If you're comfortable with it will you talk more about your original characters?
hello!! flattered that you'd want to hear about these characters taking up my headspace 😅🥺💜 i will warn that the project these ocs are from is very much in the rough developmental stages and i have a LOT of research and worldbuilding to do, plus some existing stuff might change, but! here's some things about it:
this started out as an au of sorts that @qiaowanmian and i initially brainstormed for something else, before they very graciously allowed me custody and the au grew up into its own independent brainrot. it revolves around shen yue, courtesy name hui'an, a boy who grew up with one foot in the jianghu and the other tethered to the palace and its obligations. the balance got tipped when he wound up getting himself involved in an ongoing war, and his deeds caught the attention and approval of the palace. in particular, the eye of the then-crown prince, xuan xing.
nearly two decades later, hui'an has made a name for himself leading xuan xing's armies as a general under the king, and as his majesty's favourite, in every sense that that implies. they're an inseparably bonded pair, and that fact is causing problems for the rest of the court, especially for those people who don't care for xuan xing as their leader. hui'an has his own issues outside of the palace walls, too, because everywhere he goes there is one very stubborn swordsman named hua qingsen who keeps finding him over and over and who won't let hui'an's past go there are reminders of the person hui'an might have become, freely wandering the land without care for the state and holding only to his own sense of right and wrong, if he hadn't spent half a lifetime giving his loyalty to the court (to a-xing. everyone knows that ultimately hui'an serves not the kingdom, but one man whom he loves). hui'an's life is cracked in half by these two worlds. between this and the palace plotting behind his a-xing's backs, who would like to see the king gone, their relationship is only going to end in tragedy for it.
(unhappy ending, yes, and that's not going to change, but honestly if you've read my writing before i don't think that's a surprise to anyone)
beyond these main characters mentioned, there's also people such as:
lang shijun, a-xing's eventual queen of convenient marriage and unofficial apprentice to hui'an, whom she met while pretending to be her own brother so she could get into restricted libraries + eavesdrop on court meetings to learn about military tactics
ruxiong, second prince and a-xing's half-brother, who doesn't want the throne more than he wants his family alive and together, but it's that same want that will eventually doom him and the people around him
ruya, ruxiong's younger sister and princess of the kingdom, and who out of these royal siblings insisted on putting her duty and position first in a way her brothers never quite could (she'll get an ending she wanted, though, won by active choice and not obligation)
like i said, there's much that i still need to fill in and develop for this, but here's a brief glimpse into what's been occupying my waking thoughts for the last few weeks! thank you for giving me a chance to ramble a bit and let me know if you ever want to hear more <333
