#while actually just playing the same farmer romancing the same marriage candidate again

[stardew-help-wanted]

[not-poignant]

All of that just to ask-- and I understand if you don't want to respond since this takes up time that could be used otherwise-- I was interested in learning more about your Stardew Valley OC. How did Oliver and Sebastian first meet? What did they begin to enjoy about each other? How is their dynamic? Thank you for writing one of my favorite works of Stardew Valley fanfiction-- You gave me so much to think about, and feel warm over, and I loved the world that you nourished through words.

Hiya!

Hmm, I often don’t care or think about my player characters much. (It was the same with Dragon Age: Inquisition, I was more interested in identifying with the other characters than I was with my own player character, and to this day I don’t give a shit about my Inquisitor).

So I never imagined all that much re: Oliver, because I just...wasn’t super invested? I’ve had five farms now, Oliver is the latest, and I wanted to romance Sebastian not because Oliver has some backstory about it, but because I wanted to understand Sebastian better for my fic, lol.

BUT, I did have some like, headcanons. Which is that Oliver is an older goth, but kind of tired of life. He kind of goes around in jeans and sneakers and like old goth band shirts and he has the black spiky hair but otherwise that’s about it. He wasn’t interested in romancing anyone because he’s like, older than everyone except maybe Elliott, who he doesn’t care for.

But Sebastian seemed cool and into goth-y type stuff and Oliver spent all his time in the mines anyway, so it was easy to give Sebastian gifts on the way home. Over time, they became friends. Oliver kept expecting Sebastian to leave, and was non-committal about their friendship, let alone a relationship. Meanwhile, Sebastian (who I headcanoned as a budding Dom/top in this farm incarnation, I don’t headcanon him like that the rest of the time lol), decided to test out some of those things on Oliver, because Oliver was tired enough and willing enough to be like ‘whatever.’

Oliver ended up really enjoying himself, Sebastian did too, and for a while there was a big gap where Oliver was way more into Sebastian than Sebastian was into Oliver. (Like. Sebastian didn’t know about subdrop, and he didn’t know about aftercare, and he didn’t know about any of those things, because he’d often do something and then research it - and Oliver wouldn’t tell him, because he thought he was being strange and didn’t want to scare Sebastian away). Sebastian called it ‘we fuck sometimes’ and Oliver was like ‘okay, well, it’s better than I expected, so I’ll take it.’

I still think they have quite a strange relationship. I mean Sebastian’s post-marriage lines when he’s moved in aren’t actually all that romantic canonically and they’re remarkably selfish / self-focused compared to many of the other marriage candidates. So I kind of imagine Sebastian with relatively untreated depression, Oliver who tries to do a lot for him, and both of them figuring it out as they go. Sebastian can find it easy to mistreat Oliver, because he assumes Oliver is just ‘old enough and experienced enough to know better and he will stand up for himself.’ Oliver is old enough and tired enough to know that he might not ever have any kind of companionship again, so he doesn’t stand up for himself.

I have a mild headcanon that as Alex and Sebastian become closer, Sebastian ends up getting to know Elliott and confiding in him, and Elliott is horrified at how Oliver is being treated re: scenes, and kind of sits Sebastian down for The Talk (TM) about How You Don’t Skip Aftercare Because You Suddenly Remembered You Have Depression and It Was Too Hard To Bother After You Came.

But I don’t know how they first met. (I don’t remember - and tbh I’m not sure they do either, it was probably a non-event for the both of them). And I don’t know how much they enjoy about each other. Sebastian enjoyed getting out of his parent’s house. Oliver feels less lonely. I think they are growing to care about each other as people, rather than just as ‘things you can do for me because I can’t get this thing any other way.’

Ultimately, I am not hugely invested. (That’s terrible, isn’t it? Everyone else tends to love their player-characters and even write fic about them or commission art about them and I’m like ‘this non-entity vessel is here so I can play the story.’ I’m just there to farm, and I needed a backstory for the Pinkstone farmer re: The Wind that Cuts the Night and that ended up being it.

I think my happiest farmer is the one who married Alex, tbh. Alex is like...invested, in his post-marriage dialogue. And while he has times where he’s concerned with his body image or looking forward to winter being over, he is a very attentive, sweet spouse. Alex and him are both switches in that incarnation, lol, and they just party in the bedroom whenever they like.