the_leaky_pen | Recent Entries

This week's throwback fic is part of a larger AU — the Untamed shitty mall AU some Slack folks and I came up with.

My contribution to the AU (together with my friend spacewitchbot) is To The Dudes Who Can't Cook, wherein Jin Zixuan asks Lan Xichen for some (extremely roundabout) help courting Jiang Yanli, and Lan Xichen gossips about it with the Nie brothers.

Summary:

Jin Zixuan works at the fancy tea shop, T2. As a manager at Williams-Sonoma, Lan Xichen helps a lot of customers, but this is his first time helping someone outfit a kitchen from scratch.

Current Mood: cheerful

This week's throwback fic, Songxiao in Selkirk, is a crossover between The Untamed and Me and AU, a queer, fannish romance podcast, where two characters fall in love with a show called Selkirk (and maybe also each other). Selkirk is also a forthcoming podcast from Procyon Podcast Network, so keep your eyes peeled! :D

Summary:

Jodi and Garrett are the badass park rangers-slash-monster wranglers responsible for keeping human-paranormal conflict to a minimum. Song Zichen and Xiao Xingchen are Daoist priests and cultivators who have cultivated to immortality and somehow made their way over to British Columbia. When people start getting killed by something obviously supernatural the two pairs run into each other.

Today's TBT fic is a twofer of post-canon grieving/healing fics.

into, around through is a series of post-canon fics following Lan Xichen as he delves into, talks around, and moves through grief.

The first fic is my magnum opus: what I've failed I will not unknow / what has failed me is not yet unknown - a 10k word exploration of Lan Xichen in (and eventually out) of seclusion.

The second, We're all just stumbling through it, is a fic I wrote for a prompt that fit very well into that world. It's set several years after the end of the first fic, during a discussion conference in Gusu.

There will also, one day, be a fic set in between these two, a current work in progress about Lan Xichen's eventual reconciliation with Nie Huaisang.

Current Mood: pleased

This was the first Untamed fic I wrote, which I wrote before I had even finished watching the show!

This was during the height pandemic lockdown when I was stuck at home with hardly any work to do and after a day of lounging on the couch listening to Anais Mitchell's Hadestown album (the original one) and wallowing in Wangxian feels, this fic came out of me. I could not know then that it would be the first of over a hundred new works, the beginning of a burst of creativity that has not given out to this day, and would lead directly to me getting published for money for the first time!

Truly, from humble roots grand trees do grow.

You can read The River Styx is high and wide on my neocities page and on AO3.

Current Mood: nostalgic

Running a bit late, but it's still Wednesday and I do have WIP to share!

"What about you, dage?" Nie Mei asks after a while.

"Hm?"

"You're gonna take me to Lotus Pier to find my soulmate, but what about you?"

Nie Mingjue pulls up the left sleeve on his traditional formal robes and stares thoughtfully at the mark on his forearm. Watch where you're going, damn it! This is a hospital. A messy horizontal scrawl.

He really had thought it might happen this year, when Father had started qi deviating. Overcome with worry in the sect hospital near the Unclean Realm, more than once he'd lifted his head and realized he'd lost track of where he was headed and who was around him.

But no staff member or worried relative had snapped at him about it, and at the time he'd had bigger things to worry about. And now…

"I'm not in a hurry to spend any more time in hospitals, didi," he says.

Nie Mei grimaces. "Yeah, me neither."

This is also doubling as my announcement about my new neocities page!

Every week, I'm going to revisit an older fic that I published and simultaneously archive it on neocities.

Today's older fic is the first fic I ever published on AO3!

In 2018 while I was in grad school I got super into The Arcana, a visual novel that was recommended to me by a Facebook ad of all things. I was like, "it's queer and tarot-themed, this is so targeted and I'm mad it's working." But it did work and it is an excellent game.

And Julian's entire endealment (bratty, masochistic, vulnerable, trying and failing to hide all of the above with sharp edges) was perfectly designed to make me go feral and, uh, *checks notes* write an entire short erotic fic in the span of an evening.

That fic is In The Garden, a fic you can also find here on AO3.

Current Mood: nostalgic

BOOYAH! Guess whose 3-month post foot surgery follow up went well! I even took the stairs up and down to and from the 2nd floor where my podiatrist's office is. (And I was coming from pilates so...)

stayed up way too late making a neocities site to host my fic on per

melannen's lovely guide.

Most of the effort was spent on figuring out how to get custom fonts to work on CSS. It is very much still a work in progress, but it exists now!

Next step will be figuring out how I wanna organize my fic :D

Current Mood: tired

I'm very close to being done with this fic, so here's a chunk from one of the earlier sections.

"And how was the redoubtable Lieutenant Boyd?" Allison asked, putting a match to her own cigarette.
Dan grimaced. She had some idea that Allison and Boyd had met briefly in Cambridge, where Allison had gone to the women's college, before the war. It wasn't much, but in France, friendships were often built on smaller coincidences.
When England joined the war, Allison had enlisted without even finishing out her year. Dan couldn't imagine having an opportunity like college and choosing to drive a bloody ambulance instead. But Allison, for all her haughty ways and care with her appearance, was a fierce sort. She had a sweetheart somewhere in the lines—an enlisted man, not an officer—and Dan sometimes saw her in the morning mess, clutching a scrap of letter to her heart as she ate.
"I wish he wouldn't flirt with us," Dan said, exhaling a stream of smoke into the chill air. "I never know what to say."
Allison raised a single flawless eyebrow. "He never flirts with me," she said. "Always correct, that's Matt Boyd." She eyed Dan as she took a drag of her cigarette. "What on earth did he say to you?"

Current Mood: creative

Waiting for the pest control people to come, which they should do sometime in the next hour and a half. I am feeling very tired but I've very nearly caught up on all the various substacks I'm subscribed to - Cicero's e-pistulae, Silmarillion Daily, Whale Weekly, &c. Plus have opened up many tabs of fic to read, which.... we'll see how much of that I'll get to.

Roomie EL is anxious because they don't like strangers in their space (valid, but nothing I can do about that) and because I gave an incorrect estimate of when they were supposed to arrive. I said 1-3 but turns out it's 2-4. My bad memory at play. Or possibly wrong information from the company. 50/50 chance of either. Roomie SW is at work after having helped to ready the space.

I'm feeling relatively chill about the whole thing but it may simply be that I have passed through anxiety and to the other side into calm. Mostly I just want them to get here and confirm whether we've done the prep correctly and then make sure all the bugs are Gone.

Current Mood: drained

"Welcome to the Internet" but it's wuxia tropes is done!

It's the one I mentioned working on here.

I thought about doing the whole song (and even wrote about ten lines of the bridge), but I ended up ending the song before the bridge, roughly where the fanvid ends it as well.

Current Mood: pleased

My roommates and I are watching Morimoto's Sushi Masters and after watching the second episode at decided to watch S1E1 of the available dubbed Iron Chef. First of all, both delightful shows, but especially fascinating to see the difference between Morimoto Masaharu as he is now and as he was then. Also the different ways that shows can be over the top. Both Sushi Masters & Iron Chef are a bit corny, but in very different ways. Naturally, I recommend them both 😄

Current Mood: cheerful

Was chatting with friends on Discord, as one does, and somebody's tumblr handle combined in my head with this fantastic "Welcome to the Internet" fanvid and I started composing a filk of it. Small excerpt:

Welcome to the jianghu!
Hold onto your hat,
‘Cause a swordsman just got killed
over a jar shaped like a cat.
It’s not well-made, but it’s full of
those qi-boosting pills;
Don’t act appalled, you know
you want them, you shill!

Current Mood: creative

So, suspected bed bugs (because of bites) are now for sure bed bugs (because I saw two last night, one big, one little) and I've hired a pest control person to come on Monday to treat the house and the list of shit we have to do to prepare for it is SO MUCH and I am preemptively very tired.

On the bright side: have been editing a story to submit to Escape Pod and that's going pretty well, despite the drain on my creative energy that is:

work

union obligations

the above bed bug issue

oh, and recovering from a foot surgery, which is progressing very well but still very much a thing

I would like to simply sleep for a week.

Current Mood: stressed

SO tumblr is getting increasingly unusable and I need to get used to other platforms so... let's see if I can make dreamwidth a thing for myself again. (and not just using it sporadically for exchanges lol)

most recent bullshit is:

a screenshot of a browser window showing url https:// theleakypen dot tumblr dot com showing the blog with an overlay that says 'Mature Content: This blog may contain potentially mature content'

a screenshot of a browser window showing url https:// theleakypen dot tumblr dot com showing the blog with an overlay that says 'Mature Content: This blog may contain potentially mature content'

I'm contacting support obv, but still want to be more active on dw.

Current Mood: frustrated

Dear Confectioner,

I'm so excited to participate in this exchange! But I am extremely tired and words are hard today, so I will have fewer specific prompts under the cut than I did last year (apart from the ones that are just being repeated from last year, haha).

Re: Art - I'm not the most visual thinker, so I can't quite think how to prompt art, but I hope the vibes below will provide some good fodder.

Here's a non-exhaustive list of stuff I like:

Kinds of AUs: Space AUs, Modern With Magic, Portal Fantasy, Crossovers, Fandom AUs of other Fandoms, e.g. Leverage AU of Machineries of Empire, Machineries of Empire AU of Nirvana in Fire, Nirvana in Fire AU of The Untamed, Charm of Magpies AU of All For the Game, Murderbot or Pacific Rim or Homestuck or Venom (2018) AUs of anything, shit like that
Vibes: Found Family feels, Siblings Feels, Best Friend Feels, The Inherent Eroticism Of Being Narrative Foils, The Intimacy of Daily Life
General Stuff: trans headcanons, (grey)ace and (grey)aro headcanons, dragons, shapeshifters, people having different ideas about what they want out of romantic and sexual and platonic relationships and that being OK and good, AI rights, comet-style relationships, companionate marriages, arranged marriages, good communication, people being forced to communicate when they don't in canon, competence kink, polyamorous relationships (of all shapes, i.e. not just everyone with everyone else)
Sexy Stuff: non-sexual kink, sexual kink, sex where orgasm isn't the goal and/or doesn't happen, sex pollen, dubious consent, explicit consent, tentacles, genitals that are somewhat left of human, Everyone Switches/Everyone Fucks Around With What Top/Bottom even MEANS

Do Not Want: Unhappy endings (bittersweet or complicated is fine), infidelity plots, onscreen queerantagonism or transantagonism (although backstory is fine), outright rape onscreen (although, again, backstory is fine), anti-fatness

Fandom/Relationship Specific Stuff ( under the cut: )

Dear Chocolatier,

I'm so excited to participate in this exchange!

I didn't request art because I'm not confident in my ability to prompt for it. But if you do see something here that inspires you, just know that I love art treats and would be very happy to get art!

Kinds of AUs: Space AUs, Modern With Magic, Portal Fantasy, Crossovers, Fandom AUs of other Fandoms, e.g. Leverage AU of Machineries of Empire, Machineries of Empire AU of Nirvana in Fire, Nirvana in Fire AU of The Untamed, Murderbot or Pacific Rim or Homestuck or Venom (2018) AUs of anything, shit like that
Vibes: Found Family feels, Siblings Feels, Best Friend Feels, The Inherent Eroticism Of Being Narrative Foils, The Intimacy of Daily Life
General Stuff: trans headcanons, (grey)ace and (grey)aro headcanons, dragons, shapeshifters, people having different ideas about what they want out of romantic and sexual and platonic relationships and that being OK and good, AI rights, comet-style relationships, companionate marriages, arranged marriages, good communication, people being forced to communicate when they don't in canon, competence kink, polyamorous relationships (of all shapes)
Sexy Stuff: non-sexual kink, sexual kink, sex where orgasm isn't the goal and/or doesn't happen, sex pollen, dubious consent, explicit consent, tentacles, Everyone Switches/Everyone Fucks Around With What Top/Bottom even MEANS

Fandom/Relationship Specific Stuff ( under the cut: )

Hi there!

I'm so excited to receive a shalach manos treat from you this year!

In general, regardless of fandom, I love

Kinds of AUs: Space AUs, Modern With Magic, Portal Fantasy, Crossovers, Fandom AUs of other Fandoms, e.g. Leverage AU of Machineries of Empire, Machineries of Empire AU of Nirvana in Fire, Nirvana in Fire AU of The Untamed, Murderbot or Pacific Rim or Homestuck or Venom (2018) AUs of anything, shit like that

Vibes: Found Family feels, Siblings Feels, Best Friend Feels, The Inherent Eroticism Of Being Narrative Foils, The Intimacy of Daily Life

General Stuff: Jewish headcanons, trans headcanons, (grey)ace and (grey)aro headcanons, dragons, shapeshifters, people having different ideas about what they want out of romantic and sexual and platonic relationships and that being OK and good, AI rights, comet-style relationships, companionate marriages, arranged marriages, good communication, people being forced to communicate when they don't in canon, competence kink, polyamorous relationships (of all shapes)

Sexy Stuff: non-sexual kink, sexual kink, sex where orgasm isn't the goal and/or doesn't happen, sex pollen, dubious consent, explicit consent, tentacles

Fandom-specific stuff ( under the cut: )

General DNWs: Rape/noncon except possibly as backstory if necessary; kidfic; dwelling on pregnancy of any kind; I don't really like misunderstandings that can be resolved by simply talking to people (critically different points-of-view are totally cool though); unhappy endings (although bittersweet ones are ok)

Thanks so much!
Puck

theleakypen

Current Mood: creative

Hi creator!

I’m so excited to be part of this exchange! I look forward to seeing the many awesome fanworks that result, and to contribute to their number.

Here below the cut are some of my desires/preferences. I’m happy to receive both fic and art as a treat :)

Possible prompts:

Modern AU WWX knowing and hanging out with Songxiao. Bonus points if WWX teases XXC with being his uncle despite not being that much older (or even younger if you’re going by MDZS canon) than him. Bonus bonus points if XXC finds a way to tease WWX.
SongXiao actually start that sect they’ve been dreaming of and are invited to a discussion conference. I’d love to see them shake up the world of cultivation sects by giving zero fucks. (Bonus points for incorporating the following prompt into this)
SongXiao maliciously complying with sumptuary laws that prevent peasants from wearing colors other than black and white as a statement on class.
Platonic soulmates Song Zichen and Xiao Xingchen. What does it mean for them? What does it look like? How do they navigate that relationship. Any universe, whether canon-compliant or wildly divergent, modern or ancient or sci-fi, I don’t care.
Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen as radical librarians. What does it mean? IDK I JUST LOVE CRITLIB AND I LOVE SONGXIAO.
CQL-verse Songxiao on the edges of the Sunshot Campaign. They don’t want to get into the fight between sects but there’s a lot of suffering they can ameliorate - are they showing up at battlefields weeks later to lay the dead to rest? Are they helping displaced people find new homes? What are they doing?

Likes: Fluff; Songxiao both platonic and romantic, both sexual and nonsexual; Fix-its; happy endings; found family; healing from trauma; living in community. I love Songxiao as a unit but I also love the idea of them having community beyond just each other; realistic sex logistics

Dislikes: Unremitting angst; Hurt-no-comfort; Queer-antagonism on-screen (although a reference to a queer-antagonistic world or experiences thereof is fine); Xue Yang (seriously: i have no interest in seeing him rehabilitated in any fic that I receive); pregnancy/child-bearing details; kinks related to bodily waste; rape/sexual assault/abuse of any kind on-screen (although references to past abuse/sexual assault/rape are fine if they’re necessary for plot)