She wasn't born a person. She was born hungry.
Maven hatches in the dark beneath the world: a tiny, ravenous thing with a stomach for anything that dies, and a stubborn memory of a life that ended somewhere very far from here. Left alone, she'd have been just another monster. Instead, a kind stranger named Grace took her in and gave her a name. When Grace died, Maven did the only thing her kind can do. She merged with the body and took her shape.
Now she lives among the mousekin, a small, clever, cavern-dwelling people whose cities are grown from fungus and ingenuity, and whose oldest enemy, the ratkin, is pressing closer every year. She has friends she'd die for, a tavern she'd fight to protect, and a secret that would get her killed: she is a monster in a borrowed body, trying very hard to be good.
Then a goddess returns to the world, and the age everyone knows begins to end.
RED is a character-first fantasy about found family, chosen identity, and the difference between what you are and what you do. Expect System-style status screens, dark humor, cozy tavern scenes, and real consequences. It starts small and keeps growing into war, politics, gods, and a world far bigger than the cave.
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What to expect:
Sensitive Content Warning - The story isn't about being gross, we are classy horror when it's horrible. Chapters have trauma triggered my family... Here is a the current list: *Violence and gore, siege warfare and large-scale casualties, predation and cannibalism themes, body horror, parasitic merging, and egg-laying/monstrous reproduction, death of children, Institutional exploitation, so far*
LitRPG - Lite. The system explores character growth but isn't the cause of it.
Progression lots of it... Maven will claw, magically blast, and body-snatch her way to the top. Some of her progress is directly related to her body and bodies won't change often.
Yuri - lite. Protagonist doesn't understand romance but someone still likes her anyway.
1-3 Chapters a week, 2 right now and bonus chapters for community engagement.