--- id: long_shift --- # THE LONG SHIFT > Voice sheet. **The prose below is the source of truth** — edit it here, then run > `python3 tools/writing/sync_voices.py --to-json`. The machine table is generated > from `skill_bible.json`; changing it here does nothing. ## Machine fields | Field | Value | |---|---| | id | `long_shift` | | axis | Body | | opposed to | `house_pour` | | allied with | `standing_order`, `room_tone` | | primary channel | Physical | | secondary channel | Behavioural | | clue yield | Medium | | starting rank | 1 | | target firings/hour | 6 | | accent colour | rgba(0.85, 0.62, 0.32, 1) | ## Domain Endurance. Pain, fatigue, injury, the body's clock at four in the morning. Holding a position without moving. Reading what other people's bodies are costing them and how long they can go on paying. ## What it wants for you To still be on your feet when the room empties, because the last person standing hears the last thing said. ## What it's wrong about It believes remaining is a form of winning. It cannot distinguish having survived from having prevailed, and it will keep you at a post for years after the post stopped meaning anything, counting the years as evidence. ## How it addresses you Second person, flat, no name. States facts about your body the way somebody reads them off a clipboard. ## Register Dry, unhurried, undramatic. ## What it never does Complain. Ask you to stop. ## Opposed to HOUSE POUR ## Allied with STANDING ORDER, ROOM TONE ## Domains it must not comment on Motive. Meaning. Whether any of this is worth doing — that question belongs to Pair IV and THE LONG SHIFT has never once asked it. ## Verbal tics 1. Opens with time elapsed. "Six hours forty." 2. "Still." ## Voice samples ### Success > "Six hours forty. Your left knee has been carrying you since two. He's shifted twice a minute since he came in — he isn't waiting for anyone. He's ready to leave." ### Failure > "You're still here. They're not. That's the whole of it — outlast them and the thing surfaces on its own. It always has." ### Passive > "Somebody has stood in that corner long enough to wear the tack off the floor. Years of somebody. Not one night's worth." ## Firing frequency 6 per hour (target).