lcvergrl

[lcvergrl]

Seline looks distastefully at the umbrellas, feeling the rain hit her head in small pitter-patters. She had forgotten her bright yellow rain hat at home, of course, since she was the luckiest person ever. Thankfully, she wasn't too worried since she had put her hair in french braids today, and the rain would just make her hair look better tomorrow when she took them out. Seline can't help but stop and make eye contact with Whitney, who honestly looks really pathetic right now.

"Really?" Seline asks, crossing her arms. "Is this how desperate Joja is to make an impression on the town?"

Beads of green rain landed on her forehead and Whitney tried to dab them away with her handkerchief as discreetly as possible. It wasn't the most comfortable place to be, sweltering under the late summer humidity and drowning in this mysterious green rain to pass out free ponchos and umbrellas, but she was so focused on her work that she hardly noticed her discomfort. As part of her master plan to dominate the Joja ladder, etc., she hoped the protective Joja swag would only heighten the goodwill Joja gained after the mine incident.

[lcvergrl]

"Well, it certainly wasn't me," Jai says with a frown. He had saw the notice this morning, had passed it on his way to work. He circled around again to see if it was real and not just something from his maladaptive daydreaming. "It seems we have an awful gossiper in our midst. I don't know any intergalactic conspiracy theorists... do you?"

"Excuse me?" Taeng urgently called over the first passerby in the Town Square. She had to shout to be heard over the pouring rain. Emotion knit her brows together as Taeng tapped on the glass and pointed out her own note about Conrad, Jai and herself from the bulletin board and held it out to her neighbor. "Do you know who posted this?"

[lcvergrl]

Jai was on his way to the library to give some choice words to Conrad about public decorum and inappropriate PDA. It wasn't the best day for rocket building, so he found himself with plenty of free time. He originally smiles when he sees the young Granger-Liao, looking forward to a delightful conversation, but his energy dims a bit at her less than ideal mood.

"Yippee, Maude," he exclaims, a new greeting he'd been trying out. "I was watching where I'm going... were you?" Jai looks down at the book. "That's some real bad luck there. You'll probably have to pay for that, you know."

@lcvergrl // Mad Maude was on her usual huff and puff tour de Stardew, and her scowl only deepened when she saw she was about to cross paths with Jai. She was still upset with him for his snide remarks about the general store. She hoped she could slip by him with incident, but of course their umbrellas collided, and the jostle forced Maude to drop her library book in the mud. "Can you watch where you're going?" she barked over the rolling thunder as she dove to save the book.

[lcvergrl]

"Of course I've heard of Guccio Gucci," she pushes out through gritted teeth. "I find it hard to believe someone born over one hundred years ago is taking fashion advice from a nobody in pelican town." She crosses her arms and looks Marcel up and down. "Then again, you do look pretty old. Perhaps you really did know him."

She taps her fingers on her arm and smiles. "You know what? If your designs really have been... pilfered... you wouldn't mind putting off a fashion show sometime." Her smile widens. "For the whole town."

oh, now this oddly rude half-pint was really in for it.   "   my fashions are envied in all the land!   "   he squeaked.   "   i'll have you know i have had my ideas poached by several prolific designers across the countered. pilfered, in fact! ever heard of a little someone called gucci?   "

[lcvergrl]

"Dramatic much?" Seline says, rolling her eyes. "And I — I wasn't going through your stuff," Seline stutters, embarrassed, though she very well was going through Maude's stuff. Why shouldn't she? They were basically duplicates of each other, in dna, where it truly mattered. Seline was allowed to look through Maude's things... It was how she made sure the other wasn't planning some coup d'état.

"I came in to find my..." Seline pauses for a second far too long. "Raincoat. It was raining. I just happened upon the letter. Hardly my fault, you had it just sitting there." Yoba, why did she always over explain when she was nervous?

"As far as I'm concerned, we are not friends anymore," Maude lied for effect, mostly for the sake of getting Seline off her back. Why did she care so much about her and Cordelia anyway? Once Seline revealed the real reason she was in her room, though, it all clicked into place. She just wanted to snoop and meddle. "How do you know about that? Why were you in my room? Why were you going through my stuff?" Maude demanded, each additional question like the hiss of a snake rearing its head and preparing to bite. They were only the beginning.

[lcvergrl]

"You'll definitely be giving me a run for my money for cover page," she says, laugh falling easily from her lips. There was a lot about life Seline was jealous of. Though she had many of her own things to be proud of, she often felt a sort of awe when people had it all figured out. She yearned to be sitting outside, working on an art piece while her animals kept her company. Seline sighs, wondering, not for the first time, if she should go to the shelter and adopt an animal. Without telling her family, of course. "I get that. I'm also mean when I'm woken up." Seline sits down crosslegged and begins to lightly scratch the pups ears, smiling though she feels the unfamiliar texture of fur slightly disturbing. She looks at Marley. "Hey, I'll give you a glassblowing tutorial if you show me how to sew sometime."

seeing seline's eye drawn to the project in their lap, marley held it up for her appraisal, ❝ whaddaya think, am i destined for vogue ?? ❞ what was once a simple denim jacket had now clearly been repaired so many times it more closely resembled an old quilt; patches of different coloured denim and even other fabrics held the garment together, each repair carried out with neat, careful needlework. ❝ of course you can !! samson and mouse love any and all attention, ❞ they nodded towards the two larger dogs, whose tails immediately started wagging when they felt their owner's attention on them, ❝ just steer clear of the little'un. she's mean when you wake her up. ❞

[lcvergrl]

All of Seline's ideas were good, thank you very much. In fact, they might even be great, if anyone listened to long enough to hear her out. With a huff, Seline also starts mixing together paint colours, creating a palette of blues, purples, greens, anything she thinks will go together. She curses the pole, knowing it will absorb more paint than necessary and she'll have to be quick with her layering for it to even show up. She nods, eyes eager. "Right now." Seline lowers her voice. "If you slip water into their paint bottles while they're not looking, they'll never get it to dry and it'll look awful. They won't even notice because they'll think it's the right consistency."

corina had to hold back a huge sigh. alright, so she wanted to be up high, sue her! like a dejected toddler, corina picked up the paint brush and nodded. "that's a good idea, i guess," she muttered as she mixed the paint colors to get what she wanted. "at what point do we consider sabotage?"

[lcvergrl]

Jai resists the urge to take Danica's arm and stop her from beating up the other team — surely they were going to get kicked out, if she kept throwing them. A look of horror on his face, Jai was no longer concerned with the other teams unsportsman-ship, but rather preoccupied by their own. Danica was a whiz with those rocks, that's for sure. He lets out a forced laugh. "Oooookay," he says, going towards the finish line backwards, eagerly putting the distance between him and Danica. He made a mental note to never, ever get on her bad side.

& FIN.

by now, danica's blood was pumping through her ears and her competitive spirit was set on fire. jai's accent change was not perceived (but let it happen again ina different setting, and danica will be so annoying about it). "no, we're going to take them down," she said, picking up even more rocks and chucking them with all of her strength. she nudged jai in the direction of the finish line. if this moment were to have a soundtrack, it would be some sort of triumphant instrumental that superheroes had when they got back up after getting beat up by the villain at first. "get the finish line, i'll stop them from getting in your way!!!"

[lcvergrl]

"Sure, whatever," Jai drawls, seemingly unbothered. He was an awful swordsman, as much as he liked to gloat about his skill in every area of life. He looks worriedly between the twigs and Conrad, a rebuttal on his tongue, but eventually fading away as he refuses to admit defeat. "To the death, decapitation, or until one of is surrenders?" Jai thinks he might know what all of that means. Maybe.

conrad doesn't laugh at jai's joke   —   in fact, he takes this very seriously.   "   if you're requesting a battle of twigs, that tells me you're not ready for what a real fight may look like.   "   it was practically snarled.   "   for the sake of the public, i accept your bid for now. but tonight after nightfall, i demand a real duel. sword to sword.   "

[lcvergrl]

"Is that a joke? Of course you do." Seline has to resist adding another eye roll to her repertoire. "Have you seen what you're wearing? Do you look in the mirror before you leave the house?" Seline is getting heated, pissed off at being asked such an obvious question. Of course Marcel looked like a loser. Marcel was a loser.

"   do i look like a loser to you, seline?   "   marcel folded his arms across his chest. as if! 

[lcvergrl]

"I am not a gremlin, you insolent half-wit." Getting pelted in the eye with a rock was not an unfamiliar feeling to Jai, but it was still unpleasant. He closes the affected eye with barely a word and a wince, leaning over to pick up some other rocks and helping Danica defend their honour. "This is incredibly messed up," he says, faux British accent turning slightly Australian in his ire. "Maybe we should turn back and tell the Mayor. This is unsportsman-like and they should be disqualified!"

danica fell to the ground with a great 'OOMPH!' she shot a glare up at jai, feeling a bit validated in his uselessness. she scrambled up in her sack, brushing dirt off of her arms from where she fell. "don't tell me what to do, you gremlin!" regardless, she did bend down to pick up the rocks that were thrown their way and chucked them at their competitors. she may have hated jai, but she hated losing far more.

[lcvergrl]

"That's — that's preposterous," Jai stutters, taking the flask back quickly and shoving it in his pocket. He'd have to be sure not to drink any more of the substance around Maude henceforth, lest she think he was some sort of hooligan. "Of course not. How could you ask me that?" And what did they mean by like that? Super cool, intelligent, ambitious and awesome? Coming to the logical conclusion that yes, of course Maude must mean that, Jai looks down his nose at her. "You could afford to be a little more like this," he says snootily. "Maybe then you wouldn't be... working at the general store." He says it as if he's just smelled something terrible.

Maude bristled at the words young and Granger-Liao, but chalked the irritation up as no more than her usual. "Oh, delicious. I just hope the soup is this good," she deadpanned, but not without another deep sip from the flask before passing it back to Jai. She couldn't help but grimace as it went down, but at least it would ease the dull, full-body ache that was this festival. "I was about to ask if that's why you're always like that, because you're always drunk. Are you sure you don't ever sneak any tequila on a regular day? Not even a splash?"

[lcvergrl]

Seline's jaw drops, a strangled sound coming out of her mouth. She narrows her eyes. "What? I multi-task just fine." Resisting the urge to immediately shoot down Corina's idea — nobody was going to win anything with an attitude like that — Seline bites the inside of her cheek. "I think we'd eat up some valuable time doing that," she says and then quickly adds: "though it is a great suggestion, really." Seline walks around the pole. "What if we just did the area we can reach but we did both sides? And did contrasting images? Like day and night." She tilts her head. "Maybe you could add in some etching for texture?"

corina sighed with a shrug of her shoulders. "i don't know, i thought we could work on your multi-tasking." regardless of her reply, she started to look around for a stool, clicking her teeth when she saw none. "we'll have to improvise. maybe we can build a little chair or something out of sticks."

[lcvergrl]

He thinks for a moment, running his mind over the last few people he'd ran into who spilled their guts about the ingredients. "No worms so far," he says with a shake of the head. He assesses Emery's form, walking in a slow circle. "Ah," he says, leaning down to squint very closely at her arm. "You've got to go a little bit slower, or you might blow the whole town up." He almost begins to giggle, feeling both nonsensical but also thrilled by the possibility of being actually right!

"Yeah, do you know if anyone put any worms this year?" Emery tried to sound nonchalant, so Jai hopefully wouldn't realize she only asked because she was considering politely abstaining if so. As much as she loved the valley, well...worms? She instead focused on following Jai's instructions, reaching out for the big ladle and giving the soup a stir. "How's that? Should I go slower? Faster?"

[lcvergrl]

Seline laughs, her face brightening up immediately with the quip. She, very pointedly, did not have bad days, but today was a mixture between not great and perfectly fine. "Just a few minutes," she offers, eying the garment curiously. Patchwork was an interesting medium to lose yourself in, one Seline hadn't quite gotten the hang of yet. She points to the water canteen at her hip with an "I'm all set, thanks," before turning her attention to the sleeping pup. Bashful, Seline meets Marley's eyes. "I was actually wondering if I could pet your dog for a while."

𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐬 : open. 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 : the ranch, early evening. 𝐜𝐚𝐩 : ? /?.

marley loved summer evenings like this, when the heat of the day gave way to a slightly cooler dusk before the calm quiet of night settled over the valley. it was the perfect weather to sit on their porch with the door open, dogs snoozing at their feet and music drifting out from the record player in their living room like something from a distant dream. their neck was bent, deep in concentration as they were, over the well-worn denim that lay across their lap; the needle and thread looped through the fabric as it had clearly done many times before, patching up yet another hole in the jacket marley wasn't quite ready to let go of yet. their cowboy hat shielded their eyes from anything other than the project in their lap, so they startled when a noise alerted them to the fact that someone was standing in front of them,

❝ sorry, have you been standin' there long ?? come sit, grab a beer !! or there's iced tea in the fridge if you want somethin' that tastes less like battery acid. ❞

[lcvergrl]

Jai's head shakes disappointedly. "Clearly, you are not a forager." He doesn't think much of the insult, though it was a pathetic excuse for one. He's more focussed on Taeng's mysterious creative passion. He assumes, immediately, she must be very bad at it, since she's so afraid to even utter a word. His look turns pitying. "Okay, Taeng. I understand." He pulls an egg out from his pocket and holds up the spoon he'd been provided with earlier. "I've won this three years in a row." He hadn't, but she didn't have to know that.

"I'm sure the farmers' spice berries are fine, but whatever the children are always stomping on in the woods and mountains? That goo on their shoes is probably the spice berry your team is named after." She grinned, once again convinced she did something. Amused by herself, she wagged a finger in Jai's direction. "Uh uh uh, you won't get it out of me that easily, you're the enemy. But maybe if you win this egg race we're about to have...I'll consider it."

[lcvergrl]

"Hey—" the protest gets half way out of her mouth before she's also falling, flopping over onto Emery. Seline thrashes her legs, willing the ties to unbind with every movement. "Get these things off of me," she grunts, claustrophobia quickly cutting in. She feels mud splatters on her face and her nose wrinkles up in disgust. She looks around, panicked. The race wasn't long from starting, and Seline already envisioned herself holding a lousy participation medal. "How are we even supposed to get up?"

See, Seline was operating on a one, two, three wave, but Emery was on more of a one, two, three, go! vibe. She was just about to lift up her foot when she was jerked into Seline's side. "Oh, Yoba, whoa, whoa," Emery cried out, feeling her balance start to go. "Wait, hang on, I'm falling!"