Ruby: I was thinking about names again today and remembered how when I was a kid my mère showed me the piece of paper on which they wrote baby name ideas before I was born, and I discovered that if I had been a boy they would have named me Corentin. A pretty average name in France, but she added “we would have nicknamed you Tintin!” which made me feel like I’d dodged a bullet. Her top girl name was Éléonore but she changed it at the last minute. She said “I hesitated, because I liked the nickname Léo for a girl” and I was so mad at her for changing her minds. I felt like I would have been so cool and popular as a Léo, like it would have changed my entire personality. For weeks afterwards, when I felt shy or awkward I wondered What would Léo do? and tried to act more confidently. Or I’d think, no way a girl named Léo would have acted so dumb. I grew to hate Léo. It was hard living in her perfect shadow and the solution child-me came up with to feel better about myself was to add my Discarded Boy Name-persona on my other shoulder. It worked. For a while I went through life caring a lot less if I messed up because what would Tintin do? something much stupider, no doubt

TJ:

TJ: Red, you okay?