"I knew enough to be pretty impressed. Not sure if he's nonchalant about it by habit or out of self-flagellation at how he won his war..."

"Well, it was more than a hundred years ago. And got him killed."

"He didn't mention that part."

"Some asshole with economic incentives to keep summoning a secret shot him as revenge."

"As revenge? How - disappointing."

Sigh. 

"Some people are assholes," she shrugs.

"Yeah."

"So that's what turned a manageable-sized crush into something large enough to cause significant moping?"

"Tyelcormo needs to mind his own business. It's not really significant moping. It's - nonzero moping, I'll grant that."

"Tyelcormo cares and worries about you."

"I know. This just isn't an occasion where it's very helpful. ...he is not interested but he's not categorically impossible to seduce, and I should probably just make up my mind one way or the other..."

"It might help if you knew more about how he gets along with your alt."

"I assume, ah, professionally? They were in the middle of a war, there's no version of me who wouldn't shut this down immediately if it happened in the middle of a war."

"Yes, but 'professional' is not a comprehensive description."

"Don't ask on my behalf but if it happened to come up and be more informative than 'professionally' I'd be interested in hearing it."

"Does it count as asking on your behalf if, because we had this conversation, I'm now genuinely curious for my own sake."

"You are welcome to be curious for your own sake."

"Noted."

"I'm pretty sure if I fix everything in the multiverse then it'll be workable, I just don't know if it'll be workable sooner."

"Not sure I want to bet the multiverse is finite."

"By the time I am the ruler of an empire spanning at least twelve dimensions and a hundred worlds and all of them are lovely places in the process of having immortal populations who want for nothing, I think if I ask Cam on a date he'll say yes. But that's a high bar and I cannot figure out why it's that high!"

"Maybe it's because he hates himself?"

"That's part of it."

"...I think his you was involved with the whole 'extract oaths, hole Valinor' project. That. Might have something to do with it."

"It was the right decision."