Elsie and their adorable and hilarious bowtie pulled the display screen down by its chord in a single practiced motion. The sound of a tinny electric chime echoing out to still conversation and draw attention.

Voice smooth and calm.

“To begin with, It appears I need to preface this our first lesson. Although the materials provided are relevant to the goals of these classes they are not strictly required reading nor will they be used during our class periods directly. They are fundamentally social support and comfort tools for your benefit and memetic aesthetics only”

Aleph heard Omega sigh in relief and Quarti snort in laughter. But it honestly just confused her more, so the entirety of this veritable library of books that seemed to be painstakingly printed, aged and documented were just for looks? Bizzare.

“Now let us begin with something you should be intimately familiar with, this shall be a an example of comparison and contrast. But please take note of the specifics and where you find it incongruous and strange.”

The screen flickered to life, brightening and then momentarily sputtering random black and white speckles before settling into an incredible sharpness, images of art, photographs and diagrams sliding into place.

Aleph was a bit taken aback when she realized what the images represented, and the bold opening header. She scooted a bit closer to get a better look at the rest, squinting at the smaller text. Quarti meanwhile was scoffing but did not offer anything word like.

Elsie had a camera watching each of them for a few moments before finally speaking again.

“Is there not anything of comment or note here? No discrepancies or surprises you wish to voice?”

Omega shrugged and gestured at part of the screen.

“That’s not quite how we identify ourselves taxonomically, you replaced Tetrapoda at least with Horribilomorbus. Which sounds really rude to be honest.”

Elsie nodded its screen.

“Yes good that will be an excellent topic to clarify, anything else?”

Aleph squinted and frowned a bit, then read further trying to spot her own mistake.

“You call us out as a subspecies specific to Terra, that seems strange. We evolved on Terra from simia didn't we? I’m pretty sure the colony isn't anywhere near divergent yet to be considered a different species, it won’t even be more than a century of isolation by the time we get there. And I’m pretty sure the way that the colonist ships are all staggered and mixed up with whatever route each Ship takes will help push the population out of divergence even then”

Elsie again nodded and chimed in an appreciative way.

“That is another good point, are there any other discrepancies you can spot? Any from you Quarti?”

The prophet grinned and shrugged at Elsie.

“Seems pretty swell like ta me wise, brief and fun. An Ah see ya joke but leave ya the punchline for the wee ones! Keep at it! Is good tale!”

Aleph frowned a bit at that and turned to Omega with a raised brow, who shrugged herself. Okay so whatever Quarti was talking about was not some secret that was revealed after death.

But what was she talking about?

Elsie’s screen flowed with several observations, markers that seemed like little positive marks for each of them. A few notes on needing to expand certain criteria for Quarti’s breadth of experience.

“Very well, so what could some of your explanations for these discrepancies be? Any ideas? What reasoning and evidence is there for a correction and in which way should a correction follow?”

Omega huffed and gestured at the screen.

“Well the part about us being called rotten death whatevers is just inaccurate, we should strike that and put in something sensible. Like Tetrapoda, Maybe Ichthiota? Although that lineage is still controversial on account that there is some confounding genetic and anatomical indicators in the most recent genome projects so maybe marking that with a marker of the data being still up for debate. And clean up the weirdness about subspecies. I guess the whole being vulnerable conservation status is alright though... that is the whole point of the colony effort”

Aleph looked over at Quarti who was making one of her faces, the sneaky ones that usually meant aleph had accidentally stuck her foot in it over some topic that only a deca-millennial monster could have caught. However it was directed between Omega and Elsie. The brow bobs were really egregious but Omega was getting so passionate in the middle there she seemed to have missed the ‘subtle’ hint entirely.

Elsie’s voice was polite and gentle as always.

“I see, and what body of evidence do you propose would justify these amendments?”

Omega took a heavy breath and gestured at the books around them.

“From this alone I presume you read our entire archive that we sent with Pylo. So I’d hold that the collective works of our entire civilization is available as evidence for the correction. Including in that the fossils we have excavated from Terra’s dermal cysts corroborate quite a lot for the taxonomy alone. What’s the evidence you have for this article at all? Or was this just some test to spot the errors?”

The article flickered, the images all changed, the majority of the text remained the same. But several of the photos and some of the names were altered.

Aleph squinted.

“Why is everyone yellow and black like that?”

She scooted up close to look at a picture of three smiling ‘people’ that for most looks seemed like some weird fantasy depiction of a visitor from pre contact archives.

Their teeth were very triangular, and in the immense clarity of the image provided she could even spot slight notches from serration if she peered closely.

Elsie shifted itself a bit out of the way so that the others could get a closer look at the display.

But quarti stayed back, her face no longer delighted but solemn in a way Aleph had only ever seen a few times before.

Omega however moved up and looked over the figures shown.

“Is this a trick? Some kind of joke to make us doubt our own records? You were able to make books that looked exactly like something out of one of the old libraries at home. Pictures don’t prove anything. You could have invented this whole article.”

Elsie nodded again but chimed softly.

“Indeed I could have, but it would defeat the point. I promise this article, while heavily translated is genuine, I apologize but I was only able to find three such directly documented examples of your species in the available records from our own stores and those provided by ship mistress Pylo. Although there was more success in identifying literature that was corroborated and sourced from polity of your species native to thirteen other symbiotes.”

The article subtly warped again, this time showing a people who were almost translucent grey and white skinned with solid black eyes. They stood under a deep purple sky in several images with a pale sun above them. The dress was different, jewelry and their noses were less prominent. But for all differences they were obviously human.

“Based on the dates of acquisition, recovery and last encounter available in the archives available to us we can conclude that the local trader fleets and empires have known of your species for some time.”

Quarti’s serious face and the way she had been smiling at Omega’s assertions earlier clicked into place and Aleph could not help but frown at her.

“You already knew this... You knew she was making a fool of herself.”

Aleph caught out of the corner of her eye how Omega winced at that. But she wasn't breaking down into tears, so she at least was handling it better then with Pylo. Or she was leaning on some old soul’s self control and assurance.

She would grill her mentor over that later. Right now she was upset with the primordial harpy. Who was just looking solemnly at her.

“Ja, what you think I meant when said everybody died? Wos not any son or dot o man ‘pon terra for a long time.”

Aleph scowled to try and hold onto her annoyance. To remember that Quarti had let Omega rush into things when she KNEW that she was going to get corrected again.

“We looked for them, we looked under all leaf, an rok, an tree. But there was none-alive.”

Elsie shifted over and away from the display. Settling into a spot to watch and with a nod Quarti strode up to take their place.

“I see, Quarti would you care to share what insight you have on this with the rest of us?”

Omega settled into the clouds next to Aleph giving Elsie a dirty look. Which was really not fair in Aleph’s opinion, but they could talk about that later.

It wasn't Elsie that threw Omega under a train here.

“Well then, As I was saying such in story song afore, We did come up from the Deeps with senses anew”