You ever get shitty luck while playing an RPG? How about an open world game?
High level enemies come out of nowhere. Your ass clenches a little. You dread losing progress.
And yet, sometimes, you choose to fight instead of run.
It feels rather spicy, doesn’t it? Like nobody told you this is what video games could or should ever be.
Your heart grows big and you feel clear-headed. You take the plunge, nobody can stop you. If they should, then let them try.
To simply flee and escape an opportunity to prove your with would be boring and miserable, eh?
If you were to actually describe this situation to a “Karen” who just so happened to interested in this sort of thing, they’d probably understand exactly what you were talking about.
The cooperation-corrupting baddies at the supermarket feel the way you do…. when the polygonal cop cars come chasing after you. They feel how you feel when the lizard with a knife and lantern mocks you. They feel how you feel when you spend 20,000 gold on a power up that could get cancelled out as soon as you take damage.
They know what it means to totally have the option of running away. They know that it doesn’t feel particularly mature or civilized to stay. They get what it means to taste the pain of risking your own ass for a good reason.
They know they are being insufferable. But when surrounded by people who are relieved to see you act weak around them, it becomes hard to not want to show off your social strengths.
They feel their eyes opening up when they act far out of line, like a gamer psyched up on the last boss. They get spice running through their hearts.
You call them an asshole, but in their head, they’ve got that boisterous innocence of a gamer running out of resources, but eager to risk everything on their own confidence and competence.
How hard is it to talk down a supermarket menace? As hard as telling someone they should just escape every time their HP is low, or their party members are drunk on status effects, or they’re running out of precious potions for casting spells.
That they should never rise to the little exotic, enticing, engaging challenges of interacting with humans in public.
But perhaps you can do that. Could you actually be the one to do that?
Can you actually resist that magnetic pull, that dark but hopeful feeling, that you will totally fucking pull through, despite the disapproval of everybody, possibly even yourself? Can you “escape” that very badass determination that seems to be made of the good feelings that power-ups give you?
Understanding how universal it is might be the only way.
Your heart at your peak is not entirely unique.
That is how we can all escape.
Will we get lucky enough to flee human behavior?
The Found Emotion (Invoke Yourself) 