Alternate Battle for Dream Island

ABFDIA 24b: Lies

After much deliberation, they decided that they were going to use Gelatin's van.

If they *really* needed to, they could've gone after Flower without her. She was just going on a regular walking pace; by the time they had done their back-and-forth, figuring out some sort of deal between the foodstuff and everyone else, she was still a rather visible speck that wasn't too far off, somewhere that you could get to with just a few minutes or so of walking. But Firey and the others just *really* didn't want to spend any more time using their legs to go anywhere, especially for the long distance that this'll likely take them. Though they're still pretty put off by the concept of a vehicle (never mind the fact that they've been on other, even stranger moving objects beforehand; they're a bit dumb, as Golf Ball once said), they could very much see that it could get them pretty far without having to do anything whatsoever. Someone still had to direct them towards where they're going, of course, but it looked like all Gelatin had to do was put his foot down somewhere specific, use his hands to spin around some strange wheel-like apparatus, and things would be smooth sailing from there. It was *infinitely* more appealing to them at the moment than yet more hours and hours of using their already weary feet to go to some destination that'll likely make them even more miserable than they already were.

Besides Gelatin's concerns about running out of fuel and other nonsense that only nerds like the sport globules could probably get, one of the things he brought up was the fact that bringing such a massive machine along for the journey would *probably* startle Flower out of... whatever state she was in. Even if her back was turned against the thing, it made plenty of noise that made it the most visible thing (metaphorically and literally) for miles around. Those sentiments would be shared among the more sensible members of the team (i.e. mostly Teardrop), but their desire to *not* have to use their legs beyond when it's absolutely necessary overrode any sort of sense or logic for their spectacular plan. That concern would end up being far too overblown, anyway; even when they were right behind her, the engine running as loudly as it did, she wouldn't mind it a single bit. She just kept on walking, kept on going.

Really, they didn't know which outcome was *more* concerning. Everyone knew with some certainty that she could very much hear it, and yet she wouldn't say or do anything about it. She just kept on marching on a near-perfect line, acting none the wiser. After yet more arguing and bickering over who was gonna be the sacrifice, one of them would get out and try to get her attention, try to get any sort of reasoning or explanation as to where she's going and why. They'd run up to her, they'd wave to her, they'd shout at her, they'd deliberately provoke her in any number of ways. Not a single attempt worked to any degree. At their wits' end, they decided to take the most egregious option and stand right on her path; that *would* get her to acknowledge their existence... but only to aggressively push them out of the way before moving on. With violence having been proven to be the only answer, they'd start pushing and pulling at her in kind, eventually trying to hold her down and stop her from going anywhere, refusing to let go until any sort of answer was given. But whatever spirit or something had taken over her body, whatever gave her the compulsion to start going in a random direction, also gave her incredible strength that allowed her to eventually overpower even all of them at once.

They figured that they'd eventually manage to reach her breaking point *somewhere* along the line; after all, it hasn't exactly been the hardest thing to do previously. But despite all the conflict and confrontations, Flower would emerge from it all no better or worse, simply getting up and continuing her journey towards... *somewhere*. Eventually, with their energy exhausted, Firey and the rest would get back on Gelatin's van and continue with their agreed-upon plan. They were just gonna continue to follow her with the vehicle, continue on to... wherever she may end up. If that ended up being a bad idea, they could very easily just turn back, go in the opposite direction, and return to the Steakhouse before they knew it. Again, the foodstuff would raise concerns about fuel and whatnot, but part of the deal involved them humoring him a bit more in exchange for this *very* vital service. So, whatever. Time continued passing, the Earth continued spinning. Flower continued walking, and the van continued inching along. For the most part, they'd be in silence; they had exhausted most of the possible conversation topics, and all their focus was directed towards speculation. Just what on *Earth* was going on with Flower, with them? Was it something to do with the Battle for Dream Island? In *what* way, exactly?