"I'm not saying you're infallible. We definitely need a solid crew of policy advisors in the Temple. I'm saying that you're unstoppable. The problem is that while having the absolute biggest stick is sufficient to rule, it's not sufficient to rule well. Which is why the advisors and good incentives are important. You've got the incentives. We just need the advisors now."

She shakes her head.

"Yeah. We're going to talk ourselves into more headaches and heartaches if you don't take a break. You're right. Bows around weapons and letters telling everyone to sit down and talk about an alternative to killing each other. And then you're taking a real break."

"I care about you, Goddess. A lot. You've done a lot for humanity in less than a day. You deserve to rest, heal, and relax for a time."

She shoots off another message to quiet-wings.

I hope the egg wrap is tasty!

Mmmh. Yeah, it is. The tomato is hitting real nice after this morning. Thanks.

... I feel like I should complain but honestly I appreciate your help so far.

Stella reaches out to make the letters and gift-wrap the weapons.

She pauses.

It's done.

It'll take them a few hours to sort through the confusion.

I'm shutting out all the prayers but yours now. 

You sustain me. 

Thank you.

Please comfort me for a while.

"Gladly, Goddess. I know how hard it is to take a break at times like this. I've been in similar circumstances on a much smaller scale. So I'm really proud of you for taking this break. Now let's see just how creative I can get with prayers."

She imagines a slender, pale, silver-haired girl, shaped much like the girl in the statue. Then she draws on every bit of sense memory she has of hugs to put together a thorough mental image of her, hugging that silver-haired girl tight and warm and close, fingers combing tenderly through those silver tresses. And then she prays with every drop of her heart and soul for her brave, caring, wonderful Goddess to feel that hug.

And surprising even herself, Stella is able to visualize the hug as clear as her measurements against Sable's body.

It feels warm. Soft. Gentle. Sweet.

She lingers in the sensation for a while. It feels good.

She's been a good goddess.

She's been a wonderful Goddess, and deserves every bit of hug she wants. Sable pours every bit of care and wonder and delight and affection she has into her prayer, every bit of how proud she is of Stella, how impressed she is with Stella, and how honored she is to stand at Stella's side.

It hurts, ignoring the world like this. 

But she has to. She's breaking down. She needs to take comfort where she can. 

It's only foolish to work when she can't sustain it. 

She squeezes Sable in return, moderating her titanic strength to a tender hug. 

So delicate.

She writes. 

Both of us. Ruling the whole world well is a pain in the ass. But we're doing our best. We're doing our best together. 

Thank you for caring. 

She puts in automatic lighthouses on all her various islands, kind of distractedly. 

Sable snuggles into the hug, even while she keeps praying variants of the mental one: wrapping her tail around Stella, or pressing a soft kiss atop her head, or nestling her into her lap.

"You're so very easy to care about. And yes, we're both incredibly delicate, but it's worth it, facing such a large challenge while being so vulnerable, if it means I can face it at your side. Yes, the work itself matters, but so do you."

Stella stays, for perhaps ten minutes. Long enough for her headache to dissipate completely. Long enough for her to feel like she could just stop, if she wanted. 

But she doesn't want to, not really. The world has ever so many problems, and if she doesn't fix them, who will? 

I think I want to go back to work now.

She smiles softly, her cheeks still flushed.

"Okay, Goddess. Remember I'm here if you need me at any point."

I'll keep that in mind.

Easy stuff first. I'm going to enforce a ceasefire for the rest of Myanmar's night, as best I can. After that, well, we'll see. And the usual medicine and prevention of violence, of course. Keep anyone from wandering into the landmines. 

There's still a lot to fix. Israel and Palestine are coming into range and they're no bueno. Obviously if I take away all the weapons Israel collapses. If I don't, though, civilians keep dying by the truckload. 

The fundamental problem here for Israel is that it's asymmetric warfare, you can't tell who's fighting you, so they're in a hard place regarding trying to target just the people who fire rockets into civilian cities. This doesn't justify targeting civilians, but the Arab authorities have a vested interest in making Israel look bad, so they don't separate out the military dead in their death counts. Because they're fighting an asymmetric war and can't even tell you who is and is not part of Hamas. 

The Arabs may have started the targeting of civilians but again I think this is one of those conflicts where both sides have a lot of blood on their hands and can't pretend the moral high ground. It happened in World War 2 too, even for the allies who were supposedly the good guys. Hiroshima, Dresden, the mass firebombing of Japan... War is just godawful and even if you're "justified" it almost always involves mass death of civilians in the long run. 

Both sides here have legitimate points — the Israelis that they deserve to have somewhere to live, the Arabs that they were living here until the Israelis came along and were pretty much told to shove it, pack up from their homes and move elsewhere on pain of being shot. Fundamentally I think the problem lies with the fact that nobody was willing to take in the Jewish people themselves. They tried to exile them, make them not their problem, and instead made a long-running conflict that continues to this day. 

This is one that might actually be solvable with Israel 2 Atlantic Boogaloo, but that feels incredibly easy to fuck up. Who knows what having Israel on a major Atlantic shipping lane might do to the world. Could be good, could be very bad. You do remember that these are the people who were supplying arms to Myanmar, yes? They're not squeaky clean by any stretch. And there's almost certainly going to be SO MUCH argument over who gets the Holy Land. But I have some hope that this could be resolvable.

"Oof, yeah, that's going to be quite the mess to fix." She shakes her head. "I think the Israel Two plan is pretty solid. It's certainly my instinct as well, and as far as I can tell it's the only one that gives everyone somewhere safe to live without shooting each other, but you're absolutely right that the real challenge will be getting someone to accept it. Strategically, Israel will be better off accepting the new island than sticking with the original Holy Land, just because they can live somewhere Not Surrounded By Enemies, but I fully expect a lot of people to make a religious claim that they're entitled to the land. Fundamentally these two groups have built up their claim to the territory in their minds for so long that everyone's going to have a hard time seeing past that to think about the simple well-being of their people. We can't claim to understand the depth of significance or connection to their heritage they feel in the Holy Land, but there comes a time when a country has to ask themselves whether keeping land that's connected to their history is more important than the lives they're spending in this long and bloody war."

I mean, politically, "exiling the Jewish people yet again from their latest home" I super expect to go down like a lead balloon. But we've got to try something. And they kind of have a thing about there being only one deity, and I sure am not that deity. That is inevitably going to massively complicate things. 

My gut feel is that we use the same techniques as with Myanmar here. I'm also tempted to destroy some of the particularly indiscriminate weapons  — basically the landmines argument again  — but that's a fine line to judge. Got anything from the policy wonks?

"Let's see." Sable digs through the emails and linked articles and such for a few minutes. "As best I can tell, the conclusion is that the international community does not support Netanyahu, and only hasn't made a binding order there because they don't want to be obligated to go in with armed troops to bring him to international criminal court, preferring not to spill more blood. They have ordered humanitarian aid be provided, and for hostages held by Hamas to be released. Damned near everyone is calling for a ceasefire, so we could probably save lives while not pissing many people off by enforcing that, and removing mines, bombs, rockets, etc. If I'm reading this right, I think Netanyahu is using the hostages as justification for continuing the war, and the war as justification for staying in power. Also, there's a substantial population of atheist Jews in Israel, and a big political faction arguing for 'a country of all its citizens' and making things less religious."