Vaults
Glossary
Techfolk society
- Auxiliary
- A rank bestowed by an Imperator [q.v.], indicating association with a faction without being a member of it.
- Creche
- A local network of servers on which techfolk minds ('cadets') are gestated before being uploaded to their hardware bodies.
- Imperator
- The leader of an Alliance faction.
- Minim
- The smallest class of the peoploid techfolk (i.e. not counting small drones, striders, etc.). Standard-type.
- Techfolk
- A collective name for camera, soundkind and TV-units. 'Techperson' is an acceptable singular, but is rarely used.
"With a designation of TV auxiliary, the faction acknowledges that although you are not a TV, we recognise the valuable support you provide. Please bear in mind that this doesn't give you the ability to 'pull rank' with anyone, nor does it make you an 'honorary TV'."
The TV Imperator to Phaeton in You knew this was coming, didn't you?
"All techfolk begin as software. […] They live in servers that we call the 'cadet creche', learning about who they are and why they're here. They're just fragments to begin with. Eventually they coalesce into self-awareness. When they're ready, they will go through simulated training until they're ready to be loaded into a real hardware body."
One of the TV creche scientists in The unnamed feeling
Techfolk parts
- Biofuel burner
- A supplementary power module for techfolk, capable of burning most organic matter to top up the user's power.
- Exo-plating
- The outer layer of techfolk carapace.
- Frame rig
- The network of struts on which the exo-plating sits.
- Geminus connector
- The claw-like connector on the underside of a TV's detachable head. The connector fits into the corresponding geminus socket in the TV's neck.
- Teleport circuit
- That part of a TV's anatomy that generates and stores teleport-fog. The circuit, made of coiled glass tubing, sits in the cavity below the user's CRT funnel. In the case of TVs with an Aiken tube instead of a cathode ray tube, the funnel takes up less space and allows the user to have a bigger teleport circuit.
- Yes-I-live
- The automated signal that alerts techfolk to each other's presence when nearby. The signal contains the unit's serial number, personal names if present, and any other information the unit feels useful to add. This is how techfolk are able to recognise each other despite most members of a faction looking identical.
Items
- Baird manifold
- The framework that generates Titan TV's plasma sword. Named after John Logie Baird, the inventor of human-made televisions and something of a folk hero to the TV faction.
- Circuit-blocker
- The techfolk equivalent of local anaesthetic. The circuit-blocker is a small device that connects to the patient's internal wires and stops pain signals.
- HotGrip
- A body-mod used by TVs. The mod enables the walls of the charging-port socket to clench inwards and grip the blades of the user's partner, enhancing pleasure for both.
- Limpet
- A translator attachment affixed to the techfolk user's head, which enables the user to translate soundkind and skibidi tonal languages, and/or allows a TV user to automatically reverse their speech for the benefit of listening humans.
- Potato
- Also 'lemon'. These are disposable little canisters containing some compressed air to clear out the charging port and a high-voltage but low-capacity battery. Deploying both simultaneously gives the pleasant illusion of having a little boost of power 'squirted' in. The canister often includes a block of some combustible material to throw down the biofuel burner [q.v.]. The slang 'potato' and 'lemon' come from the experiment that is many young humans' first science project, involving sticking electrodes in some kind of botanical nodule to create a crude battery.
- Voidweb
- An obstacle placed in the void [q.v.] to prevent unauthorised exit into layer zero. [q.v.] Also 'security web' or 'barrier web'.
- Voidwelder
- A tool used in the construction of screens for Titan TV. It uses 'hyaline-web' as the consumable material, which is used to build a base upon which the glass seed crystals will grow.
- Zarennen oil
- A potent aphrodisiac oil favoured by TVs.
Used in canon by D67 (TV Scientist) to talk to humans, and by cams to understand soundkind and skibidis.
At the end of the void-pathway was a security web set up to stop just anyone exiting the void here. Palindrome plucked at one of the finger-thick purple strands, enjoying the thrum as they let go and the web vibrated, then immediately tensed rigid, preventing anyone trying to pass through. Palindrome plucked at it once more and it clenched, pulling its gaps tight and threatening to snag Palindrome's fingers.
Ain't no party like a TV fuck party
'We'll make you beautiful again, Titan,' you think as you return with a voidwelder and a reel of hyaline-web. You unspool a length of hyaline-web, looking like crystalline purple rope, and begin 'welding' the end of it to the inside edge of the frame. The welding flux smells like a blend of lilies and wood smoke. […]
You […] begin applying the glassy paste to the hyaline-web. It comes out purple and clings readily to the web, like ferrofluid gluing itself to a magnet. Before your eyes you see it writhe into regular formations as it begins seeding and spreading, growing into little platelets as it pulls material from the liquid medium.
Places and events
- Layer zero
- Used to refer to the 'real world' when talking about the void [q.v.].
- Titangrinder
- The series of trials used by the TV faction to select their Titan candidate.
- Void
- The network of pathways that the TVs travel through when teleporting.