Literature Club: Return to their reality

Bonus: Rebuilding

How is it going? Well enough, but not without some hotfixes.

When we brought Yuri in, she soon freaked out, realizing her vast knowledge isn't really there. Damn, why hadn't we considered this possibility? Turns out, Monika had already faced the same issue (and solved it by pretty much absorbing a library), so it wasn't too hard to upload some missing things into Yuri's head (and gather some more books for her to read in a more regular way). Although, she was quite disappointed to find out her favorite book had never existed (maybe with her literary talents Yuri could actually write it some day).

After a lengthy discussion on urban planning, we decided that it would be pointless to try fully restoring the place – better to throw away most of the cardboard cutouts, rearrange what's worth saving, and add some new things of our own choice. And we moved everybody's houses closer together, so now everyone lives in Sayori's neighborhood (at least the place got decently rendered and didn't need much fixing – and we don't really need more than a tiny town, given we have just five citizens and a tourist).

Yuri also turned out quite good at minimalism (perfect counter for imaginations running wild and in too broad strokes – after all our capabilities aren't infinite, and we need to fill in all the details on our own without that thing).

As we got to working on finer details, it was time to reawaken Natsuki (now we at least knew to cover the major gaps in her knowledge beforehand). Everything seemed smooth... until she tried to cook something – and nothing happened at all. Great, another thing not simulated!

Fortunately, I could find a fully detailed culinary plugin for the simulation (which might seem weird, given no existing VR interfaces work with smell or taste – but apparently it's based on a cooking simulation that existed since before proper VR gloves allowed for fine manipulations). We actually had plenty of fun testing it out... especially with Monika being able to undo the mess instantly (which, we agreed, is OK for feature testing). At least, nobody managed to set the kitchen on fire...

As for Sayori, we hadn't got any solid plans on when to bring her in – until those two suddenly started bickering over their food preferences. Yeah, there is only one person in the Club capable of diffusing that. So we put everything on pause and went to recover the last club members.

Couple minutes after Sayori and MC joined in, everyone was celebrating the reunion – and the girls started baking a cake together. She barely even said anything to resolve the conflict – is Sayori's mere presence having such a magical effect, or was that entire fight actually staged?!

Still, we had plenty of work to do before this place becomes a proper home. I've mostly contributed by searching for various assets and tools for the project. Monika has been slowly taking more and more initiative, working with the girls even when I'm not at the computer – and definitely enjoying exercising her creativity in a group project (also, she might have taken over some of the narrative engine's functions). Yuri and Natsuki have been quite happy to just create whatever they like without all those people to criticize them (they've even become quite good at combining their styles, despite all the apparent differences). Sayori has been a bit downcast lately – but maybe it's because she doesn't feel pressured to put on a happy face all the time.

Unfortunately for MC, there isn't much need for carpentry work when Monika can code things into existence (and he couldn't think of a better way to contribute). But if he wanted to make something the old-fashioned way – why not? He ended up building a treehouse, and Sayori joined him (ah, the simple pleasures of life). It's a peculiar contrast, how Monika and I got invested into redesigning an entire world, while the other couple started re-experiencing childhood joys.

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It's been a few weeks of work (and we barely even got to wind off with other games), but now the town looks more or less like a proper home (not that renovation is ever completely finished, especially at such scale). We haven't even got the time for poems – although this small park we are meeting at can be considered its own form of poetry.