The encouragement is not appreciated. The encouragement, in fact, is so unexpected and jarring that it scatters all his willful concentration and shattered ambitions in equal measure, any chance at balance, inner or outer, going up in smoke. He grimaces like those words are absolutely disgusting to him.

Yet he stubbornly remains on the pole, lowering his other foot to grasp onto it and spreading his wings a little to stay upright. Not half as effortless and graceful as he means to be but he absolutely refuses to end the form on anything but his own terms in front of a heckling stranger. Who does he think he is, anyway?

"And you're some sort of expert, are you?"

Shen regrets asking almost immediately. It would be just his luck that some random tall monkey in another world also knows how to achieve peace.