I wonder if the Valar are self-conscious about doing all that work to end up with an ecosystem you can get nearly identically by cooking nutrient glop for a few billion years.

Well, to be fair, ours is edible and doesn't have wild animal suffering.

Zero wild animal suffering or just less?

Populations don't grow past what the land supports, chronic pain's not a thing, disabling levels of injury kill them. They will still experience a bee sting as bee-stingy.

Huh, I feel like with bugs the population growth thing must be awkward - if there's room for a hundred new caterpillars, that's like one breeding pair's offspring, all the other butterflies are out of luck and the next generation's bottlenecked - unless your butterflies lay fewer eggs, too?

I think they lay fewer eggs, yeah.

I guess that works out then.

It's all very nice and neat. No room for ugly sweaters.

Do you not have the kind of caterpillars that look like bird droppings?

...probably somewhere. I haven't seen any personally.

But they're ugly!

That just means there won't be any anywhere Elves'll run across them, not that they don't exist!

The rating advisory system should have a special rating for Elves. Rated E for Elves, no sex or violence or ugly caterpillars.

Ugly anything. I'll worry a little once more Elves want to visit human cities, that someone'll see someone very aged and get repulsed and be rude or something.

Yes, that'd be an interesting headline, 'alien visitor mocks octogenarian grandmother'...

As long as I'm filtering 'em it won't happen.

That's good.

Yeah. Lot of reasons -

Hm?

Why it's important for me to maintain my current standing.

Ah.

It's come up more recently. It was irrelevant when all I wanted was to rule in Tirion.

Well, let me know if there's anything I can do to help.

Of course. Have a lovely holiday.

Will do.

And she's off.