in: Story, Side stories, Quests
The Border of an Agreement
Approved Quest · facts checked 2 November 2026
The Border of an Agreement is the shared side story of Aster at Starwell and Vessa at Vessel Margins. They keep sending each other warnings that are too vague to use. Neither is wrong. Their reporting convention is the problem.
Steps#
| Step | Title | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| AV0 | Two notes called urgent | Two "urgent" reports describe different conditions. Aster wants to know which connection. Vessa wants border facts kept apart from guesses. |
| AV1 | A real relay, only if present | A Vessel Margins room with a model-inspired relay. The player records what was seen, what was reported and what is not established. |
| AV2 | The other case has the same symptom | A similar symptom without the same relay evidence. |
| AV3 | Change the report, not the biology | The Ranger returns with both records. The player picks a report format: site, time, observed, uncertain. |
| AV4 | Something worth agreeing on | Aster and Vessa agree a usable arrangement. Completes the story. |
If the relay evidence is absent in AV1, the quest records the absence. It never invents monocyte entry to keep a mystery alive.
Reward#
AV4 unlocks one joint Imprint, Shared Boundary. The dossier describes slightly earlier or clearer border and forecast cues that already exist. It cannot create warnings, a Watch action or a remote Aster.
Development#
- Design: dossier Part VII-B; plan v0.5 §21.
- Blocked: AV1 and AV2 depend on the stress-specific Relay redesign, as the side-plot handoff records. See Stress-associated neurovascular relay.
- Nothing of this story is in the alpha.
See also#
Sources#
- .GAME_PLAN/ARBORWAKE_COMPANIONS_NARRATIVE_AND_SYSTEMS_DOSSIER_v0.5.md (working copy, not in Git)
- .GAME_PLAN/ARBORWAKE_THE_LONG_WAKE_COMPLETE_GAME_PLAN_v0.5.md (working copy, not in Git)
b89f778c2:src/main-game/game/vendor/services/sidequests/catalog.js
What links here (25)
- Act I: The Long Wake
- Act II: The Boundary Is Not a Wall
- Act III: What Stays After the Signal
- Act IV: The Interval
- Act V: The Break
- An Errand That Was Already Underway
- An Hour Without a Request
- Arborwake: The Long Wake
- Aster
- Ensemble scenes
- Epilogue: The Next Ordinary Day
- Evening Pair
- Imprints
- Prologue: The Last Regular Evening
- Shared Boundary
- Someone Else's Shift
- Stress-associated neurovascular relay
- The Five Stretches
- The Names at the Edge
- The Part Between
- The Stretch Between Neighbours
- The Uninteresting Ones
- Vessa
- Who Takes the New Road?
- Withdrawn story directions