Chocolate Box

I have had the most amazing Chocolate Box and received 6 (six!) fantastic gifts! I am still fizzing with excitement and it's helped make up at least somewhat for some significant real life disappointments. Anyway! Here they all are, in suitably delicious and tempting array...

Two of my gifts are for Stardew Valley, the move-to-a-small-town-and-start-a-farm video game that I love deeply and unironically despite never, ever, ever, wanting to do the same thing. One is about Maru, and gives her career hopes and recognition as well as a romance with a deeply recognisable farmer ("Maru found her wife scattering red cabbage seeds into the dirt. She was wearing the straw hat she'd finally beat Abigail for at that year's Egg Festival.") and a letter from Maru's greatest invention so far, the self-aware robot MarILDA:

a profession of hope (1469 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Maru/Female Player (Stardew Valley)
Characters: Maru (Stardew Valley), Female Player (Stardew Valley)
Additional Tags: marilda, Life Outside the Farm, Tinkering, Over A Year, Married Life, Treat
Summary:

Maru settles onto the farm over the course of a year, finding her place and building something new.

The other is a sweet get-together Shane/Elliott fic in which Elliott is forced to write eight mystery novels about a chicken fancier detective (and the mysterious beach-dwelling novelist he falls for) before Shane finally gets a clue:

Authorial Intent (1664 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Elliott/Shane (Stardew Valley)
Characters: Abigail (Stardew Valley), Emily (Stardew Valley)
Additional Tags: Pre-Relationship, First Kiss, mystery novels, Pseudonyms
Summary:

Elliott writes books. Shane reads books.

Two are for Piranesi, and do a great job of capturing the atmosphere of the book and the integrity of the characters. The first is a thoughtful meditation on change and irreversibility, in nature and in life:

Unfathomable (1100 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Piranesi & The House, Piranesi & Sarah Raphael
Characters: Piranesi | Matthew Rose Sorenson, Sixteen | Sarah Raphael
Additional Tags: Post-Canon
Summary:

Natural processes, as I seem to remember knowing, are generally irreversible.

and in the second, two characters contemplate a statue removed from the House and taken back to our world, and the troubling questions this raises:

Man carrying olives, marble, 4th century BC (?) (477 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Matthew Rose Sorensen & Sarah Raphael
Characters: Matthew Rose Sorensen | Piranesi, Sarah Raphael | Sixteen
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Screenplay/Script Format, realism was taken to the back of the shed and shot at some point during the outlining of this fic, the Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite, Real world, Hyperreal Statue
Summary:

Conversation around a statue.

And for final symmetry, my last two gifts were for Original Work - firstly, for the irresistible tag, Sword Lesbian/Sword Lesbian, two battle-weary women meet for a training bout, and to discuss their respective - and possibly joint? - futures:

A Brief Reprieve (791 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Female Character
Characters: Original Female Character(s)
Additional Tags: sword lesbian/sword lesbian, Swords, Lesbians, Royalty
Summary:

Someone requested 'sword lesbian/sword lesbian,' and I got inspired.

Two old friends meet for a little swordplay on a cold day.

and the final gift, shared with all the other insightful people who requested it, is for Librarian in library devoted to forbidden magic/Sorceress who really needs that tome, and has a determined necromancer, a hot substitute librarian, academic politics, and a cat's soul in the body of a rabbit, and I loved it.

Metaphysical Theory and Practice (5555 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Female Character, Librarian in library devoted to forbidden magic/Sorceress who really needs that tome
Characters: Original Female Character(s)
Additional Tags: Magical Realism, Romance, Fluff, Academia, Magic, Libraries, Witches, Necromancy, Getting Together
Summary:

Penny Embric is on the cusp of becoming the youngest ever necromancer to be inducted into the Order of Acheron. The only thing standing in her way is the strict, and annoyingly hot, new librarian.

"It's no good," she said to her rabbit as she sat down on the sofa. "I can't talk myself out of this one. Eventually, I'm going to have to ask her on a real date, and then I'll have to move to another city when she says no and I can't show my face in the library any more."

Munch looked at her, long white ears twitching, and bent to nibble his fur.

I hope other Chocolate Boxers have had a great exchange!