who you're meant to be isn't who you are today

like the fact shen not only throws his usual knives at master thundering rhino here, he also throws the entire sword he was fighting with (i'd always wondered what happened to it, since he doesn't have it in hand anymore by the time master rhino returns his attack)

and master rhino is briefly caught off-guard by it once he Notices after blocking the throwing knives. but he just steels himself a second later and knocks it away with his horn

“A rule-breaking imbecile to the very end. Very well.” Then, a touch more loftily, “I’m afraid I’m not familiar with that no doubt shining repository of paternal love. What happened to you once outside of my line of sight during the massacre is beyond my capacity to know. Had you simply succumbed to my blade as a senseless infant, in fact, it would have proven to be quite a boon for me. I’d dare to claim I wouldn’t be here.”

“How did you even get here anyway? How are you still alive?”

Something here in Shen’s face changes quite starkly, surprise perhaps, confusion more likely. He regards Po for a long moment in silence, straightening and letting his mean-spirited mirth die away. In the end, it’s an oddly thoughtful, if numb, look he’s left with, and that uncharacteristic consideration carries into his voice when he finally responds.

“...What do you think ‘here’ is, panda?”

Ah— Po freezes, and up his rarely-used defenses go, a facet of theirs he assumes must be obvious to someone as guarded as Shen.

“Why?”

As he’d feared, it’s this which proves to be the wrong answer, though in this moment he can not imagine what could have been the right one. Shen smiles a familiar smile, all spiteful amusement and vitriol and trembling only slightly in his evident fatigue.

“Why— oh, do let me include you in the secret, then— poor thing, it must be so troubling for you to be so terribly uninformed, after all— I arrived here because I didn’t survive. I am here as a permanent resident, if you will, and so is your poor, wretched father.”

“He's not,” Po interrupts. “I know he's not— you’re thinking of the wrong dad..! It's not that one— it's the one who found me and raised me after you— you did your thing. He’s not supposed to be here. Something dragged him here against his will, and that’s why I’m here. I’m here to take him back home.”

It was the first time he had ever seen someone cook dinner on an elephant, and despite himself, Shen was transfixed. He waited, not all too purposely, for the Soothsayer to notice him, to see his bewildered expression and move to explain. She did, in fact, notice him. She just didn’t explain.

“What on earth is that?” He had finally resigned himself to beginning the discussion.

“Rice,” she answered matter-of-factly, giving it a stir.

“I know what rice is,” Shen snapped, and here he gestured at the elephant itself, who was now holding the pot in its hands, staring upon him with mild interest. “I meant that.”

“Shen, you and I both know there’s nothing in this room you don’t know the name for.” Here he noticed her gaze had rolled up to focus on him, a smile on her lips, but thickly and infuriatingly knowing. Typical. “Why don’t you try using your words?”

“A patent exaggeration,” he countered testily. “This is your home— you have scads of divination tools lying around with names and uses for which I haven’t the slightest inkling.”