It’s been a long day and I’m pretty exhausted (and confused about the lack of a challenge today), so I decided to go back on the timeline and finally write the introduction of Steirdrar’s private chat username. This is set between FFM 2025 23: Tiredness and FFM 2025 25: So Much Gossip, so to a point before Beyari and Steirdrar were on first-name basis. Not particularly happy with this one but it’ll have to do for now.
The moment Steirdrar had dreaded came sooner rather than later — and far sooner than the rematch with Agent Ket to boot.
“By the way, do you have a private chat username in use or do you want personal chat communications to your official AIRF inbox?” Agent Ket asked one day while they were talking between their shifts.
His training did allow Steirdrar to suppress the urge to scratch his neck but he decided he might as well show his embarrassment properly rather than hide it like he normally did. “Well, I do have a private username that I made after jumping the border, mostly at some colleagues’ insistence. It’s deliberately something outrageous and unlike me so it’s less likely to get connected to me at a glance.” He dug out his communicator. “It’s easier if I show you how it’s spelled.”
Agent Ket looked more curious than amused to see the username Damp’n’FurryII. “I expected worse. Mine is something really cringy I picked up in my twenties and then figured I might as well own up to it even when my fellow hunters were giving me a hard time about it in the later decades.” She typed something on her arm-mounted computer. A message from /~/~DisasterHunter/~/~ appeared in his private inbox. “That’s me.”
Steirdrar had to admit to himself that he saw what Agent Ket had meant when she had said “really cringy”. “I see.”
Agent Ket chuckled. “You can say to my face if you think it’s a cringy name. No way you can say anything worse than what I’ve heard before unless you go out of your way to be rude about it.”
Steirdrar figured he might as well say his thoughts out loud now. “Well, I can see what you meant by ‘really cringy’.”
Agent Ket chuckled some more, apparently not offended. “Exactly. How’s the double I in your username pronounced, by the way?”
Steirdrar grimaced. “I pray to whatever deity is willing to hear me out that no one will ever have to say that name out loud.”
“Humor me?” Agent Ket asked, grinning.
Steirdrar sighed dramatically, much to Agent Ket’s continuing amusement. “The double I is pronounced as ‘two’. It’s from an ancient numeral system from Earth called the Roman numerals. The base form of my username was already taken, so I added the numeral for some funky Earth history nerd feel to hopefully throw people off even further.”
Agent Ket looked mildly impressed. “Huh. Neat.”
Says the one with a cringy username from their distant twenties, Steirdrar might quip if he was close friends with Agent Ket. Since he certainly was not that with her, he kept it to himself. “Is there any story behind your username?”
“I was early into my bounty hunting career back then.” Agent Ket smirked. “I like leaving to interpretation whether I’m hunting disasters or am a disaster myself, either as a hunter or overall.”
That sounded more like teenage angst than a young adult’s joke but Steirdrar did not comment on it. “I imagine the interpretation is subject to changing depending on how well the ongoing hunt is going.”
Agent Ket snorted, still amused. “That’s one way to think about it.”
~~~
Beyari was morbidly curious about who the owner of the username Damp’n’Furry was, so she decided to look them up. If the avatar and bio were to be believed, a conventionally attractive male Kolton who was DTF with anyone in the vicinity — although a look into the linked hook-up platform profile revealed that they were on Folma, way too far from Sasat to justify her flying just to meet up with the fellow in-person to confirm who they were. Oh well. At least she had likely confirmed her suspicion of the person actually being furry.
It was funny how Damp’n’Furry and Damp’n’FurryII differed from each other; no one would immediately think of a Human at the sight of either username. Commander Urrang’s choice was a good one in terms of throwing people off even before considering the Earth nerd vibe thing, although it certainly was still an interesting pick nevertheless. Perhaps one day he would be comfortable enough with her to share any thought processes he had not volunteered today.
Something interesting to wait for while they tried to find a suitable time for their rematch, then. Nice.
WindySilver 