#ariescaius

Also, tell me something about The Lyrebird King? 😁

🌸 wip game 🌸

THE LYREBIRD KING, MY BABY, MY BELOVED is my original novel. the idea came from a d&d character of mine - Caius - who helped me realize i was genderfluid. he got stuck in my head a long time after the campaign ended (sadly we just all got busy) so i decided to tweak things for my own fantasy world and build even further on his backstory.

you can find each chapter and the cover art for it here - The Lyrebird King Masterpost - and it is occasionally featured on Ritoria!

Caius is your typical prickly (Arcane Trickster) rogue, refusing to let people get too close and adopting an air of defiance. he has a personal vendetta against the upper echelon but doesn't offer an explanation as to why willingly. Aries is seemingly everyone's favorite himbo, built like a brick shithouse with a heart of gold. after a one night stand with Caius, which had originally been just so Caius could pry information from him, he became enamored with the rogue and sought him out to start an alliance. after Aries shelters a street urchin injured by the royal guard Caius makes the decision to create a society within their hideout - an ancient waterway beneath overgrown ruins - to house those cast out by society. an array of colorful people join them, creating what is almost a small city beneath the ruins. prompted by a teasing Aries (who at this point is hopelessly in love) the people call Caius 'The Underworld King' - which he absolutely hates

i really need to get to writing them again, i miss my boys

god i haven't worked on One More Time in forever but basically it's a canon divergence where Yok dies of the gunshot wound in the scrapyard (or whatever that place was) and Gumpa (in unrequited love with Yok) blames himself so badly he finds himself in a timeloop to save Yok's life, but each loops seems to threaten to bring his feelings to light

it's uploaded here on AO3 - One More Time - and here's a little unpublished tidbit i have in my notes for the future ~ (i'm terrible at writing sex scenes and tend to avoid them for that reason so forgive me)

ask me about my wips 🌸

aaaaa Dav bless you for this!!

so The Lyrebird King is my own original novel i'm working on and you can read the chapters i have finished so far here

it features Caius who was one of my D&D characters for an old campaign that actually helped me realize i'm genderfluid, so he's very near and dear to my heart. last year while working on the novel i had a gorgeous cover commissioned from the amazing artist Cameron McCafferty (who i originally saw during a fan art segment of Critical Role and decided to reach out to)

the novel takes a lot of inspiration from Fire Emblem: Three Houses (particularly Yuri of the Ashen Wolves,) Skyrim (Riften's Thieves Guild,) Dragon Age 2, and obviously Dungeons and Dragons. i've crafted my own little world with it's own Gods and religion (based around the Major Arcana in tarot.)

there's also a playlist for it here that helps me get in the mood to write them and sets a lot of the tone. (we have it all and dear wormwood are the perfect songs for the overall story, battle cry is aries' song, and dancing after death is caius'.)

the story features Caius and Aries, two societal outcases with secrets that run deeper than the Mariana trench. they begin a friends with benefits relationship while transforming a set of ancient ruins into a safe haven for those "othered" by society. Caius works to bring down the corrupt members of the upper echelon, spurred on by unknown motivations but with an obvious grudge bared. Aries is hopelessly loyal to Caius, wishing he could find a way to bridge the gap between friends with benefits into something more.

i don't have anything for chapter 4 just yet buuuutttt (and i've never done this before) i'll put some of my future notes below the read more (CONTAINS SOME HUGE ASS SPOILERS)

Caius' mother killed by the king's advisor