Episode 8.1.a
>Date and location unavailable<
Mission Control is eerily silent.
Sinistrus sits behind a desk of glass. The light in the room is bright, and there is no telling where it comes from. Beyond the glass walls there is nothing: no sky, no ground, no city. This is Sinistrus's place, and in it nobody rules but Sinistrus.
"So," he says. He smiles, and his eyes do not. "Let us see whether you can take this in.
"You are sitting in a cave. In front of you is a wall of rock, and on the wall a story is playing. Behind you there are puppets, and the puppets throw shadows on the wall, and the shadows tell the story. You cannot turn your head, because a certain gentleman, whose name is 'Demiurge,' chained you there. That is right. He created you in chains.
"You sit a long time, watching the shadows. They seem real to you. Cold things, shadows, but real." Here Sinistrus gives his small smile, as he always does. "Some of the others in the cave win prizes, because they have learned the order the shadows come in. They call out, 'The lion next! Then the apple!' and a man blows a horn and hands them a little cake.
"You want a cake too, so you set about learning the shadows. You do this for many years, and you do it well."
He smiles again.
"And then one day you hear someone behind you. You cannot see who, because, unlike the man with the horn, 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, and suddenly you are walking, 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 stops. He watches you, and waits.
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.)
