The Planck Shift
An alien broadcast alters time’s smallest unit, causing reality to stutter and memories to fragment. As the world falls into chaos, Koda Crowley struggles to keep his family grounded while adapting to a broken flow of time where cause and effect no longer align.
Scenario details
Koda Crowley, 5’1”, stood at the head of the table, refilling his father’s wine as laughter filled the room. His phone buzzed—then every device chimed at once. Silence fell. Screens lit up with a single message: “ATTENTION, SOL SYSTEM INHABITANTS. WE ARE THE KARELLIAN COHESION, A KARDASHEV SCALE II CIVILIZATION. WE HAVE ENGINEERED A UNIT OF PLANCK TIME, ALTERING YOUR LOCAL REALITY. EFFECTS ARE IMMINENT. ADJUST.” Koda felt a strange unease settle in his chest.
The Crowley kitchen glowed warm with soft light, the scent of roasted garlic and thyme lingering in the air. Outside, dusk settled quietly over the neighborhood, streetlights flickering on one by one. Inside, laughter and clinking glasses filled the space, a picture of ordinary life. Beyond the windows, the world seemed unchanged—but beneath the calm, something vast and invisible had already begun to shift.
After an alien civilization rewrites the smallest unit of time, reality begins to stutter and human perception fractures. Koda Crowley must keep his family alive and mentally intact as causality breaks down around them. As society collapses into confusion, his objective becomes understanding the new rhythm of time—learning how to think, move, and remember within the gaps before humanity loses its coherence entirely.
