"...keep your braids crossed?"

"There are hairstyles for hoping for good luck! It's a silly old superstition but it has some staying power if only because if you're wearing one people'll know to wish you well!"

"That's cute. Humans say 'keep your fingers crossed', for some reason, it doesn't even have the effect of people wishing luck - same gesture is used by small children to symbolically excuse themselves for lying or invalidate promises they're making."

"Now I'm imagining an Elf society where oaths and marriages didn't go through if you kept your fingers crossed."

"Everyone would have to go around keeping their hands visible. Someone would discover that toes work too. Shoes become impolite."

"Accidental marriages go through the roof as people decide it's safe enough to risk and then uncross their fingers in a moment of passion."

"Accidental marriage seems like it must be among the most awkward possible situations - 'good morning, how do you like your eggs, so we're married now how about that' -"

"It really is! Not my favorite situations to handle - you have two upset families and two upset individuals and most people can build a loving relationship with enough determination but these are mostly young people, it's understandable for them not to be in a place to want to start building that..."

"And without divorce it must be particularly - I want to say terrifying, failure is not a palatable option -"

"It's not uncommon to separate and just - live as if single - but I suppose for some people it's quite a cost -"

"I haven't prioritized finding some nice sub and settling down but if I suddenly couldn't, ever..."

"I can't say I can relate but I know that for lots of people that'd be - really awful -"

"Well, if somebody comes through with a de-oathing power..."

"That will help lots of people in addition to the orcs, yes."

"Florida Elf gets married then divorced, six times in one day -"

"I will probably have to tell Tyelcormë to please-as-a-personal-favor not do that."

"I did not realize you were related to a would-be Florida Elf. That's the sort of thing that would amuse her?"

"That is very much the sort of thing that would amuse her. More as a protest of how Eru did marriage than out of some overpowering desire to have casual sex, actually."

"It does seem worth protest."

"It does. That wouldn't be my chosen avenue, but I suppose waving signs and yelling at the sky is hardly in any sense more productive."

"That would be your chosen avenue?"

"Well, no. In practice my chosen avenue looks like "don't protest at all", so I guess Tyelcormë wins."

"The other day I wondered what would happen if I aimed telepathy at Eru. Didn't try it or even work up the nerve to be able to precog it."

"...huh. That would be interesting. Mind, I'm not at all sure it's a good idea, but it'd be interesting."

"Yeah. Of course, I imagine if one is Eru one can probably respond to precogged conversational overtures without much attention to whether they technically actually happened..."