This was surprising.
The Battle for Dream Island was many things. But if it was *one* thing, one quality that has remained true all throughout the many years and years of its existence, it was *painful*. Every single episode always carried some pain and/or misery that they'd have to deal with, suffering that they'd have to carry for the rest of their lives, and perhaps even a little bit beyond. The hosts were more than willing to throw as many curveballs as they'd like, not caring a single bit whether or not they were able to cope, whether or not they were able to get up after being sent tumbling after the last one. It doesn't care, it doesn't show any mercy, it doesn't *care*, at all. All anyone could ever hope to do is survive, survive long enough to see another episode, and to do whatever it takes in order to do so, even if it meant betraying your morals, your teammates, your *friends*, in order to do so. There was nothing but pain, and pain, and *yet* more pain. And with each and every episode, there was only gonna be more of it, *somehow* even more than the last go around. And then the next one would continue in that tradition, and the next one after that, and the one following *that* too, and so on, and so forth, ad nauseam. Keep going until you get sick, and then it'll proceed even *after* that. The soulless, heartless viewers and voters that pulled the strings behind the scenes, those that made them act out these terrible and demented things, that couldn't care less about their actual wellbeing and condition.
After Match was unceremoniously eliminated from the first season of the Battle for Dream Island, she was thrown into a box with little to no consideration whatsoever. When the chance was given to join the season following that, she failed to seize it, and was then thrown into that box *again*, only this time it was inside another box; not only that, but she was also thrown in alongside a whole bunch of nobodies, people that couldn't care less about who she was, or where her personal space is. When she and all the others were given a chance to become relevant once again, when the proverbial dice of fate decided to throw them a bone by inexplicably making them the new hosts of the new season, the matchstick had to essentially fight for her life to get her little bit of time on camera, at the center of attention. When she was *finally* let out, the competition was over, and she had nothing left to look forward to in life. She was now stuck in this city she knew nothing about, surrounded by people that had grown distant from her, in a tumultuous time that brutally punished people for being either of those things. When the algebralians made their sudden appearance to rectify the situation, to bring them back to a sense of *relative* normalcy, it turned out that they were even more psychotic than even that speaker box was, and their greater powers meant that elimination meant being consigned to an even worse fate, meant being transported into an alternate realm where the numerals held all the cards, where she could do nothing but wallow in despair for however long they so desired. And so, of course, *naturally*, Match would wind up there as well, being forced to undergo Eternal Algebra Class for... well, *eternity*. But once again, *somehow*, random chance would give her a bit of luck once again; eternity would unexpectedly come to an end, and she and her classmates would manage to make a lucky escape from Four... only to be thrown into *another* prison in retaliation. They were then given yet *another* chance to redeem themselves, a chance to join yet *another* competition. Once again, *obviously*, she wouldn't make it, even though they were given yet another chance and had *two* make the cut instead of just one. And finally, just to rub salt on that wound, elimination once again meant exile; she wasn't sent into some weird alien realm again, but she *would* be taken away by the winds, sent hurtling for who knows how long, landing on a place that she once again did not recognize.
...Or did she?
Given the Battle for Dream Island's track record for pain and misery, it'd end up coming as a complete surprise for the matchstick when, after spending *so* long toiling and working for a hope that never grew brighter, she was just given... *this*, for free. The places were different, yes, but the faces?
