Of course. Cordelia will defend her daughter against all criticism. Rhiannon was sure that Cordelia somehow felt that was being supportive. The fact remained, showing without explaining or teaching was almost a meaningless exercise. The spirit of the request was for those in attendance to learn something. But whatever. Conscientiousness was apparently not a valued trait among Amberites. It was clear that these people were more about their own egos than actually solving problems. It was no wonder things were still broken.

"I should probably just keep my mouth shut, and be a good little princess, but I'm done with that. Charlotte, you are an entitled brat. And you're a bitch. Putting aside the rudeness I've endured from you from the very beginning, if someone asked me to show someone what could be done with a CRISP/R, I wouldn't simply have them watch me put a tray of samples into the device and then hand over the data results. Teaching is implied. I'd explain the samples, and the goals. I'd explain how the machine worked and how to use it. Then I'd elaborate on the final reports. In other words, I'd make sure that those who were looking to me for guidance came away with a positive and meaningful experience.

The fact that you can sit there and defend yourself by fixating on the semantic difference between show and teach means that you aren't taking any of this seriously and that you are the worst person for this job, no matter what your skills are. Not only that, your attitude alone has created all this animosity, so again, you prove yourself unfit.

And Cordelia. It's laudable that you would defend your child, but by doing so in that way, you also dismiss our concerns. Do we actually matter? How difficult is it to be considerate and understanding? If we are to work together, this is a terrible start."

"I share your feelings and your concern her. And you have made up the good example."

"But I consider her a hopeless case, to Charlie her private agenda is more important than what her elder consider is on stake and what that they need us for. She overlooks that without us, she will have to do what her elders need us for, which will leave her with less private time and more chores to do."

"And you'd be able to do that at a Trade show, where you have at most an hour to demonstrate the capabilities of the machine to a small number of people on a rolling basis? Or would that be what you'd do when you had several days in which to do it, when you could teach them what it did instead of demonstrate what it's capable of?"
This message was last edited by the player at 22:05, Thu 22 Feb.

"At least I don't speak out my arse."

In reply to Cordelia Chan (msg # 271):

"If I had a limited time, I'd make it as informative as I could for the people I was demonstrating it too. Don't you see? I would be there for them. They're not there for me. We spent hours in those vehicles, so I don't see how time was a factor. That was time she could have spent informing rather than disparaging. We certainly had enough time to cover everything you answered tonight. How much could we have learned if she would have told us what to look for or how to interpret what we were seeing. What did we simply miss because we had no idea it was happening? What did we get wrong because we focused on the wrong thing? How much time and energy could we have saved this evening and how much more open would I and Cathal be if Charlotte was just polite to us. Is that really so hard for a master of shadow?"

Rhiannon paused to watch the brief interaction between Siobhan and Charlie, noting how Charlie dodged the real apology

Sarah nodded at Charlie assessment, and managed to keep her face neutral as yet another unhelpful volley was exchanged between Charlie and the pair of Cathal and Rhiannon. Then Cordelia jumped in -- and while she was correct, in the strictest sense of the word, Sarah didn't really see how it was a particularly helpful addition to the conversation. For the first time, Sarah felt like she'd fallen into a hollow full of frustrated porcupines. She very much agreed with Siobhan's outburst, but somehow she knew that wouldn't be the end of it... and, of course, it wasn't.

Biting back on her own comments, Sarah turned her attention to the food. Charlie's departure meant she wouldn't be able to ask any more questions in preparation for tomorrows lesson, but maybe that was for the best.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:13, Fri 23 Feb.

Cathal shows no reaction to Charlie's word, no signs of satisfaction for her showing her true face or her leaving the table.

He does no think for one moment that he can change Cordelia's opinion or decision, but as Rhiannon he is fed up being belittle by Cordelia and treated like dirt by Charlie.

To Siobhan he says. "I apologize for unsettling the table." He owes that to Siobhan.

He turns to Cordelia.

"We are send out tomorrow with an unwilling, disinterested teacher. Who will do only the bare minimum to follow the words of your request. Who treated us like dirt on the first trip. Whose favourite answer to questions is ' If you're not interested then you're welcome to return to the Mansion.' And you expect us to learn something from her tomorrow.

I do not put much hope into the trip tomorrow. You should not be surprised if what she is expected to teach will not reach the students and we have the same discussion again tomorrow evening.

Yes I provoked her. I had enough of her attitude. And I have enough of being belittle and being put-down if I do not understand something the first time or do not remember correctly.

I'm not calling for a perfect teacher or even a good one. I'm calling for an understanding that the process of transferring knowledge includes question and yes also question that seemed to have been answered. Variations of 'I told you already.' are not helpful. They are belittling and will lead to the point where the student will stop asking questions at all, loose interest in the topic or plain out ignore the teacher."

"So not really the level of detail you describe but more of a superficial outline of what you were doing then? And you'd be there for every single one of them, and not there to sell the machine?"
"You say there was all this time for Charlotte to explain things, so she spent the whole time lounging in the back doing nothing whilst you drove giving you a completely unobstructed view of everything that was happening, and being completely familiar with all the roads and terrain you were crossing you could tell when it was being changed? And since you were driving Cathal must have been using the Pattern to take you where ever it was you were going?"
"Or was the reality somewhat different? Charlotte was both driving and maintaining the Pattern to take you where she wanted to go, and you had no idea where that was and no familiarity with where you were going, so you wouldn't have had any idea of what was actually being manipulated?"
"In a similar vein, you can use Pattern Sight can't you, and you can do so whilst walking around a room on your hands and hold a conversation at the same time?"
This message was last edited by the player at 08:52, Fri 23 Feb.

"Point taken. I make it short she followed you order to the letter, and nothing more. Fact stays she could have told before she did something or gave us a summarize what she wanted to show at the start of the day. It is fine for you it is not fine for some of us."

"I'm not sure what you wanted to achieve with her showing. Motivating us? It does no matter. It is the past. But tomorrow is the future and I have no desire to hear another 'If you're not interested then you're welcome to return to the Mansion' or a variation of it from her. You want us to train then tell your teacher to act as teacher."

"So apart from saying, acording to you,'If you're not interested then you're welcome to return to the Mansion' she said nothing all day? The fact she may have said that suggests it was in relation to some sort of question about what was happening, so thre was some sort of context it related to?"
"Are, but when she was acting as a teacher you chose to completely ignore everything she was saying. Your own question demonstrated that quite clearly."

Cathal stares at her for moment seemingly bewildered.

"Why do think I ignored what she said. I listened to Sarah's question and the answers. I doubt that if I had asked I would have gotten the answers Sarah got." Cathal replies.

"And exactly what you do now, that it what I mean with belittling.You're insinuating me of ignoring what she said."

"So you're now telling me that after Charlotte spent 20 minutes explaining how shadow walking works you didn't say 'Or does showing shadow shift include some explanations'? Your own question implies you weren't either interested or chose to ignore her, and your're assuming that you wouldn't have got the same answers when you couldn't be bothered to at least ask the question."
"If you're going to dig yourself into a hole you could at least take responsibility for your own actions, and I'm ignoring a whole raft of things you said that you have no capability to substantiate, because you're basing everything you say on one single experience, not on any knowledge you actually posess."

Cathal does not reply, he is wasting his time his expectation for tomorrow or any following day just hit zero.

Rhiannon folded her napkin neatly and set it aside. This conversation was clearly over. Cordelia was never going to admit that her daughter was wrong in any away. She could almost be forgiven as a mother, but as a leader it was a sin. Rhiannon tried to make a substantive argument, Cordelia retreated into the trivialities to claim a technical victory. If she could Rhiannon would have quit right there and left all of them to their own devices, but there was more at stake than hurt feelings.

"Well, thank you Cordelia for a lovely dinner. Do enjoy the the rest of your evening, but I take my leave. Good night. Good night, Siobhan, and to everyone else as well."

Rhiannon stood and left the room.

Cathal takes his leave too and tries to catch up with Rhiannon.

"Interested in to a small walk. I helps me when I feel agitated." He offers.

Rhiannon had expected Cathal to join her, which is why she didn't rush. He caught up just after she made it into the lounge. "I'd love to. Just a bit, though, to get some fresh air and look at the moons."

Cathal politely offer his arm, not that he think Rhiannon needs it. But somehow he has the feeling that at this evening she needs someone to be  polity and friendly to her.

Walking a bit away from the Mansion, not to far just that the light to not disturb the view at the sky anymore.

"Yep much better after some walking." A small breeze carries the scent of the night.

"We can talk or not. Scream or punch something. Or just stare at the moon."

Sarah was less bothered by the idea of riding a horse than the others, but something Cordelia said drew her interest.

"Who is Natalya?" she asked, finally breaking her silence.

"Depending on where in the family hierarchy you fit in, she would either be an Aunt or Great Aunt. She's one of Xavier's and Tiberius's sisters, and nominally younger than both. She has a mean streak a mile wide and doesn't tolerate any form of incompetence or disobedience."
"Currently she is suffering from some form of condition associated with whatever happened to the Pattern. For both her own safety and ours we keep her heavily sedated."

Sarah nodded. "I've heard she plays pranks... of a sort." She didn't know much more than that, but given that Cordelia had been the target of the prank she'd heard about, she was curious if Cordelia would expand upon what she'd already said.

"Pranks are what she calls them, on account she thinks they're funny or amusing. The victims on the otherhand don't see them that way as they're generally designed to either embarress and/or humiliate those she perpitrates them on."

Sarah's face screwed up with discomfort.

"That sounds... unpleasant," she said. She was aware of such 'pranks' and how harmful they could be to the one on the receiving end of them.

"But... None of the rest of the family was afflicted by-- well, whatever happened to her, right? Why her, when others weren't?" It was more of a wondering than an outright question, but Sarah still asked out loud.

"That's a good question, one which we don't have a definitive answer to."
"After Dworkin, and our Grandfather, Natalya probably knows more about the Pattern than anybody else, and that includes my father. She's also very attuned to the Amber Pattern, which is what we believe the connection to be."