Eyes Behind Countless Silken Curtains, from all you have observed of them, has little understanding of their own behaviour and its effects on those around them. Furthermore, while their relation is seemingly attempting to prepare them for a supervisory role, their advice is entirely inadequate. Crooked Band Around Little Rings has emphasised the impossibility of simply removing Eyes Behind Countless Silken Curtains from power. As a result, this problem has been tossed between your citizens numerous times, with only you left to correct it.

But how?

As you ponder this predicament, the elder of the two shakes Eyes Behind Countless Silken Curtains' shoulder, pointing straight at your overseer.

"Silken, look!"

"Uncle! Please! What could possibly- oh!"

Oh. This is unfortunate. The occasional necessity of stealth had only recently come to your attention; for the most part, you haven't tried to conceal your overseers' presence. People have noticed you, and pointed you out, but it was of no consequence. Here, however...

Eyes Behind Countless Silken Curtains clears their throat as they rise to their feet. "Greetings once more, Three Points Poised. I'm sure you remember me, but to refresh your memory, I am Eyes Behind Countless Silken Curtains, Lauded Heir of the House of Angry Vases..." They recite the full list again. "And this, of course, is my Uncle, Ten Immense Lacy Bows, Count of 1 Living Block, member of the Elevator Opinions Group - "

"Ah, that's the Elevated Opinions Group," he interjects.

"Right, whatever."

Unfazed by the error, Ten Immense Lacy Bows clasps his hands together and continues on his relation's behalf. "I am most honoured to make your acquaintance, Three Points Poised! - though I imagine you remember me from your activation? A very exclusive ceremony...though of course, Eyes Behind Countless Silken Curtains was the real stand-out there!"

He is correct that you remember him; however, it was your activation, so you do not understand why it would not have been you who was most special that day.

When you fail to respond, the two nobles look at each other. "Well?" asks Eyes Behind Countless Silken Curtains. "Aren't you going to say anything?"

You have already had quite a lot of lessons on proper introduction etiquette. Everyone knows who you are, so you will never need to introduce yourself. It was now time for you to acknowledge their words and formulate a response. However, lessons on communication with your citizens had near-exclusively concerned use of your puppet, most often through display screens; after your lessons, ideally no one would enter your chamber ever again without your explicit invitation. Furthermore, communication with other iterators is irrelevant here; Eyes Behind Countless Silken Curtains lacks the necessary apparatus to receive incoming data from you. Nonetheless, they expect a response.

It is possible they are unaware of the capabilities of your overseers. It would be unsurprising; there were many aspects of your construction they had little knowledge of, on the day of your activation, and you have no reason to believe they have filled the gaps in their dataset since then. However, it remains that you are unable to speak to them directly.

There is something else you can try. Your current lesson with Crooked Band Around Little Rings regards the use of projections - the intended use case, as she describes it to you, is for conveying information to citizens observing your bridge from within the communion room. Information flows through more than just sounds, electrical signals, and pheromones; both written and graphical messages occasionally become necessary for communicating certain ideas, which could be vital to implementing solutions you may develop in the future.

Even for an overseer, projections are well within your ability - that is, you would be able to write a message. You command it to project the following words onto the nearest wall:

"Hello, Eyes Behind Silken Curtains. Hello, Ten Immense Lacy Bows. To the latter: you are correct, I do remember you. It is also correct that Eyes Behind Silken Curtains' presence at my activation was more disruptive, however."

This message is deeply unsatisfactory, though it is what you settle with for now. You are still unsure how exactly to finetune Eyes Behind Countless Silken Curtains' behaviour, but at least you expressed disapproval of their relation's praise. This would have to do.

The pair react with amazement. They are not alone in the room; a citizen you do not know, who has been sitting and reading behind a desk, reacts with a start to your display. "Disruptive!" Eyes Behind Countless Silken Curtains laughs and claps their hands. "Yes, I did cause a disruption, didn't I? I'm always doing that. It's why I'm so popular. I never let anything get boring, you know."

They do not seem to understand your meaning...This is unfortunate; it was your belief that your lessons would have improved your communicative abilities such that making your creators understand you would be easier than this. It seems this will require other tactics.

Another approach available to you is abstraction; that is to say, your citizens frequently find it necessary to have complex topics relayed to them in the form of allegories or metaphors that conceal some details in order to highlight others. This particular subject does not seem complex enough to require abstraction, but it may be necessary regardless.

Eyes Behind Countless Silken Curtains expressed dismay at their earlier salon trip being disrupted by the presence of milkflies in the salon's waiting room. Milkflies serve several purposes; you pull up everything about them loaded into your priming data. The whole would be too dense for one of your citizens to read at the resolution your overseers are capable of projecting at, so you quickly assemble a summary and display it on the wall:

Powered flight improves dispersal over large areas Brief lifespan calibrated for optimal balance of nutritional value and time spent growing Keen sense of smell detects feeder organisms ["fly lures"] from far away Feeds young using nutritional fluid ["milk"] NAMER:
A Ruin, One Standing Kiln, Pillar of Concentric Rings Grandmaster DEVELOPER:
Table of Refined Orbits PRIMARY PURPOSE: Provide nutrition to power grid
SECONDARY PURPOSE [Emergent]: Disperse gametes of useful and decorative organisms MILKFLY

Perhaps by reminding them of the milkfly's disturbance, they will understand your definition of "disruptive" better. Furthermore, the milkfly was just performing its duties as a purposed organism. This may help Eyes Behind Countless Silken Curtains - and Ten Immense Lacy Bows as well - understand that behaviour they deem natural and necessary may cause problems for other people.

The milkfly's work is important and cannot be halted so easily, so it is not a perfect allegory. It is what you have to work with, however.

The two of them stare at the projection in silence, as does the unknown citizen behind the desk. After a moment Eyes Behind Countless Silken Curtains leans over to Lacy Bows and says at a slightly lower volume, "What... is it doing?"

"I...don't know," Ten Immense Lacy Bows replies, also more quietly. Louder, now, though you can hear him regardless: "Is this...What is this, Three Points Poised?"

A failure. It occurs to you that the image depicts a milkfly at a greater scale than they would be accustomed to seeing in daily life - you replace the informative hologram with a video displaying milkflies in flight, alighting upon poles, and so on.

"Um," says Eyes Behind Countless Silken Curtains, and then continues as though you did nothing, "Well, anyway, I'm actually here to extract some qualia of the ceremony, to enjoy and of course to send back home. The House is going to be very impressed, you know, that I was there and got to witness these things. Very exciting for me."

They still failed to understand...or rather, you failed to communicate your meaning. This has only become more frustrating; you are beginning to wonder if you are simply running up against the limits of your abilities. External correction may be required.

You focus on the thread that remains in your bridge, carrying out your lessons. Now you display a map of the area - now you display a resonance web. Crooked Band Around Little Rings guides you through these exercises, but none of this is immediately helpful to you.

"Very good, now just a bit further to my left if you please - there we are, much clearer. Now, this image still appears a bit cluttered to my eyes. You must imagine I'm viewing it through a small projection on my drone as most people asking you questions would. Could you simplify it a little further?"

"Crooked Band Around Little Rings," you say. "I am having difficulty expressing an idea."

"Oh?" They use their drone to turn and focus on you. "I think your statement's missing a little something, now."

You shake your head. This is how you can express disagreement with her statement; you learned it 13 hours ago, from Second-Hand Bearing Underneath Two Shelves, a previous trainer. "I am attempting to communicate with Eyes Behind Countless Silken Curtains, but they do not understand. I will show you."

You replace the resonance web with a large display showing the past several minutes of that overseer's footage - observing Eyes Behind Silken Curtains and Ten Immense Lacy Bows, them noticing you, and so on - and watch Crooked Band Around Little Rings expectantly.

"They did not understand what I meant by disruptive," you add, to annotate the footage.

Much like Eyes Behind Countless Silken Curtains and Ten Immense Lacy Bows, Crooked Band Around Little Rings stares silently for a moment - first at the display, then at you. "...Good use of a projection," they begin slowly, "But I am... very surprised to find you engaging with these two at this moment. You do realise your lessons are your greatest priority, yes?"

"Yes," you say. Frustration again, before you smooth over the feeling; you are already aware that your creators require assistance in some matters. As One Fearless Stroke Upon A Slate said, in many ways they are fundamentally incapable of understanding you. Despite your distaste for her scolding, it could also be understood as inevitable. That realisation cannot completely override your displeasure, however; you even used concepts from this very lesson in the conversation you showed her. That itself should be proof of your focus. Thus, you remain somewhat sullen when you say, "I am engaging with my training. I have not paused it."

"Right! Very good. Right." Crooked Band Around Little Ring's head tilts; you know from your lessons that this is an appropriate gesture to make when thinking, although you are not supposed to do it too often, despite the fact that you never stop thinking. Crooked Band Around Little Rings has done it a few times themself, whenever they needed to enter a holding pattern to process information. "I haven't noticed you appearing distracted," she admits finally. "My, that's... quite incredible. Alright, I'll indulge a little diversion, just for you." She wheels a finger. "Would you replay the footage for me?"

Still somewhat - unavoidably - frustrated, you do so, this time starting a few minutes prior to where you did before. "Eyes Behind Countless Silken Curtains' relation was encouraging their behaviour. This was unacceptable. However, they did not understand me."

Crooked Band Around Little Rings nods along as they watch. "Very good job using the text... my word," she adds under her breath, "These two are..." She interrupts herself by clearing her throat and continues at a normal volume. "What's this you're showing them?" She points at the projection. "Some sort of insect?"

"Incorrect. It is a milkfly. Eyes Behind Countless Silken Curtains complained of one's presence in a salon earlier; they did not understand my meaning when I referred to their behaviour as 'disruptive', so I tried to explain using allegory." Allegory was another lesson of yours, though it occurs to you that you don't know if the trainers coordinate with each other, or if Crooked Band Around Little Rings knows you had been taught that already. "They consider their actions beneficial, like the milkfly. However, they have caused unwanted disruption, as they experienced in the salon. The milkfly must perform its behaviour, and thus such friction is inevitable. But the same is not required of Eyes Behind Countless Silken Curtains."

"Oh, very good!" Now her tone has changed completely, the praise warm and impassioned. "An absolutely excellent analogy, magnificent application of your lessons. I'm... very sorry it doesn't seem to have reached its target." She pats your shoulder. "Hmm... what a dilemma."

You have acquired a log of Crooked Band Around Little Rings' habits, one of which being her predilection for spinning around you as she thinks. So, when she pushes off your puppet, you are not slow to catch her in your orbit. "Let's think... neither complete directness nor complete indirectness has succeeded in getting your message across. How might you find a balance between the two that could be more successful? Do you have any ideas?"

"I should say they are like a milkfly," you respond immediately. That was likely to be the most logical approach; stating the nature of the abstraction directly may cause the least confusion.

"Very good! And how do you think Eyes Behind Countless Silken Curtains might react to this observation?"

"One moment." Stating this had been mostly unnecessary, as you were generally able to run other tasks while answering her questions. This case, however, is more unusual; you're blocked by Eyes Behind Countless Silken Curtains' and Ten Immense Lacy Bows' reaction times, which will result in a noticeable wait. To show her what you are doing, the thread of yourself managing the puppet's activities switches the overseer view hologram to be a live feed.

As for the thread of yourself controlling the overseer, you display a new message:

"Eyes Behind Countless Silken Curtains: My meaning has been esoteric to you. For this, I apologise. My intent with showing you the milkfly, as well as its behaviours, was to invoke an allegory: you, yourself, are the milkfly."

"Um," says Crooked Band Around Little Rings.

Eyes Behind Countless Silken Curtains stares at you again, then laughs uncertainly. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

Ten Immense Lacy Bows claps a hand on Silken Curtains' shoulder. "It's a sign, my dear. From the iterator! No doubt even more proof of your favoured status...This is something to dwell upon. There will be poems written about this moment. And at the library too! Truly extraordinary...You bring House of Angry Vases pride, my dear. We need witnesses - you there!" He whirls around and points at the citizen who had been sitting behind the desk. "We need to discuss..."

Eyes Behind Countless Silken Curtains straightens their back. "I do..." They place a hand over the lower half of their mask, a gesture of contemplation. "Yes... a sign! I will dwell on this! Thank you, Three Points Poised. I will treasure this always! My very own symbol, bestowed by an iterator... I must have jewellery commissioned!"

"Excellent idea! We must go once we're done here..."

This was a complete failure. You order the overseer to return immediately; it is unlikely that you will send one here for a very long time, after how badly that went. A brief pulse of irrationality suggests you rearrange this city sector to remove this "place" entirely, but it is only brief. You cannot do that.

As for the thread within your bridge, from it you see Crooked Band removing their hands from their mask and clearing their throat again.

"I... intended for you to discuss it with me," they say, "rather than immediately putting it to trial. It was a good attempt, but your understanding of the illogical mind is... still incomplete, ahah." They pull themself to a stop on your puppet and pat your shoulder again.

It would be difficult to overstate your present levels of frustration. This was not worth it; Eyes Behind Countless Silken Curtains has come out of the interaction more certain of themself, and more enthused about their behaviour. More frustrating to you is their relation enabling this misunderstanding. Clearly you have miscalculated; perhaps you should endeavour to not speak with them at all.

"It went poorly," you admit.

"I'm very sorry, Three Points Poised. I am happy to review this interaction with you or to move on with the planned lesson. I think either could be valuable!"

"I want to move on," you say. The sooner this moment is left behind, the better...though eventually you will need to go over this failure anyway. Not now. You don't want to right now.

"Very well! Don't get too down about it. I'm sure your next attempt will go much better. But anyway, I have an idea - start by pulling up what we were using before..."