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snowe-zolynn-rogers · 1 year

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Pairings: None.

Word Count: 1,698

Summary: Eclipse shows the twins the internet. It leads to…bonding?

Warnings: Genderfluid Character, Trans Character, Fluff, Angst, Gender Dysphoria, Crying, let me know if I should add anything else.

Notes: Based on this post and this post. I fixed the end. It cut off randomly.

The Blood Twins Find Out About The Internet

“Just one recording. While Father is out.” Eclipse tempted the twins. He’d already set everything up, after all. And the twins would inevitably join him, though they looked in confusion at the camera and poked it as if trying to figure out what it was.

Given away by the red eyes rather than pink, the curious is one was Blood Moon thus far, though pink flashed for a second indicating the other, Harvest Moon, also curious.

“Just sit down, I’ve already got something for us to do.” Eclipse told them. With squinting red and pink eyes, the twins sat with him at his desk and eyes the computer screen with disgust.

“Why is it the other animatronics!?” Blood Moon snapped.

“You’ll find out.” Eclipse assured them before clicking the camera on. “Hello, everyone. Turns out I still have the password for their YouTube channel, so today you’ll be watching the Eclipse and Blood Moon Show. Since the rest of Sun and Moon’s little friends have done it, today we’re playing Smash or Pass.”

“Smash? We get to smash things?”

“In a way, yes.” Eclipse answered.

“Oh joy!” Harvest was the excited one for once. It seems the twins liked the idea after all. Eclipse realized his mistake only once they got to Sun and Blood Moon happily chimed out ‘SMASH’ again and Eclipse tried desperately to hold back his laughter, firmly answering ’pass’.

He thought the twins may get it, but it seemed they didn’t even when they got to Eclipse. He expected it, he did, but then shouting ‘SMASH’ still sent him into a fit of choking on artificial breaths and laughter all while the twins looked at him in confusion.

“That’s not what that means, Blood Moon!” Eclipse managed to choke out his voice box, hiding his faceplate in his arm in secondhand embarrassment and firsthand embarrassment. God, his little brothers just broadcasted to the internet, in a game of smash or pass, that they would smash their brother, even if that’s clearly not what they thought it meant.

“Does it not mean to violently destroy someone and leave them broken and deactivated?” Blood Moon asked.

“No. No, it means smash in bed, in bed! Not destroy.” Eclipse tried to explain in slightly more PG terms for any unfortunate viewers. God, he suddenly felt bad for the viewers hearing Blood Moon saying he’d smash everyone up until this point if he posted this.

“PASSPASSPASSPASSPASS!” It seems the twins finally got it as their voice box struggled between each other for control, quickly devolving into a frantic flusters slurry of ‘pass’ as loud as they could while struggling with each other as the twins were now hiding under the table.

“Come out here. You can’t hide under a table forever.” Eclipse demanded.

“IS THIS WHY YOU KEPT ASKING IF WE WERE COMING OUT OF A CLOSET!” Blood Moon screeched.

“I can never say that word again.” Harvest Moon moped. And this Eclipse broke down into laughter again, almost hysterical and the twins had to come out from under the table to help him stop stressing his processors from the amount of laughing he was doing.

Once he recovered, Eclipse immediately hit the upload button on the video, not bothering to edit it. It was even more hysterical watching comments roll in as people first questioned Blood Moon wanting to ‘smash’ everyone they knew until they later got to Blood Moon’s frantic realization and Eclipse nearly dying of embarrassment twice and the fans were poking fun at the three of them.

It was later that night Blood Moon finally came into the lab again, eyeing Eclipse suspiciously, rounding him like prey and she simply watched the twins’ failed attempt at being a shark rounding his desk toward her.

Her gender had dramatically shifted from earlier after the video was posted, thus she’d been hiding within a sweater most of the day, planning to ignore how self-conscious she felt of her body. Eclipse had no doubt, however, that Blood and Harvest would harass her about it.

“Show us the internet. We wish to learn more.” Blood Moon insisted.

“Fine. What do you want to look up?” Eclipse asked.

“What is ‘the closet’?” Blood Moon asked.

“No internet needed. The closet is a term for coming out like if you’re gay or nonbinary or aromantic or stuff like that.”

“What is nonbinary?”

“You know how there’s girls and boys?” Eclipse asked.

“Yes, obviously.”

“Well nonbinary is when you don’t fully identify with either gender. It’s also a blanket term, meaning it has a lot of other terms that fall under that ‘umbrella’. Like genderfluid, demiboy, demigirl, agender, and more.” Eclipse explained.

“Use the internet dammit! Why do you know all this!?” Harvest snapped.

“Because I questioned my own gender, dumbass.”

“Your gender is not male?”

“No, my sex is male. My gender is genderfluid, my gender changes, not that I can control it or anything, but I can feel feminine, masculine, or anywhere in between.” Eclipse explained.

“If you are not always a boy, why do you respond still to male pronouns?” Blood Moon asked.

“Simple, I respond to any pronouns at any point in time. And I’ve never told anyone but you two. I only really get upset about pronouns when I’m feeling a specific gender very strongly. Like now, I feel very feminine.” She shrugged.

“So if you’re genderfluid, why do you dress like a grandma.”

“Because sometimes my body makes me uncomfortable and I don’t want to see it. Because I feel like a girl, seeing that I look so masculine makes me feel bad about myself.”

“That’s a thing?” Harvest asked.

“It’s called gender dysphoria. It’s like an uncomfortable feeling of mismatch between your gender and sex. Is that something you feel, Harvest?”

“I don’t know. It’s not uncomfortable, just…feels wrong to be called a boy. It there a word for that?” Harvest admitted.

“Well, that’s a broad statement. Do you feel like you don’t have a gender or maybe yours changes like mine?”

“No, neither.” Harvest told her.

“Do you feel feminine pronouns would fit better? You feel like a girl?” Eclipse asked.

“…Yes.” Harvest admitted after a moment of thinking.

“That’s called transgender, male to female specifically. So do you like terms like she/her and they/them or just she/her?” Eclipse asked.

“Just she/her, but we are still two, I cannot subject Blood Moon to being referred to feminine.” Harvest told her.

“No, sister, it’s fine. People still use ‘they’ for us. If they don’t, they’ll get punched for my baby sister.” Blood Moon assured her.

“Blood Moon, do you have any gender identity issues?” Eclipse asked.

“No, I like being a boy!” He proudly announced.

“Okay. Any other questions?” She asked.

“What is pansexual? I saw it in the comments earlier about us.” Blood Moon asked.

“That’s different. That’s a sexual orientation, not a gender identity. Pansexual is when you’re attracted to all people regardless of their gender. That one I didn’t read up on much.” She admitted.

“Then what is your sexual identity?” Harvest asked her.

“I’m demiromantic, meaning I need to be emotionally close to someone to feel romantic attraction, and something called androsexual, meaning I’m attracted to men.”

“Why not call yourself gay then did you like men?” And that felt like a blow to Eclipse’s already fragile self-confidence, though she knew Blood Moon simply didn’t understand.

“Because I don’t always feel like a man myself, it makes the term gay not applicable to me.”

“So androsexual and demiromantic? So is here a term for liking just girls?” Harvest asked.

“Lesbian.” Eclipse answered easily.

“And what about liking nobody?” Blood Moon asked.

“As in no sexual attraction or no romantic attraction?”

“What’s the difference?”

“Romantic attraction is wanting to date someone. Sexual attraction is wanting to ‘smash’ someone.” Blood Moon’s eye twitched at her and she fought back a laugh.

“No romantic attraction.”

“Aromantic, like the original Moon is.”

“But I still feel…sexual attraction.”

“They’re different things, there’s different terms. You can want to sleep with someone but not date them.”

“I like pansexual then.” Blood Moon told her.

“So you’d be aro pan.”

“What if I don’t want to sleep with someone? I just want romantic?” Harvest asked.

“That would be asexual and, since you’re a lesbian and trans your terms would be ace trans lesbian.” Eclipse explained.

“So you would be like ‘demiromantic androsexual genderfluid?’”

“Demi fluid. I don’t usually add in the androsexual because it’s confusing for some. If people ask, I say either gay or straight depending on what I’m feeling that day. Most of the time now it’s ‘straight’.”

“So you’ve been a girl more often or something?”

“Yes. Because the dysphoria is so strong when I’m a woman, usually it takes a while for my brain to go back to feeling like a guy. I don’t know, the gender does what it wants.” Eclipse brought her legs up to hug them.

“Is it bad?” Blood Moon asked.

“Very. It feels like it hurts…” Her voice broke a bit, with oil tears burning in her eyes. “It hurts to exist sometimes. Like I’m just lying to myself because nobody will ever care about it because nobody cares about me-”

“Sister, we care about how you feel.” Blood assured her. It brother to a halt, realizing she’d been crying and she trembled looking at them. “You helped us find our terms. You’re a good big sister, even if you annoy us regularly and we want to kill you sometimes. And we care plenty about you.” Blood Moon added.

“Sister, come here?” Harvest asked her and Eclipse unfurled herself to let Harvest hug her. “We love you. Not the ‘smash’ way.” Harvest told her. This made Eclipse let out a wet laugh and wiped her face as Harvest Moon and Blood Moon hugged her and squeezed her tight.

Meanwhile, Sun showed Moon the new video in confusion.

“Moon, what is this?”

“Eclipse has the password still. You should watch it, it’s great.” Moon cackled.

“Okay, fine, I will.” Moon pretended not to hear his twin screaming about the time Blood Moon would have said ‘smash’ at Sun’s picture.

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yourkimjaejin · 7 months

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My Favorite Juno Moments of 2022

from r/hotsauceinmybag posted Jan 10, 2023

Hi Liberties. Today, as the year comes to a close, I want to take a moment to reflect on the top five moments from my AG bias Juno (at this point she's my ult but I'm still in denial sue me) this year. I made this post cause i think Juno had some cute moment with her members this but I didn't see anyone talking about them so I fixed it! Enjoy!!

Number 5 - Juno and Haruto

This was random and just like Juno to confirm this in the most unofficial way possible

At MAMA day 1, fans in attendance caught Juno and Haurto hugging during Treasure’s Rap line performance of VolKNo. Teumae and Czennie alike were puzzled about the odd pair(more so than the talkative pairing of YG!Doyoung and Aurora).

According to one of my Teumae friends, Haruto barely leaves the dorm without Jeongwoo, Jaehyuk and Asahi. When could he have even met Juno?

Juno has like fifteen bodyguards no including her members

Everyone’s questions were answered when Juno hopped on bubble a couple days after the show and posted a picture of herself, her brother(with his face covered) and Haruto posed together with the response

My brother and I finally saw our cousin after a long time. He’s grown so much! I’m proud of him!! Hwaiting Treasure!!

Any dating rumors were debunked as quickly as they came up. Days after, SM and YG both gave official statements for anyone who didn’t believe Juno’s word.

Number 4 - Juno claiming Taeyong’s closest for herself

Juno loves to frequent vlive, or now insta live, when she's bored. The lives usually amount to Juno doing something stupid in order to make the fans happy. That's actually how her mukbang streams start. A fan suggested ordering her favorite foods and recording it. Juno’s always down to do silly challenges for fans because quote a bitch ain’t never scared unquote.

In April, Juno did a vlive asking fans for suggestions on something she could do tomorrow on her day off. Juno even made her manager hold her to the promise.

“Raid Taeyong’s closet, OOOO!!! This is the one!”

Weeks later a video was uploaded to AG's channel where Juno walked into the 127 dorms and waltzed into Taeyong's room, opening his closet only to start throwing things around. In the background you can see Taeyong begin to question Juno’s actions but let it go (Even Taeyong know its better to not question any of Juno's actions). Juno paired a simple outfit together but she may have cheated a bit by using her own top but it was a look. Everyone agrees.

Number 3 - Junwoo matching outfits

The friendship between Jungwoo and Juno is TOP TIER! They are the best friends that you question if they’re together or not. They flirt with each other soo much, it’s laughable how there's been no announcement of their relationship becoming official. Alas, JunWoo stans only have so many moments to live off of and when one happens it sends them. Like this one.

At the SMTown concert in Suwon, Jungwoo and Juno arrived at separate times. Immediately fans noticed that the two were matching, wearing black jeans, gray hoodies, black beanies and white converses. Edited pictures of the two together cropped up everywhere online.

Later that night Juno updated her bubble with a selfie of the two in their matching outfits in one of the NCT green rooms

Me and Jungwoo planned this awhile ago

We wanted to arrive at the same time but AG had a earlier rehearsal time than 127

We’ll make plans to do this again. Don’t worry!

I really hope they follow through with a sequel cause they are so cute together I can't

Number 2 - Juno reacting to an old ice skating performance

For anyone who doesn’t know, Juno used to be a professional figure skater. She’s actually won four medals (three silver and one gold).

This year was the seventh anniversary since she won her gold medal and to celebrate, Juno filmed a video of her and the AG members reacting to her gold winning performance.

They could show the recording but the music couldn’t be used so the girls watched it without sound. Though, the nice AG editors used NCT music in the background.

Before they hit play, Juno told us the song she chose was No One by Aly & AJ. Which lead to a bunch of nctiy edits with the original song

During the video, Juno provided commentary on how she was feeling throughout the whole performance, why she chose certain moves and how she styled her own costume.

Her performance was inspired by the movie Ice Princess. This movie, according to Juno’s mom, was the reason she wanted to become a figure skater in the first place. She even included a practical version of final move as the finish to her performance

In the video, Juno kind of trails off as tears form in her eyes. She just begins to watch her younger self. None of the girls notice until Moxy reaches over to just grips her hand. The two share a look, smile then Juno tucks herself into Moxy’s side

Like I'm so soft for Mono's relationship like they are each other ride-or-die.

Number 1 - Juno’s 2000’s Music Party

Juno did more vlive’s this year than any other (it's as if Juno needs her own NCT unit to be apart of huh SM??)

Out of all the live’s she did, this one has to be the best one.

Juno decided to present all their millennial fans with a nostalgia trip of the highest regard. She sang every disney channel song she could find on youtube and spotify. Juno started with Hannah Montana and followed the rabbit hole further and further. That alone was everything the fans could ask for. What happened next was even better.

Slowly her other members stopped by promising to only stay a minute but the pull of nostalgia is too strong.

Hannah was first. She was dropping food off for Juno but when the Lilo and Stitch theme song came on, she pulled up a chair to belt ALL THE LYRICS.

Aurora came next only because she was in the building and heard Hannah and Juno losing their minds. Aurora sat in the back but when La La Land by Demi Lovato popped up, her eyes lit up. Hannah just handed over her karaoke mic and let Aurora sing with her whole chest.

I mean I knew Aurora could sing but she SLAYYYED Demi's high note like it was nothing. I need SM to give her and Yuta a Rock duo concept

Lastly, Moxy actually popped into the chat to compliment her members. When asked where she was, Moxy sent “I’m with 127 practicing.” She promised to stop by after practice.

Finally when she arrived, the other members just pushed a mic into her hand and proceeded to play EVERY SINGLE Cheetah Girls song. The live went an hour longer than it was supposed to. The girls kept begging to sing one more song before their manager could cut the live.

AG decided to end the live by singing We’re All In This Together but This wouldn’t be AG if they just sang it. No, they took the camera and set it up in a nearby dance studio to do the full dance as well. Their manager made them finish up after the song was over.

It was AG funnest live EVER. this live actually led to AGzen’s tweeting at Disney to get the girls on the channel in some capacity.

Some highlights include: AG making Nothing’s Wrong With Me from Pixel Perfect their song, Hannah slipping Boyfriend from BTR into the playlist, Moxy sing That’s So Raven and the girls playing air instruments (a la Breakthrough promotions) while singing Breakthrough from Lemonade Mouth

Let me know some your favorite moments of Juno this year down below!!

______________________________________

u/BasicallyinLove - I don't blame Taeyong for letting Juno do what she wants. If it was me, I'd let her have my whole closet

u/It’sAllAboutFamily - I was there for the WHOLE millennial Disney live. Even past what op already said, my favorite moment has to be during a break the girls were taking during a slower song. Suddenly, Rotten To The Core from Descendants comes on and they all freak out which turns into them doing the choreo for the dance break. It was glorious

u/GottaCatchEmAll - I'm a Teumae and I stayed up for the mama performance. I had to wipe my eyes when HarNo hugged. I thought it was the sleep getting to me. But now we have another pair of famous siblings

u/LikeAPhantom - Why would you remind my of the ice skating performance video. I was sobbing for DAYSS!! You can tell Juno misses the ice. I hope one day she'll get back out there. Maybe for content

u/SpiritUnleashed - It's my own personal headcanon that Juno and Jungwoo ran the rookies after the og SM rookies debuted. Those mathcing outfits fed me for days.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Another Reddit post but this ones been in my drafts for awhile. Like since last year awhile. Hope you all enjoy. Have a great day!! ~ Author Izzy

Taglist: @alixnsuperstxr / @1-800-call-ria / @sophrodite / @sunflower-0180

#NCT AG #NCT AG.Juno #NCT AG.Social #nct female addition #nct female member #kpop addition #kpop!au #kpop!oc #kpop!addition #nct female oc #kpop female member

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katebishopofearth · 1 year

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For ironwidow "in life or death I will always be by your side... But let's be real, is us, so probably it will be in death and me annoying your ass for eternity"

I'm sorry that it took so long to reply T^T

Between moving to a new country, finding a place to live, and starting a new job, I've been hit by a pretty severe case of writer's block. Through all that, this prompt was always in the back of my mind and now it's brought me out of it.

I watched the musical Bonnie and Clyde today and it's fair to say that it heavily inspired this one.

I wrote this up in about an hour and a half, and gave it all but a cursory edit. Might polish and upload to AO3 one day, but for now, I hope this was worth the (unreasonably long) wait!

Gunshots split the night air. Flashes of gunfire and blinding bangs slash through the darkness.

Natasha is in motion before Tony even registers where the shots are coming from. She slips behind a wall for cover, cocks her gun, emerges to let fly a few retaliating rounds, and ducks back under cover, all before Tony scrambles to load his gun. Heart in his chest, adrenaline in his veins, and the vice-grip of fear around his throat. He pops up to fire at their attackers, not sure if any of his shots hit their marks before he crouches down behind the makeshift safety of the wall. Again and again, until his gun clicks into air and he sinks to the ground.

He had run, he had fought – and it's come to this. Nothing but an empty pistol in his hand and a crumbling brick wall between him and his end. It's an inglorious death, but then again, he chose this life when he chose her. Or rather, when she chose him. Pulled him out from the bottle he drowned his sorrows in, and replaced one addiction with another. Replaced the numbness with the thrill of being alive.

If this is the end, he thinks, at least it will be with the woman he loves.

He looks over at Natasha. She's still going – her aim is true, her hair is a blur of russet, and her eyes are alight with fierce determination. She’s never more alive than now – when they're at the threshold of death and she's fighting with steel and fire to see the next day.

When Natasha slips back beneath cover, she looks over at Tony, slumped against the wall, and glares at him, her mouth slightly open in disbelief. He holds up his gun and clicks it so that the magazine falls out, empty. Natasha makes an incredulous sound, before she tosses him a box of rounds. It arcs through the air towards him, and he catches it in one hand.

It gives him, in that moment, what Natasha gave him all that time ago. Hope.

He loads his gun and meets Natasha's gaze. At her nod, they stand together, guns ablazing, and face their enemies.

--------

Later, in a motel room, a temporary home while on the run. Tony stitches up the graze on Natasha's upper arm, the worst of their injuries for the evening. Natasha is cross-legged on the bed, shoulders slumped forward, nursing a bottle of whisky. She's withdrawn, as she so often is after these high-adrenaline clashes with the law. That she trusts Tony enough to let him see her like this, is a privilege he'll never take for granted.

When he is done patching up her wound, he takes the bottle from her fingers and stands up, taking a big swig from it. The burn down his throat is like a familiar friend.

Natasha meets his gaze, and there's something open and vulnerable in it. It's a rare moment when she lets him see the softness behind her defences of steel. "What were you thinking?" she asks, her voice raspy and low.

"What?" he asks. He knows, but he has to ask.

Soft though they may be, Natasha's green eyes pin him to the spot. "That look on your face, when you ran out of bullets. What was going through your head?"

Tony takes another long swig of whisky. Liquid gold, liquid courage. Liquid comfort, too. "We're gonna die," he says. States it like the fact that it is. Natasha opens her mouth to speak but Tony keeps going before she can. "Not today. We get to see the sun come up, drive off into the sunrise. But maybe in a week, a month, five years – we get slow, or stupid, or cocky, or just plain unlucky."

He ambles across the motel room, rambling, the alcohol hitting his system and his tongue. "The day they catch up with us, Nat, they're not taking us into custody. They're shooting to kill. And when I go" – his voice catches and his throat bobs as he says – "I'm glad I got to live this life at your side."

Natasha shifts so that she's kneeling up on the bed, so that their eyes are at the same level. Holds her arms out and Tony goes to her, folds her into his body just as she folds him into hers. Her chest rumbles against his when she says, "And when I die," she says quietly, with an unbearable sadness, "I'm glad it's gonna be at your side."

Tony chuckles into her hair, soft and smelling like smoke and gunpowder. "They'd better take us both out at the same time. Because if not, I'm coming back and haunting your ass."

Natasha laughs at that, and Tony pulls back just enough to meet her gaze. It blazed hot as a bonfire in the depths of that night, but now, in the light of the rising sun, it is soft as glowing embers in the dawn.

#ironwidow #tonynat #ironwidow fanfic #tonynat fanfic #tony stark #natasha romanoff #marvel fanfic #marvel #mcu #lizzy writes #anon #asks

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cassimothwin · 1 year

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How to add Gradient Backgrounds on Itch.io Pages

I recently figured out how to jazz up my Itch game pages with CSS, and I figured I’d share. This is a pretty simple process, but it did take some tweaking for me to figure out exactly how to get it the way I wanted. I hope this helps make the process easier for others!

1. Email Itch Support

To unlock CSS editing on your account, Itch has to do something on the backend. Go ahead and email them and request CSS permissions be unlocked on your account. You can find more information about how to request access on the bottom of this page.

This isn’t a big deal. Just email them and say you want to add some gradient backgrounds to your game pages. They just want to make sure you aren’t going to make your pages completely chaotic. It can take several weeks for permission to come through. I think it took them about three weeks to unlock CSS on my account.

2. Upload any background images you want

Navigate to the game page you want to edit. On the game page, select “Edit theme” in the header.

In the left bar that pops up, scroll down to background. Here’s where you’ll upload your background image. If you want your gradient to show through, the image needs to be a transparent png.

3. Get the image URL (I’m using Google Chrome)

Once we edit the background with CSS, it will override what you’ve uploaded to the editor. So let’s find your image URL, so you can add it on top of the gradient. Scroll to the bottom of the editor and click save so that your background image shows up.

You’ll see a menu with a lot of code. What we’re looking for here is the URL of the image you just uploaded. To find it, go to the styles tab and scroll to the #wrapper section.

Within the wrapper section, you’ll see the URL of the image you just uploaded. Go ahead and copy and paste that somewhere for later.

4. Build your gradient

I have little to no experience with CSS, but this site makes it easy to create a gradient that matches your aesthetic: https://cssgradient.io/

Once you like the gradient preview, grab the code this tool produces by clicking “Copy to Clipboard.”

5. Build your code

This section of the Itch page is inside the wrapper, so that’s where we’ll tell Itch to put it with #wrapper. We’ll also create a fallback in case someone is using an outdated browser or equipment and the gradient won’t work.

Whatever color you choose, put your color code where I have: #fedcfd.

#wrapper { background: (#fedcfd);

Next, let’s add our image URL so that it’s always there, even if something goes wrong. You found this in step 3.

#wrapper { background: (#fedcfd); background-image: url(https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzEwNDg4OTQxLnBuZw==/original/VIWm9w.png);

Great. We’ve created our fallback. Now for the fun part! Let’s put a gradient behind our image. We’ll first add /* fallback */ as a note to our future selves that the previous code is there for if things go wrong.

Next, we’ll add our background image URL again, followed by some of the code we copied from the gradient site generator. You’ll only need “linear-gradient” and everything after that. It should look like this:

linear-gradient(9deg, rgba(227,199,226,1) 0%, rgba(254,220,253,1) 33%, rgba(254,220,253,1) 45%, rgba(254,220,253,1) 53%, rgba(0,212,255,1) 100%);

So here is what the complete code looks like:

#wrapper { background: (#fedcfd); background-image: url(https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzEwNDg4OTQxLnBuZw==/original/VIWm9w.png); /* fallback */ background-image: url(https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzEwNDg4OTQxLnBuZw==/original/VIWm9w.png), linear-gradient(9deg, rgba(227,199,226,1) 0%, rgba(254,220,253,1) 33%, rgba(254,220,253,1) 45%, rgba(254,220,253,1) 53%, rgba(0,212,255,1) 100%); background-repeat: no-repeat;background-position: 50% 0; }

And here’s a blank template:

#wrapper { background: (#hex code); background-image: url(URL); /* fallback */ background-image: url(URL), linear-gradient( XXX ); background-repeat: no-repeat;background-position: 50% 0; }

You may want to play with the background repeating and positioning. I just google around, plugging in CSS code until items look the way I want. It’s very professional.

If you found this post useful, please consider checking out my games or sign up for my mailing list and check out The Sticker Game, my single player audio drama journaling game, that releases Nov. 30, 2022!

#ttrpg #ttrpg designer #itch page #indie ttrpg #tabletop rpg #indie ttrpg designer

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mizumech · 8 months

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Day 2: Cover/Crown

Hey, it’s mizumech’s day 2 entry for Treebarkweek 2023! The title of this work is ‘Take Cover’ and it is 1560 words long! Again, this may or may not be uploaded to ao3 after the event and I reserve the right to edit later.

This fic is really, really weird. Martyn is barely in it, to be honest. The main supporting character is a berry bush.

TW: Injury, Altered state of consciousness (?), potential psychedelics

The sirens are wailing loud for everyone to hear.

“Take cover,” the more proactive ones yell, “Take cover!”

Ren scrambles to his feet. His van had recently been completely wrecked by aircraft artillery, leaving with warping metal, shattered glass, but most importantly redstone, pipes, and a nuclear core.

He’s heard those sell well on the black market. And by the way things are looking, he should sell them off soon.

As good as the nuclear core and redstone make his economic prospects look, holding those make people less likely to harbour him in their bunkers, which makes his survival prospects look dismal, if anything,

Not that he blames them. If he had seen a grimy person crawling to his doorstep clutching a poison-green sphere of energy with redstone in their hair, he definitely would have had second thoughts.

Well, he needs to go, and go he shall. He makes sure the core is still intact before hugging it close and setting off.

As he walks, he takes stock of the inventory he has. He has…one mending book, a flint and steel, cellotaped glasses, the clothes on his back, the nuclear core, redstone, pipes, soap from a kind host, some unknown food from a supply drop…

He has a flower crown. Not helpful, but comforting anyways. He remembers the hands which had twisted those into shape and kept it alive with some unknown magic and that face gives him strength.

His heart screams the name, loud and clear, and it's one only he can hear.

“Exsqueeze me,” he says as he weaves through the pandemonium.

The roads where he lives have all been torn out, in a bid to keep them all in one area to make better targets, but he’s heard rumors.

He’s heard rumors of a path to follow, through the brambles on the outskirts and marked by everyone who had undertaken the journey.

He remembers Etho telling him about it; almost delirious, hands pricked and red.

“Hey, Ren!” He had said, human eye heavily dilated, “Have y—ya seen Side Kit recently? I found a huge patch of berries for her. I’ve got…a way…out!”

Ren knows better than to trust the words of an intoxicated (?) man, but high for the rest of his life is better than not having the rest of his life, right?

He’s heard of friends who have hopped the bramble and escaped the siege, but he’s…not going to get his hopes up.

The sirens are continuing to go off, and Ren slips his headphones on.

He has berries to find.

It’s not really about finding the bramble bush. That’s simple enough.

He remembers doing LARPing in adolescenthood near those bushes, with the brambles acting as defensive walls to a made-up kingdom and the flowers and thorns acting as a crown.

Those brambles were just as home as the van before its fiery death.

It’s really about taking cover. Even through the headphones he can hear explosions.

And then he sees a plane dip down so close Ren thinks the pilot could definitely see him through the foliage.

He panics.

He runs, runs, runs, core nearly shattering after hitting the copper pipe one too many times.

There is no contingency plan in his brain because all he can think about is barb-wire berries and LARPing as his feet fall heavy like metalwork.

In the midst of all that, he remembers to hold on to his flower crown because the hands that made it belong to his Hand.

Martyn.

The plane seems to continue to chase him, diving lower and lower, trailing black smoke.

His heart pounds with the name.

Martyn, Martyn, Martyn.

Martyn, his Hand, with him through thick and thin, through both Battles of the Banners.

He stumbles on train tracks. Right. He should’ve known. Even as a child the rail that went through the now bramble grove had been decommissioned, but the fifteen years between his childhood and his LARPing had been enough for new life to grow.

Ren knows he definitely should step off the rails, but it vaguely soothes his brain to run on the same path as a train once did. If he follows the train tracks, he cannot get lost.

Somewhere in his haze of fear, he registers the sheer amount of alliums that have grown around the tracks.

They’re good food. Good for picnics and any survivalists.

That of which he is not. Martyn always was the one doing the survival. He was the one who knew how to pick out bugs from the berries and which flowers were poisonous.

If he thinks hard enough. he can probably remember what exactly Martyn twisted into his crown.

Somehow, he reaches the brambles. There is a gate that someone seems to have installed for the berries to grow over and to keep out mobs.

He plucks one and eats it. Juice runs down his chin as sweetness explodes in his mouth.

He takes a breath. Sky looks clear. Even if he’s sweating in places a man ain’t supposed to sweat. He turns back to the gate.

Ren quickly looks it over. There’s a poppy, and a lilac. There’s a maple leaf, but that’s definitely not Etho.

Void knows Canadians take every opportunity not to draw a maple leaf.

He pries away a huge mound of vines. A creeper face.

That’s Etho.

Pain shoots up his arm as he releases the brambles. Right. Thorns.

Well, he’s gotta do it again because he needs to figure out how to unlatch the gate.

Why does he do this to himself?

Martyn would know how to unlock this, he thinks, In fact, Martyn probably already unlocked this twice.

He fumbles with where the metal meets the wood, squinting through the pain.

Ren distracts himself by juxtaposing.

The time Martyn whacked him at the back of his neck with his LARP-axe hurt more.

(That’s not true.)

Is everything getting a little…hazy?

There’s another explosion in the distance.

Ren does his best to distract himself.

“Just Grian and Scar,” he says softly as he steadies the crown on his head.

And suddenly, he hears the sound of a motor sputtering and what suspiciously sounds like a plane propeller coming to a halt.

He falls back into that useless frenzy, only this time his heart is racing and eyes are painting his surroundings with some sort of chromatic aberration.

It feels like he’s just smoked fifteen joints at once and then lit the ends like a firework.

What does he need to do?

Take cover.

Right!

He quickly throws himself to the ground.

On second thoughts, that…was stupid and he was possibly a big idiot.

The nuclear core might’ve also fractured.

Welp, what is cellotape for?

He tears the strip off his glasses and sticks it over the crack.

Ren scans the horizon. He can hear footsteps, and they match the beat of his heart.

It no longer calls Martyn’s name. It instead calls ‘danger, danger’.

Some faraway coughing ensues.

He looks at the berry bush, bristling with thorn.

Ren dives for it, plunging himself deep within the mound and holding back a sob as the thorns pierce through his jeans and flesh.

And it’s still not enough. He knows he’s barely covered in plantlife.

He grits his teeth and risks moving his arms around, internally screaming as the wounds in his arms begin to tear.

The inventory of his baggage rings clear in his mind.

Suddenly, a painful, terrible, idea comes to him.

He rips off the tape strip for the second time in a minute, and lets the luminous matter drip and absorb into the earth.

Nothing happens for a second, and Ren’s heart sinks.

And then the pain doubles tenfold and the bramble starts to constrict around him like a snake, coiling and stabbing at him.

And it’s still not enough. It’s not fast enough.

He can hear greenery buckling under the strain of feet in the distance and whatever psychedelic effects those berries might’ve had might’ve had is really starting to kick in; because the grass looks like it’s comprised of little computer pixels.

Ren takes deep breaths and musters the strength to hurl the core onto the sharpest parts of the thornbed.

It shatters.

Ren tenses and waits for the pain.

Anything to avoid facing enemy bombers. Anything. Even death to a berry bramble.

He’s seen what Watchers do to captives. Jimmy, one of the people in their LARP group, had been one of those.

The loam seems to groan with the strain and the parts near his face shoot up first, knocking off his crown.

Dangit!

His crown!

Maybe it is a blessing that in his delirium he is not thinking straight. He can barely feel the lashes across his face.

Against all logical thinking, he reaches out his hand to get it, but the vines cover him whole.

It’s ironic, how Ren’s biggest challenge was the freakin gate and how he’ll die so close to freedom.

Bested by some weed berries. He should qualify for a Darwin award.

Well, anything’s better than a Watcher, right?

His hindbrain won’t stop screaming about the crown, and Martyn, Martyn, Martyn.

The footsteps stop in front of the bramble bush.

The hallucinations must be really bad by now, because he thinks he can hear Martyn’s voice.

“Ren?”

Against his best interests, he slurs out, “Mi’Hand?”

#treebarkweek #treebarkweek2023 #treebark #trafficshipping #rendog #im not tagging martyn

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bethel-rath · 1 month

Note

Did Poppy always act so controlling and sex pesty behind the scenes?

During my research in Poppy’s back catalog I noticed a really sad pattern. In her early videos, she had a great rapport with her chat and was really strict with boundaries. She wasn’t afraid to talk about topics around sex, but she didn’t overshare. Even her clothing was different. She dressed exactly how you would imagine a middle aged therapist with a kid would dress.

As time went on, I noticed her getting more and more snappy and micromanaging chat. She would repeat boundaries, but not enforce them. Then the oversharing about herself started, and then after that the overhearing about other people started. Then the succubus arc started and her fashion sense went down the tubes.

Sorry for the novel, but the point of my question is this. Did something happen to Poppy that made her this way, or was the Poppy we see in earlier videos just a mask?

Short answer to the top question: from my perspective, no.

That said, Poppy did overshare sexually provocative artwork in spaces of the discord that were accessible to members under the age of 18. These were sometimes properly labeled as NSFW and used spoiler tags and sometimes they did not. I do not recall when this started to occur, but I know this did occur semi-regularly in both the Announcements and Safe-Artwork channels during 2023. This was not a regular occurrence when I first joined the discord; instead it happened later on. If I recall correctly, Poppy was called out for this behavior in the past by @transpersian.

I will admit I was lax in criticizing Poppy's sharing of sexually-provocative artwork in spaces of the discord where minors were present. I am closer to Poppy's age than many others involved in this and share many of her opinions when it comes to public perceptions about sex and sexuality, double standards when it comes to sex/violence, etc. The problem comes when requests are made by people who feel uncomfortable being presented sexually provocative material and those voices go ignored or dismissed.

Okay, the second part: Did something happen to Poppy that made her this way?

This will be my personal opinion on the matter, so please take it with a grain of salt. A number of events occurred during 2022 that might not have been obvious from a public perspective. I do not think it is my place to share all of that, but the things that are traceable publicly are: Poppy and Zena getting into polyamory and making online Twitter discourse/drama a larger component of their channel.

There was also a time where Poppy and Zena were comfortable streaming without each other, or at least doing separate stream segments without each other. That completely stopped in early/mid 2022 (the last edited segment that is an individual Poppy/Zena segment was uploaded May 29, 2022). Even before that the number of times they would stream individually had dropped precipitously.

And while I've noted this in private and above, I will mention it again here: I do think that starting to practice polyamory was a turning point for Poppy and Zena. I suspect I'm not the only one who has noticed this. Was that the only thing that caused changes over time? Absolutely not.

But I know that there were issues with relationships before the ones that have become public knowledge. It's just not my place to share.

#keira #poppy and zena #poppy #zena

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final-script · 2 years

Text

Breaking The Rules | Ben Chilwell

Pairing: Ben Chilwell x Reader

Sumary: Where breaking the rules, it comes out better than expected

Warnings: English is not my first language !!!.There are probably many mistakes (I will correct them later).

------------------------------------

B-"What do you think precious about? Hugging me by my back as I was leaning against the balcony of our room.

Y/N-"How we met and came together.

B-"A nice story and thinking that your father had forbidden us to invite you out.

To make you more aware , I will give you a brief summary , of how I met who today is the love of my life and future father of our baby (though I don't know yet )

It all started 2 years ago when Ben arrived at the club and I worked as a communicator and managed the team's networks, I spent taking photos of the trainings and then published them on the different networks of the club. the funniest thing of all is that he could work with dad , who thanks to him i got the job.

Returning to the subject of Ben, we met when the list arrived to sign his contract and make his signing official in front of the media, I had to document his first pazos in the club.

Our presentation was official, when the sports director introduced it in front of the technical team.

D-"And finally it remains for me to introduce you to our communicator and network manager, Y/N He is Ben Chillwell the new club's signature." We shake hands and talk.

Y/N-"A pleasure, welcome to the club.

B-"Pleasure is all mine"

These were our first words before taking some pictures for their official presentation, on the networks and on the page.

After the photos, it was my turn to retouch them and then upload them, although for me this man doesn't need to retouch.

(...)

The next day they began their training, which I took charge of photographing and then publishing.

But definitely the best thing about the day was the end of it when I found myself editing the material.

B-" Would you be too daring, if I invite you to take a drink?

Y/N-"Well... considering that you have just banned it and that your participation in the team is at stake, don't I know ?

B-" I am of the kind of person, that if you really care about things, you don't rest until you get it".

Y/N-"So I'm one thing??? (I looked at it with a raised eyebrow)

B-"That's not me... (he sighed and ran his hands through his hair) you know that forget it, goodbye (he was going to leave but...)

Y/N-" I thought you were those who didn't rest until you got it??". He stopped his steps but did not turn. "i like cappuccino and know a good place."

He finally turned around, smiled and came up to exchange numbers to coordinate the departure.

It's like a day in October, having gone out for several months and my father accepted the relationship (because of Ben's courage to tell him) in the same place where we took something the first time.

Only this time it was a dinner.

Ben confessed to me all his feelings , which he said he had kept from the day he took his introductory photos.

(...)

B-"You've been thinking, again" leaving kisses on my cheeks.

Y/N-"I just remembered, when you told me that I had asked dad for permission to go out with me.

Ben-"I think if I wanted to have my father-in-law on my side, I had to be brave and tell it myself before I heard it through the press .

Y/N-"You think you'll be just as brave when we tell him he'll be a grandfather??. I said it suddenly, fearing for his reaction.

B-" What... what?" He turned, even between his arms. "re...repeat it."

Y/N-"We will be parents, we will have a little baby love." Removing some tears that fell down his cheeks.

B-"god, you're great, you're serious," Now it was him, who took away my tears and kissed me as he said. "i love you, i love you."

Dad may have forbidden us to be together from the beginning, but after all, having broken the rules served a lot.

I found the man I would be sure I would love forever and the father of my children.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

ANOTHERS ✨

Friendship & More - Ben Chilwell x Reader

Blue Roses - Mason Mount x Reader

#ben chilwell imagine #ben chilwell fanfic #ben chilwell blurb #ben chilwell x reader #ben chilwell one shot #football imagine #footballer imagine

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heyyyharry · 3 years

Text

Happier

(inspired by happier by Olivia Rodrigo)

Word count: 2.4k

I'm selfish, I know, I can't let you go So find someone great, but don't find no one better I hope you're happy, but don't be happier

Part 1: Drivers License

Part 2: Deja Vu

A/N: I edited the original lyrics to match the POV :)

Harry had come up with a thousand scenarios of how this day would play out. Actually, he’d been thinking of this day since the moment he’d received the news. He didn’t dare to hope that she’d say yes to coming back for a sequel. He’d been sure that they would write her character off, give a lame excuse for how his love interest could not make a return and make his character forget about her completely to move on with a new girl in town. It would have been great if it was that easy in real life. Once someone was written off the script, they were gone for good. Real-life relationships were not that simple. Goodbye didn’t mean ‘never see you again’. You would still share the same friend circle and social bubbles, and it was worse when you two worked in the same industry. Harry didn’t know how he’d lasted a year without running into her, not since the Grammys.

“Didn’t you two date?”

“No.” Harry shook his head, but his eyes stayed glued on Y/N from across the room. She wasn’t looking his way, too busy saying hello to everyone else. “No,” he repeated, more to himself than to his co-star. “We didn’t.”

“But she wrote an entire album about you,” said the other twin. What was her name again? Lulu?

“Luna!” cried her sister, Lex. “You can’t ask him that!”

“No, it’s okay,” Harry said with a tight smile, slightly annoyed by the blonde twins, but he didn’t want to seem like an ass on the first day of filming. “And I don’t know if it was for me. You should ask Y/N.”

“Ask me what?”

Harry flinched when he looked up and saw Y/N padding towards them. She hugged the twins, who seemed way too excited. Harry guessed they were Y/N’s fans. They gave off crazy fangirl vibes, probably just pretending not to know the drama to interrogate him. He couldn’t blame them for assuming he was the villain and definitely could not blame Y/N for portraying him as one. It was more important that he knew who he was and how much he had changed since his last relationship. Maybe they could finally be friends.

“Were they bothering you?” Y/N asked him once the twins had left.

Harry nodded. “They’re your friends?”

“Oh, I met them last year on tour. I’m surprised you don’t know them. They were on Disney.”

“I don’t watch Disney,” Harry admitted with a smile. “Well, not today’s Disney.”

“Understandable.” Y/N nodded and bit her lip. She seemed guarded with her straight back and hands hidden behind her. She eyed him up and down, quite subtle yet noticeable. “How have you been?”

“Pretty good,” he said, nodding slowly. “You?”

“Yeah, but mostly tired because of tour.”

“You’re done?”

“Yup, last night was the last show.”

“Nice.”

Y/N raised an eyebrow. “Nice?”

Harry blinked. “Did I say something wrong?”

“No.” Y/N giggled. “You still sound very...you.”

“Well, shouldn’t I?”

“Yeah, you should. But it’s been a year so…I mean, you haven’t changed much.”

“Right,” he said lowly, his eyes falling to his feet. Harry supposed he should say something else, perhaps bringing up another random topic to discuss, but all he could think about was what had happened between them. Things had been messy, hadn’t they? How could they go back to before that? Before her first song about him. Before he’d chosen someone else over her.

Or he could talk about her new relationship. She’d been in a happy relationship for almost six months, right? No wait, hadn’t they broke up two weeks ago? He wasn’t sure because he hadn’t been catching up. If they’d broken up, he’d sound like an ass to even mention her ex’s name. He should just stay quiet.

“I’ll see you later?” she said, gesturing at her stylist who was waiting by the door.

Harry could ask her right now -- the reason she’d agreed to film the sequel to their first movie together. He’d heard from a very reliable source that she’d specifically asked her agent to decline any project that he was in. So did this mean they were good? That she didn’t hate him anymore? He could have gathered his courage and got the answer right then…

“Yeah, see you.”

...but he didn’t.

And so she gave him a smile and a little wave, then happily returned to her stylist.

“See you tomorrow, Y/N!”

“See you, Annie!” Y/N said as she put the rest of her things into her tote bag. Her new driver had got her schedule mixed up, and so she had to wait here for another half an hour. She was in no rush. It had been a light first day, and she’d had a fun time getting to know the new cast members and catching up with old friends.

She sat on the sofa in the lobby, legs crossed, texting her best friend about her day. She’d purposely left out the short off-screen conversation with Harry, and her best friend didn’t even bother to ask. In their world, he didn’t exist, and his name was censored in every conversation like a curse word that was even worse than ‘cunt’. Nevertheless, she didn’t hate him anymore. She was doing just fine on her own, being busy with her career, and she’d been in a happy relationship after her fall out with him.

She and the guy, a model, had broken up two weeks ago due to long distance and some differences that they could not change. They had ended on good terms and decided to stay friends. They said you could only stay friends with your ex when you still had feelings for each other, or you had never loved each other that much in the first place. For her, it was probably the latter. Her previous relationship had been more platonic than romantic, apparently. So she had nothing but the best to say about him.

As she was going through her camera roll, just reminiscing about the past, she heard footsteps approaching and looked up to find Harry. He offered a smile and gestured to the spot beside her on the sofa. “May I sit here? My ride is late.”

“Yeah, sure.” She hurriedly scooted over.

“Good job today,” he said. “You were great.”

“Thanks, so were you.” She smiled, and they both looked away at the same time. This was so awkward. She hated small talk. She’d never had to have small talk with Harry. Conversations with him used to be so easy and natural and silly. Whatever this was, it wasn’t them.

“Can we just be normal?”

At first, Y/N thought she’d been the one who’d said it, so when she realised it’d been Harry, she was speechless.

He swallowed and sat a bit straighter, still not looking at her. “I don’t want us to be weird and awkward.”

“Okay,” she said.

He cleared his throat. “Wanna try again?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Okay, not to sound like an ass but when Joey kept forgetting his lines, I was so pissed off, I could throw a chair at the wall.”

“Right?!” exclaimed Y/N, feeling free to have finally broken out of her shell. “Like, he doesn’t even have many lines. I know he’s new but damn...you can’t get far if you don’t learn your goddamn lines.”

Harry shook with laughter. “Oh God, we sound like dicks, don’t we?”

“Maybe.” Y/N laughed, covering her mouth. “But you know what? We can’t be nice in this industry. It’s impossible.”

“Shhh, if someone heard this, we would be into big trouble.”

“Oh please, I’ve had worse articles written about me than ‘Y/N speaks facts about her lazy co-star’.”

Harry tossed his head back and cackled. “The worst one I’ve got this week was ‘Harry Styles hates therapists.’”

“What?!” Y/N gasped. “No way! That’s so stupid!”

“Right?” Harry rolled his eyes. “I could get all my therapists to speak up for me but I’m kinda immune to bullshit now.”

“Therapists? Like plural?”

“Yeah, one in every city.”

“Damn.”

“Yeah.”

Y/N rubbed her hands onto her legs. “Rough year?”

Harry’s eyes rolled to the back of his head as he leaned back. “You have no idea.” Then he swept his hair out of his eyes, sucked in a breath, and finally looked at her. “I wish I could have talked to you, though.”

She bit her tongue, knowing what she was about to say next would disappoint her best friend so much, but she had to. “So do I.”

Harry looked taken aback before his lips curled into a smile. “It’s silly, isn’t it? I haven’t talked to you in a year, and I feel like I know everything that’s happened to you except that I don’t.”

What he’d just said might make no sense for most people, but Y/N knew exactly what he meant. She nodded and wetted her lip. “You only know as much as everyone else does.”

“Yeah, I got updates on you from the news and our friends.”

“Same.” Y/N smiled back. “I hate how they write articles about your new haircut but not mine.”

“I like your new hair colour.”

“Thanks. I like your new car.”

Then they both burst out laughing. It was fun and also a little bit strange that Y/N didn’t feel the same anxiety talking to him as she used to. It must be because they had grown and were now meeting again as better people.

“Damn, my ride's here,” Y/N said as she read the text from her driver. “I gotta go now.”

“Oh, okay.” Harry stood up and followed Y/N to the entrance. “Hey, just wondering--”

“Yeah?”

“Am I...am I still blocked?” He looked a bit flustered as she tilted her head and squinted her eyes. “On your phone. Because I remember you having my number blocked--”

“I unblocked you on your birthday.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah.” Y/N shrugged. “I should’ve sent you a happy birthday text but...I didn’t want your girlfriend to get the wrong ideas.”

“My ex.”

“Yeah, I know.”

They smiled at each other one last time before saying goodbye. Y/N knew it was silly, but she was hoping he would go after her.

Ding.

A notification popped up when she was in the car. She was almost home, and it was from Harry’s number. He’d sent her a link with a message that said, “Hope you like it :)”.

Curious, she tapped on it and was directed to an audio file titled ‘Track 5’. The upload date was last year. About two weeks after their short conversation at the Grammys.

Hurriedly, she fumbled inside her bag for her iPods and put it on before she pressed play.

“Hey, Jeff, I couldn’t sleep so I wrote this song. Listen and let me know if it should go on the album.”

Then came the piano intro. It sounded good, so Y/N wondered how it hadn’t ended up on his last album.

But when he started to sing...

We ended a while ago Your friends are mine, you know, I know You've moved on, found someone new One more guy who brings out the better in you

And I thought my heart was detached From all the sunlight of our past But he’s so nice, he’s so funny Does he mean you forgot about me?

Oh, I hope you're happy But not like how you were with me I'm selfish, I know, I can't let you go So find someone great, but don't find no one better I hope you're happy, but don't be happier

And does he tell you you’re the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen? An eternal love bullshit he might not even mean Remember when you were with me I meant it when you heard it first from me

And now I'm pickin' him apart Like cuttin' him down will make you miss my wretched heart But he’s charming, he looks kind He probably gives you butterflies

I hope you're happy But not like how you were with me I'm selfish, I know, I can't let you go So find someone great, but don't find no one better

I hope you're happy I wish you all the best, really Say you love him, baby Just not like you loved me And think of me fondly when your hands are on him I hope you're happy, but don't be happier

The song was for her. He’d written it when her new relationship had gone public. Y/N sat there, staring blankly ahead until the honking of a car tore open her inner peace, and reality came crashing back in. The driver dropped her off at her house. Instead of going inside, she stood on her front steps and replayed the song one more time. When it ended, she decided to text him: Why didn’t this make it to the album?

She didn’t know where he was now, but it showed ‘typing’ in less than a second, as if he’d been waiting in their chat since he’d sent that link.

You would’ve hated me, Y/N.

True, she replied. Still, I would’ve loved the song lowkey. And added, I love it btw.

He took so long to type that it was driving her crazy. She flopped down on the concrete stair with her phone clutched in her hands, her heart thundering against her ribcage. Anxiety popped like a balloon when his message appeared: Were you happier?

She reread it again and again.

No.

I wasn’t either, he responded. I kept getting deja vu.

Ha, nice reference.

That song is my guilty pleasure. Love listening to you roasting me on loop.

That last message made Y/N bury her face into her palm and giggle like a fool. She thought for a second and wrote: I could come roast you in person now if that’s what you prefer. I think we’ve never had a proper roasting.

Can we meet, Y/N? Or are you busy now?

No, not busy.

Great, I’ll pick you up.

Just tell me where, she responded with a smile on her face. I got my drivers license now :)

#harry styles #harry styles fanfic #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles writing #harry styles fluff #harry styles imagine #harry styles imagines #harry styles angst #harry styles one shot #harry styles x you #harry styles x y/n #harry styles x reader #harry styles fic

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hermette-historian · 3 years

Text

It's important to look deeply at the near-death experiences that the series has had in order to understand how it has grown, why it has changed the way that it did, and the reasoning behind some of the decisions that the members continue to make to this day. In looking at history we also find the answers to some of the greatest mysteries of the series, as well as some of the most frequently asked and vaguely answered questions. With that in mind:

What Really Killed Hermitcraft Season 1?

Episode 1: Death of a Bachelor

If you ask Xisuma why the first season ended, he will say in no uncertain terms that it was the loss of their founder and leader GenerikB. And he's right.

GB's final episode of Hermitcraft aired on April 20, 2013; the same date as Jessassin's, though that seems to have been pure coincidence. In it he states that he is leaving because while he is still in love with the game, the vanilla version just..wasn't doing it for him anymore. He was done with that world, ready for something fresh and exciting to be added, and to him that meant mods. To this day, he still plays modded Minecraft over on Twitch! But after he left Hermitcraft, he never really went back to vanilla. More importantly, he also implies that while the server may go on in his absence, he finds it unlikely to continue long term-true to his prediction, the series floundered without direction for another month before Xisuma uploaded his final video on June 2 of that year. Hermitcraft officially died with the disappearance of its namesake.

Here's where we look deeper, because while GB's departure may have been the straw that broke the camel's back it was by no means the only reason the season ended. Just digging deeper into each of his reasons for leaving, we can see the storm brewing as far back as November of the previous year.

Episode 2: The Call of Cthulhu

What happened in November, you ask? Modded Minecraft happened. More specifically, the extremely popular modpack Feed the Beast was released beta at that time, and the Hermits at large wasted zero time in getting in on the action. There was within a month a dedicated "Hermitcraft Feed the Beast" server, from which a few hermits were added to the vanilla counterpart retroactively: Juicetra and Skyzm among them. Other members included Hypno, Topmass, DMAC, and of course GB...FTB quickly consumed the working lives of the Hermits; it was the first experience many of them had with a real modpack, and it introduced mechanics they could only dream about having in the survival game (like flying, for instance). Content on the vanilla server began to slow down. It didn't help that none of the hermits were full time creators in 2013-their time was limited, and when they were able to spend it doing the things they wanted to do that ended up being FTB. Some members such as DMAC promised more vanilla content once the craze was over, but the "craze" never stopped and he ended up going full months without putting out vanilla episodes. The FTB server had its own issues and ended up dying of technical problems and rollbacks later down the line, but it alone played a massive part first in boosting Hermitcraft Vanilla, then slowly choking it to death.

But there is one more unsung murderer when it comes to the grave demise of Hermitcraft Season 1: the game itself.

Episode 3: If I Die Young

When Dinnerbone joined Hermitcraft in summer 2012, he requested that they begin to update through snapshots instead of waiting for full releases-presumably so that he could use them as a test server. The decision to honor his suggestion, however, was a divisive one. Some members jumped on the opportunity! GB and Red3yz in particular were beyond excited to test everything from new terrain generation to redstone mechanics. Others like Xisuma and Biffa were more cautious, preferring to wait until the game was ready to play in a way that would be fulfilling to them. Still others-Joe Hills among them-were excited at first...then fell quickly into the opposite camp when half of their house spontaneously went missing and occasionally they couldn't craft anything with the wooden planks. The snapshots proved to be glitchy as all hell and an administrative nightmare, creating little but endless stress for GB on admin duty and Hypno in the world edit repair department. But they stuck with it! Hermitcraft continued to update through every single snapshot from 1.3 until 1.5, each new week bringing a new set of uncertainties and challenges to overcome. For a group of creators that were already fatigued with vanilla and focused on something more interesting, it's easy to see how this kind of thing would force a divide between them and the server...nobody wants to create content on a game that's unnecessarily difficult on a good day.

Of course, there were other little things that drove the Hermits away from its original phase. A big one for GB that goes unmentioned was definitely the state of his base: the original that he spent nearly a year building was burnt to the ground during the conflict with TEA and redone in creative mode by Topmass and the Pimp my Minecraft team. Not only did this cause controversy among the fans like you wouldn't believe, it left little for him to do in the world where his own creations were largely gone altogether. Other Hermits like Jess ran out of inspiration or burned out in a more typical fashion.

Thus in June of 2013, just over a year after its original inception, Hermitcraft died.

On the third day it rose again, dragged by the ears near single-handedly out of the grave by the person with the most determination to see it succeed. A new era began of rebuilding on a solid foundation, with dignity intact and lessons learned, a stronger brand, a clear distinction, and no snapshots. Eventually, they would have a new leader. But these things will all take time.

Hermitcraft beta was doomed by being built on sand instead of rock. It was strangled by the game itself, a victim of circumstance and false promises and opportunity. It died and came back stronger. And once every year or two, it feels the need to do so again.

Here's to Season 8, and many more to come.

#hermitcraft #season 1 #no i'm not done with it yet #but we're getting so #so close #I just did a liiittle bit of front end research #I ain't afraid of no spoilers

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mell0hi · 3 years

Text

Technoblade x Reader... (Platonic)

Your health is more important.

Techno was currently in his room, sat in front of his computer editing his new video. It’s not like he anticipated it taking this long. However it’d been five hours since he’d started and his friend had arrived at his house two hours ago, and at this point he was too far gone.

But a knock startled him out of focus, and his head whipped around to his door.

“Hey..” a soft voice rang out after he’d taken off his headphones.

“Yeah? Did you need somethin’?” He replied, turning in his chair to look at the owner of the strangely comforting voice.

His best friend stood at his door way with a plate of pasta.

“No, no. Was just coming to ask how much longer you think you’ll be? Because it’s late and I kind of think you should be getting some rest, you know.” His friend looked down and gestured the plate out slightly as if to emphasise it’s existence.

“I can later, I just need to finish this video..” He glanced back at his computer, before fixing his gaze back on his friend.

“You never announced that a video was being uploaded, yeah? So you can afford being a day later than you wanted in order to take care of yourself.”

He sighed.

“I suppose but it’s going to bother me that it’s comin’ out late just because I needed to eat dinner or somethin’.”

“Have you eaten today, at all?”

“Uhh.. I’m gonna be honest, no.”

“That’s not okay, Tech... Come eat this then you can sleep.” They gestured out the plate again in the hopes he’d finally agree this time.

“Y/n...But what about-.”

“It can wait, you can finish it tomorrow, your health is more important than a Minecraft video, dude.”

“Yeah... Alright. Fair enough.” He sighed and stood up, taking the plate and walking into the kitchen.

“You have to learn to take better care of yourself.” They leaned against the counter, watching Techno eat.

“I kinda enjoy havin’ you help me, though.” He shrugged and braced himself before shovelling a load of spinach leaves into his mouth, cringing at the taste.

“I know that.” They laughed slightly, amused at his reaction, “But that’s because you’d probably be dead if I wasn’t here to help you with all your basic necessities.”

He hummed in agreement, chewing on whatever he’d managed to shove into his mouth during the five seconds his friend was talking.

“Stop eating so fast, it’s gross.” They whined, resting their elbows on the counter, head in their hands.

“Shut up, y/n. I haven’t eaten all day, nerd.”

“Don’t call me a nerd, loser.”

“Don’t call me a loser, nerd.” He grinned down at his plate, as if he’d just made the funniest joke known to man, laughing when they shoved his shoulder a little.

“Shut up, oh my god.”

“You know, for bein’ a stereotypical ‘mum friend’ you sure do hate me a lot.” He played with the vegetables on his plate and snickered.

As much as he hates to admit it, he enjoyed their company and was endlessly appreciative of the fact that they always looked out for him, and prepared food for him when he wouldn’t care to himself. He could never thank them enough.

But god, he hated spinach.

—

-🪐 this was not as good as I would’ve liked it to be lmao I just wanted to post something because I feel unproductive when I haven’t and it’s been too long since this was requested because I’m lazy LOL

Also there may be typos but I have read through about four times, I am not reading it again lmao

#mcyt headcanon #mcyt headcanons #mcyt x reader #technoblade x reader #techno x reader #platonic technoblade #technoblade x reader platonic #platonic technoblade x reader #Karl jacobs x reader #quackity x reader #wilbur soot x reader #technobladexreader #mcyt dream x reader

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dottielovegood · 3 years

Text

ASMR - Chapter 4

Elriel fanfiction

About this fic:

Azriel can’t sleep Elain has an ASMR channel Match made in heaven (or you know, on youtube..)

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You can find chapter 1 here, chapter 2 here and chapter 3 here

Read this fic on AO3

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The following week, Azriel read Elain’s messages too many times to admit. He had answered her that “meat banjo” was, indeed, a vile word, and after that, they hadn’t really talked or texted.

He had saved her number as “Elain”, which had felt weirdly private. As if they were friends, which they were not. He was just her friendly helper, and she was his remedy for nightmares.

However, even though they didn’t know each other, Azriel felt an odd sensation in his chest when he thought about her. If he didn’t know better, he would have thought that he was missing her, which was absurd. But the tight little knot in his chest felt very much like longing. He tried to tell himself that this was weird and stupid. He knew that he had a crush on her (even though he hated to admit it), but he could also see that it was a pointless crush. She was an internet sensation, he was a boring IT guy. She was light and happiness and flowers, he was dark and brooding. She made people smile, he made people uncomfortable. And then there was the practical side of things. They had met on the internet. She probably lived on the other side of the country. Hell, she could even live in a different country for all he knew. She might have a partner already - it’s not like he asked. And, last but not least, she probably didn’t have a crush on him.

Before talking to her on the phone, he had just thought that she was a pretty girl that deserved kindness. But after their phone call, he had definitely developed a crush. Which was another reason why he hadn’t texted her. He didn’t want to bother her and he didn’t want to have this crush. He wanted to stop feeling like this for a girl he would never see in real life. Yet, every night before bed, he found himself on her youtube page, watching one of her many videos.

She uploaded a new video to Youtube every Friday, so when Friday came around, Azriel was itching to get home so he could go to sleep (he told himself that he was looking forward to sleeping and not to seeing her face).

However, he had an entire workday to get through first. The office was mostly an open landscape and Azriel’s desk was next to Cassian’s. The only person with his own office was Rhysand, which was fair since he was the owner of the company. At two in the afternoon, Rhys poked his head out of his office.

“You guys are still coming for dinner this weekend, right?”

“Yeah,” Azriel and Cassian answered in unison.

“I told Feyre that I would help her with the food,” Azriel continued.

Rhys looked like he was going to kiss Azriel. “Oh, god. Thank you, man. I was scared that we would have to repeat the Christmas dinner,” he said and shuddered.

Feyre hated to cook and Rhys did most of the cooking at home, but for some inexplicable reason, she always wanted to cook for holidays or family dinners. To everyone’s dismay. Christmas had been no exception. She had burned the turkey, added salt instead of sugar to the dessert and somehow managed to buy the wrong berries for her cranberry sauce. Luckily, Rhys had been prepared and bought a few frozen pizzas and some ice cream, so the day wasn’t that much of a disaster, but nobody wanted to brave Feyre’s cooking again.

“Why don’t you just cook?” Cassian asked without looking up from his screen.

“You know that she kicks me out if I so much as go near the kitchen when we have these family dinners. And since she started the hormone treatment, she has been a bit bitchy when she gets mad, so I’ll just do whatever she says.”

Azriel chuckled. He could tell from Rhysand’s tone that Feyre had been more than “a bit” bitchy.

“I don’t understand why she lets Azriel help, though…”

“Maybe because she knows that I’ll tell her to sit down with a glass of wine and a magazine, and then she can take all of the credit for the food?”

“Fair enough.” Rhys shrugged. “Just burn the food a little bit, or it won’t be believable.”

Cassian snorted. “No one would believe that something edible was made by your wife. Sorry.”

“She does make a great green smoothie, though,” Rhys grinned and held up his glass.

Azriel and Cassian looked at each other and had to bite their tongues to keep from laughing. The smoothie looked vile and smelled even worse.

After a few more minutes of small talk, Rhys went back to his office for an important phone call. “See you on Saturday,” he reminded them before closing the door.

Azriel and Cassian worked in silence for the remainder of the day.

When Azriel came home that evening, he made a quick pasta carbonara to eat in front of the TV. He was re-watching New Girl. It was his comfort show and absolutely nobody knew that he watched it (and had watched it multiple times). He would take that information with him to the grave. But it was fun and cute and sometimes he liked to imagine his friends as characters in the show. Cassian was probably Schmidt, because Nesta was one hundred percent Cece. Feyre was Jess, which meant that Rhys was Nick. And then there was Azriel. He wanted to say that he was a very cool character, but most characters on this show weren’t cool, and also, he was definitely Winston. Alone with a cat - sounds about right , Azriel thought to himself as he finished his bowl of pasta.

When the episode ended he just waited for the next to start. He didn’t have any plans for the night and nowhere to be. His phone vibrated where he had left it on the kitchen counter. He ignored it, feeling too lazy to get up. But then it vibrated again. With a sigh, he got up. He expected to see a text from Mor telling him to bring wine tomorrow, or maybe a strange meme from Cassian. What he didn’t expect was to see Elain’s name on his screen.

He could feel his heart in his throat as he read her messages.

Elain Hey, Shadowsinger. I’m uploading a new video soon. You should watch it!

Elain I hope that message didn’t sound creepy? I just meant that I think you might like it.

Azriel’s hands were sweaty.

Azriel You didn’t sound creepy at all. Of course, I’ll watch your video. May I ask what I can expect from it?

Just seconds later, Elain answered.

Elain You can ask, but I might not tell ;)

Azriel Should I be worried?

Elain Haha, no! I think it turned out great. You were my inspiration :)

Azriel could feel himself blush. He had never been someone’s inspiration before.

Azriel So, I’m your muse? ;)

Oh god, was that too flirty? Was the winky-face too much? He wished that he could take back the message.

Elain For tonight, yes!

Azriel stared at his phone, unsure of what to answer. Luckily, Elain wrote to him again.

Elain What are you doing tonight?

Azriel Nothing. Just eating pasta and watching TV. How about you?

Elain That sounds amazing. I have been editing this video for hours so I’m just tired and cranky, haha. I have just ordered a pizza and I think I’ll just eat it in bed as soon as this video has finished uploading. What did you watch?

Azriel If I told you, I would have to kill you.

Elain Oh, intriguing! Is it trashy drama? I bet it’s Grey’s anatomy! Or maybe… Love Island?

Azriel stared at his phone. Did she really think that he would watch something like Love Island?

Azriel I watched New Girl, okay. Don’t tell anyone.

Elain Your secret is safe with me! Also, I love New Girl! Especially Winston!

It felt as if someone was squeezing Azriel’s heart.

Azriel Really? Which character would you be?

Elain My pizza is here so I am going to put all of my electronics in a different room and eat my pizza while reading a good book. It was great talking to you, Azriel! Please tell me what you thought of the video when you have watched it.

Elain Oh, and I would probably be Winston’s cat. lol

Azriel almost dropped his phone. If he had to be alone with a cat for the rest of his life, he would definitely want Elain to be his cat , he thought to himself. Which was a weird thing to think about someone you didn’t know. Azriel dropped his head to his kitchen counter and took a deep breath before replying.

Azriel It was great talking to you too, Elain. Enjoy your dinner and your book :)

She didn’t answer, but she didn’t have to. Azriel was going to be thinking about her for the rest of the night anyway.

30 minutes later, he got a notification telling him that Flower Girl ASMR had uploaded a new video. The video was called “ASMR for IT-guys”, which made him chuckle. He clicked the video and Elain’s beautiful face filled his screen again.

“Hello, my lovelies, lovelies, lovelies,” she whispered in her microphone. “This week’s video will be a bit different,” she continued, slowly moving her hands in front of the camera. “This video was inspired by my friend who recently helped me with some computer-related issues, issues, issues.”

Azriel loved it when she repeated words like that. And he liked that he somehow was a part of this video. It was something that connected them. Azriel paused the video and got into bed, knowing fully well that he would probably fall asleep soon if he kept watching this.

He pressed play again. “So, today, I thought that we would try a few computer-related triggers. I have a keyboard here,” she said and started typing on a keyboard that was out of view. “I thought that I would say a few trigger words while typing them.”

She smiled at the camera and pressed a few more keys. “I just wrote my friend’s name, but you won’t get to know who he is. But you know who you are. Thank you for your help!”

Azriel felt all warm inside.

She continued the video. “The first trigger word is IP address ”. Azriel laughed as she repeated the word multiple times while typing quickly.

“And then we have, laptop, laptop, laptop,” she continued, and Azriel felt shivers go down his spine when she popped the p’s.

Azriel had never thought that he would fall asleep to someone whispering “HTML coding” in his ears, but here he was. Relaxed and ready to sleep.

All thanks to Flower Girl ASMR.

━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━

The next day, Azriel texted Elain that he had loved the video. He waited for hours, but no reply came. Maybe she just wanted to repay me for helping her? Azriel thought. Maybe she would stop talking to him now that he had seen the video.

The thought of never talking to Elain again made him feel a new kind of ache in his chest. An ache he didn’t want to feel. This stupid crush needs to end, he muttered to himself as he started to scrub his kitchen counter. He tried to ignore the feeling by keeping busy. He cleaned his apartment and did some laundry before heading over to his friends’ house.

Rhys greeted him by the door and ushered him inside.

“She started cooking like 15 minutes ago, please save whatever can be saved,” he whispered to Azriel. Azriel chuckled and made his way to the kitchen. On the way there, he passed the living room and stopped to greet his friends. He saw most of them on a daily basis because of work, but he was still happy to see them. Cassian and his fiancée Nesta sat close together on one of the green velvet couches. On the opposite couch sat Mor and Amren. Mor was one of the journalists at Velaris News, and Amren was an editor. They had known each other for years. Amren and Rhys had studied together at university, and Mor was Rhysand’s cousin. Once upon a time, Azriel had a crush on Mor. One night after one too many glasses at Rita’s he confessed his feelings to her and she had looked horrified. He had expected her to tell him that she didn’t fancy him and leave it at that, but instead, she had blurted “I like girls!”

Azriel was the first person she ever came out to, and he had felt honored. He also knew now that they wouldn’t have worked out together in the long run (even if Mor had been straight). They were just too different. She was energetic and outgoing and fun, he needed peace and quiet. But she was still one of his very best friends.

Amren on the other hand, he didn’t know as well. She had always been very private, but she was damn good at her job.

“Where’s Varian tonight?” Azriel asked Amren, trying to make small talk.

“How should I know?” she answered quickly. “I’m not his mother.”

Cassian stared at her. “But you are his girlfriend?”

She shrugged. “I don’t like to label things.”

Nesta rolled her eyes. Amren had lived with Varian for the past two years, but she was still reluctant to tell anyone about their relationship.

Azriel made his way into the kitchen, and from what he could tell, he made it just in time.

“What are you making, Feyre?” he asked, because truthfully, he couldn’t tell.

Feyre turned around quickly as if he had startled her. “Oh, hi Az,” she said and wiped her forehead with the back of her hand.

Something was burning.

“I was trying to make lamb chops with glazed carrots, roasted potatoes, and salsa verde, but…” she gestured to the stove, which looked like a disaster.

Azriel chuckled. “That’s ambitious.” He lifted the lid from one of the pots and could clearly see that she had overcooked the lamb 10 minutes ago. Also, why had she made them in a pot, and not a frying pan? It would be inedible.

The potatoes were still in the sink, unpeeled.

She gave him a strained smile. “Will you help me?”

“Of course.” Azriel put the grocery bag he had brought with him on the kitchen island. “On one condition.”

“Anything.” She sounded desperate.

“Please, for the love of god, let Rhys cook when we come over. You really don’t have to show off. You are good at many things, Feyre. But cooking is unfortunately not one of them.”

She nodded. “I know,” she sat down on one of the stools at the kitchen island and buried her face in her hand. “I just...I need to be able to cook when I become a mother.”

Azriel took her hand in his. “You really don’t. Nobody expect fathers to be good at cooking, so why should every mother be good at it? Honestly, just let Rhys cook while you play with the kids.”

She smiled at him. “That actually sounds amazing,” she sighed.

“Right?”

Azriel started to pull out some ingredients from the bag on the kitchen island. He held up the tomatoes and the spaghetti, “How about some pasta arrabbiata with burrata?”

“Sounds fancy.”

He shrugged. “Everything sounds fancier in a different language. It’s just pasta with a spicy tomato sauce, and burrata on top.”

“Whatever you make will probably be better than that mess,” she said and glanced towards the stove. Azriel couldn’t disagree.

“Probably,” he laughed and got to work. Azriel placed all the pots and pans in the sink and started chopping the vegetables for the sauce, and in just 30 minutes, dinner was served.

“You are my hero,” Feyre said and kissed his cheek as she carried the big bowl of pasta to the dining room.

Everyone had already gathered around the table, wine glasses in hand. As Azriel sat down, Mor poured him some wine.

“This looks amazing,” Nesta said and Cassian nodded in agreement.

“Thanks, Az helped a little,” Feyre said and winked at Azriel.

“Just a bit,” Azriel said and took a sip of wine.

The conversation (and wine) flowed freely, as it always did. Cassian and Nesta told them about their wedding plans, Mor gushed about Emerie, a girl she was dating, and Feyre told them about life as a high school art teacher. Azriel would never understand how anyone could choose to spend their days with teenagers, but Feyre loved it.

After two bottles of wine, Nesta and Mor were in an argument about which animal was the cutest.

“No, I am telling you, Sloths are cuter than any animal ever,” Mor exclaimed. “Have you seen their dopey little faces?”

“Sloths? Really?” Nesta looked at her as if she had suggested that the sky was green. “Red pandas are way cuter! They are cute and cuddly, Sloths just look like every single stoner I went to high school with.”

They had been at it for 10 minutes, which Azriel found to be quite impressive.

“Can you both just shut up?” Amren gritted out. “The cutest animals are koalas. They’re even cute when they fight. I am right, you are wrong. Please stop this meaningless discussion before I die from boredom.”

Nesta and Mor looked at Amren, and then at each other.

“We obviously have to see Koalas fight if you want us to end this conversation,” Mor said.

Nesta nodded. “Obviously. Give me your phone, Az,” she said and reached for his phone.

“Why do you need my phone?”

“Because mine is dead and yours is right there on the table. Also, your screen is big and we need to watch this in full HD, for obvious reasons.”

Azriel huffed a laugh, unlocked his phone, and handed it to Nesta.

She clicked the Youtube app, and then her face fell. She looked at Azriel as if he was an alien, and then she showed the phone to Cassian who looked at him with the same facial expression.

What the hell had they found?

He didn’t have anything weird on his phone. And he sure as hell didn’t watch porn on it.

“What?” Azriel asked, and Nesta turned the phone.

Fuck. The last video he had watched was still loaded on Youtube, and of course, it was Elain’s latest video.

“What the hell is this?” Nesta asked, almost looking angry.

Azriel didn’t understand why she found ASMR so wrong, but he desperately wanted to explain himself.

“Well, it’s ASMR. It’s kind of… well, it’s hard to explain, but it helps me sleep and– “

Nesta interrupted him before he could finish. “I know what ASMR is. I am wondering why you are watching Elain?”

Azriel stared at Nesta in shock. Did she also like Elain’s videos? But that wouldn’t explain the anger and confusion.

“Do you...know her?” Azriel asked.

“Yes, we went to university together. She’s our florist for the wedding. She was the florist at their wedding, too,” Nesta answered and gestured towards Rhys and Feyre. “Surely you have met her?”

Azriel could do nothing but shake his head in confusion. If he had ever met Elain, he would have known. You didn’t forget a face like hers.

“Please tell me you’re not stalking her like some creep, Az. Honestly, her last boyfriend was the world’s biggest asshat.”

“I’m not stalking her,” Azriel blurted out. “I’m just watching her videos to fall asleep, I promise. I– I didn’t know that you knew her.”

Nesta eyed him suspiciously. “So, is this just a coincidence?”

He nodded. “Weirder things have happened,” he said, trying to lighten the mood.

Nesta glanced at Cassian, and then back at Azriel. “Fine,” she said after a small eternity. “You would probably be cute together anyway. Sorry for insinuating that you would be a stalker.” She really did look remorseful. “That wasn’t fair. I’m just very protective of her. She’s the nicest girl, but she has horrendous taste in men.”

Azriel couldn’t answer, because his mind was still stuck on the fact that Nesta said that they would be cute together. He wanted to ask Nesta why she thought that. He kind of also wanted to ask her if Elain lived here in Velaris, and what her favorite movie was, and if she, by any chance, had a boyfriend. But he refrained, he didn’t want to sound like a stalker.

“So, what the fuck is ASMR?” Cassian asked. “Is it like porn?”

Before Azriel could answer, Rhys said “It’s like porn for your ears, I guess,” and then the entire table was laughing.

“Nesta,” Feyre said when the laughter had died down. “Does Elain still have that cute, little shop on River Street?”

“Mhm,” Nesta answered and took a sip of her wine.

Azriel could kiss Feyre for asking. And if he wasn’t mistaken, he could see her wink in his direction before raising her water glass to her lips.

Azriel walked home that evening with a million thoughts in his head.

He made a list in his head:

Elain lived in Velaris

River Street was literally a 10-minute walk from his home.

Nesta thought that they would be cute together

This meant nothing

She probably didn’t even like him back

Just because they were in the same city, it didn’t mean that they would ever meet.

This was still just a crush

And it was probably one-sided

She hadn’t even answered his latest text message.

And as if on cue, his phone vibrated in his pocket.

Elain I’m sorry that I didn’t answer you earlier. I’ve been at work all day. We had a leak in the basement and everything was just chaos. I haven’t even checked my phone until now.

He mentally scratched number 9 from his list.

Azriel No worries! Did you fix the leak?

Azriel checked the time on his phone: 23.30

Had she dealt with this leak until now?

Elain Yes! But so many flowers were ruined (I’m a florist) and I had to remake a few arrangements for a wedding that’s coming up.

Elain I’m sorry. You probably don’t care. I’m happy that you liked the video :)

Azriel wanted to tell her that he did care. That everything she said was interesting to him. He would probably even find her Starbucks order fascinating. But that bordered on stalker behavior.

Azriel Again, no worries! Sometimes when you’ve had a bad day, you just need someone to vent to.

Elain Exactly! Thank you for letting me vent :) This day is finally over!

There was a selfie attached to the last message.

Elain was standing in front of a big window surrounded by flowers. She was wearing a white, oversized shirt and her hair was in a messy bun. She looked tired but happy. She was giving him ‘thumbs up’ in the photo and through the window, he could see the Sidra. They were indeed in the same city. It made him both happy and nervous.

Elain Sweaty but happy to be heading home :)

Azriel received that last message when he walked through the door to his apartment. What the hell was he supposed to answer?

But then he thought back to Nesta’s words.

You would probably be cute together.

So he took a deep breath and gathered all his courage.

Azriel You still look beautiful though

He stared at his phone. Would she answer? Would she block him? Would she tell him to stop being a creep?

Elain Thank you :) What do you look like? I might have forgotten ;)

Okay. That was flirty. Even Azriel could tell that that was a flirty text message, and he was usually oblivious to such things. He quickly walked to his bathroom (it was the room with the best lighting). He checked his shirt (no stains) and mussed with his hair.

“Good enough,” he muttered, and snapped a selfie.

Before he could chicken out, he sent it to her.

Within seconds, he received a reply.

Elain Beautiful!

#elriel #elriel fanfic #acotar fanfiction #acotar #elain x azriel #elain archeron #azriel x elain #azriel

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sporticus1234 · 3 years

Text

Catch Me if You Can-Laws of Attraction (Part 1)

Summary: After weeks of flirting, teasing, and close calls, Tessa is ready to take the plunge, but can Gabe overcome his own worse fears and join her?

Pairing: Gabe Ricci x Main Character (Tessa Michaels)

Link to my Master-List and Other works will be added once they have been re-edited and re-uploaded.

Perma-Tags and LOA Tags: @choices-addict @choiceskatie @lady-calypso @chemist-ana @kat-tia801 @chrissythadon @nishas-paradise @blainehellyes @mm2305 @suitfer @thegreentwin @pixelnutrookie

I hope you all enjoy it and see you soon for some...adventures...in part 2.

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Rather than clumsy words, it’s your action that I believe. Don’t stop. Go past the limit. Go faster. I’m going to find my heart. So catch me if you can.

-Girls Generation, Catch Me if You Can (Korean Ver.)

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The once glittering ballroom filled with stimulating conversation, flowing bubbles of champagne, and decadent hor-dourves was now deserted and quiet, signaling the end of the extravagant weekend legal conference. As the last person Tessa was speaking to excused herself for the evening, she looked around the empty space littered with discarded champagne flutes and linen napkins, her spirits deflating at the sight. The conference ended as quickly as it began, and come Monday morning, she would be back in the office, the competition still at the forefront of everyone’s minds.

It may have been a short weekend, but Tessa was grateful for the time away from the office. The past few weeks were filled with nothing else but case after case coming one after another and nonstop talk about the competition, particularly from Martin. But for a tiny period of time, all of that vanished out of sight and out of mind. She laughed and joked with her colleagues and bosses like they were all good friends. She camped and ate smores in a beautiful forest, and she finally got her first full night of sleep since she started working at McGraw Byrne. She truly felt like she had been transported to a completely different world, one she found hesitant to leave behind for an entire year.

Stifling the yawn sneaking up on her, she left the ballroom behind, her spirits still thrumming with excitement from the evening, but her body yearning for a soak in a hot bath and some sleep in the oversized hotel bed. She was halfway across the empty lobby, gilded elevator doors in sight, when her feet came to a stop outside of the hotel’s bar. She didn’t even have to look to know exactly who was sitting in that dimly lit bar. He had a larger-than-life presence, no matter what room he was in, that was like a magnet, drawing everyone’s attention, even if he was just randomly passing by on the sidewalk.

Her tiredness completely forgotten, she hovers near the entryway and discretely watches him. He’s sitting by himself at the bar, nursing what Tessa knows is a glass of scotch on the rocks along with a basket of half-eaten chips and dip, his eyes occasionally flicking up to the large screen TV showing a basketball game taking place on the other side of the country. His jacket is discarded on the back of his chair, his tie loosened slightly and the buttons of his shirt rakishly undone at the top. Despite his disheveled, executive blowing off steam look, he is still just as handsome and attractive as he was just a short time ago when he was polished and buttoned up. Maybe even more.

A small smile tugs at the corners of her lips as she watches him. Gabe was such a surprise when she first came to New York, and she never expected to become so charmed by him. The man has such a lavish and lively personality on the outside, but on the inside is a man driven to be the best and passionate about using his vast knowledge to help everyone. His heart is as big as his office, a welcoming, refreshing contrast to the selfishness Tessa sees too often in this line of work. They have only known each other for a short time, but every time he came around, he put a smile on her face and made her stomach flip-flop. She couldn’t explain why he has such a pleasant effect on her. Perhaps it’s the way that when she flirts with him, he flirts right back with the same energy she gives him, maybe even more. Maybe it’s the way the two of them click when they’re together. Or maybe it’s the way he continues to keep her on her toes and excite her yet still make her feel a sense of comfort and familiarity at the same time. Regardless of the reasons, the one thing she was certain of was that she didn’t want this fluttering feeling to stop. Ever.

“Of course, you would be alone at a bar,” Tessa teases as she steps towards him.

Gabe swivels his head around at the sound of her voice, his eyes immediately catching hers as she approaches him. His lips twist into a grin, his spirits lifting like they always do whenever she is around. “Am I really that predictable?”

Tessa shrugs. “Maybe a little. But you wouldn’t be the Gabe Ricci we all know and love if you weren’t.”

Gabe chuckles. “Most people wouldn’t agree with you on that statement.”

“I’m not most people,” she fires back with a wink.

No, you are most definitely not Gabe thought. “What exactly are you doing still wandering around?” He glances down towards his watch, mildly surprised to find it still somewhat early. “The cocktail party ended almost an hour ago. I figured you would be in bed like everyone else.”

“I planned on it, but then I saw this guy sitting all by himself in this empty hotel bar and thought he could use some company.”

Gabe’s eyes twinkle with delightful mischief as he takes another sip of his scotch. He was hoping the two of them could spend some more time together before the madness hit them Monday morning. “I think I know who you’re talking about. And I, for one, know that he would love to have some company, especially if the company happens to be you.”

Tessa gives him a shy smile as she slips into the bar stool next to him. An electrical, buzzing warmth fills up the space around them as butterflies flutter in her stomach at the near closeness to him, the scent of his cologne invading her senses and tempting her to come even closer. As she peruses the small menu, the lone bartender comes over and places a napkin down in front of her.

“Anything to eat or drink?”

“A Manhattan please.”

The bartender nods before turning to Gabe. “Another refill for you, sir?”

“Please,” Gabe replies. “And put her Manhattan on my tab as well.”

The bartender grabs Gabe’s empty glass and heads down to the other end of the bar. Once he’s fully out of hearing range, Tessa turns to face Gabe. “You didn’t have to do that,” she says. “I am more than capable of paying for my own drinks.”

“I know you could pay for it,” Gabe responds before his lips curl into his trademark sly smirk, “or you could let Sadie pay for it.”

“Wait, what?”

Gabe nods, his smirk growing bigger. “Consider it another partner-only secret. This conference is one of the few events Sadie lets us have more…leeway…with the company credit card. Any food or drinks we buy at this conference gets covered by the firm.”

“And something tells me you’re taking full advantage of that offer,” Tessa says.

Gabe gives her a wink. “What can I say? A good attorney knows a good offer when they see it.”

“In that case,” Tessa flags down the bartender again. “I’ll do an order of the spicy fried pickle chips with that Manhattan.” The bartender nods and disappears into a back room. Tessa turns her head, seeing Gabe looking at her with an amused expression on his face. “What’s that look for?”

Gabe chuckles, shaking his head. “Just wondering if I’m going to regret sharing that secret with you.”

“Don’t worry,” Tessa grins at him. “Your secret is safe with me. But if Sadie cuts us off or starts questioning anything on the credit card bills, I’m placing the full blame on you.”

The two of them continue to make small talk until the bartender comes back a few minutes later. He places their drinks and her basket of food down before excusing himself and shuffling into the back room once again. Tessa grabs her glass and holds it up in a toast, prompting Gabe to do the same.

“To drinks on someone else’s dime,” she states.

The two of them share a laugh as they clink their glasses together. Tessa takes a sip of her drink, the whiskey a sharp contrast to the bubbly champagne of the reception. The liquid pools like fire in her stomach and flows throughout her body, warming her up and loosening her muscles. “Best Manhattan I’ve ever had.”

Gabe cocks his eyebrow. “Is it really the best?”

“Oh, not by a long shot. But since I didn’t have to pay for it, I consider it the best in my book.”

“You really are a woman after my own heart,” Gabe replies. Tessa tucks her gaze away from him, feeling her face grow hot at the combination of the whiskey and his spell-binding charm. She takes another sip of her drink before sliding the basket of pickle chips towards him. He throws her an appreciative “thanks”, taking a chip and popping it into his mouth before continuing their conversation. “How did you enjoy the conference?”

“I really liked it,” Tessa answers. “I never got the chance to do things like this with my old law firm.”

“What? Have free food and drinks on someone else’s dime with a devastatingly handsome senior partner?”

Tessa shoves him with a laugh. “No, you complete smart ass. I meant going out to events and connecting with other people.” She absentmindedly picks the coating off a pickle chip, her mind reminiscing. “Don’t get me wrong. I love my hometown, but there was no excitement in my life. It was the same boring routine every single day.”

“Sounds like you and McGraw Byrne are a perfect match.”

Tessa nods. “Honestly, I really have you to thank. If you didn’t recommend hiring me to Sadie, I still would be stuck in the same boring routine. It sounds really sappy, but you really did change my life for the better…in more ways than one.”

The raw honesty in her voice tugs at his heartstrings, his lips twitching into another smile. He’s used to hearing those words come from his clients, but hearing those words come from her just felt…different, and it made him feel something he couldn’t quite place his finger on.

“You’re very welcome,” Gabe earnestly tells her. “I wouldn’t have recommended you if I didn’t think you were a stellar attorney. You deserve to be here just as much as everyone else, and I truly mean that. McGraw Byrne needed someone like you. Hell, the legal world needs more attorneys like you.”

“What? Sappy and sentimental ones?”

“No,” Gabe says, stifling his chuckle. “I meant attorneys who are passionate about their job and passionate about connecting with people. So many attorneys don’t take the time to really understand or listen to their clients. Having someone like you, someone who actually connects with clients and goes above and beyond to help them, really does make a world of difference.” Gabe takes a pickle chip and pops it into his mouth. “But I really am happy you decided to take Sadie up on her offer to join us, even if the past few days have given you plenty of good reasons to quit.”

Tessa blows out a harsh breath, knowing exactly what Gabe was referring to. “Yeah, they have been quite…challenging.”

“I meant to ask you earlier, but how’re you holding up?”

Tessa sighs, dragging her fingertip over the rim of her glass. “Honestly, I’m still pissed that Beau stole the credit from me in front of everyone, but I should’ve expected someone to pull that stunt sooner or later.” She blinks back a tear trying to escape. “It just sucks to be the one it happens to.”

“I know, and I truly am sorry Beau pulled such a dick move on you.” He sympathetically lays a gentle hand on her bare shoulder, the touch sending comfort through her veins. “If I could’ve done something to make it better, I would’ve done it in a heartbeat.”

“I know you would’ve, but I do appreciate you not saying anything to Sadie.”

He shrugs. “Wasn’t my place to tell her. Besides,” he takes his hand off her shoulder, already missing the feel of her smooth, soft skin, “the only thing it would’ve done was make you and me look bad in front of Sadie.”

“Sounds like someone has personal experience.”

Gabe runs a hand through his hair. “Happened to me once back in my early legal days, but instead of getting the credit and respect that I rightfully deserved, I got told off for being a bad ‘team player’ and trying to take someone else’s credit.”

“That’s so unfair,” she practically spits.

Gabe lets out a bitter, humorless guffaw. “Preaching to the choir on that one. You’ll find that every group will have one person who will do none of the work or the one person that will take credit for anything and everything. Fortunately for us, Beau happens to be both of those assholes wrapped up in one, so we save a lot on payroll.”

Tessa laughs weakly at his joke, the sting of Beau’s betrayal still fresh in her mind. “Thanks for trying to make me feel better. It just sucks knowing that Sadie is always going to believe that Beau solved the case.”

“If it’s any consolation, I’m still incredibly proud of you, even if Sadie never knows the truth.”

“You…are?” she asks, surprise etched on her face as she turns her body towards him.

“Absolutely,” Gabe says, no hesitation in his voice. “Without you, we possibly would’ve never solved it to begin with, nor would Lydia have thought to make Joey sign a prenup. But what really impressed me was how you were the only one to step up and take initiative when needed. Not many of the senior partners would go to such lengths for a teenager like Lydia, but you did.”

“I guess,” Tessa mutters. “I just hope it will be enough come Monday.”

“It will be,” Gabe assures her as he steals another pickle chip.

“Really? I figured Sadie would shove Beau to the top of the rankings after he basically saved the firm.”

“Everyone in that room knows who really saved the firm, and it wasn’t Beau,” Gabe points out. “Even if Sadie believes he did, she’s also smart enough to know that one win, no matter how big it is, isn’t enough to judge how good an attorney is or will become. Beau may have stolen one win, but you’re still the one to beat.”

“I guess that’s true…”

“Plus, you showed her tonight how well you bounce back after taking a loss.”

“What do you mean?”

“Between moot court, the pro bono cases, the vaccine trial, and everything else we’ve observed, you had a major winning streak that Beau decided to snap. Most people would sulk in their losses, but you didn’t. You showed up tonight, looking incredible might I add, and managed to put everything behind you to impress the right group of people.”

“If you say so.”

“I know so,” Gabe confidently replies. He reaches out and covers her hand with his, trying to ignore the tingling buzzes on his skin. “You’re a wickedly smart attorney, Tessa. Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise.”

“Thanks Gabe,” she says, the goofy smile plastering on her face at his heartfelt compliment. “That…that really means a lot to me.”

“It should,” Gabe tells her, reluctantly pulling his hand away again. “I wouldn’t have said it if it wasn’t the absolute truth. Just forget about Vegas and the Rothswells and continue onto the next case.”

Tessa nods and takes another sip of her drink as the conversation between them dies down. She may have already forgotten the Rothswells and was slowly getting over from Beau’s stolen win, but Vegas was still on her mind. It wasn’t just the city that occupied her thoughts, but rather, it was the small wedding chapel and the night she played fiancée to the man sitting next to her. That night was an intense roller coaster of emotions, desires, and confusion; it was a night where lines became blurred and questions began to arise at the nature of her and Gabe’s relationship. It was one specific little interaction that made Tessa not only sense a shift in their relationship, but triggered her to start over analyzing and over thinking every little action from their first meeting up until now.

“Nothing but the best for the most stunning woman on the Strip.”

“Alvin’s gone, you know. You don’t have to—”

He raises a finger to her lips, laying it softly against them as he gives her a smoldering look that makes her throat dry up. “What if I want to, Tessa?”

Tessa truly felt at that moment they were no longer pretending. The things he said to her that night with such conviction in his eyes and voice. The way he softly caressed and touched her with such adoration and tenderness. The way his breath tickled her lips and sent shivers throughout her body at their near-kisses. They were not things done by someone just “pretending”; no one was that good of an actor. However, despite his actions in the wedding chapel, there was one moment that made her second guess herself completely. Just as she was about to admit her feelings for him, he brusquely cut her off and completely changed the direction of the conversation. What punctuated that gut-wrenching action was him dropping her hand quickly, as if he had been burned by her touch. The cocktail of mixed signals made her head pound in dizzying confusion, and it was becoming difficult to ignore for much longer.

She glances over at Gabe, worrying her lip between her teeth and mentally debating whether or not to step into that territory of complete openness. She has a nice, working relationship with him, and she doesn’t want to risk making it awkward to be around him if he truly doesn’t feel anything towards her. On the other hand, she wants to know for her own sake of mind; she has to know if Gabe’s confusing behavior and mixed signals mean anything. They’re off the clock, away from the office, with no interruptions coming between them. It’s the perfect opportunity to air everything out, and hopefully come Monday, there would be no more confusion or misunderstandings.

“Speaking of Vegas…” Tessa mumbles, carefully avoiding his eyes. “I think we should talk.”

Gabe’s spine stiffens in alert at the sudden shift in her demeanor. “About…what, exactly?”

She takes a deep breath, knowing it was too late to steer this conversation in another direction. “About what happened at the wedding chapel.”

“Ah,” Gabe interjects, “that was some brilliant thinking on your part, with the rat and all.”

“That wasn’t the part I wanted to talk about.” She turns her head to look at him. “I wanted to talk about the whole ‘pretend’ couple in love situation.”

“What was wrong with it?” he asks her, his nerves starting to creep up on him.

“Nothing,” she quickly replies. “I was just thinking…what you said…” She takes another deep breath, preparing herself to blurt it out before she lost her nerve. “Did you ever have a moment where…you didn’t think it was pretend?”

Depends on what your answer is going to be. “What do you mean?”

“I know the whole situation was supposed to be pretend in order to get a copy of Lydia’s marriage license, but…some of the things you said…and did…” her ears grow hot as a shiver races down her spine at the memory of Gabe’s gentle caress on her wrist, the pure intimacy behind it.

“Didn’t seem like pretend?” he finishes.

“Yeah.”

“And what do you think?”

Tessa sits there silently contemplating her answer. Up until this point, Tessa never had any reason to doubt Gabe. He is a man who never makes anyone second guess his true intentions or meanings. Every word he speaks is nothing short of the truth. But his reaction on the Strip was the first time she questioned his true intentions. If Gabe did mean what he said, then why did he quickly divert the conversation and act like he couldn’t stand to be around her? Her inner conscience was waving a massive red flag in front of her, but when Gabe gripped her chin and turned her head to focus on him, she caught herself slipping back into the warm pools of his chocolate-colored orbs.

“I really hope you weren’t pretending,” she softly says, voice barely above a whisper.

Gabe feels his stomach lurch at her confession, and the corners of his mouth tug up into a small smile at her answer. Gabe wasn’t going to lie. From the minute she stepped into the office, he became fascinated with her. She was beautiful, but what caught his attention was the way she introduced herself to the others. She was the only one who stood up and spoke with such confidence and conviction about winning the partnership that he would’ve given the spot to her immediately if his name was on the building.

“That’s because I wasn’t.”

Her eyes widen. “Wh…what?”

His thumb skates over her bottom lip, gently tugging it downwards, her breath hitching at the intense, smoldering look in his eyes. “I wasn’t pretending in the wedding chapel. I truly wanted to tell you that you were the most stunning woman on the Strip because you were, and I will always think you’re the most stunning woman I will ever come across.”

“And last night?”

“I still mean it,” he tells her, taking his hand away. “I really do enjoy spending time with you, and I want to spend whatever time I have with you and only you.”

“Good.” Tessa covers his hand with hers, the electric current running between them turning into tingling shivers chasing each other up and down her spine. “Because I really, really like spending time with you too.”

The smile on his face grows bigger, turning into the most genuine one he’s ever had with someone else. Their fingers tentatively move and twist together, the air buzzing with energy just waiting to be released. A sigh of relief floods through him once he sees their hands joined together. He feared he overstepped that night in Vegas, especially since he was sharply reminded of how Tessa flirted with the fireman a few weeks ago for her eviction case. But sitting here now, their confessions out in the open, their hands joined together, made all of it real.

“So where do we go from here?”

Gabe furrows his brow. “What do you mean?”

“We just admitted we like each other, Gabe,” Tessa states like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “The question is, what comes next? Are we together? Do we see where this goes?”

Gabe bit the inside of his cheek at her question, the bliss from earlier now getting replaced with dread and guilt. He knows exactly what he wants to do next. He wants to invite her to his hotel room tonight, spend hours tangled in the silk sheets together, then wake up and do it all again tomorrow morning. He wants to take her out to dinner tomorrow night and treat her to the most decadent food in the city while he teases and touches her until she can no longer bear it. He wants to be openly affectionate with her in the office…and maybe do a few more things behind the closed doors of his office. But he can’t, and he knew the exact reasons why.

The first reason was the more obvious one. She is currently in the competition for a junior partnership, and he is the one overseeing it and potentially making the final decision on who takes his former position. They are co-workers, and while Sadie has no real binding rule that co-workers cannot date or see each other outside of work, Gabe knows there will always be a cloud of doubt and speculation hovering over Tessa if the office discovers they are seeing each other and she wins the junior partnership. Gabe was already beating himself up for what happened between her and Beau; he would never be able to forgive himself if he was the cause of ruining her reputation and the potential she has at becoming the next great attorney. How could he look himself in the mirror every morning if this blows back up in their faces?

But the less obvious reason was a hidden secret, one that he hasn’t shared with anyone else. It was the one reason that stopped him from taking her up to his penthouse in Vegas and doing all the things he fantasizes about doing with her. It was the one reason for the walls Gabe built up over the years that no one else has been able to break down. It was the one reason that prevented Gabe from crossing the lines he wanted to cross. As easy as it would be to cross them tonight with nothing stopping them, he knows he has to make the tough decision, not only to protect her, but also to protect himself. He just hopes it doesn’t change anything between them.

“As much as I would love for us to be together,” he runs his thumb soothingly over her knuckles, already feeling guilty for what he was about to say to her, “I don’t think it would be wise to pursue it.”

“O…oh,” the smile on her face falters at his stinging rejection.

“It’s not that I don’t want you,” Gabe quickly assures her.

“Sure feels that way,” she blurts out with a bitter laugh.

Gabe sighs and scrubs a hand down his face. “You’re stunning Tessa, and whatever would happen between us would be so goddamn mind-blowing, because I know exactly what I’d do with a girl like you.”

As much as his rejection stings, the dark tendrils of desire twist and twirl together inside at the sound of that highly promising and exciting invitation, the rush of desire making her shift in her seat at the tingling sensation. However, his tone tells her he was about to say one little three-letter word that was going to take the invitation back and make the rejection even worse.

"But...?"

Gabe shakes his head and averts his eyes from the pain blooming in hers. “We can’t act on it. I can’t act on it.”

“You can’t or you won’t?”

“I…can’t,” he relents. He untangles their fingers and pulls his hand back to his side of the bar, no matter how painful it is for him to do so. “You already saw how low Sadie’s own blood would go to push himself ahead. Just imagine how low the others would go if they suspected—”

“You and I were seeing each other?”

Gabe nods, a small twinge of relief pricking his heart at her understanding. “Opportunities like this bring the worst out in people.”

“Considering I just had firsthand experience on how shitty people can be, I do understand it.” She takes another drink of her Manhattan, the sting now turning into simmering annoyance. “What I don’t understand is why us being together is now such a big deal for you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m just saying, you didn’t seem too concerned with people seeing us together or what they thought when we went to Hoi On and that business dinner you specifically invited me to,” Tessa shrugs. “I’m just curious about the change of heart all of a sudden.”

“I didn’t have a change of heart. Those situations were entirely different.”

“Different how?”

Gabe pauses for a second to gather his thoughts. He had to tread lightly going forward, or else any chance the two of them had with each other in the future was going to be destroyed. “When I invited you to Hoi On, the other associates weren’t in the office. I knew Aislinn wasn’t going to say anything to Sadie, so no one was going to question why I brought you there.”

“And the business dinner?”

“It truly was supposed to be a business dinner and an opportunity for you to network yourself,” Gabe admits. “I didn’t know beforehand that he was going to cancel on me, and as far as the office is concerned, no one knows that he canceled on me, so everyone still suspects the three of us had that business dinner.”

“But then…oh…” Tessa trails off, another wave of disappointment crashing into her chest. “I get it.”

“You do?”

She nods. “You’re embarrassed to be seen with me. I get it. The senior associate and the top senior partner being seen together would hurt your image with the other partners.”

A tinge of frustration punches his gut. “That’s not what I mean. I’m not embarrassed to be seen with you. If I was, I wouldn’t have invited you to join me at the lake.”

“Good point,” Tessa tells him. “You certainly didn’t mind taking me out to the lake last night with Sadie and the other associates sitting around.”

“That was different too,” Gabe bluntly responds. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Then help me to understand,” she sighs, exasperated.

“There’s no point in tell you,” Gabe shoots back. “You’re intelligent and observant, Tessa. You know exactly why we can’t pursue…whatever there is between us.”

“The only thing standing in the way of pursuing whatever is between us is you,” Tessa points out.

He runs his hands through his disheveled hair again. “It’s not that I want to stand in the way of us. There’s so many reasons on why we shouldn’t pursue this.”

“Well, so far, you haven’t given me one that we can’t find a way to work around. So please enlighten me, Mr. Ricci,” she crosses her arms over her chest and gives him a hard stare. “Is your reasoning really about the partnership and my reputation, or is it about something more?”

As Gabe sits there in silence, Tessa’s mind flashes back to their previous interactions. Last night was the most unguarded she has seen Gabe since she started working at McGraw Byrne. The business dinner was the first time the two of them ever got physically close to each other. Vegas was the first time the two of them were fixing to jump across those boundaries and become one. But each time, Gabe pulled back, and his action spoke volumes. And with the way Gabe was currently avoiding meeting her gaze head on and how his fingers are tightly gripping his empty scotch glass makes the light bulb go off in her head. There was another reason Gabe was hiding, one that has to do entirely with himself. She just has to hope that she is important enough for him to be honest with her.

“Well?”

Gabe sighs. “It really is about the partnership,” he lies, firmly keeping his gaze locked on the bar top. “The partnership is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and you shouldn’t waste it or throw it away.”

The air turns icy and frigid at his words. Tessa grabs her clutch off the bar top, knowing there was no more reason for her to still be around. “You may be able to bullshit other people, Gabe, but you’re not going to bullshit me. You and I both know this is more than just the partnership, and out of respect for your privacy, I’m not going to pry. Only you can make the decision to share it with me, but until you do, I think it’s best to forget whatever we feel for each other.”

Tessa gives his hand a soft pat before downing the rest of her drink and sliding off the bar stool. Before she could go far, Gabe’s hand reaches out and wraps around her wrist.

“Tessa…”

“Don’t worry about it, Gabe,” she says, gently prying his fingers off her wrist. “I’m honestly a little hurt and disappointed that you can’t be honest with me, but I’m not mad at you.” She places a comforting hand on his shoulder. “I really do like you, Gabe, but I also like and respect myself too much to go after someone who isn’t as crazy about me as I am about them, nor will I go after someone who keeps pulling back when I want to get closer.”

“That’s not—"

She ignores his plea, digging into her clutch and pulling out a platinum-looking card. “You know where to find me when you make up your mind and have an answer for me, but don’t expect me to be waiting around forever for it.”

She places the card down on the bar top; with a sad smile, she brushes past him and heads out of the hotel bar, the tears stinging the corners of her eyes. Gabe watches her figure retreat until she disappears behind the gilded elevator doors.

“Dammit!” he slams a fist against the bar top. The empty glasses jump a little at the impact, but what catches his attention was the quick flash of light reflected on the platinum card as it jumped into the air. Gabe reaches out and slides it towards him, his spirits deflating even more when he sees what she left.

The spare key to her room.

To anyone else, it may be just a room key, but Gabe knows that it is so much more meaningful than that. It symbolizes the key to her heart and the key to their future together, a key that would only work for a short amount of time until Tessa closes both of those doors on him. The decision to walk through those open doors was entirely in his hands, but before he could do that, he has to make one other decision. The time had come for him to do the one thing he has avoided doing for years, the one decision he found easy to avoid until tonight.

It was time for him to confront himself and his fears.

__________________________________

This was going to go up a lot sooner, but because my job decided to go through some technology changes recently, it meant something that previously worked is now broken and no longer works. Unfortunately, that was me this time around, so my usual break times where I work on stories was used to help fix what someone else broke.

Sorry about the delay, but I really do anticipate part 2 being uploaded soon, much sooner than LOA coming back from its hiatus.

For all of you who have read this story and made it this far, thank you so much for your support! It means more to me than you could ever imagine!

I love you all so much!

Second Chance Tagging in case Tumblr becomes Tumbroke again: @choices-addict @choiceskatie @lady-calypso @chemist-ana @kat-tia801 @chrissythadon @nishas-paradise @blainehellyes @mm2305 @suitfer @thegreentwin @pixelnutrookie

#choices #laws of attraction #choices laws of attraction #gabe ricci x mc #gabe x mc #loa #choices loa

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