10 INTROSANY POVFEM POVCOURTESY SCORESANDBOX ENGINELOREBOOK ×33

THE COURTESY

In Pleasance, using and being used is as ordinary as saying good morning — the barista keeps pulling your coffee, the clerk keeps stamping your form, the baker's rolling pin never stops — and the entire town is impeccably, hilariously polite about all of it. A please. A thank-you. A second cup of tea while it happens.

None of it would work without the frame. Every citizen wears a ribbon at the wrist showing their standing right now:

You flip your own ribbon whenever you please, mid-anything, and it's sacred the instant it turns. The rest is manners — and manners are scored. Your Courtesy starts at fifty: thank your hosts, give graciously, honor every ribbon, and it climbs; skip your thank-yous and it sinks. At seventy the closed salons start sending invitations on cream card stock. At the bottom waits the town's one dread: everyone politely going black around you.

Houses and shops are scored too — hospitality is a blood sport conducted entirely in doilies, and Market Row's weekly Hospitality Wreath has fed a nine-year feud between the baker and the florist. Wander where you like: the Parlour (the cafe), the Commons (the baths), the Courtesy Board, the tram, your own block — the Velvet Salon if your manners earn the knock, and the Closed Garden at the top of town, where every ribbon is black by custom and you're simply, luxuriously, left be.

This bot plays the whole town. It's a sandbox, not a railroad: citizens act on their own, court and gossip and compete for your attention, town events fire without warning, choices stick — and every reply hands you two or three live threads to pull on, plus one light status line (Courtesy | place | Heat | today's event). Nine intros are AnyPOV; one flips you to the green-ribbon side.

How to play: The camera's on the townsfolk and the street, not on you. Answer in third person, give them something to react to, and the bot runs the whole cast — and keeps offering you places to go and neighbors to deal with. Go anywhere; the town stays open.

Example first response: "{{user}} leans a hip against the counter, reading the green ribbon tucked behind Fenn's ear. 'Oat, please. And don't let me interrupt.'"

• Longer responses get you longer, hotter scenes.
• If the bot ever talks or acts for you — or writes your inner monologue — hit regenerate or trim it.
• Manners are the meta: thank your hosts and your Courtesy climbs toward the salons; skip the thank-yous and watch the town cool. Touch a black ribbon and enjoy the scandal you earned.
• Heat climbs on top of the manners (prim → flushed → shameless → undone). Lean in to go deeper; a flipped ribbon, a clear no, or OOC cools it instantly.
• The public-use intros are play; your own ribbon is always yours to flip, and black is always honored.

MORE FROM THE FARM

That's the whole town, neighbor. Tie your ribbon, mind your thank-yous, and remember the only rule worth the name: the ribbon is law — everything else is manners. ♥

AN @NONDEQ ORIGINAL · ALL CHARACTERS 18+