#so there was a pic of him in star wars cosplay holding her(at a con i think?) IT WAS SO ADORABLEEEEEEEE

[skitskatdacat63]

God the whiplash every time I have this one professor, and witness his intro slides where there's his official pic where it looks like he was intentionally trying to be a sexy prof, and then the next slide is him at his OWN WEDDING in a mandalorian helmet 😭😭😭 the duality of man

[rockislandadultreads]

2020 Contemporary Romances: a reading list

Love Your Life by Sophie Kinsella

Call Ava romantic, but she thinks love should be found in the real world, not on apps that filter men by height, job, or astrological sign. She believes in feelings, not algorithms. So after a recent breakup and dating app debacle, she decides to put love on hold and escapes to a remote writers' retreat in coastal Italy. She's determined to finish writing the novel she's been fantasizing about, even though it means leaving her close-knit group of friends and her precious dog, Harold, behind. At the retreat, she's not allowed to use her real name or reveal any personal information. When the neighboring martial arts retreat is canceled and a few of its attendees join their small writing community, Ava, now going by "Aria," meets "Dutch," a man who seems too good to be true. The two embark on a baggage-free, whirlwind love affair, cliff-jumping into gem-colored Mediterranean waters and exploring the splendor of the Italian coast. Things seem to be perfect for Aria and Dutch. But then their real identities--Ava and Matt--must return to London. As their fantasy starts to fade, they discover just how different their personal worlds are. From food choices to annoying habits to sauna etiquette . . . are they compatible in anything? And then there's the prickly situation with Matt's ex-girlfriend, who isn't too eager to let him go. As one mishap follows another, it seems while they love each other, they just can't love each other's lives. Can they reconcile their differences to find one life together?

The Business of Lovers by Eric Jerome Dickey

Unlike their younger brother, Andre, whose star as a comedian is rising, neither Dwayne nor Brick Duquesne is having luck with his career--and they're unluckier still in love. Former child star Dwayne has just been fired from his latest acting role and barely has enough money to get by after paying child support to his spiteful former lover, while Brick struggles to return to his uninspiring white-collar job after suffering the dual blows of a health emergency and a nasty breakup with the woman he still loves. Neither brother is looking to get entangled with a woman anytime soon, but love--and lust--has a way of twisting the best-laid plans. When Dwayne tries to reconnect with his teenage son, he finds himself fighting to separate his animosity from his attraction for his son's mother, Frenchie. And Brick's latest source of income--chauffeur and bodyguard to three smart, independent women temporarily working as escorts in order to get back on their feet--opens a world of possibility in both love and money. Penny, Christiana, and Mocha Latte know plenty of female johns who would pay top dollar for a few hours with a man like Brick... if he can let go of his past, embrace his unconventional new family, and allow strangers to become lovers. Eric Jerome Dickey paints a powerful portrait of the family we have, the families we create, and every sexy moment in between.

Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade

Marcus Caster-Rupp has a secret. While the world knows him as Aeneas, the star of the biggest show on TV, Gods of the Gates, he's known to fanfiction readers as Book!AeneasWouldNever, an anonymous and popular poster.  Marcus is able to get out his own frustrations with his character through his stories, especially the ones that feature the internet’s favorite couple to ship, Aeneas and Lavinia. But if anyone ever found out about his online persona, he’d be fired. Immediately. April Whittier has secrets of her own. A hardcore Lavinia fan, she’s hidden her fanfiction and cosplay hobby from her “real life” for years—but not anymore. When she decides to post her latest Lavinia creation on Twitter, her photo goes viral. Trolls and supporters alike are commenting on her plus-size take, but when Marcus, one half of her OTP, sees her pic and asks her out on a date to spite her critics, she realizes life is really stranger than fanfiction. Even though their first date is a disaster, Marcus quickly realizes that he wants much more from April than a one-time publicity stunt. And when he discovers she’s actually Unapologetic Lavinia Stan, his closest fandom friend, he has one more huge secret to hide from her. With love and Marcus’s career on the line, can the two of them stop hiding once and for all, or will a match made in fandom end up prematurely cancelled?

No Offense by Meg Cabot

A broken engagement only gave Molly Montgomery additional incentive to follow her dream job from the Colorado Rockies to the Florida Keys. Now, as Little Bridge Island Public Library’s head of children’s services, Molly hopes the messiest thing in her life will be her sticky-note covered desk. But fate—in the form of a newborn left in the restroom—has other ideas. So does the sheriff who comes to investigate the “abandonment”. The man’s arrogance is almost as distracting as his blue eyes. Almost… Recently divorced, John has been having trouble adjusting to single life as well as single parenthood. But something in Molly’s beautiful smile gives John hope that his old life on Little Bridge might suddenly hold new promise—if only they can get over their differences.

Tweet Cute by Emma Lord

Meet Pepper, swim team captain, chronic overachiever, and all-around perfectionist. Her family may be falling apart, but their massive fast-food chain is booming ― mainly thanks to Pepper, who is barely managing to juggle real life while secretly running Big League Burger’s massive Twitter account. Enter Jack, class clown and constant thorn in Pepper’s side. When he isn’t trying to duck out of his obscenely popular twin’s shadow, he’s busy working in his family’s deli. His relationship with the business that holds his future might be love/hate, but when Big League Burger steals his grandma’s iconic grilled cheese recipe, he’ll do whatever it takes to take them down, one tweet at a time. All’s fair in love and cheese ― that is, until Pepper and Jack’s spat turns into a viral Twitter war. Little do they know, while they’re publicly duking it out with snarky memes and retweet battles, they’re also falling for each other in real life ― on an anonymous chat app Jack built. As their relationship deepens and their online shenanigans escalate ― people on the internet are shipping them?? ― their battle gets more and more personal, until even these two rivals can’t ignore they were destined for the most unexpected, awkward, all-the-feels romance that neither of them expected.

Just Like You by Nick Hornby

Lucy used to handle her adult romantic life according to the script she'd been handed. She met a guy just like herself: same age, same background, same hopes and dreams; they got married and started a family. Too bad he made her miserable. Now, two decades later, she's a nearly-divorced, forty-one-year-old schoolteacher with two school-aged sons, and there is no script anymore. So when she meets Joseph, she isn't exactly looking for love--she's more in the market for a babysitter. Joseph is twenty-two, living at home with his mother, and working several jobs, including the butcher counter where he and Lucy meet. It's not a match anyone one could have predicted. He's of a different class, a different culture, and a different generation. But sometimes it turns out that the person who can make you happiest is the one you least expect, though it can take some maneuvering to see it through.

[saunteringvaguelydownwards]

My Dragon Con 2019 photos pt. 2

Descriptions below (L-R, T-B)

Anne Lister and her thermometer. I saw the thermometer bopping through the crowd and thought ‘wait I know that’. I’m gonna go ahead and admit I haven’t seen Gentleman Jack YET, but I knew my flist would get a kick out of this so I grabbed the photo.

Good Janet and Bad Janet from The Good Place. There were actually a bunch of Janets at the con this year, but I caught these two posing for a photo for someone else and jumped in to grab one too. The TGP panel I went to was very good as well.

Annie Lennox and Vyvyan Basterd from The Young Ones. So con etiquette (and common human courtesy) involves asking before you take someone’s photo. Cons are very loud and very crowded, and also people aren’t necessarily used to responding to a character’s name as “oh they mean me”. So what I do is try to get their attention by calling the name, catching their eye, etc, and holding up my phone as a question. This gives the cosplayer the opportunity to say no for whatever reason, and lets them pose how they want. A good pose is important, and a lot of cosplayers, myself included, practice how they will pose if asked for a photo. I absolutely work on what facial expressions I’ll use, what stance makes the costume look best, where to a hold a prop so both it and your face are visible, etc. So, all that being said, I made my way across the lobby towards this couple and held up my phone to communicate “Photo?”, and the guy dressed as Vyvyan Basterd stepped to the side so I could get clear photo of Annie Lennox, and he looked surprised/pleased when I said “Oh no, I want both of you, you look great.”

“Burt Reynolds” and “Sean Connery” from the SNL Jeopardy sketches. Another show I don’t watch, but cultural osmosis being what it is, I am familiar with these characters, have seen a couple of these bits, and could quote some of it. So yeah, I laughed and asked for a photo.

Lucy Ricardo from the I Love Lucy chocolate factory episode. This was so damn clever. Like, insane screen accuracy, huge builds, intricate builds, puns, mashups, large coordinated groups, there are lots of ways a cosplay can make you go “Cool!”, and this was a 'I have never seen this before' cool, which is one of my favorite kinds. My friend who had never been to D*C before, but is a con veteran, said “So the theme for cosplays at Dragon Con seems to be ‘yes’.” And that’s exactly it. If you can call yourself a fan of anything, and can figure out how to cosplay that, Dragon Con is the place to do it, because at least one other person is gonna recognize what you’re doing and say “Cool!”.

The witch and Sir Bedevere from Monty Python and The Holy Grail. I’ve seen a couple King Arthur and Patsy duos, including one this year, but I hadn’t ever actually seen this before, which I thought was damn clever. Also, you could totally tell where they were in the lobby by the sheer number of quotes from that scene being yelled out.

Damian from Mean Girls. This was another cosplay that I caught in passing out of the corner of my eye that made me bust out laughing. He wasn’t doing it on purpose, but he was kinda photobombing a lot of photos by just wandering around the lobby with that sign, which made some of them incredibly funny. I told him “Four for you” and thanked him for the pic.

Romy & Michele. I appreciate the ability of a good prop to sell a cosplay, especially when it involves wearing off the rack clothes. So yes, having their name written on Post-Its and carrying Post-Its around was super clever, but I totally recognized them before I even got close enough to read what they said.

The pink shorts-wearing boom op from behind the scenes of Star Wars IV: A New Hope. Again with the ‘I’ve never seen that’ cool, and the ‘if you can think of it someone will recognize it’ cool. There was a huge Star Wars meetup photoshoot that my friends and I went to in our JediPuff Girls cosplay, and this guy showed up and I think nearly everyone knew exactly what he was doing. Fully awesome.

The Three Amigos. Great accuracy, totally recognized them, but I took this photo and kept looking at the guy on the left, thinking “Jesus he looks familiar. I know I’ve seen him before. Another con? SCA? Friend of a friend? WTF?” Then I posted the photo to Facebook and my friend was like “Oh yeah, he’s got a funny YouTube channel” and I smacked myself because yeah, I’ve seen him in the video about picking out the necklace for a your new grandma name and a few others. Dammit! Missed opportunity.

[marvelousbirthdays]

Happy Birthday, calbeebellona!

May 7 - ShieldShock ficlet for the prompt “Can I borrow a kiss? I promise I’ll give it back.” or “Their pick-up line wasn’t as good as any of mine, I’m just saying.” I hate Civil War, so maybe set it in an alternative universe where there is no Civil War? I would also like it to be humourous and a bit of fluff? Basically, I just want a happy story with some laughter in. for @calbeebellona

Written by @iamartemisday

The Avengers had fans. Steve knew this, yet it was still a bit surreal to walk through the halls of Javits Center and see twenty one people dressed in homemade Captain America costumes of varying levels of quality.

He himself was suited up for the occasion. The shield strapped to his back felt heavier than usual and he was sweating under his helmet. So far, no one had recognized him, though. Tony had explained it to him while insisting he couldn’t go to any fan event in plain clothes and sunglasses.

“Do you have any idea how shady that looks, pun half intended,” he said with the beginnings of a grin. “If you really want to do this, you have to go whole hog. Get in there and work that suit like the real Captain America.”

“I am the real Captain America,” Steve had said.

“And that’s exactly why no one will notice you.”

Steve didn’t have to be a genius to know that didn’t make any sense. And yet, he’d been walking around the convention all day, attending panels, browsing the dealer’s room, buying a few things, and not a single person had anything to say about Actual Real Steve Rogers in their midst except ‘awesome cosplay, dude.’

“Maybe we should go,” Steve muttered to Bucky after they’d been asked to pose for pictures for the hundredth time. “Pretty soon, someone’s going to figure out we’re not just fans in costumes.”

Bucky, clad in black pants, combat boots, and a black jacket with the left sleeve ripped off to expose his metal arm, punched his shoulder. “Come on, Punk. I thought you were having fun. This was your idea.”

“I know,” said Steve. He quickly averted his eyes as a girl with his face plastered all over her clothes ran by. “I didn’t think it’d be so… this.”

A man with a distended gut and a cheap shaggy brown wig walked by in an amateurish Winter Soldier costume. His entire right arm was wrapped in aluminum foil, complete with a crudely drawn red star. He caught sight of Bucky and paused to give him a once over. “Your Bucky costume’s not bad, but that’s the wrong arm.”

He waved with his right arm, allowing bits of foil to fall off, then disappeared into the crowd as Bucky’s jaw fell and his face turned bright red. “It is NOT the wrong arm!”

He clenched his fists as Steve made a token effort not to laugh at his best friend’s pain. “Come on, Buck. I thought you were having fun.”

“Bite me,” Bucky stomped off towards the refreshments table, and that was probably the last Steve would see of him for hours.  

He wandered into the main corridor, filing past kids with toy propulsion blasters and young women in catsuits and red wigs. A few more fans asked for photos. One of them wore a shirt which loudly proclaimed she was Steve Rogers’ future wife. He fake smiled like a champ and made a beeline for the dealer’s room as soon as the overly touchy girl set him free.

It was a little less crowded than before. Steve could actually move without fear of crushing someone’s foot. He stayed close to the walls, ignoring the multitude of Hawkeyes, Thors, and even a few Lokis hanging around. A few booths away, a bespectacled young woman in blue jeans and plaid would have been the most normally dressed person he’d seen all day, were it not for the signs she was carrying.

SUPPORT JANE FOSTER!

JANE FOSTER WAS ABLE TO BUILD A BRIDGE TO ASGARD IN THE DESERT WITH A BOX OF CAR PARTS.

JANE ONCE PUNCHED A NORSE GOD IN THE FACE. CAN YOU PUNCH NORSE GODS IN THE FACE? JANE FOSTER IS BETTER THAN YOU.

How she held all those signs with only two hands, Steve couldn’t say. Maybe she was secretly magic. A shirtless man covered in green body paint sidled up to her, his grin a perfect contrast to her irate frown. “Hey babe. Wanna hang out later?”

“That depends,” she said, “do you want to talk about how Jane Foster is unfairly treated by so-called Avengers fans and denied credit for her scientific innovations by drooling fangirls with internet access and delusions of becoming Asgardian royalty?”

The shirtless man blinked. “Uh… Jane who?”

She rolled her eyes and kept walking in Steve’s direction. From up close, he could almost say he knew her, but the name escaped him. “Do you need help holding those signs?”

He hadn’t meant to speak. The words just popped out of his mouth of their own volition. The young woman brightened up. “See? That right there is a much better pick up line. Here you go.”

She handed him the ‘Punched a Norse God’ sign and Steve made a note to ask Thor about that later. He had a feeling he knew which god got punched and that was a story he needed to hear.  

“My real pick-up lines are much better,” Steve said, earning a smile from the girl whose name had finally popped into his head. “It’s Darcy, right? Darcy Lewis?”

“Yup,” she said as they re-entered the hall. “I guess you’ve seen the pics online. I’ve been working with Jane for years and last week I made the mistake of looking at the Avengers fan forums. There was a lot of bullshit on there about Thor dumping Jane because she’s ‘boring’ or that she dumped him because ‘she’s a bitch’. As if the woman just sprang into existence when Thor needed a muggle girlfriend and her life has no meaning outside of him. For fuck’s sake, they broke up mutually. They’re still friends and Jane had been working her ass off on that bridge since before Thor was even a thing.”

“That’s awful,” Steve said. This was why he stopped going to the fan forums after the first time. That and the rather… suggestive art people drew of him and Bucky. Or worse, him and Tony.

“I even found this website: janefostersux.com. And that’s ‘sucks’ with an X because who cares about proper spelling when you’re an unemployed, basement dwelling edgelord. It’s okay, though. I told Tony about it and he broke through the firewalls and filled every webpage with pictures of omelettes. I’m not sure why omelettes. I guess he was just hungry, but it killed traffic to the site so I can’t complain.” She heaved a long sigh. “Anyway, thanks for listening to me ramble.”

“No problem,” Steve said. They stopped in hotel lounge for a break, leaving their signs at their feet as they took the last empty spots on the last empty couch. “I think it’s great that you’re doing all this. Dr. Foster deserves to be respected.”

“Got that right.” She reached into her bag and pulled out a spiral notebook decorated with science stickers and a pen attached. “I’m collecting signatures from fans to give to Jane later. You in?”

“Of course,” Steve said. He wrote a quick note for Jane, who would probably be amused to learn how he finally met her legendary intern.

“Aw, you’re awesome,” Darcy said, with a smile that made Steve’s stomach flip. “And you’re the best Captain America cosplayer I’ve seen all day. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were the real thing.”

Steve coughed and rubbed the side of his neck. “Well, actually…”

[thebuniperspective-blog]

The First Blog, Wherein I Come Out As Queer & Dunno How Long Titles On Tumblr Should Be: I Had a Weird Week

Hi, I’m Michael Bennett producer of The (Bunny) Buni Perspective! and I had a bad week. Kinda of an amazing week. And here I am, talking about things I’m now no longer embarrassed to disclose.

I’m going to talk about the week in sections as they come to me, so this might jump around a little, but it ends with Bunny Bennett and a promise to see you tomorrow.

Warning frank discussion of sex, pot and LSD use and cursing you fucking dumbshits. I promise not to be too gross.

I Joined, Figured Out, and Then Deleted Grindr, In One Single Day.

Pause for applause.

Grinder is not for highly specific queers. The title queer is feeling like the correctt word for me, as it also means weird. . So I’m polly, so far I’m deeply in love with two girls. I’ll be writing more about Heather and Meghan in the next few blogs. Promise girls.

I’m turned on by femininity. Not just sexually, feminine things were the bane of my childhood and now they draw me in. To make this simple my ideal girl, in pop culture for many, many reasons, is some variation of:

  ...35 and inserting gifs that make you blush...shame....

The thing is, I have for years been drawn to femboys and just shoved the feeling down. I can see the first guy I wanted to ask on a date vividly in my mind. I have a really hard time explaining it, but if Pearl were a boy, he’d be my dream guy. 

I’m also polly, so on the Internet I’m a ‘faggot cuck’

I promise tomorrow I will discuss the polly aspect of my sexuality in ore detail, for now just know I’m just complicated. 

Ok so, how do I convay any of that on Grindr? I can’t. I want to have a conversation. You cannot say that because it starts ‘hey’ then it’s just dick pics or boring, predictable bullshit.

I had a big realization. I’m a fucking jerk. I’ve been chatting online for decades and have treated the majority as badly as these guys treated me. Not that I sent dick pics, but if they didn’t do what I wanted I wasn’t nice or polite. Often I wouldn’t read their info well. I dunno. I felt pretty bad being ignored and hit on cause apparently I’m adorable?

...fat piece of shit.

The REALLY cute girls on grindr were a minimum 100 miles away. None want to do a long distant thing, which is really what I want right now. And frankly the guys I want to meet are girls. And I know I’m queer because the other day I said, ‘That cock is adorable’ and that is not what a straight man says. 

I feel a lot better saying all that. Let’s talk about my favorite game I need to quit.

I Can Spot A Catfish A Mile Away After Two Full Days Of Talking Out Loud

I was playing League and I out of no where got a friend request. I take all of these, usually remembering them from a recent game. Not this time. First thing ‘she’ said was “I always get call a catfish” DOT DOT DOT

This ‘girl’ played well, we chatted in game, ‘she’ was REALLY flirty and I bought ‘her�� many skins in game, maybe 50$ worth? Can’t remember for my embarrassment's sake. I begged this person to talk to me face to face on skype and they made it into a fight every time. So I cut it off.

This happened to me recently. This person refused to talk to me while we played games (me out loud into my headset, and ‘she’ replying in chat). Every hour I begged this person to talk to me in anyway. At first they told me they only spoke Japanese and ‘she’ was embarrassed about the language, ‘she’ understood me too well for that, think I literally said, ‘What are you Chewbacca?’

I basically just talked. They replied and were REALLY needy. I mentioned skins at last and they changed how they talked a lot but then suddenly, this person couldn’t talked to me because of childhood tongue biting induced tongue paralysis. Also their name was Soka Hui? Apparently?

They told me their family was massacred. Like RECENTLY. So I looked it up:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-wolf-family-murders-north-dakotas-most-brutal_us_57fbe48ae4b0b665ad818798

That’s scary tho if that person recorded me.

I Fell in Love With a Guy

I did not want to. I could hear the mocking voices of my brothers from my childhood, the ghosts of my high school, the word ‘faggot’ as anything but gross, not something that turned me on. Not something I whispered to a guy, begging me to...he didn’t love me. He sounded really fucking pretty when he said I love you. He said my name so beautifully the echo of it makes me cry as I write this now. 

I would have called him a fucking faggot in 1997 and been angry. Might have gotten violent.

Now I wish Dexter would just say anything, perched in my lap and...

Well it’s stupid to dwell on things. I learned a lesson. The lesson here is ‘you can’t win, but always try.’ 

Here’s why: I did everything right, this is how Meghan and I began. Dexter and I have talked on and off for months. For about 8...maybe a year. Dexter was my dirty little secret. 

He called me and moaned and we...you know whatever, but always behind Heather’s back (she knows now). I hated to admit that guy was really...

Well he got a hold of me at the beginning of the week.

He told me that he wanted me to make love to him, say ‘I love you’ to me on his boyfriend’s bed. I took this too mean he wanted me to be in love so...we talked. 

We talked for an hour and I was so in love. He was interesting and funny. He had comedy bits memorized. He loves Star Wars.I wanted to keep talking. I thought we’d at lest text later.

I wanted to Love Star Wars with him. I wanted to meet him and do whatever he wanted. He cut off the call...I should have known an hour was kind of short compared to girls I had talked to in the past.

I didn’t hear from him for 3 days.

I had all this confused love in me. I barfed it all up. He was masturbating. Trying to get me to talk about sex and I was stammering and nervous and near crying. I told he was my first guy...the guy I was in love with, for real and he cut me off. There was a really hard to describe, painful, awkward silence. 

I flashed back to all the folder of evidence I had that he loved me, the saw the mountain of facts that said he was just getting off to me using him. Or...something. We haven’t spoken since.

I told him ‘I have a lot of cosplay ideas’ and he laughed.

He said he had to go and I said ok. He said ‘Talk to y-’ but I hung up and threw the phone. Cried. Last my game of League. Told Heather and Meghan. Cried in the shower.

I told Meghan and Heather about this guy throughout the three days he went silent. Meghan has a number of really hot ideas involving some third male person. Heather is asexual but really really like the idea of live yaoi.

Dexy...Dexter hurt me, really badly. I tried anything for a few days to distract myself, the catfish, grindr, other guys I know from chat rooms. I over bared myself to them when I could just do that here and link it.

That leads me to:

If We Got Married No One Would Have to Change Their Last Names, Cartoonist Who Draws Like Me, Puppeteer Who Made a Way Better Puppet Than Me and I Love It and Other Reason Why I Might Be In Love With Isabella Bunny Bennett

A long time ago. And right now I’m pausing to see if I can find the thing...

Ok as far as I know it’s gone? Maybe I can get it from Linkara’s title card artist.

He and I interviewed Isabella back when she in the long ago times and it was one of the all time best conversations I had ever had in my life. She is bright and funny and clever and i’m crying again, what the...Ok I came back in twenty minutes later to fix this mess. I did start crying a little. It’s hard to remember it all but Bunny was so natural, we finished each other’s thoughts. I really wanted to talk forever. She’s so...shit literally crying...

This was a very long time ago, John was still in the band.I lost track and my internet presence took a nose dive. That will get many blogs.

Her twitter posts recently (Sept’17) are really lining up with how I feel.The normal places I thought I could meet someone online, are failing me. It’s frustrating, but I can do one thing at least. Flirt with Isabella. I flirt with art:

I got no context for this guy at the bottom...he didn’t get my context clearly.

Anyway

...

.....

...in the song Burning in the Stratosphere she makes a kissy noise and says...’I love you’ but at the beginning in a near whisper...chills. I wasn’t expecting it, really hadn’t visited the album it’s on til tonight.

I hope to talk more about Isabella in the future. I’m a chaos magician, so it’s likely to happen.