It happens with humans, at least sometimes.

I probably have a skewed selection of Elves because one of the strongest reasons to come to Valinor was if you wanted to have children.

Surely some people had them outside of Valinor.

I think so, but when you know you have forever it makes sense to have them at - the best possible time in all of forever for them to live happy lives - and that'd be a long way off, outside Valinor. 

That implies a lot of certainty about the nature of forever.

I mean, I'm glad to have been born into Valinor now instead of in the distant future, because I want to help shape the world, not start existing once it's already shaped perfectly. I guess it does mean we assume something won't go horribly wrong, but until this accident we didn't have any reason to suspect it even could.

I suppose it also implies a lot of certainty about the nature of one's future children in a way I don't think you can get if you aren't coding them. Like, you preferred that, but what if you preferred to appear after the invention of space travel, what then, how were your parents supposed to know.

It's not perfect, I suppose. In practice it mostly just means we don't have children in unstable or scary circumstances and we'll often delay if things look likely to get even nicer. 

Respectable.

I am the most respectable Elf prince! My competition are admittedly all toddlers but still.

I had the oddest mental image of you triumphantly brandishing a blue ribbon while pointy-eared toddlers gnawed on ribbons of other colors.

That is exactly how it would go! And then my father would brightly suggest I go trade ribbons with my stepmother's son because 'it'll mean so much to him' and I would probably do that instead of flinging it in his face and running off like I would have ten years ago, because gosh, Endbringers sure do straighten out one's priorities.

You previously had priorities that involved throwing things at toddlers? Or did you mean at your dad?

Ribbons, not, like, rocks. But I did not get on with Indis's children well at all.

You're sure you want kids and you don't get along with your half-sibs at toddler age? I feel like "toddler" dominates all other personality traits when it applies.

It didn't have anything to do with them, really. The Valar said my father could only remarry if my mother stayed dead forever, because no one can have two living wives. He went ahead and remarried anyway. I miss her. I don't want her to stay dead forever. If she's ever ready to come back I want her to be able to do that. And my father - made it very clear that if I loved my half-siblings and got along with them then that'd vindicate his decision to remarry. So I, well, didn't. At all. 

Wow.

It was less his fault than I'm making it sound. 

It sounds pretty emphatically his fault.

He found being a single parent really hard in a lot of ways - he was depressed, he was grieving, he was isolated - and Elves who grew up by Cuivienen cope really badly with being alone, ever, because it used to be a death sentence - and it's not like the King could arrange that he wasn't sleeping alone without remarrying - and an old friend of his invited him over for a vacation after years and years of that and neglected to mention that the vacation was really his enamored sister throwing herself at him. He made a horrible decision and now he's stuck with it forever but I do remember how badly he was hurting and he did sincerely believe that I'd be happy to have a mother - and would consider that woman one -

Okay, that complicates things. Sort of screwed up that you don't have, like, some functional cultural institution for people who don't want to sleep alone, if there's several of them, they can't all be married, can they? Cuivienen Elf Slumber Party.

I think it's probably quietly a thing some places. Just not the right place at the right time. And my mother did say she didn't want to ever come back and didn't care what he did. I just - hoped that maybe eventually given all of forever she'd change her mind.

Yeah. Forever's a long time. She can communicate while, uh, dead?

She can talk to Mandos and Mandos can talk to us. That's the other thing, with the Valar so bad at their jobs I keep wondering if that's actually what she wanted or if they misunderstood somehow. When she was dying she told me she was so sorry and she loved me and she'd have done anything to stay but it hurt too badly for it to even really be staying -

Geez, that sucks. I would ask if you want a hug but you know my less huggable alter ego and live several states away.