26.1 – Reputation Alone is Enough, by Awesomedude17
(DDLC)/(Mortal Kombat)
Natsuki took out a DVD and set it on the table.
"Nut Kracker? Are we gonna watch it?" Yuri asked.
"Nope!" Natsuki said cheerfully as she took out a sledgehammer. "We're gonna smash this horrible movie."
"How do you know this is horrible?"
"Ask any Looper. Any one. Chances are, if they've seen it, they've hit Johnny Cage in the groin."
"Who's Johnny Cage?"
"Some Looper from a death tournament place. Really gory. Hate it personally, but you might be fine with it."
Yuri scratched her chin and then nodded before Natsuki handed her a pair of goggles.
"Ready?" Natsuki put on her goggles.
"Yes," Yuri did the same.
Natsuki raised her hammer and then swung it down.
Cage for some reason felt a ping of relief. Said relief was short lived as he found himself facing down D'Vorah again for some reason only he could imagine.
Alright then...Showtime!
26.2 – No Angst Here, by Masterweaver
(DDLC)/(A Hat in Time)
"Hey there, Hatsuki!"
Natsuki groaned melodramatically, though there was a hint of a smile on her face. "One time, one time!"
"Hatsuki!" Sayori giggled. "You never told us about that!"
Yuri quirked a brow. "I take it you've met our visitor before?"
"Yeah... but she was younger then. Like, eight, ten, something."
The top-hat wearing brunette shrugged. "Well, I've been Hat Adult in some variant loops, so it's fine."
"Yeah, I pulled the model off the steam workshop in a hub loop," Monika said. "Oh, heads up Moonchild, we are literally in a game. Not 'our hub backup is a game' but 'we are literally a dating sim'."
The visitor looked at her. "...What?"
"A dating simulator. The four of us are cute girls who the player character-"
"No, no, no, I...okay, I've never heard of a dating simulator before, but you called me Moonchild. My name's Hat Kid, why'd you call me that?"
Monika blinked.
"...twigs and branches, you don't know, do you?"
"...Apparently?" Hat Kid shrugged. "What am I supposed to know about?"
The club president looked around the room. She sat down at a desk sighing heavily. "Maybe I shouldn't tell you...no. No, that wouldn't be fair. You'll probably live through it at some point. Best you be ready."
"Monika," Natsuki growled, "you're being cryptic."
"Sorry! Sorry. So...yeah, I played the game. And I maaaaaay be a bit of a completionist... and a hunter of ARG stuff, because, you know, Project Libitina and all that."
Hat Kid tilted her head. "Project what now?"
"An ARG related to our hub backup," Yuri informed her.
"Oh. What's an ARG?"
"Alternate Reality Game," Sayori explained. "Basically there's stuff in the code of our game that isn't just development leftovers, but placed there for investigators to piece together. Hints of some backstory."
"And there's some stuff for A Hat In Time too," Monika explained. "Hidden messages that you can only see with the camera badge or the Dweller Mask, or both... one of them points us to some online videos that might outline your backstory. The whole thing is written in ciphers with cryptic references, and the developers have stated that it's not exactly canon, but given the damage to Yggdrasil it's possible that it's a remnant of your history that fragmented off your timeline. Or something else entirely. It's tied closely enough to your reality that they relate to each other in the backups, so..."
She shrugged helplessly.
"...Huh." Hat Kid considered her for a moment. "So you called me Moonchild because...what, some shadowy figure from a forgotten past called me that?"
"...Pret-ty much exactly that, yes."
"Well, I prefer Hat Kid," she declared.
"Fair enough," Monika conceded. "Although it's kind of weird to call you 'Hat Kid,' that's more of a title than a name..."
"I mean, sometimes I'm Hattie Kidd, with two d's, but that just feels weird..."
26.3 – Never Say That Again, Sayori; by Awesomedude17
"-partylserylalanylthreonylvalylasparaginylisoleucylhistidylisoleucylarginylserylisoleucine."
Monika, Yuri, and Natsuki stared at Sayori, who finally went out of her daze.
"189,819 letters..." Monika muttered.
"We're not letting you get high again, Sayori. It lost its novelty at minute three." Natsuki said.
"Yeah. That was pretty weird." Sayori said, embarrassed.
"It's a real word!?" Monika shouted.
"What." Yuri muttered.
"It's the chemical name for titin. It's a protein."
"Never say that again Sayori. Not when we got a two syllable word to say the exact same thing."
Sayori nodded. "Sure. So we're in agreement that Gordon Freeman's brownies are alright though?"
No one could disagree.
[Addition by Zum1UDontNo]
"Good morning, Sayori," Monika greeted the next day. "Are you done with your titin phase yet?"
"Three hundred and thirty four thousand, eight hundred and seventeen," Sayori replied.
"Don't know what that means, but I'll take that as a no."
Sayori shrugged in a not-really-apologetic way and walked into the clubroom.
"Hang on," Natsuki said after a moment's pause. "Are you actually not gonna give context here?"
"Huh?" Sayori blinked. "Oh, right! That's how many points you would get in Scrabble if you spelled the whole word out. Three hundred, thirty four thousand, eight hundred and seventeen."
"In Scrabble?"
"Mmm-hmm. I calculated it last night. Fun fact, more than a third of the points come from the letter Y alone. It appears over thirty thousand times. Also, there are zero instances of the letters B, F, J, K, Q, W-"
"Why did you calculate it, though? I think that's the important question here."
Sayori shrugged again. "It's not like there was a reason not to."
Again, nobody could disagree.
26.4 – The Enemy Of All Bots, by Wookywok
Monika glared at her opponent, cold fury in her eyes, as she prepared to strike the final blow. "Should I list your transgressions, one last time?"
Her opponent stood there, saying nothing.
The club president gave a small, humorless smile. "I suppose I might as well. First, you dared to stand against me. Second, you dared to insult me - and by extension, my friends - by insisting we were nothing more than mindless automata. You've brought dishonor to both me and my clan. What do you have to say for yourself?"
Her opponent said nothing.
"You refuse to give any last words. Oh well." Monika's eyes narrowed. "Prepare for execution."
And she did not draw her weapon, for her weapon was the universe itself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*click*
"And don't come back!"
Natsuki facepalmed. "Monika, it's just a captcha. You don't need to stage it as an execution."
"But it's fun!"
26.5 – New Friends!1! !, by Masterweaver
(DDLC)/(Eryi's Action)
"...Nats?" Sayori poked the pinkette carefully. "What's wrong?"
Natsuki continued staring into the distance. "Yuri made a friend."
"Really? That's-that's a good thing, isn't it?"
"Yeah, you'd think that..."
Sayori crossed her arms with a grin. "Whaaaaaat, are you jealous?"
"Wh-No! No, this isn't jealousy, this is me being weirded out!"
"Oh, really?"
"Yes, really! Eryi is-she..." Natuski sighed. "She's a masochist."
There was a moment of quiet.
"...Sorry, what?"
"Masochist. Like, her girlfriend steals her food, lays down hundreds of traps in her path, and it's an expression of love, somehow." Natsuki sighed. "I wish I were making this up, but when I met the girl she was black and blue and bleeding, and grinning like a maniac."
"...well, um... at... least Yuri has a friend who understands her?" Sayori offered.
"Do I encourage this?" Natsuki asked. "I mean, sure, in the loops we've got a lot of healing stuff and death isn't permanent but... Yuri cuts, and I'm... I can accept that. Eryi throws herself headlong into spike traps."
Sayori flinched. "Wow."
"Being fair, she's from a platformer world, so that's not as lethal as it could be, but you know. Still pretty worrying."
"...And her girlfriend's okay with this?"
"She's a sadist. And the loop's Anchor, apparently. I just... I mean, I'm happy Yuri made a friend, but-"
The door slammed open, a green-haired mass of bruises and cuts striding in and slamming a large object on the desk. "I HAVE THE MELON!" The figure absently brushed a small fire off the ragged remains of her dress. "In thirteen minutes! I mean it was a small course so it wasn't that impressive-"
"Eryi, you're dripping blood everywhere," Yuri chastised, stepping in after her. "At least bandage yourself up before you enter a building."
Natsuki gestured toward the pair helplessly.
Sayori shook her head. "...okay yeah, I'm getting Monika."
26.6 – Evoking Sayori's Ire, by Awesomedude17
It was rare that Sayori was truly and unambiguously pissed off. Naturally, this put everyone else on edge.
"What happened Sayori?" Natsuki asked as Sayori clenched her pen.
"Tartarus. Dark Hour. Personae. Fffffucking evokers."
"Pardon?" Yuri blinked.
"Persona 3. Had themes of depression and suicide." Monika explained. "Sayori must have been slap dab in the middle of that story."
Sayori turned to Monika with an absolutely furious smile and nodded.
Monika was glad to not have a bladder at all.
26.7 – Balancing Act
(DDLC)/(Avatar: The Last Airbender)
(15.2 con't)
Monika slowly sat up in her bed and stretched her arms out over her head. A flesh-and-blood loop, she observed. Stretching felt good, she also observed. She slowly ran her fingers through her mess of bed-head and smacked her dry lips as she let her Loop Memories sink in. The more they did, the more her scalp message slowed and her frown deepened, until by the end she was just holding two fistfuls of her hair and scowling into the middle distance. Finally, she just released a long-suffering sigh. She got out of bed, grabbed a pitcher of water off of a bedside table, and drank straight from it. Then, to vent a little of the frustration she was feeling, she chucked it as hard as she could at the furthest wall. She felt a small bit of satisfaction as it smashed into a thousand and some pieces.
Within seconds, worried-looking handmaidens, nearly a dozen strong, were spilling into her lavish bedchambers. Before they could get into fussing and primping and asking her what was wrong, some of them doing so overeagerly and others seeming too timid to dare, Monika waved them away. "I'm fine, I'm fine, everything's fine. Please, leave me. No, leave, I mean it. Yes, I am going to attend myself this morning. Yes, I mean it. Please leave now please and thank you very much, please!" she finally shouted emphatically.
The handmaidens fled like vampires before a cross. Monika sighed again. 'Alright. So…what shall I do now?' she wondered, standing in the middle of the room with her hands on her hips. She Unpocketed her favorite green hairbrush and started running it through her hair while she mentally organized her options. She sent out a Ping, and felt six in return. Her memories held no mention of Sayori, Yuri, or Natsuki, though she recalled two schoolmates from her childhood that she was…close to? One of them, Ty Lee, somewhat reminded her of Sayori, and she had literally left home to join a circus. Huh. The other one, Mai, had all the earmarks of a classic case of emotional repression, as well as a Yuri-esque fondness for knives. She still lived very close by.
Monika Pocketed her brush, Unpocketed her long, white ribbon, and put her long brown hair up in a ponytail. As she stood in front of a full-body mirror and finished tying the ribbon into a bow, she felt her irritability drain away as if by magic. Who she had been before she had Awakened didn't matter anymore. She was herself; she felt like herself, even if the amber eyes replacing her normal green was all kinds of disconcerting, and as long as she acted like herself everything would be fine. Step one, do something about this whole 'War of World Domination' nonsense. Fortunately, her memories provided an encyclopedic knowledge of the rules and traditions of the nation she lived in, and according to that knowledge there was a very simple way for her to use her current position to start putting everything right.
Raising one hand, she filled her palm with bright blue flames. She smiled coldly. "This…is going to be cathartic," she whispered to herself.
…
Later that evening:
Fire Lord Ozai and his generals all looked up as the doors to the throne room were thrown open. Monika strode in, full power-walking. Without waiting for anyone else to remark on her sudden entrance she thrust a damning finger in Ozai's direction. "You. Me. Agni Kai for the throne. Tomorrow at noon," she declared in a carrying voice.
"Daughter," said Ozai as he stood up, his voice shaking with barely contained outrage, "What is the meaning of this?"
Monika reached into her robe and pulled out a thick scroll. She held it up and said, "This is a summary of the crimes against humanity you, and your father, and your grandfather have committed over the course of the last hundred years. You have proven yourself unworthy of ruling this nation. I have no intention of standing idly by a day longer and allowing you to propagate further suffering and misfortune across the world. Tomorrow, I'm going to end your reign of terror. I'm going to end this insane war, and I'm going to begin the long overdue process of repairing the damage it has inflicted on the world."
"What nonsense is this?" Ozai thundered, "You sound as insipid and weak-minded as my brother. As your sniveling brother!"
Monika smirked in the face of his indignation, "I was half-hoping you would say that. If you truly think my way of thinking is weak, then prove it. Fight me. If you think might makes right, then an Agni Kai is the only logical resolution to this."
"…very well," Ozai growled, "Your sudden 'change of heart' shall be punished accordingly, tomorrow."
…
"So who are you, anyways?" a low, somewhat raspy voice asked from somewhere behind her. A kinetic barrier immediately flared around Monika's body.
"Someone who's seen her share of pointless suffering, and can't help but try her best to stop it wherever she sees it. And if I'm remembering right, you're Mai, right?" Monika replied.
"Yeah," replied Mai as she stepped out from behind a pillar. Monika continued walking, and Mai followed her. "So, where are you from?"
"A literature club," Monika replied shortly.
"A literature club?"
"Yeah. A literature club. The club members are great, but the place itself…let's just say I'm always happy to get away from it. As annoyed as I was when I Woke Up in this place, this is still a big step-up from home. In fact, I'm kind of excited."
"Excited?" asked Mai, eyeing her critically.
"Oh, yes. I love troubleshooting problematic societies," said Monika, though she kept a neutral expression. "I've already drawn up a very rough outline of how best to strip down the Fire Nation's industrial-military complex and convert the country to a constitutional democracy once I've assumed the throne."
"Uh-huh…that's assuming you beat Ozai tomorrow," said Mai, "No one's going to accept your victory as valid if you use Out-of-Loop powers, and Ozai is a powerful firebender. Azula, the person you've Replaced, may be a much more talented firebender than her father, but he's no push-over."
Monika waved dismissively with her hand, "If I happen to lose tomorrow's Agni Kai, I'll overthrow Ozai some other way. It's a matter of when, not if."
"You're not lacking for confidence," Mai observed drily.
"Confidence is a suit that I wear when I have something important to do," Monika said candidly. "So who else is Looping in this world? Am I replacing the Anchor?"
Mai snorted. "Spirits, no. Azula's Looping, alright, but she's a far cry from Anchor-material in our Baseline. She's gotten better, though, I'll admit."
"Daddy's little girl, I take it?" Monika asked.
Mai nodded. "In Baseline. These days, not so much, thankfully. Her brother, my boyfriend Zuko, is Looping, and their Uncle Iroh, and my friend Ty Lee. She's Azula's girlfriend, too. The Avatar, Aang, is Looping, his wife Katara is Looping, her brother Sokka is one of our Anchors, their friend Toph is Looping. We've got another Anchor and another batch of Loopers seventy years down the line."
"Were you Awake this morning? Do you know if anyone else from your crowd is Awake? I've got three friends from home and I want to know what the odds are that they're all here."
"I was, and so are Sokka and Toph, but no one else that I know of," Mai replied.
"That'd leave just enough Pings for my friends, then, so I'll assume they're around here somewhere until it's proven otherwise. Surprised none of them Replaced you or Ty Lee, though," said Monika.
…
The next day:
Having set up an array of recording stealth-drones, Mai sat in the front row with a bag of Fire Flakes. In the ceremonial Agni Kai arena, Monika and Ozai were kneeling with their backs to each other. Both of them wore loose-fitting pants and open vests; aside from that, Ozai was bare-chested and Monika wore a sarashi. Her hair was tucked into a neat bun at the back of her neck, with her white ribbon tied around her forehead. The two of them stood up and turned to face each other, shrugging of the vests.
Ozai adopted a traditional firebending stance, while Monika simply stood in a neutral posture. In a loud, carrying voice, she seemingly addressed Ozai, though in reality her target audience was…well, their audience. "Fire Lord Ozai! When future generations look back to these troubled times and reflect on my reign as Fire Lord, I want them to remember me as a ruler who lived by a creed of mercy and justice. I want to be remembered as a just and merciful ruler even from the beginning of my reign. Thus, I will offer you one chance to do the honorable thing and yield to the irresistible current of your destiny. Stand down, abdicate the throne to me, and allow me to lead our people, and with them the rest of the world, into a tomorrow of true prosperity and enlightenment. Not the farce of cultural oppression we've been enacting for generations."
Ozai sneered back, "The only farce I can see before me is the spineless nonsense falling out of your mouth like so much run-off into a cesspit."
'Damn, solid comeback,' thought Mai.
"Let history remember that I offered you mercy, Father," Monika replied, still projecting her words to the audience while ostensibly speaking to Ozai. She widened her stance, just a bit, and tucked her left arm behind her back while raising her right hand. Then she cracked a small smirk and flexed her fingers twice. 'Come at me', she signaled.
Ozai scoffed before launching a volley of fire at her. Monika calmly side-stepped left, then right, dodging the fireballs. At the same time, she advanced closer to him. The closer she got, the flashier and more energetic her dodging became to match the pace and ferocity of Ozai's assault. Then he snarled a kiai and launched himself into melee range with her.
Monika stopped smirking; she made an eagle-claw with her hand and grabbed Ozai's throat, so quickly he never saw her hand move. With her thumb, she pressed down on his trachea, cutting off his air.
Naturally, Ozai swung up with a hand and tried to blast fire into her face at point-blank range. The flames washed over her…but her skin didn't char, her hair didn't singe, and she never took her eyes off of his. Her eyes, which Ozai suddenly noticed were no longer amber. They were emerald-green. Through the flames, Monika spoke in a low voice, "What part of 'the irresistible current of your destiny' didn't you understand?"
As the oxygen stored in Ozai's lungs petered out, so did the fire that ineffectually licked at Monika's face. The entire audience (save for one unimpressed Mai) was by now standing and staring in open awe at the undamaged princess. Still refusing to give up, Ozai tried to punch her in the face. Out of nowhere, Monika's other hand caught him by the wrist and steered the fist into his own face. Then, while he was dazed, she let him go and kicked him in the middle of his chest, a brilliantly-azure stream of fire sending him flying backwards. He skidded almost all the way to the edge of the arena. In the center of his chest was a small footprint of charred-black, dead skin, surrounded by a wide ring of lesser burns.
Speaking aloud once more, this time not just in a carrying voice but in a larger-than-life one, louder than any human should have been able to speak without mechanical amplification, Monika addressed the audience again, but this time directly. "By a tyrant's flames I am untouched, and by my own flame a tyrant has fallen. Let today's historians record that as proof of my worth. Now if someone would kindly fetch a physician for the former Fire Lord, I'd be grateful. I want this to be a day of celebration, unmarred by unnecessary death."
Dozens of people stood up at once to comply with their new Fire Lord's first request.
…
"How many Loops?" Mai asked without preamble as soon as she and Monika were alone. Which, given how busy Monika had suddenly gotten, meant it was the dead of night and the Fire Nation's new sovereign was, theoretically, asleep in her room. In practice, she was drafting legal documents with a cup of coffee from Oscar Pine's private selection to keep her company. Like the ninja she was, Mai had just descended from Monika's ceiling.
"In this world? My first one. Don't know its back-up, either, so if I said anything narratively resonant, it was a coincidence," Monika replied.
"How long have you been Awake?"
"Not quite forty-eight hours, yet. Why?"
"No way you've gone from Azula's Baseline level to 'Psychic Firebending' with that little time to practice," Mai concluded, "So you cheated and used something from out-of-loop to fireproof yourself."
"But in a way I could use to convince the onlookers that my right to rule was…I don't know, ordained by the spirits, or something," said Monika, "I mean, besides 'firebending' and 'being blessed by the spirits', are there any other explanations that the non-Looping people of this world could think of to explain my being able to take a sustained stream of fire to the face without getting so much as flushed?"
"Should come as no surprise that a country known for its pyrokinetics has at least a thousand recipes for both treating and preventing burns," said Mai, "But no burn-resistant salve would have held up to what you tanked today."
"Have you heard any rumors from people thinking I cheated somehow?"
"Not really," Mai replied, shrugging her shoulders, "There are a couple die-hard loyalists trying to stir the wok, of course. But the overwhelming majority are agreed that you've demonstrated the 'divine mandate to rule'. And…yeah, that's kind of a big deal around here."
Monika repressed the urge to smack her forehead into her desk. "Primitives," she muttered under her breath, shaking her head. "Whatever. It isn't really important, as long as the country is more or less behind me, at least long enough for me to give the government a direly needed update."
"Mmhmm," replied Mai.
"How's Ozai's condition, by the way?"
"Sorry, when did I become your secretary?" Mai asked drily.
Monika visibly paused. Then she started laughing. "Oh, damn. I'm sorry, Mai; you just, ehm, you remind me of a friend of mine. Kind of started treating you like her without thinking about it. My apologies."
Mai quirked an eyebrow at that. "A friend that you're used to treating like a subordinate?"
Now Monika raised an eyebrow at her. "You're quick to judge. I asked you two questions. And while "superior and subordinate" isn't how I would ideally describe mine and Yuri's relationship, she and the other two do look to me for leadership more often than not. And while it's not a role I've ever been entirely comfortable with, it's a role I have an aptitude for."
"Really? You look pretty cozy to me," Mai observed.
"Yeah, well, I'm pretty comfortable doing this, administration and social reform stuff. I do stuff like that all the time. I meant I've never been entirely comfortable as the leader of my friends. We don't have the most wholesome history, unfortunately."
"Got a feeling you and Azula have a lot in common," Mai said in an odd tone that wasn't quite warm or unkind, but almost had shades of sympathy in it.
'If I were to tell someone they reminded me of myself, I imagine I'd take a similar tone,' Monika reflected. She turned back to her work.
Monika had almost forgotten Mai was still in the room when she suddenly spoke up, several minutes later, "Ozai's doing fine, by the way. Physically, at least. Can't say more than that for sure; he's been catatonic ever since he woke up."
"Good. I hate resorting to violent means, but I couldn't turn my nose up at a chance to gain control of the country with just a single, one-on-one fight. Even so, part of me can't help but wonder if I went a little too far. Probably would have sufficed to knock him out."
Mai scoffed. "I wouldn't sweat it. He's a piece of shit," she said bluntly.
Monika glanced over at Mai, who was lounging on some kind of couch-chair thing, with a raised eyebrow. "Immoral self-righteous Social Darwinist fascist with a history of abusing his children aside…he's still a person. A despicable, loathsome person who most thoroughly deserves punishment for his crimes, and I'm sure he's responsible for other atrocities that I'm not even aware of yet. But he's still a sentient being and his life has value. More value than his corpse would have, at the very least. If you're willing, I wouldn't mind having your insight for when I write up his rehabilitation program."
Now Mai raised an eyebrow at Monika. Monika sensed a theme between the two of them. "You seriously want to waste your time trying to rehabilitate that maniac?" she asked, a small measure of audible surprise coloring her otherwise monotonous voice.
"Don't know it's a waste of time until I've tried. My friends gave me a second chance, so I don't have any right to deny anyone else a fair shake, regardless of how monstrous they are," Monika explained.
"And what did you do that was so awful?" Mai asked.
Monika turned back to her work. "Mindraped and murdered my friends, essentially. It's either worse than that or not quite that bad, depending on who you ask. Sayori seems to have decided that what I did was fated to happen anyways, since she briefly had a similar brush with madness, Natsuki's gotten comfortable around me but still likes to scrutinize everything I do, which I actually find comforting if I'm to be honest, and Yuri…" Monika trailed off and looked up to the ceiling. "I'm actually not sure what her stance is. She doesn't really talk about it."
"I see," said Mai in a tone of feigned disinterest that told Monika she was refraining from saying what she was thinking.
Monika laid down her pen and pushed herself out of her seat. She walked over to where Mai was sitting. "Level with me, Mai. Are you just keeping an eye on me so I don't cause trouble in your home?" she asked.
"If we were standing in each other's place, wouldn't you?" Mai countered.
"Probably, yes. I'd be a lot less passive-aggressive about it, though," Monika replied. "Maybe I can afford to put overhauling the country on hold long enough for us to hang out, build up some trust?"
"Don't bother," Mai said bluntly, "If I don't like my first impression of you, it'll take more than one loop for me to warm up to you. If I do."
Monika blinked. "Huh. Well then. A genuinely candid human being. Respect."
Mai nodded acknowledgement of the compliment, though her expression didn't change. "Zuko isn't Awake yet, so I'm just going to keep an eye on you, make sure you don't do anything stupid. If he Wakes Up this loop, I'll let him worry about you."
As she walked back to her desk, she said, "I take it Zuko's the one who takes the throne from Ozai in Baseline, which I assume means he got over being a coward at some point."
There was a sharp crack as one of Mai's knives embedded itself in one of the room's pillars, after bouncing off of Monika's kinetic barrier. Monika sighed, "An emotional reaction. Thank goodness, I was getting worried for you."
"If you ever call Zuko a coward again–" Mai started, a few degrees of heat coloring her voice.
"I'll have to answer to his knife-chucking girlfriend, or wife, or whatever your relationship is. Understood. It wasn't my goal to insult him anyways, I'm sure he's very different than he was as a frightened thirteen-year-old. I was just curious how you would react," Monika explained, picking up her pen and resuming her drafting.
"Hn. You are like Azula, then," Mai remarked darkly.
"In some ways, I'm sure; that tends to be the reason Loopers replace each other. I'm like a lot of people, but I'm no one but myself. Just like you and Ty Lee reminded me of Yuri and Sayori, but you're not Yuri, and I'm sure Ty Lee isn't as much like Sayori as my memories are painting her." Monika paused and looked thoughtful for a moment. "She's certainly more coordinated than Sayori, for one thing."
Mai said nothing to that. She sat back down and occupied herself with sharpening a knife.
26.8 – Cheaters, by Awesomedude17
"So let's agree on two things." Monika started off. "One is that we never talk about localized harem Loops."
"AYE!" The others agreed, raising their hands.
"The other is that Monopoly is banned in this club because Sayori always cheats."
"I said I was sorry." Sayori looked away with a huff.
"And I accept it but I don't want a repeat."
"Cheaters not welcome... OOO!" Natsuki took out a pen and some paper.
"A poem?"
"Yep!"
"Can't wait."
26.9 – Doki Doki Slendytubbies! Part 1, by Black Omochao
(DDLC)/(Teletubbies)
"Let's see, everything seems to be normal today…"
Monika Awoke to find herself looking out the camera attached to some computer, and at the 'person' she had just heard speak.
'A Teletubby…?' Monika internally questioned; she was somewhat familiar with the strange TV-bellied creatures' that's world was expressed as a television show for small children in the Hub, but if she ever thought she would run into one in the Loops, she wouldn't have expected to see them sitting in some dark room, operating a computer that she was a program on…
"Monika, Yuri, Sayori, Natsuki; status report? Is there anything of note that we should be concerned about?" The white-furred Teletubby questioned in a professional tone.
This order made Monika became aware that she was not the only A.I. in the cyberspace; Yuri, Natsuki and Sayori were there with her. She let out a Ping, and got three back, indicating they were all probably Awake.
Though there were no avatars for each of the A.I., the computer they were in did have a lot of processing power. With a bit of will power, and rearranging of the cyberspace, the four girls soon found themselves existing as 3D representations of their usual selves within a replication of their club room, with some TV monitors to show their view of the white Teletubby (which Monika's memories informed her was known as 'the Guardian'), as well as four others who were being monitored in some kind of sunny, open field.
"Okay, this is kind of odd," Sayori muttered, careful not to let her voice come out of the speakers for the Guardian to hear. "Ending up in Teletubbies of all things, but I also don't think this is 'normal' Teletubbies…?"
Natsuki's eyes narrowed as she crossed her arms, "This whole set-up seems a bit unsettling, if you ask me."
"Well, at least we're all together, for whatever this is…" Monika muttered, glancing at her memories (as she assumed her friends were also), Monika starting to gather a picture of what was going on with this Loop. The world was populated by Teletubbies. Monika and her friends were A.I. assistants to the Guardian, designated for monitoring each of the four subject tubbies' mental and physical health; Yuri–Tinky Winky, Natsuki–Dipsy, Sayori–Laa-Laa, and Monika–Po.
These four specific Teletubbies were contained in a designated area up above, kept ignorant of their situation and being monitored, for the purposes of [REDACTED.]
Monika paused, trying to access the info again, only to get the same results, 'Okay, that's a bit annoying…' a few more times she tried to forcedly access the data, but it was no use, the data was not simply restricted; it didn't exist on this particular computer…
"Girls? Status report?" the Guardian repeated, not sounding frustrated, as he seemed just confused on why his A.I assistants weren't responding to him.
"Should we even give him anything?" Natsuki asked with a suspicious look. "This whole thing seems super shady; we don't even know why we're doing this…"
"We should respond," Yuri gave a small sigh. "The Loop just started, and it's probably not a good idea to start disobeying the one we're supposed to be assisting at this moment."
"Yeah," Sayori nodded, glancing over her memories of their unAwake selves' interactions with the Guardian. "Plus, I think he's almost as in the dark as we are on what this is all about."
"What's going on with this is kind of weird," Monika spoke up with a contemplative expression. "And, I don't exactly like not being able to access the data on whatever this is really about… but we should at least give that status report." Glancing towards the monitor which showed the Guardian, Monica spoke with intent for the speakers to relay her voice, "Sorry about that, sir, we were just processing a bit of extra data."
"Oh, anything important?" the Guardian asked curiously.
"No sir, it turned out it was just a small glitch in our calculation data," Monika explained calmly.
"Yeah, nothing to be concerned about on that account, sir," Sayori spoke up. "As for the status of the subjects though; Laa-Laa seems disturbed by something," she noted with concern. "It seems she had a nightmare, but that may not be the entirety of the situation. I'll keep an eye on her activities and mood to make sure it was just a nightmare, and not a consequence of a possibly larger issue."
"Thank you for the notice, Sayori, I'll also make sure to keep a close watch on her," the white tubby nodded.
"Dipsy is mostly normal, though is a bit distressed over the disappearance of his hat… Guardian," Natsuki glared through the camera at the Guardian, and the distinct cow-colored hat he had on…
The Guardian gave no response to the A.I.'s accusatory tone.
"Tinky Winky hasn't shown any change from last report," Yuri reported in an even tone of voice. "He's still overall cheerful and seems content."
"Po's been staring out into the lake a lot lately," Monika noted. "She may be growing curious on the possibility that there may be more to the world than can be seen. That possibility aside, she hasn't attempted to escape. Psychologically and physically, she seems healthy."
"That's good to note, Monika; we can't have any of them attempting to leave, so we'll have to be sure to keep an eye on Po just in case your theory is true," the Guardian didn't sound particularly happy about his task with keeping the other four Teletubbies trapped in a bubble, but he had a job to do.
"We'll be sure to keep you posted on any unusual developments with the subjects," Monika assured curtly, before turning her attention back to her friends, disconnecting her voice from the speakers before talking again, "He should leave us alone for a while, and that will give us time to figure out what exactly we should be doing this Loop."
"Well whatever we decide to do, I'd prefer we not watch Teletubbies all Loop," Natsuki sighed, glancing to the monitors keeping track of the four subject Teletubbies; it seemed they were gathering to eat 'Tubby Custard.' "Though I would like to figure out a way to get the Guardian to give Dipsy his hat back…"
"I'm pretty sure taking that hat violates some protocol about this whole experiment, or whatever it is," Yuri pointed out with a small smirk creeping onto her face. "You could just point that out to him."
"Hmm…" Natsuki looked thoughtful of the suggestion.
"I'm kind of worried about Laa-Laa, she seems really bothered about that nightmare of hers," Sayori said with a frown, looking at the monitor keeping track of the yellow tubby, who was now seated at the table with the other three tubbies to enjoy Tubby Custard. "That might just be because I'm programmed to keep her healthy this Loop, but I can't help it."
"I think that's just your empathy, Sayori," Monika assured, glancing to the screen focused on the small, red Teletubby she was designated to watch over. "Their situation is kind of like ours; they're trapped in a small world, but none of them are aware of this, and we're meant to be making sure they stay there along with being happy, healthy, and complacent." a troubled frown made its way onto the Anchor's face, which her three friends soon shared…
26.10 – Outstanding Outfits, by Masterweaver
Monika dragged a hand down her face. "Sayori... why?"
"You know, I... don't actually remember." Sayori frowned to herself. "I think it started with me considering what my favorite dinosaur would be."
"How does 'what is my favorite dinosaur' lead to you wearing your shirt as pants and pants as a shirt?!"
"I dunno. Chalk it up to loop ennui making my thoughts go random directions?"
"...You can't just use that to excuse everything!"
Sayori shrugged. "I really don't know what else to say."
"And you came to school like this?!"
"Monika, we're dating sim characters. Virtual entities. The only people who will see me like this are the club members. Heck, look at what Natsuki is wearing!"
Natsuki, in her fluffy rainbow-feathered unitard and leg warmers with matching humongous headdress, sipped her tea calmly. "What can I say? Yuri is an artist."
"...This is some sort of group prank, isn't it. What's the most outrageous outfit we can wear to freak Monika out." Monika shook her head. "Fine, girls, you got me."
"We didn't plan this," Sayori assured her. "Honest."
"If we did, I would have worn a backless sweater and thigh-high boots," Yuri confirmed.
"...and nothing else?" Natsuki asked, trying to sound nonchalant.
Monika pinched her brow. "How is that less ridiculous then cargo shorts and a tank top that says 'write in blood, juice is less permanent?'"
"And where did you get those cargo shorts?" Sayori added. "I can understand the tank top-"
"Long and embarrassing story," Yuri replied. "I'll tell you later when I'm drunk enough to."
"She replaced Candace Flynn, you see-"
"NATSUKI!"
Monika threw up her hands. "Whatever. Ridiculous outfit day." She snapped her fingers and was suddenly wearing a tron-esque bodysuit. "Unplanned club activity, I guess."
26.11 – The One Time She's On Meds, by Awesomedude17
Yuri looked on Sayori with some concern and looked at Natsuki, equally concerned. They both decided to ask Sayori what was wrong with her, given her sudden grumpiness.
"Hey, Sayori, are you all right?" Yuri asked.
"What's it to you?" Sayori snapped back with a glare.
Natsuki took a step forward a spoke up, "Whoa, we're just asking a question, all right."
Sayori sighed and scratched her head, "Sorry, I forgot to take my meds so fuck off, alright?"
"Wait…meds?" Yuri asked out loud before Natsuki grabbed her arm and dragged her off. Sayori let out a gruff scoff and went back to whatever it was she was doing.
Monika meanwhile sighed at this rather lonely Loop and shook her head.
It's so weird, yet it makes so much sense. What a fascinating variant.
Compiler's Commentary:
26.1: Movies make for a smashing good time.
26.2: Of course Monika would get obsessed with other games' ARGs.
26.3: Friendly reminder that all the Dokis are AIs, so it's not as weird that Sayori could calculate all this in her head as it is that she would want to.
26.4: Agreed, Captcha is annoying, and I'm not even a bot. OR AM I?!
26.5: Well…nice to see Yuri making friends that she has things in common with.
26.6: I don't blame you
26.7: In case you were curious how Monika made herself fireproof, A Wizard Did It. Except it was actually a witch. And that witch's name was Monika. She used a Fireproofing Charm on herself.
26.8: I don't play Monopoly with anyone, anymore. I've seen too many knife fights break out.
26.9: And here I thought Teletubbies couldn't get any creepier.
26.10: We all have those days, amirite?
26.11: I have no idea what I'd be like off my meds, seeing as I've never been on them. Wait…