Sunny Sand was a small town on the southern coast of Kawaii Island. I found myself on a bench outside of a quaint, red brick community center. A cartoon penguin waddled by and tipped his fedora in my direction.

  “Morning!” he called to me.

  “Good morning,” I replied with a wave.

  A salt breeze tussled my hair. Sunny Sand also had the only dock for boats on Kawaii Island. The little ship wasn’t at the dock, though, as sea travel was scheduled for a later expansion. An old mole ambled out of the community center and her face lit up when she looked in my direction.

  “You must be…” she stammered. “I’m sorry. Your name slipped from my mind. What is it again, dearie?”

  I smiled warmly. A keyboard appeared at the bottom of my vision and allowed me to type in a name. I never put any thought into my name in games. I had a few go-to choices, and I went with one of them now, typing Pom-Pom into the virtual keyboard. I just thought about hitting the buttons and the letters plunked into place. Then, I mentally hit the “enter” key and my name was set.

  “Pom-Pom, is it?” the mole pondered. “What an original name.”

  “Thank you!”

  “You’re Katherine’s granddaughter if I’m not mistaken,” the old mole guessed.

  “Yes.”

  “Of course, you are,” she replied. “We don’t get a lot of humans around here. Not that we don’t want them. Maybe if we build the island up a bit, we’ll get more visitors. A young girl like you would surely like a suitor or two. Oh, forgive me. I assumed you were a girl. Was I right?”

  I used my mind to click “yes” on a box that appeared.

  “Of course, Of course,” she said warmly. “I thought so, but you can be anything you want on Kawaii Island. I just wanted to make sure.”

  The penguin walked by in the opposite direction, carrying a bucket filled to the brim with sardines. He lifted his hat to the mole, and she waved back to him.

  “Ma’am,” I said. “You never told me your name.”

  I knew from a hundred playthroughs that her name was Madelina Molson, but it was polite to ask.

  “Oh, dear me. I completely forgot! My name is Madelina,” she stammered. “Madelina Molson.”

  “Pleased to meet you, Ms. Molson.”

  “Madelina is fine,” she said warmly. “Ms. Molson is my mother!”

  The mole and I shared an obligatory laugh, and she hunkered down on the bench next to me. Her body was warm and soft, and she smelled like a grandma. I don’t know how to describe it, but it was sweet and toasty and completely comfortable. I never actually met my grandma, so I was really just guessing. They probably smell like crappy, unchanged adult diapers.

  “I guess you’ll want to see your grandma,” she said after looking at the ocean thoughtfully for a few moments.

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  “Yes. She sent me a letter and asked that I come, but I don’t know why.”

  I had a letter in my inventory on scented, pink stationary. Grandma’s scrawl had gotten harder to read. I could just barely make out the letters.

  “I think I know,” she answered, studying the cobblestone sidewalk. “But I’ll let her tell you herself. Your grandma and I are great friends, you know.”

  “I didn’t know that” I replied. “I’m glad she has you.”

  “We have each other,” Madelina responded. She patted my hand with her clawed paw, and then let it rest warmly on mine.

  “When will the train be along?” I asked.

  “Any moment!” she answered, snapping out of her somber mood. “Do you have any bags.”

  “Nope! I came as is!”

  “You’re a bold one! Just like your grandma!”

  “I like to travel light.”

  “Oh!” Madelina cried, jumping from the bench. “I feel so rude. I’m sure you want to put yourself together before the train gets here!”

  “That would be nice,” I answered.

  Madelina fumbled in the pocket of her patterned dress and pulled out an antique makeup mirror. She opened it for me and my character creation options took over the viewing screen. I was already set as a woman, but I could still change it if I wanted to. I hadn’t played through the story as a man or non-binary for a few years, so I considered it for a moment. Ultimately, though, I wanted the romantic options they provided for a woman. There were several men and women to pick from with any of the various gender options, but I knew each one got some new suitor choices in the update. The women got Franco, and he had been the buzz of the fanbase for months.

  I considered my options for skin color, eye color, hair style, makeup, tattoos, jewelry and body shape. As boring as it was, I usually went with something similar to myself. But there were a few new hairstyles, and they added the option to have a color-pop streak in your hair. There were also several new jewelry and tattoo options, along with a new body type called, appropriately, “Pleasingly Plump.”

  I went with a pale, pleasingly plump, black-eyed beauty with an asymmetrical dark bob. I did a lavender streak and thought it looked super-hot. I’d never done goth before, so I decided I’d give it a try. Clearly a lot of the new styles were created with a goth look in mind. I selected a heroin-eyed scheme for my eyes and picked out a dark-red lipstick. I put one, black line drawing tattoo on the smooth side of my right arm. It was a deer with antlers framed by a crescent moon and solitary, leafless tree. I threw on mismatched, dangly earrings and several silver rings. I reviewed my selections. I thought I looked pretty cool, but the dark eyes were too much black, even for a goth. I bumped them to a crystalline blue and hit enter. That was the most thought I’d put into character creation in years!

  “My, my,” the mole said in awe. “What a bold look! Do you think I should try that with my hair?”

  “Sure,” I answered. “Change is good!”

  She laughed and patted my hand again as she got up.

  “An old lady like me with a streak in her hair,” she chortled. “Can you imagine?”

  I knew it was coming before it came. A shrill whistle preceded the slow chugging of a choo-choo.

  “The train is arriving at the station!” Ms. Molson cried in excitement.

  I rose and wrapped her in a toasty hug. The mole hugged back with abandon. She was silky and squishy like a warm puppy.

  “Thanks for everything, Ms. Molso…” I caught myself. “Madelina.”

  “Of course, my dear,” she said, squeezing me back.

  I turned to face the brightly colored steam train as the whistle sounded again. It looked like a theme park ride for children. A badger stepped to the platform and called out in a booming voice:

  “All aboard the 9 AM to Toadstool!”

  Madelina tapped me on the shoulder and handed me an antique-looking ticket.

  “I nearly forgot,” she said. “Here’s your ticket.”

  “Thanks, again,” I replied. “For everything.”

  As I turned to go, Ms. Molson took my arm and drew me close. I could smell the sweetness of her breath.

  “Dearie,” she told me. “Your grandma isn’t well.”

  This exchange was new. The fanbase knew they were going a bit more mature with this update and adding some darker turns.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “All aboard!” the conductor boomed.

  “You’ll see,” the mole answered. “I think you can be a lot of help to her, Pom-Pom.”

  “I don’t understand,” I said uncertainly.

  “Last call,” the conductor replied.

  “You’d better get on,” Madelina said, releasing me and patting me gently on my pleasingly plump apple bottom. “That badger won’t get off schedule for anything.”

  I ran to the platform and handed the badger my ticket.

  “Oh, you’re Katherine’s girl,” he said with a strange look. “I’m Bertie Badge.”

  “Hi, Bertie.”

  “Hop on board, then,” he said. “You’re just in time.”