#I've just been meeting new ppl at uni and have had a bit to drink

[gayforcarstairsgirls]

Hi,

If you dont want to or can't answer just know that it's totally fine cause I know it's a bit personal.

I couldn't help but notice a post mentioning you uni dorm, and I am going to uni next year but I'm not sure yet where as I'll have to move out of my parents house. How did/do you experience that? Is it easy to make friends at uni?

Thank you in advance!!

Hi!

Honestly I was so scared about moving to uni and not making friends, but I've found that living in uni accommodation was actually way less of an adjustment than I thought it would be?? (And I am very resistant to change so this surprised me). And in terms of making friends I again surprised myself cause I actually have ended up with friends here, I think something that was good for me was that my Freshers week had non-drinking alternatives to the traditional clubbing etc (I don't drink), which is a good way to meet people, and tbh I think just being thrown into a new scary environment with lots of people leads you to make friends quite quickly, like you just sort of end up with people I don't even remember how. You can meet ppl at societies but I mean I am not a part of a single society and I still managed to make friends so it's totally up to you if you actually want to do that or not.

Obviously everyone has a different experience, for some people it will take longer to find people they actually like and to adjust to living in that different environment, but I think my advice would be to just talk to as many people as you can in Freshers week (every single conversation begins with "what's your name and subject" but eventually you do get somewhere with it), and also not to worry too much now about adapting to living in a uni dorm because you will probably find that you are able to adapt much better than you think.

I hope this has been helpful :))

[kiasnocturnality]

Hi! Sorry if you have answered this before but, how do you go about picking characters' names? Do you have any advice(because the ones you pick are very pretty)?

It really depends on the characters background! Alois, for example, I chose from a list of popular French names from the 15th century (along with the rest of his family). I like to delve into the meanings of names too and they can either set me on or put me off the name. For example, his sister Yvonne was going to be called Blanche but then I realised I couldn't call her Blanche Leblanc 'White TheWhite'. I liked how Alois means famous warrior bc he comes from a renowned family and is the only surviving heir to it.

Nasana was made from a name generator (big up Fantasy Name Generators, I love you) and I just really likes the sound of his name! Something about the consonant, vowel, consonant, vowel pattern made his name sound slithery almost? Which I thought suited him as a naga.

Takeshi was honestly just from a list of Japanese names that I found and liked and edenspetals said she was fond of the name so, true friend I am, I let her make that final decision for me on Take's name.

Desdemona was just pure interest of the Shakespearian heroine. I spent two years studying Othello and I really liked Desdemona! Her and my own Des are two very different women but I like the tragic connotations of the name (ill fated/unfortunate) as it's believed sirens are born from tragic/violent deaths. I was actually torn between the names Desdemona and Adrienne (fittingly meaning 'dark lady from the sea') but I left the final choice down to my friend itseivwhore who went for Desdemona!

Aphaeleon is just a different spelling of the astronomical term Aphelion which is simply a word meaning when something is at its furthest point of orbit away from the sun. I like the idea of Aphae's design centring around solar imagery (where the sun represents what is good and holy) while his name means he is the furthest point away from the sun (and therefore holiness) but he tries to act as though this actually means he is even holier, refusing to see that he is at his Aphelion from holiness while he talks about how he is purer than even God himself. (sorry I said holy a lot lmao)

Va'ariniel took me an hour to come up with. It's a completely mad eup name but I knew I wanted her to have a strong or even slightly uncommon letter as a main feature in her name such as a T, V or Z. I was also set on the fae siblings having apostrophes in their names because it's quite uncommon in everyday life and I think it helps to express the differences/distance between our own world and the fae court. I wanted her name to have lots of vowels to make it sound softer and more dainty/elegant like a faerie and the -iel ending I took from female Tolkien elves because I think he created an idea that that name suffix in fantasy is quite feminine. Va'ari's gender plays a key role in her life as she can be overlooked as a woman so I wanted to highlight something feminine in her name for that very reason.

Taruqu'uinel took me half the time to come up with and I had help from itseivwhore again. I've always loved the name Taruhuinn since I read Children of the Water on Wattpad years ago and I just really likes how such an elegant/fantastical name could be shortened to something as sweet and almost childlike as Taru. Taru as a nickname sounds much more playful than Va'ari and I wanted to use that to express how much more serious his sister is as he's still much more naïve than she is. I then wanted to make the name sound more serious so I added on a harder sound like the 'k' sound that is caused in the -uqu- part of his name. The apostrophe I have explained above in Va'ari's name explanation. The -inel was then similarly taken from Va'ari's name but for different reasons than why Va'ari has that very feminine-sounding ending. itseivwhore suggested that I make their names sound more similar to express their familial relationship and so it seemed appropriate that his name contained a similar sound/ending to his older sister.

I hope these individual explanations helped you a bit! Lists of names from time periods, name meanings, name generators, friends' opinions, existing character names, focuses on different sounds and their connotations all play key parts in how I name my characters!