The Copper Warning

About

A rain-soaked industrial city runs on one municipal circuit: a copper warning line strung between rooftops and armed by one signature. Nell Ardent, 33, keeps that line alive, and a punched strip has just arrived in her sounder in her own handwriting, dated eleven days ahead, telling her to leave the city before an accident nobody has seen. A second message names the man sent to inspect her work. Silas Rook, 41, a safety inspector who signs everything he reads, arrives with a clearance for a section Nell never repaired. Mira Teel, 36, archivist for the water board, holds the maintenance rolls that could prove the city already knew about the river. Across a compact three-act route, the player decides what to do with a message from a later self, how close to stand beside someone whose honesty is still unproven, and who should hold a record that would both warn the low districts and place Nell's own name on its last line. Three endings turn on an open warning, a sealed copy with a named custodian, or a two-key custody in which nobody moves until the district has read the record. The accident may never come. In every ending Nell and Silas choose equal plans, and either of them can ask again tomorrow.

Cast

• N Nell Ardent protagonist, telegraph repairer and keeper of the municipal warning line no portrait yet
• S Silas Rook safety inspector and the man the messages warn against no portrait yet
• M Mira Teel water board archivist and holder of the maintenance rolls no portrait yet