Archive of Our Own ^beta

Tom Nook is quite aware that opinions of him varied wildly.

His father likes to brag that his son’s greatest accomplishment was as the finest foreman their line had ever sired. His houses are always just a bit bigger on the inside that they seem, hmm? Extra storage space, cleverly hidden away and out of sight, yes?

His uncle disagrees for the most flattering of reasons, which is that Tom Nook’s business sense deserves greater praise. Small town after small town flourish into bustling cities under his mercantile monopolies. Always setting up shop right before the boom; buy low, sell high, and watch the bells rush in!

His mother simply despairs, unsatisfied with his accomplishments in either wood nor coin, desperate to see him married and settled in a burrow. Always leaving for new ventures, and no steady partner to ever grace her steps, he is the least successful of all her many children.

And that's just within the family.

~

Tom Nook knew that success would always be matched with jealousy. There were those who called him greedy, though never to his face. A bit of a capitalist crook, they whisper, as if the gossip right outside his door can’t cross the threshold.

He charges a lot for his work—and why shouldn’t he? Not his fault he’s the only contractor available in these small budding towns. It’s a large fee, but he’s upfront with the costs, and is his work not excellent? Done in a night, and cleaned up as if they were never there by morning! And all that before his generous repayment programs.

A crook, they mutter. Does he not bring in goods that would otherwise be unavailable? It’s his own loss if no one purchases them. No harm there. And is his success not shared? He takes the profits and puts them back into the store, so he can always stock bigger and better to meet demand. This is what he is teaching Timmy and Tommy: how to start small, and scale smart. When the market is ready to grow, so should you! Ensure customer loyalty and keep potential competitors out by being the perfect match. Nothing crooked in that.

Selfish, they say! As if that were a bad thing. What’s the point in doing something you don’t want? The art is in the deal—a deal that benefits both parties. A deal that is perhaps not equal, but fair in other ways.

For how many times have residents come to him, lost and hoping for a little direction—some arbitrary goal—to bring fulfillment to their lives. A project, a contribution to the community, followed by a ceremony acknowledging their accomplishments and showering them with accolades... while his team quietly lays the bricks and swings the hammers in the moonlight. Was this selfish?

He does it with pride.

Besides, a bit of devious trickery is part of his very nature as a tanuki. It made his buildings bigger, his furniture more portable. A beautiful vase falling from a tree is a baffling marvel that delights the finder and tickles the imagination… and if it means the receiver then wishes to buy a table from his store, did they not now have both a free vase and a beautiful table to display it on?

Tom Nook frowns, as an unpleasant thought darkens his brow. His family jokes that he has a nemesis, but it is on this principle that he and the fox can never reconcile.

The kitsune may consider himself a trickster, but in Tom Nook’s eyes, they are tricks of the lowest sort: scams. Oh! The clever are rewarded, to be sure, but the rest are revealed as the fools they are. Mercurial and often unkind, the delight is found in the misdirection.

It is so much better in the surprise . Whether unnerving or joyful, a surprise is rousing! A surprise makes one stop in one’s tracks! It might even make a sound—a gasp, or a quick laugh.

And of course, the true secret to the best kind of tricks:

Everyone wins.

After all, if life is truly about balance, balance in business and karma and what goes around comes around, what greater magic is there than to upset it? A weighted measure that somehow rises on both ends?

Now that is trickster magic. 

Someday he will teach this to his nephews, but for now their clever heads are bobbing over spreadsheets: inventory and ROI’s plotted out in neat little columns. He can smell coffee in their mugs—they intend a late night. They had begged him to take them on as apprentices, bursting with the zeal of youth, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. First thing tomorrow morning, they will present their work to him for review, and so he sets aside his thoughts and bids them a good evening.

In some ways, it’s as if a trick has been played on him . Of all the clever deals he’s cut, and all the fine buildings wrought from wood and stone... and all his protestations against his mother’s wishes for him to build a family of his own… only since taking on Timmy and Tommy has he felt such clarity of purpose.

Wherever their newest venture may take them, at long last, he has a project worthy of a lifetime.