Fics like By Any Other Name

Names are important. Names have power, though what kind of power depends on the kind of name. This much, he knows. Real Names are the Name your parents give you, the first Name you knew meant you. They’re tied to you before you know how to say them, so much part of you they must be treated with care, kept secret from all but your closest loved ones, for any who know them can exert their power on you for their own ends. Then there’s the name you choose, the Safety Name, your public name, closer to a mask than a name. It’s attached to the you shown to the world, it functions like a shield, a wall between yourself and any who might attempt to magically influence you. He thinks he remembers there being more kinds of names than that, but he can’t remember what they are. He just knows— he thinks that they exist. He knows all of this. What he doesn’t know are his own names. Not anymore. Not after It found him, and changed him somehow. Everything before It is blurry and indistinct, save for that he knows he wasn't always like this, and that It is why he is. No, the only Name he knows himself by is the one It gave him, after finding amusement in his well-founded terror of It: Anxiety.

Fics like By Any Other Name

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