Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Day 2 - 6:00

It's early in the morning, the sun is slowly rising above the horizon...

Sunlight spreads across the Goikian landscape, reaching the Steakhouse...

This made the first person to wake up from her sleep.

"huahh..." she yawns then clears her eyes.
She walks over to Tennis Ball and gives him a few kicks, "Wake up."

"...bWuh! Oh- hey Golf Ball..." he said with a sleepy voice.

"We need to get to work ASAP! All groups need to be assigned tasks later, we don't want them to wake up and have nothing to do!"

"Geez, alright, wait..." He groggily gets up and grabs some paper.

They both sat at a table, TB then asks, "So... what plans are we going to make?"

"Like I said, we're going to plan the tasks each group is going to do.
For instance, the Construction group can get material and start constructing buildings!"

Tennis Ball, now feeling more awake, replied enthusiastically
"Sounds good, Let's expand on that! Besides Construction, there's also..."

They continued discussing and noting down at length on how the plans will work out. They would even head to GB's Underground Factory to get supplies...

Time - 7:00

The next person to wake up is Pin, she overhears some chatter as she opens her eyes.

Looking to her sides, she sees Tennis Ball and Golf Ball talking about... something, she decides to get up and talk to them.

"Oh hey, Pin!" Tennis Ball, caught off guard, switched his attention to Pin.

"Hey, what's up..." Pin then looks at the clock, "It's 7:00 now, should we wake everyone up?"

"Uhhahh..." Golf Ball scrambles to clean the mess of paper, which accumulated from the sketching and graphing they did.
"Yeah sure, we've just finished working out most of the basic plans for Dream Island so we should be adequately ready. And I'm getting hungry too."

"Okay..." She proceeded to shout, "Everyone Wake Up!!" and waited for a second... "That didn't work so well..."

"Well..." GB scans the room "...Try ringing that bell!"

She again shouts, "Wake Up!! Wake Up!!" but now while constantly ringing the bell.
This time the noise was much more unbearable, actually waking up some people.
"It's working! It's working!"

"uhghhhagghhh..." the collective mass groaned.

Just after a couple of minutes, everyone has woken up. They all then either queue up for the staff restroom or sit at tables, talking with each other.

Pin suddenly remembered, she walks over to Gelatin with his group and asked them,
"Hey guys, could you go make breakfast for everybody please?"

"Sure! Let's go." Gelatin then led them to the kitchen, right beside the queue.

Pin went back to GB and TB's table and told them
"Okay! Looks like everyone is awake and breakfast is being made now!"

"Amazing! Thank you, Pin! You should call the other Researchers and Councilors over here too! We need to plan out stuff for Dream Island, like I was with GB!"
Tennis Ball suggested enthusiastically.

"Sure!" She goes around and asks each of them to gather up at the table.
Once they all had done their business, they went to the table and started talking.

Unlike with just GB and TB, there were more opinions, some conflicted heavily with others. Though, they still managed to get a fair amount of work done. As the discussion carries on, it became quite heated, leading to most of GB and TB's plans getting heavily edited and altered, which actually made them more representative of everyone's wants for Dream Island.

Meanwhile, others simply hung around with each other, talking about insignificant topics.

After about 15 minutes, Gelatin and his crew are now ready with some hot, scrumptiously delicious looking breakfast. They serve each person their meals, which they all quickly enjoyed it...

Chapter Text

Time - 8:00

Everyone has now finished their breakfasts and sent their dishes back to the kitchen. The table of Researchers and Councilors has also completed their plans and are ready for them to be put into practice.

"...Alright well," Book stands up and looks at the clock, "It's about time we announce it?"
"Yeah!" The rest of the table agreed. Book smirked then shouted, ringing the order bell,
"Alright Everyone, Listen Up!!"

They all stopped whatever they were doing and faced the table, she continues her announcement,
"Ahem, it is now 8 o' clock, we'll be getting to work later. But before we do, we've got tasks and plans lined up for you all today, I will be announcing them now!"

She walks to the blackboard and flips it over, "Now..."

The announcement went on for a couple minutes, but then...

"...Farming tasks wheneveh-...nmrfhhsngh..."
Book suddenly faints, falling face first on the ground.

"BOOK!" The alliance exclaimed.

Ruby quickly ran up to her and held Book's head up with her hands,
"QUICK! Somebody Get Her Help, NOW!!"

"I can diagnose what's wrong with her!" Golf Ball gets out of her seat, saying "It's likely to be dehydration, but we'll have to bring her to my factory to be sure and get her some water as well. There's also a recovery center there if this escalates." 

"OKAY! OKAY! Whatever works! I just want her to be okay!" Ruby shouted while hyperventilating.
She hastily carried unconscious Book out of the restaurant in her arms, with Golf Ball following behind.

Everyone else felt worried about what happened to Book, they all stayed silent as they tried to process what had happened...

...until Tennis Ball interrupted,
"Umm... I hope she's okay... We still have the announcements, so I'll... carry on from where she left off..."
He went up to the board and continued the announcement...

...

"...Tomorrow, we'll be starting work an hour earlier because we won't be announcing these stuff!"
By the end of it, everyone was very bored and some of them almost fell asleep listening.

"That's all there is?" He turns the page around a few times to check if he missed any sections, "Okay then... Does anyone have any questions?"
The room remained awkwardly silent as no one spoke up.

"Alright, um... I guess we should get to work now?" TB says with a nervous smile.

"But what are we specifically going to do though?" Blocky prompted, confused on how he's supposed to just "get to work".

"Ah... umm... uhhh..."
Luckily, at right that moment, Coiny sneakily passed him another piece of paper "Psst..."

"Right! So..." Tennis Ball quickly scanned through the page, "Now you're going to elect a leader for each of your group! Simply..."
He then explains how the voting process will work and asked them start.

The room once again became noisy as they all started voting.
Tennis Ball headed back to his table to participate in his group as well...

After a couple minutes of back and forth, most groups were able to elect a leader!
For Councilors/Researchers, they elected Book as their leader, partially due to the incident.

Tennis Ball was about to go back to the blackboard but Pin stopped him,
"Hey, wait! Can I do it instead? I mean, it seems pretty hard to reach and write with your legs!"

"Oh sure, go ahead! I kept wondering how I'm exactly supposed to do just that! Thanks Pin!"

"No problem!" Pin goes up to the board and picks up a chalk, waiting for everyone to finish.

The noise began to settle down after about a minute, which made Pin say loudly while ringing the order bell,
"Alright everyone! I'd like your attention please!"

The room turns completely silent, she continues,
"Thank you! Now, I'll call out your group and you'll tell me your leader! First..."

Meanwhile Ruby, Book and Golf Ball...

"Do you think she'll make it in time?!?!" Ruby worried while running quickly.

"Yeah, we're here." Golf Ball leads her down the staircase into her Factory and to a room that seems to have medical equipment.

Ruby lays Book on a table near the HPRC, shaking her to try to get a response,
"Book!! Wake up!! Please..!"

"w...wh- wha?" Book slowly opens her eyes with blurry vision, unsure what had happened.

"Book!" Ruby hugs her tightly "I'm so glad you're okay!"

"Golf Ball, get her some water!"

"Okay." She fills up a cup from a water dispenser nearby and gives it to Ruby.

She stood Book up, with an arm supporting behind her back, while the other carefully tipped the cup of water, allowing her to rehydrate.

"Ahh... Thank you Ruby, I feel much better now. Wait, weren't I announcing the plans and stuff?"

"Yeah, but then you suddenly fainted! I became really worried so I asked Golf Ball to bring you here to recover you! But hey, all that matters is that you're good now!"

"Oh! Yeah..." Book chuckles then suddenly blushes.

Ruby notices and blushes as well. The two of them suddenly felt a strange connection between them,
Making her lean in and ask... "May I?", Book nodded. She leans in as well, kissing Ruby passionately.

They continued making out for a couple minutes, with each passing second becoming ever more intense...

Meanwhile, Golf Ball just stood watching in the background, unsure what to do.
After a while she had to interrupt, "...Uh, hey, we need to get to work soon, could you two wrap up please?"

Book pulled out first "Oh, right, yeah" then told Ruby, "Don't worry, we can always do this another time!"

"Okay..."

"C'mon, let's go." Golf Ball then leads them back to the restaurant...

Time - 8:40

By the time they got back, everyone was already heading out of the restaurant.
Confused, Book went up to Nickel, "Woah woah woah, hey! What's going on?!"

"Oh, hi Book! We were actually looking for you, because YOU've been elected as leader for Councilors/Researchers! Everyone's going to work now, each leader of the groups received a document about what their group's going to do, instructions and some other information, but you were gone so Pin's holding the document for you!"

"Oh, thanks guys! I'm flattered, but I guess I'll go get it now!"

Book walks up to Pin then asks, "Hey, was I supposed to get a document of some sort?"

"Oh- yeah! Here you go..." She hands over the piece of paper, "Also, I'm relieved to see you well, after all of that!"

"Yeah!" She chuckles.

Suddenly, Pencil shouted, "EVERYONE, WAIT UP!"

They all stopped walking away and turned around.

"Ahem, uh... What was I gonna say?"
"Oh right, so as you all may know, I'm the leader of the Transportation group! You can see on your leaders' documents that you need to go to some locations! So unless you want to walk, go pack up your stuff and GET IN THE VAN! Oh and you can get on Puffball too."

...

Once they're all onboard, Pencil started driving,
"Let's see here..." She clears her throat then announces through the intercom
"Good morning everyone and welcome onboard. I am your driver Pencil we will be traveling to a couple locations today-"

"This isn't a flight.-" Donut interjected.

"SHUT UP!"

"Sorry for the interruption there, bagel brain had to ruin the moment. Anyways, let's get back to the announcement.
Now, we'll first arrive at Golf Ball's Underground Factory in approximately 5 minutes. Then, we'll continue to a large flat area off the coast, facing Dream Island in 5 minutes as well..."

Suddenly Fries, who was flying on Puffball said "Guys, there isn't enough room up here..."

"Oh no Fries NONOONO-!" Golf ball exclaims before getting pushed off along with half of them.

Match noticed them crashing into the ground, "Umm... Pence-Pence... You might wanna look out the window..."

"What?.. Oh." She stops the Van, rolls down the window and shouted, "People! Get in!"

Once they're all onboard, Pencil continued her announcement
"Where was I? Right... After that, we'll get out and into our boats to reach our final destination, Dream Island, in just 5 minutes. On another note, if you're interested in some snacks, feel free to ask our... attendant, Ruby, for them. That's all I have for today, thank you for traveling with us and enjoy the drive."

...

"We're here!" She stops the van and opens the back door, allowing them to pour out of the packed van.

"Geez, we should really get a better van than this. It's way too small for all of us! And who knows what stuff we'll have to carry later on!" Ruby complained.

"We can get that down on our Research To-do List." Golf Ball told them "Anyway, Everyone get down to my Underground Factory, we've got some stuff for you."

She led them down the stairwell, then gave a speech on the future of and plans for Dream Island. This ultimately made everyone even more optimistic and motivated for its construction and development. Each group leader received a cellphone to make communication between the groups easier and quicker.

Once done, they resumed their journey and drove to the flat area by the coast, dropping off Farming/Fishing. The rest of them drove boats or continued flying with Puffball to Dream Island...

Chapter Text

The Construction/Production team gets out of the boats and onto the Island with their tools and blueprints.
Eraser unfurls one of them, "Let's see here..."

"Woah, that's a lot to build!" Pen looks over the buildings. "Wait, do we have the materials to build them though?"

"Uhhh..." He looks over the Leader's Document, "Wood, Stone... Thatch... Cob...? What even are these?" Eraser reads a bit more of the instructions, "...Oh, I doubt we have all of these on Dream Island."

"But, I think the Mainland does have it! We can call up Transport' to help us haul the materials!"

"Okay then." He smiles as he takes out the phone.

*dialing noises* ... "Hello? Pencil speaking."

"Hey it's Eraser, we need you to drive us to the Mountain and help us bring back material from there."

"Yeah sure, we'll see you in about 10 minutes, we've just got back from giving Inventory their cell phone."

"Cool." He hangs up, then asks Pen "Now, what should we do while we wait?"

"Well I was thinking..." He looks down, trying to hide his blush.

"Oh?" Eraser blushes as well, as he puts on a suggestive smile, "Sounds like a fun way to pass time..."
He went straight in, vigorously making out with Pen.

Meanwhile, everyone else was simply looking around the Island.
Until Blocky suddenly noticed, "Hey Snowball, I think they're making out!"

"Ha. I knew something was up when they were being so defensive when we were saying stuff."

"Woah. They're really going at it. But bros gotta keep being bros, so let's just leave that stuff behind..."

Donut walks up next to the couple, now rolling on the ground kissing, "Uhh... Don't mind if I see this!" He picks up the document,

"Hmm... Spongy!" He calls him and gives him an axe, "Here, go chop down some trees with me, we need them for construction! I'm just gonna leave these lovebirds to their business."

...

The cell phone rings, "...mmmuaghh, Hold on, gotta get the phone..."

Eraser pulls away, still slightly gasping for breath, *beep* "Hello?... Yeah-... Okay, we'll be right over..." *beep*

"It's time." He gets up, regains his composure then shouts, "Alright Everyone! We're Heading Back To The Mainland To Get Materials!"

"Wait! Can Spongy and I stay back to collect some wood?" Donut asks.

"Well, Spongy would help us a lot in collecting water so... Pen! Can you stay back with him?"

"Awww... I wanted to go with youuu!..."

He holds Pen's hands up to their chests, "Don't worry babe, I'll be back as soon as possible! Besides, we need to do it, for Dream Island, got it?

"Anyways, we have to go now, see youuuu! Now, Everyone Else, Get In The boats!"

"Bye Eraser! Well Donut, I don't know how to use a saw, can you teach me please?..."

After they've driven their boats back, everyone hopped in the Van and were transported to the shallow pond at the Mountain's base.

They all get out of the vehicle, "Alright!" He takes a quick glance of the area before pulling out his Document.

"So, Blocky & Snowball, you two take the hammers and chisels and collect stone from the Mountain's exposed side; Spongy, you'll soak up water and carry it; And finally, I will dig around for some clay!" 

"Ughh, you always get the easier task!" Snowball groaned.

"Hush! I have to worry about my Leader stuff as well. Besides, I think you two are great together, it's not like you'd rather work with me or Spongy. Anyways, let's get to work!"

...

Blocky and Snowball was still chipping away tirelessly at the mountain side when Eraser walks up to them,
"Hey guys, quick note that you just wanna mine the stone, don't mine the other stuff because I remember reading that there's the uhh... ass-best-uhh... something white and fiber-like here, which is really dangerous if you breathe it in!"

The two miners looked at each other and stayed silent. Blocky lets out a noticeable cough.

"Okay, if you ever need a break, you can alternate between this and collecting smaller, smoother rocks from the river as well."

"...Yeah sure." Snowball then dropped his tools and went to the river, Blocky and Eraser followed behind.

...

They have now gathered all the materials required for now, so Eraser called up Transport' again. Once the Van arrived, they all start to load the resources onto it.

When Spongy, who's full of water, approaches, Match stops him before he could get further, "Hold. Up! Spongy can't fit in here, he's too big!"

Ruby nods, "Agreed. There's no way we could transport him without having the water squeezed out and wetting everything!"

"...Maybe there is a way!" Pencil thought, "...Puffball! You can fly him!"

"This time I was actually hoping you guys wouldn't remember about me, but fine... You can get on Spongy..."

Everyone has now been transported back to the Island with the needed building materials. They set the all the stuff down and headed over to where Donut and Pen is, Eraser asks,
"Hey, how's progress going with you two?"

"Well, as you can see, we tried to dig trenches according to how it is on your blueprint, I hope it's correct enough. And Pen now knows how to chop a tree with a single swing of an axe too."

"Awesome, thank you for helping my dear Pen! Anyways, we should get started on building them!-"

"Hurry up! It's lunch time, we can't wait for you all day." Pencil spat, impatiently standing with the rest of Transportation.

"Okay guys let's wrap it up..." The leader told them.

They follow Pencil back to the dock, into their boats and once again in the Van.

...

On the way to the Restaurant, Snowball suddenly started coughing, the coughs becoming ever more violent. He slumped down the Van's walls, trying to cover his mouth with his arm as he continued coughing.

"Snowball!" Blocky ran over to him as everyone turned their attention towards them. He kneeled down to Snowball's level, "Bro, are you good?"

"I dunno-" He lets out another cough.
"Maybe it's the thing Eraser warned us-"

Eraser pulled out his Document, quickly skimming through it, "The... asbestos! Inhaling this stuff is really dangerous like I told you guys. You mined in that area too Blocky, do you have...  chest pain, shortness of breath or dry coughs?"

"Well-" He coughs at that mention, "Yes, bit hard to breathe, but not as much as Snowball."

"Either way, you two were definitely exposed to way too much of that nasty stuff." Eraser turns his head back to the front of the car, "Pencil, I think we're gonna have to take a detour to Golf Ball's Factory."

"Auughh okay..." She does a U-turn, making Match, who was asleep, fall onto her arm.

"...Match?" She tries to lift her head up without losing control of the Van.

"...Pence...Pence..." She rolls over and starts drooling on Pencil's arm, "I want a kiss..."

She sighs and gives Match a peck on the head before pushing her up back into her seat, she continues her deep sleep.

"I love you so much babe...-"

"...ANYWAYS, we should be about there now..." Pencil steers the vehicle and stops it by the entrance.

Coincidentally, the Researchers and Councilors were also heading up to the surface to call them up for lunch. As Snowball and Blocky get off the vehicle, Book notices their condition and instructs them to where they could get treatment.

As Book, the rest of her team, as well as Puffball got on the Van, she suddenly noticed Ruby and sprinted over to give her a hug, sharing a brief peck afterwards.

"Ha. Lovebirds." Pencil joked before shifting gears and started driving to pick up the last group and ultimately to the Restaurant.

They carried everything to where Donut and Pen is, Eraser asks,
"Hey, how's progress going with you two?"

"Well, as you can see, we tried to dig trenches according to how it is on your blueprint, I hope it's correct enough. And Pen now knows how to chop a tree with a single swing of an axe too."

"Awesome, thank you for helping my dear Pen! Anyways, we should get started on building them!-"

Eraser phone suddenly rings again, *beep* "Hello?... Lunch? Alright... What about Sn-... Oh... Okay then..."
He lets out a long sigh, concern plastered on his face, before hanging up the phone; he takes a deep breath to lighten his mood. Eraser then directed everyone to head to the Steakhouse...

Chapter Text

Leafy stands bravely as she observes the large flat landscape, becoming steep near the shore, superimposed onto the bright blue sky. The only trees in sight are those at the Forest far in the distance. A river flows from it towards the sea, it was once emptied and dubbed the "Bottomless Pit" by the Announcer, it has now filled up to its normal level ever since the challenge. Perhaps it can be useful for the farm's basic irrigation.

"Hey Fries, check out the blueprint with me!"

"Okay..." He walks tiredly towards her.

(It's like Minecraft-style surface irrigation)

"Wait, Fries... That's like what... almost 300m²! Sounds kinda big to me..."

"Well it's 270, but it's not that large, it's more like if you walked to the side for about 10 seconds, then walked ahead a bit longer than that."

She tries walking like so, ending up diagonal to Fries, "Wow! It's smaller than I thought, it actually seems like we can manage this!" Leafy zips approximately 23.43m back to Fries then calls over everyone else.

"Alright everyone! Because we're starting off our farm, we'll need more people working on the farm than Fishing. That does mean you'll have more responsibilities, but we'll compensate later! Now who's up for the task?"

Teardrop immediately raised her arm and fluttered it rapidly.

"That'd be amazing! Thank you!"

She happily smiles in response and she brings her open hand perpendicularly to her chest. Then, she puts her fists down in front, points to herself, pinches with both hands, points at the sea, points a thumbs up at herself then brings her index fingers together.

"Uhh I'm sorry Teardrop, I don't know what that means. Does anyone else know?"

Woody slowly raises his arm, "...mehhh.!."

"Oh, could you tell us what she said?"

"Ehmm..." He looks at Teardrop then brings his curved right hand to the palm of the other.

She nods and signs again.

He watches then looks back at Leafy, "...Can I do it myself..."

"Sure thing TD, that'd be even better! Do you think you can do it?" To which she nods as well.

"Great! We'll see you later!"

She grabbed a net with some fishing equipment and headed to the shore.

"Now, Fries!" Leafy points at him, "You'll set up the uh, irrigation with me!"

"Okay."

"Finally Needle, can you till the field and outline its borders with Rocky and Woody, please?"

"Sure thing!"
"Mhm!"

Each of them picked up their tools and got to work on the farm...

"Hey Leafy, can I borrow the Document please?" Needle requested, to which Leafy readily hands it over.

"Thanks..." She flips through the pages, "Waaait... What's this..."

Create a compost pile by combining brown/green foliage & vegetation in general (preferably small), leftover food (do not use meat), feces, and topsoil. Rocky's barf (primarily hydrochloric acid, or HCl) may be used; however, it needs to be neutralized with limestone (CaCO₃), which follows the reaction: CaCO₃(s) + 2HCl(l) → CaCl₂(aq) + H₂O(l) + CO₂(g).

"Umm... I think we'll do that later..." Needle flips back, skimming the first few pages. "Alright boys! Dig up the grass and stir up the dirt!" She told them, handing them shovels and got to work herself as well.

Being such an adorable savant, Woody made the borders with pristine precision, accurate down to the centimeter.

Now with the borders, Needle dug up all the topsoil with grass, revealing the brown, nutrient-rich, ready-to-grow-plants soil below.

Then, Rocky managed to till the field efficiently and thoroughly by fluttering with his quick, durable legs into the dirt below.

...

After a long time of toiling, suddenly, a crack is heard.
"Oww... My back..." Fries groaned before falling face first into the muddy ground. (/ref)

"Oh gosh!" Leafy drops her shovel and sprints over,
"Fries! Are you okay?!"

"...I don't know..." He muffled.

"Okay uh, let me help you out..." She set his shovel down, then gently rolled him over onto his back.

"...It hurts so much..."

"Where's it hurting?"

"My back, I think something broke..."

"Oh uhh... I'll call Transport' and get you some help then."

*doot doot doot, booop... booop... beep*
"euhh-Hi yes, this is Leafy from Farming, can you send over someone to get Fries down to the Underground Factory? I think he broke his back!"

"Sure thing, we'll have to send Puffball though, our Van can't drive down stairs, y'know!"

"Even better!..." Fries raised his head before slumping back down.

"...Alright, thanks a bunch!" *boop*

"They'll come in a bit! For now, just rest here, I'll take care of it..."

"...Hwoo!" Leafy can already feel her sweat evaporating from her stomata. At last, the irrigation channels have all been made. She leans on the shovel for support, admiring her hard work.

"Leafy..." Fries said with a strained voice, "When's Puffball coming... it's getting worse..."

"Euaguhh..." She notices the pink fuzzy blob approaching, "...RRRight now!"

"Hey guys!" The vocoded voice spoke, "Get Fries on me so that I can bring him to the Factory!"

Leafy quickly ran over to him, trying to lift him up.

"Ow ow ow-owowOW-" Crack! "AHHHHHH!!!!"
Fries screams in excruciating pain as his back breaks even more.

Rocky, Woody and Needle in the distance froze and instantly turned their heads towards him.

He lands on Puffball safely, the pain slowly subsides.
"Gosh Fries, are you okay?"

"...
 ...
 ..."

"...Ohhkay then... I'll be back with him later, see you Leafy."
She flies away with Fries, whose lower body is now completely paralyzed.

"Hey Leafy!.." Needle taps on her shoulder, making Leafy turn around to face her.

"We're almost done with preparing the land, we just need to add compost to it, but for that we would need to get..."

She flips the Document to the composting page and shoves it into Leafy's face, "...These!"

She pushes the paper away, "Alright, but... where do we find them?"

"I think most of these can be found in the Forest and at the base of the Mountain!" Needle points at the distant forest.

"Amazing! Let's go!" Leafy began happily skipping towards it.

"Wawawait for me!" She called out. "C'mon Woody, Rocky! We have to go now!"
They quickly got up and followed Leafy towards the Forest.

"...haaauuuh..." He groaned with a strained and muffled voice.

"Are you okay, Fries?"

"...I think so..."

"No you're not Fries, your back broke."

"...But you're so fluffy, and comfortable, sweet like cotton candy... made me forget about it."

The remark suddenly made Puffball blush, "T-Thank you. I appreciate it-"

"I thought I'd never see you again after the grouping stuff. It's just nice being with you again." He rolls onto his stomach without pain and gives her a tired, yet comforting, kiss on the fluff, making her blush even more.

Fries then falls asleep afterwards from the exhaustion, she finds his warm deep fried breath lovely as the flight continues to Golf Ball's Underground Factory...

"So, Needle!" She observes the surroundings, "What do we need to find again?"

"I remember it was small plants and leaves, dead leaves too. And there was also something complicated about Rocky's barf! Here..." She pulls out the document again, letting Leafy read it...

"I think we just hold Rocky up to the limestone then let him barf on it! Then we can collect the food from it for the compost." Leafy picks up Rocky and starts walking towards the Mountain's base, Needle and Woody follow behind...

Leafy holds him up to the white surface, "Barf!" She shouted, the yellowish-green mixture spews out of Rocky's mouth, slowly dissolving and reacting with the limestone.

Once it starts fizzling down, she hesitantly grabs the remaining food scraps and shows it to the others, "H-here you go!"

"Yeeeahhh..." Needle puts her arm down and looks back towards the woods, "Maybe we should just get the plants for now, but I guess this might be useful later on though..." She walks back, asking everyone to collect plant material in the Forest instead.

They split up, Woody went with Leafy and Needle went with Rocky.

Puffball flies over to the entrance of the Factory, "Hey!" she shouted at the doorbell to no avail. She then tried to flying down the Factory, calling for help.

Suddenly, a door opened with Nickel on the other side, welcoming her in. The rest of the group seems to be busy discussing something.

Once she and Fries had entered, he excitedly greets and asks, "Hi Puffball! Wowie kabowey, What is going on THERE with Fries?!"

"He kind of... broke his back. I'm bringing him here to see if you could help him out! He's still sleeping right now though."

"Let me wake him up then! Wowowowowowowowoow"

Golf Ball could not deal with the noise interrupting her work with Book, she orders, "Tennis Ball, tell him to stop! I'm busy and need to concentrate, I cannot work with this noise!"

"Ugh okay..." He hesitantly walks over and shouts, "Nickel! Stop! Stop acting like a child. Please."

He instantly became silent...

"Now, what is going on?!"

Nickel speaks up with a bit of embarrassment, "Uh... I, was trying to get Fries to wake up... I'm gonna eat your Fries!-"

His words made Fries shoot up from his peaceful sleep, another crack is heard as he does so, he lets out a loud shriek in response. He limps down on Puffball after having to experience that excruciating pain.

Puffball tries to get her word in, "Nickel stop! Please! I brought poor Fries down here to get his back fixed, not get shouted at! Now can any of you help him!?"

"...Yes! We can!" TB comes up to them, "Please stick to your task, Nickel!"

Nickel leaves the scene with guilt, getting back to his work. He continued, leading the two up the stairs, "Sorry, please follow me to the Recovery room..."

The pairs came back to the area after their final round of collecting. As they got closer, they noticed that another group had also come to the Forest. Before they go further, they unload their batches onto their pile.

Leafy sees Eraser hard at work, collecting clay from the pond. She carefully approaches him and gives him a tap on the shoulder, which caught him off guard. Eraser immediately turned back, splattering the mud directly onto Leafy's face and knocking her onto the ground.

"Arrrggghhh- Eraser!"

"Oh- Leafy! I didn't know it was you, are you good?"

"Gosh-" She wipes the wet soil off her face and gets up, a brown stain still remains, "...Yes, I'm good... Anyways, so you guys came here too?"

"Yeah, we're getting some materials for construction."

"Oh that's cool! We've got this huge pile of plant stuff that we need to get to our farm, do you know how we could get it there without having to carry the whole thing?"

"Well... Transport' drove us here, but they left and went somewhere, so I don't know."

"Aw shucks," She faces the bunch, "I think we'll just have to try to roll this over there."

"Ughh..." They all groaned in unison.

"Unfortunately, we don't have the technology to treat your spinal fracture yet. The only way we can treat it right now is to use the... HPRC, which requires you to be dead first so..."

"Okay, you can take my fries and destroy them, that would make me dead."

"Oh- Are you sure? I think might hurt-"

"I've been through worse, like this back pain!"

"...Alright then..." Tennis Ball goes over to the side of the bed where Fries' head is, he looks into the container, "Hey, what's all that red stuff, that isn't..?"

"That's ketchup, I had it there so that the fries don't shake as much."

"Here goes..." He yanks the fries out, Fries' eye only twitched a bit in response. TB carries the fries over to the Incinerating Garbage Chute, dumping them down. They slowly burned away in the thousand-degree liquid below.

As his fries burned away, Fries could see his vision at first blurred, then it slowly dimmed further until...

Darkness.

After an unknown amount of time passed, Fries was almost able to open his eyes, it looked like a blinding light to him as he was still adjusting from the darkness. Then, it suddenly went dark again, but now he could see that he was getting out of the slit of the HPRC.

"...Ahhh..." Fries stretches and lets out a satisfying sigh, feeling much better now without the constant back pain.

"Fries! Welcome back!" Tennis Ball greets him, he walks up to him, "Is everything good? Using the HPRC might give you a few... side effects, I remember GB told me it was still somewhat of a prototype and its use should be very limited."

"Yeah I'm okay. Can I have a look around? I need some rest before getting back to the job."

"No problem! Just don't mess with the stuff around here, I'm off to do some work now..."

"..." The four of them stand watching the compost pile on the ground, but nothing happens.

"Are we missing something-" Leafy whispers to Needle.

"Shh!" She shushes her, "So rude! You must be patient, Leafy, it WILL decompose!"

The awkward silence continues, Leafy decides to look at the Document.
"Hey... We're supposed to put the compost into a pit and in layers of green and brown material!"

"Okay then!" Needle grabs a shovel and hands another to Leafy, "I'll dig the pit with Leafy, while you two can sort the pile!.. Actually, Woody, could you check on Teardrop?"

He nods happily and runs off towards the shore, while the others get to work on preparing to compost.

Absorbing herself in the art of fishing, she really enjoyed the calm atmosphere, grass rustling from the cool wind, water flowing across the rocks on the riverbed...

Suddenly, she hears footsteps approaching. At first, it was somewhat dampened and quick, then it gradually got louder and slower, until she could almost feel as if someone was behind her.

In her self-defense, in a blink of an eye, she shot up and kicked whatever was behind her back.

Woody launched into the air, screaming and flipping a few times before falling face flat on the ground.

Teardrop realized it was him, she sprinted over to the spot where he landed to check on him.

She turns him around and shakes him a bit to wake him up. He peeked open his eyes, still feeling distressed.

'are you okay' she signed.

...'fine' his arm flopped down weakly afterwards, a tear then came out.

'[How] sweet' she signs, giving Woody a subtle kiss on the head, right before grabbing his hands and sitting him up, she sits down with him. Teardrop held his hands for a second to let him adjust, his eyes are fully opening now.

They lay down the last layer of plant material, the three of them all stand back to observe their hard work.

"We're done?" Needle looks to her side.

"Yeah, we're done...... Well, we still have to plant-"

"Shhh... We're done for now. Why don't you go meet Firey while I check on Teardrop and Woody with Rocky, hm?"

Her statement suddenly made Leafy blush, "Uhm, Eh-kjyeah!" She pulls out the cell phone and dials Transport'

*dialing noises* *beep* "Hi, Transport' Pencil, WE'RE BUSY!-" *beep*

"...mmokay then. I guess if I run, I'll get there just as fast anyways. See you guys-"

"Wait! Can I borrow the phone, just in case?"

"Um alright." She hands the device over, "okay now, see you guys!"
She turned around and bolted away.

"Rocky, let's go!" Needle picks him and starts walking towards the shore...

He sat there looking at her in the eyes with a mild smile, gradually regaining his composure.

Once Teardrop decided it has been long enough, her face turned more serious and she signs, 'so... what [have you] come here for'

'[to] see how you [have been] fishing' His face lit up a little bit.

'Great' A wide smile spreads across her face before she gets up and drags over her net, filled to the brim.

'Wow!' He signs, flabbergasted at the sheer amount of fish. Woody throws his hands up in excitement and to celebrate her achievement.

Teardrop drops her net and goes for an embrace. The move was unexpected, some words suddenly echoed in his mind.

...There's a life out there to enjoy!.. So... Enjoy it!... enjoy it!... _{enjoy it!...}

He snapped back and realized Teardrop was staring at him with a smirk on her face. His jaw opens as she intimately caresses his cheeks.

She goes in, giving Woody a long, soft, warm kiss on his lips, turning his face red. He froze, not knowing what was happening. It felt as if all of his fears were pushed aside, never had he felt so comforted and cared for in his life. He let it happen, he enjoying the moment to its fullest.

...

Teardrop slowly pulled away, she looked at Woody in his eyes, glistening from the tears of joy that formed. She gave him a relaxed smile before rolling over onto the ground, holding his hand. The two laid on the grass, cloud gazing at the bright blue Goikian sky.

The kiss, though brief, was the most wonderful thing he could ever ask for. Since the beginning, he's always had some sort of connection with that speech-impaired gal, he's just so relieved to finally have that feeling fulfilled. He is now truly, truly enjoying his life.

She walks happily towards the shore with Rocky in her arms. She first noticed something blue on the grass, then brown, it was Teardrop and Woody!

Needle slowed down to a stop and sat down with Rocky on her side, watching them lay together.

But then he didn't want to sit and continued walking, sneaking up on Teardrop, who had her eyes closed, and...

"Bulleh!"

She shoots up, trying to wipe off the burning vomit.

The sudden motion made Woody shoot up as well, this made him extremely anxious seeing Teardrop running around in pain, it felt like the world was collapsing around him. He curled up into a ball, his eyes shut hard, his heart pounding ever faster. As he tries his best to hold in his cry, his throat locks up, making him unable to breathe.

"Oh gosh oh no Rockyyyy!!" Needle runs after him, she takes a leap, finally able to get hold of him again.

Right then, Teardrop tripped and fell into the water, making the vomit get washed away. She lets out a sigh, but notices Woody having a panic attack. The droplet jumped out of the water and dashed towards him, holding him in her arms, then setting afloat on the water.

She carefully extends his limbs, slowly signing 'breathe' once he peeked open his eyes.

He follows, taking deep breaths, gradually calming him down. She gives him a hug then signs with a smile, 'good job'
 
"Teardrop! I'm so sorry," She runs towards her, "sometimes Rocky can't control his actions... Are you two okay?"

She stood Woody up and nodded happily in response. TD reaches and grabs Rocky, scooping up water into his mouth and handing him back.

"Oh, I guess that will hold his vomit back a bit... or- make it- not as strongAAnyways! Um, I was going to ask, did you manage to catch some fish?"

She nods and signs 'a lot' then points towards her net.

"That's great Teardrop! And I think that's about it for now. We can all sit back, relax and wait until it's lunch time!..."

Chapter Text

The entrance opens on Golf Ball's command, allowing the crowd to start descending the staircase.

"So this is your... Factory?" Coiny said, taking quick glances of each floor. The lower floors light up while the upper floors' lights shut off as the trailing objects behind continue moving down.

Some floors have rooms looking like research labs, while others look like the inside of an industrial factory. Another floor looked like it had all the facilities for sustaining an object—stashed with food along a water fountain, a couple of beds, some communication devices and a narrow selection of entertainment items. Perhaps she may have also built it with the intent of using it as a fallout shelter.

"Yes, I have been developing it for quite a long time, long before the Competition. It was essentially a giant metal box, but now I've built floors to no longer waste all of that empty volume! In fact, they have made it possible to expand my research to all branches of science!"

She reaches the desired floor and orders, "Everyone, find yourselves a chair and sit in the marked area, or stand, whatever. I'll be finalizing my speech with TB. Councilors and Researchers, get the podium and presentation ready. I'll see everybody in about 10 minutes."

"Ahem testingtesting123 actively freshening volume catched oonnn... alright." Golf Ball tests the microphone before starting her speech, Book stands beside her to control a slide show to go along with her speech. The room quiets down as she begins to speak.

"AHem... Before we start, I apologize for the heat, geothermal heats up the room in winter but also in summer. We do have a water cooler and bathroom, ask one of the Councilor or Researchers for directions. Now, welcome to the first ever State of Affairs meeting!" The crowd briefly applauded. "This announcement will be swift, we'll discuss about our plans that we've arranged for Dream Island and we would like your much needed feedback on it, so raise your hand if you have a suggestion. Now, starting off with..."

[Montage of GB announcing plans and answering feedback]

"Okay this is getting out of hand." Frustrated, she sighs and tries to think of a way to reduce the number of complaints, "...I'm sick of explaining the concepts all over again, how about I just get someone to dumb it down and make it exciting for you people..."

"Here," she drags Firey and Nickel over to the podium, "you two can do it."

"Alright! Hit me!" Nickel waited excitedly.

Firey then throws a light punch at him.

"Ouchie! Not like that! Golf Ball, continue your speech and we'll translate it into simple English!"

"...Ugghhhh..."

"What's the matter, Coiny?"

"I'm bored, we already know all the plans, now she's just announcing it again!"

"Hmm... I guess we could take a walk around the Factory a bit, I saw a couple of cool things that's worth exploring! But Golf Ball also assigned us to give instructions if someone needs help, should we just stay here?"

"Well... We could just-" He takes a sheet of paper and writes down 'BATHROOM THIS WAY' and under, 'WATER THAT WAY'. "That should take care of it, let's go!"

"Wait! Let me make another note so that they can rest assured we weren't running away!" She takes a post-it note, quickly scribbling down the reason and sticking it on the door as they stealthily exit the room.

"...I hereby declare that New Dream Island is now an independent nation within the region of Goiky, free from the Announcer's tyrannical gatekeeping of the prize! Let Us Build the New Dream Island!"

"Screw the Announcer, Dream Island is now ours, so Let's Build a Better, Dreamier Island!"

As their words reverberated around the room, the crowd soon erupted with applause and cheers in response as every object felt even more empowered than ever to make Dreamier Island come true...

(Part updated with new canon info)

The door creaked open, his hand fumbled around the wall a bit to find a light switch, turning it on.

"Woah... Pin! You gotta check this out..."

She quickly dashes over and enters the room, "Oh wow.... So many books!..."

Coiny then notices the floor they're on has green-themed furniture while the upper floor split into halves of red and blue. "Hey, why are the walls and bookshelves different colors on that floor?"

"Um, I don't know! You could try checking the books on this floor while I check the red section!" She finds a ladder nearby and climbs it to get up.

"It looks like it's all... physics, chemistry, biology down here."

"I've got... geography, history and... politics? Seems like important stuff we'd need while building Dream Island!-"

"OHnonoono Pin! Don't read it out loud or uhh the reader will instantly click off and abandon the fic!" He warned, climbing up the ladder to the upper floor.

She froze for a second before continuing to look over the collection of books, "...If you insist Coiny..." Suddenly a title caught her eye, "An overview of Solarpunk by... Tennis Ball?"

She pulled the book out and began flipping through the pages. At first, she was just skimming but then words began to be interlaced with TB's intricate illustrations, the more she read the more she became interested in the subject...

After also looking through some of the books himself, he heard a faint rumbling noise outside; the staircase's light seeped through the door gap, it lit up before darkening again.

"Pin!" The call made her quickly snap back to reality, Coiny approaches her, "We... should probably head out now, that blue side is just some math stuff and I think there was something outside."

"Oh- okay! Wait for me!" She proceeds to 'borrow it indefinitely' and catches up to him as he heads out the door.

"...Okay so, where'dya wanna go next?"

"Actually, I was thinking we should redesign the blueprints for the 2 groups!" Pin eagerly suggested.

"Why's that?"

"Well... After going through this book, I thought it had some great ideas. It really reminded me of the plans, so I thought some of these ideas could be used to make the design more accessible and less reliant on transportation in the future!"

"Welp, I can't say no to that! But where are you going to make a new blueprint?"

"Uhh... I'm sure Golf Ball has some sort of printing room in the Lab that we can use!"

"Bye guys! Let's Build Dreamier Island!" He waves goodbye to the bright pink Van.
"Wasn't that such a great speech, Firey?"

"Yeah, it was pretty okay... Mind if I go in the- uh, plants(?) room?"

"Sure, no problem! I'll be down where the others are, there's not much happening up here!"

"Okay, see you Nickel." The two went down the stairs before splitting off after the first flight.

He pushes the door open, revealing a dimly lit room, the only light source were the lights at the base of the plants and himself. The flame flicks a switch, instead of the ceiling lights turning on, a rumbling noise could be heard above.

Sun rays crept from the back and made its way towards the door. The metal ceiling slid out, now replaced with glass. Plants of various species surrounded the walls and organized into rows and squares, a large tree was also planted in the center.

Finding a nearby bench, he sits observing the tree's leaves, sunlight reflecting off of them. It was beautiful, strangely familiar and reminiscent of someone...

(this was written before bfdia 13, called it!!)

Golf Ball sits down on a folding chair to rest after finishing her speech, she observes as the other groups wrap up their visit to the Factory.

The crowd moving upstairs made the room quiet down, only her group and the councilors remain. Tennis Ball is currently cleaning up, Nickel and Firey were sent up to send the guests a farewell, while Coiny and Pin had exited the premises during the speech.

She decides to stand up and head to the Laboratory, the place where she has conducted nearly all of her research and soon everyone in the group.

"Hey, why so fast?" A hand placed on her shoulder, she stopped before being able to reach the door, "Take a seat, I want to talk with you about something." GB returns to her seat as Book sits beside her.

"What is that you want to discuss with me?"

"There are a few things actually. You know the section in the Farming/Fishing document that describes the neutralization of Rocky's barf?"

"Yes. TB wrote it." She scoffed.

Book continues, "Well, when hydrochloric acid reacts with the limestone, it produces aqueous calcium chloride and carbon dioxide gas, both of which we don't want too much if we scale up."

"Great. Do you have any ideas to improve it?"

"Yes actually, I've actually looked through and found that we could use sodium hydroxide to neutralize, and we can get it using the chlor-alkali process! That is by electrolysing saltwater, we can combine the NaOH from the process with Rocky's barf to form saltwater again with heat, no CO2!"

He pushes down on the handle, expecting the door to open before realizing there was a keypad. "Oh right... Do you remember the code GB told us?"

"Ummm... I think it was 3672?"

*doot-doot-doot-doot, beep... bzzch* "Nope."

"6327?"

*doot-doot-doot-doot, beep... bzzch* "Nope."

"Darn... What was it?... 2763?"

*doot-doot-doot-doot, beep... ding* "Great job Pin!"

The two objects burst into the room, expecting it to be like those in the movies, but it was much more tame than that. On their right was a large square table with what seems like an embedded screen, all surrounded by ceiling height filing cabinets, a little cutout in the cabinets makes space for a compact desk with a computer. A couch sits in front of the table, while other chairs are scattered around it. On their left, there looks like a door to another room, "Observation room" the sign reads. A long chalkboard spans the rest of the wall, currently having some complicated algebra written on it.

They noticed in front of them was another door, prompting them to move through. Their entry revealed a room which was more accurate to their expectation—scientific apparatus of various use cases. On the right half of the room had some chemicals scattered on the table for an ongoing experiment, on their direct right and in front were circuit boards, electrical equipment and an electron microscope. At the back they could see an array of test tubes along with micropipettes and an incubator.

"Woah..." They stood observing in awe before Pin snapped back to reality and told, "Anyways... let's go back to the last room, I saw stuff there we could use!"

"Okay so!" Pin finds a large punched pocket nearby (look it up) and a black marker and starts drawing, "So first, of course we still have the dock and path to the town... settlement? Whatever, but now we have a circular center hall and it would be the center!"

"Some paths coming out of it... Next, 4 housing blocks as before, but! We're gonna integrate the farms into them! So all the crops are going into a garden around the blocks."

"Lastly, we can't forget the warehouse and workshop! The cafeteria is going to be smaller, as the eating area will be pushed outside for everyone to enjoy the fresh air!"

"And... Why not link both of the places up by having a park between them and around the center hall! Oh, a little extra note for them as well. Perfect!" She puts on the cap of the marker and stands back, being proud of her work.

"Woah yeah... That makes more sense than having the farm separated, people can just come down anytime and tend the garden!"

"Yup! Now all we need to do is find the darkroom that GB's been using to make the blueprints..." She went to the other room of the lab and scans around.

"Hey, there's a door behind that sign!" Coiny points to the right corner.

Moving over the obstacle, they entered the smaller room. It was dark, turning on the light revealed a standing printer, a setup for developing film, but most importantly, equipment for making cyanotypes. "I think we found the right place to do it!" Pin confidently declared.

[A few instructions and waiting later...]

"Pin, do you think you got this?" He stood observing him worryingly by her side.

"It's fine! I'm going to do it by the book and we should be good!" She places the paper into the bath of water and rocks it back and forth. The yellowish paper gradually developed into a nice blue with white lines and text.

Finally, Coiny helps by adding peroxide to the bath and the paper is placed in once again. The print developed further, turning the light blue into a darker, blackish one. "There you go!" Pin shows off the finished print.

"Amazing, Pin! Now just put it in the super-drying press, and maybe make some more copies just in case!"

[A few blueprints later...]

Once they've gotten their copies, the duo dashed back down before the others they get too suspicious of them.

"Hauh... Woohoo... I'mhere..." She pants after sprinting, eyes closed with ludicrous speed over to the Factory. As the lemon leaf tried to regain her breath, she noticed a part of the ground wasn't grass, it was glass.

Curious, she walks down to the first level. Peeking into the slightly opened door, she could see him. Carefully, she pushed the door to the side and moved towards the flame on the bench. He continues watching the tree as she sits beside him.

"Firey?..."

"Leafy..."

"...W-What's the matter? You don't look... great."

The outdoor breeze brushes past the two, he took a deep breath, "I just-... don't know what I am... what my... value is to this group..."

"Hey, hey..." She gives him a few pats on the back, "Don't you remember? You were the one to suggest this whole rebuilding thing-"

"I had the idea, but I can't execute it. Everyone else here is smart, I'm just some- idiot who has no personality. The last task I got was to dumb down GB's speech for spark's sake, I don't and can't understand what their plans, I'm a dead weight to everyone here!"

"Firey- you're not dead weight and you're not an idiot... True idiots are ignorant, my Firey isn't. I bet Golf Ball has some kind of gigantic library down there, you can go there and check out some books, or you can ask someone who's free to guide and help you learn! Maybe ask them to pause work for you to go study and catch up to their level!"

"I still have my own work to do in future so I can't help you too much, sorry. But if there's anything you want to know more about, just ask them! I'm sure they'll be happy to tell you about it!

"You can do this, Firey." She looks at him in the eyes with a bittersweet smile, placing her hands on his shoulder as he turns to face Leafy.

She leans in for a brief kiss, before getting up and starts heading up the stairs. "I'll see you after lunch for hang gliding!"

The flame sat for a second, digesting Leafy's advice. It was a decent plan, he thought, he worked up his courage to go down to where the others are.

The couple burst open the doors to the room. Everyone's attention was caught by the loud noise.

"What took you so long?" The dimpled ball spoke, having to interrupt her discussion.

They each grabbed a seat and sat in front of Book and her, Pin rolls out the blueprint and shows it to them, "Check this out! I felt the previous blueprints weren't very good so I redesigned it! This new design doesn't need the crops to be transported to the Island, the residents can come down anytime and help with the garden!"

"Yeah, and the Center Hall is actually in the center now, it's like a roundabout! We have a nice little park there as well!" He added, finishing her idea.

"Huh..." Book looks over the blueprint, intrigued how they managed to unify both agriculture and industry into one. "Wow... This is an amazing design! This actually makes separating the two sound quite illogical now..."

"Wawawait-" GB interjects, "We already gave out the blueprints, what if they've already done with them by now?"

"Um- uh..." Coiny stutters, trying to think of a plan, "Oh! Could one of you call them up and ask for their progress? We'll just have to hope they haven't done too much and just put their current work off as practice, y'know?"

"...Alright then." Book pulls out her cell phone and dials each of the two groups...

"...Uh huh, yeah- okay thanks that's good... *boop* So, the Construction' group said they've only gathered materials and haven't actually started building, and Farming said they've plowed the field but haven't planted anything. So I think we can still change out the blueprints without too much progress being lost! I guess Farming's work is now"

"Excellent..."

He quietly descends the staircase, recollecting about what Leafy had told him as each step is taken.

Finally, the door is pushed open. The fuzzy sports ball, who was resting nearby after finishing cleaning up, turned around to greet, "Hey Firey, what took you so long? Nickel came down a while ago."

"I was just doing some uh- reflecting, that's what they say... But I wanna ask if someone could teach-, me..."

"Oh?" He felt confused at his request, "Well... What do you want to be taught about?"

"Everything?..." The flame hesitated for a split second, "I understood almost nothing since I started working here, I feel like I shouldn't be here. I don't want to stand around and be useless if I'm gonna work here..."

It's true that he hasn't done much as of now, but he believes he's able to change.

"Don't worry Firey, I'll get you on track with the rest of us! I'm also really glad that you're reaching out like this, you should almost always ask for help when you need it! That said, I am quite busy with my own work as well, so is it okay if Nickel tutors you instead?"

He was fine with anyone, Tennis Ball calls over the gray coin to tell about the plan for Firey, Nickel then agreed on a schedule for him.

"Good luck you two!" TB then turns his attention across the room, recollecting his ideas he thought of while he was cleaning up as he approached the crowd.

Politely nudging his way in, Tennis Ball inquired, "Hey everyone, what are you all discussing?"

"Hi TB! Just finishing up stuff about the new blueprint, we're going to get ready for lunch now!" Book enthusiastically replied.

"Oh actually... I'm thinking of staying back. I almost have a prototype of a certain machine, if we're able to get it working by the time lunch break is over then it would be able to form the basis for more efficient and faster production than primitive crafting!"

"What!? Tennis Ball is this information true?!" Golf Ball exclaimed upon being informed about such device, "TB! You should have told me sooner! Everyone else, go have your lunch, possibly bring back some if he gets hungry. I'm staying back with him to get this extremely important prototype running!"

"That's really hard-working of you, but remember to not overwork or you'll hardly be working! But seriously, I hope you two manage to finish it!" Pin wished them good luck, the rest of the group then went up to leave the Factory.

The Van stops by the opening, the doors swung open to let the two collaspe onto the ground.

The other group stood in front of them, after some awkward silence, Book took the initiative and asked, "So... How can we help you?"

Snowball tries to get an answer out, "I think... *cough* we- * cough* *cough * we got- *wheeze * asbestos... Blocky too..."

"Oh! Let me get you help right away!" She walks up to the doorbell and announces through the intercom, "Hello, Book speaking, Snowball and Blocky seems to have a case of acute asbestosis, please head up to the Recovery room as soon as possible."

"Okay! Follow the map down there and TB or GB should be waiting to treat you! Wish you two have a great recovery!" The group got into the Van, it resumed its trip to pick up the last group and ultimately the Restaurant...

Now that they've made their way down and into the room, Tennis Ball greeted and instructed them to lay in the beds to start the procedure. He was about to give an explanation of the operation but was stopped by Blocky.

"Please, we don't want to know the details, that would just make us feel worse."

"No problem! Let's get started..."

Blocky observes the equipment, thinking to himself, 'I can do this, hooh, I'm strong, I'm brave, I'm not a scaredy-ca-!.. !~ghh-' He winced as a burning pain suddenly jolted through his arm.

"Uh oh! Hope I didn't hit a nerve there! I'm gonna countdown from five... four... three... tw......"

'Huh??... Did I die..? Anyfeel canthing In't,,;::fe~elys-oIin-gsle~epwh-ya~m.•*";,_

A toilet flush, running water from a tap... Door creaked, the light switch flicked.

"Tennis Ball?" Said the cardboard container, looking questionably at the scene.

The unexpected voice made him turn around, temporarily putting the operation on hold, "Fries? I thought you went back with Puffball afterwards?"

"No... I've been in the toilet since you left the room. I guess Puffball didn't want to wait anymore and left."

"Gosh Fries you need to get some fiber in your diet, being constipated like that isn't good for you. Speaking of, it's lunch time now but Transport' already left. Could you go over to the Lab where GB is and ask her to make a call to bring back more food for you, Blocky and Snowball? I'm busy right now."

As he agreed and left the room, TB continued the operation on the two.

*boop... boop... boop.... bo-*"Hey, it's Fries, can I talk to-... yeah you guessed it, thanks... Hey what's up! Just asking if you could get me some of the lunch, it's a bit of a long way from here... Yeah yeah... Alright, thanks a lot, can't wait to see you, love ya!" *beep*

...

"Why's anesthetic taking so long?" the ball tapped his foot impatiently, glancing at the clock. After a few seconds, he decided to leave a note for the two and went back to the Lab...

Chapter Text

Hello readers, it has been over a year as of writing since the last time I updated this fic. Unfortunately, I'd like to announce that I'll be discontinuing this fic series, for a couple reasons.

First, managing every single detail that was going on for each of the characters the characters became really bureaucratic, it was really a mountain of tasks they have to do, I couldn't possibly keep finding ways to make all of those activities interesting, I didn't really enjoy writing it either. Which leads into the second reason, the absolutely awfully sluggish pacing. I'd try to describe every single action they were going to do as I really wanted to maintain that realism aspect, but ultimately it just made the fic feel so awfully slow, I'd take me a lot of time to go through everything as I'm both a slow reader and a slow writer. And secondly,  I've had writer's block just until recently, the insurmountable amount of schoolwork I have to deal with on a daily basis really left me with little time at the end of the day, which I would then spend on my other hobbies and interests that I felt genuinely rewarding, but I will also blame that on my terrible time management (AuDHD is one hell of a motherfucker). 

However, luckily, my writer's block is over now. If you wish to check out more of my writing that's also of the "society-bulding" type stuff, I'd recommend my latest fic that I'm currently writing, A Day's Work. Same stuff but with Inanimate Insanity, more like a proper slice of life than a baker's dozen of slices, it's got both mix of serious discussion and casual conversation. I must say, basing the fic off II4 really helped with a lot of the heavy lifting that I would've needed to do for world building, props to the II writers for providing such an environment. Aside from that, I'll also post a compilation fic of all the bits and pieces that didn't get published in my fics, which you can find here (I'll change this to a link when it's posted). But yeah, hope yall have a good day!