Battery Crate purred like a satisfied clerk. The LED stripe pulled a careful horizon across the ledger. Kael woke with a pen in his hand and a rule in his mouth. Mira stretched and let the knife sleep on its hook. Nox rolled his shoulders like a door that had decided to open for the right reason. Renn flexed ankles and watched light move along the baseboards to make sure it remembered geometry. Eli braided copper into a shape that promised silence. Liana built a small white mountain of gauze and then flattened it, because pride is not sterile. Jori, Marla, and Pavel, the new recruits, stood straight with the special stiffness of people trying to earn the room they woke in.
"We do not need to be brave," Kael said.
"We need to be correct," Mira answered.
Nox: "And heavier than policies with teeth but no hands."
Renn: "And on the dots."
Eli: "And grounded."
Liana: "And clean."
Jori (softly): "And on time."
[System: Day Plan]
- Mission A: draft and print "Clipboard Courtesy v0.1" - a handout that disarms inventory squads without a fight.
- Mission B: Engineering T1: Doorframe Sleeves v0.1 (fast hardening) if PC allows; A1/A4/A5 priority.
- Mission C: Info T1: Corridor Economics v0.2 (merges/yields); train recruits.
- Mission D: A5 rules board + resident council note; promote Marla to bread/corridor liaison.
- Mission E: West support: dummy-light ethics refresher; deliver two visor kits; rumor tending.
- Contingency: If inventory squads attempt night checks, treat clipboards as guests, not gods; seats, blankets, tickets.
- Reward: +1 PC handout executed, +1 PC doorframe sleeves, +1 PC corridor v0.2, +1 PC A5 board/council, +1 PC ally support, +1 PC handled without blood.
PC available: 104.5.
Kael flipped to a clean page. Courtesy could be a weapon if handled with a white glove.
---
Clipboard Courtesy v0.1 - hospitality that wins
He wrote the handout in block letters that did not threaten anyone and taped a copy to the Public Board.
CLIPBOARD COURTESY v0.1
- Welcome auditors to the DAY. At NIGHT, we only audit sleep and door latches.
- Offer a chair, water, and a TICKET: "Inspection Deferred - Night" (10 watch minutes payable tomorrow at elbow).
- Invite them to sign the DOOR RECEIPTS BOARD at 09:00. We love clipboards in sunlight.
- If they insist, set the MOBILE BAR politely and read the line: "This door reports to physics."
- No shouting. No sermons. No humiliation. Paper teaches better when it is kind.
- Always witness with function, not name.
Tom copied it by hand until his fingers cramped. Isa practiced saying the script without judge voice. Jori stood by with a chair he had scrubbed himself, proud in the way boys are when they are trusted with furniture.
[System: Handout]
Clipboard Courtesy v0.1 printed and posted; chairs staged; tickets pre-written. Effect: +de-escalation.
+1 PC.
---
Unlock: Doorframe Sleeves v0.1
Kael spent points without apology. The city rewards the brave sometimes; it always pays back the correct.
[System: Knowledge Acquired]
Engineering T1: Doorframe Sleeves v0.1 installed.
Effects: +fast-set anchor sleeves for crumbly jambs; +shim spec; +cure schedule.
PC remaining: 103.5.
They started with A4: the jamb had lived two lives and wanted a third. Eli drilled with discipline; Nox hammered a sleeve with the tenderness of a man teaching a nail to love its job; Mira shimmed until the latch kissed yes/no without maybe. A5 got twins; A1 got a proud patch it did not flaunt because real doors are modest.
[System: Build]
Doorframe Sleeves set at A1/A4/A5; latch feel improved; bar grip firmer. Effect: +denial reliability, +reset speed.
+1 PC.
---
Corridor Economics v0.2 - merges and yields
The node gave Kael math; he turned it into a recipe any cart could follow. He drew triangles at merges, arrows showing yields, and posted a single sentence that would stop many small wars: CARTS YIELD TO PEOPLE; STORIES YIELD TO CARTS; EVERYONE YIELDS TO SIRENS.
He added a rule for shoulders: if two carts meet in the pinch, back the heavier one toward the nearest square; the person with the louder story waits. He taught Jori to run the hour board: flip a wooden pointer to RN-6 northbound or RN-7 southbound depending on the clock. Jori glowed like a boy trusted with time itself.
[System: Logistics]
Corridor Economics v0.2 posted; merges/yields trained; pointer board installed. Effect: +flow, -friction.
+1 PC.
---
A5 rules board - a house that speaks
Mira lettered the A5 board in careful print:
A5 RULES v0.1
- Shoes off in sleep square. Knife on hook. Pipe under frame, not pillow.
- Water: one jug; towel under. Spills = cloth receipts.
- Lights: hood on shoulders; off unless necessary.
- Night watch route: A1-A4-A5, sign Door Receipt.
- Nurse corner: Liana's orders are laws of physics.
- Complaints: write, don't shout. We are a house, not a theater.
Marla read it and nodded as if she had written it long ago. Kael asked her to be BREAD/CORRIDOR LIAISON: coordinate Bread Receipts with corridor windows so food meets mouths without making Seers a map. She accepted with the solemn pride of someone trusted with hunger.
[System: Governance]
A5 rules board posted; resident liaison appointed (Marla). Effect: +order, +morale.
+1 PC.
---
West support - ethics of shiny lies
Renn and Eli walked the 11:00 shoulder with two felt visors and a talk. "Dummy-light is for human eyes," Renn said to the west crew. "Never for Seers. Do not insult geometry with toys." The map man nodded like a man who had gotten away with a crime and promised never to do it again because it had been too easy.
They mounted visors on two heliograph boards, quieter glints, smaller signatures. Kael flashed a postcard: BREAD RECEIPTS WORK; TRY THEM. The west sent back: SEND TEMPLATE. He did.
[System: Ally Support]
Visors delivered; dummy-light ethics reinforced; templates shared. Effect: +network resilience.
+1 PC.
---
Midday drill - bar v0.2 as choreography
Kael ran a drill in the lobby: "Clipboards, three o'clock!" Nox set the bar in 2.9; Mira, 2.7; Eli, 2.8; Jori, 3.5 with a grin that wiped itself when he scraped tile; he apologized to the floor. Kael had him set it again. 3.1. He smiled correctly this time: inward.
Stripe walked through the script with Tom: offer chair, water, ticket; point to 09:00; if insist, set bar, repeat sentence. Liana added: "And wash the pen after they sign." Everyone laughed and then did it because jokes become policy if Liana says them twice.
---
Afternoon - inventory squads knock on a schedule they did not approve
They came early, which is rude when a city has shoulders. Four Blue with armbands and two with clipboards like shields. No horn, no preacher, just the dryness of people who believe lists can conquer physics.
They tried the clinic first. Stripe presented a chair, water, and a ticket: INSPECTION DEFERRED - NIGHT, PAYABLE AT ELBOW, 10 WATCH MINUTES. The clipboard man looked offended the way only a paper-lover can be offended by better paper. He sat anyway because chairs are persuasive.
"Inspection at nine," Stripe said, kind as soap. "Bring your pens. We love pens."
They moved to the lobby. Tom stood with the handout and did not pretend to be big. He just read. Mira set the bar in 2.7 with a motion that did not insult tile. The clipboard man touched the brace. It did not flinch. He signed the ticket with neat, angry letters. Jori took the pen back and washed it without ceremony. Everyone learned something about adulthood.
[System: Encounter]
Inventory squad defused by Courtesy + bar v0.2; tickets issued; no blood. +discipline.
"These people," one Blue muttered to another as they left, "they have manners like a trap."
Kael heard and wrote it down because that was a compliment.
---
Small crises - a door, a fever, and a rumor
A1's latch decided to ask for attention for the first time in weeks. Eli adjusted the sleeve shim by half a whisper. It behaved. Liana checked Suri's boy; fever down; she wrote: REST OWED: 120 MINUTES; then bribed him with a pencil stub to draw dots and squares on scrap. He did, adding cats he had met on patrol. The rumor said Blue would post "forgiveness posters" tonight. Kael printed a small rectangle: POSTERS ARE ANNOUNCEMENTS, NOT GODS. WRITE ON THEM: WE ALREADY FORGIVE EACH OTHER WITH WORK.
Renn laughed. "We are going to annotate the apocalypse to death," he said.
"To life," Kael said.
---
Evening - merges under pressure, then a runner
At 19:00 the shoulder rose and carts came on schedule. A cart from west met a southbound water crate at the RN-7 merge. Jori flipped the pointer and shouted not with his mouth but with his sign. The carts yielded like adults. People passed between them with the grace of a hymn that knows its chorus. Corridor Economics paid dividends in minutes saved and tempers unspent.
Then a runner arrived, late, hungry, angry at math. It tried to make the merge about courage. RN-7 made it about lanes. Mira's shin line argued and won. Nox placed pipe. Liana wiped blood that was not theirs with a cloth that later got boiled because nothing gets to be a souvenir if it holds a secret.
[System: Throughput]
Merge rules performed; delay avoided; runner denied; morale steady.
---
Dusk - posters and courtesy
Blue taped blue posters near the long brick: FORGIVENESS WINDOW 20:00-22:00; SURRENDER MIRRORS; RETURN HOSES; RECEIVE BREAD. People read them the way people read weather they do not intend to obey. Aunt Mara wrote on the first poster in neat letters: WE BAKE WITH RECEIPTS. Kael added: SEE BOARD. Someone else drew a cat with a crown eating a receipt and then drew the receipt eating the crown. Art is policy when it knows what side it is on.
The inventory squad returned at 20:30 as promised by their own poster. They found chairs ready and a stack of Defer tickets. They sat. They signed. They learned that it is possible to lose a night without losing face. One of them asked quietly if he could pay his minutes by carrying water instead of sitting in a room feeling foolish. Stripe said yes and gave him a hose. Mercy, correctly applied, looks like work.
---
A5 council - a house that votes with chores
Kael gathered Suri, Dalen, Marla, and two neighbors on trial nights. He drew three boxes on the table: WATER, QUIET, BREAD. "Pick one to improve this week," he said. They chose QUIET. Pavel volunteered to pad Board 2-Left; Jori to check the latch; Marla to coordinate the hood. Liana added: "Also wash the pen." They laughed and wrote it down. The house became a council because it decided to be.
[System: Governance]
A5 resident council formed; weekly target set (quiet); tasks assigned. Effect: +ownership, +morale.
---
Night - doorframe sleeves earn their keep
At 23:40 a quiet hand tried A4 like a question. The sleeve and latch answered "no" in the accent of physics. Pebble Curtain clicked once and then turned over to sleep. Mira looked through the peephole and saw a clipboard. She opened the inner door two inches and passed a chair into the hallway like a bartender passing water to a drunk friend who had finally decided to be human. The clipboard sat. He did not cry. He just breathed like a person who had expected to be told he was important and had been told he was tired.
He signed the Defer ticket. He returned the pen. He left the chair. He went downstairs and carried water for ten minutes without being asked because it is unpleasant to sit with a clipboard when the city is thirsty.
Kael watched from A1 and wrote: courtesy recruits better than promises.
---
West rumor and a Seer at the edge
The west flashed: SEER TESTED OUR BAFFLE; IGNORED DUMMY; WE LAUGHED LATER. Kael sent: GOOD. NEVER LAUGH WHERE IT CAN HEAR. The tower replied with a diagonal and a hold like a wink that knows better than to glint.
Renn saw a Seer at the far end of Brass Street, head tilted toward the Public Board. It did not read. It felt edges. It decided there were none it liked. It left, irritated by literacy without light.
---
Quiet Court - manners with teeth
- Clipboard Courtesy v0.1 posted; inventory squads handled with chairs, water, and Defer tickets; no blood.
- Doorframe Sleeves installed at A1/A4/A5; latch feel upgraded; denial firmer.
- Corridor Economics v0.2 posted; merges/yields pointer; carts behaved; runner denied.
- A5 rules board posted; resident liaison (Marla); council formed; weekly target: quiet.
- West support: visors, templates, ethics; network steadier.
- Posters annotated into usefulness; some Blue paid minutes with water.
- Doctrine: repeated.
[System: Audit Complete]
+1 PC (handout), +1 PC (doorframe sleeves), +1 PC (corridor v0.2), +1 PC (A5 board/council), +1 PC (ally support), +1 PC (discipline), +1 PC (doctrine).
Total PC: 110.5.
Advisory: With 110+ PC, viable next: Info T1 Corridor Economics v0.3 (convoys), Engineering T1 Hinge Foundry Basics (parts reuse), Bio/Chem T1 Pain Control Basics, Energy T1 Pack Share. Threat horizon: Blue formalizing "night audits" into doctrine; Seer patience tests at A5; ambulants syncing to pointer cycles. Recommendations: teach recruits to run Courtesy line; print more Defer tickets; duplicate bar v0.2; prep Foundry basics; externalize Bread Board for south market; consider first small exoskeleton study (structure only) once packs allow.
Mira leaned against the wall and closed her eyes for the legal minimum. "We are winning with chairs," she said.
"We are ambushing them with decent," Kael said.
Nox tapped the doorframe sleeve with a knuckle and smiled at its answer. "Physics has chosen a side," he said.
Eli hung the copper braid on a nail like a good-luck charm he refused to admit to. Liana washed the pen, then the pen string, then the table. Jori flipped the pointer to its sleep position and whispered good night to lanes. Marla covered the bread with a cloth receipt: BAKED / TOMORROW / 7:10 SHOULDER.
Kael placed his palm on the ledger. "We do not need to be brave," he said.
"We need to be correct," answered doors, chairs, clipboards, and a city learning to sit down before it learns to stand up to the right things.
Outside, posters faded to paper. Inside, a new law leaned against the jamb: kindness with consequences.