It definitely did not feel like a whole year had passed for Flower since she ended up back here. Part of her still wondered what happened to her original timeline, if it even still existed, but that didn't matter too much to her at this point. Even if she got back, the competition probably would've been long over by now. She was pretty sure TPOT would still be going on though, so the most she probably could do even if she got back was maybe catch that... but that wasn't too much of a concern for her right now. Sure, she felt bad for the possibility of anyone in her original timeline looking for her... but part of her doubted anyone would care that much. Maybe they checked the BFDI? Maybe they knew where she was now? Maybe they all just kind of gave up after a while and marked her off as gone? Who's to say? Since Flower couldn't possibly check, she chose not to dwell on it any further. What did she have to dwell on now? Staying out of the TLC and reaching Dream Island.
Flower checked the time...12:15. Good, she had time to rest a bit before heading out for Cake at Stake....wait, wasn't there something else going on at twelve?
Oh right, she had to sign autographs with Pencil, since that was what she promised Basketball. Fortunately enough, it wasn't just the two of them that were gonna have to do that, as some of the others had also shown up to autograph things for the unexpected guests that were the recommended characters, and it seemed there were even a few more guests today.
"Oh wow, thank you so much, Pen." A familiar text-to-speech voice was heard within the lines that formed, as Remote, who looked a lot slimmer than she would come BFB, walked away, the word " Ben " written across her forehead in blue ink.
"Any time." Pen waved her goodbye as he turned to the next person in line, "Man, I feel like I'm famous now! Isn't it great?"
Think you're famous now? Just give it a few years. Flower thought, given how they'd get... mmm, about ten thousand times the amount of votes they were getting now? And whole stadiums worth of these weirdos too.
"Yeah, for sure!" Leafy said, currently writing down 'never give up on your dreams' on the cap of one of the markers.
"Speak for yourself." Pencil muttered. It seemed she was the one who got the least amount of sleep as she had to wake up at twelve, which definitely wasn't something she was fond of doing.
"Are you okay, Pence...Pencil?" Flower asked, avoiding calling her that again already.
"Yeah, I'm fine...I'm glad the others wanted in on this." She looked over at the others signing stuff.
"Hey, Flower! Think you could sign my blade ?"
Flower's thoughts were cut off as a large, silver knife stepped up to her. Out of everyone, it seemed he was the only one really interested in asking her for an autograph.
"Oh, uh, sure." Flower gave a shy grin, looking around... phew . It seems a few of them got their hands on dry erase markers, perfect to quickly sign the word "Flower" on this stranger's forehead.
"You know, you've been kinda underwhelming this season." Knife pointed out, as she finished.
"Underwhelming?" Flower raised an eyebrow.
"I mean, with how everyone was talking about you at first, I was expecting you to be a real jerk !"
"A jerk?"
"Yeah, it's a total letdown . You've been kinda just letting others boss you around, that's no fun. You're, like, a huge wimp. "
Flower grimaced at that. Yeesh, it was like looking in a mirror...if that mirror was a seperate person from herself and also a knife.
"Eh, whatever. If the stuff they said was true, I know you'll turn around. I wanna see you break a recovery center or something!" Knife egged her on with a smug smirk on his face, before walking off... and immediately going over towards Blocky, because of course he did...
Flower had to take a long breath in before shaking her head. She could not deal with this right now. Not so early in the morning.
"Hey, you still taking suggestions on those prank intermissions, dude?"
"You know I am, what do you got?"
"Get an electric pencil sharpener and stick it in the PRC! That'll show that airhead of a pencil, eh?"
"Ha, I just might ." Blocky smirked. "So, I'm guessing you want an autograph, huh?"
"You know it!"
"Yeah, sure... only if you pay up, dude. Twenty bucks, here and now."
"Wait, huh?!"
Oh yeah, it seemed Blocky was also the only one conceited enough here to charge for his signature. Even Pin wasn't doing that... but that could've been because Pin wasn't there at the moment.
"Leafy, Pencil, Teardrop and Flower." The Announcer called the bottom four up, highest score to lowest."Last episode, you four had the lowest scores. Go to the Cake at Stake place to see who will be eliminated."
Flower really hoped she could boost up her score and fast , given she didn't even have a single point to her name right now. She wasn't going to act like being the first boot was better , but it was a one-and-done deal. Here, she got to experience the fear of being up for elimination over and over and over .
"Oh, and TB, will you change out of that ugly sweater?"
"No, I like this sweater!"
Flower blinked before realizing...oh, he did get the sweater back, albeit, the armholes were now both tied up in knots so they weren't dragging on the ground...in hindsight, it probably was a bad idea to give his sweater arm holes considering...
It seemed that the Cake at Stake platform had got yet another design overhaul, no doubt eating more and more of the budget Flower knew they didn't have at this point, given just how many times missing necessities were explained away as being due to "budget cuts". They kept the silver color, but the seats were now gone, complete with the cushiony seating, now replaced with two cylinder platforms all lined up around a bigger one, where the Announcer and the cake would go.
"Eugh, look at it!" Pencil complained, "The old one was cozy, it was nostalgic! Now it looks so gross..."
"I like it!" Leafy smiled, "It's minimalistic!"
Flower honestly didn't care what it looked like, as long as she could avoid being sent to the TLC from it.
As everyone gathered around to sit on whichever seat was closest, the sign came up again. Eighty votes...
"Pencil, you only got three votes this time. You get a cake."
Pencil would stand up to cheer, only to let out a high-pitched shriek as she narrowly avoided being hit in the face with... a rotting blue fish.
"It's fish flavor."
"Aughhh, gross!" Pencil complained, "I'd take an ice cake over this !"
"You want the ice cake instead? Okay!"
"Huh?"
Pencil barely realized what Announcer meant by that before she was sent flying off the platform by a leftover piece of ice cake, sending her backwards.
"Anyone else upset about today's cake?" Announcer turned to the others.
"Uh no, not at all!" Flower assured him.
"Yeah, Fish is fine...very fine!" Leafy added!
"With twelve votes, Teardrop..." Announcer turned to her, causing her to get a big grin as she held out her arms. "...may or may not be safe, as Flower is the next one safe."
TD hesitantly lowered her arms as Flower caught her fish, only to quickly drop it when she remembered just what she ended up catching. At least she was safe... she just hoped next time, the cake would be something edible... or at least pleasing to look at.
Leafy and Teardrop were the last ones left without a cake. LED lights came out of the bottom of the platforms, illuminating them both in red. It made Flower wonder how much all of this cost. She already knew the answer though...too much.
"Teardrop. I'm sorry to tell you that you've been eliminated with a total of forty-three votes."
Leafy breathed a sigh of relief at that, catching her fish and, not wanting to make the Announcer feel bad, would turn it over in her hands and try to take a bite out of it...
The nice gesture lasted all of a second before Leafy doubled over, retching at the awful taste.
"What did you think was gonna happen, Leafy?" Pencil asked, shielding her eyes as Leafy nearly lost her lunch.
Meanwhile, Teardrop watched as the platform went under her, and let out a silent sigh as she was sent into the TLC with the others.
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"OMG! GB, TB and Flower! It's so cool we all got to the final eleven !" Pencil hesitated, "It'd be nicer if Match was here with us, but still !"
"We have very good odds of getting into Dream Island now." GB pointed out, before scowling a bit as she realized what Pencil had said. "Although... I suggest we keep this alliance only four members, Pencil. Match would most likely sabotage our chances of winning if she were here."
Pencil blinked at that, "Excuse me?"
"Oh, don't act like that, Pencil, you know her! She is incredibly lethargic ." GB reminded her, "We all need to play a part if we want this alliance to work, especially with the risk of having four members already."
"Hey, yeah, she's...not the most active, but she's still a good team player."
"Is that why she got eliminated so- mmmph!"
Flower, wanting to stop this here and now, would cover GB's mouth, giving her a bit of a glare.
"Look, as Freesmart's Leader , I say you don't get to insult my best friend. Okay?"
"Seconded." Flower glanced at the Tennis Ball.
"Thirded." He added, just wanting to stop any infighting.
"Motion carried." Pencil gave a smug grin, before Flower looked down at GB.
"I was just stating a fact ." GB muttered, feeling a bit ashamed of being shut down so fast. She hated being shown up.
"But you knew Pencil wouldn't like that, right?"
"But it was a fact !" GB reiterated, "I'm trying to be helpful here!"
"Well, it's not helpful if you're just increasing tension, right?"
GB took a deep breath and a step back, trying to process this. It's as she predicted... She was beginning to regret giving Pencil a team leader role. Now she was just stating what she thought was the obvious and now people are getting mad at her ? This didn't make any sense !
Flower had to choose her words a bit carefully here, lest she invoke the wrath of GB.
"Look, if we want this alliance to work, we need to focus on not making each other mad, okay? Even if what you're saying is true , that doesn't mean it's not gonna hurt some people. Sometimes, it's okay to just...go along with it, especially if it keeps the peace!"
Flower had to remind herself that, despite still being crazy smart, GB was still a teen at this point, and a teen who wasn't very good in social situations. At the same time, Flower...wasn't exactly built to handle this. She just wanted there to be no more team infighting, but that was gonna prove difficult here, given how stubborn she could be.
After a blank stare, GB just scoffed and rolled her eyes. "...fine. I'll stick this alliance out until the end, but you must know we're on some very thin ice as it stands now with four members in our group."
It was that moment that TB got an idea on how to fix the situation.
"GB, what's...six-two times thirty...divided by seventy five?"
Wait, huh? Flower looked at him confused, as GB blinked and, after waiting exactly four seconds, responded, "Twenty-Four point Eight."
"What's the square root of 1003?"
A small smile poked at the corners of her mouth. "31.6701752442."
"Greatest common factor of 200,000 and 600?"
Now the ball had burst into a wide, smug grin. "Two hundred!"
Flower watched as GB abruptly seemed to stop focusing on how stubborn Pencil was being in favor of answering TB's math questions after like... six seconds of silence maximum? It seemed that doing math really helped calm her down. Truth be told, that was something about GB that she had no idea about... she always assumed the math stuff was just because she was a nerd. She was still thankful that TB was helping her take her mind off things, though.
"Alright, everyone. Pay up!"
Coiny meanwhile, was busy collecting all the bets he made with some very unhappy recommended characters. Each one dropping him a couple bucks each. Seems he had finally won one of his bets. That, combined with Firey already being gone, thanks to him, it seemed the coin was exceptionally happy today.
"I told you not to bet on Pencil getting out." Marshmallow reminded Triangle for the seventh time that day.
"Yes, yes, I get it." Triangle huffed in annoyance, handing over a twenty to the very happy Coiny.
"Hey, that reminds me!" Pencil brought up. "Since you know about the future and stuff... do you think we could have, like, an advantage in those bets?"
Flower figured someone would ask her about that. It's something she was considering, after all... but she decided against it.
"Sorry, Pencil. Things have already changed a lot . The original winner just got eliminated last episode. I can still predict the challenges, but the eliminations are kinda up in the air right now."
Pencil 'hmm'ed at that. So much for easy money.
"Maybe we can work with those paper slips?" Flower offered. They allowed her to open up her original business at least.
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
Golf Ball looked like she wanted to say something again, but TB knew it was probably a good idea to just keep her appeased at least until the next challenge began.
With Teardrop gone, this dropped Woody within the 'danger zone', as the Announcer put it, as everyone, alongside a few other recommended characters wanting front row seats, gathered around the Announcer.
"The thirteenth contest, which may be unfortunate to some, is to find some red balls hidden in random locations. All you gotta do is bring one red ball to me, that's it." The Announcer directed them to the screen. "You'll get points depending what order you bring them in."
The scores were listed similarly to the points from the ladder challenge. First place got a whopping thirty points, while eleventh place only got a single point.
"Go!"
"Uggh, is it in here?" Blocky would quickly go up to one of the trees, pushing the leaves aside, "No..."
After confirming there were in fact, no balls there, he'd turn around, to the two recommended characters behind him.
"Okay, can you stop breathing down my neck? "
"Well, excuse me ." Treeyee huffed, "It's not like I was planted here on purpose. You walked up to me ."
"Not you, I'm talking about them ."
"Hey, I just wanna watch you guys!" Dice grumbled.
"Then go online !" Blocky, in response to the violation of personal space, gave the die a hard kick, sending them far, far away.
"OMG! That bush has two !" Team Freesmart, who agreed to band together to search for these balls, happened to be the first one to find any. "Flower, we can get out of the danger zone !"
As Flower caught her ball, GB stepped in. "Hang on a second!"
Flower watched as GB carefully inspected the ball in her hands compared to Pencil's... before knocking it out of her hands with a little huff and punting it back into the bush. "That one's maroon ."
"Maroon?" Pencil asked, "Oh, yeah ... you said it couldn't be maroon, right?"
"Indeed, so that one isn't any good." GB said flatly. "We only have one ball so far... and we should put priority on Flower to bring it to the Announcer, since she has the least points."
"But I was the one who found it!" Pencil reminded her. "And I'm second to last!"
"We can find another ball. After her, you take priority." GB reminded her.
Pencil sighed at that... before suddenly getting an idea, reaching into the bush to pick the maroon ball back up. "Fine, but I've got something I wanna try with this."
The rest of the alliance seemed confused at that, but Flower was thankful she'd both get some points and avoid another conflict. She wasn't exactly happy about being a team mediator again, but it hopefully wouldn't be as painful as the previous alliance.
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"Hmm, I wonder where he could have put a- woah !"
Leafy didn't have to look very long to find a ball herself, as she ended up tripping on one that happened to roll right under her foot. She held it in her hands, before quickly rushing to where Pin was.
"Pin, here! Get it quick, before someone else gets first place!"
"A ball already?" Pin seemed even more shocked than Leafy was. "Huh, you might just be worth keeping in our alliance." Pin congratulated her, albeit, it wasn't high praise...and she couldn't even leave it at that. "I want more of this from now on, understand?"
"Yes, ma'am!" Leafy smiled at that, she actually got to do something right this time!
"Out of my way, Flower!" Pin rudely shoved Flower aside to show her ball to the Announcer. "I'm the first one with a red ball!"
"Well, you are the first one with a ball... just not a red one."
"Huh?" Pin's smile faded upon hearing that, while Leafy, who was listening from the distance, seemed even more distraught at that.
"This is a maroon ball." Announcer explained, "That will be a ten point penalty."
Pin watched in silence as her points dropped from fourty-four to only thirty-four, falling past Needle and Coiny. Just two more spots and she'd be in the danger zone. She then carefully compared the color of the ball she brought in to herself... yep,
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