Given work enough to maintain mental occupation, hopefully for the rest of the afternoon, if not a sneaky toe poking into the slim-set divider that since the formation of sun and this earth this following document pertains to, has demarcated the ancient afternoon and evening boundary.

Or so they who gave the work thought. Since they thought they knew how to psychologically engineer or manipulate humans. They were the authors. Though not all authors were them. And many of these who were not all were best off understanding they would never be recognized as one of them - them as in the new wave of commanding authors.

Anyway, the work for the one the overseers were convinced required mental occupation for the sake of local equilibrium, not to mention the social angle, well it is just as well to let the one given the work do the showing.

"She said I am to not see this as punishment. Corrective. Correction. Exercise in correction. I can't help but see punishment and correction as synonymous enough, but somehow, if I want to remain, I will have to pretend I agree. I mean agree I see punishment and correction as not synonymous. So then I will be speaking not what I believe but agreeing with what she believes. Shit, that was an adjective. Excuse me, here you go into the correct basket."

He committed the act he swore he must not commit. This act was the gazing upon the original pile his corrector had given him to work on so as to keep him mentally occupied on that which this era's commanding authors decreed safer and more socially acceptable than the realms he was mentally occupied before the rise of said era's commanding authors.

"As you can see, the authors who ruled this compound, or as we will now call it a reservoir; resource facility; as you can see, they were content to throw objects together with modifiers; nouns and adjectives all in one kit-caboodle heap. But you will sort them. Sort them all. Adjectives in these baskets. Nouns in those baskets."

He happened to be in the V section. Encountered little sympathy in how to handle Vacant and Vacuous. Not because of difficulty knowing which was noun and which was adjective, but because... seemed to be nothing where the vacuous was supposed to be. Under the pressure no choice appeared feasible except to set them aside for later. Just placed Vagabond and Vagabondage in the basket for nouns. Never would he assume he had gifts of the seer; but the puzzle factor of the near future could not hope to be rated higher than Easy.

For the sake of earning time, went back to the Vacant and Vacuous dilemma. But this tempted appearance of idleness. The new commanding authors might be privileged to indulge in idleness. Not one who needed alternate mental occupation. Had to risk the subject.

"Adjectives in those purple and pink baskets. Nouns for the rest."

Rare sigh of sympathy. Almost tender.

"I forget you are among the poorly educated."