First I want to say thanks to my reviewers! I see and appreciate you guys.

Second of all, a lot happens in this chapter. It takes a turn towards the end that has a bit of a different feel than the rest of the story, but I promise, it'll come back.

Third- I still do not own Stardew Valley, just my plot and OC.

Sebastian stayed in that position for a long time. He couldn't tell if the water temperature was dropping or if he'd just become accustom to the heat. He was done crying, he had nothing left, but he was still trembling, and his legs were starting to cramp up. He stood up in the small stall, placing his hands on the walls to brace himself. His breathing was still quick, and his heart racing. He hated how quickly these panic attacks hit him, and how out of control he felt. He attempted to slow his breathing, by taking deep breaths. It was difficult but he counted each in and out until he lost track. He could feel the after effects of the adrenaline on him, but he felt slightly more in control now. The water temperature was in fact dropping, fairly quickly at this point. He quickly washed up and rinsed off, shivering by the time he was wrapping himself in his towel.

He grabbed his phone before he got dressed and texted Sam a bomb emoji. That was their code that he was freaking out but couldn't talk. It had been Sam's idea, which Sebastian was forever grateful for.

"You need me to come?" Sam sent a speedy reply.

"No" Sebastian texted back. He really just wanted Sam to know that he would be late, and most likely moody for practice.

"You're going to be late?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Bail if you need to."

Sebastian didn't reply again. He was still shivering. He abandoned his towel and curled up with his blankets in his bed. He buried himself in the comforts of his bed. He was reminded of when he was young and would stay up until the early hours of the night, blanket over his head, flashlight in hand, devouring a book. He thought it was funny now, he probably could have just had his light on and read normally. His bedroom was so separated from the rest of the house that the light seeping out from underneath the door would have gone unnoticed. Still there was something excited about doing in secret that way, in his own hidden cave where he would become fully immersed in the stories. He missed those days. Things were much simpler back then. He didn't carry the same weight on his shoulders as he did now. He had always been shy and felt his emotions in a strong way, but it wasn't always this bad. And now he was stuck with these little reminders all over his body of when he wasn't in control.

Okay, you're getting caught up in it again. List some positive things in your life. Your mother loves you. You have some really amazing friends. You are a damn good programmer. You live next to a lake with lots of frogs. Mariah said you were the best. She said to give yourself more credit and that you were good on the keyboard. You are good at the keyboard. There are people in this world that want to spend time with you, and you actually enjoy spending time with them…most of the time. You are the best pool player in all of Stardew Valley. Sebastian wasn't actually sure of how true that was, but it was more impressive than just being the best in a town of 30 people.

His breathing and heart rate were back to normal. He felt mostly better, but the panic attack had taken a lot out of him, and he needed to eat something. The shivering had stopped, so Sebastian decided that it was for the best that he get dressed. Despite the heat outside, he pulled a hoodie on over his tee-shirt as he wasn't quite as warm as he'd wanted to be yet. He went upstairs and headed into the kitchen, getting and made himself some toast. He drank some water while the bread was in the toaster. He opened the fridge looking for butter and finding none. He sighed, he didn't want to eat dry toast, so he grabbed a jar of unmarked jelly from the fridge. He didn't really like jelly, but he opened it and smelled it. It didn't smell awful, but he couldn't identify the fruit in it. When the toast popped, he spread the thinnest layer he possibly could over his bread. He took a bite and identified it as cherry. He didn't hate it as much as he thought he would, but he certainly wasn't about to eat it by the spoonful.

"Mom," Sebastian said, coming around the corner, "We're out of butter."

"I'll get some next time I go to the store," Robin said, "Unless you want to grab some at Pierre's on your way to Sam's?"

"We'll see," Sebastian said, which they both knew met no.

"What do you think of the jelly?" Robin asked, "Mariah made it and gave me a jar when I was down there last week."

"It's okay. I mean its jelly. Why were you at the farm?" Sebastian asked.

"Finally doing a bit of an expansion on the farmhouse," Robin said, "Please don't tell me that you didn't notice I wasn't home for a couple of days."

"Uh," Sebastian stuttered, "I gotta go. Already late. See you later!"

He heard his mother groan his name in frustration as he walked out the door. He got out his phone and texted Sam.

"OMW"

"You okay?"

He sent a thumbs up.

"You want to talk about it when you get here?"

"Just a panic attack. I've calmed down"

"Okay dude, you know if you change your mind I'm here for you anytime"

Sam really was the best friend he could have asked for. As much as his outgoing personality could be too much for Sebastian at times, he was happy to have the blonde in his life.

"He is not a vampire," he could hear Mariah's annoyed hiss as he got closer to the town square.

"Are you sure? He's just so pale, and weird," he could hear Alex too.

"He is not weird! And being pale doesn't make you a vampire you jackass," her voice rose.

Sebastian was feeling fairly certain that he was the topic of their conversation. Mariah was defending him, not that he really gave a shit what Alex thought about him.

"I just don't get why you're friends with him," Sebastian could hear the pair much cleared now as he was just behind Alex's house. He debated for a moment just standing there for a moment to eavesdrop. He should just keep on his path to Sam's house, but his curiosity was killing him,

"And I don't get why you care who I'm friends with," Mariah huffed, "I swear, Dusty has better manners than you do."

"Alright, alright," Alex said, "I'm just saying be careful. You're my friend too you know?"

"You don't need to worry about me," Mariah said, "I don't care if you don't like him, but you don't need to worry about Sebastian being a vampire."

"I guess you would know," Alex said, "You spend enough time with him."

"Yeah well I like spending time with some of my friends better than others," Mariah was still angry.

"Uggg," Alex groaned, "Can't I just say I'm sorry and we can be done with this conversation?"

"Oh I am happy to be done with this conversation. I need a real apology though."

Sebastian took that moment to keep moving, hoping to catch a glimpse of her anger. He'd never seen this side of Mariah before and was could imagine her eyes getting fiery and her hands firmly planted on her hips.

"Look Mariah, I'm sorry. I say dumb stuff. I'm sure you're probably right about Sebastian, I don't know him that well. I also just don't want something bad to happen to you okay?"

Thankfully neither of them noticed him passing by, as they were both facing the opposite direction.

Mariah's voice softened, "I appreciate the apology. Next time think about the fact that someone being different doesn't make them bad."

"I know," Alex grumbled.

Sebastian was out of hearing range and had no idea what happened after that. He had a good laugh to himself over the fact that Alex thought he was a vampire. He considered all the different ways he could mess with him now. Also found it interesting how different Mariah and he were socially. She said it herself, she was friends with practically everyone. He was friends with like three people and she was one of them. He supposed that coming from Zuzu city having so few people around getting friendly with the whole town was probably nothing. But still, from his understanding, she spent most of her time socializing with them. And she spent every festival with them as well. That had to mean something. They must have been the friends she preferred to spend her time with. And she stood up for you.

"You don't look half bad," Sam said when Sebastian got to his house, "Maybe you weren't lying about being okay."

"Shut up dude," Sebastian groaned, shoving his friend as they walked into Sam's room.

Abby was there and waiting for them, "Hey Seb."

"Hey," he responded, "Oh uh, before I forget, Mariah offered her place to hang out at for Sam's birthday if you wanted to do something different than the Saloon."

"Cool," Sam said.

"Ohh you think she'll let me explore the farm?" Abby asked.

Sebastian shrugged, "I wouldn't be surprised, but why don't you just ask her? I mean instead of bogarting Sam's birthday celebration."

"Shut up," Abby snarked.

"Alright, alright, let's try this new song," Sam said.

Later that day, Sebastian went home feeling exhausted. His visit from Mariah felt like it had been a week previous, and his panic attack too felt like it had happened on a different day. He went straight to his room and passed promptly out.

A few days later was Solarion Chronicles day. Sam always came over to play, Abigail was more intermittent. It was better with three, but today only Sam was coming. The game was fairly typical for the two of them, and Sebastian felt relaxed.

"Hey Sam, what would you think if we invited Mariah to play with us sometime? Sometime when Abby can't make it," Sebastian asked.

"Game is better with three," Sam agreed, "Do you know if she plays?"

"Not sure," Sebastian shook his head, "But I know she's into Sci-Fi and fantasy and stuff, so maybe?"

"Yeah, it's fine with me if you want to invite her. Even if she's never played before and is interested, I don't mind helping teach her," Sam said, "I'm just impressed at you expanding your social circle."

Sebastian rolled his eyes, "She's cool. Did I tell you about how I overheard Alex telling her he thinks I'm a vampire?"

"Seriously? He's such a dope," Sam shook his head.

"Mmm hmm," Sebastian agreed, "I'm still trying to decide how I want to mess with him on that. I might get some fake blood and leave a drop on the corner of my mouth or some shit."

"Dude, he'd probably fall for it if you got those cheesy fake vampire teeth."

"You're not wrong. Maybe I'll just do both and really freak him out."

"Alright, but I'm not consenting to you pretending to bite me," Sam laughed, "So don't get to that level. So what did Mariah say when he said that?"

"She called him a jackass and in some nicer words told him to shut the fuck up," Sebastian said.

"Did she know you were there?" asked Sam.

"I don't think so. Neither of them reacted when I walked by and they were both looking the other way."

"Well I'm glad someone else around here has your back buddy," Sam grinned, "And I bet she'd have some good pranking ideas too."

"I can't ask her about that. Then she'd know I was there and I don't want her to think I'm some weird creepy stalker or something."

"Hmm, good point. Oh I know," Sam said snapping his fingers, "You could just say you heard a rumor about it. Everyone in this town is a fucking gossip."

"True, but I would also like to point out that we're kind of gossiping right now," Sebastian added, "It's just a little different than when your mom does it."

"Hey," Sam shrugged, "I did say everyone didn't I?"

Sebastian laughed.

"Oh hey, did I tell you that I was looking into booking us a gig?" Sam asked with excitement, "Just a small show in Zuzu, but it would be a real, paid gig. We just need to record some music to make an EP to sell at the show."

"Seriously? That's exciting," Sebastian said, "I mean part of me is super anxious about performing on a stage in front of people, but that actually sounds pretty cool"

"We can practice around here first," Sam suggested, "Get like our families and Mariah, and some of the other people from town to come check us out before you have to do it in front of strangers."

"That's probably a good idea," Sebastian agreed, "I think we've got a few good songs already. That train song you wrote is really cool."

"Mariah gave me the idea for that. I was stuck and so I just asked her for song ideas, and that's what she suggested and man was I able to just go with it," Sam was content, talking about his passion like this, "We still need to play it for her. Maybe she'll come to the next practice? Or did I dream inviting her?"

"Uh, yeah, you invited her," Sebastian said, "I may have told her not to come. It was sort of after she turned you down, but also I was not ready to have someone new watch me learn a song for the first time. Did not need that kind of pressure. Which is good since that was the day of the panic attack."

"Oh yeah," Sam said, remembering the moment, "What happened with that?"

"It's kind of complicated," Sebastian shrugged, "Basically I got sucked into thinking about the past and all the other thoughts that come with that. Froze to death in the shower, you know, all good stuff."

"How did you freeze in the shower?"

"Yeah, the thoughts started before the shower, and then the panic attack started when I got into the shower. It was pretty stupid of me actually," Sebastian felt flush thinking about it, "I have no idea how long I was in there for, but the water was freezing by the time I got out."

"Well it's not like you are thinking clearly when it happens," Sam said softly, "But you did look really good afterwards. Especially considering how long it's been since you had one."

"Yeah," Sebastian nodded his head in agreement, "I hope that means I'm getting better at dealing with them."

"It has to right?" Sam said encouragingly.

They completed their campaign and Sam hung out for a while longer before heading home. Sebastian was just sitting down at his computer to get some work done when he got a text.

"Hey, sorry to bug you but did you talk to Sam/Abby about coming to the farm for Sam's b-day?"

"I got the flour anyway, because pizza is delicious"

"Oh yeah. Sorry totally forgot to text. All systems are go."

"That's both good and bad news. I hate cleaning."

"So you don't bat an eyelash at killing monsters in the mine, but dust bunnies get you? :P"

"Monsters dirty farmhouse"

"You've like never home, how dirty can it be?"

"Muddy boots Seb, 'nuff said"

"Plus Charlie likes making messes"

"Sure blame the dog"

"You watch yourself or I'm going to give you the wrong time and make you clean while I make the pizza before Abby and Sam get here"

"….or you could ask for help?"

"It may be my pride speaking, but nah. I'm good. Just complaining."

"Although Sam has seen my messy house…potato hunting"

Sebastian rolled his eyes. That fucking potato.

"Well if you change your mind, you've got Abby's number"

"I'll just ask the Junimos"

"Junimos? Seriously? How are fictional creatures going to help you?"

"You busy?"

"I could be… why?"

"Meet me at the community center in 30?"

"…why?"

"You'll see ;)"

Sebastian pushed his chair back from his desk. What is happening right now? He hadn't actually started anything so he was just able to log off. Maru was heading into the lab when he got to the top of the stairs.

"Hey Maru, can you tell mom I'm going for a walk? Don't know if I'll be back for dinner or not. I'll eat later," he asked.

"Sure Seb, be safe," she said with a smile and nod.

He headed out the door and realized it was later than he thought, it was starting to get dark. Not that he minded the dark, but meeting Mariah at the dilapidated community center in the dark for some unknown reason? He felt a bit uneasy. The unknown wasn't exactly his favorite thing. He arrived before Mariah did, and sat on what was once a stone step leading into the building and light up a cigarette. He took a long slow drag. He heard someone coming as he exhaled, assuming it was Mariah.

"Oh good, you're already here," Mariah called, "Hope you weren't waiting long."

"Nope, just got here," Sebastian said, gesturing to his cigarette.

"Okay, so I'm going to tell you this story, and you're probably going to think I'm crazy, but I figured you're more likely to believe me than anyone else," Sebastian could hear some anxiety in her voice.

"O-kay," he took another drag, "Go on."

"So not long after I moved in, Lewis took me up here to show me the community center and talked about his wish for it to be restored. While we were here, I swore I saw something moving, and he said it was probably just rats. Long story short, it was not rats, it was junimos. Honest to Yoba junimos. Which I know sounds insane. And then I get this letter from the wizard, and I ended up going to his tower.."

"The weird guy in the tower?" Sebastian interrupted.

"Yes," Mariah confirmed, "He's as far as I can tell a legit wizard."

"What?" Sebastian said in shock, almost dropping his cigarette.

"Let me just… okay? Questions later," Mariah said, continuing, "Anyway, I went to his tower, drank this potion..it got weird everything was purple for a minute, and now I understand them. The junimos that is. Their language and writing was like trying to communicate with an alien, and then bam all of a sudden I could understand them, and I knew what they wanted. And I bring them the offerings that they're asking for, they give me gifts for helping, and then they fix things. And not just like the community center. You know those mine carts around town? Yeah I gave them all this stuff from the mines and they fixed up the boiler room and then the next day the mine carts were working, which I can only assume was them. And no one knows because everyone ignores them because they haven't worked in so long. There's still a ton of offerings they're looking for, but it's literal magic."

"I..uh..," Sebastian stuttered, unable to gather his thoughts. This is crazy.

"I know, I know it's a lot to take in," Mariah said, "But will you come in with me? I'll show you."

"Ummm…is it..is it safe?"

"Only the boiler room is fixed so far, but it's safe enough," Mariah said, "The junimos won't hurt you. They're happy little spirits. Kind of shy actually. Like you."

"Oh. Um. Okay," He said slowly.

Mariah beamed and slid a ring off her finger, "Here put this on," she said thrusting it into his palm, "It's dark in there, this will help."

"What? How is a ring going to help?"

"It's a glow ring," Mariah explained, "I found one in the mines and the junimos gave me one. Pretty sure this is also magic, it's like there's a ball of light that surrounds you when it's dark out. From what I can tell no one else can see it, just whoever's wearing the ring."

Sebastian looked at her, stubbed out his cigarette with his shoe, and slowly slid the ring on his finger.

"Holy shit!" Sebastian exclaimed as he could suddenly see around him as clearly as if the sun were shining directly onto him.

Mariah laughed, "I told you! It's so easy to believe about the monsters in the mine, but junimos and magic are too far out there?"

"I..I just… yeah," Sebastian stammered.

"Come on," She said taking his hand, "Follow me."

She opened the door to the community center and led him inside. It was dusty and well worn, as she had said. They stood in the middle of the main room for a minute, and he didn't see anything at first. It was just quiet and the two of them standing there.

"Riah.." he started and then he heard something, Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something small, about the size of an apple. It seemed to move in a similar fashion to the slime monsters in the mines, but it had a grace about it that the slime monsters didn't, "Whoa."

Mariah squeezed his hand, "I told you," she whispered. Then more appeared.

"Junimos are real? All this time…"

"I know," she said, "See that hut there," she pointed to the left corner, "They live in there, I think. But they sort of hang out all over. C'mon let me show you my shining glory, which unfortunately I think is probably the most boring room in here."

She dropped his hand and started walking, Sebastian trailing right behind her, watching his steps on the broken floorboards. The junimos would scatter as they got close.

"I think they like you," Mariah said as the stepped down a short staircase, "I think they'd be hiding if they didn't.

Sebastian noticed that the steps and the floor on the room they were entering was in remarkably improved condition compared to the rest of what he'd seen of the building.

"Ta-da," Mariah said with pride, spinning around the center of the room, arms extended.

"Holy shit," Sebastian said looking around. The room was in fantastic shape, it looked brand new.

"Right? They're truly amazing. And once they took all of my bundles of stuff they just magic-ed it up in seconds. And they're so sweet too, always thanking me and saying all this nice stuff."

"I must be dreaming right now, right? This isn't real. This can't be real," Sebastian said with wide eyes.

"Seb, it's real," Mariah said with a wide smile, "Come with me and look at the other stuff. Or at least try to, I'm not sure if you can actually see any of it or not."

He followed her into the hallway and they stopped at a bulletin board on the wall. There was a small glowing square in the middle of it.

"Okay, can you see the square?" she asked, and Sebastian nodded, "Okay, touch it and tell me what you see."

He tentatively reached his hand out and touched it, unsure of what to expect, "Oh. Um how do I describe this? It's like a line of text is being projected like a hologram, but it's completely illegible. Is this the alien looking language you were talking about?"

"Mmm hmm," Mariah confirmed, "That's what happened for me at first too. Now something else happens. I'm not sure if you'll get to see it or not."

Sebastian pulled his hand back the text disappeared. Mariah reached her hand out and touched it, "Uh, nothing happened," he told her.

"Ah, but that's where you're wrong," Mariah said, "See I didn't see anything when you touched it either, but when I touched it, it's not just a line of text any more. It's this whole big thing. There's a bunch of different um bundles I guess? I can't think of a better word to describe it. This one," she pointed but it just looked like she was pointing at the air to Sebastian, "is finished. They gave me a heater for the barn for finishing that. Although I suppose you can't see what I'm looking at, so it's sort of a moot point. But this one," she pressed on the air again, "I have the last thing I need for."

Sebastian watched Mariah pull a pomegranate out of her backpack and she held it up to the air, and suddenly it disappeared. Sebastian gasped.

"I put it in, and now watch the junimos," She said.

Sebastian did as he was told, and there were junimos surrounding their feet. All of a sudden one of them was holding a small package, which it carried into the hut that Mariah had said they live in. They were making happy sort of noises and some of them looked like they were dancing. A different junimo carried another small package and brought over to them, offering it up to Mariah. They were saying something to her.

"You are welcome," she said in return, taking the package, which got much larger once it touched her hands. She unwrapped it, "And thank you for the gold!"

There was more happy chirping and the junimos dispersed as it had been prior to this strange occurrence. Although this whole thing has been really fucking weird. Mariah pressed at the air again, and then turned to look at him.

"I- what just happened? Did they just give you five gold bars? For giving them a pomegranate?" Sebastian was baffled.

"Well the pomegranate was the last thing, I had put other stuff in there before," Mariah explained, "I can put stuff it and it just gets stored. Makes my life easier rather than having to store stuff for each of the bundles somewhere at my house and then bring it all at once. There was some wine, a rabbit's foot, and oak resin in that one already. It would be so much easier if you could just see what I was seeing."

"This is a lot to wrap my head around. What do they do with the bundles?"

Mariah shrugged, "I have absolutely no idea. I think they're like offerings or something. I give them the offerings that they want, they give me thank you gifts, and once I complete the bundles for each area they fix up that area, and then something in town I guess. I really only have the experience with the boiler room, so I'm not really sure what will happen with the rest of them."

"I can't believe that junimos are real," Sebastian said, "I, um, can we go back to my place? I want more information, but I definitely need to sit and process. And maybe smoke some weed."

Holy shit did I really just invite her over. This whole thing is fucking crazy.

Mariah giggled, "If you think it will help. I'm just glad you came with me and didn't run away screaming thinking I was insane when we were outside."

"I may have considered that option," Sebastian admitted, "But I'm glad that I did too."