The Battle for Dream Island was over.
Was it *really*, though?
When Pin, along with all the other contestants, first set foot in Yoyle City intending to make it their permanent home, she was *more* than happy to leave all those years of competing behind, to wipe the slate clean and start anew. To say that she thought the previous season sucked was quite the understatement. Here she was, a bold, courageous, *heroic* leader, her dreams of a better community being unfairly squashed at the hands of the capricious, uncaring, unfeeling voters. Then, in an apparent miracle, she was given a chance to start over, to prove herself once more in a brand new competition; after languishing for *years* in the cramped metal box, she was once again allowed to see the light of day. And with her personally leading the charge against Leafy, the usurper and thief of Dream Island, *surely* they'd look upon her more favorably now. They *had* to. A leader is completely and utterly powerless without the support and backing of her people, after all. This was her moment to shine, this was *their* moment to shine. Under her benevolent administration, she'd be able to lead her team, herself included, to the victory that they deserved so much.
But reality, as it was wont to do, would be quick to crush those wide-eyed, idealistic dreams as soon as they sprung up. They hadn't even managed to get through the *very* first episode when she was pushed off that momentary peak, beginning a long, tumultuous slide down to the very, *very* bottom. She was forcibly thrust into the helm of a team that was doomed from the start; a team that was *significantly* smaller than the opposition, consisting of just herself, an unknown newbie, and her antithesis, her opposite in every way. Pin stood for *everything* to do with order, justice, and leadership, while Coiny ran around and destroyed all that was good in the world. It came as a surprise to absolutely no one that the soon-to-be-called W.O.A.H. Bunch wound up losing their first challenge, and it seemed inevitable that the team would quickly crumble away into dust, leaving the remaining team to bicker amongst themselves. Only a pure miracle would manage to save this complete and absolute failure of a team.
Indeed, a miracle would come to rescue them. Prior to the arrival of the next challenge, they just so happened to acquire the *one* thing that would help them secure a victory, while the other team, despite their advantage on nearly *every* field, was suddenly incapable of figuring out how to do *anything*. Then, despite it being the equivalent of shooting themselves in the foot, they were able to persuade quite a few people to jump ship and join in on the Bunch. Then the other team would fracture, and soon enough, they were on equal footing with everyone else. Despite the odds, despite *everything* being stacked against her, Pin was able to use her wits and cunning (and a few horrible compromises) in order to turn things around and achieve success from the jaws of defeat. Things were looking up for her now, there was absolutely *no* way they could knock her back down again. Not Coiny, not the other teams, *nobody*.
And then her limbs were taken away from her. Then her face. Then her size too, for good measure.
She was *eventually* able to recover from all that, but by then the damage was done; the season would come to an end, and Pin would feel no better than she was at the start. If anything, she was even *worse* off than she was back then. She had such a strong start, was able to create victory out of what was essentially thin air, and then she fumbled it. She fumbled it *hard*. Now, here she was, stuck in a completely foreign city, an abandoned husk with little room for opportunity, being forced to drag along her pathetic excuse of a team, *especially* that good-for-nothing, incapable oaf.
*Coiny*. Though she had him to thank for helping her get back on her feet (both metaphorically and literally), it would be completely insane to disregard the fact that it was because of him that she *needed* that help in the first place, the one that lit the spark that eventually burned down her carefully laid-out plans. If she hadn't been coerced by him into joining that miserable little Bunch, if she had been on the same team as Puffball, perhaps she would've reconsidered taking away her limbs. In fact, perhaps there wouldn't have been any incentive for her to do that at all; she only *accidentally* stabbed her speaker box because of her attempt to kill Leafy, which only arose because she followed Bubble around, trying to befriend her. Once again, if it weren't for Coiny somehow pushing *everyone* to get her to switch, the pushpin likely would've been acquainted with her a long time ago. From there, all of her other inconveniences and woes could have easily been dealt with, with absolutely *no* need for that coin creature's interference. She would've been able to continue her string of successes, show to the contestants and the world that she was the *only* one worthy of winning Dream Island, and assert herself to be the heroic leader she always knew herself to be.
