Alfred shifted his weight on the sofa so that he was leaning one shoulder against the back of it, instead of sitting straight up as he had been when he'd first undressed. He kept her hand in his as he returned his attention to the tattoos; it didn't make sense in the relatively small space at the center of his chest for them both to trace out the patterns independently.

"This section in the middle is like... like your character, or your identity. It starts with this top line — that's the nickname that I got when I first showed up at the tribe. And then this one below replaces it. Or, not replaces," he clarified. "That's not quite the right word. Adds to it. So when you read them, you read them all together, even though you get them one band at a time. And a lot of these are connected to things on this side," he said, letting go of her hand to indicate the patterns on the left side of his chest. "This is more narrative, over here, about things that happened or that I did after I joined them. The section in the middle is like... titles, I guess. That one you've got there is like... warrior, I guess," he said, brows furrowing as he tried to think of how the term would be translated. "And this one below it is like teacher."