Late to the RP Game (1)
Only now RP? (1) Yesterday’s overexertion was making today rough. I’d sung way too hard. For the first time, something felt off in my supposedly steel-plated throat. I kept chugging warm water. “No way. My throat… agh. My throat.” Guess I’m doing a quiet stream today. Not that I wasn’t already planning one… but I’ll have to go even quieter. Quieter than quiet basically means keeping my mouth shut and saying nothing. Still, I didn’t want to cancel. What would I even do if I took the day off? Nothing, that’s what. Outside it’s cold, and I’ve got zero plans. So streaming it is.
“Slurp.” Warm water went down fine until it didn’t. I was supposed to chug it, but sipping slowly like this felt suffocating. When would I ever finish? I glanced at the cup. Still way too full. I forced myself to keep sipping. “Hmm… what should I do today?” If my throat weren’t killing me, I’d sing again. Yesterday I finally faced the truth. I can’t sing. Deep down I’d always suspected it—my own recordings sounded weird—but everyone kept saying I was good. So I believed them. I thought the viewers actually liked it. Turns out they didn’t… and that stung. How dare they trick me? I’d been pouring my heart out. I was planning to keep singing until they genuinely enjoyed it.
“Just practice, right?! That’s all it takes.” People improve if they keep at it, don’t they? Keep feeding them and they get better. That’s how humans work. Probably. I’m ninety percent sure. But of course my throat had to pick today to hurt, so I can’t even try. The world is out to get me. What am I supposed to do? It’s not fair. Everything’s ruined because of this stupid pain. I stopped drinking and turned on my computer. No real reason—just felt like it. Then I opened Discord.
“Oh!” Maem had messaged me. What could it be? My heart thumped. Shock.
VRChat? What was she talking about? VRChat? I felt the same brain-freeze you get from eating shaved ice too fast. I had no idea what she meant. Was my Korean that bad? I couldn’t even parse two lines of text. No matter how hard I thought, it didn’t click. There was a whole world I didn’t understand?
- Seon-a: Huh? This is… what?
Actual question marks popped above my head. Now what? I racked my brain and the first person I thought of was Pyeongjipja. She watches VTubers too. I fired off a message and called her in a panic.
Ring ring. “Hello~”
“Pyeongjipja! Pyeongjipja, we’ve got a huge problem!!”
“What? Why? Why? Why?”
“Where is our reality?!”
“…That’s pretty philosophical.”
Philosophical? No! Our reality is right here. Here! Look at my face in the mirror. “When you look in the mirror, who shows up?!”
“Me, I guess?”
“Exactly. That’s reality. Right?”
“Yeah.”
“But… but right now I’m shocked—ring ring.”
“Ring ring ring.” Pyeongjipja was copying my new catchphrase. I’d been pushing “ring ring ring” lately. It just sounded nice.
“So… she said reality is VRChat.”
“Oh… that tracks.”
“What do you mean it tracks?!” I couldn’t believe it. Zero prejudice is not a good thing. Sometimes you need a little bias!! That’s just reckless!! Koreans have this problem—we don’t think about safety.
“You know Maem, right? Maem.”
“Yeah, of course.”
“I asked her to meet up in real life. She clearly said yes, but today she’s saying she thought it was VRChat!! What is going on?!”
“Oh… that could—”
“No it can’t!!” I cut her off. Pyeongjipja had way too little prejudice! Who meets up in real life… wait. Is our reality actually VRChat? “No. VTubers can do that. You just lack VTuber sensibility, Seon-a.”
“Gasp… what?! Me?”
“Yeah. VTubers don’t have real faces. No face means no reality. You’re seriously lacking in VTuber sensibility.”
“Ring ring ring ring… no way. This can’t be. That can’t be.” My catchphrase medley, part three. I use it when I’m genuinely shocked. It’s stolen from chat, though. I’m an honest person—I’d never claim it as original. It’s just been absorbed into my repertoire.
“So… what even is this ‘VTuber sensibility’?!” I wanted to learn it. If I was the weird one, fine. I’d admit I was fake and learn from the real ones. I wanted to fit in.
“You have to figure that out yourself!! I don’t stream, so I don’t know!”
“Then… what do I do?”
“Why not ask actual VTubers? Hmm…”
“Maru?”
“Uh… Maru doesn’t really do RP.”
“RP… ah! RP. Ahem… cough. Cough.” I’d used my voice too much. Something felt stuck in my throat again.
“Are you okay?”
“Ah, I sang too much yesterday. My throat’s a bit sore.”
“Then you should rest.”
“I can’t. Even if I rest I’ve got nothing to do. Besides, my throat’s made of steel… if it still hurts tomorrow I’ll go to the hospital.”
“Oh… really?”
“Yeah! Really.”
“Then resting would be—”
She started to say something, then I remembered. I couldn’t rest. I needed to understand what a VTuber even was right now. “Wait, is RP important for VTubers?”
“Uh… yeah, it should be.”
“Why? What even is RP?!”
“It’s like… a concept. If you have one, viewers can immerse themselves better.”
“Immerse? Really?” I’d never felt that way. Witches, mermaids, princesses… how did people get that invested? It was impressive. I could never do it. Did every VTuber need that level of immersion? Maybe I should make one too. “Yeah.”
“Did you get immersed with that kind of thing, Pyeongjipja?”
“Me?”
“Yeah, you. How was it?”
“I just thought it was funny.”
“Really? Should I try making one?”
“Uh… isn’t it a bit late?”
Late? No way!! It’s never too late. The moment you think it’s too late is exactly when you should start. I wasn’t giving up before even trying. “I’ll do it!! I said I’ll do it!! I haven’t even tried yet!!” I quoted that cool chairman’s famous line. Awesome~!! So cool!!
“Then go for it… I bet you’ll do great.”
“What should I make it about?”
“Huh? Shouldn’t you decide that?”
“Hmm… maybe.” Suddenly it felt too hard. I wasn’t ready for something this big yet. “Or you could ask on stream. You’ll get tons of ideas.”
“Oh!! Should I?”
“Yeah, sounds good.”
“Nice!! As expected of an elite, Pyeongjipja.”
“Thanks.”
Perfect. I’d ask the viewers. Even if they were mischievous, they had wild ideas I’d never think of. Plenty of good suggestions too… as long as I kept the brainrot in check, this could work. Let’s do it. “Okay, then… I’m heading out!”
“Good luck! Fighting, Pyeongjipja.”
“You too, Seon-a!!”
After hanging up… wait, what?! I’d completely messed up. The whole reason I called wasn’t to talk about making an RP. I’d wanted to ask why VRChat counted as reality… I called Pyeongjipja again.
I talked her ear off, but I still didn’t get it. Not even a little. The reality I knew and the one they lived in… were different. Still, a promise is a promise. This was Maem’s mistake, not a problem with the promise itself. I messaged her.
After thirty minutes of agonizing over every word, I sent it using every ounce of knowledge I had. When she replied, I’d negotiate carefully. VRChat wasn’t reality. Our reality was Earth, Korea. Right now I was saving someone. I had to succeed. If I failed, one more person would think internet people were real. I had to rescue her. This was a serious mission.
Anyway, that was that… and I was going to make an RP too. Today’s stream title was [Making an RP… Need Collective Intelligence].
The chat reaction was pretty good. Getting this much engagement right from the start was solid. “Hello everyone. Today I’ll be talking softly because my throat hurts. I sang too much yesterday.” I asked for understanding first. Then, “I’m going to make an RP. I realized I don’t understand the VTuber ecosystem at all, so I want to create one to help me get it.”
“What do you mean? Guys, I really want to make an RP. Help me out.” I wasn’t going to get distracted by weird comments. I was serious. Anyone making wild assumptions—I wasn’t even reading those. I gave them an example. The RP I’d actually thought hard about. “So please give me advice. The more detailed the better… ah! I’ll turn off the spam filter. Feel free to go wild. Like ‘Genius IP 250. Genius. You sound smart. Says this.’ Stuff like that~”