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Today I was punched in the nose the moment I opened my front door.

“Ahh!!” Isabelle yelped. “Oh my goodness, Mayor! I’m so sorry, I was just about to knock!”

“Ow, ow, ow!” I moaned as my sniffer tinged with pain. “Do you always knock doors that hard!?”

“S-Sometimes…? Are you okay? You’re not b-bleeding… are you!?”

“I think I’m good,” I said with a nasally voice, “W-What are you doing here, anyway?”

“I… I think we should talk…,” Isabelle admitted with great effort. The look we exchanged said it all; I knew what this would be about. I stood aside to let her come in. I suppose we could have just made the trip to town hall, but I kinda didn’t want that ‘knock’ to go to waste.

I felt self conscious as Isabelle looked around my front room. It’s still a mess, even after all this time. I suppose I never really spend much time indoors so all of the cool stuff I find lying around or get given by the animal folk just ends up piling together. I choose to describe it as a clump with character.

“To think,” Isabelle observed, “that just over a year ago you were living in a tent!” She then noticed Lil’ Sproidy in the corner of the room. He bounced upon seeing her. “You’ve got a gyroid!” she pointed, “he’s so cute!”

“That’s Sproidy!” I said, introducing her to my claypot son. “And funny that you mention the tent, ‘cuz I even still have the lantern you gave me!” Isabelle looked surprised.

“Really?” she said. “Well, I’m glad to hear that it’s still serving you well, even after you got electricity!”

I decided not to tell her that the paw print wallpaper she made for me was still hung up in my bedroom.

We sat down on the couch. “How are you feeling?” was the obvious first place to start.

“Good!” she smiled.

…

“You said there was something we should talk about?” I reminded her.

“Yeah,” she sighed, her smile fading. I braced myself for something terrible. I mean, what could have possibly been? I just wanted us to go back to normal and ride out the end of this beautiful town ordinance already.

Isabelle took a deep breath and shut her eyes tight.
“I… I’ve been… lying to you, Mayor,” she said with great difficulty. “For as long as you’ve been here, I haven’t been truthful and I thought that I could keep this lie going forever because I was scared… but having that week off made me think about it, and whenever I’ve been alone in town hall, its all thats on my mind, and I know that the responsible thing to do is to be honest and not keep any secrets from you.”

“...lying how?” I asked. The idea of Isabelle having a secret agenda came as more of a shock than my sore nose.

In a bizarre demonstration of her courage battling her sheepishness, Isabelle couldn’t decide whether to look me in the eyes or stare down at her toes and ended up alternating between both. And as if boiling like a kettle, she bubbled up too much and finally said aloud…

“You were never supposed to be the mayor!!” before turning her head away in shame.

This… was not exactly a shock.
From what I recall, this dog had given me the job the moment I stood off the train and seemingly ignored every one of my questions. But all the same, it was actually kinda nice to have some clarification.

“...Noooo,” I said, legitimately trying to sound surprised. “Really?”

“Yes,” Isabelle said, remorsefully. “By all intents and purposes, your acquisition of leadership was… questionable, at best. I’ve spent the better half of a year trying to make your Mayoral status legitimate for both our sakes. But by the time I thought I had done a good enough job, all the other work had already piled up so much… it’s my fault that we’re so swamped with–”

“Don’t start the blaming game!” I said, firmly. “We’ll just end up back at square one!”

Isabelle stopped talking and wiped a tear from her eye. Is this what they call tough love? I don’t like it. Despite the revelation not being that much of a revelation to me, my heart was still beating fast in the moment. I can only imagine how she must’ve felt.

Still though, what Isabelle had just said was buzzing in my mind like popping candy.
I really wasn’t supposed to be the mayor! This wasn’t just some elaborate set-up or grand multidimensional conspiracy! Sure, it still didn’t explain how I ended up here in the first place, but it still felt like a pretty sizable weight had just been taken off my subconscious.

But now, a new mystery was gnawing inside my head. This time, however, I could potentially get an answer straight away.
“So,” I said, “who was gonna be mayor?”

Isabelle chuckled to herself and looked at me with an almost mischievous look in her eyes.
“It was, um… it was supposed to be m-me.”

“...”

“...s-surprise! Heh, heh…”

“You?” I blinked. “You!? What!? Then why… how come… but you’re… YOU!?”

“I know! I know!” she cried, “I’m terrible, I know!” She sighed. “It’s a long story. Basically what happened is that Tortimer’s retirement was very sudden and he didn’t quite consider who his successor would be…”

(From what I knew about Tortimer, the correct assumption would be that he actually just didn’t care.)

“...and he was more than willing to just give ME the position as soon as he left!” Isabelle continued. “I tried to protest! I told him I wasn’t ready! I told him that I didn’t even want to be a mayor! He didn’t listen to me.

After Tortimer departed for the island, I told the townsfolk that their new mayor would arrive in a week. I thought that would be enough time to find somebody willing to take up the role instead of me, but it… well… wasn’t.

So… and this is the part I’m really not proud of… I decided to just hire whoever stepped off the train first! The villagers were none the wiser and I’m sure nobody would have ever protested being made the mayor of their own town for free. So that’s what I did!”

Isabelle seemed to deflate as if all the truth she had just spilled was no longer physically inside of her.

“I’m so sorry about all of this,” she sighed, looking back at her feet. “You must think I’m awful.”

“Wow…” was all I could say in response. “I mean, on one hand, the fact that you actually went through with that plan is bonkers, to say the least, and you’re definitely way crazier than I ever thought you were… but you actually pulled it off! That’s nothing short of incredible! A little machiavellian and downright insane, but still!”

Isabelle smiled. I don’t think I had ever seen her more relieved, if a little embarrassed.
“I just really, really didn’t want that job.”

The two of us laughed. After such a stressful year and the week we had apart, it really did feel earned to just sit there and laugh like that. It was comforting to know that while I had been freaking out about being stuck in a world of talking animals, she had been freaking out too. It also taught me not to underestimate her. This girl can pull some strings alright.

“So wait,” I said, “the letter I got the day after I arrived here… that was you?”

“Oh, yes!” Isabelle nodded. “I wanted to make sure you were 100% comfortable despite the situation I forced you into. Again, I can’t apologise enough for all of this. It was such unnecessary stress for us both… I even let you have the house I was supposed to be given!”

“This was supposed to be your place?” I asked. I kinda felt guilty, having turned it into a tip. Then a sudden realisation hit me. “I don’t suppose your parents knew anything about this, right?”

“Hm? My parents?” She frowned. “The last thing I told them was that I was moving to this address. I never even managed to tell them why because they stopped sending me letters for some reason. Digby doesn’t even know, so please don’t tell him! Why do you ask, anyway?”

“Wait here!” I said and ran up to my room. I took a stack of letters bound by a rubber band from a drawer and raced back down, handing them to the would-have-been mayor. “I think these belong to you!”

Isabelle gasped, her eyes twinkling. “Oh my gosh!” she exclaimed. “It’s letters from my mom! Oh, I’m such a fuzzbrain! Look at how many I’ve missed…”

“It really freaked me out when I saw that first letter!” I laughed. “Like, how could my mum have ever managed to reach me all the way here, you know?”

“What do you mean?” Isabelle asked. “Do your parents live far away?”

Crap. This old pitfall again.

“Oh, err, t-that’s another long story. For another time.”

We both took a moment to sorta mentally recuperate. That was a whole lot of reveals and twists for us both. I don’t think I ever looked at Isabelle the same way after that. The fact that she went so far to not bear the responsibility of running a town… despite kinda doing it anyway in spite of my arrival, just made her even more of a confusing case.

But it also solidified the simpleness of her desires to me. All Isabelle ever wanted was to help. The limelight was never for her.

“What do we do now?” she asked after a moment of silence. “Should we… tell the villagers the truth?”

“Absolutely not!” I was quick to decide. “Let’s just go back to work.”

As we walked towards town hall, Isabelle turned and sheepishly asked "Oh, um, would you like to have an opening ceremony for the bonfire? I-I know it's a little overdue, but..." She didn't nede to aks twice.

~Author’s Notes~
Holy moly that’s a lot of stuff.
I’m hoping that this episode might be able to re-contextualise some of the older stories since I’ve had this stuff in mind since season one.

Isabelle being the real mayor isn’t necessarily my go-to game theory for ACNL (and I’m a fan of Rover being the actual mayor too), but it was the one I settled on for My Place because I felt it worked the best.

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Description

Today I was punched in the nose the moment I opened my front door.

“Ahh!!” Isabelle yelped. “Oh my goodness, Mayor! I’m so sorry, I was just about to knock!”

“Ow, ow, ow!” I moaned as my sniffer tinged with pain. “Do you always knock doors that hard!?”

“S-Sometimes…? Are you okay? You’re not b-bleeding… are you!?”

“I think I’m good,” I said with a nasally voice, “W-What are you doing here, anyway?”

“I… I think we should talk…,” Isabelle admitted with great effort. The look we exchanged said it all; I knew what this would be about. I stood aside to let her come in. I suppose we could have just made the trip to town hall, but I kinda didn’t want that ‘knock’ to go to waste.

I felt self conscious as Isabelle looked around my front room. It’s still a mess, even after all this time. I suppose I never really spend much time indoors so all of the cool stuff I find lying around or get given by the animal folk just ends up piling together. I choose to describe it as a clump with character.

“To think,” Isabelle observed, “that just over a year ago you were living in a tent!” She then noticed Lil’ Sproidy in the corner of the room. He bounced upon seeing her. “You’ve got a gyroid!” she pointed, “he’s so cute!”

“That’s Sproidy!” I said, introducing her to my claypot son. “And funny that you mention the tent, ‘cuz I even still have the lantern you gave me!” Isabelle looked surprised.

“Really?” she said. “Well, I’m glad to hear that it’s still serving you well, even after you got electricity!”

I decided not to tell her that the paw print wallpaper she made for me was still hung up in my bedroom.

We sat down on the couch. “How are you feeling?” was the obvious first place to start.

“Good!” she smiled.

…

“You said there was something we should talk about?” I reminded her.

“Yeah,” she sighed, her smile fading. I braced myself for something terrible. I mean, what could have possibly been? I just wanted us to go back to normal and ride out the end of this beautiful town ordinance already.

Isabelle took a deep breath and shut her eyes tight.
“I… I’ve been… lying to you, Mayor,” she said with great difficulty. “For as long as you’ve been here, I haven’t been truthful and I thought that I could keep this lie going forever because I was scared… but having that week off made me think about it, and whenever I’ve been alone in town hall, its all thats on my mind, and I know that the responsible thing to do is to be honest and not keep any secrets from you.”

“...lying how?” I asked. The idea of Isabelle having a secret agenda came as more of a shock than my sore nose.

In a bizarre demonstration of her courage battling her sheepishness, Isabelle couldn’t decide whether to look me in the eyes or stare down at her toes and ended up alternating between both. And as if boiling like a kettle, she bubbled up too much and finally said aloud…

“You were never supposed to be the mayor!!” before turning her head away in shame.

This… was not exactly a shock.
From what I recall, this dog had given me the job the moment I stood off the train and seemingly ignored every one of my questions. But all the same, it was actually kinda nice to have some clarification.

“...Noooo,” I said, legitimately trying to sound surprised. “Really?”

“Yes,” Isabelle said, remorsefully. “By all intents and purposes, your acquisition of leadership was… questionable, at best. I’ve spent the better half of a year trying to make your Mayoral status legitimate for both our sakes. But by the time I thought I had done a good enough job, all the other work had already piled up so much… it’s my fault that we’re so swamped with–”

“Don’t start the blaming game!” I said, firmly. “We’ll just end up back at square one!”

Isabelle stopped talking and wiped a tear from her eye. Is this what they call tough love? I don’t like it. Despite the revelation not being that much of a revelation to me, my heart was still beating fast in the moment. I can only imagine how she must’ve felt.

Still though, what Isabelle had just said was buzzing in my mind like popping candy.
I really wasn’t supposed to be the mayor! This wasn’t just some elaborate set-up or grand multidimensional conspiracy! Sure, it still didn’t explain how I ended up here in the first place, but it still felt like a pretty sizable weight had just been taken off my subconscious.

But now, a new mystery was gnawing inside my head. This time, however, I could potentially get an answer straight away.
“So,” I said, “who was gonna be mayor?”

Isabelle chuckled to herself and looked at me with an almost mischievous look in her eyes.
“It was, um… it was supposed to be m-me.”

“...”

“...s-surprise! Heh, heh…”

“You?” I blinked. “You!? What!? Then why… how come… but you’re… YOU!?”

“I know! I know!” she cried, “I’m terrible, I know!” She sighed. “It’s a long story. Basically what happened is that Tortimer’s retirement was very sudden and he didn’t quite consider who his successor would be…”

(From what I knew about Tortimer, the correct assumption would be that he actually just didn’t care.)

“...and he was more than willing to just give ME the position as soon as he left!” Isabelle continued. “I tried to protest! I told him I wasn’t ready! I told him that I didn’t even want to be a mayor! He didn’t listen to me.

After Tortimer departed for the island, I told the townsfolk that their new mayor would arrive in a week. I thought that would be enough time to find somebody willing to take up the role instead of me, but it… well… wasn’t.

So… and this is the part I’m really not proud of… I decided to just hire whoever stepped off the train first! The villagers were none the wiser and I’m sure nobody would have ever protested being made the mayor of their own town for free. So that’s what I did!”

Isabelle seemed to deflate as if all the truth she had just spilled was no longer physically inside of her.

“I’m so sorry about all of this,” she sighed, looking back at her feet. “You must think I’m awful.”

“Wow…” was all I could say in response. “I mean, on one hand, the fact that you actually went through with that plan is bonkers, to say the least, and you’re definitely way crazier than I ever thought you were… but you actually pulled it off! That’s nothing short of incredible! A little machiavellian and downright insane, but still!”

Isabelle smiled. I don’t think I had ever seen her more relieved, if a little embarrassed.
“I just really, really didn’t want that job.”

The two of us laughed. After such a stressful year and the week we had apart, it really did feel earned to just sit there and laugh like that. It was comforting to know that while I had been freaking out about being stuck in a world of talking animals, she had been freaking out too. It also taught me not to underestimate her. This girl can pull some strings alright.

“So wait,” I said, “the letter I got the day after I arrived here… that was you?”

“Oh, yes!” Isabelle nodded. “I wanted to make sure you were 100% comfortable despite the situation I forced you into. Again, I can’t apologise enough for all of this. It was such unnecessary stress for us both… I even let you have the house I was supposed to be given!”

“This was supposed to be your place?” I asked. I kinda felt guilty, having turned it into a tip. Then a sudden realisation hit me. “I don’t suppose your parents knew anything about this, right?”

“Hm? My parents?” She frowned. “The last thing I told them was that I was moving to this address. I never even managed to tell them why because they stopped sending me letters for some reason. Digby doesn’t even know, so please don’t tell him! Why do you ask, anyway?”

“Wait here!” I said and ran up to my room. I took a stack of letters bound by a rubber band from a drawer and raced back down, handing them to the would-have-been mayor. “I think these belong to you!”

Isabelle gasped, her eyes twinkling. “Oh my gosh!” she exclaimed. “It’s letters from my mom! Oh, I’m such a fuzzbrain! Look at how many I’ve missed…”

“It really freaked me out when I saw that first letter!” I laughed. “Like, how could my mum have ever managed to reach me all the way here, you know?”

“What do you mean?” Isabelle asked. “Do your parents live far away?”

Crap. This old pitfall again.

“Oh, err, t-that’s another long story. For another time.”

We both took a moment to sorta mentally recuperate. That was a whole lot of reveals and twists for us both. I don’t think I ever looked at Isabelle the same way after that. The fact that she went so far to not bear the responsibility of running a town… despite kinda doing it anyway in spite of my arrival, just made her even more of a confusing case.

But it also solidified the simpleness of her desires to me. All Isabelle ever wanted was to help. The limelight was never for her.

“What do we do now?” she asked after a moment of silence. “Should we… tell the villagers the truth?”

“Absolutely not!” I was quick to decide. “Let’s just go back to work.”

As we walked towards town hall, Isabelle turned and sheepishly asked "Oh, um, would you like to have an opening ceremony for the bonfire? I-I know it's a little overdue, but..." She didn't nede to aks twice.

~Author’s Notes~
Holy moly that’s a lot of stuff.
I’m hoping that this episode might be able to re-contextualise some of the older stories since I’ve had this stuff in mind since season one.

Isabelle being the real mayor isn’t necessarily my go-to game theory for ACNL (and I’m a fan of Rover being the actual mayor too), but it was the one I settled on for My Place because I felt it worked the best.

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