#this is my marnie. i will see this every time i play stardew & go to purchase hay

[puppppppppy]

learning abt friendship decay and "not reaching out to your friends for months at a time unprompted is not neurotypical behaviour" has me feeling a certain way

[soneybeee]

Hi! I was wondering if I could ask you for an SFW from Stardew Valley, Shane X Female Reader. I would love something romantic and fluffy with a Shane who is not used to receiving so much love from his new girlfriend. Maybe a theme of insecurity and depression. Btw, I have the hc of Chubby Shane. 👉👈.

Summary: After seeing the way you treat Jas, Shane falls even deeper in love. The only problem is he's not sure he deserves how much you reciprocate it.

Shane x Fem!Reader

Word Count: 1.1k

Warnings: Fluff :3 Anxious thoughts, depression, insecurities, and a mention of alcohol.

A/N: chubby shane canon idcccc!! he's such a cutie patootie, thank you for the request <3 !! i'm so sorry it's so short 😵‍💫 school has not been kind to me this week and it's only monday loll!!

“Shane, Shane!” Jas skips up to her godfather, grinning from ear to ear, strawberry ice cream smeared all around her mouth. “Look what Y/N bought me!”

Shane can’t help but smile with fondness and a hint of exhaustion. He licks the pad of his thumb and starts cleaning up the little girl’s face. “Ooh, ice cream? Can I have some?”

You start to catch up, holding the little purse that Jas has gained the habit of carrying with her everywhere. It’s filled with bits and bobs and lucky pennies she picked up off the ground in town while playing with Vincent. Secretly, you planted some of them face up just to hear her explain how that means they’re lucky. She tells you every time she sees you, completely forgetting you’ve heard it all from her many times before.

“No, you can’t!” Jas giggles, protectively pulling the ice cream cone closer to her chest. “Y/N bought it for me! If you want ice cream, you have to ask her for your own!”

Shane looks up at you. God, you’re beautiful. You just shine, no matter where you are. Your eyes are dazzling, second only to your smile. 

“I don’t have any more ice cream money.” You murmur, squatting down next to the pair. You greet Shane with a kiss on the cheek.

Jas hesitates, giving a thoughtful lick to her pink ice cream - It’s the same color as your piggies! “I guess you can use some of my lucky pennies.”

You ruffle her hair. “I’m kidding, honey. You keep your pennies. Maybe someday soon you’ll have enough to buy your own ice cream, hm?”

She pouts and walks off, headed for the front door to tell Marnie about your good deed. 

“She loves you,” Shane whispers, in awe. How did he get so lucky? Seriously, what could he have possibly done - In this life or a previous one - That earned him the good karma that is you? “I love you.”

Mwah. “I love you more.”

“Mm,” He hums, debating if he wants to make this an argument. He does. “I don’t think you do.”

You stand up and he follows, his knees popping. The two of you share a chuckle, and then you’re being embraced. 

Shane gives the best hugs. He holds you tight and he doesn’t let you go until you’re squirming and frantically tapping his back, complaining that you can’t breathe. But in those moments where the lack of oxygen has yet to set in, you’re on cloud nine. Sometimes he rubs your back or pets your hair - When he’s feeling mischievous, he might give your butt a little pinch. He loves the way you giggle and scold him in that soft, dreamy tone. It’s heaven on Earth. Heaven, right here in Stardew Valley, and it’s just you.

That’s when the insecurity creeps in. He thinks the world - More than the world, everything - of you, but what if that’s not how you feel about him? What if he’s just somebody you’re pitying? Do you think he’s someone in need of pity? 

What if you think he needs to lose weight? Do you think it’s weird he goes to the beach with a shirt on? He’s cut way down on his drinking, but what if you still think it’s too much? Is it lame that he works at JojaMart? Is it weird that he’s living with his aunt? Does he smell like a chicken? What if you-

“Shane,” You gently cradle his face in one of your hands. He leans into it like a cat - Is that too clingy? Pathetic? “What’s on your mind, lovely?”

He just… Stares at you. For a long moment. You’re so pretty. So pretty.

“You’re good with her,” He mumbles. “With Jas.”

“Yeah?” You stroke your thumb along his cheekbone. It’s not defined like Timothee Chalamet or Benedict Cumberbatch, but it doesn’t need to be. You adore the squish of his face. “So are you.”

“Not like you are,” He moves his arms lower, letting your hips act as a little shelf as he holds your waist. You just fit so perfectly. “You’re just…”

You lean in and kiss him. Just because he’s pretty, and you love him more than anything. You rub your nose against his before you pull away, smiling brightly. 

“You’re so handsome, Shane,” You murmur, bringing your other hand up to the other side of his face, admiring him. “I’m so lucky.”

Oh, he could cry. He might cry. It’s so incredible, the way you always know what to say to counteract the flurry of thoughts in his brain. You don’t need to comfort him with a declaration of love and an argument to every insecurity, you just say one little thing that shows him you do feel the same, even when he thinks he doesn’t deserve it. It’s so easy for him to get stuck in his head, convincing himself you’re too good for someone like him. It’s easy to think you deserve more than him, because you deserve the world - The stars, the galaxy, the other galaxies - But it’s a lot harder to understand that, to you, he is the world. He’s your world.

“I’m luckier.” He grins, tickling your sides so you get distracted laughing and forget to argue.

Of course, it works. Shane knows you too well.

“Stop,” You whine, squirming like a worm on a string in his arms. “I hate you!”

He pulls you close again, burying his nose in your hair. You smell like summer. Like oranges and salt and the juiciest peaches, the ones you always bring to Marnie’s house before you sell the rest so he and Jas can have the best ones. “You love me.”

He says it and, for the very first time, he doesn’t doubt it at all. 

“I do,” You kiss his face, not aiming for anywhere particular, just smooching anywhere and everywhere you can reach. “I love you to the moon and back.” Shane wants to tell you he loves you triple that, that he loves you all the way around the solar system, that he loves you more than anyone has ever loved anyone or anything before. 

But he doesn’t. Instead, he just revels in your love. Not everything needs to be a competition. And he’s pretty sure you know he loves you that much.

He squeezes you tightly, picking you up off the ground and swinging you back and forth. He can’t contain himself when he’s near you. He just wants to put you in his pocket or sew himself to you so the two of you never have to part ways ever again.

You’re both so lucky.

[calllmelittleghuleh]

👯‍♀️💙 we know that copia is a big film and video game nerd. What do you think his favorite kinds of video games are? Or how often he takes a sloth day off from work to indulge in leisure? 👀 we have yet to see him actively working and not just goofing off a bit

🫶🏻🥰 How cuteee

I'm not really a big game connoisseur, I only play with stardew valley and have played animal crossing in the past, my knowledge of gaming is very limit. 😌 But I feel like Copia is one of those gamers who like to stick to the old classics you know? Because no matter how good a new game can be, our nostalgic hearts are always gonna go back to our favorites eventually. 🫶🏻 Especially if it's a game he used to play when younger. I speak from personal experience when I say that there's no game that could beat a childhood one 🥹 So I think no matter how many different games he may collects and enjoy a lot, at the end of the day he's always re-playing with his favorite classics. Like Mario Kart, for example. 🥹 I think he might enjoy those games where you go on an adventure and ahead of your path there are crazy mysterious quests to do. 🥰 The game he plays in chapter 16 is about cars, yes, but seems to have also an interesting plot with different routes and outcomes depending on which option you pick, you get what I mean?

But also. Listen to me girl. Bear with me. I have a vision.

Copia and stardew valley. Copia playing stardew valley. Girl I know it's silly and definitely self indulgent because this is my favorite game. And I love more to think that Copia is more a console gamer rather than a laptop one, he loves to do it the old fashioned way you know? But bear with me let me explain. Stardew valley has no age. 😔

So, there's no doubt that Copia would love to play games with you and share this hobby of his together on a chill afternoon.

Let's say you're a nerdy gamer as he is. And let's say one day he catches you play with stardew valley on your own. He doesn't know this game. He sees how invested you are in the game as he follows your stardew OC walking around Pelican Town, pays attention to the little tunes, how colored and beautifully looking the different places are... eventually he gets so curious that he wants to try it out to know what this is about, even though he himself rarely plays on laptop. If his lover is so invested in this game it must be a good one, after all.

Girl that man would have a blast the second he makes his own farm. I can see him so clearly. He would love to romance Emily and make pretty clothes with the sewing machine. Hell, he probably would spend several days just making clothes of all kinds to test every option he can get. He would have so much fun with the many festivals, and appreciate how different and vaste the music is. I think he'd love to do silly things just because he can: not giving Lewis his pants back to put them in the soup at the Luau festival or make his own pair to wear in front of Marnie, turning his kids into doves, naming a chicken [74]. The options are endless. 👀 He's the kind of person who would finish an entire season in just one day if his schedule allows it. I think part of his love for gaming is about appreciating the creativity and aesthetic of it, and stardew is so full of creativity! 🫶🏻 He'd adore it. And finally, he'd understand why you like this game so much. The lore of the game is beautiful and so fun. There's nothing quite like the first farm, when everything in the game is new and a surprise, you don't know what comes next and have to figure out every little thing.

Next thing you'll hear from him is asking you to make a co-op farm together so you can take care of your own shared farm and get married with each other. How cute would be? Can you see my vision the way I do? 🥹 It makes me so soft to think about this tbh 🥺👉🏻👈🏻 I'm gonna waste my day smooching him thousands times in a row until it's 2 am and we pass out. It'd be so sweet. Decorating your house together and use his co-op smaller house as a extra room or storage, watering the crops together (which means that you would water the crops while he just walks around to dig the worms and feed the animals because watering crops is boring), vibing in the secret woods doing nothing special just because it's a beautiful place, giving each other gifts, or helping each other in the mines even if it means that you'll pass out. There's so much to say. He'd enjoy Abigail aesthetic and the wizard, love Krobus, have fun going to ginger island and try to complete the community center as quick as possible, cooking all recipes. Just wait until he finds out that there's a huge universe of mods to try out.... What do you mean he can change the look of his house into a hobbit house!? Star wars mod?? WHAT!?!? You'd lose him forever at that point. 😂 The possibilities are endless 😌 god. Terzo would never get over it if he knew his brother plays stardew. 😂 Poor Copia. 😌 I just think it's a neat, cute image to think about despite it be a little silly don't you think? 🥹

He'd get time off any chance he get, frankly. 😌 He works hard! Let him get the rest and chill time he deserves whenever he can! And once he's done with rituals and the tour has ended he better get a long week (or two) all to himself, to rest and do what he likes until he recharges the batteries, or else-☝🏻

[herminapons]

Please ignore that or don't. I accidentally added poll instead of a read more line. Don't know how to remove it. *cries*

Sharing My Interpretation of Stardew Valley Shane's Life and Personality:

He had a rough childhood. His parents are divorced and as a child, Shane moves from one parent's house to another. Until each of his parents have their own families, Shane was eventually neglected.

Marnie and other relatives adopted him.

Due to constantly moving places, Shane haven't made any friends.

He spent most of his childhood watching Gridball, playing videogames, and/or being on the Internet.

In middle school, he met these two childhood sweethearts (Jas' parents) who eventually became his best friends.

Shane is the weird, quiet kid who always looks out the window and is mostly invisible to others kids.

But with his 2 friends? Shane is just like any other kid. He loves playing games, playing with toys, and laughs at butt jokes.

Shane changed a lot in high school. He became a popular kid being a varsity player in Gridball.

Think of any teenager-trouble you can think of, Shane has probably done it.

Shane is still a weird kid despite all that, it especially shines through when he's with his two friends.

He works part time while studying. He was dedicated to save up for college.

Shane had a promising future. He got good grades all while being a varsity player (and a troublesome teenager lol)

Shane was supposed to go to college when he got in an accident which left him with a broken ankle.

All the money he saved up went to hospital bills and therapy.

Marnie insisted that Shane move to Pelican Town for a while in order to heal. This is the time he started getting into farm life and fell in love with taking care of chickens.

After 2 years, Shane moved back to the city and have a fresh start.

He began working again and his jobs were mostly retail customer service.

Shane tried to continue studying. But it was either he was rejected or he was short on money to proceed with enrollment.

Due to co-workers' influence, Shane started drinking after shifts.

He was the wingman to his best friends' relationship.

Shane found a girlfriend during this time, it was a serious relationship. This inspired him to really change the course of his life. He cut back on drinking and started saving up again.

Shane was overjoyed when his friends announced their pregnancy. He made sure to always be there whenever his friends need him.

Because of this his friends call him papa Shane (⁠.⁠ ⁠❛⁠ ⁠ᴗ⁠ ⁠❛⁠.⁠)

Jas' name was an acronym of the trio's names. ಥ⁠‿⁠ಥ (My HC their names are Jessie, Anton, Shane)

Secretly, Shane is jealous of his friends' happy little family. He always wondered how it must feel like to have a family, given that he doesn't have one eversince.

Living the fast-paced city life made Shane miss Pelican Town and realize that living in a farm is his true calling.

This sparked a lot of arguments between him and his gf. She wanted to grind her life for money, but Shane wanted to just live life.

They eventually broke up. This hurt him so much that he began drinking heavily every night to cope with the pain.

Then the accident happened. His friends died at the scene, leaving a poor baby Jas orphaned.

Shane was babysitting Jas when he heard the news.

Devastated, Shane drowned himself in alcohol. Saying he was a mess is an understatement. He had to quit his job to take care of Jas, and he was using up all of his savings for her and in beer.

When Marnie heard of the news, she took charge and arranged everything. She adopted Jas (since Shane is not suitable to be her legal guardian) and have her and Shane move back to her ranch in Pelican Town.

Shane shut himself off from the world. He refused to leave his room, he even refused to see/look at Jas. He hated looking at her because she reminds him of his late friends and the trauma of their passing.

His alcohol consumption turned into addiction. Shane cannot calm down until he's intoxicated. If he's sober, he spends the rest of his time crying and hating himself.

His turning point was when Marnie was out late due to a storm. Shane heard Jas' cries from the other room, he had to force himself up and attend to her.

Shane saw his goddaughter for the first time in months. She's no longer a beany baby, Jas can now stand up on her own and walk a few steps. When Marnie came home, Shane saw that his aunt was not getting any younger. Lines are starting to form on her face.

This made Shane realize that time passes and everything changes, except him.

Shane started forcing himself to be there for his "ragtag bunch" family.

He moved to the city for a better job but it didn't worked out for long.

He moved back to Pelican Town when he heard that there's a "promising job" waiting. Lol Joja

Shane always beats himself up. He's always thinking about the "what ifs" and contemplating if life is still worth it.

Shane became reclusive and antisocial even to the ones close to him.

His life this time was a constant wake up, eat, self-hate, work, drink, more self-hate, sleep.

Despite all this, Marnie didn't stop looking after Shane. She never fail to remind him that he is loved and there are people that care for him.

Slowly, Shane got "better" at handling his trauma and pain.

Shane started spending time with Jas. He no longer hated seeing her face, instead he hates himself for not being there when she needed him the most.

He picked up hobbies he liked back then. He plays videogames again. He watches Gridball games again. He helps with taking care of the chickens again.

He recently got a pet chicken, he named it Charlie. Charlie the therapist.

He began warming up to the other villagers, too.

He found himself being friends with Emily. Shane felt safe dropping his guard down around her and let his weird side shine through.

Then there's Harvey and Elliott. Shane didn't know when and how it happened, but the three of them always end up in awkward situations. Due to the constant exposure to one another, a brotherhood was formed.

Even though he puts up a "mean" façade, on the inside Shane is still that weird, goofy kid who only wants to be loved.

Shane may not admit it, but in Pelican Town, he felt loved that he had never felt before.

Recently, Shane picked up a new hobby. Breeding chickens. He had always find chickens fascinating, and when Shane hatched his first blue chicken, he cannot contain his excitement.

Yet, Shane is still struggling. It's hard for him to open up to new people. Most of time he only forces himself to get up and function. There are times that he feels good and then days later emotions hit him like a truck. Shane hates himself and how much of a failure he is. He became dependent on alcohol to comfort himself.

Lately he starts accepting his situation, thinking that his fate is sealed. He accepts that his life is nothing but a pathetic joke and there is nothing left for him... Until a new farmer moves in town.

(⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠)(⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠)(⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠)(⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠)(⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠)(⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠)(⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠)(⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠)

This is a oneshot I refused to proofread so apologies for any errors. I was trying to write a fanfic but I don't knoooow how to tell stories. Bulleted list then! I could've put SDV Shane HC but lengthy titles look cooler ರ⁠╭⁠╮⁠ರ

[thegenderfluidace]

I've played Minecraft for a while, but mostly in creative mode to just build random things

I'm still not good at normal survival tbh, but playing on servers with friends is fun, haven't done that in a long while tho and I've grown apart from most of my online friends in the Minecraft community

Stardew is very fun, I've played for over 200 hours in total, half of that time probably with friends

in animal crossing I'm transforming my island rn and yes, I'm just as impatient, I time travel a lot too. I've decided to go with a kind of magical forest kind of vibe and it looks good so far I think

if you want to try a visual novel game I can recommend a few

Scarlet Hollow is really good, but it's not finished yet and it's in the horror genre so keep that in mind if you wanna try it

another one that's really good is Coffee Talk. it's relaxing, you have many different characters whose stories you get to hear and you make drinks for them

Building random stuff and playing on servers is really fun. Right now I’ve been playing on a world where imma try and get every item in the game…..it’s gonna take awhile lol

Stardew Valley is great, I love that game so much, love playing it with my queer platonic partner, we go and do the glitch where if you name an animal an item ID number then you get the item cause Marnie will say the item ID. We like doing it with the chickens, just picking a random number seeing what item we get with the chicken then just putting the chicken item in a chest to keep forever lol, we never use the items we just like seeing what we get.

Yeah I just can’t be patient when it comes to Animal Crossing, just takes too longggggg. That sounds so cool though!!! Magical forest vibe sounds sick!!! I’ve been transforming my island too but I’m just not sure what theme I wanna do yet :\

Hmmm might wait to try Scarlet Hollow but Coffee Talk actually sounds really fun!!! I’ll definitely try it when I find some time!!!

[acepalindrome]

I’ve spent much of 2021 thus far playing Stardew Valley in the hopes of distracting myself from the horrors of reality, and I keep meaning to make a list of mods I recommend! Because I am running a truly embarrassing number of mods and there are some really great ones that really improve the gameplay or add fun content or just make everything look really pretty! So without further ado, here are some of my favorite mods:

- Lookup Anything: This is probably my favorite mod. It basically eliminates the need to have to keep consulting the Stardew Valley wiki while you play. The title says it all: this mod lets you look up anything. Need to know what’s a good present for Shane? You can pull up a list of all his loved and liked gifts, with items you have on hand highlighted for ease, plus his birthday, how many hearts he has with you and how many points you need to get to the next heart. Need to know if you should hoard that pine sap or sell it? You can pull up all the uses for it, items that can be crafted with it, anyone who might like it, community center bundles it’s used for, and how much you make by selling. How many days until your melons are ready to harvest? What items can drop from that stone in the mines? What are all the items you can make with the furnace? It’s such a fantastically handy mod and I refuse to play without it!

- NPC Map Locations: One of the most frustrating things in the game is trying to remember everyone’s schedule and then not being able to find someone to give them a birthday present or turn in a quest item. This mod shows exactly where everyone is on your map and solves that problem for good!

- Automate: This mod automatically pulls items from nearby chests into machines, so you don’t have to keep running back and forth to your furnace to pick up the finished metal bars and toss more ore in there...it just spits the finished item back into the nearby chest, pulls in whatever available items you’ve got in the chest and starts running again without you having to do a thing! Just be careful of where you place your chests and machines or you might end up processing items you didn’t want to. Luckily, you can set individual chests to not have items pulled from them.

- Fishing Made Easy Suite: I suck at fishing. I almost never bother with fishing if I don’t have a mod to make it bearable. I like this one because it has different levels of easy-ness, so you can make fishing just 25% easier, or 50%, or 75%, or 99%! And there are some other fun perks too. You want to catch all fish regardless of weather or season? Want to catch legendary fish multiple times? Want to catch prismatic shards? Go nuts.

- Stardew Valley Expanded: This mod is absurdly huge and adds SO MUCH CONTENT. New areas! New characters! New events! I was a little hesitant to start it just because I knew there was so much to the mod and was a little concerned of how well it would mesh with the rest of the game, but the characters and story and style fit in perfectly with the vanilla content. I could almost forget Andy and Sophia weren’t there all along! The purpose of the mod was to make the game feel fresh and new for people who had already played the game and that’s exactly what it does. I love it.

- Artisan Valley/Project Populate JsonAssets/Starbrew Valley: I’m lumping these together but this is a collection of mods that add a TON of new items, crops, trees, flowers, machines and recipes to the game. You don’t have to download them all! You can pick and choose the ones you want, or download the PPJA content pack to get the bulk of these mods all in one go! I personally really love Artisan Valley because it lets me make floral candles and soaps. And an espresso machine so I can make fancy coffee. And Starbrew Valley so there’s actually a fun variety of alcohol in the game.

I’m putting the rest under a cut because this is getting too long.

- Chests Anywhere: Lets you access all of your chests from the menu! You can add some limitations, like only being able to access chests in the same location you’re in, but I’m dumb and constantly forget that I was supposed to bring a present for a villager with me today, or that I wanted to upgrade one of my tools but left all my metal bars at home. So instead of having to run all the way back to my farm, I can just open my menu and switch through the chests until I find the item I need! Labeling the chests also makes this a lot easier for organization.

- Seasonal Villager Outfits: Finally, the villagers have more than one set of clothes! This mod gives them different outfits in different seasons, different weather and special outfits for holidays! It’s cute and really improves the immersion to see the villagers wearing tshirts in the summer and bundling up in the winter, and dressing up for special events! Some characters will change their hairstyle too, which I love.

- Canon-Friendly Dialogue Expansion: Gives all characters more stuff to say so they won’t just repeat the same lines over and over! Also gives them varied dialogue for festivals starting in year 2, so they don’t say the same thing every year at the Egg Festival or Spirit’s Eve.

- Immersive Elliott: Add more dialogue! Lots more dialogue! I downloaded the Elliott version of this mod because that’s who I plan to marry but I recommend looking up dialogue mods for whoever your favorite characters are (I think there’s one for almost all the marriageable candidates.) You’ll probably be chatting a lot with whoever you’re trying to woo and it’s nice to get lots of new lines!

- Stardew Foliage Redone: There are tons of mods that change the colors and style of trees and buildings and stuff but this one is my favorite. It’s very soft and earthy and pretty without being overkill.

- The Love of Cooking: Actually makes cooking fun in Stardew Valley! It adds a cooking skill, an upgradable cooking tool that lets you cook with more ingredients (at the start you can only make one ingredient dishes), a cooking community center bundle, star levels to cooked items, an animation when you cook...cooking was very bland in the base game, and this mod really spruces the whole system up.

- Medieval Buildings/Medieval craftables: Again, there are so many mods that change up the look of your farm buildings and stuff but these are really pretty and cool and absolutely my style. There’s a mod to make all the town buildings have this style too, but I kind of like keeping the town normal and just living on my mysterious and beautiful farm apart from the rest of the world. My sprinklers are magic moss covered rocks now!

- Elle’s Dog/Cat/Horse/Barn/Coop/etc animals: Super cute animal skins. They look so huggable and soft. Also one of the dog options looks like my real life dog and that’s very important to me.

- Adopt ‘n’ Skin: Pairs well with the mods above, this mod lets you have multiple dogs/cats/horses and lets you use as many different skins as you like. I’ve got four cows and they’ve all got different patterns and colors. I love it. Also Marnie starts taking in stray animals and you can adopt them from her, which is a really cute way of letting you have more pets.

- Seasonal Garden Farmhouse: Its a pinch overkill especially in the early game, but I really like this farmhouse layout. It gives you a small kitchen from the start, a bathroom you can use to restore stamina, big open windows that change with the seasons and time of day...it’s a luxury house and it’s very nice to live in!

- Industrial Kitchen and Interior/Industrial Furniture/Rustic Country Town Interiors: These mods give the interiors and furniture a more rustic style, and the last one changes the town interiors to match. There are many furniture/interior mods, so if this style doesn’t do it for you, check out some of the others! There are lots of very pretty mods!

And I’m going to stop there but that’s only the tip of the iceberg and I highly recommend looking around NexusMods or ModDrop and seeing what kind of stuff is available!

[yeehawbvby]

Falling Away With You | Ch. 37

Sebastian x F!Reader and M. Rasmodius x F!Reader

Rating: Mature/Explicit

Chapter Summary: Time for y/n's first SDV Fair as a farmer!

Author’s Note: Leah’s joke towards the end is another stolen RomRas line. I could never make her this iconic myself u__u Hope you enjoy, I’d love to hear what you think! Take care x

Table of Contents + Work Summary

Check it out on ao3!

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It’s finally the day of the Stardew Valley Fair. I’ve got a few ears of raw corn, a tray of corn bread, and a basketful of those forageables I gathered with Leah, all ready to be presented. 

This is gonna go sooo badly.

It’s okay though. I’ve got this. I’ve totally got this!

My reputation as a city girl-turned-farmer is definitely not at stake. 

Nobody will criticize my efforts. 

No one will point and laugh and mistake me for the clown Lewis allegedly hired to perform. 

Not even myself. Nope!

No way. 

Not lying to myself at all.

(Yes I am.)

Aaand if my grange does earn the worst possible score, at least I get to see the neat stuff Robin, Leah, Clint and Emily made for the crafting category. Plus, Lady Welwick will be there, and so will a bunch of carnies with games, and there will be yummy food, which could all be a fun distraction.

I got up bright and early to make sure I’ll have everything ready to go, and so I can get there ahead of time to decorate my grange a bit. Maybe the added pizzazz will woo Lewis during his scoring. I shake my hands and head to fidget out my nerves and hype myself up.

Trying to really encapsulate the farmer ~look,~ I toss on a deep red jumper beneath my brown denim overalls. I farm in these a lot more than I wear them out these days, so they’ve got some wear to them. Proof that I am A Farmer!! Then, I braid my hair into twintails and wear the cute hat I won at the Egg Festival on top.

When I arrive in town, it turns out I’m not the only one who had the idea to get here early. Marnie is decorating her own display – it’s right next to the one I’ve been assigned – and Shane’s tending to a pen full of animals next to the saloon. Further down the town square, Clint is polishing a bunch of weapons. While this is going on, tents are still being set up, and Lewis seems busy supervising that. 

“Nice to see you here so early!” Marnie greets me, a warm grin on her face. 

I smile back, grunting as I plop down my baskets and bins on the ground in front of my grange. “I don’t have much, so I wanted this to at least look nice.” I stand up straight, a tray of cornbread and some faux flowers in hand.

“Your first harvest was lovely,” she reassures me while I plop the cornbread dead-center into the display, “I’m sure you’ll do wonderfully today.” 

Marnie places a comforting hand on my shoulder, and as I place some flowers around the cornbread, I briefly lean my cheek down to her hand. “Thanks, I hope so.” 

Aside from the noises of us participants working and the carnies talking further away, the air is quiet. There’s barely a breeze today, and because of the chilly autumn air, not many critters are chirping. Every here and there, I merely hear a bunny or something scurrying around behind the buildings nearby.

By the time I’m finished setting everything up, most of the townspeople have flooded in. Must be 9 already. I’m proven correct as I hear a yawn and feel a hand on each of my shoulders, followed by a sharp chin on my head. 

“Mornin’,” Sebastian grumbles, inspecting my set-up.

“Hello, my love,” I cheerily greet him, tilting my head up to see him. I wiggle him off me, and he obliges, wrapping over to my side.

“Looks good,” he comments.

“I’d hope so. Got here, like, an hour and a half ago.”

“Gross.” 

“I know,” I agree, “So early…” I hug Seb’s arm and lean against it. “When does Lewis usually grade these things?”��

“You’ve got a few hours. Why don’t we walk around a bit?”

“Fuck yeah, let’s go.”

______________

Seb and I played a few games, hung out with his mom and Leah by their granges, and watched the shitty clown in pure horror for a bit. As more people from out of town began arriving, we retreated up near the community center to eat some of the stuff Gus has been grilling. 

“Feels way too early for barbecue.” Seb is still mad about being awake so early, understandably so. Was probably busy working late into the night. He looks super mopey as he bites down on his hot dog.

“It’sh sho good though…” I answer with my mouth full. I swear, I’ve never had a veggie burger that was so well-seasoned. Gus has to be some weird breed of food-wizard.

“Yeah, if there’s one perk to living here, it’s the food.” Seb takes another bite, then asks after swallowing, “Anything in particular you wanna check out next?”

“I dunno.” I peer over the bushes that line the short cliff overlooking town, and eyeball a tent that looks similarly decorated to the one Welwick had at the Calico Night Market. “I promised Welwick I’d pay her a visit, should probably do that sooner than later.” Peering back at Seb, I notice that he seems to be thinking hard. “What’s up?”

“Maybe I’ll go with you, this time, if that’s alright with you.”

Grinning, I nod with vigor. “Totally! You sure, though?”

He nods too. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and… I, like,” Seb pauses to get his thoughts together. “I don’t know if I want to be a wizard, considering how odd it still feels for me to be exposed to all this again.” That makes sense.

Nodding, I urge him to continue.

“But I don’t want to waste this weird gift either, if that makes any sense.” He shrugs, sorta to himself. “Seems less scary, now that I’m watching how well you’re adapting to it all. And also, I guess just seeing you have anything to do with it has been making me want to get involved…” His cheeks flush a little. “It would be cool if we could spend more time together when I’m not coding and you’re not farming, too.”

A little image of myself, Sebastian and Magnus working with one another in the tower flashes in my head. I feel butterflies in my tummy and get giddy with excitement – Was that a vision…? Or just positive thinking? – but do my best to hold it in. 

“That would be really nice,” I nearly squeak. So much for containing myself. “I’m sure Magnus would be happy to help, too. I’m not really good enough yet to feel comfortable showing you the ropes alone.” 

“Yeah, but I still have some things to sort out with him first.” He explains, “I really want to apologize for abandoning him.”

I take Seb’s hand – which was in a curled fist on the wooden picnic table – into both of mine, thumbing at his knuckles. “I’m sure you know by now that he’s literally, like, the sweetest person ever. He’ll probably understand.” 

After nodding, Seb lifts my hands to his lips, pecking my bent fingers. “I hope you’re right,” he mutters, his lips still against my knuckles. “Would be weird if you two start dating and there’s still some unfinished business going on with me and him.”

I snort. “Thank you for not saying ‘getting jiggy’ again.”

“I should’ve,” he tuts. “Wasted an opportunity there.”

I roll my eyes and tug him up. “Come on, let’s go see that witch.”

Fingers intertwined, we make our way down the stairs and through the crowd. We run into Victor and his mom, who is so fucking beautiful holy shit, who’s deep in conversation with Caroline and Jodi. I wonder where Abby and Sam are, that he’s not off hanging out with them…? Either way, Seb promises that we’ll come rescue him once we’re finished with our current business.

Welwick’s tent is set up close to the cemetery. Feels fitting, for her to not just be further away from all the hubbub, but to also be near something spooky.

What’s also fitting is that Magnus is here – not even trying to disguise himself – and speaking with her. I guess he really was serious about trying to integrate himself into the town more. Hopefully he didn’t scare anyone this time…

“Didn’t expect to see him here,” I whisper to Seb. I look up, and he’s taking a deep breath in. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” he assures me with a squeeze of my hand. “Y’know what? This is perfect. It’ll force me to get that conversation out of the way.” 

“Want me to go grab him for you?” 

“Nah,” he shakes his head, still watching the elemental. Magnus has no idea we’re nearby, unless he’s just hiding it. “When you go up to the tent I’ll just sorta… break off with him, and work from there.” 

“Okie dokie,” I salute. We continue walking, and I clear my throat when we get closer.

Magnus peers up, and his eyes dart between Seb and I. He returns my grin, and offers a soft nod of the head to Seb.

“Hello,” he nervously greets us. “Er, I’ll be going–”

“Wait,” Seb prompts, and Magnus’ eyes flush pink. “Can… can we talk?” 

After a deep breath, Magnus nods. “Of course.” 

He says his goodbye to Welwick just as I’m releasing my hold on Seb’s hand, and we switch spots. I hope their conversation goes well. I’m sure it will, but who knows.

It’s funny seeing how Magnus towers over Seb when they’re side-by-side like that. Makes him look so tiny…

As I approach where Magnus was standing, I’m shocked and delighted to see Welwick’s hood down. Her dusty blue-gray hair flows in long, thick waves – easily down to the small of her back – with a thin braid framing each side of her face. Her pale ears, as pointed as I’d expected, are poking out of her hair and adorn a large sum of piercings. Finally, her eyes — which are just as wrinkled as I expected — look soft and sleepy and warm, with irises as blue as her signature cloak. 

“Greetings, my young friend!” The woman welcomes me with a wide smile. “That relic has been treating you well, I hope?” Welwick motions towards my necklace and I nod, clutching it on instinct. 

“Hi, yeah! I think I’ve started getting non-sleeping visions now, actually. Still hard to tell if it’s just my imagination or not.”

“Only time will tell. I hope it is as useful for you as it once was for me.”

“Thank you,” I smile shyly. I wonder if she really just wanted me to keep her company, rather than to discuss anything in particular, when she told me to stop by… so far it seems that way. “H-how’s your day been?” I offer.

“Lovely, thank you for inquiring. It’s always a delight to be in Pelican Town. The energies are fierce here – truly invigorating, indeed!”

“Is that just ‘cause of Magnus, or…?”

“Amongst other things, yes.” 

We continue to talk, exchanging pleasantries until she decides to dive more into her past (or, at least what she can remember of it). She’s clearly very stoked to hear about how recently I started my journey with all this arcane stuff, and to share her own experiences in any ways that can help or inspire me. It’s adorable.

We only halt our conversation when Seb and Magnus return. They were still speaking, both with a soft smile on their features, as they walked over to meet us. Made me feel all fuzzy. When Welwick sent me off, I half-expected her to tease me about Magnus (or even Magnus and Seb). Nothing came of it, though, which I’m thankful for; I’ve already experienced enough of that from Robin in regards to her son.

“So, uh…” I cut the short silence as we stroll a few feet over to the side before settling. Magnus must want to be somewhat hidden, considering how he seems to be confining himself to this small area. “You two made up, or whatever, I’m assuming?” I look back and forth between them, fidgeting with my necklace. 

Suddenly, I’m realizing how intimidating the prospect of possibly “being with” both of them is… it feels weird. Not a bad weird, but just something that’s gonna take getting used to. 

“Yeah,” Seb responds from my left, while Magnus’ “Indeed” sounds from my right side.

“Honestly it feels undeserved,” Seb adds, “but I’m happy we got to catch up a bit too.” 

“Likewise,” Magnus grins. He then peers down towards me, “You hadn’t mentioned you were acquainted with Lady Welwick. When did that occur?” 

I shrug. “I haven’t really had the chance. Happened the same day I met Camilla.”

“Ah, Camilla’s still bugging you?” Seb observes, gesturing with his head towards Magnus.

A hefty sigh and exasperated expression accompany the taller man’s nod. “Gave this poor girl quite a fright, too.”

“Was like a real life jumpscare.” I shudder. “She’s so… touchy.”

Popping his knuckles, Seb says, “Fuckin’ succubus, that lady.” I raise an eyebrow, and Seb shakes his head. He puts his hands up in defense for emphasis. “Nothing happened, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t try.” I tilt my head and nod, completely understanding. She did come off as very flirtatious.

“Is she the same way with you, Magnus?” I ask. 

“Not anymore, thankfully. It took that wretch ages to understand my ill feelings towards her outside of a professional exchange.” 

We fall into another silence. 

This is strange.

“Do you, uh, want to come walk around with us?” Seb asks Magnus. There’s a bit of a blush on his cheeks. I wonder if it’s out of mere embarrassment, or something more…

Y’know, I’ve had suspicions that he might’ve crushed on Magnus in the past, but what if it was more than a little crush? What if the feelings never went away? What if Seb’s jealousy at first was a combination of possessiveness over me, and envy that Magnus has feelings for me that weren’t returned to him?

Muuuch to consider.

Magnus shakes his head, rejecting Seb. “I’d like to slowly assimilate myself. It’s been quite a long time since I last attended the town’s festivities firsthand, rather than viewing from the sidelines.” 

“So creepy…” I teasingly whisper. 

“Hush,” Magnus grins, leaning down to softly elbow my shoulder. 

My brain heavily hones in on how he has to lean down for his elbow to get to my shoulder. 

I feel… so small…

Stop, (y/n). 

Sebastian nudges me too.

Fuck. I forgot he can feel when I’m, um... feeling. 

I grab his hand and squeeze it, gaze planted on the ground. My face feels hot.

I look up at Magnus inspecting me. He saves me the embarrassment of asking me what’s wrong, even telepathically, but I still feel my features burn darker. I drop my gaze again.

This is so strange.

I clear my throat. “See you around, then?” I offer, allowing Seb and I to part from him. 

“See you around, my deee–” Magnus’ gaze darts to Seb’s, and mine follows. 

“It’s okay,” he chuckles, rolling his eyes.

“...my dear.” It comes out as just barely audible.

Another silence leads me to finally verbalizing what I’ve been thinking. “This is so strange.”

They both hum an agreement in unison, before Seb and I depart.

A few seconds later, I halt.

My partner looks back at me, tilting his head in confusion and stopping in his tracks. “What’s up baby?”

“Didn’t you wanna meet Welwick?”

He thinks about it, then replies, “Not anymore. I’ve had enough magic-talk for the day.”

“You got it.” I give him a thumb up, and then we continue onward.

A few more minutes of perusing the crowd for our friends go by, before we eventually just wind up back at my grange. 

Seb pipes up, “We, um… we talked about you, and us, and all that.”

“Yeah?” I prompt, fidgeting with the ends of one of my braids.

“Yeah.” He sighs. “This is new to me, and apparently somewhat new for Magnus too… but we’ll make it work, ‘kay?” 

I shrug, keeping my eyes on my fingers and hair; feeling nervous and unsure after our group interaction, given how unnerving it seemed to be for all three of us. 

“Hey.” Seb tilts my face up by the chin, forcing me to look at him. “Even if nothing’s romantic with him and I, we both want things to work for you.” 

Seb leans down, stealing my mouth in a kiss. 

“I love you so much, and I can tell how much he cares about you,” he kisses me again before continuing, “so I’m ready to take all the time you need to get used to it.” He kisses me again, before murmuring against my lips, “Alright, princess?” Oh. This man has me in a complete trance. 

His opposite hand comes up to cup my cheek, the one that was on my chin staying in place. I nod within his grasp, unable to find words, and he kisses me again, more passionately this time. It’s embarrassing – we’re surrounded by people, both familiar to us and strangers – but there’s no avoiding the way I completely melt into Seb’s sweet lips and gentle touch. 

…Until we hear someone clear their throat beside us. 

My eyes shoot open, and both of our heads whip to the side. Mayor Lewis is standing there, one hand on his hip and the other clutching his clipboard to his chest. Must be judgment time.

“Please, save that for elsewhere,” Lewis scolds us. 

Unable to meet his face, I mutter an apology as I shift myself away from Seb. 

______________

Unsurprisingly, I didn’t get first place amongst the farmers. That prize went to that Susan lady, who had an absolute unit of a pumpkin in her own display. Second went to Marnie, and third to myself. 

I’m glad I at least beat Pierre.

Lewis had some nice things to say about the food I brought with me, but ultimately, he wanted higher quality, farm-grown produce as well as more variety. I suppose it’s pretty obvious that I just scrounged up what I could to toss in my box, but I’d hoped what I had would’ve earn me less critique than he gave me. I think he was still feeling grumpy about Seb and I having an impromptu snog-sesh out in the open.

Abby and Sam had apparently rescued Victor and brought him to hide in Sam’s yard, which is why Seb and I had such a hard time scoping them out. After receiving the memo, Seb and I stayed by them for a while. 

Seb and Sam smoked and tossed a half-deflated beach ball around , and Vic lamented over how badly he wanted a hit, but couldn’t with his mother nearby. In the meantime, Abby and I sat against the fence neighboring Emily and Hailey’s place and talked about the most recent Prairie King news (DLC, babyyy).

Victor had to leave sorta early with his super hot mom, and once people started to clear out, Sam and Abby went inside for some kinda band stuff they’re working on. They invited me in, but feeling tuckered out from the day, I turned down the offer. Seb, on the other hand, was going to meet them there later. Already promised Robin he’d help her carry things home. After seeing those two off – they both refused my help, those stubborn little fucks – I opted to start cleaning up my grange.

Just as I began peering around for certain red-headed, forest-dwelling, art-making queen so I could give back this huge mushroom she found for me to submit, Magnus snuck up on me.

“What are you searching for, dearest?”

Dearest?! 

Also, “Holy fuuu—“

Jas was about to run past us to see what Marnie’s up to, but she stuttered once she reached Magnus’ side. Her eyes bulged as she viewed Magnus’ towering form, then she continued her trek.

I scan the area quickly, and the adults nearby — with the exception of Andy — seem to pay no mind to Magnus. I wonder if they know of him, or if they just don’t care enough to gawk at the height, ears, and weirdly colored skin. He’s at least in normal clothing and uncloaked, so that’s probably helping. 

I didn’t have a chance to admire his outfit when we interacted earlier this afternoon, but now that I’m viewing him in a turtleneck for the first time, I have to stop myself from ogling a bit.  

“Uhhh,” I draw out the sound as I try and think up a replacement to show my fear and replace my fluster without cursing. I’ve got nothing. I grunt instead. “What’s with you and popping up seemingly out of nowhere all the time?” 

“For the reactions, of course.”

“Oh, of course!” I sarcastically remark, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “Prick.”

He grins. “How did you fare?”

“Third,” I whine, shrugging. “What about you?” I look the wizard up and down, “You’re awfully elementally, considering you’re out in the open today. I didn’t get a chance to ask about that earlier.”

As he responds, I set the mushroom aside and pile the faux flowers into the container I’d brought them over in. “It would be a tremendous burden to disguise myself as a mundane every time I leave the tower.”

“And if Abby recognizes you?” I smirk. I don’t know if she would, considering how nervous she seemed to be the night she met him as Mark, but it’s still funny to imagine the possibility. 

“I will simply wipe her memory.”

“You can do that?”

“No.”

“Wait, what?”

“What?“

“Then… how would…” I meet Magnus’ eyes again, and they’re riddled with mischief. Oh. He’s fucking with me. 

I roll my eyes and snort. I wonder if spending today around another elemental (who isn’t Camilla) is what has him acting all silly, compared to how timid he seemed earlier on. Just as I’m about to playfully insult the man and request a legitimate answer, I hear footsteps approaching. I look to my left, and see Leah sloppily making her way towards us. Her cheeks are rosy, and she has some sway in her step. 

Robin did mention that the poor girl didn’t score very well… 

I guess she drank about it.

“Ah, I was just looking for you before!” I exclaim.

“Y’were?” 

“Mhm!” I grab the chanterelle and present it to Leah with a dramatic bow. “Your fungus, m’lady.”

She curtsies (to the best of her ability, being in pants), and lilts, “Oh, why thank youuu, beautiful.”

Beautiful?

My cheeks redden. 

She winks. Fuck. She’s stunning.

I squeak.

Magnus quietly chuckles behind me, reading me like a goddamn book.

Blissfully ignorant to my swooning, Leah points over my shoulder with the mushroom in her hand. My eyes widen, and I turn back around towards Magnus. He seems nervy all of the sudden – must be remembering the painful interaction he had with Leah a few days ago.

“Hello,” he softly offers.

“What,” Leah clears her throat, “what isss swayin', canis lupus familiaris?!” She starts giggling wildly, as if she just made the sickest burn.

“Leah!” I can’t help but laugh with her as I grab the wrist that’s still hovering near my face and lightly shove it back towards her. “Don’t be a dick!”

“You command, whilst nearly in tears of laughter,” Magnus narrates. 

It was pretty funny… A hearty snort escapes my nose before I apologize, covering my face with my hands and leaning my back against the table my display sits atop. The pig-like noise prompts him to laugh along with us. 

“Did I not sound like’im?”

“No!” Magnus and I answer in unison. 

I rub my forehead. “You wanna come to my place ‘til you sober up?” I offer her. “You can stay over if you want.”

“I’m fiiiine.”

After shoving the shroom into the front pocket on her green corduroy overalls, Leah moves closer and puts both her hands on my shoulders. It’s clear she’s using me to keep herself balanced while she tries to put on a serious facade. I plop my palms onto her fingers, letting her borrow me for a sec.

“Where’s Elliott?” I ask. Maybe he could take care of her.

“He went back to th’beach with Willy.” Leah stops to hiccup a little, then pouts. “So mean, that one.”

I chuckle, sarcastically responding, "Ah. So mean."

“Let me teleport you home, at the very least,” the wizard to my left and her right offers. 

I scrunch my nose, peering up at him with uncertainty. “Would that be a good idea? What if she hurls?”

Magnus winces. “Ah, yes, that’s a fair—“ 

“Okay, sure, I’ll do that!”

Our eyes shoot to Leah. “I th-thought you were scared of him,” I claim, in a poor attempt to save Magnus from the curious drunk.

“Naw, he’s just a little weird, thas’all!” 

“How… relieving?” the wizard tentatively responds.

I throw Magnus an apologetic smile, then transfer Leah’s limp hands into his own. “Good luck,” I murmur to him. Then, I put a palm on Leah’s shoulder, and order her, “Lee, until you’re home, do not let go of him.”

“Mmmmhm, yes ma’am.” She winks again. Even through her bumbling, it’s still a gorgeous, tummy-fluttering sight.

I shove my face in my hands again. Magnus clears his throat, urging me to meet his maroon gaze. I do so with my hands still comfortingly cupping my pinkened cheeks. “Come see me in the morning?”

“‘Kay.” I mirror his soft smile, before he vanishes with Leah in tow.

[rebelscumlena]

Space Sailor

Pairing: Marnie x Willy (Stardew Valley)

Word Count: 2.4K

Summary: It’s common knowledge in Pelican Town that there’s something going on between Marnie and Mayor Lewis. But how exactly did Marnie end up with Lewis? Wasn’t she seeing someone prior to him? Could it possibly be the fisherman who’s constantly watching her from across the Saloon? Why aren’t they together anymore?

A/N: Not the way I expected to get back into fanfiction, but I’ll take it. The Dynamic Writing Duo is back at it again! This idea was developed a week ago when @javier-djarin​ and I went down a rabbit hole of SV conspiracies, and the song Space Cowboy by Kacey Musgraves made it complete. Thank you as always to @javier-djarin​ for being my beta on my stories and giving me encouragement to write. Your usual recipe of teeth rotting fluff and soul crushing angst is here! Enjoy! 🐮

The music from the jukebox and the smell of pizza flooded Willy’s senses as he entered the Stardrop Saloon. Another Friday night meant just about everyone had shown up to celebrate the end of another long week. The younger ones were off playing pool in the side room, Robin and Demetrius were tearing up the dance floor, and Clint was waiting at their usual table with a cold pint ready for him. 

“How’s the ocean, Willy?” Clint asked, sliding over the glass of beer as Willy took his seat.

“Same as usual. How’s the forge?”

“Same as usual.”

The two friends chuckled at their little banter before clinking their glasses and taking a swig. They fell into some light conversation about their weeks, occasionally getting up to get another round. Although Willy always made sure that it was Clint’s turn to get drinks when Emily was up at the bar counter. He was a good friend in that way. He understood more than most what it meant to pine after someone. 

Willy finished his pint just as Clint went up for another round.  He focused his gaze on the little droplets of ale running down the side of his glass before pooling at the bottom. He knew what would happen if his eyes wandered across the Saloon. But desire got the best of him. Willy’s eyes swept across the bar, landing on her.

Marnie had always been able to draw his attention in a crowd. At all the festivals and events held over the years, he never failed to miss her. As painful as it was to think about their past, he preferred her attention then compared to now, because every time he took notice of her nowadays, Lewis was always lingering in her shadow.  It was no secret the mayor was interested in Marnie, even though he was adamant there was nothing going on between them. 

Lewis returned to the petite woman with another round of drinks, drawing a huff out of the old mariner. Sure, nothing going on, Willy thought as he drew his attention back to the droplets in his glass. Where was Clint with a new one?

Marnie had seen Willy’s lingering gaze. She always noticed when he was watching her. She could feel his gaze like a gentle caress: warm and comforting. Despite the many years that had passed and the fact that Mayor Lewis had been keeping her attention as of late, she wished Willy would look at her the same way he used to all those years ago. Back then his gaze was tender and loving, now it was always filled with remorse.

It was the summer before Marnie turned 20 when Willy and his Pappy had decided to settle in Pelican Town. She remembered seeing him around town as she grew up, but he always seemed to disappear the next day. Guess that’s what being raised by a mariner meant. But Willy’s Pappy was getting on in years, and so Willy had decided to open the Fish Shop down by the docks. He could make money and still let his Pappy enjoy the salty air.

It started as all young love usually does with a summer romance. She had just gone to buy a fishing pole and some bait for her older brother, and suddenly she was being charmed by Willy. The slightly older young man was tanned from all his time being out on the water and he smelled of mead and the ocean, instead of the piss and vinegar she heard most sailors described with. Willy was mild mannered and humble. That day she left with her brother’s birthday gifts and a promise to meet Willy that evening on the docks. And every night after that…

“Marnie, dear?”

Marnie jolted back to the present, her eyes focused on Lewis who was looking at her in slight annoyance.

“I’m sorry, Lewis. What were you saying?” she asked, taking a sip of her drink.

“I was just saying that Pierre claims I’m going to have to start special ordering truffle oil from now on since it’s too expensive to keep in stock. Isn’t that just ridiculous? And after all the corners I’ve cut for him.” Lewis guffawed in derision before taking a long pull from his drink.

Marnie gave a light chuckle, her mind beginning to wander again when she noticed Clint showing Willy a crystal he pulled from his apron.

Quartz, Marnie mused. He’s always been a sucker for quartz.

She had noticed he was collecting quartz one summer after his Pappy had passed. Not thinking much of it, Marnie ended up bringing him some quartz she had found on a hike up near the mountain. 

“I don’t know why you’re collecting them, but I saw this one and figured you could use it,” she stated, pressing the little crystal into the palm of his hand.

He gave her the warmest smile, his eyes watering a bit before pulling her into a deep embrace. Without a word, he then pulled her up from the dock they had been sitting on and took her inside the Fish Shop. Behind the counter, he pulled out a little wire hanger that had bits of quartz hanging off of various length strings: a sun catcher.

“I was thinking of hanging it up in the windows. Figured it would make this place a little more homey,” Willy said, a blush slowly rising to his cheeks as he rubbed the back of his head, “especially when you come around.” 

Marnie had jumped across the counter to plant a firm kiss on his lips, the largest grin on her face. She’d known how she felt about Willy for a while, but she waited for him to give her some sign that he felt the same: this was her sign.

After that day, it was rare that Marnie wasn’t down at the docks. Her parents were initially against the idea of Marnie spending all her time with the fisherman, but so long as her chores at the Ranch were completed, there wasn’t much they could say. Marnie was happy, and there were worse options than the fisherman.

Meanwhile, Willy was still in slight disbelief that he had managed to catch Marnie’s eye in the first place. She was the prettiest woman in town, and surely had better prospects than a weathered man who would perpetually smell of fish. Yet she had agreed to meet him that evening all those years ago, where he taught her how to bait a fishing pole so she could show her brother. She had come back almost every night since, joining him to watch the sunset and chat about their days. After a few months, they’d shared their first kiss on the docks. They’d exchanged birthday gifts, told each other secrets no one else would know, and even renamed his Pappy’s boat the Manatee. It wasn’t too long after that Willy was presenting Marnie with a bouquet of flowers.

But then he’d received a job offer out in the Fern Islands. It would make good money, but it meant Willy would be out at sea for months. He’d been nervous to tell Marnie about it one evening as they sat on the docks to watch the sunset. But when she told him to take the job, he was stunned. “And when you come home,” she had said, “I’ll be here on this dock waiting for you.”

The disappearing sunlight outlined her face perfectly, and he swore she’d never looked more beautiful than she had in that moment with a daisy from her bouquet nestled in her braid.

A week later, Willy and Marnie shared a passionate kiss on the docks before he set off on the Manatee. The inevitable months seemed to drag, but then a year passed. Willy had finished the job, but had picked up another with the prospect of catching an extremely rare species of fish. But the fish eluded the fisherman, and by then, the Manatee was in desperate need of repairs. More months passed by before the Manatee was ready to set sail again. Having used most of his money for repairs, Willy needed to take on more jobs to make up his losses. Then there were the storms that forced him to try alternate routes back to Pelican Town, which drained more of his supplies and money, and required him to take on more jobs.

Before he knew it, five years had passed by the time he docked back in Pelican Town. The Manatee was in worse shape than when he left, forcing him to retire the ship until he could come up with more money and materials to get her properly fixed. What little money he had managed to earn was barely enough to be called a profit after losing so many years at sea. But worst of all was the knowledge that Marnie wasn’t waiting on the docks for him.

He couldn’t blame her, especially since he had stopped sending letters after the first year. Between all the jobs he had barely found enough time to sleep, let alone write and send a letter. But more than anything, he felt ashamed. After the first job finished he realized how much he had missed the sea. The thrill in his blood when he woke up bobbing to the rhythm of the waves, the rush of excitement as he navigated through both calm and storm, and the sheer joy of just being out on the open water. It was his first love, and it had managed to surpass the love he felt for Marnie and the desire to start a life with her. So he stopped sending letters and instead let the sea take him wherever she deemed fit, hoping that somehow Marnie would understand.

So it was no surprise when he ventured into the Stardrop Saloon on his first night back and found Marnie and Lewis occupying a table together. Admittedly, Willy was surprised it was Lewis at the table with her. Then he remembered how the mayor had always had an eye on the young woman even when they were together. Marnie’s gaze moved to him, and Willy waited with anticipation for what she might say or do. He expected wrath from her, but instead was given a small smile and a nod before she turned her attention back to Lewis who was rambling about the governor coming to visit. Too stunned to do much else, Willy nodded back before heading to the bar. 

Marnie found herself thinking back to the day he left and everything changed. Somehow as she watched the Manatee take him away, she had a sinking feeling that he might not return. She would tell herself every time that wasn’t the case, that he would return after a job or maybe two and they’d turn the Fish Shop into a home and raise cows on the beach. Then the letters stopped coming and suddenly waiting on the docks made her feel silly rather than hopeful. Such is the life of a mariner, she would tell herself. So she forced herself to move on, and over time came to the conclusion that the sea would’ve called to him one way or another. She had noticed he was getting restless, and sometimes found him gazing longingly out into the horizon. Perhaps it was better that it happened before they had actually started a life together.

So when he walked into the Saloon that night, she felt every emotion she had bottled over five years run through her before she landed on contentment. Willy had chosen his path, and she had learned to become okay with that. She gave him a small smile to convey her understanding and a nod to welcome him home. All the while she focused on tampering down her beating heart as she turned her attention back to Lewis. Yet without fail every time he walked into the Saloon after that night, her heart would speed up in a way it never would around Lewis.

Before long, Gus was making the announcement for last call. Most everyone had cleared out aside from the late nighters. Pam was slowly falling asleep into her drink once again, and Elliott was visiting the toilet before his walk home. Lewis had gone to settle the tab with Gus, leaving Marnie to finish her drink and prepare for the walk back to the Ranch. She noticed Clint saying his farewells to Willy, throwing one last gaze at Emily before making his way out into the night. Willy nodded after his friend, puffing away contentedly on his pipe as his gaze moved to Marnie.

When their eyes locked, all the good memories flooded back: Marnie showing Willy how to bake pumpkin pie, Willy teaching Marnie how to rig up a crab pot; summer nights drinking mead on the deck of the Manatee, winter days making out in the hay loft while the cows watched in a mixture of curiosity and boredom. Then for the briefest second, Marnie thought of what life would’ve been like. Waking up to the call of seagulls or bringing the cows in at night? Teaching their kids to fish at the Festival of Ice? Holding hands while watching the Moonlight Jellies? A giddy grin broke out on Marnie’s face that was for Willy’s eyes only, which caused the edges of his lips to move up just a tad.

“Ready to go, Marnie?” Lewis called, walking back over to her.

The grin morphed into a more reserved smile as Marnie turned her attention to Lewis, nodding and getting up to follow him out.

Willy watched as the two departed, Marnie’s gaze every so subtly going back to him before she disappeared into the night with the mayor. The fisherman softly chuckled around his pipe, wondering what she was thinking about before getting up to stretch as Elliott joined him.

“Ready, Willy?” the younger man asked.

“Aye, lad. Let’s get going,” Willy responded, following him out. They made their way south through town and back to their homes. They passed Lewis’s house on the way, and Willy tapped out the ashes from his pipe on the steps of the Manor.

Elliott gave the older man a smirk, shaking his head in amusement. “Must you do that every time we walk by?”

“Gotta give him some actual work to do,” Willy responded, a cheeky smirk on his face as he stowed his pipe in his pants.

The two men continued their walk, and once Elliott parted ways to his home, Willy was left to approach the docks on his own. The wood creaked under each step, and he took a deep inhale of the salty air. For a moment, he was a younger man sitting next to a pretty woman underneath the stars and figuring out how to raise cows on the beach. As he gazed forlornly out into the dark, Willy realized that kind of love ran deeper than the sea. And perhaps one day, the tide would come back in his favor.

[buc3t4l0v3r]

Headcanon — the turtles playing Stardew Valley

Hello again everyone! I'm back :)) I was supposed to write headcanons more often because my hiper focus only allows me to think about tmnt (haha I hate tdah) well I was going to write more of those social media posts just like the Twitter one but I'm struggling to find a social media that makes sense (since they can't really use Instagram and Facebook is sooo boomer stuff) so I thought it would be cute imagine they playing one of my favorite games, in this case, Stardew Valley :)

So I hope you enjoy ❤

Leo

Leo is so focused on completing 100% of the game

He didn't join his brothers in the training because he was trying to finish the mister Qi's mission of completing the skull cavern*

All his animals are well taken care and happy

His farm is beautiful because he likes making pretty scenarios

Obviously downloaded a mod to make the town and the villagers look prettier (with Donnie's help, of course)

Favorite bachelor and bachelorette are Elliot because he's romantic and poetic and Penny because she's so sweet and Leo loves her 14 hearts scene**

His favorite event is the flower dance because he thinks it's so pretty seeing all the npcs dancing together and loves dancing with Elliot or Penny

No doubt he tried to ask Penny to dance with him in his first time playing and he was so sad when she didn't want to dance with him

Hates fishing

No really it's so fucking annoying

Leo doesn't like Mayor Louis nor Shane

He hates the fact that Louis is just stealing the villager's money and hates Shane because he tried to talk to him and shane told him to go away

So rude

He's so focused on his missions that he loses hearts with Penny because he didn't talk to her anymore after they were married

Year 5 and he's already a millionaire and is almost ending the game

Year 7 and he ends up the game

"Now what?"

Starts playing all over again

Has only two or three mods because he thinks mods ruins the game experience

Loves stardew valley

It helps him to calm down

If he can't control his real life, at least he can control his little virtual farm :)

Raph

Stardew valley? Pfff

Game for little girls

Omg I click on this cow and a little heart appears up it's head!!!!!!

Raphael pretends he doesn't like this game because he's too manly for this

But when no one is looking he's taking care of his farm

He didn't like the quest of introducing yourself to every villager

Because when he was about to finish it, he noticed the only one he didn't introduce himself to was sebastian

And when he tried to find sebastian to introduce himself he found out Sebastian almost never get out of his room

So he had to stay in front of sebastian's room door because he couldn't get in (only if he was sebastian's friend)*

It was 17pm when sebastian gets out of his room

Finally!!!!!!!!!

Now he hates sebastian

Okay he ends up loving sebastian

He's so excited when he discovers he can propose to the villagers

His favorite bachelor and bachelorette are Alex because he's athletic and Abigail because she's hot

Okay he likes sebastian too

Always forget to water his plants and feed his animals

So irresponsible

Okay raphael you didn't watered your blueberries and now it D I E D are you happy now?????

He doesn't really forget to feed his animals

He actually loves his animals

But he can't feed them because he doesn't has money

And he has no money because he doesn't work on his farm!!!!

Can't upgrade his tools because obviously he has no fucking money

He ends up downloading a mod to have infinity money

Now he can feed his cows :)

Favorite event is the Feast of the Winter Star (a.k.a Christmas)

Hates fishing

Hates Marnie because she's never at her store when he needs to buy food for his animals

Year 11 and hasn't even half of the game complete

Donnie

Oh look! The nerd!

This guy knows everything about this game

Each quest, each character, each secret, each Easter egg

There's nothing he doesn't know about

All his tools are upgraded

Perfect farm

Friendship with every villager

100% complete

But he can't stop playing anyway

Appreciates the developer's work on the game

How can just one guy make all of it???

He knows how to code but his art skills are not the best...

He knows the game is inspired by harvest moon

He doesn't like taking care of the animals

Thinks they're annoying

Favorite bachelor and bachelorette are Harvey because the guy is a doctor, hello???? And Maru because she's a nerd like him and makes machines

Doesn't really likes the events

He liked them at first but he plays this game so much that the events have become tiring

Hates fishing

Tons of mods to upgrade the game experience

Thinks Sam reminds him of Mikey

Can't look Sam and Mikey the same way he did

Mikey

His first time playing the game

He's so excited

Everything is so colorful and beautiful!

His farmer is a girl because he didn't remember which symbol were the feminine and the masculine

He named his farmer Mikey because he didn't find out she was a girl

Loves watering his crops

Sunflowers!!!

Loves giving gifts to the npcs

When shane was rude with him he was so sad :(

His favorite bachelor is Sam because he's a skater and likes PIZZA

Soulmates♡♡♡♡

Oh he likes Abigail too because she likes video games

Doesn't know how to upgrade his tools nor his house

Ask for Donnie's help

Ends up getting married to Sam

His farmer gets pregnant and he freaked out

"Omg how am I pregnant??!??@?@?!?!"

He finds out he's a girl

Still a noob

Thinks Maru acts like Donnie

Hates fishing

Always losing his items because he keeps staying awake until 2am***

Has the mod that makes his child grow up

Has 4 cows named Don, Raph, Leo and April

He's confused because didn't look like they appreciated it

Year 3 and still has more to learn

Favorite event is the Halloween festival

He saw Sam skating and loved it

Even if the character wasn't really skating....

* mister qi's mission is a mission were you have to finish the skull cavern which is super complicated because you have to find stairs to climb down the same time you have to kill the monsters around you

** heart scenes are exclusive scenes that you achieve when your love level increases in two hearts (so there's scenes for 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 14, the 14 one you can have only wen you're married)

* you can only enter other people's room when you have 2 hearts with them

*** when the time hits 2am your farmer falls asleep, then wakes up in their room and you receive a message saying your items and money were stolen

Tagging blogs I like :)

@turtle-babe83 @foreignbrunette @teenage-mutant-ninja-freak @turtlesmakemehappy @turtallyawesome @greenrenascentista

[stardewwinter]

Stardew villagers when:

They first hear the farmer sing, and it’s amazing

Alex: He’d spent the night at the farmers house, and they had watched the gridball game together for hours before passing out. When Alex woke up, the farmer wasn’t in bed. He could hear clanking in the kitchen, and the smell of pancakes and eggs. Creeping out of the covers, he tiptoed to the doorframe, watching as the farmer flipped an egg and...began to sing. It was just a lighthearted pop song, one that had played during a gridball commercial yeterday, but Alex felt his few brain cells short circuiting. “Holy shi-“

Abigail: Abby was lost in the mines. She couldn’t find her way back to the ladder and was starting to get nervous, worried more about how mad her parents would be rather then her own safety. As she started to retrace her steps, she heard someone singing. It was beautiful, echoing off the cave walls and drawing her in, filling her with warmth and comfort. Unnerved, she backed against a wall and listened for footsteps. The voice was almost too nice, too good to be real. Anything was possible with monsters, and Abby readied her sword. As it was only a foot away she rounded the corner, her sword landing only inches from the farmers neck. They dropped their pickaxe. Abby dropped her jaw.

Elliot: He heard something outside his cabin, a soft, melodic voice in the distance. He stepped outside and was met with the sight of the farmer sitting on the waters edge, tan in the sun with a fishing pole in hand. They were singing about the ocean and warm meals. It was beautiful. Every note a gift to the world. “So this is what the poets really meant when they wrote about love,” he whispered

Emily: She heard a song in her dreams, one that would fade in the morning and leave her longing for more. It was always from someone she couldn’t place, until one early morning before she’d even gotten out of bed. The farmer had come over to use her sowing machine, and while they worked had begun to sing quietly to themselves to pass the time. “Ah. So that’s who it was,” She thought. The farmer continued, their melody far better than any dream.

Haley: Haley was off taking pictures down by the river, just south of Marnie’s ranch. She was focused, but could vaguely hear someone shuffling around down on the other side of the lake. Footsteps on the connecting bridges made her look up to see the farmer, carrying a big bag of spring onions and singing an old mining song. They were covered in dirt and sweat, but Haley didn’t even notice, camera almost falling from her hand as the sound of the farmer’s voice stole her heart.

Harvey: Harvey thought he left the radio on, and asked the farmer what station was playing. The farmer, blushing, came from the other room and admitted it was just them singing. Harvey paused, realizing this meant the farmer had a voice like a superstar on radio, and that it made them even more attractive. “I- wow. That totally fooled me.” He laughed, face even redder then the farmer’s.

Leah: She hears the farmer outside her house, fishing in a spot just to the left of her door they say is “full of good quality fish.” They have a bucket next to them and are whistling a tune, which becomes a hum, which becomes a song. Leah can’t sing, but she puts a hand to the window and wishes there was a way she could embody that sound. In a painting, in a sculpture- so that she could keep it with her and remember it, so that everyone could remember it. She opens the door. “Could I...paint you sitting there? Singing?”

Maru: She was down in her “basement” working on her big project when she heard footsteps above. Thinking it was one of her parents, she didn’t bother to go up. The footsteps paced back and forth before settling by her bed and quieting down. Curious, Maru wondered why her dad or mom might be waiting for her and began to climb the ladder, only to hear someone begin to sing. It wasn’t a very good song in her opinion, but the tone and quality of the voice made it one of the best she’d ever listened to. Opening the trap door the song stopped, and she met eyes with the blushing farmer. “Oh,” they said, rubbing the back of their head, “I thought...I thought you’d come home through the front door.”

Penny: The farmer is helping her teach the kids out by the lake near Marnies ranch, and they are learning about the water cycle. Penny takes a quick break to go grab something from her bag, and hears the farmer mention something about “a way to remember the cycle.” Suddenly, they are singing a simple little nursery rhyme to the kids, who are grinning and enjoying the pleasant sound of the farmers voice. Penny’s eyes widen, and butterflies burst in her stomach. It’s just a kids song, about rain no less, but she had no idea they had that kind of voice.

Sam: They were joking around in his room late at night, and he was performing horrible love songs for them. After singing never gonna give you up (electric guitar rendition), the farmer stole the guitar and said “my turn.” Sam laughed, but quickly stopped as the farmer began to sing. They were messing around, sure, but Sam couldn’t stop his heart from pounding when their eyes met, as that perfect voice froze him in place.

Sebastian: Sebastian can’t figure out who the hell is singing. He hears it up near that old man’s tent, looks, no one there. Hears it down by the docks, footsteps...and they’re gone. Outside the saloon, he runs, they’re gone. Over by Pierre’s shop, rounds the corner, no one there. Seb doesn’t care what it is at this point, but he has to get a better listen, he has to know who can sing like that. In a way that takes his mind far away from this town and to every place he’s every wanted to be. In a way that makes him feel a peace and comfort he rarely feels. Finally he catches the song. They’re upstairs, the house is empty it’s just him and that voice- he sprints, wild eyed and messy to see the farmer. “You...you’re...you can sing like that?”

Shane: Shane gets drunk off his ass one night, and thinks the angels have finally come to get him. It’s raining, and he’s on the ground, soaked to the bone and half awake when he hears it. An eerie tune, soft and sad in the downpour, heading his way. He’s a down to earth guy, but this voice makes him wonder if sirens are real. The blurry figure comes closer. It’s the farmer. “Oh shit,” He mumbles.

[hibiscustea9]

Welcome to Tumblr! Curious to know who your favorite Stardew character(s) is, and why? I'm not going to automatically assume it is Elliott and/or Sebastian, haha

- a fan of your SDV fic

Thank you for the warm welcome! Oh, this is a tough one, because there are so many great characters in Stardew Valley. I’m going to break them apart into marriage candidates versus non-marriage candidates, because I feel like those are two entirely separate categories. Also, just because someone isn’t on this list doesn’t mean I don’t like that character, it just means he or she isn’t one of my very favorites. (Also, these aren’t in any particular ranked order - I like all the ones I’m listing about equally)

Marriage candidates:

Sebastian. Sebastian was the very first character I married in Stardew on my first save file nearly five years ago. In many ways, he’s the character who’s closest to my RL husband, who also has depression and anxiety but who is a very loving person underneath the gruff exterior. I appreciate Sebastian’s slow evolution from being walled off away from everyone and everything (literally at the start of the game - it’s damn frustrating trying to get him up to two hearts so you can go in his room) to slowly opening up to you more and talking about his desires and wants and fears. After marriage, he has beautiful dialogue where he admits his mental health isn’t always the best, but not to doubt that he always loves you. So great.

Elliott. Yes, I’m going with the obvious two off the bat. I actually didn’t pay much attention to Elliott the first few games I played through. I got him through his heart events because I was being a completionist and wanted to see everyone’s heart events, but he was so out of the way on the beach most of the time that I didn’t pay him much heed. Then in my third game, I decided to try something new and started pursuing Elliott early on, and oh, man. He’s so great. He is hands down the best post-marriage spouse with how affectionate and loving and kind he is all the time (and he has some great moments of unexpected humor, like his line about the million iridium bars). I do understand where his loquaciousness can be a bit off-putting to some, but I find him to be an absolute joy, and one of the kindest characters in the game. (Also, the first Winter Star after we got married, Elliott was my secret gift-giver and he gave me a glow ring, which made my heart completely fall out of my chest and go splat on the ground.)

Emily. Come on, who doesn’t love Emily? She’s completely bonkers, but she has such a good heart. One of my favorite cutscenes of every character in Stardew is when Emily meets her friend the parrot and talks to him about how they’re both different and the ones around them don’t understand. Like Sebastian and Elliott, Emily is a bit of an outsider, even though she’s around people all the time. But she has such joy for life and for experiencing everything that I find her to be one of the most satisfying marriage candidates.

Maru. Maru’s awesome. She’s a great balance of being serious about her experiments and her robotics and yet such a dreamer about the future and what she might do. I feel like she gets overlooked way too much, even though she’s probably got the best head on her shoulders of any of the marriage candidates. In a town full of people who don’t know what they want, Maru’s got a clear, strong direction she wants to head in. That alone puts her in a category by herself, but she’s also such a good, kind-hearted person as we can see in the MARILDA scene. She’s got the best combination of her dad’s scientific mind and her mom’s work ethic and compassion.

Non-marriage candidates:

Robin. ConcernedApe knew what he was doing making Robin the first character the farmer meets in game. Not only does she always make efforts to reach out to the player and ensure he or she is part of the community (extending invitations to come visit, making sure everything’s going well on the farm), but she’s a loving, caring mom and wife, she looks out for the rest of the community, and she’s got a snarky side I really appreciate.

Gus. I adore Gus. I didn’t know quite what to make of him at first because he seemed to be almost a Gunther- or Marlon-level NPC who virtually never went out from his business, but then Linus’s first heart event happened and I realized how much Gus cares about other people and wants to take care of them. He’s always cooking massive amounts of food for everyone at all the festivals, ensures everyone has enough to eat, and is incredibly gentle and kind.

Linus. Speaking of Linus, who was my first-ever five-star friend, he is a total treasure. Like some of my other favorites, he’s definitely a little different, but there are a lot of layers to Linus. He’s clearly a very intelligent guy, well-read, empathetic, resourceful, and kind. He is wary of the farmer, but it’s explained that he has to be because of how he’s been treated in the past, and when he does open up to you, it’s clear how meaningful your friendship is to him. 

Marnie. The first time I played Stardew, I was incredibly annoyed by Marnie because I could never get her schedule straight and would always swing by the ranch only to realize she wasn’t there. But the more I got to know her and found out how much she cares about animals and other people, I really grew a new appreciation for her. As with Robin and Gus and Linus, Marnie is incredibly compassionate and doesn’t ask for much for herself. And also, I love her happy dance. The fact that we see it both when the community center re-opens and at the player’s wedding shows that she’s genuinely happy when good things happen to other people.

Thanks for the question and for reading “Fire Walk with Me”! I’m in the process of working on the last couple scenes in the next chapter now and it should be up tomorrow for New Year’s Day.

[stardew-vxlley]

autumn nights

summary: as the months go by, the farmer feels more and more at home in the valley. One chilly autumn night, she stops by the saloon for dinner and decides to do something nice for Shane. 

word count: 1293

pairings: shane x fem!farmer

warnings: mentions of alcohol

a/n: hey everybody! this is my stardew valley fanfic debut, i’m so in love with this game, and i’m of course in love with chicken boy. every new save file i make i tell myself to marry someone else but i just cant do it. anyways enjoy some fluff! its broken up to bounce between perspectives! xx

The heavy wooden door of Stardrop Saloon heaved open, hinges groaning. With a gust of cold autumn air, the farmer bounced inside, shivering. 

“Hey, Gus!” she called, hanging up her coat and moving to stand by Pierre at the bar. Gus glanced over from his conversation with Pam and grinned at the farmer, raising the glass he was cleaning in acknowledgement. 

“How are things on the farm?” Pierre asked her cheerfully. 

“I’m well into the season!” she laughed. “I think my pumpkins are going to be the biggest they’ve ever been this year.” 

Gus appeared in front of them, putting the clean glass away under the bar and laying the dish rag over his shoulder. “What can I get the lovely lady this evening?” 

“Oh, just the usual for dinner,” she replied. “To-go, please.”

“You won’t stay?” Pierre asked, shocked. “It’s a Friday night--everyone is here!” 

Truthfully, the farmer was exhausted. This fall season was an ambitious one--she may have planted more than she could sow. “I really should get back and--” 

“C’mon, I’ll buy you a beer,” Pierre nudged her. “Just one. You deserve a break every now and then.” 

She smiled, ignoring her tired muscles. “Alright, alright--one beer. And some pizza, please.” 

“I’ll get that pizza, Emily will get you that beer once she’s done topping off Shane’s glass,” Gus replied, disappearing into the back.

The farmer glanced over at the end of the bar to where Shane was usually brooding with his pint of beer, only to find him looking right back at her. Her cheeks turned red and she quickly averted her gaze, turning to pay attention to whatever Pierre had been chatting about. 

//

Shane watched all the other villagers living their happy lives around him as he sat in his corner, drinking his beer. With each sip, he sank deeper and deeper into his angry sorrow. Until the door to the saloon blew open with the gusty autumn wind and...she walked in. 

He watched as she smiled--that beautiful smile--and greet Gus cheerfully. Shane wondered if he would ever be able to look that happy again. Her cheeks were rosy in the dim light of the saloon, and he eyed Pierre with jealousy as the farmer slid onto the bar stool next to him. The jukebox was playing just a little too loud for him to overhear their conversation, but judging by the looks of it, they were talking about her farm. Shane noticed that her eyes lit up every time she spoke about it. He stared at his reflection in the near-empty pint of beer, wishing she would look like that if she talked about him.

“--you won’t stay?” Shane heard Pierre protesting. He glanced up, eyebrows furrowed in concern. 

She was beginning to shake her head, but Pierre offered to buy her a beer if she stayed. As Shane watched her, he began to notice how tired she really looked underneath her cheerful disposition. After several moments, she put on another smile and nodded in agreement. 

“--Emily will get you that beer once she’s done topping off Shane’s glass,” he heard Gus say, and suddenly the farmer was looking at him. Her eyes caught his for a second, before she quickly looked away and turned back to talk to Pierre. 

Shane’s heart was beating so fast, he was afraid the entire saloon would hear. It was as if his world stopped for a second when she looked at him--but then he remembered how quickly she looked away. Emily came back around and took his glass, and he shook his head. 

“Get me a bigger stein,” he muttered, his eyes fixed on the wooden bar. 

“Shane…” Emily frowned. “Alright. But only one.” 

// 

“Thank you so much for the--hic--beer, Pierre,” the farmer hiccuped, and laughed. “But I don’t think I can finish this pizza.” 

Emily was wiping down the bar in front of them. “I think Shane could use something to eat,” she said, motioning towards him. “He’s only had beer since he got here.” 

“Really?” the farmer frowned. “I’ll see if he’ll take this off my hands.” 

She slid off the stool and picked up the plate of pizza, moving down the bar. Shane was in his own world, staring at his beer. The farmer cleared her throat, startling him. 

“Hi,” she said, suddenly at a loss for words. “Uh--” 

“Can I help you?” he bluntly asked, his words slurring a bit. “I’m very busy.” 

The farmer glanced at the stein and bit her lip. “I can see that. Well...I heard you like pizza, and I was wondering if you’d help me out and finish this for me. I ate way too much.” 

Now it was Shane’s turn to be speechless. He sat up straighter and eyed the pizza, mouth practically drooling. “I do love pizza...how did you know?” 

“Just the word on the street,” she teased, smiling at him. She pushed the plate closer to him and stepped back. “See you around.” 

“See you,” he mumbled, picking up a slice as she walked away. 

The farmer lifted her coat off the coat rack and waved goodbye to Lewis and Marnie as she slipped it on. While she walked back to her farm, the autumn air whispering that winter was on its way, her cheeks stayed warm and rosy. She was thinking about Shane, and how much he seemed to appreciate that small gesture. Maybe she was finally taking the first step to breaking down his walls. 

// 

Shane’s head felt muddled and clouded as he drank his sadness away. All that mattered was the golden beer sitting in front of him. And maybe a nap…

He suddenly heard someone clearing their throat. Blinking through the drunken haze, he looked over to his left and saw the farmer standing there, a plate of delicious pizza in her hands. 

“Hi,” she started, but then seemed to lose her train of thought. “Uh--” 

“Can I help you?” he found himself slurring. Stupid. Say something else. Say something funny. “I’m very busy.” That’s not funny, dumbass.

A slight smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, her eyes darting to his empty glass and she bit her lip. “I can see that.” 

A beat of silence passed and she held up the plate of food. “Well, I heard you like pizza, and I was wondering if you’d help me out and finish this for me. I ate way too much.”

Shane blinked in disbelief. She was giving him pizza? For free? He looked at it sitting there on the plate, and his mouth watered. “I do love pizza.” Someone must have told her. “How did you know?” 

“Just the word on the street,” she grinned, a delightfully adorable twinkle in her eyes. She set the plate down on the bar and pushed it towards him. “See you around.” 

“See you,” Shane murmured, picking up a slice and watching her walk away. As she waved goodbye to Lewis and Marnie, he realized that everyone here truly adored her. His cheeks turned pink as he wondered about the possibility of him being one of those people. When she disappeared out of the door and into the autumn night, he sat there and contemplated that thought, finishing the pizza. 

And even after Gus gave last call, as Shane walked back home to Marnie’s ranch, he didn’t realize that as he thought about the farmer, the way she lit up a room--for the first time in a very long time, he had absolutely no desire to drink.

[winterknight1087]

Play to Ease Anxiety

Summary: Thomas finds Virgil a game called Stardew Valley to try and ease his anxiety.

Word Count: 2806

Warnings: Sympathetic Deceit, sympathetic Remus, cursing, food mention, mention of a goose with a knife and death (no one dies)

Pairings: n/a

AO3 Link       My Writing

A/N: So, I’ve become super obsessed with Stardew Valley recently (like I’ve clocked about 70hrs into the game despite having it less than two weeks). I realized how much the sides would actually enjoy the game and so this came about... So yeah, enjoy!

Thomas groaned as he yanked the pillow out from under him and smushed it against his face, trying to stop the anxious thoughts. Finally, he got up, knowing that just laying there wouldn’t solve anything. So, Thomas took a seat at his laptop, wondering what he could do to help calm Virgil. Thomas may have needed a nap, but Virgil needed help first.

Thomas messaged a couple of his friends, asking for something to help his anxious side relax. For the most part, the advice wasn’t all that helpful: breathe, avoid caffeine, exercise… Yeah, sure, they were all valid advice, but Thomas could tell that those wouldn’t ease the anxious side this time.

As he was about to start Googling ideas, a final message arrived, suggesting that he play a calming game, with a couple of suggestions: Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, Minecraft, or phone games with the word idle in them. Thomas knew Virgil would refuse to play Minecraft, just because ‘do you know what playing that would do to my image?’ He also figured that phone games would be out as he found them a bit mindless, which didn’t really help stop anxious thoughts. With that, Thomas pulled up Animal Crossing. Of course, it being 60 bucks, that made that game a bit unreasonable for right now. He did scribble a note to himself to discuss including it in his budget with Logan as he now wanted to play it himself. With that, he looked up Stardew Valley. It was much cheaper than Animal Crossing, so there was that. It looked to be some farming game. Maybe…

 ****

 Virgil sat on the couch, trying to calm his head. Too many things were stressing him out and even blasting his music– so loud that if he were a real human, his hearing would be gone within the hour–he still could hear his thoughts. Nothing was working and he knew that he was probably affecting Thomas, but that just added to his list of stuff.

A hand gently tapped his shoulder, jolting him off of the couch, teetering on a panic attack. Thomas motioned the side’s headphones as Virgil started trying to regulate his breathing. The side didn’t want to take them off and hear the lecture about controlling his anxiety better and how he was failing Thomas, but he also knew that he deserved it. He knew this was going to be coming since he woke up this morning with that feeling of ‘everything is wrong.’

“Sorry, Virge. I didn’t mean to scare you like that. You weren’t responding to me waving a hand in front of you though.” Thomas said, gently.

“Just get it over with, Thomas. I know I’m failing and it’s a bad day and I’m sorry but that isn’t good enough and I should be able to handle this better but I can’t and…”

“Hey, hey. Take a deep breath, Vee. This isn’t bad. I know it’s not your fault. You’re struggling just as much as I am with this.”

Virgil was close to tears. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s OK, you don’t need to apologize. Here, this is what I wanted to show you.”

Virgil accepted the laptop Thomas offered him, wondering what new horror was about to be added to his list. Instead, it was some load screen with ‘Stardew Valley’ on it. Virgil looked at his host in confusion, wondering what he was supposed to be panicking about regarding this.

“It’s a farming game. Talyn recommended it to me and I thought you could use the distraction. The Internet seems to like it and it isn’t Minecraft. I even saw that one of the NPCs smokes pot, another likes spooky places, and there are these little candy things that are excited if you give them an ear of corn so are essentially Patton.”

“Oh…” Virgil wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do with this. “And you gave me your new game because…?”

“Music isn’t helping you, so maybe a game can! If you don’t want to play, it’s OK, but it’s an idea at least.”

Virgil looked at the laptop. “Are you sure?”

“About the game helping? Well, no but it’s something we can try.”

“No, about lending me your laptop? What if I drop it or accidentally download something icky and break it or…”

“Hey, breathe. I know you guys said that whatever I have on my laptop, you guys get on yours within the mindscape, so you should have it on yours. So, I guess if you want to go grab your laptop, you can, but I figured that this would be easiest for you as you don’t have to lose sight of me while anxiety is trying to list every bad thing that has a high chance of never happening.”

“Oh…”

“So, you going to play?” Thomas asked, playfully nudging his anxious side.

Virgil shifted so he was sure he wouldn’t accidentally drop his host's laptop before hitting the new button. He went through the character design page and watched the scene with the grandfather. Then the game opened and he started figuring out how the game mechanics worked.

Thomas smiled as he watched the anxious side plant some parsnips before heading into town to start meeting people. Not even five minutes into the game, the host could feel the knot in his stomach vanish and he finally felt relaxed.

“So?”

“Shut up, Sanders. I have parsnips to water.”

Thomas laughed but watched the anxious side play for a it longer. He waited until the side was halfway through the month without another shoot of anxiety hitting him before deciding that he could go take his nap now. Virgil waved him off, as he harvested parsnips from the little patch outside his cabin.

Virgil wasn’t aware of how much time in real life passed before Patton’s voice intruded on his new mental lists of things he needed to do in the game. “Hey there, kiddo! You doing alright?”

“Hey, Pat. Yeah, I’m chill.”

“Is that Thomas’s laptop? Whatcha doing with it?” Patton asked, curiously.

“He downloaded a game for me and now I’m playing it.”

“Oooh! Can I watch!?”

“Sure.”

Patton jumped into the seat next to his best friend. The game looked cute and Virgil seemed to have put a lot of work into his little farm already. Patton cuddled in close and watched. The Flower Dance was his favorite part as Virgil moved into the first day of summer. Virgil frantically went around preparing his little farm for summer planting, finding that there was not enough time in the short days to accomplish everything he wanted to.

“…noying as you!”

“Hey, shut up. I’m busy!”

The twins looked at the couch in surprise to see Patton curled up against Virgil while Virgil worked on Thomas’s laptop. They glanced at each other, wondering what was going on, but also reminded of what they had been doing before popping up.

“Hey, since the two of you are here, can you settle something for us?” Roman asked.

“What’s up, kiddos?” Patton asked, looking over as Virgil cranked up the game’s music in response.

“Well, Remus…” Roman started off on a long-winded rant that was rudely interrupted constantly by noise from whatever Virgil was doing. Finally, the prince moved over and looked at the laptop. It was some computer game around farming? Virgil opened the social tab and looked through the list, seeing how many hearts he had with Marnie.

“Oooh, ‘single’? Does that mean you can go woo some villagers?” Roman asked, grinning.

“Once you have enough friendship hearts, yeah. Then date and marry them. You can even have two children with them.” Virgil answered, closing out of the social screen.

“That looks interesting! When is it my turn?!”

“Not now.”

“But I want to play the new game!”

“You have your own computer.”

“But it’ll be a whole new game! This one is already well underway!”

“You are not messing up my farm, Princey. I’ve put a lot into it and I do not need you going in and messing things up.”

“If only we could all play together! That would be so much fun!” Patton said.

“I… well…maybe? Let me finish this day and I can check something.”

“You think there’s a way to do multiplayer!?”

“If I remember the start screen well enough, yeah.”

Patton started giggling as he jumped off the couch. “I’ll go get my laptop then! Come on, you two!”

Virgil rolled his eyes as Pat and the twins vanished back into the mindscape. He finished up his day before closing out of his farm and looking into the co-op option. He slowly figured out how to set it up and had just opened the new farm when the three of them returned with their laptops.

It took Virgil a little investing to figure out how to share it with the others but it worked out and soon they had their first crop planted. Not even three days into the game, Roman had announced his intentions of wooing Elliot, who he insisted was the most romantic NPC. Remus liked pulling trash out of their little ponds and gifting it to everyone. Patton was talking to everyone and just enjoying the game. Virgil was happy that the planting and harvesting of crops was less stressful with extra help.

 ****

 It was too quiet. Logan liked the quiet, but it was also nerve-wracking. He knew the twins had been arguing pretty much all afternoon over Remus having released a goose into the Imagination and it had apparently chased Roman from one end to the other with a knife. Something about some game. It was still too early in the afternoon for the twins to have stopped yelling at each other. He also didn’t hear Patton singing or a movie in the background, breaking up the silence. Logan also knew that this was a bad day for Virgil, but he assumed that the anxious side fell asleep or something.

“Have you seen the trash rat?” a voice asked behind Logan.

Logan would deny the small shout and jumping as he spun to see Dee standing there, unamused. He quickly recomposed himself and straightened his tie. Dee noted that the logical side’s eyes were relieved though upon seeing him.

“Salutations, Dee. No, I have not seen Remus. I have not seen anyone in the past couple of hours, in fact.”

“Locked yourself in your room again, have you?”

“No, I have not. I was reading in the commons. I eventually noticed that everything was too calm though and went to investigate. You are the first side I have seen since.”

Dee raised an eyebrow. “Well, those four don’t have enough brain cells to open a jar with instructions right in front of them.”

“Which also concerns me.”

“Have you checked Thomas’s house, yet? The hissing cat of a side would probably place himself where he could see Thomas if the anxiety from earlier was any indication.”

Logan considered it. “No, I have not. That is a valid point though.”

“Let’s go, then.”

Logan hadn’t even fully risen up before he heard Roman screeching. He assumes that this meant the goose with a knife didn’t kill the prince in the Imagination, then. Logan noted all the sides who’d been missing, sitting around the living room on their laptops. Roman was screeching at his twin about something with hitting someone with a slingshot.

“Glad to see that you lot didn’t get yourselves lost in the mindscape.” Dee drawled.

“Shut up, I have blueberries to harvest and I already have that mess over there to ignore,” Virgil stated.

“What?” Dee and Logan responded in unison, confused.

“We’re playing a farming game! Do you two want to join?” Patton asked excitedly.

“Wiki says that multiplayer only goes up to four, Pat,” Virgil commented.

“Well, if you’re playing a game, there are bound to be mods.”

 ****

 Thomas woke up groaning as light hit him. Blearily he glanced at the time, surprised to see that what was supposed to be a short nap turned into a full night of sleep plus some. He ran a hand through his hair, knowing that he was in for a long lecture from Logan about sleeping for 16 hours.

He got out of bed and got ready for the day, unnaturally so calm that it mildly worried him. He couldn’t even worry himself about the lack of anxiety. He finally started downstairs before the voices in the living room alerted him to the fact his sides were all present.

Thomas peeked around the wall, to see all his sides sitting around the living room on their laptops. A giant whiteboard sat in front of the TV with Logan’s scribbled handwriting all over it. On Thomas’s coffee table sat his laptop, with the game that he’d given Virgil open. It took a moment before Thomas realized what was going on, but he chuckled to himself when he did.

After taking a picture of the living room, Thomas continued downstairs as Logan stood up and went to the whiteboard. He scribbled something next to Roman’s name before coloring in a patch of squares. Thomas greeted the room. Logan was the only one to glance over to the host. Everyone else kept their eyes focused on the game, though they all muttered a greeting back.

Thomas went into the kitchen to make some breakfast. He decided on some eggs and toast. Easy, no real thought process. He opened the fridge and pulled out the egg carton. Taking an egg out, he was struck with the disappointed thought of ‘the spirits and chickens must be displeased with me today’.

The host marched into the living room and over to his anxious side. He didn’t say anything as he held the egg up to him. Virgil glanced up and noticed his host and the egg. The anxious side didn’t have anything to say, so merely shrugged.

“The spirits and chickens must be displeased then.”

“I don’t even know what that means!”

“They are displeased.”

Patton giggled. “You want to join us, Thomas?”

“We already have a cabin and character set up for you, if you would like to join our group one. Just be careful not to close the command prompt. It will shut the game down. We had to add mods to play with everyone.” Logan commented, looking over his board of information.

Thomas looked around at his living room full of sides, peacefully–or well as peacefully as he could ever hope– playing the game. Sure, the twins were bickering, but that was more of their sibling relationship than actual anger this time.

“Won’t it mess up whatever you guys already got going on?”

“Nah, Lo would just reorganize who tends to which crops. Real issue would be who you plan on dating. I’ve called Elliot, Patton is going for Sam, Remus wants Emily, Logan is after Maru, Dee wants to date Shane, and Vee is in between dating Sebastian or Abigail or even just rooming with Krobus. But if you would rather one of them, I’m sure we’d be willing to let you, our most amazing and beloved host, steal our crush.” Roman said.

“Flattery will not save you if he wants the isolated writer on the beach, kiss-up,” Dee commented.

“Statistically speaking, it is more likely that Thomas would choose one of Virgil’s choices due to the fact he is in between three choices or one of the remaining dating NPCs. Factoring in his preferences though, he is most likely to pursue Sam or Sebastian.”

“I have no idea what any of that means, but sure. I’ll join. Just let me get some breakfast.” Thomas glanced at his anxious side. “Without the spirits or whatever being disappointed. I’ll have you know that these are technically large eggs and I have no idea why that is an important factor or whatever.”

“That works. I will factor your playing into our assignments.” Logan said, setting his laptop in front of Patton. “Make sure Logic gets to be before the hard bedtime.”

Thomas laughed as he shook his head. He went back into the kitchen to make something to eat, occasionally peeking into the living room as he heard Dee try and convince Logan to give him a certain crop while the logical side rearranged the work. Thomas couldn’t help the smile as he decided that he would need to find some way to thank Talyn for this suggestion. Still, that was for later. He wasn’t getting anything other than virtual farming done today since all of his sides seemed to be intent on this.

“The spirits are very happy today.” Thomas found himself muttering, not sure what it meant but knowing that it was a good thing.

[chain-unchained]

October 3

The sound of a gong rang out over the din of the Fair, as Alex smashed the strength tester yet again; with a grin, he held out his hand to the game operator, who forked over his winnings for ringing the bell. To his dismay, Haley—who he thought had been watching—had long since lost interest and was currently over at the fishing tent with Pam. His disappointment was all but forgotten as Gus walked by, carrying a platter of burger patties waiting to be cooked up for, of course, the all you can eat buffet.

Yes, it was that most wonderful time of year again: the Stardew Valley Fair. Countless visitors from far and wide traveled to Pelican Town, which seemingly overnight had transformed into a grand county fairgrounds. Game booths were set up throughout the town center, offering star tokens as prizes for winning, while a little kiddie coaster had been put up smack dab in the center. Up to the north was the buffet, where Gus was now grilling away not just burgers, but hot dogs, barbeque chicken and ribs as well, filling the air with a mouthwatering smell.

“Thank you, Mr. Gus~” Jas was all smiles as she accepted the bag of fresh spun cotton candy from Gus, wasting no time in tearing a piece off and popping it into her mouth. “Thank you Shane~” She added, as her godfather slipped Gus a fiver for giving Jas some extra.

“You’re welcome, squirt.” Shane ruffled her hair with a grin; he had been worried that the lure of the alcohol on offer would be too much for him to ignore, but it wasn’t so hard since he was focusing on Jas. “So, what do you think? Is this year’s fair better than last year’s?”

“Hmm…” Jas gave the question serious contemplation, tearing off another chunk of spun sugar while she mulled it over in her head. “… Yeah, it’s better.” She answered with a sage nod of her head. “I wish that there were other rides besides that dumb kiddie coaster, though.”

“Whaaaat? You love that coaster, though.”

“Not anymore. It’s for little kids, and I’m not a little kid anymore.” Jas paused, still looking thoughtful as she ate another clump of cotton candy. “… Vincent still likes it though. He’s too scared to ride by himself, so I guess I’d be okay with riding it to make him happy.”

Trying not to laugh at how obvious it was that she still enjoyed the ride, Shane ruffled her hair with a grin. “That’s pretty big of you. Might as well enjoy it while you can still fit in the cars.” He checked his wristwatch and saw that it was already nearing noon. “Well kiddo, I better go and switch places with Marnie so she can work on her grange display. You got enough pocket change to get what you wanna get?”  

Jas held up the small purple purse hanging at her side with an affirmative nod of her head. She had been saving and saving all year just for this fair, so she was quite set for the day. Still, that didn’t stop Shane from digging into his wallet and handing her another fiver for good measure.

“You remember the rules, right?” He asked, kneeling down to her level with no small amount of effort. Pelican Town was safe pretty much every day of the year, but the influx of visitors meant that the Fair was perhaps the most dangerous—everyone could still remember the disaster that was known as the ‘Jockstrap Incident’, loathe though they were to recall it.

“Yes, I remember.” There was more than a slight hint of exasperation in Jas’ voice. If there was one thing in the world she didn’t care for, it was being treated like a little kid. “Hurry up and go help Aunt Marnie alreadyyyy.”

She moved behind her godfather and gave him a good push towards the petting zoo to really get her point across, drawing a half-laugh from Shane as he followed the momentum granted to him. For some reason, he got the impression that Jas didn’t want to be babysat very much. ‘Damn, do kids grow up fast these days.’ He thought with a grin, winding his way through the somewhat oblivious crowds to relieve Marnie of her duties at the petting zoo.

 With hands that trembled from the sheer amount of nervous energy flowing through them, Ashe painstakingly placed his selections for his grange display into the bin, silently fretting to himself as to their layout and orientation; to his right, Marnie too was hard at work making her ranch display look its best, with a massive and admittedly impressive cheese wheel as the centerpiece. To her right was Willy, who was piling high the freshest of fresh fish caught at dawn that morning, and to Ashe’s left was Percy, surrounded by an air of confidence while his own was put together. There were other grange displays, too, being set up by various visitors from throughout the valley—all of whom had similarly intimidating offerings.

Up until last night, Ashe had nothing but the utmost confidence in himself; he had been toiling endlessly ever since he’d learned about the competition, secure in his belief that he was going to win. Yet now that he was surrounded by his competition, beholding their entries with his own eyes, that confidence was evaporating faster than ice beneath the blistering summer sun. Compared to Marnie’s animal product focused display, and to Percy’s all encompassing one featuring the very best finds from the mines alongside pristine farm and ranch products, Ashe’s crops, eggs, milk and gems looked like amateur hour.

‘Maybe I tried to do too much…’He found himself thinking, anxiously fussing with the arrangement in the faint hopes that somehow changing the layout would make it seem more impressive. Would he have done better if he’d narrowed his focus to just one or two areas?

He was so caught up in fretting over his chances that he didn’t notice Marnie had finished preparing her display and was now taking a good gander at his. For a first timer, she thought he had done a fantastic job. “Looking pretty good there, kiddo.” She spoke up, making him nearly jump out of his skin from fright. “Nerves getting to you?”

“M-Maybe just a little.” Pressing his hand against his chest, Ashe took a deep breath to calm himself; hearing her voice helped to bring him back down to Earth for the moment. “Thank you. But I’m pretty sure that cheese wheel of yours is going to win.”

They both took a moment to gaze upon the magnificent artisanal creation taking up most of Marnie’s display, and Marnie couldn’t help but grin at the sight of it. “I’m pretty proud of it, if I do say so myself. Those eggs you brought are sure gonna give me and everyone else a run for our money, though.” She gave the young farmer a reassuring smile. Though it had been close to ten years since her first entry into the fair, she could still recall that almost strangling fear that she had felt, and she felt more than a little pity for the kid. A little confidence boost went a long way in situations like that.

Truth be told, he didn’t really believe what she said, but he didn’t want to let it show just how much he was doubting himself at this point. So he pushed a smile onto his face. “Haha, you really think so? If anything, it’s thanks to you and Shane. Honestly…” The smile began to slip away; perhaps because of his anxiety, perhaps it was something else, but… it felt like there was an icy cold tendril winding its way around his heart. “I owe a lot to you guys. All of you. I want to be able to say that I could have made it this far on my own. But that’d be a lie.”

Turning away from Marnie, whose expression had fallen a little at the oddly somber, melancholic words coming from him, he looked to the display that seemed so paltry to him now. Even still, he relied so much on others—to farm, to learn, to just exist. How long… how long would he have to depend on them? When would he be strong enough to stand on his own two feet? “…. I really do owe everything to you, and Shane, and Jas.” He murmured, turning to look at Marnie with another smile. “Thank you for putting up with me for all this time~”

“Kiddo…” Marnie didn’t like the feeling that she got as she listened to him speak. It reminded her far, far too much of the way Shane used to be, the same sort of language, the same undertones of loathing, anxiety, doubt, hopelessness. “C’mon now, you should know by now that there’s nothing to put up with. You’ve been an angel of a neighbor to us. Heck, you’ve been a literal angel for Shane.” She wrapped her arm around Ashe’s shoulders and gave him a friendly squeeze. “Besides, you’re what? 19 years old? You can’t just expect yourself to have everything figured out right out of the gate.”

The sensation of being drawn close brought a measure of comfort to Ashe. Closing his eyes, he allowed himself to stop and breathe; the scent of lavender and lilac filled his nostrils, and suddenly he found himself in a clinical white room, heard the beeping of machines, felt his mother’s cold hand in his own as the scent of her perfume overwhelmed him. It was only for the briefest of moments, with the sound of the gong going off as Alex smashed the strength tester again pulling him back into the present. But that moment, to him, felt like an eternity…

“Ashe?” Marnie snapped her fingers in front of his face, more than a little concerned with the way the color had drained from his face; she practically felt him come back to reality, his entire body giving a shudder. “Are you alright? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Seeing how concerned she was, Ashe really tried to pull himself together. “I…. Y-Yeah, I’m alright.” He assured with the best, most sincere smile he could muster. He didn’t want to worry her. “Honestly.”

“You sure don’t look alright.” Wholly unconvinced, Marnie gave his shoulders another squeeze. “… Why don’t you go and talk a walk, get away from the crowds for a bit? The competition’s not gonna start for awhile yet.”

“That’s….” Ashe’s voice trailed off; after a few moments’ contemplation, he nodded. “You know what, I think I will actually.” He glanced longingly over to the petting zoo; what he really wanted to do was go over there and play with the cute animals on display, but there were so many people and children crowded around it that there was just no way it was going to happen. Especially not when he was a mess like this.

Marnie smiled and patted him on the shoulder as he headed off down towards the beach. It had been half a year since Ashe moved to the valley, and she had never seen him like that before. As much as she wanted him to open up to her and be able to let out whatever it was he was bottling up, she knew it wouldn’t happen. The only person that he would do that with was Shane. Deciding that this was more important than her display, she squeezed her way in and around the oblivious tourists piling into the town square, gradually making her way to the petting zoo while marvelling at how rude people were these days.

“Hey hey—HEY! The animals have to stay in the pen!” Shane’s voice cut sharply over the din of the crowds as he pried a poor little lamb from the hands of a kid who thought they were free to take. “This isn’t an adoption pen.” Yoba, he didn’t know if this was better or worse than his time working Black Friday back when he was a floor associate at Macy’s in college… At least there wasn’t a Karen demanding to see his manager for daring to tell her little darling to keep his hands off the merchandise.

…Maybe things weren’t so bad, though. Aside from the kid with the sticky fingers, most of the folks were just enjoying the petting zoo, lavishing affections on the baby farm animals. Shane was never fond of children, if he was honest. He didn’t know how to handle them, and deep down there was a part of him that was afraid of somehow breaking them. It was only when Jas came along that he finally got why people had children—to marvel in their achievements, to laugh at the silly things they said, to watch as they learned about the world around them and grew up… So, yeah, maybe he didn’t completely hate kids like he used to anymore. Still wasn’t super keen on them, though.

A finger lightly tapped him on the shoulder, making him realize he’d been completely lost in his thoughts for the past few minutes; turning around, he relaxed a little when he saw Marnie standing behind him. “That didn’t take long. Got the display set up how you want it?”

“Yes, the display’s all set to go.” There was something in Marnie’s tone that worried him. “Ashe could really use your company right now, I think.”

“Did something happen?”

“I have no idea. To be honest….” She sighed and closed her eyes for a moment before opening them to look back up at her nephew. “Well, to be honest I think you should get your butt down to the beach and talk to him.”

“Yeah, yeah I’m going.” Shane stepped around her briskly, practically pushing his way through the crowds in his haste towards the south. He had no idea what was going on, but that wasn’t going to stop him from finding out.

 The roar and din of the fair quieted to a low hum, nearly drowned out by the ocean waves as they gently lapped against the shore and the cries of the seagulls who soared overhead. It was calm, and peaceful; despite the cold air blowing in off of the ocean, Ashe stood silently at the water’s edge, gazing out at the endless blue. Lost in a world of his own.

He didn’t hear the sound of footsteps behind him. It was only when Shane came to stand beside him that he came back down to earth. “Shane…?” He asked, his voice soft enough to nearly be drowned out  by the waves.

“I’m right here, bud.” Shane tucked his hands into his pockets as he briefly glanced to him. “What’s on your mind?”

For a long minute, Ashe didn’t say a word. “I don’t know.” He simply admitted. “I just… I don’t know. When I was setting up my display, and I saw what everyone else had brought, I…. guess I realized that I’m not some wonder farmer who’s gonna sweep the competition. I talked so much bullshit to Percy about beating him, but everything he put out there looks better than anything I could hope to produce. And not just him. The stuff that Marnie had from your guys’ ranch looked so high quality. Everything on display from everyone looked wonderful.”

There was a long pause. “… What have I been doing all this time?” He whispered. “If I can’t win a stupid competition, what hope do I have to save Grandpa’s farm?”

“Bugaboo.” Shane reached out and took hold of his hand. “It’s just a fair competition. This isn’t some be all end all judgement of your farming skills.”

He knew what Ashe was feeling. Back before they met, that was how he used to drive himself into the ground with anxiety—the constant questioning of his worth, wondering why he was even trying, comparing himself to everyone else around him. He got that feeling. “You’re still a kid. Sure, you don’t act like it most of the time—hell, sometimes I forget that you can’t even rent a car yet—but you’re still young. Everyone overestimates themselves when they’re young. That’s just a part of growing up. You fall, you pick yourself back up, and you move on. Well, you’re supposed to anyway. You and I both know it’s not so easy… you get what I’m trying to say though, right?”

“… Not really.”

“Yeah, I don’t know what I’m trying to say either.” Shane sighed as he ran his fingers through his hair. “… Whatever the outcome of the fair is, there’s always next year. And I know for a fact that next year you’ll crush the competition no matter what.” He looked to Ashe and gave his hand a squeeze. “And besides, they haven’t even judged the displays yet. You’ve still got a shot.”

Ashe managed to smile. “Shane, you haven’t even seen my display. I really don’t think I’m going to win.” He took a breath and looked back out to the ocean stretched out before them. “… But you’re right. It’s just a competition. I went and talked myself into a panic over something that doesn’t even matter again. But at least I know how much farther I have to go to save the farm.”

“Uh huh.” Shane shifted closer and loosely wrapped his arm around Ashe’s waist. “And what about how far you’ve come? I ain’t gonna let you just overlook all that work you’ve put in so far. You have every right to be damn proud of that farm.”

“Hehe…  it does look pretty good these days, doesn’t it?”

“Better than what I could do.” Shane gave him a gentle squeeze. “You gonna be okay?”

“Yeah… Can we stay here for a little longer? I don’t feel like dealing with the crowds right now.”

He didn’t need to ask. Shane didn’t mind staying at the beach for the time being. They couldn’t stay for much longer, though; the bite of the chilly wind soon drove them back towards the town center, back towards the throngs of people and the noise they brought with them. The crowds had migrated towards the buffet area by then, drawn in by a pie eating competition with a nice fat 5k G first place prize. Thanks to that, the petting zoo was far less crowded; Ashe was able to finally get all those anxieties out by petting the baby animals like he’d wanted to.

 Before long, Lewis announced over megaphone that the grange competition judgements had been made, asking all the contestants to return to their displays so the awards could be handed out. The butterflies made a comeback in Ashe’s stomach at the announcement, but they weren’t as bad this time around.

It came as both a surprise and a letdown when Lewis called his name for third place. There was still a part of him that had been hoping for first place, even though he knew it wasn’t going to happen. And there was a part of him that didn’t think he’d even place at all, so he couldn’t help the tiny bit of pride as Lewis handed him the third place ribbon and congratulated him.

Second place rightfully belonged to Marnie and her awe-inspiring cheese wheel, and she graciously accepted the silver ribbon placed into her hands by the mayor. And no surprise to anyone present, the gold first place ribbon was awarded to Percy, who had never doubted that he come out victorious in the end.

“Well, at least he’s not rubbing it in your face.” Sebastian commented, having made his way over to Ashe with Sam and Abigail as the competition wound down and the displays were being packed up. “Easy to be gracious when you’re the winner, though.”

“Hey, third place is still pretty good though!” Abigail elbowed Ashe with a reassuring grin.

“Yeah, especially considering how long you’ve been doing this whole farming thing.” Sam draped his arm around Ashe’s shoulders and gave him a grin of his own. All three of them had seen their friend disappear onto the beach earlier; they could tell that he was stressing out and wanted to support him the best they could.

To their surprise, Ashe nodded with a smile, turning the bronze ribbon over and over in his hands. “Yup. Percy earned the win, and Marnie deserved second place, so I’m happy with third.” Seeing the way they were all trying to lift his spirits up, he realized how much he must have worried the people that cared about him. He didn’t like knowing that he’d done that to them, but at the same time, he couldn’t help but feel just a little bit happy that they cared so much. “Congratulations on second, Marnie!” He called, as Marnie pulled the cart carrying her entered goods off.

“Hey, how much for that cheese wheel?!” Sam inquired enthusiastically; he loved cheese more than was healthy, and there was something novel about the thought of owning a cheese wheel that weighed more than his kid brother.

Marnie laughed and stopped to look at the teens. “Not for sale, kiddo!” She rebuked with a grin of her own. “She’s going into the cellar to age for a few years. You’ll have to wait, I’m afraid.”

“What would you even do with a cheese wheel that big?” Sebastian asked his friend as the portly woman resumed walking.

“Brag about it, duh!”

Ashe fell quiet as he and Seb and Abigail all began to debate the ethics of owning that much solid cheese. After several minutes, he slipped away from his display, walking slowly over to where Percy was packing up his. “Congratulations on winning, Percy.” He praised with a slightly forced smile, making the posh farmer pause and look to him in genuine surprise. “You knocked the competition out of the park.”

“… Well, thank you.” It took Percy a few moments to regain his composure. He certainly hadn’t been expecting his rival of all people to come and congratulate him. “I have to admit, yours was quite impressive as well. Not that there was ever any doubt that I’d win,” he resumed packing up his display, “but I wasn’t expecting you to pull something that refined together.”

It was Ashe’s turn to be surprised. He… was talking to the same Percy that lived next door to him, right? Because it didn’t seem like it right now. “… Thank you. Next year, I’m going to win for sure.”

He expected Percy to point out how he’d made that claim this year; to his surprise, Percy just chuckled and smirked to him. “I expect you to give me a run for my money. Victory tastes much sweeter when you’ve worked to earn it.”

It had to be something in the water. Ever since he’d come to this backwater place, Percy had changed. Seeing these hicks and hillbillies live their lives, work and toil for the little they had and be happy for it, really had gotten him to thinking. Not that he’d ever say anything to them, of course; after all, he was there on a job of his own, and in the end, he had to emerge victorious just like he had today. But damn if he didn’t feel a little bad about what was going to happen when he won…

[petalbrooke]

Maeve notices something lurking in the graveyard - a hint of a footprint, a whisper of a shadow, and decides to investigate the monster. For @stardewevents Stardeween Day 5: Monster Sighting! Krobus is a DARLING child. thanks for reading! :)

It was nearly two in the morning, and while it wasn’t unusual for Maeve to be up that late, it was unusual that she was hanging out at the graveyard. She’d spent the last five nights here, trying to catch a glimpse of… something. She wasn’t sure yet what that something was, but she suspected it wasn’t human. The best salmonberries grew in that soil, bright red and juicy. She’d been gathering what she suspected would be the last harvest before the summer heat rolled in when she’d noticed a footprint. This wouldn’t have been that unusual – after all, she had noticed Abigail frequently hung out in the graveyard, and a few other denizens visited periodically, but this footprint couldn’t belong to them. It only had two toes.

Two long toes, almost as long as the foot itself. She could think of no creature in the forest that would make that kind of footprint, and she wanted to see for herself.

Maeve was poised perfectly still under a bush near the river, with an optimal view of the graveyard. Her dark purple hair was pulled back, and she’d dabbed mud into a rudimentary camouflage – though she hadn’t really needed it with her already dark skin and lack of light on the street. By now the Saloon had long since shut down, and even Lewis’ light had gone out, light sleeper that he was. It was just her and the crickets, the springtime frogs, the gently flowing river. It was almost enough to lull her to sleep.

Almost but for the sudden flit of a shadow in her periphery. Her survival instincts instantly had her on the alert. Within the second a knife was in her hand and she was in position to run.

She squatted there, motionless, thighs burning from the effort of holding her position, when the crack of a branch caught her attention. There. A crack couldn’t tell her much, but it was light – the creature likely wasn’t large. She was willing to hedge a bet that she could take the thing in a fight. Without a second thought she lunged for the approximate area she thought she’d heard the sound coming from, aiming to tackle. She tumbled through bush and slightly sticky mud from the rain earlier that day only to land on her face, having come in contact with nothing solid.

Maeve sprang back up, muttering a few curses as she did so. Nothing too serious, she thought to herself, noting that one scratch on her thigh was a little deep, but the bleeding would likely stop on its own. She could disinfect it back home. She strained her ears for more sounds, pushed her eyes to the limit trying to identify every miniscule shadow. There was nothing. She glanced at the moon, or what was left of it, shedding what bit of light it could. Almost three, at this point, and she had to admit she was starting to feel hopeless. Perhaps the woods were playing tricks on her. If she were home, she would blame her cousins of the night, who seemed to live only to torment others for their amusement.

But they couldn’t reach her here, and whatever did clearly wasn’t going to show herself. She began the long walk to the humble farmhouse she’d set up. One more night, she thought, one more night, and then I’ll give up.

The next night, Maeve had set out a basket of the salmonberries that she’d collected a few days earlier. They looked almost ready to burst, and just looking at them was making her hungry – none of her first crops had turned out that well, even with magic. She was learning, but the Valley Mother always knew best – which bushes needed more water, which ones needed squirrels to pick off the extra fruit. She planned on observing some of the wild blackberry bushes come summertime, really figure out how they thrived.

In any case, what wild creature could say no to a basket of fresh salmonberries? She’d set up closer, so she wouldn’t end up face-down in the mud again if she made her move. Now she had to wait.

This night the moon was gone, hidden away from prying eyes, and Maeve could barely see the outline of the basket, even if it was practically under her nose. One hour passed. Another. She could feel her eyes beginning to droop again, with nearly a week of sleeplessness starting to catch up with her. She blinked slowly once, twice, three times, and she noticed it – one of the berries was gone, and the basket was obscured in shadow.

Wide awake now and in hunting mode, she made the leap and reached for the figure. Again, her hands were met with nothing; the basket tumbled over, and she landed awkwardly next to it.

“Yoba, am I starting to see things?” she muttered. “Have I well and truly gone mad?” She shook her head, disgusted with herself. What an absolute waste of time, when she could’ve been collecting useful information. She could’ve been spying on Lewis. She could’ve been combing the mines. Instead she was out here, chasing wisps.

“Y-you’re not seeing things.” A little voice, to her left, shaking slightly. She froze. Was she imagining that too? “Can I trust you?”

Why not indulge her fantasy? At least then she would know what her brain had been conjuring. “Yes, little creature. I’m not here to hurt you. I just want to know what you are.”

Her hallucination didn’t answer, and she thought for a moment that even her mind was over her imagination, when she saw the small figure appear in front of her. Her original assessment hadn’t been wrong – it was a shadow figure, coming up to her hips, with the pronged foot that must have been responsible for the print. Maeve’s heart began to race. This was a shadow creature – a monster that had obliterated the dwarves and almost brought war to her people, long before she was born. She’d heard stories of the valiant fae who had managed to trick the shadow people, who had used light to turn the battle to their favor.

“My name is Krobus.” He wasn’t a particularly intimidating creature. In addition to the height, he had a curl on his head that could only be called cute. He didn’t look like a warmonger. But still, one could never be too cautious.

“I’m Maeve.” She smiled and offered a tentative finger. Krobus grasped it with both of his hands. “So, what are you doing out here, Krobus? And in the dead of night?”

“I can’t go out in the daylight. My shadow is very sensitive to the light. Only on really rainy days, and even then usually only in the winter. But at night I’m free to roam as I please. I kind of prefer it that way, anyways,” he said, ringing his hands together. The whole time he refused to look Maeve in the eye, instead preferring to focus intensely on the salmonberry in his hands. “People are big and scary. And they’re even scarier when they’re afraid of something they don’t know.” He sighed, a heavier sigh than something so small should have been able to create.

“I’m sorry.” Maeve scratched the back of Krobus’ head, and he hummed softly, crawling into her lap, similar to the cat Marnie had dumped on her. He was surprisingly warm, for something made of shadow. She sat back and looked at the stars, twinkling bright at them, almost laughing, and wondered how she could have thought this precious creature could have been a monster.

[katedoesfics]

Under Shadow: Chapter 12

Najia’s body ached from sleeping on the hard ground. When she was alone, she preferred to stop somewhere where she could make a decent bed for herself. The desert ground was less than ideal, but she knew she was already on thin ice with Shane. She figured, in the circumstances, she could learn to sleep on the ground. After a month on the run, it wasn’t the first time she had done so. But she still missed the luxuries of her life in the city. She adapted only because she had to, but made every effort to make things as easy as possible for her. Including packing the car with every single useful thing she could find during her travels, and moving those items from one trunk to the next when she needed to seek out a new vehicle. She supposed she learned that from her father. Always be prepared - it was the boy scout motto, after all.

Shane, on the other hand, did not care for such luxuries. Of course, having luxuries were much harder when all you had was what you could carry. And Shane carried the bare minimum.

As Najia wired the car, she started to realize that she would likely need to adjust further still if she wanted to make it to Stardew Valley. While it seemed foolish to give up her supplies, they wouldn’t last forever. Shane had obviously made it with the bare minimum; perhaps she would be wise to learn to do the same. But then again, the time hadn’t come for such drastic measures. Why not enjoy what supplies she had for as long as she could?

Najia dusted her hands together and smiled as the engine purred. She let Shane climb into the driver’s side and she slid in beside him. She pulled out the map from the glove compartment and found their estimated location.

“There’s probably an old gas station up the main road, somewhere,” she said. She traced the line on the map with her finger. “We could fill up a couple more tanks there it be set for a while longer. Assuming it hasn’t run dry yet.”

Shane shrugged. “Yeah, okay.”

They drove in silence. Najia focused her attention out the window, trying to imagine the desert scenery passing in the daylight. It was likely just as boring a view as it was in the dark. She sighed loudly, but Shane did not acknowledge her.

“We need some music in here,” she muttered.

“Too bad radio stations don’t exist anymore,” Shane remarked snidely.

“What if one did exist, though? Someone in some abandoned station trying to deliver an S.O.S.”

Shane peered at her in his peripheral vision. “Don’t you think the Shadow People would notice and capture them?”

Najia slunk back in her seat and crossed her arms. “You have absolutely zero sense of adventure.”

Shane tensed. “You think this is an adventure?” His voice raised. “You think this is some game?”

Najia hesitated. “No.”

Shane narrowed his eyes at the road before him as he continued driving in silence. Najia shifted uncomfortably before opening the glove compartment. She fished through the odds and ends she had secured in there, pulling out an old, tattered CD case. She smiled to herself as she zipped it open and flipped through the contents she had collected.

“What are you doing,” Shane said quickly.

Najia selected a CD with the word ‘mixz’ scribbled in sharpie on the front and pushed it carefully into place inside the radio. It hummed quietly as it read the disk and the first track began to play. Shane groaned loudly as the song started, and Najia did not miss a beat as she belted out the song.

“I stay out too late!” she sang. “Got nothing in my brain! That’s what people say!”

Shane rolled his eyes.

“I go on too many dates, but I can’t make them stay,” she continued.

“I can see why,” Shane muttered.

Najia ignored him as she continued singing. She turned the knob on the radio and the music got louder.

“But I keep cruising. Can’t stop, won’t stop moving. It’s like I got this music in my mind saying it’s gonna be alright.” Najia danced in her seat as she sang out the chorus.

Shane winced and, having enough, ejected the disk from the radio. Najia stopped dancing and stared at the disk as it popped back out.

“What did you do that for?”

“You’re singing is as terrible as Taylor Swift.”

Najia crossed her arms. “It’s a fun, upbeat song. We could use a little fun in here.”

Shane pinched his lips together but didn’t respond.

“Do you have some beef with my girl T. Swift?”

“Please stop,” he muttered.

“Fine,” she said sharply. “What do you want to listen to?”

“Nothing,” he said quickly. “No music. It will only draw attention to us.”

Najia watched him closely for a moment before returning the disk to its case. She shoved it back into the glove compartment, humming to herself. She focused her attention on the dark road, leaning back in her seat with a sigh.

“Wanna play a game?”

“No.” His voice was stern.

“Were you always this much fun?”

“Yup.”

Najia rolled her eyes and turned back to the road. “I see. I bet the women flocked to you.”

Shane said nothing. Najia turned back to him, eye brow raised. “Men?”

Shane shot her another angry glance.

“Both?”

He sighed loudly.

“I bet you had tons of friends with that charming personality of yours,” she muttered.

Shane shrugged. “Maybe I did.”

Najia scoffed.

“Can you really blame me for being Mr. Brightside?”

“You could at least make an effort to be happy at the fact that you’re not the only survivor.”

“Of all the people in the world to get stuck with,” he muttered.

“Funny, I was just thinking the same thing.”

“What does it matter?” he muttered. “We won’t survive much longer. Might as well not get attached.”

Najia sighed. “You’re right,” she said. “Might as well make this as miserable as possible for ourselves.”

“Might as well.”

“I don’t buy it,” she said. “There’s some hope left in you. You wouldn’t have made it this far if you didn’t have some kind of hope. You’re going after something; that’s hope. Hope that something’s still out there.”

Shane was quiet. His knuckles whitened as he tightened his grip on the wheel.

“Fine,” Najia said, sensing his tension. “I’m sorry. I’ll leave it alone.”

They drove in silence once more. Najia let her mind wandered as she stared into the darkness before them. It was still early in the day. Najia couldn’t imagine another six hours in the car with Shane. She didn’t know what was worse; the silence, or his bubbly optimism. She rolled her eyes to herself at the thought. She only hoped they would reach the coast soon. Maybe then they could part ways and she could make her way to Stardew Valley. If Stardew Valley even existed.

“Jas,” Shane said, breaking the silence.

Najia turned to him, but he continued to focus on the dark road ahead.

“My goddaughter. And Marnie, my aunt.” He hesitated. “We were separated when the attack happened.”

Najia looked at her feet. “I’m sure you’ll find them,” she said quietly.

Shane shrugged. “I hope so.”