Omega was not sure if this was a joke or not. They had been given books. Actual paper books. With something approximating leather covers. Written in Aorian by what she at first thought was actual terrans.

Well to be fair a lot of them WERE written by pretty famous terrans, She’d even read some of them when she attended the colonial academy. They were all properly notated and even had publisher marks where applicable. There was also a notice of reproduction “under the accords of the Terran Colonial Alliance and the Authority vested by it in the Ship Mistress Pylo Courtesan of the Vessel Tunie” stamped underneath the more traditional legal rights notifiers.

But then there were a few oddities that she had her doubts about. They had author names of course, they had translator identifiers and they all LOOKED like terran names. But the publishing houses were odd, the countries of origin strange and even the precise style of legal description strange.

The marks of translation were also long enough to fill several pages in the back and had several kinds of text in languages and scripts and patterns Omega had never seen.

They were certainly from some alien culture, yet the content of the books themselves were so hauntingly normal. They teased at her memory and yet never latched into place.

And then Aleph pointed out some of the names were the same as the "demiurges" that showed up on Elsies screen, and the logo onder "final manufacturer" were the same as on their chassis.

Were these strange books alien documents? Or something else? She was unsure. Quick skill shares with a biologist, therapist and another older shaman did not bring up any familiarity with the authors or content. When she skimmed the books they were written clearly and concisely although one of them made her head hurt and seemed like it might have been intentionally written to induce puns. She triple checked that one to make sure Quarti had not written it as a joke under any of her ancient aliases or even snuck away to dictate it to Elsie on her breaks but even trawling the archive for the most idiosyncratic historians did not confirm it.

As far as she could tell from the colonial archive of Aoria’s souls these books were not written by anyone she or any of the thousands of colonists knew of. But paradoxically they were written (or perhaps translated) into plain Aoria script. And they made references that made a good deal of sense to her anyway. They FIT into terran history, they made references and jokes to things she had heard of growing up.

She was honestly really curious about the things and would have to read them more carefully later. Which was probably the point the aliens had made with having them made available to them in the first place.

What could they mean?

Ugh the whole situation made her double and triple guess herself. Pylo suddenly being super eloquent was so much worse then just being vague and kinky all the time.

She rubbed her temples where the fluid of her symbiotes exchanged with her lymph for nutrients and to help distribute waste heat.

They were setting up for ‘class’.

Aleph was trying to get the ‘display board’ elsie had gotten them setup and level. A bit of a challenge considering that the habitat had not a single flat surface to be had anywhere. The simple almost familiar technology of an actual display screen was rather comforting to Omega.

Old fashioned and quint really, most modern displays were pure resonance interfaces on terra. Or they had been when Omega last visited the academy. She needed to check with Aleph to find out how long it had been since they left. Apparently they were finally getting to the point that time dilation was actually notable.

It also looked just like a projector screen and came rolled up. She suspected she even recognized the specific model although the name escaped her and she was not going to stress her symbiotes to pull it from the colonists.

The whole thing was baffling, since there wasn't a projector to go with it. She suspected the pile of hardware was going to maybe direct the light to the screen?

But either way it was comforting to see a physical object after the disturbing experience of directed visual hallucination. It was nothing like the gentle and completely voluntary overlays and impressions of the totemic assisted resonance interfaces she had grown up with. It had simply been inserted into her visual experience as a glaringly obvious and unreal imposition. Too perfectly solid, too perfectly clean.

Oh and of course she could not turn away from the thing or close her eyes too it. It was always THERE.

Apparently Sirens were the only ones who could pull that awful alien trick though. Which was a relief! Especially with the vague suggestion that species were NOT a common people in the reef. Elsie had hinted in passing that there were only a few thousand of them out of the trillions (?!) of other ‘people’ that lived in Redweed and were not expected to be found in ANY of the surrounding ‘star volume’ or the villages at all.

Aleph and her pet ‘clerical’ or ‘clerk’ or whatever seemed to be finishing up.

“There! I think we finally got it. So why do you think Elsie is going through all this bother? It’s not like the last test involved all of this... stuff. Why doing things so primitive?”

Omega shrugged and put one of the books down in the pile that had accumulated in her chosen ‘sitting cloud’.

“Honestly I’m just glad its not insisting on us sitting at some awful recreation of school desks”

Aleph raised a brow which just got a chuckle out of Omega.

“You never had to attend those kinds of schools in Aoria, I had to in order to get into the academy. Trust me they are awful. But this is all kind of eerily familiar. Cozy but weird because it's cozy.”

Aleph shrugged and took one of the books out and ran a finger over the binding, opening it up so she could examine the subtle lines of thread holding the folds of paper in place.

“And these things! Really? Books?! I know the elders had some for sentimental reasons. But look at these things! Why not just run it through a translator box or something? These things look older than I am!”

Omega laughed and shook her head.

“If you check the reprint dates in the bottom of the first page it says they were printed hours before Elsie gave them to us”

Aleph gawked a bit at that then took a heavy breath in with her face between the pages and gave her head a shake.

“But... They SMELL old! Like leather and dust and just... OLD! Why would Elsie make brand new OLD books? That’s just kinda weird”

Omega eyed the projector screen and the few marks and flecks of discoloration from ‘wear and tear’ on it. The fraying of the pull string.

“I’ve been wondering that myself”

Elsie’s voice was smooth and polite and preceded by a gentle chime so that they knew they were about to interrupt them. It sounded metallic and artificial as well, but as always not unpleasantly so.

“It is an intentional measure of aesthetics and memetic framing to set you at ease and provide cues of legitimacy, authority and proper significance to the setting of the education. I’ve also selected proper conditions of the instruments and props in order to give you a accurate context of my own standing and thus the appropriate trust you should place in my expertise on the topic in the scope of the reef at large”

Omega could not keep herself from snickering at the sight.

Aleph blinked a few times but also could not help but laughing herself.

Elsie had affixed a threadbare and awful checkered bowtie to the space just below its screen. The kind that only the oldest and most out of touch of instructors at the academy ever wore.

Quarti cartwheeled into her selected lounging spot making a idle whoop-whoop noise and then proceeded to do a handstand instead of sitting down. Since no one even gave her a second glance over it she eventually flopped over herself into a proper cross legged seated position.

“I heard funnies ovah here! Wot laugh?”

Omega gestured at the bow-tie mostly under control.

Aleph was failing to hold in her laughter. But she struggled to be presentable.

Quarti’s face was blank as she looked at Elsie, Elsie passively scrolled a calm cascade of patience counters and various timers and random exchanges.

Eventually Quarti looked at Omega and then Aleph with a confused wrinkling of her brows.

“I don’t get it, What’s the funny?”