Yes, despite not even liking the life sim genre that much, I was swept up in the hype and bought a copy of ACNH on release day. As expected, I played it for about three days, got bored and dropped it. I did get Audie on my starting island though, so that was cool- I knew she was a popular character from looking at what people were saying online. At least, I thought it was cool...

About a month later, I decided to boot the game up again in a half-hearted attempt to get throw myself back into the fray for some new seasonal event. Instead of booting me to the usual title screen, however, all that appeared was a black screen with text that read 'TOUCH HERE TO BEGIN.' 'Is this part of the event?' The moment I tapped it, the screen seemed to melt from glass to water, and something rose from the ripples... a cream-colored paw. Staring down at me was none other than Audie, in her adorable chibi style. She climbed out of the controller and stood on the table, her nubs of paws making cute tapping sounds with every step she took. She seemed to say something to me, but all I could hear was her gibberish soundfont. She held out her paw expectantly.

'Was this some kind of new AR technology? It was pretty convincing if so... ah what the heck, it couldn't hurt. I reached out to touch it... and surprisingly, I could. I felt a shock, even. Audie's already permanently massive smirk grew even bigger as I noticed that the room around me was getting bigger... no, I was getting smaller! Audie, though, was definitely growing. She kept growing, and growing, and she got more detailed too- stubby mitts were traded in for fully realized hands, complete with opposable thumbs. Her dress grew in size with her, and the light seemed to hit it in a more realistic way. Meanwhile, I was going through the exact opposite change- my ears and horns shortened, my fingers receded into my hands as they became the generic goat-type villager stumps... I could even feel my eyes simplify as the world started to look more cartoony through my right eye.

Soon enough I was only a couple feet tall, whereas Audie was practically as big as I used to be. We locked gazes, most likely feeling two very different emotions. Instead of explaining anything, she simply chuckled at me and lifted me up by the collar of my shirt as she hovered me over the Switch's screen... and plopped me in. The water began to act more like quicksand- I couldn't break free! My body quickly began sinking further and further into the inky abyss... I just barely managed to grab onto Audie's dress with the scant remnants of realism left in my left hand.

"Well, sweetie. Someone has to watch over my house while I'm gone!" She said with an air of moxie. "I sorely need a vacation at the mall after being stuck on that island for so long." 'That... that vixen! She plans to toss me in there while she runs around free in my world!' "Tom's kids are adorable, but there's no way that bargain bin is going to have anything I'd want. If only you'd progressed the island far enough for them to upgrade the shop... guess you should have played more~"

"P-please, I don't want to be trapped on that island!" is what I tried to say, but all that came out was a garbled imitation of my voice, like someone had cut and paste a bunch of samples together... and there were no convenient text boxes to translate my words in the real world.

"C'est la vie, and au revoir~"

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This was an interesting one to get! For some reason I had this fantasy specifically with Audie, even though I'm normally only into guys. All the stuff in that first part is true, by the way, ACNH didn't really click with me... I didn't get Audie on my starting island, though. If I were to shade this I might want to add some kind of effect where Audie slowly gained realistic shading while I get shaded in a toony style... is what I would say, but honestly ACNH has pretty realistic shading to begin with, so it wouldn't have really made sense. But I'm lazy so I didn't do anything but flat colors. Steeve did a great job with this, and was very accommodating of my weirdness. Thanks a ton!

5/4/22: Redid the colors

Art by  Stickmanwww
Coloring by me