Entering Caspia

The slime seemed to be the only monster that dared to come near Daffodil, so the rest of his walk passed in peace and quiet. He took the time to appreciate the scenery as he realized he’d never done before while walking to Caspia. There were only a few trees, not enough to create the shade some monsters loved to hide in. The rest of the landscape was made up of sprawling meadows, dotted with small wildflowers. It was nowhere near as well maintained as his valley, but Daffodil could still appreciate the peaceful ruggedness of it all.

By the time he’d finally reached the city, his menu said it was almost 8 AM. It was still much earlier than Daffodil would ever willingly log into the game, but it seemed not everyone was like him as he saw the main square was already crowded with players. The noise hit him like a tidal wave, and Daffodil covered his ears with his hands. When he was playing WanderQuest, Daffodil had turned proximity chat off so that the only thing he heard in Caspia was the background music. Now that he was actually there he felt like he might go deaf.

After a few minutes, he finally felt acclimated to the noise and cautiously removed his hands. The overlapping conversations were still incredibly loud, but at least it was bearable now.

Where should I go first? Daffodil wondered, scoping out the nearby shops. Most of the stores were run by NPCs, although a few of them were occupied by players that had wares to sell. Daffodil had rented a stand once or twice to sell his rarer flowers and potions, but he still couldn’t imagine someone doing it at eight in the morning. But maybe that would be to Daffodil’s advantage, he realized. Talking to a player might prove that someone did remember him, or it could at least point him in the direction of someone that could help him.

Daffodil looked around until his eyes landed on a player near the outskirts of the main square. He looked helpful enough, so Daffodil made his way towards him. As he neared the players, he was overcome with the feeling that he was trying to walk through molasses. Daffodil’s movements slowed, especially his walking which had become barely a crawl. Finally, he reached the player.

Daffodil opened his mouth, planning on asking the man if he knew who he was or had at least heard of him, but instead he said, “Hello, traveler! Looking to buy my wares?”

What the fuck? Daffodil thought. He hadn’t wanted to say that at all. He didn’t even have any wares to sell, just the gardening supplies he hadn’t bothered to stash in a chest before leaving. He tried to ask his question again, but it was like a clamp had been placed on Daffodil’s mouth. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t force the words out.

“I’ll take a look,” the player said and then everything went black.

When Daffodil came to, the player was gone. He frantically opened his menu and was relieved to see that only a few minutes had passed. But something wasn’t right. The corner of his screen that displayed how much coin he had showed a much higher number, by 100 gold at least. Where did that come from?

Opening his inventory, the first thing Daffodil noticed was that there was a bunch of junk in there that hadn’t been there a second ago. A lot of it was scraps of fabric and broken pots, random things that a player would accumulate. Then Daffodil realized some of his farming equipment was gone. It wasn’t anything important, just a few farming tools, but if they were gone then what else was?

With a shaking finger, Daffodil scrolled down to the bottom of his inventory. His bouquet of Starling roses was gone. That explained where all the gold had come from; a whole bouquet of Starling roses had to be pretty expensive with how rare the flowers were.

Daffodil closed his menu numbly. He had been growing those flowers for a month now with the intention of giving them to Asterion. He had picked the very best looking ones, and some useless player had just bought them from Daffodil? How was that allowed?

But Daffodil was an NPC now, and players loved to walk all over WanderQuest NPCs. When he’d blacked out he must have entered a cut scene. Daffodil shuddered, realizing the full extent of what had happened. When he was in the cut scene, he’d had no autonomy. The player could buy whatever was in his inventory and sell him anything, even if it was garbage that Daffodil had no interest in. Even if some player did miraculously remember who he was, Daffodil had no way of talking to them because an NPC couldn’t say anything other than their preset dialogue options.

What do I do? Daffodil thought. He didn’t even want to get near another player, unsure of how close he could get before he lost all control over himself. He was kidding himself if he thought another NPC would have the information he needed; he didn’t think the other NPCs even knew Ymara existed.

Daffodil slid into an empty alley. He startled when he thought he saw a player standing in front of him, but it was just his reflection in a shop window. It still took him a second to register that the image he saw of his avatar was him. Distantly, he wondered how long it would take for him to accept this new appearance, how long it would take until he’d completely forgotten what he used to look like.

Hovering above his head was a bright green word. Huh, Daffodil thought, that’s new. Usually, his level was above his head. The reflection in his menu hadn’t shown anything. Daffodil squinted at the word in the window, trying to read the word backwards.

Botanist. It said botanist.

Daffodil felt like he was being branded by Ymara. This was his one and only purpose now. He didn’t belong here. A botanist should be where his plants were.

Daffodil sighed and took one last look at his reflection. “I need to go home.”