Alternate Battle for Dream Island

ABFDIA 22a: Smart

Once again, Golf Ball and Pin were angrily staring at each other.

After everything was reluctantly agreed upon, the thumbtack decided to give her *one* little concession, a small act of kindness to truly prove that she was on her side, that there was nothing to worry about. Any further discussion between the two would take place down below the surface, in the little base that GB had called home for the past... who knows how long now. And it was gonna be *just* them. There wasn't gonna be any interjections from Tennis Ball, or the rest of Team Not, or that other stranger. *Nobody* else but the two of them; that's the way they liked it, anyway. After fishing the bossy-bot out of her prison, that pit of despair, the two would quietly make their way to the entrance, down the stairs, and into the underground once more. There wasn't really anything stopping the others from just going in after them, *besides* their disgust and contempt towards the two, and so they remained exactly where they stood. Or sat. Or laid down. Whatever they fancied as they tried their hardest to relieve that permeating, suffocating boredom.

Of course, that little gesture was pretty much the entire extent of Pin's mercy towards Golf Ball. She knew full well that there was gonna be something or other laying around here that she can use to strike back, to make an even hastier escape. Keeping the sport globule close to her, she'd look around the place for anything that seemed out of the ordinary, anything that looked unusual. She then picked out a particular corner, the least conspicuous and most surrounding corner around, where they were gonna have their talk.

Where they *were* gonna have their talk.

The silence was getting far too long now, but the thumbtack wouldn't mind all too much. She's endured far, *far* worse, and she knows what GB is like. She can talk when she's ready; it also gives the red one time to prepare as well. It also gave her time to reflect, to think back to everything she saw while down here. She had paid very close attention to every little detail, every item and piece of furniture that was strewn about the place. She knew that places such as this, abandoned ruins that may or may not be submerged beneath the Earth, were bound to be littered throughout Goiky and elsewhere. She's listened in on the bozo-brain's lectures every once in a while, and she's picked up quite a bit of knowledge along the way, and thus she knew that they weren't the first ones to be here. Also, it was just common sense that she knew anything and everything about this place; knowing the environment is just one of many, *many* things a leader has to take into account in order to deal with things properly and effectively. Occasionally, she'd daydream about going out and doing fieldwork, just as the sport spheres have done in the past. She speculated on just what she may find just barely below the surface, and if maybe, *just* maybe, it could get everyone to stop messing around and actually pay attention, actually work together, actually *listen* to her.

Speaking of which...

"...Well?" Golf Ball grumbled. "Aren't you gonna say something?" Pin raised an eyebrow in response. "Are *you*?" GB became baffled. "You're the one that brought us here, that started all of... *this*." She'd scoff. "Indeed, I was." The pushpin remarked. "To some extent, anyway. But I insist; please, you go first. That's what you want, isn't it?" The small sphere would raise an eyebrow as well. "...Hm?" "I think I was pretty clear with what I said." The thumbtack continued. "This is what you want, is it not? To go first. To *be* first. To be listened to, to be followed." She'd take a deep breath. "You have a talent, Golf Ball. You know about things that the others will take 2,763 years to figure out. You know what's best for you, and for everyone else, and you know how to go about doing it." Another deep breath. "Anyone else, if you give them that sort of power, they'll immediately use it just to benefit themselves; make everything better for just one or two people, while the rest suffer and die. But you, you keep on working for everybody. Even though they've rejected you, *twice* over now, you're still out here, trying to liberate them from the consequences of their own actions." One more deep breath, just for kicks, really. "And in exchange for all that, for *all* of that, you just ask that they listen. Even for just a little bit."