"...So does that imply there's only been one set of twins ever, or...?"

"A handful of other people have tried it since then, but the first to do so was a friend of mine."

"Huh. So if it's the same mechanism every time--are they either all identical or all fraternal?"

"The experimental set is identical, some later instances fraternal."

"Huh. Yeah, it's complete chance for humans. Well, chance with a side of genetics."

"I think that may be how it works for orcs and dwarves but I didn't ever ask about that in particular."

"What are those like?"

"Orcs are basically off an Elf template but without most of the - special features - and they're uglier and they like having very large families and living in very dense cities. Dwarves are shorter and don't have gender as a concept and they have beards and they're very fond of - trade, markets, economics."

"Special features?"

"They don't have telepathy even though they have chips; they can't control their bodies like we can - a lot of chip blessings don't work for them - they don't sing..."

"Huh."

"They prefer to be how they are, at least as a group; they very deliberately build things to an unElven aesthetic even though they do make them pretty. I think they don't mind looking at each other at all."

"I'm more concerned about the--lack of special features--than the differing aesthetic."

"They let us figure out how to give them birth control, at our insistence, but have made no attempt to replicate anything else Elves can do for themselves."

"Ooh, birth control, that's important, they didn't have that?"

"They did not. We were fairly horrified. They didn't think it was terribly important, they like children and aren't as picky about timing as Elves are."

"I find that hard to imagine. Not that I don't believe you, just--I'm not sure I ever want kids at all, it's a very different perspective."

"If there are orcs like you they are not well represented."

"I mean, I'm not sure I don't, either, I'm only twenty."

"Oh, orcs also grow faster than Elves."

"Oh?"

"On Endorë, we take fifty of their years to come of age, a hundred to be fully adult - on Valinor there's a time effect and we take fifty Valian years, which is ten times longer - and Orcs take about two-fifths as long."

"Yeah, I think we're like orcs there."

Nod. "Valinor would multiply the time tenfold but only if you went there; no orcs have been."

"What's Valinor like?" one of the others asks.