Here's the second chapter!
Prologue
Lawrence exited his room and called through his, peeking through to make sure Monika didn't see him. The phone stops ringing and a female voice spoke through the mic.
"Hello?"
"Uh Alyssa, it's me, Lawrence." Lawrence said a bit quietly.
"Oh hi Lawrence!" She said happily. "What can I do for you?"
"Well, I need you to analyze a certain executable for me, you're an IT person right?"
"Why text form?" Alyssa asked with confusion clear in her voice.
"An IT student, finishing my second year of Computer Engineering!" Alyssa replied proudly. "What specific executable do you want me to study?"
"I'll send the code in text form, it's up to you to transfer it to whatever you use to make programs."
"For some reason, the file doesn't want to be duplicated, so I simply opened it and copied the entire code."
"Okay, whatever you say..." Alyssa paused before asking, "...Do you wanna meet up on this?"
"Sorry, I have arrangements." Lawrence said with a bit of regret in his voice. "I'm sure you have other friends to hang out with."
There was a brief pause after that.
"... Do you hate me? Is it because I've been too clingy?"
"No, it's not that." Lawrence sighed before adding, "Look, we just can't okay?
"Why? We make the most unlikely of friends, so why can't we go further? The fact that we're different shouldn't stop us. I can take back every word I said against you if you want."
"I think the fact that we're different should stop us. On paper, we're incompatible." Lawrence said with utmost seriousness. "We've only bonded through talk of video games and politics, that doesn't make us soulmates."
"But we share the same frustrations, no intelligent people to talk to. No person to share our ideas and insights with. We may both be different religion-wise but deep down, we hold the same sentiments and worldview."
"But at least I'm not a fucking prick about it." Lawrence added caustically.
There was a brief silence, as Lawrence could tell that he had gone a bit too far.
"I'm... just not ready okay? We've been good friends over the years, but I never saw it going in this direction."
"Fine..." Alyssa said dejectedly before chuckling a bit, "You still up for some Civ 5 tonight? All the guys are gonna be online."
"Yeah, I'll bring a friend too." Lawrence said while before posing to hang up. "Just tell me what you find."
"And Lawrence?"
"Yes?"
"I'll still be waiting."
"Don't get your hopes up." Lawrence sighed while hanging up the phone and returning to the room, seeing a displeased Monika, crossing her arms.
"Who was that?" Monika asked with a frown with the in-game texbox.
"A friend, Alyssa Krystens." Lawrence said while placing down his phone. "We met through Total War and began talking a lot. We were always online friends until she decided to break that barrier by asking me out for coffee. We talked up a storm and it sort of became a regular thing."
"You dated?" Monika asked.
"Nothing like that, if you consider an afternoon over coffee a date." Lawrence said while sitting down. "We shared a lot of interests, philosophy, science, literature. It was a blast talking to her, until of course she went ahead and joked about God and Christians which kind of turned me off. She followed up with an apology and we chose to just keep our mouths shut on religion."
"Sounds like you really went far."
"Not really, I never got involved in her personal life and I never planned to either. It was just fun to get to know my online friend, with her being pretty, smart and stuff being just a bonus. I never planned on going for it either since she was way out of my league and therefore had no interest in her."
"Well, didn't you at least try?" Monika asked.
"I mean, life isn't a Visual Novel. Pretty girls don't flock to you because you're lonely, depressed and pathetic, so it's rare to even succeed. But Alyssa is a special case..."
"In what way?" Monika asked.
"Alyssa is the type of person who secretly deeply loathes their lifestyle. She doesn't want to live the life that she has, surrounded by people who just flock to her but cannot seem to entertain her. It's a bit egotistic in that sense. And then she found me, and she liked me because I gave her the satisfaction that no other man could give."
Lawrence saw a smirk on Monika's face as he sighed and added.
"Okay, in a completely clean and non-sexual way." Lawrence added while rolling his eyes, "We were like-minded, but the difference was that I didn't crave an escape from my lifestyle. Alyssa was desperate, a lot like you honestly. She saw me as the only "good" thing in her life and she became almost obsessed to have me for herself. I made it clear to her that if she would keep hurting me just to have me then I would never talk to her again, and well, she learned from her mistakes."
"It's hard to believe that you have a girl like that on your leash..."
"Seems a bit undignifying to say it like that. She's a really sad person deep down and I try my best to keep her afloat without the need for romance, though her requests can get irritating sometimes. What? You jealous or something?"
"It kind of hurts to think that you have a life outside of me."
"Don't worry, I'm working on building your life so you can have a life outside of me. Believe it or not, I've also been working on a little something while you were asleep." Lawrence said while approaching the computer and opening a few directories.
"Really?" Monika asked before she felt the world change around her, seeing herself in front of a huge school that looked rather modern. "Whoah..."
Monika looked in front of herself to see Lawrence's VR body, opening the gate for her and showing her in.
"Yep, welcome to the Sims 4." VR Lawrence welcomed with a smile.
Monika Plays The Sims 4
"Where are we?" Monika wondered as she looked around the virtual world.
"We're at the local high school, and..." Lawrence paused before hearing the bell. "That's the bell, race you to the classroom!"
"Wai–" Monika said before she saw Lawrence speed off as she ran after him. "L-Lawrence! Wait!"
Monika ran after Lawrence, who was a good distance ahead of her. As she kept following him throughout the building, she saw him make a sharp turn to a room as she followed suit, finding herself in a classroom, with the teacher looking at her disapprovingly.
"Monika, I didn't expect you out of all people to be tardy to our class!"
"S-Sorry miss..." Monika instinctively replied as she crept to an empty seat, which was beside Lawrence's seat. "I was caught up by errands."
"Hmph, well I'll be willing to let this slide. You are our top athlete after all!" The teacher said before turning to the board and writing.
Monika then leaned to Lawrence and whispered.
"What is this?"
"This is the Sims 4, a life simulation game where you can insert yourself into your own custom life." Lawrence answered back while kicking back in his seat. "In this scenario, you're the student athlete, class president and member of the Literature Club."
"How'd you get it to be this complex?" Monika asked in awe.
"Mods, lots and lots of mods." Lawrence said with a monotone. "Half of the things you see here wouldn't have been possible without modifying the game files, but I think it's worth experiencing whatever life you want."
"Really? You can just live the life you want in this game?" Monika asked in awe while looking around at the other people. "How advanced are the NPCs?"
"They have a nearly endless set of actions, reactions, desires and others. Not nearly as complex as yours though, as they still live within the confines of their game." Lawrence said before looking behind Monika and smirking. "And I get to witness some rather interesting stuff."
Monika looked behind herself to see a tall, handsome guy approach her. He seemed rather bashful as looking away from her, hesitant to even look at her in the eyes.
"Uh, Monika-san. Are you free later?"
Monika looked back at Lawrence, who shrugged, indicating that he did not care about her response.
"Um, I can spare some time but Lawrence and I have something to do."
Lawrence looked a bit intrigued at it, and so did everyone else in the class who overheard it. Monika looked at Lawrence, confused at all the attention.
"Is there a problem?"
"You just announced that you and I are doing something together. With me of all people." Lawrence said while sighing and leaning back. "In this scenario, I'm just a normal student, nothing special."
"How about the Literature Clu–" Monika said before she was hushed by Lawrence, who seemed panicked.
"We don't talk about that..." Lawrence said while looking at the other students. "Let's just say that the Literature Club isn't exactly what you think."
"Yo Lawrence, still part of that dumb Literature Club?" One classmate teased.
"Screw off, it's no different from the Art Club!" Lawrence shouted back.
"At least the Art Club has something to present for the festival, what do you have?" He asked snidely.
"The guys and I will think of something."
Monika watched Lawrence's classmates giggle as she frowned at Lawrence being picked on.
"Why do you let this happen to you in-game?" Monika asked. "Don't games like this act like an escape from normal life?"
"Having an in-game paradise feels pretentious, I like to keep things as grounded as possible." Lawrence said while slouching on his chair. "This is the right way to do it, though I'm still stumped on how to do the festival."
"Why aren't I part of it?" Monika asked.
"Never really thought of it honestly, apparently you're still part of the Debate Club in this scenario."
"Well, I'll just have to quit and join your club then." Monika said out loud, causing the class to look at her in bewilderment.
"What!? Just like that, she's quitting the Debate Team for that dumb Literature Club!"
"What the hell does she see in him anyway?"
Monika ignored the whispering of the class as she then grew bored of the class in front of her. She then saw Lawrence summon a button in front of him.
"Do you want me to fast forward?"
"Uh sure." Monika said with a nod as Lawrence then pressed the fast-forward, with the whole world going extremely fast before the bell sounded and the fast-forward stopped. Monika then saw Lawrence walk out as she then followed him out. "So what are we doing now?"
"Well, we can prepare for the festival but that really doesn't matter since this is a game and all, so instead, I'll take you sight-seeing around the place."
"Okay, so where to first?" Monika asked enthusiastically.
"The beach, hope you brought your swimming gear!" Lawrence said while running off, with Monika running after him.
"Lawrence, stop running on me!" Monika whined while running after him.
Monika ran after Lawrence as she saw him make a turn at a street corner. She turned to see the beautiful sea in plain view, as she admired the water glisten under the afternoon sun. She then saw Lawrence stop by a shop as she stopped as well. She entered the shop to see Lawrence ordering some items from the counter. Lawrence laughed nervously as he scratched his head.
"I kinda forgot my swimming gear too, so I just decided to buy!"
Monika seemed unamused by this as Lawrence then quickly saluted as he walked out.
"Come on, buy yourself one too, I'll be waiting by the beach." Lawrence said cheerily while running out.
Monika was left to pick as she was stumped on what to buy. All of the swimsuits looked really cute and pretty and Monika couldn't leave Lawrence waiting. She picked one, quickly bought it, then ran out. She went to the harbor and climbed the stairs down to the beach, where she saw Lawrence fishing. She decided to sneak to a nearby changing room and change to her swimsuit. She was excited to see Lawrence's reaction to her swimsuit. She changed and went back out as she called out.
"Lawrence~"
Lawrence looked at Monika and whistled. She had two braids and a pink flower together with a lime-colored two piece. Lawrence smiled and said.
"You look good."
"You think so?"
"Yep, now I'll just be fishing if you don't mind me!" Lawrence said while casting his bait into the water.
Monika was a bit confused, since she was expecting Lawrence to go swimming, especially since he was in his swimsuit already. But her thought is interrupted as she heard Lawrence grunt as he wrestled with the fishing rod. It seemed that he had caught something. Lawrence continuously wrestled with it as he then looked at Monika, begging for help with that look on his face. So Monika smiled as she joined in, grabbing onto the rod and helping him pull the fish to shore. But suddenly, the fish flies out of the water, causing Lawrence and Monika to fall onto the sand. Both sat for a second and contemplated their situation before laughing out loud. Monika's laughter quickly died down as she saw the sun set, its beautiful orange light filling the dusk sky. Lawrence then sat beside her as he admired the sunset.
"It's beautiful... I've never seen it before."
"Well don't hold your breath, that's just the video game sun, wait until you've seen an actual sun." Lawrence chuckled. "I was actually considering another game for you, and it involved real people."
"Really, so why didn't you bring me there instead?"
"Uh..."
Meanwhile, in VR Chat
"Do you know da wae?"
"Da wae of the deval"
"Spit on the fake queen!"
"Hello comrades and bruddas."
"You wouldn't want to know." Lawrence shuddered.
Monika realized how little she saw Lawrence do within the day, as she only saw him fish and talk about the club thing of his.
"Is this... all that you do in this game? Fishing and doing the Literature Club?" Monika asked.
"Er yes..." Lawrence replied bashfully.
"So when do I get to meet the other members?"
"Um, that's likely not going to happen due to the fact that there are no other members."
That shocked Monika, so that meant Lawrence was the only club member then.
"Why?"
"In this game, I created the Literature Club as my personal fantasy. I always just dreamed of being able to just be left alone by the people around me, so I just used this Literature Club just for some privacy."
"But doesn't it get lonely?"
"No. I'm too busy writing to notice. Like you said, we get to live the lives we want in this game, so I live a life where people would just leave me alone."
Monika was left dumbstruck by that notion. She was always so lonely but she didn't think that someone would actually loathe human company. She looked at him, seeing the sullen look on his face as he was contemplating something.
"Lawrence..."
"I think we should stop here." Lawrence said while standing up and immediately changing back to his normal clothes and turning the game off, bringing them back to the Steam library. "But there's one last thing I have to show you."
Monika then followed Lawrence back to the DDLC Portal as she saw that the room changed. There was a sofa with a TV. There was a table filled with snacks and books and other furniture. The room was spruced up compared to last time and that surprised Monika. She saw Lawrence smirk as he then said.
"So I was working on a new room so that you wouldn't have to stay in that bland classroom. Here we have mostly decorations though I can download some books if you want."
"Lawrence... This is..." Monika said in awe before she ran up to him and hugged him. "Waiting fo you won't be so boring anymore!"
"Glad I could help." Lawrence smiled before the sound of a tone came from the outer world. "Oh, gotta go."
"See ya!" Monika said as she happily watched Lawrence warp away before she frowned. "What's going on with you?"
Which One's the Nightmare?
Monika woke up as she anticipated herself to be greeted by Lawrence but she found that she couldn't talk. The in-game textbox wasn't working, hell, she couldn't even move herself. She felt frozen as she watched Lawrence leave, not even paying attention to him. She realized that she was frozen for the whole time as she was forced to watch what was happening. Lawrence was doing his normal tasks, but without Monika. Monika was in agony, not being able to reach him.
But suddenly, Lawrence brought home a girl as they began to have fun and talk. Monika was helpless to watch as they grew closer before Lawrence was finally engaging in romance with the girl. Monika was too frozen to cry as she witnessed their interactions become more intimate until Lawrence finally proposed to her. From there, Monika was a bare witness to Lawrence's family life as he settled down had kids and experienced the joys of life without her. She realized the grim truth that Lawrence didn't need her.
But she woke up, able to awaken from her stasis. She stretched and yawned before smiling, thankful that it was a dream. But she looked again to see someone, hanging from the ceiling. Upon closer inspection, she realized that it was Lawrence. She was in complete shock as she saw blood on the floor and the suicide note that said 'I give up.'
Monika couldn't believe it. Lawrence killed himself. The only one who was giving her care and affection was gone and there was nothing she could do to bring him back.
But she wakes up again, finding Lawrence asleep and leaving his chat and Reddit open. Out of curiosity, Monika looked at his Messenger history to find this message:
Alyssa: Lawrence, do you wanna meet up on what I found?
Lawrence: Sure, but make it quick
Alyssa: At a French restaurant?
Lawrence: Fine, but just this once, for your sake
Monika realized that Lawrence walked a thin line between romance and best friend. If he wanted to, he could have gotten this girl immediately but for some reason, didn't want her. Monika was a bit thankful that Lawrence was hesitant about it. Especially since the girl's profile pic looks so pretty.
Monika then changed to the Reddit post and saw this:
I'm so sad...
Is there a way to end my sadness? Is there a way for me to end it early? I hate being sad all the time. I'm so tempted to end myself.
Monika realized that Lawrence walked a thin line there as well in his sanity. He was border-line suicidal and was depressed. Monika wanted to give him the biggest hugs just to make him feel better. At this point, Lawrence needed it and Monika didn't want to lose him, not when she needed him most. Monika then looked at Lawrence's sleeping body and blew a flying kiss before returning to her rest.
I feel like I could have done more with the Sims 4, if you'd like future chapters on Sims 4, go ahead.
