MONTH 2: THE COLORS OF COMPLACENCY

July 1, 1970

06:12 AM

The people spoke the truth. Today we got a new arrival. From the moment she stepped out of the train, I knew we were in some deep sh*t. She was the kind of person that would make a combat hardened Viet Cong have thoughts of suicide. As she stepped off of the train, she had a basket of rose petals she was tossing behind her as she slowly stepped down onto the cold concrete floor of the Casbylonian train station. I picked up one of the petals. This wasn't drawn on with a crayon. This was some sort of perfect hybrid flower. Something is off about this woman even IF the little sh*ts that inhabit this slum-city are welcoming her in with open arms. Her dress is pink, lacy, and looks like it'd make good kindling for a fireplace. She has her hair dyed pink and kept up in a ponytail, and she's wearing a hair bow just for good measure. In her hands she's holding a parasol that looks far too frilly to actually be useful. If THIS is the sexy Vietnamese prostitute we got promised a while back, she'd probably go for about $20 grand. What a pretentious little sh*t.

09:43 AM

Please note that I was hiding behind a bush and looking through the windows of the train station to avoid making contact with this goddamn fool. I thought it would be a good idea to hide in my house the rest of the day, then to pull off a little trick I like to call "Mister Sandman" later tonight. She seems to be going door-to-door like some kind of self-absorbed jehovah's witness dressed in pink. She just hit Genji's house, which is the house closest to mine, and I'm using "closest to mine" very loosely. Oh sh*t. She's knocking on my door. Uh. Nobody is home. I'll check back later once I make it through.

12:03 PM

Somehow, I managed to make it out of that debacle in peace. She started off by knocking on my door, as I expected. I decided to close the blinds and turn off the lights, hiding in the attic until she went. But she didn't. Like some tenacious little dirtbag, she kept standing there. Waiting. I eventually grew a pair and opened the door, bracing myself for the worst.

"Hi there, I'm Lilly, your new neighbor! I lack a home, but perhaps you'd let me stay the night…?" She said in the sweetest voice she could emulate.

I initially felt unsure, but then I realized I'd be able to wipe her out when she's sleeping. So vulnerable. I might consider doing more lewd things to her in the future. So I obliged and she decided to stay the night, constantly droning on about how great her flowers were in her hometown of "Dandelyn". Dirty little rat tried to find out what I was jotting down in my journal, I told her I was writing an erotic story consisting of Genji and Wolfgang engaging in bloody anal sex. She stayed far away from me for the rest of the day. Works every time, heh.

July 2, 1970

05:40 AM

I woke up way too early today. I was thinking about Lilly again. How she could have taken me out as easy as I could have taken her out. At least I got through this night without getting my neck slit. I'm going to let her settle in and get to know me a little more, until the day finally comes. She's still sleeping. Everyone is still sleeping. I'm sitting on a bench in one of the less overgrown patches of land, and I can just barely see the light of dawn coming in. It's a beautiful thing. I enjoy it. When everyone besides you is asleep while you're still awake. Like a backstage pass to ring in the new morning.

09:00 AM

Lilly just woke up about a half hour ago and is cooking breakfast, frying some odd-looking bacon on my electric hot plate. I asked her why it looked weird. She didn't say anything, she just told me it was good. She asked if I wanted to try a bite, I declined. I'll eat my own damn food, thank you very much. She probably poisoned the bit on the fork she was offering, so I guess I made a good call.

12:43 PM

I went over to Genji's house to play a game of chess, then discussed ways to murder Lilly. We were planning on a couple of ways. I decided to not go with the classic "Mister Sandman" method of homicide. We wanted something creative. Plan A was to both sneak into my house at night, with Genji wielding some sort of blunt weapon. Genji recently installed a refrigerator into his place, so we were thinking that we could attack Lilly with the blunt weapon to inflict a concussion. Then, while she's passed out, we'd stuff her into the fridge and bury it outside, with an extension cord coming out so it freezes her. Plan Bwas to resort to more brutal methods. We'd take the same blunt force trauma route as last time, but this time we'd lock her in my basement, stripped of most of her clothes. Her clothes would be scattered around the room, but we'd put razor blades and other sharp objects all over the floor of the room, with the clothes on every corner of the room, forcing her to trudge through every pushpin-lined corner of the damn basement to get her clothes back. And once she's got that done, she's free to go. But incase she's sidestepping everything, we'll outfit her with an anklet with a small, remotely-detonated charge on it. The charge detonates, probably blowing her ankle off, and most likely causing her to fall into the razor blades and pushpins. God, I am so evil.

23:34 PM

Genji and I's setting up of the entire charade was cut to a halt as soon as he ran out of straight razors. He only had about 3 of them. We're going to make a run to the post office tomorrow and steal some of their pushpins, and scrounge around the town for any more sharp objects. Currently the plan is going along smoothly. Lilly doesn't suspect a thing. She's just sitting alone, on a bench, on the other side of town, eating a kebab made out of that weird, bacon-meat she was eating earlier. She really likes that sh*t for some reason. It's the only thing she seems to eat. What a carnivore.

July 5, 1970

11:56 AM

Genji and I are done setting up the razor basement. I managed to scavenge a little bit of powder from the remaining ammunition I had left. The anklet charge isn't as powerful as I anticipated it to be, and it has a pretty short fuse, but at least it'll work. All I need to do now is lure that little jerkoff into taking the bait and we'll be home free, lolita-free in no time.

July 6, 1970

03:43 AM

I can't do it. I can't f*cking do it. We all thought it was a good idea. Something hit me. I don't know what the hell I was thinking. I spared her, Genji and I dumped the razor blades in the river, and we're saving the ankle charge for some other use. I know, these journal entries have been increasingly hostile in the recent few days, but what if this was my sister? And besides, I could probably put her to good use doing manual labor or training the militia or something, I don't know. I just threw a blanket over her and tucked her in. God, she's so innocent. She's family now. I love you, Lilly.

10:50 AM

Lilly woke up and I told her the entire story in the least awkward way I could. She was shocked, yeah, and looked pretty damn terrified, but acknowledged my generosity. Then, once I thought we were going to leave all of this behind us, she came clean. Apparently, she's a cannibal. Not, like, voodoo kind of cannibal. She doesn't eat people raw. No. She cooks it up into a goddamn salisbury steak and then eats it. She told me that the habit all started when her hometown had a food shortage. Her family was poor, and had to resort to cannibalism in order to survive, and I guess she just dragged the tradition down the family tree. That's really creepy, but I still don't know why she chose the "lolita" lifestyle instead. Maybe she's trying to deny her past? Is she insecure? Hell, I don't know. But, honestly, I feel a bit less disturbed now that we've exchanged our dirty little secrets with each other.

July 7, 1970

14:23 PM

Now that Lilly and I have come to an understanding, at least we can now look at eachother without getting disturbed. To my surprise, Lilly asked me if I could help her deal with her cannibalistic lifestyle. She was getting sick of her impulses. She couldn't take another day with having to deal with her bloodlust. I obliged, purely out of respect. I had a feeling she was going to keep it like her dirty little secret for the rest of her life, or at least until she ate herself. Aparently, this isn't the case. I like this chick. She might be pretentious, but she gained a lot of respect points with me for wanting to curb herself of her carnivorous tendencies.

July 8, 1970

13:32 PM

Digging around the ruins of Naomi's house, I found an electric cattle prod. God knows what weird things she probably used it for, but I might be able to put this to use for disciplinary reasons. At least it came with batteries. Our "rehabilitation" begins today. I'm going to check in later to see how it goes.

15:12 PM

She's terrified. I pulled out the cattle prod. She ran into the back corner and started having a panic attack. Apparently she doesn't like shock therapy very much. I don't like getting electrocuted either, but worst case scenario I accidentally burn her. It's not like she's running through a hallway filled with tasers while ass-naked or something. That would be awesome though.

16:43 PM

Strapped her down to a chair and forced her to eat fresh vegetables. She resisted quite a bit until I poked her with the cattle prod, to which she screamed bloody murder. A couple villagers came and knocked on the door later on. Turned off the lights. They'll never suspect a thing.

July 9, 1970

10:32 AM

Apparently my rehabilitation methods have been causing controversy around the town. Overheard a couple people claim that I torture her down in the basement. I would have, if Genji and I had gotten around to actually pulling off the razor blade stunt. Blegh, that would have been nasty, even for MY tastes.

11:07 AM

The cattle prod therapy stopped. It wasn't doing jack sh*t. This poor woman has already been treated like cattle too long and I feel like a complete jerkoff for being one of the main causes. Adding insult to injury, weren't people protesting women's rights back, like, a couple years ago? Wow, that's ironic. But still. It's a good disciplinary tool, though, I'd have to admit. It'll be sheathed for now.

July 10, 1970

15:23 PM

I apologized. I apologized to Lilly about as sincerely as I could. She looked at me like this was some kind of sick joke at first, but begrudgingly shook my hand in the end. Then I gave her a big ol' hug, just to justify my apology. I'm not sure if my sincerity will stick with her, considering she probably thinks I'm the world's biggest misogynistic asshole, but if that's her opinion, I'm fine with that. I probably am the world's biggest misogynistic asshole. And honestly, I'm looking forward to spending the rest of my life confined in this tiny little town with her, let alone all the indigenous peoples who chill here as well.

18:43

Uh. Wow. That was... I was NOT expecting something like that. Basically, Jen took an hour or two to tell me the whole story of Dandelyn. I asked her to speak at a slow pace so I could write down the whole thing easily.

"Okay. When I was first born, and through my first few years of life, Dandelyn was a beautiful place. It was a small, obscure town down in Mississippi. There were fields and fields of beautiful flowers, the whole town had a very "clean" atmosphere and the citizens who lived there weren't quite like the stereotypical southern racists that dwelled in the state at the time. The townsfolk were really polite and always dressed nice, so it was just tradition to go around wearing some huge frilly dress. Things weren't always like this, though. We were one of the few towns who had your kind of anthropomorphic animal inhabiting it. But we treated them like slaves. Like homeless people, pushing their carts full of trash through the town because we wouldn't help them. Not because we disliked them, but because we could't understand them. By the time I was 14, civil dissonance started to break out. It all started when someone assassinated Mayor Campbell. With no rulers, no masters to stop us, the town broke out into hell. Turns out the townsfolk really hated frilly things. There were burnings of all the doilies and skirts and everything we had gotten over time. The sane ones fled the town, the insane ones stayed because they couldn't let go of their precious little slaves. Eventually things got bad to the point where we were killing eachother. Not for fun, but for food. Half of the town broke out into cannibalism because of food shortages, the other half was killed off for a quick snack fix. The animal slaves we had gotten were slowly finished off over time by their psychotic masters, and more humans were enslaved instead. Not just for food, but for things like human trafficking, sexual pleasure, all that nasty stuff. I was one of them. Spent three years in some man's backyard bounded by a chain link fence. Our slaver's name was Mr. Lyons. He was a redneck sort of fellow, always carried his 12-gauge with him and had a pack of cigarettes up his sleeve 24/7. However, he was lethargic most of the time, and he had a hard time focusing on the things that went on around him. This eventually led to his downfall. By the time I was 17, some angry folks from another town got pissed off at the slavery going on in Dandlyn, so there was a sort of civil war going on."

I cut in at this point to ask her a question.

"Wait, wait, neighbouring towns? My sister Jen had been hinting that my parents were going to get a divorce and that her and mom were going to move. Did you ever see any of the two, perchance?"

Lilly sighed and thought for a second.

"...A-actually, yeah, I think I remember something. It was '67 and Mr. Lyons finally decided to use me for something other than labor. I remember him grabbing me by the collar on my neck, and telling me I was in for a good time or something. And he... He dragged me into his bedroom while I was just kinda w-writhing around... And then that old f*ck just... H-he..."

It was at this point that Lilly had started to get teary-eyed. I knew something in her past had changed her for the worse. I continued.

"...Violated you? Raped you?"

She finally lost it and started bawling. I came over to her and hugged her tightly.

"Calm down, Lilly. It's over. You're in Casbylon. We will protect you here. We'll do all that we can to help you."

Lilly settled down after a few minutes and continued with her story.

"...A-anyways, he preferred his partners to be masochists, so..."

"So?"

"He made me into one with his cattle prod. Electrocuted m-me until I was screaming bloody murder. Not in pleasure, but in pain. There was no pleasure in what he did to me. Then, after what seemed like hours, he was about to climax when the sound of a door being kicked down was heard. He ran to his closet, put on his clothes, grabbed his gun, and threatened to blow my head off if I tried to bail. The sound of someone trying to smash in a doorknob got louder, and louder, until the lock finally gave in and a woman broke through. She was wielding a bloody 9-iron and Mr. Lyons got knocked down when the door busted open. The woman approached Lyons, who was reaching for his gun, and bashed him in the head. She bashed him in the head until his head was nothing more than a quivering mess, his jaw busted open, his mouth still twitching slightly as he tried to make a pained noise. But he couldn't. Karma hit him like a ballistic missile. After the whole ordeal was over, my savior walked up to me, chained to the bed, and cut off my collar with a switchblade. Her hair was grey from all the dirt and dust she'd been pushing through and she had a couple bandages here and there, but her voice was as soft and as gentle-sounding as an angel's harp. She handed me the knife. Gestured for me to put on my clothes, and after I did so, she grabbed my hand and we ran off, back to her house. There, her and her mother gave me the love that I needed. The love I never found at home. After they took me in as one of their own, they set me off on my way.

"But how did you get here? How did you find Casbylon? Why DID you choose Casbylon?"

"Wait, this isn't Dandelyn?"

"Um, no. I don't know if you suffered through amnesia or something, but you're in North Vietnam right now."

Lilly looked stupefied for a good few minutes.

"I... I could have sworn the train ride back to Dandelyn wouldn't take that long."

"Either you boarded the wrong train on purpose, or you can't remember ever getting here. Were you greeted by some f*cker named Rover?"

"No."

"You were probably asleep the whole time, or it's amnesia."

"..."

"I'll contact Tom right now. We can set up a house for you and make you feel like one of us now, because you ARE one of us."

I reached my hand out for a handshake, but Lilly stayed silent.

"...Alright, then."

I walked out of the house and left Lilly to do her thing. I'm going to go talk to Tom Nook and see if he can set anything up.