#or like...stardew valley jack runs off to a small town and finds him there au

[exalok]

oh HELLO I can’t resist asking about your stardew valley au??????? I’m interested in learning anything (and everything) about it

HELLO oh god the stardew valley au!!!! initial disclaimer that i am a little obsessed with stardew valley. secondary disclaimer that this wip is still in the phase where i'm a little too set on recreating the exact conditions of the stardew setup rather than the vibe, but i'm getting around to relaxing my criteria

basis of the au is royal ot3 but there are a couple of other things going on :D basically daud decides to retire (he bought the farm..... oh man i could make a dumb pun out of that) and i dunno how he gets a hold of the farm but he does. it's a shitty little shack with terrible plumbing and a terrible electric setup (OH I SHOULD HAVE AN ELECTRICIAN) but it's lost in the middle of a huge overgrown field on the edge of a small to middling wood and no neighbors for at least a few miles so he likes it. (the setting would be similar, the mountains and the river and such, though i'm debating the beach)

despite his taciturn grunting whenever he's asked a question the locals are DETERMINED to get to know him. and he can't say he completely hates the company of two of them in particular: the rancher from south of him, on the town edge of the woods, and her husband who helps her with the animals. he doesn't know what the guy used to do, it's pretty clear he's more of a house husband than anything specific. also shit the rancher JACKED

then the cast and crew of the rest of the town start to sneak into his good graces as well -- the carpenter living with his niece in the foothills, who's friendly and fixes up the leaky walls for little more than equal help in exchange, the kids running around who come stare at him being terrible at farming from over his fence, the bartender who's got a weirdly familiar face (and given daud's line of work that's not necessarily a good sign)..... and then things start getting weirder, and he finds out there are things in the woods, too, eager to be friends.

cue whalers making a trickster nuisance of themselves

BUT YEAH i've got ideas for a number of characters from D1 and D2 (the main trio obvs, also geoff and callista, paolo and mindy -- she gets to be the blacksmith's apprentice, and the blacksmith is aramis, i think my recent one had delilah and breanna in there with breanna as museum curator -- might futz with that, she could have a personal collection, this isn't the game -- and delilah as a traveler who comes through often.... want to include wallace and pendleton but still unsure how, something about disinheritance and wallace being layed off when the family started getting too poor to maintain servants...... anyway the thoughts are ongoing

[wetwellie]

somewhere in my brain there is a fully fleshed AU where Bitty is from an honest to god farm and is in charge of his family’s produce stand. 

The produce stand for that farm outside of town has always been a more or less popular spot just off of campus. For those students who are really really sick of grilled cheeses and pizza and other bread+melted cheese based food products that make up nearly all of the dining options on campus, the stand offered delicious and in season fruits and vegetables. They are at a decent cost and outrageous quality. Students often came for the food, and stuck around for the drama. 

For the first two years Jack was at Samwell, the stand was manned by two sisters. All that The Swallow’s unofficial guide to Samwell said about the stand was “If you want to see some honest to god entertainment, just ask about the Jam.” He tagged along with Shitty after practice a couple of times to see for himself. The apples were delicious, and Judy and Suzanne were so nice. ”Oh you two play Hockey? My son played on a Hockey team before we moved up here.” “Why doesn’t he play now?” Jack wants to ask, but he’s cut off by Shitty.  “Which of these Jams does he like best?” “Mine” they both answer with a passion and fury that Jack has seldom seen off-ice. 

Jack didn’t visit the stand much, though. He was much too preoccupied with Hockey and Being the Best and Never Failing to go out of his way just to be the one to get the fresh produce. Someone else in the Haus has always been the one to do that.  Sometimes Shitty would burst into his room dumping all the “bounties of his travels” to the farm stand. 

”Suzanne introduced me to her son as “Mr. Crappy” and Judy introduced me as “Shitty”. I swear to God man, the guy just sort of went through an entire debate in his head and just ended up calling me “sir”. “And this is important because?” “I got free pies” Shitty says, placing a the plastic container on the bed. “That kid is invited over any time”  “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Isn’t the kid twelve?” “Eighteen next month, and gonna start running the stand full time starting in the summer” “Where are the sisters going?” Jack asks absently as he works to open up the container.   “Expanding their farm empire it looks like” Shitty says as he passes him a paper plate and some plastic forks from their kitchen. “I didn’t tell you this, but there’s gonna be U Pick Apples in their Orchard starting next fall” “Why do I need to pick my own apples?” Jack asks. He takes one of the mini pies and brings it to his desk to eat. Shitty tries to get himself comfortable by one handedly shucking off all of his clothing. Jack gives him a glare, and Shitty decides to keep his briefs on before collapsing onto Jack’s bed.  Jack turns to his pie and takes a bite. Jack isn’t one for his communication or flowy language. It’s suiting that the only thing he can do is turn to look Shitty in the eye and say “Holy shit”

“I know, right? It’s like eating love” “With a stick of butter and a cup of sugar on top” Jack notes. “And you said the kid made this?” Shitty nods, not able or willing to talk in between the pie he shovels into his mouth.  Jack considers this, but says nothing else. 

Bitty sends lots of calming videos to Jack from the farm

 Jack talks about the classes that he takes He still takes the photography class Bitty shows up to his first game and ends up holding the sign for the Yo Marry Me Jack Zimmermann maker while she goes and gets popcorn. This, of course, is when the jumbotron hits him and jack can see and shit

 “You’ve lived here for 5 years why do you still have your accent” “I don’t know, but it makes my road rage at people who cant drive in snow a lot more confusing for folks” Jack runs by in the summertime like…yknow that picture. Bitty tweets about it a lot. It’s worse when he actually stops by to chat with bitty in that condition. He asks him for some lemonade or water and he just…drinks it??? The fuck????? Or that one time he bought a peach and just ate it there with no care. Fuck you too Mister Zimmermann

 And then there are the winters. The food stand is hardly ever open. Only twice a week. And its only honey and jams and preserved stuff. But god, Jack sees bitty all bundled up and still shivering.

He rallies the SMH to lend like, all of their scarves and warmest winter accessories for this boy. Bitty sees him come up with a huge ass bundle of scarves, and finds himself buried underneath said bundle. He’s warm, and thankful Jack can’t see the blush on his cheeks. Bitty in the winters does find himself at more games, and at the Haus a lot more often. He even sits in on some classes just for shits and giggles. But most of the time, he just makes friends

 Bitty is made unofficial manager of the team. He can’t be official since he’s not technically a student of Samwell. Bitty is actually…pretty bummed about that. He wanted to be able to go to university and find himself and grow into his own skin. Shitty comforts him and says that he’s grown so much in the time that they’ve known each other. It really is astounding. And yeah, college isn’t for everyone. Sometimes it’s just…not in the cards. But don’t let that limit your grounds of success.

Bitty talks to jack about it, per the suggestion of shitty, and he says “when I was around the age to think about college, I never did. I never thought that was the plan. But it’s really helped and it lets me play. “ or something like that

 Subplots is that Bitty tries to learn how to play hockey again.

Jack wont “waste his time” with it. He’s got his team to worry about. And he’s not even sure he’s allowed to. Shitty and Ransom and Holster, however, try to teach him. In exchange for teaching them “farm stuff”

(aka, he brings a horse to a Kegster and is uplifted into Legend status) (the horse is fine)