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battle for rotting my brain out of my skull

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battle for rotting my brain out of my skull (Fanfic)
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battle for rotting my brain out of my skullnote  is a series of interconnected one-shot stories by DeadSquidWriter for Battle for Dream Island and Inanimate Insanity. The stories focus on various characters and has various pairings. It can be read on Archive of Our Own here.


Tropes present in this series (Warning: All spoilers for both shows will be unmarked):

  • Adaptational Backstory Change: Unlike in canon, Algebraliens are born with their powers rather than gaining them from a Yoyilite meteor. Also, due to being much more long-lived, the fight against One took place thousands of years ago, and she was sealed in the moon for a much longer time. One also wasn't friendless, as Seven was her best friend.
  • Adaptational Nice Guy: Two-Thousand-Seven-Hundred-and-Sixty-Three is implied to be more of a Gentle Giant, rather than the more monstrous being they are in the show. The other Algebraliens are still scared of them, though.
  • Affably Evil: Carving Knife, the dictator/general secretary of Farnorth is more polite and not as barbaric as the other Farnortheners, minus Tennis Ball and Artengo, and gives Knife (the II one) advice on proper blade care. He is also willing to recruit outside help for dealing with Tennis Ball's grandfather who took over Farnorth. He also admits it sounds stupid when he tries to get Fries' help with the situation after learning about his past with Evil Leafy and Fries guessing that he wants his help.
  • Alternate History: BFDIA goes differently than it does in canon:
    • Fries wins BFDIA and Needle was eliminated in BFDIA 19 instead of him.
    • The WTF contestants argued instead of fleeing after Fries, which is why the Fish Monster hosts.
    • Tennis Ball doesn't sell the WTF contestants (Rocky, Yellow Face, Golf Ball, Bomby, and Nickel) to Evil Leafy after Golf Ball warns him that he'd be selling their souls to her.
    • It is found out that Firey recovered Leafy which leads to FreeSmart hanging him in a cage. He has yet to be discovered to have done this in canon
    • The Announcer returns and reveals that Dream Island had eroded away due to not being able to spend money on protection from it. Even if Leafy didn't buy it.
    • BFDIA went on hiatus for two years after BFDIA 5 ended instead of happening a month later.
  • Animal Motifs: Many of the BFDI characters have animalistic features. They are known as "Beastal Objects".
    • Golf Ball, Tennis Ball, and Basketball have avian features.
    • Firey and Firey Jr. have fox features.
    • Snowball has cat features (later described as being like a snow leopard).
      • Fanny also has cat-features, but in a more domesticated manner.
    • Pin is mentioned to be beetle-like.
    • Grassy has grasshopper-like features.
    • Tree (as well as Leafy's father, Lemon Tree) has deer-like features.
    • Price Tag has lizard features.
    • Algerbrailiens are insect-like, which fits with their more alien nature.
  • Babies Ever After:
    • Firey and Leafy have a child together. A clump of ashes named Ashes.
    • Four and X also have a child named Twenty-Eight.
    • Golf Ball and Tennis Ball have an egg that is named Golf Ball Jr..
  • Back from the Dead: It's implied that Four was able to bring back both Bow and Dough after being semi-permanently dead, along with bringing back everyone else who got deleted by MePhoneX/ when MeLife was unplugged.
  • Bilingual Bonus: Zwei, Four and Two's common factor, is a two integer, and her name is German for "two"
  • Body Horror: Two and Gaty watch a documentary about the aftermath of a nuclear strike on a city. The documentary shows various objects in different states of suffering, whether dying or already dead. It's enough to horrify Two.
  • Bizarre Alien Reproduction: For both Objects and Algerbraliens. For Objects, they do what is called "stork-calling," which leads to either them finding feathers or a stork watching them from afar. Eventually, the stork comes and delivers their child. For Algerbraliens, they multiply and an egg appears. Neither species has sexual organs, so it's all non-sexual.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality:
    • Algerbraliens have this. Two doesn't see anything wrong with sending contestants to their elimination space and relents once MePhone begs them to release the eliminated contestants. X also mentions in a Q&A chapter that they also don't see anything wrong with mutilating or even killing each other unless they kill someone permanently.
    • The Inanimate Insanity contestants treat death more seriously than the BFDI contestants do, as they were just permanently dead before being brought back and didn't have a standard recovery center like the BFDI contestants did.
  • Character Blog: The author's Tumblr (as well as a few chapters) sometimes has Q&As with the characters.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Wilson, Tennis Ball's brother gets subjected to one, courtesy of Golf Ball.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Cobs is slightly disturbed by One killing and eating the Prime Shimmer.
  • Everyone Has Standards:
    • Snowball has Farnorthern ancestry, but states that he is not like Tennis Ball's family, who eat babies. He doesn't want to be compared to them.
    • Algerbraliens might kill or maim each other, like how Four did to X in the past, but they would never kill another Algerbrailen permanently. It's one of the reasons why One is seen as a criminal to their kind.
    • Speakerboxes such as the Announcer love to watch objects harm each other, but when Fries drowns Tennis Ball in their duel to the death and keeps on doing so long after TB is already dead (due to a power-up provided by Evil Leafy) the Announcer sounds uneasy when he tells him this.
  • The Fair Folk: The Puffball species is Goikey's version of this.
  • Fantastic Racism: Tennis Ball's brother, Wilson has this in spades. One of the first things he does is mock Basketball and later Golf Ball. And really dislikes his brother's relationship with her.
  • Good Parents: Leafy's parents, Lemon Tree and Olive Branch are very good parents compared to Tennis Ball's and Gaty's. They don't hold her past actions against her, and in fact her father is not to happy at Firey for his treatment of her.
  • Happily Adopted:
    • Basketball and Snowball, while not together anymore, have joint custody of Grassy.
    • Fan wants to subject MePhone to this, seeing him as still a child due to him being 18 years old.
  • Hated by All: Steve Cobs. Not only by everyone from the Inanimate Insanity universe but everyone from the BFDI universe as well. Black Hole even makes an exception for Cobs for Death P.A.C.T. Even One finds him very annoying.
  • Horror Hunger: A black hole's "active" state is this. They consume everything around them mindlessly. Black Hole himself was getting close to his next active state, and intended to leave the planet and go several light-years away before he became active again. His deal with One prevents that.
  • How Do I Shoot Web: After Black Hole was put in Cobs' body by One, he has trouble using his new arms and legs since he's never had any before.
  • Humongous Mecha: Golf Ball finds one buried under the ground and uses it to fight Cobs' own MechaPhone.
  • Interspecies Romance: There are a few between different types of objects, but for direct different species, there are Two and Gaty.
  • Mad Oracle: Two and Four's common factor, Zwei, has random visions, and one of her visions is what led Two to start their show in the first place.
  • Mayfly–December Romance: Two has concerns about this concerning their relationship with Gaty. They can live for a very long time, while Objects only live for about as long as humans, with a few exceptions for plant and rock Objects.
  • Mama Bear:
    • When Pillow states that she wants to do "research" on Golf Ball and Tennis Ball's egg, she is thrown out the window by Golf Ball via a book being thrown at her.
    • Basketball had to intervene when Wilson tried to eat Grassy.
  • No-Sell: Cobs tries to delete the TPOT contestants in his new phone form but since they were not created by MePhone, it doesn't work.
    • Wilson tries to bite down on Golf Ball to injure/kill her. Unfortunately for him, since she is a golf ball, he breaks his teeth on her.
  • Papa Wolf:
    • Snowball is protective of Grassy, and when the rest of Tennis Ball's family comes to Goiky, he intends to get Grassy away from the area, since Wilson had already tried to eat him.
    • Lemon Tree, Leafy's father, once took down the razorback leader of a bunch of baby-eating hogs that where a threat to Leafy's hometown. And isn't to happy with Firey due to knowing about his treatment of her during BFB.
  • Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Golf Ball shows Tennis Ball's brother Wilson that just because she is small, does not mean that she is weak.
  • Point of Divergence: Golf Ball gets sick after TPOT 13, which leads to Tennis Ball making a deal with One, and Two goes to the Inanimate Insanity universe to save MePhone from Cobs.
  • Pragmatic Villainy: Carving Knife does not want to make any unnecessary enemies when he arrives at the area around the Hotel and calls off Tennis Ball's parents when they antagonize some of the II cast.
  • Really 700 Years Old: Golf Ball is over 600 years old due to being put into stasis. Though mentally she is in her thirties. Algerbraliens on the other hand can live for several hundred thousand years. Puffball is also revealed by the author to be 190 years old.
  • Related in the Adaptation:
    • Four and Two are half-siblings on one of their factor's side.
    • Firey and Match are half-siblings, while Firey Jr. is their cousin.
    • 2673 is Four's adoptive sibling.
    • Nickel is Yellow Face's adoptive cousin.
    • Leafy and Tree are cousins on Leafy's father's side.
  • Relationship Upgrade: Golf Ball and Tennis Ball get married.
  • Religion of Evil: There is one in Farnorth that worships One that is led by Tennis Ball's grandfather.
  • The Reveal:
    • The real reason why Two wants to give one of the contestants The Power of Two is because of a prophecy they received by their factor, Zwei. Which states that whoever receives the power will be the key to defeating One.
    • The reason why Eraser is afraid of pentagons is because a dragon with a pentagon-shaped frill ate his grandma, mother, and older brother. He just remembered the incident in pieces due to being so young at the time.
  • Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Not long after Four was born, Zwei had a vision of Four surrounded by lava and trapping sentient beings inside of him. She runs away in a panic and this action is ultimatly what led to Four being who he is and is what led to said events happening.
  • Shout-Out:
    • Eraser states that he is afraid of pentagons because "a pentagon ate my grandma"note .
    • Mulligan (Or at least Cobbs in his body) has been confirmed to sound like Onyn Ring. Doubles as Actor Allusion.
  • Spared by the Adaptation: MePad and Knife, who died in The Movie of Inanimate Insanity (albeit Knife comes back as a ghost) are alive in this series.
  • Technically Living Zombie: Black Hole is this. He's a former star who became a black hole and stated that other stars are afraid of him because of this.
  • The Thing That Would Not Leave: The Announcer turns out to be this to BFDI!Taco.
  • Trans Tribulations: While Gaty isn't exactly miserable about it, she does share with Two about how she had to leave her outright transphobic parents due to them not accepting that she goes by feminine pronouns. Two isn't sure how to respond to this, because Algerbraliens don't have gender issues as a genderless species, and figuring out their pronouns is a part of child development.
  • We Used to Be Friends: One and Seven used to be friends with each other. Seven remembers her fondly despite Five telling them how monstrous she was. And in the character blog, One states that Seven used to be her best friend, and she even offered to share her power with him.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: None of the contestants (except Gaty, who was told earlier and knew already) are happy about the real reason Two wants to give one of them their power. Whichever object gets said power will be the key to defeating One. They also state that if Pillow had won, she would destroy the world For the Evulz and the fact that a child such as Grassy shouldn't have that burden. Only eight of them stay in the show after this reveal.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Pillow is barred from participating in the challenge to raid Meeple to save the two Shimmer eggs that Cobs had captured, since Two and MePhone don't trust her not to destroy them. Given that it's Pillow, it's understandable. She also wants to do "research" on Golf Ball and Tennis Ball's egg.
    • Tennis Ball's brother, Wilson tried to eat Grassy at some point and Basketball had to intervene.

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