Penguin Merchant

Just a shy little gremlin writing dumb stories Imp Press Binding Header art by CanneDeBonBon

[penguinmerchant]

Matchbreaker

Laurent de Vere, handsome, clever, and rich, with a moderately comfortable home and an immoderately bratty disposition, seemed to break up some of the worst matches in existence; and had lived nearly twenty-four years in the world with very little to distress or vex him.

Posted in its entirety on AO3! You can read the whole thing right now, a short-ish story around 43k. I'm really proud of it!

[penguinmerchant]

for the ship game: 🌹😑💔💩✌💚💙👅👎💤💘💦💣👀💖💢

Ship that you have as an OTP: 🌹It's gotta be Lamen!! There is no other real answer to this as far as I'm concerned.

Ship that you're indifferent to: 😑 probably Jace/Viktor...I want to like them but I feel like they're giving me nothing

Ship that makes you sad: 💔 Ooof okay I guess I'm gonna go with Phelim O'liamroe and Oonagh...even though it's probably better (for Phelim) that they never got together. Still, I tear up a bit when I think about Luadhas...I will forgive Lymond many things but I will not forgive him for breaking the bro code with Phelim.

Ship that you find disgusting: 💩 Laurent/ANYONE ELSE WHO ISN'T DAMEN

Ship that you find cute but don't ship: ✌ lots of secondary relationships in capri...ancel/berenger, pallas/lazar, erasmus/kallias...i'm sorry you're all lovely but i just do not give a shit

Ship that you secretly like: 💚 Gabriel/Lymond 😞 I'm sorry I find them very compelling...and they are super distantly related which I'm sure makes it even more attractive to Gabriel. Gabriel wanted to be Lymond's best friend and/or greatest enemy SO BADLY (many such men...) but he was the only one who could reallllly discomfort Lymond in a way that was very pleasing to me. And he was just so evil.

Ship that you used to have as an OTP: 💙 Awww this either has to be Lio/Galo or going even further back my very first OTP Mulder and Scully....

Ship that you find most sexy:👅LAMEN why does this thing keep asking me the same question....Lamen is #1

Ship that you can never see happening: 👎 Damen and Nikandros....yucky

Ship that is canon but you don't ship: 💤 Jerott/Marthe...I don't think they ship each other either so really it's okay. But I guess that's what happens when you can't accept you have a homosexual attraction to someone and resentfully continue on with heterosexuality by marrying that man's sister who looks and talks exactly like him.

Ship that is unpopular but you still like: 💘 Is this also Lamen? They're not unpopular in the fandom obviously but all the Outsiders seem to hate Captive Prince...it's 'problematic' and 'Laurent is horrible' which like yeah, that's why it's awesome.

Ship that is taboo: 💦 Plantcest...it's insane they made this canon

Ship that pisses you off: 💣 DON'T even get me started on this one

Ship you're curious about: 👀 Why would I be curious about a ship and not follow up with it....ummm maybe a lot of the Genshin ships because they have some amazing art? But I can't bring myself to care about or learn any of their backstories...or even their names ha ha

Ship that is most misunderstood: 💢 Honestly I'm gonna say Lamen...why do I see so many fics of crying pregnant Laurent and toxic alpha male Damen, this is not and has never been their dynamic!! They are EQUALS, they are MATCHED they are two pieces of one whole...they understand each other on a level that no one else has ever come close to. Surely if people wanted a traditional dom/sub thing with a macho bullshit dude and a crying twink there are ten thousand other fandoms you could find...

[whatapictureisworth-press]

So it’s been awhile since I’ve bound anything, but when I read the Cursed Amulet Story by @sunderwight, I was like, I gotta make an actual, physical evil amulet now. Except the evil amulet is also going to be a book. And the book is like a diary by the guy trapped in the amulet.

The book is held in the brass frame (also made by yours truly) by friction; it pops out super easily so you can read it but it’s not going to fall out accidentally.

The typeset fit into exactly one piece of normal 8.5x11 printer paper, and if anyone else wants the file to make their own evil amulet, I’m happy to share.

[midnightsnapdragon]

[cjowoart]

Laurent & Damen

From the Captive Prince trilogy by C.S. Pacat

(Prev.)

[penguinmerchant]

Mask of Zorro

[penguinmerchant]

Hey there! I just saw your post about the Capri fics and my ask would be if there's a chance that one of them is modern setting? I've been craving some new modern AU Lamen for some time and I just checked my ao3 and found out you are one of my most bookmarked writer of those 🙏🙏

OMG I do not have any modern AUs in the works right now! I am ashamed. I've got a post-apocalyptic AU and like three canon divergent/adjacent however you want to call it....but maybe we can fix that? 👀 Anyone got any good modern AU fic ideas they want to share?

[penguinmerchant]

penguinmerchant we miss you in the ao3 lamen tag dearly. i would love to hear if you maybe possibly have something in the works and all good if not, obviously :)

Nonnie this ask has been making me smile since the moment I got it! 😊 I do actually have (multiple) Lamen fics sitting in my drafts...not quite abandoned, just waiting for that spark of inspiration to hit. For the last few months I've been reasonably certain that I lost the ability to write anything interesting or unique or sometimes even just anything that's grammatically correct, which is not a headspace I love. But I opened one fic yesterday (sitting at over 80% done!) for the first time in months after receiving this lovely note so maybe I am slowly getting back on track!

[tsurashi-bindery]

strike the match by onekingdomonce

I finally finished a new bind!!

During my reading slump last year I struggled with getting immersed in any fic, but then I discovered the gem of a Lamen fic that was “strike the match” by onekingdomonce on ao3 (or @laurent-ofvere on tumblr) and I DEVOURED IT!! Big shoutout to @laurent-ofvere for not only writing this amazing and fun fic, but also allowing me to bind my own personal copy of it, it's gonna look so cute on my bookshelf! 😭💖

It’s based on the plot of “The Proposal (2009)”, the rom-com, which I loved as a kid so this was exactly what I needed! It was such a fun read, and all the changes made to fit Damen and Laurent was just 👌

Since it was based on "The Proposal", I decided to run with that theme for my bind as well. If you have seen the poster for the movie, you will probably see the similarities.

I tried to continue the same style throughout the typeset as well, and I tried some new things with my typesetting, and I think I kinda like it? It definitely fit this bind at least!

I also decided to attempt drawing my own cover for the first (second?) time, and while I am not 100% happy with it, I don’t think I’ll ever be—BUT IT IS FINE ENOUGH.

Lots of issues during the binding process, like material being out of stock and never coming back, finding replacements, redoing endbands, guillotine cutting slanted, messed up prints etc, but it is finally done!!

I still got a handful of other binds in progress, other Lamen binds among them as well. (“I’ll get to those soon,” I lied to myself.)

I also want to give a shoutout to @haxkattpress for pushing me to finally finish this bind, and for constantly listening to my spamming of indeciside decision-making and if 1px to the left or right looks best. Thank you for not yet growing to tired of me. 🙇‍♀️

[bisexualrozanov]

happy 6th anniversary to the huge captive prince news we never got

[wrenaspun]

A Conspiracy of Two

Chapters: 1/22, 6908 words

Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Fandom: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat Relationship: Damen/Laurent Additional Tags: Alternate Universe — Canon Divergence, Auguste Lives, Complicated Sibling Relationships, Canon-typical CSA, Attempted Murder, Animal Death, Mystery-investigation as a bonding activity, Arranged Marriage, Forbidden Love, Slow Burn, Secret Relationship, Yearning

Someone was trying to murder the Prince of Vere. Drawn into a covert investigation, Damen had anticipated the dangers of the treacherous Veretian court. He wasn't prepared for Laurent.

And soooo the first chapter of my longfic is UP!! This has been in the works since September 2023; it's fully written and updates should come once a week 😌 I hope you enjoy!!

[capri-events]

Captive Prince Bang interest check

After literal years of saying to all and sundry that it would be cool to see a bang event in the Captive Prince fandom, it's become clear that all my friends are terrible at taking hints it's time to pull up the old bootstraps and do it myself. If you'd be at all interested in a 2026 Capri Bang, please fill out the poll above!

Do note that this is not an official signup or announcement of any event: that will depend on the results of the poll! The form will stay open for just over two weeks, until Sunday 28 December.

[rubyleaf]

Honestly? My main piece of advice for writing well-rounded characters is to make them a little bit lame. No real living person is 100% cool and suave 100% of the time. Everyone's a little awkward sometimes, or gets too excited about something goofy, or has a silly fear, or laughs about stupid things. Being a bit of a loser is an incurable part of the human condition. Utilize that in your writing.

[wrenaspun]

Everybody please clap and cheer for me btw because that longfic draft is DONE 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳 Still lacking a title and clocking in at, uh, 134k. It IS my beta's problem now but soon (pending edits and also a title) it will be YOUR problem also!!!!!!!

[theshitpostcalligrapher]

lil commission i'm working on - the commissioner's budget is WAY higher than what i usually will throw out as an estimate so i've been going ham on the details. the pencil doesn't photograph well so i'll show you after the lineart is down, but for now, know that it's this text:

[theshitpostcalligrapher]

holy lineart batman my wrist hates me

but those colours and metallics won't apply themselves TT_TT

[theshitpostcalligrapher]

AND ITS DONE BABYYYY

I haven't done one these in this price range in a while, but if you're wondering what a 200 dollar (Canadian dollars) commission looks like from yours truly we now have a pretty good hallmark example

[cxitorevolve]

[10april]