Being a teenager was a challenge for Vanessa. Coming out as a trans girl in high school came with struggles, but nothing quite as bad as cutting ties with her parents and dropping out her senior year. Until she was twenty-one, she busted her butt, working unfulfilling jobs and getting her GED. Survival and being happy with who she saw in the mirror were higher priorities than enjoying her work. Money was money.

Then good fortune smiled on Vanessa Bookman. Doing some independent streaming, she got the attention of David, the man who would become her friend and coworker. He hopped into the chat on her stream and asked to jump into her voice chat to play along. Before she knew it, he was encouraging her to drop by The POW Block Party studio.

Vanessa was sure she was being pranked. She spent enough time on the internet to consume plenty of TPBP’s content, and the past years of her life gave her no reason to think good things would fall into her lap. It seemed too good to be true, but she got a job working behind the scenes initially, before being pulled onto the main on-screen team for gaming content.

Cut to three years later and Vanessa was doing what she loved as a job. She played games, worked with the animation team, and even helped creatively with the company’s merch line. Life was going great, and it was all because someone had a hunch and took a chance on her.

The studio was large and comprised of several sets and offices for different content and departments. There was a recording session with the main team coming up, and they were going to be using face-cams, so Vanessa was using some down-time to make sure cameras and mics were positioned correctly. “Main Team” was a bit of a misnomer; once upon a time, there was one steady team of people in videos, but as everyone got more involved in different parts of the company, the team grew larger and more interchangeable. Nowadays, there were almost a dozen people, with four to eight playing in whatever video was being worked on.

Not everyone in the office was part of the “Main Team,” and some were not technically employees of The POW Block Party. “Life runs better with interns,” Gian liked to say, though Nessa was skeptical. Interns came and went, and because of how temporary the role was, many of them could not get a handle on particulars like drink and food orders, particularly for the one member of the team with a dietary restriction.

A white Styrofoam container was placed next to Vanessa while she was plugging cords into the PC. It took a moment for her mind to get out of work mode and register what happened. Some intern did the food run for the day, and was dropping off her meal.

As she opened the container, Vanessa was already calling out, making the assumption that the order was wrong. It always was. ”Hey, next time, remember I’m a v—huh.”

It was not wrong. She was looking down at vegetarian Pad Thai. Not only was the order right, but Pad Thai was one of her favorites. Someone was either paying attention or took a very lucky guess.

She turned to actually look at the intern, curious. ”I’m sorry, what’s your name?”

When Alice had made an offhand comment to a teacher about what she wanted to do for a living she would have never expected they could bring her here! She was inside POW Block Party and not just as a visitor or doing a tour, she was a freaking intern! This was like five dreams coming true at once and it had all been sorted by the mansion like it was nothing. No wonder Serena loved the place, it was freakin' awesome in her eyes now.

Once they'd arrived and her teacher had made sure everything was on the up and up and made sure she knew the bus route back to the mansion, she'd been left alone with a supervisor for the standard legal stuff and training. It was probably the standard health and safety things any company had to do but her excitement from simply being here made it just fly by and she soon had a little bit of a rapport going with the woman going through it with her.

After they were done, and she had the rules drilled into her of when she could and couldn't enter rooms or ask people if they needed anything she was given a list of tasks and kind of just sent on her way.

At the moment she was an unpaid intern, so she got any task to small or unimportant for other people to do. Make tea, restock mini fridges with drinks, do snack runs and any other task anyone gave her. Sure it might be grunt work but that fact it was for a place like this it was more than easy to do and if she made a good impression, she'd at least get a really good reference out it. One from TPBP on her resume would be awesome.

After running what must have been the third box of electronic equipment down a hallway for one of the back end guys, she got pulled aside and had a list of food rattled off at her to grab. Thank god her quest was free, it auto listed everything she'd need to get and for who. Even had a handy pointer to the take away place she needed to run to. Hooray for her weirdly specific power to come in handy for once!

Making very sure to get everyone's orders exactly right, she picked it up and gave them a once over just in case she lugged them back to the office and started handing them out. Didn't take too long to hand it out until she was just left with one Vanessa's.

Come on girl, you can do this, you've only been watching her content since the moment she joined TPBP, no reason to freak. She not your favourite content creator or anything. Quietly knocking on the open door to her office and seeing that she was busy and hadn't heard, Alice just dropped off the meal on her desk and stared to leave when she was suddenly being addressed.

"I...I'm Alice, the new intern. Nice to meet you." Damnit girl play it cool! Freaking out on her like you did with Jack won't endear yourself to them. And stop thinking about how pretty she is! "Don't worry about the food, I got a list from my supervisor and made sure everyone's was alright." She chose not to mention that list had been in the form of an invisible 'quest' she had to complete.

If she brought some ingredients tomorrow and showed of her cooking skills she might be able to convince them she could make the meals instead of them wasting money on take out. It had nothing to do with the fact that would give a good impression, it was all purely in the interest of the people here.

OKay the fangirl inside was just scream, she just had to at least say something. "I love your content by the way, you're really talented."

Vanessa surveyed the new intern, casting her cold gaze up and down, trying to read her. Of course, giving her proper eye-contact would provide the best reading, but first came the initial impressions. Vanessa also had a reputation for being terse and intimidating, and the look went a long way to establishing that perception. With their intern turn-over and the amount of people she had to deal with on a daily basis anyway, it paid to have an air of untouchability.

The girl was… well, she was cute. Near Nessa’s height, which was rare among the women she knew. Her dyed blue hair was kept short and gave her a prototypical punk-slash-gamer girl vibe and popped against her light complexion and pale blue eyes. Her accent was clearly some variation of English, (which Vanessa could now distinguish easily from Scottish.)

Glimpses of the pale blue eyes gave Nessa small peeks into the intern’s head. “Play it cool” and “how pretty she is” both popped up in quick moments of contact. Intimidating worked for Vanessa, even if she had to crack a smile.

Supposedly, her supervisor gave her the heads up for Vanessa’s vegetarianism, which sounded suspicious. In theory, it made enough sense not to question, but the intern coordinator was the primary person who constantly forgot in the first place. Her identity as a vegetarian had come up in a few videos, so if Vanessa was reading the fangirl vibes right, Alice might have been too shy to admit that she remembered the detail from a video.

Another topic that came up often in videos was Vanessa’s unabashed lesbianism. If Alice was not aware already, Vanessa’s white tank top with a rainbow outline of a video game controller might have been a dead giveaway. She had to stop with the surveying before it just seemed like she was checking Alice out. She was an intern, after all, and HR would get on her case if she misbehaved. (It was still shocking someone willingly chose to work in The POW Block Party’s HR department.)

Vanessa was going to say something, but she was interrupted by Alice praising her content. Fangirl was right. They met each other’s eyes again and her thoughts betrayed the calm front she was trying to put up. It was adorable, in a way. ”Nice to meet you, Alice. I’m Vanessa. But I guess you knew that,” she added with a smirk.

Turning back to a computer station where she had been in the process of setting up sound and video capture equipment, Alice might initially get the impression that their interaction was over, but Vanessa had time to kill and a pretty intern to rile up. ”So, how long have you been interning? I haven’t seen you around, and I’d think I would have noticed you.” Let her chew on that for a hot minute.

Good job Alice, you didn't complete lose it in front of her, that's always a bonus. Now all she had to do was keep it together for the length of a short, friendly conversation and she'd have made an awesome first impression with minimal flailing. As long as she didn't find out about the power it was fine, no one had to know how stupid it was. Or how fitting.

Smiling at the comment, of course she knew who Vanessa was. She was like this sharp tongued, say what she felt person and it really resonated with her and she was so open about her sexuality and stuff and god she had pretty eyes and.......rein it in Alice, she's not only got a few years on you, but she's technically a superior right now and this internship is too good an opportunity to screw up just because she was prettier up close. Ignore the tank-top and how it looked on her.

Oh god, why was she saying stuff like that!? Didn't she know how many of her fans crushed on her in secret? "It's kind of my first day actually so I'm still meeting people, stocking stuff and well, feeding them apparently."

If only she could show of her skills in the kitchen she'd be able to really get people to remember her when the internship was over. She knew most would come and go without ever being noticed and chances are wouldn't even be considered if they had a job opening. If there was ever a group of people Alice did want to notice her, it was here.

Finally taking a glance around the office and noticing the setup, damn it was impressive. The PC itself looked pretty high end but that wasn't really surprising given the type of content that got made here, but the mics and sound setup was awesome! It was all the kind of equipment she couldn't help but dream about owning some day, maybe when she won the lottery or robbed a bank. It was fair to say a good chunk of it was out of her price range.

Unless she went back home. Which was never happening. Ever. "Love the setup, by the way it's really cool." The nerd in her was freaking out about Vanessa, the tech geek in her was making notes of every brand name and detail. Most she knew, the ones she didn't she made a mental note to look into.

"Is there anything you need help with while I'm here? Kind of just meant to do grunt work so if there's anything you want me to do I'm free." Trying to keep her eyes to Vanessa's face, it was kind of hard to not have them wander every now and then. She was a lot taller than Alice had guessed, pretty much the same height as her actually, that was pretty rare. Most of the girls she had a crush on had been a fair bit shorter.

Vanessa appreciated how much voluntary eye contact she was receiving from Alice. For her part, the blue-haired girl was giving the mind-reader plenty to work with. Thoughts were racing, like mental rambling, giving up all the bits and morsels she could have hoped for.

Alice was nervous, which would have been clear if she were blind, but her sight gave her insight. Alice liked her wit and how out and proud she was and that her eyes were pretty. Recently, Vanessa was piecing back together her self-esteem, and she was gluing together the pieces with compliments and naughty thoughts. The crush Alice apparently had on her was sweet and it was hitting her very hard now that they were meeting in person.

Vanessa was curious about one thought she caught amidst the high-speed mental clutter. As a twenty-four year-old, she still wanted to consider herself young, but Alice knew there were a “few years” separating them. Yes, Alice looked younger, but suddenly she wondered how young they were talking. Twenty? Nineteen? Maybe Alice was a college freshman! Should she feel weird flirting with someone that young?

Then again, it was harmless flirting. Her newest friend was just barely twenty-one, so maybe there was nothing inherently flawed with talking to college girls. They were not even flirting, in fact! They were just talking and occasionally eyeing one another. Totally above-board, and in no way questionable by Human Resources!

It was Alice’s first day, and she was doing typical first-day tasks amounting to manual labor, networking, and food fetching. Evidently, she was a confident cook which had Vanessa curious. The best part of reading minds was tucking little nuggets like that away for later in the conversation, when she could subtly guide conversation toward the topic and make her conversation partner think it was their idea. Besides, contrary to what some might believe, vegetarians still loved delicious food, and Alice seemed eager to please.

…HR Appropriate thoughts.

Before Vanessa could reply, Alice was looking at the equipment Vanessa was setting up for the upcoming recording session. Evidently, the one thing that could steal those pale blue eyes away was a quality gaming and recording setup.

Alice volunteered her services, if there was assistance she could offer. She was trying to keep eye contact, and in the small moments where her eyes wandered, it was still easy to figure out what might be on her mind. She was surprised by Vanessa’s height in comparison to other girls she had crushed on. There was still something surreal about realizing she was now an internet celebrity crush for people. Definitely an ego boost.

”You’re a tech nerd, aren’t you?” she accused coyly. ”You’ll fit right in here. I remember the first time I showed up here. After streaming from my amateur setup, I’m pretty sure this equipment gave me a tingly feeling.” It was amazing what a company with a budget could do.

Setting up the recording area was not a challenge, but it was boring. She was certain having Alice around would make things decidedly less boring. ”I’d be glad to have a hand. We’re streaming some PS4 games, so if you can make sure video capture devices are connected and actually working?” No one liked lost footage.

Vanessa moved to the next desk, sticking with the task of testing out the headsets and audio capture devices. She placed Vince’s headset over her ears and moved the mouthpiece in front of her lips. As she eyed the audio levels, she had to say something, so she figured it a good opportunity to talk more to Alice. ”So if this is your day one, has anyone warned you about that one total b**** that works here? Strikes fear into the hearts of interns? Makes your life total hell?” She looked over the monitor with a smirk. ”I’ve heard she has a thing for rainbow tank tops. Of course, if you strike up a conversation with her, you’re probably already a goner.” She did have that “Alpha B****” reputation, but somehow, she doubted that was going to be a problem for Alice.

Also, the audio levels were fine.

How could she not be nerding out at all the kit! It was glorious to see and her hands itched to be able to get a chance to check it out. It was like every gamers dream set up, with a bunch of top quality recording equipment added on for good measure and polished off with the proffesional veneer an actual company could give things like this. "Mhmm, It's pretty damn impressive, you've got some things I don't even recognise." Her eyes were glued to the equipment, like if she looked away it'd disappear suddenly.

"I can imagine, just seeing it is making the techie in me squeal with joy. I've seen some home based set ups but this, it's just....damn!" At least she wasn't focusing on the boss lady anymore. Much. Wait, was Vanessa her boss and did it even matter since she was that to the younger girl now. Her wish was Alice's command.

Awesome! Helping out one of her favourite content creators was a dream come true and it was only her first day here. God what would this internship be like and would she be able to come back when she finished school? Or during school, maybe. Once she started college having a job here would be an amazing boost to her finances and frankly, her cred on campus. "Can do boss, Nessa....I mean Vanessa." And we have flailing again. Well done Alice. Ducking her head slightly to hide the blush and getting to work checking the cables running to and from the PS4. It was all pretty simple to be honest, just a case of making sure the cables were actually in properly and only one gave her some trouble. Shame she'd forgotten techie 101, is it actually plugged in? It wasn't.

Popping her head up at the comment, she couldn't help but grin. "Oh I don't know, by British standards she barely seems unpleasant. Once you've done a round with stuck up cows in a state school, in a country that still has a very literal class system this is the kiddie pool." A lot of people outside the UK thought they were all prim and proper, never swearing and uptight about everything. They were so wrong. "If you want alpha b-----s try a drunk Geordie girl. She'd as soon stab you with her high heels as swear at you."

Northerns, they were weird. She thought her and her friends were foul mouthed, Jesus had their trip to York been a surprise. "But if I have to be a goner, I at least hope whoever this woman could possibly be is a looker. Pretty women make everything better." If Vanessa wanted to play, she'd happily do it. Even if it felt so weird being casual and yes, flirting a little with someone who'd kind of been a face on a screen for so long.

And the tanktop was cute on her. That helped. Alice might have bought one then and there is the boss recommend one.

Running one last round of checks on the task she'd been asked to do, and making sure the PS4 itself was turning on and running fine, she took a little step back. "That should be everything. I think. Might want to check it's recording a couple times and one of the cables is starting to fray a little inside but everything else should be good." Finally, all those years readying engineering magazines was paying off.

There was no denying how valuable a POW Block internship was to ambitious young gamers. Digital entertainment was an exciting field of work that was growing, and with a good reputation, many young gamers and even non-gamers knew TPBP. Writing majors learned a lot working with the scripted content teams, and artists loved working alongside the animation and merchandise departments. The gamers though, they could lose themselves with the Let’s Play team.

Alice was going to fit right in, immersing herself in the recording setups. They got passionate gamers all the time, but they were not always savvy when it came to the technology they worked with. It was nice to know there was at least one intern she would not have to educate from the ground up. She found humor in the similarities between how Alice looked at Vanessa and how she looked at a great computer with a high-end video capture device.

Just because Alice was in her element did not mean she was done being nervous, stumbling around Vanessa’s name. She could throw the girl a bone. ”You can call me Nessa, Alice. Or boss. I don’t mind boss,” she teased, returning to her setup.

As they talked together, Alice slowly seemed to get more comfortable, assuring Vanessa she was not as bad as the rumors would lead her to believe. It was the great POW Block Party secret: Vanessa was not as terrible as she let people believe. Her words were blunt and intimidating, but she was a softy at heart. Alice evidently knew true “alpha b*****s,” and while Nessa had no genuine clue what she was talking about, she guessed Geordie girls were a catty subset of British girls.

She was also not hesitant when it came to sneaking in a compliment. ”Words like that might get the harpy to take you under her wing. Flattery will get you far, my Padawan,” she promised sagely. Booker would be so proud of her for working a Star Wars reference amidst her total not-flirting.

Alice liked her tanktop. Suddenly the shirt felt like an incredibly wise purchase.

They both completed their tasks around the same time, which let Vanessa catch an adorable thought. Alice read engineering magazines. Such a precious nerd. ”Duly noted. Your vigilance is appreciated.” She did make a mental note to keep an eye on the frayed wire so she could talk to their equipment manager later.

But for now, there was still time for fun. ”Hey, you’re about Vince’s height. Want to do me a favor?” Vanessa grabbed her own headset and put it on her head as she pointed to Vince’s headset. ”Want to put that on? I want to check how our audio is coming through between headsets, and we’re using facecams, so I want to make sure that’s centered correctly. If you could just sit down and turn on the camera?” She took her seat, slipping behind her monitor so Alice could not see her grin.

Thank God Nessa was so nice, she was entertaining the fumbling nerd and even joking with her. It was so cool to be in this position, her friends back home would freak when they found out where she was interning. "Boss it is then," she grinned back, She'd never shake that now. Nessa was the boss, no matter who her actual supervisor was.

Wait what, did Nessa just call her, Alice Rivers, her Padawan? OK, she must have been dreaming now, there was no way this was actually happening, right? It was just so, normal and fun. Like it was real life. Was this real life, or maybe just fantasy. Stifling the chuckle at her really bad internal joke and looking Nessa back in the eyes, "Oh you are not getting away now, If I'm your Padawan, you'll have to teach me your ways. Not just the gaming ones either." It wasn't exactly flirting, mostly. Sure Nessa was beautiful but Alice kind of wanted someone to teach her the way of the gay, how to be so self assured with herself, and so open about it.

Alice wasn't a closet case by any means, she was open about her sexuality but Nessa just, lived it. And she talked about it so often on her show and issues regarding 'Gaymers'. It was pretty inspiring.

Glowing under the praise and moving from around the back of the computer, until she was standing near the other woman present she gave the set up one last, longing glance before the sudden words shocked her out of her trance. Wasn't she done for now? Alice was sure her kind of actual boss would have tasks for her.

She was all up for doing favours and when it was asked, there was no way she was leaving without doing that. "I'd love too! Just tell me if anything needs adjusting or if somethings not working." Taking the seat and with, admittedly shaky hands, taking the headset and adjusting it to fit her head. This, was no doubt her favourite day ever. Nothing could top it. Ever.

Turning the camera on and checking it was working, she gave it a wink, "How's it looking then boss? It a good view from there?" Seriously Alice, she's obviously out of your league and probably already has a girlfriend. Not to mention HR wouldn't exactly be happy about such flirting. She was still technically a minor after all.

"There anything else you need from me while I'm here? Anything looking wonky or iffy?" Now she was just hoping, chances are Nessa was getting a little sick of her fangirling and would be glad to have the intern gone. She wouldn't want to hang out with some random nerd after all.

The Padawan joke landed with Alice, who was dying and preparing to go to nerd heaven. She even contemplated her reality in lame referential fashion! It was honestly adorable, and such a shame Vanessa could not mention her Bohemian quandary, since she never actually voiced it. She did accept the role with grace, excited to be taken under her superior’s wing, not only with gaming and tech, but with…

The way of the gay.

If that was not the most adorable damn thing she had heard all day. If Alice had said it out loud, she might have earned a hug right there. Vanessa was quiet on many controversial topics, but she took pride in the notion that some younger men and women saw her as a queer role model. It was one of the few things that made her consider coming out as trans, but there were still some personal hurdles she had to overcome to be comfortable with that idea.

”Stick with me, girl, and you’ll learn plenty,” she assured Alice. She fancied the idea of having an eager gay apprentice.

And there came the HR inappropriate thoughts again.

Alice followed Vanessa’s instructions and took a seat at Vince’s desk. From that point forward, there would be no real “eye contact,” or at least not useful eye contact. Vanessa learned long ago that she could not read thoughts through a monitor. She would continue the conversation like a normal person for the time being—no mental cheat sheet.

To her credit, Alice was flirting despite dealing with starstruck emotions. She was precious; Nessa was not a fan of inter-office dating, but she did want to take the girl under her wing in the most innocent way. ”I’m not sure if I’m getting an accurate idea of what this’ll look like,” she said seriously, watching Alice’s face on the screen. ”Vince isn’t anywhere near that cute. Think you can make some angry faces? Maybe swear at the screen?”

She joked, but the thought hit her with another realization that a sound test might not be a bad idea. ”Actually, talk for a minute so I can check levels. Talk about anything. Talk about your girlfriend? Maybe mention what your major is?” Okay, so maybe she was using this as an excuse to probe. Why not kill two birds with one stone?

That sounded amazing. She was totally on board with learning plenty from Nessa. No matter what that entailed. Christ' she'd probably even take any and all fashion advice a as well, and she loved her punk look. "Lead the way then master, I'm your willing student." Was it weird to say master? It was only a reference after all, nothing weird or...kinky about it. At all. Why was it so hot in here now?

"I'd be surprised if he was. Never met a guy that can pull off cute like a girl can." She was completely mystified by straight girls, why have a hair sweaty guy? Girls were soft and cute and frankly, who could argue agaisnt boobs. Boobs were awesome. "But if you want me to swear, that I can do. Just know you asked me too." Taking a deep breath and focusing her mind, she released a string of expletives that would make a sailor blush. Alice might have been brought up in a certain, environment, but even she was exposed to the British way with swearing. No one could swear in English like the Brits and she used every weird and wonderful bit she knew. Maybe not the best way to impress the boss, but hell, she had asked.

"That good? I've got some more if you need more testing?" Apparently she did need a bit more of the less shouty/sweary variety. Was someone trying to get a little bit of inside information about the intern?

"Anything? Alright then, I guess I'll start with the fact that no, I don't have a girlfriend. Only been here a month and I wasn't attached with anyone before I left home." Probably for the best, nothing puts the coffin nail in a relationship like running away to a different country. "As for majors I'm wanting to study electrical engineering at NYU, just got to finish my last year high-school first."

Wait.....Oh no. No, no, no ,no. Did Nessa not know she was still in highschool? Oh god this was bad, Nessa thought she was in uni, not some high school charity case from the mansion.

Even worse, did that mean if she was a student she'd of had a chance with her!? That, that's just so awesome, and annoying and.....why did she have to be just 17!

Okay, damage control girl, just play it off, yeah just pretend you aren't totally a high-schooler. Which was a terrible plan because all it took was one conversation with her supervisor. "Y....you didn't know I was 17 did you?"

Vanessa was trying to behave! Really and truly! How was it her fault that her brain went to a less than appropriate place when Alice chose to call her Master? Sure, it was a Star Wars reference, but at the same time, it would definitely sound questionable if one of her coworkers walked by and heard Alice calling her that. It was fortunate they had monitors between them so Alice could not see Vanessa’s cheeks heating up. ”Remember when HR asks, I did not tell you to call me that.” Bases covered!

It was easy to empathize with Alice’s opinions on men. Vanessa had nothing against men on the whole, (though some days pushed that more than others,) but she struggled to see the appeal aesthetically. It was hard to generalize, but even then, it seemed like a losing scenario. Women generally pulled off soft and gentle better than the gentle men, and strong, bada** women had an allure rugged men simply lacked. Women in all shapes and flavors out-performed men.

In her humble opinion.

Alice had a cuteness to her, but she was not some innocent little flower. Her cursing sound test could attest that some of her edges were rough, but it gave her a good balance. Lacking a girlfriend was another great attribute for anyone interested—not that Vanessa fell into that camp.

Then the shoe finally dropped. Electrical engineering was an admirable major, but the knowledge that Alice had a year of high school to finish first was… well, jarring. She knew she was young, and she was willing to push the limit of flirting with a college sophomore—even give some consideration to a freshman!

Seventeen was definitely a deal breaker. Vanessa instantly felt weird about their interaction up through the current moment. There was a pause after Alice asked if she was aware of the intern’s age, because Vanessa was resisting the urge to say, “obviously not, or I would not have spent the last ten minutes flirting with you.” Instead, she managed a more appropriate, ”No. I actually did not.”

Alice did nothing inherently wrong, though Vanessa would have loved to know that fun fact earlier in their conversation. Truthfully, she should be keeping flirting with interns to a minimum regardless. Alice was still a sweet girl, and as an intern, someone Vanessa still wanted to take under her wing, so they just needed to adjust the parameters of their working relationship. ”That’s alright, though. You’re totally still my Padawan, but… maybe hold off on the whole ‘Master’ bit. Fair?” Her voice was still light, because when all was said and done, she might have a developing soft spot for her adorable gay gamer protégé.

The tests all went well, but there was still time to kill before the recording session. An idea came to Vanessa that she was sure would put a smile on Alice’s face. ”Levels all look good, but I dunno. Not sure if it’s as good as a real live test. I think we’re playing Watchover today,” she said, locating the case for the class-based shooter on her desk. ”What do you say? Play a test round with me?”

Cringing a little at how shocked Nessa clearly was, she had never even thought the woman might not know how old she was. Sure she knew the hair and general punk look made her look a little older, but this was not what she'd expected. Please don't say she'd messed this up, Nessa was awesome and cool and pretty......not helping brain. Keep those thoughts under lock and key for now, the boss didn't need any more issues to deal with right now.

Only a hair away from a mild panic attack, she let out an explosive sigh when she got the OK. Her heart was still hammering in her chest, but all was not lost, she hadn't ruined everything on the first day. She just had to make sure not to screw it up anymore, or do anything too stupid and she'd b e fine. "Thanks ma....boss. I'll make sure I don't." Really girl, they'd just gone over this. DON'T MESS IT UP. Was it so hard, to not say just one word. Her and her brain were going to have a very long talk when all this was said and done.

Just talking to her online idol was amazing, but did she just ask if she, Alice Rivers, wanted to play a game with her? Oh. My. God. That would be epic and a great way to sweep the current awkwardness under the rug. "Are you kidding me? Of course I want to! Never had a chance to play it on PS4 so should be a good laugh." Pretty much all her gaming nowadays was on PC, simply because she was a massive RPG nerd and frankly, PC had the best of those.

OK, all she had to do while playing was not swear as much as she normally did. Her new favourite person ever might have heard her abilities in that regard, but she knew how competitive she got.

Locating a controller and determined to just have some fun, she wondered with character she should go with. Maybe that brainless healer. Didn't need as much mechanical skill, thank god for that she was awful with a controller for shooters, but game knowledge was rewarded. "Who are you thinking of playing?"

Good, stick to innocent questions. Just, don't flail from now on and maybe, they could just pretend none of the other stuff happened.

Alice’s age was… a stumbling block. She felt sketchy when she recounted the nature of their back and forth, but nothing was so far over the line that things had to be awkward. She was mature enough to shake off the notion that Alice was anything more than a promising intern. An adorable promising intern, but that was fine. Adorable was easy. Kittens were adorable, and she never had the desire to date a kitten.

Alice almost stumbled with the M-word, but caught herself. She was nervous, so Vanessa was going to work to make things more comfortable for her. If she was going to be an intern at The POW Block Party, she could not fumble around Vanessa forever.

As expected, the offer to play a round of video games together was accepted with enthusiasm. Alice was ready to grab the nearby controller and hop right into a digital battleground with her, even if she had her own thoughts on playing the console version of the game. ”Ah, you’re a PC Master Race girl. I get it, good on ya! I do some PC gaming, but there’ll always be something classic about the feel of a controller in my hand.” She handled claims that she was a “console peasant” in stride, because at the end of the day, she was the one getting paid to play video games for a living.

They prepared their controllers and headsets, letting the systems boot up the game off the disk. The question of which hero to play as was a fair one, since the game offered a wide selection, each catering to a different playstyle. After mulling over the options, she settled on one. ”Hmm, I think I’ll start with G. Na. She’s totally my girl; we have hours spent bumping enemies off cliffs together.”

Most players had a handful of “mains” to switch to based on team needs, and Vanessa was no exception, but there were certain characters to whom she was partial. Back before she even started her transition, she always gravitated to female characters in video games, shows, and books. Her own way of living vicariously through her avatars. The habit earned her entries in the comments sections of videos calling her “a typical girl gamer.” The team asked if it bugged her, but after everything she did to get to where she was, it was truly a badge of honor. ”Fair warning; if you suck, you might have to live with the shame of being known as ‘that intern who sucks at Watchover’ around the office.” Just because the flirting stopped did not mean Vanessa was going to stop giving Alice a hard time.

---

Alice thankfully did not suck at Watchover, though Nessa was sure she would be better on a PC, since it was her home turf. They played two rounds before the rest of the recording team showed up to kick Alice back out of Vince’s seat and to her tasks.

Recording went well, with Vanessa riding the positive energy of her intern interaction. The session would lead to the video fans would likely reference as “the one where Nessa throws a G. Na plushie at David, knocking his camera off-center for the rest of the video.” It was memorable, funny, and the community would eat it up.

The recording ended and Vanessa had a brief meeting with the merchandise team to toss around shirt design ideas. Once that ended, all she had to do was gather her belongings and take off for the evening. Another great day of work at her dream job in the books!

Unfortunately, as Nessa made a move to leave the break room toward the exit to the building, she heard two people talking in the hallway, with one sounding particularly stern. She almost walked past, but a shock of blue hair caught her eye. ”Alice?”

Well, she wouldn't exactly call Nessa a peasant,, to her face at least. It was just, well nothing beat a PC for gaming goodness and for a proper RPG nerd like her, there was just no competition. Or shooters, a mouse was just better than a controller. Fact. She wasn't biased, not at all. Just because most of her time had gone into researching and cost analysing PC parts for the ultimate gaming rig didn't mean she had any prejudices on the matter.

"She is so enjoyable to play. Boosting into people is so much fun." Good combo for Grace as well, she could follow her in when she fly right into the enemy like a mad woman. Also helped Grace was pretty easy to play. Great way to make yourself look better than you are. "Will say if I'm running tank, I just have to go Seigfried. Being able to just slap people about with a hammer is the best." When you weren't suicide charging off a cliff that is. Alice had a bit of a tendency to go a little ham with the big man. All her RPG training just screaming charge!

The boss was one, she was more than willing to show of her lack of skills with the console version. "Hey, as long as I get a T-Shirt saying that in bold letters I'd be happy. Almost a badge of honour to be the worst console player in the building."

---

Getting shouted at for being drawn into games with Nessa shouldn't bother her, but it did. She so wanted to make a good impression and now her supervisor thought she was just another lazy teenager shirking off her duties. It was maddening, mostly because she wanted to say it wasn't her fault, but she was meant to be doing a job. She should've know better.

"I....I know, I'm really sorry, I messed up big time. I promise it won't happen again." Please, she needed this internship! It was such a great opportunity and would be amazing for when she applied to uni. She couldn't lose it on the first day.

As the berating continued and her heart sank lower and lower a familiar head poked around the corner. If work appropriate behaviour hadn't been drilled into her, she'd have kissed her idol. if anyone could clear stuff up it'd be her. Maybe. Hopefully. Unless she was just humouring the fresh faced intern who in fairness, had been flirting with someone who didn't know how young she was.

"Sorry for disturbing you Vanessa, I was just reprimanding Alice for shirking her responsibilities on her first day, disappearing off for so long without working." 

It took Vanessa a second to realize what she had stumbled into. It was the end of her work day, so naturally she was feeling the fog of exhaustion that usually plagued her until she got out of the offices and into the fresh(ish) air of New York.

Alice was talking to someone, but as the bits of conversation she caught started sinking in, she realized it was not a conversation but a reprimanding she had encountered. Johnny, supreme leader of everything intern-related was scolding Alice for skipping out on her responsibilities. The responsibilities she skipped out on because she was with Vanessa. The realization formed a pit in her stomach.

Johnny was explaining the situation in his signature deep mom voice, but Vanessa cut him off by vehemently shaking her head. ”No, no, I’m sorry, Johnny, this is my bad,” she explained hastily. ”I pulled Alice to help me out with setting up and testing the equipment for the recording session. It totally slipped my mind to report that back to you once we got recording.”

Unsure of Vanessa’s motivations, Johnny looked from his coworker to the intern he was recently berating and back. He knew there was a session, since he was part of the recording team and knew the schedule. His eyes narrowed on Vanessa, and she immediately read him confirming mentally that the timing matched up, while simultaneously feeling suspicious about why Vanessa, of all people, might cover for the cute young intern. “So you’re really sure you had her for the time she went missing?”

”Dead sure.”

“…You’re sure?”

She glared defiantly, recognizing that he was accusing her of covering for the intern because she was cute and had blue hair. ”Yes. She stood behind Alice and placed her hands on the girl’s shoulders. ”I took the intern. She’s my intern.”

“…Nessa, you can’t keep an intern.”

”But… she’s mine.”

Johnny was sufficiently exhausted by Vanessa and her antics, but he was not a bad guy, so he resigned himself to defeat. “…Go home, Nessa. You too, Alice. And be here tomorrow ready to not be spoiled by her.”

Nessa grabbed Alice’s arm and pulled her toward the door, calling over her shoulder, ”Good night! I’ll send you the report in the morning!”

“**** right, you will!” He called back, his voice growing fainter as she put more distance between them.

Pushing her way through the main doors to the building, the warm air of the city at twilight hit her skin and she scratched her head, trying to work through the guilt of almost getting Alice in trouble. ”I’m really sorry about that, Alice. I’ll be more careful next time.”