#just in xx

[antrea]

2024 Paris Olympics: Chinese Taipei Team Uniform

Designed by JUST IN XX 周裕穎

Chou turned the artwork “Mountain Range of Taiwan” by Taiwanese artist Paul Chiang into a beautiful printed fabric for the suits, the blue waves representing the natural beauty of Taiwan’s landscape. Adorning the Olympic opening ceremony looks are lapel pins crafted by flower-weaving artisan Lin Pei-Ying, made up of the Taiwan’s national flowers, the plum and the canola blossoms, serving as a traditional token of good luck for the athletes. Meanwhile, the belt and shoe uppers were made by Artisan Yan Yu-Ying with banana fiber woven fabric, an ancient textile tradition used in Taiwan. Chou also worked with a typography designer Kokia Lin to create a print that through an optical illusion transforms the words “Chinese Taipei” into the words “Cheer On.” [Forbes]

[93hyena]

[nalonzooo]

shapes and gestures <3

[hesbuckcompton-baby]

people who don't study history will simply never understand the joy of reading historian beef. there's nothing like it

[go-saeng]

happiness looks good on you channie ♡

[sexy-sapphic-sorcerer]

BBC Merlin & Text Posts (18/?)

[lemon-t4rt]

redid my scratched work of jay wayy back from like 2023 to do her justice LMAO

old art crumbs i suppose lmao

[astarions-wife]

Okay so looking at the facts, Astarion says he was “one of Cazador’s first” spawn, which makes sense considering it was ~200 years prior, which puts this at 1294 for his turning. However he says “one of” which implies he wasn’t the very first, meaning one of his siblings was before him.

Through the game, we can rule out a few of his siblings as being first. Leon canonically has to be the last, as I doubt that Cazador brought another spawn into the mix during the last 10~ years. Leon has a human child, that he had prior to vampirism, and with both the favorite spawn ledger, and Victoria’s appearance, we can assume she’s likely between 8-10 in that general range. The favorite spawn ledger goes for (six) years, with Leon being 5/6, and Violet taking one year. This can easily imply he has only been a spawn for six years, and also says that given Victoria’s appearance, she was probably only 2-4 when brought to Cazador’s palace, but that’s a story for another time.

Pale Petra’s tells Dalyria in the inn that it’s been “a hundred years of eating rats”, so he was probably turned in the late 1300s, judging by this. Dalyria on the other hand was a physician to the Parliament of Baldur’s Gate, and given that the medical group she speaks of wasn’t founded until the early-ish 1400s, it’s likely that she was found during this time period.

This leaves three: Yousen, Violet, and Aurelia. Now I highly, highly doubt that Yousen was the first of the spawn. A gnome is an odd choice for a vampire spawn in the first place, so he likely wasn’t the first. This would leave Violet and Aurelia, although given one of my previous posts about Violet (found here), Violet likely wasn’t the first—the shadow curse was founded in the past hundred years if I’m not mistaken, and considering the evidence seems to lead her here, she was probably around the same time as Petra’s, perhaps a bit before.

This leaves Aurelia as the first spawn, which makes sense to me. She seems the most anxious, the most scared. She’s the only one who truly, truly begs you for help if you talk to her once Cazador is gone, and centuries of trauma would do that to anyone. Therefore, my ranking is as follows, in order:

-Aurelia

-Astarion

-Yousen

-Violet

-Pale Petras

-Dalyria

-Leon

I know their ages are different, but timeline wise this puts Leon as the youngest, and Aurelia as the oldest—which it doesn’t mean anything, but it’s interesting to think this, considering they’re the original two who are sent after Astarion at the Elfsong Tavern.

As always, this is completely in theory! Only a few of them have concrete evidence, so let me know if I’m missing anything—and feel free to use this for writing or lore as you see fit!

[harmonictechnicality]

Eddie develops a strange habit after sex. It’s not exactly cute or romantic or nice. Nothing bad either. It’s just… well, Steve isn’t too sure what it is. But every time, it’s the same damn thing.

He collapses onto Steve’s chest and says:

“My boyfriend is a cyborg.”

Usually, Steve is still recovering from the fucking downpour of post-orgasm endorphins. So he doesn’t question it. Hell, he stopped challenging Eddie’s tolerance to geek out months ago. Dude holds fantasy knowledge in his brain better than he holds his liquor.

Which is saying a lot.

Anyways, Steve never has the mental capacity to react or respond. Instead, he runs his fingers through Eddie’s sweat-soaked hair for awhile. Scratches out little patterns on his scalp because it always makes Eddie go limp. Quiet.

Quiet is a rarity for him. And while Steve is totally weak for Eddie’s chattiness, the quiet can be nice too.

The only reason Steve finally decides to ask about it is because Eddie slips up. Says it before they have sex.

Steve is against the bedroom door, his nails dragging down Eddie’s back. God, he loves this kind of kissing. The lung draining kind. The type that’s sort of filthy from all the heat and grinding. 

Eddie hasn’t marked him up this bad since that time someone at work noticed his neck. Asked if Steve was having an allergic reaction during an office-wide meeting.

And this is going to be even worse. Steve can tell by the sounds and the soft pricks of Eddie’s teeth. He can tell by how long Eddie spends over each spot, like the bruising skin needs more attention than the rest of him. Like licking them over will make the colors last longer.

The damage has been done. Really no point in stopping him when it feels so fucking good. Steve forgets to worry about  how mauled he’s gonna look tomorrow because his head is swimming with Eddie’s lips on his neck. His collarbone. His chest.

That’s when it happens. That’s when Eddie’s strange habit makes an early appearance. 

He kisses over the blistery mess he made, practically growls the words out this time: 

“My boyfriend is a cyborg.”

“Okay, time out.” Steve says. Heaves some air back into his lungs. Pulls Eddie’s face up before he can continue making Steve look like goddamn target practice. 

Eddie blinks a few times. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No.” Gonna have to wear fucking high-collared shirts all week, but whatever.

He’ll bring that up some other time. “Why do you keep saying that?”

“Saying what?”

“That… thing.” Steve barely can spit it out.  It’s like his throat is physically rejecting the nerdy shit he’s about to say. “You keep calling me… a cyborg or something.” 

“Oh that.” Eddie sighs. Casually shrugs to one side. “It’s your fault actually.”

“How is it my fault? I don’t even know what fucking language you’re speaking.”

Eddie walks over to the bed, chanting Steve’s name over and over. Definitely not in the way Steve prefers him to chant his name. Very un-sexy chanting.

“Remember that day you asked me to grab your car keys?” He asks, patting the bed for Steve to join him. 

No. “Kinda?”

Steve hesitates before walking over. He didn’t necessarily wanna stop their primal makeout session. But it was bound to lead to the bed at some point, so…

Just not like this. Not talking while fully clothed. Blech.

He sits next to Eddie. Hands awkwardly fidgeting in his lap.

“Well, I couldn’t find them.” Eddie admits. “So I ended up going through your desk drawers.”

Of course he did. Perpetual snooper.

“Ended up finding a binder full of medical records.”

Well shit.

Steve’s throat tightens. Swells around the sudden guilt he feels for keeping this from Eddie. 

“Why didn’t you tell me you had a metal plate in your head?”

“Dunno. Hardly even remember it.” That’s only partly true. Steve doesn’t remember the surgery or much of the recovery process. He was only a kid when it happened.

But he does remember the hospital smells. He remembers the sounds of his IV bag dripping throughout the night. All the sensory indicators are still fresh in his mind.

“Well, that’s why. You're part-machine.” Eddie points to Steve’s head, expression softening. “And every time we fuck around, I think about your bionic skull. And how glad I am that it keeps your brain from leaking out when I bend you over the way you like it best.”

Steve laughs. The jokes help lighten the mood. Not enough to replace it entirely, but enough for it to be easy to swallow again. 

They’re both quiet as they get ready for bed, folding the covers down. And yeah, sometimes quiet can be nice. Just maybe not right now.

“Hey, Eddie.”

“Yeah?”

Steve stares hard at the pillows. “Are cyborgs like… cool?”

Eddie pauses for a moment, then hops onto the bed. Starts crawling over to Steve with a smug grin. He lifts up to meet Steve’s lips. Kisses him sweeter than normal. Lighter. Starts nodding his head mid-kiss, keeps nodding as he breaks away.

“Yeah, babe. Cyborgs are so fucking cool.”

[bonefall]

i dont think people are upset that the erins "weren't creative" enough with Moonpaw, they're upset that she's just. not a chimera. thats just a longhaired tortie and they justified it with chimerism. which is extremely insensitive because chimerism is a real medical thing that can cause issues in every species, including humans for those that dont know, and thats like. a big thing.

like, yay some disability rep (depending on how they write it. it wont be good. ughh) but like. its not going to be considered a disability when it can be in some cases. they are just going to say "ohh shes so special!!" like some people say with autism in this age (the infantilization of it) and its gonna be. weirdddd

anyways. sorry for ranting in your inbox.

Hey. Woah. THIS is insensitive and I don't know where you're getting this from. NONE of the three types of natural chimerism are a disability and it is extremely rare that fusion chimerism leads to medical complications.

Do not spread misinformation about a genetic condition because you're annoyed about the writing team confusing a common tortie fur pattern with chimerism. THEIR mistake is ultimately harmless. What YOU'RE doing is stigmatizing.

Quite frankly, after seeing a bunch of posts and receiving several asks about this, I don't think half of the people who are getting mad actually know anything about chimeras. I sure as fuck hope it's just ignorance, and that you aren't out here trying to call the state of being intersex a disability.

But I can fix ignorance. No need to assume malice. I will explain what chimerism is, and why you should stop going around implying it "causes issues in every species."

Chimerism is when a single individual is comprised of cells from two or more fully fertilized zygotes. There are two BROAD types of chimerism;

Artifical

Natural

Artifical chimeras are common with the advent of modern medicine. Ever had a blood transfusion? Organ transplant? You are a chimera. Or at least were for a while.

THIS can lead to complications and can cause disability, but it's not what Moonpaw is. She would be a type of natural chimera, which in and of itself has THREE subtypes;

Micro chimerism

Blood chimerism

Fusion chimerism

Microchimerism is so common that I could make a Your Mom joke out of it. It's caused by the passage of cells between the fetus and placenta during pregnancy. Everyone who has ever been pregnant is a microchimera.

While it can lead to complications, it can also be beneficial. Pregnancy could be considered a type of temporary disability, but no one would expect disability rep from every character who had ever given birth.

Blood chimeras are common in species whose twins typically share a placenta, such as cows and marmosets, but very rare in animals like humans and cats which usually don't. It occurs when tissue between two twins is exchanged through the umbilical chord. This type of chimera often ends up with a mixed bloodtype, hence the name.

This is the cause of freemartinism in cattle, when fraternal cow twins cause a sister to share her brother's hormones and act more like a bull. A type of intersex condition, not a disability-- so I sure HOPE you aren't trying to imply THIS should be "disability rep."

And even in the other case, would you automatically expect disability rep from a character that has two blood types?? No. Just like you wouldn't automatically expect disability rep from every character that had ever been pregnant, or every character who had ever needed a blood transfusion

And lastly, the one that Moonpaw ACTUALLY is. A fusion chimera. These are created when two fully fertilized zygotes fuse into a single individual.

These are extremely rare because you can't usually TELL when an individual is a chimera. There is no obvious physical difference between the "halves," with some cases of doctors insisting that patches are just weird birthmarks. They live their entire lives with normal health problems like non-chimeras. It mostly causes complications when DNA testing results in a false negative-- because the offspring of a fusion chimera occasionally end up being their genetic nespring.

Or, the two "halves" are male and female, causing gonadal differences. These people aren't disabled, there's nothing wrong with their bodies, but they're subjected to unneccesary cosmetic surgeries as children because they are intersex.

Say it. SAY IT. INTERSEX. I N T E R S E X. IM GRABBING YOU BY THE SHIRT AND SHAKING YOU THEY ARE INTERSEX.

Can some intersex conditions cause disabilities? YES. Are intersex conditions inherently disabilities? NO. Even when you're discussing infertility as a disability, tread VERY CAREFULLY because intersex people are fighting very hard to lift the stigma over their bodies.

Speak with care. Do not equate being intersex with being disabled. They are two different things.

You can be both and sometimes one could contribute to the other, but BEING intersex IS NOT a disability.

VERY rarely, even MORE rare than standard chimeras which are already very very rare and massively underreported because they are so unremarkable, a fusion chimera will happen LATE in utero. THIS can contribute to a chronic autoimmune condition where the cells reject each other, which is a disability.

And by rare I mean one case. Literally one. Of the 50 reported fusion chimeras in the review I'm referencing, Taylor Muhl was the only one with this. 4 were discovered via congenital abnormalities (unknown if connected to the chimerism b/c they were only tested because something was already wrong), 17 had fertility issues, and the remaining 28 didn't report immune conditions or birth defects but INTERSEXUALITY.

ANOTHER condition is often lumped in with chimerism, by people who do not know what chimerism is, which is mosaicism. Mosaicism, when there are two different sets of genes resulting from the same zygote, is NOT chimerism. MOSAICISM can be a cause of disability. CHIMERISM is usually not.

(Read the review in depth, as it includes mosaic cases for the sake of completion.)

They can both be fertilization errors, but are not the same thing. Follow me, I'm only going to woefully simplify a complicated topic once,

CHIMERA = Two zygotes in one body

MOSAIC = Two bodies in one zygote

CHIMERA = usually fine

MOSAIC = usually bad

And the last possible places you could be getting the idea that chimerism "causes disability" from, to my knowledge, is 1. This study that says the loss of a twin in early pregnancy increases the chance of congenital defects in the survivors (has barely anything to do with chimerism, this link is tangential, vanishing twin syndrome does not necessarily mean it was absorbed by its sibling)

Or, 2, this study of several animals where they correlated rates of benign tumors to % of chimerism based on SPECIES. BLOOD chimeras. It's COWS AND MARMOSETS AGAIN. The study ITSELF calls for further targeted research of chimerism cause of susceptibility to cancer.

It couldn't even link new growths or malignant tumors to chimerism in the mammals of its study. WE'RE mammals.

Correlation does not equal causation. Statistics 101.

So no. That's not "a big thing." Chimerism is fine, they're just very likely to be intersex if they're a fusion chimera of a male and a female zygote. Do not imply intersexuality is a disability. Please get mad about the actual ableism in the series, not the team being clueless about tortie patterns.

Also everyone say you're sorry to intersex Moonpaw. I better see you people making intersex Moonpaw pride flag edits as penance IMMEDIATELY.

UPDATE: Anon apologized! Growth! I still think this is an important post, especially in the context of the wider fandom conversation, so I'm leaving it as-is. Please feel free to reblog.

UPDATE 2: Clarification on infertility as a disability because I didn't word myself very well in one section!

[publicaccessgirl]

Already got my biggest plug in my ass ~ watch me moan as I try to fit my red dildo in my pussy too

[trentione]

[blighted-elf]

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines - A Song For My Favourite Characters (insp)

[melleody]

i’m so glad that my dr boyfriend is just an original character that i made from purely my own imagination ,, that way i don’t see people shifting for my boyfriend & having to feel jealous ..

[judasisgayriot]

turn off the lights, and turn off the shyness 'cause all of our moves make up for the silence

[lost-in-fandoms]

Max and Daniel meet at a club and have a one-night stand. That's the plot. Not as much smut as one would think.

cw: not too graphic sexual content and mentions of alcohol (but neither of them is drunk)

Daniel watches from the bed as the guy comes out of the bathroom and starts pulling his clothes back on. He almost stumbles while slipping into his skinny jeans, and it should be funny, or maybe awkward, how clumsy he is with it, but Daniel can't help feeling a little bit charmed. Just as he had been charmed by his blunt advances in the club, and the way he had laughed too loud at Daniel's bad joke in the car.

He wasn't supposed to be charmed.

Well, to be honest, he wasn't supposed to be in this situation at all. He doesn't usually go to clubs alone, he isn't that young and horny anymore, but he had needed to feel the bass in his lungs and the alcohol in his veins after a few long, awful days, so he had chucked on a shirt and some pants and found his way somewhere he was hoping he wouldn't get recognised. He had ended up in a small club on the other side of the city, and it had taken him a sparkly drink and two dance offers to realise he maybe still was young enough to have fun.

It had taken Max to make him think that maybe he was also horny enough.

Max had slid behind him on the dance floor, large palm against his hipbones, turning him around to throw him a wide smile, eyes crinkling and sparkling in the low lights.

Daniel wasn't planning on going home with someone, but Max had guided him to grind against him while they were dancing, and then kissed him wet and open right there in the middle of the crowd, and Daniel had lost his mind a little.

Daniel had thought about asking him to go to Max's place, he didn't like inviting strangers into his house, but Max had slipped a hand under his shirt to touch his sweaty skin and asked "take me home?" and Daniel had.

Max had chatted and laughed in the car, a hand firmly planted high up on Daniel's thigh, until Daniel had stopped pretending he was following whatever he was talking about and tugged him into a kiss. He didn't like kissing people, kissing men, somewhere he could be seen so easily, but Max's lips had been red and full and Daniel had wanted it.

Max had taken his shoes off at the door and Daniel had felt a tug somewhere too high up and on the left to be his gut. Max had kissed him like he wanted to eat Daniel whole, but touched him like Daniel had been something precious. He had taken him apart more easily than a one-night stand was supposed to.

Daniel never bottomed with strangers, but Max had been hovering over him, eyes so bright and intense, hands playing with the band of Daniel's underwear, and Daniel had let his legs fall open before Max could even ask what he wanted.

Max had still asked and Daniel should have known he was making a mistake. Because when he had come, Max's hand around him, Max's dick inside him, something had been rearranged inside him, something had dramatically shifted. Or maybe it had happened earlier, when Max had pressed a kiss against his stomach while opening him up. Or when he had closed his teeth on Daniel's bottom lip in the car. Or earlier still, in the club, when Max had told him "you look pretty, Daniel", voice rounding his name weirdly.

And now he is watching Max getting ready to leave, feeling like his world was tilting, and he was supposed to learn how to live with that.

He watches as Max shrugs his black t-shirt back on, trying uselessly to smooth out his hair a little, hoping he doesn't look as desperate as he feels to ask him to stay.

Finally, Max pats his pockets to check for his phone and wallet, and then looks up, smiling at Daniel with the same lips that had been pressed against his pulse point not twenty minutes ago.

How did Daniel end up like this?

"That was fun," he says, smile too practiced to look fake. Hopefully.

Max's eyes seem to soften and he nods, crossing the space to the bed again to press a kiss against Daniel's cheek.

"It was good, Daniel." He says it like it's not just Daniel's name, but like it means something more, something Daniel doesn't know yet. Something he'll probably never know, now.

Daniel is expecting him to leave then, is ready to curl up in bed and go to sleep without even showering, disgusting as it is, just to keep their smells together a little longer, a pathetic thought to have about a one-night stand, but one nobody will have to know. And yet, Max hesitates, a hand coming up to rub at his neck, tug at his hair.

Something scarily close to hope starts to fill Daniel's lungs.

"I don't want to, uh, be that person," Max starts, stilted and awkward, ears red. It's the first time Daniel seems him embarrassed, and he wants to lick the blush right off his cheeks. "Could I maybe give you my number?"

Daniel is looking for his phone even before Max has closed his mouth, ignores him as he giggles when Daniel lunges out of bed to grab his abandoned pants, raising his phone in the air like a trophy. Max is fully laughing by the time Daniel hands it to him, but Daniel doesn't care anymore. He already can't wait to call.