Chapter Text
The Idea
I remember seeing this somewhere on Pinterest:
Nursing Home AU.
It caught my attention, even for Future AU systems. It is still popular, but only limited to about somewhere within the young adult range. It makes sense, I think - with characters like Ena and Mizuki. As part of the audience, I'd want to see these characters truly live.
I want them to be able to reach their fullest potential as (alas, fictional) people. Early adulthood fulfils that checkbox. Opportunities rise and they are free to choose. In that moment, the world is their oyster. The game does cover this as well with Mizu6, Mizu7 and Ena7.
What if I switched the parameters and had them complete their journey?
You get this story.
The Setup
Senescence refers to the process of growing old. You can also further describe it as the pathway in which one's biological and cognitive functions deteriorate.
a. Ena
I wrote Ena to have signs of early dementia. This is a slow process - with elderly patients, we normally see an increase with how one's cognition deteriorates. When that happens, it won't be simply limited to just the things going in your head. Physical signs eventually occur, which is why she is prone to falling (difficulty maintaining balance).
Keep in mind that this decay is again, gradual. A person may not be able to notice it at the get-go either, or at all.
I think Ena is someone with a strong temperament. She is, after all, the person that chose to wait and eventually run after Mizuki in lore. When writing this, I imagine that she became calmer over time, though still maintaining some of that old self. Being calmer, however, is an addition to her person, founded upon the interactions she had with Niigo. It is not a separate entity from herself.
Removing those cornerstones is nothing short of disaster to her. Hence her grief.
b. Mizuki
To be honest, I'm a bit frustrated at myself for not doing Mizuki enough justice in this story. She is also experiencing her age (though without dementia) at the end of the day. I think there's a gap there - not giving enough time to run through Mizuki's thought process on the entire thing.
I would say that throughout all this, Mizuki is the one that anchors Ena down and helps her keep a normal daily routine (grocery trips, helping her set up for classes, etc.). The way I see it, Mizuki is one of the only things left that persisted in Ena's life - the other being her art. Mizuki is also the last person in Niigo that Ena knows closely in the story.
It is very possible that should anything happen to Mizuki, Ena would completely collapse.
Some Thoughts
Elderly people are often sidelined or relegated to certain themes within a story. They are probably more common in ideas like war or science fiction. Oftentimes the archetypes are similar - ambitious, accomplished individuals that possess a wealth of knowledge. Or tired individuals that want to rest.
It's unfair to them, in my opinion.
The elderly are people just like the rest of us. They have wishes and fears, things they like and hate. One of the major hurdles for me here would be to just tell it as-is without sacrificing too much time on describing their physical/cognitive limitations (Ena). I feel like a lot of writers over-invest in that without the right response.
All in all, I hope that I managed to show "grace".
I think Ena and Mizuki have both lived a very long and happy life together. It's emotionally difficult to put Ena into this stage even as the writer, but I want to show her being resilient. She's in a lot of pain, but the fact that she's able to live every day with meaning proves just how strong she has been. The same with Mizuki as well - with the added point of closure.
I saw the comments as well. I'm glad that my story did reach you in the way I hoped for. Thank you.
Please reach out to a loved one today, especially if they are old. The time you spend with them may be their whole world.
Miscellaneous
- Lots of references to some of the Niigo key stories. If I had to pick, the biggest contributors are probably Mizu1 and Ena7. Special mention to Ena5 as well.
- The music flashback is a callback to the IDSMILE MV.
- Ena has a lot of love towards children, which is why she keeps hosting classes for them even at this age. There is an explanation why in Chapter 1 - it had vague inspiration from a really popular kids movie so bonus points if you know!
- She is slowly forgetting Mizuki. My initial draft actually had Ena mispronounce Mizuki's name a few times during the story.
- The dissonance in how Ena describes Kanade and Mafuyu is deliberate. Describing the both of them as just figures with key traits was probably my favourite part to write.
- Speaking of Kanade, what type of ramen would she like? I mean, she has cup ramen but the restaurants aren't gonna sell that, so...
- That festival scene was drawn from my memories visiting Jonker Street in Malacca back home, not really the summer festivals in Japan.