on a slow boat to china (euna)

@"battleaxeShotgun"

Teddy relished his returned freedom, celebrating it with a terrible dance to an imaginary beat. "Okay, that's much better. Just don't randomly tie me up at any other point and we'll be sailing smooth from here on, ja? I mean, last dude to tie me up was my brother - it was, um, traumatic seems like the right word?" The memory of being chained and held at knifepoint made him shudder and jiggle, cringing.

He stretched himself out, all the while talking calmly and smiling. It was a near-literal impossibility for him to stop smiling for much longer than ten seconds, and he slapped his cheeks while pondering that thought. "It's okay - even if I'm only like one year old I've been through much, much worse." That gave him pause and he stared off into the ground at his feet, muttering, "...man, my childhood sucks."

Clapping on his face again, Teddy stood up straight and said with a grin, "You know, I've never been called space assassin before. Weird and uncalled for, sure, but it's pretty nice compared to 'that blue thing over there.' At least it gives me some sort of backhanded compliment. Shame I don't have space jelly assassin powers like shapeshifting though."

With a weak cough and a half-closing of his transparent eyes, Teddy transformed into a racist French caricature. He mimed taking a cigar out of his mouth in the most snobbish way possible and spoke, "It is okay. We French are used to being yelled at. It is no important, mon petit chou fleur."

A short burst of laughter followed, and Teddy was back to being himself, as opposed to being his racist caricature. He patted the girl on the head with a friendly smile, saying, "Don't mind it, don't mind it. My niece did worse at one point which is a really long story and I'm not saying more unless you ask after you tell me your name or at least what I can call you..? I mean I could probably find out some other way, but really, would you prefer to introduce yourself or have someone stalk you to find out?"

@"battleaxeShotgun"

"'Save the stalking for later...' what a great idea! I like it!" Teddy exclaimed with exaggerated liveliness more befitting of a game show host than a limp of mana. He raised one brow and grinned, half-pointing at Euna with one finger and then turning around to face the ocean. "I like how you think, Euna. Euna. Eu - na. Man, I need a catchier name."

There he stood facing the waves, snapping his fingers incessantly and muttering various names under his breath. The mention of "bad songs" instantly caught his attention, and his rhythmic snapping ceased, as did his muttering. When Euna muttered from behind him he dramatically turned his head and said, "You do realize I heard that, right? Faintly, but I heard it. Was that an invitation for me to start?"

Before he could gather enough conversational momentum to begin thiugh, Euna started to launch into interrogation mode. She proved too overwhelming for even him, which only made that perpetual smile of his grow more manic and sinister. "That's way more than one thing," he remarked, clapping once and procuring a coin from a pocket.

"Okay, since it's a long story, I'm going to flip this coin -" he began, tossing it into the air, "and if it lands on heads I go storytime."

The coin landed on his palm and went through, settling on the floor with a metallic clink showing its tailed side. He visibly showed a disappointed look for a fleeting moment, before going down on one knee to pick the coin back up. "So... no storytime, just answers."

Teddy cleared his throat multiple times, waiting for the running gag to grow old, which took the span of about eight seconds. "How it works is I'm a leftover magical trace from some parasitic entity and I am therefore the inverted version of someone else - my brother, cool guy, really - and I have no idea how it works either. I'm studying theatre, not deus ex machina. Legally, I have no idea, usable for spells, yes... age, either one year give or take a few months or twenty-two cause that's my brother's age. Wow, you ask a lot of questions."