"Alright. I'm sure he'll complain to everyone in Tirion next week about what a jerk I am."

He'll probably have company.

"Universal popularity in Tirion is not really one of the things I've been striving for."

Naturally.

It really bothers me that you don't like me!!

Well she doesn't hate him anymore but as long as she has volition over who she likes it'll take some more doing. If Chelsea were here she'd have enough to work with but Chelsea's dead.

He will just have to win the war and make the empire really nice afterwards. 

That'll probably do it unless he's sufficiently odious in the meantime that she just doesn't want to hang out near him anymore when it's no longer urgent that she dispense tech in a centralized fashion.

He sends her what intensely regretting three hundred fifty years of horrible crimes feels like.

I'm not going to do awful things. I'm just worried you'll interpret all things I do that way.

Gosh, why might she be predisposed to such interpretations.

He's still here, isn't he.

And there can be no reason unrelated to Maitimo's fundamental likeability as a person to explain that? Pull the other one.

Findekano said to him once that implacable hostility was the only mood he didn't tend to poke, and therefore the only one people could adopt if they didn't want him poking them, and that this was maybe a character flaw he should address.

Thank you very much for your help, Elspeth.

He's welcome. Sorta.

Findekano -

Yeah?

I think I need a hug. 

If he doesn't feel like coming up with more arguments for why she should like him she will go off and do something else. Maybe she'll do something actually fun like ballet.

Elves think her dancing is stunningly pretty!

Oh! Yay. She can dance more often. She likes dancing. A vampire with very exacting standards taught her so she's good at it.

And they like pretty things. They are full of compliments.

They have a nuclear weapon. They should probably test it somewhere other than Angband, but on the other hand a test might give the Enemy a warning.

If they try to deploy it over Angband and it's a dud is that substantially worse than trying flying a plane over Angband without a nuke in it which they already did?

There's a small chance the Enemy'd be able to notice what the content of a dud was, but it doesn't seem likely.

Maitimo lets her know that he's asked for volunteers.

Gosh. If he has also taken the step of preferentially using them she might be mildly impressed.

He asks Findekáno for another hug. When he explains the reason Findekáno cannot stop laughing. 

Elspeth is quite unperturbed. She dispenses technology; she dances; she sings. Her hair gets floor length and she chops off two feet of it.

The Elves think this is Pretty Fucked Up, and say so.