It's pretty hard to forget what happened that day, despite how long it's been. Really does seem like forever ago, doesn't it? The lock downs had just begun, travel was starting to get banned, and I lost my job. I figured that I had a lot of spare time on my hands and I figured video games would be the perfect way to fill it. Admittedly I should have known better than to go on eBay, but the thing was sold out everywhere, the guy had a good rating, and the price matched MSRP, so I decided to take a chance. I got it, looked like a legit unit to me, so I hooked it up to my TV, did all the startup stuff, setting up an account, linking my Twitter, starting the online account thing so I could do multiplayer, poured myself a tall drink, and started the game. That's when everything went black and I woke up at the airport with the Nook boys behind the counter for some reason. I remember being kind of in a daze as they asked me a bunch of questions and hustled me onto a plane that lead me right here to the island.
I was inconsolable at first, as you might expect. Spent days just sitting in that tent horrified by the notion that I would never see anyone I knew ever again. Eventually I decided to join my fellow islanders, getting into a little routine of chores to keep myself occupied. Oh I told everyone about my situation, how I wasn't from this world. Moe was the only one I knew for sure believed me. Everyone else, I'm not so sure. I kept my gate open as much as I could, hoping that one of my friends would come to the island and... I don't know, maybe they'd know something about what to do. At least I could tell them to spread the word about what happened to me.
I think I mostly accepted my fate around... July. Around when the Nook boys started selling swimsuits. I still open my gate when I remember to, but I kinda stopped believing that anyone would come for me and I stopped bringing up my old life to Moe. I had fully upgraded my house by then, paid off my loans, got K.K. Slider to start playing here, learned how to use the landscaping tools, I even learned how to play the Stalk Market and made a bunch of money. Enough that I was able to buy a ticket back to the mainland. They don't do that for free like the flights to the other islands. Turns out there was a whole world out there beyond the island. One that was like a weird cartoon version of Earth where humans were a very small minority compared to all the animals and all the complexities of life were rounded down to a level a kid could understand them. No pandemic either, so that was a nice bonus. I visited my mom... well, the cartoon version of my mom anyways... she was a pretty convincing facsimile, but I could tell it wasn't really her. All the people from the old days were like that. Close, but not quite what I remember them being like, some of them weren't even human here, but they all still seemed to remember me as if I had just gone away on vacation back in March.
Despite knowing that they weren't exactly the same people I left behind, I felt... satisfied? Relived? I don't know what it was really, but I think visiting my friends this way was enough for me to fully accept my life here. So now... well I guess I just live here. I started dating Fuchsia around the start of October, now she's moved in with me, so that frees up a home plot...
You know, it's really weird that you're just staring at me like that. God, is that how all the player characters act in this game? So weird. Well, I guess all I can do now is take you back to the airport. Just, uh... let everyone out there know I'm doing alright, okay? I'll close the gate behind you.