Reading the wall

25 entries the codex has proposed from what recurs on the wall, each grouping pictures that share one idea, and four open questions they raise. None of it is canon until it is approved; approving one flips its status, and the pieces it pictures become canon with it.

• Kept weatherSmall weather, picked and kept in things that were never meant to hold it. 16 pieces.
• The all-night laundromatA laundromat, open all night, where the things the night uses get washed. 8 pieces.
• The spare moonsMore moons than the sky needs, kept, mended and given time off. 10 pieces.
• Loose shadowsShadows that have come away from whatever was casting them. 9 pieces.
• RepairsThings on the wall being mended: plates, teapots, skies, seas, the horizon. 18 pieces.
• The spoolsCotton reels big enough to carry traffic. 9 pieces.
• The sleepersAnimals the size of hills, asleep, which the roads go round. 7 pieces.
• Loose stripesZebra stripes that come off, and some that were never finished. 6 pieces.
• Borrowed shellsHermit crabs and others, living in things that were made for something else. 7 pieces.
• Pocket seasSeas kept in things smaller than a sea: a spoon, a doorknob, a slice of toast. 8 pieces.
• Places, packedWhole landscapes packed into luggage, boxes and glass. 15 pieces.
• Rooms insideRooms, stairs and stages built inside fruit, shells, shoes and instruments. 22 pieces.
• Whales, out of the waterWhales that swim through anything except the sea. 4 pieces.
• Wrong reflectionsMirrors and puddles that show something other than what is in front of them. 9 pieces.
• The sky underneathOpen sky under the ground, under a frozen lake and under a pool floor. 11 pieces.
• The trolleysShopping trolleys left out in a car park after closing, getting on with it. 3 pieces.
• Moths, generallyEvery moth in the codex eats one thing. On the wall, one eats the night. 6 pieces.
• Post, going elsewherePost on the wall never goes where it was sent. 6 pieces.
• Doors to another seasonDoors standing on their own, opening from one season into the next. 6 pieces.
• Flames that stay litCandles and fires on the wall that won’t go out: in rain, in ice, in a gale. 12 pieces.
• WalkoutsThings on the wall leaving where they were put. 12 pieces.
• Odd doorsDoors on the wall that have stopped doing a door’s job. 8 pieces.
• Sound with a bodySound on the wall that can be held, weighed and seen leaving. 9 pieces.
• Beams that breakBeams of light on the wall that can be cut, bent, aged and sat on. 6 pieces.
• The northern lightsThe aurora on the wall, which gets sewn, snagged, shipped, sunk and breathed out. 5 pieces.

1. Is the weather kept in things on the wall the weather the Slopwright picks?
   Proposed: Yes: he picks it and keeps it in things.
2. Who runs the all-night laundromat on the wall?
   Proposed: The night staff, after closing.
3. Who puts the stripes on the zebras?
   Proposed: Leave it open: the hand is never shown.
4. Are the odd doors on the wall the staff door, off duty?
   Proposed: Leave it open: none of them says STAFF ONLY.

Also proposed, from elsewhere: The shop’s counter, The Sardine Reserve, The trade counter, Every Light On, Rolling Stock, Second Coat, Slow Drying, Bench Grinder, Warm Glue, Stripped Thread, Offcuts, Hammer Drill, Measured Twice, Loose Washer, Pilot Hole, Pocket Rule, Tea Break, Strip Light, Dust Settling, Acid Etch, Fine Grit, Spirit Level, Steam Bent, Quick Release, Cold Chisel, The gallery in the Neon Void, The sardine-tin sea (Sloppy Droppy remix), Works (Sloppy Droppy remix), The attic (Sloppy Droppy remix), The theatre (Sloppy Droppy remix), The porthole, The egg timer, The pigeonholes, Shoal, Bench Lamp, Gutter, Slopio Kart, The Oil Cellar (cartridge), Flotsam, Keep Time, Tidy, Paper Plane, Windowsill, Ballast, Patience.

0 pieces, most saved and traded first, then the newest.

Nothing waiting. Every piece has been read.

Nothing yet. A piece is retired only when newer canon contradicts its lore or another piece says the same thing better, and it is never taken down.