#or any other software (that i don't currently have)

[frankenfossil]

you're never going to be the most popular magical girl when your colour is orange

cassidy from sleepless domain

[askagamedev]

About Unity these past few days

A lot of people have asked me about Unity and their strange new per-install charges policy that they rolled out on September 12th, 2023. I wanted to give them at least 24 hours before I posted my take on it - let the dust settle a bit so I could get a chance to read the new policy properly and all that. First, however, I think we need to take a step back and get a wider perspective. Unity Software Inc. is in some serious financial trouble. Here are their operating numbers from 2019 to 2023.

The blue line here is how much money they take in and the red line is the amount of money they are spending each year. You may notice that they are spending significantly more money year over year than they earn. In fact, over the past 12 months alone (August 2022 to August 2023), Unity Software Inc. has lost almost $1 billion.

In 2022, Unity spent four times as much money as they did in 2019. If they had managed to keep costs at double their spending in 2019, they still would have earned $243 million in profit. Instead, they lost $882 million in 2022.

Where does all of this cost come from? In any software company like Unity, the vast vast majority of costs comes from employee salaries. And we can directly see it in Unity's number of employees:

Unity Software Inc. more than tripled its headcount from 2019 to 2022, and it did all of this hiring during the pandemic while competing with many many other developers all trying to hire from the same pool. I don't work for Unity, but I was in the market and I had lots of recruiters trying to recruit me during that time.

In short, Unity is suffering from the same miscalculation that Embracer Group did, that EA did, that Activision-Blizzard did, that Square-Enix did, and just about everybody else in the tech industry - they misjudged the good times at the beginning of the pandemic, overspent hiring people thinking the good times would last, and are now scrambling to figure out how to survive. The difference is that Unity was getting all of their operating money from Venture Capitalists (VCs) hoping that they would eventually become profitable, but VC money has all but dried up because it's become much more expensive to borrow money over the past two years.

As a result, the Unity executives are likely grasping at straws in hopes of saving a sinking ship. This wild and decidedly senseless pricing plan is their (seemingly-desperate) attempt to juice their revenues. It really makes very little sense from the developer perspective, which is what makes the whole thing reek of desperation. That isn't greed talking, it's survival. My guess is that Unity is currently desperately looking for a buyer to save them and doing whatever they can to buy themselves some more runway. They already announced layoffs back in May, but I suspect they'll probably have to announce some really big layoffs (e.g. 40-50%) soon. Unity Software Inc. is living on borrowed time and they know it.

[Join us on Discord] and/or [Support us on Patreon]

Got a burning question you want answered?

Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter

Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr

Frequent Questions: The FAQ

[figminxr]

June 12 2023

I'm deciding on a new font for our logo and one of these images is not like the others........

My tasks this week are to make a tutorial video about how to use multiplayer (which will be launching this month!!!!!), and to make some edits to our graphic design...

Because our current font makes the 'N' in Figmin lowercase, many people misread the name as 'Figma' - which is an entirely different software altogether. My goal is to find a new font with better readability that still captures the same retro, whimsical feel as our current one!

I'm also gonna be removing the person silhouette from all our banner designs. The silhouette is less detailed than everything else and kinda doesn't mesh well - also, it's a silhouette of a male and I don't really wanna have any particular gendered-ness to our marketing.

Figmin is for everyone, and I want our graphic design to reflect that!

[cleo-fox]

master list/about me

about me

I write fanfic.

Right now, I’m focusing on Loki/Reader one shots. They’re mostly smut.

Okay, maybe they're exclusively smut.

I also suffer from periodic James Conrad brainrot.

You can find my work on Tumblr and AO3. I do not post fanfic on any other platforms at this time.

I don't have a tag list—it’s just a little too much for me to keep up with.

I don’t take requests, but my asks/DMs are open if you want to chat!

My updates are erratic. I am a slow-ish writer and I have a small child and a full-time job, so it can vary quite a bit.

I am still updating As the Clock Strikes Midnight, I just wrote myself into a very irritating corner and am trying to figure out how to get out of it.

Since we apparently have to say this now: I do not consent to having my work uploaded to AI or chatbot software.

fics (all are on AO3 as well)

one-shots

Surrender (Loki x Female Reader)

Movie Night (Loki x Female Reader)

Overtime (One Shot Series) Overtime (Loki x Female Reader) Daylight (Loki x Female Reader)

Unraveled (Loki x Female Reader)

Wildest Dreams (James Conrad x Female Reader)

two-shots

Close Quarters - Part 1 | Part 2 (Loki x Female Reader)

three shots

Conquer - Part 1

multi-chapter

As the Clock Strikes Midnight (Loki x Female Reader) Currently on AO3 only--I am hoping to get it crossposted to Tumblr at some point, just haven't gotten there yet.

[wrixie]

wrixie's guide to default eyes 🤩

welcome to my guide on making default eye colors for the sims 4 this'll be my first ever tutorial and it's a big one so please bear with me!

if you have any questions please don't be afraid to send me a message!

here you will hopefully learn how to: make defaults for humans, aliens and vampires as well as cats, dogs and mini goats and sheep! -> i'm unsure about how to do cottage living animals anymore due to s4s changing and the foxes are currently bugged to be gray :( BUT i will provide my files so you can just recolor them and merge them back together down below

you will need a few things to start: sims4studio, photo editing software such as gimp or photoshop to create and edit your textures, some meshes that i've provided + these body templates

human defaults (and beginning steps):

open up sims4studio, locate the CAS button, under that you should have 'override' ticked instead of the default 'create CAS standalone' then click the big CAS button to go to the next step

2. you'll see a few drop down menus, locate 'Part Type:', scroll down until you find 'Eye Color', we're doing human eyes so shift+click all of the base game default colors and click next

3. save your new .package file what ever you please i recommend something like -> yourname_eyename_default <- make sure to have it save into your mods folder or somewhere where you can easily access it (i saved mine into my mods folder)

4. this is where you'll import all your eye colors - assuming you've made your eye textures, locate the 'Texture' box in the 'Texture' panel, you'll see three maps: Diffuse, Shadow + Specular, import your eye texture in the 'Diffuse' texture for all of your eye colors, click on 'Specular' then click on the purple 'Make Blank' button to get rid of the cloudy shine on the default eyes (you'll have to do this manually for each swatch)

alien eyes:

you'll do the same as the human in terms of selecting 'override' in the CAS section then locate 'Part Type:', scroll down until you find 'Eye Color', but instead of selecting the human eyes, we'll select the all of the alien eyes with shift+click - they don't have previews for some reason

2. then you can follow the previous steps, save your file under yourename_eyename_aliens_default into your mods folder

3. same as the humans, import all of your alien eyes into their proper swatches but this time there's two more maps: Normal + Emission - you do not need to touch these for aliens as alien eyes do not glow and the emission map is for glowing textures (i have no idea how to do this)

4. make your 'Specular' maps blank and click save!

vampire eyes:

do the same as the others in terms of selecting 'override' in the CAS section of the main menu, locate 'Part Type:', scroll down until you find 'Eye Color', but instead of selecting the all of the human/alien eyes, we'll be selecting the black swatch for right now - this black swatch is for all ages

2. import your black swatch in 'Diffuse' and make the 'Specular' blank

3. this is where you can veer off and follow a different tutorial to get the glow of the vampire eyes or you can continue without it here; go into your photo editing software, create a 1024x2048 image and fill it in completely with black and save it as emission (this is what you'll use to lose the glow and make the eyes work)

4. in the 'Texture' panel, go to 'Emission' and import your black image you just made and save it as -> yourname_eyename_vampires_black &lt; (or what have you)

5. now change the 'Age: All' to 'Adult', select the next eye color, save it as the color it is and follow steps 2 - 4

6. after completing all of your adult swatches, change 'Age: Adult' to 'Child' and repeat the steps you just took with each eye color you will have to do the same with toddler and infant eyes as well; save child files with _CU in the file name, _PU for toddlers and _infants for ya know... infants

7. once you have all your swatches done, make sure to test them before this next step (merging the files into one, this is an optional step but highly recommended) go back to the main menu and under 'Content Management' click 'Merge Packages..'

8. click 'Add' and select all of your vampire eye files, click 'Merge' and name it what you want

cats & dogs:

with sims4studio open, the CAS section should still have 'override' ticked, click CAS again and in the drop down menus, change 'Species: Human' to Large Dog, Small Dog, Cat, Foxes, or Horses; if you don't have the textures already, export the default texture so you have it as a base

2. import each of your textures in the 'Diffuse' map and make your 'Specular' map blank for each color and save

3. for heterochromia you can use these meshes - edit the textures to add your own, import your texture to the 'Diffuse' map and make your 'Specular' map blank for each color and save as _heterochromia

4. remember to test before merging - go back to the main menu and under 'Content Management' click 'Merge Packages..', add your files and merge them

mini goats & sheep:

in the Object section of the main menu, tick 'override' and click the Object button

2. in the 'Game Pack' drop down menu, choose 'Horse Ranch' and tick 'Show Debug Items' and at the very top, you should see the mini goat, select this and click next save it as what you would like to

3. go into the 'Texture' tab and export all the goats textures if you haven't already made your eyes - when you have your textures done, import them into the 'Diffuse' map for each swatch and save

4. go back to the main menu and repeat steps 1 + 2 but instead of selecting the mini goats, scroll down until you see the mini sheep, should only be a tick or two down and then repeat step 3

cottage living:

go to my folder and download the meshes you need here i'll go through recoloring each animal, we're going to start with the wild rabbits; open the rabbits file

ignore the top file you don't need to edit this

'Export' (not the batch export) each rabbit texture, open them up in your photo editor and add your own eye texture then 'Import' each of them in their proper swatch and save

next will be the llamas, open up the file, you might be put into the 'Warehouse' tab, switch over to the 'Studio' tab

export all the 'Diffuse' textures of each swatch, open them up in your photo editor and add your own eye texture then 'Import' each of them in their proper swatch and save

cows are next, open up the file, ignore the top file and 'Export' the three textures then edit them in your photo editor to add your own eyes

'Import' each swatch in their proper place and save

lastly, for now, are the chickens, open up the file in sims4studio, 'Export' the first 6 image files, ignore the next 2, then export then last 5 and repeat editing and adding your own eye textures to them

once that's done, 'Import' all your swatches in their proper places and save

how to convert non-defaults/contacts to default:

1. open up sims4studio, locate the CAS button, under that you should have 'override' ticked instead of the default 'create CAS standalone'

2. before clicking on the CAS button, go to My Projects and open up the contacts you want to make default and 'Export' each color to save it on your computer

3. now you're going to basically follow the beginning steps again, go back to the main menu and click the big CAS button, then it's 'Part Type: Eye Color', shift+click all human eyes or vampire or alien eyes and hit next (i'll be doing human eyes) if you were put into the 'Warehouse' tab switch over to the 'Studio' tab.

4. 'Import' your textures to each swatch to the 'Diffuse' map and make the 'Specular' blank and save!

[roosterforme]

Is It Working For You? Part 3 | Rooster x Reader

And here is Part 3, because you are all lovely and I now have 100 followers! Thank you!

If you need to start from the beginning, check my Masterlist.

Summary: You feel bad and you should; Rooster looks like a kicked puppy.

Warnings: angst, some swears, adult banter, getting more into 18+

Length: 2600

Pairing: Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw x Female Reader

You wanted nothing more than to go home and climb into bed. You literally felt like shit. Worse than shit. You felt like a villain, and even your heart was mad at you about it. And of all things, you were shocked to realize how much involvement your heart had in this scenario. 

You leaned forward and let your head hit the desk in front of you. "All right there, lieutenant?" Maria asked you viciously. She was currently so mad at you, you could feel the daggers she was glaring. Apparently she had heard more of your lunch conversation than you originally thought she had, and she was firmly on Team Rooster.

"No," you muttered and raised your head just as Cyclone and Warlock were returning from their lunch break. It was time to get back to work, but you had no motivation. You were supposed to be going over software updates that would help the Dagger aviators with training. It was literally your responsibility to keep them safe on this mission. As safe as you possibly could. Your stomach soured even further as you realized it might be Bradley flying this course for real in just a few weeks. That was enough motivation for you to open your computer and get to work, at least for a few minutes.

Unfortunately, from your seat in the tower, you had the perfect view of all the aviators down on the tarmac as they had a meeting with Maverick before heading to their F/A-18s. There was Bradley, looking hotter than sin. But now his hair was a mess, as he kept running his hands through it, and he was sporting a frown. As soon as they were dismissed, he headed right for his aircraft and started on his safety checklist. 

The tower radios crackled to life, and Maverick announced that the next group up would be the Green Team, consisting of Phoenix, Bob and Rooster. You tried to focus on everything you needed to get done, but you could hear Bradley communicating with the tower before taking off. 

You sighed and rubbed your eyes. "You deserve to feel bad. You clearly ruined his day. And you made him frown," Maria told you in a monotone voice as she typed up an email. She was literally giving you the cold shoulder, turning away from you slightly even though she was sitting right next to you.

"You did not react like this when I turned down Jake Seresin."

"He didn't frown and look like a kicked puppy afterwards. Also, it was probably good for Jake that you did that, he seems like the type who always gets what he wants. Today, on the other hand, with Bradley Bradshaw?  What even is your problem?" she asked, glare intensifying. 

"It's not like you even know him! I barely know him! Why are you so invested?" you asked as Lieutenant Cam Harvey, your friend since your Naval Academy days, slipped into the seat on the other side of Maria.

"Because he's perfect for you! And I can tell you like him," she replied indignantly. 

Your heart bounced around in your chest. You had wanted to tell Bradley yes, you really had. He seemed sweet, and he was funny, and oh so easy on the eyes. But you really needed to focus on your career instead of giving any appearance that you were getting places by sleeping around with other officers.

"Who is perfect for her?" Cam asked cautiously, alarmed by Maria's tone.

"Rooster," she told him, still keeping her shoulder turned away from you.

 "Why don't you ask him out then?" he asked, leaning over to look at you.

"He just asked her out, and she said no!"

"I have my reasons, okay?" you told them both quietly as the flight proceedings were about to begin. "It's hard enough for women here, I don't want to make it seem like I want attention from all these pilots. I don't want to look like the one who sleeps around to get a promotion, okay? Female officers are already outnumbered seven to one, and I don't want to look like a joke. Plus, Rooster will most likely have moved on in a few weeks. He will have probably literally and figuratively shipped out. You know how these guys are. So what's the point? And if I keep it casual and try to keep it quiet, everyone will find out anyway, and I'll be labeled a slut. It was bad enough what happened with Kyle when I tried to keep it casual. So please, drop it."

Maria turned toward you sympathetically. "Okay. I get what you're saying. But, maybe he's different. I mean, you are interested in him, right?"

"Obviously," you groaned as Rooster's voice sounded through the radio. 

"Tally, tally, Maverick at eight o'clock low! Break right, Phoenix!"

"Breaking right! Talk to us, Bob!" 

You listened to the three of them try to outmaneuver Maverick, something that sounded impossible to your somewhat untrained ears. They went at it for a long time, before Maverick forced a move on them. 

"Phoenix, now!" Rooster called over his radio before Maverick got him in his sights and eliminated him. 

"He kind of sounds like a stand up guy. He just saved his teammates and their mission at his own expense," Cam mentioned as he adjusted his glasses and worked on the software protocols. "None of the other leaders have been doing that."

Of course Bradley was good to his team! Of course he was! You listened as he cheered on Phoenix and Bob as they successfully eliminated Maverick. They were the first team to do so in almost two weeks. This made you feel even worse. 

After they all landed, Bradley gave Phoenix and Bob a massive bear hug between their F/A-18s. They looked absolutely elated. And when Hondo came out to count off his push-ups, Bradley looked more than happy to do them. 

Your heart lurched as several of the other pilots cheered him on. 

Perhaps you had made a mistake. 

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

This had to be a new personal record, eight hundred push-ups in the last two days. But these ones felt good. 

When Bradley had twenty more to go, Bob and Phoenix joined him in solidarity. Their team had managed to finally eliminate Maverick. Sure, he'd been eliminated first, but he set Phoenix up for a massive slam dunk, and of course she followed through. And it felt fucking good to nail down Maverick like that.

"Down! 199! Down! 200! Good job, Rooster." Hondo gave him a firm slap on the back and headed back inside the tower. Phoenix and Bob went in as well. 

But Bradley needed another minute before he could stand, his arms were absolutely throbbing. As he propped himself into a seated position, he saw the next team was getting ready to take off. Distracted by this, he didn't notice you had come outside. 

"Hey, you look thirsty. Thought you might want this." You reached toward him, a cold water bottle in your hand. "And congrats on taking down Maverick."

"Thanks," he grunted, barely meeting your eyes. The elation he felt while flying today almost made him forget about his lunchtime fiasco. Almost. He drained the water bottle in one go and stood to head back to the meeting room.

You licked your lips, seemingly trying to find the words to say what was on your mind, but you remained quiet. Had you just come out here to torture him? Make him smell your sweetness over the odors of jet fuel and hot pavement? Make him look at your gorgeous face? 

Probably. You were already capable of torturing him. But that was his fault, not yours. You hadn't really done anything to deserve it, but he turned away from you anyway without another word and went inside.

As soon as he was inside, he realized that trying to hurt you just made him hurt himself more.

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

You spent the rest of the week regretting what you did, but as far as you could tell, there was no coming back from it now. Rooster was avoiding you at every turn. When you sat down at his table for lunch on Wednesday, he inhaled the rest of his food and then power walked out of there. And then on Thursday, you and Maria were supposed to brief all of the aviators on the updated communications system designs, and Bradley went so far out of his way to get Maria to explain it to him instead of you, it wasn't even funny.

Maybe you thought that water bottle you gave him on the tarmac was going to be some sort of peace offering, but clearly Bradley was done. And it took you until Friday morning to realize it, but he had made you feel special. Appealing, even. You'd barely even scratched the surface of getting to know him, but when he spoke to you, you knew you had his undivided attention. 

He hadn't said so much as good morning to you since Tuesday, and by Friday, you were determined to get him to talk to you. You cornered him near the door to the meeting room as he strolled in. It was like being hit over the head; it was literally absurd the way your body reacted to him. He was so much taller than you, you had to look way up to meet his beautiful brown eyes when he was this close. And you could feel his body heat. Your heart was racing.

You could tell he was trying to keep his face as calm as possible, but you could see something under the surface. Maybe he was angry at you, maybe he was still disappointed. Either way, if he avoided you when you were right in front of him, you were going to have to excuse yourself to go hide in the ladies' room.

"Good morning, Rooster," you managed, barely above a whisper. To your immediate relief, his lips quirked up into the tiniest of smiles.

He shook his head slightly as he said, "Good morning. You look really nice in your head to toe khaki today."

A laugh bubbled out of you, and his smile grew a bit more. "Don't be mad at me," you told him.

Bradley ran his fingers through his hair and told you, "I couldn't be mad at you, even if I tried."

You felt like you needed to touch him like you had at the Hard Deck. You wanted his fingers on your wrist again. But he quickly ducked around you as soon as Maverick and Cyclone walked in, grabbing a seat next to Fanboy. 

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

Bradley wasn't sure what you wanted from him, so he would just play as nice as he could. But inside, it was a different story. He still thought about the shape of your body and the sound of your voice. He still thought about pinning you against the wall, and he wondered what kinds of noises you would make if ever you let him take you to bed. But mostly he thought about how hard it was to get what he wanted when it actually mattered to him. 

This was one of the times he hated that he had nobody to talk to about this. For a while when he was younger, he believed he would have Mav in his life for this stuff. If his mom were still around, she would have been giving him the best advice. As a teenager, Carole told him to make sure he was always a gentleman. She also told him to always wear a condom and never take a girl on a date just to get in her pants. That wisdom only went so far nearly twenty years ago, as he was a sixteen year old virgin when she died, but he did try to carry it with him as an adult.

But now he was thirty-five years old, for fuck's sake, and yet somehow too stunted to be able to figure this out on his own. What kind of adult was totally unequipped to deal with wanting to date someone instead of just sleeping with them? Maybe he went too fast with you. Maybe he should have waited awhile, got to know you as a friend first. The problem was, he didn't generally want to sleep with his female friends. And the females he wasn't friends with, well they were always fair game for a hookup. But you seemed to fall into a brand new category. 

On top of all that, his brain felt fuzzy from a long day of flying. And that's how you were able to blindside him for a second time on Friday. He had been doing a stellar job of keeping contact with you to a minimum since Tuesday, but when he exited the locker room to leave for the weekend, there you were, smack in the middle of the elevator car. And of course you were completely alone. Thankfully you only had to ride down eight floors together. 

Your face seemed to light up as he stepped inside, and you made no room to give him more personal space. So he just squeezed in next to you as the doors slid shut. 

"Hi," you greeted him cautiously as you pulled one earbud out. Bradley could hear your music playing in the enclosed space. 

"What are you listening to?" He couldn't help himself, he had to know. 

"Oh, I just have my music on shuffle. Want to listen?" 

He shrugged and you handed him your earbud. The second your fingertips danced across his palm, he wanted to push you against the elevator wall and shove his hands up your shirt. He prayed he didn't have a visible hard on in his jeans as he put the earbud in and heard the opening piano notes to a familiar song. 

"It's OutKast, but I can change it to something else," you muttered, about to tap on your phone screen. 

"No, I like this," he managed to say. Because of course he did. Of course you were listening to an album that he had in his library as well. This was torturous. 

And that's how Bradley ended up walking you all the way to your car, as you both quietly hummed along to "Roses", one earbud for each of you. The way you shimmied along to the chorus was not doing him any favors. He could barely remember why he had been avoiding you in the first place. 

"It's the red one," you gestured to your beat up little car as you unlocked it and then threw your bag on the backseat. "It's ugly, but it's dependable," you added, seemingly in its defense.

Bradley laughed, and before he could think any better of it, he asked, "Does that represent your taste in guys too?"

You looked him right in the eyes for the first time since he got in the elevator. "No, I like them pretty and dependable."

Well that probably ruled him out then, given his facial scars. He handed you back your earbud. "Thanks for the song. Enjoy your weekend," he said as he turned to leave. 

You bit your bottom lip before calling out to him. "Hey Bradley, will you be at the Hard Deck tomorrow night?"

"Uh, probably. I have a standing appointment to lose at darts," he told you with a smile and a small wave before turning back toward his Bronco. 

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

It took me awhile to think of a song with a baller piano intro that was also long enough for a walk all the way to your car.

The upcoming chapters will be longer, and there will be several of them!

Part 4 is up!

@hotch-meeeeeuppppp @swthxrry @yaboid19 @mak-32

@miles-rooster @solacestyles @avoirlecoupdefoudre

@daisyhollyxox @grxnde-dwt @callsigndiamond

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for hiding that I'm going through job interviews from my major professor?

Currently a grad student and while I haven't managed to finish my degree, I'm in the interview process for what would be basically a fantastic job that is fully aware I would have the credits but not the final degree and is fine with it. At the moment am carefully not mentioning to my advisor that this is happening- and admittedly the job isn't sure yet.

Why I might be the asshole- I am his last remaining grad student, and also the last person remaining working for him. Of the group that was there when I joined, 5/7 left without finishing their degrees/fairly suddenly. Which means I am kinda the only one left to juggle any existing ongoing projects as well as administrating the software and my own research. He's likely to retire soon, so isn't taking on anymore new students either. So if I leave that really puts him in an awkward position. He has been amazingly understanding in the past about still paying me fully when I was getting paid by him yet unable to do any work for months due to health problems and I feel kinda bad about making his job worse.

On the other hand- he was the one that talked me into the phd, since I don't actually need the phd for the work I want to do. Plus, previously mentioned health problems are not being helped by the continued stress of the dragged on grad work with no discernible progress made in the last year or so. I did plan on taking a semester break previously, but when I went in to talk to him about it was talked out of it so don't want that to happen again. Basically my plan is to not tell him till I have a job offer in hand and then basically let him know I'm leaving.

What are these acronyms?

[qqueenofhades]

coming from one of those "born in mid 2000s and is now suddenly an adult, making everyone feel old," people, do you have any resources to learn how to bullshit your way through getting a job with zero experience. cause i cant even put like "babysitting" or anything since covid prevented literally any teenage-typical jobs and i kinda dont know what to put on a resume beyond the university im currently attending and the high school i graduated from. and they still dont teach you this in school even though we've complained for years 😭

Okay my chilluns, listen up. This is how to bullshit your way into a basic 1-page resume even if you think you have absolutely dum-dum-diddlysquat to put on it. I completely feel you, as it's hard as hell to get a job even in the ordinary course of things, and especially when everything seems to want 10 years of experience and a bachelor's degree (and still pays like shit). But you gotta be persistent anyway. So here follows the step-by-step guide of How To Resume:

Open a new Word (or other word-processing software of your choice) document.

Pick a nice, professional-looking font (for the love of God, no Comic Sans). Times New Roman is fine; you don't have to overthink it. My own CV is currently in Perpetua, because it's a nice serif that looks crisp and a little different, but it is still clean and readable. Garamond or Cambria or other starter typefaces are fine too. Make sure it is the right size, usually around 12pt.

Put your full name at the top, centered, in BOLD CAPITALS. Increase the typeface size a few more points on this, to make it stand out and to make it take up space.

Underneath this, in regular-sized text, put your contact information: mailing address if you're comfortable sharing it, or if not, at least your phone number and email address. Use a school email if you have it, and not some weird/in-jokey personal email.

Start a new paragraph. In a slightly smaller font (italic if you want to make it look classy) write a few words about yourself. This should be something like I am a [Major] student at [University] looking for a part-time, entry-level position in [sales, retail, office, etc]. A [year] graduate of [High School] in [City, State], I am [prompt, reliable, detail-oriented, mature, friendly, etc] and a hard worker who is eager to gain experience and positively contribute to your business.

Start a new paragraph. Change the alignment from Center to Left. Create a new heading in bold underline labeled Education.

Under this, fill in your education (college first, followed by high school). Include the institution name, city, and state, the year you graduated or expect to graduate, any honors or awards, any extracurriculars, any grade-point averages if they're good (i.e. 3.0 and above), and your expected major in college.

Start a new paragraph. Create another heading: Experience.

This is where you put absolutely anything you can think of (in chronological order, most recent first and counting backward). Did you volunteer for something ever in your life? Put it down! (Title of work, dates, location, brief description of work). Did you do yard work for someone for a weekend? Put it down! Were you (or are you) part of a student club or organization in high school or university? Have you organized or taken part in any local initiatives in your community or neighborhood? Put it down! Basically, absolutely any kind of work, paid or unpaid, that might be relevant, regardless of how long it was or when it took place.

Under that, put the new heading/paragraph Skills and Interests.

Have you worked with Microsoft Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Adobe, Photoshop? Put it down! People love that shit! Do you use social media and/or know how to work it better than the average grandma? Put 'er down! You get the idea. Think of anything in your daily life that can be put in Job Language and then see if you can do that. You are in university; do you have any projects, papers, or other things that you're proud of? Have you successfully managed a (gasp) group project? Do you make any kind of art? Are you a registered voter who has taken part in civic/political organizations, drives, or events? (If not, REGISTER TO VOTE! This is your angry grandmother speaking). All of that can go down. Even if it's not job experience per se, it's life experience and shows that you are someone who is engaged with the world and working to gain more.

Last paragraph and heading: References. Ask a few trusted adults who know you well and aren't related to you, such as a favorite high school teacher or a university faculty member/degree advisor, if they'd be willing to serve as referees. Put down their full names, titles/place of work, email addresses, and phone numbers.

Voila! You have a full page resume, probably even a little more if you're lucky. Proofread, make sure the spacing is even and the alignment is right, it doesn't look weird, the text is a consistent size, it's all the same color, there are no glaring typos or grammatical errors, etc. etc. Save it as a PDF.

Boom. Done. You are now a Job Hunting Maestro.

If you get an interview, you don't need to pretend that you have tons of experience or that you're something you're not, but you can present what you ARE in a positive light anyway. Don't apologize for yourself or play yourself down pre-emptively; be confident about yourself and what you can offer. You're a college kid looking for your first part-time job, COVID prevented you from a lot of normal teenage work experience, you're willing to work hard and learn new things. Here's your resume. What would be a good time to talk again.

Good luck! I believe in you.

[dduane]

Middle Kingdoms "Tale of the Five" Mark V covers, minimalist (type 1) group, TDIF

This is the only one of these where I'm not going to put the work under a cut, because there are going to be twelve of them before I'm done, and I don't want to bore people with the roughs in progress.

So this was the sketch for this group's Door Into Fire cover the other day...

And here's a rough example of what I was seeing in my head.

Possibly a little on the nose, but (a) I had to start somewhere, and (b) it was 1 AM when I finished work on this one and I was beyond caring. :)

The "since we're talking about doors, let's lean into that" concept is one that's appeared in previous covers on this series—both mine and other people's—but none of mine have looked this polished, because I just wasn't as good at this stuff ten years ago as I am now, and I've now got far better tools.

...Though one hilarious exception to this situation has been applied to the lettering. The extremely nice Eye Candy plugin from Exposure Software once in its much earlier versions ran on both Corel Photo Paint (my preferred design software for pushing three decades now) and Adobe's various versions of Photoshop. But for whatever reason(s), that situation came to an end. Now, I have Eye Candy for Photoshop... but I really hate Photoshop, and avoid using it whenever possible.

So in order to add some pop to the Cinzel Decorative font on this page, I had to go elsewhere... which in my case means to the little Samsung notebook computer that lives (mostly snoozing) in the front window of the living room, and is still running Windows XP. (Because of this it's never allowed to go online any more, as it can't be made secure.) I refuse to get rid of it because we've traveled too far together, and I've written too many books on it, and I love it too much. But its other chief virtue is that it will still run Corel 11 (which my newer Windows machines refuse to do). And the install of Corel PP 11 in the Samsung will still happily run the old version of Eye Candy, which has all the familiar presets that I tinkered together over years of use. I really need to sit down, eventually, and figure out how to train the current version of Eye Candy to accept the presets from the older one.

But today is not that day. Today I just plugged in the .cpt Photo Paint file and edited it to add the golden-colored effect on those letters. That was all this rough needed for me to kick it to one side and get on with thinking about the next one.

Anyway, for those interested in materials: the hand and the doorway were created using Daz Studio. The blue fire is stock art. (I do have a very nice app called Flame Painter, from Escape Motions, but I'm not yet expert enough with it to use it much in cover work.) The basic (parent) font is Cinzel, as I mentioned: both Cinzel Bold and Cinzel Decorative Bold variants are used in this cover.

There are still a number of things that can use some tweaking in this one, but as I said, this is a rough. Over the next week or so I'll get around to the other two in this set, and get a better sense whether this whole idea is workable—as if the style doesn't work well across all three covers in the trilogy, it's useless.

And now I'm going to go make some oatcakes, as @petermorwood someone seems to have eaten all the ones I made last week. :)

(cc: @mutantenfisch: Links to the print copies at Amazon are over here, if you don't feel like waiting for the new covers...)

[snapscube]

hey big fan of your channel and art!! was wondering if for the midnight snap series what kind of sound design you were doing it rlly sounds nice!! (also smth that could be nice with it is maybe a little bit of like tape saturation or something might be able to make the audio sound "warmer" if youre like not already doing something like that already, but you probably know better than me!!) feel free to ignore that, but wanted to say in general its so well done and sounds so good!!! its really cozy and nice!!

hey thank you!!! yeah i'd.... genuinely LOVE to talk about my thinking and approach behind the sound design, i'm actually so happy you asked me this LOL this is the kind of shit i live for.

you might assume that it's just me recording the game audio and talking quietly with my normal stream settings, and that is kinda how it STARTS, but there's actually a bit more i've been doing behind the scenes :) nothing too crazy just yet but a little goes a long way when it comes to sound! i'm hoping to really nail down the soundscape and increase the quality over time and specifically up the soothing vibes by a lot. as well as get a little better about mic etiquette and my style of speech. BUT in terms of what i'm doing in post:

the first piece of the puzzle and definitely one of the most important sauces in the whole mix is the Hard Limiter. it does what you might imagine it does, basically just places a hard barrier and says "any sounds that exceed this volume.... no you don't", sort of like a much more intense compressor. currently i have a Hard Limiter on both my commentary AND the game audio, commentary i have set to peak at around -15 to -12 db, whereas game audio is more around the -23 to -20 range. in my more polished audio from later in the AC episode it's enough difference that one doesn't drown the other out in most cases, but not a wide enough gulf that people are struggling to pay attention to one in particular or have to frequently change volume (preferably they don't have to change it at all!). i took this screenshot of the episode's complete waveform when rendering out the audio-only version of AC part 1 and it was super satisfying cause like.... yeah. this is exactly the kind of waveform read i was going for. just super even and smooth across the board, save for a couple anomalies i'll buff out over time.

the next thing i do to both my own commentary and the game audio is actually just cutting down on harsher, higher frequencies with an EQ and just upping the bassier, warmer tones. i started with something super small in the first couple of episodes, i'm probably gonna go a bit harder on it for future stuff though. i wanna find a balance that doesn't make the game sound unrecognizable or anything but is noticeably easier on the ears and sounds more like a nice rolling wave rather than beep boop pac-man time.

past this i have a couple more things added to the commentary track:

to intensify the previous effect mentioned and cut down on harsh frequencies in my speech, i actually have a dedicated de-esser on my voice as well as my usual warmer EQ. i have the de-esser going pretty hard too, you might hear the difference from my usual stream commentary if you were to listen closely. really just taking those harsh t's and s's in my speech and making them sound more like a nice "shhhh", this one is super important i think

last thing i have to speak on otherwise is actually a plugin i found and bought specifically for this show and ends up being subtle but i think SUUUPER helpful in the long run, and that's this plugin called "spiff". spiff is a plugin by oeksound and i guess it's referred to as like, a transient editor? i'm actually not sure how it works at all on the nitty gritty level BUT the important thing is that they have a very important preset in the software, and that is a preset specifically designed to lessen and/or remove like... mouth sounds. yknow like lip smacks and the like. just kinda the gross smacks and clicks you don't hear as much in normal speech but can come through really intensely on a recording and kinda make ya uncomfortable. it obviously doesn't remove a lot of the more intense stuff, it's not a magic wand in my experience. but listening to the output of what it's removing on its own makes it REALLY clear there's a lot of little things it picks up and just kinda makes speech more soothing to listen to. not something i'm racing to apply to my normal streams, BUT for a sleep aid series where good audio is key????? 100% worth it, i like it a lot.

anyway yeah that's about it for now! a lot of it is pretty simple in and of itself but it's stuff i've been working at and experimenting with since i first started doing tests for the show and it's gonna be real nice to keep honing this stuff in. also cool suggestion with the tape saturation idea, i might look into something like that! once i nail stuff like leveling and frequency tuning for this show, i wanna look into some fancier ways of making the soundscape unique to this show compared to my normal streams so ideas like that are super helpful!

[fandomhype]

Plagiarism Somerton

I obviously didn't watch the new James Somerton apology video ON his channel because I did not want to give that man the views and you shouldn't either! It has been re-uploaded and summarised elsewhere so that he doesn't benefit if anyone wants to see it.

The original hbomberguy video was wild to me because of all the stealing, I found it highly entertaining, loved all the Memes and it honestly did my imposter syndrome wonders! but then I watched the Todd in the shadows video and it really upset me.

He didn't just steal from other LGBT creators he lied to his mostly young LGBT audiance who were looking to an elder gay for guidance and to learn about their history.

Todd's video starts with a clip of James lies being spread by another person on a podcast, there's clips of people discussing his made up gay nazi fanfic he has presented as hard facts. He actively harmed his own community for cash! There are young gay men bringing that subject up in conversation being laughed at for falling for it and that leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.

Now I'm not a part of that community but a lot of people I love are so that angered me a lot.

...and then he comes back with another apology video, conveniently within the three months he would have had to post something on his channel to retain his monetisation status weirdly?! In which he blames both a head injury and his ADHD for his theft - at no point does he address the lying in either apology video or any of the apology posts he made that I could find.

I have combined ADHD, when I was first diagnosed the NHS referred to it as ADD with Hyperactivity element but everyone seems to have gone back to calling it ADHD and that is the term used most commonly online so that is what I refer to it is as.

I am medicated but there has been a world wide shortage of my medication and I was without it for some time over winter, which was HELL! I got nothing done.

I am in no way a big creator, Youtube for me is a fun wee hobby that will hopefully grow and allow me to collaborate with other people with similar interests but ADHD is for sure a large part of my journey as a creator.

I've published like 7 videos and currently have around 10 being worked on because, you know... ADHD! *siren noises*

I know that I am forgetful sometimes, just for the record I also had several head injuries and concussions as a child because Lil undiagnosed at the time me truly had no fear of climbing or other dangerous activities so I have my script (because free talking a subject with this brain would be nearly impossible) open in one google doc and my research open in another. It's not hard.

That's the way it was at school, college and Uni too. James claims he went to Uni to do business. Every university uses anti-plagerism software for essays and has done since like the mid 2000's? so he knows not to copy pasta. He's straight up lying there.

Another thing he's lying about is his ADHD making him forget he copied things. Now if you tell me a joke that I like it'll stick in my head and I will straight up tell it as my own later, I've been called out for this many times! But entire articles? whole sections of other peoples videos? (he also flipped a fan Vid he had ripped off of another YouTube to avoid detection and tried to pass it off as his own) No that's not something you can accidentally do even with a swiss cheese brain like mine.

Weirdly all the the paragraphs James claims he accidentally copied were also edited to remove aspects of the Trans, Bi and Ace experiences that James markedly does not believe exist. Strange considering he accidentally copied them and assumed they were his own words? Imagine going back through a paragraph you think you wrote yesterday in the edit the next day and finding swarths of things you don't agree with there?!

Why am I telling you all this? Well because I wanted to put my two cents in as a creator with this condition, partly because I felt it was somewhat of an attack on us!? He's put it out there that ADHD creators are liable to steal from others and that's not ok by me. Also I just really like the sound of my own typing!

TL;DR : James Sommerton is a suck ass liar and he doesn't get to use his disability as an excuse for what he did! and...

****** ADHD DOES NOT MAKE YOU STEAL SHIT!!! ******

Also watch Todd's Vid, everyone saw the Hbomberguy one but this one goes deeper:

[the-kr8tor]

Hi I'm Katy and this is my blog! I'm 20+ yrs old, she/her. I mainly write fluff, hurt/comfort and angst, all SFW.

AO3- the_kr8tor

Pinterest- thekr8tor

K0fi- thekr8tor

Requests are currently -CLOSED-

Request rules

*I don't consent to having my work translated/ published on other platforms and copy/pasted into any AI software*

Feel free to chat with me! My ask box is always open! (You can also talk to me through comments and reblogs!) If you want to remain anonymous, you can use emojis so I can Identify you ❤️

I don't do tag lists, sorry!

Reblog banner by @cafekitsune

Please consider reblogging my work, it encourages me to write more and helps put my work out there ❤️

Main Masterlist

Hobie Brown Masterlist

TASM Peter Parker Masterlist

Choose your fighter- current wips

Spotify playlists

This blog is a safe space, Do not interact if you're Transphobic, Homophobic, Racist, Sexist, Ableist etc. I will not tolerate hate here.

[theelf-art]

How I color manga panels: a tutorial

I'm no expert at doing recolors, I'm simply an artist who's occasionally too lazy to do my own lineart, and uses that of my favorite mangaka's so I can focus on other styles to simply have fun with my colors. I always try and choose panels or pages that are high quality, to avoid too much pixelization. Often I end up sourcing these from scanners or google images.

As far as programs, I use Krita (a free software). This all can be done with the standard brushes and tools that come with the software. But for some of the coloring, I have brushes from brush packs i like to use, as well as a few brushes I have customized myself. The main ones I use are from David Revoy, so if you want a recommendation for a great free brush pack, that's mine.

For this example I'll be using this panel from Chapter 58 of Moriarty the Patriot (I believe this would be Volume 15 of the manga) that I posted earlier here.

I'm not including the step where I crop the image, but I personally chose to remove some of the white borders that are needed for a traditional volume's page borders. Since I'm doing digital art, I don't always include them.

My next step is always to outline and fill the individual base layers. This includes the speech bubbles, each character, any independent props, the panels themselves and the backgrounds. There's no correct way to do this, but personally I use a brush to outline the object, then fill tool to well. Fill it, as well as the rectangle tool for the panels or straight lines I need to do.

For layers, I usually put all of these color base layers in a single group that's set to multiply, and change the opacity of the base panel so that I can fill the blacked out areas with a solid color easily, here you can see I was working with the base panel at 50%, but honestly i just kind of turn it down to whatever I think looks good.

The colors I use for this step are usually brightly saturated rainbow colors so it's easy to tell the different elements apart from each other. So you end up with something that ends up looking rather horrific like this:

From here, I usually create a copy of the base panel to put over the top of the colors. This way I can have transparency for the colors on some of the blacked out parts, but don't loose some of the nuance of the shading entirely. Moriarty the Patriot is a very black heavy cell style, which is the style I find the "panel above, panel below" method works best on. However as I work on the colors, I tend to toggle between having it on or off.

It's about here where I start doing my coloring. Of course this will depend on your coloring style and art habits, however personally, I like to start with the characters. I use those colored layers as the base layer I can clip my coloring layers to.

I will often turn off the layers that I'm not currently using so I don't have to deal with eyestrain, and will change the base layer to something more suitable (often a grey or light tan) so my color theory doesn't get all messed up. The bright colors in previous steps are to make sure they're visually separate. Now they've been established, I don't have to worry about that.

I don't usually label my layers, but for the sake of the tutorial I have to make it clearer which layer grouping is which.

I find in this step because of the multiply layer the colors can be a bit washed out, so I tend to either use much more saturated colors than I usually do, or switch to another layer style like Linear Burn of the overall color group to make the colors pop more. Ultimately though this comes down to personal preference. If your coloring style is very de-saturated, you might not have any problems with it. (I do suggest making your base color white, so the coloring of the base panel isn't off, you'll see in the screenshots above I forgot to when working on Sherlock. Ignore my mistake)

For the parts of the image where it's primarily blacked out (such as Sherlock's hair or coat) I don't bother shading at all, and only do the highlighting, as the black takes care of the darkest tones anyways.

During my coloring, I also add a separate grouping above everything for adding rendering and details above the panels. This includes things like the eye highlights (which I always do in pure #000000 white) and making certain parts of the heavily blacked out areas pop more.

(those refs and paint layer 13 are what I'm using to color pick off of, and keep the shading colors consistent throughout the piece. There's probably a better way to do it, but I just paste them directly into the image and then delete them at the end, paint layer 43 is a color dodge layer, and so has to be outside of the layer grouping to work)

Comparison of the art without:

And with the top details and white highlights:

It's a pretty subtle difference, but I find it's the little things that truly make the piece. Especially with the strands going over the face, they need just a bit more to make them really pop. I also just really like my fancy eyes which is hard to do without the top layer.

Insert several hours of coloring here, and about another hour just trying to figure out what gradient to use for the background, and you end up with the the base colors. From here I usually mess with overlay layers as well to get the colors to all look fancy and nice together without having to do color theory (pro tip /lh).

I forgot to grab screenshots while doing the background, but for the top panel I essentially just used the [deevad 5c screentones] brush and a transparency mask to add a screentone gradient, and totally didn't google "splatter overlay" or something like that and picked something off of google, and added some borders.

Because both the base manga panel and manga panel over the top are both not at full opacity, if there is text in the page or panel (such as this one) I like to copy the just the text part of the panel and add it as full opacity in the "colors" folder to make sure it's legible and matches up the rest of the colors.

And after all that, its basically done. I'll sometimes continue to mess around with certain aspects to make sure I like how it look, but that's essentially it. This is when I add my signature, and then it's queued to post!

[peacefulpianist]

Hi there! Welcome to my masterlist. Each piece has its individual warnings at the top, above the read more cut, most pieces are 18+ so far.

My AO3

Thing I can't believe I have to say already:

1) Do NOT post my work on other sites please (the only places I post them are here and AO3, both under the same name),

2) I absolutely do NOT give my permission for any of my work to be fed to any form of AI/chatbot software etc. Please don't do this.

Now that's over with, enjoy!

The Green Dress:

Part One w/c: 4.2k

When Stark invites you last minute to one of his infamous parties, you've not got many options on hand to wear until Nat suggests you wear the green dress you had bought months ago. Perhaps it will be enough to inspire a certain god to finally make his move.

Part Two w/c: 2.3k

The smutty end to your night together. 18+

Quarantined:

Quarantined w/c: 4.8k

After an intel mission on a new neurotoxin that hydra may have, you and Loki are forced to quarantine together when it's discovered you may have encountered a new virus. 18+

Not Fair:

Not Fair

Loki overhears you complaining about the inadequacies of your latest lover to Nat and Wanda one night, and decides it's time for him to show you how they do it in Asgard. Inspired by the Lily Allen song 'Not fair' after rediscovering it the other day after a conversation with a friend. 18+

Sculpt me like one of your French girls:

Sculpt me like one of your French girls

Your friend Lena has brought you along to one of her pottery classes, convinced that the teacher is your perfect man. She's not wrong. 18+

Honey, are you coming?:

Honey, are you coming?

You find yourself thinking back on the night you and Loki got together for the first time, the teasing, the flirting, the dancing and of course the fucking...

Loosely based of the Maneskin song 'Honey, are you coming', I'd recommend listening to it as you read if you feel like it. 18+

I'm currently open to taking requests, but reserve the right to turn any down if I don't feel comfortable writing it :)

Reblogs and comments are HUGELY appreciated, and I welcome any thirst over our favourite god and actor.

I'm open to any constructive criticism of my writing as I'm still new to it and have much to learn, just as long as it truly is constructive.

If you wish to be added or removed from my tag list please let me know, as always there will be no hard feelings or questions asked 🥰

(also please let me know if any of the links don't work, I'm still new to the creating posts side of Tumblr)

-Peacefulpianist x

[olderthannetfic]

With all this talk about AI, the one perspective that appears missing from the discussion is that of someone who actually uses AI writing tools in production of their fanfic. So here I am, stepping in to provide my (anonymous) two cents.

I've been using a generative AI program especially made for creative writers for several months now. Initially, I had a lot of the same reservations I'm hearing form others, but I was curious about the tech and wanted to try it for myself. I quickly discovered that it's insanely useful, and I truly believe it has improved my writing. 

I also believe these tools will become commonplace among creative writers in the near future. In fact, I've heard that generative AI is coming to a writing software near you (MS Word to be exact), and I suspect that that once more people have actually tried it, use of AI will begin to seem no more remarkable than the use of spelling or grammar checkers does now. 

In the meantime, as you can see, I am staying anon, and there is absolutely no way I would tag my fanfic as AI assisted given the current environment. People are very quick to make assumptions about what a statement like that means, and are all too hasty in reaching for their pitchforks.

As far as I can tell, the main concern seems to be that Ao3 will be flooded with 'bad' fanfic as a result of AI use. But 'bad' fanfic has been a thing for as long as I've been in fandom (decades, at this point), and in my experience, human beings are perfectly capable of writing poorly without any help from machines. Readers are, as always, advised to curate their own reading experience. The 'back' button works the same as it always did, and someone's possible use of AI changes nothing about that. 

But the general assumption that AI input automatically leads to 'bad' writing seems rather short-sighted. Yes, obviously if someone were to go to ChatGPT and tell it to write them a fanfic in 'x' fandon about 'x' pairing, the output would be bland, generic and probably a bit rambling. AIs are not great storytellers; they can't maintain narrative logic. 

If this hypothetical person then copy-pasted the unedited output directly onto Ao3 and called it a story, the result would most likely qualify as 'bad' fanfic. Whether it would be worse than a story the same person might have written on their own is debatable. Our hypothetical protagonist obviously decided that the output was good enough as it was, and chose to post it without bothering to edit, which suggests (at least to me) that they would have similar standards about a story they'd written without an AI.

Since the above seems to be the scenario everyone has in mind when talking about "AI fic," I would like to point out that what I just described is not the only way to use AI in one's writing. My own use is more akin to using an online thesaurus; a very powerful thesaurus that can make suggestions for things like phrasings, descriptions, dialogue, and so on. The key there is that it makes suggestions. 

My AI assistant is smart enough to 'read' the scene I'm working on and tailor its suggestions to the mood, style and context of what I'm writing. But it's still my story. The AI doesn't write it for me. I'm the one who sifts through those suggestions, takes the bits that work, and shapes them into useful text. Sometimes the AI comes up with amazing things. I wasn't kidding when I said it's improved my writing - and my rewriting. It knocks me out of those mental ruts we writers tend to get into, coming up with descriptions and turns of phrase that I wouldn't have thought of on my own. 

But it's still just a tool, and at the end of the day, I'm still the writer. The words that end up on the page do so because I chose them. Those writerly choices are what make the story mine, regardless of where the words might have originated from. And whether they came from my brain or the AI, they are still subject to the same standards of rewriting, editing and proofing.

So no, I don't think I'm going to be tagging my fic with an AI disclosure statement any time soon. Not until the current moral panic dies down to the point where people don't read that and automatically assume it means 'copy-pasted from ChatGPT.' And for anyone who's curious about AI... I suggest you try it for yourself. Play around a little and find out what it's about before making judgments. I think you'll find it's a tool like any other - and just like any tool, it can be used well or it can be used badly. That's entirely in the hands of the human being using it - which is one thing that hasn't changed, and never should.

--

Yeah, I fail to see any major issue with more sucky fanfic getting posted. That's just the default for big fic archives.

The actual problem problems we're seeing are with paid markets with open submissions that get flooded beyond what staff can handle and big corporations replacing humans they already try not to pay.

The main potential issue I see with other uses of AI is that it may end up with samey suggestions, but it's hard to know how much that's 1. a thing and 2. an actual issue when writing genre stuff that often sounds samey on purpose and where that's a desirable characteristic.

[wosomarvel]

communication - 02

warnings: light angst (idk if this counts as angst or not)

also, i'm so happy vilda is finally out, even if it is disappointing that it took so long. next, rubiales.

contigo jenni

-----

in the few months since sim had started at her new job, she was surprised at how well she'd been able to settle in. she'd gotten her new office set up with the necessary computers and camera equipment. she'd spent a lot of her down time roaming the facility when the girls weren't around. the young girl had filmed enough content to put up several posts on the lionesses' official social media accounts.

so far, the engagement was increasing compared to the content published before her arrival. sim knew better than to take her foot off the pedal, though. her drive to be good enough, to succeed, to be wanted would never let her rest.

that's how she found herself hunched over her laptop in her flat, empty coffee cups littering the desk. the sound of cars passing by outside the flat served as a tempting lullaby. sim's eyes stayed shut a little longer each time she blinked.

she was working on a short video for the lionesses' youtube page, clipping together pictures, short segments of video, and interview-like questions she'd asked the team during the most recent camp.

sim had had a great deal of fun at camp. she'd stayed in the same hotel as the team, which allowed her to catch some golden moments off the pitch that otherwise wouldn't be made public.

over the course of the week and a half she'd spent with the girls, she'd also found herself falling into an easy banter with most of them. she'd become fast friends with ella and alessia, the girls doing their best to bring sim out of her shell. leah had taken more of a watchful role, ensuring the young girl was finding everything okay.

as for the rest of the team, sim found a comfortable balance between friends and coworkers. she was alright with the more professional role she inhabited with them, content to observe and capture their interactions and movements through a lens.

even though it had only been a couple of months at the new job, it made sim uneasy how easy it was to fall into a rhythm with the team. she didn't want to be too much for anyone. she was constantly worrying about overstepping boundaries, or being too annoying. despite the multiple invites to go grab coffee with alessia and some of the other arsenal players since the end of camp, sim found it hard to believe that the girls really enjoyed her company that much.

the sound of her phone buzzing snapped sim out of her trance. she rubbed her eyes, reading over the text she had just received from alessia.

leah, beth and i are grabbing coffee after training later. want to join?

sim sighed, running a hand through the mess of curls on her head. she was reluctant to agree. she wanted to finish her current project and have the video published by wednesday morning. sim's back straightened when she realized that was now tomorrow morning.

another buzz from her phone.

leah says you don't have a choice. we'll pick you up at 3:30 (:

sim's eyebrows furrowed at the small smiley face tacked on to the end of the message, her grip on her phone slackening. she was reluctant to agree to the girl's demands, the self-imposed deadline looming dark.

she scratched at the skin just behind her ear, a nervous habit she'd picked up who knows when. she shot off a simple 'ok' to alessia, knowing her friend was too stubborn to relent. sim set the device down, turning her attention back to the editing software open on her laptop.

4:39 am. sim considered grabbing an energy drink and powering through the assignment in front of her, in the end, deciding against it. if she pushed herself any further, she'd be dead on her feet when she met less and the girls for coffee later.

sim set her computer down beside the bed, finally allowing herself to surrender to sleep for the first time in almost 48 hours.

-----

they were late. very late.

sim was leaning against the cold concrete pillar outside her building, the surface reminding her of the sides of a swimming pool. she might as well be in one, with how hard it was raining.

she glanced at the time blinking on her watch. 4:09 pm. she sighed. she'd only ended up sleeping for 5 hours. she'd woken up to thoughts of the stupid youtube video she was supposed to have uploaded. it seemed as though her brain would not let her catch a break. she couldn't escape her anxiety, even in her sleep.

"oh my gosh, i'm so sorry we're late. we were reviewing film after training and breaking down the next match-"

"less, it's okay." sim cut off the rambling of the forward, allowing herself to be guided into the backseat of the sedan that had just pulled up, with leah driving and beth occupying the front passenger seat.

sim sank into the black leather seats, grateful for the warmth the car provided., setting her crutch sideways on her lap. she watched the city move by through the window, running her fingers over the stitching on the seats. she was still new to the city, not quite acquainted with the packed streets of london. she'd moved down here for her new job with the lionesses.

sim was secretly grateful for the number of women's football teams based in london. despite the size of the city, it was nice that so many of the lionesses played here. it made the weight of the loneliness she felt ease a bit.

"what's your order, then?" asked leah as they stepped into the small coffee shop.

"oh, i'll just order mine separately."

"that's nonsense. i invited you out, i pay," leah asserted. sim let out a long exhale, knowing she wasn't going to be allowed to pay for her own.

"i'll just do an iced coffee with two creams and two sugars. but i've got next," sim replied.

accepting money from others had always made sim feel uncomfortable. it was something that had been drilled into her head growing up, a fundamental piece of punjabi culture. never accept money from others, and always offer to pay. sim decided to forgo the last part. the move to london had almost bankrupted her and while her new wages were certainly a nice increase from the waitressing job she'd worked previously, her bank account wasn't exactly thriving.

"what were you doing up so early this morning?" alessia asked as they settled into a corner booth.

sim raised an eyebrow at the question. "i could ask you the same thing."

"i had an early night and got up early for a run with the team. you still haven't answered my question."

"yeah, at least we know less is sleeping. you on the other hand... you've looked better, i'll leave it at that," beth added with a chuckle.

"thanks, beth, you really know how to make a girl smile," sim said, a smile taking over her face.

"alright, seriously, answer the question now. enough stalling." sim could see the gentle concern behind the smile on leah's face.

she didn't know why leah was so worried. she knew that maybe her sleeping habits were less than healthy, but she couldn't understand why leah cared. they'd known each other for barely three months. that hadn't stopped the defender from taking on a sibling type role in sim's life, though.

she shrugged, sipping on the coffee before setting it back down on the table. "just working on this new video for the youtube. i've gotta have it up by tomorrow morning." sim kept her focus on the surface of the table, and the way the condensation from her cup was pooling around the edge.

eye contact had never been something that came easy to sim.

alessia's eyebrows furrowed. "so you decided you'd pull another all-nighter to get it done?"

"technically, it wasn't an all-nighter because after i got your text, i went to bed," sim mumbled, swirling the ice around her cup. she used the sleeve of her sweater to wipe at the pool of water on the table.

leah frowned. "what do you mean, another all-nighter?"

sim groaned. leah was like an annoying, overbearing parent. she was only 5 years older than sim, which only frustrated the girl even more.

"sim, i know you're worried about keeping the job, but running yourself into the ground won't do you any favors. i've heard some of the higher-ups talking, and they're already impressed. it sounds like we've already got some new sponsorships coming through. take care of yourself, alright? ease up."

sim looked up to meet leah's eyes. she saw the worry reflected in the tightness of leah's eyebrows, the way her eyes roved over her own face, taking in the bags under sim's eyes and then down to the hunch of her shoulders.

"we've got tomorrow off as a rest day. why don't you come by my place? i'm having some of the girls come around for a movie marathon," alessia offered.

a smile graced sim's face. she ignored the way her heart leaped at the chance to spend time with alessia, labelling it as friendly excitement.

"i'll be there."

"you're a good kid, sim. you work hard, but remember to rest sometimes too," beth said softly, putting an arm around sim's shoulder and squeezing gently.

sim allowed herself to lean into the comfort. she was exhausted. and technically, she reminded herself, the video didn't actually have to be up until saturday. as much as she wanted it up early to impress her superiors, she knew the girls were right.

sim let herself enjoy the rest of the afternoon with her friends, joining in on the laughter and jokes, letting herself get carried away in conversation. it didn't hurt that at some point, alessia had reached across the table and taken sim's hands in her own, playing with her fingers as the day progressed.

sim missed the knowing looks leah and beth exchanged after glancing down at hers and alessia's hands.

-----

"are you going to introduce us to your girl or what?" the voice of one kim little rang out as everyone got settled onto the sofas in alessia's living room.

a red flush took over sim's face. sim had been ignoring the way alessia made her feel when they were inhabiting the same space.

she found herself naturally drawn to alessia's blonde hair and blue eyes, to the way her eyes crinkled when she smiled, to her eyelashes and her smile and the soft skin of her hands and the warm embrace of her body. she made sim feel safe and free from judgement.

sim ignored the feeling of warmth she experienced at even the slightest touch from the footballer. she ignored the feeling of satisfaction whenever she managed to make alessia laugh. she brushed all those feelings aside, pushed them down until they were nothing more than a quiet voice at the back of her mind. after all, they'd only known each other a few months and there was no way alessia russo would reciprocate. she was way out of sim's league.

"she's not my girl, but fine. guys, this is sim, she works in media for the national team. she's also a dear friend, so be nice." sim knew her blush would only have gotten worse with the arm alessia had slung over her shoulder. she was grateful that the lights were already dimmed in preparation for the movie marathon, or she would have to deal with relentless teasing from leah and beth. knowing them, they would've roped in lotte as well.

sim waved shyly to the room. most of the team, she'd never met. she'd met lina in passing once at london colney when alessia had asked for a ride after training. the short-haired girl had simply waved at the two before getting into her own car and driving away.

"well, sim, don't just stand there. come make yourself comfortable," leah teased. "and don't worry," she addressed the rest of the team, "once she gets comfortable she's not nearly as quiet."

sim moved to take the open spot next to leah on the ground, leaning against the couch, alessia settling in on her other side.

by the end of the first movie, sim was trying and failing to keep from falling asleep. even worse, every time she nodded off, her head ended up resting on alessia's shoulder.

the 6th time it happened, alessia had had enough. she wrapped her arm around sim's body and pulled her closer, tugging the blanket they were sharing up to cover their shoulders.

sim relaxed slightly, appreciating the warmth surrounding her. if she'd been more alert, she would've had the sense to feel embarrassed. instead, the next time she nodded off, she stayed sleeping.

alessia stilled, not daring to move a muscle in case it woke the younger girl up.

"let her sleep," leah whispered softly. "she's earned it."

alessia nodded in agreement. she brought a hand up to sim's curly hair, carding her hands through in an attempt to keep her sleeping.

while the two shared this peaceful moment, beth leaned off of the couch above them, stretching to grab a photo before sending it to the lioness's group chat.

alessia glanced at the notification on her phone but couldn't bring herself to care for the remarks the rest of her national teammates had already starting making. not with sim's warm body curled up against hers under the blanket. she only hoped the teasing wouldn't scare her away.

alessia was determined to bring sim out of her shell, to find out why the younger girl was trying so hard to keep the team at such a distance.

the team had taken a liking to sim, immediately accepting her as a part of the family. they'd never done so with a member of staff before, but they couldn't help enjoying the time sim spent with them. she did her job with such care and respect for their privacy that they'd wanted to look out for her even without their coach's request.

sim made sure to get their approval before posting something online, wanting to make sure she wasn't crossing boundaries or sharing information that the girls weren't comfortable with having public. she reminded them to rest and recover properly. she never asked questions that made the team uncomfortable. she was so easy to work with and the team had taken her in without hesitation, wanting to return the kindness she was so intent on showing to them.

they would let sim fall asleep on their shoulders any time, anywhere, if it meant the girl got some rest.

leah smiled softly as she watched alessia press a gentle kiss to sim's hair before quietly asking the rest of the team what movie they should play next. the gunners took care to make sure they wouldn't wake anyone up.

sim didn't know it, but she'd found herself a family.