Slang Terms of the Rational Occultic Scale - Echoing Stars

The Dark Trades of the Cold Worlds can catapult crews into lives of luxury and status, for the few who survive. For them, and for Humanity as a whole, artefacts and knowledge of the Cold Worlds offers incredible opportunity and poses almost indescribable danger. The Solar Sphere is heavily regulated. If any proliferating danger of any kind could make it to humanities cradle, we would become just another dead world, our ruins to be picked over by the scavengers of some future species. 

Out in the colonies, things are a little more lax. Earth hungers for treasures and the colonies are the mucus membrane which tests to dangers of what might one day be transported to the home sphere. Coffin Pounders and Explorers bring back Spook Machines, Nostradamus Code and Engram Trades along with Mimetic hazards and Alien Physics in equal proportion. 

The grand dream is always a scalable, comprehensible, useful form of Physics that might free Humanity from its sphere, or its energy dependency. 

The subtle and sometimes hard-to-comprehend dangers of Cold World Coffin Pounding, and the difficulty of systematising and expressing such, lead to the 'Rational Occultic Scale', intended to be a formal method of assessment of the potential dangers and potency of the most complex and incomprehensible alien artefacts, memes and other less-coherent phase states or materially-expressed fluxions. 

The great poetic and philosophical challenge of how to describe the indescribable was then formalised by the R.O.C., at least enough for corporate accountants and decision makers. 

While the exact decision matrices have remained a carefully guarded corporate/government semi-secret, only fully known by Androids and A.I., the slang and terminology which grew up around the R.O.C. is well known by Coffin Pounders and the extra-legal Diaspora and can be a useful form of knowledge in itself, especially for anyone given the job of infiltrating Coffin chat groups, assessing E.M. decoded intercepts or simply deciding on security procedures for incoming craft. 

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BASIC POTENCY 

The R.O.C. begins its scale with a general assessment of the potential or actual potency of the material in question. Unless a certain threshold of potency is reached, other potential qualities are not considered relevant. 

> "Knock" or "Knocker". 

Drawn from 19C and 20C spiritualist culture, a "Knocker" is a 'table knocker', or a fake spiritualist who simulates the presence of supernatural spirits by knocking on their table. Use of this term usually means a crew or assessor things a Material has some extranormal qualities but no more than a curiosity. Not saleable, powerful or active. 

A 'knock' may simply be an unusual Material with no extranormal properties according to human physics but strange and unexpected in aspect or utility to most crews.  

> "Stug", "Stugatsky" or "Mulder" 

This word indicated a Material of low, but potentially active and not entirely predictable potency. Usually this means the crew has no worries about confining or controlling the Material, but is not quite certain of exactly what it will do, though they certainly think it has extranormal aspects. 

> "Rabbit" or "Bunny" 

Taken from 'just like a rabbit out of a hat'. This phrasing indicates a crew or broker is sure their Material has certain extranormal properties or capacities. Put simply; it is, or can do, 'magic'. It can also reference the active or moving nature of a living animal, its ability to 'burrow' and the power of the magicians rabbit to seemingly 'come from nowhere'. Though this phrasing alone usually indicates a crew does not feel endangered at this time, any use of this word or code should indicate maximum precautions and possible quarantine. 

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Beyond this point the scaling of the R.O.C. breaks into strands depending on the assumed or observed qualities of the Material in question. Like a tree breaking into several rising branches. Each branch has provided its own slang or common speech terms as descriptors used between workers. Any observer must be especially aware of these terms, especially _in combination_. 

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ACTIVE/INTELLIGENT QUALITY 

> "Girl" 

Thought to be derivative of a scene in a 20C movie in which a man is hunted by a dinosaur. The Material is a "Clever Girl". This usually indicates that the crew has active precautions in order to keep the Material controlled and that it is capable of acting under its own power and in unpredictable ways potentially dangerous to human flourishing. Any reference to "Girl", even a "Knock Girl" or a "Stuggy Girl" allows you to fire upon the ship should you consider it warranted. Any reference to "Sticky Girl", "Foe Girl" or worse means you *must* immediately destroy the ship if possible, then isolate yourself.  

> "Boat" 

Usually stated as "its Boated" or "the ship is Boat". This indicates a material active enough that the crew is considering or has considered abandoning ship. This material is no longer under human control. You must fire upon the ship and destroy the ship. You must fire upon any life pods or escapees if you think it warranted. All escapees must be isolated.  

> "Regan" 

Unclear if this is a reference to the U.S. president or a character from the film "Exorcist". "She's Regan" or "Its gone Regan" indicates a Material which the crew cannot control within the ship and which they cannot prevent from leaving the ship. You must fire upon the ship and destroy the ship. You must fire upon any escapees and destroy any escapees. You must fire upon all wreckage, rubble or parts resulting from ship destruction and reduce them to a cubic mass of no more than one half meter and then log the expected parabola and course of any such wreckage.  

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MEMETIC/INFORMATIONAL QUALITY  

> "Sticky", or "Yellow" 

This indicates an infectious or transmissible form of Material/Information. Either the Material itself can physically re-create itself and/or it can 'breed' and move in the form of pure information, either by direct realspace voice/face contact or more dangerously, via E.M. transmission. A "Sticky" indicates that the Crew does not believe themselves to be in immediate danger, but believe they are dealing with a transmissible material and are taking precautionary actions. A "Sticky Rabbit" or even a "Sticky Mulder" can create enormous problems for even a well-run colony and its infosphere.  

> "Foe" 

Short for 'Information Hazard. This indicates the crew believes themselves to be dealing with a certain and dangerous form of transmissible or infectious information/material. Any reference to "Foe", even a "Foe Knocker" or a "Foe Stugatsky" should indicate immediate quarantine procedures and reference to a higher authority. Any further communication with, or intercept of the vessel or groups communications must at this point be ceased and any recordings of anything beyond this point quarantined or even destroyed if the Agent thinks it warranted.  

> "Lamb" 

Stands for 'Sacrificial Lamb'. This indicates extra-legal activity and should be immediately reported, as well as taking all precautions stated above. A "Lamb" is a human or equivalent machine which has been memory and/or personality edited, either by themselves or others, so that they themselves do not know what material they have. This is illegal in all cases and this method is only used when the material/information is so potentially dangerous and of such a high info-hazard potency that even knowing that you know it is a potential danger and *only* the those ignorant of it can be allowed to remember or store it.  

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CAUSAL QUALITIES 

> "f11" "F Eleven" or "Quicksave" 

The crew suspects they may be dealing with a causal event/material or equivalent and are advising awareness and active precautions. Since those engaged in causal phenomena usually have no awareness of this it is very likely the material or cryo-failures are having some effect on crew psychology.  

> "Murray" or "Bill Murray" 

The crew believes it may have entered a causal loop or equivalent event or material and does not know how to escape. They do not necessarily believe themselves to be in physical danger, but this is irrelevant in reference to causal threats. 

You must record and transmit any and all details across the broadest light cone possible with your current equipment, UNLESS you have *any* indication of Informational or Memetic danger i.e. any reference to "Foe" or "Yellow", in which case you MUST NOT DO THIS.  

> "Subaru" 

The crew believes themselves to be engaged in a highly negative, highly dangerous causal event strongly inimical to human flourishing. Avoid all contact and transmit warnings to all local actors to avoid all contact. (Unless any references are made to memetic hazards as stated above). Consider destruction of the craft via remote means.