Let me tell you about Prince. No, not the singer who died, but the tiny green frog named after the fairy tale "The Frog Prince." The very first time I played New Leaf in 2013, I picked a town that had a pretty good layout, named it Cornwall, and had all the villagers clustered together, so I decided to have my house overlooking the ocean by the waterfall.
The very next day, a plot was set up directly next to my house. "This spot is reserved for Prince" it read. I had hardly played any other animal crossing game, and so I had no idea who that was, but how dare they more right next to my house. There was wide open spaces everywhere else, and he decides to move in the corner of the map closest to my house.
The day he move in, I introduced myself and saw this little frog looking up at me with his big eyes and goofy smile. He was my first ever lazy villager. I made sure to talk to him everyday, just like everyone else, but something about him was different. Maybe it was the way he talked about his toys, his hobbies, or his food. Maybe it was the way he was always happy to see me and sing a melodic tune whenever I took the time to do him a favour. Maybe it was his burping. Who knows. I just knew I fell in love with him.
The rest of the town changed, villages came and went, but Prince was always there for me. No other lazy villager could compare to Prince, my knight in shining armour. We played hide and seek together, we sang, we ate, we gossiped, he always joked about moving in, I always secretly hoped he would. But the happiness wasn't meant to last. Like everything else in that town, things changed.
"I want to see other towns, taste other foods, and meet new people. I've decided I'm moving on the 23rd of this month" he said one day when he pinged me. I was shocked, like I believed that he would just never ask to leave. I thought he would be glitched, and stay with me forever. He asked my opinion on the matter, and I wanted him to be happy, so I let him go.
He moved away, the spot next to my house became vacant, and no one ever took his place there. I met others like him, but no one was truly him, but him. Even though the town was beautiful, I had beautiful, unique villagers, and had made progress to be the best mayor Cornwall had ever seen, there was a gap in my heart from when he left, taking it with him when he moved away.
I stopped playing Cornwall, and soon it was voided. I sold my copy, and never looked back. Then, this last Decemeber, I got back into the game and began my quest to find him again. A streamer on twitch ran a cycling town, and one day he appeared. I was busy one night and wasn't tuning it, but thought to check and see how everyone was doing.
"Last call for Prince!" She said, and I lept into action. He was a undesirable to the few that were anxiously waiting for others to move, and so we were reunited at last in Rainbow. All was well in my life. His house was overlooking the ocean, near the waterfall, just like the last time! We had interesting characters living with us, and he even got to see Rod once again! (A whole other story with him). But something was... Not quite right.
I never saw him much, this time around. He was always by himself, in the museum, or shopping with what little bells he had. If he was out walking, he never spoke to the other villagers. He still had his cute little attitude, but there was an emptiness in his eyes. He wasn't himself. He wasn't my Prince Charming.
I heard a rumour that Prince was thinking about moving. I was devastated, like history was repeating itself, and I had to make a choice. Go out of my way at the end of the fishing tourney to make sure he would ping me and get him to stay, or go to sleep and let him leave.
I didn't mean for him to go. I truly wanted him to stay. But he was unhappy here, and I saw that. It wasn't fair to anyone. I closed my game, and walked away for almost two months after that. Only started up again a couple of weeks ago. I want to continue making Rainbow what Cornwall never was, so that if he ever took a nap, he could dream of us from a better time.
My current dream address, although private to the forums and other players, still has his home plotted on the cliff. There will come a day when I will have to update it, and his house will be gone forever. But when the time comes, I'll be able to see him in his portrait he gave me on April Fool's day. It's sitting in my bedroom, the true Prince, waving and smiling back at me. <3
-
"Catch more flies with honey than vinegar." -Prince, 2013 New Leaf
-