#whole slide imaging industry

[mi-researchreports]

Whole Slide Imaging Market is poised to grow at a CAGR of 17.2 % by 2027. Factors driving the Whole Slide Imaging Market are increasing usage in drug discovery processes and technological advancements in whole slide imaging.

[saintjosie]

i’m not humble bragging when i say im pretty and passing. i’m hot as fuck.

when i brag, i brag with my whole chest, and i don’t do it often. so let me brag for a minute.

i am an excellent photographer and i worked in professional photography and videography for almost a decade and have traveled all around the world to do so. left image taken in milan, right image taken in thailand.

i hold one of the top scores on rush pinball on record. 25th in the world last i checked and i got this score five months after picking up pinball.

i try new hobbies all the time and almost always pick them up at an insane speed. on the left, first time painting since high school on the right, first acrylic pour.

after two weeks learning archery, i shot a regulation 140, better than many hobbyists do after shooting for years. image taken from my first day of shooting and shooting at full range.

i’ve dabbled in makeup art. this was after three weeks of learning how to do eye shadow.

i can sing, play guitar, bass, piano, drums, can improvise on all of them except piano and i write, produce, mix, and master all of my own music. i started learning music production four years ago from online videos and have 100s of thousands of streams and am working on a full album. this was my spotify wrapped for 2023.

other miscellaneous things

i have a masters degree

i learned how to lockpick in seven minutes

i’ve been world top 500 demon hunter in diablo 3 multiple times

i cleared slay the spire on my first run

i have cleared every song on guitar hero 2 and 3 on expert 100% (yes even through the fire and flames), and could clear more than half of them either blindfolded, left-handed, or both. (not anymore tho lol)

i taught myself how to cook, i make up my own recipes frequently, i can improvise recipes using whatever is lying around, i can guess how to make a recipe without looking it up, and many people have told me that my cooking is the best thing they’ve ever eaten.

i took a data science bootcamp and then worked at a fortune 500 tech company for several years and i also turned down job offers from google twice.

strangers regularly come up to me and tell me i’m unrealistically gorgeous and that i have the best skin they’ve ever seen.

i’ve turned down several men in the mainstream music industry who tried to slide into my dms

oh and i can dance at bars, have a good time, AND look sexy while doing it.

so like 🤷‍♀️

[muddyorbsblr]

one look and they'll know

See my full list of works here!

Summary: You go to work on the set of Thor Ragnarok one day and you're greeted with the sight of one Tom Hiddleston on his knees and your coworkers whispering about how he perfected his posture.

Pairing: Tom Hiddleston x Reader

Word Count: 3.7k

Warning/s: implied smut (there's like 2 paragraphs that talks about it), mentions of BDSM terms, talks about throat grabbing, cussing, and a potentially Domme!Reader that doesn't know her power [if i missed anything let me know!]

Working as a set designer on a movie set meant that every day could either be agonizingly monotonous, or no two days would ever be the same. There was this one TV episode you worked on where majority of the project took place in an interrogation room, so there was next to nothing for you to do besides making sure that continuity errors were minimized or even completely avoided.

This project…was not agonizingly monotonous. By some stroke of luck, you'd landed a gig as a set designer for Thor: Ragnarok, and now you were working on sets that would be walked on by the likes of Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Hopkins, and--fucking Christ on a crutch--Tom Hiddleston.

When you decided to leave your day job of weekly software patches and bug fixes and the ever droning minutiae of daily updates that really gave you nothing except migraines and a bad habit of stress-eating for a chance at a career in the entertainment industry, did you ever think it would lead you here? Absolutely not. Truthfully, you were content with the interrogation rooms, but this? This was a pipe dream.

"Ah. Morning, Y/N," you heard the moment you stepped on set from Taika, currently dressed in a skin-tight spandex gray CGI suit with a giant Korg head harnessed atop his shoulders. "We sourced enough sugar glass bottles for Tessa to throw in Tom's general direction today, yeah?" 

"Well I got five dozen so…we should be good," you shot back with a chuckle. You knew full well what the cast and crew got up to when sugar glass was involved. Mostly smashing it on each other's heads and making some great takes for the blooper reel.

"Awesome. I'll see you there." With a wave you started walking toward your fellow set designers, currently glancing and giggling at one of the Sakaar sets.

"Alright, what's got your panties wet this time?" you called out to your coworkers. 

Bryan, a lanky guy slightly taller than you motioned toward the set. "Look at Hiddlebum." 

"I'd really rather not, you know that I trip on air the second I even glance in his direction," you shot back. "I can't keep my dignity around that man, let alone my sanity. Don't tell me to look at him." 

"He's not gonna look back," Denise, a curvy redhead and one of your closer friends on set, commented in a sing song tone. "Trust me, boss, you're gonna wanna look." 

With a huff, you glanced toward the set and you could wear that your heart turned to solid lead and then jumped out of your chest and straight to the ground. Lord have mercy, you were not ready for the image of Tom in his dark blue-green leather getup, wrapped in gold chains, on his fucking knees, back perfectly straight, and head tilted down to the floor.

The sound that came out of your mouth did not sound ladylike. Hell, it didn't even sound human. 

"Do you think he's--?" Denise started.

"Ohh he definitely is, I mean look at that posture! You don't get there from looking up one picture, you get there from practice and meticulous correction. This man's a sub."

"Sorry, a what?" You were now officially, thoroughly, confused.

"Submissive," Bryan explained to you. "It's a whole thing that needs a 6-hour crash course and a 40+ slide Powerpoint presentation, but for your immediate knowledge, madam, it means he likes being ordered around in the bedroom." 

"So what? Like strip? Slowly? Walk over to me, come to momma type shit?” 

"I'm shocked how quickly you got the vibe, boss," Denise quipped. "Bry, what if she's a domme?"

"A what??" you nearly shrieked. "You think I'm the one who says 'strip slowly and sit down like a good boy and don't move a muscle while I ride you'?" You took a breath to calm yourself. "You're fucking insane, the lot of you."

"Again, you got the vibes, boss. The more you joke about it the more I'm convinced that it's in your DNA."

You let out a frustrated exhale. "Alright you two knuckleheads, look at me." Your voice dropped half an octave and became fuller as you said the last bit, using a tone you hadn't taken out ever since you resigned from the testosterone-laden world of software development. 

"Yes, goddess?" Your blood froze over as you heard the soft spoken words. There was no way it was…No. 

Right?

You looked at Bryan and Denise, both with matching expressions of wide-eyed scandalous amusement on their faces, as they shifted their gaze back and forth between you and Tom. Slowly you moved your gaze back to the set, your breath catching in your throat in an ugly inhuman sound as you saw the steel-blue eyes that haunted your filthiest, wettest, most vivid fantasies…staring straight at you. 

"I-I-I uhm…" you stammered, your voice returning to your normal tone, losing your footing despite being completely stationary. "I was talking to these knuckleheads, s-sorry Tom." You took a steadying breath. "As you were." You mentally smacked yourself as your 'programmer BossLady' voice came out again, your eyes widening in complete shock as he wordlessly followed your instructions and resumed to look down at the floor. 

"Confirmed," Bryan stage whispered to you and Denise. "He's a sub, and we've been silently submitting to Y/N all this time. I mean…Madam." You groaned at his words. 

"You two," you hissed at them. "Let me fucking tell you, I am the farthest thing from a madam. Or a goddess or whatever it was that he called me." You inwardly shuddered at the memory, although if you were being honest it wasn't from shock or disgust. It was from arousal. "My life is unbelievably, annoyingly, dreadfully…vanilla."

Denise giggled. "But you know the jargon? Uh huh. Sure, boss."

You rolled your eyes at her. "Bitch please, I read Fifty Shades. The smut. The toe-curling filth found in the wonder that is Kindle Unlimited. The fanfiction written about that fine-ass man on his knees over there," you whispered the last part in a hiss. "But I digress. The point is that my brain may be filthy, and it may be filled with very vivid fantasies of that very same man on his knees right now, but real life Y/N? Yeah. No."

"Maybe no man ever rose to the challenge," Bryan teased. "You think Hiddlebum would?" 

"That's not a direction my brain ever wants to go unless I'm already in bed, in my birthday suit, legs spread, with a toy in my hand," you shot back without missing a beat. "As for no man ever rising to the challenge?" You leaned in close to their ears. "I can't even get a guy to go down on me because every guy I ever dated or even just fucked said they never do it with anyone because it tastes weird. And don't get me started on the ones that practically bolt out of my hotel room naked when I ask them to put a hand on my throat."

"Maybe you're just talking to the wrong boys, Y/N." You turned around to see that Chris had joined your conversation with a smug look on his face. "You have to start talking to men. Perhaps then your luck will turn."

"Didn't your mother ever tell you it's rude to eavesdrop on conversations that don't have shit to do with you, Hemsy?" you shot back with an amused smile. You couldn't ever really be mad at the guy who resembled a walking talking 6'4 teddy bear. It was physically impossible. "Good morning."

"Good morning, indeed," he chuckled, turning his attention to the Sakaaran set. "Beautiful posture there, Tom! Absolutely exquisite," he hollered, causing the British man to let out several chuckles.

"Ehehehehe, sod off, Chris." He looked up from his position, most likely intending to glare at Chris, but instead his eyes met yours, and you felt this inexplicable pull towards him. No. Wait. Back up a bit. You felt as if there was this inexplicable force pulling him towards you. You tilted your head the slightest bit, as if questioning him and his tethering gaze, your eyes once again widening in total shock as he responded with turning his head towards the floor in a bow once again.

"Erm…what the fuck was that?" Chris asked, poking your shoulder repeatedly. "It's like you broke him, tiny terror." 

"Me?? Broke him??" you hissed as you turned around to glare at the towering Australian. "I'm the one who's fifty shades of fucking confused here!" 

"You may be, but I've never seen him fold for a woman like that in the entire time I've known him. With a tilt of your head, no less. No wonder your people call you 'madam'. Maybe I should call you that--"

"Don't even fucking think about it, Hemsworth." Your tone from earlier had returned, the one you tried to keep locked away since you gave your resignation letter to your final day job two years ago. A tone you'd once been confused as to why it could cause all those bravado-filled middle-aged men to fold and actually listen to you, well now you had an inkling. 

The tone was domineering. It allowed no room for counter-arguments; perhaps you were right about the words that you were uttering, but also perhaps you weren't, but your tone didn't demand their subservience, it just took. And while it worked in conference rooms and face offs with no less than senior management of the client companies you'd dealt with, never once did you think to use it in the bedroom.

You never realized it was an option.

"Where's Taika?" you asked after taking a few deep breaths to recenter your brain. This was gonna be one of those days, the type that you'd never forget even when you were an octogenarian and you'd  have trouble remembering if you've even eaten for the day. "I have to tell him we can't have the scene set up like this." 

"Why not, lil mayhem?" You turned and once again saw the ridiculous gray CGI spandex that Taika was decked out in, but thankfully now without the gigantic Korg head so at least you were no longer confused where you should be staring. 

"Because people are gonna take one look at him and they're gonna know," you explained, pointing towards the set at the kneeling Loki. 

The director looked at you, clearly confused. "Know what?" 

"Ohh this will be delicious," Denise all but moaned. "Watch this," she told Taika as she turned back to you. "Tell him to straighten his back." 

"This feels like I'm exploiting him somehow, you do it." 

"He's not gonna listen to me, I don't have the voice," she teased back, and then sighed. "The sooner you convince Taika, the sooner we can fix the scene." 

"Ugh, fine. Taika? Look at Tom." You took another breath, finding that voice once again in no time. "Straighten your back." Once again, your breath caught in your throat with a hideous sound as you watched him wordlessly follow your instructions. "That's what I mean," you addressed Taika once more. "People take one look at that scene, see his posture and--"

"Apologies, goddess." 

It felt like your spine had been replaced with pure ice as you watched Taika's jaw go slack, heard Chris choking on air in the background, and your two fellow set designers and friends start giggling once more as soon as the soft-spoken words were uttered from the mouth of one Thomas William Hiddleston.

"What did you call me??" 

"Ohh I think we know what he called you. Goddess," Taika taunted. "Right then, we need to get this man off his knees," he said, turning to the crew and giving them instructions to reset the scene.

"So what? We're gonna have him stand now?" one of the assistant producers sneered. "Way to take us out of the moment, Y/L/N. Fucking buzzkill," she muttered.

"I'm not telling you to make him stand, I'm just telling you to get him off his knees," you countered. "It's not my fault that your comprehension's lacking." 

The assistant started to make a motion towards you as if you bitch slap you, but the director stood in her way. "Don't even think about it. That's a one way ticket to Tom's shit list if you lay a hand on her," he threatened, and you watched as the AP looked over to the corner of the set with wide eyes. When you followed her gaze, your eyes widened as well at the sight of Tom with a borderline murderous look in his eyes. 

"Don't," he said simply. The AP backed off, muttering something about favoritism that you couldn't quite catch. 

"Alright then, lil mayhem, this is your idea. Run the show." You stared at Taika with incredulity. "You're the one who wants him off his knees? You get him off his knees. Call the shots."

You scrambled for ideas. "A chair?"

"Sorry, madam, we got nothing in props that could even look like it belongs in Sakaar. And I already know what you're gonna say, the Sakaaran standards are literally on the floor but still. A proper looking dining table chair will not fit the vibe." 

You glared at Bryan. "Then get me a cement block, a wooden platform. A fucking concrete slab. Anything, just get this man off his knees." You turned back to face Taika. "Legally, who can I yell at here without an HR violation?"

"Just those two." He pointed at your set designers. "You are their superior after all." 

You turned back to the dawdling set designers, staring at the scene laid out before them with amused looks on their faces. "Find me something." They kept staring. "NOW!!" They ran off to props like headless chickens, making both Chris and Taika break out in chuckles.

"Remind me to never get on your bad side, tiny terror," the giant Australian told you before proceeding to pat you on the head like a ferocious and yet annoyingly fluffy guard dog. "Hey Tom you can get off your knees now, you kinky little shit!" he hollered, chuckling. After a few moments he started again. "Ah, shit, Y/N be a dear? Seems he won't listen to anyone but you when he's like this." 

You groaned. "For fuck's sake," you murmured before taking another deep breath, slipping into your natural voice once more. "Stand up." The next moments felt like a sucker punch to your entire system as he once again followed your instructions, afterward stealing a glance at your direction with the softest look in his eyes and a sweet smile that left you completely breathless.

What was he up to? Why was he acting like this?

Fifteen minutes later, Bryan and Denise came rushing back in with a platform box painted a distressed teal setting it down on the ground near the now standing Tom.

The next 13 hours of the day were comparatively less eventful than the start of your day. Rearranging sets, reviewing shots for possible continuity errors that you were sure Twitter would crucify you all for if they caught wind of it, and the occasional bitchy stare down with that PA from earlier this morning who tried to smack you for daring to mock her comprehension skills.

"Let's call it for the day, everybody!" Taika hollered from his director chair, now thankfully wearing more normal clothes and not that spandex CGI suit. "I'll see you in twelve hours. Get some sleep, don't go out drinking because if you come to set tomorrow hung over I will have your head." Everyone murmured their assent as they moved about, wrapping up their tasks for the day, and he turned to you. "Lil mayhem, try to get some tonight. I'm saying this as a friend. You're wound up." 

"Honestly, T, it's just the whole 'she's a domme' thing from earlier. Really threw me in for a loop. I should be fine after some sleep," you reassured him, making sure to pick up a copy of tomorrow's call sheet to do some prep work before you eventually succumb to the sweet lonely embrace of solitary slumber in your hotel room. "Go, T. I can lock up tonight. FaceTime your kids, tell them you love them, read them a bedtime story. I'm sure they miss their dad." 

He took a few moments before giving you an exaggerated sigh and tossing you the keys. "You drive a hard bargain, Y/L/N." He walked over to you, ruffling your hair. "You're the best." 

"I know I know. Go. I'll do a quick sweep, make sure nobody gets locked in here for the night and we get here with someone banging on the door screaming 'let me out let me out'." You grabbed the clipboard containing a checklist of the areas you were to double check on before locking up and proceeded to glance over each area of the set. 

Just as you were wrapping up your check of the cast trailers, a voice in the relative darkness startled you. "Miss Y/L/N." You straightened your posture and started fumbling in your pocket for something, anything to defend yourself with. Then you remembered the keys, so you quickly started threading each key in between your fingers, when you felt two large hands gently grasp your shoulders. "Shh shh, it's alright. It's just me. You're safe."

You let out the heaving breath you were holding, recognizing the voice immediately. "Tom," you breathed out, the fear leaving your body, but the tension remaining. "Fucking hell I was about to stab you." You felt your spine go frigid as you felt him pressing tender kisses to the top of your head as his hand traveled down your arm to deftly remove the keys from between your fingers. 

"I didn't mean to startle you," he whispered into your hair, his hand once again traveling up your arm and resumed its place on your shoulder. "I simply wanted to ensure you were safe. I didn't see you come out of the studio." He moved his head to press a kiss to your temple. "I apologize, goddess."

There was that name again, stealing all the breath from your lungs and making you question so much about you. About him. But mostly it made you question…"Why do you keep calling me that?" 

His hand traveled up to lightly grasp your chin, urging you to turn your head and look up at him. "Because that's what I call you," he answered simply, bringing his face much closer to yours. Once he was close enough that you could feel his breath on your lips, he whispered, "When I dream of you." 

Instead of saying anything, you opted to bring your hand up to the back of his neck, threading your fingers through his short dark blond curls and gently pulling him down towards you, touching your lips to his briefly in a tentative, fleeting kiss. This led to him quickly turning you to face him, lifting you by the backs of your thighs, and backing you into the side of the nearest trailer. 

When he had you securely trapped between him and the trailer, he brought his hand up to cup your face, while the other roamed from your thigh and up the side of your body. Your breath hitched in your throat as you felt his thumb lightly graze the side of your breast. 

Just as he was about to lean in to kiss you, you breathed out, "Wait." He stopped immediately, his eyes quickly becoming apologetic. "I-I don't know…" you stammered, trying to find your words, but quickly realizing that the most honest words you had at the moment were, "I don't know how to be what you want. I don't know anything--" 

A smile of relief began to spread across his face. "It's alright." He pressed a quick kiss to your lips, as if to reassure you. "I simply want you, Y/N. As you are." A soft kiss to your cheek, then your jaw. "I want to make you happy." A kiss to the skin below your ear, before placing his hand lightly around your throat, sending a thrill throughout your entire body, and then whispering, "I want to satisfy you." 

"And what do you get out of this?" you breathed out. "Seems to me I'm the only one benefiting from this, that's not right." 

"Me? That's easy," he murmured against your skin as he rolled his hips into yours, causing you to let out an obscene moan that echoed through the dark empty halls of the studio. "I get you." 

This was an unusual morning. Unusual in the sense that this time, you were not woken up by the scandalous sound of your alarm, rather you'd awoken in this blissful, sated state. Your mind raced through the memories from last night, how you'd practically raced to your hotel room hand in hand with Tom after you'd locked up in the studio. 

The almost reverent way he stripped you of your clothing, pausing to press kisses to every new area of skin exposed to him, how he already had you a writhing mess before he even took off your panties. How he brought you and pushed you well past the point of complete ecstasy with his fingers and his mouth multiple times before he even made love to you.

Repeatedly.

You bit your lip as the memories came at you in vivid detail, pushing yourself off of your bed to get ready for the day ahead. Before you could even begin to inch yourself out of the bed, an arm tightened around your waist, pulling your naked body against a broad, toned, equally naked form. 

A smile found its way to your face with no effort at all as you placed your hand over the arm wrapped around you, your fingertips tracing the length of the forearm, causing him to stir and press his body even closer to yours. A hybrid between a giggle and a moan escaped your lips as he pressed a kiss to your shoulder, his hum of satisfaction vibrating throughout your body. 

He moved his kisses across your shoulder, pausing for a good few moments on the juncture of your shoulder and your neck before moving up to your ear and whispering in the most delicious sleep-laden voice, "Good morning, goddess." 

A/N: Please don't crucify me for the non-smutty implied smut, I am babie. But the idea refused to leave my head so I had to write it.

This insanity was based off of this post because I'm gonna be honest, my brain went places when I saw those pictures. AND THE GIF

Here's a bonus gif for those who read until the end:

Taglist: @lokisgoodgirl @lokischambermaid @imalovernotahater @mygfloki @lucylaufeyson3 @thomase1 @springdandelixn @fictive-sl0th @mochie85 @laliceee @xorpsbane @gigglingtigger @silverfire475 @cabingrlandrandomcrap @vickie5446 @salempoe @lokixryss @sinsandguilt @lokidbadguy @alexakeyloveloki @glitterylokislut @arch-venus25 @freefrommars @littlemortals @cakesandtom @girl-of-multi-fandoms @mischief2sarawr @thedistractedagglomeration @five-miles-over @goblingirlsarah @peaches1958 @huntress-artemiss @lilibet261 @iobsessoverfictionalmen @holymultiplefandomsbatman @lovingchoices14 @avoliax @devilsadvocactus @purplegrrl27 @lokiprompts @sititran @imherefortomhiddleston @ladyjames78 @stupidthoughtsinwriting

[umnitsa]

You should mess with Jim - 2

Summary: Big Jim is laying in the sun.

A/N: I'm telling you, I can't stop thinking of it, so I'm writing at the speed of light, let's enjoy it while it lasts XD

Pairing: retiredpornstar!Hopper x fem!Reader

CW: Explicit descriptions of sex. Reader is naughty.

The worst thing about your house was that you could see the neighbor’s backyard from the kitchen. It wouldn’t bother you at all if you had another neighbor.

You could see Big Jim laying on a beach chair, wearing just black swim briefs.

A few choice images erupted in your head, scenes where Big Jim looked tanned and healthy, muscles flexing under his skin. You huffed, washing the dishes as slowly as you could.

Jim yawned and stretched his arms and back, then placed one hand behind his neck, the other resting against his belly. You could see his skin glint under the sun. He probably put the sunblock on before leaving the house.

You could feel your panties soaked already.

Jim moved his fingers ever so lightly over his belly.

You took a moment to consider his attraction to him, and how heavily you reacted.

It wasn’t just a matter of size, honestly. It was mostly the way he looked, always so large, so tall, occupying all space in the shot, his big hands sliding over skin, backs, bellies, and arms.

…maybe it was a size thing.

It was also the way he sounded, his voice low, sadly too low for the microphones, all trained on the women’s reactions… But you could hear his grunts and his whispers. He growled sometimes.

And he was always a gentle partner, making sure the actress was in a mostly comfortable position. He used his size to support them, and no matter if he held them in a mating press, the ladies looked like they could breathe.

Porn didn’t always look that fun.

He ate pussy like a man possessed. It wasn’t a pretty image for the camera, but the reactions he pulled from the women were gold.

Whenever there were scenes with low editing or just one camera, he would spend a whole long time fingering the girls, smiling sweetly at their reactions. Preparing them.

It made you wonder who was the man behind the show.

What did he like? What was he like when the cameras were off?

Although you had a pretty good idea of what he liked, he was one of those men who couldn’t fake too much. He did some of those terrible scenes at the beginning of his career, but it quickly vanished the moment directors and producers found out the glory that was a fully aroused Big Jim, pulsing precome into a willing mouth.

His sunglasses reflected the sun as he moved, his hand sliding down his belly and over his cock. He grabbed himself, adjusting himself over his hip, giving himself space to harden.

You huffed, turning the faucet off and moving to the living room quickly. You were already the creepy neighbor.

***

Jim chuckled low, grabbing his cigarettes and lighting one, absentmindedly. He had watched you sigh deeply, then leave the window, the moment he touched his cock.

His bait worked.

You were a fan.

This almost made him reconsider. He has had his share of fans in the past, and they expected a big performance. They wanted to feel like it was a porno, but in a safe way, without the cameras and the exposition.

He huffed, then took a long drag of his cigarette.

He was tired of girls complaining he liked to go slow.

Jim looked at your window, half expecting you to be there, with your hungry, longing eyes. You made him curious. Maybe he really should bake you the cookies.

He needed something to fill up his time.

Jim would have continued his work but as he was getting older, even with his charisma (and his cock), he was being typecasted. While he didn’t mind an old/young scene, he didn’t enjoy the incestuous overtones so common in the industry.

He was big enough to pair with some other people and release content on his own terms, but it was just too much work.

Maybe he was too old for this shit.

[jsuh]

Ohmygod this whole taeil situation is such an eye opener. I just joined this fandom just a few months ago and I am disgusted cuz wtf??!? Even though he was barely active since I became a fan he still managed to create this innocent image in my head. This just goes to show how you truly don't know these people. I mean I knew that kpop is designed to feed into people's parasocialism but I thought I was safe from it. This news has changed my entire perspective. I wonder if the other members knew about this, I mean they were actually close right??! So did they just let it slide and acted as if everything is okay or was this mf just pretending to be good in front of EVERYBODY??? There was truly no way we could've known this. The persona that he had created was so pure that noone saw this coming.

My prayers go out to the victim. Hopefully justice will be served!!!

i'm sorry this is your experience so early into stanning the group! what i can say is that i hope they're no all bad and that we still have some genuine artists left in nct that really love their job and are good people. what's more, the fandom is full of great fans, i've made some great friends here.

regarding the rest of the boys i honestly don't know. i have no idea what to think, especially because there's so much going on that we don't have access to. taeil's friend of 17 years unfollowed him only today, so who knows, maybe he was hiding everything from the world the whole time. he wasn't a part of most schedules lately, but we don't really know if all that was the reason behind it (it probably was partially but you get it). in the end kpop is a horrible industry so maybe they were waiting for the statement to just officially unfollow. I REALLY DON'T KNOW i don't want to assume anything, but it's all just very disappointing.

i hope you're okay!

[izvmimi]

Matchlit - Chapter 6

cw: reader is mentioned by a hero name. suggestive situation.

Masterlist

Katsuki has dreaded this moment for weeks since this entire ordeal started but as Kasumi provides the necessary pressure to speak first before she speaks definitively, he realizes that the best thing to do is enlist the help of his best friend.

And as such, Eijiro is the first one to know.

In fact, at this very juncture in time, Katsuki is wondering if Kirishima really understands the gravity of what he just told him, because his mouth is wide open and unspeaking by the time Katsuki is done talking, and Katsuki is aggravated enough that he wonders if he should just shove his whole fist in there and take out all his shark teeth at once.

“You’re kidding, aren’t you?” is all Kirishima can finally come up with. Katsuki groans and throws the rest of his beer back then slams his glass on the table, causing both the bartender and the man next to him to give him alarmed and annoyed looks, respectively. Katsuki groans but makes a mental note to set it down quieter next time. Kirishima frowns. 

“What are you going to do?”

“There’s nothing I can do.” Katsuki says. “I’m stuck. Her family is too powerful and it turns out my mom practically sold me out to this woman.”

“I mean, what could she possibly have on you?” 

“A signed contract that I’ll go through with this marriage signed not by me, but by my fucking mom. Enough that it could potentially ruin all of her connections in the fashion industry, and honestly, my reputation given that these weirdos would run the media circus on me.”

Kirishima takes a big gulp of his drink as well.

“Sounds like a lot,” he starts, then leans back in his stool, gripping the sides of the seat carefully as he positions himself. He studies Katsuki’s profile carefully, watching his expression as the latter stares into his open glass then sighs. 

“Years ago, I wouldn’t have given a shit what others thought, but now...”

Kirishima nods. The brashness of youth fades with age somewhat and Katsuki has been humbled in more ways than others. Even if the initial boldness remains, that specific type of unabashedness is no longer something he wears as self-defense.

Silence sits between the two of them for another moment, and then Kirishima sighs loudly.

“Is she hot at least?” Kirishima asks. Katsuki turns sharply and glares at him, and Kirishima raises his hands up in defeat. “Listen, I’m trying to be optimistic!”

Katsuki rolls his eyes but does type in the characters “Oshiro Kasumi” into the search engine query, clicks on the first image, and slides his phone over to Kirishima. Kirishima’s jaw drops again.

“Fuck, dude,” he starts, a low whistle in his throat, but then he sees Bakugou’s scowl, and quickly whispers a ‘sorry’ under his breath. A few moments pass and Kirishima tries again.

“Listen, she’s hot, maybe she seems like she could be a bit on the sassier side but that’s nothing you can’t handle, she’s loaded… maybe this isn’t the worst possible situation for you?” 

Katsuki gives him a look.

“Do you want to marry her?” he hisses. The blood rushes from Kirishima’s face.

“That’s not the point and plus I’m obviously spoken for,” he replies. Bakugou cracks a smile at the latter half, but then it wipes off his face as his thoughts drift to you again. Kirishima doesn’t know the truth, even if he’s suspected that he has a thing for you, and Katsuki wonders if it’s worth saying anything now. 

His whole life could blow up at any time now though, so he finally fesses up. After all, that’s the only real complicating context here.

“I kissed ___. At the beach.” 

The weight of his words out loud seems to suck the air out of the room with its gravity, a whooshing sound that only he can hear. And then there’s silence. 

He hasn’t really thought about it until he said it out loud just now, has he? He kissed you. He pressed his lips onto yours, and wanted to do it again and again and again. Whether alcohol lowered his inhibition or not, he had wanted to, with all his heart, and honestly, perhaps much, much more.

His heart races for a moment then stops, and then Kirishima is shaking his head at him.

“Bro.”

Kirishima immediately understands his hesitation and knows very little can be said that Katsuki doesn’t already know.

Thus, there’s nothing more to say after that. The two of them finish their drinks in understanding silence.

---

“Thank you, Miss Rampage!”

The little boy accepts his dog semi-awkwardly from your hands - in fact, his pet jumps into him and nearly knocks him over, licking him fervently and the sight of the little boy giggling does warm your heart a bit. Searching for lost pets isn’t the most glamorous part of hero work, but a quiet shift means less danger for civilians and more time to think about what the subject of your next photobook will be. You consider the theme of complicated friendship, then shake your head before Katsuki can come to mind. Thoughts of him and how he feels about you are at bay for now, and as you return your communicator to the patrol control desk, you swipe away from the unopened text message from him, and call your friend instead. 

“Are you already at the bakery?”

“Fuck, I forgot which one!!!” June panics.

You laugh and text her the address as you hop on the bus downtown. The two of you are meeting up to collect a cake for Lili and Izuku’s joint surprise birthday party. It is neither of their birthdays, but they worked through them last week, one after the other, and you and June had vowed to rectify that for both of them -

With the help of the rest of Class 1A, of course. 

June looks out of breath by the time you make it outside of the bakery and you tease her immediately, as friends do.

“Did you actually run here?” 

June pouts. 

“I didn’t want to be late!”

“To pick up a cake?” you ask. Then you see the hickey blooming on her neck and burst out laughing and she catches your gaze then reddens.

“Listen, just don’t say anything!”

You vow to keep your mouth shut. Until then. 

The cake stays in June’s fridge and she indulges you in other desserts she made herself on her day off. Over a blueberry cake roll, you ask her more about how she finally managed to break up her situationship with Shinsou, and she finally reveals to you that she has yet to say anything.

You blink, then shove another forkful of cake into your mouth.

“This will end fantastic,” you say, sarcastically. June sighs and sinks into her seat.

“It’s not like I know how to break up with someone I was never actually dating,” she laments. She takes another sip of her coffee and the final drops through her straw are extra loud. She sighs loudly again, and you shake your head, mock disapprovingly.  

“Just tell him you’ve moved on.”

June twists her mouth to the side. “What if he begs me?”

You blink. You hadn’t considered that.

“Do you think he will?”

June tilts her head to the side. “Are you implying he wouldn’t?”

“I’m just saying!”

June breathes through her nose then laughs.

“I didn’t expect this to happen to me of all people,” she sighs. “Life comes at you fast.”

“You just gotta cum faster.”

June gives you a look and you raise your hands up. “Sorry!”

There’s a pause, and you consider that perhaps you should tell her what is troubling you rather than letting her be the only one to bear the brunt of all of the relationship-related teasing. The text you haven’t yet replied to seems to be taunting you every time you look at your phone, even though the banner is no longer up. 

All he asks is how you’re doing, and the truth is simple. Fine and not fine at all.

Again you distract yourself.

“Hey, do you think Hitoshi will make you shit yourself in public?” June’s mouth drops open and you laugh hard enough that you forget that your heart isn’t still.

---

The next day, nearly all of Class IA is hidden in Izuku and Lili’s small apartment by way of Iida’s trusty work in convincing Izuku to give him a temporary code so he could grab something for work. You and your friends have all been lying in wait for the past ten minutes, and are excited once you can hear the two’s footsteps, although somewhat disjointed and stumbling, make their way to to the door, but when the lights flip back on before anyone can scream Surprise, they’re greeted by a flash of yellow and blue All Might themed underwear, and both straps of Lili’s dress halfway down her shoulders. 

There is a split second of silent shock for nearly 20 people.

Everyone holds their breath, and Lili is the only one who gasps audibly but in a flash of green lightning, both of them disappear and the only indication that they’ve hidden away in their bedroom is the loud sound of the door slamming shut.

Another very, very pregnant silence settles in again, quiet enough you could hear a pin drop.

Then Denki and Kirishima both burst into laughter, Ochaco and Iida turn red as beets, June rubs her face and you stand there, holding an oversized cake with both their hero colors on it and unblown candles.

“These fucking-” Katsuki starts from the back, then Jirou, already exhausted, turns on the music as loud as she can. 

“They’re gonna have to get out of there eventually, so might as well start the party.”

Moments later, the two resurface, Lili making sure that she’s diametrically opposed distance-wise from Izuku in the room for the rest of the night, and Izuku reddening intermittently any time Denki or Sero glance in his direction. The night goes quickly and by the end of the night Lili and June have cornered you in the kitchen as you sip a beer and try to follow Mina’s drunk and rapid train of thought. 

Lili pulls you away flashing a smile at the circle of girls that have engulfed you, both hands on your shoulders, excusing you from Jirou who looks like she wants to go home and Momo who still manages to be standing, despite her lean across the kitchen counter which conveys how badly she needs to turn in for the night. 

June follows the two of you as Lili guides you to the bathroom and locks the door behind you. Your eyebrows furrow.

“What the hell..”

“Yes, exactly, what the hell?” Lili begins. You turn to June for support and she shrugs. 

“Is there a reason why you’re avoiding Katsuki?” she asks. “What did he do?  You’ve been acting strange since the trip and now I can literally trace a path where he’s following you and you’re making sure you’re not within 10 feet of each other for more than 2 minutes.”

You sigh. 

“Nothing happened.”

“Sounds fake.” June says, arms crossed and leaning against the bathroom door. Lili takes a deep breath, then ushers you to have a seat on the covered toilet seat.

Lili gives you another look, the look she gives when she’s hoping you won’t lie to her and you finally break. 

“We kissed, that’s all.”

June’s eyes widen, and Lili’s lips purse. It’s not an issue yet, but the fact that your lips still pull into a frown makes her anxious. 

“What happened after?” June says, softly. She’s leaned down into a semi-squat and she looks at you from below as you press your legs together and let out another embarrassed sigh. 

“Literally nothing. It’s like we’re pretending it never happened, but I feel like we can’t be friends anymore. Everything is in limbo.”

You try not to cry but when you look up at Lili, her lips are pursed, as though she’s making a mental calculation. Her hand presses lightly on your shoulder again, but then the music suddenly pauses outside, dwarfed by the sound of Bakugou yelling over the music. 

“No fucking way you showed up here!”

You find yourself moving faster than you expect, as you peek outside. A few guests are crowded at the entrance to the apartment, and Lili marches out first, trying to see who is entering her house and causing Izuku and Kirishima to try to shush Katsuki down. From your vantage point, you can just see his head pop out from the huddle of concentrated bodies, and you just see his back as you move closer. Lili pushes her way gently past Sato and Shoji, then finds Izuku and links her arm up with him, asking what the problem is. Izuku whispers something to her, and Lili’s eyes widen before she glances back at you, distress in her expression. 

Katsuki storms out and Kirishima follows him, the door slamming behind him. You don’t catch what’s going on as the two leave.

Curious, you make your way towards them as the crowd disperses, a few of the guests chattering among themselves in hushed tones. A couple eyes seem to linger on you, notably Mina and Ochaco’s curious expressions, and this puts you in slight distress. 

“What happened?” you ask Izuku.

Lili refrains but Izuku gives her a look, then turns to you. 

“Kacchan’s fiancée showed up.”

And the air is knocked out of your lungs. 

[vlad-theimplier]

WIP Wednesday: Custos Custodium

Still getting into the habit--have a WIP snapshot! Jensen must have had a first visit to the Time Machine, and I have to imagine that he and Koller made quite the impression on one another. Check out the whole fic here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/55686901/chapters/141357007

"After me now, please,” and Koller tugged his shoulder with ginger metal fingers. He walked through what was obviously a secret doorway and heard it close behind him, waiting politely to open his eyes until they entered an elevator that dinged and descended with a grinding lurch.

They stepped out into a charnel house in blood and iron, and he feared he’d come to entirely the wrong sort of place after all. A set of modern dentist’s lights on articulated arms spotlit a vintage dentist’s chair, all cracked leather and chrome: clean, but surrounded by red streaks leading to a floor drain in the concrete nearby. Screens holding CT scans, MRIs, ultrasounds, and other imaging Jensen didn’t recognize stood around the disconcerting centerpiece. Five monitors sat edge-to-edge on the desk along one wall, backstopping a graveyard of takeout containers and soda cans that made Jensen’s old apartment look neat and Pritchard’s desk at Sarif Industries look neurotically tidy. Skeletal chicken feet jutted from several of the boxes, their bony toes held together by scraps of cartilage and tendon that had curled them as they dried.

From the ceiling hung sealed bags in droves, clearly opened and reused, each one holding an augmentation of some kind. Arms, legs, feet, eyeballs alone and in pairs, neural hubs… the array was dizzying. More augs stood in glass cases dotting the floor. Vials of Neuropozyne and a score of other substances stood in glass-fronted cabinets, a few refrigerated. A pair of wheeled carts sat haphazardly near them, stacked with gauze and bandages, needle and thread, soldering iron and cutting torch.

Sticky notes wallpapered the support pillars and posters for augmentation firms looked down from over the computer screens, all curling from their bottom corners. Water trickled somewhere nearby. Jensen smelled rust and damp and realized they were near the sewers, although fortunately not a malodorous section of them. He clenched his jaw in dismay.

“Well, let me have a look!” Koller said. “Into the Chair, come on, come on, I want to see what’s under your hood!”

Jensen held up a quelling hand. “I didn’t come here to get opened up like a can of beans. I need a… a system reset, or something. I had a bad injury, was in a coma for a while, and when I came out, I couldn’t use half my augs.”

Koller looked like a kicked puppy. Jensen watched him wring his metal hands and thought he might burst into tears. But he only heaved a gusty sigh and said, “Okay, okay, not today. But someday!” He raised a dramatic finger. “Someday you will need the Chair, and the Chair will be waiting for you. And I’ll give you a hand. Or two, or three.”

Koller’s gaze flicked to a rack that Jensen realized held replacement hands and arms for detailed aug work. Saws and drills and drivers and probes and laser scalpels… He shuddered, as much at the thought of hot-swapping entire limbs as at the armamentarium of terrifying devices on display.

They each sank into a much more normal office chair. “So, show me what’s on your mind,” Koller said, pulling out a neural interface cable. Jensen groaned and thumbed open the port on his temple, the hexagonal divot sliding sideways and bunching up the skin. “Aha, ha, I’m sorry,” said Koller as he leaned forward and plugged in the jack, patently nothing of the sort. “It helps me keep my English skills in good shape. Puns are hard, you know? It is like an exercise, a workout. Pun-ishing, yes? Yes?”

Jensen groaned again. “Just reboot my hub or whatever you need to do.”

But Koller was not listening. “Oh… that’s interesting. That’s very interesting now indeed. Hmmm. Ooh, so fancy, Mister Sarif. Someday I will shake your hand. Maybe open it up and look inside, too… hmmmmm…”

He broke into a tuneless whistle as he hammered at his computer, diagrams flashing across the monitors. Jensen recognized several from the manual Dr. Markovic had given him when he woke up in Detroit. “Icarus, very cool, very cool, yes. I bet it is dramatic when you use it. You’ll let me see sometime. Energy converter is most efficient, good, for all your power needs. And big biocells, too—who needs two kidneys anyway? Redundant. Sentinel, okay, nice, we do not need to waste anesthesia on you—”

“Excuse me?”

That got Koller’s attention. “Ah, yes, well, it is only… I don’t have very much. Painkillers, sure, but to put someone underneath?”

“Under.”

“Under, thank you—this is something I do only when I have to.”

His sources had been clear. Koller was the best there was in Prague, probably in the Czech Republic. He had only a few competitors in all of continental Europe. Jensen gritted his teeth. “The Icarus is glitchy. My smart vision and my cloak aren’t working at all.”

Koller’s eyes lit up, surprisingly still organic. “Cloak? Cloak! GlassShield is the Sarif one, yes? Ah, so cool… yes, yes, I’m looking. Eyes first. Should be easy. Blind for thirty seconds, okay?”

Despite Koller’s erratic, frenetic energy and bloodstained floor, that was more informed consent than he’d ever gotten from Dr. Markovic or Sarif. “Yeah. Go ahead.”

“Tři, dva, jeden…” Darkness. He suppressed a flinch and counted breaths. In, out, in, out. It was like staring down the pit of Panchaea, underwater, before he’d looked desperately upwards and seen the sky, that tiny, distant, hopeless hope—nope. Just breathe. In, out. In, out. His eyes turned back on like a thrown switch. In and out and he was okay.

“Try now!” Koller said, oblivious to his brush with panic. He clenched his eyeballs in the way that made smart vision activate, and there indeed it was.

“Nice. Good work.”

Koller preened visibly, then ducked his head, abashed. “No problem. I turn it off and on again, it’s all. Now Icarus… Hmmm. Okay, I see him. Mister Sarif is maybe not so smart as I thought. This one is tricky because reboot will require immediate activation. I will use laptop—we can go to the roof.”

“Activation… Christ. You’re joking.”

“I never joke!” said Koller, hand to his heart. “Okay, sometimes I joke. A lot. But not about patients. It’s seven or eight meters—those legs will be fine if anything goes wrong. Not that it will!”

“Save it for last, I guess. The cloak?”

Koller’s fingers hammered his keyboard again. “Running diagnostic… and… oh. Needs recalibration. Augmentation has forgotten shape of user and creates conflict with shape of cloak field. I will provide manual override, if you want, but calibration is easy.”

“Manual override?”

“Takes more energy but lets you expand or contract the cloak field. Physics means only some changes are possible. Meanwhile, I hit calibrate, you stand in the middle of empty space, and the field detects its own interference with you. No problem.”

“Sure. Give it to me.”

A new icon appeared in his HUD before shrinking away to nothing. “Play with it when you like. Now, I set for thirty-second delay, and… go.” Koller unplugged the cable and ushered him past a cluttered little bedroom to a flat, uncluttered patch of concrete near the sewer. He stood and waited, still as a statue. His cloak activated, but rather than hiding him, it picked out the surface of his body and clothes in golden tessellations. They rippled over him, a geometric wave of light, before fading away.

“Will it still hide my guns?” he asked.

“Yes, profiles for most weapons are built-in, or the cloak will read them from the smart link. This is for baseline. You should be okay now! Try it! I want to see. Or, see not seeing? Is like Cheshire man, I think. Smile!”

He did not smile, let alone match Koller’s manic grin, but he triggered the cloak. It worked, all right, and he became smoothly invisible to himself—although the damn thing still chewed through his energy reserves. He turned it off promptly. Koller was hopping up and down with delight, clapping his hands with a metallic clangor.

“So coooooool… okay! Now you jump off the roof, yes? Yes!”

Jensen buried his face in his palms. “Yeah. Fine. Let’s go.”

[presidentstalkeyes]

Another one for the OC backlog! I uploaded two versions purely because Tumblr kept blowing up the first image and making it look all grainy and awful. :V

Growing up in a poor part of Vancouver, Gisu and Rody were best friends for as long as they could remember. They first met in preschool, after Rody's parents had another fight and she was hiding away from everyone, and Gisu cheered her up by tobogganing down the playground slide and trying (and failing) to front-roll off the end.

For years, they spent almost all of their free time together, whether that was climbing over increasingly piled-high objects, competing in mock-rap battles, making fun of Gisu's brother's boring-ass stories, or stealing the mean girls' fashion dolls and burning them with an industrial blowtorch. Their true ambition, though, was to make it big in the skateboarding world.

Rody was present for the night that Gisu discovered her psychic powers - out hours past bedtime, attempting to pull a sick gap at the docks, she choked after making the jump and would have smacked into a wall of water had she not stopped herself from colliding at the last second.

Rody was conflicted - she'd heard stories from her parents about psychics, especially her dad, who always seemed to have a different conspiracy theory every day ('psychics are being used by the CIA to spy on us!' 'Psychics run the CIA!' 'The Psychonauts run the world!' 'The Psychonauts are puppets of the Illuminati, who are also psychics!' Etc etc.). She knew of course that her dad was crazy, and Gisu was her friend, but still, psychics did have a lot of power, and surely not all of them would use it wisely, right?

Gisu's family seemed to be accepting, and over time she became more and more interested in learning about her powers. Rody tried to be supportive (and they did have fun at first, laughing at the dumb things her dad said about psychics), but she'd have been lying if she hadn't been annoyed at how much time Gisu spent at home or at the library, reading books about psychic mumbo-jumbo that she'd never understand in a million years, and she felt increasingly sidelined. It didn't help that her family situation had only gotten worse and she didn't really have any other friends besides Gisu.

Things reached a breaking point when, just weeks away from a big skating contest they had both been practising for, Gisu received a letter from the Psychonauts, accepting her to be fast-tracked into the Intern program (due to her age, she was ineligible to attend Whispering Rock, so she instead took a series of written and practical exams to demonstrate that she had the required understanding of psycho-safety). This was the first time Rody had heard about this. The two of them had a huge fight. Neither of them handled it particularly well. Rody accused Gisu of trying to ditch her because she didn't have any 'cool powers'. Gisu admitted she didn't tell Rody because she 'knew [she'd] be all weird about it' and accused her of being 'clingy' and having no life outside of their friendship.

They still entered the skating contest, and Gisu won first prize. Ordinarily Rody wouldn't have cared, but after their fight, it was the final straw. Wanting to hurt Gisu as much as she'd been hurt, she went up on stage and accused Gisu of cheating using her psychic powers, outing her as a psychic in front of over a hundred people. As psychics were forbidden from competing in the competition for this exact reason, she was disqualified. She ran home in tears.

Rody regretted it almost immediately, but it took her a whole week to work up the courage to try apologizing. But by then it was too late; Gisu had already left to join the Intern program. They haven't spoken to each other since.

Gisu still thinks about her old friend sometimes; sometimes she thinks she was to blame for what happened, other times she thinks Rody was a toxic influence all along and she made the right decision to cut her out of her life. Mostly she just tries not to think about her at all.

She'd be lying if she said Dion didn't bring back some unpleasant memories.

[kimyoonmiauthor]

The Bad Week on Twitter in publishing and possible SOLUTIONS to the problems discussed.

"I’m sorry, not sorry ’bout what I said Don't lose your head" --Anne Boleyn, Six, the Musical

Twitter updated their software back end to handle more images, so I added the full text and images into this post.

I’m aware of the fact by doing this post someone is going to say: “You hate all agents, the entire industry, you hate me, and you know nothing. I’m black balling you.” simply for doing this post or try to find solidarity, but I’m begging with a bunch of other writers that we work together on a problem I know we all collectively see. I’m doing cold reporting as well as trying to find a way through to bring us together. And this isn’t the first time I’ve tried to do this.

My personal dream is end to end diversity in the bookstore/Library without question. Indie and Barnes and Nobles alike. I was highly affected by the lack of diversity in my childhood, and it’s a gap I want to fill/be filled. I’m hoping you dream it too and are willing to work with us to achieve better numbers and better faith. I want uplift, not only for myself, but others in my position. This has sections, I’m going to be the tdlr; first. The sections are:

tldr; get the point already

Me and previous activism so you have some faith I'm not here to yell and you know that I have some clue about the publishing industry. I'm just the messenger don't shoot me. I'm solutions-oriented.

History of the Diversity Movement (as I know it)

Statistics

This Bad Week in Publishing on Twitter

Tangible Solutions to reach our goals.

To be clear, I'm here to report, but also use my anthropology degree in systems to try to improve the system and show everyone what we see on our end, so that hopefully the whole industry coordinates so it's not authors/writers v. agents/publishers (the people)/publicists/booksellers/editors. From talking to other authors pinning their hopes on trad publishing, we, too, ache for cooperation. And what we are hoping is that industry professionals will help us with that so we can achieve and fight for it together by extending empathy and cooperation.

I, personally, understand how asking for change feels like it might be hating you, personally, but I think the point is us coordinating together to better serve the readership. Shouldn't we focus on that?

The rest of the post is here because tumblr wouldn’t allow me to post all of the relevant images:

Too long, didn't read, get to the point already

Authors/writers are confused because what we see on our end are these statistics from Pew Research center:

Since 1980's cishet male readership has slid to lower and lower with a lot of articles speculating why, but publishers try harder to bring them back. The last numbers sliding to as much as ~80% women ~20% men readership with as much as ~90% women as serial readers.

And Black College-educated women being the now principal readers. We unfortunately don't have disabled readership numbers, but I speculate those numbers are high.

It's what sells, but we aren't given numbers on your end, so from our end, we're trying to fill a market you won't sell to, so we feel frustration. Wait, aren't we selling to a demographic that really loves diversity?

What we want is numbers from your end so we can UNDERSTAND WHY. It would also help us generally with comps, etc. We're willing to do the groundswell work to ask bookstores and readership to also pitch in. Just come and talk to us and show us what money is generally being put into a diversity book, and also give us the freedom to prove to you we can put out our most creative and sell it. We're not asking for laziness on our end and you do all the work. We're asking for cooperation and transparency.

Some background on me because clicking the profile is so hard:

I've been studying publishing since I was 13 years old. One of the first bits of advice I ever got from Writer's Digest was: Writers need to know contracts and the industry too, to protect themselves. So, I've done my best to keep up.

I've worked as a production assistant at a publishing company--though for translated works, which included editing and compiling Product Bibles. I got in by contacting the head of the company with editing mistakes (I was young and I didn't think much by doing this--I wouldn't recommend it usually. The young are brave and occasionally a bit thickheaded). I also bothered to write a rejection for someone as well.

I know the process and have listened to hours of writers telling me how it works and read blogs back in the day religiously. I can give you a history of publishing from the roots of China all the way to present day in staggeringly geekish details. You don't want to try me because it's a book.

I've read books and watched movies *just* to understand why that piece of media was hated or loved, watched countless reaction videos to books, movies, pop culture from around the world, so I can keep tabs on not just the US market, but the world market. I've collected tidbits about how other markets work and why. I wouldn't have done that without a really deep love for this industry. No one else really would care exactly how publishing is changing in Japan under the pressures of the internet in the US except industry professonals.

I've also tried over the years to find solutions to social justice problems:

I used to make every year for Nanowrimo lists of resources to write diversity until the moderators got upset one year and locked all the threads. I put my neck on the line for that. This was, BTW, long before "We Need Diverse Books" was a thing. I got a lot of hate for simply compiling the list of resources. (That was all I did and people breathed on me for it.)

I worked on the rehoming situation for the boy that was in Ohio. I sent a bunch of people to pressure the governor and sheriff's department about his welfare. And we got a result; China is going to quit adopting children out to social influencers. Holt also reconsidered their policies because I got adoptive parents, adoptees and the general public to cooperate on a single goal. Up to that point social influencers were using his situation to get money and comment on it, but not do any actions to solve it. BTW, the boy also ended up in a better situation as police followed up and made sure.

I tried to work on the communication problems with adoption in Korea.

I was the one that asked that PoC Agents and Associate PoC agents get credit on the agency listings so they could move up the world for more transparency. This caused a ground swell and now it's standard practice, with more PoC agents getting promoted as a result. I was sure I was going to get hated for that too.

I also questioned the whole "PoC/diversity fad" thing, though I'm not sure if it was completely from me, but I was one of the voices that asked is this really necessary after mass trauma? What should mswls look like for diversity?

I had a thread on why your book would be banned in support of ALA's Banned Book week to get people thinking in a fun way about the impact of banned books and if it is possible to ever write a book that won't get banned (and the answer is no.)

I also did a few loose surveys on number of rejections before being published and a general writer survey on Nanowrimo to get a sense of the demographics (The long questions list was so writers could practice interview questions and help those who had school projects on Nanowrimo.) I learned a lot from running those surveys, such as how to respect other writers and if identity correlated to how likely someone was going to get published.

I've also tried to help authors/graphic design artists, etc with reading contracts on occasion too.

My activism has been minor because I have limited wavelength for drama, but I've done my best to contribute something *positive* rather than merely pile on. I also backtracked claims (Fact checking is something I do frequently) and tried to posit solutions to problems with cooperation. I did a post on what writers would love agents to have as policies by working together with an agent and writers and talking it through. I *love* cooperation.

Full disclosure: I've been through a lot of trauma, and I'm drama phobic, but it's also made me very focused on less accusations and more solutions. This is 100% what I'm looking to do. Bring groups together to attack a singular problem. BTW, I'm not saying my solutions are perfect. But can we talk about it and work on it together?

History of the Diversity Movement (as I know it)

Agents

According to On Writing by Stephen King, it rose in the 1970's -1980's... so it's a relatively new profession. He was deadset against agents, saying that hiring a contract lawyer was more effective. But as I'll cover, there were solid arguments for the need for this profession.

Before 2009

So after the 19th century, a bunch of white men pretty much locked out a bunch of women and diversity voices by saying their writing was inferior in a variety of ways (lol I'm working on a nonfiction book about this--well a chapter). This caused issues pretty early in the rise of the publishing industry as the tech to reach the general public got better. A lot of the fiction for (white) women was relegated to being either "trash" or "Literary" (which is the fate of a lot of PoC written for PoC books.) TT I don't have stats for Diversity books.

However, the internet hit and people that were previously disconnected found out that other people thought the same thing, and the industry shifted significantly as self-publishing became more viable than before. An industry also rose to try to meet the demand, but this left traditional publishing in a lurch.

But on the diversity side people could finally ask questions about representation and connect to other authors like them.

2009

There was a groundswell after The Mammoth Book of Mindblowing SF had a controversy, where the authors were all white cis male. This controversy hit Nanowrimo and then exploded from there. NK Jemisin said that she probably wouldn't have had her books published without it. <3 (She helped me as I helped her, but I'm not saying how I know that.)

There was adult books being published as well as YA of different backgrounds. We got Saladin Ahmed from that... and then...

We Need Diverse Books

came out. And then all of the diversity was stuffed over time into YA. Part of it was their fault as they gave up on Adult demographics books, and part of it got heat for chasing only authors. Authors felt like they were getting chased out of YA. Some of the reporting was terrible (I'm looking at you Publisher's Weekly. You know what you did, which is why you needed to call for a PoC editor after my call out).

Some people in the We Need Diverse Books movement are mad at me because I asked them to represent Black people and adults, and do better with adoption presentation... and questioned why they chased after only writers, not publishers and the industry as a whole. (As I said, my jam is cooperation as a whole)

There were also general quibbles from writers about how they were doing this, and trying to do upfront censorship, limiting things, but that's a whole mess to explain.

Because of college I had to step out for a while... so I don't have the nuanced beats from about 2017-early 2019. However, what I do know is that as writing moved to Twitter, writers didn't like how it was focused all on writers doing better and the numbers not changing on who got published. At the same time I was watching librarians cry over the fact they were not getting the books they wanted. Sure, for children, but where are the rest of them? Book covers, after prominent figures stepped up improved greatly (because I do a self report every year since I was 13 because I super take this seriously.)

2020, pandemic

So after a bunch of academic learning about systems, I took a look around and decided to challenge a few in minor ways. I'm sure it got me blackballed for asking that PoC agents get listed, but I thought it was small systemic change that was manageable.

I missed the whole conversion to comps thing, which I probably would have challenged earlier had it come up. (Anyone have the tea, give it to me... ‘cause I really want to know...)

So here we are in 2023, and asking questions such as, 2009, 10+ years, the numbers haven't changed.

Statistics

https://nces.ed.gov/naal/lit_history.asp

This source said it was roughly the same in the 1980's, but male readership significantly has been declining since. I checked numbers in the early 2000's and at the time, the writer population matched the reader population at about 60-40. (Nanowrimo surveys of the time) Pew research center suggested similar numbers in early 2000.

Editors proudly reported in the same time period they did a 50/50 split on male to female. TT Did you not check the market numbers?

By 2021, this had slid significantly to an ~80-20 spread and ~90% of women being the serial readers. (NBs not included)

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/09/21/who-doesnt-read-books-in-america/

This was so significant that the Atlantic reported: https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2014/01/most-likely-person-read-book-college-educated-black-woman/357091/

Since 2009, there have been health of the industry reports on mainly LGBTQIA and PoC, though occasionally on ND and disability (We need better stats for that, just saying it would be useful to know).

Here are some of the ones I know:

https://reachoutandreadmn.org/news/blog/diverse-childrens-books.html

https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2019/7/18/who-are-the-characters-in-your-picture-books-diversebooks

https://www.slj.com/story/an-updated-look-at-diversity-in-childrens-books

https://www.slj.com/story/an-updated-look-at-diversity-in-childrens-books

https://www.slj.com/story/an-updated-look-at-diversity-in-childrens-books

I've also seen general statistics, but those are harder to dig up, which has reported that nothing has changed, except, look, the really needy group who can't read gets representation, animals. While Librarians were BEGGING the industry to fix it, the industry took it as a sign to back away from race-related issues. That's what it looks like on our end. The ALA has our backs because every year they do a report on banned books and why they were banned highly discouraging it.

Women as readers, especially liberal (and more recently Black ones) are more likely to like diversity issues. Women make up mothers trying to change the next generation of boys so they don't end up as toxic men, they also fought for civil rights. And Black women were at the head of the LGBTQIA movement, several civil rights movements, etc.

So if authors/writers see these statistics plus Twitter's Publishing paid me, it feels like on our end, that trad publishing doesn't really care what readers want nor what writers want. They want to publish white straight abled books or bust despite the statistics, and agents are willing to cooperate with such notions by closing ranks and telling us, "That's what sells." But since the rise of the Self-publishing industry, the self-publishing industry is saying that's not true, so we, who pinned our hopes on distribution and help with international markets feel a disconnect. What's going on in traditional publishing that you're ignoring the market? And thus, this brings us to...

This Bad Week in Publishing

First, I have to state, if you take these names and try to harass, doxx, or otherwise do nasty things to them, I personally, will not condone it, and in general, it makes you a terrible, terrible human being when the focus is on the future and trying to make concentrated change rather than blame.

People hate change. Our job is to convince them we can do better.

I'll state this over and over again, the opening tweet wasn't about manuscript wishlists.

https://twitter.com/JayMoneWrites/status/1655351493724188673

The original tweet was asking agents to back off telling writers how to write stories:

For example (mine, not Jay's), you HAVE to use the 3-act conflict narrative or it's a BAD story. Wait, I've been doing studies on that and that's not true. Inciting incident is from a Jew (cries as a Jew) who seemingly is super racist. I'm sure the agent doesn't know that, and some PoC story structures are older in history (also the agent likely doesn't know that.) But this is problematic as it comes off accidentally racist and formulaic.

But then there was this bad take, which might be confusing the subthreads, but should have taken from the subthreads:

https://twitter.com/chronicles_of_n/status/1655562727417323525

The subthreads talked about mswls:

https://twitter.com/Stpolishook/status/1655583477885018120

I own I'm in this subthread, trying to argue that agents aren't "Helpless"

Subthreads also lamented agents asking for shorter and shorter page counts and more specific story structures:

https://twitter.com/MorganSloan215/status/165561094842891469

Also a subthread on comps and setting trends:

I know agents could take this in 2 ways:

That's fair. I could see how this feels like a personal attack with the questions arising and no solutions presented. But no one paused to ask how much industry/knowledge experience any of these people have.

And this is what I see. People are asking a lot of whys, how does it impact the market, make us understand the market. Is what you're posting really driven by the market?

Agents took it the first way, not the second way, unfortunately.

This is a general, not specific answer to the questions inherent above. Is it backed by marketing or not? How much do agents know?

It's saying "it's someone else's fault, not mine. I'm not going to help you with your quest."

Authors disliked this take because it seems like agents are as clueless as authors and we asked shop questions.

Also kinda feels like mswls are personal wishlists because the question wasn't answered: are you taking it from marketing info or not?

Another Agent said if you don't like trad publishing, self-publish:

https://twitter.com/ChelseaBigBang/status/1656069239168434184

I get there were hurt feelings. "And you all hate us, and you don't understand." But the very fact from our POV is we're trying to understand the justifications for it. So the people who want to trad publish, or were entertaining it, especially the diversity writers felt like the people in the list who liked the post were against us. Because the majority of the writers are from diverse backgrounds where "cookie cutter" plot arcs won't work to describe what we're trying to achieve.

Hurt feelings continued when an editor said this:

And writers asked for the same courtesy from agents that ghosted them, and agents vilified the writers. The frustration was reaching a boiling point, because the initial questions weren't being answered at all. Agents wanted something they weren't willing to give back.

Then this tweet happened:

https://twitter.com/SBLitAgent/status/1656429611645906945

This made people really mad and I think some of the anger was unjustified because it was misdirected, but if you have a really important series of questions about the market you want a career in, you want to understand, and someone says, "Well, I make a living from it and you don't. I could be rich doing this, and I really don't care about books. and we know better than you and we're not sharing our information. Live with it." How would you feel? But you asked a valid series of questions about how decisions are made in the industry and you want to innovate diversity stories on top of it. Are they justifying it with market numbers or not?

And really, agents closed ranks, rather than saying that's not cool, which sent writers into another tailspin. Do they not care about us anymore? Why won't they call out this bad behavior and say they will protect us? Why not disavow this agent who says we're just a paycheck? I thought we were in this together. We get you have to work together, but do you really want to close ranks for an agency that says:"if it's too difficult for grown-ups, write for children" https://ktliterary.com/

(Which isn't a call out, it's more like why support this agency saying this about authors?)

Bigolas Dickloas

https://www.insider.com/bigolas-dickolas-wolfwood-trigun-interview-time-war-2023-5

proved some of the adages and the writer's asks as true from our PoV. We can't sell the books on our own. We need other people to support us to get there. And that it's not the length of the beginning pages, as asserted, or the structure, but readers enjoying books and recommending them.

Bigolas Dickolas is a what? Anime fan. And a lot of anime is what? Kishotenketsu. Do agents know that?

So there was celebration that this could be done. At the same time frustration because look, huge fan of anime, and you won't let us have the freedom to tap into the different like anime.

The cover thing...

The cover debacle.

From a pure writer's perspective: So you don't want even spent money to make copyrightable covers anymore? Why are we going for traditional publishing?

I should note that most writers have no hand in their covers. Don't chase down, discuss, think about it.

There is nothing more delightful to a new author than showing off their unique cover that shows what their characters looks like and all foriegn iterations. Many authors are also artists. And we, too, dream of crying, literally tears down or faces at seeing the achingly beautiful covers of our books. And supporting our fellow artists. Because solidarity all the way.

From a personal graphic designer's perspective, we work so hard to make covers and images for you. I used to cry in utter delight at Michael Whelan covers. And daydream about having a cover by him. There's other covers that you can hate the book for, but can't imagine a different cover for it and spend hours admiring the graphics design. As a graphic designer, I'd want that for authors. I'd want them to cry and slowly understand why a cover is the way it is--I mean I made a whole post about covers.

So imagine our disappointment at seeing this is a thing. And you realize you can't copyright an AI image, which puts the cover into a precarious position.

What writers see about Agents

Early in the internet, there were blogs, such as Miss Snark, and others which helped with contracts, how to send a query letter, what's good and Bad, Janet Reid, and agents talking about the business side--that really helped writers and there were long threads about how to approach publishing after Nanowrimo and on other forums, such as Absolute Write.But we don't see that... writers are clueless on how to read contracts, and agents are leaving us high and dry sometimes. Because that's useful info for writers to know. Are there particular weasel clauses we should think about these days? Match this dearth with the attitude above where you're supposed to care about us for more than a paycheck, and how do you think we feel? We pin our hopes and dreams on publishing because we love it, we struggle to try to understand the business to make ourselves attractive, but the backstab is deep when you won't talk about the industry and numbers with us. There's a disconnect.

Miss Snark used to say, hit me with your most creative, no matter what and I'll do my best. She liked to say, "Knock my socks off."

She also said, (between her poodle) that her colleagues would get on her case for doing it, and share how hard it was being an agent, because she'd have to read manuscripts on the way to work. We see your struggles, too, but with the above tweets, the question was, do you understand ours? How much are you willing to help us to the finish line? We know how it works.

Some internet troll is going to misconstrue this as a way to hunt down agents... but she's a fictional agent and retired, so...

We want you to sell and sell hard, but also sho off your selling prowess and innovate the industry. Our books don't have a market. We know that, that's why we're asking you to be our partners--agents editors, and publishers to help us prove we can innovate it. You don't have to be alone.

Demographics of writers

For diversity writers what we were promised from the age we thought, "Hey, I'd like to be published" is, "Ah, this will be an industry that doesn't judge me for things I can't control and we can create empathy for people like me together." And then there is a big shiny sign that says, "Hey, kid, I believe this too. Let's work on this together."

This is the greatest power of books that we were promised from a young age. If we grew up around "We Need Diverse books" then we pinned our deepest hopes on this. We could revolutionize the industry if we understood it deeply enough and worked hard enough to become better writers.

We were told to red everything and consume as wide as ossible, over and over again, but we don't know and can't put our faith in that industry pros are doing the same. I know this sounds like an accusation--it isn't. We just want to talk about what you do and don't know so we can share the info and help each other out.

The writer demographics match the reader demographics by and large, and as avid readers, we also want to reach the same market as the industry pros. We also know the market and are trying to reach it. It's not only, OMG, hobby, let's publish. Some of us try to keep faith while the industry says they hate us. Because we dream of social change towards us and people like us.

The reader demographics tend to match the writer demographics: I ran the survey for 5 years and cross referenced it with Pew research center in my time I'm struggling to find their older studies). So there is more frustration when there are more and more diversity writers around, from our PoV (taking out the internet self-selecting), and still no change in books.

So imagine people like that hearing that too bad, we're not going to share marketing information with you? How would you feel?

Yes, angry, disappointed, but I thought you were on our side~ Why can't you answer our questions? And to be told too bad, you're whining... we make the rules... what does it look like? Can we move forward or not?

By and large, the majority of PoC and diversity writers are POOR and need the support of big publishing to cover the upfront costs. The people who have the spare cash to do self-publishing--pay for editors, reviewers, covers, ISBNs, etc. And we see the market for our books, but trad publishing is still chasing after that elusive white cishet abled NT male.

The FAQ writers have:

- Marketing numbers to back up the requests from agents/editors.

Can we also see them? Why close ranks and say they are industry secrets?

- Is the 10 page count justified by statistics? If so can we see them? Or if it is convenience?

Convenience for the agent or are there market forces at work?

- "It's what sells," what are the numbers to back this up?

- Can we have a conversation about innovating the market, making trends and comps? And if we can go back to elevator pitches?

- Why often pitches and asks for them in public don't result in the agent getting back to us.

- Are there marketing numbers to back mswls, and specific requests? Can we SEE them? Are they whims, or really backed by the market? Can you back it up and SHOW us why you think so? Or was it because it occurred to you over morning coffee and you want to read the book, but not write it? Was it an editor? Writers are hungry to learn about the industry too. Contract help, for example.

- But sometimes the hyper specific mswls and saying and declaring "Trauma doesn't sell" when it was a specific request doesn't feel like it's coming from marketing advice since we have Encanto, Everything Everywhere all at Once, and Turning Red. (I'd mention authors, but I don't want to give them heat.)

- Can you also post more about contracts, loosely. Agents used to boast about particular weasel clauses and how they got a 5% boost on a sale because of X thing. We like that. We love that.

- You know that the paper catalogue back in the day just said genre, send it. Because you have about 30 words to cram into it. But now there are thousands of ways you want to send the manuscript with no clear set rules and it drives even the most neurotypical person into a panic attack as they try to look for the nearest crystal ball. It used to be uniform. Can we get set guidelines similar to what I posted and TALK about it?

The disappointment sometimes turned into disgust as agents didn't talk about it to protect their own, but how would you feel if you've pinned your hopes and dreams your entire life on the joy of books we thought you shared to find out that you won't and can't fight with us and even like the post and appear to feel the same by liking the post saying you're our source of cash? (Especially when those agents claim to be on our side in the diversity struggle and they share the same diversity too.)

We, who wanted to be published with you, are working hard to understand this industry too, so why lock us out like we're less than and not intelligent enough to understand the intricacies. Why can't you talk about it instead of taking it as a personal insult? That's the question rattling around. We wanted to talk shop with you.

- Why do the publishing statistics not match the readership?

- What do you mean by "What sells?" Can you justify it with some market information? It feels terrible when you won't tell us why. Can't we share marketing info?

- We thought that one had to either set a trend--in which case edgy books or be ahead of a trend, rather than follow it--writers are confused on this front. We were told explicitly to not follow trends because by the time we do, they'll be gone. Sometimes it takes a year to write a book. So by the time you see it, it might have been around for 2 years at minimum. Diversity books take longer and we all know it.

- Writers would like more uniform or at least clear submissions guidelines which can be found here: https://www.tumblr.com/kimyoonmiauthor/685983497588965376/how-literary-agents-can-help-neurodiverse-people?source=share

BTW, if you have objections, voicing them in a professional way would help me refine the list. I worked with an agent and several writers for that list, and it would be good for everyone.

- We have questions about trauma representation that have gone unanswered by industry pros and often when we ask them we get blocked?

Diversity writers have questions about the same things in publishing. Can we discuss it?

Some of the ones I've seen are why agents are against covid, but want diversity trauma so much, and why can't you ask for nuanced takes and diversity joy? And then follow through? We notice when you don't get a new client after asking for a specific diversity client.

- We have questions about all these quotas we hear about.

"We have a Jewish writer, we don't need more" "We have an X, we don't need you.".

So are our manuscripts being assessed on merit, or by filling a quota, where the rest of the quota is filled by people who don't have diversity to hit phantom numbers like 50-50 male/female though the writer's population matches the reader's population.

- Also foreign markets and the US markets aren't the same, yes, but why are they jumping so drastically forwards, and we aren't? Can you talk shop with us about it?

- Can you allow more diversity of story structures and ways to write a story?

From our end we see things like anime fans talking avidly about their favorite anime, which uses kishotenketsu and jo-ha-kyu, and Korean drama fans who like shows that don't use 3-act structures and do things like Dream record with high viewership. We see things like Bollywood do a complete 180 in 10 years and then look at the West African market in books and television and find they are playing so hard with story and we want in--especially as own voices. We see Encanto take off and do well. We want to tap that market too, and please our domestic readership and international.

In our bones, we know braided narratives so well, that even if they don't have a name in our heads, we produce them anyway...

and we're told: It's not marketable.

https://www.kimyoonmiauthor.com/post/641948278831874048/worldwide-story-structures

But Everything Everywhere All at Once was publicly called a kishotenketsu (Though I felt it matched more closely beat for beat with qichengzhuanhe--I suppose one could debate that), and people were explained it and felt it in their hearts. And Encanto was a Braided narrative with different parts coming together. And there are motifs that our core fanship would recognize, say the old man that is an herbalist from Chinese tales, with zany ideas who helps the hero/heroine out of a lurch (like falling off a cliff and not getting that broken.)

I get it, though, it feels like a huge risk to be able to invite more structures and more story types, but they managed it in the early 19th century with ONLY US-invented story structures. People won't be that confused. What it feels like to writers is that you're not giving us a chance to really dazzle you and show off our understanding of the readership. But we were hoping you, too, loved the media that was prevalent to us when we were growing up and you also wanted change.

We want to be able to tell you a story about being disabled from an own voices POV, and rock your world with how it feels such that it blows the stereotypes out of the water and nuances it so deeply because it's not really about the disability in the end, you walk away from the book stumbling. Don't you want that too?

We want to share our joys, sorrows and let our creativity soar and meet the market *we* see and work on this problem together, so can you see our confusion? Transparency will help with that. Show us the marketing justifications.

Writers also pay attention to markets and passions too. We aren't ignorant to whims, we try our hardest to be plugged in, because it's also our necks on the line, our names on the book, and we aim to do well for the readership, ultimately. We are hoping you are hoping to do the same. We have customers to serve.

I know these asks seem like "You hate all agents" No... that's not the point. We want to understand and talk shop.

Actions to do together

If you want diverse clients, we won't hire you if you sell these.

PoCs also largely have solidarity with each other, so you have a PR issue if you betray one group, because the other groups won't trust you either. Also, why. Also, we appreciate agents that condemn it and say no.

Do everything in this list to set some industry standards and encourage your collegues to do the same: How literary agents can help Neurodiverse People (and everyone) query If you have questions ASK. I like feedback, it's my job. If you don't want it to be public, tag, me let me know, you can use the tumblr ask function and be anonymous and ask me not to post.

Agents that implemented it did it in less than 24 hours. If you are busy, maybe a week, but it's not hard asks.

Worldwide Story structures If you're not educated, then we can help.

Transparency and communication

On our end, we can work to prove the numbers you have maybe are wrong and there is more support for the movement than you think. That you won't have an epic fail if a Japanese own voices author uses Kishotenketsu in their story structure. That someone from Nigeria might have a different understanding of story and it won't fail. Show us the path and what numbers we need to meet and beat to show it won't fail if you're open and honest with us.

There's marketing discussions to be had on this. Maybe we can help work together on a better marketing plan. We can't help you, if you don't communicate with us about what you see and don't stop saying we know better than you. OK, spill, share. Give us the info we need to understand without saying you're superior. We all started somewhere--you did too, you weren't in the womb knowing how to publish a books and the market. Give us the leeway to learn and we'll do our best to also cast out people who aren't there for a friendly conversation and asking about how to work on it together.

https://www.tumblr.com/kimyoonmiauthor/685983497588965376/how-literary-agents-can-help-neurodiverse-people?source=share

Conclusion:

Communication, honesty and transparency are minimum risk. If we work together to make it happen, I think it will. I know that people promote the conflict narrative and individualism in publishing stories--though as I outlined, I think it's more nuanced, but people LOVE stories of cooperation too. And I think we could achieve it if agents, editors, publishers (the people, again), and the writers work together to achieve goals to meet the market.

Remember, a lot of us pinned our hopes on the love of books and stories, some from the age of 2 or 3, and some from the age of a teenager. We want to fight with you to make this the best industry around and kick other country's butts so we look like the most innovative on the block--are you willing to join us?

[montgomery-cannon]

the attack - a self para

Perhaps it was lucky he was out of the Tower - perhaps it wasn't.

Monty woke up as he often did after these sorts of soirees - naked in someone's bed whose name he knew only through close study and intention. Much to his surprise, however, his bedfellow was already awake. This was a particular surprise because it was just past four in the morning, when Monty usually would start to make his exit. Caught, and not wanting to ruin the hard work he had been doing all evening, Monty pivoted from a stealthy escape to a leisurely, full body stretch.

"You're up late. Or early." Monty cast his eyes on his target, Fillip Ko, who was pacing around the large bedroom in an imported silk robe, the fabric wisping around his ankles. Fillip was engrossed in the bright light of his phone and chewing anxiously on his fingernails. As he finished one digit, he would move on to the next in cycle.

Fillip didn't look up from his phone as he addressed Monty, his voice small and mousy. "I wired the money to Ms. Morgan already. And I made you coffee. In the kitchen."

"Oh, that's very sweet of you. But I really ought to get going." Monty swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood, giving Fillip another stretch. To Monty's slight annoyance, however, the man wasn't staring - or even glancing, for that matter. Fillip was fully consumed by his phone.

"I... I don't think you'll want to leave," the man said.

"I've heard that before."

"No, I mean... there's -"

Fillip was cut off by the sound of an explosion outside. Monty instinctively ducked, throwing his arms up to protect his head from anything that might be flying - but it seemed that the blast was outside.

"What the fuck?!" Monty called, moving away from the window.

"It's uh... The Vox. They've... they've..."

Monty strode up to the small man to take him by the shoulders. Fillip, for his measure, finally took his eyes away from his phone long enough to look over Monty's body. Monty put his fingers on Fillip's chin, bringing his gaze up to meet his own. "The Vox have what?"

"Taken the Tower. The city. It... it seems."

Images flooded Monty's mind. Sheen. Cress. Kya. Everett. He didn't realize he had squeezed into Fillip's cheeks until the man squeaked out, "Uh... Montgomery. Mont- please?" Monty released him - perhaps with a bit more of a throw than he intended - and spun to look out the window.

"They took the Tower?"

"That's what they're saying."

"Who?"

"The news - everyone - do you want to get dressed?"

"And they claim the Capitol too? The whole city?"

"Yes. I'm... I'm gonna lock down here. I don't think you should leave."

Monty turned to look at Fillip, his mind racing. "Lock down?"

Fillip moved to a wall and pushed a button. Industrial metal plates started sliding down over the windows, and Monty could see his intention. It was actually quite impressive, all things considered.

And there was no way to get to the Tower. And even if he did - what would he do? He crossed his arms across his chest, trying to get his brain to slow down enough to form a coherent thought.

"I mean, you don't have to get dressed if you don't want. I just thought -"

"I can stay here?"

Fillip blinked. "I - uh. Yeah. I've got the space. And I've got some... well. Tunnels. That I can access when - if needed. People are saying the rebels are... rounding up people. Gamemakers. Sponsors. It would nice to have..." He gestured to Monty. "Someone. Around. Who could. I don't know. Help."

"And these fortifications are good? Solid?"

"Bulletproof at least. I got them installed after Eleven broke free."

Monty ran a hand through his hair and shifted his weight to one side. Fillip bit his lip.

"Okay. I will. If that's okay. For a while, at least."

Fillip nodded quickly. Monty took a deep breath in, interlacing his fingers behind his head to facilitate a calming effect. He sighed it out slowly. There was nothing else to do, then, at the moment. His time would come, but if what Fillip said was true, then he was most useful here, hidden, where few people would know his location. It wouldn't last, of course. But for now, it would do.

He stepped forward and pulled Fillip into a hug, pressing the man's face into his chest. "Thank you for your generosity, Fillip. I will remember it always." Fillip seemed a bit flustered when released, so Monty took that as his cue to wander off. "Coffee's in the kitchen, you said?"

[health-views-updates]

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Technological Advancements to Drive Growth of Global Digital Pathology Market

The adoption of digital pathology solutions will continue to influence global market revenues. Healthcare providers, research institutions, and pharmaceutical companies are increasingly utilizing digital pathology to enhance diagnostic accuracy, streamline pathology workflows, and facilitate remote consultations.

As a product segment, whole slide imaging (WSI) systems currently hold a significant share of the global digital pathology market. This segment is anticipated to grow at a year-over-year rate of 7.8% in 2024 over 2023 and reach USD 1.91 billion in revenues by 2031. The increasing adoption of WSI systems for diagnostic purposes and research applications is expected to drive market growth.

Digital Pathology Solutions – Market Dynamics

Drivers:

Digital pathology solutions are witnessing significant growth in the global market due to their ability to provide high-resolution imaging, enhance data sharing, and improve diagnostic accuracy. The growing need for efficient pathology services, coupled with advancements in imaging technology and the increasing integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in pathology, are key factors driving the adoption of digital pathology solutions worldwide. Additionally, the rising prevalence of chronic diseases and the need for precision medicine are further propelling market growth.

Restraints:

Despite the growth potential, challenges such as high initial costs, the complexity of integrating digital pathology systems with existing laboratory workflows, and concerns about data security and privacy are hindering the widespread adoption of digital pathology solutions. Moreover, regulatory and compliance issues, as well as the need for specialized training for pathologists and laboratory technicians, pose additional challenges to market expansion.

Digital Pathology Solutions – Market Outlook

The proven benefits of digital pathology solutions in improving diagnostic accuracy, enhancing collaboration, and optimizing pathology workflows have contributed to the market's growth. Digital pathology solutions are expected to witness increased adoption across major healthcare markets, including North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific, driven by advancements in imaging technology and the growing focus on personalized healthcare.

Global Digital Pathology Market

The rise in demand for digital pathology solutions in developed and emerging markets is expected to drive market growth over the forecast period. North America currently holds a significant market share in the global digital pathology market, with the US being a key contributor to market revenues. Europe and Asia Pacific regions are also experiencing rapid adoption of digital pathology solutions, supported by favorable regulatory frameworks and increasing investments in healthcare infrastructure.

Key Players in the Digital Pathology Solutions Market

Leading companies in the digital pathology solutions market include Leica Biosystems, Roche Diagnostics, Philips Healthcare, and Hamamatsu Photonics. These companies are at the forefront of developing and commercializing advanced digital pathology platforms for various healthcare applications, including diagnostic pathology, research, and education.

In conclusion, the global digital pathology market is poised for substantial growth over the forecast period, driven by technological advancements, increasing healthcare digitization, and the expanding adoption of digital solutions in pathology diagnostics and research.

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[bhushans]

Unveiling the Power of Data: Global Digital Pathology Market

The global  digital pathology market  is on track to witness exponential growth, with a projected valuation of USD 7,035.8 million in 2023. According to the latest market analysis, this dynamic market is expected to surge to an impressive USD 24,961.8 million by 2033, reflecting a remarkable Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 13.5% during the forecast period from 2023 to 2033.

Digital pathology, also known as virtual microscopy, is revolutionizing the field of pathology by enabling the digitization of tissue samples for analysis, diagnosis, and research purposes. This transformative technology offers numerous advantages over traditional microscopy, including enhanced accuracy, efficiency, and remote accessibility of pathology data.

The market for digital pathology is expanding due to two main factors: the growing use of advanced analytics in pharmaceutical and medical tests. The industry is expanding as a result of the application of analytics for fraud detection and claim management by government agencies and healthcare financing companies.

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Surge in R&D in Digital Pathology to Augment Sales in Forthcoming Years

In recent years, the digital pathology industry has increased investments in biosimilar research and development initiatives, primarily for cancer treatment and Covid-19 treatment, which have substantially fuelled the market expansion.

Contract Research Organizations (CROs), in-vitro diagnostics (IVD) laboratories, clinical laboratories, and regulatory consultants are being assigned biosimilar development responsibilities by pharmaceutical corporations. These enterprises are developing in order to provide more cost-efficient solutions to their customers, requiring the use of digital pathology instruments to diagnose, research, and design effective healthcare solutions.

Cancer diagnostic Opens New Avenues for Digital Pathology Companies

Due to the sheer increasing occurrence of cancer, there is an increase in spending on digital pathology equipment. Complications arising from late cancer diagnosis, particularly in the case of blood cancer and lung cancer, necessitate the use of significant capital resources during therapy and diagnosis. The success of digital pathology in research is driving demand for these systems in the cancer research industry. This is also encouraging government investors to invest in digital pathology systems for clinical diagnosis. A significant amount of money is spent on cancer diagnosis and therapy monitoring. This explains why digital pathology solutions are in high demand.

Competitive Landscape

Danaher Corporation

F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG

Huron Technologies International Inc.

Koninklijke Philips N.V.

Olympus Corporation

Hamamatsu Photonics K.K.

Carl Zeiss AG

Nikon Corporation

3DHISTECH Ltd.

Hologic Inc.

PerkinElmer, Inc.

Visiopharm

OptraSCAN, Inc.

Inspirata, Inc.

Sectra AB

Some of the recent developments in digital pathology market are as follows:

In May 2021, Leica Biosystems joined the European Society for Digital and Integrative Pathology (ESDIP) to assist pathology labs in developing laboratories in accordance with modern digital pathology instruments.

In March 2021, Roche inked a comprehensive merger agreement with GenMark Diagnostics to broaden its product and distribution channel for European consumers.

Key Segments:

Digital Pathology by Product Type:

Digital Pathology Equipment

Whole Slide Scanners

Brightfield Slide Scanners

Fluorescence Slide Scanners

Combination Slide Scanners

Clinical Microscope

Tissue Microarrays

Digital Pathology Software

Image Viewing and Analysis Software

On-premise

Cloud-based

Digital Pathology Information Systems

On-premise

Cloud-based

Digital Pathology Services

Installation and Integration Services

Consulting Services

Maintenance and Validation Services

Digital Pathology by Application:

Clinical Pathology

Molecular Diagnostics

Basic & Applied Research

Drug Development

Others

Digital Pathology by End User:

Hospitals

Diagnostic Laboratories

Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology Companies

Forensic Laboratories

Research Institutes

Contract Research Organizations (CROs)

Clinics

[ijfmpy2]

Final Evaluation

When deciding what direction I wanted to go down for this project, I reflected a lot on my past work to figure out what I enjoyed the most and what challenged my abilities. This is why I chose to focus on pixel art and animation as it is what I am the most confident in. The process of choosing characters to draw involved looking into historical portrayals that have been preserved of Greek myth such as articles describing ancient drawings and sculptures. Alongside this, I made sure to gain contextual knowledge into the myths such as societal expectations at the time and lifestyle.

I had my heart set on doing something with characters in mythology as it is an interest of mine, so I took time to work out what would be realistic within the time. At first I had planned to make a game with basic code set up to showcase my characters in a visual novel style, but I learnt from feedback from peers and my own research into concept art that it would look more effective displayed differently. At first I put my animations in character design sheets but then reflected again and recognised i t would be better if the audience could interact so my final results changed twice.

My initial process for this project was researching media that related to and inspired my ideas like books, TV shows, films and a range of games so this was a big part of my approach. I conducted in depth research and a variety of sketches and mock ups before starting the characters I drew which helped to really visualise what I wanted to achieve. Looking into other 2D artists on Artstation and on Pinterest when finding references supported me to find a style, pixel density and colour palette that I liked.

I found myself feeling very confident when using Photoshop for this project, which was the sole software I utilised. This is because I have been learning and developing my abilities in it since I started this course so I have explored a range of techniques that I used repeatedly: the magic wand tool, layering colour with different opacities and utilising the timing of frames in the timeline for animations. I focussed my final results around animations as I enjoy bringing 2D art to life so I wanted to make sure that I presented them effectively and worked hard on this.

Having never drawn human characters before, my main struggle was with anatomical proportions and body ratios. To overcome this I got peers to continuously review my work and always had a reference board in eyeline. Having feedback to reflect on was very useful when I went back and reviewed the three of my characters as I felt like I improved the final results a lot. Something that I changed quite a few times to get right was the timing of the animations to make them flow. Each character has a different timing and amount of frames as I wanted specialised animations.

Scheduling at least a week to play around with the presentation for this project was a priority for me as I knew that the layout of work would be a part of this project I wanted to really focus on. Choosing to not display my characters in a game put pressure on me to create character design sheets to a professional standard which I hadn’t done before. Looking at industry level examples and reviewing my showcase of work with my lecturers and peers allowed me to think about how the audience would perceive my whole project and the accommodations I should include like the background, font and format.

As I have displayed my progress and final results of work in a presentation for each project in this course, I knew how to approach this final one. I made sure to look back on some of the previous ones I have done and review what looked good and bad. Additionally, looking into professional portfolios helped me to realise that it should be unique to my project to give it a personal touch. Adding videos, images and the most important research from my blog without overcrowding the slides is a necessity to communicate my ideas clearly and effectively to high quality.

I went into this project with a clear vision in mind to create character artwork to show off how far I have come in my 2D progress. Adding the challenge of animating them as well pushed me even further to get this all done in the project time frame. By constantly reflecting on these aims through being methodical in each step of creating a character and making feedback forms to get positive and negative reviews that I then reflected on, allowed me to really gain insight on how I can improve my art and abilities.

[transienturl]

disclaimer I know nothing about this topic but like

obviously the whole kpop idol thing, where these huge companies manufacture musical groups out of a highly selective process where thousands of people try to mold themselves mentally and physically into the image executives think will be the most marketable and the least controversial, where they give up independence and personhood, where the resulting role models for young people are figures entirely divorced from the way anyone should live their life, is bad

to be clear that's my main point. like this is one of the more dystopian things I have literally ever heard of. what's the lesson here, if you want to be loved by the world you should have no opinions and no relationships and have exactly one body type and get surgery, corporations know best, this is fine and a triumph for your country? that seems a lot more concerning to me as a national cultural export than, I dunno. taylor swift.

but yeah also small point, on the other hand, there is something sort of cool about the concept of like, you know how people like reality tv shows about musical competition, where the ostensible point is that the show is a meritocracy designed to find and make the best performers it can but then it's tv and there are naturally other incentives making that not the case? well it's sort of cool that there exists a real version of that, where the only incentive is the pursuit of success? right?

I mean obviously no. because of the *gestures upward*. in reality this isn't a "on the one hand/on the other hand" thing, this is one of those things that disproves a premise. I think the point to take away from this is that meritocracy is usually bullshit, because it's only good if the scale on which you're measuring success is extremely precisely calibrated for good. and making successful pop idols—I mean I don't even have to say it, do I?

there's a sliding scale of public figures one should be taking lessons from and I don't know what one side of it looks like and how high you really should aim but—eh you know what I really don't know enough about the pop music industry and pop music culture to say something more here. I was going to make a comparison to lady gaga's singing born this way at the super bowl or pink's what about us performance at the brit awards.

[gadget-world]

The Exciting World of Virtual Reality Headsets Explained

Are you ready to embark on a mind-boggling journey into the future? Imagine stepping into a world where you can visit exotic locations, defeat dragons, or explore the galaxy, all from the comfort of your own home.

This magical experience is made possible with the help of Virtual Reality (VR) headsets. Today, we'll explore this astounding technology and uncover the wonders it holds.

What is Virtual Reality?

Virtual Reality, or VR for short, is a technology that allows you to immerse yourself in a lifelike, simulated environment. By wearing a VR headset, you enter a whole new world where you can see and interact with objects and characters as if they were right in front of you. It's like stepping into your favorite video game or movie!

How do VR Headsets Work?

VR headsets consist of a screen that fits over your eyes, creating a 3D visual experience. The screen displays different images for each eye, fooling your brain into perceiving depth. This gives you a sense of being present in a virtual world. Some advanced headsets also track your head movements, allowing you to look around and explore the virtual space in a natural way.

Types of VR Headsets:

There are different types of VR headsets available in the market. The most common ones include:

Smartphone-based VR Headsets: These headsets use your smartphone as the display screen. You simply slide your phone into the headset, and voila! You're ready to experience virtual reality. They are affordable and a great way to dip your toes into VR.

Standalone VR Headsets: Standalone headsets have all the necessary components built into the device itself, including the display screen and processor. They offer a higher quality experience and don't require a separate computer or smartphone.

PC-tethered VR Headsets: For the ultimate VR experience, PC-tethered headsets are a popular choice. They are connected to a high-performance computer that powers the graphics and processing. These headsets offer stunning visuals and are perfect for gaming enthusiasts.

Uses of VR Headsets:

VR headsets have exploded in popularity, and for a good reason! They have a wide range of applications, including:

Gaming: Imagine battling monsters, driving fast cars, or scoring incredible goals in a virtual world. VR gaming takes your gaming experience to a whole new level of excitement.

Education: VR is revolutionizing the way we learn. Students can visit historical landmarks, explore the deepest parts of the ocean, or even conduct science experiments, right from their classroom.

Training and Simulation: VR is used to train professionals in various industries, such as aviation, medicine, and the military. Pilots can practice flying without leaving the ground, surgeons can hone their skills in virtual operating rooms, and soldiers can experience realistic combat scenarios.

Conclusion:

Virtual Reality headsets are no longer a far-fetched dream. They are here, ready to transport you to unimaginable realms of fun and learning.

So, whether you're a gaming enthusiast, a student hungry for knowledge, or someone looking for the next big adventure, VR headsets hold limitless possibilities. Strap on a headset, and let your imagination soar!

[ucaresearchjournal]

Creative Challenges (Handbook)

Which Brand will I select?

Key motives before picking a brand: Inclusivity, Diversity and Sustainability. Preferably one brand that has Indian/Brown Roots.

Potential Collabs:

CHUMBAK x LAZY OAF

L F MARKEY x SARAH MOON - L F MARKEY x KODAK (changed from female photographer to an imaging brand can target a wider audience)

LR3 LOUIS RUBI x TAILOR & CIRCUS MAHARISHI x STUDIO GHIBLI

MAHARISHI x STUDIO GHIBLI

MELLER x THE IKAT STORY

In-depth Link:

What is my creative concept?

Collab between a women's workwear brand and an imaging/ photography product brand.

To create a collab: LF Markey x Kodak creates women's utilitarian work wear targetting the female film crew.

The whole campaign will be shot using Kodak film rolls. Sticking to the brand's core and also looking at how LF Markey's recent images have had an analog look to them.

Shoot concept: There will be no professional models, only genuine people, with a focus on real female technicians and a female film crew. The images will depict scenes in both studio and on-location work environments, with a focus on the muses dressed in LF. Markey attire and effortlessly embodying the roles of dedicated professionals engrossed in the intricacies of film production. This concept aims to celebrate the power, skill, and presence of women behind the scenes in the filmmaking industry.

How will you visually communicate this collaboration whilst developing your own style?

Authenticity and Realism:

Utilize natural lighting and candid shots to capture the genuine atmosphere of a working film set.

Cinematic Aesthetics:

Use Composition techniques seen in filmmaking, such as dynamic framing and depth of field, to create visually striking images.

Experiment with different cinematic color grading and tones

Frame Ratio|Crop will be similar to the cinema ratio =  1.85:1 

If possible shoot using an anamorphic lens to get the wide ratio of a film look

Using only Kodak film rolls + E6 positive to create a nice slide campaign

Brand Integration:

LF. Markey attire into the work scenes, ensuring that it complements the practical aspects of the job while maintaining a stylish and professional look.

Empowerment and Confidence:

Focus on capturing the confidence, and empowerment of the female professionals in the images while looking stylish in their LFM

Consistent Visual Elements:

Establish a consistent visual theme or motif that runs through the images, tying them together cohesively.

This could include a signature color palette, a specific type of framing, or recurring elements that become synonymous with your style.