[ Is it better or worse that neither of them ask anything and instead focus on the task they're supposed to be completing? Claude doesn't know, mostly because he also doesn't know if they've connected it to him or not. There's only so far his lack of reaction can go, he knows, before it says just as much as if he'd flinched as openly as Sylvain rightfully had at what was said - what's still being said.
Maybe it's fortunate the birds have only chanted his name even if it's still too close to leading into something else with how that mocking way they say it threatens to do. Maybe he shouldn't have thought that again for a second time when one bird laughs Shahid's laugh and follows it up with what makes you think you'll ever be good enough, you little brat? You'll never accomplish anything close to what I have! The other birds are quick to pick it up to loop it through Sylvain's thoughts while at least one continues chanting his name.
His usual nonchalance, act or otherwise, has Claude opening his mouth to question if the birds can't do better than that when it's the weakest insult of all the ones it could hurl - but he snaps it shut at the last instant. Why tempt fate?
Instead he follows that up with a muttered, ] Charming.
[ Crystals - never mind that he doesn't know where he's going exactly since Sylvain's supposed to leading to where he saw them; Claude steps forward to walk in front with the only goal there to be to not see whatever looks are being exchanged again.
A couple rounds of the chanting fade out and then a new voice joins the fray: Judith's. You had better shut that mouth before I put my boot in it, you tactless nuisance! He doesn't quite laugh, but the tension in his shoulders relaxes by degrees. Even if the annoyance in the words means that was almost certainly tied to some way he was exasperating her, it's a relief in more ways than one to hear it now. ]
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Maybe it's fortunate the birds have only chanted his name even if it's still too close to leading into something else with how that mocking way they say it threatens to do. Maybe he shouldn't have thought that again for a second time when one bird laughs Shahid's laugh and follows it up with what makes you think you'll ever be good enough, you little brat? You'll never accomplish anything close to what I have! The other birds are quick to pick it up to loop it through Sylvain's thoughts while at least one continues chanting his name.
His usual nonchalance, act or otherwise, has Claude opening his mouth to question if the birds can't do better than that when it's the weakest insult of all the ones it could hurl - but he snaps it shut at the last instant. Why tempt fate?
Instead he follows that up with a muttered, ] Charming.
[ Crystals - never mind that he doesn't know where he's going exactly since Sylvain's supposed to leading to where he saw them; Claude steps forward to walk in front with the only goal there to be to not see whatever looks are being exchanged again.
A couple rounds of the chanting fade out and then a new voice joins the fray: Judith's. You had better shut that mouth before I put my boot in it, you tactless nuisance! He doesn't quite laugh, but the tension in his shoulders relaxes by degrees. Even if the annoyance in the words means that was almost certainly tied to some way he was exasperating her, it's a relief in more ways than one to hear it now. ]