Committees of Silver Orange
The committees of Silver Orange are the fifteen named bodies that the drifting creatures of Silver Orange, a browser game by Molecular Reality Corporation, form whenever three or more of them gather. The game's inspector, TAB-42, announces each one in the chat. A committee has no powers and does nothing. The player can disband it with a click, for which the game pays 50 beans.[1]
The list ends with the "Committee to Review Committee Formation Procedures". Like every committee, it is labeled on the screen with only the first twenty characters of its name, "Committee to Review".
Formation
Every two seconds the game looks for groups. An entity that is not already on a committee, with at least two other unattached entities within 60 pixels, forms a committee with them. The code then checks that every member is within 60 pixels of another member; since it counts each member as close to itself, the check always passes. The name is drawn at random from the list of fifteen, so two committees in session can share a name.[1]
TAB-42 reports the event in the chat as "A new committee has formed:", followed by the name and the line "Membership: N entities.", and a notice reading "COMMITTEE FORMED:" with the name appears on the screen. The committee is drawn as a small diamond at the members' center of gravity at the moment of formation, with its label in 6-pixel type below it and a dashed outline joining the members. While the diamond stays where it was put, the outline follows the members as they wander, so an old committee can stretch across the whole screen.
Dissolution
Distance does not end a committee. It is dissolved only when fewer than three of its members still exist, for instance because the player has clicked on them and burst them into particles, and TAB-42 then writes that it "has been dissolved due to insufficient membership". A click within 18 pixels of the diamond disbands it directly, with a burst of 30 particles and the notice "COMMITTEE DISBANDED +50 BEANS".[1] The beans are real: the score in Silver Oranges is the sum of lint and beans multiplied by the soup, and a disbanded committee is worth fifty times as much as one of its members.
List of committees
Several committees take their subjects from the game's forms and from the names of its forty entities, which include a "Recumbent Sock", "Regulatory Aspic", a "Loose Amendment" and "Previously Frozen".[1]
| Name | Label shown on screen | Related entity, form or setting |
|---|---|---|
| Joint Subcommittee on Lint & Bean Affairs | Joint Subcommittee o | The lint and bean counters of the score |
| Interdepartmental Soup Viscosity Working Group | Interdepartmental So | The entity "Department of Soup"; the Soup Viscosity Exception Request |
| Task Force for Carpet Sample Standardization | Task Force for Carpe | The Carpet Sample Submission Form |
| Advisory Panel on Unexpected Moisture | Advisory Panel on Un | The Moisture Variance Notification |
| Standing Committee on Thursday Compliance | Standing Committee o | The Thursday Protocol Acknowledgment |
| Office of Staple Integrity & Bread Bowl Oversight | Office of Staple Int | The Stapler Requisition Form 12-F; the Bread Bowl Incident Report |
| Bureau of Bean Distribution Equity | Bureau of Bean Distr | TAB-42's concern with "proper bean distribution protocols" |
| Commission on Unexplained Trembling | Commission on Unexpl | The Unscheduled Trembling Report; the entity "Industrial Trembling" |
| Regulatory Working Group on Aspic Standards | Regulatory Working G | The entity "Regulatory Aspic"; the job title Aspic Consultant |
| Subcommittee on Recumbent Sock Placement | Subcommittee on Recu | The entity "Recumbent Sock" |
| Directorate of Form 88-B Implementation | Directorate of Form | The Bean Transfer Authorization 88-B |
| Panel on Previously Frozen Item Handling | Panel on Previously | The entity "Previously Frozen" |
| Division of Loose Amendment Reconciliation | Division of Loose Am | The entity "Loose Amendment" |
| Board of Concerns (Standing) | Board of Concerns (S | The entity "Bucket of Concerns" |
| Committee to Review Committee Formation Procedures | Committee to Review | The committees themselves |
Paperwork
One of the game's twelve forms is a Committee Membership Application, with the fields "Committee Name:", "Relevant Qualifications:" and "Bean Dues Paid:". Filing it does not place anyone on a committee; the forms and the committees share no code.[1]
A small event, "THE MINUTES ARE DUE", lasts twelve seconds. TAB-42 announces "The minutes are due. Please file promptly.", a clock appears and counts down from ten, and the entities flee to the four corners of the screen. Clicking the clock files them, for 30 beans. When the event ends, TAB-42 announces "Minutes filed. Meeting adjourned." whether or not anyone filed them; if nobody did, his next line is "Minutes were not filed. Citation issued for late minutes." No citation is issued.[1]
Once in a long while a panel headed "ENTITY CENSUS" appears. Its count of "COMMITTEES IN SESSION" is accurate. The two figures below it, "CITATIONS PENDING" and "FORMS AWAITING", are random numbers. A running total of committees formed is also kept; it starts at zero and is never increased.[1]
Form 47-C
No document is cited more often than 47-C. TAB-42's instructions give "per Lint Circular 47-C, subsection 12" as an example of the "specific but fictitious regulation codes" he is to quote, and the INSPECT LINT button has him report each reading "Per Lint Circular 47-C".[2] Lint Declaration 47-C is also a form, asking for the "Estimated Lint Volume (fibers):" and the "Source of Lint:". An entity's speech bubble reads "Lint Circular 47-C applies here". Among the ten exchanges that two entities may have when they pass each other is this one:[1]
Form 47-C requires your signature.
Form 47-C was deprecated in the last circular.