221 | Chocolate Box 2020 Recs

[straightforwardly]

The Chocolate Box collection for 2020 opened up on Friday, and, after a weekend spent buried in the collection, I've come bearing recs.

First, my gift!

Gold and Silver, Ashes of Silk (4970 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: 人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
Relationships: Luò Bīnghé/Shěn Yuán | Shěn Qīngqiū
Characters: Luò Bīnghé, Shěn Yuán | Shěn Qīngqiū, Shàng Qīnghuá, Yuè Qīngyuán
Additional Tags: Characters Wander Into The Extra Creepy Part Of The Cursed Forest, Forest Is Dark and Mysterious and Possibly Sentient But Definitely Out to Get Us, Physically Injured Character Comforting Emotionally Distressed Character, Hurt/Comfort, Poisons That Airplane-Bro Used For Plot Progression, Chinese Mythology & Folklore, Kissing, Post-Canon
Summary: Luo Binghe and Shen Qingqiu go monster hunting! It goes about as well as you'd expect.

And now for the rest of the recs:

Through the Fog (Crossover - Chronicles of Narnia/Psmith, Psmith/Mike, 2.8K)
Psmith and Mike go on a short sail that takes them much farther away from Cambridge than they ever expected.

*

messages (Dragon Age, Morrigan/Leliana, Art)
[none provided]

*

pure of heart (The Dragon Prince, Amaya/Janai, Art)
"There’s a belief among some Sunfire Elves that the inferno-tooth tiger can sense the purity of one’s heart, like the light of the Sun itself."

*

Derring-do! (Fallen London, Master Jewel Thief/Player, <1K)
It's difficult to see the rest of your plan play out through the haze of dust and debris that used to be the station house's foundations, but you would know him anywhere, cutting an elegant figure despite the liberal coating of soot and grit and the way his steps toward you stumble in the gloom.

*

do ut des (Final Fantasy XIV, Crystal Exarch/Warrior of Light, <1K)
You feel your apotheosis settling into your bones.

*


As You Wish (Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Heather/Nephenee, Art)
If you want, I could fly.

*

Across the Divide (Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, Wei Wuxian & Jiang Cheng, 3.9K)
It’s his second time being startled by Jiang Cheng today. For some reason Wei Wuxian isn’t nearly as taken aback. Somehow it makes sense to run into Jiang Cheng at night, under a new moon sky. The lake surface is dark and glossy, shimmering with a reflection of the stars. Several years ago he’d stood in this exact manor and listened as Jiang Cheng hurled insults at him. Wei Wuxian’s body tenses up, preparing to fight or flee.

They talk instead.

[Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng meet again for a cultivation world ceremony. It all goes surprisingly well.]

*

scrapbook (Gravity Falls, Pines Family, Art)
everybody, look cute!

*

everything life ought to be (Kingdom Hearts, Sora/Riku/Kairi, Art)
Sora, Kairi, Riku, and the place where they meet.

*

Always in this Twilight (Middle-Earth, The Eighth Ringwraith/The Ninth Ringwraith, 1.1K)
She does not remember her name, or her father’s house, or how many children she bore her husband the king over the long span of her marriage to him.

The Glittering Caves (Middle-Earth, Legolas/Gimli, Art)
[none provided]

summer was come again (Middle-Earth, Thranduil & Mirkwood, <1K)
Thranduil, and the things Mirkwood crowns him in.


*

Headless (Naruto, Kakashi/Sakura, 12K)
Kakashi and Sakura investigate a string of murders in Southern Fire Country.

*

Tempest (Northanger Abbey, Henry/Catherine, 2.1K)
A few days before General Tilney returns, Catherine is lost, unaware of forming tempests.

*

Breath and Blood (Original Works, Male Minotaur/Curious Female Historian Who's Surprisingly Into That, 2.8K)
Let the other historians have their gods, smooth, cold marble. Nora loves her work and this stone minotaur, rough and warm from her touch.

Deck My Body In Gay Ornaments (Original Works, Grumpy Lonely Sorceress/Female Courtesan She Hires For A Ritual, 3.2K)
In each corner of this red chamber a brazier hissed and crackled. The fifth one was glowing a little ways from this stone table where Hayat was laid out, naked, quite enjoying herself, and slathered with honey.

“Not honey,” grunted her current patron. Who happened to be Isra.

Isra, of all people.

Ladies in the Tower (Original Works, Lady Locked In A Tower/Lady Who Turns Into A Hawk, Art)
She would be alone, locked in the tower - if not for the beautiful hawk lady who keeps visiting her.

Shipwreck'd: A Tale of Lust (Original Works, Male Pirate/Male Naval Officer Stranded With Him On An Uninhabited Island, 6K)
Meriwether and Bertrand are life-long enemies -- one a pirate, the other a naval captain. One stormy night, their fates collide and they must learn to work together if they want to survive and thrive on a mysterious desert island.

Tenacity of Purpose (Original Works, (Minor) God/Their Favored Human, 6.1K)
Noble's god is not a kind one. He is a god of dire straits, hopeless causes, and the eleventh hour. A god born of desperation.

Cornered with no hope of escape, Noble is finally desperate enough to call on his god for the first time to ask for his aid.

To Be Safely Thus (Original Works, Young Newly-Crowned Emperor/His Father's Most Trusted Advisor, 6.8K)
Emperor Florian owes everything to his father's minister, Alberic, and Alberic has no intention of letting him break with him now.

What This Country Needs (Original Works, One-Armed Veteran Swordsman/Delicate and Sickly Prince He's Training, 2.7K)
Crown Prince Patrick wasn't meant to live long enough to be crowned.

*

True Face of Love (Percy Jackson, Percy/Nico, 4.2K)
When Cupid forces Nico to confess his secret, the person with him is Percy.

*

Discovery (Pet Shop of Horrors, Count D/Leon, 1.6K)
Leon finds himself in Count D's care after being shot.

*

Hey Airplane Bro! Update Faster! (Scum Villain, Mobei-jun/Shang Qinghua, 3.1K)
Shang Qinghua mourns the loss of his computer, because he knows that sometimes, quantity is its own kind of quality. Mobei-Jun tries to help.

Impervious (Scum Villain, Shen Qingqiu & Shang Qinghua, 1K)
Travelling isn't safe in this life, but Shang Qinghua always did believe in cheaty stat buffs.

*

Eyes of Vipers (Stand Still Stay Silent, Sointu Takasuo, Art)
Sointu Takasuo, one of the Sentinel Mages posted to guard Saimaa's borders after the calamity of Y79.

*

(Do It) By The Book (A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School, Abe Haruaki/Sano Mikoto, 9.7K)
Sometimes, working in a secondhand book store really comes in handy. The money's useful, for one. For two, sometimes your mess of a teacher stumbles across a cursed book.

Sano could shrug off the whole 'compelled to fuck' thing; he is one hundred percent sure that weirder things will happen the longer he knows the human. But why would he, when he can use it to sink his (metaphorical) claws into Seimei, instead?

Comments

[samuraiter]

:-) Thank you for the recommendations. Good to see you back!