Sorry again to leave you guys on a cliffhanger with that last chapter, hopefully, it's not so bad since I update rather frequently ovq in other news, yey~ they announced DLC for RE8. Yet at the same time said nothing regarding what that DLC would be X'D so woo that gives me nothing to work with! OTL I saw an article that said they'd be dropping details in a month so here's hoping.
At this point though the polls and comments are pretty well in favor of me continuing the story. so the plan is as follows.
Write up to my original ending point and mark the chapter using my little author notes. For those that are interested in sticking with the OG Plan, only you'll know your endpoint that way and I'll keep writing after that and as lore comes out I'll go back and adjust chapters as needed. Unless the DLC is like oh hey btw he's been married the whole time in the ultimate screw your attempts to respect the game's canon lore X'D in that case -Insert pained FanNatic sounds here- guess I'll just keep writing and pretend I don't see it?
Song suggestion: 50 ways to say goodbye by train
disclaimer: I own nothing~
On Monday March 9th Emma could be found pacing around her apartment as she thought over the two offers she received. It was the final day and she wasn't any closer to making a decision. Eventually, she walked back over to her coffee table and took a seat on the couch to stare down at the two printed copies of the job offers she received. "Okay. Let's go over this from the top again," Emma says as she picks up the cross country job offer. "On one hand we have the option to continue the job I have with better pay. I get to do a job I know I love with great perks but, I have to leave behind my friends that are practically family and break up with Chris." Emma says and gives a tired sigh before putting the document back on the coffee table. "On the other hand" she starts as she picks up the other offer packet "I can keep my social life and happy loving relationship at the expense of having to start my career over and scrap by for two or three years until I can catch back up to where I was and go to work every day for a job I don't believe in."
What was she doing with her life? Hell, What did she want from her life at this point? She shakes her head as she put down the papers in favor of flopping over onto the couch and wrapping herself in a throw blanket.
"Gosh darn existential mid-life crisis, Bull shit" she grumbles as she buries her face into the couch cushion. She did not need this right now but at this point, this was the time to think about where she wanted to be in life.
Maybe if she just, put it off a bit longer. She could write out drafts for the acceptance and rejection emails for now and place them over the ones she wanted as she was thinking over her options. at the least, it would save her a bit of time to have that done and ready... She nods and pushes herself to get up and grab a small notepad and a pen from the kitchen before returning to her seat on the couch.
The acceptance letter was easy enough to write. To whom it may concern: It would be my pleasure to accept the offered position. I look forward to receiving further details, please see the signed acceptance letter attached. Yours truly Emma Swanson. See? Easy enough. She took the page out of the notebook and placed that in between the two offer letters before getting started on the rejection letter.
It's with great regard that I-
No. that's not it. Emma takes the page out of the notebook and crumples it up before tossing it over the couch towards the kitchen. My apologies but this would not work NOPE! Gracious she was writing a job refusal not a breakup letter. she shook her head and crumpled the page to toss it over the couch as well. she'd clean it up later, this whole page crumpling thing was working wonders for her stress. it took a few more tries but after a good 20 or so failed drafts joined the first 2 on the floor between the living room and kitchen she finally got her start. I regret to inform you There we go that was better. Emma nods as she continued to write on the page.
I regret to inform you that after careful consideration, I've decided to move forward with other options that are more conducive to my current life goals.
It may be a bit forward but that would work. She took out the page and this time placed it in between the offers with the acceptance draft...Conducive to her life goals. God what even were those anymore. She twiddled her pen between her fingers of one hand as she used the other to turn on some music. maybe that would help clear her mind. After putting her phone on the table she looked back at the pen in her hand. She vaguely remembered getting this one as a 'gift' at a stress relief conference that the office hosted a few years ago. Choose happiness the purple pen declared in bold white font. Yeah, if only it was that easy. she thought with a sigh before lazily flicking her wrist to toss the pen across the room in contempt for the obnoxious message it held. She didn't know which option would be 'choosing happiness'.
She loved her last job and she'd be happy to continue working with the punk rockers. They were amazing and she believed she was actually doing something productive with her work, it was fun even if it was stressful at times and she was good at it. She also loved the friends she made here. Chelsea, Jack, the girls, Bastion and Travis, the hound wolf squad, the other regulars at the rink. Chris. How would she tell him she was leaving for good. She loved him.
What would make her happy? At this point, that wasn't the question as much as which option would make her less miserable. the first option would be heartbreak, the second would be consistent daily monotony.
She had put it off the question as long as she could. "What am I doing with my life... I'm turning 40, I'm unemployed and living alone in an apartment," Emma says as she holds her face and thinks it over. She had always told herself that she'd get through college and work on her career for a bit and work on the rest later but when was later and what was 'the rest'? Nah, that was a dumb question she knew the answer to it. She was pretending she didn't.
She'd thought that by this point she'd have a family. She'd talk to Chel in college all the time about how they were both going to find someone, get married, become neighbors, and how their kids would be friends. Sure they were joking about some things. Like they weren't serious about the being neighbors thing, that would be ridiculous. And Chel was never really as serious about having a career as Emma had been, but. she wasn't anywhere close to where she thought she'd be at this point. She has a boyfriend who she adored but, he's gone pretty often. She'd spend the more of her time worrying that she'll get a text from Claire that he didn't make it. And let's be honest here he's doing great with the girls lately but he's not really a kids kinda guy. He made that pretty clear when she first moved in with the glares and cranky grumbles. And that's fine! That's his choice and it just made her appreciate how much effort he'd been putting into getting along with Summer, Maurie, and Annie all the more.
I used to be mad, but now I know, sometimes it's better to let someone go, it just hadn't hit me yet. the older I get...
"You are not helping right now," Emma says as she shuffled the song.
Okay, so she wasn't where she thought she'd be at this point. thanks clear enough brain but what would get her to where she wanted to be? Going cross country would mean starting over on all basic relations she had while staying would mean maintaining them. which would actually help? The song had a point, sometimes progress required change. but would this change or just scrapping progress for the sake of scrapping it. was staying taking the easy way out? Even if she did accept the job at the publishing company it didn't mean she had to stay there. she could just work there and keep looking... which would look awful on her resume.
And she was back to square one.
She spent the next few hours going around in the same circles and using every trick she knew for decision making, wishing a magical third option would appear but she had 3 weeks to get a job and she couldn't risk this. Eventually, she stared at her decision. Each offer with its own letter draft sitting neatly on top. Emma opened her laptop and sent the proper emails before quickly shutting it and curling back up in her blanket.
What if she made the wrong choice... She needed a nap.
'*'*'*'*'
Chris made his way up the stairs to the second floor of the apartment complex carrying a plastic bag in one hand as he started digging out his keys from his pocket. Emma had been pretty out of it for two weeks now, at the least it felt like she had been avoiding eye contact more than usual. She'd been pretty stressed about this whole job-hunting thing and the lack of offers. It was weird she hadn't gotten any offers yet. She was a hard worker and she did well, it didn't really make sense to him. He stopped in front of her door to unlock it. Hopefully, a bit of Chinese takeout would help take some stress off her plate. It wasn't much but, the place was pretty good in his opinion. As he walked in he noticed the flurry of crumpled up pages on the floor. "What the he-" he stopped short as he looked around. Where was she? with that thought he closed the door behind him and walked to the island counter to put down his bag and look around.
he stooped down to pick up a few of the pages to open them up. It's with great regard that I- , My apologies but this would not work, To whom it may concern: no thanks. He picked up each page and opened them as he collected a stack of twenty or so wrinkled pages. some sort of attempt at a rejection letter from what he could tell. Did she get an offer from that book place? She had been pretty adamantly against it. He didn't realize a rejection letter would cause her this much stress though. as he picked up the pages he eventually made his way over to the couch to find Emma sleeping and curled up in a blanket.
Chris smiled a bit at this, he'd let her rest for now. he walked to the kitchen and threw away the pages properly before walking back around into the living room area. Huh, more paper. Why was there a pen by the window? "What got into you," he whispered to himself as he walks over to pick up the pen then check out the papers on the coffee table.
To whom it may concern: It would be my pleasure to accept the offered position. I look forward to receiving further details, please see the signed acceptance letter attached. Yours truly Emma Swanson.
He looked over the stack confused. She was accepting the job with the publishing company? Why? he looked over the letter and yeah it was honestly a really bad offer. he picked up the stack next to it and looked it over next. I regret to inform you that after careful consideration, I've decided to move forward with other options that are more conducive to my current life goals. That just confused him more. What company made a worse offer? he looked it over and the confusion mounted, this was an amazing offer, she'd get her job back. Did the notes get mixed up? It would make much more sense if they did get messed up somehow. It took him a moment but he did eventually notice the address for the building she'd be working in if she accepted the job and his heart sank a bit. Why didn't she tell him? Was this why she had been so quiet?
Chris put down the stack before noticing that there was a fair amount of writing on the notebook sitting on her laptop. he picked that up before taking a seat on the other couch and flipping through the pages.
a list labeled 'What makes me happy?', another labeled 'What are my life goals' with a bunch of question marks, a page labeled Publishing Company Pros and cons with a venn diagram followed by another similar Pro and Con page for the record label. Con: move away from friends, ?break up with Chris? :'(
Fuck.
His heart sank into his stomach. He was about to flip back to look at the other pages. She accepted the offer that was more 'conducive to her current life goals.' so what were they.
"Chris?" Emma asks groggily as she started sitting up. Panicking he quickly put the book behind his back and sat back to hide that he had it. As Emma woke up more properly her eyes widened. oh, shi- "Chris! oh my gosh. The apartment is a mess. I am so sorry I didn't know you were coming over today." she said as she quickly got up to go and clean up the papers. While her back was turned he quickly put the notebook back on the coffee table while mentally bracing himself for what was to come.
"I noticed, Don't worry about it," he says as he gets up to walk over to the other side of the couch with her. at least this way he'd have a clear exit path if he needed it. it would be less awkward that way.
"You cleaned it up?" Emma asks surprised.
"Yeah," he replies with a slight nod. Just rip off the band-aid you can do this. "How goes the hunt?"
"Goes well, just sent out my acceptance letter," Emma admits with a tired smile.
She already sent it? he didn't even get to make a case? "That's great. I'm sure you'll do really well," He replies while trying to force a smile. come on it's been what, Two ye- ...almost three years that you've known her. it's not that long, you can let go.
"Aw, thanks," Emma says with a smile as he gives her a peck on the top of the head.
"It's been nice. Good luck out there," He adds as he turns to make a Beeline for the door.
"What are you talking about?" Emma asks as she reaches out to grab his arm to stop him. She wasn't really strong enough to hold back his weight yet he stopped all the same and turned to face her. It didn't take long for the answer to dawn on her. "Oh lord, you went through my notebook... Well, this is embarrassing. That was kinda private. um," Emma quietly admits. good gracious if he got to that page then he saw her life goals list she really wasn't ready for that conversation.
"Embarrassing that I found out that you were going to dump me anyways?" Chris asks with an annoyed expression, he was trying to do this the civil way, what was her problem.
"No! Chris, I didn't accept that job. I'm staying," Emma replies which caused Chris to genuinely pause as the sinking feeling started to lift. "I mean yeah sure it wasn't a super easy choice, I loved my job it was fun and made me happy but YOU make me happier than any dumb job and...Oh gosh why am I crying you're the one that got scared," Emma says while a laugh as she moved to wipe her eyes with her free hand.
Chris finally let himself let go of a breath he didn't realize he had been holding before moving forward to hold Emma.
"I thought I just accepted the worst job and lost you anyways," Emma says while still laughing from the stress as she rests her head against his chest. She'd been quietly dealing with this on her own to try and avoid this exact scenario yet here it was all the same. Karma really was a hoe.
He wasn't really sure what to say but eventually as he held her words began to form. "I'm not leaving either. I'm sorry. I love you," he says quietly and gives her another peck.
"I love you too." she replies as a genuine smile replaced the stressed one.
He continued to hold her as the two took the time to ground themselves a bit after the rocky moment. 'I love you' Were 3 simple words they'd been saying for, maybe half a year now but. what did that actually mean. not, literally but. what were they really saying when using that phrase?
After the two felt comfortable again Chris spoke once more. "... I brought Chinese food? It's probably cold by now though."
Emma gave a tiny content sigh, "Thank you I am so hungry and I do not have the energy to cook right now." She admits before giving him another peck. The two filled a paper plate each before moving to the couch and turning on the TV for background noise. Emma Sat in Chris's lap and he held her as they ate since both felt a need to be close to the other after the unintended fright. Duke didn't seem to mind this as he snuggled up next to them.
"So, you read my lists?" Emma asks hesitantly.
"Not really, more so flipped through the pages until I noticed the charts," Chris admits which causes Emma to give a sigh of relief.
"Oh thank the heavens you didn't read them," Emma says chuckling slightly as she further relaxed in his hold.
"Why?" He asks amused.
"It's embarrassing," Emma admits as her face flushes.
"How bad could it be?" Chris asks as he leans forward to grab the book but Emma snatches it.
"Nope, if you want to know you can ask," Emma says with a nod.
He thinks on it a moment before putting his plate down on the coffee table and leans back while he continues to hold her. "What are your goals in life?" Chris asks only for Emma to chuckle.
"Well... What are yours?" Emma asks in return which causes him to pause. He wanted to train a new generation of anti-Bioweapon fighters but that's more of a work goal.
"... Not sure," he admits.
"Then for now it's a secret," Emma says as she relaxes but keeps the book safely guarded while making a note to tear up the page and burn the strips in the metal hut later.
not going to lie. I actually had to write this chapter twice. not because it was bad I just was stupid and accidentally closed the tab then reopened it and that caused it to save over the file with an old version for some stupid reason OTL So yeah. I wrote it again for you guys anyway. Sorry that it took longer than expected.