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ukrfeminism · 9 days

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The creation of sexually explicit "deepfake" images is to be made a criminal offence in England and Wales under a new law, the government says.

Under the legislation, anyone making explicit images of an adult without their consent will face a criminal record and unlimited fine.

It will apply regardless of whether the creator of an image intended to share it, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said.

And if the image is then shared more widely, they could face jail.

A deepfake is an image or video that has been digitally altered with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to replace the face of one person with the face of another.

Recent years have seen the growing use of the technology to add the faces of celebrities or public figures - most often women - into pornographic films.

Channel 4 News presenter Cathy Newman, who discovered her own image used as part of a deepfake video, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme it was "incredibly invasive".

Ms Newman found she was a victim as part of a Channel 4 investigation into deepfakes.

"It was violating... it was kind of me and not me," she said, explaining the video displayed her face but not her hair.

Ms Newman said finding perpetrators is hard, adding: "This is a worldwide problem, so we can legislate in this jurisdiction, it might have no impact on whoever created my video or the millions of other videos that are out there."

She said the person who created the video is yet to be found.

Under the Online Safety Act, which was passed last year, the sharing of deepfakes was made illegal.

The new law will make it an offence for someone to create a sexually explicit deepfake - even if they have no intention to share it but "purely want to cause alarm, humiliation, or distress to the victim", the MoJ said.

Clare McGlynn, a law professor at Durham University who specialises in legal regulation of pornography and online abuse, told the Today programme the legislation has some limitations.

She said it "will only criminalise where you can prove a person created the image with the intention to cause distress", and this could create loopholes in the law.

It will apply to images of adults, because the law already covers this behaviour where the image is of a child, the MoJ said.

It will be introduced as an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill, which is currently making its way through Parliament.

Minister for Victims and Safeguarding Laura Farris said the new law would send a "crystal clear message that making this material is immoral, often misogynistic, and a crime".

"The creation of deepfake sexual images is despicable and completely unacceptable irrespective of whether the image is shared," she said.

"It is another example of ways in which certain people seek to degrade and dehumanise others - especially women.

"And it has the capacity to cause catastrophic consequences if the material is shared more widely. This Government will not tolerate it."

Cally Jane Beech, a former Love Island contestant who earlier this year was the victim of deepfake images, said the law was a "huge step in further strengthening of the laws around deepfakes to better protect women".

"What I endured went beyond embarrassment or inconvenience," she said.

"Too many women continue to have their privacy, dignity, and identity compromised by malicious individuals in this way and it has to stop. People who do this need to be held accountable."

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper described the creation of the images as a "gross violation" of a person's autonomy and privacy and said it "must not be tolerated".

"Technology is increasingly being manipulated to manufacture misogynistic content and is emboldening perpetrators of Violence Against Women and Girls," she said.

"That's why it is vital for the government to get ahead of these fast-changing threats and not to be outpaced by them.

"It's essential that the police and prosecutors are equipped with the training and tools required to rigorously enforce these laws in order to stop perpetrators from acting with impunity."

#articles #mvawg #law

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neil-gaiman · 4 months

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Good day, Mr. Gaiman,

I see that most of the questions right now are about The Good Omens (rightfully so, the show is incredible), but I'm doing my recurrent reread of American God, and I have a question. I reread it every 3-5 years and already gave myself several answers, but I would LOVE to know yours. Was it important in terms of meaning that Laura was the one who used a spear in the finale? Or was it just more convenient plotwise? I'm quite hesitant about her place in this story still, honestly. If you already talked more about her somewhere, can you point me in the direction, maybe?

And a huge Hi from Kyiv, Ukraine! Your worlds help)

Laura's really important to the story and her actions at the end are vital to how it all comes out. I've probably been interviewed about it somewhere, but I do not know where.

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katelynnwrites · 2 months

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Laura's Honigbiene | Laura Freigang x Baby!Reader

warnings: preemie baby and medical stuff

word count: 546

summary: laura calls you her honeybee

a/n: very much of a short one but we will see where this goes i guess, part of Laura's Honigbiene

You’re born so absolutely tiny that Laura can’t hold you.

She has to watch you lie in an incubator instead. The neonatal intensive care nurse puts a special eye mask on you, to protect your eyes and your Mama can’t stop looking at you.

The doctors tell her that the lights in the incubator will treat your jaundice and the incubator itself will help keep you warm.

They also tell her that it will be weeks before she can take you home because of how early you were born.

Premature is the term the doctors had used because you weren’t supposed to have been born for another two months.

Your Mama sits by your enclosed plastic bassinet and just listens to the beeping of the monitor measuring your vitals.

To Laura, the soft hum of the machines working kind of sounds like the buzzing of a bee. She takes comfort in it, knowing that it means you are going to be okay.

‘My Honigbiene.’ She murmurs fondly, associating the sound and insect with you after that.

She watches you grow in the incubator, watches you squirm around and begin to become more alert.

The overwhelming relief she’d had when your doctors told her that you were now big enough for her to hold you, your Mama doesn’t think she’s ever felt relief like that.

She cries when they put you on her chest, you’re still so small and you kind of wiggle around under her shirt until she puts her hand on your back.

Then you still and blink up at her slowly.

Laura simply cannot tear her gaze away from you, soaking in the feeling of finally being able to hold you. She can feel your breathing against her bare skin as precious little puffs of air.

There are still chest leads, your feeding tube and a pulse ox attached to you but your Mama doesn’t care. She’s holding you close and that’s all that matters.

‘I love you.’ She repeats, over and over again.

Kangaroo care seems to be your thing because you regularly fall asleep on your Mama. Something about the direct skin to skin contact soothes you and Laura falls in love with the way your tiny body feels on her chest.

Her body warmth helps to regulate your body temperature and she makes sure to spend as much time holding you as she can.

******

You are allowed to go home when the doctors are sure that you can bottle feed and breathe reliably on your own. Your body temperature has stabilised and you have gained weight in the time you’ve spent in the hospital’s intensive care nursery.

Bringing you home is a special moment for your Mama. She cradles you gently as she walks you through the front door.

‘Welcome home Honigbiene.’ She softly says.

Your Mama gives you a tour of your home, monologuing to you about anything and everything as she goes.

When she reaches your nursery, she gives you a little kiss on your forehead.

‘And this is your room. I think I’ll need to add some honeybee decorations to make it truly yours. What do you think?’

You make a little grunt, one of your many newborn noises and Laura smiles.

‘I’ll take that as a yes.’

German Translation:

Honigbiene - Honeybee

#laura freigang #laura freigang x reader #laura freigang imagine #woso x reader #woso #woso imagine #gerwnt imagine #gerwnt x reader #dfb frauen imagine #dfb frauen x reader #gerwnt #dfb frauen #eintracht frankfurt frauen #katelynnwrites

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mrs-illyrian-baby · 7 months

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The Old Gods and The New - Chapter 1

Rules to Follow | Loki x Reader

The Avengers bring you to the compound after a series of odd events draws their attention. Life seems to be looking up, until your abilities start to show again.

Chapter warnings: 18+ for implied sexual content, false/medical imprisonment

Series Masterlist

The cold, bleak conference room was a welcome balm against the uproar of the last two days.

You weren't sure how it happened. One minute you were furious, staring down from the balcony of your flat, anger bubbling through your veins. And then you were watching a row of cars burn in the car park below.

Maybe you would've gotten away with it if the weather was bad. If less people had been around. If it hadn't gone viral on TikTok. If it was the first time you'd done something weird.

It wasn't unusual for people to have strange powers, not anymore, but there were certain rules to follow. Rules that included not setting cars on fire and frightening passersby. Rules your grandfather had set about staying in the flat and controlling your emotions, taking your medicine and laying low.

A hand snapped in front of your face.

“Okay kid, spill. What are you?” Tony asked.

“Uhm, I’m not anything at all?”

“No, come on. Setting shit on fire, what’s that?”

“Monster, alien or wizard?” Sam piped up.

“I swear to god Samuel quit it with that,” a pen flew across the room with surprising accuracy and embedded itself in the wall behind Sam’s head.

You’d seen them on TV, the Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Captain America, Black Widow, Hulk, Vision, Scarlet Witch and Iron Man. It’d be cool if you had any idea why you were here.

“Mr Stark. I didn’t even know I was doing it until it was too late. I don't know how it happens, but I promise I’m not a threat. It wasn't deliberate, you have to believe me." Your voice wavered, tears pooling in your tired eyes.

“Tony, let her sleep. She can use the spare room on our floor. We’ll keep an eye on her”

“Thank you Mr Rogers” you choked, wiping your eyes.

“Steve, please” his face was soft, reassuring.

It took an hour to find you something proper to wear.

A day to get your room fixed up, belongings brought from your little flat in London and new furniture procured

A week before you ate with the team, although you watched them from a safe distance.

A month before you really spoke to anyone. Eventually they called in a therapist.

The compound was nice, spacious and modern. There was no work to do, like at your grandfather's flat, just lots of questions that left you tired and disoriented.

Lauren the therapist was the only person you'd really communicated with, even though you were sure she was relaying the information back to the Avengers anyway.

"So from what I can tell, she's around twenty five to thirty." Lauren addressed the room, taking in the gathered Avengers. "The details of her life are very hazy, she lived in that flat you visited, Steve, with her Grandad. I know she cared for him and he died some months ago leaving her the flat in his will. She takes medication every day." Laura turned to Bruce "I hope the few I managed to pass on were helpful, so you can refill her script when she needs it."

"That's the thing," Bruce said, "I can't work out what she's been taking. I've had FRIDAY take scans and vitals, asked Dr Cho, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with her."

"Because she takes her pills?"

"No, Steve, there's just - there's nothing wrong with her. Her temperature is a little elevated. But that's it, not a dangerous amount. I'd just say she runs warmer."

"So what's in the pills?" Tony asked, leaning over Bruce to look in the manilla file he had spread open on the table.

"If I didn't know better I'd say something alien."

"But you do know better…" Tony prompted.

"Adgardian maybe? But in a bottle from her local pharmacy. The name on the bottle’s been scratched off and I couldn’t find anything like this on any pharmacy database."

Tony and Steve turned to Natasha and she nodded. She'd not been able to find anything either. No phone, no social media, home schooled. Sam suggested they do it the ‘old fashioned way’ and started to encourage Lauren to bring the woman out of her room to spend time with the others in hopes she would make more friends and let more information out.

As you spent more time with the group they found you brought a strange sense of calm, arguments stopped as you approached the table, worries about missions faded away. They even spent more time together as a team organising movie nights and parties, sitting together and being more tactile.

That’s when things started to get very strange.

The old evening routine of everyone slinking off to their bedrooms had been replaced by an easy comradery and then a fizzle of excitement started to build. The music seemed muffled and even Steve and Bucky’s heads felt fuzzy, drunk.

“Let's play spin the bottle!” You declared, downing your beer and lining it up on the coffee table. Before anyone else could fully agree you had flicked the bottle, everyone watched it slow until it came to a stop in front of Wanda.

“You girls don’t have to kiss if you don’t want to,” Steve said. But you shook your head.

“I don’t mind if Wanda doesn’t… I like girls too and it's just a game, right?” you shrugged.

You leaned over and kissed Wanda quickly on the lips, noting the frisson of tension that built when you pulled away.

Sam went next, “your lucky night,” he laughed before pulling you in for a kiss.

The next spin was Natasha and somehow no one was surprised when it landed on you again. Natasha leaned in close but, before her lips could meet yours, you tilted your head to whisper in her ear, “I know there’s someone else you want to kiss, you don’t have to." Natasha blushed, but pressed a warm kiss to your lips anyway.

“Did you rig this bottle?” Steve asked, picking it up before spinning. You, again.

Bucky put his hand on the bottle. “I wonder who” he laughed, but you had noticed his eyes move across the circle to the red headed assassin.

As he leaned in for the inevitable kiss you put your hand up, hiding your mouths, “she’s a good kisser,” the words were out before you could stop them. Bucky pulled back, frowning.

“Who?”

You didn't answer, but your eyes danced across the circle to Natasha, studying Bucky's face as he followed the line of your sight. With their eyes locked you placed a chaste kiss on Bucky’s cheek.

You felt dizzy, only two beers in, but your head was swimming. The rest of the group weren’t fairing any better, both girls falling asleep and the boys nodding back against the sofa. Quietly you removed yourself from the pile of blankets and slunk back to your room. You hadn’t meant to say any of that, but you could feel it deeply, so deeply the words had bubbled out before you could swallow them back down.

That night your sleep troubled you, the room was too warm making you sweat and writhe in the sheets and dreams of the Avengers flashing behind your closed eyes.

The next morning no one could make eye contact, each team member focusing on their coffee or toast, eyes down.

When you sat down the same static spark of electricity seemed to move over the kitchen island, making everyone squirm and move in their seats.

Eventually Wanda completed the group, walking in red faced and nervous as she looked around the kitchen before visibly relaxing.

“Oh, we all had the same dream!” She exclaimed “I don’t feel so bad now.” She said, cheerily.

“Wan, you’re not meant to read our minds,” Natasha protested, covering her ears as if that would make any difference at all.

“Can we not talk about it,” Bucky grumbled, looking away from Natasha.

“But you slept, Bucky, isn’t that good?” At least Wanda was happy, you felt hot and sick “you didn’t have a nightmare like usual, you had the same …”

“Enough,” he snapped, slamming his spoon into his bowl a little too hard, milk splashing on the spotless counters.

“Your dream was different though,” Wanda put a hand on your temple despite your attempt to squirm away, “yeah, yours was very different. And so was yours,” She pointed at Natasha who looked over to Bucky without thinking.

Wanda squeaked, a hand over her mouth “But Bucky, yours was just like…”

“Thats enough, ” Steve stood hands on the counter, “we need to figure out whatever is going on here,” everyone looked away blushing as he crossed his arms, Captain America voice in full effect. “For goodness sake, I’m going to speak to Bruce.”

Steve stormed out and a rush of air moved across the island as everyone breathed out. Wanda let out an awkward laugh, head down so she wouldn't catch the eye of her teammates and left the room.

After that incredibly awkward breakfast you began to pull away from the more open group spaces and started to spend a lot of time in the lab with Bruce while he tried to synthesise your medication. The small unlabeled tube of pills one of Stark’s assistants had packed for you was now empty. But all Bruce had been able to discover was a heavy sedative.

“You shouldn’t have even been able to walk around taking something that strong." He took his glasses off to rub a hand over his face, the fatigue of a sleepless night of experiments catching up to him, "you feel okay now?”

“Yeah”

“But you’re an inch taller than yesterday you said?”

“I’m an inch taller than I was this morning.”

Bruce rubbed his hand on his face, dangling his glasses from the other hand.

“Okay, walk me through what happened again”

“So I sat next to Captain Rodgers and Sergeant Barnes in the kitchen and when I stood up I was an inch taller, I could tell because my jeans were too short.”

“That’s not how growing works,” Bruce took a seat beside you and huffed out a breath.

“I know that I’m not doing it on purpose”

For the last few days you had been slowly growing the trait of anyone you were in close contact with. It was unnerving everyone, looking up and seeing their eyes glowing back, or their hair colour tinged in highlights around your face. But worse still was that there was no clear explanation, none that you could or would give.

It wasn’t the only change the team had noticed. Wanda, Nat, Sam, Steve and Bucky spent the most time together and they had all spent the most time alone together with you. But after only a few days they refused to even enter a room if you were there, prefering to skirt around the edges or take a different route.

They couldn’t forget the night when they played spin the bottle, in fact they had thrown away all the beer of the same brand and there had been no more team evenings suggested.

When you were alone with them a tension seemed to fill in the air. Steve had shifted your training rotation so that no one was ever left alone in the gym with you. Sam admitted you’d almost kissed last time you were alone and, red faced, Wanda agreed. Natasha and Bucky had also blushed, looking at each other out of the corners of their eyes. They complained that you kept trying to make them stand next to each other, and had even locked them into a cupboard 'by accident’ while pretending that you were unable to find the key until Steve freed them.

You couldn’t seem to control the feeling either, a primal urge inside of you growing the longer you were without your tablets. Growling and clawing until you had to excuse yourself and take a handful of the sleeping pills Bruce had given you.

Wanda admitted, as you escaped the building tension for the last time, that this was when her dreams were the most extreme and everyone nodded along. Their nights filled with vivid, primal scenes, moaning and panting, the touch and taste of another filling their senses.

And, though you could hear them talking about you, you could never admit that your dreams were different, that you saw yourself orchestrating their dreams like a puppet master, like a god and you’d wake in a cold sweat.

Frightened, they placed you in the medical wing, a secure room with two way mirrors, sound proofing and, most importantly, a lock. Bruce told you that it was somewhere safe, where you could withdraw from the medication that was dwindling in the little orange bottle. But Tony was relieved that the team could relax now without you around.

Alone, you took another sedative and rolled over in your plastic bed, under the thin sheet, and cried.

The last time the team had met someone who had so easily got inside them and changed their dynamic, they had ended up with an alien invasion. Steve was sure you weren’t in control, thinking about your embarrassment and desperation when Bucky and Natasha were locked in the cupboard, how quickly you left the room whenever the conversation became heated. He was sure, sure , you were safe, that it was just a side effect of whatever you’d been taking all these years and that given time everything would go back to normal.

Tony, however, was taking no chances.

“We need to call Thor.” He suggested as they watched you through the mirror, you were reading a book and running your finger over your lip as you concentrated. With each pass of your finger your lips changed colour, working through shades of pink and red.

“What can Thor do?” Bruce had had enough stress for one month, thank you very much, and was much happier handing out medication until they could find somewhere else to send you. All he needed to do was refine some samples and he’d be able to remake your medication and then he could give Fury the go ahead to have you moved.

“He can bring Loki,” Tony said, jumping up to sit on the tall lab counter and tossing a few blueberries into his mouth.

Bruce looked over at him, one eyebrow raised. “Is that a good idea? The man’s mad.”

“I don’t want to see him anymore than you do. But they could help us figure out if this is magic like them, or a mutation, or if…it’s something else. Then you can pack her off to whichever medical facility you think is appropriate.” Tony waved his hand around in the air as if to demonstrate the unknown fears they all shared. “She shape shifts, Bruce. Loki can do that. And the manipulating thoughts and feelings? Maybe she can learn to control it. We need her to control herself and maybe, maybe , if we’re nice enough, she’ll want to help us too.”

“Do we really want Loki to teach her that, how do we know we can trust him?” Bruce cringed, thinking of the havoc the man had wrought, even if he was being manipulated. Loki was powerful, who knew what he could achieve with a little planning.

“Thor can help keep him in line,” Tony seemed confident and although his confidence was often catching, Bruce still felt the deep simmer of apprehension sitting low in his gut.

“At least we’re not fighting like last time,” Bruce sighed heavily, the memory of his last encounter with Loki still fresh in his mind.

“No, but the sexual tension is killing me. We need to end this.” Tony laughed, thinking back to the red faces of his colleagues and their lack of enthusiasm when he suggested they get drunk and play spin the bottle again.

“Okay, fine, Tony, you win. Call Thor.” Bruce sighed, leaning forward onto the counter and resting his head in his hands.

“And Loki?”

“And Loki."

<;< Masterlist

Part 2>>

#Loki #loki laufeyson #Loki Odinson #loki fanfiction #loki fanfic #loki marvel #Loki/Reader #Loki x Reader #Loki x You #Loki/You #Loki/female reader #Loki series #The Old Gods and The New

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calder · 5 months

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hello! i stumbled across your blog very recently and am curious as to what the tag v13 means- sorry if you’ve answered this before, i’m on mobile!

fallout is based on wasteland. wasteland is based on a canticle for liebowitz. a canticle for liebowitz is about catholics bickering about fiction in the dust of america for hundreds and hundreds of years. it is about religion and the concept of a dark age

VAULT 13: A GURPS Post-Nuclear Adventure was the ip's name in the conceptual phase. the very first VAULT 13 worldbuilding pitch doc--a timeline--spoke of a Dark God, a term deployed throughout Fallout but only contextualized in the fallout bible, which does not actually use the term. Laura has a special voiced line just for Tell Me About: Dark,God: "The what?"

Project V-13 was interplay's original Fallout Online, which was cancelled by the publisher bethesda like fifteen years ago now.

pylon v-13 is a location at the end of Fallout 76's map where a character from Project V-13 built a time portal and disappeared. it is the most cursed location in the game

by accepting its premise, we arrive at v13 lore, the rejection of canon in light of canonical time travel and multiverse, which has always been a thing, and is also literally a joke. it's the realization that fallout is defined by creativity, interpretation, expression, and argument. it is the understanding that non-canon lore and controversial lore are basic and vital pieces of the history of the setting. and it's the begrudging admission that fallout is a cultural legend, irreplaceable and beyond anyone's control. fallout makes sense to everyone and demands our imagination. it always will

enabled by all the most hated and rejected lore, my characters are time-travelling supervillains who know the things i know, and scour the wastelands endlessly to expand their knowledge. this diegetic headspace and cosmology is a lens i use to explore the concepts of conspiracy theory, paranormal thought, religion, and occultism, all of which i am deeply critical of. i have learned a lot about these matters because i was able to fully engage with them in the context of fallout.

also the talking deathclaws lived in vault 13 and the courier carries the vault 13 canteen. there's also some esoteric shit about 13 high priests, 13 ghouls, and 13 landmarks. it's a pretty specific throughline. it's there if you're mad enough to look for it. and we'll never really know what it means if anything

thats what it means. to me

another thing i always say is. any setting where humans don't see ghosts is a strange fantasy. humans have always seen ghosts. don't mean ghosts are real. just means folks see ghosts. and at some point you gotta talk about it

hope this isnt complete nonsense

#x #v13 #meta #fanon #3000

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sparring-spirals · 9 months

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i love laura bailey merch corner, where i can count on her to give me vital info about the merch like: "it comes with a thing, it comes with a little bag, it comes with a POLISHING CLOTH-"

#this is phrased like a joke but also i DO need this info thank you laura bailey #critical role #cr spoilers #c3e67 #cr cast #laura bailey #laura ads

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multicrazygummybears · 19 days

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FINALLY SEPBOX OC REAL!!! This poor lady is Laura, use to be a medic and later a researcher on the Vitals Force. Hiding the fact she was infected to take care of those worse than her. Even was driven mad to the point she had ran to the abyss herself, running into a certain masked individual that promised to help her and the others...

He did in fact... Not. Now mutated beyond repair she mindless follows behind in order to survive down in the underground.

#incredibox #incredibox fanart #Incredibox oc #incredibox sepbox #sepbox #my art #my oc #digital art #oc Laura #*giggles and swings legs*#wonder whos devious to do such a thing

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kerosene-in-a-blender · 1 year

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I have thoughts about Imogen based on last Thursday’s CR episode, under a cut for the sake of spoilers

The thing about Imogen is that she’s rather self centered, in the sense that she tends to approach most situations through the lens of how they effect her and her problems. She is fully capable of considering how others are effected by things either through reflection or by having it pointed out to her, but she focuses on herself as a default.

And this is completely understandable! When her powers first manifested, she most likely had to focus entirely on herself, because she didn’t have the energy or the ability to focus on other people without running herself into the ground. We see early in the campaign how much effort it takes for her to just exist around other people in relative peace.

However, this same trait also makes her incredibly vulnerable to the Ruby Vanguard’s rhetoric, especially the vision of the future Liliana showed her. Because what she was shown was a future where she was free of her powers, free to simply BE, which is something Imogen desperately wants. And the gods really haven’t done anything for her, so it really can’t be that bad to let them die for the sake of that future, right? Plus, Imogen is desperate to believe that her mother loves her; that she had a good reason for abandoning her and Relvin. And Liliana leaving to ensure a future where Imogen doesn’t have to suffer under having uncontrollable psychic powers fits that bill. In the moment she woke up from that dream conversation with Liliana, letting the Vanguard unleash Predathos seemed like it would fulfill a lot of Imogen’s deepest wants and desires. And since Imogen defaults to focusing on herself, she temporarily forgot all the harm the Vanguard has done and has the potential to do the future, until Orym reminded her.

It’s interesting how a trait that was most likely vital to Imogen’s continued survival and sanity in the past is now making it so that she is two steps away from joining an apocalypse cult, and I give full credit to Laura Bailey for creating such a nuanced character

#much of what I've said about Imogen also applies to her mother #Liliana shares many of Imogen's same faults #just moreso #critical role #cr spoilers #critical role spoilers #cr3 #imogen temult #cr meta

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fatehbaz · 1 year

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Eliseo Barnett begins the short trip from the little town of Punta Cheuca to the vast Isla de Tiburon -- the largest island in the Gulf of California and part of the Indigenous Comcaac territory. [...] Erika Barnett [...] watches dozens of herons, seagulls and small coastal birds bask in the shallow waters [...]. Beyond them stretches a dense mass of green leaves -- part of a huge mangrove estuary on Tiburon Island. It’s one of about a dozen interconnected stands in the Infiernillo Channel. A narrow stretch of ocean between the island and the Sonoran coast, entirely within Comcaac territory, the channel is known for its biodiversity and abundant seagrass meadows and is a protected wetland area.

Mangroves cover some 960 hectares — or nearly 2,400 acres — of the channel.

“It’s like a kindergarten,” Barnett said.

A local conservation leader, she compared the mangrove forest to a nursery, providing a protected habitat for important marine species like crabs, shrimp and fish, as well as birds and sea turtles. [...]

It all starts with collecting mangrove propagules — the long, slender green and brown stalks that grow from mangrove flowers — from the estuaries and beaches in the Infiernillo Channel. Walking along the beach on Tiburon Island, Erkia Barnett occasionally stoops down to pick up a stray mangrove propagule. She collects the ones that wash ashore. [...] “It occurred to us to pick them up and keep them” until they sprouted roots, she said. After propagating the plants, her family took them to the El Paraiso estuary nearby.

The conservation team’s current project is much the same — collecting, propagating and reforesting the plants — but on a larger scale. This year, they collected more than 6,000 plants from the channel. [...]

“Climate change is one of the biggest factors impacting the mangrove forests,” Barnett said. Increased heat, drought and rising sea levels are all taking a toll on the plants.

“It is the extreme of extremes, my goodness,” said ecologist Laura Smith Monti, with the Arizona-based Borderlands Restoration Network and The University of Arizona. “The mangroves stands in the Infiernillo Channel are the northernmost mangroves that occur on the West coast for sure.” [...]

And so far, the stands in the Infiernillo Channel are relatively healthy, likely because the protection afforded by the Comcaac community, Monti said. [...] The Comcaac have relied on these mangroves for thousands of years — using them as a source of food, medicine and building materials. [...] This year, after the plants grow large enough in the water-filled Coke bottles, they will be transplanted into soil for another six months or so — a new technique Barnett learned from one of the few other mangrove conservation teams in the region. [...] “It’s something relatively new,” said Milka Valenzuela, who has been running the mangrove reforestation project at the El Soldado estuary near the beach town of San Carlos since 2017. [...]

“I want to continue so that my children and my nieces and nephew might want to follow my example and continue taking care of the mangrove and the environment here in our territory,” [Barnett] said. “Because this ecosystem is important now just for our people, but for the world.”

---

Headline, images, captions, and text as published by: Kendal Blust. “Indigenous Comcaac conservation group works to restore vital mangrove habitat in Sonora.” Fronteras. 23 November 2022. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph contractions added by me.]

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sub-at-omicsteminist · 2 years

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•🌜Women in stem🌛•

✨ Ancient history ✨

Hypatia

Hatshepsut

Tapputi-Belatekallim

Theano

Aglaonice

Fang

Mary the Jewess

Pandrosion

Cleopatra the alchemist

✨The Middle Ages✨

Al- ‘Ijliyyah

Dobrodeia of Kiev

Trota of Salerno

Adelle of the Saracens

Hildegard of Bingen

Herrad of Landsberg

Zulema L'Astròloga

Adelmota of Carrara

Keng Hsien-Seng

✨16th Century✨

Isabella Cortese

Loredana Marcello

Sophia Brahe

Caterina Vitale

✨17th Century✨

Louise Boursier

Martine Bertereau

Maria Cunitz

Marie Meurdrac

Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Marguerite de la Sablière

Jeanne Dumée

Elisabeth Hevelius

Maria Clara Eimmart

Maria Sibylla Merian

✨18th Century✨

Eleanor Glanville

Maria Margaretha Kirch

Catherine Jérémie

Laura Bassi

Emilie du Châtelet

Eva Ekeblad

Cristina Roccati

Jane Colden

Anna Morandi Manzolini

Wang Zhenyi

Caroline Herschel

Nicole-Reine Lepaute

Geneviève Thiroux d'Arconville

Elizabeth Fulhame

✨Early 19th Century✨

Sophie Germain

Anna Sundström

Sabina Baldoncelli

Lady Hester Stanhope

Mary Anning

Elisabetta Fiorini Mazzanti

Marie-Anne Libert

Jeanne Villepreux-Power

Orra White Hitchcock

✨Late 19th Century✨

Henrietta Vansittart

✨Early 20th Century✨

Hertha Ayrton

Katherine Parsons

Emmy Noether

Lise Meitner

Marjorie Lee Browne

Dorothy Vaughan

✨Late 20th Century✨

Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Katherine Johnson

Mae Jemison

Valentina Tereshkova

Valerie Thomas

Sally Ride

Lynn Conway

✨21st Century✨

Maryam Mirzakhani

Carolyn Bertozzi

Andrea M. Ghez

Jennifer Doudna

Shirley Ann Jackson

Donna Strickland

Frances Arnold

Karen Uhlenbeck

Jennifer Doudna

Marcia McNutt

Maureen Raymo

#science #stem #physics #maths #mathematics #chemistry #biology #astrophysics #astronomy #astronaut #education #women in stem #womens history #women #Steminist #history #stemblr

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msfcatlover · 4 months

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Death Mask Steph

Oh boy. This is the big one. I've agonized over this, and getting the design right has been... ugh. Nevermind. Here we go.

Death Mask needs to draw on Red Hood and Steph designs. (I would draw from Black Mask designs, but frankly Roman's designs are all kinda boring? He's a skull-head in a suit, and basically always has been; it's simple & effective, but there's not a lot to iterate on there.) Steph's suits tend to be armored one-pieces, but layering is so crucial to most Red Hood designs, that balancing the two has been... tricky.

(I've already shared the Stephanie Brown Costume History page. Unfortunately, the n52 designs page seems to be just descriptions with no pictures, and the page for her n52 appearances doesn't give you many good angles. So here's Steph's "Future's End" & "Future State" designs, as the stand-out missing designs, in my opinion.)

The absolute vital part of any Red Hood inspired design is, of course, the helmet. It's also been the biggest pain. Jason's had some good helmet designs and a lot of bad ones over the years, and (as I've previously stated) finding a full reference page for them is basically impossible. So here's what I'm going with.

Steph starts with a sleek, sculpted black metal base. Say something like this model of Jason's Injustice helmet. The primary difference would be that Steph's helmet opens up at the front rather than the back; the faceplate would be hinged at the top of the head, and it would swing up & forwards to reveal her face.

(Using the Injustice helmet as a base because it more than most looks like it really should open from the front. I'd also say the sides would also be able to open wider, so that it can still fit snug without being a pain to get in & out of. Not that anyone would ever bother to draw that detail, but I think it would look neat opening up in 3 directions all at once.)

Next, most of the face plate is covered by a sculpted skull. This is how she invokes the whole "Death Mask" idea, as well as purposefully stealing Roman's gimmick. Below the teeth are a couple understated tubs & valves, evoking a gasmask---something like this.

(Kinda a Red X look, I'm realizing now that I'm digging through my reference folders all at once... Anyway, this piece seems to be by Laura Sheridan, but her website seems to be down, you can only buy her art seemingly 2nd hand, and I can't find this picture listed anywhere but pinterest.)

The edges, mechanical bits, and any detail work added should be done in copper.

Within the eye sockets are two recessed glowing lenses, like Jason often has, though Steph's glow a dark magenta, casting light that borders on red.

(Obviously, these lenses change size & shape to show emotion through the mask, like you do. They're not designed to---in fact, logically all the bat-masks are designed like this in order to help hide the wearer's emotions---but that's comic logic for you.)

Below the helmet, Steph's suit is mainly made up of reinforced black leather motorcycle pants, a black undersuit, and an armored vest like this.

(But black. Obviously.)

However, she accessorizes. Steph has added a decorative metal ribcage to her armor, as well was plates mimicking a spine. The ribs should be copper-colored, while the spine can be either metallic or black.

(Depending on who's drawing them, the ribs could range from purely decorative to practically another layer of armor. And following the links from pinterest, both of those artists have apparently taken their rib-art down, which is once again very disappointing.)

Steph wears a chunky utility belt which sits crooked on her hips. I personally think it should be black (maybe brown?) with either copper, ivory, or dark magenta snaps/clasps holding the pouches shut (pick one for all pouches, not a mixture). She has a gun holstered on each hip, one on each thigh, a set of throwing knives (3-5) on the front of the belt, and wears her sickle-swords strapped criss-cross on her back.

The swords themselves are made from a copper-alloy, retaining their coppery color, and easily double her reach (are about as long as one arm.) They have a hilt not dissimilar to an Egyptian khopesh, but a completely different blade; Steph's swords have a much more exaggerated curve, and crucially, they're sharpened on the inside of the crescent, where a khopesh is sharpened on the outside. They legitimately look like a crescent moon sickle, stretched out to sword size.

(Khopesh hilt, and genuinely the best crescent sickle sword I can find for what I'm picturing. Steph's would be in much better shape, obviously.)

Steph keeps it understated-but-still-stated with knee-high, buckle-up, black leather motorcycle boots.

(These are mid-calf, but it's the closest I can find that aren't completely over the top. Also, any artist who figured out how to make the laces work without losing the straps would win my unending love for the symbolism of Steph clearly still mimicking her big brother but trying so hard to hide it.)

Steph’s sleeves are armored in black metal plates, ending in sharpened black gauntlets. I don't care much about the specific structure, I just really want that clawed look.

(Shorter would be more practical for finesse work, while longer claws could be worked into her fighting style. I am going back & forth on whether this should be both arms or just one of them, because I’m a sucker for asymmetric designs, but I think it might be a bit too much with all the other details.)

Finally, over top of it all, Steph wears an uneven ivory-colored hooded shawl made of layers of thin, wispy fabric. It hangs down her back to her waist, but bunches up in the front over her collarbones. It's purposefully designed to look tangled & messy, hiding her body shape with all its bulk & fly-aways, and is flimsy enough that grabbing hold of basically any part of it will just leave you with a fist full of torn fabric.

This is the hardest to find examples for, but... okay, so it's shaped roughly like this:

(If anyone can find the non-pinterest source for this one, I'd hugely appreciate it; all I'm getting is a dead twitter link.)

It's layered like these:

And it's made from material like this:

(This definitely gets swapped out for either a white scarf or a brown trench coat pretty regularly, just because those are easier to wrap your head around/draw. I think both could work & be cool, but Steph is trying to give off “undead vibes” with this original costume, and this gives her a more ghostly look which… okay, is heavily inspired by this Jason design.)

Also, Steph's hair is still long, but she ties it up in either a french or dutch braid before going out most of the time. Dutch is for going out in public or to the gym, where she'll lift it off her neck in a ponytail, french then gets coiled into a bun inside of her helmet.

(I am undecided on whether or not she also has an undercut.)

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