I am known by many names…

This morning, I took a perfectly straight forward prompt:

Prompt: New name. Let’s meet again, for the first time. If you could introduce yourself to strangers by another name for just one day, what would it be and why? – [amazon_link id=”1550229338″ target=”_blank” ]Becca Wilcott[/amazon_link]

and made it about hats. That’s what I do, you see. I tend to look at things in pretty broad, weird, abstract ways. Sometimes I miss out on the point, and often I miss out on the fun.

Then, I found my way over to Uncle Typewriter, and had a shocking realization. I really missed the point. Sometimes, you just have to bounce for the sake of bouncing. Kicking myself, I decided to check the rules for Reverb10 and was unable (and willing) to find anything that said I didn’t get a do-over. So, here I am, doing it over again.

Everyone Calls me something…

To my parents, and most of my friends, I am Matt, unless I am in trouble, then I am often, Matthew Aaron. To the internet community at large, I tend to publicly go by ScreamingVoice, and less publicly by a different name. Professional type peoples call me Mr. Brotherton. My Nieces and nephew call me Uncle Monkey. In High School they called me Düg, and sometimes Brother Brotherton. My nom de plume is usually M.A. Brotherton, not creative, but I really like Initial Initial Last names on books, like JK Rowling or CS Lewis. Unlike them, I use the periods to keep people from thinking of me as Ma Brotherton, as in, Ma, get in here, there’s something wrong with bubbu’s hair lip.

Yeah, over the years, I’ve gone by a lot of different names. Some good, some fun, some mean, but almost all of them given to me by someone else. In fact, over all the years, there is only one name I have ever created for myself.

Sir-Master Gariff Uloharid

Well, I should say that I called myself Gariff Uloharid, and earned the titles of Sir and Master inside Eldaraenth. Gariff is my LARP name. I’ve been answering to it it for over a decade now, and some of my closest friends went years without knowing any other name. That isn’t that uncommon in LARP and Boffer circles, actually, and even now that I serve in an administrative capacity for the game, there are plenty of players who’s given names I can never really remember. I’ve gone by Gariff so long I sometimes refer to myself as that in my internal monologue.

There is a reason, though. You see, all fantasy stems from something. Gariff exists for a couple of reasons. He is my persona in the world of Eldaraenth, yes, and he definitely helps me drive the story in game. But, Gariff is also who I want to be. Now, leaving the throwing of magic death and the chopping dragons in half behind and actually examining the character; he is confident and self aware. He is not easily rattled by stress or change. He is in control of his emotions, and usually the emotions of those around him.

That’s who I want to be.

That or The Doctor.