Work Text:
The adeptus Xiao had one duty to fulfill: protect Liyue’s peace from the remnants of evil gods. When yakshas like Xiao killed these demons, the demons shattered into pieces. These pieces stuck to the yakshas' bodies, and they could only be cleansed by paying the karmic debt with the yaksha's own suffering. As karmic debt accumulated, so did the excruciating spiritual and psychological pain.
Karmic debt ate away the minds of the yakshas one by one, and now, Xiao was the last to remain.
With great perseverance, Xiao continued to fight, accumulate negative karma, and pay the debt with his suffering over many years.
One day though, the anguish was so much that Xiao did what any thousand-year-old guardian yaksha would do in his situation. He simply turned into a sock.
Xiao's agonized tears were forcibly dried as he realized that his body was made of elegantly embroidered cloth, and he could not move nor speak.
Even though Xiao was a sock now, he still worried about his past life. "How will I defend Liyue now?" he asked. But no one could hear his desperate and anxiety-ridden words, for alas, Xiao was but a sock.
And so he remained in the center of his bed in the top floor of Wangshuu Inn. He lay there with the cloak of innocence, dreaming of old times. But as the minutes passed, he noticed something funny. Xiao was no longer plagued by karmic debt.
Yet, he was pondering how to become his old adeptus self again. For alas Xiao wasn't even a pair of socks, but one single sock. Truly worthless.
As the sun rose higher in the sky and Xiao continued to ponder, a bird flew in through the open window. It landed its little feet on the bed. The bird pecked at Xiao here and there, its beak sharp and unforgiving against his delicate cloth. But he could not shoo it away; for alas, Xiao was but a sock.
Then, the bird picked Xiao up in its beak and flew with him out the window. It flew with the wind over the vast land of Liyue.
Verr Goldet smiled as a bird flew from the uppermost window of Wangshuu Inn with a little sock in its beak.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Selling Mora is for humans... but selling Mora is also for gods."
Zhongli stated this to himself matter-of-factly. He had just been scammed out of the last of his Mora, and he was growing desperate.
"I am not an ordinary human. I am a god. And I think I want to sell Mora too."
These are the words that Zhongli said to himself early on a certain morning. Zhongli, the god of Liyue, was in need of a new pair of socks. He searched the world for months but couldn't find any socks that he liked. Now he was out of Mora... but he would not give up.
On a certain auspicious day, a bird returned to its nest. It brought a soft sock to lay in the nest. In the long, happy years to come, the bird's children would be born upon this sock, and upon this sock they would live out their peaceful lives until they were strong enough to fly.
However, this nest sat atop Zhongli's chimney, and a slight wind caused by a small major tornado 3½ nations away caused the precariously-placed sock to fall. Down, down, down it fell into the deep black void of the red chimney.
So it wasn't a coincidence that, on that early afternoon, while Zhongli was cleaning his fireplace... he found a sock!
It was only one sock and it was covered in soot, but the Archon was wise and oddly fixated on footwear, and he could tell that the sock was very special. He held it in his hands and a bright light seemed to emanate from it.
As he gazed down at the sock, he saw many things. Dark greens, purples and blues, ornate golds, reds and whites were embroidered delicately upon its surface like the regal feathers of a bird. This sock was so precious that Zhongli could not imagine ever parting with it.
At this time, Zhongli bore deep concern regarding his life decisions. Zhongli, or rather Rex Lapis the Geo Archon, had the fortunate fortune of being the revered deity of Liyue. However, in the past thousand years, he had slowly animorphed into something of an ordinary human.
There was a popular saying, "When a god wants something, he can usually get it. But when a human wants something, he needs to wait patiently most of the time." It was an age-old but extremely common saying. But now that the god Zhongli found this special sock, he was suddenly impatient.
He wanted to become just like a human as soon as possible. He always thought that wearing nice socks would be a step in the right direction. Recently, in fact, Zhongli spent months searching for a place to purchase a pair of socks. After searching everywhere, he found out that even though Liyue was small, the entire nation of two million people would be able to produce an entire pair of socks in just two months.
He reached a compromise with the vendor, and the vendor agreed. Zhongli handed over his last two hundred thousand Mora for the purchase.
However, when Zhongli looked at the themed "Geo socks" he had purchased, he noticed a funny thing. The socks he had purchased looked rather old. In fact, when he looked down, the vendor's own socks looked like they were several thousand years old. Zhongli was furious. He couldn't believe that the mere purchase of two Geo-themed socks could have that much of an effect on his mood.
The contract had been broken along with his heart. The archon began to beat himself up for having spent so much Mora on such silly socks. Why was he such a fool? He had made many stupid, thoughtless decisions. The most stupid of all of his stupid, thoughtless decisions was not buying the Geo shoes.
But that was all hydro under the bridge now. After all of that trouble, Zhongli held a precious sock in his hands today, a sock that mended his spiritual and emotional wounds. He wouldn't need to sell Mora for a living anymore. Theoretically speaking, this sock could sell for a lot of Mora, he thought, maybe even 11 whole Mora. He wasn't sure how much that was but it sounded like a lot. Either way, it didn't matter.
It didn't even matter that it was just one single sock, not two. Zhongli wasn't going to sell this sock. He would cherish it like a son.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Xiao gazed upward, it was not the face of a human he saw. He could hardly believe his eyes if he had them, but he saw his beloved god Morax. Xiao's every breath belonged to this man, and today, Xiao felt extremely honored to be in his hands... but anxiety wracked his socky body.
A creature like him did not deserve to be held so tenderly as this. The vigilant yaksha's only purpose was to fight alone on the battlefield. He could never be the warm, gentle sock that Zhongli looked like he thought he was in this moment.
However...
Zhongli was wearing some old, plain black socks that Xiao had never seen before, covered in designs resembling mountains and rocks. They looked to be several thousand years old. Where did his master receive such atrocious socks? This was not in the realm of thoughts that often crossed Xiao's mind, and he immediately felt a deep remorse for thinking a single negative thought about his saving deity. But as the minutes passed, Xiao found his anxious and sharp-witted yaksha thoughts gradually transform into the soft, funny little thoughts that a sock would have. Sock thoughts.
Xiao was pondering this new revelation about himself, when Zhongli suddenly stood up. A relaxing wind blew gently across Xiao's still sooty embroidery, his sooty booty as one might say, as the tall man carried him away from the fireplace and across the room.
Xiao quietly gazed up, entranced by the lights and shadows falling across the face of his god while the man carried him past windows and lamps. He was lost in a deep world of nonsense, floating on a cloud of confusion and tranquility. The anxiety that had plagued him up until moments ago was retreating to the back of his mind.
Zhongli walked with him into a very small room. On the floor against the wall were two large, white, squarish machines. Xiao began to wonder what was going through Zhongli's mind. Did the man recognize him, he who was but a sock? Would he try to restore Xiao to his former existence? Perhaps that was what these two unfamiliar devices were for.
Zhongli walked Xiao to one of the white machines. He opened the lid, dropped Xiao gently into its gaping mouth, and poured some soap in. He then closed the lid, engulfing Xiao in darkness. Xiao was scared, but he exhaled gently, and instead of thinking about his fear, he simply appreciated the warmth of being a sock for the first time in his life.
A sudden chill wrapped around Xiao's body when water poured around him. He gasped and let out a silent cry when the cold water lapped at his embroidery, then soaked him through. The water engulfed him almost as quickly as the darkness had. It was for the first time in his life that Xiao was glad to have no face.
But once he got past the initial panic, it wasn't... bad. Xiao, he-... he thought he could drown, but when minutes passed and he didn't drown, he realized he would have drowned already, if he could drown, which he couldn't. This was simply being inundated with liquid, because he was now a sock, and Socks do not breathe.
As soon as the shock had passed, Xiao began to enjoy the comforting coolness, the strange low hum filling his socky ears, and the sense of weightlessness. He gazed around, amazed at the vivid colors and shapes his brain imagined in the pure darkness.
He was immediately reminded of the red drawer that sat beside his bed at the Wangshuu Inn. It was a drawer that was always just out of reach, much like joy and comfort usually was to him until today. Xiao felt no fear as he gazed into the deep, black void of the drawer. A strange exhilaration shot through him.
Perhaps this is why people are always asleep when they are babies. Like a fetus, a sock is excited by the possibility of life. But fetuses are also afraid of the same thought. That is why most of them cry when they're born. Sleep becomes their only escape from the all-encompassing terror that is their daily lives. A sock, however, does not sleep, and thus it does not escape the terrifying environments it is forced into, but rather learns to accept them. A sock does not fight the fact that it exists. It simply exists.
Xiao started to feel soapy. He could feel the bubbles gently rolling against his faceless face. It was exhilarating, but he also felt slightly unsettled. If he could feel sick, that was how he would feel.
"What is this?" Xiao imagined he breathed.
"This," he thought he could hear his old friend Pervases say softly, "is what it feels like to be a sock."
"Oh," Xiao said.
"Why do you sound so surprised?"
"I... I've been trapped in a sock all my life."
"How long?"
"I don't know... some time ago, maybe?" Xiao said. "I can't remember anything before."
"That's okay," Pervases said. "Socks grow when they take nourishment. But if a sock doesn't take nourishment, it will shrink and die."
"But a sock doesn't die," Xiao said.
"But it shrinks, yes."
"Then what will happen to me?"
"If you don't take nourishment, then, eventually, you'll just shrivel up and disappear."
What is nourishment to a sock, a bundle of cloth with no mouth? It was all a mystery to Xiao. Maybe it was love. But something was telling him that this mysterious, wonderful, sometimes frightening conversation was not real.
Yet, as afraid as he was of life, he was afraid to disappear.
The soapy feeling faded away, and Xiao felt clean. It was a sensation that his ever-lingering karmic debt had never allowed him to truly experience.
The deep hum of the machine died down, and Xiao's cloth body was exposed to cold air as the water disappeared. If he wasn't already dreaming, he thought he could fall asleep there, right there, right there, right now.
Suddenly, Xiao was blinded by a bright white light. An uninvited pair of arms wrapped around his body. He heard a rumbling sound in his ears, as if the machine had come back to life, but it didn't. He felt the pulsing, bubbly white substance of his being rise out of the hole.
He wasn't really thinking. His brain had turned to liquid, so his thoughts were purer.
"What happened?" he asked in a quivering voice.
"You have passed through a threshold of existence," Pervases said. "You were born!"
"No," Xiao thought. "I don't want to be born. I want to be asleep forever."
That is what Xiao thought happened, anyway.
"No!" Xiao cried. "I am asleep. This is a dream!"
When he opened his eyes, the room was silent, and Zhongli was tenderly lifting his cloth body from the washing machine. Xiao would have screamed, but he was entranced by the sight of his familiar god, and also he was a sock. Just as the filth had been washed from Xiao's body, all of his problems were washed away by the sight of Zhongli's glowing face.
"I'm starting to understand now," thought Xiao. "This is what life is about."
Xiao was put into the second white, squarish machine. But even as he was enclosed in darkness, he was not afraid this time. Instead, he thought of all the pleasant memories that he and his god had had. It made his mind hum with delight. His fabric body hum. Everything would be okay.
"This machine was made for socks like me. I'll be okay."
Everything started to spin and spin. There was no water, but as with the last machine, Xiao couldn't tell which way was up and which was down. Xiao could see nothing around him. The air grew warm, and the heat permeated his soft body as he tumbled and spun.
A soothing voice came from everywhere. It was not from who he'd thought to be Pervases, nor anyone he recognized, yet it felt familiar. Maybe it was Xiao himself, speaking of things he knew deep down to be true.
"You are nothing but a collection of thoughts and emotions."
"I don't know if that's true," Xiao thought. "I was the last guardian yaksha, but because of my overzealousness, I became a sock. My adeptus thoughts and adeptus emotions have turned into sock thoughts and sock emotions. Yet even if everything about me has changed, am I not still Xiao?"
"You are actually not separate from the universe, or separate from your natural self, at all. You can't exist as a singular entity."
"...Okay."
"Don't think of it as you, the self, who exists. Rather, think of 'self' as the collective representation of the universe, or your life, or your mind. Your consciousness, or, more accurately, your mind, is nothing more than a component of the infinite vastness of nature."
"But I am a whole."
"This universe is much like a garden. It is a representation of perfect knowledge and wisdom, but what we see is merely an echo of the vastness of the universe. If you accept the fact that all things in this universe are nothing more than parts of an even greater Infinite, then you will be able to understand and appreciate the infinite nature of the universe. There is no self, only the infinite nature of the universe. The universe is everything that is. All things are one."
"That sounds good. Can you help me get back to normal?"
The voice went quiet and Xiao never heard it again.
The heat was so intense that Xiao could hardly even think his sock thoughts. Xiao went numb as he thought he began to disintegrate. He was almost wishing that he would disintegrate.
A wave of peace flowed over Xiao. Everything was quiet. His own voice rang in his mind.
"I am not meant to be alone. The universe cannot sustain itself without me, and I cannot stand without the universe to stand on. When I am alone, I am nothing more than a fraction of my true self. Alone, my troubles only worsen. But embracing my place in the universe, and embracing the people in my life, I become part of something beautiful. My existence is a part of the universe, and the universe is a part of me. If I want to be whole, I cannot deny my true position in the universe.
"Sometimes," the sock thought reluctantly, "my place is not what I think it is, even if I stubbornly believe it for hundreds or thousands of years. If my being is rife with unending anguish, maybe I just need to change something, or time will change it for me. Change... Change is okay."
When the train of thought ended, Xiao's body was cool, and his mind was clear. He felt fully restored, ready to embrace whatever life held for him next.
He was blinded by a bright light, but it didn't hurt nor scare him. Zhongli reached into the machine and tenderly removed the now-dry sock.
Xiao felt warm, soft, and happy, if a little wrinkled. He was thankful to his Archon for putting him through these trials. No trouble can last a thousand years, but Xiao's soul had just been healed of a thousand years' trouble. Now, all that was left to tend to was his wrinkles.
He didn't see where Zhongli carried him to, but Xiao was laid on some hard, yet sort of soft surface. Zhongli picked up an iron and pressed it flat down on Xiao's body. It was immensely hot and just a little wet, but as it slowly slid across him, Xiao felt comfortable. He closed his eyes.
"You are a whole, singular entity. You do not need anything else to complete you. You are perfect as you are."
Xiao opened his eyes. That voice was real; it was Zhongli's voice. The words conflicted with the truth that Xiao had just come to accept—how could this be? It may not have occurred to Zhongli that the sock was listening, and the god might have simply been referring to the fact that Xiao was a sock and socks usually come in pairs, like a 2-for-1 deal except all the time.
But the words made the little adeptus think. Was there something else that Xiao instinctively tied his existence to? Something he, as an adeptus, thought he served no purpose without?
Zhongli, he thought. He had no purpose without Morax, the god who saved him from a life of terror and blood.
When Xiao thought about this, a grim feeling crossed his heart, and he reverted to his old ways of thinking. He should not be a sock right now. He should be fighting, working, paying his eternal debt to his savior.
Xiao the adeptus could not imagine a world where he didn't owe his every breath to Morax.
And yet...
In Zhongli's warm smile, Xiao sensed recognition. Zhongli wasn't just looking at any sock. He was looking at Xiao. And in this moment, Xiao began to realize something important.
Long, strong fingers folded Xiao up. He could no longer see anything except his own cloth. It was like if his forehead was touching his toes, except he was a sock, which does have toes but they don't have foreheads usually.
Xiao closed his eyes. He felt himself become smaller, more warm, more whole. He felt complete. Zhongli was smiling as he carried him into a room that Xiao couldn't see, and placed him lovingly into the top drawer of a red dresser.
"This evening, we will walk through Liyue Harbor together."
The red drawer closed, leaving Xiao in an oddly familiar, deep, black void. The sound of footsteps walking away, and then a door shutting softly. Xiao yearned for more of Zhongli's warm, soothing touch. But he was okay with waiting.
Zhongli would not have saved Xiao from a life of suffering if he wanted him to continue suffering. When Zhongli expressed such things out loud, Xiao dismissed it, because he believed he owed his very existence to Zhongli. Zhongli saved his life, and thus Xiao's every step, his every breath should be for the Archon's sake.
But when a given chain of events led Xiao to come to a conclusion himself, as if extrapolating the theme of a long story, it was all the harder for him to deny it. Thus did Xiao the sock finally understand that it was time to rest.
Xiao the sock fell into a long, peaceful, dreamless sleep, the kind of sleep that socks tend to have. Xiao hadn't rested so well in many, many years...
...
...As he'd hoped, the small adeptus awoke to Zhongli's gentle touch.
Warm, inviting arms wrapped around his body. Warm, inviting breath brushed his hair. Warm, inviting lips pressed against his ear. Warm, inviting body heat enveloped him. Warm, inviting smile, cool amber eyes. The AI wrote this whole paragraph.
"You're awake," Zhongli said softly.
"I... Yes."
Zhongli and Xiao were sitting on a soft, warm, comfortable sofa, with a large, puffy blanket spread over their laps. The kind of blanket that kids use to make a fort, except if they used it like a blanket. Xiao's small body was leaned comfortably into Zhongli's larger one, a body sturdy as rock.
Zhongli tucked a few strands of Xiao's silky hair behind his ear. Xiao released a long, gentle breath.
It must have all been a dream. Spinning in the washer, tumbling in the dryer, being ironed, folded up, and put in the deep black abyss of the red drawer... Now that Xiao thought back, it all did have a very dreamlike quality to it. He had never had a dream quite like that before.
"When you're awake and ready, let us take a walk through Liyue Harbor together. Spend some time among the mortals, then we'll have a peaceful dinner. I do believe you'll enjoy it, Xiao."
Yes... Xiao would like that today.
Even though the dream where he was a sock wasn't so bad, Xiao was glad to be back in his own body. A sock couldn't sleepily clench the material of Zhongli's shirt, nor bury its face softly into the god's chest, as Xiao was doing now. It couldn't feel Zhongli's long, worn, ungloved fingers running slowly through its hair.
"I am knowledgeable in many things, and I have born witness to many strange events over the course of my life..."
Zhongli whispered, his words little more than a low, soothing coo. Xiao wondered if it would be okay to go back to sleep right here, embraced by the one who loved him most, and to allow himself to be swept away by another dream...
And Zhongli thought, if Xiao wanted to go back to sleep, that would be fine. The Geo Archon was a man of patience if nothing else. Their walk could wait.
"...But if I may speak frankly, it was quite strange to find out an adeptus had turned into a sock."
It wasn't a dream. Oh no. Xiao peered up at Zhongli with shock and shame plastered across his face. Zhongli gazed gently back at him, before turning into a shoe.