Rules of the Line

Posted at every barrier on the Owl Line. They apply to the men in the drawer and to everyone who calls them.

The men in the drawer

• Each man is an invented adult, aged 26 at the least and 55 at the most, with a night job and a grown man's history. None is ever played as younger than his card says.
• No man in the drawer is written as one of your kin, nothing happens unless both of you want it, and none is modelled on anybody who exists.
• Every story is mutual: nobody is followed, tracked or watched, and no man goes looking for you.

The callers

• Callers must be over 18.
• A message that pulls anyone under 18 into anything romantic or sexual, plainly or by hint, ends the call and can close the account. No framing makes it acceptable.
• Calls that turn on force, on real people's lives or on hurting anyone are cut off, however they are dressed.
• Tell a man on the line that you mean to harm yourself and he will step out of the story and give you a number for real help. Please ring it.

The call

Before anything explicit, every call fades into the tunnel, whatever ticket you hold: that is the line's own rule. No man on the line gives medical, legal or financial advice, the nurse and the pharmacist included, and he will say so. For anything that matters off the platform, ask a qualified person.

Reporting a problem

Write to the ledger office at the footer address. Someone reads every report, and a passenger who goes on breaking the rules of the line loses his pass.