"I apologize for underestimating you. She will want to properly meet you, though, at some point if not now, amusing fake flirting or no. I care about you, and she cares about me, so."

"Don't apologize. That was a very mild way of raising an objection if you weren't sure if I was serious. And I want to meet her. I have brothers who are twins, I want to know yours."

"I did not rationally think you were serious but I was sufficiently surprised by the suggestion--if you've been fake-flirting with me I can't tell--that I didn't fully reason it out. I want you to know my twin too."

"I have not been fake-flirting with you because Maedhros would quite literally lock me in Hiring's dungeons for the next century. He just passed a law. Also I really like you and wouldn't find it satisfying to pretend to like you."

"...I had been under the impression that the law was about sex, not teasing between friends who know better than to mistake it for something else, but okay..."

"Well, yes, but - you're gonna be royalty soon, better learn this - appearances matter, lies travel faster than the truth, etcetera etcetera. 'Celegorm's flirting with Odette and Maedhros just announced a law that Elves and Men can't have sex penalty of Maedhros' personal anger' is a really predictable disaster of a rumor even to me and I think ll this stuff is stupid."

"I don't know what annoys me more, the fact that people would make the obvious assumption or the fact that anyone would think it was their business in the absurd hypothetical instance of it being true. And the fact that those things annoy me doesn't make them any less true or you any less right. Great. Now to figure out if anything I've been doing could look like flirting to an oblivious third party..."

"Stupid and obnoxious, isn't it? Politics should be replaced with a national acting troupe and they should keep the identities of the people making decisions a complete secret. And I've been being careful, I think you're fine."

"I probably shouldn't have done the hair thing, but other than that I think you're right," she decides.

"I thought about saying something at the time but thought that'd be making more fuss - anyway, if something comes up and if it's making your life way harder - the Maedhros approach to rumor suppression is for someone to ask me about it in public and me to say disgustedly that my Telerin cousins might at this point have quite a track record with mortal children but I personally like partners old enough to tie their shoes. 

Which is, for the record, a shitty thing to say and true only technically but would stop you from getting comments."

"If someone decides to make my life harder by saying I'm sleeping with you I'm half tempted to haul out, 'my culture is sexually liberated and if I were having sex with someone I'd see no reason to hide it and do you really think that would affect my policy decisions, do you really think I especially miss either of the two guys back home I've slept with,' but that seems likely to be a terrible idea for reasons that aren't immediately obvious to me."

"I mean, depends what you care about. I have actually manufactured sex scandals a few times to get people chattering about less hurtful things but -

I do think people'd take you less seriously and assume your judgment were compromised, and I have made sure there are always people within earshot, towards that end, when we interact but they're my people and anything else would be costlier and it's entirely up to you."

"If you have to say shitty things about Andreth in public then I have to pretend to stop being your friend because if you said shitty things about Andreth and meant them I would stop being your friend, so if I fail at pretending not to like you anymore then I damage either my reputation as a person who has my personality or the credibility of your statements, and I'm not confident in my ability to pretend not to like people."

"Noted. Nelyo might be able to come up with something equally inflammatory in a less offensive direction, if it comes up. Hopefully it will not."

"I guess I could always just tell them the truth, which is 'you're a moron, he's way too old for me and there is a war on and I do not have time for a love life.' Delivered in a much more hostile and derisive tone. I can be pretty scathing when I put my mind to it."

"Might work. If sufficiently scathing."

"I can also imply that whoever's suggesting it is probably defective and misogynistic for thinking a woman can't be friends with a man without sex being involved!"

"I dealt with this shit with my cousin. People are terrible."

"I mean I sort of already knew that cousinhood doesn't stop this kind of rumor, especially if people are trying to discredit you. But--hm. I'm concerned that any artificial response runs a risk of being...not in character enough? Being scathing at terrible people is a thing I do. And will suppress in Doriath if I find its King terrible but that's a separate issue."

"'mildly racist and condescending' is baseline for peoples' understanding of the Feanorian character. But if you're bad at lying and good at convincing truth then it's better to tell the truth."

"I've never had to lie about something like this before and I don't want to bet anything important on getting it right on the first try and continuing to consistently get it right thereafter. By all means consult Maedhros, though, I wouldn't be surprised if he suggests something that we can both immediately look at and go, 'oh, that'll work.' Why d'you have a reputation for being racist and condescending? Frankly so far you've seemed to have the least disrespect for my sister and I based on our humanity. Well. I haven't met Finrod yet but Fingon warned me about him too."

"We are not very polite to people who don't merit politeness. I have for example been heard in public to say lots of mean things about Thingol. That has nothing to do with racism, but if you already think we're the kinslaying madmen it's not a wild leap. And Caranthir puts his foot in his mouth a lot but all the people who, for example, think he's racist and contemptuous of Dwarves don't know that he's married to one."

"Fingon seems to be under the impression that elf/dwarf crossfertility has never been tested. I don't have trouble keeping my mouth shut when people have negative opinions about you because of things you've actually done but if you don't tell me not to I may end up making sarcastic remarks when people decide to extrapolate from there to negative traits you do not, in fact, have."

"I mean, I don't need you defending my honor but I'm not going to ask you to hold your tongue either. Uh, which ones are true - ice, true, kinslaying, true, says mean things about Elu Thingol and everyone who answers to him, true, sleeps with men, true, illiterate, true, condescending, honestly yeah, towards politicians - racist is kind of a question of opinion - disloyal to the King is kind of complicated but I sure as fuck will do whatever wins the war - is that a good litany of things you shouldn't scowl about, if I'm accused of them?

"Says mean things about Elu Thingol because he's Sindarin instead of because he makes terrible life choices is a reasonable distinction, as far as I can tell you're dyslexic and if anyone wants to say that means there's something wrong with you then I'd feel perfectly justified in tearing them a new one on behalf of dyslexic people who are not you, and even lacking that a lot of humans are the more common kind of illiterate and I'd feel compelled to defend them, racist I expect I would respond to with pointed remarks about how respectful of my species you've been, and the disloyalty thing I'm not touching with a ten-foot pole because the less involved I have to get in your family drama the better."