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?

But why for just one day? It would be Jerry Cornelius, and technically, I do it every day.

Yes, that's right people, I am sorry to disillusion you but Jerry Cornelius is not really my real name. It's simply the nom de guerre I adopted some years ago for the online writing/social communities I participate in, and it's the monicker the interwebs companions I met through those channels still know me best by. I've never used my real name online and never will.

It's slightly creepy how quickly one can grow into a cyber name though. The boundaries start blurring rather more readily than you'd expect. It hasn't happened yet but it wouldn't surprise me if I did absent-mindedly introduce myself to a fleshspace stranger as Jerry Cornelius and I'd certainly answer to it if I heard it called. But then, I've been known to say 'lol' in normal conversation when preoccupied so who am I to joke about it?.

Hasn't everyone invented new or different names for themselves ever since they were old enough to be discontented with what their parent's labelled them with? The first name I can remember wanting to adopt was Marmaduke, after our neighbour's handsome ginger tomcat, and I never looked back. I love doing those silly "Your Rockstar/Stripper/Redneck/Alien Lifeform Name is...." quizzes. Life on the internet has made it so much easier to adopt whatever name (or however many) you want without question or need for legal formalities. Yay verily, we live in escapist times.