With Nelyo? Nah.

Thanks for mentioning it anyway, though.

No problem.

Flying, yes.

Yep!

Still need to figure out what to do with the other host. With kobolds it'd be very obvious that I was leaving the tribe, and most of the time there'd naturally be some warning, time to make it right - making myself stay when I could just leave sounds pretty unpleasant, though.

Can't help you there.

Yeah, I'm mostly just thinking aloud.

Do they know they hurt you?

...maybe? Quendi don't pay as much attention as kobolds, that's kind of part of the problem here.

I think they pay attention to different stuff. Kobolds would probably have as much trouble with one Quendi around.

Maybe.

It makes sense that completely different species would have completely different cues.

I mean, we also have people whose job it is to keep an eye on everybody and make sure they're doing okay; that was my job back before I got exiled. On top of everybody in the tribe paying more attention in general than people do here. I don't know that we would've been perfect at it, but I think we'd've done okay.

I don't actually think you're being fair. Tens of thousands of people died very recently, we are fighting a war, and there are a thousand times as many of us to start with and we don't have people to spare to spend all their time making sure everyone loves each other. It's not a Quendi versus kobolds thing, it's a priorities thing and a preferred-size-of-societies thing.

She sighs and drops a few dozen feet of altitude. Sure.

You're definitely not gonna get along with them if you decide the problem is what they are. Not saying you should get along with them, but if you want to at all, that just isn't gonna work.

...oh.

I didn't mean it's unchangeable. Quendi culture things are still Quendi things.

They're not paying attention to the stuff you need people to pay attention to. That's a problem regardless of whether it's because they're at war or because they're paying attention to different stuff or because they're generally inattentive.

Yes, exactly. And telling them that feels like going out of my way for them when I really don't want to, if they really cared they'd be paying enough attention to notice.

You get an exception to all of this, by the way. I know you care.

That's nice, but I am not a big fan of 'if someone really cared about this they would just notice it' because I definitely don't ever ever do that.

Well - remember how kobolds are social? That's a lot of what that means, is that we look out for each other; not having that, or feeling like I don't, is pretty awful for me - very vulnerable. But it's something I need in general, not from any one person, and I like you; if I'm going to be friends with you I'm going to have to put a little more work into letting you know what I need, but that's fine, it's worth the effort. Having to do extra work every time I need it is different, though - I need that safety to just be there, and if I have to work for it all the time, it's not.

That makes sense. Is the other kobold okay?

They'd be a mess if they weren't on the stress plant, but that covers for a lot of stuff. I can't take it, it's too risky with all the magic I have.

And does having them around help?

Mmhmm.

That's good.