"I don't actually want the country that successfully united all the free peoples of the world and ended the war with Morgoth to be disassembled into eight or ten lawless subparts stuck on different planets and sustained by technology they cannot reproduce. I guarantee you that no matter how clever you think you are a lot of people would die and a lot of families would be shattered and all of it would be entirely needless."

"Sorry, you ended the what now?"

"You're the reason it happened without destroying most of Doriath in the bargain, but it would have ended that day either way."

"Well, that puts the remark about wondering how Arda was still standing in perspective."

"It sounds like this Maitimo has a lot to be brought to account for," says the space Findekano, "but if you criticize him for being willing to destroy a large swath of a country in order to kill Morgoth I am going to have a hard time keeping a straight face."

"It's not that, this is a flat Arda, I wasn't expecting that sort of firepower flying around."

"Nukes didn't work."

"Yeah, Loki tried those first too."

"We can stop time within a broad radius, and then let every subatomic particle within it decay at a different rate. We don't know if it would have worked, but he suddenly decided a peace treaty on absurdly generous terms sounded like a great idea. 

We'd be happy to share how it's done lest you need to kill another one who the Tesseract can't reach. 

Findekano will be more helpful to you on the question of what to do if you explain why you're interfering at all. If it's our relationship that's objectionable, take him off to one of the lonely versions, I'll be fine. If you're concerned about the governance of the empire, what specifically about it? If you're willing to start a civil war to remove me from power we'll think more highly of you if you have a vision of what good outcome results there, beyond that in some cosmic sense balance is restored because I get what I deserve."

"Take him off to one of the lonely versions - do you hear what you're saying. Elves are supposed to have really good ears, right. We do not have an outcome in mind because we are not at that stage yet because we still cannot have a conversation on the same wavelength about the nature of the problem! Observe how we have done nothing about it yet but talk to the two of you and introduce you to people! Loki and I were not even in favor of dropping the paperweight or whatever that thing was on you!"

"We are capable of having a conversation on the same wavelength. Findekano, stop being delightful and do the thing they want from you,"

"What I want is to take advantage of the peace to make this empire thrive, and correspond with all of our counterparts to try to figure out why this world has so much more casual violence, and I would like my hair back, and I'd like people to stop debating Maitimo's fate and just settle on something for him to swear so you're happy."

"I settled for the oaths he's got. I think all the remaining low-hanging fruit has to do with giving Findekáno better options."

"Maybe. Ugh." Correspondence - "Free will incoming."

"Do we need to do anything for that?"

"Nah, just expect it in the next minute."

There it is.

He shudders. He blinks. "Cool."

"You wanna match what he's got or what?" Cam asks, aiming a thumb at Space Findekáno. "Which one even are you, Loki says you now have nicknames that are not letters of the alphabet?"

"I liked the letters of the alphabet fine but Maitimo says I'm now named Delight."

The local Findekáno nods. "Match what he's got?"

"You said you wanted your hair back."

"Yes. What he has is fine."

Bam. Complete with the braiding setup.

He smiles.

Maitimo raises an eyebrow and he walks back over so Maitimo can unbraid the ends and feel it.

"I am super confused at this point about why you let him," Delight says.

"It was a long time. Wouldn't occur to him not to, not seriously, I don't think."

FIndekáno leans into Maitimo. "You know that moment in philosophy tutorials where someone says 'we have absolute freedom! I could punch you in the face right now!' and it's just a bit silly, because you could, but in the long run at a cost to your agency - being unpredictable to yourself makes you less capable -"