I hadn’t expected that you consulted, then disregarded, the Random Number God.
It’s also worth noting that the nameless hero started out male, and Aerhien as female, on account of those having been the applicable genders in the dream—this is a dream-inspired story, my first. I consulted the RNG to try and reassign the hero’s gender but discovered almost immediately that it would have been awkward.
The dream originally occurred from the hero’s perspective, btw, but from a writer’s standpoint it was obvious that the main character couldn’t be the hero.
It’s also worth noting that the nameless hero started out male, and Aerhien as female, on account of those having been the applicable genders in the dream—this is a dream-inspired story, my first. I consulted the RNG to try and reassign the hero’s gender but discovered almost immediately that it would have been awkward.
The dream originally occurred from the hero’s perspective, btw, but from a writer’s standpoint it was obvious that the main character couldn’t be the hero.
At least, not without changing the tone of the story to something resembling StarkRavingMad’s Boatmurdered updates.