"It means-- thinking about what would happen if things that aren't true are true."

That's really confusing but also fascinating! Masozi goes still again while he mulls it over. 

"So....like if two plus two equaled five? Or if - instead of it being that fish and people both evolved from an animal that was more like a fish, instead life started on land and fish and people both evolved from an animal like a mouse?" 

"Yeah, like that!"

"Oooh!" Bouncebouncebounce. "That's such a good word!" 

"Okay, so, you know how you're part of Shanghai enclave and there are also a bunch of things we want from you, like that you're going to learn Mandarin and help keep Wen Ning and Nie Huaisang alive and spot mals for people on maintenance shifts and things like that?"

Oh. This sounds like it might be important? 

Masozi sets aside his excitement about WORDS and fixes his eyes on Wei Wuxian. "- Yeah?" 

"So I think Lan Xichen is worried that you'll think that one of the things on the list of things you need to do to be part of Shanghai enclave is to pet his hair, when he wants it to be something like getting drunk with us where you can if you want to but if you don't no one will go 'wow! Zaizai won't drink with us, we hate him, we are banishing him from the enclave forever.'"

Masozi freezes, again, because he's suddenly worried that he did something very wrong! 

"I - I mean, I didn't not want to drink with you? But.... So the thing Nie Huaisang said to me about sex is that I shouldn't have sex with anyone unless they were enthusiastic, and - that I shouldn't have sex myself unless I was excited and wanted to? ......And I didn't actually feel that way about getting drunk. I kind of thought it was a bad idea, but I checked and Nie Huaisang said that he'd asked Lan Xichen and so I figured it was probably safe.....?" 

"I mean you don't have to say 'no', like, you can feel free to drink or not drink for whatever reasons you feel like, it's just that no one is going to be kicking you out of the enclave for not."

Lan Wangji started out not getting drunk but then Wei Wuxian made him get drunk anyway? 

- Masozi is not going to bring that up right now. 

"Yeah. That makes sense. ....Okay, thank you, I think I'm less confused now. Should we do more studying now?" 

"Yeah, sure. What are you going to end up telling him?"

"....I think I'll ask to speak alone - or wait until we're already alone, he comes and helps me study Mandarin in my room sometimes - and then tell him that I think I have two-thirds of a crush on him and - what all the feelings are that I do have or don't have..."

"Seems like a good idea. Street-fighting math?"

Ooh, math. "Yeah!" 

Then instead of talking about sex they can talk about how long a year on Mars is!

Amazing!

....Masozi doesn't know what 'Mars' is even referring to but from the 'how long a year is' context he can guess it's probably a planet? 

This is going to make him sound so stupid, but,

"Is Mars a planet around the same sun that our planet goes around?" he asks Wei Wuxian.

"Yes. There are eight planets that rotate around the sun-- Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. You can see Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn without a telescope." He thinks. "I guess you can also see Earth without a telescope."

"Is that because Earth is the planet we live on?" 

Pause. 

"- Wei Wuxian. Have you - ever actually tried to - notice and imagine and feel in your bones, that, that we live on a planet which is a ball flying through space? ....Because it's weird. Right? This is really weird!" 

(Masozi is currently vividly imagining exactly this and it's making him very dizzy.)

"Yeah! I used to do that at night all the time while I was falling asleep."

"I only did it for the first time just now because I hadn't thought about Earth being a planet before, and I - I really don't know if it would help me fall asleep! It's very cool but it's not very restful." 

"Well, I'm not very good at falling asleep."

".....That seems like it'd be bad for surviving here. Do you - want advice...?" 

"If you have it but I don't think it would help."

"- It might not help but I should try telling you anyway? I - so before when I was in Malawi, after both my parents died and I was trying to travel by myself to Johannesburg because I'd heard about the Scholomance and that enclaves had places for it–" Pause. "....I guess my idea might only work if you're really really tired but you just can't sleep because of being too scared. Or maybe if it's something sort of similar to that? Do you think your problem might be sort of similar to that?" 

"I'm bad at concentrating on things and it turns out you have to concentrate really hard to go to sleep."