Mephisto214: Gamertags Tell His Story | Reinvention Through Names, Grief, and Gaming

"All your story needs is heart."
In this deeply moving episode, Mephisto214 shares a story not often told—one of survival, reinvention, and the digital identities that saved his life. From Vagabond83 to Torch512 and now Mephisto214, every gamertag marked a turning point. What began as a comic book nod evolved into a tribute to transformation—rooted in loss, depression, fatherhood, and rebirth. Through heartbreak and healing, Mephisto forged a persona that now stands as a beacon for others seeking light in dark places.

We Talk:
– The story behind the name Mephisto214
– Gaming through grief, loss, and personal evolution
– The story behind Torch512 and how gaming helped him survive a personal crisis
– Fatherhood, Minecraft, and making space for joy
– Why every gamer’s story matters—even if you're not a streamer

🃏 And in the ReRoll…
We meet Mephisto214’s final form: a spacefaring, samurai-armored vanguard charging into battle with a crimson blade and a noble heart. Part Titan, part dad—his digital avatar mirrors the quiet strength behind the mic.

Guest: Mephisto214
Hosts: Scarto46, Ryanocerus, Marthah Maple
Produced by: Gamertagged Studios

⚠️ Content Note: This episode includes a heartfelt discussion of mental health and personal crisis, including themes of suicidal ideation. We understand these topics may be difficult for some listeners. Chapters are clearly marked so you can navigate the conversation in a way that feels right for you. If you or someone you know is struggling, you are not alone. Free, confidential support is available 24/7 at 988 or 988lifeline.org.

In this episode, we’re taking a moment to spotlight Take This, a nonprofit at the intersection of mental health and gaming. From AFK Rooms at conventions to their Accelerate mentorship program, they’re building safer, more human spaces for players and creators alike. Learn more or support their work at TakeThis.org.

Chapters

• 0:00 Your Story Needs Heart
• 1:28 Where Did Mephisto214 Come From
• 3:08 First Days of Online Gaming
• 5:00 Marvel, Comics & Characters That Inspire
• 6:25 Reinvention Through Gamertags
• 11:51 ⚠️ The Torch Era: Surviving Darkness
• 19:22 Why Join Gamertagged?
• 25:45 Gaming Today & Proud Dad Vibes
• 27:58 Who Is Mephisto214 Today?
• 31:19 Re-Roll: Introducing The Crimson Vanguard
• 40:18 Final Reflections

Transcript

Mephisto214: 0:00

You don't have to have this grand story. All it needs really is heart. As long as it has that, your story is always going to matter, whether it's good or bad, or it's a combination of both.

Scarto46: 0:33

Welcome to Gamer Tag. On this episode, scartof46, brian Osiris and Martha Maple sit down with Mephisto214, a gamer, a dad and someone who's carried more than most. A content warning before we begin this episode includes open conversations about mental health, self-harm and suicide. If that feels overwhelming today, take care while listening or come back when you're ready. Timestamps for these sections are clearly marked in the show notes so you can navigate the episode in a way that feels right for you. What you're about to hear isn't a headline or a highlight reel. It's one person's truth Around. Here, every name holds a story and every story matters. This one's heavy, but it's also honest, human and, truthfully, one of the most beautiful stories we've ever had the honor to tell. If you're ready, let's roll the honor to tell. If you're ready, let's roll. Hey, mephisto214,. Thanks for joining us on this episode of Gamertag. What's up, dude Living the dream? Hey, dudes, let's start with like, where did the name Mephisto214 come from? What is that name to you? And like where did it start, dude?

Mephisto214: 1:45

mephisto. 214 is my latest gamer tag. That came from back when I was with my daughter's mom. She's also a gamer, she's brilliant to diablo and there'd be times that we'd just be sitting there having a drink and she would just go on about the lore of diablo like the whole story would just tell me and I would soak it all. Just listen to her talk about Diablo for hours and I remember her mentioning Mephisto and I had already liked the name Mephisto because I'm a comic nerd. So Mephisto in the comics I was like cool and I just, I don't know, I liked his character the most out of everyone in Diablo and so when I changed from my previous gamertag before Mephisto, I landed on that one. It was either that or Maltheo. I chose Mephisto. I just I don't know, I guess because I had more of a connection with the name because of comics. So it just made sense.

Marthah Maple: 2:47

And the 214 was because we were up in dallas at the time, so that's just the area code.

Mephisto214: 2:49

Yeah, because I didn't want to do like mephisto and like a random set of numbers and she tried to talk me into mephisto 666 and I was like okay, I tried it and it was taken. I was like no surprise there. So I was like I'll just do 214 and got that look of so unoriginal. It's like what do you want from me?

Scarto46: 3:08

bro, how old were you when you got into like, uh, I'm gonna get on the internet and play video games and I need a name. Like how old were you when you started that whole journey?

Mephisto214: 3:18

online gaming. Oh man, I was a junior or sophomore in high school and COD I would just play Call of Duty all the time. World at War was probably the one that got me hooked on online gaming the most and that was just what I played all the time. Started on Xbox, my first game that I ever played was Nintendo At that time because I grew up in the 80s I'm an 80s baby, you know pretty much had everything At some point in my life Atari, nintendo, super Nintendo, sega, cd, all that stuff so like console gaming has been in my blood since I was young.

Mephisto214: 3:55

Yeah for sure, and yeah, that's where it started. But yeah, in high school, junior, sophomore or junior, that's when I got into online gaming.

Scarto46: 4:05

Did you have a bunch of friends that you were playing with at the time? Because I think it was pretty common back in the day where you would go to school and hang out with the same five people that were all playing the same game. Then you would just jam on that game constantly.

Mephisto214: 4:19

No, I had two or three friends that we would get on and play, and it wasn't until later on the early 20aughts that, yeah, that's when the group grew bigger. But yeah, I had like mainly two friends that I would get on and play with and that's all we did as soon as we got out of school. If we didn't have to go work our our high school jobs, if we were free and there wasn't a football game that night, hey, we were gaming oh yeah, that was, that was my life too.

Scarto46: 4:43

I, we would hang out in the shop class and then someone would set up like a projector and then we would, we would play games off the projector in shop class. Halo combat evolved, we would just play all the time. So mephisto comes from your, so it comes from diablo and your love for love for comics.

Mephisto214: 4:59

What comics I'm mainly a marvel guy. Like I, I'll read some, some DC. I'm not like super well versed on everything DC but yeah, I'm a Marvel guy through and through. That's all I consume, like when it comes to comics, and then the movies, the shows. That's my jam. And talking about Marvel, my favorite characters, it's three way tie between Captain America, black Panther and Ghost Rider Robbie Reyes. Oh man.

Scarto46: 5:30

Yeah, dude, so I'm similar. Number one is Cap For me. I do love Ghost Rider, but I like Thor, thor ends up being like a big dummy and he grows into someone who has a brain and I love that evolution Because it's like See yourself in that. Yeah, I see myself in that 100%, where I'm like, wow, I was a big dummy for a long time and then I grew up. But man, cap, he's the best.

Mephisto214: 5:54

He is, yeah, like, I'm a huge Cap fan when people ask me oh, who would win if Cap fought this person?

Scarto46: 6:02

blah, blah, I'm a cap fan through and through yeah, portobello and I have this conversation constantly, where it's not that she's asking me like who would beat who, but every time she's like who's the best, I'm like bro, it's cap, there is not a question. She's like that you're an idiot, that's not like how this would work ever and I'm like, but he's got the biggest heart, that's all that matters yeah, the cap, like everything you said about that so like when did like the mephisto name right, just a two or four?

Scarto46: 6:29

like I'm sure there was a time like you've probably gone through that time in your life where you've had like a number of gamer tags and been known by a couple different names, but like when did this one start to really stick? All right, you mentioned that it was about you know the evolution and like the story with your daughter's mom, but like when did it start to stick?

Mephisto214: 6:50

It stuck the minute that we got up in Dallas. We moved up there. A lot of things were falling apart down in Central Texas. I just lost my father and then, before our daughter was born, we were pregnant once before, had a miscarry, and so we were just like we need to get out of here there. There's too much bad like memories around here.

Mephisto214: 7:10

So, you know, we went up there like her side of the family is up there, and so we were close to them and we were playing destiny 2 and I was like man, I really want to change my gamer tag. And she understood change the scenery, change everything. And it shed that old version of you, because that's what life's about growing and shedding. And sat down and we were like, okay, brainstorming. She was so helpful because she asked me she wasn't trying to just come up with names, she was asking me okay, what are you like? Just asked me all these questions. That got the wheels in my brain just turning and, like I said, it eventually landed on mephisto and that's like the minute that I was like, yeah, I'm gonna do that. The minute that I had a to accept the name change. That's when it stuck.

Scarto46: 7:58

So that was like 2019 when it stuck man, I think it's so cool how you describe like the need to reinvent yourself. One of the reasons why we started Gamertag was like I don't think people always connect that these, like names that we call ourselves for whatever reason, are like a representation of a time in our life or a representation of a moment that we connect to and like we embody that thing a little bit because, like you know, in life we all have names, but you don't get to change that name or change the experiences you've had, but you can rebuild new ones and I think that's so cool that you look at it.

Mephisto214: 8:40

I mean that's how I've always looked at life, Like at it. I mean that that's how I've always looked at life like. I've had three gamer tags my entire life, and what were they? The very first one was vagabond 83. Of course I'm unoriginal. The 83 is the year that I was born and I like vagabond.

Mephisto214: 8:56

That's strong, I like that yeah, and the reason I chose that is because, like you know, I'm such a lon, a loner Like I. You know I'd like to talk and I like to meet new people and stuff, but 10 times out of 10, I a lot of times I just want to be alone. I just let me do me. And then watching Ninja Scroll like almost every day for a while, and them referring to a Ronin as vagabonds, and I was like I like it, so I chose vagabond and then, you know know, went with 83 as my birth year. I had that for such a long time and then when I shed that it or I picked that just because of like my mental state, like I just wanted to be alone, didn't really want to interact with people, but yet here I was playing online games with people, you know so uh, you know, and when I changed from that one, it was more the next gamertag that I had was I don't want know how to describe it.

Scarto46: 9:51

Then you look for a way to like tie words to a thing that you identify with right and, like you know, you repaint yourself, like you just mentioned, and it's you trying to play with that part of yourself like how you were talking about it.

Mephisto214: 10:23

It's something like to us gamers to a good majority, that have certain identities, certain gamer tags handles whatever you want to call it to a good bit of them, like it has meaning for them, best way to put it in the terms that people can understand it, like if somebody really loves the song and they say, oh, that describes you know my life right now type of thing For most of us that have, I guess if you want to say meaningful gamer tags like, that's best way that I could try to describe it to somebody when they ask why'd you choose this or anything like that is you know you have a favorite poem, a favorite artist, you know something that you relate to that just shows people who you are. That's how I try to approach gamer tags. I want people to know who I am.

Scarto46: 11:05

It's a vibe, yes, and it's a vibe that happens like that moment, that one day, and then you chase that vibe, just like you chase a song or you chase a poem, and you like manifest emotions or relationships with that, like persona Right. So it's like it's 100 hundred percent of vibe. I totally get that. Yeah, you mentioned vagabond. What other gamer tags have?

Mephisto214: 11:31

you had the second one, the last one that we're talking about, because we already talked about mephisto and double backed all the way to vagabond. And the last gamer tag that I had before mehisto was Torch 512, because that was my area code. Torch came about because, like I said, a pivotal moment in my life. I'm somebody that's dealt with depression my entire life. Just people say I remember things differently, almost I don't want to say gaslighting but try to say no, this didn't happen that way. But you experience things in your life and you see them for what they were. Everybody's going to experience something different. They could see the same thing and they're going to experience it completely different. But for me a lot of stuff stuck and just it fed into my depression. And you know it got to a point in my life where gaming wasn't bringing me happiness. Trying to surround myself with friends wasn't doing anything. I would work out when I wasn't working. I would draw, I would stick my nose in books you know, comic books, novels, like I was trying to find something to make me happy and it wasn't until later that you know you can't look for other things to make you happy. You have to look for other things to help you manage throughout life and it, you know, it got to a point where I stopped caring and I tried to end my life and I just literally let go of the wheel and got into a car accident Thankfully no one was around. Got into a car accident Thankfully no one was around. I was on fire for five minutes. I got pulled out of the vehicle and I remember waking up in the hospital and the minute that I woke up I'm surrounded by my family and I could see the sadness in their eyes. You know they didn't know what happened, they just knew that I was in a bad accident and I felt guilt, remorse, what have you? And because I tried to just give up, not really thinking about how it was going to affect other people and people. And from that moment, before I knew it, the personality of torch was born. I immediately started cracking jokes. They were there and they're just crying and I was like, okay, I got a light in the moon and, like I said, torch was borncoming.

Mephisto214: 14:02

This person who flips anything that's serious, that saddens people or makes them angry, does anything he can to get people to laugh and then eventually see the bright side hey, I'm still here and then my sister came in. She came in by herself and you know she's holding my hand. She's like is there anything that you need me to do for you? I'm here. I told her. I said hey. I said go to the corner store, go get some graham crackers, some chocolates, some marshmallows we're going to make some s'mores because it's still hot and she kind of laughs and again, I'm doing everything I can to put her mental health first.

Mephisto214: 14:42

Like I said, I tried to give up and that moment opened my eyes. It showed me that we don't think about things all the way through. And then later on I started seeking help. You know people that felt the same way that I did. And years later I got better. I got better at handling the depression. I make it work for me. I don't I'm not a slave to it, that's not just. I don't still have depression, I know I have it, but I manage. And after that, going back to gaming, like something changed. I had more friends online Gaming dude, I'm a comic nerd. I pretty much invented myself as that Johnny storm character. He was always a joker, like always he was non-serious, like he just wasn't serious. And that's who I was. When I was Torch. I was not serious. You could ask any of my friends online playing whenever Torch was there. It was a fun time because I was just always joking and I would make fun of myself too.

Scarto46: 15:48

That's just who I was thank you for sharing your story. I think that's like really admirable that you tell this story and you're so open about it, because these are real things that you went through and this is, I think, your intention with telling that story is. You know, other people may see themselves in that story and I just want to say thank you for telling it. Of course. Do you feel like the torch, gamertag or persona that you took on like helped you heal because you changed the way that you thought about?

Mephisto214: 16:18

problems. Yeah, of course, even though I wasn't always serious all the time and there were times that I was, but for the most part it taught me at that point in my life to laugh at everything. Don't let something affect you in a negative way. Turn it into a positive. Laugh it off. You want to cry about it for a few minutes? Go for it, but after that laugh it off. And that's where I was at. I didn't let things really get to me anymore. I'm not saying that I masked anything with jokes and laughter. No, that helped to get me down that path of healing myself physically and mentally, but then also down the path to continue to be able to deal with depression no everything that life throws at you yeah, I super get it.

Scarto46: 17:10

I think these names, like you said earlier, if you didn't grow up this way or you didn't have this experience in your life, like these names can just be some frivolous thing. Lots of people that have gamer tags that are definitely something they feel like is dumb or they would change or whatever. Yeah, but then I think, like you talked about throughout your story, from vagabond to torch and mephisto, there are different parts of your evolution as a person and that's what it's all about, because as people, we just experience things, but in the effort of chasing that vibe like we were talking about earlier, or trying to be a thing, we almost embody that character or that style that we're trying to, and so sometimes those names that we give ourselves are targets of who we want to be, and I think that's really admirable that you can recognize that and have that type of reflection.

Marthah Maple: 18:03

I think it's really cool with Vagabond, and particularly with Torch, how you're using these names to reclaim these really difficult moments or even just time periods in your life, like what you did with Torch and I. Just it's insane how you were able to reclaim that moment and turn it into something beautiful, something that drew people to you and something that made you, gave you what you needed to go on.

Mephisto214: 18:41

Yeah.

Marthah Maple: 18:42

And I'm really glad that you did that.

Mephisto214: 18:46

Are you crying right now?

Marthah Maple: 18:47

No.

Mephisto214: 18:49

She's got dust in your eye. I get it. I get it, no.

Marthah Maple: 18:52

You're cats bro.

Mephisto214: 18:54

Freaking cats, man, freaking cats in your eye. I get it, I get it. No, cats, bro, freaking cats, man, freaking cat. Every now and then torch comes back out. You know, even though I'm a fisto now, you know I'm a little more serious now. Talking to me for an hour or two you probably wouldn't be able to tell, but trust me, I was a lot more immature back then. But every now and then elements of torch come back out. It's usually the jokey parts.

Scarto46: 19:13

Like I said, you never really shed everything completely yeah, you're a combination of all of those different personas, exactly.

Ryanocerus: 19:20

Yeah, I totally get it you're not a streamer and you're not a creator, you're just a gamer, I think, like the other four of us in here, and that's exactly who we designed this show for is, you know, the gamer. So I'm just I'm curious what made you say yes to coming on to Gamertag? What about the process? Or like what we're trying to do here appealed to you.

Mephisto214: 21:18

What appealed to me was the fact that, hey, I get to talk about myself and people are going to listen. No, I'm playing. No, Martha was the one that sold me on it. And a little bit of backstory for those who may not have heard previous episode Martha used to be Gangsta Boo 3000. That's when I met Martha. I call her the gamer formerly known as Gangsta Boo 3000. A little Prince reference there for you. Anyway yeah, I met her and we vibed. Right away Found out we were both gamers.

Mephisto214: 21:48

We're like oh yeah, cool Call of Duty. And then eventually got her into Destiny and we started gaming online and, like I said, we played Call of Duty. For what was it like? Two years, three years, that's what we were playing.

Marthah Maple: 22:02

I'm not claiming three years, I might give you two, okay.

Mephisto214: 22:06

Yeah, so we played that for a while. And okay, yeah, so we played that for a while and then eventually I transitioned to destiny when it first came out and I got martha on it and my buddy, deflo, that I play with from time to time. To this day he doesn't play destiny anymore, but every now and then we'll play like call of duty. You know, it's the only game that he'll play, that I'll actually play with him, but that was the fire team Torch 512, gangsta Boot 3000, and D-Flow 512. We were the fire team and that's all we did. We played Destiny all the time for hours on end and we were part of a raid race for Destiny 2 for Leviathan Day. One minute one we jumped in and it was what a 27-hour stream, martha.

Marthah Maple: 23:01

It was a long one, for sure.

Mephisto214: 23:03

It was. But it is fun If you have the right group, if you're not trying to be like uber sweaty, if you're not trying to be number one, you're. I feel like you're fine. But if you're one of the sweats like you're trying to get that, I get it. You want to be the first, I get it. But if you don't have that mentality to be the first, if you just want to be part of that day one group, cool, you're going to have fun. And it took us 27 hours, roughly 27, maybe 28 was this 27 straight hours?

Ryanocerus: 23:32

or yes yes, oh my gosh, I took vacation, I took vacation for this.

Mephisto214: 23:38

Oh man, the joy that I felt when we completed that. You know, we beat it. Of course, at that time I was meaning a titan, and so of course you had the fist of panic as your super for arc and that's what I ran with and I just remember running out of ammo and I just went up to him and I was just like constantly just hitting him, just like keep going, and he's dead and I'm still just hitting him like you never know he might come back to life and I'm just realizing, hey, we, we beat. Like I was filled with so much joy.

Scarto46: 24:09

I think in that vein of what you're saying is you and Gangsta Boo 3000, aka Martha Maple, were big homies and you felt like hearing her story on the show. You were like I just want to tell my story and see if people want to connect with that and like Ryan was saying, that's been the whole thought of building. Building gamertag is like we're real people having real stories about like our lives and we live our lives online and like that moment you're describing about being like super happy about a day one contest raid. People may not understand that, but they do understand. Hey, I got to go do some cool stuff with my friends. We did something really challenging. There's not a guide for it.

Ryanocerus: 24:53

That just came out. You can't get on YouTube and watch a tutorial about how to walk through it. You have to. Actually it's like old gaming before the internet, when you know you could pick up like a little magazine, maybe at the store.

Marthah Maple: 25:08

See the cheat codes.

Ryanocerus: 25:10

With the cheat codes or maybe you had a shark or you could figure stuff out, but there wasn't. We didn't have the access to finding the answers so quickly.

Scarto46: 25:18

We've talked a lot about your past in games and the different games you've been into. Hey man, it's 2025. What are you doing now? What does gaming look like now in your life? I'm sure your gaming habits have changed since whenever you were able to dedicate 18 hours to a day, one raid. What's the world feel like now whenever you log in?

Mephisto214: 25:38

Oh man, the world. It feels the same, but it just doesn't last long because, as you said, you know, you know older now don't have the time I have. I have a daughter and you know, when I have her I try to do everything I can to dedicate my time and attention to, to and for her, and, proud dad moment, though she's five years old, can hold an Xbox controller, her mom sent me a picture.

Mephisto214: 26:03

Her mom sent me a picture. She's lounging in her chair, left leg over her right leg, just looking up at the screen. She's playing Minecraft and I'm like cool, a proud dad moment. But and even if she wasn't wanting to play games like, I'm still going to be proud. But the world of gaming is? It still looks the same to me, but it's just. I realize my time is limited with it, is it sweatier? Yeah, definitely, definitely so. With that being said, I usually stay out of the pvp realm dude, I feel that I can't.

Ryanocerus: 26:35

I'm not, I'm too old for it. Now it's not, it just makes me angry and my reactions are slow. I'm just.

Ryanocerus: 26:42

I just want to like you know, yeah, my carpal tunnel is like kind of rough. I get that I. I just want to play games with my friends. It's how I stay connected in this world that has sort of moved into more of that digital connection that you're making with people. Do you play with a partner, family, kids, typically or you said your daughter was five, so she's obviously not playing with her yet, but maybe someday no, I'm actually gonna create her own little kids profile and game with her.

Mephisto214: 27:12

But of course she's that young so there's gonna be a lot of restrictions for it. But I will definitely play some minecraft with her. Was never one to be into Minecraft Not against it, but just I never got into it. But because of her I'll give it a go.

Ryanocerus: 27:28

It's pretty fun, honestly, yeah.

Mephisto214: 27:29

I watch her play and, oh man, she just has so much fun. She'll be like, yeah, play with me, and she'll hand me the tablet and I'll start moving, and then she'll take it back and then I just pull up my phone. I just pull up my phone to watch something and she'll say, yeah, you're not playing with me, you took it from me and I think what you know. I was like oh, you just want me to watch you play.

Scarto46: 27:48

Okay, so I'll dedicate that time and I'll watch her play, but yeah, I'm going to ask you a weird, wild question and I bet you have thought about of your personality and like the evolution of your, of your digital personas, right? So, like when you think about when you log in, as like mephisto 214 right, we've talked about torch, we've talked about vagabond, but today you're mephisto 214. What does that identity look like? Describe like what you think?

Mephisto214: 28:16

when you like it looks, feels, vibes, um, when you picture mephisto 214 even though the description won't match, I guess, like the name that I've used for Mephisto, it's that Captain America-esque Commander Shepard type of character, somebody that's noble, you know, that will do everything, anything and everything, to help people and always wants to do the right thing. That's what Mephisto looks like to me. That's how I feel. The vibes are just chill, not afraid to talk about anything, but reserved enough to leave a little bit of mystery there. But also we'll crack a joke from time to time, either at my expense or just to get a laugh. That's who Mephisto is. That's who I picture him as, like I said, always wanting to do right by people and willing to help out in any way that he can.

Scarto46: 29:13

Oh yeah, that's great. So when you picture this, what's the environment around Mephisto?

Mephisto214: 29:19

Mephisto is touched down on a on an alien planet, just taking the fight to anyone that would do harm to the average person or life form, just willing to be that shield for everyone. That's where he's at, or he's on the Normandy. Either way, both of those feel like home to me what kind of armor style are you drawn to?

Marthah Maple: 29:45

He's on the Normandy Either way. Both of those feel like home to me.

Ryanocerus: 29:47

What kind of armor style are you drawn to?

Mephisto214: 29:49

That's such a good question. I would say my armor is like a space sci-fi samurai armor yeah, that would be it, and mostly black with hints of red throughout it. Whether that's from the blood of the enemies that I've had to play for the betterment of all life, or just got some spray paint spraying it on, nobody knows.

Marthah Maple: 30:16

keep it a mystery that sounds really cool, so I'm gonna ask this question.

Mephisto214: 30:21

You know people say, if I'm not streaming or creating does my.

Ryanocerus: 30:23

That sounds really cool, so I'm going to ask this question. You know, people say if I'm not streaming or creating, does my story matter. And what would you say to that person?

Mephisto214: 30:31

I would say yes, everyone's story matters. You don't have to have this grand story. All it needs really is heart. That's all your story needs is heart. As long as it has that, your story is always going to matter, whether it's good or bad or it's a combination of both. I believe everyone's story matters 100%.

Scarto46: 30:56

Alright, so we're going to take a quick break for the show. We'll come right back with the new role with Mephisto214, and we'll see you in just a minute. We're back from break. Uh, thanks for coming back to us. So now we're going to kick off our re-roll segment. So on re-roll. Uh, the way this works is we have taken notes about you and your persona your key personality traits, favorite genres, world signature style, visual inspiration throughout the show. As you've been talking to us about your story, Mephisto, we've been taking notes. With this information, we're going to show you all of the notes that we've taken and then we're going to enter that into our bot. The first reroll be a visualization or an interpretation of what Mephisto two, one, four, your digital persona, looks like. From there you'll get two opportunities to reroll. You can change anything you want about the card. Once those two rerolls are done, we'll have a final picture of Mephisto two, one, four and we'll be able to create your official gamer tag trading card. Are you ready to play Reroll?

Mephisto214: 32:08

Let's do it.

Ryanocerus: 32:09

So we have kind of some sections. So the first section is key personality traits. This was both Scardo and myself taking notes feverishly in this document. Bear with me as I read through our manic conjoined brain. So we wrote Jokester kind, open, courageous, introspective, overcoming emotional challenges, dad to a Minecraft girl, chill vibes, not afraid to talk about anything, reserved and mysterious. Will crack a joke to get a laugh and do right by people. For preferred roles in gameplay we wrote Captain Frontline, titan and Hunter Mane Under favorite genres and worlds. We have Marvel and Destiny 2. Signature style or vibe we've got space sci-fi, samurai armor mostly black with hints of red, glowing samurai sword in hand in battle. And visual inspiration. We have noble Captain Shepard, touched down on an alien planet and taking the fight to anyone who would do harm to any regular person in battle, willing to be the shield and protect others.

Ryanocerus: 33:20

I think this is the most notes that we've ever taken for one of these.

Scarto46: 33:24

I agree. So what do you think about what we've captured about you, Mephisto214?

Mephisto214: 33:29

I absolutely love it. While you were reading that, I just had this like childish grin over my face Like that's awesome.

Scarto46: 33:39

We're really excited to see what's going to happen here. So are you ready to do your first re-roll?

Mephisto214: 33:44

yes, let's do it all right, here we go.

Scarto46: 33:48

I'm excited for the space samurai blend yes, same it's gonna be dope I'm excited to see what these sentences that we've typed out, that you said there's a lot of not single words in there.

Ryanocerus: 34:02

Yeah. It's just it's single words, but we were writing like small phrases, so yeah, I don't know what it's going to do.

Scarto46: 34:12

It's going to crash. So the intent behind this segment of the show is like how do you create some visual representation and see how that aligns to your like, how you feel about your persona? And so this is not us trying to create art, it's trying to hold up a mirror to your digital persona to say, does this look like, what you think it looks like? So, yeah, see what happens, all right.

Ryanocerus: 34:38

Yeah like a Ronin warrior with a red lightsaber on a desolate kind of Mars but not really kind of planet.

Scarto46: 34:47

I love the black armor that he has on, I do.

Ryanocerus: 34:51

This is a very different color palette than the other ones are too, because the other ones are all very high sci-fi yeah.

Mephisto214: 34:58

Don't want to say cartoony, but yeah, they're more vibrant than this. This is more serious and it perfectly captures the tone. I'm serious but with the color coming off of the sword, as she put the lightsaber. There's the vibrancy to it, so it's like they're serious, but there's color and it's I don't know.

Scarto46: 35:19

I love it. Well, you can change anything about it. If you want to change the positioning, the landscape, add something to it. Anything is possible if you want to re-roll or we can stay here.

Mephisto214: 35:32

Yeah, can we re-roll it to pretty much the same pose, but have him like pointing off into the distance, like that, like Captain America charge, like Avengers Assemble type of point. Like pointing with the sword with his hand like the sword still works out, but his left, like pointing and I don't know, maybe have a ship like flying, like shooting a laser or something like the troops are like all right, let's go, let's charge make sure you tell it that it did a good job, scardo or else you love it very much.

Marthah Maple: 36:00

You love it very much.

Ryanocerus: 36:01

Appreciative if you don't do that we'll say cool, I'm gonna change a lot of this on you because I did that all right.

Scarto46: 36:08

So this is what I wrote and we can edit this prompt together. But the edit here is we love this style and design. Can you adjust the pose to face the camera, raising the sword to charge? Also, could you add a spaceship in the sky shooting lasers?

Mephisto214: 36:24

could you give it a like a spaceship type of reference. Say, if you said the normandy from mass effect, will it render it as best as it could, or is it just going to be like a flying saucer?

Scarto46: 36:33

I could try to a large like space cruiser. Would that be what you're looking for, sure?

Mephisto214: 36:41

brain's not braining right now, otherwise maybe I would have said it.

Marthah Maple: 36:43

Maybe the shape of it. Is it like triangular, or what's the deal here?

Mephisto214: 36:48

Dealer's choice.

Ryanocerus: 36:50

I think Space Cruiser will do.

Scarto46: 36:52

I think that'll do what you want. Okay, I've adjusted the prompt, so the final prompt is we love this style and design. Can you adjust the pose to face the camera, raising the sword to charge? Also, could you add a large space cruiser in the sky shooting lasers? All right are we ready to re-roll again? Yes, let's do it. Yeah, I agree with you. Right like that, that pose and style, like the art style is so different.

Ryanocerus: 37:18

It's really cool. It's way different than the. All the other cards are Love, power, dull is not the right word, but compared to the other ones, the coloring is so it's muted. There you go. I like it. It's very realistic.

Mephisto214: 37:32

And it still looks like it could be Titan armor.

Marthah Maple: 37:35

That's what I was going to say too. It is Titan.

Ryanocerus: 37:38

I want a helmet like that.

Mephisto214: 37:40

Right Dude. When I saw that, I was like oh, I love it.

Marthah Maple: 37:44

You just saw the two points and you were like yup.

Mephisto214: 37:47

Yup, and even though you guys said samurai, I was so glad that it didn't give me the face mask.

Marthah Maple: 37:54

Yeah.

Mephisto214: 37:55

Because I was like I want to see the face as cool as the mask would be. I was like, oh, please show me the face. Oh, Like the skill and pretty. Oh, I'm oh shit.

Ryanocerus: 38:05

Yeah, that's pretty rad. That's pretty rad.

Marthah Maple: 38:08

He's not pointing, but he's definitely charging he's never charging so much motion here yeah, it's definitely.

Ryanocerus: 38:16

Yeah, there's a lot more motion than the first one, dude, I look like, it's like up and he's got the demon eyes, the Mephisto demon eyes, yeah dude, I look like Ares from Wonder Woman.

Mephisto214: 38:28

Dude, that's thick, that's pretty fire, that is.

Marthah Maple: 38:34

That was really cool.

Scarto46: 38:35

So, for folks who are listening, we now have a large space cruiser in the sky shooting lasers. We have a red glowing samurai sword that's held up in the air, while Mephisto 214 is charging forward on a foreign alien planet with smoke and rocks and grit and grime everywhere and his eyes are glowing red in his black samurai armor. So the question, mephisto 214, is do you want to re-roll or change anything about this picture? You have one re-roll remaining. It's totally up to you.

Mephisto214: 39:09

I'm scared to re-roll because I don't think it could top this. I get it Totally get it. The first one was great and I didn't think that could happen, that it could get any better, and it did. But it's like I say you got to know when to fold them, Know when to hold them, know when to fold them. And yeah, I'm holding, we're going with this one, Sweet okay, all right.

Scarto46: 39:32

Mephisto214, the Crimson Vanguard Charging through alien fire. Sword ablaze. He shields the innocent Part Titan part dad, all heart. The innocent part titan part dad, all heart. Bro, part titan part dad hit. Yeah, that's fire. I love it. Cool man, thanks for playing re-roll. Do you think this captures, like the, the thing that, like you feel like this represents you? Yeah 100 I do hell yeah, that's awesome.

Scarto46: 40:01

Look, so after we do re-roll, we hand it over. The floor is totally yours. You can plug anything, you can talk about anything, you can say whatever you want.

Mephisto214: 40:10

It's yours, dude first off, I just want to say thank you to you guys and Martha. You guys, you sat here with me and you listened to my story. You got a better understanding of who I was and I touched on a topic that is a serious topic and if anyone listening, I just want to say that, no matter what, you are not alone. There's always somebody out there that will listen to your story story, somebody that can help you in some way, whether it's with words or acts, to help you not to sound cliche, but to see the light, to see that everything isn't as bad as it is and can be. Never be afraid to reach out to anyone, whether it's your friend, your family, out to anyone, whether it's your friend, your family, professional.

Mephisto214: 41:06

You know me. I'm somebody that I'll listen to anybody's story. I've gone through a lot and if you've listened to this podcast in its entirety, you heard one of the biggest things that I've gone through, and I'm not a professional in terms of as a counselor, but if you ever need somebody to listen, I'm here. Your story matters. That's really it. That's all I have to say thanks for sharing that, man.

Scarto46: 41:31

I think a lot of people probably need to hear that and I think that's awesome. And I also just want to say thank you to you for being courageous and telling your story and giving us the opportunity to listen and be a part of that and also be part of that supportive group listening to you. But I think that the other part, like what you said, is super powerful which is all we all are is really just people trying to help people and we're all just trying to figure it out, and that's what it's all about. And again, thank you to you guys. Seriously, oh for sure, dude, 100% Thanks for coming on this episode of Gamertag. We had a great time hanging out with you. It was an awesome show, like a great show to learn about you and your story, about all the different personas you've had, and actually end up a representation of Mephisto 214 that you're into. Now you're the Crimson Vanguard, so I think that's pretty dope.

Mephisto214: 42:25

Yeah, I like it, I really do.

Marthah Maple: 42:28

Cool. I just want to say it's incredibly brave for anybody to tell their story, but especially when it gets as deep as it did tonight, and I really appreciate you sharing your story with us, thank you. Thank you for listening.

Ryanocerus: 42:46

Yeah, this just felt like a bunch of friends. I didn't feel like it was the first time we were chit-chatting with you, which always just makes this so much easier and so much more fun, so, thank you, yeah, yeah, 100%.

Mephisto214: 42:56

I felt really at home here with you guys.

Scarto46: 43:00

Awesome dude. That's the goal. Thanks for trusting us. Thanks for chilling with us. We had a great time. You can see the Crimson Vanguard initial Gamertag trading card on the.

Scarto46: 43:10

GamertagPodcastcom website.

Scarto46: 43:12

Check it out. It's pretty dope. If you listen to Mephisto214's story, we really hope that made you feel seen and if you ever want to come on the show just as a normal person living a normal life and having a digital identity or two. That's what this show is for. Thanks for joining us tonight. Every story we share here is real, and this one, mephisto 214s, remind the best just how much strength it takes to tell the truth, especially when it hurts. To Mephisto, thank you for your honesty, your heart and the hope you've given others by being here and to everyone listening. We don't take your time for granted, whether you're here for the tags, the stories or just trying to feel a little less alone. We see you and you belong here. This studio was built to hold space for all kinds of gamers, all kinds of people and all the names we choose along the way. Thanks for being with us this week. We'll see you on the next episode of Gamertag.

Scarto46: 44:13

The Gamertag podcast is produced by the team at Gamertag Studios, production and editing by Port Bella, music direction by Ryan Osiris, visual design by sushi guests and partnerships by Martha maple, hosted by me, scartor 46. If you enjoy the show, hit, subscribe or follow. It helps more people find these stories and keeps the studio cooking. Reviews make a huge difference to a few words from you can help the right listener feel seen and we read every single one. Want to see this week's re-roll card. Head to GamertagPodcastcom to check it out and explore past guests. See you on the next episode of Gamertag, where digital identities become real stories.

Marthah Maple: 45:01

Transmission ending Goodbye.