SCUL Lingo: How to Talk Like a Real Starpilot
Our ways may seems strange to the uninitiated: But let me assure you we come in peace - and we come to BUST THE FUNK.
If your babelfish is falmuntioning and you can't parse the mission reports, this handy reference will having you fully immersed in our SCULture in less than twelve parsecs.
| Jargon | Translation |
|---|---|
| Abandon Ship | To be thrown off the bike. |
| Adrift | In the trash. |
| Aft Sensor Array | Rear view mirror. |
| Airlock | Any door to a building going outside. |
| Android | Pet |
| Asteroid Belt | A river. ex: the Charles river = the Charles Asteroid Belt. |
| Asteroids | Manhole covers and grates. |
| At my post | at work |
| Autopilot | Ghost riding. Involves jumping off the bike and letting it coast off on its own. |
| Babymaggot | A cadet who is on their first SCUL mission, aspiring to be a maggot and eventually a pilot. |
| Bananarama | The sensation achieved when a pilot has been in the cockpit of a ship for an extended period of time. Also called "Chopper Crotch" |
| Bandit | Enemy Bicycle Pilot |
| Battalion | All the ships on the mission. |
| Battleship | A modified ship with a 26" or larger rear primary thruster (wheel). |
| Black Box Recorder | A micro cassette recorder used to keep track of the mission. |
| Black Hole | Rotary. You can Orbit them, but never go inside one, for you may never come out. |
| Blast Doors | Garage door. |
| Bogey | An unidentified ship with unknown intent. |
| Bombardier | Stoker of Tandem. |
| Bomber | Tandem Bicycle. |
| Bomber Pilot | Captain of Tandem Bicycle. |
| Boosters | Pedals. |
| Bouy | Road Cone, or Road Barrel. Often fluorescent orange. |
| Bow | The front fork. |
| Break Atmo | To ride up on the sidewalk. |
| Cadet | A pilot-in-training, affectionately known as a maggot. |
| Chaff | Sparkler. 'We set off chaffs and flew through the Harvard Constellation. It was glorious.' |
| Civi | Any person not affiliated with SCUL (or another bike gang). |
| Civilian | Someone who is not in SCUL. |
| Civilian Ship | A normal bike. |
| Clip | One dozen donuts. |
| Cockpit | Saddle or banana seat. |
| Constellation | A Square. For example Harvard square is known as the Harvard Constellation. |
| Coordinates | Street address. |
| Corvette | A fighter ship with a 16" primary thruster or smaller. |
| Crash Landing | Mechanical Malfunction causing the ship to stop and make repairs. Most commonly a flat tire. |
| Day Mission Sickness | A condition suffered by pilots who go on day missions. Symptoms include a sticky smelly secretion under the armpits, and a reddening of the skin. |
| Deep Space | Off road. In the woods. |
| Deep Space Vessel | A mountain bike. |
| Derby | A sport invented by SCUL, whereas each participating pilot affixes a ribbon about his/her neck, and chases each other pilot about a parking lot in hopes of grasping another pilots ribbon. A pilot is out of the game if any part to the ribbon is ripped or if they touch the ground with any part of their body. The last pilot wins. |
| Derelict | Bike in the trash. Any unridable bike. |
| Destroyer | A modified ship with a 24" primary thruster (rear wheel). |
| Dinghy | A skateboard, roller skates or rollerblades. |
| Distress Call | A party |
| Droid | A computer or any sophisticated electronic device. |
| Drop Anchor | To lock up the bike(s). |
| Escape Pod | See Dinghy |
| Escutcheon | Head badge. |
| False Metal | Aluminum. |
| Fighter | A modified ship. |
| Fleet | All active ships in SCUL. |
| Flight Simulator | An exercise bike. |
| Fort | Any building that stores at least one fighter on a regular basis. |
| Freighter | Cruiser bicycle. |
| Frigate | A modified ship with a 20" primary thruster (rear wheel). |
| Fuel | coffee. |
| Fusion Reactor | bottom bracket |
| G-Well | Short for gravity well. A hill. Posi g-well is downhill. Negi g-well is uphill. |
| Galaxy | A State. Used as "Galaxy MA" |
| Gantry | A bicycle repair stand. |
| Grenade | A donut. |
| Grumbah | 1. Courage. (from Star Trek Next Generation: "Like all starfleet, you talk and you talk, but you have no GRUMBAH!") 2. A unit of SCUL money roughly equal to five Earth Credits. |
| H.A.R.V. | High Altitude Reconnaissance Vehicle. A Tallbike. |
| Hamburger Helper | First aid kit. |
| Hanger | Any place bikes are stored. |
| Heavy Nebula | A pond, lake or ocean. |
| Heavy Nebula Transport | A motorized water-bound craft. |
| Helm | Handlebars |
| Host | A SCUL pilot who is in the midst of training a cadet. |
| Hull | Bicycle Frame. |
| Hyper-Wormhole | A footbridge. |
| Hyperspace Byway | A bridge. |
| Inertial Dampening System (IDS) | Any kind of suspension. |
| Inner Plasma Casing | Inner tube. |
| Landing Gear | Kickstand |
| Lasers | Lights. |
| Life Supprt | Music played on a mission or at a fort. |
| Light Year | One mile. |
| Long Range Scout, or LaRS | Road Bike. |
| Luna | Commercial or Industrial building. Star Market is known as Luna Star Market. |
| Maggot | A pilot in training. |
| Mast | Seat post. |
| Meatspace | The real world. The opposite of cyberspace. |
| Meteorites | Broken glass in the road. |
| Mission | A ride. |
| modulator (aft) | Rear Derailleur |
| modulator (fore) | Front Derailluer |
| Molecules | A quantity. Someone used up all the WD40 molecules. |
| Moon | See LUNA. |
| MRC | Maintenance, repair, and construction. |
| Nebula | Fog. Also Heavy Nebula - a body of water that is not a river or stream (See Asteroid Belt), such as The Michigan Nebula (Lake Michigan) |
| Negi | 1. Negative. Used as "Negi that." meaning "That's incorrect". Also used in . Negi-G-Well, Uphill. 2. Broken, as in "Chainsaw bike is negi", or "My primary thruster went negi on me". |
| Orbit | The sidewalk. A ship can enter orbit or break orbit. |
| Photon Torpedoes | Spit. |
| Pilot | 1) Anyone who rides a bicycle. 2) The person in front on a tandem. |
| Plasma | Inner tube air. |
| Plasma Repair Module | A Patch Kit for inner tubes. |
| Poop Deck | A ship rack for the back of a transport. |
| Posi | 1) Cool. 2) Affirmative. |
| Power Coupling | A connector between a warp core and a powered device. |
| Power Droid | USB Battery Bank Charger. From Star Wars 'GNK Power Droid'. |
| Prisoner Transfer | The act of towing a kid in a kiddie trailer. |
| Probe | A personal water-bound craft. A class one probe is a floating inner tube. A class two probe is a stand-up-paddleboard. A class three probe is a kayak, and a class-four probe is a canoe. |
| Propulsion Transfer Conduit | Bicycle chain. |
| Protocol D'roid | A smartphone. |
| Pulsar | Traffic Light. To transit a pulsar is to cross an intersection with a traffic light. |
| Radiation | Rain. Heavy Radiation is snow or hail. |
| Radiation Posioning | Being wet from the rain. Can affect droids as well as humans. |
| Radiation Suit | A rain suit. |
| Refueling Station | Convenience store. |
| Retros | Brakes. |
| Rogue | Any modified ship that is not affiliated with SCUL or other chopper organization. |
| Sandworm | A bus. |
| Sector | Zip code. 'There's a distress call in sector 02134' |
| Shields | A helmet. |
| Short Range Scan | Looking around. |
| Sonic Disruptor | A noisemaking device, broken down into the following categories: Class 1: Bell, Class 2: Electric Horn, Class 3: Music Amplifier, Class 4: Transmitter |
| Sonic Disruptor Array | All the sonic disruptors in the battalion. |
| Sonic Disruptor Dish | Music speaker. |
| Space Dock | Any area devoted to the repair of bikes. |
| Space Dust | Sand or gravel in the road. |
| Space Junk | Any obstacle in the road. |
| Space Station | A home. Used as "Space Station Smith" |
| Space Walk | Walking. If a hill is particularly steep and the thrust rating is particularly poor, space walking may be pushing the ship for a while. |
| Space Weevil | Roadkill. |
| Spacesuit | Clothes. |
| ST | Police. Short for Stormtrooper. |
| Stardate | SCUL officially uses the following format for date and time: YYMMDDx.HHMMSS. x is the day of the week (x is Sunday and r is Thursday). Use military time for the hour and minute. For example; Sunday May 27th, 2007 at 1:55 pm would be 070527x.1355. |
| Starfortress | A SCUL division headquarter. |
| Starmap | Road Map |
| Starpath | A street. As in Starpath Massachusetts in the Cambridge System. |
| Starsystem | See System |
| Station | Where someone lived. As in "I'm stationed at Fort Francis". |
| Steering Dampener | Alcohol. In the olden days, Schlitz. |
| Sub. Freq. | Short for subspace frequency. A phone number or other contact info. |
| Subspace | Electronic Transmissions. Phone, Fax, E-mail, or CB radio. |
| System | A town or city. Used as "Now entering the Watertown System. |
| Taking Point | The act of 'corking' - blocking the spacelane of oncoming transport flow so the fleet can maintain cohesion through an intersection. |
| Tardis | An outhouse. It's smellier on the inside! |
| Thruster | A wheel. Primary thrusters are rear wheels, navigational thrusters are front wheels. |
| Tie Fighter | Police bicycle |
| Tie Transport | Police Car |
| Tractor Beam | 1. A bungee cord 2. Rolling a ship alongside a ship that that is being ridden. |
| Transit a Pulsar | Cross an intersection with a traffic light. |
| Transport | A car or truck. |
| Tribble | A bunny rabbit. |
| Universe | A country. Used as "The France Universe" |
| Vapor Trail | A skid patch. |
| Warp | 1. Miles per hour. warp 9 is 9mph 2. To drop our of warp: to drop your chain. |
| Warp Core | Battery. |
| Weigh Anchor | To unlock the bike(s). |
| Wing | A sub-unit of SCUL. Each person who builds ships have their own division, which has a three letter designation. |
| Wingmate | A SCUL pilot who's responsible for a cadet when the host is unable to. |
| Wookiee | Someone who fixes broken things, especially during a mission or in-flight. |
| Wormhole | multi-use community path, otherwise known as a bike path. |
| yaght | n. A fancy ship. Ex: Dragon Wagon is quite the yacht! |