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writings-of-a-daphodil · 4 years ago

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Fire Keeper: Chapter 13

Douxie x fem reader

Chapter 1

Masterlist in bio!

Series Summary: You are Jim’s older sister who is taking a break from college and has moved back home to Arcadia. You end up joining Jim and his friends on their adventures.

Chapter 13 summary: You are doing your best to help out Mindy when a mission with Douxie leads you to discovering Claire is possessed.

A/n: So, I’m mainly going with the history that was described in wizards because there are some huge discrepancies from what was described in trollhunters.

You knocked on the door to Mindy’s apartment. It was quaint, but it also seemed sophisticated and stylish. Yet it didn’t have a good aura.

Mindy opened the door and rushed you in. You noticed that the windows had their shutters nailed shut and how the door had several locks. You looked at Mindy and noticed she looked stressed.

“You were right, the goblins are after me,” Mindy admitted.

“I’m here to help,” you said.

“The goblins have been trying to get in and I haven’t been able to sleep. I need you to take care of them, permanently.” Mindy sighed and you noticed how exhausted she seemed.

You smiled at her sympathetically. “I’ll see what I can do and I’ll text you if I have a plan.”

“Thank you,” she said, getting the door for you again.

You said goodbye and hopped into your car. You needed to talk to someone who knew about goblins. Blinky was too busy helping the trolls, so you would have to ask Strickler. You wrinkled your nose as you began to drive to the sewer entrance by the place he was training Jim.

You pulled your car over and then walked into the sewer. “Ah, Ms. Lake. To what do I owe the pleasure?” Strickler asked and you rolled your eyes.

“I’m only here because I don’t want to bother Blinky,” you stated.

Strickler gestured to a box. “Do sit down. What can I help you with?”

“A...person that I know is having goblin troubles. Is there any way to scare them off permanently?”

“Hmm,” Strickler thought for a moment. “Yes, goblin repellent. It’s not easy to get your hands on, but I should have some in my old office. You’re going to want to paint it all over the person’s home. Similar to how your brother is using those signs to ward off gumm-gumms. And don’t worry, it’s not dark magic so you should be fine.”

“How did you know I’m allergic to dark magic?” You asked.

“Your brother told me,” Strickler explained and you tilted your head. How had that come up in conversation?

You decided to push that thought away for the moment. “How do you expect me to get into Señor Uhls office?”

“Create a distraction, I’m sure you’ll figure it out and be just fine. You were always creative,” Strickler said. “And before you ask, I can’t just walk into the school either.”

“Fine, thank you for your help,” you said, maturely.

“You're welcome, Ms. Lake. And for what it’s worth, my condolences on what happened to Vendel.”

“I still don’t like you, but thank you.” You felt your eyes tear up as you left the sewer. It had been a few weeks since Vendel’s death and it still hurt to think of him. You had been struggling to practice magic ever since.

It was just like writers block, but with magic. So, you weren’t going to be able to get into the school with that. You would need help and your thoughts immediately went to Douxie. The two of you had just had coffee together and you were still feeling embarrassed about the way he was gazing at you, he seemed to be enamored with you and what you were saying. But you needed help and you didn’t want to bother your brother and your friends. Not that you wanted to bother Douxie, but he had offered his help.

You pushed your thoughts aside and concentrated on driving home. You would text Mindy tomorrow about your plans and you would enlist Douxie to help you get into the school. Maybe he could distract everyone by telling them about the battle of the bands.

~~~~

“Okay, so you want me to distract everyone? How am I gonna do that?” Douxie asked as the two of you sat in your car.

“Really?” You deadpanned, but he didn’t seem to understand. You laughed. “You have an accent, you're in a band, and you are walking into a highschool full of teenage girls. Everyone is going to be distracted.”

“Are you sure?” Douxie asked.

“Yes, the girls will think you’re cute, the boys will be jealous, and the teachers will want to know what’s going on. And spreading the word about the battle of the bands is the perfect excuse.”

Douxie gave a cheeky smile and gently nudged you. “You called me cute.”

Your face grew warm. “Don’t let it go to your head.”

“Already has, darling.”

Fortunately the bell that signaled lunch rang, saving you from having to come up with an answer. “That’s our cue,” you announced, getting out of the car.

“Good luck! And remember if you have to use magic, well, I know you can do it,” Douxie called.

“You too.”

You waited til Douxie had gathered everyone’s attention and you could tell he was using magic to keep everyone captivated. You felt yourself wanting to go over and listen, but you didn’t want an angry assassin after you, so you made your way to Strickler’s old office.

Nobody you saw gave you any attention and you made it to Señor Uhls’ office without any problems. You tried the door handle only to find it locked. You sighed and began to focus on the lock. Normally it would be easy to push the lock pins using telekinesis, but it was hard to levitate even a feather since Vendel died. You thought back to what Douxie had said after you got out of the car and you pushed yourself to use your magic.

An orange glow came from within the keyhole and you turned the handle.

You allowed yourself to celebrate a little before you walked over to the desk. Taking the key-pen you unlocked the wall and you walked into the little room.

The dark aura of the room made you feel uneasy, so you sped up your searching. It wasn’t hard to find, Strickler was pretty organized.

You quickly grabbed the bottle and shut the door. Just as you put the key-pen back in its place you heard the door knob click.

Panicking you took a seat in front of the desk and tried to look as professional as possible. Señor Uhl walked inside and he seemed to be confused as to why you were there.

“Hola, Señor,” you greeted, reverting to Spanish.

“Hola, Ms. Lake. What are you doing here?”

“I’m here, to...uh, to talk about Jim. I’m concerned about him,” you said, and it wasn’t exactly a lie.

“Mhmm, yes. Your brother has missed quite a few days of school.” Señor Uhl considered what you had just said. “Perhaps I can figure something out. He will need to do summer school.”

“Yes, I agree,” you said, feeling bad for Jim. Glancing out the window you saw Jim arguing with Douxie. You mentally face palmed. Douxie probably hadn’t been able to distract Señor Uhl because Jim was distracting Douxie. You scolded yourself for not telling your brother about your mission.

“—and that is why I think Spanish is a great language to learn,” Señior Uhl was saying and you nodded enthusiastically. You hadn’t paid attention to a word he had said.

“I completely agree. Anyways, Adios Señor, I need to get to my job. Have a great day!” You called, ducking out the doorway. You speed walked through the halls and eventually saw Jim practically threatening Douxie.

“If you want to flirt with someone, flirt with um...” Jim glanced around, eyes landing on you. “flirt with my sister.”

This time you actually face palmed, hiding your blush. You pulled your brother away from the group. “Jim, we are on a mission and Douxie was distracting the school for me. I didn’t want to tell you because I didn’t want to worry you,” you explained, your voice strained.

“Well, it was, uh, lovely see you again Jim. Shall we Y/n?” Douxie asked, taking your arm. You followed him to your car.

“What was that all about?” You asked, confused as to why Jim was angry at Douxie.

“It was a misunderstanding, I’m really sorry about that. I sensed dark magic on Claire, dark magic that reminded me of Morgana. I was just trying to investigate more.”

“Oh, it’s okay. The dark magic you sensed is probably like Morgana’s because Claire uses her old shadow staff.”

“That does make sense,” Douxie mused.

“Of course it does,” you affirmed.

You dropped Douxie off at the bookstore and after a quick conversation with Strickler on how to use the goblin repellent, you made your way to Mindy’s house. You once again knocked on the door and she rushed you in.

While the house was gorgeous, it had an unwelcoming aura so you tried to do your job as quickly and perfectly as possible. As a way to distract yourself from the aura and the fact that you were helping your assassin, you struck up a conversation with said assassin.

“So, what are you going to do with your life now that you are free from Gunmar?” You asked.

“I’m going to move very far away from here. Once I can get the Goblins off my back then I can leave. Gunmar won’t bother sending actual soldiers,” Mindy explained.

“Ahh, where do you think you will go?”

Mindy seemed to perk up at this question. “I want to go somewhere tropical,” she explained excitedly. “I was thinking of going to Hawaii, that’s where my parents are.”

You tilted your head at her. “I didn’t know there were any trolls in Hawaii.”

“No, my human parents are from there; and more sun means less chance of gumm-gumms coming for me,” she explained and the more you talked to her the kinder the aura in the room felt.

“That sounds like fun,” you said, finally finishing one of the marks. To use the repellent you had to pour a bit of it into water and then paint designs on the walls. It was tedious, but the markings didn’t have to be perfect to work.

“It will be,” she paused. “So, how did you figure out you were a sorceress?”

You gave a small smile. “It’s a long story, but I guess we have time.”

You began to explain how you had been startled by Aaarrrgghh and Blinky when they came into your home and how you had wanted to protect your brother so you accidentally blasted Aaarrrgghh.

“Mhmm, it must be nice to have friends that are so forgiving,” Mindy mused.

“It is nice,” you agreed.

“So what about that Douxie guy. I can’t read aura’s like you, but you two seem close.”

“Um, yeah. He’s a good friend,” you said.

“So, you like him?” Mindy prompted and you looked out the window, feeling your face heating up.

“Maybe,” you mumbled.

“Well, you should talk to him,” Mindy suggested and you laughed.

“Maybe,” you repeated, a smile gracing your face.

~~~~

You let out a shriek as you accidently knocked a glass off the shelf and it shattered. You had been making tea for Claire. She and Jim were going on a double date with Toby and Darci so he would give it to her. Once you were done you would finally be able to relax.

It had been a few days since you had helped Mindy and you were still exhausted. You had ended up spending almost eight hours at Mindy painting marks all over her house. It was finally a weekend and you were ready to chill.

You sighed, you didn’t want to waste valuable magical energy picking up the glass so you walked downstairs to get the broom from the basement. You switched on the light only to see several paintings that depicted trolls and Jim in his armor and even you playing with your magic. Where had they all come from?

“Jim!!!” You called and you heard his footsteps running to the basement.

“Y/n? What is it? Are you okay?” He asked, out of breath.

“I’m fine, but where did these paintings come from?”

Jim dropped his gaze to the floor. “Well I think mom is slowly getting her memory back.”

“Oh, Jim this is great. Who knew mom is really good at painting?” You beamed.

“Yeah, but-“

“No buts,” you interrupted. “I know you didn’t want mom to know, but the universe wants her to. I think it will be good for her.”

“I...I don’t know, can we talk about this later?”

“Of course. Go have fun on your date,” you called, grabbing the broom. “Oh, and the tea is on the counter.”

“Got it, Y/n/n. Have a good night!”

“You too!” After you took care of your mess, you made your way to your room and plopped down on your bed. You on some Netflix and relaxed.

Unfortunately, there’s no rest for you. Your phone began to ring and you paused the show you had been in the middle of binging. It was Douxie and you hoped everything was okay.

“Y/n, you know how you told me not to worry about how I sensed Morgana’s magic in Claire?” He asked and you noticed how worried he sounded.

“Yeah, why? Is everything okay?”

“Claire just ordered a raw steak, dripping with blood for dinner and I’m certain that’s not normal.”

“Diets these days are wired, but you’re right. That’s not normal.” You sighed as you got out of bed. “I’ll be right over there.”

“Okay, I think she’s possessed by Morgana. You asked for the tea recipe because Claire opened that portal, that must have been when it happened.”

You cursed. “I’ll be right there.”

You closed your laptop and put on a comfy sweatshirt. You shivered as you went outside and walked to your car. It was chilly outside for late spring.

You drove to the restaurant only to find NotEnrique signaling you from an alleyway. You waved Douxie over to you.

“Where are they?” You asked.

“They left a little while ago. My shift just ended so I couldn’t follow them,” Douxie explained.

“Yeah, that wasn’t my sis. She’s definitely possessed by something,” NotEnrique added.

You frowned. “Okay, do you know where they went? I remember Jim was saying something about going to see Danger House Two or something.”

“I was waiting on another table when Claire said she wasn’t feeling well so maybe she and Jim went to her house,” Douxie suggested.

You nodded. “Alright get in.”

You definitely broke the speed limit as you raced to get to Claire’s house. You had read books about Morgana and you knew she was bad news. You were also pretty irritated that she had possessed Claire, there was no way that witch was going to get away with it.

You parked on the street and NotEnrique ran into the house and through the window. You and Douxie went to the front door and he unlocked it with magic.

The two of you entered the house to see a passed out Claire and no furniture. Jim was standing in the middle of the room in his armor.

“Mordrax's Miracles! What happened in here?” Douxie asked as you rushed to hug Jim.

“She called herself Morgana. Who is that?” Jim asked.

“Uh...Not somebody you want to date,” NotEnrique said.

“Let’s tie her up,” Douxie suggested nervously.

“Ugh, what’s he doing here?” Jim asked.

“Get over yourself Jim. He’s here to help.” You rolled your eyes and turned to DOuxie. “Can you please chain her up?”

“My pleasure,” Douxie said, using a spell. Suddenly glowing blue chains were wrapped around Claire’s body and Douxie levitated her up the stairs.

Jim led him to Claire's room and Douxie set her down on the desk chair.

You smiled at Douxie. “Thank you.”

“Any time.”

You took a seat on the bed and watched the unconscious girl. You scowled, Morgana was going to pay for this. Claire was like the little sister you never had and you didn’t appreciate Morgana possessing her.

You and Douxie sat in silence as Jim went to call Toby. Occasionally Morgana would wake up, but Douxie would always put her back to sleep. It was growing harder though.

Eventually Toby arrived and Morgana woke up again, spewing insults. Douxie did his best to knock her out again, but you could see he was growing tired.

“You should rest. Blinky will be here soon,” you told him and he nodded, sitting down beside you. He almost immediately fell asleep on your shoulders and you realized he had to be immensely tired. You hoped Morgana would let him sleep for a little while.

Suddenly Claire began to glow gold as Morgana woke up again. “Release these shackles or I’ll wear your spin as my crown, peasants!”

“That’s a new one,” Jim mumbled as Douxie jolted awake.

Toby chuckled nervously. “Her creativity knows no bounds.”

Douxie stood up ready to send her back to sleep and you stood up to stop him, but Morgana acted first.

Claire grew even brighter and the four of you were thrown against the wall. Somehow Douxie managed to catch you, taking the impact from the wall.

“Um, thanks,” you mumbled, getting off of him as Blinky burst into the room.

“Apologies for my delay.” Blinky ran over to Morgana and resealed her chains with a blue stone. “I was awaiting Aaarrrgghh’s return, but he never showed.”

Blinky helped Jim to his feet. “I’m sure he’s fine, we’ve got bigger problems.”

Morgana growled and tried to attack Toby, but you pulled him away as Jim pushed Morgana towards the window.

“After I feast on your souls, agony will rule for a thousand millennia.

“How long is a millennia? Is that like a million years?” Toby asked, panting.

“I think it’s a thousand,” Jim corrected.

“Indeed, Master Jim,” Blinky affermed.

Toby stepped away from Morgana. “I would not like my soul to be feasted upon, if that’s all right with everyone inf the room.”

Morgana laughed. “Don’t worry Toby, I was there when she was first sealed away and I know we can do it again,” Douxie said optimistically.

“Who’s this?” Blinky asked, studying Douxie.

“Hisirdoux Casperan, apprentice of Merlin, at your service,” Douxie said, bowing.

Blinky opened his mouth to say something then he appeared to decide against it. “That’s a conversation for another time,” he mumbled to himself.

“What’s wrong with her?” Jim asked, guiding the conversation back to the problem at hand.

Morgana continued to laugh maniacally as Blinky talked, “She is most certainly possessed.”

“Does the name Morgana mean anything to you?” Jim asked, ignoring Douxie who opened his mouth to explain.

Blinky gasped. “You cannot hope to contain me, trollish whelp. I am the Eldritch Queen of the Seventh Plane. Baba Yaga. The Pale Lady. I have slain scores of Merlin’s fools.” Morgana threatened as she glowed gold again. She levitated into the air and books flew around her.

“How is that possible?” Douxie muttered and you looked at him concerned.

Before you could ask what he meant, Blinky began to yell, “I do know that name! This is far worse than I could have ever imagined!”

They dragged Morgana to the ground again. “Morgan le Fay, Merlin’s-” Blinky glanced at Douxie “-eldest apprentice.”

“Like Merlin who made my amulet?” Jim asked.

“I spit on his name as I spit on his grave,” Morgana growled.

“Sounds like they didn’t get along,” Toby mumbled.

Morgana laughed. “He thinks he can be rid of me? The fool. I will erase his name and all of his creations.”

“The sorcerer and sorceress dueled at the battle of Killahead and Merlin sacrificed himself to banish her from our world. But now she’s here,” Blinky explained.

“Oh, what little lambs. My work here is done. Gunmar knows how to bring the Eternal Night. All you can do is sit back and watch the world as it burns,” Morgana said calmly. Levitating a pillow to herself she leaned back and relaxed.

“Oh, boy,” Jim groaned.

Blinky began to protest. “It’s not possible. With what relics? What magic?” Blinky began to shake Morgana.

“Blinky!” Jim warned, pulling him away.

You pulled Douxie out of the room, leaving Jim, Toby and Blinky to discuss the next move. “You seem tired. Are you alright?”

“I-I didn't know that she could do this. Merlin left me a huge list of things to do and I forgot the most important one of all,” Douxie sighed and you could see the anguish in his Hazel eyes.

“Hey, hey. Look at me. It’s not your fault. Morgana has been planning this for centuries and even if you had checked up on her, she would have still found some way to complete her plans,” you said, in an attempt to console him.

“That’s not great either. I’m still just an apprentice.” Douxie avoided eye contact.

“Come on. Let’s get some fresh air.” The two of you walked out of the house. “Okay, take some deep breaths, okay? I get it. This is tough, but we’ll figure it out.”

Douxie opened his eyes and gazed into yours, taking you hand, he said, “Thanks, Y/n. You don’t know what it means to have a friend like you.”

Your face grew warm. “Of course Douxie. We’re both going through some things and you were there for me, so I’m here for you.”

You smiled up at him and he opened his mouth to say something when a car pulled into the driveway. You got ready to distract Mr. and Mrs. Nuñez, but Strickler got out of the car.

“I came as soon as I heard? Where are they?” Strickler asked.

You gestured towards the house. “Upstairs in Claire’s room.”

“Alright, carry on,” Strickler said, running into the house.

You realized how close you and Douxie were standing and you pulled away. You cleared your throat. “I should go back in and help.”

“I’m coming too,” Douxie said, following you back inside.

You arrived to see Strickler holding the shadow-staff. “What’s going on?” You asked.

“I’m trying to open a portal,” Strickler grunted.

You sighed, but you didn’t hesitate when you said, “Here, let me.”

"Y/n, no. You ended up in the hospital last time," Douxie argued.

"There isn't much I wouldn't do for my friends," you responded, taking the staff.

You did your best to summon all your anger at Morgana. You hated how she had possessed Claire. You hated how she was helping Gunmar. You had read about her and how she had been an advocate for magic and you hated that siding with Gunmar was her twisted idea of saving the world. And you really hated how she made Douxie feel bad about himself.

You tried to send the hate into the shadow staff and out to create a portal, but it began to consume your energy as well as your anger.

“Alright, that’s enough,” Douxie said, taking the staff away from you once you began to sway. He handed the staff to Jim just in time.

You collapsed into his arms. “Next time, I’ll listen to you,” you mumbled. “I don’t know how Claire does it.”

Something about claire

“Let’s make sure there won’t be a next time, Love.”

“Good plan.”

Douxie put an arm around your shoulder, supporting you. “I’m going to take her to get some tea. Good luck,” he announced.

Jim nodded. “Keep her safe,” he ordered, turning his attention back to Claire.

“Stay safe, Jim!” You called and he gave you a weak smile. “Call me when Claire has been successfully exorcised!”

“Thanks for being here,” you beamed.

Douxie opened the passenger door for you. “Any time.”

You did your best to breathe during the car drive, in and out, in and out. You were feeling a little nauseous after your brush with dark magic and you were looking forward to getting some tea.

“Are you alright?” Douxie asked, turning onto the street.

“Not really, but I’ve been sick like this before and last time it was so much worse.”

“Yeah, it was scary seeing you in the hospital. I didn’t know your injury was dark magic related, I just thought you had battled someone who practiced it when I sensed it on you. I remember just sitting in the waiting room, listening to the doctors panic about how they didn’t know what was going on. Your mom was really determined though, she seems great.”

“Oh, Douxie! She is great, but I’m so sorry for worrying you like that!”

“It’s fine, Y/n. You’re okay now. It was scary though, and I don’t really know any healing spells. I felt so helpless.”

You didn't know how to respond to that, but your arrival at the bookstore saved you from having to say anything.

Douxie helped you out of your car and to the couch where Archie jumped onto your lap. “How’d it go?” The familiar asked.

“Not well. It was definitely Morgana possessing her. I can’t believe I didn’t catch it sooner,” Douxie explained and you could tell he was blaming himself.

“Douxie, it’s not your fault. At least you know now and you can take the precautionary actions to stop her from truly getting free.”

“That’s exactly what I’m going to do,” he said, determined. “Right after I get you your tea.”

“Archie?”

“Yes?”

“Is Douxie going to be okay? He’s pretty harsh on himself. He hasn’t said much, but I can tell he is blaming himself.”

“Douxie tends to put the weight of the world on his shoulders,” Archie explained.

“Oh.” You didn’t say anything else as Douxie came back.

“Here,” he said, handing you a cup and you thanked him.

“I need to get packing, do you need anything else?” Douxie asked.

“I’m good, but what are you packing for?”

Douxie began to pace. “I’m going to try to reseal Morgana in her prison. I can’t let her get out.”

You gaped at him. “You can’t do that alone. Wasn’t Merlin the one to do it?”

“Well, yeah. But it’s been nine hundred years, I’m ready now,” Douxie argued, but you didn’t know who he was arguing with. It sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

“Well, then I’m going with you,” you stated.

“Wait, what?” Douxie asked, startled out of his rant he turned to you.

“I’m serious. I-I need a master and you need help.”

“A-are you sure?” Douxie asked, walking towards you.

You stood up, not breaking eye contact with him. “I’m sure.”

****

So tada! This chapter was a dream to write and I really enjoyed it. I hope y'all like it as well and I can't wait to write the next! I can't wait to write that one though it might take some time. Anyways I hope y'all are going to have a fantastic weekend and please stay safe out there.

P.S. if you want to be on the taglist feel free to ask. I hope it works and please message me if it doesn’t.

P.P.S. I'm totally open for requests on fluffy half chapters! If you have any ideas for the half chapters send them in and I'll do my best to include them. Also do y'all want to see a deleted scene from this chapter? I'll probably post it anyways, but I was just wondering if any one is interested. 💖💖

#douxie x reader #douxie imagine #toa imagine #trollhunters imagine #tales of arcadia imagine #wizards imagine #douxie #toa douxie #wizards douxie #wizards #trollhunters #trollhunters douxie #toa #tales of arcadia #tales of arcadia douxie

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miss-kittys-magical-library · 4 years ago

Text

Last Christmas

Word Count: 1100

Warnings: some language but none really

A/N: And so our story comes to an end, for now. Our handsome Irish anti-hero and head-strong Lady Lawyer will return in the spring for an all new Misfits!AU sequel inspired by conversations with @robertsheehanownsmyass 🤨

Tag list: @joz-stankovich @badsext @elliethesuperfruitlover @nightmonsters @bisexualnathanyoung @magic-multicolored-miracle @immortalled

Chapter Five: Last Christmas

When Violet turned 35, she changed her entire life. Everything she set out to do as a Public Defender was always overshadowed by just how many shitty people needed legal aid. The one or two kind, desperate clients a year just never stacked up to or made the other 100 worth it.

So Violet packed up all of her things, bid everyone a fuck you and cried in her dark apartment for a week. No prospects or experience with anything but law, it frightened her how easily she dropped everything to just do.. nothing. She ignored her sisters, “Why don't you go back to New Orleans? Or back to school!” And the calls from Tony “Come back to the firm!” Then one day.

There was a knock on the door that startled Violet from her misery. She didn't care how she appeared to the courier who handed her a rather monstrous package. She signed and tore into it revealing a thick release form and three proofs of graphic novels. Then her heart leapt into her throat.

Lanky with a devil’s smirk on his face and a cocky stance in jeans and black jacket with the collar turned up. The indentation of a dimple Violet had found herself touching as he died or slept. They somehow found a way to capture the unusual green that could have easily ruined her. And even though it was just a drawing, she could hear Nathan’s smart mouth.

Beside Nathan on the cover was a shorter, almost creepy but not unattractive guy. He donned a black sweatshirt, hood pulled up and Kevlar body pads. In the background an array of others in orange jumpsuits. Simon, she knew from her own masochistic research, and infamous remaining ASBO 3.

“Captain Invincible and The Super Hoodie: The Misfits Tales,” Violet snorted. “Huh.”

Still she sat down and flipped through it. Each section more absurd yet somehow believable than the next. Nathan impaled on a metal fence. Simon stuffing a female probation worker in a freezer. Alisha using touch to elicit the most perverse filth from men’s mouths. Curtis and his ability to rewind time reliving the night they all got busted a hundred times. And Kelly, having sex with a guy that was a gorilla. It all converged into the final book, “Vegas Baby.”

Violet held her breath as she moved towards the end. The parts where she didn't expect to exist. That she even came across Nathan’s mind all these years later was curious to her, as was the version he came up with. All she could do was laugh and cry simultaneously.

There she was, more of a sexy librarian in a porn than a lawyer. Her skirt (she normally wore pants during trial) a bit too short, and her boobs far too large. Her cleavage out of control through a low cut dress shirt. She had her hair twisted up (which was true) and glasses (really?!). Nathan in that fitted suit looking more like an Irish mobster than the nervous man-child who chewed his fingers until they bled. A panel with Violet leaning, tits out, towards him as she questioned him before an explosion of rabbits.

Here was the story. It explained this fantasy of Violet, sexy porno lawyer, that's how Nathan saw her. He admitted she was rather plain and stuffy when they first met. Though by the end of their visit, her cheek and determination and inability to put up with his shit became a turn-on. How she played him on the stand and found a way to instill reasonable doubt by throwing Marnie under the bus in his defense was something no one had ever done before. Weirdly encouraged his arrogance, showed cool indifference to his charm, yet never gave up on him no matter how exasperated he made her. All of this made her “the sexiest bird I’d ever seen. I had t’be with her.”

Violet continued to the bits after the trial. The club, Nathan handing some meathead his tongue that had literally fallen out of his mouth. It wasn't even in Nathan’s head how drunk they were that night, their illustrated bodies simulating sex on the dancefloor or when she called him Irish Eyes in the back of a black cab. His insistence that the way she dodged his kisses, actually ducked like his lips were a dodgeball, made it “difficult for him to walk.” Violet rolled her eyes. A deep crimson still crept across her cheeks.

Then that night. That messy surprising night when her knife fit so perfectly in Nathan’s flesh and right into his heart. Sometimes Violet didn't know what haunted her more: the amount of blood he shed or the utter disdain in his eyes as the door slammed behind him.

As Violet ventured to that page, a perfect drawing of them on her hallway floor. Nathan’s head in her lap as she stroked his hair while he died. The air in her throat choked her as she read the panels.

“I forget hardly anyone knows I'm going to live forever. It hurts t’die with a butcher knife in your chest. Not as much as a sewer pipe or metal fence, mind ye. I don't always like the idea myself. But I did like the idea of our handsome hero being comforted by his own Lois Lane.

Kelly and Simon used t’drag me up a flight of stairs and toss me on my dirty mattress at the community center. Waited about like I was late for a concert. Kelly took the piss, didn't she?

Vi held me as I ruined her floor. No one’s held me while I've ruined anything. Wait till she finds out I'm such a selfish prick that I destroyed time just to get back a mate who didn't even like me to start.”

Violet didn't even have time to cry the tears that stung her eyes. Or think about what those words really said between the lines. Her cellphone rang making her scream a bit.

“FERN?!”

“Lettie you ok?”

“Just a bit shaken. I have to go through a release form to agree to my likeness being in both graphic novels and apparently the chance to option a film based on them.”

“Uh..”

“Nevermind, what's up?”

“Claire got a job in London at Burberry. Could you sell your apartment? Move with us and be Marigold’s nanny? You could look into getting back into law over there somehow. Eventually right?”

Violet laughed. From a lawyer to a nanny. “Why the fuck not? I know an Irishman over that way.”

#robert sheehan #robert sheehan character fics #nathan young #nathan x violet #lord of chaos

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rainythefox · 4 years ago

Text

Nightfall (CH.15)

Synopsis: Pre-Resident Evil 1, slight-AU/Canon Divergence. Claire Redfield comes home to visit her brother Chris for the holidays but gets caught up in a dangerous game of cat and mouse with Albert Wesker, the Captain of STARS, after stumbling upon dark secrets. She can’t call the law; Wesker is the law, and she can’t tell Chris. She is trapped…Claire/Wesker & Slight Chris/Jill (There’s Wesker & William Bromance too lol). Rated M for smut, language, violence, adult content.

AO3 Link

Chapter 15:Infatuation

Claire was awake when she heard Chris getting ready for work, but she stayed in bed. She didn’t join him for breakfast or a cup of coffee. She didn’t see him off. She just turned over on her side, away from her door where the hallway light creeped through underneath. She had endured a near sleepless night of tosses and turns, the aches in her muscles a stinging reminder of what she had done.

She must’ve fallen asleep for a couple of hours because she awoke to sunshine peeking through the curtains. The sun was out, reflecting off the snow that blanketed the city. Claire got out of bed and did her usual morning ritual: dressing, brushing her teeth, hopelessly trying to come up with a way to escape her grim situation. Funny how that last one had snuck into her daily routine. Her new normal apparently.

Claire made herself toast and orange juice for breakfast but barely touched it. She tried distracting herself with the newspaper, but there wasn’t anything interesting to read in Raccoon Times.

Umbrella Corporation opens new distribution center, creates 600 new jobs

Mayor Warren promises more funding for local orphanage

Kite Bros. expands Downtown travel with new subway tunnel

Clock Tower Plaza puts up traditional Raccoon City Christmas Tree

Even though Chris left her his truck again, she didn’t want to go anywhere. Where would she go? See a friend and potentially drag them into her situation? Try and get help from someone else that was under Wesker’s boot or on his payroll? Raccoon City seemed like an illusion now, a cesspool of collusion and extortion. As though the rose-colored glasses she had once viewed the city in were ripped from her eyes to expose all of the red flags and blood she couldn’t see before.

Besides, she felt bad for the fight she had with her brother last night. Despite Chris overstepping boundaries with his overprotective nature, he was just concerned for her. He knew she was hiding something and was worried. The Redfield siblings only had each other, for nearly nine years now. Chris had sacrificed time and time again for her, to make sure they could stay together, to make sure she could go to college, always making sure she had what she needed over himself. Even when Chris’s behavior got him discharged more than once, he always put her first.

He knew she could take care of herself. He made sure he taught her all he could. Most brothers were protective of their sisters, but Claire wondered if Chris’s...excessiveness was perhaps a form of PTSD from what happened to their parents. Stepping into that guardian role, he went right into the Air Force, just like their parents. He abandoned a normal future to ensure hers, to keep them together, and to somehow get closer to the parents they had lost.

That was why it was hard to stay mad at him. Even if this time he unmindfully didn’t know the danger he was putting them in with his good, albeit intemperate, intentions.

Claire decided she would apologize when Chris got home that evening. And so, she spent the day trying to be productive, to keep her mind from wandering. She studied for a while, and then cleaned the house for a bit, blasting Queen at high volume. However, no matter what she did, she couldn’t keep herself from thinking about not only her situation, but the man that now had her literally pinned under him. She worried what his next scheme for her would be. But she’d be lying to herself if she denied the excitement that also thrummed through her veins. The strange mix made her queasy.

By the time it started getting dark, Claire realized she had wasted most of her day deep in thought, trying to make sense of it all, plotting for a way out, and maybe spending more time than she’d care to admit thinking about what happened between her and Wesker.

Chris would be home soon, so she started dinner. While cooking, she turned on the television to keep her mind focused, but after a few channel changes, a local news station caught her attention with a caption that filled her lungs with ice.

“Raccoon University professor missing, linked to drugging and sexual assault of multiple students.”

Claire turned up the volume, perturbed, because she just knew which professor they were talking about…

“-ow long has this been going on, Alyssa?” asked the anchor.

The news reporter, a pretty, bob-cut blonde, was quick to answer while standing out in the cold in front of Raccoon University, wearing a white coat and a red suit. “I’m being told this may have been happening for over a year now. The RPD are keeping the victims’ identities under wraps at this time, but I do know there are at least four. Dr. Simon Lowery has been missing for a little over 24 hours, having fled after trying to drug a female student at the open house last night. We have yet to get a statement from his wife, but police are saying she had no idea of his behavior. We’ve heard the same testimonies from colleagues. This is one of those -”

Claire clicked the remote. The TV went black, silent. She stared at the screen, a shocked reflection looking back at her. The news story rubbed her wrong. Lowery was a bad man, she knew that much. He would’ve killed her over those documents, would’ve strangled her in the snow when they fought to keep her quiet over stealing whatever it was she had stolen. But not once did she get the feeling he was like that.

She’d bet money that the news story over Lowery was made up to cover up what really happened. She wasn’t sure if Wesker came up with the story or if it was any of his numerous pawns. Didn’t matter. It proved what she already knew, just like the other day when the news covered that Finley guy’s supposed “suicide” in his car. Just as Wesker had told her before, their fates were whatever he decided. Not just their deaths but their legacies, tainting and twisting them, dismantling and disgracing them, like a true god of death.

The city would never know what really happened to Finley and Lowery, whether they deserved their fates or not.

Claire shook out of her thoughts, a chill running over her as she recalled Finley’s head exploding, blood spraying all over the snow. Why had fate led her down that very same path that day?

A smoky, tangy smell pervaded her nostrils. Dinner was burning! Cursing, she raced into the kitchen to save it. The pork chops were burned on one side but other than that, the rest of dinner turned out okay.

Chris came in not long after she had finished cooking, silently walking over to her spot on the couch as she read a book. The couch shifted when he sat down, and so she looked up from the pages. Still in STARS uniform, her older brother scratched the back of his head, uncomfortable but presenting her an apologetic smile. It was hard to stay mad at him with a puppy-dog face like that.

“Hey…”

“Hey,” she mimicked.

“I’m sorry, Sis. About last night. I clearly went overboard. It’s been eating at me all day.”

“Chris, it’s -”

“Let me finish,” he pleaded. “I know you’re an adult. I know you can kick anyone’s ass. I’m overprotective because of what happened to Mom and Dad.”

She sighed. “I know.”

“But that’s no excuse to act the way I did. I trust you, Claire. And I believe in you. But I get so...obsessed with making sure you’re safe and-and fine that my stupid brain can’t see anything else! I let it get the better of me too much. So, from now on, I’ll work hard to keep myself from going overboard and to trust you more. N-Not that I haven’t trusted you! You’ve never given me a reason to doubt you. It’s stupid of me to act like you have. We’ve always had that unspoken pact that we can tell each other anything and it will always stand.”

Claire shifted uncomfortably in her spot. “A-Always.”

“I love you, Sis. I’m really sorry.”

The Redfield siblings were both stubborn and proud, and so sometimes it was Chris who apologized first and sometimes it was Claire. Although Chris usually gave in before she did. Despite that, this was still pretty soon for Chris to give in, as big as a fight they had. Claire wondered if something happened at work that made Chris come to his senses faster. Maybe Jill talked to him? Wouldn’t be the first time. She was her brother’s best friend, after all.

She decided it wasn’t important for now. She had been ready to apologize to her brother when he got home, and here he was apologizing as well. She was ready to put the whole fight behind them and move on...as best as she could in her predicament anyway. At least Chris had seemingly given up pushing her for answers. What a lucky break! Jill must’ve really lined him out.

Claire hugged Chris. “I’m sorry too, Bro. Love you!”

His strong arms wrapped around her and squeezed hard. For years growing up, it had been the safest feeling in the world. She always cherished it. Soon they pulled away, and got up to eat dinner.

William paced, flipping through pages, catching important details and logging them away at a rate far faster than the average person. Wesker leaned against the wall, dressed in his STARS attire, watching him pace a trench in front of him. Always calm, always collected. How did he do it?!

The cable car shuddered, flicking the light overhead as it rose to the surface. He hated taking this hunk of junk! Normally, he didn’t have to, but they were meeting Irons in the sewers. Perfect place to find the slimy rat.

“No! Goddamn it, no! Why? They said Sheena Island was strictly testing and experimentation! That old bastard is moving my Hunter research there without my consent, and now the Tyrants? Mass production on a prototype? Even if they perfect the Epsilon strain, it’s nowhere near ready for cloning!”

“Are you truly all that surprised?” Wesker asked.

“No, I just…” William sighed. “It’s shit like this that tells me Spencer has no plans to put me on the executive board! If I don’t get in there, we’ll never be able to fulfill our plans! And there’s no way in hell I’m bartering the G-Virus for that spot. It’s my legacy, mine to completely control. He’ll have to pry it from my cold, dead fingers!”

“Best not tempt fate, old friend.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“At any rate, your tantrum is premature. With those numbers, the Sheena Island facility won’t be operable for any kind of mass production until August at the earliest. The research team on the Epsilon strain knows that the T-002 will be obsolete by the time it is finished. More than likely a new model is being developed and that will be the one they intend to manufacture. We have time to take this knowledge and use it to our advantage later.”

Birkin snorted. Lately Al’s “optimism” gave him anxiety. "Don’t you think we have our fingers in too many pies already? And toes at this rate. We’re wearing ourselves thin, Al. With too many enemies waiting for us to screw up.”

It was a reasonable concern. Sheena Island’s true motives were still mostly top-secret for now, going by this information sent by Alex. Roth must’ve bought this information from this other cohort of his, and was probably trying to haggle deals with Mueller, Lowery, and Bard. As well as Crawford and Finley. William made a mental note to thank Alex for this later. Wesker may have been a member of the Umbrella Intelligence Division as well, but he meticulously watched his dealings, aware of Spencer’s tabs on him. Alex didn’t have this problem, and so was their go-to source of anything they weren’t privy to.

His partner scowled. “That is such an absurd idiom. Regardless, we are committed at this point. Roth still has our stolen data and the plans for Sheena Island directly affects our goals. You admitted it yourself.”

The cable car shook and screeched, sliding to a halt. The light above the door turned green, and the robotic female voice told them to watch their step and have a good day. No, he would certainly not have a good day! He was having to deal with this and was about to meet a big rat in a stinky sewer. Didn’t the stupid voice know that? How insensitive!

“Yeah, I know. Guess we better be careful how we handle this.”

Wesker and William exited the cable car and walked side by side through the sewer facility. There weren’t many workers, but they all gave them a wide berth, keeping their heads down.

Wesker chuckled to himself, but William heard it over the water pumps and machinery.

“What’s so funny?”

“Just acknowledging that your prolonged bout of paranoia has made us change places. I’m usually the one telling you we need to be careful.”

They were both ruthless and ambitious, but Wesker had more patience and control. And although his back-and-forth stints of paranoia did make him more cautious, Will still hadn’t developed the patience or control that his partner had always had.

If only you knew why...what he’s making me do…

William frowned, rubbing his shoulder and quickly cleared his throat. “Well, no wonder you're so optimistic lately, taking after me. Like a little ball of sunshine!"

His partner didn’t respond to that, and William hoped it wasn’t because he had caught his nervous tic. In case he did, he quickly changed the subject. “So, did you get the kind of reaction out of Ada you were expecting?”

“More or less. I’m still annoyed by how you handled it though.”

“Look, you asked me to bring Claire up in a way to get a reaction from Ada to see if your suspicions were right and I did just that! You’re welcome, by the way!”

They reached the monitor room where they were meeting with Chief Irons. William entered first, and the Chief immediately noticed him, an Umbrella mercenary on each side of him. His pudgy eyes squinted testily and he opened his mouth to start his usual complaining. That is, until Wesker entered right behind him. His mouth quickly snapped shut. Ah, the benefits of having Al around!

Irons glanced around the room, his usual air of arrogance belittled and squashed like a bug. But there was nowhere to run in this room, nothing to protect him. He was at their mercy, but the tough-as-nails Irons wouldn’t be one to break so easily.

He half-laughed, half-snorted, attempting to cover his discomfort. “Now this must be a special occasion if you're both here. Rumor has it when you two are together, someone's going to die...or wish they would."

"Well, funny thing about rumors, Brian," William smirked. "There’s always some truth to them."

It was fun seeing the color drain from his face only to completely flush red like a cherry. He glared their way, fists forming tightly at his sides. "Oh yeah? And how exactly am I on you two assholes' shit list today? Considering all I do is cover your goddamn tracks and provide you with security all hours of every fucking day. Wait, don't tell me, you two have a rehearsed good cop, bad cop routine just for me?" He laughed. "No thanks."

Will nudged Albert. "Damn it, he guessed it! Wait, am I bad cop this time? I forget?"

"I'm always bad cop."

"No fair! We should take turns!"

Irons rolled his eyes, crossing his arms. "Just get to the point of why I'm here. If we're negotiating new deals, it's a bad time. I'm a busy man, after all."

"Funny you should mention that, Chief," Wesker sneered. "We're done negotiating with you."

The Umbrella mercs pulled their guns on the Chief. Irons froze on the spot, eyes bulging and going to the trained weapons, and this time he turned a bit green.

“Listen, Albert...let’s not get too hasty. Let’s talk like gentlemen. I-I’m sure we can come to an agreement.”

His resolve was cracking slowly, but William wouldn’t count the bastard out just yet. Irons had grown complacent in his position, taking advantage of anything he could get his grubby hands on. William and Wesker had allowed much of this behavior to slide in the knowledge that Irons would eventually get himself into a bind. And that’s where he was now.

“Of course, Brian. I am a sophisticated man, after all. Take a seat.”

The Chief of Police looked relieved at that and pulled out a chair and sat down. The Umbrella mercenaries stood at his back, guns still aimed to the back of his head. William and Albert sat down across from him.

William slid a sealed yellow envelope across the table to Irons. “Open it and take a good, hard look, Brian.”

Irons wiped his mustache, a little sweat forming on his brow. He slowly opened the envelope and sifted through the contents. Each page he flipped through he grew a shade whiter, until he was pasty like a ghost.

“What the fuck is this?”

William leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head. “Oh, I don’t know. You tell us.”

Irons trembled in his chair, both from anger and fear. He flushed again, one fat fist crinkling a page and he quickly stood. “You fucking bastards!”

One merc’s gun barrel pressed into Irons’ skull and he quickly remembered his place. He slowly sat down. He sure was sweating a lot now!

“You put yourself in this situation, Brian,” Wesker stated. “You know I keep tabs on you and yet you got sloppy. Arrogant, too, thinking you’d be able to set me up.”

“Your sick fantasies with the mayor’s daughter will be released to the public. Your replacement has already been chosen. You will die,” William continued.

“No! No, please! We can come to an agreement!”

“There are no more agreements to come to, Brian,” Wesker growled. “Just two choices. You can die like William so eloquently stated or you can sell the remainder of your pathetic soul to our cause.”

And unsurprisingly, the Chief went with the option that kept his sorry ass alive. “Deal! You got it!”

“And just so we’re clear. That -” William motioned to the envelope. “- never goes away. This is your last chance. Next time...well...there won’t be a next time. Just you dead and your dirty secrets exposed for all to see. Never forget how replaceable you are, Brian.”

Irons slowly nodded, guarded. “And exactly what are you two going to want me to do for your “cause”?”

“You will still perform your normal duties for Umbrella, and only report to me,” Wesker explained. “But if William and I tell you to do something, you do it. Even if it goes against your orders from Umbrella.”

“Fine.”

“William will be taking over as your handler. You should thank him. It was my intention to kill you tonight and he convinced me otherwise. If he asks you to perform in the circus, I expect you to clap your flippers and balance that ball without any disinclination. Do I make myself clear?”

Irons ground his jaw and stiffly nodded. “You always do, Albert.”

William sat up a little straighter, a haughty grin spreading. Albert’s protectiveness of him always gave him a feeling of empowerment, feeding his ego, and made a darker part of himself more bold, more ambitious.

“Don’t worry, Brian,” Will said with a fake, friendly smile. “You do a good job and stay on my good side, I always pay really well, way more than Al does.” He added a postscript after seeing the Chief’s interested grin. “Get on my bad side, however, and you’ll be my newest experiment...just ask Lowery.”

The Police Chief’s relief was short-lived. The mention of Lowery’s name struck something in him. He scowled, stiffening once more, looking between the two partners in crime.

“So you two were behind what happened at the university?”

“Oh yes,” William bragged. “Which is partly how we found out about your little attempt to set up Albert.”

“Which brings us to our next order of business, Brian,” Albert added. “Who was with you when you met up with Aaron Roth?”

Irons shook his head, hands on the table, still aware of the guns at his back. “Look, Lowery and Bard paid me to keep their business dealings hush-hush. I think they were trying to coerce Mueller into selling key information on his project in exchange for getting some crucial research going down on some island.”

Will sighed. “Don’t make Al repeat himself, ya idiot.” He snapped his fingers. “His name? Who is he?”

“S-Some bigshot from Europe who works on this island. He’s partners with Roth, buying and selling research within Umbrella and other companies. Goes by Stefan Bennett, but I couldn’t tell you if that’s his real name or not.”

When Will glanced at Al, a subtle flex in his shoulder was all he needed to read him. Bennett wasn't anyone known to them.

"Where are they hiding out?"

Irons shrugged. "Don't know. I'm only being paid for their meetings. Bennett will be at Bard’s annual Christmas party. I don't know if Roth will be there. He acted like he had other plans."

Like selling my research, the bastard...

"Then I suppose a meeting with Nathaniel Bard is in order," Wesker announced, sunglasses glinting under the fluorescents as he looked to William with a dark grin.

William returned his partner's smirk. "Yeah...It's party time."

(photo by IsmaelUchihaSan)

It was the perfect day for Jill to be off, or not have her shift until the evening anyway. Late morning, while Chris was stuck at the RPD, the girls enjoyed a light brunch and lattes at a quaint coffee shop before doing some last minute Christmas shopping.

Claire always enjoyed hanging out with the older woman. They had a lot in common and Claire was always learning something new with her company. She often found herself wondering if her oaf of a brother would ever romantically ask Jill out. It seemed like everyone could see it but them. Then again, perhaps they didn’t pursue their feelings because of their careers. Claire didn’t know the policies of STARS, but there might be restrictions there.

The two of them picked up Claire’s gift she had bought for Chris and took it over to Jill’s house. The box was tall and rectangular, about the size of a small adult. Though bulky, it wasn’t as heavy as it looked, and with each of them on one end, was able to carry it easily into the home.

They were greeted by Jill’s overly affectionate golden retriever, Bella. Claire flopped onto the floor to properly greet the fluffy, blond dog. Jill giggled at the sight.

“Hell of a guard dog, ain’t she?” Jill joked. “She’ll lick you to death.”

Better than getting my throat ripped out by Wesker’s dog…

Claire pushed aside that unpleasant memory and stood back up. Hard to believe that was only a few days ago. Her hand was already a lot better, but her ankle still hurt like a bitch.

They carried the box into Jill’s other bedroom that doubled as an office and home gym. The STARS Alpha member’s house was a three bedroom, two bath. She assumed the third bedroom was a guest room, but Claire wasn’t sure. Chris’s house was a bit bigger, with three bathrooms. They had their own in their bedrooms and then the guest bathroom in the hallway.

“Thanks for keeping this here for a bit, Jill.”

“No problem. I guess my home is the popular choice to hide gifts. Chris has yours here as well. I’m just waiting for Barry to ask to keep the girls’ gifts here, as if they don’t have enough space in that big house of theirs.”

“Well, you know how Moira is. She gets into everything. They can’t hide any gifts from her! She’s gonna be a handful as a teenager!”

They laughed and returned to the living room, Bella trailing behind them. Jill fetched them some water and the girls took a load off on the sofas.

“The punching bag was a good thought,” Jill declared. “I know Chris has been wanting one.”

Claire nodded, smiling as she watched Bella carry around her favorite plush duck toy. “Yeah. He’s been really wanting to start bulking up more. Although when we were playing on his guitar last night, I realized he needs a new toolkit for it. So I might have to go pick up one of those as well.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot you play too. Why haven’t I got to see you play yet? I’ve watched Chris lots of times.”

Claire shrugged. “I guess we just never think about it when I'm visiting.” The Redfield siblings didn’t mind playing guitar in front of others, but they cherished playing together, reciting notes and melodies their father had played for them when they were young. “Chris told me you played piano? I need to see that!”

Claire didn’t get the piano at all. That was entirely different from the guitar.

Jill softly laughed. “Yeah. It’s ingrained from childhood. Had the meanest instructor ever. Chris jokes that playing the piano won’t ever do me any good, and suggests I learn something else.”

“He’s just jealous,” Claire joked.

Jill laughed at that. “He totally is. You know, I’m happy you two reconciled so quickly. Chris can be so stubborn sometimes.”

“He can be, but I’m not one to talk. Whatever you said to him, it must’ve worked. So thank you for that. I know he’s just trying to look out for me, but it gets old. I’m an adult and can take care of myself.”

The older woman furrowed her brows and shook her head. “It wasn’t me.”

“Huh? It wasn’t?”

“No, it was the Captain.”

Her heart flipped, twisting her lungs to where she choked on air before she could take a drink of her water. It took all in Claire’s power to keep a straight face and feign something catching in her throat. “I’m sorry?”

“The fight you two had upset Chris a lot, affected his performance when we were doing some training. I guess Wesker picked up on it. Apparently, they took a long lunch together, and the Captain helped Chris get his head straight. At least, that’s what Chris told me later.”

Claire was completely freaked out by that information but hid it, wiping her suddenly clammy hands on her pants. She drank half of her water in one gulp and squeezed the bottle so hard it crumpled in the middle.

“O-Oh, I figured it was you.”

“Not this time,” Jill answered. “But it wasn’t without a lack of trying. He just didn’t listen. Not until he had gone too far anyway, the ass. At least Wesker got through to him.”

“Yeah…” she cleared her throat and stood up. “Well, I should get going. I don’t want to take up all of your free time and I have some studying to do. Thanks for helping me pick that up and letting me hide it here.”

It was partially true. Claire didn’t want to take up all of Jill’s day off before she had to go in for night shift. But mostly the recent news had unsettled her and she needed to gather her thoughts on the matter.

Jill smiled, nodding as she patted Bella on the head as the retriever’s big brown eyes stared up at Claire with that duck still in her mouth, tail thumping hard on the hardwood floor.

“No problem, Claire.”

“Stay safe tonight, Jill.”

“You’re not on the schedule...again.”

Ada sighed, crossing her arms and looking at the guard like he was stupid. He was. “I know that. But that won’t matter. William will still see me.”

The guard shifted uncomfortably, studying her suspiciously and then glancing at his list again. “Dr. Birkin is an extremely busy man. He’s been doing important tests all day and asked me to not allow anyone but Mrs. Dr. Birkin and Dr. Wesker entry. I’m sorry, ma’am.”

“I’m here on behalf of Albert. He’s busy at the police department currently. Just give him a ring and you’ll see.”

The guard hesitated, thinking and unsure. Clearly, he was scared to disturb his boss in the middle of his important work.

Ada smiled flirtatiously at him. “C’mon, Johnny. Help a girl out? It’s important.” She winked.

Johnny sighed. “Oh, alright.” He put a hand to his headset. “Dr. Birkin? I’m sorry to bother you, but Ms. Wong insists on seeing you. She says she’s here on behalf of Dr. Wesker.”

The spy didn’t miss how the camera up in the corner of the hallway turned down their way, aiming the attached machine gun right on their faces, blinking red light a far deadlier version of Candid Camera.

“Yes, sir. I understand. Will do,” Johnny said into his headpiece. He nodded at Ada and stepped aside. “You may enter. But please, keep it short. He has much to do.”

Ada waved him off. “Thanks, Johnny.”

She went through the automatic door, was sprayed down again, and strolled through the large, multi-room laboratory. She turned a corner, saw bright yellow and outstretched arms, and, on reflex, kicked the thing away from her.

“Ow!” came a muffled voice.

“Will, you idiot. Don’t sneak up on me like that,” Ada snapped.

The mad scientist pulled the hazmat suit’s helmet off, waddling over to the nearby safety station to strip it off and hang it up.

“I think that’s the closest I’ve ever gotten to scaring you!” William laughed.

Ada crossed her arms, glaring at him. “You didn’t scare me. You didn’t even startle me. You mildly annoyed me.”

“Ugh, you sound like Al. One day I will scare him. It’s on my bucket list. It might get me killed, but imma do it!”

The spy shook her head. “I don’t know about you sometimes.”

Birkin seemed extra...quirky today. He had an extra bounce in his step, grinning, humming as he left the safety station to his main desk. That’s when Ada noticed numerous empty energy drink cans and half a cup of cold, forgotten black coffee.

“How many of these have you had?” He did kind of look like one of those zombies Ada had seen being dissected in the Arklay lab, pale skin and dark circles under his eyes.

“Uhh…” he pondered, counting on his fingers as he twitched and quivered restlessly. “Five? I think?” He flopped down in his chair, shifting it side to side.

Ada leaned against his desk, glancing at the disorganized paperwork strewn about. Her sharp eyes caught many interesting and familiar things: G-Virus, Plant 43, Hunter Beta, Cerberus, NE-Alpha parasite, Lisa Trevor, T-Virus Epsilon. Then her eyes caught the interesting things that she had only seen once and was curious to find out more, now with associated words that intrigued her further: Prototype Virus, Project W, eugenics research, Progenitor, Ndipaya.

She had only a few seconds of absorbing these words before William snatched up the two papers that had anything on it. She watched him open his safe and put them inside, only accessible with a scan of his hand.

Ada acted like none of it interested her. “Five, huh? And how long have you been up, exactly? You look like shit. You smell like shit.”

William lifted his shirt and smelled. “I don’t know, when did Al and I go talk with Irons?"

“That was yesterday morning.”

“Oh...shit. Well, it’s been over 24 hours then.”

“I can tell.”

“So, how’d it go with Mueller?”

“As well as you’d expect. I’ve already relayed the info to Albert. Mueller won’t be a problem. In fact, he’s willing to help if it gets rid of Roth. I guess he feels scammed by the trade.”

William smirked, still swiveling slightly side to side in his chair. “I bet he does. Well, with Lowery no longer having a tongue and Irons and Bard put in their places, looks like we might be able to wrap this up by Christmas!”

Ada rapped her nails on the desk, frowning. “Albert told me the plan. Look, between you and me, I gotta ask...what’s the deal with him and Claire?”

Will chuckled. “What’s wrong? You jealous?”

“In your dreams. It’s just that...I mean, I don’t know the girl,” she lied. “But I thought he was just using her to get to Roth. Why have a fling with her? He doesn’t do that...at least not with just anyone.”

“You sure are a curious little kitty,” William half-joked, half-warned, leaning back in his chair. “What are you hoping to use this knowledge for?”

Ugh, she hated when he was an asshole. Then again, he was protecting Albert and so she should’ve known better. The spy sighed. “Fine. I’m just a little worried about Claire, alright? Can you blame me?”

She knew how Wesker worked. Claire was in way over her head. Didn’t matter how smart and strong she was. Despite being his type, she was still different than most and he did seem to have some kind of soft spot for her. And that is what both bothered and intrigued Ada.

“It’s not like you to worry about others like that. And I can blame you, actually. You got yourself tangled with Al. That’s on you.”

Ada bit her tongue. This wasn’t about her. “And poor Claire got tangled out of her control. C’mon, Will. I’ve helped you two a lot recently. Throw me a bone here. I deserve something in return.”

Will kept a straight face, thinking it over. Ada glared at him. Finally, the Golgotha creator grinned widely and leaned forward. Ada recognized the child-like delight, and knew he was about to spill the beans.

“Alright, alright! I think he has feelings for her.”

Ada laughed skeptically. “Whatever, Will! Tell me for real.”

She had to admit, she had thought something similar a few days ago when she spied Wesker nearly pinning Claire against his car. But she soon dismissed it. He definitely liked her and was attracted to her…but had feelings for her?! That was a little hard to believe.

“I do! He is obsessed, I’m telling you. The girl would’ve been dead a long time now had it been anyone else. He’s given her more chances than I’ve ever seen. He had the chance to pop her brother in the back without anyone knowing and didn’t do it! I don’t think he knows it himself, or he purposely keeps himself in denial, but...there’s something about her.”

Ada frowned, thinking it over. William had a point. All of Claire’s stunts to try and fight Albert should have ended with her dead a long time ago. And how her brother had been getting suspicious and snooping around, well, it should have ended the same with him by now.

“You think she reminds him of Anezka?” Ada asked.

Was that her name? Ada couldn’t really remember. She wasn’t around back then and had only heard all the different stories when she came here a couple of years ago.

“Nah...I mean they’re both redheads and feisty, but I don’t think that’s it. Anna jilted him, and besides being a little touchy over it, he’s moved on.”

“Is that really what happened?”

William shrugged. “I guess? No one really knows...not even Al.”

Ada wished she had been a fly on that wall when Anezka was still around. So many rumors and gossip about what happened. She practically disappeared, as though she was only a dream. But Albert remembered...resentfully. Ada knew him well enough that it wasn’t just his ego that got hurt. He actually had cared for her, and he hated that he did.

“Well, Albert’s given Claire all these chances to let her live. You think he will let her go when Roth is dealt with, as he has promised her?”

William scowled, leaning back in his chair. “What do you think?”

The double agent had no idea why, but her heart sank a little. As if she was hoping for something she knew better of. And here she thought her line of work had snuffed out all remaining optimism in her life.

“He won’t kill her. I guarantee it,” William boasted. “As obsessed and possessive he already is of her, she’s stuck. There will be conditions he gives her. I’m sure you know what those would be.”

“You sound happy about that,” Ada pointed out.

He shrugged, but the slight upcurve of his lips gave him away. “I like the girl. Sherry adores her. She’s proven to be quite resourceful and clever. She’ll be handy to have around. Besides, if Al actually has feelings for her, I gotta see where it goes! The geneticist in me really hopes he knocks her up.”

It may have sounded like a dark joke, but Ada knew the lunatic genius was dead serious. “I’m really disturbed by how obsessed you are with your best friend’s love and sex life.”

“I’m just looking out for him!”

Ada would never understand Wesker and William’s relationship. One of life’s greatest mysteries. But what was also another mystery still was why Wesker had feelings for Claire.

Was she the next Anezka?

She parked right down the road. It was already nearly dark, but at least the temperature hadn’t dropped too much. Claire stuck to the recently salted sidewalks, hands stuffed in her parka. Her heart pounded in her throat, and her mind raced with what he could want this time.

Wesker called her while she was waiting for Chris to get off work, summoning her to his house for an “important discussion”. She was anxious for two reasons. One, the last time she saw Wesker just a couple nights ago, they had sex. And two, after learning from Jill that Wesker was the one who dealt with Chris, she wasn’t sure what that meant for her or her brother.

She was queasy, butterflies in her stomach, but she wasn’t about to lose her cool. More than anything, she feared her body would betray her once more, a dark excitement coursing through her blood.

Upon reaching Wesker’s house, Claire spotted a vehicle she didn’t recognize in his driveway. She didn’t get too close to it, but it looked like a ruby-colored Porsche Boxster. She didn’t know whether to be relieved or not about not being alone with the STARS Captain, but she took a deep breath and rang the doorbell anyway.

After a minute of silence, anticipation eating at her, the door opened. Her heart skipped when those familiar grey-blue eyes and dark smirk greeted her. Her stomach twisted, but Claire couldn’t tell whether it was from disgust or excitement.

“Good evening, Claire,” he purred. He stepped aside to allow her entry. “Please do come in. I don’t want you catching a cold.”

She rolled her eyes and stepped inside. “Thanks.”

He shut the door while she looked around. Odin padded over and sniffed her, docked tail wagging slightly. But she didn’t see anyone who could’ve owned the car outside.

Wesker’s hands brushed up her back. The bad thing was Claire realized she didn’t blench this time. No, this time she shivered in pleasure. She inwardly scolded herself as he took her coat off to hang by the door.

“We have much to discuss, dear heart,” he said, one muscular arm locking around her waist and pulling her deeper inside the house.

That’s when the younger Redfield saw a familiar face come into the living room from the kitchen, carrying a full glass of red wine. She nearly blurted Ada’s name, surprised, but quickly bit her tongue, hiding any reaction. Wesker didn’t know that she and Ada had already met personally. And it needed to stay that way.

“I sure hope you weren’t saving that malbec wine for a special occasion, Albert. I helped myself,” Ada said. When her eyes landed on Claire, she was the perfect actress. There was no recognition, no subtle signs given to Claire. “Is this her?”

“The one and only,” Wesker affirmed.

Ada took a long sip of her wine and sat it down on a coaster on the center table before walking over to them. Wesker stepped away while the double agent looked Claire over, one arm crossed and one hand on her chin as she thought. She walked around Claire and even grabbed her arms and lifted them and spun her around.

“Hmm...Yes, I can definitely work with this.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Claire grumbled. Ada spun her around again and grabbed at her hair. “Hey! What’s the big idea?!”

“Hold still, hun.”

Ada withdrew a tailor tape measurer. She measured Claire’s waist, chest, and height, even her arms and legs. Afterwards, she yanked Claire’s ponytail out and felt through her tresses.

“What are you doing?” Claire snapped.

“Taking measurements,” Ada replied. “Trying to figure out what to do with your hair.”

“Why?”

“I’ll explain later,” Wesker stated. His Doberman sat at his side, head cocked curiously as Ada got handsy with her measurements.

“Okay, finished,” Ada announced, rolling up her tape and putting it in her pocket. She retrieved her wine and took another drink. “I’ll have something ready by tomorrow.”

“What ready?” Claire demanded. “What’s going on?”

Wesker’s lips barely curled upward. “Oh, where are my manners? Claire, this is an associate of mine, Ada Wong. She originally was to pick you up at the university. Ada, you know Claire, I’ve told you all about her.”

The Eurasian beauty dipped her head. “Charmed.” Still completely in character, although Claire now saw something subtle in her eyes as she stared at Claire. Perhaps a warning? Or just acknowledgement?

“You too...I guess,” Claire said.

Wesker chuckled, catching their attention. “You do not have to pretend to be strangers on my account, ladies. I know you’re well acquainted.”

Claire ground her jaw, glaring at him. Ada didn’t even flinch, expressionless. Taking another sip of her wine, she shrugged.

“Can’t pull the wool over your eyes, can I Albert?”

“Oh come now, Ada, don’t be that way,” Wesker teased. He obviously sensed something from her that Claire didn’t. He stepped around the agent’s back and, besides her tensing barely, she didn’t look disconcerted. “You knew the risks when you decided to meet Claire behind my back.”

Ada didn’t say anything to that. Wesker’s dark grin grew a bit more.

“I’m quite curious of your intentions. You’re not the jealous type. And you’re not one to have concern for others. So why so curious about Claire? I know this has nothing to do with what Sergei asked of you.”

Jealous type? Claire glanced between them, not sure what kind of undertones she was reading here. She was missing something, that’s for sure. She could only infer that Wesker was gauging Ada for something.

“I was just curious what you saw in her, I guess,” Ada dismissed calmly.

Cool under pressure. Just like the man testing her.

“And did you figure it out?”

Ada’s eyes locked with Claire’s. “I think so.”

Wesker’s soft chuckle told them he didn’t believe her one bit. “You and William should give up trying to find something that isn’t there.”

Ada didn’t have to say anything. Her smile told it all. She was pleased somehow, as though she read deeper into Wesker’s words somehow. Claire wished she would tell her the secret. And also shake this weird feeling in her chest.

“Am I going to get filled in here on why she needed to take my measurements?” Claire grumbled.

“Yes, my apologies,” Wesker admitted, his full attention on her now, and the younger woman regretted saying anything. “Ada, you may go now. I’ll fill Claire in…” He smirked.

Oh god. Did he just…? Her stomach pitched and rolled. She knew what would happen once Ada left them alone. In his house. It was an instant body verses mind battle.

Ada shrugged and walked away. Claire never wanted someone to stay and leave all at once before. But the Eurasian woman plopped down on one of the leather sofas instead, resuming drinking her wine. Odin left his master’s side to plant himself in front of her, as if expecting Ada to give him attention now that she was sitting down. Claire released a breath she didn’t know she was holding.

Wesker scowled. “Or…make yourself at home.”

“I will,” Ada answered nonchalantly. “I’m not about to let this delicious wine go to waste.” She made a show of swishing the red liquid around in her glass. The wine complimented her burgundy fingernails.

Claire caught the agent’s honey brown eyes as she looked right at her while sipping from her lipstick-stained glass, a coded message for her. You’re welcome…

Claire swallowed mixed feelings and glared at the STARS Captain. “So what exactly are you making me do this time?”

“Relax dear heart, it’s nothing you’re a stranger to. We’re going to attend a party.”

His stereotypical college girl jab aside, it sounded easy enough. But Claire knew better. Whatever kind of party it was, with Wesker involved, there would be danger, deception, and death at every angle…

Claire stared at the mirror, stunned. She wasn’t one to get dressed up, not this fancy anyway. Her red-brown hair was pulled up into messy curls with a few tresses hanging around her face. She had more make-up on than what she was used to. The jade-colored halter dress complimented her hair, eyes, and heels. She was only in the shoes for less than half an hour and her feet were already cramping. How did women wear these things all day?

The two assistants Ada had helping her with Claire were finally finished and departed from the big, spotless, and up-to-date bathroom. They were in Wesker’s living quarters in NEST. The younger Redfield tried not to think about what happened the last time she was here. Wesker and William awaited them in the very same room where she and Wesker fornicated, only having arrived a bit ago while Claire was still being made over.

Ada looked her over one last time, one final judgment for approval. Claire didn’t say anything. She really wanted out of this bathroom, but at the same time, she wasn’t ready for the next step.

Apparently, the crooked STARS Captain had meticulously planned tonight. Chris and Jill were working graveyard shifts while he was off and Claire had to tell her brother that she might would have to stay the night at William’s house babysitting Sherry if her parents had to work all night. All the chess pieces were in place so far. Bard’s Christmas party would last well into the night, and depending on how it played out, they might be there awhile. She could only hope nothing went wrong and would get to return home tonight.

“You’re a beautiful woman, Claire. There’s no doubt about that,” Ada said finally.

“T-Thanks.” She wasn’t expecting a compliment from the older woman.

She looked in the mirror again, distracted. This was a little too much for her, but she had to blend in with the other guests at the party.

“I won’t be surprised if Albert takes you home with him tonight after the party.”

Claire blushed, taken off guard, a near panic in her chest only broken by blood rushing like electricity through her veins. She turned to the double agent, holding her breath. Ada sounded so sure as she looked Claire over. As if she knew something the younger Redfield didn’t. Surely, Ada didn’t know…

“I know what happened between you two,” Ada admitted, reading her mind.

“He,” Claire started to blame her captor, but stopped. Could she honestly say it knowing she had decided to do it? Wesker may have manipulated her into wanting to, but she still chose it all her own, no matter how much she wanted to deny it.

“He what?”

She shook her head. “…Nothing.”

“I told you he always gets what he wants, didn’t I? He’ll make you want it, too. That tongue of his is far more deadly than any weapon he has on him. You have no idea how way in over your head you are, Claire.”

The college student glared at the Eurasian beauty. Was she serious right now?! “You’ve got it all wrong! It was just a one time fling. And as far as the rest of my situation goes, I think I’ve been doing pretty damn good considering!”

Ada sighed. “You’re clever, strong, and resourceful. You’ve handled yourself impressively this past week, but that’s partly why Albert’s so infatuated with you.”

Claire frowned, not sure what to say to that.

“Albert’s hardwired to manipulate and take advantage of anyone and anything he can. You give him an inch and he’ll hook his claws so deep in you, there’s no escape. You gave him way more than that.”

“So what? I’m trapped forever now? Is that what you’re saying?” Dread seized in her chest.

Ada looked to the door, as if suddenly paranoid Wesker and William could be listening in and slightly lowered her voice. “I don’t know. Look…yes, he’s using you to take care of Roth in exchange for your freedom, but William and I suspect that Albert may have developed…”

“What?” Claire urged when the agent trailed off.

Ada quickly shook her head, frowning. “Never mind. Just…keep your head. Do what you must to get Roth where Albert wants him for you and your brother’s freedom. Albert’s got a soft spot for you, he’ll likely keep his word if you’re good. As far as this affair is concerned, I cannot help you. That’s your business. My only advice is that you be careful.”

Soft spot? Where the hell was she getting that? There was nothing soft about that man. Then again, she and William, two people who knew Wesker best, kept saying that, so it had to be true to some degree.

Claire wanted to tell Ada that there wasn’t an “affair”. It was a one time slip up, a mistake, it wouldn’t happen ever again. But she couldn’t even believe herself, so there was no way she would convince the double agent.

“Ok…thank you, Ada. For everything.”

Ada exhaled through a small frown. “Don’t thank me just yet…” She turned, walking for the door and motioning for the younger Redfield to follow her. “C’mon, we have a party to get to.”

Claire inhaled deeply, gathering herself, and followed her out of the bathroom. They came into the den, where Wesker and William sat across from each other on the leather sofas talking. They were dressed in posh black suits. Claire berated herself for goggling Wesker. The bastard was so damn attractive anyway, but that suit was hot! She couldn’t believe how much it actually affected her seeing him in that outfit.

The men noticed them and stood up, but their eyes immediately went to Claire. She suddently felt exposed. William’s jaw dropped and he ogled too. The smirk that slowly grew on Wesker’s face as he took off his sunglasses to look Claire over was wicked. More so, it was hungry. He popped William’s mouth shut without taking his eyes off of Claire and closed in like a predator about to sink its teeth into its coveted prey. His eyes entrapped her, an instant, breath-taking spell, and then she was hungry too, felt it spreading through every inch of her body like wildfire.

Ada was right…Wesker would be taking her home with him tonight. And nothing was going to stop him.

#resident evil #resident evil fanfic #resident evil fanfiction #resident evil 2 #Albert Wesker #Claire Redfield #clairexwesker #claire x wesker #William Birkin #Chris Redfield #chris x jill #Jill Valentine #Ada Wong #fanfiction #fanfic #My writing #archive of our own

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slywrites · 5 years ago

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Best Two Out of Three (CH. 1)- Leon Kennedy/Reader

Here it is my first Leon Kennedy fic!!! You can read chapter one below or on AO3. (I’ll be posting chapter two later on this week or early next week)

Set right after the ending of RE2 Remake you, Claire, Leon, and Sherry come across a lone motel with a generous owner who gives you two rooms for the night. One for Claire and Sherry, one for you and Leon. Only there's a single bed and a lot of emotions to overcome...

Based on the imagine from imagineleonkennedy on tumblr "Imagine Leon making love at 21, not super experienced yet, he gets shy and is a little clumsy. But very respectful and honest, and a fast learner."

Warnings: Strong Language, Cannon typical violence

A motel was a fucking blessing after the hell you, Claire, Leon, and young Sherry went through. The outside wasn’t too shabby, a lot better than what you expected in the literal middle of nowhere.

Really anything was better than Racoon City.

The lady at the front desk was more than understanding considering you all were covered head to toe in blood, guts, and smelled like a sewer. She also heard that you were from Racoon City and her eyes went wide. It was on the news, she said, that there was a terrorist attack. A pipe exploded. Many excuses and no one could confirm nor deny those allegations. It was too early to tell what exactly happened, or why. It was only a few hours ago you left the city on foot. The sun was just setting then and now the moon replaced it as you stood in the lobby. All you knew was you had to kill many infected people, but you weren’t about to tell this nice lady that.

She just handed you the keys and said it’s on the house. As you left towards your two rooms, she mentioned she’d bring you some extra clothes and towels. It was hard to believe that there were good people in the world after what you all went through.

Sherry and Claire took one room and you and Leon in the other.

A single king bed in each room, with a door in the middle to join the rooms together. For the moment it was left open.

Neither you or Leon acknowledged the single bed in the room.

You all were exhausted, but the thought of a shower powered through the intense need to pass out at this very moment. To be clean again, to wash away the horrors. It sounded magical.

A light knock on the door startled you. Instinctively you raised your pistol to the door, adrenaline pumped through your veins. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Leon do the same. He nodded to you, and you returned the gesture. You both moved together, guns pointed at the door. Leon peered through the peephole and saw the lady from the front desk. You watched Leon relax and unlock the door.

He mumbled a thank you and closed the door. A pile of fresh clean towels and what looks to be sweatpants and shirts in his hands. Leon held them at a distance to not get them dirty against his blood-soaked police uniform. He set the clothes on the table.

“Who gets to go first?” He asked.

You holster your pistol, put the chain lock on the door and slide the deadbolt, “Rock, paper, scissors?”

Leon let out a little laugh, “Fine. But , best two out of three.”

You two squared up in the middle of the room. You leaned into a pose, as you tried to be as dramatic as possible. Leon mirrored you, as he extended his balled fist resting in his palm. A smile spread across your face at how stupid you two looked being this dramatic over a simple game to take a shower.

You won back to back. You did a victory dance and laughed at the pouty face Leon put on.

“I can’t wait to be clean! As for you , sit at one of those chairs. Can’t have you dirtying up our bed.” You sing-song as you skip over to the bathroom.

“I’ll make sure to lay all over your side while you’re in there,” he smirked.

“Leon Kennedy, don’t you dare ! Don’t make me get Claire to watch you like a hawk.”

Leon put his hands up in defense, “I won’t do anything.”

You shot him the meanest look you could, and all he did was stifle a laugh. You watched as he took a seat at the table and started to remove his boots, just to make sure he was going to keep his word.

You shut the bathroom door. You sat on the edge of the tub to strip your shoes and socks. It felt like years since you last showered, which in reality was only a day ago. Your feet were covered in a slick layer of grim, probably from the foot or two of sewer water you and Leon waded through. Honestly, you wanted to toss the shoes, but the front desk lady didn’t give you an extra pair. You’d have to survive till you got back home if there was still home .

That’s when it hit you. At the most inopportune time. There was only one bed in the room. It was the last thing on your mind. The sweet call of the shower drew the realization out of your mind. That would mean you’d have to share. You could always pop into the other room with the girls. It was a king bed and you were sure all three of you would fit.

I’m being ridiculous, you chided to yourself.

You continued to strip from the blood-soaked and torn clothing, the reality of what you experienced came to the forefront of your thoughts instead. Your mind went into autopilot as you turned the water on to the hottest setting and waited for it to heat up. A particular corner of the shower caught your attention, and you couldn’t help but focus on it. The day's events replayed in your mind like a fucked up horror movie.

It was just a normal day, then all of a sudden it wasn’t . The screams from outside the precinct, as you helped lock the gates. You couldn’t help those people who you swore you would protect. Watching as they were being attacked by other people with some crazy bloodlust you’ve never seen or heard of before. Then the precinct .

Fuck .

The steam from the shower made it hard to breathe. The hand that was under the water started to turn red from the heat. You didn’t even register the pain till it was too late.

You adjusted the water and stepped in. The dirt, blood, and God knows what washed away from you. You watched as it spiraled down the drain. Once the water finally became clear as it washed over you, you grabbed the travel size shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. You lathered up your hair first, trying to not go back down the rabbit hole you were in moments ago.

But the rabbit hole was the only thing you could see in your mind. You’d have to face the reality of what you did. What Leon and Claire did. What happened to Racoon City, a place you just started to call home. What the fuck were you supposed to do now?

Tears spilled out of your eyes and blended in with the water that cascaded down your face. You brought your hand to your mouth and choked back a sob that shot through your whole body. The shock made your knees wobble sending you crashing to the cool porcelain of the tub. Your back collided with the wall and the air left your lungs in a gargled gasp.

Instantly, there was a loud knock on the door.

Leon’s voice was muffled by the water and the door but it was the only thing you could focus on, “ Are you okay? What happened? ”

You sat up, light-headed. You were barely able to shut the water off.

“ Yeah ,” your voice shook, “I’m fine, just tired and ...and I slipped.”

“Do- do you need help…. or …” Leon left the question hanging awkwardly, “I could get Claire..”

You laughed, “No I’m okay. I’ll be out in a minute.”

You curled your knees up to your chest. You just needed a moment. The tears still fell, silently. Sooner or later you’d have to get up. You’d have to keep moving forward.

The bathroom started to feel suffocating as you absentmindedly stood and wrapped a towel around your body. You were greedy and wrapped your hair in another. You pushed your dirty clothes onto the ground and just left them there too tired to give a shit about it.

The cool handle of the doorknob brought you back to reality for a second. You turned to look at the mirror that was still fogged over. With a swipe, you looked at your eyes to see if they were as bloodshot as you imagined. Fuck , they were. Oh well.

Your eyes gazed over the bathroom. Shit, you left your clothes on the table. You shook your head, you didn’t want to try and get Leon to get your change of clothes. With a sigh, you’d just have to go out there.

You pulled the door open and walked out. Leon sat at the edge of the single chair in the room and shot up as soon as he saw you. A deep blush flushed his cheeks as he averted his gaze.

What a cute boy, you smiled. You held the towel closer to your body.

“It’s all yours,” you smiled.

You stepped towards Leon and he immediately froze. He stood in front of the table where the extra set of clothes laid.

You bit your lip to hide the smile. You feared if he saw it he’d turn into a tomato. With a step, you grabbed the clothes and sat at the edge of the bed.

Leon let out a strained cough and mumbled he was going to shower.

Once he closed the door you let out a small laugh. He’s too cute for his own good.

You shook your head and looked at the pile of clothes. An oversized plain blue t-shirt, black sweats, and some holiday socks. It wasn’t ideal, and not your size but it was way better than the alternative. No underwear though.

You’d have to see if the hotel had a laundry room. Though your old clothes were more than likely trash, if you were to face…those things again you didn’t want to get caught because of your oversized shirt.

A shiver shot through your spine as flashes of fighting and surviving came to the forefront yet again. More tears brimmed in your eyes and you let out a shuddered breath. Before a tear could drop your attention was brought to the bathroom door. Your brows furrowed as you heard Leon singingin the bathroom. You didn’t recognize the song, you weren’t even sure he was saying any real worlds. But it was the change in his voice that brought you back . Leon was more wholesome than you’d ever expected from the rookie cop.

You smelled the clothes and they were divine. The fresh linen scent was so foreign to you it felt almost illegal to smell something this nice. You stood. Your body is freshly clean and dry from sitting on the bed. You dropped the towel to the ground, slipping into the sweats and shirt. This felt like a lazy Sunday attire as you laid out on the bed.

A light knock on the adjoining doors made you turn. Claire stood in an outfit similar to yours and you laughed. Though her hair laid damp on her shoulders, finally being free of her ponytail.

“Look, we’re twins,” you said.

“Not a bad look, right?” She smiled, “How are you holding up?”

You gave her a flash of your teeth in what you hoped was a smile, “I’m okay. I could sleep for a week!”

Claire nodded, “I was just coming in to say goodnight actually, Sherry’s already in bed fast asleep.”

“Oh, good idea. We’ll probably do the same, Leon’s still in the shower.”

“Well, I’ll see you in the morning. Tell Leon I said goodnight.”

“Will do Claire, night.”

Claire gave you a small wave and shut the door with a silent click.

You stared at the closed space and moved to lay back down on your back. The shower just turned off meaning it was closer and closer that you and Leon would have to share a bed. It wasn’t a big deal right? You both were exhausted, both needed some rest. And the bed was a king, plenty of room for both of you to stretch out and not touch each other.

Why were you thinking about touching each other?

You couldn't rid your mind of that thought quick enough as Leon exited the bathroom in just a towel wrapped around his waist. Water still dripped from his hair as it cascaded down his bare chest drawing your eyes to how toned he was. Your eyes were drawn to the bruises that peppered his torso and the large wound on his left arm that needed to be rebandaged. The old one is still tight on his arm, though wet now.

Leon clearly flushed at you blatantly staring at his chest. He moved his weight from one foot to another unsure what to do, then he coughed and moved towards his clothes on the table.

“I-I forgot these, um I’m just going to-” He didn’t finish his sentence as he turned back to the bathroom.

You wanted to smack yourself for staring like an idiot. Now it was going to be awkward , great!

You sighed and quickly called the front desk to ask if they had a first aid kit. The lovely lady who gave you the clothes said her son will be up in a minute. And she wasn’t wrong. The knock was light and you jumped up to get the door. You quietly thanked him and bid him goodnight.

Leon was still in the bathroom probably dying from embarrassment as you had moments ago. You sat at the edge of the bed and laid out the contents of the first aid kit. After a few more minutes, Leon peaked his head out of the bathroom. He saw your attention was on the bed and made his way out.

You looked up, “We need to change that bandage, Leon.”

He looked down at the yellow bandage that Ada had put on.

“You’re right.”

“I try to be, come sit,” you smile and pat the open bed next to you.

Leon obliged and sat down. He was dressed in sweats and a t-shirt just like you. He pointed his left shoulder towards you.

You rolled up the sleeve and started to undo the bandage. “You could have taken this off you know, and cleaned the wound while you were showering.”

“I didn’t want to mess with it…” he replied quietly, almost unsure of himself.

You bit your lip, you wanted to scold him but decided against it. You let the rest of the old tattered bandage fall to the floor. Dried up blood and dirt-stained his skin. Poor thing.

“Stay here,” you got up and moved to the bathroom.

You grabbed an extra washcloth and soaked it under some warm water. You rang out the extra and walked back to the bed. As carefully and gently as you could you cleaned up the area around the wound first. Leon winced a little when you got too close to the bullet wound.

“You’re lucky it went all the way through,” you mentioned, “I don’t think we’d find a good doctor back in Racoon City.”

Leon hummed his lip stuck between his teeth, biting down to not make a sound. You finished with the washcloth then moved to the alcohol and cotton swabs that were necessary for the actual wound. You doubted Ada was able to clean the wound before wrapping it, especially in the sewer. Leon only briefly talked about it when you brought it up. You two got separated. You were alone, trying to find your way to either Leon or Claire. You couldn’t even imagine the horror he faced down there, even though you saw the same disaster yourself.

You dampened one cotton ball with some antiseptic and started cleaning around the wound. Leon held back a cry of pain as his body tensed up.

“ Sorry ,” you murmured.

“It’s not your fault,” he breathed.

“I know, it won’t take me long. Promise.”

Leon nodded his head and you kept your promise. You quickly cleaned the entrance and exit of the wound. Luckily it stopped bleeding long ago. Leon would have to see a real doctor at some point, but you could easily stitch the wound together for now.

You threaded the needle that came in the first aid kit. You set the needle on the bed and grabbed some numbing cream. First, you snapped on a glove and ripped open the packet to rub the cream around the wound.

“This will help,” you reassured him.

Once you were done, you let the cream settle in first before starting. You gathered the gross bandages, and trash from the bed to throw away in the trashcan across the room.

“How are you doing?” You asked as you took your position back on the bed.

“I’ve been better,” Leon looked at the wound then to you and tilted his head to the side, “I think it’s working.”

You picked up the needle and pushed it into his skin and threaded the entrance shut. You were not about to tell Leon that this was the first time you’d ever given someone stitches. You had practiced once in a medical class a long time ago but that was on fake skin, never a real human. Though you only practiced, you still were able to stitch him up well enough to last until you could see a real doctor. You did the same with the exit and it was all done. Not expert craftsmanship by any means, but he’d survive and his arm wouldn’t need to be amputated.

You took out a large bandage and removed the sticky backing to cover the front, and did the same to the back. He wouldn’t need his arm wrapped like before, the two large patches should suffice.

“ And… All done,” you smiled at your handiwork.

Leon glanced at it, his fingers ran over the stitches beneath the bandage. Then he rolled the sleeve down to cover it easily.

“Thank you,” He smiled.

“Anytime,” you nodded.

Slowly you packed up the first aid kit. You got up and sat it on the table.

“Are you ready for bed?” You asked.

Leon’s eyes moved from his newly patched shoulder to you, and nodded, “Yeah, yeah, you?”

“Yup,” you smiled then you looked to the bed.

The dread from your shower started to rise in your chest.

“Uh-Do you care what side…?” Leon asked he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

You forced a laugh and walked up to the left side, “I guess I’ll take this one, it doesn’t matter to me. Does it matter to you?”

“No! No , not at all,” he pulled the covers back.

You nod and do the same. You both lay down in your respective sides and pull the covers over yourself. Before you fully laid down, you leaned over and turned off the light on the side table.

“Goodnight,” you said as you laid your head on the soft pillow.

“Goodnight,” he replied, the exhaustion evident in his voice.

You faced the wall, away from Leon acting like you were some school girl instead of two consenting adults sharing a bed after surviving literal hell only hours ago. You wanted to slap yourself over your reaction but you were too tired to even care. You snuggled into the pillow and willed yourself to sleep.

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sorceress-coffee · 4 years ago

Text

Where Is My Mind

AO3 Link Phase 2 - Chapter 25 - Episode 20

River’s P.O.V.

Hanging out at the lockers Jim, Draal, and I watched as Mary freaked out over Claire asking Jim to Spring Fling. Apparently, Claire didn’t know ‘the kind of world’ we live in. I’d rather not freak Mary out with the truth. Toby groaned as he met up with us, landing face-first into his locker, exhausted from his new training.

“Everything hurts,” he complained, letting his arms sag next to him, causing Draal and I to smirk.

“First day of training will do that to you,” Jim chuckled, watching as Toby tried to reign his limbs in. “You’re the one who wanted the war hammer after all.”

“Hey!” Toby shot up, soreness seeming to disappear as Jim questioned his weapon choice. “Next time you have to face a creepy troll assassin you’ll be happy to have ol’ Warhammer, Shadowdancer, and Midnight to back you up!”

“Guess Toby did name my lance,” I shook my head, snickering at his codename for Claire.

“Shadowdancer?” Jim chuckled, “I’m guessing you haven’t run that by Claire yet.”

“What? It’s perfect!” Toby tried to defend, causing Jim, Draal, and I to shake our heads.

Draal smirked, punching Toby’s shoulder lightly; well lightly for Draal, “Normally the person who wields the weapon names it.”

My phone began playing Darth Vader’s march, the ringtone Eemeli programmed for himself. “I’ve gotta take this, you two try not to get suspended in the meantime.” I sighed as Jim and Toby ran for the locker room, leaving Draal and me to take the call. I answered quickly, Eemeli and Eri’s bickering the first thing I hear.

“Tell your danger noodle to just tell me where your father is! I don’t like cryptic snakes.” Eemeli sneered, through the phone, the sound of a blade slicing through the brush a constant white noise to the call.

“I told you where to take the Gyre, now I’m giving you directions, why can’t you be happy with that?” Eri hissed, close to the receiver. She sounded close to strangling Eemeli if the irritation in her voice was a clue.

“Eri, why can’t you tell Eemeli where he is? Out of curiosity, since I’m not there, wouldn’t it be alright?” I asked, confused as to why she was still not being clear about where he is.

I heard a disgruntled huff before Eri cut in again, “Fine! He’s in Camelot! We’re here because this is where it should be headed next.”

Dead silence met us as Eri finished her explanation. Draal shook his head, grumbling. “Of course, that’s where he’d be.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, confused.

“Camelot,” Eemeli cut in, growling, “He’s been in Camelot this entire time?!” He shrieked, forcing me to rip the phone away from my ear. “Are the others there too?”

Eri hissed, rustling around on the other side of the phone. “He hasn’t been there the entire time! And I don’t know who the ‘others’ are?”

“The Changelings that left with him,” Eemeli snarled.

“Should I hang up?” I asked as Eemeli and Eri ignored us, in favor of yelling at each other wherever they were.

“Eemeli got the information he needed; I don’t see the point in listening to them fight.” He huffed, glaring at anyone who stopped to listen to the yelling coming from my phone.

I shrugged, hanging up the call, “They’ll be fine,” I sighed out, trying to convince myself that neither one would kill the other. “So, Camelot’s still around? And mobile too?”

Draal shrugged as we headed into the halls, snickering as students parted to stary out of his way, glad his fleshy form was still intimidating. “Not sure about mobile, but yes, Camelot is still around. I personally haven’t seen the castle or its residents in about, nine centuries I think.”

I paused as Steve came running for us, grabbing Draal by the shoulder, screaming “You’re not Steve, I’m Steve! I’m special!” He proceeded to push past us, running out to the courtyard.

“How is he the ‘bully’ Jim spoke of?” Draal asked, watching the doors Steve went through, confused.

I shook my head, just as confused. “Normally he has enough wit to punch someone. This is the first time I’ve seen him lose it.”

Draal nodded slowly, watching the other students as we continued walking. “Even for Fleshbags, this is odd.” He finally spoke as one student was trying to ‘swim’ across the hallway, many others beginning to freak out as well.

“What the hell is going on?” I asked, seeing the teachers joining in, Ms. Harper throwing paint all over her classroom as we passed.

A small glowing orb flew up to my face pausing for a moment. Draal snarled, pulling me away from it quickly. “Don’t let it in!”

“In what?!” I jolted as the orb gave chase. Draal grabbed my hand and took off running through the halls, practically dragging me along as more orbs joined the first.

“Pixies, once inside they give you horrible hallucinations. Nightmares!” Draal yelled back as he tried to dodge more. “That’s why everyone is going crazy!”

“Angor Rot,” I gasped out, realizing this was the plan Eemeli overheard while tailing Strickler. “Draal, we have to find Jim!” I fell back as a pixie rammed into my ear canal, immediately causing my head to feel fuzzy.

“River!” Draal stopped short, pulling the hood of his jacket up and holding his nose. “Are you okay?” He quickly helped me to my feet, checking my eyes.

Shaking my head as the hall began to disappear, I pushed him back, “Find Jim! If Angor Rot is here, Jim will need help.”

“What about the pixies?” He asked, holding my head, trying to keep me focused.

As I blinked, Draal disappeared, the school hallways shifting to the grand halls from my memories when Angor Rot called me sunshine. “I’ll be fine Draal. They’re not real, that’s all I need to know. Now go find Jim.”

“River!” Someone called out as they hugged me from behind, the British accent throwing me off, “I’ve been looking everywhere for you! Aunt Ganieda is having a fit since you teleported from the study!”

I pulled from the person, turning to see a boy around my age with dark hair pulled up in a bun and hazel eyes. “The study?” I asked causing the boy to laugh, taking my hand as he pulled me along the halls.

“Hurry, we can’t let the guards see you,” He explained, hiding behind corners and curtains as we went along, hiding from men in suits of armor.

“That’s the same armor as my dad and Uncle James,” I spoke softly, trying to make sense of the hallucination. Could this be a memory?

“Just because your father is on the guard, doesn’t mean the others are friendly to trolls, you’ve seen where they go if they trespass in Camelot.”

“They don’t know?” I asked, realizing my father and Uncle James were Gumm-Gumm spies at first. “Right, of course, they don’t know. Doux where is mama?” I asked, stopping short at the name that left my mouth, who is Doux?

“She’s in the study with Master Merlin, where you’re supposed to be taking a nap.” He chuckled, pulling me through a wooden doorway into the study.

“It seems Hisirdoux has found the little one,” an elderly voice called from further in the room.

A woman with dark hair, in a forest green dress, came running for Hisirdoux and me, “There you are Moonlight!” She hugged me tight, seeming to come down from a frantic state. “You know you’re not supposed to wander the castle, what if Arthur had seen you? Or the guards?” She asked, holding me back to arms-length, a stern look crossing her features.

“I don’t know?” I asked, more confused. If this is Camelot, why are trolls considered to be trespassers? It’s the magical center of legends.

“Of course,” She sighed, the sternness fading. “You’re only a child, you wouldn’t know.”

An older man with grey hair and green armor joined us, shaking his head as he drew close. “She’ll never learn this way Ganieda, she has no idea of the consequence.”

“There shouldn’t be a consequence.” A curt voice cut in. I turned to see a woman with long red hair, and emerald eyes. She carried the Shadowstaff with her. I immediately felt on edge seeing her.

“Gana!” My mother grinned, walking me to the newest person in the room. “How are the trolls fairing?”

“They’re unhappy, as they should be. However, it seems Sunshine has a habit of visiting them.” She chuckled, petting my hair back.

I ripped away from her at the mention of ‘Sunshine,’ the castle halls bled away to a forest. Gana was leading me through the forest, heading away from the castle. Gold armor covered her from, Shadowstaff held in a white-knuckle grip.

“This was Sunshine!” She called as I turned to look for the others. Why was I alone?

“Where are we going?” I asked, refusing to go further.

“I told you, we’re looking for your friend, Cali,” She turned to look at me. I flinched at her eyes, they were glowing gold, surrounded by black sclera. “Don’t you want to find your friend?”

“Not if I have to follow you,” I snarled, grasping for Midnight but it wasn’t on my belt. Right, this was a hallucination.

A dark chuckle ripped through her throat, “What’s wrong Sunshine? You were never scared of me before.”

“Why don’t remind me of who you are, because I don’t remember an aunt ‘Gana’,” I snarled, eyes burning, even in the open air of the forest I felt like my back was in a corner.

“I have many names Sunshine, but which one will hurt most?” She asked, the black of her sclera began to bleed into her skin, the woman in gold was slowly consumed by the shadows as she stalked forward. The gold of her eyes the only color left as she sneered down at me, not even a foot away. “How about the Eldritch Queen?”

My mind reeled, going back to the only book Blinky could find on my mother. The legend ending in her death at the hands of the Eldritch Queen, “You,” I choked out, blue and orange sparks erupting in my hands as rage began to overtake the hallucination. “No!” I screamed, flashing away from her. I was still in school, what if I hurt someone?

I did the only thing I could think of, I tried to teleport into the sewers under the school. The shadow figure of the Eldritch Queen chasing after me through portals. I stopped short finding my mother, “Get out of here!” I yelled, knowing what would happen if the shadow fallowed.

Lady Ganieda was surrounded by red magic as she appeared to be fighting off the real Eldritch Queen, clad in golden armor.

Green magic began to fill the stony cavern we had teleported to. Merlin entered the fight trying to help Ganieda. “River, get to your father!” He ordered, releasing a burst of magic that threw me back.

I felt trollish hands help me sit up, the only thing I could focus on was gold magic cracking through my mother’s torso as she fell forward. The Eldritch Queen and Merlin both released a large flow of magic as they attacked each other. The air around us began to rip apart, fissures in time appearing all around us.

“Moonlight,” a voice called from behind me, “We have to go, Uncle Merlin will take care of her, she’ll be okay.”

Orange magic ripped through the battle, a female Troll running into the fight, going straight for the Eldritch Queen as a roar left her chest.

I gripped the hands holding my shoulders tight, trying to get closer to the fight. My movement caught the eyes of the golden figure. A sick grin crossed her face as the male troll and I were swallowed in shadows, falling out and dropping into a fissure created by all the magic colliding.

The troll turned me into his chest as we continued to fall, holding me tight to him. “Keep your eyes closed!”

Struggling, I pulled my head from his hand, looking down as my nightmares became a reality. The open sky, the forest closing in fast. It hadn’t been a nightmare, it was a memory. I looked to the troll holding me as we fell, my eyes grew wide as I came face to face with my father’s troll form. Was this the time-lapse?

“Dad!” I screamed as a hand grabbed me from behind, ripping me from the memory. I felt a hilt hit the back of my head; everything began to fog over as the sewers slowly came into focus.

“Sunshine,” Angor Rot sneered as he dropped me, “Memories or nightmares, how broken your mind must be.”

I struggled to stand, holding where he had hit my head. “Either you weren’t going for a killing blow, or the Eldritch Queen is pissed off.” I snarled, backing away from the troll assassin.

The pixies swarm around Angor, flying into a glass lantern strapped to his back. “You’re in luck, Sunshine. I came to make a deal with your Trollhunters.” He smirked, “The pixie invading your mind wasn’t responding to the call, so I happily dislodged it for you.”

“How kind,” I growled, keeping my distance. “Why go to Jim? Strickler won’t hear you out?”

Snarling, he grabbed me by the collar slamming me back into the sewer wall. “Listen close, witch. Strickler holds a ring in his possession. As long as he holds this ring, he controls me.”

“How does a ring have control over a troll assassin?” I asked, thankful the collar kept him from being able to choke me.

“It contains my soul,” He bit out, letting go as he realized he wasn’t doing any damage.

My eyes widened as I reached for the collar, checking it over. “Your soul? You,” I paused, realizing he was telling the truth, “He’s controlling you. How did that happen?”

Angor snarled, “Magic that ancient is out of your grasp Witch, Merlin’s heir or not. It’s primeval magic.”

I growled at the implication, “Why would I try to take someone’s soul? I’m not heartless!”

“Neither was the Eldritch Queen, at first,” He sneered, turning to head further down the sewers until the shadows swallowed him.

I sighed, teleporting up to Strickler’s office, knowing Angor had advised him not to be here for the pixies. Taking off, I began to run through the halls, trying to find the others. Hopefully, they weren’t infected.

Draal stormed out of the gym as I closed in on the doors, relief washing over his face as he spotted me. “River!”

I grinned, jumping for him as I reached the doors, hanging onto him like a koala, “You’re not pixied! Where’s Jim?” I worried, knowing Angor Rot had found him.

“Right here,” He groaned as Toby helped him out of the gym, armor disappearing as the boys and Claire met up with us.

I sighed in relief, untangling myself from Draal as I tackle hugged Jim, “Oh thank Deya! Angor said he made a deal with you, did he hurt you?” I rambled, looking for injuries.

“Angor? He found you?” Jim asked, holding my hands still.

“Yeah,” I winced, pulling a hand back to rub where he hit my head, a knot already forming. “I teleported down in the sewers, my magic started flaring during the,” I paused, unsure if it was only hallucinations or memories woven in. “The pixie attack, since I couldn’t tell who was around me, I went down there. I guess when he called them back, the one in my head was being stubborn. He had fun getting it out.”

“He hit you?” Draal snarled, checking the back of my head immediately. “No blood.”

I nodded, groaning as it made me a little dizzy. “Yeah, didn’t bother to attack after getting the pixie out, but the ring.” I looked to Jim, “Strickler’s controlling him.”

Jim nodded, huddling close as the police showed up to the school, corralling all the students and staff to the front lawn of the school. We quickly separated from the others, heading over to the school sign, relaxing as they counted off all the students.

“Strickler has something called the Inferna Copula, it contains his soul and allows Strickler to control him,” Jim explained as he climbed to sit on the sign with Claire.

“So, if we get the ring, he’ll leave?” Toby asked, hopeful that we’d get a troll assassin off our backs.

Leaning into Draal’s side, I nodded slowly, careful of the hit. “That’s what it sounds like. If Strickler isn’t controlling him, he won’t have a reason to keep attacking us.”

“Other than the fact that he hunts Trollhunters.” Draal grumbled, wrapping his arm around me to keep me steady, worried about the bump even without blood.

Jim groaned, settling his head in his hands, “Right, that’s something we have to consider.”

Toby grinned, hitting his leg, “Who knows maybe he’ll be so grateful you gave him the ring, he’ll quit the hunting business!”

I chuckled relaxing as the cops began to leave, clearing us to go home once Strickler returned. “That’s a good thought Tobes.”

Eemeli’s P.O.V.

“Oh, great!” I snarled, seeing the call had been disconnected. “She hung up!”

Eri slithered over my shoulders, tiny amethyst eyes boring holes through my skull, “Maybe she wouldn’t have hung up if you weren’t yelling!”

“I’m not the only one yelling here snake,” I snarled, pulling her from my shoulders and dropping her onto my backpack. Using a machete, I hacked through the underbrush in the middle of the Amazon forest. “Why would they drop a castle in the middle of the Amazon?”

“It’s the largest forest in the world, it would be the easiest place to hide a castle right now.” Eri huffed, dropping her head on my shoulder, staying mostly on my backpack. “Where would you hide a castle, Rusty?”

“New York, on top of a sky scraper, Gargoyles style,” I snickered, watching Eri tilt her head in confusion out of the corner of my eye.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” She pouted, sensing the teasing.

I shrugged, ducking under the foliage as the trees opened up a little. “Not surprising if you’ve been cooped up in a castle your entire life, Noodle.” I paused, looking up the length of the trees, “Imagine buildings taller than the trees here, some going up higher than the clouds. That’s where I’d park a castle. That way you get the mysterious castle in sky vibes next to a decent Starbucks.”

“Coffee?” She asked, referring to River’s caffeine addiction.

I laughed, nodding, “It’s a coffee shop, Noodle. There’s probably one on every block in New York.”

“That’s dangerous,” She shuddered, slithering up more on my shoulder as we calmed from our argument that led to the phone call. “If River lived somewhere where she could get coffee on every block, she’d combust… and not from her magic.”

I bent over, laughing so hard that I began to wheeze, “Good call, we won’t park it in New York!”

“Neither of you will be traveling further if you don’t identify yourselves.” A gruff voice snarled from behind us, the sound of metal unsheathing alerting Eri and me to a real fight.

I put my hands up as I slowly turned to face the owner of the threats, blinking as I came face to face with an older looking Jim in a suit of Armor bearing Camelot’s crest, “Jim? What the hell happened to you? Did you get old?”

The man paused, shock flashing through his eyes before he zeroed in on Eri. “Eirwen? What are you doing back here? Where’s River?” The knight began to ramble.

Eri popped up, grinning at the knight, “James! River is safe in Arcadia, well, not so safe. That’s why she sent us.” She explained quickly.

“Us?” James, James Sr., I’m assuming, asked, directing the question to me.

I rolled my eyes, shifting into my troll form, “Us,” I snarled before shifting back. “I’m Eemeli, a Gumm-Gumm defect and new ally to your son, the Trollhunter, and Lady Ganieda’s daughter, River.”

James eyed me for a moment before nodding, “This way,” he waved us, heading back to a ship-like vehicle.

Eri nodded to the vehicle, curling around my neck in an almost comforting gesture. Who knows, the Danger Noodle might be growing on me.

“Come on, Rusty! We’re going to the castle!” She flicked her tongue out in excitement. Scratch that, I can’t wait to toss the noodle back at River.

“Yeah, yeah,” I grumbled, climbing aboard after James, watching him closely. “So, a boat on grass? How effective is that?”

James smirked back at me before grabbing a lever, the same twisted look Blinky got while driving the gyre bled into his eyes. “Hold on!”

We took off. Into the sky. Did I mention I hate flying? I screech, sitting down quickly, claws shifting out to sink into the boat/plane vehicle of doom I was in. Yeah, I really hate flying.

James and Eri’s laughter flittered through the rushing air as he slammed the lever back, taking us up further into the clouds.

Eri grinned, getting in my face as we broke through the clouds, “Ready to see home?” She asked, excitement filling her tiny little serpent eyes. All I could do was nod stiffly. She pulled back, and there, where Eri’s head had been, was a section of the original Camelot castle, in the sky. Flying.

“Oh, no,” I groaned, holding on tighter as we flew into the castle, James roughly docking the ship.

“You can let go of the floor now,” He snickered, shifting into a dark blue troll with a short mane of black hair and sky-blue eyes. The Camelot Armor still present in this form. “You’re safe unless Garridan decides to barrel roll the castle.” He grinned, jumping out of the ship.

“I’d rather jump,” I groaned, retracting my claws before carefully climbing out of the flying monstrosity. Once my feet were securely on the castle grounds, James took the lead heading further into the castle. It’s strange walking through a place that used to kill us on site. As we walked through, I noticed only humans and changelings in suits of armor. “So, Eri hasn’t been around full-blooded Trolls before?”

Pausing, James peered over his shoulder at us, eyeing me for a moment before continuing. “The Trolls had to find another Heartstone to survive. Staying away from one for so long makes it easier to corrupt them, so Changelings and humans are all that remain.”

I nodded, analyzing our path as we headed up into a tower. “Aren’t these the same humans that tried to…” I trailed off, eyeing the knights I recognized suspiciously.

“That was before the alliance, and before Lady Ganieda’s,” James sighed, arriving at a tall wooden door. “Before that battle. Now we work together to keep the peace where humans and Trolls coexist.”

James knocked on the door once before heading into the room, waving us in after him. “This is ‘War Room’ or what used to be, it’s main use is strategy and defense check-ins.”

A tall man with raven hair held in a braid was pouring over documents, most seemed to contain Trollish runes, however, many had human languages scrawled across their pages as well. “James, this better be important, an entire hollow of pixies have gone missing recently, if they’ve ventured into human society, who knows the amount of damage they could cause.”

“Probably the amount happening at school today.” I huffed, irritated that the man hadn’t even bothered to look up from the papers.

His head snapped up at my voice, confusion taking over his features as he looked between myself and Eri, processing what I had said. “School?” He finally asked.

“Good to see you too Garridan,” I huffed, Eri curling around my neck, relaxing her head on my shoulder.

Garridan shook his head, sighing as dropped one of the scrolls. “Eemeli, never thought I’d run into you again, and you’re here with Eirwen?”

I nodded, “River sent us,” I explained simply, wanting to gauge his reaction.

He tensed, standing straight at the mention of River. All the documents covering the war table completely forgotten as he strode up to Eri and me, eyes flashing gold as a warning. “Repeat that.”

I flinched at the shift in attitude, “River sent us. She, along with our new Trollhunter, is asking for your help.” I began, Garridan cutting me off before I could continue.

“I can’t leave the castle simply because a call is too hard for the Trollhunter, or my daughter, to accomplish.” He stated, turning back to the table, intent on returning to his work.

James nudged my back, gesturing to Garridan. Taking the hint, I steeled myself for a possible outburst. “Stricklander, the Janus Order, is targeting River specifically. Strickler brought in an assassin to kill Jim. Angor Rot.”

Garridan paused mid-step, hands clenching tight at his sides. “You mentioned a school?” He bit out, back still facing us.

“I followed Strickler to Angor Rot last night, Angor was planning something huge for the school and advised Strickler not to be there. You have an entire hollow of pixies missing, which hasn’t happened since they won the war with the fairies centuries ago. Who could possibly have ways of controlling them?”

“Morgana,” Garridan snarled, turning on his heel quickly, “and by extension, Angor Rot.”

“So, as you can imagine, this isn’t a call they’re having ‘difficulties’ with. They’re in danger, real danger.” I huffed, unsure if I wanted to tell him the last piece River mentioned. “And, it’s only going to get worse. They’re planning on entering the Darklands to rescue the goblin-napped human babies. Darklands also means Gunmar, and the only way out, per the council, is to kill Gunmar.”

All color drained from Garridan’s face, “If River goes into the Darklands, Gunmar could use her to free his army.” He tugged on the braid resting over his shoulder reminding me of when River tugs on the hood strings of her jackets. “That’s a fight they can’t win, not with what Kamaria has told me.”

I winced, remembering River’s birthday, “Yeah, good job on that one, she almost blew up the Heartstone.”

“That sounds familiar,” James coughed, looking away as Garridan leveled him with a glare.

“Alright, I will go.” Garridan nodded, more to himself than any of us.

“Really?!” Eri cried out, surprised that he was willing to leave the castle.

“James,” Garridan spoke, the voice of a general commanding the attention of his soldiers. “You’re in charge while I’m gone. No matter what happens, protect the Heart.”

James nodded, clasping his brother’s shoulder tight. “She’ll be safe, and so will our guest.”

Garridan deflated slightly, nodding to him as he waved for me to follow. “If they’re truly dealing with Angor Rot, then River is in more danger than I thought possible.”

“So, Gunmar is the second most dangerous?” My brow furrowed in confusion as I kept in stride with Garridan, “Is that because he’s in the Darklands?”

“No,” Garridan grits his teeth, retracing the path James led us through, heading back to the ship. “Gunmar doesn’t have a direct connection to Morgana, Angor Rot does. He’s her champion after all.”

I paused at the ship, mind racing, “I don’t understand, the Eldritch Queen was sealed away, she could be dead. What would she want with River?”

“What did she want with Merlin?” Garridan asked, leveling me with a hard stare, “She wants to rip the magic from his blood, magic that now resides in River’s. She can use River’s magic to eclipse the sky in eternal night.”

I could only blink, processing the threat that laid before my friend. River was in more danger than any of us realized, more danger than Gunmar could ever be.

#River of Arcadia #Trollhunters #tales of arcadia #trollhunters fanfiction #tales of arcadia fanfiction #trollhunters oc #trollhuntersoc #trollhunters draal #draal #draal the deadly #Draal x River #Draal x OC #River Marie Lake #River Marie Wyllt #Episode 20 #Where is my mind?#Phase 2 #Chapter 25

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rosemaidenvixen · 4 years ago

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In the Fullness of Time

Chapter 1: Today

When a fight leads to unintentional magical consequences, Douxie has a painful secret exposed. Prompting him to share part of his past to his friends.

Or, the tale of how Merlin and Douxie first met.

Ao3

Halfway through watching Wizards for the first time, I came up with an idea for how Merlin and Douxie met. I liked it so much that it stuck with me even after I saw their canon meeting, so here we are. For the sake of this story Merlin didn't die, and they were able to defeat Bellroc and Skrael by locking them in the Darklands (and while I'm at it Draal is alive and is spending his honeymoon with Nomura wrestling alligators in the New Jersey sewers).

Shout out to @yellowmagicalgirl for giving me the kick in the pants to get this story off the ground and @archaeopter-ace for the title.

Douxie ducked to the side to avoid the fireblast “Jim, on your right!”

Jim nimbly doged another fireblast and used Excalibur to vault over a fallen tree, continuing pursuit of their quarry without missing a beat.

The Warlock swore and tried to turn and retreat. Only to come face to face with Toby, Steve, and Claire. The boys wielding their hammer and axe while shadows flickered at Claire’s fingertips.

“Going somewhere Buttsnack?”

The Warlock made a mad dash in the opposite direction, but was instantly blocked by Krel’s serrator.

They all closed the gap on the increasingly anxious looking Warlock. Douxie summoning his staff as they moved in “It’s over, there’s nowhere for you to run. Surrender and we’ll go easy on you,”

The Warlock narrowed his eyes and growled “I will not yield my power to that blasted coward Merlin. Not in this life, or the next,”

Douxie’s eyes widened as he realized what the Warlock was about to do.

“ Everyone get back! ”

He slammed the end of his staff on the ground, forming a shield around the Warlock just as he started to chant.

Less than a second later the Warlock was consumed in a ball of white fire, the shield around him swelling and straining as Douxie struggled to contain the blaze.

Thinking quickly, Claire summoned a portal on the ground inside Douxie’s shield, siphoning some of the white hot energy away.

Their combined efforts had an impressive effect but it wasn’t enough.

Douxie’s shield shattered, the Warlock erupted with a blinding flash of light and a concussive wave. Blasting them all into the trees like leaves in a gale.

Head swimming, Douxie blinked to clear his vision, slowly managing to detangle himself from the roots and shrubbery. It didn’t feel like he’d been injured too badly, but something felt...off. At first he thought he was just recovering from the blast, but upon standing he immediately knew something was seriously wrong. And when he raised a hand to pull a loose twig out of his hair, Douxie froze when he saw that his shirt was practically falling off his arm. A quick glance up and down revealed the rest of his clothes now fit in the same baggy manner.

But it wasn’t so much that his clothes had gone from small to extra large, more like Douxie himself had gone from nine hundred and nineteen to four or five.

“Oh fuzzbuckets,”

Even as he spoke he cringed at his higher, lisping voice. From around the clearing he saw everyone else groan and get to their feet. It soon became apparent that Douxie wasn’t alone in his predicament.

“Guys, guys! The Warlock dude made everything bigger!” a much smaller Steve wailed, trying and failing to lift his axe.

Rather than bother to try and move his now oversized hammer, Toby opted for the simpler option of shrinking it down and tucking it into his pocket “Actually I think we got smaller,”

Krel sat on the ground, blinking at his four stubby, childish limbs “Kleb,”

Douxie had never heard the Akiridion word before, but based on the context he could give a pretty good guess as to its meaning.

Once she finished helping Jim up, Claire turned towards Douxie “What happened, why are we all fun-sized now?”

“Our friend here,” Douxie gestured to the smoking crater in the ground, all that was left of the Warlock “Rather than get taken to Merlin and have their contraband magic stripped away, chose to unleash it all at once and try to take us all out,”

He picked up his staff from where it had fallen “We were able to dampen it, which is why we’re not ash right now, but I have no idea what they were juicing themselves with, or how to undo it,”

The blue stone in the head of his staff flickered as he tried to summon his magic, only to have it elude him. With a sigh he lowered it “And being tiny like this, I don’t have much power,”

“What! Are we stuck like this?! I can’t win Spring King again if I’m all shrimpy, they won’t even let me be a duke!”

“For once I agree with the oaf. I will not be small again, and I refuse to let Aja see me like this,”

“Calm down guys,” Douxie knitted his brows and tried to tuck his staff away, a normally easy task made monumentally difficult by his lack of size and power “We just need to get back to Merlin and he can help us figure this out,”

He allowed himself a small grin as the staff finally reduced back into his cuff, with no small amount of effort on his part, only to swear when the cuff nearly slipped off his arm. Douxie glanced at both wrists before sighing and slipped both the cuff and bracelets off, stuffing them into his pocket. Better to take them off now than to have them fall off later and get lost. But still he almost felt naked without them.

Jim tugged at Excalibur’s hilt with a frown “But what about our weapons? We can’t carry them back like this, and I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave them out here,”

“I’ll do it,” Claire’s sclera darkened as two small portals formed beneath Excalibur and Toothache, ferrying them away. Less than a second after the weapons vanished Claire’s eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed to the ground.

“That...that took a lot out of me,” she panted as Toby and Jim helped her to her feet.

Douxie hurried up to check on her. Much to his relief while she was sweating with exhaustion, her eyes were focused and clear and her nose wasn’t bleeding “Ok, no more magic. Our bodies just aren’t up to it right now,”

“Wait, does that mean we have to go back on foot?” Steve said incredulously.

“Unfortunately yes,”

“Aww man,”

“Double kleb,”

“C’mon guys,” Jim said while heading to the front of the group with Douxie “The sooner we start the sooner we get back, and the sooner we get back the sooner we get back to normal,”

With only minimal grumbling, the group set out through the woods. Jim and Douxie in the lead.

They stumbled their way home through the roots and undergrowth, struggling with shorter, weaker limbs. As they went, Douxie tried to come up with a likely explanation for their condition. It couldn’t be a de-aging spell, greater Wizards than that Warlock had tried and failed to obtain eternal youth. What if it was a spell intended to do something else entirely but had gone wrong? Maybe the Warlock had tried to cast a spell to strip them of all their abilities but it went haywire when--

“Hey Doux,” Claire spoke up, shattering his train of thought “What’s that, on your wrists?”

Douxie stopped in his tracks, hands unconsciously going to cover his wrists; his heart plummeting like a stone down into the bottom of his stomach.

How could he have been so careless? He didn’t have the bracelets or cuff to cover them any more, and he’d forgotten that they’d been a lot more noticeable at this age.

The rest of the group stopped to, perturbed by his reaction.

Krel squinted “Are those...scars?”

Douxie bit his lip, tightening the grip on his wrists.

Jim’s expression went from curious to soft “Hey it’s cool, you don’t have to tell us,”

“Yeah,” Steve piped up “If you say it’s none of our business, it’s none of our business,”

Claire’s face flushed “Sorry, forget I asked,”

Krel and Toby chimed in with similar reassurances.

Hearing them all try to comfort him, the subject of the marks on his wrists willing to be dropped as quickly as it was brought up; heavy, not unpleasant, emotion settled in Douxie’s chest.

These were his comrades, more than that his friends. They’d fought side by side and he trusted them with his life.

He could trust them with this to.

“No….it’s...it’s ok,” he pried his fingers away from his wrists, wincing as the marks underneath were exposed “It’s just….a hard story to tell,”

Empathy washed over Jim’s face “You don’t have to tell us if you--”

“It’s ok,” Douxie cut him off “I want to tell you,”

He took a deep breath as they all looked at him, expectantly but patiently.

“I got these,” Douxie started slowly “I got these when I was the age I appear to be now…..”

Notes: (Content warning for mentions of cannibalism)

For the magic system I'm setting up in this story there are functional differences between a Wizard and a Warlock. A Witch/Wizard is someone with innate magical abilities, whether they came naturally, like Douxie, or developed after contact with the magical world, like Claire. A person without magic of their own that still uses magical tools and objects would be referred to as an Alchemist.

Warlocks occupy a dark middle ground between the two. Warlocks are those that lack intrinsic magical abilities of their own, but consume or inject themselves with the essence of other magical creatures in order to gain their powers. These artificially gained magical abilities fade over time, so Warlocks constantly need to replenish themselves with outside magical sources. There are literally thousands of ways for a Warlock to accomplish this, but the most common method is by directly cannibalizing a Witch or Wizard. So while the words Warlock and Cannibal are not synonymous within magical communities, they share all of the same negative connotations.

The main point is that while being a Warlock doesn't make one inherently 'evil', the steps and ethical choices a person has to make to become a Warlock and to maintain that status informs a lot about their willingness to harm others for their own gain.

This won't come up in the rest of the story, I just wanted to elaborate on some of the worldbuilding.

#tales of arcadia #toawizards #douxie #hisirdoux casperan #jim lake jr #steve palchuk #toby domzalski #claire nuñez #krel tarron #rmvwrites #fanfic #in the fullness of time

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nattikay · 5 years ago

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@arcadia-trash @keepin-it-crispy @elizabethemerald yeah idk what the point of this fic even is but it’s got some Jlaire in it so ^^;

It was nice to be back in Arcadia, if only temporarily. New Trollmarket, while still much smaller and less intricate that its centuries-old predecessor, was established and thriving around the New Jersey Heartstone, and to celebrate the success of their quest Jim, Claire, and Blinky had gathered together in the newly-running Gyre station to visit the friends and family they’d left behind in California.

The trio were greeted with a plethora of hugs and shouts for joy as they reunited, Toby in particular talking a mile a minute, excitedly raving about everything they’d missed while on their journey and insisting that they had to come along and properly meet Krel tomorrow. Jim, Claire, and Blinky were already more-or-less familiar of the supernatural goings-on of their hometown over the past few months, of course, thanks to the ever-useful invention of cell phones and texting--but it was special to hear about it face-to-face.

These joyful greetings were short-lived, however, as the time was late--they’d decided to travel at night just to make sure Jim and Blinky would be safe from the sun. And so they all soon found themselves saying goodnight and heading their separate ways--Claire with her family, Jim with his mother, and Blinky with Toby, Aarrrgh, and Dictatious--with promises to come together to hang out for real the next morning with a celebratory breakfast.

“We can do it at my house,” Jim offered, tusks protruding from his toothy grin. “Food’s on me.”

“Can’t wait!” called Toby, waving over his shoulder as he and Blinky made their way over towards the Domzalski home.

“See you then,” added Claire, pulling Jim down for a quick kiss on the cheek before heading off to her own street.

Jim smiled and waved back, watching a moment as his girlfriend, best friend, and essentially-adopted-father walked off in different directions before turning back into his own house.

“Mom?” he called, not seeing Barbara in the front room where she’d been just minutes before.

“I’m here,” she responded, walking in with a pile of blankets and a pillow, which she promptly handed to Jim with an apologetic look.

“I’m sorry, sweetie, but I’m afraid you’re gonna have to sleep on the couch...see, with Walt and I somehow getting roped into looking after all the changeling familiars, well, we needed space to put them all and well, with you not here--”

“It’s ok, Mom, I understand,” said Jim, mildly disappointed but not surprised. As much as he’d miss his old room, he couldn’t really fault her reasoning given the circumstances. Besides, a couch would still be way more comfortable than the forest floors and hard stone caves he’d slept on during the exodus to New Jersey.

“Thank you,” said Barbara with a hint of relief. “It’s getting pretty late, you go on and get some sleep. I love you,” she added, moving in to hug her son one more time, which he gladly returned.

“Love you too, Mom. Goodnight.”

Barbara grinned appreciatively as she headed back up the stairs, leaving Jim to set up the pillows and blankets as comfortably as he could on the couch. He drew the blinds (didn’t want to wake up to a burned stone shoulder or something if the sun rose before he woke up, after all), placed the pillows and set the blankets. That doesn’t look too bad, he thought as he examined his handiwork. Satisfied, he went to brush his teeth, change his clothes, and turn out the lights before crawling under the blankets and closing his eyes.

It was decidedly more comfortable than a cold stone cave, and yet...yet...

“Uuugggh. Why can’t I fall asleep?!” Jim growled to himself as he adjusted his position for what felt like the fiftieth time.

It’s not that he wasn’t tired...well, it wasn’t like the Gyre journey had been particularly long or exhausting or anything, but he was the...normal amount of tired, he supposed. The same that he was every night.

Was it maybe his horns getting in the way? ...nah, he’d gotten used to sleeping around those months ago, there’s no reason it should suddenly start bothering him now.

Perhaps it was the strangeness of sleeping on the couch in his own home, now that his childhood room had been taken over by a bunch of babies? Maybe...but somehow he didn’t feel like that was quite the full story.

So what was it?

Groaning, Jim turned over once more and tried again to drift off into sleep.

.oOo.

The sun was shining through the blinds (though not directly enough to cause any harm) when Jim was roused the next morning by a cheerful voice wafting over from the door.

“--morning, Dr. L!”

“Hi, Toby! Come on in...you’re a bit early, I don’t think Jim’s even up yet, let alone making breakfast.”

“That’s ok!” said Toby, bounding into the front room as Jim sat up, rubbing his bleary eyes. He’d managed to get a little sleep that night, but none of it had been restful, and he was left feeling even more tired than he’d been before.

“Hey, dude!” Toby greeted his best friend excitedly. “Aarrrgh and Blinky’ll be coming through the sewers; while you were gone Aarrrgh connected that old hole Draal made in your basement to one in our house. But Nana and I are here now, so---oh man,” he broke off, noticing the bags under Jim’s eyes. “You alright dude? You look awful. Did you sleep ok?”

“I mean, not really,” said Jim, stifling a yawn. “But it’s ok. Happens to everyone, yeah? Let’s go get that breakfast party started,” He sat up and stretched before heading towards the kitchen, hair and scruff a mess and still in his pajamas.

“What do you think we should do, pancakes or waffles?” he called back over his shoulder.

“Oh, I’m totally feeling waffles!” said Toby.

“Waffles it is,” said Jim, gathering ingredients for the batter.

About five minutes later Blinky and Aarrrgh emerged from the basement, plopping down in the front room to chat amiably with Toby, Nana, Barbara, and Strickler (who, Jim noticed, was holding a babbling infant that he recognized as the changeling’s own former familiar).

In another ten, the food was ready.

“Alright, we got fresh waffles for whoever wants ‘em,” the half-troll called from the kitchen. “Along with whipped cream, syrup, and fruit, or for anyone who wants some more trollish toppings, some old sock bits and tin foil,”

“Alriiiiight!” exclaimed Toby, leaping up and helping himself as the adults followed closely behind.

“Can’t tell you how much I’ve missed the smell of your cooking, kiddo,” said Barbara, to which Jim shrugged, smiling.

Just then another knock sounded at the door. Strickler, being the closest, answered it and let the Nuñezes in.

“Sorry we’re a bit late,” apologized Ophelia, “It was a little hard to drag Claire out of bed this morning...she’s usually so good with mornings, but I guess she’s been busy with that quest...”

“Oh, you’re alright; in fact, you’re right on time,” assured Strickler, ushering them in. “The food has just been put out...”

Upon the invitation, Claire made a beeline for Jim, slipping her arm around her boyfriend in a comfortable side-hug.

“You’re looking professional this morning, Chef Jim,” she teased, eyeing his pajamas and messy mane.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” shrugged Jim. “Honestly, I wasn’t even really up until Toby came over...didn’t sleep all that well last night,”

“You too, huh?” asked Claire, and sure enough when Jim glanced down she also had a bleary look in her eyes and while she had at least put on day clothes her hair, bound by its many clips, was slightly disheveled.

You couldn’t sleep either?” he asked, surprised. “Not even in your own bed?”

“Apparently not. It was weird...it was like something wasn’t quite right, for some reason...but anyways,” Claire continued, shaking off the mystery, “Let’s try some of these waffles, they smell amazing!”

.oOo.

Once everyone had eaten, a few began to disperse. Nana Domzalski retreated to her house to check up on her cats; Ophelia and Javier returned to their daily schedule with little Enrique in tow. Stickler went upstairs to feed the familiars and Barbara insisted on washing the dishes (”You made the food for everyone and you did wonderfully, now you sit back and let me clean it up!” she’d told Jim when he offered to help). That left Jim, Claire, Toby, Blinky, and Aarrrgh in the front room while Toby excitedly showed off some of the new magic tricks he and Aarrrgh had perfected to Blinky.

Jim sat on his little couch-corner, the furnishing still covered in the ruffled blankets he’d slept under (or at least, tried to) last night. Claire was leaned into his side, watching Toby’s magic act as she lazily ran her fingers through Jim’s scruff. Jim wasn’t sure he could remember ever feeling so relaxed before. In fact, he felt like he was just about to drift off to--

“Hey, I think that’s what was missing,” said Claire suddenly.

“Huh?”

“Last night, when I had trouble sleeping. That’s what was missing.”

“...what was it?”

Claire snuggled in closer.

“Your heartbeat,” she said simply. “I guess I’d gotten so used to sleeping to it in New Trollmarket and on the journey that suddenly not having it was just...off,”

Jim took a moment to absorb this statement, eyes slowly widening. Oh. Oh.

“Ooohhhh,” he said out loud. “...man, that makes so much sense now! You were missing my...my heartbeat and I guess I was missing...your scent...oh man,” he shook his head, followed by a yawn. “That explains a lot.”

“I know we have a lot to do today, or a least a lot Toby wants us to do,” droned Claire contentedly, voice growing drowsier by the word, “but now that we have...what was missing...maybe a quick nap first would be best,”

“...yeah,” Jim managed, smiling warmly as his eyes grew heavy. “Yeah, that’s a good idea...”

And the two drifted off into a very contented snooze.

#trollhunters #tales of arcadia #fanfic #jlaire #(well some at least)#yyyyyeah I don't even know what this fic is really #just a rambly self-indulgent mess in an attempt to write out a scene that likes to float around in my head #not really well-rehearsed or much real plot just rambling ^^;#whoop #well idk maybe *someone* else will enjoy it #meh...#honestly I just kinda like the idea of jim and claire growing to be kinda codependant sleepers #like I get that irl it'd be hecka inconvenient but like....snuggles ^^;#like I said just a self-indulgent mess....#yeah

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bearpillowmonster · 4 years ago

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Resident Evil 2 Remake Review

NON SPOILER

I've bought Resi 4 on Steam, after the first level of playing it, I realized that it wasn't for me, all the enemies looked the same and it looked repetitive, zombies kept spawning and there was no way to get rid of them all, I ran out of ammo, it was a mess. I knew that the genre did that, I know that that’s the point, but I didn’t like it. Plus, I couldn't even really get the gunplay to work right. I heard that it was at its best on the Gamecube but I haven't given it another shot since then. However I saw that Resi2 got a demo, so I played it when it released and I kind of liked it, I was sold on the game and asked for it for Christmas (or maybe even my birthday, so yeah it’s been a long time but I was busy with other games) Now, the RE3 remake is already out...wow, time to play RE2 then, huh? So, you can consider this my "first" RE game.

Right out of the gate, visuals are stunning, almost needless to say and the level of accuracy is immense. I mean I didn't expect there to be a gas station at the beginning but it even had the lighters and beef jerky towards the front and stuff, they really went all out.

I can't imagine seeing this game when the original came out with PS1 graphics, it's ambitious, this is clearly the way it belongs. I thought a bug flew on screen but then I realized it was in-game, it's immersive, I don't normally read all the little tidbits and notes and stuff but it was generally interesting to read on the lore along with the VHS tapes and get some clues as to what to do next. I tried to play through it as if it were 1998 so I didn't look much up, I usually tried to do it myself with a few small exceptions. I felt accomplished by the end of each session like "Wow, I did that. I'm smart." It's rewarding. Now I played through each campaign so both Leon and Claire (starting with Leon) Claire on the other hand I was more lenient with, I looked up a decent amount because I was already in the station doing the same puzzles as Leon. It makes me wonder how they got the same items story-wise though, I mean we see Leon leaving her notes but you can't blow up the same wall twice in reality, that's nitpicking the game a little bit though. I will say that I felt like it was a wild goose chase when I did look it up because every thing I looked up was giving me different information "The portable safe is in this room." "No it's in this room." "This is the combination for the unicorn statue" "No it isn't, this is." Because it varies when you're playing on standard vs hardcore and whether it's your first or second run. So, I got my punishments for looking it up I guess.

But with that said, I know some of these types of older games have a tendency to make it really confusing and difficult without a guide so I was kind of worried about not knowing what to do or where to go. While I will say I had had to look a few things up, it became cut and dry once I figured out the pattern, most of the things I looked up were things I was going to do anyway but wanted to make sure before I somehow unleashed a hoard of zombies that I certainly didn't want. Same goes for story too, I knew close to nothing about it. But you basically just have to make it to the next area, think of it as that Chowder episode where he loses his hat and Chestnut has it so he has to go around doing odd jobs one by one in order to progress. The overall goal is to get out of the police station and kind of just find a way to survive but you have to focus on the smaller goals / getting to the next room. I looked pretty thoroughly through everything and managed to find everything I needed without even trying or knowing what it was for half the time like "Well this should come in handy later." *puts it in storage chest* Speaking of, I like how each chest is like an Ender Chest and is interchangeable as if it was the same one chest in every location, that makes things much easier rather than some hardcore game of "where did I put my keys?" that I'm not into. But you learn to find your destination a lot easier than I thought. That was always something I hated about Resident Evil games while watching them, that there was a lot of backtracking but actually playing the game hits differently, it's not what I expected, it's actually kind of fun, like I mentioned saying "I know where that is!"

Maybe it's just the setting of a police station that did that for me or maybe seeing speedrunners doing it with the old games and paying no mind made me scared or maybe the fixed camera angle of the old games (so that each side of the room had the clip as if it were just a picture) along with the idea that the originals are dated rather than PS4 but regardless, it's just surprisingly not annoying like I thought.

Games can easily stress me out but I actually found myself cruising and feeling good about it despite all these zombies...then I met Mr. X. He chases you EVERYWHERE throughout the game. Thing of nightmares. I will probably hear footsteps in my sleep now. I knew he was coming but I didn't know his presence wasn't always scripted, it's just a game of cat and mouse...and he's the cat! It gets me paranoid because I'll stop and hear footsteps then stand still for a good 5 minutes and he's still tromping around. I walk down a hall. BOOM! Crashes through the wall, making ME screech. There's no way to get rid of him and it kind of ruins the atmosphere to be honest, I know it's trying to be scary but it's more annoying than scary because every time I move I'm like "Ok stop" and I'll stand around for a minute, checking the map, to check the fastest route to where I need to go, just to make sure and then continue... only to turn the next corner and then repeat. I couldn't even move comfortably anymore, it's space invading. The tension is high because he can come into the main hall which I liked to use to save but alas, I had to memorize where all the other save points were or check the map again.

So, you get to play as Claire, which I like, but with Leon's story it's kind of just like "Well I'm going to do my own thing and if she survives, she survives." I understand each step is essential to progressing and getting closer but for all he knows, she's just out in the rain, waiting for him to unlock the door. And I also know that she said that she can handle herself (before Leon had to point out the zombie behind her! lmao) and he has survival on the forefront of his mind too but still. They flirt every time they're on screen together but the thing is that I love it, I ship it, it's cheesy but I don't care, that’s half of what I’m even here for.

As for the rest of the story, you're telling me that they made not just one movie but a SERIES of movies and it wasn't this?! This is great, this is a master-craft in its work. I'm not a big fan of zombie movies, I'm sure there's one out there that I like but I can't think of any off the top of my head but this? This is it! (Jennifer Lawrence would make a good Claire tbh) Let alone the horror genre in general, I'm not even frightened all that easily, I just think a lot of the plots and decisions are stupid in horror, this goes against all that. Speaking of spooky, I know making the screen brightness balanced is normal for games but I don't think it's mattered more than here, brighten that baby up because sometimes it's pitch black, immersive but still hard to see.

Boss fights are something I didn't think a whole lot about until I actually got to it. Doing the first boss fight with G was really memorable for me because I could cower away all I wanted in that gridded pit of a machine room and just launch grenades at him but it wasn't until the bosses in the sewer that I really started to like it. First was that Crash Bandicoot type running sequence, then we had G-2. I had actually ran out of ammo at that point, I used it all on the sewage monsters (I didn't get the flamethrower, I didn't know how, as I said, I did this more or less blind) so I just kept running, and clicked X every time the option came up, hoping to pick up something good. All I got was a combat knife and a flash grenade, then I started messing with the buttons on the control panel, in hopes of cheesing it and just going to the next section but then I realized what I was actually doing. I was using those buttons to move a crate and using that crate to slam G into a pit. I love the classic boss style, I haven't played a boss like that in a long time. One where it doesn't matter how much ammo you have, but just using the environment to your advantage without it explicitly telling you (except the death screen giving you hints). That was until the later boss fights, you basically just keep unloading your belt until they die, kinda lame but whatever.

This actually made me rethink the genre and also about giving one of the other games a shot (PLEASE REMAKE CODE VERONICA, I BEG!) it might be right time, right place (PS4 with modern graphics and modern gunplay) that made me actually interested. The “true ending” is unlocked by playing through one of the two’s campaign and then playing through the other, which is basically the same game but with different cutscenes and context (some new areas too) so it’s definitely worth it, you could even just speedrun the second run if you’d like, you even unlock a secret boss and for those who have already seen the true ending, know that I liked it based off of what I said earlier, no spoilers.

#re2 #resident evil 2 #remake #review #this game is great #long review #ps4

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matthiasdebeaune-blog · 6 years ago

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1st post from Malta

Hi guys, How are you all?

This blog is a new thing I’m gonna try. I don’t know how it is gonna turn out but here it goes.

It’s been 2 weeks since I left Belgium, 2 weeks to discover Malta. It is going really great here. Lots of new people, lots of information about roulette, blackjack, and the company itself ofcourse :p

But let us start from the beginning, The appartment. unfortunately it aint the apartment with the nice view of the sea I showed you all, Just an normal apartment with no view. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, big kitchen,... But we got a terrace though, a small one, but we got one :D You all know Benno so we skip him :p The other flatmate’s name is Keanu. Very cool guy. love to party, 21 years old, comes from Gent and started at the same time as Benno.

Now Evolution Gaming. 2 weeks of training has already passed. Roulette was the first week and Monday and Tuesday to but those were more focused on the pre-test, theory exam and live sessions ofcourse :) I passed roulette with 92%. I did it better on my live session then on my theory exam, wich apparenty is very odd in Evo :D The rest of the week was Blackjack, Lot more difficult then Roulette :o I don’t mean like difficult but there’s more to keep in mind. It asks a lot of focus. Next Tuesday we got, like Roulette, exam of Blackjack. I need to study that one though. The theory is more detailed, live session won’t be a problem, I’ve been live 2 times. 1ste time was a hell, I was way to nervous so a made a few mistakes. But that’s always the first time, exept if you have experience with online casino like someone from my training group, but I’ll toutch on that later :). My 2nd time was flawless, no mistakes, ‘ready to go live’ said MC (Marie Clair, our trainster). I’m looking forward to those last days of training and start working for real.

My training group is a fun group. It exist of 8 people, I’m not gonna name them here because of privacy. All diffrent country’s like Sweden, Luxemburg, Denmark, Hungary, Macedon, Belgium :), Sicily, and one other but I don’t know it by hard. We’re a good group we hang out together over the weekend, go out together. But orher than my group, I’m starting to know many people because of Benno. All were warned I was coming so now everybody that benno knows, knows me and I don’t know all of them. I pushing myself to meet people I bearly know and start talking to them. It gives me a satisfaction I get to know people quicker this way :D

So When you want to come and visit me, let me know and I arrange everything with work and the flamates. but quick thing that really suck on this island is the sewer system, public transport and the maltese people are racists.

Greetz from Malta guys, see you next week.

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p-artsypants · 6 years ago

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Arcadia or Bust (Part 1)

FF.Net | AO3

I just finished Trollhunters the other day and it was sooo good! This, this fanfic. I’m working on my other stories, as well as writing my new HTTYD fic. But I had some post finale ideas I wanted to experiment with, so I wrote this little, informal fic. Hope you all like!

Thanks @avannak!

—

Jim, Claire, Arrrgh, Blinky, and Merlin stood in a circle, staring at the stone in front of them.

“So…” began Jim, “This is…it?”

Merlin frowned, “I was really expecting it to be much much bigger, but…this is the presence I’m feeling.”

The pulsing heartstone was about the size of Arrrgh, which was still big, but not quite as big as the old one they left behind in Arcadia. Not to mention, the cavern that the stone was recovered in wasn’t very spacious. In fact, half the party was still out in the sewers. They had to break through a wall to get into the cavern.

“What do we do now?” Asked Claire.

Blinky looked at the wizard. “Is there nothing else you sense?”

Merlin shook his head. “For once, I am at a loss.”

Jim knelt at the base of the crystal and started digging with his claws. “Maybe this is just the tip of it.”

It wasn’t.

In a matter of minutes, Jim and Arrrgh had completely unearthed the glowing crystal. “Well,” began Jim, “we have a portable Heartstone.”

“No, no,” objected Blinky. “This just won’t do! This is not nearly big enough to fit our needs!”

“If you don’t mind,” Claire spoke up. “What does the Heartstone do?”

“What does the Heartstone do!?” Blinky nearly shouted. “Why, it’s the very heart of Troll society! Trolls can survive without it, but we can only thrive with it! The stone has healing properties, which is why, Master Jim, your wound has not healed very much in the last month.”

Jim touched his side gingerly. “I assumed that was because I haven’t been resting.”

“That certainly didn’t help, but Trolls heal differently than humans. Though…I’m not sure how a half-troll heals either.” He studied the crystal before speaking again. “The Heartstone is a beacon for all of Troll-kind. They come from the swamps, lava, and deep caves, just to visit and bask in it’s presence. And we need a Heartstone that can support all of us. And this…boulder could barely support the…1/3 of the tribe that’s here.” He crossed a pair of arms and put the others on his hips.

“Wait,” said Jim, suddenly. “Can we…I don’t know, take this one back to Arcadia?”

“Why?” Asked Arrrgh.

“Well, in science class last year, we learned how to grow our own crystals using a saturated solution. Maybe we can use this as a seed, and grow a bigger one.”

Claire frowned. “I don’t think this one will work like that.”

“Maybe not,” added Merlin, “but you make a good point. If we take this little stone back and put it among the old Heartstone, it might just spread and replenish it’s power.”

“You think that’ll work?” Asked Blinky.

“Not really,” Merlin shrugged. “But it’s better than the alternative. Besides, that cavern has more space in the first place.”

“It can’t hurt to try!” Shouted Jim. Then he stooped to take hold of the bottom of the Crystal. Arrrgh had the other side, and lifted it as well.

Then, two more trolls got in and helped. The stone rose, with great effort, but it was going to be too heavy to carry it the 2,000 miles back.

“Hmm, I suppose a journey to the surface might be worthwhile. At least to find supplies to fashion a cart strong enough to carry this.”

Jim nudged his girlfriend. “How about it, Claire? You and me?”

“Hmm?” Claire blinked up at him, furrowing her brows. “What did you say?”

“You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m just kind of tired.”

Jim smacked his hand to his head. “Oh no! I totally forgot! We’ve been walking for hours! When was the last time you slept?”

She smiled weakly. “Um…A while ago.”

Jim frowned and easily picked her up. “Let’s get some rest, and we can go up later, alright?”

“Hmm…” She hummed, snuggling up to his chest.

“Ah, of course. Claire still requires 8 hours of sleep. I suppose this can wait.” Blinky shrugged.

Jim adjusted the sleeping girl in one arm so he could free his phone from his armor. A few taps and a call was sent.

“Hey mom,” he said.

“Jim! Hi honey! Oh, it’s good to hear you. But you’re kinda crackly, are you underground?”

“Yeah, so mom…we made it to New Jersey, and we’re all safe...but the Heartstone isn’t really...impressive. So, we’re bringing what we found home.”

“What?”

“It’s…it’s a little…it’s like the size of Arrrgh.”

“That’s not that bad! If you found a diamond that big, you’d be the richest man-er, troll in the world!”

“Well, it’s pretty small in troll standards.”

“Well, I’m not going to complain! And I know Toby and the Nunez’s aren’t either!”

Jim smiled half-heartedly. “It’ll be nice to be close to home. But…things still aren’t going to be sunshine and rainbows. No sunshine, in fact.”

He heard Barbara smile back. “Well, we can make changes. We have before.”

“I love you, mom.”

“I love you too, Jim.”

“Talk to you later.”

Blinky listened on with a tender smile. “Your mother might be one of most loving beings on this earth, including Trolls.”

“She’s pretty good.” Jim shrugged. Then he looked down to Claire, watching her wince and roll her shoulder. Trolls rarely slept, and only as a way to pass the time. Even then, they slept on hard slabs of rock. It was visibly wearing on her.

“Aw, Claire…she hasn’t had a proper nights sleep in a bed since…well, like a month ago.”

“If there was a way, I’d have her sleep in a hotel. Just for tonight at least.” Blinky frowned, also noticing that Claire wasn’t performing at 100%.

A scout had returned from his venture to peek at the surface. “I can’t tell where we are. It’s still daylight out. Nothing much we can do.”

“Alright,” Blinky clapped. “Then it looks like we’re making camp where we can. Don’t stray too far!”

Jim wandered the small cavern, Claire still cradled in his arm, until he found a small alcove. Big enough to fit both of them.

He sat down, and adjusted Claire so she could sleep at least somewhat comfortably.

“If only I could take off this stupid armor.”

That’s when he had an idea and gently laid her down on the rock.

“Jim…?” She muttered.

“I’m coming back. Just rest as much as you can.”

Claire yawned sleepily and settled back down on the floor.

Jim found Merlin propped up against the cavern wall, eyes closed, hands folded in his lap. “Merlin?”

“Don’t you know it’s rude to bother a wizard while he’s sleeping?”

“O-oh…sorry…”

“Well, come on, out with it!” He spoke without opening his eyes.

“Um, it’s just…how do I take the armor off?”

“Turn it off.”

Jim frowned, “The amulet won’t turn off.”

“Hmm…” Merlin frowned and nimbly hopped to his feet. “Well, you did emerge yourself in the water wearing it, which was ill-advised.”

“You didn’t say that!”

“I never told you to wear it.”

Jim narrowed his eyes. Talking to this man was like talking to a brick wall.

Merlin peered at his face, and then at the amulet, then back again. “The Amulet is fused with your skin now. There’s no taking it off.”

Jim groaned. “Are you serious? Because I’m 80% sure I still have a bladder, and other such body parts.”

“I never said you can’t take off the armor.”

“But—“

“The amulet, that stays. It’s like…what was the story I saw on your talking crystal?”

“Uh, the movie on TV?”

“Yes, television. It was…Ironman. I believe.”

Jim nodded. “Oh. Gotcha. Umm…then how…”

“How you’ve always done it. Just relax and let yourself be free from danger.”

Jim closed his eyes and shook out his arms. “Just relax…relax…”

“Gunmar, Angkor Rot, and Morgana are all gone. There’s no threat anymore.”

That they knew of.

“Think about something that makes you feel calm. Your favorite song, or perhaps a favorite meal.”

Food used to be his passion, but now…now it just made him sad.

“Or maybe…” Merlin began, seeing Jim deflate. “The fair Claire?”

Claire did help. But she was so small now, it wasn’t hard to imagine accidentally crushing her. The very thought made him tense.

It was almost as if Merlin had read his mind. “You’ll hurt her if you stay tense like that. You can’t hurt her if your bones are jelly.”

Jim inhaled deeply, then let it go in a exhale, unclenching his fists and letting his head lull forward.

He heard metal clanking, and then a draft.

“There you go,” said Merlin. “Now if you’ll excuse me.” He cracked his neck and settled against the wall.

When Jim finally opened his eyes, he found his armor gone, the amulet on his chest glowing a soft blue. The remains of his clothes were in tatters. His pants had torn at this calves and thighs, now that they were meatier. Likewise, his favorite sweater was ruined, as the sleeves barely held on. He could feel a draft on his back and knew there was a rip back there as well.

He could forget his favorite converse as well, since his toes stick out the sides.

He sat down and undid the laces, freeing his cramped feet. Then he got a whiff of his shoes. A pungent smell; sweaty, moldy, gross, and...

He chomped into the sole without another thought.

He sighed as he swallowed. He was eating a shoe, his own gross, unwashed shoe. And he enjoyed it.

Once the shoes were gone, he wiggled his toes. He felt the ground beneath his feet, feeling each sharp pebble. But there was no pain.

His feet matched his hands. One wider with only four toes and black nails. The other the normal five, and clear nails.

Patting himself down, he would say conclusively, he felt much more comfortable. And the skin that had been hiding was softer as well. In general, his body had not been rock-hard like other Trolls, but it was not as soft as a human’s. Almost like clay. Yes, clay would be proper analogy, Jim realized. A mineral, like other trolls, but malleable, and ever changing.

“Ah…” Jim sighed. “Much better.”

Then his stomach gurgled, loudly.

“Oh man…I have to pee so bad.”

After his deed was done, and all accoutrements were accounted for, Jim found a watering hole in the caves to wash up in.

“Master Jim!” Blinky nearly shouted, startling him.

“What? What’s wrong?!” Jim asked, ready to attack.

“Your armor...it’s gone!” The troll shook his head. “I suppose if you used to take it off, you could now. It’s just...startling. Aren’t those clothes...a bit small for you?”

“Yeah, but I don’t have anything else to wear.”

“Then just take them off. No one cares. Arrrgh doesn’t wear anything.”

Jim blanched at the idea. “Well...I still have human parts in tact. Like...human gronk-nuks.”

Blinky widened his eyes, followed by a soft ‘ah’ sound.

“I’m fine like this for now, but Claire could probably find something bigger on the surface.” Jim pulled on the navy fabric that was stretched to the limit. “And I really liked this sweater, too.”

Jim made his way back to the alcove he had left Claire in. He had found the sleeping bag Claire packed and brought it over for her.

Without the armor, his body felt heavier, and he felt his eyes drooping shut.

In the daytime, when Claire slept, he often laid beside her and let himself doze. But he hadn’t really considered that he also had to sleep. But right now, sleep sounded amazing.

Jim unzipped the bag, to make a large blanket, and then crawled to lay down on the floor.

“Jim...?” Claire blinked her eyes open and stretched, her neck cracking.

“Hey, come here.”

“Hmm?”

Jim scooped her up and rolled over on his back so she could lay on his chest. Then he draped the sleeping bag over her.

Jim felt her hand roaming over him.

“You got your armor off.” She noted. “You’re soft.”

“Really?”

She poked his stomach and his chest, then felt up his arm and intertwined her fingers with his human ones.

“In some places, you’re softer than others. Just soft enough.” With that, she nuzzled into his chest and relaxed to sleep.

Jim raised his trollish hand, examining it in the dim light of the crystal cave. He knew this hand well now, finally getting used to the thickness, color, and missing finger.

Then he glanced at his other hand. The one that had been concealed in armor up until that point.

Comparatively, his skin was peachy-gray. Not quite human yet, almost corpse-like.

It seemed like the armor protected the squishiest, human half of him.

And though he laid on hard rock, he didn’t feel uncomfortable. He’d have to see if his back was more trollish or human.

For now, he was just excited to know that now, their might be a possibility of a future with Claire.

And he was even happier to be her pillow.

#trollhunters #dreamworks #jim lake jr #claire #fanfic #fanfiction

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rainythefox · 5 years ago

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Nightfall (Ch.7)

Synopsis: Pre-Resident Evil 1, slight-AU/Canon divergence. Claire Redfield comes home to visit her brother Chris for the holidays but gets caught up in a dangerous game of cat and mouse with Albert Wesker, the Captain of STARS, after stumbling upon dark secrets. She can't call the law; Wesker is the law, and she can't tell Chris. She is trapped...

Pre-RE1/RE2 fanfic. Wesker/Claire, Chris/Jill

Story Link

Chapter 7: The Woman in the Red Dress

It was a slow process to clean Claire's wounds and bandage them. Claire fidgeted the entire time as Wesker tended to her. He scolded her once, but she was more surprised by how gentle and proficient he was in the entire task. Wesker cleaned up the mess in the house afterwards while Claire remained on the couch, arms hugged to her chest, eyes going from her fresh bandages to the STARS Captain moving about. Pain pulsed from her ankle and hand but the wounds were much better now that they were bandaged. She was lucky. She didn’t need but a few stitches in her leg, and her hand had only a shallow gash.

The Doberman lied across from her on the floor, snout resting on one paw, amber eyes flicking from her to his master in the other room. Eventually, Wesker returned to the den, carrying Claire's boots and jacket that she had left on the back porch. He hung her jacket up, and placed her boots by the front door. The STARS Captain sat down across from her, the leather sofa bending to his weight. Odin lifted his head and peered at his master, his elegant, sleek head shiny and clean as he licked his chops. Wesker petted the Doberman around the tall, cropped ears, his dark smile directed towards Claire.

"So, I'm curious what story you plan to give Chris yet again for the trouble you keep getting yourself into."

Claire’s mouth fell slightly open, gawking at him. "You're…j-just going to let me go again?"

Wesker leaned back on the sofa. God were his grey-blue eyes piercing. "You are by no means getting out of punishment, dear heart. Everything you do has a consequence. You have value to me. However, if you do start to become more trouble than you are worth…which you came dangerously close to in your little “breaking and entering” escapade, then I will kill you. And that means dear big brother will have to follow. Do I make myself clear, Ms. Redfield?"

Claire ground her teeth. "Crystal. Fucking. Clear."

He sneered at her choice of words. "Good, so you better start coming up with a convincing narrative within the next few minutes."

Claire thought, mind racing for something believable. In the back of her mind she knew that Chris wasn't going to let this one go so easily. It didn't help that Wesker was getting more amusement out of this than she wanted. How was she supposed to explain her ankle and hand to her brother? A random attack from a strange dog on a normal walk could seem logical, but it wasn't likely, especially without making a scene. Chris would want details and proof. She couldn't just tell him that and expect him to shake his head. Chris would want to know where, what kind of dog, who owned it and what happened to the dog and if she called animal control or went to the hospital.

As she contemplated, Odin got to his paws with a soft growl-turned-whine, nails clicking on the wood floor as he trotted over to the front door. Wesker and Claire looked over just as the doorknob jingled. It opened soon after, and William Birkin stumbled in carrying an armload that included papers and folders, a set of keys, and a canteen of coffee.

A donut was wedged in his mouth and it muffled his cheerful greeting. "Alright, got the body bags and it’s all clear to dump the body in the sewers below the Traini-” He stopped abruptly as soon as he spotted Claire on the couch.

The eccentric researcher looked between her and Wesker, arms shaking from balancing the mess in his arms as he took the donut from his mouth. He cleared his throat, casually smiled, and decided to say hello to the patient Doberman that was eyeing his breakfast.

"Hello, Odin! No, you cannot have my donut!" He patted the dog’s head and came around to Claire and Wesker. He frowned at his best friend after giving first Claire and then the living room a confused look over. "I thought you said someone broke into your house?"

Wesker sighed. "Why else would Claire be here?"

"Oh, well I'm surprised she's still alive." William produced a small, handsome smile for Claire. “No offense."

"None taken," Claire mumbled, surprised herself really.

Wesker stood up. His powerful, towering form had her heart flip flopping as he moved by her like a silent apex predator. "William, I need for you to drop Ms. Redfield off at her house. I must return to work."

William munched on his donut with a mild glare at his partner. "But I'm already an hour late to the lab! Trying to help you, no less. I mean do you ever think of body bags, Al? No, I do.”

“Then transport this quite alive body back to her home, no body bag required,” Wesker countered.

“Hey. Those spermatozoa are not gonna fertilize those ova by themselves, you know!" He winked at Claire. "I was not describing sex, per se, but that's the best way I can describe it without giving away any confidential details within my experiments."

"It's on the way, Will. Besides, the less chances of anyone seeing Claire and I together, the better. You are a stranger and so it wouldn’t draw as much attention.”

"Yeah, what's she going to tell her brother? That she's having an affair with a married man?" William snorted. He received glares from both Claire and Wesker. "Alright, alright, jeez! But you owe me for this, Albert! Big time! Like pick up Sherry from school for me one day or kill Victor Ulmer because he’s so annoying for me big!"

Wesker ignored the frustrated researcher and turned to Claire. "Your lives are on the line, dear heart. Better have a convincing story to tell Chris by the time he gets home tonight. You still have no evidence against me. If I were you, I would not want Chris getting suspicious."

Claire slowly nodded, heart heavy and head hurting. She almost jumped when Wesker tenderly ran his fingers through her loose hair falling from her ponytail around her face. Again, her body reacted in tingling ways. He went over to the door and Claire noticed the small, pink backpack once again, the one she used as a shield against Odin, now ripped and torn. Wesker picked it up and shoved it hard into William’s chest, making his friend nearly lose his armful.

“Oof!”

“Sherry’s going to need a new backpack, thanks to Claire.”

William huffed, still trying to balance everything in his arms, glaring at his partner, and hobbled for the front door, mumbling under his breath.

SB...Sherry must be his daughter...

Claire followed William, looking down at the sitting Doberman. The dog cocked his head at her, peering at her curiously. Claire gingerly reached down at petted Odin on the head. He was tense at first but then quickly sniffed her hand and licked it.

She gave one last look to Wesker, whose intense gaze remained on her. She couldn’t quite define it, his eyes on her felt predatory, but she felt he was going for a different kind of kill…She quickly grabbed up her stuff and left the house, if only to get away from his eyes that seemed to set her blood aflame, and got into William's BMW M3.

**********

The ride home with William was quiet only until the car was out of Aspen Circle before William started gabbing. Claire quickly got lost in his rambling, looking out the window and trying to think of what she was going to tell her brother. After yet another failed attempt to expose Wesker, Claire wondered if she was ever going to free herself and Chris. It seemed Wesker was always a few steps ahead. What Claire needed to do was find a way to get a few steps ahead of the crooked STARS Captain himself. She recalled Annette Birkin’s words when she was in the underground laboratory.

What was it called? NEST?

Annette had warned her to obey Wesker and not try and beat his game, that she would live longer if she did. Living longer still meant she would die in the end. She also said that the three people who knew Wesker the best and could help her escape were William, Colonel Sergei, and Ada Wong.

William was too loyal to Wesker and his research to help her. She glanced at William as he talked about earthworms and something she couldn't keep up with. His loyalty and friendship with Wesker wasn’t forced, blackmailed, or reined through fear or control. Which meant Claire wouldn’t be able to change his mind, whether he liked her or not. And she highly doubted she could find a way to turn them against each other. Both men were insanely clever, and knew each other just as much as they knew themselves. Like how Chris and Jill could almost know what the other was thinking, or could talk with silent cues and looks, Wesker and William were the same way, Claire deduced. It was a shame, for William was probably her best shot…

Colonel Sergei Vladimir, on the other hand, would kill her if he found out about her at all. The incident involving him within the walls of NEST convinced Claire that she certainly needed to avoid him. That was unfortunate as well, for Claire sensed that Sergei was digging for a way to get rid of Wesker once and for all…

And then there was the mysterious Ada Wong. All Annette had said about her was that if Claire had managed to meet Ada then she would be too deep in this mess to get out alive.

How far does this rabbit hole go? Claire was frustrated. Part of her wanted to dig deeper in all of this, find out what they were all hiding, expose whatever conspiracy that hid underneath Raccoon City. But another part of her was willing to let it all go if she could just get away from Wesker and return to her normal life, safe with her brother.

There were risks and dangers no matter what she did, even doing as Wesker said. It was all so confusing and stressful. Claire was lost on what to do.

As Claire pointed out Chris's house, William pulled up against the curb and looked over at her. "Well, here ya are. Good luck with your story for your brother. Just don't tell him it was Bigfoot. I tried that once, it didn't work."

When she didn’t answer at first, still mulling over her thoughts, lost, depressed, the researcher frowned and put the car in park. He sighed, turning slightly towards her. “I wish there was a way I could wipe your memory and let you go. I really do. You’re a nice girl...but...I can’t go against Albert. He’s my brother…He’s saved my life, my family, we’ve been through literal hell together.”

When she looked at him, his smile was small, sincere…piteous.

“I just want my life back.”

He slowly nodded, frowning. “I would take you at your word that wouldn’t tell a soul, Claire…but…”

“It’s not enough for Wesker, is it?”

William lowered his eyes. “That isn’t the problem with him. You unfortunately intrigue him in some way, and he wants to use you for something…something even I don’t know about.”

“He said I could buy back my freedom if I did as he said. But surely he doesn’t mean that?”

William shrugged. “Albert’s word fluctuates…depends on who it is. His word is solid with me, but could be deceptive with another. Depends on what it gets him in the end, I suppose. I will tell you this…the more he likes you, the more probable his word is truthful. And contrary to what it looks like, Claire, Al likes you a lot. You would’ve been dead a long time ago if he didn’t.”

He noticed the way she flinched. Wesker liked her? Yeah, right… Probably for amusement and nothing more. She was something he could use, exploit…she was a tool to him.

“Yeah, for some kind of twisted entertainment, I’m sure.”

“Maybe a little,” Will admitted with a chuckle. “But he’s way more complex than that. Trust me, it’s a good thing he likes you…play it right, and you and your brother may just make it out of this alive. There’s something special about you, Claire…even I can see that. Al knows what it is, and he’s giving you a chance that he’s never given anyone else. Remember that.”

Claire slowly nodded, her gut twisting and heart somersaulting at the same time from his words. She pulled on the door handle to get out and then paused, looking at the eccentric researcher as he opened a water bottle to get a drink.

“Who’s Ada Wong?”

William choked, sputtering and dribbling water on his shirt. His eyes went wide, coughing as he wiped his shirt. “Uh, A-Ada who? She sounds Chinese. I can’t speak Chinese. Albert can, but I can’t! I don’t know this lady!”

“Whoa, settle down,” Claire replied. “Annette mentioned her when we spoke yesterday. She said you, that Sergei guy, and Ada know Wesker best. How he works anyway…”

He squinted one eye, wary. “As in…to help you?”

Claire shrugged.

“She is the only one to beat Al at his own game.” He noticed the way Claire lit up and quickly added, “ But they are allies. Besides…she’s bad news. Even more so than Sergei.”

Claire deflated, slowly nodding. Well, it was worth a try. She pulled the car door open and went to get out, but William wasn’t done.

“Take my word, Claire… please. Just listen to Albert. It’s your best bet.”

Claire weakly smiled at him. “Thanks, William.”

She got out of the car and shut the door. William pulled away and drove off. Claire watched him go, a frown slowly taking over. Never had Claire ever felt so alone and lost. If only she could turn back time or wish herself out of this.

But this isn’t a storybook, she thought. No fairy godmother or knight can save me from this dragon…No matter what…I have to protect Chris…

“You didn’t have to come all the way down here just to have lunch with me.”

John Clemens was a simple man. Smart and not bad looking. He was good-natured and not all that ambitious, odd for the type of work he did in the subterranean research department beneath the Spencer estate. Most of all, he was boring. And given the type of men that Ada Wong spent most of her time with, this was what she loved about John the most.

She smiled. “I promised, didn’t I?”

The fancy Umbrella cafeteria had quite a few other patrons enjoying their meals around them. And most were still nose deep in their work and notes even as they ate. John returned the Eurasian beauty’s smile, placing her plate and drink in front of her before sitting down with his.

Ada wore a slimming red dress that stopped just above her knees, black leggings, and black fur-lined boots. A black fur coat and red scarf was sat aside in her seat, as it was plenty warm down here in the underground facility.

“I know, but you just got back from assignment, and well, you should rest awhile.”

Ada sipped on her water. “I’m flattered, John. But I’ll be okay. How are things holding up with you?”

“Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines,” John shook his head. “We’re all exhausted. But making headway.”

“You’ll get through it. You always do.”

“We make do,” John joked. “We aren’t Spencer’s golden-boy like Birkin is. Sometimes I wonder what it’s like to work in a state-of-the-art facility such as the NEST. Must be nice.”

“Why don’t you ask for a transfer? You and William get along pretty well.”

“William’s fine when he’s by himself...usually. Not so much with Wesker around. Nothing but trouble, them two together. I want no part in it. People end up dead or missing with them involved.”

Ada jabbed her fork into her grilled chicken salad, smiling in amusement. “Oh John. They’re harmless.”

“Harmless? Are we talking about the same fellas here? You do know that Wesker killed Finley the other day, right? And it’s not the first time he’s sent someone to the morgue. Rumor is he killed Crawford, too. Guy can literally get away with murder and Spencer doesn’t even bat an eye.”

“It’s Albert’s job to eliminate threats. Just as mine. You have nothing to worry about. He’s a teddy bear, you just have to know how to deal with him.” She winked at her lunch date.

John’s brows rose to his hairline. “I…honestly can’t tell if you’re joking or not.”

Ada laughed. “Eat your food.”

They both ate their lunch and caught up since Ada had been gone for nearly three weeks on missions. John rambled about mostly boring things, but Ada let him, because the spark in his eye to have someone to talk to that wasn’t work related made her feel good. Made her feel as though she was making his day.

But it soon came to an end when the cafeteria grew quiet, a dark figure emerging into the vastly white-walled hall. Colonel Sergei Vladimir peered around, and when his one icy gray eye spotted Ada and John, he marched their way. John hunkered like a frightened rabbit. Ada sighed, unintimidated and got a drink of her water. She assumed he was searching for her.

When the tall, burly man reached their booth, he only glared momentarily at John before focusing on the female agent. “Ada Wong.”

Ada smiled sardonically at him, bobbing one crossed leg. “Why if it isn’t the big bad, scary leader of the UBCS. How may I help you, Colonel?”

“Due to the recent murder of a researcher and the possible research breach, clearance to this laboratory is written permit only. And you did not get that clearance from me.”

“Hmm…forgive me, Colonel, but last I recall, you're not my supervisor. You have a problem with it, go to Lord Spencer.”

John gave her a look as though she was crazy to poke the bear towering over them.

Sergei only chuckled at her words. “Funny you should mention Lord Spencer. I have a job for you, one he has approved. Shall we, gospozha?”

Ada sighed, frowning. “There goes my vacation. Please excuse me, John. I’m sorry.”

She got up. The simple, boring researcher she actually liked merely smiled and nodded. “It’s alright, Ada. It was nice seeing you. Take care.”

“Don’t overwork yourself, hun,” she said and pecked him chastely on the cheek before grabbing up her coat and scarf and leaving the cafeteria with Sergei.

She followed the Colonel all the way up to the surface and back into the Spencer estate. For the time of day it was, many residents were out and about, coming and going within the labyrinth of hallways and grand rooms. And while Sergei didn’t bother greeting anyone as he led her to his office, Ada wasn’t shy and greeted most people she knew.

Sergei’s office was once a study, turned more into an armory. He had a large mahogany desk with some chairs and he offered her a seat before sitting himself. Ada crossed one leg when she sat, looking about. It had been awhile since she had last been here. Sergei’s choice in interior decorating was still atrocious.

“So, what’s this big, secret mission you want me to do?” Ada asked, half bored.

Sergei placed his massive fists on the desk, lacing them, staring directly at her, expression unreadable. “As you already know, Melvin Crawford was murdered last week.”

Ada contained the urge to roll her eyes. “Yes. There’s been an investigation and there was evidence of him selling classified information, as you’ve stated earlier. So what? He was a threat and a nuisance in my humble opinion.”

“I have evidence and resources that may prove otherwise,” Sergei said. “I simply want to make sure that ‘ol Crawford gets the justice he deserves.”

“Oh, boy. So where does that put me?”

“Lord Spencer recently permitted Wesker and Birkin to eliminate Ned Finley in response to the threat of a research breach.”

“Good for them. I hated that guy.”

Sergei glared at her. “Finley may have also been wronged, Miss Wong. You fail to see where I am going with this.”

The female spy did roll her eyes that time, and she sat more forward next, staring the Colonel directly in the eye. “I know exactly where this is going. You want me to snoop around on Albert, and see if he’s behind any of this.”

Sergei softly chuckled. “Well, in a way, you are correct. But there is something else. Wesker may have a civilian who witnessed him killing Finley under his control. He was supposed to dispose of her, and I have a feeling he never did. I want you to find out if she is still alive and what he plans on doing with her. If she is alive I want you to dispose of her and bring any and all evidence against Wesker to me.”

Ada laughed. “So let me get this straight. You want me to spy on and find evidence against a man who manipulates evidence and does counterintelligence on a daily basis? Sounds like you're grasping for straws here, Colonel.”

“Oh, but you’re the best, gospozha. That’s what Lord Spencer said.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere with me.”

“Well, to be honest, I did have one problem with you doing this assignment. I hear you and Wesker are close. There’s rumors of an affair and everything.”

Ada smirked. “Why Colonel, that sounds scandalous! But a lady never kisses and tells, don’t you know that?”

“Will this be a conflict of interest for you, Miss Wong?”

The agent leaned back in her chair, arms casually melding over the arm rests, a crimson smile concealing secrets. “Of course not. It is my duty to serve Lord Spencer, not matter what.”

Sergei studied her, digging for deceit. But he wouldn’t find it, for Ada Wong was like a chameleon, always shifting seamlessly in disguises.

He finally nodded, expression unreadable. “Meet with Chief Irons. He’ll fill you in on all the details. In confidence, Miss Wong. We cannot let Wesker get wind of this.”

Ada stood gracefully, hips slightly swaying as she departed. “I don’t tell you how to do your job, Colonel, so don’t tell me how to do mine.” She paused briefly in the threshold, glancing back at him. “And seriously, hang a few pictures or get a few potted plants, your office is such a drag.”

She left, conveniently missing the dark smirk on the Colonel’s face and the whispered “zmeya” to her back.

Her heels clicked loudly on the wooden floors of the estate. Ada frowned, knowing she had her work cut out for her. Albert, what the hell are you up to now?

After her morning of pure hell, Claire, defeated, reluctantly licked her wounds while also struggling to come up with an explanation for Chris. When nothing would come to her, she decided to stop fretting and tried to get her mind off of things. She read for awhile, talked to some friends on the phone. Studying didn’t work much. Seemed like survival was more important than college exams at the moment.

After a long, hot shower, she changed her bandages. The wounds still ached, but Claire couldn’t help but be impressed by Wesker’s clean handiwork. The sutures on her ankle looked like a doctor had did them. Still, she did the bare minimum to bandage them. If only to make it look like it wasn’t as bad as it was to fool Chris. It hurt to walk on her leg that the Doberman had bitten, but at least she could do so without limping. She was damn lucky.

By the time Chris got home that evening, Claire had cooked dinner, and it was hot and ready when she heard Jill’s Mustang pull into the driveway. But when no one came through the front door at first, she went to the window and peeked out, ignoring the way her heart rate rose. She ended up sighing in relief, smiling at the sight.

Chris and Jill gabbed away inside the car, grinning and laughing. Chris was extra animated, probably telling some crazy story that had Jill nearly in tears. Claire left the best friends be, wondering if they would ever go to the next step, where she knew their hearts secretly were.

As soon as her older brother walked through the door a bit later, he could smell the meal lofting through the house, fish and rice with salad and bread.

“Hey Sis, that smells delicious!” Chris greeted with a grin as he walked into the kitchen. He slipped out of his utility belt and weapons.

“Thanks!” Claire was relieved to see him, hear his voice. After the day she had, she was craving quality time with him. She decided to save her usual Jill teasing for later. “I thought you would be hungry after such a long day. I hope you like it.”

“Course I will. So, how was your day?”

They started making their plates. Claire calmly shrugged. “Alright, I guess. Just went to a few places, went shopping with some friends.” Broke into your crazy Captain’s house and almost got eaten by his dog…

When she handed her brother his drink, he immediately noticed her bandaged hand. Shit…

“Whoa, what happened to your hand?”

Claire inwardly panicked, but fluidly shrugged it off on the outside as no big deal. “Oh this? It’s just a scratch. I was a total klutz and slipped on some ice earlier. Was trying some of your cool ice skating moves.”

Chris was worried, but as soon as she joked about his ice skating, he gave her a look. “Ha ha, very funny.”

Her chest exploded in relief. He fell for it. She felt sick lying to him, but she had to keep him safe. She was just glad her bigger wound was hidden under the leg of her pants. She wasn’t about to tell him about that one if she could help it.

Claire playfully smacked his shoulder. “Guess I’ll leave the clumsy ice skating to you.”

Chris laughed. “Nah, I think even I will pass on that.”

The siblings sat down at ate dinner. Chris talked about his day at work. Mostly accidents and paperwork today. He and Jill got into a prank war with Forest and Joseph. Brad and Edward Dewey got dragged into it. Somehow one of the pranks misfired and hit Enrico instead, in which the STARS Vice-Captain vowed payback. Each time Chris mentioned Wesker, Claire flinched. Claire made up her story of most of her day. The truth didn't come out until she talked about what she did at home. They discussed Christmas, which was still a little over a week away. Chris wanted to throw a party. He and Jill were thinking Barry's house, because the man owned the biggest house out of the STARS team.

After dinner, the Redfield siblings did the dishes together and cleaned up. When Chris went to take a shower, Claire claimed the couch and watched T.V. The news was mostly background noise to her, as she slipped into deep thought of her crisis once again. Nearly three days since she stumbled upon Wesker and William on the Arklay trails, and she had yet to find a solution. She was running out of time. Then again, it was starting to look like she really didn’t have a choice other than to do as Wesker said…

“Hello? You in there?”

“Huh?” Claire blinked, looking over at Chris after he waved a hand in her face. He looked slightly concerned, but Claire quickly smiled. “Sorry Bro, was zoned out thinking of college classes again.”

There was a hint of skepticism in her brother’s expression, but he didn’t push it. “I asked if you would mind giving me a ride to work in the morning.”

“Oh sure…no problem.”

They watched one of their favorite crime dramas together. Claire was pulled back into her thoughts, trying to think of an escape. But with what happened with Chief Irons and breaking into Wesker’s house, she feared she couldn’t risk anything else. Chris’s safety was her top priority now. She swallowed…even if that meant giving into Wesker.

She didn’t notice her brother’s eyes on her, the television program left forgotten for the both of them…

At the crack of dawn, Chris slipped into the RPD half-asleep. Claire dropped him off in the truck and drove back home. On auto-pilot, he made his way through the busy main hall and waiting area. He overheard a frantic woman talking with Marvin Branagh about her missing husband. Marvin looked away long enough to give Chris a nod in greeting, and Chris returned it before the police lieutenant wrote down notes on the lady’s problem.

“Please, it isn’t like Ned to up and disappear like this!”

“Mrs. Finley, I understand you’re upset, but I assure you we will do all in our power to find your husband,” Marvin told her gently.

Good ‘ol honorable Marvin. One of the best officers on the force in Chris’s opinion. He left them be and made his way to the break room for a much needed cup (or four) of fresh coffee. There were a few other officers in the break room taking advantage of coffee and breakfast. He mostly ignored their holiday plans exchange and poured some black coffee into a styrofoam cup, steam curling out of the rim and the aroma hitting his nostrils, touching his very soul. He was about to pour himself a second when a uniformed officer walked up and joined him.

“Good morning, Chris. How’s the ace shooter?”

Chris grinned, shaking hands with the older officer. Ralph Hendricks. He lived at the end of the same block that Chris did. The older man was fit for his age. Chris would see him jogging on the sidewalk throughout the neighborhood many times. He had been on the force for nearly twenty years. If Chris remembered right, he was in his early fifties.

"Heya, Ralph! Haven't seen ya in awhile!" Chris greeted as he fixed both his cups of coffee with very little sugar and creamer.

Ralph poured his own cup with a chuckle. "Yeah, just got back from vacation the other day."

"Really? Well, you don't know how much I’d like to take a vacation right now and head south for the winter," Chris replied. “Far south. Tahiti, maybe.”

"Aw come now, Chris, nothing beats dreary Raccoon City winter," Ralph joked.

"No kidding. I think I've seen enough snow for a lifetime."

“Saw Claire yesterday. Didn’t know she was in visiting.”

Chris nodded. “Ya she’s down for winter break.”

Ralph doctored up his coffee with some creamer and stirred it. “Good, good, I know she wasn’t able to come in for Thanksgiving. I saw her get out of a super fancy BMW in front of your house. Didn’t recognize the guy she was with, but he was a bit older. Must’ve been a friend of hers.”

Chris froze, his gut clenching. He didn’t say anything at first, mind reeling back to Claire’s story last night on what she did all day yesterday. She told him she drove the truck around. She never mentioned getting dropped off at the house. And Chris may not have known all of her friends, but "a bit older" man and BMW seemed oddly…unlike Claire. Had she lied to him yesterday? She had been acting weird the last couple of days…

“Oh…maybe,” he mumbled. “Not sure.”

“She hurt her ankle somehow? I noticed the bandages.”

Chris looked hard at Ralph then. The older officer noticed Chris’s confusion. “Oh, you didn’t know?”

Chris quickly covered his inner conflict with a smile. “Course I did. She slipped on some ice. She sure is clumsy sometimes!”

Ralph barely nodded, unsure. He raised his steaming coffee. “Well, I better get to the eastern office and see what’s going on. I’ll catch ya later, Chris.”

“Hey, Ralph…you didn’t happen to get the license plate number to that BMW, did you?”

The older officer paused, turning and looking at Chris. He shook his head. “Sorry, I didn’t. Eyes aren’t what they used to be. I know the guy was blond though…looked like a doctor maybe.”

Chris picked up both of his cups of coffee, nodding at his neighbor. “Thanks, Ralph. See ya around.”

The older Redfield sibling walked the rest of the way to the STARS office half in thought, wondering what the hell he had missed. He didn’t know Claire’s ankle was injured too. She never mentioned it. And then she apparently lied about being dropped off at his house yesterday. Her behavior had been off, but Chris assumed it was the stress of the holidays. Who was the man that she was seen with? And was Claire really telling the truth about slipping on ice?

Don’t jump to conclusions…Claire’s never given you a reason to doubt her.

He was quite protective of her though, and Chris felt those brotherly instincts waking up now, warning him that something just didn’t seem right.

He reluctantly put the thoughts aside as he entered the STARS office, knowing he had to focus on his job for now. He looked around. Jill still wasn’t here, but would be in any time. He saw Wesker, Enrico, and Barry going over some paperwork by the communications panel. Richard, Forest, and Brad were off today, and so he found Kenneth, Joseph, and Edward at their desks, typing on their computers or flipping through folders.

Chris waved at them all, coffee cups in hand, and went to his desk. He sat both cups down and turned on his computer, although he still zoned out, thinking about Claire. It wasn’t until a pen smacked him in the face that he looked up and across from him at Joseph.

“Huh?”

“Geez Redfield, maybe you should down one of them coffees and wake your ass up.”

Chris glared at him playfully. “Shut it, Frost. What is it?”

“I said you look like shit. What’s eating you?”

Chris shrugged. “I don’t know…Claire’s been acting kinda strange the past couple of days. Trying to figure out what’s up.”

“Maybe she’s planning something for Christmas?” Edward offered innocently.

“Oh, like a party or a present?” Joseph asked. “Then again, she is a wild college girl. Maybe she’s getting into trouble. Or running around with an older guy or something.”

“You want throat punched? Because that’s a good way to get throat punched,” Chris warned.

Kenneth laughed on the other side of him. “Damn Redfield, you sound like Burton when I was joking ‘bout his girls hitting them crazy teenage years.”

Barry raised his head in the middle of the Captains. “Damn straight, Sullivan! I don’t even wanna think about it. Chris, don’t listen to those idiots. Claire’s probably planning something to surprise you. Hell, Jill’s probably in on it, too. They’re clever like that.”

“Claire’s a good girl, Chris, you have nothing to worry about, my boy,” Enrico added.

“I dunno,” Joseph said with a shit-eating grin, spinning in his chair towards Wesker, Enrico, and Barry. “Rumor is, Claire gave dear Captain Wesker quite the griping out and practically scared him into giving Chris more time off.”

“Well, now that you mention it, Frost,” Wesker said, taking up Barry and Enrico’s papers. “Ms. Redfield does have more balls than you. Perhaps you should take some pointers?”

“Oohhhhhhh, burnnnnn,” Edward chortled.

Joseph’s face fell, earning him a pitiful pat on the back from Kenneth. “Wow…I feel the love, Captain.”

“So much love, I cannot stand it,” Wesker said wryly as he went over to the filing cabinet by the armory. “At any rate, Chris, Barry and Enrico are correct. I’m sure you have nothing to worry about. Best not let the class clowns get under your skin.”

“Class clowns?” Joseph whined. “Now you’re just being spiteful!”

Chris laughed at his team, feeling better. He was lucky to have such good friends and teammates he could count on. “Thanks, everyone.”

They all got to work. Wesker and Enrico retreated into Wesker’s office as they often did to discuss scheduling, meetings, and managing of both Alpha and Bravo Teams. Chris had just signed into his computer when Jill finally arrived, running late. She peeked her head into the Captain’s door for only a moment before she came over to her desk next to Chris. She placed her keys, a cup of coffee, and a half-eaten pear on her desk. Chris grinned at her as she sat down, his previous worries revolving around his sister suddenly dissipating to the back of his mind once Jill smiled at him.

“You’re late, Ms. Valentine! Don’t become like Frost now.”

“Hey, I heard that!”

They all snickered. Jill turned her computer on and took a big drink of coffee. “Yeah, got caught up in morning rush and there was an accident.”

Chris motioned to the half-eaten fruit on her desk. "A pear for breakfast?"

She smacked him in the shoulder, grinning. "Yeah…why?"

"Don't you want something that will actually fill you up?"

"Like what?"

"Well, the good stuff, obviously. Bacon, eggs, toast, etc."

"Yeah, how about you ask Wesker if you can go to the break room and whip us all up a nice breakfast like that?" Jill laughed. She took a small bite out of her pear and chewed enthusiastically.

"Oh, make me one of your fancy omelets, Chris," Barry stated, not looking up from his paperwork.

“Make that two!” Joseph hollered.

Chris glared at his partner. "Fine, enjoy your pear. I'm going to enjoy one of my fancy protein bars."

Jill had a mischievous glint in her eyes. "The kind that tastes like cardboard? Yep, I will indeed enjoy my pear then."

Their peaceful morning doing paperwork didn’t last long before they got a call on an apartment fire. And thus started Chris’s hectic day.

Ada read through Claire Redfield’s profile on her little spy gadget masquerading as a normal pager. She had looked her up on her laptop earlier back at the estate which had also included photos. Chief Brian Irons was one of her least favorite people, but Ada still followed Sergei’s order and talked to him. Ironically, Irons was unwilling to talk. And Ada was quite sure this had something do with Albert. The Chief told her he was mistaken before and that she should leave him alone.

Normally, getting out of talking to the creep was fine by her, but Ada couldn’t help but feel Irons was hiding something. Despite making her skin crawl, Brian Irons wasn’t one to scare easily, and so that only left just a couple of people that would make his sorry ass be as tight lipped and nervous as a convict in church.

Regardless, Ada didn’t need him to get on Claire’s trail. She watched the Redfield house all day long, having broken into the house across the street. The house was decorated nicely and she snacked on some of the residents’ food while they were away at work. It was quiet and rather uninteresting all day until she saw William Birkin drop the girl off, which really peaked her interest. This has Albert written all over it…

She spied on the college girl while she was in the house, and even after her brother got home. She listened in on their conversations using some bugs she planted. Claire didn’t seem like a threat, just a normal, hard-headed college girl in town visiting her brother. Ada was confused why Albert would be so interested in her. She left quietly and tracelessly once the owners of the house she was hiding out in returned.

The agent returned early the next morning in a rental car, a lonely stake-out just down the street from the dark Redfield home. Once lights started popping on, Ada tuned into her bugs once more to hear the siblings’ conversations. Still, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, even after the two left in Chris’s truck. Claire would drop off her brother at the Raccoon Police Department and return here.

Ada was tempted to send Albert a coded message. They needed to talk. There would be no avoiding it, as she was confused about exactly what he was planning. But mostly because she knew he would find out eventually that she was snooping about.

She would need to talk to William as well, although Ada knew she needed to handle that in a particular way. William was always an extension of Albert, and visa-versa, the two always holding some strange, unbreakable loyalty to each other. Loyalty that Sergei would pay millions to find a way to break...

She decided to hold off for now, though. Instead, she thought maybe meeting Claire in secret could get her more answers. They just needed some neutral ground…

Ada slid the note underneath the front door and slipped away like a phantom, unnoticed and illusive.

#resident evil #resident evil 2 #resident evil fanfic #resident evil fanfiction #clairexwesker #ChrisxJill #Claire Redfield #Chris Redfield #Albert Wesker #William Birkin #ada wong #ao3 fanfic

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celepom · 8 years ago

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Trollhunters Book Review

I did not like this thing. I can see the parts that remained in the animated show, but they improved on so much and for that I am grateful. Because if the show had been anything remotely like the book it would have been vile but even more tragically - BORING.

It goes without saying that everything under the cut will have spoilers.

The Writing Style

First of all, it’s written in first person and it really shouldn’t be. Like most YA novels written in FP it is done incredibly poorly and cheats that narrative several times. This is Third Person Perspective with First Person Pronouns and it’s really REALLY bad at times. The style itself is inconsistent and its hard to follow what’s going on sometimes because characters just drop out of existence/the scene when the author doesn’t have anything for them to contribute.

It is also gross for the sake of being gross. In the show the “Biology” of the trolls is at least consistent. They’re stone creatures. In this? They’re sacs of puss and goo that vomit up their own internal organs in order to be more sneaky. There’s shit, vomit, blood and guts everywhere in this book.

There were several points in this book where I could tell that it was both written by a man and for a male audience. It was very distracting, but that may just be personal preference. I prefer a more neutral narrative voice, I guess. (Think of it like a movie where the camera suddenly pans across the female character’s ass. It’s like that male gaze, in written form, but toned down because it’s YA)

The Characters

Man, you know all those characters in the show and how you love them and want to keep seeing them grow or have redemptive arcs? *bitter laughter* There is none of that here. Absolutely none, and it’s both frustrating and depressing

Jim

This guy has nothing on Jim Lake. He has no hobbies, no interests, he labels himself as a loser and is quite content to remain that way up until he finds his Magical Calling and suddenly for the first time something is easy and so he loves it. He’s a Gary-Stu, essentially. He is a blank slate for the reader to project themselves onto.

AND HE DOES NOTHING BUT WHINGE!! There is a difference between a character having a realistic reaction to dark circumstances and Whinging. Jim reaches Bad Batman Angst Fic levels about how NOBODY Understands him and he has NOBODY and he must GIVE HIMSELF UP TO THE NIGHT!

That is up until 3/4 of the way through the book when he suddenly starts deciding that being a Trollhunter is amazing (They start winning - that’s what causes his attitude shift), but even then he continues to WHIIIIIINE.

Toby

Toby at least had some redeeming qualities in the show. And you bought that he and Jim were friends in the show. Here? They’re friends because they’re both losers and Jim really isn’t that great a friend to Toby. And since this book is written in Fake First Person, he often gets ignored. Out of Sight, Out of Mind and all that.

Blinky

Oh Fraser Book Troll Dad you certainly came a long way. Blinky in the books is a (mostly) blind Troll that is a tentacle monster. When he starts talking it’s similar to how he does in the show - intellectual - but instead of being gentle, supportive, protective and instructive he....well he’s a condescending asshat. He also drones on and on and on (usually about himself/his dissertation) and there is no sense of companionship between him and Jim, because, well, he doesn’t know him! He’s also more of a fighter than just a scholar in this.

AAARRRGH!!!

AAARRRGH!! is actually female in this. Actually, it mentions that most Troll Warriors are female because they’re more built for it than males.She also has brain damage which was interesting until the book shat itself at the end (Her Brain Damage was caused in her fight with Gunmar when he slammed a boulder into her skull and the remnant remains. And then at the end the remnant is removed and suddenly she can talk “intelligently” again - to quote the book). In place of moments where AAARRRGH!! goes berserk we have her being possessed by Gunmar’s eye, which she ripped out of his head during their battle 45 years ago. Oh, and she eats several of Toby’s cats. Like at least 15 of them (”Three square meals of cat”). And it’s treated as a joke both times it comes up (FUCK YOU BOOK)

Claire

Claire was barely in this except as a love interest (and one other very stupid “surprise” at the end, but we’ll get to that). In this she is Scottish (Not British, as Jim assumed at the beginning of the book). She has wild hair, isn’t stick-thin, is “weird” but still makes friends and is fairly popular. But it turns out she’s living a double life - pretending to be a different person for her parents who want her to be an upstanding, rich, ideal young lady. But her true calling is to be a Trollhunter because like Jim she is from a magical human family of Trollhunters!!! (At least she had training in swordplay/fencing. Unlike Jim who pulled the skills out of his hobbyless and inathletic ass)

Jack

Jack should have been the main character of this book. Period. This story should have nixed Jim in it’s entirety because he was ultimately pointless. Jack meanwhile actually had stakes in the war going on, especially after being involved in it for 45 years. He unwillingly gave up his life as a normal kid to help in putting an end to the murders of nearly two hundred children. He’s frozen in time - a 68 year old man trapped in a 13 year old body - because living with the trolls stopped his aging (It was never properly explained why - it’s just what happened). It’s also his fault for Gunmar being back since instead of striking the killing blow 45 years ago Jack sealed him away. That’s why he stuck around for 45 years, out of a sense of responsibility.

The Major Differences

Jim isn’t the first Human Trollhunter. In fact Human Trollhunters have been around since ancient times and always have been the PRIMARY Trollhunters because up until around 300 years ago ALL Trolls were Gumm-Gumms. No joke. In fact, all of the Trolls in Europe and Asia are STILL Gumm-Gumms and only a group of separatist Trolls and their descendants (Trolls live a long time - 300 years is nothing) who traveled to the Americas are “Good Trolls” who think eating people is bad. And yet they relapse into eating people sometimes too.

Trollhunters are mythical lines of humans whom always historically heeded the call to protect people from Trolls who consider them a nice snack or meal if they take several at a go. One of these families is the Sturges, but since Trollhunting was basically non-existent in America they didn’t uphold any of the history, training, anything. So after tracking down one of the legendary families Blinky and AAARRRGH!! kidnap one kid (they tried for two, but the second one got away) in order to help them fight off Gunmar since the pacifist trolls had forgotten how to fight....Except they had an army and FWHFLIEHGF- IT’S STUPID, MOVING ON!!

And for anybody who likes the Changelings, they are completely different in this and not sympathetic, tragic, or interesting at all. How are they made in the book? By Nullhullers vomiting on the target to create a cast of them which then develops into a copy of that person (Baby) from the vomit and viscera. And then they carry the baby off...to be eaten. Yeah, I hold no notions that those babies weren’t tortured then devoured after being fattened up. Not in this book.

Jim isn’t living with his single mother, he’s living with his single dad. His dad who is a paranoid control-freak who turned their house into a bunker basically. There is a reason for this, his brother - Jack - disappeared when he was young, but it’s spiraled so far out of control it’s really NOT. OKAY. He also only starts coming around after a troll parasite makes him “feel better.” And after all these years when he discovers his brother is still alive he gets very creepy about it. Jim Sr. is no Barbara Lake that’s for sure.

There is no training, not really. Training consists of Jack demonstrating sword moves to Jim Once. ONCE. But that’s enough because magic inherent Trollhunter genes means he memorizes and knows how to perform all of those moves after being shown by someone else doing them once. THAT’S HOW INSTINCT WORKS!!

The Annoying Shit AKA The stuff that made me lose my suspension of disbelief

The Milk Carton Epidemic.

Troll Market is not accessed by magic (except when it is) and it is literally underneath the city. HOW HAS IT NOT BEEN FOUND WHEN IT IS LITERALLY CONNECTED TO THE SEWERS AND YOU CAN HEAR CARS DRIVING OVERHEAD??!! WE DO GO INTO SEWERS! WE MAINTAIN THEM! AS WELL AS ROADS WHICH SOMETIMES REQUIRE CONSTRUCTION!!

Trolls can fully regenerate within a day if their gall bladder is not destroyed (Thank you for getting rid of this, Dreamworks/ Del Toro/ Whoever)

There’s no Magic Armour or Weapons. The only armour anyone wears is by the character Jack and it’s made of scraps like tacs, boom box speakers, book coils, etc. And the “Medallion” is just a trinket that allows the wearer to understand what the Trolls are saying. Because, yeah, they don’t speak a Human sounding language. (That doesn’t get annoying with how it alienates Toby or anything. No siree)

Gunmar the Black was sealed away and Killaheed Bridge will release him....Except how, like I said, Troll Territories are literally underground and they walk through the sewers and old mines(???) to get to where he’s “Stuck.” (Again, THANK YOU for changing this to the Darklands because another dimension I can understand not being able to WALK OUT OF for 45 years)

Steve. STEEEEEEEEVE!!! I hate generic bully characters, but this one takes the cake. He abuses other students in front of teachers and they accommodate him to the point where he is disruptive to other students IN CLASS but they do nothing. He has even less personality here than in the show. And Jim doesn’t stand up to him until near the end because he’s a self-admitted coward, but even THEN He isn’t the one who gives him a verbal smack-down - IT’S CLAIRE. Oh, and turns out he’s a Changeling. So they can kill him at the end. *cough* Male Revenge Fantasy *cough*

THAT ENDING THO

I mean it when I say the ending was a fusion of Chekov’s Guns and Ass Pulls. You remember this thing that was mentioned back at the beginning? How about seventeen different things??? WELL SEE! THEY’RE ALL IMPORTANT TO THE FINALE!! But, Oh, WAIT that isn’t fun enough so here’s a bunch of stuff that wasn’t forshadowed at all (Pulled straight from my ass) but I’m gonna act like makes perfect sense!!!

And then they kiss while covered in and surrounded by blood and gore while Steve is casually killed in the background because I’M Special and SHE’S SPECIAL and that means we’re PERFECT for each other.

Oh what’s that? Did we actually save the day? What happened to the weird guy? AH WELL WHO CARES KISSING DREAM GIRL

No seriously was that half-asses sequel bait because it was just dumb

#Trollhunters #Book Review #Trollhunters the book #very negative #If you like the show I'd say just stick with that #You won't get anything interesting out of the book #just frustration if you're anything like me

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resident evil 2 n64

http://allcheatscodes.com/resident-evil-2-n64/

resident evil 2 n64

Resident Evil 2 cheats & more for Nintendo64 (N64)

Cheats

Unlockables

Hints

Easter Eggs

Glitches

Guides

Get the updated and latest Resident Evil 2 cheats, unlockables, codes, hints, Easter eggs, glitches, tricks, tips, hacks, downloads, guides, hints, FAQs, walkthroughs, and more for Nintendo64 (N64). AllCheatsCodes.com has all the codes you need to win every game you play!

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Genre: Action, Survival Horror Developer: Angel Studios Publisher: Capcom ESRB Rating: Mature Release Date: October 5, 1997

Hints

Locations Of Items

The locations of items:

Key:Capitalized words = Key Items* By words = Documents** By words = Key documentsI IN THE CITY:*Robert’s Note - Kendo Gun Shop counter*Dario’s Note - Front of the bus, in the briefcaseSecret Key – On Brad Vickers (If you don’t pick anything up while in the city, run down the stairs before entering the police station. ) **********Obtaining this key allows you access to the locked lockers in the dark room. This closet contains two outfits for Leon, or one outfit and a Colt SAA pistol for ClaireII IN THE POLICE STATION: 1st FLOORInk Ribbon - reception desk, main hallBLUE KEY CARD - after you talk to wounded officerGreen Herb - corner of Eastern Waiting Room*Journalist’s Note - Observation RoomSmall Key - Observation RoomPolice Station Map - Safe, Eastern OfficeRed Herb - Behind desk, in main office, Eastern Office**Police Memorandum - Western Waiting RoomGreen Herb - Western Corridor*Operation Report - ClassroomRED JEWEL - Classroom fireplace (Light fire)Green Herb – Behind stairs, near doorInk Ribbon - Darkroom, near typewriterPRECINCT KEY (Spade) - In the statue, in main hallInk Ribbon - file cabinet*Patrol report – file shelfCRANK – On top of cabinet (Use ladder)VALVE HANDLE – cabinInk Ribbon – cabinCord – Interrogation RoomFirst Aid Spray – Interrogation RoomROOK PLUG – Interrogation RoomFilm – Northwestern file storageGreen Herb – Northwestern Office*Memo to Leon – Northwestern OfficeRed Herb – Eastern CorridorInk Ribbon – Bunkroom*Watchman’s Diary – BunkroomGOLDEN COG WHEEL – News RoomFilm – News RoomTwo Green Herbs – Outside foreyardIII IN THE POLICE STATION: 2nd FLOORRED JEWEL – Statue HandFirst Aid Spray – S. T . A . R . S . Office, Rookie Desk*Jill’s Note – S. T . A . R . S . Office*Chris’ Diary – S. T . A . R . S . OfficeUNICORN MEDAL – S. T . A . R . S . OfficePicture Film – Examine Head of S. T . A . R . S . Unit fifty timesRed Herb – Small table near double doors, in libraryBISHOP PLUG – Behind warrior plate, in librarySmall key – Eastern Waiting Room*Secretary’s Diary A – Eastern Waiting RoomInk Ribbon – Eastern Waiting RoomGreen Herb – Outside StairwellInk Ribbon – Pot in Red Jewel input roomPRECINCT KEY (Diamond Key) – Red Jewel Input RoomKING PLUG – Chained Soldier, Red Jewel input RoomIV IN THE POLICE STATION: 3rd FLOORKNIGHT PLUG – Clock TowerV IN THE POLICE STATION: BASEMENTGreen Herb – Power RoomPolice Basement Floor Map 1 – Power RoomRed Herb – Outside double doors, to the EastGreen Herb – Dog Kennels Red Herb – Cell Block, first cellMANHOLE OPENER – Cell block shelfGreen Herb – Store Room LInk Ribbon – Store Room L (As Ada)Sewage Disposal Map – Crate RoomPRECINCT KEY (Club Key) – Crate Room (As Leon)RED KEY CARD – Autopsy RoomSide pack – Weapons Storage Room*Mail to Chief – Received from BenTwo Blue Herbs – Hallway before Control RoomInk Ribbon – Control RoomVI SEWERSewer Map – Steel and concrete CorridorWOLF MEDAL – Among the bodiesGreen Herb – Chemical Pool RoomInk Ribbon – Sewage DumpEAGLE MEDAL – Atop of ramp, near sewage control panel*Sewer Manager’s Diary - Atop of ramp, near sewage control panelVII IN THE VACANT FACTORYTwo Green Herbs – Eastern Dead endFirst Aid Spray – Control Room CabinetFactory Map – End of Train TunnelGreen Herb – Security CabinInk Ribbon – Security Cabin**User Registration – Scientist BunkroomFirst Aid Spray – Oil drum, freezerFUSE CASE – Freezer MAIN FUSE – Freezer (After making it)Green Herb – Overgrown plant shaftGreen Herb – End of HallwayLaboratory Map – Surveillance RoomLAB CARD KEY – Main Research RoomInk Ribbon – Main Research Room

Weapons And Ammunition Locations

Weapons and ammunition locations throughout Resident Evil 2.

Total:Weapons:Handgun = 330 BulletsShotgun x2Shotgun = 70 BulletsCustom HandgunMagnum = 40 Bullets Desert Eagle MagnumSub-MachinegunCustom ShotgunFlamethrowerTHIS IS FOR LEONI. IN THE CITY:Kendo Gun Shop, right side of the glass x15 (Handgun)Kendo Gun Shop, behind counter near back door x15 (Handgun)Shotgun, Kendo Gun Shop, Robert Kendo’s dead bodyBack alley near basketball court, in the van x15 (Handgun)Between the dumpster and two trash cans x15 (Handgun)Back of bus, in the purse x15 (Handgun)II. IN THE POLICE STATION: 1st FLOORMain Hall, reception desk x30 (Handgun)In the safe, Eastern office x7 (Shotgun)**With randomizer on, it may be Magnum ammo, or Grenade Launcher ammo Behind Eastern office, dead officer’s body x15 (Handgun)**With randomizer on, it may be Magnum ammo, or Grenade Launcher ammo With randomizer on, the corner near the vending machines, first floor corridor x15 (Handgun) Storage room behind teaching room x15 (Handgun) Black Room, on the filing cabinets x15 (Handgun) Cabin, on the desk near the door x15 (Handgun) File Storage Room, lockable drawers x7 (Shotgun) Western Office, lockers x15 (Handgun) Northeastern Corridor, behind stairs x15 (Handgun)Desert Eagle Magnum, bunk room, on the nightstandIII. IN THE POLICE STATION: 2nd FLOOR Shotgun, S. T . A . R . S . Office, near communications device, in cabinets**With randomizer on, it may be a Grenade LauncherCloset at the end of hallway with boarded door x15 (Handgun)Handgun Parts, small desk near single door library entryOn the roof near helicopter wreck x15 (Handgun)IV. IN THE POLICE STATION: BASEMENTWestern Cell Block Corridor, on the table x15 (Handgun) (As Ada) Secluded room near elevator shaft x7 (Shotgun)Weapon Storage Room x7 (Shotgun)Weapon Storage Room x30 (Handgun)Sub-machinegun, back of Weapon Storage Room, in the lockersV. IN THE CHEMICAL PLANTIn the safe room, small table x30 (Handgun)In the Warehouse, down the ladder, in the back x7 (Shotgun)In the Warehouse, down the ladder, on the shelf x8 (Magnum)In the Sewer, among the bodies x7 (Shotgun)In the chemical pool room, across the bridge x7 (Shotgun)VI. IN THE VACANT FACTORYShotgun Parts, dead end, Northeast endControl Room, service panel x7 (Shotgun)Control Room, service panel x8 (Magnum)Back of Service Tunnel x15 (Handgun)Small Storage, on train x8 (Magnum)Security Cabin, lockers x7 (Shotgun)Security Cabin, desk x8 (Magnum)Flamethrower, Scientist Bunk RoomOvergrown room, with two Lickers x14 (Shotgun)M. O . Disk Room, gurney x8 (Magnum).

Hidden Audio Trick 2

After you see Leons AWESOME video clip played by Metallica, there is another clip that blows your mind away. At the biginning of the game pick Clarie. Then you will see the wiered dude with his cheak missing and some music in the backround. When you see him press start ONCE! Then the molment you see Claries tire, press play to the song “Cemetary Gates” by Pantera. You will be stunned by the performance that it displays and posseses.

Level Select

You can select any level you want without beating each individual level.

Zombies Weak Spot

Durring game play when zombies are trying to attack you, stand back and aim up at their heads. Before you actually play the GAME there is that video, just watch it and you will find out where the weak spot is because its either Leon or Claire who shoots one of the zombies in the head. When you do this it only takes about 2 shots to kill the zombies.

Kill Cabin Zombies

Go to the cabin(it’s the building down below the helicopter burning, after you go down the stairs), and look into the window above the desk with the typewriter. A message will pop up on the screen that says “Zombies are inside!” Now go to the door to the left of the cabin and open it. The door will open slower than usual and two zombies will come out.

Beat William Birkin Scenario 1

At the last fight it took me a while to figure it out but to beat William you have to use the unlimited ammo cheat. You have to unload the machine gun on him until he is smaller, then use the flamethrower to finish him.

Change Clothes And Get A Gun

Start with Leon or Claire on normal. When you start pick up NOTHING or you will have wasted your time. After you reach the police station go inside and get a good gun and all of the ammo you can find. Go outside where you first come in the police station gates. There is a tunnel if you go strait. Go into it and there will be a zombie that is very hard to kill. Search him after you blast him away. You should find something called a special key. Go to the room where you can make pictures and use it on the lockers that askes for a special key. For Leon you get two outfits. One looks like a S.T.A.R.S. uniform. The other lets you shoot faster with the pistol. For Claire there is only one outfit, but there is a gun that shoots quickly from the waist.

Breaking Camera

This trick is simple. All you have to do is have a shotgun and face the screen where you are facing the character face to face and shoot. If it don’t work you need to be farther back. You will see something like bullet holes through the camera. It only works with a shot gun of any kind.

Infinite Gatling Gun

To get this code you must complete the second scenario in under two and 1/2 hours without saving any. You can be either character, Leon or Claire.

Get Both Red Diamonds

message: #1: go where you see the two statues and both are faceing the wall you have to push them out and switch the one on the left to the one on the right but you have to put them against the wall where you see the thing built into the wall like a little ridge. #2: you have to be claire for both of them of of your leon you have to find the lighter then you go to the classroom on the the west side of the building (it’s the room where there’s lots of seats) then go in the back room and you’ll see a painting with a naked guy being hung then you get in front of it get the lighter out and it will burn a little hole where th red diamond will fall out.

Rebecca Chambers Picture

Go to the S.T.A.R.S main office on the second floor adn inspect the desk 50 times.You will be asked to get a roll of film. Say yes and go to the dark room on the first floor.Develope the film and you will get a pic of Rebecca Chambers in a basketball uniform.

Secret Police Station Gate

Make your way to the main police station door.But don’t go in it!!! Go directly across from it until you hit a wall and press the A button and the camera view will change and show a gate with 3 zombies on the other side. You can kill the zombies but the gate won’t open. You can keep on killing the same zombies by going into the police station then outside and go to the same gate.

Hidden Audio Trick

Start a new game with Leon. Right when the Racoon City street sign exits the screen (not the freeway sign), start the song “Enter Sandman” by Metallica. Watch how the words and the music follow the game exactly! It will blow you away!

Upgrades for Leon and cool gun for Claire

There are many upgrades to leon’s guns. the 1st is in the desk right b4 you first enter the library. To get in the desk you will need a small key and you will get the handgun parts. Towards the end, after you get off the tram you should lite the flare gun and a key will appear. pick it up. as you go through the door there will be an intersection, go left. there will be a dead corpse, search him and you will find parts for the shotgun. Then when you are about to enter the lab where the g-virus is made there is a set of lockers. Open the one with the blue lite ontop. here are the magnum parts. When you are Claire you will find a really neat gun in the same spot where you find the shotgun parts for leon. i forget what its called but its really cool.

Unlimited Rocket Launcher

After beating the game with Leon or Claire with a grade of a or b, you must start the game over with leon and go to city hall and it is at the front desk.

Be Leon or Claire

You have to make it to the police station with out picking up anything. Enter the police station and pick up the bullets on the desk then head back outside go down the stairs and there will be a zombie down there. He is hard to kill but when you do search him you will find a key go back in and when you get tothe dark room their will be a locker and you can open it and find a new suit and gun.

Tyrant’s Ammuntion

In Leon or Claire’s second scenario, the player will constantly run into a giant super zombie called Tyrant. Every time a Tyrant is defeated, the player can steal his ammunition: Shotgun shells or magnum bullets for Leon, and grenade rounds or bow gun bolts for Claire.

Easy Gator Kill

When fighting the gator, and he starts coming towards you, go and inspect the yellow light on the left wall. Then, the light will fall off and the gator will eat it. Now while the light is in its mouth, shoot it and the gator will explode.

Safe Combination

The combination to the safe in front of the chief’s desk at the police office, with all the zombies, is 4542. Open it to find shotgun shells and a map.

Final Stage Bonus Room

The final stage has a bonus room that can be entered through a long but easy process. In the first scenario, have Leon or Claire use the red lab key card to enter the room with the giant flying moth. Kill the moth. Find the keyboard attached to the wall, kill the larvae on it and type your name in on the keyboard as “NEMESIS”. Register your fingerprint. Go to the first floor of the lab and find the thumbprint reader panel. Use your fingerprint, and the panel should then ask for a second “fingerprint verification.” Complete the game, and save the second scenario to any file. In the second scenario from the game you have just played, go to the final stage. Find the room on the first floor of the lab where wriggling plant vines are blocking the vent. The red lab key card should be there. Take it and go to the moth room with the keyboard. Enter your name as “GUEST” and register your thumbprint. Finally, go to the first floor and find the thumbprint reader. It should ask for the “secondary fingerprint verification.” Do it, and the bonus room to the right of the panel should be unlocked. Look for a special weapon inside.

Bonus Weapons

Successfully complete either character’s first scenario in under two hours and thirty minutes with an A or B ranking for the rocket launcher with infinite ammunition. Successfully complete either character’s second scenario in under two hours and thirty minutes hours with an A or B ranking for the gatling gun with infinite ammunition. Successfully complete either character’s second scenario in under three hours with an A or B ranking for the machine gun with infinite ammunition. Note: The bonus weapon will appear in the next game after the first chest is opened.

Alternate Uniforms

Start a game on the normal difficulty setting. Then, go to the police station without collecting any items. Quickly move past the zombie that appears in the alley near the police station. Collect the shotgun, then kill the zombie. Take the special key from the zombie’s body and go to the dark room to open the lockers with alternate uniforms. Claire has a single alternate uniform, with a quick shooting revolver. Leon has two alternate uniforms, one of which will allow him to shoot with one hand.

Randomizer Mode

Successfully complete both scenarios. Then when starting a new game, a choice for original or randomizer mode will appear after selecting your character and difficulty settings. Randomizer mode places items and objects randomly throughout the game.

EX File Locations

1. Scenario A: In the cabinet in the file room. 2. Scenario B: On the desk in the Culture Experiment room of the Lab. 3. Scenario B: On a Umbrella soldier body in the Sewer B2 Wastewater Channel (east side). 4. Scenario A: Go behind the counter of the Gun Shop, on top of the counter. 5. Scenario A: In the briefcase near the end of the Bus at the beginning. 6. Scenario B: On Hot Dog Cart on the first street. 7. Scenario A: On the table in the room with the Fans and the blue doors in the Police office. 8. Scenario A: On Jill’s desk in the S.T.A.R.S. office. 9. Scenario B: On Rebbeca’s desk in the S.T.A.R.S. office, near the first aid bag hanging on the wall. 10. Scenario B: In the passage with stairs just outside the Police station doors. 11. Scenario A: The Lab, in the B4 Vaccine room. 12. Scenario A: The observation room of the police station on table, the one-way glass. 13. Scenario B: In the Lab in on the desk in the P-4 Laboratory-across from the moth room. 14. Scenario B: On the table in the room were the Chief dies. 15. Scenario B: In a cabinet in the monitor room that shows the Tyrant in the Factory. 16. Scenario A: In the Library of the Police station in a bookcase on the northern upper level.

Hidden Ammunition

The following locations behind and within the police station in the first scenario contain hidden ammunition caches:Alleyway past the stairs of the gunshop Turn towards the trashcans opposite the blue dumpster and search them for hand gun bullets. Alleyway past the basketball court Go past the zombie-filled basketball court until you find a van. Search the back of the van and to receive hand gun bullets. Dark Room Search the filing cabinet along the wall (next to the storage box) for hand gun bullets. S.T.A.R.S. office Check behind the “trashed” desk for hand gun bullets. Hall with the stairs to the basement Search the mop bucket leaning against the metal shelves behind the stairs. Night Watchman’s bunk room With Leon, search the lockers for shotgun shells. Briefing room (with the chalkboard) Using Leon, go to the room where the red jewel was hidden in the painting and search around the middle of the junk pile of art at the far end of the room. The hall with the crows Search the man “that was pecked to death” twice for hand gun bullets. The hall behind the main R.P.D. police office (with the safe) Look for an unmoving zombie lying face-up on the floor and search it for hand gun bullets. The hall with the filing room (near the beginning of the police station stage) Check the dead zombie lying on the floor. Filing room (with the two sided filing lockers in the middle) Using Leon, check the middle filing cabinets for shotgun shells. Party room (with the last surviving police officer) Search the cabinet where you talked to the last surviving police officer. Statue with second red ruby Have Leon or Claire search behind the statue with the second red ruby.

Mixing Herb Power-ups

The herb power-ups can be mixed using the “combine” command for varying, but very beneficial results. This will also save storage space for holding puzzle items. Here is a listing of some herbal combinations and the outcomes:1 green herb + 1 green herb = 60% health recovery1 green herb + 1 blue herb = 20% health recovery and poison antidote 1 green herb + 1 red herb = Full health recovery3 green herbs combined = Full health recovery1 green herb + 1 red herb + 1 blue herb (in that order) = Cure-all (full health recovery and poison antidote)

Ranking System

Normal difficultyUnder 1 1/2 hours, no saves, no first aids, no mixed herbs, no infinite weapons = “S”1 1/2 – 2 1/2 hours, 1-3 saves, 1-2 first aids, no infinite weapons = “A”2 – 3 hours, 1-7 saves, 1-4 first aids, no infinite weapons = “B”2 – 3 hours, 1-5 saves, 1-3 first aids, infinite weapons = “B”3 – 4 1/2 hours, 1-7 saves, 1-7 first aids, no infinite weapons = “C”3 – 4 hours, 1-7 saves, 1-6 first aids, infinite weapons = “C”4 1/2 hours or higher, 7 saves or higher, 6 first aids or higher, no infinite weapons = “D”4 1/2 hours or higher, 8 saves or higher, 6 first aids or higher, infinite weapons = “D”Easy difficultyUnder 2 hours, 1-3 saves, 1-2 first aids, no infinite weapons = “A”2 – 2 1/2 hours, 1-3 saves, 1-4 first aids, no infinite weapons = “B”2 – 2 1/2 hours, 1-2 saves, 1-2 first aids, infinite weapons = “B”2 1/2 – 3 1/2 hours, 1-8 saves, 1-5 first aids, no infinite weapons = “C”2 1/2 – 3 1/2 hours, 1-6 saves, 1-4 first aids, infinite weapons = “C”3 hours or higher, 9 saves or higher, 4 first aids or higher, no infinite weapons = “D”3 hours or higher, 9 saves or higher, 5 first aids or higher, infinite weapons = “D”

Cheats

Immunity

To have immunity for the whole time the game is turned on, go to the load game screen and press Down(4), Right(4), L,R,R,L, and C up and C down.

Super-Stamina

For limited invulnerability,mix the green,blue & red herbs in that order.You MUST mix the herbs in that same order,or they will not work.Green & Blue MUST be mixed together first,then you add the red herb.

Invincibility

At the load game screen,press Down(4),Left(4),L,R(2),L,C-Up,C-Down.If you entered the code correctly,the game will return to the main menu.

Infinite Ammunition

At the load game screen, press Up(4), Right(4), L, R, L, R, C-Right, C-Left. If you entered the code correctly, the game will return to the main menu.

Hunk Scenario

At the load game screen, press Up, Down, Left, Right, Left(2), Right(2), L, R, C-Up, C-Right, C-Down, C-Left. If you entered the code correctly, the game will return to the main menu. Alternatively, successfully complete either character’s second scenario in under two hours and thirty minutes with saving less than twelve times. Hunk is a soldier that must reach the second floor of the police station from the sewer with just battles and no puzzles.

Tofu Scenario

At the load game screen, press Up, Down, Left, Right, Left(2), Right(2), L, R, C-Up, C-Left, C-Down, C-Right. If you entered the code correctly, the game will return to the main menu. Alternatively, successfully complete either character’s first and second scenarios in less than three hours. Then, play the game again with the other character, and successfully complete their first and second scenarios in less than three hours. Play the game a third time and complete either character’s first and second scenarios again in less than three hours. Note: The game must be saved less than twelve times during each of the six scenarios played and bonus weapons must not be used. Tofu is a piece of tofu (food) that must reach the second floor of the police station from the sewer with just battles and no puzzles. Tofu can not use any weapons other than a knife.

Unlockables

Currently we have no unlockables for Resident Evil 2 yet. If you have any unlockables please feel free to submit. We will include them in the next post update and help the fellow gamers. Remeber to mention game name while submiting new codes.

Easter eggs

Currently we have no easter eggs for Resident Evil 2 yet. If you have any unlockables please feel free to submit. We will include them in the next post update and help the fellow gamers. Remeber to mention game name while submiting new codes.

Glitches

Currently we have no glitches for Resident Evil 2 yet. If you have any unlockables please feel free to submit. We will include them in the next post update and help the fellow gamers. Remeber to mention game name while submiting new codes.

Guides

Currently no guide available.

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