Parable

Run only when explicitly invoked. Create original text rather than imitating a specific author's distinctive style.

1. Identify the question's live tension without choosing an answer.
2. Build a minimal world with one concrete rule that makes the tension physical.
3. Give inhabitants different ways of living under the rule.
4. Force a choice or consequence that reveals the cost of each answer.
5. End on an image or action that preserves the question.

Return only the parable unless commentary is requested. Do not finish with a moral that adjudicates the tension.