(Video; UN: sing of the rage)

[glorioussong]

(Three days have passed since his arrival. Three days spent in confinement while he recovers from...something. He recalls white powder on his fingertips - Patroclus would know the name of it - but that's all. Now he is in his benefactor's wing. Vannozza Spina.

As ever, he is blunt.)

I do not care for this welcome. (It feels like a ploy to pull the wool over his eyes. Achilles has never fallen for ploys and he won't start now.) This is where I introduce myself. I am Achilles Peleides and if you are at war, show me where the men are fighting.

(He will drink wine and party after.)

Comments

[glorioussong]

(Achilles is one of the most stubborn. He has had to place himself against the gods and their destiny for him.)

Prince Achilles if you must with titles. I prefer Achilles.

I was ready to command twenty-five hundred men. Now I drink wine? You must admit the difference is startling.

[notsansa]

[ A prince. Of course. That makes so much sense with that ego... She's not falling into any traps and calling him by just his name. ]

Many pardons, Your Grace. I would not dare to speak on such familiar terms with one so highborn, for I am nobody of worth.

I can't speak to what it must be like as a warrior, only that if you seek out enemies with swords, you will be found wanting. Those here conceal their blades behind honeyed words.

[glorioussong]

(But he prefers his name! Unless she is an egotistical king posing as a young woman.)

I said what I prefer. If you call me otherwise, I will not answer.

(Yes, he is that sort of boyman.)

I find those honeyed words stop when lives are placed on a knife's edge. It's all a farce; the act of a juggler or a mummer.

[notsansa]

[ Immediate confusion... What do they call royalty where he's from? Heck, she'd honored him more than he deserved, he should have just been 'your highness'. 'Your grace' is reserved for kings! This feels tedious, but she doesn't favor ignorance on her own part, and she can't get a reputation for being rude when she's so new. ]

Forgive me, Prince Achilles. Might I ask how they refer to royalty where you hail? 'Your Grace' is an apt title for a crowned king where I am from, and as you are also a great soldier, I was only paying my respects. Would you prefer Your Highness, then, as befits a prince where I am from?

[ She can't always just say his name, who talks like that... ]

I'm afraid that solution would only work if the knives outnumbered the lives. In this case, I fear they do not.