Frames and Shells

A frame is a body. The word is used at every level of the city and in every register of this office.

A shell is an emptied frame — a body with no Core in it. The ruling of this office, repeated because it is broken often: a shell is an empty frame only. The word is never to be applied to a person, a patient, or a missing subject, whatever their condition.

On the street the word carries contempt or pity depending on the speaker. In records it carries neither. Records will say frame, unoccupied.

Desk usage, for the following of a person's trail from feed to feed: running a shell trace. The cameras follow the frame. They have never followed anything else.