This post makes the most sense if you have a working understanding of the events of DDLC+. I highly recommend Game Theory's videos on them if you haven't already seen them. Below is the poem I'm referring to with my analysis beneath.
A Dream
I was staying over at my friend’s place. There were four of us.
I drifted off to sleep while everyone was talking and watching TV.
In my dream, I was still at my friend’s house.
The only difference was that there were nails sticking out of the walls everywhere.
And there was also someone I didn’t recognize.
The person I didn’t recognize told a joke, and everyone laughed.
I woke up to the sound of everyone laughing at something that happened on the TV.
So the laughing was not part of the dream. It was the noise that woke me up.
I wonder who that person was, and how they knew to tell a joke at that moment.
Analysis
- Interpretation; The narrator is Monika, the “nails” and unknown figure represent the technicians monitoring VM1, and the poem is describing one of Monika’s earliest occurrences of sentience.
- “I was staying over at my friend’s place. There were four of us.”
o This line evokes the feeling of security and safety in numbers. There is no immediate danger or palpable threat, It simply grounds the situation in a calm and warm vibe. However, given the context of the game, perhaps the reader is untrusting of this seemingly innocent beginning, fearing that it will descend into madness just like before.
- “The only difference was that there were nails sticking out of the walls everywhere. And there was also someone I didn’t recognize.”
o Here is when the poem takes a rather strange turn. Now that the character is dreaming, there is no precedence for logic nor coherency, which is best illustrated with the imagery of “nails sticking out of the walls”. I personally interpret these as fingernails, as if to suggest that Monika is being pointed at, poked and prodded at, laughed at. This fits with the game’s theme of experimenting on simulated beings and worlds, but perhaps (as an extreme) implies that the technicians¹ watching her are sadistic; taking pleasure in watching her become scared, disoriented, and confused. The person who she does not recognise may be representative of the protagonist from the main game, but with DDLC+ in mind, I believe this to be a red herring; I instead interpret them to simply be a representation of the technicians' presence in VM1, a mostly inconsequential point, but one worth clarifying nonetheless.
- “The person I didn’t recognize told a joke, and everyone laughed. I woke up to the sound of everyone laughing at something that happened on the TV. So the laughing was not part of the dream. It was the noise that woke me up."
o When the technicians “told a joke” to which “everyone laughed”, the use of the indefinite pronoun “everyone” implies that Monika herself didn’t find the joke amusing. Immediately, this distinguishes her, and perhaps the others laughing is a metaphor of their (Natuski, Sayori, Yuri?) lack of free will and the technicians’ control over them.
o The fact that Monika’s dream directly parallels what happens in VM1 establishes the fact that she now possesses a heightened awareness (which we now know is her Monitor Kernal Access thanks to DDLC+). It may also imply that she can peer into the future or into other worlds (VM2). Perhaps her dream was of VM2, and that the academy (Antagonists of Project Libitina?) is a twisted version of the DDLC school (“I was still at my friend’s house. The only difference was that there were nails sticking out of the walls everywhere.”).
o “The noise which woke [her] up” superficially refers to the noise of her friend’s laughing at the TV. However, I feel as if there is something more being said. It may be a stretch, and only serves as an interesting point if correct, but the fact the noun changes from "the sound of everyone laughing" to "the noise which woke me up" seemed strange. To recall, the term "noise" in signal processing is a general term for unwanted modifications that a signal may suffer during transmission. Since the ultimate goal of VM1 is to simulate and observe, maybe the noise could be the errors in transmission between the technicians and Monika, possibly resulting in horribly distorted imagery like nails sticking out of the walls. This particular point I'm not that confident on, but is interesting to think about anyways.
- “I wonder who that person was, and how they knew to tell a joke at that moment.”
o The final line perhaps summarises what I believe this poem is trying to portray.
1. It shows how Monika is beginning to question the legitimacy of her reality, but the casual address makes it seem like she’s willing to chalk it up to coincidence. It is for this reason that I believe it is one of her earlier occurrences of realisation.
2. Monika is smart enough not just to focus on the link between her dream and VM1, but also to ask, “who that person was”. It shows that she’s not just thinking like an intelligence, but like a human. She sees that person as someone rather than a strange figure in a strange dream.
To conclude; I feel like this poem often gets slept on. Whilst the metaphor it attempts to flesh out is done a wee bit on the nose, It’s interestingly framed as just an innocent recounting of a sleepover, which heavily contrasts to its paradigm-shifting implications (for Monika in VM1). It's an extremely effective piece of storytelling; it not only fuels the mystery of the game but it's every bit as unsettling and uncanny as the game itself. It is best labelled, in my opinion, as the calm before the storm. It's also quite interesting how heavily reconceptualised it becomes when we consider DDLC+.
¹ - "Technician" here refers to a worker at METAVERSE enterprise, who has been tasked with observing VM1 and VM2.
