canon is Orson Scott Card's Ender's Shadow series

[satyagraha]

You come to my most pathetic moment and use that to decide to "play" me? I should question your devotion. All I have done, I have done to further my cause. I have done it for the good of India.

You think yourself worthy to use the name satyagraha? You can hardly pronounce it, let alone understand it. Luckily, I understand it enough for the both of us. I will bear what needs to be borne while you focus on the tiny giant who shares this headspace.

Comments

[empath_wiggin]

Sometimes you find your strength through your worst moments. It's the crap that you go through that really makes you strong.

Maybe that's what your mun is going for.

[satyagraha]

Not this moment. Not when I've led my people to slaughter and had to surrender to your brother's "Free People."

[empath_wiggin]

I'm sorry. I can't even say that it was necessary, because that's probably bullshit.

I will say that "Free People" is full of crap.

[satyagraha]

Exactly. Finally, someone who doesn't believe the lies of Hegemon Peter Wiggin. [She says it like even the name just smells.]

[empath_wiggin]

I've heard Peter's shit all my life. I know how much of a liar he is in absolutely everything. I've probably absorbed more of his bullshit than anyone.

[She sighs.] I just wish I would have done something about it.

[satyagraha]

Instead you're off babysitting the world's precious Ender.

[A pause.]

No offense.

[empath_wiggin]

Yeah, well. Sometimes I wish I hadn't done that either. My life seems to be a string of bad decisions.

[She cracks a small smile.]

No offense taken. It's a fair point.

[satyagraha]

So tell me, since that's where I'll end up headed. What's interstellar travel like?

[empath_wiggin]

Unsettling, to be completely honest. You start off, and then end up where you're going only a few weeks or months later, and decades have gone by. The actual travel is lovely, I love watching the stars and planets go by, but the relative timeline is... strange.

[satyagraha]

I can see that being discomforting.

[empath_wiggin]

It's also a pain when you're trying to keep up with history. I have to read so many books when we land.

[satyagraha]

You've missed all the Martel and Lincoln essays too.

[empath_wiggin]

Oh, man. I'm so far behind. [She laughs.] The perils of being a time-and-space traveling historian.

[satyagraha]

But think of all the histories you'll write in the future, about the colonies.

[empath_wiggin]

I know. And really, somehow, that makes it all worth it. Not to mention confusing the hell out of people who're wondering how the same person can be writing histories for thousands of years.

[satyagraha]

Small minds live to be confused.

[empath_wiggin]

And it can be so frelling fun, too.

[There's a grin on her face that would remind just about anyone that she's no less a Wiggin than her brothers.]

[satyagraha]

It's been... a long time since I did anything for fun.

[empath_wiggin]

You should. It doesn't have to be much, it doesn't have to take much time, but you have to take care of yourself before you can take care of other people. Learned that the hard way.

[satyagraha]

When you've put yourself in the position to take care of millions of other people, it's hard to reverse that position.

[empath_wiggin]

I haven't been there, but I get it. It might be hard, but think of it this way. If you don't take care of yourself, you won't be there to take care of your people. It doesn't take much time. Just a few moments of happiness.

[satyagraha]

[Virlomi pauses, then takes a step back and does a cartwheel, coming up giggling.]

[empath_wiggin]

[Valentine laughs cheerfully, eying the floor for a moment, and doing a tumble of her own.]

Exactly! Now, do you feel at least a bit better?

[satyagraha]

I feel a whole lot sillier, that's for sure.

[empath_wiggin]

Nothing wrong with being silly. I think we all need to be silly more than we are.

[satyagraha]

Us Battle School kids especially. Including you and your brother amongst that group.

[empath_wiggin]

There's so little that we were able to be silly about that we have to learn how to be silly now.

I probably got a better deal than most of you all who were up there. Peter's just an ass.

[satyagraha]

Well, Peter's the ass who's going to be in charge of everything planetside.

[empath_wiggin]

Unfortunately. And that's my fault. Sometimes I wonder if I really created the monster instead of holding him back.

[satyagraha]

Events were set in motion that were inevitable. Maybe he wouldn't have ended up as Hegemon, but he still would be the monster he is.

[empath_wiggin]

You have a point. He's been a monster long than I've been alive. That was his own decision, not mine. I still wonder, though. It seems my life is a series of bad choice.