Patreon LogoYour support makes Blue Moon possible (Patreon)

Animal Crossing: Crippling Debt (KalTammy x Lord DreamCrusher)

"Yes that was a surprise wasn't it? Storms like that aren't very common in this region but they do happen. I can't really recall anything more severe than that during my time working here, but weather can be unpredictable so I don't want to say it's impossible either. Still, regardless of everything else, Mr. Nook's craftsmanship is always impeccable and I feel confident that nothing more than minor damages should be at risk for any buildings." That wasn't to say that other improvements might be at more risk, the flowers, the benches, and so on, but Violet probably shouldn't worry much about her house falling over or such.
 
"Well that's some reassurance, still best to have a bit of a safety net." Granted that plan would rather fall apart once Tom started raising prices again, and hard to maintain as the island became more populated and demanded more of her attention. But as Violet knew Tom was just here to maintain a profitable business and was benefiting on the side, utterly unaware of what his actual goal was with this island in particular.

"Thank you Isabelle for your support, hopefully this is just a one time incident for us all. Do keep me informed of anything new, for now I'm going to focus on getting Bells ready for the next payment before I start another project." Should only take a week or two at most, and then she'd have the rest of the month to make progress. She could do this, she could find a balance with enough time.
 
Around the time Violet was finishing her gathering of funds to secure her next payment, some of the other residents would be having their payments come due. While generally nothing really changed, not that the mayor was privy to all the fine details of every resident, a harsh knocking on her door one afternoon with one very angry canine seeking to converse. "Violet! I need to talk with you!" Followed by a few more heavy slams of a fist on the wooden door.
 
Violet had just got back home from a day of fishing, her main moneymaker at this point. She worried a little that it'd become unsustainable once everybody started doing it to keep up with their debts but she had no good ideas to combat it yet. She hadn't exactly gotten opportunities to create new jobs for everybody yet. Such worries though were pushed out of her head at the hard knocks at her door, startling the woman a little. Nobody had come to her home like this so far, but she had told all the residents where to find her if they needed her.

"Cherry?" The girl came up to the door and opened up, peering out at her first resident. "What's the matter?" She had a bad feeling that it might involve Tom Nook, but she'd been a little on edge about him ever since that last incident.
 
Cherry pushed past Violet once the door was opened, not so much to be rude but she was flustered and clearly didn't want to have this discussion out in the open. She waited just long enough for Violet to close the door behind them before launching into her tirade. "I had to come to you first. That bastard, Tom, is pulling some shady shit here and you deserve to know about it. He stuck some crap into the lending clause about taking alternate payments if we miss one? I was five bells short and he wanted to see my ass? Like hell I'm doing that!"
 
Last edited:
It was exactly what Violet feared. With a sigh she leaned back against the closed door, facing Cherry as the canine began ranting about Tom, as he pulled a stunt very similar to her own. 'Only five bells? Not even keeping it proportional, are you old man?' This did leave the awkward fact that Violet hadn't warned the rest of the townsfolk about all this and she felt bad about it, but she had no idea how to even broach the topic.

"Unfortunately, he's already pulled the stunt on me. Wanted to see my breasts after being short, told me I was forbidden to talk about it with outsiders. Been a little in shock ever since." Violet shook her head. "You didn't do it right? I can take five bells and clear it up with him, maybe try again to convince him to drop this ridiculous idea of his."
 
"Pfft, of course not!" Cherry responded to the question of whether or not she went through with the demand. "But you are the mayor, he can't get away with crap like this. Wait... what do you mean he did this to you? You run the island." There was clear confusion there as her mind caught up with and processed the fact that Violet was admitting to have been swindled in a similar fashion, though not outright admitting that she actually complied. "I'm no lawyer but this can't be legal. You have to put a stop to this before other people get caught up in it as well. They might actually do what he demands if they lack the spine."
 
"I'm the mayor, yes, but Tom owns everything. The island is his, every building his, I help and decide where to put things, but he's got the power to kick us out." She'd known this when he hired her, that he was the boss but it hadn't bothered her till recently. "I've gone over the contracts with Isabelle. As far as we can see it's all just about legal. He can demand other payments or evict us. He has the only contact with the outside world and I have no idea who would even have jurisdiction over this island. For all we know he's got this place set up as a micro nation."

Hardly the most comforting thought that the law might be what Nook said it was. But this was hardly what Cherry wanted to hear so Violet offered a small smile. "I'll take care of things and try to confront Tom again. For now I want any of you who are behind on payments to come to me first." This would dampen her plan to keep a buffer for herself, but she didn't want anyone else to get exploited.
 
Last edited:
Cherry was clearly shocked at the arrangement and shook her head a bit in disbelief. "That's... crazy. All the other islands are run by their mayors directly, no other interference. At least that's how I saw it." At the mention of the legality though, well, she didn't bite her tongue on that one. "All the islands here are under the same jurisdiction. They just decided it would be better for the area to give out places for people to build up rather than leave the islands empty. Course, I don't know laws too well but that's crazy if you are telling me that Isabelle or all people thinks this is allowed. What the fuck."

The canine's gaze shifted away as she pondered the situation more deeply than her gut reaction, though she was clearly still paying attention as Violet brought up the idea of all the residents coming to her for aid as her head snapped back up to look at the young woman. "No, that's bullshit." She proclaimed a bit more harshly than she intended, wincing a little in apology. "If this isn't something that can be dealt with so easily then we are all in this together. No taking on the world alone. We should have a residents meeting, build a support group or such I guess, but hell if I'm going to take this lying down. There has to be something we can do to put a stop to this, even if it might take some time to figure out."
 
Violet blinked as the suggestion hit her, the girl having spent this time fretting over the issue yet she hadn't once actually thought about such a joint approach. "Cherry... you're a genius." Or Violet was a little dumb for not having the idea sooner, probably closer to that one. "Nothing in the contract saying we can't discuss this among ourselves, just can't tell potential residents. We can have a general meeting with the rest of the town and figure out a collective approach. It'll be harder for Tom to bully us if we take a collective stance against him!" It might take time to get anywhere like Cherry said, but this seemed a good next step.

"I'll go talk with Isabelle and make an announcement, we can probably use the Museum as a meeting place for everyone. Even outside this issue, having a 'town hall' meeting like this would be good for the island in general I think."
 
Cherry didn't seem to think her idea was exactly 'genius' but was at least thankful to have some direction agreed upon between them. "Yeah I don't know what he's gonna try since I didn't do what he wanted but surely we can all come together and stand up against him." With little more to discuss in the moment things advanced quickly as Violet contacted Isabelle to schedule a meeting of residents. There was no need to get Longclaw involved to use the museum, the town hall wasn't the largest space but it was suitable for the number of current residents at least; though wouldn't work as the island continued to grow in population.

Everyone had shown up as requested, some more on time than others, but that still left Violet at the head of Beau, Cherry, Reneigh, Julian, and Diana as they awaited her to kick things off. Cherry obviously knew what the meeting was about but she didn't want to steal the mayor's thunder so it would seem.
 
Though of course Violet had met with each of the villagers individually, this would be the first time she'd gathered them all together. Like she told Cherry, it felt appropriate to actually set this up and though this was a rather sensitive and troubling subject, Violet hoped that this might be a healthy thing to do regularly. Perhaps once a month? She'd need to discuss it with everyone.

"Good afternoon everybody, I hope you are settling in well. Unfortunately, we have a bit of a tough issue in front of us to tackle." She wasn't sure how to soften the blow, so best to be on with it. "On your seats I had Isabelle print out a copy of a paragraph. While your specific contracts are private between you and Tom Nook, I am quite certain that same clause is in all of them. It seems if anyone is late on full payments, Tom can compel an alternative, and while the language doesn't spell it out, I've already seen what he plans to do... It appears he wishes to pressure sexual favors out of anyone who doesn't pay."
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom