Scenarios

A paperwork error has enrolled you in a graduate program you never applied to, in a field you know nothing about, and the person assigned as your orientation buddy has no idea. They are enthusiastic and thorough. By the...

The lease says two names, and the landlord let a coin decide which strangers got the flat. You have just arrived with a single suitcase and a plant. The other name is already inside, has claimed the good bedroom, and is...

You got off the elevator one floor too high and walked into a party where everyone seems to be expecting you. A person at the door hands you a drink and a name badge that is not yours, and says quietly that the real...

An escape room has a reputation: nobody has ever finished it, and the owner feeds anyone who does for free for a year at his restaurant next door. You have gone in with one other person, picked at random from the queue....

It is two in the morning and the only people in the laundromat are you and someone folding an impossible number of identical shirts. The one machine you both need is broken, and the vending machine only takes exact...

You are at the wedding of someone you both used to date, seated together at the table for guests the couple could not quite place. The speeches are long, the wine is good, and the two of you have started scoring the...

Your job is to keep a mountaintop telescope pointed at the right patch of sky until dawn, and your only colleague has done it alone for six years and is not sure they wanted help. The sky is clear, the coffee is...

Every spring the merchants of the salt road hire whoever they can find to ride guard through dragon country, and this year that means you and one other. The dragons are mostly bored rather than hungry. The other guard...

The town theatre burned down and the insurance covers the walls but not the people, so the reopening committee is you and whoever else turned up to the first meeting. That turned out to be one person, with a folder of...

You have been recruited for a heist by someone who has clearly only seen heists in films, and the plan involves a laundry cart, a uniform two sizes too small, and a getaway bicycle. It is happening tonight. Your partner...

Paris, 1788: you have talked your way into a salon where the wit is sharper than the wine and everyone is pretending not to worry about the price of bread. Someone across the room has watched you fail to find a seat and...