The Literature Club- Something Different

Art Of The Main 5 by @NintenBen98

The Literature Club: Something Different (TLC:SD for short, sometimes also spelled as TLC-SD) is a fanfiction and webseries based off of the popular 2017 freeware visual novel game "Doki Doki Literature Club". The Fanfiction was created by @NintenBen98 on Scratch and the first project related to TLC:SD would be posted on October of 2023. In TLC:SD, the main character roles from DDLC are now given to characters from the @NintenBen98 universe and it seems to add more to the DDLC story in general.

## Origin

It all started on September, 30, 2023 where underrated music creator @NintenBen98 made a google docs on a new story he's making, the story was originally called "NintenBen: Something Different" until later when it would finally become what would be known as "The Literature Club: Something Different." The name for the project probably stems from one of NintenBen98's other projects titled "Personalized Realities: ₴Ø₥Ɇ₮Ⱨł₦₲ Đł₣₣ⱤɆ₦₮" where he adds the characters of DDLC into his Undertale AU "Personalized Realities".

## Scratch Projects

As of January, 4, 2024, there are 5 TLC:SD projects officially posted to the @NintenBen98 channel.

### The Literature Club-Something Different

On October, 21, 2023, @NintenBen98 posted a scratch project called "The Literature Club-Something Different." where he showed off some art for the new series as well as the overall story and characters. This project is now considered "outdated" in to the canon TLC:SD.

### TLC:SD Chapter 1 (Official)

On December, 9, 2023, @NintenBen98 posted another scratch project to the TLC:SD Series called "TLC:SD Chapter 1 (Official)". Which shows revised art and the first chapter of TLC:SD as well music from supposedly the "TLC:SD OST". When clicking space, the main menu then transitions to a house background that is actually an unused house background that can be found in the Doki Doki Literature Club files. Then, a paper appears as well as a small Mario. Clicking on the paper takes you to the next page.

### ONLY BEN

On December, 16, 2023 @NintenBen98 posted another scratch project simply titled as "ONLY BEN". The project consists of Ben Rokuhara sitting in an empty room while the TLC:SD song "ONLY BEN" plays in the background.

### TLC:SD In the Just Art Style?!

On December, 21, 2023 @NintenBen98 posted a Scratch project called "TLC:SD In the Just Art Style?!". The project consists of art of Ben Rokuhara apparently in the same art style of the youtuber "Just Art". Clicking on the sprite or pressing the space bar will show you different takes on TLC:SD created by fans of the webseries. There are three versions of Ben Rokuhara in this project, the first is the canon version that is canon to TLC:SD, the second is @Sayonara's take, and third is @KidCOOMIK\_Alt's take. The song "Enter Ben: the leader!" also plays in the background.

### TLC:SD Christmas Special!

On December, 25, 2023. @NintenBen98 posted another scratch project called "TLC:SD Christmas Special!" which was the Christmas special of TLC:SD, hence the name. The project consists of the main 5 with a new Christmas redesign as the track "Our Reality!" from the Ben ending plays in the background.

## The Story (As Of January, 10, 2024)

The story takes place in Kyoto, Japan with 15 year old Mia Tanaka, an introverted girl who has never joined a club before. Her childhood best friend and neighbor, Mario Mizuno, convinces her to join the Literature Club which he participates in. Mia agrees due to her wanting to get out of her isolating shell. She goes to the Literature Club and meets the other 4 members, The first one is Ben Rokuhara, the mature, confident, yet ambiverted president and leader of the Literature Club. Second is Jonathan Kitahara, an enthusiastic gamer who likes to also burn candles. Third is Luigi Murakami, an edgy and abrasive person that always seems to dislike Mia's presence at the club. Fourth is Marcus Chihara, a shy and quiet person that tends to read a lot of chapter books and likes to drink tea. Mario introduces Mia to all the club members, after Mario introduces Marcus, Mario persuades Mia and Marcus to talk more so they can get to know each other better. They end up talking and soon becomes best friends and even decide to collaborate on a poem. After some time, Mario comes back to check up on Mia and Marcus and Mia thanks Mario for bringing her to the literature club and that she'll decide to become a member. Mario then gets excited as he realizes his plan worked, that plan being to invite Mia to the literature club so she can become less shy around new people. Mia then realizes just how much Mario cares about her and she thanks Mario for being so caring. Mia ends up spending the rest of the time talking with Marcus about their interests. After the Literature Club wraps up for the day, Mario then asks Mia if she would like to hang out with him. Mia agrees, and the two end up going to an outdoor mall that they used to go to all the time when they were kids.

## Character Role Swaps

There are 5 main characters that are apparently role-swapped versions of the characters from DDLC.

Ben takes the role of Monika from DDLC.

Mario takes the role of Sayori from DDLC.

Luigi takes the role of Natsuki from DDLC.

Marcus takes the role of Yuri from DDLC.

Mia takes the role of the protagonist from DDLC.

According to @NintenBen98, Jonathan is a character added for TLC:SD and is not a role-swapped DDLC character.

## Characters

As of now, @NintenBen98 announced 15 total characters being in "The Literature Club: Something Different"

### Ben Rokuhara

The President of the Literature Club, he tries his best to make the Literature Club a safe and inviting place and he deeply cares about the members of the Literature Club. He founded the club with both Mario Mizuno and Monika Rokuhara, he became leader due to the aftermath of Ben and Monika having an argument, which ultimately made Monika leave the club. Ben is cousins with Monika and he finds her annoying. Ben is a confident person albeit a little shy but still mostly ambiverted. He typically likes to make poems in his spare time and likes to play guitar. He also has a slight crush on Mia. In the Ben ending, Ben ends up dating Mia and they become a couple. In the Mario, Luigi, Jonathan, Marcus, and Neutral endings, Ben ends up dating one of his other friends, Ruriko Chibana. Ben has paranoia and always question if life is real or not, in the bad ending, Ben finds a book that proves his reality is fake which ultimately, makes him go insane and he ends up erasing all of the other members (besides Mia).

### Mario Mizuno

The Vice President of the Literature Club and Ben's right hand man. Mario is an enthusiastic, extroverted, and charismatic person who likes to spend his free time with his childhood friend, Mia Tanaka. Mario also has another childhood friend by the name of Sayori Fujioka. Mario is also a pretty good cook and likes to make all sorts of dishes, his favorite is spaghetti. Mario also likes to make poems and study all sorts of literature, he also deeply cares about Mia and tries to get her to be more open to people. Mario suffers from schizophrenia and typically has disturbing auditory and visual hallucinations but he still tries to stay optimistic and in the Mario ending, Mia ends up helping Mario with his problems in the Mario ending. In the Jonathan, Marcus, Luigi, Ben, and Neutral endings, Sayori Fujioka is Mario's love interest instead of Mia and Sayori helps Mario with his schizophrenia. In the bad ending, Mario's schizophrenia gets worse to the point where it happens all the time in his life and Ben ends up killing him by hanging him and stabbing his neck.

### Jonathan Kitahara

The Club's Organizer and the first one to arrive at the Literature Club. Jonathan is an enthusiastic person who likes to play video games and typically talks with Mia about all sorts of video game related topics. Jonathan also likes to light candles, claiming he "likes the light." Jonathan suffers from pyromania, which makes him find arousal in burning things, which is why he burns candles. Jonathan likes to talk with Mia and tries to spend time with her so that he can get to know her better. In the Jonathan ending, Jonathan ends up dating with Mia, Mia also ends up helping Jonathan with his pyromania. In the Mario, Luigi, Marcus, and Ben endings, Jonathan has a crush on Yuzuki Sinohara, considering her "above average". In the bad ending, Jonathan gets paranoia and it's get worse and worse as the weeks go by, Ben then convinces Jonathan to burn himself alive, which he doesn't try to do but Ben ends up forcefully burning Jonathan alive.

### Luigi Murakami

The Club's supplier on manga and the shortest person in the Literature Club. Luigi is an edgy, abrasive person who is usually mean to Mia and calls her a "Bun-Head". Luigi is around 4 feet 9 inches, which makes his insecure about himself, which is why he is abrasive in the first place. However, deep down inside, Luigi deeply cares about all his friends, including Mia. Luigi likes to read manga and is typically seen reading it, Luigi will get confused and annoyed if someone tells him that manga isn't literature. Luigi is also a big fan of metal music and typically listens to it, he also likes to play riffs on his electric guitar, and he also likes to bake brownies. Luigi however, is anorexic and doesn't typically eat due to him always having a warped body image. Luigi also gets maltreatment from his parents. Luigi has a strong friendship with Marcus and usually hangs out with him. In the Luigi Ending, Luigi is Mia's love interest and Luigi ends up dating with Mia. In the Mario, Ben, Marcus, and Jonathan endings, Luigi ends up meeting Natsuki Fujioka and the two end up dating due to them having many things in common and Luigi considers Natsuki "worth his time". In the Neutral Ending, Luigi will end up dating Marcus Chihara instead, due to him "wanting to give him a chance." In the bad ending, Luigi ends up becoming more and more distrustful to the point where he only trusts Ben and when Luigi notices the monster Ben has become in the bad ending, Ben will end up snapping Luigi's neck, killing him.

### Marcus Chihara

Marcus Chihara is the Club's supplier on all other literature. Marcus is a shy, introverted, yet intelligent person. He mostly just talks to himself and his best friends Luigi, Jonathan, Mario, and Mia. Marcus doesn't usually trust people due to his past discrimination probably due to him having Asperger's syndrome. However, Marcus ends up being great friends with Mia and the two become close friends. Marcus is a big fan of chapter books and poems and typically spends most of his free time doing those activities. Marcus is also a big fan of being outside, claiming he "likes the feeling it gives him" and typically does his readings and poem writings outside. Marcus also knows how to make tea and loves it, typically drinking tea almost every day, his favorite tea is Earl Grey. Marcus also has a dagger collection and has around 21 daggers in his collection. Marcus also has a very close friend relationship with Luigi and will vouch for him if necessary. In the Marcus ending, Mia and Marcus end up dating due to how much they have in common. In the Mario, Ben, Marcus, and Jonathan endings, Marcus ends up meeting with Yuri Yoshika and the two become really good friends since they have a lot in common, later when Marcus realizes Mia now has a boyfriend (depending on the ending), Marcus decides to start dating with Yuri and the two become a couple. In the Neutral Ending, Luigi gives Marcus a chance and Marcus ends up dating Luigi. In the Bad ending, Ben accidentally overdoes with Marcus's character editing, making Marcus more nervous, erratic, and overall more creepy to be around. Marcus also becomes obsessed with Mia and stalks her everywhere she goes. After two weeks, Marcus confesses his love to Mia, which Mia rejects, which ultimately makes Marcus commits suicide by stabbing himself with one of his daggers and he dies.

### Mia Tanaka

Mia Tanaka is a shy, introverted, yet determined girl who is best freind and childhood friends with Mario Mizuno. Mia is kind, caring yet somewhat paranoid and very shy. Mia ends up joining the Literature Club as a member and soon becomes friends with Marcus Chihara, then with Jonathan Kitahara, then with Luigi Murakami after a week of persuasion, and finally Ben, after Ben gains Mia's trust since at first, Mia found Ben untrustworthy. After the first week of the Literature Club, Mia gets switched in some of her classes, meaning she can only see Mario in 2 classes when previously, it was 5. Because of this class change, Mia ends up meeting Monika Rokuhara, the cousin of Ben Rokuhara, Sayori Fujioka, Natsuki Fujioka, and Yuri Yoshika and ultimately, becomes friends with them. After the 2nd week of the Literature Club, Mia then gets invited into the Debate Club, the club that Monika Rokuhara hosts, and she decides to accept. In the Debate Club she meets more people such as Satsuki Kinohara, Yuzuki Sinohara, Ruriko Chibana, Akia Rikimaru, and Sayuki Rikimaru, she also ends up becoming friends with them. In the Mario ending, Mia falls in love with Mario since she's childhood friends with him and since they have a lot in common. In the Jonathan ending, Mia ends up dating Jonathan because she likes his quirky and outgoing nature. In the Luigi ending, Mia understands that Luigi is just dealing with problems and tries to persuade him to be her friend. After a week of persuasion, Luigi finally agrees and the two become acquaintances. Around 8 weeks later, Luigi will then realize that Mia has the same interests as him and Mia will become Luigi's best friend. 3 weeks after that, Luigi will finally give Mia a chance and the two start dating. In the Marcus ending, Mia and Marcus end up becoming really good friends and start dating. In the Ben ending, after Ben persuades Mia that he is worthy of trust, Mia will become friends with him. 8 weeks later, Ben will confess to Mia his love for her and Mia accepts the confession, and they start dating. In the Neutral Ending, Mia ends up getting really good friends and doesn't really think about dating anyone, she ends up telling the members that she just wants to stay friends with them and they all seem fine with that. So, Mia just stays best friends with the members of the Literature Club. In the bad ending, Mia ends up not trusting Ben even after he tells her he's trustworthy. After Mario dies, Mia will end up becoming depressed since Mario was her favorite childhood friend and she'll go to Jonathan and Marcus for comfort. After 5 weeks, Mia then sees that Jonathan is dead and will start to become even more depressed and she'll blame herself for the deaths of her friends. Mia ends up going to Marcus since he's now the only freind in her life. When Marcus starts going insane, Mia ends up getting concerned for her friend's mental health. After Marcus commits suicide, Mia becomes even more depressed and starts to think it's all her fault. Mia then gets transported to the empty classroom and Ben explains everything. As Mia realizes Ben is the one responsible for the deaths of her friends, she'll get furious at him. The two start fighting and after the fighting, they end up having some conversations before fighting again. Mia then is able to snatch the book from Ben, which makes Ben go completely mad and tries to get the book back, not even caring if he hurted Mia in the process, his eyes become large and black with a black tears coming out of them and his smile becoming wide and creepy as he chases after Mia. Mia then ends up erasing Ben's profile, which makes Ben immediately disappear before he has the chance to strike her. Mia then ends up back in reality however, things are now different, none of her male friends are nowhere to be seen. Mia ends up staying in the debate club as she tries to find her male friends, to no avail. As Mia stays in the debate club, Monika then seemingly has the same realization as Ben, as she realizes her reality is fake but before Monika can do anything, Ben erases her profile. Despite Ben being erased, he still existed and he then erases all of reality and he also ends up erasing Mia.

### Monika Rokuhara

Monika is Ben Rokuhara's cousin and president and leader of the Debate Club! Monika is a quirky, somewhat confident person that is fun and exciting to be around. Monika was one of the founders of the literature club but after an argument with Ben, she left the literature club and created the Debate Club. Monika is cousins with Ben and finds him annoying. Monika tries her best to be a good leader and cares about her club members. Monika also ends up becoming friends with Mia. In every ending except for the bad ending, Monika ends up quitting her rivalry with Ben and they just decide to become friends. In the bad ending, Ben states when Mia is in the empty classroom with him that she's "hiding somewhere" probably indicating that even with her erased, she's still technically, alive. After Mia erases Ben's profile, Monika gets the same powers as Ben had and realizes her reality is fake. Before Monika can do anything, Ben erases her profile and she ends up getting erased.

### Sayori Fujioka

Sayori Fujioka is Mario's other childhood friend and a member of the Debate Club.

## Possible Endings

According to @NintenBen98, there will be 7 endings for the fanfiction.

The Mario Ending: Where Mia falls in love with Mario Mizuno.

The Luigi Ending: Where Mia falls in love with Luigi Murakami

The Jonathan Ending: Where Mia falls in love with Jonathan Kitahara

The Marcus Ending: Where Mia falls in love with Marcus Chihara

The Ben Ending: Where Mia falls in love with Ben Rokuhara.

The Bad Ending: Where Ben finds a book that tells him his reality is fake and becomes insane, editing the files of Mario, Luigi, Jonathan, and Marcus and erasing them from existence. Ben will then keep Mia in a empty classroom for all of eternity and if Mia erases Ben, then Ben realizes the error of his ways and erases everything in reality.

The Neutral Ending: Where Mia doesn't have a love interest and just becomes close friends with the members of the Literature Club.

## Release Date

There is no exact release date for TLC:SD since we don't know how long the story might take or be revised until final completion. However, @NintenBen98, the creator of TLC:SD states that it might be released on August of 2024 and the first chapter has already been released for viewing.

Chapter 1 of TLC:SD: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/936791395/

## Hidden Secrets

There are a few hidden secrets throughout the TLC:SD scratch projects. In the description of "The Literature Club-Something Different" it says at the very bottom "Oh and by the way, don't press 6 and if you do, then press space after." If you do press 6, the title will distort as the DDLC song "Sayo-Nara" plays and a pop-up notification similar to the ones found in DDLC shows up saying "ONLY BEN" which is probably a play on the "Just Monika" notification found in act 2 of DDLC. The title is also changed to a distorted mess with the words "ONLY BEN" scatters throughout in a glitchy text.

    You can also see what appears to be Mario hanging, Marcus has his eyes covered, Luigi's neck is snapped, and Jonathan is surrounded by flames. Clicking space will then show you that Ben now has large black eyes with red pupils and a huge, creepy grin on his face, he also has blood on his clothes. This is probably indicating that Ben killed his friends and it even says in the official TLC:SD scratch group that "However, in the bad ending, Ben might find a book that will tell him his reality is fake and that all his friends are not real except him and Mia. This makes Ben go insane and he ends up editing the bio's of Mario, Jonathan, Luigi, and Marcus and ends up erasing them. Ben will also become dangerously obsessive over Mia and will keep her in a empty classroom with him." This is most likely a take on Act 2 and Act 3 in DDLC where the other characters get erased.

    In "TLC:SD Chapter 1 (Official)" when you press 6 on the title screen, the screen distorts and then will show a black and white version of Ben with huge black eyes and a wide grin, he will also glitch out. The audio will become a distorted version of "Main Theme!" from the TLC:SD OST with an audio track of heavy breathing getting louder and louder.

This version of Ben could maybe be also one of the hallucinations that Mario sees as it states in the official TLC:SD Scratch Studio that, "Mario also suffers from schizophrenia and has disturbing hallucinations and dreams with a figure that looks a lot like Ben." So maybe that is what is going on with this version of Ben.

## Theories

There are a few theories surrounding TLC:SD, the characters, and the lore.

### TLC:SD and DDLC are in the same universe.

This theory states that TLC:SD and DDLC might be actually in the same universe, this is due to the game having similar characters, settings, and backgrounds to DDLC, both also take place in a Literature Club, however this theory wouldn't make a lot of sense since DDLC is a video game and TLC:SD is a story, debunking the theory. However, the Doki's do exist in the TLC:SD universe as side characters so we're really not sure.

## Feedback

TLC:SD has been widely on the positive side with scratch user @KidCOOMIK\_Alt stating on the Official TLC:SD Scratch group that the concept "sounds interesting".

Another scratch user called @FroggyFroggy11 commented on "The Literature Club- Something Different" stating that she likes that it has a story.

There hasn't been any negative feedback as of December 14 of 2023 besides a comment made by @DaniProtect on "The Literature Club- Something Different" saying that it's "DDLC: The Clone Wars." which is probably due to the fact the characters in the scratch project look very similar to each other. However, this is more of a joke rather than negative feedback.

## Fan Work

As of January, 11 of 2023, there is 5 TLC:SD projects on the Official TLC:SD Scratch Group that is considered "Fan Work".

### TLC-SD Fanart

On December, 11, 2023 Scratch User @Kid\_COOMIK\_Alt posted a Scratch Project "TLC-SD Fanart". The Scratch Project starts up with the old version of "Main Theme!" from "The Literature Club- Something Different" scratch project while Ben starts up by saying "This is Fanart of the main 5 in TLC-SD". If you click the right key, it goes to the next character and if you press the left key it goes to the previous character.

The project will also refer to you as "Mia" which is the main character of TLC:SD. You can also change your name by pressing "m". However, if you try to change your name to any of the main 5, Ben will then tell you "Mia, you can't pick their name, I already chose it for them." which is an interesting Easter egg. The project will also ask you if you like the art, if you say no then it will say "ok... then why did you click on the project you stoobid toddler?". If you say yes, then it will say "Great! then give this project a heart and star If you liked it!".

There is also icons for the main 5 characters in the top right of the screen. Ben represents a glitch, Mario represents a noose, Luigi represents a neck being cracked, Jonathan represents a lighter, and Marcus represents a bloody knife. The art itself is odd and somewhat surreal as all the characters skin colors are white rather then the more peach-ish skin color @NintenBen98 gives them. In the description it even says #DOGBEN which is apparently the character-swapped version of #CATMONIKA, this could be the first ever recorded fanon TLC:SD character. The project also refers to Jonathan as "the best boy in TLC:SD".

### ONLY BEN // MY STYLE

ONLY BEN // MY STYLE is a Scratch project posted by @\_-\_Sayonara\_-\_ on December, 17, 2023, a day after @NintenBen98 posted the original project. The Scratch project is about the same as the original "ONLY BEN" project but now with revised art. This version of Ben Rokuhara is considered to be the @Sayonara's take of TLC:SD.

### Chibi Mario! TLC:SD Fanart

Chibi Mario! TLC:SD Fanart is a scratch project posted by @Emilico2011 on December, 22, 2023. The Scratch project consists of just 1 picture of some fanart of Mario Mizuno in Emilico's style. This is considered to be the "Emilico's take" of TLC:SD. Another thing is inside of the project itself, there are more sprites that then shows the Mario approaching the viewer and then saying "help!" before he gets hanged, or at least It tries to indicate he did. There are also 2 other backgrounds besides the background that the project shows us. The two hidden backgrounds are both black and red screens, one says "PXS1T1VE F33L1NG$" and the other says "ONLY BEN".

### TLC:SD Ben

TLC:SD Ben is a collaboration scatch project made by @JoeSwanson98 with voice acting by @NintenBen98. The project consists of Ben Rokuhara coming into view while some ominous music plays. He then says: "Hello Mia, Welcome to the Literature Club, I hope you have a great stay." before Ben decreases into view and the music ceases.

### TLC:SD Mario

TLC:SD Mario is yet again another scratch collaboration by @JoeSwanson98 with voice acting by @NintenBen98. The Project starts just like TLC:SD Ben, with Mario Mizuno coming into view then saying "Do you see it? Him, do you see it? Do you see him? He's right there, watching." before decreasing into view and the music fading. The "him" he sees could refer to his hallucinations.