This was, in retrospect, perhaps not the best idea.

"Mmm…" Sayori mumbles as she slowly rises from her bed, my arrival apparently having woken her from an uneasy slumber. Uneasy, I suspect, because for some reason she left her lights on to go to sleep. "Who…?"

I quickly attempt to tiptoe out of the room before I'm noticed, but the hinges of Sayori's door could clearly use some oil, as they squeak something fierce when I try to pull it open. I hastily whirl back around to find the owner of the room now fully sat up, staring at me head on.

"Monika…?" Sayori asks blankly, blinking her still slightly-lidded eyes repeatedly.

I flinch, internally panicking. It looks like she's still somewhere in the twilight realm between wakefulness and sleep, but that's not going to last more than a few seconds. How the hell am I supposed to explain my suddenly popping up in her room apropos of nothing?! Think! Think! Think-

An idea comes to me. A really dumb idea. But it's all I've got, so I guess I have no choice.

I straighten up and do my best to smile.

"Sayoriiii~" I start, sing-song.

"Huh?"

"This is your subconscious speaking~" I intone, cringing a little on the inside at actually having said that. "You forgot to write your poem for club tomorrow, didn't you?"

It takes a second, but Sayori's eyes spring open almost comically as the statement fully registers. Seeming to go into a minor panic, she tangles herself up in her sheets and all but falls out of the bed in her scramble to get up. Conveniently, this puts her almost face down on the floor, briefly removing me from her line of sight.

"I see you remember now~" I giggle as I write another iteration of scene bg kitchen into the code window. "Make sure to turn your lights off when you go back to sleep. Bye bye~!"

I activate the line just as Sayori stumbles to her feet, and I'm immediately back in the protagonist's kitchen again.

Well… that worked out, I suppose. All's well that ends well. That was a silly little diversion, wasn't it? Ha. Ha.

Ha…

I walk to the table at the center of the room and slowly pull myself out a chair. Dropping down on to the hard, uncomfortable wood of the seat, I prop my elbows up on the table, and promptly bury my face in my hands.

Okay, so clearly I got a little overzealous there, and not really for any good reason. I'm stressed. This is a stressful situation. I'm bound to do some stupid things. No harm done; the game is still going, and Sayori, while no doubt a bit confused, hopefully didn't realize I was actually there. With any luck she'll write me off as a product of her dreams or something. No big deal.

…oh, who am I kidding? None of that even remotely excuses the senselessness of what I just did. Why the hell was I so desperate for a snack that I was acting that recklessly? I don't think I can blame that one on Monika's body or feelings or anything, that was just pure impulsiveness and a total lack of thinking things through. 100 percent my own fault… and why did I say bye when I was pretending to be in Sayori's head?! What was I thinking?!

I groan and lower my face fully on to the table, forehead pressing into the wood as my ponytail flops forward over the front of my head.

That was just... many, many poor choices made in sequence, one after the other. I really don't know why it didn't occur to me that Sayori would probably be at home right now. I mean in fairness, the MC isn't in his home right now, but-

Or maybe he is.

In a flash, I'm on my feet, eyes scanning frantically around the room. There's nothing to see though — the house remains still and silent as the grave, save for my own heavy breathing.

After several seconds of minor panic, I sit back down and let my head thump back onto the table again. Great, now I'm jumping at shadows. No, not even shadows, the prospect of shadows. Why am I even worried about the guy potentially being here? What the hell is he going to do about it either way? Calm down…

I remain in my rather awkward resting position for another minute or two before eventually coming to a simple conclusion — I think, perhaps, I need to step back and just try to decompress for a little while. While I do really want to get out of here, and I technically haven't even been here that long, as things stand I managed to whip myself into a frenzy over food, something I probably don't even need given the reality I'm ostensibly a part of right now, and it almost got me into serious trouble. In fact, it did get me into trouble, I just managed to somehow poorly improvise my way out of it. I did say I wanted a respite from the script trying to make me dance to its tune anyways, and given the endless amount of time I theoretically have before the game resumes, there's no good reason not to take a break now, right…?

I glance over at the entrance hall. Maybe I should take a look around the rest of this place as part of said break? There does seem to be a complete building here after all, and maybe there's something around here that could help me relax a little… not to mention I should probably make sure this house is actually empty before I decide to just settle down in it for however long. Whether or not the protagonist could actually remove me from here, I'd rather not end up dealing with any more unexpected surprises, especially ones that I could easily avoid.

Course of action decided, I stand and move into the entrance hall, slipping my shoes off near the door as I do. Continuing into the next room over, I find myself in what appears to be a fairly basic foyer. There's a couch with some pillows, a large rug, a couple of lamps, some miscellaneous shelves, and a large TV on the center back wall. Nothing special, but it seems perfectly functional, as living rooms go.

My immediate instinct is to try to turn on the television. Even once I locate the remote and do so however, it turns out that there's nothing on but static.

Horrifying, loud, cacophonous static.

I quickly turn it back off and wrap my arms around myself, shuddering. Too much like The Void... god I hope that hasn't permanently traumatized me.

That potential method of stress relief definitively ruined, I leave through the other doorway and enter the dining room I walked into earlier. Much like the foyer, it's serviceable, but basic, with some cabinets on the walls to hold china, and a large table on a patterned rug placed in the center of the room. It actually seems a little odd to me that there's a full sized table in here, since the one in the kitchen seems to be set up as a substitute for that. Maybe that one is meant for food preparation? Weird.

Regardless, there's nothing of any real interest to me here, so I leave, ending up back in the entrance hall again. To my right is a set of stairs leading to the second floor, which I decide to take, since I've apparently already been through the entirety of downstairs. I guess this place isn't as large as I thought it was.

Upstairs appears to consist of a split hallway, with two doors on the left and one on the right. Opening the first door on the left, I find myself stepping into a standard, if rather large bathroom, complete with toilet, sink, and a separate bath and shower.

Well, I guess it's nice to know there at least IS a bathroom, in the event that I need to use one. Although…

I look down. Monika's body looks back up.

...you know, it hasn't really been on my mind all that much that I've been in a girl's body since finding myself here. I've kind of had more important things to think about, and most of my actions and movements have been "directed" due to the script anyways, so it hasn't really been much of a concern. Even now though, I'm not as unsettled by this as I might have expected — maybe the fact that I don't look all that dissimilar from Monika even normally has something to do with that? I mean, we may as well have the same hairstyle, and even in terms of overall body shape, this just... genuinely isn't all that different. I guess I should be thankful that this isn't as weird as it could be?

I glance at my reflection in the glass door of the nearby shower. An animesque, three-dimensional image of Monika, about as perfect and detailed as one could possibly imagine, glances back.

...no, no, it's still pretty weird. Thankfully though, there's no reason to think about this overly much. Given the nature of the world I'm in, I doubt I'll ever need to use the toilet or take a bath, and the school uniform is all Monika has to wear anyways, so it's not like changing is an issue. It's still a little awkward, but… well, it's workable.

All the same, let's try not to dwell on this too much. Okay, me?

Resuming my self-guided tour of the house, I enter the door across the hall to find a large, rather empty-looking bedroom, with a bed spacious enough for at least two people to comfortably recline upon. There's another bathroom in the back, smaller than the one directly accessible from the hallway, as well as a vanity, a nightstand, a mostly-empty walk in closet, and a pair of large windows that take up most of the back wall.

I guess this is for the protagonist's probably-nonexistent parents? Even if they do exist, they must be pretty boring people, considering how spartan their room is. The bed admittedly looks a bit inviting, but I'm not even remotely tired, and I can't imagine these clothes would be very comfortable to sleep in anyways. Moving on.

On the other end of the hallway is the house's final room, which I highly suspect I already know the contents of. Pushing open the door, my suspicions are proved correct as I find myself in the MC's bedroom, which looks nigh-identical to how I remember it from Yuri's home visit scene. A combination bookshelf and TV stand is pressed flush to the left wall, filled with books of various colors and sizes, while at the back is a small closet, accompanied by a two drawer nightstand and a neatly made, if slightly small bed to its immediate right. In the remaining corner of the room is a computer desk, complete with a couple of random notebooks resting on the side, and a rather fancy looking flatscreen desktop placed upon its surface.

My eyes light up at the sight of the computer. That could be useful...

Plopping myself down in the accompanying swivel chair, I locate the power button, begin the boot up process, and wait patiently for the computer to start. All goes well until I'm confronted with a login screen — one which I obviously do not know the password for. I try entering the default blank space, followed by the prototypical 'password', but both immediately fail.

I roll the chair backwards a bit, clicking my tongue in irritation. There's no hint offered or anything, so I doubt I have any way of guessing my way in as things stand. Disappointing… but just as well I suppose; the computer probably wouldn't work any better than the TV did anyways. Maybe I can find a book to read?

Skimming over the nearby shelves for anything of interest proves to be both bizarre and pointless, as none of the books actually have titles. The bindings are just sheets of brightly colored cardboard, with no other distinction to their surfaces. I take one out anyways and open it to a random page, only to find that it has no words inside of it either.

Figures. For all this world's fleshing out of a building that wasn't seen beyond two of its rooms, it apparently couldn't be too bothered to sweat the smaller details.

Frowning, I sigh loudly and move to the bed, propping myself up with the rather lumpy pair of pillows resting upon it.

Is that really everything? I'd have thought there'd at least be an office space, or a spare room or something... also, this house seems way too clean for a place so relatively small, to the point that it doesn't really feel lived in.

I shift positions, trying to make myself slightly more comfortable. Come to think of it, maybe this place isn't lived in — the MC's parents never come up in game, and they aren't here now, so I assume they're of "always away on business" variety so typical in anime and games where it'd be inconvenient for them to be around. I've also now confirmed that I am indeed alone in this house, so apparently even the protagonist himself doesn't live here at night.

...unless perhaps he just hasn't gotten in yet? Sayori was already in bed, but I suppose if we're currently in between Chapter 0 and the poem game, that might put the MC in limbo until said game actually starts. If I forced the code to continue, would he suddenly "pop in" sitting at his computer desk? Or does that aspect of the game remains an abstraction, and he never actually goes home?

I ponder the question for a good minute or so, fidgeting in place a little as I do, before my interest in the subject dissipates.

Do I have anything else to think about? Anything at all...?

I fish around for a topic, come up short, and promptly bury my face in a pillow.

...yeah, I'm just stalling at this point. Despite playing RPG protagonist and scouring this place from top to bottom, I've found nothing here to occupy myself with aside from my own thoughts. Just about anything would seem preferable to actually confronting the enormity of my problems right now, but it's hard to relax when there's nothing to really use to distract my brain from them. Ergh…

I briefly debate the virtues of attempting meditation or something of the like so as to allow me keep putting off the inevitable, before deciding that would be pointless. Sighing for what feels like the umpteenth time this hour, I mentally declare break time to be over, and allow my thoughts to turn to the topic I've been desperately trying to avoid since arriving in the former space classroom — namely, what I'm going to do about my situation as a whole.

If I don't want to stay stuck here forever, I need to figure out a way to get out of this game and out of Monika's body. The "what" is obvious, but the HOW is almost certainly going to be a lot more complicated… I know I should be more focused on escaping than I have been so far, but I barely even know where to begin.

That said, I'm fully aware that no one here is going to help me but myself. As such, I really I have no choice but to take the initiative — in other words, up and at 'em, me! Chop chop!

I toss the pillow off to the side and rise to my feet again, brushing a dangling lock of hair out of my eyes as I do.

I guess, first and foremost, I should find something that I can write stuff down on. There's no way I'm going to be able to keep everything straight in my head after all, and having a record of my thought process sounds like a good idea for something like this.

After thinking about it for a moment, I grab a pencil clipped to one of the notebooks and a random "empty" novel from the shelves. These should do fine — there's nothing written in the book anyways, so it's basically just scratch paper.

Now… maybe I should set myself up somewhere a little more comfortable before getting started? These pillows are horrible. My sympathies to the MC if he actually has to sleep on them.

Abandoning the bedroom, I head back downstairs to the foyer and slide onto the couch. Opening my purloined book, I write "Potential Escape Methods" at the top of the first page, and ready my pencil.

Okay… let's see…

…

…an amendment to my previous statement of "barely knowing where to begin" — I do not know where to begin, full stop. Assuming the previous… solution I thought of regarding my .chr file is wrong, I'm back to the exact same question as before: how can I possibly plan to get out of here, when I don't even know how I got IN here? There was no introduction or explanation or the like leading into this, I was just suddenly Monika. Without some sort of basic foundation, there's nothing for me to build theories off of, nothing to work with...

I wrack my brain, trying to come up with something, anything I can use to at least provide a starting point.

I... guess I've seen this sort of scenario in books before, right? Games and movies too, if somewhat less often. I kind of hate that I'm looking to fiction for ideas here, but admittedly this is a pretty fictitious-seeming scenario, so maybe that's exactly where I should be looking?

Deciding that's a decent enough reason to follow this line of thought, I try to think back to any fiction I've encountered wherein someone gets sucked into another world.

Hmm… in my experience, typically there either is no way back for the displaced characters, and they just sort of have to live with it, or there's some sort of goal that they need to achieve before they're allowed to go back to where they came from. Hopefully the former scenario doesn't apply here, but the latter qualifies as an idea, right? Maybe I can expand on that.

Drawing my legs up from the floor on to the couch cushions, I maneuver myself into a slightly more comfortable position before proceeding.

Alright, let's assume that whatever placed me in here did so for an actual reason. In that case, what could I potentially accomplish under the circumstances that could qualify as an "escape clause"? What could someone or something possibly want me to do within the world of Doki Doki Literature Club?

I take a brief moment to write out a few answers that immediately leap to mind.

(-) Finish the game/allow the game to finish naturally.
(-) Get all of the other girls to a state of self-awareness.
(-) Somehow create a "Monika" path?

My small smile at getting something written down turns into a grimace mere seconds later — I don't like this list very much so far. The first bullet is just the prototypical "objective" for sucked-into-video-game scenarios, but there's at least half a chance that going through the steps to complete this game would literally get me killed. For obvious reasons, I'm not exactly fond of the idea of letting myself be "deleted" in the blind hope that doing so will somehow let me escape from here.

...although I guess from a certain perspective, that isn't actually wrong.

I close my eyes and quickly shake my head. No, let's not go there, especially since there's a distinct possibility that this is the "Actual Dating Sim" (or ADS) version of Doki Doki Literature Club, and letting things progress normally would not in fact involve my file being excised from existence... although even then, it would still be a serious risk. After all, if I let the player finish the game, they'll likely stop playing, and if I'm wrong about that being the escape method, then I'll still be in here when they do... which would in turn leave me stuck in The Void for all eternity.

A violent shiver runs down my spine. I didn't even think about that until just now — regardless of whatever else I do, I need to keep the player invested enough that they keep playing the game. If I don't, I won't even have the chance to escape, because I'll be permanently stuck in a virtual hell, forever teetering on the verge of nonexistence. Hopefully this player isn't the type to easily lose interest in things…

I turn my thoughts away from that for the time being and look back down at bullets two and three, which frankly aren't much better than bullet one. Even assuming that the girls have actual minds and aren't just walking, talking mouthpieces for the script, I'm not sure how I'm supposed to make them aware of the situation when said script refuses to let them hear me outside of what it wants me to say. As for creating a "Monika path", Monika herself very explicitly attempted to do just that, only to find it essentially impossible, and I don't expect I'd have much better luck on that front if she put in that much effort and still couldn't manage it. Worse, even if I succeeded, that would put me on a romance path with the MC, which is just… blech. I mean, this is a pretty tame game in that respect, and if it means getting out of here then I might just have to suck it up, but still, definitely not my thing.

Propping my cheek up with my hand, I struggle to come up with something else to add. Three items does not a list make, but I can't think of much I imagine would be "desirable" as a long-term goal, particularly given that I've been placed in here as Monika and not as the main character.

I also greatly dislike how everything I've written down so far is based on, essentially, trying to appease some theoretical entity by fulfilling an equally theoretical objective, which I wasn't actually told about and could be completely arbitrary in the event that it even exists. I'm betting a lot on guessing the intentions of my being here correctly, and I feel as though I should be severely disinclined to cater to the whims of the thing that placed me in this situation to begin with. Maybe…

I add another item.

(-) Revolt against the game so badly, that whatever put me in here gets tired of it and tosses me back out.

AKA the "temper tantrum" strategy. Not sure if it'd actually work, but I certainly have a lot more options for pulling it off than I do the other potential plans. I write down a few off the top of my head underneath:

(a) Actively change the script via the code window, making conversations nonsensical.
(b) Do anything possible to make the game's events proceed differently than they should, preferably to the point that it can't "re-rail" itself.
(c) Eliminate(?) the protagonist so the player has no window through which to view the world, making the game effectively impossible to play.

That last one is kind of morbid, but of all the characters to do that to, the MC would be the one I'd feel least guilty about — he has no .chr file, so I'm not sure he qualifies as "real" even by the standards of the game. It would crush Sayori though, unless I managed to figure out Monika's memory erasure trick… and it could lead to the same problem as the "game completion" idea actually, as without the main character, there's no game, and thus no player. Think I'll hold off on that one for now.

I scribble an addendum of "(last resort)" next to that final option, and sigh once again.

All of these are still based on the unproven notion that whatever put me in here is actively paying attention to what I'm doing, and can or will potentially take me back out if I take appropriate action. Not to mention I've just been implicitly assuming that said whatever possesses a human perspective, which I probably shouldn't, since I can't really imagine a human being able to do this. As a result, everything I've posited so far may be barking up the entirely wrong tree — but if I remove the hypothetical cause from the equation, then what does that leave me with…?

A full minute goes by before I tentatively add one more item to the list.

(-) Remove my personal .chr file from the game folder.

…I could probably do this now, if I really wanted to. If the entirety of my being is truly encapsulated within " " right now, then there's no reason I shouldn't be able to just cut and paste myself right out of the DDLC folder via the command prompt. The problem is, I have no idea if I'll be able to "run" outside of the game, and even in the event that I can, that just lands me in… someone's computer, I suppose.

I blink. Come to think of it, this probably isn't my computer, since I'm the only one who even uses it. Ignoring how I was apparently digitized in the first place, how did I end up in someone else's machine…?

Noticing my thoughts wandering off topic, I do my best to refocus — the point is, even if moving my .chr file worked, I wouldn't really escape my situation by doing so, I just wouldn't be in the game anymore, which itself would prevent me from being able to even try any of my other prospective plans. I guess I could keep it in mind as an emergency measure, but is there anything else I could potentially execute from in here?

I stare up at the ceiling for a moment.

I suppose… I could try to speak directly to the player again, assuming that the script isn't blocking my words from being seen on screen the same way it seems to be blocking me from being heard by any of the other characters. But again, assuming they're even sympathetic to my plight in the first place, what exactly do I expect them to do for me? Build me an android body and transfer me inside of it? Cast a magic spell to pull me out of the computer? Realistically, there's not a lot I expect they can do to help.

…well, maybe that's not entirely true. At the least they could probably use the internet to find out if this has happened to anyone else, unlikely as that sounds, and they do currently serve the rather critical purpose of preventing me from falling back into The Void by continuing to play the game. Assuming that this is ADS DDLC, it also might be possible to test the idea of just letting the game complete if I can get the player to agree to not simply stop after finishing it. The problem is, I don't know what kind of person the player is, or if they'd believe I'm not just part of the game, so it might be better to just… not…

I trail off mid-thought as the world around me noticeably dims. Huh? What the- did something start the scene transition?!

I hastily check the code window — the file has changed. We're now in script-poemgame .rpy, and the cursor is...

show black as fadeout:
====}}} alpha 0
====linear 1.0 alpha 1.0
pause 1.0
return

The poem game is finishing up. The poem game is finishing up. Why?! I was all but certain the game was waiting on me to write my own poem for the night! Did it just get fed up with that for some reason, or-

The cursor hits return, just as I look down at the page that I've been writing my escape plans on. Oh, you have got to be KIDDING ME-