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Some news about future updates coming for Stardew Valley!

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Important Update

12/13/17:

If you have downloaded any of my files (except Sam from the Nexus/Chucklefish), for testing or not, please re-download them!

I discovered a rather big error on my part – it’s a bit embarrassing, but I typed in the code for the blushing portrait wrong… for everyone. All the characters showed their happy portrait wherever their blushing portrait was supposed to appear before this update. It probably didn’t look too out of place, so that’s why it wasn’t caught sooner.

I rolled out the fix for everyone yesterday, but this is the official announcement post.

Once again, if you downloaded any of my files, except Sam’s on the Nexus/Chucklefish, but including Elliott’s from the Nexus/Chucklefish, please re-download them in order to experience the correct expressions. 

I’m so sorry for this inconvenience, but thank you for your patience and support as always!

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Stardew Valley - Elliott

So recently I fell into playing some Stardew Valley. It had been on steam sale, and I’ve heard a lot about it over the years, so decided to give it a go.

And of course, as with any video game, this meant falling headfirst into playing/modding and just some generally obsessive behavior. As per usual.

My brain always chooses a favorite guy, no matter what the game, and in this case, it was Elliott. So here, we have a post about Elliott and the mods I have created for him, and how I see his character and background.

First, the mods. I have a portrait & sprite mod, a main dialogue mod and a marriage dialogue mod. I’ve been looking into the mail system, and might try my hand at learning SMAPI mods, so that I can make some letters he’ll mail you after events and/or heart levels are reached. I’ve thought slightly about adding an event, also, but that’s still on the back burner for now.

New Handsome Elliott Portrait and Sprite Mods

Elliott Main Dialogue Expansion Mod

Elliott Marriage Dialogue Expansion Mod

Now, a little blurb on how I see his character. I’ve put this under a read more, so if you don’t want to read it or don’t want to be spoiled on some lines in his dialogue, you can skip it :)

(spoilers for his character below, if you haven’t played the game or don’t want an in-depth analysis based on the game/my dialogue mods)

Elliott is a bachelor who has moved to town only a year before you arrive. He’s left his former life, and moved into a small cabin on the beach in order to chase his dream of being an author. The people in his old life thought him silly, and felt this was a foolish idea, but he left all he knew and most likely spent every penny he had to give this a try.

As I was writing Elliott, I thought of him as about 30 plus or minus a couple of years. I feel as if this can go younger or much older depending on personal headcanon, and the dialogue will still work. He’s older than most the bachelors, except for Harvey. They may be of a similar age, or it’s possible Harvey is older, since he’s a doctor. I headcanon each of them to be someplace in the 25-45 year range. Both old enough to have started careers elsewhere before moving to town, and left old lives behind them. It’s a huge, broad range, I know. But as I said, I think of Elliott as roughly around 30. Or 28. Or 32. You know, somewhere in there. A man such as Elliott doesn’t give his age!

He is vain, especially of his long hair. But this isn’t without reason. From the little the game tells us about his background, I think Elliott grew up in a well-off family, or at least a high middle-class. They prized things like a good income, steady job, logic not fanciful ideas, outward appearance not who you were on the inside. His looks and physique are probably one of the ways he could impress his family, since his ideas and dreams were so fanciful. No matter how hard he tries, his head is in the clouds and he can’t be a “normal” person. He admits freely that he’s an oddball -- you know this must be something he’s been called before, and he’s taken it in and made it his own.

As a child, he was drawn to the sea. This wild, untamed ocean touched his soul, and draws him in. I imagine him as a youth, not being quite the same as the other children in his social circle. Feeling the call of the sea and wanting to be outside in nature; feeling the lure of reading, and living in the solitude of his daydreams. An Anne of Green Gables in masculine form, yet never finding the love and acceptance she did with her adoptive family. Thus, instead of being as outgoing as a child as she was, he retreated... until he grew into his looks, and grew his hair long. Then his looks, his hair, his physique became a sort of armor for him. Something to wear to the world, to his family -- something that gave him courage and let him blossom into a more talkative person. Someone who can now chat easily with strangers, and can embrace his romantic, oddball ways without reservation.

His cadence of speaking and word choices are a little different than say someone like Sebastian. Elliott has surrounded himself with books, has made friends of the classics and lives partially in a world gone by. He’s romantic, sometimes a little cheesy, always sincere, and has a deep love in his heart for nature and the world around him. Yet, this affectionate nature and willingness to wear his heart on his sleeve doesn’t mean he’s happy all the time. He fights with self-doubt, with waves of depression, with the fear of not being good enough that comes to most artists. There are times he gets stuck in his head, thinking too much, and makes him think himself a fool and a failure. Yet those days and times pass, because at heart, he truly is a buoyant person.

Since he left his old life behind him, giving up everything and spending all his money to take this chance, to devote himself fully to writing -- he doesn’t have time for many other hobbies. He does, however, play the piano. Whether he came to that cabin because it had a piano, or if the piano is one of the only things he brought from his old life, it is the one true luxury he affords himself. Otherwise his days are spent writing, reading (for research I’d guess), or spending time decompressing in nature. He loves taking walks, and speaks of fishing. Once you progress to romance and he’s finished the book,  he restores the rowboat with his own hands -- so he must also have a little bit of some handyman skills. I imagine once married (if the game would allow for it!!!) he would enjoy doing a little woodwork in his free time, perhaps even learning how to carve toys for the kids from Leah.

It speaks volumes to me that Leah and Willy are his friends in town. The other nature lover/artist, and the sea-loving fisherman. Both reflect elements in Elliott’s personality, and who he meshes with. He is also one that encourages you not to give up on making friends in town, to keep trying with Clint, no matter how discouraging it may seem. Elliott doesn’t give up on people, and gives all people a fair chance. I’d guess he’d also be friends with Linus, and not judge him for his lifestyle.

In love, Elliott is the most romantic of romantics. He will be sweet and maybe even a little cheesy, but he says things with such confidence and such charisma, that no matter how flowery his language, he’s utterly charming. He’ll never seek to hide his true feelings from you, or dissemble the fact he’s falling in love. He’d like nothing so much than to sweep you away, and give you the stars. In this way I see him like the bioware characters of Alistair or Jaal.

And that’s probably why I loved him. Alistair and Jaal with a bit of a masculine Anne of Avonlea... how could I ever resist?

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Posted on my twitter awhile ago. Saw this and the first thing I thought of was Anders.

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punishment for the liars

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(sweats)

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Hawke: If it means fighting more slavers, I’ll help you.

Fenris: I’ll find a way to repay you. I swear—

Hawke: Marry me and let me shower you in love for the rest of your life

Fenris: What?

Hawke: What?

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I replayed DA2

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

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I was gonna be productive, then I drew Sera. yup

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beautiful

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Zevran Arainai, Advisor to the Inquisition.

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what can one warden do?

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Flora & Fauna of Dragon Age Inquisition (x) ↳ Dragonthorn

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I Feel Sun Through the Ashes in the Sky by defenestratin

THERE I finished it! All my nights of lost sleep, I’ve gone and completed it. Thank you so much to my friends who supported me through my holiday in my attempt to create something to end the year with a blast, and I hope you guys like it too!

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i love fics where blackwall gets hurt in battle and the inquisitor INSISTS on patching him up

and he just sits there sweating nervously and telling himself to think pure thoughts because the inquisitor just has the best of intentions and he’s a dirty old man

and she’s just like yooooooo im gonna get me some of that