Not like we have to wait that long for the next one.

Trying to decide if it's worth skipping the Simurgh, if it's her.

What do you do at those -

Make decisions to cast shadows plus the usual evac.

Probably worth going, then, messing with her seems really important - do you think she sunk Newfoundland to get to Richter specifically -

You think she directs the others?

I don't know. If they're targetting somehow I'd expect it to be her doing that but I'm not sure.

She showed up last but I guess she could have been hanging out before that.

Or they could've gotten more strategic since. I could have someone teleport me in close enough to read her but I'm not at all sure it's a good idea.

Yeah don't do that.

Elves would have no problem getting lots of volunteers to subsequently live in Lórien forever but I think in humans the kinds of altruism are more correlated.

?

Like, there'd be lots of Elves who would not at all want to go get into physical fights and would do so if they were told it was their duty but very unhappily, yet who would be happy to go get unhealthily near the Simurgh for information reasons and then live in a Elf-friendly kind of containment forever. I think most humans who would be willing to make the latter sacrifice are humans who are otherwise doing valuable things because they are generally altruistic people, but this is not true of Elves.

Huh. Any idea why?

Hmm. Maybe that Elf altruism is - more a personality trait like 'non-vandalizing' is for humans? Like, you are that way by default, you'd have to be unusually antisocial not to be that way, it's not a defining feature of your life because it's not in any way remarkable, therefore we identify with it less? Having a chance to do the right thing which involves fairly little combat and moral ambiguity is aesthetically appealing and straightforward, if briefly horrible, and then over and done with, and it's not like most people are attached to mattering except insofar as there are people suffering and they don't want that, so if they've already done all they can about that it wouldn't haunt them that the best trade to make involves now hanging around for a thousand years singing.

Don't take this the wrong way but your species sounds boring.

I mean, high stakes are certainly exciting but they also suck.

Oh yeah, I just mean it sounds like they might be boring in addition to and beyond being safe and altruistic and comfy? Does that make sense?

I think part of it might be different aesthetic sensibilities, like, someone who likes programming would find writing something interesting which takes ten years to get right a very interesting use of ten years, but you could summarize it to someone who lacked any interest in programming as 'sat at a computer for ten years' and that sounds really boring. I think the Vanyar are boring but the Noldor aren't but maybe they feel the opposite.

What are the Vanyar like?

Moved to live closer to the Valar, spend lots of time singing their praises. My father's second wife is one. Their theoretical mathematicians are fantastic. They tend to be really conservative about social mores and so on.

Huh. "Theoretical math" and "devoutly religious" don't as far as I know correlate here.

Your world's religions are imaginary. I think maybe a different class of people becomes religious when religion is actually true.

Possible.

Anyway all the inventions since we got to Valinor have been the Noldor.