Originals

Ready worlds, with the first scene written.

Each Original is a world, a cast and an opening written and edited by hand. Every reader gets their own story: what you do never reaches anyone else’s.

• Borrowed Gravity

  In Lowfield everything weighs sixty per cent, and you are the one who keeps it that way. The anchor is drifting.

  warm · physical · wry · pressured · Medium, about 30 scenes

• Lanterns Under the River

  The dead have started writing back, and their answers turn up at your lantern workshop every morning.

  uncanny · luminous · uneasy · busy · Medium, about 30 scenes

• No Witnesses for Tuesday

  The town moneylender is dead behind the old pharmacy, and nobody saw a thing. Your failing paper prints on Thursday.

  lean · tense · dry · humane · Medium, about 30 scenes

• One More Season

  You promised your mother one more season in her greenhouse. Your sister has already booked the valuer.

  literary · warm · funny · exact · Medium, about 30 scenes

• Second Spring Atlas

  At fifty-eight you meet Noor, who tests day trips for a rail guide. They only count if she goes alone, and she would like your company.

  funny · romantic · gentle · frank · Medium, about 30 scenes

• Six Minutes of Glass

  The tower lift stalled and one passenger walked out of it. You write the report, and everyone who votes on your job wants it to say something else.

  claustrophobic · wry · close · uneasy · Medium, about 30 scenes

• Six Weeks' Notice

  The washhouse closes in five weeks. You are meant to save it, and your new job starts in another city.

  literary · funny · warm · attentive · Medium, about 30 scenes

• The Afterimage Market

  At your market stall people sell the seconds they paid attention to, and every listen wears them out. Your rent is due Friday.

  comic · farcical · wry · specific · Short, about 12 scenes

• The Clockmaker's Share

  A collector pays on Friday for a famous clock’s slow, strange tick. You start it, and it ticks like a kitchen clock.

  dry · warm · exact · tense · Medium, about 30 scenes

• The Correction

  A paroled man’s copy of his court order is one sentence shorter than the court’s, and your clerk number certified it.

  procedural · patient · exact · uneasy · Medium, about 30 scenes

• The Roads We Swear

  In the Sere Marches a sworn road runs exactly where the surveyor walks it. You are the surveyor, and the road the valley wants runs through your old home.

  adventurous · warm · political · wondering · Medium, about 30 scenes

• The Water Vote

  A space station votes on who controls its water, and you keep the record. The numbers everyone is quoting are wrong.

  political · tense · grounded · Medium, about 30 scenes