More Fern Rambling

I've made some progress in Fern's timeline, and feel like talking about it. Even though I know full-well that I'm the only one who finds Fern's timeline of interest. (Which is why I'm talking about here, instead of with an actual person XD )

I keep going back to tweak Fern's timeline. Mostly because a lot of events need to be spaced out more. The order of her missions is loosely based on when I saw the movie or read the book that she visits. Certain stories have gotten mushed together, and they have to be broken into pieces and stretched over more time. They alternate with other stories too. And some things may get pushed back even farther as I find more stories for Fern to interfere with. There's one movie in particular that I think will shift farther into her future, for example.

I also went and made a separate timeline for when her team members joined. In my head, it was all muddled into an undefined span of time. But now I can actually see how the team builds. After Fern and Ben start living part-time at Avalon, the first other "person" they rescue isn't a human, but a monster from Star Wars. Which is fitting, since Fern loves animals and monsters. 

As a rule, Fern only brings animals and people to join her team if they have nowhere else to go, or if they would have died, etc. For a while, I kind of cheated on that and had her adopt some random monsters from other worlds, just because I loved their designs. But I've mostly cut those out. Fern doesn't need to "catch em all." She has plenty of creatures that she's responsible for as it is.

The reason I went on the long aside about Dr. Octavius is because I realized that he's the first human Fern recruits. Which is important! She has to figure out how to introduce someone to a new world. He's pretty much a stranger to her as well. And despite how strange and varied the rest of Fern's team grows to be, Dr. Octavius is possibly the outlier. Only because most of Fern's team revolves around magic, while Dr. Octavius is a nuclear physicist. That's an area that Fern doesn't know how to relate with, but they do find other things in common. Ben is a tech guy, so he'd get along well with Doc, especially because they're the only two people in town that know about technology. Fern's village is a pretty accepting place, luckily. Someone with mechanical arms would stick out in a high-tech world, let alone in a world that doesn't even have machines. Poor Dr. Octavius would get corralled into helping with a lot of mundane tasks. Ironic, considering those mechanical arms were meant to oversee a powerful source of energy, but then they end up doing stuff like shaking acorns out of trees. 

(People that look much stranger than Doc will eventually arrive, but it takes a while).

Up until now, I didn't actually have many ideas about Doc after Fern saved him from drowning. There were only a few characters on Fern's team that I ever really put on missions with her. Most of Fern's missions are solo, or with Fang (her wolf). I think her team goes on their own missions most of the time. Though some just stay in town - they only needed a safe new home. Sometimes I completely forget about certain members of Fern's team.  I didn't forget about Doc, but I also didn't quite know what to do with him until now.

I think long ago, when I first introduced Ben, I wrote that his parents had died. Assuming I keep that most predictable trope, Ben and Doc would end up kind of adopting each other. I already mentioned in that earlier post that Ben and Doc would be lab partners. And I think that Doc wouldn't end up doing many missions. He's a scientist. He may fight a lot in Spiderman 2, but that's not him. That's the AI that's taken control. I cringe watching those fights. Peter has super powers. Doc doesn't. So he must be taking a real beating whenever his mechanical arms don't block a hit. Anyway, Doc values intelligence. Peter manages to bring him back to his senses by appealing to his intelligence. So Doc would be helping build and invent things. Ben doesn't do too many missions with Fern, because she often goes to places without any technology. His power wouldn't be any use there. 

And there's another point that I realized. When Doc meets Peter, within the day he's telling Peter not to keep love a secret. How do I keep Doc from doing that to Fern and Ben? Because it won't be quite a while until anything goes in that direction. 

After Doc joins the team, there's about a year until anyone else joins. Discovering that surprised the heck out of me. Actually, two people do join in that time, but they don't help with missions since they're just kids. Maybe when they're older. One of those kids didn't have a name in the book she came from. I gave her the name Rose. But Doc's dead wife is named Rosie, and it would be kinda rough for the next person who comes to Fern's village to be named Rose. I could make it work, I guess. But I may just change her name.

And then, somehow, there are eventually three "doctors" of varying types that join Fern's team. (Including one doctor that happens to be a goat-he's a history professor, but he'd have to relearn the history of Fern's home. Actually, he may or may not stay on Avalon - it depends on what happens to him in the second movie. But for now, Fern's getting him out of Oz).

So, calling Dr. Octavius "Doc" would be redundant. Which Doc are you talking to? I muddled around with that for a while before settling on the most obvious solution. His name is Otto. Plenty of people call him that in the movie. He should just be Otto. The only problem with that is that I've always called him "Doc" in my head, and I always confuse myself to no end when I start calling a character something different.

On the occasion that I do actually write one of Fern's stories, it's usually when she's away on a mission. I'm not sure that I ever wrote anything about her hometown, Avalon.

Thinking of introducing someone to Avalon makes me look at the most basic things about the place. Fern's parents' house and if she lives with them. Where she keeps her "pet monster" from Star Wars. Ben's house, and the rest of the town. I also realized that I had never really felt that Fern was in Magic-Earth, even though the town is supposed to be in Magic-Earth. So, I had to make the town fit the world. And what about the people that live in town? Fern's family is a different race than the majority of the inhabitants. I always imagined that the town would be mostly mages, but I'm rethinking that. I think it will be a little more mixed, but with a higher number of mages than usual. Like a Reshii community mixed in with a bunch of non-magic people. Along with some people with roots from other countries, like Fern's family. 

I kinda hope that no one bothered to read this. It's just me putting thoughts in order for a Fanfic that is mostly unwritten. Writing it out helps me get things straight. So I might as well stick it here.