A/N: ~Here we go again... Heh, I love FFDP. Gotta love dem references. Though, now that I think on it, there haven't been enough references to go about, really. Might wanna work on that... Nah.
VOX Eminor: Thank you! Here it is for you~ :P
Simply Guardian: Thank you! I figured that getting the plot moving was important.
Guest: Thanks! Not sure if you read the previous A/Ns, but I actually made this on a whim, so I'm quite happy that it's gotten to the point it has!
DaMastah101: As previously stated, it is entirely possible that I'll end up with both of them... or draw this out for maximum comedic effect. XD That being said, depression is not an easy thing for anybody to get over and through, so relapsing was an inevitability. I'm just using it to drive things forward at this point. Natsuki will have some form of PTSD over the issues she had, but that won't present issues... yet. As to them getting jobs... Well, there be a small issue with that that will be covered in this chapter.
dawicca: I fully agree with the killing part. Wasn't planning on it.
DarkSpider11: The trigger warning is there for a reason, as well as the rating and the fact alone that it's Doki Doki. That being said, I'm just going with what I figured would be prominent issues that Sayori would have.
Guest: Thank you as well!
laevateinn2002: Well, this review gave me a shock. I could respond to this in two separate ways, but I'm going to take the safer route and say that I'm sorry that you had to go through that time in your life. That being said, however, you probably shouldn't put that story in the reviews of a story that just had a suicide attempt. Talk to a therapist, or something like that, please. Hell, talk to your friends about it. I'm not the guy to talk to on this, man.
Izuru Satan Kamukura: The feels are necessary to drive this forward, since emotional stimuli is what gets me going the most, honestly. I plan for milking the Yuri/Monika competition for all it's worth though. XD
Minedude2907: Thank you! Just be aware that I put out one chapter a week. Lemons... Why is everybody asking about the lemons? There may be some, there may not be.
sextocompite: Thank you for the appreciation! I'll keep going as well as I can~.
Xerox45: Here to deliver!
Person: Maybe, Yes, Yes. I'll get around to introducing them to other games soon enough. :P
By the way, I'd like to thank everyone who has given this a read once again! Thanks to you glorious, glorious people, we've reached a resounding 8500 views and 68 favorites! Y'all are fucking fantastic, I hope you know~
DISCLAIMER: As much as I would absolutely adore to have owned the original fucking masterpiece of a game, I do not. Everything belongs to one Dan Salvato as well as those who are properly accredited in the making of the game. Support the official release, please!
*END OF A/N*
Chapter 8: Let's Get Productive... Or Start To
I woke up gasping and in a cold sweat, having just awoken from a nightmare where Sayori had successfully offed herself, leaving me trembling.
"Just relax, Chris..." I mutter to myself, taking my right arm and wiping the sweat off my forehead. "It's a nightmare, that's all. You saved her, she's still here." I continue, almost making a mantra out of the phrase to calm myself down. After a fair bit of time, I succeeded in doing so, leading my to sigh heavily. I reach for my phone to look at the time.
5:36 A.M...
I groan lightly, before flopping down onto my pillow. "It's too early for this shit." I mutter.
"I agree..." I hear to my side, bringing my attention to Monika, who seems to be sleepily gazing at me, rubbing one of her eyes.
"Shit... Sorry I woke you." I reply quietly. Monika just closes her eyes again.
"Mmh." She replies quietly, before snuggling up to me. I hug her close, allowing a few tears to form and fall to the wayside.
'I'll help you no matter what, Sayori...' I think to myself, finding a strong resolution in the situation. 'Just you wait.' With that final thought, I fall back to sleep, this time being a dreamless void.
Four hours pass, and I wake up slowly, the grogginess of waking up in the dead of night hitting me much like a big rig doing several thousand miles an hour. I, however, digress, and instead haul my ass upright and head into my living room.
Sure enough, Sayori and Natsuki are there, snoozing away, though they're both thrashing about as though they are both experiencing nightmares... though after the events of last night, it wouldn't surprise me if they are.
Before I can do anything else, Sayori wakes up with a yell, immediately reaching for the front of her neck, all but confirming my thoughts. I'm next to her within a moment, giving her a gentle hug, to which she returns as though her very existence depends on it.
"C-Chris?" She mutters, and I nod gently in response to her desperation.
"I'm here, Sayo." I reply with the same gentleness. She responds to this by squeezing me harder. "You're okay." I continue.
"I-I'm sorry!" She exclaims, showing the extreme disparity that she was bearing without help for a time frame that I couldn't truly begin to describe. Was it years? Months? Mere days? Eons worth of time? There was no way to know for sure. All that matters at this point is to help her as best I can.
"Now, now." I return, before pulling away slightly to look her in the eyes, which are extremely bloodshot from her crying as soon as she woke up. "No more of that, okay? It's done and over. We'll get it sorted out for you, okay?" I state calmly, getting a nod from her. "Now, let's see if there's anything I can do for you in terms of finding a job. If not, then I'll get you started on learning, okay?" I say gently, to which she nods slowly. "Now, come on then. You go ahead and get washed up, okay?" I say, pulling her upright and ushering her into the bathroom while subtly checking for more rope on her person, which I do not find, much to my relief.
After a moment of waiting to hear the water start running, which it did, I step away and go to my computer. Having already mourned the loss of the monitor that effectively exploded, I had gone and bought a new one, and started using it to look for job opportunities for the girls.
Some time passes with me scouring the internet for any possible job opportunities, however each one that I've found presents a major issue...
"Fuck me!" I curse, slamming my hand down onto the desk. I then glare heatedly at the screen, the gears in my head slowly turning as I attempt to find a solution.
"Whatever is the matter?" I hear from behind me, before two arms snake around my chest and I feel a familiar weight settle onto my upper back. I sigh, before taking one of my hands and resting it on one of the hands currently placed upon my person.
"None of you four have official paperwork." I state simply, before turning my head to look Monika in the eye.
"Whatever do you mean by that, darling?" Monika asks, and I swear I can see the question marks floating over her head.
"I mean that you guys have no official documentation that tells our government that you actually exist." I state, before turning and glaring at the computer screen. "Social Security Numbers, Birth Certificates, nothing. That severely limits the options that are provided for you guys. Effectively, you four cannot have an officially sanctioned job because you are effectively ghosts." I continue, before sighing heavily once again. "The only way to fix that would be to manage to successfully hack into medical records as well as the official channels required to basically forge the documents needed, and that's something that I myself cannot hope to achieve." I finish solemnly.
"Darling, you know I can-" Monika starts, before I raise one of my hands to stop her.
"No, Monika." I cut her off, much to her pouting. "While I would be willing to trust you in any other aspect, the last thing I need falling on our heads right now is the government showing up by basically tagging this computer and IP address on the slightest of slips." I rant slightly, much to her obvious dejection. "And for all intents and purposes, even though you can manipulate code based on how you worked in the game, There are people who's job is to monitor all that data on a consistent basis. There's next to no chance you could get in there and place the files."
"All right." Monika concedes.
"I do, however, have a few ideas." I continue, leading to her looking at me questionably. "The biggest thing that I can easily think of to do would be to start providing entertainment in the form of live streaming."
"Live streaming? One can make a living off of doing that?" Monika asks, sounding rather surprised. I nod in response.
"As a matter of fact, I actually am aware of several people that make a living off of doing just that." I reply. "The biggest of them that I am personally aware of and a big fan of being a guy by the username Admiral Bahroo. The guy effectively lives off of donations and subscriptions that the people of his channel willingly pay him. Think of it as people buying the DVD for a stand-up comedy or something to that effect, but there's new content every day and you pay by the month. Really cool, but with some drawbacks."
"What are said drawbacks?" Monika asks with a thoughtful look on her face.
"The biggest one is that, while it is something that is rather easy to do, it is still effectively a job." I explain. "That means you need to have good internet to maintain a good quality on the stream, as well as the biggest investment, which is easily the computer, being around one grand to make a computer able to handle it decently. On top of that, you basically need to do it for eight hours a day, or something to that effect." I tick off each point on my finger, with her paying rapt attention. "Even still, you need to get a good community, which results in you needing to start with a good game or something that will garner a lot of attention. That takes time." I continue, before pausing. "The long and short is that it'll take time, but it IS a job. One that, if I had to guess, Natsuki would have the most interest in." I finish.
"Okay, then how about the rest of us?" Monika asks seriously, while I take a moment to think on that point.
"Firstly, I think you could get into being a freelancing programmer online. You would make programs that people could download by paying you for the files." I state, before looking at her. "After all, since you basically have the ability to manipulate coding to your will, I'd say that's pretty easy for you, yeah?" I pause for a moment, seeing her nod, before thinking some more. "I can't really say I'd know for sure what Sayori would be good at, but I'm rather certain that Yuri could turn into the next Stephen King if she put her mind to it." I continue, to which Monika giggles a little at the last part.
"I agree with that, Ahaha~," Monika replies.
And so, the conversation between us continues, to the point in which we became oblivious to the presence of the other three girls, who simply listened to us grind our gears attempting to figure this out.
Another five minutes pass before Natsuki decides to clear her throat while leveling a glare at us, gaining our attention. "As interesting as it is listening to you guys talk about us as though we aren't here..." she starts severely, making me flinch and mutter a quick "Sorry" under her glare, "We're rather hungry." She finishes, before her stomach bellows in protest, much to her own personal ire and everyone else's amusement.
And just like that, the mood lightened a fair bit from the endeavor of dealing with the pervious day. However, the issue of jobs hasn't left my mind. I'm still trying to figure out a good way to get the girls started.
But first... Food.
A/N: I know that this is sort of an awkward spot to leave off, but it'll have to do. 6 A.M., and running on fumes. That being said, though, I hope this installment is workable, and explains why I couldn't get the girls a job to start off with.
'TILL NEXT TIME, MY FRIENDS! *Flies away on the winds of complete exhaustion*
-Sonix
