A GROUP of Second Life residents who place Ϯ before and after their display names have admitted that nobody is entirely sure what the fucking thing is supposed to represent.
Thousands of avatars currently walk around the grid with names such as ϮRaven DarkbloodϮ, ϮKenzie NightshadeϮ and ϮDamien VyperϮ, apparently believing the mysterious symbol communicates something extremely important about them. Precisely what remains unclear.
“It’s sort of a cross,” explained Ϯ Raven Darkblood Ϯ, 36. “But also possibly a sword. “It represents who we are.” Asked who they are, Raven replied: “Us.”
Researchers initially believed the symbol might signify membership of a vampire clan, BDSM family, motorcycle club, goth collective, combat faction or one of those enormous Second Life families where a 54-year-old woman from Doncaster calls a 31-year-old plumber from Ohio “Daddy”.
However, investigations found it being used by all of them.
Typography expert Dr Martin Wells said: “It resembles a cross, although it could conceivably be a small ceremonial dagger. “Turn it sideways and I suppose you could use it to spear a cube of cheddar and a chunk of pineapple at a 1970s buffet. “That is currently our strongest theory.”
Some residents insist the symbol has profound personal significance. ϮLucien BloodmoonϮ said: “You wouldn’t understand unless you were part of the family.” Asked what family, Lucien said: “The Ϯ family.” Asked what the Ϯ meant, he replied: “Family.”
The symbol is generally added shortly after an avatar purchases black leather trousers, joins a group containing the word Blood, Dark, Immortal or Syndicate, and begins describing friendships conducted entirely through Discord as “bonds that transcend worlds”.
Attempts to establish its origin have proved unsuccessful because everybody using it appears to have copied it from somebody else who copied it from somebody else in 2014. One resident admitted: “I thought it meant warrior. Then someone told me it meant protected. Then someone else said it was a sword representing loyalty. I've had it around my name for six years, so it's probably too late to ask.”
Linden Lab has confirmed there is no official meaning and residents are free to surround their names with whatever punctuation makes them feel most mysterious. Meanwhile ϮRaven DarkbloodϮ has rejected suggestions that the symbol is merely decorative nonsense adopted to make ordinary people look vaguely dangerous. She said: “It has a very deep meaning to me.” Asked what that meaning was, she replied “You really wouldn’t understand.”
She then used one to pick up a cocktail sausage.