Fortune's Detour: Prequel of the Deka Series by Abigail Schwaig
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Earth Landers: see Landers.
EC unit: environmental control unit. It can be used to create any environment. Snow and wind and rain can be made indoors.
ECU: emergency care unit in a health facility.
Formists: those who embrace the belief that humanoids were created by God, who speaks to us through Amaranth. Proclaimers are Formists who go out as teachers into the world typically forswearing worldly advancement and making it their mission in life to speak to as many people as possible about Amaranth and the Creator.
Gasper: someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about. Ex. “What a gasper- she doesn’t even know the gravitational force on Kila.” Also used as a morbid term for someone who is a patient or dying due to lung or breathing complications. Ex. “The Gasper Ward is right down the hall from Pediatrics.”
Herbacia: mind-altering substances derived from the herbaceous weed that grows all over the galaxy. Herbacians, individuals who take herbacia more than once in their lifetimes, have the tendency to suffer from psychological, physical, emotional, and mental effects. The full effects of herbacia is unknown. The validity of documented cases that claim positive effects have not been fully proven.
Jack/ Jacking/ Jacked: inane; dumb; silly; pointless; messed up. Getting jacked means to get completely beaten up, whether emotionally or physically. Skipe and jack are often paired together for a unique insult. Ex. “You skipejack!”
Joker: A foolish, needy idiot; someone who tries too hard to get a laugh or sympathy. Always an expletive. Ex. “You joker!”
Junker: A heavy-duty tank-like vehicle: used for a variety of tasks: garbage removal; commercial hauling for civilians; criminal relocation convoys for patrollers; military ground transport for soldiers. Also slang term for someone who resembles a junker: stoic, heavy-duty; capable.
Kriv it: Slang for “shut up; shut your mouth; shut it.”
Kriv-worthy/ Krivving/ Kriv: cringe-worthy; horrible; demoralizing; degenerative; inferior; absurd; strange.
Landers: paired with a location to describe one’s planet of origin. Tera Landers are born on Tera and Earth Landers are born on Earth.
News Tube: a virtual newspaper that accesses information from the portal. You roll it up into a tube when you aren't using it for safe-keeping. An expensive news tube lasts for years with a minimal fee for each new article every day. The cheap version you can buy daily at kiosks and they last for about twenty hours and then time out and deactivate.
Nib: a dark, velvety nut that resembles scree from construction sites; typically used to create the beverage known as Nib juice. When prepared properly, it tastes like hot chocolate; when improperly prepared, it tends to taste like over-cooked beef.
Portal (e-portals/ports): an electronic data processing interface unique to each individual, allowing for personal preferences for information and data retrieval. It works like the internet and the cloud do on earth. It secures against fraudulent use by demanding that each user of the portal sign in with a confirmed identity.
Port-house: a depository offering portal access to many users at the same time. To sign in for the privilege of portal usage, you either use your personal Comms or you insert your ID card. Often used as a meeting place. (The better locations serve Nib juice.)
Processors: those who embrace the belief that humanoids were molded by the process of “Gradual Integration”, either by nature over eons or by higher beings/aliens.
Racking: Jeering, mocking, taunting, scorning, bullying. Ex. “He’s constantly racking me about it.”
Seff it: an expression of great frustration.
Shaz/ Shazzy/ Shazzing: Unknown; nebulous; hazy; imperfect. Slang for, “I have no idea.” Ex. “Do you know what that shoulder insignia means?” “Shaz.”
Sinner: someone who can’t help but do the wrong thing whether it is by accident or fated to be. This term is most often used in humorous situations such as when hanging in a harness a hundred feet off the ground and dropping a tool that is crucially needed to finish your job. Can be used as an expletive.
Skate: A player, a person who toys with people’s affections (usually of women), sometimes referred to as a mix of skeggar and joker. They employ the art of looking pathetic in order to use you. Usually refers to a con-artist. Used as an expletive.
Skegg it: same as seff it.
Skeggar: A selfish, self-serving individual. The kind of person who will screw you over and use you up for their own personal gain/needs. Usually an expletive; can be used as a friendly nickname for someone who is hot-headed, brash, or mindless of others.
Skipe: a jerk.
Sleepers: those who exhibit poor on-the-job skills; can be either a friendly insult or a degrading slur.
Solar star: the only source of daylight. The Deka Quadrant has no suns close enough to shed light on any of the “inhabitable” planets.
Spacer: An adorable, lovable, spacey person; has their head in the clouds.
Streeters: Street urchins; beggars and rogue children who are not above stealing; gangs that pick-pocket and steal and sometimes rough up their marks.
Sweet(s): term of endearment: honey/ sweetie/ dear, etc.
Tao Deck: a stack of money; a wad of cash; a roll of bills. Ex. “That man’s got Tao Decks!” (The guy is loaded.)
A Tao: the base unit of money; formal.
The First Realm: the physical sphere of survival; the physical needs of human beings.
The Natural: Reality, real-life, the flesh. “We met on a portal community and talked via the Comms, but until yesterday we had never met in the natural.”
The Second Realm: the emotional and mental pursuits of human beings and how that affects them.
The Silence of Deka: otherwise known as the ‘Silence of Amaranth’ time period that lasted for around 500 years. Nobody knows yet why it happened or how, only that the Deka planet sustained an EMP that seems to have originated from space along with a hail of explosions that were termed “ark blasts” and left ark-like craters in the topography. The country on the Deka planet that was most affected by this disturbance was Elesion. The Doorways shut down and wouldn’t transport to or from the planet for the aforementioned 500 years. In the beginning years after the EMP, many Elesioners died of starvation and diseases that weren’t properly treated.
The Third Realm: the spiritual wholeness, fulfillment, and connection that human beings are encouraged to strive for.
Twister: a derogatory term for a person who is irrational, rude, malicious, spiteful, or psychotic; usually a female, but can be used on males.
Walkers: You lived there. Hecta Walkers live on Hecta but were probably born on a different planet.
Yotta’s Radioactive Asteroid Belt: the asteroid belt that separates Yotta (the tenth planet in the Four-Headed Galaxy) from the rest of the planets, effectively safe-guarding it from exploration, at least for now. This asteroid belt is heavily mined for building materials and other mineral exports.
~Extra Info: Hecta~
Time: Hecta has the same number of months and everything because it would be ridiculous to have every other planet change their time to accommodate one or two planets. Everybody has walkie-talkie like watches (miniature Comms) that keep you in contact with your social connections. (So you are updated as to the timing of your people but don’t bother yourself with anyone else’s time.) Basically you’ve got trains that go by every 20 minutes on the dot and since the orbit of the planet isn’t perfect, the whole planet goes to work and comes home at different “clock times” and lightness and darkness levels but with the same “daily” routine. At some point in the Summer, everybody goes to work in the dark and goes home to bed as light starts coming up because the planet’s orbit doesn’t naturally coincide with the human cycle.
Weather: Even during Winter, World City resembles Summer all year round and never has more than the occasional drop in temperature. The streets are never iced, but they are moist due to the extra hydrogen in the atmosphere, making everything wette
r and steamier. World City could be considered “tropical wet” in climate except there isn’t enough natural vegetation to be anything besides a concrete jungle.