Hyacinth walked up to the door, knocking on it. However, nobody answered. Instead, the door creaked open on its own. She called out, "Hello?" But she was met with more silence. Not wanting to stay outside any longer, Hyacinth hesitantly entered. She found it empty of sentient life. In the back of the room, there was an old bed with a quilted blanket that smelled of mildew. It was covered in old books. Next to it was a long, broken dresser resting on two left legs, and above it were shelves where more books resided. On the right side of the room, there was an old black furnace covered in rust. It required wood to be burned under it to work. Next to it, a barrel was used as a wash bin, but the water was green and covered in algae. Across the room from them, there was a wooden table and four chairs near a fireplace. But it wasn't lit. Next to the fireplace was a tall wardrobe left ajar.  

Although the room was deserted, something about the wardrobe sent chills down Hyacinth's spine. She couldn't see anything in the darkness of the wardrobe and not even the lantern's light could break through the thick blackness, but it felt as if something was inside, waiting for her to open it. Suddenly the room lit up as fresh rays of sunrise fluttered through the windows in the front and back of the house. Hyacinth turned with a gasp. The day had come so quickly. Dawn barely had a chance to breathe. The daylight shift was eerie and unnatural.

Hyacinth snuffed out the light of the lantern and left it on the table before she left the cabin again. She gazed out across the farm and could see many buildings that were once hidden by the dark shroud. They were in a state of disrepair as if a hurricane or earthquake had sent them toppling over. She could see a barn and a silo in the distance and it appeared they were in some working order. Like the house, they were badly damaged, but someone had attempted to repair it somewhat. 

Hyacinth walked down the cobble path she had once come from and noticed many plots of crop fields, but they were mostly six squares by six squares. The more she noticed about the farm, the deeper the deju vu grew. Hycinth knew for sure she was here before, but why did it look so cartoony and why was its appearance so different than what she was used to? Hyacinth still couldn't remember where she came from and yet she knew deep down this was not the world she belonged to. 

Hyacinth stopped when she noticed a humanoid figure from the corner of her eye. A farmer? Hyacinth turned to her left hoping to find someone who could help her, but she didn't find a human. Instead, it was a scarecrow laid out in a drunken state across a stack of square hay bales. It was made of a pumpkin head, a long-sleeved flannel shirt, blue jean overalls, and old boots stuffed with straw. There was a tall pole where Hyacinth assumed it was supposed to be hitched to, but at some point, it had fallen. Beside the scarecrow, propped up on the haybales, was an old scythe made of a wooden handle and a rusted metal blade. Although the whole thing felt creepy to Hyacinth, she felt that familiar push of the wind as if it was asking her to go toward the scarecrow.

Hyacinth swallowed her fear and approached the scarecrow with caution. As Hyacinth came within a couple of feet of the scarecrow, leaves that were raked into a pile around the scarecrow, sprung up into the air caused by some kind of supernatural force, causing her to fall back on her bottom. Hyacinth stared up in horror as the scarecrow rose with it uncannily. As it moved its limbs sloppily, Hyacinth could hear the disturbing sound of bones and cartilage cracking. Last she remembered, scarecrows didn't have bones to crack and they definately couldn't move on their own. 

Hyacinth let out a series of screams, but a voice caused her to fall into a cold silence. "Hyacinth?" The scarecrow straightened up but leaned back one last time to crack his back before addressing her again. "What took you so long? I've been waiting ages for you." Hyacinth wasn't sure what was more confusing. The scarecrow talking, or the fact that every time he spoke, there was a speech bubble that appeared above his head.

"Wh-what? H-how are you talking and how do you know my name? Wait, where's my speech bubble?" Hyacinth looked above her head but didn't see a text bubble. 

"You're technically a silent protagonist so only the NPCs can understand you. That means you don't get one. As for knowing your name, everyone in Harvestville knows your name. You're quite famous around these parts." The scarecrow's words left her even more confused as he appeared to pull down the speech bubble and hug it like a stuffed animal or a cute pet until it squeezed out of grasp in a hurry. Hyacinth's face felt hot. She was ready to faint but struggled to hang on.

"N-NPCs? What are you talking about...? I-I'm famous?" Hyacinth held her throbbing forehead. It was all too much for her to handle. The scarecrow's smiling face shifted to a frown as if it had muscles.  

"I wouldn't focus on it too much. We have a lot to get done." The scarecrow put a comforting hand on her shoulder and weirdly he felt like a real person. Who was he and how was he able to move? Although his movement was clumsy, he was still able to move on his own.

"Get through what? Who are you? Where am I? Why does everything look like cartoon puke?" Hyacinth demanded.

"Huh? Sorry, but I'm only programmed to answer the questions related to the gameplay or story mechanics. On that note..." The scarecrow folded his arm over the other as he rested his hand on his chin, thinking deeply about what to say. His eyes lit up like a jack-o-lantern and with the snap of his fingers, he brought up a hologram of a menu, taking Hyacinth off guard. Her eyes widened. 

"How the #### did you do that?" Hyacinth covered her mouth soon after as she heard a witch cackle escape her lips instead of a certain curse word. The scarecrow turned back toward her with a glare.

"Hey! Watch your mouth! There's no cussing here young lady." Scolded the Scarecrow. He then changed their attention to the menu again. "Let's see here... Oh, right! This screen allows you to access your inventory and my store, but most importantly the tutorial and active quests. If you want, you can read them yourself, or you can have yours truly narrate it for you."

"Tutorial? Active quests? Is this some kind of game to you? Just tell me where I am!" Hyacinth shouted. The scarecrow shrunk away in fear, holding the menu in his hands, using it as a shield against her.

"Now, now. I'm sure you've got lots of story-related questions, but in time we'll answer them... Probably. For now, we don't have much time before the fun stuff happens so we need to speed through this introduction." Said the Scarecrow. He was constantly looking around him nervously.

"Speed through this introduction? I don't even know who you are. Why would I listen to anything you have to say?" Asked Hyacinth.

"Oh, my apologies." The scarecrow snapped his fingers again to get rid of the menu. He then bowed dramatically, his straw hat almost slipped from his pumpkin head, but the wind blew it back onto his head when he straightened up. Across his orange face was a broad smile. "I am Harvey, the scarecrow. I serve as your guide. You have the option to choose how often I am involved in your journey. I can give you lots of pointers, minimum pointers, or if you feel like being on hard mode, no pointers at all!"

"Okay, how about you show me how to leave?" Harvey frowned at Hyacinth's words.

"Uh... There are things you really shouldn't dwell on right now, Hyacinth. It'll only drive you mad and there's a meter for that. Bad things happen when it fills too high." Harvey's once cheery attitude changed when he mentioned the meter. When he spoke of it, he snapped his fingers and it appeared in between them. Hyacinth's eyes widened as she noticed the meter. It was green at the bottom and faded into yellow, orange, and red, and the smallest section at the very top was black. Hyacinth was already high in orange and nearing red. Harvey cringed when he noticed the meter.

"Oh... We're already off to a bad start."

"Wait, what happens when it reaches black?" Asked Hyacinth. She wasn't sure what to make of everything that was happening and she wasn't sure she could trust Harvey completely, but something about the meter alarmed her. She had a feeling she needed to keep it in the green. 

"This is your sanity meter. It's an automatic game over and a lot of bad things can happen to you if you get one of those. It would spoil the fun if I tell you what, but I can assure you, you don't want that to happen." Harvey said and then summoned a brown rucksack from nowhere. "Here are some tools and seeds to get you started. For now, we need to get some plants growing. It will definately help your sanity to focus on growing beautiful plants, but it'll appease the Earth thing too. You don't want to anger it if you want to keep your buildings intact." 

"The what?" As Hyacinth said this, there was a loud rumble and both of them nearly fell over from the violent shaking of the earth. Was that an earthquake? The scythe flew under Harvey and the wind lifted both of them safely in the air while Hyacinth had to crouch on the ground and steady herself. The earth began to break apart as something burrowed through the farm, causing a long wooden building to crumble to the ground. Hyacinth wasn't sure what the building was used for, but she had a strange feeling it was important.

"Oh, boy... I warned you we should have hurried. Now there goes the oil factory." Harvey replied as the world began to settle. He rested long ways on the scythe with his chin propped on one arm while the rest of his limbs dangled over each side like a surfer enjoying the waves, but instead of water, it was wind.

"The oil factory?" Asked Hyacinth.

"It's where you can turn fish into oil for the lanterns. Without oil, it's dangerous when night falls..." Harvey replied. He hopped off the scythe as it hovered toward the ground. "That was the doing of the Earth thing and why it's important to farm the land. Nobody knows what it looks like, but it gets angry when the farm hasn't produced enough crops in a while. It retaliates by destroying important structures you'll need if you want to survive here." Hyacinth recalled the darkness moments ago before she got the lantern. It almost erased her. She understood now how important oil was.

"Harvey, wh-what do I do?" Asked Hyacinth in a shaky voice. Harvey smiled when she called on him for help.

"It's a good thing you have me, then. I can sell you oil until you can get the factory running again, but you'll need to earn special coins if you want to buy anything from me."

"What? You can't just help me?" Demanded Hyacinth.

"Hey, I can't hold your hand through everything. I gotta survive too you, know? I'll explain how to earn coins when we get to it, but for now, you might want to find a place to hide. You don't want to be out at night." Said Harvey.

"Wh-what the #### is going on here?" Hyacinth screamed as dusk quickly settled upon the world again and darkness was nearing soon after. She craddled the sides of her head.

"Oh, Hyacinth, didn't you figure it out yet?" Harvey smiled at her and jumped onto the scythe to fly away. "You inherited a cursed farm."