I actually also answer this in my latest author interview! 

Excerpt:

Q: How do you choose your characters’ names?

A: The way you might name a beloved Sim in the Sims games. I either go to baby names dot com and search up name meanings for two hours or I hit “randomize” and their name is “Smek” for the rest of the story.

You can see this in my published short story collection actually. I have a mermaid named “Paria” which is a real-world inland sea and also sounds like the word “pariah.” Both of these things represent how she is trapped in a zoo, like a sea might be trapped inland, and how she is lonely and otherized in this world.

Ooooh, okay. I gotta think about this. 

- Once Ivan leaves -

Pixel commission done for @usagi323! I was lucky enough to be part of the ensemble.

Basic plot : Alfred’s mother leaves him in the notorious Forest of Monsters (will come up with better name later) expecting him to get eaten. Instead, newborn Alfred forms a unique bond with the forest that allows him to associate with the monsters. The monsters see him as one of their own and essentially raise him to maturity. 

They find food for him, groom him, bring him clothes as he grows, and even steal some glasses for him when they realize his eyesight is bad - all that jazz.

The AU is basically an excuse for me to draw monsters and make creatures lol. For me it focuses a lot on how Alfred grows up in the presence of these creatures and how he essentially becomes their protector/guard, defending the weaker ones from humans or (rare) hunters and instilling more fear on the nearby villages to keep outsiders out.

But because I’m RusAme garbage:  later on a strange priest enters the forest attempting to exorcise the evil there. Naturally, the little ones are vulnerable and the larger ones may go on a rampage to kill this guy so Alfred goes to investigate and meets Priest/Exorcist Ivan.

After a while Ivan and Alfred spend so much time together that Ivan’s holiness begins to cleanse Alfred. The ‘darkness’ rubs off to the point that one day, as he enters the forest, the creatures don’t recognize him at first and attack. Alfred runs away -  meets Ivan, who explains to him what could be happening and encourages he leave with him. Alfred, however, - if it was up to me - would choose to stay. He’d get re-tainted and return to the forest.