#The Perfect Host (2011)

[probablygayattorneys]

you're on your own, kid.

you always have been.

(You're On Your Own, Kid, Taylor Swift)

[toastedkiwi]

Bastard Child Outline

Pairing: Chris Evans x Bastard Child/Daughter!Reader

A/n: this shit has been sitting in my drafts for like three years and a year in my queue so it wouldn’t get lost in my drafts. I’ve decided I’ll just post it because I honestly don’t know if I’ll ever actually write the parts. So this is for those who were holding out hope. I’m sorry to disappoint. (Also, some bits and parts might be triggering for those who’ve dealt with abuse and self harm.) it’s long too. Not at all perfect either.

Born 1999 in Hawaii.

Mom, Emily Reed, had you when she was 15 and Chris was 16. She’s a decent person and obviously got married to surgeon. They had kids. Stepdad, Dr. Issac Reed, is a decent guy but works a lot. You’d never be his kid however. He made sure you were alright but he never had the connection with you as much as that sucked. It happens.

Your grandpa was stationed in Boston when your mom and dad got together. They had a huge fight and another girl was caught with her lips on his right before she moved with her family to Hawaii.

At 11, you start a YouTube channel under the name xXBOSLEYXx (named after your grandpa’s dog) and start posting covers since you love music. (2010)

At 12, you audition for a role in Hawaii Five-O. You get it and end up being a kidnapped kid that they have to find. It leads more people to your YouTube channel. (2011)

At 13, you go to LA by yourself since your mom had just given birth. Your aunt who’s a publicist gets you signed to a record deal along with a manager by the name of Marie Trevor. It’s decided that you’ll be known as BOSLEY. (2012)

You end up moving to LA. You record some singles which is received amazingly. You easily rise to the ranks especially with the help of some modeling gigs and acting gigs.

At 14, your mom doesn’t approve anymore as you’re gaining fame and your dad is getting bigger than ever. You get into a huge argument. She pretty much drops you as her child and your aunt is responsible of you. You drop an album. (2013)

At 15, You stop smiling for pictures which becomes signature of BOSLEY. You’re offered a small role in The Bronze getting to tell Lance Tucker to fuck off in a moving car. You happily take it and managed to befriend the actor. (2014)

At 16, You’re fully doing music and touring. School is pretty much dropped. You find that your boyfriend knocked you up. You want your mom but she won’t pick up. You end up having a miscarriage while on touring. You’re given a day to grieve and the next you have to continue on. You also perform at Kylie Jenner’s birthday party. You end up becoming good friends with the Jenner sisters which gets you more fame. You got another role playing Peter Parker’s neighbor and his second best friend. (2015)

At 17, you perform on SNL with Scarlett Johansson as the host. You release another album which kicks off another tour after you finish filming Spiderman: Homecoming. Tom Holland actually invites you to the Civil War premier and you join him. Sebastian hugs you tightly when he sees you. You don’t meet your dad. (2016)

At 18, rumors spark that you’ll be taking over the mantel as Captain America as filming for Infinity War starts. You start getting compared to Chris Evans as if it’s a fair comparison. There’s also rumors that you two might be related. You also start dating this actor, Max Wess. You attend the Spiderman premier with him. (2017)

At 19, your birth certificate is leaked.

Chris freaks out over the news. He knows your mom. He remembers her and the last night they shared together before she left without another word.

Your boyfriend ends up beating the shit out of you which one of your friends finds you barely alive and calls you an ambulance. This happens in your LA home. It’s a huge story.

Chris gets in contact with your aunt Jamie Y/l/n and she happily helps him sneak into the hospital without paparazzi catching him. He ends up sitting in the chair close to your bedside waiting for you to wake up if you ever will. He expects Emily to come. She doesn’t.

You wake up in a panic and Chris’ face is what you first see. He’s the one to tell that you’re okay and you’re safe. You learn that your jaw is wired shut. Your ribs are broken. You’re missing a kidney. You had a lot of internal bleeding. Your right hand is busted and took many screws and rods to fix. You’re definitely worried about your career especially when you found out that they had to slit your throat and put a tube in it. Your dad luckily distracts you and is sure to not bring up your mother since he’s been warned by Jamie.

“I’m really wondering how you got BOSLEY from Y/n,” Chris said.

You tapped on the keyboard of his iPad using your left index finger as he holds it for you. Chris can’t help but chuckle.

“He really named all his dogs Bosley?”

You nod and your grandpa said, “it’s a strong name.”

You turned head seeing the old man and Chris hasn’t seen him in two decades. You haven’t seen him in a good 3 years. Your grandmother heads to you easily freaking out over how you look but Chris knows you looked a lot worse. He wants to so badly ask why they didn’t tell him about you. They surely should’ve known. But he doesn’t for your sake.

“You don’t have to stay, Christopher,” your grandpa said.

Chris moves to stand up but you grasp his hand. You give the nastiest glare to your grandfather.

“Is she even gonna come?” You hissed through the wires. You aren’t supposed to try and use your voice.

“Honey,” your grandmother said. “She’s gotta look after the kids.”

You rolled your eyes and Chris could see the tears start to form. Your heart is beating faster on the monitor. He’s just as mad as you. Are you really not that important to her? If you aren’t, why didn’t she just give him you? He without would’ve taken you in and loved like a parent should.

You wave off the hands and swat them away. Tears streamed down your cheeks. You yanked out the leads as the monitor started to beep louder. It ends up showing that you’ve flatlined. You try kicking off the blankets.

“Hey, Bubba,” Chris said but you aren’t listening.

He ends up wrapping his arms around you. He takes the hits you give him. It’s heartbreaking to watch especially when you give up and cry as he held you. Nurses and doctors rushed in.

“She’s okay,” your grandpa informed as Chris comforts you as a parent should.

Once you fall back asleep with the help of some sedatives, your dad pulls your grandparents outside of your room.

“Where the fuck is Emily? Why isn’t she here? It’s clear Y/n wants her,” Chris said.

“Let’s go somewhere more private,” Lucille suggested.

Chris ends up taking them to his place after running into Tom Holland and Zendaya who are obviously there to visit you. He informs them that you’re asleep but it’d be fine for them to stop by and have them watch over you.

“They got into a huge fight over Y/n becoming BOSLEY,” your grandma said before her husband could speak. “Emily couldn’t handle it. She still holds a lot against you and she didn’t want you meeting her.”

“Really?” Chris asked.

“Yeah,” your grandpa said. “Emily practically disowned her. Probably should’ve called you.”

“No fucking shit. When was the last time they talked?” Chris asked.

“3 years ago,” Lucille said.

“It’s been five since they’ve seen each other. That’s when they had their big fight,” John said.

It’s late at night when you get released from the hospital. Your dad drives you to your house. You end up getting panicky and not wanting to go in. He takes you to his place and has his assistant go tomorrow to pack some bags for you. It’s a rough night so he stays up with you watching movies together until you fall asleep.

Chris takes you to Boston the next morning on a private jet. He sets up some appointments for you with doctors in Boston to make sure you’re recovering just fine. You meet Dodger and the two of you become best friends. It’s a lot of watching movies with your dad until you ultimately crash against him due to the meds. You also can’t seem to sleep alone in the guest room due to having terrible nightmares. With the first couple, Chris didn’t want to overstep and climb into the bed to hold you and try to make it go away. But it was clear that Dodger wasn’t cutting it. Just a couple nights a week, the three of you will be together in the same bed. Chris jokingly got you one of those starry night projectors but you both love it.

“What are you doing here?” You hear you’re dad hiss.

“It’s called dropping by unannounced to annoy you and to rescue your child from you,” Scott sassed.

“You are not taking my child anywhere, Scott,” Chris said.

“You make it sound like I wouldn’t bring her back,” Scott said.

Scott ends up taking you both out of the house. You have to listen to them both sing along with the radio. You end up capturing the two brothers on your phone. You agree going over to your grandparents house and meeting them even though you’re still recovering. It distracts you for awhile.

You get some news you don’t want to hear about your hand. It’s not healing as the doctors would like. They don’t know if you’ll be able to play guitar or piano (which will be one handed) like you had before. You end up having the surgery. Sebastian Stan surprises you when you wake up.

“Fuck off,” is what Sebastian says to you. You a small smile.

“Why’d ya say that?” Chris asked.

“It’s what your child first said to me when we met,” Sebastian said.

You hummed loudly to a song in your head making them laugh.

“She acts exactly like you when you’re drunk,” Sebastian teased.

As much as Chris wants to stay with you during your recovery, he does have to film but thankfully it’s in Boston. It’ll be like he has a regular job. However, there’s not much for you to do or you can do. You can’t sing or write. You end up getting stuck in your thoughts which isn’t a great place to be in for a long period of time.

Scott and Chris can clearly tell you’re absolutely miserable. Nobody knows how to help you out and get you out of it. Your dad ends up calling whoever he can. He calls Sebastian, Tom Holland, your manager, Scarlett, his mother.

Scarlett asks him, “what does she do for a living?”

“She’s a popstar,” Chris said.

“There’s your answer.”

He ends up getting a grand piano and putting it in the living room where the dining room table is. The table ends up in the garage with the chairs. It takes Chris playing a song poorly on it for you to come over and smack his left hand off the keys. It makes him smile as you play the song with your left hand and he plays with his right.

“Sit down next to me,” Chris said.

You sit next to him on the bench. He puts his left arm around your shoulders pulling you closer.

“Play me something,” he requested.

You give him a look that he’s been known to give people. He smiles. You let out a sigh- it’s more like a slight hiss. You play him a song. It turns into two and then into more.

You and your dad fly to LA as he’s got meetings and your ex has finally been arrested for what he did to you. You definitely built some walls up and retract from your dad as much as that sucks. Chris just knows he’s gotta be patient because he can’t force you to open up to him or you’ll probably push him so far away to the point of no return. Besides it’s only been 7 weeks since you first met each other.

“Hey, Y/n. I’m gonna watch The Muppets, you should join me,” Chris said after knocking on the bathroom door. “I’ll be in the living room.”

You stared at the door and listened to him walk away. You look back at the OxyContin in your hand. The pill bottle has your name on it. It was prescribed and filled once you were released from the hospital. There’s five pills left. You unscrew the top with some difficultly. You dump the little pills in the toilet and flush them. You drop the pill bottle in the trash and turned on the faucet. You let your left hand go under the water and you see the faint lines on your wrist. You’d let a blade run over them again but The Muppets will have to do.

“You’re just in time,” Chris smiled seeing that you took him up on his offer.

You sit right next to him. You both end up sharing a blanket as he noticed you getting cold.

You get your wires out in LA making it much easier to hold a conversation with people. You also get spotted out with your dad to dinner to celebrate that you can finally eat soft foods which blows up everywhere. You easily get backlash and told that you’re using him as a publicity stunt. Both his team and your own team finally meet on how to deal with the situation.

You finally speak up in the meeting. “I’m not doing fucking GMA or Ellen to talk about my sad little life and how it’s all good now ‘cause Captain America’s my dad. Are you insane? Have you not seen the shit I get from everyone? How everyone believes that everything that has happened— my boyfriend beating shit out of me because I told him to ‘fuck off’ to a leaked birth certificate revealing that fucking Chris Evans is my dad is just for publicity. It will not go over well especially with that fucking asshole out on bail talking shit because he can.”

You leave after snapping at everyone. Chris tries to talk to you but you snap at him telling him that he doesn’t know you and he’s not your dad. It definitely hurts to hear.

You don’t go back to his place which has him worried. He checks your home. You aren’t there.

You end up going to Hawaii to see your mom. It leads to a huge blow out. You’re screaming at her and she’s screaming at you. You’re told that she never wanted you and you were a mistake that she was saving Chris from. It truly destroys you.

Chris doesn’t see you again until he gets a call from your assistant in the middle of the night after she found you unconscious in the pool of your own blood. He of course comes even if you don’t want him there. He’ll sit at your bedside or the waiting room. He has to know that you’ll be okay.

“I’m gonna state this once and for all,” Chris said to you. “You’re stuck with me and I’m sorry that I’m your dad. I don’t know how to be one but I’ll figure it out.”

You cried which makes him climb into the hospital bed. He holds you tightly as you cry. He can tell you’ve gone through so much and you haven’t really had anyone. They’ve always left.

Chris takes you back to Boston once you get your cast off and sadly you’ll need another surgery but it thankfully can wait a bit. You start seeing a therapist that he helped find. You don’t talk about what was said in the room but he can you’re coming out of shell a bit.

You and Chris are seen again going to a courtroom in LA with Scott coming along. You even have some friends come in support. There’s tons of paparazzi and gossip sites covering it. It’s not a very fun experience especially with you having to take the stand and Chris learning some very heartbreaking things that you went through. Your ex tries to spew more lies about you and drag your dad into it. It’s thankfully over after three days and your ex is found guilty.

A celebratory dinner takes place at your favorite restaurant in LA. Chris gets to see you let loose a bit and smile more. He knows as BOSLEY that you don’t smile especially not in pictures. It’s your whole image that has been created and with everything that has happened, it hasn’t been a happy experience.

“Get next to her,” Chris is told.

You both grin widely with cheeks pressed together for one of your friends to take a picture. It gets posted on your dad’s twitter with a caption “there’s no denying it, I have a mini-me.” You retweet it.

[world-of-wales]

ＴＨＥ ＲＯＹＡＬ ＣＨＲＯＮＩＣＬＥＳ : The Royal Wedding of Prince William & Catherine Middleton .* :☆ﾟ｡ ･

HRH Prince William Arthur Philip Louis and Miss. Catherine Elizabeth Middleton married in a religious ceremony at Westminster Abbey on what is my favourite day ever aka 29 April, 2011.

For the day, William was in the red tunic of the Colonel of the Irish Guards uniform with a forage cap bearing the Irish Guards insignia. He wore the Order of the Garter Star and Blue Riband to which his RAF Wings & Golden Jubilee Medal were fastened.

Meanwhile Catherine was a fairytale disney princess in a dress by Surah Burton of Alexander McQueen with the Cartier Scroll Tiara and a pair of diamond acorn earrings from Robinson Pelham. Her bridal bouquet featured myrtle, lily-of-the-valley, sweet William, ivy, and hyacinth.

Catherine was walked down the aisle by her father, Michael with whom she had travelled from Goring Hotel. Her sister Pippa was the maid of honour.

Will & Cat vowed to love, honour and cherish each other during the ceremony performed by the Archbishop of Cantebury.

He gave Catalina a ring made from Welsh Gold keeping with the tradition within the Royal Family.

Following the ceremony in true fairytale fashion, the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge travelled in a horse-drawn carriage procession to Buckingham Palace.

They appeared on the Palace Balcony and shared TWO KISSES to the delight of the crowd gathered below and to my Disney obsessed self who'd been glued to the TV the entire time.

A Reception was held by the Queen in their honour at Bucking Palace, after which William drove his babykins to Clarence House in an Aston Martin DB6 Volante. Another private dinner was hosted by The Prince of Wales for his son and new daughter-in-law.

This was quite literally THE WEDDING OF THE CENTURY! Aaaahhh all those feels of the day, everything was just perfect. Honestly for me nothing is ever topping twenty-ninth of april of 2011. And I don't think there was anyone who wasn't enveloped by the happiness radiating off of these two that day.

Nobody can talk about the day without talking about the goddess that our homegirl looked like that day, KateEffect had always been a thing but THIS DRESS like >>>>

[haveyouseenthishorrormovie]

Stats from Movies 1-100

Top 10 Movies - Highest Number of Votes

Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) had the most votes with 2,493 votes.

The 10 Most Watched Films by Percentage

Coraline (2009) was the most watched film with 89.41% of voters saying they had seen it.

The 10 Least Watched Films by Percentage

Halloween (2007) was the least watched film with 64.13% of voters saying they hadn't seen it.

The 10 Most Known Films by Percentage

Coraline (2009) was the best known film with only 0.08% of voters saying they'd never heard of it.

The 10 Least Known Films by Percentage

Shrooms (2007) was the least known film with 74.77% of voters saying they'd never heard of it.

The movies part of the statistic count and their polls below the cut.

Carrie (1976) Scream (1996) Hereditary (2018) It (2017) Candyman (1992) Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988) The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) The Babadook (2014) Paranormal Activity (2007) An American Werewolf in London (1981)

Misery (1990) The Fly (1986) Black Swan (2010) House of 1000 Corpses (2003) The Devil’s Rejects (2005) 3 from Hell (2019) Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008) Halloween (1978) Halloween (2007) Re-Animator (1985)

My Bloody Valentine (1981) Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010) Little Shop of Horrors (1986) Scary Movie (2000) Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2010) Psycho (1960) Train to Busan (2016) Thelma (2017) The Dark (2018) Ravenous (1999)

Shrooms (2007) Let the Right One In (2008) It Follows (2014) Martyrs (2008) The Wicker Man (1973) The Descent (2005) Dead End (2003) Fear Street trilogy (2021) The Ring (2002) Bride of Re-Animator (1990)

Frankenstein (1931) Broken (1993) NoroI: The Curse (2005) The Eyes of My Mother (2016) Jacob's Ladder (1990) Phenomena (1985) Ichi the Killer (2001) Nightbreed (1990) Braindead (1992) Hatching (2022)

Wait Until Dark (1967) The Host (2006) Oculus (2013) Skinamarink (2022) We're All Going to the World's Fair (2021) Perfect Blue (1997) The Night House (2020) Lake Mungo (2008) Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

The Cabin in the Woods (2011) Devour (2005) My Bloody Valentine 3D (2009) Unfriended (2014) Choose or Die (2022) The Ritual (2017) Countdown (2019) The Wretched (2019) House (1977) Suspiria (1977)

Hatchet (2006) Hell House LLC (2015) The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014) The Exorcist (1973) Poltergeist (1982) Gremlins (1984) Child's Play (1988) A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) Audition (1999) Cam (2018)

Jennifer's Body (2009) Ready or Not (2019) Dracula (1931) Freaks (1932) Alien (1979) Saw (2004) House of Wax (2005) Parasite (2019) Nope (2022) The Lost Boys (1987)

Hellraiser (1987) Ghost Ship (2002) Triangle (2009) Talk to Me (2022) Terrifier (2016) Coraline (2009) Monster House (2006) Mama (2013) Pulse (2001) Midsommar (2019)

[serendertothesquad]

The Ultimate Serendipity-Odd Squad Lore Post

Because you people keep asking for my entire story.

No, no, not my life story. Christ sakes, we'd be here until Gen Z'ers died off if I had to reiterate my whole life story.

No, I'm talking about my entire Odd Squad story. You know, how I got here to begin with, how I rose to fame, and how I am objectively still a god without a religion, a cult, or a religious cult. That story. You all want to hear that story.

If you're an oldie, you've probably already heard my tale at least once. If you're new here to the funny kids STEM show fandom, then damn boy howdy are you in for a wild ride.

Get a snack and a drink, pop below the break, and let's begin.

Allow me to take you back to the year 2014. I was the ripe young age of 15, finishing up my sophomore year of high school, and suffering from undiagnosed depression of the "I'm trapped in my own home" variety. We didn't have cable, and so stuff like PBS Kids, NBC Kids, and 4Kids were the only things I watched on a regular basis. In the online space, I was largely chronline to the tenth degree (and note the "largely", because, y'know...school). The Internet, and spaces like Tumblr, served as escapism, and I spent a lot of time particularly in the Wild Kratts side of things.

I had first heard of Odd Squad through PBS's own upfront, the PBS Annual Meeting, that was held in May (though the show was, as I would find out much later, officially announced back in January at that year's TCA Winter Press Tour). It was the network's first live-action show since The Electric Company reboot in 2009 that got swiftly cancelled, which was already enough to get me interested because PBS hadn't taken a chance on live-action stuff since. The premise, as well, was charming and incredibly interesting -- a secret organization that solves problems using math sounded a little saccharine and thus perfect for PBS Kids, but since it was live-action, I figured it could bring a little spice to the network in a way that not other kids shows of the modern network era (read: 2013 onwards, past the network redesign) did. The fact that PBS was willing to go all-in on the show, up to teasers, previews, even having two new games available for fans to play before its premiere, was practically the cherry on top.

Fast-forward to around September. By this point, teasers and promos were already coming out for the show that showcased Olive, Otto, Oprah and Oscar in action. And by this point, I was absolutely invested. On a whim, I decided to take my Sony camera and record a reaction video of me watching it. Was it weird? Yes, but I had no money for a laptop that wasn't a decade old and didn't run about as well as a computer from the days of yore. You make do with what you have.

Needless to say, when the first episode "Zero Effect" premiered, I was having a whale of a time. That's...pretty much all I remember. Aside from the swearing. Lots and lots of swearing.

(...Look, it was 10 years ago. My brain can only go on a decline after being fully developed. And the depression has been eating away at me for that long. When astrophysicists perfect the art of the time machine, call me.)

I uploaded it to my YouTube channel the day after the show premiered. No editing, just a straight-cut video of my reactions laid on the table. I figured, "Okay, so this would be nice to look back on and laugh, maybe."

And then, a month later, I got a PM from Joshua Kilimnik, the actor who plays Season 1's big bad Odd Todd.

Before I get into that, though, a bit of backstory for my channel is necessary.

I had made my channel in 2011, when Wild Kratts premiered. At the time, it was mostly hosting Wild Kratts content, mainly Top 10 countdowns of fan videos I stumbled across on Tumblr or elsewhere as well as Sparta Remix-related stuff. (Yeah, remember that old meme? That isn't as dead as you think it is? Yeeeeeeah.) Around the middle of 2015, it unfortunately got struck down pretty hard when PBS began to go Nintendo on it, viewed fanworks as threats to their IPs, and decided to rip down my videos from the 'Net in three easy strikes -- and with it, my entire channel. It stung, to see my relatively hard work go down the drain. I'd be lying if I said I had wanted the channel to stay up just so I can look back on it in 5 years and cringe at how juvenile it was. Christ sakes, I even had MLP stuff up there at one point. Why? Don't ask me. I wasn't even watching the show at the time. I truly got into it when Season 5 began airing.

But back to the PM. You know, back when YouTube gave you the option to PM people.

Getting the PM from Joshua, I was, naturally, suspect. Celebrity impersonators are all too common, and as I would later come to find out, Odd Squad was not exempt. I had to laugh, because an autistic nobody like me getting a PM from a child actor who was in the industry long before Odd Squad was like Ariana Grande up and inviting me to have dinner with her because I made a few comments about her diction. It's a miracle, people. Miracles that only happen to those with life-threatening illnesses or those who have done good for the community. I had neither of those. Unless you count me going to high school as doing the community a service, in which case I have one of those things.

I read the PM again. And again. And again. And something in me thought, "Maybe...just maybe...this guy is actually legitimate. Maybe he's telling the truth about the entire Season 1 cast and the show's crew members, creators included, seeing my video. I mean it's 2014, what creator wouldn't look to the Internet for first reactions on their show?"

Fuck it. iBalled. I went for it. I reached out to Joshua.

And by God's oddness-laden utopia, am I so happy I did.

We immediately hit it off, taking our conversation from YouTube DMs to Twitter DMs (no, my current Twitter is not that ancient -- my time on birdsite-now-saltyman-hellhole is a whole different story) and discussing our hobbies and what we did. Joshua confided in me that he helped disabled kids, which, honestly, is a green flag in my book off the bat as someone who is, in fact, disabled. I told him about my animal shelter work and how I loved the show.

At the same time, I had posted on Tumblr about the show. Don't ask me what the post was about -- I honestly couldn't tell you, and combing through the tag is something I'd need a hell of a lot of motivation for -- but it somehow, by some astronomical means, took off. People came in like a small trickle. It was small, but over time, we built a strong community. I didn't exactly know how big my impact on people was until I read "how I got into Odd Squad" stories and saw my name pop up enough times to the point where I could safely say I was an inspiration to more than one person.

At some point in 2015, I had created a Wiki for the show. Fandom -- or Wikia, as it was called back then -- wasn't exactly new territory for me, as I had visited other show Wikis before. However, my Odd Squad Wiki didn't take off, and someone else ended up making another one that became far more successful.

...Yeah, you're surprised, aren't you? Figures. But not even I can lay claim to everything.

When the other Wiki took off, Joshua decided to dive right into the fire and engage with the fandom directly. Now, for any big-name fandom, this is everyday normalcy. The My Little Pony fandom has fans directly engage with cast and crew members who answer their questions, for example. But for small fandoms of niche IPs -- and oh believe you me, Odd Squad was incredibly niche back then -- a cast member interacting with fans was a huge deal. The hype only increased when Joshua was named an administrator, along with a few others, myself included.

Needless to say, Joshua being involved boosted the fandom's activity exponentially, and not just due to his spectacular acting on the show. Fanfics, fanart, fan videos...it was a bustling time of fan content. I can recall some of the most notable works just off the top of my head. The fandom got to be so busy that I made a news blog just to cover every bit of news, shifting away from my Wild Kratts news coverage to focus on a different show instead. I enlisted a few old friends to help me out, converted them to be oddballs (which, I will say, was a stroke of luck), and put them on the "staff team". My aim was to create something akin to Equestria Daily, but on a smaller scale. We did editorials, episode followups, and scoured the Internet for any and every bit of Odd Squad news we could find. It became a reliable source for many, especially considering PBS's horrible track record with even the most basic of news -- cancellations, renewals, and other such announcements. Not to brag, but I like to think I did a better job than them at actually giving news to fans who deserve it. (Hell, I still do. My hunger for even small crumbs of news is very strong indeed.)

I can easily recall when Season 2 was announced. Me and my friends were ecstatic. For me, I never thought Odd Squad would get a Season 2, and the Season 1 finale -- affectionately named OINFO (don't confuse it with "O is Not For Old", that's a different rodeo; this is "O is Not For Over") -- made sure of that. Originally, it was set to air in May, before it got shifted to June to coincide with Season 2's premiere.

And even long before that, the movie being announced blew our minds. I genuinely couldn't believe this niche little IP, birthed only several months ago, was getting a movie. And not even one of those specials that PBS markets as a movie as a ratings stunt. No, no, this was a full-blown theatrical movie. With A-listers to boot! And it was a damn good movie!

(...Okay, unrelated, but man, I'm reading through all my old posts and comments on the Wiki and cringing. God, did I really type like a 10-year-old back then when I was in high school? Egh gross cringe. The "let her say fuck" was strong with me back then.)

Of course, as most actors do, Joshua largely moved on from the show as the years went on. Most long-timer fans stuck around until the end of Season 2 before either other interests caught their eye or real life just got in the way too much. A majority of these fans dropped off the face of the Earth like an introvert who suddenly disappears mid-conversation, though they still popped into the Discord server a few times and I reconnected with one or two on Twitter. Hell, some of them even made a "hey, I'm back, and here's what's up" post on Fandom that made me ask if their accounts got hacked.

As a result, when Season 3 premiered, the fandom had slowed down to a crawl. Anyone who's bore witness to it, whether an episode or a nugget of criticism, can probably guess why. (And anyone who hasn't can feel the wrath of my "trust me bro" card, thank you.) It was like I willingly leapt off of the boat, it sped away without me, and I was trapped in the middle of fuck-all nowhere with sharks. So, you know, like Open Water if it was actually good. But the point stands in that I was pretty much all alone. I couldn't crawl to anyone for the sweet release of death after seeing just how hard S&P tried to avoid The Shadow's very obvious murder attempt by way of hacking into a car to make it fall into a lake of green goo. All I could do was scream and cry into a mic, edit, upload to YouTube, and let all the unsupervised kids looking for free episodes come to me in droves.

Oh, and post to Odd News. Until I accidentally deleted the account.

By that point in time, my old friends had all left due to real life commitments, and only one, Angelica, remained. But even she drifted away, and I was stuck running it all alone. So, I made the difficult decision to let it rot, and frankly...I haven't touched it since. Largely because I left Tumblr entirely and only just now came back. On the news front, I expanded my coverage to PBS Kids as a whole network, just as I do on Twitter.

It wasn't until the back half of Season 3 premiered that the fandom slowly but surely began to grow from planted roots, and I could connect with people again. Seeing people flood the Discord server and Tumblr, sharing art and news and theories, was amazing. Not for Season 3, though -- it was because of the past two seasons. Honestly, to say there's been more talk about Otis and Odd Todd than about any other character in the entire franchise is a hell of an understatement, because it dominated pretty much 98% of the fandom.

From there, new fanworks, fanart, and other pieces of fan-created media were created, and many still continue to be created to this day. Though hyperfixations can be yoted off the cliff and die in an instant (with deepest apologies to Shroom), it's great to see a burst of activity in such a small fandom. Hell, it even got big enough to where we had a Secret Valentine's exchange a couple months back, which was a real joy because it gave me a chance to flex my writing chops even if it did leave me on the verge of a third panic attack. And...the fandom being revived did land me a solid interview for a college assignment. Which, to me, is my own equivalent of getting a dedicated panel at a convention.

But this isn't a whole entire story about fandom lore. It's a story about me.

And honestly...I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little tired with Odd Squad myself.

Between the choking responsibilities of adult life (yay work), the state of my mental and physical health (yay depression and anxiety), and the franchise being fucked over sideways to Pluto and back by numerous entities (yay TV industry), I really can't just focus on Odd Squad anymore. Now, I'll give a fair warning to you and tell you to make no mistake -- my enjoyment of the franchise will die with me and my entire bloodline if the franchise itself doesn't die first. But I've found other special interests and hyperfixations that have grabbed me more than the funny kid agent franchise has. I derive more joy from binging the 90s Frasier series, Pretty Cure, and Neighborhood Wars than I do with the funny kid agent franchise.

Now, does this mean I'm leaving the fandom? God no. To do it on the verge of the franchise's 10th anniversary would be utter blasphemy. And I do plan on weaponizing this blog for more Seren's Studies, including episode reviews and character analyses I can't do with the limited resources I have. But the drive for Odd Squad is just...no longer there for me. I did not, unfortunately, get the "Odd Squad forever" autism. I got the "childhood is hell, but okay, sure, I'll make you a functioning competent adult to a certain degree" autism.

Maybe one of these days, amidst the countless new pieces of media that keep releasing, I'll be able to rewatch Odd Squad. It's worn out its welcome nostalgia-wise, but I find it to be a pretty enjoyable view when I take off those glasses and put on the "my God is an awesome God and that's why I try to attend church every Sunday" ones. I'm still making crossover fan projects to other IPs like MLP, Super Monkey Ball, and Precure. And of course, I'll be seated for Odd Squad UK to see if it's good or not -- I'm more than happy to take the bullet for people who don't want to see it for whatever reason, just as I did for the back half of Season 3. But for now, the drive is pretty much gone.

I will admit, I'm likely missing some stuff. My memory is absolutely terrible, and I had to go fishing for a lot of stuff to refresh it (one of the reasons why this took so long to release in the first place). But this is what I can dredge up.

I'm honestly proud of the little fandom I birthed. I could work a hundred jobs in my lifetime and still say that founding the Odd Squad fandom is by far my greatest accomplishment. I've met so many amazing people, seen so many amazing things, and really, I'm hoping to see more people in the years to come. If the aim is to introduce Odd Squad to new generations of kids, teens, young adults, and adults alike, then I'm all for it. Expose them to goodness. None of that Cocomelon shit.

Thank you for reading, and to all of the people in the fandom both old and new, thank you for touching my life in ways I never thought of. If you've got any further questions about my story, send 'em my way; I'll be glad to answer 'em.

See you all in the next Seren's Studies, whenever that may be.

[befickleforever]

If you liked [inside no 9 episode] watch [film] : a guide. Part 1

(Some of these films go off vibes alone, whilst others are the films that directly inspired the episode. For example, we all know where the wicker man will be included)

If you liked ‘Simon Says’, consider:

- Misery (1990). After a serious car crash, novelist Paul Sheldon is rescued by former nurse Annie Wilkes, who claims to be his biggest fan.

- Sunset Boulevard (1950). An aging silent film queen refuses to accept that her stardom has ended. She hires a young screenwriter to help set up her movie comeback.

- Perfect Blue (1997). A young Japanese singer is encouraged by her agent to quit singing and pursue an acting career, beginning with a role in a murder mystery TV show.

- The King of Comedy (1982). Rupert Pupkin is a failure in life but a celebrity in his own mind, hosting an imaginary talk show in his mother's basement.

- The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) (2011). Martin, a mentally disturbed loner that obsesses over the film The Human Centipede (First Sequence), kidnaps a group of people to create his own 'human centipede' to act out his perverse sexual fantasies.

If you liked ‘The Understudy’ consider:

- Sleuth (1972). This mystery finds Andrew Wyke, a wealthy author of detective novels and game aficionado, facing off against his wife's lover, Milo Tindle, a middle-class hair salon-owner.

- Richard III (1995). A murderous lust for the British throne sees Richard III descend into madness.

- Throne of Blood (1957). Returning to their lord's castle, samurai warriors Washizu and Miki are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures.

- Theatre of Blood (1973). After an unsuccessful attempt at suicide, Lionheart sets out to murder all of his critics, each with a different style of death taken from a Shakespeare play.

If you liked ‘The Trial of Elizabeth Gadge’ consider:

- Witchhammer (1970). When a beggar is caught hiding her communion wafer, the hunt for witches begins.

- The Witch (2015). In 1630 New England, panic and despair envelops a farmer, his wife and their children when youngest son Samuel suddenly vanishes.

- Witchfinder General (1968). When Matthew Hopkins is appointed Witchfinder General by the Puritans under Cromwell, he is empowered to travel the countryside with his henchmen and collect a fee for each witch from whom he extracts a confession - a policy which is exploited to the full.

If you liked ‘The Harrowing’ consider:

- Carry on Screaming! (1966). An investigation into the disappearance of several young women leads two bumbling Victorian detectives to the home of Dr Watt and his vampish sister Valeria.

- A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014). Residents of a worn-down Iranian city encounter a skateboarding vampire who preys on men who disrespect women.

If you liked ‘Mr King’ consider:

- The Wicker Man (1973). Sergeant Howie arrives on the small Scottish island of Summerisle to investigate the report of a missing child.

- In The Earth (2021). A scientist and park scout conduct a routine experiment while the world looks for a cure to a lethal virus and as the night progresses, they experience unexplainable things.

- Midsommar (2019). Dani's psychological trauma affects her relationship with Christian, her lover. However, when they visit their friend's ancestral commune in an effort to mend things, it changes their lives forever.

- The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971). Ralph Gower and a local judge are on a quest to get a bunch of possessed kids with a strange fur on their skin under control after they end up killing the locals.

[comtedelafere]

So I just read this afternoon that Ray Stevenson has died at the age of 58 (which is absolutely no age, the poor fella, what a shock).

I'm not gonna pretend to know much about his back catalogue of work or say I was an especial fan or anything disingenuous like that, but I do really want to talk for a quick moment about the one role I really know and love him for - Porthos in the 2011 adaptation of The Three Musketeers.

Now, I know and you know that this version of The Musketeers is massively unpopular for a whole host of reasons - most notably the silly airship storyline (personally, I have such a well-trained suspension of disbelief that I can 100% deal with the airship aspect of it, but I totally get why it's an unpopular addition to the story) - but I will happily die on the hill that it is the closest combination of writing and portrayal of the Core Four yet (sorry, BBC version). Logan Lerman's d'Artagnan was a cheeky 19-year-old rascal who thought he was all that and a bag of chips and didn't care who knew it. Matthew Macfadyen's Athos was sullen and morose (but in a really hot way obvs, cos yknow - Athos) and didn't waste a word of dialogue. Luke Evans' Aramis was quiet, sober, extremely spiritual and didn't go around trying to seduce everything that moved the whole time.

But Ray Stevenson's Porthos? Oh. Oh this was sublime. Up until this adaptation, Porthos had more often than not been played as the comic relief: the large, overweight, affable drunk of no fixed IQ whose prowess at fighting was more down to luck and subtle slapstick than his good judgement. This version of Porthos couldn't have been further away from those portrayals.

He was a quick-witted, smart, physically powerful and agile fighter, whose hand-to-hand combat skills were so notorious that he never needed to use his sword. My absolute favourite moment that showed this fact so beautifully was at the end of the big fight scene with the Red Guards ("Four against FORTY? And you beat them like a drum?! *snort*!" oh, Louis!) when the Guards were reeling a bit, and trying to decide whether to go another round. At that point, Porthos casually pushed his sword from the scabbard with his thumb by about 2 inches - and that was enough to send the Red Guards running for the hills!! I screamed!! Perfect characterisation!! Porthos to an absolute T!!!!!

Not only that, but his version of Porthos was an unashamed yet impoverished dandy, a dedicated follower of fashion who took his time to choose exactly the right cut of new clothes in exactly the right colours - while his rich, married lover happily picked up the tab for him. He understood the way the right clothes and the right combination of appearance and demeanour in any given scenario could give him the upper hand, not only in fighting but also in all of his interpersonal relationships and encounters.

This is the Porthos I had wanted for years. This is the Porthos I cheered and applauded for when I finally saw the version that had lived in my head all those years had finally made it to the screen.

Don't get me wrong, of course the BBC Musketeers owns a huge part of my heart and soul and I love so much about them - but the 2011 Musketeers was so special because for me it was probably the very first time I finally got to see the Musketeers as the book described them, rather than just as the standard accepted carbon copies that had been passed down by Hollywood over the decades, and which bear little to no resemblance to the actual characters in the book. I have no idea if I've actually seen any of Ray's other performances or not, to be honest. Porthos may not be his finest hour onscreen, I really don't know. It may not be the part he's best known for. But if nothing else, Ray finally gave the world a Porthos that Dumas would have recognised.

Despite the fact the film as a whole was received poorly, his portrayal was a genuine gift, and I am privileged to be able to remember him as having given this Musketeer fangirl the abject joy of finally seeing Porthos played as he should have been all along. Not as a large, loud drunk who was just there to be big, strong and funny - but as a highly skilled, intelligent, audacious soldier with a sharp sense of humour and an even sharper dress sense; and who, rather than simply bringing up the rear as The Other Guy or the Big Fella, showed that he was quite possibly the Musketeers' MVP.

Thank you, Ray. Goodnight, and rest well.

[luvcentral]

#10 - rubbing their back soothingly/calmingly, with flat palms or gentle gliding nails

Warning for naked breakdown!homie

The television is a weak, low hum, barely enough to distract from the growing turmoil in Homelander’s mind. He tunes in just long enough to catch his own name. His perfect, shark-white grin flashes across the screen, only to be replaced by some plasticy reporter. Homelander loses focus again, still staring at the television through half lidded eyes.

Why do they always have something to say? It’s scandal after scandal, no matter how many times he saves those people’s asses. He could stop a fucking meteor from touching down and they’d still find some interview clip from 2011 to bitch about.

How could they be so ungrateful? Do they truly not see everything he does for those little people? His whole entire life belongs to them. He has nothing, all for the love of these ungrateful little shits who don’t love him, no matter how hard he tries.

He could smile for hours, say all his lines perfectly, never take a break, and they still wouldn’t love him. They just don’t care.

A steady thrumming from a dozen floors down catches Homelander’s attention. You. A PA with higher clearance, one of the only who hasn’t balked at him barking orders or swooned at his fake ass assurances that “you guys are the real heroes, no, really!”

Come to think of it, you’re the only person he can think of who treats him like he’s real.

Homelander focuses in on your heartbeat, feels it calming him in a way the too-chipper newscasters just couldn’t. Th-thump. Th-thump.

He closes his eyes, forces himself to listen only to the steady beat as it washes over him, getting louder and louder… and then a pit settles in his stomach as he realizes why that beat is getting louder. Homelander opens his eyes slow, fixed on nothing, as he prays you’ll stop at 89. Then 90. Dread forms when you rise past 95, 96, even fucking 99, till the elevator is dinging from his own penthouse.

If he weren’t so committed to sitting there feeling sorry for himself, Homelander could have thrown something. Of all the days, of all the people to brave his personal quarters, it just had to be you. Of-fucking-course.

Sure, he could still get up, put the suit back on, be the version of himself you need, but he can’t bring himself to. Who cares if you see him like this? It’s not like you actually give a shit about him.

The pit of dread grows into something nastier when you knock, then ease open the door. Homelander doesn’t bother to look as you enter, still staring absently out the window. You take in a startled little breath when you realize what he isn’t wearing. Should’ve waited for a fucking invite, Homelander thinks.

“So, ah… this your Sunday casual?” you start.

Homelander fixes his eyes on your blurry form. “Yes.”

Your face softens at the look on his. Infuriating. You should be averting your eyes, apologizing, asking him to put clothes on. Not fucking pitying him.

“Everything okay?” you ask. Homelander scoffs, then barks out a strained little laugh.

“Just fucking incredible,” is what he says. You make a little noise in your throat, step forward, then hesitate. Homelander doesn’t look away, letting you focus in and out as the tears form and blink away. You glance at the big screen.

“What’re you watching?” Your voice is soft, a softness he wants to shatter.

“News,” Homelander deadpans. But the program changed a few minutes ago. Now it’s some bright and peppy talk show, and they’re chattering about—

“God, no,” Homelander groans.

Starlight’s American-sweetheart smile taunts him from behind the hosts. They all fucking love her.

You grimace, then finally approach to steal the remote control. You settle on the arm of the couch, a careful distance from Homelander. He can feel your body heat anyway.

“Is this the only thing on?”

Homelander shrugs, makes a petulant, noncommittal sound.

You take to flipping through channels absently. After fifteen or so flips, you find a channel running a weekend long VCU marathon. They’re about twenty minutes into Homelander: Origin. He snatches the remote back, turning the whole thing off. You blink, glancing at his face. “You don’t like your movie?”

“No, I-the movie’s fine, it’s great work, I just—” Homelander stops, unable to find the words. He leans forward, elbows on his knees, pinching the bridge of his nose. You wait patiently.

“It’s not real. That’s what everybody wants.” He gestures vaguely at the screen, as if Origin was still on. “That’s who I’m supposed to be, and nobody gives a flying fuck that it isn’t real.”

You’re quiet. Homelander turns to face you then, wanting to make you uncomfortable.

“I give everything to these idiots. And it’s never enough! No matter what I do they’ll always have a problem with it. I mean, Christ, they fucking need me! It’d be a goddamn circus out there without someone to protect them, but they just want to sit on their asses and tell me how everything I do is wrong! You know, I’d like to see any of those fucks try to do my job for just one day.” He huffs out an angry breath.

Homelander’s voice is thick by the end of his speech, and he hopes he’s done it. Some loathing part of him wants to scare you off, mark you down as “just like everyone else”. He could deal with that. He doesn’t know how to deal with the way you’re looking at him now.

He turns away again, his sigh now vaguely hopeless. And then the strangest thing happens.

The couch dips next to him. A gentle little hand touches down on Homelander’s back, just above his shoulder blade. It ghosts there for minute, waiting. Once you seem to have permission, or at least no objections, you press in more solidly, hand splayed out on his back. You rub it up toward where his neck meets his shoulder, gently squeezing. Then you drag it down to the middle of his back.

The contact shocks him. The heat of your hand seems to burn straight through his skin, warming Homelander from the inside out. His lip quivers.

“I’m sorry,” you settle on. “People just… they only see what they wanna see. It’s not fair, but it doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong.”

Homelander leans back a little, into your hand.

“And for the record, I think you’re doing just fine.”

“Just fine?” Homelander’s voice is small when he asks, almost petulant again. He catches you smiling in his periphery. Your nails scratch at his skin, still gentle.

“You’re a hero. Even when you don’t feel like it. Even when they—” you nod at the TV “—don’t see it. They can’t take that away from you.”

He looks at you then, really looks at you. Homelander is so used to congratulatory pep talks, but this doesn’t feel like a play to get him back out on the field or in front of a camera. Hell, you aren’t even making him put pants on. Your voice is sincere and soft, hand even softer. You seem like you meant what you said. Homelander sniffles a little. Then, quietly: “Thanks.”

That pit, the weight in his stomach, eases. He can’t remember why he hadn’t wanted to see you.

You rub his back again, and Homelander feels more grounded than he has since he woke up. You think he’s a hero.

No, the day doesn’t feel so heavy at all.

[mariacallous]

Last week, Tunisia’s president, Kais Saied, made his first trip to China and signed a strategic partnership with President Xi Jinping. The week prior, Saied made headlines for becoming the first Tunisian president to visit Iran since the Islamic Revolution. And before that, rumors swirled about Russian planes landing in Djerba.

It is too early to tell whether any of these events mark a major, strategic realignment of Tunisia away from its traditional allies in the West. More likely, Saied is playing global and regional powers against one other to secure the best deal, an art form perfected by other leaders in the region.

But Saied has made one major shift to Tunisia’s foreign policy that in turn might help explain his recent outreach to Iran, China, and Russia. Over the past year, Saied has overseen a sea change in Tunisia’s position on the two-state solution for Israelis and the Palestinians. While Tunisia had historically been an outlier in the region for being one of the first to accept a two-state solution, today it is increasingly becoming an outlier for rejecting it.

While popular at home, this shift has strained Tunisia’s relations with both the West and the Arab Gulf states. It is in this context of greater isolation internationally that Saied now dangles the threat of relations with Iran, China, and Russia.

The first to endorse two states

Tunisia’s founding father, Habib Bourguiba (r. 1956-1987), was one of the first Arab leaders to advocate, albeit cautiously, for negotiations with Israel. While other states in the region were gearing up for war, President Bourguiba in 1965 gave a major speech in Jericho urging Palestinians and Arabs to give up their “all or nothing” strategy, and then told Le Monde that they should accept the United Nations partition plan.

At the United States’ request, Tunisia would later host the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), and despite being bombed by Israel in 1985, Bourguiba remained supportive of dialogue until his last days in office. His successor, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (r. 1987-2011), continued his policies, facilitating talks between the PLO and Israeli officials in Tunis that would then evolve into the Oslo peace process. Although those talks faltered and the second intifada erupted, Ben Ali would sign on to the Arab Peace Initiative (API), advocating a two-state solution. Tunisia’s support for that proposition would survive the 2011 revolution, with Tunisia hosting an Arab League summit in March 2019 that renewed the region’s commitment to the API. For almost 60 years, Tunisia at least paid lip service to the notion of a two-state solution.

The first to abandon it

Saied (r. 2019-) has now initiated a major shift to that long-standing advocacy of two states. In his electoral campaign in 2019, Saied argued that any normalization with Israel was akin to high treason, receiving thunderous applause at a presidential debate. While Saied was initially constrained by Tunisia’s semi-presidential system, his power grab in 2021 and subsequent consolidation of control has allowed him to gradually shift Tunisia’s foreign policy.

At first, the shift was subtle. Saied’s new 2022 constitution went further than previous ones by calling not just for the liberation of Palestine but a Palestinian state with Jerusalem (and not just East Jerusalem) as its capital. In August 2023, Saied rejected rumors he might normalize with Israel, saying Palestinians should instead regain their rights over “all of Palestine.”

But Hamas’s attacks on October 7 and the war thereafter have accelerated Saied’s break with Tunisia’s more moderate tradition. On the night of October 7, Saied described the attacks as “legitimate resistance,” saying that “what some media were referring to as the Gaza envelope is Palestinian land that has been under Zionist occupation for decades,” and that therefore “the Palestinian people have the right to recover it and to recover all of the land of Palestine.” In a video published on his Facebook page, Saied re-emphasized “all” of the land.

What had previously been the president’s personal rhetoric then became official policy. On October 11, the Arab League put out a joint statement condemning the killing of civilians by both sides and pledging support for a two-state solution along the June 4, 1967 borders. But Saied had Tunisia put in a reservation, noting instead “the right of the Palestinian people to establish their independent state on all of the land of Palestine.” Tunisia would continue that pattern over the next few months, routinely issuing reservations to joint statements produced at Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summits, becoming an outlier at these meetings.

In May, these reservations grew increasingly explicit. At the OIC summit in Banjul and then the Arab League summit in Manama, Tunisia expressed its reservations specifically about the use of the terms “June 4, 1967 borders,” “two-state solution,” and “East al-Quds,” emphasizing instead its support for an “independent state on the entire territory of Palestine with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.” For all intents and purposes, Tunisia abandoned its long-standing official position supporting a two-state solution.

Consequences of the shift

This shift in Tunisian foreign policy has played well at home, earning praise from Tunisians on social media and even from the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Tunisian General Labor Union. In part because of their history of hosting the PLO—and being bombed for it—Tunisians express some of the strongest support for Palestine in public opinion polls. The Arab Barometer, for instance, found that only 9% of Tunisians said it was good for the region that countries have started working with Israel, compared to 19% of Iraqis and Lebanese, 23% of Egyptians, and 32% of Sudanese. This pro-Palestinian sentiment in Tunisia has only grown in the wake of October 7, with the Arab Barometer finding support for normalization with Israel falling from 12% to 1%, and open calls for armed resistance growing from 6% to 36%.

But although Saied’s rhetoric on Israel has garnered him popularity at home, it has also left him even more isolated internationally. He had already complicated Tunisia’s relations with the United States through his coup and continued rejection of what he calls foreign interference. This was simply another nail in the coffin. By November, U.S. State Department officials were telling me they were highly concerned that Saied had become “an outlier in the region,” no longer supportive of a two-state solution. They feared that his “radical rhetoric against Israel” might contribute to extremism, recalling that Tunisia sent the largest per capita contingent of fighters to the Islamic State.

Saied’s positions have also complicated his relations with the Arab Gulf states, who have pursued normalization or are on track to do so. Many had expected Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to openly and financially support Saied’s takeover much like they did Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. But they have instead been more hesitant, preferring investment over aid and loans, and allegedly insisting on normalization, or at least toning down Saied’s criticism of it.

Managing isolation

This has left Saied with few strong allies, primarily Algeria and Italy. It is in this context of isolation that we should view Saied’s recent outreach to Iran, China, and Russia. On the one hand, these countries more naturally fit with Saied’s worldview, both on the Palestinian issue as well as on his broader critique of Western imperialism. Saied’s meeting with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, for instance, reportedly centered around Palestine, with Khamenei praising Saied’s “anti-Zionist stance” and emphasizing the need to develop more such stances in the Arab world, and Saied agreeing, saying “the Islamic world must exit its current passive position.”

At the same time, Saied has thus far been careful not to push too far and elicit a rupture with Tunisia’s traditional allies. In November, for instance, Saied quashed a bill in parliament that would have criminalized normalization with Israel, on account of it endangering Tunisia’s external interests, presumably with the West and the Arab Gulf states. Indeed, a full realignment or clean break with the West is near impossible, given the strong links Tunisia’s military has with the United States and its economy has with Europe. A more likely scenario is an attempt to balance between these global and regional powers, securing what it can from each.

Still, whether or not relations with Iran, China, or Russia develop further, it is clear that Saied has already initiated a sea change in one aspect of Tunisia’s foreign policy, departing from its decades-long endorsement of a two-state solution.

[sharas-bae]

the green day concert last night was absolutely everything i wanted it to be. i went with 3 childhood friends, the core group who got terrifyingly obsessed with them in 7th-8th grade in the way that only 13-year-old girls can. and it was pretty much perfect. (long reflection/ramble below the cut)

the band played all of dookie (30th anniversary) and american idiot (20th anniversary, fucking how. that album came out a few months after we all got into green day and now it's two decades old??) and a handful of songs from other albums.

the show went on for 3 hours and it was so satisfying and exhausting that i was actually ok when it ended instead of disappointed like i was at the mcr show (though of course i also would've been perfectly happy if it had gone another hour). it was a blur of singing and dancing and moments of re-realizing that this was actually happening. i was actually grateful there were a handful of newer songs i don't know as well so i could step back and just observe and soak it all in again.

the weather forecast had been very concerning, up until late morning it had showed that there would be thunderstorms until at least 6pm and that it would be pretty much constantly raining the whole time. my friend who's hosting ordered ponchos for all of us. but it ended up almost entirely dry (if cloudy, which. not a bad thing).

during the dookie set it actually did rain for several songs, but it was mostly a heavy mist? so it was basically just enough to be memorable, fun, refreshing, and then just as i was starting to regret not throwing on my poncho it stopped. and prompted a 'philly, you made me wet' from billie joe which. sometimes low-hanging fruit is the best kind.

the band's energy was fantastic. mike was running around, billie joe did a lot of the freddie mercury style 'eyy-ohs' and revving the crowd. he is such a Performer, it genuinely seemed like he was having so much fun and getting into the Very Dramatic Faces. tre came out in a fluffy jaguar-print bathrobe to perform 'all by myself' (sidebar i was wondering the whole rest of the album if they'd include the hidden track and got way too excited that they did) and was doing the hammiest 'who, me?' striptease. their little solo moments throughout the show really showed off how good they are at what they do, even when the composition is relatively simple.

the crowd was singing and dancing through all of it and i actually ended up headbanging at one point, but i couldn't tell you which song. also my knee is sore, but i expected something to be sore after that.

they had a goofy little 'bad year' blimp balloon walk around the floor (did i mention my friend scored us floor tickets??) during sassafrass roots. phone lights came out in force for give me novocaine (not as sure why this one) and a lot of people put them up for a 'tribute to loved ones' version for wake me up when september ends, which yes did make me teary.

they also invited their first opener, the linda lindas, to play a song. apparently their set was canceled (presumably because storm forecast? i'm not sure). and wow they were very good and i'm definitely chasing down all their stuff. it was cool too because while i'm sure it sucks that their set got canceled, they ended up playing for a packed stadium instead of whoever showed up early or specifically to see them.

one of the things i love about going to shows for groups that have been around for awhile is the age range of the crowd. at this show, at the mcr show, at the backstreet boys show my bff and i went to in 2011, you get middle aged fans who were full adults when the band started, plenty of people our age who were kids or teens when they took off (or in green day's case continued apace i guess), and kids who are just getting into them now. it's just really really cool.

whatsername is always bittersweet for me, so it was even moreso last night. it reminds me of the girl who i had the disastrous homoerotic friendship with, because she was part of this little circle too. one could argue from a certain light that she was the ringleader of the levels of obsession we got to. and the nature of the falling out and then later drama in our early 20s with my bff means she wasn't there with us. and the bff situation means i don't want to mention it to her, because that girl caused her a lot of pain. but that song did make me cry a little, just a moment to grieve the fact that if things had been different (and frankly, if i'd made some different choices when i was 15) she would've been there with us too. it was maybe the only thing about the night that wasn't as close to perfect as one could expect, that weird hole that we've all quietly healed around but is sometimes still very present.

anyway i'm glad they didn't end the show on whatsername. (they played bobby sox off their new album and then good riddance, which was our class song at sixth grade 'graduation' and kicked off all of this). and then we sat down until they kicked us out so the crowd could thin out a little, and took the septa back, and on the walk to my friend's house some guys porch-sitting across the street asked us if we'd been at the green day concert and cheered when we said yes.

[keldjinfae]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers! Spread the self-love 💞

Okay, so first off, thanks to @dear-massacre for this one. I got to filter through a lot of things I wrote for other fandoms besides Teen Wolf, and while I won't be sharing them (purely because most of them fell victim to the Great Strikethrough Purge, and the "clean" versions I have up on the Pit that is fanfiction.net are... frankly, things I would delete if I could remember what the hell my log-in is), I did remember one I co-wrote with a friend of mine over a decade ago. And neither of us remembers how to log into that old account we created solely for the purpose of writing something together (let me just say, AO3 allowing for co-creators is a fucking godsend), so the link for that one will have to direct you there instead of AO3. I may be able to update this with an AO3 link, provided @caseyvalhalla (said cowriter) is able to find a full version of the fic in their backup drive (which would be outstanding, seeing as how my copy of the fic was lost at some point about three or four PCs/laptops ago).

I also left WIPs out of this list because I feel like that might be too cruel of a tease, seeing as how I haven't updated them since about 2011.

Freaks and Fools is a Halloween-themed fic that Casey and I brainstormed together in about two hours after the initial joke of mashing up Kingdom Hearts and Peanuts. One of us said "Axel is Snoopy, sleeping out on the lawn," and it suddenly turned into him also being Johnny from The Outsiders; what followed was a feverish brainstorming session of determining the perfect way to balance drama and humor. Then we wrote and edited the whole damn thing over the course of three coffee-laden weekends.

I'm Not Asking Questions, I'm Taking My Chances is the first fic I wrote for the Sterek Reverse Bang. I'd previously written a fic for the Sterek Reverse Quickie, and it was my very first Teen Wolf fic, period, while I fucked around and found out if I'd be able to write for the fandom. Turns out, I could. The minimum word count for the RB was 5k, so naturally I wrote something up in the 80k range because I have zero chill.

It's a fantasy AU that very loosely (seriously, so loose that you definitely don't want to be relying on this fic to catch you in a trustfall exercise) incorporates themes from the Merlin series. Writing it helped teach me how to better plan out scenes, in terms of "do I really need to write out this whole scene independently or could I just incorporate it briefly into this already-existing one?" It also gave me better practice at determining when I was going to have to let scenes go altogether, maybe with the notion that I might write them someday and add them on later.

You Gotta Promise Not to Stop When I Say When is a fic I wrote for the Sterek Reverse Quickie, during which I was paired up with the same artist who I'd written for during my very first RQ. She wanted comfort, made a moodboard about it (sadly, Discord stopped image hosting so the links to all of her previous artwork are all broken), and I decided I wanted to write comfort as well. I gave her two choices (Derek takes Stiles's pain, or Stiles is a vampire sharing a house with Derek, and both of them accuse the other of being a squatter--it's a long, stupid story that has gone off the rails in a meme prompt thread on Discord), and went with the one that both of us could sink into.

This one is probably my absolute favorite because I literally just wrote what I know. Stiles is disabled, Derek helps him cope with it. I can't really sell it any better than that, other than to say that I wrote my own personal experiences, but Sterekified.

We're Floating in the Moonlit Sky is a Sterek fic I wrote for a little something called the 1000 Cakes Challenge, which provided the writer and artist participants with a word, an action, and a setting, and had us all spin our own take on them. The word was "kumquat," the action was "pursuit" or "sleepwalk" (I incorporated both--again, zero chill), and the setting was a gorgeous painting of a snowy forest that one of the moderators made herself just for the challenge. Initially, I wasn't even going to participate because I'd literally just finished writing my latest Sterek RB fic and thought I was burned out. Then an idea smacked me in the face right as I was falling asleep.

I love this one because it's more or less just me allowing myself some pure self-indulgence. There's some angst, there's some drama, but most of it is just seeing how many Christmas carol references I can squeeze in as puns. Stiles is half-elf and half-frost sprite, Derek is still a werewolf, Peter is Krampus (thanks to @ice-mage, because "of course Peter is Krampus"), and Noah is Santa Claus.

My Echo, My Shadow, and Me is the Sterek Reverse Bang fic I wrote before I got started on Floating. I somehow managed to write 100k+ words in a bit under four months, and satisfied my desire to write a season 3a "fix-it" (of sorts--more like a revision) in the process. I don't know if the experience would be the same for @nerdherderette, who wound up beta-reading "the Beast in Blue" in the course of about 20 hours, but it was damn satisfying to write.

Essentially, all of season 3a still happens, but Jackson never leaves and Cora never arrives. I wanted to explore everyone's strengths and flaws, and I wanted to write an alternate take on the nogitsune without having to rewrite 3b as well.

[girlactionfigure]

Resistance Fighter – Nancy Wake

She killed a Nazi with her bare hands.

Nancy Wake was a gutsy journalist from Australia who became a leader of the Allied resistance and killed a Nazi with her bare hands.

Born in New Zealand in 1912, Nancy was raised in Sydney. She ran away from home at age 16 and went to London, where she became a self-taught journalist.

As a young woman, Nancy described herself as someone who loved nothing more than a “good drink and handsome men, especially French men.” In 1930 she married Henri Edmond Fiocca, a wealthy French industrialist.

During the 1930’s Nancy worked for Hearst newspapers as a European correspondent. Stationed in Vienna, Nancy witnessed the rise of Nazism. She was shocked to see roving gangs of Nazis beating up Jews, and never forgot the sight of Jews chained to massive wheels and rolled through the streets. She later said, “I resolved there and then that if I ever had the chance I would do anything to make things more difficult for their rotten party.”

Nancy became a courier for the French resistance. Speaking perfect French, she worked with the “maquis” – guerrilla bands of resistance fighters. After Germany invaded France, she helped Allied POW’s and other personnel escape the country.

The Gestapo called Nancy the “White Mouse.” They tapped her phone and intercepted her mail. Nancy’s life was in constant danger.

Nancy described her method of avoiding detection by the Germans: “A little powder and a little drink on the way, and I’d pass their German posts and wink and say, ‘Do you want to search me?’ God, what a flirtatious little bastard I was.”

Nancy led repeated attacks on Gestapo headquarters. By 1943, she was the most wanted resistance fighter, with a 5 million franc price on her head.

After Nancy’s maquis network was betrayed, she fled France. Her husband stayed behind, and he was captured, tortured and killed by the Gestapo. Nancy, on her way across the Pyrenees to Spain, was unaware of her husband’s death until after the war.

In 1944, Nancy parachuted into France. Her assignment involved collecting and distributing arms and equipment that were sent in by parachute. Nancy was a highly successful recruiter, and is credited with bringing 7500 fighters into the resistance.

From April 1944 until the liberation of France in August 1944, Nancy’s band of maquisards fought 22,000 German soldiers, causing 1400 casualties while sustaining only 100 of their own.

At one point, Nancy killed an SS guard with her bare hands to stop him from raising the alarm during a raid. She later described how she did it, “They’d taught this judo-chop stuff with the flat of the hand at SOE [special operations training] and I practiced away at it. But this was the only time I used it – whack – and it killed him all right. I was really surprised.”

Another time, Nancy’s wireless operator was shut down in a German raid, and she rode her bicycle over 300 miles through German checkpoints to deliver the secret codes.

After the war, Nancy was awarded the United States Medal of Freedom, the Medaille de la Resistance, and the Croix de Guerre, among many other honors.

Nancy continued to work as an intelligence agent. She married a Royal Air Force officer in 1957 and for the next several decades they divided their time between London and Australia. Nancy’s autobiography, The White Mouse, was published in 1985 and became a bestseller.

Nancy’s husband died in 2001, and she returned to London permanently. She lived at the Stafford Hotel near Picadilly, her expenses largely paid for by the hotel’s owners, who were honored to host a renowned heroine. She could be found every morning at the hotel bar, drinking her first gin and tonic of the day.

Nancy died in 2011 at age 98. Her remarkable story has been the subject of multiple biographies and television mini-series.

For fighting the good fight against the Nazi war machine, we honor Nancy Wake as this week’s Thursday Hero.

[not-available-for-comment]

hiii thanks for rbing my horror recs post! sorry it took a while but here's your recs! :)

based on crimson peak i'd recommend suspiria (1977), the haunting (1963), sleepy hollow (1999), the woman in black (2012), the others (2001), the orphanage (2007), house on haunted hill (1959), vampyros lesbos (1971), alucarda (1977), the crow (1994) and the first omen (2024)for their beautifully haunting (gothic) visuals.

based on alien i'd recommend the thing (1982), sunshine (2007), the descent (2005), annihilation (2018), 10 cloverfield lane (2016) and event horizon (1997) because they're some of my fav isolated setting creature horrors.

based on underworld i'd recommend blade (1998), 30 days of night (2008), abigail (2024), the lost boys (1987), fright night (1985), fright night (2011), queen of the damned (2002) and planet terror (2007) for some of my fav action horrors, mostly about vampires.

based on only lovers left alive i'd recommend bones and all (2022), near dark (1987), spring (2014), ganja & hess (1973), nosferatu the vampyre (1979), let the right one in (2008), bram stoker's dracula (1992) and interview with the vampire (1994) which are some of my favourite horror movies about love (and mostly vampires).

based on troll hunter i’d recommend the ritual (2017), the host (2006), nope (2022) and the cabin in the woods for some of my fav creatures, and digging up the marrow (2014), the bay (2012), butterfly kisses (2018), horror in the high desert (2021), the tunnel (2011) and savageland (2015) for some of my fav creature found footage.

hope there's some you haven't seen yet! :)

Thank you so much! There are a couple things on here that are on my list but I haven’t seen them yet and a couple of things I haven’t even heard of. Perfect for hunting down things to watch next month!

Thanks again!

[fangirlinginleatherboots]

I forgot what a good movie The Perfect Host (2011?) is. I think it was one of the first horrorish movies I watched by myself. I was in college, Lucy was host, and we had just gotten Netflix. 2014 or 2015 maybe. Unfortunately,,,, for reasons,,, at that time I did not fully understand my brief fixation on this movie lmao

[rabbitcruiser]

International Jazz Day 

Join your community in appreciating and recognizing the rich culture and heritage of jazz. Visit a local jazz club, or revisit some of the greatest musicians in history.

International Jazz Day is a beautiful time to celebrate the gift of music and to come together as a community. It’s a chance to listen to a variety of musicians and hear their talents live all around the world.

Learning more about the day will help any musical enthusiast to appreciate all the benefits of listening to jazz. Music lovers from around the world will gather to attend jazz festivals, parties, and events to help celebrate the day and this specific type of music. Now is the perfect opportunity to take up a musical instrument such as the trumpet, saxophone, piano or clarinet and start to make music so one can understand what all the hype is about.

International Jazz Day highlights the ability for jazz to unite people from all walks of life and draw together folks from around the globe. No one is left out, as this day brings together artists, schools, communities, historians, academics, and jazz aficionados to raise awareness around this type of music and educate the public about the roots, impact, and future of jazz. There’s a deep-rooted message attached to this day of celebration, such as reinforcing international cooperation and communication.

It brings to light the need for intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding through one of the best ways possible, music. The power of the music will be apparent when participants view people of all backgrounds, forgetting about their differences and joining together to celebrate jazz. Any adverse circumstances from the past or present are suddenly forgotten or pushed aside, and people begin to focus on friendship, freedom, hope, and dignity instead.

The day itself is intended to promote peace, diversity, respect among different cultures, and highlight the need for human rights and dignity. The music itself addresses the desire for eliminating discrimination and promoting the freedom of expression. Youth are also encouraged to participate by enacting change and helping to foster gender equality. One will have the chance to experience how much life and love emerges when the day kicks off, and musicians from all over begin to jam and play their music.

History of International Jazz Day

It all began in 2011 when the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization declared International Jazz Day as an opportunity to give recognition to jazz music and state its role to unite people all around the globe. It’s been going strong ever since and people look forward to this day each year when music lovers from around the world can share in the experience of listening to and making jazz music.

The idea itself emerged from jazz pianist and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Herbie Hancock. Together, the UNESCO Director-General and Hancock chair the event and ensure people from all over come out to participate in the celebration each year. Cities such as Paris, New Orleans, and New York were some of the first to begin to educate the public on the event and draw excitement to Jazz Day.

The Host City goes as far as to organize an All-Star Global Concert which brings together over two-dozen jazz musicians from all parts of the world in or around a historical landmark. It’s interesting to know that the popularity of the day has grown immensely over the years. Now, nearly 200 countries participate in International Jazz Day.

You can visit just about any location and hear and experience jazz music at its finest. You’ll witness artists and onlookers expressing themselves in their own unique and individual way. Cape Town, South Africa is the Host City for 2020, so one should make a note of this if he or she wants to travel and see some of the best musicians perform their music live. Not only will there be music present at the event, but organizers are also planning an extensive educational and community outreach program for people to participate in and as a way for them to expand their knowledge.

How to Celebrate International Jazz Day

There are many ways for how people around the world can celebrate International Jazz Day. There is no right or wrong way to go about it, and all communities may have their unique take and twist on the day. For example, there may be live concerts and events to attend, and people might want to host their own parties.

Not only are there concerts and events taking place internationally, but many will also hold jam sessions and educational workshops and conferences, as well as organize community outreach programs. Anyone can locate and access jazz educational materials from the International Jazz Day website to help them run their event. The public shouldn’t be afraid to insert themselves in the conversation and start an event or discussion around the topic to help create awareness around the day.

The common denominator is that there will be a lot of jazz music to be heard and played. It’s an opportunity for those unfamiliar with this type of music to get more acquainted with it and learn about its roots and history. One can witness people of all ages and backgrounds moving to the music and enjoying themselves while the performers work hard to put on a show that anyone can appreciate.

International Jazz Day is undoubtedly a celebration to be aware of and take part in if a person is looking to expand their horizons and musical knowledge. There’s so much to see and take in around the globe when this day rolls around. There will be no choice but to participate in some sort of event that’s happening in the area. It’s a time to appreciate the musicians and their talents and bring people together to experience this particular type of music without any judgment.

Go ahead and give one of these events or jam sessions a try and see for oneself how engaging jazz music is and witness its ability to bring together people from across the globe and find common ground. Let this year be the year that people let their guards down and allow themselves to experience the day by listening, conversing, and moving their bodies to the wonderful sounds of jazz.

Source

[socialjusticeinamerica]

I got it as a co-infection along with Lyme 12 years ago. It ruined my health permanently and caused a massive disruption of my life. The symptoms of chronic Lyme and its co-infections are not dissimilar from “long haul Covid.” The CDC hasn’t even updated its Lyme statistics in over 20 years. It’s become extremely common in North America but nobody is researching it. It’s actually found throughout the world and “Otto the Iceman” found frozen in the Alps for 5,000 years had it. The Pilgrims contracted Lyme in the early 1600’s and wrote about it extensively. Stuffed and preserved animal remains from the earliest colonization tested positive for Lyme.

A major problem holding back study is wacko conspiracy theorists and ignorant trash think it was created in a government lab near Lyme, CT in the 70’s. Some jackass wrote a book about that which was tabloid level fiction but it has taken root in the American psyche. It was linked to German scientists brought here after WWII during Operation Paperclip which the author claimed was a secret and nefarious bio-weapons program.

Operation Paperclip wasn’t secret, it was in the press as soon as it began back at the end of the war. There was no bio-weapons program or Nazi scientists involved. It was a program to bring German rocket engineers and physicists here when it was learned the Russians were trying to collect them to build strategic rockets and missiles. By order of the President, no members of the Nazi party were to be brought back to the states. The abducted scientists were put to work building rockets and missiles and most were drafted into NASA while some worked on Atomic Bomb projects. Nothing to do with Lyme or bio-weapons.

It did not originate in Lyme, CT and spread from there. It is virtually everywhere and has always been so. CLIMATE CHANGE is a major factor in its spread. Small animals like mice and rabbits are the most common carriers of the infected ticks, not deer, although they do carry it and the deer tick was named based on this. Warmer and milder winters allow greater spread along with a greater number of host animals that thrive around human settlements. Contrary to popular opinion there are more deer, rabbits, and rodents now than there were prior to European colonization.

European settlers, and later the Americans, drastically reduced predators which allowed game animals to grow their numbers. Human farms and towns cut from forests created “edge habitat” where the sun reached the ground in more places creating the growth of vegetation that feeds game animals (and farm produce of course). That’s why you see so many animals on the side of highways and roads, and so much accidental road kill. Further animals like the possum that eat large quantities of ticks are persecuted by humans.

It’s the perfect storm of unintended consequences. A nasty tick that spreads bacterial infections and viruses is given every benefit to reproduce and spread out to near plague like conditions. People arrive in quantity, predators are eradicated, a rise in game and rodents provides more hosts for the ticks, conspiracy theorists mislead the public, government doesn’t want to invest, drug companies and medical establishments see no profit in acknowledgement, and climate change pours gasoline into the fire. The CDC which is underfunded and overwhelmed turns a blind eye and speculates only a few thousand cases a year while the US numbers alone are in the millions. Data collection is blocked by Republikkkan Congressmen because that might necessitate investing money which could be given to corporations and billionaires.