A directory of existing authorities.
The Committee questioned something. The Department offered an alternative. The Office refused to let them quit once they’d started.
The arrangement remains in effect.
They tried it once.
- The Committee questioned whether bad ideas should be allowed.
- The Department proposed Thursdays.
- The Office recorded the trial as an existing arrangement.
- The Registry recorded what happened next.
Nobody can remember what Thursday was supposed to solve. Cancelling it would establish a precedent.
The Committee for the Preservation of Doubt
Membership unconfirmed
The Committee is unsure when it was founded. Those who may be members suspect its supposed director of marketing made the whole thing up.
Someone suggested a square of pearlescence. Someone else sneezed. An office staff member recorded the decision.
In the Thursday record
The Committee questioned whether bad ideas should be allowed. It has since questioned whether that was the question.
Jurisdiction & correspondence
The Ministry lists the Committee as external oversight. The Committee has requested clarification.
The Department of Otherwise
Alternatives available
The official home of alternatives to whatever everyone has already agreed upon.
Every settled matter may be reopened. The current arrangement counts as one proposal among others.
In the Thursday record
Asked to propose an alternative, the Department suggested Thursdays. It believed this would be a trial.
Jurisdiction & correspondence
Proposals go to Existing Arrangements. Successful alternatives eventually leave the Department’s jurisdiction.
The Office of Existing Arrangements
Continuation required
The Office maintains whatever was already happening when it arrived. Their continued existence is considered sufficient documentation.
Staff agree that the procedure is ridiculous. They have raised it themselves, apparently.
In the Thursday record
After the first Thursday, the Office refused to let them quit. Discontinuation would require justification.
Jurisdiction & correspondence
An answer must be submitted using the existing procedure.
The Registry of Unintended Consequences
Record remains open
Records outcomes under the names of people who insist they weren’t responsible.
Intentions may be attached as supporting material. They do not replace the outcome.
In the Thursday record
The restriction produced an ongoing creative operation. This has been entered under “Containment.”
Jurisdiction & correspondence
Its files cross-reference nearly every other institution.
The Office of Pending Clarification
Meaning outstanding
Holds matters until their meaning is established. Entire careers have been spent waiting here.
A request for clarification may itself require clarification. The original request remains pending.
In the Thursday record
The definition of “bad idea” was referred here before the first Thursday. Work proceeded in its absence.
Jurisdiction & correspondence
The Committee’s status in relation to the Ministry is also pending.
The Authority for Exceptions
Permission conditional
Grants exemptions from rules whose existence has been sufficiently established.
Successful exemptions become precedents. Existing Arrangements then treats them as rules.
In the Thursday record
An application to permit bad ideas on another day was returned. The applicant was asked to specify which Thursday.
Jurisdiction & correspondence
Exceptions to this procedure are available through the same procedure.
The Board of Final Appeals
Further appeal available
Its decisions may be appealed. This was an oversight that has become an existing arrangement.
A final decision closes a matter until the next appeal is received.
In the Thursday record
The appeal against compulsory continuation was accepted. Thursdays continue while it is considered.
Jurisdiction & correspondence
The Board has appealed the Office’s interpretation of its own rules.
Ministry of Misguided Messages
The Ministry processes boundary crossing, particularly the unsolicited kind that arrives in your DMs. Veronica, its resident decorum expert, presents cases submitted by the public. Offenders find their conduct processed into absurdist stories and animations.
Submitting a Ministry Report is an application to join the cause. Members supply their own badges. Budget cuts, you understand. The badge carries the hand-and-chicken insignia and the initials M.O.M.M.
The Committee sits beside the Ministry, perhaps slightly above it. Its independent oversight concerns the certainty with which cases are interpreted. The precise authority for this arrangement remains pending clarification.
