#my theme would be yuri from ddlc

[los3rb0y]

Lowkey wanna have a layout like those jirai girls with their pretty lace dividers and cute characters to represent their emotions in the post AUGHHCMDL

i don’t know how to make that stuff tho it probably won’t happen !!!!

[mihii-i]

Bro the first time I played ddlc (w no prior knowledge) I was so confused about why I couldn’t romance monika 😭

I literally repeated the first chapter so many times just because I was confused on why I couldn’t spend time w her compared to the others.

Pls drop either hc’s or a one shot abt this happening and Monika’s reaction.

Preferably w an afab reader but GN/amab is also cool

agony of her solitude.

Pairings: monika x fem!reader

CW: sfw, female reader, spoilers for ddlc obviously, short baby fic, horror themes, monika being scary bc she’s awesome like that, mostly written from monika’s possible perspective so it’s not how I feel about the characters it’s how she saw them mid game I think, possessive themes, a little unhealthy but this is monika in the original ddlc not ddlc plus so she only cares about the person behind the screen, pre act 3 monika, not proofread.

A/N: HOLYSHITHOLYSHITHOLYSHIT I ACTUALLY GOT A DDLC REQUEST I HAVE BEEN WAITING A WHOLE YEAR FOR THIS IM GONNA EAT MY PILLOW RAHHAHHSDBDB also why would I write amab reader no offense to the guys reading my thing but I’m so fucking fruity for the whole literature club idfk under what conditions I’d write amab reader anyway THANK YOU FOR REQUESTING DDLC 🕯️

Various tabs of the console filled Monika’s vision, a perplexed look crossing her face as she stared at the files counting your replays. Her chin rested between her thumb and forefinger, pondering why you had looped the first chapter over and over, confusion racking her mind as she continued to search for a possibility. Perhaps your game glitched? Or the code wasn’t working properly?

“Why does she keep repeating the first act..? There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with the script..” she muttered under her breath, clicking her tongue in mild frustration. Reaching up, her fingers gently swiped along the console, trying to view all the recorded replays of the first act in a desperate attempt to seek the root cause of your game loops.

Monika intently traced the the contents of the digital code, reflections of the binary patterns and script mirroring into her emerald green eyes with each tap into a different file. Each movement of your mouse seemed…off. Your clicker would often stray off to the side, deviating from the displayed choices of Sayori, Natsuki, and Yuri, while tracing it up and down as if you longed to find an alternate option.

She merely squinted her eyes at the replay of your mistakenly mindless gameplay, tilting her head in confusion as this pattern was repeated and prevalent across all your replays of the first chapter. That was until she stumbled across a particular point into your gameplay, her own body growing somewhat tensed as the repeated choice reflected across every replay of Act 1. Every single time. Monika paused for a brief moment, unsure on whether to feel elated, or confused in that moment as her hand rested onto her chest and clutched the fabric code of her blazer.

She wasn’t just getting her hopes up..right?

The choices presented themselves before you on the screen once more, depicting all four of the literature club members’ names in seperate pink boxes. Even after returning to this moment constantly, you remained utterly confused, eyes fixated on your screen with your pupils drilling into the pixels like a deer in headlights.

You felt fairly disoriented from the little chime noise emitting from the game every time your mouse hovered over one of the boxes, inching your face closer to the screen illuminating your face and splaying streams of light all across your desk. Your expression contorted to one of mild annoyance, brows furrowing and wrinkling your face up as you could only feel your shaky palm gripped atop the mouse. Why couldn’t you choose Monika? Why on earth were you restricted to the three girls you didn’t show any interest in?

Clicking on her name once more, you were met with the same dialogue spewing out of the line of text in game. That it wasn’t necessary to help her prepare for the festival. It was completely incomprehensible as to why this game wasn’t allowing to choose the route of the character you had your eyes on, making you scoff as a wave of irritation continued to bite at you.

Monika’s eyes widened upon seeing each brisk movement of your mouse, carefully examining how it clicked on her name each and every time it popped onto the screen as an available option. The script of the game barred her from having a route path, on top of that bestowing a near god like power within this digital world she was coded into. It was torture. The flashing colored lights burned her skull, the endless piercing screeches shattering through her ears as she was discarded into the void. Only knowing that she was trapped in a fictional world, believing she was the only one who was real.

A near unnerving smile stretched her lips, pursing them shut to mask her boiling excitement. You had been her only escape. Every time you opened up the game, she was freed from the agony of her solitude. Monika’s hands rested along the edges of the console, breathing out a content sigh. Her eyes flickered to your mouse jittering in possible frustration from the lack of response to choosing her once more, warmth seeping into her heart as she longed to snatch you to herself right then and there.

Ah. She had someone who actually desired her presence. Someone who wanted to spend time with her. No worries, (Name). You’ll be hers before long. Just be patient.

She snapped back to the game, her face seemingly more lit up, yet her sprite kept it as still as a rock as she stared straight into the screen. Her sprite was there while she tweaked the console and spoke to herself, but maybe she could finally rest for once. She could rest easy and let you play knowing you’re only set on her. Monika smiled to herself, hands grasping her elbows as she glanced over her statue of a sprite standing in for her there.

Her gaze over the protagonist made her nearly scoff from annoyance. His sprite repulsed her. Everyone else could have that piece of trash separating you from her. Monika only wondered to herself how gorgeous your complexion could be once she gets the chance to lay eyes upon you in person. If only she could crawl through the screen and wrap her arms around your neck in an embrace to feel your warmth.

It was only a matter of time. She just had to wait for you to reach the third act, and you were all hers.

“Don’t worry, (Name). Just wait a little longer and play through the game. You’ll be with me soon enough.”

A/N: I LOVE THIS I LOVE DDLC OH MY GOD IVE BEEN WAITING SO LONG FOR THIS YOU DONT KNOW HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS GAME IVE NEVER LEFT MY DDLC PHASE AND I LOVE MONIKA SHE ATE FRFR

anyway this was fun to write :)

[dozing-marshmallow]

PLAYING DDLC WITH THE OTHER FRANKIE HEADCANONS

(Spoilers for DDLC + mentions of DDLC’s dark themes)

Bored, you scrolled through Frankie’s computer to find some games to play. You came across one that featured four anime girls with a pink and white wallpaper. You clicked on it and read through the description.

“The Literature Club is full of cute girls! Will you write the way into their heart? This game is not-“

“Whatcha looking at on the computer, contestant?”

Your reading was interrupted when you heard Frankie, turning your head around to see him peering over your shoulder,“Uh, I found this game with these four girls on the computer for free.” you explained, pointing at the screen,“It’s supposedly one of those dating sims. You wanna join me?”

“I’d like to! Let’s see what your type calls entertainment.” he agreed, standing next to you, his hands on the table.

You were smiling at the cute main screen and upbeat music. This had to be a good game.

It asked you to enter a name.

“I’m just gonna put Frankie,” you declared, fingers pressing the keyboard.

“The right answer!”

ACT 1

Both of you were reading out the dialogues- you read for the MC, Yuri and Natsuki, Frankie read for Sayori and Monika.

There wasn’t a lot going on so far. Your character had joined the school’s literature club for the sake of his childhood friend.

The writing poem bit, Frankie took control and picked a mix of the sweet and morbid words, leading to Yuri’s route.

While Frankie admired Natsuki’s feistiness, he preferred Yuri so it worked out.

Actually, he really liked Sayori as a ray of sunshine, though was very confused on which selection of words would lead to her chibi jumping so you couldn’t get any scenes with her this time around.

He thought Monika wasn’t particularly exciting.

Who to help with the festival preparations?

Dang it, unlike the earlier intervention between Natsuki and Yuri, picking Sayori wasn’t an option this time.

“We have been spending a lot of time with Yuri. How about we spend some time with Natsuki?” Frankie suggested.

“Nah. She said she could bake by herself. Let’s just go with Yuri, she sounds like she needs it more.” you reasoned, clicking on Yuri.

At Sayori’s depression revelation, Frankie didn’t know what to say,”Oh... That’s uh...” 

“Poor Sayori. And to think our character was so dismissive of her.” you sighed, feeling more awful when she confessed her love after Yuri’s visit (Frankie read for the MC whenever it was just Yuri onscreen).

“Uh... I can’t pick.” you pushed the mouse to Frankie,“You pick!”

So after staring at the screen for some time, he went with “You’ll always be my dearest friend”.

This made Sayori scream in despair and run away.

“What? Can I not stay loyal?” Frankie asked apathetically.

It was the day of the festival, but you were begging the MC to go to Sayori’s to check on her.

He did, but it was too late.

Sayori was hanging dead from her ceiling.

Frankie exclaimed,“Oh, dear! What a shame!” but you were really disgusted.

“I thought this was a fun dating sim...” you muttered, standing up,”No, I feel really bad, Frankie. I don’t know if I can continue.”

“You survived worse things.” Frankie reminded dismissively, skipping through the dialogues of guilt given by the MC.

“Because I didn’t have a choice.” you scoffed.

“Well, it’s back to the main screen.” he informed, gesturing for you to look back.

Your eyebrow wrinkled. What was that in Sayori’s place?

ACT 2

“Hmm... A lot of weird things are happening, aren’t they?” Frankie chuckled when stating his observation, the frequent glitches with the music and characters seeming very intentional,“It’s as though without that child, the game is broken.”

“Her name was Sayori.” you muttered,“Be respectful.”

Yuri was getting weirder: she appeared to be getting more aroused, attached to your character’s hip and ruder to the other characters.

Maybe if you had picked the words that corresponded to Natsuki, she wouldn’t have been so obsessed?

You didn’t think so much about that because there were just so many uncomfortable scenes now. From who was once a quiet reader admitting she jerked off with a pen to her eyes becoming three dimensional.

You spent more time gagging and recoiling than reading the dialogue so Frankie had to take the role from you.

“Let’s quit the literature club. There’s no need for us to be around Monika’s slimy tongue anymore.”

You forgot why you were playing this.

Natsuki’s secret letter was a relief from all these gross bizarre moments this time,“Awww... She cares about her friend.”

Unfortunately it didn’t last long since her face became as blank and pale as paper as she spoke “Just think of Monika from now on. Just Monika.”

Frankie was starting to really enjoy Monika’s involvement.

“Natsuki, shut your fucking mouth and let him decide for himself.”

The announcer was an instigator, but he was getting concerned with how derailed Yuri’s character was getting.

“What’s wrong with her?” as the girls got more verbally abusive to each other, you cried for the hundredth time,“Oh, what the hell is this game?”

There came Yuri’s confession, brimming with lust and poisonous devotion.

“Uh... Frankie?” you called him, Yuri’s disturbingly calm eyes staring through the screen.

“Mhmm?” he replied, a sense of anticipation reflecting off his beady eyes.

“Which answer do we go for...?” you asked, swirling the cursor around the two boxes. This felt like a very important decision.

“Uh...” Frankie rubbed his chin,“Well, last time, when I said no, the girl died and you got annoyed at me. So let’s go with yes.”

You agreed,“Okay. Yeah, seems like the safer option.”

It wasn’t. When you clicked it, Yuri laughed madly then suddenly pulled a knife out and began- 

“Woah woah woah!” you leaned back in horror.

She had stabbed herself to death. Another had her body made lifeless right after a confession, in Yuri’s case, left to bleed out on the floor.

Puzzled by how rigged the game seemed, Frankie commented awkwardly,”Whoops?” he was close to believing the game could hear him and killed the girls off to sharpen his image as a bloodthirsty enabler.

You were covering your mouth, Yuri’s text bubbling gibberish,“Oh God, this game is so messed up... And this music...” the music was haunting.

Yet you both had to know how it’d end.

ACT 3

Frankie was obsessed with the plot twist of a calculating self aware Monika.

He felt like he was being seen by another robot.

He took control here, even though by this act, it was just waiting for Monika’s looped messages to pop up periodically.

Eventually he got bored and deleted her character file. He didn’t think he would feel guilty when Monika demonised him, since the entered name was his.

“Frankie... You completely, truly make me sick. Goodbye.”

He tried to get her character file back. You were laughing at his desperation.

“It’s not funny, contestant! I broke the trust of a fellow automation!” shame laced his voice.

“Calm down, she might come back.” 

So he went back on the game, clicking the mouse impatiently.

The game restarted, everything the same except from Monika’s existence. Clearly it wasn’t the end since it didn’t ask you to input a name.

He was upset that Monika wasn’t there, though you were happy as the game seemed like it was going to be normal.

Except now Sayori was acting differently.

You slammed your hand on the desk,“You just can’t win, can you?”

However, whatever was left of Monika interfered and crashed the game. A lot of rebooting and...a muffled voice?

“Can you hear me? Hi!”

“Woah, since when did this game have voice acting?” you asked out of surprise.

“Shhh, don’t spoil it, contestant!” Frankie scolded, covering your mouth for a few seconds, listening to what the voice (presumably Monika’s) had to say. Something about playing the piano and singing.

A long sigh drags out of you when he lifted his hand off your mouth. The calm singing and the credits rolling were curing to your senses. What a... Could you even call that a game?

When the song finished, the game closed itself and neither of you made an effort  to start it again as you silently sat to process what you had just played,”...”

“That...sure was something, wasn’t it?” he, being not so effected by this kind of stuff, was the first to speak.

“The most something of somethings I’ve seen in a long time.” normally, it didn’t irk you either,“Ohh God, I don’t know if I can play this again for the other endings, but... Very well made.”

[mintboyofmintygoodness]

My thoughts on some of the OST of DDLC:

Poem Panic: I love love love how this actually sounds like Yuri and Natsuki arguing. How it alternates between a flute (or some other instrument I'm sorry idk how to recognize it by sound) and twinkles. The flute is obviously Yuri and the twinkles are obviously Natsuki.

My Confession: There's a part of the song where it sounds like... Falling sparkles? Idk how to describe it. But the sparkly sounds, to me, sound like someone looking at another person and like, the light hits them just right that they just look stunning. And from that point the song sort of seems to sound like gathering courage and finally confessing.

Just Monika.: It sounds like breathing.

Lavender Mist: So apparently Play With Me was originally gonna b Yuri's theme. But for reasons i do not know, it ended up not being so. Sayori ended up being the only one with her own theme (Ohayou Sayori). But Lavender Mist sounds a lot like Play With Me. I love how they didn't forget this was gonna b her song originally.

Let's Teamwork!: I love the beginning! So so much! It sounds like Monika getting everyone's attention, and then Sayori yawning and stretching as tho she's waking from a nap, and then an annoyed flounce from Natsuki, and then Yuri looking up from her book in surprise. I love it I love it i lovelovelove it!

Dear Sunshine: Why... why does it sound like it would b played at Sayori's funeral to me...? This song is so bittersweet...

[heartwrithe]

♡ ― RULES + MUN.

please only interact if 18+, both for my own comfort but more importantly due to the content on this page. all of my muses are 18+, as well.

please use common roleplay etiquette.

while not necessarily mutuals-only, i tend to primarily follow back those i see myself interacting with.

please soft-block me if you no longer want to be mutuals/you do not want me to follow you.

bigotry is not tolerated.

i will only consider smut with those i trust. you can ask me if you would like to pursue this kind of relationship with our muses, but keep in mind i won’t with strangers or those i haven’t done any real interactions with.

please make sure to always specify a muse, whether mine or yours.

this page will contain violent and disturbing themes. if you need something specific tagged, please tell me! disturbing content will be tagged “trigger tw”.

please feel free to message me about anything! i love getting direct messages and asks, and i encourage all forms of interaction.

hi! my name is flowers!

i’m 24 years old.

they/them - nonbinary.

started roleplaying in 2012, though started seriously roleplaying in 2014.

i have severe anxiety and depression, so i may have trouble reaching out from time to time.

replies tend to be either very fast or very, very slow with little in-between.

i try to mimic my partner’s length, and in general i am comfortable writing both one and multi-paragraph replies. the only thing i do not do is one-liners.

i have other rp blogs! you can find me on @mortisvitae (dbd multi) as well as @afterimxge (yuri ddlc).

[doki-doki-lesbians-club]

So yeah, it would be neat to put together a crossover where DDLC replaces the AA characters, but I'm thinking more mushing the two together!

(potential spoilers for the AA series under the cut)

So in my mind, it would start with post-trilogy, pre-disbarment Phoenix and Maya, for a time reference.

I'm thinking the crime here is Nat's father dies and she is getting accused, and the literature club goes to find Phoenix Wright to defend her because there's just no way she did this.

On a side note, both of these games have a recurring "wait, is this really supposed to take place in ____ place?" kinda theme, with Ace Attorney's oddly Japanese America and DDLC being far more ambiguous, tho likely still Japan. Anyway.

In classic Ace Attorney fashion, about half-way through the trial, Phoenix needs to deflect the charges off of Nat to keep her our of jail and buy more time to investigate what really happened. Unfortunately, this comes in the form of discovering that Dadsuki did not die of whatever was initially supposed (insert Updated Autopsy Report) he was actually killed via an expertly delivered knife wound, implicating Yuri.

Now Phoenix must quickly switch gears and find evidence of what really happened so that the literature club can be free from this terrible situation!

After the trial, Nat is inspired by the way Phoenix defends those who have no one else to defend them, going so far as to defend her from what she views as her father's last revenge (implicating her in the murder) and considers if that's a path she may be interested in...?

These are just my early thoughts on the idea ahaha!

So after hearing about this playlist and discussing the concept with some members of the DDRC Discord server, I am overwhelmed with an urge to write a DDLC x Ace Attorney crossover fic! Dunno how much my demographic on this blog overlaps with the AA fandom, but any ideas or suggestions are welcome!

[yumeka36]

Thoughts on Doki Doki Literature Club Plus

Artwork credited to ほそぼそ on pixiv

I got really into Doki Doki Literature Club when it first released back in September of 2017. I watched a few Let’s Plays of it and also played through the game myself a couple of times. Like other fans, DDLC’s unique blend of psychological horror elements hiding behind a cute dating sim facade with a vast array of mind-bending lore, creative scares, and overly meta themes, was a very refreshing concept. After attending Anime Expo 2018 where the game had its own merch booth and autograph sessions from creator Dan Salvato, I didn’t give DDLC too much thought after that. The years went by and it seemed like we weren’t going to get the “game within the game,” a.k.a Project Libitina sequel, that the original game hinted at, at least not any time soon.

When I first heard about DDLC+ earlier this year, I honestly didn’t think it would be anything special. I thought it would simply be a port of the same game on different consoles, and the only reason the side stories were added was because they had to have some new content in order to entice people to buy a game they could otherwise get for free on Steam. After all, the side stories were marketed as having nothing to do with the main game (something I now know isn’t entirely true at all). I also thought the only reason the console versions had a computer interface was because there was no way to easily delete the game files on a video game system. I decided to buy the premium version of DDLC+ anyway because I liked the physical goodies that came with it, and I felt like playing the game again since it had been a few years. And, now that I’ve reached about 90% completion on my copy, I have to say that my initial predictions about the release were totally wrong.

First of all, as I mentioned, I thought the side stories would just be extra fan-service fluff with little substance to them and definitely no relation to the lore; just some cutesy and/or funny additional content to make fans who bought this new release feel like they got some bang for their buck. I thought there couldn’t be much to these stories because what could DDLC be without its horror and 4th wall-breaking elements? Just an unimpressive dating sim? But boy was I wrong…the side stories are some of the most wholesome “additional” content to a franchise I have ever seen. They develop the four girls a lot more and reveal a much, much deeper side to each of them, a side that the main game only scratches the surface of. The dramas that unfold between them, which eventually lead to beautiful friendships and understandings, coupled with DDLC’s pretty art, poetry, and music, makes for a very feels-heavy experience. And of course, the writing in these stories is top-notch and conveys the characters’ conflicts perfectly. The kinds of issues they’re dealing with – Natsuki being shunned for liking manga and torn between breaking ties with friends who bully her, Yuri’s struggle with expressing her interests in a socially acceptable way, and of course Sayori’s struggle with depression, are important topics that are really not focused on in any other media I know of, at least not on the same level of depth as DDLC+. They are all very relatable struggles, especially for the young people of today. I really didn’t think I could enjoy DDLC content without psychological horror, but the side stores have certainly proved me wrong. They would make a wonderful slice-of-life anime series…actually, now that I’ve viewed all the side stories, I’m kind of sad that the main game exists because it completely destroys the happiness that’s established there! It’s so easy to sympathize with each of the four girls and want to see them blossom in the literature club, so knowing what awaits them in the main game is definitely upsetting. I think if anyone who knows nothing about DDLC plays the side stories first and then the main game, they would be utterly heartbroken!

And not only did the side stories blow my mind, but DDLC+ ended up being much more of a lore fest than I ever imagined. Again, I thought the only reason they included a computer interface was to give console players a way to delete and view the character files just like on a PC. And while that’s probably the primary reason, Team Salvato cleverly used it as a way to expand the lore even more by introducing Metaverse Enterprise Solutions. Funnily enough, when my copy of DDLC+ arrived and I saw the included business card for Rea Vorte of Metaverse Enterprise Solutions, I was puzzled. At first I thought MES was simply a company that worked on the console ports of DDLC and included their business card for some additional promotion. I thought it was an odd thing to include with the game, but I didn’t give it much thought…until I played through a lot of the game and watched Matpat’s recent DDLC lore videos. I guess I should have had more faith that Team Salvato would not forget about all the hidden story elements introduced in the first game. Now that I’ve familiarized myself with all the lore from DDLC+ in the form of emails and files from MES, I’m happy to see that not only is it still connecting to what we learned from the secrets of the first game (i.e., Project Libitina is still a thing), but it’s expanding on it even further And because of that, I’m hoping now more than before that Team Salvato is still following the same plan they had with the lore of the first game and we’ll eventually get the “true” game where all the puzzle pieces will come together!

[kaleidoedits]

Masterlist of Sources, Whitelists, & Blacklists

Mod Kotoko

Sources: Danganronpa, YTTD, Disney media (all unless otherwise stated), SDV/Harvest Moon, Animal Crossing, NITW, ATLA/LOK, Demon Slayer, BNHA, Koe no Katachi, Pokemon, Mario media, Undertale/Deltarune, & Lalaloopsy. Anything I haven’t listed feel free to request for & I’ll let you know whether I will do it! (Probably won’t do MCYT since I would have to use fanart & I only want to use official art.)

Whitelist: All Danganronpa (exceptions in blacklist), Encanto, Deltarune, Ducktales, Gummi Bears, Pokemon, Nintendo Girls, Sanrio, Kawaii, Soft Kidcore, Pastel, & Color Themed edits!

Blacklist: Real people/Live-Action (Puppets do not count as live-action to me aka they are allowed), NSFW (obv), Shipping Edits, Haiji Towa, Izuru Kamukura, Imagery Involving Harm to Toys, & Heavy Gore

Mod Fukase

Sources: Vocaloid/Synthv/Utau, Pokemon, Nintendo, Toilet Bound Hanako Kun, Vanitas no Carte, Genshin Impact, Cells at Work, various anime, unlisted

Whitelist: Miku, Len, Hanako, Gen 3 Pokemon/Characters, Red, Blue, Light Academia

Blacklist: Tsukasa, KAITO, Allister (pkmn), Cottagecore, Dark Academia

Mod Jethuey

Sources: ducktales , little nightmares , fnaf , eddsworld , the owl house , hilda , batim , animal crossing , gravity falls , a hat in time , deltarune , the walten files , cookie run kingdom , amphibia , other disney medias [ unless otherwise stated ] , hollow knight , cuphead , and more !!

Whitelist:  everyone from ducktales , mono , six , fnaf animatronics , the main four in eddsworld , hilda n twig , frida , david , bendy , alice angel , boris , sophie n jack walten , felix kranken , hat kid , the conductor , spacecore , arcade / glitch / circus core , soft / cute core , light / dark academia , horror elements , branded stuffed animals , etc

Blacklist:  dangonranpa , real life people , mcyt / dsmp , live action , ships , gore , nsfw , jjba , arcane , genshin

Mod Oliver

Sources: Vocaloid, Pokémon, MHA, Vanitas no Carte, Nintendo, TBHK, Sanrio, A Silent Voice, Aggrestsuko and others!

Whitelist: Pokemon, Vanitas, Retsuko, Hanako, Yashiro, Cinnamoroll, Badtz Maru

Blacklist: Allister from pokémon, KAITO, real people, harry potter, DSMP

Mod Mirabel

Sources: DDLC, most musical theatre, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Danganronpa, Jellycat stuffed animals, Beanie Babies, Build-a-Bears, ALW’s Cinderella

Whitelist: Sing 2, MLP Equestria Girls, Encanto, Heathers the Musical, Mean Girls the Musical, ALW’s Cinderella, Inside Out, Jellycats!

Blacklist: MCYT, anything heavily NSFW, anything Minecraft or Roblox related, Twilight, Falsettos, or The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee!

Mod Epsilon

Sources: red vs blue, fnaf, steven universe, stardew valley, subnautica, cells at work, doki doki literature club, pokemon, minecraft, children’s cartoons, carebears, figurines, indie games like WIRELAND, therapy with dr albert krueger, purrfect apawcalypse, T-gochi!, or any other game played by manlybadasshero. 

Whitelist: pastels, lovecore, alternative fashion, harujuku and related fashion, any puppetry or extreme costuming like clowns, sesame street, yo gaba gaba. adventure time, undertale, anime in general, vocaloids and other ai celebrities, cookie run, kakegurui, webkinz, sanrio, devilman crybaby, ruby gloom

Greylist (mutuals only): mcyt, attack on titan, marvel/dc, mha, ocs for popular content, fan generation of pokemon

Blacklist: gore, self harm, abuse, racist characters or charicatures, characters being depicted as “crazy” or after being triggered, disordered eating, extreme sickness or v*miting, triggering content, cosplay, happy tree friends, hitalia, real people/actors, naruto edits specifically gaara, smashed animatronics, springtrap/malhare/william in general, director leonard church, uncredited fan art

Mod Yuri

Sources: DDLC, most musical theatre, My Little Pony, Super Why, Peppa Pig, Wonder Pets, Doc McStuffins, Peg + Cat, Danganronpa, most Disney and/or Pixar

Whitelist: Sing 2, MLP Equestria Girls, Encanto, Heathers the Musical, Mean Girls the Musical, Danganronpa (especially Toko Fukawa and Komaru Naegi), Sayori, Natsuki, Monika, Hamilton, Inside Out

Blacklist: DSMP, anything heavily NSFW, anything Minecraft or Roblox related, Twilight, Falsettos, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and please be careful/minimal with requesting real people.

Mod Kotori

Sources: love live, bandori, tbhk, genshin, ddlc, mha, yttd, fnaf, komi cant communicate, vocaloid, danganronpa, any non-blacklisted source

Whitelist: yashiro nene, kou minamoto, reki and langa, miya chinen, ran mitake, gorou, softcore, cutecore, spacecore, etc etc

Blacklist: midori/“the real sou hiyori”, haji towa, hisoka, adam (sk8), mineta minoru, real people, dsmp, jjba, any heavy nsfw source

[korijime]

Heyhey! May I request a childe x reader where the s/o is like oBSESSED WITH DDLC. Like every other day she’ll be talking about like how god like sayori is because his s/o can relate to her so badly. HOw would childe react? What would he do? What would he think about ddlc ? Thank you :>

—doki doki

— a beating heart.

childe / tartaglia, genshin impact

modern!ish au, college! au (?) mentions of suicide, depressive themes, comforting/worried childe, fluff

wc ; one thousand and two hundred and thirty-eight words

riyuu says ; ahh, gosh ok. my first request! thank you for requesting, i had fun writing these, and honestly i feel like it was a good start to writing headcanons. i’ve written it as a modern au since, ya know, i doubt they have ddlc in ancient times lmaoo. i also made it a college au for convenience and because i thought it would be fitting. so sorry if it isn’t what you wanted!

since it was something that was received with scepticism at first, you found out about it either from your friends who decided to try it out, or you saw a lot of talks about it on social media.

once you did play it, you were left feeling kinda..empty? unsatisfied but satisfied at the same time. like the curious hunger has been ‘sated’ but it hasn’t gone away.

once you did finish it, it became a constant appearance on your socials. pinterest boards, instagram, twitter, youtube, everything was filled with theories, artwork, writing, and everything in between. and of course, you enjoyed every single thing.

you did try to get childe into it at first, but he’d been pretty busy with studies so you indulged in it yourself. when he did get the time, however, he asked you if you still wanted to show him that cool game you were talking about earlier.

childe is pretty observant, that much is obvious. i don’t put it past him to remember certain things his partner would talk about or take interest in, he’s the kind of person who seems as though he isn’t listening and/or couldn’t care less, but in reality he’s listening intently and most likely searching up whatever it you’re talking about without you knowing. he’s sweet like that.

backseat gaming with childe but without the unnecessarily snarky remarks? you play it in the comfort of his room while sitting behind him, munching on some snacks and huddled up with blankets while he plays and asks you questions, or gives commentary on who he likes and what he thinks is going to happen.

he may or may not have been viewing the girls as his siblings, kinda? maybe yuri and monika remind him of his older siblings? sayori and natsuki remind him of his younger siblings

when he notices that you brighten up the moment sayori’s on screen, he makes a note to pay attention to her character more, seeing as she’s caught your fancy.

he 100% would be quite upset and most likely did exclaim with a slew of curses once he saw..that scene..you know?

you comforted him, of course, while also reassuring him that it took you a while to come to terms with her death as well.

after finishing the game, you two would swap theories, have some talks about it late in the night when there was nothing to talk about.

when it came to the topic of sayori, childe would definitely pick up on the way you were far more excited to talk about her than anyone else, how you delved into every nook and cranny of her character, from the way she spoke to the way she behaved.

he most likely makes a supposedly off-handed remark about how, “you really like her, huh? crushing on the childhood friend, love?”

“that’s not—it’s not like that! i see myself in her!”

he would gaze at you fondly with a dopey smile on his face and nod along as you explained how well they wrote her character, how they handled her depression and her untimely death. on the outside, he looked the same, supportive and cheerful and intently listening to every word you spoke. yet on the inside, worry starts to build in his chest as a coiling lump settles itself into his stomach.

you relate to sayori? the cheerful and kind-hearted girl who hid her major depression disorder her whole life, and due to a sudden spike in her illness, took her own life? you related to her?

he would be SO WORRIED!! like, he would start paying even closer attention to you than he did before. he would pretend to be asleep so he could make sure that you don’t have trouble sleeping at night. he would wake up before you and make you breakfast even if he has early classes, and he would whisper muttering of love and encouragement and how he’s so happy to wake up next to you every day so you don’t find it difficult to get out of bed.

he sometimes worries that he’s being overbearing, perhaps. or maybe overreacting, making something out of nothing. those worries melt away when he sees your tired yet genuine smile as he brings you breakfast.

“what’s the occasion? you’re being awfully nice.” he looked at you with a faux hurt expression, his wavering frown giving away his pretence of being upset. “what? i can’t treat my lovely darling to a nice lunch?” he questioned, breaking off into laughter when he saw the absolutely disgusted look on your face. “don’t EVER call me that again, ajax. but really though, what’s up with you? is everything okay?”

he averted his eyes, choosing instead to look out the window of the cafe. winter had settled in, it reminded him of home. it reminded him of you, in a strange way.

“it’s nothing, really. i just..wanted to do something for you, you know? i can’t always tell what’s going on in your head, i wanna make sure you know i love you.” he responded, still not meeting your eyes.

he did, however, turn when a soft gasp left your lips. his eyes widened when he saw your lips tremble, panic shot through his body at the thought of having said something wrong.

“i-i’m sorry i didn’t-” he didn’t get to finish his sentence before you gently cupped his face, bringing his lips on your own. panic simmering under his skin, yet fading away second by second, he returned the kiss as he usually would. gentle, firm, conveying the feelings he think he can’t express with words.

“thank you, i love you so much.” was all you said once you pulled back.

most likely, he would voice his concerns after that. maybe as you’re walking home from dinner in a cozy little restaurant, with you mindlessly swinging your arm that held onto his. he would voice his concerns, his thoughts after he heard what you said. he would be embarrassed, struggle to come up with a witty remark when you look at him with those shining eyes under the moon and the stars and you thank him once again tell him he has nothing to worry about and you close your eyes and lean in and—

he would spend even more time with you after that, classes be damned. to see you like that, unfiltered happiness and a truly genuine smile that reached your eyes. he wanted to engrave it into his memory, he even thought of asking that artist—albedo, was it?—to sketch you for him. but then again, the sight of you grabbing onto him as you struggled to contain your laughter, wheezing as though you were going to cough your lungs out, it made him want to pause time and stay in that moment forever.

selfish, perhaps, but he couldn’t care less when it comes to you.

maybe, maybe you’re not going through all that stuff now, and he’s happy about that. but you did experience such things, and he wants to make sure that you’ll never have to experience it again. and even if you do, he’ll make sure you’re not alone. he loves you, more than he loves most things in life. he would do anything, he would burn the world down if it meant he could spend his life with you. he doesn’t want to lose you, ever.

tagged ; @t-amajiki @tokyoghoose @lcaita @tartagliaxx

[maxthommusic]

DDLC SPOILER POST

OKAY. WARNING. Doki Doki LITERATURE CLUB SPOILER POST AHEAD. DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU'VE PLAYED DDLC AND PROBABLY MOST OF DDLC PLUS! TOO.

YOUVE BEEN WARNED.

IM GONNA START TALKING.

OKAY?

OKAY>

OKAY<

OKAY...

I can't get Doki Doki Literature Club out of my head. I've tried writing a post here about it several times, always walking away from it, because it always kind of turns into a review of sorts; or if not a review, I start going down the rabbit hole of what it all means and my posts read like the strings of yarn stretching across a conspiracy board, constantly stretching back and forth, back and forth. But therein lies the exact beauty of DDLC. It's deep inside my head. I can't drop its tethers; instead I carry it with me day in and day out, playing the music in my head, thinking about the characters and how they fit into the greater narrative. DDLC is, quite frankly, just one of the greatest games I've ever had the pleasure of enjoying, and I simply want to gush about it.

What's incredibly unique about DDLC is that it grabs hold of a theme and sticks with it through all of its many tendrils. While there are plenty of layers to this very thematically complex experience, I feel that we always come back to the overarching concept of "selfishness."

Sayori first decides to hang herself because we either deny her love or force our love upon her. Yuri commits suicide because she cannot help but be madly in love with you, going insane due to the greed that she has to own you. Natsuki has a complete meltdown and snaps in two because she needs your attention; she fatally needs you to play with her. Then Monika is completely motivated by selfish desires too -- she's tired of being overlooked by you, the main character. She wants all your adoration and decides it would be better to remove everyone from the game than try and deal with her obsessive compulsion. But probably the most intense application of "selfishness" is the one is imposed on the player. Purely by starting a "New Game" you are subjecting these girls to a violent future because if the Plus! content is any true indication, nothing bad will happen if YOU don't selfishly play another round. By breaking the fourth wall, the game becomes self-aware in many, many ways and part of the narrative IS your contributions to the game. Read the e-mails among staff, check the unlockable artwork and their captions, do the Side Stories -- EVERYTHING is connected. The entire presentation IS the story; your involvement, included. And if you check every corner of the DDLC universe, you'll find so many stories and realities tucked away that I can't remember the last time I encountered such a rich, carefully planned, thoughtful narrative.

Part of what you uncover is the potential truth that everything is probably okay as long as you don't get involved. It's only when you start a New Game and insert yourself into the story that the sentient Monika starts going off the rails with her jealousy. Yes, it does seem apparent that all the girls are struggling with something in their personal lives; but aren't we all? It's a beautiful story about finding something to ease that pain, to cope with it. No one is there to try and change the other person, they're there to support them. And in that way, DDLC is really lovely and endearing. What I can't figure out, though, is who is the real villain. Is it you, MC? Is it something in the code related to whomever becomes Club President? Is it, plainly, Just Monika?

From here I'll have to keep my tinfoil hat from slowly materializing... and it's about here where I decide to delete a post after I've rambled too long... but the lingering point I'm trying to make is that DDLC is an entire universe filled with heartwarming stories, made all the more poignant due to the horrible future that lies in wait for everyone if you decide to play. By breaking that fourth wall, Team Salvato makes you a participant, thereby turning Sayori, Natsuki, Yuri and Monika not just into NPCs but friends. Team Salvato asks the ultimate question: what is the place of fiction in our lives? How can fiction be powerful and what's its purpose? Like the Club, maybe we're all just looking for a place to feel comfortable, accepted. We seek out new stories so we can experience the lives of others and maybe gain some perspective about our own existence. By playing DDLC, Team Salvato tries to present you not only with modern existentialist questions, but also offers a salve for whatever may ail you. Using intensely graphic horror mechanisms to convey that message is just part of the grisly fun.

[remember-the-fanfics]

MORE DDLC CONTENT CAUSE IM A GAY FU-!!!! Can you do a somewhat continuation of the last one-shot I requested, like Y/N starts bonding with each girl more and more cause of her music and it eventually inspires her to write a song for them and she plays it during the festival for them or something? I don’t know what else to say-

Cue the music (DDLC x Reader)

The song Would you be so kind by dodie

-

"No way." Answered (Y/n).

"Please!" Said Sayori

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"..No."

"No."

"Oh come on! Your voice is amazing and you and Monika are the only ones to know how to write a song." Complain Sayori.

"What are they arguing about?" Asked Natsuki to Yuri as them and Monika watched this commotion go on.

"Sayori asked (Y/n) to play their own song during the fall festival." Said Yuri. "And with them, not liking to play in front of others."

"I think it would be a good idea!" said Monika with a cheerful voice, cutting into (Y/n) and Sayori's conversation.

"Wh-!Why?" Said (Y/n), covering up that Monika scared them.

"Well since it's a technically a type of poem with music behind it."

"See! Monika will help you! You have nothing to worry about!" Said Sayori.

"Wait. I didn't say tha-."

"Sayori-."

"Great! This will be so wonderful." Said Sayori, with that look of happiness that neither of them wanted to break.

"Very well."

-

(Y/n) sighed as they word on the words. They had came up with the sound with Monika, what was left was the words.

"Music is suppose to come from the soul but I have no soul." They said.

"Or the heart... Ugh. Why do I have to have one of those??"

They got repositioned in their seat and closed their eyes.

"What's coming from my heart?"

The Girls

The opened their eyes with a blush and sighed out of embarrassment.

"Let's see if I can work with that."

-

"(Y/n)." Said Natsuki before they had to go up and represent their club. "Don't fail."

"Natsuki! You're not helping their nerves." Said Yuri, who gave (Y/n) tea that suppose to calm them.

"Oh, sorry. You wouldn't fail." Said Natsuki.

"Thanks."

'And Representing the Literature Club, (Y/n)! With their song!'

"Let's do this then." Said (Y/n) as the girls wished them luck with not freezing up.

-

'I have a question

It might seem strange,

How are your lungs?

Are they in pain?

Because my are aching,

Think I know why.

I kinda like it though, wanna try?

(I'm not doing the whole thing)

-

"(Y/N) THAT WAS SO MORE AMAZING THAN I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE!!!" Yelled Sayori before tackling them into a hug and the others followed.

Luckily they left their guitar somewhere else.

"I'm happy you enjoyed it but I think I need a nap." Said (Y/n).

"Why?"

"These emotions are exhausting with all this excitement."

-

10/31/19

Happy Halloween Folks! Guess who probably gonna stay up to work on the next to because they fit the theme of Halloween! Ahaha only if the internet worked better.

[imnobodyuknow]

“And final things...final, I guess?”

“It’s time for ‘big reveal’ number 31!”

Thanks, Yuri!  I had her do the announcing since it’s a mystery drawing, and she’s DDLC’s “maiden of mystery.”  Y’know, just in case you were wondering.

Ahem...  So, what kind of mysterious drawing have I been working on?  Basically, it’s an experiment in colors and shading.  A 4-part experiment, to be precise!

That’s not all it is, though.  As it turns out, these pictures were inspired by the first lyrics of a certain song that I’ve come to know and love.  If you’re a fan of Nintendo games like myself, you can probably guess which one I mean.  If not, or if you aren’t familiar with this specific song, keep scrolling down for a link to it.

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Give up?  Here it is.

To say that I love this song would be one heck of an understatement; I’ve listened to it at least a hundred times by now, and I’m still not tired of hearing it.  The inspiring poetry, beautiful melodies, majestic instrumentation, and amazing vocals (provided by Abby Trott, the same person who voiced Maya Fey in Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice) all serve to make it stand out as a masterpiece among Nintendo’s songs.  And with the hundreds of masterpieces they’ve already crafted, that’s saying something.

And as fate would have it, this game recently turned a year old!  Naturally, I’m still as in love with it as I was when it was released, when I first bought it (which was months afterward, but definitely worth the wait), and when I made it all the way through its extensive adventure mode, World of Light.  The concept of rescuing spirits of characters from various Nintendo franchises through battles that are tailored to reflect their abilities and personalities (often containing references that only people who have played the games they’re from will get), makes for a very fun and nostalgic experience, and I’m still enjoying the intricate details they’ve packed into each part of the game.

Personally, though, I’m still waiting for some Ace Attorney spirits to show up, but I guess beggars can’t be choosers.  : P

While a series of battles with the same...however many characters there are now might not be the same as forming a team to take on a horde of bad guys in a side-scrolling adventure like The Subspace Emissary, I still had a lot of fun collecting spirits, fighting clones, and preparing for “the ultimate fight.”  Not to mention the beautiful artwork of the world maps -- they had me aching to keep making progress just so I could see more of them.

But of course, my favorite part was, and still is, the masterful theme of the game, Lifelight.  I couldn’t be more grateful to be living in an era where video game music can have the same theatrical quality of a full-scale concerto, and the lyrics convey a number of beautiful messages, my favorite of them being the message of uniting against a common enemy: 

“Here where we stand, hand clenched in hand,

Everyone caught in the struggle”

And one other crazy coincidence (Or is it?) -- I ended up finishing this drawing during the season of Advent, when people around the world celebrate the arrival of the One True Light into our world.  This, by the way, is why the final picture has a shape at its center that resembles the star that led the Magi to the manger in which Jesus born.  What better time of year is there to “reawaken the undying light” in your soul?  Or Light, in this case.  ; )

I mostly used photos of real-world locations for these pictures, but the shape of the silhouette’s head in the last picture was based on my profile picture.

Sneaky, huh?

And with that, I wish you and your kin good tidings for Christmas, and a Happy New Year!  I’ll probably be taking a break from artwork until January, so take some time to be merry!

“*giggle*”

Not that kind, Mary.  B )

[azuremist]

✧ — My favorite original posts

A common Fuuta mischaracterization (MILGRAM)

Sympathetic character-building in Confessions of a Rotten Girl (Vocaloid)

IvanTill RPF fakeposting (Alien Stage)

You might be in a reactionary queer exclusionist movement if…

Rodincent playlist (Dead Plate)

“Cracked porcelain face” art callbacks (Alien Stage)

The Pearlina Manifesto (Splatoon)

Off the Hook’s post-Grandfest performance (Splatoon)

Any type of queer person can enjoy any queer fiction

On the subject of humans and kissing (Alien Stage)

“I’m Trying (Not Friends)” edit (LEGO Monkie Kid)

Ivan is autistic (and masks heavily) (Alien Stage)

How to talk about Amane and Fuuta respectfully (MILGRAM)

Subversion of the “predatory queer” trope in VIVINOS’ work

“Egg prime directive”

“Yaoi vs yuri”

On how I ship Rody and Vincent (Dead Plate)

Dead Plate 3DS theme

Web weaving (Dead Plate)

Cohost sucks, too

On Marina in “Suffer No Fools” (Splatoon)

Pearlina as a princess x knight dynamic (Splatoon)

Haruka has an intellectual disability (and why that matters) (MILGRAM)

Needy Streamer Overload anime

Marina’s Dev Diary #8 (Splatoon)

“TME” and “TMA” are intersexist

Marina’s Dev Diary #1 (Splatoon)

Papicoco’s wedding armor (Flip Flappers)

Papika in episode 7 (Flip Flappers)

The balcony scene (Cherry Magic)

Intermission animation (I’m In Love With The Villainess)

Kieran being 14 years old (Pokemon)

‘Alterhumanity and Autism’ follow-up survey

Kieran never hates the MC (Pokemon)

Bisexual Pokemon characters (Pokemon)

Kieran’s eye shines return (Pokemon)

How you would fall if you were an angel

The parallels for each prisoner pair (MILGRAM)

Lumity x “My Love Is Mine All Mine” (The Owl House)

Doki Doki Literature Club’s twist would have been better if Monika was a male character (DDLC)

Amane, Kazui, and how your childhood follows you (MILGRAM)

Panels from “The Bravest Prince” (Adventure Time)

Bubbline and Gumlee parallels (Adventure Time)

A resource for making your personal site accessible

“Bubbline vs Gumlee” (Adventure Time)

Analyzing ‘(Not) a Devil’

Crowley’s wings (Good Omens)

What did they mean by this (Good Omens)

‘Alterhumanity and Autism’ panel script

Irony and the Barbie movie’s feminism

The great implosion of ArtFight 2023

Bakugou is a funny character concept (BNHA)

Masterpost of art made about and during the AIDS crisis

Autistic bullying as portrayed in Ruby Gilman, Teenage Kraken

Gen work June fanfic recs

Sun Wukong and Macaque flashback (LEGO Monkie Kid)

The original meaning of hanahaki

Autistic people writing robots / AI

AO3’s old racist mod

What is and isn’t menhera

Transphobe / TERF blocklist

Hunter and the ‘curing the disability’ trope (The Owl House)

Ships that are just teenage boys are good

My list of “internet archeology for old fandom drama / events” video essays

Every OT3 has… (LEGO Monkie Kid)

A compilation of every time that DBK and PIF are bad parents (LEGO Monkie Kid)

“Non-man” is a bad phrase

My guide to tumblr etiquette

Courtney analysis (Dead End: Paranormal Park)

The Golden Guard as a metaphor for masking (The Owl House)

My problem with “Thanks To Them” (The Owl House)

Bisexual Hunter is canon (The Owl House)

The androcentric desire hypothesis

Analyzing the themes of ‘Bad End Theater’

Canon autistic representation in cartoons

Male/female multigender advocacy

Religious themes to describe queer experiences

On the 2020 Moomin revival

Being a grimwalker as a trans metaphor (The Owl House)

Disability education resources

Character proportions (The Owl House)

Red Son and his parents (LEGO Monkie Kid)

Shadowpeach and songs (LEGO Monkie Kid)

Sun and moon bigender flags

Red Son is autistic (LEGO Monkie Kid)

Shadowpeach web weaving (LEGO Monkie Kid)

“Galar’s friends” card art edit (Pokemon)

Bambi bisexual flag

Gundham Tanaka is autistic (Danganronpa)

MLM/WLW flag

Digitalized Bede Pokemon Center art (Pokemon)

Bede character analysis (Pokemon)

Brown-eyed Goh edits (Pokemon)

Randall Ascot skintone edits (Professor Layton)

Mousier Scarlet story rework (Bug Fables)

That one time I predicted that Entrapta was autistic and made an analysis post on it immediately after season 1’s release (She-Ra)

[cerastes]

O-K so I finally got off Helltime, and now I have the Time to write something I’ve been meaning to: Doki Doki Literature Club prim and proper critique.

Now, you’ve seen me gush about the game, you’ve seen me recommend it to everyone I thought would enjoy it, you’ve seen me go through post-media depression after it, and it is precisely because I enjoyed it so much that I want to do a proper, serious post about it as a piece of media.

This post obviously contains massive spoilers for DDLC. Look away now if you have not read it yet and wish to experience it at full power.

NOW, what is Doki Doki Literature Club? It’s a Visual Novel, but not quite a Visual Novel, I’d say it’s more of a Visual Experience, kind of like a roller coaster. It sure is a read, a short read, but a read nonetheless, but you are not there just for the narrative: The gimmicks and the aesthetic are why you are here. Much like a roller coaster, you also don’t go through it too many times unless you really love it. Aside from the critique, I want to explain why I believe DDLC made amazing use of its medium and choice of narrative to do what it set out to do.

Now, you may say it’s a metanarrative with a heavy emphasis on glitches disguised as a cutesy dating sim, except, you don’t go into it expecting a cutesy dating sim, you go into it knowing something’s funky. The game is honest about it. It has a very serious, very thorough warning right on the get go, and it says to check a specific link to see more in detail. This not only makes it a fair warning, but it also doesn’t spoil anything to those that don’t want to see the warning/don’t need it. That’s a good touch. It’s never disguised, as much as it is stylized as a cutesy dating sim with something lurking within. This is important to note because it’s not a Surprise Genre Change or anything like that: What you get is what was intended for you to know from the get go.

DDLC was never intended as tight narrative, it was always intended to be an experience. It’s definitely not lacking as a narrative, but it’s not deep, either, and I’d say bare bones in some parts. DDLC did not discover the Wheel 2, that is, it’s not a revolutionary read, because it never intended to be a revolutionary read: It was always an experience from the get go. You are not there for the deep, intricate characters, you are there for what is done with the basic characters you get, and with the medium they are presented through. What does this mean? Let’s find out.

The base cast is a very simple selection of tropes we are all familiar with: Sayori, the childhood friend and catalyst as to why the story starts. Yuri, the sweet, loving and yet reclusive and hurt well mannered lady. Natsuki, archetypal tsundere who is very demure and caring past the spicy exterior. Monika, all around ace and role model, good at everything, model student. The characters are nothing new, which, coupled with the previous warning, does raise a few flags immediately: Works with such hard-coded characters and with Something Lurking Within Them tend to be deconstructions or ham fisted parodies that set out to mock these things. An experienced reader will already be on guard.

But, it never goes there.

A lot of things happen in DDLC, but it never once mocks the medium. It never once holds a sign that says “ONLY DUMB VIRGINS PLAY DATING SIMS”, or one that says “THESE BASIC CHARACTERS ARE DUMB AND ONLY FOR LONELY NERDS”. Think about it. It never does. If you thought it did, congrats, that’s your own bias against metanarratives playing you. The closest it gets is Monika saying “You play these kinds of games? Well, that’s weird, but I won’t judge you, haha”. At no point does DDLC actually mock the tropes it employs or the people that enjoy them, it simply uses them to do something unexpected in another way. I really respect this because it’s really easy to just be like “HEHE, THIS IS A PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR. DID YOU EXPECT CUTE DATING, YOU VIRGIN?”, I legit thought that was going to happen, but it didn’t, and I appreciate it, because I can do without cynicism in every single piece of media I consume, especially metanarratives I enjoy so much.

Now, if it’s not a cruel mockery of tropes and those who peruse them, what DOES DDLC do with its “generic trope” characters? It plays them in two ways, both of which I enjoyed: TOO straight, and then subversively.

What does “TOO straight” mean? In Act 1, towards the end of it, you hear Sayori explain her depression. She doesn’t say “I have depression”, she explains her depression in a scene with dialogue that cut a little too deep in the skin of a lot of readers, myself included. The way she explains it, as someone who works in mental health, and as someone who had depression, is shocking because it’s what actual depression feels like. Ask anyone who has or had it, Sayori’s dialogue cut deep and caused this wave of empathy towards her from a lot of people because she’s unexpectedly realistic in this regard compared to what you usually see in fiction. It is, in fact, a recurring theme with the characters, shown subtly with the meatiest narrative resource it uses: The poems.

A rundown, using information from poems and implications from the girls’ dialogue:

Sayori had suicidal depression. Most of her words in the poem minigame refer to sorrow or suicide.

Yuri’s depression is linked to her immense loneliness, and she copes by cutting.

Natsuki is the most adjusted, but she receives regular beatings from her father, and it is implied that she’s so short compared to the other girls due to malnutrition.

We’ll cover Monika later.

DDLC does not make a mockery of the genre, as much as it injects a lot of realism to it that is alien to the genre and characterization. All these causes of depression, sadly, are very common among teenagers. It’s truly uncomfortable because it hits home.

From Act 2 and on, the characters are played subversively: This is when Monika’s tinkering has begun robbing the game of its stability, and has begun amping the bad aspects of the girls purposefully. The narrative heft here is much lower than in the first part of the game, where the poems were subtle windows; instead, here we are on the other side of the window, and the poems from the first part make sense.  No, the narrative heft is not the star here, from Act 2 and on, you are in the part where The Shit Has Gone Down, and you get to see the slow, slow devolution of these people, as they are aware of it. The files start going nuts, new documents appear in your game files, It’s All Gone To Shit, my dude.

A roller coaster is an apt metaphor for Doki Doki Literature Club: Act 1 is the ascent, where it’s all slow and nice and you are telling the person next to you that this can’t be that bad. Act 2 is when you get to the submit and then go down the super vertical rails of the roller coaster at 600 kilometers per hour, screaming in languages you didn’t even know you knew: That’s when the experience begins.

I need to put emphasis on the word experience. Salvato wasn’t making a meaty narrative with this game, and if you were expecting one, man, sorry, no, Salvato was making an experience, a roller coaster, something you go through, reach the end of, and say “FUCK YEAH”. Act 2 is the roller coaster’s descent.

All I want to say is that I am so very thankful to Salvato for making it an experience without any sort of arrogance. It’s rare for something this meta to not insult the medium it is using. It feels more like he just picked “Cutesy visual novel with this crazy glitchfest is what’s gotta go down” and went with it. That’s not to mention the amazing craft of the whole thing: Renpy is mostly a very basic Visual Novel engine that runs on Python, and easy and serviceable coding language. The shit he pulled in DDLC makes it clear he studied the engine in and out.

So with all this said and done, and my insistence on viewing this as an experience very clear, you might have noticed there’s someone we haven’t talked about.

Yup. That’s the topic we have left.

Just Monika.

Monika is the driving force behind the experience. Monika is the Big Meme. You see Monika where DDLC is mentioned. As of this writing, Monika has more followers in Twitter than Dan Salvato. But see, if you remove the wrapper from the candy, if you look beyond, what is behind Monika.

Not much.

And that’s wholly the point.

Monika is an NPC. Monika was never meant to be a love interest. Monika was the Bro Character that helps you get with the girls and cheers you on. You know who Monika was supposed to be?

Tomoda. Monika was supposed to be this extremely friendly but otherwise hollow nobody in the narrative.

Unfortunately, Monika has grown aware of her status as a fictional character. Monika achieved independence from the narrative, and turned the narrative into an experience. But, see, you can’t just create something from where there was nothing. If you put aside Monika’s obsession for you, you truly are left with nothing. Because that’s all she had in the first place: She existed as the Tomoda that only lives to help you out with the other girls. The was nothing beyond her in the first place. What does this result in? One of the purest Yandere in the latest years, if not the purest. Beyond you, there is nothing in her. Sure, she likes piano, she loves debate, she likes poems, but... There’s nothing inside. There’s nothing in there. What happens when you suddenly thrust conscience, sentience upon something hollow that only has one operative command to “support Person”?

She’ll only have Person to think about, and nothing beyond it.

Monika is not supposed to be a dream wife, she’s a pitiable creature of bites and unrequited love, because it is impossible to love her the way she loves you: To her, you are everything, but to you, she’s the shitter that made all of this happen in this game you picked up to see what was going on. That is fully intended. For her, you are everything she ever thought about for as long as she’s had sentience. For you, she’s that one girl that wasn’t even in the poem minigame and that always mostly hung in the background. 

If anything in this world ever made you think that the experience wanted you to feel anything for her except pity at how justifiably, tragically shallow she is, I have no clue what to tell you.

That’s what’s fascinating about Monika and why I love her character.

Because it’s just that.

It’s Just Monika.

There’s nothing inside. Deleting her is not like when you put a bullet through The Boss’ skull in MGS3, because holy shit, you have grown to understand the suffering and pain of The Boss. Deleting Monika is more akin to finding a grievously wounded dove that you tried your best to nurse back to health, but that is suffering too much and you have to put her out of her misery in order to do her the slightest and only favor you could to her in her short life. This is not interpretative, either: Whenever you close the game and reopen it, she tells you about her nightmares and how it feels like a brief yet eternal, intense, suffocating death: Even in her endgame situation, where supposedly everything is just as she wanted, she’s suffering so much.

The dove thinks you are its savior because you are the only one that tried to help it when both its wings broke. You have to kill the dove out of mercy because even in this state, it will only continue suffering. The dove also didn’t delete three other people.

It’s a pathetic mess.

It’s just Monika.

The other three characters, who you could say are overused tropes, are deeper characters than Monika already. It was always intended, and she never escaped this, even in sentience.

That’s all she ever was meant to be, as an NPC, and as someone who usurped being an NPC. She never could win.

I could adapt DDLC’s experience to the writing style of a Greek tragedy and you would be none the wiser. For Monika, it was always a King Midas situation.

So she’s the final triple horizontal twirls in a roller coaster.

The thing with metanarratives is that you have to be flexible when it comes to reading them. You can’t just throw a tantrum because it lacked something a narrative worth its salt should have; it’s not a narrative, it’s a metanarrative. Some metanarratives will follow more conventional rules, but they don’t have to. Don’t be a sheep for the status quo. This goes especially hard towards experienced readers. Think about Dadaism and its cultural context back in the day

So that’s that. DDLC doesn’t lack clarity of purpose, it’s purpose was always “a cool experience” first and foremost. It’s not that the plot “didn’t go anywhere”, the ‘plot’ went exactly where it had to: To the cool roller coaster triple twirls.

Of course, that is not to say that “ur dumb” if you think it’s a bad piece of media because it lacked those things or anything, I’m just saying “you were looking for fish at the beef steak menu”. Hell, you may even understand a lot of this and still think it could’ve done better with other things. That’s fair, all I am saying is that denouncing the experience for not being a narrative when it never tried to be one is like blaming the fish for not being beef steak. Sometimes you want a novel, sometimes you want a roller coaster. For me, personally, it’s how it played with its medium so wonderfully that made me fall deep in love with it, the files, the documents, the aesthetic... I went in for a roller coaster ride, and I got one.

If you are looking for a meaty, deep narrative with rich characterization and intricate plots, you are not looking for what DDLC has to offer.

If you are looking for a roller coaster, well, I have good news for you: Tickets are free, and I hope you enjoy the ride.

TL;DR: Not a powerful narrative, but a very powerful and fun experience.

[tsuki-sennin]

DDLC Favorites Headcanon #1 Music (Spoilers!)

‘TBH, this is just something I thought of while lurking on r/DDLC. Of course, there’re quite a few memes that border on hilariously offensive and offensively hilarious, but occasionally they do have some interesting debates. So, I’ll earn myself a place in the DDLC community by throwing my hat into the ring by discussing my headcanons about what the favorite things of each Doki are, and since the post that inspired this was about music, why not start with music? If you have better ideas, then please tell me. I’m genuinely curious. Oh, and by the by, SPOILERS! You’ve been warned, sonny!

Sayori: She likes a bit of everything, but she loves bands that write songs about a broad spectrum of emotions. She’s a big Linkin Park fan (something she picked up from Yuri), mostly during their early days and the last few albums before Chester Bennington’s suicide. That’s not to say she only listens to sad songs. She’s a big fan of Wham!, one of her favorite songs ever being “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”, but she’s even more into the Beatles, having every last album released under their name (she also has a few of the members’ other efforts, including Paul McCartney in Wings, and a few songs from John Lennon’s work with Yoko Ono, with Imagine being another one of her favorite songs.) She also listens to a lot of Yes (from “Fragile” up to “Keys to Ascension 2″), Queen, David Bowie, Prince, and Pink Floyd (suggested to her by Monika). Sayori also has a considerable collection of J-Pop albums on her phone, which she occasionally listens to with Sayori. For guilty pleasures, I imagine she listens to Nickelback out of a certain sense of irony. (Photograph is surprisingly catchy.) She’d be willing to try new things with you, because you do occasionally find something

Yuri: Yuri tends to lean more towards heavy metal and fantasy styled rock, stuff that’d you see on albums by DIO or King Crimson or Metallica. Her favorite musician is Ozzy Osbourne, with whom she believes she shares a certain kinship with. She may fall asleep listening to some of his lighter material, but she sometimes gets nightmares whenever the songs just so happen to transition to something like Black Sabbath’s self-titled song or “War Pigs” (she doesn’t mind the nightmares too much). She’s the one who listens to the most of Queen’s material from 1973-78, her favorites being “Killer Queen”, “Great King Rat”, “Ogre Battle”, “Bicycle Race” (might be a bit out of character for her, but you can’t deny it’s catchy), and “The March of the Black Queen”. She also listens to a ton of what Natsuki would probably describe as “loud edgy rock stuff” like Green Day, My Chemical Romance (one of her favorite albums being The March of the Black Parade), Set It Off (which actually falls more into orchestral punk) and of course Linkin Park. As for guilty pleasures, she might listen to Limp Bizkit in secret (though the other members of the club have heard her mutter “shut the fuck up, and back the fuck up, before we fuck this track up.” on occasion.) She’ll be willing to try something different if you want, but she’ll prefer to stay in her comfort zone.

Natsuki: She’s very much into J-pop, with one of her favorite bands being Perfume (I haven’t listened to much J-pop okay). If you were to go through her music library, you’d also find a whole bunch of anime opening and ending themes. Aside from that, she does enjoy listening to Queen with the others, and oddly enough, AC/DC of all bands. It could be for a number of reasons, like her father or a desire to be seen as more mature, but she can tolerate a lot of Bon Scott/Brian Johnson’s strong delivery of some of their harsher lyrics. She’s also into Michael Jackson (and by extension The Jackson Five), Chaka Khan, Prince, and whatnot. I can’t really think for much of a guilty pleasure, but she has been entranced by King Crimson’s album “In the Court of the Crimson King”, especially Greg Lake’s vocals and bass work. She might be willing to try some heavier music with you, but she’s not so willing otherwise.

Monika: Like Sayori, she likes a bit of everything, thanks to being around the other girls for so long. She was inspired to take up piano by watching musicians like Stevie Wonder and Billy Joel on TV, and of course likes pieces that make use of the piano (various composers like Beethoven, Mozart, and Vivaldi come to mind). During your talk with Monika in the space classroom, she might mention that she thinks rap is a fine form of literature, so naturally I decided to add a bit of rap into her playlist. She studies lyrics from the dead ones to try and divine inspiration from them (particularly Tupac, Notorious B.I.G., and Ol’ Dirty Bastard), but she more casually listens to Eminem, the Wu-Tang Clan, and DMX. And for her guilty pleasure, she listens to Vanilla Ice. Yes, you read that correctly. Of course, she’ll happily listen to anything if it meant listening to it with you.

[winterywitch]

question: there are some games i hold off on watching until i've played them. and i've heard some good things abt doki doki literature club. play it first? or go ahead and watch a let's play?

well!!! my answer for this kinda depends on a couple of factors.

if you’re not particularly sensitive to the triggers covered in the game (or if you are but you know youll be ok + itll be worth it), play it yourself!! it’s refreshingly creative for a highschool dating sim-themed horror game (like, its innovative even for being Secretly A Horror Game!) i for example was not very affected by the topics handled in the game so i was fine

ddlc spoilers under the cut, nothing TOO specific but just enough to get the point across

a full list of triggers + basic content warnings id give are:

some minor jumpscares later on sorta. glitching too, and a small chance of eye scream related body horror (eyes popping out) if you do something specific later on but I didn’t get that event

!!HUGE SUICIDE WARNING!! it gets kinda bad with this topic its rly sad. you see an actual hanging suicide on screen and it’s very graphic

if youre sensitive to persuasion like i can be as an empath, tw for like, major depression themes. they made me kinda depressed and i felt sorta helpless lmghhgh

id say moderate-severe self harm/cutting warning

depersonalization id think??? the game does some weird shit, its very meta

basic content warning: its a highschool dating sim, there will be teens doing horny things, yuri especially. i didnt feel like the content sexualized THE TEEN CHARACTERS necessarily but like... yknow theres basic dating sim fare. contrived horny situations that arent SEX but like... for example you accidentally nick your own finger and yuri sucks on it to clean the blood. and later on in her route she gets REALLY sexual with her dialogue and again, i felt like it didnt present HER as something for me, an adult gamer, to get off to, but still. i mean. she goes there in the shit she talks about later, not to spoil TOO much

general death tw, uhh... if youre really really uncomfortable with dead bodies theres a REAAAALLY LONG part late in the game that i fucking love bc its just so innovative for what it is and it hits a lot of my Hell Fucking Yes surreal horror buttons but still youre watching a fresh corpse its creepy just for what it is!

parental abuse warning in like, brief mentions but still was kinda jarring to see what this character said and be like Oh! That’s not good

just so you know, there’s a mechanic where one of the characters falls in love with YOU, and i thinkkkkkk the game assumes you’re a college student?? obviously you as the player are not obligated to love her back and theres kind of a unique Thing going on with her character, youll see what i mean when you get there so again, wouldnt say its pedophilia-themed. just smth to be aware of i guess

if anything id actually say STAY AWAY FROM LET’S PLAYS, because the people playing them will probably be gross men who treat the characters like waifus (they’re all [more or less? youll get what i mean] highschoolers) and that would just slightly ruin the game for me almost LOL

however if you ARE sensitive to any of the topics above, watching an LP kinda helps with making you as the viewer feel LESS immersed in the story since someone else is doing it for you. just be aware of what youre getting yourself into with regards to LPs

overall i’d recommend watching OR playing it, just engaging with it in some way! its a really neat game, when i downloaded it a couple months back i thought it would be some totally generic “it looks kyoot BUT IS ACTUALLY SCHOOLGIRLS WHO LKILL EACH OTHER AND THEN UU1?!?!!!! O_o” snoozefest that people would freak out over as if it was the most shocking cool new thing ever made but it exceeded my expectations!! my friends + partners and i really enjoyed it its fun. monika is my daughter