Chapter Text
You type away at your desk absentmindedly, working on one of the many tasks your supervisor has given you. Today, he has you researching enemy businesses and what's giving them so much success, so that Joja can replicate it, of course. Breakdowns of the business practices and strategies, all broken down into nice little slideshows or documents they can easily comprehend, because if it has too big of words, their poor, illiterate little corporate brains just can't understand. The longer you sit there, the more fed up you get with it, with everything. The long hours, no social life, no time to go to check-ups, and constantly getting denied time off, even unpaid, is going to be the death of you. When you weren't at Joja behind a desk, you were in psychology lectures or sleeping, and when you weren't in class or sleeping, you were behind a desk at Joja.
“Our starting pay is above minimum wage with yearly raises!” they said, “We offer a nice deal on health insurance and liability insurance, and that's not even talking about the dental insurance!” and by minimum wage with yearly raises, they meant one dollar over the minimum with twenty-five cent raises per year. The health insurance and dental essentially cover your ability to have a yearly check-up, and that's as far as that goes, but you suppose you should be lucky they gave that to you at all.
Your break was rapidly approaching, and your back had begun to ache as usual from being in an uncomfortable chair for that long. Your brain was so fried from staring at the screen ahead of you for so long, you couldn't remember if you had actually packed yourself anything for lunch or if you were going to have to use one of the overpriced vending machines they offered in the lobby.
Beep beep
“The more I think about it, the more dystopian my lunch break being called by 2 short beeps is.” You internally sighed as you stood up to stretch and crack your back. You looked at the clock, 8 PM. “Well, I guess that's more like dinner now, isn't it?” you grumbled as you looked into your bag, finding the leftovers from earlier, and sighing. You slumped back down into your chair tiredly and looked down at your dilapidated half of a sandwich. Before you could stop yourself, you found yourself speaking out loud, “How did I even get here?”
Your coworker leans against your cubicle, “Well, at the very least, you're still young and fit and built to get out there and see the world. You’re not tied down to the Joja company, destined to work here for the rest of your life like little old me,” he remarked in feigned sarcasm, bringing the back of his hand up to his forehead to really drive in the point.
Sighing, you turn to him, “True that, true that. I don't know, I’m graduating this year. I think I just,” you paused, not knowing how to convey what you were feeling to him, “need out. Of everything. Not just Joja, I just need out of city life entirely. I feel like I need to uproot and get out, it's like I can't breathe in here.”
“Well, don't waste your life here, Yoba, there's got to be something out there for someone your age to be doing that's not being chained down to a desk for all eternity. Seriously, get out of here while you can before you're too far in. It’s like they trap you in here, man.”
The words barely left his mouth as the jingle of keys echoing cut him short. With a curt nod, he scurried off to his cubicle, hoping to get back before management noticed he had left.
If anyone was talking, they were silent now. Not a soul in the building was brave enough to step out of line; anyone desperate enough to work at Joja didn't have the luxury of acting out. You finished your sandwich, stretched a bit more, and got back to work for the rest of your three and a half hours.
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The words began to blur and bleed together on the screen. The migraine that has been pounding against the back of your eyes for the past few hours only getting more aggravating. Dread builds up every time you think about the next day. The pattern, work and sleep, sleep and work, go to school, and then back to work, over and over. It was all you really thought about anymore as days passed and time started feeling irrelevant. Before you could begin spiraling at your cubicle over your monotonous life, the clock struck midnight. You raced down the hall as fast as you could to clock out, meaning you walked calmly to avoid being hunted down for being caught running. But Yoba forbid you to clock you 4 seconds after your shift ends because obviously the multibillion-dollar company can't afford the extra penny it costs them.
Luckily or unluckily, depending on how you think about it, you lived around a ten-minute walk right smack dab in the middle between your company's building and school. As you open the door, you're met with a still, dead silence throughout the apartment. Although he has an entire very nice bed inside his bedroom, you see your roommate passed out on the couch, still in his work uniform, with his bag half-hazardously thrown to the side of him. You don't even really have the energy to judge him.
As you were about to throw yourself into bed, an envelope hung by a thumbtack on the wall caught your attention. It was from grandpa, “for if you're ever feeling lost or hopeless in life,” or something like that. You were tempted to open it right after he passed, but instead, you respected his wishes and simply carried it with you through school; that is, up until now, it might finally be time to tear open the seal and read that letter.
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Spring 1
The bus stops, jolting you awake suddenly from a sleep you didn’t even notice yourself falling into. Looking up at the glowing sign at the front of the bus reading ‘Pelican Town,’ you felt your heart skip a beat. The faint anxiety that had been building up from the moment you called to put in your two-week notice finally came crashing down on you.
You were definitely far better off living in Pelican Town. Right?
If this is actually everything you're hoping it to be, it's not only a fresh start but a guaranteed house. Not one you could lose if you don't make enough that month, just yours. Zuzu City, despite being far bigger than what grandpa described Pelican Town as in the letter, had begun to feel too small now. But it's not like you weren't making it; it was steady. You had a rhythm that's now been shattered and thrown to the wind. There wasn’t really time to panic, though, and there wasn't a chance to turn back anymore. You grabbed your bags quickly and walked to the front of the bus, forcing yourself to take deep breaths.
Worst-case scenarios flooded your thoughts. “What if they bulldozed the farmhouse a long time ago?” or “what if there's not really an opening for a farmer or another farmer nearby and they think I'm trying to take their job?” or a million other things that could go horribly wrong miles and miles away from everything you had just built for yourself.
Upon stepping out, you're met with two new faces waiting for you. An older man with one of the most interesting outfits you think you had ever seen up to that point, not that you would say that to him. Turns out the oddly dressed man was the mayor of the town, and you made note not to get on his bad side. The other person, an older lady but not quite as old as Mayor Lewis, had a much warmer and motherly vibe to her. She said her name was Robin and she was the local carpenter. They had both very kindly come to collect you from the bus stop to show you to your new home.
As you walked the dirt path down to the farm, Lewis reminisced about the times your grandfather had lived down on the farm before you. Retelling the old glory days of how well he kept the farm. Which worried you a bit. How far downhill has it gone since then? Glancing over, the pity in Robin's eyes, even if she didn't say it aloud, was obvious.
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To your relief, the house was still up. To your horror, the entire farm was in such horrid disarray that you truly didn't even know where you were gonna start—you had to clear brush and weeds just to get to your front door.
You were graciously given fifteen parsnips to start with by Mayor Lewis, and you have 500 gold to play around with from whatever weird conversion rates you had from Zuzu City’s currency to here.
After clearing out the weeds around the farm and planting the seeds, hopefully correctly, you looked at the time and decided to maybe take a peek at the town square, hoping to find somewhere open to buy more seeds for planting.
The walk into town was peaceful; it had been a while since you were surrounded by this much greenery. You can't seem to remember the last time you actually saw a bird flying past you. As you walked into the initial center, you immediately noticed a doctor's office and a general store! A note was made about figuring out how medical insurance or doctor visits worked in a town with one doctor. You didn’t notice anywhere around that you could use the psychology degree you had just gone into debt over, but who knows, that's a later you problem; you're a farmer now, for better or worse.
And with that knowledge, you walk into the general store hoping it has an assortment of seeds.
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Jingle “Welcome in, good sir! We don't get many new faces around here. This is the number one store for all your buying and selling needs! I assume you're the new farmer everyone's spoken of recently?” remarked the man behind the counter.
You walked up, giving a small wave of politeness. “Hello, yeah, I just moved in yesterday. I was actually just curious if there were seeds I could buy here? In season? I'm not really that knowledgeable about what plants are for what season, but maybe you know? Oh, I'm sorry, what's your name? I'm Farmer.”
“Great first impression, Farmer, just don't ask the guy his name, you're so rude, oh my Yoba.”
“Don't you worry about a thing, we have a wide variety of spring products for your browsing pleasure, at an amazing price, I may add. My name is Pierre, and besides my store's wonderful prices, I’ll also buy produce from you as well if you're interested. “ he comes out from behind the counter as he's talking and begins walking towards an aisle in the store. “Over here is our spring seed collection. Feel free to look through them all. Make sure to read them, though, some of them take longer to grow than others; it should be listed on the packets.”
“Got it, thank you! It was nice meeting you,” you chirped as Pierre walked back behind the counter. “I think I'll just get some more parsnip seeds…”
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“I am SO gonna be sore tomorrow,” you heave as you finish planting and watering the rest of the seeds you bought, turning around to look at your new home again. Turns out sitting at a desk all day every day doesn’t really keep you in shape, and it's not like there was time to fit in the gym. “Robin said she could do house upgrades, but how much exactly ARE those upgrades?”
You glanced toward the corner of your farm at the path that Robin had taken up to her house. Supposedly, there was a shortcut from your farm to the top of the mountain that didn't involve walking all the way through town. “Well, if I get lost and die, I guess that's a sign I'm not built for this life. Here we go,” you sighed and began walking.
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Robin had a VERY nice house, especially when you compared it to your run-down, shabby little shack pushed off into the corner. If this were an example of her work, you would be very impressed. Opening the door, you hoped she wasn’t terribly busy as you walked in and took a quick, hurried look around the room you were walking into.
“Oh, you're already here! Can I help you with something?” Robin smiles at you as she turns around from whatever she was busying herself with.
“Sorry to walk in with no warning, I just wanted a quick quote of how much it'd be to maybe install an extra room, like a kitchen, onto the farm? It's a tad cramped at the moment, you know?”
She smiled knowingly, “Of course, I could add a kitchen as well as a separate bedroom from the living room if that's something you'd be interested in. It'll run you around 10,000 gold and 150ish logs of wood in building material, though.”
“That is… certainly a number. 10,000. Certainly a number. 150 logs of wood. Me. I think I really am in over my head here,” you begin to spiral at the mention of such a high number, but before you can even begin to formulate a response, Robin looks somewhere behind you
“Oh, Sebastian, while you're out here, come meet the new town member, don't be rude! We have a farmer in town!”
You turn to see this Sebastian person, and you're a bit surprised at his appearance. His entire vibe and look are nothing like Robin’s happy and kind demeanor. Not to say he looks mean or anything. He stopped mid walk and turned back to face you both, holding back a sigh.
He was wearing black sweatpants paired with a plain black t-shirt, obviously not expecting to have company or make first impressions today. The first thing you saw when you looked at his face was the piercings, and you forced yourself not to think yourself into a rabbit hole of if there was even a piercing shop in this town and if it would survive, considering it'd get practically no business. His hair was far longer on one side, almost as if he had shaved one side of his head and let it grow out again. You both made eye contact, and his eyes were a nice dark shade of brown.
He only held eye contact for about half a second before looking away, “Oh, you're the new farmer? Cool. Out of all places in the world, Pelican town is an odd choice, though.” His face was neutral, but his tone was dripping with a lot of sarcasm for someone talking to a stranger. He looked back towards you
You blank stare him for a moment, pausing to not get defensive over a comment from a guy you barely even know. “Yeahhhh, the farms actually, my- well was my grandpa's, I'm just taking it over and stuff. City life just wasn't for me, I guess.” You tried to keep a nice, sweet tone, but as you spoke, your eyes flicked between him and the ground in nervousness, and it was all you could do to keep yourself from fidgeting with your hands.
He gave a quick upward nod before practically sighing his next sentence, “Mm. Well, I hope you like it here. One of us has to.” He didn't wait for a response before continuing to walk to the far end of the house, where you couldn’t see.
Robin sighs, “He's a lot sweeter once you get to know him, I promise, he's just not very extroverted. ”
You let out an awkward laugh to hopefully lighten her spirits, “I totally get it. I just got out of college after being surrounded by people who remind me greatly of him, so I'm used to it. That was all I really came here for, though. You have a good night, Robin, it was nice meeting… Sebastian?”
She nods, “Yes, Sebastian, and you have a good night as well, dear, don't hesitate to knock if you need anything!”
“Thank you!”
As you walked back down the mountain, you pondered the possibility of having rushed into the farm life too quickly, and if you were actually prepared for anything this town was gonna offer. Not that it really mattered. You were far too into this now, with no backup plans to fall back on.
“I guess I really am a farmer now. Yeehaw.”
. . .
“Did I ever actually introduce myself to Sebastian… like with my name?”
And with that, you lie down to maybe sleep as you fall into an anxiety spiral over a guy you just met that night.