#i need to see an old rebecca chambers

[sugarspikesart]

AU in which they meet again after SEVERAL years and they kinda fall for each other hehe

---

I don't ship them in canon but if they show me a old billy full of grey hair I'm going batshit insane (haha raiden pun)

[delphi-shield]

OLD FOLKS HOME ↪ age gap hcs

the people you love & the shit they do that reminds you of the dreaded Gap (tm). characters included: leon kennedy, chris redfield, jill valentine, claire redfield, rebecca chambers no warnings to speak of. remember kids, if you're gonna date people in their 30s and 40s, you're gonna have different cultural contexts and, most likely, different senses of humor.

Leon is eight levels of irony deep. He started doing Old Guy Shit just to mess with you, and now it's all come full circle. 

It turns out he actually likes watching the weather channel. He’s monitoring storms that are miles and miles away from you, pointing out the feeder bands like it’s some kind of sporting event. 

He's genuinely invested in Ice Road Truckers. He asks you to TiVo it for him when he's gone. You do not have TiVo. In fact, you're pretty sure no one still has TiVo. 

Or you were, until Leon once again committed to the bit and got TiVo.

Really, genuinely annoying about old movies, actors, and directors.

”What do you mean you don’t know who Robert Redford is? The Candidate? Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid? C’mon. He was even in an episode of The Twilight Zone. You’ll know him when you see him.”

At least you get movie dates out of it.

Movie dates that he will pepper with trivia about the film, by the way. You don't need the commentary track. He is the commentary.

I'm so, so sorry about this. 🤪 is his favorite emoji. I know. I'm sorry.

Chris cannot fucking hear. To be honest, I think most of them have some degree of hearing loss - but Chris in particular seems to have very subjective hearing loss.

Yes, you were just having a full-fledged conversation. No, he didn’t hear you ask him to take out the trash. He didn’t forget, he just didn’t hear you. Sorry, you were standing on his right - come on, you know that’s his bad side.

Explains basic technology to you because he’s not sure if you know what it is. Then, in the same breath, crams in so many military acronyms he may as well be reciting the alphabet. Does not explain the acronyms.

Like, yeah, Chris. I know what a landline is. Dial-up internet, too. Now, what the fuck is an ORE?

Have you ever gotten ‘ok’ in response to a nude? You’re about to. Completely demoralizing, by the way.

He didn't know you wanted him to compose a poem dedicated to your beauty, okay? He tries to get better, but winds up sending shit like 'wow 👍'

Does the dad thing where he insists he's not interested in watching what's on TV and then stands with his hands on his hips in the middle of the living room, enthralled by the show.

Jill does not understand your music. She will not make an attempt to understand your music. If you see her tapping her foot to the beat, no you do not. She is not interested in expanding her musical horizons.

She only bought you tickets to that concert because she knew you would love it. She only went with you because you’re cute when you’re so into this stuff. She only bought that t-shirt because it would be a good souvenir, and eventually, a good grease rag.

Generalized distrust of social media. Do not show her a tiktok. She will ignore the video and lecture you about data safety. Jill, please. Just watch the fucking cat video.

And then she turns around and opts in to literally everything on the McDonald's app.

If there’s a rewards program, she’s in. Already sold. Didn’t even read the fine print. All that shit she was telling you about how you need to be more careful is right out the window for some free fries.

Anything for the thrill of a good deal. If she had more time on her hands, she would be couponing.

Buys in bulk. No, it doesn't matter if the two of you could not physically eat that much rice. It's cheaper to buy it like this. It's fine. It's good for you.

Gotta stock up on non-perishables, too. You gotta be prepared in case something happens. "Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it."

Claire cannot stop shopping from QVC. She's in the kitchen with David. It Takes Two with Mary and Sandra? Wrong. It actually takes three. Mary, Sandra, and Claire.

Infomercials have got her by the throat. You have so many gadgets and gizmos around your home that are just collecting dust.

Gets wine drunk and goes online shopping. Legitimately does not remember what she’s bought.

Absolutely will not let you open the packages. (“Some of this stuff could be for you, you know.” “Claire, last time it was a 10,000 count package of googly eyes.” “And I used all 10,000. You still haven’t found them all.”)

Uses every piece of technology until it’s about to fall apart. Absolutely not interested in having the latest and greatest. She’s one of those people who insists that as long as her phone can make calls and send texts, she doesn’t need a new one.

Speaking of texts. Somehow, she got it into her head that a read receipt is equivalent to a reply. She doesn't get what the problem is. You know she saw your text. Why does she have to reply?

Genuinely doesn't mean anything malicious by it - but also, if you did that to her, you would never hear the end of it.

Rebecca legitimately has facebook humor. They all have some degree of facebook humor, but she's got it the worst. 

Will blow up your notifications tagging you in shit that is just straight up not funny. I’m talking full on tagging you with “😂😂😂”

Unironically sent you a minion meme once.

It's not that she's disconnected. She teaches undergrads. She knows what’s in, even if it’s only from the periphery. It’s just that she doesn’t care. She has no interest in keeping up with trends just for the sake of it. She’s so used to being the youngest person in the room and having to keep up expectations that she just absolutely does not care anymore. She's glad she's not one of the kids anymore.

If it made her laugh it made her laugh, her enjoyment isn’t shackled by feelings of shame!!

If you have a group chat on any platform with your friends please invite her. She's just happy to be included. She'll make a discord if she has to, and she'll brag about it to her students.

Yeah, she says pupper and doggo. She does. Look at her.

[residentdeviant]

𝑺𝑶𝑭𝑻𝑾𝑨𝑹𝑬 𝑰𝑵𝑺𝑻𝑨𝑩𝑰𝑳𝑰𝑻𝒀

── .✦ summary

⟢ you‘ve devised a plan to help solve the case and catch the unsub, but what if you don’t live ‘til the end of it?

── .✦ story notes !

⟢ written with re2r/re4r leon in mind ! also, i did my best to have this be a gender neutral reader, but if there’s anything that suggests otherwise, please let me know.

── .✦ word count

⟢ 3.4k !

── .✦ tags ! (warnings included)

⟢ d:bh au, android!leon, second-person, no use of y/n, nickname “lee” is used for leon bc it’s cute and i will die on that hill, angst, minor mention of brian irons, gore, mentions of chris redfield and jill valentine as well as rebecca chambers, fluff kinda???, you get a cat btw, happy ending!

── .✦ a/n !

⟢ this part has definitely been on the longer side of construction lol but i was determined to finish it. it’s unbelievably hard for me to finish projects but i powered through this for me and you! even though it did take me like six months… whoopsies.

⟢ part one!

⟢ part two!

6:57am.

“Good morning, detective,” Leon greeted with a smile as he saw you walk in, seemingly in a better mood this morning. Regardless, it was good to see him feeling better after everything you two had encountered last night.

You smiled at him in return, keeping things light for now. “Morning, Leon,” you reply, waving slightly with one hand and holding your cup of coffee in the other. You made your way to the west office once more, opening the door and walking towards your desk. Getting a shower and some rest last night was definitely needed as well as deserved, and you were more than grateful for both of those.

You pulled out your chair and sat at your desk, ready to get the day started and prepare to catch the guy behind all of this mess. RC was lost in darkness and chaos, repeating the same old loop continuously without stopping for breath, and you wanted to be one of the ones to save this forsaken city. If not you, then who else?

Simple chatter and the click-clacking of keyboard keys were all that could be heard within the west office, the morning starting off rather quiet and slow. You just wanted to get your morning load of work done before doing further investigation on the unsub you had spent the past few days chasing. His attacks were on a regular basis, seemingly everyday, so you suspected that it wasn't long until he would strike again.

As you worked through the practically endless stack of paperwork and android cases popping up every millisecond, you could feel the presence of someone behind you. As you turn, you could see that familiar blond android waiting for you, with the utmost patience. He hadn’t even said anything to disturb you, or even make any noise for that matter, but it was easy to sense another person within your vicinity.

Once you looked at him, his baby blue eyes flickered over to you and he gave you a polite smile before speaking. “We should figure out a plan soon. The sooner we catch the unsub and free the others, the better,” Leon suggested, carefully moving a bit closer to you.

“No worries, Lee. I’ve got it figured out already,” you began. He didn’t seem to expect that, but he welcomed it. “I just need to finish this paperwork, go through a few case details and study our guy a little more before we make any moves. He’s dangerous. We have no room for error.” The android nodded softly, silently agreeing with you.

You had predicted the unsub’s schedule, putting everything together and praying that this was going to work. You were undoubtedly putting your life on the line, yes, but it would be worth it in the end… if you lived long enough to make it to the end of the mission.

The plan you had devised was simple: pose as an android, wander in the unsub’s frequented grounds, get captured by him and then wait for the right time to take him into custody. It didn’t seem easy, and it sure wouldn’t be either, but you had to try. Androids weren’t just robots, designed to do humanity’s bidding — they had minds and hearts. They deserved better than what they got, and you were determined to help them by solving this case and locking this guy up for good.

—

6:37pm.

Night had fallen and your plan had begun. When you had told Leon about it, he seemed nervous? His behavior was slightly off and his LED had been spinning yellow for quite some time. You could tell he was probably worried about the outcome, but you knew what you had to do.

You wandered around the streets in your android uniform and an LED on your temple, acting as if you were working through a task assigned to you before you were suddenly approached by a man who looked like he didn’t know what a shower was. He had green eyes, greasy brown hair and he absolutely reeked. (Like anime convention type of reeked.) Not only that, but he had some odd stains on his clothes. Oil and thirium? That’s gotta be it.

“Excuse me, I need help…” he said, although not coming off as very convincing. “My wife… she’s in trouble. I think she’s having a heart attack. Please! You need to help me!”

This guy needs acting classes. Stat.

“Of course,” you replied, mimicking the rather direct behavior of most androids before following the man — who appeared to be your unsub — into his house. This is him. You knew this place. Now you just had to be cautious and continue with your plan so you could catch him in the act.

You and the man had entered the house, and as soon as he shut the door behind you, he kicked you down, murmuring expletives. It’s like meeting a younger version of Irons. You tried to get up, but he kicked you down once more and made sure you were weak before he dragged you downstairs.

—

“Are you sure that we should wait for their signal? I mean… What if they’re in trouble?” Leon questioned, his LED flashing to yellow for a split second as he looked towards Lieutenant Branagh, the pair camping out within a nearby black sedan. The android knew he should follow the plan, he knew he needed to keep the end goal in mind, but he struggled to do so knowing that there was a slight possibility that you wouldn’t make it out. This job was dangerous, he knew that, but he couldn’t help but… worry?

No.

SOFTWARE INSTABILITY ^

He shouldn’t worry, he… he can’t worry. That’s a sign of deviancy. Androids don’t do that.

Stick to your code, get the job done.

“Are you doubting your partner, rookie?” Branagh questioned in return, turning the tables on the poor android. “They’re strong. They can handle themselves. Just trust us on this.”

The blond couldn’t really do anything but nod lightly and anxiously watch the establishment, worrying about you — even if you weren’t aware of it. A future without you was a future he didn’t want to be a part of. It’d kill him inside.

And that scared him.

He hadn’t even known you for that long, but you made him feel a type of way that he couldn’t understand. It was beyond his programming. He wasn’t supposed to feel this way. He wasn’t supposed to feel anything, point blank. As much as he wanted to deny it and pretend that it certainly wasn’t true, Leon may have been deviating, and the only person he could ever tell was you.

—

You could feel the fear all of those androids felt as you were dragged down the stairs by your legs, and any fighting you did was practically useless. This guy was freakishly strong, which would’ve been good to know before you threw yourself in harm’s way. The moment he looked in another direction, you sent the signal and waited for backup. Meanwhile, you begged for your life, as you assumed any android would, as he lifted you and strapped you down on a chair, keeping you in place. The caged androids from before watched in horror, keeping silent but feeling a strong sense of remorse for you. He couldn’t remove vital parts from you and keep you alive like he had done with them, so this felt like your funeral.

“I’ll help you get out of here very soon, I promise.”

They just hoped your promise to them wouldn’t be broken and you’d continue to live on. You showed them kindness, and they would never forgive themselves if they couldn’t do the same for you.

The man who was confirmed to be your unsub was at a workbench, stained with thirium, oil and human blood. It was disgusting. One part of you knew your team was mere moments from busting in and taking this guy in for good, but the other part of you was still petrified. You could so easily be killed if they weren’t fast enough, and you hoped and prayed that they were.

As the dark-haired man grabbed his tools, a familiar face came sprinting down the stairs — 9mm in hand.

“Drop your weapons and put your hands up where I can see them!” he commanded. Leon, thank God. Lieutenant Branagh as well as a few other officers followed, aiming their guns at the suspect. Knowing he was caught for good, he raised his hands, allowing his loose sleeves to slide down a bit and reveal his left arm that used to belong to an android. He’s harvesting them for parts. God, that’s gross.

As Branagh and the other officers detained the man that was soon to be identified as Brent Phillips, Leon came over and helped you out of your confines before giving you a hug to help calm you down. Not only that, but to reassure him that you were safe, and no harm could be done to you anymore. There wouldn’t be another story like Samuel and Martha’s. You got to live, and he got to see your smile again — which was worth more than gold to him.

—

While your team took Phillips in, Leon stayed at the crime scene, doing further investigation. You freed the poor droids left to rot within the cage, deciding to get them fixed up and sent back to their original families. “You kept your promise,” one said with a soft voice, sounding slightly surprised yet grateful nonetheless.

“Of course I did. I couldn’t leave you guys behind,” you replied with a small smile. Another officer escorted the androids out, leaving just you and your own android friend in the dark, lonely basement.

It was quiet for a bit as you looked through Brent’s personal items, looking for any sort of motive behind the whole thing other than just using androids for spare parts. Oddly enough, you couldn’t find anything. Lots of family photos hidden away, so maybe he wanted to keep his happy and comfortable family life hidden away from his dark and twisted deeds.

“He lost his arm in a car accident,” the blond stated after shuffling through Brent’s journals. “He couldn’t afford a medical bill, so he stole androids and used them instead… but he got addicted. He kept messing with them… tore them apart, left them for dead like it’s nothing… like we’re nothing.”

Your eyes flickered over to Leon, examining his sorrowful expression as his LED shifted to yellow. You walked over to him, gently rubbing his back to try to ease him. “I’m sorry, Lee. But at least now, it can’t happen again. Lives were lost, but there were many more saved. It’s gonna be okay.”

The blond android sniffled a bit, and his LED slowly returned to blue once more. He thanked you before making his way upstairs to step outside for a bit and get some air. You looked around for a few more minutes before returning to him.

And when you did, you definitely weren’t planning on telling him that you found Martha in the mini fridge.

—

A few days had gone by and the case was closed. Brent was detained, Martha’s body had been found and sent into the lab, the other androids were free and everything else fell into place. You and Leon had officially finished your first case together and things were going pretty well. You could tell that he still felt guilty, however, almost as if he could prevent that situation. As if he could prevent death and destruction.

But the poor rookie also knew that it was part of the job. He couldn’t get attached. Attachment was a human emotion, and he was terrified of what could happen if anyone knew of what was happening inside the confines of his android mind. He knew everyone would rat him out, except maybe Branagh, but he knew you certainly wouldn’t.

So he’d cling onto you.

Not just because you’re partners and you’re also his only friend, but because he feels safe with you. He feels safe enough to share all of this with you. You’re the only one who has ever made him feel a sense of humanity and encouraged that. Anyone else would tell him that he had an instability error within his software and he needed to get it fixed immediately, but you were different. You were kind.

SOFTWARE INSTABILITY ^

Leon wasn’t sure what this feeling inside his chest was. It was unfamiliar and certainly not in his programming. He needed to figure it out and fast.

–

Quite some time had flown by and androids have fought for equal rights, earning their freedom and the right to live just as humans do. Even so, Leon continues working for the police department, constantly having that desire to help those in need. Not only this, but he also has an apartment in the same building as you, which you helped him decorate after work for about four days. Although the finished result was quite lovely and you always wanted to help your friends, so there wasn’t a desire to complain.

Those aren’t the only changes, however. After the successes of your first three cases together, you and Leon are officially a team. Probably even one of the best that the RPD has to offer! You had taken on most of the android cases together and solved just about all of them. Branagh was pretty impressed and you two even received the opportunity to join S.T.A.R.S alongside Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine and Rebecca Chambers, but after some thought, the two of you politely declined. It just wasn’t in your interests at this time and you were happy with things as they are.

Except for one thing – you and Leon.

You were partners and now best friends, but now what? You wanted more than that. How could anyone be happy with just that? Maybe your coworkers would tease you about crushing on an android, and goodness knows what your relatives would say, but you knew that it didn’t matter what they thought. As long as you’re happy, then who cares?

But you weren't happy. Not like this. So you decided that you’d just have to tell him.

You just hoped he wouldn’t short circuit or something.

Your shift was coming to a close for the night and you couldn’t have been happier. Although you loved being able to help others through your job, you didn’t love the paperwork that came along with it. You powered through the last few pages and then began to grab your belongings, putting them in their rightful places before pushing your chair back towards your desk.

“Heading out for the night?” your blond partner asked, seemingly popping in out of practically nowhere.

You give him a nod and a small smile, “Yeah, I’m ready to go home and get dinner. Want a ride?”

“That’d be great, thanks.”

Mere moments later, you and Leon were heading back to your apartment building in your car. Gentle rain pitter-pattered along the expanse of the automobile, bringing you two a sense of warmth and comfort during the cold night. Well, the heat was also on, so that probably helped, too.

The car ride was full of chatter at first as you two talked about what you had been up to lately other than work. He had been watching Star Wars movies again and playing videogames, you had been watching your own favorite movies and tending to your hobbies. The conversation died off after a while, and you quickly noticed that Leon seemed a little off, like he was thinking about something rather deeply. You decided to let him come to you when he was ready, but your train of thought was interrupted as he softly spoke your name.

“I need to talk to you about something,” the blond suddenly spoke, his tone and body language giving you the feeling that he was quite anxious.

“Yeah, sure… shoot,” you replied simply, eyes focused on the road.

He thought about his choice of words for a moment, and you swore you could almost hear the whirring of the fans in his android head, like when you haven’t cleaned your PS4 in a while and it sounds like a fighter jet taking off.

“I have this feeling when I’m with you, and I don’t know what it is exactly but I know it’s good. It’s a positive one, but not one I feel when I successfully accomplish a mission with no casualties or when I hang out with my friends or something. It’s different. It’s deeper than that, it’s…”

Love. He loves you.

The entire time, he wouldn’t look at you. He couldn’t look at you, even if he tried. His bionic heart was racing at what felt like a million miles an hour, and he was struggling to even find the words for what he was feeling. But he knew you’d understand; you always did. That was one of the many things he loved about you. You always made him feel understood and safe around you. Even before androids gained equal rights, you treated him as if he was your equal with no questions asked. You gave him the freedom to act and do as he so pleased, and he was immensely grateful for that. You gave him everything he could ever want, and in return, he wanted to give you his heart.

You smoothly pulled up to the apartment complex, parking in your usual spot and then turning to face Leon. He didn’t finish what he was going to say, but he figured that you already knew. He especially thought so when you looked at him a little closer and saw a slight blue tinge on his cheeks (which he made a feeble attempt to hide). He softly cleared his throat, turning to face you, although still shy about the whole ordeal. “So… if you’ll have me…”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

–

In the following months, you and Leon had gone on several successful dates that served to secure the beginning of your future together. The two of you often went stargazing, browsing in record shops and had countless movie marathons when you just wanted to stay home. You eventually moved into a nice house together, which had a mailbox decorated with your names and handprints. Not only that, but you even adopted a cat! (And totally didn’t name them after a Transformer…)

One night in particular, you and Leon were lying on your shared bed, comfortable as ever as he snuggled up behind you with your adorable cat resting in front of you. You were fast asleep, dreaming of goodness knows what, but it must be nice since you were smiling to yourself even in REM. Leon, however, was wide awake, listening to your soft breathing and remaining lost in his thoughts. It had been a long time that he had been living with human rights, and living with human feelings for even longer, but he still wasn’t used to them. He still lived within awe of your kindness and he still felt a sense of curiosity when you showed him any semblance of affection.

He may never know if he’ll ever adjust as easily as other androids do when it comes to stuff like this, but he does know one thing: he will always cherish it. He’ll always feel a sense of relief when either one of you returns home from work. He’ll always be grateful for the meals you share together. He’ll always love it when you sit on the back porch with a glass of lemonade in hand, gazing at him longingly as he happily does yardwork “like normal people do.” But most of all, he’ll always love you in any and every form. There’s nothing he wouldn't do for you.

As he closes his eyes and allows himself to go into a dormant state, he takes in everything about you and recommits it to his memory – hoping to dream about you. And as he sleeps, he knows that anything and everything in the world couldn’t be better than this. No treasure is as precious as a future with you.

I want to thank three of my loved ones for helping me proofread the whole series, but I also want to simultaneously apologize because they waited about four to six months for me to finish part three lol. I also want to thank you for reading this mini series! I appreciate all of the love and support you guys have given me and I couldn’t be more grateful. I haven’t written and uploaded a fic online in a good few years, but all of you have given me the confidence I needed to return to it.

I have another project in progress, but goodness knows when I’ll finish it lol. Until then, I will try to keep you guys updated and fed whenever possible. I love you all.

[rosemarysage]

Hello everybody! I’m trying to compile all the information we got about Onyx storm so it's easier to find. So below I have written everything Rebecca has said at recent events that I think could be relevant to OS or the next books. I left out the stuff I didn’t think was relevant like the T.V. show and personal questions about Rebecca. The links are at the bottom. The first two are from an audio recording. Many thanks to Tumblr user Skyfallscotland for posting the audio. I haven’t been able to find recordings for the Perth show and some of the other dates from these so if you have any information from them please let me know and I can update the post. I intend to add the older interviews later but I wanted to get this one up because we got lots of juicy details from the panels.

Fourth wing and iron flame spoilers

Sydney panel 6/22/24 Saturday

She has deviated from the Synopsis she made for the series

She knows what the last scene of the series will be

We will see more of the world in OS and the following books. The map is representative of what Violet knows so it will expand as Violet learns more.

Jack Barlowe is around and serves a purpose. He likely won’t be a main character. Rebecca likes bad characters to have a reason for doing bad things. Jack has always wanted power.

The interviewer asked her not to do a redemption arc for Jack and Rebecca said “Noted”

Dain represents the love you thought you wanted when you were younger

When Dain says, “If you had just told me none of this would have happened” in the interrogation chamber he’s not just talking about the interrogation but also Liam’s death and everything else.

Violet is completely disconnected from her magic in the interrogation chamber. She can’t reach out to her dragons or Xaden. Rebecca said that Violet's mind summoned Liam because he was her protector.

The interrogation scene ending with Dain and Xaden was the driving point of the writing process. There is a scene in OS that elicits similar emotions and Rebecca said we aren’t going to like it

Q&A

Jack likely won’t have a romantic relationship. He’s also probably not “the real enemies to lovers arc”

Garrick's signet is in book three

A rider doesn’t necessarily have the same traits as their dragon's color, sometimes they have the opposite and need their dragon to counter them. Brennan is a tactician and needs unpredictably and Imogen is a wild card. The dragon rider bond is kind of like a marriage.

Her editor got her to add Andarna. She is there to balance Tairns' massive power.

Someone asked if we would hear more about the first six and Andarna and she said “Maybe” is a funny voice

Violet’s dad is not Malek.

Sgaeyl is pissed at Xaden and is not speaking to him at the moment. She also mentioned the bond between them.

Someone accidentally asked if Xaden dated the prince instead of Violet. After they figured that out she said, “I think you should read the third book”

Sydney panel 6/24/24 Monday

She deviated from the plan for OS concerning a character's death.

Jack is an example of the hunger for power and what happens when you aren’t selected for the power you think you deserve

She expected us to figure out the second signet. Her editor asked her if it needed another line to make it clear and she said no they would get it.

The Taylor songs that describe OS are Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me and So It Goes.

Someone asked,” Have you considered doing a prequel on the first six or how the empyrean came about or will this be revealed in further books?” and she skipped it

Melbourne 6/25/24

The interviewer asked, “Do we already have a reference to Onyx that will reveal the title's meaning to us” Rebecca passed

The interviewer asked if we would get another POV from Xaden or anyone else and Rebecca said that she has established a record of showing a little bit of what Xaden is thinking.

She that we have already learned Violet's second signet

The interview asked if Garrick would realize Imogen is into him and Rebecca asked what makes us think he doesn’t know

When asked if we would learn more about Father Sorrengails research about feathertails she said “Maybe” again in a funny voice

Onyx Storm is very Rep coded. She listened to So it Goes a lot while writing OS.

In the interrogation scene, she is cut off from her magic so her mind “pulls” someone who protected her

The interviewer asked if Xaden and Sgaeyl were still bonded and she said, “Next time on fourth wing”

She was asked if Xaden and Violet are endgame and she passed and then said “I write romances”

Her favorite thing about Violet in OS is that she has one goal and she doesn’t care what stands in her way.

Seattle March

Sgaeyl is pissed and not speaking to Xaden

Xaden won’t get more POVs until he quits keeping secrets. His problems with Sgaeyl will be explored externally. The interviewer said that Xaden keeps secrets about things other an Aretia and Rebecca said, “Naturally”. Violet is way better at keeping secrets in OS. She’s in her reputation era.

A lot of things were set up in Fourth Wing that didn’t come into effect in Iron Flame that will in the upcoming books.

We should expect about the same amount of Xaden’s POVs in future books, namely end chapters and bonus chapters.

Rebecca said, “There is a correlation between less and less dragons bonding  and more and more dragons saying what we are doing is wrong”

We will learn Violet’s father's name and more about him.

Xaden’s mom’s story will come up in later books.

The other three quadrants can drop out or change quadrants. Only the riders don’t allow this.

Miscellaneous

Rebecca said in an Instagram comment that she wrote a line referencing Xaden and the boys moving Violet’s armoire in OS.

Links

Sydney

https://www.tumblr.com/skyfallscotland/754271162361577472/it-took-me-far-too-long-to-realise-i-could-just

Melbourne 6/25

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8FrFupBTVgY&pp=ygUOcmViZWNjYSB5YXJyb3M%3D

Seattle March

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=v0yTEZBtpVQ&t=6s&pp=ygUOcmViZWNjYSB5YXJyb3M%3D

[onewomancitadel]

A scattering of TWC impressions, which I played because a mutual posted fanart featuring a guy with long hair and I wanted to see if he had long hair in the game. The character my protagonist romanced only had long hair in a flashback. I told you, they are trying to contain me

That being said, I'll try to be fair:

By Book Two I was calling that the mother is a traitor, and I presume the epilogue in Book Three confirms this. My favourite silly thing that authors do is something like:

"I'll never forgive anybody who ever does this."

[Character who is later never forgiven for something immediately speaks]

"I sure hope nobody betrays us."

[Traitor speaks]

or in the case of TWC, every time a Rogue leader was mentioned, Rebecca immediately began speaking. It's just a subtle way of linking information together that most people aren't going to pick up on, outside of actual hard clues (e.g. there's the bit where Rebecca gets the pure DMB, and somehow Murphy had pure DMB on hand, the repeated emphasis on doing anything for her child, caginess about leaving being a leader of the Chamber/the dad thing, etc.)

I cannot imagine how much work it was to twine together a CYOA game and try to structure the prose as part of that experience, so I tried to be really gentle on that aspect when I am at my most critical with such a thing.

Present tense works best with first person (there is one time that I've read third person present tense and it's transcended my issues with it, I think because there was a real deft employment of where it's good for - especially sex scenes) in my experience because it reflects that natural English conversational tone, though my preference would still be first person past tense, for the sake of CYOA I can see why it was chosen. That being said, I think it really did struggle at points trying to marry a past tense reflectional tone to the present, and there were times that the description of the environment was especially clunky. I wrote a post about dialogue tags that was implicitly about this series lol.

I did pay for all three books so I'm not knocking on something a fan put their heart into, hahaha. To its detriment I think the quality of the prose depreciated by Book Three - having gone back to do a second playthrough to do a male protagonist/Morgan playthrough, I don't think this is recency bias. In terms of actual structure, Book Three probably has the overall better dramatic moments but experiences a weakening of connective tissue - lots of 'and then'..., and fewer scenes where I can smash my dollies together.

This really brings me to my issue which is that I didn't go in knowing it was all about romance, and I really wish - ironically - it had leant more into being about romance.

The plot is there to carry the development (which I enjoy, unless you are able to write something truly literary) up until it fell more like it was beginning to overwhelm it by Book Three - then again I hated the fake dating in Book Two because it's a beloathed trope of mine, so maybe I'm just hard to please. I think this might be an issue of the will-they-won't-they Adam romance, which - whilst I love slow burn and most of all absolutely love slow burn which dicks around - really needed to torture Adam more and torture my protagonist more to get the message through, I think in part a consequence of the tone of this sort of story which is trying to feel grounded, but I would choose sensible character development in exchange for tonal compromise (especially as it would be constrained to one route). I'm willing to be seated for people who try to stay away from each other - yess please yummy yummy - but you need to feel comfortable in getting the emotional cattle prod out.

And I wouldn't be so upset about the realism of portraying a 900 year old vampire knight unless the setting leant hard into that 'supernatural-but-realism' modern style of cynical writing... like, you can't have characters laugh about believing in God (when God structured that period of Adam's early life and magic is real and a Gnostic-esque Echo World is also real...) and then get mad at me when I want you to portray a 900 year old vampire knight properly. He sounds like a traumatised soldier from 20-30 years ago; did he change with the times? Did he never fit in back then anyway? I guess I just wanted to go weirder! Also what's his attitude to sex. Lol

Also the fact that human bloodsucking didn't come up until the end of Book Three made me very disappointed. I wanted him to try sucking her like as early as Book One. I wanted to suggest it as a thing to help them fighttttt but it could also be so so sexy. 🥰 It felt a little like dramatic scenes kind of get postponed. No idea what Murphy is doing now

That being said, the most important thing to me were the nonviolent resolutions and being nice to the monsters. I think the real reason I kept playing is because it did keep offering outcomes that let me try to be peaceful and show compassion to the big sad mean monsters... whether that was in the romance itself, or towards the antagonists, that was actually great fun.

It's not even something you necessarily get to do in a Bioware game because combat is considered the lifeblood of video games (maybe in some older games you can talk down the antagonist, thinking of the original Fallout here - but notably its sequel eschewed this, almost like a joke) and the type of character I tend to construct for this setting is the gentlest I can think of, just because such gentle characters are so rare. So it's very very valuable to me to get to play that.

That actually brings me into what I liked about the romances, which is that I never had to consistently hit a 'flirt' option - something I hate about how RPG's construct romance now - because that's not even how people become attracted to each other! - and it asked me what route I was going to take. Notably on my second playthrough, it asked me why I had been avoiding Morgan - so it actually integrated how you met those hidden romance checks into the storytelling, even when I went through a romance with fewer checks seemingly hit. (I think this might've been because I let her wait outside? But why would I force my character on her? Lol).

And because Detective Majestic (okay I was thinking of Destroy All Humans because cops/supernatural/special agencies, I wanted something silly, and then they kept using her surname the whole goddamned playthrough...) is so gentle, she never pushed Adam not even once, and it let me keep playing that way without punishing that playstyle because it didn't ~meet the romance checks~, but it also had romantic scenarios where neither of them let themselves do anything hahaha, which was amazing. This is probably the rarest portrayal of romance I've ever seen in a CYOA/RPG, and pretty much redeemed my experience because it was so fun to actually play something unique which met me halfway. That in itself is very hard to do - the reason you'd structure something linearly with absolute checks is just because this method is very complex to write. Now you've got more than 'romance - no romance' to write a route for.

So the discovery element was really the strongest, and I enjoyed it for that reason above all else. It let me be nice, pacifistic, and play a romance with a unique approach - and though I am not always the kindest on some requisite romance tropes (part of the reason I liked playing a gentle character is that I like the subversion of pushy romance tropes lol) it was admittedly quite fun!

I'm glad I checked it out, so now I know who is the one with long hair and who isn't, and though I am rather curmudgeonly, I had a little bit of fun. I can definitely see how this would service a rich transformative fandom - especially because I don't know if you could reasonably write a sex scene in the main story proper. Blood sucking might have to supplement it... that's what the vampire can be a facsimile for, just with a much more negative portrayal, lol. Probably a separate thesis to be written on why the vampire has enjoyed a burgeoning positive reception in modern romance.

[sethshead]

Although the Biden administration seems to have run extremely well for three and a half years, with a strong cabinet, few scandals and little turnover, a thriving economy and some major legislative accomplishments, the narrative the punditocracy has created suggest we should ignore this record and decide on the basis of the 90-minute debate and reference to newly surfaced swarms of anonymous sources that Biden is incompetent. Quite a lot of them have been running magical-realism fantasy-football scenarios in which it is fun and easy to swap in your favorite substitute candidate. The reality is that it is hard and quite likely to be a terrible mess. Nevertheless, this pretense is supposed to mean that telling a presidential candidate in mid-campaign to get lost is fine.

The main argument against Biden is not that he can’t govern – that would be hard to make given that he seems to have done so for the past years – but that he can’t win the election. But candidates do not win elections by themselves. Elections are won, to state the obvious, by how the electorate turns out and votes. The electorate votes based on how they understand the situation and evaluate the candidates. That is, of course, in large part shaped by the media, as Hannah-Jones points out, and the media is right now campaigning hard for a Democratic party loss. The other term for that is a Republican victory. Few things have terrified and horrified me the way this does.

This isn't about the polls saying Biden is too old to serve a second term. The people who nominated and elected Biden in 2020 also thought him too old to serve a first term. Opinion polling results in mind-blowingly contradictory responses. It cannot be trusted. What is more important are the journalists who have completely divorced themselves from the consequences of their words. They really are treating this election not only as a simple horse race, but as fantasy football, like a baseball trade simulator. They want to see a good entertaining show with all the most niche candidates only a hipster could love getting their days in the sun. The media are masturbating while Rome burns all around them. They want to draw readers in with sensationalism and appeals to liberal neurosis, however much this irresponsible obsession drives the news cycle and voters' attitudes.

I disagree with Hannah-Jones about the degree of influence the media has in a free society. Chomsky's conspiracist ramblings about manufacturing consent for top-down policies is wrong; our yellowest journalism is democratic and bottom-up. The news is a commodity here, not a set of instructions. Outlets supply the consumer with what they think we want to hear. Unfortunately, in this case, what the pundits think we want to hear is based on their own professional echo chambers, their own insider contacts (currently with their knives out in a cannibalistic feeding frenzy) and the fickle, skittish donor class. They are all freaking the country out with their rampant speculation and backbiting. The whole lot of them need to get serious about this race.

Somehow, Republicans are able to close ranks around a clearly unfit and treasonous scumbag because it offers them the best shot to attain power for decades at least. Why can't we protect a president and administration who have done so admirably for the country for nearly four years?

[micharedmc]

Molly Jericho Headcanons/Lore bits

(Feel free to ask about anything about her outside of this) -Molly is a medic more than she is an officer. She'd much rather be helping heal someone than in direct action, like alongside Chris or Jill, or even Leon. -Became a Medic at 19 alongside Rebecca Chambers (19 years old in RE1-RE2), who she is very close to throughout the Resident Evil franchise -Was in Raccoon City in RE2 (just found out happens 2 months later from RE0-1) trying to find the nest. She first meets Leon here but never came across Claire. Escaped the city before Leon, Claire and Sherry did with a bunch of documents she went to the Nest for (I'll develop this point at a later date, could be for research on Umbrella's T-Virus, idk)

-Molly had very absent parents. Grew up in a large, poor family and just faded into the background as a Middle child. Took care of her little siblings when her parents and older siblings started disappearing one by one. -Despite growing up without much, struggling with multiple jobs to care for her family when their parents and older siblings were gone, she managed to get her degrees to become a Medic on a Scholarship due to her high grades. It was hard for her to study in the conditions of her household but she got what she needed and was excited to be able to go through with her dream of having a job in healthcare without having to worry much about finances. -Molly's shy, scaredy-cat (I won't say coward, she's a precious baby) demeanour is most likely a result of her parents and some of her older siblings treatment of her (only one older sibling who left the household entirely was good). If they didn't ignore her entirely, they saw her as an annoying inconvenience when she looked for affection or help caring for her little siblings. Everyone but the youngest children in her family were abused in multiple ways, so she came out not mentally well. -Uses a majority of her salary on clothes and toys for her little siblings who, when she left, ended up in her good older brother's care. Doesn't talk to her other family members, most of them disappeared anyway which did worry her somewhat, but those who are still around call and are horrible and she gets too nervous and scared to hang up on them, even when they're yelling. She just freezes. -Was glad to get combat and gun training in the S.T.A.R.S team but honestly would prefer to leave combat to members like Chris and Jill. She admires how brave they are and gets along well with them too, though Chris believes she could try to be braver considering when she's working with them, she has to be an officer, not just the sweetheart medic. -Considering RE5 is 10 years later from RE1, Molly is 29 in the events of all that happens in 5. Is actually a bit braver with how much time passes, but the PTSD never does really fade. -Absolutely despises Wesker and Ivory. Ivory is to Molly what Wesker is to Chris, and vice versa.

-It is absolutely canon that Ivory makes fun of Molly by calling her Molly-Dolly. It started from a joke phrase, much like Wesker saying "Oh little fishy, come see my hook" for Chris, but Ivory stuck with it because she finds Molly too fun to mess with. -She looks like she wouldn't, but she actually does like drinking. Only likes drinking cider though, other alcoholic drinks taste, in her drunken words, 'like piss mixed with rubbing alcohol'. (Honestly, this is what I thought the first time I tasted Single Malt Whiskey). Her drinking habit is probably one of the things she and Leon bond over. These two will probably end up doing karaoke at the end of the night drunk off of their asses.

-Favourite song is 'I Will Survive' by Gloria Gaynor (Ironic huh) -Would probably try to befriend Mr.X if she could. Kinda looks like her big brother, if you take away the wrinkled, gray skin. Also she fumbled with her gun so bad seeing X that she accidentally shot off his fedora and despite nearly peeing her pants when he charged faster because of it, she later has a laugh with Leon when she thinks about how silly it is that he only charged when she messed with his hat. Like seriously, bro gets so mad if you shoot his fedora off.

-Likes collecting beanie babies. She has a rainbow one she loves. Uhhhh can't think of anymore rn but like I said, feel free to ask some stuff? If you want? Realised I don't think I did one of these for Ivory so i'll have to do so later.

[fourthwingfanclub]

Iron Flame Theories **Spoiler Warning**

This is my first post, but I need to get this theory out there...

I think Andarnas parents are the ward stones .... hear me out.

When Violet first sees the ward stone in Aretia this is how she describes it.

"The shimmering black pillar rises to over twice the height of Xaden and would take all nine of us holding our arms outstretched to surround it. Etched in the very center, at least six feet across, is a series of circles, each fitting within the next and boasting a rune carved in along its path. It’s almost the same pattern as on the pages of Warrick’s journal. I move toward it, soaking in every detail. “Is it onyx?” I ask Xaden. It’s massive. Too heavy for even a dragon to carry. They had to have carved it in this very chamber. “We can’t say for certain, but my father thought it was polished iron,” he answers."

Yarros, Rebecca. Iron Flame (The Empyrean Book 2) (p. 523). Entangled Publishing, LLC. Kindle Edition.

When she sees the ward stone at Basgiath she describes it as this.

"The wardstone is twice as large as the one in Aretia, as is the chamber that houses it, but unlike Aretia’s, the rings and runes carved into it are interrupted by a diamond pattern."

Yarros, Rebecca. Iron Flame (The Empyrean Book 2) (p. 794). Entangled Publishing, LLC. Kindle Edition.

We also learn that the allure in the daggers is made out of a few materials but one of them being Dragon Eggshell, which consist of Metal and Magic. This makes me believe that the dragons or dragon scale could be a type of metal, which would explain why Violet's armor is so effective against daggers. The wardstones are also an unknown metal...

The wardstones are also placed in specific locations yet described as too big to move even by dragons. I think because both wardstones are in locations that are large open "cave like" areas open to the sky but hidden from everything else makes me think that these were designed for this, therefore the wardstones had to have been moved there.

We know that Andarna is a special type of dragon, she also effectively killed a Venin with fire (and by ripping his head off) which in the battle at Resson Tairn was unable to burn any Venin.

I think that Andarnas parents sacrificed themselves to become the wardstones. I think that the one in Basgiath is her dad and was able to be "fired" because her mom was one of the 7. Then when her mom became the second wardstone in Aretia, they needed Andarna to fire that once she was able. This would explain why they only ever activated one stone. It also could explain why they look different. I also think "diamond pattern" reminds me of scales. We also assume the wardstones are Iron because that what Fen Riorson thought, but it's never confirmed.

I think Andarna is the Key they are looking for to beat the Venin, Brennen mentioned that something took out the Venin 600 years ago and they are searching for that. I don't think Venin were completely eradicated obviously because they are still around. I think Andarnas parents were the only dragons that could stop them, and they thought becoming the wards would be their only defense. We also know that Andarna is 650 years old (or waited that long to hatch) meaning she was around before the unification of Navarre. So, her species could have been killed off during the great war (which we learned little about but was obviously against the venin within the Barrons). I think there's more to Violet and Andarna and potentially a prophecy, but I will summarize that another time.

[multi-fandom-imagine]

Hey, i see that you write for RE characters :) and i'll like to ask you for something (don't know if you accept requests now but here i go) can you make headcanons or a one-shot of Billy Coen as a boyfriend? ( i don't almost nothing of him and i LOVE HIM SO MUCH)

A/n: This is old! I’m very sorry this took so long, also Billy needs more love.

Prompts used:

-“I love it when you look at me like that.”

- “aw, sweetheart you know you don’t have to ask…come here.”

Billy Coen was grateful that he met Rebecca Chambers, not only did the Medic save his life she was also able to clear his name. He was finally able to go back to you.

To have a normal life with you.

Back when he was in the military he’s treasure the looks you sent him before he would get deployed but now.

Now he can see that look every day.

It was a date night, he wanted to treat you. You deserved it since it actually took him the courage to leave the house after all the bullshit he went through, that you stayed by his side.

Billy was sure he would die a happy man if he could just see your smile one last time. Taking a bite of his food he managed to meet your gaze. A bright smile was on your face, love shinning in your eyes.

Love for him!

Shaking his head Billy flexed his fingers then reached out to let his thumb glide across your cheek. “I love it when you look at me like that.”

Laughing you shook your head leaning into the palm of his hand, you missed his hand. Missed his touch and right now you wanted nothing more than to be close to the man you loved. “Billy.” A small pout on your lips.

Watching you, a slight chuckle escaped his lips though a reading grin formed on his face. “aw, sweetheart you know you don’t have to ask…come here.”

Sitting up on your chair, you easily scooted it over him. Your head nestling on his shoulder as the man easily wrapped his arms around your waist. “I love you…you know that right.”

Humming, you placed a small kiss to his jaw. “I love you too Billy, I’m so happy you’re home.”

Home…yes…Billy was finally home.

[slifarianhawk]

Chapter 29: survival (Wesker's P.O.V.)

Upon seeing Tabitha's unconscious form being rolled into her medical bay I felt a wave of relief wash over me. The bandages were barely bloody. She looked like she was sleeping peacefully, I am positive that she was at rest for once.

"You know you staring at her like that makes you seem more like a stalker rather than her husband," Gale said walking into the room I.V. in hand.

"And you would know that how, Chambers?" I asked a slight tone of irritation in my voice.

He shrugged and started to tap on Tabitha's left arm to find a vein, "So you are back in the picture ay boss? That's good for her. She's a great person when she's not a little lonely and depressed."

"She normally has to get I.V.s in her hand. She has rolling veins Chambers." I said taking her other hand in my own," She is so beautiful, I regret not choosing to come to find her supposed corpse after the Raccoon City incident. I remember when Birkin called me to tell me she passed. I was enraged and inconsolable. He had told me Sergei had killed her and was taking her corpse with Spencer out of Raccoon City."

"I know, I was the U.B.C.S. agent on that helicopter. She was leaning up against me cold as ice. But on oxygen and an I.V. of some drug keeping her alive and unconscious. Spencer handed Vladimir a vial and a syringe." He said poking the needle into Tabitha's left dorsal metacarpal vein.

"That was when he infected her with the angelis virus then," I said stroking her hair out of her face and adjusting my sunglasses.

"Yes, I think so at least. Who's that?" Gale asked and I turned my head.

"Albert, are you in here?" Excella said entering the medical bay.

"Excella will you prep my serum? I'll take it in here. I haven't had my dose this afternoon." I quickly said to get her to leave.

"Yes, Albert," She quickly said rushing out.

Gale looked at me slightly shaking his head ” Damnit Wesker you got a lot of bitches who want a piece of you, but not in hand-to-hand combat if you know what I mean. By the way, does that one bitch just piss you off cuz you told her to scram real quick since you sent her away so quickly?" He laughed and I felt my eyes flared slightly.

"That is none of your concern Chambers. Now back to the previous discussion. How long were you in the Russian base with my precious lotus?" I asked looking back at Tabitha.

"Winter of ninety-eight just after the Rockfort incident. I got infected by a Bandersnatch when Alfred lost control of his base. T was in her sleeper mode as I'd call it and Vladimir had her hair a silverfish color at the time. You might not have known it was her at the time but she was the one who caused the explosion where your face got badly burnt in Antarctica. She doesn't remember anything from her sleeper modes. Vladimir enjoyed telling her what she did when we returned. She damn near committed suicide. I had to stop her that time."

"I should get her in to see my psychologist based at the Tricell base. She was caused so much trauma by that bastard Sergei. My goddess deserves the best care." I said caressing her cheek.

She was going to be the mother of our new world, with Uroboros and the Angelis virus we are unstoppable. I just need my delicate lotus to be stable enough to keep herself safe when I'm not around. I was gone for so long from her life but still managed to love me enough to come find me. Even if it was under the guise of our daughter.

"There aren't many of us left are there Wesker?" Gale said standing in the door frame holding a picture of Rebecca

"What are you going on about Chambers?" I demanded to know being pulled from my train of thought.

"Us as Umbrellas pawns and S.T.A.R.S. survivors. We are the only three in the world that knew what happened that night and why." Gale said tucking away the photo and going for a lighter.

"You still have that old thing," I asked walking over and taking off my sunglasses.

"It has sentimental value, ya know. Barry gave me this on my first day in S.T.A.R.S. Barry said you might need this in the future kid keep it with ya, and he handed me this lighter. You were right when you told me that we survivors walk a difficult path, but I had Rebecca. You two on the other hand were fucked from the get-go. Sergei keeping you and her apart."

"It was difficult but in the end, we made it back to each other. How is Rebecca anyway?" I asked genuinely curious but was met by a dangerous glare.

"Leave my sister out of this Wesker. She is finally in a safe place and I'm not letting her back in the field just yet." Gale said turning to face me.

"I seemed to have touched a nerve, you are as hot-headed as you were in S.T.A.R.S. Chambers," I said with a smirk.  

"Bet I could beat out your sorry ass now. I'm twice the combatant I was when I was vice-captain of the Bravo team." Gale said smugly.

"You couldn't even beat Tabitha when she had her ankle in a brace." I  scoffed.

"Alright, we spar and if I win you keep Rebecca off the table with your plans." He said offering his hand out.

I was intrigued I used to take these bets with Tabitha, "What do I get if I win then Chambers?"

"I'll go back with you to Africa as long as I can continue my work with Phoenix Corps." Gale offered his hand still and firm.

"Alright deal but I must warn you even in her equinoxal state I still have not lost to Tabitha," I said.

"Follow me," Gale said walking out of Tabitha's med bay.

The walk was not long on the left-hand side of the vehicle bay was a large gym. Next to that was a glass room with judo mats along the floor. An Emblem of a blue and green Phoenix on the wall.

"This is where I train the recruits. Takea the best to make the best." Chambers said tossing aside his jacket and getting into a starting stance.

"So you think you can beat me Chambers? Let us see if what I taught you is still in that thick skull of yours."  I said lunging at Gale at full speed landing a cobra strike on his chest.

Gale chuckles “Ok, wesker that was a nice little move there” Gale dashes forward towards me as I prepped my counter however, Gale sidesteps to the right and hits me square in the jaw.

"Not bad," I smirked wickedly grabbing onto the fist he just hit me with and slamming my heel into Gale's side holding on to his fist attempting to dislocate his shoulder, "but not good enough."

“Trying to break my arm this early wesker,” Gale says sarcastically.

Gale turns his body towards me trying to go for a body kick but I quickly catch him and throw him against a wall “Had enough yet Chambers”

"Come on we both know your wife hits harder than that." Gale cracks his neck standing up from the floor and unsheathing his Rambo knife, speeds behind me. In the blink of an eye, the tip of his blade snagged my left shoulder tearing it mildly into flesh.

"try and keep up Wesker." Gale mocked.

“You’ll pay for that dearly Chambers” I said slightly frustrated and charged for Gale.

Gale smirked quickly sidestepped and slashed my side.

Grabbing  my side I growled, "Hmm and I know my dear lotus taught you not to get cocky."

I grabbed the blade, dislodging it from Gale's hand and throwing it into the wall. quickly spinning and I landed a palm strike on Gale's center of gravity.

Even though watching Chambers struggle to regain balance is entertaining I knew I had to end this. With a quick roundhouse kick to the face, I knocked Gale to the floor. Pinning him with my knee and resting my arm on his throat, “You may be faster Chambers, but your technique is severely flawed when it comes to superiors such as myself."

"Not bad boss not many can get me down." Gale coughs.

Tabitha walks in clapping, "Not bad for the first spar in years between my best student and my greatest treasure."

Hey everyone slifarianhawk here I partnered up with my co-writer to bring you this chapter have an amazing weekend next chapter will be a good one My name is Silfarianhawk and I'm not so far away.

[sugarspikesart]

Old Rebecca!

The woman ever

[tumortain]

i wish the main focus of this book was the detective trying to juggle all their responsibilities. and failing miserably lol.

i was so disappointed when i got to just call tina to cover for mc at the station and she was like “haha ofc <3″ and from what i remember she was ok with it even if she didn’t know The Truth like wtf.... people are being kidnaped left and right, the town’s only detective goes AWOL and no one bats an eye? and don’t even get me started on the chamber, you can be like “i fail at everything i do” and they still will want to suck your dick dfkjdslkjfs???? so goofy.

idk but seeing mc fail at being there both for UB and missions with them and tina and verda and their job as the detective would be a better catalyst for internal and external conflict than whatever the fuck All of That was. 

and the ending would make much more sense. mc looks back at all the times they had to choose between their new and old lives and finally comes to terms with the fact that now that they Know The Truth they can’t leave the supernatural world and even if they don’t want to they have to leave the station and become an agent and like you can be happy or not about it but it is what it is. they accept the promotion knowing that they are leaving something behind. it’s a bittersweet but needed moment.

because it threw me off!!! so much!!! when mommy dearest showed up and was like you’re an agent now byeeee~. i get that with all that soul bonding bs it is your destiny~ but after all the shit mc goes thru the book i felt so drained and confused so when rebecca told mc abt the promotion it felt... so helpless? 

and i was like oh ok it’s somethingsomething MC and Sin parallel somethingsometing moment. that’s fun ig?? and i’d be ok with it if the book didn’t end with that GODDAMN PARTY hfjsdkf like i get wanting to end on a high note but uhhhh that was not a way to go about it imo. i wanted to tell them all to go to hell leave me alone so bad LMFAO.

[forthegothicheroine]

Do you have any gothic novels that you can recommend off the top of your head? Especially to people who want to try their hand at the genre? I've hit a wall in my project and I need to get some fresh inspiration, but I don't know where to start and the book side of tumblr failed me the last time I tried asking them for recs

Hell yeah! I made some old posts for this a while back, but it's good to look at it again with my more recent taste! Let's see...

Classic Gothics

Dracula: The one, the only. Often imitated, never equalled.

Frankenstein: Short, sad and world changing! Can get a little slow at parts, but definitely worth it. (True story, my parents read this to me as a fetus to calm my kicking, so it's part of my personal mythology!)

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward: The most gothic of Lovecraft's work, and possibly my favorite. Novella length, usually found in collections.

The Picture of Dorian Gray: Sinister, sexy, philosophical, with a main character I want to punch in the face!

Carmilla: Another novella, about as lush and swooning as vampire stories get.

The Hound of the Baskervilles: A very readable gothic mystery.

Confessions of a Justified Sinner: This one isn't as action packed, but if you have big religious issues like me, it's incredibly haunting.

The Monk: Like the above, but sleazier and crazier!

Northanger Abbey: A gentle parody of early gothics, starring an adorable proto-goth girl.

The Italian: I'll be honest, I find Anne Radcliffe kind of a slog, but if you liked Northanger Abbey and want to read what Catherine Morland reads, this is probably the most accessible.

A Long Fatal Love Chase: This starts as campy and then takes a plunge into gut-wrenchingly intense. The book Jo March was always trying to write!

The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Another novella, and Stevenson is one of the best writers out there for excitement!

The Werewolf of Paris: Gothic monster as serial killer, still scary today.

Rebecca: The foundation of all gothic romance to come afterwards. A ghost story without a ghost, with an ending that's still debated as happy or sad!

Jane Eyre: The other foundation of all gothic romance to come afterwards. I bounced off the child abuse-heavy beginning a few times, but I'm very glad I finally read to the good stuff!

The Castle of Otranto: Considered the first gothic novel, a goofy b-movie in written form.

Modern-ish Gothics (post-1950 or so)

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein: Fuck the haters, I love this book.

Mexican Gothic: Genuinely scary, genuinely romantic, genuinely creative. A favorite.

Blackwater: A southern gothic saga of a family in a flooded town, whose scion marries a woman who isn't quite human. A whirlwind ride!

A Bloodsmoor Romance: Another family saga, this one northern gothic, with sisters whose lives all go off the rails in different supernatural ways. Give this a try before writing Joyce Carol Oates off entirely!

The Silver Devil: A nasty, problematic bodice ripper where you'll cheer for the heroine to bring the hero down low!

Interview with the Vampire: To be honest again, I'm not super into Anne Rice, but this is a page-turner, and every vampire book that has come after it has had to respond to it in one way or another. Read the next two Vampire Chronicles books if you like it!

A Taste of Blood Wine: My own preferred sexy vampire romance!

The Bloody Chamber: The ultimate dark sexy fairy tale work, accept no substitutes.

Haunted Castles: Contains the brilliant novella Sardonicus, as well as some other campy gothic stories!

A Great and Terrible Beauty: Many millennials were introduced to the gothic genre via this, Fear Street Sagas, or A Series of Unfortunate Events. This is my favorite of the three, though the sequels are a bit of a letdown.

Gormenghast: This series is a throwback to the pseudo-medieval, Otranto-style gothic, but much better. Don't read Titus Alone.

[chxckandmxte]

Starter Call || @missxnsuppxrt​

Finally it was over, the biohazard that happened in New York at the hands of yet another crazed man by the name of Glen Arias, someone who was referred to as a merchant of death when in reality, he was just another person who lost their mind to revenge. A part of Leon could understand given that his wedding had been bombed, anyone would want revenge for something that horrible, even so, the whole world didn’t have to pay for it. Leon never originally cared about taking up his gun again. But then, Chris Redfield and Rebecca Chambers came to find him and pull him into that crap. While he was very reluctant, it wasn’t until they were shot at and Rebecca was kidnapped, that was when he knew he was in too deep and couldn’t back out, after her abduction, was when the real seriousness  of the old Leon came back, he knew that he had to help Chris now, as skilled as he was, there was no way he’d be able to handle it all by himself, so they set off. 

After several long hours of zombie shooting, close range shootouts and hand-hand combat topped off with the initial mutation of Glen Arias himself, the chaotic hours had finally come to an end, and with Rebecca chambers hand-made cure, the city of New York could finally settle down into peace as all the affected civilians turned back to normal. It had only been roughly close to twenty-four hours, it felt like much longer for Leon, all the missions felt like they dragged on for longer than they would, it was tiring. With the ordeal finally behind him, as the plane himself, Rebecca, and Chris along with those other two very capable BSAA soldiers.

Upon his their arrival, Leon bid them his goodbye’s, Chris and Leon shook hands as a sign of no hard feelings from the bar in Colorado and reassurance that the two of them could count on each again for help should something like ever happened again -- and eventually it would, this world seemed to have a lions share of psycho’s waiting to try and unleash the next new virus that someone would undoubtedly create -- it always happened like that and probably would never change. As Leon watched the airplane take off and fly away into the horizon, as he turned his back to the runway and entered the airport, he was surprised to see someone he hadn’t seen in a little while, only this time she was right here waiting for him. None other than Ingrid Hunnigan, his mission support contact whom had helped him in pretty much all of his missions after his rescue operation to save the former presidents daughter Ashley Graham.

Surprised, the DSO agent approached her, he wasn’t expecting to see her here, she was usually always so busy with work in her office, so her being here made him wonder, just what was she doing here in the first place? There couldn’t possibly already be more work was there? He was so tired, and was in dire need of some serious rest and relaxation.

[{ ☣ }] - “...Hunnigan? You’re never usually outside of the office, if there’s another job, I don’t want it. I just got back from a mission that was enough of a pain in the ass..”

[casxmorgan]

Books Books Books

100 Years of Solitude

11.22.63

120 Days of Sodom

1491

1984

A Brief History of Time

A Canticle for Leibowitz

A Child Called It

A Clockwork Orange

A Confederacy of Dunces

A History of the World in Ten and a Half Chapters

A Land Fit for Heroes Trilogy

A Little Life

A Naked Singularity

A People's History of the United States

A Scanner Darkly

A Series of Unfortunate Events

A Short History of Nearly Everything

A Song of Ice and Fire

A Storm of Swords

A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments

A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Walk in the Woods

A World Lit Only by Fire

Accursed Kings

Alice in Wonderland

All Quiet on the Western Front

All the Light We Cannot See

All the Pretty Horses

America, the Book

American Gods

American Psycho

And then There Were None

Angela’s Ashes

Animal Farm

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Anna Karenina

Anything Terry Pratchett, But, Mort is My Favorite

Anything Written by Robin Hobb

Apt Pupil

Artemis Fowl

Asimov's Guide to the Bible

Asoiaf

Atlas Shrugged

Bartimeaus

Batman: the Long Halloween

Battle Royale

Beat the Turtle Drum

Behind the Beautiful Forevers

Belgariad Series

Beloved

Berserk

Bestiario

Black Company

Blankets/habibi

Blind Faith

Blindness

Blood Meridian

Blood and Guts: a History of Surgery

Bluest Eye

Brandon Sanderson

Brave New World

Breakfast of Champions

Bridge to Terabithia

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: an Indian History of the American West

Calvin and Hobbs

Candide

Carrie

Cat's Cradle

Catch 22

Cats Cradle

Chaos

Child of God

Choke

Chuck Palahniuk

City of Ember

City of Thieves

Cloud

Collapse

Come Closer

Complaint

Confessions of a Mask

Contact

Conversation in the Cathedral

Cosmos

Crime and Punishment

Dan Brown

David

Dead Birds Singing

Dead Mountain: the Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident

Delta Venus

Die Räuber (the Robbers)

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

Don Quixote

Dragonlance

Dune

Dying of the Light

East of Eden

Educated

Empire of Sin: a Story of Sex, Jazz, Murder, and the Battle for Modern New Orleans

Enders Game

Enders Shadow

Escape from Camp 14

Ever Since Darwin

Every Man Dies Alone

Everybody Poops

Everything is Illuminated

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Fahrenheit 451

Far from the Madding Crowd

Faust

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson

Feet of Clay

Fight Club

First Law

Flowers for Algernon

Flowers in the Attic

Foundation

Foundation Series

Foundation Trilogy

Frankenstein

Freakonomics

Fun Home

Galapagos

Geek Love

Gerald’s Game

Ghost Story

Go Ask Alice

Go Dog Go

Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid

Goldfinch

Gone Girl

Gone with the Wind

Good Omens

Grapes of Wrath

Great Expectations

Greg Egan

Guards! Guards!

Guns Germs and Steel

Guts (short Story)

Half a World

Ham on Rye

Hannibal Rising

Hard Boiled Wonderland

Hatchet

Haunted

Hawaii

Heart Shaped Box

Heart of Darkness

Hellbound Heart

Hellraiser

Hell’s Angels

Helter Skelter

His Dark Materials

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Hogg

Holocaust by Bullets

House of Leaves

How to Cook for Fourty Humans

How to Win Friends and Influence People

Huckleberry Finn

Hyperion

I Am America, and So Can You

I Am the Messenger

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream

I Was Dr. Mengele’s Assistant

In Cold Blood

In Search of Our Mother's Gardens

Independent People

Infinite Jest

Into Thin Air

Into the Wild

Introduction to Linear Algebra

Invisible Monsters

Ishmael

It

Jacques Le Fataliste

Jane Eyre

Jaunt

Job: a Comedy of Justice

John Dies at the End

John Grisham

Johnathan Livingston Seagull

Johnny Got His Gun

Jon Ronson

Journal of a Novel

Jurassic Park

Justine

L'histoire D'o

Lamb

Last Exit to Brooklyn

Les Miserables

Lies My Teacher Told Me

Life of Pi

Limits and Renewals

Little House in the Big Woods

Lockwood & Co.

Lolita

Looking for Trouble

Lord Foul’s Bane

Lord of the Flies

Lyddie

Malazan Book of the Fallen

Maldoror

Manufacturing Consent: the Political Economy of the Mass Media

Man’s Search for Meaning

Mark Twain’s Autobiography

Maus

Meditations

Megamorphs (series)

Mein Kampf

Memnooch the Devil

Metro 2033

Michael Crichton

Middlesex

Mindhunter

Misery

Mistborn

Moby Dick

Mrs. Dalloway

My Side of the Mountain

My Sweet Audrina

Nacht über Der Prärie (night over the Prairie)

Naked Lunch

Name of the Wind

Neuromancer

Never Let Me Go

Neverwhere

New York

Next

Night

Night Shift

Norwegian Wood

Notes from Underground

Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea

Of Mice and Men

Of Nightingales That Weep

Ohio

Old Mans War

Old Mother West Wind

On Heroes and Tombs

On Laughter and Forgetting

On the Road

One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest

One Hundred Years of Solitude

One of Us

Painted Bird

Patrick Rothfuss

Perfume: the Story of a Murderer

Persepolis

Pet Sematary

Peter Pan

Pillars of the Earth

Poisonwood Bible

Pride and Predjudice

Ready Player One

Rebecca

Red Mars

Red Night (series)

Red Shirts

Red Storm Rising

Redwall

Replay

Requiem for a Dream

Revenge

Riftwar Saga

Ringworld

Roald Dahl

Rolls of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Round Ireland with a Fridge

Running with Scissors

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes

Sapiens, a Brief History of Humankind

Scary Stories to Read in the Dark

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Schindler’s List

Sein Und Zeit

Shades of Grey

Sharp Objects

Shattered Dreams

Sherlock Holmes

Sho-gun

Siddhartha

Sisypho

Skin and Other Stories

Slaughterhouse Five

Smoke & Mirrors

Snow Crash

Soldier Son

Sometimes a Great Notion

Sphere

Starship Troopers

Stiff, the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Storied Life of A.j. Fikry

Stormlight Archives

Story of the Eye

Stranger in a Strange Land

Surely, You're Joking

Survivor Type (short Story)

Suttree

Swan Song

Tale of Two Cities

Tales of the South Pacific

The Alchemist

The Altered Carbon Trilogy

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

The Art of Deception

The Art of Fielding

The Art of War

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation

The Autobiography of Henry Viii

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

The Beach

The Bell Jar

The Bible

The Bloody Chamber

The Book Thief

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

The Brothers Karamazov

The Call of Cthulu and Other Weird Stories

The Cask of Amontillado (short Story)

The Catcher in the Rye

The Chronicles of Narnia

The Clown

The Color out of Space

The Communist Manifesto

The Complete Fiction of H.p. Lovecraft

The Count of Monte Cristo

The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night Time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

The Dagger and the Coin

The Damage Done

The Dark Tower

The Declaration of Independence, the Us Constitution, and the Bill of Rights

The Devil in the White City

The Dharma Bums

The Diamond Age

The Dice Man

The Discworld Series

The Dresden Files

The Elegant Universe

The First Law Trilogy

The Forever War

The Foundation Trilogy

The Gentleman Bastard Sequence

The Geography of Nowhere

The Girl Next Door

The Girl on the Milk Carton

The Giver

The Giving Tree

The God of Small Things

The Grapes of Wrath

The Great Gatsby

The Great Gilly Hopkins

The Hagakure

The Half a World Trilogy

The Handmaid’s Tale

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

The Hiding Place

The History of Love

The Hobbit

The Hot Zone

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

The Hyperion Cantos

The Jaunt

The Jungle

The Key to Midnight

The Killing Star

The Kingkiller Chronicles

The Kite Runner

The Last Question (short Story)

The Lies of Lock Lamora

The Little Prince

The Long Walk

The Lord of the Rings

The Lottery (short Story)

The Lovely Bones

The Magicians

The Magus

The Martian

The Master and Margarita

The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect

The Monster at the End of This Book

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

The Music of Eric Zahn (short Story)

The Name of the Wind & the Wise Man's Fear

The Necronomicon

The New Age of Adventure: Ten Years of Great Writing

The Night Circus

The Nightmare Box

The Odyssey

The Omnivore's Dilemma

The Orphan Master’s Son

The Outsiders

The Painted Bird

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The Phantom Tollbooth

The Picture of Dorian Gray

The Pit and the Pendulum

The Plague

The Prince

The Prince of Tides

The Princess Bride

The Prophet

The Queen’s Gambit

The Rape of Nanking

The Red Dwarf

The Republic

The Rifter Saga

The Road

The Satanic Verses

The Screwtape Letters

The Secret History

The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

The Selfish Gene

The Shining

The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer

The Silmarillion

The Sirens of Titan

The Six Wives of Henry the 8th

The Solitude of Prime Numbers

The Speaker of the Dead

The Stars My Destination

The Stormlight Archive

The Story of My Tits

The Stranger

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck

The Suspicions of Mr. Witcher

The Tao of Pooh

The Things They Carried

The Time Machine

The Time Traveller’s Wife

The Tin Drum

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green

The Wasp Factory

The Wind Up Bird Chronicle

The Wind-up Bird Chronicle

The World According to Garp

The Yellow Wallpaper

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Things Fall Apart

Thirsty

This Blinding Absence of Light

Tiger!

Time Enough for Love

To Kill a Mockingbird

To Say Nothing of the Dog

Toni Morrison

Too Many Magicians

Traumnovelle

Tuesdays with Morrie

Tuf Voyaging

Undeniable

Under Plum Lake

Universe in a Nutshell

Unwind

Uzumaki

Various

Village Life in Late Tsarist Russia

Walden

War & Peace

War and Peace

Warriors: Bluestar’s Prophecy

Watchers

Water for Elephants

Watership Down

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

We Need to Talk About Kevin

Wheel of Time

When Rabbit Howls

Where the Red Fern Grows

Where the Sidewalk Ends

Why I Am Not a Christian

Why People Believe Weird Things

Wizards First Rule

Wool

World War Z

Worm

Wuthering Heights

You Can Choose to Be Happy

Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

[prolestariwrites]

Briefing

Fandom: Resident Evil 0 Characters: Rebecca Chambers, Albert Wesker, Bravo Team Rating: T

Summary: It's Rebecca Chambers' first day with the S.T.A.R.S. Bravo team, and she receives her first assignment: Bravo team is going to find what is causing deadly havoc in the Arklay Mountains. But when Rebecca notices an inconsistency in the briefing, she starts to suspect there is more going on than just a simple investigation.

A/N: My oneshot for the Resident Evil 0 zine. You can read it here or on AO3. Please enjoy!

Clutching her coffee, Rebecca plasters a smile on her face as she enters the briefing room. She scans the rows of chairs, half of which are still empty as about a dozen members of the S.T.A.R.S. teams mill around and chat. Someone bumps her elbow slightly as they enter, offering a brief apology before heading to take a seat. She moves away from the doorway, walking slowly until she recognizes the back of the captain’s head.

Rebecca approaches a bit nervously, wondering if she should say something, but Marini notices her right away. “Chambers! Right on time.” He gestures to the row ahead, and a few people turn their heads to look. “Sit with the rest of Bravo, it’ll be easier.”

“Sure thing.” With a relieved sigh she nods, and once she is seated the person next to her turns and looks her over.

“So you’re the newbie,” he says with a chuckle. “Hell of a time to join S.T.A.R.S.”

Before she can ask why, someone leans over the chairs and jokes, “You sure she’s old enough? She looks sixteen.”

“I’m eighteen, actually,” she responds.

The guy scoffs and shakes his head. “Enrico, man, you recruiting out of kindergarten now?”

A few others laugh, but Rebecca lifts her chin. “I just graduated—”

“Lay off, Speyer. We’re lucky to get a medic at all.” The guy next to her gives her a gentle elbow, and Speyer gives a face before turning around. Her companion ignores him to hold out his hand. “I’m Dewey. Bravo team pilot. Ignore him.”

“Nice to meet you.” She shakes his hand and offers a smile. “It’s fine. I expected some ribbing on my first day.”

“He’s just pissed we’re all here so early. Meetings before 7 am should be outlawed.”

Rebecca chuckles as she settles back in her seat. “So you’re on Bravo too?”

“Yup. I get the team where it needs to go. Speyer here is our sharpshooter.” He nods towards Speyer, then to another man that Speyer is talking to at the end of the aisle. “That’s Frost. He’s on Alpha team, so he’s not important.”

Frost looks up at his name and flips them off. Rebecca covers a laugh with her hand as Dewey leans in and says, “Never, ever play poker with them. They cheat like nothing I’ve seen.”

Another person drops into the seat on Dewey’s other side. “Thought I was gonna be late,” he huffs. “Had to haul ass to get here.”

Rebecca leans forward a bit to see who is talking, and Dewey points. “Sullivan, this is the new girl.” She puts out her hand as Sullivan takes it, and Dewey continues, “Kenneth Sullivan, our recon guy.”

“Doctor Kenneth Sullivan, thank you,” he corrects Dewey. “Welcome to the team.”

“Thank you,” she replies. “Rebecca Chambers. Can I ask what kind of doctor?”

“Chemistry,” he answers, and her eyes go wide.

“No way! I just graduated with a Bachelor’s in chemistry.”

They both look at her in surprise. “How old are you, anyway?” Dewey asks.

“Uh… eighteen?”

They both exchange a glance. “Good luck, Chambers,” Sullivan says before shaking his head and sitting back in his chair.

Rebecca is dying to know what that means, but before she can figure out how to answer, the door opens and two men enter. She immediately recognizes Chief Irons, who had conducted one of her interviews. Not the friendliest of guys, and probably overdue for retirement. The other she doesn’t recognize, but the rest of the S.T.A.R.S. members take their seats as Irons calls the meeting to order, stepping behind a podium at the front.

Once the conversation dies down, Irons says, “I’ll keep this short so I can turn things over to your briefing. This is a friendly reminder that the backseat of a police cruiser is not to be used for brewing homemade beer.” There is a snort from the other side of the room, and Irons’ eyes dart to find the source. “When I find out who it was, the reminder won’t be so friendly. So keep that in mind.”

The rest of the squad laughs. Rebecca looks around with raised eyebrows. S.T.A.R.S. has a bit of a reputation of working hard and playing harder, but technically that would be a crime, wouldn’t it? She tries to remember her training manual when Irons continues, “I’ll turn the meeting over to Wesker for the rest. Good day, gentlemen.”

“And ladies!” a female voice calls out, and Rebecca strains to see a woman with a short haircut and her arms folded smirk as Irons shoots a glare on his way out the door.

Once he’s gone, the room erupts into talk, but the man at the front raises his hand as he takes Irons’ place at the podium. “Okay, settle down. We have actual business to do.”

Rebecca takes a moment to study him. She assumes this is Dr. Albert Wesker, the head of S.T.A.R.S. and captain of Alpha team. Even though she had been hired by Marini, Wesker was technically his boss, and she sits up a bit straighter when he removes his sunglasses. “First things first, we have a new team member. Chambers, stand up.”

Her eyes go wide for a second before she scrambles to her feet. She feels the eyes of everyone turning to her as Wesker continues, “Chambers is a graduate of the university and joining Bravo as a medic. She’s a special recruit due to her background in science and will be point for med emergencies, especially for civilians. Chambers, say something.”

She feels the blood drain from her face. “Uh… hi.”

There is a pause that feels like eternity, then one of the Alpha members gives a hoot and starts to clap. “Great speech!” he calls.

“Can it, Redfield,” Wesker grumbles. “Chambers, sit.”

Rebecca drops to her seat, feeling somewhat like a trained dog. She peeks to the side to see Dewey offer her a half-hearted smile, and she swallows uneasily.

“At our squad meeting two weeks ago you were briefed on the bodies that have been found in the Arklay Mountains.” Wesker moves around the podium and pulls down a screen before standing next to a projector set up in the center aisle. “Burton, get the briefing packets. And someone hit the lights.”

A few seconds later, the room goes dark, and Rebecca blinks as Wesker turns on the projector. A transparency is placed on the top just as Dewey passes her a folder. “I thought this was an RPD investigation?” the woman on the other side of the room asks.

Wesker focuses the projection, and when the image comes into view, Rebecca’s stomach turns. It’s a woman, her face and body gray and water-logged, deep cuts covering her arms and chest. “The investigation is being turned over to S.T.A.R.S. at the mayor’s insistence,” Wesker explains. “As of yesterday, the total body count has reached 21 victims. You’ll see in your packet the M.E. reports for the newest four. There are three other active missing persons cases that we suspect will also turn up with similar injuries.”

Rebecca blinks. She opens her folder to see more photos, bodies with gruesome injuries, some missing pieces. Setting her coffee down, she starts to scan through the reports as Wesker continues the briefing. “The mayor wants whoever this is caught. The streets leading into the mountains have already been temporarily blocked. The city needs them opened before the fourth of July holiday. The mayor is afraid that tourism will suffer.”

“Captain,” someone says, “does that mean there really are cannibals in the mountain?”

The squad titters with laughter as Wesker makes a snort. “Not hardly. The press seems to have an active imagination. The department is still operating under the assumption it is an animal, possibly a pack, that is behind these attacks. There’s nothing in those mountains but trees and bear shit.”

“So why tell us?” Speyer huffs. “Call animal control.”

“This thing has killed almost two dozen people. It’s possible it’s got some kind of disease, rabies or something. Whatever the case, it doesn’t need a tranquilizer and a cage. It needs a bullet in its brain.”

There are a few murmurs, but Wesker ignores them. He moves to the wall to turn back on the lights, and again Rebecca blinks as she reads, the words coming a bit clearer now that she can see properly. “Bravo, I want you up there within forty-eight hours. You’ll take the chopper and land in the mountains. Take whatever firepower you want. I want this thing found.”

Rebecca looks up in surprise. The other team members look at one another with smiles, but she sneaks a look over her shoulder. Marini is scowling, his arms folded as he gives Wesker a dark glare. She frowns as Dewey elbows her. “Your first mission! Excited?”

She hums in response, glancing back at her folder. On the other side of the room, one of the Alpha team complains, “Why do they get to go? Shouldn’t we all be up there? Mountain’s pretty big, captain. No way they’ll find it.”

“Hey, shut up,” Speyer says. “We got this.”

“Yeah,” Dewey laughs. “We’ll put the bear’s head right over the doorway to the office.”

The others laugh, and the one that had clapped for her says, “I got a hundred you guys won’t find shit.”

The rest of the S.T.A.R.S. team starts calling to one another, making bets and jokes about bear shit, but Rebecca quietly flips through the photos. Something seems off, and without thinking she raises her hand. “Sir?” she calls.

Wesker turns to look at her. “You have a question, Chambers?”

The room goes quiet, and Rebecca clears her throat. “Sorry, sir. I was wondering what happened to the missing pieces.” Wesker stares at her for several moments, and nervously she holds up her folder. “It says the bodies have missing parts? Hands, feet, pieces of the stomach and torso? Were those parts found? Because if it’s bears, they aren’t carnivores, and so wouldn’t be eating—”

“Chambers,” he says, his eyes narrowing. “Are you suggesting that there is a pack of cannibals in the mountains, eating people in some ritualistic offering?”

Rebecca feels her face flush as she shifts in her seat. “No, sir.”

“Then are you suggesting the briefing that I have painstakingly put together is incorrect?”

Her chest feels tight, the eyes turned to her feeling like tiny burns. “No, sir.”

Wesker narrows his eyes. “Then why don’t you enlighten us on your insight?”

Panic pushes at the edge of her vision, and with that, a deep sense of unfairness at being called out like this. But before she can reply, Marini speaks up. “I’ll take care of it,” he says gruffly. “It’s her first day. I’ll make sure she’s briefed.”

The two men exchange a look she does not understand before Wesker finally nods. “Fine. Bravo, you’re staying to put together gear and do your checks. Alpha, go home and get sleep, because you’ll be on until they get back.”

The meeting breaks up, the mood much quieter as the team members murmur to each other and gather their things. Rebecca stares at her folder, wondering what she did wrong, when Marini stands. “Follow me, Chambers,” he says without looking at her.

Quickly she is up and on his heels, walking down the hallway to the S.T.A.R.S. office suite. The two squads take up opposite ends of the room, and the Alpha members look at her curiously as she walks by while the Bravo team offer semi-encouraging smiles. Marini leads her to a small desk in the back, nearly empty except for an out-of-date calendar and an empty pen cup. “This one’s yours,” he says.

“Thank you,” she replies, placing her folder on top.

She glances over to see Speyer watching her. His desk is closest to hers, and he smothers a laugh, shaking his head as he goes back to his own paperwork. “Chambers,” Marini says quietly, “I didn’t think I needed to warn you about interrupting briefings.”

“I’m sorry,” she replies. “I thought I should ask. I apologize if it was inappropriate.”

“It’s not that,” he says, lowering his voice. “You see, up in the mountains—”

“Chambers!” They are interrupted by Wesker’s voice calling across the room. She looks up as the captain waves her over. “My office.”

Marini curses under his breath. “Just don’t ask any questions,” he offers as advice before going to his own desk.

She drops her bag on her desk before heading to Wesker’s office. He is behind his desk already, and he waves her to shut the door, closing them off from the rest of the unit. Rebecca takes a few nervous steps forward, glancing around. The bookcases are filled with binders and there are piles of folders on the file cabinets, but his own desk is pristine. A name plate sits on the front with engraved gold lettering: Dr. Albert Wesker, Captain, Special Tactics and Rescue Service.

“Continue your question,” Wesker says, placing his elbows on the desk as he looks at her coolly.

Rebecca swallows nervously. “It’s fine, sir. I understand I spoke out of turn. I’m sure once I study the file closer—”

“The missing parts,” he interrupts. “What did you notice?”

Her hands twist uncomfortably as she tries not to fidget. “Just that there was no notation if they were found. I thought by studying the bite marks, I could identify if they were human or not… but there’s no mention of them. It doesn't make sense that they weren't found, unless they actually were eaten.”

The question-that’s-not-a-question hangs between them for several moments. “I see,” he finally says. Wesker relaxes a bit, leaning forward on the desk. “It’s an astute observation, but one I have to ask you to forget.”

“Forget, sir?”

"Forget, Chambers."

She sucks in a deep breath. Arguing with her boss' boss isn't exactly what she had in mind the first day, but this is people's lives at stake, right? "Is there a reason why we shouldn't be looking for the parts, sir?"

“Are you familiar with Umbrella Pharmaceuticals?”

Confused by the sudden pivot in the conversation, Rebecca hesitates. “I studied some of their patents,” she nods. “They have facilities near here, correct?”

Wesker sits up in his chair. “They are a partner of the city and employ many of the voters. They are also a major donor to the city, including its elected officials. Having wild animals in the mountains disrupts their research, and their business. So you can understand why the mayor wants this handled as quickly as possible.”

Rebecca nods. “I understand.”

“We are not trying to find missing body parts. We are trying to find the animals that are killing and maiming citizens of our city. Anything else is a distraction. And the S.T.A.R.S. team does not need distractions, Chambers.”

Her cheeks warm with her name. “I understand, sir. Again, I apologize for the question.”

“No need to apologize.” Wesker smiles, but there is no warmth or friendliness in it. “I encourage all of my team members to ask questions. Any others you’d like to ask?”

“No, sir.”

“Good.” His eyes narrow slightly. “This will be your first mission. I’ll be watching closely. There are some that thought you were not right for this team, but I disagreed. I hope you don’t prove me wrong.”

That doesn't even make any sense. She hadn't even met him until today! But his expression almost dares her to contradict him. “Of course,” she breathes. “Thank you for the opportunity.”

He waves her off, and Rebecca slips out of the office, clearly dismissed. She walks slowly to her desk, turning the conversation over in her mind. Something is just off. Not just weird, but… as if he’s hiding something.

She sinks into her chair and looks around the office. Most of Alpha has left already on the captain’s orders, and the Bravo team is busy filling out forms and checking with each other on a hundred details. She needs to get to work too and make sure her med equipment is ready, but the fact that Wesker never explained the missing parts nags at her.

Why? And why bring up Umbrella Pharmaceuticals? Was he trying to intimidate her? Wesker doesn’t strike her as the kind of guy to play politics. And why would Umbrella care what was attacking people in the mountains, as long as it is handled?

“Chambers!” She jumps as Marini calls her name. “Take Dewey and report to weapons storage.”

“Yes, sir.” Rebecca stands, glancing down at the folder one more time. Just do this job, do it well, and prove herself as a member. Then when she gets back, she can think about Umbrella again, and figure out what Wesker’s connection is. After the mission is over.