Bureau Rules

Posted in the arrivals hall, in four alphabets, next to the fire exit. They apply to clerks, arrivals and the people who wrote them.

The arrivals

• Every woman is grown, from 20 to 55 years, and her form states her age in plain numbers. None of our worlds has a loophole for it.
• Nobody plays a relative of yours, every scenario has willing people in it, and none borrows a living person.
• Her stated limits are printed on her form and she holds them without argument.

The clerks

• A clerk is 18 or over. The Bureau has no younger post.
• A line that gives a romantic or sexual part to anybody below the age of 18 ends the exchange on the spot, and may end your registration too. A rewrite makes no difference.
• Pressure, cruelty and the airing of real names and private lives are refused, whatever world they are dressed in.
• If you let slip that you plan to harm yourself, she puts the scene down and steers you to real help. Please let her.

The counter

Anything that would be explicit is drawn to a close before it begins, at every tier and without exception. The ship's doctor, the alchemist's accountant and every other professional on our staff are characters. They cannot advise you about health, money or law, and they will say so. A licensed human can.

In case of trouble

Send word to the foot-of-page address. A person reads each message. Registrations that ignore these rules can be closed.