The police academy didn’t work out for Will. After an incident, he was denounced as a cop. He couldn’t pull the trigger, and he wasn’t cut out for being law enforcement – At least, not out in the field. After the incident, Will went back to the small town he had grown up in - Pelican Town, deep in Stardew Valley. It was a meager town in the PNW, but he was alright with going back and living with his mom in his childhood home for a year or two before he went and did his own thing. He was only 24, anyways. It was nice to be back. He had grown up in Pelican Town, and it had been big news when he had left for college and the Police Academy in Virginia. It was the kind of valley where everyone knew each other, and tourists were few and far between.

For the first 5 months it was fun, and then became just as boring as it always was, even if the quiet life fit Will. It was a small town, after all. He spent most of his days fishing for Willy to keep the Fish and Bait shop open, or working shifts at the General Store. Pelican Town needed young adults to work in order to keep the small community functioning, after all.

The huge farm to the west of main town had been completely abandoned for at least a decade by now. When he was younger, Will briefly remembered a bitchy old man living there. It was the kind of abandoned house that the neighborhood kids dared each other to go near, overgrown and decrepid – He had been dared to go in there by his friends once on Spirit’s Eve when he was 14. But now the property was being taken back. It was always huge talk around town whenever anyone moved in, so of course, when a young man came in and claimed the plot of land from his father’s inheritance, excitement and rumors had crackled around.

The guy was right around Will's age, which had a different reason for exciting him. He’d ‘explored’ himself a little in college, which wasn’t something he had shared with his mother, or anyone else in town - Considering everyone here he had known since he was young. That was the kind of thing he preferred to keep private, and close to his chest.

The guy didn’t come into town for a few days, until now. When the bell over the glass door of Pierre’s General Store jingled and the new guy walked in, while Will was in the middle of stocking shelves. He cursed himself for being in his stupid work uniform – A green corduroy apron and cap with the General Store logo on it.