Xlii's Origin Story

In 1996 a lass joined a computer club at university because internet and email access weren't standard unless you were a computer science nerd. Regular science nerds like the lass had to pay for internet access via this club.

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The lass needed a username and had just finished reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and thought "fortytwo - that’s a good username. It’s quirky and it has the right amount of letters for a username. I'll use that".

 

Fortytwo was born.

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Fortytwo became an operational committee member of the club and the computer nerds became her besties. They called each other by their usernames. Fortytwo began signing off emails as 42 because it was more efficient.

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She then began meeting people from the internet and introducing herself as 42. There were a few odd looks, but most people just accepted it. She became more and more confident and then she grew out of her shell.

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All normal stuff that occurs once you hit that age happened, of course, but with her a name change occurred at the same time.

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42, the identity, evolved…

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As the years went on 42 would get snail mail sent in the post, she chose Xlii (Roman numerals) to prevent misdirections.

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Xlii is who she is today. It’s still pronounced ’42’, though she’ll answer to most phonetic pronunciations of Xlii.