Episode 8.1.a
>Date and location unavailable<
Mission Control is eerily silent.
Sinistrus pōne mēnsam vitream sedet. lūmen clārum est, sed nōn vidētis unde veniat. extrā mūrōs vitreōs nihil est: nōn caelum, nōn terra, nōn urbs. estis in locō Sinistrī, et hīc sōlus Sinistrus regnat.
"deinde," inquit Sinistrus. rīdet, sed oculī nōn rīdent. "potestisne hoc imbibere?
"in cavō sedētis. ante vōs est mūrus saxōsus, et in mūrō fābulam spectātis. pōne vōs sunt pūpae, et pūpae umbrās in mūrō faciunt. umbrae fābulam nārrant. caput vertere nōn potestis, quod ille vir, cuī nōmen est 'Demiurgus', vōs ibi vīnxit. ita vērō: vōs in vinculīs creāvit.
"diū sedētis, et umbrās spectātis. umbrae vōbīs vērae videntur. frīgidae sunt umbrae, sed vērae." (hīc Sinistrus subrīdet, sīcut semper.) "aliī in cavō praemia semper accipiunt, quod ōrdinem umbrārum didicērunt. clāmant: 'ecce leō! deinde mālum!' tum vir quīdam tubā canit, et eīs crūstulum dat.
"vōs quoque crūstulum cupitis, et umbrās discere incipitis. hoc multōs annōs agitis, et bene agitis."
iterum subrīdet.
"And then one day you hear someone behind you. You cannot see who, because, unlike the man with the tuba, this one does not come around in front. Remember: you can only look forward. And whoever it is unlocks your chains, and pulls you up onto legs you did not know you had. Then he turns you around, and gives you a shove, et subitō ambulātis in viā, which is strange, because you thought only the shadows walked. And before you know it you are out in the open air, and you are nearly blind, because the sun is so bright."
Sinistrus tacet. vōs spectat, et exspectat.
Prompt: Tell Sinistrus what happens next. (You are the prisoner he has just described, blinking in the sunlight outside the cave for the first time.)
