2024-06-27 - [4.1] Indentity

Ever since he was forced to think of how he should be referred to in this thing called a conversation, the person-egg had been wondering…Why one form of identification and not the other?

Rocranth simply beats him to it.

He recoils at the piercing cry, annoyed at his own important consideration being interrupted even when he realises that it’s related to the very Important Topic he’s considering. The emotion distracts him enough that by the time he feels up to Listening to the others again the world has moved on from that one cry to many. Each tiny scream-whisper-yell of a name is both more data to consider and more chances that are taken from him.

The person-egg considers the name-words to be useful for only one thing: identification. If they all have names, other things about themselves must be too similar to tell apart, and so the name must be distinct and suitably different. He can tell the faint touches at the edge of his mind apart by feel, but clearly that’s not good enough.

Rioth, Liorenth, Jjezreth, Diath, silence, Neath, Gwilanth, Pertemarth, Yuakjath-Igith-Issrodeth-Shaylad-Dei’r – the list is a never ending litany as he tries to find something that both connects and separates them. The dragons choose a th ending. The strange-human-minds do not. Feminine and masculine do not seem to matter, or perhaps each person has their own complicated interpretation of what sounds make up those things.

It hits him out of the blue, while he examines other Input: while they all share many vowels (the person-egg doesn’t have the right word, but he has the concept), there’s only so many consonants. The hard sounding chunks around the names that make them stand out. Which ones has he not heard-felt-known?

C. Co is a new combination to him, but for the sake of fitting in with the majority of the others around him, he supposes he should pick a common letter from their names too. R, then. But the shape of just Corth feels wrong. It’s too short, too easily mixed in if others have a similar convention. Courth, then. Courth. That will do just fine.

Courth doesn’t see the need to tell anyone else about this decision, however.