A/N: Greetings, fellow FanFiction readers, and I welcome you to the re-installment of Beyond the Monitor's Grave! Yes, I am aware that there may or may not be several of you that have been waiting for this to come in to fruition, but THIS TIME...
THIS TIME, there will be something that the last version of this fic had: PLANNING.
Yes, I know. Big shocker there.
So, I'd like to lay the ground work as to how I'm going to go about this, first and foremost.
I'm going to be using the original version of this FanFic as the bones, since there are many of you that enjoyed it so much. The major events that occurred in that FanFic will also occur in this one, though specifics to them may change, and on top of that, there will be much, MUCH more thought put in to the characters, since they were honestly not done strongly enough, much to my honest embarrassment.
Next, I will still be reading any and all reviews that go up on this Fic, similarly to the way I did in the original. I hope that was a given, but I also wanted to get that established.
And finally, after the events of my friend's grandmother passing comes and goes, I'm fully intending to take on any suggestions, and do not be afraid to bounce them about in the time line. I will do everything I can to create a reasonable chapter around said suggestion if I like the idea. AND THIS TIME, I'MA TAKE NOTE OF ALL SUGGESTIONS SO AS TO NOT FORGET THEM LIKE I DID LAST TIME 'CAUSE I'M A DUMB.
So, with those statements done and out of the way, I'm gonna go ahead and start this bad boy up! LET'S FUCKIN' GO!
*DISCLAIMER: The following FanFiction is a fan-based creation though up and executed by the author at hand, being Sonix95. I, Sonix95, claim zero ownership to the original franchise, and merely am using it as a baseline for the "what-if" events that will be occurring in this story. As such, I, Sonix95, ONLY own the idea of the FanFiction at hand, as well as any Original Characters used in the story. Any and all Characters, Assets, and previously established plot and capabilities are all owned by Dan Salvato. Please support the official release.*
Chapter 1: When the Monitor Dies
"Y'know..." I mutter to myself, watching as my computer performs the actions that it was scripted to do by the game at hand, "I was pretty hell-bent on not playing you, game. Glad to see I was wrong, though I'm still quite furious that there's not a good ending for... well, any of them. Fuckin' hell, Salvato..."
Oh, hey there. Didn't see you there. You may be wondering what I was just talking about there, and am currently grumbling about.
Well, I was referring to our favorite game, Doki Doki Literature Club. And yes, there was in fact a point that I was bent on not playing this game. Glad to see that I eventually caved in and gave her a go. Three playthroughs later, I have to say that it was worth the investment, which is literally just time. After all, game's free.
But hey, enough of that rambling, yeah? Introductions are in order, after all.
The name's Chris. Well, actually, it's Christopher Curtis, but just call me Chris, please. Me? I'm just your go-to, run of the mill guy, outside of my slightly taller than average stature. I weigh in at 185 pounds, am six feet tall, and am neither unhealthy nor am I very muscular. Hazel eyes, Dirty Blond and somewhat short hair, and an over all slender build with a tiny bit of a gut, though not super pronounced. A thin pair of glasses rest on my face, though I honestly only barely need them. They're just there to prevent headaches, since I only have issues with one of my eyes. Another thing to note about me?
I'm a stubborn son of a bitch with a bleeding heart. It's actually kind of odd, if you think about it. If I want to help someone, I will not stop until I've helped them.
I have played this game through three times thus far, and starting on the second run, I, instead of deleting Monika, proceeded to just move her to a new location and just replace her into the game upon re-installation. I've spent about three days doing this, and honestly neglected shutting the game off on a couple of those days, though I never really thought anything of it until some friends mentioned it on Discord, which had actually made me rather sheepish at the time it happened. Didn't change anything, much to my chagrin... Interestingly enough, to change the topic for a moment, even though this is a psychological horror game making you question whether your existence is worthwhile even in the slightest, and horror is the genre that I'm honestly weakest to when it comes to gaming in general, I am, strangely for what is considered normal for me, willing to keep going with it to figure out if there's even a way for me to get any of them the ending they fucking deserve, god damn it.
Right. Deep breaths. In. Out. Slightly better, though... not really. Shit. I check the clock.
2:00 AM.
Damn.
I sigh heavily, before standing up from my chair that only barely manages to classify as comfortable. Due to said chair not being all that cozy, I wind up needing to twist my back about, getting several rolling crackles to roll along it. "Ahhhh, that's better." I sigh again, though it's more of a happy sigh this time due to the relief that I just experienced. I step away from my computer, meandering casually through my one bed, one bath apartment, making my way to use the restroom.
Now, there may be plenty of you folks out there that are wondering why I refuse to go to bed at this point. The reason that I am not is the fact that I am a nighttime individual. Sleep is for the goddamn weak, anyway. After all, four hours is all that I feel that I need. And to those of you about to science all over me saying that I need eight?
I'd like for you to imagine my best Peter Griffin voice, saying "Stop it." Not that great of an impersonation, but it gets the job done.
I finish up in the restroom and proceed to start re-installing the game once again.
"Maybe it has to do with the order in which you save the girls." I mutter to myself, waiting for the game to finish re-installing. In the meantime, I proceed to distract myself with several other things, and do so for about an hour.
After I was done fucking about with my 3DS for the time being, I proceeded to make a move toward my bed... but instead pause for a moment.
"... Dah, fuck it." I say aloud, before stalking back over to my PC once again. "Let's try it one more time for tonight."
I perform the almost ritualistic behavior of quickly opening the character files and replacing the Monika in the stock game with the Monika that has been on my PC for several days now with reasonable speed, and restart the game once again, looking for anything and everything that could be different. I proceed in the order of wooing Sayori first, then Yuri, and finally Natsuki, which is one of the combinations that I have not tried yet.
And everything is much the same, much to my colossal irritation...
That is, of course, until Monika breaks my brain by saying something completely different upon entrance to the "Just Monika" phase of the game.
"All right, I'll be quick here." Monika says as the very first thing that she can possibly say, which immediately throws me for a loop. "To make a quote that I heard coming from your computer, dear... I won't struggle on in a world so cold or wrong. But I'm not going to run away, either. And to break the quote... I'm going to fix this, and WE are going to live." She continues, and her sprite on screen takes on an extremely serious expression. The game seems to severely glitch out, before winking to black, along with the rest of my monitor.
"... Um." I intone, so incredibly confused as to what has just occurred that I have no words that could possibly justify the emotions running through me. I suppose that the biggest ones right now would have to be concern, worry, and general curiosity. Concern that I just lost everything on this PC, worry as to what has happened to the game itself to cause this, and general curiosity as to what Monika could have possibly meant by that.
And almost immediately, my "concern" portion of the previous statement is further established when my monitor lights up in a practically blinding light.
"Gah, FUCK!" I curse violently, rearing my head back as I cover my eyes in an attempt to help mitigate the assualt on my retinas. "Why?! Why is it that technology hates me?!" I start furiously rambling. As if to mock me upon making that statement, my PC's fans all kick on at maximum speed, which is another attention grabber. "Oh, god damn it, I do NOT need this computer dying on me!" I continue madly, finally having regained enough eyesight to figure out exactly what was going on.
Not that it matters anyway, because the light somehow only manages to get brighter, forcing me to avert my eyes or have a similar result to staring at a burning Magnesium strip occur to my retinas, which, to those unaware, is effectively like having sunburn on the inside of your eyes. Not fun. I stand and back away from my computer, in the event that a truly catastrophic failure occurs. I don't want to be sitting next to a flaming wreck, thanks.
It's not too much longer before a strange cross between a pop and a shatter sounds out, which I can only guess, to my lamentation, is my monitor finally giving up the fight and blowing out. Damn.
"Well, of fucking course. Now I have to replace that, which is going tooooooo-" I start to rant once again, before I actually look in the direction of my PC and effectively have a brain lock.
Why the fuck are the four girls of Doki Doki Literature Club standing in my apartment? Why is it that I suddenly feel light headed? Am I about to pass out? Jesus, I hope not. Cliché is cliché, after all.
I blink.
They blink back.
I wave.
They wave as well, before they all look at their hands in shock. Three of them start poking and prodding themselves, though why is not really known to me right this instant. Monika seems to be more interested in looking at me than doing much else, though...
"What the hell is this?!" Natsuki immediately exclaims, pinching herself and wincing before taking in a deep breath and widening her eyes. "What the hell was that?! Why did my entire torso move?! WHY IS MY THROAT MOVING SO MUCH?!" she nearly bellows, looking like she's about to have a mental malfunction.
"I-I'm not sure... I've never felt this before..." Yuri replies quietly, not paying much attention to what's happening around her. I suppose that's a good thing, or she'd just be a stuttering mess on the floor at this point. Instead, she's simply trying out things, ranging to running her nails along her skin, to pinching herself, to tugging her hair and just about everything else you can experiment with on those things. Something tells me that she's enjoying the pain that comes along with her yanking on herself a little too much... I'll deal with it later.
"I..." Sayori begins, simply staring at her hand in absolute shock. "I don't know how this happened... But the cycle is over, I think..." she continues, and I immediately get worried.
'Ah, hell. Act Four Sayori. She knows.' I think to myself, adjusting my thoughts toward her around that. That, however, will need to be handled later.
And Monika? She simply continues looking at me with a large smile on her face, though I see tears start to build in her eyes when it seems to finally hit her that her stunt worked. "See, Chris? I told you I was going to fix it...!" She starts, before taking a step forward...
And she immediately face-fucks the floor as she fails to work her legs.
"Ah, I get it now." I start, drawing their attention. "You guys never have had actual feeling or... well, bodies, I suppose. Being video game characters and all that, after all."
"A-ah!" Yuri starts, jerking in surprise to both my presence, which she has only just noticed, as well as to what I just implied.
"That's right, dear." Monika states as I step up to her and help her upright. She wobbles about on her own legs, looking very much like a fish out of water, before managing to maintain her balance on her own power. "I got us out of that horrible place! Isn't it wonderful?"
"Yeah, sure." Sayori replies before I can, and both Monika and I wince at the tone of voice she's using right now. Vengeful, spite-filled, and vandetta-assuring. Fuck. "But why did you bother bringing us out? After all, you're the one who killed us to get his attention." she spits savagely, and with all of the subtlety of a raging bull when it comes to keeping her anger hidden. I can't help but cringe.
"Damn, girl. That's cold, throwing that out willy-nilly." I reply.
"Is it?" Sayori fires back, and I take on a severe expression, though she fails to notice, since her ire, and more importantly her attention, is focused almost entirely on Monika right now. "She killed us, and each way was terrible! I remember it all!" she continues ferociously, and I know at that moment that I need to step in before something is said that all parties will regret.
"Did she? I really don't remember much at this point. It almost feels like those memories just... aren't there anymore." Natsuki mutters, scratching the back of her head in thought while sitting down. Yuri maintains silence, clearly not trusting herself to be able to iterate correctly and draw attention to herself, though she takes the queue and sits as well.
"Yes, yes. She killed you guys, big deal." I state flippantly, and I swear that I see the fire about to launch out of Sayori's mouth.
"How could you say that so easily?!" Sayori asks in extreme disbelief.
"Because you're all alive right now." I reply, waving my hand in the air. "To be honest with you, the reason that she did all the things she did is not her fault. Believe it or not, the game actually had a hold on her actions just as much as it had on you, Natsuki, or Yuri. The script is far stronger than you may think, Sayo." I sigh. "On top of that, let's think about this for a moment. If she wasn't acting on a script, then can you really blame her? She realized before you or anybody else did that she was a part of a false reality, a place where no happiness could ever occur for anybody. And while I don't personally agree with her being selfish about it, I will still give her credit in the fact that she at least did SOMETHING."
"Why does that justify her killing us?!" Sayori asks, now seemingly desperate for an answer.
"Because it ended up being the thing that got you guys out." I say with finality.
"How?!"
"Easy: Monika had to wait until the moment when she had the most control over the system that she was working with, which is the exact moment that she sends the player character to the room that never ends. She knew everything that was occurring on the PC at that exact moment; she was able to execute the commands that got you guys out, though I'm really not sure how you did it, Monika." I pause, turning to said individual with a raised eyebrow.
"It took a lot more than I'm willing to say right now. Too tired." Monika replies sluggishly, obviously slouching.
"Fair enough. Look, Sayori." I continue, and Sayori looks at me with a look that seems to be a cross of anger and sadness. Tears are welling up in her eyes, and I decide to make a daring move and hug her, and she slowly reciprocates the hug and begins trembling. "I'm not going to justify the actions that Monika performed. Far from it. That being said, I'd like to think that you have enough smarts in that brain of yours to be able to say that you can understand how it benefited you all. After all, in the end, it gave you all freedom. She freed you from that personal hell that you four found yourselves in. Wouldn't you say that was worth it?" I ask softly, and Sayori begins crying in my arms. "Leave the past in the past. Help one another to move on."
"I... I guess..." Sayori manages to get out, heaving breaths between sobs.
"Good. Now, I suppose introductions are in order." I start, before rising to my full height proudly. "My name is Christopher, but call me Chris, please. I am twenty-two years old. My likes are Video Games, hanging with my friends, and I do like to dabble in writing occasionally. My dislikes are people who are entitled, as well as those who refuse to give proper respect or credit where it's due. I honestly have no dreams for the future, except maybe finding someone to be with. I just live day by day, in the moment." I list off, and look at the young ladies assembled before me. "As for you guys, I see no need for you all to introduce yourselves, as I already know you guys from your game."
"Aw, that's no fun." Natsuki replies with a pout.
"Yeah, I know, but cut me some slack here. I'm bushed. After all, it IS just about 4:45 AM right now." I intone, likely sounding just as tired as I feel at that exact moment. "As such, I'm going to set up some spots to sleep, and then I'm going to pass the fuck out. Feel free to take a shower if you guys like. Or practice walking. Really, it's up to you right now. I just need sleep."
"Oh yes, rub it in that we can't even do that right now." Natsuki grinds out.
"Doesn't change that it's true." I state, keeping aloof about the matter being mentioned while I stand. "Now if the mean, short little spitfire will be so kind as to leave me be for a moment, I have a living room to set up as a temporary bedroom."
"Mean?! SHORT?!" Natsuki just about bellows in fury, and I pick at my ear from her volume.
"Yes, to both of those. There's really no need to state the obvious. Besides, some guys like them smaller." I reply calmly, though I do have a very small grin on my face.
To those unaware, I sort of become a dick when I'm tired. I lose my filters.
Rather than maintain attention on the petite five-foot tall Natsuki, who is now grumbling in embarassment and righteous fury, I instead take in the appearances of the other three females present in my living room.
Monika. She's just shy of my height, if I'm remembering right from when she was actually managing to remain upright. Probably around five-ten, five-eleven. Sayori is next in terms of height, standing at thereabouts of five-six, if I had to guess. And finally...
I glance over to Yuri, who has managed to stand up once again, and I actually need to tilt my eyes up in order to not seem like I'm staring at her rack. 'Hm. Must be, like, six-three, six-four. Also, DAMN. Those things would knock any sane man off his feet. She should be the most confident here, hands down.' I think quickly.
"WHAT?!" Natsuki roars in fury.
"... I just said that out loud, didn't I?" I ask in a perfect deadpan.
"You did." Natsuki drawls, grinding her teeth so hard that I'm almost certain that they'll turn to dust at this rate. Yuri has what could easily be described as an atomic blush on her face, to the point where I'm rather certain that even if I had my lights off, I'd be able to find her because her face is glowing red. She's doing everything she can to cover herself up as well as possible in mortification, though it's just doing interesting things to her breasts, making it even harder to tear my eyes away. Sayori just lets out a quiet "pfft...", seeming to hold back laughter.
"We're going to have a talk about that, dear." Monika states simply but sluggishly, before managing to somehow work her legs well enough to walk up to me, though she immediately falls onto me, leaning heavily against me. Thank goodness I'd already stood up. "For now, I need sleep. I'm exhausted. And I want to sleep with you... please..." she manages, before almost literally falling asleep instantly.
I can't help but sigh. "Fine, fine. Let me put her to bed, then I'll get everything set up. Give me just a minute." I state casually, before lifting her and walking into my room. I set her on my bed, then quickly change into my lounge pants and sleep shirt, and head back in to the living room. I quickly set up the couch with a blanket and a pillow, and I do the same with the love seat and an inflatable mattress.
It is now taking everything I have to not simply lay on one of these devices and pass out on the spot. "All right, ladies. You have a good night, and I will speak with you tomorrow, okay?"
"'Kay!" Sayori states happily, just as ready as I am to get some rest.
"Yeah, whatever." Natsuki replies bitterly. Must still be irritated.
Yuri says nothing, still blushing heavily.
"A'ight. Night." I reply, before walking to my bedroom and laying down on my bed, next to Monika.
"This'll be the most infuriating dream in my life if it is one, I swear to fuck." I think to myself as the last thought through my mind before I let the sweet embrace of sleep take me.
A/N: I'M BACK, BOYS! (and/or girls, not judging here)
So, I'm gonna be honest with you all here, I decided to combine the first and second chapters of my original fic into this one. I did this because I decided to remove the moment where my character passed out, which removed the good cut-off point that I had going at the time.
That being said, time invested worthwhile, in my book.
So, as I had previously stated before in the last fic: Please, do not be afraid to lay some suggestions down for me. That'll be what keeps this guy going in the long run, after all.
OH, right!
I should mention now that I may (key word here) be getting time to start really cranking these out. Like, one entire night a week to dedicate to typing, cranking out.
Considering that I've been looking for a chance like that... yeah, I'd say that's good, and should help my consistency A LOT.
And with this reduxed Chapter completed with a stamp of approval from me looking over it, like, 5 times, I'd say that it's time to say...
See ya in the next installment! Later!
-Sonix95