#binary brain unit

[sw5w]

Qui-Gon Watches On

STAR WARS EPISODE I: The Phantom Menace 01:15:02

[the-deca]

in light of recent discourse

[dhddmods]

Part 1 of our new "stop demonizing neurodivergence" series!

Everyone is free to use these designs on shirts, stickers, pins, whatever they'd like, as long as they are using it for inclusive purposes! Just don't claim it as your own, please.

Take this as a reminder to use words correctly and avoid spreading negative stereotypes about neurodivergence. Especially when speaking about abusers and politicians. Don't conflate abuse or fascism with neurodivergent traits.

There is no such thing as an "evil disorder."

Transparent versions:

Versions with backgrounds, for viewing purposes:

The sociopathy & psychopathy design uses the hypoempathy flag colors by @neopronouns. The one with the orange brain is meant to represent a person with low empathy, with the question mark symbolizing how they do not connect to the other person's feelings, and the heart dialogue shows they are still being kind despite not understanding. The one with the blue brain is meant to represent a person with typical or high empathy, with the line connecting their brain to the other person's brain.

The narcissism design uses narcissus flowers (daffodils). Narcissus flowers were named after Narcissus, who in some versions of the myth turned into a flower out of despair of his reflection never being able to give him the affection he desires. The smiling mask represents the confident/affectionate facade, while the person crying represents how they are suffering internally.

The paraphillic disorder design uses the sunset para symbol by @a-hydrangea-named-acti, representing anti-contact & pro-recovery for paraphilic disorders. The upside down heart represents paraphilic attraction itself, and how it goes against the norm of typical attraction.

----

Check out our other designs!

I support equality always

Non-binary is an umbrella term

Gender and sex are spectrums

Nobody chooses their sex or gender

Intersex people exist

A-specs unite

Attraction is individual, not societal

Queerness is natural

Racial equality matters

All disabilities matter

Support all neurodivergence

[nikoamiko]

If you find its utility, or novelty, runs out, please return your unit through official channels. A discarded Doll may cause ongoing issues.

Q: What if the loss was outside my control? A: It does not know that.

(I quite like sketching with this 1px binary brush it kind of feels like scratching around with a mechanical pencil and activates an important part of my art brain)

[sweet7simple]

Mech Pregnancy, Cybertronian biology and the gestation system, and what I like to call the Gestational Protocols

(A sparkling has two parts: The spark and the birth metal).

I have written about mech pregnancy before and that actually went really well! It got over a hundred notes, my most popular post ever.

So I thought, why stop? I love reproductive science. I love science fiction. I want to develop this more.

I spent more than five hours drawing and labeling and I am not fully pleased with it, but I am just pleased enough and tired enough to show you all what I am thinking.

If mech pregnancy, breeding, world building and/or messy hand drawings bring you joy, check below the cut!

(When I say I drew these by hand, I mean I drew them by hand).

(Note: When I mention a CPU, I am referring to a Central Processing Unit, otherwise known as the brain module.)

The codpiece: A goddamn problem. They can transform into transportation, though, so moving a codpiece out of the way surely has to be doable for them.

The valve: It has very large and noticeable exterior energy node and the reason for this is to indicate charge. We see the portus majora, or the larger port from the outside. If we spread these folds, we'll see the portus minora, or the smaller port. The portus minora is where the interior node system begins. Within the portus minora is the valve entrance, which gives way to the valve sleeve.

The spike: It can be modified or replaced, but the design has to be such that it can collapse in on itself and fit inside of the housing. Whatever your personal preference, the plug (the head of the spike) should expand outward in some way for reasons I will explain shortly. The plug is densely populated with small interior nodes while the cord or cable (the shaft of the spike) is sparsely populated with large exterior nodes. This makes the plug more sensitive. When the cable drains of its gel (which is recycled back into the system via a pressurizer fluid reservoir), these exterior nodes sink into depressions within the interlocking segments so that they don't snag on the housing rim when depressurized.

Note: In the diagrams, I call the nodes "energy nodes". There is a reason for that, but it's not necessarily necessary to the system.

Let me explain: I wrote a story where the nodes captured energy from the friction of the spike's external nodes striking against the valve's internal nodes and then that energy was sent to the spark chamber as a backup source of power during spark merging as spark merging dispersed energy and thereby diminished the sparks.

They don't have to be energy nodes, though. Those fun little goodie spots that create so much pleasure don't have to have a dual purpose. They can just be sensory nodes connected to the sensory net, a subsystem of the neural net.

When it comes to spark merging, I use stellar collision to visualize it. Here is a Youtube video that shows the collapse of a binary stellar system that pretty much sums up what I think happens, but on a much smaller scale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsIMDKMKUWw

The result of the spark merging, however is that a third body is generated from the collision. This third body is created from the intense heat and energy of the spark merging, and from the fragmented copies of life codes duplicated during the spark merge. This is the sparkling. When its creators' sparks retreat to their own chambers, the sparkling will attach to the creator that is receiving transfluid (I will explain shortly).

A form of gestation control includes putting a shunt on the spark chamber to disperse the foreign energy body.

2. The birthing conduit is what it says it is. Once the sparkling has created its own life code, it will descend down the conduit and join with its birth metal, or sentio metallico, in the gestation tank.

3. The gestation tank is where the birth metal is produced from the metal alloy particles carried in transfluid and the energon provided by the carrier. You can also think of it as a crucible furnace, which is used for melting metals in small quantities within a foundry. The crucible is the innermost cavity where the birth metal is made. That crucible is lined with a layer of refractory material, which withstands high heat. That refractory material is going to keep that crucible hot enough to maintain the birth metal as a liquid without melting the protoform layer between the refractory material and the outer shell of the tank.

So the layers from outermost to innermost are :

Outer shell -> protoform layer -> refractory material -> crucible

Also, I move to call the carrier creator a foundry now because I love that word so much. The Google definition for a foundry is a workshop or factory for casting metal. It just sounds so good.

"Hey, First Aid, is Ratchet your foundry?"

"No, but I get that a lot."

I can't think of an equally cool word to replace the term "sire".

4. The valve sleeve is a semi-permeable layer of elastic protoform that can stretch to a certain degree. The interior nodes are within this protoform layer and creates a bumpy texture. As already discussed the sleeve is self-lubricating. I am starting to realize that I labeled this diagram horribly, but please bear with me.

5. Calipers! They in all the sticky sexual interface stories. I just imagine them as these segmented, arm-like extensions that squeeze and relax depending on stimulation. In fanfiction, they have a habit of "cycling down" whenever stimulated. What I love about calipers is that they do set a minimum and maximum range of flexibility for the sleeve. With calipers, there is such a thing as being too small (the calipers can only tighten so much) or too big (the calipers can only loosen so much). They are synonymous to the pelvic floor muscles in a human that makes a vagina contract and relax, but they just make me think of pussy bones. You have to be careful not to break them.

6. THIS IS MY FAVORITE PART. Here is where the valve sleeve meets the gestation tank. There are two orifices: The tank cap and the lockring. The tank cap is where your mech is going to put some kind of seal as a form of gestation control. If a spike can't get into the gestation tank, then there is no birth metal. If there is no birth metal, a signal will be sent to the mech's CPU and then to the spark chamber to disperse the potential sparkling. How the tank cap is removed depends on how you want it removed. If you want a screw-in cap, then that cap will have to be removed via an invasive procedure (otherwise known as we're going to have to stick this instrument up your valve and twist the cap open and then we have to pull out the cap). If you want almost any other kind of seal or door, you can hypothetically just send a signal from the CPU to the neural net attached to the gestation system and have that seal slide out of the way into a depression within the rim of the gestation tank.

BUT THAT LOCKRING, THOUGH. This is why your spike needs to have a plug that expands to some degree.

Once that cap is out of the way, the mech's spike is going to pop through that lockring, sticking their plug directly in their partner's gestation tank. I like to call this "plugging the tank". Once that plug is in that tank, a signal is going to hit the CPU to start up GESTATIONAL PROTOCOLS. More on that at the end.

That lockring is going to cycle down just behind the plug, tight enough that the spike can't pull out without being too tight.

The purpose of this is to ensure that the gestation tank is filled up with transfluid. The lockring will only cycle open once the tank is full or once sensors within the tank indicate that the flow of transfluid has stopped for a certain amount of time (meaning that there is no more transfluid to be had, even if the tank isn't full yet).

It's a reverse knot! Instead of having a spike that knots, we get a valve that locks! I love it so.

7. The energy - or sensory - nodes are part of a positive feedback loop, meaning that "the product of a reaction leads to an increase in that reaction" (https://www.albert.io/blog/positive-negative-feedback-loops-biology/). In this case, pleasure created from stimulating those nodes (such as friction) encourages more stimulation, which creates more pleasure, which encourages more stimulation, until the loop breaks. What breaks this loop is overloading the sensory net or removing the friction.

When we state that the valve is self-lubricating, you can decide for yourself how it does that. The trick is making sure that the mech can can replace their own lubricant when necessary. One system is to have lubricant be a type of consequence from energon circulation.

Humans self-lubricate their vaginas in several different ways and one of them is that the vagina is somewhat permeable. Plasma (the liquid part of blood) is able to discharge from the bloodstream through the walls of the vagina.

Or perhaps your lubricant comes from the same reservoir as the transfluid for your spike. Since the valve sleeve is only somewhat permeable, the metal alloy particles in your transfluid can't get through. What does leak through is the fluid medium that the metal alloy particles reside in.

The plug is itself not an interlocking segment because the plug, as explained, has to expand so that the lockring can tighten between the plug and the topmost interlocking segment. If the plug is smaller than the interlocking segment behind it, then the lockring will either not tighten enough or will tighten too much. Instead, the plug has an outer protoform layer that is expanded with the same pressurizer fluid that fills the spike. In the diagram above, we see the spike, the spike housing that the spike has to depressurize to fit inside of, and at least three different connections at the bottom. One of these connections bundles the wires for the sensory net and attaches to the neural net.

The bottommost connection is to the pressurizer fluid reservoir. When the spike is pressurized, the reservoir compresses and fills the matrix within the spike to give it its form and rigidity. When the spike depressurizes, the reservoir decompresses as it fills with fluid.

The connection that has a dashed line going all the way up the spike connects the transfluid reservoir to the transfluid line (signified by the dashed line) and out the plug. The transfluid reservoir is actually pressed against the outside of the valve!

So it is possible to bang a mech's valve so good that they leak transfluid all over themselves because you are more or less hitting their reservoir with every thrust. You just have to get the angle right or else you're hitting the sleeve calipers and that might not be as fun.

The Gestational Protocols:

This has turned into a very, very long post. I have been working on it for nine hours now between drawing the diagrams, writing the post, and checking with Google to make sure my science isn't horrifically, unforgivably wrong (I could be using the positive feedback loop wrong, but I don't think I am).

So let me wrap this up with the Gestational Protocols. It's like a mech heat fic, actually, except the heat is very short and starts toward the end of sticky sexual interfacing.

For this scenario, Ratchet and Drift want to produce a sparkling. Because Drift is concerned about Ratchet's health, they decide that Drift should be the foundry. Drift has his tank cap removed beforehand.

They're having a great time, creating all the good friction, lighting up their sensory net like a growing fire. Drift is charged up, Ratchet is charged up, and they're about to hit that overload.

Drift's lockring is cycled all the way open. His calipers are trying to pull Ratchet closer. When Ratchet knows he can't hold on any longer, he pushes as deep as he can go. There's a small moment of resistance when his plug meets the lockring and then he pops through. The lockring cycles down and he's stuck. There's no pulling out now.

Ratchet told Drift what to expect from the gestational protocols, but it wasn't enough. The moment Ratchet is locked in place, a signal is sent from his gestation system to his CPU: Gestational protocols initiated...

His cache memory crashes. He has no past or present or future. He has no idea there was a war lasting millions of years. He doesn't even know what a Cybertron is. Programs are halted, tasks are paused, processing units block external input. Hydraulics fall to the lowest power possible. His frame goes completely limp.

Drift no longer exists. He is now a foundry. He is the function of his gestation system. His CPU has a primary and secondary task: Primary is to maintain the protocols and secondary is to reward Drift for maintaining the protocols.

As long as he lays there and lets Ratchet fill him up, he's fulfilling his primary task. Because it's so easy to let Ratchet fill him up, his neural net rewards him with pleasure and feel-good signals. He is riding a type of euphoria that is thoughtless bliss from the tips of his pedes to the tops of his finials.

A task pops up in his CPU, but he doesn't have the processing power to interpret it. He accepts without caring. He experiences his chest plates cracking open without actually seeing it or hearing it. His system rewards him for accepting the prompt, so he still doesn't care. His spark chamber opens next and he is thrown into the intense, beautiful pleasure-agony of having his spark collide with another mech's spark.

He doesn't remember who this other mech is, but Drift loves them. They're filling Drift up so well, both his tank and his spark. He's so full. He's being such a good foundry. He's receiving all those good neural and sensory signals and he's fuzzy/fizzy with joy.

The spark merge ends after several collisions and spirals. Drift loves every moment of it, and also loves it when his spark returns to its chamber. Now his spark feels swollen and his CPU registers a foreign body. There is a potential sparkling attached to his core. Chances are very good that this potential sparkling will not disperse.

His CPU rewards him with another rush of emotional glee and pride. He's sparked! He did so well, laying there and letting himself get sparked. He's a great foundry. He's the best foundry to ever get sparked. No one has ever been or will ever be as well-behaved as he was.

A notification hits his CPU and he doesn't even try to understand it. Apparently, it's the notification for his tank being full. A second notification and his lockring relaxes. He is deliciously, fully aware of a thick spike dragging across his oversensitive interior nodes, sending one last wave of hot, crackling pleasure through his frame.

Another notification. He doesn't read it. A task pops up. He accepts lazily.

The notification was that the gestational protocols had been completed. The task was to enter a soft reboot. Drift slips into recharge feeling like his only purpose in life is to embody pleasure and creation.

He wakes up feeling swollen and sloshy.

Ratchet is smiling down at him.

"Am I...? Are we...?"

Ratchet stroked a servo across his chest plates. "It's early still. The spark might disperse. But chances are looking good. We're sparked, kid."

And that is how I imagine the Gestational Protocols going: You get your tank plugged and then nothing matters but getting filled up with a sparkling.

Thank you for reading my book-length discussion! Please feel free to interact with me.

I have been working on this for ten hours now. I should proofread, but I am not going to at this time.

EDIT: I was in the shower when I realized I forgot something important - where does the protoform's first colony of nanites come from?

@earthstellar explains here (https://www.tumblr.com/earthstellar/659541951144738816/transformers-medical-analysis-essay-what-are?source=share) what Cybertronians use nanites for, including construction and self-repair. So we can readily assume that the protoform needs a nanites colony.

I'll tell you where the new spark's nanites came from: Their foundry's valve.

Humans do the same thing. We pick up friendly bacteria from the vagina we come out of.

That is all I had to add. Remember to start your protoform off right with a healthy nanite colony.

[lkblackham]

yep, it's

🥬WIP WEDNESDAY 🥬

Now that I'm drawing semi-regularly again I keep thinking "I should probably try to draw something besides Dragon Age/Emmrich Volkarin fanart" but then my brain is like "HAHA NOPE you are CLINGING to this fanart raft for dear life right now while the world burns and you're paradoxically bored out of your mind with your thesis" and I'm like "oh okay fine then, could have worse hyperfixations I guess" and it's true.

Anyway here's what I've been working on this week:

Remember the lil scribble I did of Harding and Emmrich running from a Ferelden Bear Swarm all those moons ago? Well now I'm expanding it into a fun lil comic, for which I had to look up reference photos of bear poop. You're welcome.

To take your mind off bear poop, I'm also playing around with another self-indulgent and overly saccharine comic featuring Baby Bel Volkarin. This one is especially fun because I'm gonna paint Emmrich's gorgeous glowy skull helmet.

My comics are my little treats to myself in between reading and writing. For every 500 words I write, I draw for ten minutes. It soothes my soul.

I've also been ✨writing a fanfic✨ which may or may not ever see the light of day, we'll see. It's more or less just an expansion upon the First Real Date with Emmrich sequence in the game. Here's an excerpt:

Atash squeezed his hand back. “It’s fine. Really. I’ll figure something out, eventually. I always do.” She grinned. “I'll take you there. You can meet my family, and they can tease me relentlessly about you, and there'll probably be a big feast that's mostly meat and booze and everyone will be drunk in the first ten minutes and ask you really mortifying personal questions all night. It’ll be fun.”

Emmrich raised an eyebrow, mouth quirking up into an amused smile. “If I didn't know better, my dear, I might think you were trying to ward me away.”

“I'd like to keep up the impression that I'm a competent, mature adult for a little while longer, yes,” Atash said dryly. “That tends to go out the window with family.”

“So I've heard,” Emmrich chuckled. (He's an orphan, you ass, Atash’s inner voice berated as she mentally kicked herself) “I assume you have a rather large family, then?”

“Yep,” Atash affirmed, gently taking back her hand and picking up her salad fork again, spearing a generous portion of leaves, cheese and strawberries off her plate as she ruthlessly suppressed the voice in her head telling her to shut up about her abundance of living relatives, “Fourteen siblings.”

Emmrich blinked, completely thrown. He leaned forward, attention rapt, salad forgotten. “I beg your pardon, fourteen siblings?”

Atash nodded sagely. “Eleven brothers, one sister, three non-binary.” "

Based on a true story. Kinda. I have eight siblings (seven sisters, one brother), and I've known one person who was the youngest of 14. Always a fun icebreaker at parties.

Being from such a big family, I thought it would be fun to look at Emmrich going from being single and on his own to suddenly being a part of this massive, loving family unit, who just immediately adopt him the moment they meet and carry on like he's always been there.

I haven't finished this chapter purely because I'm like "this is mostly just talking, people will be bored by that" and then I remind myself that it's MY self-indulgent fantasy romance shlop and I can do what I please.

Anyways, thanks for reading all this, I appreciate you, mwah mwah 😘 have a good week.

[stujet9rainshine-blog]

Nicktoons Unite Polycule!

The moment everything changes. Jenny announces her discontent.

I wrote this to spite you specifically. You come into my house and say polyamory is bad???? How dare! Have the polycule Nicktoons Unite crew. And like I said in the original post, SpongeBob is not in it.

OP is also poly and was in a long term triad.

The movie played on, some late-night action flick with too many explosions and not enough plot, but no one was really watching it anymore.

Danny and Manny were tangled together at one end of the couch, a lazy pile of limbs and low laughter. Manny's fingers played absentmindedly with the edge of Danny's hoodie. Across the cushions, Jimmy leaned against Timmy’s shoulder, half-asleep, his glasses sliding down his nose while Timmy idly combed fingers through his hair.

And Jenny sat alone.

Not far—she was only inches away from all of them—but something about the distance felt... wider.

She told herself it didn’t matter. It wasn’t supposed to matter. She wasn’t supposed to feel like this. Emotions had always felt like code—binary, manageable, predictable. Ones and zeroes.

But lately? They’d been feeling more like static.

There was a weird, sucking ache in her chest—where her heart would be, if she were human. She ran a quick diagnostic. Battery: full. Temperature: optimal. Circuits: clean. No signs of corrosion. Everything was fine.

So why did it feel like something was missing?

Her optics drifted to the couples. Her family. Her team. The people she trusted most in the world.

And yet... she felt strangely alone.

She didn't want to feel bitter, but she was a bit of a diva—and old habits died hard. She leaned back, crossing her arms with a huff, and tossed out, “Wow. You guys sure know how to make a girl feel like she belongs.”

The effect was immediate.

All four heads snapped toward her, startled.

Jimmy blinked, his tired brain scrambling to register what she meant. You do belong.

Timmy frowned. That’s not how Jenny usually joked.

Danny sat up a little, blue eyes narrowing with concern as he looked at her. She never jokes like that unless something’s wrong.

But it was Manny who spoke. Of course it was Manny. He always leapt first.

"Do you want to be included... differently, chica?"

Jenny’s optics flicked to him—and the words slammed into her like a power surge.

She hadn’t even considered that possibility. She’d always been the friend. The sidekick. The sister.

Did she want more?

She ran the calculations. Emotional equations spiraled across her brain at lightning speed. CPU temperature rising. Memory banks lighting up with every moment she’d laughed too hard at Danny’s sarcasm. The thrill of sparring with Manny. Quiet talks with Jimmy. Dumb pranks with Timmy.

"Huh," she said slowly, her voice soft. "I think I do."

The silence that followed wasn’t awkward. It was heavy. Tense with potential.

And then Manny reached over, with all the ease in the world, and scooped her up like it was the most obvious thing to do. He pulled her metal frame between himself and Danny, holding her close like she'd always belonged there.

His hand patted her arm, warm and grounding.

"Is that better?"

Jenny didn’t feel heat the way humans did. But something in her chest—something cold and tight—eased.

Her metal frame hummed low and soft.

"Yeah," she said. "It is."

[respectthepetty]

At one of the nearby-ish universities, researchers can use the lab that attaches those little pads to people's heads and see their brains light up (the sign-up list is loooong), and I always think my brain would look like fireworks going off while I watch color-coded boys fall in love because once Black Brooder Yotha said that Green Guy Gun was his boyfriend to his Blue Boy brother and Gun's Blue Boy best friend in Perfect 10 Liners' sixteenth episode, I'm sure my brain stayed lit!

Even when I saw Yellow Yal Arm and Red Rascal Arc not in their colors, my brain wanted to shut off right here, but I think Arc's shirt has yellow highlight over the text (for his man), and every time I see that Manchester United poster, -I- see red from my rage, so I guess I'll make the colors happen with or without the show giving them to me.

But Sam makes up for it since he has consistently been a Red Rascal in the second portion of the show, always popping up to talk shit and bounce, and it appears Arm is wearing a light yellow, so my brain is, once again, lighting up!

However, I wish we would have gotten more of the other color-coded friends since we don't get enough Orange Oddities (Book) or Pink People (Franc) in BLs. But I know every story is going to have the Blue Boys (Kong AND FAIFA!!!!)

I won't be too mad at it though because, as I've mentioned every single week, this show's color coding is just so damn good, so my brain is always lighting up. Like these are the exact faces a jovial Green Guy and a mean Black Brooder would make. Perfect faces. Perfect colors. Perfect 10 Liners.

Even Faifa's rage is perfect!

Because even though Faifa's dark blue shirt is telling him to "Seize" the day and "Just trust yourself then you will know how to live," as a sign of the dark Blue Boy coming his way, he can't see his own happy ending when he is listening to Gun say stupid shit like "Love makes you tiny." I'd also be plotting murder if I was him.

COLOR-CODED BOYS IN LOVE ARE DISGUSTING(LY ADORABLE)!

Random: Someone at GMMTV likes puppy play because every single show has some aspect of it, so good for that person getting everything they wanted!

Because I got matching birthday ties! So Yotha got matching binary tattoos with Wa, but he has matching bracelets and ties with his current boyfriend cementing that Yotha is an emo who likes sentimental gifts.

Emo Black Brooders in love are the best!

I'm not going to get over that there was a whole ass Pink Person and Orange Oddity in this portion of Color-Coded Boys The Series, and I know minimal information about them.

But thank goodness I know everything about these two yin yang colored boys!

Because they are meant for each other. They are toxic AND in love!

They fight just so they can have make-up sex.

Good for those beautiful bastards!

That could never be these two color-coded boys though.

Gun doesn't understand anger or foregoing sleep in favor of sex unlike these other color-coded boys.

Good for him!

And the more light Blue Boy Faifa cries about not having someone, the more I scream that he is about to meet his match in dark Blue Boy Wine. Newton is going to hate BOTH his brothers.

Now Yotha and Gun are putting on matching pajamas just to take them off the way God and Arm intended.

Have I mentioned how happy my brain is about color-coded boys in love? Because I'm very happy about color-coded boys in love being there for each other when they have to deal with big emotions.

Even more so when they are color-coded brothers who yell at each other that "You're too pessimistic" and " You're too optimistic" since the colors only emphasize those points!

Newton remains neutral, the dad is blue, and the mom is pink. This is Heterosexuality 101, which is why Yotha and Faifa do not comprehend it.

Yes! Keep saying this Gun! Keep reminding me that the people who worked behind the scenes on this show deserve a raise! Keep saying you bring light to this Black Brooder's dark world!

Because your shirt will explicitly state it later ("Sunshine on my Mind")

All is right in the world. Everyone is in the color, and Yotha got jokes.

AND ARM AND ARC ARE FINALLY IN THEIR COLORS TOO!

Thank God for small miracles and color-coded boys in love.

NOW BRING ME MY LAPIS LADS!

[intersexcat-tboy]

Intersex (Sun) Monad / Intersex (Hieroglyphica) Monad flags

An intersex monadic individual acknowledges a divine aspect within oneself, who may embrace being whole and/or unaltered. There may be holiness felt in "l want to be how nature made me", resonating with the belief that one's existence aligns with the natural order, or a higher power's design, such as "God created mankind in his image", though this perspective is not confined to specific religious beliefs, but rather, encompassing a profound recognition that they were meant to be as they are.

The notion of being 'whole and/or unaltered' carries multifaceted meanings, and is inclusive of various experiences within the intersex community. It can include those who have survived Intersex Genital Mutilation and desire bodily integrity, as well as individuals undergoing medical treatments, surgeries, or are transitioning. For some, this includes changes that embrace their condition rather than 'correct' or 'fix'.

However, this concept applies specifically to somatic intersex variations; individuals who are transID, those who feel they "should have been born intersex", believe they can or want to "transition to intersex", or believe in “brain intersex" are excluded and should not interact.

Some intersex individuals acknowledge their journey may resemble a transgender journey 'on paper', but instead view their medical procedures as a unique form of 'correction’, rejecting the medicalized notion of 'correction' imposed by doctors to shoehorn individuals into a box to match society, instead, aligning the body to the mind.

Overall, it is for intersex individuals with whom their identity has stayed consistent and unwavering amidst societal pressures to conform. Existing independently of external categorizations or societal expectations.

It is for those who defiantly reject forced procedures, asserting their autonomy over their bodies, echoing the principles embodied by Carpenter's flag, which emphasizes genital integrity and choice. They refuse to alter themselves to fit into society's narrow definitions, steadfast in their authenticity and self-acceptance, encompassing both the challenges and the beauty of living authentically within a society that often struggles to understand and accept differences.

This may be particularly true for ('on paper') trans intersex individuals, who perceive their journey not as a transition, since they feel nothing changed, but as a process of embracing themselves into the light.

It is for those who feel there is nothing inherently wrong with their variation, recognizing the challenges it may entail but affirming that they are not disordered just for being different. Change and medicalization are understood as arising from an internal, personal desire for comfort and authenticity, rather than an expectation to conform to a binary paradigm that distorts their identity or views them as mutated, defective, anomaly, or otherwise needing to be fixed/corrected.

A monadic intersex individual's variation is indivisible and inseparable from their being, just as they cannot be neatly divisible into categories of male or female, but rather exist as a cohesive whole. It is especially for those who prefer not to be sexed at all.

A monadic intersex individual contains within themselves a living testament to the abundant beauty of our world, the infinite complexity and development that can occur, embracing the diversity of nature and its boundless creativity. They know they are a fundamental unit of reality, embracing their unique identity as an essential part of the human tapestry. Monadic individuals would be advocates for greater visibility and recognition of intersex rights and experiences.

Flag interpretations:

The sun monad flag (left) represents the foundational essence, the base and building block of the other forms. It symbolizes the intrinsic unity and wholeness of one's being, embracing the purity of existence without the constraints of classifications. Like the sun at the center of the solar system, it represents the core essence from which all other aspects of identity emanate. Intersex, inseparable from oneself, much like variance is inseparable from life, and life inseparable from the sun. It may resonate more with those who solely use intersex, are neutral, neutrois, null or other similar genders.

The hieroglyphic monad flag (right) embodies the concept of harmoniously encompassing all forms within itself, all different facets being viewable within one entity. This symbolism may resonate most with androgynous, multigender, or others with "contradictory" identities with whom resides in themselves the cosmos

(if you want the interpretations, I consider the sun the broader one; sun being "I am intersex, I am me" hieroglyphic as "l am me, I am everything". Both are monad flags)

[lesbians4armand]

on the technical side of things, maybe armand is intersex. he was often described as being beautiful like a girl! he couldve been born with a boys body but as he got older and hit puberty, perhaps he had a hormone disorder he didn't know about/coupled with sexual trauma/being turned he never really got to go through a full hrt puberty.

i know armand slept with numerous vampires in his coven, but he DOES have a tendency to not fuck human beings. maybe vampires CAN get pregnant, but they need a living counter part to make it work. immortal children are banned under vampire law, so i can see why female vampires aren't having children of their own (for fear of their child/them dying/the child being unable to progress physically or mentally) but wouldn't it just be like armand to be pregnant and not know until it's too late to do anything with?

or he gets pregnant and daniels the first to recognize the symptoms? the eating, the mood swings, how feral he's gotten during sex. i assume it would be jarring to wake up and find your vampire boyfriend projectile vomiting the 70 units of blood he gorged on 3 hours prior.

INTERSEX ARMAND!! YES!! The vampires of the vampire chronicles have always defied gender in its social ways but to have it completely blur binaries of biological sex is so so good, they already have so many differences to their biology and anatomy its not too much of a stretch.

And you’re right, armand is always described as being very androgynous, and bringing that along with his limited memories of his youth and the trauma that he went through, he could very well be intersex and not even realise it, though lack of memory or some other factor. I love exploration of Armand’s gender identity a lot due to his lack of self identity in general, I’ve considered genderfluid armand before and even transgender armand (t4t devils minion… real) but intersex is a new concept to me that’s super fascinating.

(shout out to that one fic where armand IS alice because he can literally change his gender and sex at will btw been thinking about that since i read it… very good very delicious very gender)

On logistics of vampire specific pregnancy, i also agree that one participant must be a living human, i doubt that vampires can get one another pregnant (both being dead things, as well as the law to not create vampire children). I think male vampires who do sleep with human women (cough cough, lestat) would be able to get them pregnant, and that human men can get vampires pregnant too. Someone has to be alive to create life in this scenario.

Who knows if these pregnancies would be entirely viable without specific requirements. Would the fetus need blood in-utero if half-vampire?? or is the baby just human as its created with living dna regardless? how does the vampire reproductive system work?? if their hearts still pump blood and their lungs still breathe, and their brains are still alive, their reproductive system may still be functioning even if other processes shut down? Iirc the VC universe later established that vampirism is kind of like a ghost-alien parasite infecting a dead human body but keeping some parts of it living. maybe this does include reproduction, I think all grounds of logic went out when we first got to aliens.

In the tv-show universe (in which im basing this crazy au), the vampires can have sex (though they could not in the books), so this implies a working reproductive system.

Anyway yeah! I think intersex Armand COULD be getting pregnant here. Admittedly I’m not super familiar with intersex people and how this would work but I’d love to learn more and it’s definitely a way of getting mpreg to work here. I think im too scared to commit to omegaverse so this is a very fun dynamic and solution.

On to the other parts of this ask as I have gone on a bit, Armand does seem the type to neglect his own wellbeing to the point he doesn’t realise he’s pregnant until months along when there is little to be done, but I also think he wouldn’t want anything to be done. He might not have very good experience or track record with children or kid-vampires (see claudia), but he would love the evidence of love from daniel. It’s a part of daniel and a part of him, I think he’d be obsessed with that, that they can bring something that is alive and good and both of them to the world.

The idea of daniel realising like “oh my vampire boyfriend is actually very strangely, almost like he’s ill, but vampires can’t get ill! It’s weird it’s like when Alice was pregnant with… Oh! oh that’s it. okay.”

thank you for the ask this was very interesting.

[sw5w]

Leaving Home

STAR WARS EPISODE I: The Phantom Menace 01:14:50

[lokavisi]

I've been thinking on this video a lot over the past few days. I encourage anyone that works with Loki to watch it and seriously consider this perspective. Not that you have to agree with it by any means, but my own contemplation of this is proving to be quite interesting. I'll put my thoughts below a line so you can choose to engage with them after watching the video if you so desire. (It is 20 minutes long, so there's a bit of a time commitment.)

The thing that stuck out most to me here is the moral ambiguity of the trickster. It is such a quintessential aspect of pretty much all trickster deities, yet so many Lokeans (myself included) treat Loki as some sort of "all good" deity, or at least feel like he can do no wrong (or some similar sentiment), like he is always on our side and our side is Good. I think Rune makes a great point (around minute 6:00) that, in trying to distance Loki from the Christian concept of Satan, we have gone so far in the other direction that we may view Loki as a deity that is unambiguously good. But, as he also points out (a little after the 11:00 minute mark), to weave between the dark and light means you must also engage with the dark, and that our values (that we assign to the concepts of light and dark) are not inherently the values of tricksters.

It's that point on values that's had my brain churning. Because as a queer neurodivergent person, I feel support from Loki. I had a whole little trance journey that unintentionally turned to a small personal ritual for joining their family. My very being exists in the liminal like Loki does, and I can find comfort from them in that space. That does not, however, mean our values that inform how we move through the world are the same, and there are a whole slew of reasons for that.

One reason is that very binary of light and dark/good and evil has been ingrained in me from a young age. Even if I can recognize nuance and grey areas, it is still often challenging for me to accept or engage with it unless it in some way already aligns with my values or personal worldview. Conceptualizing it is one thing, but actually navigating and living in it is another. For example, I generally don't think murder is a great idea, but I do see how things like killing the United Healthcare CEO, for instance, make a statement that can facilitate change. Just as much as sending an innocent man like Abrego Garcia to a death camp makes a statement that can facilitate change. That sort of change can be for the benefit of the many over the few, but our individual values are what shape our idea of what is actually beneficial and to whom it is beneficial to. I would certainly prefer that we solve problems and care for as many people as we can without the loss of life, but that does not mean that Loki (or any other trickster, or even deity in general) shares those values. It does not meant that this liminal being I find myself aligned with won't be a catalyst for or support such violent actions. Nor does that mean I have a moral obligation to distance myself from said trickster.

Let's look at the lore for a minute. Loki is of Aesir and Jotun descent - an amalgamation of order/structure, and untamed chaos. They embody masculinity and femininity and use both as it suits their needs (Thrymsvitha). They exist within the established order while still ripping it to shreds (Lokasenna). They are willing to instigate death and the destruction of that very order they exist in so that new life, and therefore a potentially new order, has a chance to exist (Baldrs draumar). Their partners reflect their willingness to not just love and engage with both order/light (Aesir via Sigyn) and chaos/darkness (Jotun via Angrboda), but also their ability to quite literally breed both light (Vali and Narfi) and dark (Jormungandr, Fenrir, and Hel) to perpetuate the presences of both within all of existence. Loki's very being walks the line, jumps over it, moves it around, destroys and redraws it, always making it difficult to know where the line is or if it even exists at all. That is liminality. That is ambiguity. That is what and who we are aligning ourselves with as Lokeans, no matter what our personal values are.

In our current political landscape in the U.S., I see this kind of liminal energy manifesting in my spiritual community. There is a pull to learn how to engage in situations that may become violent just as much as there is a pull to engage with one another in laughter and joy. Both are needed to survive - not just in this climate, but throughout life in general. Being capable and willing to engage with darkness as much as the light. Loki has become a much more prominent deity in my community, and that seems to be true even further beyond us. I think we are seeing a need to engage with this trickster energy as we see it manifest more in the world around us. As much as we use it to further our own values, others can use it for theirs, and we can't say or control if and when Loki supports us both, even if we are in direct opposition to one another. But it is in Loki's DNA to do just that. We all want to survive, after all, and Loki certainly looks out for their own survival. (Just look at how they dealt with Thjassi and Idunn, or the dwarves with Sif's hair.)

This is my opinion at the moment and I know it may change with time, but I think, ultimately, if we are going to align ourselves with Loki, we need to accept that we are aligning ourselves with the dark as much as the light. We can act and live in whatever way we choose to. We have personal agency and are allowed to have our own values that shape our concepts of dark and light, regardless of our deities of choice; but when we tell people we work with, worship, or in any other way associate with Loki, we are making a statement that we accept (if not embrace) those forces at play within the world. For myself, I think part of my work with Loki is to simply work towards greater acceptance of that truth: that what I consider to be light and dark is not universal, and that what I do consider light and dark exist simultaneously both out in the world and within me. (That's what shadow work is, right?)

As always, I am open to respectful discussion on this. I ask and answer questions in good faith that we are respecting one another, and as such may ask for clarity on meaning or tone. I encourage you to do the same. It is also important as we engage to remember that it is okay if we ultimately disagree. We can discuss without making it about who is right or wrong.

[dhddmods]

People who follow us know the drill already! Another design!

Everyone is free to use this design on shirts, stickers, pins, whatever they'd like, as long as they are using it for inclusive purposes! Just don't claim it as your own, please.

The first is transparent, the second has a background for viewing purposes.

If this design feels familiar to you, its because we made it in the past. But we redesigned it, because we learned from @status-quo-hater that the h-slur is inappropriate to use, even in reference to snails, slugs, and similar species. So now we have updated it to be cosexed instead! So sorry about the past slur usage.

Note: This design is NOT in support of "sexed brains." The comment about brains and reproductive systems developing at different times is meant to communicate that those things are NOT correlated, as in, there's no such thing as a "male" or "female" brain, and sex traits do not correlate with psychological gender.

(Also, please check out and reblog our recently updated intersex guide!)

Check out our other designs:

I support equality always

Attraction is individual, not societal

A-specs unite

Intersex people exist

Gender and sex are spectrums

Nobody chooses their sex or gender

Non-binary is an umbrella term

Racial equality matters

All disabilities matter

Support all neurodivergence

Stop demonizing neurodivergence (pt 1)

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Colin Wright

Published: Apr 22, 2025

The last four months have been a whirlwind of change in the gender debate. Just eight days into his second term, President Donald Trump signed an executive order provocatively titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.” It declared that the United States would no longer “fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another.” The order arrived as the Supreme Court was deliberating U.S. v. Skrmetti, a pivotal case challenging Tennessee’s ban on sex-trait modification procedures for minors.

As the U.S. enters an era of legal warfare over pediatric “gender-affirming” care, it’s time to shift the terms of debate from outcomes to the foundational premises of the practice.

I have served as an expert witness for several court cases on gender-affirming care. These courtroom debates fixate almost entirely on whether the treatments show evidence of benefit. This is a mistake.

True, the evidence is almost nonexistent. Last year, British authorities released the Cass Review, a devastating critique of the evidence supporting pediatric sex-trait modification. The report was grounded in seven systematic evidence reviews—the gold standard in evidence-based medicine. One of the reviews, consistent with the others, described the evidence in favor of “gender-affirming treatment” in children and adolescents as “remarkably weak.”

But while it’s not wrong to highlight this evidentiary void, focusing solely on outcomes cedes too much ground to proponents by implying that outcomes alone could legitimize the practice gender transition. The deeper flaw in gender-affirming care lies not in the data but in their premises. If the foundational assumptions used to justify these treatments collapse under scrutiny, the interventions would remain unjustifiable, even if some evidence of benefit eventually emerged.

At its core, gender-affirming care rests on two claims. First, it posits that biological sex is not a fixed binary but a malleable continuum, shaped by traits like sex chromosomes, hormones, genital morphology, and other physical characteristics—most of which doctors can alter with hormones and surgeries.

Second, it asserts that a person can have a “brain sex”—equated with “gender identity”—that diverges from his body, creating a mismatch that drives gender dysphoria. The goal, then, is to align the body with this purportedly immutable “brain sex” through hormones and surgeries.

Both premises are scientifically untenable. Sex is not a spectrum. It’s a binary biological reality defined by reproductive function: males have the function to produce sperm, and females, ova. No hormonal or surgical intervention can change a person’s sex. Likewise, the notion that a person can have a “brain sex” incongruent with his body defies both biology and logic. Our bodies are an integrated whole, not a patchwork of independently sexed traits.

These unsound premises make gender-affirming care a house built on sand, not solid medical science.

Consider an analogy: exorcism might comfort a troubled patient who believes in demonic possession, but the practice’s legitimacy hinges on demons being real. Absent that, it’s a ritual, not medicine.

Similarly, gender-affirming care presupposes both a “sex spectrum” and “brain sex,” which do not exist. No amount of reported benefit can salvage a practice rooted in pseudoscience.

This distinction exposes a contradiction among the defenders of gender medicine in U.S. v. Skrmetti. The litigants against Tennessee argue that bans on “gender-affirming” procedures for minors constitute a form of discrimination based on sex. The ACLU, representing private plaintiffs in the case, attempted to spotlight potential benefits of gender-affirming care while sidestepping the shaky premises, yet its legal arguments invoking sex discrimination implicitly relied on sex being concrete and immutable. This undermines the justification for the gender-affirming care it supports, which requires that sex be fluid and changeable. They can’t have it both ways.

The legal battle over gender-affirming care must shift focus. Legislation should not merely target procedures but dismantle the pseudoscientific terminology and concepts—“gender identity,” “brain sex,” and “sex assigned at birth”—that prop them up. Medical institutions must face accountability for embracing these falsehoods.

This is a rare moment to halt the medicalization of confused, distressed, and vulnerable youth. By attacking gender medicine at its ideological foundation, we can end this harmful practice.

==

Never lose sight of the fact the underlying claim is the same kind of mystical mind-body dualism as Xianity's eternal soul or Scientology's thetans. That we are not entirely biological beings, but possessed by some biology-independent spiritual gender essence.

It's completely retarded.

[puppydollgstar]

Kyle "Gaz" Garrick x Reader - Fic Ideas

This is essentially just a brain/word vomit of some concepts I have that are gonna be cooking up in the drafts until the end of my school semester where I'm ready to post hehehehe! I am ALWAYS looking for feedback and conversation so please don't be afraid to send asks or DMs!

Black Femme Reader

hair/wash day

he pays for your nails/hair

getting matching bonnets/du-rags

GN - Expecting/pregnant reader

I feel like pregnancy is only explored for Cis women which I don't think is fair for trans women, AFAB trans-mascs (those of yall who are not opposed to the idea of pregnancy and parenthood), and other GNC people and bodies

The idea that if you aren't a women, pregnancy should give you gender dysphoria feels like its based in transphobic thinking patterns and I want to challenge myself and others by writing an experience of motherhood (or rather parenthood) from the perspective of the carrier which can open access to bodies that are normally not permitted space to imagine this

typically when we think of parents we think of "mom" and "dad" or baby's saying some variation of "mommy/mama" and "daddy/dada". I want to use a gender neutral of this word that is affectionate and means parental unit. Maybe I'll delve into the idea of neopronouns or maybe I can seek inspiration from different cultures who don't follow the north-american norms of the gender binary (I'm from Canada).

If you as a reader, writer, GNC person, or someone with knowledge about this, PLEASE feel free to shoot me a message! I am more than happy to learn

Simultaneously, I wonder if I (a cis woman?) Have the right to be writing this kind of content when I don't consider myself as part of the GNC community (gender is a bit complicated for me and I currently feel like cis woman fits me best)

But I also know that when writing and informing myself of the perspectives and experiences of real GNC people, I am trying to remain authentic

Something else that I think about is my intent. My mind immediately counters this with the argument that "Impact means more than intent" which is absolutely true! At the same time, I recognize my intent for writing this to be coming from a place of trying to learn. I don't look at my draft of this fic to be 'giving representation' so much as I think of it as me doing a writing experiment and trying to learn and understand alternative forms of motherhood/parenthood while challenging bias that I may subconsciously carry. Ultimately, I don't know if it would be appropriate for me to write this but I would love to hear what other people, particularly GNC folkx think about this! I want to hear your voices!!!!

Maybe this would be set in omegaverse??? I really like how gender, gender roles, and sexuality are experimented with in this genre. For me, no two omegaverse fics are alike and its very interesting! (Also I'm a puppy-person who's writing this lmfao)

[creepyboyandhisforestfriends]

His Dark Materials and the Divine Mechanical

The divine mechanical. A concept the lonely gays (/aff) on tumblr are quite familiar with. That angels are uncorruptable beings with wires for veins and binary for speech. Something so foreign to our vulnerable flesh, yet compatible with the very comupters we created. (I have included some of the most iconic photos/posts of this concept for reference.) It's a truely bizarre little pocket of internet culture and I love it.

(Yes one of those images may be a screenshot of a tumblr post uploaded to tiktok and then screenshot again and put onto pinterest which is where I found it, ik ik behead me if you must /nsrs /silly)

ANYWAY Another bizarre little pocket of the internet that I'm equally in love with is, the His Dark Materials fandom (hi guys <3). And in the wee hours of the morning, my big brain made a rather thrilling connection.

The Cave!!

It is quite possible one of the best (and only) depictions of the divine mechanical in popular media. A machine in our world's Oxford's Dark Matter Research Unit. Compared to Lyra's world with talking animals and witches, our world is of pure science. And yet Lyra immediately realises that the dark matter Mary is researching is, in fact, Dust. The very same magic particles that’s have spurred this whole story, but instead of fanaticising about it to a religeous degree like those in Lyra's world, our world has rationalised it as just another type of matter. And in both worlds this makes sense. Dust is both magic and science. Divine and mechanical.

And the Cave talks with Dust. It uses code and numbers and wires and circutboards and electricity to ultimately communicate with the angels themselves. The angels, which are beings of pure Dust.

Also just look at the thing! A giant hulking machine of wires and pristine tubing, all kept suspended behind glass. As if to stand in front of it is to worship it.

That’s all :)

(thank you for coming to my ted talk)