prosopopoeia
or pro·so·po·pe·ia
noun Rhetoric.
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Dave was on the computer again. Carl was not surprised when he saw that. He was always on the computer these days. Normally, he was just browsing some website or other, but this time it looked like he was playing a game. The smile on his face made Carl curious. It was a happy smile, but there was something about Dave’s eyes. They seemed unfocused and distant.
“Sup, Dave.” Carl said.
Dave flinched and looked around their apartment quickly. “Oh, uh, hey, man. Sorry, I didn’t hear you come in.”
“Yeah, sure.” That was something Carl understood well. He could not count the times he had been so engrossed in something that the rest of the world seemed to disappear. “What’s up? Got a new game?”
Dave did not answer. He was already back to focusing on the screen with that dreamy, unfocused look on his face. Carl moved behind his roommate to check out what was going on. On the screen was a digital bedroom. It was perfectly arranged, clean, and well furnished. And it had an occupant. An attractive young Asian woman was saying something in a language that Carl assumed was Japanese.
“Really, man? I leave you alone for a few hours and you start playing cheap dating games?” Carl asked.
“Huh? What’re you talking about?” Dave asked.
A pang of worry started to form, but Carl banished such thoughts. “That. That right there.” He said, pointing at the screen.
“Oh, you mean my new girlfriend? Yeah, she’s great, isn’t she?”
The worry came back, stronger this time. “By your girlfriend, you mean your in game character’s girlfriend, right?”
“What character? Yuki’s my girlfriend. She’s great. Super smart, really fun to be with, and, well, you see what she looks like.”
Now Carl had a real reason to be worried. He needed to get his friend back in touch with reality fast, before he was too far gone.
“Dave, you know that’s not a real person, right? It’s just a character in a video game.”
Dave turned to Carl and glared at him. “She is not. She’s a real person, and we’re dating.”
“No, she’s fake. She’s just a bunch of ones and zeros.”
“You take that back.” Dave growled.
“Look, I get it, I do. Losing Claire was rough.” Dave winced at the mention of his ex. Carl just continued talking. “But you can’t do this. You can’t treat a game girl as the real thing.”
“You…you’re just jealous, aren’t you?”
“What?”
“Yeah, that’s it. You’re just jealous that I found an amazing girl like Yuki. One who really cares about me. Yuki actually pays attention to what I say. She laughs at my jokes, and shares in my fears. She loves me, and I love her. You don’t have that, so you’re just jealous that I found someone so perfect and you didn’t.”
Carl sighed. He could already tell that this was not going to go anywhere. Dave had given his digital girlfriend an entire personality already. That would not be easy to shake off. Maybe if he was a professional psychologist he could do it, but he was not. Which meant he would need to take a more direct approach.
“Okay, so it’s going to be like that, huh?” Carl said. “Well then…”
He went behind the computer and pulled the plug. Dave cried out like he had been stung by a dozen bees.
“Wha…what did you do?” He shouted.
“Relax. I’m just proving a point. Here, I’ll even plug it back in.” He said, even as he did just that.
Dave rushed to boot it up and load the game again. His breathing was fast and his eyes were open wide as he moved the mouse as fast as it would go. Carl moved to watch what was happening. When the game’s title screen came up, Dave’s brow furrowed. The continue button was grayed out.
“Oo, tough luck, buddy. I guess you forgot to save, huh?”
“I…I don’t…hold on, let me get Yuki.” Dave said as he hit the new game button. A look of fear came to his face as he played through the rudimentary tutorial. When the girl came back, she seemed much more apprehensive and aloof than she had in his original game. “What…what’s wrong? Why doesn’t Yuki remember me? She should remember me.”
“Dave, my friend, she’s not real. She doesn’t exist. She’s just a game character.”
“N-no, no that…that’s not…that’s not true. She…she’ll remember me. She does remember me. She’s just mad that our date was interrupted, that’s all. I’ll apologize and everything’ll be fine.”
Carl waited a few moments before he said anything. “No option to do that, huh? Face it, man, she’s not real.”
Dave’s eyes began to water. He let out a high pitched squeak before rushing off to his bedroom and closing the door. Carl sighed. He would give his friend the time he needed to come back to reality. Until then, Carl closed the game and uninstalled it.
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Remember, no matter how much you might like a fictional character, the fictional character doesn't even know you exist. Literally.
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