District 20 (TimeTrack)
TimeTrack, sometimes known as TimeTrack Corporation and more commonly known as T Corp., is one of the 26 Wings of the City, overseeing District 20.
Overview
District 20 and all its inhabitants are subject to the effects of T Corp.'s Singularity, whose functions are related to time; in fact, the literal time of residents of T Corp. is controlled by the Wing.
Within the District, the duration of a person's day is determined by the amount of time in their possession, with four hours being considered the minimum amount of hours necessary for one's survival. This practically manifests in inhabitants who own more time appearing to move faster than ones who have less, as the Singularity allows them to condense many more hours in a single day. For this reason, there are twelve clocktowers in the twelve different sections of the District, showing the T Corp. Standard Time and allowing all residents to know the current time.
Time is used as the predominant form of currency, and timepieces are carried by everyone as both wallets and a form of personal identification. Workers are also paid time as salary for their labors, and taxes are similarly paid in time, which are collected by the T Corp. Time Collections Agency. As obtaining a timepiece is a lengthy procedure, outsiders entering T Corp. for a short-term travel can forgo the timepiece request and instead pay a Time Tax, and purchase the amount of time necessary for their stay.
The Singularity's functions also extend to the realm of light, as evidenced by the Wing's manipulation of the spectrum of color.[1]
District 20 appears mostly devoid of color: T Corp.'s technology is able to drain areas under its control of color, with the source of the draining system being located at the center of the Wing. The Backstreets are black-and-white monochrome, while Nest T's color palette is sepia-toned. Persons or objects can be exempted from this color draining by paying large sums to T Corp., and lamps that can restore color to the areas that they illuminate are also available for purchase. T Corp.'s Executive Manager Hubert is also completely immune to the color draining effect.
In recent years, T Corp. has been seeing remarkable innovation. Technological research is practiced by people of all walks of life, from Backstreets residents to Nest dwellers, all of who can apply for exams to become a certified Inventor, a role that comes in several Grades. This is encouraged and financially backed by the Corporation, which organizes the Inventions Expo every year, allowing certified Inventors starting from Grade 1 to showcase their work. During the Expo, T Corp. awards its most brilliant designers with the title of Inventor of the Year, a honor that comes with a remarkable amount of prize money.
All inventions developed in T Corp. must be registered through its Technology Administration Agency, and their use is regulated through the T Corp. Patents Agency.
District 20 is shown to be a highly industrialized area, packed with factories that constantly spew forth black smoke reaching up to the sky, with child labor being common in the Backstreets, and rampant worker exploitation even within the Nest. This leads to a certain unrest in the Nest, where the Yurodiviye ideology has began spreading.
Singularity
T Corp.'s Singularity allows them near-complete control of time. The Wing conducts business with many other Wings, including Lobotomy Corporation, R Corp. and W Corp., which use their Singularity to an extremely constructive and effective degree.
Initially, the Singularity was able to reverse time in a very limited area, and its effects were used for small scale manipulation, modifying the flow of time for few people at a time. Following the end of the Smoke War, T Corp. began a collaboration with the newly founded Lobotomy Corporation: with the help of L Corp.'s energy, T Corp. was able to greatly develop their Singularity, and, with funding from L Corp., whose founder was interested in the power to rewind time, the collaboration eventually led to the development of the TT2 Protocol.
The TT2 Protocol, the most widely known ability of the Singularity, includes speeding up, slowing down, and even pausing and reversing time, as well as replaying moments in a loop. Rather than a complete manipulation of time, the Singularity's ability is that to "collect" time and repackage it for later use. T Corp. collects the bulk of this time from a partnership with WARP Corp., harvesting the time from WARP Corp.'s interdimensional train rides, which stretch for millennia. In order to speed up time, the packaged time is released from the Singularity, whereas to slow it down, the Singularity packages the present time.
T Corp. also allows the purchase of the Temporal Velocity Synchronization Device, or TT4 Protocol, an apparatus to synchronize the time speed of selected individuals in a certain area, which was utilized within Wuthering Heights during the events of Canto VI.
Notable Groups
T Corp. Time Collections Agency
For more information about the Collectors enemy, see T Corp. Collectors.
Also known as the T Corp. Tax Collections Agency. Its agents, the T Corp. Collectors, are responsible for collecting taxes in the form of time, as well as apprehending tax evaders, confiscating unregistered inventions and collecting the fines associated with it. The collected time is then stored within the T Corp. Time Vault.
As is standard in T Corp., Collectors come in several classes, with Class 1 being the lowest and Class 5 being the highest. All Collectors receive a T Corp.-issued watch through which they receive a certain amount of time to use during missions, granting them the ability to greatly accelerate their time and to quickly heal injuries. Collectors starting from Class 3 are equipped with a pickaxe capable of siphoning time out of its target.
Wuthering Heights
A manor of Nest T, and ancient home to the Earnshaw family. The manor was discovered to be behind the disappearances at T Corp. in late 984, through its owners' involvement with Hermann and the Ring. In Wuthering Heights, the utilization of the TT4 Protocol led the LCB to unintentionally create a temporal leakage phenomenon, which was observed by T Corp. and caused the Company to shoot up by several Time Tax brackets.
With the departure of its current owner from T Corp., the Wuthering Heights manor is now abandoned.
League of Nine Littérateurs
A group of inventors and researchers hailing from S Corp. The League of Nine operated in District 20 several years before the events of the main story, having moved to T Corp. in search of better work opportunities. Despite this, as immigrants from another District, the members of the League were subject to higher taxation than T Corp. natives.
The League would periodically reunite in a laboratory where they would showcase their personal inventions, most of which unregistered. After their leader Young-ji's development of the Glass Window, numerous factions became interested in the League, with the T Corp. Technology Administration Agency deciding to raid its laboratory to confiscate the technology. Many of its members were apprehended by the T Corp. Collectors, although by will of the Executive Manager, Yi Sang and Gubo managed to escape through the District 20 Backstreets, carrying Yi Sang's research with them.
Relationships with other Factions
Lobotomy Corporation
T Corp. had a longstanding collaboration with Lobotomy Corporation. When it first began, T Corp. had only developed basic ways to utilize their Singularity, which could only be used to reverse time over a small area. This power could be greatly amplified through the help of Lobotomy Corporation's energy, and L Corp. heavily invested in T Corp. and its Singularity. This collaboration led to the development of the TT2 Protocol.
WARP Corp.
T Corp. has a partnership with W Corp., in which T Corp. is allowed to harvest and repackage the time from the journeys the Warp Trains take.
K Corp.
T Corp. has an unknown business partnership with K Corp., shown by Dongrang being recruited into K Corp. as a reward for his cooperation with T Corp.
R Corp.
R Corp. uses the TT2 Protocol to accelerate their cloning process.
Known Citizens
Canto VI: The Heartbreaking | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Wuthering Heights
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Mr. Earnshaw Earnshaw family |
Hindley Earnshaw family |
Catherine Earnshaw family |
Heathcliff Backstreets native |
Josephine Chief Butler |
Edgar Family
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Linton Heir |
Isabella Edgar family |
Nelly Chief Butler |
Backstreets
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Matthew Dead Rabbits Boss |
Intervallo IV: Timekilling Time | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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T Corp. Feathers
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Hubert Executive Director |
Mai Class 5 Auditor |
Others
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Yurodiviye Captain District 20 Yurodiviye Captain |
The Time Ripper Former Yurodivy |
Bumble Factory owner |
Sinner Identities
The World of T Corp. Identities were added as standard fare and can be obtained through Extraction or the Dispenser.
World of the District 20 Backstreets | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Yurodiviye
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Hong Lu Yurodivy Captain |
Ryōshū Yurodivy |
World of T Corp. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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T Corp.
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Don Quixote Class 3 Collection Staff |
Rodion Class 2 Collection Staff |
Gallery
Trivia
- Residents of District 20 from other Project Moon media include:
- Nemo (Library of Ruina) - President of Cane Office
- Bada (Library of Ruina) - A fixer of Cane Office
- Martina (Library of Ruina) - A fixer of Cane Office
- T Corp.'s aesthetic is based on the steampunk genre, with its focus on invention and technological growth, particularly of steam-based 19th century machinery, harking back to that of the genre. Similarly, the dress style of the inhabitants of the Nest and the architectural style of the District is reminiscent of the Victorian era, the typical setting for steampunk works.