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this is why all the shanghai enclavers are obsessed with sex
Masozi asks Wei Wuxian about evolution
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Chu Chu is not available for work period because Chang'an is giving her remedial Scholomance lessons or something so Wei Wuxian decides to go hang out with his other best friend.

"Hey, Masozi! Want to study together in the reading room?"

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"Yeah, okay!" The default alternative is going back to his room to practice Mandarin, which is...fine...but he's getting pretty tired of it. 

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"We have got to get you out of your room sometimes," he says, joining the cloud of seniors and juniors heading to the reading room.

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"Do you think I'll be allowed to go to class next week? I'm getting better at Mandarin and it's boring to only practice and read textbooks all day." He's managed to obtain copies of all his class textbooks, at least. 

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"We can talk to Lan Xichen. I think he's probably being a little overprotective, no one is going to kill you in Street-Fighting Mathematics."

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"Yeah. ...Oh! Ayako told me a good math problem last night, and I tried to solve it with street fighting math but my guess was kind of wrong and I was trying to figure out what I assumed wrong - here, I drew a graph - there's a sequence of numbers and it starts with zero and then one and then you get the next number by adding the two before it and the question was when you get above 1000..." 

He digs out a crumpled scrap of paper and proudly shows Wei Wuxian his carefully drawn graph. 

"....I dunno that doing this really helped? The thing I did to make it easier was I looked at the start of the sequence and said that it doubles about every two steps forward. But it actually gets big a bit faster than that, so I said twenty-one steps but the real answer is eighteen steps." 

 

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"Yeah, I think the Fibonacci sequence increases at a rate of, like, 1.4 or something? The golden ratio."

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"....The what? ...Ohhhhhh I should do a graph of how fast it gets bigger. That's the actual thing I wanna know here." 

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"Oh, I should show you something, this is cool." He pulls out a piece of graph paper from his bag and starts drawing using the wall. "Ta da!"

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Masozi stares intently at it, going slightly cross-eyed. ".....Whoooooa." 

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"The spiral this makes is called the golden spiral and it's all over the place in nature. Spiral galaxies, nautilus shells, some kinds of plant leaves--"

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"Ooh. But - why? Do galaxies and plants and shells know how to do math?" 

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"Everything is made of math, Zaizai."

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Masozi stares at the graph with an expression of awe. 

 

 

"That - that's so beautiful...." 

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"Science is beautiful," he says.

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"It's so beautiful. ...Does that mean mals are made of math too?" 

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"Magic seems to be weird and non-reductive and we don't understand it. Yet. I'm going to understand it."

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"Yeah!" Masozi bounces a little. "...Oh right, I had a question for you. Ayako said I should ask you what 'evolution' is? Apparently it's got something to do with why people think sex is interesting." 

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"Okay, so, you know how people are like their parents? They look like them and act like them and stuff?"

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"...I don't think I act very much like my parents?" And Lan Xichen isn't like his parents at all but Masozi is not going to bring that up just now. "But - yeah, I guess I look more like them than I look like random people in Malawi." 

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"So there's this code throughout all your body that tells your body what to do-- like, it says 'toe goes on your foot and not growing out of your ear' and it says 'Zaizai's skin should be darker than Wei Ying's skin' and it says 'when you're stressed produce this particular brain chemical,' all of that stuff. It's called genes."

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Masozi frowns for thirty seconds, mulling this over, and then lifts his head and beams at Wei Wuxian. "Oh! That - so it's like a book in a different language? A language that whatever your body's made of can read? ...Can I learn to read the code, is it harder than Mandarin?" 

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"It is much much harder than Mandarin. No one can read it."

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"Aww. But - something has to be able to read the code, right? For it to make things happen the right way instead of just sitting there not doing anything? Like how if there are instructions in a book to make an artifact, someone has to follow them, if no one follows them then there's no artifact, just the book..." 

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"Your body knows how to read the code, but people can't. --You get half your genes from your mom and half from your dad. That's what come is, there are a bunch of little copies of half of your code and then if it meets an egg inside the woman's body she gets pregnant."

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This is going to earn him SUCH a baffled look from Masozi! "But - people don't make eggs? Chickens and stuff make eggs." 

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"Women make very small eggs that stay inside their bodies and don't come out. Like, the size of the dot a pencil makes small."

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"Huh! That sounds really...fragile? - Wait. Do chickens have the same thing, where come is what has the code from the father's side? How does that get into the egg, then? Chicken eggs have shells!" 

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"My guess is that it gets in before the egg develops its shell but I have to admit I don't know much about chicken reproduction."

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"Maybe the library has books about it! How about frogs. Their eggs are all squishy. ...They're not very good to eat. Not like chicken eggs." 

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"Anyway. Evolution. So some people are more likely to have kids than other people, right? Like, some people die young, or are super hot so everyone wants to have sex with them, or really like babies, or do a better job of taking care of their kids, and they get more kids and more grandkids."

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"- Yeah, I guess." 

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"So that means that there are more of their genes in the next generation. And on average each generation has more and more of the traits that make them better at surviving and reproducing."

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"Huh." 

Masozi holds very still for thirty seconds or so while he appears to concentrate intently on thinking about this. 

"And - frogs and chickens do this as well, right? Do cockroaches and beetles do it? ...Do trees and grass do it?" 

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"Every living thing does this. --Bacteria are a little bit more complicated."

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"....What are 'bacteria'?" 

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"Uh, living things too small to see that sometimes make you sick."

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"- Oh! Is that the thing that maybe happened to me on Monday, if it wasn't someone trying to poison me? ....I think it probably wasn't or they'd've tried something else when it didn't work, right?" 

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"Maybe they're biding their time? You've spent a lot of time in your room."

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"Maybe. ...How long d'you think it'll have to be before we can say they're not gonna murder me? I - I don't want to spend the next year being scared and having to hide in my room most of the time!" 

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"I... think probably that's not the kind of thing I can have opinions on because I'm reckless or whatever."

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....Yeah that's probably true, and Masozi is kind of grateful to Wei Wuxian for spontaneously bringing it up. 

"Anyway. Evolution. So - it's just a math thing, right, if some people - or animals - have more children, that's more of their code that exists, and so you do that over and over and over, and - eventually you end up with code that's better for surviving and having children?" 

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"Yep! And sometimes the code isn't copied exactly right-- so maybe your body makes a mistake in copying and it tells your kids to have lighter skin-- and then if lighter skin helps your kids survive and have their own children it spreads throughout the population. And that's why people have different skin colors, some people's bodies made a mistake in copying the code for skin color and dark skin is better for surviving in Africa and light skin is better for surviving in China."

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"Huh, why?" 

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"Your skin needs to absorb sunlight to make a particular chemical but if you absorb too much sunlight it can mess up the code and in particular the part of it that tells your skin 'stop growing more skin, we have enough skin.' And you get more sunlight in Africa than in China. --Uh, I feel like the way I explained it sounds weird, it creates tumors? I don't know if you know the word 'tumor.'"

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"Ooh. I - didn't know that word but I think I know the thing you mean, it's when people get lumps and eventually they get sick and die - it doesn't just grow on skin, right? We knew a lady once who had one in her breast and eventually it started leaking horrible pus and then she died." 

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"Yeah, that thing-- the code of any part of your body can get messed up but the sun only messes up the code on your skin, I think, because it doesn't get in to your organs."

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Nod. "Right. But if you have pale skin in Africa then there's - you get more tumors or your kids do, and getting more of the chemical doesn't help enough to account for that, and so eventually all those people die and don't have kids and then everyone who's left only has dark skin? And.... Is everything like that? Like - having legs, or having eyes - except I dunno, that seems more complicated? Maybe you can get light skin from the code being copied with a mistake but I don't see how you could get legs from that." 

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"Well, it takes millions of years. But eyes start out as something that can just sense light, and then they get a little better, and then a little better, and then you get full eyes. --I can go into more detail but that involves a major tangent about how eyes work and I think it's hard to explain if you don't have an eye to dissect so you can look at the parts."

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"I cut up a dead fish I found once!" Masozi offers brightly. "I could draw a picture of what its eye was like. ...Did fish and people both have to start with no eyes and get all the way to proper eyes?" 

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"Oh, no! Fish and people are related, the common ancestor of fish and people developed eyes."

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"I - wait what? How does that work? Fish and people have babies in totally different ways and - and breathe in different ways - how can you have something that had babies and then some of them ended up changing over time into fish and some of them turned into people????" 

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"If you have a bunch of small changes they become really big changes. It's not a big change to evolve lungs that can breathe air a little bit, and then they get a little better, and then a little better, and there's lots of food and no predators on land at that point so it makes sense for some animals to evolve to be on land, and then their fins slowly change to be better at walking on land, and after millions of years you get people."

(They arrive at the reading room.)

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"So...the ancestor of fish and people started out more like a fish? What was before that?" 

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"The very first life was one-celled organisms-- a cell is one of the smallest units that make up your body, I can draw a picture of one if you want-- and then after that was algae I think?"

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Masozi doesn't know the word 'algae' and looks blank. 

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"Uh, the green stuff on top of lakes?"

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"Oh, that? ...Do you mean the kind that has long stems and floaty leaves, or the kind that's like grass with bubbles, or the kind that's sort of like threads tangled together, or the kind that's gooey like mud?" 

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"Threads tangled together, I think. --Anyway, evolution is why everyone finds sex so interesting, people who wanted to do the thing that makes babies a lot ended up making more babies."

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"....Right. I guess that makes sense. But - why kissing, then? That's not related to making babies, and lots of times people kiss and then don't fuck so it's not part of sex, it's just...a different thing that people find interesting for some reason?" 

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"Mouths have a lot of nerves and people tend to like touching parts of their bodies that have a lot of nerves to other people's bodies, especially if they're attracted to them. I'm not sure why that evolved? Maybe as a way to make relationships stronger since human babies take a lot of care so you have to make sure people like each other if they're going to have one, so evolution was like 'here's a sex-associated thing that is also fun and makes you like people.'"

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Shanghai seniors are not sure why Masozi's sex ed is happening in the reading room but FINE they can tune them out while they concentrate on their homework.

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"Huh, I guess that makes sense. Why do people like cuddling even when it's just with their friends and they're definitely not going to have babies?" Because, for example, they are ALL BOYS. 

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"Well, if you have a thing to do to make people like each other you might as well reuse it, right? People cuddle kids, people cuddle their friends, people cuddle people they're fucking..."

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"...Do people cuddle kids?" Masozi's childhood did not exactly contain a lot of cuddling, not once his older sister died. He...supposes he vaguely remembers his mother carrying the babies around, but usually that was just because they couldn't walk yet or weren't weaned yet? And he can't actually remember being that small. "I guess. So - it's a thing to want to cuddle your friends because you like them, but not to want to kiss them?" 

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"Yeah, people do that all the time. I like cuddling everyone but I only want to kiss some people."

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Masozi nods, seriously. Then frowns. "What if...you want to play with someone's hair and hold hands with them? Is that a thing that's more like cuddling or more like kissing?" 

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"Zaizaiiiiiiii do you have a crush?!"

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"- I don't know! Nie Huaisang told me a list of feelings people have when they have a crush? And I - think I maybe have some of them but not all of them? So I don't know if it's more just - liking someone a lot because they're your friend and a very good person?" 

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"If you want to hold someone's hand because handholding is generally nice, it's not a crush. If you keep thinking about how nice it would be to hold their hand and it pops into your head at totally unrelated times, it's a crush."

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"Oh."

Masozi considers this intently. 

"I...don't think I start thinking about it at random times? Just if I - see them, or remember something they told me, or think of something I want to tell them about." Also he's catching himself being weirdly shy and circumspect in talking about this? He isn't sure why, it's not like he would have thought it was embarrassing to ask the question, and yet.

 

"...Okay so Nie Huaisang told me that romantic feelings are - 'when you can't stop thinking about someone and you feel warm and happy when you think about them, and you want to hold hands with them and hug them and kiss them and give them presents and spend time together just the two of you, and it's really important that they think well of you.' I - wouldn't say I can't stop thinking about them, that would be stupid when I've got other things to do, but I guess I - end up thinking about them a lot while I'm doing things. I...dunno if I want to kiss them, I think I don't understand kissing enough yet to really imagine it properly and so it just sounds stressful? And I don't have anything I could give as a present, unless - doing a really good job on learning Mandarin because it makes them happy is that sort of thing? And I have lots of reasons why it's important for them to think well of me, I think, so I would no matter what." 

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"If you're doing a thing where you're like 'hypothetically, if these were my feelings about you, would this be a crush' then yes I will go out with you."

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Oh no is it going to hurt Wei Wuxian’s feelings that it’s someone else? Masozi did not predict this as one of the possible outcomes at ALL.

“…S’not you. Sorry. I - it’s someone from Shanghai enclave but it…might be bad for me to go out with them? So I haven’t. Said anything.” 

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"Oh, it's a girl."

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"Nnnnnooo...." Okay, maybe it's actually more uncomfortable letting Wei Wuxian speculate like this rather than just telling him. He ducks his head and lowers his voice to a whisper. "It's Lan Xichen. But it - seems maybe bad? Also he has a boyfriend already, right?" 

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"Why would having one boyfriend mean you couldn't have another boyfriend? It's not like it's girls."

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Masozi does not know how any of this is supposed to work! Which is why he's asking for Wei Wuxian's advice even though this conversation is apparently terrible for some reason! 

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"So, if you're dating a girl, you can only date one at once, right? It's, like, evolution, you don't want to invest in the girl's babies if they might not be related to you at all. But if it's guys it doesn't matter. Having lots of boyfriends is just good for you because there are more people who can help you and your kids."

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"- Is that true? I...was confused about why it would be a thing at all to - like boys that way. In the way where you want to fuck them and not just hold hands, I mean. ...Which I guess I - don't think I actually want to do? That sounds really weird. So maybe it's not a real crush and it's just - two-thirds of a crush or something?" This is all extremely confusing and Masozi is not sure that the evolution explanation is actually making it all that much less confusing. 

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"I mean, there's no reason not to want to fuck boys, right? It's not like it stops you from also fucking girls."

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Masozi feels like this is questionable logic. There are a LOT of things you could do that don't stop you from also fucking girls and that there's no reason not to want to do, that isn't the same thing as there being a reason to want to do it. 

"...Anyway should I - tell him? I'm - kind of scared to. I mean, not...the kind of scared where I think he might get mad and hit me about it. Some other kind of scared." This is ALSO very confusing. 

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"Scared he won't like you back?"

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"I...think it'd be okay if he didn't like me back? And I'd rather know. Because then I can - decide to just have friend feelings and not have crush feelings. But I - guess I'm scared he'll - feel weird about it and then not want to help me study Mandarin anymore." 

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"That doesn't sound very strategic."

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"I...guess not. You think I should say something to him?" 

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"Yeah, why not? Best-case scenario you get to play with his hair, which you'll like, and you'll be in a close relationship with the head of Shanghai enclave, which is great for you. And in the worst-case scenario he'll probably be all 'I am smiling pleasantly at you and explaining in a calm and very nice and empathetic way why that can't happen.' He's not really a person with many strong feelings, Lan Xichen."

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"That's true. And - do you think that he'd - want to know, and want me to feel like I could tell him and not have it make my life worse? I...think that's how I'd feel if I were him? But I don't know." 

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"I feel like he'd want you to tell him? He wants to know the feelings of everyone in the enclave so they don't accidentally blow up and cause huge problems."

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"I don't think my feelings are going to blow up and cause huge problems! That really wouldn't be strategic!" 

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"Well, he still probably wants to know so he can take it into account and not do things that would make you sad."

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"Yeah. I guess." For some reason thinking about this is making his pulse beat fast in his throat, even though Masozi is pretty sure he's not even slightly in danger of being fed to mals or something for saying slightly the wrong thing to Lan Xichen. "....How do I tell him I have a crush on him?" 

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"You ask to speak to him privately and then you say 'I have a crush on you but I don't want to kiss you I just want to hold your hand and pet your hair.'"

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Nod. 

"...I dunno if telling him actually gives him more information about my feelings? I already pet his hair sometimes so presumably he knows I want to do that?" Masozi pauses, frowning. "- Actually we had a weird conversation where he kept telling me I didn't have to do it unless I wanted to? I have no idea why else he thinks I would do that!" 

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"--ohhhhhh he has a crush on you."

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"- What." Masozi did not even slightly follow the reasoning there! 

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"Well, he wants you to pet his hair, and he's scared that you know that and are only petting his hair because he could easily kill you if he got mad at you and no one could stop him. --I mean we'd all be really angry about it and Jiang Cheng would probably try to kill him but you might not know that."

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Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah that sounds like a whole lot of steps of inference about bizarre complicated politics in hypothetical scenarios and Masozi has no idea how to respond to it! 

 

".....I don't think you should kill Lan Xichen even if he gets mad and kills me! That would just mean more people at Shanghai would die!" 

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"Right, but he's not going to do that. Not even because we would be pissed off although we would because, like, what the fuck Xichen."

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....Okay he needs to try to CALM DOWN because the horrifying scenario Wei Wuxian brought up is a hypothetical that isn't even going to happen. (Why do people have to bring up horrifying things that aren't going to happen??? It's so distracting!) 

 

"I.... Okay. So - you think this is evidence he likes me? I - guess that's good? If it means he's - more likely to be happy and not unhappy if I tell him I have a crush?" 

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"--oh man I am really sorry about all the complicated counterfactual reasoning about social situations you have here."

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This actually improves Masozi's mood, although mostly for the unrelated reason that it distracts him with vocabulary. "What's a 'counterfactual'?" 

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

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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?" 

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"Yeah, like that!"

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

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"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?"

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Oh. This sounds like it might be important? 

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

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"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.'"

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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.....?" 

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"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."

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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?" 

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

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"....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..."

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

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Ooh, math. "Yeah!" 

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

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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.

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"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."

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"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.)

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

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"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." 

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

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

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

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"- 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?" 

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

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"......No?" Masozi says, staring blankly at him. "You have to do the opposite of that? I'm pretty sure? - For me at least. If I want to fall asleep I need to not be concentrating or trying at anything. Which is really unfairly hard sometimes!" 

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"You have to lie still in the dark and not solve a math problem or translate your favorite song into every language you know or learn how to do a handstand or get into an argument with Jiang Cheng about whether swords are better than whips."

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"What, I'm pretty sure swords are bet– Nevermind. I - yeah, it's hard. The thing I do is - instead of trying to think about anything, I try to focus on noticing all the places in my body that hurt, and then making all of my muscles relax? ....I guess maybe you don't have the problem where if you're spending your whole day running and fighting mals then you stop being able to feel your body. I get that problem sometimes, and so trying to do this helped me notice where I was hurt and also helped me fall asleep?"

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"Right, but then I have to focus on that, and I'm bad at focusing on things."

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"- Huh. Does it help you focus on things if you have to try really hard because they're difficult?"

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"I can focus on things if they're cool like math or music or languages or magical theory or building things."

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Masozi considers this for a while. 

 

 

"....Do you think human bodies are cool?"

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"Yeah! Chu Chu over in Chang'an enclave was telling me the other day about how strychnine works, and we were comparing notes about our favorite dissections. She got to sit in on an autopsy."

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Nod. "So - maybe you could try to focus on how your body is really cool? And - focus on your toes and think about all the bones and joints muscles in them -" Masozi does not even slightly know what bones and muscles are in toes, "- and then relax all the muscles and stuff? And then you just - do that one body part at a time, up from your toes toward your head.... I always fall asleep before I get to my ribs." 

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"That sounds like not the interesting part of bodies. The interesting part is when horrible things happen to them and they die."

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"...I guess you could try to think about horrible things that could happen to your toes that would kill you but in a relaxing way?" 

Masozi is increasingly feeling like maybe his advice for Wei Wuxian isn't going to help after all. 

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"That sounds like the kind of thing where I would have a great time and not successfully fall asleep."

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"....Sorry, I think we might just have different problems?"

Masozi stops. Considers this. 

"- Do you actually feel tired when you try to go to sleep? Maybe you're just trying to go to sleep before your body is actually needing more sleep." 

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"Half the time I just end up passing out working on whatever project I'm currently working on."

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Wow, that is an even more alien problem to Masozi! 

"....Do you work on projects like that in your bed, if it's around bedtime?" 

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"No, I just fall asleep at my desk."

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"You'd probably sleep better if you fell asleep in your bed? So if that's how you fall asleep easiest then maybe you could work on projects in your bed." 

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"That's a good idea, I should try that. --Wait, is that why you kissed Lan Wangji?"

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"- What? ...I - honestly I think it just seemed like a distraction he wouldn't expect me to do in a fight? But I definitely didn't do it because working on projects in your bed is a smart idea if that's how you fall asleep!"

Why would that possibly be a reason to do that. He's so confused. 

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"No, I mean, he and Lan Xichen look basically identical except that one of them is always smiling and one of them has never heard of the concept of facial expressions."

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".....Wow. I....guess they do? I - hadn't thought about that before." 

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"So maybe drunk you got mixed up about which of them you were kissing."

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“Huh. Yeah, maybe.” Masozi does not seem at all embarrassed about this. “I…wonder if that means I actually would like kissing Lan Xichen. I guess maybe only if I was drunk.”

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"Next year we can invite him!"

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Next year feels a very long time away, and kind of fake. "Yeah, we could!" 

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"Anyway, I should definitely work on projects in bed. It'll be fun."

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"I hope it helps." Masozi is now kind of worried that his advice is going to do the opposite of help with Wei Wuxian's sleep problem. Hmm what else is good for being tired enough to fall asleep. "You could - do lots of exercise? That's good for building mana too although I think it's less good for that if you're eating enough food." Masozi has now started to notice this trend, and considers it deeply unfair. 

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"Already do, Zaizai."

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"Mmm." Okay he's going to stop trying to offer advice. "- Anyway, we should probably actually study now? I need to do more Mandarin practice." 

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Maybe they can practice doing math in Mandarin!

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Mandarin AND math, that sounds amazing!!!