tushanshu | [Handset] (Audio) ❅ The Third

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[Handset] (Audio) ❅ The Third

(Encrypted to Valdis)

May I speak with you privately about a certain matter...? (Her voice is prim, proper and to the point. She is hiding her hope in case she is destined for disappointment.)

(/)

What stories are common in your world? Were you raised with tales of adventure? Romance? Or tales meant for teaching?

(Books were an important part of her life at Winterfell - and she passed much of her time in King's Landing and the Eyrie with them as well. When Joffrey and Sweetrobin weren't bothering her, that is.)

Do you believe them true? I used to believe heroes existed and that all evil was punished. (Her tone is heavy with satire, though it is directed at herself.) Children are foolish.

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Yet monsters win many battles before they are conquered. (That is what makes them monsters, really. If they were easily conquerable, they wouldn't be nightmares incarnate.)

A...Monkey King? I have not heard that tale.

Doesn't mean they'll win every battle.

He's a trickster hero, of a sort. Sun Wukong. He ends up bound in service to a monk and they go on a quest together.

Fortunately. Or the world would crumble.

(There is good in the world - small sparks of it. Those are the things that keep it growing.)

What sort of quest? Are they successful?

It's a pilgrimage. To retrieve sacred texts from the land far to the west of where they started.

A dangerous journey, then, for there must be some who wish to protect the texts?

More often they're menaced by monsters and demons, and they have to trick or fight their way out of trouble. Once they reach their destination, getting the texts is no problem.

They were very brave and they deserved their reward. (She pauses.) Not all tales should have a happy ending, but I am partial to them.

I like happy endings. There are few enough of them in the real world.

Expecting a happy ending and making one for yourself are two different things, I have found. The second is more likely to work.

[Gene laughs, and there's not much humor in it.] That's true. I'd rather put my faith in the latter. What's the saying...? "To get something done right, you need to do it yourself"?

I shall be more active in my future if that is the case. (She makes a soft sound of amusement.) Being a pawn can only end in two ways.

[It's lucky that this is audio, because Gene's face freezes before settling into a frown. He'd been a pawn. He'd always been a pawn, of someone - of his mother, or Zhang, or the Makluans. He's finally becoming his own person here, and he's actually liking it.]

And neither of them are any good, [he says dryly.]

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[Handset] (Audio) ❅ The Third

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