#as a consolation prize

[jesse-is-inarguably-purple]

Pyrrha Dve, stone-cold fox

[general-sleepy]

The Organ Trail has come to a halt. I was stoked about starting the kidney donation process, but first I had to clear it with my family. I told myself going in that if I ever got a straight veto from anyone in my family, that would be it. I got that veto, so it looks like all of these organs are staying in place. I'm bummed, but I think it's the right thing to do. I signed up to donate marrow, though, and I can donate blood and plasma. I can exploit at least some of these superfluous body parts.

[themortaldraw]

how it feels trying to win the music box in echoes of wisdom

[aroaceleovaldez]

i have suddenly become obsessed with a theme that HoO established but never proceeded to extrapolate on, which is:

You are Percy Jackson, and you have been swapped with a boy who was allegedly everyone's favorite person, but they have decided to replace him with you. They just met you. You stand next to his best friend and the people he's known his entire life. In his home. In his cloak. In his place. They stopped looking for him.

You are Jason Grace, and you have just found out you have a long lost sister who completely replaced you in her life with this girl you just met. Your lives and personalities are mirrors. She is you, living the life you were robbed of.

You are Annabeth Chase, and you have just become starkly aware that you have been inhabiting the void left behind by your best friend's long lost brother. You and Luke were just replacements for him. Now you have to look him in the eyes when he has nothing and know you took that life from him.

You are Piper McLean, and you have just found out your relationship is fake and built entirely on the memories of Annabeth Chase. You have been given a boyfriend when hers has been taken away. You have no idea how much of it is real or not but regardless you feel like if your relationship isn't exactly in their image that you have failed.

You are Leo Valdez, and you have just learned that you are the echo of your great-grandfather. You are not your own person. You just exist to be a mirror of him. A doppelganger. An actor and stunt double facing all the danger he never had to but wearing his face. To be there for his best friend decades later simply because he couldn't. You are playing a role. A seventh wheel and a pawn for a goddess who carefully sculpted your entire life for her own purposes.

You are Hazel Levesque, and the only reason you are alive is because your brother couldn't save your his sister. You are a consolation prize. An apology. Your existence here is misplaced in every way but you inhabit it anyways.

You are Frank Zhang, and you are a shapeshifter. Inhabiting your own body feels strange and clumsy when you could be literally anything at any time. You are anything and everything and live your life with the simple certainty of knowing exactly how you will die.

[knifearo]

i hate the concept of platonic and romantic as a binary i hate the concept of platonic and romantic as a sliding scale of "less" to "more" i hate the concept of platonic and romantic as the only two options i hate the concept of platonic and romantic as significantly different things i hate the concept of platonic and romantic as all encompassing i hate the concept of platonic and romantic as the two halves of a shallow concept of love that doesn't actually encompass anything at all i think we need to overhaul every popular conception about "types" of love so we can talk about things that are real and true for once

[chaotic-carnifex]

No hold on I'm gonna make an extra post about this:

I wouldn't choose to be alloromantic

If I were given the choice to either remain aro or become alloro again, I would choose aromanticism.

And I think a lot of people need to hear that.

[strawberrymothteeth]

PART 1 [here]

PART 2 [?]

[laurapetrie]

He lets me read his heart, and I am so proud to know it's mine.

Louisa May Alcott, Little Women (1869)

[theabigailthorn]

spent ages preparing to audition for a role I really really wanted and it's looking like (still unconfirmed) they might not even be holding auditions at all but have just given it to someone directly

which, meh, that sucks but that's the industry!

I'm just like now what? I spent a lot of my free time the last few months prepping and I genuinely don't know what to do with myself now!

[dailyloopdeloop]

DAY 97: CONGRATULATIONS, YOU WON!

[slutforpringles]

Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen on the grid before the Hungarian GP | Sunday | Budapest | DPPI

[excali8ur]

Raph u are about to get ur shell handed to you

@teenagemutantninjaturtleshowdown

[foibles-fables]

it still fills me with giggles and glee how Aloy has specific conversation prompts with each companion at the Base re: Talanah (if she passes through after Burning Blooms)

"Did Talanah come through here?" "Did you meet my friend Talanah?" "Did Talanah stay long? What did she say?" "What did you think of Talanah????"

like girl calm DOWN. you're embarrassing yourself

[hivemindscape]

the buddy-buddy act ends now

[billboard-hotties-tourney]

The Billboard Consolation Prizes

It's that time again, folks! We're about to hand out some more prizes, mostly to those who didn't make the finals. Some were predetermined, some were voted upon by you, the viewers! Cue the theme music.

Let's start off with our first award, The Powerful Mane Award. Sadly, we couldn't do the Powerful Mustache Award for this tournament, considering there wasn't a single powerful mustache in the bunch, but we had some wicked heads of hair this time. But the lady who took the prize this time was...

Chaka Khan! Tell me that you like her, you really like her.

Next up, the "Stop, She's Already Dead!" Award. This one goes to the hardest ass-kicking of the whole tourney. I almost considered calling this The Elvis Costello Memorial Award in honor of last tournament's hardest ass-kicking, but as it turns out...this girl was defeated even harder:

June Richmond! June lost in round two to Billie Holiday, receiving just 5.5 percent of the votes. So...you may not have won the battle, but you won this little graphic.

Up next: The "She's Still Got It" Award. As we said before, there were a lot more nominees this time around that were born...a long time ago, meaning there are a lot of nominees who are no longer with us. But let's hand out an award to the absolute queen who's the oldest-living woman out of 100+ living nominees...

Leontyne Price! Miss Price was born in February of 1927, narrowly beating out Cleo Laine for this spot, and she's still here today. She's been around so long that you could say that sliced bread is the greatest thing since Leontyne Price. Keep it up, girl!

Next is a voter's choice award: The Strong and Silent Girl Award. Named after Mike Nesmith, the original strong and silent girl, this award goes out to a contestant who made it to round five without any written propaganda. Since there was a four-way tie for who made it farthest without any written words, I had you lovely people vote on which was the hottest of the four. You said it was...

Marlene Dietrich! There's a non-zero chance she starred in a silent film or two, so I suppose that's fitting.

As has become tradition, we at Billboard Hotties Tourney present The Who? What?? Award. This one goes to the most obscure nominee in the bunch, the one whose presence confuses (not because of their looks, but because...who??) Last time it was awarded to Louis "Moondog" Hardin, but this time it goes to...

Ethel Smyth! Not the kind of nominee I'd ever expect to see here, and we probably never will again.

Next is the Failure to Launch Award, granted to the nominee with the most submissions...who then lost in round one. The starting pistol went off, they took a few steps, and tripped and fell. This time, the winner of this esteemed prize is...

Debbie Harry! Deborah had eleven nominations, and initially had a lead in her poll, but lost to Joan Jett by a small margin.

Here's a new one! Thanks to our more diverse cast of characters this tournament, we had enough nominees to introduce the Eurovision Queen Award. This one was voted upon by you, and went to the hottest nominee who participated in Eurovision. This one goes to...

Françoise Hardy! Miss Hardy represented Monaco in Eurovision 1963, competing the same year as fellow round one casualty Nana Mouskouri. She ultimately tied for fifth.

Up next: The Band Assassin Award. This one goes to the nominee who defeated multiple members of one band. When I realized that most of the nominees this tournament could qualify as "solo," I knew this one was going to be a little tough. However, there was one lady who was able to do it...

Grace Slick! Grace's first two wins were against Anna Mae Winburn and Carline Ray of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm.

So let's move on t

God, every time. So let's move on to the Spanish Inquisition Award, for the nominee that nobody expected to make it as far as she did. Be it a pleasant surprise or a "Pearl beating Trixie Mattel in that lip sync" gag, it's for the person who exceeded expectations. The winner of this prize goes to...

The Godmother of Rock 'n' Roll, Sister Rosetta Tharpe! Rosetta soared all the way to the quarterfinals before she was bested by now-finalist Nina Simone. Love you, Sister, nothing but respect for my president.

Our next award was a voters' choice, The Crossover Artist Award! The Crossover Artist Award goes to the hottest contestant who was also featured in this tourney's inspiration, @hotvintagepoll. This one comes from the original tourney, too, but this one was...very different. Last time, we had, hmm, five or six nominees, but this time we had a whopping twenty-four that participated in both tourneys. Some ladies, like Eartha Kitt and Diahann Carroll, were also competitors in the @vintagetvstars tournament! Is it a commentary on how women have to be able to do more in entertainment to be seen as a success? Who knows? What I do know is that the winner of this award is...

Eartha Kitt! Beating Marlene Dietrich by about five percent, you guys picked Catwoman this time...and since she won both the movie and television brackets, it only felt right that she at least get a consolation prize, right?

Here's another OG tourney award: The Robbed Icon Award. Here's where you guys get to gripe, and I love it. This one goes to the lady with the most controversial loss in the game, and the winner this time was...

Debbie Harry! Considering that she overwhelmingly won the Queen of the Shadow Realm election, this win came as no surprise to me; you guys were pissed.

Next is the Renaissance Woman Award, voted on by you! This one is meant as a companion to the Multi-Instrumentalist Award for the men, but since there were so many ladies that do more than music here, I decided to expand the title. Does she sing? Play an instrument or two? Write or produce? Act? Dance? Volunteer at the nursing home on the weekends? Probably not the last one, but you, the voters, decided that the most accomplished or well-rounded woman here was:

Dolly Parton! Singer. Songwriter. Actress. Businesswoman. Activist. What can't she do?

Here comes the Popular Kid Award! This one goes out to the nominee with the most nominations, and this time, we have a tie. Our winners are...

Cher and Linda Ronstadt! Each of these singers received sixteen nominations, a record for this blog.

Our penultimate award is the Miss Congeniality Award. I award this one to the nominee with the best/funniest fanbase. This one was a little bit hard, since the engagement was admittedly not as strong as the men's tournament (I get it, though) but when I looked back at all the propaganda, I couldn't help but pick...

Dolly Parton! Those who submitted her had such an outpouring of love for her that really couldn't compare. Wear your title with pride, Dolly, and do good alongside Mr. Congeniality Clarence Clemons.

It's time for our final award...The Not Just a Pretty Face Award, where we celebrate the thing we love these ladies for in the first place--their music. This one has a little bit of a long story. It was a write-in, just like last time, but unlike last time, the voters could not come to a consensus. We had a five-way tie for first place between Kate Bush, Aretha Franklin, Joan Jett, Stevie Nicks, and Nina Simone. A two-way tie? Sure, I can let that slide. But five? No. I had to consult the council...and by "council" I mean "my parents, my two sisters, and my half-brother." I had them vote from the final five to see who would take home this coveted prize. In a 2 to 1 to 1 to 1 vote, our winner is...

Aretha Franklin! Show her some RESPECT.

And that's it for this tournament, folks! I hope you've enjoyed participating thus far, and I can't wait to see how the finals go. Finals begin on October 1st around midnight PST.

[canisalbus]

Just the thought of a wedding between Vasco and Machete is mind-numbingly sweet. They deserve the best one possible.

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