Over the years he keeps trying.<\/p>\n
He isn\u2019t sure why he\u2019d fixated on Peter in the first place, of course, but the idea of someone turning him down<\/i> \u2014 well, that\u2019s just not done.<\/p>\n
So the Devil takes Peter out to explore the forgotten cities of the moon; and the Garden that was Lost; and to swing from a swing in the highest mountains of Tibet.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll make you into a beast,\u201d says the Devil, \u201cand teach you to write brooding, Gothic poetry, and one day I will consume you from within, and in your skin and with your name I will rule a great empire of evil.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peter swings out. He swings back in. He swings out. He swings back in.<\/p>\n
He stops.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be an astronaut,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not completely incompatible,\u201d says the Devil.<\/p>\n
Peter gives him a hard look.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell,\u201d says the Devil, \u201cI mean, you could do one, and then the other \u2014 why do you want to be an astronaut, anyway? I took you to the moon!\u201d<\/p>\n
Peter snorts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s where astronauts go!\u201d<\/i> the Devil protests.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be a ninja,\u201d Peter says.<\/p>\n
The Devil sighs.<\/p>\n
He sits down. He blows smoke into the sky. After a while Peter comes over and pats him on the head.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Over the years he keeps trying. He isn\u2019t sure why he\u2019d fixated on Peter in the first place, of course, but the idea of someone turning him down \u2014 well, that\u2019s just not done. So the Devil takes Peter out to explore the forgotten cities of the moon; and the Garden that was Lost; and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"series":[5],"class_list":["post-3470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stomping-the-world-round-chapter-4","series-stwr"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Icon_Goat.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3470"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6432,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3470\/revisions\/6432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3470"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fseries&post=3470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}