Yeah, fair.

I mean, I'd absolutely not turn down checking if she can do it. But it's not the sort of thing humans tend to expect.

I mean, if it's Eru's will, that's all right. We'll be sad but we won't try to keep you here longer than is meant to be. Does seem sad, though.

Yeah.
There's no, categorical rule against long-lived humans, that I know of. It just happens not to come up usually.

Then we should ask my mother.

Definitely.

Is it lonely? Being the only human?

Kind of. Less than it could be. Elves are a lot more like humans than I'd have any right to expect of another species.

Yes, you're much more of a person than the Dwarves.

More of a person?

I mean, your goals make sense and you react more the way Elves do to things and you have thoughts....

The thoughts thing sounded like it was just two different kinds of not having osanwe, where they're actively immune. I can see where it would be bizarre if you're used to everyone having it.

Dwarves seem even more like humans than Elves do. I could explain their goals if you want.

Could you? I tried making friends but they seemed to think that the point of everything was gold...

That part I can explain. I didn't recognize much else about Dwarf culture, but I know the gold.

Say there's something you need, let's say it's a wheelbarrow, and I'm offering one. But I can't just give it away because I don't have many to give out, or it was hard to make and I can't replace it easily, or something.

We could just trade. Chances are you have something I'd want if we sat down and worked it out. If I'd rather have your holocaust cloak than my wheelbarrow, and you'd rather have the wheelbarrow than the holocaust cloak, we swap and we're both better off. But we'd have to negotiate what, and it might get complicated.
Or maybe I don't need a holocaust cloak, but someone else does and they have the frog dust I wanted... that gets even more complicated.

So everyone agrees to use gold as an arbitrary Thing Everyone Wants. You pay me some amount of gold for the wheelbarrow, and no one has to find anything to barter.

Everything being about gold isn't about gold. It's just that enough gold can be exchanged for practically anything.

Useful, sure, but a terribly complicated way to run a society, and sort of soulless...

Soulless is a plus, sometimes. Especially if there are a lot of Dwarves. Money means you can make deals with strangers, and if there are a lot of people it might not be possible to stop being strangers first every time you want to try something new.

It's also possible to have a currency and not base an entire society around it, of course.The Dwarves who came to the trading post did seem kind of obsessed; maybe their city is different. Or maybe Dwarves are just like that.

I think Dwarves are just like that. They don't even really have a government. 

None at all? I guess that could explain why they're bad at collective action problems.

They have, like, a council, but it's not allowed to do things like go to war.

What does it do, could it finance one?

Maybe? It was not a very productive conversation, we just had very different assumptions. It - he? - was horrified that Mother and Father can do whatever they think is best for the kingdom.

I had pretty much the same reaction when I found out the Noldor had kings.
Up until they explained that everyone there had volunteered to fight the Enemy; it makes sense for generals in a war to have more authority over their soldiers than governments do over everyone. If your kings can do whatever they think best, what happens if you get a bad one?

Why would people choose a bad person to be King?

They think they're choosing a good one, or they are choosing a good one but people change, or the king is ethical but unskilled and got installed by a very convincing person who wanted a puppet....

Those would be good outcomes but I don't think they've ever happened. People choose good kings and Elves don't change much if they're already pretty old when they start.