Curious. What do you think it would take for Elliott to get into a physical fight? I've always pictured him a words guy, but everyone has their breaking point.
Follow up... who's walking away worse for wear and bleeding?
Yeah it’d definitely take a lot for him to get physical. I’d be remiss to not mention the @shellsstardew ‘s series because that’s totally rewiring my brain. She has Elliott want to get into a fist fight for the sake of research, which as a writer is so real and relatable lol. So I could see that.
But if we’re talking about a serious fight, I think he’d be more likely to resort to violence in defense of someone else rather than for himself. He’s a gentleman! But he also doesn’t know how to fight. I headcanon Elliott as being tall with lithe muscle. He’s used to relying on this as enough of a threat to avoid an actual fight. He might stand up from the bar, make himself bigger, ask if the offender wants to say that again. Usually the threat is enough to get people backing off.
But then what would happen if that didn’t work?
Maybe a tourist comes on to Emily too strong one busy festival night at the saloon. Elliott comes to her aid but it results in the drunk tourist calling his bluff.
“Oh yeah? Let’s take this outside then, fuckface!” he slurs and almost knocks over his barstool as he gets up and trudges outside.
Emily is busy at the tap but calls to Elliott not to bother.
Elliott is already getting up though, rolling up the sleeves of his button-down. He might be a little buzzed. But also he’s assuming the guy will get cold feet, or maybe the fresh air will send him throwing up behind the dumpsters and he can see him off.
To his dismay the man is waiting for him, raising his fists as Elliott approaches (armed only with a disappointed frown). “I think it’s time you lea–”
He’s cut off by the man actually lunging at him. He lands a gut punch that winds Elliott badly, doubling over and choking out the breath that he might’ve used to utter a rare curse.
The guy steadies himself on Elliott’s shoulders, winding up to punch him in the face this time now that they’re on even footing, but Emily bursts out of the saloon.
The shock of sound gives Elliott a second to back away. A second that Emily uses to run at them full force and mace the jackass in the face. While screaming the whole time, because I think that’s hilarious.
The tourist screams too as the mace burns his eyes and lungs. He’s already falling to the ground as Emily kicks him for good measure. “Stay down! I’ve already called the police!”
Elliott shuffles to the side, bent over trying not to breathe too deeply and struggling to get to a wall he can lean against.
“Oh Yoba, Elliott are you okay?” Emily rubs his back. “We can call Harvey.”
“He hit me!” Elliott manages, his voice pitching up in disbelief.
“Looks like it, yeah.”
“He actually hit me!” His eyes are welling up with tears from the pain in his gut that he can’t pinpoint. He’s mentally listing any of the various stomach-related organs he can think of but he doesn’t know where any of them are. Then he thinks about how useless his google deepdives on anatomy were, since everything seems to have left his brain once he actually needed it for something in real life.
“Okay,” Emily sighs, “let me get someone to take you to Harvey.”
~ End scene ~
I think he’d be shocked by the pain, but ultimately inspired by it. I don’t think he would really learn his lesson, either. It wouldn’t be bad enough of an experience to traumatize him into learning how to defend himself, he might just get his own mace, and then forget it at home all the time lol.
Thanks for the ask!
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“Alec,” Seregil whined, giving his voice a tantalizing lilt. “Let’s not go nightrunning tonight. Let’s stay in and play.”
Alec furrowed his brow. “Now I know you’re not feeling well.” He placed his palm against Seregil’s forehead, testing for fever. “You’ve been chomping at the bit all week for someone to burgle. Nearly wore tread marks in our carpet with all your restless pacing. And now you don’t want to go out?”
Seregil could sense he was losing this battle. He withered in disappointment. “Remember that time we spent in the log cabin? In the woods? No jobs, no politics, or responsibilities. Just us and the wilderness? Let’s do that again. I miss that.”
“You miss it now, but as soon as we go out there you’ll be bored within a week.”
Seregil didn’t want to admit that Alec was right. He looked away, tight lipped. Alec caught the betraying expression and grew more worried.
“You’ve not been having any nightmares, have you?” Alec mused, slowly parsing out the truth. “This sudden desire to pick up and run…. Do you have some reason to want to flee the city?”
Seregil’s lack of response was the only answer he needed.
My own fanfiction for the Nightrunner Series by Lynn Flewelling. It chronologically takes place 2 years after the events of Book 7 and should be interpreted as being Book 8 canonically.
Hope you enjoy! And take what the Lightbearer brings!
Popping Jodi/Marnie in here for you to mull over because they are neighbors, after all.
Bless you for suggesting an F/F ship. For the girls and the gays and the Cinnias. Also apologies for it taking so long to get back to all the rarepair asks; I decided I wanted to do more ficlet-style ones since I liked the way they were turning out and and the muse for inspo is a very fickle beast during the busy season for my line of work <3
I kinda see these two as getting together based on proximity and circumstance, given their other relationships and busy family dynamics. Could they work out long-term? I think so, maybe if their relationships with Lewis and Kent don't pan out and they find that connection again later. That being said, I personally imagine their ship being angstier than some might expect.
[Content warnings for: grief, accidental infidelity (makes sense in context), closeted relationship without a happy resolution (in this fic, at least, sorry! 😅)]
Rating: M for brief scenes of sexual content
Days after the news that Kent is MIA, presumed dead, Jodi is inconsolate, and Marnie feels compelled to step in, bringing 1 Willow Lane homemade bread and cheese, allowing her to vent over several cups of calming tea while Sam takes Vincent to the museum or the beach. Jodi’s wavy strawberry blonde hair covers her face, fleeing a half-hearted pony tail. She looks like she hasn’t slept in days. Marnie pats her shoulder and listens (and listens).
Weeks later, Marnie coaxes Jodi into a warm, lavender-scented shower and helps Sam fold the laundry, laughing a little at Vincent’s bright chatter about frogs and pigs. Jodi’s lips twitch when she appears in her bathrobe, but the smile doesn’t reach the desolation in her deep blue eyes. Marnie squeezes her hand and helps her braid her hair.
Months painfully crawl by, and Jodi’s smile starts to reach her eyes, the ghost of Kent draped around her shoulders like a shawl on the bad days. Marnie doesn’t even realize until Vincent points it out that Jodi has stopped going to church, preferring to walk him to the museum or the park herself, waving at Sam as he passes by with Sebastian or Abigail, their eyes locked onto their handheld gaming consoles. When the Farmer offers Jodi the job to help them make artisan goods out of their never-ending backlog of crops, Jodi accepts.
One snowy evening, Jodi deviates from her usual goodbye wave to Marnie from the front step of the house, instead shooing Sam and Vincent inside for mugs of cocoa and shutting the door behind them. She grabs Marnie’s hand, a strange determination fixing her mouth and eyes, and walks her the rest of the way to the ranch house. At the door, she rises up on her booted tiptoes and presses a soft kiss to Marnie’s lips and then flees, all of it happening so quickly that Marnie isn’t entirely sure she didn’t conjure it out of her most shameful fantasies.
The next time, Jodi steals a kiss from Marnie in a dark corner of the Mermaid Show, turquoise and pink theater lights dancing on their skin. Instead of letting her escape, Marnie grabs her wrist and returns the favor, tracing Jodi’s jaw with her thumbs, the bitter taste of coffee mingling in their shared breath. Marnie sneaks out of the Night Market through the hidden path to the Cindersap only a few people know. Jodi follows behind a few minutes later.
By mutual agreement, they leave the ranch dark except for the smallest lamp still lit on the nightstand. She traces Marnie’s body like prayer beads, capturing each gasp and moan in Marnie’s mouth. Jodi’s hands are warm and gentle between Marnie’s thighs, until they aren’t, roughly chasing Marnie’s release and holding her through the spasms, the choked off cry.
When Marnie recovers, she presses Jodi into the duvet, making her writhe as she covers her breast and nipples with sloppy kisses and suction, the side of Jodi’s hand shoved in her mouth. Marnie’s lips and tongue trail languidly southward, guiding Jodi’s reactions through her tense twitching and muffled moans.
Afterwards, Jodi pulls her sweater over her head and rebraids her hair. She doesn’t look back as she leaves the bedroom, the door barely shutting with a whisper.
Marnie thought that night was the limit of Jodi’s daring. She was wrong.
Over the next several months, Jodi keeps making excuses to meet her again and again. 1 Willow Lane ran out of eggs. Library books need returning. The Farmer has excess blackberry jelly to share, so tidily wrapped in a basket that it couldn't have been them who packaged it. Twice, Jodi slips in through Marnie’s window in the middle of the night, silent as a wraith.
Autumn rain splatters the window on a rare afternoon they find alone together in the Ranch, skin sticky in the humidity. Jodi combs her hand through Marnie's curls, eyes thoughtful, and Marnie wishes she had the courage to ask her for more, than stolen kisses and lovemaking on the sly, that she could proudly introduce her to Jas and Shane as Marnie's partner. But then again, she's used to being the lover in the shadows, chasing the allure of keeping one person so close to her heart without others knowing.
At the Stardew Valley Fair, Jodi pulls her aside behind the pumpkins, eyes wild. Marnie reaches for her face and Jodi shoves her hand away, lips trembling.
Hurt, Marnie asks, “What's wrong? Is it something I—”
Jodi shudders. “Kent is alive. Alive, you hear me? He's coming home in the Spring.”
Alive. It doesn't seem real. They had mourned him without a body, done all the hard work of helping Jodi through her grief, held each other on the bad days.
“So,” Jodi continues, refusing to meet Marnie's eyes. “I'm not seeing you anymore. This ends now.”
Embarrassingly, Marnie feels a lump in her throat. “You won't write to him about…?”
Jodi shakes her head. “He can't know. I can't do that to him, not with everything he's been through. They tortured him, Marnie. And then his own wife…” Tears roll down her cheeks and Marnie wants nothing more than to wrap her arms around her, lie that everything will be okay, but it won't and Jodi doesn't want her touch anymore, anyway. It's as if she can see Kent's time-blurred shape standing behind his wife, silently judging.
“I understand,” Marnie says, even though she doesn't, really. A greedy part of her wants more than this.
Jodi nods, wiping her face on her sleeve and asking, “Does it look like I cried?”
Her eyes are a little puffy, but she looks as beautifully tragic as Marnie has known her to be. “Only if you look closely. Vincent and Jas are at the petting zoo if you want to find them.”
Jodi takes a steadying breath. “Thank you. For everything.” She turns away, shoulders back like a soldier on parade.
Marnie saves her own tears for the privacy of the shower, body wracked with sobs until the water turns cold. And then she, too, resolves to carry on like normal.
She passes Jodi at Pierre's on her way to church, her Yobish necklace returning to her neck. They nod neighborly at each other from across the pond at the Festival of Ice. Jas and Vincent continue to arrange play dates, rushing between the ranch and 1 Willow Lane with a whirlwind of childish activity.
Everything and nothing has happened, and Marnie will be fine.
The next time Lewis sidles up to Marnie at the saloon, she accepts his furtively whispered offer. After all, she's good at being someone's dirty little secret.
Misc. shipping thoughts:
“Good Luck, Babe!” by Chappell Roan is their song, oof. I listened to that song quite a few times before the inspo popped out for this fic.
I also want to make it clear that no one is meant to be the Bad Guy per se in this ficlet. It’s just a fucked up situation i.e. if Kent’s stint in the war had left more unknowns about his survival and if it had been extended longer than the canon implies. Adults can be crap at communication, so it was intended as more of a Man vs Self narrative, if anything. (Mostly adding this to forestall any outcry towards Kent, who I already wrote about having a lil thing with Elliott <3 )
Also this is a sort of AU where Marnie has an off and on again thing with Lewis and gets with Jodi during one of the off moments, bc I feel like there’s a lot of ways you could read the Lewis/Marnie dynamic.
Jodi strikes me as being intense in her relationships because she seeks so much control over her environment, even when it's not possible to do so. She'll accidentally let go and do something super fun or raunchy and then feel ashamed immediately after and be like, “This can never happen again.” Until it repeats because she is only human.
Incidentally, I'm keen to explore their dynamic more! It's interesting, especially since I usually see more chatter about Jodi/Caroline. Jodi and Marnie have a slight air of tragedy about them, and also the unique situation of caring for son-figures who grew up too quick and who also look after the youngest people in the town. But also something something hair in braids looks good loosely pulled out of it during a fit of passion i.e. literally “letting ones hair down” etc. etc.
{Stardew Rarepair Ask Game: This post has the list of asks already answered :D}
Harvey and Emily
They seem so different in every aspect, even down to the type of medicine I think Emily would favour.
I don't know if I ship them. I need you to help convince me! /silly
I agree with your assessment here: They are definitely more aligned on "opposites attract" than friends to lovers per se. She quite literally tells Harvey at her check-up: “Doctor, I'd like to go with the 'natural remedy' if possible.”
That being said, I think they have more connections than one might think at first glance. When I think about Harvey and Emily, I think about how both of them deeply care about the people of Stardew Valley and genuinely want to help others without expecting anything back in return. And then I also think Emily would take one glance at Harvey the first stormy night he goes to the Saloon and say to herself, "That man is carrying far too much of a burden on his shoulders." And so she would probably plot to find a way to remove some of it, because that's just the sort of person she is.
I think Emily would chat to Harvey a lot on the nights he visits, prodding at his stress points to get him to talk it out, gently encouraging him to take some of the advice he gives to his patients about mindfulness meditation and taking breaks and so on.
And so, during one of these nighttime conversations, she casually mentions that she'd like to start a side hustle as a part-time naturopath, and what would he think of that?
He looks at her over his glasses, his hazel eyes shifting from earth brown to tea green under the lamps. "Well, um, you'd have to get licensed..."
"Naturally," she murmurs, hiding a grin. She props her head on her hand, watching him click the puzzle pieces together.
"But I do field a lot of questions that, quite frankly, medical school never trained me how to answer. And with the state of things being what they are, I spend more time on the paperwork than with my patients. There's no time to spare for research by the end of the day."
She had guessed as much. "So, if someone could take those questions for you..."
The semi-permanent furrow in his forehead eases. "It would be a Yobasend, yes."
A season or two later, he joins Caroline's aerobics class, clearly embarrassed to be there and to be seen there by half the women in town. She finds it incredibly endearing.
He tries to rush out after class and she stops him, offering a bottle of her homebrew kombucha, fresh out of her cooler. He takes it with a "thanks", standing sweatily and awkwardly, as if not quite sure how to make his limbs move now without direction.
"You um..." He chugs some of the kombucha and tries again. "You dance really well. Are you self-taught?"
Emily nods. "Never had a lesson, unless Caroline counts. I could teach you, if you'd like."
Harvey blushes, rubbing the back of his neck. "I might be interested." He sighs. "It's funny, how you can care so much about the health of others and be woefully behind on your own. I'm a bad doctor."
Emily pats him on the shoulder. "Spirits, no! You're the best doctor this town has ever had. None of us are perfect, Harvey."
He smiles a little. "Not even you?"
"Not even me," she promises.
Misc. shipping thoughts:
Literally why is there only one medical specialty in this town. Harvey that is too many things for you to take on for yourself. Put some of that back. So yeah, I could totally see them as a "different med specialties" couple.
The kombucha is strawberry green tea flavored, for those wondering.
Also learning to dance by dancing together is so very cute and I wanna see them do it!
I think Emily is so genuinely good at managing anxiety through her own methods that she would very much want to help Harvey manage his own because Yoba knows he's gonna give himself a stress-induced heart attack otherwise.
{Ask Game: Send me any Stardew Valley rarepairs (including non-marriage candidates) and I will tell you how I would make them work! This post has the list of asks already answered :D}
