BEING HUMAN (DARK HUMOR)
Here We Are Awesome!
Where all main characters meet
“You saved us!” Darn right I did!
“For generations our kingdom has been terrorised by the Terror-inducing Black-Dragon-up-the-mountain! But you managed to kill it!” At last, somewhere I can be as 🏆special🏆 as I feel deep in my heart.
“How can we ever repay you?” Ah, dialogue options:
- No need, I am happy to have done my duty
- I am looking for a safe haven for my further adventures
- I’m sure you’ll think of something nice!
God, how I’d like to get my hands on some sweet sweet reward! But, like most us, I regretfully choose the humble option.
“You are so humble, like a true hero!” Yes, if life ever gave me the chance to be a hero, I’d like to be the humble kind. Oh, Mr. Soft, you are so wonderful — it’s nothing really, just glad to be of use to others. (yeah, right, what I mean is humbleness makes me even more of a hero, in your eyes and then in mine as well)
“Let us at least offer you this highly-detailed 4K cutscene of an awesome castle feast in your name” Great, an awesome magic sword of dread would be nice as well, but turkey with potatoes and ale would have to do, I guess.
Oh, my, what’s this? It isn’t the credits, is it?
This is terrible.
In this game I was the hero. My life was as it should have been for a creature of significance:
- everything was balanced: I would be challenged but not broken by impossible, meaningless catastrophes
- everything was fair: I did my part, tried a lot, and then I would prevail and be rewarded, in a way that made deep sense and was just
- everything was meaningful and manageable: I was not torn apart trying to balance 100 duties in 24 hours, like paying the bills, caring for my loved ones, going to the gym, getting back in time and making dinner, being supportive and available, sleeping the appropriate 7–9 hours per day; no, here I had my handy quest tracker with everything I need to do and all was neat and manageable
Reality hits harder than the mightiest dragon
The last credits have rolled. A bit of black and I’m back in the main menu. I close the PC.
I look around the room. The floor needs some sweeping. The library some dusting. My wife some more caring. All could afford to be better.
But, I’m exhausted. I try so much, I do. But there is no clear objective here, no end game (apart from death? but I push this thought swiftly away). And if you want a reward, you better look inside and find some love and warmth there. Other people have their own lives and need for significance, they are not here to offer you any of those.
In this world, the real one, I am like everyone else. In this world, there are no heroes, nobody exempt from or above life, although many people wish they would be, and a few think they are. In this world, we are all together, bounded by our insignificance, by our shared vulnerability, by the fundamental meaningless of our efforts.
I wish I could hold this realisation for more than 5 minutes.
I wish the people around me could as well. Maybe, then, we could forge a society based on true understanding and caring, a society humble enough to embrace its fundamental vulnerability. One where misfortune is not missed-fortune, but a natural turn of events, towards which the whole of society turns with humbleness and does what it can.
But the 5 minutes have passed. I boot up the PC again. Its fan noise reverberates inside the room, and I am reassured.
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