I’ve at all times been fairly good at discovering silver linings in horrible conditions, and the Covid-19 crisis has been no exception. When they introduced that the preschool I educate at was closing for no less than two weeks, I gathered my issues collectively, bid a brief farewell to the youngsters and my coworkers, and downloaded Mystic Messenger to my telephone.
When the game first got here out in English two and a half years in the past, it appeared everybody I knew with an excellent passing curiosity in visible novels was enjoying it. They talked about its revolutionary gameplay model, eleven days of text message conversations that play out in real time, and the way they even rearranged their sleep schedules to accommodate it. To me, it appeared like a fascinating, enjoyable expertise that was fully inaccessible to individuals with jobs like mine.
After two years saying, “I’d love to play Mystic Messenger, but…” my time has lastly come.
I didn’t know a lot in regards to the story of the game; I actually solely knew about its format. I discovered myself locked in a stranger’s house and thrust into the function of managing the visitor record for a charity occasion thrown by the RFA, a fundraising affiliation with six members that has all however disbanded since their chief, Rika, handed away a yr and a half in the past.
I acquired to know RFA’s 5 principal members – school gamer Yoosung, up-and-coming actor Zen, hacker Seven, corporate overlord Jumin, and his beleaguered assistant Jaehee – over the subsequent couple weeks, sneaking in chats between internet hosting convention requires four-year-olds and researching actions to electronic mail to folks. I opted to focus my consideration on the overworked and under-rested Jaehee, as a result of solidarity between working ladies within the face of uncaring males resonated with me essentially the most out of the three informal mode selections. As I texted with Jaehee, encouraging her to follow her passions and relaxation regardless of Jumin’s uncompromising calls for of her, I started to sense a peculiar confluence between the world of the game and the true world outdoors.
Social distancing – the buzzword of the day. It’s transformed lecture rooms into distance studying, desk service eating places into takeout counters, and face-to-face relationships into digital ones carried out by means of texting and chat packages. All over the world, people are restricted to their living spaces, with the web as their solely supply of social contact. We supply help to one another just about, restricted as we’re by concern of an infection.
It doesn’t really feel so completely different from texting with Jaehee, listening attentively to her work woes and providing her phrases of consolation and encouragement. After all, the individuals in fields deemed important service – grocery shops, pharmacies, and naturally the incredibly courageous medical workers – are working tougher than ever. Strikes are popping up all over the US as the general public realizes simply how necessary their labor is. Jaehee’s personal small rebel of pursuing a challenge she feels obsessed with fairly than the vainness challenge Jumin calls for of her echoes the wrestle of staff whose labor have at all times been taken without any consideration, even when it lacks the possibly earth-shaking penalties.
As Jaehee and I grew nearer, together with the remainder of the members of RFA, she started to speak about her plans for as soon as we meet, and the way excited she can be to see me on the occasion. Because of the circumstances of how I joined the RFA, lured in by a stranger, I’m remoted from the opposite members in the interim. We know there will probably be an finish to this case, and that in not too lengthy, we’ll have the ability to see one another face-to-face and snicker collectively and contact each other.
And I do know that, right here in actuality, social distancing will finish someday. There’s no cease date, not like in Mystic Messenger, however one thing will change. Perhaps the curve will be sufficiently flattened, or a vaccine will probably be developed, or one thing else, and we’ll all be free to spend time collectively and embrace, simply as we did earlier than. I’ll see my buddies, and we’ll hug and spend time together. I’ve been spending quite a lot of time considering and speaking about what I need to do with them as soon as that is throughout, and I do know I’m not alone.
Just like, inside the assemble of the game, I used to be in a position to have a face-to-face and heart-to-heart dialog with Jaehee on the occasion, I’ll lastly get to see my household and buddies once more. We speak about what we need to do when that is throughout: bonfires on the seashore, dinner events, assembly up on the conventions that needed to be canceled for the yr. Mystic Messenger and actual life each carry a way of anticipation to them, an acknowledgement that the holding sample we’ve been compelled into is barely short-term.
Reality and fiction typically play collectively in unusual methods, and outdated media good points new relevance and interpretations as our lives and the world round us modifications. There’s no method Cheritz could have realized a global pandemic would lock much of the global population away after they developed this game 4 years in the past, however the resonance between protagonist’s isolation and relationships enabled by expertise and the realities of social distancing and the Covid-19 pandemic stays. Our connections, whether or not they be face-to-face or digital, convey us consolation and help in attempting occasions. As troublesome and unhappy issues are actually, I’m glad I acquired the prospect to get to know Jaehee, Zen, Seven, and Yoosung.
