(Open to any genre including nonfiction; hopeful endings are my favorites)
Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart is a nonfiction read that utterly charmed me. The book is Marjorie recording her memories of the summer of 1945, when she and her college roommate went from Iowa to New York for the summer and became the first women to work at the famous Tiffany jewelry store. They're naive and get into scrapes, but they also have good experiences and befriend good people. The book itself has a real-life happy ending rather than a Hollywood ending--this was one nice summer, not something that changed their lives forever--but they do experience the end of WWII in Times Square, and they go on to have lives they're happy with, so I think that qualifies as a hopeful ending.
Captain America Fanfiction, "Dancing at Last" Updated!!!
Since @melliabee has been trying to be a bit vague about her wonderful story, "Dancing At Last," I think that I should at least announce that she has posted Chapter 16! Here's the link:
Alas, while there have been valiant efforts to read this same story on ff.net, the site is being a bit of a bugger and is steadfastly refusing to display the latest chapter. So, for now, it's exclusively on AO3.
So go, read, and enjoy! You will have, as the kids say, the feels as the other big reunion is at hand.
(What, you thought that I'd keep a lid on this story? No chance!)
No one fits this literally, but Rachel is a nervous wreck, and Morstyn Hollock, the younger boy whom Elystan is assigned to tutor, tends to be rather timid except when he isn't.
21 …has changed a lot from their original design.
Rachel was originally a badly-done self-insert and basically looked like my teenage self. Changing her design not only created more visual variety in the cast but also was helpful in letting me see her more as a separate entity than an embarrassing self-insert.
22 …you made up a long time ago.
Most of them! Rietta was the first one, created in fall 2005.
@melliabee tagged me to explain how I picked my URL!
So, when I first joined Tumblr (and a03), I'd been on a bit of a fandom hiatus, and it felt like time for a new username.
I didn't want a super fandom-specific one (both for versatility reasons, and because all the best Peggy Carter and Steggy related names were taken anyway 😂) but I'm also not great at just inventing usernames out of nowhere, so I ended up going with a character I liked from a more obscure TV show that I'm not a super focussed fan of, but have a lot of nostalgia for (because I have great memories of watching it in reruns with my sister when we were teenagers).
Meet Doctor Helena Russell, chief medical officer of Moonbase Alpha, from the mid-1970s British science fiction series "Space: 1999".
Tagging: @buckywiththegoodhair86, @roboticonography, @behindthelabels, @invidiosa, @somewhereapart, @agentmintea, @theawkwardterrier, @geekynerddemon, and anyone else who wants to do it!
I know there’s a lot of plot the writers had to cover in the Kill Ari episodes (replacing Morrow with Jenny, introducing Ziva, Kate's death and finding Ari), but Tony was one step away from death’s door a canon day ago, and that seemed to have been totally forgotten in the season three opener (I maintain bodyswapped, nice!Gibbs would have commented on his wet clothes with or without the plague history). I would absolutely not want that to be the focus of the episode, because Tony had that arc in Twilight, but I was scrounging for a reference from someone, even in passing.
So the fic covers Tim and Tony's time in the field locating the sniper's nest, with Tony breaking out into a coughing fit because exercise and heavy rain and plague-scarred lungs do not mix, with an additional scene extension of him and Abby taking fire in her lab where she also realizes he's not 100% yet/still wet from the rain. Basically an excuse for Tony to get some small, passing comfort from his teammates, that in no way steals focus from the main arcs.
I was so completely thrilled to get one of my favorite steggy authors for secret santa! This piece is inspired from one of her many brilliant fics, Sarcophagus. Go give literally any of her steggy fics a read right tf now!
OOH this one is fun if I do say so myself. Honestly this wip game has been so great at reawakening my Steggy muse.
I can't find it now, but this was originally prompted by a tumblr post @dorrinverrakai1 sent me where there was a cat sitting on a wedding dress captioned "get used to it Steve, I am still her first and only love."
General Summary: Peggy is out of town for work for a very important meeting about a project they were hoping to secure. While the meetings go well, everything else goes to hell in a handbag. She's fighting some kind of cold or allergies. Then her flight gets cancelled. Then all flights in the area are cancelled. Not only does she have to delay her return to NYC until the following morning, between trying to find a place to spend the night, Peggy remembers that she didn't arrange for anyone to feed her cat Ollie. Angie, her best friend, would have of course fed Ollie for her, but because Peggy hadn't scheduled with her ahead of time, it's looking less and less likely that Angie had the time to spare. Not only does she have her barista day job, she just got promoted from understudy to the lead in an Off Broadway play. And she has not only a matinee and evening show, but a seven a.m. casting call for a lucrative commercial. Peggy calls everyone she even mildly is friendly with but they all turn her down for one excuse or another. She grows increasingly desperate.
Peggy and Steve and coworkers at an architectural firm, but they don't really know each other as they work in different departments and their paths had not crossed much until recently. But when he returns her work-related call a few minutes after her latest rejection by someone she will never offer to pet-sit, house-sit or water plants for again, she finds herself asking a practically stranger to go feed her cat. To her surprise Steve agrees to do so.
Only things don't go smoothly from there for Steve either, between having to go find Angie in Manhattan for her spare key, to realizing there's no cat food left to feed poor Ollie. And Peggy, as she arranges her necessary hotel stay, grows more and more concerned that Steve will give up on doing her the favor.
But Steve, ever willing to please, and not knowing he already had a crush on Peggy to begin with, completes the task. And when Peggy returns to the office, her first stop is Steve's cubicle a floor above hers where she brings him coffee and after their giggly retellings of their crazy adventures the previous day, she blurts out an invitation to dinner. Steve blushes and stutters his enthusiastic yes.
Snippet Below The Cut
She is beyond desperate and defeated when she finally gets rebooked – the earliest flight not leaving until seven a.m. She wouldn’t make it back to her apartment until mid-afternoon. Her poor Ollie. What must the poor cat think of her. Peggy taps her nail against her phone as she tries to think of anyone else that she could call.
Howard was traveling for work. Jarvis would be with him…
She sighs and decides it’s time to figure out a place to sleep for a few hours. She’d prefer a bed to a makeshift arrangement at the airport.
Her phone buzzes in her hand and she has hope for a brief moment that someone has changed their mind and volunteers to go over the bridge into Brooklyn to go feed her cat. But instead it’s an office number calling.
“This is Peggy,” she greets as she always does in a peppy, professional tone.
“Hi Peggy. This is Steve. Steve Rogers. The replacement drafter?”
She actually knows who he is, after all she had called him, but she can understand his want to explain. She doesn’t know him very well, but she knows he’s a relatively recent hire. Their paths hadn’t crossed until this project.
“Yes, hi Steve. Thank you for returning my call. How’s everything back at the office?”
He laughs over the line. She finds herself drawn to the sound, masculine but warm. “Oh you know, typical Thursday out here. Not nearly as interesting as your day I’m sure.”
“That’s definitely one way to put it,” she replied, rubbing her forehead reflexively, hoping to ward off any further headache.
“Oh? Your voicemail seemed like things went well. How was the meeting with the owners?”
“That went well. Very well indeed, actually. It’s been absolutely everything else that’s been a thorn in my side since.” She let out a loud sigh. “Any chance you’re not allergic to taking the train into Brooklyn like the rest of my Manhattan friends and also are not afraid or allergic to cats? Between fighting a combo of a cold and allergies and this last-minute travel, I completely forgot to arrange someone to feed my cat for me and now I’m stuck here until tomorrow morning. All flights have been cancelled and the airline won’t assist with hotel accommodations either.” She sighs again. “I think I need a cocktail.”
After a long pause, where she is sure she’s lost him and he’s hung up, she hears his breathing on the line. She closes her eyes in anticipation of another polite rejection, of course he would, they hardly know each other.
“I actually like in Brooklyn too. Where in Brooklyn do you live? I can go feed your cat after work.”
