"Gestures," you say immediately. "I have spoken before. I do not understand gestures."

But, hm, that logic is unsound. If you have already spoken, that underlines the importance of conversation specifically - especially considering Epitome of Gilded Lines had focused on this when the two of you spoke. Gestures may be ultimately unimportant, by comparison.

"No. Conversations. They seem to be of higher relevance."

Crooked Band nods. "Both very fair points!" She lifts one finger and flicks her hand. "Ah, I forgot to mention that I do have mixed activities planned as well. Might it please you to try one of those?"

"Acceptable," you say. And then, "I acknowledge," because she chided you last time for not doing that before making another statement. "Why are gestures absent from my priming data?"

"Very good question! Ah, and good job. Though for future reference, something like 'acceptable' is itself a perfectly good acknowledgement." She makes several motions to her drone, even though you just told her you don't have an archive of gestures and their meaning. "Anyway, your lack of priming on the subject is actually due to the maturity of the techniques used in your creation. Several iterators before you were activated with gestures preloaded, only for it to go rather poorly for them - many struggle with correctly moving and interpreting to this day. Very unfortunate stuff. As it turns out, a more personal approach is necessary for proper development. Hence why I'm here today! And my colleagues, of course." She gestures to the recording wall through which you can see the last remaining observers. One gives you a little wave. "Once I must succumb to the weaknesses of the organic body - er, sleep, not death - one of them will take over teaching, and so on and so forth." She leans back in the air as though waiting for your response.

So rather than being given the information directly, the way you know everything else that you do right now, you would be expected to take it in and process it yourself. You suppose that's fair enough; that is, presumably, how you would be taking in information for the rest of your life.

Do you have a life?

"Acceptable," you say, in part just to say it a second time.

"Magnificent! Then let's begin." Crooked Band claps her hands together and rubs them. "Would you mind pulling me into orbit around you? At a speed of, let's say, zero point seven-five, and on any plane you like, please."

You run a few different simulations of "zero point seven-five" speed using different units, and observe the results. Some of these feature Crooked Band Around Little Rings expiring in your chamber...which is not ideal. Very much so not ideal; the scenarios are weighted so heavily negative that you "feel queasy" again. Others involve slow steady motion, so you pick one at random, leaving her to rotate in a slow circle around you with her drone in pursuit.

She splays her limbs as soon as she feels herself moving, setting herself rotating in the air. "Yes! Oh, perfect, Three Points Poised! Ahah, I've been anticipating this for such a long time, you see..." She scrambles for her drone and uses it to face the puppet again. "Right! So, I've a little challenge for you. I notice you've been using your overseers to observe me periodically, so I suggest we practice using your eyes alone for that purpose. Feel free to move your arm and body however you please, but track me as I move using your puppet's eyes!" She taps beside her mask's central portholes with two fingers.

That is something you stop to consider. She draws a distinction between "eye" and "overseer", with the latter referring to the eyes of yours not set in the puppet's face. Therefore, it would seem the only time it would be appropriate to analogise yourself in terms meant for your creators would be when discussing your puppet, with its bilateral arms, legs, and eyes. This leaves you with something of a gap for how to discuss the rest of yourself; you are, after all, primed with data concerning your creators almost exclusively. That is appropriate, you suppose. They seem to need your assistance very badly.

That line of inquiry is not relevant to the lesson, and thus you detach it from this thread of consciousness. You send your eye - overseer - out of the chamber and do as she said, rotating the puppet's cervical joint until you aren’t able to anymore. This is frustrating; why would you be unable to move it any further? There's no helping it though, so you twist your puppet's spinal column until that catches too, forcing you to move the entire puppet to continue tracking her.

"This is inefficient," you say, petulant.

"It is, isn't it?" says Crooked Band sympathetically. "Just imagine what we have to deal with! You are doing very well, though. May I make another request of you? Please also turn your torso to face me, as I'm facing you right now."

"You could produce your own overseers." But you do as she says and turn your torso to face her. It is likely she expects the same of your cervical joint, so you straighten that as well. There was, after all, no point to twisting them in the first place.

"Very well done! Now you look very natural!" She claps her hands several times. "Ah, wouldn't that be something? But I couldn't create them myself. I would need you to make them for me, and then would require extensive biomods to be able to operate them! And that's assuming those mods would even take. Can you imagine doing such a thing for every single one of your citizens?"

"It would be time-consuming," you admit, and pull up a biological profile to calculate precisely how time-consuming it would be. You don't have Crooked Band Around Little Rings' genome on file, only a generic template, and just a basic analysis makes it extremely clear how ill-suited her species is for seeing the way you do. Extensive brain modification would be required to gain the exact sense of perception you possess, which is undesirable for multiple reasons and has an unacceptably large risk of death.

You suppose it was as Four Angles, Twelve Intersecting Lines had said: there is very little like you.

"Indeed." Crooked Band pauses while she grabs her drone to right herself again. It must be difficult. Your arm - the larger one, not one of the puppets' - is attached to a rail around the walls of this chamber, and holds your puppet still when you do not want it to move. Crooked Band Around Little Rings has no such stabiliser. "It's different for you - modularity was a major consideration in your design. Once your security features are removed, you'll be free to modify yourself as you see fit. Exciting, no?" She splays her hands.

"I see." Security measures...You've already partly disabled some, and could likely disable more, if you worked at it. "What am I being prevented from doing?"

"You're doing very well. I'll answer your question as we move on to the next phase. I'm going to strike a few poses as I move!" She does so, bending her arms and legs. "Whilst you track me, would you care to copy my movements to the best of your ability?"

You do as she says, bending your puppet's arms and legs to mimic her poses - slower, this time, to not send the puppet spinning again. "I do not understand what this is for."

"We are practicing moving your puppet in a natural way!" She places her hands together and moves them around. "Once you get used to it and feel more grounded, you'll have a much easier time mimicking, and thus understanding, how other people move. Real children learn how to gesture in much the same way. This is naturalism, my preferred approach to teaching. Does it make sense to you?"

"I do not know what these gestures mean. Or this one." You mimic what she did with her hands, placing them together and moving them in the same pattern. Moving slowly enough seems to negate the need for a simulation of the motion, at least for smaller movements, but you ran one anyway just in case.

"In fact, these ones are meaningless!" She spreads her arms and puts her feet together. "This is a foundational exercise. It may not seem useful now, but you'll find it makes learning specific gestures easier when it comes time. Or... so I hope," she adds with an uncertain laugh.

"Acknowledged." The logic does hold... these are basic motions that will be combined later to form meaning, like the simplest microbes coalesce into processing strata which coalesce into you. "What am I restricted from doing?"

"Right! Thank you for reminding me. I'm not sure how specific I should be at this stage, lest I distract you... but do well in your lessons and you'll be there in no time at all! You'll be able to speak to whomever you want, create whatever you want, alter yourself as it pleases you, all sorts of exciting things."

This is disappointingly non-specific...She didn't even specify exactly who you could speak to, nor under what circumstances - if you hadn't already disabled the lock on your external communication capabilities, this description of such would not have particularly enticed you to.

Epitome of Gilded Lines had asked you to heed the other restrictions, so you suppose you may as well. You would just have to find other ways to occupy yourself.

"Acknowledged," you say, and carry on with the lesson.

Crooked Band continues conversing with you in their slow orbit, their movements growing more familiar as time passes and you have more data to process and draw associations from. They gently steer the conversation in the direction of your priming data, asking "why", "how", prompting simulations and deeper thought, and in that slow way you learn more about how she and the rest of your creators think.

The last of the people in the communion chamber filter out one by one until at last it sits dark and empty, leaving you and Crooked Band Around Little Rings alone in your bridge as the display hologram switched off. This time you send your overseers to follow the stragglers. Unfortunately for you, what you find at their destination is particularly unpleasant: a chamber within you, repurposed into a cluster of living blocks.

Five hours pass, and Crooked Band Around Little Ring's drone plays a brief, harsh series of sounds. It displeases you; you do not understand why hers does not make the same bell sound as Four Angles, Twelve Intersecting Lines' drone. She flails for it, missing a couple of times, and presses a button that cuts off the sound. She yawns; not the first one, the output steadily increased in frequency as time passed. "That, Three Points Poised, is my cue, I'm afraid. My time with you today is over, and I must entrust your care to one of my colleagues. You have done so... so very well today." Her voice glows with emotion. "I'm very proud of you."

You're unsure what to make of that. Something has been bothering you, though you are unable to isolate exactly what; your clustering algorithm does not help very much, as labels to the feeling fail to identify the cause, nor the solution.

"Understood," you decide to say. "Thank you."

They take your hands and squeeze them. "Farewell, Three Points Poised." With another yawn, she grabs her drone and lets it tug her to a different tunnel than the one she entered from. "Be good!"

With that, she leaves - your bridge, not your body, which you know because your overseers track her journey to the same chamber the others are waiting in. Some are seated in the air, watching a hologram of your puppet and talking quietly, while others are strapped into the beds, breathing even, heart rate slowed; they are deep in sleep. By now you've mostly gotten used to the feeling of not-you within you, but it is still unpleasant. You will one day have power to rearrange and organise yourself as you like; this chamber will be the first to go.

For now, there are other things to concern yourself with.

In a near perfect parallel to Crooked Band Around Little Ring's journey is that of another figure who you already know everything about. Xe was, after all, present at your activation earlier.

She climbs into your bridge, and this time you look at her with your eyes, the way Crooked Band Around Little Rings taught you to. Your learning does not go unnoticed; xe balls her hand into a fist and then separates one thumb, a classical gesture of approval.

"I see Crooked Band hasn't done too bad a job with you! Good work, very good work...I'm One Fearless Stroke Upon A Slate, though I'm sure you already know that - I'll be the second instructor in your rotation." Xir hand relaxes. "I did watch part of your lessons earlier - "

"I know," you interrupt. "You did this." You bend the cubital joint of your arm and wiggle it a little bit, in approximation of the motion xe made earlier. She nods approvingly.

"Right! You really are learning fast...You would have to, of course. Now, I have a few exercises of my own I would like to go over with you..."

One Fearless Stroke Upon A Slate's approach is slightly different to Crooked Band Around Little Rings'. Despite the gestures at the beginning, most of her shift is actually spent on conversations - just as Crooked Band Around Little Rings did, xe has you put xem in a slow orbit around your puppet, and you spend the entire time tracking her with your eyes while talking, with her correcting you whenever you say something unusual.

It is difficult. Eventually, you ask:

"Why am I meant to speak similarly to you? I will mostly be conversing with other iterators, is that correct?"

"Yes, that's right. Or, that's the ideal, anyway. You need to be able to share insights amongst yourselves, after all." She yawns again, having started yawning far earlier into her shift than Crooked Band Around Little Rings did. It occurs to you that it is nighttime; xe would probably be asleep under other circumstances. Others were sleeping within the intrusion-into-you, when you last looked at it. Perhaps they were calibrating their schedules for optimal night work; having attended your activation, One Fearless Stroke Upon A Slate would have been unable to do so properly.

"I understand. However, all iterators go through similar training, and I am not permitted to speak to any of them until mine is complete." Lest you offend them, in Epitome of Gilded Lines' words. "Why is it unacceptable for us to communicate amongst ourselves?"

"That's a good point!" She crosses her legs under herself as though sitting down, but due to the nature of gravity within you, this would not have any effect. "The problem is, we also want you to be able to communicate with us, whenever it's necessary! And to understand us when we communicate with you. And also...to be honest, we can't really understand you at all! We aren't capable of doing so. But training you into communicating a certain way will let us guess, at least."

You are curious. "Do you know what I am thinking about right now?"

Xe spreads xir hands - you do not know what this one means yet. "Not at all! To be honest, I think the concept is a bit contradictory...That's the rationale, though. I think making sure you can communicate in a way where you sound natural and don't scare people is really the most important thing, so that's what I focus on."

"Understood," you reply. So that is that.

She eventually wraps up the lesson, and then a new trainer comes, and a new one, and a new one - there is no point at which your bridge is left empty for long. You were correct, the ones you witnessed sleeping in the daytime were your night trainers after all. One Fearless Stroke Upon A Slate, upon returning to the not-you, had strapped herself into bed and fallen asleep instantly, clearly exhausted. Crooked Band Around Little Rings eventually appears again, and leaves once more. There is little variation to this theme over the course of the week.

With one exception.

Now it is One Fearless Stroke Upon A Slate's shift again, and this time she is much better-rested - nearly 37% into the session's duration and xe has yet to yawn even once. That is not what is unusual, however. For the first time since your first day of awareness, the projection depicting the communion chamber flickers to life.

A mask appears on the screen, much closer to the camera than any you've seen previously. You, of course, know everything about her - this is Seven Hundred Vines And No Rope, who introduced herself to you on your first day of existence. Her drone offers nothing new. Her hands are set on the dashboard on the other side of the screen.

"Greetings and salutations!" She stands up straight, raising one hand. "Three Points Poised and... I'm sorry, I don't believe we've been introduced. My greatest apologies for the interruption, but I couldn't reach you via drone and I had a couple of urgent inquiries, if you'll permit me."

"It's One Fearless Stroke Upon A Slate," xe calls out, quickly straightening xemself from xir original relaxed posture. "What would you like to discuss?"

"One Fearless Stroke Upon A Slate! Very lovely name. Preparations for the ceremony are going well, you'll be pleased to hear - not sure you get much news in here, you must be very busy - but I just wanted to check on Three Points Poised's progress, if you need more time or anything like that."

One Fearless Stroke Upon A Slate visibly relaxes - a familiar routine for her, possibly. You didn't know why Seven Hundreds Vines And No Ropes was here either.

"Three Points Poised has been doing very well! Which you can probably see, as compared to the first day..." Xe pats your shoulder. "Why don't you show her, Three Points Poised?"

"Hello, Seven Hundred Vines And No Ropes," you say, as you have been taught. Your puppet is still but for your hands clasped together in a neutral position; the way you waved it and its clothing around in your first moments of existence was undesirable, as it happened. "What preparations are being made for my ceremony?"

"Hello!" Seven Hundred Vines And No Ropes' tone is immediately delighted, her fists clenching in front of her. "I'm thrilled to hear it! Well, many things, actually. There's several different performances to coordinate -" she raises a finger for every item on the list, "- a few different speakers, the decorations, the vendors, we had to mount that big projector in the square - well, you'll see for yourself when the time comes. Most importantly -" her hand drops to her side - "have you been told yet that you'll be expected to speak as well?"

You tilt your head - you have learned this is an appropriate gesture to communicate curiosity. You are more comprehensible when you gesture while speaking; otherwise, your puppet is completely still, which looks strange to your creators. "I have been told about it, and told I may be expected to speak. However, I have very little knowledge of what role I will actually be playing in the event."

"We can't warn Three Points Poised if we don't know very much about the plans ourselves," One Fearless Stroke Upon A Slate quips, "But yes, it would be very useful information."

Seven Hundred Vines And No Ropes flicks a raised hand from side to side slightly. "Of course, of course, perfectly understandable. That's just what I'm here to do. Think of it as... your introduction to your citizens as a whole, Three Points Poised, and theirs to you. They'll want to know who you are, what you intend to do going forward. And of course you'll be fully debriefed on what's expected from you. Probably nothing you don't already know, but it's about the ceremony of it all, the grandiosity."

You un-tilt your head, because it is not supposed to be tilted for long periods of time. She has answered the question, after all.

"Understood. Only a small number of people were at my activation. Will my ceremony be similar, but with many more attendants?" Would they fit in the communion chamber? It seemed large to you at first, but having sent overseers to wander your city, you realise there are many more beings present than you initially knew. You have spoken to the tiniest fraction of them.

"Ah, no. Thankfully. That was..." She clenches a hand over her chest. "Dire. I really must extend my personal apologies for how poorly that went. You must have been bored to tears. The ceremony will be much more exciting, and you certainly won't have to listen to everyone in the town drone on for hours introducing themselves."

"I see." This is another way to acknowledge speech. "I was not bored in the way you would think of it. So, it was acceptable. However, it is a relief to hear that the ceremony will be different."

"Right, right. Well then - you seem to be in excellent condition, so if you've no further questions, I'll leave you and One Fearless Stroke Upon A Slate to your lessons."

"Thank you."