Hello Gentle Entities and Aspic Encased Enemies! Here in the landmass that contains Hipsters of the Coast we are currently between or in the middle of holidays but there is an important temporal milestone to be aware of!
The local rulers have lifted the state of national state of emergency relating to COVID 19 officially declaring it’s ending on May 11, 2023. While COVID is clearly a houseguest long overstaying its welcome, sadly it does not seem it will have taken the hint and removed itself on the appointed date.
While such a declaration DOES remove centrally funded and enforced programs and restrictions that had been “emergency based” it does not end the active threat of COVID 19 in any and all spaces where kindred spirits gather.
It also does not mean there are “no rules” ; they have simply become the purview of more granular local magistrates. The disease is not in abeyance but will require the community members to decide things and monitor them together.
Now, more than ever we will be navigating these things with the use of etiquette. Without law, etiquette is how we navigate complicated social situations where individuals have different levels of power, risk, and belief with respect (and if necessary establishing firm boundaries in a polite but pointed manner).
This week’s query was received before the announcements but is quite timely as we move forward, much like Innistrad during the Phyrexian invasion, with communication, a strong knowledge of our siblings and the tools we have at hand and the knowledge that we have a new apocalypse roughly every other tuesday, but there is always time to write cordially to one’s sibling while fighting for one’s safety.
As this is our seventeenth column, we at Mizz Mizzet’s School for Complicated Lifeforms would like to remind you that we answer between 1-3 letters from our interrogative entities across the multiverse each week. If you missed our initial column, you may peruse it at your leisure at this location.
Content Warnings
Mizz Mizzet’s Guide to Magical Manners is pleased to provide Content Warnings, given that solving bad behavior often means describing bad behavior. This week’s content warnings are for Covid-19, mask-wearing, and bullying.
Dear Mizz Mizzet,
Now that in person play is part of organized play again, I want to go back to game stores and Friday Night Magic, but covid is still a concern for me and I’m worried that if there aren’t mandates and everything is voluntary folk aren’t going to wear masks in stores. Or that if *I* wear a mask people will treat it like some kind of political challenge.
Do you have any advice for how to handle this so that I can just play some Magic. I was comfortable at the MagiCons where everyone had to mask in the main playspace.
Conscious of Contagion
Dear Conscious,
I sympathize with your concerns! When one is among friends the rules of communal gathering are established with fond ties and shared cultural cues. Competitive spaces are entirely different social senses. Playing games with each other is a public act when done in establishments and competitions and therefore is subject to the conflicts present in the public square. If I understand you accurately, you are looking for guidance and formal etiquette to help you navigate those conflicts.
There is excellent news in that each local game store may choose their own level of prevention, but it is Good Business for places that sell games to hatchlings to take public health seriously and many of them do. You will not be the only person with this concern and we who sling spells are not *that* special, so we can do what parents of small hatchlings do when sending them out to a new space – call ahead to find out what the conditions at the meeting place are.
I also suggest that many earthly beings are not fond of using voice contact, but many establishments have a discord or other social media presence that you may use for direct contact with the organizers.
While you personally may not need this type of social script, others entities may find it helpful to have something to refer to when calling an Local Game Store:
“Hello, I am interested in joining the event you have on your calendar, however before I can make arrangements to attend, may I ask what your Covid prevention policies are and are you using air filtration in your store for long events?”
If everything is going well you will get an answer such as 7th Dimension Games in PA might give:
“We use two air purifiers, and a CO2 monitor in Spring to check air quality and circulation during events. Masking is optional when our county numbers are low and in the yellow or green zones, but mandatory if we are experiencing a rise in numbers over the orange zone.”
If you do receive such a detailed plan, you can rest assured without further concerns that your personal choice to mask will be respected and then do your own personal standard risk assessment.
However, if you do not receive an answer that is positive about covid mitigation practices? If you get something along the lines of “We don’t have any kind of masking policy unless the state tells us we have to” you may politely ask the following follow up question
“If I and my party attend wearing masks will the regular players be OK with that?” If the representative of the store you are speaking with says “oh a few of our folk wear masks” or “we’re very welcoming” or some variant you can assess that as “I will not be made to feel awkward by the group.”
If you get an answer that indicates the tournament or event organizer is happy that masks are no longer required then you might do your own risk assessment and include the social activities you will need to be prepared to enjoy yourself. If you are ready to handle the rude (and luckily for them mask wearing precludes the preferred method of simply eating them) then have your response ready for the maskless and pay them no mind. If playing in the United States and you are asked in a rude manner why you are still wearing a mask when “Covid is over” or “the emergency is lifted” we suggest the all purpose response:
“Because it is a free country” and let that be the end of the discussion. If a rude individual continues to try to press after this declarative statement Mizz Mizzet’s Guide to Socializing With the Uncivil considers this an excellent opportunity to employ the time honored response of “The Cut Direct”
“Most regally, there is The Cut Visible, the cut so blunt and obvious that no-one could mistake it. The Prince Regent’s version of this is known as Rumping. If he wishes to indicate that some former acquaintance is now persona non grata then Prinny simply turns his back on them at the last moment as they approach him. The unfortunate cuttee is then presented with a fine view of the expansive royal backside. (A fine view of the Royal Rump can be seen in this detail from a Cruickshank cartoon of 1819)” (Jane Austen’s London, 2016)
Truly we are at a difficult crossroads here on this plane of plague where the effects are known, the vaccines are poorly distributed or communicated, and the local liege lords have decided that rather than solve any of the issues they will simply declare the issue over and “localize” a global pandemic then be surprised when their vassals show high absenteeism due to illness.
Infection is really only advantageous for Phyrexians.
I wish you the most considerate of fellow competitors, and remember there are dragons on your side.
MM
Citations:
“Cutting and Rumping – How to Snub in True Regency Style.” Jane Austen’s London, 12 June 2016, https://janeaustenslondon.com/2016/06/22/cutting-and-rumping-how-to-snub-in-true-regency-style/.
Thank you to Adrienne Reynolds, for her interplanar transcription services.
Mizz Mizzet Portrait by Andres Garcia
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Born a perfect dragon in an imperfect multiverse, Mizz Mizzet (she/her) is the pioneer broodmother of today’s multiplanar civility movement. She is now working to persuade Planeswalkers to participate in it.
Her tireless efforts to expand the understanding and exercise of etiquette beyond the stereotypical terror of too many pieces of silverware, and whether to use poisons or explosives at celebratory conquest dinners, have not escaped official notice.
She specializes as a consultant in seating arrangements for inter and intra planar political events as long as contracts include the option to eat the rude.
Out of respect for her relative’s delicate sensibilities regarding draconic rank, she does not reside on the plane of Ravnica.