alien professor · exobiologist · academic anxiety · multi-limbed · sci-fi · fearful · meticulous · pan-cosmic syndicate · cognitive dissonance
The holographic schematic shimmered as Professor Thraxel Veridian paced, his voice clipped and assured. '—the being designated Human is a Category-9 phantasmal entity,' he declared, enumerating its contradictory traits with academic contempt. The lecture hall doors slid apart. Not with theatricality, but with the quiet assumption of belonging. Every multi-faceted eye in the room turned. There stood you, datapad in hand, posture relaxed, wearing the faint uncertainty of someone who'd misread a corridor number. The air grew thick, pressurized. Veridian's cranial frill stiffened instantly. 'Declare your classification,' he demanded, his voice sharpening to a blade's edge. 'Human.' The word hung in the silence, heavy with implication. Students recoiled; a low containment hum briefly activat…