In My Head | Shane | Stardew Valley ✔️

27

"Shane, you're doing great things for me," a rough and worn voice fills the room. He's talking to a young pudgy boy, and it takes Shane two seconds to realize it's him as a child.

Is this some sort of out of body experience?

Adult Shane looks down to where his own hands are supposed to be, but there's nothing. He takes the time to glance around as he hears Child Shane ask, "But what does it do?" Adult Shane realizes he's in the tower near the ranch belonging to an old and possibly insane man who goes by M. Rasmodius. A peculiar individual, but he's never cared enough to figure out if the man belongs in a mental institution for claiming he's a wizard. The thing is, Shane doesn't even remember this - and wait, what the hell is going on?

"I can't tell you, but I promise, you'll know if it worked."

"Aunt Marnie says to not take things from strangers."

He sighs. "I'm not a stranger, Shane. You can call me Ras. See? Not a stranger, you know my name and I know yours."

Child Shane hesitates, twiddling with a piece of candy from his pocket. Adult Shane cringes at his younger self, being brought back to the candy stash he had always carried with him. No wonder he's always been overweight. "Will any bad things happen?"

Rasmodius shakes his head. "Of course not; I'm almost positive there will be no bad side effects. All you have to do is drink it."

"Does it taste funny?"

"Maybe a little, but nothing you can't handle, right? You're a brave boy."

Ha. That's rich.

Child Shane was afraid to speak up at school for himself, afraid of adults in general, and afraid of the world outside of his room. And in a way, Adult Shane still is like his child self. He can't even fathom how his child self got to this point; talking to the insane man in his tower. Normally, he'd be running back to his room to hide for a while until he felt safe again.

"Okay..." Child Shane skeptically agrees, motioning for the drink. Rasmodius smiles mischievously, scooping the liquid from his cauldron into a cup. "Very good choice. If you see anything or anyone out of the ordinary, do let me know. I want to know if it worked."

He nods, cautiously lifting the drink to his face. Adult Shane doesn't remember what the concoction tastes like, but he can tell from the child's facial expressions that it wasn't pleasant. He coughs after taking the drink, handing the empty cup back to the man. "Can I go home now?" He asks, unwrapping a candy to rid of the drink's flavor.

"Of course. And one thing - don't tell your aunt about our little friendship, okay?"

"Why?"

"She doesn't see things like we do; you and I see this as you helping me. She'll think I'm hurting you. There's so many stories out there about me, but the bad ones aren't true. I'm kind of like a scientist doing experiments, but they don't see that. Besides, eventually you'll forget this little thing all happened."

"Okay. I won't tell anyone," Child Shane nods. He turns around and heads down the stairs, leaving Adult Shane with Rasmodius.

"This is how I could see Elle, isn't it?" he questions. "I was a little experiment for a fucking lunatic. And now it's fucked me in the ass, huh? You did this shit to me."

Rasmodius can't hear him.

"I want out of here," he heads down the stairs of the wizard tower, finding Child Shane opening the door and skipping out. "You stupid kid," he sneers, a sliver of longing in his voice. "Just wait until high school, then shit gets real. You'll be sneaking off to drink then, pal."

Though he continues to talk down to his child self, he doesn't actually feel upset towards that part of him. He instead feels nostalgic wondering where his youth and happiness all went. His real anger is towards Rasmodius for being the cause of this, and Elle for not leaving him when she should have known where their relationship would go.

But wait, what happened after he left the hill?

He can't remember a damn thing. He vaguely remembers driving and stopping somewhere, but can't recall where he stopped, nor what happened after stopping. Did he get home last night? Or is this some sort of form of his life flashing before his eyes?

He decides to follow his child self, hoping that he'd lead him to a way out of here. A way to more memories, perhaps. But the moment he sets foot out of the tower, his world goes black.

Shane finds himself once again as a child. They're in a different setting this time; his room. There's toys and video games scattering the floor, as well as candy wrappers overflowing the trash can. That was how he dealt with anxiety at the time - candy. That obviously transformed into beer as he grew older. Child Shane is hiding under his bed, although due to his overweight physique, it's pretty crowded and could be considered claustrophobic. Regardless, he hides.

Adult Shane kneels down to get a better look, realizing he isn't hiding from nothing; the boy definitely saw something that scared the shit out of him.

Why can't Adult Shane recall this memory either?

"Get away from me!" his child self yells, scooting even closer to the wall from under the bed. "How did you get in here? Marnie! MARNIE!"

Adult Shane turns around to see someone. An old man, one he recognized as owning the farm who he also recalls dying when Shane was a child.

The man's dead.

Both Shane's are seeing a spirit.

Marnie barges into the room, nearly unrecognizable. Unlike her current state of being overweight and tired (no offense to her), this Marnie looks young and in shape. There're no heavy bags under her eyes, her brown hair is neatly combed instead of in a rushed braid. "Shane, what's wrong?!"

"He's here! Right in front of you!"

"Who is?!"

"The old man! I don't know his name - don't you see him?!"

Marnie softens, seeing nobody else in the room. "Shane... Come out. Nobody is in here."

"He's HERE!"

"Shane-"

"HE'S HERE, MARNIE!"

"SHANE!" she yells, immediately regretting raising her voice. Oh, how the times have changed. "I-"

Child Shane sobs, scared of both the man standing there, watching him, and Marnie's raised voice.

"Shane, honey, come out. I'll make sure nothing gets you, I promise."

He sniffs, wiping his tears away. Adult Shane frowns, feeling the anxiety that his child self felt in this memory. The boy slowly crawls out from underneath the bed, running into Marnie's arms and hiding his face from the old man. The old man sighs, slowly backing up and disappearing at the blink of an eye.

Marnie leads Child Shane out of the room, prompting Adult Shane to follow, but as soon as he exits the room, his world goes black once again.

A/N: U H  O H