Achilles' smile is a little terse, but it's still friendly, and his words are flattering as ever. Well no, not flattering: Kind. He always seems like he means what he says when it comes to Teddy's musical skill; it makes Teddy duck her head a little, a little uncharacteristically shy in the face of it for no special reason. She thinks it's a little bit the way he speaks in general: it's so much more descriptive to be told you're gifted by Apollo than being told that your singing is good or even beautiful.
"Of course," they say with a little incline of their head and fall in beside him, taking a long breath, inhaling the smell of cedar and oak. "Golden-throated," they say softly, smiling a little at the ground. "I like that. It makes me sound like a sort of a bird." They lift a hand, mimicking a tour guide. "Ah, yes, up on your left, the golden-throated Theodora, rare in this country."
Teddy doesn't use his given name very often. That is to say, at all. But if it's the name of a bird, it's sufficiently distant, and it sounds a little more official. Somehow he doesn't think Achilles will go around telling everyone. If he asks, he'll explain.
"They tell me it's better to carve the trees first with the sigils of her arcana and Vagn's sigil, and I'm handy with a knife, so I could help with that bit, too. I used to burn designs into wood, at home, and that's easier, in a way, than carving, but I don't think it'd be too easy to do here. Not without dragging along hot coals or something."
Teddy falls quiet again for a long moment afterwards, squinting ahead down the trail in the name of scanning for these sacred trees. "I didn't -- " She glances up at Achilles and back, uncertain. "When they told us to decide between the forest and the waters, I -- likely none of us -- knew this is what would happen. But I keep feeling like we were asked to decide on a woman's death."
no subject
"Of course," they say with a little incline of their head and fall in beside him, taking a long breath, inhaling the smell of cedar and oak. "Golden-throated," they say softly, smiling a little at the ground. "I like that. It makes me sound like a sort of a bird." They lift a hand, mimicking a tour guide. "Ah, yes, up on your left, the golden-throated Theodora, rare in this country."
Teddy doesn't use his given name very often. That is to say, at all. But if it's the name of a bird, it's sufficiently distant, and it sounds a little more official. Somehow he doesn't think Achilles will go around telling everyone. If he asks, he'll explain.
"They tell me it's better to carve the trees first with the sigils of her arcana and Vagn's sigil, and I'm handy with a knife, so I could help with that bit, too. I used to burn designs into wood, at home, and that's easier, in a way, than carving, but I don't think it'd be too easy to do here. Not without dragging along hot coals or something."
Teddy falls quiet again for a long moment afterwards, squinting ahead down the trail in the name of scanning for these sacred trees. "I didn't -- " She glances up at Achilles and back, uncertain. "When they told us to decide between the forest and the waters, I -- likely none of us -- knew this is what would happen. But I keep feeling like we were asked to decide on a woman's death."