"You seem grown up to me," Eli said with a shrug. "Society places too much value on a person losing their ears and tails as a sign of reaching adulthood. Putting this pressure on people tends to cause them to do rash things and try to 'become adults' before they're prepared to."

He let out a short laugh, appearing to be amused by his response. "It's only baseless if I don't have the reasoning and evidence to back it up. And if you'd rather talk somewhere else at a better time, then I really wouldn't mind discussing as much of this as you're allowed to with me."