START HERE: A READING GUIDE TO MAY SEASON STUDIO
orientation for new readers. the archive does not otherwise explain itself.
May Season Studio Archives
by Gintare O.
May Season Studio is a fictional corporation. I write its internal documents.
That is the short version, and it is the version I wish someone had given me on the way in. Everything published here is presented as company paperwork. Field reports. HR memos. Incident summaries. Product announcements written by a marketing department that believes what it is saying.
Nobody in the archive stops to explain the world. That is on purpose. But it does mean a new reader can land on a compliance notice about narrative drift with no way to know whether that is the beginning of something or the middle of it.
So this is the map.
THE COMPANY
Headquartered in the Chicagoland area, western suburbs. Like all companies that are important but want to stay out of sight. They make everything from soap to stationery and everything else you might need. A lifestyle company.
But that’s the cover. It’s in the business of perception. The real business is running the world.
HOW TO READ IT
Most posts are standalone. Some are multiple parts or series.
But the files touch. They intertwine like everything does. A complaint mentioned at a retirement party generates a warranty report two files later. The product approved in one meeting is the thing two contractors dig out of a field. Nobody in the archive notices. You will see the pattern before the characters do.
THREE PLACES TO START
The Company That Regulates Reality
If you want the premise stated plainly, by the company, which is the most alarming way to hear it.
If you have ever had a job. Nothing supernatural happens. It is still the most accurate thing in the archive.
When you become a victim and the world just continues on.
THE THREADS
THE OFFICE FLOOR
Cube level. Small stakes. The same handful of people.
The Lunch Hour / The Annual Review / Professional Development / The Retirement of Dennis Call / Exit Interview: Surface Division / HR Advisory: Sustained Visual Engagement / HR Memo: Personal Care / Service Request / Personal Care Clarification
THE PRODUCTS
Everyone lives for nostalgia, and then it becomes a product we love. The load-bearing line. Most of the trouble in the archive starts in one meeting.
Press Release: Nostalgia Capsule / Prototype / Final Review / Internal Report: Q1 Risk and Warranty Summary / Product Feedback Response
Soap has been made the same way since 1904, and there is a reason it has never been reformulated.
Origins: The Redfield Compact and the First Delivery / Halloran & Co. The Autumn Edit / The Cost Reduction Review / The Standing Order / The Estate Sale
THE CONTRACTORS
They arrive after, with shovels and paperwork. Not employees.
The Digging Team / 159th / Incomplete Corrective Response, then the five-part series in order: Disposal Order / Decommission Attempt / Thirteen / Storage / Closeout
THE FEDERAL SIDE
Several of these are the same week from different desks. Listed in the order it happened, which is not the order it was filed.
State Street / Woman Killed Following Prison Escape Near State Street / What Remains / Post-Incident Interview: Statesville Transfer Unit / Pattern Interference: Field Follow-Up Report / After-Action Review: Transfer Event 2026-03-IL-074
ONBOARDING
The long one, thirteen parts. A four-year employee receives a box addressed to someone else.
Reads fine cold. Reads better after The Lunch Hour and The Annual Review.
THE SCHEDULE (for now)
Tuesdays: new documents, short stories, reports and more.
Fridays: Onboarding.
Nothing gets retired, so the archive only grows.
Subscribe and it arrives as it comes. That is the entire arrangement.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
at may season studio, new employees receive a full orientation on their first morning. readers receive this document instead. the company considers them equivalent.
written and designed by gintare okrzesik, creator of may season studio. a fictional corporation exploring beauty, bureaucracy, and quiet corruption through narrative design.