When the darkness passes and the world returns, I once again find myself sitting somewhere that I wasn't just a few seconds ago. This time I'm not at a desk however, and am instead seated in front of a large piano in the center of a wide, well-lit room. There's a large chalkboard with a series of music notes written on it directly to my right, and my fingers are splayed out upon the piano's keys, as if I'm just about to begin a performance. Just looking at the instrument in front of me prompts the compulsion to begin playing it.
It's not too difficult to brush off this time however, as I'm currently far more focused on being pissed as all hell.
Did the game seriously just accept my escape methods list as a "poem"? Not only should that not have qualified, I wasn't even finished with it! This stupid, impatient little-!
"You freaking-! I'm gonna-! GAAAAAHHH!" I scream, throwing my hands into the air in anger and bringing them back down on top of the piano's closed lid, causing a loud *BANG* to resound throughout the empty room. I immediately feel bad about treating the instrument so poorly, and force myself to still, seething but unmoving.
…alright, new rule. Next time I end up in a "pause", no writing things down allowed. It'll make it really difficult to keep my thoughts organized, but apparently it's necessary, lest the game misinterpret my intentions and force me into the next day before I even manage to finalize a real plan of action. Unbelievable…
My anger slowly dwindles as I look down at the piano again. Looks like I've been jumped straight to the middle of Monika's study hall/piano practice. I've never actually taken the time to learn an instrument before, but my mind is telling me that I do indeed know how to play the rather enormous one that currently stands before me, which is annoying, but also kind of novel. Instant basic piano proficiency… wonder if I'll keep that if- when I get out of here?
My hands push themselves back towards the keyboard as my attention drifts. I hesitate when I notice, ready to pull away again, but…
You know what? Fine. This could be kind of interesting.
My fingers begin a slow, measured dance over the piano keys, producing a tune that I instantly recognize as Doki Doki Literature Club's main theme, albeit a little more solemn than I'm used to due to the lack of any other musical accompaniment. A set of lyrics to accompany it pops into my head… which I don't recognize in the slightest. Huh? I'd have thought that-
Before I can even finish reacting, a second set of lyrics leap to mind, cramming themselves in next to the first set in an effort to make room at the front of my thought process. These ones are infinitely more familiar to me, as they're the ones I was expecting to begin with — the words to Monika's parting song, Your Reality. Wait, what the hell? Why is the script pushing two separate versions-
Before I can think about it in any real depth, the timing for the first line arrives. Making a snap pick between my apparent options, I close my eyes and begin to sing.
"Every day, I imagine a future where, I can be with you…"
"In my hand, is a pen that will write a poem of me and you…"
Deciding to briefly put off reacting to this latest weirdness, I let my body be steered through the song, actually rather enjoying it for the moment. Perhaps that's evidence of Monika's emotions sneaking in again, but she really does have a nice voice, if not exactly what I would've imagined while playing through the game, and singing is… well, I've always liked singing. Wish I'd thought of it while I was still back at the MC's house; I could have tried some songs that have always been just a bit too high for me before.
The less familiar lyrics begin to fade from mind as I continue, and by the time I've reached the song's rather somber final line, they're all but completely gone. As I play out the final few notes, I give myself several seconds to simply sit and process things, before inhaling deeply and standing up from the bench.
That was interesting, in more ways than one. While I barely remember anything from that first set of lyrics, far more important than their content is simply the fact that they existed at all. I do recall that the opening line was "Every day, is a brand new adventure when, you are here with us…", which sounds much less personal than its counterpart's equivalent. Maybe that was supposed to be sung in the "normal" version of the game?
If that is the case though, which I can't be certain of, then why did I receive the lyrics to Your Reality as well? In fact, did I even "receive" them, or was that just my own memory providing the words? It's kind of hard to tell the difference between the script and my own thoughts as is when they aren't completely disparate. And since Monika's practice never happened on screen, this would have to be part of that "hidden script", or whatever is is, meaning that checking the current file won't help...
I puzzle over the question for few moments more. I don't think that was coming from just me; I only listened to DDLC's ending song twice, and by no means memorized the words. I'm still not certain however, since the script providing me with two similar-but-different variants of the same song simultaneously makes very little sense. That's rather irritating... especially since, if I'd received the lyrics to Your Reality on their own, it could have all but confirmed that I'm in the "Psych-Horror" (or PH) version of DDLC, not the ADS one. After all, unless the game was always meant to revolve around Monika, the song makes no sense, particularly the third verse since it's explicitly about Monika's regret over what she did and her choice to "leave you be". Logically, that verse couldn't have been written by her before any of that actually happens, and thus shouldn't exist on Day 2 — unless Monika doing what she did was a given, because she wasn't really self-aware, and Your Reality was written into the game from the start. On the flip side, receiving the other version of the song wouldn't have been quite as strong evidence for the opposing view of this being ADS DDLC, but at least I wouldn't be this confused. What in the world am I supposed to conclude from this?
The sound of the door closing behind me startles me from my reverie — I didn't even notice, but my body has been moving the entire time I've been thinking, having picked Monika's bag up from somewhere and exited the room. I'm now walking rather swiftly down the hallway, presumably in the direction of the clubroom. Evidently I'm in a bit of a hurry.
Having no good reason to stop myself, I let my feet continue onward, idly noting that my shoes seem to have magically reappeared during the scene transition. You know what, I think I'll just file away the two songs question for the time being. Right now, I'd prefer to get back to what I was so rudely interrupted in doing a few minutes… hours… yesterday ago… what?
I get a quick glance at the interior of an empty classroom as I whip past, the sight of which causes me to realize that I have a hazy recollection of having attended school today. A few specific classes even drift to mind, which I vaguely remember as being almost trivially easy.
…oh, it's just this again. Uh huh, because I'd have absolutely casually strutted out of the MC's house this morning, walked to a building whose location I'm not even sure of, and then calmly gone through the entire school day as if everything is normal right now. This false memories thing is getting real old, real fast.
What was I thinking about before again…? Oh, right, I need to decide which one of those plans I'm going to try first, if any of them, because frankly none of them were exactly ideal. I'd really like to come up with something that isn't pretty much reliant on blind luck to some degree — in which case, perhaps I've been approaching this from the wrong angle? If there's an intent for me to be able to escape, at least eventually, then surely the party responsible wouldn't leave me with no way to figure out how to do so beyond random guessing. Could they have left me some sort of hint, or clue? Possibly even some outright instructions? But where would I look for something like-
Oh, hey, I'm here.
The clubroom is somehow easily recognizable to me even before the script brings me to a stop, despite it looking pretty much just like every other classroom in this school. Not slowing down, I burst inside, throwing the door open hard enough to crash into the wall.
"Ow!"
"Ouch!"
A dual cry of pain rings out as Natsuki accidentally smacks her head into the window she's staring out of, while Yuri jumps in her seat, hitting her knees against the bottom of the desk.
"Monika!" Natsuki cries, swiveling to look at me while holding her forehead. "Don't do that!"
"Indeed. That was… rather startling." Yuri adds, wincing.
Well, you can go ahead and blame the script for that one, along with everything else. That's weird though, are Sayori and the MC not here yet? I thought Monika was supposed to show up late on the second day, after everyone else had long since arrived. I might just be misremembering though, I admit I didn't really pay much attention to-
"Monika? Hello? Anyone in there?" Natsuki restates.
…
…huh? Wait, what, me? Why aren't I saying anything?
"Um, s-sorry?" I belatedly reply, stumbling over the words. "I was just… worried I was going to be late?"
"Well, you're not, so no need to break down the door." Natsuki gripes.
"We should try our best to be respectful of this room, lest the faculty bar us from using it." Yuri gently reprimands, a small, teasing smile growing on her face. "If I recall, you were the one who told us that, Monika."
"Right… my bad." I mutter, caught somewhere between confusion and annoyance.
What the heck? I was just going to let the script do its thing while I kept thinking, but it… stopped? Hang on, does that mean-
"Wait. You... you two can actually hear me?" I ask, stunned.
"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?" Natsuki asks back, looking slightly bewildered. "Of course we can hear you."
"I… believe so?" Yuri replies, seeming equally puzzled. "Am I perhaps misunderstanding the question?"
At the girls' confirmation, I immediately start scrutinizing the code window, which is currently open to script-ch1 .rpy. I probably should have done so earlier, because then I might have noticed that not only is the cursor not moving, it's still at the top of the file — the VERY top, in fact. Either the script changed on me again, or I very definitely was wrong about Monika being late on Day 2, because the first line of dialogue is supposed to be me greeting the main character and saying I'm glad he didn't run off. But he isn't here yet…
My eyes widen. Between everything else competing for my attention I'd sort of forgotten, but this happened last chapter too, didn't it? Once I was standing outside the clubroom door, the script actually stopped prompting me for a bit. It started up again when Sayori and the MC showed up all of 30 seconds later, but it did stop, however briefly — and apparently the same applies today, meaning that I'm free of the script for the moment.
Even better, given that Yuri and Natsuki seem to be able to speak and react to me like actual people, not only does it appear they do indeed have minds and thoughts beyond what the script defines, but they likely are just as free of said script for the moment as I am, and this may be my chance to actually talk with them without anything getting in the way. I mean, unless the script has suddenly decided to directly interact with me in real time by speaking to me through them, but that doesn't seem likely, so I'm going with the interpretation I like better.
"I guess silence means we're not getting an answer." Natsuki says, breaking through my minor stupor. "Feel free to keep being mysterious Monika, but are you coming in, or are you just going to keep standing in the doorway?"
"Oh, uh, yes, I'm coming in!" I hurriedly reply.
Stepping inside, I set Monika's bag down on one of the room's many desks whilst my mind whirls about in a panic.
What do I do? What do I say?! I have to take advantage of this while it lasts, but since the game prematurely shoved me into Day 2 before I was finished fleshing out ideas, I never got around to so much as considering what to say in an event like this! I wasn't even sure a "non-scripted" scene was possible!
"Ah… Miss President?" Yuri says, just as I'm about to pull out the desk's chair. "I hope I'm not overstepping my boundaries, but isn't that where Sayori usually sits?"
Right, of course it is. I quickly move the bag to the next desk over and sit down at that one instead before immediately returning to my frantic planning.
Okay, there's not really time to think up anything more complex than what I already have. Since I maybe-probably just confirmed that the girls can function outside of the game's direct instruction, I guess I should use this time to try and make headway on the "getting them self-aware" idea? I mean, they kind of seem self-aware now to be perfectly honest, but I've been using that term more with respect to understanding the true nature of this world than anything else; "meta-aware" might be a better way to phrase it.
Regardless, if that's what I'm doing, then how exactly do I go about this? Do I just flat out tell them we're in a game which actively controls their actions whenever the club is in session? No, if I say it that bluntly they'll most likely just think I'm nuts. I could probably prove it easily enough with a little code manipulation, but there's surely got to be a better, less on-the-nose way to lead into it-
"You seem really out of it Monika." Natsuki notes, squinting at me. "Are you going to be spacing out like this for the rest of club?"
…ergh, I wasn't really planning to, but apparently, yes! I'm wasting what is most likely an extremely rare and brief opportunity having yet another internal discussion with myself instead of actually doing anything! Just SAY something already!
"Hey, Yuri, Natsuki." I start, turning my chair around to face them. "Have either of you two ever seen The Matrix?"
-and I immediately want to smack myself. Something NON-moronic, idiot!
"The what?" Natsuki looks back, having just started moving towards the closet. "I have no idea what that is Monika."
"The same goes for me." Yuri replies, looking up from searching through her bag for something. "I assume it to be a movie from how you spoke of it, but it isn't one I've ever heard of."
Ugh, guess I'm just going with this…
"Oh?" I ask, feigning surprise. "Well, let me try to briefly summarize it for you: at some point in the near future, humanity manages to create machines with true artificial intelligence, only to ultimately end up going to war with them. Since the machines run on solar power, the humans try to starve their energy source by creating a nuclear winter to block out the sun, only to lose the war anyways soon after doing so. Bereft of their usual power source, the machines decide to use the bioelectricity of the captured humans in its place, keeping all of them permanently sedated by placing their minds in a massive computer simulation of the world as it used to be. The simulation is known as the Matrix, which is where the movie gets its name."
"...blocking out the sun?" Natsuki asks skeptically. "What did they expect to do afterwards if that had worked? Humans kind of need the sun too."
"Bioelectricity does not seem as though it could possibly be the most efficient energy source available." Yuri adds, rather more hesitantly. "Surely there were better options..."
"Er, I wasn't really trying to talk up the movie." I say, slightly embarrassed. "There are some pretty obvious issues with it, and the description I just gave you was more the backstory than the story itself. What I was actually trying to get at is the film's central concept — that the world as we know it is actually a computer program."
"Okay, but why?" Natsuki asks.
I… didn't really plan out what to say past that point.
"Well, uh…" I falter, looking away and nervously grabbing my left arm with my right. "…because there's a serious model of the universe called Simulation Theory which posits exactly that, and I kind of wanted to get your perspectives on it, I suppose?"
I probably could have just come out and said it right there, but the more I talk, the more warning lights seem to start flashing in my brain. Even if I do succeed at making the girls realize we're in a game, how exactly do I expect them to react? If it's not the intended "goal" and I'm not immediately scooped out of here for doing so, I'll have to deal with the resulting fallout, and while I never personally obtained it, I'm fairly sure Sayori isn't exactly happy when she realizes what her world is during the normal ending. In fact, in the "premature" ending where you start the game without Monika's .chr file present, thus forcing Sayori into the club presidency by default, the realization of the world she's living in freaks her out so badly that she immediately deletes everyone that's left, herself included. If I take that as a standard metric, trying to explain things to the girls is most likely just going to end up causing a trio of existential crises, and I can't imagine how the game could possibly keep going with over half the characters busy having meltdowns due to having their entire worldview suddenly overturned.
On top of that, now that I'm more certain that the girls possess minds beyond just what the script makes them say, I'm starting to wonder if code and console access is truly a presidential-exclusive privilege. There's no real reason it should be after all, and I didn't notice either window until I actively looked, so it's possible the others just haven't discovered or made use of them yet because they aren't yet aware they're in a game. If that's true, and I put them in a bad headspace, I could end up causing the premature ending three times over, with myself as a ride-along casualty. I mean, unless the script just made them all... forget, or something. Can it do that?
A thought flashes to mind, and I grimace — given that Monika was able to erase part of Natsuki's memory at one point early in Act 2, the script can most likely do that too, yes. Which I suppose makes it a toss-up as to whether or not Yuri and Natsuki will even remember this conversation a few minutes from now, meaning that this whole endeavor may be pointless one way or the other. Gah, I just want to make some sort of progress without doubting myself every half-second!
"Huh, alright then." Natsuki says with a shrug while I'm still busy catastrophizing. "Kind of a weird topic, but it does sound interesting."
"I wholeheartedly agree." Yuri adds, sounding quite intrigued. "The questioning of one's reality and the inability to be certain what is truly 'real' are both common themes in many of the books I've read. I would be quite happy to discuss-"
The sound of the door opening brings a halt to the conversation. All three of us turn towards it as Sayori's head peeks inside in a strangely timid manner, the rest of her body still hidden behind the door. Her eyes meet mine and seem to widen, prompting me to tilt my head slightly at the unexpected reaction.
"Ah, good afternoon Sayori." Yuri greets.
"Come on in and join us." Natsuki says casually, waving her into the room.
Sayori nods, opening the door in a far more normal manner than I did and slowly walking inside. Her general aura seems a lot more subdued compared to yesterday, though that may just be because Elano isn't here yet.
"Um... hi everyone!" she exclaims with what seems like slightly forced cheer, hesitantly sitting down in the desk next to the one I've claimed.
"Hiya, Sayori." I say offhandedly, realizing I probably should greet her too.
The redhead appears to freeze for a moment, her gaze darting to mine again. Then I blink, and she's looking at Natsuki, leaving me wondering if I just imagined it.
"Elano has cleaning duty, but he'll be here soon." Sayori announces, smiling.
Ah, so that's what's keeping him. Good; the longer it takes him, the better.
"What are you guys talking about?" Sayori asks.
"We were discussing the possibility of the universe being an artificial, potentially even controlled simulation." Yuri excitedly replies. "Speculating on the idea that we live in a realistic, intricate, but ultimately illusory construct which we have been fooled into believing is genuine, when in fact it is not."
I can tell from Sayori's perfectly baffled expression that she didn't manage to follow any of that, at least not in full.
"Essentially, we were talking about the idea that this universe might be... fake, so to speak." I chime in, attempting to simplify Yuri's words. "It's possible that what we think to be our world is actually something more akin to a program — maybe even a game — and we're all just actors inside of it, unaware of its true nature."
One obvious exception aside.
"Um. Okay." Sayori says, clearly unsure. "I think I get it? Sort of?"
"Excellent!" Yuri clasps her hands together, looking utterly delighted. "Then, if I might start?"
She is so obviously dying to share her thoughts on this topic that I wouldn't have the heart to say no even if I wanted to. It didn't really occur to me that she'd be so incredibly enthused about this particular subject matter.
With no one having objected, Yuri launches into a nigh-on dissertation on the idea of an illusory reality, clearly in her element as her voice stays strong and confident while she speaks. Unfortunately, while I do rather want to know her thoughts on the matter, she quickly gets sidetracked into talking about various interpretations and analyses of the concept she's seen in books, rather than the actual idea as it could apply to the universe she exists in. Natsuki occasionally interrupts to disagree with her or add something, but the majority of speech continues to originate from the club's resident knife enthusiast.
I sigh internally as Yuri rattles off the name of yet another book title I've never even heard of. Well, I suppose this is the literature club, and she did pretty much announce beforehand what she wanted to talk about, so I can't be that surprised.
Anyways, seeing as how Yuri has pretty much taken over the conversation wholesale, I should probably use this little respite to hurry up and make a decision on whether or not I'm still willing to attempt Plan Meta-Aware at all, before I lose the opportunity to do so. I'm already toeing the line pretty hard, but hinting without committing helps no one, least of all myself. I feel as though I do need to at least try it, but given the potential disaster that might ensue... maybe if I can back up the conversation up a little, I can gauge what their reactions to the idea of being literal game characters might be with some hypothetical-sounding questions? I mean from the sound of it, Yuri actually might find it too interesting to be all that upset, although Sayori...
Wait, is she looking at me again?
Sure enough, out of the corner my eye I spot Sayori staring in my direction with an unsure, slightly puzzled expression. She shifts her focus back over to Yuri for a short time, but almost immediately turns back to me again, her mouth opening slightly as if she's about to say something... then closing as she looks back to Yuri, only for the process to then repeat itself in short order.
I stay silent as I watch the process play out on loop for a third time over, wondering what the heck Sayori is doing right now. I'm tempted to just turn around and ask her, but I get the feeling the redhead would immediately clam up if I did. Really though, she could at least stand to be a bit more subtle about it-
"Sorry to interrupt Yuri, but I feel like I have to ask." Natsuki abruptly announces, causing the purple-haired girl to awkwardly trail off mid-sentence. "Sayori, is there a reason you keep staring at Monika like you've never seen her before?"
-or someone else might just call her out, without my needing to say anything.
"Huh?" Sayori jumps in her seat like a startled rabbit. "I wasn't!"
"Yes you were." Natsuki says, hands on her hips as she turns to me. "Actually, did something happen between you two? Because you're both acting really weird today."
I startle at suddenly being put on the spot, my hands unconsciously starting to fiddle with the end of my ponytail.
"Er… no, nothing happened." I say. "I just didn't get much sleep, so I keep zoning out without really meaning to... sorry, everyone."
That's not even a lie — if anything, I'm downplaying things, since I actually got no sleep, and in fact wasn't even offered the option. Still, I know why I'm acting weird; Sayori, I'm not so sure. What reason could she possibly have for constantly giving me weird looks when she thinks I'm not paying attention, as if...
Oh. Duh.
"I'm sorry too." Sayori apologizes with an abashed expression. "I didn't get much sleep either. I tried, but I woke up because of a... weird dream, which reminded me that I'd forgotten to do something. So I had to get up and do that, and that kind of took a while..."
Yep, seems as though last night's embarrassing little incident has not been forgotten, nor entirely brushed off the way I'd rather hoped. Guess that makes Sayori's staring my own fault, seeing as I did kind of pop in and wake her up in the middle of the night, just to put on a really stupid act and remind her she needed to son of a bitch that wasn't scripted either.
I resist the desire to drive my head into the desk at how delayed my realization of something so blatantly obvious was. How did I not notice until now that the script didn't make an appearance during that little scene last night?! Not even the hidden one! I guess I was so desperate to escape the situation that I didn't even think about it at the time, but if Sayori actually got up and wrote a different poem as a result-!
"A 'weird dream'?" Natsuki reiterates, raising an eyebrow. "Alright, but that doesn't really explain why you keep staring at Monika."
I rapidly start scrolling through the code window in search of the poem sharing portion of the day. This won't let me know if Plan Meta-aware is viable, but it should let me know if it's at least possible, and I probably could have checked it earlier if I wasn't so oblivious — if the poem Sayori is scheduled to share later isn't "Sunshine", or the script contains any reference to her acting differently than usual as a result of last night, then it will be direct evidence that my actions can have a lasting impact on the behavior of the other characters, and in turn on scenes where they were initially scripted to do something different. Technically the restroom-fetching incident from yesterday could count as well, but my impression was that that only happened because the script wanted me back in the clubroom, whereas anything I did with the girls or tried to tell them would be utterly ignored. If that isn't the case however, that would mean the game can't just make the girls forget about "unapproved" conversations and events after all, else there's no real reason it wouldn't have done so here.
"Eheh…" Sayori looks down, pushing her index fingers together. "Well… the dream kind of involved her…"
Additionally, if the game didn't simply order Sayori to ignore me and go back to sleep, then while it can clearly bar me from being heard while the script is currently in progress, and seems to be able to adapt or work around things that might push the plot off course, if something unplanned happens which would cause the girls to act differently than it might want, it can't take direct control of them and just force the story to proceed as normal anyways. Which means that not only does the game have a lot less control over things than I've been ascribing it, but my ability to affect and influence this world is likely a lot higher than I've been thinking.
"Wait…" Yuri says uncertainly. "You can't mean it was about…?"
Tch, the poem section doesn't seem to exist anywhere in the chapter. There's just a return where it's supposed to be; it must be a separate .rpy file that the main script file calls. But, seeing as how the script isn't around to block me from being heard right now, I still have an idea on how to prove the theory...
I scroll to a certain part of the chapter's code and turn my attention fully back to the conversation, just in time to see Sayori stare blankly at Yuri for a moment, before something seems to click and her face turns bright red.
"N-no! It wasn't THAT kind of dream!"
I remain just as confused as she was, until I review what I was only half-listening to for the last few seconds, process it all together, and almost choke.
Well, that makes what I was about to say roughly 5000% easier to misinterpret. Still need to say it though, so...
"Hey, Sayori?" I interject, drawing everyone's attention to myself. "This might be slightly awkward timing, but after Elano gets here and everyone settles in, could I pull you outside for a bit? There's something I want to talk to you about in private."
There's a sort of stunned silence for a brief moment, wherein everyone mutely stares at me, before Sayori tentatively nods.
"Perfect, thank you!" I say, smiling at her before checking the code window again — then smiling even wider at what I find.
Whereas before, the section I was observing read:
"Now that everyone's settled in, I expect Monika to kick off some scheduled activities for the club."
"But that doesn't seem to be the case."
"Sayori and Monika are having a cheery conversation in the corner."
"Yuri's face is already buried in a book."
"I can't help but notice her intense expression, like she was waiting for this chance."
"Meanwhile, Natsuki is rummaging around in the closet."
Now, it reads:
"Now that everyone's settled in, I expect Monika to kick off some scheduled activities for the club."
"But that doesn't seem to be the case."
"Yuri's face is already buried in a book."
"I can't help but notice her intense expression, like she was waiting for this chance."
"Meanwhile, Natsuki is rummaging around in the closet."
"And at the back of the room, Sayori is following Monika outside, looking slightly nervous."
"I wonder what that's about?"
Confirmation obtained! The situation is considerably better than my pessimism has had me assuming! Granted, I'm not quite sure what I'm going to actually say to Sayori, since I really just wanted to see if I could force the script to change by planning something to happen in the middle of it, but I'll have some time to figure it out once the "day" actually starts.
In the meantime, since my goal hasn't changed and the MC could show up any moment now, let me see if I can't steer this conversation back on track a bit.
"So, getting back to the subject," I lead in, filling the void left behind by my previous question, "I have an idea relating to Simulation Theory that I'd really appreciate your takes on. Would you mind indulging me for a minute?"
Sayori nods, visibly relieved by the return to the previous topic.
"…sure, why not?" Natsuki says after a few seconds, clearly wanting to pry, but evidently deciding against it.
"I suppose so…" Yuri says, looking a bit put out at not getting to pick up where she left off. Sorry, but for the time being this really need to take precedence.
"Great!" I beam. "Here it is then. Let's assume for a moment that Simulation Theory is correct, and the world as we know it isn't real. Like Yuri was saying, it's a hyper-realistic illusion, or something of the sort- actually, for simplicity's sake let's just say it's a computer program, kind of similar to the whole Matrix example I went over."
Sayori looks a bit lost at that remark, but there's no helping that, since she wasn't here for it. I press on.
"However, there are a couple of key differences between this reality and the one shown in that movie. For one, it's tiny. Not much really exists beyond the few places you go on a daily basis, but you've never noticed, because you've never tried to leave those areas. For another, the universe isn't just a virtual environment, but a true simulation. So unlike in The Matrix, where everyone has a 'real' body in the 'real' world, everything and everyone you know is just a part of the program, and always has been — yourself included."
I pause for a brief moment to organize my thoughts before continuing.
"In other words, you're not an outside actor inserted into a false environment, you're part of the false environment itself. In keeping with the computer program metaphor, that makes you something like a packet of data which has been coded to talk like a person, and act like a person, and think like a person, without actually being one. It may even be possible for someone to edit or change almost anything about you, given access to the code that constitutes 'you'."
I clasp my hands together and lean forward on the desk, my gaze flickering between each of the girls in turn.
"So, what I want to know is... if you suddenly found out that all of that was true, what would you do? How would you react? Do you think you'd still consider yourself to be 'real'?"
For a brief moment, no one speaks. And then...
"...okay, I know we said we'd indulge you, but what the HELL kind of question is that?" Natsuki protests as what I just asked sinks in, sounding almost offended. "Monika, why-"
"I know, it's not a nice thought, and that even entertaining the idea is sort of weird, but please, seriously think about it for a minute." I interrupt. "This is important."
My dead serious tone seems to take the pink-haired girl by surprise. She frowns, but backs off, crossing her arms as she slips into a seat and appears to legitimately consider the question. Yuri and Sayori do much the same, and a profound quiet falls over the clubroom.
Well... this is good, I think. The longer everyone seriously ponders the notion for, the better I expect they'll likely take the reality of it. If I'd wanted to, I probably could have tacked on the clause that there are people existing in the "true" universe, a few of whom made this one, but it's a complicated enough quandary as is, I think.
Placing my hands in my lap, I look around, trying to see if I can glean what each of the faces around me is thinking. Sayori appears less downcast than I'd have imagined this subject might make her, which is good to see, though I can't really interpret anything else from her relatively flat expression. Yuri is deep in contemplation, with a hand curled loosely over her mouth. And Natsuki… notices me watching, and gives me a look that tells me I should probably stop doing the same thing Sayori was a few minutes ago. Eheh…
After about a minute, Sayori clears her throat, seemingly the first to have made up her mind on the matter. I turn to her as she begins to speak.
"I-"
The door opens. Elano wordlessly walks in. Sayori instantly stops talking.
Sigh…