When she analyzes on my classics until I see that she made a point that makes sense through a modern, literal take of the story, but to the original audience had different context adding nuance and complexity, completely ruining the moment.
I just don't understand at this point how anyone can keep justifying what is happening in Gaza.
I don't understand how anyone can look at the suffering irael is putting these innocent people through and not see that this is unjustifiable, disproportionate, cruel and monstrous.
Israel doesn't even try to hide it's intent. So many public figures, government officials, generals, soldiers have made their intent clear. This isn't about Hamas, it never was. They want to exterminate every Palestinian.
They have openly called the civilians killed 'Terrorists'. They have expressed their confusion at people feeling compassion for these 'animals'. They have cut off their basic human needs, food water electricity, fuel. They have entrapped them. They have bombed hospitals, mosques, churches, refugee camps, UN buildings, schools, routes that they called "safe".
They have shown their genocidal intent again, and again, and again, and again.
And yet.
Yet there are still people trying to justify this. There are still people who will eat up any propaganda the IOF throws their way. They listen to everything israel tells them. If you belive everything they tell you, why won't you believe them when they tell you they are doing a genocide?
Happy wip Wednesday, here's some baby Eadwulf in a potential Fealty flashback
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The salon buzzes with hushed conversation. Eadwulf keeps to himself, lingering at the fringes where he can rest his beer on the fireplace mantle. The crowd is of a usual make—similar masks and disguises he’s seen over the weeks since being assigned to this mission. Some masks are cleverly designed, keeping their appearances secret, and others not well enough. He recognizes the handful of Lords and Ladies he has identified to his Masters, their body language and laughter now a dead giveaway for their behaviour out in public, where they put on other masks to voice their support of the King and his Empire.
Traitors, Eadwulf thinks with a sneer.
There are a few new faces—masks broad and dark enough to obscure features. He has made note of their number in his brief assessment. Three men, he thinks, and two women. This is based solely on stature and the way three of them barged their way to a seat, as if they expected the world should move for them. He assumes they are from the guards watch.
One of the strangers moves around the edges of the crowd. Eadwulf doesn’t look at her directly, but is aware of her focus on him despite the mask covering her face.
She raises a hand, gloved, of course, to sip her wine under her mask. Her gloves are pale gray, contrasting against the dark fabric of her clothing.
It makes it obvious to see when she flashes handspeak at him with her free hand.
Status report?
While she could be anyone, he knows without a doubt that this is Astrid. Why is she here? Did Trent send her? Eadwulf can handle himself, why send someone to monitor him?
Eadwulf adjusts his stance, arms crossed in front of him. A crook of his fingers, as if he’s scratching his arm.
Objective maintained.
New objective.
A chill runs down his spine, despite the open fire beside him. He hasn’t identified all of the conspirators yet. His information is good. He's bringing in more traitors the longer he stays. He's in their inner circles now. Why burn these bridges?
He sees Astrid set her goblet aside, placing her palm over the top as she does. [She's palmed a package of poison into it]
She waits a moment.
Affirmative, he signs.
And with that, she picks up conversation with someone near her, merging as smoothly as if this were her intention the whole time.
Premise: Sometimes life is just unbearably tiring. And a comforting shoulder can be the perfect substitute pillow. In which the reader falls asleep on their partner.
Author’s Note: Second part!!! I realize the first didn’t get a ton of traction, unfortunately, but hopefully, this’ll still be welcomed. I realize since most of these are basically pseudo fics, would you guys prefer it to be bullet-pointed or paragraphed? I’m just wondering if one format is easier or more pleasant to read than the other.
Also, adepti’s rules and personal needs are kinda nebulous to me so I sort of made them up myself. Watches also weren’t a thing until the 1800s, and specifically didn’t really become a thing in China until the mid-20th century. But this is fantasy so I do what I want.
Xiao
You loved Xiao more than you could say. Every little moment spent with him made your heart flutter, every habit of his that you’d noticed, every little way he revealed his soul to you.
It seemed so improbable to you sometimes, than an adeptus, someone so very disconnected from the world of humans, should choose to love you. Although Xiao would never let you think you were any lesser than him, would never let his nature put you down, you were still somewhat in awe of the whole setup, and little reminders of his adepti status often brought you back to when you two had first begun to fall in love, when Xiao had explained that he didn’t quite understand the human way of life.
And one of those things that he didn’t understand appeared to be the concept of sleep itself.
It wasn’t that Xiao didn’t know what sleep was. Nor was he unable to sleep, he once told you. Theoretically he could sit down and take a nap much like any normal human. It was more that he didn’t need to sleep, and didn’t see the need to do something that took up so much time and left one so vulnerable.
Not that he didn’t pay attention to your needs; he wasn’t about to disrupt your sleep schedule on purpose, in fact you often joked that Xiao cared more about your rest than you did. It was only that, after spending so many years simply not thinking about things like sleep, it became hard for him to suddenly remember that he had a partner who needed said sleep every day. And a day was oh so short in Xiao’s mind.
It was a beautiful evening at the Wangshu Inn. The air was warm without being stifling and a breeze blew, light and cool. You were on the roof with Xiao, the place that had become your normal meeting spot. For as much as Xiao adored you with every fiber of his soul, he was still an adeptus, and his comfort level around most humans was that of an anxious cat – always ready to bolt.
Besides, the roof of the Inn was such a lovely place to relax. You gazed at Xiao’s profile as he looked up at the stars, noticing the way that the wind ruffled his hair slightly, the way his posture seemed so relaxed, so comfortable. One of his hands was clasping yours, fingers linked together, his palm nice and warm; the other pointed out constellations to you, each bearing a story, some which had long been forgotten by the residents of Liyue.
It wasn’t often that Xiao was so talkative, so open. Although he still barely mentioned his past – keeping that part of himself shut away with only the occasional crack through which you might learn of his sorrows – he’d become much more willing to disclose his everyday thoughts to you, as well as share stories that he knew. The latter was something you always loved to listen to, not just because the stories he told were always interesting and so full of life, but also because they gave you the sense of knowing him better, something that always made you happy.
Unfortunately, tonight was one night where, though you were more than happy to listen to Xiao talk about the stars, you were kind of dying of fatigue. A headache slipped in and out of your consciousness, and you found it more and more difficult to concentrate on Xiao’s words, finding they were all melting together into some semi-coherent monologue.
Your fatigue must’ve been very apparent, for when Xiao glanced over at you his whole demeanor changed; the carefree look on his face was gone, replaced with one of slight confusion and definitive worry. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine!” You shook your head. “Just a bit tired, that’s all.”
“Then you should rest.” Xiao squeezed your hand slightly before moving to stand up. However, as tired as you were, you cared more about spending time with him, and weren’t about to cut said time short.
“Wait!” You exclaimed, causing Xiao to pause, looking at you in a puzzled way. You smiled, slightly sheepish, but pressed forward. “I’ll be fine. If you don’t mind though, may I, uh, may I lay my head on your shoulder.” You gazed up at him, but inside you were struck with the urge to suddenly look away. Xiao was still a bit reticent with affection, not that it bothered you. He’d told you that he was simply unused to it, not averse to it. You weren’t about to pressure him into anything though, no matter the cause, and thus you waited for his response, hoping your expression conveyed that it’d be perfectly fine if he declined.
Your worries proved to be without ground however, for Xiao’s expression grew only fonder. Lying back down he gestured towards you. You gladly scooted closer to him, laying your head on his shoulder, hand once more in his. “You were saying about the boar constellation.” You murmured.
Xiao smiled, kissing the top of your head, before once more going on speaking about the stars. You smiled too, allowing his stories to carry you off to sleep, your head already swirling with half formed dreams about creatures who walked among the stars.
Xiao listened to your breathing even out, still talking a little after it seemed you’d dozed off, making sure that the sudden stop of his voice didn’t wake you up.
Gazing down at your peaceful face he pondered for a moment how much his life had changed so quickly. Even a month ago the idea that he would become friends with a human seemed impossible, much less that he would fall in love with one.
When he’d first met you it was as if something that had been frozen inside him for a long time began to thaw. He was terrified at first, terrified of you, terrified of himself, terrified of the unknown that loomed before him like a vast chasm. It had taken every ounce of courage to hold your hand at first, and every ounce of courage for every step after that.
But he would do it again if he had to, for being with you was the best part of his long, often cruel life. And he would do anything to protect you, anything to make sure you were comfortable and happy and healthy.
“Goodnight.” He spoke softly. Up above the stars kept silent vigil along with him. Tomorrow would be a bright new day, but for now he was simply going to enjoy the moment he’d been given with you.
Zhongli
For someone who’d lived thousands of years, you’d think Zhongli would remember that tea had to be decaffeinated sometimes.
Not that you could really blame him for forgetting. After all it’s not like he needed to pay attention to whether or not his tea was caffeinated. To one of the Seven sleep was something more akin to a perk than a necessity. Sure, it was nice to sleep. But it’s not like Zhongli was going to feel regret if he accidentally downed five cups of tea right before midnight and spent the rest of night starting at the ceiling, wondering where he went wrong.
Unfortunately, you were definitively not a god, and did, in fact, need sleep. So, when you found yourself staring out the window at 5 am, having long come to the conclusion that sleep was just not going to happen, the emotion going through your mind was something more akin to: “Oh. Fuck.”
This turned into an “Oh you’ve got to be fucking kidding me” when you saw the list of your daily commissions. Yeah, someone had to go to Jueyun Karst and Qingyun Peak to collect Cor Lapis, and considering your relationship with Zhongli and the adepti it should’ve been unsurprising that you were going to be the one to do it. But your sleep addled brain was having a difficult time processing things logically, and all you saw when you looked at the list Katheryne gave you was the fact that today was going to hurt.
Your prediction turned out to be only too true. No adepti came to ask why you were mining outside their front doors – honestly what would you even respond to something like that – but the amount of treasure hunters that ran into you began to feel less like a likely coincidence, considering the location, and more like a targeted attack. Thankfully there was nothing you couldn’t handle, but by the end of your expedition you were more than ready to go home and take a nap.
Hurrying through the rest of your day, barely responding to the people you interacted with, by the time you’d finally finished up with your adventuring duties you felt like the most irritated person on the planet.
Arriving home, throwing your pack haphazardly onto the floor you almost tripped and fell flat on your face in your hurry to get to the bedroom. Not bothering to take off your adventuring gear you threw yourself onto the bed and quickly found yourself lost in long overdue sleep.
Zhongli glanced at his watch, frowning as he saw the lateness of the hour. The sun was already beginning to set, and though he’d walked as fast as possible, he still found himself feeling vaguely guilty about being so late. You two hadn’t spoken much in the morning, you’d seemed a bit restless and hurried out right after breakfast, so Zhongli was anxious to spend as much time with you after work as possible.
“Darling?” He called out, walking into the home you two shared. He glanced around uncertainly, surprised that you hadn’t greeted him at the door. The sight of your pack sprawled about the hallway only made him more confused, and vaguely alarmed, and he hurried down the hall, checking each room to see if you were there.
His worry immediately faded upon seeing you, curled up above the covers, evidently fast asleep. Unsure as to whether or not to wake you up he instead headed towards the kitchen, thinking you might like something when you got up.
You woke up in the dark, something that surprised you. You’d been out for a long time. Seeing that the door had been opened you shuffled down the hall, still a bit groggy from the extended nap you’d just taken.
Zhongli smiled as you entered the kitchen. “Did you have a good nap my darling?” He asked, kissing you on the forehead. You nodded sleepily, propping yourself up by your elbows on the counter. Zhongli chuckled. “Here, something to warm you up.”
Yours eyes widened as the cup of tea was placed in front of you. For a moment there was silence, then you glanced back at him.
“Zhongli?”
“Yes?”
“Uhm, is this tea, well, does it by any chance have caffeine in it?”
The look on Zhongli’s face was enough to make you burst into giggles. Perplexion melted into realization, which evidently caused some sort of embarrassment, for the former god blushed a bright shade of red before bringing his hand to cover his mouth.
“Ah, I see. That’s why you were so tired this morning.”
“It’s alright.” You finally replied, the initial fit of giggles having passed. “I know that you don’t have to think about these sorts of things normally. Only me making the same mistake two times in a row would be a bit hilarious, wouldn’t you think” You placed a kiss on Zhongli’s cheek, finally causing him to calm down a bit.
“I suppose you’re right. I’m sorry. Next time I promise to pay more attention.”
“Thank you.” You smiled, fatigue coming back after the initial burst of energy. Leaning into Zhongli’s neck you sighed slightly.
“Still tired?” Zhongli asked, voice soft and caring.
“Yeah, a bit.” You admitted. Zhongli nodded, before scooping you up.
Carrying you over to the couch you both settled in a bit. Zhongli began humming a sort of lullaby, and you smiled despite yourself. “You’re too good for me.” You mumbled.
“Nonsense.” Came Zhongli’s reply, just as full of love and affection. “You’re too good for me. And I won’t hear otherwise.”
“If you say so.” You replied, too tired to really fire back, already drifting off.
“I do. It’s only the truth.” And with that he began to hum again. As you fell asleep one last thought lingered in your mind.
If such contentment comes from staying up too late, then I’d be glad to do it again.
