#I'm thinking about developing this into. Like. An actual Fan Fiction. Still sort of short-form but like with more detail?

[fishofthewoods]

Oh my god I woke up this morning and my Stardew Valley meta post had almost 150 notes????? Hello?????????? Anyways I started writing this last night because @moon-is-pretty-tonight left nice tags on the original so thank you so much!!

We know from the starting scenes of the game that the farmer's grandfather loved Stardew Valley. So why did he leave? Pelican Town is a good place to grow old; George and Evelyn are just fine. It's a fine place to raise a kid, but maybe he just wanted to raise his child closer to real schools and other children.

Or maybe, just maybe, he understood.

Was there a day when he was in his thirties where he looked at his friends and realized they weren't like him? That he could run faster than them, work longer, explore deeper into the hidden places of the valley?

Was there a day when he went to the wizard to ask him for help, for knowledge if nothing else? Did he learn then that his family was different? Special? Chosen? And how did he react? He couldn't possibly raise a child in the valley if they would be as strange and fey as him. He had to leave. There was no other way.

But years later, on his deathbed, did he regret that choice?

Is that why he gave the farmer the letter?

Is that why they went back home?

When the farmer steps off the bus that first day, the valley is still on the cusp of winter, just barely tipping over into spring. The flowers are starting to bloom, but a chill still hangs in the air. As soon as the farmer's boots touch the soil there's a change. The air gets warmer. The trees get greener. Not by too much, not all at once, but it changes.

The junimos watch the farmer as they do their work. They're new to farming, but take to it with frightening speed; their first batch of crops is perfect. None of the townsfolk tell them that parsnips don't normally grow in less than a week, that cauliflowers don't grow to be ten feet tall, that fairies don't visit when the sun goes down and grow potatoes and beans and tulips overnight. The junimos talk amongst themselves in their strange, wild language, and agree: this is the one. They're back. The valley recognizes its own, even when they've left for a generation. The farmers have come home.

Things change fast in the valley. The community center, empty and decrepit for so many years, is rejuvenated. (Lewis says it was abandoned only a few weeks after the farmer's grandfather left. Strange coincidence, he says, that it both came and went with the farmer's family.) The mines and the quarry, similarly abandoned, are explored for the first time in ages. The town becomes cleaner, brighter, more vibrant, happier.

And it is happier. Not just the environment, but the people. It's the talk of the town for weeks when Haley does her first closet purge. Leah's art show in the town square is a huge success. Shane's smiling for the first time since he moved to the valley. All of them, when asked, say it's all thanks to the farmer.

People love to ask why Lewis didn't fix the community center on his own. Why Willy never repaired the boat to ginger island. Why Abigail or Marlon never went down to fix the elevator in the mines, or why Clint didn't fix the minecarts.

But isn't it so much more interesting to ask how those things were there in the first place? How they got so broken down? If the stories the townspeople tell are true, the valley was once a beautiful place, flourishing and full of life; why did that change? When did it change?

Was it when the farmer's grandfather, the locus of the valley, its chosen representative, left town?

And if so, what happens when the farmer comes back?

[cosplayingwitch]

Tumblr Writers Q&A Tag

Thanks for tagging me @make-me-imagine, I'm sorry it's taken this long for me to get around to things. 1. How many complete fics/oneshots do you have (that you have not published (yet))? None finished but not posted at the moment. 2. How many WIPS do you have right now? I have one permanently abandoned one-shot (but I haven't deleted it, who knows if I'll someday come back to it) and working on a major overhaul of my favorite story I've ever written- I think that counts as a WIP even though it's sort of written 3. Do you take writing requests or write original ideas, or both? I mostly do original ideas and writing challenges, but I am not opposed to taking requests in the future. (Once I actually have more time to write again.) 4. If you do take requests, how many do you currently have? As I said, no requests currently, but possibly in the future. 5. How many fandoms do you write for? One fandom comprises 90% of what I've written, then two smaller ones- so 3? But I'm considering others. 6. Are there any fandoms you wrote for in the past, that you no longer write for? No, but then again, I only started writing fan fiction last August. Not a lot of time to have a "past" with. 7. Do you write for ships, reader inserts, or other? I write mostly for reader inserts, but I've been kind of experimenting with a reader/OC hybrid situation where it's entirely first person narrating. I did write a entirely OC one-shot, but didn't care for it. 8. Niche fandoms/characters you write for? Unless you count Criminal Minds, none. 9. Do you read fics as well as write them? The last couple months I've been reading more than I write, as I haven't had time to write 10. What is your favorite genre (angst/fluff/whump/etc) to write for? I've tried, but I am physically incapable of writing anything that does not contain some form of fluff. For example, the "darker" fic I tried to write somehow morphed into a soulmates AU with a fluffy ending. 11. What is your favorite trope (to read and/or write)? My ideal to read is friends to lovers/idiots in love. To write, I've done rather well with established relationships, but I did especially love my one soulmates AU. 12. What do you do to get motivated to write? A couple of things. If it's something I haven't watched in a while, I rewatch. But also, once I have an idea of what's happening, I make a playlist for it. Sometimes it's focused towards a specific scene, sometimes it's a longer playlist that matches the entire story. 13. Is there a trope/genre you like to read, but not write? I love a good fantasy-based AU. I'm not creative enough to do something where I'd have to do full universe building 14. Any characters/fandoms you want to write for that are never requested? I don't quite take requests yet. 15. How long have you been writing fanfiction? Since August 2021. 16. Did you read fanfiction before you started writing? I started writing about a month or two after I started reading fan fiction. 17. Do you only post on tumblr, or other sites as well? (feel free to promote). I post everything on both tumblr and AO3 (cosplaying_witch) 18. What do you personally consider the word counts of "drabbles", "oneshots" and "fics" (+other?)? This is very difficult. I don't really go by word count for these definitions. For me, a drabble is a very short something that sort of flings you into a situation with no context. A oneshot is still short enough to have no chapters, just the story, but it also lets the story develop instead of dropping you in the middle; it also has no connections to other things you write like series. A fic is the longest, usually having chapters, though a really long one-shot or one that ties into another work (series) can also count. 19. Which do you prefer to write more? Headcanons, Drabbles, Oneshots/Fics, Multi-Chapter Stories, or other? I love writing multi-chapters. It gives me time to develop relationships (yes, I love a good slow-burn), but also gives me a way to "cut" around things I don't write well/don't want to actually write. I know, it's cheating, but I do it anyway 20. Are

there any stories you have discontinued? If so, why? I have a Loki x reader oneshot that has been permanently abandoned without ever leaving my WIP folder. Otherwise, no. I have problems letting things go once I start them. (Plus, I tend to write the entire thing before starting to post it) 21. What is one of your main "pet-peeves" as a writer on tumblr? Those who don't interact at all. Even just a like means the world to me. (Don't get me wrong, I understand that there isn't always time to do much more than like something, but you don't even have to scroll to the bottom of a post to like something.) 22. Do you write at a particular time of day? I used to write exclusively in the late morning/early afternoon. Now that I have a stupid full-time job, I make time to write in the morning before I leave or at night before going to sleep. (I don't write well on weekends, my mom is around and is very judgmental of fan fiction writers. I accidentally mentioned that I write once and was told that I'd end up giving it up "once I got a real job and didn't have as much time.") 23. Do you listen to music, ambiance/noise, etc. to write, or do you need silence? Music. Always music. Once I know where I'm going with a story, it actually gets its own playlist. 24. Do you outline your fics at all before writing? For my multi chapters, to a certain degree. Anything else, just the idea itself. Also, by outline I mean the absolute basics. In my last one, one chapter was outlined as "they go and get the thing done but something dangerous happens" and another was "she has a vision" 25. Do you post your writing as soon as you finish it, or do you schedule it to come out at a specific time/day? I love the idea of posting things at regular intervals, but I'm usually too excited to hold onto it. (Also, almost nothing goes up the same day I write it. I have a 3 edits/2 days rule where it has to go through 3 different rereads over at least two days before it gets posted. But once it makes it though that process, it goes up. I suppose that could be solved if I asked someone else to read through it for me, but I'm too anxious about my writing to trust it to others.)