So, I was so nervous. Clutching onto the bowl that contained my jelly brain so my hands wouldn't shake, I insisted on having it in the photo cos I was cosplaying Molly (poorly but whatevs). Anyways, I was first in line cos there was only like 3 people so they ushered me through and OMG THERE WAS MOLLY HOOPER. "Hello darling, you look amazing'" and Louise had her arms held out to hug me as if I was an old friend and I almost went weak at the knees as I cautiously hugged her back, "Hi," I managed to squeak, "how are you?" "I'm well, love. How are you?" "Amazing, you look lovely." I say (kinda lame but yeah i compliment people when i'm nervous) "Aw thank you darling" she spots the brain, "oh my gosh is that a brain? That's so cool! Oh my goodness you actually have a brain." "Yeah," I laughed, "it's jelly, you can poke it if you want!" I said, automatically (I'd been saying it to people at the convention all day) "Can i?" she asked, eagerly. "Yeah, of course! Go for it!" She poked the brain and laughed. Then we got the photo you see above and she asked, "Are you here all three days for the convention?" "No. Just today. But I have a ticket for an autograph." "Great! I'll see you in a minute, then. I have to ask you about that brain!" I was turning bright red as I was ushered out of the booth, singing thank yous to louise over my shoulder. About 10 minutes later, I was standing at her autograph table. Amazingly, I was the only one. Not even a queue behind me (miracle tbh), "Hello, again!" She chirps when I get to the table, "I didn't catch your name before." "Oh, yeah, I'm Merryana." I say, rather clumsily. "That's lovely," she says and I thank her, "seriously though," she says, "you have to tell me about that brain. How on earth did you get it?" I laughed and explained to her it was just a mould my friend had bought to make jelly brains for a zombie party, once. She asks if she could eat it. I said I wouldn't recommend because it's not flavored jelly just colored gello and randoms have been touching it all day. We talked about the storms that had hit Brisbane for a bit and she mentioned her car window got smashed in. The nerves got to me, then and I blurted out, "Sorry, you probably get this a lot but yours and Benedict's kiss is pretty much my favourite thing. Molly Hooper in general is just my ffavoritecharacter in the universe, really.. It's amazing! So, thank you for that." "Aw bless your heart. Thank you." She signs the photo and even makes the effort to make sure my name is spelt right which I thought was pretty rad considering the amount of hurried autographs I have where it's spelt wrong, While she signs, I ask her how Australia has been for her and she tells me she's been enjoying it now she's over the jet lag, "Yeah, jet lag sucks and we're pretty far off." I say, "I saw on your Twitter you were up at 3am." "God," she says, "I felt so strange that night. Really-" she pulls a face, "crazy, you know?" "Yeah," I say, "I love your Twitter feed btw. Especially, all the articles and tidbits on feminism. I think it's really important." "Wow, that's so great of you to mention that. I'm glad people like it. It's something that's become really important to me over the years and it's good raise awareness." "Did that have something to do with what drew you to Molly?" I ask. "God, no." She answers, "not really. She was such a small character in the beginning. I just wanted to be a part of it all, really. The script was so brilliant and clever I just wanted to be a part of it." "Cool." I say, "you're amazing." I feel like hitting myself at this point. Someone should because I'm practically catatonic, she laughs, "Thank you, darling. If you're not doing anything later you should come back over and have a chat." YEP, defiantly catatonic. "Okay," I say breathlessly, "thank you so much." Behind me, there's someone waiting, "see you later" "Bye love," she calls out, "oh and thank you for making the effort to dress up. I'm touched. You look great." "Thank you!" So, as you can imagine I went back about half an hour later and when I did loo stood up and, "Hello, merryana!" "Oh god you remembered my name that's awesome!- holy crap I just said that out loud, didn't I?" "Yeah," she smiled, "you did." "Right, then. Is it okay if I have another autograph?" I stammer, "Yeah, darling!" She says, "what do you want signed? The pash?" She points to the photo that's the still of Molly and Sherlocks kiss in the empty hearse, "The pash?" She says, "Yes, please." I giggle, "that's a good photo, actually." "Not the best one." She muses. "My face is in shadow, I look like a smudge or a woman of color" (how cute is she? i cannot even-) "I heard it took you guys 4 takes." "About that, I think. I mean, if I knew people were going to be so concerned, I would have counted. But I wasn't really thinking about it." "I don't blame you for that." I laugh and she laughs too, catching my drift, she then signs the still and spells my name correctly without asking. A major thing for me, considering she had only heard me spell it once and I've had teachers for four years who couldn't do it. "Seriously though, look my head is so small it's the size of Benedicts hand in that photo. You can hardly see me." "You can see Ben's jawline though" I say without thinking, "You can see Ben's everything and he looks amazing and I'm just a smudge." She laughs, waving the photo around, "No! You can tell its you." I say, rather lamely, "you both look ridiculously great. Don't worry!" "Yeah we do!" She agrees. So then, cos there's no one in the queue I ask her if she has any plans after the convention and she tells me she's staying with one of her dear friends on the coast who has a pool but he sent her a photo of it and it's got mud and leaves in it from the storms, "It'll be 'lright, sure you can still swim" I say (I can be so bloody Australian sometimes that I even impress myself) "It's kind of disgusting." She muses, "I might turn into a sea monster or something." I put on a dumb voice, "Louise Brealey actress turned swamp creature from the deep" she properly laughs at that. I nearly die. "God, I'd be terrifying!" Then, asks me if I recommend any good places on the coast. I felt like an idiot and told her I'd never been to that part of the coast she's going so I'd be no help there and we talked about how odd it is that people tend to see less of the places they live in because they live there. She tells me there's lots of places in Scotland and England that she's never been. But at that moment, a fan hovers near me. Making a fuss over the photos of the sherlolly kiss and I know our conversation is over. "Well, Merryana it was lovely chatting with you." It sounds really genuine. "And you!" I say, "thanks so much!" "Are you going home now?" She asks, "Pretty much" I say, "I only really came to meet you so" I shrugged. She smiles and takes my hand to shake it in both of her own. I feel like crying. "Have a lovely weekend." She says, "and thank you so much. It really was lovely to meet you." "Enjoy Australia loo." I babble as she lets go of my hand, "see you!" oh yeah and she signed my photo with "i love your brain!" if you were curious :) So yeah that's it. I'm still buzzing. Its probably one of the best meet and greets I've ever experienced cos she's just the embodiment of lovely. This year I've met her and
