Monika Enters Terrestrial Actuality

A DDLC fanfiction experience

Warning: Not suitable for children or those who are easily disturbed.

DAY ONE

March 15, 2018, 2:13 pm PDT

"But hey, that's just a theory! A—Ugh!" The YouTube video I had been (not really) watching came to an end with a forced, dramatic gag by the host, who was pretending to be, I don't know, dying, or something. The autoplay feature had been going through The Game Theorists' Doki Doki Literature Club videos from my watch history. I don't usually prefer to work with noise in the background, but considering the nature of the project I was nearing completion on, I thought it would add just the right amount of dramatic flair—I'm a lonely guy, this is one of the ways I amuse myself. In fact, the retort I was preparing was specifically set up for this exact moment.

"Oh, MatPat," I mused aloud, "that is an interesting theory, but it's not as good as mine!" I chuckled in spite of myself. "What do you get when you cross a character data file with a 3D printer? Go ahead, take your time, I'll give you three guesses."

As I spoke, I brought my mouse to a hover over the "Close" button in the application that was occupying my second monitor. "I'll give you a hint," I said, clicking. Doki Doki Literature Club's final message, 'Error: Script file is missing or corrupt. Please reinstall the game,' disappeared from the screen. "The hint is that the character data file comes from Doki Doki," I appended.

Immediately, I opened the recycle bin. I scrolled down the list until I found monika-dot-chr, selected the file, and copied it over to my thumb drive. "That's right, you guessed it!" I yanked the thumb drive out of the computer tower and shoved it in my pocket. "I, zapdosmaster, plan to bring Monika into this world, where she can become my girlfriend! And I know, it's, like, super clichéd, and yes, I did get this idea from reading bad DDLC fanfiction. But you know what, MatPat? Nobody asked your opinion." I clicked the YouTube screen closed, too. Then I stood and stretched.

Technically, I seized mid-stretch. "Crap, I forgot to mention where I'm going to get a 3D printer; epic rant fail." My arms dropped anticlimactically to my sides. The plan was to use the one at my school. For a small price to cover the cost of materials, the library has a large 3D printer available to students. Mostly the engineering majors use it for their projects. Sparing the technical details, it'll cost me significantly more than most of the stuff that gets built in there by other students. I mean, nowhere else has ever done anything close to creating a living, breathing human being. Not even MIT. Besides the old fashioned way, of course!

Luckily, I have the cash thanks to a little thing that starts with "Bit" and ends with "coin." And while I'm not a hundred percent sure this'll work, by this point the curiosity alone is enough to make me decide it's at least worth trying. Either that, or my concept of reality is shot after reading so many fanfics with tenuous plotlines stretching my suspension of disbelief like a ball of dough.

All right, let's pick up the pace here. I don't have all day.

I pulled on my shoes and a coat before heading out the door to catch the bus. I have a car, but I want to do my part to save the world. I took the stop at the entrance to my university and tucked my hands into my pockets against the biting cold humidity, then trudged toward the library.

As a naturally fast walker, I quickly reached my destination. There were a few groups of students huddled in study groups around the tables in the entrance wings. I don't really have any friends, and I don't usually want to make any friends, so I ignored them. Up a couple flights of steps, I made my way to the room I was looking for. After double checking the room number, I pushed the metal door open and walked in.

The room had an empty space in the entrance and shelves and cabinets lining the walls. But the machine that took up the far wall commanded the attention of anyone who entered. It was nearly six feet tall by six feet wide; well, the shell was, anyways. It was mostly a hollow cube. Three mechanical arms inside, all positioned skew to each other, patiently waited to be ordered to life. I was the only person here, for which I was thankful.

Carefully, I stepped up to the touchscreen panel and inspected it. It looked a little complicated, so I took a moment to become familiarized with it. I dug through my pockets to find my thumb drive and inserted it into the USB port. Punching some buttons, I checked to make sure the cartridges were full before I started entering in the instructions.

Print—USB Connection—Files—My Files—monika-dot-chr—

Error: Cannot read file

I expected this would happen. The file isn't really the game's coding for Monika. The ".chr" extension isn't even a real format that programs can recognize. What DDLC players found early on was that if you viewed the files in, say, the notepad application, you could still see what was inside. The character files are filled with Easter eggs to unpack, including scintillating clues to Team Salvato's next game. According to these fan's theory, anyways. The data in Monika's character file actually contains an image of a fiery ring-shape encircling a block of black and white pixels. This block of pixels looks like it could be a QR code, but it isn't! Some fans on reddit tried decoding the pixels by converting them to binary, where black translates to 0, white translates to 1. They found that by translating that binary, you obtain a string of random text characters which looks like gibberish but actually turns out to be a coding technique known as Base64. Sending the text through a Base64 decoder produces a short speech, presumably given by Monika, which gives the best clues the game has to offer about Dan Salvato's upcoming work. I learned all about it from Game Theory's DDLC vid, that YouTube video I was watching earlier.

Long story short, the file you have to delete to get to the final ending in DDLC doesn't really have anything to do with Monika's existence in the game, it's just a gimmick to make the majority of us who don't understand the ins and outs of computer programming believe Monika's self-awareness is actually affecting the game. That said, I developed a theory that with this algorithmic random-pattern-seeking software I wrote, it just might be possible to extract Monika's character information from the game and append it to the file as a virus. I had been working on writing that program for the last month. Then, earlier this afternoon as I speed-ran through the game to get to the part where I deleted Monika, I executed my program. And if it worked... Well, we'll find out if it worked.

I adjusted the parameters on the touchscreen control panel to account for the chr file by zipping it into a pdf. That should allow the 3D printer to access and read the code I planted, which will give it the blueprints to creating Monika's exact self, down to every cell in her body. Down to every strand of her DNA. Even down to the exact position of every neuron in her brain. Monika herself gave me the idea when she said I could "copy her character onto a flash drive or something," that way I "could always keep a part of her with me." All the data was right there in the game the whole time. I hit the same instructions on the touchscreen as I did before.

This time, the machine began to whir to life.

I stood back and watched in awe. The three arms worked together, each manufacturing the bits pertaining to their respective orientations, such that the foundation of Monika's body was being assembled piece by piece in the x, y, and z directions. The process was slow. But within ten or fifteen minutes, a human-like shape was definitely forming.

Come to think of it, it had to be some kind of miracle I was even able to pull this whole thing off. After all, was the 3D printer really assembling her atom by atom? Molecule by molecule? It was sort of working its way from the bottom up, with the human form appearing before me curled up in the fetal position. How would the tissues and organs be brought online by the brain? How would the blood circulate without the first pump of the heart? When would be the definitive moment—the spark of life—when the mass before me stopped being a pile of carbon and water and suddenly turned into a living thing? Assuming, that is, the living thing—no, Monika—survives? I waited, fixated, holding my breath.

More time passed. It didn't happen all at once, but every minute that passed as the meticulous arms worked and worked brought her form greater shape and definition. I couldn't help but be reminded of the book of Genesis. God created Adam from the dust of the earth. I was creating Monika from—not my rib, but carbon dust, I suppose; and from the blueprints that Dan Salvato must have painstakingly written in the game code himself. Maybe, on second thought, I was doing something more akin to the scientists from Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park. Just, with a high-tech 3D printer instead of state of the art gene sequencers. A-and probably a lot less scientifically accurate plot-magic; I dunno, put it that way and maybe it is more like Genesis's plot-magic after all. Maybe a compromise of the two, like Rick and Morty.

Whatever, how much justification does this need? If it worked, it worked. You know that's the only reason why we're here.

It had been probably an hour, and I was getting nervous some random people would come in and ask what I was doing. Fortunately, Monika was beginning to look like she was supposed to—her clothes, that Japanese schoolgirl uniform, were being made now. I took it that meant she was getting very close to being finished. Her back was facing me; she hadn't moved since the process began. I inched closer to the cube, wondering what was going to happen when the arms whirred to a stop.

Finally, the arms pulled away, tucked themselves back into their corners.

Silence.

Nothing had gone wrong yet; still, I was anxious. I crawled up to her seemingly lifeless body. Turned her over on her back, scanned her for signs of movement. She wasn't breathing. I checked her pulse. Nothing.

I looked around frantically, realizing that I was going to have to do something. I sure don't know CPR, but imitating what they do in movies seemed like the only option. I took a deep breath to force myself not to shake, bent down, pressed my lips onto her mouth, and blew.

Okay, my boy scout training was starting to come back a little now. I tilted her head back and leaned down until I could watch her chest, see if it rose and fell. If she exhaled, I would feel her breath on my ear. There was still nothing.

Even more hesitantly than when I did the kissing part, I moved to her chest. My shaking hands were balking at essentially touching her breasts, but I pushed through and started pumping her diaphragm. One, two, three, and then—!

Monika stirred!

I pulled back. Her eyes flew open, and she sputtered and coughed loudly. I immediately helped pull her to a reclining position, listening powerlessly as she struggled for her first breaths of air, of life. Gasping, and drooling, then spitting, she heaved and hacked in my arms, each time relaxing a little more, each time choking a little less. "Breathe," I soothed, cradling her. She finally stopped coughing and was just trying to catch her breath now. "That's it. You're okay now. Everything's okay, now."

For the first time, she started to look at me. I could only guess that she recognized me. "Do you know who I am?" I asked.

Still panting, she slowly nodded. "Yes," she whispered at last, "I know you. I do now, zapdosmaster."

I smiled. "Are you ready to stand up?"

Again, she nodded. From my knees, I offered her my hand. To my surprise, she refused it.

She rolled onto her side and pushed herself up without assistance. I slowly stood, ready at her side, but she insisted on raising herself under her own power. She pushed to her feet, standing slowly, rising to a resting pose with hands on knees, to straightening out her spine, to bringing her shoulders back proudly. Her balance wavered a little bit, but she was standing.

I smiled at her more brightly. All my dreams, our dreams, were about to come true!

Out of nowhere, she slapped me hard across the face.