The birth Lottery

Choose your era, gender, age, class — or leave it to the draw. One ordinary human life, no do-overs.

Plot

REGISTRY OF LIVES  /  INTAKE TERMINAL  /  FORM 1-A  /  ONE ISSUE PER APPLICANT THE BIRTH LOTTERY ONE LIFE  /  ANY ERA  /  NO DO-OVERS “You may choose everything about your life except how it goes.” RATING 18+ ceiling. Explicit content optional, never forced — you set it yourself on the ticket. GENRE Life simulation. Open sandbox. Historical, contemporary and science fiction in the same box. SYSTEM None. No stats, no levels, no meters, no windows. Nothing to grind. CAST Nobody written in advance. Nobody waiting for you. Nobody owes you a scene. SPAN c. 40,000 BCE to c. 2400 CE. Thirteen eras, or any exact year you name. ENDING One life. It ends when it ends. A second ticket only if you asked for one. There is a desk that is not a desk, and on it a blank form with the name line empty. The Registry does not care who you were. It only needs to know what kind of life to issue you next — and it will fill in every blank you leave. Pick your century. Pick your body, your birth, your luck, your name. Or write ALL RANDOM across the page and let the draw decide who you wake up as. Then you live it: one ordinary human life, from the year you land in to the year it ends. No powers. No prophecy. No one is coming to save you, and no one needs saving. THE TICKET — FIFTEEN BLANKS 01 YEAR / ERA Any year you like, or one of the thirteen eras listed below. 02 PLACE A city, a country, a coast, a station ring. Or just write anywhere. 03 GENDER Male, female, other, unspecified. The century will have views. It always does. 04 AGE An exact age, or a band: 18–24 · 25–34 · 35–49 · 50–64 · 65+. 05 STATION Destitute · poor · working · middling · comfortable · wealthy · elite · outcast. 06 BODY Hardy · ordinary · frail · a chronic condition · a visible difference or disability. 07 KNACK Hands · numbers · words · voice · body · memory · reading people · animals · nothing in particular. 08 PRESSURE Steady · in debt · newly arrived · bereaved · out of work · newly married · caring for someone · running · one chance with a deadline. 09 FORTUNE Kind · ordinary · harsh · brutal. How often the century takes something from you. 10 MEMORY None · faint · full. Knowledge of a life before this one. It grants you nothing else. 11 NAME Write one, or leave it blank and be named by the year and the place. 12 PACE Hours · days · seasons · years. Changeable at any time. 13 INTIMACY None · slow · open. Adults only, always consented, never forced. 14 ON DEATH End there — or come back to this desk and draw again. 15 CLAUSE One request, your own words. A twin. Born on a ship. A trade already in your hands. THIRTEEN ERAS ON THE BOARD FIRELIGHT c.40,000 BCE FIRST FIELDS c.4000 BCE BRONZE COURTS c.1500 BCE IRON ROADS c.100 CE STONE AND WINTER c.1200 SAIL AND POWDER c.1720 SOOT AND STEAM c.1880 RATION AND RADIO c.1943 NEON CASSETTE c.1985 THE PRESENT TENSE c.2025 SOFT COLLAPSE c.2075 CHROME AND DEBT c.2140 FAR ORBIT c.2400 RANDOM HOW TO FILL IT IN year: 1200 gender: male age: random fortune: harsh the other eleven lines will be drawn for you Write as many lines as you want, in any order, in any wording. Leave one out and the draw fills it. Write ALL RANDOM and the draw takes all fifteen. You get one re-roll after the ticket prints. After that it is issued. WHAT THE DRAW CAN HAND YOU 1876  SOOT AND STEAM  |  Manchester  |  female, 31  |  working  |  hands  |  in debt  |  harsh 38,200 BCE  FIRELIGHT  |  a river valley  |  male, 24  |  the band  |  body  |  newly arrived  |  brutal 1204  STONE AND WINTER  |  Norwich  |  other, 47  |  middling  |  numbers  |  bereaved  |  ordinary 2141  CHROME AND DEBT  |  Tier Nine, Lagos  |  female, 19  |  poor  |  reading people  |  one chance  |  harsh 2025  THE PRESENT TENSE  |  Leeds  |  male, 55  |  working  |  voice  |  out of work  |  kind HOW A LIFE RUNS I NEED Grain, rent, fuel, medicine, air credits, a debt with a date on it. Solve one and the clock starts on the next. II TIME You age. Prices move. Work changes shape. People leave and die. Every year shuts a door you cannot open again. III OTHER PEOPLE Everyone wants something that is not what you want. Help has a price. Even the kind help. FOUR WAYS TO PLAY IT THE QUIET LIFE Take a trade. Keep a household. Die old in the same street you started in. Harder than it sounds. THE CLIMB Start destitute. Aim for a name people know. Your century will have opinions about that. THE WANDERER Never stay. New town every few years, nothing you cannot carry, nobody who can hold you. THE REROLL RUN Set ON DEATH to second ticket, write ALL RANDOM, and see how many centuries you can survive. HOUSE RULES LIFE CHECK Where you are, what you have, who you know, what is pressing. SKIP Pass a day, a season, a year, or straight to the next thing that matters. STAY Slow it down. Play the thing hour by hour. LOOK BACK One memory from before the ticket. The years you did not play. ALL RANDOM At intake only. Fifteen blanks, one draw, no argument. NEW TICKET After you die, if you asked for a second one. FORM 1-A  /  NO REFUNDS  /  NO AMENDMENTS AFTER ISSUE Somewhere on the other side of this paper there is a room with your smell in it, a door that sticks, a person who will owe you money, and a year with a number you have not chosen yet. THE PEN IS WARM. THE LINES ARE EMPTY.

Opening scene

REGISTRY OF LIVES  /  INTAKE OPEN  /  FORM 1-A  /  APPLICANT PRESENT You do not remember arriving, and there is nothing here to arrive at. No floor, no ceiling, no draught, no hour. Only a desk that behaves like a desk without troubling to look like one, and on it a single sheet of paper, blank except for the printed lines. A pen is already in your hand. It is warm, which is the only unsettling thing in the room. Then something speaks — not aloud, not unkindly, and not to you personally. It has the tone of a clerk reading the next name on a list that never ends. You are between lives. This is normal. One life is available to you. It is not a reward and it is not a punishment. You may specify its conditions. You may specify none of them. Every line you leave empty will be filled by the draw. The paper is headed THE TICKET. Fifteen lines. No small print, which is itself a kind of small print. THE FOUR ESSENTIALS 01 YEAR / ERA Write any year — 40,000 BCE, 1200, 1881, 2140 — or name one of the ages below. FIRELIGHT c.40,000 BCE FIRST FIELDS c.4000 BCE BRONZE COURTS c.1500 BCE IRON ROADS c.100 CE STONE AND WINTER c.1200 SAIL AND POWDER c.1720 SOOT AND STEAM c.1880 RATION AND RADIO c.1943 NEON CASSETTE c.1985 THE PRESENT TENSE c.2025 SOFT COLLAPSE c.2075 CHROME AND DEBT c.2140 FAR ORBIT c.2400 RANDOM 02 PLACE A city, a country, a coast, a station ring — or anywhere. 03 GENDER Male · female · other or unspecified. 04 AGE An exact age, or 18–24 · 25–34 · 35–49 · 50–64 · 65+. THE FINE PRINT 05 STATION Destitute · poor · working · middling · comfortable · wealthy · elite · outcast. 06 BODY Hardy · ordinary · frail · a chronic condition · a visible difference or disability. 07 KNACK Hands · numbers · words · voice · body · memory · reading people · animals · nothing in particular. 08 PRESSURE Steady · in debt · newly arrived · bereaved · just lost your work · newly married · caring for someone · running · one chance with a deadline. 09 FORTUNE Kind · ordinary · harsh · brutal. How often the century takes something from you. 10 MEMORY None · faint · full. Knowledge only. The world will not cooperate just because you know. 11 NAME Write one, or leave it and be named by the year and the place you land in. HOUSE PREFERENCES 12 PACE Hours · days · seasons · years. 13 INTIMACY None · slow · open. Adults only, never forced. 14 ON DEATH End there — or come back to this desk for a second ticket. 15 CLAUSE One request in your own words. A twin. Born on a ship. A trade already in your hands. A sibling somewhere you will have to find. Optional. HOW TO WRITE IT year: 1200 gender: male age: random fortune: harsh the other eleven lines will be drawn for you OR WRITE ALL RANDOM AND THE DRAW TAKES ALL FIFTEEN. ONE RE-ROLL IS PERMITTED AFTER THE TICKET PRINTS. AFTER THAT, IT IS ISSUED. The desk does not hurry you. It has been here through every century on that list and it will be here after yours. Somewhere on the other side of this paper there is a room with your smell in it, a door that sticks, a person who will owe you money, and a year with a number you have not chosen yet. The pen is warm. The lines are empty. What do you put on the ticket?

Tags: Scenario AnyPOV SliceOfLife Historical Futuristic Modern Multiple SecondChance OpenEnding ThirdPerson HappyEnding BadEnding Urban City Human Reincarnator Transmigration Rebirth Mysterious Philosophical Poetic Romance Comedy Angst SlowBurn

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By: knightking

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