Fanfic meta: Characters

Phaeton (the reader)

This is you - a parallel-universe version of you, probably. Phaeton's gender, junk and pronouns in-universe are whatever yours are, unless you'd rather they had something else.

Before the apocalypse, you were known as [your name]. You would find yourself one of the few human survivors (apparently immune to skibidification). To escape the pain of having lost nearly everything and everyone, you discarded your old name and reinvented yourself as Havoc, who had always been a wasteland survivor. You later discarded the name 'Havoc' when you joined the Alliance, wanting to shed that feral and brutal persona and become a civilised and gentle human again. You went nameless for a while (being the sole human in the Alliance, at least in your sector, meant there was no-one to confuse you with anyway).

Later, you met the TV-unit Cygnus, who summoned you to perform repairs on Titan TV, thanks to your organic ability to no-sell magnetic fields that would incapacitate TV engineers. You and Cygnus became friends, as did you and the Titan, and you ended up acquiring a permanent (though part-time) position on the Titan's engineering team.

You live in the base in Sector Antlia-Four (built upon a human military installation), inhabited mostly by cameras. You have a hydroponic setup in a disused hangar just outside the base, where you grow your own food, supplemented by fishing and hunting.

For your continued services to the TV Faction, you were granted the rank of 'auxiliary', a role that is otherwise held only by Imperators.

You later acquired a new name at Cygnus's encouragement: you chose Phaeton from mythology9 to pair with Cygnus's name.

Confirmed details/facts about Phaeton:

• Has hair of some description (mentioned in multiple fics).
• Is forklift-certified (mentioned in The Unnamed Feeling).
• Knows at least one programming language (mentioned in The Unnamed Feeling).

1. ^ Formed from the atomic numbers of hydrogen (1), oxygen (8) and molybdenum (42). The abbreviations of these elements are H, O, and Mo, spelling 'Homo', the human genus. Acquired in We can love one another, I've been told that it's okay
2. ^ Based on the fate of the mythical Phaeton. Revealed in Capacitors, cathodes and cuddles
3. ^ Used exclusively by Polycephaly, after Phaeton explained that the function of human hair is similar to a bird's display crest, in Titan TV's Test Flight. Polycephaly also uses the same name for Cygnus, referring to Phaeton and Cygnus collectively as 'Little Budgies'.
4. ^ Used post-apocalypse and before joining the Alliance. Deprecated by the time of the 'Phaeton's arc' series.
5. ^ Used before the Skibidi Apocalypse. Deprecated by the time of the 'Havoc's arc' series.
6. ^ Sector Antlia-Four is wherever you live in real life.
7. ^ Rank granted in You knew this was coming, didn't you?
8. ^ Rank granted in The Unnamed Feeling (unofficially), We can love one another, I've been told that it's okay (officially).
9. ^ Acquired in We can love one another, I've been told that it's okay. See Wikipedia entry for constellation Cygnus.

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Cygnus (Fifty-Twenty-Two)

Your best friend in the Alliance. You're one of the few non-TVs not intimidated by them, and they're one of the few non-humans who can keep up with your bullshit.

Cygnus trained initially as a field/combat agent and is of average prowess at it for a TV. They were later moved to inter-faction relations because they were much better at it. Cygnus is polite and diplomatic by TV standards, which are still pretty blunt by the standards of the rest of the Alliance.

Phaeton named Cygnus after their serial number's end digits (22), which reminded Phaeton of 'two little swans' ('Cygnus' is the genus name of swans).

Confirmed details/facts about Cygnus:

• Has a silver aerial, initially a monopole (acquired in The Machineries of Joy) and later a dipole (acquired in Capacitors, cathodes and cuddles).
• Their ex is Fornax (revealed in We can love one another, I've been told that it's okay).
• Has the necessary hardware for a detachable head like the Imperator. Initially had none of the software nor the head-rockets (revealed in You know it's hard to keep the fighting clean) until these were later fitted as an upgrade (takes place in Capacitors, cathodes and cuddles).

Meta

• I got the idea for Cygnus's name from an episode of Cheapshow (podcast), in which a character mangled bingo calls, saying 'two little swans' for 22 (instead of the traditional 'two little ducks'). I thought 'oh dang, give a unit a serial with 22 and name them after swans'.

1. ^ Used exclusively by Polycephaly, after misremembering what species of bird Phaeton named them after, in Titan TV's Test Flight. Polycephaly also uses the same name for Phaeton, referring to Phaeton and Cygnus collectively as 'Little Budgies'.
2. ^ Used exclusively by Fornax, after the sum of their serial digits.
3. ^ Used exclusively by Daisy.

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Fornax (Forty-Three-Zero-Four)

Fornax is the lead designer of the tailoring division, and designed the Titan's outfits.

Fornax holds a superintendent role in the tailor division, though they much prefer to work on the actual designing and are fairly lax about the supervisory part. The most impressive pieces in their portfolio are designing outfits for the Titan that do not impede its weapons, and outfits for the Imperator that can safely be used with their incendiary powers without compromising style.

Fornax is a close friend (and ex-partner) of Cygnus. They are also partially responsible for you (as in Phaeton) acquiring your current name -- it was because of Fornax's encouragement that Cygnus prompted you to choose a name instead of going solely by your species label.1

1. ^ Takes place in We can love one another, I've been told that it's okay.

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Zenith (Sixteen Sixty-Eight)

Zenith is the TV Faction's Engineer Prime and the Titan's most beloved and trusted confidant.

Zenith takes their job extremely seriously and is a perfectionist even by TV standards. They are probably the most brilliant engineer in the Alliance and they know it.

Confirmed details/facts about Zenith:

• Has an aerial (mentioned in The Unnamed Feeling).

Meta

• I gave them the serial 1668 because that's the melting point (in degrees Celsius) of titanium, and Titan TV loves them (note the word 'titan' in the element's name).

1. ^ Used by Phaeton. Usage has spread to other units.

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Twelve (Forty-Two-Twelve)

As well as being the deputy Engineer Prime, Twelve is the lead technician for the in-hangar systems (forks, cranes, gantries).

Twelve has only a black and white Aiken tube instead of a cathode ray tube, meaning they can't use many of the screen powers that most TVs have (they can do the white stun beam, but they lack the purple command beam). On the flip side, this means they can display images at greater resolution than a TV with a colour CRT, which can be useful for an engineer. In addition, not having a CRT means they have space for a bigger teleport-circuit.

Confirmed details/facts about Twelve:

• Has an Aiken tube instead of a CRT

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Palindrome (Ninety-Seven-Seventy-Nine)

A former Titan candidate, now one of its engineers.

Palindrome's nickname is based on their mirrored serial. They were one of the candidates for being upgraded to the Titan1, and later retrained as an engineer so they could continue being a part of Project Titan.

1. ^ Revealed in I'm made of metal, my circuits gleam (a spin-off story, but that part is still canon to Phaeton's arc).

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Other TV Titan engineers

The Titan's permanent maintenance crew has 17 members (originally 16 until Phaeton joined), including Phaeton, Zenith, Twelve and Palindrome. At any given time, the crew is usually supplemented by any number of support engineers from elsewhere in the faction.

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Embryon

Embryon was an entity created to occupy the Titan's shell, but was too slow to mature to end up being deployed for that purpose. Instead, the Titan's mind was created from an existing TV-unit's, and Embryon was put into stasis.

Embryon breached containment as soon as it could, not desiring to remain in statis, and hid from its faction in the void (the space through which TVs pass when teleporting). To everyone's surprise, Phaeton was able to locate it in the void, which spurred Embryon to trust Phaeton with the task of destroying Embryon's override, held by the former Imperator.

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Daisy

An eccentric TV-mimic. (The mimic AU/species concept was created by Haxorus (cosmica-galaxy on Tumblr.)

Daisy is a typically reclusive TV-mimic who encountered Cygnus by chance. Daisy initially had no name, having 'eaten' their former name as a mourning custom when their mate died. At Cygnus's suggestion, Daisy named themself after their favourite flower (which grows in abundance in their territory).

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Other named characters

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Titan TV

The most powerful and perfect of all titans.

The Titan is immensely powerful and intimidating and it knows it. It is extremely devoted to its own faction, and genuinely loves each and every TV-unit - though it makes no secret of the fact that its favourite and most beloved is Zenith, the Engineer Prime. The Titan is also very close with Polycephaly and very loyal to its Imperator.

Before being remade in their current form, the Titan had the serial 1791 when they were a standard-class TV unit. All candidates for Titan status had their serials expunged and new ones re-issued, so that only the Titan themself and Engineer Sixty-Eight would know which candidate became the Titan.

Meta

• I gave them the serial 1791 because that's the year of discovery of the element titanium (note the 'titan' in its name). (Although the element was actually named 'maccanite' at first and wasn't called titanium until 1795.)
• I want to give credit to this comic by Tumblr user tabieeee for the concept 'large units and Titans are former standard units'.

1. ^ Used exclusively by Phaeton.
2. ^ Acquired in Time for deliverance.

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TV Imperator

The leader of the TV faction, and its most powerful member besides the Titan.

Able to flip between intimidating and approachable. Terrifying in battle to their enemies, and very liberal about dispensing hugs to their allies.

Confirmed details/facts about the Imperator (confirmed within these fics, not in Skibidi Toilet canon):

• The dials on their head-casing can be used to modulate their voice into a frequency that you (as in Phaeton) can hear. Their default voice is too deep for humans or camera-units to pick up (revealed in Titan TV's Test-Flight).
• Has much longer wrist-blades than a standard TV-unit (revealed in You knew this was coming, didn't you? Also kinda canon, as per episode 57).

Meta

• This is the entity usually called 'TV Woman' or 'TV Matriarch' by the fandom. I call the Matriarchs 'Imperators' in my fanfics.
• The Imperator's habit of hugging people and saying "That's to say I like you and I like working with you" is inspired by Frank Zappa's habit of doing the same with his staff.

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TV Imperator's bodyguards

The two bodyguards accompany the Imperator in the field. Their main task is to defend the Imperator's shell whenever the latter detaches their head - acting as bodyguards in the most literal sense of the word.

Fifteen-Sixty-Six

One of the Imperator's two bodyguards, and second-place candidate for being upgraded to Titan status. Recognisable by the lamp on their head-casing.

1. ^ Used by Phaeton, after the asteroid with the ID matching their serial.
2. ^ Temporarily used by Phaeton, after the lamp on their head-casing.

Eleven-Fifty-Three

One of the Imperator's two bodyguards, and third-place candidate for being upgraded to Titan status.

1. ^ Used by Phaeton, after their serial being a four-digit prime as well as being splittable into two other primes (11 and 53).
2. ^ Temporarily used by Phaeton, after their sartorial habits. (Note: not apparent in Skibidi Toilet canon.)

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Polycephaly

The TV Faction's sole large unit, and probably its most irreverent member (assuming Phaeton doesn't count, as they're a human).

Polycephaly was chosen to be a prototype for upgrading a TV-unit and giving them extra abilities (in the form of Polycephaly's extra screens), in preparation for creating the Titan. The Titan and Polycephaly are very close as a result, each being the only unit who understands what the other went through. As Polycephaly's upgrade came first, they joke that the Titan is their protégé.

Confirmed details/facts about Polycephaly (confirmed within these fics, not in Skibidi Toilet canon):

• Polycephaly is the only TV to have both a charging port (possessed by all non-Titan units) and a core chamber (possessed by the Titan). However, Polycephaly's core chamber is currently non-functional, as it was built as a prototype, and the reactor fuel had to be reserved for the Titan (revealed in Polycephaly the penta-countenanced).

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Other canon characters

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Relationships table

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I do want to split Fifteen-Sixty-Six and Eleven-Fifty-Three's columns eventually - right now I haven't written enough about them for them to be anything other than an inseparable pair.

Guest characters

These characters belong to other fan creators.