“Yeah,” he said, almost shyly. She was obviously pleased with his description, but he couldn’t help but feel self-conscious about the track this conversation had taken. It was like he was explaining her to herself, but obviously anything he came up with wasn’t going to be as real and valid as what she already knew, was it? But maybe there was something a little bit charming in it, too, of hearing someone else explain the way they saw you — he wondered what she would have picked for him, had their positions been reversed, but before he could think of any way to ask such a question she’d redirected back to his tattoos.

“Oh — well, you have to read them all together,” he explained. “Because it’s not just one thing, it’s how they all work together. Like these ones,” he said, pointing to three similar bands at the top (the second, third, and forth, respectively). “Most people, if they got these, would have them a lot later. They’d be under these two, for sure, at least for men. So the order sort of tells — But — sorry, that’s not what you asked,” he said, realizing he was getting ahead of himself.

“So it’s — I don’t really know the best way to translate them all in English,” he said, as a sort of disclaimer. When he continued, he pointed out each band on the center of his chest, so that she could follow which was which. “So it’s… well, the first one’s hard to translate, but it’s like… inexperienced,” he said, with a slight flush of his cheeks. “Or… child-like, I guess. But then these three are for magic. Like student, helper, healer, but all for spellwork. With the wandless magic. Then hunter, fighter. This one is teacher. And the last one is —” here he grinned, finally having reached the part where he thought she might seem to think this made sense. “— explorer. Or — it’s not just about places, though. Maybe something more like… experimenter would be closer.”