#it's all for Her (the dropdown menu)

[garden-ghoul]

oh yeah I kept getting distracted and forgetting to post it but I've finally achieved my dream of many years: when confronted with a dropdown menu for honorifics I can choose "dr" instead of a gendered address 👍

[iwillmissourtalks]

SEARCHING AO3: A (SLIGHTLY) MORE ADVANCED GUIDE

Disclaimer: This is very very geared towards finding fics about a particular character rather than a pairing. My favourite guys tend to be popular-ish women that appear in a lot of fics but only as supporting characters so I’ve had to become v good at combing for things that actually centre them <3

For this guide we’re gonna use my current hyperfixation: Mel Medarda & see what we can find lol

1. Use the tag filter system as your default! It’s superior in every way to the normal search except for the “any field” section which can be pretty useful but unless you’re using it for SPECIFICALLY THAT, don’t bother.

You can access the tag filter by clicking on any common tag (we’re gonna use “Mel Medarda”) and then hitting filters.

This thing is SO useful! Poke about in the dropdown menus; each of them will have the top 10 associated tags for that category. For example the top additional tags for Mel are Angst; Slow Burn and Fluff because,,, well. yk

+ it shows the number of fics with those tags under the “main” tag of Mel Medarda!

2. Keep an eye out for character specific tags! Now that we’re definitely using the tag filtering system we can start actually filtering through those tags <3

Most characters will have common but specific tags that both name them and imply something about their arc in the fic. A frequent example is something like “X character needs a hug”, or more obviously: “X character centric”.

These are my go-to tags for Mel! Most characters will have a variation of this set + some others (“BAMF character name” is also a pretty common one in older fandoms) and any one of these (INDIVIDUALLY, at most filtered in sets of 2) will lead to a few hundred results. It’s not 100% flawless because a lot of authors over-tag, but a solid 80% of the fics under these tags will at least heavily feature the character you’re looking for.

3. Filter by summary!!

At the bottom of the tag filters there’s a section called search within results. This is your Best Friend.

summary: “_”

^ for easy copy/paste

What this script will do is search for whatever you put in the quotation marks and then only give you fics with that thing in the description. I like to use it for character names but it also does a pretty good job filtering for tropes — try using it for vampires lol

Doing this with Mel narrows down her character tag from 7000+ to just under one and a half thousand fics, all of which at the very least include her name in the description.

4. RAREPAIRS ARE YOUR FRIEND! Canon but only semi-popular ships are infinitely more likely to get tagged in the background than say, for example — melvik (nobody is writing background melvik). This tip only works if you’re willing to multiship for more content of your guy but it is very effective.

5. Related to tip 4: Search by otp! If you’re locked in on a particular pairing that’s more popular, you can search for fics that ONLY include that ship.

otp:true

^ for easy copy/paste (again)

This is super useful and also the main reason I don’t tag side pairings in my own fics! Also remember to use this script with ship tag rather than just a character one — otherwise it won’t work.

6. Parent tags exist! This is less of a strategy and requires more trail & error, but lots of tags filter into each other. For another Mel-related example, filtering by the Only Meljay tag would also being up fics tagged with Jayce/Mel Medarda-centric — despite (potentially) not having the original tag you filtered by. This is because Jayce/Mel Medarda-centric is the Parent of the original tag, meaning ao3 has deemed the two tags related enough to appear in each other’s search results.

This is something done manually by ao3 staff so the consistency of parent tags are a little weird sometimes.

More practically, this is an interaction to keep in mind when blocking tags. If for example you were to exclude “Torture” from your search, ao3 would also automatically exclude —

Implied/Referenced Torture

Physiological Torture

Aftermath of Torture

And probably many more.

Even if the broad category of torture isn’t tagged in a fic, the specific referenced type of torture counts — to ao3 — as a tag of torture by itself.

Interestingly, the “sub-categories” of tag don’t feed into each other this way. You can block Physiological Torture and still see fics tagged with Implied/Referenced Torture or Aftermath of Torture.

Knowing this is useful in the sense that the more specific you get with a blocked tag, the less likely you are to accidentally filter out something you would actually be fine with (or inversely blocking a general category you HATE means you don’t have to obsessively filter out every possible iteration of that thing you don’t like).

You can tell tag is a Parent Category by searching for a Sub Category and blocking what you think is the Parent. This will result in 0 results.

Implied/Referenced Torture tag after blocking the Torture tag.

Each of these strategies are things to be done in waves or in combination with one another. Casting a wide net and then narrowing it down is really important, too many tags and you end up with no results.

Ao3 has an INCREDIBLY robust set of archival tools. It’s an amazing site and if a fic exists and you know what you’re doing, you should always be able to find it.

Happy reading <3

[amazinglyashy]

I Think You'll Be Okay

Read on Ao3 Pairings: Rafayel x Reader Summary: You find yourself face to face with an old flame. Your heart pounding loud enough for you to hear it, but your feet refusing to move, refusing to get you to safety. That's alright though. Safety comes to you. Or You meet up with your abusive ex-boyfriend again when waiting for the train. Luckily for you, someone else decided to take the train today. Tags: Past Domestic Violence, Past Abuse, Past Sexual Abuse, Protectiveness, Rescue, Hurt/Comfort Wordcount: 6,107

You fiddled in your pocket, trying to dig out your phone. You had shoved it there earlier when you had left work, on your way out in a rush, trying to leave before any more was put on you. That is, on top of what had already been dumped on you today, forcing you into overtime when you really just wanted to go home. You really didn’t want to be heading home any later than right now, with all of the creeps coming out soon to prey on young highschoolers hanging out in the city after classes, or single women like yourself getting off of work late. The time was already squarely at sundown, which meant you were making it out just in time.

The sun was setting to the left of the platform already, the golden haze casting an orange glow over everything it touched. It was a nice change, you admitted to yourself. Usually when you were leaving, the sky was still a misty shade of blue, the evening only just barely peppering the surroundings with its presence. The platform was also so much busier at that time, with crowds of people trying to shove themselves onto the train, filling every gap they could to shave just a few extra minutes off of their travel time rather than wait for one of the other coming trains. Last you had checked, you were one of very few standing on the platform- the only others being a small group of highschoolers chatting with each other a ways down to your right, and an elderly man dozing off on a bench near the stairs, leaning against his cane as he snored quietly. He didn’t seem like he was waiting for a train though, there being benches much closer to the boarding area that he wasn’t anywhere near, so you had decided to leave him be after you had noticed him initially. 

I’ll leave the waking him up to whoever he’s waiting on. You muse to yourself as you pull your phone from your pocket, unlocking it and giving your missed notifications a scroll. 

There were a few texts from Tara, asking about this coming weekend. She hadn’t sent too many, having seen the pile of work still sitting on your desk by the time of her own clocking out. You felt bad. You were working the next weekend, again, and you felt bad turning her down so often. You didn’t want her to feel as if you were avoiding her, or that you didn’t want to continue being friends, but you were just… busy. You sighed to yourself, deciding to shoot her a call later on tonight. You figured it would be easier to avoid her taking anything to heart if you spoke to her directly. 

You thumbed over the rest of your notifications, swiping away most. A few advertisements, some updates from your mobile games, some social media follows and suggestions, an email or two- nothing particularly eventful. It was almost like magic, though, as you were mulling over one of the emails you had gotten, a name with a heart next to it popped into your dropdown menu. Instinctively, you clicked it without even pausing to read the sample text. 

You couldn’t help it, as the messenger loaded. It was automatic at this point. Or at least, it felt automat-

“Oh hey! I know you-!”

Your head snapped up from your phone at the sound of a familiar voice, the hairs on the back of your neck standing boldly, a scatter of goosebumps forming across your skin. The elderly man hadn’t woken up, no one had come to meet him yet either. The highschoolers were still deep in conversation at the other end of the platform. None of them had spoken to you, and none of them had seemed anywhere near as recognizable as that voice was. 

You glanced over to your left, where your eyes fell on a man who was waving, his hand comically high in the air, as he quickly made his way directly towards you. 

Your feet turned to stone. 

The breath in your throat hitched, and you didn’t even realize you weren’t breathing anymore. 

Why?

Why was he here?

Why was he in front of you?

Why was he approaching you?

How had he found you?

Why was he-

He had closed the distance between you before you had even processed him approaching you fully, you freezing up making it easy for him to pull you into a hug that made you feel like a thousand ants were crawling across your skin. Your shock and disbelief had taken over, overriding any thought in your mind that was telling you to run . You weren’t even sure you would have been able to listen to it even if your feet weren’t frozen. The pounding of your heart had become loud enough to drown out any coherent thought you could have come up with.

He squeezed you, and you wanted to slip down into the ground so desperately. 

You were in danger. You were in danger. You were in danger. 

You were a Hunter, you were proficient in hand to hand combat, a decent marksman, and pretty good swordsman. You’d killed countless Wanderers, and come and gone from the N109 zone with barely a scratch on you after your countless visits. You were fully capable of protecting yourself from anyone and anything, and if you didn’t seem like you could, you would manage. 

But you couldn’t protect yourself from him. 

You couldn’t take back what he had taken from you. You couldn’t stop as your mind was slowly regressing backwards, back to where it had been.

Back to the memories. 

He pulled away, but the respite was shorter than a breath, as the train approached the platform. It felt like time was moving in slow motion. His smile, the people deboarding, the lack of people entering the car that he was pulling you into- Something about going the same way? - his hand gripping the upper part of your arm. But it wasn’t gentle. It never was. It never was. It never was. 

“What have you been up to? Is that a name card from the Hunter’s Association?” He asked, his tone cheerful as you felt your heart dropping through the very rails the train was sitting on. He sounded so friendly, but you knew he wasn’t being friendly. He wasn’t asking you a question, he was making a statement. 

He was saying ‘ I found you~ ♪ ’.

“I-...” You take a small gasp of air, finally processing how little you had been breathing up until the point. He flashed you a little smirk, his hair falling across his eye as he tilted his head at you. Had his hair always looked like that? You didn’t know. You didn’t care. You couldn’t-... remember. 

God, you couldn’t remember a lot of back then. 

It was horrible.

It was scary.

Why was he still gripping your arm…?

It hurt. 

It made other spots hurt, echoing with pain you had forgotten- no, not forgotten about. Pushed away. Tried to not remember. But still, ghost feelings that would sneak into your mind whenever something made you flinch, whenever someone tried to give you an over-enthusiastic high five, whenever you were trying to please yourself alone in bed, whenever someone raised their voice- be it out of happiness or anger, it really didn’t matter. The anxiety would pound into your chest like breaking a door down, like breaking you down until you were tiny little pieces strewn out across the floor, sobbing alone to yourself because no one else could help you. You were alone. This was your cross to bear. You had gotten yourself into this mess, it was up to you to get through this. It was up to you to get yourself out of this. 

“Wipe that shitty fucking expression off your face, you’re making people think I’m doing something wrong.” 

His voice was dangerously low, and sinisterly similar to how he used to speak to you. It was nice to see that nothing had changed, so much longer later. That the same circumstances that led to the bloodied sheets strewn out across the bed and floor were happening again. That the same knuckles that had made forceful contact with the high of your cheekbone were gripping so tightly, they were turning white across the top of your upper arm. You pressed your lips into a thin line, trying to appear as neutral as possible, as the only other patron in the train car with the two of you- tucked back in the corner but raising an eyebrow at the situation, nonetheless- watched. 

He gave you a small shake, and you let the corners of your mouth turn upward in a smile that didn’t reach your eyes. You were just two old flames meeting again, goofing around. Reignited that old flame once more. 

But to you, that flame was a bomb. And it was going to go off the second you were alone with him. 

There hadn’t been any closure when you had left, there couldn’t have been. You could have left with bags secretly packed without so much as a goodbye thrown into his messages while he was at work, or you could have spent three hours talking to him trying to get through to him one final time. But it wouldn’t have mattered. Men like him, were men like him for a reason. They didn’t change, they didn’t find what they were doing as something wrong , and they never would. At least, that’s what everyone had told you. That’s what you had learned at the end. But standing here as the train rocketed towards another new location for him to find out about, you were finding it harder and harder to remember everything you had taught yourself just to get away from him. 

“Are you going to be ungrateful again? Going to run away because you think for some reason you can get better, despite being some fucking whore who runs her mouth? With a bodycount?” He practically spat the words at your face, turning to face you and keeping his back towards the other patron, who had closed their eyes with their head resting back against the seat, waiting for their stop and avoiding getting involved. 

“After everything I’ve done for you, you can’t offer me even the littlest bit of appreciation that you didn’t want to show me back then? I thought you had changed. That you were different.” 

You let out a deep breath, trying to keep your mind steady, but it was hard. You’d gotten used to the word disassociate ever since you’d learned about it. You’d slip into dissociation even on your best days, at random. Talking to Tara, riding your bike, fighting Wanderers, avoiding Luke and Kieran’s pranks- it didn’t matter. It just… happened. And it came on worse when you were reminded of things that had traumatized you. Or were faced with the very things that had caused that trauma- as you were finding out right now. 

He reached up, grabbing your other arm into his other hand, the grip matching the vice-like pressure of the first one that still held you. “You listen to me, you little bitch. I still fucking own you. I don’t give a shit if you’re living in some fantasy land where you think you’re moving on, but you will never find anything as good as me.” He hissed. “Not for what you’re worth. I treated you so well, and you think you can keep treating me and people like shit? Fuck off.” 

He gave your arms a yank to emphasize his words. You just stared straight at his chest, stumbling slightly as the train stopped at the next station, but his grip kept you relatively upright. The time between now and the last stop wasn’t anything you could remember clearly, and you could already feel your mind slipping from your body slowly. You couldn’t stop it. You didn’t want to. It was something you couldn’t explain, but it acted like a muffled fast-forward button on situations like this. You couldn’t say you liked it, but you liked it more than being present for what your ex had to say.

But it was horrible, because no sooner did you start to slip away, did the doors to the train open, and the only bystander that had been seated in the corner left. Whether this was their stop, or they wanted to avoid the situation, you didn’t know. You didn’t care. In your heart though, you knew that was just how it went. You’d be lucky if they called the police, but wouldn’t do anything. There was no proof of anything happening. You didn’t have any. 

You knew he was right.

But then why did it feel like electricity when someone boarded the train? You knew the footsteps without being able to place a name, and the sheer presence was something you sensed without knowing what form it took. 

“Cobalt blue, but maybe phthalo… Oh, Miss Bodyguard. Didn’t think I’d see you tod- Mm?” 

Your heart dropped further than it had at the station when you had first gotten approached.  

No.

Why was Rafayel here?

His comment was cut short, ending in a small hum as he came into your view. You could see a cloud cross his expression as he took in the situation in front of him. You were still doing your best to seem relaxed, and had tried to add a smile as soon as you had realized Rafayel was here, but it didn’t seem like it was working. You wanted so badly to be sick to your stomach, but you also knew if you were, it would only make your ex lose his mind completely. 

“H-Hey, Rafayel, how are you?”

“Do you know him?”

The question was asked by two separate men at the exact same time. One was nearly whispered, the tone borderline violent. The other was gentle, devoid of its usual bratty aftercomment. You just paused, before nodding your head as slowly as you could. 

Fuck, it was so easy to keep your ex under control when it was just you. You hadn’t managed him in front of others in forever, and you had forgotten how to make other people let you handle things. Usually it was as simple as a look. No one wanted to get caught up in the middle of a lover’s quarrel, and were quick to leave. But the doors had already closed behind Rafayel, and his expression was telling you that he was already planning on getting more than involved. 

“Yes!- Yes. Yes, I know him…” You stammered, looking between the two of them, your ex robotically releasing his grip in favor of moving to put his arm across your shoulders. You had to swallow the bile in your throat, but you didn’t move away from him, his expression stormy, while Rafayel’s remained concerned, but fairly unaffected. 

“Rafayel’s an… employer of mine.” You continued, gesturing towards him as he gave the two of you a nod, a small smile flashing in addition. “And Rafayel, this is my-” 

“Boyfriend.” 

You swallowed. 

Rafayel’s eyes narrowed, but he kept smiling. 

“That’s really funny, she’s told me she’s single. Several times actually, whenever I've bugged her about it.” 

You can feel the blood in your veins freeze over. 

No.

You can’t even bring yourself to look up at your ex. You knew what disagreeing with him did, and you knew what blatantly calling out his lies did. You’d experienced the consequences of doing either towards the earlier days of your relationship, before you had learned to follow everything he said. To do everything how he said it. 

And yet it was still not enough, most of the time. 

Rafayel smirked coldly. 

“So, buddy. Do you want to take your hands off of her?” He tilted his head slightly. “Or do I really need to help you?”

The arm across your shoulders felt heavier, until you could feel the pressure disappear. You want to breathe a sigh of relief, but the air gets caught in your lungs as a hand comes down between your shoulder blades at the top of your spine. You’re lurched forward, and Rafayel catches you as you stumble into his chest. “I don’t deal in bitches that can’t treat people with respect or kindness. You can have her.” Your ex spat, knowing that for whatever reason, this man before him wasn't going to fall for his usual tricks. Tricks? No, you thought as you stumbled. He thinks everything out of his own mouth is true, and anyone who disagrees is insane. 

You hadn’t even pulled back away from Rafayel before he had moved you quickly, but gently and carefully to the side, stepping forward as your stomach turned over. You spun around to grab at him, only succeeding in latching onto his arm. 

“Rafayel, stop. You’ll only make things worse.” You stammered as you gripped his arm. He pulled away quickly- but gently, despite his anger. 

“Worse how? Geez, you don’t know this man anymore. You shouldn’t be bothered by strangers on a train platform, and they should know not to approach single women.” 

He emphasized, staring straight at the other man as he did. As if warning him, with his usual snark still backing up his comments. Your ex glared at him. “I don’t know what you’re trying to imply, but I’ll bet you I’ve known her longer than you have. I know all her tricks.” 

“Time is relative.” Rafayel retorted back, taking another step towards him, which your ex matched. Your anxiety was pounding through the roof, and you were desperate to think of anything that could diffuse the situation as they both shot daggers at each other with their eyes. Your ex let out a small chuckle, the kind he would whenever things were about to hurt. The air was leaving your lungs again, but you felt Rafayel shift next to you, and you could feel the predatory behavior like static crossing the side of his arm through the thin linen of his shirt. He had moved, shifted just a step towards your ex, and spoke before you could process what he was doing.

“I’ve done this dance a million times with a million people like you, for less, don’t try me.” Rafayel’s voice was so low, it could barely be described as more than a whisper. It sent a surge of ice through your blood, despite it not being directed towards you. You slowly turned your head, raising it to look at him carefully. You could only see the side of his head, his height also blocking his full expression from you, but you could see just enough of his eyes to feel the cruelty in his gaze.

He wasn’t joking. 

This wasn’t like him.

What was going on?

You reached out to brush against his arm again, but you didn’t know what to do. 

The train lurched as Rafayel reached forward, towards your ex.  

No.

You couldn’t let this happen.

Not here. 

Not towards him.

Not from him .

Your body moved on its own, as you turned your body, the same time the train started to hit its brakes for the next stop. You lost your footing, but you couldn’t let that stop you. You couldn’t let that stop you from stopping Rafayel. The worst of it was the only thing stopping you from falling was the weight of your ex’s torso, the feeling of chills returning the second your body made contact with his again. 

“I-I-” You stuttered, your mouth feeling like it was full of cotton as you stumbled backward into your ex’s body. “No, please. I don’t- no.” 

Rafayel stared at you, his expression blank, before flashing through several different emotions you couldn’t quite make out. Surprise? Absolute fury? Betrayal? Whatever he cycled through, he landed on one you didn’t recognize.

You are now at East Garden station. Next station- West Garden. 

The doors slid open behind you, and a few people filed on as you broke your gaze with Rafayel and glanced over at them. At least there were witnesses. You knew your ex wouldn’t act out too badly in front of so many strangers, and Rafayel, while a little bit feral when it came to columnists and fans that would go too far, you had a pretty good idea that he would remain a lot more calm in the presence of people as well. You let out the breath you had been holding unwittingly. 

“Go.” 

He gave you a slight shove, and you almost tripped onto the platform. As you regained your balance, you processed two things at the same time. 

Rafayel wasn’t behind you. And- 

You could hear him still, his words seething with a poison you had never heard come from his mouth, from any action he had ever committed. 

“If I ever see you in her general vicinity ever again, I will destroy you until there is nothing, nothing , left.” He seethed. “I care about her. Whatever we are after that doesn’t matter. You won’t come back and destroy her peace ever again. You won’t have the chance to. Do I make myself clear ?” 

As you move to turn, to see what would happen next or to hear your ex’s response, you spin face first into Rafayel’s chest, his hands reaching up, placed firmly on your shoulders to turn you back around and continue forward. You try to keep up with his pace, but it’s hard. Despite your stumbling, he doesn’t stop. Not until the two of you are off of the platform and out on the vast sidewalk in the middle of the city. 

You blink, trying to garner your surroundings as some means of grounding yourself, as Rafayel pulls out his phone. His fingers fly, sending a text to someone. The golden hour had passed, and it was twilight out now. The next train wasn’t going to be for another twenty minutes, and the ride itself was more time on top of that. It looked like you weren’t going to be accomplishing your initial goal of getting home before the dark hit. That was too bad. 

It was really cold outside.

Maybe that was just you. 

You swallowed hard, trying to force a deep breath just as Rafayel looked up from his phone. He pocketed the device and moved to step towards you, but his movements were… awkward. Hesitant. He paused a step away from you, reaching up to rub the back of his neck. 

“I… I’m sorry. I-” He let his hand drop, both hanging loosely at his sides as he looked like he wanted to look anywhere except at you. He didn’t let it break his gaze, despite it. “...Geez, I’ve never experienced anything like that before. I didn’t know what to do, what I should do. What I-”

He stopped himself. Tilting his head, his expression shifting into one of concern. 

“More importantly, how are you?”

“I- what?”

“How are you feeling, seashell? What do you need?”

You blinked, and you tried to open your mouth to respond, but your breath hitched in your throat, the sound caught on the lump that had appeared in your throat as your eyes began to burn. Fuck, what? What was going on with you today? First, you’d gone back to everything you had ever been back with your ex, forgetting all of your progress- all of your healthy habits in favor of how he had always made you feel under his touch. Then, you’d been unable to keep Rafayel calm and relaxed despite your ex trying to start shit all over again. And even still, you hadn’t even gotten to go home on time, hell you didn’t even feel safe enough to go home anymore. 

“He-” You choked. Your voice was squeaking, why was your voice breaking so badly? “H-He… He knows- knows where I work now.”

Rafayel stared at you, but his expression was oh so gentle , and seeing that look in his eyes did something to you that made you feel so ugly . It was like the final crack in an old dam as you began to wail. You tried to muffle your sobs, reaching up to cover your face in your hands as the initial shock had finally started to wear away from the meeting, finally started to let the emotions pour in. And all the emotions were fear, fear, fear . 

You couldn’t do anything to stop it as the tears just kept coming, as the choked sounds from your throat as you needed to get the crying out, but find air in between at the same time. Your shoulders wracked with pain from the after effects of the grip your ex had had on you, surely purple and yellow bruises forming where his knuckles had turned white with power just moments ago. It was just going to be another grim reminder of your world coming down, all because of a stupid train ride. 

“Seashell.”

You tried as hard as possible to quiet down, to stop and listen to Rafayel to avoid making him angry. You felt like a kid. You wanted him to help you get to your home, or a hotel, or somewhere your ex didn’t know about. But if he was angry, that would be impossible. That would mean you would be left standing here on the sidewalk bawling like a child, until you managed to pull the effort together to handle it yourself, like you always had don-

“Tell me if you don’t like it, and I swear I’ll stop, but I’m going to hug you now.”

“Wh-”

The word had barely even formed in your mouth, your hands only managing to hover over your eyes as you tried to pull them away at his words, before strong arms had wrapped around you so suddenly. One hand was resting at the nape of your neck, pressing your head so delicately against his shoulder as he leaned down for you- as he leaned down into you. The other was wrapped around your waist, squeezing you against his body like it was everything to him just to have the chance to pull your pieces back together. And somehow, it was so much worse. It was everything, as you began to wail all over again. It was everything and so much more. His actions on the train, his expression when you had stopped him and protected your ex- none of that, none of your worries meant anything in the tightness of his embrace. 

It was like he was telling you everything without speaking, he was telling you it’s okay, it’s all going to be okay . Like he didn’t harbor any ill feelings towards you, that he didn’t hate you like you were hating yourself every single second leading up until this moment. And coming from Rafayel, that was everything, everything, everything. 

“Geez.” He breathed against your hair, his breath labored as he tried to keep his own emotions in check for your sake. “I wish I had found you so much sooner. None of that would have ever happened to you.”

And you knew he wasn’t talking about the train- getting on sooner. Finding you before your ex did, but you didn’t say anything. You couldn’t. But you knew he meant he wished he had found you so much sooner than that first meeting at the fountain with all of the fish, his brochure hanging lazily in hand. Found you long before that man had ever laid his hands on you, had ever wrecked you to the point you were at now. 

“I’m sorry.”

“What?” He breathed the words against you, his hold tightening just slightly. “What are you apologizing for?”

“I-” You held back a sob, trying to compose yourself as best as you could. “I’m so ruined, I’m so sorry I’m such a mess.” 

“You’re not a mess, I promise you, you’re not a mess.” And the way he spoke, you almost believed it immediately. He sounded… tired. “None of it, not any of it, was your fault. You have to know that.” 

You didn’t. You wouldn’t, not for a long time. But the way he had been on the train, no matter how brief of a moment it was- how he was right now, clutching you so tightly in his arms as if you would shatter if he let go for even a second- You had a pretty good feeling that you would someday. Someday, as long as he was around. But for now you settled for feeling everything you were feeling in his embrace, just thankful that for whatever his reasoning, he didn’t hate you for what you had done, for what you felt. 

After a while, you nuzzled your face against the crook of his neck, before gently trying to pull back, signaling to him that you were alright enough to break the hug. He let go of you, but his hands lingered on you just a moment longer than they should have. You stared at the ground as you fiddled with your hands, trying to figure out what was supposed to come next. What you were supposed to do or say next. 

“What do you mean, you didn’t know what you were supposed to do?” You asked quietly. You already knew the answer. Honestly, how often was it that someone would witness what he did happening to someone close to themselves, especially when the person it was happening to was supposedly so strong? So capable of protecting yourself from even the worst of the Wanderers that traversed the city? 

He let out a breath, thinking for a moment, before he opened his mouth to answer your question. 

“Really, the only thing I know is to make sure you’re safe.” He shrugged, crossing his arms as he avoided your gaze. “If I wasn’t confident I’d be able to protect you from the whole thing, and even afterward, with whatever crazy he may try to do, I would have played along with you and not been so aggressive. But besides that, I really don’t know how someone is supposed to handle a situation like that.” 

You blinked. 

“What?”

“What-what? I don’t exactly want you getting hurt, I just wasn’t sure the best way to accomplish that. I wasn’t going to fail, though. I’m not some idiot.” 

You could feel your eyes starting to burn. “Yes, but you wanted to protect me?”

He looked at you abruptly, confused. “Wanted? Bodyguard, it’s not past tense. I don’t care what I call you, pay you for, what we are to each other- Believe it or not, I... don’t want you hurt.”

He flinched a little, watching the tears start to stream from your eyes again, but he just shook his head. “No, no. Geez, what are you doing?” He uncrossed his arms and reached out towards you slowly, gingerly brushing your cheek with his thumb. “No, why is this your reaction? Why are you crying over me caring about you?”

He knew why. He had just seen why. And that was just the tip of the iceberg on what your past had been.

“But-”

“I really don't want to hear it. It’s just going to be you saying bad things about yourself again.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose, and you couldn’t think of any denial or lie that he would believe. “You really need to learn to trust me, seashell. If you don’t want to go home or to work, I get it. But you’ve got to believe me when I say it. When I say nothing is going to happen to you.”

You reached up to dry your eyes again, all but running out of tears by now after the heavy cry session you had just had wrapped up in Rafayel’s arms. You let out a small hiccup, before offering him a small nod. It didn’t really matter if you believed him, but honestly- it was so much better than anything before. So much more comforting than any of the times before. Any of the times where you sat in your bedroom alone, praying that you could get one more extra day squeezed out of the week, out of going back to the university, to avoid seeing the man who had ruined your entire life as he ‘explored’ the ‘public’ campus like some sort of shark circling your bleeding body. 

Rafayel watched you as you slowly composed yourself, reaching out a hand to rest on your shoulder, tenderly. His kindness radiating from the contact. “Now, is it okay if we go somewhere? I think it would be better for you if you could go somewhere you can relax for a little while. I invited you to my studio, maybe we can go there.”

You blinked at him. When had he invited you?

He watched your expression, processing that you were confused on the ask. “Did you get the text I sent you? Or were you already in trouble then?”

“Text-” You pause, then you remember the notification that had popped up just before your ex had seen you. You shook your head. “It had just come through as he-... approached… me. I didn’t see what it said.”

He flashed you a small smile, one that would win every prize in your book. 

“It was asking you if you were already off work, and if not, would you want to meet me at the station, so that we could head to my studio and finish up some work I need to get done.” 

You stared at him for a moment, your mouth slightly agape, before you smiled back at him. It was timid, and you were still nervous. But with his hand against your shoulder as the two of you walked through the edges of Linkon City back towards one of his studios, you couldn’t help but feel just a little bit better. 

Just a little bit more at ease. 

—

And a week later, you were back at work. You had been for the last few days. You’d gone on a few missions, taken down a dozen Wanderers, and saved a few civilians in that time. But nowhere had you seen your ex- not on a street corner, not running down an alleyway, not even at the doorstep of the Hunter’s Association. 

But you’d seen Rafayel. 

One day he was sitting at the cafe across the street from the Association’s building, sketching charcoal as he invited you to come and get something to eat for lunch, to sit with him and talk about your day. Another, he was there when you got off, a light drizzle sprinkling the street as he offered to share his umbrella with you and walk you home. On your day off, he ended up at your door, huffing about his next exhibition, and whether or not you wanted to come with him to stave off the boredom he was surely going to be drowning in. You weren’t stupid, you knew what he was doing. But there was also no pattern to his appearances- sometimes you wouldn’t see him all day, only speaking to him through incessant texts and phone calls. Other times, you’d see him two or three or more times throughout your day. Something about the chaotic approach made you feel even more… comfortable. Despite everything that had happened. It felt like he was always around, even when you didn’t expect it. 

It felt like he was always keeping watch for you. 

And maybe you still hadn’t gotten over what had happened on the platform, and you still felt uneasy stepping on the train, arm hooked in Rafayel’s as he complained about not being able to find the green he needed to finish a piece. Maybe you still felt worthless, for still caring about what happened to that wretched man, after everything he had done to you, after all of the pain he had caused you. 

But at least, as you stared up at the splashes of color that coated the canvas in front of you, late after work the evening before your day off, sitting in Rafayel’s studio as he dozed off over a few cups of color he had been working on while you scrolled through your phone, you had someone. 

At least you had someone who was intent on changing everything for you. 

Who was intent on making sure you were okay. No matter what.

[spnscripthunt-inactive]

WHAT IS #SCULLYCOFFEE4NF?

In the summer of 2016, I noticed that coffee shop baristas yelling out names reminded me of Mulder yelling out “Scullaaay!” on my favorite show, The X-Files. So I gave my name as Scully for a laugh, shared the picture with some other fans, and encouraged them to try it, too. I even promised to donate a dollar to the Neurofibromatosis Network for everyone who did it. I didn’t raise a whole lot of money, but the idea to have a #ScullyCoffee4NF day on Scully's birthday was born.

Gillian Anderson rose to fame on The X-Files playing Special Agent Dana Scully. She continues to delight her fans with memorable roles in The Fall, Sex Education and The Crown just to name a few. Ms. Anderson has also been a longtime supporter of the NF Network. As fans of Gillian, we thought this would be a fun way to support the work of the NF Network & celebrate her iconic character’s birthday.

Since 2017, X-Files fans have donated over $13,000 to the NF Network on #ScullyCoffee4NF day. Thank you to everyone who has donated in the past, thank you Gillian Anderson for inspiring generosity in your fans, and HAPPY 60th BIRTHDAY SCULLAAAAY!

HOW TO PARTICIPATE ON FEBRUARY 23RD:

1. Use the name “Scully” at your favorite coffee shop, or just take a creative coffee picture from home. We love the fun pictures, but we want you all to be safe this year, too!

2. Take a picture or video and share it on Facebook, X or Instagram and tag it #ScullyCoffee4NF.

3. Make a donation to the NF Network in honor of ScullyCoffee4NF day. Be sure to select ScullyCoffee4NF from the dropdown menu under ‘contributing towards.’  Every $10 donated gets you a chance in our donor prize drawing - prizes pictured below. So $20=2 chances to win, $30=3 chances to win, etc. Only one prize per person.

If you can’t get to a coffee shop or you don’t drink coffee, no problem - be creative!  The important part is to make the donation at the NF Network, you’ll still be entered in the drawing-the coffee pictures are just for fun!

2024 DONOR PRIZES

Open to everyone, as long as your mailing address is located on planet Earth!

—

Donor Prize #2 - Donated by SPN Script Hunt (hey, that's us!)

Unproduced script from The X-Files Season 10, from the collection of Chris Carter.

—

This fundraiser is why I got a group together to buy this script, let's kick it in the ass! - @lets-steal-an-archive

Update 02/27/2024

[salemsimsrender]

Beginner Blender Tutorial Basic Render: Part One (Importing a Sim and Adjusting Textures)

To learn the basics, we'll begin with a super simple render: one sim, one pose, one background.

But first, the anatomy of blender.

(image & list courtesy of Blender's online manual)

Yellow - 3D viewport (workspace) The 3D Viewport is used to interact with the 3D scene for a variety of purposes, such as modeling, animating, texture painting, etc.

Green - Outliner The Outliner is a list that organizes data in the blend-file, i.e. the scene data, Video Sequencer data, or anything that gets stored in a blend-file.

Blue - Properties The Properties shows and allows editing of many active data, including the active scene and object.

Red - Timeline The Timeline editor, identified by a clock icon, is used for manipulating keyframes and scrubbing the Playhead.

The tools I use most I've highlighted below:

I won't outline their uses just now, but we'll be going over them as we use them.

Different creators like to split their blender window up in different ways, but this is my preferred setup when I'm working:

I use the yellow half of the screen as a render preview/3D workspace

I use the blue half for shader editing, posing, etc.

You can set yours up like mine or find what's comfortable for you.

When you first open blender, you'll be greeted by the default cube, lamp, and camera.

Delete them! You can do this two ways:

Click and drag your mouse over all 3 and delete or Select all 3 in the side menu and hit x on your keyboard

Step 1: Importing our Sim

After deleting the default items, we'll import our sim. This tutorial assumes you've already ripped your sim (if you haven't, check here for how to do so!)

Now, let's import.

Click file -> import -> collada (dae) Select your DAE and click "import"

Your sim will look a little... off (thick eyelashes and a weird shine), but that's okay we're going to fix it! Your sim might also look solid white. If that's the case, make sure you're in the right mode. You can adjust modes by clicking on one of the four circles in the top right of the screen.

These are your viewport modes.

Wireframe (far left) - good for mesh editing Solid (middle left) - good for posing Material Preview (middle right) - what we work in most, shows everything with textures (color) Rendered (far right) - this shows your render preview We'll be working mostly in Material Preview

You can also switch between modes by hitting z on your keyboard then selecting which one you want I'll be using mostly keyboard shortcuts but I'll show you how to do both as we go along

Step 2: Adjusting Our Sim's Textures

Let's fix our sim's textures.

First. set up your workspace. Separate your workspace into two windows (as shown in the picture above with a yellow half and a blue half) and select "shader editor" in your right-side window. Like this:

Next, navigate to your Outliner and click the little dropdown beside "rig"

Under "rig" you'll see your sim's body parts listed. We're going to select "Body" When we click "Body", these colored blocks will appear in our shader editor window.

These are called Nodes. We use Nodes to adjust textures for various items in blender (sims, walls, furniture, etc). To add a new Node, you can select "add" in the top bar, or hit Shift+A on your keyboard and add in the node you need.

We're going to add in a Mix Shader and a Transparent Shader (both found under the Shader tab) and adjust our nodes this way:

Snug the Mix Shader between the Principled BSDF and the Material Output. Now we have to connect our Nodes and adjust our Principled BSDF. For the sake of this tutorial, I'll show the basic Node & Shader adjustments, but we'll go into each of them in a later tutorial.

Adjust your Principled BSDF like this, then connect your Node lines exactly like this:

You'll see that our SIm's body looks a bit different from her head, hair and shoes. That's good! Now we need to duplicate that texture to the rest of our sim.

Navigate to your Outliner again, and use Shift+Click to select the rest of the body parts in the list Don't select pose or rig.001 and make sure the Body is selected first EDIT: You'll only see "body" if your sim has a full body outfit on! If they have a shirt and pants, you'll have "Bottom" and "Top" instead! In this case, select "bottom"!

Now, hover your cursor over your sim/the 3D viewport window, and press Ctrl+L on your keyboard. This brings up the Link/Transfer data window. Select "Link Materials"

Our sim is looking better, but her eyelashes are still dark, let's fix that now.

In your Properties area, navigate to Material Properties (the little red ball)

Change your Blend Mode to Alpha Hashed We will always set Blend Mode to Alpha Hashed

Now our sim looks right!

In Part Two, we'll pose her, set up the scene, and run the render!

[emeraldcatears]

Party Time!

Let's look into how RPG Maker MZ lets you build a party of heroes to explore your world.

On it's face, it's as simple as a single command on page 1 of the event command menu.

But let's dive a bit deeper to open up ideas for how to use the command to its fullest.

It's easy enough to add and remove party members with the command by selecting the desired actor from the dropdown and and choosing to Add or Remove as the Operation. But there's one other part of the Change Party Member command menu.

Initialize.

Initialize just means that you're adding an actor to the party as though they are starting fresh from level 1 (or whatever that actor's minimum level is). If you check it, then even if the actor has been in your party before they will be reset to a blank slate with only their initial equipment.

If a character is already in the party you can still "Add" them. It still only adds one of the actor; you don't get duplicates. But the new "Add" overwrites the first version of the actor. So if I add Groh the Stegrow to the party...

... and then level everyone up like so...

and then talk to this other version of Groh to re-add an Initialized version of the character to the party...

... then we can see Groh is replaced with a level one version of itself.

On the other hand, if you uncheck Initialize and an actor is removed from the party they will retain their level and equipment if they are added again later.

Note that their HP and MP will also be right where they left off.

Now you can add a lot of members to your party.

Like, a lot a lot. At its default RPG Maker MZ allows you to add as many members to the party as you have actors. However, only the first four will be used in battle. The rest are considered reserve members.

The option for reserve members to gain experience is found the the System 1 tab. It's a simple checkbox. System 1 is also where you can determine the members of the starting party when the game first loads.

You can also remove all the members from your party. The game won't stop you.

But if you get into a fight without any party members you will automatically lose. It may be a good idea to use other events to check that there's at least one member in the party before letting the player walk away without anyone!

Speaking of checking in on the party with events...

You can use a simple conditional branch to check if a specific member is in the party.

You can also check which member is in which position in the party. For example, I want to allow Marigold to rest in their own bed to restore HP, but I don't want other members of the party to do that (they can use their own beds!). How do I go about that?

I'll use a conditional branch again, but this time I'll check for a variable. I'll also make sure to have the game check the variable before calling the rest of the event. So to make the variable I'll go into the Event Command menu and pick Control Variables. From there I want to pick Game Data from the Operand section and pick Party from the options there. Then I'll set that to Member #1. The game will check the Actor ID of the character in the first party position now when the Control Variable command is called.

The Actor ID is the number assigned in the actors section of the database. If I want the command to work differently for Marigold than for anyone else, I'll be checking whether Party Member #1's Actor ID is equal to 0001.

If so...

Marigold gets to take a quick nap. Otherwise...

No stealing Mary's bed! Get your own!

Here's what it looks like when I do the same for Iris when we visit her room. First the event command sets the Variable to the current lead actor, then the conditional branch command checks whether the party lead is Iris (actor 3).

There's a lot of versatility that comes with being able to check who the party leader is for puzzles (can only the strong warrior move heavy boulders?) and story events, so it's worth getting to know how to play with these options.

[birdmenmanga]

Hi, um I have a Chorus related question! I was wondering if you have any plans for updating the web page? I know you have a pretty busy time rn, and it says that website is under construction, so I really don't mean to rush you. I just couldn't find the info about it, and reading Chorus on web is my fav place to read it <3

Hi, originally I had no plans, but seeing as you're the second person to bring it up with me I feel like I SHOULD do something about it!

For some context, the website I currently use to host CHORUS (https://arsquare.art/manga/chorus/#p1) is a website that a friend built for me completely from scratch. I put in a lot of requests for what I thought a good web manga reader should have ("it needs a dropdown chapters menu!! you need to be able to scroll through it by pressing arrow keys!! if you click the image you should be able to see a bigger version of it!!") but the part that kept tripping us up is the update function.

Long story short I couldn't directly edit what went onto the website, everything is placed in a Google Drive that the website periodically checks (every Tuesday and Friday at Some Time), and because it was built from scratch there were a lot of peculiar issues that kinda popped up with it (old pages not updating even when the Drive file is changed, busted queue system that I can't pause or schedule, etc. etc.). My friend had just been working on it for fun, and when she got busy with her job I didn't really have the heart to bother her about it.

ANYWAYS all this to say that I've updated the Drive folder that all the images live, so whenever the website does the Tuesday-Friday weekly update all the pages should be up!!

I can certainly try to keep things up to date on the website to the best of my ability, but I suspect I might be an update behind every so often.

Thanks for getting me off my ass about this!!

[gentlehousenicole]

Site Updates and Headcanons: v.1.6

UPDATE: Some of the following is considered outdated as of v.1.7

I usually do these for every phase/part of an update instead of doing a broad one for the update on the whole, but honestly v.1.6 was so dense and changed things so dramatically for the Cunning Hares there's no way I could have summarized it all in even two posts.

So this time I had Nicole react to things in rough real time to when I experienced them playing the game. I found that to work a lot better, especially with how things went this go-around, and that I also like that approach better for a role-play blog anyway.

Given that, my Nicole has already expressed her thoughts on most of the stuff that happened in v.1.6, and you can find them (caution for untagged spoilers) by digging back through my archive.

I wrote a "brief" recap under the jump though, for anyone who's followed these and wants my OOC thoughts in one place. I'll only be talking about the aspects that pertain to Nicole, but if you want my thoughts on the game as a whole as it is right now...Well, you know where to find me.

Before that though, here's a quick housekeeping rundown:

I've updated and rewritten basically everything in the About and Deep Database pages in lieu of what happened in v.1.6 and where I decided to take my verse's present status quo because of it. If you haven't read them in awhile (...or at all), you might want to now.

I took the link to Deep Database off the pinned post, as I felt it was misleading and confusing. You don't have to be a HoYo/ZZZ vet to read it, and in fact it might even make more sense if you're not. The link is still in the Menu dropdown box; though if you're having problems accessing it on mobile let me know and I'll put it back with some other link text.

OK with that sorted, as per Anton's bro, here there be spoilers.

Right, let's get “Echoes of Silver” out of the way right off the bat. This one hurt. The story leaves it ambiguous in its denouement - and it has to - but, especially since you start seeing Anby show up alone wearing her old uniform a lot afterwards, I interpret the end of Anby's agent story as depicting the breakup of the Cunning Hares as we've known them: What Anby does is such a flagrant betrayal of trust and disregard for the Love her teammates have for her, I can't see how their relationship could recover from it.

Given that, I'm having “The Price of Hope” explicitly depict Anby quitting Gentle House to become a solo freelancer carrying on the name and legacy of Silver Squadron. I am also having my verse show that this is a catastrophically stupid idea given how jaw-droppingly horrifying a concept Silver Squadron was (Anby's guilt and criticism of her past allegiances feel tokenistic and halfhearted to me), and because Anby's actions go behind the backs of her current team (and found family), hurting them quite badly as a result. Especially Nicole.

I want to stress, this is not a criticism of the game's writing in this case: “Echoes of Silver” is overall a well written story (if too wordy, heavy and emotionally intense for my sensitivities) that accurately depicts the central character making a string of unimaginably hurtful and destructive choices. The only thing I'm changing is following the implications it raises to their logical conclusions.

I especially like how, once they realize what she's done, Nicole and Nekomata give Anby back what she gave them by hiding the spy camera in the doll, which ensures Anby is unable to run away from Soldier 11 forever. An almost literal Trojan Horse, symbolizing how truly despicable and deceitful a relationship built on bad faith really is. This both showcases Nicole's true Cunning, while also conveying the maelstrom of emotions she must be feeling: One who was once a trusted friend and family member - indeed, one who Loved her - is now the enemy. As hurt as she is though, she does what she needs to do, teach her, and this is paralleled nicely with what Anby and Soldier 11 later end up having to do to Twiggy.

I've changed the timeline a bit and combined the destruction of Silver Squadron with that of Dennis', who got ascended by Nineveh in the Old Capital Metro Ruins. It just seemed silly to me to have two different formative incidents involving the Defense Force, the Old Capital Metro Ruins. Soldiers Zero and Nicole and not have them connected.

Anby is absolutely in Love with Soldier 11, though: They're the Doomed Yuri to go along with Lycaon and Hugo's Doomed Yaoi, and there's also the implication that Anby is abandoning her “current partner” (Nicole, despite the fact I see Anby's attraction to her as unrequited) to go back to her “ex”. This can also be paralleled with those who want to return to a Golden Age in Eridu that they've mythologized to the point they're misremembering it (though I may play with this, as I like the idea Eridu was really a utopia at first...But then stopped being so after a certain point) instead of working to keep building New Eridu.

Speaking of Nicole, as I always am, imagine how much worse this must feel for her, someone who, in another life, was so lonely it destroyed her. I see her being pretty shattered by Anby's betrayal and subsequent abandonment of Gentle House: the one thing that can break even the unflappable Nicole Demara is to break up her family. All of which is to say...

In the present setting of my verse, Nicole has rebuilt the Cunning Hares from those Anby left behind, and one new member...

Trigger's story is more a concern for @faethons (my IRL sister who plays Belle and Wise), but I'm so taken with her (and so distressed by “Echoes of Silver”) that Trigger's become the central figure in this moment of my personal verse going quite a bit canon divergent.

In my default verse (and I believe @faethons' too, as we share most of our headcanons) Trigger is not a member of Obol Squadron, and never has been. She retired from the Defense Force after the Fall of the Old Capital and the death of her squadmates (her team being called Eleusinian Squadron this time instead of Lyre Squadron, because the mythology allusions in the canon story are...quite bad, if I'm honest), and has worked as a wandering, nomadic gunslinger and Hollow Raider ever since.

Trigger visits Sixth Street not infrequently and is a big part of the siblings' lives. She has served with Soldier 11 before, but they are not as close as in canon, and much of her character arc involving Obol Squadron becoming her new family plays out with the residents of Sixth Street instead. This includes the Cunning Hares.

Trigger is particularly invested in looking after current and former Defense Force members, so she still gets heavily involved in “Echoes of Silver”, which plays out largely as it does in canon (with the key exceptions I outlined above). In fact, she's even more involved this time, because the culmination of that story is now about found families changing, healing and growing.

After Anby resigns from Gentle House, it is Trigger who takes her place (they even synergize together perfectly in-game, and these “New Cunning Hares” are my current main team), even to the point of settling down and moving into the Hares' apartment. As in canon, she always wanted a beautiful home where she can cheer people up and keep them safe. Trigger even begins a romantic relationship with Nicole, bonding over their shared life experiences, hardships, traumas, and desire to take care of people, especially each other. I quietly introduce this in a series of posts I've made over the past month or so. In this way, Trigger becomes the Light Mirror to Anby's Dark.

This is also all the more lyrical given it was Nineveh who changed Trigger's eyes, effectively blinding her.

I can and will write with Anbys and canon depictions of the Cunning Hares - I'll just treat it as an AU -but for my personal verse, to the extent I can say it, as of v.1.6 Gentle House is now Nicole, Trigger, Billy, Nekomata, Amillion and Bling, and I'll be writing from this “new normal” by default.

[annellspethraven]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sloan Spencer (@sloan_spencer_author)

It all started here. I woke up and looked at 'my' Discord server for the bloated tic of a fanfic (hey that rhymes, neurospicy two seconds!) I write with my partner SonaBeanSidhe, Aran Thranduil's Dining Hall. There hadn't been enough tea yet so the natural response was 'wth is this?' Well, THIS was going to Hoover my next two days and counting. Just visit the post, dear friends of the writing persuasion and you would see (I'll save you time because I'm nice this way) that there are many screenshots supporting just what the meme says: This Instagram OP knows a writer who found herself in a steaming pile of mess with the Google Docs TOS (which is really also the Google Drive TOS, making it somewhat difficult to locate said TOS. I'll save you more time. Here:

This information comes from https://support.google.com/docs/answer/148505#zippy=%2Csexually-explicit-material So, it was the act of sharing the files, not having created or stored them that triggered what had happened. Okay, still not reassuring. In the meantime, I was concerned enough to post what had happened to r/FanFiction. Within minutes, my post had been frozen by the mods there. I can see their concern. I believe they had only seen the meme-like first screen of the Instagram post, and it does come off like a bad Snopes Fail. They asked me for more proof. The first thing I did was a search for previous instances of Google having frozen Drive accounts previously. They are limited, but they exist. The concern here had to do with the current lack of information as to why the action happened, and whether we who collectively authored and had shared Docs with explicit content were about to have our Drive accounts fall before the scythe of an overzealous AI rollout on the part of Google. Which led to the second part of this. My first response to the mods was as follows:

A little while after I sent this, an update appeared on the Instagram OP's account (easy to find) so I added this:

The salient point of the update was that the author had received restored access to her Drive, but NOT the Doc that had started the entire difficulty. I waited for a response. And waited, and waited. In the meantime, I had no means to add to, respond to, anything to my original post or defend myself against some fairly sharp initial criticisms leveled against me by individuals who clearly hadn't read anything beyond the initial meme. Special. While I understand a sub this large likely has a lot of messages to field, I also felt that given they managed to freeze my post in a matter of minutes, they were really taking their time responding. So I weighed in on Instagram with a message of support. If nothing else is taken away, please take this: Back up your files. It's easy to create an alt Google account; this other account will have its own Drive storage. Share your folders and files with yourself. If you don't already realize, in Docs under the File dropdown menu the third option is Make A Copy. If you have shared the original document 75 times, you won't have shared that copy at all. Consider backing up your works to Indie platforms like Get Hermit, Ellipsus and The Quill. There may be others. Your own external hard drive is also a very good idea. But wait, you ask. What about just using MS Word, or having copies as a PDF file in the Adobe cloud? Not so fast, my friend. Look at Microsoft and Adobe's TOS regarding sexually explicit content...you'll get an unpleasant surprise. I did. In the meantime, a third update came from the OP on Instagram shedding far more light as to what had likely gone wrong. She had shared the Doc with she guessed 18-20 people as beta readers. The belief is now that one of these persons actually turned her in to Google via their abuse form. To quote one of the commenters on that update: "I heard from an agent that Google will only do this to your account if someone reports it. Google isn’t scanning docs for explicit content (except maybe images), but yeah, for this to happen, someone had to report her document to Google." This felt like a relief...and yet is still packaged inside a cautionary tale. How many of us have shared by 'whoever has this link'? I have, or rather, I had. I revoked all such permissions to all large stories and folders in favor of my few trusted long-time friends and beta readers. The works are on AO3. I don't need those Docs links to be free floating all over the place, not after seeing what can happen. I was on vacation in England some years prior when I realized I had lost the ability to send out all outgoing Gmail. It took me several days to figure out what had gone wrong and nearly lost me my ability to receive Covid test results at a time when that was a travel necessity...almost disastrous. Fortunately I had multiple email accounts and could work around the problem. Which brings me to the last of this.

While including the subreddit mod's responses here may seem retaliatory/petulant on my part...I'm at best miffed at their shortsightedness, maybe mildly insulted, mostly shaking my head at the fact that there is something to have been learned here that could have affected any one of us. No one was spreading misinformation. Something had indeed happened. The source of it had been unknown at the time of posting. Had they left my post alone I would have gladly redacted as it unfolded; the reason for placing it on that sub was not to create a giant stir but to let others know of the risk of this happening at all and to encourage backing up that which most writers invest a considerable amount of their emotional well-being; the safety of their written works. Yes, I'm neurodivergent. No, I don't always see the world as others do. No, I still don't think this difference allows the response to be interpreted as much other than a slight and working against the interests of authors (I'm on their side and last I checked, readers need the authors to have the things that are written in order to have the things to read. Just saying). Whatever, what really matters is, if you feel this is worth sharing, share, take away the important bits, and if someone out there just wants to write it up in 3 sentences so it isn't a tl;dr, do that too.

Have a Googly day, to all near and far, in these times in which we live...>.>

[krash-8]

@pikosheadpatter BEHOLD!!! OPENUTAU VB INSTALLATION!!!!!

kasane teto download: scroll to the bank that says openutau, it has every teto voicebank (including her whispers, growls, shouts, etc) put into one to use. you can download the other ones, but they're all in that openutau voicebank anyway (except the English one.) I can show you how to use the sub banks with it later if u want :3

~

yokune ruko download: HERE HE ISSS THE GUYYYY it looks rlly confusing, what with his billion fem banks, but luckily he also has an openutau pack for those too. here it is. he doesn't have an official one for his masc banks, but there is a fan made copy you can use, it's just harder to set up. here is his whisper, and here is his power (most popular, you probably recognize this one.)

~

mawarine shuu download: download pretty straightforward, just select the one you want. I recommend the original, but that's just bc I have no clue how to use the falsetto without making him sound like he's having an asthma attack.

~

kohaku merry download: she has a ton, but here's the ones I use, and an explanation of them (bc the explanations aren't very good lol. she has more, but you definitely don't need all of them (or all of these)

Daikagura: very powerful vb. my fave!!!

devil sticks: deeper, more masculine tone. gets gentler the higher it is.

retake balloon: whisper

meteor: weak source that isn't whispering

aerial silk: weak, but more powerful than meteor. almost sounds like it's coming from the back of her throat.

again she has more but I use these !!

~

installation/selecting singer guide:

when you download any bank, open openutau (no pun intended.)

click tools, then install singers, them select the file you downloaded. click next for everything.

when that's done, click select singer in the track list. if singers don't show up click classic in the dropdown menu and they should appear in that. then select the voice you want! because these are all jpn utau voicebanks, click the button they says default. then select more, then japanese, then click JA VCV & CVVC. now they are ready 2 use ! you won't have to do this every time, just the first time.

of course, these settings aren't the only thing you can do; different ones achieve different things and some only work for certain voicebanks. however, this is a good start for a jpn voicebank singing jpn songs.

hope this wasn't super overwhelming, and I can def help if you still have questions

[albywritesfiction]

Hi Alby, I loved the update & can’t wait to see where your story goes! 💖 I saw you mentioned wanting feedback, so would it be possible to streamline the character creator? I found the number of options overwhelming, and I didn’t know what a lot of them were (like cardinal, goldenrod, cordovan, bole) or the differences between some of the options. I don’t know if this would be too complicated to code, but is there a way to just give basic options at first (i.e. eyes: brown, black, green, blue, grey) and then when you’ve picked it will open a menu to specify further (i.e. green eyes: jade, emerald, sea green)? Basically a way so you’re not presented with every colour variation off the bat?

Also for the first page (gender options), could there be a quick way to choose an overall default for everything (i.e. female + she/her + set all titles to feminine), alongside the more granular current approach where each one is chosen separately. I’m guessing most players would probably choose one of the defaults anyway and would want to get into your awesome story as soon as possible.

Thank you for the suggestions! I have an idea for how to implement your suggestion for the eye colors so the first thing you'll is a list that says "shades of red", "shades of orange", "shades of yellow", "shades of green", "shades of blue", "shades of violet", "shades of brown", "shades of black", so I can definitely do that! I'll see if I can also implement a hover effect that can show the html color codes for each color so it would be easier to envision the base color? for the complexion, i'll probably do the same and group them as "dark", "medium", and "light". For the gender options, I'll have to get back to you on that cause I'll need to figure it out first 😅

UPDATE: I've implemented dropdown things for the eye colors and complexions and added some images as well for the color palettes of each group of shades to help with visualizing the different colors! As for the gender options, I've decided not to implement an option for defaults since the time it would save wouldn't really be that significant.

[stabthecode]

So I was looking at internships, went to apply for one and immediately ran into this:

[Image id: Screenshot of a job application window showing the input fields for the Resume/CV, Full Name, Pronouns. All fields are currently blank. Under the Pronouns input field are multiple select boxes next to the following pronouns: He/him, She/her, They/them, Xe/xem, Ze/hir, Ey/em, Hir/hir, Fae/Faer, Hu/hu, Use name only, Custom. Under the list of pronouns the screenshot reads Let the employer know what pronouns you use so they can address you correctly.]

I was honestly surprised. I'm going into the engineering industry and the vast majority of the applications I've put in still have a basic drop down menu for gender with the options "female, male" or if I'm lucky "female, male, choose not to identify". One application I sent in allowed me to write in my gender identity only to later on have to choose from one of those dropdown menus.

It is very difficult to know that while I identify as genderqueer, most of the people that look at me will immediately default to female. It's difficult to know that when I say that my pronouns are they/she, many people will take the easy path out and only use she. It's even more difficult when I am trying to make my way into an industry that clearly doesn't actually see me and recognize that I'm not male or female but something different. It's so much more difficult when I know that so many of the internships I've applied for will end up defaulting to she because I put female because it's the closest damn thing that was offered.

In comparison, I almost want to cry over the basic courtesy of asking for my pronouns at the beginning of a job application form. That it is taken just as seriously as any other piece of information. Like of course you would start off by giving your resume/cv, name and pronouns.

I have a very weird relationship to the concept of "woman" that has only been exacerbated recently due to an assignment that I had to do involving a podcast specifically talking about the data deficit regarding females seen across literally every single aspect of the world. It hasn't been helped any by companies that I supposedly want to work for forcing me into their boxes that don't fit.

It's a breath of fresh air to just be straight up asked for my pronouns off the mark. It gives me some hope that maybe things are moving forward. Slowly, but forward nonetheless.

[instapaper]

Improved Organizing and Sorting Tools

We just launched updates to improve Instapaper’s organizing and sorting tools for iOS, macOS, and web. Features include drag & drop to reorder, sorting improvements, modern swipe actions, better integrations with Shortcuts on iOS, and more!

Drag & Drop to Reorder

This has been a common feature request, and we are excited to finally launch drag & drop reordering. It’s now easier than ever to manually organize your articles to their desired position.

Drag & drop is available on iOS, macOS, and web.

Sorting Improvements

On web, we launched a toggle to let you sort by oldest articles, instead of only by newest articles. To sort by oldest, navigate to your Instapaper email on the top right, and click “Oldest First” in the dropdown.

On iOS and macOS, we still offer all seven sorting options, but now they persist between sessions instead of needing to be set every time the app launches.

We also redesigned the article list menu to be more modern and inline with iOS and macOS system menus.

Modern Swipe Actions

Managing your articles on iOS is now more seamless with modern swipe actions. Simply swipe left or right to access a number of swipe actions including Archive, Move to Folder, Share, and more.

Swipe actions are fully customizable in Settings > Swipe Actions, and you can set different swipe actions for short or long swipes.

If you decide you prefer the classic swipe actions you can still enable those in Settings > Swipe Actions.

Lastly, long pressing an article will now show a full list of article options including like, move, archive, delete, redownload, edit, send to Kindle, and Share.

Save to Folder Email Addresses

We launched Save to Folder email addresses, which let you send articles to an Instapaper email address that will get directly saved into a folder. You can find a full list of your Save to Instapaper email addresses at instapaper.com/save/email 

Improved Siri, Search, and Shortcuts Integrations

We’ve launched a number of “intents” that improve Instapaper’s integration with Siri, Search, and Shortcuts.

For instance, you can open your most recent article by saying “Hey Siri, Open Last Article in Instapaper”. You can open a folder by saying “Her Siri, Open Folder in Instapaper”, and then saying the folder name when prompted.

For a full list of actions available, open the Shortcuts app, go to the App Shortcuts section, and tap Instapaper.

Other Features & Improvements

We’ve launched a number of other smaller features, improvements, and bug fixes in this release including:

Haptic feedback on iOS. We added these sparingly, but if you find them distracting you can disable them in Settings > Advanced > Haptic Feedback.

Shake to undo archiving an article.

Link previews when long pressing links in reader view.

Share All Notes will now always share in the order appearing in the article.

Fixed pagination display issues on iPad after rotating.

Fixed crashes when highlighting on iOS 17.

Fixed some crashes on macOS.

Next Up: Notes, Android, and More!

This year we’ve been focused on improving several key features for Instapaper. In our last release we improved text-to-speech, including Voice selection and a CarPlay app. This release is focused on improved organization and article management tools.

Our next release will be focused on improvements to Notes. If you’re using Notes, please let us know any feature requests you’d like to see us add in the next release.

We’ve been a bit behind on our Android app, but recently brought on someone to help update the app to the latest Android frameworks. Afterward we’ll be working toward feature parity with iOS.

As always, our roadmap is informed by your feature requests and bug reports. If you have any feature requests, questions, and/or issues, please let us via email at support@help.instapaper.com

– Instapaper Team

[salemsimsrender]

Beginner Blender Tutorial Basic Render: Part Three (Adjusting Render Settings, Adding Lights, and Rendering!)

(Continuing from Part Two)

Step 1: Adjusting Render Settings

I exclusively render in Cycles, and though I'll be doing some Eevee runs for the sake of tutorials, I'm going to share what I know today and show you how to set up a Cycles render the way I do

Navigate to Render Properties and select "Cycles" in the Render Engine dropdown

If you have an older system, leave CPU selected If you have a newer or beefier computer, select GPU complete I render on a MacBook Pro, so I'll select GPU

Under Sampling -> Viewport, make sure you click on the Denoise, this will clean up our render preview so we can more easily see what the final result will look like

Under the same Sampling tab, adjust your Max Samples to match mine (32 in the viewport and 128 in the render window, this will speed up your render time)

Click into Output Properties and select "Render Region" and "Crop to Render Region", and change the frame rate to 50fps In the Output tab, change the Color Depth to 16 Nothing will change in our 3D Viewport, but the settings are ready to go

Step 2: Adding Lights

Right now, if we were to change our mode to Rendered, we'd have nothing but a black box. This is because our sim is in a cube with no light source Let's add some lights! For portraits, I like to use a combination of Spot and Point lights You add in lights the same way you add in the camera and the cube, either by clicking "Add" in the top menu or with Shift+A on your keyboard and selecting Light -> Spot or Point I'm going to add a Spotlight first I like to add in lights in Rendered view, but be careful using rendered view as it ups the chances that your Blender will crash

I added in a spotlight but it appears that nothing happened Objects are added into Blender at the Cursor point. I never adjusted mine so it's at the center of the axis, meaning below my sim's feet and outside of the box Using G and X,Y,Z, I'm going to move my spotlight up

Now the light is above her, but I want it shining on her, so I'm going to rotate it forward Rotate objects using the R key and X,Y,Z directions on your keyboard

That's not bad, but I want more dynamic light. I'm going to add two more spotlights for 3 point lighting

This is looking better, and you can see where my lights are and how they're oriented Now let's adjust the background Select your cube in the Outliner panel and navigate to Material Properties Click "new" in the bar Then navigate to your Shader Editor window and you'll see a Principled BSDF Node is here

We're not going to do anything too fancy here, just change the color of the cube and some aspects of how it looks Change the color of your box using the color wheel then adjust your nodes to everything is set to zero except roughness

You should have something like this (of course use whatever color compliments your sim best)

I don't want the background to be super flat, so I'm going to adjust the Metallic value on mine Now I have this:

I like the lighting but I think it might be a little too bright Let's adjust it a little In your Outliner panel, select one of the spotlights then go to "Object Data Properties" (the little lightbulb)

I'm going to adjust the Power to 5 and click off multiple importance and click on shadow caustics, like this:

Do the same for all three spotlights and you should have something like this:

That's better, but let's draw attention to her face with a Point light Add in a point light the same way as a spot (shift+A, light -> point) or Add in the top bar) and move it in front of her face

This is obviously way too bright, so let's adjust it like we did for the spotlights I've changed the radius and adjusted the power to 8, as shown here:

Here's the result:

That's much better! Normally at this point I would probably change her hair and add in jewelry and make minor adjustments to this and that, but for the sake of this super simple beginner render, we're ready to go! Before you run your render, save this file somewhere easy to find. I'll be using the same file for future tutorials!

Step 3: Rendering!

Once you've done all the setup, rendering is actually super easy Make sure you switch your 3D viewport back to Material Preview (rendering while in rendered mode has a tendency to make blender crash) Then go up to the navigation bar and select Render -> Render Image

A new window will pop up, and your render will begin!

Rendering time will depend on how complex your scene is and how many assets you've added in. Ours is very simple so mine says it'll take about 6 minutes

And it's done! Save your render and either post it or edit it in your favorite photo editor!

UPDATE 7/17/23

As you can see, my render was looking very glowy. I didn't know why (there was no glare node in the compositing settings or anything that would cause this, or so I thought), until I adjusted the roughness values on my sim.

Now it looks like this:

So if yours is looking glowy, adjust the roughness to 0, then back up to 10 and that should fix it!

Homework:

Your Render School homework is to create a simple portrait render using these tutorials and tag me in it! I can't wait to see what yall make!

Please leave any questions in the comments below or send an ask and I'll help as best I can!

Happy Rendering!

[artisans-digital]

Why Your Website Isn’t Converting — and How to Fix It

Let’s be real.

You’ve spent weeks (or months) getting your website live. Everything looks polished. Fonts align. Colors match. It even loads pretty fast. But… crickets. No calls. No emails. No sales.

Frustrating, right?

You’re not alone. At our web design company in Qatar, we’ve seen this story — again and again. Great brands. Poor results. Because traffic doesn’t always mean conversions.

Here’s the thing. People don’t convert because the site didn’t earn it. Below, we’ll walk you through the reasons why — and how to turn things around.

1. Your Website Talks About You (Too Much)

Harsh truth?

Nobody cares about your journey. Or your logo. Or that your grandfather started the business in 1972.

Visitors come for them. Their problems. Their goals. Their wins.

Take Reem, a boutique owner in Doha. Her homepage was beautiful. But all about her: “We’re passionate. We’re experienced. We love design.” But the bounce rate? 87%. Ouch.

We flipped the narrative. First line? “Struggling to find the perfect outfit that fits right and feels good?”

Boom. Relevance. She saw a 40% increase in inquiries that month.

Moral? Start with their problem. Not your passion.

2. Navigation is a Hot Mess

Ever landed on a site where you just… didn’t know what to do?

Too many links. Dropdowns inside dropdowns. Tiny text. It’s overwhelming.

Visitors? They’re lazy. (Aren’t we all?)

They won’t dig around. They click once, maybe twice. Then they leave.

At our web design company in Qatar, we helped a logistics firm simplify their site. We killed 6 menu items. Made the CTA loud and obvious. Their leads? Doubled in 3 weeks. No kidding.

Keep it simple. Like, painfully simple. Guide the user like they’re five.

3. Mobile? What Mobile?

Here’s a stat. Over 70% of users in Qatar browse on phones. But your site? Still stuck in desktop-first land.

Buttons that are hard to tap. Text too tiny. Images overlapping. It’s 2025. This shouldn’t still happen. But it does. A lot.

We ran a test last month. A real estate firm had a sleek desktop site. Mobile version? Clunky. Unreadable.

We redesigned with mobile in mind first. Results? +63% time spent on page. +32% form submissions.

Lesson? Don’t design for your screen. Design for their thumb.

4. It Feels Cold. No Trust.

People buy from people. Not pixels.

If your site looks generic or feels robotic, they bounce. Fast.

Add warmth. Show real faces. Testimonials. Client logos. Case studies.

One of our favorite clients, a legal consultant in Al Wakrah, added a simple testimonial slider. Three happy clients. That’s it.

Conversion rate went up 29% — without changing anything else.

Don’t be afraid to show you’re human. Trust builds slowly. But it starts with familiarity.

5. Weak Call-To-Actions (CTAs)

“Click here.” “Submit.” “Contact us.”

Boring. Passive. Forgettable.

Your CTA should punch. It should guide. It should scream value.

Instead of “Submit,” try: 👉 “Get My Free Brand Audit” 👉 “Book Your 15-Minute Strategy Call” 👉 “See Pricing Instantly”

We did this for a Qatari event planner. One CTA change. That’s it. Bookings tripled.

Make it bold. Make it clear. And yes — repeat it like a broken record.

Real Talk: Conversion is a Science and a Gut Feeling

You can track numbers. Analyze heatmaps. Study behavior. But sometimes? You just gotta feel the page.

Does it make sense? Does it feel human? Does it guide someone like a friendly hand?

If it doesn’t, time to fix it.

FAQs

Q: I already invested in my site last year. Do I need to change it again? A: Probably not everything. But if it’s not converting, something’s off. Sometimes a few tweaks work wonders.

Q: How do I know if my design is the problem? A: If users leave within 10 seconds or don’t scroll — yep, it’s the design.

Q: Can a web design company in Qatar actually help with conversion? A: Absolutely. We don’t just build sites. We build journeys that convert.

Q: How long to see improvements after a redesign? A: Depends. But usually, in 30–45 days, you’ll start seeing signs. Leads. Calls. Movement.

Closing Words: You Don’t Need a Prettier Site. You Need a Smarter One.

A website that looks good — but doesn’t convert — is like a fancy store with no entrance.

It’s useless.

Fixing that doesn’t always mean rebuilding. Sometimes, it’s just rewriting your headlines. Or moving a button. Or telling a better story.

At Artisans, a trusted web design company in Qatar, we help businesses turn websites into growth engines. Real advice. Real results.

Need help? Let’s do a free audit. No pressure. No pitch. Just honest feedback from folks who’ve done this before.

👉 [Schedule Your Free Audit Now]

Let’s fix what’s broken — and turn your website into your best salesperson.

[nurseeden]

How to Effectively Verify Your Certified Nurse Assistant Certification: A Step-by-Step Guide

How to Effectively Verify Your Certified Nurse Assistant Certification: A Step-by-Step Guide

In today’s competitive healthcare habitat, having a valid and current Certified⁣ Nurse Assistant (CNA) certification is crucial for any ⁢aspiring or current nursing assistant. Verifying‍ your⁣ CNA certification not only ensures compliance⁣ with state regulations but also reassures employers of your qualifications.‍ This step-by-step guide​ will outline how to effectively verify your CNA certification and teh importance of‌ keeping it up ‍to date.

Understanding What a CNA Certification Entails

A Certified Nurse Assistant is a vital part‍ of the healthcare system, providing essential care‍ and support to patients. ⁤The certification requires training and passing a⁤ competency exam. ‌It is typically issued by a state regulatory agency. Understanding the components of‍ your certification ⁣is the first step before delving‌ into⁣ the verification process.

Why⁤ Is Verification Important?

verification of your ⁣CNA certification is necessary⁣ for several reasons:

Compliance: Many healthcare facilities require proof of certification.

Employment Opportunities: ⁤Verified certifications open doors to better job offers.

State Regulations: by verifying your certification, you ensure compliance with state nurse aide registries.

How to Verify ⁣Your CNA Certification: A Step-by-Step⁤ Guide

Step 1: ⁣Gather Necessary Facts

Before starting the verification process,⁤ gather the following information:

Your full name

Date of birth

Last⁤ four digits of your Social ⁢Security number

Certification number (if available)

Step 2: Visit the State Regulatory Agency‍ Website

Each state has its ‌own Nurse Aide Registry where you can ⁢verify your certification status. Here’s ⁤how to find it:

Go to​ the Nursing License Map.

Select your⁢ state⁤ from the dropdown menu​ to be redirected to the state-specific⁤ registry.

Step 3: Use the Online Verification ⁣Tool

Moast state registries offer​ an online ⁣tool for verifying CNA certifications. Follow thes steps:

locate the “Verify ⁢certification” or similar option on your⁢ state’s registry website.

Enter​ the required information you gathered in ‍step 1.

Submit the information​ to⁣ view your certification status.

Step⁤ 4: Check Certification Status

The online system will indicate ⁣whether⁤ your certification⁤ is active, expired, or revoked. If your certification is active, you can proceed with job applications and⁢ further certifications.

Step 5: Contact the Regulatory Authority (If Necessary)

If you encounter ‌issues or discrepancies, contact​ your ‍state’s Nurse Aide Registry. Prepare to provide:

Your personal information

Any documentation related to your certification

Benefits of Regularly Verifying your CNA Certification

Regularly verifying your CNA⁣ certification offers numerous benefits:

Peace of ‍Mind: You’ll always know the status​ of your⁢ certification.

Staying⁢ informed: Awareness of certification renewals and requirements helps avoid‌ lapses.

Career Advancement: Updated credentials can ‍qualify you for new job opportunities and can ⁤often lead to better pay.

practical Tips for Keeping your CNA Certification Current

Maintaining ⁢your certification is just as⁣ important as ‍verifying⁣ it. Here are some practical tips to ensure your CNA certification stays up-to-date:

Enroll in continuing education courses required for renewal.

Keep track⁢ of ⁤renewal deadlines and required CE hours.

document all your continuing‍ education efforts for future⁤ reference.

Case Study: A CNA’s Journey‍ to Successful certification Verification

Meet Sarah, a Certified Nurse Assistant with ⁣five years of experience.Recently, she noticed that some job postings required verification of her credentials. Concerned about her future job prospects, Sarah decided to verify her CNA certification:

she compiled her⁢ information‌ and found her state’s Nurse Aide​ Registry ‌online.

Using the online tool, she confirmed her certification was ⁣active.

Feeling empowered, sarah applied for several positions with confidence.

first-Hand Experience: A CNA’s Thoughts on Certification Verification

“Verifying​ my CNA certification was a ⁤straightforward process,” shares John, a recent nursing assistant graduate. “I didn’t⁢ realize how crucial this step was until I started job hunting. Knowing⁣ my ‍status not only built my confidence but also convinced my prospective employers of my ⁢qualifications.”

Conclusion

effectively verifying your Certified Nurse Assistant ⁣certification is a critical step that ensures your credentials are valid,enhances your job prospects,and ⁢maintains compliance with state regulations. By following the steps outlined in ⁢this guide, you can confidently approach the verification‍ process and stay ahead in‌ your nursing career. Regular ⁣checks‌ and updates ⁣will help you remain informed and ready for new opportunities in the ever-evolving healthcare landscape.

Frequently ⁢Asked⁢ Questions

Question

Answer

How frequently enough should I verify my CNA certification?

It’s advisable to verify‌ your certification at least once a year or before ⁤applying for ‌new jobs.

What if my certification has expired?

You will need to check your state’s guidelines‌ for renewing your certification, which ‌may ​include additional training or retaking the exam.

Can I verify my certification through my employer?

While employers ⁢may assist, it’s best to ⁣verify your certification directly through the state registry to obtain accurate information.

https://nursingcertificationcourses.com/how-to-effectively-verify-your-certified-nurse-assistant-certification-a-step-by-step-guide/