The Program Universe
4 adult visual novels · eroge with a sports drama inside it
Every The Program story
The rules of The Program
| Place | Halcyon Academy, and the Tower on the far side of the bridge. The Academy trains, the Tower scores. |
|---|---|
| The ranking | Every student carries a public licence number. It is re-scored every Friday at six and posted on a wall in the entrance hall. Nobody has ever been told the formula. |
| The licence | Below rank 400 is provisional. Provisional licences are revoked at the end of the year, and a revoked licence cannot be re-sat. |
| Money | A stipend per rank. Rank 12 lives in a flat in the city. Rank 380 lives in a dormitory with a broken radiator. |
| Powers | Bureaucratically classified. Eleven permitted classes and a twelfth that is not permitted and is not discussed. |
| Sex | Present, unembarrassed, and usually the consequence of proximity and a shared rank. Consent is stated out loud, especially when a scoring room is doing the wanting. |
Who it is about
-
Vale
the number one who is losing
Tall, dark-haired, permanently rumpled uniform, a face that photographs badly on purpose. Rank 1 for two years and falling for six weeks, which she has told nobody. She would rather be hated than pitied.
-
Wren
the provisional licence
Small, freckled, ink on one hand, hair always tied back badly. Rank 381, nineteen places above the line and falling faster than Vale's. The only person in the year who has read the licensing code.
-
Cass
the rival with the public score
Broad-shouldered, short, scarred knuckles, a red licence band she has never taken off. Rank 2 for exactly as long as Vale has been rank 1. She does not hate Vale and never has.
-
Instructor Sable
the one who was discarded
Cropped grey-blonde hair, a scoring board she never puts down, a limp she does not explain. Thirty-six. Rank 4 in her year, which meant nothing then and means less now.
Recurring pieces
| the wall | The rankings board in the entrance hall. People read it alone, at six, on a Friday. |
|---|---|
| the licence band | Colour-coded, worn on the wrist, cannot be removed by the student. |
| the scoring room | Where a rank is proven. It wants what the people in it want. |
Canon
- Vale, Wren and Cass are eighteen. Instructor Sable is thirty-six.
- No story moves them past nineteen.
- The formula changed in March and nobody knows how.