Work in Progress

by Kat Mackenzie

Alice Cooper — not that one — is a list-obsessed American photographer whose life imploded right before her thirtieth birthday. After losing her job and discovering her fiancé's betrayal, she makes her first impulsive decision: booking a three-week literary bus tour across the UK. She expects cool, globe-trotting women her age. She gets a rickety bus full of vivacious octogenarians and one infuriatingly handsome Scottish driver named Robbie Brodie. What follows is a warm, funny journey through Britain's literary landmarks — from Edinburgh to Whitby to the Brontë moors — where Alice discovers that the best things in life are the ones she never planned.

21 characters, locations, and items in this world codex.

Characters

• Agatha — The tour's pragmatic traditionalist — a woman who believes in doing things properly and is quietly, reluctantly learning that 'properly' might include
• Alice Cooper — A list-obsessed American photographer whose life imploded right before thirty — now impulsively riding a bus full of octogenarians across the UK, arme
• Bertha — A German birdwatcher with binoculars permanently around her neck and a pragmatic worldview that cuts through everyone else's emotional chaos like a no
• Flossie — A former circus performer with a secret romantic past and the kind of dramatic flair that makes every bus ride feel like the opening act — proof that
• Helena — The tour's elegant English rose — a woman whose posh composure conceals a life rebuilt from tragedy, and whose quiet maternal warmth becomes the thing
• Mrs. Brodie — Robbie's late mother — the reader, the dreamer, the woman who loved literary Britain enough to drag her son to every landmark until he loved it too. S
• Percy — A small, elderly dog belonging to the tour's oldest passenger — the unofficial mascot of the bus who sleeps through literary landmarks and wakes up fo
• Robbie Brodie — The literary tour's Scottish bus driver and reluctant guide — a historian with a devilish grin who built this tour company to honor his dead mother, t
• Sidney — Flossie's long-lost love — an elderly man whose reunion with her proves that some stories don't end just because decades passed between chapters.
• Tristan — Helena's Oxford-educated son — charming, handsome, and perfectly nice in a way that teaches Alice exactly what she doesn't want.

Locations

• Abbotsford — Sir Walter Scott's castle-like estate — a literary pilgrimage site where the library contains rare books on witchcraft and the gardens feel like stepp
• Brontë Country — The wild Yorkshire moorland that shaped the Brontë sisters — windswept, romantic, and the exact landscape you'd expect to produce Wuthering Heights.
• Edinburgh — The tour's starting point and final destination — a city of rain-slicked cobblestones and literary ghosts where Alice's journey begins and ends differ
• England — The southern half of the tour route — from Gothic coastlines to Shakespeare's market town, a country that has been generating literature and bad weath
• Oxford — The city of dreaming spires — where Tristan lives, where Alice briefly imagines a different kind of life, and where every building looks like it's jud
• Rosslyn Chapel — A medieval chapel covered in mysterious carvings — the kind of place that makes conspiracy theorists and romantics equally breathless.
• Scotland — The heart of the tour — a country of moody landscapes, literary history, and the kind of weather that makes everything feel like the opening chapter o
• Stratford-upon-Avon — Shakespeare's hometown — a market town that has been trading on one man's genius for four centuries and shows no signs of stopping.
• The Pages & Places Bus — A rickety, temperamental tour bus that smells like old upholstery and tea — the unlikely vessel for a three-week journey across Britain and the found
• Whitby — A Gothic coastal town where Dracula came ashore and Alice has a meltdown — the tour's most dramatic stop in every sense.

Items

• Alice's UK Bus Trip Goals List — The handwritten list Alice made after drunkenly booking the tour — a mix of practical goals, emotional first aid, and one very specific prohibition ab

View full codex at Simulacra.Ink