Rat's Short Stories

Among The Ferns, characters and notes

Here are all of the meanings of everyone's names. Some are very literal, like "Hero" or "Bald" or "Crooked nose", but some I had to get more creative for. 'Cause for some reason, there aren't any old names starting with V that mean "Villain" or "Slut."
(Notes at the bottom)

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Halen-
"Hero" "hero of the hall." Our hero
Bout 6’1”
Blonde boy, no personality to really speak of (stereotypical hero)

Verne-
"Dweller Among the ferns" our villain. I'll give him some fern tattoos or something
Bout 5’8”
Short dark and handsome (there's not really anything stereotypical about this man, I done fucked up)

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Mira-
“Admirable” “peace” “female ruler” “ocean”

Calvin-
"Bald" Kings man. Personal servant.

Casimir-
"Destroyer of peace" in Halen's party. An idiot. Complains. Causes problems. Doesn't mean to, but like I said, he's an idiot.

Arie-
"Lion" "lion of God" Halen's squire

Baron Cameron-
"Crooked nose" favors a war maul

Akasma-
“White climbing rose” with Verne

Ebba-
“Strong, brave boar” with Verne

Theron-
"Hunter" our tracker. hah.

Ivo-
"Yew" "archer" an archer in Halen's party

Milo-
"Soldier" "merciful" soldier in Halen's party

Armina-
"Soldier" "Warrior maiden" soldier in Halen's party

Ritza-
“Protector of man”

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Destry-
"War horse" Halen's horse (I should've named the horse Horace but it's too late for that now I have a theme)

Jostein-
"Horse" and "stone" Arie's horse.

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8 soldiers 3 archers and a tracker in Halen's party. Not including Halen.

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Waspwood-
Where little ferny is hiding. Where he's... Where he's dwelling... Well I guess he doesnt live there but

Thornbloom-
There was a fire in this town years ago and all evidence points to Verne

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(These notes will, of course, contain spoilers, read with caution<3)

   I didn't start out with a name theme at all. In fact, I was actually going to name Halen "Horace," and Cas was originally "Constantine." But then I decided that I hate myself and I don't deserve happiness, so everyone's name has a meaning now (except for the town and forest names. I just thought they sounded funny.)
   First up: Halen was definitely a virgin before Vern got his grubby little mits on him. Also I do not know how to write spicy scenes I am so sorry for anyone that actually read that. In my original character notes, I had under Halen "has totally had sex before. What, you don't believe him?"
   Second: Casimir was just my punching bag. He's a little bitch. I unfortunately grew to like him so now I feel bad for being mean to him but he still a bitch.
   I'm honestly so tainted by yaoi manga (manhwa? Idk) that I actually started to ship my own characters. Halen and Cas. That's fucked up, ain't it. So I said to a friend "Oh God I fucked up how do I fix this WTFFF" and the friend said "polycule" and so I said "fuck you stfu" because idk how to write a poly relationship. Idk how that shit even works man. And that's fine! You do you bby, long as everyone comfy <3 So my solution was to give Casimir a big beefy gf who even I, her creator, could not argue with.
   Third: When editing, for some reason I gave Verne a southern accent in my head? Not sure why, just happened. But I love himb and I love cowboys (RDR2 done fucked me up) so it worked out.
   Believe it or not, there was actually way more fourth wall breaking in the original rough draft. I spit on Casimir more than I'd like to admit. Called him a little bitch several times (not sure if I even took that out or not).
   How fucked up is it to get the hots for your own characters? Cause I was drooling over Ebba. Ok I know she has zero personality and I'm not even sure if I gave her any lines? But I am a simple man with simple wants. I see (write) a big beefy lady and I am on my knees. Same went for Verne, which I hate to admit. These characters are so poorly written, but they were much better up in my noggin, and I'm lusting over the brain version of them.
   Also I've just realized that I misspelled Verne in these notes. And I'm hoping I didn't do that in the story cause gat dayum am I stupid.
   In my rough outline of the story I wrote "nobody pee on them that's not funny" once they were in the pit. Not sure why, think I was sleep deprived (I go to bed at like 9pm every night don't listen to me I'm making excuses for my own delusions). I just thought it'd be funny if someone pissed on them?? Idk. Talk to my (non-existent) psychologist. I, unfortunately, could not figure out how to work it into the story, so I just made the piss corner.
   Forgot that I'd agreed to having Ebba call Cas "Bunny" as a nickname and never put it in the story. But just know that that is cannon and she does call him "Bunny". Came from that conversation with the friend mentioned above, where I decided to give him a big beefy gf. And the friend said something about "she's mine now give her. My beefy gf" and that discord friend has a form of "bunny" in their name.
   Was originally going to have Arie rescue Cas and Halen but decided it was better to have Halen immediately lusting over Verne. Why was it better? Haha idk don't ask me. In my original outline, at their first meeting, I just wrote a bunch of gibberish about Halen losing his shit over this tired ass "crafted by the Mother herself" guy.
   The gods that you don't care about! There are three of them. The Elder, the Mother, and the Child. (Real original, I know. Fuck off). They really don't have anything at all to do with the story. In my outline I kept going "by the gods!" But then I thought to myself "what gods <:/" so I had to mash some shit together for reasons unknown to myself.
   My favorite character is probably Theron. No reason in particular, he's just a bitch (in my head, idk how that translated through my shiddy writing.)
   The king doesn't have a name, not sure why. It was just never brought up and eventually I forgot about it. In my original notes, though, I think it was Kingsley.