Oh, well... this name originally was an Xbox Live tag, replacing an older, more cringe (I thought) name I had chosen when very young (FirePhoenix, which has come back around to being cool honestly).
I was getting extremely into Dune at the time, and the whole concept of mentats was very cool to me. Human computers, capable of vast calculation and predictive analysis in the blink of an eye. The way Paul Atreides' mentat training enabled him to comprehend and process his prophetic abilities. I was big into characters who used the power of their minds to overcome impossible odds (I promise I won't turn this into another post about Lelouch).
My first choice was Mentat Assassin, which I think is what Thufir Hawat was called once or twice. But that was way too cool to not be taken. So I came up with a list of other words I could pair with Mentat, and eventually settled on Emulator. Cause it sounds cool. It has since become my go-to handle for basically everything. It has the benefit of being unique enough that it's never taken, and it embraces my love of Dune, so it's just kind of perfect!
These days it feels completely natural for people to call me Mentat, even when meeting in person. I didn't bother to change it when I came out, because it's non-gendered as well. I've been Mentat longer than I've been a girl, and that's kind of cool actually.






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