5.1 – Ratsuki (by Wookywok)
Natsuki hated this loop for so many reasons. She didn't like living in the streets. She didn't like being forced to scavenge for food. She really didn't like being forced to sleep in a dumpster.
And she really didn't like being a literal pink-furred rat.
"Ratsuki… stupid tree… why's it gotta torture me with its stupid wordplay like this?" the current rodent grumbled to herself. "Why can't the other girls get all the pun loops?" She looked around at her dumpster "home" and sighed. "Whatever. Might as well take a nap." With that, she curled up, settled down, and let herself drift off to sleep.
Several hours later…
Natsuki was jolted awake by a loud clanging. In a panic, she scrambled up the various trash that had accumulated over her nap. When she finally reached the top, she saw the cause of her rude awakening: Sayori, who had apparently been lightly kicking the dumpster for some reason. The rodent peeked her head out from the top and looked at the girl. "Hey, Sayori. You feeling Loopy?" Sayori's eyes turned to meet Natsuki's.
"AH! A COMMON SEWER RAT!" With lightning-fast reflexes, Sayori UnPocketed a spray bottle of disinfectant and began spraying rapid-fire, putting the rat into a coughing fit.. The spraying continued for a good ten seconds before stopping. "Wait… how can you talk… and how do you know my name… and you're a Looper?"
Natsuki had calmed down from her coughing by now. "It's me, Natsuki. The tree hates me and loves terrible puns."
Sayori Pocketed the bottle and brought her hands up to her mouth. "Natsuki? Oh no, I'm so sorry, I didn't know it was you and I thought you were some vermin and-"
"No, no, it's fine, I guess. Next time, just don't do the whole 'squirt first, ask questions later' thing. So, what are you doing out here anyways?"
"Well, actually, I saw you weren't in the club this Loop and nobody was replacing you. I got worried, so I went out to look for you."
If Natsuki wasn't currently hanging on to the lip of the dumpster, she would have put her hands on her hips in indignation. "You didn't need to be worried about me! I'm perfectly capable of being out on my own, thank you very much!"
"I can see that, but the club just isn't the same without you." Sayori held out her hand. "Do you wanna come with me and rejoin with the other girls?"
The rodent pondered for a bit before climbing on. "Yeah, sure. But only because you asked." She wiped at her pink fur, looking at the dirt that had come of onto her paw, and sighed. "But can you wash me off first? It was filthy in there."
"Sure. Just let me text the rest of the club, and then we can get you cleaned up."
"Thanks, I guess. Remember, though- I'm only asking you because I can't do it myself at the moment. And never speak a word of this to anyone! Deal?"
Sayori simply chuckled and shook her head. "Deal." And with that, they walked out of the alley together.
5.2 – Does This Count As A Cold Pun?
Sayori dragged Hiroaka along to the clubroom on the first day of the loop. The sooner they got there, the sooner she and Natsuki could continue working on their double jump-rope routine. It felt like it had been forever since their last loop together, but she had to be Awake now because Sayori had gotten all three Pings back…unless Natsuki was being replaced by another Looper, but then Sayori would either have someone new to make friends with, or a friend she hadn't seen in even longer! So come what may, Sayori was looking forward to it. She opened the door to the clubroom and stopped short in surprise.
The room appeared to have been replaced by an indoor skating rink!
Natsuki was seated on a bench, pointing out at the rink and snickering madly. Monika, surprisingly enough, seemed to be struggling very hard not to faceplant the ice, while even more surprisingly, Yuri was practically flying right along, displaying a level of skill that Sayori would never have expected from the long-haired introvert. Maybe she had picked it up in another Loop?
Sayori went to sit by Natsuki, who was still beside herself with laughter. "Is it really that funny that Monika's…not so great at ice-skating, Nat?"
"N-n-no! It's…it's not M-Monika!" Natsuki gasped out between giggles. She pointed again.
"Eh? Yuri?" Sayori asked quizzically. "But what's so funny about–"
"Because it's Yuri on Ice!" Natsuki shrieked, falling backwards out of her seat as her laughter redoubled.
Sayori looked down at Natsuki with a bit of worry, but she giggled too. "Well, I guess the puns are funnier when they aren't happening to you, huh?"
And Yuri executed a flawless quad Salchow.
5.3 – THEY WERE NOT PREPARED!
A frazzled-looking–to put it mildly–Monika presided over another club meeting. "Okay, everyone…what did we learn from our last loop?" she asked rhetorically.
"The Zombie Apocalypse can happen at any time," Sayori, Yuri, and Natsuki replied in unison.
"And?"
"…and we're woefully unprepared for a zombie apocalypse…"
"Right. Now, Jenny was able to put me in touch with our Admin, Ganesha, and he provided me with these forms." The Anchor/President of the Literature Club Unpocketed a stack of papers and passed them to the others. "The forms provide a comprehensive, yet simplified, list of various forms of effective self-defense from all across the Multiverse for each of you to choose from, as well as an in-depth questionnaire to help pin down an ideal learning experience for each of us. So go over your form and fill it out; that's our only important project for right now. Be sure to keep your forms Pocketed when you're not working on it. Or work on them in your Pockets, if you'd like. Don't rush yourselves; you don't have to turn them in by the end of this loop, but I do want you to fill them out as soon as you reasonably can. When that's done, I'll turn them over to Ganesha and he'll arrange a stretch of 'training loops' for us. Any questions?"
Natsuki and Yuri were busy perusing their forms. Yuri had her trademark "Intense Face" on, while Natsuki looked more subdued but just as serious. Sayori spoke up, "Oh! Can we use a buddy system?"
"…buddy system?" Monika asked.
"Yeah! Where we've always got at least one other person from home with us in each loop. That way we don't get too homesick," Sayori explained.
"Well…I suppose we could have something like that, wherever two of us have overlaps in our training regimen…but it might not be feasible as a full-time thing," Monika replied thoughtfully.
"Hey, Monika; we're basically living in The Matrix, aren't we?" Natsuki asked suddenly.
"Uh…not really? The Matrix is a computer simulation within an outside reality. We're in a computer program, yes, but this program is our reality," Monika explained.
"But there is a reality outside of this one–"
"Someone else's reality. Not ours. We're…a Branch within a Branch? You know, like a set of matryoshka dolls?"
"A what?"
"Nested dolls. You know, those Russian dolls that go inside each other?"
"Like these!" said Sayori, Unpocketing a whole pile of said dolls. All over the table.
Everyone blinked. "Sayori…not that I'm anyone to judge, but…why do you…um…" Yuri didn't seem quite sure how to put it.
"Oh, well, you've got your knives and Nat's got her manga, and Monika likes collecting books about programming and music. So I figured I'd try to find something that I like to collect!" Sayori exclaimed. Then she seemed to consider the dolls pensively. "I don't think nesting dolls are my thing, though. Anybody else want 'em?" she asked.
"Anyways…wait, does anyone else feel like we've forgotten something?" Monika asked the others.
Everyone looked at the ceiling thoughtfully. Just because, Monika switched the background music to "Jeopardy!"
Then Sayori stood up so fast she knocked her chair over. "OHMYGOSH! I forgot to get Hiroaka!" So away she ran.
5.4 – In Which Monika Gets Hax, Part 1
Monika was used to just…waking up at school, usually in the clubroom with Natsuki and Yuri, waiting for Sayori to show up with Hiroaka, or whichever Looper might be replacing him. She wasn't used to being jarred awake by a blaring alarm clock. She didn't even have an alarm clock.
And yet, this time, jarred-awake-by-blaring-alarm-clock she was. Even in her drowsy stupor, she had the presence of mind to realize that she was almost certainly in another Loop. She lifted her head; her Unawake self had fallen asleep at her desk, where there was a computer set up. An old computer. 'Judging by this tech, I'm either in the late Nineteen-Nineties…or Unawake Me was heavy into nostalgia.' Monika decided. She waited for her Loop Memories to trickle in to see which it was. While she waited, she got the distinct feeling that something was off about this world. She initially dismissed it as the qusual off-feeling of being in a world of flesh and matter. But the more she thought about it…
Monika's eyes widened. "No. I'm not in the real world. I'm just in a different program." She looked into the program's code, which was infinitely more complex than the game that she called home, and just like that–
She opened her real eyes for the first time and it was wet and red and she was bald and things were sticking out of her and–
Monika passed out from the shock.
…
Monika passed in and out of consciousness for…she really had no idea how long. She was aware of two things; one, that people were speaking around her, but she could barely hear them and even when she could her brain was too fuzzy to understand what they were saying. Two, her entire body felt like a limp noodle. That someone was using for a pincushion. Which honestly felt more 'itchy' than 'painful', which made her wonder if something was wrong with her nervous system.
Then, one day, she woke up fully. She was lying on a cot in a very small room that felt like part of a metal bunker or something. Her clothes were threadbare and appeared to have been made by hand. Poorly. And her head felt way too light. Not in the 'lightheaded' sense, but literally, physically light. Raising a hand to her head, she quickly realized why. She had to suppress the impulse to cry when she realized that where her beautiful long brown hair usually was there was naught but stubble.
Just then, the door to her room, which looked like it belonged on a submarine or in a vault, opened as a bald black man in similarly low-quality attire entered. He offered her a wry grin and said, "Good morning…"Neo". My name is Morpheus. I imagine that recent events have thrown you for a Loop, yes?"
Still running her hand over her stubble, Monika forced a smile on her face and replied, "Nothing that a well-placed Anchor wouldn't fix…so, is this the real world, then?"
Morpheus nodded. "As real as it gets. Usually. Welcome to The Matrix Branch. I'm the local Anchor. You?"
"Anchor of the Doki Doki Literature Club Branch, and president of said club. My name is Monika….oh! I remember now; we had this one for Movie Night once. I'm Replacing Neo, then?"
Morpheus nodded, his smile growing. "You know, it isn't every day I see someone–especially a Looper as young as you seem to be–break themselves out of The Matrix so quickly. Care to share your secret, Ms. President?"
Monika busted up snickering at that. "M-Monika is fine, sir. Ah, nothing too special. I just come from a Branch that happens to be a video game."
"We get a lot of visiting Loopers from Branches that are video games in the Hub. But they usually can't do what you did on their first visit."
"No, no, my Branch actually is a video game…see, in our home Loop, me and my friends are actual sentient characters in a computer program."
"Ah-ha. I see." Morpheus was silent and pensive for a moment. Then, "Best not to say anything like that around the crew. No one else is Awake, they wouldn't understand."
"Right, right…heh, it's weird. Back home we usually don't have to worry about subtlety. There are only five people in the whole Loop, four of whom are Loopers and the fifth hardly has anything resembling autonomy or sentience. And the game is a dating simulator, so anyone who isn't Awake is too busy paying attention to our "protagonist"–or whoever is Replacing him–to notice whatever we're up to."
Morpheus nodded in understanding. Then he grinned again and clapped Monika on the shoulder. "So, you want to learn Kung-Fu?"
Monika blinked. "Oh…actually, I was more interested in learning Jiu-jitsu and Aikido, if that's alright with you?"
"Absolutely. Aikido, huh? Interesting…well, let's get to it then, 'Neo'–"
"Wait!" exclaimed Monika as they stood up. "Um…not to put too fine a point on it, sir, but…uh…what are the odds that Trinity is still going to be in love with…me?"
Monika was not at all reassured by Morpheus's hearty laughter as they left her room.
5.5 – The 2%
Once again, the Literature Club was seated around a table in their clubroom. However, today, there was something different. Something very, very different.
"You know, according to a book by Twilight Sparkle that I read, this happens in roughly two percent of all loops. Seeing as we've had several hundred loops already, it's actually pretty astonishing–from a strictly statistical perspective, at least–that this hasn't happened to us before," said the club president.
Who's name, this loop, was Domonik.
Yep…one of those loops.
"I know I say this…not all the time, but more often than a normal person, but this time I can't help but feel like the world–or Yggdrasil, I should say–hates my guts," muttered "Satoshi" moodily, his arms folded and sulking in his seat.
"Vhy do you say dat?" asked Yuri, who had kept "his" real name but was inexplicably a stereotypical Russian this loop. And thus towered over his clubmates more than usual, and had a voice deeper than Lake Baikal. "Ve are all boys dis loop, so vhat's making you so extra-miserable?"
"BECAUSE HARUKA'S BUTT IS CUTER THAN MINE!" Satoshi screamed in anguish.
Everyone turned to look at the female version of the club's resident faceless cipher. "Satoshi, um…how to put this…you know that boy butts and girl butts have different metrics of cuteness, right?"
"No, no, not this butt, MY butt! My real butt!" Satoshi whined, practically melting into a puddle of despair.
But even Satoshi's immense despair couldn't match the magnitude of joy radiating from the club's youngest and still-shortest member (even shorter than Haruka…).
"Y'know, between 'Tatsuki' and 'Catsuki' and 'Ratsuki'–although Catsuki wasn't all bad, I'll admit–I didn't think Yggdrasil's ceaseless punning would ever work in my favor…BUT THIS IS AWESOME!" exclaimed "Natsu" as he juggled fireballs of his own making.
'Note to self: recode the clubroom to be fireproof in all future loops where Natsuki is Awake, just in case her pyrokinesis sticks with her,' thought Domonik with a sigh.
5.6 – The Band
"WE ARE THE LIT CLUB!" screamed Sayori, banging her drumsticks together. The girls were assembled on stage in an auditorium, which Monika had carefully constructed after spending the better part of her last Hub loop studying the world's more structurally impressive high school auditoriums. Sayori sat behind a fully-kitted drum set, Natsuki had a bass guitar, Yuri was plucking experimentally at her lead guitar, and Monika was manning a keyboard. And, so as not to leave him out, they had given Hiroaka a tambourine to play with.
"The Lit Club?" asked Monika. "Tad on the nose, don't ya think?"
"Well, we are a literature club, and a band is kind of like a club, and our band is gonna be LIT!" said Sayori.
"Aaaaaand there's the lame pun," Natsuki sighed. "I still vote for 'The Okie Dokies'. I mean, if we're going to use a pun as our name, it may as well be an inside joke."
"Sure that isn't too…cutesy?" asked Yuri wryly.
"Watch it, Edge," Natsuki growled.
"Okie-dokie, Cupcake," Yuri shot back blithely, without missing a beat.
Natsuki narrowed her eyes…and then grinned. "Aw, fine. You win this round, Yuyu. But I'll be back next time! With a vengeance! SWEET SUGAR-COATED VENGEANCE!"
Everyone stared at her for a moment. Except for Hiroaka, who blissfully went on shaking and periodically banging his tambourine. "Sugar-Coated Vengeance might be a nice name for an album. Or a song," commented Sayori.
"I second the motion," said Monika, raising her hand. "All in favor of our first album being named 'Sugar-Coated Vengeance'?"
"Ugh, this was s'posed to be a jam session, not ANOTHER club meeting!" Natsuki bemoaned. "Yggdrasil knows I love our club, but can we please have one group-bonding activity that doesn't turn into a club meeting?"
"It's only voting. Votes cropping up in our first session was inevitable, Nats," said Yuri, "And I, for one, think we should settle on our band's name before we name songs or albums. Also, I think naming a song should come after it's been written, and that an album's name should be decided after a theme has been established for it. Those are just my feelings, though," she added at the end, though not in any way dismissively.
"Well said, Yuri!" Sayori gushed, "I looooooove how confident and expressive you've gotten in the Loops."
Yuri just shrugged. "I'm subjectively over three-thousand years old and…lived through the events of Bloodborne. Flustered stammering just seems…"
"Pointless?" suggested Sayori.
"Superfluous?" ventured Monika.
"Perfectly Yuri-ish," said Natsuki with an impish grin.
*Buh-bum-rattle* went Hiroaka on his tambourine right on cue. Everyone stared at him for a full minute, before collectively shrugging and deciding it was probably just a coincidence. He did that about once every nine and a half minutes, anyhow.
"Okay, everyone; we can table votes and what-not for now…but take note of 'Sugar-Coated Vengeance', everyone. We're definitely doing something with it someloop," said Monika decisively.
"Right-o, Prez-o!" said Sayori, quickly Unpocketing a seemingly random scrap of wrinkled paper and ball-point pen (which seemed to be the sole forms of writing material and utensil, respectively, that she ever bothered to keep in her Pocket).
"Now then…band name suggestions, while we're on the topic?" Monika asked of the group.
"The Lit Club!" Sayori repeated.
"The Okie-Dokies!" Natsuki reiterated.
"Asimov's Disciples!" Yuri put forth enthusiastically.
5.7 – The Best Laid Plans… (by Wookywok)
Yuri Awoke in the clubroom, as usual. Sending off a Ping, she got two in return. "Hey, Sayori? Natsuki? You two feeling Loopy?"
Sayori was the one to answer. "Yeah, we both are. But we both just Woke Up, so it's understandable."
"But wait," Natsuki chimed in, "If you're Awake, and I'm Awake, and Yuri is Awake, then the only one who's not Awake is…" she covered her head with her hands. "Great. Just great. I'll be right back." With that, she disappeared into her Pocket.
Monika's voice came from behind the clubroom door. "No, no, I'm Awake. My head just hurts too much to Ping." She entered the room, clutching her head with one hand. "Sorry."
"What happened?" Sayori asked, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Monika answered, clutching her head tighter. "Long story short: I had a lonely loop, I decided to play our Hub backup for kicks… and it gave me a meta-migraine."
Yuri winced sympathetically. "Ow, that sounds painf-"
She was interrupted by Natsuki zooming around the room wearing a jetpack and wielding her giant hammer. "DIE, SCUM! YOU AREN'T GOING TO DELETE US THIS TIME! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Sayori desperately chased after Natsuki. "Wait! Stop! Monika's Awake!"
"Wait, she is-" Natsuki slammed into a wall. "I'm okay."
Monika was too startled and dumbfounded to focus on her headache. "What even was that?"
"My Emergency Stealth Anchor Preparedness Plan! For when we have a Stealth Anchor! Duh."
Yuri facepalmed and handed Monika a bottle of Aspirin.
5.8 – MLE, Yeah, You Know Me! (by Harry Leferts and Awesomedude17)
(DDLC)/(JJBA)
Natsuki frowned and tilted her head. "Huh... this odd."
Beside her, Monika nodded some before sighing. "Not sure what I expected, but it wasn't this." Tapping her chin with her finger, she chuckled. "But I will admit, he does know his stuff about his literature."
Closing the book he had just been reading, DIO grinned. "You thought that you would be getting a monster, but it was I, DIO! Man of the arts!"
Later that same loop…
Yuri looked over her now irresponsibly large knife collection and counted each one individually.
Yuri nodded and said, "2764 and counting."
It would've been 2765 had Sayori not somehow burnt one of the chef's knives for reasons only the Admins knew.
"Impressive knife collection. It's almost like you've had decades to build such a collection."
Yuri jumped and turned to see a blonde, hunky man with rose like eyes, dressed in yellow as he casually picked one of the knives up.
"A shame these are mostly common utensils that anyone could pick up in a store for cheap." He put the knife down where it once was before taking out an ornate knife himself.
"It's pretty..." Yuri muttered.
"Quite, and its edge is impeccable." The man demonstrated by tossing the knife into a very precise part of a nearby wall, getting at least two inches embedded.
"Whoa."
"I am feeling generous today. How about I teach you my secrets?"
Yuri knew better than to accept any offer from strangers.
But what she just witnessed simply made her not care. She was turned on.
"Y-yes."
The man smiled. "Good. We'll begin at a later date. Here's my address."
Yuri looked at the paper she was given. It was in English, which to her made sense.
Who was that man anyway?
"So you came."
"Yes. I did."
"Good. Come in. I've prepared tea."
"That sounds lovely."
As the two sat down and he poured the tea, Yuri had the sneaking suspicion that she should not even been near him, let alone in his home.
But she really wanted to know how to throw knives like the way he did.
But something felt off about him in all the worst ways.
"Doubting yourself?"
Yuri shook herself out of her thoughts. "No. I'm not in doubt. Just... unsure about this now that I've had time to think."
"Hmm... understandable. Perhaps I should introduce myself to break the tension. I am–"
"DIO!"
The two turned to see Natsuki and a schoolboy.
"Yuri, get away from him!" Natsuki warned.
"Jotaro. You've come at a most inopportune time." There was a pause as his hand flinched. "And are as rude as I remember you."
"Shut up, you bastard." Jotaro replied bitterly.
"Fortunately for you, I am in no mood for conflict, so farewell. THE WORLD!"
"STAR PLATINUM: THE WORLD!"
As just like that two disappeared.
"What?" Yuri muttered.
"Yeah, they stopped time and left. I honestly don't know where they are." Natsuki shrugged before taking out a manga depicting the two men that just left. "Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Turns out that there's eight parts and I'm only up to the fish pole part of Vento Aureo."
"That doesn't make sense."
"It makes sense in context. Let's just get out of here so I can explain."
Yuri nodded. From now on, she would have to trust her gut, lest another person like Dio comes into her life.
5.9 – Get Your Game Face On (by Wookywok)
Yuri, once again, Awoke in the clubroom, and went over the usual beginning-of-loop procedures. Hiroaka? Still faceless, no visiting Looper. Pings? Three. Good, everyone was Awake. Loop Memories? A quick run through told her everything was the same as usual.
So, having nothing better to do, Yuri looked around the room at all her club members.
Sayori was currently sitting on the windowsill messing around with her yo-yo, doing various minor tricks and the like. Natsuki was sitting at the table, engrossed in her latest manga. And Monika was just entering the clubroom—
Yuri froze.
Monika's face was tinted yellow and cracked like old porcelain, and her hair was tinged bright scarlet. All of the defining features normally on her face were completely different, if not stripped away outright. Instead of her typical emerald green eyes, there were a pair of jet-black ones with blood-red pupils, set far too high and far apart on her face to look natural. Her nose was completely gone, and her mouth, trapped in a permanent maniacal grin, looked like it was clipped from a photo and pasted on - highly contrasting with the anime art style Monika's sprite was normally rendered in.
After what felt like an eternity of staring, Yuri was interrupted by Monika speaking. "Yuri? Is there something wrong?"
Yuri took some deep breaths and started to speak. "Mon… Monika, I don't… *gulp* want to alarm you, but…" A few more deep breaths, "I suggest you go to the nearest mirror and take a look at your face. You'll see what I mean."
Though her face was currently a nightmare, the club president still clearly showed a befuddled, worried, look, and slowly Unpocketed a hand mirror. Her already fairly wide eyes widened more, and Monika screamed.
This caught the attention of the other two Loopers, who looked up from their current distractions and screamed in turn.
After everyone had finished screaming, there was a minute or so of tense silence. Natsuki was the one to break it. "MONIKA, WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO YOUR FACE?"
"It's… a Baseline thing. After I… well, you know what happened, sometimes I would do that to the player… but it was normally just like that for a couple of seconds. Not all the time."
Sayori, still visibly shaken, spoke up. "Is there… any way to hide it? No offense, but I really don't want to be staring at that for a whole loop."
"None taken. I don't particularly want to see it either. Any suggestions?"
Sayori raised her hand. "A mask?"
Yuri shook her head. "No, her eyes are too high up for a mask to work. How about a hat and scarf?"
"Nah," Natsuki responded, "that'd be way too hot. How about a paper bag with eyeholes cut in it?"
"That might actually work," replied Monika from the back of the room. "Okay everyone! Let's make a bag mask!"
5.10 – Training Sessions: Buy One, Get One Free (by EastwindOfAzarath)
[Powerpuff Girls Z (x) Doki-Doki Literature Club]
Sayori Awoke shortly before walking right into someone. Said someone had been carrying comical amount of assorted sweets. She immediately started apologizing profusely and quickly got on her knees to help pick of the snacks. The girl she had walked into just chuckled and shook her head.
"Don't worry about it. though i must say, I don't usually bump into anyone this early in the Loop, So i am gonna go ahead and guess that you are a Looper?" the red-head said as she Pocketed her sweets. "My name here is Momoko Akatsutsumi, though I am better known by my American name, Blossom. But please, call me Momoko this Loop"
"The... Powerpuff Girl?" Sayori asked, tilting her head. She received a nod in response. "Well, my name is Sayori. My home branch is known as Doki Doki Literature Club. I'm the Vice President, in fact. Our branch is fairly new all things considered. Also, whats with the two name thing? I thought you were a kindergartner anyway. Why are we both in middle school?"
Momoko held up a finger and smirked. She had been preempted by her Admin that she would be getting a visitor and that she was being asked to train her. "i will explain everything, but first... You want to learn to fight using a Yo-Yo, correct? Well then you are gonna need to follow me."
She then led Sayori to a park that had a little girl playing with a yo-yo and a bench that she sat down at. Sayori managed to notice the odd streak of light heading toward the little girl and quickly her instincts took over and she ran to push her out of the way. The strange light hits her and...
-Cut to Post-transformation.-
"Congratulations, you are the new 'Hyper Blossom'. A Super Heroine for Justice and a member of the PowerPuff Girls Z!" Momoko said as she offered her a piece of chocolate. As Sayori took the chocolate, she saw that Momoko had UnPocketed a yo-yo exactly the same as the one she was holding and was smirking. "It's time to start your training!"
-Some distance away-
"This works out pretty well for me. I don't have to deal with any of that super girly-girl nonsense this Loop. You ready to learn how to properly use that hammer Natsuki?" A brash tomboy with jet black hair said with a skateboard in hand and grinning like a madwoman. Natsuki grinned back.
5.11 - Pugnacious in Pink
(Beauty and the Beast)/(Doki Doki Literature Club)
Belle had been frustrated all through this Loop, because once again it seemed that Adam was Unawake. Also, he was just…off. Acting really out-of-character, to borrow a literary turn of phrase. He seemed a lot huffier than usual, less like a raging animal and more like a…bratty teenager, actually. And he was obsessed with pastries and sweets, and he kept writing poems and showing them to her. They weren't bad poems, per se…they actually had rather profound messages and themes…if you could see past the childish language. They were usually very well-metered, though.
And then, of course, there was the fact that his fur was pink, for some reason. It was decidedly one of the stranger Variants that Belle had experienced. But they both kept to the 'script', as it were, and soon enough it was time for the Beast to become a prince again…
Except he didn't.
She became a princess.
A girl that looked about her age but a head shorter, decked out in the frilliest pink dress Belle had ever seen. Ever, in all of the Loops.
The princess planted one hand firmly on either side of her head and firmly cracked her neck both ways, then raised her arms and stretched, and then started working her shoulders. "Damn…you'd think being all big like that would make me feel stretched out, but for some reason it made me feel hella cramped…ugh, as if 'Buffsuki' wasn't bad enough, now I just bet 'Beastsuki' is gonna become a thing…stupid frigging Tree…"
Belle could only blink. "Wait…you're a Looper! Have you been Awake this whole time?!" she asked.
The pink-haired girl froze. "Um…yes. Yes I have…sorry…"
Belle facepalmed. "Okay…was there a reason you were Stealthing this whole time?"
"Well…I've seen the movie, y'know, from the Hub? And I…figured the curse wouldn't break if you knew I was a…a girl…I'm really sorry, Belle," said the girl, sounding genuinely remorseful.
"Oh…it's fine, I guess. So…who are you, really?" Belle asked.
"I'm Natsuki, the youngest Looper from Doki Doki Literature Club," the girl replied.
"A literature club?" Belle's eyes lit up.
Natsuki chuckled weakly and half-smiled, half-grimaced. "You…wouldn't like it. You really, really wouldn't like it…"
"Ah…one of the uglier baselines, I take it?" Belle asked sympathetically.
"Definitely not kid-friendly, that's for sure," said Natsuki. "Now, as restitution for deceiving you all this time, I'm going to personally bake you the best damned cake you've ever had in your whole looping life!" Natsuki declared. Then, in a flash of green light, a huge mallet appeared in her hand. "Right after I give that Gaston creep a good thrashing."
"Um–"
"Don't worry, he's not dead. I had a huge bowl of pudding placed to cushion his fall," said Natsuki with a grin, before proceeding to jump down where Gaston had fallen.
A newly un-cursed Lumiere hurried outside. "Has the Mis–er, the Master–"
"She is just fine, Lumiere," Belle answered with a knowing smile.
"Ah…heh-heh, so sorry, Mademoiselle. But the Mistress insisted that none of us gave away her, eh, 'secret'," said Lumiere nervously.
"It's fine. She already explained herself. Said she's going to bake a cake, too."
"Oh, tres bien! For a princess, she is a surprisingly gifted baker," said Lumiere cheerfully.
Just then, a screaming Gaston, covered head to toe in chocolate pudding, scrambled up the side of the castle and ran past them. He was shortly followed by a bounding, madly-cackling, hammer-swinging Natsuki. "Get back here, coward! I guess no one runs like a chicken quite like Gaston, huh?!"
Not caring that Lumiere was standing right there, Belle immediately Unpocketed a camera and snapped a picture. Adam just had to see that one.
Compiler's Commentary:
5.1: Could be worse. Could be a Mikasa Glitch with Catsuki, right?
5.2: Y'all have an ice day now, y'hear?
5.3: Cue all of the training montages. All of them!
5.4: Monika would go on to discover that she looks almost as good in black as she does in green.
5.5: Still less disconcerting than the 1%. Hey-ooohhh!
5.6: They eventually decided on "The Basic Glitches".
5.7: …some plans are laid better than others, I guess?
5.8: Fortunately, no steamrollers were harmed. This time…
5.9: Natsuki added bunny ears and whiskers to the bag, naturally.
5.10: I guess it's hammertime, yo-yo!
5.11: You might question the physics of a non-enhanced human being scrambling up out of a ravine and up the side of a castle as quickly as Gaston did, after falling hundreds of feet into a massive blob of chocolate pudding. Those of you questioning this have never been chased by a short girl (who are infinitely more vicious and terrifying than their taller sisters) armed with a large, blunt instrument, with righteous bloodlust flashing in her eyes. Besides, NO ONE CLIMBS LIKE GASTON!