Making the Yuletide Gay!
Jan. 2nd, 2010 12:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
laliandraHappy 2010!
I had a most excellent New Year's Eve. It involved homemade hats and glitter glue, chocolate fondue, champagne cocktails from the roaring twenties, Nat making friends with a baby, much Inappropriateness and Innuendo("Is Ivy's flange warm?") and The Hat Game, Scattergories and The Humming Game.
\o/
I also kept people still living in the past apprised of the situation re: zombie uprisings and robots. Still no hoverboots. I'll keep you posted!
Anyway, today being the first, I can reveal my Yuletide story! And also talk a lot about the phenomenon known as Yuletide madness. Oh! And explain my present to my December ladies (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pigrescuer , jorajo , miabee023 )
I wrote Tipping The Balance, a fic for The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. If you would like to go read and then come back, my ramblings below might make some sense... You can comment here or on the Archive of Our Own!
I ended up signing up for Yuletide pretty much entirely because ofnovembersmith . She was going to do it for the first time and somehow (I'm still not entirely sure how. Really. She is dangerously persuasive.) she talked me into doing it too. I merrily signed up for a whole bunch of fandoms and got super excited.
So, when I got my Yuletide assignment it actually contained two of the fandoms that I had signed up for - The Graveyard Book and Havemercy. They were both very awesome prompts, but I really liked the Havemercy one. I was fairly sure I was going to write the Havemercy one. Thom! Balfour!
And I had read and loved The Graveyard Book but I hadn't shipped Bod/Silas. Not even a little. Havemercy was the one for me, even though it seemed kind of like cheating, seeing as I had already written two fics similar to the prompt.
And then I thought of one conversation between Bod and Silas. And then I had to write it.
Then, I panicked. Oh god, did I ever panic. I flailed at dearest, patientbrimtoast and CAPLOCKED (with love, darling!) at novemberlauren and freaked out via Skype at kaiserkuchen . My basic problems were
1) OH MY GOD YOU GUYS, NEIL GAIMAN ROCKS. I had to re-read the book lots, obviously, and I got massively intimidated. He wrote so well, such lovely prose and clever dialogue and OMG I could never capture that amazing tone that the book has.
Kaz was very lovely and soothing and explained about how it would be my story in the end.
2) [this one is weirder] Okay, so, I was first exposed to The Graveyard Book by listening to Neil Gaiman read it out loud. And this meant that my brain inexplicably could only hear Silas AS NEIL GAIMAN. Like, all his lines came out as Neil Gaiman in my head. Which was an issue. Because I love Neil Gaiman, I want him and Stephen Fry to be my Awesome Storytelling Uncles, but I cannot put him is slashy situations! ISSUE!
Kaz solved this one by laughing at me. A lot. Thanks bb.
When I spoke to Kaz, by the way, I estimated that my story, at the time about 1,500 words, might reach 3000ish, at a push. AHAHA.
As I've said previously, I didn't have a lot of free time in December, so I did a lot of writing on the bus. I got really annoyed when people came and sat next to me. It is hard to write fic when there is an old man sitting next to you.
And then when I talked about Bod and Silas to other people, we all realised that we hadn't thought of shipping Bod and Silas, but that we really, really did. I mean, it is the most ninja ship that ever snuck up on a person and gave them a whole new OTP. So thank you,jain , for coming up with this prompt! I have never known True Love like this!
Anyway, back to the story of the story. Usually, I write stories for people's birthdays, or agree to do their bidding for the day. But there were three fabulous ladies having birthdays in December, and I knew that I would never be able to find time to write them something. So, as a placeholder present, I gave PR, jorajo and Ariana characters in my Yuletide fic. Did you recognise yourself?!
Much scribbling, cursing Lauren and rereading later, I finally got it done, and betaed (mostly on the deadline day, sorry Kara!) and posted and then I was relieved and overjoyed.
Then, Christmas Day, the fics went up! I waited on tenderhooks! My recipient finally commented and said that she liked it! And then I got comments and did a Dance of Joy for every single one. No lie!
And now I get to share Yuletide with everyone. Yuletide is amazing. There are thousands of fics, and I have hardly begun reading but seriously. There is fic for the unexpected and the delightful. I suggest that you go readnovembersmith 's recs, and then go to her author page and read everything there, because she was a crazy, wonderful person and wrote FOUR fics and I assure you, they are all AMAZING.
Plus, she deserves some extra love, because without her, I would never have got so very much Yuletide Treasure - a wonderful story of my own, some unbelievably nice comments, the proud, real ficcer feeling of having a AO3 account and the joy of seeing so many people just being so happy and geekishly delighted by things that they love. <3
I had a most excellent New Year's Eve. It involved homemade hats and glitter glue, chocolate fondue, champagne cocktails from the roaring twenties, Nat making friends with a baby, much Inappropriateness and Innuendo("Is Ivy's flange warm?") and The Hat Game, Scattergories and The Humming Game.
\o/
I also kept people still living in the past apprised of the situation re: zombie uprisings and robots. Still no hoverboots. I'll keep you posted!
Anyway, today being the first, I can reveal my Yuletide story! And also talk a lot about the phenomenon known as Yuletide madness. Oh! And explain my present to my December ladies (
pigrescuer , jorajo , miabee023 ) I wrote Tipping The Balance, a fic for The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. If you would like to go read and then come back, my ramblings below might make some sense... You can comment here or on the Archive of Our Own!
I ended up signing up for Yuletide pretty much entirely because of
novembersmith . She was going to do it for the first time and somehow (I'm still not entirely sure how. Really. She is dangerously persuasive.) she talked me into doing it too. I merrily signed up for a whole bunch of fandoms and got super excited.So, when I got my Yuletide assignment it actually contained two of the fandoms that I had signed up for - The Graveyard Book and Havemercy. They were both very awesome prompts, but I really liked the Havemercy one. I was fairly sure I was going to write the Havemercy one. Thom! Balfour!
And I had read and loved The Graveyard Book but I hadn't shipped Bod/Silas. Not even a little. Havemercy was the one for me, even though it seemed kind of like cheating, seeing as I had already written two fics similar to the prompt.
And then I thought of one conversation between Bod and Silas. And then I had to write it.
Then, I panicked. Oh god, did I ever panic. I flailed at dearest, patient
brimtoast and CAPLOCKED (with love, darling!) at novemberlauren and freaked out via Skype at kaiserkuchen . My basic problems were1) OH MY GOD YOU GUYS, NEIL GAIMAN ROCKS. I had to re-read the book lots, obviously, and I got massively intimidated. He wrote so well, such lovely prose and clever dialogue and OMG I could never capture that amazing tone that the book has.
Kaz was very lovely and soothing and explained about how it would be my story in the end.
2) [this one is weirder] Okay, so, I was first exposed to The Graveyard Book by listening to Neil Gaiman read it out loud. And this meant that my brain inexplicably could only hear Silas AS NEIL GAIMAN. Like, all his lines came out as Neil Gaiman in my head. Which was an issue. Because I love Neil Gaiman, I want him and Stephen Fry to be my Awesome Storytelling Uncles, but I cannot put him is slashy situations! ISSUE!
Kaz solved this one by laughing at me. A lot. Thanks bb.
When I spoke to Kaz, by the way, I estimated that my story, at the time about 1,500 words, might reach 3000ish, at a push. AHAHA.
As I've said previously, I didn't have a lot of free time in December, so I did a lot of writing on the bus. I got really annoyed when people came and sat next to me. It is hard to write fic when there is an old man sitting next to you.
And then when I talked about Bod and Silas to other people, we all realised that we hadn't thought of shipping Bod and Silas, but that we really, really did. I mean, it is the most ninja ship that ever snuck up on a person and gave them a whole new OTP. So thank you,
jain , for coming up with this prompt! I have never known True Love like this!Anyway, back to the story of the story. Usually, I write stories for people's birthdays, or agree to do their bidding for the day. But there were three fabulous ladies having birthdays in December, and I knew that I would never be able to find time to write them something. So, as a placeholder present, I gave PR, jorajo and Ariana characters in my Yuletide fic. Did you recognise yourself?!
Much scribbling, cursing Lauren and rereading later, I finally got it done, and betaed (mostly on the deadline day, sorry Kara!) and posted and then I was relieved and overjoyed.
Then, Christmas Day, the fics went up! I waited on tenderhooks! My recipient finally commented and said that she liked it! And then I got comments and did a Dance of Joy for every single one. No lie!
And now I get to share Yuletide with everyone. Yuletide is amazing. There are thousands of fics, and I have hardly begun reading but seriously. There is fic for the unexpected and the delightful. I suggest that you go read
novembersmith 's recs, and then go to her author page and read everything there, because she was a crazy, wonderful person and wrote FOUR fics and I assure you, they are all AMAZING.Plus, she deserves some extra love, because without her, I would never have got so very much Yuletide Treasure - a wonderful story of my own, some unbelievably nice comments, the proud, real ficcer feeling of having a AO3 account and the joy of seeing so many people just being so happy and geekishly delighted by things that they love. <3
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-01-02 01:27 am (UTC)And I am VERY disappointed in myself for not finding out about Yuletide until certain members of my flist were flailing with distress over it half way through December, because it would have been awesome to participate in. Curses! Ah well, always next year! :D
I will say again my lovely, your fic is awesome. I would have cried with glee to have anything even half so wonderful and perfect to be written for me, so just generally YOU ROCK AND ARE AWESOME AND DID I MENTION I LOVE YOU?!?
Also, Pia fills my heart with joy! Not just for being an awesome character but for being so perfectly IC, as of course she is! :D
Love you! Happy 2010! xxxxx
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Date: 2010-01-02 03:57 am (UTC)CANNOT WAIT TO READ. XDDDD
Neil Gaiman is v v intimidating, je suis d'accord - he is also, as you note, an awesome audiobooker (ahahahahahaha i would have laughed too, it is funny). Bod/Silas also does not strike me as something I would ship (though it reminds me in a weird way of Frodo/Aragorn. I might be way off-base with that one, though).
GLAD IT WAS AWESOME, BB! HERE, HAVE RECS FOR RANDOM AI STUFF I READ TODAY:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/33134 - Adam is an angel (for realz, yo. Halo and everything) and there are chocolate chip cookies involved.
http://shelbecat.livejournal.com/249576.html - Kradam at Christmas in LA.
http://community.livejournal.com/queenbitchfest/16312.html - Okay, so Bradam is my new favourite thing ever, and this is my all-time fav bradam fic. someone in the comments described it as "the perfect dessert" and i agree forever
http://winterlive.livejournal.com/497434.html - more bradam! also more winterlive <3 <3
http://winterlive.livejournal.com/509666.html - this is bradam porn. It's good bradam porn. But it's bradam porn.
http://community.livejournal.com/aiholidaybash/8527.html - this is bradam trying to decorate for the holidays. obvs there is glitter
MOAR RANDOM FIC
http://community.livejournal.com/fakenews_fanfic/872198.html - oh drake. why so hilarious?
http://archiveofourown.org/works/37247?view_adult=true - a retelling of Beauty and the Beast that's kind of awesome.
Weird, but awesome.
http://longsufferingly.livejournal.com/9368.html - Anne of Green Gables fic. WHAT <3
HAPPY NEW YEARS, YOU XDDDD THANKS FOR THE MESSAGE FROM THE FUTURE!
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Date: 2010-01-02 04:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-02 04:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-02 08:28 pm (UTC)Also, hi. <3
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Date: 2010-01-02 08:29 pm (UTC)SEE, I TOLD YOU YOU WOULD LOVE IT. The panicking and flailing is part of what makes it fun! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
ps, ilu.
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Date: 2010-01-03 03:55 pm (UTC)HOW WOULD YOU LIKE YOUR YT COMMENT? I am trying to work up the nerve to comment on the stories on AO3 directly, which shouldn't be hard really, and I am clearly just psyching myself out again, but I have been checking the comments out and oh man some of the people who commented! O_Obb SO AWESOME. I am glad that I could have helped you in the little ways that I could, and now that I am back in Vienna am also totally up for us returning to having our usual skype sessions! I NEED MORE THAN ONE WAY TO SPAM YOU, MISSY!
And I have also been stalking people's YT rec lists-- and man oh man this year has been utterly fab so far! I love all the fairytale retellings, the COMMUNITY! fic and the Big Bang Theory fic and the other TV series that don't have such large fandoms. Will probably make a stab at looking at some book fandoms next :DD
FOR A BEGINNING, SOME THOUGHTS I HAD ON THE FIC:
-SPOILER ALERT: I LOVED IT and reading the complete thing the first time reminded me of the feeling I had when I read the finished version of my author's SPN BB after having read her drafts too, the way you read the story looking for the scenes you already know and love and then as an extra added bonus, you're surprised by the new scenes, or the different way things are sorted/structured.
-I STILL LOVE BOD AND HIS TRAVELS AND HIS FRIENDS. They have lists! And polite interrogations! I think I would also want to have a list of things that I knew about Bod, if we were friends, and slowly teasing information and little facts out of him must be such a fun challenge. Also, the TEAM SCIENCE and playing for both teams bit was cute :D
-SILAS AND HIS CASTLE!! Bod interpreting things for the locals! Speaking Russian! I am always excited when characters in fic are all multilingual and skilled, and if I read enough of it I even start thinking of taking a new one up or improving my current ones (No lies, reading Star Trek cadet-era fic actually got me pumped about trying to be better at uni courses, lol of all the things)
-I think you really nailed the transition of Bod's thoughts about Silas, and I was waiting for where you'd put the hugging-->kissing thoughts revelation and it was brilliantly placed ♥
-YOU ACTUALLY REALLY WORKED THAT 'inbetween' MOTIF ABOUT BOD AND MADE IT ABOUT BOD AND SILAS' RELATIONSHIP AND IT WAS KIND OF PERFECT AND WONDERFUL.
-I LOVE YOUUUUUUUUU
-Scrolling through just now, I also saw that bit again with Bod and his wine and Silas and his glass of what ~almost looked like wine~ in the light and hah! That was a really deft description that made me smile :D
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Date: 2010-01-03 04:08 pm (UTC)Seriously, I just kept reading these awesome passages and weeping onto my keyboard in a frenzy of I AM NOT WORTHY. I did not ship even a little bit when I read the book. But it is a stealth ninja heart stealer of a ship.
OMG RECS YAY ILRECS. Also you. But gleeee! I should really be packing because I fly to SA tomorrow but KRADAM AND BRADAM. Bradam is AMAZING. I have, like, 200 words of it that I wrote somewhere. Huh. Anyway, thank you bb!
THE FUTURE REMAINS AWESOME :D
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Date: 2010-01-03 04:10 pm (UTC)Silly me, I should have said! You need to go the Archieve of Our Own, and then to the Yuletide Collection - http://archiveofourown.org/collections/yuletide2009
Then you can do all sorts of cool searches and browse to your hearts content. So much fic!
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Date: 2010-01-03 04:13 pm (UTC)You should join in next year! It was so much fun, even the panic, and me and november will talk you through it. By which I mean, panic with you.
I am overjoyed that you liked my fic and also Pia because our PR rocks and deserves nothing but LOVE.
&hearts
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Date: 2010-01-03 04:14 pm (UTC)I DID I REALLY DID AND OMG YULETIDE IS THE BEST THING EVER.
ps, ilumore
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Date: 2010-01-03 04:24 pm (UTC)Comment! EE! However you would like, bb! OpenID is not that hard, you know!
AA! I am so pleased that you liked it! YAAAAAAY. It IS fun seeing things under construction, yes.
I LOVE THE LOVE FOR BOD'S FRIENDS. I mean, I love them, but people can be very leery of OCs, so \o/ Also, Team Art high five! My beta was like, "Lal, I think you might need to flag up Bod's sexuality a little" so I wrote that bit.
CASTLE LOVE. WOO. Miss Lupescu would have taught him Russian, I'm sure. Bod has the skillz, oh yeah.
<3 I am RELIEVED. That bit kicked my ass.
YAAAAAY MOTIF. My favourite ones are the ones that just grow out of nowhere, and this one did, and it seems to have worked nicely. That conversation was part of the one that I first thought of.
I LOVE YOOOOOOOOOU!!! &hearts
Glee! I really wanted to put in a little oblique reference to Silas's vampirism, there are so many really good ones in the book.
:D:D:D
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Date: 2010-01-03 04:30 pm (UTC)OCs CAN BE GREAT WHEN THE WRITER IS SURE AND SKILLED AND YOU THE READER CAN PUT YOUR TRUST IN THEM, AND I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW LAL THAT YOU HAVE MY TRUST IN A NICE LITTLE WICKER BASKET WITH MAGENTA RIBBONS WOVEN IN. MADE OUT OF THE FINEST METAPHOR :DD
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Date: 2010-01-03 04:48 pm (UTC)THAT IS THE BEST METAPHOR EVER. :D
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Date: 2010-01-03 05:00 pm (UTC)I TRY MY BEST FOR YOU BB ♥
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Date: 2010-01-03 08:28 pm (UTC)Hello! <3 I miss you! I keep failing to come and leave you long comments of love and general adoration and then totally failing because Hannah = failure at the moment. But I do love and miss you!
And now I have some time I am going to go and read your Yuletide fics and will doubtless leave a long and rambling comment of adoration somewhere. :)
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Date: 2010-01-03 08:31 pm (UTC)I will! And I will panic and cry and remember that actually I cannot write at all and you will probably have to write it all for me so I don't hand over a pile of rubbish, but I will try!
I am overjoyed aussi. :) And PR (like your fine and beautiful self) does indeed deserve nothing but love and thank you for reminding me to message her about sending Gaiman on!
<3
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Date: 2010-01-04 09:16 pm (UTC)So basically I have to read The Graveyard Book now, eh? I curse the translator(s?) of the Good Omens I read years ago. I was so freaking disappointed, because everybody loved Good Omens, and here I am reading a book without humour and without proper grammar... It made me vary of everything Gaiman for years, and I still prefer his blog to his books, even after reading everything in English and deciding that yes, he is as good as everybody says...;) Um, I don't know what this rant came from. :O
But Yuletide! Yuletide is wonderful, even if I can't participate, just read, read, read... I even found a wonderful Swallows and Amazons story!
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Date: 2010-01-05 04:02 am (UTC)YEAH, THAT'S ALL I ABSORBED FROM THAT.
I NEED IT. I LOVE YOU <3 WRITE MOAR. LOL :)
HAVE FUN IN SA!!!!!!!! OH YOU LUCKY THING YOU.
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Date: 2010-01-21 01:07 pm (UTC)The Graveyard Book is my favourite Neil Gaiman by quite a long way. I love his blog (he's getting married! To Amanda Palmer! <3) too, he's awesome. But yes, I loved TGB a lot, as opposed to some of his other writing which I sort of appreciated in a purely "I can see that that this is clever and brilliant" way. So, yes, basically, you must!
Yuletide IS wonderful. I saw a lot of recs for the Swallows and Amazongs fic, but I decided I was too weirded out by the concept of S&A future fic because, well, I know what happened to one of them. My very best friend from childhood's grandmother was one of Arthur Ransom's best friends and he based the character of Titty on her. So. Yeah. Too odd for me!
no subject
Date: 2010-01-21 03:13 pm (UTC)AND MY LETTERS AND CARD (IT IS SO GORGEOUS!) AND ALL MY SWEEETS. OMNOMNOMNOM. THERE IS ONLY ONE LOLLY LEFT ALREADY. YAY CANADANIA. ALSO, AAHAHAHAHAHAHA YOU SENT ME A SEX ADVICE COLUMN AS A ~GIFT. I HAVE THE BEST FRIENDS. IT IS THE MOST DUDE ADVICE COLUMN EVER. ILIT.
YOU ARE A DARLING! THANK YOU SO MUCH!
AS YOUR REWARD, LOOK WHAT I DUG OUT...
AHA so let's pretend I didn't just write this in 10 minutes when I am supposed to be editing my other fic. Something to be going along with? I promise one day I will actually, you know, make it good...
Brad doesn’t get how this happened.
He’s always been really good at spotting those kinds of guys. The ones who will dance with you and drink with you and fuck you until you can barely breathe, but who, when they look at you, have something else in their eyes. The ones who see nights in, post war apartments, rings and dogs and maybe an adorable adoptee or two. The ones who want to settle down and make you promise to only look at all the other pretty temptations of this world. Brad can usually see them a mile off, and kiss them off just as easily. He likes to sample, thank you very much, window-shopping is for the repressed. And he fucking hates dogs.
But Adam had looked at him and there had been, something, but not that. So Brad had bought him drinks that he really couldn’t afford. He had danced with him and taken him home to paint the sheets with sweat and glitter. And he had kept taking Adam home because Adam was the prettiest thing in the room, why shouldn’t he? It wasn’t like it mattered, wasn’t like Adam was that kind of guy.
Then they pushed their mess of clothes off the bed and Brad couldn’t remember the last time they slept apart. Then Adam looked at him, hair wild and eyes wilder and Brad had to smile at him before he kissed him. Then Brad sees that, something, again, and this time he knows what it is.
Adam doesn’t see anything so mundane as jointly owned real estate. Adam sees destiny and soulmates and romance. Adam sees kisses in front of fireworks, with perfectly choreographed dancing and a Frank Sinatra soundtrack. Adam sees love, of the real, forever, one true variety.
Brad tries, and fails, not to freak the fuck out.
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Date: 2010-01-21 04:11 pm (UTC)*eyes the unread pile next to bed*
I'll go and see if The Graveyard Book is in my library, then. I saw they're getting married, how lovely!
Oooh. You knew one of my favourite book characters. That's... well, sort of wonderful, but I can see why you could be weirded out. :)
How was your holiday?
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Date: 2010-01-22 01:16 pm (UTC)Yes, she was completely awesome. She was slightly mad artist type and knew all sorts of exciting people and wore a lot of scarves. I thought she was one of the coolest people I know. My friend is also super artistic and I always thought that she would be some sort of artist, but she is now doing a PHD in biology!
It was amazing, I'm going to post about it soon, promise! But it's nice to be back. Have you had a good January so far, dear?
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Date: 2010-01-22 01:51 pm (UTC)I'm so glad to hear it! I remember how sad I was after learning that Jean-Jacques Sempé whose drawings I simply adore, is in fact nothing like Nicholas I imagined him to be... :)
By the way, biology I expect could be very artistic... My best friend is a scientist, and she makes physics sound so wonderful, romantic and artistic that I always get gripped by a horrible sadness that I cannot possibly understand her work...
Wonderful! And thank you, January's been good this far, if a little spazzy. I'm very excited that my drawing offer for
no subject
Date: 2010-01-24 11:58 pm (UTC)askdf;nasdlk OKAY SO BRADAM. YOU WROTE BRADAM AND BRADAM IS NEARLY MY FAVOURITE THING ON EARTH (uhm. It cannot beat Nutella. Sorry, Bradam).
And he fucking hates dogs is honestly my favourite line. Also
And he had kept taking Adam home because Adam was the prettiest thing in the room, why shouldn’t he?
I *love* freaked-out Brad, who is all 'adsdjfn;sdlk nooooooo what is happening get me out of here' but he can't bring himself too because he is all 'uhm :) &hearteyes' and then Adam makes him pancakes so he sort of forgets to. THIS IS SO AWESOME. I LOVE IT. AND YOU.
AND BRADAM.