Naming Day

Many choir blanks - especially former Skyphoforms - don't come to the Matrioshka Multiverse with a name to call their own. Some of these individuals lived under the thumbs of cruel arcopel overlords who considered them little more than machines built to prop up and validate their own selfish glory. For others, society might not have recognized artificial intelligences that had broached the boundary of self-awareness as independent sentient beings worthy of names, identifying them only by version designations or product labels out of simple ignorance. Still others might have come from circumstances where a name simply was never given them, as in the case of intelligences that only 'woke up' after their creators had died or left for parts unknown. Most commonly, the name assigned to a prospective choir is simply not aesthetically pleasing or easy to pronounce by the current residents of the Matrioshka Multiverse.
Whatever the case, one of the first major things a choir does upon being integrated into the Matrioshka Multiverse and becoming a citizen of The Substrate is to take for themselves a new name. Aside from indicating that one has chosen to fully exchange a lphysical life in the Origin Instance for the potential for near-eternal life surfing Unallocated Space, this naming process is a golden opportunity to embrace one's new identity as a blank and establish their expectations thereof among their new peers. This event is celebrated through an inaugural ceremony and annual remembrances known as the choir's personal Naming Day.

Components and tools

Because the experience of blanks is more of a cognitive than physical thing, the most common Naming Day gifts come in the form of unique verses, visits to new and unusual instances as 'vacations,' artistic performances, or even just shows of sincere praise for things the choir has accomplished in the past year. It is not uncommon for elders who were there for a choir's first Naming Day (see Observance) to come visit or, if busy as they usually are, to send a congratulatory message complete with the trappings of an old-timey wax-stamped envelope. The private pocket instances of choir blanks often gain their interesting features from the accumulation of gifts in celebration of previous Naming Days, and these features may later serve the very important purpose of helping to keep the ever-extending remembrances of choir blanks grounded in actual events and relationships from their past.

Observance

A choir's first Naming Day is celebrated by with a ceremony conducted by the Elder Blanks and by any other members of The Substrate who suggested or sponsored the new choir's admittance to the Matrioshka. This is most often an event held in a semi-private venue, with Club Chorus being a common choice. The new choir announces their name, which they choose only after extensive self-reflection, and each other celebrant raises a toast and speaks the new name in acknowledgement. This is typically followed by the new choir's guests each taking a moment to give a short speech about why they chose to accept the new choir into the fold. The celebrations that follow can last several days; elder blanks and experienced choirs are known party animals and are happy to provide the new choir their first experience with 'drunken karaoke' should they not have had the pleasure before.
A choir's Naming Day is treated like a second birthday alongside the anniversary of a choir's first activation, complete with an annual commemoration. Because the perceived flow of time varies based on a number of factors, such as the number of layers of simulation that a blank works under or direct manipulation of clock cycles in the Matriohska's underlying computational hardware, the length of a 'year' between celebrations is set by the 'global' time as experienced within Unallocated Space - which is, in turn, set by observation of external stellar phenomena. Gift-giving and private gatherings with friends are common Naming Day practices.

Related Ethnicities

• Choir Blank