Battery Crate purred like paperwork done on time. The LED stripe pulled a line across the ledger that looked like a boundary and felt like a road. Kael woke with the feeling that the neighborhood had decided to grow a spine one receipt at a time. Mira rolled one shoulder toward the seam and let the knife stay on its hook. Nox stretched with a sound like bolts deciding to be honest. Renn flexed his ankles and counted corners the way some men count blessings. Eli woke with a wire in his palm and a plan behind his teeth. Liana stacked gauze, then unstacked, then stacked again, because order is what hands do when they love people.
"We do not need to be brave," Kael said.
"We need to be correct," Mira answered.
Nox: "And heavier where ladders pretend to be ideas."
Renn: "And on the dots."
Eli: "And grounded."
Liana: "And clean."
[System: Day Plan]
- Mission A: draft and execute Recruit Protocol v0.1 (from theater to chores): intake, tests, tickets, probation.
- Mission B: Engineering T1: Mobile Bar v0.2 (single-person set) if PC allows; prototype + drill.
- Mission C: Energy T1: Pack Guard (low-voltage cutoff) if PC allows; reduce lamp death; tag rules.
- Mission D: Bio/Chem T1: Field Dressings (pressure, immobilize, transport); nurse station upgrade.
- Mission E: Corridor Economics v0.1: throughput map, cart windows, watch minutes vs lanes; post at Public Board.
- Contingency: expected "confession caravan" attempting to trade props for obedience; answer with Bread Receipts reading + Recruit line open.
- Reward: +1 PC recruit protocol executed, +2 PC bar v0.2 field set, +1 PC pack guard, +1 PC dressings, +1 PC corridor economics, +1 PC theater handled.
PC available: 101.5.
Kael allowed himself the dignity of spending points on things that make tomorrow cheaper than today.
[System: Knowledge Acquired]
Engineering T1: Mobile Bar v0.2 (single-person set) installed.
Effects: +lever geometry, +knee-save auto, +pin tether.
[System: Knowledge Acquired]
Energy T1: Pack Guard installed.
Effects: +low-voltage cutoff discipline; +lamp lockout; +pack longevity.
[System: Knowledge Acquired]
Bio/Chem T1: Field Dressings installed.
Effects: +pressure wrap guidance; +splint set; +carry without regret.
[System: Knowledge Acquired]
Info T1: Corridor Economics v0.1 installed.
Effects: +throughput mapping; +lane priority math; +watch-minute budgeting.
PC remaining: 96.5.
---
Recruit Protocol v0.1 - from theater to chores
Butcher paper. Thick marker. Rules that even a boy carrying nails for a sermon could love.
RECRUIT PROTOCOL v0.1
1) Intake: hands checked (clean), pockets checked (no lies), eyes checked (can read a square).
2) Tests: sweep a square; hold a dot; carry water; read a receipt out loud to a wall.
3) Tickets: one given for you to pay (work minutes) - not a punishment, an initiation.
4) Probation: two watches with a clerk; one hinge check; one Bread Receipt delivered.
5) Badge: not a noun; a function. You get a strap with a pen and a receipt book. That's it.
6) No oaths. Oaths are theater. You will sign door receipts and that will be your oath.
7) Failure: no shame. You can leave with bread in your hand and a receipt that says you tried.
Mira read it and nodded once. Nox added a line: "Pipe talk: you do not lift it unless the door asked." Eli wrote: "Mirrors face-down unless spoken to." Liana circled "hands checked" and underlined it three times until it looked like a demand.
The boy with nails came at noon with his hands empty and his eyes unsure. Kael pointed at the broom. "Intake," he said, and the boy smiled with his mouth closed and swept like he owed the floor an apology.
[System: Governance]
Recruit Protocol v0.1 posted; line opened; first cohort (3) entered probation.
+1 PC.
---
Mobile Bar v0.2 - one person, one law
On A3's bench: the v0.1 bar, now with a levered knee foot, a sprung jaw with a self-finding strike plate lip, and a pin on a tether that wanted to be exactly where a hand would be even in the dark. Eli adjusted the pivot so it would not sing. Nox tested one-armed set with a grunt that made the angle iron proud. Mira drilled the move until her wrists remembered it without the rest of her.
Kael set a standard: set in under three seconds solo, unset in under four without drama, never scrape tile, never announce yourself.
They timed. Mira: 2.8. Nox: 3.1 because he flossed the wedge. Eli: 3.0 dead even and then 2.9 because copper likes to compete. Renn: 3.2 and a bow to the tile as apology.
[System: Build]
Mobile Bar v0.2 prototyped; single-person set achieved sub-3s; drill complete. Effect: +portable denial density.
+1 PC (build), +1 PC (field test pending).
---
Pack Guard - stop killing light by kindness
Battery Crate accepted the new limiters like an adult agreeing to a bedtime. Kael labeled lamps: CUTOFF AT X; DO NOT ARGUE. He tied lockout strings to headlamps so people would have to feel their choice to wake the pack. He logged pack IR and moved a diva to the MUSEUM bin with ceremony. Liana put a small sticker on the museum bin: HERE LIE OUR BAD HABITS.
[System: Energy]
Pack Guard active; low-voltage cutoffs posted; lamp lockouts tied. Effect: +runtime, +fewer dead cells, +less shouting.
+1 PC.
---
Field Dressings - pressure and permission
Liana laid out triangular bandages, splints, wrap, and a piece of cardboard that would be a pan if asked. She taught pressure wrap on Nox's forearm, who pretended pain with the elegance of a man who knows theater is good when it teaches. She taught splinting on Renn, who insisted on making broom handles famous. She taught carry with two belts under a blanket, which made the clinic door learn to love blankets even more.
She wrote on the nurse board:
FIELD DRESSINGS v0.1
- Pressure first, then decision.
- Splint if a limb argues with itself.
- Carry like a promise, not like luggage.
- Every dressing gets a receipt: who, where, when, what minutes you will rest.
[System: Care]
Field Dressings implemented; nurse station upgraded; neighbors taught. Effect: +survival on bad days, +confidence on good ones.
+1 PC.
---
Corridor Economics v0.1 - how many carts fit in a hymn
Kael turned the node's math into a picture: lanes marked with numbers; shoulders as windows; carts as beads; watch minutes as currency. He posted rules that read like a love letter to boredom:
- Two carts per shoulder per lane. No hero runs.
- People first, carts second, stories never.
- RN-6 carries south-to-north on odd hours; RN-7 reverse on even; RN-8 is a relief valve.
- If a cart is late, it waits. If a person is late, we all wait.
- Watch minutes are budget, not punishment. Spend them where doors approve.
The Public Board looked ten percent more like a city hall and nobody felt insulted by that.
[System: Logistics]
Corridor Economics v0.1 posted; lanes scheduled; watch-minute budgeting adopted. Effect: +throughput, -friction.
+1 PC.
---
Confession caravan meets a line
They came with a cart decorated like a wedding that forgot the bride. Blue boys with a stamp, a man with a list, a woman with bread, fifteen faces wanting someone to promise that guilt can be exchanged for nouns. They rolled toward the clinic corner and then toward the stair because that is where authority lives when it is honest.
Stripe and Aunt Mara stood with Bread Receipts and read them like prayers that know where flour comes from. Tom held the Recruit clipboard and a broom. The line split: those who wanted mercy with no work went home hungry; those who wanted bread with receipts stood to the left and joined the intake. Three boys and a woman with tired hands passed the test of sweeping. One boy failed and went home with bread anyway and a receipt that said: TRIED / COME BACK WHEN READY. Nobody was punished for being human.
The caravan tried to plant a stamp in the lobby. The Mobile Bar v0.2 set itself under Mira's hand in 2.7 seconds. The stamp admired the wedge and lost interest in being a government.
[System: Theater Handling]
Confession caravan starved by Bread Receipts + Recruit line; bar v0.2 held; no blood. +discipline.
---
Field test - bar v0.2 meets a door that forgot to fear
Blue patrol attempted a fast grab at a side stair two blocks west where a landlord had once hated tenants and now the world hated landlords. Renn set bar v0.2 alone, 2.9 seconds, almost polite. The patrol pushed and learned that hardware beats clipboards. A ticket landed in a pocket: ATTEMPTED SEIZURE - RESTITUTION: WATCH + DOOR AUDIT. They left with paper heavier than their bag.
[System: Field Test]
Mobile Bar v0.2 set solo under 3s in field; denied seizure; ticket issued. Effect: +deterrence, +reputation.
+1 PC.
---
A5 night - small crises that prove a room is a house
Suri's boy had a small fever and a big imagination. Liana cooled him with a cloth and a story about white blood cells that audit germs. Dalen's grandmother coughed a music that made Nox gently fix a window draft because sound travels when invited. The Pebble Curtain clicked once and then stopped because doors do not always need to perform to be loved.
Mira wrote on the A5 Door Receipt: SQUEAK PADDED. WINDOW DRAFT NUDGED. Liana wrote: FEVER OBSERVED / REST MINUTES OWED: 180. The house learned it was a clinic in small ways and did not tell anyone because that is not how real houses speak.
---
West tower postcard - legend as a gift
Kael sent the tiny Map Semantics legend by heliograph in two shoulder windows, with a note: TEACH YOUR OWN. They flashed back: WE ARE. Also: A BOY ASKED WHAT A DOT MEANS; WE TOLD HIM: BREATH. Kael smiled and let himself feel the luxury of liking another neighborhood without wanting to own it.
---
A whisper from Blue - inventories become squads
Eli overheard two Blue at the long brick: "Inventory squads tonight. Ladders banned. Clipboards mandatory." He laughed under his breath because any army that mandates clipboards at night deserves to lose to receipts. Kael logged: prepare "Clipboard Courtesy" - a handout explaining that clipboards are welcome during day audits of hinges; at night they will be given blankets and told to sleep.
Mira shook her head, amused. "We will win with manners," she said.
---
Recruit cohort - names and work
The boy with nails wrote his name on a receipt for the first time: **Jori**. The woman with tired hands: **Marla**. A third recruit: **Pavel**, a man who used to fix bicycles and now fixes lanes. Jori swept like a promise. Marla carried water and sang once and was embarrassed, then sang anyway. Pavel tuned the manhole ring so it would not brag to enemies. Eli gave him a wrench the way you give a violin to someone who has already decided to play it.
[System: Cohort]
Recruits Jori, Marla, Pavel in probation; tickets paid; first watches completed. Effect: +capacity, +future NCOs.
---
Night - a runner, a recipe, a rule
A runner tested RN-6 like a rumor with legs. Mira let it close half the distance and then polite geometry turned the lane into a script it had not rehearsed. It tripped where a hero would have jumped, because heroes think gravity is a suggestion. Nox placed his pipe where the script said curtain. The runner stopped being a threat and started being a receipt: RN-6 STILL OWNS ANGLES.
Liana cleaned a scrape on Mira's forearm from a shelf wing with Field Dressings calm. She wrote MIRROR FACE-DOWN while she worked because hands like instructions when blood is involved. Kael adjusted Pack Guard after the late watch, cutting a lamp that wanted to be dramatic. It sulked into obedience and then performed better because performing better is what sulk learns when it grows up.
---
Quiet Court - from theater to chores
- Recruit Protocol v0.1 posted; intake/tests/tickets/probation/badge; first cohort (Jori, Marla, Pavel) active.
- Mobile Bar v0.2 unlocked; single-person set drilled (sub-3s); field test successful; seizures denied.
- Pack Guard unlocked; low-voltage cutoffs posted; lamp lockouts tied; museum bin filling with old sins.
- Field Dressings unlocked; nurse station upgraded; pressure/splint/carry taught; A5 assisted.
- Corridor Economics v0.1 posted; lanes/schedules/watch budgeting active.
- Confession caravan deflected; line diverted into recruits; no blood.
- West legend shared; neighbors teaching their own; rumors: Blue inventory squads formalized.
- Doctrine: repeated.
[System: Audit Complete]
+1 PC (recruit protocol), +2 PC (bar v0.2 field), +1 PC (pack guard), +1 PC (dressings), +1 PC (corridor economics), +1 PC (discipline), +1 PC (doctrine).
Total PC: 104.5.
Advisory: With 104+ PC, consider next: Info T1 Corridor Economics v0.2 (priority merges), Engineering T1 Doorframe Sleeves (fast hardening), Bio/Chem T1 Pain Control Basics, Energy T1 Pack Share (safe parallel). Threat horizon: inventory squads with clipboards by night; preacher pivot to "forgiveness parades" moving targets; Seer patience at A5; ambulants pairing with runners. Recommendations: print Clipboard Courtesy; finish A5 dorm v0.1 rules board; start Mobile Bar v0.2 duplication; advance Jori/Marla/Pavel to hinge audits within two days; teach west dummy-light ethics (no glints for Seers).
Mira leaned her head against the wall and closed her eyes the way a person thanks a building. "We are recruiting correctly," she said.
"We are turning theater kids into clerks," Kael said. "The city will forgive us for that."
Nox tapped the v0.2 bar twice with his knuckle like a judge with a gavel. "This is a good law," he said.
Eli looped a wire into a heart and then pretended he had not. "Tomorrow we make three more bars," he said.
Liana washed her hands and then the pen string and then the table and then told everyone to sleep responsibly. Renn flipped a mirror face-down and whispered to it: "You can talk in the morning." The mirror believed him because mirrors believe clerks more than kings.
Kael placed his palm on the ledger. "We do not need to be brave," he said.
"We need to be correct," the doors answered, and the recruits said it softly too, like a password that feels like home in the mouth.
Outside, the confession caravan rattled away with empty theater, leaving behind three new clerks and a bar that could be set by one hand. Inside, receipts multiplied like small, ethical lies told to chaos to make it sit down and wait its turn.