diff --git a/crates/lib/mysql_queries/src/payloads/generic_inference_args/tts_payload.rs b/crates/lib/mysql_queries/src/payloads/generic_inference_args/tts_payload.rs
index 6a3aeff9b8..482a72813c 100644
--- a/crates/lib/mysql_queries/src/payloads/generic_inference_args/tts_payload.rs
+++ b/crates/lib/mysql_queries/src/payloads/generic_inference_args/tts_payload.rs
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@ pub struct TTSArgs {
   #[serde(rename = "t")]
   pub text: String, 
   #[serde(rename = "e")] 
-  #[serde(skip_serializing_if = "Option::is_none")]
   pub voice_token: String //  varchar 32
 }
 
diff --git a/crates/service/web/storyteller_web/src/http_server/endpoints/voice_designer/enqueue_tts_request.rs b/crates/service/web/storyteller_web/src/http_server/endpoints/voice_designer/enqueue_tts_request.rs
index 079ddb8028..ecaefb3b42 100644
--- a/crates/service/web/storyteller_web/src/http_server/endpoints/voice_designer/enqueue_tts_request.rs
+++ b/crates/service/web/storyteller_web/src/http_server/endpoints/voice_designer/enqueue_tts_request.rs
@@ -128,8 +128,8 @@ let ip_address = get_request_ip(&http_request);
 
 // package as larger component args should always have an embedding token ..
 let inference_args = TTSArgs {
-  text: request.text,
-  voice_token: request.embedding_token
+  text: request.text.clone(),
+  voice_token: request.embedding_token.clone()
 };
 
 // create the inference args here