Yeah. Snuggle. Me too.

How's he doing? Any better?

They think they'll have use of one of their hands in another couple days. They've been pretty focused on making that happen.

He sighs. I desperately want to give him a hug even though that'd make things worse. 

She nods and hugs him. Yeah. It's going to be a while before anyone can, though.

He hugs her to vicariously hug Maitimo. I was expecting it to be a couple hundred years, it's fine if it's longer.

She chuckles, leaning into the hug. That's definitely a while.

Well, I was expecting it'd be that long before I'd want to hug him. Because they left us to die on the Ice.

Nod, squeeze.

...tell me more about how they are with people? Because there's something they told me that I'm trying to work out whether I should tell you or not - I think they wanted me to and I'm not sure if that makes it a better idea or a worse one.

Usually he is really good at making everyone he interacts with stronger, and being what they need. He has some weaknesses - mostly the standard Feanorian set, he has issues with authority - but everyone adored him, back in Tirion.

That helps less than I'd like.

They said they tried to stop you from being left.

I'm afraid I don't know what you're looking for. 

- he tried to stop his father from burning the ships? Are you sure?

Solemn nod. That's what they said, yeah.

Might have said it either way.

Nod. I can vouch that they clearly regret what happened to you. And I haven't noticed them lying about anything but things they have every right to lie about. But I can't vouch for that one.

Okay. I might ask him later. It matters to me, even if it didn't matter in the end. 

Nod. Hug.

I should definitely try to find some time to figure out what the deal is with that... their approach to working with people, but I've noticed some cultural things that seem related, I bet I'm going to need lots of context to work out the things I'm wondering about.

Can you expand on that?

How they approach things seems pretty creepy to me sometimes, and I'm not sure how much of that is them, how much is Angband, and how much is that Eldar handle power and authority very, very differently than kobolds do. And I think at lot of it - probably most, maybe nearly all - is cultural, and if that's true I want to know how it works.

Probably. Maitimo has the trust of his people and they'll do what he asks of them and - if he didn't burn the ships - he'd never ever abuse that, and so it's good for everyone. Is that different than how kobolds are?

Not exactly? But it's clear they expect to be able to ask them, to do nearly anything, and that's very different. Kobold chiefs can tell people to do things, but if they do that very much outside of an emergency they'll start losing people from the tribe.

Ah. No, Maitimo gives so much of himself to people that everyone generally feels happy at the chance to do something for him. He can ask a lot of them because of that.

To the point where they feel comfortable saying that they'd find twelve people to go live with me even if their siblings decided I wasn't safe. Thats- probably them wanting to feel more in control of the situation, actually, now that I think of it. But still creepy that that's the solution they reach for, to either of those problems.

Are you worried that the people'd be coerced? Or just that, by speaking for them, he was talking in a sort of way that in your world people mostly talk like if they don't respect others?

Sort of both of those? I don't think me and twelve strangers chosen for willingness to go live on another world would be a very stable situation at all, even if it didn't start out coercive it could easily have ended up being, and yes, if you're Speaking for someone you really ought to be more careful than that. If it's just something like 'let me see if I can think of someone, I can probably make that happen', that's okay, but saying it like it's guaranteed? That'd almost count as violence by itself, among kobolds.