Chapter Text
Whoever said that the corporate world was a good pathway to success needed to go get bent. The only thing this path led to was hell, and Charlie was entirely sure she’d reached her destination a long time ago.
The incessant clacking of keyboards and the droning, mechanical whine of the air-conditioning prickled at the edges of her nerves and buzzed off the walls of her dingy little cubicle, just loud enough that she could never quite tune it out. It might not have been so bad, had she been able to drown it all out with some music, but headphones of any kind were strictly forbidden and would be confiscated on sight. Between the camera directly above her head and the vague impression of the managers moving behind the huge frosted windows high above the maze of cubicles, Charlie didn’t like her odds of getting away with breaking the rules. Again.
Her skin crawled with the feeling of their eyes on her. Whose exactly, she had no idea, but Charlie knew from experience that the insane surveillance wasn’t simply for show. They were always watching. She and the countless coworkers around her had been reprimanded for slacking, using the bathroom more than once in a day (or at all), not typing a word correctly or fast enough, and once she’d even seen a woman get fired over the intercom for fainting at her desk.
She blinked blearily under the fluorescent lights and resisted the urge to rub her stinging eyes. She’d gotten called out for that before. Couldn’t have her looking away from her monitor after all.
Why had she ever applied for this job in the first place? Sure, Joja was a multinational super corporation that had massive influence on the market. It had seemed like a good way to gain some experience and get her foot into the corporate door. A way to put her business degree to good use, learn on the job, and maybe move her way up that proverbial ladder so she could make some real, good change to the world. But who in Yoba’s name was she kidding?
After five years in this hellscape, Charlie had learned only one thing: this job was a dead end. Literally, if the skeleton slumped over one of the desks (that she swore she’d once seen when she’d taken a wrong turn on the way to the bathrooms) was any indication.
When her shift finally came to a close, Charlie bolted from her little coffin, slipping around the creep in the cowboy hat two cubicles down that always tried to catch her on her way out. She ignored the way he called out to her, grimacing at the pill bottles scattered across his desk and tried desperately to forget the sight of him licking lips pulled into a too-wide smile.
Yoba, this place was fucking awful.
She groaned as she stepped out into the crisp, cool air and took a long, deep lungful of the lingering winter chill as she stretched her aching back. The cool air helped ease the migraine developing behind her tired eyes but did little to calm her frayed nerves. Afterall, she had it all to look forward to again tomorrow. And the next day. And every day after that until she keeled over at her desk and they either dragged her lifeless body out to make room for the next worker drone, or left her there to join the other skeleton as a reminder that this was where it all ended.
Fuck, she was being entirely too morbid. With a heavy sigh, Charlie made her way to the grimy bus station down the street and hopped onto the same bus she’d been taking for the last 5 years. The Zuzu City lights blurred past her as she fought the urge to nod off on the bus. She’d made that mistake before and arrived home short her wallet and phone. Just another day in the big city.
She’d been excited to move here at one point. Her brows furrowed as she watched the traffic pass her by and tried to recall that feeling. Zuzu City had been her dream growing up. A bustling place full of skyscrapers, exciting people, and opportunities. She’d been convinced that it was exactly where she needed to be to make it big. Now it felt more like a prison dressed up in fancy lights and billboards. She turned away from the flow of the city and trailed her eyes over her fellow commuters.
Most of these people she knew by sight, simply because they’d all shared this bus for years. They seemed as tired as she was, for the most part, though there were a few that still held a spark of eagerness and joy in their eyes that she envied. They’d certainly seemed to make city life work for them, so what was wrong with her?
A couple a few seats down drew her attention as they whispered to each other, hunched over one of their phones.
“I still can’t believe they captured an entire platoon, though. This is getting kinda scary,” the girl murmured.
“I heard Gotoro is offering to return them in exchange for, like, land or something,” her partner said.
“Oh my Yoba, do you think they would…”
Music blasted in her ears as she slipped her headphones in and Charlie sighed in relief when the tightness building in her chest eased up a little. Having a panic attack on the bus was the last thing she needed right now. She should have known better. People-watching on the bus had been a bad idea for a while now.
The war between Ferngill and Gotoro had been escalating recently and it felt like there was no escaping it. It was all over the news, social media and, hell, even the few newspapers she sometimes saw older folks reading. The mere thought filled her head with static and she took a long, slow breath to keep calm. She just needed to get home, have a nice long shower and forget about how the world around her was burning to the ground.
As she stepped into her tiny apartment, Charlie flipped the lights on to be greeted by the mess she’d yet to clean up. The bulb flickered briefly above her, clearly on its last legs, but she ignored it in favour of slumping onto the couch beside the pile of laundry she’d forgotten to fold and put away. She glanced around the room, taking in the trash she needed to throw out, the dishes she needed to wash, and the dusty floors she hadn’t touched with a broom in weeks. Spirits be damned, she needed to clean this place up, but that felt like a monumental task that she was not ready to tackle yet.
It was Friday. She’d deal with it tomorrow. For now, she needed to decompress before she took her much needed shower.
Having dug the remote out from somewhere within the blanket she’d left tangled up around the throw pillows, Charlie switched on her flatscreen and sank into the couch cushions. Flicking mindlessly through the channels, she skipped over trashy reality shows and reruns of The Queen of Sauce, hoping for something to fill the empty silence while she sat and melted into the upholstery for a while. Just as she was about to begrudgingly give it up and head for the shower, a flash of fire caught her eye and she froze.
“Breaking news today as Gotoro officials make demands for the release of the captured Ferngill soldiers.” Charlie’s breath quickened as the reporter discussed the implications of the demands over footage of the frontline. Soldiers ducked for cover behind burning buildings. Massive war machines fired at a target somewhere off screen, filling the air with plumes of dust and smoke. Charlie fumbled with the remote and just managed to switch off the TV before it slipped from her trembling fingers and clattered to the ground.
She took slow, shuddering breaths and squeezed her eyes shut against the darkness flickering at the edges of her vision. Ok, no TV tonight. Shower, then bed. That was what she needed. She knew she should probably eat too, but the thought made her stomach churn so she heaved herself off the couch and stumbled over to the bathroom.
It took what felt like a lifetime for the old geyser to heat up but, when the water was finally steaming, she slipped under the scalding stream and leaned back against the tiles. Her breath hitched briefly as the frigid tiles hit her skin, the shock of it enough to snap her thoughts out of the dark spiral they were slipping into. She needed to get a grip. There was nothing she could do about the war. It was happening on some distant shore in Gotoro, far away from here. She was safe.
She was safe .
Charlie sank onto the floor of her shower and pressed her face into her knees. This was ridiculous. She was being stupid, stressing herself out for no reason. It wasn’t like she was about to be conscripted. She needed to focus on the things she could fix and not on the swelling rise of anxiety-inducing shit happening in the world around her.
Like her grandpa always said: worrying about every little thing just stops you from looking ahead. Well, used to say anyway. He’d passed almost a decade ago but the memory of him still ached in her chest. She took another deep, steadying breath and heaved herself upright so she could get cleaned up and crawl into bed. A good night's sleep would help.
Except, as she stood, there was a sharp popping sound and then suddenly all the lights in her apartment went out. She stood in the dark, contemplating what the hell had just happened, until the water turned abruptly icy cold and she shrieked in shock. She just barely managed to scramble out of the shower without falling and cracking her head on the tiles and wrapped herself up in a big, fluffy robe.
Teeth chattering and feeling utterly miserable, she stalked out of the bathroom and poked her head out of the front door to see that every light in the rest of the building was apparently out as well. A few of her neighbours were looking curiously out of their apartments, but she slipped back inside before any of them had a chance to speak to her. Blackouts weren’t exactly common but, frankly this shouldn’t have been a surprise given the state of her rundown apartment building. She groaned and fumbled around in the dark to find her phone so she could use the flashlight to make her way to the bedroom and get dressed. There was no way she was finishing that shower in the cold.
As she moved around her room, trying to find something warm and clean to wear, Charlie’s foot caught on something in the dark and the world tilted around her. She flailed wildly, twisting as she fell to land hard on her back against her chest of drawers. Her legs gave out and she collapsed against it, dazed, winded and almost certainly bruised. She blinked against the light from her phone and blankly reached out to grab it, only to find the screen had shattered during the fall. There was a long moment of silence where Charlie simply stared at the ruined mess that was her phone and then it was all suddenly too much.
Hot, wet sobs bubbled up from somewhere deep in her chest as she sat there, weeping on the floor like a child. She couldn’t take it anymore. The constant reminders of the war. Her pathetic, filthy apartment. Her awful job, creepy coworker and even creepier managers always watching her. Five lonely years of working overtime for barely any pay and for what? She was a failure. This was not how she’d envisioned her life. She wanted to do something worthwhile. She wanted to help people! But how could she when she was so pathetic and useless that she couldn’t even get dressed without breaking something? What was the point of any of it?
Gasping for breath around the tears still streaming down her face, Charlie slid her fingers into her hair and pulled. This was too hard. She couldn’t do this anymore. It would be so much easier if it was just over . Besides, who would even notice? Her job? They’d have her replaced in a matter of minutes. She hadn’t been able to make friends in this Yoba forsaken city and she’d fallen out of touch with her family years ago. She was utterly alone.
Her darkening thoughts coalesced into a pit of fear that gnawed at her gut and she wrapped her arms around herself as tightly as she could. The pressure helped a little and she leaned over to press her forehead to her knees again. She couldn’t keep thinking like this. It terrified her every time it happened and it was happening more frequently these days. She needed to get a grip .
Still shivering, from more than just the chill now, Charlie pulled herself up against the old chest of drawers and leaned against it, staring blankly at the wood grain. She ran her fingers over it, feeling more than seeing in the dark and allowed herself to calm down, grounded by the familiar ridges of the old wood beneath her fingers. A sudden pop echoed around the room and she blinked in surprise as the lights in the living room flared back to life.
With the lights back on, things felt a little less hopeless, but the gnawing pit of fear had settled within her. She really couldn’t do this anymore. She needed a change. But first she needed to change into some clothing.
After retrieving her softest, warmest pyjamas, Charlie moved back over to the chest of drawers and pulled it open in search of her hair dryer, only to find that her fall had scattered everything within it. She grumbled in annoyance and dug through it, shoving old paperwork, birth certificates and bachelor’s degrees aside until she spotted the cable she knew was attached to her quarry. She yanked it out, heedless of how it scattered all of her more valuable documentation across the floor and moved to plug the stupid thing in so she could finish up and finally crawl into bed. She’d clean it all up tomorrow.
But as she turned, something purple caught her eye and she paused. There, sitting neatly on top of the pile of discarded papers, was an old, yellowing envelope held shut with an ornate, purple wax seal. It looked vaguely familiar but, for the life of her, she couldn’t recall what it was. Hairdryer abandoned, she bent to pick up the strange envelope and flipped it over curiously. Strangely, the front was totally blank, so she flipped it back to examine the seal. The letters “PT” were pressed into the wax and her eyes widened in recognition.
“Grandpa?”
Peter Thorne. The last time she’d seen or heard his real name had been at the funeral and the memories of that painful time in her life threatened to pull her down another dark spiral. But underneath all the grief, something else tickled the back of her mind. Her grandpa, sick and frail, lying in what had to be the most uncomfortable looking bed she’d ever seen, holding out a letter to her. She hadn’t thought about that day in years, but now, as she stared at the old envelope, the memory came flooding back, clear as day.
“There will come a day when you will feel crushed by the burden of modern life and your bright spirit will fade before a growing emptiness. When that happens, my girl, you’ll be ready for this gift.”
Fresh tears slid down her cheeks but she smiled fondly. Her grandpa really had known her better than anyone. Years of talking his ear off about how she’d make it big in the city and make a difference, yet he’d known from the start she wouldn’t be able to hack it and had prepared for it.
“Sorry to prove you right, old man,” she murmured with a sad smile, before slipping her finger under the seal to break it. Charlie wasn’t sure what she expected, really. Words of encouragement? A letter telling her what it took to survive as an adult maybe? It certainly wasn’t a very official looking document with the words “Deed of Land - Ferngill Republic” written across the top in big, bold lettering. It couldn’t be real, right? Tucked underneath it was a tightly folded paper, so she set the ‘deed’ aside and unfolded what turned out to be a handwritten letter.
Dear Charlie
If you’re reading this, then you must be in dire need of a change.
The same thing happened to me, long ago. I’d lost sight of what mattered most in life… real connections with other people and nature. So I dropped everything and moved to the place I truly belong.
I’ve enclosed the deed to that place… my pride and joy: Winterbloom Farm. It’s located in Stardew Valley on the southern coast. It’s the perfect place to start your new life.
This was my most precious gift of all, and now it’s yours. I know you’ll honour the family name, my girl.
Good luck.
Love, Grandpa.
Wiping at her wet eyes, Charlie lifted the apparently very real deed and stared at it for a long moment. Grandpa had talked often about his old farm when she was young. He’d spun fanciful tales of an idyllic place beside the sea, surrounded by forests and meadows that thrummed with life. He’d always made it feel fantastical. Like it was some distant, magical land in a fairytale. She knew now, of course, that it was a real place located beside a small town several hours south of Zuzu City. A seaside town named after a bird of some sort, if she recalled correctly.
An incredulous laugh bubbled up her throat and Charlie rolled her eyes down at the letter. What on earth had he been thinking? She didn’t know the first thing about farming besides the fact that it wasn’t the cozy little cottage-core life people liked to make it out to be on social media. Agriculture was complicated and she’d never even bothered trying to keep a house-plant alive in her crappy little apartment because it didn’t get enough natural light. She chuckled at the very idea of her trying to run an entire farm on her own. What a ludicrous thought.
She made to set the deed back in the drawer. There was no way she’d be able to do what he wanted her to, but maybe she could sell the old place and use the money to start something here in the city. A non-profit perhaps? The papers hovered over the drawer and she frowned when her hand refused to lower them into it. Something, somewhere deep inside her, balked at the idea.
Zuzu City had been her dream, but right now her life was a living nightmare. If she were being honest with herself, really honest, she didn’t want to stay here. Not when the terrifying thoughts she’d been having lately were growing louder and more frequent. No, Zuzu City wasn’t good for her. It never had been. She’d just been too stubborn and too stuck in a sunk cost fallacy to admit it. She still wanted to help people and it had long since been made clear to her that she wouldn’t be able to do that here.
Maybe this was just what she needed.
Glancing out of her window at the dirty old walls of the apartment building across the alleyway from hers, Charlie pushed her hesitation aside and felt the anxious pit in her stomach dissolve into something more akin to nervous excitement. Okay then. If she was going to do something stupid that’d probably be a huge mistake and ruin her financially, why not do it somewhere with a better view?
Well, here goes another fic. This is something I've had swimming around in my head for years and I finally thought, "fuck it, it's time to do the thing." Writing the first chapters of this also got my ass going enough to start working on my long untouched Lumity fic too, so woo! I'm gonna work on this when I have time between life and lumity, so updates are likely to be slow so I don't run out of buffer chapters. I do hope you enjoy this gay little romp where I wish I could be in Charlie's place coz who doesn't wanna get to date Abby?