Expect another style-sheet Sketch Day this Saturday. I have a few more things I want to play with, although I’ve decided not to muck with the art style in live strips until this particular arc is over, for consistency’s sake.
Tony and Moonsong have surnames which they retain from being given up by their parents post-infancy; Tony Mollier and Moonsong Starfall. (Moonsong hates his surname)
Not sure if the bond is complete, but the glue is starting to set…
Moonsong hates his surname,but what about his first name? Parents think cutesy names are great or somehow meaningful but they never deal with what the kids have to deal with in school and life with a special name. There is a reason Zowie Bowie and Dweezil Zappa changed their names.
True. Did no-one listen to Johnny Cash?
As much as I hate to be “that guy”: “Zowie Bowie” never legally changed his name (he was actually born Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones) while Dweezil Zappa changed his name *to* Dweezil (his birth name was Ian Donald Calvin Euclid Zappa).
And I almost became one of those kids. My father listened to A Boy Named Sue and got it in his head that that was a good idea. I was seconds away from becoming Pantherscott. As such, when I get the cash I’m changing my surname anyway, glad I don’t have to change my first name as well. So I feel for all of these kids like Apple.
Well I can see why Bowie changed his name. Saves a lot on his ink and pencil bill.
“Moonsong Starfall”? Really? I guess it matches up with the whole “his parents must have hated him” bit.
Although, perhaps that sort of name is common in the culture his parents came from.
Could have been worse. He could have been Native American and named Two Dogs Fking. >_< Or White Man Killer (that is actually a name. The Two Dogs one is a joke…but I'm sure some parent will think to use it as a name).
Indians have….a taste for mean humor (or at least the ones I live with do).
Fan of Terry Pratchett, are we? Reaper Man, if I’m remembering correctly. Brother of Two Man Bucket (for short).
The Native Americans where I grew up typically had two different names, a tribal name and the name they used in school.
I only knew one or two of their tribal names, the ones I knew were pretty shy about revealing them.
To be fair, I have a friend who changed his name *to* StarFall a couple years back. She’s wicked cool, to me.
Also, in the US there’s no legal-name, just a birth name which you’re free to completely ignore except on tax filings and the like. You’re free to do business under any name you choose, so long as it’s not to defraud others, I believe is the jist of the wording.
I feel like this is a real bonding experience for those two and from this point forward they’ll probably be really good friends.
Or not, if Amanda will let Heather into her posse again.
So with two out of the three bullies not wanting to pick on Selkie as much as the head bully, what will Amada do now? Find some new minions?
Selkie’s a good gal to be so understanding about this. I told you guys she’d be more forgiving once she understood why the bullying happened.
Also yeah, I’ve never understood why parents give their children ‘unique’ names that only end up getting them tormented in school. I myself have one of those names (It’s not Lily.) that got me tormented in school. I began to hate my name quite a bit for it. While I don’t really care too much now that I’m older, I still think it’s a bland, very not cute sounding name for a girl and people always ask me why my name is Spanish! (It’s not, it’s Italian, there’s no word for it in Spanish, not even a similar sounding word.) So it’s still fairly annoying and I go by a different name.
My real first name IS Hanna, and that’s a very, very common name for girls of my age group, which turned into a burden when at one point there were three Hannas in the same class, and they had to start using our surnames. And with my surname being 13 letters long, it didn’t take a long time for my bullies to shorten it to less pleasant forms.
Also, I’ve personally witnessed an instance where I was walking at the city centre’s pedestrian zone, and someone yelled “Hanna!” very loudly – I counted 10 other women turning to look (that was 11 out of maybe 50 people around). I found it somewhat amusing. 😛
I know what you mean. I´ve always had at least one other boy with my first name in any class, and I´ve had no end of bullies – or worse, just any other kid – calling me by unpleasant abbreviations of my last name.
I knew several Ashley’s in my class. I’m not saying common names are the best and I’m not saying they’re horrible either. When you name your kid something like Zumi or Razzle or Flowerchild though, you’re pushing it too far and I can almost assure you those kids will be made fun of far more than somebody named Ashley or Amy or Christi. I mean if your parents had named my brother Jaymees instead of James, he probably would’ve been made fun of just because his name was ‘unique’ even though it sounded exactly the same as the ‘normal’ name. My cousins’ names all start with the letter J and they’re tormented constantly for it. Their last name starts with a J and all their middle names start with an L. They absolutely hate it.
I just wish parents would be a little more considerate when naming their children. Just because they had a ‘normal’ ‘boring’ name doesn’t mean their kid wants to be named Zuzubelle. They couldn’t stand out in life so they want their kids to stand out for them. To me that’s like forcing your kid to play a sport or take ballet just because you never got to or because you were bad at it. Living through your child seems like horrible parenting to me.
My brother and I don’t have weird names, but mine is Spanish and my brother has a very biblical name that’s popular for Jewish boys. So he gets a few people asking him if he’s Jewish, which is legit. But people look pale, blonde me dead in the green eyes and ask if I’m Spanish/Hispanic/Latina.
Yeah, on occasion, all the way through high school, I had teachers doing roll-call look right past me trying to find the Latino/Mexican girl. I just think it’s sort of funny now… but then I also get people who auto-correct my name in their heads to Marie, Mary, or sometimes something not even close.
Most new friends I make online want to add another H at the end of my name for some reason. I also know a friend whose name is Maaria, with altogether 3 A’s, and she constantly has to fight people trying to shorten it to Maria – even the tax bureau got her name wrong until she marched there with her driver’s licence and passport to set them straight.
Names are curious things, though the Selkie-Sophie one still amazes me. 😛
Throughout elementary school the school board apparently thought my middle name was Lisa. I’m not sure where they got this impression, since my middle name is Jean. I did tell everyone it was Jane, but even then I have no idea how they got Lisa from it.
Also, there are like 10 other girls in any given hallway at school with my name, so I am constantly barraged with people shouting it and like three people looking over. Until I went to this school, I had only met 2 other people with my name, each in a different state.
Yeah, Selkie’s empathy is strong; another commonality between her and Todd. If this is typical of her species, then co-existence / integration with humans should be far easier.
The existence of Selkie’s people seems to be something of an open (or semi-open) secret, which makes sense. You can’t just fence off Lake Superior without raising a few questions. Gradually introducing small numbers of these nonhumans, along with things that benefit both species (like the legislation Theo found) would be an alternative to a Dramatic Reveal that might literally start a war.
In the long run, contact with nonhumans like Selkie would be of immense benefit to the world. But pioneers like Selkie and Todd may be in for some rough times.
“The problem with being a bridge is that everyone steps on you.”
–Jan Masaryk, WW2 Czech diplomat & politician.
I think it will be interesting to see how the communication goes from here on out. Selkie probably now thinks the Sandersons are Amanda’s birth parents and that Amanda was given up for being a step kid or something. When it comes out that Andi and Todd are Amanda’s birth parents now she is going to be much more confused than she already is going to be anyway.
Or maybe Andi and Todd’s Amanda is a different Amanda?