Sayori had been a bit more… off today which admittedly made Kris extremely nervous, they cursed themself for either not hanging out with her today or not getting Noelle to. Not their best choice ever. But now, it was time to talk to her and share poems.
"Ah, hey.." Sayori greeted with a soft voice, holding her poem out. Kris lightly grabbed it and presented their own poem which she obviously took in return.
Now, all they needed to do was quickly skim and give some sort of generic feedback, they'd already read this poem so-
Kris's eyes widened, this wasn't Bottles from the base game, this was something different!
A Rose
A little red rose sat in a field.
Alone, it was.
All sad,
And hurt.
A yellow tulip sprouted.
And they befriended the rose.
After many days, the two were friends!
Actually… something was wrong.
A pounding went through the red rose.
As the yellow tulip turned golden.
And proved it was too good to be true.
And
Wait, why was the tulip now a bluebell?
Alright, this was interesting. No one's poem from yesterday was different, Natsuki's and Yuri's poems today weren't either. What happened to Sayori?
The poem itself seemed more akin to Dear Sunshine, it seemed to be Sayori and MC, actual MC, not Kris. Well, not until the end. They were the bluebell, MC was the tulip and Sayori was the rose.
But Kris had something else to worry about, their poem. It would probably seem cryptic to others but it was obvious to them what it was about, it was the thing only one knew about. They almost winced at thinking of that damned blurry face again. It had felt like so long yet not long at all since that happened.
Mind, Body, SOUL
The mind of a curious one.
One who wanted nothing but to exist.
Ceased.
The moment they were created.
Their mind shattered.
And there I was
However, this didn't do for HIM.
It needed to be fixed.
Quick!
Find a new body.
And there I was.
The SOUL.
It enters the body.
Takes over your mind.
And there I was.
"Uh, Kris. Are you okay?" Sayori was not subtle when asking, Kris wanted to sarcastically respond with something like 'not really' but that wasn't the best idea. Rather, they just nodded while trying to come up with some thoughts.
"Yea, just uh… felt like being cryptic. If that makes sense." They said, honestly regretting their choice of poem. "The metaphors are difficult to get and I think we should move onto yours."
"If you say so!" Sayori put a smile back on her face from the looks of things. "I wanted to try a pattern, only to break it. Kind of like what Natsuki did yesterday."
Kris nodded as a form of response. "I liked how panicked the end was, everything was broken and the flowers were wrong."
"Thanks!" Sayori held her hand and poem out for Kris to grab it, they did and returned Sayori's poem to her as well. That was relatively successful.
But it was time to see more people.
Similarly, Noelle was also regretting her poem topic. She wrote it when upset and sentimental, now she had to share it. And with Monika of all people, the one who apparently was way too aware of reality. The poem itself wasn't even that subtle in Noelle's opinion, not like they had to be but hopefully no one –especially not Monika or angel forbid Kris– would be able to tell what the poem was about.
"Ah, hi Noelle!" Monika greeted with her usual slightly-off politeness. "How's the writing going?"
"Well when I wrote this one it was with my girlfriend right next to me so literally perfect!" is what Noelle wanted to say but she didn't. Rather she cleared her throat a little and thought of a more normal response.
"It's going good, I think."
"Happy to hear that you're applying yourself, maybe you'll crank out a masterpiece one day?" Monika responded, pulling her poem out and handing it to Noelle who grabbed it and hesitantly gave her own.
Noelle declared that she'd read Monika's poem before even thinking about looking at her opinion!
Line
Cross the line
From one side
To another side
A set story
Could always
Be
Rewritten
By the
Simple placement
Of one
Little line
Follows it is the other lines
Lines upon lines upon lines upon lines upon lines upon lines upon lines
Can I
Crossover
To the other
end
Of
The
Line?
This poem felt… off. Noelle couldn't figure out what it was but something about it didn't feel right, like it wasn't supposed to be there. It was oddly abstract even compared to yesterdays!
"Hm, seems to be implementing her backstory as well…" A muttering voice snapped Noelle out of her thoughts, Monika was reading the poem in her hands and understably thinking about it but.. Backstory? What?
Noelle winced at the sight of the poem as she recalled it.
December
It was a cold day.
A day in December.
We found a place.
On the 20th of December.
You went missing.
It was a bad December.
Five days and stages of grief.
Until the 25th of December.
More are picked off.
Yet I miss you.
Jeez, talk about obviousness. Not only that but the general subject of the poem was-
"Noelle?" It was Monika.
"Hey!" Noelle jumped back at the sudden voice, this time actually being snapped out of her thoughts. "How'd you like it?"
Goddamn it, why did she ask that?
"Well I liked your metaphor choice. It's sad when something happens to you around a time that you love, you long for the days when you aren't reminded of that event but can't have them again." Monika rested her arms on her chin while she spoke. It was almost unnerving the way she was doing it.
But that wasn't the main point. The main point was how relieved Noelle was that Monika took the poem completely the wrong way. Normally that'd be frustrating but here that was perfect.
"Heh, well it's a feeling that happens." Yep, keep lying Noelle. "Now, yours."
The poem did make Noelle slightly uncomfortable but by the end of the day, it was just a poem. A poem that did kind of break reality and could possibly be talking about how Noelle and the others got here from the Light World and how Monika could possibly want to escape but it was just a poem in the end.
"It honestly creeped me out a little but I could relate to wanting to escape somewhere." A small pause and the sentimental jar had been opened. "I've always wanted to escape this place for a city or something along those lines, you know?"
"I get it, don't worry." Monika reassured, walking closer to Noelle and re-exchanging poems. Noelle was about to turn around to walk to someone else but Monika put her hand on her shoulder and stopped her.
"This wasn't about the month, was it?" A whisper in her ear. "Hope you find her."
Monika walked away and Noelle froze. How did she guess?
The SOUL is now viewing: The DDLC Characters.
As the literature club disbanded for the day, Monika could only watch.