SIMON

The system rejected him first. Then it started watching him.

Simon works the late shift in a warehouse where everything is measured: access, timing, movement, output. If something exists, it leaves a record. If it doesn't, it gets filtered out.

One evening, his badge stops working. The gate says he isn't in the system. The time clock lets him in anyway. At first it's easy to dismiss, an IT glitch, a bad sync, another small failure in a place built on routine. But then the inconsistencies begin to stack...

The warehouse keeps running. Everyone else keeps working. Only Simon notices the pattern. As the errors escalate, it becomes clear this isn't malfunction. It's calibration. Something is testing the environment. Something is testing him. And it isn't interested in explanations. It wants response.

At one point, a doctor gives him a single instruction: "If you ever feel like time stops completely," he says, "and you're the only thing still moving, sit down wherever you are and do nothing until it restarts."

The event is approaching.
The logs are already updating.
The system is already in motion.

SIMON: The Endogenous Orb Event is a grounded science-fiction novel about reality under inspection, told through the precision and pressure of ordinary work, routine, and fatigue.
Read it as a psychological mystery and it will hold together. Read it as a system interacting with its observer, and nothing will feel accidental again.

If reality starts correcting itself around you, how long before it decides you're the error?