"I didn't think of identical or not as inherently distinguishing, because Elves can change their appearance a fair bit anyway, but - very well might be. I don't know of any others."

"And being you, you probably would."

"Probably."

"How much can Elves change their appearances, anyway?"

"Uh, Tyelca's not naturally blonde, she just likes it that way, people very occasionally change genders if they got it wrong somehow but you have to feel very strongly for a long time that you're in the wrong body to work a change like that - I kept pushing for taller because I wanted to have more responsibilties and be taken more seriously, I probably have three or four inches I wouldn't otherwise -"

"Does that take active concentration or just - wanting to be taller? How long is a long time - is it easier to do something like hair color, could she change what was already grown out or did she have roots for a while -"

"Can't change what's already grown out, it requires - some level of active attention? Not a lot of it, but like sitting with a particular posture - takes a while to get the habit and then it's nearly automatic but still present -"

"Huh. I probably wouldn't do much with that cosmetically if I had it, I've always been fine with how I look."

"You're very pretty," she says instantly. "I don't do much with it now, either - my hair's red of its own accord - but children usually experiment."

"...thank you."

"....mmm?"

"You said I was pretty so I said thank you?"

"Oh. You're welcome."

"Is that not a customary reaction to compliments or something?"

"No, sorry, I'd just lost my train of thought."

"Aha. - Humans sometimes dye their hair in colors hair does not naturally do, can Elves do that? Blue or whatever?"

"...maybe? I'm not sure anyone's tried - I can't think how to do it but I haven't given it much thought - probably couldn't do a color biology can't produce, but biology might be able to produce lots of hair colors that aren't naturally occurring."

"Birds can be all kinds of colors that mammals can't, and butterflies and stuff - would you have to know what actual pigment you were doing or just the color -?"

"Actual pigment - you need a lot of precision when you're starting out on something like that -"

"Humans do skin decorations too but I have not seen anybody with stripes, undoable or unfashionable?"

"Unfashionable - you can do a fair bit of skin color variation trivially but that'd just be ugly -"

"Hm, really? I've seen some very tasteful henna -" Like so - "And humans get freckles without trying, do Elves not -"

"Maybe you'll start a trend. I haven't seen any of that."

"And people do all kinds of arty tattoos, henna's temporary but tattoos aren't by default - some tattoos are tacky and horrible but some of them aren't -"

"I could see people finding that interesting, especially since you could modify it easily enough."