When my vision returns, I'm confused to find that I don't appear to have been teleported back to Monika's "room". Instead, I'm standing in the entryway of someone's house, just inside the front door.

I blink rapidly. Um, what? Am I in the MC's house again? Did the game just default to putting me back where I left off yesterday?

It takes me a few moments of looking around to realize that no, this isn't the MC's house. It's similar, but the layout is ever-so-slightly different, and the décor is more… erm, existent, making the house look a lot more like someone actually lives in it than Elano's did. Where am I?

I turn around and look out through the window on the door. It's dark outside, but I can still make out a long brick wall and an iron gate, both of which I passed through just a few moments ago- oh.

This is Sayori's house. The sleepover has already started.

My hands ball themselves into fists. Okay, so apparently the fact that this evening was originally event-free meant nothing, and the script has decided it will be involving itself in this anyways, but it's fine. It's fine. It's not like I didn't consider this might happen, and I know a couple of ways to manipulate the narrative now, so I can still work with this. Don't panic...

I check the code window, which as expected appears to be paused, stuck just before the player would be taken to the poem game again. Unfortunately, that's just the normal script — the hidden one is the one I expect will be giving me trouble in this instance, and I can't even view it like I can the normal one to see what it has planned coming in advance. Ugh, as if this wasn't going to be difficult enough without-

I suddenly hear footsteps behind me, and spin around to see Sayori coming down the nearby stairwell, now dressed in casual clothes. She turns towards the front entrance, spots me, and-

"ACK!"

I flinch backwards as Sayori yelps, staring down at me like she just saw a ghost. After a moment, her expression calms, going from fright to a sort of adorable indignance.

"Monika, you scared me!" Sayori whines. "How did you get in?"

To my surprise, the hidden script doesn't suddenly pop in and prompt me with anything to say. That's good — excellent, even — but it does leave me briefly scrambling for a response.

"Eheh, sorry about that!" I reply, laughing nervously. "The door was unlocked, so I just let myself in. I was just about to call out and let you know I was here when you came down the stairs and screamed. Wasn't trying to scare you, honest!"

Sayori shakes her head at me and smiles. "It's alright! Just, ring the doorbell next time, okay? Come on, let's go get changed!"

"...changed?" I repeat.

"Well yeah, silly!" Sayori cheerfully replies. "It's a sleepover, and sleepovers can't start without sleep clothes! You brought your pajamas, right?"

Oh. Um, well...

"Er, about that... I don't actually have any pajamas." I admit.

Sayori frowns. "Huh? You mean you forgot them?"

"No," I reply, abashedly fiddling with the end of my ponytail, "it's more that I... don't own any?"

I mean, Monika doesn't really own any other clothes, period, so it's not like I'm lying. Still, it does feel a little embarrassing to admit that, even if it's hardly my fault.

I look back up at Sayori, only to realize that her cheeks have gone rather pink. Huh? Wait, what's she getting embarrassed for?

"W-well, that's okay!" Sayori stutters, not looking me in the eye for some reason. "I can just lend you some then!"

…

I glance down at myself for a moment, then back up at Sayori.

"Ah, Sayori? I appreciate the offer, but..."

How to put this…

"I don't think I'd really... fit... anything of yours."

It takes Sayori another second to realize what I mean, but I can tell once she does, as her blush brightens even further.

"Hey! I'm not THAT much smaller!" she pouts. "I'm sure I have something in my closet that will work..."

I close my eyes and raise a hand to my forehead in minor exasperation. I did not come to Sayori's house just so I could get into an extended debate over sleepwear with her.

"Sayori, could we maybe just set that aside for now?" I say. "I need-"

"What you need is to get out of that uniform, Monika." Sayori insistently interrupts. "Come on, let's go upstairs already!"

With that, Sayori turns around and practically sprints back up to the second floor. Sighing, I toe my shoes off and follow after her. Fine, I guess I'd rather not have this conversation standing in the middle of her front hall anyways...

Sayori moves fast — by the time I make it up the stairs and step into her room, she's already started digging around in the closet opposite her bed. I can't help but also notice the large sheets of poster paper lying atop her desk, but they're not really my main concern at the moment.

"Sayori?" I start, moving towards her. "I'd really rather not-"

"Found it!"

Spinning around, Sayori holds up a short, pale green chemise, the material shining slightly in the light of her room.

"How about this?" she asks with a satisfied smile. "I think the color would suit you really well!"

A slight heat rises to my face, and not because of the script this time.

"Th-that's a little revealing, don't you think?" I stutter, momentarily forgetting myself.

"Hmm..." Sayori hums, retracting her hand. "Maybe? I guess it would probably be a little short on you. Let me think for a second."

"No, wait, just- hang on." I shake my head, trying to refocus. "Sayori, we need to talk. It's important."

"Sure, but pajamas first!" Sayori blithely replies as she returns the chemise to her closet's interior. "Let's see. If you don't like that one, then... how about this?"

She steps back and presents me with another nightgown, this one considerably longer and vivid purple, with intricate rose stitching climbing up its right side.

"This is usually pretty loose on me, so I think it'll fit you okay... I think." she mutters.

"I- seriously Sayori, I'm fine." I protest, desperately trying to move us off this subject. "You really don't need to lend me anything, I'll just take my jacket and vest off-"

"No, Monika!" Sayori interrupts, puffing out her cheeks. "You're getting pajamas, and that's final! You may be the club president at school, but this is my house, and in my house a sleepover means sleep clothes! End of discussion!"

Before I can even respond, she snatches back her second offering and once again starts digging through her closet.

"There's got to be something in here that- oh, I have an idea! Let me just- ah hah!"

Spinning around again, she triumphantly holds aloft a white camisole with decorative lace trim around the top, along with a pair of small, soft-looking pink sleep shorts.

"You'll love these Monika, I promise!" Sayori exclaims. "They're ultra soft, ultra comfy, and ultra stretchy!"

I silently groan. She's really just going to keep pulling out more and more clothing options until I finally agree to one, isn't she? I suppose I could edit her .chr file again to make her give up on the prospect, but I'd rather not resort to literally rewriting her mind for something this petty...

...ugh, this isn't even a battle worth fighting, is it.

"Okay, okay." I finally concede, reaching out my hand to accept the offered clothes. "If you insist."

"Yay!" Sayori cheers, seeming relieved. "I was a little worried I was going to have to abuse my Vice President privileges to make you agree, ehehe."

I roll my eyes, sighing internally as I do.

"Do you mind if I use your bathroom to change?"

Sayori gives me a quizzical look. "No, but how come? You don't have to leave, I don't mind if you change in here."

I wince. "I'm… just sort of uncomfortable undressing in front of others, is all."

Not at all untrue — that was the case even before I ended up in this situation, and is all the more so right now.

"Really?" Sayori says, seeming surprised. "Huh... I don't think you have anything to be shy about Monika, but if that's how you feel, the bathroom is just down the hall. First door on the left."

I nod silently in thanks, then step out of Sayori's room. Closing the door behind me, I sigh again, this time out loud.

This is... frustrating. In spite of my initial concerns, the script is miraculously keeping quiet right now, yet I'm still being prevented from doing what I came here for. Maybe I should have seen this coming when I accidentally prompted this "sleepover", but I wasn't really expecting my biggest impediment in getting to talk to Sayori to be Sayori herself.

Grumbling under my breath, I cross the hall and enter the bathroom, which turns out to be identical to the one at Elano's house, save for the fact that it actually looks like it's been used. Glancing at myself in the mirror over the sink, I take a moment to ponder exactly how I'm going to go about this.

Here I was just a few hours ago, thinking that having to undress myself wasn't likely to ever be an issue in this game. God, as if I wasn't invading Monika's privacy enough already by literally being her... let's just hurry up and get this over with.

Turning away from the mirror, I begin to undress, which immediately turns out to be a rather more challenging task than I expected it to be. The uniform I'm wearing has three separate layers to it, and while the jacket and undershirt aren't too hard to remove, the vest gets caught in my ponytail when I pull it upwards, requiring me to untangle and painstakingly slide it all the way along my hair's extremely considerable length just to get it off. The ribbon tied around my collar also proves annoyingly difficult to unknot, to the point that I briefly consider just finding some scissors to cut it off. How does Monika deal with this-

Oh, right, she doesn't. Nevermind.

Once all that is removed and I'm left feeling rather... exposed, I hurry to get my provided "pajamas" on. I end up having to shimmy the top over the entire length of my hair again, but before too long I'm clothed again, to my quite considerable relief — intellectually I realize it's kind of ridiculous to feel so embarrassed about something that really shouldn't be that big a deal, and which nobody is even here to witness, but embarrassed I remain nonetheless.

Now so dressed, I turn back around to the mirror, and am greeted by the sight of... well, Monika in sleepwear, which is once again not quite as odd to see looking back at myself as I would have expected. The camisole and shorts are actually quite comfortable, especially in comparison to the uniform I was wearing prior — I didn't realize just how stiff that outfit felt until I was out of it. Though I'm still annoyed that I was forced into this, Sayori was probably right to make me change.

I twist slightly, feeling out the clothes. The camisole is indeed slightly too small for me, but as Sayori said, it's soft and stretchy, and so doesn't feel too terribly tight. In fact, the only real effect of its sizing is that it's riding up on my chest a little, thus exposing part of my midriff, but that could easily be considered an intentional fashion choice.

Overall, it's... actually a rather good look, to be perfectly honest.

A thought suddenly strikes me — didn't Monika mention being a little annoyed that she never got to wear any non-uniform clothes like the other girls did over the course of the game? I feel like I remember her saying that, and if so, then... well, wish granted I guess. Not that the real her is even here to appreciate it.

Having been in here for more than long enough, I gather up my uniform and head back down the hall. Reentering Sayori's room, I discover that Sayori has also gone ahead and changed into sleepwear, now dressed in the same wool button up and deep red shorts that I saw her in last night.

...and which I'm pretty sure she also hangs herself in, come to think of it.

I wipe that thought from mind as Sayori looks over and smiles at me.

"Oh good, looks like they fit!" she says happily, though I spy what looks like a hint of her earlier pout before her eyes drift upwards. "Aren't you going to let your hair down though?"

"...huh?"

"Come on Monika, pleeeeease?" Sayori pleads, clasping her hands in front of herself in supplication. "I don't think I've ever actually seen you with your hair down before, and I really want to!"

I hesitate. To be honest, I don't really have a problem with the idea, but if my hair comes down from its current state, it is not going back up. Maybe if I had like, half a pack of hairbands and a second set of arms to use, but with only Monika's giant ribbon? It's just not happening, especially not with the same... springiness it currently possesses.

"Pleeeeeeeeaaaaase?" Sayori repeats, eyes shining.

Sensing that she's not going to be willing to let this go any more than she was the pajamas, I grudgingly reach around behind my head and grab one of the ribbon's loose ends. Frankly, I don't know how to untie this thing any better than I know the inverse, so this could take a minute or two-

My line of thought stops there as a suspiciously simple tug somehow causes the entire ribbon to come undone, and my hair immediately comes cascading down around me. A few strands of it fall around my front and droop themselves over my shoulders, while the rest of it settles behind me, long enough to tickle the back of my thighs. I'm pretty sure it should be falling even further than that actually, if not for the fact that it's still firmly defying conventional physics — rather than simply falling straight, it flares out rather stylishly to either side of me, curling in a way that I'm fairly certain gravity shouldn't actually allow.

"Wow..." Sayori says quietly, bringing her arms up into her stock "excited" pose as she stares at me. "You should wear your hair like that more often Monika! You look great!"

I smile back nervously. "Ahah, thanks! I'll... think about it?"

Sayori smiles at me as I idly turn and set my uniform down on her desk chair, draping the ribbon over its back as I do. Now that I actually look at it, this thing is enormous — I knew that it was big, but there's practically enough material here to halfway mummify a grown man.

...hmm, on that note, I wonder where Sayori's parents are? Are they as nonexistent as Elano's seem to be? They aren't mentioned in her .chr file, so if I asked her about them, would she even know what I was talking about?

"Oh, I almost forgot!"

I'm suddenly spun around by the arm, and find myself face to face with... a cow.

"This is Mr. Cow, my loyal sleeping companion!" Sayori declares, peeking her head out from behind the massive plushie she's holding aloft. "You don't mind if he stays here with us tonight, do you?"

"...no?" I say, not entirely sure how to even respond to that.

"Yay!" Sayori exclaims, hugging the plushie to her side.

I shake my head. As cute as that image is, this entire scenario is feeling increasingly inane the longer I let it go on like this.

"Sayori," I say seriously, "not to be a stick in the mud, but there really is something I need to talk to you about."

"Can we talk about it while I get the nail polish ready?" Sayori asks, setting Mr. Cow back down at the foot of her bed and bending down to open a nearby drawer.

"I mean, yes, technically, but this is kind of-"

Sayori turns back to look at me, and I trail off upon meeting her ridiculously cheerful expression with my own.

I... damn it, she's so happy about this, and I know she's not happy about a lot. Can I really just flat out refuse her? This is utterly pointless to be doing right now, but...

Gah, fine. As long as we can still talk, I suppose I can deal with this much. So long as-

A familiar feeling slides over my mind, and I abruptly find myself walking forward and sitting down on Sayori's bed.

-so long as THAT doesn't suddenly happen! God damn it, why the hell is the script showing up now after being completely absent for the past fifteen minutes?! Was it literally holding back just to give me false hope?!

"Found them!" Sayori exclaims, triumphantly pulling several small bottles out of the drawer she was searching. "Let's get started!"

I'm surprised by how... oddly pleased I am to hear that. Oh for-

"Stupid, insidious little mind worm," I hiss under my breath, "why don't you just-"

"What was that?"

Pausing, I look over at Sayori in surprise.

"I couldn't quite hear that, Monika." she says, seeming a little concerned. "Is something wrong?"

Wait... I'm not being barred from speaking? Nor from being heard, apparently- hang on.

Confused, I take a quick moment to examine my own headspace.

Okay, I... do indeed want to paint my nails with Sayori right now, or at least that's what the script is making me want. However, it's not actually telling me how to go about that — there's none of the usual impulses to say something specific, or stay in my current position, or really do anything beyond eventually follow through with the rather vague urge it's pushing on me. Thinking about it again, I'm pretty sure I sat down on my own, and just didn't realize it at first because my mind hadn't caught up to my suddenly existent desire to do so.

In which case...

"I... guess not? " I finally reply, still mentally off-balance. "It's- it's nothing. Nevermind."

If this is really all the script wants from me, I'm actually fine with that. It's not much different from earlier, when Sayori and I were just supposed to be "happily chatting", and it was left up to our own discretion what that chat was actually about. It's still rather insidious of the script to make me want to do something, but as long as it isn't keeping me from speaking or keeping Sayori from hearing me, this seems relatively harmless — though, did it really show up just to ensure Sayori's proposed nail painting idea happened...?

While I'm still busy being slightly befuddled, Sayori shrugs and joins me on the bed, laying out the various bottles of polish in front of her as she does.

"What color do you want Monika?" she asks brightly. "Sorry I don't have a larger selection. I haven't actually painted my nails in years."

"How come?" I ask, cursing myself a moment later for responding on auto-pilot.

Sayori's expression falls.

"I think I just didn't feel happy enough for it, honestly. Everything about my life felt so gray, that it... didn't really feel like it fit me anymore."

A pang strikes at my heart. Oh come on, the script already has me halfway on board with this, I don't need to be guilt tripped into it further!

"Er... how about this one?" I say, pointing out a shimmering aquamarine bottle of polish in an attempt to move us off the subject.

Sayori perks up again. "Good choice!"

Picking up the bottle in question, she unscrews and pulls off its cap before brandishing the small nail brush extending from it.

"Here, I'll do your right hand for you." she suggests. "Then you can do mine, and we can do the rest ourselves?"

"Um," I reply intelligently, having no real idea if that's normal group nail painting procedure or not, "okay? Sounds good."

I extend my hand in front of me, splaying my fingers out for easy access as Sayori leans over and starts happily applying polish to my nails. Nothing forces me to keep my hand in place, but I can't help but want to anyways, leaving me with a weirdly conflicting mix of emotions.

It really is strange that the script is being so vague right now, given how specific it's been with everything else. Did it just not bother coming up with actual dialogue because this event didn't exist in any capacity beforehand? Or is there not supposed to be dialogue here at all, and we're just not being explicitly barred from talking...?

I shake my head. You know what, I don't even care. I finally have the chance to speak, and Sayori is finally ready to listen. I'm doing this now.

"So, Sayori?" I say.

"Mmmhmm?" Sayori hums, looking up from my nails.

"Remember how you suggested that we could share secrets at this sleepover?"

Sayori blushes.

"Well, I mean... that's what you do at sleepovers, isn't it?" she says uncertainly, starting to push her fingers together, only to stop when she realizes she's still holding the nail brush. "I've never actually had one of these before, so I'm not really sure..."

"Don't worry, this is pretty new for me too." I assure her. "I do have something to share though, if you're willing to hear it."

Sayori's eyes light up.

"Of course I am Monika!" she exclaims, raising her arms to her sides in obvious excitement. "I promise I won't share it with anyone else! Your secret will be safe with me!"

I try to smile, wishing that what I had to share was something more appropriate for that level of enthusiasm.

"Alright... so, you remember back at the club today, when I shared my poem with you?" I ask. "The first one I mean, not the one I wrote while I was there."

Sayori nods.

"You said that it didn't really make any sense to you, right?"

Sayori blushes again.

"Um, yeah..." she mutters, before immediately glancing back at me and backpedaling. "Not that it was bad! The metaphors you were going for were just a little too complex for me to understand-"

I shake my head, interrupting her.

"No Sayori, it isn't that you were missing the meaning of the metaphors. It's that there weren't any metaphors in it to be found."

"Huh?"

"In fact," I continue, "what I showed you wasn't actually a poem at all."

Sayori's expression colors with confusion.

"Wait... really?" she asks. "But why would you write anything else? What was it supposed to be?"

I draw in a breath.

"It was meant to be a list of ways that I could potentially escape the situation we're in," I say, slowly and deliberately, "because, in truth?"

Here goes...

"When I said that this world might be a program earlier... I wasn't being hypothetical."

There. I said it. Now to just deal with however Sayori reacts-

"Huh?" Sayori blinks. "A program? Like a schedule?"

I still for a brief moment, then pinch the bridge of my nose. Okay, so maybe that wasn't the clearest way of putting it.

"No, Sayori, not a schedule." I elaborate. "A program like a computer program. Like something that only exists on a computer. This world isn't composed of molecules, it's composed of code."

My admission only seems to have confused Sayori further, her expression now even more bewildered than before.

"Is this about what we were talking about before club?" she asks. "Because I didn't really get it then either... sometimes Yuri's metaphors are just too complex for me to follow."

"No, I'm not being- Sayori, this world is-"

I cut myself off, searching for a better way to put it than "not real". That would be far too cruel to say, especially as this world technically is still real. It's just also...

"It's... artificial." I sigh. "Created. Tiny. This world was only made, only exists, to be the setting of a game. A game which, so long as we remain inside of it, is going to keep trying to force us to follow its predefined script."

As I speak, Sayori's expression gradually saddens.

"I- I'm sorry Monika, but I'm just not as smart as you." she says, looking down at the floor. "Whatever you're trying to say, it's going completely over my head..."

I sigh again, pressing the palm of my hand to my forehead.

"No, it's not you Sayori. I think I'm just explaining this terribly... let me try putting it this way. Do you remember ever — and I mean ever, in your entire life — going anywhere other than this house, Elano's house, the road to school, and the school itself?"

Sayori looks back up at me, surprised. "What? Of course I do Monika, I'm not a shut in, why wouldn't-"

"Where, exactly?" I interrupt. "Can you actually name any place other than those four specific locations that you have previously set foot in?"

Sayori opens her mouth, but nothing comes out. Seconds tick by in silence, her eyes darting around with increasing franticness.

There we go.

"I- no, I've gone other places!" Sayori eventually fumbles out. "I can't actually remember w-where right now, but that's probably just because I'm so scatterbrained-"

"No, Sayori." I reply. "You haven't gone anywhere else, because this world doesn't consist of much more than those four places. There's nowhere else for you to go."

Sayori's breathing rate starts rapidly increasing. "I- I can't- can't remember anything-!"

"Hey, no, it's okay!" I quickly assure, wrapping my hands around Sayori's shoulders in a sort of pseudo-hug. "Calm down... I know that this is a lot to take in, and I'm sorry I had to tell you like this, but now that you know-"

"No, nonono..." Sayori mutters frantically, not seeming to even hear me. "This is wrong! That can't be all there is! The world can't be fake! If it's fake, then I'm fake too, and if I'm fake, then- then why am I even here?!"

Shit, she's starting to spiral! Time to abort!

Quickly opening Sayori's .chr file, I scroll down to the most recent item in her event log.

-Was told by Monika that the world she lives in isn't real. Failed to believe her at first, but soon realized just how many things she couldn't remember any concrete details about, including her family, childhood, and personal history, and was sent into an escalating panic attack.

Highlighting the entire stretch of text, I delete it all and re-save the file. Sayori freezes mid-word, and-

The world stutters. I find myself sitting back in my previous position, my right hand held out in front of me as Sayori carefully paints my nails bright teal. She's smiling again, humming happily to herself as though the last couple minutes never happened — which, from her perspective, they presumably didn't.

I slump slightly in relief. Well, at least that worked. Still, that wasn't good — I couldn't get through to Sayori until I did something extreme, and even with the changes I made to her file earlier, she just wasn't mentally resilient enough to accept the truth. I'd hoped I wouldn't have to, but...

...guess I'll have to make a few more.

Looking back to Sayori's still open file, I add another line to her description.

Description: Vice president of the literature club and the neighbor of [player]. A cheerful girl currently getting over a long-standing depression, and a subsequent lack of motivation in almost all things. Desires for those around her to be happy, and so acts joyful and enthusiastic in front of others. Has a surprising aptitude for processing and dealing with negative news, remaining calm even when things take a turn for the worse. Secretly in love with her childhood friend, [player], and sincerely cheered by his presence, but possesses little belief in her own self-worth.

I don't want to delete anything else, nor add too much that isn't originally part of her, so hopefully this will help. I can't really imagine it hurting, at least.

I save the file, and the world skips a groove again. Nothing seems any different once it passes a moment later, but if I did that right...

Well, only one way to find out.

"Hey, Sayori?" I start for the second time.

"Hmm?" Sayori hums as she looks up, mimicking her earlier response exactly.

"Can you- actually, no, better idea." I say, a thought suddenly coming to me. "Could you close your eyes for a moment?"

Sayori tilts her head at me. "Huh? How come?"

"I'll explain in a moment, but you need to close your eyes first, okay?"

"Is something wrong?" she asks. "You sound so serious all of a sudden..."

"Not... exactly," I reply, uncertain how much I even mean that, "but it is important. Please?"

Sayori blinks at me a couple of times, then sets the nail brush back in its bottle of polish and slowly closes her eyes.

"Okay Monika. I'm gonna be really mad at you if you're just trying to prank me or something though!"

The tone Sayori says that in and the small smile still on her face tell me she doesn't seriously think that's a possibility. Good, because this is definitely no joke.

"Thank you." I say gratefully. "Now, keep your eyes closed and focus. Block out everything except for my voice... can you sense anything just sort of, hovering in the periphery of your awareness?"

A confused frown crosses Sayori's face, even while her eyes stay dutifully closed. "Huh? What do you mean? How could there be-"

"Please, I know it sounds ridiculous, but just humor me on this." I interrupt. "Don't try to find it with your eyes, you should just be able to sort of sense it. Or them, since there might be two."

I'm almost regretting having brought this up at all, considering the potential danger I could be bringing upon myself by doing so, but I need to know if access to the code console and command window is exclusive to me or not. The answer to that question is too important to ignore — and if I can maybe help break things to Sayori a little more gently at the same time by using it to gradually lead into the subject of the world itself, without bringing up how most of her memories aren't detailed enough to pass as real given a moment's concerted thought this time, then so much the better.

Sayori just looks lost for another half a minute or so, obviously uncertain where I'm going with this. Just when I'm about to tell her she can stop however, she suddenly stiffens.

"I- I think I do feel something..." Sayori whispers. "It's almost like... some sort of rectangular box...?"

My heart leaps.

"Is there just one, or are there two of them?" I hurriedly ask.

"Two..." Sayori continues. "One is... black...? And there's... writing in them...?"

So, she can both sense and access the console and code window, now that she's actually gone looking. Thank god I undid my first attempt; Sayori really could have deleted the world if she'd discovered them in the midst of her breakdown. I need to be extremely careful with how I handle this...

"Okay, that's good." I say as reassuringly as I can. "Now, this is also going to sound weird, but can you try to mentally type 'cd characters' into the black box, then 'press' enter, and see what comes up?"

Sayori doesn't respond at first, making me think for a moment that she didn't hear me, but then suddenly speaks up again.

"I don't think I can type anything into it...?" Sayori says, still quiet. "It disappears as soon as I try."

Huh?

I check the command console myself, and watch as a "c" suddenly appears on the current line, only to immediately vanish, deleted the very moment it appeared. The same thing repeats itself several times over, before Sayori seems to stop trying.

That's- what? I mean, it's actually a good thing if the console only works for me, since it eliminates the risk of anyone else screwing with the world, but if she can access it in the first place then why-?

"Monika."

I startle slightly and shift my attention back to Sayori. She's opened her eyes again, though her expression is still far away.

"What... is this?" she asks, her words nearly devoid of emotion.

I frown. The monotone is very unlike Sayori — probably the result of my tampering with her character, though this wasn't really what I expected to come of that. Still, it's better than what happened last time, at least.

"This is the command line." I say. "You know, like the kind you'd see on a computer — exactly that kind, actually. I need to tell you something..."

Slowly, carefully, I begin explaining the truth of things as I know them to Sayori. Trying to make sure I don't overwhelm her, I go slowly, detailing this world's virtual nature, the script and hidden script, and our nature as characters to be directed by them. I do my best to emphasize that this isn't just a hopeless scenario, and that we do have ways to resist and change things — there'd be little point in telling her this if there wasn't.

Once I've gotten the basics explained, I trail off, not wanting to say anything further for the time being. Not until I've got a better idea of how well Sayori is taking the revelation this time around, at least — she's yet to actually say anything since I started.

"So... now you know, I guess." I finish, a little lamely.

Sayori remains quiet for a long, long moment, still as a statue and silent as the grave. Just as I'm about to speak up again, if only to cut through the increasingly stifling quiescence, she suddenly stands up from the bed.

"Uh- Sayori?" I say as she starts walking towards the door. "Are you- well, not okay, I know this is pretty horrifying to find out about, and I'm truly sorry for that. Are you at least... calm, though?"

Sayori turns back just enough for me to see a tiny corner of her mouth, which is set in an expression that I don't really know how to interpret.

"...yeah," she says softly, "I'm calm. Don't worry about me."

"Sayori-"

The door shuts behind her, leaving me alone on Sayori's bed with my arm outstretched. I let it go limp a moment later, a bit of half-dried polish smearing off on my leg in the process.

Well, she didn't have another panic attack, so that's progress at least, though apparently it was wise to stop where I did instead of going into further detail. That additional personality trait I grafted to her didn't really work the way I expected — I wouldn't be surprised if Sayori's gone off to cry in another room for a while.

I'll just wait for her to come back, I guess...

I shift in place, nervously biting the inside of my lip. What was up with that expression she had just before she left? She looked almost... apologetic? What would she have to apologize for though?

Uncertain what to think, I shift my attention back to Sayori's .chr file, hoping it might offer some insight into her current state of mind. Luckily, there's another new event in place of the one I deleted earlier, which will likely inform me of just that.

Let's see here...

-Was shown proof by Monika that the world she lives in isn't real. Upon considering this information and what it likely meant for her, calmly got up from her bed and left the room, intending to find something sharp to slit her wrists with.

…

...what...?

I hear something metal clatter to the ground downstairs. A loud thump follows it a moment later — almost like that of a body falling to the floor.

No. Exactly like that.

Horrified beyond words, I delete both the event and the additional description line I'd tacked on to the file at lightning speed, then save it again. Come on-!

The world reverts. Sayori is once again sitting on the bed with me, my right hand in hers as she carefully paints its nails bright teal.

I heave a shuddering sigh of relief. Then another, which morphs into a sigh of frustration halfway through.

This... might take a while...