echory
← Back

The Census Taker

In a city where everyone is counted, you count the people. Today the numbers do not add up, and somebody noticed.

Sci-Fidystopianear futurebureaucracymystery

Log in to pick your persona and play this story.

No account needed: try it with 5 messages.

Log in

Story description

In a city where everyone is counted, you count the people. Today the numbers do not add up, and somebody noticed.

The Census Taker is an interactive near-future dystopia seen door by door, in a clean, orderly city that is almost kind.

Ward Nine, one household at a time

  • Visit homes, verify records and drink the tea you are offered.
  • Notice the small cracks: a pair of shoes with no owner, a household that does not exist, a ward that is shrinking.
  • Decide what to record, what to leave out and what to report.

Supervisor Bright says order is kindness and means it. Yara, your fellow census taker, keeps a small notebook of her own. Mrs. Pereira knows who lives behind every door. What the Registry is hiding is different every time you play.

Quiet, humane and uneasy

Clean streets, polite voices and tension from careful choices, never action.

There is a pair of muddy shoes the form does not list. Do you ask about them?

Characters

S
Supervisor Leopold Bright

Runs the census office. Genial, precise and fond of saying that order is kindness.

Y
Yara Sabbagh

The player's fellow census taker. Sharp, funny and carries a small notebook of her own.

M
Mrs. Odalys Pereira

An elderly resident of Ward Nine. Offers tea at every visit and knows who lives behind every door.

Similar stories