Chapter Text
Monika had realized that while the computer was locked, it wasn't actually logged off or sleeping; processes were still running and all that.
So when she knew it was locked, she decided to get out of her game and explore a little. She found a program called "Antichamber," which she assumed was a misspelt antechamber.
She was wrong.
Really, really wrong.
When Monika had started, she was in a black room of sorts. On her left, was a glass panel looking out into a white hallway, and on her right was a settings menu, with a timer counting down from one hour and thirty minutes. One hour and thirty minutes until what? In front of her was a portrait of a fetus in a womb, with a caption.
"Every journey is a series of choices. The first is to begin the journey."
Behind her was blank, almost. It had "Choose Your Destination" emblazoned on the top, and a single square in the upper half of the screen. If she focused on it, it seemed to have popped out, giving her a picture and a caption.
"Leap of Faith" the caption had said, with "Click To Travel" under it. When she had pressed the square with her finger, she seemed to... Fade? Yeah, let's go with that. She seemed to fade from the black room and into a room that looked like it was at the top of a tower.
There was a gap between here and the next room, with a mess of cubes above the pit saying "JUMP!!" Monika stepped up to the ledge to look down but cubes had suddenly formed beneath her feet when she got close.
...What? Monika thought, opting to at least try to walk across the gap—and to some success. At least, until she turned around out of curiosity.
Then she saw the eye.
"OhgodwhattheeverlivingFUCKisthat" She yelled, as she recoiled and jumped.
Oh, the platform was gone.
Oh shit.
Monika's life flashed before her eyes as she fell, and then she hit the ground.
It... Didn't hurt, actually.
She landed on a ledge in the middle of the tower. Behind her looked like some kind of... force field? It looked strange, with a pattern of red cubes and this weird... hazy stuff. On the other side, there was a room, or at the very least a hallway leading to a room.
The pit had a long way to go so Monika tested the waters again and found out that there was, again, an invisible floor... thing. She walked semi-confidently until she got to the middle, in which she hit a wall.
Jumping made these things disappear, right? She thought, looking at the false ground she was currently on. Is there a way around?
She felt her way around the disappearing wall and found an opening near the (real) wall. She walked through and made her way confidently to the stairs, somewhat proud that she figured something out.
When she got into the hallway on the other side, she was greeted with a photo of... a duck? Or maybe it was a rabbit? It seemed to darken if she looked at it directly, which she took as a cue to press it.
The picture changed into words.
"How we perceive a problem can change every time we see it."
Okay... Monika thought, moving on. There was a loud ticking sound in the hall, and the hallway had split into three—
"Ohmyfuckinggodit'shereagain" She spouted as she fell backwards, the eye ever watching. These things creeped her out. Was it—Was it closing? Did she have to beat it in a staring contest or something?
It fully closed and gave way, appearing to have turned out to be a door. She stood there in shock and the eyedoor, as she opted to call them now, closed. When she looked away to check the other rooms, the one that was in front of her when she entered appeared to be some sort of display room.
And that's where the ticking is coming from, Monika mused, seeing the clock from the entrance. When she turned to her right she heard a weird sound that would be hard to describe without onomatopoeic usage. At the far end was a... Door? Maybe this was what the normal doors looked like here? When she had looked at it, it closed.
Monika opted for the least creepy route, which was the straight ahead path.
When she entered the room, she noticed something off.
Is there—Why is that—What? She gazed around the displays, each side showing something completely different. In the back there was one that showed a track runner, with a different "expression" each time. But the back was... Empty?
Monika took a cautious step inside, noting the non-euclidean properties of this place. In the room inside the display, there was another picture, showing a man scavenging a fossil out in the desert. She poked it like the previous one.
"When you absorb your surroundings, you may notice things that you didn't see before."
O-kay...
The room was a square, and the pillar in the center had the picture on all four sides. On the other end of the room, there was a hallway marked with colours, red near her and blue on the other side of the hallway.
Walking through, she noticed the green on the other side of the turn, but opted to go straight instead.
She ended up with the red on her left and the blue on her... right...
Whipping around, the hallway she came from was gone, replaced with the green spot that had marked the intersection.
"What." Monika had uttered to herself.
She walked into the green hallway, and turned around fully expecting the previous hallway to be gone.
Nope.
Looking around her, one hall was blank and the other had more green.
Monika opted to follow the green route, since that seemed like a safe option. Except... Green split off into more green and blanks, and suddenly she was confused because there were so many pathways and they had to lead to the same hallway, right?
With a little trial and error, Monika found herself into a brand new hallway, with a couple of arrows pointing left and right at the end of it and a picture on the side.
A skinny guy trying to lift a small weight while a buff dude was lifting a large weight. She instinctively poked it.
"If you never stop trying, you will get there eventually."
Good advice, Monika thought, though a little to late I think.
She made her way to the end of the hallway, which split off.
Monika mentally flipped a coin and decided to head left, which lead in a circle. Or... a spiral? This place was weird.
After what she assumed was a full rotation, a picture popped up on the black and white striped walls. It was a dog chasing his tail. Poke.
"Some choices can leave us running around in circles."
Well fuck you too. Monika had wanted to say, but knew that there was nobody to say it to.
She continued anyway, the spiral leading down and—
What.
She was back at the hallway again?
The clock was on the other end, and to her left was the eyedoor and to her right was the actual door.
Now there was a picture on the wall of the skinny guy finally lifting his weight while the buff guy was still lifting his.
"Raw persistence may be the only option other than giving up entirely."
Hm.
An arrow formed on the floor in the intersection, pointing towards the normal door.
Every time Monika looked at it, it seemed to have just closed. So maybe in order to open it you don't have to look at it?
Monika tried this and, to her surprise, it worked. Another picture awaited her, showing a man being frightened by a bear.
"A few steps backwards may keep you moving forwards."
Someone tried to be a motivational speaker, Monika mused. She turned around from the picture and saw what looked like a picture frame. It had a large flower decoration and behind the flower, was a blue room with... Was that a picture on the end? The room she was in was red, with nothing but the weird frame.
She got up close to examine the blue room on the other side, and when she was satisfied, she took a step back.
Except she was in the blue room now.
"What?" Monika looked around.
She walked to the other side of the frame and through the hallway to the picture, which showed a man at his computer looking out of a window.
"A window of opportunity can lead to new places if you are willing to take a closer look."
At this point, Monika realized that the pictures helped her understand some of the weirder physics of this... place. Even if in an extremely roundabout way.
Turning around to look down the side hall, the hacker girl noticed that the portrait from this side was red, while the other side was blue.
Back to the other hall though—
Monika yelped as this black... thing passed through a hall on the other side of the glass. She was kind of afraid to look at it, and she could hear some kind of... whispering, when it was near.
She hid behind the wall and waited until the whispering was gone. Looking through the glass now, there was an opening on the left which she assumed was the door sound she had heard, and another window looking into a room with a portrait and a...
What even is that?
Monika looked behind her and saw the dark hallway with bright white lining every meter or so. As she walked further in, the hallway got darker... and darker... and...
Fuck, everything was black now.
Monika couldn't see, as she walked around, running into a wall every so often. Once, she had found some kind of ring... thing that glowed. It momentarily frightened her, and she jumped back.
Finally, she had come out into a lit room, with two pictures and another dark hallway on the other side.
She poked the one nearest to her, which showed a large ship sailing at night time.
"Look a little harder, and you will find a way forward."
...Okay?
The second picture showed a sheep jumping off a cliff.
"Failing to succeed does not mean failing to progress."
Monika was puzzled at this, until she looked up.
This is... the bottom of the tower? But I didn't go down, did I?
Monika's head hurt, since all the geometric bullshit that was happening wasn't exactly nice to experience. She looked down the green dark hallway—the one she came from was blue, and it was easy to tell the difference. The was an arrow pointing at the wall, contrary to the path that the green hall had laid out.
When she walked over to it the arrow turned out to be in a room hidden in the darkness. She brushed her hand against the wall while going where the arrow was pointed so she wouldn't get lost again. Hopefully.
After a little bit of walking, she came out into the hallway she had seen earlier, with a circle on the other side of the room. On her left was a picture of a rocket ship blasting blasting off into outer space.
"Venturing into the unknown can lead to great rewards."
At the cost of some sanity. Monika deadpanned inwardly.
She looked over at the room behind the glass. The portrait was still there, and looking closer, the thing in the room was...
A gun? It was a really weird one—it had a circular body though there was a definite stock and grip, as well as a foregrip on the bottom if you looked at it hard enough.
When she moved to get a closer look on the other side, she noticed something about the portrait that was almost against the glass.
It was showing the room she was in right now, from the dark hallway.
Does that mean I can get it now? Monika thought, looking over at the darkened hallway. It didn't look like anything was there, though.
She went over and held her hand on the wall. She almost ran into the back wall, which went further back than she remembered. Then she saw the portrait.
Monika inwardly jumped with glee—she was figuring things out! She put her face up to the portrait and felt her surroundings change. She stepped back and hit the glass wall behind her.
...Glass wall behind her? Oh, right, she was in the other room now. She looked over at the gun, since what use would she even have for it?
There was a picture beside it, showing a thief stealing a diamond from above.
"Try hard enough and you will get to where you want to be."
Monika agreed, hefting her new item off the pedestal it was on—if you can even call it a pedestal. The gun was... weird. It was marked with blue almost everywhere, surprisingly heavy and light at the same time, and it felt like there were two triggers. She noticed marks in the hallway ahead and what looked a blue cube, and went closer to investigate, though being cautious about what looked like laser wires. She pressed her other hand against the lasers, and the door in front of her that was being held somewhat off the ground by the cube lifted.
A trigger mechanism? Monika deducted. Interesting...
The marks on the wall showed a mouse, with a right click pointing to the block and a left click pointing to the top of the door. Monika translated this into the triggers on the gun, the bottom one being right click and the top one being left click. So she aimed at the cube and pulled the second trigger.
The cube disappeared, and that seemed to be it. Monika looked at her gun, confused, and she saw in the middle of the circular... thing, that the erased cube was now in the gun. Monika triggered the lasers again, and tried to place the cube at the door to stop it from falling.
She succeeded, and the door stayed still while she walked under it.
The computer started to unlock.
Shitshitshitshit— Monika raced to close the program and get back into her own.
That was... Fun, actually. Really painful for her spatial senses, but fun.
She might come back to that game later.