"Maybe a tiny bit."

"We're listening."

"It came up in conversation with the new Elves from the new planet that they had a civil war, in the aftermath of which Maitimo decided to keep his cousin a prisoner indefinitely, and also cut his hair, which the other Elves were appalled at, and also have it widely known that he is his consort, which add up to a fairly worrying picture."

"You don't say."

"So you are soliciting volunteers to turn him into a frog?"

"Oh dear Elf hair is really quite a big deal. They were so alarmed about the potion ingredient question."

"The Elves were very very distraught about the hair. I was unclear at first on whether that was because they had missed the implication about the sexual slavery but I think they actually think the hair thing is worse."

"The hair is a sex thing."

"Anyway, we are strongly opposed to turning anyone into anything but if you want to throw creative ideas which will not be acted on around that'd be a reasonable way to feel about it."

"'We' meaning -

"Aitim and I, with Aitim providing insight into how to get the new Elves on board with better life choices and me being less likely to get a lot of criticism for suggesting things."

"Er," says Miranda, "why did he decide to do this, is that... known?"

"Not exactly? They had a civil war, they were on opposite sides of it."

"...okay, that would strike me as an obvious early question for getting him to... not... but presumably you know your business."

"I mean, I think he'll probably stop because it'll be politically unpopular. Understanding why he did it would be useful for, like, getting him to understand why he shouldn't do it, but as long as he's not doing it then, well, as far as I'm concerned his true feelings are between him and his appalling-sounding gods."

"...his gods?"

"Their Valar seem way more involved and way worse than the already dismal standard. They mindread and mindcontrol everybody, a lot. At least part of what he gets out of the current arrangement is that the Valar would have edited it out of him if they could and so it serves as - standing proof that they haven't, I think."

"This is an ongoing risk?"

"The Valar have not bothered living people in Beleriand but could, and are awful to the dead."

"Mm-hm."

"Honestly my best big-picture guess about the new Elves is that living under those conditions just thoroughly fucks up their ability to make good decisions or trust their own intuitions and once it's dealt with they'll be much better. But they might not, they might just all be very callous and selfish, it's still fine as long as they stop the sex-slave thing."

" - not really, it probably still sucks to live in a place ruled by people with that problem."

"Not more than it sucks to live in Calado. Conquering places because you think you can do better is usually a bad idea and if it were a good idea I'd start with Rabka's world."

"We should see if there are other places that'll take them in, and we should see if they get better once the Valar can't hurt them."

"What's the deal with Rabka's world?"