> Glossary of Terms

 
The following is a glossary of various common words and phrases you may hear in the Metaverse stories.

Anthro
        Short for "anthropomorph"--general term for the native inhabitants of the colony worlds.
        [See also: Anthro species]

Anti-Game Protocol
        Prevents Game Cubes from dropping on inhabited systems, eg. "Incoming Game."

bits, the
        Merely a term for the average sprite flu. Can last for up to forty-eight hours. Symptoms include hot flashes, stomach pains and vomiting, headaches, and occasionally a dulling of skin color depending on the severity of the case. Is not generally known to be fatal.

credit
        Standard monetary unit in the 25th century. One credit is comparable to about 25 cents of modern US currency.

currency card
        Essentially a more advanced version of the modern-day credit card. Virtually all money exchanges are carried out using these; hard currency is no longer used except in a few remote areas.

Hatemil (prounounced "Ha-TAY-mul")
        The naitive language of most Anthro species.
        [See also: Hatemil dictionary]

Metaverse, the
        1. Short for Project Metaverse, the government project which spawned the colony worlds.
        2. Earth, cyberspace, and the colony worlds as a collective whole.

Mysadt probe (pronounced "MISS-at")
        A specialized mind implant that takes over a person's motor functions, allowing someone else to manipulate them by remote control. This is essentially as close as a non-sprite can come to experiencing what a viral infection is like. Mysadt probes were banned scarcely twenty-four hours after they were invented, but that time period was long enough for all sorts of horror stories to spread across the Metaverse.

nano
        Slang--a short period of time, e.g. "I'll be down in a nano."
        [See also: time units]

newbie
        Slang--any person who is inexperienced in his or her line of work. Usually a term of abuse.

Prospero Protocols
        Used to maintain the weather of the Metaverse. (Mentioned briefly in D^Knight's Bounty Hunter fics

User
        Slang term for a human being, used primarily by cyberspace naitives before the colonization effort began. It has since fallen out of general usage; only viruses and a few anti-human organizations still use this term.

Userside
        Slang term for Earth, or the "real world".

Teracomputer, the
        Essentially the computer in the 25th century. An incredibly huge supercomputer located in Silicon Valley, which houses 99.9% of the actual computer systems on the planet. The Teracomputer is divided up into millions of sectors, each of which translates into a single system in cyberspace. (Any other "computers" one sees on Earth are generally just consoles for accessing the Teracomputer.)

warez
        Slang term for "hot" (i.e. stolen) merchandise.

World Council, the
        Governing body of Earth and cyberspace, similar to the modern United Nations. The council consists of one representative for the humans, the sprites, and each of the Anthro species.