Battery Crate purred like a small factory with manners. The LED stripe drew a horizon on the ledger that looked like it had been ironed. Kael woke with the feeling that today wanted to turn pieces into systems. Mira rolled a shoulder toward the seam and allowed her hands to be empty because empty hands move faster. Nox stood with weight ready, like a bridge coached to be patient. Renn checked light along the baseboards as if geometry were a pet he liked. Eli coiled copper into a circle that said later. Liana stacked gauze and wrote WASH HANDS on a card because sacred texts should be short. Jori, Marla, and Pavel stood at the line between recruits and professionals and tried not to look at it.
"We do not need to be brave," Kael said.
"We need to be correct," Mira answered.
Nox: "And heavier than mistakes."
Renn: "And on the dots."
Eli: "And grounded."
Liana: "And clean."
Pavel: "And square."
Marla: "And on time."
[System: Day Plan]
- Mission A: unlock Engineering T1: Hinge Foundry v0.2 (pin press + pin stock); build press; train Jori.
- Mission B: Energy T1: Pack Guard v0.2 (cell pairing and rest); tag lamps; retire liars.
- Mission C: Bio/Chem T1: Clinic Sterility Tweaks; swab discipline; boil schedule; pen-string care.
- Mission D: Info T1: Recruit Ledger v0.1; skill tree for chores; tickets -> badges progression.
- Mission E: Corridor: convoy stress test (two pairs + one single); add gap beacons; merge drill at RN-7.
- Contingency: rumor says Blue will "confiscate hinges" for their inventory; answer with Foundry Receipts public reading; Courtesy line open.
- Reward: +1 PC pin press running, +1 PC pack guard v0.2, +1 PC clinic sterility, +1 PC recruit ledger, +1 PC convoy drill, +1 PC doctrine handled.
PC available: 113.5.
Kael enjoyed spending points when they bought boredom and leverage in the same box.
[System: Knowledge Acquired]
Engineering T1: Hinge Foundry v0.2 installed.
Effects: +pin press spec, +pin stock sizing, +plate flattening tricks.
[System: Knowledge Acquired]
Energy T1: Pack Guard v0.2 installed.
Effects: +cell pairing rules, +rest windows, +early attrition flags.
[System: Knowledge Acquired]
Bio/Chem T1: Clinic Sterility Tweaks installed.
Effects: +swab schedule, +boil buckets math, +pen-string care routine.
[System: Knowledge Acquired]
Info T1: Recruit Ledger v0.1 installed.
Effects: +task tree (sweep -> hinge -> watch -> corridor -> clinic assist), +badge minutes, +review cadence.
PC remaining: 109.5.
---
Pin Press - teaching metal to say yes without yelling
On A3's bench: a jack from a dead car, two angle irons, a flat plate that used to envy anvils, a drawer full of nail stock, and a box of hinge ears that had opinions. Kael sketched a C-frame from angle iron with a seat for plates and a guide for pins. Eli welded in small bites, quiet and tidy. Nox bolted the jack where it could push without wobble. Renn polished the guide with paper that believed in patience.
Jori watched with reverence disguised as curiosity. "I want to be the pin man," he said.
"You will be the pin man," Kael said. "If you write receipts even when metal is pretty."
Pin stock cut, edges chamfered with a file that thought it was a teacher. Oil bath warm. Press nose square. First test: plate ear bent from a past life. Jori set it, aligned the guide, lowered the jack until metal remembered it had a circle hidden inside the mess. He pressed the pin home. The plate sighed into correct. He looked like a boy who had convinced a door to be honest with kindness.
Template v0.2 (added):
- pin cut chart (length by ear + allowance)
- press order: align -> kiss -> measure -> press -> measure again
- flatten trick for plates that learned bad posture
- stamp back with date + "PP" initials when pin-pressed
[System: Foundry Upgrade]
Pin Press built; pin stock sized; Jori trained; v0.2 template posted. Effect: +repair speed, +consistency.
+1 PC.
Mira installed two pin-pressed hinges at A4 without ceremony. The door felt like it forgave the past and chose the present. She wrote on the Door Receipt: PIN PRESS TRUE.
---
Pack Guard v0.2 - pairing and rest
Pack diagnostics warned Kael that two cells had a relationship that looked clingy and bad. He paired cells by age and attitude; he set **rest windows** where no one would be allowed to chase full. He tagged lamps by behavior rather than hope: NIGHTS ONLY, SHOULDERS ONLY, NEVER SOLO. He posted a small rule above Battery Crate: **Bored packs live longer than brave packs.**
Renn rolled his eyes and liked the sentence anyway. Eli added a tiny chart: IR bands by smiley faces because some people read better when the math smiles at them.
[System: Energy Upgrade]
Pack Guard v0.2 applied: pairs set, rest windows posted, lamp roles tagged. Effect: +longevity, +predictability.
+1 PC.
---
Clinic Sterility Tweaks - clean without theater
Liana posted a schedule on a card that would not tolerate drama:
CLINIC STERILITY v0.1
- Swab rails/knobs every shoulder.
- Boil buckets: 5 minutes at bubble; lid on; write the time.
- Pen strings: wash; dry; do not let them lick floors.
- Trash: double-bag; tie receipts to handles (what/when).
- Shoes: off in care corner; on at door.
She handed Marla a small box of wraps with dates. "If it does not have a date," Liana said, "it is a rumor. We do not treat rumors."
[System: Care Upgrade]
Sterility tweaks adopted; boil/swab routine live; dated wraps. Effect: +trust, -clinic-born trouble.
+1 PC.
---
Recruit Ledger v0.1 - careers made of chores
Kael turned the system's task tree into a ledger page that made people feel taller when they read it.
LEDGER: RECRUIT PROGRESSION
- Tier 0: Intake (hands/eyes/pockets). Ticket paid.
- Tier 1: Sweep square; hold dots; carry water; read one receipt aloud.
- Tier 2: Door audit with clerk; hinge teach-pile ID; bread handoff.
- Tier 3: Corridor pointer; merge etiquette; Mobile Bar assist.
- Tier 4: Clinic assist (gel/clean/dry); Bread Receipt witness.
- Tier 5: Foundry basic (oil bath, pin cut); Watch captain (half-hour).
Badges are not metal; they are **minutes**. Wear them as lines written after your name.
Jori stared at the page like it was a mirror that forgave him in the future. Pavel traced Tier 5 with a finger and did not smile because he rarely smiles and it is okay.
[System: Governance]
Recruit Ledger posted; review cadence weekly; first promotions scheduled. Effect: +retention, +purpose.
+1 PC.
---
Convoy stress test - gaps with teeth
At the 11:00 shoulder they set two convoys and a single cart to dance at RN-7. Pavel led convoy one with a water crate; Marla kept the rear and the gap. Jori led convoy two with a bread run; a single cart carried salvage. Kael added **gap beacons**: small cloth squares hung at square corners so pedestrians knew where to wait to be honored by lanes. It worked. People gathered at beacons like birds at a feeder that teaches patience.
At the merge a man decided to be a story. He tried to walk through the pinch because he had once been important in an office and wanted the city to recall this. Jori stepped in front of him and pointed to the beacon. The man went red, then gray, then complied. Adult learning is slow and beautiful when it happens in public without humiliation.
[System: Throughput Drill]
Two convoys + one single merged without spill; beacons effective; one ego redirected. Effect: +flow, +civility.
+1 PC.
---
Blue doctrine: "confiscate hinges"
They arrived with a cart, two poles, and a sign: CITY NEEDS HINGES; SURRENDER OLD HARDWARE FOR CREDIT. The cart had a box with four sad hinges sitting like hostages. They moved toward the lobby door and then toward A4 because A4 looks like it would be fun to bully if you are ignorant of physics.
Kael rolled out a **Foundry Receipts** board: back-stamped dates, initials, teach/keep, oil bath entries. He read them aloud like poetry that had a job.
"These hinges have scheduled futures," he said. "They will not be confiscated by nouns."
Mira set the Mobile Bar v0.2 and smiled in a way that meant relief, not war. Liana offered the clipboard man a chair and a Defer ticket. He signed with dignity and sat as if furniture had become a church. The boy pushing the cart looked at the Foundry Receipts and whispered, "I did not know metal could have homework." Jori showed him the pin press through the crack. The boy fell in love in the kind of way that saves lives later.
[System: Doctrine Handling]
Confiscation doctrine turned aside by Foundry Receipts + Courtesy + bar v0.2. No blood. +discipline.
---
Afternoon - pin day and pairing day
Foundry became a rhythm: cut, chamfer, press, stamp. Jori earned his PP initials with a pride that did not need to be loud. Pavel paired cells and wrote rest times. Marla scheduled bread to shoulder windows and pinned a small RECEIPT on the cloth: DO NOT STEAL THE AIR. People laughed and obeyed because jokes that tell the truth are irresistible.
Renn installed two rebuilt hinges at a west ally's stair in exchange for screws and advice about a pipe that moans. The ally looked at the stamp and said, "Your city dates its metal?" Renn said, "We date everything. It stops lies."
---
Evening - a Seer tests A5 with patience
The Seer came early to annoy mathematics. It stood outside the softened angles and stared at nothing with intent. A cat crossed between A5 and the clinic with the arrogance of a deity. The Seer did not care about the cat. It tasted the window hood edge and hated its modesty. It stepped to the lane and tried to be a ruler. The lane refused to be ruled. It left after two minutes, which is a long time in a room where people are trying to sleep because they believe in tomorrow.
Kael wrote on the ledger: **A5 passed the patience test.**
---
Clinic - small victory made of soap
A woman arrived with a hand that had lost an argument with a pot. Liana cleaned it, wrapped it, and put the date on the wrap, then wrote REST 60 on a receipt. The woman tried to pay with stories. Liana said, "We accept work and time, not nouns." The woman carried water for a watch and went home with dignity because dignity is what you feel when your minutes matter to someone else.
---
Night - inventory squads with better attitudes
Clipboards returned with tired eyes and asked for chairs without pretending not to need them. They signed Defer tickets and some paid the minutes by joining water lines. Tom counted out loud like a metronome that makes men courteous. A single Blue asked if he could watch the pin press for one minute. Kael let him. "Presses," the man said softly, "make better citizens than sermons."
Kael wrote that sentence down because it was too good to leave wandering.
---
Quiet Court - pins and patience
- Hinge Foundry v0.2 unlocked; **Pin Press** built; pin stock sized; PP stamps; hinges installed.
- Pack Guard v0.2 applied; pairs and rest windows set; lamp roles tagged.
- Clinic Sterility Tweaks posted; swab/boil/pen-string discipline live.
- Recruit Ledger v0.1 posted; tiered chores; badge-minutes; promotions scheduled.
- Convoy stress test with gap beacons successful; merge etiquette enforced.
- Blue "confiscate hinges" doctrine defused by Foundry Receipts + Courtesy; conversion seeds planted.
- Seer patience test at A5: denied by modest geometry; clinic win with soap/time.
- Doctrine: repeated.
[System: Audit Complete]
+1 PC (pin press), +1 PC (pack guard v0.2), +1 PC (sterility), +1 PC (recruit ledger), +1 PC (convoy drill), +1 PC (discipline), +1 PC (doctrine).
Total PC: 116.5.
Advisory: With 116+ PC, options open: Engineering T1 Door Hardening Plates, Energy T1 Lamp Shop v0.1 (standard heads), Bio/Chem T1 Dressings v0.2 (adhesive tricks), Info T1 Public Works Ledger (city-facing receipts). Threat horizon: Blue may pivot to hinge theft at night without clipboards; Seer may test by waiting longer; ambulants learning gap beacons. Recommendations: hide pin press when not in use; assign Jori shadow at nights; set decoy hinge box with teach-plates; publish Public Works page with foundry entries; begin Lamp Shop jig.
Mira laid her head against the wall and let twenty breaths turn into permission. "We made metal kinder," she said.
"We made schedules louder than sermons," Kael said.
Nox tapped the press with a knuckle and liked what it answered. Eli labeled a wire with a smiley face and pretended he had not. Liana washed the pen, the string, the board, the bucket, the sentence. Jori cleaned the press and then wrote PP beside his name in the ledger and almost cried but did not because he is learning. Marla covered bread with a cloth receipt that smelled like a quiet victory. Pavel put packs to rest. Renn flipped a mirror face-down and told it to dream of beacons.
Kael placed his palm on the ledger. "We do not need to be brave," he said.
"We need to be correct," answered pins, plates, lamps, lanes, a clinic that smelled like clean, and a city that was starting to learn the pleasure of being on time.
Outside, confiscation carts rolled past to find easier prey. Inside, the pin press ticked softly, tidy as a heart, bored in the most beautiful way.