36.1 - Mon-Ika the Octoling, by dancingRibbons
(DDLC) (Splatoon)
"Y'all know what time it is!"
"It's Off the Hook, coming at you live from Inkopolis…Square!" Monika Awoke, her lifetimes of experience letting her only mildly stumble over the unfamiliar lines.
Her co-host, a short Inkling called Pearl, gave her an intrigued look, then continued. "Check it! Here are the current regular battle stages!"
Monika manipulated the DJ console, as she processed the unfamiliar Loop memories. 'Hm, a post-apocalyptic world? Populated by humanoids that could turn into octopi and squi…oh.' She groaned.
"Yo, Earth to Monika? Hello!" A gloved hand reached in front of Monika's face, snapping its fingers. "We aren't done with the broadcast yet! But if you're feeling ill…"
"Oh! Sorry! Just spaced out, was feeling a bit Loopy." Hoping that she put the emphasis correctly, Monika registered Pearl's widening eyes. 'Success!' She decided to keep going. "I'm better now though, so let's continue."
The light on the camera blinked off, and Pearl turned to Monika. "Are you better Anchored now?"
"Wide Awake and feeling Loopy still," Monika replied. "Hi, I'm Monika, and I'm the Anchor for the Doki Doki Literature Club loops."
"Great! And I'm Pearl, also known as MC. Princess in Baseline. Splatoon universe Looper!" The short Inkling pulled out a smartphone and began texting. "I'll tell Callie and Marie we have a guest."
"Callie and Marie…the Squid Sisters?" Monika asked. She recalled having several of their merch items whilst Unawake.
"They're the Co-Anchors of the loop. " Pearl's phone buzzed. She hopped off the couch and turned towards the door. "Callie says to meet at 12, we don't have another broadcast until 3. I'm gonna go grab a bite to eat. You want something?"
"Coffee, if you have it."
"Vegetarian?"
Monika nodded. "How did you guess?"
"Was just asking for your preferences." Pearl opened the door. "Coffee and croissants, be back in ten!"
While her fellow looper was gone, the time-displaced Anchor took the time to look more thoroughly at her Loop memories. 'Hm…Army defect…engineer and coder genius? Graduated at age 9?' Monika smirked. 'Unawake me really was something. Calamari Inkantation…ah, so that's what the Squid Sisters look like. Mount Nantai…met Pearl…started a band.'
Her thoughts were interrupted by a knocking on the glass. "Who's there?" she called, looking up.
A female Inkling, wearing a school uniform and jacket, waved from behind the window. Her…hair…was purple. A familiar shade of purple…
"Yuri?! You didn't Ping!"
Yuri blushed, then mouthed something. 'Feeling Loopy. Can you let me in?'
Monika opened the door, then rushed to hug her fellow Looper. "Care to explain, Yuyu?"
"I just Woke Up. Forgot to Ping. Now, is Nats Awake? I think we can have some fun with these tenta-"
"No, Yuri. Let me introduce you to the other loopers, and THEN you can have your fun." The currently-a-pop-idol paused, and added: "Behind closed doors."
The two DDLC loopers then jumped as Pearl cleared her throat behind them. "Yo, hate to ruin the moment, but is she another Looper?"
"Yeah. Yuri, this is Pearl, she's a Looper, don't hurt her."
"Ah, gotcha." Yuri gave Pearl a glance and a smirk, which turned into a grin. "Rapper?"
"Heck yeah!" The pop star struck a pose, which looked ridiculous with the two plastic bags. She then paused. "I'd do a rap right here, but I can't think of one right now and I don't want to drop the snacks."
"So what do you do in this loop?" Yuri asked. "According to my Loop memories, I passed a test to drop school and make my way here during school hours."
The purple-haired inkling shrugged. "I also happen to be a teenager who goes to Octo Canyon and kills octopodes, so…"
"Sweet, you're replacing Agent 4. You do basically what you do, though we have another 'event' coming up soon which involves Agent 3, me and Monika." Pearl shoved the door open and set the snacks down on the table. "It's kinda complicated. How about we talk around coffee?"
36.2 - Hobby Picking (pt. 1), by dancingRibbons
It all started as a normal day, in a baseline loop. The Dokis were eating a pizza lunch (baked by Natsuki): classic Hawaiian, pepperoni, vegetarian for Monika and marshmallow chocolate. Yuri fed Natsuki a slice of candy pizza, while Sayori cut a Hawaiian slice for the MC, who was named Damien this Loop. Monika idly stared out the window while eating her own lunch.
All was good and well.
Suddenly, during her half-trance, an idea blossomed inside Monika's head. Her eyes widened, and she shook herself out of her stupor. "Girls?"
"Yes/What, Monika?" the other Dokis responded in chorus.
"I just realized something." Monika finished her slice, and her plate dissolved into strings of code. "Remember how we promised each other to have some loops as club-bonding times?"
"Yerh?" Yuri put down her own, half-finished slice.
"Yuri, finish your food before you talk," chided Sayori.
"Shorri—sorry. Yeah, we remember that, right girls?" Yuri relented.
"Definitely. Whatcha planning now, Mons?" Natsuki asked.
"Hobbies." Monika put her hands on the table. "I say that for the next four or so loops, we try to teach each other some of our favorite hobbies."
Yuri put her hand up.
"And no," the president added, "it can't be knife making related, Yuri."
Yuri put her hand down.
"I'll spin the wheel. That'll decide the order. You guys have two loops to prepare." Monika made a circular motion with her right hand, and a wheel split into quarters appeared. Each quarter had a Doki's name on it.
"So we want to be as early as possible?" Natsuki asked.
"If you want to go first, yes." The coral-haired AI then spun the wheel four times. "Alright… looks like the order is Sayori, Yuri, Natsuki, and me."
"Um… excuse me?" Damien raised his hand. "What's all this stuff about loops?"
"It's an inside joke," Sayori quickly ad-libbed. "A loop is a week."
"And why aren't I involved?"
"Are you asking to be involved?" Natsuki chimed in.
"Nope, course not." The MC picked up his pizza slice and began munching on it again.
"Are you sure this isn't rigged so that you get to go last, Prez?" Yuri questioned, suspicious.
"Of course not! I got the wheel off the internet." Monika huffed. "So! Two loops to prepare, then we'll be presenting across four loops. Got it?"
"Got it!" everyone chorused.
36.3 - Mon-Ika the Octoling: Part 2, by dancingRibbons
(DDLC)/(Splatoon)
"So," the coral-haired Looper said, "This is what Unawake me normally uses?" Monika and Pearl were standing in the testfire area of Ammo Knights, looking at the four (currently folded) umbrellas laying in a pile in front of them.
"This type of weapon, at least." Her fellow looper picked up an arm-length umbrella, which had a trigger (!) along the handle. Pearl then handed it to Monika. "This is a Splat Brella. You pull the trigger to shoot ink. Try it!"
The visitor tentatively picked up the umbrella-shaped shotgun, and held down the trigger. Nothing came out, but there was a woosh of air which blew Pearl's tentacles back, and the umbrella opened.
"Uh…wrong trigger. That one's for the…" Pearl was interrupted by a puttering of ink as the umbrella fired itself, slowly making its way across the testfire area and leaving a trail of coral ink. It then disappeared into a puff of smoke after five seconds.
Monika stared. "Was it supposed to do that?"
"...yes. You're supposed to be able to swim in that ink, or use the umbrella as a shield. For the Splat Brella…um, hold on, let me find the guide." Pearl started rummaging in her bag.
Meanwhile, her visitor examined the umbrella. She found a second, smaller switch labeled "ink" on the side of the handle. This is probably it, she thought, and depressed the button.
Ptt ptt ptt ptt ptt ptt ptt…
Monika blinked as the umbrella shot out several "bullets" of ink in front of her, globs of thick coral-pink liquid. "I don't suppose you would be so kind to let me look through that manual you've got there?"
"Hm? Oh, sweet, you figured out how to shoot!" Pearl dropped the pamphlet, walking over. "Usually the aim of a Turf War is to cover as much ground as you can. Walls don't count for turf, but you can swim up them for mobility and stealth. If you shoot someone enough times, they get splatted and respawn at their spawn point, which looks like a kettle at either end of the map. Each team has their own spawn point."
"What if the opposing team camps the spawn?" Monika asked, curious.
"There's a barrier around the spawn that protects that team from enemy ink. You can't hit anyone through there."
"Well…" Pearl's visitor began shooting the ground. "We can't walk through there either?"
"The barrier pushes you back." Pearl leaned against the wall. "Do you like the feel of the brella?"
"Yeah. How do I know how many hits it takes for me to splat someone?" the anchor questioned.
The native looper got up and walked in front of her. "Shoot me."
"...you respawn as well, right?" Monika depressed the trigger, and watched as the globs of ink landed on Pearl.
Who promptly exploded into a puddle of the same ink color.
"Whoa!"
...odd, it didn't seem like it hurt. Pearl hadn't made a noise.
"And that's what splatting's like. I took three hits, so that's three bullets for a kill." A figure trotted out from behind a corner.
"Pearl?" Monika gaped, then realized. "Ah, right, respawning."
"Now to teach you about specials!" Pearl clapped her hands together. "This is my favorite bit about Turf War: once you cover enough turf with ink, you unlock a special that usually kills people, but can also help you cover more ground. Specials also refill your ink gauge to max, and some are handy for getting out of a tight situation. You need to press the right stick to activate yours."
"For Brellas, the right stick is directly on the handle, where your thumb would rest. I still don't know why it's called a right stick but isn't a stick." The rapper gently guided Monika's thumb to the button. "There should be two bars on the handle of the brella: one tells you how much ink you have left, the other shows you your special gauge and how full it is."
"So I shoot the ground, fill up my special gauge, and press the right stick?" her guest asked.
"Basically. Now, fill up your gauge," Pearl commanded. "Your special is a bit different in that it focuses more on ink coverage. It's called Ink Storm; when used, you can produce a cloud that quite literally rains ink onto the turf."
"What if it hits an enemy?" Monika wondered out loud.
"If they're already taken enough damage, they get splatted. So get inking!"
36.4 - Waspinator and the Dokis Reunion, by Boohoooo!
(DDLC)/(Transformers)
"Hey! Literature Club ladiezzz!" Waspinator waved cheerfully from his stand selling copies of his tell all autobiography.
"Hey, what's that about? How to make an art of getting wrecked?" Natsuki quipped.
"No! It'zzz Wazzzpinator's mazzzterpiece! Wazzzpinator even had Janna and Panda proofread!" Waspinator proudly stated.
"Oh, you had someone do something all book writers should. Whoopedy doo." Natsuki snarked.
"Natsuki, stop being mean to Waspinator. His writing is surprisingly eloquent. Er, no offense." Sayori scolded.
"None taken. Wazzzpinator izzz kind of lozzzer." Waspinator shrugged. Sayori bapped him with a newspaper, making him whine.
"Bad Waspinator! What did we discuss!?" Sayori scolded.
"Don't Zzzelf-depricate like that, it helpzzz no one." Waspinator sighed.
"Good. Now give us all the copies of your book you want." Sayori smiled.
"YAY! Thank goodnezzzzzz. No one wazzz buying." Waspinator sniffled.
Everyone, seeing the official Literature Club of the Multiverse take a book, took that as a good endorsement and bought some too, to Waspinator's joy.
"Wazzzpinator happy!" He sniffled.
"We did good." Monika shook her head.
"I still don't like him." Natsuki huffed.
"Are you still salty about him calling you 'No Mammaries'?" Yuri smirked. Natsuki blew a raspberry.
36.5 - Hobby Picking (pt. 2), by dancingRibbons
It was silent in the clubroom. The four AI girls sat at a desk each, facing each other, in a circle in the center of the clubroom.
Sayori carefully slid her thumb across the crease of the paper, then looked up at the other Dokis. She had, for her Hobby Loop, decided to try teaching everyone some origami skills.
Monika had folded one slightly lopsided crane and was working on her next.
Yuri was folding origami shuriken with a grin on her face. She had completed at least a dozen.
Natsuki grumbled as she struggled with her crane, which currently looked like a triangle with arms.
Sayori sighed, and got up, walking over to the annoyed pinkette. "Natsuki, you have the instructions upside down."
"...oh." Natsuki groaned. "I swear this paper—just—ugh! Is there anything simpler?" She tore at the failed crane, glaring at the pink paper.
"Well, yes. Just let me grab my origami book, and I'll try finding something simpler for you. Maybe a frog, or a plane, or a walking cra…" Sayori stopped as her fellow club member giggled, lifting up a chain of paper dolls. "Or you could just do that."
"Or I could teach her to make shuriken?" Yuri piped up. She tossed a shuriken towards Natsuki, who caught it, hand flashing pink to brace the impact of her girlfriend's hard throw.
"Nah, paper dolls are easier than origami. You can teach me some other time." Natsuki cut more of the paper figurines to resemble herself. "Hold on… Wingardium Leviosa."
The chain of dolls floated to arrange themselves around the room. "Nats, I thought this was my session?" Sayori jokingly asked.
"Quite right," the pinkette agreed, and the dolls promptly turned into figures of Sayori. "There, much better, right?"
"Yep."
36.6 - Mon-Ika the Octoling: Part 3, by dancingRibbons
(DDLC)/(Splatoon)
"Hi, nice to meet you! My name's Callie, and she's Marie." The black-haired girl stood up and shook Monika's hand.
The loopers were gathered at a cafè, sitting in a private booth. Pearl lounged on a sofa, while Callie and Marie sat on cushions diagonally opposite her. Yuri rested cross-legged on the floor, and Monika had joined her on a stool.
"So, what universe are you from?" Marie questioned.
"We're from the DDLC Branch of the multiverse. Spoiler alert, unless you like horror, dark comedy and death, don't play the game if you ever run into it."
"I'll take your word for it! Monika, since you're replacing Marina, you'll be hosting several Splatfests." Callie plopped back down.
"Splatfests…oh! Monthly events?" Monika blinked at her memories of the past Splatfests.
"Think of it as debates, except with Turf War instead of talking and thousands of people joining." Callie smiled, passing her a sheet of paper. "This is a list of all the Splatfests that have and will happen, including the events of the first game."
"Hm…" Monika examined the list. "Cats versus dogs, planes versus cars…these seem like very modern topics. Wait, heroes versus villains?! Isn't that from Smash Bros?"
"Yep!" Marie nodded happily. "Me and Callie were nicely surprised when we made it in as costumes."
Yuri peered over her anchor's shoulder. "And Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle splatfests."
"Even though we're a post-apocalyptic society, we still worship fax machines." Pearl deadpanned. "These are debate logs from the past. It's weird."
"Super Mushroom versus Super Star." Yuri shot right back.
"We're from Nintendo. Anyways, I'll pick the first topic, and Marina—or in this case, Monika picks the second."
"Could I keep this list?" her current co-host asked.
Marie waved offhandedly. "Of course! We have plenty of those."
"Great. Hey Yuri, I found some new debate topics!"
Yuri accepted the slip of paper, and read down the list. "Squid versus octopus? Sounds dangerous for some reason."
"That'll be in roughly a year, sometime during the Octo Expansion."
"Octo Expansion?" The purple-haired inkling raised a delicate eyebrow.
Pearl grinned with sharp teeth. "You'll see."
36.7 - Hobby Picking (pt. 3), by dancingRibbons
It was the fifth loop since Monika had originally proposed the hobby-sharing loops. Natsuki was looking forward to what her girlfriend was going to share, if partially because she could tease Yuri about it. The pinkette poked her head around the door…and her jaw dropped.
The clubroom was set up to resemble a clearing beside a waterfall and river. Stepping stones were systematically laid in the middle of the raging stream, lotus and lily pads grew in a smoother area of the water, and multicoloured koi frolicked around the plants.
Forests of cerulean-leaved willow trees swayed in the wind, pink flowers releasing a mild, soothing scent in the room. Hummingbirds flitted around the trees, feathers shimmering with magenta and indigo light. Some nested in the trees, drinking up crystalline nectar. And the waterfall…the waterfall was encrusted with crystals, large and small, ranging from a clear amethyst to an opalescent fuchsia in colour. It wasn't enough to be called gaudy, but the crystals sparkled in the sunlight, cool pinks dancing across the water.
Natsuki lifted her right index finger, and a hummingbird landed on it. She noted that the feathers weren't just shades of pink and purple, but were exquisite crystals resembling the ones adorning the waterfall, and the hummingbird's eyes were polished pearls of onyx. The hummingbirds were living crystal golems. And as she looked around the forest one more time, Natsuki realized that the flowers, lotus and koi were also mineral.
She knew that Yuri had requested a room extension, but she hadn't expected this.
And in the middle of it all, her girlfriend sat in the centre of the waterfall, rose-tinted water falling around her shoulders. Her girlfriend looked serene, one with the world.
As Natsuki heard the gasps behind her, she said, "Yuri, where the fuck did you find the idea for this?"
Yuri opened her eyes. "From a painting in a Hub loop." She stepped out of the waterfall, brushing the water off in sheets. "It's called the Land of Lotus and Crystals."
"Fitting name," said Sayori's voice by the door. The hummingbird took off, and landed on Sayori's head. She was leaning on a tree. "It's breathtaking. I didn't know you had an eye for remodelling."
"Thanks, Sayori. Technically it wasn't my idea, but hey." Yuri shrugged. "We'll wait until Monika gets here…actually." A mischievous grin found its way onto her face. "Let's start without her. We're doing hide and seek! This room is a few kilometres square, thanks to our currently-missing President. We can go hide." The purple-haired girl pulled out some bracelets. "We get to use Looper abilities, but with some catches…"
"No destroying anything?" Natsuki piped up.
"That, no tampering with the code, and we can all use the bracelets to warn each other about the seeker—they're like smartphones. We also can't fight back, because that would make it too easy, though we can—and should—run."
Yuri pulled out a piece of paper, and scribbled the rules on it, throwing it at the ground. "We can also call each other, and once the half-an-hour time limit runs out, we'll be teleported back here. Plus, she gets a map, and we don't, so we can get lost."
"So we can't take off the bracelets?" Sayori picked up hers, and to her slight shock, the beige band clamped tightly around her left wrist.
"Once Monika tags one of us, the others get notified and the taggeè's bracelet breaks. They then get teleported to the spectator box." Yuri pointed up to a clear box floating high up in the sky. "Everyone clear?" Her friends nodded. "Then let's go!"
Monika walked into the room. "Hey, guys—woah!"
She took a moment to admire the worldbuilding that Yuri had pulled off, then shook her head. "Right. Aha, here's a note…"
Hey Monika,
This is my hobby. Ninja hide and seek. Rules are as follows…
Monika skimmed over the rest, and flipped over the note to find a map, showing her current location. "Hm…giant lotus bud in the centre…maybe they're hiding in there? Nah, too obvious." The President began to walk, then stopped and reached up to a tree vine, yanking it and tapping the girl who fell out on the shoulder. "Hi, Sayori. That was a bit easy."
"I wanted to go easy." Sayori pouted. "Hint hint: Nats and Yuri are in—" She was teleported away, and Monika spotted her Vice President pounding on the walls of the spectator block.
"One down, two to go."
36.8 - Rope Burns, by Awesomedude17
(DDLC)/(Legend of Zelda)
"Link!"
Link became startled at Malon's surprising shout and turned around, only to see an inferno at where Lon Lon Ranch was.
"I have an alibi. Go to Zora's Domain. Ruto can vouch for me."
"Who else would start a fire to burn all of those poor cuccos?"
"I understand why you'd suspect me but I didn't intentionally start a fire."
"Intentionally?!" Link recoiled at Malon's screaming.
"Wait wait wait, you got the wrong person!" Natsuki shouted as she made herself known.
"Oh really?"
"Yeah! It was Sayori. She somehow started a fire while jump-roping with Igno."
"Ingo, and why would he be jump-roping with Sayori?"
"Uh…she's that kind of free spirit."
"Ugh! Link, what do you…he left!" Malon stomped the ground in fury. Natsuki could see Link hightailing it to Death Mountain, which was honestly one of the more sensible actions he's done.
It was then that a stampede of animals, led by Sayori on horseback, ran by the two, headed straight for Kakariko Village. Malon looked over it and began to smile.
"Aw! She went through the trouble to save every single one! I like her!"
"She burned down your home, Malon." Natsuki pointed out matter-of-factly.
"Yeah, but she saved the cuccos!"
"...I can see why Cia's creeped out by you on occasion now."
36.9 - Mon-Ika the Octoling: Part 4, by dancingRibbons
(DDLC)/(Splatoon)
A week after Monika and Yuri met the locals…
Na na-na na-na na…
Natsuki!
Na-na-na-na!
Natsuki! Natsuki! Show us how you're bossy!
Nasty! Get nasty!
Win, let's have some fun!
Na na…ah-ah-na-na-na! Na na…ah-na na na na!
Na na! Nah na lay-oh ah-oh la~! Na na na nah oh!
Natsuki came to slight consciousness at the sound of a powerful, familiar voice.
'Huh…who am I?'
'Right. I'm Natsuki. I just Woke Up. Loop memories…'
The pinkette winced as attempting to reach her Loop memories was repelled by a sort of barrier. If Sayori was with her, her friend could probably do something to fix it, but otherwise, Natsuki was on her own. Her vision swam an acid, sickly green. 'Is this a game?'
The Octoling realized she was lying on a concrete surface, and curled tightly against the cold.
The Octoling realized she was wearing some sweet armor, and fully opened her eyes to look at it properly.
The Octoling realized a very old man with large, round eyes popping out of his face was staring at her trying to get her attention, and yelped, moving back and away from Captain Cuttlefish.
"Whoa whoa whoa, steady there! I'm a little Loopy at my age, so hold your tentacles!"
Natsuki relaxed. "Oh good, you're another Looper. Are you the Anchor of this place?" She shuddered inwardly at the thought that the abandoned metro station she seemed to be in could be all this Loop had to offer her.
"Nope, that honor would go to my granddaughters. Name's Captain Cuttlefish, but you can just call me one or the other. Do you have a memory block in your head?"
"...ergh, yes?" His visitor shook her head, the stern melodies already fading away. "What was…"
She trailed off at the sight of what looked like an eraser. "...that?"
"These are mem cakes. Rub them against your forehead and you'll get some memories back. Collect all of them and your memories will be restored." Captain produced some more. "Luckily for you, I always have a spare set on me in case Agent 8 gets replaced. Now, do you want to play the Baseline way, or go straight to the surface?"
"Hm… " Natsuki pondered for a bit, noting with slight disgust that her tentacle-hair was twitching.
She hadn't had any adventures in a while.
Especially not blind-playthrough type ones.
The visitor made her decision. "I'll go Baseline. How fun is it?"
"Tell me…" Cuttlefish helped her up out of her sitting position with a twinkle in his eye. "...how easily do you rage at video games?"
"I TURNED INTO AN OCTOPUS OH MY GOD WHAT THE HECK?!"
Natsuki was currently a fuchsia-pink octopus flopping wildly around the floor of the "tutorial" room, in a state of transformation-induced panic.
"Relax, relax!" Cuttlefish soothed over the intercom."It should be like a mental switch in your head. Just look for it!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAA I FEEL wait a minute." The visiting looper pondered for a moment, then turned back into a humanoid, staggering a bit. "That felt weird."
"All the visiting Loopers say that. Now, are you going to complete the tutorial or not?"
"...fine." His current charge glared daggers at the radio, then kept going at completing the level.
36.10 - Hobby Picking (pt. 4), by dancingRibbons
"So," Monika placed her hands on the desk. She was standing at the front of the room, with the other three Dokis sitting in a circle in front of her. "It's my turn. And I've left the best for last."
Sayori examined the items in front of her. "A bunch of fish bowls, bags of coloured sand, pebbles, potting mix and moss, a stand, decorative items, and a dozen pots of small potted succulents?"
"Well, yes." The President grinned. "We're making terrariums! This is a chance for you guys to get wild and creative—not that you already haven't done that—with no Looper skills."
Yuri picked up a decorative aloe and ran her finger along the leaves. "Seems boring."
"We'll also get to collaborate on a giant walk-in terrarium I currently have in my Pocket." Monika added.
Natsuki whistled. "Okay, now I'm interested."
"So, first we all need to set up our terrarium shells. You can pick from the ones I've got: polygonal, bubble, plane, bottle or spiked. Just make sure they fit into your stand, or ask me for another one." Monika demonstrated by slotting her bubble shell onto her stand, then twisted it so that it sat cozily in the white wooden block. "Then we'll add substrate…"
Sayori carefully finished arranging her pebbles with tweezers. After she was sure that they wouldn't fall over, she then began layering sphagnum moss and soil over them with a tiny spoon.
She wanted to make a landscape scene. Two pebble hills on the sides of her polygonal shell, a blue-sand river flowing through the valley, a small house sitting on the bank, and four cute little squirrel toys playing on the moss-grass.
A hand tapped her on the shoulder. "Having fun?" Monika asked.
"Yeah. Who knew making terrariums was so soothing?" Sayori replied, taking a spoonful of blue sand and pouring it into the dent she had formed for her river. "What are the others doing?"
"Yuri's making a seashore scene with a seahorse. Natsuki's doing some inception—terrarium inside a terrarium. I think it's a neat idea." Her friend surveyed Sayori's valley. "I like terrariums—they represent life inside of a closed environment, untouched and pure. Kind of like that bubble you mentioned in a poem once."
"I guess." Sayori dug a small hole, and carefully planted some fittonia inside, smoothing out the surface of the soil. "So when are we going to work on the walk-in?"
"As soon as you guys are done." Monika smiled. "I'm already finished with my terrarium—I have a whole collection of them in my pocket—but I'll wait until—"
"Finished!" Natsuki said from the corner of the room.
"—you and Yuri—"
"Done here too." Yuri stated.
"—okay, just you. I'll wait until you're done with your terrarium."
Sayori chuckled. "Don't worry. Give me about five minutes. You can get started on the walk-in in the meantime."
"Ah." Monika laid back on a sloped, grassy hill.
Her fellow Dokis joined her, gazing at the frosted glass of the walk-in greenhouse terrarium roof.
"That took a while, didn't it?" smiled Sayori.
Yuri turned, facing her right. "It did. Worth it, though. Now I can boast to Alucard about having a better base of meditation than him."
Her girlfriend snorted, and they fell silent. It had taken two hours or so to fill in the landscape of the terrarium, with rocks, sand and saplings. The club members were currently resting on the side of a valley, while a river rushed a meter away. Mushrooms—brown, yellow, red—dotted the shores, joining cattails and reeds. The rustling of leaves in the wind calmed the senses, while mountains framed the background of the terrarium. "What happens when the Loops end?" Natsuki spoke up.
"...I don't know." Her club president got up, picking a cattail from the riverbank. She stroked it between her fingers, content. "As long as we're all still friends together by then, it'll be fine." Pinching one of the spongy brown fibers between her fingers, Monika grinned. She then tossed the rapidly-expanding cattail fluff at her friends.
"Ack! This means war!" Yuri choked around a mouthful of fluff.
The Dokis then had a good time prancing around the riverbank, snapping cattail heads and throwing them at each other, until Sayori single-handedly won the whole thing by using the Force to cream her fellow friends in the face with pillows of cattail fiber.
All in all, a good day spent.
36.11 - Mon-Ika the Octoling: Part 5, by dancingRibbons
(DDLC)/(Splatoon)
"What's in this level?" Natsuki asked.
"Fake Plastic Station?" Her newest friend grinned, waving his walking stick. "You'll see."
"I'll take your—whoa!" The salmon Octoling flinched back at the sight of a green similarly tentacle-haired humanoid girl revealing herself on a nearby pillar, holding a white-black gun.
Target acquired.
"Play nice, play nice…" Natsuki backed away, hands in the air in front of her.
Destroy.
"OKAY DON'T PLAY NICE HAVE IT YOUR WAY!" Natsuki dodged the bullets of green ink, wincing as some burned her skin, then fired right back at the Sanitized soldier. "Die die die!"
The enemy exploded into a puddle of Natsuki's ink. The visitor sighed. "Alright, there should be more in the next room. On the pillars…?"
Seek and destroy.
"...and there's more of them. Who would have guessed—ack!" She jerked away at the sight of the umbrella shooting towards her, inked a path, swum behind the enemy and quickly splatted the Sanitized Octoling.
Another charged, wielding a large yellow-black paint roller. Natsuki had some time to snort before ducking as the brainwashed/zombified girl chucked a triangular prism, landing at the feet of the salmon Octoling. She stared, frozen as her brain screamed.
Ohcrapcrapbombbombbomb—
The prism exploded, shattering Natsuki's armor but leaving her otherwise relatively unscathed. "Agh! Get here…wait a moment."
She threw a bomb of her own, then inked the nearest pillar and swum up it. As she'd predicted, the Sanitized soldier had terrible vision and walked right into the Splat Bomb, exploding into a puddle of Natsuki's ink.
"Alright!" She reformed and pumped her fist in victory, then gaped. "There's another room?" Natsuki dived through the door, and rolled her eyes when yet another Octoling enemy pounced from the pillars. She would later deny that she had ever shrieked when the enemy donned a jetpack and took to the skies.
"Just one more, you're doing great…" Cuttlefish cheered her on, then asked, "What's your name again?"
"Natsuki!" The Octoling ground out, dodging ink blasts from the enemy's jetpack. "What IS this thing?"
"That's the Inkjet!" The old Inkling informed her through the intercom. "You'll get to use it in some future stations."
"Sweet! HOW DO I KILL IT?!"
"The soldier will land in three seconds!"
The visitor ran to the similar icon glowing on the ground, throwing a bomb timed to explode when the Inkjet finally ran out.
Vrm vrm vrm vrm vrm…
A gate opened to in front of her. "Are those…three floating metal pieces?" Natsuki asked her informant.
"Ink them and touch the turn slide to beat the level." He answered, chomping on some crab patties.
Natsuki chucked a bomb at the small obelisk-shaped metal chunks, then smiled as the barrier broke.
Upon touching the marker…nothing happened.
"Uh…"
"Just wait. Any moment now." Cuttlefish assured her.
Suddenly, a cylinder shot up from the ground, forming a lift-like room around Natsuki's body. She blinked as the lift transported her back to the start in front of Cuttlefish. A hard object, shaped like a girl's face, fell into her hands. "That was weird. What's this?"
You paint the turf with graceful strokes.
With watchful eye, I breathe a sigh.
From sniper's perch, I go for broke.
Natsuki blinked. She turned to Cuttlefish. "...is this meant to be Shakespeare?"
"Who's Shakespeare?"
"...never mind. What's next?"
Cuttlefish looked away, whistling. "Let's go meet our fellow loopers."
36.12 - It's Not Fluff. It's Too Thin to be Fluff, by Awesomedude17
"As thin as possible, Yuri. Crepes are meant to be super thin." Natsuki said.
"You're really taking this seriously, Natsuki."
"I am the desert…dessert girl, Yuri. I absolutely have to make dang sure that these delicacies are at their very best."
Monika smiled at the sight before her. Sayori then entered the room, smile beaming from her face.
"Hey girls, I'm here now. Ooo~ Pancakes."
"Not pancakes!" Natsuki barked back. "Helltaker is gonna push my pet peeves so much, I swear."
"Helltaker?" Yuri asked.
"Puzzle game slash dating sim hybrid, emphasis on puzzle. Free on Steam. Harem of demon girls." Sayori explained plainly. "Right?"
Monika nodded. "She's right. It was free so I ended up trying it out. Catchy music."
"Yeah, and they referred to what is obviously crepes as pancakes." Natsuki said with annoyance. "Speaking of..." Natsuki flipped the crepe expertly off-handedly. "Yuri, powdered sugar."
Yuri handed Natsuki the sifter filled with powdered sugar as Natsuki dexterously rolled up the finished crepe, placing it on the pile of equally well made crepes. After a quick dusting of sugar, Natsuki presented the group with today's sweet treat. "Behold!"
Monika and Sayori clapped.
"Now then…dig in?" Yuri asked.
And so they did.
Compiler's Commentary:
36.1: Yggdrasil isn't ready for the straight fire that would result if Monika and Pearl went head-to-head on a beat.
36.2: Damien like "Nah brah I'm just here for the free food." Valid.
36.3: Easily the chillest boot camp Monika has ever been to. Commander Shepard would be disappointed.
36.4: Don't worry, Natsuki actually does like Waspinator, if only because he's Sayori's friend. She just has an image to uphold.
36.5: Sayori's come a long way since that time she accidentally folded her own sprite in-wait shit I wasn't supposed to tell anyone about that .
36.6: WELL THAT'S NOT OMINOUS AT ALL.
36.7: Yuri Ojou-laughs at your basic bitch "aesthetics"
36.8: Most any sane person wouldn't risk trying to pull a mob of cuccos out of a burning building. More dangerous than trying to pull a drowning person out of the water, that is. But Sayori's always been too nice for her own good. Even the savage cucco respects this unconditional compassion, which probably makes Sayori the most dangerous person in Hyrule this Loop…
36.9: After this harrowing experience, Natsuki gave Monika a heartfelt apology for that one Loop.
36.10: Through the long eons and the occasional glitch, it is friendship that keeps the Literature Club going strong.
36.11: Sadly, that's all there is for "Mon-Ika the Octoling" so far. Haven't seen dancingRibbons on the threads for a while, so who knows. Ah well, that's how these things go sometimes.
36.12: FORESHADOWING! Maybe. Maybe not. Sometimes crepes are just crepes, y'know?