Far too long ago I spoke of a simple goal in Animal Crossing: New Leaf. That goal was to finally obtain the Golden Axe through which
A few days ago, the Golden Axe was mine. I was technically prepared, but I wanted to wait for one last harvest of my trees because I wanted to get enough to replant. Because that's...half the point. I don't -want- a flat expanse of nothing, I just don't want trees in the middle of my goddamn roads and in the way of my Public Works projects and such. So I rested on my laurels (almost literally, ha) and simply awaited the day when fruit would spring from them anew.
That day was today. As soon as I came across a group of two apple trees and two lemon trees with the respective fruits hanging from their branches, a smirk crossed my lips. This was it. This was the moment I waited for. It was time.
Today was The Culling.
The fruit had to be gathered first. All in all, I have enough trees that give me anywhere from 1-3 baskets of 9 fruit for all of the different types of fruit (Apples, Pears, Cherries, Peaches, Lemons, Durians, Lychees, Mangoes and Persimmons) not counting my native fruit of Oranges, and the two fruits who only drop in twos, Coconuts and Bananas. So, harvest day takes a bit of time, especially because fruit doesn't auto-stack and you have a limited inventory space to begin with. Still, it's something that I do and as a sort of fail-safe with myself to ensure I don't miss trees, (aside from keeping the totals to 9s across the board), I generally stack my fruit baskets up and take a look at them to see if it looks more or less like the last time I did it.
This is...generally what it looks like. I don't need to have the coconuts and bananas because, as said, they don't all total to 9 and I didn't cut those trees anyway because they're on the beach and I don't even care about the beach, but still. It's nice to have evidence of the bounty. Of course, it would have been much more impressive if I had remembered my oranges -before- I took this picture and sold all those instead of after, leaving me to just take a picture of the orange baskets.
Still, that's a lot of oranges. They sell for a lot less, being the native fruit, but it's still a little bit of bells if you need it and are willing to go through the hassle of shaking them all down, piling them up and whatnot. Of course, I -did- have the forethought to take out fruit from every basket for replanting purposes. You simply plant a single fruit and it sprouts into a tree that will bear three whenever it's ready to be harvested which means a nice, steady income of bells since the trees bear fruit every three days, I believe. Which means for every 9 fruit you collect, if you want to replant, you take out 3. Because 1 fruit equals 1 tree equals 3 fruit, so 3 fruit equals 3 trees equals 9 fruit. Nice and simple.
This is basically what that looks like. Obviously, a good portion of the fruit was cut off on the left side, but it helps to get an impression on just how many fruit trees I had in Kupolis and will have again. So you can understand why I will have to have them sectioned off in a nice little area all to their own which I can keep handled quite well. That is the purpose of an orchard, of course. It's much more convenient and clean than having them scattered about willy-nilly within the town proper so that I have to make a trek about all parts of Kupolis just to harvest it all. Those days are over. Those fruit were, of course, basketed up and set aside since there will be an event in the plaza tomorrow, but still, it was effective in showing off the enormity of the situation.
I spoke of my trees as a burden at first, and then as an obstacle. I spoke of my neighbors and in fact the very core of Animal Crossing: New Leaf as antagonistic. The nature of Animal Crossing, in both meanings, had become something of a rival to me. Something to be defeated. To be conquered. That I could finally take an axe to the greenery around Kupolis was something to be exalted and savored. The Culling was to be an epic battle of Man vs. Nature, if you will. Thus, I present to you the soundtrack of my deforestation.
WHITE
WHALE
HOLY
GRAIL
ca·thar·siskəˈTHärsisnounnoun: catharsis; plural noun: catharses1.the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions.
synonyms: emotional release, relief, release, venting;
purging, purgation, purification, cleansing;"the hope was that hypnosis would bring about a catharsis"
138 trees later (give or take a couple) and all was right in the world. I was left with a few special stumps that will, apparently, attract rare bugs to them that I may catch and present to the Museum for cataloging (and thereafter simply sell to Re-Tail for bells) and they do look neat.
It's hard to note, but the upper right one is a Butterfly stump (I believe) and the lower one is a Heart stump, shown off next to a normal "Bullseye" stump. All of them can be sat on if....you feel the need to sit on a stump, but aside from the bug thing, that's all they're there for. The special stumps, I didn't dig up, and I left a few regular stumps as well, but everything else was dug up and the earth returned to normal underneath. All so I could complete the project that I had striven for for these past weeks. The one project that I wanted to accomplish first, as it would be phase one of making Kupolis that which I desired. That which I envisioned.
Roads. Paths to the houses of my villagers, paths to my house and Dinah's, paths to Re-Tail and the Train Station and the entrance to Main Street. Roads connected all to one another, taking you anywhere you want to go. Each tile of road, I placed down manually, conforming my will with that of the very ground of Kupolis itself. With the hands of my sprite, I have begun to bring civilization to Kupolis.
Phase One is complete. And how sweet it is.
I might be a little obsessed with Animal Crossing, you guys
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