#hellcheer fanfic: jsywfyam

[hangon-silvergirl]

just something you wished for & you almost missed (WIP) a hellcheer christmas story by @majicmarker and @hangon-silvergirl

“Uh.” More blinking, and he clears his throat, too. “Hi.” “Hi.” Oh, no, even her voice is cute, like—like—fucking jingle bells, God damn it, Eddie hates himself right now, but—but—her eyes dart to his face quick, like she didn’t want to be caught looking somewhere else, and if he’s not woefully mistaken, Eddie’s pretty sure somewhere else was his exposed arms, and her face goes less pink like her boots, more pink like her leggings, and hell yeah he can work with that.

Chapters:

blame it on christmas, why i’m actin’ a fool

oh, what a christmas to have the blues

i'm mr. green christmas, i'm mr. sun

and this year i will fall, with no worries at all

tbd

[hangon-silvergirl]

Ah!!! 😍

Eddie meets the cats.

Cunningham house, late June of ‘88.

[hangon-silvergirl]

Oh my gosh, I just finished reading "Just something you wished for & you almost missed", and I just had to say that it is such a wonderful world that you've built. I wish I could climb inside and live there forever. Thank you guys so much, I was grinning like a fool the whole time I read this! 🥰

🖤🖤🖤

Aw, thank you!! 💜 We had a lot of fun imagining that setting and their life together.

One of these days @majicmarker I will finish it!

[hangon-silvergirl]

A03 marks me as reading JSYWF&YAM 58 times, but I think that’s underestimating my fixation. Anyway, I love the scenes that are written between the lines - like I love the idea that Chrissy fell asleep at Eddie’s by accident on night while reading together in bed or watching TV in bed and it sort of morphed into, “wow, I got great sleep, can we do that again but on purpose?” And that is how they fell into practically living together. Your headcanon may be completely different and it would still be perfect for them and it doesn’t even need to be written. It just is and is them, like how they love each other.

FIRST OF ALL dslfhgjaldhfugklsdkjg 🥰🥰🥰

Secondly, thank you. with just something... @majicmarker and I really set out to tell an unconventional love story, as well as an unconventional (or perhaps non-traditional) take on the slow-burn. There's no right or wrong way to fall in love, to build a relationship, and so much of it is small moments that most people don't even see. My husband an I will have been together fifteen years tomorrow, and me realizing I was in love with him was this totally innocuous moment where we were in his old shitbox Taurus. We were listening to Rise Against, and "Swing Life Away" came on, and he just reached over and held my hand. I just thought to myself holy shit, I'm gonna marry this dude.

Anyway, again, thank you so much for this!

You're wonderful and you made my day. ❤️

[hangon-silvergirl]

⭐️

Thank you! 🥰

In the opening chapter of 'just something...', Chrissy comes up on the girl scouts selling cookies early in the park. I was wanting Chrissy to find something that was so sweet it would shoo off her rain cloud, and got this "cute little girls with cookies!!!!" scene in my head, but I was dismayed to find out when cookie season actually was (I am Canadian, so I had to Google it), and unfortunately for my brain I am really pedantic about these sorts of details so immediately, sadly ruled it out (like in Marigold, for instance, where I Googled moon phases to know if there would be a full moon on a particular date so I could accurately describe the setting). Anyway, I bemoaned this discovery to @majicmarker and she said "well maybe they're cheating girl scouts." And you know what, YEAH.

Thus, cute, cheating girl scouts. Sometimes you just need someone else to tell you it's okay to break the rules...!

Fanfic Directors Cut

[hangon-silvergirl]

💯

From this ask: Send me a 100 emoji and I'll write 100 words of (one of my current WIP(s) and share my favorite sentence/section.

This is from the next chapter of mine and @majicmarker's xmas fic, just something you wished for & you almost missed:

You could easily condense the last two weeks into a very demonstrative romantic-esque montage of her and Eddie; just the concept makes her tummy somersault and her brain broadcast television static.

Thanks, @khaleesa!

[hangon-silvergirl]

Find the Word Tag Game

I was tagged by @astorytotellyourfriends (❤️) to find lose, tear, accept, and shake in my WIPs (and to post the snippets).

Amazingly, I found all of them!

lose, from an upcoming one-shot titled keggers & synth-pop:

(Or else he’d lose his fucking mind.)

tear, from chapter 10 of Marigold:

“After banging on the thrift store doors half a second past opening, yes indeedy,” Eddie replies with a grin. “They are really, really ugly with these radical goddamn, like, electric, neon palm trees, on it? And will clash like fuck with my tattoos and my personality. Buuuuuut I’m not expecting to run into Tommy Ioomi in Gary today, so. But if by some freak circumstance we do, know that the tears I'll shed afterward will be entirely justified.”

accept, from chapter 10 of the buzz:

You (9:14): well FUCK OFF then You (9:14): i will NOT let a man named STEVE throw cold water on the best fever dream of a day that i’ve ever had TheHairTM (9:15): I acknowledge and accept your disdain.

shake, from chapter 5 of just something you wished for & you almost missed (writing with @majicmarker):

Chrissy shakes her head. “We adapted. I told you, we didn’t want to exclude anyone. But for the sake of your milk I’m not going to tell you what those categories were called.”

I'll tag (with no pressure) @a-strange-inkling, @khaleesa, @bratanimus, @amandaashplease, and @majicmarker to find grin, sharp, blue, and try.

[hangon-silvergirl]

i just SQUEALED looking at my ao3 inbox!!! haven't read yet but can't wait to DEVOUR and reread the newest chapter of "just something" truly you + coffee shops + majicmarker/kattyshack = MAGIC

You're so lovely, thank you! 🥰 I hope you enjoyed it/do enjoy it when you get to read it. 💗

In case any interested parties missed it earlier, @majicmarker and I posted chapter two of our Hellcheer Christmas story, just something you wished for & you almost missed! 🎄

[hangon-silvergirl]

i just want to say i am so so so so so times INFINITY excited about "just something you wished for & you almost missed" and am so appreciating the little sentences we're getting before the next chapter <3

You're so lovely!

Writing with @majicmarker is such a great time; I'm really jazzed that folks are enjoying the story. Thank you for taking the time to reach out and say so. 🥰

[hangon-silvergirl]

💯?

From this ask: Send me a 100 emoji and I'll write 100 words of (one of my current WIP(s) and share my favorite sentence/section.

This is another line from the next chapter of mine and @majicmarker's xmas fic, just something you wished for & you almost missed (and the last one I'll share before we post it):

He read Monster Manuals and Tolkien books (and sometimes even her lecture notes with something akin to perverse fascination), and when Chrissy’s frown lines got too pronounced he would get goofy to try and make her laugh, coerce her back from the precipice of mental breakdown over things like Counselling Case Management, and The Challenges of Clinical Practice.

Thanks, anon!

I've got a few more of these in my ask box; hoping I'll have some time tomorrow to dedicate to Marigold, and maybe the buzz, to share some more snippets. I am sick again, though, whoo hoo, so we'll play it by ear.

[hangon-silvergirl]

I’m sorry…did you just name a Hellcheer story after my favorite unhinged Christmas song??? I’ve died and gone to heaven!

Unhinged is appropriate, and you should see some of mine and @majicmarker's DMs around planning this fic. 😅

Seriously though, isn't it amazing that a song with lines like "it's snowing outside, but we ho-ho-hoing" and "you left the fire burning and I burnt my butt" also includes "just something you wished for & you almost missed"? ���

If anyone out there hasn't had the joy of experiencing this, please take a moment to indulge:

[hangon-silvergirl]

G, L, P for the writing asks?? 👀😘

Hiiiiiii Haley!! 🥰 Thanks for the ask! (From the FanFic Ask Game.)

G: Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?

For the most part linearly, start to finish. If concepts stick in my head though, or if there is something I feel I need to define so that it helps to shape the story properly, then I will write that first. For example, the next chapter of the buzz is the penultimate one, and I have had a core scene from that written since midway through the second chapter. I wrote the 7/11 meeting scene in Marigold first, before anything else; for Marigold I also made all of the mixtapes before I started writing.

L: How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

When I pause for a session of writing, the next time I do I will edit whatever I wrote before, and tweak everything that came before that. My editing is a lot of finicking until I get everything done. Once a story or chapter IS complete, I try to let it marinate for a day or so before I do a full edit, and format, to post. After I post I do a quick re-read with formatting in place, and adjust if needed. Sometimes, however, if something has been a challenge or if it's making me crazy or if I'm at a point of picking it apart, then I just post it so that it will stop haunting me.

P: Are you what George R. R. Martin would call an “architect” or a “gardener”? (How much do you plan in advance, versus letting the story unfold as you go?)

It depends on the story. For some concepts I just have vague ideas of where things are going from beginning to end; I generally know what I want to accomplish and let myself list lazily there. The outline for just something you wished for & you almost missed is a series of unhinged discord conversations between @majicmarker and myself (though yes, there is a table in the gdoc, so we can track our sections). Other stories are more structured, especially if there are key events or concepts and I don't want the narrative to meander to far away. For Marigold I have a chapter table, broken down by the dates, with the applicable soundtrack chapter title, and notes. A lil peek:

[hangon-silvergirl]

read ch. 2 of "just something" and am truly SOOOOO in love!!! i feel like your hellcheer fanfics have been such a fun exposure to songs and weaves music so well into the atmosphere/scenes so just wanted to share that i played "butterflies" by kacey musgrave on repeat as my soundtrack when reading ch 2 and it was so fun!!!

Hi there! Thank you so much. 🥰

I love that song, also; thank you for sharing! It fits really well with Chrissy's headspace in that chapter. ❤️

One of these days imma convince @majicmarker or @bratanimus to make me playlists for Marigold, because they are both always introducing me to new, amazing, (and definitely HellCheer coded) music.

[hangon-silvergirl]

D (just something you wished for & you almost missed ), F, H, I, M, S?

Hi Ariana! Thanks for the ask. 😊

D: Is there a song or a playlist to associate with just something you wished for & you almost missed?

Yes! The chapter title is from a bonkers Christmas song by the New Kids on the Block called Funky, Funky Xmas. You can listen to it as part of the playlist @majicmarker and I are curating as the chapters are being posted.

F: Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

One of my favorite dialogue scenes I've written is the library scene in Chapter 5 of Marigold. I'm proud of it because I think it does what I intended it to do; it's an inflection point in the story, and it's where it shifts into being a love story, a romance; a slow-burn over the course of what is, honestly, an affair. It's built largely on feelings, especially Chrissy's worry, but the way they talk to each other is fundamental. There are a lot of lines that I really like in that section, but I think that this is my favorite bit: The kiss lingers longer than it should given they’re technically in public and that these sorts of encounters should really be more clandestine considering the nature of the thing between them. Eddie alludes to as much when he pulls away, says, “We-- We should probably set, uh. Some ground rules? I don’t-- I’ve never had… Illicit… Uh, you know. Not in a recurring sense. What do we even… No, wait,” he grins. “Tell me, Chrissy Cunningham, what would you call what we’re doing? Hanky-Panky?” “Eddie,” Chrissy says, almost warningly, but genuinely she’s too amused and too well-kissed to really get indignant about his teasing. “Shush. As opposed to what, anyway? What would Eddie Munson call it? Skullduggery?” “What am I, a Hardy boy? Nah. What about a dalliance?” Chrissy scrunches up her nose. “No? Alright, well fling implies that I’m going to give up without a fight, and fat fucking chance Cunningham, so be warned. Love affair makes me feel like I’m feeling up Lady Chatterley, so that’s out.” He’s rambling now, but she doesn’t interrupt, because he’s too cute to be allowed. She bites her bottom lip. “In being upfront about my affections, madam, I’ll say that I pretty much wanna romance the shit out of you, ya know?” Chrissy sighs, brings a hand up to his face. He leans into her palm. “Can we call this a Maybe, maybe? A Could Be, Should Be?” Chrissy swallows hard. She doesn’t really know how to answer without flipping her life like it’s a table. So she kisses him again. “Maybe,” she cautions breathlessly once she pulls away. “I can work with Maybe,” Eddie replies. He gently moves her hand from his face to his chest, over his heart. “Feel that wild beat? Va va voom,” he says, then he takes a deep breath. “I might be, ah, drunk on post-coital reverie still, or like, recovering from whiplash, but. You rocked my world before you helped me rock my van, sunshine, ya know?”

H: How would you describe your style?

Descriptive, predominantly. I have very clear visuals in my head when I'm setting a scene, and I want it, to the extent that it's possible, to be immersive for the reader.

I: Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)?

For writing it's Modern AUs, and especially romantic comedy. I love writing texting in fics (which is not everyone's cup of tea, I know), and I've definitely leaned into the coffee shop AUs. I also love writing character studies. For reading? A little angst is fine here and there, but I love it when a story makes me laugh. I much prefer funny over serious.

M: Got any premises on the back burner that you’d care to share?

Aw, man, I've got so many WIPs on the go. I want to finish a couple of more of them before I start exploring other things, but: - I have a rough outline of additional stories for the Last Chance to Run universe (runaway bride), which will more or less flow like a 90s sitcom style - I'd love to explore these HCs further: Pandemic Roommates, Hollywood Celebrities, and Fake Dating Ahem, I also may or may not be plucking away at a one-shot inspired by this post, where OPs mom met her dad by taking out an ad in the newspaper (and they dated for 3 months over the phone)? Because I have no self-control, I guess. 😅

S: Any fandom tropes you can’t resist?

Idiots in Love. Pining. Soulmates. Self-aware codependency.

From the FanFic Ask Game. Happy to answer more.

[hangon-silvergirl]

💯

From this ask: Send me a 100 emoji and I'll write 100 words of (one of my current WIP(s) and share my favorite sentence/section.

This is another line from the next chapter of mine and @majicmarker's xmas fic, just something you wished for & you almost missed:

(Chrissy wants to publish a Look Book about all these people, or maybe start a blog Humans of New York style: Eccentricity Observed at a Hidden Café.)

Thanks, anon!

[hangon-silvergirl]

3, 6, 12, 15, 17, 28?

Hi Ariana! 😊

3. What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)?

Marigold.

6. Favorite title you used

just something you wished for & you almost missed, mine and @majicmarker's xmas fic; it's a lyric from an nutso song called Funky, Funky Xmas by the New Kids on the Block. I posted a YouTube link for it yesterday; it's bonkers. For one, I never imagined myself choosing a NKOTB lyric for a story, but two, I never expected such a silly song to have such a story title appropriate lyric in it, either.

12. How many WIP’s do you have in your docs for next year?

Net new? Three.

15. What WIP are you taking into next year with you?

Aha, most of them I think (Marigold, the buzz, and wow, look at you now), except for the xmas fic. I had hoped to finish the buzz before the new year, but I'm not sure that's manageable atm. We'll see if I can wrap up Tequila Sunrise, at least.

17. Your favorite character to write this year?

Chrissy Cunningham!

28. Favorite work you wrote this year?

Again, that goes to Marigold. Still lots to go, but I'm very proud of it so far.

Thanks for the ask! (From the ao3 Wrapped ask game.)