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Attending the Egg Festival was always a mistake. It was late enough into spring that the heat was intolerable, roasting Sebastian under his hoodie. He didn’t want to imagine how the buffet was faring in it — a disgusting assortment even without the threat of food poisoning.
He snuck a glance at his family. His mother, apparently having sensed that he was getting twitchy, met his gaze. She narrowed her eyes and shook her head. Sebastian didn’t dare try to escape yet.
If he’d been in the mood for an argument, he would’ve cited work obligations. It would’t have even been a lie. Any time spent away from his computer was costing him potential money. Freelance gigs had dried to a trickle since everyone decided that AI was good enough at coding. Sebastian had to pounce on listings early if he wanted to beat the hoards of other programmers left in the dust.
The more he stewed over it, the more the colorful, eggy surroundings sent him spiraling into anger. How could he be expected to enjoy such a pointless fucking afternoon when the universe was—
“Hey! Sebastian, right?”
He took in the figure in front of him. Pelican Town’s new farmer was all smiles, unfaltering in her terminal pleasantness. Definitely unaware of, or indifferent to, the dark cloud she’d walked into. Brushing her off would’ve felt like kicking a puppy. Sebastian didn’t need that guilt on his conscience.
“Yeah.”
“I made these to give to everybody.” She dug through the paper shopping bag dangling from her arm. “I know we don’t really know each other yet, but I didn’t want you to feel left out, so, here you go!”
She presented a needle felted chicken, adorned with a sparkly, purple wizard’s hat. It was perhaps the last thing Sebastian expected to see that day, let alone receive as a gift from a quasi stranger.
Curiosity piqued, he peered into the bag. There was an entire flock of well-dressed chickens inside.
“If you’re not into Merl-hen, you can pick out another one.”
“No, she’s cool,” Sebastian assured her, though he had thoughts about the forced pun. “I’m just surprised you had time to make all of these.”
“Oh, it’s a great way to unwind after weeding and watering!” A breeze pulled at the farmer’s checkered bandana, and she moved to re-tie it. “Plus it feels good to be making things with my hands. My old job turned into a ChatGPT hellscape on me, so…”
Sebastian grimaced. “Gross.”
“Extremely! You’re probably dealing with that too, right? Your mom told me you work in programming?”
He was shocked that his mother could describe it accurately. “I do.”
“Well, Merl-hen’s not powerful enough to burn those bullshit robots to the ground, but hopefully she made your day better anyway.”
Sebastian grinned in spite of himself. “She did. Thanks.”
The farmer beamed at the relative enthusiasm, eyes sparkling along with the tiny wizard hat. Maybe the Egg Festival would be alright this year after all.