"I can't imagine Eru's sitting down there with the strings of creation going 'who made that sound? Man? Elf? Illusion of Loki's?' On the other hand they say he's sitting down there going 'these people who're fucking, are they a boy and a girl. Boom! Sorry, suckers!' so maybe the guy's got a lot of spare time."

"A boy and a girl Quendi in particular. You are the only people who have this problem. Men don't, Dwarves don't, orcs don't. Maiar I'm not sure what the rules are but they don't always."

"Orcs don't? Huh. I would've definitely expected them to. And Melian's not attached to Elwë?"

"Well, I don't think orcs do, I haven't extensively quizzed any - should probably do that before the kids grow up, however awkward it is - but they don't show any signs of it. Melian's one case; I'm not aware of other married Maiar and at least some of them have sex lives."

"I'm assuming only the evil ones? Since 'do Eru's will' is a big part of the deal for most of them. Also they could just pick a gender combo that doesn't break the rules." They're back at her place.

Into her place they go. "My evidence here is Thuringwethil, who bills herself as a neutral party rather than an evil one; who mentioned that she could in fact switch gender but said she hadn't, so unless Thauron sometimes went around female..." Possibly this hair over here should be in fewer braids. Yes?

Definitely. No braids at all sounds ideal. "I'm sorry, I'm going to need a couple centuries to stop being amused at the mental image of Thuringwethil talking about her sex life with you. And a couple millennia for the ice-sculpture werewolf thing."

Giggle. Unbraid unbraid. Pet pet. Neck kiss.

Lots of kiss locations. "So you got here from Asgard," she says, "and landed with the Nolofinweans, who presumably told you Elves Never Ever Ever outside marriage..."

"I got a distinct impression of scary levels of monogamy, yes."

"It's the law." She shrugged. "When the Valar doomed us all the people I know said 'well fuck' first and then 'well, at least they've washed their hands of us'. Not even sure we paid too much for it. You are one smoking Sauron-killer, Loki."

"Icy," she says. "I am an icy Sauron-killer."

At this point they cease discussing politics.

Oh good.

The party wraps up around sunrise.

And this is about when Loki is prepared to produce a kiss goodbye that is actually a kiss goodbye instead of a kiss wander back to bed. (It has been a long damn time.)

And her companion will delightedly wander off but not before telling Loki that there are a whole lot of people who want a turn and she can arrange to make it a whole lot more if Loki likes and if she happens to get all the way down the list here's my address, yeah?

Loki thanks her for the list! It is a useful list. Gosh, she might not even have to pace herself too much like this.

Maybe one more kiss goodbye but it really actually is a kiss goodbye, and she heads home.

Yaaaaaaay the dry spell is broken. Thank you, she tells Maitimo.

For what? But there's some accompanying humor.

My lovely party the other day. I did not remember to thank you at the time. I was distracted. Also I'm told the werewolf popsicles were your idea.

You put a lot of work into that fight scene, I felt like it deserved some appreciation.

...I think I felt more appreciated before you phrased it that way, but thank you anyway.

We're having a meeting this afternoon to discuss logistics and timetables before Father jumps back out of contact. You are invited.