Mr. Darcy and the Metaverse of Manners

There weren't always dragons in the Valley.

Sometimes, there were worse. Creatures who had the ability to make one cower on their knees, begging to be left alone. Cruel, vicious creatures that stalked vain recesses of an empty mind, and exploited more naive beings for information. They charmed those they married, but harmed those who did not flatter them. Yes, they were far worse than mere dragons. These shape-shifters moved about in unthreatening forms, masking their venom filled speech with the umbrella of ignorance. They were the mother of all dragons- indeed, they represented the class called the Mother-in-law. Worse still, his own.

He recognised her as she locked eyes with him and said a chilling 'hello'. He turned around and began walking away from her, trying hard to dodge her, but she began following him. He quickly glanced over his shoulder and noticed her gait speed up with a lightness he had never noticed before. She suddenly stopped and looked up at the sky, letting out a shriek that would have woken the dead, and two giant black wings burst forth from her shoulders. When she lowered her face, two red eyes glared at him. "You'll never get Elizabeth", she growled, and lunged at him, teeth bared.

Fitzwilliam Darcy woke up with a cold sweat.

"It is but a dream," he reassured himself before laying his handsome head back onto the pillow.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a famous book from the 1800s would be regurgitated by modern authors under the guise of being inspired by it. This is correct, and amongst several adaptations of Regency era, some featuring zombies, others featuring intimate scenes that Jane Austen would blush upon viewing, or perhaps refrain from viewing at all- this one stays true to the form of her books. However, as differences go, it is set in a different world. Or in this case, a universe. Namely a virtual one, sitting on the blockchain- a myriad of interconnected decentralised computers in what was now accepted as the Metaverse.

As throngs of games emerged in this new found space of a bridge between fantasy and reality, a unique one emerged in the light of the sudden fascination of society with well dressed young men and women in the Regency Era whose aim was purely to find a spouse. The manners, the social graces of a time long gone left a slight sprinkle of nostalgia, and soon with big budget film studios capitalising on this, mixing Austenian charm with bold and brash characters, people around the world were drawn to this curious mix of pure love and lust, honour and harassment, and duty and deceit. A game began in the Metaverse known as Regency Romp. Which is where our story is set.

Frieda Dawre, a British-Indian girl who enjoyed the unconventional combination of computer gaming and regency novels was delighted when her game, Regency Romp became a reality in the Metaverse. An avid Jane Austen fan, she wanted to make sure that the gentle manners and customs were well adhered to in this game, and that other Jane Austen aficionados would feel the same. Being an enthusiastic gamer with a preference of the Medieval period, however, she ensured that this game provided suitable diversions for the well dressed ladies and gentleman of the era. Dragons and dwarves occasionally roamed alongside other fantasy creatures and either teaming up with them or fighting them would lead to points going to the next chapter of the game.

Adding to the whimsical nature of this game was the fact that it was a role playing game (RPG) which not only gave players the chance to customise their Regency avatar based on their favourite classical Austenian character, but it also gave players the chance to interact with one another using Regency appropriate dialogue- namely from all Austen novels, to be precise. As a result, players had the immersive experience of falling in love with the character of their choice and telling them things like "I love you. Most ardently"- something that would make anyone swoon. Having reached a player base of nearly twenty-five thousand people around the globe, Frieda was beaming as she tested out a new feature, which was about modifying the pre-programmed dialogue to allow users to make it more personable, yet keeping with the general flow of things.

Today, she sat down with her favourite avatar, Mr. Darcy (she liked to keep it true to Jane Austen instead of coming up with a Regency-esque name) and had him walk down to Netherfield Park, animated from one of the movie adaptations. Its lofty walls and lush lawns gave her the feel that she was indeed the confidant and friend of someone who owned such a lovely estate. She made a mental note to thank the new developer she brought on board who helped with fine tuning a lot of the changes she was looking to explore. At that moment, a tall, sophisticated lady walked down the stairs to greet Mr. Darcy. From the lack of the floating triangle above her head, Frieda understood that she was now dealing with a non-player character, or an NPC. These characters had been programmed with standard dialogue.

"Pray tell your sister that I long to see her", said Caroline Bingley, the NPC.

Frieda started typing a response, and just as suggestions cascade from the search engine enquiries, peals of dialogue began to appear, giving her the choice to pick what she wanted. She went with the standard-

"I have already told her so once, by your desire," said Mr.Darcy.

Frieda decided to try the new feature, the one where she could modify a speech. She began typing out a well known speech of Mr.Darcy's:

"A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony, in a moment. Kindly stop using my sister as a means to get closer to me, I am well aware of your whims".

She smiled at her new addition, having always been disgusted with the character of Caroline Bingley, and hit 'Enter'.

There was a red flash on screen, followed by a warning that said-

ERROR! This speech is harmful. Please edit, or delete.

"That's curious," thought Frieda. Could it have been because she wanted to edit the speech? Perhaps, although this error was something she had not discussed with her game development team. She would have a word with them later.

She clicked on Darcy's head to get a list of the options as to where he would go next, and decided that he should meet his love interest, Elizabeth Bennet.

'Find Elizabeth Bennet', she chose. Normally the game would take the avatar to the location of the character they were looking for. In this Metaverse of Regency Romp, there were several virtual areas modelled after England and the places Regency novels generally featured. To Frieda's shock however, another error message popped up.

ERROR! Cannot find Elizabeth Bennet. Character does not exist.

This was incredibly troubling, now. How could the main character's love interest disappear? She went into developer mode, prying through the code to find an answer to these strange happenings. However, before she knew it, she found another problem- she couldn't control her avatar. She clicked on 'Run' but Mr. Darcy stood still. She clicked on 'Sit', but nothing happened. And then all of the sudden, something did. There was low green glow that lit up the screen, and something oddly resembling a shimmering cloud hovered over her avatar. She felt a slight 'Zap!' of a tingle through her controller keyboard, and then something eerie happened. Mr. Darcy cracked his neck, and looked straight into her eyes through the screen. They looked oddly alive.

"I implore you to help me, your conjecture is correct. They have taken Elizabeth from me and I must get her back", said Mr. Darcy.