On Names, Identities, and Soulbonding.

[our-haven.livejournal.com]

So there's an interesting subject I've been tossing around in my mind for a while, and that's the names and physical charactaristics of the people in our house. It seems to me that while some of us have had sort-of 'innate' names, many have actually chosen their name when they first show-up 'publicly'. They've always been the same person, from before emergence to present day, but it just seems like most of them they didn't need conventional characteristics (such as names and physical appearance) until they were in the 'context' of this life and world. It also seems to me that, when choosing a name, everyone has a 'concept' or 'tone' related to their personality that they try to express. You know how certain types of names just fit certain people?

Some examples from our own system:

-Ana showed up without provocation and without any notice-- or warning, more appropriately. She started 'pushing' different ideas on us non-verbally, then started whispering, then started fully ordering us around. She just is, and has always been, her.
-Raijna was a walk-in (a rain fae) and had no concept of names or most things relating to our form of life. Jeremey chose a name for her, after getting inspiration from the fae herself, and when he ran it by her she seemed happy with the choice so we kept it.
-Jessa 'latched onto' a couple different people, including Raijna and myself, when she first showed up. She's always been the same girl, but she started out by co-fronting with us, following us around, and trying to act like us. Generally acting like a kid. It was damn cute, really. After she gave up "Raijy" and "Jemmy", I helped her choose her own name; "Jessamine".
-January and I are the result of the split of Genevieve. I fell back on our old nick-name, Jem, and January chose hers because of how close "Genevieve" is in pronounciation to the French word for january, "janvier". She said it suited her emotions and life, dead and cold like the winter (her attitude's not so goth anymore, thank god.)
-Vivian only recently emerged 'publicly', the first times she fronted I got a couple hints of her personality and the 'feel' of a 'v-name.' She confirmed my first impression of her by choosing "Vanessa" her third time out, but just today changing her name to "Vivian" because it is, in her opinion, a stronger name (meaning 'alive' or 'living') than "Vanessa" (meaning 'butterfly'.)

I really got to thinking about this because of reading about soulbonding. It seems, from what I've read recently, many people's soulbonds represent themselves with the character/person they do because it is similar to their personality and how they wanted to present/express themselves. I guess I see a similarity there, though perhaps on a different scale. Maybe soulbonds present themselves how they do because they didn't always have the 'context' of this life and world to fit into? How similar to or different from multiplicity like mine is this, aside from how soulbonds take on pre-existing fictional characters or already-living people? Are soulbonds actually constructs instead of pre-existing entities?

Food for thought.

~Jem of Haven
(btw, I tried to lj-cut this and it went funky and refused to work. sorry about the length)

Comments

[changelyng14.livejournal.com]

yo! we havent figured out exactly what soulbonding is yet so dunno if we have any, but we all got names! woo!

people here have a thing with native american naming conventions, how its done, and its meaning etc, so nicknames we've had all follow this, even if they dont sound like traditional native names (sitting bear, or twirling peacock, etc). when we started naming ourselfs, everyone got 'named' until such a time as that they chose their own name.

goodboy/frog. goodboy lived 6-12 years old and was 'the goodboy'. now hes frog, because his self image is this smooshed up lumpy thing that looks kinda like a toad, which became frog, etc.

angryboy/loco (our first splits were all blah-boys) loco = crazy, and he wanted to be in a gang and have loco be his 'gang name'. it stuck, he likes it, we laugh.

mike - our folks told us they picked between 3 names, the name we got, mike, and dave. mike wished we was this 'mike' that he got denied being. (mike doesn't make alotta sense sometimes) aka the mask, tank (the operator from matrix), the pervert behind the big curtain.

synch - "a state of perfect harmony with ones surroundings" (synch's a high speed problem solver protector type)

lovecry - wordplay. alot of people take alot of meanings from the word, but what he had in mind was 'as a battle cry is what you do to give yourself the strength to battle... a lovecry is preparation to loving unconditionally'

'the indian' - a title, were still waiting on a name from him. hes 'the indian' because hes the indian.

tyler - lived in a fundamentalist bible cult. hes a tad massochistic. someone suggested 'tyler derden' (fight club if u actually dont know) (cult leader) he decided to take it because it made him laugh.

drugless - lived our 12-step days (narcotics anonymous) everyone that called us, called us that. it was a no brainer.

mania (named manic at first) named after what synch used to call his state which turns out to be them corunning (his manic mode) he chose mania.

quiet boy - a title, cuz he doesnt talk nor actively engage in thought.

tia - i have no clue where she got that from, but i think she just likes the sound of it. she goes by 'T' when she doesnt wanna comeout with the misgendered thing.

a.j. - short for adrenaline junkie, (our resident sand-hippy) triggered by any adrenaline rush reaction.

the spirit - i have no clue. we watch his thinking process, but we dont get it. but he's some sort of spirit of some sort of animal or something, and might be a walkin reincarnation somethingy.

candy apple red- my given name, but i like it. i go by 'Red' irl now, (for the non-gender thing) but i still sign candy on the net cuzz i don't care here.