"Thanks, Noelle. I know I kind of forced you into this, so-"
"Kris, it's fine, I want to help." Noelle Interrupted while picking up some speed. "Now where do we meet this Sayori girl?"
"In this classroom, I think." Kris pointed at a random classroom and opened the door. Inside was indeed Sayori. Sayori seemed to be searching around for someone, that someone being right there.
"Kris, are you here?" Sayori turned around to see the person she was looking for, standing with someone else.
"Yes, I am." Kris felt themself getting a bit more uncomfortable with this whole thing, but they kept going. "And one of my friend's wanted to join..us." They pointed at Noelle who did a small and shy wave.
"No way, you actually have friends?" Sayori did an exaggerated gasp and put her arms up in the air before smiling and turning towards Noelle. "Oh my god, it's so nice to meet you! What's your name? This school doesn't have that many monsters, what's it like being one?"
Noelle wasn't exactly prepared for the stranger's bombarge of questions but she answered each one to the best of her abilities.
"We need to go to the club, now." Kris reminded the two girls, Sayori panicked a bit and made the Lightners follow her. Up they went to a different floor then the group was already on, they were met with a door that led to a room that had three people inside of it. Before anyone could say anything or back out at the last second, Sayori swung open the door.
"Everyone, I ended up getting two members instead of one!" She announced to the group of now familiar characters. It..was all actually happening.
"Welcome to the Literature Club, it's a pleasure to meet you both!" A first figure spoke up in a soft but inviting manner, another woman, this one with a similar uniform to Sayori and the newcomers, just that her blazer was closed this time, the other two strangers had it the same. She swiftly moved past as a much shorter girl trotted forward with a sour but curious expression.
"Well, I suppose the atmosphere or whatever that word was won't be killed." She smiled.
What on earth did that mean?
"A-Ah, Kris…N-Noelle, what nice surprises! I didn't expect to see you two here!" A third girl walked up to Kris and Noelle, a hand on her hip and an unsure smile. She gave out a small bit of nervous laughter. "Welcome to the club!"
At this point, any form of words had escaped both Noelle and Kris. This..was the literature club. Kris gazed over at Noelle, they wanted to tell her a lot of things like "Don't say their names yet, they're strangers." or "This is Yuri, the one that is supposed to go insane because of Monika's influence, this is Natsuki, the only sane person here and this is Monika, our misunderstood antagonist." but they figured that Noelle already understood.
"What are you even looking at?!" Natsuki called out, her pink eyes darting towards Noelle as she put both her hands on her hips. Noelle jumped slightly at the raised voice, put her arms up to almost her cheek and shut her eyes.
"S-Sorry…I just don't uhh…" Noelle hurried for an excuse. "D-Don't see people with bright pink and dark purple hair and eyes that often…heh.." That was a straight lie.
"You're literally-." Natsuki knew what she was doing, but was interrupted.
"Hey!"
"Jeez, I was joking."
"...Mh." Noelle put her arms to the side at the remark, holding back anything. She went to walk over to Kris for some sort of emotional support but sadly for dear Noelle, they'd already been entangled in a conversation with Monika.
"So, what made you consider the Literature club?" She asked, still trying to get over the awkwardness of this all. Kris simply stared back with their usual blank face which probably didn't help Monika at all, considering that she didn't know them beforehand.
"I like books." They affirmed.
Monika simply sighed in frustration. "Just come with me."
And just like that, the two walked out, leaving Noelle alone in the clubroom with three strangers. One that would bombard her at any moment, one that already hated her and one that didn't seem interested in talking to her in the slightest. She noticed how there was a table made up of six desks that had been formed probably a slight bit earlier, so she sat down.
Noelle simply stared at her feet, trying not to let the nerves or other feelings get to her. To be fair, she had a right to be angry at what Natsuki had said, she wasn't insecure about the whole Deer thing but she sometimes got worked up when it was mentioned, specifically a certain pun people would always make. Noelle secretly hoped that this Dark World was a dream as she placed her head on the desk.
"Noelle" A voice roared out from the distance of where she stood, she glanced over at the Ferris Wheel, then her friend, then the ground and the Ferris Wheel once again.
"Who..is it?"
"Me" The otherworldly voice, the universal mother, called out to her, she wanted her.
"Who goes there?!" Another voice –familiar this time– pounded out, the sound of a Halberd being pulled out could be heard among many other things.
She simply fell to the ground and covered her ears as a not so pleasant discussion unfolded, the muffling noises filling her with a horrible, exploding feeling and an unknown power.
A power that amplified at the sound of a wire, a plug.
A SCREAM FOR HELP.
"Who are you?" Monika inquired from the hallway as she stared at the short person.
"Kristmas Dreemurr, and you?" Kris snickered, wanting to get today over with. Sure they loved adventure, especially these ones but this one was just long and tedious.
"No, I mean… You aren't from this world, are-"
"Heeey Monikaaaaa!" An overly chipper and high pitch voice that had clearly been forced called out. A silhouette person ran up to Monika, they had long hair and a phone in their hands. Suddenly, they stopped and something about the person's demeanour changed. "Who is this?"
"Oh, Friend 1." Monika's voice dripped with disappointment and Kris just stood there, confused as hell. Who on earth was this?
"Hey Monika, why don't we go back to the debate club?" Friend 1 suggested and Monika shook her head. "Better off with me than those low-lives. Especially the pink one."
"You aren't even real." Monika stated and a battle was initiated.
"Alright, just listen to me." Kris instructed as Monika's face quickly shifted to one of confusion. "This isn't too hard."
Friend 1 blocks your way!
Kris ACT Be Confused
Monika M-Action
"Who even are you?" Kris asked, partially imitating Monika from earlier.
"Doesn't matter. Low life." Friend 1 cackled.
"Shut up, you're from a timeline that never happened!" Monika defended, Friend 1's spirit, her SOUL, went slightly more YELLOW.
Friend 1 started tapping away at her phone, words started pouring out of it and at the two, who dodged to the best of their abilities.
"Do that again." Kris commanded.
Kris Defend
Monika M-Action
Kris put up their shield, raising the party's Tension Points, just in case. Meanwhile, Monika blabbed out more stuff about Friend 1 not being real.
Friend 1 attacked again as she sent a selection of black squares flying.
The two repeated the cycle of ACTing and dodging until Friend 1's name turned YELLOW.
Kris SPARE Friend 1
Friend 1 walked away as the battle ended, muttering something about "Coming back with the other."
"Oh jeez…I am so sorry." Monika put her hand on her chest and turned to face Kris, who was just looking at her again. They nodded in response and signalled for Monika to follow them back to the clubroom.
"We still need to talk!" Monika insisted as she started following them anyway.
"Noelle." Kris reminded her that Noelle was indeed still in there and had just been in an argument with Natsuki.
Kris looked down at the ground remembering that that had happened, they wished that they could have helped but Monika dragged them out here instead. I mean, what kind of friend prioritises a stranger over one of their best-
"I WON'T BECOME YOUR NEW KNIGHT, LET HIM GO!"
"...Noelle!" Kris panicked as they sprinted towards the clubroom. Monika was no longer getting any priority.
Although they weren't there for when it had happened, Noelle had had a particular dream enough times to tell Kris what happened and that sounded exactly like it.
At least it was actually a dream that time.