Think you'll conclude this is for real?

It'd be an entirely reasonable strategy to just try to wait me out.

And convincingly play five of you, well enough there are no mistakes, and you can verify he didn't try this before?

I can't afford to be wrong. Do you really want me to sit here thinking up elaborate ways this could still be fake.

I want you to someday believe it's real, but I acknowledge the idiocy of arguing the point with you. 

Sigh. Thanks.

And I long ago gave up on the principle of 'I won't kiss my boyfriends while they think I'm Sauron."

I don't - don't exactly think -

- I'm juggling a weird superposition of opinions, here.

Yep. And you're brilliant, and I trust you, and however you want to navigate that is up to you.

Honestly I would not have objected if people had kissed me while I was shut down either but I don't blame any of you for finding that unappealing.

It did occur to me that that was probably less boring than most activities similarly undemanding of thought, but. Yeah. No.

Hadn't occurred to Aydanci, he made the most aggrieved face when I remarked on it...

Maitimo had a good go at testing the upper bounds of my willingness to do things that may look like raping my tortured-into-insanity boyfriends but are actually - if you think about it very hard - merely extremely questionable. I guess if something convinces you to go catatonic again I will keep this conversation in mind.

I'm pretty sure it wouldn't actually look like that in my case? It would just look like you were doing all the work.

Perhaps you should have cultivated a romantic circle who loves you for your mind a little less, if you want them to want you without it.

Nah, I endorse this tradeoff.

Good! I think your romantic circle is perfect and requires no improvement!

I love you.

I love you. I missed you. I'm sorry we weren't there, I'm sorry we didn't have better escape plans, I'm sorry we didn't have better means of suicide -

I could've had my Charp kill me. Just - hesitated too long -

He hugs him. Oh, Kib.

Hug. Sigh. And then I'd probably be some teenage girl in the lost world trying to figure out whether Quenya is a real language or not.

We'd have petitioned the Valar to open the portals again, probably made ourselves a right nuisance about it, and then that teenage girl'd be swept up by a slightly hysterical Aydanci and the two of us would be. Um. In an awkward spot.

Yeah. I told Maitimo that Aydanci is the only person with a rational sexual orientation.

I bet if you ask the human me or the human Maitimo they'd happily be switched to having Aydanci's. The Elf ones, though - we spent so long knowing that was what would happen if we ever slipped up - and Maitimo's now got additional reasons to react really badly to mind-altering, even if it'd - even if we'd owe it to you-