"Huh? These turned out pretty well?"
Richard sat in his office, flipping through the new set of Spider-Woman photos Jessica had just handed him, unable to hide his surprise.
The last time Jessica had given him photos, there had only been a tiny black dot swinging at the edge of the frame, somewhere between visible and vanished. This time, they were suddenly crisp full-body shots, complete with all kinds of cool poses. Judging by the results, Spider-Woman's body proportions... seemed to have been retouched a little too?
And the image quality was downright moving. Compared to before, it was like upgrading from a 270p low-budget film to a Blu-ray blockbuster. A complete leap forward.
After going through the photos, Richard looked up at Jessica suspiciously. "I only mentioned the issue with your photos last time, and you fixed it this quickly? That's some impressive efficiency."
"Because... I'm conscientious, responsible, and down-to-earth?" Jessica thought for a moment. "Boss, I really put a lot of effort into taking these pictures. In this blazing heat, I had to climb up a building's flagpole and wait there specifically for Spider-Woman to swing past. Do you know how hot it was yesterday? A full forty degrees..."
"Actually, it wasn't even thirty degrees yesterday." Richard felt nothing at all, except perhaps an urge to complain. You climbed a flagpole to take pictures, and she even came down to pose for you? Who were you trying to fool?
Richard gave her a sidelong glance. "All right, I get it. I'll consider giving you a raise."
Wasn't all that talk just about getting a raise? At worst, he could tell the cafeteria lady to give her two extra chicken legs in the future.
Jessica was satisfied. She had indeed been feeling a bit strapped for cash lately. To