The line about being a leader of men, that, Vrenille clocks immediately, is the voice of experience speaking. Not something hypothetical, not a belief based on watching others, but something first hand and lived, something Zhao has been through.
It fills out Vrenille's mental picture of him that much more, pieces of a puzzle slotting into place, a fair idea now of the image it's revealing. A family that holds wealth and power and leadership inside an urban grey zone--a family business one might say, with tongue inserted firmly in cheek. It's so much more polite than calling it organised crime. He doesn't feel the need to probe it with questions just now though--it's something he can simply accept. Even if it was present tense rather than past, he could accept it. He's very good at accepting people as they are.
"My guild leader's a tactician," he offers. "Where we go, the missions we take, the battle plans, the parameters we work in, it's all down to him. He'd send me on a lotta errands back home, fact finding, recon, things like that. So I saw some of the workings of it. I always thought, I can never do what he does. I dunno how anyone can do what he does. The weight of making sure we all come home safe each time," he shakes his head.
"'Course this place is different. The kinda calculus it requires. You'll be surprised how much it asks for though--strategic thinking, tactical choices." It's a word to the wise, something it helps to start factoring in early.
"So far as C.R. Eator goes, there's hypocrisy there, sure, but I reckon it's not just that. I think it's desperation. This whole 'deceit gene' they're supposed to be trying to find? I mean it's obviously nonsense. But just 'cause it's a farce doesn't mean it's not an obsession too."
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It fills out Vrenille's mental picture of him that much more, pieces of a puzzle slotting into place, a fair idea now of the image it's revealing. A family that holds wealth and power and leadership inside an urban grey zone--a family business one might say, with tongue inserted firmly in cheek. It's so much more polite than calling it organised crime. He doesn't feel the need to probe it with questions just now though--it's something he can simply accept. Even if it was present tense rather than past, he could accept it. He's very good at accepting people as they are.
"My guild leader's a tactician," he offers. "Where we go, the missions we take, the battle plans, the parameters we work in, it's all down to him. He'd send me on a lotta errands back home, fact finding, recon, things like that. So I saw some of the workings of it. I always thought, I can never do what he does. I dunno how anyone can do what he does. The weight of making sure we all come home safe each time," he shakes his head.
"'Course this place is different. The kinda calculus it requires. You'll be surprised how much it asks for though--strategic thinking, tactical choices." It's a word to the wise, something it helps to start factoring in early.
"So far as C.R. Eator goes, there's hypocrisy there, sure, but I reckon it's not just that. I think it's desperation. This whole 'deceit gene' they're supposed to be trying to find? I mean it's obviously nonsense. But just 'cause it's a farce doesn't mean it's not an obsession too."