Amor Verus - Chapter 2
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Read here:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/79928271/chapters/212876586#workskin
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Pairing: Claire x Steve
Rating: Mature
Summary:
He was a prisoner like her, trapped on the island. And Claire was drawn to him, like a moth to a flame.
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Theme: Cinnamon Girl - Lana Del Lay
This is the original Chinese translation from the Code Veronica manga. It’s not 100% accurate, but it’s clear enough to get across some really meaningful heart to heart stuff between Claire and Steve that was sadly lost in the English rewrite:
For the rundown, in the manga Claire and Steve are chained up by Alexia in separate rooms, where the Ashford sets a Hunter on Steve, and Claire is forced to watch through a monitor.
Afterwards, Steve has been left severely injured [the Hunter swiped at his chest and broke both of his arms 🦴]
The Chinese version is read from Right to Left
What’s great about this scene in the original, is it establishes two things:
She is shown to care for him very platonically, to where she wants to welcome him as family. This resonates with something I believe Alyson Court said many years ago, about Claire viewing Steve as a younger brother. Mrs. Court got some heat for that. But reading this now, I genuinely believe that’s the direction Capcom gave her about the pair’s dynamic from Claire’s POV.
As a Cleve fan, I honestly find it so touching. It really appeals to Claire’s nurturing side, just like she was with Sherry in Raccoon City.
Now, notice Claire speaks about a guy she never got to confess her true feelings for and being filled with regret from that. She then encourages Steve to confess his feelings to whoever it is he likes, but being clueless it’s actually her. Claire even tries to get him to promise he’ll do it.
The reason this is so important, is it adds more build up for Steve’s confession on his deathbed, so it’s not just coming out of nowhere, which is FANTASTIC in my opinion. Steve in the manga has an arc from a cocky kid to a genuine hero as the story progresses. You even see it in how he’s drawn in earlier volumes, where he looks very boyish, shorter hair, but by the end Steve is drawn more masculine as he is taking things more seriously.
But let’s go back to point one. Right after this conversation, Alexia returns and injects Steve with the T-Veronica virus. He thrashes about and almost seems to mutate when the effects die down.
During this Alexia mocks Claire that someone is coming to rescue her [Chris] before leaving the two teens alone again.
This picks up right after.
Again, there is Claire’s promise of family and welcoming Steve into it, which I find so heartbreaking. It really shows you Claire really did care about Steve, enough that she was willing him to be part of her and Chris’s family [important note, the Redfield’s parents are alive in the manga.]
Let’s be clear, Steve knows he’s done for. He’s infected. Claire does too and yet she still tries to give him the strength and hope to hold on.
But he can’t, the T-Veronica virus takes over. For a short time, it gives Steve an advantage. The bones in his arms have mended, his is fully healed, and now he has added strength. He busts his way out of confinement and frees Claire, shortly before running off to confront Alexia. But alias, he’s just a puppet to her will and quickly falls. Claire is later knocked out and placed in the cocoon. The events after mostly follow on from the game.
Now the pay off.
I’ll be cutting a bit here, due to a nude Burnside and much dialogue being the same as the game, but I’ll focus on the main points.
So this is right after Steve has been fatally wounded, and Claire tries to assure him Chris is here and they can leave together, but Steve knows that’s not going to happen.
You can see now, how the previous scenes works so well in with this.
Now this stands for the game too, but I think Steve knowing Chris is there on the base, it’s reassuring for him at the end. Because Steve dies knowing Claire is going to be okay.
I would LOVE to see Capcom tackle something like this in a Code Veronica Remake, where they do establish that relationship more between Claire and Steve: Claire’s being familial and Steve’s being romantic ❤️🔥
Overall it think it’s a lovely addition for what at times can be an over the top manga. I mean Chris’s parts are basically ‘monster of the week,’ everybody does a lot of Kung Fu, Wesker is slapped out at the last stretch, and there’s literally a plot where Steve sees a zombie that looks exactly like Claire and thinks she’s died. It’s so dumb and I love it! 🤣
why is she pretty when she’s actively burning (<- insane)
no fire under the keep reading thing
A shoutout to SpiderBunni, who’s done some lovely Cleve stories 🥳 his stories deserve more love ❤️🔥
U ever at a friend’s house for a while and than you use the bathroom and while you in the bathroom the resident evil safe room music low-key starts playing so you gotta pull out the herbs and ink ribbons
starting to think they’re giving us a split-character game to prime us for a code veronica remake 👀
Claire: Steve, go and move the digging vehicle. And whatever you do, DON’T get distracted!
Steve:
Capcom, when you put the code veronica remake into production hmu to voice steve burnside
I saw a girl who wanted to believe Alfred Ashford was gay. She wrote something like,
“It’s utter nonsense that Mikami said Alexia and Alfred kissed. Anyone who believes that is a fool.”
It’s odd she’d dismiss it as a lie without even living in Japan, but she has a point. So I bought the book at a second-hand shop and checked for myself.
……oh, yeah 😄
It explicitly stated, “They kissed.”…
Okay there’s a new leak on Code Veronica Remake pertaining to Steve Burnside I gotta talk about!
Spoilers below, and a grain of salt! 🧂
If the leak is true, they’re changing Steve’s backstory, to where he grew up on Rockfort Island, instead of being sent there with his father:
Dusk says, in reference to Steve, “Is really curious about the world outside the island he grew up on.” Pretty damning, if it’s true.
There’s definitely lore implications from this and how could impact the story. Since CV Remake is rumored to be semi-open world, we might get to see where Steve’s family lived, and even supposedly where his Mom was killed?
Steve’s objective might also be different, to where he’s not just seen aimlessly wandering about, but might have an idea of where he’s going now. I’m genuinely curious how his gameplay section will play out; if it will still be in the training facility; if he’s looking for his father, or the keys for the airport like in the Perry Novel.
Also have a look at how Steve is dressed in the original
You can argue, they had to make his character design stand out among the zombie prisoners, but Steve isn’t dressed like an inmate, even down to the jacket. You never see a prisoner with one.
If anything, Steve is dressed like the military personnel on the island, as both wear the same camo-cargo pants and boots. This is leading me to think if they keep the jacket for the remake, it might lose the prisoner ID number on the back, something I’m suspecting will happen to designs on the back of the outfits for Claire, Chris and Wesker [and kept for classic costumes.]
Other things the leaks before have mentioned about Mr. Burnside, brought up by Dusk Golem and another leaker Spookyhoo:
Steve has been rewritten. He will be portrayed as an innocent young man, who sincerely and genuinely loves Claire.
His pervy nature has been toned down [THANK GOD!] but he is still abrasive and doesn’t understand personal boundaries well.
That last part, makes a lot more sense now. If Steve has grown up on Rockfort Island, then he’s probably not had a healthy upbringing, being isolated from the rest of the world. It even begs the question: Has Steve even been around anyone his own age, before Claire shows up?
This will make Steve’s story all the more tragic when you consider his fate. To live his life on an island curious about the outside world, only to die at 17 before he ever got to experience it? Poor kid never really stood a chance.
And let’s go back to his feelings for Claire. Steve falling for her so quickly, makes so much sense now with this island boy rewrite in mind. Why his confession [if it happens] will come across more innocent and not as cringy. Steve genuine falls for Claire, because she might legitimately be the most beautiful and only girl he’s met in his entire life 😭 but that’s just speculation if the rumors are true.
Honestly I hope they are. I think it’s a great way to honor the old plot, by explaining away some of Steve’s behavior, and why he fell so easily for Claire, while obviously fixing the glaring issues to his character that made him so unlikable to many RE fans.
But swear to god if they have Wesker drop the revival plot line can they follow through this time!? I don’t wanna wait another 26 years for pay off!
Me thinking of ClairexSteve and shipping it in my teens back in the 2000s:
Back in our day, we didn’t have pairing tags on Fanfiction.net. We had to search for the ships via the summary search 👵🏻 hence why it was common practice to put your pairing in the summary.
Now Fanfic.net has the pairing selection, and you can’t search summaries for stories. The option just isn’t there anymore.
Due to this, a lot of fanfics of that era are hard to track down, and a lot of those authors are inactive, so they haven’t updated the pairing tags.
The only way of finding the old stories from the 2000s? The good old fashion way. You go back to the published dates, and start scrolling.
It’s thanks to this, I found some old ClairexSteve stories again counting from when Code Veronica released. Although I would to like to do a more extensive search sometime. Maybe put together a little archive when I’m not busy writing. It feels important to save the stories somewhere. It’s like a little a bit of fandom history that should be preserved.
I’ve also just been dying for more ClairexSteve content, but hopefully if those remake rumors are true, that ship will pick up again. Especially if they fix Steve, because I know not many liked him 😅
