hi do you have any headcanons involving morris and the junimos (or maybe just magic in general) ?
Hiiii anon! Thank you so much for the ask! This was actually quite the interesting topic to think about, so thank you for that! I apologize for how long this took to pump out. I was so busy with college math that I wasn't really able to focus on writing. Regardless, I'm excited to finally be able to sit down and answer this!
(Some of this is going to be based on the before the farmer comic)
Word count: 1,621
tiny bit of angst but it gets better! ∼ ~~◡◡◡◡ ~~ ⥽ Ⅰ ⥼ ~~◡◡◡◡~~ ∽
For starters, the Junimos have made themselves somewhat known to Morris for quite some time. Not in a positive way, of course. They were there when Joja was first making its presence known within the valley. Maybe they were trying to ward the company off with what little mischief they could pull? Or maybe they just wanted to use what little remaining power they had to screw with the man before shriveling up due to the continued environmental damage from the corporation.
From the first day he started working as a district manager onward, they would appear out of the corner of his eye. He thought it might’ve been flickers of light, or maybe he was just up too early? That was probably it. This went on for weeks, months even. It was maddening. It was hard enough setting up a new store in town, but with the added paranormal activity? That wasn’t what he signed up for.
He would clock in at 5am sharp each day, do a routine check of everything and make a mental note of what needed to be done, the usual. And then- something would fall. Morris, being rather jumpy, would flinch every single time without fail. Whenever he checked the room where the source of the sound was, however, there was nothing on the ground. There wasn’t a single trace of what could’ve made the noise. Of course, there were boxes being perpetually scattered from their uniform positions, but they couldn’t have made such loud noises.
There were numerous meetings with his employees regarding the incidents. If it wasn’t just him, it had to be some elaborate prank, right? These meetings would go from casual reminders of company policy regarding messing around on company time, threats that whoever was to be found wasting so much time on an elaborate scheme as opposed to getting the upper-hand working would be fired, to subtle pleas for whoever it was to turn themselves in and that their punishment wouldn’t actually be that bad.
“What if it’s like- raccoons? Those little guys can go crazy all on their lonesome. I remember one time mom had accidentally messed up a recipe, so she threw the most burnt pieces out, and a few hours later we found like- all kinds of trash on our lawn!”
“Respectfully, I think I’d know if they were raccoons, Sam. I’d have come across the mess already. And- I’d probably have come across one of the raccoons on my daily searches. I’m very methodical with my process.”
“Also… sorry to butt in- I’d probably hear them coming in. I’m always here early.” And then Claire yawns. “I hear a bit of rustling, but it’s not really… that obstructive.”
“Seriously? So you’re inattentive. There’s no way you’re not hearing- well- what I’m referring to.”
“They say regions like this tend to be a bit haunted.” “Haunted? Seriously?!” “Yeah, next thing we know Morris’ll start seeing the lights flicker when nobody else does. Then, he’ll see his reflection laugh at him. And then-”
“Shane, enough. Seriously. Spirits aren’t real. They’re mere fairy-tales at best.” “Fine, alright. If it’s such an issue, why don’t you install cameras?”
“For your information, we actually do have- wait.” And then he checked the cameras. It became somewhat routine for him to skim through the footage daily in an attempt to find anything incriminating. Maybe he’d catch the person putting him through this annoying, relentless hell if he remained vigilant?
As much as he wanted to act like he wasn’t unnerved by the thought of the Jojamart being haunted or something, he was. Horror terrified him, he was the kid who dove behind the couch whenever something even slightly unnerving came on the television. He didn’t want to be living through a real life horror movie! Maybe he should’ve just accepted the raccoon suggestion… Thumbing through the camera footage, he became distraught. He, in fact, did not catch anything. The most paranormal thing he did catch, in his mind, were both Shane and Sam doing their jobs exactly as he had asked. Great, so that was a fruitless- wait. Checking the camera in the storage room, he saw something. He saw several of the boxes rustling, moving on their own then stopping. If all of his employees were at their stations, then what was..?
He decided to investigate himself.
“Hey, Mors. Don’t die back there, kay? It’s always the people going on investigations themselves that get caught in horror movies!”
“Shane, I’ll dock your pay if you don’t get back to your station.”
“Goooot it.”
The first time he stepped into the storage room and heard squeaking he assumed it was rats. Great, they had an infestation on their hands. Another lengthy email to corporate. And then- he saw a flicker of green, a dash of blue, and- an apple stem? There they were. The Junimos. It was ridiculous, but he wanted to run away. Even if they looked cutesy, they were spirits- ghosts- supernatural beings, for crying out loud! In his moment of panic he stood, pale and wide eyed as he observed the creatures.
And then his panic quickly subsided, replaced with soft laughter.
“Is this a prank? Some kind of toy? Seriously…” When he tried to pick the creature up, it quickly hopped away, then reappeared behind him. Of course, Morris, being stubborn, doubled down on his internal viewpoint that they were toys. The squeaking didn’t help. Neither did their bouncy movements or overly cartoonish faces. He thought they were toys for the remainder of his encounters with them.
Regardless of how much they tried to keep him on his toes, annoy him, make him resign and bring peace back to the valley. They couldn’t get under his skin as they had his first few months of working.
I like imagining the Junimo are very determined little creatures, however. They both don’t understand human emotion very well, and also don’t understand the concept of knowing when to quit. They continued to make messes, hit against things to make unruly sounds, appear out of the corner of his eye, but it only made him crack down further on policies regarding workplace ethics and appropriate behavior.
Of course, this wasn’t to say Morris didn’t humor the “toy” he had found. At times he’d act scared, or frantically pick the mess it had made up, or try again to pick it up, somewhat impressed at the fact it had such sharp reflexes. If only the person controlling it put those skills to something productive.
When he’d spot one of a color other than green he wondered if the person who owned the toy had invested in multiple just to freak him out.
He found them kind of cute, and almost endearing. A part of him thought about pitching an idea to corporate regarding Joja potentially making their own line of the little things.
Before he knew it, however, the ruckus stopped.
The little creatures stopped squeaking, they stopped rummaging through the back room of the store, they stopped appearing out of the corners of his eye. The Junimos were losing their magic within the valley, and the spread of Joja was at fault. They couldn’t even ward off one store chain from the valley with the best of their abilities.
When he finds the last Junimo he almost jumps out of his skin at the sight of it. Anything unexpected caused him to jump, let alone one of the very things that had tried to annoy him for months on end. But now, there it was, its little leaf hung low and its eyes half shut in defeat.
Of course he was confused. A toy shouldn’t have been that expressive. Maybe it was another one? Maybe it-
And then, it disappeared. Right in front of his eyes, to his own dismay. Its little leaf had withered away, followed by the rest of it.
Panic, worry, and a strange sense of guilt filled his chest as he would bolt from the storage room. The realization they weren’t toys and that he had spent months pinning their appearances on employees embarrassed him, yet also, terrified him. Up until that moment he had assumed fairy tales, magic, and things of the like were fake.
Afterwards, he spent months making sure the Jojamart wasn’t haunted or anything like that. It was ridiculous, but nobody bothered stopping him. It took time he spent chewing them out for meticulous things away, and kept him preoccupied.
For a while, he tried asking other townsfolk about what he saw, being met only with confused glances and a few remarks here and there regarding him possibly losing it.
It made him feel crazy.
When the farmer actually reaffirmed the existence of the little fellas he had seen, it lifted a weight off of his shoulders. He didn’t have to feel even remotely worried that his unhealthy work hours were actually taking a toll on him. Nope!
And yet, it still made him feel bad.
Bad, as in wondering if something had happened to them that might’ve been caused by him. Or- by the collective efforts of the corporation he had been working so tirelessly for, anyways. It ultimately helped feed into his doubt regarding whether or not what he was doing was truly right.
It wasn’t until after the community center had been rebuilt that he saw the little fellas again. He was tending to his garden when he spotted something from the corner of his eye. He thought it was an animal, or perhaps just something blowing in the wind.
That's when he saw it, a Jumino making its way onto his property with a flower in tow. A white tulip.
It takes the Junimos a while to grasp the concept, but they realize Morris wasn't intentionally trying to fuck up the valley. He was just a victim of circumstance. So, after coming to this profound realization, I like imagining they occasionally drop off little flowers of varying positive meanings at his door to both reassure him that he didn't help permanently ward them off and to show that there's no hard feelings.
(also this takes away from the more serious nature of these hcs but if he could grab one of the little guys i do think he'd squish it in his hand. he finds them really cute outside of the initial five nights at junimos encounter he had)