The Battle for Dream Island was over.
It's a rather shocking fact for some, but time *does* indeed pass. It may seem imperceptibly slow when one actually takes a look at it, processing and registering each second that goes by, but they *do* go by. In each and every moment the present continues to march forward, more and more things become part of the past, and the future continues to elude them. Counting the seconds one by one, it can certainly feel like it's gonna be an eternity until anything of note actually happens. But it *will* eventually happen. One second will go by, then another, then another. Sixty of those make a minute, sixty of *those* make an hour, then a day is made out of... twenty-four hours, for whatever reason. Why not just go for another round sixty, keeping in line with all the other units of time? Who knows. That's the sort of thing that only a dumb nerd like Golf Ball would know, and she's 2,763 miles away, give or take. And that's not even getting into the whole thing with weeks, months, and years. Long story short, timekeeping is a skill that takes *far* more effort and concentration than it really should. It's a lot to keep track of, a lot to consider, and for a group of contestants that already have a lot of things in their mind, it was stuff that they just couldn't be bothered to fully comprehend. All that would really matter for them is what they could grasp, what they could perceive.
A long time ago, a time barely any of them could remember by this point, there was no such thing as a Battle for Dream Island. There was not even a *thought* of its potential existence, even among the most deranged and delusional out of them. There was a time where everything was (relatively speaking) peaceful and normal, where it was just them, the endless grassy expanse, and the clear blue sky. They had nothing to consider except what they were gonna do in order to satiate their desire for action, to stave off boredom. There was no need to think about what the next contest is, or who their teammates and enemies were, or what the faceless, soulless viewers thought of them, or what the chances of them being eliminated were. You just... *existed*. You wake up, you do whatever you want, you go to sleep, and then you do it all over again the following day. It was a simple, soothing life. A life that they very much took for granted.
Probably because they didn't know there were any other alternatives; they aren't exactly the sharpest, as years of competing would show.
All of a sudden, out of nowhere, completely unexpectedly, the Announcer fell out of the sky and decreed that *this* was going to be their life now. They were to Battle for Dream Island now, and there was nothing they could do about it. Well, it *seemed* like they could do nothing about it, anyway. Why they didn't just say no and walk away, considering there wasn't really anything to hold or restrain them, is one of the great mysteries that continues to baffle the minds of the few people that even recognize it, let alone actually *think* about it. Regardless, their entire life would suddenly be changed, get flipped upside-down, and things never wouldn't really be the same again. New friendships would be forged, new grudges would be created, new teams and divisions would be laid out, and all sorts of new adventures awaited them. There were growing pains, of course, but that was to be expected. Soon enough, they'd be done with one episode, then another, then *another*. Before they knew it, their cast of a little under two dozen was whittled down to just a single winner, and that was an entire season done. And then *two* seasons were done. And now, there were three of them over and dealt with, solidly in the past.
Or four, depending on who's counting.
When they were Battling for Dream Island, when they were stuck in the Tiny Loser Chamber, when they were out living in Yoyle City, when they were grumbling about their Eternal Algebra Class Withfour, when they were out and about exploring the Pillary Ruins, there were tons and tons of things that were constantly crossing their minds. Every living being naturally wants to keep on living, and there's a *lot* of stuff that goes into that mindset. But in all that time, in all those years and years, there was a single notion that they never really gave much consideration, not even once.
