digital hometowns

i recently picked up some roost sable biscuits from an animal crossing collab with sableya to have with tea at home.

i've always loved the roost in animal crossing ever since i first 'went' there - but that got me thinking a bit about the places i spend my time virtually.

i think i probably went to the roost in the animal crossing ds game (wild world) as well, but the first time the roost really felt like a place i spent time in was on the 3ds version (new leaf).

i had imported a 3ds from japan that came with animal crossing on it digitally. it was the first time i'd had animal crossing just for myself - up until then, i'd played on consoles i'd shared with my siblings, but when i started the game for the first time & got on the train to what would be my new digital home, the town was there just for me.

i slowly made friends with the villager & made the town livelier. after donating things to the museum, blathers told me about his old friend - & mine, in another timeline! - brewster, who needed a place to go...

so i gathered up the bells to build the roost in the museum, but brewster never had much to say. but day after day, coffee after coffee... he finally warmed up to me.

in animal crossing, there's no real reason to do any of the stuff you do. there isn't a way to 'win' - not really.

but going to the digital cafe for a cup of coffee every real-life day to read a fairly limited amount of repeating dialogue trees that i already knew by heart - it was comforting.

a lot of things in our daily lives can be like that - the same day in day out, & yet, we still want to do them.

my animal crossing 3ds kept me company in university when i was in the dorms, finding myself not a good fit for what people considered 'regular' uni life. instead of actually going out with people to parties in real life, i found myself on japanese bbses trading items with people halfway across the world.

it came with me when i went to hong kong on my own to visit relatives, only to find that once again another place i'd once called home had changed so much while i was gone. the wet market turned smaller, the cafe i had breakfast at changed, my relatives growing older & older.

even as i felt lost at sea in the real world, i always had my digital homes to take solace in - paper mario's rogueport, super mario sunshine's delfino plaza, wind waker's windfall island, my towns & islands in animal crossing... even if the world around me changed too fast for me, there was always somewhere i could go back to that didn't, that could anchor me.

as somebody who has always felt like no one place was really 'home' for me in the real world - never finding a spot where i really fit in - digital worlds have given me spaces where i felt like i belonged.

i hadn't played animal crossing on switch (new horizons) much for a very long while, but i turned it on recently to check out the new 3.0 update, & instantly, i was home again - so i guess i just wanted to write this to share my feelings, a little love letter to digital hometowns.