A New Username

Over the last few years, I’ve shifted away from the name Medic, instead taking on the name Retvik. My original online alias was Phovos, which isn’t always available since it’s an intentional misspelling of the word Phobos, the Greek word for ‘Fear’. The name Retvik on the other hand has always been pretty available in a lot of places, since it’s not really a name. In fact, the name Retvik comes from one of the protagonists from my fictional writing. But the thing is, I was never 100% sold on the name Retvik. I took it because my preferred names weren’t available.

You see, when you think of the name Retvik, you most likely imagine me. Or, more likely, considering this blog, you imagine several things, namely a Medic with nothing but a Party Hat, or a bright yellow Volt. Or maybe that Pokemon GO trainer in the Team Rocket outfit and the Ho-Oh wings. But that’s not what I see when I see the name Retvik. Somehow, Retvik is one of my oldest Phoviverse characters, although he was originally a bad guy. Despite his age though, he’s been spectacularly consistent. A tall, proud, heavily built beast with red and gold armour and an affinity for the elements of fire and light. After he stopped being evil, Retvik became a force for good, a just, kind being that always helped others, while also being proud and boastful and all-round very powerful. And, somehow, Retvik managed to always stay the same species as well, one of my original races. Even when I created a second Retvik for the MK5 Phoviverse.

But I never felt like I fit the name Retvik. I’d built up a character around this name, and it was always something I could never match. After all, I’m small and weak and definitely not a cool, armoured beast. But at the same time, none of the characters I play as in video games match up to Retvik either. It’s almost like if I was called Heavy Weapons Guy, despite being a Medic main.

However, I do have a username I’ve always wanted to use, even if it’s never available. The name Arkay has always resonated with me, mostly because it’s the name of the other protagonist I have in my writings. Arkay started off as a secondary character (one of the many siblings of the original protagonist, Teekay) but over the years, he evolved into his own thing, eventually ending up as the Death God of the Phoviverse. His personality though is much, much closer to mine. Despite being a death god, he’s kind and caring and just wants what’s best for everyone else. Even if it means he suffers for it.

But most of the time, this name isn’t available. Of course it isn’t. It’s only five letters and it’s the sound of to letters, R and K. However, on Discord and Steam, the places I am most active, that doesn’t matter, because we have a wonderful thing called the Display Name. I can just change my name on those places and be fine. Which, over Christmas, I finally decided to do.

However, I had one more hurdle. And that was Warframe. I was tired of the name Retvik in-game, especially since my avatars have always been yellow and black, Arkay’s colourings. But, out of curiosity, I looked up the name Arkay, to see if anyone was actually using it. Nope, turned out the name belonged to an account that had never been used. And, since I knew Kaiga, my old Smolt protege, had managed to get his username off a dead account, I decided to do the same.

So that’s… what I did. I got my in-game name changed to Arkay. Now, finally, after nearly seven years, my username actually matches my fashion choices. Sure, it cost me 200 Platinum (and it’s going to cost me another 400 to change the name of my Warframe clan so it better matches me) but I think it was worth it.

I feel more like me already.