"Congratulations, people, on being probably persuadable to suck slightly less than you were going to."

She snorts. "More to the point, congratulations gay people on being less difficult to persuade to move here."

"Does Singularity even have any - it's not an available concept -"

"...I'm not sure I understand the question?"

"...like, it would surprise me if there were people in Singularity who identified as 'gay' compared to just 'not good at marriage' or 'doomed to a forbidden love' or whatever you like, because 'gay' is not a thing."

"In Valinor I discovered there wasn't a word for 'bisexual,' in Quenya, just assorted pejoratives for people attracted to the same gender at all. What's sane non-homophobic Quenya for bisexual?"

He translates. "We don't have the same categories either but the mapping's at least closer."

"Yeah, different cultures having different arbitrary categorizations makes sense, as opposed to having zero words for any relevant concepts that aren't slurs. Anyway, I think the plan was to recruit from our ex-Arda Earth, not Singularity, for gay people, so whether the Singularity people conceptualize them as 'gay' or not is less important than that they don't harass them over it."

"That should be doable."

"Although it could conceivably be funny if they described someone as 'bad at marriage' to their face who was married to someone of the same gender."

"HIlarious, but let's aim for 'not' all the same."

"Agreed. Have I ever mentioned I'm really glad your Arda's not horribly homophobic, because I am."

"It is kind of convenient!"

"And given the other dynamics in play it would be much more annoying for Edie to want to punch people for being nasty to you about it!"

"Yes, I really really prefer Edie not want to punch anyone!"

"Lost cause, darling, but I'm good at not acting on the impulse."

"Who's been punchable?"

She ticks off her fingers. "The Valar, the Singularity Valar, the Ozymandias Valar, the Mirror Valar, Ozymandias Elu Thingol, Ozymandias hella other people, a ton of people I met before your brother ever summoned me..."

"You haven't met the vast majority of these people!"

"I haven't met any of the Melkors either but them I want to tear their throats out with my bare hands and/or teeth."

"If only that were an efficient way of being rid of them."

"My rage is vast and irrational," she says, kissing him on the cheek.

"Let's get the Erus, too."

"As long as we either evacuate the universes first or confirm that the Erus aren't fundamentally supporting them in some way that would cause catastrophic failure once they're dead, sure."

"I will acknowledge the necessity of that step but it takes some fun out of my vengeance fantasies."