It was yet another day in Goiky.
And it was a particularly grueling one, too. As always, the hapless inhabitants of this corner of the world had to contend with the Battle for Dream Island, all the usual shenanigans they had to endure, all the hoops they had to jump through, all for the sake of a slightly higher chance of winning a prize that they'll likely never get to see. But they also had to contend with *other* things too. These latest episodes have been particularly nerve-wracking, causing all sorts of troubles and terrors, leaving a lot of collateral damage in its wake. This last one left the area in a particularly awful mess, with all sorts of garbage strewn about and making the place nasty and unpleasant to look at. They didn't want to have to acknowledge it for a second longer, and Two seemed to share their sentiments. However, despite the algebralian having the Power that bears their name, despite being more than able to just snap it away with a single motion, they decided that it would be a *great* idea to have them do the long, hard work of cleaning it up. They'd have to deal with picking up the litter, moving it somewhere else, finding some place that can hopefully deal with it for good, or at the very least keep it away from sight. What was supposed to be their brief reprieve from all this agony, this little (well, not really little; only in a metaphorical sense) gap in-between episodes, had become an entire ordeal and a half. To stack *that* on top of all the work they're already doing, trying to keep themselves together amidst all the hectic happenings...
Good grief, there's *that* too. Beyond the Battle for Dream Island, before all the humiliating, degrading stuff that they've been forced to do, all the trauma caused by entertaining viewers that care for nothing more than their entertainment, there's also the fact that the rest of the world exists. Things continue to happen when they're not looking, when they pay attention to it. And plenty of those things *aren't* good.
On second thought, maybe they shouldn't be so surprised that Two isn't capable of cleaning up this mess. Maybe his so-called 'limitless' power actually has a limit, despite all their claims about its greatness. They weren't able to stop the storm that caused this whole debacle, and they aren't able to figure out the fates of those that have just *disappeared*, erased from reality without any of their meddling.
That's worrying, isn't it? It didn't matter how much they distracted themselves, either by cleaning up messes, or worrying about being eliminated, or Battling for Dream Island. You simply can't change what is set in stone, what is *fact*. There's a malevolent force going around, one working just behind the scenes, just out of everyone's reach. They're able to take anyone away, render them helpless and unable to reach out and call for help. And most worrying of all, they appear to be *far* more powerful than the algebralian that has constantly touted their powers, so much so that they're offering it up for grabs as the most alluring prize of all. What exactly are they supposed to do against *that*? How are they able to find any enjoyment out of life, anything to bring smiles to their faces, if there's such a massive, existential threat looming over them at all times? At any given moment, without warning, whatever's going on could potentially reach its conclusion. They could be disappeared from reality, or *worse*, and they won't be able to say or do a single thing about it. All of this, all of these years of Battling for Dream Island, of struggling and fighting, of betrayal and sacrifice, *all* of it could be for nothing, squashed by forces so much more powerful than they could ever comprehend, that can squash them just as easily as they could squash a bug.
Well, what *were* they even supposed to do against a threat like that?
-
Ice Cube was sitting atop a hill.
All her life had been one big uphill battle; her very existence, just merely standing or sitting or staying there, was a constant struggle, a fight to stay alive. She was made of water, and water, as most people probably know, tends to be a liquid, not a solid. It takes *very* specific conditions in order for it to freeze, conditions which are often in short supply, or only momentary in nature. Every waking moment required constant, focused effort in order to not lose a single drop. One drop meant that she was just that little bit smaller, meant that in the next time around, she wouldn't have as much time between her and certain death. For every single thing she did, she constantly had to fret over whether or not she was exerting too much energy, about how much water is going to be wasted, on how much longer she could live before she *needed* to dive into the nearest body of water as soon as possible.
