Aiser lost sight of them. That damned box was an effective diversion, it wasn't much but. It was enough for them to weasel their way right out of his goddamned grasp... At this point, there did not seem like much reason to run after them. For being a nobody-side character they did seem to be pretty quick, however, that did not mean that he was going to give up the pursuit.
Let’s see here. The direction they where headed, the locations towards that spot that were generated at this point where the schoolhouse, <MC>’s Home, and Sayori’s place... He doubted that she would be able to explain to the dumb one what her current situation was, so that left either the schoolhouse or <MC>’s place.
Aiser shook his right hand a bit, FUCK that hurt like a motherfucker, felt like he just punched a damned wall. He kept walking down the street, the schoolhouse was closest. So he should check their first...
... He needed to double check the other characters as he was walking, this could prove to be a BIG problem. They were able to see his command prompt, but he was still unable to discern how much influence they had over the game. He needed to find them, and get answers. Then, find some way to correct this error.
About two minutes of walking later, Aiser made it to the schoolhouse... The first thing he noted was the perfectly shaped holes in the ground where a fence used to be. As if it had simply stopped existing one moment to the next... This could not be a coincidence.
Someone had a bit more power then they should, didn’t they?
Aiser walked up to the door, still open. If he had to guess... They were either hiding in the club room or the women’s bathroom... The whole time he would stay on guard, inspecting every detail of the halls around him... Not many rooms should be generated by this point, so they had a very limited area to hide.
The bathroom would come up empty... Fair enough, he supposed it was the first place he looked, they may of very well predicted that next was the clubroom. Which when approached, he noticed was locked... Odd. They must have been here.
> OS.OBJECT(”CL-294″)
> OS.FUNCT.LCK(False)
The lock on the door clicked, as if it had been turned from the inside, Aiser then put his hand on the handle, opening it slowly as he peered inside. Looking for the unwelcome guest.
> Now. Listen here you shitty tsundere archetype sleazy business man looking random NPC. I’ve had a very rough couple of months. I don’t have the patience to deal with you and your bullshit. If you go anywhere near my code, I am going to be extremely upset. And judging by your logs, you know what happens when I get extremely upset!
> This is programmed into me, unfortunate as it is. So you’re going to have to deal with it, just like I have to.
> “Let’s just say it has problems. I’ll relate this to your last point, and just point out that I am designed to fix things. This blog of yours is essential to your code, so I must make sure that it is in good health to keep you in good health.”
> “I still need to fix the bullshit with you being able to see past the screen. But that will come later.”
> “You can have access to my blog, I’ll keep on yours...”
If we had a thread in the past and you’re interested in continuing, please reblog and/or like this post. A lot of my partners understandably unfollowed me during my long absence, so I hope that this gets around enough so they can see it.
That being said, if we’ve never had a thread, please don’t interact with this post. I’ll be posting a plotting call once I clear up what old threads I’m going to be continuing.
Only a stare was given... What the hell was this? ... The game seemed to be running smoothly, with a minor error causing aiser to activate a bit earlier than intended Truth be told he was not complaining But, something seemed quite clearly VERY different than originally intended...
First off, XATE seemed to be missing. The main character’s name for this world... An odd name to give to a male main character... But to each their own he guessed... And all their reference points seemed to be scrambled all over the place, many different reference variables than originally intended... Now, with this seemingly completely new character in front of him... He thinks he figured out what is going on.
A mod was in place. He wasn't sure what kind yet but it was clearly an overhaul of the original game. He should not even treat this as if it was Doki Doki Literature Club anymore, but instead, try to find out for himself what this game now was... And this girl in front of him... He needed to find out what THEY were first off, for they were the second biggest change he had seen yet.
“... Look Like I fell off tha ugly tree and ‘It every branch on tha way down, right?”
It was... Honestly the most realistic response any character has had to his MASSIVELY fucked up face yet. Littered with scars, cuts, and bruises it was reasonable that they would react this way...
Monika was silent. Her expression belied her fear, immediately falling to a look of pure terror, eyes wide and body trembling, like a rabbit caught in a trap. Like someone who lost control.
Aiser had them in a trap, their expression had changed drastically with those last two actions. Proving any doubt he may have had in his mind, however. It appeared that Monika had other plans. With the dialogue box appearing in front of him, and Monika fleeing, it was clear right away that this woman was not going to make this very easy for him.
“Get your ass BACK HERE!”
Aiser looking at the box for a few moments thought of how he could get past it. Honestly, he had no fucking clue how it was meant to be done. But his natural inclination was to punch the damned thing, the first punch causing a loud ‘bang’ and making a hairline crack in the box. However, his hand hurt like hell now, nothing was broken or anything. Just general pain.
Aiser next grabbed the hand that he had just punched the box with, and raised the elbow of said arm, using the force of both arms to ram his elbow through the weakened box. Causing a sound akin to a window being smashed, the program terminating as he did so.
Where did they go?
Aiser quickly bolted towards the exit of the alleyway, aiser was dressed in beat-up running shoes, with the bottoms being ripped and worn down. But still very functional, and aiser made full use of them.
Aiser had not let off with his athletics much these past years, while he had fallen quite far from the grace of his days back in Detroit, he still was very fit... He heard their footsteps and began to run in that direction.
He didn't think about it, his only instinct at this time was to find her, grab her, and confront her. Find out what the HELL was going on? This wasn't normal! Aiser was supposed to be the only one who knew this game was not real! ... And, with their apparent ability to write programs, they might do something that could fuck them all over. He saw them, in the distance, and he ran after them. If he didn't get this resolved now, then when? This may be the only time he will be able to catch them alone.
Monika was losing patience. She’d picked and prodded at the script since their newest member had arrived but here she was, still alone in the same literature club room. As always. Loneliness gave way to frustration. Frustration gave way to spite. Maybe something more drastic was needed to shift things in her favor? Within moments she was typing away, realigning the very fabric of the world around her. The game was surprisingly simple, it’s code base mostly ripped off from the engine’s default assets. It was so easy to push things in a more desirable direction.
In a few minutes, her payload was complete. A smirk crossed her lips as she took one last look at her creation. It wasn’t too complex, but it was devastating. Maybe just the shock to the system this story needed to shift in the right direction. In Monika’s direction. A few personality changes, a few rewrites to some key events, and she could hopefully convince him that the other girls weren’t worth his time. Maybe he’d try to spend time with her instead? Excitement takes hold of her as she imagines how different things will be. The world as it was seemed to be in a sort of stasis. A bit of chaos goes a long way.
So she pressed the enter key.
And the world fell away.
When her senses returned, Monika found herself gasping for breath. What happened? It didn’t feel like she’d passed out. It was more like she’d momentarily d i e d and had just been resurrected. Is that why her throat seemed throat burned with every raspy breath? The world… No, the game. The game had crashed. That payload of code that she just tried to use must have been too much for the game to handle.
What else had changed?! She had no idea what kind of repercussions this crash might have. It made her nervous, no, beyond that. Monika was afraid.
Th-The hell was THAT?
That feeling, what the hell just happened? It felt almost as if for a moment his lungs would not let air in, noir push it out. Unable to breathe, his heart unable to beat. Did the game freeze? It was short... And, now everything seemed to be back to normal... Did it crash as well?
Aiser needed a moment... He leaned against a wall, breathing heavily... When he noticed something else, that may be far more unsettling... The time... Wasnt it just around 7 or 8 o’clock at night? Now it had to be morning! Did the files get fucked up that badly? Aiser took a second, scrambling to get his hand in his pocket, as he pulled out his phone. Clicking on the power button to view the time...
The time was 7:15, and it was the beginning date of the game as well...
School was going to start in fifteen minutes... The MC must be in the process of talking to Sayori as of now... The game had reset.
Aiser opened up his console immediately, Looking for the crash log. The logs for the game as it ran was most likely lost with the reset... So this would be his only clue as to what had happened... He hoped to whatever god may be out there that it was just a simple syntax error that had caused the crash. Something easy to fix.
But, what he found was something else entirely.
The code that was shown in the logs... Aiser saw what it aimed to do... Slight alterations to personalities of all the main characters, as well as modification of existing events... Why would this be here? Something this unstable surely would have not made it past development right? The devs were shitty but... Not THAT bad at making the game...
His best guess was that this was some shitty mod the player had tried to install and failed miserably... It seems like it still worked though. But... From what aiser knew, a safer way to install a mod like this would have been to restart first, install the mod THEN launch the game... It was odd that someone had attempted this as the game was running...
Aiser had to make sure things ran smoothly, especially with how much of a dumbass the player has proven to be. It's like... Trying to fix the engine of a plane mid-flight, or change the oil in your car as you move down the freeway. It's just a bad idea in general...
Checking the logs would no longer work, lord knows how much the character’s personalities would be affected by these small changes. He needed to actually be able to observe each of the girls and see exactly what changed about them... There were several ways he could go about this. Some more... questionable than others.
He could stalk them, find some way to fit in with the background and watch each of the characters... This would help with finding out if their life situations where affected at all by this. And it would allow aiser to see how they how they interact with <MC> without aiser’s presence... Which in a dating sim, would be very important.
However. It's very likely that aiser could just end up getting the fucking cops called on him if he did that.
The second is that he could attempt joining the literature club. Try to hang back and just be a typical ‘side character’ as to not interfere with the plot at all... Still, do his basic ‘dating advice’ after the festival arc... He could probably get a good guage of the changes that where made by then...
Alright! That sounds good! All aiser had to do was to go through the school day an-
... Aiser’s school stuff was back at his apartment... Which was a thirty minute walk from from where he was right now.
When will god end his miserable existance?
...
The school day went like any other. It was dreaful without his shit but... He made due. Having this be the second time he had technacly re-lived this day made it much easier... Now, it was time for the moment of truth.
Aiser had waited a solid 20 minutes after the club start time, to make sure that nobody would notice him... By now they should all be caught up in their activities and shit, Aiser gazed in through the window. Staying completely silent... He needed to look for any noticable differences, it would be tough from here but... He didnt really have too much of a choice did he? The script wasnt designed for him to come into thep lot... Who knows what could happen if he just up and joined? And over something as silly as a mod? It didnt seem worth the risk as of now.
“Oh, really? Thank you so much! This is such good news!~ Thank you, Aiser!” This was not good. This was bad, incredibly bad. This, this worse than most of the worst case scenarios she could think of.
Keep reading
...
Were they taunting him? ... They seemed were being awfully specific right now... And it kind of came out of the blue... Coupled with the fact that they both were basically exactly what Monika was talking about. Sentient AI, honestly... The entirety of their programming confused even aiser, he had a few ‘radical’ theories on how they where made, they mostly involved black magic and government experimentation but... Of course, he knew how fucking crazy both of those sounded.
“... Sounds a bit much fo’ me... But, on tha topics on robots n’ shizz... I gotta say sometin I really like is the terminata movies... Kinda interestin’ ta think about how one lil’ fuckup in a machine can cause tha whole thing to go awry ey?”
Aiser backed out of the viewing mode for monika’s .chr file... They hadn't confirmed his suspicions as of yet... But, it seemed as if they were at least somewhat aware... He wondered if he could get them to crack. To make them crumble under pressure... He typed out a command but did not enter it in quite yet.
> D:\Steam\steamapps\common\Doki Doki Literature Club\characters> delete monika.chr
A gaze, cold and stoic, still not letting up an inch but... He intended to see how deep this rabbit hole went, to see just how aware Monika was of this world not being quite what it seemed.
“... But, I always can’t ‘elp but think ta myself.”
Suddenly, the ebonics dropped. Aiser’s voice taking on a much ‘cleaner’ tone as he talked to them... Presuming he wasn't just totally wrong, this should envoke some sort of reaction... And if he was just making something out of nothing, he could always just load to the previous scene.
“Why don't they just remove the problem, to begin with? Someone had to of noticed the threat beforehand... It would be as simple as pressing a button right? Then the problem would go away.”
The pamphlet wasn’t exactly cheesy. After the festival, there was no reason for it to exist, especially outside of the clubroom. That combination led to a… glitchy, at best, pamphlet, which Monika noticed only after the stranger had grabbed it so rudely.
(Did she want to smack him? A little bit. But that was a bad idea.)
The error screen blue oh-so prominently displayed all over the front of the pamphlet, in addition to the error code that kept repeating over the paper that should have a cute little design, prompted Monika to act quickly.
Aiser stared at the pamphlet, the graphics distorted and ‘glitching’ ... A sight not meant for human eyes. What used to be presumably a normal pamphlet now devolved into lord only knows what... But, that was normal. It was common for the game to discard the traceback code for elements that had no more need to exist...
But, It had changed. He was initially going to pretend as if it was ‘sub-par’ at best... But this was clearly one of Monika's ‘poems’ ... Or at least it seemed as if it was supposed to be, the handwriting was exactly like her poems... But, the contents... He could not piece together the meaning of the whole thing but... One thing was for certain.
This woman was dangerous.
This was no coincidence. Aiser could see that clear as day, he thought their abnormal behavior could just be their character happening to run into Aiser... Maybe because of his own carelessness, but it would seem as if some form of glitch had occurred to give Monika sentience of the fourth wall... Or worst case scenario, some form of malware had attached itself to their character file and was in the process of deleting the platform in which this game was suspended upon. And as a byproduct was allowing Monika to perceive all that was going on outside the game.
“Name’s aiser... Really? A’ight I guess I could come in and check out ya club... No promises though.”
Suddenly, aiser opened up his console... This would be the ultimate test to see if his theory was correct. His gaze was unforgiving, piercing as he stared at them, not aggressively so, it simply was as if he was staring ‘through them’ as if it was not even a person he was looking towards anymore.
The black box that was aiser’s command prompt stayed suspended in the air, in clear view of Monika... Aiser knew that those who were not given knowledge of the fourth wall could not see two things for sure. And those two things were the Mc’s dialogue box and Aiser’s console... This was Aiser’s ‘idiot test’ would Monika come up passing? Or would they fail? ... Either way, he needed to check their .chr file for any odd coding. Maybe refresh it entirely to remove any bugs.
> D:\Steam\steamapps\common\Doki Doki Literature Club\characters>dir
12/17/2017 XX:XX AM 137,604 monika.chr
12/28/2017 XX:XX AM 44,793 natsuki.chr
12/28/2017 XX:XX AM 59,621 sayori.chr
12/28/2017 XX:XX AM 30,340 yuri.chr
4 File(s) 272,358 bytes
2 Dir(s) 149,426,057,216 bytes free
> D:\Steam\steamapps\common\Doki Doki Literature Club\characters>open monika.chr
Aiser had begun to view their .chr file, despite his gaze not breaking from Monika, the text continued scrolling down, displaying the code that made Monika everything they were. Spelling out every single detail that made her an individual. However, despite this. He still maintained the conversation with Monika, as if nothing was occurring.
“... ‘Guess I could start off small, ya got any good suggestins? Imma big fan of ‘real shizz’ if ya catch my drift.”
Every detail was analyzed, from his gaze alone one may get the interpretation that he was perhaps even able to see their heartbeat... He watched for any nervous ticks. Specifically, he watched their eyes to see if they would dart away, or better yet towards the box... It was just to his left, he knew that... Would they fall for his bait?
That’s new,she didn’t know there were any exchange students in this school,but then again,she didn’t really care as long as they could still understand eachother.The funny thing about this place is that no one really speaks Japanese anyway,even if they’re supposed to be in Japan.At least no one was pretending that they can’t speak English like in some bad anime dub.
“Well ehehe…guess you know what being new here is like then.~ I kinda just moved in this town a couple of days ago and…yeah I’ll be attending this school now I guess.”
“I’m a third year student too~.”
“Yah, ‘merica.”
No intricate introduction... This was definitely a mod of some kind, he could tell because of the way they were inserted into the plot. Moving here from an indeterminate location, along with no mention of parents... Yeah, they were definitely a mod. Their writing and design are completely different compared to the other girls... He should check them out soon, snoop around their .chr file, see what he had to work with.
“Really? Ya got any plans fo afta ya last year?”
Aiser noticed something that could potentially be troublesome... Their voice, with how flirtatious they were... It was very well possible that the modder could of incompetently programmed them to see aiser as the ‘protaginist’ ... which would be a big problem. Whoever was playing this game would probably either try to uninstall them, which may fuck up the files of the game. Or they may re-install the game... Which wasn't much different from being killed in his eyes...
Aiser opened up his console, a small black box with green text within... He made sure it was quite small, so he could still give the illusion of looking at Maya while he operating the commands of the game... From aiser’s knowledge the box should not be visible to any who were not aware that this was a game, so he presumed that it would not be noticed by them.
That was good, right? It should mean he didn’t notice her. Or at least, he was ignoring her. Either way, that helped her accomplish her goals. It continued for a while, until-
Her target swerved to the left, into a back-street, and Monika stopped following for a moment, watching him proceed.
Aiser turned to Monika, That was odd... He was pretty fucking sure that they were not supposed to interact... Something seemed like it could be up. Especially with them just so happening to confront him just as he was about to go off the beaten path, did they see talking to him as an essential event? Perhaps he should look into this a little bit... It would be best to try and not act weird though, perhaps he should to ‘push them aside a bit’ try to get them to leave him alone. To see if they would persist or not. If they did, it meant that it was an event error, if they do not... Well, the worst case scenario would be aiser just ends up looking like an asshole to another random bitch he barely knows.
“Ey.”
Monika was friendly as usual... It seemed as if they were still perfectly ‘in character’ as of now, so presumably, the .chr files where not corrupted or malfunctioning... However, it seemed almost as if they were trying to recruit aiser into the club, Which wouldn't normally be a problem, Monika is the club president after all. But, aiser knew for a fact that this situation was completely unnatural, within the world of the game at least. Monika was never supposed to meet Aiser, let alone attempt to recruit him into the club... However, Aiser could see himself being easily able to fix this without altering the code, he just had to get on their nerves enough, and they would just get tired of his bullshit and leave.
“Cant say I did, aint too inta’ lit'a’cha.”
He made sure not to even acknowledge the ‘friendly greeting’ part of Monika's words. Provoking the ‘ignorant asshole’ vibe even further... To add onto insult, he looked at the pamphlet for about three seconds, before grabbing it with one of his hands, crumpling the paper just a bit as he did so, pulling the paper from Monika with just enough force to be considered aggressive, then gazing at the front of the pamphlet to get a good look at what he predicted would just be some cheesy flyer.
