had to describe them), and now they've uncovered this *giant* underground facility containing who-knows-what and controlled by who-knows-who. All this stuff was practically *begging* for some sort of action, and as much as they didn't really want it to happen... They also did. Snowball in particular, having been stuck in prison for so long, desperately wanted *something* to get back into the swing of things, to show the world that he was capable of *something* other than end up in spectacularly hilarious last place.

But no. Just as soon as the drama and suspense began to pick up, it was very quickly robbed from them, taken away by the wind. This story just *wasn't* done with being a complete and total disappointment; whoever's writing this, that incompetent fool pulling the strings of fate, they must be *really* incompetent.

The newly expanded-party once again embarked on their most favorite quest of all: walking for hours on end with no particular direction or ambition. They've done it in the grassy fields, they've done it in a cramped, miserable corridor, and now they're doing it in *another* cramped, miserable corridor. At least this one has some *slightly* better aesthetics: all sorts of things and gizmos and whatevers were dotted throughout. Not one of them knew of their function, and they *definitely* didn't care, but at least it was something to look at. Something to look at if you were close enough to Firey, that is.

And speaking of the living flame, he'd been busy ruminating the whole time. Once they finally got over the shock and awe of being in this completely foreign place, all that excitement was quickly washed away by the gradual realization that, much like everything else, it was *also* a whole lot of nothing. It's just another curveball, just like the competition. This was thrown their way, and they were supposed to just... deal with it. They shouldn't bother with trying to ask *why* it was thrown, since the universe didn't seem to be keen on giving them the answers. It just... did. The speaker box fell from the sky and told them to Battle for Dream Island because he felt like it; they've gone through it from start to finish, and that's the most anyone was able to come up with. Perhaps they'd have a theory or two as to *why*, but there was nothing they could do to definitively prove those.

The competition was *probably* a show of some sort, a thing meant for entertainment. Word went around the PRISON that cameras were watching their every move, and it wasn't just for security reasons. It also explained why the challenges were all so degrading and humiliating; no better comedic value than that. There's also the thing with the voters. The voters that... never showed up. And that's where the theory hits a snag. Just what sort of audience is this for? Most certainly a sick and twisted one, that's for sure, but other than that, they could only draw blanks. They haven't seen anyone around in this miserable wet rock except for themselves, and found no means to watch this stuff. Well, Golf Ball *allegedly* found some, but nobody ever listened to her.

With any potential answers to any of these questions being about as likely to find as any entertainment from a hypothetical novelization of this whole debacle, most of the contestants eventually pushed it into the back of their minds, leaving it to be forgotten. They've got an island to win, after all. But now that all that's said and done, now that they've had time to think back and reflect...