rivers_bend

I watched it as it aired! Not only on Friday night, but at 9 o'clock. For the first time all season, not counting the episode at Wincon. I feel like I've maybe gotten past my disillusionment with it as a fandom show, and have found a place where I can go back to liking it on its merits as a TV show on its own. This makes me happy :D

( a thought on the actual episode )

It is said that writing is a solitary pursuit. I have never really found this to be true for me, even less so with this story. I owe a debt of gratitude to many people.

This story literally would not exist if it weren't for blue_soaring. I wrote the original little scene a hundred years ago because she was having a crappy day, and it was her love for this Adam and Tommy that prompted me to keep going. And going and going and going. I spent almost a year writing this, and she never stopped cheerleading, being a sounding board, and figuring out what Tommy was thinking when he was eluding me. When I was sure this story wouldn't have an ending, she found it. So this story is truly hers from start to finish (and she might kill me if I don't make sure you all know that ;P)

She also made me an amazing soundtrack.
soundtrack by blue_soaring here
1. Grace Kelly - The Motion Sick
2. Mercy Kiss - Abandoned Pools
3. Revival - Orgy
4. Anone Can Play Guitar - Radio Head
5. Ramalama [Bang Bang] - Roisin Murphy
6. Modern Romance - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
7. The Hand That Feeds - Nine Inch Nails
8. I'll Believen In Anything - Wolf Parade
9. Mistaken for Strangers - The National
10. Last Love Song For Now - Okkervil River
11. Sad, Sad Song - M. Ward
12. Everyone's a Junkie - Our Lady Peace
13. In a Minute - Ours
14. Don Quixote - Pencey Prep
15. The Kids From Yesterday - My Chemical Romance

This story also would not be what it is without miss_begonia. She took an insanely long and ridiculously rough draft--it barely had a single finished scene in it--and gave me detailed notes on it like I hadn't seen since giving things to my thesis advisors in grad school. She uttered the now-imortal words, "use the treehouse". And not only that, she listened to me babble about Adam and Tommy and high school and teenagers and so much sex for HOURS AND HOURS over the last year. Plus, she too made me a fantastic mix. (how lucky am I? TWO MIXES :D :D :D \O/)

soundtrack by miss_begonia here
1. Goodbye, Bear/Love Me Dead - Ludo
2. I'm Not Okay (I Promise) - My Chemical Romance
3. Grand Theft Autumn (Where Is Your Boy) - Fall Out Boy
4. Bum Like You - Robyn
5. The Night Starts Here - Stars
6. I Would Do Anything For You - Foster the People
7. The First Taste - Fiona Apple
8. Games People Play - Lissie
9. You Are Not Alone - Mavis Staples
10. Rootless Tree - Damien Rice
11. Take Care - Drake (feat. Rihanna)
12. Waves and the Both of Us - Charlotte Sometimes
13. Slow Ride - Bonnie Raitt
14. Everybody Here Wants You - Patrick Stump
15. Skinny Love - Bon Iver

I also could not have done this without my beta, isweedan and my team of pre-readers, many of whom only got to see a scene or two, but all of whom provided immeasurable help in a time of need: littlemousling, geeklite, and aislinntlc.

And thanks, of course, to i_bleed_magenta for all her organizational work running lambliffbigbang and to my artist, rude_bunny for all my boy!kisses!

fic master post

Title: You Only Live Forever
Author: rivers_bend
Artist: rude_bunny
Type: High School AU romance
Word Count: 70,000 words
Rating: NC17
Characters/Pairings: Adam/Tommy (Adam’s family, Tommy’s family, Danielle Stori)
The Obvious: I do not know any of the people whose names and public personas are used in this story and do not mean to imply this ever happened.
Content Notes [Warnings]: explicit sexual content between teenagers; libido-based decision making, later regretted; pot smoking; mentions of homophobic bullying and hatespeech.
Summary: Adam hasn’t seen his best friend Tommy much since his family moved to the other side of LA when they were eleven, and hasn’t seen him at all since Tommy’s thirteenth birthday party. Then Tommy calls out of the blue and Adam discovers the whole thing where he thinks he’d like to kiss a boy someday isn’t just theoretical. But Tommy’s changed a lot since they were little, and Adam isn’t always sure what he’s thinking.

A story of friendship, love, sex, and figuring out who you are.

( Art and links under a cut )