Battery Crate purred like a clerk who likes his job. The LED stripe drew its patient horizon across the ledger, the kind that does not blink when storms leave puddles. Kael woke with ink on his fingers that looked like roads already drawn. Mira stood in the seam and let her breath choose the morning. Nox shifted weight like a bridge promising to be where people need it. Renn let his eyes half close to see corners more honestly. Eli wound copper into a small eight that looked like a ribbon for power that has behaved. Liana stacked gauze, posted two fresh WAIT cards above bottles, and wrote QUIET IS A TOOL on the nurse board. Jori, Marla, and Pavel lined up like a sentence about the future.
"We do not need to be brave," Kael said.
"We need to be correct," Mira answered.
Nox: "And heavier than rumors."
Renn: "And on the dots."
Eli: "And grounded."
Liana: "And clean."
Marla: "And fed on time."
Pavel: "And square."
Jori: "And signed."
[System: Day Plan]
- Mission A: Info T1: Work Queues v0.3 (priority weights, aging, choke-point alerts); adopt "Queue Law".
- Mission B: Engineering T1: Door Kits v0.3 (pre-cut sets: sleeve + plate + bolts + bar pin tether); stage 3 kits.
- Mission C: Energy T1: Pack Share v0.2 (charge rotate + guard handoffs); clinic lights trial.
- Mission D: Bio/Chem T1: Field Dressings v0.3 (quick-lock splint + carry wedge); teach recruits.
- Mission E: Ally: west board reading rotation; deliver stamp set; diffuser note.
- Contingency: Blue "storm confiscations" elsewhere; refugees at shoulders; extend Courtesy to lines; stamp at entry.
- Reward: +1 PC queue law live, +1 PC door kits, +1 PC pack share v0.2, +1 PC dressings v0.3, +1 PC ally boost, +1 PC doctrine handled.
PC available: 123.5.
[System: Knowledge Acquired]
Info T1: Work Queues v0.3 installed.
Effects: +priority weights (safety > water > bread > dignity > beauty), +aging (jobs get heavier with time), +choke alerts.
[System: Knowledge Acquired]
Engineering T1: Door Kits v0.3 installed.
Effects: +pre-cut kit template, +bar pin tether standard, +install script on card.
[System: Knowledge Acquired]
Energy T1: Pack Share v0.2 installed.
Effects: +charge rotation rules, +handoff ceremony, +red/green tag set.
[System: Knowledge Acquired]
Bio/Chem T1: Field Dressings v0.3 installed.
Effects: +quick-lock splint (broom+strap), +carry wedge fold, +outdoor adhesive hint.
PC remaining: 117.5.
---
Queue Law v0.1 - scheduling as constitution
Kael wrote the law simple and big so it could survive weather and arguments.
QUEUE LAW
- Every job is a card. Every card has a weight. Safety is heavier than stories.
- Cards age. If a job waits, it gets heavier. We do not let light jobs bully heavy ones.
- Choke points get lines, not heroes. Lines move by minutes, not by volume.
- Stamps are functions. Voices rotate. Reading is public. We do not hoard knowing.
- Courtesy is a lane. Chairs are part of infrastructure.
- If you want to be important, take a card and make it lighter.
He posted it by the queue board and read it aloud. Children repeated the last line because children like jobs that make them tall.
[System: Governance]
Work Queues v0.3 adopted; Queue Law posted and read; aging/weights set. Effect: +throughput, +fairness.
+1 PC.
---
Door Kits v0.3 - a door in a bag
On A3's bench: three tarps, three cards, three futures. Each kit got: sleeve with shims, hardening plates, through-bolts, strike lip, bar pin tether, four honest screws, a pencil, and a copy of the install script written for hands, not poets.
INSTALL SCRIPT (short):
1) Square check. If the jamb lies, fix the jamb first.
2) Sleeve set. Shim where wood forgot childhood.
3) Plate paint. Dull wins.
4) Through-bolt with torque that tells the truth.
5) Bar pin tether. Hands find it in the dark.
6) Sign Door Receipt. The door now belongs to physics.
Nox packed kits with the care he uses for bread. Pavel printed small labels: DOOR KIT 01/02/03. Jori hid a tiny joke on the card: DO NOT APOLOGIZE TO TILE; LEARN ITS LANGUAGE.
[System: Build]
Three Door Kits staged; install script ready; tethers standard. Effect: +deployment speed, +quality.
+1 PC.
---
Pack Share v0.2 - handoffs with manners
Eli taped red and green tags on packs: GREEN = GO, RED = REST. Handoff ceremony: say the state out loud; write the time; move the tag. People scoff at ceremony until ceremony saves a night. Battery Crate purred approval like a bureaucrat who found the right form.
Clinic trial: two lamps, one diffuser, Pack Share balanced. Liana wrote: THANK YOU, ELECTRONS on a small card and then crossed it out and wrote: YOU ARE NOT PEOPLE, YOU ARE A SCHEDULE. She left both sentences because both were true.
[System: Energy]
Pack Share v0.2 active; rotation rules + tags; clinic lamps trial. Effect: +predictable light, +pack life.
+1 PC.
---
Field Dressings v0.3 - quick-lock splints and carry wedges
Liana demonstrated the quick-lock: two broom handles, a strap, and a knot that behaves. She showed the carry wedge: blanket folded into a triangle that hugs ribs without opinions. Jori practiced on Renn, who pretended to complain and did not because it worked. Marla wrote tabs and removal notes on a card with the joy of a person who likes making pain less arrogant.
[System: Care]
Field Dressings v0.3 taught; quick-lock and wedge added; clinic/lane ready. Effect: +rescue speed, +compliance.
+1 PC.
---
Ally boost - west gets stamps and rain light
Renn carried a stamp set and a diffuser note to the west on the 11:00 shoulder. He read Queue Law line five out loud: Courtesy is a lane. The west crew laughed and then stopped because it was actually serious. They stamped DOOR on a hinge audit and LANE on a ring tune. Renn came home with screws, a rumor, and the kind of wave neighbors earn.
[System: Network]
Stamps delivered; diffuser procedure copied; west reading rotation started. Effect: +cohesion.
+1 PC.
---
Rumor and refugees - storm lanes send people
The storm elsewhere turned confiscations ugly. Two families arrived at RN-7 at the afternoon shoulder: one with a pushchair that had seen too much, one with a bag of bread that had seen rain. Queue Law extended: chairs for waiting, stamps at entry (CLINIC for coughs, DOOR for dorm asking, BREAD for ration timing). Mira audited pockets with courtesy that brooks no lies. Liana washed hands and then people. Marla set windows for bread to meet mouths without teaching Seers a map.
[System: Intake]
Refugees processed by Queue Law; stamps issued; chairs worked; no panic. +discipline.
Suri made room at A5 by moving her boy's drawing to a higher nail. Dalen's grandmother ceded a corner like a queen with clean priorities. Kael wrote: HOUSES THAT VOTE WITH CHORES MAKE SPACE BETTER THAN HOUSES THAT ARGUE WITH NOUNS.
---
Aging cards - teaching time to be honest
The queue board grew older deliberately. Kael slid a small weight icon onto cards that had lingered. SLEEVE ADJUST A5 grew heavy and jumped above LENS CLEAN RN-7. People watched the law move and felt less angry because the board had done the argument for them. A child tried to move a card up with his fingers and was gently told by Aunt Mara that fingers are not weights. He laughed and went to clean a lens because he likes to win even when he loses.
---
Afternoon drill - install a door before a rumor finishes a lap
Door Kit 01 went to a side stair that had been asking politely for too long. Mira ran the install: square, sleeve, plate, through-bolt, tether, sign. Jori read the card; Nox did the bolts; Pavel set the tether; Kael signed the Door Receipt with FUNCTION: DOOR. Fifteen minutes. The rumor did a lap slower than that. People saw a door become true and smiled the quiet way you smile when gravity works.
The west flashed: DEMO? Kael sent: AFTER DINNER; BRING YOUR WORST JAMB.
---
Blue arrives without swagger - courtesy as policy
Three Blue with wet sleeves brought seven people and no sermons. They asked for stamps. Jori stamped LANE for two to carry, CLINIC for a cough, DOOR for a dorm request, BREAD for the bread that looked tired. One Blue asked if he could read CLINIC in the morning. Liana said yes and handed him a pen string to wash now to see if he really wanted to. He washed it like a man who had found a religion that does not make him lie.
Kael wrote: WHEN ENEMIES ASK FOR JOBS, GIVE THEM JOBS, NOT FORGIVENESS.
---
Evening - convoy, merge, and a runner with a plan
Pavel led a convoy at the 19:00 shoulder under dry air and diffusers still clipped. At RN-7 a runner appeared with cunning rather than speed. It tried to run the gap, not the lane, because it had learned the beacons and wanted to be a story there. Queue Law answered: pedestrians do not stand in gaps anymore; they stand at beacons. The runner bit where people were not. Mira's shin line corrected its thesis. The pipe graded its paper. The runner left its question on the ground.
Renn wrote: RUNNER TRIED TO BE CLEVER; LANE WAS CORRECT.
---
Dusk - a west demo and a door that remembers childhood
At the west neighbor's worst jamb, Mira ran Door Kit 02. The crowd watched like a hungry class. Eli explained torque honesty. Nox pressed the bar pin tether into a palm and made the hand close on it until it remembered. The door learned yes/no again. The neighbor stamped DOOR on the Public Works board he had copied and smiled like a man who had learned a new word for safety.
[System: Outreach]
Door kit demo west; allies adopt tether; stamp culture spreads. Effect: +regional resilience.
---
Clinic - quick-lock and carry wedge earn their keep
A man arrived with a twisted ankle purchased with overconfidence. Liana and Marla applied quick-lock with a competence that embarrassed him into gratitude. They used the carry wedge to deliver him three doors over. He paid in minutes later with a lens clean and a joke that was not very good and therefore perfect for a corridor.
She posted: WE DO NOT HUMILIATE PAIN; WE TEACH IT TO STAND IN LINE.
---
Night - a quiet theft that does not get what it wants
Two men tried the decoy hinge box trick a second time, but tonight they had a cart and more dignity. They lifted the box and carried away lessons about warp and brittle and camber. The pin press slept like a saint with a towel for a halo. Mira set the bar without drama, then unset it, then wrote: BAR PRACTICE OWED: 2 PER WATCH. Repetition is love when you are building a city that must survive impatience.
Blue came later with chairs and tired hands. They signed Defer tickets, carried water, and asked small questions about stamps. Jori answered with the seriousness of a clerk who loves his pen string.
---
Quiet Court - cards, kits, and culture
- Work Queues v0.3 installed; **Queue Law** posted; priority weights and aging live; choke alerts engaged.
- Door Kits v0.3 staged (3x); install script; bar pin tethers standard; two installs (ours + west demo).
- Pack Share v0.2 rotation w/ red/green tags; clinic trial smooth.
- Field Dressings v0.3: quick-lock splints + carry wedge; clinic/lane effective.
- West boosted: stamps + diffuser note + reading rotation; door kit adopted.
- Refugees processed by Queue Law; stamps at entry; chairs as infrastructure.
- Runners tried clever; lanes were correct; diffusers still calm faces.
- Decoy hinge box saved the night; pin press slept; bar drills repeated.
- Doctrine: repeated.
[System: Audit Complete]
+1 PC (queue law), +1 PC (door kits), +1 PC (pack share v0.2), +1 PC (dressings v0.3), +1 PC (ally), +1 PC (discipline), +1 PC (doctrine).
Total PC: 117.5 -> 124.5.
Advisory: With 124+ PC, next options: Info T1 Queue Law v0.4 (escalation lanes), Engineering T1 Exo Web v0.2 (hip stay tweak + knee pad), Energy T1 Lamp Shop v0.3 (hooded beams), Bio/Chem T1 Clinic Flow v0.3 (triage tokens). Threat horizon: fake-witness tactic may return with props; ambulants learning to loiter near beacons; Seer patience lengthening; Blue to formalize "stamp raids." Recommendations: ink stamps with colors; rotate beacons; train children to shout WITNESS BY FUNCTION; pre-stage Door Kit 04; exo web hip stay left tweak; write a short catechism for Queue Law (call-and-response).
Mira leaned her head against the wall for the legal breaths. "We turned a board into a law," she said.
"We turned minutes into politics," Kael said.
Nox tapped a through-bolt like it was a shoulder and it tapped back. Eli flipped a red tag to green with satisfaction measured in sensible volts. Liana washed the pen, the string, the sink, the bucket, and the word. Marla folded a carry wedge that looked like mercy. Pavel squared a hinge ear and stamped PP like a prayer without lies. Jori flipped the pointer to night and whispered to lanes the way some people whisper to saints.
Kael placed his palm on the ledger. "We do not need to be brave," he said.
"We need to be correct," the city answered, and the queue agreed by getting shorter in the right places.
Outside, rumor ran laps and got bored. Inside, cards aged, stamps fell, doors said no correctly, and a clerk fell a little more in love with a pen string he had washed himself.