Build a small branching story with endings you can check

# Complete branching-story source

Original synthetic microfiction. Title: The Postcard at Closing Time. Start at start. There are no inventory variables, scores or hidden conditions; the choices below define the entire graph.

## start · One object left awake

The tiny museum has closed. You are about to turn the last sign when a blank postcard slips from the map cabinet. Two threads are tied around it: one green, one blue. The green thread points beneath the greenhouse door. The blue thread disappears into a painted river.

- Follow the green thread to the greenhouse → greenhouse
- Follow the blue thread into the map room → maproom

## greenhouse · The room of paper leaves

Paper leaves hang from the greenhouse ceiling, each folded from an old visitor note. On the bench is an envelope marked For the next curious person. Above it, a little staircase has been sketched onto the glass. The green thread rests beside the envelope and waits.

- Open the waiting envelope → ending_garden
- Follow the sketched staircase to the clock tower → tower

## maproom · A river made of ink

In the map room, the painted river has begun to move. It carries tiny drawings of places the museum has never visited. A paper ferry waits at one bank. On the other, a blue staircase climbs out of the frame toward the quiet clock tower.

- Take the paper ferry along the river → ending_river
- Climb the blue staircase to the clock tower → tower

## tower · A clock with room to spare

The clock tower has no hands. Instead, two spaces are cut into its face: a postcard-shaped slot and a small window facing the sunrise. Your postcard now carries one sentence: Every collection needs something it cannot keep. You can return the card, or leave its window open.

- Return the postcard to its slot → ending_home
- Leave the postcard beside the open window → ending_dawn

## ending_garden · The garden ending

Inside the envelope is a fresh sheet of paper and a note: Add one thing you noticed today. You draw the loose thread, fold the sheet into a leaf and hang it among the others. By morning, the postcard has become a small green ticket. It admits one curious person, including you.

This is an ending; no forward choices.

## ending_river · The river ending

The ferry takes the postcard as its sail. You drift past drawn hills and an island shaped like a comma, then step back into the museum through a painted doorway. The river is still again. A new dotted route now crosses the map, ending at the place where you began.

This is an ending; no forward choices.

## ending_home · The home ending

The postcard fits the slot exactly. For one quiet second, the clock shows every room at once: leaves, river, cabinet and door. Then its hands return. Downstairs, the sign is ready to turn. On its back, in handwriting you do not recognize, someone has added: See you tomorrow.

This is an ending; no forward choices.

## ending_dawn · The open-window ending

The first light catches the postcard and lifts it into the air. It travels over the rooftops without an address. You leave the window open, return downstairs and switch off the last lamp. Tomorrow, the museum will have one fewer object and one more story to tell.

This is an ending; no forward choices.

## Interaction contract

- back: Return to the immediately previous scene on this path; disabled at start.
- reset: Return to start and clear the in-tab path history.
- reload: Return to start; no progress is stored.
- without_javascript: All eight scenes and native same-page choice links remain readable; Back and Start over controls stay hidden.

Use native choice links and buttons with visible keyboard focus. A scene transition focuses the new scene heading. Keep all content available without JavaScript. Do not use storage, fetch requests, tracking, forms, remote fonts, pictures or scripts. All real adaptations need a person to read every path and test the actual browser.

Copies text only. For image or file tasks, use the source files named in the steps too.