Codex

Every codex entry, by kind. Every folder.

/codex/people 21

The Slopwright Maker of small impossible things. Instructor, reluctantly. Hours: yes.
The apprentice The Slopwright’s apprentice, and the person you play in Always On and Benchwork. Never named.
Wren The Slopwright’s apprentice, as Overtime has it. Apron, ladle, a lot of enthusiasm.
Mr Plinth The neighbour. Has always been from next door.
Captain Brine A sardine. In charge of the sea, as far as anyone is.
Gill Bait and tackle. Mostly tackle. The bait left.
Lumen Keeps the lighthouse. Has a nutcracker that was their mother’s.
Dot The box office. Tickets are free.
Mo The kiosk. Tea, soup, biscuits, and lucky buttons off the coats people leave.
The usher Ticket, please. Not allowed to tell you they’re free.
Ms Quill A critic. Reviews everything, eventually.
Cue The stage manager. Gives out staff badges.
Ottoline Sales. Everything’s on display; stock is through the staff door.
Mrs Ledger Has been looking for the returns desk for eleven years.
Pip The intern. Three weeks in. Has a stapler and no idea what the company does.
Model 7 The mannequin. Retired from the shop window. Still posing. Mostly at you.
Brewster The espresso machine. Sentient since a firmware update. Opinions about milk.
Drip The drippy “p” from the slopped.site wordmark, out of the logo and running right.
The Skimmer A small round figure in an acid apron with a ladle that flings slop.
The rider Whoever is on the board in SK8 2026. Wears a workshop apron.
The developer Outruns the Slop Monster. Double jumps.

/codex/creatures 75

Ferrule The workshop cat. Her bell has gone missing.
Glass manta ray Company. It doesn’t say much.
The Draught The cold that comes in under doors. Always On’s last fight.
Draughtlet A small draught. Whistles through you.
Cobweb Clings. Spins itself thicker.
Dust bunny Shuffles into you.
Loose screw Turns, sharply. Sometimes drills.
The Opener “Round and round. Round and round.” Nobody opens the tin but it.
Sardine Slaps.
Can crab Nips. Then raises one big claw.
Oil slick Spreads. Soaks itself back up.
The Understudy “Act one: me. Act two: also me.”
Curtain moth Flutters. Eats a hole in you, twice.
Stagehand Shifts scenery onto you. Lifts a flat over its head first.
Heckler Boos. Throws a tomato.
Flatpack Assembles at you. Tightens a cam lock.
Swivel chair Rolls into you. Spins.
Price gun Labels you. Marks you down.
Display model Poses. Tilts forward. Some assembly required.
The Assistant A faceless mannequin in a staff vest. Only moves while you aren’t looking.
Stapler Has worked for both sides.
Tape dispenser Tangles. Winds up.
Binder clip Pinches. Clamps.
Sticky note Flaps. Sticks.
Pushpin Jabs. Gets to the point.
Ink blot Splats. Spreads.
The shredder Chews, grinds and feeds.
The inbox Urgent. Then a flood. Then a pile. Then cc.
Shears Snip, snip, open.
Glue gun Globs. Shoots.
Desk lamp Glares. Warms everyone else up.
Rubber band ball Bounces, harder each time.
Hole punch Reloads, then punches.
Paper wasp A wasp folded out of last year’s invoices. Curls its abdomen, then throws a drawing pin.
Typewriter Clacks at you four times, then dings.
Pencil sharpener Whirrs, bites, shaves. Gets sharper every time.
Label maker Labels you Cracked, then prints.
Calculator Adds one more hit every time it adds.
Carbon copy Small, comes in pairs, smudges.
Rolodex Flips at you twice, files Clutter into your deck.
The guillotine Trims, raises the blade, drops it.
The franking machine The boss at the top of the workshop. Switch it off.
Eraser Rubs out your block. Smudges.
Filing cabinet Files, slams, opens all its drawers at you.
The photocopier The boss of the workshop floor. Switch it off.
Snow globe Its glass soaks the first four hits, however big.
The Centrepiece A tiered jelly the size of a desk lamp. It sheds more jelly.
Jelly Wobbles toward the Out tray. Nothing special. It knows.
Teacup Fast. Slow towers miss the moment.
Sardine tin A sardine tin that has decided to walk. Armoured.
Paper moth Flies straight over everything.
Walnut Slow, huge, and fans barely ruffle it.
Foil swan Wrapped in foil. Laminators just make it shinier.
Gumball Arrives by the handful.
Bread roll Breaks into three crumbs. The crumbs keep going.
Crumb Part of a roll, recently.
Kettle Steams everything near it back to health. Or holds the slop up for a while.
Chair An office chair that rolls at you. Stompable.
Teacup snail A snail living in a teacup. Stomp it and it hides in the cup.
The Big Tin Fans of sardines and a charge across the room.
The Mother Batch Leaps, lands in a ring, makes more of itself.
The First Batch “The one that started all of this.”
Glob Squashes down, then hops at you.
Pickle jar The lid lifts, then one shot.
Larder moth Drifts at you. Crosses gaps.
Tine Lines up, shows you the line, then goes.
Batch A large glob. Comes apart into two.
Mould Swells. Then a ring of slow spores.
Siphon Draws a line to you first. Step off the line.
Drain eel Goes under. A ring marks where it comes up.
Ice cube Slides in straight lines. Never stops.
Cloche Closed, it can’t be hurt. Open, it fires and can.
Whisk Spins up, then lunges. Twice.
The Slop Monster A software monster that grows on AI, data centers, public funds and tax breaks.
Tin eel An eel in the sardine tin. Eats sardines; gets longer.

/codex/places 57

The workshop The Slopwright’s workshop. Everything on slopped.site is said to come out of it.
The yard Grass, a hedge, a brick shed, and the tin key in the far corner.
The attic Dusty boards, boxes, a round window, and where the cold comes from.
The sardine-tin sea The sea inside the sardine tin on the bench. It’s mostly oil.
The lighthouse An anchovy tin with a torch in it.
The walnut theatre A theatre inside the walnut on the Slopwright’s shelf. One show, running for a while.
The gods The balcony of the walnut theatre. The lighting desk is up here.
The showroom “Everything’s on display. Nothing’s in stock.”
The stockroom Behind the showroom, or up the workshop, or between runs, or full of crates. Five games go in, and they don’t agree on where it is.
Poolrooms White tile everywhere, and real pools that nobody swims in.
Car park The car park under the store. Every bay is numbered and none of them is yours.
The store basement Everything must go, and one of the walls lets you through.
The open plan Desks in rows. The lights are still on at 7:40 pm.
The shop window Where Model 7 used to stand.
The break room A kitchen with a fridge, a kettle and a sign about labelling your milk.
The pit The orchestra pit of the walnut theatre. One seat is free.
The archive The third floor of Benchwork: the attic, where old paperwork and older machines go.
The oil cellar Under the workshop, where the lamp’s oil used to be kept. Every tin is empty.
The garden of outfits One workshop manual, many stylesheets. No JavaScript.
The desk One long route across the blotter.
Two drawers Both drawers are open. They meet in the middle.
Kitchenette Round the counter and in. The Out tray is by the sink.
Loading bay Two doors, one short and one long. The short one is the problem.
Mild Green Drip’s first level. A meadow, mildly.
Night Shift Drip’s third level. The stacks, after dark.
The Slop Works Drip’s last level. Where the slop is made, possibly.
The Vats The slop vats under the workshop. The second floor down is called the Vats too.
The Larder The first floor down. Pickle jars, globs and sardine tins.
Cold Storage The last floor down. Ice cubes, cloches and whisks.
The Bench The first room of Pipe Down. Pipes, a vat, a deadline.
Boiler Room The last room of Pipe Down. Faster slop, and it has to end up in the drain.
The wall Where finished pieces go up, newest first.
Scroll An infinite zoom through the collection, one artwork opening into the next.
The Slop Curriculum The Slopwright’s school. Make generic slop on purpose, then learn to direct it.
Meinong’s jungle “A home for objects with properties and no being.”
In a nutshell A cracked walnut holding a whole wood-panelled library.
Canned serenity A tin peeled open on a tiny Japanese garden. Best before never.
The sea has pockets At sunset the sea folds into a stitched denim pocket holding an old brass key.
Sardines above the drained pool A shoal of sardines swimming through the air of an empty tiled pool.
Velvet waterfall in an empty theatre Red velvet pours off an empty stage and floods the aisle.
Sunday at the stapler A red stapler opens to reveal a swimming pool, with swimmers doing lengths.
The bell pepper opera A bell pepper cut open on a tiny opera house, red curtains and all.
Games “A skate game, a fighter, an RPG and twenty-odd more.”
The Slopwright’s site “The maker behind it all. Hours: yes.”
The codex “Everything in the workshop, filed.”
GeoCities “Free homepages. Sign the guestbook.”
Bad UI “A registry of controls that work, eventually.”
Fractals “Every kind of infinite, in time with the music.”
Lineage “What changed when we taught it something.”
Top “The best, picked. The most saved, counted.”
Growth “How big it got, and how much more fits.”
The desk “Every site in one window. Several, actually.”
Clocks “Every one of them is right, eventually.”
Status “Every site, asked if it’s up. Twice an hour.”
The shell “The whole world, one command at a time.”
Tinny “Songs written as notes, and how to write them.”
The map “Every page on one map. None of it to scale.”

/codex/objects 37

The Drawer A drawer in the workshop that sells tea, biscuits and soup, and explains itself.
The lamp The lamp that’s always on. It has been on since before the workshop. Possibly before the lamp.
The sardine tin A sealed sardine tin on the bench. The lid rolls back on a whole sea.
The walnut A walnut on the shelf. It hums, faintly, in a minor key.
Tin key A sardine-tin key. The tin on the bench has been waiting for it.
Small bell It goes ting. It belongs to someone with whiskers.
Cat’s eye A marble the cat was saving. It is the best thing she owns.
Work apron Canvas, stained, yours now.
Lamp oil Best sardine oil. Part one of three.
Wick A good wick, from a great curtain. Part two of three.
Lamp glass A chimney of clear glass, still in the plastic. Part three of three.
The lid A tin lid, sealed across the bridge.
Ring pull A ring pull the size of a door handle.
Nutcracker Brass. Opens walnuts, and nothing else.
Soggy receipt From a bottle. “1 × Lamp, standard. Returns accepted.”
Staff badge “STAFF”. The photo is of a different apprentice.
Staff door STAFF ONLY. Behind it, the sound of shelving that goes on for a long time.
Returns desk RETURNS. A bell, which nobody answers.
The cage at the back “There’s always a cage at the back.”
Rubber-band gun A wooden barrel, a clothes peg for a trigger, six bands. Reloads behind furniture.
Clearance roll A roll of half-price stickers. Everything must go.
The Slopwright’s sketchbook Left open on a stool.
Desk fan Slows everything nearby. Hurts nobody, at first.
The Out tray Where the escaped batch is heading. Anything that reaches it costs you reputation.
Laminator Seals a whole cluster at once. Ground only. Foil shrugs it off.
Coffee machine Makes towers around it work faster. Does no work itself.
Acid shine The sparkle. Eight seconds of shining; anything you touch pops.
The vat The Slopwright’s vat. It is full again.
The drain Where the slop is supposed to go, in the Boiler Room.
Crate Nothing goes on a crate. The slop goes into it, messily.
Bonus floor Dotted squares. A filled pipe on one is worth extra.
Cross Two straight pipes on top of each other. The slop can go through it twice.
Valve A one-way pipe. The arrows mean it.
Bolted pipe Pipe that was there before you, and stays.
A well-kept secret A walnut in a bench vice, fitted with a tiny brass hinge and latch.
Paper moths in the archive An archive drawer of folded paper moths. A few have already flown.
A minor adjustment In a cluttered workshop, a brass caliper clamps a small grey moon split in two.

/codex/events 16

The lamp goes out The lamp that’s always on goes out. Always On is about putting it back.
Tuning Up The overture. The orchestra finds its A, then a march. The curtain stays shut.
The Big Number (aria) The Understudy’s aria, in A minor. There is a very deep breath before the big note.
Scene Change The stagehands’ number. Everything clanks on purpose.
The slop flow When the bar runs out, the slop leaves the vat and follows whatever is connected.
Slopoween A season of Fresh slop that goes up in October and comes down again on the first of November.
Ferrule’s bell A side job in Always On: find the cat’s bell.
The critic’s programmes A side job in Always On: three programmes for Ms Quill.
The eleven-year return A side job in Always On: Mrs Ledger’s receipt.
The batch escapes The Slopwright’s latest batch has escaped.
The Idea Harvester Collecting tomorrow’s weather before it ripens.
The Night Mender Repairing the sky while everyone sleeps.
Opening Hours Letting finished dreams find their own way out.
Lost and Found Hanging up shadows until someone comes back for them.
Pressing Matters Ironing the creases out of the sea before the tide comes in.
Soup of the Day Some lunches have somewhere better to be.

/codex/groups 9

The night staff Whoever is on after closing. On every rota, in none of the pictures.
The four coworkers Overtime’s roster: an intern, a mannequin, an espresso machine and an apprentice.
The office supplies Office supplies with opinions. Benchwork’s whole cast of enemies.
Motion Slopwright Graduates of “Slop that moves”: animation and video, checked frame by frame.
The escaped batch The Slopwright’s latest batch of slop. It has got out.
Slopwright’s Apprentice Anyone who finishes the first pathway, “From slop to style”.
Slopwright’s Journeyman Graduates of the second pathway, “Slop at scale”.
Game Slopwright Graduates of “Slop that plays”: games made with a machine, kept on the rails.
Sound Slopwright Graduates of “Slop that sounds”: music and sound effects, checked with a meter.

/codex/concepts 45

Always On A short RPG. The Slopwright’s lamp is out; fetch oil, a wick and a glass from odd places.
Backrooms The showroom after closing. A first-person walk you can get lost in.
Overtime A one-on-one fighting game after hours. Four coworkers, best of three.
Working late Overtime, in every sense the site uses it.
Benchwork A deck builder from the Slopwright’s workshop. Twenty-four rooms of office supplies with opinions.
Crazy Eights A shedding card game: you against the stapler, first to 100.
Lamp Post Pinball on the Slopwright’s bench. Two rulers, three thimbles, one lamp.
Putting It Off “The Slopwright is out. The apprentice has built nine holes out of the stationery cupboard. The work can wait.”
The Big Number The Understudy finally has a show. Somebody has to play the pit.
Road Crossing A lane-crossing game: a glob hops past the open plan’s chairs and over a spill into a jar.
Take Cover A rail shooter after hours: a rubber-band gun, five rooms of pests, and a cat you must not hit.
Maze Chase A maze chase in the stockroom after hours: every staple, before the stock notices.
Invaders A fixed shooter: the jars on the top shelf come down in rows.
Sloperation Odd patients, small tweezers. Don’t touch the sides.
Texas Hold’em No-limit poker for buttons against the desk supplies.
Paperweight Hold the escaped batch back from the Out tray with office supplies.
Drip (the game) Four levels of pits, office furniture and slop. Run right.
Skim “Somebody has to skim the vats under the workshop.”
Pipe Down “The Slopwright’s vat is full again. Lay pipe faster than the slop can follow it.”
Fresh slop Every artwork on slopped.site: ordinary things, each doing one impossible thing.
The round square The specimen behind the start of every transect. Round, and square, so not there.
Secrets Things hidden on the slopped.site sites, filed here once you find them.
SK8 2026 A side-scrolling skate game on the Slopwright’s bench, after hours.
Flight Risk A one-tap game: a paper moth between the workshop’s pipes.
Fall Down A falling game: a gumball down the stockroom’s shelves.
Snake A game about an eel, a tin and not enough room.
Bricked Bounce a rubber band ball off a ruler until the board is clear.
Stack A one-tap stacking game: the Slopwright’s jelly, a layer at a time.
Jump Up A climbing game: a glob bouncing out of the vat.
Helicopter Hold to rise: the glass manta ray in the sardine-tin sea.
Hot Desk A swivel chair down the open plan, after hours.
2048 Slide jars of slop together; two of a size make one twice as big.
Mines A logic puzzle: sweep the stockroom floor without treading on a drawing pin.
Falling Blocks A falling-blocks game: seven shapes of flatpack, one long box.
Slop The material. Generic when nobody directs it; something else when somebody does.
Acid The site’s one loud colour: a yellow-green, #e3ff59.
Rules of the workshop Six rules for making anything. The last one is “Say it’s AI.”
Made by machine Everything here is AI-generated, including him. It’s not a confession; it’s a label.
Solitaire Klondike, draw one or three, with a new deal every day. A machine shuffled it; the patience is all yours.
FreeCell Four free cells and the 32,000 classic numbered deals. All but one can be won, which is more than the AI that dealt them can promise.
Spider Solitaire Eight runs, king to ace. The web is optional.
Pyramid Solitaire Pairs that add to 13. Returns not guaranteed.
Blackjack Twenty-one for buttons from the workshop jar. The dealer stands on 17; try not to bust.
Slop Memory Find the pairs in a deck of real Fresh slop, with a new deck every day. Easier to remember than to explain.
Slide Puzzle Today’s Fresh slop, cut into tiles and shuffled. Slide it back the way the machine meant it.