picture perfect

i upload new videos every friday on utube, see you there xo [closed 1x1 rp]

[thewrightone]

.

"Thanks," Jay said, putting as much false cheer as possible into her voice. "I just know it's gonna be a hoot and a half." It was going to be a bitch. It was going to be such a bitch, and she wasn't looking forward to it at all. She snorted. "I mean, sure, I bet they're great if you're just going that far. That's nowhere, though. You're not seeing anything."

Raising an eyebrow, Jay looked at Haley and asked, "You were in Zuzu, too?" That made sense. Haley looked like she'd fit in the city. More than Jay had, at the very least. Not that Jay was super sure she fit in the valley, either, if her current failures at farming were anything to go by.

"What's the expression?" She glanced over at Haley as if she was considering before she stepped forward to push some brush out of the way. "Oh, yeah: don't just a book by their cover. There are actually a lot of interesting people around here." And weird. The people around here were weird in ways that city people just couldn't be.

Jay gave a soft laugh. "I really ought to," she agreed. "At least with a walk way." Maybe she could turn some of those stones into a little stone path. It might be nice. It's certainly be more traversable. It could make getting back and forth to town a whole lot easier than it was now. Okay, yeah, sure. She should probably get started on that pretty soon. "But it's a pretty weed," she said, her tone wheedling. She also... hadn't known it was a weed. She was gonna have to read up more on plants. She'd studied fauna, not flora.

[haley-in-bloom]

.

A hoot and a half? Well, it sounded like Jay was adjusting to the bumpkin lifestyle quickly. All the more reason for Haley to get back to town and make sure to never come back to this Yoba-forsaken farm. "What else is there to see around here?" Haley asked, gesturing at the trees that surrounded them. "I'm over trees." She would happily pick a concrete jungle any day over this literal forest.

"I went to school there. If my parents hadn't forced us to Pelican Town, I'd still be there." She grumbled before realizing that Jay had said too. Why had she left? Alex had been surprised when he heard that a farmer was moving to town because the Wright lot had been vacant for a long time. If Jay owned the place, why had she decided to leave Zuzu? Why not just sell the place and let it be someone else's problem?

As Jay got on her soap box about judging people, Haley rolled her eyes. Everyone judged everybody. That's the way the world worked. And Haley knew that they judged her too. "Interesting to you, maybe." She replied.

"A walkway would do a lot for this place. People would know how to leave, for one. And not just get stuck in a maze." Haley muttered, pushing a few low hanging branches out of her way. "And no, it's not. Dandelions are literally trash, they managed to grow in the sidewalk outside my apartment back home." It had seemed pretty back then, when there was more concrete than greenery. But the charm of "fresh air and mountain breezes!" that her parents had tried to sell her on had faded about a year and a half ago.

[thewrightone]

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Jay snorted. "That's a word for it." She'd meditate right to sleep, honestly. It was always best to keep going, Jay thought, to keep moving. That was what made her old job so fucking difficult, and that was maybe why she'd jumped at the chance to live on the farm, even if she'd maybe been a little too forward with that.

"I never run out of things to do here," Jay said, raising an eyebrow. In fact, it was as if there weren't enough hours in a day for her. Everything felt like one step forward and three steps back. She didn't think she'd ever run out of stuff to do on this farm. "And there's things to do. Plenty of cool places to hike, at least." Jay looked at Haley's shoes. "Or, you know, maybe not."

Jay didn't think she'd have missed Grampleton, either, from the way it sounded. "Suburbs, gross, I can see why you wouldn't miss it." Zuzu City had, at least, been constantly moving, even if her life had grown stagnant.

"You never know, they might be more interesting than you expect." At the very least, no one seemed stereotypically provincial. Everyone had their own, interesting personalities. Except for Demetrius, but Jay couldn't really tell if she just thought she could do what he does better, if given the chance, or if she was just annoyed that such a lame dude was married to one of the coolest people ever. Like, seriously. It was the worst.

Jay paused when Haley took her time at the fallen log, waiting on her. "Yeah. I mean, there are longer ways that I've cleared out a little more, but this is the most straightforward way, unfortunately. I should really get to clearing things," she murmured, looking around. It was pretty, though. Pretty and wild, almost. Jay reached down, picking up a dandelion and twirling it between her fingers. "It's not so bad, see? Flower?"

[haley-in-bloom]

.

"So it would seem. Have fun with clearing out all of this mess." Haley said. At the mention of hiking, she wrinkled her nose. Hiking, she was convinced, existed solely for the sporty fitness influencers on InstantGram to look down on everyone else. Literally. No, thank you. She would stay in her lane and do beauty content. "My shoes are good enough for getting to the beach and that works just fine for me." God, she wished the beach had anything else going for it. It just had the smelly pier with the fish shop and that weird poet's cabin.

"I'd give anything to be back in Zuzu City." Haley said wistfully. Starbucks coffee shops and malls and actual salons where she could get her hair done. As soon as her parents got home, Haley would be on a one way track back to the city.

Haley looked at Jay with a skeptical expression. "I doubt that." None of the people here even had Facebook. Not that she used it either, but still. She doubted if any of them had even heard of Tweeter, much less used it. They were all just boring... small town people who seemed to be happy doing boring small town stuff.

"You really ought to." She agreed with a pointed gesture to the moss covered stones and fallen branches that littered the ground. Even if it did have a kind of... quiet, overgrown ambience to it, that shouldn't exist on a walk way. Paths were for walking, not for people to stumble over logs every five feet. Glancing at the yellow flower Jay held out, Haley snorted. "Also, that's a weed. Even I know that."

[thewrightone]

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"But you don't disagree that it's boring as hell," Jay said, smiling slightly. This was almost fun. It was a bit like poking a bear, though. She couldn't help but wonder when she'd get bitten. Might as well have fun in the meantime, though.

She let the subject of the farm die, though, not willing to argue that anymore. It just made Jay feel a little bit more solid. She was going to fix up this fuckass farm or die trying. An option that... wasn't really that out of the question, thinking about what was down in those mines. But, no. The farm was going to be fixed up, the house was going to be an actual house, she was going to have money and be successful and not be bored out of her mind sitting behind a desk. That last part was even already true. Jay certainly wasn't bored living in the valley.

"You need to get out more." Which, really, Jay couldn't say that much, but at least she'd introduced herself to most people in town. She wasn't great with remembering all their names, but she'd get there. She knew Robin, definitely most important, and Lewis, also somewhat important, and fucking Pierre for sure. And now she was pretty sure she'd never forget Haley's name, if only for the annoyances, and Alex's was kind of ingrained, too.

Putting up her hands, Jay said, "I didn't know that you weren't from here. Sorry. Most people act like they've been here their entire life." It seemed like a reasonable enough assumption. Then again, looking at Haley, she didn't really seem to fit in with this environment, with her prim wardrobe and parasol. "Nice of you and your sister to look after their place, though. Do you miss Grampleton?"

Jay actually laughed as they walked. "Small world if the only folks that matter are four people," she teased.

[haley-in-bloom]

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"It's meditative." Haley shot back, her fingers tightening around the end of her parasol as she picked her way carefully through the woods. The ground was uneven and her shoes, while cute and coordinated with her outfit, weren't exactly the best for this kind of walking. Thank Yoba Pelican Town had paved roads, even if the cobblestone made it impossible for her to wear heels. Not that she had much reason to wear heels out here. Alex didn't really care what she wore. She always just got an enthusiastic thumbs up and a "Looking good, babe!". Which was... fine. There were worse things a boyfriend could say.

"I get out exactly as much as I want. It's not like there's even anything to do here." She replied. With the bus being broken, that also limited things. Alex had a car, but with his training schedule and wanting to stay close by in case something happened to his grandfather, their trips out really only went as far as driving to the movie theater in the town over and getting dinner at an actual sit down restaurant. Better that than going to the bar her freaking sister worked at.

"Well, I haven't. And no, I don't miss Grampleton either. It's bigger, sure. But it's basically the suburbs. Everything shut at 9 and Yoba forbid if you wanted to buy a pair of cute shoes. Better to just put in an order with Joja and get it delivered." She grumbled. Emily had skipped out to the Calico Desert to do her "spiritual crystal retreats" as soon as she graduated high school and Haley had gone to college in Zuzu City for a brief, shining four years. She had loved it there. And she'd had plans to stay there, for good. Until her stupid parents wrangled both of them into moving to Pelican Town to babysit the house.

"I've got better things to do than bother with the people in this town." She replied, stepping over a large fallen log and taking care not to snag the end of her sundress on an errant branch. Glancing down, she noticed a shine in the light, some dewdrops shaded by the trees, caught in a perfect spiderweb. A daffodil had also sprung up next to it, the yellow petals catching the light. If she had her camera... "Anyways. Do you really have to go through this... obstacle course every time you need to buy something from town?"

[thewrightone]

.

"Does it, really? 'Cuz it seems like it's just boring as hell," Jay said, her tone light, trying to amuse herself with Haley's attitude. Better to be amused than annoyed the entire walk back to town, she tried to tell herself.

Jay just rolled her eyes, but she couldn't exactly disagree. "It's... a bit of a fixer upper," she said, looking around. It had potential, though. If she could figure out what the fuck she was doing, if she started actually growing things and fixing things and being useful. She could do it. She was going to do it. It was just the getting there that was hard, nearly impossible, really.

"You know," Jay said, waving Haley off. "The funky wizard dude in the forest." She glanced over at Haley, stopping when the blonde wasn't beside her. "C'mon. You know. He's got purple hair and is weird as shit. I don't know if he's actually a wizard, but he's got the vibes, you know? Super fucking strange, probably eats the weird mushrooms they tell you not to eat. That guy!"

If she wanted to run into Robin in town, they'd need to pick up the pace, so Jay started walking again, figuring that Haley would keep up. "Aren't you a local? I thought everyone knew everyone around here."

[haley-in-bloom]

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"It does." Haley insisted stubbornly, but refused to expand further. How could she, when she really didn't know if yoga did or didn't? She just wasn't about to let this farmer get the last word.

"Fixer upper." She echoed, incredulous. Fixer upper was a house that needed a coat of paint. This was a shed. Fixer upper was the understatement of the year. But, she wasn't going to argue about it. If this deluded girl wanted to try and... cut wood and nail things she could. Haley wasn't going to stop her. Even if it sounded like an awful idea. "Whatever you say."

The more Jay kept talking, the more Haley wondered just how much she had entirely missed in this town. Monsters in a mine shaft, a strange purple-haired wizard in the woods. The only person Haley knew who had purple hair was that girl who was always in the general store. Amber? Annabelle? Something like that. Anyways, Haley didn't bother associating with her. Her alt-girl vibes always made Haley uncomfortable. "I have no idea what you're talking about." Haley said flatly. "But you seem like a bad liar and this sounds believable, so... weird. Have fun with the mushroom man."

With an irritated click of her tongue, Haley hurried to catch up with Jay. If she left her stranded on this jungle of a farm, Haley was going to call up Alex and explain to him that she would never, ever, ever do another sign of life check for this horrible farmer again. "You say that like I'm from here. I grew up in Grampleton. My sister and I have been stuck watching our parent's house while they're celebrating retirement." Haley rolled her eyes. They'd been celebrating for two years. You'd think they'd have gotten bored of traveling at some point.

"I know my boyfriend, his grandparents, and Lewis. They're basically the only people who matter." And the doctor, she supposed. Even if he had a distinct air of loser, he was still the loser who gave her the flu shot every year.

[thewrightone]

.

"Does yoga even do anything?" Jay asked, making a face. All it had ever done was piss her off, if she was being honest. Nothing but stretching and staying in stupid positions for an obscene amount of time and then doing it again. She'd rather be moving. Anything was better than just staying still, even if the met having to fight off fuckass bugs with a sword.

Jay sighed, resigning herself to helping Haley back to town. "Give me a minute to get some stuff. I might go to Pierre's to pick up some things." Then, brightening a little. "Maybe I can go talk to Robin about some improvements around here." And just talk to Robin. Really, the older woman was a babe.

Grabbing her bag, Jay made sure that all of her meager possessions were where they supposed to be before she shut the door. "You don't like it?" she asked, starting down the steps. She knew the way. "I think it adds character, really. An air of mystery. I'm like that funky wizard dude in the forest. Mysterious and shit."

[haley-in-bloom]

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Sniffing, Haley rolled her eyes. Did she know exactly what yoga did? ...No. But, it looked good for Instantgram and Haley wasn't going to let some grubby farmer look down on her.

"It works your entire body." She replied. She hadn't done an actual yoga session in months, she mostly just filmed short reels or took pictures with her yoga mat out at the beach, when it wasn't freezing outside. But, this girl didn't need to know that.

Who the hell was Robin? Whoever it was, Jay seemed excited which probably meant he was some equally grubby gremlin who ran around fighting monsters in magical mines that appeared out of nowhere. Haley waited impatiently, slipping her phone out of her pocket to check the time. Ugh. If she wanted to get good photos for her update, she needed to get back to town like, now. The shadows would be all wrong and they would take forever to edit out. At that point, she might as well just post another photo from her room, but too many outfit of the day posts back to back just didn't do well for her numbers.

Eventually, the farmer popped back out from her... house, a ratty looking backpack slung over her shoulders. "The only air it's giving is..." Haley narrowed her eyes in the direction of a particularly noxious patch of weeds, "home improvement vibes."

Pausing to process what Jay just said, Haley's gaze turned back to the farmer. "Excuse me, a funky what in the where?" She demanded, trying to figure out who Jay was talking about. She barely paid attention to the different insignificant little townspeople, but she was fairly certain she'd remember some bargain bin magician running around.

[thewrightone]

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"Mostly collecting ore and trying not to be killed by monsters, if I'm being honest," Jay said wryly, trying to be unbothered by the odd, prissy woman and her tone. "There are, indeed, mines. It's a great place to go to get a workout." It was a terrible place to go to get a work out, or to go to, period, but it could also, apparently, be lucrative. In addition to the ore she desperately needed to actually build shit, there was also apparently precious gems down there. And it wasn't hard to see that Jay could use the money.

Jay genuinely didn't give a fuck about Haley's shoes, and she was growing more and more irritated the longer this conversation went on. She wondered if the other woman tried or if she was just naturally that abrasive. Being pretty couldn't make up for some things.

Giving her a grin, Jay just said, Next time someone comes to check on my, I'll keep that in mind." Pantomiming a skirt, she gave Haley a curtsy. "Madam. Now, I should really look for my watering can and see about my sunflowers and-- fuck," she groaned looking balefully out at her pitiful crops. "The fucking melons. Knew I should have gotten some blueberries," she muttered. "Super wonderful to meet you, hope the dirt treats you kindly on the way back to town. You know the way back, right?" Jay wasn't looking forward to showing her the way if she didn't.

[haley-in-bloom]

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Haley pursed her lips. She would keep that workout information to herself, thanks. Alex was already disgusting after his normal weight training routine-- she hated how sticky and gross his arms were when he would see her on a jog and surprise her with a hug. The last thing she wanted was her boyfriend to be sweaty and covered in coal dust and monster guts. No, he could keep working out on the beach. "Charming. I think I'll stick to yoga."

Charm, it seemed, was not something Jay possessed. No, just a horrible fashion sense, dirt all over her tragic outfit, and the worst cuticles Haley had ever seen. As the woman muttered about the state of her crops, Haley sighed. Not her problem.

"Of course I know the way back--" Haley said, turning on her heels to see... Nothing but weeds and trees and rocks strewn all over. Where was that path that she'd been on earlier? She knew for a fact there was a clear patch by the ugly shipping bin, but...

Casting a sidelong glance, Haley folded her free arm across her chest. "You really ought to clear this place up. It's a maze." She was not going to admit she was lost. She'd simply. Make the farmer show her the way out.

[thewrightone]

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"Yeah, sure, whatever," Jay muttered. Proof of life. She could've just told the guy, and it would have worked just as well. But Haley seemed like the kind of girl who was attached to her phone, so maybe this was just a thing. Taking pictures without people's permission, sending them out into the world, staring at her phone in the middle of a conversation. Jay couldn't help but roll her eyes. She'd thought she escaped this sort of behavior when she left the city. Showed what she knew.

She had to wait for Haley to tiptap away at her phone before the conversation developed again. Why did everything that came out of this girl's mouth feel like an insult? "It's... cozy," she said, looking back into her, admittedly tiny, dwelling. "It's got the basics. I'm working on saving up for some improvements," she felt the need to add.

"Yeah, and I've been doing other things," Jay said, toeing the pickaxe near her foot pointedly. "I was in the mines last night getting ore, killing monsters, normal mine things. And I've got, like, other shit to do around here too." She should probably start clearing more land for crops, cutting down some trees for timber... Maybe she could go visit Robin soon, see about building maybe a chicken coop or something for extra income.

Jay raised an eyebrow. "Right, Alex, well-established as nice." In a jock kind of way. Good conversation. She'd hope Haley found him nice, at the very least. Jay felt a little guilty (and slightly touched) that the guy had worried about her, followed by a spark of irritation as Haley kept talking. "Right, well, so sorry you had to come all the way out to my hole. Hope you didn't get mud on your very sensible shoes. Thank you. I'll try so, so hard to keep myself on this mortal coil."

[haley-in-bloom]

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As the woman explained how her place was "cozy" and "needed improvements," Haley rolled her eyes. Sounded like coping to her, but what did Haley know? If it looked like a shack and sounded like a shack, it was probably a shack. Phone held loosely in her free hand, Haley looked around at the overgrowth that surrounded the "house." Yoba, was this really what Pelican Town looked like before they added roads and lamp posts? Horrible. Why her parents even liked living here was beyond her. Which. Honestly, it explained why they traveled so much.

Wrinkling her nose, Haley glanced at the woman's hands. Disgusting. Had she even washed them? "I'm sorry, you're killing things in the mines?" She asked, eyes staring at her in revulsion. "There are monsters in the mines? There are mines?" That explained... a lot, she supposed. That weird man with the cloak who appeared at festivals always brought living skeletons to the Spirit's Eve festival, but she assumed that he brought them from not right outside of the town.

"Yes." Haley said firmly. She wasn't going to stand for anyone talking down about her boyfriend, not even this weird, monster-murdering farmer. "And you should be." She replied, not bothering to acknowledge the sarcasm.

"Let me give you some advice," Haley said, slowly rolling the handle of her parasol between her fingers as she stared at Jay, "next time someone comes to check on you? An ounce of gratitude wouldn't kill you."

[thewrightone]

"Hello?" Jay asked, more out of flabbergasted shock than anything as she blinked and Haley took a fucking picture of her, of all things. "Yoba, you're supposed to ask before you just take a picture of someone."

She just had to stand there while Haley typed on her phone, feeling like she was intruding on a fucking moment or something. Standing in the doorway of her own house. "It's not a shack," Jay said, frowning. It wasn't much more than a shack, but it was, in fact, more. At least, that's what Jay told herself.

"Plants, surprisingly, take time to grow," Jay muttered. They didn't just grow faster if you watered them more, she'd learned, which, in hindsight, made sense, but she was desperate. Jay wasn't a fucking idiot; she'd majored in biology. She knew how science worked. It was just that, well, this was a different kind of science, and it had been awhile, and she just wasn't familiar with things.

Jay tried to remember everyone in town she'd met. "Your boyfriend is... the jocky looking one? Alec? Something like that. He was nice." Enough. In a very stereotypical way. "I was gonna chop some wood later and look for some berries and stuff, so I might have a few things to put in there later. Tell him, uh, sorry it's been empty?"

[haley-in-bloom]

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"Uh huh, sure." Haley said, not paying attention to Jay as a new ZapChat appeared from Alex. She opened the image and found her boyfriend grinning toothily with a big thumbs up from what looked like the waiting room of the town clinic. Looks like Mr. Mulner had kicked him out of the exam room, which didn't surprise her. The text read "thx babe! glad shes not dead!"

Haley waved her phone at Jay dismissively. "Relax. It was for proof of life."

Raising an eyebrow, Haley took in the worn green shutters, the single window, the pile of logs stacked against the small wall. "Mhm. Sure it's not." Her parents' house wasn't a mansion, but it was bigger than this... shed.

"Well, yeah. Duh." Not that Haley knew much other than that about farming. But everything took time to grow. "But there are, like, other things that farmers do than just grow plants." She didn't know what those things were, but she was pretty sure there was more to it than just poking at dirt.

Haley's brows creased again and she scowled at the farmer. "Alex. And, yes. He's my boyfriend, I know he's nice. The only reason I'm even at this hole is because he was worried about you." She said, adjusting her parasol to shield her from the sun. "Whatever. He knows you're alive, just don't starve and die from now on."

[thewrightone]

"I'm the new farmer," Jay confirmed, trying to give a tired smile. She felt a little judged though, the smile sliding off her face as the girl said her name. "I'm Jay. Nice to meet you." She should've asked it as a question because she actually wasn't sure if it was nice to meet her or not.

Jay looked down at her clothes. Yeah, okay, so she was a little... bed raggled. "It's been a rough week," she said defensively, brushing a hand over the simple black shirt as if that would somehow take out all of the wrinkles. She didn't like feeling scrutinized. She'd gotten away from the city to escape that trapped, bug-like feeling, not to be stared at under a magnifying glass all over again.

"Sorry, I'm actually dead. I'm haunting this farm, now. Hope that's okay." Jay crossed her arms over her chest and blew a stray piece of hair out of her face. She wondered if Haley had come just to give backhanded compliments and insulting looks. "I didn't realize by living/dead status was so important in town." She was shooting for teasing and only barely meeting the mark. Jayanthi was really missing her nap, but she needed to be up and doing things, anyway. Even if those things weren't really talking to uppity neighbors.

[haley-in-bloom]

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Jay. What kind of name was that? Haley pursed her lips as the woman made an excuse about a bad week. A bad week didn't mean you didn't at least try to look presentable before opening the door. You put on a face full of make up and a smile for the camera and got on with your life.

But, it seemed like things were different when you were a farmer. Haley glanced back around at the unkempt yard, the overgrown trees and bushes. Even if you were a bad farmer.

"Mhm." Haley hummed, ignoring the woman's words as she pulled out her phone and took a picture of Jay. Thumbing over the keyboard, she typed "Farmer's alive! And filthy 🤢" on her ZapChat message before shooting off to Alex. He'd be happy to have photographic evidence of the farmer's corpse-like but alive status.

"My boyfriend picks up your shipments." Haley explained with a offhand gesture to the grubby wooden chest behind the mailbox. "He wanted me to make sure you weren't like. Dead in the shack. He said you hadn't shipped anything in a few days."

[thewrightone]

So the mines were ass. Which was just a lovely realization that Jay had the night before. She just wanted some fucking copper. There were trees on the farm. Trees had sap. She could get and sell the sap. Because she had to make money somehow. The melons weren't working, just taking way too long to do anything, and the sunflowers... they were supposed to be taller. The thing was, that, in order to make money, you had to spend money, and you had to have patience, and those things didn't work well together.

Jay was really fucking broke.

Somehow, she was still happier than she had been working a stupid desk job.

But the mines were ass, and she'd had to be hauled out by Linus, who was a nice enough guy. All she had to show for it all was a fucking geode and a couple of stones. No copper. Oh, and a headache! She woke up with a crazy headache, which was probably a combination of being beaten up by literal monsters and also a consistent sleep schedule of four hours of sleep. People needed more than four hours of sleep. That didn't seem to matter out here, though, because four was exactly how many she'd gotten every single night for a week.

There was no rest for the weary, so Jay was up and about at the ass crack of dawn, putting water in Murph's bowl and staring balefully at all the work she needed to do. "Just a nap," she muttered, heading back inside and not even making it to the bed, just laying on the floor. "Quick nap."

It had been a nice nap until she heard the sound of someone calling out. Cursing, Jay scrambled to her feet and then the door, blinking against the brightness of the sun as she opened the door and saw a stranger on her property. Her first thought was, Pretty. Her second was, Umbrella? It wasn't raining. Jay brushed a hand through her hair, attempting to tame it a little. "Uh, hi! Yep, hello, definitely someone out here. What's up?"

[haley-in-bloom]

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The door to the shack-- because God, it was a shack-- swung open and Haley leveled a cool stare in the direction of the farmer.

When Alex had said that there was a new farmer working the abandoned field out to the west, Haley had imagined a grumpy, crusty looking man tilling the fields. Somewhere between Clint the creepy blacksmith and Marney's weird nephew. She had expected to see someone actively working on the fields doing... whatever farmers do. Not a normal looking woman with bags under her eyes and messy hair.

"Oh... You're the new farmer?" Haley said, resting her parasol on her shoulder as she eyed the woman. Mud covered boots, dirty jeans, a rumpled shirt that looked as though it hadn't been washed in a few days. Her nose crinkled in disgust. "I'm Haley."

Tilting her head, she regarded the farmer with an appraising eye. She had good bone structure, the kind that Haley often saw on other influencers on UTube. "If it weren't for those horrendous clothes you might actually be pretty." She mused before shaking her head. "Never mind. You're, like, alive right?"

[haley-in-bloom]

.

Squinting from under the brim of her parasol (of course she was carrying a parasol, out in the fucking boonies the UV was so harsh and she was not going to get any more freckly than she already was), Haley scowled at the dirt road that lay beyond the broken down bus stop.

"Babe, please, can you just make sure the new farmer hasn't like, totally ate it?" Alex had pleaded the night before, lolling on the duvet of her bed as she finished editing a video. He liked hanging out with her when she did her "super cool tech stuff." Which is to say, when she was editing her videos to make them presentable for UTube.

"I'd go, but Grandpa's got his doctor's appointment and I gotta make sure that he actually gets his prescriptions filled and doesn't just throw the doctors note in the river again." He had said with a sheepish expression. Haley had relented mostly because Mr. Mullner had actually done that. Twice.

Which is why she was here, looking down a derelict road, getting dust on her brand new shoes.

"Ugh." She sighed before flouncing down the road to the previously abandoned farm. Though, as she walked down the dirt road, it really still looked abandoned. Trees were growing rampant, weeds and loose stones covered the ground-- honestly, how did anyone live out here?

Maybe Alex was right. Maybe the new farmer had died.

Haley picked her way through over the fallen branches and weeds, her brow furrowing deeper with every step she took. "Hello?" She called out. "Are you... Is anyone actually out here??"

@thewrightone

[ryllen]

i imagine alex gave haley the look as if she's bullying dusty with the thought of having to make dusty makes it by himself, and i lost it [x]

[futw]

Gracie Dzienny as Elinor Fairmont in First Kill (2022)

[haley-in-bloom]

Every Day Like the One Before || Solo

Timing: June 23rd

Location: Stardew Valley

Description: Just another perfect day in the life of Haley Bloom, right?

“And I’ll see you lovelies next week!” Haley said with her trademark smile and wave of her perfectly manicured nails. Shutting off the camera, she let out a sigh and glancing over at her computer. Audio, video, all of it had recorded which meant all she had to do was edit and add it to the end of the queue. Fun.

Her desk looked like a disaster, which is how it always looked after she recorded a video. No one ever saw the make up pallets, the used brushes, the bottles that piled up on her armoire as she filled the silence of her room with chatter or notes to herself to time-lapse a particular section. Switching off the ring lights behind her mirror, she set about cleaning up the clutter. It was her least favorite part of filming, but it had to be done.

Once all the pieces had returned to their respective places and her desk cleaned of stray flecks of setting powder, Haley stretched her arms before pulling out her phone.

Arrange the hair, tuck the chin, back straight but not too straight, a casual peace sign because everyone loves peace—perfect. Haley snapped a picture and regarded it with a critical eye. Good enough. If there were little flaws, it made her more relatable online and people loved relatable. She was just like them! Stuck in this stupid, boring little town filming videos until she could finally move to the city.

Just finished a new video! Hope you guys like it when it comes out 💕

And post.

Slipping her phone back into the pocket of her dress, Haley glanced at the clock. It was only 4 pm, which was honestly perfect timing. Emily wouldn’t be back from work until late tonight and Sam had finally developed the barest definition of a schedule, so at least he wasn’t blasting his stupid guitar now.

Haley popped her headphones in as she left the house, latching the door behind her. It was stupid—who would break into their parents’ house? Maybe the crusty old man who lived up in the mountains, but she hadn’t seen him in at least a month. But, she locked the door behind her all the same.

Flicking through her music, she put on a pop playlist before swiping to her messages.

Haley: just finished recording, what are u up to?

Alex: aw shoot babe

Alex: i just started lifting and im like, in the zone

Alex: wanna hang after?

Haley rolled her eyes. Of course he was working out. She knew it was like, his whole thing. Trying to be a pro grid ball player out of Stardew Valley of all places was almost as insane as trying to be a UTuber. But, Alex was dedicated to it. She couldn’t fault him for trying.

Haley: sounds good! tell your grandma I said hi

Alex: 😘

Wandering down the street, she glanced around the town square. The mayor was running around, probably going to poke his nose in at one of the shops to see how they were doing. Like the answer would be another other than “slow as hell.” He waved to her politely and Haley offered him a dazzling smile before turning away. No beach for her today, it seemed. The last thing she wanted to do was make awkward small talk with Mayor Lewis.

There were a few people in the town square, but Haley ignored them. The fountain was usually empty around this time and it was a nice enough place when the two little kids in town weren’t screeching on the monkey bars. But God. This town was such a dump. They didn’t even have a movie theater. Everyone had a movie theater. But no. When she and Alex had date night, it consisted of suffering through bar food at Gus’ and having to see her sister the entire time and then going back to her house to watch movies on her laptop. So romantic.

If Haley had her way, this whole town would be bulldozed down, she’d slap a mall down on the abandoned farm to the west and build a high rise with beach front property. The valley would make money, tourists would come for longer than just the stupid fish festivals, and everyone would be happy.

Maybe then her parents would decide “Oh, we fell in love with the Fern Islands and are selling that little house in the Valley. You’re off the hook! Emily can go back to the Calico Desert and Haley can get herself a condo in Zuzu City and we’ll all go back to seeing each other once a year.”

Haley let out a chuckle as she settled down by the fountain, leaning against one of the trees that shaded the area.  

No chance that would happen. The most exciting thing that ever happened in this town was the rockslide that cut off access to half of the lake. And they’d been able to fix that up quick, no one had even gotten hurt when it happened.

Haley sighed as she glanced up at evening light streaming through the leaves of the tree. When was something ever going to happen in this stupid town?

[jenna--ortega]

Gracie Dzienny as Elinor Fairmont

⏤ in First Kill (2022)