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[scension]

Those of you with familiars, I have a question - how do you name them? Did it give you any trouble?
What happens if they don't like it?

It doesn't feel like naming a pet, or some future family member. Waiting for inspiration to strike hasn't worked yet.
And now I'm starting to feel like I have to give this phone a name, too.

Comments

[impostorsyndrome]

Kovalyov. It's from a story by Gogol. The kind of creature it is comes from Russia, in my world, so I wanted something fitting.

[scension]

That's pretty cool. It really has that fantasy element to it.
I hadn't thought about taking a name from a story at all. Maybe I should take my familiar to a bookstore and see if he likes any of them.

[And terrorise the poor shop workers, probably.]

[impostorsyndrome]

Depending on what your familiar is, that could really be a sight.

[He has a variation of the same thought, because he's still picturing his own familiar, which is also not exactly the friendliest-looking beast around, even in its tiny state. It brings a little smile to his face.]

But I bet they're getting used to it by now with all of us around.

[scension]

It's true, you can get used to all kinds of weird situations if you just sit with them long enough.
I hope they are, anyway. The alternative makes me feel bad for them... I don't think they had a choice, any more than we did.

[...He shouldn't find the mental image of his familiar freaking people out in a bookstore very slightly vindicating. It's much too mean to actually do.]

Honestly, it would be easier to bring some books back to him. Besides, who knows if he ever learned to read.

[impostorsyndrome]

I've got to know what he is now, if that's how it is. Something that'd be awkward to take into a bookstore, I take it.

[And maybe something that could learn to read? Well, maybe any of them could; who knows? They're magical creature soulbonds. They can't be considered by the same rules as their species, right?]

[scension]

He's hard to describe... Basically, a kind of monster. A lot smaller than the others I've met, but they had pretty varied appearances already.
Here's a picture: Attachment.jpg

["Grotesque gangly demon thing with long horns, matted humanlike hair and elbow tentacles" isn't that complicated a description, to be fair. It's more... emotionally complicated. Even moreso when it's so trivial to take photos like this, with the six-foot-tall monster just chilling on the floor inside what is obviously an inn room.]

[impostorsyndrome]

[That sure is . . . something. It's far from the worst or weirdest thing Kadoc's seen, but there is something unique added to the experience by how casual the photo is. Imagining rooming with it (him?) is a very different experience than imagining facing it in battle or whatever else one might be compelled to do when facing down something like that.

But he could say the same of his own. It seems to happen a lot here, weirdly!]

So it's something you recognize from your own world. I guess they're all like that, though, no matter how unusual they are.

It's hard to imagine just chilling with these things, but that's what we're all doing. It's crazy.

[scension]

To be fair, the whole island around us is crazy. I think it makes the smaller things easier to take in stride.

[Or the moderately large things, in the case of his tentacle monster.]

[impostorsyndrome]

Yeah. If anything, the weirdness comes from seeing something familiar at all in this place. We're all aliens here. Maybe it's easier to focus on how weird a specific tree looks than the nature of the entire fucked up forest around us.

Metaphorically.

The actual forest is pretty wild too.

[scension]

Hey, I like what I've seen of the forests.
Then again, nothing about this place really sticks out as familiar to me. Even the stars are different.
Maybe it's easier that way. You can just go along with it, no matter what.

[impostorsyndrome]

I didn't mean I didn't like them myself. Just that there's a lot of unexpected in them, but that's the same everywhere here.

But that's one way of putting it. I think you're right. If nothing else, we're all on even footing. None of us are living a normal life anything like what we're used to here.

It's comforting in a way.

[scension]

I think so too. I'm glad it's not just me.

[impostorsyndrome]

Yeah. Me too.

So did you get any leads you're gonna follow from this whole post?

[scension]

[Oh, right!]

Yes, people have been really helpful.
I was worrying too much about making it meaningful - a short, simple name seems best. We'll just try a few different ones and go from there.
That's not to rule out going to a bookstore anyway, if he doesn't like the first few. It was all useful to think about.