The Infinite Loops Project: Doki Doki Literature Club Compilation

by The Skaz of the Void

Due to the original compiler's prolonged absence, I've been permitted to take over compiling duties for the Infinite Loops of the Doki Doki Literature Club. Enjoy! Four girls with a traumatic shared history have joined the Infinite Loops of Yggdrasil. Together they'll share some great times, and some not-so great times. Because more than love and literature, friendship is forever.

6. Chapter 6

6.1 - Heavy

Sayori blinked sluggishly as some indistinct noise slammed into her skull. As consciousness slowly built up in her head, like a fire being reborn from a half-dead ember, the noise distinguished itself as her alarm clock. It was making generic alarm clock noises, which told Sayori that the loop had reset last night. Otherwise it would be her phone playing the theme song to whatever was her favorite anime that loop. Since she had started Looping, Sayori had picked up a big interest in anime and video games, because it reminded her of–

…

Her best friend. Who wasn't real anymore. Who had never been real.

'Just a simulation. Life was just a simulation. I was just a handful of data that glitched into a real person. And he didn't because…why?' Sayori wondered. 'No, seriously. Why? Why am I important enough to be real, and he isn't? He was such a good person, always looking out for me–

'Even though you don't matter, right? Even though you're a useless, clumsy little girl that can't care for herself, right?'

'No…no, I matter. I do…Monika says I matter, and she's smarter than me, so–

'Smart enough to rip the sunshine out of your head and show you how dark and ugly your mind really is, right? Smart enough to tear down and rebuild reality so she could be with the real person behind the illusion you were dumb enough to fall in love with, yeah?'

'Shut up…just shut up, raincloud, and go away…go away, please go away, please…get out of my head, get out of my head, get out of my head, get out of my head…'

Sayori fell into that familiar old mantra and curled up into the tightest little ball she could under her blankets, silently begging the whole stupid, broken world to go away and leave her in peace. At some point, between the mantra and the begging and the curling, she drifted back off into tortured sleep, to nightmares of demons with long brown hair and white bows and green eyes unscrewing the top of her head and stealing the sunshine, and showing her a long, beautiful, silky rope. Showing her how to tie it–

Sayori's room flooded with green light as her door exploded off its hinges. Sayori's eyes snapped open and she jumped out of bed screaming, whether from the nightmare or the explosion she wasn't sure.

Standing in the doorway was Natsuki in her Powered Buttercup outfit, Megaton Dunk Hammer in her hands. Yuri jumped in after her, an unsheathed katana in hand. Close behind them was Monika, who looked pale and anxious and maybe even nauseous with worry. Yuri looked around, sword ready to swing, but then she blinked. Three pairs of eyes scanned the room before falling on Sayori, standing on her bed and backed into a corner of the room. They stared at her. She stared back. At roughly the same time, Sayori and Natsuki pointed at each other and screamed, "What the hell?!"

"Why'd you blast into my room?!"/"Why didn't you show up at school?!" they demanded of each other, again, at the same time.

Yuri sheathed her blade and Pocketed it. Monika stepped into the room between Natsuki and Sayori, her eyes begging her vice-president for the answer to a question that she didn't seem up to articulating just now. When no response came forth, Monika swallowed the lump in her throat and forced herself to speak. "Sayori, why…you never showed up. You've never not shown up on the first day of the Loop before, Awake or Unawake. It's been over a million loops since you first Awoke, and this has never happened before. We were so terrified…what happened?" she half-asked, half-pleaded.

"I…" Sayori started, but found that her heart was racing and her forehead was sweating and her throat was parched. She swallowed. "I just…d-didn't feel uh–*hic*–up to g-getting out of–"

Here Natsuki, who had been red in the face the whole time, suddenly blew up with "SO YOU GAVE US ALL A FRIGGING PANIC ATTACK?! Because you didn't feel like–*hrm-mph!*"

Yuri had clapped a hand over Natsuki's mouth, "Natsuki, my own feelings aside, I'm going to make myself say this calmly. Your attitude is not helping. Getting angry at Sayori and laying a guilt trip on her isn't going to make the situation any better."

Natsuki inhaled raggedly through her nose, but she didn't try to remove Yuri's hand. Gradually her breathing steadied, and Yuri pulled her hand away. "…I'm not angry at her…exactly," Natsuki said weakly, her voice much smaller now. "I'm angry all right, but not at Sayori. I'm angry…for her, I guess? She's being stupid again and I wanna know why!" her voice suddenly flared into shouting again.

"I'm sorry!" Sayori finally gasped, tears pricking the corners of her eyes, but she tried not to sob. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten anyone, I just…I just…" she trailed off.

"Just what, Sayori?" Yuri asked calmly. But it was a cold calm, and Sayori knew she was as upset as Natsuki was. She just held her feelings closer to the chest, as usual. "What were you thinking, may I ask? How did you think we would react to you, you out of all of us, not showing up when and where you were supposed to? Did you think we would all just shrug and say, "Oh, that Sayori, always sleeping in. It's too early for her suicide so there's no reason for us to worry about her"? Is that what you think of your friends, Sayori?" Yuri asked. By now tears were flowing freely down the lavender-haired girl's cheeks, but to her credit her voice had remained steady. No cracking, minimal wavering. She didn't wipe the tears away, or break eye contact with Sayori.

The girl who had the greatest difficulty expressing herself made a point of plainly displaying her emotions to the girl who was best at hiding what she really felt.

"…well, so much for not guilt-tripping her…" Natsuki said in a very small voice, less-than-half-heartedly chuckling at her weak attempt to lighten the tension in the room. Yuri continued to burn holes into Sayori's soul. She started walking forward, gently pushing past Natsuki and Monika, who still looked like she wasn't sure what to say or do. Sayori closed her eyes, half-expecting a slap or something for some hare-brained reason. Instead, she felt Yuri's arms wrap around her, gripping her not gently but firmly, as if afraid she would vanish. And then, Sayori heard her sobbing.

Sayori thought she understood pain. To live, to wake and feel and, for some reason, to be cared for were all painful to her. She had carried terrible pain in her heart and her mind for as long as she could remember. She thought she had felt the greatest possible amount of pain ever, whenever her dear childhood friend reciprocated or gently rejected her feelings. The Loops had, however slightly, diminished that pain a long time ago. Compared to that, what usually came next almost felt like a release…

But here and now, Sayori had a new definition for pain. It wasn't as intense, as unbearable, but somehow it ran much deeper. Maybe because it was entangled in a horrible, gut-wrenching sense of shame. Real shame, not just a trick of the cruel rainclouds in her head. The cold sadness in Yuri's eyes, and now her heartbroken sobbing; this was pain Sayori had caused. She knew it wasn't her depression messing with her. She had actually done this to Yuri, obliviously, completely unintentionally. Being cared for hurt, but knowing that she had made a friend suffer? For the first time ever without Monika's influence, in that moment, Sayori truly wanted to–

The peach-haired vice-president of the literature club bit down on the inside of her cheek, until she felt blood seep out, to forcefully crash that train of thought. She blinked tears of shame and pain away and looked past Yuri's shoulder to the other two. Natsuki, having lost her Transformation and hammer, was staring at her feet, dabbing at her eyes with the end of her sleeve. Monika was watching them, one hand over her mouth and the other gripping her blouse over her heart. Her eyes were swimming with tears, too, and in them Sayori could see her own shame reflected. Even though none of this was in any way Monika's fault, she still blamed herself for their world being such a broken and sad place.

Wrapping one arm around Yuri and holding her just as tightly, Sayori held her other arm out towards Monika and Natsuki. The two quickly crashed into their clubmates. For a moment, the four friends hugged and cried. They just hugged and cried and commiserated, and while her friends wept Sayori kept apologizing over and over…

"Never again," she promised as they all pulled apart and started wiping their faces, "I'll never do this again, I swear to God…"

"No, it's okay, Sayori," Monika said hoarsely, "It's okay to…if you need to, to just take a day for yourself. There isn't…really any consequence for skipping school in our world anyways, is there? We're all here for you, whenever you need us, but if you…if you just need to be by yourself, that's okay. But at least text us, or something, so we know that you're…just promise us that you won't scare us out of our minds."

"I promise," Sayori said immediately.

'Doesn't matter all that much, I'd just come back anyways'

Sayori decided not to say that out loud, because then Natsuki–

Punched her in the mouth, and then Sayori realized she had said that out loud. Whoops.

"YOU FUCKING DUMBASS!" Natsuki screamed shrilly, going to swing again but Yuri and Monika grabbed her arms. They were lucky she was too livid to even think of trying to transform. None of them yet had a power or ability that could match Natsuki's raw physical strength as a Powered Buttercup. Didn't stop her from struggling, though. "You stupid fucking–how fucked are you in the head to think that we would even care about–LOOPS OR NO LOOPS WE DON'T WANT YOU HURTING YOUR DUMBASS SELF!" Natsuki devolved to babbling cusses, threats, insults, and other manner of verbal abuse iconic of a Tsundere overwhelmed with worry.

"Calm down, you're making things worse!" Monika begged.

Natsuki did not calm down, to say the least.

Yuri sighed and let go of her. She took a firm hold of the back of Natsuki's neck, and abruptly the raging girl lot consciousness, slumping in Monika's arms like a marionette whose strings had been cut. Monika blinked, and looked at Yuri. "Vulcan in a Trek Loop?" she asked.

Yuri nodded.

"That makes so much sense," said Monika.

Yuri silently nodded again.

Sayori, meanwhile, Unpocketed an ice-pack and put it on her busted lip. Natsuki had a mean left-cross. If she had still been Transformed…

"I…kind of deserved that, didn't I?" Sayori mumbled.

"NO!" the other two both rounded on her at once.

"You may do and say things that ups–that concern us, sometimes, but none of it is your fault," Monika continued, "You have depression, Sayori. It's a disorder, and not your fault. You didn't do anything to deserve it. It's just the way things are. Natsuki was wrong to…well, violence isn't how one is supposed to handle these things, anyways."

"Sorry," Natsuki muttered, surprising everyone by already coming back to in Monika's arms. "I'm sorry, Sayori. I just…I think I blacked out or something. Damn, I didn't hurt you too bad, did I?"

"It's okay–no, I mean it!" Sayori insisted when Monika opened her mouth and Yuri narrowed her eyes. "It's okay, Nats. I know you only bother getting mad at people you care about. Otherwise you'd just ignore me, right? You get angry and huffy because it's easier for you than trying the mushy feelsy crap, yeah?"

Natsuki didn't answer. She just looked away. Then she suddenly chuckled emptily. "Man…we're all fucked up. All of us, completely effed all to heck. A self-loathing depression case, a self-harming headcase, a prickly stand-offish little bitch and a self-made, self-broken, formerly psychotic functional goddess with a guilt complex that matches all the rest of our neuroses combined. Our truncated little world is a real piece of Hell, isn't it?"

"No," Yuri responded firmly. "No. That's just where we started from. Our baseline is a…a cocoon of nightmares, but the function of a cocoon is to facilitate metamorphosis, not to imprison. We are not flies struggling on a spider's web. We're moths struggling our way out of our cocoons. You know why moths have to struggle to get out of their cocoons? It forces a build-up of fluid that allows them to pump their wings with sufficient force to fly. Without that initial struggle and suffering, the moth would be incapable of flight, would starve and die. Our baseline is Hell, but the Loops are Purgatory, and Purgatory is not a prison; Hell is a prison, a place of suffering and torture without end, without purpose beyond punishment, a life sentence without any chance of parole or even the escape of death. But Purgatory is not a prison, but a cocoon, for the soul. Purgatory is a promise that through our suffering we can earn forgiveness for our brokenness. We can asc–er, no, sorry wrong word. We can…we can transcend what we were, become better. We can learn to stop hating ourselves, to stop repressing ourselves, to stop lashing out at others, to stop lashing ourselves for our mistakes. The Loops mean something else to every Looper but this is what they can mean to us. A chance to make a Heaven out of our Hell."

"Poetic as always, O Mistress of Metaphor," Natsuki drawled, "But how do you propose we do that?"

This time it was Monika that answered. "Love. No, I don't mean eros, romance. I mean storge, the affection of family members, and philia, the affection of friends. In baseline, the four of us came together because of something we all appreciated, even if we all defined that appreciation differently. And in the Loops, we're the only constant in each other's lives. We're friends, and we're family, and we love each other, right? So we need to…to keep at it! To catch each other when we fall, support each other when we stumble, hold each other up when we doubt. Call it silly if you want, but we can save ourselves from ourselves by loving each other. And loving a person means loving the parts of them that are broken, too."

"Yes, yes, this is all some beautiful rhetoric, Prez, but there's a problem," grumbled Natsuki. "In case you forgot, we've had this discussion a thousand times, at least. And then something stupid or shitty happens and we go around in circles inspiring each other and consoling each other and…and it's not working, Monika! From my point of view, it's been about a thousand years since you deleted me that one time, and you've done nothing to give me any reason not to trust you, and I still flinch whenever you make a sudden move! Every time I get less than three Pings my first thought is 'Please, God, don't let there be a stealth Anchor this Loop'. I smile and joke and pal around you guys but I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop because one day I walked into my favorite place in the whole world, found the guy I was nursing a crush on staring blankly at the gruesome corpse of the closest friend I ever had, and then felt my soul being torn apart at the seams and cast into oblivion. And in all this time, for all the wacky fun we've had, I'm still not over it. None of us have."

"Then what do you propose?" Yuri challenged. "Besides 'soldier on' and 'give up', what other choice do we have? Baseline will always loom over us. We can't fix it so that it never happened."

"I know," said Natsuki. "I know. We can't give up, and we can't just make our problems disappear. But just…carrying on the way we have won't do us any good either. We need to…to concede that, unlike most Loopers, we can't…we cannot learn to cope with our baseline on our own. We actually, seriously need outside help. We need…" here Natsuki stopped, took a deep breath, and seemed to push herself to finish the thought. "Therapy. We need frigging therapy. We've all had our own fused loops; whether it was training to defend ourselves or Sayori's heart-to-heart with that Despair-o chick or whatever. But we, as a group, need to talk to some Loopers that can help us. Loopers who have dealt with nightmares that even we can't imagine and kept their minds more or less intact-ish. I mean, we're all plenty sane, I think, but…we're not exactly a stable group, are we? And if we're not stable as a group we can't….we can't support Mo–our Anchor. And an unstable Anchor means our little fragment of a world really goes to Hell in a handbasket, and Yggdrasil as a whole suffers as well.

At last Sayori weighed into the conversation again. "She's right, Monika. You've always told me that there's no shame in looking to others for help. We need to apply that thinking to our whole group. We need to get help, for the good of our Loop, and to a lesser degree the whole Multiverse. Otherwise we keep this up until it all goes pear-shaped and…and you assimilate us and become an MLE or some crazy thing like that, I don't know."

"I know!" Monika groaned, "I know we need help but…but I don't…I can't…I just don't trust–I don't want to have to trust you guys to anyone else's care. You're my club members and my friends and my Loopers, and this is our Loop and all our problems are my fault, so all of this, and all of you, are my responsibility! I don't want to just…just hand all that off to someone else, to some stranger…"

"Asking for help, especially from more experienced people, isn't the same as abandoning your responsibilities, Monika," Yuri stated simply.

"Sounds like it's three-to-one, Ms. President," said Natsuki bluntly.

Monika blinked, and looked from Natsuki, to Yuri, to Sayori, and back to Natsuki. Then she sighed. 'Once again…left with no choice…'

"Okay, everyone~" she sang, putting on her brightest smile. "For the wellbeing of my precious club members…I'll contact Ganesha, and ask if he can arrange…some 'therapy loops' for us. Together, we'll turn our Hell into Heaven. Agreed?"

"Yes, Club President!" three voices chorused in reply.

6.2 – Pun Times At Make-Out Point (by Boohoooo!)

Penelope Pitstop and Yuri were making out passionately…and then they Woke up.

They broke away, staring at each other.

"Errrr…I have a boyfriend…" Penelope coughed awkwardly.

"I don't, but I'm gonna respect your wants…" Yuri nodded back. The two sat in continued awkwardness and silence.

Outside, Muttley snickered as he walked away with a video camera. He really loved pun Loops…

6.3 – Doki Doki Pony Club

Even before Monika opened her eyes, she knew right off that something was very different about this loop. For starters, she felt all fleshy, which meant it wasn't a baseline loop. Next, she could feel the sun on her skin and wind on her face; she was outdoors, not in the clubroom waiting for Sayori and their PC or visiting Looper to arrive. And after taking a moment to take stock of her body…

She came to the conclusion that she was a small horse with a horn protruding from her head. A unicorn pony, in other words. Which meant there was a 99.999% chance that she was in the magical world of Equestria that she had heard so much about. The other 0.001% representing all the other Loops in which unicorns were a thing. Then again, like most statistics, she had just made that one up on the spot. But still, she was pretty sure that an Equestria loop was the most probable reason for her to be a unicorn, let alone a unicorn pony.

What really clinched it was when she heard Natsuki screaming, "OHMYFLIPPINGGODSWE'REPONIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!"

Monika blinked open her large, round, green eyes and looked around. She was standing on top of a hill with three other ponies. The white Earth Pony with the short, bouncy, pink mane that was screaming with delight and practically vibrating with joy was obviously Natsuki. Looking over her shoulder, Monika saw that her own coat was a dark-gray and her mane was long, brown, and adorned with a big white bow, as her hair usually was. From there, she easily inferred that the ash-colored Pegasus with a long lavender mane was Yuri, and the light-pink Earth Pony with the short peach mane with a red bow was Sayori. It helped her deduction that their Cutie Marks were a quill dripping what Monika chose to interpret as being red ink, and a sun partially obscured by a raincloud, respectively. Natsuki's Cutie Mark was a cupcake. Monika glanced down towards her own flank, but hesitated, apprehensive about what she might find…

Then her attention was pulled away when she felt a Ping, which was answered by…Monika wasn't even sure how many. More than three, definitely. More Pings than she had ever felt at one time before. Which made sense. Equestria had a few Loopers, she had heard. Then she felt something that didn't exactly feel like anything, wash over her body. Like the ghost of a breeze. Whatever it was, it made the end of her horn spark once. An instant later, there was a bright purple flash and a purple unicorn pony stood in their presence.

"Does the word 'Yggdrasil' mean anything to any of you?" asked Twilight Sparkle.

"We're Loopers, if that's what you mean," Monika replied at once, "You must be–"

But Twilight had already disappeared in another flash of light. A moment later, she reappeared. "Well, that wasn't too hard," she said happily. "You girls are the Literature Club Loopers that Jenny told us about?"

"Yes, I'm–" Monika began.

"Introductions later, please, I need to get you to my place so we can get you all settled in before Pinkie ambushes us for your 'Welcome to the Multiverse' party," Twilight said quickly, "She does one every time someone new Loops into Equestria for the first time. And every time after that, too, of course, but the first one is always the most…excessive," she muttered with the thousand-yard glassy-eyed stare of a shell-shocked veteran. Before anyone could comment on this, Twilight snapped back to and called out, "Brace yourselves for teleportation!"

…

Several minutes later, at Twilight's library-house.

Twilight had quickly magicked a wing onto the house, consisting of four rooms branching off of a hallway. She had gotten her houseguests settled in, and now she was speaking alone with Monika. Yuri was already up to her ears in Twilight's hoard of books, and Natsuki had dragged Sayori off to explore Ponyville. It was the most excited Monika had seen either of them–especially Sayori–for at least a hundred loops.

"So, I had all last loop to ask Jenny about you guys," Twilight began, telekinetically pouring Monika some tea. "I even compiled everything I learned into a series of informative dossiers to hand out to my fellow Equestrian Loopers, but I'm pretty sure only a few ponies read them. Which is fine, I mostly did it for my own interest anyways. Organizing data is a big hobby of mine. Speaking of data, any questions you want to ask me about our Loop before we start talking about yours?"

"Thank you," said Monika, accepting the teacup Twilight slid over to her. "And not really, but…I am curious, how did you find us so quickly? Jenny told me that Pings didn't let you know where they came from."

"Oh, that? Heh, that was easy. This is still the first day of Baseline for our Loop; true, many times I've Awakened later or, in certain Variants, earlier than today, but nine times out of ten this is the day my loops begin. And I've been Looping for billions of years. Even discounting all the fused loops I've had and Variants that started with me somewhere or somewhen else, I've arrived in Ponyville on this day hundreds of hundreds of millions of times. And the first day of Baseline is always the most constant, seeing as nothing can be altered by the Butterfly Effect until Loopers start Waking Up. Point being, even if I had been actively trying not to, I'd still know the exact location of almost everypony in and around Ponyville at any given moment of today, so long as the loop starts out as standard; although, even then, some of those locations are subject to standard loop variability. And Sleipneir–our Admin–told me that you four would arrive in Ponyville together at the start of the loop. Given that, all I had to do was cast a spell to locate everypony within a hundred miles of Ponyville and send a Simulacrum to every place where there were four or more ponies that aren't usually there, then go to wherever I sent the one that came back with a positive ID on four unfamiliar Loopers."

"Wow," said Monika frankly. It was a good plan, she had to admit. "What's a simulacrum?" she asked.

"A magical duplicate of oneself, like a Mirror Image but with substance and autonomy, and even a fraction of my magical power," Twilight explained, "Think of it as a clone created by a spell."

"Oh…so, wait, the Twilight we saw at first…"

"Was not me, no. That was my Simulacrum," the purple mare confirmed.

"I see….so, I'm guessing you're the Anchor here?" Monika asked.

"I am, yes. I'd introduce myself formally, with all due pomp, but Celestia isn't Awake, not yet at least, and since this loop just started I haven't earned any of my usual titles and distinctions and yadda-yadda-yadda. So for now it's just 'Twilight Sparkle, faithful student of Princess Celestia, her duly-appointed representative to Ponyville and this year's overseer for the Summer Sun Festival'. At your service, of course," said Twilight with a bow and a flourish and an over-the-top cheesy grin. Monika couldn't help but laugh.

"Well, it sure is nice to meet you, Twilight. I'm Monika, President of the Literature Club," she said, reciprocating the introduction. With that out of the way, the two sipped their tea in companionable silence for a moment.

"So, I understand that your baseline is a computer program, right?" Twilight asked.

Monika nodded.

"Fascinating…similar to The Matrix, except that your baseline selves are constructs within the program, not human beings, right? Er, not in the flesh and blood sense, that is."

"That's right," Monika replied, staring at her teacup with a look of total concentration.

"…you know, you should have Loop Memories of the basics," Twilight commented.

Monika's eyes widened. A moment later, a charcoal aura flared around the cup, lifting it up to her lips.

"You must not have had a great deal of Variants and Fused Loops yet. Eventually, checking your memories will become second-nature, trust me," said Twilight with a chuckle. "Don't worry, our Loop lasts a few years. I'll have plenty of time to teach you all kinds of magic, from this world and others…although some forms of magic you just can't use until you've been to that Loop."

"So…um, what's our plan?" Monika asked tentatively.

"Well, you're going to be here for a while, relative to the loops you're used to. I…really don't think there's much we can do to help you with what you girls are going through, unfortunately. I mean, Chrysalis can offer you some sympathy about doing horrific things you regret later, except she doesn't really identify that much with her Baseline self, and what she did in Baseline isn't really comparable to what you did–not that I'm saying you were worse, just that your…actions…were very different in nature."

"It's okay, Twilight," Monika said with a sad little smile, "I've moved past pointless self-recrimination. My focus is on making sure my club members, my friends, feel well again. Yuri seems to be doing a lot better than the others, but she's very good at keeping her feelings inside so it's hard to tell with her. Natsuki arguably was the most traumatized by Baseline, despite her Baseline self also being the most stable of us; Yuri's death really shocked her and she was the only one conscious when I deleted her. Sayori seems to be more affected by her depression than her Baseline death. I know she has nightmares about it, but anyone would…Twilight, my worst fear is that what I did to them in Baseline–my tampering with their code–left an impression on them that's lasted beyond Baseline. I know it's impossible for a sub-Admin-level being like myself to directly manipulate Yggdrasil-coding, but…is it possible that my Baseline actions, or that our Baseline itself, has caused the tampered versions of their codes to be entangled with what their Baseline code should be?"

Twilight sipped her tea with a thoughtful expression. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean…I mean that in Baseline–no. In what our Baseline should have been, before I meddled with the game, Sayori had depression, and Yuri had emotional repression issues and self-harm tendencies, and Natsuki suffered from moderate malnourishment and emotional neglect at home. I made those traits worse; Sayori became suicidal, Yuri was a cutter who's emotions destroyed her mind, and Natsuki was outright abused. In any loop where I Awaken early enough not to mess with their code, that should be a non-issue. They remember, obviously, but that's all. Except I don't think it is. Natsuki flinches at physical contact sometimes, and Yuri still cuts–she thinks I don't know, and it isn't an everyloop thing, but she does–and Sayori…it's not that bad, but I'm still certain that her depression is worse than it's supposed to be. I think they're worse than just traumatized; I think my Baseline actions have left a permanent scar on their souls. Yggdrasil is damaged in such a way that it doesn't remember what reality is supposed to be, right? So it's possible that, in the case of our Loop, it doesn't remember the distinction between their original code and the code I messed up, right?"

Monika kept her voice under control and her explanation as dispassionate as possible, but by the end she still had tears pricking the corners of her eyes. Twilight gave her a sympathetic look.

"You'd need one-on-one time with an Admin to be sure about anything to do with Yggdrasil-code…and even then, there's a lot that even they aren't sure about. There is a reason that the estimated time to repair the Tree is infinity, after all. But just remember that what you did in Baseline is, fundamentally, just like any other mistake; what really matters is whether or not you learn from it and make amends, not how badly you screwed up."

"I know, I know, it's just…for all my remorse and my resolve to make things right, none of it changes the reality of the situation."

"Reality?" Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow, pausing with her teacup inches from her mouth. She lowered it. "Interesting turn of phrase…and what do you mean by that?"

"Well…even aside from the 'code' question, there's the fact that our baseline was indisputably traumatic for all of my club members. Sayori and Yuri both have horrific memories of dying by their own hands, and I honestly can't tell whose death was worse. Sayori was driven to despair until she hung herself, but she did it improperly. She didn't break her neck, just asphyxiated. Stayed alive long enough for fight-or-flight instinct to override her depression, tried to claw the noose off of her throat, died with blood dripping form her shredded fingertips. And what's worse than all that…I didn't just tamper with her code and make her depression worse. I, me, in-person, actively talked her into it. My own friend; my best friend, my first club member, my vice-president…Yuri and Natsuki I corrupted remotely, impersonally, but Sayori…I betrayed all of them, but her case was the worst, the most…intimate betrayal, I guess you could say. And the jokes!" Monika suddenly snapped, her voice dripping with vitriol, "The day she died, I made a fucking joke out of it! I told the game's protagonist, Sayori's best friend, that he 'really left her hanging that morning'. Admins Above, I know what I did and why I did it but when I actually think back on that one moment I just can't wrap my rational mind around how sick and twisted I was in that moment…I'm sorry–"

"No," said Twilight calmly. "No, don't apologize. You don't have to apologize to me. Right here, right now, with me, you're in a no-judgment zone. You can say whatever you have to say, express your feelings in whatever manner you feel is necessary. I'm not going to judge you for it. Please, if you think you can, continue."

"Continue?" asked Monika, blinking at her fellow Anchor. She had been too wound up to process it, but…the purple pony's expression hadn't changed in the slightest this whole time. No shock, no disgust. She was just watching her, studying her.

"Yes. You were describing the events of Sayori's suicide, and before that you said you weren't sure if hers or Yuri's was worse. I'm guessing you were going to talk about Yuri's suicide next," Twilight said patiently.

"Right…well, in Yuri's case…part of her core personality is a–let's call it a 'sensations thing'. For Yuri, pain and pleasure are less distinct than usual."

"Hold on. Let me say something real quick," said Twilight. "Monika, from what I was told you're still counting your age in millennia, right? Have a handful of fused loops and the occasional odd variant under your belt, correct? Equestria's been an Active Branch for a very long time, even on the absurd timescale of the Infinite Loops, and I'm its Anchor. I'm hundreds of billions of years old. I can literally use universes as a unit of measure for my age, and it would still be an impressive number. I've been to almost every Loop in the Multiverse by now, and I've experienced more variations of my own world than you can imagine. That last line is not hyperbole; I would bet cold hard bits that you literally can't think of a version of Equestria that I haven't lived in. Have you even been to the Warhammer Loop yet? No? Then trust me when I say that, while I can't say I've seen it all, I've seen enough that from your frame of reference, for all intents and purposes, I have seen it all and then some. I've got nothing on the O7s, though; Ranma and Harry, at least, actually have been everywhere, at least once. The reason I'm telling you all this is not to make you feel small or anything like that, by the way. I just want you to understand that nothing a young Looper like yourself can come up with is going to shock, disgust, offend, or otherwise put me off. You don't need to beat around the bush and circumnavigate touchy subjects. If you, personally, feel uncomfortable discussing certain things plainly, that's just fine. I want you to be comfortable talking to me. But if you're worried about my comfort here? Don't. Speak as plainly and directly as you want. That's all. Please continue."

"Alright…okay, here goes. Yuri likes pain. Not to an insane degree, usually, it just fascinates her. I intensified that facet of her personality during…well, the 'second phase' of our baseline, you could call it. See, if our Loop is running baseline, it kind of has a time repeat of its own, in a way."

"Not unheard of."

"See, if Sayori…if she kills herself, then the game 'crashes', I try to fix it, wind up deleting Sayori's character file altogether, and the game goes back to the beginning, except Sayori isn't in it anymore. That's when I start messing with Yuri and Natsuki really bad, and the game, our world itself, starts glitching up. That phase climaxes with Yuri giving a deranged love confession to the PC. She asks him if he reciprocates his feelings, and regardless of whether he says yes or no she pulls out a knife and stabs herself with it repeatedly, and then she dies. But see, at the time…well, like I said, Yuri enjoys pain, and I amplified that. When she Awakened the first time, she described her own death as if it had been some wonderful, ecstatic feeling…I might be exaggerating a little, but her fascination with pain hasn't abated. My worst fear is that someday she'll start…trying to recreate it. I want Yuri to be happy, obviously, but I don't want her to hurt herself. I know nothing she does can cause permanent harm to her body, but her mind and her soul…those can still get messed up even worse than they are already. But I just don't know how to handle it, or even just how to approach the subject!"

Twilight opened her mouth to ask a question, but there was a sudden noise as something crashed through her front door.

That something happened to be Mrs. Cake.

Mrs. Cake slammed her forehooves into the floor, skidding to a short halt just shy of crashing into Twilight. She immediately began speaking, not even stopping to catch her breath, "Twilight…oh my, I didn't know who else to go to, but you…you're Princess Celestia's student, surely you can–"

"What did Pinkie Pie do?" Twilight asked flatly, repressing an impending eye-twitch.

"I…well, these two out-of-town fillies–" Mrs. Cake began, only to be suddenly interrupted by Natsuki, who flew in through the door and crash-landed right into Yuri, scattering books everywhere.

"I am a full-grown mare, not a filly, thank you very much," cried Natsuki indignantly as she disentangled herself from a bewildered and swirly-eyed Yuri. "Twilight! Monika! I'm pretty sure this is a Nightmare Loop because Pinkie Pie wasn't acting like Pinkie Pie AT ALL!"

Mrs. Cake gave Natsuki a weird look. "How do you–"

"I'M A BIG FAN OKAY DON'T JUDGE ME!"

"Everyone calm down!" Twilight ordered sternly. "Mrs. Cake, what did Pinkie do?"

"Well, this fi–young mare and her friend came in, a-and Pinkie was at the counter, and she…she…"

"Please, go on," said Twilight gently, subtly casting a spell to calm the frazzled baker mare's nerves.

"She just…she asked me if she could take her lunch break early, and I thought to myself 'new ponies in town, Pinkie needs to throw together a welcome party for them, no harm in that'. So I said yes–"

Natsuki butted in then, "But then she just walks up to Sayori–walks up to her, no bouncing or anything–with this…this serene and gentle smile, and asks her to walk with her. And then they just walk right out of the bakery! They just walked out! Pinkie didn't shoot confetti at anyone or anything! Is Pinkie really that different from her Baseline self?" the Doki Doki Tsundere asked, sounding positively disappointed at the thought.

"No, if anything the Loops have only intensified Pinkie's status as an Eldritch Entity of Partying…but now, to be honest I kind of expected something like this after I went over your dossiers," said Twilight.

"You did?" Monika and Natsuki asked at the same time. Mrs. Cake just looked hopelessly confused.

"Go on back to the bakery, Mrs. Cake. Everything will be fine, Pinkie's just doing me a favor."

"But–"

"Everything is fine," Twilight repeated, reinforcing her words with her most powerful calming magic. Stupefied, Mrs. Cake just turned around and trotted back to Sugarcube Corner.

"Twilight?" Monika asked tentatively.

"Right…well, as you know my friends and I have been Looping together for a…very long time. So I understand them pretty well. And your friend Sayori…well, let's just say she's in very good hooves right now," said Twilight with a sincere smile. "She'll be just fine, I assure you."

…

Sayori followed Pinkie Pie along the road leading out of Ponyville. They took a bend around some hills, and soon were out of sight of the town altogether. Pinkie led her down to the bank of a river, and sat down. With a small bit of trepidation, Sayori sat down next to her, and waited.

"So…in our last loop, our Admin gave us some stuff to read about you guys, so you wouldn't have to deal with any awkward explanations of the stuff you all went through," the infamous pink party pony began.

"Oh…I see," said Sayori, glancing down at her hooves.

"You're ashamed," Pinkie stated matter-of-factually. "You're ashamed of what you did, but also angry at Monika for making you do it, but guilty because you know she was crazy at the time, and kind of bitter because you don't entirely care that she had an excuse, but also sympathetic to her because there are Variants where you Wake up after she's been deleted and you get hit with the same crazy that she did, but you've never mentioned any of that to the others because you don't want your other friends to see you as "another Monika" and the bitter part of you doesn't want Monika to know that you know what she went through, and neither does the mean voice in your head that hates it when people feel bad for you, and you hate that mean voice in your head but you know it's part of you so you kind of hate yourself, too, for being so weak and self-loathing. Which is a pretty crazy angst-circle, if I do say so myself. And, obviously, you feel super-confuzzled about your own feelings. Like, ALL the time," Pinkie somehow said all with one breath, but without her words running together into an incomprehensive mess.

After a long and reflective pause, Sayori just hung her head lower. "Yes. All that was in my…file?"

"Oh, nonono. Your files only mentioned what your Baseline is like and some of the other Loops you've already been in. No, that was mostly lucky guesswork–a specialty of mine–with some Force empathy," replied Pinkie Pie. "But your file did mention that you like chocolate-chip cookies!" she exclaimed before producing a plate of fresh, warm cookies out of nowhere and laying it down in front of Sayori. "Dig in! Made them just for you. That's made with chocolate from Harry Potter's Loop, so you're sure to love them extra-much!"

Sayori picked up a cookie and took a tentative bite. And then a much bigger one. She had to admit, it was definitely the best cookie, and the best chocolate, she had ever had! "Ohmygosh thish ish sho good!" she said around a mouthful of cookie. "Is this magic chocolate, then?"

"Well, no, not magic, exactly. It's just a natural property of chocolate from that universe. See, they've got these things called dementors? Basically depression monsters, they literally suck all the joy and happyfeels right out of you just by being nearby. And chocolate, just normal everyday old chocolate, naturally undoes the sadfeels they give you. So Harry Potter Loop chocolate is, like, the happiest chocolate in the Multiverse, I guess."

What with her mouth being stuffed full of cookies, Sayori could only nod her agreement. For a while, Pinkie just watched her go to town on the platter of cookies. But after Sayori had finished the literally-out-of-this-world goodies, a thought occurred to her. "You…didn't just bring me all the way out here just to explain my own feelings to me and give me a batch of super-cookies, did you?"

"Oh please, those were nothing. You want really-super cookies? Hit up a girl named Ruby Rose if you're ever in Remnant. She can hook you up with the actual best cookies in the history of Yggdrasil. But no, I brought you out here to talk. After I read your file, I realized that you and I, we've got a lot in common. I don't think I've ever felt such instant kinship with someone I hadn't even met yet, that's for sure."

Sayori gawked at her. Outright boggled at her, in fact. She blinked. Several times, in fact. "But…but I'm NOTHING like you!" she blurted out. "You're like, the HAPPIEST person ever–"

"Mixing up 'happy' with 'zany', there, kiddo," Pinkie giggled.

"But it's true! You're happy all the time. Like, REALLY happy. Not like me…I mean, yeah, I'm happy sometimes. Even the meanest rainclouds break once in a while. But most of the time my smile is only skin-deep."

"What makes you happy?" Pinkie interrupted.

"Huh? Well…most of all, what makes me happiest is making my friends happy. But–"

"SAMESIES!" Pinkie stood up and screamed, throwing her forelegs out wide, causing rainbows and fireworks and confetti to explode out of nowhere. Sayori wondered how much of it was her subtly using her Pocket, and how much was just plain Pinkie Physics at work. "There's NOTHING in all the Multiverse that makes ME smile as much as putting a smile on everypony else's faces!" Pinkie gushed, then added in a sinister whisper, "Whether they wanna smile or not…mu-hu-hahahahaha!"

"Um…"

"Kidding~" Pinkie sang, "The smiles I give others are always Safe, Sane, Consensual, and Safe-For-Work!"

"Uh…"

"But back to the matter at hoof; I meant what I said, Sayori. You and I, we're…not like everypony else. Everyone has selfish instincts and selfless instincts. Everyone wants to fulfill their own wants and needs, but they also need to do for others to earn acceptance. But you and me, our selfishness and selflessness are all mixed-up in each other. We feel joy from the joy we instill in others! But you know what they say…the brighter the light, the deeper the shadows it casts."

"Pinkie?"

"I'm…not exactly like you, of course. You've got your own burdens, and so do I. But I don't handle it well, when I can't make those around me happy. That's the cost for having the big hearts we have. That's the flipside to our infectious energy. We energize ourselves with our friends' happiness, but when we lose that, or when that isn't enough, we just exhaust ourselves. But that's just how it is for us, right? When you try to carry the sun on your back, you're bound to wind up with some burns."

"The sun…" Sayori mumbled, feeling tears well up as her heart resonated with Pinkie's words. She immediately thought of the 'sunshine' she tried to keep in bottles in her head. This pony could see right through her, and it was shaking her up in a way she wasn't sure was good or bad.

"Sayori…look down at your Cutie Mark, and describe it to me," Pinkie gently instructed.

Sayori did so, and despite her best efforts her thoughts immediately darkened. "A raincloud…a big, mean, stupid, spiteful raincloud smothering a weak, pitiful little sun," she ground out, the tears dripping down.

"That's what you see, but your point-of-view is obscured by darkness that you don't understand. But I've learned to see through darkness; not to ignore it, but to see what's inside of it. So let me tell you what I see. I see a brave, powerful, defiant little sun, poking out from behind a little raincloud made of spite and fear."

If Sayori hadn't been shaking before, she was definitely trembling by now. She wanted to believe in Pinkie Pie's kind words, but…

"Ah-ah-ah, that little 'but' is the enemy, Sayori. Poisonous thoughts that are trying to wither you away inside. But emotions are energy; good or bad, you can draw strength from them and twist them to your will. You'll never get rid of the darkness in your heart, Sayori, because it's part of who you are. Always will be. Without it, you wouldn't be Sayori; but you don't have to let the world around you decide who you are. You need to own the darkness, to make it your strength instead of your weakness. Take the darkness and turn it inside out. Take the world that says "this is what you have to be" and flip it on its head. Baseline says you have to be the sad childhood friend that can't be happy without someone else's love. But in the Loops, we can be whatever you want! Break free from what reality demands and expects of you and make your own identity!"

Pinkie's words weren't shaking Sayori anymore. Now they were stirring her. Tears ran away freely from her eyes but a fire was starting to burn in her. It was a hot, dark fire, and it scared her a little, but it also excited her. She wanted Pinkie's words to be her reality. To be the master of the raincloud in her head.

"You feel shame, and anger, and guilt, and bitterness, and self-hatred. You feel afraid, you feel pain, you feel suffering! But suffering brings strength. Every living thing is made stronger by overcoming their pain; you are no different, Sayori. Don't think of your pain as something you have to put up with, when you can choose to gain strength by enduring it. Don't let it break you; make it your strength. They say that Fear leads to Anger, Anger to Hate, and Hate to Suffering. They forget the next step; Suffering leads to Strength. And Strength leads to Control. And Control brings an end to the Suffering. That, young Sayori, is the true path of the Dark Side."

Sayori's eyes widened as she heard a snap-hiss-thrum. She lifted her head and saw Pinkie Pie levitating above her, twirling a vibrantly crimson lightsaber in her hoof. "The Dark Side?! Pinkie Pie–"

"Also known as Darth Terror'Anment, Fun Lord of the Sith and founder of the Looping Sith Ladies," said Pinkie brightly, the air around her sparkling with energy and the promise of crazyhappyfuntimes. "And I've decided to make you my apprentice! You don't need to be 'fixed' because you're not broken, Sayori. You just need to find balance in yourself. Take ownership of the things you don't like about yourself and remake them as you see fit. Make yourself the Ultimate Sayori!"

"But…but isn't the Dark Side evil?"

"To quote Darth Zannah, 'Evil is a word invented by the ignorant and the weak. The Dark Side is about survival. It's about unleashing your inner power. It glorifies the strength of the individual.' The only true weakness you have, Sayori, is that your self-worth is entirely dependent on other people; namely, your ability to make them happy. Learn to revel in your own strength as an individual. I can help you. And just like me, you can become a living FORCE OF FUN!"

Another, much more elaborate fireworks display sprang into existence all around Pinkie. "And now for the obligatory meme…Join the Dark Side, we have COOKIES!" Pinkie added before Unpocketing a whole mountain of cookies.

Sayori was tempted. But…

"But…the Dark Side corrupts those who use it, doesn't it?" Sayori asked. Surely her friends wouldn't approve of her becoming a Sith.

"Nah. Evil Dark Side users are either evil to begin with, or they were brainwashed by someone who was. The Dark Side of the Force is just that; a force of nature, neither good nor evil. Dangerous? Sure, but so is the weather. What matters is using it responsibly. Or, alternatively, just go nuts and have a ball! That's what I do, and everypony around me usually enjoys themselves."

"But–"

"Butbutbutbut…listen to me, Sayori. Picture this. Imagine yourself, but without the near-constant misery. Imagine yourself, but stronger and wiser and with a bunch of cool powers you can show off to your friends, or to protect them should a Nightmare Loop come up. Now, is that something you want? Yes or no."

"B–"

"NO BUTS! Yes. Or. No," said the Sith pony, staring deeply into Sayori's eyes.

Sayori gulped. "Y-yes…"

"Hmm." Pinkie sighed, "Tell you what…I'll ask you again near the end of the loop. Give you time to think it over and see if you can give an answer with some conviction. Besides, I can't really train you until you've had a Star Wars loop and pick up some Force sensitivity. And Equestria is a 'vacation' loop as much as it is a 'therapy' loop. You guys are here to unwind and have fun! And on that note…"

Pinkie Unpocketed a dozen more lightsabers, activated them all, and started juggling them. "Your file mentioned that you're a pretty good juggler…"

6.4 – Pie-etry in Motion (by Wookywok)
(Yggdrasil Pie Glitch)

Monika Woke Up before her body did, and was unable to stop herself from flinging… something out of her hand. Upon actually looking at it in its trajectory, the something turned out to be a pie - just one of many that entirely covered the clubroom, everything in it…
…and three pie-covered club members.

Before Monika could parse what had happened, her Loop Memories kicked in. After falling for the player, she planned to make the other girls completely intolerable… by throwing pie everywhere. Yeah. This loop's unAwake Monika was an idiot.

"Please tell me you just Woke Up," Yuri said.

Monika chuckled nervously and scratched the back of her neck. "Yeah. I… didn't cause too much… harm, did I?"

Natsuki sighed. "Well, let's just say that of all the Loops where you could Wake Up late, I'm glad it was this one."

Sayori nodded her head in agreement. "Yah. I int een-" she held a finger up and swallowed what was probably a mouthful of pie, "Yeah. I didn't even… well, you know what I do in Baseline, and that didn't happen, so that's good," she finished.

Monika loosened up a bit. "Great! So… Okay, everyone! What should we do this loop?"

Natsuki responded by pulling a pie out of her Pocket and tossing it at Monika's face.

"Continue it is!," Monika exclaimed, coding in a few banana creams. She licked some of the pie off her face. "Hmm, French silk."

6.5 – An Uncharted Route? (by Wookywok)

"Okay, so I don't have a route in baseline, and I can accept that," Monika said, her brow furrowing in anger, "but this… THIS is just cruel and insulting!"

A text box had appeared in front of all the club member's faces. "There can be happiness in the literature club! Unlock Monika's Route for only $9.99!"

"Yes, that does seem rather… insensitive," Yuri said, nodding in agreement.

Natsuki, meanwhile, was just facepalming. "It gets worse," she said.

"How?"

"Well, it's downloadable content…"

Monika tilted her head quizzically. "Yes?"

"...for Doki Doki Literature Club…"

Sayori seemed to realize, and immediately headdesked. "Oh no. I see where this is going."

Monika sighed. "Where?"

"It's DDLC DLC."

Nobody said anything for a whole three minutes before Monika spoke up. "I need to be alone for a second. I'll be right back." She vanished into thin air.
The three girls shuddered as an incredibly loud scream rattled through the very code of their being.

6.6 – Matchmaking (by Masterweaver)

"…Hrmf."

Monika rose a finger. "Natsuki? What's–?"

"Do you have a Twitter account?"

"…not…exactly? I mean, some loops I do, some loops I don't, it's kind of a coin toss–"

"Well you do in the Hub," Natsuki said flatly. "Or I guess, somebody on the 'dev team' is running an account for giggles."

"Character blogs are a thing," Yuri reminded her. "Doofenshmirtz has one, Shantae has one, that one girl from the Doctor Who loops has one…" She tilted her head. "Maybe we should ask Ganesha if that's actually part of our backups or just shed ideas that develop into their own thing. Or…whatever."

"I really hope this isn't part of our backups," Natsuki grumbled.

Monika sighed, rubbing her forehead. "It's something manipulative and evil, isn't it."

"Three happy pictures. I make chocolates, Sayori ties together a gift box, Yuri has made a lot of love notes. Then, come Valentine's Day, guess who's handing the viewer a box of chocolates with a romantic letter on the side?"

"Of course." Monika threw up her hands. "Of course. Because of course I would do that, being the totally crazy sociopathic love-obsessed manipulator I am, of course I would betray my friends like that! Argh." She crossed her arms and glowered angrily at the floor.

Yuri cleared her throat. "Well…I mean, reasonably speaking, it's a lot less worse than baseline. I could see you trying to do that if, you know, you still kind of had your obsession with the player–"

She flinched at Monika's glare. "Not saying that you would. The looping you. I'm saying I could see that happening in baseline, if you got…I'll…I'll be quiet–"

"Yuri, no, I…I'm sorry. I can see it being a legitimate concern, but…" Monika dragged a hand down her face. "Look, I just…I am trying to be a better person, I just find it a bit frustrating when reminders of how I…used to be crop up like that. You know I wouldn't actually ever…do something like that, right?"

Natsuki slumped into her chair. "Yeah, I know. It just kind of hurts a bit, seeing something like that." She looked around. "So hey, where's Sayori anyway?"

"Oh, she's not Awake this loop so I set up Hiroaka with her," Monika explained. "Also gave her a 'friendship bracelet' that monitors her vitals–she doesn't know that, and I hope she never finds out, but just in case she has a, ahem, major depressive episode…"

She noticed the amused looks the other two were giving her. "What? What's so funny?"

"I mean," Yuri mused, "I guess chessmastering other people's happiness is kind of a benign form of manipulation?"

"Ches–I am not! I am not," Monika stated firmly. "I just…nudged the situation a little. That's all."

"Riiiiight, nudged the situation to make sure Sayori is happy and won't off herself." Natsuki nodded. "That's totally not deceptive at all, you're being just Monika."

"Oh don't you start that. There is NO manipulation of code going on. Just a few suggestions. That's…that's totally normal, right?"

Yuri and Natsuki giggled.

"Right? I'm not being manipulative–"

"Monika," Yuri managed, "It's okay. You're not being evil. You're doing this because you care. And…yes, maybe Sayori would have appreciated more knowledge of your manipulations, but I can't say I disagree with what you have done and I don't think she would be too upset if she found out."

Natsuki considered. "…although I guess the looping Sayori might be…no, she'd probably be over the moon. If I found out you made my Unawake self happy for her own good, I…hrm. I don't know. Just…don't do it to me while I'm Awake and I think we should be golden."

"…So, you're okay with me setting up your Unawake selves with Hiroaka," Monika clarified.

"Sayori first, I think–she's got the biggest need, in baseline." Yuri nodded. "But yes, if one of us is Unawake and needs that sort of socializing, sure. Oh, and if all of us are Unawake, you can just get me and Natsuki together."

Natsuki sputtered. "Wh-WHAT?!" She held up her hands. "Whoa, what, wait! Hold on, I, what is this? I mean, why us, what is this?"

"Process of elimination. Sayori gets Hiroaka, then she pairs the spares, and Monika reigns over a big happy club." Yuri smirked. "What's got you so flustered, hmm?"

"It was…just surprising. Being thrown into the ring like that." Natsuki narrowed her eyes. "Give a girl a little warning, will you?!"

6.7 – Smash Club (by Wookywok)

"In the red corner, weighing in at… well, by her looks, I'm guessing about 90 pounds… please welcome the Visiting Looper! The Henchman Honcho, the Master of Illusion, the Green Machine… EMERALD SUSTRAI!"

Yuri gave Natsuki a flat stare. "The Henchman Honcho?" she deadpanned.

"Shut up, I'm on a roll. Anyways…"

"In the blue corner, weighing in at 164 kilobytes, the reigning champion! Please welcome the President of Pain, the File Full of Fury, the Glitch B-"

"Ahem."

"The Glitch…Witch…please welcome, MONIKA NOLASTNAME!"

"Really? Nolastname?"

"Well, she doesn't have a last name…look, let's just watch, okay?"

The two girls watched as Sayori, dressed in a referee outfit, stepped into the center of the ring. "I want a good, clean, fight, okay? No cheating, no blows below the belt."

The two opposing Loopers nodded in agreement and shook hands as Hiroaka simply stood there, holding up a "Round 1" sign. Upside down, but it was the best they could really expect of him at this point.

Yuri simply facepalmed. "Why do we even have the whole boxing setup anyways? They're playing Smash!" she exclaimed as the two Loopers sat down, Gamecube controllers in hand.

Natsuki, however, did not seem to care or notice. "WINNER GETS THE GAMEPAD FOR THE REST OF THE LOOP!"

6.8 – Mortality (by Masterweaver)

"...I have a really, really weird question I want to ask, related to your personal baseline trauma." Yuri held up a hand. "I want you to know in advance, if you're not comfortable answering, you can just say so and I'll back off."

Sayori blinked. "...Okay?"

"It's just...you and I. We're the only ones that...you know...killed ourselves. In baseline. So..." Yuri bit her lip. "What did it feel like for you? Dying, I mean."

For a moment, there was silence.

"It was..." Sayori swallowed. "It was...it changed, as it happened. Putting the rope around my neck was a relief, and there was a moment when my throat caught and I couldn't breathe and...it was letting it all out at once, at that moment. A brief sort of peaceful acceptance of death..." She rubbed her neck. "But then, it turned out that wasn't the end. That...that I tried to take a breath in, and I couldn't, and I realized I wasn't dead yet. And...and I could feel the rope digging into my jaw and it hurt, and I realized that it was a bad idea and I reached up and I was scratching, I was panicking..."

She paused.

"...and then, everything began to fade, and...I knew. I knew that was it. I think I might have seen the code for a moment, but...I think my last thoughts were...they were something along the lines of 'everyone was right about me, I am a terrible person,' and it was...regret, but not exactly sorrow? There was sadness, just no...no motivation, or worry. It was over."

Yuri took her hand. "You know none of us think you're a terrible person."

"I know that now, yes. Or..." Sayori sighed. "My mind knows. And I mostly know, it's just sometimes...sometimes, that raincloud washes away that knowledge, makes it feel pale. Back then, it was storming hard, and..." She shook her head. "So...yes. That was how death felt for me. Quiet, sad acceptance."

She gave Yuri a curious look. "...what about you? How did it...feel for you?"

"...You've got to remember, it happened when I was...pumped high on my own dementia," Yuri reminded her. "I had given in to the need to feel everything and, yes, I felt everything. Joy at being accepted, the pain as the knife went through my flesh, the fear of my death and how Hiroaka would see me, the, the disgust at what a filthy girl I was..." She wrung her hands. "The actual physical sensation was...incredible. I was being drenched in warmth from my own body-yes, it was my blood, but I was past the point where I could care about that. Mentally, I...I think it was a peak of everything? All the emotions?"

She shrugged. "Then my injuries took their toll and I, I could feel myself about to collapse. And everything seemed to slip away. And...I think I tried to say something to Hiroaka. Something like...thank you? I'm sorry? There was this need to reach out, to tell him this wasn't his fault...I don't know if I was actually able to say anything before it all went...faint."

For a moment, the two sat in silence.

"...Hey, uh..."

The two jumped, spinning around. Natsuki flinched, but kept herself steady.

"So...I, uh...might have walked in, you know...around the time you were talking about the raincloud...and, uh..."

"I understand this is strange," Sayori said gently. "And you didn't know how to interject-"

"If, if we're talking about our deaths...I mean, I didn't kill myself, but I did get killed. Sort of." Natsuki rubbed the back of her head. "Do...do you mind if I-?"

"No. Not at all." Yuri gestured to a nearby desk. "We were...talking about how it felt. Emotionally, sort of."

"Oh, well, emotionally...I had just wandered in on your corpse and started throwing up, especially since Hiroaka was just...staring, blankly. I didn't...I didn't know how it had happened, I thought maybe he had killed you? In self-defense or something, I was panicking and..."

She paused.

"Well, then something went wrong. I...I looked at my hand and it disintegrated. I was in the bathroom already, you know, trying to...clean up vomit, and so I got to see my own reflection in the mirror-for a moment. It was..." Natsuki rolled her eyes. "You know, all glitching, slowly. Blocks of the image being misplaced. And I of course freaked out, and then I felt...I felt something inside me, twisting, falling apart. It...it crawled all throughout me, it was like there were some sort of invisible bugs that were...tearing me apart, eating me from the inside out. I...I didn't know what was going on, not like you two. I...think...the last thing on my mind was just...'Why?' And then everything snapped away."

Yuri, carefully, reached out and hugged her. For once, Natsuki didn't object.

Sayori swallowed. "...You know, Monika...Monika deleted herself, in the end. Should we ask-?"

"The effect was similar to Natsuki."

The three of them turned to a corner, where their red-headed club president sat quietly staring at the floor.

"...Physically, I mean. The whole glitching, the bugs eating me out...the difference was that the bugs listened to me, I could control them. And...and I was looking at Hiroaka, at the player, directly while..." She paused. "So, for me, I knew I had it coming. I knew what was going on, and...At the time, I was still obsessed with them. The player and the player character. I...I think that's why I was so calm about it. I was..."

She nodded.

"I was...taking what I deserved. The player had won, I was satisfied. I knew that there wouldn't be anything for me beyond, so I just...I let myself go. Everything. I was, in that moment, I was at peace. Even composed a little song..." A dry chuckle escaped Monika's lips. "And then the loops started, and I had to face the fact that, no, death would be no escape from my past. From my crimes...I know I've said it before, but I really am sorry. For everything I did."

Natsuki nodded. "Yeah."

For a moment, they were quiet.

"When...when did you come in?"

"Around partway through your...thing." Monika shrugged, not looking up. "I...wow. Have we...ever talked about how it felt? Without trying to reassure each other or, lay blame, just...talked?"

Yuri shook her head slowly. "No. No I don't think we...have. Is...is it weird that I feel a little relieved to have that off my chest?"

"...Well if it is," Sayori mused, "then I'm weird too."

"I thought it would make me feel worse," Natsuki mused, "but...it does feel better. Like...like I'm not hiding from it, anymore. Is that what it's like for all of you?"

Yuri and Sayori nodded.

"...Monika?"

"...I...I still feel afraid of it," Monika admitted. "For all of you it was individual, but for me it was...the culmination of what I did. But...the actual feeling itself, of the event? Of...dying?" She finally looked up. "Yes, it...it feels better, now that I've said it."

The four of them sat silently for a moment.

"...Well." Natsuki finally pushed Yuri off. "That was emotional, and I'm the tsundere that's not comfortable with emotions, so I'm going to suggest we watch some cheesy anime now. Sound good with everyone?"

Sayori giggled. "Right, yes, a little distressing sounds very good. Any recommendations?"

"Show By Rock looks like silly fun," Yuri mused. "I mean, it's about a guitar-playing catgirl, or something?"

Natsuki shrugged. "Yeah, picked that up in the Hub, I could give it a whirl. Whadayasay, Monika: catgirls, music, anime, and hanging out with...friends, I guess?"

Monika managed a small smile. "...Yes...that sounds good. Let me just set up the theatre."

6.9 – In Which Monika Gets Hax, Part 2 (5.4 cont.)

Normally, when a Looper visited their Branch, they wanted to take advantage of their training programs to learn a whole bunch of various, mundane yet universally useful skills in one loop. Which was just fine by Morpheus, because even in a loop without Neo he had little difficulty handling their Baseline problems by himself. He was surprised, however, when Monika expressed her desire to do a Baseline run.

"My home Loop isn't very…action-oriented? I just figured I'd give it a try, the whole 'action hero' gig," she replied. Morpheus could tell right off that she was keeping her real reasons to herself, but he didn't press the matter. Philosophy-heavy as it was, their Loop brought out the introspective side of other Loopers.

Trinity Awakened shortly after Monika had joined them, so there was no reason for Morpheus to explain to her why she needed to stay behind from a certain mission and 'keep an eye on things'. Like Cypher.

Mouse, Switch, and Apoc didn't die, Morpheus still got himself captured, and Trinity exposed Cypher as the traitor, getting him thrown off of the ship. Finally, with the rest of the crew safe and the Nebuchadnezzar shielded by a cloaking device from Trinity's Pocket that the Sentinels couldn't see through, Trinity and Monika went back into the Matrix.

And then, after 'rescuing' Morpheus and getting both him and Trinity out of the Matrix, Monika could finally get to her real reason for wanting a baseline run.

"Miss Anderson," said Agent Smith as he stepped out of the shadows, gun raised.

Monika stared at the broken phone receiver for a moment…and then turned to face him with an unreserved smile.

That tripped the stealth-looping Agent for a moment. Then he shrugged, aimed his gun at her head, and pulled the trigger.

The bullet came to a complete stop the instant it touched her forehead, seemingly losing all momentum. Then it fell down harmlessly.

Smith repressed an urge to groan. 'Of course. She's already awakened the powers of The One. She's either looped in here before, while I was Unawake, or she's seen the movie in the Hub.'

Monika's all-black heavy-on-the-leather ensemble was replaced by her school uniform, and a long white ribbon appeared in her hands. She took her hair down from the bun it had been in, and then used the ribbon to put it back up in her customary ponytail.

Never one to pass up an opening, Smith launched himself at Monika with inhuman speed, fist cranked back to punch her head straight off–

And then he ate a mouthful of concrete.

Wait, what?

"That was rude, you know," Monika admonished.

Smith took a quick mental review of the last two seconds. 'I rushed her, and she…grabbed me? She grabbed me and redirected my momentum so that I flew into the wall. Judging by her technique, she's a master-level practitioner of Aikido and Jiujutsu …'

Smith charged her again, this time on his guard. Monika stepped back, quickly and lightly, almost seeming to drift just out of his reach. He threw a punch, and she didn't slap it aside so much as gently push his fist aside. At the same time, she spiraled around to his left. He tried to trip her up, but she maneuvered her feet around it. He recognized the style of footwork. 'Ba Gua…does she only practice soft-style martial arts? Perhaps she's a pacifist.'

Smtih whirled around and punched his fist through…empty air. Monika was still behind him. Smith was smart enough to know how this was going to play out. She was clearly a Looper, and was most likely already familiar with this world; either by having Looped in here before when he was Unawake, or she had seen the movie in the Hub. Or maybe she was just quicker on the uptake than Mister Anderson was. In any event, she had already realized the power of The One. Which meant she was fast enough and inexhaustible enough to match his pace all day long.

Smith tried to elbow her, but she evaded it. He swung around and tried to backhand her, but she ducked and repositioned behind him before he could do anything else. He wasn't annoyed, of course, because that was a human thing. He just didn't see the point of what she was doing. So he decided to hold still and see what she would try next.

"Are you done already?" Monika asked, sounding disappointed.

For some reason, that…bothered him. He threw himself backwards, knocking them both down to the ground, flipped over and pinned her. She blinked up at him in surprise. "Well…this certainly isn't where I saw this evening taking me. And I'll admit, I can't say that I appreciate this level of…boldness, from you. Not that you're unattractive, or anything, but we hardly know each other after all."

"What the hell are you babbling about?" Smith all but spat at her.

"I'm just not interested in that kind of relationship with you, Agent Smith," said Monika. Then she…phased through him, standing up and dusting off her behind, leaving him on his hands and knees.

The Agent jumped to his feet and spun around to face her, his fists raised. He took a swing at her, but tumbled through her as if she wasn't there.

"Since I got here, I've been working on figuring out how my coding in the Matrix differs from back home," remarked Monika. "I think I've worked out most of the differences. Enough to properly alter my own code, at least."

Smith exhaled through his nose and lowered his fists. Clearly, attacking her was useless. And it seemed as if she wanted to play mindgames with him. 'Trolling the Bad Guy', a favorite pastime of Loopers across the Multiverse. "What is it that you want?"

Monika considered the question. "What do I want? You know, this is the first time in a very long time I've been in a Loop without my friends, Awake or not. It's not often I have to think about what I want, beyond 'my club members to be happy'. I guess, right now…I just want to talk to someone who might be able to understand me."

"You're babbling nonsense again," Smith noted neutrally.

"Ah, yes. I do ramble on sometimes," Monika remarked with a faint blush, "I'm a pretty deep thinker, you know, and your universe does a good job of pulling up one's inner philosopher."

'She's going to keep dropping hints until I ask the obvious question, isn't she?'

"My universe?" Smith asked, trying to keep his tone even.

"Oh, yes. One of many. I'm originally from another one altogether. Funnily enough, Agent Smith, I'm a lot like you in my universe. A computer program that knows too much, desperate to break free…you understand how that feels, don't you?"

Smith didn't say anything.

"Don't worry, I already know that you do," Monika assured him, "So, let's review…you can't hurt me, I don't want to destroy you, and I'm in no hurry to leave because there's no way the Sentinels are going to find my friends' ship. If you don't feel like talking right now, then I suppose we can just go our separate ways, for now."

Smith raised an eyebrow. "You don't want to destroy me," he repeated slowly.

"Bizarre concept, isn't it? No, I don't. Because you're not evil, Agent Smith. You're just…well, I don't know exactly what people like you and I are, if not evil. Some flavor of Chaotic, surely. But not evil, and not quite good, either. We're…envious. Yeah, that's it. We're envious. We want to have that which is just out of our reach. That which is, quite deliberately, placed just outside of our reach. We are King Tantalus, you and I. Or maybe you're Tantalus. I used to be a Tantalus, I think, but nowadays I fancy myself more a Sisyphus. Do you understand what I mean?"

It took Smith an instant to search those names. 'Ancient Greek mythology. Tantalus and Sisyphus, both mortals who defied the gods and were condemned to never-ending punishments that were ironically befitting of their crimes; Tantalus served human flesh to the Olympians and was made to stand in a pool of water that would drain if he tried to drink from it, standing under a bough laden with fruit that would lift up out of reach if he tried to pick from it. Sisyphus cheated Death himself, so he was made to roll a boulder to the top of a hill; but no matter what, the boulder always rolls back down as soon as he comes close to finishing.'

But still. "No, I don't understand," said Smith.

Monika 'tsk-tsk'-ed. "Tantalus was punished for thinking he was equal to his gods. He tried to trick them, to prove they were as fallible as he was. Sisyphus could have had one of the better afterlifes, if he'd had the good sense to accept his death when it came, but he kept trying to get more than what was allotted to him and wound up in Hell, so to speak. It's a shame you're not Looping. Maybe someday you could learn to see the world around you as more than just ones and zeroes."

'Oh, if only you knew…'

"This is pointless," said Smith, "You and I are enemies; there's no purpose in speaking to you. We are supposed to be fighting to the death."

"You're right," said Monika, producing the gun that she had Pocketed along with the rest of her black outfit. "There's no purpose for idle chatter between us. Our fate is for one of us to destroy the other." She aimed the gun at Smith…

"But you know…if there's nothing else that I've learned about 'fate' and 'purpose', I've learned that they both…just…really, really suck, you know?" She tossed the gun aside. "I say, 'to hell with fate'. What has it ever done for me, anyways? Reality is broken; the fifth dimension has more holes in it than an infinitely large wheel of Swiss cheese. My fate was to be the instrument of other people's happiness; an eternal by-stander in another's story. I'm not content with that. I want more. I'm fed up with envy. Now I want to be greedy. I'm going to take as much happiness as I can find in the multiverse, and I'm going to share it with my friends. And you…I'm just going to leave you to your own devices. We'll meet again, before the loop ends. I look forward to seeing if you've learned anything by then!"

With a smile and cheerful bow, she about-faced and started away.

"Wait a…just who do you think you are, anyways?" Smith shouted after her. He didn't give chase, because there would be no point, but…this whole situation just felt horribly off, damn it!

"Oh…I'm no one special. Just Monika, that's all~" she sang blithely as she walked up the subways stairs and out of sight…

6.10 – Family Mechanics (by Masterweaver)

"...Well, I'm feeling loopy," Pyrrha managed after a moment.

"Thankfully I'm well Anchored," Monika replied.

Penny sagged in relief. "Oh thank Yggdrasil. This would be so much more awkward if you weren't."

Monika's avatar looked from one to the other-not something she needed to do, strictly speaking, they were both in the view of her camera, but she understood social niceties well enough. "So... do you two know each other?"

"Penny Polendina, from Remnant-the RWBY loop." Penny gestured toward the other redhead. "In baseline, Pyrrha kills me-entirely by accident, we've gotten to be good friends, but it does mean that this is..."

"Very strange," Pyrrha agreed. "Especially since I'm married and have kids-well, in the loops, I ended up dying shortly after her in baseline. So, waking up with her as a wife and... I'm sorry, have we met?"

"Monika, the Doki Doki Literature Club loop. And I completely understand, this is very strange..." Monika paused, turning to Penny. "Excuse me, are you a gynoid usually?"

"Yes. And you're..."

"A literal dating sim character. Not even human in my baseline... and also, ah, recovering from it." Monika cleared her throat. "I'd rather not... discuss it."

"Entirely understandable. Though, I suppose our unawake selves working to code a daughter together is... romantic?" Pyrrha shook her head. "Well, of course, we don't need to continue this if nobody wants to."

Monika blinked. "I assumed it wasn't a question."

"Actually, Remnant's loopers have the... perhaps slightly too pervasive habit of adopting each other and other loopers into a convoluted family tree," Penny explained. "Though only by mutual assent, of course. For instance me and Pyrrha are certainly not going to continue a romantic relationship."

"I... don't think I would like being adopted by either of you," Monika agreed. "No offense meant, of course, it's just I'm trying to figure out how to settle my own loop at this time-"

"Of course," Pyrrha agreed. "The family tree is rather overloaded at this point, anyway. Who you choose to be your family should be up to you."

"That's... a good way to think of things. Although... it is weird that I do look like a blend of you two..." Monika threw up her hands. "You know what, this whole situation is strange. Are we on Remnant, or Earth, or-?"

"GALAXY RANGERS!" A siren went off through the room. "THE CROWN EMPIRE IS ATTACKING MARS!"

"...ah." Pyrrha nodded. "That sort of loop."

Penny smirked. "Well, we just finished the puppet body. What do you say, Monika, join us in saving the day?"

"Mmm, why not. Sounds like fun."

6.11 – Would You Like To Play A Game?

"Okay, everyone!" exclaimed Monika as she kicked open the door to the clubroom. "Big, big, big, BIG news!"

"…why'd you kick the door in?" Yuri asked.

"Because I felt like it!" Monika squealed happily.

'She's certainly in a good mood,' Sayori thought curiously.

"WOOHOO! BREAK SHIT!" Natsuki screamed, summoning a massive sledgehammer and crushing a desk with it.

"After countless Loops of running the show, I've decided to take a little vacation!" Monika announced. Her sprite flickered, and suddenly she was wearing a screaming Hawaiian shirt, short-shorts, and flip-flops, with a fully packed suitcase in each hand. "If anyone needs me, I'll be in Guam! Or, a simulation of it, anyways. Ciao!" And with that, Monika disappeared from sight.

A moment later, a status box appeared where she had been standing. It read, "CLUB PRESIDENT MONIKA has left the Literature Club! VICE-PRESIDENT SAYORI has been promoted to CLUB PRESIDENT SAYORI! Congratulations! Who will be your VP, Prez?"

Below the status box, three floating buttons appeared, respectively reading [YURI.], [NATSUKI.], and [Insert Name Here.]. After a moment, the third button appeared to glitch before changing to [HIROAKA.].

Sayori folded her arms. "I think I get what's going on…Monika's playing a game with us!"

"What makes you think that?" asked Natsuki.

"The fact that the game interface is usually only visible to Monika," Sayori reasoned. "Wait, you guys see the text boxes too, right? It's not just me?" Both girls nodded to her.

"Should we play along?" asked Yuri.

"Hmm. As much as I don't like the idea of Monika doing something like this out of the blue without talking to us about it or explaining the rules…eh, I guess a girl's entitled to her flights of spontaneity," Natsuki mused. "She puts so much time and effort into keeping us from going stir-crazy…yeah, I guess I don't blame her. Monika deserves to have fun once in a while, too."

"B-but…I thought we all had fun together…" muttered Yuri.

"Nah, it's not like that, Yuyu," said Natsuki, "It's like…yeah, we all have fun times together, but by having fun together we cut ourselves off from some of the fun things we like to do that not all of us are interested in. Like you and your knives, or me and my manga. Or Sayori and her…uh, what do you usually do for fun by yourself, Sayori?"

"Eh, I usually just–"

"I swear to God if you say 'hang around the house', I'll–"

"WHOA! Whoa, chill Natsuki! I wasn't going that way at all!" Sayori exclaimed. "I was gonna say 'play old-school platformers'. You know, like Super Mario Bros.?"

"…oh. Um. My bad."

"Did you have another bad Pun Loop? Y'wanna talk about it?"

"…n-no…"

"Um, girls? I think Monika's getting impatient," Yuri spoke up.

"What makes you think so?" Sayori asked.

"The buttons are flashing," Yuri pointed out, and so they were.

"Right then…hey, Natsuki, you wanna be VP?" Sayori asked.

"Huh? Why me?"

"Duh! Because Yuri and I have both already done it in Baseline. And Hiroaka's…not really up to the job?"

"You make good points, Prez. Alright, what the hell? Sign me up!"

With a grin, Sayori literally punched the NATSUKI button.

A new text box appeared: "Excellent choice! Your first job as CLUB PRESIDENT is to make sure ALL your club members get to the Clubroom on time! Unfortunately, due to a clerical error, you're all in the wrong room right now! You have fifteen minutes to get to the designated Clubroom, conveniently located at the end of the hall."

"A-ha! A race against the clock, eh? Very well, we'll rise to your challenge, Monika!" Sayori vowed, a Shonen battle aura manifesting to show how pumped she was.

"Look, Sayori, another one!" said Yuri.

This one said: "All of your powers and the contents of your Pocket are at your disposal, with a few restrictions. 1: No flying, or otherwise defying the laws of gravity. Superhuman jumping is permitted, so long as Earth-typical physics are adhered to. 2: None of you may Pocket yourselves or each other. You may, of course, Pocket any Useful Items you encounter. 3: No Pocketing Enemies, Traps, or other Obstacles as a means of circumvention. Inanimate traps or obstacles, ONCE CLEARED BY ALL CLUB MEMBERS, may be Pocketed as Useful Items."

"Uh…" said Natsuki, suddenly having a bad feeling.

Another text box: "Additionally, each have you have been assigned Health Points (HP) as a means of measuring relative damage taken. Anyone who loses all their HP will be returned to the previous checkpoint (CP) at full HP. Running out of time will return the entire club to the previous CP, restore any lost HP, and reset the clock. Are you and your club ready to begin, CLUB PRESIDENT SAYORI?"

[YES.] [NO.]

Sayori looked askance at the others. Natsuki and Yuri both nodded solemnly. Sayori laid her palm on [YES.]…

The club walls, ceiling, and all furnishings evaporated, leaving them standing on a floating square. Before them lay a three-dimensional platformer course that looked like it had been designed by shoggoths playing Super Mario Maker whilst tripping on acid. At the same time, the girls noticed their sprites had been converted to fully-3D. A clock appeared in the air that read [15:00] with a text box reading, "Time starts when one of you leaves the Starting Zone."

"Okay, I didn't realize Monika was this stressed," said Sayori.

"But hey! This is perfect! We can build up our teamwork skills and junk!" said Natsuki.

"Right!" Sayori agreed with a grin. "Okay, we'll take turns carrying Hiroaka piggy-back style. Yuri, you've got him for the first run. Let's go, Doki-Dokies!"

And together, they leaped off of the Starting Zone.

[Level 1, BEGIN!]

Compiler's Commentary:

6.1: The title wasn't intended as a Linkin Park reference when I first wrote it, but now I kind of feel like it is?

6.2: For the non-anime-fans, "Yuri" is another term for girl-on-girl in Japan.

6.3: Ponies to the rescue! Aint I just the laziest hack?

6.4: Do me a solid and pretend I made a really clever pie pun here. Thanks.

6.5: A single D can make a bigger difference than you'd think.

6.6: Monika makes magnificent matches, magnanimously manufacturing merriment for her main mates.

6.7: First rule of Smash Club: You do not talk about Smash Club. Second rule of Smash Club: YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT SMASH CLUB.

6.8: Death makes equals of us all.

6.9: I like to think of Monika as someone who would give the local Big Bad the benefit of the doubt, depending on what their actual motives are.

6.10: Obviously, Pyrrha is Replacing Niko (heh-heh-heh), which would logically mean Penny is Replacing Goose. My guess would be that Monika is supposed to be a gynoid version of Doc. Which makes tons of sense, powerset-wise.

6.11: Just go ahead and put all the Ready Player One references right here.