What happens when the state controls your apologies?
In a society governed by The Responsibility Act, remorse is no longer a feeling — it's a sentence. Those who fail to express sincere contrition have their voices, hands, and memories overridden. Bodies perform justice. Voices speak borrowed truths. But somewhere beneath the perfect gestures, the self resists.
This dark speculative collection explores guilt, agency, and identity through linked stories of overridden lives — from the plagiarist pianist forced to play tributes, to the silent driver watched by his victim's mother, to the executor who begins to feel the emotions of those she controls.
The Responsibility Act is a chilling meditation on justice without empathy, and the fragile humanity that endures even under absolute control.