#(not a great year for gifsets/notes)

[annasource]

2024 Tumblr Top 10

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Q:

Created by TumblrTop10

[iristial]

Tags that colour me pink, which is the highest form of praise because pink is my favourite - no, the best colour <3

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

as a kpop politics amateur researcher-yeah thats the interesting thing about hybe (katseyes label) they are so. So into the idea of being the coolest kid in school because of their major success story being Boys That Sing (i refuse to spell that in case it comes up on search) that they end up doing this weird game of neutrality/bragpop that ends up flat a lot.

For my money, I find that the factory-manufactured nature of K-pop is both its blessing and its curse. On the one hand, the visual spectacle of it is incredible in a way that no other cultural mainstream music genre can compete with, from the aesthetics to the sheer inhuman synchronisation from the dancing. Even sedentary shots of soloists in MVs can take on these breathtaking, otherworldly sorts of qualities. A while back I reblogged a side by side comparison gifset of Taeyeon's INVU and Key's Gasoline, and they look like gods of moon and sun. Aespa's got a whole bunch of slick, cyberpunk-type videos, like Drama. The sheer aesthetics. Your eyes want to drink them

But, on the flip side, the music itself is very often on a scale from vapid to completely meaningless. You might get an overall concept, like "I'm so great" or "I love my partner", but the execution is frequently sugary sweet or just plain hollow. That was one of the big criticisms of MEOVV's debut song, in fact - they went with this boastful "I'm so great" through line, but the lyrics had them boasting about how much money and fame and success they have, when they were (1) launching their first ever song and (2) literal children. You're right that Hybe does this a lot, but they aren't the only ones - Blackpink have a line in one of their songs that basically reads "My Lamborghini goes vroom vroom".

And, that's what happens with the 'churn them out of the factory' model. There's no time for artistry when you're making your artists record two albums a year, plus the dance training, plus the touring, plus the extreme diets, plus plus plus. Katseye's Gnarly is actually a great example of all of this. God, it is an empty song. But! Fuck me, it's a spectacle. The choreography is incredible. And, you know, we get treated to them describing Tesla as gnarly lol, though not in the 'clean version', where I note they're carefully avoiding hurting Elon's feelings.

I should say, of course, that a lot of these issues are lessened in groups that write/produce a lot of their own stuff. (G)-idle's Oh My God is an absolute masterpiece and is a song about a wlw awakening, something you frankly do not often get to see in the K-pop world; similarly, they produced Nxde as a critique of the sexual commodification of women AND as a way to make "nude girl idol" into a dead search term that perverts could no longer use to try to creep on young female idols, since you just get their stages and MV in the search results. IU's Love Wins All is a beautiful love song, with an MV that fucking shreds your heart. Similarly, artists who are sort of K-pop adjacent produce some amazing artistic stuff (Bibi, Jackson Wang, etc).

But, it's because they have time to dedicate to the artistry. And, frankly, to give roles to the members that play to their talents and let them actually shine. Companies are obsessed with forcing all members of a group to sing in the same pitch, and that pitch is "high" - regardless of whether or not a low-voiced idol will sound good in that register, or if it's even ruining their voices. They're all forced into a narrow box, so they can produce that same sugar sweet vocal colour, factory-made and ready. I think it's notable that the groups and artists who most often stand out in that arena are the ones that write for themselves - Stray Kids wouldn't be half the group they are if Felix wasn't allowed to let the bass notes roll, ditto (G)-idle with Yuqi's contralto.

Anyway. This got overlong. But you're right - bragpop fallen flat sums up a lot of it!

[carveredlunds]

"He looked like a boy, masquerading as a gentleman": A meta on Amadeo, Venice, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and standing on the cusp of adulthood

TW: Discussions of SA, underage SA, human trafficking, slavery, and NSFW content

From a historical perspective, Armand's life as a teenage enslaved boy in Venice in the early 16th century gives us a chance to discuss the culture of male-male attraction in Venice during this period, specifically the contemporary understanding that older men could be attracted to young boys. This historical grounding can, in turn, offer insight into why Armand is trapped on the cusp of adulthood, how this manifests itself in his physicality, and how his story can be cautiously and sensitively used as a mirror for the real experiences of enslaved people in Venice during this period. I will be referring to him by his birth name (Arun), the name Marius gave him (Amadeo), and the name the Children of Darkness coven gave him (Armand), where appropriate.

In 1496 in Venice, illegal sexual relations between young boys and older men were so prevalent that 'special patrols [went] searching for boys who were patientes (sc. passive partners), monitoring schools for fencing, dance and song, where youths might be found in the evenings, and once again looking for companions of unequal age.'[1] This was roughly 27 years before Arun was purchased from a brothel by the vampire Marius de Romanus. Due to Armand's fractured memories of this period, it isn't clear when he was forcibly trafficked to Italy, but it is likely that he was bought by Marius in around 1523 at the age of 15 (assuming he was born in 1508, given that he says he's 514 in 2022).

As a physically attractive enslaved boy, Amadeo would have been understood as an object of desire ("object" in a literal sense, with no personhood of his own) to the older men around him. In his recent study Forbidden Desire in Early Modern Europe: Male–Male Sexual Relations, 1400–1750, historian Noel Malcolm discusses the contemporary evidence for the attraction of men towards adolescent boys. Malcolm explains that older men desiring teenage boys was a common and accepted part of Venetian culture, provided one did not act on those desires, and that attractive young men were often described similarly to women in surviving sources and contemporary literature.[2]

The important thing to note here is that teenagers were supposed to be desired before they started to show signs of maturity, when they could almost be considered sexless. As Malcolm writes, when 'a young man's looks became properly masculine (with facial hair, developed musculature, etc.), that is, fully differentiated from a feminine appearance, was precisely the time when he ceased to be seen as desirable by the great majority of older men.'[3] Due to poor nutrition, this might have occurred later for teenagers in the 16th century than it does today, but it was usually between the ages of 17 and 23.[4] Given that Amadeo was an enslaved child, and therefore probably not well-fed, he was likely late to develop. Putting aside the fact that in the books Armand is 17 when he's turned, Queen of the Damned offers some evidence for this:

'Did Daniel know that Armand had been a boy when all this had begun for him? Seventeen years old, and in those times that was young, very young. Seventeen-year-old boys in the twentieth century were virtual monsters; they had beards, hair on their chests, and yet they were children. Not then. Yet children worked as if they were men.'[5]

In light of this, it is worth mentioning that Armand has the slightest hint of facial hair. You can see this clearly in close-up shots, for instance these ones in my gifset. Here's one clear example:

With his long hair, his high cheekbones, and his thin frame, Amadeo would have fit perfectly into the feminine, feminised, youthful archetype that Malcolm describes. It would have been socially acceptable for older men to be attracted to him in Venice in the 16th century. According to Malcolm, 'When early modern writers described good-­looking boys, the terms they used were drawn from a standard repertoire that existed primarily to describe female beauty: coral lips, pearly teeth, ivory skin, and so on.'[6]

Obviously, the last point doesn't apply to Amadeo. Instead, he would have been desired because he was exoticized by the Italian network of artists that Marius "donated" him to (that is to say, his Otherness would have been sexualised, as a young boy possibly from Bengal as @depressedraisin suggested here). This exoticization is apparent in how Amadeo is portrayed in The Adoration of the Shepherds — kneeling, enraptured, with a look of subservient wonder on his face. (For an incredible meta which delves more deeply into this aspect of Armand's history, I recommend reading "Armand, colonialism, and the weaponisation of anti-Blackness" by @shesnake.)

If we assume (besides his obviously lightened skin), that The Adoration is a fairly accurate portrayal of Amadeo at 20 years old, then the main difference between him at 20 and him at 27 is his slight facial hair. As discussed previously, the appearance of facial hair was a marker for young boys growing out of their desirability and into adulthood. Turned at 27, Armand is now stuck in this liminal space between boyhood and adulthood, and this is visibly apparent in his facial hair. His youth is mentioned in the show on a few occasions. When Louis first sees Armand in 2.01, he says that he 'looked like a boy, masquerading as a gentleman'. Madeline calls him 'young man' in a patronising tone in 2.06.

Interestingly, Armand's youth is mentioned more often than his race, though in the 18th-century flashback in 2.03, Nicolas asks Lestat, 'do you know this gypsy?' This is the only microaggression we've seen Armand face so far, but it offers a tiny glimpse into the kinds of comments that Armand will have faced for his entire life, both as a human and as a vampire. Obviously, Armand is not Romani, so the racial slur of "gypsy" does not apply to him (not that it applies in any context, but I mean it's literally inaccurate). However, this erasure of origins is common in contemporary historical references to people of colour. As historian Imtiaz Habib writes in Black Lives in the English Archives, 1500-1677: Imprints of the Invisible, Black people were often referenced in early modern sources using 'cryptic citations', referred to interchangeably as '"blackamore", "moor", "barberee", "barbaryen", "Ethiopian", and "Indian".'[7] Regardless of their country of origin, they were lumped together as one people.

In this way, Armand's lost origins could be seen as a representation for the surviving fragmentary evidence for people of colour from across the globe in English archival sources. He himself describes his memories in 2.04 as "fragments". This may be read as a metaphor for the sparse and fragmentary surviving archival evidence for enslaved people's experiences in the early 16th century, especially enslaved children. Where the evidence does survive, it is limited, and enslaved people's stories are usually recounted through the lenses of their white owners or observers, with their own voices lost to history.

There is another aspect of Armand's life which may be mirrored with the life of a real specific enslaved person. In Contested Subjecthood: Runaway Slaves in Early Modern Venice, historian E. Natalie Rothman recounts the story of Omar, an enslaved boy from Zara, living in 17th century Venice, who was given the name Pierantonio by his enslaver.[8] He had a long history of service since childhood, and had been baptised in 1648 when he was 10 years old, and, at the age of 32, was seeking permission to be married. Rothman writes that Omar's story:

'suggests ways in which enslavement as a child could actually facilitate effective forms of social, as well as spatial mobility, while curtailing others. His long years of service as a baptized slave were eventually rewarded by formal manumission [release from slavery], the acquisition of a trade, and insertion into a network of patronage that secured his ability to forge new kinship ties in Venice.'[9]

Likewise, it was Amadeo's long and loyal service to Marius, since childhood, which ultimately allowed him to become a vampire ('facilitate effective forms of social, as well as spatial mobility'). If Amadeo had not been Marius' property for as long as he was, if he had not had "skill", as he puts it, then Marius would not have shared the Dark Gift with him. It might be a slightly clumsy comparison, but vampirism could be seen as what Rothman describes — the reward of a trade and new kinship ties. However, though he had been rewarded, Amadeo was not yet freed from his service to Marius. He was now frozen in that place between boyhood and adulthood, having not quite lost what made him special to Marius, but not being the same boy he was.

Finally, this liminal state is manifested not only in his slight facial hair, his long hair, and his youthful features, but it is also realised in The Adoration. I made a gifset overlaying a quote from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde with scenes of Armand looking at his portrait, which is relevant in this discussion. Armand is almost Dorian Gray in reverse. He might have lived for five centuries, but he a part of his soul is still trapped in that portrait, in a position of unwilling subservience. The fate Dorian Gray laments has happened to Armand. He has grown older, and taken on the countless sins of his vampiric life, but his picture has remained the same — frozen in servitude, representing that young boy who was adored for his beauty.

Bibliography

1. Noel Malcolm, Forbidden Desire in Early Modern Europe: Male–Male Sexual Relations, 1400–1750 (University of Oxford, 2024) p. 44. 2. Ibid., pp. 179-81. 3. Ibid., p. 180. 4. Ibid., pp. 46-7. 5. Anne Rice, Queen of the Damned (Warner Books, 1996) p. 102. 6. Malcolm, Forbidden Desire, p. 179. 7. Imtiaz Habib, Black Lives in the English Archives, 1500-1677: Imprints of the Invisible (Taylor & Francis Group, 2007) p. 2. 8. E. Natalie Rothman, Contested Subjecthood: Runaway Slaves in Early Modern Venice, Quaderni storici, NUOVA SERIE, Vol. 47, No. 140 (2), Riscatto, scambio, fuga (AGOSTO 2012), pp. 425-6. 9. Ibid., pp. 426-7.

[delicateperspective]

✨ hi, hello ✨

💌 a little note before you dive into my inbox 💌

First of all, if you’re one of the many kind, curious, thoughtful, or just delightfully unhinged people who hang out here: I love you. You’re the reason this space feels like a corner of the internet I actually want to be in.

That said…

If you’re planning to come into my inbox a little sideways — with suspicion, accusations, or recycled anti talking points — here’s a few things you should probably know first:

I love both Harry and Louis.

Not one more than the other. Not one because of the other. Just… both. Deeply. For their own reasons. For their music. For their growth. For their weird jokes. For their resilience. For their softness. For their chaos.

If Larry didn’t exist — I’d still be here. Still a Louie. Still a Harrie. Still annoying about both of them in equal measure.

I do believe they love each other.

Romantically? Yes — I believe so. But even if I’m wrong (I’m not, but let’s entertain the thought), I still believe there is a deep, lasting, soul-level connection between them.

And no — it’s not just one gifset. It’s not a blink in an interview or a lyric taken out of context.

It’s:

Years of shared behaviors, interests, and timing.

Patterns of when they’re active vs when they disappear.

Lyrics that tell a story about a single great love — from an artist whose longest public relationship was only two years.

Symbolism, phrasing, and emotional continuity that spans five (and counting) albums.

Please don’t drop someone else’s baggage at my door.

I know this fandom has its messes. I’ve seen the drama. I’ve seen the bad takes. I’ve seen the chaos. But if someone else said something cruel, crossed a line, or made you feel some type of way — that’s their inbox, not mine.

✨ TL;DR ✨

I love them both.

I support them separately and together.

I believe they love each other.

I am not here for ship wars, anti nonsense, or inbox showdowns.

I am here for good music, good vibes, and deep dives.

If you’re here for that too — welcome. You’re safe here. There’s tea. And snacks.

If you’re not — maybe take a breath before typing.

With love, 💌 DP

[witchofthemidlands]

the pitt fans, i am so sorry for entering your fandom & tag but with seeing good people becoming attached to dennis whittaker played by the fantastic gerran howell, i need to spread the good word about young dracula. 🧛🏻‍♂️ 🧛🏻‍♀️ 🧛🏻

@michaun i am so grateful to you, you made the majority of gifsets i am talking about. another message i need to spread this person is a fantastic gifmaker & is the reason i found this masterpiece of a series because you see, sometimes i see such beautiful gifsets i am tempted to watch a series/film. the pitt is a medical drama & whilst i have a fondness for them, i have been burned before with them turning out to do horrific things to the characters but the gifsets i saw looked so great that i thought i would give it a watch & i am so happy that i did because it is one of the best medical dramas i have seen but also because gerran howell was in the series of my childhood: young dracula:

basically this was a bbc children's-teen series that ran for five seasons (there was a several year gap between seasons 2-3) about count dracula, his two kids and renfield being chased out of transylvania & setting up in a castle in a small british town. this is a show aimed for kids & this is the best modern interpretation of count dracula i have ever seen, dracula is my second favourite book of all time & i studied dracula & it's adaptations for my degree & this is honestly one of the most inventive, intelligent & unique ways i have seen a classic piece of literature adapted, this is my sherlock. keith lee castle is the most fantastic version of count dracula, if it was not for the fact that this isn't an exact adaptation of the novel, he would be my favourite version of the character, when i read dracula he is the guy i picture, he keeps the old fashioned nature of dracula, has the best wigs in series 3-5 & in the modern world comes off as the most unhinged goth single father of two. honestly this is the only time i have ever seen a good modern dracula & it's in a mostly unserious kids series.

on a personal (somewhat embarrassing note) this series was everything to me, it means so much to me still, i was obsessed with every inch of this show as a teen & it made me the goth lesbian i am today, dracula's daughter, ingrid dracula is 😍 she is everything, she is one of my favourite characters of all time, my fashion as a teenager & even sometimes now as an adult was inspired by the mesmerising ingrid, this version of count dracula & the wild, wild experience that is the character of malik vaccaria.

ONTO THE MAN HIMSELF: vlad is count dracula's youngest kid, is ✨special✨ & a “chosen one” but he's not like that sort of “chosen one” character who can do everything super super perfect & is one-dimensional, he's actually quite inept for awhile, he’s a hero, he’s an antagonist, an anti-hero & is being dragged towards his destiny kicking & screaming. he hates being a vampire, preferring bright colours, being a normal kid & wants humans as friends, not food. in series 1-2 the shenanigans he gets into with his best friend robin (a normal human who is a hardcore goth & actively wants to be a vampire) to try & get out of becoming a full vampire because the vampire lore in this series is that born vampires don't get their full powers until they're sixteen, is absolutely hilarious. in series 3-5 his character is older & gets even better, he's dark, he's fun, he's trying to change the very nature of vampires & it's an absolute blast watching him try to avoid being a dracula like vampire.

nearly every character from the dracula novel gets adapted in some shape or form & they do it in such an intelligent way & for a series aimed for kids-young teens it's actually incredibly dark especially in the last three seasons but it's still so funny, so camp & takes so many strange & unexpected twists & turns, i haven't even scratched the surface of the amount of characters, plot & chicanery in this series. honestly if you like dracula & have become attached to gerran howell via the pitt, go looking for young dracula, it's all on youtube, you will not regret it, i promise.

[ohno-elrond]

FAVE CREATORS ART CHALLENGE: PART ONE

(based on ana's wonderful idea!!!)

so i wanted to do a shout-out on here as well because i think the rings of power fandom has many many talented individuals! of course i will forget people and cannot tag everyone and this fandom is far too big but if you create things, know you are appreciated and you are so important to fandom <3333

let's start with gifs & graphics makers. i'm honestly impressed with the amount of edits some of you have made like damn, y'all productive 😂

(in no particular order)

@letthefairyinyoufly i loooove how sharp your gifs are, and your coloring is always SO pretty 😍 this is still my fave set of yours this year because i feel it's so different from your usual sets but it's soooo cool and creative!! dagor dagorath my beloved <3

@ceeyoutea i'm mostly amazed by how consistent you can color and it always looks good??? HOW? teach me your ways!! i love this set of yours, the quote is so perfect. but honestly all your saurondriel gifs are incredible.

@saudariel hehe of course gotta mention the bestie 😌 rj you know all the good i think of your gifs and how i'm in awe of your talent and every set blows me away etc etc. ily. all your gifs are stunning i can't pick a fave ok don't sue me.

@withered-rose-with-thorns ana!!! i love your coloring style, i immediately know when you're the one behind a set hehe :D love when you're being creative like with this half-maia celebrian set (still my fave of yours). it's sooo good, the font is a great pick and the cropping is incredible on the bottom gifs omg.

@thequeensjester obviously gotta mention you because your graphics are out of this world gorgeous!!! the way you make the colors pop, your use of textures, your fontwork, etc. i can go on for a while. truly you're so talented!! choosing a fave is too difficult, i'm in love with everything you make.

@elena-gilbert yet another super talented creator! looove your coloring style so much. also love how you aren't afraid to try out different fonts, effects or transitions!! my fave set is this one i'm obsessed with the yellow and how it pops. the coloring is truly gorgeous and that glitch on the last gif is so cool. and the quote choice is obviously perfect for them <3

@percysjakcson wanted to do a shoutout to your coloring skills because your sets are sooooo pretty. love this one in particular, this purple is stunning!!!

@lexys i keep repeating myself at this point 😂 but god i love your coloring!!! it looks so natural and soft. and your gifs are so high quality too. love your lotr / trop parallels sets <3

@martanis loooove the sweet pink in your gifsets haha. no but honestly your coloring is so nice to look at, i'm jealous!! so many gorgeous gifsets. and i wanted to thank you in particular for making gifs and edits of the cast as well.

@fukutomichi yet another person with excellent coloring skills! love your creativity as well, especially with layouts. and your gifs are so sharp and high quality!! and you always pick such good shots too. wanted to give you a super special shoutout as well because you always gif all the characters, giving each of them the spotlight they deserve 🥰

@sugurugetos more quality coloring can be found here :D it's so pretty!! i love their darkness? if that makes sense. like i personally tend to sometimes go overboard with the brightness. idk i'm rambling. anyway gotta talk about this set though because it still makes me laugh. he's so silly. love it.

@goodsirs stunning nice and crisp gifsets just like i love them. great natural-looking coloring as well. no notes, all around wonderful work, chef's kiss <3

@celebrimborium of course had to mention you!! gorgeous coloring and creative sets. love the fonts you use as well. really tough to pick a fave but my heart goes out to this set because it's so cool and i'm a sucker for a good color + b&w contrast. that font is amazing too!! they're just lil creechers 😌

@cuthalions your coloring is soooooooo gorgeous, there's a softness to it that i love. all your sets are beautiful but i love this one in particular because the typography is incredible. the gifs are so sharp and just so nice to look at!!! and that middle gif with the incredible b&w and that quote has me on the floor. and love all your book inspired edits as well!

@rithe ohh the way i'm in love with your edits, the cropping is exquisite!!! and i love your coloring so much. my fave are your song edits tho, they're soooooo pretty to look at. (this one in particular) i'm in love with that font you use. and the caps you choose are SO fitting!! gah 😍

@rhaenyradaemons your coloring is SO pretty julia!!! it's got that muted softness i love (idk how to describe it, i'm tired haha) and they're nicely sharp and clean. just very pleasing to look at :D

@emziess i love your coloring so muchhhh. i think this one is my fave, i love the rich and warm yellow contrasting with the blueish tone on the first & last one. and they're so sharp and nice! beautiful work all around <3

this took a lot longer than expected and now i'm exhausted so part two will be another day 😂

if you read all this, congrats to you!!

like i said this fandom is filled with talented people and i'm so happy to see all your beautiful creations!! may 2025 be inspiring to you all. i cannot wait to see all the new things you will create in the future 😘

[kimtaegis]

This Christmas I'd like to share my love for this community by doing a little Xmas Gift Giving! I prepared some little presents that I would love to exchange for just one simple thing:

Send me an ask or make a post tagging me (#annietrack) in which you give a person that's part of armyblr the love they deserve. Whether it be you telling them how much they brightened your year, if there was a post of them that made you especially happy, what you wish for them for 2024, it's completely up to you; you can even gift them something, like a gif(set) or any other kind of art!

Of all the people who participate I will randomly choose five people that will receive some little presents from me. The presents are

🌙 1x Jimin's Photofolio with all inclusions ❄️ 1x 2 official photocards of your choice from my small pool of pc's that I would've sold otherwise (all in great condition) + lots of freebies 🎁 3x one bts gifset of your choice from me; it can be anything you want (yes, also a huge compilation if you'd like!)

Christmas at Annie's (I'm laughing writing this) will end on Taehyung's birthday, 12am KST on Saturday 30th December 2023. I will announce who will receive the gifts on Sunday, 7th January 2024 and will then contact the persons privately as well.

I kindly ask for you to follow me and reblog this post if you participate (reblogging just to spread the celebration is very welcome)!

For some more (important) info, please read below!

Lots of love,

Annie

I will cover all costs to get the first two presents to you (worldwide).

If you're only interested in one or two of these gifts, just put the respective emoji somewhere in your ask or in the tags! If there're no emojis, your name will come in all three selection pools (but please note: you will only receive one present max. I will randomly pick names in the pool order: Photofolio, photocards, gifsets. e.g. If you receive the photofolio, I'll take your name out of the other two pools. I hope this makes sense, if not, let me know!).

Since a lot of you like to keep yourselves anonymously/ might be too shy to express their love for someone openly, I would like to offer the option of sending asks on anon as well. In this case, please think of a unique pseudonym (no emojis please) which I can add to the participants' list(s). If you get chosen to receive a gift, please contact me on anon again, telling me your username so we can talk about everything else. I will keep your identity a secret, I promise.

Please please please tag or otherwise make clear who your ask or post is dedicated to so I can make sure they'll see it!!

I will start shipping out the presents the following week after the announcement!

Lastly, here are pictures of the Photofolio and the photocard pool for your consideration (I apologise for the quality of the pc photo; it's already dark as I'm uploading this)

[hotvintagepoll]

Welcome to the HOT AND VINTAGE MOVIE STARS tournament! We are currently on a break between tournaments, having just finished the Hot & Vintage Movie Man Tournament last week. The Hot & Vintage Movie Women Tournament starts next week on February 29th (Leap Year Day) MARCH 2ND. The submission form for the ladies is now closed.

All polls—including ongoing polls, previous rounds, old tournaments, the various shadow brackets, and fun mini polls—can be found in the #hotvintagepoll tag. Every poll in the Hot & Vintage Women Tournament will be tagged with the hot woman in it if you need to search for a hot woman in particular. There have been around 400+ submissions, so Round 1 will probably be posted over the course of a few days.

FAQs:

“I have propaganda for the hot women!” Great! Please don't send or tag me in any hot women propaganda until the poll including that hot lady is posted.

"....but you're posting gifsets of hot ladies?" Yes. As a special treat to myself I get to post a little additional propaganda of my own between tournaments. (Once the tournament begins I am sworn to neutrality and only post the propaganda sent to me.) The gifsets I reblog are not representative of my own views—ie I reblog both my secret favorites and other hot ladies who were submitted numerous times—and are intended just to get us in the Hot Lady spirit™.

“How do I send in hot women propaganda once the tournament starts?” Send me an ask, or reblog the poll and add your propaganda to it. I don’t boost all the propaganda I see or receive, but I try to boost the best of the best.

If you’re submitting propaganda for your hot lady, I don’t accept propaganda that’s from beyond the end of this tournament’s era (ie don’t send me pics of them from after 1970). I also don’t accept them acting in TV shows unless it’s clearly a cameo where they’re playing themselves (ie, no I Love Lucy or Catwoman appearances). I'm more likely to post your propaganda if it's not extremely long.

I don’t post or boost negative propaganda about any hot woman. If you really hate that a certain hot woman is winning, send me positive propaganda for their hot opponent. If you think a hot woman shouldn’t even be included in the tournaments because of scummy things she did in her lifetime, please read my take on it here.

"Can I still submit propaganda for the hot men?" You can, I guess, but it's a bit pointless because there's no tournament for the hot men going on right now, and I won't post it. Toshiro Mifune was crowned winner and every other nominated hot man was sent to the shadow realm. "I'm catching up on the brackets now! How do I find out more about the Hot Men tournament?" You can do a tag search for a specific hot man if you want to see if he was included and all his propaganda, or you can just go into the #hotvintagepoll tag in my archive and dig through the old posts to see everything. I've turned most of the rounds into featured tags in the archive to make it easy to follow the tournament (#round 1, #round 2, etc).

If I see repetitive, trolling, and/or bigoted remarks in the comments, I may block you from this bracket. If you want to point out a hot woman’s flaws or misdemeanors, that’s fine, but if I see consistent bad-faith trolling, you will be blocked.

On that note—if you have an issue with a poll, don't be a dick and I'll try to solve it. If you hate a poll pic, complain AND send me something I could use instead. I'm not going to go hunting for new photos on my own. In general I try to keep this poll fun but I will block if I see thoughtless bitching.

“I KNOW THEY'RE ALL IN THE SHADOW REALM BUT I want to see all the hot men who competed in one place!!” You can find all the round 1 matchups here (thank you @markwatnae!).

“My FAQ isn’t on here :(” send me an ask! I love hearing from you guys—just please check these basics first.

Thank you for being here! Enjoy the tournament.

[venus-haze]

Working for the Knife (Mickey Altieri x Reader)

Summary: It’s been over 15 years since the Windsor College murders, not that they had ever been on your radar. That changes when you get hired at a New York marketing firm where you work closely with Mickey Altieri, alleged Ghostface killer whose charges were dropped after a controversial mistrial. Working so closely together piques your interest in each other, soon spiraling out of control. [This is an AU.]

Note: Female reader implied to be mid-20s or older, but no other descriptors are used. This is based on an anonymous request and also Timothy Olyphant being such a DILF, I had to write something like this (I had Justified era Olyphant in mind while writing this, specifically these gifsets, but you can picture whatever hehe). Creative liberties have obviously been taken. Do not interact if you’re under 18 or post thinspo/ED content.

Word count: 6.8k

Warnings: True crime elements (the reader engages with a lot of true crime content), but obviously this is a fictional serial killer. Mutual stalking/obsession. Sexually explicit content that includes dubious consent fantasy that involves knifeplay; spanking, daddy kink, oral sex (f. receiving). Do not interact if you’re under 18.

For once, you felt like things were going your way. After a little over three years of scraping by at your old job where you were woefully overworked and underpaid, your months-long job search finally came to an end when a mid-sized marketing firm gave you an offer you couldn’t refuse. Sure, you’d taken a huge pay raise and shifted to a hybrid schedule with your new job, but the highlight was undoubtedly Mickey, the only other person on your small team and the type of sexy older man you sure as hell didn’t mind spending your days in the office with.

With the whole company working hybrid or completely remote, people only came in sporadically, as did you and Mickey, only going in on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with the occasional Friday if needed. As a result, you didn’t get much of a chance to meet anyone else who worked there. 

Your first week was fully in person, since some of the programs you’d be using for the job were easier to learn if he were there to show you. You certainly weren’t complaining, having plenty of time to get a feel for your new coworker, silently observing and testing the waters with light flirting, which he seemed to return. Maybe you were just a little too hopeful.

“Big plans for the weekend?” you asked when five o’clock rolled around on Friday.

“Got a hot date with Netflix,” he said. “How about you?”

“My friend and I are getting drinks later, but that’s about it.”

“What’s your poison?”

“Anything under $10, if I can help it.”

He grinned. “A woman after my own heart. Don’t have too much fun.”

“I’ll try,” you said, smiling as you began packing your laptop into your bag. “Have a good weekend, Mickey.”

“You too.”

With your first week at your new gig down, you headed to a small bar in Flatbush to celebrate with your best friend and dish the highly anticipated dirt on your hot coworker. Lee was already at the bar when you’d arrived, sitting at a small table and sipping a beer she went ahead and bought herself.

“Drinks are on me,” you said. “I fucking owe you.”

Lee grinned. “Always glad to help.”

You wouldn’t have gotten the job without Lee. She helped you fudge your resume to match the experience on the job listing, gently scamming your way into the position you now held. All week you’d been texting her about how great things were going, and fawning over Mickey, of course.

After joking about ordering top-shelf liquor on your dime, Lee settled on a margarita, undoubtedly the first of many for the night. You returned from the bar with your drinks, more than ready to gush about how much better your new job was compared to the hell of your old one. Nothing could bring down your mood.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, they pay you out the ass and you don’t have to worry about health insurance anymore. Great,” Lee said over her margarita. “I wanna hear about your hot DILF coworker. No detail is too small.”

“Lee, oh my god, it’s not even fair how hot he is. Our desks are right next to each other in an L shape, and I feel like such a weirdo for staring at him all the time. He’s been so nice helping me all week, too. Maybe I’m looking too much into it, but sometimes I feel like he’s being a little flirty?”

“Is he married?”

“No ring, and no mention of any family or long-term relationship. I don’t get it, how could Mickey be single?”

“You don’t hear many people going by Mickey anymore,” she said. “Either he’s a mouse or incredibly Irish.”

“I think he’s Italian,” you mused. “Altieri sounds Italian to me.”

Lee’s eyes widened. “Shut the fuck up.”

“Wait, was that offensive?”

“No, just that you’re working with an alleged serial killer.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” you asked, but she was already busy typing away at her phone.

Suddenly, Lee’s phone was shoved in your face, a your hot coworker’s mugshot front and center in an archived New York Times article from October 1998.

SUSPECT ARRESTED IN WINDSOR COLLEGE KILLINGS

Michael ‘Mickey’ Altieri, 21, was arrested early Thursday morning in Windsor, Ohio, as the primary suspect in the Windsor College killings. Among the charges are first degree murder, attempted first degree murder and aggravated assault. Altieri has maintained his innocence and is being held on $1,000,000 bail in Windsor County Jail as he awaits trial. 

The brutal killings that made national headlines were directly inspired by the ‘Ghostface’ murders in Woodsboro, California, two years prior and coincided with the release of STAB, a film based on Woodsboro survivor and reporter Gale Weathers’ book on the murders. Survivor Sidney Prescott was a student at Windsor College and targeted yet again in the latest string of murders. Allegedly, Altieri’s accomplice was Debbie Loomis, mother of one of the two original Ghostface killers, Billy Loomis. Mrs. Loomis was killed in an altercation prior to Altieri’s apprehension by police.

You looked away from her phone screen, feeling like your head was spinning though you weren’t even finished with your first drink. “Well, if he did all that stuff, why isn’t he on death row or something?”

“There was a mistrial. It was a huge thing,” Lee said. “You’ve seriously never heard of it?”

“No. Can you send that to me?” you asked.

“Yeah, I’ll send some podcast episodes and Youtube videos on it, too. You know I’m on that true crime shit.”

It took a few more drinks for you to be able to shake off the thought of your hot older coworker potentially being a serial killer, but the rest of your night with Lee was a lot of fun. She’d been one of your closest friends in college, and the two of you lived together when you first moved to New York. You knew she meant well, but damn, did that news put a damper on things.

You returned to your apartment a little after midnight, kicking off your heels at the door and collapsing on your couch, not bothering to make the short walk to your bedroom. 17 missed texts from Lee, all links to videos and podcasts about Mickey that she recommended.

Among the links Lee had sent you was a nearly hour long Youtube video titled: ‘What Happened at the Windsor College Ghostface Trial? A Deep Dive’. The woman in the thumbnail had a scared expression on her face, her eyes focused on that same mugshot of Mickey you saw in the old New York Times article. 

Pressing on the link in your messages, you had the video come up on your TV instead, slouching back in your seat as it began to play.

‘I know most stuff about the Windsor College murders focus on just that, the murders, but I thought it’d be interesting to go into the trial that followed because it was almost like something out of a movie, but it doesn’t get as much attention as the killings, especially since there have been like two more Ghostface murder sprees since this happened. I’m just presenting facts and my own observations here for educational purposes, and it’s not my intention to imply guilt on anyone who hasn’t been convicted in a court of law. Before we get into it though, I wanna give a huge thank you to BetterHelp for sponsoring today’s video—‘

You rolled your eyes, skipping through the three-minute long sponsorship spiel.

‘So my sources for this video are Gale Weathers’ books Wrongly Accused: The Maureen Prescott Murder, The Woodsboro Murders, and College Terror. I also used James Chase’s book Ghostface on Trial, articles from newspapers and a few like lawyer journals that I was able to find online, and whatever stuff from the trial itself that’s public information. I have it all linked in the description—“

Pausing the video, you pulled up the New York Public Library website and searched for College Terror and Ghostface on Trial. Copies of both were available at the branch near your office, and you wasted no time in putting a hold on the books. 

The next few minutes of the video gave an overview of the murders at Windsor College, which you half-paid attention to. You’d watched Stab 2 in high school, so you felt you were familiar enough with the killings. Thinking back on the movie, though, all of the characters had the same names as their real-life counterparts except for Mickey. Legal reasons, you assumed.

You turned up the volume on your TV as the video finally got into the details of the trial.

‘As soon as Mickey was arrested, theories were all over the news about what had happened and there was a ton of speculation about his guilt. James Chase, a controversial defense attorney from Chicago, took on the case pro-bono, stating in his book Ghostface on Trial that he knew he stood to make more money on a book deal, interviews, and speaking engagements by winning the case than whatever fees he’d get for representing Mickey. The defense focused on discrediting both of the prosecution’s star witnesses early on in the trial, planting seeds of doubt in the jury.

Chase and his team leaned heavily on the fact that three years prior, Sidney Prescott had incorrectly identified Cotton Weary as her mother’s killer when in fact it was Sidney’s former boyfriend Billy Loomis and their mutual friend Stu Macher who had committed that initial murder that led up to the original Woodsboro Ghostface murders. 

Gale Weathers’ testimony was also discounted by the defense on the fact that she was a sensationalistic tabloid journalist who’d admittedly fabricated elements of her best-selling book on the Woodsboro killings. She claimed this was a result of editing and to achieve a better narrative flow. 

The defense also said the deceased Debbie Loomis had more of a reason to go after Sidney and recreate her son’s Ghostface murders as revenge for his death. They pushed the idea that she acted with Sidney’s boyfriend, Derek, and that Mickey ended up getting caught in the crosshairs of what was a gruesome and unfortunate situation. Sidney maintained Derek’s innocence, but the fact that both he and Debbie were killed by gunshot wounds made it likely they were the Ghostface duo this time around.

Former Woodsboro Deputy Dewey Riley, another survivor of both Ghostface killings, was unable to testify because he was in a coma. He later said that because he was incapacitated before Sidney and Gale allegedly confronted Debbie and Mickey, he couldn’t say for sure who the killer or killers were, but he trusted their judgment and stood behind their testimonies. 

It didn’t help either that Sidney was visibly distraught while on the stand and mixed up details of the original Woodsboro murders and the Windsor College ones. Gale was initially confident while being questioned by the defense, but later became combative when the inaccuracies in her books came up. In contrast, Mickey appeared calm and earnest, and seemed to have his story straight every time he took the stand.

There’s actually some footage of the trial that I was able to find, so I’m gonna play that now.’

The video was grainy, camera focused on an agitated-looking Sidney Prescott sitting in the witness stand. On the other side of the stand, a blond man in a gray suit read off from a stack of papers in his hand. 

“Ms. Prescott, in your statement to police, you claimed that Mr. Altieri admitted to both you and Ms. Weathers that he had committed the murders with Debbie Loomis and wanted to get caught. Could you perhaps explain to myself and the jury, why exactly an alleged killer would want to get caught?”

“Because he’s fucking sick in the head!” Sidney exclaimed.

“Language, Ms. Prescott,” Judge Matthews said.

“He said he did it on purpose,” Sidney continued, her voice breaking. “He told us he wanted to get caught so he could blame it on the movies! He had everything planned out, the lawyers he wanted, the angle the media would take, he even quoted that line from Psycho, ‘We all go a little mad sometimes.’”

Chase furrowed his brow as he looked over the papers in his hands. “When did he say this? I’m not seeing that in your statement.”

“He said it right after he shot Randy,“ Sidney said.

“Randy wasn’t shot, he was stabbed.” 

Sidney’s eyes widened. “I know. I meant—“

“Ms. Prescott, is there something you didn’t include in your police statement that you’re telling us now?”

Her voice was barely a whisper. “Billy quoted Psycho, after he shot Randy at Stu Macher’s house, not Mickey. I got mixed up.”

You gasped, bringing your hand to cover your mouth. The courtroom on your screen devolved into nothing short of pandemonium. The video then faded into Gale Weathers in the middle of being questioned by the defense. She, in contrast to Sidney, looked confident and well-put together under Chase’s grilling.

“Ms. Weathers, you wrote in your book that your camera man Kenny was gutted, when in actuality his throat was slashed, is that correct?”

Gale nodded. “It is.”

“Why the inconsistency?” 

“All books, fiction or nonfiction go through an editing process. That was a decision made by my editor to establish a better narrative flow. It isn’t uncommon in the true crime genre by any means.”

“Better narrative flow isn’t the truth, though, is it?” Chase asked.

“Look, a book is a book. I’ll say right now under oath that Kenny was killed when one of those guys in the Ghostface costume slit his throat. I’ll also say under oath that Mickey Altieri did commit those murders with Debbie Loomis, and he confessed it to me and Sidney Prescott.”

“Your honor, this isn’t the only major inconsistency we’ve found in Ms. Weathers’ book on the Woodsboro murders. Yesterday we distributed to the prosecution and now present to the jury at least seventeen of these major inconsistencies.”

“What do you want me to say? I’m the cheesy tabloid journalist everyone thinks I am?”

The corners of Chase’s lips twitched. “Not quite my words.”

“You’re a real piece of work,” Gale scoffed.

The jury murmured among themselves at her shift in attitude. You found yourself chewing on your nail, enraptured by the trial. For the last time, the video faded out and then back in to show Mickey, your coworker, sitting on the witness stand. This time, the prosecutor was in front of him, his annoyed expression a contrast to Mickey’s calm demeanor.

“Mr. Altieri, we have signed affidavits from several of your former classmates that in your film theory class, you claimed in a heated argument with Randy Meeks and CiCi Cooper, both of whom were killed by this ‘Ghostface’ persona of yours—“

“Objection!” Chase shouted. “Claiming the Ghostface persona belongs to Mr. Altieri is an undue presumption of guilt.”

“Sustained,” Judge Matthews said. “I advise you to reconsider your wording going forward, counselor.”

The prosecutor huffed. “You claimed in a heated argument with Randy Meeks and Casey Cooper, both of whom were killed by the ‘Ghostface’ persona, that violent movies were responsible for influencing people to commit acts of violence, is that correct?”

“It was a classroom discussion. Our professor had brought it up because two fellow students were brutally killed at the premier of a slasher movie the night before, by someone dressed as the killer from that same slasher movie. I just thought it wasn’t a coincidence, and neither did half the other students in that class. Are you going to make them testify too?”

“Don’t deflect, Mr. Altieri.”

“I don’t understand how I’m deflecting. You asked me about a conversation I had with my classmates, and I answered.”

The video went back to the commentator, but you had goosebumps raised across your skin. You rewound back to the clip of Mickey’s testimony, staring at his face. Could he be a killer? Only a few days ago, you wouldn’t have even considered it. Now, you were down a rabbit hole that sent your mind reeling.

‘A lot of the prosecution’s evidence was dismissed as circumstantial by the defense. Mickey had alibis for all of the murders, even for the one Sidney claimed to witness him commit, allegedly shooting her boyfriend Derek. The chat room records and emails allegedly linked to Debbie and Mickey didn’t do much to convince the jury of Mickey’s alleged involvement in the murders. The records did positively identify Debbie based on the account’s password hints and her IP address. The other user was more tech savvy, changing IP addresses to make it more difficult to confirm an identity.

In move that was described as ‘sloppy’ and ‘desperate’ by the media following the trial’s conclusion, the prosecution also tried to claim that Mickey being the only other survivor among Sidney’s friends was suspicious and indicated his involvement, but the defense pointed out that Randy Meeks had also been the only other survivor of Sidney’s friend group in the original Woodsboro killings despite a gunshot wound like Mickey had, and later on at Windsor he was a victim. 

Randy Meeks’ murder actually played a huge role in the defense’s strategy. Several Windsor College students saw Mickey elsewhere on campus during Randy’s murder. The final nail in the coffin was when Windsor County police confirmed that DNA in the news van where Randy was murdered was a match for Debbie Loomis. The police retested other evidence, but couldn’t find anything conclusive.

After weeks of questioning and evidence, the jury deliberated for a little over five days before returning to the judge in a deadlock. Judge Matthews declared a mistrial, and less than a year later, a district court dismissed the case on lack of substantial evidence and all charges against Mickey Altieri were dropped. Despite media speculation that he would, Mickey chose not to sue Sidney and Gale for defamation and hasn’t been in the public eye since the controversial trial.’

You stared blankly at your TV screen when the video ended, another one auto-playing a few seconds later. Even after your drinks with Lee, you felt way too sober to even process any of it. For the next few hours, you devoured videos, bookmarked dozens of articles, and sifted through podcast episodes to listen to during work.

The odd case had made its home in the recesses of your mind. You dreamed about him when you finally fell asleep, just before sunrise. Sitting in the downtown Manhattan office, the open floor layout was unusually bright, fluorescent lighting washing the place in an eerie white glow. Mickey walked over to his desk, blood dripping from his fingers, splattering on the carpet in a trail leading right to him. He looked at you, a smile on his face as he brought his upright, bloody index finger to his lips. 

As the weekend flew by, you tried to keep yourself otherwise occupied. It wasn’t good for you to stay fixated on it, and certainly not fair to Mickey. 

Working from home on Monday helped, as you focused on finishing the last of the onboarding process. 

Tuesday was where things became tricky again. You sat on the forty-minute long subway ride to the office equipped with a podcast episode about your new coworker. The hosts didn’t seem to have much new information from what you took in the night before, except for the last few minutes of the episode where they’d gone off-script.

‘Last I saw online, he was living in Manhattan.’

‘Oh my god, that’s so Patrick Bateman-core.’

‘So you think he did it?’

‘It’s tough to say, like I totally get why the jury couldn’t come to a consensus.’

‘Yeah same, messy as hell. I tend to think that he didn’t do it. Innocent until proven guilty, ya know?’

‘I get that. We did try to get in touch with him for some kind of statement or even an interview—‘

‘Wishful thinking.’

‘Yeah, we looked for his email address, but I guess it wasn’t the right one because our message got bounced back, so that was a big fat bust.’

‘He’s like notorious for denying interview requests, anyway. I think he turned down book deals and stuff.’

Enraptured by the conversation, you nearly missed your stop. On the three block walk to your office, you hurriedly opened one of your playlists and put it on shuffle. The last thing you needed was for Mickey to somehow see on your home screen you’d just been listening to a podcast episode about him.

Your head was spinning by the time you got to your desk. He hadn’t arrived yet, and you felt a bit relieved that you had a little more time to psych yourself up. You shouldn’t have even had to do that in the first place, just be normal about your coworker, but if you learned anything over the weekend, even if he wasn’t guilty, he sure as hell wasn’t normal.

The elevator doors opened, and you looked up to see him walk out, waving at you.

“Morning, Y/N, have a good weekend?”

“Pretty good. I’m more broke than when it started, though. How about you?”

“Like I told you, hot date with Netflix,” he said, sitting down. “Thought you were sticking with shitty liquor?”

“I was, but my friend wasn’t. I got the tab, and she got plenty of margaritas.”

“Shit, I oughta get drinks with you sometime if you get all your friends’ tabs.”

You grinned. “Don’t count your luck.”

He chuckled to himself. The two of you worked in near silence for the next three hours, though you found yourself glancing over at him every so often, out of curiosity and also admiration. His graying hair suited him, and you could see the muscles in his arms from his casually rolled up shirt sleeves. 

Soon, though, you found it hard to stay awake, the light from your computer screen adding onto your fatigue. To your horror, you yawned loudly, catching Mickey’s attention.

“You alright? I’m not too boring, am I?”

“No, I just kept waking up last night. I feel like I barely slept.”

“Why don’t we take an early lunch and go get coffee?”

“That sounds great,” you said, grabbing your purse.

There was a deli right up the block, and when you looked at the small pastry case, you decided to order something with your coffee. Mickey placed his order, a hot coffee and a bear claw. With plenty of tables to choose from, you and Mickey sat near the window. 

Your coffee definitely hit the spot, and the sugar from your pastry helped wake you up too.

“How long’s your commute?” Mickey asked.

“About 40 minutes. I live in Brooklyn, kinda between Bushwick and Bed-Stuy.”

“Damn, that’s long. I live on the Upper West Side.”

You raised your eyebrows. “Wow. Before this job, I was barely able to afford to rent on my own.”

“It’s a rent-controlled building. I’m not making a ton after alimony and child support.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

He shrugged, though he looked out the window as he continued speaking. “It was a long time ago. Deanna and me just didn’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of stuff when our son was born. I knew before he even got to kindergarten it was over.”

Unsure of how to respond, you slowly reached across the table, putting your hand over his. “I’m sorry, Mickey, really.”

“You’re a sweet girl,” he said, giving your hand a slight squeeze before releasing it. “They live upstate, so I don’t see them much. I have more time for going to the movies and Mets games.”

“I only go when they’re bad because tickets are cheaper.”

He snickered. “I should take a page outta your book. How about you? Any sports? Or reading? Isn’t true crime pretty popular with young women now?”

Your heart pounded at his question. Innocuous enough. True crime was extremely popular. The paranoid part of you couldn’t help but feel like it was an accusation. Then again, he couldn’t possibly know you’d spent the weekend immersing yourself in it, particularly stuff about him.

“I’m not really interested in that,” you said. “Sometimes my friends and I go to trivia nights at bars. I’m not that good, but it’s fun to just hang out. I have a membership at the MOMA, so I go there a lot. They show movies sometimes, too.”

To your relief, the conversation shifted to just that, and Mickey seemed surprised by some of your opinions on different movies. He told you he’d originally gone to college for film studies, which you already knew, of course. The odd thing was, while you certainly didn’t want him aware of just how much you knew about him, you didn’t feel guilty for it, just that he would be weirded out by it, obviously.

You and Mickey ended up talking about movies for nearly an hour and a half, well over your allotted hour lunch break, but he assured you no one would care that much. Still, the two of you half-ran back to the office, and something bubbled in your chest when he sat down and smiled at you, the wrinkles by his eyes becoming more prominent. 

The rest of the workday went by quickly, and you headed to the library where you’d reserved the two books about the Windsor College murders and trial. By the time you got home, you’d already devoured the first two chapters of Gale Weathers’ book. Glad to be working remotely the following day, you let yourself stay up later than usual to read, getting to the halfway point before you could hardly keep your eyes open.

Weeks turned into months, and you absolutely loved your job, and the pay, but most of all, how the content you consumed and your proximity to Mickey seemed to feed into each other in a vicious cycle that increasingly drowned out the rational part of you that knew what you were doing was weird. 

Still, it wasn’t like you were invading his personal privacy or treating him any different than you did before. All of the information you’d read, listened to, or watched was all public as your running list of books, podcasts, and documentaries on the matter grew. You’d even rewatched the Stab movies and started scrolling through threads and tags related to Mickey and what happened at Windsor College. After all of the personal research you did and how much you’d gotten to know Mickey at work, you couldn’t conclusively say whether or not he did it. 

You tried keeping your obsession lowkey, but your friends seemed to notice how you’d shoehorn it into conversations. Lee had even told you she was afraid she’d created a monster by bringing up Mickey’s past in the first place. If she’d never made her comment or showed you that first article, you probably never would’ve known about it, remaining blissfully unaware and going about your business at your typical office job with your hot older coworker.

For how much time you spent at home between work and researching, it seemed like whenever you’d go out, you’d come home to something missing or moved. Articles of clothing gone, coffee mugs out of place, books not quite in the order you’d left them. At first, you chalked it up to your consuming too much true crime content, feeding into your paranoia, but when you asked your landlord to install another lock on your door, it all seemed to stop. That didn’t bode well with you.

Your fantasies blended with reality in your dreams, as you were having increasing occurrences of Ghostface or Mickey, or both, in them. Whenever you woke up, you didn’t remember much except for a warm feeling in your core. One dream remained vivid even after you awoke, though.

You were in your apartment alone, late at night, when you got a call from an unknown number. Normally, you didn’t pick up calls unless you were expecting them, but for some reason you picked up. The details of the phone call itself were jumbled, but you were frightened, running into your bedroom and locking the door behind you. 

To your horror, you’d locked yourself in with Ghostface, the looming predator who looked at you emotionlessly, stalking toward you with his knife. When you turned around, the door knob was gone, and a black gloved hand grabbed your shoulder, moving you to face him as he pushed you against the door. He sliced through your slinky pajama top, exposing your breasts to him. Roughly groping each of them, he let out a low moan in appreciation before bringing the knife to your collarbone, dragging the blade to the valley between your breasts. Your breath hitched as he pressed it a bit deeper, but instead, you felt it in your pussy, like he was penetrating you.

“Give me a kiss, sweetheart,” your masked assailant ordered in a distorted voice.

Slowly, you leaned in, pressing your lips against the cold, hard plastic mask. You gasped as he dug the knife into your skin with one hand, his other slipping under your panties, pushing his fingers between your folds.

“I own you,” he said, clearly in Mickey’s voice this time.

You threw your head back in ecstasy as he pushed his fingers into your tight cunt, and then your alarm blared, jolting you awake. Turning over, you groaned into your pillow in frustration. At least it ended up being great masturbation material later on.

Another Thursday at work, seemingly uneventful as usual. You and Mickey had gotten into the habit of getting lunch together whenever you both were in the office. Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but as time went on, they felt more like dates than just a casual lunch with a coworker. Not that you were complaining.

“Got any plans for the weekend?” he asked in the nearby deli the two of you had begun to frequent.

“No, not really.”

“Do you wanna come over after work tomorrow? Watch a movie or something?” he asked.

“That’d be great!” you said, almost a bit too enthusiastically. “Should I bring anything?”

He shook his head, smiling a bit. “I can order a pizza.”

For some reason, you trusted yourself to be normal at his place, telling yourself throughout Friday that everything would work out fine. Being a weirdo about his alleged murders certainly wouldn’t help you get a real date with him, but your infatuation with him was only growing. You liked the slightest hint of danger about him, going to his apartment alone, wondering in the back of your mind what his true intentions were and feeling a bit of a thrill at the prospect that they could be anything less than innocent.

You showed up at his apartment that evening with a bottle of wine in hand, even though he’d told you not to bring anything. As expected, he thanked you for the wine, though he gave you an exasperated look as he let you into his apartment. Nicer than yours, but it still looked lived-in.

“Pizza will be here in a couple of minutes,” he said. “I’m thinking Mean Streets for the movie.”

“It’s a classic,” you agreed. “I love Harvey Keitel in it.”

“You know, that was De Niro and Scorsese’s first time working together.”

“Wait, why did I think Taxi Driver was first?”

“Came out in ‘76, just after he was in Godfather Part II in ‘74. Busy decade for him.”

“You’re telling me.”

The doorbell rang, the pizza arriving sooner than expected. You waited in the kitchen while Mickey dealt with the delivery.

“We can eat in the living room while we watch,” he said, carrying the pizza box inside. “I don’t have many people over, so it’s still a little messy.”

“That’s okay,” you assured him.

He put on the movie, and you balanced the paper plate on your lap, nodding along to “Be My Baby” as it played during the opening scene. Testing the waters, you scooted closer to him a few minutes into the movie. He glanced over at you, and you could’ve sworn you saw the faintest hint of a smile on his face. 

You were especially pleased when he put his arm around you, not bothering with the pretense of a “move,” but rather taking what he wanted. Settling comfortably next to him, you tried to focus on the movie.

Despite his arm around your shoulders, closer physically to him than you ever had been, you felt restless. You knew when the halfway point of the movie was, and so you excused yourself to use the bathroom, telling him he didn’t need to pause it until you returned.

The tips of your fingers itched as you passed closed doors to the bathroom, which he told you was at the end of the hall. Biting your lip, you considered your options, and in a moment of impulse and weakness, you reached for one of the door handles. A mostly empty extra bedroom, maybe his son’s old room. 

You weren’t deterred, opening another door. Jackpot. Slightly messy, with clothes strewn about the floor and on the dark sheets of his bed. Glancing behind you, you stepped into his room and looked around for anything that stood out. 

Most people hid things under their beds, and so you got down on your hands and knees, wondering where exactly he might hide his—

“Don’t think this is the bathroom,” he said, startling you.

You yelped, frantically turning around as your brain short circuited for an explanation. “I—I was just—“

“Looking for trophies? All serial killers keep them, right?” he asked, towering over you from your spot on the floor. “Mementos of their victims or the kills.”

You shook your head frantically. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have been snooping.”

“No, you shouldn’t have, but you’re looking in the wrong place anyway,” he said, pulling the knife from behind his back.

“Serial killers also don’t—don’t kill people th-they know,” you stammered.

“Typically,” he agreed, “but I’m not typical, am I? I’m sure you’ve listened to plenty of those cute little podcasts where some dumbasses read the Wikipedia page about the Windsor College murders in between hawking security systems to their listeners that they’ve just scared shitless. I admitted I did it, went to fucking trial, and the jury couldn’t even find me guilty.”

“Point taken.”

“So, what trophy would I keep from you?”

You were silent for a moment before answering, looking him in the eye. “My panties.”

“Which pair? Figure I have at least five of them now. Unless you wanna make that six, sweetheart.”

“You’ve been breaking into my place all this time.”

“You made it way too easy. It’s like you were asking for it.”

Maybe you were. Regardless, you didn’t show any resistance when he lightly kicked at your leg, a silent command to stand up. You got to your feet, though your gaze was fixed on the knife in his hand. His eyes followed yours, and he smirked a bit before putting the knife aside.

He turned you around, pushing you back onto his bed. Your breath caught in your throat as he pushed your skirt up, his hand caressing your ass, fingers brushing the thin fabric of your panties.

“Were you asking for it, sweetheart? Have you wanted this all along? Been a bad girl to get my attention?”

“Yes,” you whimpered weakly, your pussy clenching around nothing.

“Y’know, I’ve heard of serial killers having groupies, but you,” he said, slapping your ass for emphasis, eliciting a moan from you, “are something else.”

“Fuck, daddy,” you whispered, fidgeting against his mattress.

“I’m disappointed in you.” Another smack on your ass. “I could’ve been having fun with you months ago.” Smack! You hissed this time, though your pussy was pulsing between your legs. “Bent you over my desk in the office, have my way with you while no one else is around—or maybe a little slut like you would wanna get caught with daddy’s dick buried inside her.”

He spanked you harder this time, holding you down when your body instinctively recoiled at the impact. A pained moan escaped your lips as he pressed his body weight against you, his clothed cock rubbing against your tender skin. Tears welled up in your eyes as the sensation, and you resisted the urge to slip your hand between your legs.

“Or maybe,” he said, reaching around you to wrap his hand around your neck, “you just want me to fuck you before I kill you. Probably cum the minute I put that old Ghostface mask on, huh, baby?”

You let out a strangled moan at his words. “Yes, daddy.”

He released his grip on your throat, standing up to give you one more slap across your ass. “Turn over. If you’re good for me, maybe I’ll give you what you want.”

The friction from his sheets stung against your sore ass as you rolled over to look at him, though he grabbed you, pushing you onto your back himself. His grip on you was tight, fingers digging into your arms as he held you down beneath him, completely at his mercy.

He pulled off your skirt and panties, leaving your pussy exposed for him. He dragged his index finger between your folds, and you whimpered when he brushed your clit.

“God, you’re soaked,” he murmured against your lips. “Was it the spanking, or is it the serial killer thing?”

“Both.”

“Good answer,” he said, lazily circling your clit with his finger. 

He ducked his head down, wasting no time in devouring your wet cunt. His tongue relentlessly flicked at your clit while he slid two fingers inside you, pumping them in and out of your hole. You took them easily, but wondered if it’d be the same for his cock when he’d undoubtedly fuck you. 

Your hands gripped his sheets as he worked his tongue, your feet curling at the tension you felt building up inside of you. He moaned against you, loud enough that it felt like his voice rocked through your body. 

“Don’t stop,” you pleaded breathlessly.

A pained and outraged whine pulled from your throat when he did just that. You looked down at him between your legs, betrayed.

“Why should I let you cum?” he teased, rubbing light circles in your clit with his soaked fingers. “You’ve been a bad girl.”

“Oh fuck,” you moaned. “Please, daddy.”

“You can do better than that, sweetheart.”

“Please let me cum, daddy. I’ll be so good. I—I’ll do anything, just—please,” you cried out in frustration of being so close yet not quite there.

“Only since you asked so nicely,” he relented, dipping his head back down between your legs, his hands holding your hips in place as your lower half began to quiver at his touch.

You could feel his lips move slightly against your sensitive pussy, nothing short of a smug expression on his face at making you fall apart so easily. It didn’t matter, your head was swimming, muscles strained as he brought you closer to climax. Grabbing his hair, you pressed his face closer against your pussy, grinding against it in desperation. 

“Mickey—Fuck—“ you choked out as your orgasm wracked through you, fireworks in between your legs as your body shook. 

He ate you out through your orgasm, and another tidal wave of pleasure hit you all at once, almost painful and overwhelming, your brain on fire at the sensation. You could hardly catch your breath when you released your grip from his hair and he lifted his head, your wetness glistening on his lips.

When he kissed you, you hardly had the strength to kiss him back, though tasting yourself on his mouth sent a rush through you. He pressed sloppy kisses to your face, trailing down to your neck. His hard length rubbed against your slick-coated thigh, a low growl coming from deep in his throat.

“W-Wait, can I ask you something?”

“Shoot,” he mumbled against your skin.

“Did you really wanna get caught?”

He stopped, lifting his head from your neck to look at you a few moments before answering, “Yeah, blame the movies, make a real circus of the trial, but my attorney said he didn’t think I could pull off an insanity plea because I was too put together. Obviously pleading guilty and confessing everything wouldn’t get nearly as much attention as actually going on trial. I was pissed at first, but it worked out, I mean I had every reporter eating out of the palm of my hand by day three.”

“Why don’t you do interviews now? Or write a book?”

“What’s there to say? Not the truth.”

“I guess that makes sense,” you muttered. “Are you gonna kill me?”

“Probably should,” he said, the slightest smirk ghosting his lips as his eyes raked over you, “I might need more convincing not to.”

[secretmellowblog]

Hi! I replied to your post but I thought an ask would be easier. I just wanted to say thanks for your les mis novel musings. I loved that book but not many people post about it. I'd love to hear more of your thoughts as you go along! How is the reading going for you? It took me over a year, I kept taking breaks, even tho i love hugo's prose and his humanist/socialist philosophy. You're almost up to the 200 page waterloo digression. I would probably skip that or only read part of it if i was going to reread. Wdyt?

HELLO! You're welcome!!!! And there are TONS of people talking about this novel constantly, let me share some people to follow! First: if you're looking for a hub of Les Mis discussion, you should absolutely follow @lesmisletters!!! There are 365 chapters in Les Mis, and the people participating in Les Mis Letters read one chapter of the book day for a year. Even if you're not actually reading the book along with the subscription, the tumblr blog shares a great collection of meta/analsyis/memes on a daily basis--- so it is a great place to get involved in discussions! The pinned post on that blog explains how you can get involved in the readalong and share your thoughts!! (Currently, Les Mis Letters is wildly active on Discord and a bit less active on Tumblr, but there's still tons of people involved in both places-- I really recommend joining the discord and posting in the Tumblr tags!) Other currently active Les Mis blogs I recommend, that are also focused primarily on analyzing the novel: @barricadescon is a big fandom event that will happen again in 2026.

@pilferingapples: a longtime Les mis blog that’s been here for a decade, and an excellent first blog to follow! :3 @lesbianvaljean: a newer blog following Les Mis Letters and sharing excellent stuff!

@psalm22-6 : shares excellent deep research on old reviews and contemporary reactions.

@ueinra : fun Les Mis stuff!

@lesmisscraper: lots of gifsets!!!

@dolphin1812 : high quality analysis!

@threadbaremillionaire: excellent wonderful art!!

@hadleysmis : Les mis stuff and different adaptations!

@breadvidence : quality Valjean/Javert takes and writing.

@enjoltairegames : enjolras/Grantaire ship event that happens once a year!

@valvertweek : a valvert ship event that happens once a year!

@bishopmyrielfundraiser : a fundraiser event that happens once a year!

Finally, to note the second part of your ask: because I'm following Les Mis Letters, I probably am actually going to read Waterloo; it's a lot easier to make it through the digressions when you're doing it on a schedule and with a group that's analyzing it XD

[abigaillazaar]

CREATOR TAG GAME

yayyyy happy new year my loves!!

thank you for tagging me char @cressidascowper pick your 5 favorite gif sets of 2024 that got less than 1k notes and then pick 10 gifsets of someone else's that got less than 1k notes.

mine:

this johanna and finnick set for thg week! i rarely ever try greens so this was a great exercise. plus shameless letterboxd review insert i had the time of my life making it (even though i think it's on the simpler side)

rhaenicent + august! my beloveds <3 i actually was so relieved finishing this—mainly bc i'd been working on it since last year but couldn't be satisfied with the coloring + typography (real ones remember it was in my new year's clean up last year). i'm so glad i waited for s2 to air though because it really made the lyrics more cohesive . freaks. (also i remembered seeing the lyric "change" on swiftietok and hated it so. bad . like so bad. but was like wait but so fitting for rhaenicent so. i caved! #noregrets)

rhaenicent + sad beautiful tragic. this was the first edit i made for that week in preparation and that last gif was what led to my idea for day one (paternity test). rhaenyra's the father bitch! also i'm proud of myself for making the first gif bc that's emily in lost girls ! and now she riding syrax instead of flying to neverland. love me brain <3

rhaenicent + fics ! fic writers the backbone of our society i love them sooooooo much i'll probably end up doing another one! i know some of the authors saw the set but i hope all of them know how hard i'm clutching their fics to my chest

this is truly the rhaenicent show (i have an addiction). anyway last one is this super simple rhaenicent edit! it's slightly au but placing alicent watching rhaenyra play with her children i'm sick to my stomach and i literally made it. thank you aish (@alicenthighstower) for dealing with me in those trying times

others:

@maxanor's gorgeous gorgeous sejanus -> katniss edit. i remember falling to my knees when i saw that omg. the black and white to bright saturated orange is insane, my teeth ache just looking at it. beautiful work hannah!

one of the most deplorable (endearing) edits i've seen this year is this jackieshauna set by miss becca it girl @nataliescatorccio herself. first of all anyone who knows me knows red + black + white is my favorite color combo so this was an immediate hit. this edit......took my breath away (also bc i was dry heaving from the #pain!)

this padme and sabe edit by char @cressidascowper........lorddddd don't even get me started i wanted to throw up! i love muted colors so much (i rarely ever attempt bc idk. it never looks right when i try) but char......your coloring on this i'm gonna scream! and the quote! i'm screaming. absolutely insane chef's kiss

this anakin skywalker set that erika @padme-amidala (come home the kids (me) miss you <33) made....this has been one of my favorite poems since like...high school. like at some point i had it as my lockscreen. i love this mf poem. and so when i saw anakin skywalker ??? to this poem ????? the scream i scrumpt. need her to come back and bless my eyes again...

itty bitty baby aish made this swanqueen edit, and it almost influenced me to rewatch ouat. the coloring is exquisite and the quote ....and the shots you chose.......lordddddd it sent me into a downward spiral i opened up swanqueen's page on ao3 just to feel something again

anyway thanks for tuning in! tagging everyone mentioned (unless they already did this, then. whatever) love you all and can't wait to see what you guys have in store for 2025 (break my heart, i'll still love you <3)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

[seblaineworld]

Hey, Seblainers! Hellooooo, everyone else!

10 Days Of Seblaine 2024

26 days to go, so without further ado, here's what you need to know:

The Rules

When?

The event runs from Monday, 26th August until 23:59 (of your own timezone) on Wednesday, 4th September 2024.

Who can take part?

Anyone and everyone who shares our love of Seblaine!

What can we submit?

Anything, as long as it is Seblaine-related! Fics, Graphics, Gifs, Gifsets, Videos, Manips, Playlists, Lyrics - anything you like as long as it fits the themes! I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with.

Please remember to use #seblaineworld and #10daysofseblaine2024 within the first five tags, and also put @seblaineworld in your posts, since we all know just how flaky Tumblr can be about tags!

Be sensible and considerate. We are all well aware that not everyone shares our love of Seblaine, and even within our own tiny (but always fierce!) Seblainer Fandom, there are those who don't enjoy mature content, so please ensure you tag everything you submit, appropriately.

Can I cross-post/combine themes?

Yes! You can combine any of the themes that you want. And if your contribution does combine multiple themes, you can post on whichever day you prefer. Just remember, if your contribution covers one or more themes, then properly tag all days, regardless of which day you actually post on.

Do I need to submit something for every day?

Absolutely not. If you want to contribute something for every day, then of course you can, but it's not a requirement at all. I know everyone has busy lives, so just do what you can when you can.

Can I post a WIP or work if it fits the themes, even if I started it weeks/months/years before the Seblaine Week 2024 announcement?

Absolutely! Your Admin has done this before and feels it's a great way to refresh creativity and blow the cobwebs off that piece you just KNOW you'll finish one day, but never quite seem to have the time. So feel free to post anything you've already started - providing it fits one of the themes!

On that note, do remember that the free day is exactly that. A day on which you can write about/create for, any theme you like! Did your favourite theme just narrowly miss out on being in the top 10? If so, here's your chance to do something about it and make a submission using that theme!

When do we start posting?

As soon as it becomes Monday 26th August in your own timezone, post your work to your Tumblr blog, and as mentioned above, please tag it #seblaineworld and #10daysofseblaine2024 then make sure those two are in your first five tags. Please also put @seblaineworld somewhere in your post.

If you're going to be posting your work to another site like AO3 or ff.net, post a properly tagged link on your Tumblr.

A 10 Days Of Seblaine 2024 collection will be added to AO3.

Can I post early?

Sorry, no. 🙃 Tumblr, however, does let you schedule posts so you can schedule the post for the right day, even if you're not going to be around that day. Of course this gets a little harder to navigate if you’re also posting to another site like AO3/ff.net, so if this is going to be a problem, let me know and I'll figure it out.

Can I post late?

Yes! I know how time can occasionally run away from us all, so as long as everything is tagged properly you can post (for example) your day 3 piece on day 7 and that won't be a problem. Everything posted will be reblogged until Friday, September 27th.

You haven't reblogged my work yet!

No problem! Again, because Tumblr can be (very!) erratic, just send me an Ask or message if I haven't reblogged your work within 24 hours of you posting it, and I will get onto it right away.

So, that's it for now! I'm excited to see all your work, and I hope you'll join me for our second bumper celebration of Seblaine. Just drop me an Ask or message if you have a question that's not addressed here, and I'll see you all on the 26th!

Ail 💜

[spikeface]

Ran across a gifset of Bruce Campbell and realized probably not everyone has read the charming interaction between him and Thamiris, a fan that asked him in 1999 what he thought of slash. The question is def inappropriate, but Tham pulled it off imho. Her context and the exchange are provided below, and pulled from her old website. The whole thing has a poignant innocence to me, and is a fun snapshot of bygone fandom.

Yes, I know this is evil, but let me explain. And don't try this at home, kids!  About a year and a half ago, I found out from a friend, who'd met Bruce Campbell at the NY Con, that the King of Thieves himself had heard of Ksmithares, my Ares erotica mailing list.  And he didn't seem horrifed--rather, more amused than anything.  So I emailed him for confirmation. Bruce Campbell's not only a gorgeous babe, an awesome actor, a great director, but he rocks!   Here's a copy of the full text of my letter.  His response follows.  If anyone wants a copy, to ensure authentication, email me privately at the addy below.    Note:  Details, like the addies, are outdated, since this all happened several years ago.

-----Original Message----- From: Thamiris <klerksandowens@sprint.ca> To: bcact@aol.com <bcact@aol.com> Date: Monday, March 01, 1999 1:17 PM Subject: Semi-rude question... ;-)

::::clears throat:::::

Ummm....A friend at the NY con mentioned that you'd heard about the ksmithares list, where, among other things, we write erotic fanfic involving Ares and other characters in the Xenaverse LOL! Out of context, that might sound deranged, but we're all normal...Really. ;-)

My rude question (it's been upped from semi-rude) is this:  you might be aware that some of us there write...uh...what's called slash...<gggg> which depicts activities of the kind Jerry Falwell's explicitly condemned in his attack on one of the Teletubbies?  Just for kicks, you understand.  No harm intended, of course.  Utmost respect, etc.  I was just wondering if this deeply offended you--knowing that a bunch of women are writing stories not only with Auto and Xena, but with Auto and Ares as...errrr....very good friends?

We (all 150+ of us at ksmithares)  think you're wonderful: fab actor, great director, kewl guy...LOL! It's so obvious I almost forgot to include it...

Respectfully (in spite of appearances to the contrary),

Tham http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Stonewall/8526/areslash.htm http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Stonewall/8526/ksmithares2.htm "I can't keep my mind out of the gutter to save my soul." -- X, "My Goodness"    

-----Original Message----- From: BCACT@aol.com <BCACT@aol.com> To: klerksandowens@sprint.ca <klerksandowens@sprint.ca> Date: Monday, March 01, 1999 9:10 PM Subject: Re: Semi-rude question... ;-)

In a message dated 3/1/99 1:16:28 PM Pacific Standard Time, klerksandowens@sprint.ca writes:

><<  I was just wondering if this deeply offended you--knowing that a bunch of women are writing stories not only with Auto and Xena, but with Auto and Ares as...errrr....very good friends? >>

>Tham,

Heck no - as long as my exploits are properly embellished!

Best,

Bruce

[thisweekingundamwing]

This Week in Gundam Wing 7-19 October 2024

Here’s the roundup for October 7th - October 19th, 2024!

Remember to give your content creators some love! Be sure to join in on the events at the bottom! And remember to send in any new works you see or make this next week!

~Mod Hel

Fanfiction/Ideas/Snippets:

@bryony-rebb

https://www.tumblr.com/bryony-rebb/764587335635599360/dragging-myself-kicking-and-screaming-back-to-my

*dragging myself kicking and screaming back to my word document after one million years*

"Maybe we should try to delay our departure by a few days? With the right shuttle we could still catch up with the main fleet."

@duointherain

Apex Predators https://www.tumblr.com/duointherain/763789949468278784/fic-apex-predators-11

Note: Smelting temp for aluminum is 800 degrees. My roommates will not let me do this in the kitchen.

Quatre arched an eyebrow, looked down at the little individual hand blender next to his plate, then back up at Duo. “You made these mixers from aluminum you found on the beach, the streets?”

@miyurinq

3 x 4 Drabbles https://archiveofourown.org/works/59356291/chapters/151381402?hide_banner=true

M/M, Trowa Barton/Quatre Raberba Winner

Not Rated, Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Torokatober2024, Trowa x Quatre - Freeform, Melancholy, Fluff, cute stuff, little drama here and there, English

a collection of drabbles for the Torokatober 2024 (Tumblr)

@ms-miserable-misery

https://www.tumblr.com/ms-miserable-misery/763607680110706689/day-6-im-not-giving-up

Day 6 - “I’m not giving up”

https://www.tumblr.com/ms-miserable-misery/763714563950690304/day-7-follow-me-if-you-want-to-live

Day 7 - “follow me if you want to live”

https://www.tumblr.com/ms-miserable-misery/763796881996398592/day-8-are-we-happy

Day 8 - “are we happy?”

https://www.tumblr.com/ms-miserable-misery/764091894482468864/day-11-well-that-worked-out-great

Day 11 - “well, that worked out great”

https://www.tumblr.com/ms-miserable-misery/764155181613170688/day-12-did-you-hear-that

Day 12 - “did you hear that?”

https://www.tumblr.com/ms-miserable-misery/764316843572969472/day-14-did-you-stick-to-the-plan

Day 14 - “did you stick to the plan?”

https://www.tumblr.com/ms-miserable-misery/764404078871773184/day-15-lets-try-this

Day 15 - “let’s try this”

https://www.tumblr.com/ms-miserable-misery/764497112231788544/day-16-no-im-not-okay

Day 16 - “no, I’m not okay”

https://www.tumblr.com/ms-miserable-misery/764589228684460032/day-17-strangest-thing-i-ever-heard

Day 17 - “strangest thing I ever heard”

Arts/Crafts/Photo Manips:

@alphamecha-mkii

https://www.tumblr.com/alphamecha-mkii/763722028479119360/deathscythe-hell-custom-by-amasaki-yusuke

Deathscythe Hell Custom by Amasaki Yusuke, fanart

@hyper-girlcrush

https://www.tumblr.com/hyper-girlcrush/764107565058719744/trowa-based-on-endless-waltz

Trowa Barton, fanart

@siodam

https://www.tumblr.com/siodam/764586285623066624

Heero/Relena, fanart

Photosets/Gifsets/Screenshots/Manga Pages:

@janaverse

https://www.tumblr.com/janaverse/763820192832815104/more-sheepish-duo-i-have-never-seen-heero-do

Duo/Heero, Sims, screenshot

https://www.tumblr.com/janaverse/764185464732303360/duo-in-spandex

Duo Maxwell, Sims, screenshot

https://www.tumblr.com/janaverse/764688856747524096/there-is-no-universe-where-wolf-nap-will-not-be

Heero, Duo, Sims, screenshot

https://www.tumblr.com/janaverse/764742385918001152/sneaky-i-am-sure-duo-would-let-him-play-with

Heero/Duo, Sims, screenshot

@therosecrest

https://www.tumblr.com/therosecrest/763872322771894272

Iria Winner, gif

Head Canons/Meta:

@a-river-of-stars

https://a-river-of-stars.tumblr.com/post/763718344427847680/

Gundam Wing supports your right to leave behind your deadname

https://a-river-of-stars.tumblr.com/post/763721062511984640/

Live-action Gundam Wing characters as headcanoned by a-river-of-stars (AI images generated through text prompts and edited in GIMP)

Fandom Discourse:

@emiliabeville

https://www.tumblr.com/emiliabeville/764006239523028993/seriously-struggling-to-get-through-gundam

Relena, official art

I hope you can get through it! It’s a wild ride. ^_^

Calendar Events:

@gwcocktailfriday

Cocktail Fridays!

Post responses on Friday, during Happy Hour between 3 & 5 pm in your own timezone.

Here’s the prompts for Friday, October 25th: https://gwcocktailfriday.tumblr.com/post/764767710938808320/cocktail-friday-post-responses-on-friday-october

In need of prompts!

@gwoc-october

Prompt List 2024: https://www.tumblr.com/gwoc-october/763150907755134976/gw-oc-october-is-back-going-a-bit-more-generic

@thisweekingundamevents

Events Calendar https://thisweekingundamevents.tumblr.com/post/730188053636841472/updated-events-calendar

If you are hosting an event currently, or are planning on one, hit us up with links and dates! We’ll add them to the Calendar and reblog your notices to get the word out!

GW Holiday Gift Exchange 2024

Assignments Sent out! Check your emails: https://thisweekingundamevents.tumblr.com/post/763976851818512384/all-gw-holiday-gift-exchange-assignments-have-been

GW Hallows 2024

https://thisweekingundamevents.tumblr.com/post/763151583438618625/gw-hallows-2024

[lurkingshan]

✨2023: A Summary✨

Post your most popular and/or favourite edit/gifset/analysis for each month (it’s okay to skip months!)

Tagged by @dribs-and-drabbles, thanks dribs! It's kind of fun to go back and see what I was on about at various points this year.

January

This blog was a mere bebe this time last year and I hadn't started posting anything substantial yet, so nothing of note here.

February

most popular — Making fun of Hira in Utsukushii Kare 2 (affectionately)

favorite — Praising Moonlight Chicken's character writing

March

most popular — The Glory does revenge right

favorite — Whining about people using the friends to lovers label wrong

April

most popular — Celebrating Queen Ae Ri from The Eighth Sense

favourite(s) — Making sure people understand Ji Hyun is a drama dork, helping to kick off the most batshit week of discourse in T8S fandom, and of course the first (of many) appreciation posts for Porsche's sweater

May

most popular — On Step By Step removing a scene critiquing BGP because of fan outcry

favorite(s) — 10 Things I Love About WDYEY and 10 Things I Love About Khun Chai (please watch them if you haven't yet people!)

June

most popular — Having a ball with King the Land

favorite(s) — Breaking down Pat's effect on Phupha in Our Skyy 2, the complexity of family trauma in Our Dining Table, and Jeng's reaction to his failed confession in Step by Step (ugh remember when this show was good). And of course this was the month that the La Plue meta round up was born.

July

most popular — Bitching about romance discourse (it was about King the Land at the time but it's quite widely applicable lol)

favourite(s) — Hysterical praise for La Pluie's conflict writing, kudos for Be My Favorite's character work for Kawi, breaking down where Step By Step went wrong

August

most popular — Ah the good times when we were still so amped about Only Friends

favorite(s) — Every moment of the My Ride rewatch, great moments in subtitlery from Laws of Attraction, and praise for Sing My Crush

September

most popular — That one time I actually liked a Mew thing in Only Friends

favorite(s) — Trying to get y'all to watch Love in Translation, comparing Someday or One Day and A Time Called You, clarifying the differences between Boston and Brian Kinney

October

most popular — Boston and Nick my beloveds (it would be shocking if they didn't make this list they are responsible for many of my most popular posts)

favorite(s) — A couple I Feel You Linger in the Air breakdowns: why the romance works despite being underwritten, and Fong Kaew's excellent character arc

November

most popular — Goofing on the unseriousness of Kiseki: Dear to Me

favorite(s) — Breaking down how the writing choices in Only Friends sent toxic messages and final thoughts on the IFYL finale

December

most popular — Japanese BL starter pack

favorite(s) — Simping over Mohk simping over Day in Last Twilight, yelling about Cherry Magic Thailand, kicking off bl superlatives 2023

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In addition to all the people dribs tagged that I am double tagging because I want to see your answers (@wen-kexing-apologist @grapejuicegay @btwinlines @twig-tea @rocketturtle4 @waitmyturtles @telomeke and @respectthepetty) I am adding some other folks I know wrote/created a lot this year because I'm curious what stuck with you most: @bengiyo, @ranchthoughts, @jemmo, @chickenstrangers, @chicademartinica, @slayerkitty, @my-rose-tinted-glasses, @colourme-feral, @blmpff, @liyazaki, @wanderlust-in-my-soul, @troubled-mind, @benkaaoi.