ALRIGHT. (ofic babble)

[askerian]

SO. I'm poking at my space mermaids again. And I have decided I need to introduce another main character to get things moving.

Alas, so far, the only thing I know about this guy is that he's "a 'space pirate' with definite jerk-like tendencies". I'm not sure he's really a pirate, or a "salvage guy" or somewhere in between, or hell, probably both and then some. He's part of a crew, but I don't know how high he is in the crew or even how big said crew is.

Kinda mocking, sarcastic, not that patient, and not very communicative... To oppose Liadan who is adorably serious and earnest, and Arun who is friendly, chatty and usually can't stay serious ten minutes. (they're both extremely curious as well. The new guy, not so much -- he has his own ambitions, and if he steps on people's toes, oh well. He doesn't want to know much about other people, if it can't be of use to him, as opposed to Arun and Liadan who want to know for the sake of knowing.)

... oh hey. It's starting to get more defined. SHINY. *_*

... Why am I thinking Kanda from D.gray-man. Or sasuke. NO. Kinda sorta same type, but not a clone. Besides a clone of either of them would have no reason to eventually care about pollution and civil rights and whatnot.

...hell, Liadan wouldn't understand the "rights" part. There's no global governent and basically the merpeople operate on a "if you're strong enough to take and keep it, it's yours" basis. Whereas Arun's government is all "if the people cannot make informed decisions on what to do with their natural ressources, these need to be held in trust until such a time as blahblah".

And the pirates are all "but they're not even USING ALL THAT SHIT"

And the merpeople would be all "... yeah. what the hell do you want it for anyway? do whatevar you want dude, it's not like we can eat those stupid rocks."

And then Arun's people would be all "nonono, you don't get how valuable it is, don't tell them they can take it just like that -- HEY YOU I SAW YOU PICK UP THAT ROCK YOU PUT IT BACK DOWN RIGHT NOW MISTER."

I'm still not sure how he meets with Arun and Liadan. The planet's kind of big and the previous metals are strewn all over the place anyway. So either he crashes... no, too cliche, besides how likely is it that there would happen to be an island... Or they (New Guy and crew) land on an island, and then they would end up with a colony of two-tails... What happens then? ;.; How mean are they really? *pets ze two-tails gently* Who are the bad guys? Just a random merry little band of ore-stealers? Maybe they want to visit the sunken cities? Or are they with an EEEVIL corporation, in which case they would benefit from making sure this world is never classified as "protected world" BUT ARUN ALREADY SENT HIS MESSAGE, BUT ONLY A WEEK AGO. D; So they wouldn't already KNOW about the merpeople, or if they know they're not going to get there anytime soon. Or was New Guy's crew hanging around looking for places to loot and they caught Arun's message on the way because they were monitoring archeology/biology/explorator people in the quadrant or something? Or did they catch Evil Corporation's message and decided that they didn't care about the ore much because they don't have enough equipment, but they're gonna loot the cities before everything goes down? WHICH ONE SOUNDS MORE SHINY, PEOPLE. D:


-Also, I need to find out how long Liadan's world needs to have been abandoned for its society to change so much, and all memories of their origins reduced to "We came from the sky, but then the gods got angry and swallowed the lands, but one god loved us and gave us tails so we could save ourselves" which is really a typical legend.


-... I need a name for that snarky, assholic-but-not-pure-evil pirate-guy. Can't help but think I'll see him more clearly if I can find a name. And I've decided that all the names in this story need to include a color. XD For example Liadan means Gray Lady in Welsh (and surprise, she has gray hair/fins XD mmm original.) and Arun means reddish brown in sanskrit; and his family name, Zlatanec, is derived from zlato which means gold in slavic. As for Arun's friend Shyam Sunil, his names are Indian/Sanskrit and mean "dark, black, blue", and "very blue" respectively. XD

Problem is... Most names with a color in them are of celtic-ish origin. And I've decided that celtic names are for merpeople, since they descend from irish/scottish/otherkindapeoplefromthereish, so no touchies... And Sanskrit (and potentially slavic) are for Arun's world... Well, Slavic is probably a recently incorporated world, so mostly Sanskrit/Hindu are off limits unless I find a reason why the pirates come from his corner of the galaxy.

So. I need a name with a color in its meaning (or a metal that's known for being a certain color, like gold or copper, or a precious stone like opal or jade or whatever, or hell, even light/dark). Preferably one that doesn't sound too girly. I ransacked BehindtheName.com, but unless i've missed one, nothing seems to fit. ;___; heeeelp plz. ;__;

Comments

[joisbishmyoga.livejournal.com]

How about New Guy's crew monitors Evil Corps' communications, and Evil Corps monitor science expedition scouts?

Sci dude: Yo, fellow nerds! I found neat stuff!
Evil Corp A: Mobilize, mobilize, go go go-- ack, red tape.
Evil Corp B: Ha ha, we have less internal red tape, we'll get moving faster, nyah!
Evil Corp A: But WE are CLOSER to the planet anyway, NYAH.
New Guy: Better hurry in and get my share before these guys get to the planet. *sneaky rike ninja*

As for names... Kane (Gaelic, Japanese, Hawaiian, Welsh) (the doubly-accomplished, golden in Japanese) (man, the eastern sky in Hawaiian). Yahto (Native American) (blue). I can't find much else (Xanthus, Greek, yellow -- haha, no) except names that mean "bright". Why not look for Native American, African, or Polynesian names?

[askerian]

Hee. That could work. ^____^ so the big corporation can be the real big bad (except i don't want actual ZOMG evil people, solet's just call them the. er. ultra-capitalistic? or something.)

I looked everywhere I knew I could search by meaning, but I don't know many sites and some are just plain wrong so I don't use them. Not seeing him as a Native American either... and I tried not to look at Japanese or Chinese name for fear of the "OH LOOK AN ANIME FANGIRL" syndrome. ^^; But I like Kane, so maybe. XD I'll say he's Hawaiian and cheat by using another meaning!! >D

[joisbishmyoga.livejournal.com]

P.S. - you can lose all knowledge of an entire industry in 80 years. (Evidence: absinthe.) Dunno about a massive disaster of that magnitude, but I'd more look at the language problems than the myths for a timeline. American and British English is close enough to be mutually comprehensible, but that's with continued contact. Americans have difficulty with Shakespeare (400 years distance), but I can puzzle out Chaucer (750 years distance) and recognize some Latinate words from the injection of Norman French into English (1000 years distance).

Hawaii is a good example. The language is only 1000 years separated from Tahitian or Marquesan, but distinct -- a simple table comparing the first ten numbers shows only one mutual word, though all are similar. So with the way that Liadan and Arun are managing to pick out their own words twisted in the others' language, 1000 years of merperson isolation could work.

[darksideofstorm.livejournal.com]

For a name, um... well Kuroda means black field in jap - it's the only colour-type name I can think of off hand, but it may be a little to anime-y.

The new character sounds neat anyway, I hope he works out for you ^__^

[askerian]

Nah, I'm trying not to use anything specifically Japanese or even any openly east-asian characters. Indian people or Filipino are alright, but I really want to avoid the "ZOMG ANIME" syndrome XD;;

thanks! I hope so too. ^__^

[soc_puppet]

*racks brain*

I think Cobalt is traditionally blue-ish in color. There was something about it smelling bad, too, and it was originally derived from Kobold (goblin) I think? Ferrum is the original name for iron, and Argent was silver. The old name for gold is probably too close to Arun, though ^^a ...And that's all I've got.

[askerian]

Heh. XD;;;; Thanks, hon. ^^

Sadly... XD;;; bad associations for all of these. Cobalt = "ZOMG HEEROS EYES ARE COBALT BLUE." "NO THEYRE PRUSSIAN." "NO COBALT." XD;; And in french, iron is fer and silver is, well, argent, and it's a little weird.

... though oh hey. Feris. Ferris. ... ferris bueller argh nuh. *SADFACE*

[leiral.livejournal.com]

"I need a name for that snarky, assholic-but-not-pure-evil pirate-guy."

RUAIDHRÍ:Means "red king" from Irish

CIARAN:Derived from Irish ciar meaning "black" combined with a diminutive suffi

EMERY:Either a pet form of EMERIC, or else "emery" from the English word for the hard black substance.

LONÁN:Means "little blackbird", derived from Irish Gaelic lon "blackbird" combined with a diminutive suffix.

DIRK:Short form of DIEDERIK. This is also the word for a type of dagger.

Those are some that I fuond that you may or may not like but good luck in picking out the right name

[askerian]

Thank you. ^^ Alas, I have all these names, but they're all celtic-ish and that's reserved for merpeople. Woe. So many pretty color-based words in irish and galeic and all that. (also, my brother's name is Emeric and that would just be weird. XD;;;)

[(Anonymous)]

Have you thought of Spanish? Or is that too close to French to work with?
There's - ébano which means Ebony, or Acero for steel.
Or if you want polynesian try Koura - which means gold (but I think you have a character with a similar name, no?) Kapa, which is simply a gross mispronounciation of copper, (also a celtic boogie monster I think) Rangi, means sky and is found all over the pacific. Good luck, getting the right name for a character is crucial.

[askerian]

Hmm, some of the spanish words would be too close, but I should explore this track anyway. ^___^ Thanks for the suggestion!

What about "Bob"?

[slamu.livejournal.com]

Kidding. Err, big, broad shouldered, tall (dark, handsome). Sounds Norse. Is Scandanaivian already taken by some one? Could be a semi-official nickname i.e., Erik the Red.
Languages seem to mutate more with contact with other, less similar languages.
"They're not even USING all that shit!" ^^ <3
That sounds like a very ecologically-minded person, yup.

*SNORT*

[askerian]

XD;;;; ♥

Oh hey Norse would be a possibility, as long as I can pronounce it or tweak it enough to pronounce it, but no, no nicknames. Now I need to find a norse names site... *^___^*

Yep. Just doing their civic duty, officer. u.u

[(Anonymous)]

The mer-people don't have a written language, right?

Then they could conceivably lose all knowledge beyond "we came from the sky" after everyone from that time died. So, it could happen within a few hundred years, if you want to swing it that way.

On the other hand... considering how much they seem to like to sing, they probably have oral records...

*head explodes*

-- Guile

[askerian]

Hee. You're right. And oral records get distorted over time. ^___^ fufufu. Thankee^^

[nif.livejournal.com]

Desher means red in Egyptian. Kem means black. Either of those could pass as non-girly pirate-y names.

[askerian]

Ohh, I like Kem. It's a bit short, though... *ponderponderponder*

thanks! ^__^

[kindigo.livejournal.com]

Greek: 'Chrysander', golden man. 'Oinone', violet tinted. 'Melancton', black flower.
Armenian: 'Sevag', black-eyed. 'Khajag', blue-eyed.
Albanian: 'Alind', gold.
Croatian: 'Zlatan', gold.
Norse: 'Finn', white. 'Delling', the shining one. 'Colby', from the dark country.
Teutonic: 'Ambert', bright. 'Cole', dark. 'Dwight', white or fair. 'Gorman', blue-eyed.

Arabic: "Aswad", black', and fits the character because it looks like 'asswad'.
Persian: "Zircon", mineral. "Farid", 'unique' and also means "red ruby".
Hebrew: "Admon", red peony. "Ardon", bronze. "Ashur", black. "Edom", red. "Laban/Lavan", white. "Timur", iron.

Chinese: "Qing", greenish blue. "Li", black. "Bai", white. 'Jin', gold.
Tibetian: 'Kalden', of the golden age.

Vietnamese: "Cam", orange; "Kim" golden one/from the meadow; "Bay"-'Born on Saturday', but the association of red-brown from bay horses.

Polynesian/Hawaiian: "Kea", 'white'. "Ora", 'light' or 'golden'.
Indonesian: "Chahaya", light.

Native American:
Amazonian: "Una", black?
Nahuatl/Aztec: 'Teoxihuitl', turquoise. 'Tlilpotonqui', feathered in black. 'Matla', green.
Hopi: 'Kachada', white man. "Sikya", yellow. 'Amitola', rainbow.
Sioux: "Hinto", blue. "Lootah", red. "Hotah", white. "Skah", white again. "Calfuray" is feminine for violet, but it sounds masculine to me. XD

Aboriginal: "Darel", blue sky; "Nioka", green hills; "Nowra" black cockatoo.

Basque: "Urdin", blue. "Urre", gold. "Gorri", red. "Zilar", silver. "Zuri", white. "Hori", yellow. "Belzta", black.




....And I really hope you like one of these. I'd go for throwing subtlety out the window and name him Teal or something.

*collapses* I should start my painting for tomorrow, but it's now two in the morning. Eh.

[askerian]

O_O wow. Thank you so much. ♥

I'd totally use Zlatan, I really like the sound, but it's already Arun's last name sort of. XD Also it would make all three characters have a name that ends in "n".

But bwee!! So many other names. *^o^* *ponderponder*

[creepstakes.livejournal.com]

...For the life of my I couldn't think of any, I hope you don't mind.

I have a bad habit of thinking up completely strange names from words. Take 'ever last' for example I turned it into 'esterac' and 'lilac' in 'larnac'. Though I have a feeling you'll want some sort of meaning to the words.... which you did state.

I added you as a friend I have been lurking around here for a while now (I found you through your crossed wires fic. much love to that wonderful piece of creation)


Wish I could be more help -_-'

[askerian]

Heh, it's alright, I've gotten a lot of help already. ^__^

I tend to do that too, tweak words into new things, but this time it wouldn't really work, sadly.

*does yay!friended dance* ♥

[ina-noranaya.livejournal.com]

Let's see, most of these probably won't be helpful, but I'll see what I can fish up.
Hebrew: (Hebrew's a great source of pretty words, but I doubt your pirate's Jewish) Kachol (blue) Yaroq (Green) Levan (White) Shachor (Black) Tzahov (Yellow) Sagol (Violet) (And I had to look those last two up--העברית שלי לא טובה ^_^;)
Arabic Azraq (Blue) also looks interesting.
Thai might be too close to the East Asian cultures you're trying to avoid, and there's no such thing as a pretty romanization of it, but I did find Khiaw (Green) and Leuang (Yellow).

Something Norse does sound fun, but I don't have any dictionaries. :( I'll see if I can find some other words when I have more time.

Actually, you should totally have him be a Finnish pirate. Not that I can think of there ever having been a Finnish pirate off the top of my head. . . (With a quick search, I was able to find Sini, Puna, and Kelta as nouns meaning blueness, redness, and yellowness, respectively.)

Again, it fascinates me that you do this research for your writings. (Or, in this case, employ your minions to do the research. ^_^)

[askerian]

Hee, thanks love ^___^

Thai works -- I kinda like Khiaw. ^^ Still pondering...


... u.u;;; I mostly research so I have an excuse not to write. *procrastination FTW*

Help for your story--err maybe?

[(Anonymous)]

I don't know if this will help you or not, but maybe you can try the word "argent" or "argentate", which means silvery white or silver. I usually associate the color silver with cool indifference or a mysterious aura. The decision all depends on your literary genius though, as I am but an anonymous and humble fan of your work.

Re: Help for your story--err maybe?

[askerian]

Thanks ^___^ alas! Argent means silver in french -- but also money. I guess for a pirate it would be appropriate, but that would be a little like naming a character Dollar. XD;;;;;; It wouldn't be a bad name otherwise.

*petpetloves*

[acechan.livejournal.com]

I can't really help with names, but....

Is it possible that your pirate detected Arun's ship in transport and got curious enough to track it down, for one reason or another? Possibly because said pirate was desperate/had only found slim pickings in this quadrant, but then I might like the perpetually-down-on-his-luck rogue stereotype a little too much.

Or possibly the pirate ship needed some sort of fuel or supplies (I'm thinking in terms of oxygen or water here, which Liadan's world probably reads as having plenty of), and this was the closest non-policed rock they could find with it? Though that one reads as kind of a lot of coincidence.

Also, I'd say that the society could have changed that much in 500 years or so, easily.

[askerian]

Hm. I want the guy to start off like a "bad" guy, or at least give him a reason to oppose them. If "it's not his fault" the conflict will die too quickly. ^^; Besides the whole planet is made of water, it would be kind of a big coincidence if they ended up finding each other at random. It's already going to be a coincidence if they just happen to get to the same island... *ponders*

[valles-uf.livejournal.com]

Does Farsi (http://cleo.lcs.psu.edu/) count as Sanskrit?

Ja, -n

[rochan01.livejournal.com]

Hmmm *is amazed at all your possibilities*

Legends and accompanying behavior can arise VERY quickly - think "cargo cult".
Plus all you need is more than one original language of colonists mixing = potential Creole result which can develop rapidly. "Pidgins can become full languages in only a generation, as with Tok Pisin, which was born as a pidgin and became a stable language in a period of 90 years." Wikipedia on Creoles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creole_language)

[askerian]

Oh, neat! ^^ Tough the main problem isn't really the language, it's mostly how long they would have remembered where they came from and what technology was and did. I can't get a good idea of how long that would take. ;_;