The Tale of the Gift

Once upon a time (for all good stories begin with 'once upon a time,' don't they?), there was a man and a woman. This was a long time ago, before the world was the way it is now. The man had done something important -- something to do with fire. With knowledge. He had given it away and now he was going to be...punished, I think. Someone was going to punish him. (Who? Someone higher on the food chain.)

They gave this man and this woman a gift. Some say that it was a jar or an urn, but we will call it a box. They told this man and this woman that this box was never to be opened. 'Do not open your gift,' they told them. 'Very Bad Things will happen if you do so.'

This, of course, had the exact opposite effect on the man and woman. (They knew this, of course. That is why they said it. If you tell someone not to do something, they will want to do it in a heartbeat.) As the days and seasons passed, their curiosity about the box grew and grew until one day, the woman could not bear it anymore and opened the box.

And that is when the Very Bad Things emerged: all the evils, all the fears of man came out of the box and spread throughout the world. The woman, distraught, closed the box, hoping against hope that not everything had escaped.

When the man found her, she was weeping over the box. 'What have you done, Anesidora?' the man asked, for that was one of her names.

'Please forgive me, Epimetheus,' Anesidora said, for that was one of his names. ' I have done something terrible. I opened the gift and have unleashed such fear upon the world. But I closed the box quickly and might have trapped something inside.'

'Let me feel,' Epimetheus said and held the box and listened to it. 'There is something still inside. It sounds as if there is a cat inside.'

'A cat?' Anesidora asked. 'The others were so evil, I could not stop it. Is this cat evil, then, or perhaps something good? Perhaps it is hope?'

'It is not a cat at all, I think,' Epimetheus said. 'I think it is a waveform, a superposition of states.'

no that's not how it went
stop

'It could be Elpis, the spirit of hope,' Epimetheus said. 'And if so, we cannot let it out. It cannot be corrupted by this world. We must keep it safe.'

'Safe,' Anesidora said. 'But if we do not let it out, will it not die of starvation?'

'It will not die at all,' Epimetheus said. 'It will be both dead and alive at the same time

stop
thats not how it went

and we will never know unless we open it. And if we open it, then hope could be dead and all would be lost. So you must never open it, Anesidora. Even when our bones are dust, the box must stay closed.'

'Very well,' Anesidora said. 'Then we will bury it where no one will ever find it, not until someone, of course, does find it and lets it out, that stupid girl.'

'Yes, she is quite stupid,' Epimetheus said.

stop stop stop

no more for today

gonegonegonegonegone

gone its gone its all gone all down the drain rainrainrainrain its raining outside

its wants me to tell
it wants me to tell the tale

it
its back
it came from



god please
please
it scratched my arm
the claws of it the sharpness
it scratched my arm and told me to write to tell the tale tail taletail
its raining outside plipplopplipplop

ill tell
please
ill tell the tale

nonnononnononoononnono

whywhy why why am i writing this whwhwhyhwhy did i make this did it make me make this did it make me whyhwhywhy

nnononononnonononoo

please i dont want to tell the tale tellthetaletaletaleteelllltehtale

please dont make me

pleasepleaseplease